NaNoWriMo2015 Oneshot Colletction

When Flux arrived back at the University, she quickly found that the Guard had already quarantined off the area Starlight’s spell, and were interviewing several ponies she’d seen at the scene when her and Event had run Starlight to the hospital. That wasn’t a good sign in her opinion. Cordoning off the area was standard practice, but using a quarantine shield wasn’t in any recent case she’d heard of involving unknown or lethal use of magic.

She turned back around and began to make her way the long way around down towards the Theoretical Arcana Department lab, where her and her coworkers all kept workstations. She figured she’d be able to get Starlight’s notes, at least, or even just some idea from something in Starlight’s desk. She reached the Arcana wing and didn’t go any farther. There was a pair of guards waiting. While Flux didn’t mind the guard, per say, this was not a situation she wanted to be delayed by something. She had wanted to grab the stuff and get back to Neutral and Starlight. It looked like the guard had already gotten at least an idea of who had cast that spell.

She shot off a quick scanning spell, keyed to the wards around the lab she worked in and found it empty. Giving a relieved sigh, she teleported down into it. Even if she couldn’t get anything directly from the room the spell was cast, then maybe she could get something from Starlight’s workstation here. She quickly made her way over to the workstation. It was in perfect order, as seemed slightly unnatural to Flux, whose own station was a disaster zone of papers, journals, thunderstones, and other magical items.

She began to quickly go through Starlight’s drawers, feeling just a little guilty for doing so, though not too much, looking for anything that might have some connection to the spell Starlight had cast. Something that could tell Flux just why it was her friend and coworker was now an alicorn. There were folder upon folder of magical notes, several journals in which Starlight kept her finished spells—Flux made sure to take the novelty one with her due to the dubious nature of some of the arrays—and a couple of dozen thunderstones with various spells preloaded onto them. There was also a large, bright pink, bushy, large fake beard and a ten step guide to taking over the world in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Neither of those were things Flux wanted to know the origin of in the least.

After skimming through anything that looked promising and coming up empty, Flux frowned. There was every possibility that Starlight had done all the research from home, and left all the references there, but Flux had a hard time believing that. She sighed glancing around, as if looking for something, before her eyes landed on an unassuming coat hanger near the door. It took all her effort to resist facehooving as she came to a realization. “Her summoning spell,” Flux groaned in annoyance. Starlight had a spell that was tied to a shelf or other holder at her house that she could put something on and then she’d be able to summon it with barely more effort than lifting her hoof. The perfect way to have references on her, and yet not in a place that could be easily broken into at the same time.

She glanced up as she heard the distinct sound of a teleport in the room, only to find Event there looking more than a little annoyed. “Guard isn’t letting anyone into the Arcana wing until the caster of that spell is found,” he told Flux in consternation. “Does she have any emergency contact information in her desk?”

“I wasn’t looking for that, but it doesn’t look like it. And if the Guard is stopping ponies, shouldn’t there be an anti-teleportation field around the wing?” Flux asked, taking another look over Starlight’s workstation, this time looking for contact information for any other ponies, both magically and with her eyes. It wasn’t long before she found an information storage and projection matrix in one of the thunderstones that seemed just a little… off, to her. She pulled it out and frowned, looking over it, before her eyes widened.

What was out of place about the thunderstone was one of Flux’s pet peeves about spell casting. There was a single line that was just ever so slightly off. Not extremely off, like the caster had no idea what they were doing, but of enough that the spell would never work. Enough of that it… would almost certainly be found if Flux was the one looking.

“What?” Event asked, causing Flux to realize she’d just started deadpanning the stone.

“I think Starlight meant for me to find this. The spell inside is loaded with the exact sort of spell that would pass most other ponies’ attention…”

“But catch yours? It’s an array that has one line slightly off, isn’t it?” Event asked, chuckling as Flux shot a glare at him.

“Oh shut up. Let’s see if there’s anything else, and then we can go grab Neutral and see what’s on this,” Flux said in annoyance.

“Not going to turn it on here?” Event asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No,” Flux said, shaking her head. “One, there’s too much risk of being interrupted, and two, it might not necessarily be contact information. It might actually be a message,” she explained.

“And if that message is a one-time view…”

“…which, knowing her, it probably is…”

“…then here and now is not the best time, and if not here and now,” he said, trailing off with a frown.

“We should probably grab Neutral to here whatever it might be as well,” Flux finished for him, nodding.

“I don’t like how fast the Guard came. I mean, I trust the guard and the Princesses to know what they’re doing, but the speed and level of lockdown for that spell. It’s been what, two, three hours?” Event eventually said. “We don’t know what that is, and you and Neutral have both worked with some pretty dark magic, no?”

Flux nodded, thinking on it for a long moment. “Let’s get back to Neutral. That is a very, very good point,” she eventually said in an uneasy tone.

There was a twin flash of light as the two exited the room, going to one of the back entrances to the university as Event piggybacked Flux’s teleport signal. One there, they exited the grounds and teleported the rest of the way to the hospital, though only to the entrance, a set of wards stopping them from teleporting right into the hospital.

They walked quickly into the waiting room, and found Neutral quickly, the stallion over on the edge of the room, looking rather antsy. He moved to meet the two halfway.

“We’ve found something, though we’re not sure it’s contact info. It was designed in such a way as to catch my attention if I went snooping,” she told him.

Neutral nodded. “And what is it?” he asked nervously.

“Dunno yet. We have to activate it, but figured we’d do so with you, in case it was a single sight message and had something significant for you to catch,” Event explained.

Neutral nodded, still looking rather nervous, but he steeled himself. “Where do you think is the best place?” he asked them. “I guess the lab probably isn’t an option if you didn’t just watch it there,” he said, assuming that if ‘when they found it’ wasn’t an option, and the likely place they found it was there, then the lab was out.

“Lab’s out,” Event said, confirming Neutral’s thoughts, “but we could use one of your places if you’re close by. Maybe one of the nearby roofs to keep close, if not.”

“Maybe just a roof,” Flux agreed. “I’m almost across the city from here.”

“And I… am not sure Event would survive my house,” Neutral admitted, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

Seeming to just accept that, Event turned and led the way out. “Up there?” he asked, gesturing a hoof towards one of the larger public buildings nearby. “Teleport to the top and put a privacy field up?”

Neutral and Flux nodded in agreement. A moment later, there was a trio of flashes as the three ponies teleported themselves to the top of the suggested building. A privacy field went up around them, courtesy of Neutral, and Flux pulled out the thunderstone.

She looked around at the other two. “Ready?” she asked. Two nods of agreement later, she reached out to the spell array preloaded into the stone and pushed the line that needed to be corrected into position. The stone activated and a holographic illusion of Starlight appeared in front of them, her horn just fading from having cast something.

The illusionary, unicorn Starlight took a deep breath and began, “Hey guys, chances are, if you’re seeing this, something in my latest spell haywire…”