Welcome to Ponyville!

It's been two days and Twilight has been monitoring Charcoal's magic. He's been carefully letting it out slowly with occasional bursts that gave Twilight a small scare. He holds his head after using his magic every time, and Twilight examines him a bit.

"Your body, especially your horn, is not used to channeling this much magic at once. You'll get used to it soon. Try to let it go in small intervals." She smiles, trotting upstairs "I think it's time I teach you a basic spell. I'm going upstairs and check to see if there are any good ones you can learn."

"Yeah, as if these things don't give me enough headaches...” he groans. Twilight disappears into her room, Spike walking in from the kitchen with two cups of hot cocoa.

"Twilight running you ragged?" he said, handing Charcoal one of the cups.

"I haven't got some air for the past 48 hours!" Charcoal complains

"Well when Twilight goes upstairs, she usually trails off and stays up there for a few hours. You can probably leave now and she won't notice at all." Spike takes a sip of cocoa. Charcoal gives a sly grin, and books it to the door, leaving no trace, or cocoa... behind.

He trots down ponyville square and goes to a quick fast food restaurant, getting a large hayburger and some daffodil fries with a large cup of root beer. He sighs heavily and sits under a tree, where he proceeds to eat like there's no tomorrow. Charcoal is then greeted by Rarity and Fluttershy, who look a bit horrified at the way he is eating.

"Charcoal! Please, eat like a gentlecolt while there are ladies present!" the fashion mare gasps

"I've never seen somepony eat so... um... savagely." Fluttershy whispers. Charcoal takes a big gulp of root beer and looks at the two of them

"Hey, I've been locked up Twilight's place for two days with nothing to eat but leftover scraps she has in her barely stocked fridge! I don't know how she can study and read all of them books, barely eating within a twenty-four hour period." he twitches.

"Oh my, I didn't know she was that kind of pony" Rarity covers her mouth with her hoof "She has you on a leash huh?"

"It's not like that!" he snaps "She's holding me hostage because my magic could possibly crater half of Ponyville!"
The two mares gasp, Charcoal still stuffing his face with food. He explains the whole situation about his pent up magic, leaving Rarity surprised and Fluttershy baffled.

"I agree with Twilight darling, how are you able to stand?" Rarity looks concerned at Charcoal.

"How should I know? She just told me that and locked me up for two days!" he shrugged

"Uh... um...” Fluttershy is suddenly cut off

"Charcoal, don't you know anything about unicorn magic?"

"No, Twilight had to give me a brief lesson the other day. Heck, she gave me that book to read for the night!"

"Um... excuse me..."

"Well of course darling! You must know how it works. I am surprised that all those years of magic in your body didn't..."

"Kill me? Yeah, I'm still wrapping my head around the whole thing."

"Excuse me!" Fluttershy interrupts with a whispering shout. They look at her, and she lowers her head.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand...." Her face becomes flustered, Charcoal facehoofs as Rarity places her hoof on the bashful pegasus' shoulder.

"Charcoal, go back to Twilight's house. I bet she's worried sick about you." Rarity said, Fluttershy nodding in agreement. Based on what Spike had said, he highly doubts that. Rarity trots off with Fluttershy, and Charcoal goes back to the library. It was no surprise that he opens the door to Spike sitting on a beanbag chair, writing in what seems to be a journal.
The purple dragon closes the book and looks at him with a calm smile.

"Told ya." he chuckles, closing his book and placing it on a small table that was next to him.

"How long was I gone?" Charcoal looks at him, tilting his head

"An hour and a half. She never left the room."

"Really?" he never thought she'd be this into her studies. Twilight came out of her room with a small book. It was thin and hardback, with the title "Past Memorabilia: Basic memory spells". Charcoal and Spike look at each other and look back at Twilight with a blank stare.

"What? It was the most basic spell that you could easily learn." she said sheepishly. He didn't know what was worse; Twilight giving him a foal's spell book, or the fact that she took over an hour to find one. He takes the book and skips the "Motivation speech" that is used to give young foals the self-confidence. He eyes Twilight with a short glare over the edge of the book and continues reading.

"Da da.... focus magic.... da da channel energy.... cerebral cortex... huh..?" Charcoal reads the last sentence again. "How can a foal read at this level?! I'm having a hard time reading this alone!"

"You just need to focus your magic and have it flow across your mind. Kind of like a boost to help you remember something." Twilight said. Charcoal understood the semi-dumbed down instructions and closed his eyes. His horn glowed a light green and he tried to remember something from his past. It was fuzzy, with a lot of repressing over the past few years, remembering was the last thing to come to his mind.

"Ugh, I can't do it." he whines

"Yes you can, try harder." Twilight says with a stern tone. He shuts his eyes and forces himself to think back to when he was in Canterlot. He could hear voices. They were faint, and he could see colors slowly taking the shape of objects. The voiced seem to be... panicking? Some splotches of color were moving about back and forth, a large patch of red on the floor he's standing on. He only hears a voice saying 'What have you done?', before the glow on his horn goes out with a popping sound, like a firecracker, and lands on his butt. Twilight looks at him with anticipation and has a notebook and a quill ready to write.

"So what did you see in your head?"

"I... I don't know. All I saw were colors and... and I heard a voice."

"What did the voice say?" she leans closer, Charcoal backing off, a bit uncomfortable

"I can't remember...” he lied. He wasn't ready to tell her what he saw just yet.

She allowed him to leave for the day but expected him back at the Library in the morning. She also told him to refrain from using any magic, even using the memory spell until then. Charcoal was still stuck on what he saw when he was using that spell, though it left him with a nasty headache afterwards. He didn't feel like seeing anypony for the rest of the day and trots back home. Twilight turns toward the bookshelves and has a distant look on her face. Spike walks up to her and lightly shakes her.

"Hey Twilight, you ok?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine Spike."

"Well you seem a little off since Charcoal came here."

Twilight scratches the back of her head and looks away "When I checked how much magic was in his system a few days ago, I saw part of his past when his magic blew up in my face."

"Really? What did you see?" Spike was curious, his eyes wide with curiosity

"Uh... I'll tell you when you're older."

"Ohhh, you always tell me that!" he groans. Twilight knew it was for the better. All the blood she saw made her queasy. Spike puffed his cheeks and suddenly burped, a letter forming from the emerald flames he spat out.

"A letter?" Twilight turned and grabbed the letter with her magic, straightening it and reading it aloud:

Dear Twilight,

I need you to gather the other five and meet me at the Ponyville square in twenty minutes. I have very urgent and important news to tell you. I fear we may need the elements of harmony for this.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

Twilight's eyes went agape with anxiety. She packed her saddlebag and rushed out the door without telling Spike anything. Luckily Fluttershy and Rarity were hanging out at the Square. She ran up to them and started babbling nonsense.

"Twilight dear, please speak clearly." Rarity tilted her head, flipping her hair back into place.

"Princess Celestia needs us to gather at the square. Can you two get Pinkie and Rainbow Dash?"

"Why does she want us to meet at the square..?" Fluttershy asks

"I have no clue, she just told us to meet here."

"Well I'll get Pinkie Pie then, and Fluttershy can get Rainbow Dash. Is that alright darling?" Fluttershy nods at Rarity "We'll see you later ok?" They gallop off and Twilight trots ahead to Apple Acres. She sees Applejack doing her usual apple bucking when she arrives.

"Well howdy there Twilight" Applejack bucks a tree, an apple hitting Twilight in the head.

"Ow! Hi Applejack. Princess Celestia needs us to be at the square in ten minutes. It's important!"

"Well sure thing sugarcube!" she stops and follows Twilight down the dirt road back into Ponyville.

"So Twi" she looked at the purple unicorn

"What is it Applejack?"

"Where's Charky? I haven't seen him in days. Ah'm a bit worried."