Dear princess Twilight,
It has been a while since I talked to you and I am sorry for that. I've been a little busy with school but recently something happened. And I hope you don't mind me telling you the story.
It was a normal day in Canterlot high as we were about to enjoy lunch in the cafeteria but suddenly we heard Principal Celestia on the loudspeaker. "Sunset Shimmer, report to the main hall immediately!"
I knew it was most likely because I had volunteered to guide new students around the school. But for some reason, it felt like half the students were looking at me and wondering what I’d done this time.
Fluttershy looked at me and picked up on it right away, bless her heart. "I'm sure that they're just curious and they don't think you've done anything wrong."
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash added as she leaned back in her seat. "It's not like Celestia told you to report to her office. THAT would have been bad news."
"All right, darling, let's not go there. We'll let you run along." Rarity gave Rainbow a glare as she narrowed her eyes.
"Thanks, Rarity." I thanked her as I stood up and abandoned my food tray.
"Say 'Hi" to the newbies for us!" Pinkie Pie stood up and waved her hand at me as I was walking away with her mouth half-full of food. THANKFULLY Applejack pulled her back to her seat quickly.
On the way there I wondered what the new students looked like? Or from where they have been transferred? Since the last year that the school had to deal with my shenanigans in fall formal and various magical events, paired with what happened with the sirens, Principal Celestia and Vice principal Luna haven't become careful with the transfer students.
I got to the main hall where I saw the two new students, a couple of boys. One of them was tall and was standing behind the other one. I got closer and introduced myself.
"Hello, I'm Sunset Shimmer." I waved my hand at them. "I'll be guiding you around the school today."
The one who was wearing a leather jacket stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Flaming Star and this is my buddy Steely Armor." He pointed back at his friend. Steely Armor said nothing and just raised his hand and nodded. "Nice to meet ya!" Flaming Star added with a smile and brought his hand forward to shake.
"Oh uhm..." I had to work around shaking hands. Ever since the summer I realized I could read people’s thoughts just by touching them. I've been having some issues in certain situations. Especially around strangers. "Yeah, uhm...likewise." I nodded at him with a smile and kept my hands behind myself.
The smile faded away from Flaming Star's face and he pulled her hand back and scratched the back of his black and blue hair as he looked away. That was very awkward.
"This place is bigger than I'd thought" Steely Armor said as he was looking around the room. I noticed there were some stains on the blue shirt and the white T-shirt he was wearing under that.
"CHS is the main high school of the city. Of course it's big." I added. Trying to start a new conversation and forget the awkward first encounter.
"I...suppose you are right." He rubbed his chin. I noticed that he was wearing both a snapback head and some yellow glassed goggles that were resting on it. I already knew if Rarity was seeing that she was going to pass out. But other than that, some strips of his yellow hair were sticking out like spikes.
"Follow me. Let me show you how big CHS really is!" I started moving and moments later, I heard the footsteps of them walking behind me.
"So you are seniors?" I asked.
"Yes." Flaming Star responded.
"I don't usually see senior students transfer here. We had some juniors though." I looked back at them. "Where was your last school? If you don't mind me asking."
"Falcon Stone." Steely Armor answered.
I almost jumped. "Really? Wow, uhm-"
"It's not really as good as you think it is." Flaming Star cut me off before I could finish processing.
Falcon Stone is the best school in Canterlot city. Also the priciest. But all the rich kids attend there. It's not really just one school either. People put their kids there from first grade. Granted it has two separate buildings for those students but they are next to each other! I started to wonder whether they got expelled or something. I doubted anyone would decide to leave that for no reason. But from their expressions I could tell it was something else.
"Sorry, but may I ask why you decided to come here?"
Steely Armor raised his hand to answer. "Well-" But Flaming Star cut him off too.
"Honestly, if we could have left there sooner, we would have." He raised his tone and frowned. "But let's just say we...faced some issues and decided to come here."
"..."Before I could continue that conversation I had to show them the lab. "Uhm, Here is the science lab! it's accessible on Tuesdays and Thursdays but you can visit here at every break or even at lunch time if you are a member of the chemistry club." I went and opened the door. As I had expected there really wasn't anyone there at lunch time.
We all stepped inside and I let them look around there a bit. Steely Armor in particular was quite into looking at EVERYTHING in the room.
"Oh...It seems that it has all the tools needed," he said as he leaned forward and inspected the microscopes and the different boiling flasks. "It looks cleaner than the one we used to have, too Flame!" I could tell right away that he was going to sign up for the Chemistry club. "Look! They even have a whole set of glassware!" His eyes were filled with glee!
"I mean, I guess." Flaming Star leaned on the door. "I wasn't really in them most of the time and I doubt that I was paying attention to its state to be perfectly honest." He followed his friend by his eyes, inspecting the lab equipment one by one.
Even though Steely Armor seemed to be enjoying what he was doing , Flaming Star looked unimpressed. "you know...I had more important stuff to take care of," he said with a specific tone, as if he was trying to implement something.
Steely Armor got snapped from his state the moment he heard that. After letting out a sigh he came back and stepped out of the lab. "Yeah, you're right. Let's not get distracted."
I felt like there was something going on between them, however, I didn't really want to interfere. "Well, if you are done with here we can move on." I suggested. "There are other places with other tools to check." I said with a grin.
As we started walking again, I pointed at some of the doors, following it by explaining that those were classrooms. And it was then that they gave the first red flag.
"Hey so...are there any...unusual students in here?" Flaming Star asked.
I paused for a moment and looked back at them. "What do you mean?"
Steely Armor clenched his teeth and gave Flaming star a nudge with his elbow. But it didn't seem like Flaming Star cared. "Like, are there any...students with some...special abilities?"
"You mean gifted students?" I was getting concerned by what he was trying to get at.
"Not qui-"
"HEY!" Steely Armor jumped in and cut him off while giving him another nudge. "Where is the bathroom?" he put on a forced smile that revealed his teeth.
I paused before answering. "Down this hallway to the left."
"OK. That's good to know." He said again keeping his awkward smile up.
I just looked away and continued showing them around. I could hear their low voices whispering to one another when I wasn't looking at them, however, I couldn't make out much. They were acting very suspicious and this situation felt very familiar.
Up next was the Music room that, unlike the lab, caught Flaming Star's eyes.
"Here in our music room we have provided some instruments such as the grand piano, a few guitars, drums, etc." I said as I pointed at each one and showcased them all. "Though, it is recommended that you use your own instruments if they are transportable." I took another look at the grand piano that rarity ended up dumping here before continuing. "And by that I mean small things."
Flaming Star looked around the room. "We didn't have a music room back in Falcon Stone did we?" He asked unsure.
"No. We didn't." His friend responded.
Flaming Star stepped closer to the piano and rubbed his hand on it. "This...is actually a Panama 340! How did this get in here?"
"Let's just say one of the students just dumped it in here." I looked away rubbing the back of my head.
"So, uhm," Steely Armor tried to gain my attention. "I think it would be nice to know what the schedule is here. Right Flame?"
I chimed in since it seemed there was finally something that he was interested in. "The schedule for here is almost determined by the students themselves. It's always accessible and anyone who comes first gets to have the room. Bands have priorities over alone students though havi-"
"OK. I'm done. What's next?" He said and dashed past me outside of the room.
My eyes were widened. I was both shocked as to how fast he left the room and how he kept on interrupting me. I was trying to make sure they knew their way but he didn't give a shit.
"Do you really wanna see the rest of the school?" I grunted at him as I stepped out and took the lead again.
Flaming Star said nothing. Instead he frowned and looked away.
I made some distance between myself and them.
The workshop was occupied so I just showed its location to them, "The workshop is here at the end of the hallway away from any other classes to avoid disturbing students and teachers. It's open on Fridays for everyone but the workshop keepers can enter and allow entry at any time." I pointed towards the door.
"How can we become a workshop keeper?" Steely Armor raised his hand.
"You'll send a request to the principal Celestia and judging by your activity there they will accept or deny your request." I moved away from there since the noise was quite loud. "If you want to be one, I suggest waiting a couple of weeks and showing your interest by actively visiting there on Fridays."
"Noted." Steely Armor nodded.
Finally, the tour ended back at the cafeteria. "It's still lunchtime, so it's kind of busy. But it will still be available if you want to grab something after you check in with Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna".
Steely Armor nodded and thanked me. "Well, thanks for showing us around."
"Don't mention it." I brought my hands in a gesture of stop. Although it seemed your friend wasn't quite interested." I smirked and switched my look to Flaming Star's orang-ish face and back to Steely Armor's silvery pale.
Steely Armor looked back at his friend who was still looking away and had quite the long face. "S-sorry, it's...uhm-"
"Let's just go Steely." Flaming Star took his friend's hand and pulled him to the principal's office.
I found my friends still sitting in the cafeteria.
"Welcome back darling!" Rarity greeted me again as I sat down behind the table.
"Thanks Rarity."
"So where are the newbies?" Pinkie leaned forward right up to my face!
"WooaH!" I jump in my place and fall on my back. "Jeez...Pinkie."
"Oh sorry!"
"It's alright." I smiled at her. In return she gave me one of her big smiles from ear to ear.
"So ya were sayin." Applejack reminded me of the question.
"Right. Well..." I paused to gather my thoughts for a second. "...Two seniors. Both boys."
"Seniors?" Rarity jumped back. Narrowing her eyes trying to make sense of what I just said. "Why would someone transfer somewhere else as a senior?" She shook her head. "Wait, where were they coming from?"
I clenched my teeth before responding. Knowing she would make a dramatic scene the moment I say it. "Falcon Stone."
"WHAT?" Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Rarity all asked and leaned forward on the table. Meanwhile, Fluttershy and applejack were clueless about what was happening. And pinkie didn't seem to care that much as didn't show any particular emotion.
"Wh-wha...who the...huh?" Rarity struggled to process what I just said as she muttered and blinked rapidly.
"That's...very odd. Falcon Stone students never get transferred." Twilight pondered and rubbed her chin. "Unless...they didn't quite...fit"
"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked.
Before Twilight got to say anything, Rainbow Dash beat her to it. "That school is for the high classed individual who should not be associated with others that are not their class. If they think you are not high class enough for them they will expel you." She said with a salty tone.
"Not quite." Twilight corrected, raising her finger. "They do charge a lot but other than that they also have very high and strict rules. Much like Crystal prep."
Although I too was surprised students from Falcon Stone's seniors were transferred here I felt the more important discussion was the questions that Flaming Star asked. "There was something else."
They all looked at me.
"One of them was asking...odd questions. And that is beside how they acted."
"Oh, Ah don't like where this is going." Applejack shook her head and looked down. "the last time ya said that about newbies we had to deal with some siren bastard manipulative creatures that came from another world and were turned into humans."
"I hope this doesn't end up like that honestly. They asked about whether there were any students with...special abilities or not, which, at first I thought they meant gifted students or something..." I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes, "...But apparently that wasn't what they meant. The other one changed the subject afterwards."
"This isn't how it was with the sirens, was it?" Twilight asked.
"No, but there is something kind of off about those two. Whatever it is, it doesn't feel like Equestrian magic," I admitted. “Their current actions at least.”
"Well." Rainbow Dash straightened up as she spoke up. "Here is your chance to find out." She nodded her head toward the door as the boys came in.
They entered through the lunch line and sat by themselves, spending a lot of time talking to each other. I wished I could have understood what they were saying, but I promised myself that I wasn't going to use my telepathy for personal reasons.
"Welp, so far they haven't started singin' and hypnotyzin everyone to fight one another so that's somethin'." Applejack added as she followed them with her eyes.
After lunch, we had to get separated to go to our own classes, but we agreed to meet up in the music room after that. We tried working on a new song but we didn't get very far with it. Still, we were together and we were happy even if we didn't make progress with the song.
But suddenly the two boys came into the music room and shut the door behind them! That was shocking enough, but then Steely Armor clarified why, "Girls, we need your help."
We were all staring at each other for a while till Flaming Star spoke up. "We know you have powers, all of you," Flaming Star went on as he nervously scratched his head. "And…and so do we."
"Wait, doesn't that make them the bad guys?" Pinkie slowly whispered into my ear.
I shook my head to shove the confusion away. "What? No- I me-"
Before I could finish my whisper to Pinkie, Flaming Star said the last thing I expected. "Do you know how to remove it?"
"What?" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Why would you want to remove them? The ones we got are pretty awesome!"
Flaming Star answered her with a somber tone, "Because we don't want them…I don't want them."
"Wait a minute," Twilight said as she was trying to process this. “We just met you and we don't know anything about you or your magic. Plus how do you know we have magic? Who even are you?" She stopped everyone from speaking.
"I'm Flaming Star, and this is Steely My friend. I don't know how to explain this." He held his head with his hands. "You have necklaces right? How can we get rid of them? Do you know any way?" He started to breathe rapidly.
"I...I don't know. I mean, I have to know more or else l...I could make a huge mistake." Twilight explained, looking nervous at the prospect of this. I could tell she was remembering what happened at friendship games when she tried studying Equestrian magic and it got out of control. "I...look this is just so much to take in right now can we just slow down a little bit."
Steely Armor stepped forward and put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Hey, calm down. We can figure this out."
Flaming Star took some deep breaths and steadied his breathing. Meanwhile Pinkie whispered into my ear once more. "So should we blast them or not?"
"Wha? No!" I whispered back.
"Hey, is it just meh or these two are the first two boys we've seen with magic?” Applejack joined the whispering.
"What even is their magic?" Twilight asked and joined the whisper.
"Oh, yeah. Ask them whether they can shoot lasers too!" Rainbow Dash suggested. Pushing onto Apple Jacks back to join the whispering discussion we just started.
"Not sure if it's the right time, darling." Somehow, Rarity squeezed herself through and chimed in.
I saw that Flaming Star was feeling better so I shushed them.
Steely Armor took out his necklace from his pocket and showed it to us. It looked identical to the ones we had. Though, his was silvery. "It was this summer that we were walking together and saw two shining things come towards us from the sky. We thought it was just some rays of the sun but..." He sighed and continued. "We got these and...our powers."
We all stayed silent and let him speak. Thankfully Applejack held Pinkie's mouth so she wouldn't keep whispering.
"Summer?" Twilight rubbed her chin.
"I've tried everything." Steely Armor continued. "They can't be broken...no matter how far away they get from you they somehow appear around you. These are what gave us our powers, and getting rid of them should solve the issue. Do you know how?"
"About that!" I said. Pointing at him. "No." I saw the disappointment emerge in Steely Armor's eyes as soon as I said that. "But we learned that yo-"
"YOU DON'T KNOW?" Flaming Star raised his voice.
"Flame...calm down." Steely Armor looked back and tried to calm his friend a second time. But it was too late.
Flaming Star was shaking and suddenly, light sparked around Flaming Star's hand and they ignited. He held his hands up and looked at them in fear. His hands were on fire!
We too were all shocked. Fluttershy and Rarity gasped and the rest of us just stared at his hands in silence.
"No. NO. NO!" Flaming Star shouted. His whole body was trembling.
"Flame, don't panic. It's alright. Just...calm down!" Steely Armor stepped forward and tried to keep his friend calm for a second time.
"NO! STAY BACK!" Flaming Star shouted at Steely Armor and ran out of the room.
Steely Armor paused mid run and dropped on his knees. "There is no hope." He sighed.
After a long awkward silence I walked up to him. "Hey, Are you...alright?"
But no response came. He was staring at the ground. His golden eyes had lost their shine.
I suddenly changed my mind about using my own power. I had to know why this was so important to them. What happened that they don't want this magic? Without saying anything I took his hand in mine.
It took me a short time to focus on his memories. They were clear enough for me to find what I was looking for. But for some reason, I felt a headache from the start.
Flaming Star was talking to his friend, looking extremely nervous. “I don't think this is a good idea."
"Don't worry," Steely Armor tried to assure him by giving him a pat on the back "Nothing bad is going to happen."
The uncertainty was visible from Flaming Star's eyes. He held up his hand to say no, but a ball of fire came out of his palm!
The headache stopped me from concentrating on his memories and I had to let go. I took a few steps back and looked back at Steely Armor.
"What did you do?" He asked.
Before I could answer the rest of the girls came to me and asked whether I was alright or not, I had to get back to Steely Armor. I gently pushed them aside and walked back to him. "I saw it."
"What?"
I pointed at his right shoulder. "Your...shoulder." The headache was fading but the pain was still quite severe and it made it hard to put words together.
"Sunset, are you feeling fine?" Fluttershy put her hand on my back and looked me in the eyes.
"Yeah, yeah." I shook my head and looked back at Steely Armor who was now standing.
"H-how do you know?" He asked.
"Uhm know what?" Applejack switched her sight from me to him.
I took a deep breath. "You are right about us having powers." I gave a smile to rarity and assured her that I'm fine. "Though we call it magic but anyway. Mine is telepathy." I put my hands on my chest, "I can read people's thoughts and see their memories when I touch them. That's...how."
Steely Armor sighed. "you might as well see the rest." He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt. Revealing a recently healed burn. Nobody said anything as they stared at the burn in shock. "You were our last hope to get rid of this..."magic..''power" thing we got ever since that day. But now...there is no hope."
"Wait," Twilight asked, "How did you know to look for us here?"
"There was a lot of news about strange things going on at this school on the net." He said as he pulled her sleeve back down "It was a shot in the dark. The dates on the news were way before summer so we thought it might be the source."
"Well you got that right." Rainbow Dash replied.
Applejack gave her a nudge and shook her head at her.
Steely Armor adjusted his hat on his head and turned back to walk away. "Thanks for...listening."
"Wait!" Twilight said quickly as she reached over to stop him. "Maybe we can help?"
"Can you get rid of this?” Steely asked hopefully.
"I have something else in mind. We’ve all been through this. We didn't want ours at first but we learned to accept the powers we have, and then we learned how to control them instead of letting them control us."
Steely looked confused by this description. "Control you?"
"If you are afraid of your power, it’s the fear that controls you.” Twilight explained, looking embarrassed at the memory of her fears.
"Been there, done that" Rainbow Dash added. "When I discovered that I could be super fast, I kind of poked along like Tank."
"Who?"
"That's her pet turtle," I explained before Dash turned to me with a huff.
"Tortoise!!"
"Oh, sorry."
"The important thing is getting you comfortable first." Twilight went on, "The first thing you need to do is not be afraid of it. Then you can begin to control it."
Steely Armor paused for a minute, taking it all in. Then he looked at us. " I doubt that can work. Flame is...different."
"I know how you feel," I told him, trying to comfort him. "We all do." I said looking at Twilight and giving her a smile.
We had to leave then since the school was about to be closed for the night so we told him that we will address it tomorrow. Besides that, we needed to address something about the situation we were in so we decided to head to Twilight's house.
On the way to Twilight's house, Twilight asked me a bunch of questions "What exactly did you see in his memories?"
"I saw Flaming Star use his magic and the result of it was the burns on Steely Armor's shoulder."
"What exactly is his magic?"
"It seems like he can shoot fireballs." It was when I said that, that Rainbow jumped in between us.
"SHOOT FIREBALLS! THAT. IS. AWESOME!" she shouted in the middle of the street with her hands all the way up in the air, a few of the people who lived there opened up their windows to check outside. It was kind of embarrassing.
"It might sound like a cool thing to you but remember how hard it must be for him to live with the guilt of hurting his friend!"
She stayed silent after that and left us alone to continue.
"Also I need to point out this, when I held Steely Armor's hand, I had trouble focusing on his memories. I felt a really painful headache right from the start and it just got worse as it kept going."
"You've never had that type of headache before when you look into people's memories?" She raised her eyebrow and turned her head to directly look at me.
"No, I mean I get a headache when you know: we overuse our magic and I end up hearing everyone's thoughts! But not when I am looking at their memories."
"Is anyone of ya curious about how they found out about our magic?" Applejack gathered our attention as she opened her hands wide open.
We all turned back and looked at her, but I doubt any of us had an answer.
"She has a point too, how did they find out about our magic on the first day? Did they ask other students about our magic?" Twilight asked again while wondering out loud about it herself.
"Maybe." Fluttershy answered.
We reached Twilight's home! We all went in one by one, saying hi and walking up the stairs to reach Twilight's bedroom. Rainbow took a moment to call her parents and inform them that she will come home a little late. Fluttershy and Rarity sat on Twilight's bed with Spike next to them. Pinkie Pie and Applejack sat in a corner and I sat on Twilight’s desk chair. She herself just walked around wondering. Classic.
We started talking again but I felt I needed to readjust the topic, "look guys, however they found out that our magic is not our problem to worry about right now. First we need to figure out a way to help them!"
Fluttershy stood up, "I agree! we have to help them," Fluttershy said softly. "Flaming Star seems to be going through so much."
"But how In tarnation can we help?" Applejack asked as she looked concerned about helping them.
"Look, we've all had to wrestle with these powers and the fear of letting them get out of hand." I responded , turning the chair to face her. "We've been through this! If we can't help them, who can?"
"And that's not even counting the times we dealt with others who had magic and wanted to do some damage." Rarity said.
"Yeah," Pinkie pie added, "There were the sirens, Gloriosa at the camp Everfree, Juniper Montage, Wallflower Blush...."
Maybe I was imagining things but I thought Pinkie was growing extra fingers on her hand as she needed. But then she said, "Aaaaaand of course you and Twilight." We all paused for a couple of seconds to stare at her. "WHAT?" Pinkie asked as she gave an unwitting shrug.
"Look, Ah know honesty is a serious thing, but Ah wouldn't have gone that far." Applejack patted her on the back.
I wanted to say something, but Twilight beat me up to it. “She is right. I was so fixated on studying the strange power coming from Canterlot high, that I almost destroyed two worlds and put all your lives at risk when I got the taste of power. I can imagine how guilty Flaming Star must feel."
She stopped to wipe her eyes, and Spike jumped on her lap and started licking her face. "Imagine how scared he was at the time," I pointed out. "But it looks like he's forgiven you."
That was enough to break the ice and change the mood.
"So what are we going to do,?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah, It's like we can blast the magic out of them and suddenly he can control it. Though that would be awesome!" Rainbow Dash added.
I stood up and looked at them all. "I think I have a plan."
Author's Note
Check out the other chapters too.
Helping to new half friend
The next day. We went to Canterlot High together. We didn’t know how it would go, but we decided to do it.
"So what was the plan again?" Pinkie Pie asked on the way as she jumped between me and Twilight.
"Pinkie! it's the sixth time you ask that and we have already explained it to you five times!" I said irritatingly, stepping aside for there to be more room.
"Look Pinkie," Twilight walked beside her, "We want to go and talk to them about practicing on their magic to control it, but first we are going to talk to Steely Armor can more details from him so that we can hopefully convinve Flaming Star that whatever that happened was an accident and by trying to escape from it will only do him bad than good. Got it?" She took her head and shook her up. It seems even she had lost the patient to explain it to her again. But thankfully Applejack separated them with the help of Rainbow Dash. That little almost-catastrophe at least made Rarity take her eyes away from her phone.
The crunchy sound of fallen leaves when I step on them alone was always something that broke the silence of my lonely walk to school. But that day it was not noticeable. Was that I had my mind on something else or there was just so much talk between us? Before we knew it, we were at school.
"So where the hey are y'all gonna find them?" Applejack pointed out walking next to Rarity who was picking her books from her locker.
I thought to myself a little bit, the two places that Steely Armor was most curious about were the workshop and the science lab. So figured he might be somewhere near those places.
"I think I know where we should look for him." I knew that it was not the day for the workshop so I led the way to the science lab, and bingo! He was there, sitting with his back to the door, writing in a notebook.
"Well, what the hey y'all waiting for?"
"Applejack, I don’t want to barge in there. Especially with all of you behind me. So, do you mind if we do this one-on-one?" I gestured with my hands.
"I understand," Fluttershy said, "We don't want to frighten him." She held the other girls behind her.
"Well wish me luck." I said to the girls.
"You don't need luck". Spike stepped out from the crowd "You've got friends." It felt weird that the words of a dog determined me but I took it.
I walked into the lab, I was really aware of the sound my boots made on the floor but Steely Armor didn't turn around. I tried announcing myself with a "Hi" and it caught his attention. Then he stopped writing, closed his notebook and turned around.
"H-hi." He nodded and held his notebook to his chest. "I wanted to come find you myself but...I got a bit distracted." He was a little nervous, maybe he still wasn't used to the school's atmosphere.
"Well, I think we know what we want to do but," I sat down on one of the chairs in the lab. "I wanted to ask you a few questions first."
He nodded and sat back down on his seat.
"Have you two ever tried to practice on your magic to get it under control?"
He sighed, "Except from that one time that...." he rubbed his shoulder, "Not together, he has been very cautious about using it. But alone, I have tested my ability a bunch and I have quite a bit of notes and some info I gathered. But we don't want this."
It was then that I was reminded that I didn't know what his magic was. "Hey, I know what Flaming Star's magic is...but...what is yours?"
"Well..." He paused for a few seconds. "It's a bit hard to explain. Its some sort of state....a vision?"
"what do you mean?"
"W-w-well, it's uh...I uh..." He muttered till he finally gathered his thoughts. "It makes me see things in a very detailed way. And on top of that it...allowed me to find out that you had..." He paused before finishing his sentence. "Magic!"
"So...you...saw that we had magic with your magic?" That sounded very dumb but I think I managed to get the point across.
He nodded. "YES! It was...like an aura around you all!"
"So that's how..." I whispered to myself.
"What?" He asked
"Oh nothing! I shook my head and moved onto the next question. "You said that you had practiced with yours."
A shine glow in her eyes. "Yes! I tried it a bunch of times. It sort of gives me a headache after a while but it's really fascinating how it works. It lets me see things that I would have never noticed." The excitement was visible in his voice. "I once used it on the streets and even till now I know the exact color of every car that was moving in the street!"
I noticed something.
"Another time I used it when I wanted to find a certain screw in the the piles of screws I have." He brought his hands and started using them to express his experience. "And I managed to find it with seconds. Every now and then when I close my eyes a-" he realized that I was staring at him and blushed. "w-w-what are you looking at."
"You like your power don't you?" I asked.
He looked away and gulped before answering. "W-well, I find it...interesting yes." he avoided direct eye contact.
"You are fine with your magic...you don't want to get rid of it. It's only Flaming Star that wants to."
He turned his head away and sighed. "NO. I...don't want to get rid of it." he looked down in shame. "But I want to help Flame. And if it meant giving it up I would."
I nodded, "I understand. But maybe we can show Flaming Star that he too can control his power." I stood up. "Now lets go find him."
He smiled, I don't know why, but he didn't say anything for a long time and just smiled. Finally he said: "He might be in the music room. Let's go."
Even though his reaction was a bit awkward I told myself, "that's the spirit!"
We gathered up with the girls outside. And headed to the music room. On our way to the music room, Steely Armor showed us his notebook. "I know you had magic before me and Flame. So I thought maybe you can help me complete my notes about it."
"About magic?" That got Twilight's attention.
Twilight took the notebook from him and opened it. I took a quick look over the shoulder at the things that he had written. I couldn't make much out of it but I could tell Twilight was really excited about the notes and the things that Steely Armor wrote. They started talking about it and sharing their theories. It was like one expert talking to another and we all know better than to interrupt them; I backed away and let them keep talking and I believe the others did the same too.
After a while we reached the music room. We stopped at the door to prepare ourselves.
"Um, should we stay out of this one too?" Fluttershy asked softly as she got close to me.
"Sorry, but yes. I think if only a few of us go in it would be better to manage the situation then all of us." I put my hands on her shoulder to comfort her. She gave me a small smile in return.
"Then why did we all come in the first place?" Rainbow dash said.
"Once we go in we don't want anyone to interfere. So some of you should stay to guard the place."
"I'll watch!" Applejack raised her hand, "ah probably don't know what to say anyway."
"Thanks Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow...I think it would be better for you two to also stay here."
It was then that Pinkie pie jumped in front of my face. "Uhhhhh! But I wanna be there!"
"Sorry Pinkie...but we would rather focus...and besides, No one can predict when Vice Principal Luna would show up other than you!" I pushed her back and gave her to Applejack.
"Oh, sorry darling but who is going to go in then?" Rarity shrugged in a manner of confusion.
"Me, Twilight and Steely Armor!" I pointed at all of us while telling her.
Spike stepped forward, "Even I'm not allowed in?"
"TALKING DOG!" Steely Armor shouted and took a step backward.
This time Twilight handled it, "I'm afraid Spike, But I think a talking dog is just too much for our newbies."
Without anymore hesitation, we walked in. Flaming Star was writing something while he was sitting at the grand piano. But I couldn't see what.
"Um," Steely Armor declared our entry as he walked ahead adjusting his hat. "Flame, we need to talk."
He stopped whatever he was doing and looked at all of us. "Go away." he turned his head away. "I don't want to hurt you."
I held onto Twilight's shoulder and gave her the sign that maybe we should let him start it off.
"Flame. Listen." He walked forward. "I knew you are afraid of repeating what happened that day but, that was just an accident."
"And that is exactly why you should stay away." Flaming Star grunted back.
I felt I need to step in now. "What if we told you we found a solution to your problem?"
Flaming Star stood up and looked at me. "Really? You can get rid of this?"
"Well, we sure found a way...but I doubt it's the way you were originally looking for." I said as I got closer to Steely Armor so I could be in the middle of the conversation.
That caught his attention "what do you mean?" He too walked towards us.
"We can't take your magic or remove it, but we can help you to control it."
The deem light of hope that was inside his eyes faded as he rubbed his head away, "We've tried that!...it didn't work out."
"Look it was not your fault that you burned Steely Armor's shoulder," I walked closer to him, "It was...just an acci-"
"Wait, how do you know that!" He looked at Steely Armor, "You told them? you promised not to!" He said, walking backwards.
"No" I shouted, holding my heads up as I tried to explain, "he didn't say a word. He...he didn't have to, because of my magic."
"What do you mean?" He took a few deep breaths as he sat down on the stage.
"My power is...it's a psychic thing. I can read people’s thoughts just by touching them."
Steely Armor sat down next to him. "It was me," he said, "Sunset Shimmer touched me and saw...Well, she saw enough."
"Listen" Twilight said as she stood across from him, "I know how you feel."
"Yeah sure." Flaming Star answered back as if he didn't want to hear the rest.
"No. it's true. I was fascinated by the powers I was studying at first. It was just another experiment for me. But when I realized that I was..."
Flaming Star didn't let her finish speaking. "Did you hurt your friends? " he demanded.
Twilight started to speak but bowed her head. " Yes, yes I did. My oldest and best friend. "I knew she was talking about her absorbing the magic powers at the Friendship Games had a terrified spike. But I didn't want to tell him she was talking about her dog.
"Did you ever wake up from a nightmare? "
Twilight nodded. "Yes. Especially last summer when I was at the camp Everfree. I'd hoped to escape the nightmare. But I didn't, not until....."
"What?" he cut her off once again.
"Until I did what Sunset told me to do: I embraced the magic." she held her head up, I have to say I was blushing to hear my words to her.
"But...but what will you do if you ever lose control?" He asked uncertainty.
She answered that question very bravely, "I won't because I learned about a stronger magic: the magic of friendship."
For a moment, nobody said anything and I thought he was thinking about what Twilight had said. Then his eyes winded ,and he stood up.
"This is so dumb" he mumbled, "Just leave me alone." He stood up and headed for the door to leave. That's when I reached out to grab hold of his collar, but I missed and my fingers brushed against his face.
I saw a house on fire, a lot of pictures that were burning, And Flaming Star looking around and shouting "NO!" It didn't last very long as I didn't maintained my touch with him for long.
"STAY. AWAY." He shouted and a burst of fire came out of his hands. Once again, his hands were ignited and writhing in flames.
"No. NO!" He started to tremble again. His breathing got rapid and sweats started to drip from her forehead as he stared at his hands once more.
"Calm down. It's...fine...jus-" Before I could finish my sentence, he kecked the door open. But the moment he saw the rest of the girls he took a step back. "I have to make sure everyone's all right! you may have experienced something similar, but you will never know how hard it is to live with this!" Then without another word, he ran out of the music room. When we looked for him in the hallway he was just through the front door of the school. Steely Armor didn't say anything, but instead ran after him.
"WELL, THAT worked."
I leaned my head against a locker. "Rainbow Dash. Please! We didn't mean to scare him."
Twilight stood next to me. "he is...too scared." She looked at me afterwards. "What did you see when you touched his face?"
"Another fire. Only I don't think he started this one." It all happened so fast, I was still processing what just happened like I really didn't expect him to just leave school!
"Then what's the connection?" She said, picking up Spike from the ground.
"I don't think that there is one!...At least I hope there isn't."
We decided to leave Steely Armor for a while, besides we had a class to catch so we went our separate ways. I walked alone in my free times to reevaluate and put my mind into what went wrong. I decided to visit the music room, maybe being in the place could have helped me figure out the problem. Just like I thought it was not occupied. Silence may bring peace to anywhere but in the music room it's just a foreign thing. Walking around the room, something behind the piano took my notice. I walked up to the piano. It was a notebook sitting on the holder of the piano. I picked it up and opened it. There were music notes written in there, along with some lyrics on other pages.
"someone left it here, but who would...." It was then that I realized, this had to be Flaming Star's! I decided to hold on to it, and when I saw him again, IF I was going to see him again I would give it back to him. A part of me believed he would never set foot in the school and that he had ran away from everyone.
I didn't see the girls until lunchtime in the cafeteria. The seven of us were sitting at a table when Fluttershy pointed out Steely Armor sitting at a table in the corner all alone by himself.
"Should we go talk to him?" She suggested.
"who?"
"Uhm, darling, you might want to look behind you!"
Rainbow Dash turned around, "I still don't know what you are talking about!"
"I think we should just...give him some time." I suggested.
All the girls nodded. However I couldn't feel bad for him.
The next morning, as I was pulling myself together for school, I half-read a report of a house fire yesterday where a stranger managed to save the life of someone whom the fire fighters couldn't get to. It was only as I was walking to school that I made the connection. "No, that can't be!" I told myself.
When I got to Canterlot High Flaming Star wasn't there. Though I saw Steely Armor at his locker, he was reserved and quiet. I had a bad feeling about that, but mostly I was blaming myself for pushing them too hard. I went to talk to Steely Armor about yesterday. He just thanked me and closed his lockers. I don't know why but that made me feel even worse.
And it was then, that suddenly everything changed. Flaming Star walked through the front door of the school. I couldn't believe my eyes.
before I knew it, Steely Armor had ran up and hugged him.
The girls also gathered around me, we all could only stand there and watch. Pinkie Pie pretty well summed it up, asking: "is that him or a guy who really really looks like him?"
"Ah think it's him!" Applejack whispered in Pinkie's ear.
I wasn't even sure about the answer to that one. but I rolled with it. They were chatting by themselves for a while and meanwhile the girls all shared their thoughts on what they were seeing.
"Maybe your plan worked out after all, darling." Rarity put her hand on my shoulder.
"Trust me, I am still not sure."
They walked up to us next to each other, just like the first time I met them.
"I thought a lot about what you said," Flaming Star said, looking at me and Twilight. "It took me quite some time but...I think...I think you were right."
"No biggie," Rainbow Dash piped up.
"Wait." I brought my hands up and made everyone stop talking for a second. "You were the stranger who saved the someone from the house on fire weren't you?"
"I did went there." He looked at me. The firefighters were working to contain the blaze. That's when I saw it. there was a kid still inside the house. The fire covered the front entrance like a curtain, but I just ran straight into it and through it. Don't ask me how, I just did! It was like someone was telling me what to do every step of the way. I pushed my way through the flames like I was swimming and, well, I saved the kid. I brought him outside and a Couple of the firefighters started bombarding me with questions. I got scared and ran home. But I couldn't stop thinking about what happened. I realized that I couldn't have known how to do anything about the fire and the rescue unless I, well, unless I trusted the magic. I guess what I'm saying is...you're right."
Steely Armor walked up to him. "You....used your magic!" He was impressed that Flaming Star actually trusted his magic, and I don't blame him, from what I saw and heard, I also had doubts he would use them again soon.
He smiled, "I did but I think I have a way to go before I can wear that label."
"Hey, we'll get there together. We've both got some learning to do to get these powers under control."
Afterwards, since we were all sitting behind one table in the cafeteria, I gave Flaming Star the notebook he'd left behind. "I hope you don't mind," I told him, "but I looked inside. I didn't know you wrote music. You've got some really great songs in here. Would you mind if our band, the Rainbooms, used some of your lyrics?" I even gave him a big smile to increase my chance of him saying yes.
"Only if you use the tunes as well." he smiled.
I smiled back. "Deal, Forgive if I don't shake on it."
"Ah don't have a problem with it," Applejack said, extending her hand. Which I passed again.
Then we enjoyed our lunch together with our new friends.
Steely Armor and Twilight get together and discuss magic theory and practice whenever they can. I seem to remember something I read about Star swirl the bearded, where he said that the greater one's ability to look deeply into how things work, the greater the possibility of their being able to look into the future. So we may only have seen the beginning of Steely Armor's magic.
It's been quite a journey so far. And I learned that we shouldn't blame ourselves for something that we really didn't mean to do, that part of training ourselves involved forgiving ourselves as well.
But being forgiven was one of the first things I learned when you came here to get the crown I stole. It never feels like I've told you enough, but thank you.
Your friend,
Sunset Shimmer.
Author's Note
Stay patient for other works.
