Chapters Author's Note
Chapter 1: The Pony With Power
Storm Quill stared intently at the book levitating in front of him, encased in the white magical field which kept it aloft. The young colt wiped the drowsiness from his eyes; he had been studying most of the night and was determined to pass his entrance exam. He telekinetically turned the page, and his eyes darted swiftly across the words in front of him.
"It's always important, for a young unicorn, to remember that when dealing with telekinetic fields, gravity still applies to the object(s) you're lifting. It requires a certain amount of concentration to maintain a balanced field, which is why beginner practitioners of magic should not attempt to lift multiple objects with multiple fields until they can get a feel for the tug of gravity."
Storm lowered the book he was reading into his saddle bag and began looking towards the ground around where he was standing. Storm had wandered into the much nicer areas of Canterlot where the roads were maintained far more regularly. Thus, it took him awhile to finally spot the object of his search: a small pile of about six rocks.
He trotted over to the pile and separated the rocks, moving them up next to each other so that they formed a straight line. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath; he focused first on his horn, and when he felt the warm sensation of magic course through his body, he opened his eyes and began to focus on each of the rocks in the line. All six of the rocks rose into the air; they continued to rise until they finally stopped at Storm's eye line. Each of the six rocks was held in a small, white field that seemed to fit their form perfectly.
When Storm was comfortable with the extent of his magical display, he lowered all six stones simultaneously to the ground and released the field around them. He turned back to the road he was on and continued heading towards the center of town.
Storm trotted around the corner and onto a major road that cut through the center of town. The houses down this particular stretch of road were mostly vast, palatial mansions set behind gorgeously tended yards and walled off with splendidly ornate gates. After a few minutes of wide eyed sightseeing, boredom began to creep through the young colt’s mind. Storm magically lifted the left flap of his saddle bag and pulled the educational tome back out for him to read.
The Quill family had lived in Canterlot for as long as anypony could remember. Most of the Quills were scribes or shopkeepers; they would all get together for large family reunions, and spend their time talking about ink prices or the varying quality of parchment. Storm loved his family, but he knew he had a greater destiny than that of some middle class nopony, spending the rest of his life running some bookstore in the rundown slums of Canterlot.
But Storm knew; no matter how his destiny unfolded, it was going to involve magic, and if it was going to involve magic, he needed to go to this school.
***
The little filly known as Twilight Sparkle trotted slowly behind her parents as they made their way to the main school building, a large spire crawling up to the sky to a height rivaled only by the towers of the princess' own castle. Twilight stared hard at the ground. What will the test be? What if I fail? What if I'm not good enough? Her thoughts raced around in her head so violently that she thought she would be sick. She shook her head to clear mind, and finally she looked up just as an older colt crashed into her.
Twilight was knocked to the ground along with the book that had been floating in front of the white-coated pony. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. I really need to watch where I'm going." Apologized a worried Twilight.
"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't have been reading and walking" he quickly responded, reaching over to assist her. As she slowly got to her hoofs, aided by the slightly dazed pony, she glanced over to where the book fell and recognized it immediately. "Hey, that's the Young Pony's Guide to Magic isn't it? Wow, I've read that one like a million times! Oh, are you applying to the academy too?"
***
Storm almost collapsed on the spot. She was applying to the academy? She was easily three years younger than him, so she was either very gifted, or very naive. "Yeah, I'm Storm Quill, what's your name?"
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. Well good luck on the test, I got to go, see you later" She replied, and galloped off to join her parents.
Storm stood there in stunned silence for what seemed like an eternity. He sighed heavily then levitated the book off the ground and stared at it. A sudden wave of doubt and panic gripped him; he began to wrestle with the idea of turning around and going home. How could he, a simple colt from a shopkeeper’s family, possibly join the most prestigious school for unicorns?
"You're a Quill boy! You’ll run this shop like my father, and his father before him and that's final!" Storm's hoof trembled as he thought back to the argument with his father. He smothered the fear that plagued him, drew a deep breath, and galloped towards the administration building.
Storm desperately tried to make sense of the indescribable images he was seeing. As soon as he had reached the building, a massive explosion shook the very ground beneath his hooves. He looked up just in time to see a giant, multihued shockwave rocket outwards from the epicenter of the explosion, miles from the city.
While Storm was still captivated by the rainbow, its dazzling colors filling the sky before finally fading from existence, he heard the cry of a young filly inside. The high pitched voice sounded familiar, but before Storm could place it, another boom, much closer, drew his gaze upwards. What could only be described as an enlarged head of a purple baby dragon, burst through the roof of the building. Storm fell back on to his rump in front of the door in slack-jawed amazement. It was the size of a fully-grown dragon, but the shape of its head betrayed its actual age.
"Excuse me please but I need to get in there right away", the voice rang with both motherly compassion and immense strength, Storm didn't have to turn around to know exactly who was behind him.
"Pri-pri-princess Celestia!?" was all Storm was able to blurt out as he desperately tried to make way for the Sun Princess.
She stood there in all her majestic glory; her beautiful, multi-colored mane seemed to dance as if blown by some imperceptible wind and she smiled kindly as she made her way into the building, followed, meekly, by Storm.
A soon as Storm entered the building, he nearly collapsed from the pain radiating from his horn. He could feel the dense magical storm long before his eyes were capable of deciphering the odd visuals that it had caused. The whole room felt like it was filled with an overly thick fog, and Storm could sense the violent push and pull of the cosmic energies as they warped reality around him. The pain in his horn so intense that he fell to the ground, with eyes clamped shut. Just when Storm was about to pass out, the magical anomaly vanished, its effects reversed. Storm finally managed to open his eyes. Instead of the madness that should have followed a magical outburst of that scale, the large presentation hall was filled only with the princess, a hand full of very shaken ponies, and one very confused looking Twilight.
Storm could only sit there and watch as the little filly's life improved by such a staggering amount that the colt began to wonder if he was simply a figment of the young pony's dream given sentience.
It wasn't until the princess and Twilight's family left, that Storm was awoken from his stupor by a rather loud and impatient sounding, cough coming from one of the examiners.
"And who might you be, hmm?" asked the blue coated stallion, still in the process of fixing his tie after a brief period of "involuntary levitation".
"Uhh, oh, yeah, my name's Storm Quill, I'm here for my entrance exam." Storm managed to say as he made his way down to where the little purple unicorn had been standing only moments ago. He stepped around some of the debris and looked up towards the hole caused by the sudden dragon growth spurt. "I promise I won't accidently turn you into pottery or anything" Storm looked over at the examiners and tried to smile.
The examiners stood there in cold silence, until finally one of them raised an eyebrow and asked, "Where are your parents?"
Storm's heart skipped a beat. How did he not think of this? Of course they would want to meet his parents, and as far as they knew, he was out at a friend's house.
"They . . . had to run back home real quick to . . . run the shop" It took all of Storm's will to keep himself from shaking. He tried to meet their gaze with equal strength.
After what felt to Storm like an eternity, the examiners turned their heads back to their clipboards. "Fine, bring in the next egg." an earth pony wheeled in a cart filled with hay, and atop the pile of hay sat a beautiful pink egg with tiny, blue polka-dots.
Storm stared at the egg in wide-eyed amazement; he had seen pictures of them before in the dusty, old books his parents sold, but to see one up close… A dragon's egg.
The sign on the side of the cart showed the egg split in half vertically, a tiny dragon inside, with two arrows pointed in opposite directions above it. As Storm studied the picture, trying to decide how best to hatch this sucker, he heard another forced cough come from one of the examiners.
Storm's mind raced as he thought of how he could hatch it. His ability to manipulate inanimate objects was impressive, but living things were still a touch above his skill set, and he didn't have the faintest idea how to hatch an egg.
Just as he was about to call it quits, he took another look at the picture, then mentally face-hoofed. It couldn't be that simple could it, he thought to himself. The picture showed the two arrows pointing in opposite directions, and Storm just assumed it meant hatch it, but that was clear enough from the picture, no, the arrows meant something else.
Storm closed his eyes and felt the familiar sensation of magic radiate from his horn as he reached out toward the egg. It was only when the white telekinetic field enveloped the egg, that Storm remembered a key aspect of draconic anatomy. He understood why this test wasn't going to be easy.
Horse apples, dragons are magic resistant.
Storm strained hard to keep the field around the egg; it was like trying to keep a grasp on something incredibly heavy and slippery. After what felt like a hundred attempts, he finally got a grasp on the egg.
Now the hard part, Storm slowly started to rock the egg back and forth, having it lean further and further out with each tilt. Sweat fell from Storm's brow, and he soon began to lose confidence.
Did I read the sign wrong? Oh Celestia, I must look silly right now…
Almost as if it heard him, the egg began to tremble slightly. The sound of hay ruffling forced Storm's gaze toward the egg. He stopped rocking it just as a small crack appeared toward the top. Slowly, it ran down the side of the egg until it eventually met the bottom. The two pieces of the egg fell away, and in their place sat a tiny, pink-scaled, blue-spined, baby dragon.
Storm couldn't tear his eyes from the adorable creature; his heart almost melted as it opened its eyes, stared at him, then yawned.
"Congratulations, Storm Quill, you passed! Welcome to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns." exclaimed the yellow-coated examiner, a smile finally spread across her face.
Storm couldn't care less what the examiner had just said. The tiny creature was still staring up at him with its rich, cobalt eyes; they reminded Storm of the deep blue of an early night’s sky. The tiny dragon repositioned itself, bringing her (he noticed) tail up, and then proceeding to suck on it, causing Storm's heart to stop.
"Uhh, what will happen to her?" Storm inquired, pointing a hoof at the baby in the cart.
"Well that's up to you; the last applicant decided to keep it, but you . . ."
"I'LL KEEP HER!" blurted Storm before letting the mare finish her sentence. The very notion that he could keep the pink creature sent Storm's spirits higher than he thought possible.
"Right then, well, what do you plan on naming it?" one of the examiners asked.
Storm stared into the dragons eyes. What should I call you? The dragon just sat there with her tail in her mouth, when suddenly, a small hiccup caused a tiny burst of fire to jet from her mouth; it was the same color as her eyes, the color of the sky.
"I know, I'll call you, Skyfire" Storm said as he moved closer to his new charge. In response, the baby dragon giggled and reached for Storm. Storm smiled, and reached his magic out to pick her up, but instead of the impossibly heavy, slippery mass he felt before, he felt a warm, soft presence emanate from Skyfire as he lifted her onto his back.
"Come on, let's go home."
The Dragon With Eyes Like the Sky
Chapter 2
Wow, ok, I did not think this one all the way through. Storm mused as he sat in front of his house, his head resting on his right fore-hoof. He had made it all the way home without once thinking about how he was going to explain a certain pink fire-breather that was now sleeping on his back.
He got up, trotted slowly to the front door and pushed; it didn’t budge. Canterlot may be the grandest city in Equestria, but that doesn’t mean it was safe everywhere within the city’s walls, and the Quills weren’t exactly living in the “ritzy” part of town either. Most of the houses down this particular stretch of uneven road were single story and in desperate need of repair. While Storm Quill's house was by no means extravagant, it was a considerable step up from the houses surrounding it.
Needless to say, it made his folks very paranoid.
Storm sighed, he was hoping to at least make it to his room before confronting his parents. I guess that's out of the question now he thought. He knocked on the old wood door; inside he could hear the ruckus of several sets of stamping hooves.
The door burst open, revealing a hysterical mare, her blue mane disheveled, her teal coat matted, and behind her sat a white-coated stallion whose stern eyes were filled with barely concealed rage.
“Where in the HAY have you been boy? We saw your friends over by the square, and they said you went to that magic school. Now just what were you think . . .” the stallion’s rant was cut short when he finally spotted the pink creature snoring on Storm’s back.
“Wh-what is that on your back?” Storm’s mother asked, her hoof shaking violently as she pointed to the strange, baby dragon.
Storm turned slightly so as to give his parents a better view. “Mother, father, I would like you to meet Skyfire. She’s my dragon and proof that I passed the CSGU entrance exam. I was kind of hoping she could live with us?”
Storm gritted his teeth, stifling back a chuckle as he observed how utterly flabbergasted his parents were at their mixed feelings for the news they were just given. Just when he was sure his father was about to actually explode from anger, his mother finally managed to speak up again.
“Storm, go to your room NOW, we will discuss this . . ." she cautiously eyed the dragon as it stirred in her sleep, "situation, later.” She had straightened her mane and brushed the tears from her eyes, but they were still rather red. Storm's little escapade had really taken a toll on her.
Storm immediately compiled with her commands, as he had heard his father take that tone hundreds of times, but when his mother used it, he knew it was time to go.
His head hung dejectedly as he trotted slowly past his parents and towards the staircase on the other side of the room.
The door opened into a dining room, and the interior of the house maintained the same level of care as the exterior would have one believe. The hardwood floors were swept and polished, and there were no signs of chipped paint to be found on any of the walls.
Storm climbed the stairs that lead into the hallway which branched into the second floor rooms. His room was all the way at the end of the hall, the door covered in pictures of famous unicorns and other magical beings.
As soon as Storm reached the door, he came to a stop and starred at the pictures that adorned it. Most of the pictures were magically taken photographs of recent magical masters like Frozen Gaze, Starlight, Spark the Wise, Dearorah the zebra, and of course a modern photo of the princess. Some, however, were portraits of famous magicians like, Starswirl the Bearded, King Gold, and the dragon Flamewraith.
As Storm's eyes fell upon the portrait of the red dragon, his mind wandered to the tiny hatchling on his back. What will your destiny be little one. Storm took one last look at the portrait then opened the door.
His room was less of a "room", and more of a "place to store books that also happened to have a bed and desk." As soon as Storm closed the door behind him, he felt Skyfire shift around on his back. He levitated the dragon as carefully as he could down to his bed which at the moment was covered in scrolls and old books he had been studying the night before.
When Skyfire touched down on the bed, Storm realized just how exhausted he was; today had been quite long, and it wasn’t even half over, the sun still hung high in the sky. He pushed some of the books to the floor, making just enough room for him to curl up next to Skyfire. He let himself succumb to a mid-day nap with his new friend.
***
Storm awoke to the sound of his parents arguing; their shouts rang throughout the house. A quick glance out the window told him he'd slept through most of the day; Celestia's sun was already approaching the edge of the horizon.
He got up quietly so as not to disturb Skyfire who was still sleeping on his bed. He started to clear up the area around her when he heard the sounds scuffling hooves coming from outside his window.
"Watch where you’re putting those hooves pal." a female voice whispered.
Oh goodie, these clowns, Storm thought to himself. These idiots had gotten him in quite a bit more trouble than he was comfortable with, and he wasn't going to let them off easy.
After a few more whispered remarks, and one crashing sound that Storm was sure the entirety of the neighborhood had heard, a pair of unicorns finally appeared outside Storm’s window. The colt had a brown coat and a short "I just got out of bed" manecut, a smiling mask pasted on his flank. The other, a filly, had a powder-blue coat, and her long, well-brushed, blue mane had a mall teal streak ruining down the length of it. Her cutie mark was something of a mystery to most; to the untrained eye, it appeared to be an odd screwdriver with the end of it branching out into several odd-looking tools. To Nova, however, it was the first magical tool she had ever built, the magical All-In-One.
"Storm, psst Storm, let us in, quick." the colt half-whispered, tapping slightly on the glass window. Storm gave them both a blank stare, eliciting two guilty looking smiles form the pair. Finally, shrugging, Storm decided to go easy on them and opened the window.
The colt fell through the window first, followed swiftly by the filly who managed to land right on top of the other, causing him to exhale violently. "Nova . . . can't . . .BREATH!", Nova, giggled slightly as she got up onto her hooves.
"Ah, sorry Quick, I'll try not to aim for you next time." Quick Wit got up slowly, his body still somewhat shaken from the uninvited mass that his "friend" had decided to gift him.
Storm watched the events unfold, and released a long and heavy sigh, "Nova, Quick Wit, glad you could join me. I thought you would be up at the castle now, selling me up the river to the princess herself."
His sarcastic remark had done the trick; the two unicorns looked down towards the floor, a slight redness on both of their faces. "Yeah, sorry boss. Your mom saw us when we went out to the square after that huge explosion, and, well, you know I can't lie to her." Quick Wit replied his face once again plastered with a guilty smile.
Storm looked them both over, the evidence of their regret clear as day. "Oh well, I guess there's nothing to do for it now." their faces brightened, and Storm felt the truth of his words wash away some of his own anxiety, for better or worse, what's done is done.
"That reminds me, there is someone I want you to meet." Storm stepped aside to reveal the tiny pink dragon sleeping on his bed. "Nova, Quick, this is Skyfire; she's my dragon."
If there was a contest for the furthest a pony could make their jaw drop, his friends would have both tied for first place. The shock on their faces amused him until he suddenly remembered that his friends were taking the CSGU entrance exam today as well. They must have just gotten back from the school. "Did you guys not pass?" Storm asked, a slight, nervous strain in his voice.
The two couldn't take their eyes from the sleeping reptile. Nova finally managed to close her mouth long enough to respond. "No, we passed, but we didn't have to do anything with a dr-dr-dragon." she stuttered.
Quick wit also finally managed to pull his face away from the tiny fire-breather, "yeah, all we had to do was move some objects around and answer some basic questions and stuff."
Storm was now very, very, curious as to the unique nature of his test, Why didn't they get the same test? Were there no more eggs? Where did the eggs even come from anyway, and how is hatching an egg even relevant to a magic school? Storm's brain was firing on all cylinders as he tried to make sense of today's crazy events; he hadn't stopped long enough to really think about it, but between the rainbow explosion, the little fillies magical mishap, and the dragons, today had turned out to be quite madness-inducing.
Before Storm's mind could finish deciding whether or not he was, in fact, going insane, the sound of his mother's voice rang out through the house.
"Storm, come downstairs . . . oh and bring Quick Wit and Nova with you, please."
Quick Wit gave a half-hearted smile at the realization that his sneak attempt had failed. Nova merely rolled her eyes, "I TOLD you they would hear us! We should have just gone through the door, but noooo, you wanted us to be sneaky. YOU, wanted us to scale the side of their house like a couple of crazy earth ponies." Nova's verbal chiding finally caused Storm to crack a smile. His friends may be clowns, but they were benevolent clowns.
The trio made their way down into the dining room, where a rather calm mare stood. Her husband was standing behind her, a defeated look on his face. "So, we have decided that while it was incredibly foalish and irresponsible for you to sneak behind our backs like this," Storm cringed, having it said aloud did make him seem like a foal. His mother continued "the amount of effort and dedication you've shown is proof that you really care about this, so as long as you keep your grades up, and promise to take responsibility for your… pet? We will allow you to stay at CSGU, understood?"
Storm almost couldn't believe what he was hearing; his parents were letting him stay at the school, and keep Skyfire? That thought alone sent the corners of his mouth racing viciously to his ears.
"YES, uh, I mean, of course, or rather, ohhhhh, YESYESYESYESYESYESYES" Storm couldn't contain himself any longer. He hugged his parents with all his strength then raced back upstairs, only catching a trace of the conversation still being held down stairs.
"Don't think you two are off the hook just yet. Your parents will be hearing from me about your little ruse.”
Skyfire had woken up and was waiting on Storm’s bed when he burst through the door. "OHHHH, Skyfire, I get to keep you! I can’t believe it; we're going to be together forever!" Storm lifted her in the air and sent her spinning playfully around him as he bounced up and down. Skyfire responded by smiling and giggling uncontrollably, until finally, all the excitement got the best of her, and a small jet of blue fire erupted from her mouth, almost burning one of the books on his shelf.
He placed her back down on the bed and fell next to her exhausted. The sun had disappeared, and the moon had begun to rise over the horizon. Storm couldn't quite wrap his mind around the day he had just experienced, he knew that today was the start, today marked the beginning of the rest of his life, he looked over to the, once again, sleeping dragon.
In his mind, whenever he thought of his grand magical destiny, he was always alone; not that he had a problem with other ponies, he just always figured that, whatever his future held, he would face it by himself and rise to greatness by himself.
But now, as he watched the baby dragon sleep, his entire plan fell through his hooves. He could see just how silly his ideas for the future seemed. Where once he could only see a future with him alone, now the very notion of being separated from Skyfire brought about an ache that he had only felt once before. He knew, somewhere deep down, Storm just knew that when he reached whatever pinnacle of his success, when his great destiny was finally realized, he would stand proud of all he had accomplished.
"And you are going to be there with me" Storm closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
Chapter 4 is currently being worked on I promise, I'm desperately trying to fight the allure of KH.
It's a losing battle, but every day I add a little more =)
Thank you for your patience!
The Filly with a Taste for Showponyship
Chapter 3
Storm stared at the fully loaded saddle bags that were lying on his bed. He had received a letter shortly after taking the test, congratulating him on passing, informing him on what supplies and books he would need to bring as well as announcing that classes would be starting in four months. Those four months came and went very quickly after he had received the letter, and now Storm had everything he would need to bring for the first day of classes. Well, almost everything.
Under the formal letter was a post script that was written in a different style. The note told him that on the first day of school he would need to bring his dragon and that a member of the school's staff would be asking him some questions about her.
Storm found it quite odd, but he also didn't need any more convincing than that to bring Skyfire with him. The two had become almost inseparable in the months following the test. Storm scoured his books until he found one that detailed a dragon's normal diet. Amongst the usual gruesome fare that came with being mostly carnivorous, although some were found to be omnivorous, Storm found that dragons were particularly fond of gemstones.
One of the benefits of living in a city carved out of the side of a mountain is that, with a particularly useful spell he managed to whip up, he could easily obtain gemstones for Skyfire to eat.
The real trick with raising Skyfire was, in fact, her fire. Storm had read that dragons usually can't breathe fire until a year or two after they hatch, and even then, they can only release small puffs of flame. Skyfire, however, was already releasing tiny jets the day she hatched, and now, she could maintain a small stream of fire for several seconds.
It became a real problem when one day, Skyfire got a case of the hiccups, and consequentially, almost burned the house down. Storm had to spend the last two months teaching Skyfire control her flame, which turned out to be pretty difficult when your student can barely speak.
But finally, after several weeks of hard work, determination, and more than a little luck, Skyfire had an impeccable grasp on her own flame and was no longer causing fire hazards every time she sneezed.
Storm levitated the saddle bags onto his back then made his way downstairs when halfway down, he heard a crash coming from the kitchen down the hall. Skyfire came running out, a metal pot pulled down over her head with Storm's mother chasing after her.
As soon as Storm got to the bottom of the stairs, his mother stopped and turned to him. "Storm, will you please get that pot off her head? She's going to hurt herself."
Storm chuckled, his horn glowed with a soft white light that enveloped Skyfire, lifted her off the ground, and levitated her over to Storm where he lifted the pot, revealing a rather exuberant Skyfire.
"Now Sky, how many times do I have to tell you?" he said, gently placing her on to his back, "You have to wait until after mother leaves before playing in the kitchen. " Skyfire giggled as Storm's mother face-hoofed.
Storm trotted over to the door and reached out just as it swung open, barely missing him.
Quick wit and Nova greeted Storm with bright faces. "Hey boss, you ready to learn ya some magic?" Quick asked, his face plastered with his trademark smile. Storm called out that he was leaving as he stepped out into the crisp, Canterlot, morning air and started heading down the road towards the school.
Nova trotted up next to Storm and brought her face up close to Skyfire. "And how's my favorite, little fire-breather doing today hmm?" Nova asked in a baby voice.
"I'm doing great, how are you?" Quick Wit answered, his smile betraying his faux-serious tone. Nova gave him a dead stare before rolling her eyes. "I was talking to Skyfire, featherbrain."
"Ohhhh, that makes much more sense." Quick retorted rather, well, quickly. They carried on back and forth; Quick Wit would say something dumb, Nova would chastise him, he would respond with something witty that would cause Storm to laugh and Nova to sigh in aggravation. The usual routine.
The trio could hear the large mass of ponies long before they made it through the large, ornate archway and onto the campus. The small courtyard in front of the administration building was positively packed with ponies.
Storm looked around and noticed a rather disturbing trend; not a single unicorn there had a dragon. There must of been well over a hundred ponies, and Storm couldn't see a single dragon with any of them .As soon as Storm started making his way through the mass and towards administration, almost the entire crowd fell silent, several having stopped their conversations mid sentence to stare at the odd creature.
Storm started to feel the threads of panic tug at the corners of his mind. Storm wasn't exactly shy, but he didn't handle large crowds very well, especially crowds that were studying his every move. Storm almost began to flirt with the idea of turning around and heading home, until he heard a very familiar voice call out from behind him.
"Storm Quill, is that you?"
Storm turned around to find a certain, purple filly galloping up to him, a purple scaled dragon on her back, holding on for dear life by her mane. She slowed down as she approached them then took a second to catch her breath.
"Oh hey, you're Twilight Sparkle right? Wow, how're doing?" Storm looked to the dragon on her back, "What's this little guy’s name?"
"Oh, yeah" Twilight said, having finally gotten some air in her considerably strained lungs. She turned slightly to give them a better look. "This is Spike" she said, she moved towards Storm and started to pet the pink dragon sitting on his back. "And this must be your dragon, what's her name?"
Skyfire responded to the enjoyable scratching by closing her eyes and releasing tiny puffs of smoke from her nose.
"Her name's Skyfire. Skyfire, this is Twilight Sparkle and her dragon, Spike." Skyfire looked over towards Spike and smiled, causing Spike to pull Twilight's mane up in front of his face to hide. "Aww, I think a certain dragon is getting embarrassed." Twilight remarked.
"So Storm, you gonna introduce us to your new fillyfriend?" Quick Wit remarked, jabbing Storm in the side with his hoof.
"She's not my fillyfriend, idiot." Storm shot back, a slight redness appearing under his eyes, "Quick Wit, Nova, this is Twilight Sparkle. Her test was right before mine, and she's the personal protégé of Princess Celestia herself."
Twilight shifted her gaze down to her hooves as Quick and Nova starred, slack-jawed. "Twilight," Storm continued, "These are my friends, Quick Wit and Nova"
The two, wide-eyed unicorns quickly closed their mouths then each raised a hoof to greet her. "It's nice to meet you both." Twilight said, shaking each of their hooves.
After the semi-awkward exchange, Storm suddenly had a question he hoped Twilight would have an answer to. "Twilight, do you know if any other ponies were given a dragon egg test?"
Twilight brought a hoof to her chin as she tried to think back. "I asked the princess that question a few weeks ago, and she said only a small group of ponies were even given the test, and of those few, only a total of four passed."
Storm's brain kicked into gear again as a barrage of questions assaulted him. He was in disbelief. Only a small group had the test and of those, only four passed? I wonder who the other two are.
Suddenly, as if in answer to his self-imposed question, Storm heard a filly's voice shouting from the other end of the courtyard.
"Gather around fillies and gentlecolts, and witness the impressive intellect of Jade, the emerald dragon!"
As soon as Storm heard "dragon", he began making his way through the crowd to the source of the boastful voice. When he final made it to the front of the gathering, he was greeted with a rather impressive, make-shift stage being supported by one of the benches. On the stage was a filly with a light-blue coat and a hat that looked to be a few sizes too big for her, causing it to look fairly ridiculous. As interestingly odd as the filly was, it was the tiny green dragon that caught Storm's attention; for the most part, she looked like Skyfire, only with green scales and light-green spines.
If Storm was surprised to see the small, emerald dragon, what he heard next would have stopped his heart.
"Trixie, can you please stop? This is getting embarrassing."
Storm almost couldn't believe what his eyes and ears were telling him, that baby dragon just TALKED. Being able to say a word or two this young was one thing, Skyfire herself was already able to say "Storm" and "food", but this hatchling was able to string an entire sentence together.
Twilight finally managed to break through the wall of ponies and moved up next to Storm. "Oh cool, a green dragon, I wonder what her name is?"
The baby dragon must have heard her, as she turned to look over at Twilight and responded, "My name is Jade, and this one," she said pointing to the filly, "is Trixie."
The look of shock on Twilight's face was bordering on comical. Storm figured that Spike's grasp on speaking was also severely lacking.
Trixie, having heard her name, looked over to find Jade talking to two ponies, "Jade, who are you talking to? Come on, I need you front and center."
"Trixie, these two also have dragons."
Trixie raised an eyebrow at the two, "oh really?"
Twilight smiled and offered her a hoof, "Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this little guy is Spike. It's nice to meet you Trixie"
A sudden redness appeared on Trixie's face. She angled her hat to hide it as quickly as possible and gave Twilight's hoof a quick shake.
Storm decided to nip this potentially awkward moment in the bud and cut in between to the two fillies. "My name's Storm Quill, and this one is Skyfire." Trixie turned toward Storm, a disinterested look on her face. She turned back to her stage and started putting the odds and ends of the makeshift stage into a large bag.
"Well, it was . . . nice, to meet you both, but if you'll excuse me, Jade, let' s go." Jade gave the two a slight nod then turned to follow Trixie. As the duo started off towards administration, Twilight began to head in the same direction, "I'm going to go too. I still need to get my class schedule." leaving Storm alone with his thoughts and his dragon.
Storm took a seat on the bench, Skyfire hopping down to the spot next to him, and rested his head on his hoof. Wow, so Jade can talk, that's kind of crazy; well, that's the third dragon keeper. I wonder who the last is? Just then, a cacophony of filly screams rang out from the entryway. Storm looked over and saw a group of fillies crowded around something.
Storm chuckled "Skyfire, I think I might be psychic." Skyfire looked up at him and tilted her head to the side, "ah never mind, here, let's go." He got up to his hooves, and after Skyfire was securely in place, the two headed off towards the group.
The group of fillies was considerably smaller than the previous gathering of ponies, so Storm was able to see the object of their attention as he approached. They appeared to be watching a grey-coated colt who looked to be about Storm's age; while the ponies all looked at him, his gaze was turned upward, and when Storm followed his gaze, he was almost floored.
A small, black-scaled dragon was flying around above them, performing some basic aerobatic maneuvers that the colt was calling out.
After a particularly impressive looking midair spin, the dragon flew down and landed on the pony's back, and the two started heading towards the administration building. Storm tried to cut in through the crowd to speak to the colt, but the tightly packed fillies weren't giving an inch, he tried calling out to him, but the group surrounding the colt was already assaulting him with questions and compliments.
This isn't getting me anywhere; I'll just talk to him after class. Storm decided, and galloped toward the administration building to get his schedule. The main area of the administration building was rather large, but with all the ponies either waiting around for friends or for their first class to start, moving through to the schedule pick-up line was incredibly frustrating.
There were two lines, one for ponies whose names began with A through L, and one for ponies whose names began with M through Z. Storm got into the second marked M through Z, and waited as the line in front of him slowly grew smaller and smaller.
As he made his way closer to the front, he discovered the source of the delay; the students had to browse through the pile of schedule's to find their own. When he finally reached the table, he began rummaging through the pile of papers till he found his name. He took a quick glance at the rest of the schedules, and something quite curious caught his eye, neither Twilight nor Trixie, had gotten their schedules yet.
Storm walked out of the line, his class schedule encased in a white field of energy next to his head. Why didn't those two pick up their schedules yet? They came in like 10 minutes before me.
Storm was so lost in thought that he almost didn't see the elderly looking stallion standing in front of him. He came to an abrupt halt and looked up at the rather imposing pony.
"Storm Quill? I need you and your dragon to come with me."
The Pony With the Ashen Coat
Holy horseapples! It's been awhile, my greatest apologizes for the delay. Hopefully I can get the next chapter out to you delightful ponies soon, despite the nonstop awesome that is Borderlands 2 ('-_-)
Anywho, please enjoy =D
Chapter 4
The armor-clad guardpony lead Storm away from the deafening chatter of the large gathering of students, and down one of the side hallways. The hallway, like most of the administration building, consisted of polished white marble with ornate jewel work that released a loud sound every time their hooves hit the ground. The sound started to take on a hypnotic quality as the seconds ticked on to minutes, and Storm began to wonder if he would be able to find his way out again.
Storm had just convinced himself that they couldn't still possibly be in Canterlot anymore when the hulking staff-pony came to an abrupt halt in front of a rather large door, an intricate design etched into it. The pony leading Storm opened the door and motioned for him to enter.
The room was same polished white as the rest of the building, but only small areas were visible as most of the walls were covered in portraits of unicorns, some of which Storm recognized as pictures that adorned his door, while others must have been alumni of the school. Most of the wall space that the portraits didn't cover was occupied with bookshelves, filled with tomes that Storm either didn't know or simply couldn't read due to his inability to read the odd language scrawled on the spine.
Storm looked over to the small desk on the left side of the room; it was covered in strange baubles and photographs. Behind it was one of those chairs that forced a pony to sit upright with their rear hooves resting on the ground.
Storm hated those.
Lucky enough, the seat opposite the desk was a couch that could comfortably seat a pony sitting on all four legs. Storm made his way to the couch and took a seat. The guardpony had already closed the door shortly after Storm entered, leaving him alone in the claustrophobic office.
Storm was debating getting up and reading one of the several books that graced the walls when the door to the office opened. He turned his head towards the door to see who entered, but what he saw disturbed him deeply.
At first glance, the makeup-covered unicorn mare seemed fairly normally, if somewhat over-dressed, but upon closer inspection, something seemed off. The first thing Storm noticed was her perfume and the fact that it was probably searing his eyebrows off; the smell was so strong that he wondered if the wearer's nose functioned properly. Her makeup was plastered fairly violently on her face, like a foal that got into her mother's beauty supplies, giving her an almost clown-like appearance. But what really perturbed Storm was her smile; it showed off both rows of teeth and was pulled up almost impossibly close to the sides of her face. Storm could only describe her with one word; fake.
She trotted over the chair opposite Storm and took her seat. Her horn glowed with the same sunshine color that matched her coat as she opened one of the drawers on her left and rummaged through it for a second before finally pulling out a single piece of paper and placing it on a clipboard. She then levitated a pen from a cup on the desk and placed the tip on the paper.
She turned towards Storm and spoke, her voice an octave too high to be normal.
"So, mister Quill, let's talk about that dragon."
***
Twilight had left Storm to head towards the administration under the guise of getting her schedule, which she had planned to do, but she mostly wanted to catch up with that odd filly to talk. Something about her seemed different, but Twilight couldn't quite place her hoof on it. Nothing had seemed overly strange about her, portable stage and talking dragon notwithstanding, but she couldn't shake this desire to talk with her. It reminded her of the same passion she felt when reading a book she had never read.
Just as Twilight reached for the door, she shifted her shoulders. An alarming thought rocketed through her brain. The gentle weight that had been resting on Twilight’s back had been there for hours, and over time, it faded into the background of her mind, so she hadn’t noticed that the weight vanished.
She whipped her head around and surveyed the surrounding courtyard for any signs of the purple dragon. All she could see amongst the trees and assorted foliage was a dispersing pack of procrastinating ponies. She raced through the trees, her eyes darting in all directions as her mind ran through all the horrifying scenarios her overactive imagination could concoct.
Out of breath, Twilight trotted up to a nearby tree and gently rested her side against it. Cold, hard panic griped her brain as her eyes threatened to break into tears. A soft, high-pitched voice cried out from somewhere above her.
“Twilight . . . help!”
Twilight’s head snapped upwards towards the source of the cry. Relief flooded throughout her entire body as she beheld the small purple dragon clinging to one of the tree’s branches.
Twilight could feel the trail of wetness run down her face, any anger she might have felt towards Spike for wondering off was quickly smothered by the sheer comfort of knowing that he was fine.
Twilight focused her magic through her horn and reached out towards the quivering hatchling, but before the pinkish radiance of Twilight’s magic field could envelope him, a small, black blur snatched him off the branch, circled the tree top of few times, than finally began to descend towards Twilight.
When the black form finally slowed down enough for Twilight to see it, she gasped; the shape was in fact a black-scaled dragon hatchling. The dragon was the same size as Spike, but had two webbed wings protruding from its back and a row of yellow spines running down from the top of his head to the tip of his tail.
The dragon slowly lowered Spike to the ground; as soon as his feet touched down, he took off towards Twilight, tears streaming down his face. Twilight smiled down at him, her heart doing back flips as she magically lifted the baby dragon to place him on her back. She turned back to the black dragon, but there was now a grey-coated colt standing next to him. His face was covered in sweat, and he was breathing heavily, his blue mane sticking to his face. He took a couple of quick breaths, and then spoke.
"Oh, hello there, I was wondering where Fang flew off to. I hope he wasn't causing you any trouble."
Twilight smiled and shook her head, "Not at all, in fact, he helped Spike here out of that tree." She turned towards Fang, "Thank you,"
Fang turned his head away from Twilight's beaming smile and rubbed the back of his head with a claw. The colt looked towards Fang and laughed, "Well now, looks like you're a hero, Fang," He turned back towards Twilight and raised a hoof, "My name's Eclipse, and I see you've met Fang."
Twilight took the hoof and gave it a small shake, "Nice to meet you, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this little climber here is Spike." Twilight's eyes scanned around the courtyard. Most of the ponies had moved on the main building. "Have you gotten your schedule yet?" she asked, turning back to Eclipse.
"No, I was having a bit of trouble making it to the building." he said, blushing.
Twilight thought back to the group of ponies that had been dispersing; they were all fillies. Twilight took another look at Eclipse. He seemed nice enough, but she couldn't quite grasp what all those ponies were getting worked up about. "We should probably head to the administration building then."
By the time the four had made it to the front door, the courtyard was completely empty, and the loud clamor could be heard throughout the main entrance. As Eclipse pushed in the door, the group developed a new appreciation for the sound dampening effects of the large, glass doors. The sound that assailed their ears had Twilight convinced she was about to go deaf. It took all she had just to hear herself think.
The four of them slowly trudged their way through the enormous mass of chattering ponies, and by the time they had made it to the schedules, the ringing in Twilight's ears was starting to concern her.
On the desk marked M through Z, only one schedule remained, Twilight's. She levitated it off the desk and took a look. Her first class was "Introduction to Matter Manipulation," and it started in ten minutes. Eclipse came trotting up, schedule floating next to him, encased in a grey field, "So, what class do you have first? Mine's intro to matter manipulation, room 135."
They made their way down one of the side corridors, pushing past ponies who were looking between their schedules and a map of the campus hanging on the wall. Most of the classroom doors were open, ponies packed together, trying to make their way in, and every so often, Twilight would catch a glimpse into some of them. Most were simply filled with rows of chairs, all facing a chalkboard at the front, but some contained odd mechanical equipment, while others contained chemistry equipment made for applying magic to already-mystic brews.
After passing a room that contained a bizarre object that could only be described as a giant frying pan, Twilight and team found the room labeled 135. Before Twilight could push it open, Eclipse took a brisk step and opened it first, holding it for her. Twilight gave him a small smile, "Thanks."
The classroom was the same white marble as the hallways. On one end was a large chalk board, the words "Intro to Matter Manipulation" written in white chalk. There were several rows of chairs, most of which were filled with ponies talking amongst themselves, but as Twilight looked around, her heart skipped a beat. She saw a collection of empty seats, and at the center, separated from the rest of the class, sat Trixie and Jade.
As soon as Twilight and Eclipse entered the room, the class fell deathly quiet. All eyes turned to glare at the newcomers, and Twilight immediately understood the situation; the other students were scared of them. Twilight trotted across the room, past the barrier of empty seats, and grabbed one next to Trixie, with Eclipse taking the one in front of her.
"Hello Trixie, Jade, it's nice to see we have the same class!" Twilight said, a smile plastered on her face.
Trixie's head shot up from her desk at the sound of the overly cheerful voice, and Twilight could have sworn that in the brief instant before she donned her confident expression, she had worn a genuine smile.
"Oh, it's you Twilight Sparkle" she said in an aloof tone, "I see you and your friend here are the only ones brave enough to sit near Trixie and her amazing, talking dragon." Jade was sitting on the corner of Trixie's desk. She gave the same awkward smile she always did when Trixie bragged about her to any who would listen.
"It's nice to see you again, Twilight, Spike." Jade said looking between Twilight and the purple dragon clutching to her rear-hooves as they hung off the seat. She then looked towards the grey pony sitting behind her, "Who is your friend here?"
Eclipse raised a hoof towards the green dragon. Jade leaned forward off the desk slightly to give it a brief shake before swiftly returning it as she began to lose balance, "Hello, my name’s Eclipse, and that little guy up there," he said, motioning with his hoof towards the ceiling, "is Fang."
Jade and Trixie looked up, the latter eliciting a small squeak as they saw the black dragon hatchling watching their entire conversation from the air.
Trixie's eyes went wide; her mouth opened and closed a few times before she finally managed to utter a stuttered word.
Just then, the door to the class was shoved open in what Twilight thought was a rather violent fashion, and a tall, somewhat lanky, stallion with a deep purple mane and a light blue coat trotted towards the desk in the front of the class. The pony turned to face the class, pushed a portion of his mane out of his face, and then began to speak.
"Hello class, I am professor Spectral Gaze, and this is Intro to Matter Manipulation," His voice was cold, sounding almost detached. He turned and levitated a piece of chalk, writing down both his name and the name of the class, he turned back around, chalk still floating in the light blue field that matched his coat.
"In this class, we will be leaning the effects that magic, both active and passive, have on inanimate objects. The class will consist of lectures and you will be tested on . . ."
Twilight had already removed one of the blank scrolls from her saddle bag, along with a quill and ink, and had begun taking notes. The professor went on for another ten minutes talking about the class, how much homework there will be, attendance policy, when suddenly, the classroom door opened yet again. A large, lightly armored pony had opened the door and was now holding it for somepony, that somepony was Storm.
***
Storm was still somewhat in a daze from the conversation he had just had with Cheery Cheeks, the school guidance counselor. When she brought up Skyfire, his mind had rushed to the worst possible scenario; they had made a mistake and were taking her away. The very notion made him break out into a cold sweat. Instead, all she wanted to talk about was her health, was she sleeping well, could she breath fire, could she talk?
After finally assuring her that Sky was fine, she just let him go. She had the armed pony escort him to his first class, and now here he was, several minutes late, with his entire class staring at him.
Great
The professor raised an inquiring eyebrow at him, "and you are?"
With all the eyes in the classroom on him, Storm could feel his cheeks reddening. He had to clear his throat once before he could speak. "My name is Storm Quill sir, sorry I'm late. The guidance counselor needed to speak with me."
Professor Gaze starred at him, and Storm began to fidget under the piercing gaze of, he looked towards the chalkboard . . . Gaze.
"Fine, take a seat somewhere."
Storm exhaled, releasing the breath he didn't know he was holding. He looked over the class to find a seat, and was met with the ice-cold eyes of his classmates. He looked over to the only ponies not currently leering at him, and immediately drew the connection. It's because of the dragons! Storm thought as he made his way over to Twilight's group.
Skyfire climbed off of Storm's back and started to play with Spike, who was trying to hide behind Twilight's tail. Storm took the seat in front of Twilight and next to whom he realized was the colt he had tried to talk to earlier.
The professor continued his introduction of the class; he talked about the basics of levitation, and by the end, Storm was starting to feel pretty bored. To the teacher’s credit, however, he was moving very fast through the subject. Storm could tell that the professor was aware how straightforward this was, and simply wanted to get it out of the way on the first day.
Trixie had apparently become very bored also, as she had leaned slightly towards Twilight to talk. Twilight had been lazily recording everything the teacher said, the quill a blur as it raced along the page, stopping only briefly to reapply ink as needed, but as soon as Trixie had gotten her attention, the quill fell to the desk, motionless.
“psst, Twilight Sparkle, is it just me or is this class painfully boring” Trixie whispered, leaning back, an exaggerated look of pain sprawled across her face.
Storm chuckled to himself. He had been finding the class easy, and if the events that transpired during the entrance exam were any indication, Twilight probably was as well.
As the professor went on about the intricacies of field construction, drawing diagrams on the chalk board, his back to the class, Trixie leaned towards Twilight again.
Storm turned slightly in his chair to better hear what Trixie had to say, and froze in utter shock. Eclipse was the first to notice Storm’s odd expression, and when he turned to see what could possibly be so bizarre, he too couldn’t speak.
Just behind Trixie’s head was a violet eye, floating in midair, its unblinking gaze seeming to pierce right through her. She seemed unaware of its presence, until finally Twilight turned to look at Trixie, and her jaw dropped. Trixie finally noticed the expressions plastered on Storm, Eclipse, and now Twilight’s faces, and followed them to the floating eye, now only a few inches from her face.
She fell back out of her chair, Jade hopping up between the floating monstrosity and her friend and eliciting an adorable gurgling sound that one might mistake for a growl.
“Trixie,” Professor Gaze’s cold, apathetic voice seemed to come from the eye itself, “Do you have something to say about the class?”
Trixie’s face flushed with red as the class filled with sound of snickering fillies and colts. Storm watched, an odd feeling of tension and bitterness filling his chest as Trixie sat on the floor, eyes clamped shut. For a second, Storm thought the powder-blue unicorn was going to burst into tears.
Storm watched as Trixie got to her hooves, took a deep breath, and cracked a sly smile. She turned to face Professor Gaze, “Well yes, actually, this was all covered in the entrance exam. There’s no way anypony could be here without having learned this already, and I came here to learn magic , not how to push a ball across a table.”
Stunned silence filled the room, followed by murmurings of agreement from the other students.
Storm was having a hard time believing what he just saw, but after a second he cracked a huge smile.
Professor Gaze starred a Trixie for the longest time, his violet eyes matching the ethereal one now floating next to him. Storm could see the initial signs of prolonged eye contact with Spectral Gaze; Trixie was starting to shake, and sweat started to pour down her face. Her confident smile had faded into a worried frown.
"Well, if the class is so easy, why don't you demonstrate to the rest of us your supposed mastery of levitation?" His face was completely devoid of inflection, as if he didn't care one way or the other that his student had disrespected him in the middle of his lecture.
Storm had to bite back a laugh has he saw the confident smile return to Trixie's face. If Gaze had hoped to embarrass Trixie, he clearly had another thing coming.
"With pleasure." Trixie turned towards the class, and with a quick wave of her horn, she covered each piece of chalk, and both erasers in a single field of magic, lifting them from their place next to the board, and lining them up in a vertical line. A few of the students clapped their hooves together, but for the most part, they were unimpressed.
Then, the field disappeared, but before the first piece of chalk hit the ground, Trixie's field reappeared and launched them all into the air. In an instant, all the objects were rocketing through the air. The classroom filled with the sound of thunderous applause, ponies banging their hooves either together or on their desks.
Finally, the slight scowl turned up slightly in the tiniest hint of a smile. “Fine" he said, his voice still colder than a Windego’s sigh, “Take your seat Trixie. Let’s learn magic.”
