Wind Makes Water Dance, Making Fire Burn

Hunger was what drove Steve from his comfortable bedroom biome. He normally stocked his in suite pantry with some easily cooked staples, but he did not have the chance to order more yet. A trip to the local supermarket may have been in order, but the cattle car environment of such a place frightened Steve to no end. He would need to get online sometime today and order groceries through Amazon or something.

Quickly donning his robes, socks, and boots, Steve left The Manse Arcane, power walking with what little energy he had that early in the morning for the campus cafeteria. There would be plenty to sate his hunger there, and some of the best coffee in town. He had a feeling he would need to fill up on Vitamin Caffeine before long. The arcane sources he detected late last night be one reason for imbibing in black gold.

A few minutes out of the Manse and barely twenty meters from the cafeteria itself, Steve encountered the one complication in his morning he could have done without. Matron Meghan Willimas was coming in his direction, on a perpendicular intercept course with her gaggle of House Majesty retainers. Granted, it would be hard to describe the twelve or more girls of ages fifteen to eighteen as retainers, but they could wreck hell on anyone foolish enough to acost Meghan, so the beautiful faces and statuesque bodies were highly effective camouflage.

Upon seeing the subject of her inquiry, Meghan sped up her pace, as did her retinue, eventually walking parallel to Steve. The Majestic Horde, as they were sometimes referred as, demonstrated a perfect v-formation around the pair as they strode to the cafeteria. Steven’s nerves lit up, but he did his best to school his features. Meghan was very good at reading moods, often relying on said moods to best question her subjects.

“Good morning, Grand Archmage,” Meghan said, “it is a good morning, isn’t it?”

“It’s Saturday, so yes, it’s as good a morning as it could get,” Steven replied, “you heading for breakfast?”

“Oh, yes,” Meghan answered, “I’m in the mood for some waffles. I could also go for a cappuccino right about now.”

“My Matron,” one of the Horde nearby said, “the sugar?”

“I’ll be fine,” Meghan stated, “I tested rather well this morning, so a small cuppa shouldn’t raise my glucose that high.”

“Should get some fruit in you, too,” Steven said, “might help mitigate the sugar rush.”

“I’ll consider it,” Meghan reposed, “an apple and a banana sound good right about now.”

“Eeyup,” Steve said, “correct me if I’m wrong, Matron, but is there a reason you made a beeline for me this morning?”

“Well, I did have a purpose in catching up with you,” Meghan stated, “I have a report that says you cast last night. Not once, but twice. Care to explain?”

“I used my mage senses,” Steve answered, “it was late enough at night where I assumed doing so wouldn’t cause any major issues.”

“It doesn’t seem so,” Meghan retorted, “but you touched upon something, didn’t you?”

Steve nodded, saying, “I picked up a pair of arcane sources, very cleverly masked, but there all the same.”

“Arcanus Sapiens?” Meghan inquired.

“Nope,” Steve answered, “something else. A wholly different wavelength. A foreign energy, methinks. Like what happened a year ago…”

“That massive burst of arcane energy?” Meghan asked.

“Indeed, similar,” Steevn stated, “powerful, too, but operating under different principals. Not any school of magic we know or practice here.”

“Are they in danger of breaching?” Meghan asked breathlessly, “could they be targeted?”

“Given how they were masked, I doubt it,” Steve said, “it did take me two passes with my mage senses to detect it. I’m of the opinion that any Adjudicator in the region is going to give them a glance and pass on by. Their sources are passively emitting, not actively. They should be safe for the time being, but I would suggest a further investigation. If the Quorum could be convened and would approve of such, that is.”

“I’ll speak with the other Heads of House and confirm,” Meghan stated, “in the meantime, can you put out feelers? See if you can learn more remotely?”

“I’ll try but it’ll need to be during the week. I have a term paper due on Monday and my brain is in desperate need of caffeine.”

“Then, I’ll leave you to it,” Meghan beamed, “how much have you done?”

“Approxiamtely 50%,” Steven said, “got my essay on World History sorted last night, which means I won’t be working on two typing projects this weekend.”

“Thank the Maker for that,” Meghan breathed.

“Indeed.”

The tires of Sunset’s motorcycle hugged the asphalt of Canterlot City streets perfectly. Traffic was light and the day was clear. Had she thought she could get away with it, the former unicorn would have opted to ride without a bike helmet. It has been an age since she felt the wind blow through her mane and discounting the few times she rode horses in Applejack’s orchard (a strange but exhilarating concept for an Equestrian in self imposed exile,) there were few means by which Sunset could experience such a phenomenon. As a law abiding citizen, though, she couldn’t just forgo her molded plastic defense against concussions and road rash, so she wore it. She did keep the visor up; at the speeds she was riding, the possibility of a bug strike was very low.

Sunset’s destination was Sugarcube Corner. She and her friends congregated there every weekend, often just to hang out, but also study, do homework and occasionally gossip. (That was more Rarity’s preferred pastime, for Sunset had given it up after her Magic Demon phase.) While she was happy to be in the presence of her six friends, something about the night before bothered her. That young man in the truck, The Hammer of The Gods if she recalled correctly, there was something about him she could not yet place. She wanted to place him as a fellow Equestrian, but his red hair and dark green eyes were all too human to file into that category.

Then where did that pulse of magic come from? She asked herself, the humans don't have any magic. Wait, do they have magic? Twilight assured me that the only magic people have is based on smoke and mirrors, illusions. And the daredevil act, which is kind of lame. I’m certain that was magic, though! Then why didn’t Rainbow Dash sense it? She had her pendant on her, just like I did. Now I wish I had made contact with that guy. Maybe I would have more answers for whatever that was.

Her musings dropped off as she came within sight of her destination. She could see Applejack’s family pick up and Rarity’s convertible parked outside. Rainbow typically got around on a skateboard, a bike or sometimes with rollerblades. Fluttershy may have driven in her VW Beetle, but also may have gotten a ride from her brother in his panel van. (Sunset thought of it as The Creeper-mobile.) Pinkie lived and worked at Sugarcube Corner, so she didn’t need any transport; Twilight usually took the municipal bus everywhere, unless Rarity of Fluttershy offered a ride.

Sunset took her bike around the corner, coasting to the nearest street lamp. There, she braked, jumped off her bike, then took out a set of chains from the storage compartment under her seat. The chains wrapped around the steering column and driving forks to attach to the lamp post, before weaving in and around the spokes of the front tire. The chain was secured with a heavy padlock, which required a round security key to open. Sunset knew that such a lock could be forced open, but she took the security of her one and only mode of transportation very seriously. To further deter any motorcycle thieves, she pulled from her storage compartment a tire boot (a commercial one she found on the internet,) and attached it to the rear tire.

Assured her bike wouldn’t go anywhere, Sunset took off her helmet, strode to the bakery her friends were already gathered, and entered inside. Passing over the threshold, she saw five of her friends seated at their favorite corner spot, drinks already in hand. Pinkie was behind the counter, already preparing Sunset favorite latte, humming along to the music piped into the store dining area via satellite. Today was a Songbird Serenade marathon, not that Sunset minded. That girl had a set of pipes on her and many of the songs in her catlog of music sat favorited in Sunset’s smartphone.

“HEYA, SUNNY!” Pinkie beamed, bearing one steaming cup of caffeine in Sunset’s direction, “you’re just in time!”

“Aren’t I always?” Sunny replied, taking the drink, sniffing the concoction within and sighing, “Ah! Hello, Caffeine, My Old Friend…”

“Isn’t that a song by Simon and Garfunkel?” Pinkie asked bemused, “No, wait, that’s ‘Sound of Silence.’”

“Pinkie,” Sunset laughed, now very familiar with the paradoxical girl’s non sequiturs, “thanks for the drink.”

“No problem, Sunny Buns!” Pinkie exclaimed, returning to the counter singing about herself and brains.

“I see Pinkie is in rare form,” Twilight said, as Sunset approached, “I don’t think I’ll ever get the hang of some of the things she says and does.”

“DON’T.” The others retort, to much giggling.

Sunset was greeted with hugs as she joined the rest of the girls, sans Pinkie, and sat nestled between Applejack and Fluttershy. A conversation that was taking place before Sunset arrived was just winding down; it was Rarity who spoke to Sunset once the idle chatter died down.

“So, darling, how was work last night?” The fashionista asked, “I can’t imagine that it was very exciting. The graveyard shift is an apt name for such a tedious work schedule. Did you at least meet anyone interesting?”

“I’m not sure I could call them interesting,” Sunset began, “there was that one guy, though…”

“A guy?” Rarity rasped, “tell me more!”

“There isn’t much to tell, Rarity,” Sunset explained, “it was around eleven or so. Some guy in a truck stopped by for a pair of sandwiches, some chips, a soda, and some ice cream. A mocha amlt, I think.”

“Oh, yeah, that guy,” Rainbow commented, “it was kinda a nice truck, but seriously, ‘Hammer of The Gods?’ Ego much?”

“That there is pot callin’ kettle black,” Applejack retorted, “ya’ll rember what kinda truck it was? Anythin’ like mine?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Sunset answered.

“Forge the truck!” Rarity roared, “what about the guy?!”

“Well, I don’t remember much,” said Sunset, recalling all of last night, “red hair, green eyes, kinda pasty, glasses. It was hard to tell with the light, but he may have worked out.”

“An’ the truck?” Applejack asked.

“Some old thing, I think,” Sunset replied, “there were plastic bits on it, around the back window and front of the bed. It had a custom paint job, like Rainbow said, that called it ‘the hammer of the gods,’ whatever that means.”

“Dang,” Applejack cursed, “don't sound like any pick I ever seen.”

“That kinda sounds familiar, though,” Pinkie said, appearing just then.

“What does?” Rainbow asked.

“The truck Sunny just described,” Pinkie said, “gimme a minute…”

Thumbing through her smartphone, Pinkie quickly searches for something until she comes upon with an exclaimed, “AHA!”

“Check this out!” Pinkie beams, showing her screen to her assembled friends. An image is shown of Pinkie’s oldest sister, Maud Pie, clad in work gear, shovel in hand, while the maudlin sister’s geology colleagues meander about in the background. Situated in the midground, just behind Maud, is a vehicle very similar to the one Sunset saw the night before.

“That’s it!” Sunset said, “well, it’s close. That one looks like a stock vehicle. The one I encountered last night was some customized machine.”

“Ah, gotcha!” Pinkie said, “that’s a Chevy Avalanche. My sister liked the name and bought it with her first geologist paycheck. She calls it Boulder 2! That maud, what a kidder!”

“I done heard of them,” Applejack adds, “not a popular line, that un. The Silverado outsold by a lot. I don’t remember when they stopped makin’ ‘em.”

“Chevrolet stopped production of the Avalanche model back in April of 2013,” Twilight said, adding, “from the description you gave us Sunset, I’d say it was a first generation model. Those had a light gray, plastic body cladding that certain customers hated because it faded pretty badly when exposed to summer sun and heat.”

“Huh,” Sunset mused, “that ‘cladding’ looked pretty new, from what I saw. Though, his were of a platinum color than light gray. Maybe he had it replaced?”

“I don;t know if that;’s possible,” Twilight explained, “there were no aftermarket kits for such a thing back then.”

“Geeze, Twilight, I know you were you bookwork and a know-it-all, but I never took you for a gearhead,” Rainbow commented.

“Actually, I just read that from off of Wikipedia,” Twilight squeaked.

“So, no romantic encounters at the drive through?” Rarity lamented.

“Sorry Rarity,” Sunset apologized, “though, there was something else.”

“What was it, Sunset?” Fluttershy asked.

“You’re not going to go about that thing, are ya?” Rainbow muttered.

“Thing?” Rarity inquired, :what ‘thing?’”

“There-” Sunset began, before looking around the cafe to see if there were any listening ears; there were none.

“As that guy was leaving, I sensed something pass over me and Rainbow,” Sunset explained, “Rainbow says she didn’t feel anything, but I’m pretty sure he was using magic.”

A collective gasp left the group as everyone took that bit of information in.

“Equestrian magic?” Twilight whispered.

“I don’t think so,” Sunset answered, “my pendant didn’t respond to it. Neither did Rainbow’s, I think.”

“Nope, no magical activation from my pendant,” Rainbow confirmed.

“But, I thought,” Fluttershy started, “I thought humans didn’t have magic. Isn’t that right, Twilight?”

“That’s been my running hypothesis,” the knowledgeable girl said, “granted, my sample size is rather small, but no one in Canterlot seems to possess any magic. So unless it’s Equestrian in origin…”

“My word, this has turned out into more an ordeal than I thought,” Rarity opined.

“You said it, Rares,” Applejack said, “what we do now?”

“I’m not sure there’s much we can do,” Sunset replied, “I Know we don’t want a repeat of the Wallflower or Camp Everfree incidents, so we’ll need to keep our eyes out for any strange occurrences.”

“I still have the schematics for my prototype magic scanner,” Twilight added, “I can tweak a few things here and there, and remove the magic siphoning component. That should give us an idea if there is any magic being cast nearby.”

“Are you sure you can get rid of that siphoning ability?” Sunset asked, remembering the Friendship Games.

“I know I can,” Twilight answered, “I went over the design with my- other self, and we concluded what actually caused the scanner to start sucking up magic. I can say with 95% certainty that it will not do that ever again.”

“I think I can live with a five percent certainty,” Sunset agreed, “meanwhile, I think I should write to Princess Twilight and see if she knows anything about magic existing before I turned up here. She may be able to stumble upon some ancient tomes or pre-Equestrian scrolls that have our answers.”

“I guess in the meantime, we should be on the lookout for crazy mumbo-jumbo stuff, right?” Rainbow asked.

“Right,” Sunset confirmed, “but don’t go looking for trouble. If any find anything or anyone that looks suspicious, sound out a group text but don’t engage them. They could be dangerous.”

“That boy from last night didn’t hurt you, right, Sunset?” Fluttershy queried.

“No,” Sunset replied, “but with magic, you never know.”