The Magic, Or Friendship?

by bahatumay

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Cozy Glow, Starlight Glimmer, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 5116

Starlight has a student who doesn't want to choose friendship.

Principal Starlight Glimmer has a student who thinks magic is more important than friendship. The best pony to assuage his doubts is one who made that choice, and now can’t take it back.

Written for the Second Cozy Glow Short Story Contest.

Published 2021-09-07 15:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-09-07 15:10:01 UTC

Do you know?

Starlight Glimmer felt more than heard the explosion rock the School of Friendship. She hissed an angry word under her breath and teleported to the classroom she suspected had been the source.

And she’d been right. The classroom was in disarray, with desks and chairs thrown everywhere. Ponies were likewise scattered across the room, buried under furniture, lab equipment, and fellow students. A thick cloud of smoke hung in the air, and the sharp smell of ozone it carried let her know that it had been magical in origin. A couple of the chandeliers overhead sparked, now missing their bulbs.

And at ground zero, a rusty red (and very sooty) unicorn with a shaggy (and smoking) orange mane sat in a small crater.

“Sunrise Gleaming,” she said resignedly.

He pushed himself up, looking defiant even as his mane and tail smoldered with residual energy. “Miss G,” he said coolly.

With the culprit now identified, Starlight glanced around, looking at the other students. It didn’t look like anypony was seriously injured, which was a relief; but her main concern was Sunrise.

And how this was far from the first time she’d arrived on a situation like this.

Thankfully, assistance arrived in the form of a galloping Redheart. Her mane had grayed over the years, but her hat was just as starched as ever—as was her wit. “I seem to remember you offering me a more laid back position after my retirement, Starlight,” she said coolly as she entered the classroom.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Starlight said honestly.

As Redheart began to check on the ponies, Starlight turned to Sunrise. They definitely needed to have this conversation, but this wasn’t the place for it. “Sunrise, would you join me in my office?” she invited. Then, she teleported.

She appeared back in her office, and sat down in her chair behind her desk. She knew he wouldn’t be able to resist showing off, especially after an open invitation like that. Three, two-

And right on cue, he appeared in a flash of light. He’d patted out his mane and tail, but hadn’t lost the defiant look in his eyes. He was clearly on the defensive.

She needed to get him on his back hoof, and maybe then she could get him to open up. “About 150?” she started.

It worked. “What?” he asked.

“Kilothaums. You scorched the ceiling. There must have been some power behind that.”

“Yeah,” Sunrise said, a bit more confidently now. “Almost 160.”

Starlight nodded. “What were you trying to do?”

His eyes lit up. “I think I’ve figured out a way to convert unicorn magic into earth pony magic. I’ve got this amulet I’m making, and I’ve added a bunch of coils to help slow it down. Then, it has to diffuse through berylite before passing through another set of coils, but wider, to slow it down even further.”

“Most magic doesn’t like being reworked like that,” Starlight said slowly. “Was that really the assignment you were given?”

“No,” he said irritably, the light in his eyes fading. “What she’s having us do is so boring! I’ve been doing that basic stuff since I was a colt. It feels like my brain is going to melt and leak out my ears.”

“So you decided to try an untested magic spell with uncertain materials and load it up with a burst of magic, all without any protective measures being taken?”

He rolled his eyes. “Come on, Miss G. Anything sounds bad if you say it like that,” he groused.

“It is a little bad,” Starlight said. “You took no precautions, and didn’t even give any warnings. Ponies could have gotten really hurt.”

“But they didn’t,” Sunrise defended himself. “Look. This is me. This is what I do. Magic is my special talent! This friendship school is nice and all, but none of the ponies here get me. It’s just a waste of time and my talent. None of this ‘friendship’ stuff is going to help. Nopony here is even close to my level. And,” he said suddenly, as if he’d just discovered a devastating counterargument, “shouldn’t the friendship stuff you talk about mean you want me to study this instead of holding me back and forcing me to be dishonest with myself?”

Starlight considered this. She’d certainly had her share of interactions with magic she shouldn’t have played with. She found herself wishing Twilight hadn’t said she should have students like her.

What Sunrise was saying wasn’t technically wrong, but it was definitely misguided. His viewpoint set her as the oppressor and him as the victim, so he’d be able to twist any guidance she gave as a personal attack. She’d need to be careful to not drive him away. If she were perfectly honest, she could see her younger self saying something like this.

And so, like her younger self, a physical demonstration might be most helpful.

She lit her horn and brought over a scroll and a dip pen. “I think it’ll be better if I showed you rather than just told you,” she said as she wrote. “It’ll be an impromptu field trip, if you will. Don’t worry, I’ll excuse you from the rest of your classes today.”

“Ok,” Sunrise said suspiciously.

With her magic, she rolled the paper and sent it on its way with a burst of magical fire. “Meet me behind the school in fifteen minutes. It’ll be a short trip, so you won’t need to bring anything but yourself.”

Twenty minutes later, they were flying in a golden chariot, being pulled by a pair of guards wearing solar armor. One was a white pegasus stallion, while the other was a blue griffon.

Sunrise tried not to stare. This wasn’t exactly what he’d expected when he’d gotten up this morning.

But his concern grew as he realized where they were heading. “Are we going to the Everfree Forest?” he asked.

“We are,” Starlight confirmed.

“What are we doing here?” Sunrise asked, trying to hide his nervousness. The Everfree Forest wasn’t a very welcoming place, even at the best of times.

“You asked about friendship being a waste of time,” Starlight said simply, “and I’m answering your question.”

Sunrise nodded.

“Don’t worry. We’ve got a powerful unicorn with us.” She let that hang in the air for a moment before adding, “And I’m here, too.”

Sunrise cracked a half-smile at that.

Before long, they’d arrived. The two guards landed, guiding the chariot to a gentle stop.

“Thanks, Captain,” Starlight said to the griffon.

“My pleasure, ma’am.”

“Don’t call me ‘ma’am’, Gallus,” Starlight said with a little smile, sounding like she’d said all this before. “I think we’re a little closer than that.”

Gallus smirked. “Sorry, ma’am,” he said deliberately.

Starlight let out a little chuckle at their banter, and she descended from the chariot. Sunrise followed, staying close.

Starlight led the way through the thick trees, over the overgrown paths and sometimes not even on the path, taking longcuts around patches of blue flowers, and right as Sunrise was certain she’d gotten them lost and they’d be stuck in the forest forever, a tiny, modest cottage came into view. It looked like one of the many houses in Ponyville, but much smaller. It must have been a one-room building at best. A small stone path led up to the door.

Sunrise slowed to a stop, but Starlight followed it up to the door. She gestured with her head that he should follow, and then gently pushed it open and stepped inside. After a brief hesitation, he followed.

Once inside, Sunrise looked around. The room was sparsely decorated. The rug on the ground looked fairly new, like it hadn’t been walked on much. The bed in the corner had simple, blank white sheets on top, and it looked like it hadn’t been made recently. Three cups sat on the small wooden table. One was a ceramic mug, the contents steaming. One was a glass, full of a purple liquid, and the third was a wooden mug full of an amber liquid.

A young pegasus with a pinkish coat sat in the window bay, facing away from the door, her wings folded tightly against her sides. Her coat looked brushed, and her blue mane was in curls, but the most notable thing about her appearance was the white bandages wrapped tightly around her eyes.

Her ears didn’t even flick at their entrance, but she knew they were there. She slowly extricated herself from her seated position. Apparently, she’d been sitting there for a while. “Starlight Glimmer. Sunrise Gleaming. Welcome.”

Sunrise started at her knowing his name.

“I take it you didn’t mind us coming?” Starlight said as she sat down.

The pegasus smiled wanly as she flew over. “If I did, I wouldn’t have been here,” she said simply. “Have a seat. Sorry I don’t have cookies today, I would have burned myself.” She set herself down easily in the chair, picked up the wooden mug, and took a drink; and she did this with such confidence and lack of hesitation that Sunrise found himself squinting at her bandages to see if they were actually see-through.

Starlight lifted the ceramic mug. “Empathy cocoa,” she said amusedly, as if this were an inside joke, and took a sip. She smiled, though the pegasus couldn’t see. “It’s perfect.”

“I know,” the pegasus said simply.

Sunrise hesitantly took a sip of his own drink, and then his eyes widened. “This is Doctor Shocks’ new Blazing Grape flavor,” he said, surprised.

Starlight didn’t quite get this reference, but she was the only one.

The pegasus smiled knowingly and nodded. “Made it myself.”

“This is exclusive to that one restaurant in Cloudsdale,” Sunrise said accusingly. “It’s made with real rainbows. It’s- they don’t- you can’t- Nopony knows the recipe! Two ponies have it, and they only know half of it to keep it secret. How did you…?”

“I know everything,” she said simply.

“That’s patently untrue,” Sunrise protested. “You can’t know everything.”

“At least, she knows they won’t sue her,” Starlight interjected jokingly. Then she paused. “Right?” she asked with a twinge of hesitation.

“They could,” she conceded, “but to win, they’ll have to prove that it’s the same formula, which will mean some things will be said in court that they don’t want to be public record.” A little smile crossed her face. “That’s not considering the poor optics of suing a blind young mare. As long as I just make it myself, they’ll groan and grumble, but they’ll never sue me.”

Starlight nodded, accepting this.

In contrast, Sunrise found this harder to swallow. “You can’t seriously believe you know everything.”

“Yes, I can. I know everything that did happen, could happen, and everything that will happen.” She cracked a smile and leaned in, bringing up a hoof to cover her mouth. “Cell phones,” she whispered, as if revealing a deep secret. “They’re gonna be big.”

“No, you can’t,” Sunrise and the pegasus said in unison.

“Hey.”

“Stop doing that!”

“Starswirl the Bearded’s third magical postulate states that the transmutation of metals is physically imposs- how are you doing that?!”

The pegasus chuckled, but she stopped.

“She knows everything,” Starlight repeated.

“Even about your mouth-drawn comics, focusing on a mysterious seventh member of the Power Ponies. Red suit, long cape, large musc-”

“Ok, ok,” he said quickly over Starlight’s little laugh. This branch of his history that he had never shared (and had honestly forgotten until right then) had convinced him. This mare knew everything. So why-?

“Oh, I get it,” Sunrise realized with a confident little chuckle. “She knows everything, so you brought me here to see what I’ll do in the future!”

“Not exactly,” Starlight said, but she was ignored.

Sunrise scooted forward. “So what happens?” he asked eagerly. “What kind of magical discoveries do I make? Am I famous? Do ponies name their kids after me?”

“That depends how far in the future we look,” the pegasus answered delicately.

“What do you mean?” Sunrise asked. “Does somepony get more famous than me?”

The pegasus took a deep breath. “Time is… I’m not going to say ‘in flux’, but it’s the closest term to describe what I see. I know what will happen, along with what would happen if ponies made a different choice. There are so many possibilities, so many branches, each one formed as a pony makes a slightly different choice. Turning right instead of left. Which pony to sit next to at lunch. Getting the mail before getting the groceries. Putting milk in the bowl before the cereal. But even along those alternate possibilities, there are some consistencies. The Everfree Forest grows, defying pony control. The Wonderbolts get formed. There’s always an Applejack. And, for the most part, the same ‘story beats’ occur, and all the branches brush against each other again. Scorpan and Tirek attack the ponies. Luna becomes Nightmare Moon. Discord becomes unstoned. A changeling betrays the hive. But the Elements of Harmony that stop them, well, that lineup varies more than the Clydesdale Tans buckball team does.”

“That’s… not a buckball team,” Sunrise said confusedly.

“They will be,” she said dispassionately. “But to answer your question: if we pare your choices down to just ‘make friends’ and ‘drop out to study magic on your own’,” she said, holding up a hoof to represent each of these choices, “these paths diverge,” she spread them apart, “and then come back together at the end of this whole…” She rolled her hoof, searching for the right word, “-generation. You know what happens?”

Sunrise shook his head, fascinated.

“Friendship dies out. The tribes split again. Magic gets reduced to legends and bedtime stories for little fillies. Ponies can’t even cast spells anymore. I didn’t even have to do anything. Trying to drain it, send it to another dimension? Futile. It was just going to happen on its own. All my plans, everything I did, and it was all for nothing.”

Wait. That had sounded eerily familiar. Sunrise leaned in and squinted, his drink forgotten. “Who are you?” he asked.

“I was wondering when we were going to get to that,” Starlight murmured.

“I wasn’t,” the pegasus said in the same voice. “My name is Cozy Glow.”

“Coz-?!” He let out a startled yell and toppled off the back of his chair. He scrambled backwards until he hit the wall, though his hooves still scraped against the floor like he was trying to push his way through. “You?!” he stammered.

Cozy nodded, a little smile playing at her lips. “Golly,” she said dryly. “You sure know how to make a filly feel special.”

“You-? How-?” He pointed at her and looked wildly at Starlight. “That is Cozy Glow!” he hissed, as if he expected her to tackle Cozy and bind her in magical binders and banish her, or at the very least throw her in a dungeon inside another dungeon.

“I know,” Starlight said flatly. “I brought you here, remember? I even helped build this house for her.”

“You know what she’s done?! What she did?”

“I was there when she did it,” Starlight said pointedly. Her voice softened. “But I don’t think you know the whole story.”

“Whole st-? There’s not a lot to it! The Terrible Trio broke out again, terrorized Equestria, and she killed Princess Twilight Sparkle before being sent back to Tartarus!”

“That is the generally accepted version,” Cozy conceded, “but it’s not the whole story.” She took a steadying breath. “There was an artifact, a scrying pool, hidden deep in the Canterlot Castle caves. The water it contained was supposed to let you see anything, anywhere in the world. But that wasn’t enough. I thought, if I could overcharge it, I could get even more knowledge, be able to see the future, and with that, I could learn how to break their friendship, so I could avoid getting hit with any more ‘rainbow lasers’. I found it, and I brought a couple artifacts of my own: The Belt of Cintura, which lets a pony focus more magic than they normally can on their own; Lente’s Lenses, glasses designed to help a pony use multiple artifacts at the same time; and a vial full of a zebra enhancing potion.”

“That’s crazy dangerous,” Sunrise said before he could stop himself. “That’s just asking for a magical feedback loop. Is that what happened to your eyes?”

“I’ll get to that,” she said, then paused. She looked down, her hoof moving as if mentally running through the conversation as if to make sure she hadn’t already said it, then looked back up. “Yeah, I’ll get to that. Twilight tracked me down. She tried to help me. She tried to talk to me. Even after all the times I escaped, all the times I almost destroyed Equestria, she felt like I could still use one more chance. But I refused to see. It was magic, I could use it, and it was mine. She couldn’t see the possibilities. Or she wanted it for herself. I needed it to keep myself safe. I had a million reasons why it belonged to me, and not a single one to listen to her. I put them all on, I added the water to the potion and drank it, and I activated the items.

“Right away, I knew I’d made a mistake. It was too much magic, combined in a way it never should have been combined. I absorbed so much more than I had planned, so much faster than I’d planned. I was screaming. We were screaming. 1.21 gigathaums, released in the blink of an eye. By all rights, I should have been dead on the spot.

“But Twilight Sparkle saved me. She shielded me from the resulting magical explosion. And when I woke up a few miles away, I could see everything.”

“Even from behind those bandages?” Sunrise couldn’t help but ask.

Cozy Glow looked down, as if considering this.

Then she reached up and pulled off the bandages that had covered her eyes.

He let out a startled yelp and leaped out of the chair. The injuries were clearly old, and had for the most part healed, but a pony should have eyes there!

A ghost of a smirk may have crossed Cozy’s face. “That’s why I wore the bandage strips,” she admitted nonchalantly, spinning them around her hooves. “It’s more of a dramatic reveal than sunglasses because you can get a glimpse from around the edges of the lenses.”

“What happened?”

“I gouged them out myself, there in the middle of the Everfree Forest,” Cozy said quietly as she slid the bandages back on. “There was just… too much for me. Too much I could see, all at once, and no way to keep everything straight.” There was a brief pause, and then a half-smile crossed her face. “Which is a shame, because I was very cute and adorable.”

Sunrise nodded, horrified but still morbidly curious. “What happened next?”

“I knew Twilight was…” She swallowed. This was seemingly still a hard part for her to review. “Magical damage can affect alicorns, and it… had.” She licked her lips. “From there, I had a couple options. I could run north, and wind up in a fire swamp and be eaten by a chimera. I could run west, which would put me straight into an ursa major’s den. South would put me in Froggy Bottom Bog, where a hungry hydra lived. Or I could stay put, and Starlight would find me.

“That’s the one I chose, obviously. She came up, furious, her horn blazing; but she was not expecting to see so much blood and so many tears. It took me four tries to explain what had happened, and another two before she believed me.”

Sunrise glanced over at Starlight, who nodded to confirm. He sat back, trying to process this. “That’s crazy,” he finally said.

“Mm-hm,” Cozy said, looking down as if looking into her mug. “And it was all because I couldn’t see. I saw friendship as a tool, and then a weapon, and then an obstacle to be overcome. You see friendship as a distraction, a hindrance, something that will hold you back. And yes, if you give it up, you’ll be known across Equestria, mentioned in the same sentence as Gusty the Great, Starswirl the Bearded, Twilight Sparkle, Cinnamon-” Her brow furrowed. “Oh, no, that one hasn’t happened yet,” she corrected herself under her breath. “Anyway, you’ll throw yourself into your work to try and prove me wrong. You’ll try so hard, and you’ll get so far. But eventually, you’ll be forgotten, too.”

Sunrise sat back, stunned. “So… so in the end, it doesn’t even matter?” he asked. “Then what’s the point?” He rounded on Starlight, realizing that she hadn’t responded to this earth-shattering news. “And you knew this? What’s with all this talk of friendship, then? If it’s just going to all mean nothing, why even have the school?”

Cozy paused, as if considering this.

Then, she stretched out a wing, scooped up his glass, slid it over to in front of herself, and drank it down in one go.

“Hey,” he protested.

“What do you mean, ‘hey’?” Cozy challenged, setting the empty glass down. She picked up a folded napkin and dabbed daintily at her lips. Her head cocked curiously. “Why do you care, if everything’s just going to end with you forgotten, lost to the annals of time, if all you are is dust in the wind? You think me drinking your crummy soda is even worth lifting an ear over?”

Sunrise opened his mouth, but he had no retort to this.

“That’s why we’re talking now,” Cozy continued, her voice softer this time. “I know how your story ends. I know what will happen if you drop out to study magic, and I know what will happen if you give friendship another chance. If you do give friendship a try, you’ll be a lot happier in the time you have.” She rolled the glass between her hooves. “That’s why Starlight brought you here,” she continued. “That’s why I’m still here. I mean, I clipped my own wings. I can’t go to school. I can barely be around other ponies. You know how hard it is to keep track of what’s actually happening, what has happened, and what might happen when you’ve got a group of ponies talking all at once? Not fun. It’s why Starlight’s staying so quiet, to help me concentrate.”

“That’s gotta be so lonely,” Sunrise said softly.

Starlight smiled, seeing him feel empathy.

“It is,” Cozy admitted just as softly.

There was a brief pause.

“Don’t plan on it,” Cozy said suddenly, as if answering an unasked question. “If you come to see me on your own, you’ll end up coming twice. Once out of interest, but you’ll get disturbed when I lose track of what we’ve already said, and the second time it’ll be just out of obligation and we’ll just be uncomfortable the whole time.” She cracked a weak smile. “But don’t worry about it. You’re not the first pony Starlight’s brought here, and you won’t be the last. If I can nudge one more pony to friendship and the happiness it brings, maybe…” She swallowed. “Maybe everything was worth it.”

Sunrise nodded slowly. “So if I choose friendship, I’ll be happier?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Ok,” Sunrise said. “So I’ll drop out to study magic, and that’ll be better for me?”

“I didn’t say that, either.”

This was maddening! “So which should I do?” Sunrise nearly demanded.

Cozy took a sip of her mug. “That’s really up to you,” she said lightly.

“Can I do both? Drop out and make a friend later?”

“That is a possibility.”

Sunrise scrunched his muzzle irritably. For somepony who knew everything, she certainly was good at keeping secrets! “This is not very helpful,” he grumbled.

Cozy leaned back in her chair. “If I tell you what’s going to happen, it’s not going to happen. Sorry,” she said, sounding like she wasn’t very sorry at all. “That’s all you get.”

Sunrise looked over at Starlight, nonplussed.

Starlight shrugged, seemingly unconcerned with Cozy’s lack of forthcoming. “If she says she can’t tell you any more, she can’t tell you any more.” She shifted back into her counselor mode. “But I’m sure you’re not the only one bored in that class. Is there anypony else you can think of who might want to talk magic with you?”

Sunrise thought.

Cozy cracked a half-smile. “You can’t go wrong with anypony on that list.”

“That was my whole class,” Sunrise protested.

“I know what I said,” Cozy said. “I’m going to give you the same speech Starlight ga… will give? Has thought about g-?” She shook her head, giving up on selecting the proper tense. “Friendship is like a fire. It’s a little hard to build, especially if you haven’t built one before. You’ll probably make a mistake or two, and you’ll probably drop the matches at least once. But once you get it going, you can’t imagine how you lived without- marshmallows.”

“Marshmallows?” Sunrise repeated dubiously.

Cozy turned to Starlight. “I’m going to run out of marshmallows on the 13th, unless you bring me some more?”

“You got it,” Starlight promised.

Cozy turned back to Sunrise. “-without it,” she finished. “And if it’s not tended, it’ll go out. But, also like a fire, it can be rebuilt if it does. Don’t overthink it any more than you’d overthink building a fire. Just give it a try, and you’ll surprise yourself.”

“Uh, thanks,” Sunrise said.

Her head swayed. “You betcha,” she said after an extended pause. “You really do have a lot of possibilities, though,” she added. “You’ve got a bright future, no matter what you choose.”

Buoyed by this, Sunrise would have been content to stay in hopes of gleaning a few more tidbits of information, but Starlight slid her empty mug away.

“Well, we probably should get going,” she said, standing up. “I do have a couple other meetings I have to get to tonight, and you’re probably starting to hit your limit.”

“I am,” Cozy admitted, inhaling through her teeth and rubbing her temple with a hoof. “I get real scatterbrained when I try to focus on one time for- for too long,” she explained.

Sunrise nodded, feeling another wave of empathy. Not wanting to cause her any further issues, just in case she told him something he didn’t want to hear, he quickly followed Starlight to the door. Before he crossed the threshold, he looked over his shoulder. “I, uh, don’t suppose…?”

“Bottom of your locker, left hoof side, crumpled under the geology homework Maud made you redo because you couldn’t find it.”

“I told her I’d done it,” Sunrise said irritably through gritted teeth, sounding vindicated and annoyed at the same time. He shook his head. “Thanks again, Cozy.”

“Yes, thank you,” Starlight agreed.

“Keep it sleazy!” Cozy paused, and then winced. “No, they don’t say that yet,” she mumbled. She waved them off. “You know what I mean.”

Starlight smiled and closed the door.

The two unicorns walked down the path and back through the forest. Neither spoke for a long while, not until they were back on the chariot and flying back to the School of Friendship.

“So, that was… something,” Sunrise finally said.

“Not what you expected?” Starlight asked with a smile.

“Not at all,” Sunrise said honestly. “Do you bring a lot of ponies out there?”

“Not too many,” Starlight said. “I don’t want to overwhelm her. I can’t prove it, but I think she toughs it out a little longer than she should, just to make sure she’s said everything she can. I wish I could do something to help her, but whatever happened to her is now such an intrinsic part of her that, apparently, anything I try kills her.”

Sunrise cringed.

“That was my response, too,” Starlight said wryly. “But I think she likes these visits. At least, she’s been ready and waiting for us every time I’ve come.”

Sunrise nodded. “Does she always recommend friendship?”

“She does. Not everypony has taken her up on it,” Starlight admitted regretfully, “but she does. I think she’s using it as her way to give a little back.”

Sunrise nodded slowly. One foal for a princess of friendship? “I don’t think that’s an equivalent exchange.”

“I don’t think she does, either,” Starlight said evenly. “But honestly, her life is a curse I wouldn’t wish on anypony, let alone her, and I like to think that Twilight would approve of her doing the best she can with what she’s got.”

As the School came into sight, she rested a hoof on his shoulder. “You have a lot, Sunrise Gleaming. Fame and fortune are going to call your name, and they’re going to be really loud, because you do have talent. But if you give friendship a try, I think you’ll be happy with the results.”

Sunrise nodded.

“Alright,” she said brightly as she set her hoof down and descended from the chariot. “I really do have a meeting, so I’ve got to get going; but I’ll see you after school tomorrow!”

“What’s happening after school tomorrow?” Sunrise asked curiously.

“You have detention, Sunrise,” Starlight said pointedly. “You blew up a classroom, remember?”

Sunrise opened his mouth, and then shut it. He had no defense for this. “Ok, fair,” he conceded. “But it could have been worse.”

“It could have been,” Starlight conceded. “But it could have been a lot better, too.” She smiled widely. “On the bright side, think of all the good magic practice you’ll get by cleaning up the classroom.”

“You’re killing me, Miss G,” Sunrise groaned.

“Quit blowing up my school,” Starlight returned, “and you’ll have more time to do your next magical experiment. Off-campus,” she added firmly.

“Did you say ‘your office’?” Sunrise asked playfully. “I can do that. No problem.”

Starlight gave him a narrow look.

“Ah, come on, Miss G. We’ll put it back when we’re done,” Sunrise promised.

There was a brief pause as both recognized the conjugation he had used.

“I’ll put it back when I’m done,” he said quickly.

“Mm-hm,” Starlight said airily.

“That didn’t mean anything,” he said firmly.

Starlight smiled. “Of course not. See you tomorrow, Sunrise.”

“Bye, Miss G.”

Author's Note

“I was serious about your office, though!”
“You know, if you end up with another detention, Professor Rarity did say she’s been needing help with- Sunrise? Sunrise, where did you go?”