“Going low this time, sis!”

The frisbee arced through the air and dipped low in a way that seemed to defy the flight path it should have taken. But Pipp bent her knees, making a hooking motion with her fingers, and the toy began to rise again in an even more gravity-defying manner as it curved around her until she stretched out her arm and sent it back towards her sister. “Ha!”

Grinning, Zipp pushed off the grass with a burst of air, sending her higher than what an ordinary jump should be able to do, catching the frisbee above her head. “Nice! Ready to go again?”

Since it was an unseasonably warm spring day, Sunset had decided to hold her magic class / Friendship Games prep outside on the lawn of CHS grounds, a quiet corner with a few trees on the opposite side of the school building from the sports clubs and any other prying eyes.

Zipp and Pipp had improved control over their new magic in leaps and bounds. Meanwhile, the rest of 2-A was sitting in the grass, doing homework or studying together in small groups. But all of them occasionally glanced over at the pegasisters with a jealous look while Sparky was running around, amusing himself by chasing squirrels.

Sunset was standing off somewhat to the side, watching over her students and trying to enjoy the peaceful moment like they seemed to do, but it proved difficult. What she knew, or at least expected, to be coming kept her in a continued state of anxiety, so she jumped slightly when a voice spoke up behind her shoulder.

“This is gonna take some getting used to again.” Cranky Doodle stepped up next to her, watching the two students batting around the frisbee while obviously using magic.

Sunset studied his face for a bit, noting any lack of surprise on it.

He looked back, obviously noting the look on her face as well, and decided to answer her unspoken question. “Celly filled the rest of us in on the details as best she could. We will do what we can to cover for you, but …” He shrugged helplessly. “You’re the expert in this, kid.”

She nodded in response. As much as she felt the support in his words and as much as she appreciated Celestia’s words the other night about putting that burden on her, Sunset knew that she was the only one who could do what was required, and she’d accepted that. “I know. Thanks anyway.”

“What steps are you taking?”

Sunset shrugged in response. “Trying to give them the guidance I wish my friends and I had when we were in their place. I’ve got one more iron in the fire that’ll hopefully give us an edge. I just hope it’ll be ready by the time the Friendship Games come around.” Even though Twilight was making progress with Star Swirl’s help, it was slower going than she’d hoped in creating a new magic containment device. Whether it would be ready in time was anyone’s guess, not to mention that Sunset didn’t even know what to do with it yet, even if they were to walk up to her right now to hand her the finished device.

“Speaking of the Friendship Games,” Cranky continued, holding out a piece of paper to her. “Celestia wanted me to give you this. She didn’t seem very happy when she got it.”

Sunset took the printed out email and read it over. “Neither am I,” she said after reading the first few lines. It was confirmation for the details of the Friendship Games, and it contained everything Sunset had dreaded. They would take place at CHS, in spite of Cadence’s repeated offer to host the games at Crystal Prep. The participants were to be selected from the second years of both high schools, even though it used to be seniors only. Opaline had argued that the outgoing classes needed to focus on their finals right now and that sophomores by virtue of being just about halfway through the high school curriculum made for a better average representation of the two schools. The events would consist of a standardized written exam comprised of a set of mixed questions from the natural sciences like math, physics, biology and chemistry in the morning, then a set of sports events that would include a lunch break, which would be provided by the students themselves and count towards judging their home economics scores, and finally a panel in the afternoon where the two teams would be quizzed live on the auditorium stage with questions from the social sciences before the final scores would be tallied.

“Mr. Doodle! Watch out!”

Sunset and Cranky both looked up to see a frisbee flying right towards the latter’s head, propelled by a stray burst of pegasus magic. To everyone’s immense surprise, Cranky narrowed his eyes, managed to catch the toy just in front of him and transitioned into a full 360 degree spin, releasing the frisbee with the carried momentum right back in the other direction upon its conclusion.

Zipp made two steps back and caught the return throw with wide eyes. “Woah! That was so cool, Mr. Doodle!” She declared as everyone broke out into a round of spontaneous applause. Cranky gave the students a wink in response.

“That sure was awesome. You’re spry for your age,” Sunset agreed. That’s when she noticed it. There was a tear standing in the corner of Cranky’s eye, and his left hand was balled into a shaky fist behind him, pressed against his spine. Slightly alarmed, Sunset whispered towards him. “Cranky? You okay? Did you just … tweak your back doing that?”

“Totally worth it,” he wheezed back. “Don’t let ‘em catch on.” With that, he turned and made his way somewhat slowly and stiffly back towards the school building, presumably to pay a visit to Nurse Redheart.

“Woof! Woof! Awoooo!!”

The group’s attention was suddenly taken up by a frightened bark, and Sunset could see Hitch break out into a sweat. “Sparky? Sparky, where are you?”

It didn’t take long to find him by following his pitiful howls towards a large tree. In one of the upper branches, the little, green dog was clinging to the bark and calling for help.

“How’d you get up there, buddy?” Hitch shouted with some alarm in his voice.

“He must have chased a squirrel up there and gotten scared,” Sunny surmised. “How do we get him down?”

“Do you think you could get him with your magic?” Sprout suggested to Zipp.

While normally the picture of confidence, Zipp was a little hesitant. “I’ve tried carrying small things in a wind gust before, with varying results, but I don’t wanna accidentally knock him off if he suddenly starts moving.”

“Not every problem needs a magic solution.” Sunset had already taken off her jacket and began climbing the tree. “I’ve got it.”

“Careful, Ms. Sunset!” Sunny was calling up to her.

“Don’t worry about me,” she replied. I might not have my magic anymore, but I’m more than capable of climbing up a … Eh? Something snapped, and Sunset stared for a moment at the dead branch in her hand halfway up the tree before gravity came knocking at the door to her senses. While her legs were still wrapped around the trunk, her upper body, without any support, was suddenly tilting backward as her arms made desperate windmill motions to keep the balance.

“Ms. Sunset!”

She could feel herself slipping past the tipping point, falling backwards from the tree. “Oof! What the?” Having felt her seemingly inevitable fall brought up short by something springy, Sunset looked down and found her back resting against a tree branch that she could have sworn wasn’t there before.

Hitch was looking up at her from the ground, eyes wide and his hand outstretched with the palm turned up. “Did … did I just do that?”

“Hitch, look at your feet,” Sunny told him. Indeed, there were little green motes of light hovering in a line from his feet that led to the tree and all the way up to where the new branch had grown in mere seconds.

Earth pony magic, Sunset thought to herself. She transitioned to the new branch, putting her weight on it little by little, testing it for strength. It felt at the same time sturdier but also springier than the rest of the branches on the tree, even the leaves on it seemed a little greener. “Can you get me the rest of the way up?” Sunset asked, pointing at the branch where Sparky was stuck above her.

“Um, I can certainly try,” Hitch replied dubiously. His face took on a look of concentration as nothing happened for a moment. Then he tapped his foot in place, causing the green trail of magic to light up once more, and he raised his palm.

The branch began to grow once more, and Sunset found herself riding it, but as she went further out, the wood was dangerously bowing downward. “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” She looked down, and it seemed like Hitch was straining.

Just when she was about to tell him to stop, Sunny stood next to him and stomped her foot on the ground. Her eyes momentarily flashed green and another trail of earth pony magic ran up the tree, causing several vines to shoot out from the trunk, grabbing the branch and stabilizing it.

Sunny looked up, and the biggest and goofiest grin spread on her face when she realized that she had unlocked her own magic. Turning her head over to Hitch, she asked: “Together?”

“Together,” he said with a nod.

They both raised their right legs, stepping forward and stomping down on the ground in unison with much more confidence than either one of them had on their own. And they both began to fall into what seemed to be a well-practiced chant:

““Up high, down low,

hitch it to a post.

Flip it sunny-side up,

on a piece of toast.””

As their hands moved in opposite but complimentary gestures, the tree branch began to grow again, with the vines providing the necessary support on it to carry Sunset higher and higher in a nest of leaves. When she was face to face with Sparky, she held out her arms. “It’s okay now, Sparky. I’m here.”

The little dog looked at her, the scared whimper coming to a halt, and leapt into her arms.

Sunset laughed as the puppy began to lick her face. “See? Nothing to be scared of.” She looked over the side down towards her students. “Alright, back down please.”

It seemed that, thanks to the previous exercise, Sunny and Hitch were perfectly in control of their new magic as they smoothly lowered the two of them back to the ground. Jumping down the last few feet, Sunset handed Sparky off to Hitch.

“Don’t scare me like that, little buddy,” he said with a sigh of relief as he rubbed the dog’s head fiercely, “can’t be doing that. I’m glad you’re okay.” Sparky reaffirmed his affections with a happy bark and a look that made it impossible to stay mad at him.

The rest of the class was cheering for their two friends, and Pipp in particular seemed ecstatic as she ran to hug Sunny. “Sunny, you did it! You found your magic!” Then, in a move that stunned everyone including Sunny herself, she kissed her.

Sunny blinked in surprise, but she didn’t shy away from the unexpected kiss.

When Pipp pulled back and realized that everyone was looking at the two of them, she immediately retreated two steps, blushing and acting bashful. “Uhm, I mean, congratulations. I know how much you wanted to discover your own magic ever since Zipp and I got ours.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Sunny replied, blushing bright red and playing with her ponytail to hide her own embarrassment. But there was clearly a smile on her lips.

Sprout turned to Misty and pointed at the two blushing girls. “When the hell did that happen?”

Misty simply shrugged her shoulders. “I dunno.”

Sunset walked over to Izzy, who was staying unusually quiet in all this. Normally, she was the first in line to cheer on one of her classmates, but she was simply standing there with a weird expression on her face, arms crossed and looking at the ground. “Everything okay, Izzy? You don’t have to be jealous, you know. I’m sure you’ll get your magic in your own time.”

Izzy shook her head. “It’s not that. I … heard it. The thing that was reaching out for Sunny and Hitch? But … I think the ground is calling to me in a different way.”

“Calling to you?” Coming from anyone else, this would have sounded super weird. But this was Izzy, so Sunset didn’t even have time to react before the girl had simply closed her eyes and leaned forward until she fell over.

Boing!

Sunset was left speechless as Izzy bounced back off the ground before even hitting it, tumbling backwards while encased in a magic bubble that acted like a zorb, one of those human-sized inflatable hamster balls.

Opening her eyes and with a manic grin spreading on her face, Izzy began to tumble around. “Whee! This is fun!” Trying out her range of motions, she cartwheeled and tumbled her way over towards the tree, harmlessly bouncing off it as her flexible magic bubble absorbed the impact.

“That’s certainly a very … Izzy way of discovering your magic,” Misty mused next to Sunset. “I take it your powers didn’t used to work this way, Ms. Sunset?”

“No,” Sunset confirmed after she was done picking her jaw up off the floor, “ours were a little more individualized. As I suspected, yours seem to be based on the magic of the three pony tribes.” She indicated Pipp and Zipp. “Pegasus ponies.” Then she moved over to Sunny and Hitch. “Earth ponies.” Looking at Izzy, she concluded. “Unicorns, I guess.” Although they’re not the obvious ones. Shield spells aren’t that hard to learn, but most unicorns pick up levitation magic before anything else. Maybe that’s a nurture thing, though. Most foals will see their parents pick things up with magic all the time, so of course that’s what they try and imitate. Meanwhile, these kids don’t have the same preconceived notions of what casual everyday magic looks like.

“Whee,” Izzy squealed as she tumbled past. “Misty, you gotta try this!”

“I … wouldn’t even know where to begin,” Misty replied.

“It’s super easy,” Izzy declared, “just throw yourself at the ground and miss! Think about marshmallows, that helps, too!”

“Throw myself at the ground and miss? What does that even mean?” Misty shook her head. “Besides, I wasn’t part of whatever you all did at the dress rehearsal. I’m sure it wouldn’t work for me anyway.”

Recognizing that self-loathing tone from her own past, Sunset said: “You never know. Why not give it a try before you give up on yourself? Here.” She stood in front of Misty and held out her arms, giving an encouraging nod. “Don’t worry. I’ll catch you if you fall.”

Misty looked unconvinced, but glanced over at Izzy having fun with a longing look. Then she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Putting her trust in her teacher, she leaned forward.

Sunset was ready to catch her by the elbows, half expecting it not to work, but halfway through the fall she felt herself being pushed back by a magical force field.

Boing!

Just like Izzy earlier, Misty bounced back up in a transparent magical bubble and a grin appeared on her face as the realization hit her. Izzy rolled into her with a whoop, sending Misty bouncing towards the rest of the group while laughing. “Zipp! Pipp! Try hitting us with one of your air blasts!” Izzy was yelling.

Sunset began to smile at the sight of her students having fun and exploring their new powers until a dull thud next to her made her wince and look over.

“Ow.” Sprout was lying face down in the grass and groaning, evidently having tried the same experiment with less success.

“You okay, Sprout?” Sunset asked as she helped him up.

“Yeah, fine,” Sprout replied, brushing the dirt from his face as he got up. Luckily, it didn’t appear that he had done himself any serious harm when hitting the soft grass. “Guess this one wasn’t for me either.”

A shout from Izzy then drew both their attention. “Guys, guys! Come over here! I got an idea!”

Curious as to what had her so excited, everyone gathered around an open spot of grass as Izzy directed her classmates to take up certain positions. Izzy herself stood opposite Misty in the middle, both encased in their magic bubbles. Behind them, Zipp and Pipp stood facing each other across an imaginary middle line, and even further back stood Sunny and Hitch on opposing ends of the field. Somehow, the setup seemed awfully familiar to Sunset.

“Now what?” Hitch asked, looking around.

Izzy raised her arms and cheered. “Magic Ball!!! Misty and I are the balls, Zipp and Pipp are the attackers, Sunny and Hitch are the defenders! Let’s go!”

“Oh, I get it!” Being on several sports teams, Zipp was the first to figure out what Izzy had been getting at and looked at her with a grin. “Get ready, Iz. Here I come!” Launching herself into a pirouette, Zipp blasted Izzy into the other half of the field with a burst of her wind magic, aiming towards Sunny’s left.

Sunny yelped in surprise as a laughing magic hamster ball full of Izzy came her way, but then it clicked for her. Stomping the ground and throwing her arms out to the left, a set of vines erupted from the ground to block her path and Izzy bounced off them, through the air, back onto the field and laughing the whole way.

As understanding of the game made its way around, Misty looked over her shoulder at Pipp and nodded before breaking towards the right to build momentum.

Pipp followed up with her own pegasus magic, propelling Misty towards the end of the field, then hooked her hand in a way that made the air blast curve at the last second.

Hitch, who was trying to look every which way, attempted to block with his own summoned vines from the ground, but he was caught on the wrong foot as Misty whizzed past him in her ball with a laugh.

Pipp pumped her fists in the air. “Whoo! 1-0 to the Pippsqueaks! Take that, sis!”

Zipp turned around with a look that was equal parts annoyance and excitement at her teammate. “Come on, Hitch! If you wanna play defense for the Zippsters, you gotta step it up!”

“Right, sorry,” Hitch replied, getting into a firmer stance, “I understand what’s going on now.”

“Attaboy, class rep! Let’s turn this game around! Sprout, get in here! We need a ref!”

Sprout, who had been stomping on the ground to no effect, looked up and made his way over to the playing field with a half smile. “Coming!” He waited for Izzy and Misty to retake their positions in the center and raised his arm. When everyone was ready, he brought it down in a slashing motion. “Play ball!”

Sunset simply stood on the sidelines and smiled to herself, suppressing a mirthful chuckle when she realized that Izzy had essentially just invented this world’s version of Buck Ball, and it looked like a good way to help them learn to control their new magic too, far better than any exercise she could have come up with on the spot.

Looking at the printout in her hand, she thought about how she had to prepare them for the Friendship Games. She also wanted to take Misty aside at some point and ask some questions about Opaline. Not today, she decided as she folded the paper in half and put it in her pocket, let’s just let them have their fun today.

The game had gone on for some time after that, and even though Sunset just stood there watching over her students have fun for the most part, only calling for a break once to make sure they all hydrated, it somehow felt like it had been the most fulfilling and rewarding afternoon of her teaching career thus far.

As she thought about that at the end of the day, she spotted Sprout sitting on the half wall by the school exit, looking off into the distance. Everyone else had left, but the young man just sat there while the shadows around him grew longer, and Sunset felt like it was a good time for a long overdue talk. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Startled out of his reverie, Sprout nearly fell off the wall, but managed to catch himself. “Ms. Sunset, you surprised me. You’re still here?”

She came closer and propped her elbows up on the low wall, looking at him from the side. “Everyone else already left. You need a ride home?”

“Nah, I’m good. It’s not too far to walk. Besides, I … wouldn’t want my mom to get the wrong impression if I rocked up on your motorcycle.”

Sunset shuddered inwardly at the thought of another Phyllis Cloverleaf encounter. She’d have to face her one of these days again, probably at a PTA meeting or worst case during the Friendship Games. But that was Future Sunset’s problem. “Fair enough. How have things been since that day in Principal Celestia’s office?”

Sprout gave her a guilty glance. “Okay, I guess. You ended up taking most of the blame there. I’m sorry for getting you into trouble with the principal.”

“I’m always in trouble with Celestia,” she replied with a shrug, “since well before I was even a teacher in fact. But tell me something: How did your mother come across that sketchbook?”

“I dunno,” he admitted. “I’m pretty sure it was in my backpack the last time I saw it.”

So she did go through his things, Sunset thought. Not cool, Mrs. Cloverleaf.

“Maybe it was a good thing in the end,” Sprout mused. “A wake-up call. I’m sorry for all the other crap I pulled, too.”

“Apology accepted,” she said without so much as a pause. “It’s a good thing that you’re reflecting on it, but I was honestly much worse at your age.”

“You sure about that?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small container. Giving it a shake, which made the contents rattle, he handed it over to her.

Curious, Sunset inspected the clear plastic box. “Thumbtacks?”

“You remember your first day? That first history lesson?”

“I remember.”

“I had a few of these prepared for you on your seat,” he admitted, pointing at the box of thumbtacks. “But when you walked in, I couldn’t go through with it. So I swiped them off at the last second.”

Sunset thought back to that day and remembered finding it odd how Sprout had grabbed the class book from Hitch and walked up to the teacher’s desk before she'd had a chance to sit down. “So, you saw a line and ended up not crossing it. As someone who has crossed many lines in her life, I’d say that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah, well. I still pulled all that other dumb shit, the eraser on the door, hiding the chalk … The only reason I didn’t do the thumbtacks thing was, well …” He blushed and looked away. “Because I thought you were hot.”

“Yeah, no-duh,” Sunset dead-panned, “I’ve seen your sketches.”

“No, I’m serious,” he insisted. “I mean, you’re a ten on a normal day, but that pencil skirt did something to me! I spent the next break in a bathroom stall to…”

“Sprout,” Sunset interrupted with a raised finger, “I appreciate total honesty as much as the next person, but TMI! I get the picture.”

“… I was … just gonna say draw that very first sketch of you.”

“Oh.” Sunset scratched her cheek in embarrassment. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed. Listen, Sprout. I probably should have said this a long time ago, but this?” She indicated the two of them. “You and me, that’s never gonna happen outside of your sketchbook. You do know that, right? I’m your teacher.”

He nodded, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. “I know. I know, and I think I did need to hear it aloud. But I also feel like I have to say it, at least once.” He looked at her with a pleading expression. “Will you … let me say it?”

She considered his request for a moment and then slowly nodded. “If you think it’ll help you move on, go ahead,” she said softly. "I'll hear you out if that's what you need."

Slightly surprised, he jumped off the wall and stood up straight in front of her as they faced each other. And he was tall for his age, practically on eye level with Sunset. “Okay, here goes nothing,” he croaked, cleared his throat and fought to look her directly in the eye even as his entire head turned a bright shade of red in the light of the setting sun. “I like you, Ms. Sunset, and it’s not just that I think you’re super hot and effortlessly sexy in everything you do. You’re like the coolest person I’ve ever met. You get me like nobody else does. To you, I’m not just a stupid jock or that dumb prankster kid. In spite of everything else, you always push me to be better. You’re amazing. It should be somebody’s job to remind you of that every single day of your life, and I wish I could be that someone.”

Whoa … wow … That was … that was a good one! Where the fuck did that come from? If he was just ten years older … Stop it, Sunset! Thankfully her face, schooled into a soft smile that spoke of kindness and nothing more, hadn’t betrayed her momentary thoughts. “Thank you, Sprout. You’re very sweet,” she said and steeled herself for the blow she knew she had to deliver. “I’m sure you’ll make some girl very happy someday.”

Sprout stood stock still for a moment, then he clutched his chest with one hand and turned to support himself against the wall with the other. “… Owwww! Holy fuck, that hurt! Like, that physically hurt my heart.” He turned to look at her accusingly. “Even though I knew it was coming, and you even let me down easy.”

Sunset couldn’t help but let out a snort chuckle at the sight, as much as she empathized. “Yeah, love’s a bitch. Fucking sucks sometimes. The sooner you learn that, the better.”

“Thanks for the lesson, I guess,” he said, propping up his elbows on the wall.

“All in a day’s work for a teacher,” Sunset said, propping herself up against the wall next to him. “We don’t go to school to learn math or grammar, not really. We go to school to learn how to people.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll try to be better at people.”

“I think you’re doing just fine,” Sunset told him, putting the box of thumbtacks she still had in her hand on the wall and sliding it over to him.

He looked at them for a while. “Why don’t you keep those,” he suggested. “I mean, your posterior is safe, but I do get the urge to use them on Ms. Harshwhinny once in a while.”

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” she replied dryly. “But how are you feeling now?”

He nodded. “Better, I think. A little bit lighter. And … thanks for taking my feelings seriously enough to hear me out instead of just treating me like a dumb kid.”

She nodded. “You know, the other reason I wanted to check in with you was today’s training. You okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone else figured out their magic except for you.”

He shrugged. “Maybe it’s better this way. Maybe I shouldn’t be trusted with this sort of power. I wouldn’t trust me with that sort of power! Would you?”

“You raise a very good point,” she told him. “Who decides that? I sure don’t. The magic itself doesn’t. I’ve seen magic in the hands, and hooves, and fins for that matter, of very untrustworthy people. Ultimately, you must be the one to decide.” She picked up the box of thumbtacks and slipped them back into his pocket.

Sprout gave his teacher a questioning glance.

“Start with these,” she said. “If you can trust yourself to walk around with those in your pocket and not use them for mischief, maybe you can trust yourself in other areas, too. Until then, believe in the me that believes in you.”

He thought about that for a moment and then nodded. “That I can probably do. You give really great advice, Ms. Sunset, do you know that? The thing you said about happy accidents really helped me with my art, too.”

Holy shit, Sunset thought to herself, Celestia was right! The wisdom of the elders really is just making pop culture references the kids of today are too young to get, isn’t it? I’m not sure how to feel about that revelation. She punched him lightly in the arm. “You good here?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “I think I’ll take a few more minutes to soothe my aching heart before I go home.”

“Well,” Sunset declared, “as a friend of mine would say, it’s impolite for a lady to continue to watch a man suffer after she’s just shot him down.” Walking over to her waiting motorcycle, she stopped and pulled something out of the bag in the sidecar. “Hey, Sprout! Catch!”

Turning around, he reacted just in time to catch the object she’d thrown in his direction. Turning the item over in his hands, his eyes widened. “My sketchbook? Where’d you get this?”

Having settled on the EMW and having pulled her helmet on, she rolled her eyes towards the evening sky impishly. “Let’s say I liberated it from evidence lock-up while our dear principal was on a smoke break.” Clapping down the visor and revving the engine, she added: “Find a better hiding spot for it!” Then she drove off.

Author's Note

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