Starlight Glimmer waved her students in. "Welcome again, class." She was smiling warmly at them as they settled into their usual places, ready for instruction. She looked them over, eyes lingering on Ariel's new dress. "You all look very excited today."

It was that moment Ariel realized she may be overdressed for the occasion. "Sorry! I just like it so much."

Starlight chuckled softly. "I wasn't criticizing. You look great in it. Rarity outdid herself again." She set down the book she carried with her to the lesson. "You've all progressed with your crawling so well, I think it's time we advanced to some real magic." She flipped the book open with her magic. "Let's start with one foals love. This one makes a sound. What sound? A very rude one, but one foals find use for."

Gallus' eyes were wide as plates. "That one! I can't believe you're teaching that! If it's what I think you're talking about, gross."

Starlight nodded. "It's a little silly. A silly sound. But making a silly noise is a kind of magic almost anycreature can learn. It takes only a little power."

She turned to the board on the side of the room and began quickly scrawling out the spell with a levitating chalk. "Here is the spell. First, you'll want to sound out each on its own, practice the magic, the crawl. When you have them all down, try them together, slowly, then faster until you can play the whole sound together properly."

Smolder was laughing. "Oh yeah! That sounds so stupid, it'll be great to annoy everycreature with." She looked over the spell and started muttering the words to herself. "Right. Practice."

The gathering of them worked to memorize the words. The spell wasn't very long, being as basic as Starlight had promised, but it still took some work to practice and commit to memory. Then it was down to business.

Starlight watched them as each of them tried their magic.

Gallus was the first to complete it. "I'm air magic, this is air. Of course I'm gonna get it! Look at me." He held out his hand. "And now, behold, my fart!" A loud farting noise erupted from the air in front of his claw.

Silverstream was rolling with laughter, eyes closed and wings flapping behind her. She could hardly stop laughing as she tried to read the spell.

Ariel snickered, but not nearly as hard as her fellow hippogriff. "Nice. I'm gonna get it."

Gallus smirked at her and repeated the sound again, and then a third time for good measure.

Smolder punched him in the side. "Don't ruin a good joke. Besides, the rest of us are still working on it. Let us have our shot, eh?"

Ocellus was the next one to complete the spell, a little quicker than she had intended. Her horn glowed as a little toot escaped just in front of that horn. "Oh gosh!" She giggled. "That was funny." She took a breath, then repeated the sound again, slower. With some practice, she was changing the sound.

It was always the same sort of noise, but with pitch and other subtle tweaks, she could change it into the call of a bird, or the chirp of a bug, all sorts of little sounds arose.

Ariel clapped at the performance. "Way to show that spell's more flexible than just a silly sound. Okay, I call next! Let me try." She focused her magic on the crystal. Her magic flowed through her, focusing as it ran up her forelimbs and to her palms, where it focused and concentrated until her crystal glowed with that power. She could feel her heart race, a tingling sensation rushing through her. "Okay, here goes." Then she farted. It took her a moment to realized, colored, that it hadn't been her fart, but her magic doing it. She was giggling even as she blushed.

Gallus gave a proud little smile, nudging her gently with one wing. "Knew you could do it. Let's be honest, this spell is super easy. But I'm ready for the next step!"

Silverstream was last to learn it, though she tried her hardest and best to keep up with everycreature else, even with a bad case of giggles that refused to quit. Eventually she managed to get her own fart noise to emerge. She laughed more at that sound than any of them did. "Did you see that?! I mean hear that! I did it!" She sounded so very proud of her silly sound magic that the others had to applaud.

Gallus held up his hands. "We're done, right?"

Starlight brought her hooves together. "For today, I think so. One spell's a fine bit of progress. You all did exceptionally well, my little wizards."

Smolder was the first to dash out the door, leaving the rest to follow at their own pace.

They returned to their normal classes, most of them trying to hide the knowing smirk that they each wore. They all knew what they were going to do with everycreature who annoyed them just enough.

Twilight pointed with a floating stick. "And that is why you should always check the coloration of a plant before you decide it's safe. Or better yet, don't eat random plants." She looked to the class with a nod, just as a soft sound was heard. Twilight's ears flicked and she froze. "Did anycreature else hear that?"

Several students were giggling, while others were specifically trying to ignore that flatulent sound.

Twilight cleared her throat. "I see. I happen to be aware of what Starlight Glimmer has taught everycreature today." She frowned, but that faded quickly. "I'm very proud of our non-unicorn spellcasters, but I must remind. Even unicorns are not permitted to cast spells while class is in attendance, unless that spell is in service of that class. Congratulations on your progress, but hold your newfound abilities for after class, thank you."

There was a little bit more giggling as class resumed. It wasn't long before they were released for their lunch break. The group gathered at their favorite table, but there was a new pony among them. They blinked at the young mare, a unicorn. Smolder leaned in towards them. "Can we help you?"

The mare cleared her throat. "Actually, I believe I can help you." She reached into her saddlebag and withdrew a deck of cards. "I know some magic, and you're all clearly learning magic. So, how would you like to learn one of the most basic tricks of all time?" She pulled the cards from her deck and set them out on the table.

Ariel rolled a talon. "Thanks, but what do you get out of this?"

The unicorn gasped. "Friendship? That is what we're here for, isn't it?" She stuck out her tongue at Ariel. "So suspicious." With a deft wave of her hoof, she shuffled her cards and fanned them out in one hoof. "Pick a card."

Silverstream grabbed one with her claw and looked it over, careful not to let any of her friends see. "Done!"

The mare's horn glowed with magic, a spell that some of them noticed. Working out the spell at first glance was a bit much, but they knew at least some spell had been used. The unicorn's horn glowed with lavender magic. "Now put it back, if you would?" She shuffled them again and spread them out in front of herself. "Now, I could tell you which card you picked, but that would be cheating. Instead, I'll show you." She tapped the back of the cards with her hoof, only for them to spread up into the air with the force of a strong gust.

She bowed as one of the cards went down with her motion, revealing Silverstream's card. "Is this your card?"

Silverstream snatched it out of the air, eyes wide, wings flapping behind her as she held it to her chest. "How'd you know?!"

"Magic, obviously." She tucked the other cards away and dug into her side with a hoof. She pulled out a small notebook. "And I have the spell right here."

Ariel was still skeptical. "Okay, why? This isn't a class. What do you get out of this?"

The mare reached across the table to flick Ariel's beak. "Stop being so doubting. I want to see if you can cast it. It's not every day we see not-unicorns using unicorn magic." She turned to Smolder. "No pressure." With that she passed the book to Silverstream, who was the most impressed. "Read it, then show me when you got it down." She watched them all with a smile as she munched on an apple.

Silverstream stared down at the book and set it on the table so they could all have a look. "Thanks so much. What was your name?"

The mare gasped softly, looking shocked. "Oh! I forgot to tell you." She giggled at herself. "Sorry about that. I'm called Lucky Charm." She waved a hoof. "Nice to meet you all, but I think I've gotta go." She dashed off to another part of the cafeteria.

Smolder grunted. "She didn't even finish her meal. Weird pony."

Ariel tilted her head to the side. "I think she was more interested in getting that spell to us." She snorted, half a laugh. "She wants to see us do, or fail, that spell. I don't know which."

Silverstream nudged Ariel with her elbow. "You're just a ray of sunshine today."

Smolder got quite the smirk. "Well, if she wanted to see us mess up, too bad. We'll get our second spell down easily." She lifted her chin proudly, eyes blazing. "Let's do this. I bet I've got it down first!"

Gallus rolled his eyes. "Dream on!" He nudged her side. "This is my spell, dragon."

Smolder shoved back. "You got the first one, give a dragon a break." She huffed, flames escaping her. "Whatever, Silver! Keep hold of that book until after school, and no peeking." She winked at Gallus.

Silverstream held it to her chest. "I won't! I want you all to get it as much as me."

After classes were done for the day, they gathered in their dorms and clustered around the book to read the spell.

Yona peered from her bunk. "Why all read same book?"

Ariel smiled warmly over at her. "Oh, we're learning some magic, like a party trick."

Yona shook her head. "Why not learn no magic?" She raised a hoof. "Yona know trick." She hopped down lightly. She lifted a hoof and waved it. "Magic!" She set it down again.

Ariel looked confused a moment. "What was the magic in that?"

Yona tapped her forehooves together. "Magic is not doing." She looked over each of them.

Smolder snickered softly. "Yona, you are something else." But her eyes were on the spell. It was more complex than the fart spell, which she had mastered, but this one had so many more steps. She tried sounding out the words silently while she read it, getting the syllables just right in her head.

Ariel rubbed the back of her head. "This is not for little foals." She gazed at Silverstream. "Right?"

Silver looked puzzled herself, holding the book with a claw and reading along. "Well, we're not exactly little." She rolled onto her side, wings flapping slowly while she read. "Okay, I think I get this part."

Smolder frowned at that, still trying to wrap her head around how it went together.

Ariel was the first to try actually casting it. She closed her eyes and took several breaths to focus herself, mind on her magic crystal. She felt the magic build up within her, rising to her call. She focused it down along her arms and into her crystal, but something about this spell felt wrong.

The cards in front of them floated up. That much was like the trick Lucky Charm had shown them earlier. Ariel's mind raced as she worked out the rest of the spell. The cards fluttered and danced around one another before falling to the floor. She gasped, shaking slightly from the magical exertion.

Gallus stared at her. "That was, uh, cool? But you just kinda made a mess. That wasn't what she did." He rubbed his arm, feeling a bit sheepish. He hadn't had any luck with the spell himself, but Ariel had managed to lift the cards, which was more than he could do.

Silverstream was next to try, but the cards scattered around the area, much like Ariel had managed. Silverstream was grinning despite herself as she looked at the cards. "Wow! I actually got them to do stuff."

Smolder rolled a hand. "Sure, but not the thing she did. That's not a very good trick." She gathered the cards back into a deck. "We must be getting it wrong. We have to get it right! I want to impress that pony, even if Ariel doesn't think she deserves it."

Author's Note

They can get this spell done properly, right?

Join the special community of folks who like my stories and/or get your own here at atreon!

Don't want to do an ongoing thing? You could

Join my discord to chat!