They practiced it before class, between classes, and any other chance that came up. While they tried several times to get their magic to do what Lucky Charm's had done, all they managed to do was toss cards about.

Gallus thumped an angry talon on the floor. "I don't get it! We're following this stupid spell, and it's not working." He ruffled his feathers, then pointedly smoothed them back down again.

Smolder lifted her head with pride. "I know I'm not making a mistake. I can do the other spell without a problem." She puffed out a little burst of flames, with a toot sound to accompany it. "But this spell, impossible."

Ariel shook her head. "The spell is fine. I'm sure I got most of the motions right, but it just won't do what we're doing." She scratched at her head with a dumbfounded look. "Maybe it's time we gave up and asked somecreature that knows more than we do."

Silverstream was the only one still trying the spell, sending cards scattering every which way. She giggled at each attempt, which Smolder found a bit annoying. "Cut that out." Smolder tackled the cheerful hippogriff, the two wrestling.

Gallus smirked at the sight, but looked to Ariel. "Yeah? Oh, Miss Starlight? Sure, she'd at least know if we actually are messing something stupid up or not. I'll go get her."

Ariel watched him scamper off before looking down to see Silverstream was sitting on Smolder. "I did not expect you to win that match."

Silverstream was clapping from her dominant position. "I didn't either." And yet, there she was. Smolder looked appropriately annoyed at being sat on. "Are you going to get off?"

"If you ask nicely," sang out Silverstream, hands clasped together.

Smolder's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Please?"

"Aww, so cute." Silverstream got up with a flap of her wings, landing on the ground beside the fuming dragon. "You know we're friends, right?"

"Friends, right." Smolder sat up, rising to her feet. "Look, stop practicing that spell until Starlight gets here at least. She'll know what's going on."

Starlight Glimmer trotted into the room a few minutes later, Gallus trailing along beside her. "Hello, my magical creatures. I heard you're practicing a new spell that you didn't get from me. I admire that 'go get 'em' spirit. Let's see this spell." She held out a hoof.

Gallus snickered, his own spell book open, a page with the fart noise displayed prominently.

Starlight shook her head. "I know that one. The new one?"

Ariel reached over and flipped to the next page where that mysterious spell the unicorn student had shared with them. "When the pony who had this used it, it did a card trick. When we do it, we just send cards flying everywhere and make a mess. What are we doing wrong?"

Starlight Glimmer reached over and lifted the book with her magic. "Oh, I know this spell." Her eyes scanned left and right over the page, lips mouthing the spell without thinking about it. "But somecreature modified it." She reached a hoof towards a lone symbol. "That shouldn't be there, it's the wrong one. This changes the spell. You want to send cards flying? Sure, this spell will do that. The caster who gave you the spell changed it to be a mess maker."

Smolder went red anew. "She played a magic trick on us by giving us a dud spell?! That sneak!"

Starlight reached over and patted Smolder with one hoof. "Yes, but now you know. On the other hoof, it also means you are casting this spell correctly. If you want to play 52 pickup quickly, it's a useful spell to have. Other than that, I'm not sure why you'd want to use this spell."

Ariel looked embarrassed. "It's the only one we had to work from." She sighed. "I'll ask that pony why she gave us a dud trick."

Gallus elbowed Ariel in the side. "I doubt it was an accident, come on. She did that on purpose. She must be annoyed some not-ponies are muscling in on unicorn turf. What are we supposed to do?"

Ariel was still blushing, but she turned her head so she could make eye contact with Gallus, and then the others as well. "Let's not get mad."

Smolder laughed at that. "Too late. I'm already pretty mad. I'd set her on fire for that bad joke, but that's against the rules."

Starlight Glimmer stamped a hoof down. "Rules? How about basic decency? That's not what magic is about. We do not set our rivals on fire, even if it might feel tempting at times." She coughed into a hoof softly. "I understand the temptation. I almost zapped headmare Twilight before I came around to a, uh, nicer way of being."

Silverstream flopped back on her bed and rolled, ending up on her side. "So, what do we do?"

Starlight closed the book on the false spell. "Well, for one, I could give you the proper spell. It might be a nice bit of revenge to start doing it properly." She smirked faintly. "You don't even have to mention I gave it to you. The look on her face when it seems you figured it out on your own may be worth the annoyance she caused you."

***

Lucky Charm was standing near the entrance to the cafeteria. "Hey, guys!" She trotted over to them and held out a hoof. "How's the new spell working out, got it mastered?"

Gallus scowled. "We found that mistake. Did you make it intentionally or accidentally?"

Ariel waved a hand negatively. "We have the spell working properly." She shuffled a deck of cards, showed one to Lucky, and slid it back into the deck. With her crystal glowing softly, she made it emerge from within the shuffled mess without delay. "Ta da!"

Lucky Charm gaped at her. "But, how? I was just joking with you guys!" She realized what she said a moment later and colored. "I mean, um. How'd you fix it?!"

Gallus smirked, laying his talons on Ariel's shoulder. "You don't always need magic to know something's wrong. So why'd you give us a defect spell?"

"I still think it's great either way." Silverstream casually made the deck of cards scatter, giggling at the spell she had decided worked fine as it was.

Lucky Charm covered her muzzle with both forehooves. "Oh wow. Um." Her ears drooped as she looked away. "Magic is unicorn's only thing. It's what makes us special. It's not fair that not-unicorns are grabbing it up. So, I wanted to play a trick on you all and show that unicorn magic is for unicorns."

Smolder puffed a small ring of smoke. "So, she did do it on purpose. Nice." She clenched a hand, holding herself back from more obvious means of revenge. "But we saw through it. How about those apples?" She let out a colorful array of flames, Silverstream's scattered cards regathering, and the one Ariel had picked floated up a moment.

Lucky Charm stared in horror. "You can't do that! That's not how it works!"

Ariel leaned in towards the stricken unicorn. "Not how the broken spell works. The fixed one works a lot better. We all know the fixed one now." She offered a hand. "We're not trying to make unicorns outdated. Unicorns are lovely creatures, but that doesn't mean they have to be the only ones to do magic."

Lucky Charm looked down at the hand, then back to Ariel. She lowered her gaze and nodded once. "Sorry. I shouldn't have played a joke on you. I know better."

Ariel took her hoof and held it between both hands gently. "We'd love to actually talk about magic, without the tricks."

Gallus nodded. "Not just spells, either. We all got our way of doing things that unicorns don't. And unicorns do magic their own way. Every creature has their own things. I fly, like most griffons, but so do pegasi and hippogriffs and dragons. What do I have that's 'just' griffons? Nothing comes to mind. Whatever."

Silverstream leaned in over Lucky Charm's head with a grin. "I like it! You don't have to be the only ones doing magic anymore. Now you get to talk with other creatures about it!"

Lucky Charm looked at the hand holding her hoof. "Okay." She lifted her head. "Let's learn something." She took a slow breath. "Who's teaching you magic, anyway? You're not just teaching yourself, I bet. Even most unicorns can't do that."

Gallus was the one to answer, his talons rubbing through his feathers. "It was Starlight Glimmer who first got us interested. She's a pretty good teacher." He smiled faintly. "Though she wasn't quite sure we could do it, at first. We had to prove we could magic crawl before she started showing us magic toddles."

Wind rustled around him with a soft fart noise. "Like that."

Lucky laughed at the noise. "Oh, that's a classic. You're getting pretty good! That's just the sort of thing to get you out of trouble or start trouble, whichever you need. A naughty simple spell for unicorns just starting. Of course she'd show you that one."

Silverstream grinned. "And then we learned the card spell!" She waved her claws. "It was hard, but so worth it!" She paused with thought. "Technically two card spells. One to make them scatter and one to do that trick."

Lucky Charm gasped. "Two?! I only showed you the scattering one." She blinked slowly. "Right, you fixed it." She laughed nervously. "Sorry, again, for tricking you." She sat on her haunches and worked her hooves together softly. "If you still want to talk magic, I wouldn't, um, be against it. Magic is such a big part of my life. It's nice talking with others who get how important it can be."

Ariel grabbed Lucky's closer shoulder and squeezed gently. "Exactly. We're all reaching for the same thing, let's support each other and get better, together." She waved at the table they were sharing there at the cafeteria. "Join us?"

Lucky Charm took a slow breath, then she nodded once. "Yeah." She took a seat at the table, gazing at the others as they chatted about what magic meant to each of them. She let out a little smile. "Maybe a few magic buddies isn't such a bad thing."

Ariel beamed and clapped her hands together. "That's the spirit!" Her eyes sparkled, a little magic glow from them. "Now that's a friendship lesson."

Gallus laughed at that. "I bet the teachers would be proud of you. That's your first real friendship lesson, right?"

Ariel paused with a thoughtful hum. "Well, technically no? But it is a good one." She reached for Lucky. "We made a friend, and I can't wait to learn more about her, and share our magic. It's actually kind of nice to have a unicorn along. It's like when Ocellus or Yona are around, they can tell us about their species."

Lucky blinked at that. "You already have a pony friend." She waved over at Sandbar. "He could tell you about ponies."

Sandbar perked up at being mentioned and waved at. "Oh, uh, yeah. Still, unicorns are different from earth ponies. We all have our own unique things to share."

Smolder chuckled and flexed her arms with a smirk. "And dragons are the best, but you already know that."

Gallus and Ariel managed a synchronized eyeroll at that, but neither fought Smolder's statements.

Yona took care of that for them. "Yaks are best. This just fact." She nodded with complete confidence.

Silverstream leaned onto the table, wings flapping slowly behind her. "I bet you can do some really cool magic stuff, can't you, Lucky?"

Lucky's smile grew. "I know some interesting tricks. Wanna see a new one?!"

Author's Note

Friend obtained! Victory music here!

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