Harmony’s Hate

“Aaaaand that should do it,” Applejack said while holding up a wall. “Yer turn, Jewel!”

Jewel obediently levitated a lot of nails to the designated spots. He then proceeded to conjure a magical crystal that started to hammer the nails down, keeping the wall connected.

That was the last repair needed to be done after the events regarding a certain pink mare and a magic puddle from two days ago. Luckily, Pinkie was never the kind of pony to commit property damage with her shenanigans, but when a hundred of Pinkies appeared at once, something was bound to break.

There was enough work for Jewel to ask Applejack for help with the repairs; without her, it would have taken a lot longer.

“Seriously, I’ll never stop being amazed at the physical abilities of earth-ponies!” Jewel exclaimed. “What would Equestria do without you?”

“Aw, don’t be like that,” AJ replied. “Yer magic is mighty useful too. Ah’m pretty sure ya would manage without me.”

“Not really… Most unicorns learn basic telekinesis when they are still babies—it’s one of the most common types of spells. But even the most experienced mages have problems with multitasking.”

“Ya sayin’ ya can’t do more spells than one?”

“I can, but it requires a lot of focus and a clear image in my mind.” He used a levitation spell on a rock nearby. “When it’s a non-living object, it’s easy, I just need to imagine the movement I want it to do. But with a living object like a pony or animal, I need to be careful to not restrict their movement too much, or they may end up with broken bones.

“Imagine your body, coat, and bones being pulled in every direction at once. As an unicorn, you need to consider any erratic movement the object you control may make and lessen your spell accordingly.”

“Ah see,” AJ exclaimed. “That does sound as complicated as makin’ Zap Apple Jam. Is that why Twilight decided to showcase this spell to Saddle Arabian Royalty?”

“Yes.” Jewel nodded. “She wants to show her mastery in magic by performing coordinated levitation with a group of different animals. I’ll be honest, it’s quite scary for me to think about it.

“Twilight needs to not only levitate the animals, she also needs to adjust the spell accordingly to each animal while making sure they are not in any discomfort. That takes a lot of focus.”

“Ya think she’ll manage?” she asked.

“Definitely! She is one of the best mages I know of.”

Jewel looked at the wall they had put up. He liked repairing damages; it felt like he was repenting for all of the atrocities done by his ancestors.

“I think that’s it,” Jewel said, taking out a small bag. “Here is your share of the earnings, AJ. It would be a pain to do this alone.”

“Ya can call me anytime, Jewel.” She took the small bag full of bits from him. “It’s always nice doin’ business with ya.”

“Same with you,” he said while they both went to their homes. “Have a nice day!”

The week had been very busy for Jewel. A plumbing problem here, a broken table leg there, and a few locks jamming. He had almost no time to research the curse, but it wasn’t clear if that was a good or bad thing.

He went home for his lunch break. He wondered if he should close shop early to spend more time working with Twilight. He hadn’t had the time to talk with her lately because of all the work he had, not to mention that she also had her life to live.

Now that he thought about it… Twilight did seem troubled ever since she came back from the Crystal Empire. Maybe it was something she saw in the cursed doorway she mentioned? He wasn’t sure.

A knock on the door brought him back to reality. He hadn’t expected visitors…

He opened the door to see a grey pegasus with a beige mane in front of him. She hovered about a meter above ground, swaying up and down a little with each beat of her wings.

“Hii, Brom”—she spoke sluggishly, as if she were partly in a dream—“I have an order for youuu.”

“Oh… hi, Derpy,” Jewel said. “Are you sure it’s for me?”

“Yes… it’s written here that you ordered some supplies from Appleloosa.” She pointed to a cart she parked close by. It was predominantly filled with applewood but luckily the ponies in Appleloosa had some spare sheets of pine wood they could sell.

“Huh, that was quite fast,” he said. “I ordered them on Monday. Didn’t expect them to come this soon.”

He quickly signed the papers to prove he received the order. Derpy took a peek at his signature and squinted her eyes.

“Uhm… Brom, why did youuu write ‘Jewelled Hoof’ here?” she asked.

“Ah, yes… you see, my name wasn’t Brom to begin with. It has been something of an alias. I will sign all of my papers like this from now on. The Mayor has been informed about it already.”

“Ooooh, that explains this one letter I got from Canterlot!” She started to look through her post bag.

“The receiver was supposed to be a certain ‘Jewelled Hoof’. Didn’t know that was youuu. Now where did I put it?” She quickly rummaged through the bag again before her eyes widened in realization.

“Oh noo! I think I left it at the office. Give me a moment and I will find it.”

“Don’t worry.” Jewel tried to reassure her while transporting the goods inside his workshop with magic. “I will see it once I come back from Twilight’s library.”

“Oh nooo, that won’t dooo!” she said. “It was paid extra to make sure youuu received it in person! I’ll bring it as soon as possible!” And then she took off.

Jewel shook his head, smiling. Derpy was a very particular pony to know. She may be clumsy from time to time and make some mistakes, but she was very reliable, and he liked that about her. Also, her conduct made her seem to be carefree.

He quickly stored his supplies and finished eating lunch before he took off towards Twilight’s library.

Twilight eyed the doll that sat in the middle of the room. It was her practice dummy she made with the exact purpose to simulate enchanting a living being. The insides were full of delicate material like hollowed out sticks to simulate bones.

She tried to imagine holding the doll like she would a newborn foal, focusing on the image in her mind as she let the magic flow.

Slowly, the doll rose in the air. Its mass held up by its upper appendages making it seem as if it was hanging on them.

Come on…. Come ooon!

Suddenly the doll stopped ascending and Twilight felt a wave of relaxed control get over her. She could now freely move the doll however she pleased.

“Damn it!” She cursed, the doll dropping limp on the ground. “I’ll never get it right!”

“Oh, what happened?” Spike asked, “it looked like you were doing great!”

“No, Spike! I lost focus again!” She let out an exasperated cry, this spell wasn’t something she could just read in a journal and almost immediately get it right. A spell like turning an apple into an orange was specifically crafted to be stiff and unbending. Only requiring a certain flowing pattern of magic.

This meant the caster needed to be a bit forceful with their magic output but it also granted greater chance of success. Meanwhile telekinesis on living beings needed to be flexible in order to not damage the one levitated.

“But… What do you mean? It flew! You definitely could’ve kept going!”

“I could, yes.” —She sighed— “but it would be disastrous if the doll were a living being.”

“So… what went wrong?”

Twilight thought for a moment. The spell worked well enough for her to allow the subject to levitate. The problem arose when she tried to move or rotate the subject, after which she lost control and the telekinesis took over the body of the doll, considering it one singular object and not a living being.

“I think,” she started. “That my approach was wrong. I tried imagining myself holding it with my own hooves but the moment I tried to rotate it, I couldn’t keep the focus anymore. Have you tried rotating a foal upside down while holding it?”

“Can’t say I have…”

“Me neither,” she answered matter of factly. “It would be dangerous and difficult. But how else am I supposed to be holding it? By the legs? I’d risk ripping them off!”

“Looks like you are in quite a dilemma, Twilight.” Said a voice behind her.

Twilight turned to the one who spoke, only to find a blue unicorn at her door step.

“Jewel?” —She looked at the clock.— “You’re early.”

“There was no more work to be done,” Jewel explained stepping inside.
“Of course I will need to sort out a few things, considering my supply order came earlier than expected but it can wait for tomorrow.”

He glanced at the doll that soured Twilight's mood. It was mostly made out of loosely connected straw and hollow sticks. The paint used for its black eyes was the only adhesive substance used in its construction.

“That reminds me,”—he shot Twilight a playful smirk— “about a certain event regarding an enchanted doll—“

“Don’t make me regret telling you this story, Jewel!” Twilight warned him trying to hide her embarrassment.

“Alright, alright,” he conceded, still smiling. “So, what exactly is it you are struggling with?”

She sighed. “I don’t know what to do with the spell. Whenever I try to rotate the subject or use any other complex movements, I lose focus and the spell takes over the subject.”

She gazed at the doll with frustration. “I have been experimenting with it all day and the only thing I have to show for it is a headache!”

Suddenly a low rumble sound from Twilight’s stomach, making her flustered.

“Did she eat anything today?” Jewel asked Spike, who shook his head in response. Sighing, Jewel took out a daisy sandwich out of his work bag. “I thought something like that may happen. Here, take it. I insist.”

“Thank you.” She reluctantly took a bite out of the sandwich, her face relaxing before she took another one. She quickly devoured it, surprised at how hungry she actually was.

“I really needed that.” She sighed.

“You should probably slow down with your training,” Jewel said. “I speak from experience when I say that overly worrying about a timeline will make things harder. Take things slow enough to be making progress, but not so fast you forget to do your chores.”

“So you do remember the academy!” She teased, remembering her teacher who had said the exact same thing back when she was a filly. Twilight and Jewel had a lot of conversations about the academy days lately, but considering that Jewel had left before finishing his studies, he had missed a lot of stuff in the later grades.

Jewel looked at her playfully offended, but before he could give a retort Spike butted in in the conversation. “But he’s not wrong, you know? You should take a break from time to time, Twilight.”

“I know, I know.” She turned to look at the doll. “But I still want to figure out what I’m doing wrong… there has to be a trick to it.”

“You won’t rest until you find out?” Jewel asked.

“Or until it gets late.” She explained. Jewel and Spike looked at each other knowingly, before sighing defeated in unison.

“Alright,” Jewel said smiling, “what was your approach until now?”

Twilight looks at him thankfully. Of all unicorns in Ponyville, Jewel was the only one she could discuss magic with. True, Rarity taught her the Gem Search, but it was mostly during Twilight's phase when she was obsessed with learning a wide array of spells, until she realized that there were too many spells for her to learn in her entire life.

So she turned her focus to learning theory in order to manipulate her magic on the fly.

Each unicorn has the ability to use the magic that is present in the world. Of course the way they choose to visualize its flow is different to each and every one of them.

Twilight usually imagines her magic to be a sentence she writes in a book. A string of commands that explicitly tell the magic what it’s supposed to do. This however doesn’t work on spells that need constant adaptation and visualization of a task, like telekinesis.

That’s also why there is a constant need for spell books. They are full of guides and instructions on proper visualizations and required state of mind to perform a certain spell.

“Well,” Twilight said. “I have been trying to imagine holding the doll myself.”

Jewel looked at the doll with a thoughtful expression. “This might have allowed you to safely pick up the doll, but doing any complex movements like this would be nigh impossible.”

“So, what should be the right approach?” Spike asked.

“Preferably something that allows the movement of the center of mass freely without it gravely affecting the body. Something secure to hook your mind to.” Jewel answered.

“That’s what I was thinking too,” Twilight said. “I need some kind of safety measure in order to protect the object I’m holding.”

Suddenly Jewel lit up with realization. “I know! What if you imagine the object is wearing a vest?”

Spike and Twilight looked at each other in confusion. “A… Vest?” Spike asked.

“Yes! Or a harness. Just like the ones skydivers usually wear. They wrap around you upper half of your body and hold firm. If you for example manage to imagine using magic on something like that, then moving objects it’s attached to shouldn’t be an issue.”

“But Jewel, I’m not using magic on a harness. I’m using it on a living being!” Twilight pointed out.

“You just have to imagine they wear one. You can start preparing yourself for it by asking Rarity to make a vest for the doll and training with it, after which you can try without it when you are feeling prepared.”

“You are saying that instead of imagining holding the doll myself, I should try imagining I’m moving a non-existent vest attached to the object?”

“Exactly!” Jewel answered proudly.

Spike scratched his head. “That sounds crazy enough to work.”

“Trust me, there are as many ways to use telekinesis as there are unicorns.”

“That’s true, but it still seems… off to me.” Twilight said.

Twilight had no experience layering her telekinesis in such a way. What was she supposed to move exactly? Make the air condense and move it instead?

No. That wouldn’t work. How can she move something that doesn’t exist? This required further research.

Unfortunately for her, fate decided to put an end to their discussion by making a gray pegasus crash land through the door.

“Derpy!” Everyone called out and rushed to help the delivery pony on her hooves.

“Oh, Hiii Jewel!” She said in her usual slow, but cheerful tone. “I found the letter I was supposed to deliver to youuu.”

“Well, that’s one way to deliver mail,” he chuckled awkwardly while taking the letter with his magic. “Are you alright, Derpy?”

“Oooh, I feel greaaat,” she chuckled a bit to herself. “I’ve been through worse while working in the weather factoryyy.”

“Was that where you got the eyes?” Spike said, which earned him an annoyed glance from Jewel.

“Nooo, I got those during flight school when I was a filly. Luckily they don’t affect my vision or else I would never be allowed to fly agaaain.” She finally noticed the state Twilight’s door was in. “Uuuh, sooorry about your dooor, Twilight.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m used to this. Also, I can always ask Jewel to repair it.”

“About that,” Jewel said, he was done reading the letter. “You might want to ask AJ to help you with it. Derpy, did you also receive a package together with this letter?”

“Oooh, yeaaah. I almost forgot, I actually brought it with me. Give me a moment.” She started rummaging through her bag.

“Why not?” Spike asked, intrigued. “Did something important come up, Jewel? Like that time you took off to Canterlot?”

“You could say that,” Jewel said, taking the package Derpy handed to him. “It looks like I’m gonna have to pay a visit to the Crystal Empire.”