A Tale of Magic

I know I said Monday guys! I know, I know! Had a small writers block and lets not forget that Kiroberos actually has a life on his own (shocking isn't it?) So after me and uT.TerAbsurdity successfully saved this chapter from a smaller catastrophe caused by a certain two ponies, here it is: a new chapter, just for you... no just you, you over there stop reading!

Chapter 4: Let's do Magic!

After a rather interesting party yesterday and an equally interesting afternoon, this including Bright’s 32 consecutive losses at chess to All Wrinkle, after which Bright had sent a few swears of vengeance towards Wrinkle, Bright and Twilight were finally able to get to the matter of his amnesia.

Twilight had impressed Bright immensely by reading no less than 4 books at once. Just a few of these titles included 'Memories: The Basics of the Mind', 'Amnesia and You' and one of the funnier ones in Bright’s opinion, 'Memories of an Amnesiac'.

'Oh the irony,' he thought, looking at Twilights ever growing pile of books related to lost memories and back at his own pathetic little pile of books. The one he was currently reading didn’t help much either. ''Amnesia'… Why would I need a lantern? This seems more like a work of fiction!'

Bright let out a frustrated sigh before starting to complain, “Listen Twilight, this is leading nowhere. I mean…” He was cut short by a knock on the door.

“Would you mind, Bright?” Twilight requested, not even bothering to look up from her reading.

Bright grumbled something under his breath about being lazy, but did as told nevertheless. When he got to the door, his actions were interrupted by a *thud* from outside. A million thoughts sped through Bright’s head. For a second, he thought he had gotten part of his memory back, but no. Right now, his mind was filled with worries that somepony had either: A) Collapsed on the doorstep, B) Gotten killed on the doorstep or C) Tripped on the doorstep… Before his mind could come up with a “D)”, he began chanting in his head. 'Not B, not B, not B, not B, not B, please for the love of all that is good, not B!'

His fear was at its peak when his hoof made contact with the door handle. He slowly opened the door, his left eye tightly shut to prevent… well, there’s no real reason for just shutting one of your eyes. It really doesn’t prevent you from seeing anything, just obscures your view a bit.

When his single eye laid its sight outside, he saw to his great relief, that it was indeed option 'C'. The grey pegasus that sat in front of the door seemed dizzy, and with the scratches on the door, that Bright was sure weren’t there earlier, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened.

“What happened?” he asked. (Somewhere out there, an author slammed his head hard against a wall.)

“Oh nothing, I just wasn’t paying attention, so when I tried to knock again, I accidently tripped,” the pegasus said. “And then I fell towards the door and hit my head. No worries; it doesn’t really hurt.”

Bright suddenly had a flashback to his relationship with the ground and briefly wondered if she had a similar thing going with the door. “Ehm, anything I can help you with miss…?”

“Ditzy Doo, or as my friends call me 'Derpy', I’m sorry I couldn’t be at the party yesterday Mr…”

From inside the library, Twilight was wondering what was going on outside. “Bright Eyes?” she called.

Both Derpy and Bright let out a simultaneous “Yes?”

A silence followed. Both ponies simply kept their mouths shut and proceeded to look each other in the eyes. The 4 eyes locked on each other... Eh no, only 3 eyes, as Derpy’s left eye had taken a sudden interest in the wardrobes that was visible from the front door. Who knew what could be hidden inside? A whole world filled with mythical creatures. Kings and queens, lions and witches! Or it could just be filled with books and dust, something quite common in the library.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, the silence!

“Oh, I’m sorry. ‘Bright Eyes' is just something Graze, my coltfriend, calls me sometimes,” she explained. “Guess that I just reacted to it being used to it and all.”

“Oh no worries, it could happen to anypony,” or well, anypony named or somehow related to the name 'Bright Eyes', which Bright sincerely hoped wasn’t too many. “I assume you’re here for a reason?”

“Oh yes, I’m the town’s mailmare. I’m here to deliver a shipment of books for the library. Mind giving these to Twilight?” she said handing (hoofing… No screw that, I’m not gonna have that discussion! I’m sticking with “handing”) Bright a box filled with books. “Have a nice day Bright Eyes.”

“As to you Derpy,” he said as she flew off. He winced as she hit a nearby tree, deciding it wasn’t hard to figure out why her nickname was 'Derpy'.

Bright picked up the package with his teeth and closed the door. He quickly explained what had happened outside, which brought a small giggle from Twilight as he told the name issue. He decided to pick up the conversation that had so abruptly been interrupted.

“As I said; this isn’t as easy as just taking a book from the shelf and then just start reading the summary on the back!” Bright said while shaking his head. He cleared his throat as he picked a random book from the shelf containing the biographies. “Starswirl the Bearded, born in the year 73 B.C (Before Celestia). The conjurer of…” Bright briefly stopped, just staring at the book. Never had his name been truer. “That’s a lot of spells…”

Twilight let out another giggle before getting a thoughtful expression on her face. “Yes it is, isn’t it? By the way Bright, when you brought in the package, you had it in your mouth. How are your abilities with magic?” she said as she tilted her head.

Bright gulped and remembered a somewhat embarrassing moment from the party, the night before. How was he supposed to know that Bon Bon was standing right there? It wasn’t his fault that he had dropped that punchbowl on her! How had he even gotten in said position? He would probably never know…

“So not very good huh?” Twilight was looking almost smug right now. “How about a simple levitation spell? That’s the easiest spell to perform and one that comes almost natural to unicorns.”

“Ehm, actually I’ve somehow managed to be able to relate a few painful experiences to that spell, and I’ve only been here for a few days.”

“Really? It might be your amnesia doing all of that. On a side note, that might also have something to do with your cutie mark. Some forms of amnesia can even make you forget your special talent, and thereby removing your cutie mark.”

“So what do you suggest?” he said, kinda scared of where this was going.

“Oh, I’m glad you asked Bright~!” Twilight said, while levitating a pair of red glasses and a blackboard, filled with countless graphs and formulas on it, most of which Bright was sure didn’t mean anything, to her.

“The first thing you need to understand about magic is that it is really just a unicorn’s natural ability to exert their will over other objects. The way this works is quite simple really. Everything that exists has a counterpart that cannot be observed. Dark matter, if you will. To those who are unable to use magic, dark matter may as well not exist.”

“However, a unicorn’s horn allows us to channel energy into our dark matter, and use it to affect other objects. By affecting the object’s dark matter, we affect the object itself. Though when this happens, the amounts of energy is shown as a glowing aura around the object and the horn, with the intensity thereof representing the amount of energy expended in order to achieve the desired effect. By learning how to influence objects in various ways, we can achieve nearly any desired effect. “

“Now one thing that is quite curious though is that all ponies have magic. Unicorns are the only ones who can actively channel it, though. Unicorns are able to influence nearly any solid object, while Pegasi can interact with gaseous substances like clouds. Earth ponies can transfer their energy through their hooves, but at a terribly slow pace. This is what allows them to grow crops so well, and that excess energy stored in them keeps them strong and hardy.”

“Back to my earlier topic of the various ways our energy can be expended though. These techniques are usually referred to as spells. Simple changes in how you visualize the way the energy can create radically different results. Most ponies can only master a few spells in certain areas, which is in line with their cutie mark. However, seeing as how my cutie mark represents magic itself, I seem to be able to master any and all spells. Now then, since you don’t seem to be able to remember what your special talent is, we’ll just start with a few basic spells to see if we can’t deduce your specialty. Let’s try... Bright? Are you OK?”

Bright was, in fact, not OK. Somewhere in the depths of Twilight’s magicbabble, his mind had simply said “No! I’m not gonna listen to this!” His mind and body had somehow become separate beings, and what was before Twilight at the moment, was no more than an empty shell. With steam coming out of his ears…

“Perhaps we should try it out instead?” A small nod from the mindless pony in front of her was the only answer she got.

---A field just outside Ponyville---

3 hours later

Twilight was pacing back and forth wearing a bemused facial expression, in front of Bright. Bright on the other hoof, stood completely still, staring straight ahead, as to not agitate Twilight any further.

Twilight stopped, turned and stood now face to face with Bright.

“OK, what have we learned?” Twilight asked.

“Lots of control,” he said. Twilight nodded, “And?”

“Screaming and hollering.”

“NO! Focus and meditation!” He flinched a bit at her outburst. “And finally?”

“Don’t envision fire when casting a spell!”

“Actually it’s 'balance', but that too.” Twilight sat down, completely exhausted from the magic-session she just had with Bright. She still had a few embers in her mane, and the surrounding grass and trees would grow back with time… hopefully.

“Well, let’s look at the bright side; I finally figured out how to do the levitation spell,” he countered.

“Yeah, but not before completely destroying most of my dinner plates.”

“Why did it have to be plates anyways? Couldn’t we just stick with small rocks?”

“We tried that, remember?” Twilight mused. “Those windows over at Bon Bon’s sweets shop won’t be cheap you know?”

“I said I was sorry! How was I supposed to know that there would be so much power behind a small throw?” Bright could almost feel the anger from Bon Bon across the town. He hadn’t exactly made a good first impression… or second impression for that matter.

“I guess that’s all we have time for today then,” Twilight said while trotting away.

“Wait, why?” Bright was honestly a bit confused by this. He could easily go on for a bit longer… provided that Twilight still had some plates left. “Do we have to be somewhere?”

“Well yeah, Pinkie’s holding a surprise party for Rainbow Dash. It’s her birthday today.” Twilight stated as if it was common knowledge, without ever stopping.

Bright stared at Twilight as she trotted away. “Nopony ever tells me anything around here,” Bright grumbled under his breath, before quickly running after her.

---Rainbow's House---

30 minutes later

Bright was helping the rest of the guests decorating the house. Twilight was simply lying on the couch to rest for a while. Using the cloud-walking spell on every non-pegasus at the party had taken quite a toll on her, and the hours spend practicing with Bright hadn’t helped either.

Decorating the house had been going fairly well. Sure they had been spending too much time actually cleaning the place. 'Rainbow must be the messiest pony in Equestria,' Bright thought to himself. Dirty plates in the sink, dust EVERYWHERE and even a sock on the ceiling fan… which didn’t make any sense, as Rainbow never wore clothes.

Rainbow’s cloudhouse wasn’t necessarily filled with unnecessary trinkets and furniture but there was, however, several shelves filled with prizes from contests she had been in. 'The fastest in Equestria might not have been a complete boasting then, she might just… oh what’s this?' Bright suddenly noticed a rather unusual item on the shelf. Those who didn’t know Rainbow probably wouldn’t give it a second look even though it stood out from the prizes on the shelf. But to Bright, it didn’t make sense. He didn’t know everything about Rainbow Dash, but he could easily make out her general personality and lifestyle from what he had seen so far.

On the shelf, between all the prizes, stood a small stand with a pair of earrings. They had golden hinges and looked like two small ruby raindrops. Dash didn’t seem like the type to wear jewelry, or even have some. Bright stared at them for several minutes before he was interrupted by a voice beside him.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Rarity asked. By now Bright had become used to ponies sneaking up on him so he wasn’t really surprised… much. “It’s hard to believe that those represent her greatest joy and yet also her biggest sorrow.”

“I don’t mean to pry any, but what do you mean by that? I don’t know Rainbow that closely, but she doesn’t seem like somepony who would wear such things,” Bright was trying to be polite as he felt like this was somewhat of a sensitive subject.

“Well no, Rainbow isn’t at all somepony who cares about her looks, and jewelry is most likely the last thing she would buy,” she said. “But these are special to her. These are the ones that were used to propose to her a few years ago, by her special someone. I still remember her smile on her wedding day; I guess it was the only time, with the exception of the gala, that I could get her into a dress.”

If Bright hadn’t been so surprised to hear that Rainbow was married, he would probably have noticed the small grammatical difference Rarity had made, but as of now he didn’t think anything of it. “Married!? So how come I don’t see any pictures or signs of others living here? Did she get divorced?”

“Oh no, not at all. But…” Rarity trailed off for a second, a tear was forming in her eye; she wiped it away before continuing. “A few years ago, her husband simply disappeared. Or perhaps 'disappeared' is the wrong word to use. We know what happened to him, but we can’t get him back.”

She gave Bright a look that he couldn’t quite place. “She might look fine and act like nothing is wrong, but… inside she is hurting quite badly. Thankfully she’s got her friends to help her. Zephyr, who she considers to be one of her closest friends, is thankfully always there for her.” She shook her head. “Oh listen to me, telling you all of this even though you barely know her. I guess… I’m sorry for dumping all of this on you, Bright.”

“No it’s fine; it was me who wanted to know what happened,” he said dismissively. “I guess it’s better that you told me what happened, rather than I started asking her what was with the earrings, and accidently hit a nerve. Let’s… let’s just get back to the preparations, shall we?”

The rest of the day went mostly quiet, with no words between Rarity and Bright with the exception of the most necessary interactions. For the most part, Rarity seemed fine with Bright understanding the gravity of the matter. Finally the whole house was filled with decorations and everypony was in hiding, waiting for Zephyr to bring Rainbow back from work.

Finally Rainbow’s voice was heard outside the door. “Seriously Zeph, how could you mess up those clouds so badly? It took us way too long to fix everything! I swear…” She opened the door.

“SURPRISE!”

Rainbow was shocked, not because she didn’t expect to get some form of surprise party, but because it was being held in her house. Made out of clouds! She looked around before looking back at Zephyr who had the biggest grin on his face. “You did it on purpose, didn’t you?” she asked as she narrowed her eyes and gave a small smile in his direction, before grabbing him and give him a friendly nuggie.

To others it seemed like just another friendly interaction, but right now Bright could see what Rarity meant. She needed her friends, more than anything else.

'If that’s how it is…' he thought. 'Then I’ll give a helping hoof.'

He put on his best smile and yelled, “Hey Rainbow! Congratulations ‘Miss fastest flier in Equestria’”

Apparently she heard him over the crowd of ponies congratulating her, as she grinned and stood proudly. “Haha, you know it!” she called back.

“Mind showing off a few moves later?”

“Later? How about right now?” she gave her signature grin and walked out the door.

Bright followed her outside and saw her take off. “I call this 'The Buckaneer Blaze'!”

Bright was looking as yet another voice came up behind him. “I guess you heard the story then?” Zephyr asked. Bright was seriously starting to believe that the whole deal with ponies sneaking up on him was the universe messing with him.

“Is it that apparent?”

“When you’ve been around Dash for as long as I have, yes.” He looked at Bright. “I don’t think I’ve properly introduced myself, my name is Zephyr Verve.” He held out his hoof.

“I’m Bright Eyes, nice to meet you Zephyr.” He shook his hoof.

“Call me Zeph. Oh well, I leave her to you then. Hope you can handle quite some boasting,” he said as he turned back inside.

Sure enough; the rest of the day was spend watching Rainbow fly and boast… yet he felt content. He had gotten a new friend today.

This one was certainly a different chapter. I actually stopped being funny for a bit, and went over to being sad. I'll just have you know that, the next chapter is gonna start out as sad, if not more (but quickly go back to comedy again). But fret not, this story will mainly focus on comedy... though it'll have some quite... dare I say it? "Dark" moments...

References: How Did I get Here? and Three of Me: School Society

Special thanks to my pre-reader Kiroberos and inoeitall for his theory on the science behind magic, as well as providing me with the magicbabble.