Dozing, sprawled out in bed with Cadance beside him, Bucky lay sleeping, but not peacefully. Curled up against his head and neck, Cadance lay sucking on Bucky’s tufted ear, her eyes slowly closing, only to spring open when she realised she had nearly drifted off to sleep. Her horn glowed softly, a faint pink light was visible, and occasionally a bolt of energy arced from her horn and struck Bucky’s horn, which caused Bucky to calm in his sleep for a while.

The second bed in the room held Sunset Shimmer who lay sleeping soundly.

Between the two beds, sitting in a chair, Trixie kept watch over the two sleepers. In a chair near the window, Derpy sat with a worried look upon her face. Pacing the floor, Bartleby walked between his king and the mare that he realised he held a great deal of affection for.

Finally, Cadance’s eyes closed and did not open.

Looking around the apartment for a moment and then looking at Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks, who stood beside one another looking at her, Twilight Sparkle scowled. The apartment was practically bare. There was a plain and simple bed, still rumpled and unmade, the pony that had been sleeping in it had been woken up rather suddenly. There was a single chair by the corner, near a small narrow window. The kitchen was nearly bare and what little food was in the pantry was very plain.

“The ponies under mental control included a newspaper editor and several members of the city government… the control was enough to make the city government members hostile, argumentative, just enough to impede progress and make them rather unreasonable,” Lyra reported in hushed voice. “The control was very well done… just pesky enough to cause the city government to be disrupted, but not enough to raise suspicions I guess. With proper intimidation or sufficient authority, they caved.”

“How interesting,” Twilight Sparkle replied as she turned to look at Lyra.

“What are we going to do about the spies in the other locations?” Lyra inquired in a worried voice. “There are more of them. One infiltrator took on four of us Black Cloaks… one of us being Bucky, and from Witching Hour’s report, he was doing quite well for himself.”

“There is a reason that the Black Cloaks, which was almost a thousand strong, are no longer with us,” Twilight stated in a pained voice.

“Dumb BASTARD made a mistake… he HURT something the WARLOCK is fond OF,” Witching Hour remarked as she leaned upon her husband. “Also, THE warlock is getting SCARY good AT defensive magic.”

“The property damage has already been fixed… there are a lot of witnesses that still need to be interviewed… and I can’t do it… I’m too shook up and I can’t deal with this,” Lyra said in quavering voice.

“Lyra, go be with Bon Bon. You’ve done very well with everything you’ve done so far. As always, your work is commendable. Witching Hour, Tiddlywinks, go get some rest… please listen to me and do what I say. I will take over here,” Twilight Sparkle said in a low soft voice.

Saying nothing, Lyra departed. After a few moments, Witching Hour and Tiddlywinks also moved towards the door, moving slowly, both of them were clearly exhausted.

“I’ve seen a lot of ponies DIE. I’ve seen A lot of BAD ends… but I’ve never seen a PONY explosively liquified before… NO bones… not EVEN teeth,” Witching Hour said as she paused mid step near the door. “The LOOK of pain UPON his face… before he popped like a BOIL and exploded.”

“Yeah, well he deserved it!” Twilight snapped angrily. “I hope he suffered some kind of unimaginable torment!” Her wings fluttering, Twilight Sparkle blinked back tears, her emotions overwhelming her. “Sunset Shimmer is my dear friend and I love her. I hope she’ll be okay.”

“Today class, in An Introduction to Dangerous Magics we’re going to have a very serious discussion. My name is Twilight Velvet, and I am Twilight Sparkle’s mother. There are copies of the newspaper here in class for you to read. I want you to read the articles about what happened carefully and then we are going to discuss what took place. Are there any questions before we get started?”

The class, some of them still red eyed and teary, all looked up at their teacher, worried looks of concern upon their faces. One of them, Silver Brush, was still sobbing.

Looking particularly miserable, Sweetie Belle raised her hoof and looked pointedly at Twilight Velvet as she sat up straight in her chair.

“Yes? Sweetie Belle, right?” Twilight Velvet said as she called upon the squirming filly.

“Yes ma’am,” Sweetie Belle said as she looked around at her classmates. “Are we ever safe or is it just a lie like so many other things adults tell us?”

Her tail swishing out to the side once, Twilight Velvet stood there with a blank expression upon her face as she considered the foal’s words. “It shames me to admit it, but there are certain falsehoods and half truths that we adults propagate. We tell foals that the boogeypony doesn’t exist… we tell them they are safe from monsters. We tell them that there are no ghosts… we do this to put a foal’s mind at ease… to comfort them… we tell them this so they can go to sleep at night and be well rested for the next day. We tell them this for our own comfort as well, to quiet them, to make them stop asking troubling questions.”

“And then you wonder why we foals don’t always trust adults,” Rumble remarked, not raising his hoof and waiting to be called upon.

“So there is no real safety to be had,” Sweetie Belle stated in a nervous squeak.

Clearing her throat, Twilight Velvet looked out over her class as her ears leaned back. Nervous tension made her stomach muscles quiver. “No class… no matter how blissful, how matter how safe something might appear to be, there is no real safety. A monster could come rampaging out of the Everfree. Tartarus might spill open. Some horrible monster like Tirek might go rampaging. Nothing is ever truly safe… and I am sorry to be telling you this. The best that you can hope for is to have good friends and family… those that you love and trust in… and then face the danger together. Think of my daughter Twilight Sparkle and her friends… Twilight Sparkle had to learn to trust her friends… they went into many dangerous situations together and worked to protect one another… that is the only real safety to be had. Which is why Buckminster, your headmaster, has all of you together in this class.”

The class all began to look at one another, some of them had expressions of understanding upon their faces. Rumble began to rub the side of his head with his hoof. Dinky’s brows furrowed as she began to think about what had been said.

Piña Colada raised her hoof.

“Yes?” Twilight Velvet said, calling upon Piña.

“I think it is important to bring up the fact that my daddy, as powerful as he is, went for help before going after the bad unicorn,” Piña said in a nervous wavering voice.

“Yes he did,” Twilight Velvet replied, offering a nod of praise to Piña.

“So the best we can do is just stick together and depend on each other,” a colt said in a nervous squeak. “We might still get hurt, but at least we’ll have friends to rescue us.”

“Yes class… now if you will, please take some time to read the newspapers so we can discuss what took place,” Twilight Velvet instructed as she gave the class a brave smile.

Moving daintily, Tourmaline hopped up into Sunset Shimmer’s bed, careful not to step on Sunset Shimmer. She looked around the room, nervous, seeing all of the faces so full of concern looking at her. “I need all of you to think of good things,” Tourmaline whispered softly.

“She needs love and positive emotion to do her work,” Celestia explained in a low voice. “I was hesitant to allow all of you in here, but it was Tourmaline that said she needed all of you. So I need for you to focus on your good feelings for Sunset Shimmer together.”

“And that’s why Cadance is here… she is like… a love battery,” Derpy said as she looked around the crowded hospital room.

“As powerful as Tourmaline’s healing is, I do not think Sunset Shimmer would have made it without Cadance… circumstance and coincidence have brought these two together, much to the benefit of us all,” Celestia responded in a warm voice.

“This part is kinda gross… and gooey,” Tourmaline warned as she began to get ready. “Also, the goop that makes the hard stuff for the horn smells kinda bad.”

“Tourmaline dear, say ’kind of’… if you please,” Celestia said, gently correcting Tourmaline’s speech and offering the changeling a smile.

“No… no… no... not her… not one I love… I’ll kill you...”

Looking over at Bucky, who was murmuring in his sleep, Luna’s horn ignited. A thin blue ray struck Bucky and he quieted. Reaching out, Luna patted Bucky affectionately. “Nightmares… not my doing. I made them go away,” Luna explained as she looked around the room at all those looking at her. “He’s currently dreaming about… other things that he loves and makes him happy.”

“He’s suckling in his sleep,” Derpy announced as she looked at her husband and saw his lips moving. The pegasus mare’s face broke into a sheepish smile as she looked at Luna.

“He’s dreaming about you,” Luna replied as she looked at Derpy. “I thought Tourmaline could use a little more love for her work.”

“...so class, as you can see, just because it is called harmony magic it doesn’t mean that it is harmless. Sunset Shimmer sustained a grave injury because of so called ‘good magic’ that was cast by the unicorn that attempted to murder her. He was clearly a very bad unicorn doing very bad things, make no mistake, and he was using harmony magic. So using harmony magic doesn’t always make you good… or make you on the side of right and goodness,” Twilight Velvet explained to her class. “And by extension...” she added, and then paused for a long moment. “...using dark magic… I am no longer of the belief that it makes you evil. Buckminster, your headmaster, moved in defense of his community. Dark magic is dangerous… even life threatening to those who cast it sometimes, but I do believe that by now, Buckminster has proven that he is worthy of our trust.”

“I’ve used dark magic,” Dinky said in a low voice.

“What was it like?” Rumble asked.

“It was the worst thing in the world,” Dinky responded.

The class went silent and waited.

“I can still feel it… I still have nightmares. I’ll never use it again. I still feel bugs crawling under my skin sometimes,” Dinky confessed. “I don’t know how my daddy does what he does. Dark magic needs pain to function. Hate… you feel so empty inside… so dead.”

“Dinky did what she did for the right reasons,” Piña explained. “We were in a very bad situation. We had just been hurt… something was trying to kill us. Dinky had the means to strike back… and so she did. She killed so many of the shadow wolves… Dinky gave us the first real victory in the war.”

Closing her eyes, Dinky laid her head down upon her desk, falling silent. Her barrel rose and fell as she took deep breaths, overcome with emotion as she relieved a terrible memory, all of the events that lead up to that one horrible moment.

“Class, life isn’t always so black and white. Things are not always so clearly defined as good or evil. What was done to Sunset Shimmer was done with magics that most ponies would consider ‘good’ in nature. This is why we have a responsibility to be careful with dangerous magics. It is Buckminster’s intentions to teach very dangerous magics in this school and it is his hope that all of you use this magic responsibly to better society. He believes that you can be trusted with this knowledge… there are a lot of ponies that feel that he is wrong, and what is being done here is dangerous. Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns does not teach dangerous combative magics. So… I want all of you to think about what you are being taught here. A lot of trust is being placed in you,” Twilight Velvet explained in carefully spoken words.

“Our enemy is how society views magic,” Piña remarked. “A lot of bad things have been done with magic… there has been a lot of abuse. We have to earn trust…”

“Yes Piña, very good Piña,” Twilight Velvet replied as she looked at the beaming earth pony foal. “Class, I want all of you to write an essay on ways you can responsibly use dangerous magics in such a way that it builds trust in society.”

The class groaned in unison, a shared pained cry.

Author's Notes:

There is a theme to this chapter... and it runs from start to finish.

Now if you will hexcuse me, I must go off and commit foul acts of typomancy.