Four of the volunteers from the School For Gifted Unicorns, Arch Magister Catalyst included, were gathered on the third floor of Town Hall talking nervously. Around them were five Humans and three Kavim double checking various pieces of armor and weapons. The atmosphere was tense. Once informed of the raid, Catalyst had discretely asked for three other volunteers to aid in safely apprehending the Humans who were illegally practicing magic. The Arch Magister had initially assumed that she would lead the group. Once Mike Joyner informed her that he was commanding the team, the two had engaged in a fairly polite argument. The argument was so polite because Mike had to make his case in Velensovth and Catalyst couldn't speak American very well, so the debate was slow and somewhat lengthy, even with Cessily Richardson translating. Catalyst was certain that she was the natural choice to lead the team since she was the most powerful and had the most experience with magic. Mike countered with the fact that the Humans were his responsibility and he knew how to handle his own people where as the Arch Magister didn't. He continued by saying the laws in New Humansville were to be upheld by the C.W.G. and that he was the highest ranking commanding officer of said group, furthermore he wanted the volunteer Unicorns there as a safety net more than anything else and that his team didn't necessarily 'need' their help to apprehend the law breakers. To say that Catalyst had her doubts would have been a gross understatement, but she did concede that the Human did outrank her position and experience in matters of law so she acquiesced, only to learn a few minutes later that none of the C.W.G. Humans or Ponies would have followed her over Mike anyway.

Mike Joyner gripped his staff tightly as he watched the other volunteers. Darryl looked completely at ease playing with his faithful fox companion by rolling a ball of fabric on the floor and having Shadow fetch it. Darryl had taken up his armor from The Battle For New Humansville but elected not to carry a weapon of any sort. Kolo was reclining against the wall of the room observing everything casually, as was expected if one was familiar with his easygoing demeanor. His club hung suspended from a string on his belt, but he wore no armor since none would fit him. Cessily was a surprise volunteer, but a very appreciated one. She also refused to carry a weapon, but she did have on a suite of armor and had a shoulder bag filled with emergency medical supplies just in case her services were needed. Eduardo watched Chris practice his magic with rapt attention, fiddling with the blunted machete in his hands. Eduardo was the only one out of the whole group who declined using a staff or club for apprehending the criminals. Eduardo expressed, in no small, uncertain terms, that he felt much more comfortable using a blunted blade than a club and he could be much more precise and inflict less injury with it. He also wore armor left over from The Battle For New Humansville. None of the C.W.G. wanted to use any sharpened weapons for fear of causing permanent injury, which they all agreed was unacceptable. They were patiently waiting for the final two volunteers, Andrew and Kaneesha, to show up and lead them to the law breakers. Of the Ponies, there was one Pegasus and two Earth Ponies, all in their old Civil Guard armor. They also declined carrying any weapons.

Chris was, with written permission from Princess Luna and Arch Magister Catalyst, practicing with his magic. Catalyst had created a series of magical wards all around Chris to ensure a safe environment. Chris was creating small portals in open air to toss a small, blue rubber ball into one portal and out of another, juggling it very carefully using only the portals to make sure it never touched the ground. It came out of one portal, maintaining its momentum and the portal closed behind it. As the energy propelling the ball died out from working counter to gravity, Chris created another portal directly underneath it, just above the floor and a second one behind his back. The ball fell into the new portal near the floor, and emerged behind Chris' back. The floor portal closed, as did the exit portal behind Chris. Chris opened another portal just behind himself then another in front of himself. The ball fell into the portal behind him and bounced up, into his face.

Chris, startled by the ball due to a minor miscalculation on his part, took half a step back cutting his back on the still existing portal behind him,
"Gah! FUCK!" Chris bellowed arching his back in agony, "GOD DAMNIT THAT HURT!" he staggered out from the protective wards as Catalyst dropped them in alarm, "Cessily!" Chris groaned, "Ah fuck, I need some help here!" Chris' portals instantly vanished.

Cessily was on her feet before Chris had finished his first yell,
"Lay down on your stomach, now, and don't move." she said sternly.

Everyone else had enough sense to stay back but the incident had garnered plenty of attention. Chris had the 'privilege' of receiving the first magic related injury of New Humansville and every one of the Humans was eager to see what manner of hurt could be obtained by a person who was only practicing with Space magic. The Humans considered Space magic to be more or less harmless and were puzzled, the Unicorns however, felt sorry for Chris.

Cessily pulled Chris' shirt up over his head, revealing a six inch wide, one inch deep gash which was already pooling blood underneath Chris,
"You're going to need stitches Chris." she turned to the Arch Magister, "You know any healing spells?"

Catalyst nodded,
"Hold him still." she lowered her head and charged her horn aiming for Chris' back.

Chris' flesh around his back injury lit up and the skin began melding itself back together. Chris felt dizzy, like the world was spinning and twisting all around him. His back though, felt pleasantly cool and soothed from the searing pain of his injury as his flesh knit itself through the aid of the Arch Magister's magic. Catalyst's horn dimmed its glow, leaving behind smooth skin, which still needed Chris' blood cleaned off.

Chris groaned, but in absolute relief,
"Oh my GOD, that feels so much better!" his face twisted as a new sensation hit him, "Damn, I'm suddenly hungry as hell." Chris' expression registered distinctive surprise, "I just ate dinner, why the hell am I hungry?" he looked to Catalyst for the answer, even though he had spoken in American English.

Thankfully, Cessily translated his question to Catalyst,
"He says he's suddenly very hungry, why is that?"

"That spell merely speeds up the body's natural healing. In healing the injury, it used several weeks worth of calories, which will continue draining for several more hours as his body metabolizes the adipose tissue, or fat that it has stored. He will be very thin, very quickly. He should eat again soon. The spell is a common one, many Kavim are injured every day and Earth Ponies and Unicorns have a natural tendency to be a bit fat, so the spell is extremely useful. Pegasi, by contrast, tend to be very athletic and thin. The same spell could kill them very quickly, so it is rarely used on them, unless they are pudgy." Catalyst explained, "There are other healing spells, but they are extremely difficult to cast, so most Unicorn nurses and doctors focus on a method of healing that can be used for all Kavim tribes, thus modern medicine."

The Humans digested the Arch Magister's words, Eduardo had to voice an observation, which Cessily translated,
"Why did the portal even cut him? It's just a hole in Space right?"

Catalyst nodded, her expression deadly serious,
"Yes, it is a hole in space. A hole, the sides of which, are only a millionth of a molecule wide." her voice took on an intense quality as she spoke, "A portal, like the ones he uses, is thousands of times sharper than even the sharpest sword. Just a touch of the edge of a portal can rend flesh cleaner than any predator's claws. Unicorns know this fact hard and true, that's why we teleport instead of using portals. Portals are extremely dangerous, but his natural use of Space lies in the creation and use of portals. Nearly any sort of magic can be lethal if misused. Almost any combination of Nouns and Verbs can be used to do horrible damage to objects and Ponies. That is why there are such stringent laws about magic." she gestured to Chris with her right forehoof, "And this is a prime example of what even monitored amateur practitioners can do to themselves. THIS is why we need to make an example. Better for them to be upset and spend a night in jail than to be dead. They may be angry, but they will be alive and able to do so."

The sound of slow foot steps resonated through the small chamber as Kaneesha made her way up the stairs to the third floor and saw the other C.W.G. members waiting,
"We found them." she said simply.

Mike looked up at Kaneesha and steeled his nerves,
"Alright everybody, get ready to move." he turned to Chris, "Chris, we need to head out, you going to be alright?"

Chris nodded his head,
"Yeah, just let me grab a snack and I'll be good to go."

Kolo dug into his right vest pocket and withdrew a hefty piece of dried fish jerky,
"Here ya go bro." he tossed the jerky to Chris with a smile, "Can't have yall passin' out on us. You the only one authorized to use magic."

Chris caught the jerky and bit right into it,
"I can only use my magic if it's an emergency. After three weeks with Luna tutoring me, she trusts me just enough to say that, but I can only use my portals. The portals are the only thing I've really practiced with." Chris groaned and scratched his back, "Not entirely sure that I would use my magic right now."

Catalyst couldn't understand what the Humans were saying, but she could recognize the message,
"Get ready to move." she turned to her volunteers, "Remember these Humans are illegally practicing magic and they could be toying with some extremely powerful spells that they cannot control. Use your own magic only to stop them from injuring themselves or others and let our Human allies deal with them. The Human Michael Joyner is in command, but if I say to shield a Human off from their magic, do so."

The Humans and Ponies formed up behind Kaneesha.

Kaneesha began her assessment while the procession filed down the stairs behind her,
"There looks to be about seven of them. They're in the woods to the North. Andrew and I followed them and listened for a few minutes before I came back here. From the way they were talking, they should be there till pretty late. We did notice a few odd things about them though. They all kept referring to each other as 'Sorcerer' followed by a nickname. One was Sorcerer Copy Cat, she's a Latina chick, another was Sorcerer Tremor, he was a light-skinned black guy with dreds, you get the idea. They had an obvious leader too, he called himself Sorcerer Night Flare. The other one that looked important was some woman they called Sorcerer Full Spectrum, she's black with her hair up in a tail, real fireball bitch too. Andrew and I saw her cast several spells, they looked kind of like the protective wards that the Arch Magister uses in class."

Mike hummed thoughtfully,
"What did it look like they were planning on practicing? Or were they not that organized?"

Kaneesha turned her head to look at Mike over her shoulder, her long dreadlocks swaying around her face,
"They hadn't yet said what they were doing when I left. Andrew might know more."

"Were they carrying weapons?" Darryl asked.

"Yeah, they were." Kaneesha replied.

"They have that right." Mike interjected, "They are guaranteed that right by law. Unless they have swords or something." he said leadingly.

"Naw," Kaneesha said, "I saw a hatchet, a sickle, a hammer, and several knives. No swords, nothing illegal in that regard."

The procession was quiet as they picked their way through the sleeping people on the first floor of Town Hall who hadn't been assigned houses yet. The Parliament members had all agreed that they would be some of the last people to be assigned houses, they wanted every one else to get settled in first. The silent procession slinked out of Town Hall and began weaving their way between the buildings that were already erected and those that hadn't been completed yet. They passed one of the buildings that had been declared for use as a warehouse. There were dozens of similar buildings all around New Humansville. Some of those buildings held the, still to be assembled, new beds that the Princesses had custom ordered from one of the premier bed frame and mattress artisans in Canterlot. The Kavim body was short and small even when sleeping. Any bed specifically crafted for the Kavim frame had proven to be far too small for a Human body to sleep in with any sort of comfort. More than four hundred mattresses, box-springs, and frames of varying sizes had already been delivered to New Humansville and were awaiting distribution to all the homes that were nearing completion. The little procession ambled past new foundations which the Kavim construction crews were installing for more and more new buildings. New Humansville was scheduled for no less than six hundred new buildings and the Humans knew without a doubt that they would very soon need to resume harvesting lumber to make farm land enough to feed the population.

The Humans and Kavim made their way North, out of New Humansville, and across the trampled fields, left barren thanks to the mindless tromping of several thousand Diamond Dogs. As they neared the Northernmost treeline Kaneesha turned to the procession and held her index finger up to her lips then turned and continued on in a crouch. The Humans crouched and followed her as silently as they could in single file with their quietly clanking armor. The Ponies despite their complete lack of armor, made five times the noise the Humans did. The entire group was forced to halt when Mike held up his right hand in a clenched fist.

He turned and whispered to the person directly behind him,
"Darryl tell the University Kavim to keep it down or else I'm going to send their butts back to town. We're in armor and the heavy armored Earth Ponies make less noise than the unarmored Unicorns."

Darryl nodded in the dark and crept back to the Ponies, stopping in front of Catalyst,
"Stay . . . quiet. We need to be . . . stealthy."

Catalyst pursed her lips in agitation,
"We are being as quiet as we can!" she whispered, "We cannot use spells to enhance out vision or any other spells right now. Many of you can detect magic passively, we would be a beacon if one of them has the gift, but we will try to be more careful."

"Be more quiet or we send you back." Darryl said seriously, completely missing the smoothness of his words.

Catalyst grumbled but nodded curtly,
"We'll try to be more quiet."

Darryl crept back to Mike,
"I told them. They say they'll try to keep it down."

Mike nodded,
"I sure hope so. We want to catch them all in one fell swoop. I don't like the idea of us chasing them through the trees at night."

The group continued on, deeper into the forest. The Ponies made slightly less noise, but Mike decided to just hope for the best, 'I'm also going to add another class to the C.W.G. training: stealth.' he silently groused to himself.

After some minutes, Kaneesha suddenly stopped and crouched low,
"Keep low, we're almost there." she said to Mike.

Mike nodded and passed the information down the line. Once the last one in line, one of the Unicorn volunteers, heard the message Kaneesha continued the final two dozen steps. The brush thickened up ahead in a straight line of thick shrubs and Kaneesha stopped right behind them. Before the others had finished gathering behind her, she reached out and tapped Andrew on the shoulder, thusly making him noticeable for the others.

The C.W.G. crept up around the pair and Andrew gently pulled apart several thick branches. Beyond the bushes was a small clearing about twenty feet across, and within that clearing, bathed in moonlight, stood seven people. Six of the seven people were gathered on the far side of the clearing while one person stood in the center. The person in the center was a young caucasian man with short brown hair, wearing a carpenter's hammer. Surrounding the young man was a dimly glowing symbol etched into the dirt. The clearing had been swept clean of leaves, sticks, and vegetation. The young man in the center was glowing with accumulated Thamaturgic Energy and had his hands close to his chest.

Another young man from the edge of the trees called out to the young man inside the glowing symbol,
"Sorcerer Whirlwind, please practice your Air Control spells and see what new spells and uses you can come up with."

A young black woman standing next to the first speaker corrected him loudly,
"No! Practice your magic and be creative, but focus on combat spells and uses!" she turned her head to the first young man, "Sorcerer Night Flare, we are warriors. We should focus on combat magic. After the massacre, being led here by the nose, the Battle For New Humansville, and what the Princess did we NEED to be able to defend ourselves. We need to be able to force these Kavim to treat us right. We need to be able to kill them if necessary."

'Night Flare' sighed and planted his fists on his hips sternly,
"I do not want any more talk of killing. I've seen enough to last a lifetime. We all have." he said gesturing to the other Humans around him, "Killing should be our last resort, not our priority." he said holding up the index finger of his right hand toward the young woman, "We need to be able to use force, yes, but only to the ends we need. We should work on counter spells. Sorcerer Full Spectrum, have you come to a conclusion on your theory?"

The young woman nodded her head,
"I have. Once we mapped out which fingers and toes are linked to each Noun and Verb it was easy. There is another Noun that the Kavim are hiding from us and I know why. The Noun works like Energy. You can increase or decrease the energy in an object with it. I have only tried it a couple of times, but I've been thinking about possible uses." the young woman grinned hugely pointing to the clearing, "If I may."

Night Flare put the curled index finger and thumb of his right hand into his mouth and whistled sharply,
"Sorcerer Whirlwind, please step out of the ward. Sorcerer Full Spectrum would like to demonstrate the Noun the Kavim have been keeping from us."

Mike turned to his C.W.G.,
"They've been keeping a Noun from us?" he asked in American as his eyes shifted to the Arch Magister, "When this is over," he said darkly, "I think we're going to have a little chat with the Arch Magister. Keep an eye on Catalyst and the Unicorns with her. If they try to take over, I want them neutralized. Try not to injure them if it comes to it." he looked at the C.W.G. Kavim with them, "If our own Kavim Officers try to interfere, I'm authorizing full use of magic, I don't care what the Princesses say. Do I make myself clear?"

Heads nodded as all eyes turned back to the Sorcerers.

The practicing young man's magical glow vanished and he lowered his hands then exchanged places with Full Spectrum,
"Alright guys," she began, holding out her left hand, "Check this out." she held up a small pebble in the palm of her hand and held her palm out flat, magical energy glowing through her skin.

She extended her right hand, index finger flexed and stiff then curled the thumb, pinkie, and ring finger of her left hand into a fist while holding the pebble between her index finger and middle finger of her left hand. She pulled both hands to her chest then thrust them out simultaneously. The pebble shot out from between her fingers with an almighty crack as it broke the sound barrier and a small plume of dust settled down in the clearing. The ward had stopped the pebble and the tiny stone had disintegrated on impact with the invisible side.

Full Spectrum turned back to Night Flare with a joyous expression,
"With that spell I can turn a pebble into a bullet. Magical shields seem to stop it, bit it does work. I put a fist sized rock clean through an oak tree and scattered a hand full of tiny pebbles into the side of a boulder and cracked it down the middle like a shotgun blast. We don't need guns, we can be the weapons."

Night Flare shook his head,
"You are entirely too excited about this, Full Spectrum. The spell you discovered, heck the Noun you discovered is impressive, but we should find more utilitarian uses for the Noun. Only using a spell as a weapon is very wasteful. There are so many things we can do with this . . . "

Full Spectrum snorted derisively,
"Yeah, and we'll NEVER get to use it!" she snarled, "Sooner or later these damn Kavim are going to make it illegal for us to use ANY sort of magic at all!"

Night Flare nodded slowly,
"I know, I see it coming as well. Events are lining up perfectly for them to claim we're too dangerous. The Kavim don't like us, that much is obvious," his face contorted into a sneer and he spat on the ground, "Hell, I still wonder why Jason turned chicken-shit at the last minute. I don't condone murder, but at least then they would respect us. Fucking Luna got off scott-free after she enslaved and kidnapped one of our leaders. If WE had done such a thing, the Human would probably be publicly hanged."

A young man standing next to Night Flare spoke up softly,
"But what about the laws? One of our people is in command of the Community Welfare Guardians and the laws say we are supposed to be treated as equals to the Kavim."

Full Spectrum threw her head back and barked out a harsh laugh,
"HA! You don't know much about history do you? The Romans had a phrase for it, 'All are equal, but some are more equal than others'. What that means is that all are equal in theory, but not in practice. Just watch what's going on every day. The Kavim get first pick of the houses, and the best ones too. The lowly Humans have to make due with the DREGS!" her voice became a screech, "Try being born black! I know what to look for, learned THAT back on Earth, and I'm seeing it fucking EVERYWHERE!" she gestured to herself, "WE are second class citizens! Watch and see, it won't be long before we're hauling carts and doing ALL the hard labor for THEM! I wanted to make an example, but Night Flare talked me out of it, but I'll say this," she lowered her head and spoke through gritted teeth, "The first time I see one of them injure a Human, they're going to be finding pieces of that FUCKER all over town!"

"ENOUGH!" Night Flare bellowed, "Calm yourself Sorcerer, we are not murderers. You let your anger get the better of you again. Be calm and slow your breathing, we've been over this before." Night Flare said soothingly, "You get going and there's no stopping you. You need to get this under control before you end up hurting or killing somebody. Haven't we seen enough death?"

The young woman's eyes widened as her legs gave out and she sat down heavily on the ground as if in shock,
"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm sorry." she put her hands over her face and sobbed quietly.

The watching Humans and Kavim all turned and gave each other worried looks.

Night Flare walked over and knelt down next to the distraught woman,
"It's alright." he pulled her into a warm embrace.

Full Spectrum shook her head wildly and dropped her hands,
"No it's not!" she sniffed and coughed before continuing, "Ever since The Battle everything just seems . . . lifeless, like life lost all color." she sniffed and used her left hand to wipe her nose, "I hate everything now. All I can think about is death all the time. I keep it in check most of the time, but sometimes I slip . . . and I say things . . . terrible, mean things." she looked up into Night Flare's face hopefully, "I was never like this before, what happened to me? Why am I such a bad person now?"

Andrew let go of the bush and turned to the others,
"Things just got complicated yall." he whispered.

So this is something new: How do the C.W.G. proceed? You, my friends, get to come up with the answers. Please post your answer in the comment section. Whichever idea has the most votes, or whichever ideas are represented the most will be what I write.

Also I am planning a character Q&A BLOG. You will have the chance to ask any of the characters any questions you want and I will try to answer them (within reason). I will be doing this live from my phone starting at around 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Monday, September 1st (which is today). So warm up your think tanks and start churning out questions. I do ask that you ask only one question per post please.
Look forward to talking to you,
Truthseeker