By the time that Karyn noticed that Derpy was late in arriving, it had gotten even later. She had finally gotten around to making breakfast and looked at the clock to see that it was 9:30. Briefly, she worried about whether or not Derpy needed a day off and if the second half of her breakfast wouldn’t go to waste, but she decided to press on anyway and finish making pancakes. Between flipping and pouring, she struggled to tidy the apartment to Derpy’s exacting standards.

When at last she heard the tap at the window of Derpy’s hoof, she slid it open, feeling the cool morning air blow away the last of her sleepiness.

As soon as Derpy entered and went visible, she began apologizing profusely. “I can’t believe how late I am! I can’t make any excuses, but ever since last week when I skipped going into work, I had to pull extra-long shifts to make up for all the mail I missed. Then I got behind with my chores at home and writing to Dinky to make sure she knows I’m still thinking about her and everything.”

“Don’t worry. I hadn’t even noticed. I had a pretty busy week myself.”

“Oh? A lot of work in your classes?”

Karyn put the pancakes on a plate and served them to Derpy, who dug in with a greedy look in her eye. “Some, but I also made the drive back home Friday after class to pick up a few more things I left at home. Then I got back late yesterday because my folks of course want to see as much of me as possible. I wound up staying up late putting everything away.”

“You still seem vigorous, though.”

“Credit that nap you arranged for me last week. Maybe you should take one yourself.”

Derpy chewed her breakfast loudly. “Thank you for making this. I should fix you breakfast some time.”

“Don’t worry about it. You do plenty for me when we’re in Equestria.”

“So what kind of things did you get?”

“Huh?” asked Karyn.

“When you went back to your parents’.”

“Oh. It’s all the little things you don’t think of when you move. An alarm clock, a little lamp that clips to the side of my desk, and a space heater for the winter. I should ask Gayle if she’s all right with that, though. A lot of people worry about them being fire hazards or just costing too much in electricity.”

Derpy gave a little grin and said, “She might just be happy that you’re not keeping a bubbling cauldron.”

Karyn rolled her eyes, not wanting to be reminded of her landlady’s mistaken impression. She decided to change the subject. “So you write to Dinky every week? How has she been?”

“Excellent. She’s also writing to her father, she tells me, but hasn’t heard back from him too often.”

“Sometimes I feel like I’m in the minority with my parents staying together—but I’m being selfish to talk about them. Go on about Dinky.”

Finishing breakfast, Derpy stacked the dishes in the sink. “Other than that, things are much the same with her. She’s back at school and still working at the shop, but she’s talked about travelling Equestria to find rare artifacts.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun.”

“Yes, but at the same time, she’s in Canterlot and has the opportunity to learn from Princess Celestia herself. If she wants to travel, she should do it after she graduates.”

Karyn did not have the sense of wanderlust, but in her third year of college and sixteenth year of schooling together, she could understand a desire to do something else.

“Well, in any case we both had a late start today. What do you feel like doing?”

Derpy thought for a while, then looked at the clock. “Hmm…it’s after ten now, which mean that lunch will be in about two hours. Doesn’t seem like a lot of time to do anything.”

“Lunch still at noon? You just finished breakfast.”

“I know. So it’s like a bonus. I get to eat sooner rather than later.”

Karyn scowled, but didn’t remind Derpy about her diet. “I agree with you though that there doesn’t seem a whole lot to do. Why don’t we just take a walk down to the school and see if there’s any fun to be had.”

“We can do that.”

The sun was out, but a check outside revealed some cold air, so Karyn put on a school sweatshirt but no jacket. “If it gets too cold,” she remarked, “I’ll take it off and disguise myself so I’m not indecent.”

With Derpy’s sense of direction, she could lead the way down toward the school. Karyn trailed back enjoying the crunching of the fallen leaves beneath her feet.

“What’re you doing?”

“I just like the sound of the leaves. Have you ever done that during the running of the leaves?”

“No, I always leave that to Earth ponies and faster pegasi. Delivering the mail is enough involvement with small papery items.”

Karyn looked oddly at Derpy, then scanned the area for people. Finding no one, she pointed to a pile of leaves and said, “Just try it.”

A moment later, the pile was dispersed by a hoof. “I can see the appeal, but it’s not something I’d delay a walk for. Come on, let’s get down to the school.”

The transition from the shady streets of the residential area to the polished cobble stone of the campus happened at a major road, so once the don’t-walk sign changed, Karyn was able to join Derpy—who had flown across—on the quad. Few people were around, and no indication of anything particularly fun.

“Why don’t we head down to the student union?” said Karyn. “They always have lists of events on campus.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Again it was Derpy who led the way. The familiar glass building welcomed them, but still it seemed deserted. Instead of going into the offices, Karyn eyed the bulletin board while Derpy took a seat at one of the round tables in the lobby.

The wooden door to her left opened, and to Derpy’s surprise the young man who emerged said, “Hey, Karyn. Long time.”

“Gerald! What, do you live here?”

The name reminded Derpy of the student body president.

“Ha, no,” he said. “We had another meeting today, but it’s not the same since we had you here. You want to come back and be secretary again?”

“Thanks, but no. I’m in my third year now and I’ve really got to buckle down and study.”

“So that’s why you’re here today?”

“Er…yeah.” Karyn blushed and went back to looking at the bulletin board. “Ooh, a show at the auditorium. I’ll see you later.”

If Gerald noticed the chair sliding across the floor, he was more shocked by Karyn’s quick departure.

Back out on the quad, Derpy hissed with laughter. “Nice move to get out of that.”

“Well, yeah. But it was all true. I am busy, too much to participate in extracurricular activities.”

“And what about spending Sunday with me?”

“That’s not extracurricular. That’s necessary.”

For the first time that day, Derpy was following Karyn. “Where are we going?”

“The auditorium, like I said.”

“Can we grab lunch first?”

Karyn rolled her eyes. “Sure, we’ll hit the cafeteria. The show wasn’t until one anyway.”

“One what? And what show?”

“One o’clock. Hang on, we’re here. I’ll tell you about the show once we’re out of line and no one can hear us.”

They entered the cafeteria which was at the height of its weekend brunch rush, so it took them a while to get their meals, all the more so because Karyn had to stick both on one tray. Once they reached the corner booth where Karyn could hide Derpy by blocking the view with her body, they picked up the conversation.

“Anyway, you haven’t been to the auditorium, but they’re holding a magic show there.”

Derpy had begun her meal with a sip of water, and she spat it out when Karyn said that. This did attract attention, and Karyn had to fake choking for a moment to cover up.

“All this time I’ve been coming here there’s supposed to be no magic on Earth. Now they’re putting on a show about it?”

“Calm down. It’s not actually magic.” Karyn searched her mind for an equivalent that Derpy might understand. “It’s more like what The Great and Powerful Trixie does, only—“

“And she’s a great magician. So, again—“

“No, don’t interrupt. It’s fake magic, done by sleight of hand. Let’s finish up and go to the show and I’ll explain.”

Derpy ate quickly, though she tended to always do that, and soon they were at the auditorium. Derpy had expected something fancy like the theater at Canterlot where she had once seen the Hearth’s Warming Eve play, but in fact it was much simpler. The building was one where classes were normally held, and Karyn had taken some there. The auditorium could have been three classrooms on two floors each, but instead they had taken out the internal walls and floor to make a stage and seating for about five hundred people.

It was empty, and Karyn looked around for a good seat near the front, but also seemed to be peering toward the top.

“What’s the matter?” asked Derpy. “I’m right here, I won’t fly away.”

“It’s not that. This room has good acoustics. So I think that even if we whisper we might be heard.”

“Does that mean you can’t tell me about the magic show?”

Karyn took one more peek around. “No one’s here yet, unless they’re backstage, so I’ll explain quick. Now, listen. No matter what you see up there, there’s no actual magic being used. Not unicorn magic or zebra magic or even spells like yours. It’s all just illusions. Like he might take a deck of cards—remember from the poker game—and have someone pick one out, then shuffle the deck and find the card. But it will actually be a false shuffle and all the cards will stay in the same order. Understand?”

“So the magician is a con artist? Like the Flim Flam brothers?”

“No. Maybe in the old days that’s how it was, but everyone knows now that they’re just tricks. The entertainment is in seeing how skillfully the magician can pull them off, and in trying to guess how they’re done.”

“Oh!” Derpy brightened in voice. “What kind of prizes do we win if we guess how a trick is done?”

“It’s not like that. They never tell you how. Even your best guess is just a guess. Well, this being the age of the internet, there are videos and exposés on how some are done, but you can’t ask any particular magician how any particular trick is done.”

“Hm. I’ll still try to figure it out.”

They cut short their conversation as other people entered the auditorium. It did not draw a large crowd, but it was a free show on a Sunday so the audience could not be choosy. Finally the magician himself came out on stage, and Karyn was grateful that he didn’t have a lame stereotypical magician’s name. He billed himself only as Stephane Wagner.

His nervousness on stage was evident in his quick talking, but he took a deep breath and launched into his act, beginning with simple disappearances and movement of balls and coins. Karyn could spot one of his maneuvers where he palmed a ball, keeping her eyes on his right hand while he tried to draw attention to his left. She knew the ball was there, but he kept it covered until it was time to reveal it.

From there he moved onto fancier tricks, inviting the audience to guess a card and revealing one from the deck. Derpy laughed as he picked the wrong one, but the rest of the audience saw it as a fakeout, and applauded all the louder when he pulled it from the other side of the stage.

Seeming to pick up confidence, he went to more elaborate stage illusions. To Karyn’s surprise, he didn’t work with an assistant except as needed from the audience. This made the tricks more impressive, but it took away from the performance when he needed to stop and start background music by pressing the buttons on an mp3 player himself.

Through it all, Derpy had kept quiet apart from her laugh. Karyn was happy about that, but still wanted to be able to talk to her. Other groups of friends in the audience freely conversed between the magician’s tricks.

She leaned over and tried not only to keep her voice low but her lips still. “Are you enjoying it?”

“Yes,” said Derpy, “but I don’t see how anyone can be fooled. It’s obvious where he’s putting everything.”

“Really? Come on, all of them? How did he do the levitating jar?”

“It’s on a platform with a bar that goes backstage. It would have to be pretty strong and stiff, but if you made it of metal, it would work.”

As she had said, Karyn couldn’t confirm or deny Derpy’s theory, but it was plausible. “All right, and when he put the cloth over it and then it disappeared?”

“The bar pulls the platform backstage. Someone takes the jar off and then slides it to where it started.”

“I guess that could make sense.”

Derpy’s tone was more forceful. “No, I’m telling you, that’s what happened.”

“How can you—are you cheating and flying up to the stage to watch the parts you’re not supposed to see?”

“No, I haven’t left the seat, but I can see.”

Karyn stared up at the stage, then back at what looked like the empty seat. Derpy wasn’t lying. If she had flown up, Karyn would have felt the air move. Then it hit her that Derpy’s vision was perfect for foiling the misdirection of illusionists. She had just the right knack for looking where people weren’t expected to look.

“You’re incredible, Derpy. And you’re still enjoying it?”

“Yeah. It’s like a piece of performance art. Like dancing, really. You know that I don’t dance really well, but ponies who do put lots of practice into it. That’s what I can see happening here. The magician puts lots of practice into getting each move just right.”

“Maybe it is.”

Their conversation seemed to attract Stephane’s attention, even though he couldn’t tell whom she was talking to, and so she clammed up quickly and grinned. He announced his final trick and, one more time, asked the audience for assistance. Karyn turned around and saw that nearly everyone had been involved one way or another in the show thus far. She inched her head back and saw him looking at her.

“What’s your name?”

She immediately flashed red. Up on stage was not Karyn’s comfort zone. But she said her name and found herself zombie-walking to the stage as Stephane said, “A big hand for Karen!” The misspelling of her name that she could hear in his voice from long experience didn’t bother her as much as being dragged up in the first place. And why did she deserve a round of applause anyway? Everyone knew that she was going up to be a patsy or dupe in some way.

He sold it as a card trick, in the typical setup, with Karyn picking a card and showing it to the audience while Stephane had his back turned. She could feel that Derpy had come on stage with her, and that gave her some comfort, but all she wanted was to hear, “Is this your card?” and get back to her seat.

On the other side of the stage was a circle of fabric on the ground. As it happened, Karyn had seen a video on the internet and knew that it was going to be used for a quick change act. The magician would step in the circle, pull it up, quickly drop it, and be standing in a different outfit with her card on display somewhere.

She thought it was clever that the second outfit was a costume of the card itself, like something out of the Disney cartoon of Alice in Wonderland. She realized that her choice had been forced on her, but smiled at it anyway.

As she was finally making her escape, a thought hit her, and for the rest of her life, she could never fully explain it. A tall screen was standing stage right while the magician was stage left. She ducked behind it, concentrated, waited for the green light to dissipate, and then stepped out wearing the same playing card costume.

No one that she knew was in the audience, so she guessed and hoped that they would assume she was a plant or a shill. If she ran into anyone in class, it might be a little awkward, but Karyn, who always shied away from the spotlight, drank in her moment as the applause redoubled. To his credit, Stephane played it off well, only flashing confusion on his face for a second before gesturing to her as if he had planned the entire thing.

Right after that, the house lights came up, so she was free to run right past her seat and toward the exit. In the hallway, before anyone else could catch up to her, she changed back to her regular form and continued fast-walking toward privacy.

She heard Derpy flying behind her but was too interested in making sure no one else caught up with them that she couldn’t talk or listen. At last, when they were at the border of the campus, she slackened her pace and looked around to see that no one was following.

“I can’t believe I just did that!”

“I know!” said Derpy. “I was wondering if I shouldn’t go visible too, if we weren’t breaking cover completely.”

“No, we weren’t. I’m glad you decided against that.”

“But what made you do it?”

Karyn gestured toward home, and they started walking again. “I really don’t know. But I think it was something about the way I had to explain everything to you.

“I’ve seen magic shows like that for almost all my life. Some people get really into them and become magicians themselves or hangers-on who get to know the secrets. But now I’ve seen real magic, and I can do some myself. We’re different, those performers and me. I’ve never wanted to be them, but I wonder if maybe they’ve wanted to be me. That is, the person who can actually do magic. Now, that Stephane has to know I didn’t plan that. So he might be confused or he might understand. But he got to see a little bit of magic, and if I’m right, it’s something he wanted.

“Of course, I could be completely wrong!”

Derpy had a laugh at that, but quickly cut herself off. “You know, I’m thinking. Between that guy and Gayle, you’re really getting close to showing off your powers for real.”

“You think I shouldn’t?”

“I don’t know about that. But I think that if you want to do that, you should think about it consciously and decide if you do. Maybe it would be good to explain everything to Gayle or even your parents. But what it looks like you’re doing is setting yourself up to be found out without taking that step, and just hoping it will go well. That doesn’t usually work out well.”

Karyn grimaced. She took her Bluetooth out of her purse and put it in. “What about you? Do you want to meet more people?”

“Well, in one sense, I have met a lot of people. They just haven’t met me.”

“I see your point. Amend the question. Do you want to let other people meet you?”

“I really don’t know.” They arrived back at the apartment and Derpy could finally go visible. “So many people on Earth are nice, but I worry how they’ll perceive me. I don’t really want to be some kind of an ambassador for Equestria. I’m just plain old Derpy.”

“You’re awesome Derpy. But all right, we’ll take it slow.”

“Agreed. Well, since the show is over, what do you want to do for the rest of the day?

They sat down at the table and continued to chat. Outside, Gayle was attending to the yard work, peeking frequently in the window to see Karyn. Karyn didn’t mind so much; Gayle was a nice person even if suspicious, and when she was handed the first rent check, she responded by inviting Karyn into the main house for a snack. With Derpy hidden from view by the angle she sat at, all it would take was one step forward to reveal all. Someday they might consider it, but for now, everything was good enough.

Author's Notes:

Here are scenes from next week's chapter!

“So, what’s on our agenda today? Do you want to go to the school again and see if anything else is going on?”

“After last week, I’m not sure I want to have that much excitement. But I thought that I had some errand to run today. I just can’t remember it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“That’s true. And actually, we’ll have an advantage there, because they use a take-a-number system like in a bakery. So we’ll sit on benches and if we’re lucky there’ll be an empty one.”

“Not like in the park where someone comes and almost sits on me.”

Karyn chuckled. “We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rolling her eyes, she crossed the hall. “That’s what I’m talking about,” she said. “No one’s nice.”

“What number did you get?” asked Derpy.

“Three-oh-three. Watch, when we get up there it’ll be on twelve or something.”

Come back and read that one too! It's fun!