“Good Morning, Spike.” Robert said, pausing in his reach to knock on the library door.

“Morning Robert.” Spike said and yawned.

“Long night?”

“No, but yesterday seemed to last forever.”

“Tell me about it.” Robert said and showed off his new bandages.

“Whoa, what happened?”

“How about you tell me yours and by the time you're done Twilight should be up, and then I can tell you both mine.” Robert offered.

“Sure.” They headed into the kitchen and Spike started telling his story as they made breakfast. Twilight through some internal mechanism which still baffled Spike arrived just in time to eat, but just a little too late to help. He didn't even bother to call her on it any more. In truth, he didn't even mind, it had been so long there was no reason to depress himself.

“Morning Spike. Morning Rob... what happened?” Twilight asked.

“Oh these? Bit of a story. I was just getting ready to tell Spike all about it.”

“No, your tail.” Robert blinked and lifted his tail. It was no longer the uninterrupted orange it had been but now had two black rings and a black tip. "What?”

“Well, well. I guess yesterday was a bigger day than I thought. Spike told me about your day, let's see what you think of mine.” Twilight sat and ate as he ran them through the events of his day after he left Twilight, cutting off just before Derpy arrived.

“Wow. I didn't know there were bandits this close to town.” Twilight said. "I thought the guard had cleaned them all out.”

“Apparently these weren't the usual bandits. The Pegasus guard said that the leader, Land Owner was a deposed noble. He lost the last of his holdings in the mine, to a pair of unicorns and was trying to drive them out of business.” Robert sighed.

“Hmmm... so, you defeated more than a dozen bandits, including two Pegasi?” Twilight seemed skeptical.

“I'm not exactly a light-weight. And I was trained for quite a long time as a warrior. I'm not as practiced as my brothers, but I'm no slouch. Of course, I didn't do a perfect job. Thus the bandages.” Robert shrugged, then winced. "So... I'm thinking I might want to learn shielding before I go bandit fighting again.” Twilight laughed.

“Probably a good idea, but I want to ask you about your stripes.” Twilight's horn flashed and a notepad and pencil appeared on the table.

“Ask away, oh Princess.” Robert said. Twilight rolled her eyes.

“So, what do the stripes signify?” she asked.

“Normally, it signifies growth into adulthood. Usually stripes appear during one of the sparring matches we undergo as we grow up. One of the duties of a shaman is to read the pattern of the stripes and find out what the owner is meant to do. To a trained shaman, they are as easy to read as a cutie mark. But just because you're meant to be a chef doesn't mean you're stuck in that. It just means that your skills are suited to being one. Many tigers ignore their stripes completely. My father could have been a master mushroom farmer. My mother was meant to weave rugs. My father leads his tribe, and my mother leads our warriors. But dad grows mushrooms in his spare time to relax, and you've not known softness until you've lain on my mother's rugs. I'd put them up against a fine cloud.”

“Better not let Rainbow Dash hear that.” Spike said with a laugh.

“Definitely. You'll get dragged home just so she can find out.” Twilight grinned. Robert sighed. "Homesick?”

“A little.”

“Me too. Don't get me wrong, this is where my friends are, but you never leave your parents.” Twilight smiled. "So, stripes are like cutie marks. Does that mean you're going to get just the couple of stripes?”

“No. Shamans don't get their stripes all at once. It's a process like growing your horn. The more magic we use the stronger we grow, so the more magic we can use. I'd guess expending my magic against the unicorn yesterday was enough to promote some stripes.” Robert smiled. "I suspect he wouldn't be happy to hear that.”

“Agreed. So, you said that it lets you use stronger magic, what do you mean?”

“Hmm... well. What is the toughest spell you've ever cast?”

“I think the one I used to give Rarity wings. I mean, it wasn't Star-Swirl's unfinished spell. I cast that without knowing I was doing it, so it couldn't have been too hard.”

“What about the stuff you did to simulate Sombra?” Spike asked. Twilight shuddered at the memory.

“That wasn't magically hard. It was just hard to put myself into that evil mindset.” Twilight answered. "I think the wing spell was the hardest. she looked at Spike. Can you go get me the book?”

“Sure.” the purple dragon slid off his stool and disappeared for a minute.

“Wings? Rarity?” Robert asked.

“They weren't very strong, and she nearly died. Twilight sighed. "Fortunately, it gave Rainbow Dash the motivation to show off another Sonic Rainboom.”

“Here you go.” Spike laid the book on the table between them, and opened it to the relevant page. Robert stared at the spell.

“Impressive. And you cast this how long ago?” he asked.

“A couple years ago, before the transformation to Alicorn.” Twilight said. "It looks like it'd be much easier now.”

“Exactly, same thing with the stripes. Spells that used to be out of reach would now be possible. Plus there are other things unlocked as I gain stripes. Pieces of my training that I can use now that I couldn't before.”

“Such as?” Twilight asked.

“I can now see magic. In the ley lines and nodes that run under the world.” He blinked a couple times. “Ah.”

“What?”

“Turning it off isn't always easy.” he winced for a moment. "I'll have to practice that. Let's see what else.” he squinted. "Nothing else seems to work.”

“Well then. I guess we'll work on shields.” Twilight stood up. "You're still up for it. I mean, if you're too injured.”

“I'm okay. Nothing here a few days of healing can't fix. And it's not affecting my abilities, except for the wings. Can't do those until my ribs heal. Learned that the hard way.” he shook his head at the memory.

“Okay then, let me know if you want to stop.” Twilight looked around. "We probably shouldn't do it in town.”

“You're going to throw rocks at me, aren't you?

“Mayyyybe.” Twilight whistled innocently.

“Goody.”

---

Lyra missed a note. Bon-bon slammed a pillow over her head. “Sorry Bons.”

“It's fine.” Bon-bon answered. It was, she reflected, her own fault. She wouldn't trade Lyra for all the other unicorns in Equestria, but she was the one who suggested Lyra write music for money. So she couldn't possibly say anything about this particular job. Never mind the overwhelming urge to take the accursed flute and have Big Mac flatten it. Or have Rainbow Dash launch it beyond finding into the Everfree. But she would persevere in the face of... Lyra missed another note.

“Sorry.”

“Don't be sorry. Just... put it down. Practice it later today, or tomorrow. You're working so hard to learn to play and compose. But this is our day. Come on.”

“I guess one day couldn't hurt.” Lyra set the flute in it's case and closed the latches. "Let me put this away.” She lifted the case and trotted up the stairs. Bon-bon sighed, and enjoyed the quiet for a moment. "Okay, all done. What would you like to do?”

“How about a walk in the park?”

“Sounds like fun.” the pair left the house and headed through town. Along the way they stopped and bought a bunch of apples and some lettuce for a meal in the park. The park was largely quiet so early in the day, except for a few ponies strolling alone, mostly younger and older ones. The real sweethearts would appear later in the day, when heat forced them out of the houses and into the streets for the breeze. They arrived at the lake, and set down their bags. It was as days go, not bad at all. Hot enough to be slightly uncomfortable, but mitigated by the breeze just enough to be tolerable. They relaxed on the blanket they'd brought, snacking on apples and lettuce. It was a perfect day.

At least until the rocks started raining down. Lyra saw the first one land a dozen feet away from them. She wasn't a particularly strong shielder, but she had learned a couple of tricks. One of them being how to deflect things rather than just try to stop them. Thus when the second rock came screaming out of the sky, she threw up a sharply slanted shield that deflected the rock down to the beach where it hit with a thunderous splash.

“What on earth is going on?” Bon-bon asked.

“I don't know.” Lyra responded. She thought for a moment. "PINKIE!”

“You called?” Pinkie asked, appearing out of Bon-bon's mane. Bon-bon didn't bother to ask how. She was of the 'the less you know the better' camp when it came to Pinkie.

“Yeah we're... look out!” another rock slammed into the shield. It rolled off and thumped into the sand.

“Oh, I get it you're playing catch.” Pinkie said.

“No, they just started flying at us. Can you try and stop it? I can't get up without dropping the shield and... Oh no.” The rock was very large this time, and there wasn't much to slow it down. Fortunately it fell short of them, slamming into the ground with a huge spray of sand.

“Okie Dokie Lokie.” Pinkie disappeared.

---

“If I knew why they were bouncing like that, I could stop it. Since I haven't stopped it, obviously I don't know why they're bouncing.” Robert answered Twilight's question.

“A shield should NOT flex like that.” Twilight muttered, and scribbled something in her notes.

“Hey, are you guys throwing rocks?” Pinkie asked, appearing from nowhere.

“Yes.” Twilight answered.

“Lyra would like you to stop.” Pinkie said, smiling at Robert. He smiled back.

“What business is it of hers?” Twilight questioned, still distracted by her notes.

“Not much, except they keep falling on her and Bon-bon.” that got Twilight's attention.

“What? That's not possible. We're a mile away from town. They shouldn't be getting that close.” she skimmed through the book on shields she'd brought with her. "Here we go. No, even if this is a reflex weave shield, there's no way it should be able to bounce a projectile that far.” Twilight scribbled in her notepad again.

“What's this annotation?” Robert asked. Twilight looked close at it.

“The parabolic arc descriptor. That's what I mean when I said we shouldn't be seeing bounce back that far away.” Twilight said.

“Yeah, but that's a supposedly static shield and we're getting eight degrees of flexibility.” Robert pointed. "This is showing a maximum variance of two degrees.”

“Ugh. You're right. I don't understand why we're getting the flexibility though. You're sure you're using this exact formula?”

“Of course. Squiggle for Squiggle.” Robert grunted.

“So... no more rocks?” Pinkie interrupted hopefully.

“No, no more rocks.” Twilight said.

“Okie Dokie Lokie.” Pinkie bounced away.

“Look, let me drop a static shield. Then you can...”

“You can't drop a static shield.” Twilight said.

“Is there some rule I'm unaware of?” Robert asked.

“No, it's just impossible.” Twilight shrugged.

“Says the Alicorn Princess who's defeated three gods with the power of love and friendship.” Robert coughed. Twilight flushed.

“Yeah, but I had the Elements of Harmony. And they don't follow the normal rules.”

“Do you want me to prove you're wrong?”

“You're welcome to try.” Twilight said, with the smug satisfaction of someone supremely confident in their correctness. Robert chuckled. A shield erupted from the ground ten feet in front of them. Robert released his magic, and sat back to wait. "It's a trick, clearly.”

“Clearly.”

“It's not possible. Magic requires a constant feed of energy.” Twilight said. She walked up to the shield. "This is clearly impossible because it's not getting power. You're not feeding it, and neither am I. So clearly this is some kind of illusion.” She walked forward and slammed straight into it.

“Surprisingly solid illusion. Perhaps I should put on shows instead of being Shaman.” Robert ducked a rock.

“Clearly it's something more substantial.” Twilight said. "Perhaps conjured glass.”

“Right, I went to all the trouble of making a glass bubble ahead of time to conjure here just to trick you. Which doesn't explain the characteristic fluctuation effect of the standard bubble shield.” Robert shook his head.

“Glass concealed in an illusion.”

“Except an illusion would require power maintenance which by your own admission I'm not providing.”

“Except in the case of a runic inscription.” Twilight said. “Clearly this glass was runically inscribed.”

“Fine, make a hammer. Twilight snorted, and glared for a moment, then did just that. "If it's glass, give it a smash.” she realized he was goading her. For a moment she considered not doing it just to bother him, but her curiosity demanded her attention. The glowing purple hammer snapped down at the focal apex, a point which would cause the glass to shatter downwards instead of out. The hammer smashed into the shield,and rebounded.

“Ow.” she moaned and rubbed her horn. "How did you do that? That's not supposed to be possible.”

“For many spells, you're right. But shields are on the list that can be safely tied off. They lose something, but you can leave them sit and they'll hang around for several hours before they decay.”

“I... I don't believe it.” Twilight said.

“The math supports it. The rate of thaumatic decay on the shield is low enough in it's unburdened state that constant maintenance is unnecessary to continued support of the shield.”

“Unburdened?”

“Not being attacked or otherwise impacted.” He lifted a rock and motioned her back. She stepped aside. He fired the rock. It slammed into the shield, and rebounded. He caught it in a second small shield. It bounced from that back to the large one. Twilight watched him essentially play tennis with himself. After a short time, the larger shield began to decay, cracking and shattering. Pieces broke and fell away, then it finally gave way. Robert caught the rock with his telekinesis, and set it down. "The harder it gets hit, the faster it decays.”

“I don't believe it.”

“There are more things in Heaven and on Equestria than can be known by Elephant.” Twilight blinked. "Not an exact quote I think.”

“Probably not.” she shook her head. "This, she waved a hoof. Obviates a huge portion of the things I was taught.”

“It shouldn't. It's just new information.” Robert said calmly.

“Yeah, but it shouldn't be possible. My teachers all told me there was no way to do it.” Twilight said. "I tried for months.”

“Which is one of the many reasons I'm here.” Robert said. "Learning what other species have to teach and finding out what they say is and isn't possible. No matter how good your teacher is, they don't know everything. Or so my mentor says.”

Twilight's eyes narrowed, considering the implications. Then she thought back to the reason she was in Ponyville to begin with, and considered that he was correct. Not that she could not, had she been given reason to, made friends in Canterlot. “Sometimes they know things that you don't.” Twilight countered.

“A true thought if ever I heard one.” Robert answered.

“I think we should call it here for today. I want to process this thought.” Twilight said.

“How about over some dinner?” Robert asked.

“Race you, loser buys.” Twilight said and flew off towards town. Robert shook his head.

“Good thing I got paid.”