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Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

by David Silver

Chapter 32: 32 - Living in a Rut

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Life settled into a new, if pleasant enough, rut. Five days out of the week, Silver and Celine went to school. He practiced his patterns, and failed to convince Trixie to let him look ahead at the actual spells. Night Watch followed after them, at school, at home, over the weekends. Now that she had been spotted, she just made herself a casual part of their lives, only leaving them alone when they retired to bed.

Tumble never returned to school, but the school year went on unimpeded. Lily Jump said something about having to go to Ponyville, and gave no real explanations. Silver approached Meadow one Friday a few weeks later.

"I had an idea," announced Silver, Celine following after him.

Meadow Leaper perked an ear at Silver, "Your ideas are dangerous, but sometimes amazing. What's your idea?"

"It involves your long-term job," said Silver with a smile.

"You have my attention," said Meadow, kicking the ball he had towards Silver lightly.

Silver gently nudged the ball towards Celine, who kicked it back to Meadow, "You like jumping, but you like moving in general, right?"

Meadow bobbed his head, "Love it! Running, jumping, playing hoofball or loopty hoops. I'm happiest when I'm moving."

Silver pointed a hoof at Meadow, "So maybe you're thinking too narrow. Why don't you share your love of moving?"

Meadow tilted his head, "I'm interested... but I don't get it. How do I share that?"

Silver sat on his rump, "You can start with me. I'm not the most graceful pony."

Meadow gave a soft pfft, "You're the clumsiest colt I ever saw, no offense."

"None taken," said Silver, "If you opened a gym or something, you could show people how to work out, how to play games, keep in shape, all that! You'd be sharing your talent with everypony, and they'd pay you for it."

Night Watch dropped from a tree branch, hanging from her hind legs in a fashion that looked simply impossible to Silver. "Did you read that somewhere?"

Silver peered at the dangling Night, "Uh, no. I was just thinking about Meadow."

Meadow tapped the ground a little, "I... like the sound of that. I could show everypony how fun it is to move! I could even help ponies that are hurt that need help moving."

Celine tilted her head, "That takes a lot of patience and care."

Meadow waved a hoof, "If it means somepony can move again, that sounds worth it." He jumped forward, putting forehooves on Silver's shoulders, "You, my friend, are a genius. I know what I'm doing after the Equestria Games now."

It was the last day anyone saw Meadow at school. Silver's clique had shrunk considerably to just Celine, with Night Watch always close by, but not attending classes.

It wasn't that Silver was disliking his lot in life, but he wanted... "Celine?"

She tilted her head at him, seated beside him in the living room, "Yes?"

"I think I'm wasting my new life," said Silver.

Celine flicked her ears at the unsatisfied sound in his voice, "Why do you say that? You're doing well in school, and you've helped your friends move on to great things."

Silver waved a hoof, "Yeah, sure, but where am I going? I need a spell book."

Night Watch joined the conversation suddenly, "Oh? Is that all?"

Silver blinked, "Is that all? I've been trying for months!"

Night Watch shook her head slowly, "You're smart about some things and dumb as a brick about others. Where do they keep a lot of books, genius?"

Silver frowned a moment, then it hit him and he thumped the ground with a hoof, "You are kidding me."

Night Watch rolled her eyes, "So, we're going to the library today or what?"

No further words were needed. They were off at a brisk trot towards the Canterlot Archives. "Will they let me browse whatever magic I want?" asked Silver along the way.

Celine shook her head, "There are several restricted wings that only royalty and high-level wizards are allowed, like the Starswirl the Bearded wing."

Night Watch asked, "If the humans use so many firearms, why don't they get any bonuses to them in Humanway?"

Silver blinked, "Have you been playing Fallout?"

"Oh yeah," said Night, "Very educational, if violent. I never saw a game with so much blood, gore, and..." She tilted her head, "How much did you pay for that? It's beyond any other game I ever played, beyond even the cutting edge things."

Silver glanced around, "Uh, it was a lot..."

"You're lying," said Night flatly. "I don't appreciate that."

Celine shook her head, "It was a gift from Princess Luna. He is probably trying to protect her."

Night flashed her sharp teeth, "You're better at lying than he is, but you're still hiding something."

"Here we are," said Silver, pointing at the library they had just reached, "Do you know your way around, Celine, Night?"

Night gave a soft huff, "I'm not forgetting this conversation, but follow me."

Night Watch led the way through the marble tile floors of the library to the foal's section, which turned to soft carpeting. She pointed, "Here." She had brought them to a section of foal's introduction to their horn, and magic in general.

Silver walked up and started looking over the books. 'Mommy What's This Thing on my Head?' 'The Tingle Means it's Working', and other titles promised some faint shreds of information. He stopped when he found 'A Dozen Simple Spells to Impress your Friends'. "Yes!" He grabbed the book with a silver hand and set it on the ground, flipping it open and flopping in front of it. With great hunger he searched for the first spell. The spell apparently punched a small hole in a glass, so somepony drinking from it would end up dribbling all over themselves. "That's a stupid prank," said Silver, but he read on anyway.

The symbols were listed to fire the spell, but no explanation was given for why these symbols, and why in that order. Out of curiosity, he looked around and focused on a bookshelf. His horn glowed soft silver as he went through the symbols quickly. A new tingle ran through him as real magic fired, and a tiny divot appeared in the wood. "Huh..." He pushed up to his hooves, "I need something a little more advanced than this. Somepony has to explain why they pick the symbols they do."

The search was on! Silver began to wander from book to book, looking up a variety of spells of increasing complexity, but it seemed none of them offered even the start of an explanation for why the spell was the way it was. "Ok, seriously, this is stupid." He stomped a hoof and looked to Celine, "You're a unicorn, sort of. Tell me, why aren't there any explanations? The alphabet clearly has a meaning, they even say as much, but nopony shares the meaning with their spell. The meanings aren't so simple that it would be obvious to a random unicorn, would it? Or why would there be any spells at all?"

Celine shook her head, "I was never a scholar of magic. I mostly used spells that others shared with me, and you are correct, they never said why, just gave me the pattern and what it should do, as a whole."

Silver sank to the floor with a deep frown, "They can't be... guessing it all, can they? No wonder new spells are so valuable! If you want a fire ball, you need some heat, and some pressure, and some speed, but how much of each? How much does each symbol give specifically? No one bothered to figure this out or keep track of how they interact, in general? This is crazy!"

Night Watch raised a brow, "I'm not a unicorn, but for a blank flank colt, you're talking like you know something. If you think that should all be written down, why don't you write it down?"

Silver huffed and kicked his hind legs across the floor, wriggling in building frustration, "Maybe I'll do just that!" His magic grabbed his notebook free of his saddlebag and he threw open the closest spellbook. "Here, it creates water. It only uses three symbols." He went through the symbols quickly, "Now what happens if we add an extra of the first one?"

Silver began to scribble notes. They were chicken scratch, but they were notes, and that was good enough for him. He tinkered through the day, abandoning memorizing the symbols, abandoning memorizing spells, and instead recklessly adding and dropping symbols from existing spells and writing down the effects and trying to figure out the system behind it all.

The sun had long since set, and the library was quiet save for Silver's incessant quill scratches. Celine leaned against a bookshelf, her eyes mostly shut. Across from her, Night Watch also looked drowsy, yawning widely as he worked.

"I have it!" cried Silver, startling them both to wakefulness, "If this works, it should make a fire ball. A real fire ball."

Celine blinked softly, "Why is your first spell a ball of flame?"

Silver blinked back at her, looking lost, "Uh, seemed as good as any. It's a classic wizard spell." He trotted quickly away with his notes, soon leaving the library entirely with his two female friends close behind. "Let's try it!" He focused his horn and ran through the symbols he theorized should work. Fire sprayed out of his horn in an intense but brief burst, arcing into the sky before vanishing. "Uh... No, not enough pressure holding it together."

He tried again, adding another of one of the symbols. Instead of a cone, it came out as a straight line, firing up into the night sky. "Closer!" Again and again he tinkered with the recipe, made notes, and tried again. Finally, he flashed through the symbols and a perfectly round orb of fire drifted up into the sky. He started to giggle manically, watching it, "It's perfect, perfect!" He turned his horn left, and it followed. He turned it right and it kept moving along with it. "Better than I dreamed!"

Night Watch shook her head, "That's nice and all, but what are you going to do with it?"

Silver brought his silvery hand, and the ball in its palm, down into the stone plaza violently. It exploded just the way he wanted it to, flame escaping in all directions until the energy was expended. He clopped his hooves in triumph, "And, best of all, I know why!"

Celine nudged Silver in the flank lightly, "You know more than that."

Silver peeked down at his back end to see his flank was now adorned with a section of the mad scribbles he had made. He burst into giggles at the sight of it, pride swelling through him. He felt... completed for lack of better word. He also felt tired. All the energy used in the experiments caught up to him and he staggered drunkenly, "I'm... so happy..." He hit the ground with a thud.

Celine gently lifted him in her own magic, tucking his notes away in his saddlebag.

Night bobbed her head, "I have to report that. Orders." She spread her wings and took off into the night, soon lost to Celine's vision.

Celine trotted for home, carrying her exhausted stallion with her. She walked with a renewed pride. Their herd was true now, for no colt led it, but a proper stallion, with a cutie mark to display his talent.

Author's Notes:

Why do they grow up so fast?

Is this the end of this part of the story? Is it time for a sequel?

Are there still typos? I'll answer that one for you, yes.

Return to Story Description

Other Titles in this Series:

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