"What... is that?" Silver Spoon's face was a blend of curiosity, disgust, and horror. Her tail lashed behind her as she cocked a brow at it. "Like... who messed up bad enough to need one of those?"

I gestured at them. "These are pants, and they are now mandatory clothing for all ponid-infected members of the faculty." I reached over to the pony-shaped doll and clicked closed the buckle. It beeped.

"It... beeped. Like, what?" She inclined her head at it. "This isn't funny! What's the deal?"

Starlight suddenly leaned against me. "Only adults..." She trailed off, frowning. "Actually, nocreature is allowed to be stuffed while on duty."

Silver thrust a hoof at Starlight. "Then where's yours?!"

Starlight's ears wilted and she looked to me for reprieve. But... "You're getting one too. You're faculty, you're ponid-infected. When you're on the clock, you should not need to be doing anything down there." Ah, right. "Important note, it will let you take them off in the bathroom stalls. We're not trying to torture you."

"Kinky," noted Silver, her eyes dropping to half-mast.

"Silver," I practically shouted at her. "Look... You're making things awkward, for me, for a lot of other ponies. You're enjoying your new body, great, fantastic even. At least keep it off the clock. There are basically zero jobs I know of where that's alright."

Silver nodded at the metal shorts. "Like, fine, but you could ask first?"

"You didn't ask?" Starlight was gaping at me. Crap, I was the bad guy.

"I didn't think of that," I lamely defended. "Alright, consider this a final warning. Be good, or everyone gets a nice set of security-enabled shorts." I hiked a thumb at the display model. "Okay?"

Silver half turned away from it, tail flicking. "Fine, whatever! I can keep it in the pants I don't want to wear while I'm on the job." She raised a brow of the eye closer to me, the one fixing on me. "You made me this way, and I like it, alright? Speaking of that... You do know I'm not against--"

"Nope! You stop that right there." I held up both arms in an X formation. "I am in a faithful bond. Sure, we may be poly, but we're a closed group."

Starlight shook her head at Silver. "Glad it works for you, but I'm really not into... little kids, even if they have adult brains. Alright, that all settled, going back on patrol."

I let her trot away, my eyes on Silver. "We all clear?"

"Crystal." She reached up and fiddled with her glasses a bit. "Don't be a jerk... You gave me something wonderful, I want to like you."

I reached to gently tap her nose. "That goes both ways." I felt her tongue dab my hand and she turned, trotting off.

Ugh, I created a lolita.

So, there I was, prancing, bouncing, pronking? I was jumping and singing. I could see the notes escaping me as I just let it all out in joy. I was... so happy. The world around me was... so pretty, I can't even... It was like it was singing back to me, welcoming me. Like it was me, and I was it, and it just made me sing louder and louder.

There weren't any other ponies around, or kirin, or anything but some birds that tweeted along with me, oh, and some squirrels! I stopped and spread my hooves and they just scurried up onto my arms. They weren't scared of me. Heck... I think they mighta sang with me too? Not words, they could only squeak and stuff, but they did it along with me, and I was so happy, so I sang back. Everything was just right.

Then a pony showed up. At first I thought they were another kirin, their horn emerging from the bushes, but it was all straight, not like mine, you know, curved and striped and stuff. Kirin have better horns, sorry, just the truth of things. Aw, don't look like that, so anyway, this other pony comes closer...

Huh? No, I didn't recognize them. They definitely did not look anything like you... Anywho, they met my eyes and the song... stopped. I swallowed heavily as they circled around me. "Sweetest of Autumns," he whispered as he went. "You could light on fire, but you already have, a blaze, right here." They raised a hoof to their own chest. "Autumn Blaze, I am ready to throw myself on your pyre, to be consumed entirely."

Don't look at me like that! It was a dream! I'm not normally so poetic, you know that. God, stop staring. Can we go on? Okay.

So, in dream logic, all his mushy words sounded lovely. I was ready to buy what he was selling... God... I'm...

Sunburst gently held Derek close. "Shhh, it's alright... I know you're going through a really difficult time. I'm at least still the same gender I started with, so I won't claim I 'know what you're going through', but I am here. I will say you're a great person."

She smirked oddly. "So... I got a name." She tilted her head. "Autumn Blaze... What a corny name... Derek's my name, Derek. I was born a guy."

Sunburst touched his nose to her warm cheek. "I was born a human. We're both changing a lot... I will be your friend, wherever you land."

She suddenly shoved him away. "What if I decide I'm still a guy, and I'm not interested in guys?"

He inclined his head. "Then I'd never lack for a gaming buddy? And I'd still be here."

She groaned, rolling her eyes. "Alright, I did mine. Your turn! How'd magic classes go?"

Well, so I was with Twilight and Sweetie Belle. We were both working on our telekinesis. I had the advantage for a change. The way Twilight put it, Sweetie's little horn was still working up durability and strength, so she couldn't lift things very smoothly, and if it was heavy at all, she got tired really quickly.

I was floating blocks around. They were those little letter blocks you played with as a foal, er, kid, whatever. Except they were made of metal! I could feel their heft, but I could move them around too. "Alright, mage hand. That's two cantrips down. When do I get a level 1?"

Twilight peered at me like I had grown a second head. "What?"

I set the block down on top of another and moved a third atop that in a nice little tower. "Sorry, a little roleplaying humor. Light and Mage Hand are both cantrips, level 0 spells. I'm super excited to have them, don't get me wrong, but when do we move on to level 1?"

Twilight nodded, looking happy I think. "Then it's time to begin learning the alphabet."

I pointed to the blocks, which read A, B, and C. "I think I have that down."

She squinted at the blocks. "No, the magic alphabet." She drew a book over, hoof reaching for it as her magic pulled it over as I had the blocks. "Entirely different, but it does A, B, C, and as of recently, D and E. You will need to learn the alphabet and how to do them." She pointed up at her horn. "Up there. Playing them in specific orders, quickly, is how magic is made."

So she sent me home to study them.

"How's it going?" Derek asked, looking up at Sunburst. She was entirely a kirin. Which made her about half a foot smaller than the still dwindling Sunburst. Her ornamented tail swayed left and right behind her, watching him. "I have A through D worked out. E's a little trickier, but I think I'll have it down."

"I... How?"

"What do you mean how?" Derek raised a brow at her fellow quadruped. "Just, here." She pointed up at her horn as it began to glow in subtly different ways. "A... B... C... and... D!"

"I get the idea, intellectually. In fact." He coiled on himself, his magic grabbing a book out from his saddlebag, Twilight's book. He set it between them. "I can see the patterns, and what's going on. That makes sense. I think I could make a new spell, with a little trial and error." He rubbed his cheek softly. "It's not random. The letters have a meaning. But..."

"C'mon! A!" She glowed, showing it off. "Show me an A. Just cup it in your head like you're holding water and whistle through it and bam, A!"

"I tried that," he snapped, then began to go red swiftly. "Sorry, sorry..."

"Hey... it's... alright." She reached to set a cloven hoof on his shoulder. "Not even C? C's the simplest one. Let the magic glow, like you're just trying to glow, then tighten up, clench!" She was grinning as if trying to infect him with a little positivity. "Forget A, go for C."

He began to glow softly, his horn lighting up. "I know it's in there, I move it when I start glowing and relax it when I stop, but..." He began to grunt and clench his teeth, the glow shifted in strange ways.

Derek inclined her head, watching it. "Uh, you're making new letters. Come on, just clench up all over!" She brought her hooves together. "Like you're trying your best to not fart!"

He burst into laughter, the light going out instantly. "Seriously?" He shoved her, only to be shoved in kind, the two sharing in laughter at the silliness of the moment. "But, really," his voice took a more serious turn. "I'm trying, I promise." He peered at her and her big red horn. "Yours is so much... bigger, and it has that nub, and you can control it?"

"Yeah?" She hiked a brow at him. "The way I hear it, the muscles are like your lips, and the horn is the flute you blow magic notes through." She reached up and ran her cloven hoof along her horn. "So I have a pretty horn, but that isn't the issue, is it?"

He closed with her, eyes on her horn, studying it. "Not precisely." He looked up and down, towards the base, where those muscles hid, the lips. His warm breath washed over her, their faces so close together. His eyes on the base of her horn meant he almost met her eyes, sitting so close to her.

She ran her tongue slowly over her lips, nose flaring as she took in his scent, different from her own, or most other ponies in little ways. He as a stallion, a masculine presence, but so gentle and warm, welcoming, never commanding. He wanted to be close to her...

"Mmf?" His words were cut off, as his lips were pressed against something. No, someone... Derek was pressed against him. Sunburst's ears went up rigidly, then slowly fell down to either side as he let out his breath through his nose in a slow sigh. It... was nice, good, and strange. He had not a clue how to kiss. Was he supposed to do something? She was doing all the work of kissing him like a statue, a happy statue, but still a statue. He inclined his head a little, letting their kiss get deeper as their mouths fit together.

So close, his senses were filled with her scent, her spicy alluring scent. Though he didn't know it, her body was signalling him in a way his body couldn't misunderstand. This was a mare, in heat and ready. This was a mare, showing her willingness.

This was a mare.

She suddenly shoved him, sending him rolling backwards with a squeak. He hit the ground on his back, his erection wagging in the air in an ungainly display of her effect on him. "Uh?"

"I'm in love with my best friend, oh god, this is so wrong." She turned away from him on the spot. "Gotta go! Maybe, uh, gotta go!" She scurried away in a frantic scramble, leaving Sunburst laying there with a dazed and confused expression.

"W-wait!" He awkwardly scrambled to his hooves. "Uh, we're in your room."

She applied her hoof to her face. "Shit," she cursed, coiling around towards him and marching up. "Get out! Get. Out." Flames erupted over her, mane going black, flames blue, eyes blanking. "Get out of here!" Her angry approach had him scrambling backwards away from her. Her horn glowed, hurling the magic book at him. "Take this with you. Go!"

He grabbed the book in his magic before it could collide with his face, tucking it away quickly. "Derek, please. We're friends."

"Friends don't do that," she roared, heat washing away from her in a pulse. "Get out, out out." She pointed past him to the exit. "Go."

He withdrew from her. "I'm going... because you asked me to. I'm not afraid of you, Derek... and I still--"

"Go!" She glared at him with furrowed brows, looking ready to charge him if he tried anything. She thumped against the door, making sure it locked after he was gone. Her fire went out as she sank to the floor in a quivering mess, trying to sort out her feelings.

This left Sunburst just outside her room, dazed.

A passing mare huffed, Bon Bon squinting at him. "Put that away!"

Oh, right. He pulled his cape around, trying to hide his stallion-ness from vasual view. "Sorry!" He smiled awkwardly at Bon Bon as she trotted past him with a withering glare. "Didn't... mean anything."

Derek watched him slink off, cracking open her door once she was fairly sure he was gone. "Starlight!" She hurried off to find a mare she needed to talk to.

Sunburst sat in his room with a frown, his horn glowing and flickering as he stared at the pictures in the book. "B..." he repeated under his breath over and over in a slow intonation. But it wasn't much of a B. More of a.. T? J? They hadn't even invented those yet, but there it was, his inner muscle fluttering when he tried to make it do more than just open wide or relax.

There was one stance he could assume, one. He could grab things. His telekinesis was working just great.

He would be stuck with cantrips, forever...

He reached for the phone in his room. It flew the distance towards him and parked beside his ear. He imitated pressing the keys with a hoof as his glow appeared long enough to press at the phone. He could hear the dialed beeps.

It was ringing. "Pick up... Please..." But she didn't pick up. It just kept ringing. He couldn't do magic and he'd lost his best friend. "Man..."

"Thanks for coming in." Twilight tilted her head to the right. "I admit, with your inability to advance through the alphabet, I thought you'd drop out."

"Ah, yeah..." Sunburst rubbed one leg with the opposing hoof. "I can't... do magic, but it does make sense to me... The spells you've discovered, there's a logic there." His horn glowed, pulling out her book. "I was hoping we could compare notes?" He smiled timidly as if scared he'd be chased from another mare's room.

"Certainly," she agreed without hesitation, ignorant to his issues. She saw notes scribbled all along the inside of his copy of the book. "You've been quite busy, I see."

"Oh, yes... um..." He nudged the book towards her. "Did you want to try that one?"

Her magic twirled the book around to face her. There, on the first page, another spell. A D D C D A A D. "What does it do?"

"Well, in theory." He began tapping his hooves together. "It should let you change the flavor of the target."

"Magical flavoring?" she laughed out. "That's amazing. We need something edible to test with..." She buried a hoof in her labcoat and dug out a pack of gum, slapping it down. "Here we are." Her ears perked. "Before I start, I have to know. How did you think this up? You can't try random letters. You can't try any letters."

"Thanks for reminding me," he grumped, glaring at her.

"Sorry, but it is true, so how?" She rolled a hoof in the air. "This isn't just a guess, is it?"

"No! No... I'm trying to decipher this... language, for better word? We're missing words, letters to be specific. A through E? I have a hunch there's more to learn there, but I can't help with that. This is just me trying to logically approach the letters you have and the combinations you've already worked out." He tapped at the book from his side. "Please, try it? I'd... like to know if it works or not."

"Fair enough. I am also curious." Her magic swept over the gum, lifting it up. "Mint? What was I thinking? How about... Cherry? Yes, cherry gum, real cherry, not that artificial flavor." Her horn began to play the notes of the musical song. "Cherry," she repeated as she went, imagining big ripe cherries exploding in her mouth. The gum shuddered and shook under the effects of whatever she was doing, then went still.

The glow around the gum shifted as Sunburst took a grip and pulled out a strip of gum. "Well, my spell. Might as well be me that tried the result in the end." The gum looked unchanged, bright pale green mint gum. "Hm..." He brought it over despite that and sniffed it. Cherries tickled his senses. "Hm!" his magic peeled away the wrapper even as he tossed it onto his waiting tongue and snapped it up, starting to chew eagerly. "Hmmmmm, wow... you made a really nice cherry."

Twilight did not wait long before starting to chew on her own stick. "You're right, wow... This beats the feathers out of the competition." She snorted softly. "A pity we could never sell this. Imagine what the FDA would say about 'magically altered ingredients'? Not in my lifetime, I bet... Still!" She suddenly thudded her hooves down on either of his shoulders. "You did it! You made a new spell. I had been doing it the brute force way." She pointed to a board covered in letters. "Random generation, hoping for the best, and praying to avoid the worst."

She began to laugh, sitting up tall. "Now that you've joined the cause, I can slash off 'do not accidentally create a fireball centered on the caster' off my worry list."

Sunburst allowed a smile, spirits lifting. "Oh, cause? You mean--"

"Oh, yes." Twilight nodded firmly. "You will be our official spellchecker."

"You can do a better name than that," he chuckled out. "But I would be delighted to check some spells, and make some new ones." He pointed at her. "You can actually cast what I come up with."

"And that is something I look forward to doing." She nodded softly. "Speaking of spellcasting, Starlight and Derek are doing quite well at memorizing each letter I've discovered so far. They can also be consulted when you want to try a spell."

He looked away awkwardly, rubbing his cheek.

Twilight inclined her head. "What's wrong? I understand Starlight can be a bit intimidating with her position and connections, but she really is quite approachable and kind." She laughed as she turned a hoof on herself. "She calls me out when I get a little too excited. You can--"

"--It's not her," cut in Sunburst. "Um, how... is she doing? Derek, I mean..." He rubbed his forehooves together, looking increasingly awkward. "She alright?"

"She's doing great," gushed out Twilight. "One of my best students. She has a very precise control over her magical movements. Do you think it's related to singing capability?" She inclined her head faintly. "I was told, when I'm under the effect of song magic, I have a very melodious singing voice."

Sunburst quirked a smile at that. "I'd like to hear that, sometime, uh, not today."

"Not today," easily agreed Twilight. "Today, I need to see this." She pulled his book closer, starting to flip through it. "Ah ha! More spells, I knew it... What does this one do?!"

They spent the rest of their 'study' time with Sunburst explaining what he thought each of the spells he had invented did. Many even worked! Twilight could not have been more happy about it.

Derek tapped at her chin softly. "So... Autumn Blaze..."

Twilight perked an ear. "Hm?"

"What do you think of it, as a name?"

Twilight pointed at herself. "Seems thematic enough. I'm Twilight Sparkle," she reminded. "Not exactly 'time of day, special effect', but close enough. Time of year, special effect. What brings it up?"

Derek smiled awkwardly. "I didn't think of it like that. Starlight Glimmer... Wait, Starlight isn't exactly a time of day, but it makes you think of one. Close enough!" Her smile eased. "Sorry, got distracted. Uh, so... that... could be my name..."

"Congratulations, Autumn," accepted Twilight without hesitation. "Or would you prefer Miss Blaze?"

"Autumn, for sure. Wait!" She squinted a little. "I just said I was thinking about it."

"It's a nice name." Twilight shrugged softly. "One of the better I've run into so far. Go for it."

"Autumn Blaze," she whispered to herself, tasting the word. "Autumn... I... I like the fall. The leaves falling, the crisp taste in the air." She clopped her cloven hooves together with a silly smile. "Thanksgiving is the best!"

"What about Halloween?" ventured Twilight with a gentle smile. "Free candy, an excuse to dress up, and enjoy a few spooky stories."

"Oh yeah... that's a great time too. See, autumn gets all the good holidays." She nodded with growing confidence. "Autumn Blaze..."

"You look like an Autumn Blaze," continued Twilight. "You have the colors about right, and you do literally combust."

"Yeah," she didn't sound as excited about that part. "So, alright, what are we going over today?"

"Glad you asked!" Twilight was more than happpy to shove away talks of names and holidays to get down to magic. "Time to try a new spell, designed by your friend."

"My friend?"

"Sunburst." Twilight's horn glowed as chalk wrote the letters down on the chalkboard. "There's the spell. Cast it while examining something edible and focus on the desired flavor and, like that, it will taste different! Near as we could discern, it mostly overwrites the previous flavor, so don't worry about mixing flavors, just focus on the desired one."

Derek began to giggle. "Sun, burst. You're right, that pattern comes up a lot. Day burst would have been even more on the nose." She reached up to tap her own nose. "Autumn Blaze..."

"I'm glad to see you feeling better." Twilight tossed her head at the writing. "But, if you could, the spell?"

"Ask nicely." She stuck out her tongue at Twilight.

"Autumn Blaze, please, continue?" She raised a brow. "We're here to study magic, right?"

That was not the name she excpected to be used, but it didn't feel so bad, that time... "Autumn Blaze," she repeated to herself as her horn began to glow, playing out the notes one by one precisely as she looked around for something to test on. "Ah ha." She snatched an apple off the desk and set it down in front of herself.

"Chocolate apple, let's do it!" She played the song much faster, staring at the apple, imagining sweet milk chocolate melting on her tongue.

The apple shook and vibrated a moment before going still. "Did it work?" She leaned in and sniffed. She chomped it a moment later, agreeing with the smell. It was like she had just made the biggest milk chocolate bar she ever had, crunching noisily on the apple that didn't taste like an apple. "Wow, you were right," she muffedly noted, sampling the treat of her own creation. "Does this add calories?"

"I don't think it does?" Twilight inclined her head. "But I lack the tools to be certain of that." Not that it mattered. It was much more important to see that Sunburst's spell worked for more than one unicorn.

A new chapter of magic had opened.

Author's Notes:

This chapter had a lot of Twilight in it, and also Sunburst and Derek. Less plot hopping in this chapter, approve?

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