Chapter 46 – A Simple Solution
"What do you think it is?" Pilit asked as the two of them examined the spear, though both were afraid to touch it, each thinking the spectacle would disappear if they even blinked.
"Is it, a thorn?" Twilight asked and leaned in closer to it, "No it's not a thorn…a spike?"
"It looks like a javelin." Pilit said, noticing both pointed ends of the spear.
"But why?" the alicorn asked, "And what is it made of? How is the light inside able to stay inside?" The moment she ended her words, she moved closer to the object and ever so gently placed her wingtip to the smooth sides. Instantly, she could feel a strange sensation, a familiar sensation though not to the extreme of what she remembered. The sensation of magic being pulled from her. The edges of her feathers began to faintly shine as the magic moved, and yet she could feel that same magic being replaced. In shock, Twilight Sparkle pulled her wing from the spear and with a bit of fright, looked to her wing. The glow was fading quickly as the connection was cut and she felt as if she were unharmed. So, in curiosity, she placed her hoof to it, and felt the same sensation, "I know how Rainbow Dash did it!" she said with confidence, and turned to Pilit, "We need to get this thing back to the garage A.S.A.P."
"Why?" Pilit asked, "What's going on?"
"I can use this to teach Rainbow Dash how to control that boost of hers." Twilight announced, "But how do we get it out of here without touching it?"
"But you just touched it." Pilit said and gently grabbed the spear. She instantly pulled away when she felt the same sensation Twilight had felt, "What is that?" she asked, "What did it just do?"
"I'll explain when we get it to the garage, right now let's start by getting some kind of container up here." the alicorn pleaded.
"But we don't have a container big enough for this thing." Pilit said.
"Don't worry about that, I know a few spells that can help." Twilight said with a smile.
"Why not just use your magic on it?" Pilit asked.
This question got Twilight to narrow her eyes, "Are you CRAZY?" she asked, "If it recycles my magic by just a touch then I'm pretty sure that using magic on it directly would cause an adverse effect like it would steal my magic or something. And that's something I'd rather not go through again!" she said somewhat harshly.
Pilit was now curious, "You had your magic stolen?" she asked, "Magic can be stolen?"
Twilight, now sorry she had said anything to the curious Treeopon, lowered her head in exasperation, "Let's just go." she said, trying to subtly tell Pilit that she didn't want to talk about it.
It took a while, yes. The two explorers getting the spear down from the tower, but once they did, it was more than satisfying to them. The moment the larger ship entered into the garage; Twilight appeared in a flash of light "RAINBOW DASH!" she called out in slight anger. This got the blue pegasus to cautiously peek around the corner leading into the kitchen, "Have you been feeding your engine your magic to make it fly faster?"
"Uh…" Rainbow stammered, she hadn't expected Twilight Sparkle to be right there, the noses of the two mares nearly touching as Twilight scolded her.
"You have, haven't you?" Twilight asked as their friends all gathered around to listen.
"Not on purpose?" Rainbow tried as she looked away from the gaze of what could only be described as an angry and disappointed mother.
"Why would you do that? You remember what it felt like when Tirek took our magic!" Twilight asked.
"This feels…different somehow." Rainbow countered nervously, "Like it's trying to replace what I give it."
Twilight simply placed her hoof to her face and groaned, Rainbow now noticing that she had gathered a crowd of her peers, and probably had some explaining to do. "It's still dangerous Rainbow. At least with Tirek, we knew we could get our magic back. If you give the engine too much, it may end up not being able to give back exactly what it was given, and as a result, you won't be able to fly, EVER."
"WHAT?" the blue pegasus shouted in fear.
"Luckily, Pilit and I found a way to help train you in how to control the amount of magic you use during the boosts, and perhaps control the speed of the boost as a result." she said shocking the entire group as Pilit used a hovering flatbed to reveal a rather long steel crate out from the ship they had been piloting. The Treeopon brought the crate to rest right behind Twilight.
"You can teach a pegasus to use magic like a unicorn?" Writch asked.
"Well…no. Not exactly." Pilit said to help her friend out, "It's more like teaching a pegasus to focus her thoughts, like when you focus on one part of a project so that you can get the best out of what you're building."
Writch was about to interject and ask what that had to do with magic, but quickly saw the point the smaller Treeopon was actually making, "I get it, like placing a funnel in a Fusser cap so that {snort} the fluid doesn't go everywhere." Tusks said as Writch placed her thoughts together.
"Yes!" Twilight said happily, "But with Rainbow Dash's natural magic. If you can learn to control the flow of your magic, you can learn to turn your boost on, or off and even how fast you want to go."
"Really?" the rainbow-haired pony asked in excitement.
"Yes." Twilight said happily, and then turned back to Rainbow Dash with a stern glare, "But it's going to take some dedication on your part." she said as she tapped her hoof to the chest of her rainbow-haired friend, "Focus and persistence."
"We don't know how well this will work since you learn best while flying, but I'm almost certain if you can get even a little of this technique learned, then we might have a better chance at winning." Pilit added in calmly.
Rainbow sighed in worry, it was true that she learned best while flying, her friends had helped her using a special kind of trick, but with this, how was this going to work? "I'll give it my best." she said, "But maybe use that trick you used to help me learn the 'History of the Wonderbolts'?"
"Maybe if something needs to be explained in detail." Twilight said, "But for now, it's just going to learn from experience." With that, Twilight turned as Pilit lifted the crate so that it was standing on end, and with a bit of magic on the crate door, opened it to show off the spear to every pony in the garage.
The two were met with both oohs and ahs as they carefully brought the tall spike out from the case and situated it into a simple base to hold it upright, "What is it?" Rarity asked.
"It looks like a javelin." Pinkie said and got Piks to smile.
"We're not sure what it is, to be honest." Twilight said, "But I never thought I'd get used to that feeling so quickly."
As she said this, Applejack walked up to the spear and touched it, feeling her magic be drawn out and recycled back into her was a feeling she could only associate with one other feeling, so she turned around and lifted one of her hind legs. "Stand back Y'all." she said and was quickly wrapped in Twilight's magic before lifted away from the artifact.
"Don't you dare…" said the angry alicorn.
"This is the thing that will help Rainbow learn to control her magic." Pilit said, "And it doesn't steal your magic Applejack, it recycles it, giving it back to you without using it."
"Ah still don't trust it." the orange pony said.
"YOU don't have to; Rainbow Dash is the one who has to." Hulon said nervously.
"She don't need to do nothin." Applejack argued, "And that thing feels just like when Tirek took all the magic in Equestria. It ain't right to keep it in one piece if'n it's just gonna make us feel like we can't be safe in our own garage!"
"Applejack, this could be the only chance we have of teaching Rainbow Dash how to control the power of the B336 MPE." Twilight countered.
Rainbow walked up to the spear and let the argument at her side fade into the background, her eyes locked onto the light that just seemed to surge throughout the shaft of the object without escaping its borders. "It looks like one of those spear things that the dragon was throwing at the dark serpent thing." she whispered to herself. With a gentle and nervous reach of her hoof, Rainbow Dash touched the spear, the feeling of her magic moving through her and into the spear, then back into her body was only slightly unfamiliar, "I'll do it." she said as she dropped her hoof to the ground getting both Twilight and Applejack to stop in their argument, "If it'll help teach me how to control the boost of the Rainbow Trail Mk.2, then I'll use this to learn." She then lifted her hoof back to the spear, and turned to Twilight, "How do I do this?" she asked.