The three of us scoured the different bedrooms, each on our own floor.

I pitied Spritelight since she couldn't read human script, but a map should be easy enough to figure out since it had more than writing on it.

I knew I didn't have a map of Yellowstone, but I still went to my own room first to check if my roommate kept hers.

My first problem came when I arrived at the closed door, but the doorhandle gave way easy enough with a gentle push from my horn.

I didn't like the feeling of my horn pressing onto the metal handle; it was like someone tried to push a finger through the skin on my forehead into my skull or something.

Even if it was the lightest of touches, the briefest of moments, my horn amplified the sensation and made me feel like I should come up with a different idea for the next door.

I pranced up to my roommate's dresser and stared at the drawers for a moment.

It was clear my hooves wouldn't do it; I lifted my left forehoof up to check, but there was no way I could paw at them to pull them open.

The solution dawned on me after I considered what other options I had, and I sighed. "Teeth it is..."

I took the bottom drawer's handle between my front teeth and pulled on it until it was open enough that I could look into it for the map I was searching for.

The taste of my roommate's hand lotion lingered in my mouth as I rifled through her possessions, and I had to lick around my muzzle to get the saliva production going in an effort to get rid of it.

No luck with the first drawer, so onto the next.

Having figured out my teeth were handy enough tools in the absence of hands, I just went from my room to the next while trying to ignore the various tastes lingering on doorknobs and handles.

"Anything yet?" came the question from upstairs as I walked past the stairway, and I looked up it to spot Spritelight looking down at me; her coat drenched in blood-red moisture again.

"No, but I've only got half of the hallway so far. I see you secured the balloon?" I called back.

"Yeah, it should be fine for us to use tomorrow," the other unicorn returned. "Are you getting a hang of your magic yet?"

"No," I replied honestly. "I've just been tugging at things with my mouth. I don't know how to use my magic."

Spritelight's horn started to shimmer and she sent a bolt of magic my way.

I could barely dodge it, rolling over to my left side and briefly experiencing the awkward sensation of my horn resting against the floor before I could self-right again.

"What did you do that for?" I cried out.

"Use your magic; imagine what you want to do and do it," Spritelight threw at me.

"Or just do it," Josey's voice came from a floor below. "You don't necessarily need to imagine it."

"Right," the unicorn above me agreed. "Just use your magic, and I'll help you with the details tomorrow during our balloon trip."

"I'll give it a try," I promised, turning in the direction of the rooms I had not visited yet.

"Call for me if you need help," Spritelight told me as I left the stairway.

Just use your magic. Right...

I approached yet another closed door and stared at it.

"Open sesame," I spoke, expecting the door to open up. Nothing.

"Abracadabra," I tried, with the same result as before.

"Mellon," I opted, wondering if Elvish worked. Nil.

I sighed and poked the door with my right forehoof. "It would be lovely if you just opened up for me." No go.

"Hey Spritelight?" I called back in the direction of the stairway. "How do I open a door?"

Spritelight's voice came from some distance away. "Just will it open."

"I tried asking it, but it doesn't want to," I returned.

"Really?!" the other unicorn's voice called out with a clear tone of exasperation to it. "Just WILL IT open! You're in control!"

I turned my attention back to the door and considered Spritelight's words.

Just will the door open. Okay, fine; I decided that the door should be open.

A strange sort of energy flooded my horn as I made my decision, then jumped off the tip of it into the wood before me.

I watched in amazement as the door swung itself open partway.

"Oh... my God... I did it!" I cried out in amazement. "I did a magic!"

"Congrats!" Josey shouted from some distance further away than I had heard Spritelight's voice from.

"Great! Now keep doing that," Spritelight returned, her voice more muffled than Josey's.

Proud as a peacock, I pushed into the room and walked up to the nearest dresser.

I focused on the lowermost drawer, and decided it should open.

The energy flooded my horn again, not an unpleasant feeling, but then jumped off the tip again and into the drawer proper.

It opened not a moment later, roughly to the extent where I had decided it should open up to.

I quickly searched through it with my left hoof, then willed the next drawer open.

This repeated with me getting a hang of this magic thing with each new drawer I pulled open.

I opened the next dresser's drawers almost without thinking; just walked up to them and considered the drawers should open themselves in turn as I needed to rife through them.

"Actually," I pondered as I moved some underwear aside, "this would work so much better if I could just will the clothing out of the way as well."

I pulled forward the energy again, released it from the tip of my horn, and sent it into the underwear in question.

It flew up and out of the drawer and landed on the nearby bed, giving me a clear view of the space under them.

Now getting the hang of this magic thing, I went through the room at a much faster pace than the earlier ones and soon moved to the next.

No map there either, even if the dressers somewhat pulled themselves apart and deposited their contents on the beds they stood beside in my eagerness to get through them.

Onto the next room. And the next room.

I pranced out of the next room, happy as a clam that this magic thing wasn't all that difficult to grasp once you realised things just sort of did what you willed them to, and bumped into a tall horse's front leg.

"Careful now," Josey chuckled, taking a step aside while looking past me into the room and the mess I had made of it. "Having fun?"

I felt my cheeks flush as I gathered my wits about me, looking up at the taller mare and her taller horn.

"Ah, I... I think I'm getting the hang of this magic stuff," I replied.

"It certainly looks it. How are you manifesting it?" Josey wondered, lowering her head to my level.

"Er, I just sort of will the things to do something, like the clothing to jump out of the drawer and onto the bed so they're out of the way, and then there's this feeling of energy rushing into my horn and jumping off the tip of it," I explained as good as I could.

"Right," Josey stated with a slow nod. "That's most definitely the basics. I'm sure Spritelight can work with that."

"The basics," I repeated. "So how much more is there to it?"

Josey chuckled and motioned ahead to the next room. "Let's talk about it while searching the next room, hm?"

"Oh, right, sure, lead the way," I agreed, stammering a bit. "Say, you're... taller than the rest of us. Why?"

"Ah, because I'm a princess," Josey mumbled with a blush. "Not like I had much of any say in the matter, but here we are."

She turned for the door at the same time her magic jumped from her horn into it, the door swinging open before I had realised she was charging her horn.

"Wow, that was smooth," I realised.

"Supposedly I have quite a large amount of mana. It caught Celestia offguard as well," Josey mumbled, walking over to the far bed and its dresser.

I turned for the dresser nearer to the door and pulled the bottom drawer open with my magic.

"I see," Josey spoke, glancing in my direction. "You're commanding the items to do what you want them to do, aren't you? Even if you're not saying it out loud, you're making a demand of them in your mind."

I frowned at the suggestion. "No, I'm deciding they should do these things."

"That is what I said," Josey pointed out. "It should be enough to just expect the end result. Lose the in-between and you'll expend less energy."

She turned for the dresser before her and pulled the top drawer open, its contents instantly starting to drift up out of it and hover a few inches above it in the air.

I stared at this 'princess' at work. That was some show of magic prowess; I couldn't even detect the energy coming off her horn.

Josey's eyes lit up as I stared at her and a folded-up map freed itself from the rest of the items.

As the rest lowered themselves back into the drawer again and it slid closed, Josey moved the map in-between us and offered me a grin. "Definitely a map of Yellowstone National Park."

I shook my head at it all. "That was so smooth... The way you moved the clothes out, the map, putting it all back in again..."

"Ah, well, as I said; princess," Josey coughed uneasily. "Let's tell Sprite she can stop searching."

"Whatever you say princess," I agreed. "I'll have to talk with her about that magic training she promised. I can't wait to start on it."

"Oh, you know what?" Josey started, moving the map closer to me. "Hold onto this map with your magic."

I stared at her thinking she made a joke, but no; she looked serious about it.

"Er, how?" I asked, not sure whether I could figure that out on my own just yet.

"Just hold onto it with your magic," Josey repeated herself.

I focused on the map and considered for the first time in my life to just do what the authority figure told me to, mentally 'taking a hold' of the map.

Josey stared at me, lowering her head a little. "What are you doing right now, April?"

"I'm thinking about just holding onto the map," I offered back.

"Push that thought into your horn," Josey spoke gently, clearly trying to give me pointers.

I considered where my thoughts were; that gray mass in my skull which they call a brain.

Where was my horn? Attached to my skull and sticking out of my forehead.

So if I just push the thought of holding the map forward through my forehead, it would end up in my horn, right?

There was an immediate charge of energy drawing into my horn as I did, a red glow emanating from it.

"Good, good," Josey cooed at me. "That's one way of loading your horn with mana. Now just hold onto the map. I'm going to take my magic off it the second I feel you grab hold of it yourself, so keep holding on."

I once more focused on the map hovering in mid-air in front of me, and just 'held onto it' as instructed.

Josey's green glow surrounding the map mixed in with a new red glow which soon became the dominant color keeping the map afloat.

"You're doing it," the alicorn princess spoke softly. "Now keep holding it and take a step toward the door."

I did as instructed, my mind operating on a whole new level now magic was involved, and as I turned my head to the door the map moved as well, staying roughly in the same place and distance from my horn.

"Huh, that's convenient," I mumbled.

"Objects you manipulate with your magic will remain where you put them until you let go of them or move them somewhere else," Josey explained the obvious. "Let's go get Spritelight."

With the map found and Spritelight retrieved from the top floor, the three of us who searched the top floor went down again to the communal room to find Rainbow and Turkey still fast asleep.

Josey mentioned we too, should get a nap in at the very least but my suggestion that I'd do it upstairs in my bedroom was met with a wry smile from her.

"Don't forget you have transformed now; your body is heavier than your human body used to be. You might break through the bed if it's not strong enough," she warned.

I looked back at the sleeping pair of ponies; one on top of a table and one underneath it.

"Rainbow manages fine on the table? I would think my bed can take more weight?" I protested.

"Rainbow is a Pegasus," Spritelight scoffed. "They are a lot lighter than us Unicorns since they need to be able to fly. I could easily carry Turkey if I had to, but she would have a worse time if the situation was reversed."

"At least none of us are Earthponies; they bring more weight with them but have a lot of strength to make up for that," she concluded.

"Alicorns have a little of all three races in them, but I'm surprisingly light given my height," Josey chuckled. "The benefits of being a princess, I guess."

"So where do we sleep, if not in a bed?" I asked, looking around myself. "You don't intend for us to sleep on the ground?"

"Why not?" asked Spritelight, moving over to lie down on the ground next to Turkey to illustrate. "If you're wondering how to keep yourself warm; you've got fur. You're not a naked human."

"You could rest against me if you want?" Josey suggested, lying down herself. "My earthpony girlfriend Rhonda thinks I'm quite comfortable, I'll have you know."

I glanced between the pair of them, wondering what else my poor brain had to come to terms with before all this was over.

"I guess that's better than nothing," I mumbled. "Just don't look surprised if I kick you in my sleep or something if I have a nightmare."

"You won't," Josey answered with a surprising amount of certainty to her voice.

She changed her position a bit to make it clear where she wanted me to lie down myself, so I walked on over and lay where she indicated.

"How can you be so sure?" I asked, peering up at the princess.

Josey just smiled down at me and leaned down to peck a kiss on top of my head, in-between my ears. "Because our dreams are protected by princess Luna, my little pony. If you'll ever suffer a nightmare, you'll see for yourself."

I blinked at the reply, but the kiss on my head soothed me nonetheless.

Glancing over to Spritelight, she had already fallen asleep against 'her' Turkey. She looked peaceful enough, considering the circumstances.

I decided to get comfortable as well, closing my eyes.

"We'll fly for Yellowstone in the morning," Josey mumbled to herself. "I wonder what we'll find when we get there."

I wondered that as well.