Forcing Breakthroughs {open}

[Twilight Sparkle]

It’d been five days, fifteen hours, twelve minutes and twenty-seven
seconds since the last time, and Twilight was just about read to give up.
Make that thirty-nine seconds. Forty. Now forty-one. Groaning, Twilight flicked her pen out, spinning it a few times. This would have been mostly an action of annoyance or something to stave off boredom for most. For Twilight, it was something of a test. For the pen wasn't spinning between her fingers; in point of fact, it wasn't even in her hands at all. No, the pen hovered a few feet from Twilight, kept in the air by what appeared to be a floating cloud of purple energy.

Twilight had realized that her ability to float objects and move things with her will had come back during the middle of a minor-crisis. That would be what had been five days, fifteen hours, now thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds from now. Twilight had considered it something of a major breakthrough in precisely what she was hoping to accomplish: namely the restoration of her magic and, hopefully, the abilities and magic of the people around her. So the moment she'd gotten home, she'd promptly attempted to cast some spells that she knew by heart.

That didn't work.

Neither had attempting spells from Starscroll the Bearded's book, or spells from a comic book that Twilight had sheepishly tried. no, nothing seemed to be working; she seemed to be stuck. Hence the frustration. Hence why she was standing in the sports field, her hair tied back into a tight ponytail, staring at a collection of objects she'd gathered. There was the pen, of course, and what appeared to be a pad of paper. There were also several balls and weights (which Twilight had borrowed from her roommate Rainbow, and wasn't that something she didn't want to think about right now). There was also a feather and various other things. Not surprisingly, Twilight could lift them all. she couldn't do anything but move them around, however.

"Oh, this is just pointless!" she shouted, flinging her hands into the air. This sent all the objects flying into the air, scattered throughout the field. Twilight groaned as the various items rained down around her, hitting the ground with an orchestra of odd noises.

[Deleted]

Loki was beginning to hate this world. Sure, it was a safe haven of sorts, giving him a place to hide from the Allfather's gaze and plot his ascension to the throne, but what good did that do if he had no magic? Well, 'no magic' was a bit of a stretch; he had a tiny but of his old power left, but it was minimal at best. He'd had no time to experiment with it either, as it seemed that magic was non-existant here. 

So the former "god" was forced to sit silently and put up with what was not at all a glamorous life. He was a school teacher, for Odin's sake! Why should he, a prince of Asgard, be forced to teach commoners? It irked him to no end, and today he simply couldn't deal. So Loki had gone out on his break between classes, the sunlight on his face actually making him feel a tiny bit better.

He would have just sat on a bench and continued to read the enormous time that he'd lugged out here with him, but something caught his attention. He felt a light buzz in the air, and he stopped dead. Magic? Turning, his gaze fell upon a girl with oddly colored hair - who just so happened to be floating numerous objects. Interesting... He changed his course, walking cautiously over to the girl and slipping a much more innocent expression on his face.

He flinched slightly as the girl lost control, sending objects flying. One of the weights shot toward his head, but Loki just calmly raised a hand, catching the weight in a misty green cloud. Letting the object hover just over his hand, he trotted over to the girl, offering a small smile as he held the weight out to her. "I believe this is yours."

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight was still mostly staring at the various objects, wishing that she had enough of her powers back to zap one or two of them into nonexistence. Particularly that football, which kept wobbling back and forth as though to taunt her. She was just about to seriously consider punting it when she heard a voice. Twilight turned toward it on reflex, an apology already forming on her lips:

"Sorry about that, I was just practicing a little and things got out of control," she offered, the words spilling out a little quickly. Twilight gestured lamely at the scattered items around her, before letting her hands fall to her sides with a few little slaps. How, exactly, was she supposed to explain how a bunch of various items had gotten scattered around her like that? She supposed that she wasn't exactly being stealthy about using her abilities, so it didn't make any sense to lie about it, even if the person she was lying to reminded her more of a suit than anything.

"I was, uh, practicing my magic," she added, finally looking back to Kale. "I'm a unicorn, you see, and I finally got back the ability to, well," she gestured at the various items, "lift and move stuff. So I figured I should practice and all. You know, work the muscles..."

Twilight shrugged, then slapped her hands against her side for a bit. Hands, crazy, right? She chewed at her lip for a bit, trying to figure out what she should do now that she'd apparently gotten dangerously close to beaning a teacher with a weight...

[Deleted]

Loki's eyes sparkled with clear interest. Magic! And something besides his own particular brand of trickery and illusion. Waving the girl's apology off, he smiled and shook his head. "Not to worry. Luckily, I've remembered a bit of magic as well, so no harm done." He carefully set the weight on the ground, taking a moment to smooth his shirt as he stood back up.

She'd said something about being a unicorn, yes? Interesting. Loki had never been lucky enough to encounter a unicorn before, though he'd read a fair bit on them. Tilting his head slightly to the side, he opted for the innocent play, though, frowning slightly as he said, "You... are a unicorn? I... no offense intended, but I thought unicorns were horses. You look more like a sorceress than anything."

Glancing at the items, Loki drummed his fingers on the tome tucked under his arm, silently wishing his magic was fully back. He could easily have dissolved the weight in the air, rather than catching it. "How did you do that, if you don't mind me asking? I... the staff here tell me that I was... am a sorcerer, but I don't remember much. Is magic the same everywhere? Or... is it different between species?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight nodded, though she did hesitate a bit at his admittance of remembering. It had taken her practically a month straight of study and hard work, and even then, her powers had only really restored to her when she'd been under a highly stressful situation. Was it that her magic was so intensely different from his? Or did he have more power than she did? The latter was definitely possible; Twilight's full strength couldn't be tapped without the support of her friends. She was more powerful then than most magics in the world, but without them...

She brushed the thought off, mostly because there were questions to answer, and if it was one thing that Twilight loved more than studying, it was providing the right answers to questions: "I was actually a pony," she said, nodding. "The Displacement transformed me into this humanoid shape. It did the same with one of my friends, actually, so it seems to be pretty regular. It also sapped me of my magical abilities, I only recently could do..." she gestured at the various items around, before turning to Kale again.

"But magic is definitely not the same everywhere. It's not even exactly the same in my world. Where I'm from, unicorns practice most of the magic and such; it's natural for us. But there's also magical items and creatures with different abilities. My friends and I once fought off a being made of pure chaotic energy. He's good now, but he definitely had a different kind of magic than mine. There's also the magic borne out of friendship and other positive emotions...' Twilight trailed off, her eyes again drifting to the mess she'd accidentally caused. Taking a deep breath, she waved a hand, concentrating slightly and lifting a few objects. A small aura of wavy purple light encapsulated the objects in question, seeming to work to lift them. Hey, a practical demonstration couldn't hurt, right?

[Deleted]

He could see the hesitance in her eyes. Not that it really bothered him; he was only doing this for show, after all. But the more he could learn now, the better prepared he would be to take over this godforsaken place. After all, royalty should step up and lead the flock, no?

Of course his idea of leading was more along the lines of enslavement, but details, details.

He tilted his head slightly to the side, a thoughtful expression on his face as he listened to the former-unicorn. So the displacement had changed them all into human form. That explained why he still looked like an Asgardian, and not a Jotun, even without his usual magic. The idea of being human was repulsive, though, and he very nearly grimaced, but Loki held it back. "Interesting," he murmured, pursing his lips slightly as he contemplated her words. "So all of us were converted to a default species, but residual abilities were left over... And you remember being a unicorn? I... well, I wonder if it's bad that I don't remember."

The girl's explanation of magic was... even more interesting, to say the least. Friendship incorporating into spellcasting? How vile. The chaos creature sounded interesting, but he couldn't go demanding questions about that right away, now could he? Besides, the creature was a "friend" now. Weren't there any masterminds like himself in these other worlds? It was almost disappointing. "So it is different..." He watched the objects floating, trying his best to "feel" the flow of the magic and analyze it, but his powers were still too weak. "I don't think that's how my magic works. It... well, it's hard to describe, but it feels different."

[Twilight Sparkle]

"That does seem to be what happened," agreed Twilight, her eyes flicking to Kale again. "Everypony seems to have lost all their various abilities and most of their odd traits. Some of us retained some aesthetic characteristics, like hair or eye color, but nopony seems to be entirely like their old self."

She hadn't thought about the idea of everyone being set to a "default" before. It was sort of like they'd all been turned into earth ponies, really. No magic, no flying, no special abilities, just normal. Except that some of them had even been transformed from being anything other than "human." This was most certainly odd and worthy of consideration. Twilight did feel a slight pang about remembering. Sure, she'd much rather be a unicorn again, but she couldn't help  but think that remembering who she was was more important.

There was magic to consider, and magical theory, and if there was one thing that could distract Twilight, it was magical theory. "Well, like I mentioned earlier, everypony's magic works differently. It doesn't help that some of the basic laws of how the universe works seem to have altered as well. Ponies act differently here than they did back home. Humans too," Twilight looked to Kale and nodded at that. "Lots of ponies say something similar. So it's likely that our bodies have to readjust or whatever."

Twilight focused again, drawing forth the energies born from natural talent honed by years of intensive study. More swirling purple surrounded the various items, drawing them close to Twilight. she carefully worked at lining them up, almost acting as though she were demonstrating a task for Kale, her instructor.

[Deleted]

Loki nodded, seeming lost in thought as he mulled over the unicorn's words. Being human presented several problems - namely, the human's poor healing rate - but so long as he retained his abilities... Did it really matter what form he was in? It just presented a challenge of sorts. How much more difficult would it be, and how much more renown would he gain from conquering this world in a lesser form? It would certainly prove his skill.
​
"So this is an alternate universe of sorts," he murmured, hardly able to contain his delight and interest anymore. "Or maybe just another plane of existence in the same universe, though that's less likely if the universal laws are altered." Flipping open the book he'd been holding, he quickly skimmed over a few lines, smoothing the page under his fingers as he added on, "It's a pity I can't remember what my world was like. This would have made interesting research. Comparing the universal laws of two different places... It might prove of some aid for returning everyone, especially if we knew where we were."
​
Yes, he was fishing for information, and yes, he was doing it poorly, but did that matter? So long as he wasn't found out for who he really was - and even then, it really didn't matter. Who would stop him?
​
​When the girl lined up her objects, Loki stepped closer. He could feel her magic now, and it was vastly different from his. So what would happen if... Acting as if he was inspecting one of the objects - a pencil - the former god stretched his hand forward, allowing a tiny flicker of his chaotic magic to leap from his palm to the purple swirl around the pencil. A loud crack echoed out, and suddenly the pencil went flying. Loki jerked his hand back like he'd been burned, tracking the pencil's path with his eyes as it arced through the air. He couldn't help the slight snicker that escaped him, and he had to clap a hand over his mouth to cover up the wide, almost malicious grin that was plastered there. "... Oops," he finally managed when he'd composed himself. "That was... interesting. But my apologies for losing your writing utensil."

[Twilight Sparkle]

Oh sweet Celestia, it took all Twilight had not to pull out her notebook and scream that they were notebook buddies. This was mostly because experience had taught her that people generally did not get as enthused as she over the idea of studying and research. That, and she still couldn't quite shake her suspicions over the guy, especially as he started obviously fishing for information. She shot him a glance, uncertain as to how much to tell. But she hadn't seen him actually do or say anything that would make her that suspicious. She needed to give him the benefit of the doubt, at least until he proved otherwise.

"I've done some comparisons between this world and my own," she offered, her voice slipping a bit into her lecturing tone. "I've also tabulated information about several worlds that people have come from, cross-referencing the amount of magic and technology that each world possesses and figuring out how closely that correlates to what we're experiencing here. Everything seems to suggest that this world is one very similar to ours in several key ways, but also with very obvious differences."

She paused for a moment, partly for effect, and partly to figure out how to word things. It was during this pause that she noticed something odd happening with her pencil. Something seemed to disturb it, and before Twilight could react, it went spiraling into the far distance. Her head turned to watch its path, slightly impressed and awed with the distance it got. She shot Kale a quick look, wondering if he'd had something to do with it. His apology confirmed that suspicion.

"That's alright," she said, flashing a quick smile that was perhaps only slightly strained. "If it's one thing I have plenty of, it's pencils. They've been most helpful in providing me with writing supplies." She dug into her pocket, pulled out a pen, and gave it a little wiggle. If it was one thing Twilight Sparkle had on her person, it was writing utensils. "I take it you did something with your magic that made that happen?" she pointed in the direction the pencil had gone, using the pen as a pointer.

[Deleted]

Loki wanted to cackle in delight. There was someone who'd already compiled an extensive amount of research on this realm, and she was so blatantly just flaunting it. Gods, he had to hold back every instinct that told him to demand to see her research so he could better understand this realm. Peasants didn't do that, yes? No, he had to keep her unawares as to his true intentions.

Mild interest couldn't hurt though, right?

"Oh, it really is disappointing that I can't recall anything," he sighed, a disheartened look settling over his face. "I would have loved to help." Offering a lopsided smile, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as he laughed, "The men who gave me my name and my job very nearly stuck me in the library, what with how much I kept asking about books and the like. But if you do need any help, I would be thrilled to offer whatever I can."

Yes, and then when my magic returns in full...

Apparently he might not need all of his magic, though. From what he could see of the tiny hint of chaotic magic he'd produced, it didn't take much to throw off other magics. "I think so?" he answered in his best confused tone, glancing down at his hand and frowning slightly. "I... well, I think I can 'feel' magic, and I wanted to see if it was different closer up, but I... must have accidentally done something. Half the time I don't even realize I've done something till after something's happened. I do hope that's normal..." His frown deepened as he added on, "And I hope that doesn't happen in the middle of a lecture. As much fun as I'm sure magic is, it wouldn't be very productive to have books flying across the room."

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight resisted the urge to give Kale a skeptical look at his little tirade. She really shouldn't be so suspicious of him. It was just... he acted so like someone who would be suspicious, and Twilight just couldn't help but be a little on edge. That was sort of her natural state of being, after all, and the whole stress of CAUS and her new job and adjusting here hadn't helped matters much.

Though the mention of the library nearly made Twilight smile. She'd half thought about taking a job in the library herself; that was one area she had more than enough skill in. However, she knew she had to take a different position in order to advance her CAUS, so that was that. She was seriously considering questioning Kale about his occupation decisions, but she shelved that for now. Instead, her pen started darting about her pad as he explained how his magic worked... more or less.

"Our control over our abilities has definitely lessened," offered Twilight as Kale finished, adding a bit of a shrug. "This world doesn't seem to have much magic naturally. Here, magic is odd, possibly nonexistent, so much of the actual magic is what we take with us," she gestured with her pen toward her vibrant hair. "Which is why we can feel it. As for the control... I think that has something to do with our adjusting to the new reality. It could also be your memory. If you can't remember anything, how did you know you had magic?"

Because surely he didn't just wake up and start spellcasting. Twilight had to work for years to get her magic where it was, though she'd been born with the knack for it. And since arriving, she'd been working nearly nonstop on getting her magic back and understanding this place. To think that someone would just get it so... so... nonchalantly...