Light the Depths

[magmarhyme]

The precautions perched atop her back were weighing her down somewhat, but the filly didn't care. At least these saddlebags were fireproof. And no matter how much self confidence she had, Everfree Forest was a dangerous area to be in, so begrudgingly she'd picked a few things up - just in case. Not that the few ponies she'd informed of this little excursion would have really let her do otherwise. Ugh, the nagging! It was like being under the eyes of her mother again.

Like that would ever happen now.

Huffing, the ashen mare meandered further into the depths of the forest, the more shallow grasses turning to scorched dirt beneath her hoofprints. Ah, the smell of burning was delicious~ She was already quite pleased with herself, having borrowed her provisions from others also lurking back at headquarters, and the sultry scent attacking her muzzle just made it that much better. Today was going to be her day.

But alas, it was also 'training day'. Watermark had given her a weird looking book that admittedly she hadn't studied yet - she'd tried to read it the night before, but woke up with her face pressed against the second page - but at least she could make a start without that.

"Friendly Fire, huh?" muttered Magmarhyme, pausing in her stride only to glance up at her surroundings. Nopony around yet, at least. She'd have some time to start this on her own. "Flames that don't hurt but look like flames. Yeah, I can do this! Easy!"

And thus, with her confidence firmly back in its halter, Magma decided to make a small bush her first target. To try and keep herself focused, she even screwed her eyelids shut, the image in her mind nothing but that single bush, on fire but not dying. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon-"

[skyrocket]

Sky Rocket flew over the Everfree Forest. To say he was distraught would be an understatement. His normally pure white coat was greyed with dirt. His mane and tail looked disheveled. His eyes looked bloodshot from lack of sleep. He flew, not fast like he normally did, but slowly with his head hung low. It seemed as if something was on his mind, and his thoughts were weighing him down.

"What am I doing wrong," he said to no pony in particular, "Everypony I meet just suddenly disappeared. Poof. Gone. Is it something I said or did? Maybe I'm cursed or something. Ugh! I hate feeling alone like this! Where's the ponies watching my stunts? Where's the friends that I can put my trust in?"

Suddenly Sky uponm looking down saw a strange looking unicorn in a clearing of the Everfree Forest, practicing some kind of spell. What was a unicorn doing in a dangerous place like Everfree alone without any protection? Sky felt a need to see what was going on.

"Hello down there," the white pegasus said as he flew lower, "Are you ok? What are you doing in the Everfree Forest? That place is dangerous you know."

[magmarhyme]

Magma leapt out of her soot-coated skin at the voice, the snap in concentration immediately setting the bush on fire. Real fire.

"What the hay are you doing?!" She barked, glaring up at the skyward figure. It was rare enough to spy another pony within the midst of Everfree Forest, but this one had actually gone out of his way to talk to her; not that the filly herself was impressed with that fact, as he'd just put a dent in her training. "Can't you see I'm trying to focus here!"

Grumbling to herself for a moment, Magmarhyme took a few paces backwards. Now she had to find a new patch of undergrowth to test her skills on! Grass, flower, bush... ooh - that tree looked like it had a face! A sly grin formed on her muzzle as she spied the thing - what better way to scare some ponies than with a creepy tree-face ringed with flames? However, as much as she stared at the tower of bark and leaves, the unicorn just couldn't ignore the fact that there was a colt above her.

"I'm fine, what're you doing here? Everfree ain't the place to be just wandering, ya know."

[skyrocket]

"Focusing," Sky said in a questioning tone. What was she focusing on? All it looked like she was doing was standing in the forest. Then a thought entered his mind. "Oh, I get it now. You're doing some magic thing, right?" Sky had met unicorn ponies before, yet the whole idea of magic, especially unicorn magic was strange to him.

"Actually I was just wandering around the skies, and I was in the area and saw you there," Sky said in an attempt to veil the fact that he was upset. Then, throwing all caution out the door to talk to this pony, he flew down through the canopy and landed in front of her. If it meant meeting a new pony to break his unlucky streak of ponies coming and going from his life, what did he have to lose? "By the way, my name's Sky Rocket, what's yours?"

He was interested in this pony as she seemed to not be afraid of being in the forest alone. She appeared as if she wasn't used to other ponies talking to her. The other thing that interested him was that her coat looked charred like it was on fire, and everytime she moved, the ground below looked burnt. Maybe that was somehow related to her magic.

[magmarhyme]

"Nah, I'm hunting pixies - of course I'm doing magic!" Scowled the filly, completely unimpressed by this thoughtless intrusion to her personal space. Couldn't she have just one small clearing to herself? No? Bah. Well she'd just have to put up with this distraction first. Maybe if he really got on her nerves, she could justify setting him alight rather than the stupid bushes.

"By the way, my name's Sky Rocket, what's yours?"

... Was he trying to hold a conversation? Seriously? Most ponies would be smarter than to stick by a flaming pony in a forest, but whatever. His funeral. Any falling trees or raging fires would be his problem to escape, not hers.

"Magmarhyme." She replied curtly, glancing from the tree to the ivory colt and back. If he wanted to stick around, then she supposed she wouldn't hound him off, so long as he stayed out of her way. Honing her powers was her main priority today. "Kinda weird to be out in Everfree alone," commented Magma, "nopony with you?"

[skyrocket]

Clearly thisunicorn was not excited in seeing Sky Rocket wanting to alk to her. Even though she appeared to have some ability with fire, there was a definite coldness given off from her.

As she said her name, Magmarhyme seemed to be fixated on a particular tree. It was strange looking with a face, but besides that he didn't know what the fascination was. Then she asked it, that question he dreaded hearing: why was he alone? His muscles tensed when he said it and he began to nervously try to come up with an answer that seemed to satisfy her question. "Well... um... not at this time. Most of the ponies I've met are..." he paused, trying to hold back from saying anything. Then, it happened. "Ok. I have to tell the truth. Everypony that I've met is gone. No saying goodbye. No indication on where they have gone. Just gone. Now I'm just wandering about, so when you asked about no pony being with me, yeah, I'm kind of alone right now."

[magmarhyme]

Oh great, she'd got a weeper. The filly hadn't traipsed out into the depths of Everfree just to hear some stranger's life story, you know. At first, she just sent the colt a quizzical look - almost as if she was silently asking "why the hay are you so torn up about that?". Losing friendships had never really been a problem for Magma; you can't lose any if you don't have any, right?

"Other ponies are stupid. They don't respect you and then when you stand up for yourself, they whine that you're being selfish and not thinking of their needs. Pssh. Better to stick to your own hooves." The filly spoke with a slightly sharp tone. Definitely not the social butterfly, Magmarhyme could get along with others, but always tried not to get too close to them. They always seemed to end up letting her down. "Me? I don't need anypony. I'm doing just fine on my own."

The filly probably came off on the cold side, but that was just how she reacted around strangers, mostly. Anypony not met within Cult borders could well be an enemy. Not to mention a distraction and a pain, too. Since he'd taken the effort to actually fly down to her, Magma doubted that he'd be leaving, so she once again turned her attention to the tree-face. Holding a conversation and training? Well, that'd be a useful skill to master. "Don't jump." She added, closing her eyes again to focus on that tree. Just a ring of fire, come on!

[skyrocket]

The strangeness of this unicorn's appearance was further magnified by her opinions on friendship. Most ponies Sky met previously would offer advice on how to make friends and even offer to be friends with him. This Magmarhyme, however, offered no advice and had no intention to want friends. "That's ... really stragne," Sky said, "even kind of sad. Why do you feel that you don't need friends? Have you been betrayed by one before? I for one need friends to help me when I need help and share in my triumphs and tragedies of my life. I was told once that one person alone is strong but several friends together can be almost unstoppable." Sky then noticed that Magma seemed fixated on that same tree again. "Again with that tree. Why are you so interested in it?"

[magmarhyme]

"Oh for-" the unicorn paused, the sparks that had been forming on the tree dying out again. Concentration wasn't her forté, sure, but this was ridiculous!

"Sad?" queried Magma, trying not to get too frustrated with Sky Rocket. The colt seemed a tad too, uh, unstable to get irate with. "I've got nopony to upset me. If they try to, I can tell him 'em plain and simple to leave me alone, and I don't lose out. Friends just try to change you to suit themselves, and always bring up old fights. Right now, I can ignore or argue with anypony I like and it doesn't hurt me."

She wasn't sure whether he would understand her logic, but that was the easiest way for the unicorn to try and explain herself. Not that she'd really had to before. Most of the time, when ponies asked her why she didn't have friends, Magma just shrugged it off and they moved on, thinking her antisocial by nature. Which was kind of true. The filly had her reasons, however, albeit warped ones.

"And I'm staring at the tree 'cause I'm tryin' to set it alight! Stupid thing won't set on fire like I want it to!" Magma huffed, flicking her flaming hair back before returning her piercing stare to the bark. Granted, she wasn't trying to burn it directly, but any flame would be progress right now.

[skyrocket]

Sky rocket just stared at Magmarhyme when she tried to explain why she didn't feel the need to have friends. It was clear something happened, although Sky knew that prying would not help anything. "I'm sorry to hear that any of your past friends mistreated you badly. I'd be upset if I had ones who did. I could see somepony not wanting any other friends if that happened." Maybe Sky was right on target with her reason for being alone, or maybe he was way off. At least he was giving her a gesture of kindness and caring about her problem.

Sky then decided to focus on her trying to light the tree on fire, for whatever reason she wanted to. Obviously she was trying to proove something, and she was having trouble even getting started. "I don't know why you want to light up that tree so badly. You could just lean against it and it looks like your body would catch it on fire. What it looks like is that your having trouble focusing. I had trouble focusing and it caused me to crash several times. I learned to just block out everything around me until all I know is me and my goal. Maybe that will help you."

[magmarhyme]

"What it looks like is that you're having trouble focusing."

... Was he trying to state the obvious? Her attention span may not have been particularly lengthy regardless, but having him there was hardly going to help that.

"I'm not trying to hurt it. It's... like... uh, fire but not fire. It looks like fire but isn't causing any damage." She explained, still somewhat getting her head the concept herself. Really, it felt more like she was creating an illusion rather than flames themselves... was that it? Ugh. Too much to try and rationalise - all Magma knew was that she had to master it, and a pony cannot master a skill without first learning how to do it.

Pushing Sky Rocket to the back of her thoughts for the moment, the unicorn screwed her eyes shut again. The image that formed was just the face on the tree, not the whole thing, ringed in pale amber. 'Come on, come on, come on' was the only thought that rang through her mind. A tense moment passed - or at least, tense for her - before a whoosh caused the pony to look up. No flames; just a scorched circle mark. The fire she so craved had flickered in and out of life within an instant. Rats!

"I'll never get it!" Magma whined, flopping to her haunches with a groan. "How does anypony do this, anyway?"

[skyrocket]

Sky was confused at what Magma was saying. A fire spell that wasn't supposed to burn anything? It made no sense! Then he thought it could be something like an illusion, looking like fire but not. It was the only thing he could think of.

Watching Magmarhyme try to do the spell, Sky wanted to see her succeed. Sadly whatever she wanted to happen didn't. "Hey, don't get upset about not being to do that spell. I mean, it's not like you need to learn it now, right? You don't have to wear yourself for a practice. Just take your time, and I'm sure you'll get it eventually."

[magmarhyme]

"But I gotta learn it!" Protested Magmarhyme, glancing up at the pegasus. He was clueless. "Wat- uh, my teacher showed it to me, and if I'm gonna get better at using my powers then I have to master this."

The mare was determined to prove that she could contain her sometimes quite dangerous magical abilities, but right now she only had the choice between this and that wretched hummingbird golem. She loved the creature - kind of wanted it as a pet - but following the training she'd been given was difficult. Not to mention time-consuming. So, Friendly Fire was her top priority right now.

"Maybe I should try it on something smaller..." She mused. Standing back up, Magmarhyme admittedly had to resist using Sky Rocket as her test subject. Nah, plants would do for now. "See anything good to, uh, not burn?"

[skyrocket]

It seemed that whoever this mysterious teacher was, this pony was persistent to please him or her. Hopefully she was interested in learning whatever she was learning primarily for her. "Well, I may not be a unicorn or know much about magic, but I do know about practicing. I try to practice my aerial stunts everyday, especially any new ones."

Magmarhyme then said about starting with something smaller and and asked sky if there was anything to not burn. "Um... well besides not burning me," Sky said with an uneasy laugh. This pony wouldn't burn him or try some magic thing on him just because he dropped by to say hi, right? "You want something that can possibly burn but are trying to not let it burn with that fire spell, right? Well... let's see."

Looking around in the general area so as not to have him or her venture deper into the forest, Sky spotted a fallen tree branch that was resting on the ground. "Ok then. How about this branch? It can burn and it's small to practice on."

[magmarhyme]

Her amber gaze flicked over to said branch, eyeing it carefully. It was smaller than the bush, which was somewhat disappointing... but then again, she'd failed on that one too. Maybe starting small would be better. It just meant she'd have to be patient - ugh.

"Maybe after this I can try setting water on fire," laughed the unicorn, a twisted edge to her tone. Sparks and flames were fantastic tools not just for burning, but for scaring too - and she'd make sure to learn every trick in the book to make her entrances as epic as possible. Burning a tree was one thing - jumping from a cloud of smoke and ash with impossible things on fire was awesome! But again, these things took time. Time that Magmarhyme was not pleased with giving up.

Turning her attention to the branch, she began to concentrate again, trying to block out distractions. The forest was quiet enough so that wasn't a problem, but her mind was racing. Probably a side effect of not gallivanting about herself, or maybe her focus was just not on her side. Third time lucky... "Nnnrrf... anything?" Asked the mare through grit teeth, not daring to look herself.