Quest for Earth Pony Magic: the Disciple

by IMN

Chapter IV: The Smile Cast.

“I told you Sun Light is tougher than to die from a scratch on the head, but to die from embarrassment isn’t beyond him.” Mi Amore Cadenza joked as she marched a concerned filly and a grumpy colt toward the castle’s athenaeum.

“Please stop talking, or I will put on that dress,” Sun Light replied though cheeks were burning.

“I know you won’t do it Sunny, you know better than to tease Blueblood,” Cadance chuckled at the prospect, “Besides, after your sister’s first letter, there won’t be any dress for you to wear.”

Though he huffed, Sun Light smiled inwardly. He never thought that embarrassment coupled with an injury to the head would get him out of trouble that fast, at least he minimized his punishment to one week instead of a month so that is a win for him. Looking to his side, Twilight gave him an apologetic look with a mumbled “sorry,” which he promptly ignored.

“We’re here,” announced Cadance as she opened a large wooden door to a giant circular room with walls brimming with books, the middle of a room is a spacious clearance adorned by a desk facing the door, Cadance and Sun Light regarded Twilight with mild amusement as she entered in awe with her surroundings.

“Hello Cadance, Thank you kindly for your help,” Princess Celestia stepped out from behind the desk, then gave her niece a small hug. Turning toward the filly she said, “And hello to you as well Twilight Sparkle, hope you’re ready for your first day,” Twilight nodded in excitement. Celestia finally turned toward the colt of the group, “Sun Light, good to see you in good health again, you gave us quite a fright yesterday.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Will you be alright working today?” Celestia voiced her concern, only to be relieved when Sun Light’s blasé attitude.

“You worry too much about me, Princess,” he replied waving a hoof.

“Good,” Celestia nodded, “now that everything is settled, we should get started.”

“I’ll leave you to it then,” and with that Cadance left while waving everyone off.

“Now then, let’s start with our first lesson of the day,” Celestia then levitated four crystal spheres, each embroidered with a glowing insignia, the two foals’ eyes widened in awe as the four balls were set in front of them.

“Channeling!” Celestia announced cheerfully, Twilight clapped her hooves with glee before taking a notebook and a pen in her mouth, while the initial excitement of Sun Light faded into mild irritation over the subject that caused him so much trouble in the first place.

“Channeling is the art of being able to charge the correct amount of magic in order to cast a spell,” Celestia started her monolog at the same time as Twilight started furiously taking note, Sun Light merely huffed with frustrated boredom.

“Every spell requires a correct amount of magic to be cast correctly, less magic and the spell wouldn’t activate,” Celestia’s horn suddenly lights up with gold aura, the red ball’s glow suddenly intensified, but just as Celestia’s aura faded so did the glow of the crystal ball.

“But, if too much magic is channeled into the spell, it will overcharge and explode,” again, Celestia’s horn started glowing a slightly stronger aura than before, the red crystal ball suddenly burst into flames. Twilight jumped back in surprise, however Sun Light’s ears perked as more of Celestia's demonstration started to perk his interest. Celestia quickly retracted her magic and the flames receded.

“These,” Celestia pointed out by levitating the red crystal, “are enchanted crystals, each crystal is enchanted with an elemental spell. You have fire, water, air, and earth,” she said while point each in turn, “if you channel them correctly, their enchantments will glow brightly, as well as emitting a constant stream of their own element,” she demonstrated this by lighting her horn one more time, the glow seeped into the crystal and the insignia started to glow brightly, A crown of fire suddenly appeared around the crystal.

Celestia retracted her magic and the glow with the flames faded. She then took another crystal ball and placed it in front of Twilight, “Now you try it.”

With an eager nod, Twilight light up her horn in a lavender aura then placed as much of her magic inside the crystal ball as possible. The insignia glowed intensely but just as suddenly water erupted out of it in a large splash, causing a stunned yelp from Twilight, making her drop her spell immediately.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia’s voice snapped Twilight from her shock, “what do you know of these enchantments?”

Twilight stuttered a bit, “Um, I know that each element has a different way of activating it, fire is the easiest, then water, earth, and finally air."

“Very good,” Celestia applauded, “however, you mentioned them in order. Do you know what that order means?”

“It’s the order in which scholars learn their elements,” Twilight replied with more confidence.

“Good, but what does it mean to you?” Celestia ventured with her question.

Twilight stood a bit unsure, feeling as if she was walking into a trap, “it means I need to learn fire first, then water, then earth, and finally air.”

“Wrong.”

Both Celestia and Twilight turned to Sun Light, “what you just explained is the normal method of learning the elements as described by Clover the Clever,” he stood up, then started scanning the library, “Fire is the easiest because it requires the least amount of magic and, although it’s margin is a bit narrow, it is also easiest to sense and control.
Water require the largest amount of magic to activate, but it also has the largest margin to work with.
Earth requires more magic than fire but less magic than water, its margin is somewhat reasonable, though it’s the hardest to detect.
And finally air requires a larger amount than earth but less than water, it is the most difficult because it has the narrowest margin of them all.”

“How do you know that?” Twilight exclaimed a bit miffed at the colt’s cold treatment, “I never heard of such a thing.”

Ignoring Twilight’s inquiry, Sun Light started scanning the bookcases for their content. After finding his target, he reared one of the bookcases; and with a swift punch, a specific book suddenly fell from one of the high shelves and into his hoof, “You just overcharged a water enchanted crystal, which is theoretically very hard to do. What do you expect will happen to the other elements if you tried to channel them? They will overcharge just as easily,” he said while leafing through the pages of the chosen book.

“That is very good Sun Light. I knew choosing you as Twilight’s assistant would be a wise choice,” Celestia praised Sun Light, in return Sun lifted his head from the book with the terrifying glare that made Twilight shriek.

“That was you?” he asked acidly, much to the princess’s amusement.

“Do you think Cadance is the only matchmaker around here?” Celestia replied with a giggle.

“Good thing I’m staying here for a week and not a month then, no time for chemistry to build,” Sun Light pulled out his tongue in defiance, Celestia simply replied by smiling coyly. Sun Light pulled back his tongue. Shocked at the princess's lack of interest, he returned to his book. “There it is!” He suddenly exclaimed, handing Twilight the book at a specific page.

Twilight looked on Sun incredulously, then started to read:

Although for the majority of unicorns the standard elemental order applies, a decent twenty percent of all unicorns will, however, be unable to learn elements in such order due to variation in magical capacities. Those who are more or less capable than the norm might require a different order to learn them. Then there are the special cases who gain their cutiemark in a certain element, these are often the trickiest to teach…

“So what? I need to learn them from the one that requires the most magic to activate to the least?”

Sun Light shook his head again, “That is the regime for those who are usually lower than the norm, you will be learning them in this order,” he then leafed quickly until he reached the chapter in question.

Starswirl the Bearded Approach

The Starswirl the bearded Approach was developed by Starswirl the bearded himself during his attempt at learning elemental magic. The elemental order in which he learned was Earth, Water, Air, and finally Fire. His reasoning for such order was that Earth requires the most latent talent to channel, while Water would enhance capacity for high requiring spells, Air fine-tunes channeling through a limited margin, and finally Fire because it is the most difficult for those with high magical capacity.

Twilight sat on her haunches, baffled as to why none of her books contained such detailed but necessary information, she flipped the book to read the title. “Proficiency at Elemental Magic Volume 1,” it read. “That’s a master level reference book, there was no way I could find something like that in the local library.”

“I know,” Sun Light replied sarcastically, “Unfortunately, I read books that not even Master students can gain access to, which I presume is the real reason why Celestia chose me to be your assistant and not that silly matchmaker joke you said earlier?”

With a giggle, Celestia replied, “Looks like I am caught red-hoofed.”

Sun Light snorted, “Now I think I know where this is going, so if you’ll excuse me, I have some reading to catch up on,” he turned his back, and with another buck, another book fell into his hoof, “if you need anything, just call,” he sat at the far edge of the room, opened the book then lost himself the moment he opened it.

Twilight glared at him angrily, then turned toward Celestia, “He’s kind of a jerk, isn’t he?” she stated.

“He had a difficult couple of days,” Celestia replied warmly as ever, “Give him some time, he’ll come around.”

Twilight regarded her princess with a bit of skepticism, but chose to return to the subject at hand, “So what exactly am I supposed to do?”

“Sun Light was correct, you will be following Starswirl the bearded approach. For the next few days, you will learn how to activate these runes by the order he explained. This is an important step in learning how to control your powers, which is why we will not advance in our studies until you can successfully channel these runes, alright?”

Twilight nodded fervently, “Good,” Celestia exclaimed, then with a small nudge she said, “Get to it then.”

Celestia watched as Twilight trotted cheerfully toward the stone rune then immediately started channeling her magic into it, and as expected the rune overcharged and a pile of rubble suddenly appeared. Celestia regarded her student’s surprise with mild amusement, before shifting her attention toward her student’s assistant who was leisurely reading his book without a care. She sighed. What am I going to do with you? She thought inwardly. When suddenly an idea came into her head.

Turning toward her student, she addressed her absentmindedly, “will it be alright if I left you for a bit?”

Twilight turned toward her mentor a bit perplexed, “Sure,” she replied hesitantly.

After seeing Twilight returned to her task, Celestia walked toward the young colt at the other end of the room. She sat next to Sun Light who seemed oblivious of her presence, she noticed he was reading another advanced book about transmorfiguration spells, giggling she asked, “Reading anything interesting?”

“Not really, can’t seem to find what I’m looking for,” He replied automatically.

“Then, do you have a minute to talk?”

Sun Light glanced above his book to meet Celestia’s own gaze, “What do you want to talk about?”

“What is your purpose in life?” she asked in an all-knowing tone.

Sun muffled a chuckle, “I’m just a foal princess. I shouldn’t be thinking that far.”

“True,” Celestia scratched her chin, “but you did pass the state examination last year, something even Cadance isn’t expected to take in three more years. Treating you like a foal at this point isn’t doing you any justice.”

Sun Light’s smile vanished, “Is this going to be one of our serious talks?” he asked with a serious expression.

“If you want it to be,” Celestia replied innocently.

Sun sighed, “I just want to be taken seriously, is that too much to ask?”

“No, but what exactly have you done in order to be taken seriously?”

Sun Light opened his mouth in order to say something, but then nothing came out, he then thought for a moment, “I guess not much,” he concluded.

A moment of silence have passed, both the princess and the colt stared at the student training. Twilight was on her fourth try, she overcharged the spell four times and was now thinking of another way around it. She cast a tentative glance at the duo, earning a wave from the solar princess. Blushing she returned to her channeling and overcharging the crystal for the fifth time.

“She’s too distracted,” Sun Light noted, “I think watching her like that isn’t helping.”

“You are correct,” Celestia affirmed while stealing a glance between her student and the colt, something that didn’t go unnoticed.

“If you have any suggestions just spit them out already,” Sun Light replied irritated.

“How about finding a job?” Celestia proposed.

“And I’m guessing you have a job in mind?”

“In the matter of fact I do,” Celestia stood up, “come with me,” she walked toward the door.

Sun Light placed the book on the ground then followed the princess.

“Where are you going?” Twilight asked as they passed her.

“I’ll be right back,” Celestia replied quickly.

Twilight gave Sun Light a questioning glance, he only replied to her with a shrug.

A while later, Celestia guided in silence Sun Light into one of the many corridors in the castle. “This way leads to the bedchambers,” Sun Light noted.

“Correct,” Celestia confirmed, “we are heading toward Twilight Sparkle’s chambers.”

“What for?”

Celestia suddenly stopped, “Did you know how Twilight became my student?”

Sun Light thought for a moment, “She hatched a dragon egg, right?”

“Correct again, and who do you think is taking care of that dragon right now?”

“Wait, you were serious about that?”

Celestia gave Sun Light a scrutinizing look over, “You saw exactly how capable that filly is. Is there a reason for you to be belittling her to that extent?” she replied harshly.

Sun Light shrieked, “She figured my cutiemark before me,” he grumbled.

Celestia stared at Sun in utter shock, “You can’t be that foalish, can you?” Celestia mused over what she just said, and to whom she said it, “On second thought, of course, you can, you are just the same little vindictive foal who wanders my castle aimlessly,” she ended with a scrutinizing glare.

Sun Light flashed a bright smile before quipping, “Of course I am.”

Celestia sigh, “Well, I’m putting an end to it,” she turned then headed toward Twilight’s room, “starting today I am putting you in charge of Twilight Sparkle’s baby dragon, Spike. With your current duties as her assistant, you will be held responsible for him as well,” she suddenly turned toward Sun Light, and with her most authoritative voice, she commanded, “Do I make myself clear? Helios of Phoenicia.”

Sun Light stood in attention. Goosebumps running the long of his neck, “Using my name like that,” he erred, “you really left me with little choice there, Princess Celestia. Though I have to ask, why do you need me to babysit a hatchling?”

“None of the other sitters in the castle agreed to it, though they are not my first choice in the matter,” Celestia explained, “When the decision was made, your sister was the first pony I thought of.”

“Good choice,” Sun commented.

“Yes, her monster taming skills are as unfathomable as her strength, but she was leaving to join the guards,” Celestia sighed, “however, seeing as you have nothing else to do other than being mean spirited, I might as well put your knowledge to good use.”

Celestia suddenly turned toward one of the doors, “here we are.”

Sun Light walked into a room that looked much like the castle’s athenaeum, circular in shape, a large window adorning one of its fronts while the other walls are brimming with books.

“Way to go, Celestia, putting a live dragon in a library full of flammable books, I bet the little demon will burn this place to ashes before his mistress will have her way.”

“Sun Light please,” Celestia rolled her eyes, “if you want to insult somepony, at least be more tactful about it, your overdramatic speech loses a lot of insult potential.”

Sun Light followed the princess toward a staircase at the other side of the room, on the second floor Celestia opened the door to a homelier room, a small desk greeted them, facing it was a bed and a cradle, while a closet stood at the far side.

Celestia walked toward the cradle, then levitated something with her aura, “Hello there,” she cooed, “how was your nap?” a loud giggle was heard coming from whoever she was playing with.

Celestia looked at Sun Light, the warm smile that adorned her face was suddenly twisted into something twisted as she placed the creature on the ground in front of Sun Light, “Spike, meet your new caretaker.”

Sun Light stared intently as a small tail uncoiled around itself revealing a small purple lizard with a green crown garnishing his head and back, the young lizard gave a hearty yawn before opening its emerald eyes fully. The baby dragon took one look at Sun Light and flashed a wide smile that caused the young colt to recoil back and fall on his rump.

“This… This is…” Sun Light stammered.

Spike crawled toward the young colt. Giggling, he climbed on his belly, then his head. Then he took one of his ears with his two little paws and placed it in his mouth.

“He likes you,” Celestia jested with a grin, causing Sun Light to blush intently.

Sun Light wiped frivolously away the drool on his cheek that was coming from the baby dragon’s chewing. “Does my submission amuse you so?” he asked while standing up.

Celestia shook her head, “I hope that a time comes when you stop looking at grownups as evil creatures coming after you and your precious leisure, Sun Light,” she then walked toward the door, “You have one week to give me an answer about whether or not you want to work as Twilight Sparkle’s assistant and Spike’s caretaker. I am also planning on paying you as much as I pay an adult employee as an incentive. I urge you to consider your options carefully before giving me your word,” and with that, she left the colt with the baby dragon chewing on his ear.

Sun Light sighed, “Sheesh, she sure can make things sound ominous when she wants to.”

Standing up, he picked up the baby dragon from the top of his head, “Hey you,” he said with a stern expression, “my ear is not a chew toy.”

Spike simply laughed, beaming his wide smile in front of Sun Light, he stretched his paws in an attempt to grab his muzzle, causing Sun Light’s expression to soften considerably, “but Celestia be damned it, you are so damn cute.”

Placing the hatchling on the ground, Sun Light sat in front of him, “but having to care for you while helping your mistress with magic is going to take a lot of time, I doubt I’ll be able to research any spells in the process.”

Sun Light stared at the baby dragon for a long time, while the latter simply stared back, smiling and waving his tail. Suddenly a wicked smile coiled around the young colt’s mouth, “unless I want to learn a dragon egg hatching spell from the only pony in Equestria that managed to pull it off,” he jumped at the baby dragon, showering him with tickles, “then this job is going to be perfect for me.”

Author's Note:

And here we are at the first crossroad. With this chapter finished I can rest assured and write the other part with peace.

Next up, Sun Light learns a spell or two.

Again, once the other part is done I'll resume updates at the rate of 1 chapter every 1-2 days. That way none of you will be bored, I hope.

Comments

[RadicalDishonesty]

How old is Sun at this point?

Old enough to take over fatherhood duties for Spike? Or is he just "old enough" to own a pet dragon?