//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Tests and Lessons // Story: Talons of the Storm // by Storm Talon //------------------------------// Talon finished his pancakes almost as quickly as Spike, though with significantly less syrup. Twilight had even managed to convince Spike to share a few of his special gem pancakes. She'd made sure he could eat them safely, of course. “I think it might be best to start you off learning some of the basics. Once you have some basics down, we can see about having the crusaders over for study sessions.” Talon smiled as he nodded, his lips and muzzle still sticky from stray syrup. “Yes, good.” Twilight frowned slightly. “Let's try some exercises while I finish up.” She looked down at her plate. “Okay, you already ate your pancakes. This is my pancake. Now, I want you to say that from your point of view, okay?” Talon nodded again as Twilight carefully cut a piece of pancake and stuffed it into her mouth. “Okay.” He pointed at his plate. “ Ate my pancake.” He then pointed over to her plate. “You pancake.” He smiled at her, hoping he'd done it right. Twilight coughed as she inhaled a few crumbs. “I'm no' a 'ancake!” She tried to yell through her mouthful as Spike fell off his chair, holding his gut as he laughed. Celestia smiled as her conversation was halted by Luna barely holding in her chuckles. Twilight looked around for a moment, chagrined, as she swallowed, trying to salvage what dignity she could. “I am not a pancake. In this situation you would say 'I ate my pancake' and 'that is your pancake', alright Talon?” Talon just nodded once more, trying his best to follow along as Spike cleared the dishes from the table. After a few hours of lessons, Twilight stood before Talon. “Alright, you seem to have gotten pronouns and a few conjunctions at least. We'll work on vocabulary and conjugation in later lessons. Does that sound alright to you, Talon?” “I not know what is 'vocabulary' or 'conjugation'.” Twilight internally sighed as she added sentence structure to his later lesson plan in her head. “But I trust you know what is good.” “Sounds good!” “That last sentence was even correct, if somewhat basic,” she thought. “Fluttershy, how often do you think you could bring him over for lessons? I also want to run some tests on him so I can answer your question from earlier; I don't know how long that will take.” “Really?” interrupted Spike from where he was organizing a nearby bookshelf. “You don't have any other reasons you want to run tests on the poor guy?” An embarrassed smile spread across her face. “Well, yeah, but the primary reason is to help him and Fluttershy.” “Suuure,” Spike said, rolling his eyes. “I, um, can probably bring him over pretty often. How often would you be able to teach him, Twilight?” “Well, my schedule varies sometimes, but if we plan ahead we should be able to set aside a few hours for him about three or four days a week.” “Oh, um, sure. Are you sure you can give up so much of your time?” “Of course! You know,” Twilight spoke as she thought. “At that rate, he may even be able to attend school with the other foals, with some supplementary tutoring, of course.” “Hey, wait 'til Celestia hears you've got your own personal student!” Spike guffawed at the thought as Twilight's eyes widened suddenly. “Ohmigosh!” Twilight hopped back and forth on her hooves while her wings fluttered. “ I hadn’t' even thought of that! What if I'm not a good enough teacher?” Luna smirked. “Surely teaching a single colt is less daunting than Tirek was, at the least. He might give Sombra some competition, though.” Luna had managed to keep a straight face until she finished her statement, when she, Spike, and Cadence each burst out laughing. “Really, guys?” asked Twilight as she rolled her eyes. “Really,” Cadence said as she wiped a tear from her eye. “I had some pretty rough foal-sitting jobs, you know.” “If you feel it would be too much, I would be more than willing to take some time to come help teach him,” Luna reassured her. “I can handle it!” Twilight protested as a blush burned in her cheeks, before she dipped her head apologetically. “I, uh, appreciate the offer, though.” Talon did his best to sit still as Twilight attached wires to various points on his body. She fiddled with them for a few minutes before positioning crystals at each corner of the room and setting up a few delicate-looking instruments on a nearby table. “Alright, I'm ready. Now Talon, can you try to jump like you did in Sugarcube Corner?” “I try.” Talon screwed up his face in concentration, crouched down, and jumped about a foot into the air. Cracking open one eye, Talon looked around “No work?” “No, I don't think it worked. Your jump was higher than a pony's, but not by much. I wonder if there was some sort of trigg-” “BOO!” Talon jumped up six feet into the air as Spike shouted from where he'd snuck up next to him. “Spike!” Twilight glared as she caught Talon in her magic. “That wasn't very nice! Why would you do that?” “Sorry,” Spike began, scratching the back of his head with one claw. “I just thought, since Fluttershy said it happened when the crusaders spooked him, it might only happen if he was surprised.” “Well... It might have worked, but you should still apologize to him.” Twilight motioned to Talon, who was nearly hyperventilating as he hid under the table. “Yeah... sorry about that, Talon.” Spike suddenly adopted a serious look on his face. “I won't do it again unless there's a super-good reason.” Talon looked over, managing to calm his breathing most of the way to normal. “Spike promise?” Spike snickered behind his claw. “Yeah, yeah, I promise. Just don't expect me to promise like Apple Bloom did.” Twilight looked between them as Talon raised an eyebrow at Spike. “Am I missing something here?” “Aw, just something that happened while you were all in that meeting yesterday. I'll tell you later.” Twilight raised her eyebrow as she and Spike walked Fluttershy and Talon to the door, but kept quiet. They had a meeting to get to, so she could ask him later. The meeting had not gone as well as any of them had hoped. While the princesses had many ideas, each of them were shot down by Gunnar. The worst part was how well thought out each of his rebuttals were. Twilight hung her head as they walked down the hall. “Do not worry, Twilight. I'm sure we'll figure something out.” Celestia reached out to her with a wing as she consoled her. Twilight looked up at her with a weak smile. “I know, it's just...” “Say,” Luna began, hoping to distract from the gloomy mood. “What did you find out from the tests you ran on Talon?” “Oh!” Twilight perked up with renewed energy. “Oh my gosh, it's so exciting! He definitely triggered his magic when he jumped!” “Celestia raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you sure, Twilight? As far as we know, griffons only have passive magical capabilities.” “That's what's so exciting about it! His thaumic signatures definitely lined up with his brainwave patterns more than his electrocardiograph readings. He definitely has active magical capabilities, but I don't think he's really used them before. He definitely has passive magic similar to a griffin or pegasus as well. If we could figure out how his magic works, we might have another clue to his parents' identities.” “So he's like a pegasus, magically speaking?” Cadence's voice drifted from the other side of Celestia and Luna as they reached the roof landing, where chariots waited for the three departing princesses. “Yes and no.” Twilight brought her hoof to her chin, thinking how best to explain. “He has similar passive abilities to those of a pegasus, but his active magic seems to be at least partially conscious rather than purely instinctive. If we figure out how it works, we might even be able to teach him some spells, although I'm not sure how good he'd be at casting them.” “Are... are you certain, Twilight?” Luna asked as Cadence and Celestia stopped to listen. “No, but it looks likely. If it is true, it could change how we understand magical theory regarding the gap between active and passive magic. It certainly wouldn't hurt to have something to study besides alicorn magic that incorporates both.” “In any case Twilight, We must each return to our duties. It has been nice being able to take some time to spend with you.” Celestia smiled as they moved to their respective chariots. Fluttershy brought Talon back the next day, and Twilight set him up with a few grammar workbooks to work through as she and Spike did their morning chores. Afterward, she went through flash cards to improve his vocabulary. A few minutes into doing so, however, she was distracted by the sound of Spike belching out a letter. Talon glanced back and forth between her and Spike as she trotted over to them. His eyes widened as she took the scroll in her magic and unrolled it. “Thank you, Spike.” Twilight lifted the scroll to eye level and started to read. Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle, We wish to inform you that we have assigned a squad of guards to assist Ponyville's local law enforcement. We fear that there may be some attempt to subvert relations with Ambassador Gunnar, and hope that the presence of our faithful guards may serve to give us early warning in such a case. We would appreciate it if you would be able to help Mayor Mare prepare appropriate accommodations. The guards should arrive within a day, and will be under the jurisdiction of Captain Shield Burst while stationed in Ponyville. Please let us know if there are any problems regarding this. Your friends, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna Twilight looked up from her letter. “Well, the meeting with Mayor Mare isn't for a few hours yet, and...” Twilight stared at the look of shock on Talon's face. “Is something wrong, Talon?” Talon opened and closed his mouth a few times as he glanced over to Spike. “Spike is okay?” “Wha-Oh!” Twilight shook her head and chuckled. “Spike can breath fire, Talon. It won't hurt him.” “No, Talon mean...” Talon looked down as he thought out what to say. “Is not bad to do fire?” “Oh, well, as long as he doesn't hurt anything, it's fine. Plus, he can burn scrolls to send them to Celestia. Why do you ask?” “Talon do fire?” “Well, I don't think you can. Most species don't have any kind of magical breath capabilities, and – Oh sweet Celestia!” Twilight interrupted herself as Talon breathed out a small white flame. Her exclamation caused Talon to dive under the table for cover, cutting off the flame almost as soon as it started. “What is?” Talon's small voice asked from the safety found behind several chair legs. “Twilight say not bad. Is bad?” “What do you – no, no it's not bad, but...” Twilight hesitated as she pieced her thoughts together. “You can breath fire?!” Talon poked his head out from under the table. “Um... yes?” “That's... it's just...” Twilight sighed. “Let's get back to the flash cards. I'll talk with Fluttershy about it when she picks you up. Spike, could you go let her know I need her to come a little early?” “He what?!” Fluttershy shrieked at Spike, reaching a volume that was only impressive due to the pony it was coming from. “He breathed fire,” Spike repeated, “Except it was white. It was really weird, too, 'cuz he was freaking out when I burped up a scroll like something bad was gonna happen.” Fluttershy frowned. “He's never done it before...” “Yeah, well, we should get back before Twilight freaks out; she's already more worked up than I've seen her in a while. C'mon!” As Spike and Fluttershy hurried into the library, they saw Twilight flipping through various books as they floated off of shelves and over toward a desk where an increasingly nervous looking Talon sat. “No, no, maybe... definitely not... I'll have to run some tests...” Twilight muttered to herself, oblivious to the entrance of her friends. “Fluttershy! Talon move now?” “Yes, yes, just don't leave the library. Fluttershy, can you wait here with him until I get back from the meeting with Mayor Mare? I need to run some tests when I do.” “Um, sure, Twilight.” Fluttershy looked over to Talon as he walked over to hide behind her. “Did Talon get lunch yet?” “Oh, uhm... no. Feel free to grab him something from the kitchen. I've got to go.” Twilight stuffed an assortment of scrolls into her saddlebags and grabbed Spike in her magic as she cantered to the exit. “Okay, thanks, bye!” “Twilight!” shouted Spike in indignation. “I can walk, you know!” Fluttershy and Talon looked at each other as they heard the main castle door slam shut, followed by the pop of a teleport.