//------------------------------// // The Student Becomes the Teacher // Story: Consanguinity // by D4ftP0ny //------------------------------// The sky outside of the study that served as Flurry Heart’s classroom was filled with storm clouds, their mottled blue-gray colors diffusing and dampening the light of the sun so dramatically that Sunburst had actually turned on the lamps during his lecture, something that Flurry couldn’t remember him having to do before. The Crystal Kingdom doesn’t really get thunderstorms very often, she thought excitedly as a deep, low rumble of thunder growled beneath Sunburst’s voice as he moved towards the end of his morning lecture. Her eyes darted to the window, and she couldn’t help but kick her hooves beneath her desk at the prospect of the weather to come. I hope that Sunburst will let me have a break when the storm happens. I don’t think I’ll be able to concentrate at all if he doesn’t! Her icy blue magic shifted her quill down her page and scratched a few more notes as the sound of chalk scraping across a chalkboard added a higher, sharper layer to the sounds inside and outside the room. “…and so, with the Unicorn Corps backing up the Wonderbolts and their secondary units, the Equestrian Army was able to drive a wedge through the Griffon formations and effectively bring an end to the Griffon War in the fall of 1014 A.C.” The chalk scribbled faster, causing Flurry’s right ear to twitch towards the board even as her eyes stared eagerly at the storm outside. “Princess Celestia herself presided over the battle, and at its conclusion she personally made her way to the Griffon commander to accept his surrender. Then, the very next day, she entered Griffonstone and drafted a peace treaty with their King – an agreement that still stands today.” The chalk made one last decisive stroke across the board before being deposited loudly into its tray. Flurry’s quill made a few more precise strokes on her paper, but her eyes never strayed from the window to the fascinating world outside her classroom. Her wings rustled, their joints brushing gently against her hair as she heard Sunburst take a few steps towards her. “Any questions?” Flurry’s ear twitched again, and this time she turned her gaze from the window to the pony that sat in the desk next to hers, her insides jumping and bumping around. Asking whether or not she had questions was not something that Sunburst had always done; in fact, he knew very well that Flurry Heart would be ready and willing to leap squarely into his lecture if she had a question that needed answering. He had, however, added the polite ‘any questions’ at the end three weeks ago when Flurry’s class had literally doubled in size. Skyla sat with her hooves atop her desk attentively, the clear aqua of her magic moving her own quill deftly across her notes as she eagerly watched the chalkboard and Sunburst. “How far into Equestria did the griffons make it before they were repulsed?” she asked. Flurry’s eyes darted back to Sunburst, who smiled and shook his head. “They didn’t. They never made it past the northern border.” He gestured back to the notes on the board with his right hoof, his movements crisp since he’d removed his cape for the lecture. He always gets kind of lost in that thing, thought Flurry with a quirk of her lips. I think he might be better off if he just stopped wearing it… “They didn’t make it into Equestria at all?” muttered Skyla, and Flurry’s eyes returned to the other alicorn as she gave a slow shake of her head, her curls waving gently around her neck and head. “In my world they broke through the border and were massing to march on Whinnyapolis before the Equestrian forces could push them back, and even then it was a very near thing. What did they do differently here?” Sunburst chuckled lightly as he turned back from the board. “I think that you might be asking the wrong question, actually.” He lifted his right hoof and adjusted his glasses as he closed his eyes, a motion that forced Flurry Heart to stifle a giggle. That’s what he does when he’s going to say something smart, she reflected, her lips quivering with the effort of containing her laughter. He probably thinks it makes him look smarter. “I think,” he continued, “that what you should be asking is not what they did differently, but who they had with them that they didn’t in your world.” “Who they had..?” Skyla frowned, but it only lasted a moment before her eyes widened and her mouth opened into a half smile. “Aaaaah, I see. So Princess Celestia’s presence is what kept the Equestrian lines from falling apart?” “Correct.” Sunburst dropped his hoof back to the floor. “The fact that Princess Celestia herself chose to remain with her troops at the front lines instead of retreating when things looked bleakest inspired the troops enough to make an actual difference on the battlefield.” “Did she fight along with her troops?” A low, throaty rumble of thunder filled the room, the sound chasing the words of Skyla’s question as they faded away. Flurry’s magic lifted her quill off of the paper as she frowned across at Skyla, who was watching Sunburst so intently that she didn’t notice Flurry’s look. “Ah, um… actually, no,” said Sunburst after the thunder had faded away into silence once again. “According to official accounts, the Princess merely directed the battle. The only time that it was said that she used her magic was to heal wounds, and then only the most dire and most severe.” Skyla shifted in her seat and sat up, a frown touching her face, as well. “But why didn’t she? She’s an alicorn with enough magic to blast a kingdom from the face of Equestria if she wanted to.” She lifted her hoof and shrugged. “Why didn’t she intervene in the battle and bring it to a close earlier?” “Well, um…” Sunburst shifted on his hooves and started to look like he needed to use the bathroom, “that is a fantastic question, Skyla… and one that I really, really would like to answer, but-,” “It’s because if she’d intervened and brought an end to the battle by herself, the griffons never would have respected the ponies enough to leave them alone.” Flurry’s eyes widened and darted to the open door, where Starlight Glimmer was standing with her shoulder against the doorframe. “When did you get here?” she blurted before she could stop herself. Starlight smiled a little, but Flurry could tell that it wasn’t really a nice smile. “I’ve been standing outside for a bit, waiting for Sunburst to be done with his lecture,” she said, shifting her weight away from the frame and stepping into the room. “I would have waited ‘til he was done, too, but I feel like this was a pretty good time for me to butt in.” She moved to the front of the makeshift classroom so that she stood next to Sunburst, who gave her a shaky sort of smile that made Flurry think that he was in trouble. “Thanks, Starlight,” he muttered. “I’ll admit that I haven’t always asked the same questions that these girls ask, so sometimes they catch me off guard.” Starlight smirked. “That’s why I’m here now.” She cleared her throat and looked from Skyla to Flurry, her eyes firm and full of seriousness. “Griffons don’t respect much, but they respect strength. They believed that ponies were weak, pathetic little creatures who wouldn’t last two seconds in a real fight, and if Celestia had intervened and used her amazing magic to end the battle, they would have continued believing that.” She snorted. “I mean, that doesn’t stop most of them from still believing that today, but because of that battle in 1014 A.C. they know that ponies can and will defend their land, no matter how tough things get.” She focused her attention on Skyla, who sat up straighter in her chair beneath the unicorn’s gaze. “Celestia knew that, so, in spite of being able to end the battle herself, she had to sit back and stay out of the fight as much as she could. She became a general instead of a soldier, and that’s a much harder job than just blasting other creatures with magic.” Starlight held Skyla’s gaze for a long set of heartbeats, but finally she relaxed and smiled – a nice one, this time. “Does that make sense, Skyla?” “Yeah… I guess it does.” Skyla nodded and smiled back to Starlight. “Thanks for explaining that, Starlight.” “No problem,” she said before lifting her left hoof and elbowing Sunburst playfully in the ribs, her smile morphing into a grin. “Sometimes this bookworm gets too comfortable reading about history and forgets to think about history.” Sunburst chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head with his hoof. “Well, you’re right about that, I suppose,” he muttered before dropping his hoof back to the floor. “Reading and reciting are a far cry from critical thinking, and we need both sides to learn.” Flurry Heart’s quill touched back down on her paper as she watched the pair, jotting down the exchange between Starlight and Sunburst. It wasn’t something she did all the time, but sometimes she would write down the things that Sunburst, Starlight, or other important ponies said so she wouldn’t forget them. It had been her Aunt Twilight’s idea, and she had to admit that she was able to remember a whole lot more of the neat things that ponies said when she wrote them down. We need both sides to learn, she repeated to herself as she looked down at her notes, where the ink was rapidly drying on the last few words she’d written. That sounds like something that a Princess should remember. “And now that we’ve gotten that little muddle taken care of,” said Sunburst with a glance at Skyla, “I suppose that means that it’s time for Skyla’s training?” Starlight nodded once, her curl bouncing as she smiled. “Indeed it is.” Her eyes darted to Skyla. “Are you ready to go? Did you get all of your notes?” Flurry Heart rolled her eyes and laid her quill onto her desk, the tip propped neatly atop the small ink catcher that kept her desk from getting stains. “Of course she did,” she said softly, though not quite softly enough to keep the other ponies in the room from hearing. “She always does, so you can stop asking about it.” The unicorn mare’s ears twitched violently, but they stayed upright as she turned her gaze back towards Flurry. Before she could answer, however, Skyla sat back in her chair and waved her hoof dismissively at Flurry, her expression caught somewhere between a frown and a smile. “Flurry, it’s fine,” she said quickly. “I don’t mind. It’s okay.” She turned her gaze back to Starlight and gave a single, firm nod as she sat up straight in her chair once again, her wings rustling against her back. “I made sure that I got all of my notes, Starlight,” she said, her face finally deciding on an expression and choosing the smile. “I’m ready to go.” Starlight turned back to Skyla and gave a satisfied nod, her face losing the edge that Flurry had seen in it. “All right then, as long as your teacher approves,” she glanced at Sunburst, who nodded, “then we’ll be on our way.” She headed towards the door as Skyla hastily tucked her ink well, papers, and textbook into her desk with her magic before darting out into the hallway after the unicorn, her curled tail swishing with excitement. “See you later, Flurry Heart!” she tossed over her shoulder, her smile bright as she raised her right hoof and gave Flurry a wave goodbye. Flurry raised her hoof as fast as she could and gave a frantic wave, but the other alicorn slipped out of the room so quickly that she wasn’t sure that she’d seen it. Flurry’s ears drooped as she lowered her hoof and slowly turned back to her desk, a sad, uncomfortable feeling bumping around in her stomach. I really wish she’d stick around to say goodbye, at least, she thought with a frown at her paper, even though she knew that it hadn’t done anything to make her angry. It makes me sad when she doesn’t… “Well, that wraps up our lesson,” said Sunburst, and his voice drew Flurry out of her inner thoughts. She blinked and turned her gaze back to the front of the class, where the stallion was carefully erasing the chalkboard with the fuzzy eraser held in his golden magic. “I suppose you’re going to have some free time today, since you won’t be having your flying lessons with Captain Sentry.” Flurry froze in place, her hooves stopping halfway to closing her textbook as her eyes widened at her teacher. “Why wouldn’t I have my flying lessons with Flash today?” she asked, the uncomfortable feeling returning in her stomach. “I mean, I know I can’t exactly fly yet, but Flash has been really helping me, and he said that we might get to gliding soon!” She closed her book with a soft thwump as lightning flashed vibrantly out the window. “I was hoping that he could take me up into the crazy clouds out there right now and fly around!” She pouted at Sunburst, who lowered his snout and peered over his glasses at her as thunder filled the room with an explosive rumble. “Why would my lesson be cancelled?” Sunburst’s eyes darted to the window as the thunder faded, and with a sigh his magic grasped a book from the shelf to the right of the chalkboard. The tome floated through the air before the stallion’s magic winked out and deposited the textbook onto the top of Flurry’s first one, and she squinted at the words printed in official looking text across the cover. “’The Pegasus’ Complete Guide to Weather Phenomena’…” she read aloud before sitting back in her chair and frowning. “Why did you give me this?” “So you can start reading it while I clean up,” he replied with a smile that made Flurry Heart just a little angry for some reason. He turned back to the board and continued cleaning it with the levitating eraser. “I guess it never occurred to me that you might not know about weather other than pretty blue skies and snow. Skip to chapter fourteen on lightning, and I think you’ll learn all you need to know about why your lesson on the roof today is cancelled.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The storm that was scheduled to hit the Crystal Kingdom did so right on time, and there wasn’t a pony in the city that didn’t know about it. Thunder rumbled so loudly that it shook windows in the streets, and rain lashed the buildings with enough force that some ponies began to fear that the sheer pressure of the wind and water would cause some leaks to start appearing in the cracks of their homes. The roar of the wind was almost deafening throughout the city, but nowhere was the howling of the storm greater than inside the Crystal Castle, which, unlike the houses that surrounded it, received no protection at all to dampen the effects of the blistering wind and driving rain. The sounds of the tempest outside made it all but impossible to hold a conversation in the outer hallways even if you shouted, and everypony with good sense had retired to their rooms until the squall had blown over. I’ve been accused of a lot of things in my life, thought Starlight Glimmer with a sardonic smile, but having good sense isn’t one of them. The sound of the storm outside echoed in the large training room in which she stood, the rain lashing the broad windows that lined the upper part of the two-story high walls that normally allowed a copious amount of sunlight into the broad space. Now, however, the storm clouds had all but driven the light of the afternoon sun away and left the castle in a state of darkness that was more akin to late evening at this time of year, and the only light that illuminated the space inside the training room emanated from orbs of white magic that hung suspended in a vertical ring in front of Skyla, her face knit into a mask of concentration. “Good,” said Starlight from her spot several pony lengths away. “Your orbs look stable, and you’ve even got them uniformly spaced – a nice touch.” She turned to her right and started to walk, her eyes never leaving the filly before her. “Now, it’s time to change their colors. Are you ready?” “I’m ready,” said Skyla, her words firm and confident. The corner of Starlight’s lip twitched, but she refused to let the alicorn see a smile on her face. “All right, then – show me red, blue, orange, and turquoise.” Skyla lowered her muzzle and the soft aqua of her magic flared a little brighter around her horn as the floating orbs of light shimmered for the barest of heartbeats before beginning to shift in color. The orb highest in the ring blossomed into a brilliant scarlet without any problem at all, its red light casting a brilliant hue on the ceiling high above them; then the orb to Skyla’s right became orange, its tones splashing across the wall and floor before the bottom orb shifted to blue, its calming hue blending nicely with the orange next to it. Starlight’s eyes narrowed as Skyla’s gaze darted to the orb to her left, her frown deepening as she glared at the orb until it finally gave a shiver and swirled with blue and green until it became a bright turquoise, its light the color of a tropical sea. She had trouble with that last one. Maybe turquoise is too hard for her. Starlight kept her expression neutral as she nodded in affirmation, turning around to pace back towards where she’d started. “Good. Now, change them to yellow, green, purple, and pink.” Skyla’s attention refocused on the group as a whole, and in the same order they quickly changed to the next series of colors: red to yellow, orange to green, blue to purple, then turquoise to pink with the same shiver of the structure and swirl of the color as before. Starlight’s eyes narrowed once again, and this time she couldn’t keep from frowning. “Are you having trouble with the fourth orb?” she asked, stopping in the center of the room once again. “If it’s too much, we can tone it back to three again.” Lightning flashed outside the window and thunder rumbled almost immediately through the auditorium as Skyla gave her head a vehement shake, the orbs shifting along with her infinitesimally. “No,” she said, her voice firm again. “We’re up to four, I can handle four. It’s no problem – I’m just making sure that I get the right color, that’s all.” She brought her gaze back to Starlight, who blinked in surprise at the look of determination on the young pony’s face. “In fact, let’s go up to five. I’m sure I can handle that many.” “Five?” chuckled Starlight, her surprise melting into an arched eyebrow and a smirk. “Skyla, we just got to four, and you’re clearly having trouble with that last one. I won’t make you go back down to three, but for right now let’s-,” “I can do five, Starlight,” insisted Skyla, her voice almost desperate, “I’m sure I can. Please, let me try five. I’ve been practicing, and I know what I’m doing now.” She exhaled sharply. “Just… let me try. I’ll prove it to you.” Starlight watched her student closely for several heartbeats, a few thoughts clashing against one another in her mind as she tried to decide what to do. On the one hoof, she knew that Skyla was having trouble with the four orbs that she had right now – that was what a magical dexterity test like this was designed to point out, after all – and she knew that she really shouldn’t allow the filly to stretch her limits too far, since only bad things could happen if the magic she was holding went out of control. It’s the responsibility of the teacher to know her student’s limits and make sure she doesn’t hurt herself, she thought. That’s what Twilight told me when I said that I’d be helping Skyla with her magic, and it’s apparently something that Celestia herself told Twilight when she wanted to do magic that was too much for her. It was a prudent statement, and one that she could absolutely stand behind. The last thing she wanted was for Skyla to be hurt while trying to handle too many different threads of magic and, even though what she was handling was only a simple light spell, she was holding four of them all at once. That meant four different spells, each having to be maintained, tuned, and controlled separately by the caster, a feat that was something that most unicorns struggled for years to be able to do. Skyla can handle four orbs better than a filly her age should be able to, but to bump up to five would be asking for trouble… The smile that Starlight had been trying her best to keep from her features finally burst onto her face as lightning flashed once again. “All right, Skyla,” she said, “show me what you can do. Go for five. Make it any color you want.” The alicorn’s face lit up brighter than the orbs around her, and she gave one firm nod to Starlight before refocusing on the lights, her determination returning with renewed zeal. She lowered her head a little more, dipping her horn towards the ring of orbs as they shifted downwards slightly, making room for another white orb to appear at the top of the circle. The light blinked in and out of existence for a moment or two, but Skyla gritted her teeth and lifted her horn back to where she’d started, the magic around it glowing brighter as the fifth orb materialized and stayed there, its bright white light clashing with the yellow and pink on either side of it. Starlight sat down onto the floor, her smile becoming a smirk that she knew was sure to irritate Skyla. “And where’s the color in that fifth orb?” she asked, not even bothering to hide her expectant tone. “Don’t make me wait all day.” A frown touched Skyla’s lips, and Starlight watched sweat begin to bead around the young pony’s face as the top orb shifted in color, blinking rapidly through several shades of orange, red, and yellow before finally stopping on a violent shade of green so toxic that Starlight winced. Ugh… it looks like something that was pulled out of a dragon’s stomach. The orb shimmered once and blinked back to white several times before changing to green and staying there, suspended above all of the others and casting its noxious light over Skyla’s triumphant face. “There,” she panted, her breathing ragged and quick, “I did it! That’s… that’s five!” Lightning flashed outside the windows again as the filly straightened on her hooves and managed to raise her neck up out of the bow that she’d been stuck in since orb three. “What do you… have to say… about that?” Starlight’s eyes narrowed at the five orbs and, as she watched, she saw the top orb twitch violently. “What do I have to say?” she said, raising her voice to be heard over the long roll of thunder that filled the room. “Well, I’d say that you’d probably better take a step back and drop your spells right now, or else-,” Suddenly, the top orb exploded in a flash of green light that easily rivaled the lightning outside. Starlight squeezed her eyes shut and lifted a hoof to cover them as Skyla yelped in surprise and leaped backwards, her hooves skittering on the crystal floor as each of her orbs failed in spectacular fashion. Even with her eyes closed, Starlight could see the flash of light as another orb exploded with a very loud pop; another one popped then fizzled, like hot metal being dripped into water, while one dropped to the floor and shattered like glass and the last one gave a tremendous whistle and shot off towards the sky. It didn’t get far, however, before it exploded loudly off in a corner of the room, its energy spent in a concussion that was lost amid another rumble of thunder. The thunder died away, leaving only the insistent pattering of the rain on the roof and windows and the gentle tinkling of residual magic to slowly fade back in to Starlight’s hearing as she lowered her hoof and blinked, trying to rid herself of the troublesome spot in the center of her vision. “Are you all right?” she asked, her ears folded back against her head as she rose to her hooves. She turned her gaze to where Skyla stood, several feet back from where she’d been practicing with the orbs, her eyes wide and her legs splayed as if she might bolt away at any moment. “What… what happened?!” she gasped as she, too, started blinking furiously. “I’ve never seen a reaction like that before!” Skyla lifted her left hoof and tilted her head so that she could rub her corresponding ear with it. “Did one of them break a window? I heard something shatter, then something explode...” “No, none of them broke anything,” Starlight assured her as she started towards her student. “They couldn’t get through the magical barrier I put up to do any real damage to the building, and as dramatic of a show as that was, none of those had any real power to damage anything.” She pursed her lips before jerking her horn to her right, indicating the far corner where the loudest one had exploded. “Well, okay, maybe that one could have done some real damage, but none of the others were harmful at all.” Skyla turned her head to look at the corner in question before bringing her gaze back to Starlight, her expression somber as she stood up straight once more. “Then what did I hear that broke?” she asked, and Starlight smirked. “You built a portal mirror by yourself and never once lost control of a spell like that?” Skyla frowned, still blinking rapidly and making faces as she tried to chase away the bright spots in her own eyes. “No, I can’t say that I have,” she muttered irritably. Starlight’s smirk grew slightly, but internally she couldn’t help but be impressed. Mirrors take lots of magic, all laid very delicately, to be able to function properly – even single-shot jobs like Skyla made. To never have lost control of a spell like that in all her life… that’s impressive. “Well, welcome to the wonderful world of becoming a real magic user, part one of a series that I like to call ‘Sometimes, Things Explode’.” Starlight gestured to where the orbs of light had hung in the air, blinking away the last vestiges of the afterimages in her vision. “The spells you had were stable while you maintained focus and kept calm. That means that while you were in control of them, they behaved exactly as you wanted and were simple spheres of light.” She stepped closer to Skyla, who stopped blinking and locked her gaze onto Starlight intently. “No matter what Twilight Sparkle might tell you, magic is a fickle, temperamental, and highly volatile lady, and if you take your attention off of her for even a second there’s no telling what she’ll do.” Starlight’s horn lit up, washing the area around her with the turquoise of her magic. She grasped the ethereal threads of magic that she could feel around her and focused them in front of her, where a sphere of light exactly the same as the ones Skyla had made before popped into existence. She gave Skyla a grin. “You had your first lesson, but here’s a repeat.” She took a step back from the orb of light and yanked her magical touch away from it without tying off the spells. The orb stayed where it was for the barest of moments before it began to vibrate, its edges shimmering so fast that Starlight had to squint at it to be able to focus on it at all; then, just when she was sure it wasn’t going to do anything else, it dropped down towards the floor, stopped a foot above the stone, then rocketed upwards towards the ceiling trailing a jet of pure light. The orb gained speed, drawing a wide-eyed look of shock from Skyla, but as it approached the ceiling it burst against a barrier of magic that flashed a bright turquoise, deflecting the magic inward instead of allowing it to hit the building. The orb burst with a loud bang and a puff of smoke, sending the room back into darkness. “Whoa…” breathed Skyla, her ears perked upright as lightning lit the room for a moment. “It… did something different. Why?” “Because without your guidance, the magic essentially reverts to a chaotic form of energy and does whatever it pleases.” Starlight shrugged. “It could turn into a burst of water, or explode like fireworks, or just blaze super brightly then die without a sound. There are actually those of us who have postulated that magic is chaotic by its very nature, much like Discord in this world, and that’s why the spells behave so strangely if they go awry.” She smirked and sighed. “Though there’s not much power behind that argument, since the spells mostly just explode in some fashion or another, so…” Skyla nodded slowly, her eyes staring up at the place where the orb had impacted the shielding spell. “I didn’t think your shield could stop it,” she admitted softly. “Pffft, that little thing?” Starlight lifted a hoof and touched the curl of her mane, her eyes focusing on the delicate strands of her hair as she smiled sweetly. “I don’t mean to brag, but my barrier spell can stop a full-power blast from Twilight Sparkle – I think it can handle the two of us playing around in here.” She dropped her hoof back to the floor and turned her gaze back to Skyla, who was watching her with interest. “You know that for sure..?” she asked, and Starlight nodded slowly as the relevance of what she’d revealed settled onto her. “Oh yes, I do. We… uh… tested it.” She coughed lightly into her hoof. “We wanted to see how much power it could take before it shattered, and she couldn’t do it. So I’m pretty confident about it.” Starlight took a few steps backwards from the filly and gave her a small frown. “Now, the first thing you can do to avoid something like what just happened is to keep from losing control of your magic in the first place. It sounds kind of obvious but it’s harder than you’d think.” She nodded. “Make one orb in front of you, twice the size as before. Don’t color it, just hold it in place. Got it?” Skyla nodded, her horn lit up, and almost immediately an orb appeared in front of her, glowing with a pleasant, soft white light. “All right, now what?” “Now? Why, we’re going to talk, of course.” Starlight sat down onto her rump and curled her tail around herself, her smile bright. “So, why don’t you tell me how things went on your last outing with Cadence, Shining, and Flurry? It was only a couple of days ago, right?” Skyla’s eyes darted to Starlight, her brow knit in confusion. “And you still want me to hold this?” she asked. “Naturally,” answered Starlight, her smile unchanged. “We’re going to talk, and you’re going to hold that orb as tightly as you can. So? How did it go?” “Well, it…” Skyla took a deep breath and refocused her gaze onto the orb, her eyes staring unblinkingly at it. “It was fine,” she answered after a moment, her voice tight. “We took the train a little way off into Equestria and went to a beach.” “And what did you do at the beach? Tell me specifics.” “I, uh…” Skyla frowned. “Flurry Heart and I played in the water a little bit, then we built sandcastles. Shining Armor also tried to build one but only used his hooves, so it didn’t turn out so great.” Starlight’s eyes watched the orb closely as Skyla talked, but to her credit the light didn’t so much as flicker. Hmm… might have to push her a little farther, then. “That’s great to hear,” said Starlight with a nod. “Cadence and Shining Armor have been spending a lot of time with the two of you since you officially moved in, haven’t they?” Now the orb twitched ever so slightly, but it was so minimal that Starlight thought it might have been her imagination. “They have,” confirmed Skyla, her voice still carefully measured. “I hear that they’ve got another group trip planned for us next week.” “Well that’s exciting.” Starlight’s smile dimmed slightly as she watched the orb. “And how are you feeling about Cadence and Shining Armor?” she asked nonchalantly. Skyla’s eyes widened and the orb gave another, much less subtle twitch than before; within a heartbeat, however, her frown returned and her magic flared, restoring stability to the ball of light. “I’m not feeling anything about them in particular,” she answered, her voice a little tighter than it had been moments before. Now Starlight squinted at the filly. There’s the spot – it’s time to get on with this lesson. “So you have no strong feelings about them either way?” The furrows in Skyla’s brow deepened. “Nope.” “So you’re not warming up to them at all?” Starlight made sure that her tone stayed light, but her gaze never shifted away from Skyla’s face. “You’re not starting to hate them, are you?” Now the orb shivered, and Skyla’s lips curled back from her gritted teeth. “No, of course not,” she growled. “So that means that you do feel something for them, right? I mean, I guess you could feel absolutely neutral about them, but that’s a little hard for anypony to actually do. And if you don’t hate them, does that mean that you’re starting to love them?” The orb shrank and expanded rapidly several times, and sweat started to bead on Skyla’s face but, instead of letting the filly respond, Starlight pressed onwards. “I mean, who could blame you? Considering what a terrible hag your mother was in your world, I-,” The ball of light suddenly turned a brilliant fire orange, its edges waving violently like shifting tongues of fire before it winked out of existence without a sound and plunged the room back into semi-darkness. Skyla turned to face Starlight squarely, her eyes filled with rage. “Don’t talk about my mother that way!” she snapped, her wings extended down and away from her body as they shook. “Don’t you dare try to talk about me like you know what I’m going through! I-,” “-Failed to keep control of your spell due to your emotions,” finished Starlight for her calmly. She held up her right hoof towards Skyla, forestalling her tirade. “Take a deep breath, Skyla.” The filly stared at her for a moment longer, her anger apparent in every square inch of her body as she held her aggressive posture. Oh boy, maybe I went too far… thought Starlight as Skyla held her gaze, her blue eyes seething. Finally, however, the smaller pony relaxed and seemed to collapse in on herself. She retracted her wings and stood up straight before forcing herself to take a deep breath and exhale slowly, a motion that filled Starlight with relief. Note to self: don’t poke the alicorn about her family. “Is that why you asked those questions..?” asked Skyla after several deep breaths. “So I would… so I would lose control?” Starlight nodded. “Yes. Keeping your emotions in check while casting your magic is the most important thing for a mage to remember, and that includes ponies who might want to you to lose that control in the first place.” She smiled. “There are ways around that, of course – tying off your spells, learning how to unravel them before they blow, that kind of thing – but both of those are only useful if you can keep your feelings from making your magic literally blow up in your face.” Skyla’s look of annoyance faded into one of grudging understanding, and she nodded. “I understand, I think. My mother,” she winced as if she’d poked an old wound, “would often tell me that to properly use my magic I would need to clear all of my emotions away. To be cold and still as ice in my mind, so that the magic would take the proper shape.” Starlight inhaled sharply and winced before shaking her head. “Ehh, I wouldn’t say that getting rid of your emotions is the right thing to do.” Skyla tilted her head to her left and frowned, her mane falling over her right eye. “But you just said that I had to control my emotions.” “Yes, I said control your emotions, not get rid of them.” Starlight stood and walked towards the smaller pony, the curl in her mane bouncing with each step. “Twilight Sparkle is one of the greatest mages I’ve ever known, and she is an emotional wreck sometimes. Does that look like a pony that could simply ‘get rid of her emotions’ to better use her magic?” She shook her head as she stopped in front of Skyla. “Your emotions have power, Skyla, and I can tell you without hesitation that you’ll never get as strong as you can be without accepting and using the emotions in your life. Friendship, love, desperation, desire, conviction…” her lips curved into a sad smile, “…even anger, jealousy, hatred, disgust, they all have power that can be added to your magic to make it even stronger. But let them run unchecked,” she gestured to where the ball of light had been, “and you’ll have spells exploding in your face every single day.” “So… what should I do, then?” Skyla’s eyes stared up into Starlight’s own, and she was surprised to feel the sharp stab of sadness at the look in the filly’s eyes. “What do I need to do to get stronger, while keeping my magic under my control?” Starlight sighed and placed her right hoof onto Skyla’s shoulder, her smile losing its sadness. “You’ve got to start actually dealing with your emotions instead of bottling them up,” she said. “If you don’t deal with them they’ll act like jars of oil, waiting to be tossed onto the raging bonfire of your magic.” “Like today?” asked Skyla, a ghost of a smile touching her lips. Starlight chuckled. “Yes, like today.” She patted the filly on the shoulder and dropped her hoof back to the floor. “But you’re a strong, resourceful little thing – I think you can probably handle it.” Lightning flashed again, drawing Starlight’s eyes up to the windows above them. “Well, it looks like the worst of the storm has passed us. I guess we’ll call it a day, considering that ponies will start moving around the castle again now.” She turned and headed for the door, her tail swishing. “Good work today, Skyla. We’ll meet again in a few days to continue this. In the meantime, practice the spells I showed you last time.” She got to the door to the auditorium before Skyla’s voice reached her, its tones sad and uncertain. “How do you do it, Starlight?” she asked quietly, her voice almost lost to the rain outside. “How do you control your emotions, yet still use them in your magic?” Starlight smirked as she lifted her hoof and placed it onto the door. “Well, that’s easy,” she said without looking back. “I have friends who care about me, other ponies who worry and fret about my wellbeing. They remind me that I’m not alone, and that keeps the despair and anger from taking over.” She turned and glanced back into to where Skyla stood, her smile returning. “I do it all for my friends. They count on me, and to do what I need to do I have to be in control. It’s as simple as that, for me. Though,” she added as she turned back towards the door, “I imagine that having a family to support me would be even better.” She gave the door a push and exited out into the hallway, leaving Skyla behind to ponder her words.