Toby’s life became busy, but not in a bad way. He’d wake up and spring to school and get to meet his little friends there. They’d learn about stuff, even if he was told he shouldn’t try to learn unicorn magic anymore. That was alright. “I learn Tsuki magic,” he reported when asked. He could glow on command, brilliantly shining with the lights of the magic of those around him.
He liked shining. Even if he was told to not do that in the middle of class. So he didn’t do it there, no matter how fun it was.
After school was over, Toby’s work was not done. He would go right over to Moondancer’s house and she was happy to help him practice. That was why he got better at shining. It was tricky at first, but once he got the hang of it, it felt natural.
He landed in front of Moondancer’s house and opened the door. “I is here!” he called out as he stepped in, ignorant of the idea of waiting before entering.
“Is that him?” A different unicorn poked her head free from the back. “It is! Hello.” She came trotting towards him, her wings fluttering as she went. “We’ve met before. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”
Toby smiled with remembrance. He had met her, but it was only once, and not for that long. “Twilight is princess. Not Best Princess.”
Twilight hiked a brow even as Moondancer came to join them at a more sedate pace. The bespectacled pony nodded to her larger companion. “We’ve made great progress. Toby, shine.”
That was a command Toby was glad to obey. He almost felt like he was allowing himself to shine, and he began, reflecting the light of those around him. Twilight’s light was a bright magenta, clear and vibrant.
Twilight gave a thoughtful humm before her horn began to glow. Her magic made the reflected magic shine all the brighter. She moved her horn around and the reflection moved with it to a degree. “He could make a great magic detector.”
Moondancer blinked at Twilight. “Is that the first thing you thought of? I think he can do a lot more than that, with practice. In fact, today was when I planned to try something. Toby, are you ready to try something new?”
Toby smiled brilliantly. “Moondancer teach I to glow so good. I ready to learn more.”
“What did you have in mind?” asked Twilight curiously. Her eyes roamed over Toby. “You mentioned his horns weren’t involved?”
She shook her head. “As ideal as horns are for channeling internal power, he isn’t using that, so, no, no horns.”
Twilight rolled a hoof. “Could he do anything where there aren’t unicorns around?”
Moondancer frowned. “That requires further testing. Twilight, are you going to assist or not?”
Twilight jerked back, stung by the chastising. “Sorry... Please, continue.”
Toby looked back and forth between the two unicorns. He wasn’t sure what to rate Twilight just yet. She had annoyed Moondancer, negative a point there. But, she was a princess. Mmm. “Five,” he said to no one at all.
Moondancer adjusted her glasses. “One day you’ll have to inform me why you spout random numbers. Let us begin. If you can reflect the visual spectrum of thaumic energy, I’m curious to know if you can reflect other thaumic emissions.”
Toby stared blanky. “I not understand,” he confessed. “What want I do?”
Moondancer pointed up at her horn. “I’m going to cast a spell at you, and I want you to reflect it. Make it bounce, as if you were a mirror, which you are... kind of.”
“A thaumic mirror,” echoed Twilight, sounding impressed.
Toby had no idea how to do that, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try. “Okay!” He bobbed his head and focused on shining as brightly as he could.
Moondancer shook her head. “Don’t try to reflect everything. Focus. It will come from here.” She pointed up at her horn again to emphasize. “That is what you need to reflect, nothing else.”
Toby cringed with worry. Making just a part of him glow was what was so hard in the first place, back when he wanted his horns to glow. “Okay...” He had to try though. He wouldn’t be a bad student.
Moondancer’s horn glowed and a beam of power lanced out at Toby. His attempt to shine the bolt did little, and the fur around where it struck turned a bright green. Moondancer did not stop though. The color of the fur slowly changed as the beam remained. “When you succeed, the color will stop changing. Keep trying.”
Toby’s fear became a sort of curiosity. He had never had the chance to actually see unicorn magic, just... there... He reached out and grabbed at it. His paws changed color as they entered the stream. Unicorn magic had a texture. It was subtle, but he could feel it flowing around and over his fingers. He liked it.
Moondancer peered at her student and his goofy grin of triumph. “Are you focusing?”
Toby jerked upright. “Oh, yes! I is trying.” Well, he wasn’t, but he got his mind back into it. He got his shine back, but it was his usual shine, reflecting Moondancer and Twilight and other bits of things he didn’t even know.
Twilight raised a hoof. “Toby, what if you tried to make your color match Moondancer’s? All over.”
Toby blinked at that idea. He never tried to change his color before, but that sounded like an idea he wanted to try. He felt for the subtle differences where he glowed with Moonlight’s magic and where he glowed with Twilight’s magic and tried to replicate the former’s. It was not as easy as just imagining turning colors. Still, Toby was determined, and, to his benefit, he wasn’t clever enough to think of why he couldn’t do it, so he just focused on doing it.
Flexing new muscles, the color of Moondancer’s magic exploded out across his right side, then his left side in erratic little bubble bursts of color. He could do it... He was increasingly sure of it. It clicked. His aura ceased to be a patchwork of lights for just a single precious moment. He glowed brightly with Moondancer’s power alone and uniformly. Her magic began to scatter. Some of it was still reaching him, but a lot of it began to fly around the room at seemingly-random angles, changing the color of papers, books, and anything else it found in Moondancer’s cluttered house.
She ceased concentrating on the spell. “Test successful.”
Twilight clapped her hooves excitedly. “It took me a long time to get a thaumic shield right.”
Moondancer nodded at Twilight. “It’s different for us. We have to fashion internal magic into an external barrier. Toby, on the other hoof, reflects and redirects external energy. He didn’t make a shield, he just reflected it away.”
Toby did not understand that. “I did it.” That he knew, and he was smiling so brightly. “Thank you!” Before Moondancer could object, he was on her, hugging tightly.
Twilight danced away from the two, smiling at the exchange. “And, to think, this could be just the start.”
He shook his head at her. “Nuh uh. I learn glow first. This second.”
Moondancer wriggled her way free, or tried to. The rabbit-like student was rather good at holding ponies in place. “He is technically correct. Toby, can you put me down?”
“Yes.” He placed her carefully back on her hooves. “You is good teacher.” He pat her on the head, unsure why Twilight was snickering.
Moondancer adjusted her skewed glasses back into position. “We need to practice more. Twilight, if you will, I would like your assistance. Training with one unicorn may be detrimental. I want him to be able to reflect different magic and harmonize with more than just me. Do you have other things we can use?”
Twilight frowned faintly in thought. “Well, you have me, obviously, but there’s more than that. I’ll ask Celestia if we can borrow a few things for the task.” An idea suddenly struck her. “If you can reflect any thaumic emission, what about dragon fire?”
Toby wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. “I not like fire,” he stated simply, shaking his head.
“We can work up to that.” Moondancer sat on her haunches. “Bring Spike and he can breath fire near Toby, to see if he can reflect its light before we consider moving past that. If he can’t do the light, there’s no point in trying for advanced practice.”
Twilight nodded her head. “Great point. That’ll save a lot of headaches, actually. If he can harmonize his field sufficiently to echo to the visible spectrum, then we can proceed.” She reached up suddenly and poked toby on the chest. “So, what was that about not being the best princess?”
Toby blinked down at her. “You not.”
“Who is?” She asked, ears erect.
“Luna is Best Princess.” Why did so many ponies not know such a simple fact? “She is best.”
Twilight gave a slow nod. “What about Celestia? She raises the sun.” Her hooves went up and around in a loose approximation of sun raising.
Toby leaned in towards Twilight. “She is good, not best. Luna is Best Princess.” He waved at Twilight. “Also good princess, not best. Only one best. Is okay, still good. Not feel bad.” He grabbed the pony he assumed was sad to not be the best and squeezed Twilight close, lifting her right off the ground and shaking her left and right in slow rocking motions he hoped soothed her. He stroked down her mane for extra effect.
Even as Twilight gave a nervous laugh and tried to extract herself, Moonlight coughed into a hoof. “If you are on such good terms with Princess Luna, you could ask her to assist.”
Thump. Toby dropped Twilight to the floor in a heap. “Is good idea!” He could spend time with Luna and get something good done at the same time? “Is great idea! Toby will, um, I will do that now!”
Moondancer thrust out a hoof in the way. “Hold on there. It’s late afternoon, Luna isn’t awake yet.”
Twilight picked herself up from where she had landed. “It’s not polite to just drop ponies like that,” she sourly noted. “Why do you like Luna so much, anyway?”
Toby’s face erupted into a big smile. “Many many things. Start with words.” He pointed at his throat. “Luna give I gift of words. Words is very very good gift. I is so happy to have words. They hard sometimes, but I get better with them. Then she give I new clothes, dark like her. I like wearing those. She first real friend, best friend.” He bobbed his head quickly as he counted the ways Luna was Best Princess. “She is princess of moon. Moon is good! She is good. Moon reflect. I reflect. Tsuki is like moon. She is Best Princess. See?” There were so many reasons he had.
Twilight tilted her head. “I see...” She didn’t, entirely, but well enough to set the topic down. “I want to try another experiment.” That got Moondancer and Toby’s attention. “I want to shine a light of magic on you, and I want you to reflect it to a specific place.”
Toby blinked softly. “Sound fun, but I not good at reflect yet.” He put two paws out in front of himself then walked them up on top of each other. “Step step, hop hop.”
Moondancer smiled at that. “That is a very wise stance. Let’s get this step complete before we aim for precision. For now, even when you’re not here, try to harmonize yourself with the frequency of other thaumic sources around you.” Toby stared at her blankly. “I mean, glow with their color all over evenly, instead of just directed at them.
“Oh. Why no say that first time?” Toby smiled and bobbed his head with understanding. “Toby ready to practice, but first I hungry. Have food?”