The Time Thief

by Reading4HalfMyLife


Loop 18

Upon finding out that she could now do teleportation spells, Astral got very excited. She had showed the note and license to Starlight before asking her to teach her how to teleport.

She also planned to have separate loops dedicated to all the new spells she could do; phase, shield, laser, lightening, cloudwalking, stun, air and undoing spells, but this loop was all about teleportation.

The two came to a stop in front of a small pond, with a series of lily pads resting on the clear surface. Astral could see little fish in the pond swimming to and fro, and some small shiny shells at the bed. No supplies or anything indicated a lesson was about to begin.

"Uh, I thought you were teaching me how to teleport?" She asked.

"You know the basics of teleportation, right?"

Astral shrugged, nodding "I've seen you and mom do it, but nopony else seems to be able to."

"That's because magically punching a hole in space then flinging yourself through it takes up quite a bit of power" Starlight said wryly. "Teleportation takes a lot of power and concentration to achieve, so don't be disappointed if you don't get it right first time."

"How do I do it though?"

"Well, first you have to picture the place you want to go. If you don't you will come out . . burnt- don't ask, trust me you don't want to know. You can also come out facing the wrong way, or even upside down, so remember, planning is key. You have to ignore everything, so you don't teleport somewhere else entirely. Then you use your magic to shove yourself forwards, like you're jumping into the air. The farther you go, the more magic you need."

Starlight turned to face the small pond, and took a deep breath. She vanished in a flash of light blue, and reappeared on one of the lilypads, where she stood on one hoof for a brief second, before her horn glowed once more and she was now balancing on two hooves on the next one. The third flash brought her to a stand right in front of Astral, whose eyes were wide and jaw dropped.

"Rapid teleportation is harder" Starlight said, wiping away a small bit of sweat. "You have to be thinking several steps ahead, and the second you get out, you should be imagining the next place you want to be. But we're not going to be doing that today. Today we're going to be focusing on teleporting from one place to another. "

"Okay!" Astral said, straightening up, excited. She had always wanted to teleport. "So I just build up my magic, ignore everything, focus on where I want to be and use my magic to shove me there?"

"Yup! And I recommend you try and keep things simple; don't go too far or anything."

Astral looked around for something nearby to focus on, and her eyes fell on a flat stone that rose out of the ground by a couple of inches, like a soapbox. Perfect, she thought, closing her eyes and imagined herself standing on the stone. Power built up in her horn, giving her a headache and making her teeth hurt. Any second now and she would let it out, and be pushing through space.

A squirrel's chirp interrupted her thoughts.

Astral felt weird, like she had been pulled roughly by an invisible hoof, and had left her stomach behind on accident. She found herself face to face with a very confused squirrel.

She was confused too, until she started falling. Her eyes widened as the wind pulled at her mane. Just before she could hit the ground, her horn glowed and she caught herself midair, just as her mom did the exact same thing. The blue and purple aura's mingled, and she realized she could feel her mom's power.

Holy-

The raw power coming from Starlight made Astral feel tiny by comparison.

She cancelled her own magic, and let her mom drift her back down to solid land where she awaited. "Are you okay sweetie?" She asked, nuzzling her daughter anxiously "you're not hurt, are you?"

"I-I'm fine, just a bit startled" Astral admitted, scratching the back of her head sheepishly, before staring up at her mom in awe "you are really powerful."

"Oh, you don't say?"

"It was- I could see your power when we both were levitating me! What was up with that, by the way?"

"Well" Starlight puffed herself out in a spot on impression of Twilight " when unicorns combine their magic, they share their magic for a brief period. For that brief period- until the spell is cast- the unicorns can sense each others magic." She paused in her lecturing to stare down at Astral "you're pretty powerful as well, you know."

Astral blushed, and scuffed a hoof against the ground. "I messed up the teleportation thing though" she admitted, ashamed. "I made a mistake."

"The squirell distracted you, didn't it?"

Nodding, Astral's cheeks flushed even more so than before. "I heard it right before I 'pushed off' and that distracted me."

Starlight tilted her head slightly "remember what I said about ignoring everything?" She asked.

"I do."

The older unicorn observed the girl for a moment, before looking around, and smiling. "Okay, where did you want to go?" Astral quietly pointed towards the stone, and Starlight walked up and tapped on it. "Get on."

"What?" Astral jerked backwards, confused, before trotting over to hop onto the stone. "Why am I on this?"

"Look around at your surroundings, then it should be easier to imagine" Starlight said, and Astral nodded, before obediantely scanning the area.

There were a couple of birds and squirells perched among trees, that were heavy with beautiful green leaves. Some of the trees had ivy crawling up the trunks, and thick grass carpeted the ground. Satisfied that she got the picture in her mind, Astral stepped off the stone, and took a couple of steps backward.

"Okay, here we go" she scrunched her nose up as she closed her eyes, remembering how the environment around her had looked. She started storing up her magic as she kept the picture in her head, tuning out any outside noises as she imagined being on the stone once more.

A strange shiver ran down her spine, and for a very brief moment, her eyelids turned violet. When she opened them, she found she was standing on the stone.

Her heart was racing, and she broke out in a cold sweat. She turned to face her mom, who was beaming. "Did I just-"

"You did."

"I did?"

"You did."

"I did!"

Astral bounced in place, as if to test she was really there, before scrambling over to her mom and pulling her into a hug. "I did" she whispered.

"Yeah, you did" Starlight mussed her mane affectionately "well done sweetie, I knew you could."

Astral pulled out of the hug to spin around her hind legs, beaming. "This is so cool!"

"Yup. Now lets do it again."

Astral froze at her mom's word, dropping to all fours in shock. "Wait, what?"

Starlight rolled her eyes. "You can't exactly walk up to the place you want to be and memorize your environment now can you? This was just for you to get a feeling of teleportation and how it works." She picked her daughter up with her magic and set her down further away from the stone.

"Again."