With the help of her notes, Astral Plane was able to get Celestia herself to agree to teach her Mind Magic. She settled into the cushions as she entered Celestia's special room. It's about time, she thought. She thought she had the right to be impatient.
Celestia was just pouring herself a cup of tea when she she walked in. "Ah, Astral. Thank you for coming" the Alicorn said cheerfully. Astral blinked a little at the use of her first name, but smiled back at the Demigod.
"Thank you for not shipping me off to an asylum."
That got a laugh from Celestia as she set her cup down. "If you think that's crazy, you should hear some of the things that come out of my advisers mouths. Now, you say you've been having trouble with Mind Magic? Which part?"
"All of it. I can only kind of block my thoughts, but even then it's weak. Anything other than that I am a complete and utter flop in."
Celestia tilted her head, as if considering this. "Okay" she said after a while. "I'm going to be completely honest with you here, mastering Mind Magic takes as much skill as it does hard work. I can teach you a lot, but that only goes so far if you're not the right type for it."
Astral narrowed her eyes at that. "Type? What does that mean?"
"Ponies who master Mind Magic have to be both sturdy enough in mind to withstand a brute force attack into the mind, and be flexible enough to adapt to any and all changes. As you can probably guess, creatures like that are very hard to find."
"However" Celestia said, seeing Astral's downtrodden expression. "That doesn't mean I can't teach you the basics, if you're up to it, of course."
"Of course!" Astral braced her shoulders and lifted her head determinedly. She was doing this, one way or another. "Oh, wait, hold on, Princess" she held up a hoof when Celestia's horn began to glow. "If you are going into my mind, you won't tell my parents anything, will you?"
"It is considered a very serious breach of ethics and standards to reveal any information found in somepony elses brain" was all Celestia said before she opened the door into Astral's mind and stepped inside.
Astral felt briefly dizzy, before she was taken back into her memories, of her childhood, of the first time she met her friends, which, of course, led her to the day she watched her friends die. Both she and Celestia flinched back at that one, but Astral was already trying to frantically redirect to another memory like the book told her to do.
Thump!
The two of them snapped out of her memories, and looked down. Astral had kicked out at the nearby coffee table, turning it over and spilling the cup of tea on it. "Very good Astral" Celestia praised. "Distracting the pony from casting the spell is indeed one way to stop Mind Magic."
Yup, because that was what I planned.
Before she could recollect, Celestia's horn glowed again, and they went back in.
This time, caught unprepared, Astral was thrown into the river of memories, being pulled back and forth between good and bad moments before righting herself once more. She tried to focus on one specific memory, of Eclipse teaching her Bladecasting under that tree. She wasn't able to hold it for long, however, before Celestia drew attention to another memory, and she was dragged along for the ride.
This time when she came out, she was breathless and panting. Celestia, meanwhile, didn't even look winded, which was mildly offensive. "You have to try and think of another memory when I try and draw you to a specific one she warned, and Astral nodded.
"Okay. Again."