Apple Bloom knew this was the point of no return. She was ready to take in whatever was going to happen.
“Luna, ah’m ready. For whatever we are going to do!”
“Excellent. We shall proceed with instruction.”
Luna appeared in front of Apple Bloom.
“That was so cool how you did that. Will that be part of my lessons?”
“Everything will be part of your lessons”, responded Luna, “so, how are you liking your horn?”
“Ah’m liking it so far. But ah don’t quite know how to use it yet.”
“Of course. I didn’t give you unicorn magic yet! I only gave you the physical properties of a unicorn.”
“Oh ah got it.”
“So the first thing we will want to do is raise the moon. Of course, tonight you’ll observe.”
Apple Bloom nodded with anticipation. She noticed for the first time that the sky was missing the sun and the moon.
“I instructed Twilight Sparkle to take the night off”, continued Luna, “poor girl – she’s exhausted.”
“Does she know?”
“Yes, she does. Twilight actually commended me on making an excellent choice!”
Apple Bloom blushed at the compliment. She was amazed so many ponies felt confident that she could handle the job.
“Raising the moon is perhaps one of the easier parts of my job. It has a predictable pattern and has a cycle. Tonight is a slightly less full moon over Sweet Apple Acres than last night. Watch and learn.”
Apple Bloom saw Luna swirl her head around in a counterclockwise fashion three times. Luna then emitted a beam of magic from her horn. The rest of her environment seemed frozen in time. Apple Bloom supposed that wasn’t part of her imagination.
The moon began to rise into the air. Where it came from? Apple Bloom honestly didn’t know. The moon reached its usual position. She had noticed that this moon was only about 90% full. Luna made the job seem so easy.
“So, Apple Bloom – have you observed what I have performed?”
“Yes, Luna. Ah saw the way you moved your head and then the moon rose into the air.”
“It needs to be fairly precise”, said Luna, “but it has a perfectly logical pattern to it -as the moon goes from full to empty to full and etc and etc. You just need to remember what the moon looked like the night before?”
“Ah am sure Twilight was good at that.”
“Twilight wasn’t made for the night. You, despite your upbringing on a farm, are one for the night.”
“Heh”, said Apple Bloom, “my family and ah sometimes do our best work at night.”
“The hard part is timing the setting of the sun and the rising of the moon perfectly. It does take a lot of energy out of a pony. Twilight knew that but she is too proud to ask for help.”
“You made it look so easy. Something tells me it will take time for me to be perfect.”
Luna laughed and said, “it doesn’t need to be absolutely perfect. Twilight drove herself crazy getting the moon up to the exact fraction. I never did that and you certainly don’t either. I said the moon needs to be fairly precise but not perfectly so.”
“Ah think ah can do that but am ah at a disadvantage because ah never used magic before?”
“Definitely not”, said Luna, “as your earth pony powers came naturally to you – your unicorn powers will do the same once I give you your magic.”
“Wow, I don’t even know where to start – this is incredible.”
“Ready to get your magic?”
Apple Bloom nodded.
“Let’s begin.”
Luna closed her eyes and emitted a magnificently large purple beam outside of her horn. The beam rose into the air and then landed right onto Apple Bloom.
Surprisingly, the beam didn’t knock Apple Bloom over. She simply absorbed it and felt her body tingle. Was this the unicorn magic? Apple Bloom just took it all in without fear. She trusted Luna to keep her alive.
Apple Bloom felt different. The young mare could have sworn that she grew a little bit.
“Now, Apple Bloom, you are partially the way there to becoming an alicorn.”
“My horn feels different. It’s like ah definitely notice its presence now.”
“This is customary for unicorns. It is now a part of you.”
“So how do ah work this thing?”
“We are going to start with a basic skill – movement of objects.”
“Ah’m ready.”
“You probably feel a little tingle in your horn. This is perfectly natural for unicorns and how magic works.”
“So what do ah do?”
“You need to focus and direct the magic on an object of your choice.”
“Only objects near us are apple trees. Ah have rarely seen unicorns be able to lift up objects so large!”
“I have a solution for that”, said Luna with a smile. With effortless perfection, Luna had used her horn to shrink down one of the apple trees to a tiny fraction of its size.
“Woah”, said Apple Bloom, “can most unicorns do that?”
“No they cannot”, responded Luna, “only the most magically skilled unicorns and the alicorns. So, can you move this tree now?”
Apple Bloom focused on the tree. She could feel the magic tingling aggressively from her horn. But she had trouble focusing the magic. Apple Bloom closed her eyes and snarled. But the magic fizzled.
“Nothing happened.”
“Keep trying”, said Luna, “consider yourself like a baby unicorn just learning how to use magic. This is perfectly normal.”
Apple Bloom tried to move the tree again. She was impressed that Luna had even shrunken the roots. She decided to focus on the direction. Apple Bloom tried moving the tree a little to the right. She could hear the roots begin to lose their grip on the apple tree. Was this really happening?
Apple Bloom could feel some sparks of magic leave her horn and land on the apple tree. The very tiny apple tree rose from the ground broken off from its roots.
Apple Bloom let the tree levitate in the air for a little bit – admittedly anxious that she was going to drop the tree on the ground.
“Are you going to do anything with the tree”, asked Luna.
“Ah’m still thinking about it.” Apple Bloom still found it unbelievable that she could even do this. Never in her wildest imagination did Apple Bloom think she could have unicorn powers – and eventually, she would be able to fly.
With that, the tree fell to the ground. The tree only made a tiny thud but some of the miniature apples fell off from the tree.
“Apple Bloom, you must focus. We must try again.” Luna levitated the tiny apple tree and planted it back on the ground.
“Round two”, said Luna, “where do you wish to move the tree?”
“Ah guess we could move the tiny tree by our pond.”
“Admirable goal. Now, focus. Think about where the tree should be. This is what we, with unicorn magic, do every day.”
Apple Bloom nervously chuckled. What did she get herself into?
Apple Bloom decided it was time to be totally serious. She conjured up the destination she needed the tree to travel. Apple Bloom tried the magic again. The same process as before. The tree was uplifted from the ground. She focused on the pond and, to her surprise, the tree was making its way to the pond.
It seemed the magical sparks from Apple Bloom’s horn knew what she was thinking – it was kinda creepy in a way..but a useful creepy, thought Apple Bloom.
The magic carried the tree closer and closer to the pond. She couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. This was so cool!
The tree landed right by the pond as Apple Bloom had wanted. She wasn’t able to get the tree to stand upright and watched as the tiny tree fell into the pond. At this point, all the apples had split apart from the tree.
“Well, that didn’t quite go like ah expected”, said Apple Bloom.
“Excellent progress! You are doing great. I think you are getting the gist of telekinesis.”
“Ah tried to get the tree upright but it fell in the pond.”
“It takes practice, Apple Bloom, but you see how your magic improved when you put in the right focus.”
“Yeah, ah do. Ah focused on where I wanted the tree to go – not on whether ah could get it there. Is this really what unicorns do all the time?”
“Yes, but I will teach you to be much better than the average unicorn. Of course, your powers will automatically increase in strength once you become an alicorn. I believe this is it for tonight’s lessons – but same time tomorrow?”
“Absolutely, thank you Princess Luna!”
“I encourage you to keep practicing what we did tonight. And we will move on to tougher exercises tomorrow.”
Apple Bloom was thrilled. She couldn’t wait to learn more magic!