Well, technically it's been pre-constructed and I'm just powering it while it's already in motion, but still! Me! Powering an Alicorn Spell! Eeeeeeee! I start hopping up and down, alternating between two hooves at a time in a bouncy interpretive dance that could give Pinkie an idea or two.

I'm so lost in the flurry of joy and dancing that I almost break my own concentration on the spell, and there's a tiny lapse of output that sends a small streak of darkness rippling across the floor and pulsing out to the nearest Epsi rune. Thankfully there's enough buildup in its' relay that the throughput isn't interrupted, but I do need to send a rushed surge of the light and airy mana forward to rebuild the small buffer. It's as effortless as always, but now that I'm watching the energy as I disperse it, something else catches my eye.

First, the magic surrounding my horn and pouring into the spell isn't the rich purple of my coat anymore, it's a bright and radiant gold, matching the usual aura of the Princess. Second, it's fast.

I don't mean a bit faster than my usual unmodified magic, I mean as soon as I push the mana to my horn it all but bursts across the floor like a bolt of lightning. There's not even the span of a blink between it leaving my horn and connecting to the relay. It's not a particularly far distance, barely the length of my tail, but even that would take at least a quarter of a second normally. I look up at the Princess a bit taken aback by the speed of it. She's watching me as I test the limits and parameters in my own way, though she still has that proud smile on her face. Seeing her smiling makes me smile despite everything, and for a few seconds we just sit there, smiling at each other. Mine's probably a lot less elegant and poised, and more of a stupid wide-mouthed grin. I don't really care, though, and I bask in the silent praise, pride welling up in my chest alongside the warmth of my new magic.

"You'll likely have some trouble adjusting to this new frequency, and you may find it difficult to reattune without help or practice. So long as there is magic in your depths it will perpetuate, so long as you will it to, just as your natural magic does. Don't be dissuaded if your wellspring runs dry or you're unable to reharmonize yourself, I'll be here to assist you, as always."

I fall from cloud nine to just shy of cloud eight. "You mean this isn't a permanent change? If I use all of this magic faster than it regenerates, I'll just have my normal magic left?"

She nods. "That is correct. In time you will learn to harmonize yourself to many different styles, some more effective than others, though sister and I are capable of assisting you until such a time you're able to do so on your own. In optimal conditions and without strain, your body's natural regeneration will sustain the change for two to three days before you'll need to reharmonize."

I narrow my eyes, committing everything to memory as quickly as I dare. Not that it requires any thought on my part, my mind automatically documents and catalogues everything I see and hear whether or not I want it to now. I could be half asleep reading a book and remember everything that's happened so far. Down to cloud seven or six, and though I'm having the time of my life right now I need to stay focused.

"I think I understand. I'll try to make sure I don't deplete my wellspring completely so I can stay... Harmonized." It's a strange term that I've never heard used in magical theory, but it falls in line with the natural and warm feeling that comes alongside it. If casting a spell with my normal magic is like getting a tiny zap! from static buildup, this is like being wrapped up in a big blanket on a chilly winter morning; It's actively pleasant to expend it. Maybe even a little addictive, if I'm being honest. Maybe that's just the Aville's sedative talking.

I have the ever-present urge to run up and hug her, to thank her up and down for showing me yet another amazing thing I never could have discovered in a thousand years of research on my own, but the reality that I need to hold her accountable for her decisions slams a freight train through the sky and lands me squarely on Cloud Two, with a hoof half-raised in her direction. I look down at it, and slowly lower it back onto the stone floor.

"I think I can handle this for now, Princess. I promise I won't poke around too much with the spell, you should get some rest while Luna still has emergency Day Court covered."

She looks a bit crestfallen, but she swallows it down quickly and levitates her regalia over to herself, slipping them on with a swiftness developed over thousands of iterations. "Of course. When I return I'll explain things as plainly as I can, I promise. And... Twilight?"

"I know, Princess." I meet her gaze and try my best to reassure her with my smile in the same way that she's done for me hundreds of times before. "We'll talk later, okay?"

She stands still in a rare moment of hesitation I rarely see from her, but then she closes her eyes and leans her head forward, letting her mane fall forward around her face before giving a subtle nod.

"Of course. Thank you again, Twilight." She raises her head again, shaking the ethereal mane back behind her with an upbeat flourish before turning and trudging towards the doors. She takes in a sharp breath and raises her head tall, then presses them open with her magic and steps confidently out into the hall with a smile. I see the Day Guard pony move to escort her as the doors are closing, I can only assume the Night Guard is still posted outside waiting for me to leave. He's going to be waiting a while.

The doors close behind her with the resonating sound of heavy birch on stone echoing across the spartan chamber. Now that I'm alone, I take a look around at the tall room I'm sat in, taking in the details. There's a simple but large wooden desk against the wall opposite the door with a large regal pillow on the ground beneath it, and a few books and stacks of parchment neatly stacked up in piles around it. Beyond that, the room is completely barren save for the massive chalk inscriptions forming the interweaving spell circles I'm fueling. This chamber is likely solely for the Princess to test and conduct spells, so there's not much the room really needs besides the occasional cauldron or other repository for spell components, though it would make sense for her to have an alchemy lab elsewhere in the castle for preparing necessary ingredients.

Petrified Toad's Legs, common in transmogrification spellcraft, are in incredibly short supply despite the ease of breeding them, as are Hawk Primaries and Talons, and Eyes of Newt. Likely reasons for the shortage of simple to acquire ingredients are, in descending order of likelihood, ponies general distaste for the gruesome nature of harvesting organic parts with alchemical properties, seasonal migratory pattern shifts resulting in a decline in-

Damn, I should have thought to sedate myself again before I started channeling this. I'm not sure what kind of response self-casting medical-grade magic would have with this new and unfamiliar mana, and I'm not keen on testing it while I'm being entrusted with such an important spell. I'll just have to grit my teeth and bear it for a few hours.

"Dearest sister, might we ask thee a question?" Luna asked, lowering a tome labeled "Runes For Dummies" to glance up across Canterlot Castle's grand dining room table at her sister, who was patiently sorting through a list of proposals for the week.

"Shoot." Celestia replied, crumbling the proposal for a nationally-sponsored skii-ball team and immolating it above a nearby trash bin, before picking up another and glossing it over.

"Why must the modern casting of spells require such a plethora of tedium? Mine spellcraft of the olden ways is plenty sufficient for that which our duties shalt require." Luna huffed, letting the book slip out of her magic and fall onto the table with a hard Thmp!

Celestia lowered the latest proposal involving several years' worth of city renovation budget and paving a street the noble happened to live on in solid gold, leveling a bored expression back at her sister.

"Blasting your raw and unrefined magic in a blast of energy hardly counts as Spellcraft, Lulu. There is much for you to relearn. If you rely only on your physical might and untamed magic blasts, you'll conquer any beast, but a single Wonderbolt would likely best you as you are now."

Luna had only just been released from her lunar prison, and her form was still recuperating from having its' magic completely and entirely ripped away by the Elements of Harmony. Though she was still an Alicorn, her power was greatly diminished. Where once she could level mountains with a well-placed blast from her horn, it was now a struggle to even manipulate objects in her magic. That, coupled with her greatly stunted size resulted in a form much weaker than she was ever used to having.

Despite the sound logic of her sister, Luna huffed once again, defiantly. "Even so, what merit be there in such... Frivolous spellcraft? The time from whence we left this craft was in its' infancy, Its' rigid order and rules failing to provide meaningful progress! The many Runes and soul-runes,"

"Sub-runes," Celestia corrected, returning to immolating yet another proposal as Luna ranted for the third time this morning.

"'Tis the spellcraft of your ways, sister, not mine! Such a way is not only beneath us, it is the antithesis of our nature!" She slammed a hoof against the table pointedly.

"My spellcraft is beneath you?" Celestia responded coldly, putting down her own work and glaring at the pouting blue alicorn across from her. "Luna, you're acting like a spoiled foal, do you even hear yourself? If you don't want to learn how to use your own horn then I won't make you, but I thought you of all ponies would want to become the best version of yourself you could be. Especially given what everypony's just put themselves through for you."

There was a stillness in the air as the two stared at each other. The tension rose briefly, but the fire burning in Luna's chest quickly faded into guilt under the disapproving glare of her older sister. She lowered her head in a silent repentance.

"...We apologize, sister. The last we succeeded such a spell was to send Us to purgatory. "

Silence descended upon them again. Celestia remembered vividly the strange and powerful half-ritual half-freecast spell Luna had crafted to imprison herself in the moon, the manifested spell circle it created was still on her balcony to this day, she visited it every night for decades since they were separated.

After a few moments of silence, Luna reached forward a hoof to open the book again, and the two continued their reading.

"Will you help us?" Luna suddenly asked, quietly. Celestia paused and looked over at her sister, seeing her quietly struggling to grasp the foundational knowledge of modern spellcasting. It suddenly occurred to Celestia that it wasn't only just different from what she was used to, it was written in the modern common tongue that she had yet to acclimate to and made many references to concepts that were thought rudimentary. Many of these terminologies were basic knowledge one would expect any foal to know, and therefore they weren't explained.

"Of course, Lulu. I'm sorry for being short with you, I know it's difficult for you to readjust too. I'm used to dealing with things on my own, and... I'll try to be more considerate."

For the first time that morning Luna smiled, nodding her acknowledgement and appreciation for the sentiment.

"The schools number eight, each with corresponding Major Runes, should we understand them correctly. Fi, Elu, Rute, Ri, Vici, Verita, Oso, and Kroe." She paused, looking back up at Celestia, who nodded in return. "These are translations from the old tongue, are they not? Why are they, too, not 'modernized' in thy new tongue?"

"A mixture of purism and sentimentality, I'm afraid. Though you can call them whatever you'd like, the rune functions just the same no matter what name you give it, all that matters is that you understand their uses. Take Verita, for instance. Its' old Ponish translation is Veritas, which you're familiar with. It symbolizes the school of Divination spells, and shapes magic in accordance with that school's requirements for casting. Were you to bypass using the spells' major rune, you would undoubtedly overload or blow out the spell matrix entirely."

As Celestia talked, she charred a rough shorthoof version of the light spell into the back of one of the proposals with her magic, pointing to the central rune with a hoof. Luna took note and nodded at the demonstration, lighting her own horn to attempt the spell herself. The spell didn't manifest, though, and the mana only continued to build as she tried harder and harder to force its' activation. The mana built up at the base of her horn, the tip sparking wildly before a small explosion knocked her backwards off of her seat and sent her a few feet back on her side, her charred tiara clinking to the floor beside her as she shook the daze from her head.

"Why did it not work? We attempted thine spell as written!" Luna whined, rubbing the now-tender flesh of her horn as the thrumming in her skull receded.

"I apologise, sister, that was a demonstration. Light is a simple spell. It requires nearly no input besides a minute bit of power, though if that power is shaped incorrectly..." Celestia raised her hoof at her sister, pointing to her horn. "Try again, though with this formula."

Celestia floated a second parchment over as Luna rose up to take her seat once more, clearly agitated at the act of sabotage, though she held her tongue. The same simple spell burned itself into the back of the parchment, the only difference between the two was a large coffee stain and the central rune.

"The Major rune has changed, this was the demonstration, we take it?" Luna asked. Celestia nodded, then tapped a hoof against the new formula.

"Try it again, with the correct Rune. You'll feel the difference." She promised.

The explosion still fresh in her mind, Luna trepidatiously began to examine the simple spell, building a tiny amount of mana in her horn in an attempt to shape the spell through the inscribed Rune. As soon as the mana began to rise to her horn, though, it began to glow in a bright white light, easily outshining the early orange rays of dawn that had been dying the dining room in golden tones.

"This is... Not quite as horrible as we had anticipated." Luna admitted, blinking in surprise as she attempted to angle her head in a way to look directly at her own glowing horn, to no avail. Celestia smiled at the sight, holding back a chuckle as her sister, immortal goddess of the moon, cast her first modern spell. It was something a foal was capable of on their first week of magic kindergarten, but she thought better of making that jab at such a pivotal moment.

"There's a whole new world of opportunity in these ways, sister. I imagine you'll find ways to expand upon your calling if you only take the time to learn it."

Luna focused back in on reality, the glow on her horn sputtering out and dying as she forcibly cut off the flow from the spell.

"And what Rune would such a magic belong to, sister? I find it hard to believe there exists a school of Dream magic." Luna quips dryly, leaning over the book and glancing at the list of all her options.

Central runes denoting schools of magic:
Conjuration - Creating or transposing things through space
Fi
Necromancy - Life-fuelled spells and Healing/Resurrection
Elu
Evocation - Physically manifesting physical, energy-based, or elemental force to the material plane.
Rute
Abjuration - Protection, Dispelling, and Warding spells of all facets.
Ri
Transmutation - Bending the laws of physics or reshaping existing matter into other matter.
Vici
Divination - Information-gathering magic, via scrying, divine assistance, and revealing the true intentions of any object or communication.
Verita
Enchantment - Manipulation of intelligent creatures through the mind.
Oso

Illusion - Manipulating the five senses of creatures to believe something that isn't true.
Kroe

"While I imagine you'll find most similarities under Illusion magic, Kroe, you'll likely require many facets from different studies. In time, who's to say you won't invent your own?" Celestia gingerly levitated a cup of quickly cooling tea to her lips, marking the end of her thought. The simple idea brought a new perspective to her younger sister's eyes, however, and she sat staring blankly at the pages as her mind wandered.

"One can invent a classification of magic?" She muttered, thinking aloud in disbelief.

“How do you think they came to be? Not everything is dredged up from ancient crypts and ruins, you know.” Celestia noted dryly, taking another long sip of tea as her sister’s brain whirred into overdrive, a blank stare overwriting any non-critical facial function in favor of more processing power. They sat in relative silence for several minutes, only the occasional clink! of porcelain on porcelain and Celestia’s magic signing or burning proposals breaking the quiet.

“Doth t- We mean… Do you believe it to be possible for us to replicate our dream magic with such a system?” She finally asked with stars in her eyes, looking back and forth between the simple incantations and her sister for guidance. “To share the knowledge with you would be the most wonderful of gifts!”

“Perhaps it could, though I doubt very much that I could ever perform your duties nearly as well. The ponies of this age have slept alone all their lives, nightmares are commonplace I’m afraid.”

Luna’s eyes widened as Celestia spoke, a horrified look of disbelief washing over her.

“You could not stand vigil in my stead, sister? All those years, our subjects were meant to fend off the terrors of the night on their own?!”

“I’m afraid so. I tried my best, but…” Celestia closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh, gathering herself as she began to weave a spell. Instead of the bright golden aura that normally permeated her horn, the magic was black and green, forming tendrils of smoke-like wisps that dissipated as it left her horn. She grit her teeth as the magic tried to take hold of her mind and project her elsewhere, struggling to find purchase with the ancient and nonfunctional spell. It quickly became apparent that it was for nothing, as the smoky magic faded away into the air and Celestia slumped forward, panting as she leaned against the table for support. Luna watched on as her sister struggled to recuperate from the strain, and a worried expression was etched plainly on her face.

“That was Umbrum magic, sister… Is this how you attempted to replicate Our craft? With the blasphemy of those animals…?” Luna breathed in disbelief.

“It was all I had, Lulu. Please, don’t explode about this without thinking again. It’s like you said, my ponies- our ponies were facing the horrors of the night on their own, and without your calling I had no way to assist them. The Umbrum’s spellcasting is… Questionable in nature, but it was the only hope I had to develop anything capable of emulating you.”

Luna had her mouth open to angrily protest, to suggest any multitude of better alternatives that could have been better… But none came. Quiet descended over them again as Celestia caught her breath and pushed herself upright, Luna lost in thought.

The two glanced at each other, but Celestia broke the connection, casting her gaze downward.

They sat there for a few moments pondering what either of them could say after an exchange like that. When nothing came, Luna turned her gaze down at the book in front of her and began to read over the broad concept of the eight Greater Runes. Celestia watched her for a time from a place beyond her eyes, but eventually picked up the next parchment and began skimming.

For the rest of the morning the two sat in contemplative silence once more, save for the flipping of pages and the burning of scrolls.

Mité, minor rune denoting a modified power level of a major or cousin minor rune. Derived from the old ponish translation of Might.

Subclassifications include:
Diminutive (Commonly used in training and study environments)
Minor
No affix (implying median or expected power requirement)
Major
Divine (Exclusively for use in spells designed by archemages or Alicorns)

My eyes skim over the untitled and unmarked tome, trying my best to stave off the barrage of migraine-inducing information that comes whenever I have a moment to think. I'm finding it helps to actively take in new information, or even old information that has minor details I haven't committed to memory, like the fact that Lov runes are actually only seven-eighths encompassed by their binding agent, unless you're using uninfused chalk, in which case you do fully encompass it since it's a much weaker catalytic agent.

Lov, minor rune usually denoting heavy use of necromancy or modified abjuration, capable of greatly reshaping organic matter or energy. It prevents unwilling creatures from being affected by the spell, or only creatures that you will it to effect, usually chosen at the time of casting. No subclassifications for this one, though. The only spell I know that uses a Lov subrune is a modified mending spell that you can use to seal cuts, and even then it probably doesn't even need the subrune to function.

There's plenty of interesting hypotheses to test, but any magic involving both the Elu Major rune (Necromancy,) and the Lov subrune requires prior authorization directly from the crown or the Canterlot Medical Ethics council. The former requires a lengthy process and justifiable cause to request a direct audience in Day Court, research and hypotheticals are forced to wait for an appointment with the council, and their waitlist can get long. Last I checked it was 4 months and 2 days, and they've only ever approved a hoof full of requests with extraordinary potential and little room for misuse.

Epsi's also known as Flow, it adds a relay as some point along your casting circle that's capable of either delaying, storing, or even changing the fuel source in minor ways. The most common subclassifications for a Flow rune are Thermal, Capacitor, Relay, Transformer, and Recursive. They allow a caster to regulate temperature, store power as a buffer in case the power source is briefly interrupted, delay input into pulses, transform magic signature, or allow for re-use of redundant or unutilized magic respectively. Flow runes are so common in ritual casting that some academics consider them major runes in their own right.

They'd be wrong, and I have a forty page thesis referencing over twenty highly accredited academics and research papers explaining why.

Sorry, in my first year in Magic University I lost my first debate on that exact topic. It was just because my opponent was the arbiter's son, and I'm still a little bitter about it when it comes up. I mean seriously, he didn't even know what subroutines qualified as valid parameters for major runes, the whole thing was a sham! I should have mopped the floor with him!

I shake my head and focus on the spell instead, letting my head empty out and starting fresh as the warm mana trickles out of my horn and zips out in all directions towards the different relays. I stop to consider why the Princess didn't just add capacitor runes to this spell, it could have allowed her to at least take small breaks if she were to inscribe enough of them. It could be that Alicorn-tier magic is so incredibly intricate that even slight variables such as additional Flow runes could cause cascading effects, invariably resulting in the failure of the spell, or worse, morphing the spell into a ticking time bomb of unknowable destruction that could wipe out all of civilization as we know it!

I hold my breath for a moment, re-centering myself mentally. No spells are going to blow up and doom equestria, Twilight. You've studied theoretical terraforming magic before, and this has no similarities. Just an irrational, intrusive thought. Alright, ready to focus.

I glance at the tome again, and there's one minor rune left. Harm, though some ponies just call it Red. It denotes a spell created with specific intent to harm, maim, or destroy without any safety parameters; Or worse, parameters that specifically seek out living targets. It's banned by unilateral royal decree in any and all research or application, and any pony found studying it is subject to some hefty fines, years of prison time, or even being detained indefinitely until a royal family member agrees they're fit to rejoin society.

I don't know of any ponies that went to somewhere like that, but there was a mare in a class of mine who formulated that a weaponized Clover's Telepathy could be used to blast the minds of ponies in a wide area around the caster. I never saw the script for it, not that I would ever want to, but she went missing for nearly a week after somepony allegedly mentioned it to a professor. It was just a rumor, but the way I saw her deny ever having thought of it when she returned always rubbed me the wrong way.

'That's why I need to hold the Princess accountable,' I remind myself. To be honest, I still haven't worked out exactly how to brooch the topic of the Princess' methods for keeping her ponies safe. On one hoof I understand the desire for absolute control and jurisdiction over potentially dangerous developments, but on the other... Is it really right of her to prevent Equestria from prospering, just out of fear for what might come of it?

On one shoulder a white alicorn is cooing reassurances and gentle white lies to protect me from myself and the complicated thoughts in my head, but on the other there's a gray unicorn screaming for the betterment of ponykind, willing to do whatever it takes for his version of that ideal. Both have their merits, but...

In my mind's eye I see Star Swirl raising his hoof to Goldfish's forehead, the flash of magic, and her body falling away lifelessly, all without a shred of sympathy or remorse from the old unicorn. It terrifies and infuriates me all over again.

I'm snapped out of my silent dilemma, however, by the sounds of armored horseshoes approaching from the right side of the hall, the same direction the Princess' chambers are. What? It's only been... How long has it been? I send a third sensory arcane eye into the sky hundreds of feet above my current elevation, only to find that the sun has indeed set. The moon has yet to rise, but that means I've been in here for at least several hours. Wow, time really flies, I guess.

Unlike when I was escorted here, there's no knock as one of the massive wooden doors open up, and there in all her regal stature stands the Princess of the Sun, looking to all the world in perfect condition and ready for anything. I smile a bit seeing her back to her usual self, but the skeptic in me eats away at the pleasant feeling, and I wonder if she's still just putting on a brave face for everypony else despite being beyond exhausted. Alicorn or not, a few hours doesn't absolve your body from the wear of three days spent continually ritual casting.

I don't have the opportunity to mention it in the brief time we look at each other, though, as standing beside her in the other door is my number one assistant. I'm ecstatic to see him at first, but his silhouette is all wrong against the bright backdrop of the well-lit hallway behind him. I squint a bit to try and see him better, my eyes adjusting from the relative darkness I've been sitting in for the last few hours, but as the two walk in I hear that the metal-clad hoof and footfalls are emitting from both of them as they step into the room. When the doors close behind them I'm able to see much better, but there's clearly something wrong with my eyes. I could have sworn it was Spike beside the Princess, but the little green and purple scaled creature is hardly recognizable. My heart sinks when he's the first to speak up, and it's absolutely, undoubtedly the voice of my baby dragon.

It's all he says, and I'm not sure how to respond. Princess Celestia looks down between him and me, and nudges him forward a bit with a gentle shove. He stumbles for a step but keeps the momentum going, treading clumsily and noisily around the perimeter of the many interwoven spells inscribed on the ground. He's a hoof's length away from me now and I can see the insignia emblazoned on his chest, as well as the softly clinking chitin-like plates across his torso and legs.

Soft Reset - A Novice Chronomancer's Guide to Tempomancy

by Foxvolt

13 - Magic Lesson