As the next teacher went into the room, silence fell. Not because everyone was scared or anything, but because the pony who just went inside the room was none other than Princess Celestia herself. And while I knew I had to run into her this week, I never expected that she would be here so quickly, even though it was our only second lesson of the day.
"Good morning students. I'm sure you know me, but let me introduce myself properly. I'm Headmistress Celestia." She greeted as her body slowly made its way out of the doorframe. From this distance, I could see that she was absolutely massive. I mean, my dad is at least two times smaller than her, and he is considered tall for a unicorn.
Everyone of course went ballistic at her greeting, with 'wow's' and 'gasps'. But I wasn't really all that into her appearance, I was more concerned about what was going inside that head of hers. Since she lived for so long, I wanted to know how she operated, and that would allow me to assess the level I should actually show her and other teachers. Since I don't want to stand out, but a the same have good results, I need to make sure I don't slip any more of my human knowledge than necessary.
Even though I don't remember anything, I have some flashes of how things operate and images of things like planes, bombs, and other shit I want to take to my grave. On second thought... Building an economic empire with something simple like cola or McDonald's would definitely be a good way to earn some easy bits in the future...
As colts and fillies went quiet, she smiled motherly at us. "I assume River Song explained how our lessons will look like, but let me say it one more time. My goal is to get you closer to each subject individually, throughout the entire school you will have multiple lessons with me about many things, and by the end of each subject, I will grade you. Score well, and you will have a chance of becoming my star pupil." She concluded with a smile.
While the idea on paper seems good, the fact that her 'tests' will have a huge impact on each subject with a different teacher means if you fail her class, you essentially fail both. I don't even want to know how much you need to score on those to be her 'star pupil' or in my language 'ass licker'.
While thinking about it, naturally my eyes wandered to her rump, which at first glance was massive, but on closer inspection, she had a really good weight-to-height ratio, and of course tons of muscles on her hind and front legs. Alicorns sure seem powerful in terms of body physique. I can't imagine how painful it would be to get kicked in the gut by something like this. The closest thing I could compare her hind leg to is the T-Rex leg, and that's saying something...
"Now, today's lesson will be about magic. Some of you might already be familiar with the concept of magic, some use it naturally. Both methods are perfectly valid, however, to use magic safely and use as few resources as possible takes time, practice, and knowledge." She finished her explanation with a show.
She took a pencil from the desk and broke it piece by piece, only to glue it together once again in a second. I assume that's not something we will be learning straight away.
"But let's start from the beginning. I told you my name, and I would love to hear yours too. Please, stand and introduce yourself." She bowed her head to the first pony in the first row.
Once again everyone introduced themselves. Celestia would then comment on each filly individually. She seemed to know most of the students' family names, which wasn't really surprising considering rich and powerful elites ruled Canterlot, and taking an exam at the most prestige school in the country was a breeze to them. At least that's my take on this.
As Twilight began to introduce herself, I could see in Celestia's eyes that she was incredibly focused. It could be just my imagination, but I think Princess Celestia can see the potential of someone just by looking at them, considering she didn't even look directly at Tender Seed when he was introducing himself but only glanced at him once. Twilight on the other hand was in the center of her vision. And she sure looked happy about her for some reason.
"It's my pleasure to teach you Twilight too. I know you will become one of the best students in no time." She commented before moving to the next person.
I have high expectations of Princess Celestia. Being the ruler, immortal pony and someone who lived for over three thousand years makes her really good learning material. But I feel like I shouldn't just blindly copy what she says or does, because if my feeling is correct, after living for so long, you only get more miserable as the years pass... I can't imagine watching someone you love die... Multiple times...
When it finally came to introduce myself, I felt a shiver run down my back. Nevertheless, I stood and locked eyes with Celestia one more time. I didn't have to wait long for this weird feeling to envelop me again. She was staring through me, and her gaze told me only one thing, and it aligned with what my gut was telling me too.
Don't mess with that pony...
"My name is Aurora Moonlight." I simply said I couldn't bring myself to stare at her any longer, so I broke eye contact. I instantly felt better.
"It's nice to meet you Aurora. I hope you will become a very good student." She said, with a bit less enthusiasm than for others.
'Huh? Good? I want to be the very best.' I thought. Her comment didn't have many emotions behind it...
It was a bit weird sure, but I didn't have time to think about it for long, because the actual lesson was about to begin, and I was pumped to finally know how to properly use my magic, from someone who is treated like an ideal role model in that regard.
"Now, could somepony tell me, what is magic?" A sea of hoofs shot up, knowing the answer, I decided to try my luck too, however, Celestia picked Twilight to answer.
"Magic is the essence that flows through every single thing in the world. It connects everything and allows us to bend the world around us to our will. There are six magic types known to ponykind, Unicorn magic, Pegasus Magic, Earth Pony Magic, Blood Magic, Forbidden or Dark Magic, and Alicorn Magic which can also be called Divine Magic" Twilight replied, making me take a double take.
Was that the line from...
"Splendid!" Princess Celestia commented. "I see you read 'Magic Around Us' By Star Swirl The Bearded. Very good Twilight!" She added with the most genuine smile I had seen her give yet.
While I got the general idea, I would never learn the definition by memory. Nevertheless, it was impressive that she was able to remember that word by word.
"Can you tell me how we use magic?" Celestia shot back at Twilight. And I knew that the answer I would get was the same as I always received.
"We use magic by creating a spell and taking the magic around us to fuel it. The ability to do so varies depending on the pony, and his ability to form spells." She said, reciting the exact same line in the book.
"Very good Twilight! That's precisely right!" She said with a grin.
As soon as she was done praising Twilight my hoof shot up.
Princess Celestia frowned and composed herself before looking at me with a soft motherly smile.
"Yes, Dear?" She asked, drilling me with her penetrating eyes.
"But how do you create a spell? You can't just form it out of the blue. And I couldn't find anything about creating spells in the books." I said, making everyone stare at me with mixed expressions.
After a second, Princess Celestia gently smiled before giving me an answer.
"Creating Spells? My little pony. Creating a completely new spell is rather difficult and dangerous. You see, ponykind invented many, many spells, if you can think of a situation where you need a specific spell, it is most likely already known to us. To create a completely new spell is to create a solution to a new problem, and in the last two hundred years ponykind invented less than twenty spells." She stopped to catch her breath.
"Creating new spells became so difficult and dangerous that we don't practice that anymore. We learn already known spells, and we perfect them by training. Trying to create a new spell is not really needed anymore. And all of you should focus on making the most of what others left us." She finished with a deadly silence.
"But... Isn't this making ponie-" I tried to reply but was caught off by her.
"Now, please tell me Twilight how an earth pony would use his type of magic." She started to talk to Twilight again, leaving me with half a sentence still in my mouth.
Tender Seed smirked in front of me, mounting the words 'You are stupid! Loser!' which really made me want to punch him right now.
As the lesson progressed I could spot a trend going on. It seems like Princess Celestia really, and I mean really wants Twilight to answer most questions, and it seems like others are second matter to her. No one seems to care though, because 'Princess is here, yey! Let's not care she is focusing solely on one individual!'
'Whatever...'
The first day of school ended. And to be honest... I didn't expect that.
I tried on multiple occasions to have a worthy conversation with Princess Celestia, but she seemed uninterested in that sort of thing. At least with me.
I'm not sure if that's my appearance or the fact that she focuses on Twilight Sparkle heavily, but I have a feeling that I'm being fucked silly by some kind of system.
Oh... Yeah. I remember something like that... When I was still attending school as a human, one teacher told me "Listen, I'm here to teach, not make you understand." and I think that something similar is going on here. I got this feeling not only from Princess Celestia but other teachers as well...
And Twilight seems to gabble it all up without care in the world. She was so lost in Princess Celestia that she didn't even bother to check on me as the class ended. She went straight to the front door and left with Princess in tow.
She said that we don't need to create new spells because it's not needed anymore. And to be honest, I see why she thinks that. There are tomes with thousands of pages dedicated to every spell in existence. But... The problem is, that most of the spells are not available to normal ponies. And most of those texts are behind walls and bars. Only a small portion of general knowledge is shared, except of course public libraries, but still. Some books are only for certain individuals. I know this because I tried to rent a book about blood magic, and the librarian told me that I'm not allowed unless I have a permit.
I think there is a system where the government is teaching the basic spells to an unicorn, and everything past that is locked behind a key to not be used recklessly. But is that true? I don't know. But since I never saw a unicorn use a dangerous spell it could mean that something like that might exist.
But what would even be considered a dangerous spell? And why would there be a system that makes your own citizens defenseless against for example invasion?
Sure, it might be easier to control ponies if they are stupid, but it also means that the progress of the country is going nowhere. If you want to grow you have to dare and challenge yourself, so the fact that new spells are not invented means society stopped growing. Why someone so powerful, and apparently intelligent would go to such lengths for such a thing? Isn't the princess beloved by her subjects? Or is it all fake?
If I want to understand it I have to do it on my own. I need to investigate it, and since I now have access to a school library, I think that's the best place to start.
As I stepped into a large oval room I couldn't believe my eyes, books stretched from buttom to the top, everything about everything. The small unicorn librarian mare eyed me as I began to browse books on the first bookshelf. It was too good to be true, so many books!
And at least at first glance, it was good.
Instantly the sign 'First years' caught my attention. It was hanging from a bookshelf to the right, and as the rows of books went, the sections were cut by those signs. Indicating where one year of school ended, and where the next one started.
Naturally, something like basic guidelines for students wouldn't be a problem. You just skip ahead and take the book on the second bookshelf. But...
"I'm sorry little miss, but that's for second years. And these two books are for four and six-year students only." The mare said to my face as I frowned.
"Why?" I asked, she was obviously cautious of me. Better than being scared though.
"Well, naturally, someone who just started school isn't going to understand what is said in those books. I'm sure I could pick some books that would suit your needs better." She scanned my choices.
'Study Of Magic Theory' 'All About Alicorns.' 'Dangers Of Dark Magic'
"But I need those books. I read most of the first-grade books on that bookshelf." I said, trying to persuade her with the 'please' expression I was practicing at home. Making a bow to the right with my head and the sad expression of a puppy.
She frowned. "No. I'm not allowed to rent books above your grade."
'Fuck' I said to myself.
"Fine! I guess I will have to read them once again." I said, grabbing three books I was going to rent and pretending to place them on the bookshelves.
"There is no way I'm going home without answers." I told myself as I tucked the books inside my bag before attempting to leave the library.
As soon as my hoof touched the doorframe, however...
*DING* *DING* *DING*
"Fuck me..." I said as the alarm blasted above me.