The Pledge
Twilight arrived in Ponyville later that day. She gingerly walked off the station platform and made a beeline towards her house. Her only thoughts were that of getting home and falling asleep. In the time it took Twilight to walk back to her house, the sun had set and her legs were ready to give out. The soft fluffy clouds illuminated by the moonlight only mocked Twilight further. She made it inside and barely walked five feet before she decided her rug was a suitable bed and, quite literally, fell asleep.
Twilight awoke to find her leg asleep and that her side was sore from the hard rug. She was mystified as to how a rug could look so soft but be as hard as brick. Twilight sleepily got up from the floor and limped into the kitchen. She tried making herself some food, but she could not find her apatite. She ended up laying her head on the kitchen table and watched the condensation collect on her glass. She did not even notice Spike, until he was standing at the other side of the table.
"Twilight, there is someone here to see you." Twilight stared at Spike. His words made sense, but she did not know how. Then like a wave crashing against the shore, Twilight remembered her meeting with Star Swirl and jumped from the table. Knocking the glass to the floor in the process.
She rushed into the library and slide to a stop just short of the door.
"Why hello Twilight, I can see that you are eager to start."
"Sorry, I forgot all about yesterday. I've been running a little slow this morning." Star Swirl smiled.
"I would hate to see what happens when you are running fast." Twilight chuckled nervously and looked back inside her house. "Would you mind if I come inside?" Twilight shook her head and stepped aside to let Star Swirl in. She closed the door and walked to Star Swirl’s side.
“Is there anything I can get you?”
“Just a chair would be fine.” While Twilight searched for a chair, Star Swirl admired the vast collection of books in the library.
"Soo, how is this more official?" Twilight asked as she adjusted a vase of flowers on the other side of the room. Star Swirl ignored her remark and accepted the chair Twilight brought him.
"Twilight Sparkle, would you like to learn more about magic?" Twilight closed her mouth and nodded. "Then I need to set some rules, first, I am like no other teacher. As you can tell, I am an earth pony. Second, you need to listen to what I say and you need to do it. Those are the only rules, any questions?" Twilight raised her hoof.
"I have a few questions if that is ok." Star Swirl merely stared at her. Twilight swallowed nervously and continued. "How is it that you’re still alive?"
"I used a very completed spell that slows time in a bubble. All I would have to do is step in it whenever I felt. The result, I would not age a day for a hundred of years. What are your other questions?"
"Umm, how is it that you can perform magic even though you are not a unicorn?"
"I will answer that question later in our lessons." Only slightly stumped, Twilight thought on her last question.
"What will I be learning?"
"I will teach you about magic, everything about magic. Ok maybe not everything, but everything that is important to understanding it. Is that the last question?"
"Yes."
"Shall we begin?"
"Yes."
"Ok then, pull up a chair."
"First we will start with the core fundamentals of magic. Can you name off the four main classes of magic?" Twilight’s face went blank.
"Classes of magic?" Star Swirl sighed and shook his head.
"What is Celestia teaching you ponies these days. There are four classes that all magic can be categorized into. Alteration, Restoration, Enchanting, and Destruction. You are probably wondering why these and not some other ones. That is mostly because these are taught and studied at schools of magic. There are other fields, but they are just not as popular."
"So what are the other fields?"
"There are many, mostly too small to be considered a field or a combination of two other fields. For example, cooking with magic would be Alteration and Destruction. Cutting the food is Alteration, and the cooking is Destruction. Then, there are fields that are too advanced for most. Did you know that in every spell there is a good and a bad?" Twilight stared at a book in concentration, but eventually gave in.
"I can't say that I do."
"Well in magic there is dark magic and there is light magic. To put it simply they have different results when you use the same spell. Also, I employ you to not study into the field of dark magic. You can easily lose yourself to it." Star Swirl adjusted himself in the chair. "Now on to the basics. Twilight, what is magic?"
"It's the ability that all unicorn ponies are born with to shape the world around them as they see fit." Twilight sounded off without missing a beat.
"And do you still believe that?"
"Well,” Twilight said timidly, “after seeing you perform magic, I am not so sure." Star Swirl smiled and stood from his chair.
"Let's go for a walk." Star Swirl walked over to the front door and waited for her.
"Do I need a quill?" Star Swirl shook his head.
"No, I would rather have you thinking about what I say, over writing it down." With that, he opened the door and walked out. Twilight quickly scuttled over to the door and followed Star Swirl down the road.
"Now Twilight, magic isn't just an ability. Magic is something that all ponies can learn to use. For example, look at the Pegasi. By your logic, they have the ability to fly just because they are called pegasus. Well what about birds? or dragons? They are both able to fly, are they not? Now the true reason they are able to fly is because they all have something in common."
"There wings." Star Swirl stopped walking and looked at Twilight.
"Very good, their wings are what give them the ability to fly. So what are their wings? A mere tool. Look here, we used deductive reasoning to discover why pegasi are so special." Star Swirl walked over to a tree and stopped under the shade. "Twilight, what is one thing that sets unicorns apart from the other creatures in Equestria?" Twilight didn't even have to think about this.
"My horn."
"Excellent. A pegasus is distinct cause of his wings and a unicorn is, cause of his horn. Now the important question, do you know why?" Twilight was stumped. She remembered reading somewhere that the horn was made from some hard material and something else. Twilight's eyes got big as she recalled what she had read.
"The unknown material from your book." Star Swirl nodded.
"That is correct. The unknown material is what makes magic possible. Over the years I've come to call it Intelligence."
"Why Intelligence?"
"Because, Intelligence is what makes magic happen. You tell it what you want to happen, in the form of a spell, and it does it. It is really smart for something that isn't alive."
"So how does this stuff, Intelligence, perform magic?"
"That is the tricky part. Intelligence is needed to perform magic, but so is energy. You can think of Intelligence as the workhorse and the energy as the apples the work horse eats to keep up his strength." Twilight was starting to understand.
"Is that why I feel tired after I perform spells?"
"Yes and no. The reason you feel tired after performing a spell is because you were supplying your own energy to power the spell. That's mostly cause you don't know how to word your spells correctly, yet." Twilight was confused.
"What do you mean, word my spells?"
"Well when you say a spell you are actually able to say where you want the energy to come from." Star Swirl picked up a rock . "Now, I want you to pick up this rock with magic, but you must use the spell I tell you." Twilight nodded and prepared herself for the test. "First I want you to use, rock rise. Then I want you to use, rock rise horn. Last I want you to use, rock rise self." Twilight nodded and faced the rock. The spells Star Swirl said were easy enough, but very childish. Celestia had taught Twilight how to perform spells that ran a few sentences. Celestia even taught her this one spell that would cook an entire meal with one incantation. Twilight sighed and raised the rock with each of the different spells. When she looked back up, Star Swirl seemed distracted.
"Why are you having me use these simple spells? Celestia has had me use ten line spells before." Star Swirl looked back at Twilight and frowned.
"You shouldn't be proud of that. Long incantations are very dangerous. It is better to keep a spell as short as you can."
"But with my spells I can lift the rock and fifty more if I wanted to." Star Swirl lifted an eyebrow.
"Is that so. Then why don't you show off your magical knowledge." Twilight smiled and turned back towards the rock. She thought of the incantation and released the energy for the spell. Surely enough, the rock and fifty others, all rose into the air.
"See, told ya." Star Swirl's face was unchanged. He took a step forward and raised his hoof.
"I will not hurt you." A moment of confusion flashed through Twilight. What is he talking about, she thought. With that, Star Swirl placed his hoof directly over one of the pebbles and smashed it into the ground. At first, Twilight didn't understand the gravity of the situation, but soon she started to feel it. As slow as molasses, Twilight could feel herself getting tired. It started at her ears and crawled its way down her face. The sudden drain of energy made her want to scream, but the strain of the spell kept her mouth glued shut. She tried releasing the spell, but it didn’t work. The energy kept draining from her body same as before. Terror soon overwhelmed, her breathing became sporadic, and her eyes flickered around wildly. The wave of tiredness soon encompassed her shoulders. By this time her vision was blurred, the faint outline of Star Swirl was all she could see. In desperation, she tried calling out to him, but no words formed in her mouth. Her front legs gave way and she fell to the ground. To her surprise, the energy ceased crawling out of her body. At this point Twilight was barely conscious. All she could remember was the swirling of colors and low-pitched drone of sound.
Twilight eventually found herself lying in her bed. Her head was throbbing, but her vision had returned. She tried lifting her head to look around, but she could only lift it a few inches. Instead, she rolled her head to the side. She noticed someone had lit a fire, and she could smell a sweet tea in the air. She tried to say something but her mouth was numb and tingly, like it had fallen asleep
"Ah, you are awake." Twilight looked off her bed to see Star Swirl standing next to her. "I am sorry about what I did, but it was for the best. If one of your enemies had learned that you cast your spells improperly then they would use that against you." Twilight tried to say "why," but it came out more like blah. "I will explain tomorrow, now you should rest." Star Swirl turned, muttered something to Spike, and walked out of the house. Twilight was too tired to stop him, and too tired to think. She took a few sips of the tea Spike brought her and laid her head down. Twilight started to realize how dangerous magic could really be. Up until now, she only had one accident and that was when she got Spike. Though the danger only made it that more exciting. Twilight weakly smiled, “I am going crazy.” She closed her eyes in anticipation of the next day and fell asleep.