Jake awoke and blinked the sleep from his eyes. What a weird dream I had. He yawned and stretched and then looked around the room. He was in a large room with polished stone floors. There were rugs scattered about the floor. The bed was huge with cream colored sheets and a golden sun embroidered on top. A large, dark, polished wooden door was on one side and on the other, a door made of blue and gold stained glass with a sun on it. Red curtains hung on either side of the second door. There was a desk in the corner and pieces of finely carved furniture spread throughout the room and a massive fireplace. Lanterns hung from the ceiling. Straight ahead was an archway that seemed to lead into another room. The whole place had a regal feel to it. What the?! Where am I? This isn’t my room. He then looked down and saw hooves where his hands should be. What happened to my hands?! Panic slipped into his mind as he tried to make sense of everything. He glanced into the mirror and it hit him. It wasn’t a dream was it? Jake rose out of bed and went over to the mirror.
The image that looked back at him was one he was still getting used to. A tall raven-haired alicorn with a silver mane and tail, blue eyes and a white star just below his horn. Just a day ago he had been a man of Earth out on a date, with a girl he died trying to protect from a robber. Ofcourse the girl was Princess Celestia of Equestria. She was in magical disguise the day of her visit to not draw attention to herself.
He then went to heaven to be reunited with his family who had died earlier in his life. Only to be given a choice to remain or return to Celestia, who was trying everything in her power to bring him back to life. Man, I really jumped into it this time. He didn’t regret his choice to return to her but the reality of that choice was now staring him in the face.
On Earth Jake had a good childhood, he came from a loving family and he even got to pursue his dreams of becoming a pilot. Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to him except for Princess Celestia. He still remembered the first day they met. He was only 7 years old playing in his room, when he noticed his mirror was aglow. There she was, an image of beauty, the likes of which he had never seen before. She was his secret growing up. After all you don’t just run around saying you’re flirting with a white alicorn you talked to through the mirror in your room. He knew what he wanted to be and had become it. Yet it had all disappeared in an instant, taken by an idiot with a gun desperate for money. Still he had done it for love.
So the big question was now what? What was he going to do for a living? He had to relearn everything even down to writing and holding things. He looked down at his front hooves. I’m really going to be missing my hands. Here ponies used their hooves or magic. He really couldn’t use either. His first experience with magic was sneezing a gaping hole in the wall of Celestia’s chambers. He looked back up at his image and noticed the ring still around his horn. Celestia had called it a suppressor and it did exactly what the name implied. Then after the explosion, getting introduced to the royal guards as Prince Distant Star, childhood friend of the princesses. Celestia had taken him on a tour of the castle but everypony couldn’t help but to stare at him. The whispers about him buzzed as they walked about till finally he asked if they could just go back to the room. He didn’t like to lie to anyone, but what could he do? Alicorns were royalty in this world. A mysterious stallion, who can’t fly, use magic, no cutie mark and just shows up from parts unknown. Jake let out a long sigh at the thought. No, I will not give up. I promised that we were going to make this work, so it’s time to get started. Jake nodded at the image and put all doubts from his mind for the time being.
Celestia walked into the room. “Good morning. How did you sleep last night?”
“Really well, I was beat. I think it’s time to start my lessons on magic. I need to know how to open doors on my own and manipulate objects since I don’t have hands anymore.”
She seemed surprised by his straight forwardness. “You don’t have to be in a rush you know. Whenever you’re ready you can start. I figured you would want to take a couple of days before beginning, besides you still have your hooves.”
Jake face was a bit more serious, “You don’t understand. I am dependent on everypony to help me out. I can’t write or open doors. It’s almost like being a baby all over again. I don’t have any choice and it really can’t wait. My hooves aren’t any better. I’m used to having fingers and thumbs to grab stuff.”
“You’re not a baby but I can see your frustration in this, so we can start right here and now.”
“Here,” Jake said completely surprised. He hadn’t forgotten the hole he had put into her wall. Though they were quick to fix it, he was in no hurry to put a new one in. “I thought there was a training room we could work in. Some place that I couldn’t damage.”
“No, here will be fine. You might have power but you lack control. I can keep us safe but your first exercise is an easy one. First I need to take that ring off.” She levitated it off Jake’s horn and placed it on the table. “Now I want you to clear your mind and focus on the ring.”
Jake closed his eyes and took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He then opened his eyes and focused on the ring. Celestia smiled. “Now I want you to pick it up in your mind. You want to pick it up.”
He looked at the ring and it began to glow. Then it lifted slowly from the table. “I DID IT,” Jake shouted with triumph. As he cheered, the ring dropped back to the table. “Wait, I didn’t want to drop it.”
“You have to focus. Because you lost your concentration, you dropped the object. This is your first lesson that you will be practicing today. I want you to pick up random objects and move them about. Baby unicorns do this all the time. It is simple for them because they want something, so they reach out with their magic and take it. Magic is based on two things; willpower and focus. These are the basics you need to understand before you start using magic. You’ll find it easy with some practice.”
“What if I sneeze again? Don’t you have work?” Jake thought he sounded like a child, but then again, he was about as helpless as one in his current state.
“It’s as I said before, I’ll keep us safe. As for my royal duties I can work from here today. Besides you need supervision until I think that you don’t need that ring anymore.” Celestia had a warm smile on her face as she walked over to Jake. “Besides, I like seeing you. When I woke this morning it took me a second to make sure you were real.” She nuzzled him gently.
Jake laughed at her words. “I felt the same this morning. I thought it was some crazy dream until I saw myself in the mirror. Well, enough talking, time to practice.” Suddenly there was a growling noise. “But first maybe some breakfast?”
Celestia had breakfast brought to her room for the both of them. Jake had the ring back on his horn for safety purposes. After swallowing down a blueberry muffin and drinking milk through a straw, he had a nagging question on his mind. “Tell me more about this ring. Why do you have such a thing in your room anyways?”
“It’s something from my childhood. You see I had an illness when I was just a filly. I lost control of my powers so my parents made me wear that ring to protect myself from, well, myself. It’s nothing to be concerned with. I got better but kept it just in case.”
Jake felt a little better knowing this was not an uncommon item he was wearing. “So did Luna ever have to wear one? Is this illness just found in children or can adults get it too?”
“No, Luna never had to wear one, and yes, the illness is mainly in children but some adults can get it too. The illness is called magical rampancy. They say once you get it you will never have it again. So if anypony sees you with that ring on, they will think you are just fighting the illness.”
“How long does this illness last?”
“A week and a half with medical help and several weeks without,” she said.
After breakfast Jake started practice. Celestia wanted to take the ring off his horn but Jake wanted to try using his hooves to do it himself. It was a little difficult but he finally managed and he placed it on the table. He then started to levitate the ring and putting it back down in different spots on the table. Then he turned his attention to bigger objects. First it was silverware then it was a plate. Soon he was moving a chair and then he tried the table. As the objects became larger, more concentration was required to move them. The table barely moved and it got the princess’s attention.
“Not that. It’s too big, too soon. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“But the smaller objects I can move with ease. How big and heavy can we go?”
“It depends on the unicorn, but this is day one for you. I don’t want you to strain yourself.”
But Jake couldn’t be swayed. I want to learn more. How can I open doors, or how about picking up multiple objects at once.”
“Doors are like anything else. You just have to focus on the object. As for multiple objects you can try and move two of these small books. But I want to see you open and close doors first.”
Jake walked over to the door to Celestia’s chambers. He focused on it and it began to glow like all the other objects. Then it swung open. He gave her a quick glace as she smiled and nodded. He then looked back and slammed the door closed. “I don’t understand. I didn’t mean to slam the door.”
“Moving objects is one thing, finesse is another. You’ll learn how to handle things gently. That is why we are not playing with delicate objects right now.”
Jake then walked over to the two books she had set out for him to practice on. This time it was much more difficult. He could raise the one book with ease but the other took work. He finally managed to get both in the air about an hour later. He then spent the rest of the day practicing what he had learned. He tried to move things slowly and quickly. By the day’s end he was exhausted and his head hurt.
“You’ve made excellent progress today. For never having magic you’re catching on faster than I would have thought, I’m so proud. How do you feel?” Celestia had been watching him all day even though she seemed to be buried in paperwork.
“I’m beat and my head is pounding. I didn’t think moving stuff was going to take so much out of me.”
“Using magic is almost like working a muscle in the body. You have to build up your stamina and that is going to take some time. As for your headach, let me help you with that.” She leaned close to Jake and her horn began to glow. His head started to feel instantly better.
“I’m really going to have to learn whatever it is you just did.”
“Oh that was just a bit of healing magic but it’s far out of your reach right now.”
Jake smiled and kissed her. “Thank you Tia. You are giving me back my independence. I don’t want to be a burden on anypony.”
“You are anything but a burden. Remember who helped put you here. I’m responsible and I will make it right, I promise.” Celestia looked serious for the first time all day.
Jake held her. “Don’t feel guilty at all. We did this, and we will see it through together.”
She returned his embrace and the two just enjoyed the moment. In the following days Jake practiced the basics. By the end of the week Jake was able to handle things with care and move multiple books. He had gotten the hang of doors and even started to practice writing. His writing was somewhat legible, for a colt in the first grade. His head would still hurt but he always wanted to push himself. Celestia seemed a little tired too. She had been doing her normal duties as well as training Jake. However soon she would not have to be so involved. He was becoming more self-sufficient by the day. When he wasn’t performing magic, he read as much as he could. He wanted to know the history and all there was to learn about Equestria. Luna even checked in on the two of them.
Usually the sisters would have breakfast and dinner together, as a way to find out how the other’s day had gone. But since Celestia was busy watching and training Jake, Luna would come see them. She had told Jake she had a final exam for him. It would be to test his skills on his basic magic usage. He must also keep improving on his writing. Celestia started to protest not seeing a need for her younger sister’s involvement. Luna assured her and Jake it would not be too difficult and might even be fun. Once he could do this he would be ready for more difficult magical training.
It took Jake another week of practice before Celestia would let him attempt Luna’s exam. In the meantime he would go for runs on the castles grounds. This always seemed to help clear his head and he did them alone. He even tried on one day a slow jog while levitating a small rock. Celestia had not told him to do this, but he knew multitasking was important.
Finally the day came for the exam. Luna walked into Celestia’s room to get Jake. “Are you ready?” she asked.
“Bring it on. Also I have this for you.” He handed her a piece of parchment. She opened it and inside was a small journal he had written in every day since Luna had told him to improve on his writing.
“You’ve been practicing I see.”
“I have but it still takes forever to write. It looks better anyways.”
“Indeed it does. Now come with me to my room. Tia, you can come too.” Luna led the two to her room. “Go on in.”
The three walked in and what Jake saw blew him away. Luna’s room was furnished just like Celestia’s but with one major difference. In one corner was a TV and a gaming system. His mouth hung open and he stared at the technology in front of him. Luna smiled at Jake, “So what do you think?”
Jake looked like a kid at Christmas time. He had been a gamer on Earth--after all who wasn’t one--but to find this here was amazing. “What is this doing here? I didn’t know you guys had television and game systems. I never saw anything like that on the show. It just doesn’t seem to fit in with everything else. I mean the castle and the guards in armor and here in your room is modern tech.” He looked to Celestia, “Why didn’t you tell me you had these things? I told you about TV when I was on Earth, but you never said anything about having the same tech.”
“I was just listening, I’m sorry. We do have these things but…,” Celestia looked away, slightly embarrassed, “it slipped my mind during that conversation.”
“So you do know what that is. I was wondering if humans had such devices on Earth. Although you seem surprised that we have them. I’ll bet you don’t even know about Manehatten, a huge city to the north.” Luna seemed happy to know that Jake understood what video games were.
“Nope, can’t say that I knew about that. We had a city on Earth called New York and one part of that city was called Manhattan. So you do know about technology. I thought everything was powered by magic?”
“Most everything in our world is powered by magic, including our tech. So… time for the test.” Luna wanted to bring Jake back to the task at hand.
“So what is this test you have in mind?”
“You have been working on your basics and trying to multitask but now I need to see how good you have become. So your test will be to play a video game with me. It will be a first person shooter. Think you’re up for the task?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. This is your test? I hate to break it to you sweets but I was a gamer on Earth. We had first person shooters. Halo, Call of Duty, you name it. I was a fan of a system called the XBOX 360 myself. So what is the name of the game you had in mind?”
“I’m glad you’ve heard of these games because we have them here on Equestria too. I was thinking of Halo 4. Did you ever play that?” Luna had a smug look in her eye.
“One of my favorites, I still can’t believe you have all this here. All the way down to the same games. How is that possible?” Jake was looking over one of the controllers which looked like a 360 controller.
“I don’t know. How do Earthlings watch a show about our daily lives?”
“Good point. So are we on the same team or am I going to have to show you how we handled things on Earth?” Jake was already set to go. “I still don’t see how this has anything to do with what I’ve been working on these past two weeks.”
“Oh you don’t do you? Well, since you’re familiar with the game you should know that it’s multitasking. You can’t look at the controller because you’re watching the screen.”
“That’s not fair Luna. You know this is above his level. He is doing well but this might be too much,” Celestia protested.
“No. I want to try. I loved gaming back on Earth. Now I can have that back. I never even got to finish this game so this’ll be fun.”
“Alright, I think we should start you off against me. This way you can get a feel for the controls and I can hold back and not frag your butt right away, unlike the computer.” Luna powered up the game and took another controller. Celestia took a seat near Jake and looked on. Jake focused on his controller as his magic picked it up. He found manipulating the controls to be easy as long as he looked at it. Then the game began. With all his practice this was different. He had to focus on the game but also on the controller too. His game charcter movements were slow and awkward. Luna would tease him by running past him and firing a burst in his direction. “What’s wrong? I thought you had played this game before?”
Jake glared sideways at her. “If I had my hands you’d be toast.”
Luna just laughed as she killed his character off for the first time. “I think my sister was right. This is a little much for you. Perhaps you could come back and try again later.”
Jake was getting frustrated. He knew he could do this but at this rate Luna was going be beat him hands down. Wait a minute, hands down. Jake looked down at his controller. He had been levitating it as if he were holding it with his hands. The controller was down like if he were playing on Earth. I wonder if this would help? He floated the controller almost to eye level. That is when things got easier. Now he was able to see both the controller and the TV, and his character moved with more efficiency. This time when Luna ran by, Jake cut her down. “Beginner’s luck, noob,” Luna chided
Jake smiled. “We’ll see.”
Luna started to get more aggressive. She managed to kill him a few more times but he was getting better. He could tell she had to work harder. He fragged her with a grenade the next time. The time after that he snuck up behind her and finished her off with a melee attack. By the end of the game Luna had won but not by much. “So how about a rematch, what do ya say?”
Luna looked at him with a smile on her face. “I’m impressed. You did better than I expected. My sister hardly ever plays with me.”
Jake turned and looked at Celestia. “What? I never understood those games. It’s really not my thing,” she said.
“Jake, I think this is start of a beautiful friendship,” Luna said.
“Sure thing, right after I school a mouthy little filly.”
Luna had that smug look on her face again. “You want the title? Just try and take it, noob.”
The two played for hours. At the end they were almost tied. Luna looked a little tired. She glanced over at Jake. “I think you passed the test. What do you think Tia?”
Celestia yawned. “I think he did too. So that means you don’t have to wear that suppressor anymore if you don’t want too.” She had left after a short time to attend to other duties. She had been checking up on the two of them every so often to see how Jake was doing.
“Awesome. So what time is it anyways?”
“I believe its dinner time. Why don’t you go take care of the sun, Tia, and Jake and I will meet you in the dining hall.”
“Alright,” she said as she got up and stretched. With one more yawn she left the room.
They met in the dining hall and had dinner. Afterwards a small cake was brought in and set in front of Jake. On it read, Congratulations.
Celestia said, “We wanted to celebrate your achievement in your first stage of training.”
“Thanks guys, the cake is awesome. Tia, I would have never gotten this far without your help.”
Celestia smiled, “Your welcome Jake. You’ve taken you’re first step into a bigger world.”
“I’m just glad to be more independent now. Glad to have video games back but more importantly, I have more control of my magic.” Jake was speaking but he seemed like he was far away. The sisters embraced him and he returned their embrace. There was still a long way to go for him but he was starting to feel whole once again.