//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - Fitting shapes and passages // Story: Gemini in All Things // by LCranston //------------------------------// The next day, Twilight dictated a letter to Princess Celestia: “Dear Princess Celestia, Yesterday, I learned more about one of the Elements of Harmony. Generosity is always easy to look at from the outsider’s point of view. However, giving of one’s self is hard to do where the ‘hoof meets the highway’. A former rival of mine, Trixie, has come back to Ponyville in a desperate situation. Her parents are deceased, she no longer has gainful employment, and she had to sell her only home just to eat. No one here will give her a chance, but I see something good and useful in her. I am going to offer to teach her enough magic to make her way in the world. She’s a proud mare, but nopony should be so hated that they cannot earn redemption. She’ll share chores with Spike and Owlowiscious and learn the lessons she missed not being able to attend formal magic school. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle” ===================== Only an hour later, Spike received a return message: “My Generous Student Twilight Sparkle, While I applaud your intentions, I feel that Trixie may have more problems than just a place to sleep. Trixie should really be taught by professional instructors who can help her with all of her difficulties. She may have a learning disability or even personal issues that you’re not trained to handle. Not everypony can afford to send their foals to a proper magic academy like your parents could. There are so many unicorns who just don’t have the education they need but you can’t help them all. We need more qualified teachers and that takes time. Because you have learned a very big lesson in the magic of friendship, I will give a royal appointment to Trixie to my School for Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot. One of the teachers there will be much better for the task. I will send a chariot for her next week. Yours faithfully, Princess Celestia” ===================== Several minutes later, Spike sent another letter to the princess: “Dear Princess Celestia, Trixie has respectfully declined the royal appointment. In her own words, she’s ‘struck a bargain and the Great and Powerful Trixie always holds up her end of the bargain’. I really don’t think she’d feel comfortable in Canterlot surrounded by strangers. She can be abrasive to strangers, especially if she feels outnumbered. I’m sure I can help her develop her talents. She just needs a friendly hoof and a good meal and maybe a friend. I’ll watch over her like a sister. She’s already warmed up to me and I am the Element of Magic. Who better to teach her the ‘friendship of magic’? Hee, hee. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle” ===================== The next day fared both better and worse for Twilight. After a nice breakfast with everyone in the kitchen, it was time to get Trixie acquainted with her new home and responsibilities. She noticed that Trixie seemed to stop speaking so much in the third person every time, but now she invoked Twilight’s name often as some kind of authority. “Spike, clean the dishes. Twilight and I have much studying to do.” The baby dragon countered, “I know my chores, Trixie. You don’t have to order me.” “Also, we really must speak about the sleeping arrangements. I am normally accustomed to having my own sleeping chamber, however I can bring myself to sharing a bedroom with Twilight. But, I will not share a private chamber with someone of the opposite gender! You’ll have to move your basket elsewhere.” Spike protested, “No way! I’ve been sleeping here longer than you have! Twilight gave me that place when we moved here from Canterlot. I’ve always slept in her room!” The blue unicorn then turned to Owlowiscious and snarled, “And you! If I ever catch you grasping my hat with those talons of yours again, I’ll fry every feather off your body with lightning bolts! You’ve already crumpled it and I don’t have the money to fix it again! I swear if you ruin it…” The owl had been perched in the kitchen as usual in the morning. The last thing he normally did was to eat with the others and then fly off to the top of the treehouse to sleep through the day. Now, the owl was awake and trembling. He hooted, “Whoo?” He then flapped his wings and flew out of the kitchen and up to the top of the living space to get away from the angry pony. Twilight could take no more. She shouted, “Enough!” Trixie and Spike looked at Twilight with trepidation. She didn’t normally yell. The purple unicorn addressed her new apprentice firmly, “Trixie, I know you’ve had it hard, but you will NOT give Spike or Owlowiscious grief over it! You do not order Spike. The sleeping arrangements are fine for now. If you need privacy, then you can move your bed downstairs by yourself.” She then stood up and stepped over into Trixie’s face. She ordered, “Your job is to be my apprentice. That means you do as I say. You will read books. You watch me perform experiments. Eventually you will perform experiments. You will practice incantations and exercises and you will do your best. Other than that, you will stay out of our way. If you cannot do all of that, then you will be asked to leave. Is that CLEAR?!?!” Trixie’s body felt flushed with ice water. Inwardly, she shivered at the prospect of losing her new home. Still, her pride demanded she not give any satisfaction to anyone speaking against her. She hid her fear and put on a brave face. She lowered her head slightly, showing submission. She backed off a few small steps and turned her grimace into a small smile. She said, “Sure, Twi…I mean, yes, ma’am. I’m sorry.” Spike saw the conflict in Trixie’s eyes, and it worried him. Twilight seemed not to notice. Instead, she was pleased with the quick change. She stated with a smile, “That’s better. I think you’ll find that we’re all friends here. The more you try to get along, the easier you’ll have it with everyone.” ===================== An hour later, Trixie was standing next to the side of a large wooden cutout. The cutout had nine holes in it, cut into shapes. The bottom row had a large star, square, and crescent moon. The middle row had a middle size star, square, and crescent moon. The top row had a tiny star, square, and crescent moon. A small table in front of the cutout had tiny blocks of wood cut into a star, square, and crescent moon. Twilight stood in front of the table and gestured to the wooden shapes. She asked, “Now Trixie, when you used the rope at your magic show, did you use a Come To Life spell or was it a Manipulate Object incantation?” The blue unicorn looked bored. In a careless voice she asked, “What? What are those?” The purple unicorn’s eyes bugged out as she imagined the scope of Trixie’s lack of arcane knowledge. She queried, “Well, how did you move the rope?” Trixie just looked at the shapes on the table and replied, “I just summoned a bunch of energy and sent it to the rope at many points. I imagined each point as a hoof grabbing and pushing the rope.” Twilight tried to track in her mind how many points of articulation the rope must have had to move the way it did in such varied patterns. She tried to estimate how much raw energy Trixie would have to summon to fuel the points of articulation. She marveled, “That was incredible. You must have had at least a dozen ‘hoof’ points to move the rope like that.” Trixie replied proudly, “Three dozen. I could only do a dozen when I was a filly.” Twilight realized just how hard Trixie had to work all her life for what little magic she currently had. In fact, Trixie had just as much power as Twilight did on her best day. All Trixie lacked was a classical education and she would be as great a magician as Twilight, maybe more! The purple unicorn gestured to the shapes and explained, “This is a basic exercise to practice fine control when you, um…’hoof’ objects through the air. What you were doing was a very raw form of the incantation known as Manipulate Object.” The blue unicorn sniffed and said, “Why are such things given stupid names? Why not give them impressive names, like ‘Trixie’s Rope Flourish’?” She then rose up on her hind legs and struck an impressive pose fit for the stage. Twilight grumped, “Down, girl. This isn’t showtime.” Trixie landed on all fours and said, “Oh, right.” Twilight tried to compliment her by saying, “That was very impressive to control so many ‘hoof’ points at once. Right now, I want to see how you do with just one. Try to pick up this square block and move it through the bottom square hole. The blue unicorn sighed and summoned the energy in an instant. She grasped the object with her magic and thrust it towards the square-shaped hole. The shape bounced off the side of the hole and went through. Twilight’s mouth turned down and she said, “Now bring it back out here.” Trixie rolled her eyes at the task. She willed the shape and it moved quickly. It wobbled in mid-air and scraped the edge of the cutout. The purple unicorn kept a mental note that each ‘hoof’ was not very coordinated. She asked, “Now pick up the star and put it through the middle star hole.” Trixie knew a bigger challenge when she saw it. She summoned more energy and grasped the star block. She raised it up and flew it fast towards the cutout. The shape bounced off the hole as it was not quite lined up right. The blue unicorn grunted and grimaced in frustration. She picked up the block with yet another ‘hoof’ dedicated just for rotation. She pressed the block into the hole and then rotated it. It slipped through easily. She exclaimed, “Ha! No block of wood can humiliate the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Twilight smirked and said, “Oh, no? Now put the crescent through the top hole.” Trixie’s face fell as she realized she had set herself up for a fall. Not dropping the other three ‘hoof’ points, she summoned another two to grasp the crescent and lifted it carefully. She pressed it against the board with vigor and then rotated it quickly. The odd shape kept slipping back and forth into the hole and back out. Trixie’s anger was building. She spat out, “Come on, come on! Work, you damned shape!” Twilight yelled, “Trixie!” The blue unicorn lost her concentration. This dispelled all of the ‘hoof’ points and the shapes all dropped to the floor noisily. She looked at her teacher, who was visibly upset. The purple unicorn chastised her student, “We do NOT swear in the library. Spike is too young to hear that kind of language and you never know when little fillies or colts will be here to read books.” Trixie’s pride stung her. She was not used to being told what she could or could not say to anyone! Still, she needed this job and this place to live. She stepped back and said, “Sorry, Twilight, uh…ma’am. I’m just used to being on the open road where I can speak my mind.” Seeing Twilight’s expectant gaze, she added, “I’ll watch my mouth from now on.” Twilight nodded, satisfied. She stated, “That was still impressive for a beginner. I noticed how you kept maintaining all your other shapes even though you were adding more. That takes real talent. Now, let me teach you the right way to levitate an object. It’ll be much easier to move it and adjust it’s orientation through the air with just a single spell.” The purple unicorn summoned a great deal of energy and surrounded the star shape with a skin of purple energy. The object levitated up towards the hole. Twisting and turning on its way, it slid through the top hole with ease and no scraping. Trixie summoned a great deal of energy and grabbed the crescent. Surrounding it with a giant ‘hoof’ that enveloped it, she moved it towards the top crescent hole. She slammed and scraped it around until it passed through. Twilight rebuked her, “No! Don’t force it! You’re wasting your energy by forcing it. You’ll also damage the board.” The blue unicorn complained, “It’s not working! I have to push hard to get it to pass through. You said to push it through. This is what it takes.” The purple unicorn ordered, “You’re doing it all wrong. Don’t just make another ‘hoof’. Wrap it in a thin skin like me.” Trixie turned her head away. Twilight cleared her throat audibly. The blue unicorn sighed and dismissed the ‘hoof’. The shape fell to the table and bounced onto the floor. Twilight’s frown deepened at her apprentice’s carelessness. Suddenly, a blue sheen surrounded the square shape. Levitating it towards the hole, the shape easily rotated into the correct posture. The block slid through the top shape with ease. Trixie silently marveled at how much less effort it took to slide the shape through. She then created another skin to wrap around the crescent and the star. Twilight dropped her own incantation to allow her student to flex her new magical muscle. All three shapes were sliding silently and effortlessly through the cutout multiple times. She stated with elation, “Congratulations, Trixie! You’ve mastered the Manipulate Object incantation. This will make it so much easier to move things the way you want. In the long run, you’ll find this to actually be more efficient with energy than all those ‘hoof’ points you had to conjure and maintain.” Silently, Twilight marveled at how fast Trixie completed the lesson. Even Princess Celestia had to teach this board to Twilight for three days before she mastered it and Twilight was considered a prodigy. Deep inside, she became nervous at the prospect of training such a powerful pony. She dismissed the thoughts as just Trixie having an edge of practicing for years before Twilight met her. That’s all. She said, “I’ve never seen anypony master the board so fast, even in Canterlot. You must be proud.” Trixie curtsied and said, “Thank you…ma’am.” Deep inside, Trixie was celebrating wildly. She learned her first real incantation! The rush was…nice. It was very nice! She wanted more! If this was what it was like to be a student of magic, then she wanted it! She asked eagerly, “What’s next?” ===================== That night, Spike sent another letter to Princess Celestia: “Dear Princess Celestia, I am learning first-hand how hard it is to be a teacher. The first thing to figure out is how to grab your student’s attention. Once you have that, you need to keep it. Trixie is certainly used to doing things her own way. I need to show her the better way and convince her that she’ll be better off my way. Once I convince her that my way is more efficient and more effective, she just dives right in and masters the lesson right away. Did you know that she mastered the shape board in less than an hour? I chalk it up to her head-start in life by doing magic to survive. After that, we moved right in to fixing objects and sensing magic fields. Once she’s convinced that I have knowledge she wants, she’s like a sponge. It bothers me that she always starts off the same way. Too much force and too little control. I keep wondering if I’ll have to replace my equipment until she learns to slow down and use just a little finesse. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle”