//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 - Magic Lessons 
// Story: Without Twilight 
// by Ephraim Blue 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 7 - Magic Lessons


Ponyville Library September 14th 1002

Blue and Rainbow Dash entered the library to see a huge pile of books lying on the floor. All cramped up right next to a bookshelf.

"What happened here?" Rainbow asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Blue replied. He walked up the small pile of books on the floor. Several were open and bending along the spine, while a few others were closed. "They weren't like this when we left, were they?"

Rainbow shook her head. "No, those books were on a ladder." She pointed to the ladder that was over at another part of the bookshelf. "That ladder right there."

Blue looked at the ladder and then around the room. "I see no other ladders," he stated.

"Well, the ladder wasn't right above the books, so I thought you wanted clarification."

"Is something the matter?" a tired voice came from the top of the stairs. Both of them looked in that direction and saw Spike rubbing his left eye with his claw.

"Spike, did you cause this?" Rainbow asked, pointing to the books with her hoof.

Spike looked at the books. "No," he flatly replied. "I was asleep until recently."

"That leaves one possible answer," Blue stated. He quickly trotted over to the door where Twilight's room was. He knocked three times on the door. "Twilight? Are you awake?"

A sudden thud could be heard on the other side of the door, followed by several hoofsteps. The doorknob turned and revealed Twilight on the other side.

"Twilight, just a quick question." Blue turned and pointed to the pile of the books. "Did you cause that pile of books on the floor?"

She followed the direction that his hoof pointed. She never verbally answered, but did nod in disappointment.

"Twilight, it isn't anything to be sad over. I was just wondering if you were the one to cause it. May I ask why?"

She brought her head up and looked at all who were in the room. "I... I was trying to get a book of the top shelf earlier," she said quietly. "I moved that ladder to reach it, but sever books fell on my head when I did."

Her head tilted down again. In response, Blue wrapped one hoof around her back and started calming her. "Twilight, it isn't anything to be sad over. In fact, it is perfect for our first lesson in magic."

Her head shot back up and she looked at Blue. "Really?"

He smiled back at her. "Really." He looked over to Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow?"

She flinched when he mentioned her name. "Y- Yeah?"

"Could you make sure that you and Spike don't interrupt us?"

She sighed slightly, and calmly replied: "Yeah, I can do that."

"I can speak for myself!" Spike argued.

Nopony there listened to him. Rainbow flew beside Spike, while Blue and Twilight remained on the floor.

"Twilight," Blue said, making Twilight give her full attention. "This spell is a basic one for all unicorns to learn. There are two things that I believe you need in order to cast this spell." His horn lit up, and one of the books on the floor started glowing. In an instant, the book flew into the air, and then floated in front of Twilight and Blue. "Levitation allows the caster to pick up objects on their magic and move them around as they please."

She nodded and continued to look at the book that floated in the air in front of her. Blue continued, "One thing you need to cast this spell is a good concentration on the object you wish to levitate. For example, I needed to focus on the book behind me. The other thing I believe you need for any spell, is an idea of what you want it to do."

Twilight looked confused. "What do you mean 'idea of what you want it to do'?"

"Twilight, not all spells are the same. Levitation moves objects around, but without any direction of what you want the spell to do, it's pointless to cast it in the first place. If you just focus on trying to levitate the book, the spell won't work as you want it to. I may be keeping this book off the ground, but I'm also keeping it from going up and sideways as well. By just wanting to levitate the book up, it will go up, but it won't go in any direction you may want it to go. Just up."

Twilight watched as Blue demonstrated by continuously levitating the book upwards. He brought it down again and placed it on the floor. His horn stopped glowing, and the book's glow faded as well. "Do you wish to try, Twilight?"

She instantly smiled, and nodded he head in agreement. "Yes!" She looked down at the book. She closed her eyes and tried to imaging the book floating off the ground. She felt something awakening inside her. Something she had, but had forgotten.

"Wait!" Blue said, interrupting her thoughts. "Twilight, I nearly forgot this. Be careful with how much magic you use."

She tilted her head at him. "Why is that such a big deal?"

"Twilight, this spell is simple for any unicorn to do, no doubt about that. But you're an alicorn."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Alicorns don't have the same amount of magic as unicorns do. They have a lot more. Levitation can be used by the simplest amount of magic. You don't even feel the slightest bit tired after doing it. Alicorns need to control their magic, for they could use too much in a spell."

"What happens if I use too much?"

"The book can be unwillingly sent through the roof of this library in mere seconds. Try and use a small amount of magic, if possible. We want to cause as little amount of damage to our friend's home."

Twilight nodded. She closed her eyes once more. She felt the some feeling of something awakening again. But this time, she focused on a tiny part of it. The feeling went all the way to her head, and into her horn. She heard the sound of something shimmering above her, but she dared not open her eyes. She focused the feeling on the book in front of her. She imagined the book being lifted ever so slightly into the air.

"Look at that!" she heard Spike say. "She's doing it!"

She slowly opened her eyes and looked to where the book once sat on the floor. Nothing. She looked ever so slightly into the air in front of her.

There was the book. Floating in a brilliant magenta glow was the book. She saw Blue behind the book, smiling in her accomplishment.

"I... I'm doing it! I'm really doing it!"

All of the sudden, the book started shaking violently. It flew strait at the wall to the left. Right before it collided, it changed direction and flew strait at Rainbow and Spike. They closed their eyes and braced for impact, but it never came. They opened their eyes once again, to find the book in a different glow.

Blue had stopped the book in midair, right before it impacted them. He bright the book back gently and placed it with the other books. "You were doing fine Twilight. Do you know what you did wrong?"

She looked down. "No..."

"Twilight, you lost your focus. You got too excited with seeing your achievement, you didn't focus on the spell. Not paying attention to your spells is very bad. If you allow your magic to continue running while you're not paying attention to it, it can go haywire, like you just saw."

Twilight looked back up at Blue. "But what about you earlier? You were talking to me while showing me how levitation works."

"That's true, I was. But, I was still focusing on the spell that I was casting. Multitasking can be very useful when demonstrating, or casting a spell. You need to keep part of your mind focused on the spell, while also doing something else at the same time."

Twilight nodded. "Should I try again?"

Blue shook his head. "No, I think we should take a break now. Let your magic rest for a bit Twilight. We can continue our lesson later."

"Alright," she said. She turned around and began heading back into her room.

"Wait."

She turned and saw Blue slowly walking toward her. "Yes?"

"Do you mind if I do something really quick? I want to check something. It will only take a second."

Twilight turned back around to face him. "Sure," she said. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothing you should be concerned about right now." He stood right in front of her. "I promise, this won't hurt a bit."

His horn glowed with the familiar glow from earlier. He lowered his horn onto her head, and then raised it again not a second later.

"Hmm..." he said.

"What was that?" Twilight asked.

"Nothing," Blue replied flatly. "Rainbow, can I speak with you upstairs?"

"Sure," she replied, beginning the ascent up the stairs.

"Twilight, we're done. You can do what you want now. I need to speak with your kind host," Blue said, following Rainbow up the stairs.

"Oh," Twilight said as the two of them disappeared up the stairs. She gave another look of depression. "Alright then."

Upstairs

Once the two of them were in the room, Blue walked over to the window while Rainbow walked over to her bed.

"What was it you wanted to talk about Blue?" Rainbow asked.

He looked out the window. "It's about Twilight," he said. "About her memories."

"Yeah, she has amnesia. That's why we're going to progressively get it back within the next month."

Blue shook his head. "No."

"No? No what? You suddenly don't want her to get her memory back? That seems a little cruel to me."

"It's not amnesia."

Rainbow looked confused. "What do you mean, 'it's not amnesia'? She has no memories about her past except her name. What else could it be?"

Blue sighed. "Rainbow, there's a big difference between someone who lost their memories... And someone who had them taken."

Rainbow tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"You saw me cast a quick spell just now, right?" He looked over at Rainbow, who nodded in agreement. "Well, that was a spell I once learned to enter another's mind and allow me to look at another's past. I used that on her, and I found something beyond belief."

"Her memories weren't there?"

Blue nodded. "The only memories I found were the ones she had ever since waking up in your world, and one other. Her name."

"I remember that when I interrogated her earlier, that was the only thing she remembered," Rainbow noted.

"That's because of one reason, Rainbow. Taking somepony's memories is one thing, but somepony's identity is another. Your name is your entire identity. Not the memories that you have when you use that name, but the name itself. To take one's name is to take their identity. To do that is nearly impossible."

Rainbow gulped. "Nearly?"

Blue nodded again. "It is possible to take somepony's identity. Difficult I might add as well. If you take away who somepony is, that gets rid of anything that makes them different from any other pony you might find here in Equestria. Cutie marks do that too, but it is not something that proves your identity. While your cutie marks say what you're good at doing, a name is what tells some other pony who that pony is."

Rainbow thought about what he said. "But what about the changelings?" she asked. "I read about them once. Don't they take another's identity to feed off another's love?"

"No Rainbow, they don't. They take your form, but not your identity. They use who somepony is, but they are another pony entirely. They also don't 'take' anything. They copy. Copy their target's form and use it so that they can accomplish something they would otherwise be unable to do."

"So how do you take away somepony's identity?"

Blue shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure. I know its possible, because I once saw it happen a long time ago. But since we're not dealing with that kind of problem, let's avoid talking about it, okay?"

"Fine," Rainbow huffed.

"Alright then. Now, there's still the problem bout Twilight's memories."

"The one's that were taken, right?"

"Correct. Since her memories weren't lost, but taken, we face a heavy problem right now."

"And what's that?"

Blue looked directly at her. "She can't recover her memories."