Each passing day, Altruise’s training with Celestia had slowly begun to show improvements. After three weeks of training in the mornings, Altruise was able to control when her magic was active, and when to deactivate it. Casting spells properly had become easier, and among other things, it no longer hurt her to cast any.
Altruise was holding up a large boulder with a golden aura of magic. Celestia was beside her, keeping an eye on her magic in case anything went wrong, but it’s been about a week since she’s noticed any flaws in the filly’s spells. They were all being executed naturally like it should.
“Very good, Altruise.” The Princess smiled at the filly, “Now let’s see you lift two rocks at the same time to test your concentration.”
“Okay.” Altruise nodded, and with ease, she lifted another rock with a golden aura while simultaneously holding up the other. To test herself further, she lifted a third and forth rock as well, with no flaws. There was no lightning or thunder, there was no pain; it was calm, tame magic.
“Excellent!” Celestia beamed, “Okay, you can put the rocks down now.”
Altruise gently lowered the four rocks back into the ground, deactivated her horn, and turned to Celestia with a smile, sitting on her flank obediently.
“Hmm… You know what? I think we’re done here.”
“Oh, okay. So I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Well, no that isn’t exactly what I mean.” Celestia giggled at the foal, “I believe your training is finished. Your magic is perfectly fine now it seems.”
“Really?” The unicorn beamed, “So um… Can I use my magic in public now?”
“Yes, of course.” Celestia declared, “And I can put you back in school. How would you like to start again on Monday? It’s Tuesday today; that should give you a few days to readjust.”
At first that sounded great to her, but she quickly thought of the negativity toward it. “You sure that’s a good idea? I mean, they’re probably all scared of me now…”
“That was nothing but a misunderstanding.” Celestia reassured the unicorn, “I’ll take you to school myself, if that’d make you feel better about it.”
“Well, I suppose I could try going again.” Altruise shrugged, though still feeling a bit iffy about it.
“It’ll be fine.” The alicorn smiled, turning back to Trottingham, “Come, let’s get you home.”
* * * * *
When Altruise and Celestia returned to the filly’s home, they let themselves in. The welcoming aroma of her mother’s cooking filled the air. “Mom, Dad, we’re home.” Altruise called to her parents, who then came to the door from the living room.
“Well somepony looks happy.” Her mother exclaimed with a smile.
“How’d today go?” The father asked eagerly.
“Exceptionally well.” Celestia declared, “I believe my training with your daughter is finished. I don’t see any more flaws in her magic; she experiences no pain and executes her spells perfectly normal.”
“That’s great!” Her father chanted, rubbing a hoof in his daughter’s mane, “That a girl!”
“How can we ever repay you, Princess?” The mother asked with sincerity.
“Please, it was my pleasure.” Celestia exclaimed happily, “Altruise is quite the unicorn; her cutie mark fits her well.”
The young unicorn turned to the princess, smiling up at her.
“So.” The Princess cleared her throat, “I’m putting her back in school on Monday; she should be good to go. I fully give her permission to practice and share her magic in public.” She turned to the filly at her feet, “You did very well in the last three weeks, Altruise.”
“Thank you, Princess Celestia.” Altruise beamed, “You helped me so much.”
Celestia giggled, “I do my best. Now, why don’t you show your parents something you learned?”
Altruise nodded with an open grin, and turned to her parents. With a glowing horn, she directed her magic to a vase of roses on the windowsill, and levitated it into the air. Carefully, she guided the vase toward her parents. Immediately they began applauding.
“We’re so proud of you, sweetie!” Her mother chanted.
Furthering her magic, Altruise brought the vase into the kitchen. She lifted the roses out of the vase while simultaneously turning on the sink faucet, and put the vase beneath the running water to refill it. Shutting off the tap, she put the roses back into the vase, and levitated it back to the windowsill, carefully placing it where it came from.
“Very good, Altruise.” Her father nudged her shoulder, “I knew you had it in you! See? What’d I tell ya?”
Altruise giggled at that, and turned to the princess. “So um, I guess you need to head back to Canterlot?”
Celestia nodded to the filly, “Unfortunately, I do. I’ll be back on Monday morning to pick you up for school as promised, okay?”
The filly nodded and smiled, “I look forward to it.”
“Okay, everypony take care now.” Celestia turned to the door and exit.
“Goodbye, Princess.” The father bid his fare well.
With that, the alicorn spread her wings at the doorstep, and took off to the air with a series of strong flaps. She turned west, and headed to the castle in the distance, and Altruise closed the door with a quick spell.
“Well, how about some lunch?” The cyan unicorn suggested, trotting happily to the kitchen.
“Yeah! I’m hungry.” Altruise beamed, following her mother. The pegasus smiled at the sight of his happy daughter, and followed the other two to the table.
* * * * *
Later that evening, after some quality family time at the table and playing board games in the living room, they heard knocking at the door. Altruise stood and trotted over to the door from the living room; she opened the door, and her eyes dilated in shock to see who was there. Three unicorns; a blue stallion with a darker mane, a white mare with a purple and white striped mane, and standing at their feet was Twilight Sparkle.
“Hello, you must be Altruise?” The stallion glanced down at her.
Altruise was at a blank state of mine. Her eyes were wide open, and she couldn’t gather words to say anything. Backing away slowly, her eyes were fixed on the lavender filly’s parents.
“Mooooom? Daaaaad?” Altruise called off to the side in an uncomfortable tone. Hearing her call, they trotted into the scene from the living room.
“Oh, hello Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle.” Altruise’s mom greeted them.
“I appreciate that you could stop in.” The pegasi father exclaimed.
“Yes, I hope we didn’t show at a bad time. We just received your invite an hour ago.” The father of the lavender pony exclaimed.
Altruise looked up at her parents with wide eyes. “Wait, you invited them?” She turned her glance back at the guests, and gulped.
“Yeah, I did.” Her father replied, “I hope that isn’t a bad thing, I thought it would be nice to get acquainted with them.”
“Yes, why don’t the four of us go have a chat, hm?” Twilight’s father suggested, then glanced down at his daughter, “While we have our little grownup chat, why don’t you two get to know each other?”
Twilight nodded and smiled to her father. Altruise on the other hand sank lower to the floor at the idea.
“Very good.” Twilight’s father exclaimed as the four adult ponies wandered off into the living room. The two fillies waited until their parents were in the other room before any talking between them began.
“Hi, Altruise.” Twilight smiled at her, trotting up to her with a mostly healed limp.
“You’re… not… mad at me?” Altruise was dumbfounded, “But, I… You could’ve died…”
“It was an accident.” Twilight exclaimed, suddenly wincing a little, holding her head with a hoof briefly, before putting her hoof back on the floor and returning her glance to Altruise with her smile again.
Altruise’s ears fell to her sides in concern as she leaned forward, “You’re still hurt?”
“It’s gotten a lot better.” Twilight twitched with a sudden painful spasm sensation in her head, “Overall I’m fine, I just get these random—OW! …pinches in my head. It’s slowed down a lot though. And they don’t hurt so badly any more.”
“I feel so awful about what happened…” Altruise sighed, “I’m so sorry, Twilight.”
“It’s okay.” Twilight smiled, “It was an—OW! …a-an accident.” Her smile brightened, “I’ve never seen anything like that!”
“Like what?” Altruise wondered.
“What you did. That magic.” Twilight exclaimed, “I haven’t ever seen that much magic come from even Princess Celestia herself! I know you didn’t mean it, but at the same time, it was inspiring to me.”
“Inspiring?” The white filly felt dumbfounded by Twilight’s reaction, “How was that inspiring?? That was terrible!”
“You showed me something I didn’t even think was possible.” Twilight winced suddenly, and looked back at the white filly, “You made a full storm in like a minute!”
“I’m not proud of that…” Altruise sighed, sinking low where she stood, “Somepony could’ve died.”
“But nopony did.” Twilight leaned forward, “I heard that Princess Celestia cured you though. She trained you herself?”
“Uh, yeah, but—”
“That must’ve been amazing!!” Twilight skipped around in a circle before returning to a tall posture, glaring at the white unicorn with excitement, “What’s it like in the presence of the Princess? You must’ve felt honoured!”
“Well, yeah, but I—”
“It is my dream to become as great as she is!” Twilight finally finished her interruptions.
“Heh… Yeah, well, she is pretty great.” Altruise agreed.
“I’m not all that great with magic yet. I’ve made my horn spark a few times, but I haven’t casted any spells yet.” The lavender unicorn of no cutie mark grinned, “I’ll get it yet, I’m sure of it!”
Altruise smiled at the lavender pony’s optimism, “Well, I am glad that I was able to make you feel inspired in some way.” She grinned, “Who knows, maybe you’ll get to meet the Princess someday! Perhaps she’ll even teach you something.”
“Pfft. Like that’ll ever happen.” Twilight exclaimed jokingly with a giggle.
* * * * *
Meanwhile in the living room.
“I’m glad to hear that your daughter has been doing better.” Altruise’s father exclaimed to Twilight’s parents.
“Yes, thank you.” Twilight’s father replied, “Twilight told me that Altruise helped her find her way to her classroom. She seems like a really nice filly.” He sighed, “It’s good to know she’s recovered herself with Princess Celestia’s help. I’ve never heard of such powerful magic.”
“Twilight was telling us how your daughter was an inspiration.” The lavender filly’s mother murmured, “She keeps telling us how she’d love to be trained by the Princess herself.” She chuckled, “Oh, silly filly. She absolutely loves magic.”
“We got lucky.” Altruise’s mother smiled, “It’s not every day that the Princess herself does this sort of thing.”
“Oh I know; what an honour.” Twilight’s mother replied.
“Hmm, since your daughter’s so fascinated with magic, would she be interested in enrolling in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns?” Altruise’s father asked.
“School for Gifted Unicorns?” The mother leaned forward with interest, “I’ve heard about it, but I’ve been told it’s really hard to get in.”
“Yeah, it is a bit difficult to get accepted in that school.” Altruise’s father smiled, “I could help you though; I used to work for the Princess. We have our connections.”
“Oh, really?” The lavender filly’s mother was thrilled, “That would be wonderful if I could get her in there! She would absolutely love that.”
“Heh. Once she’s accepted though, she’ll have to pass an entrance exam to get in.” Altruise’s father explained, “Though I’m not sure what sort of test they make the foals perform. If you want to get your daughter in that school, I’ll give a good word to the Princess for you.”
“Well, we certainly appreciate this.” Twilight’s father exclaimed. “If you’d do that for Twilight, it’d mean the world to us.”
“It would be my pleasure.” Altruise’s father declared.
* * * * *
After the conversations came to a close around the household, Twilight and her parents left, heading back home to Canterlot. Closing the door behind them, Altruise and her parents stood at the main entrance with a brief chat.
“It’s good to know she’s gotten better.” Altruise sighed with relief.
“Yes, it was good to see how she is.” Her mother agreed.
“It’s starting to get late.” The pegasus declared, “You should probably get to bed soon, Altruise.”
Altruise yawned and nodded, “Yeah, I’m pretty tired.”
“Well it’s been quite a busy day.” Her mother exclaimed with a chuckle, “So what’re you going to do for the next few days before school?”
“Well, I’ll likely be doing a lot of practicing.” Altruise replied happily, “It feels good to not have to worry about my magic being dangerous any more.” With that, she trotted for the stairs. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Good night, sweetie!” Her mother beamed.
“Sleep well, Altruise.” The stallion pegasus added.
“Love you Mom, love you Dad.” Altruise presented a bright smile before making her way up the stairs.
“We love you too.” They replied with heartwarming smiles as their daughter trotted into her room and closed the door behind her. Things were finally looking up to the way they should be.
* * * * *