//------------------------------// // Making the Grade // Story: Turning Back the Winter // by Dinkledash //------------------------------// It was cold this morning. Again. It seemed that every morning was cold, every year colder, but she was only twelve and in sixth grade, so maybe she had been born in a warmer period. Celestia shrugged as she stepped off the school bus, and as always Swirly tagged after her. She smiled and rump-bumped him with her blank flank, and she being very much larger, he was forced to sprawl his legs to avoid going over with the vast weight of books in his saddlebags. Her triumph was short lived, however, as one of the cobblestones at her feet peeked up a few inches to trip her, nearly sending her into a faceplant. "Oh, you're so dead!" Starswirl laughed as she charged at him in mock anger. She was an instant from colliding with him and tried to stop, realizing too late she underestimated her considerable momentum and was about to crash into her friend, possibly injuring him. The geek and the freak, that's what the ponies called them. She was bigger now than every stallion who taught at the school. She was almost tall enough to qualify for the Royal Guard, if she was a stallion and six years older. Despite her size, she had delicate features, large eyes, wonderfully tapered limbs, a long graceful neck and a flowing mane and tail; the picture of femininity, scaled up to twice normal size. Doctors didn't know what to make of her; she seemed perfectly healthy. Luna was large for her age as well, but she was still no larger than at least a few of the other fillies and colts in her class. Now, all of Celestia's mass was clumsily trying to change direction as she bore down on Starswirl. There was a flash, and then she was passing through the spot that Starswirl had been. She whirled around, astonished to see him behind her, grinning saucily. The rest of the class getting off the bus was looking at the two of them in stunned silence. "Did you just port?" "It sure looks like it, 'Tia!" He was immensely proud of himself. "How? Only six unicorns in the history of the world ever learned the Teleport spell and they were all archmages!" "Well, it's really simple, it just involves combining levitation with the quantum tunneling effect. We can talk about it after study hall." She gaped at him. "You idiot! The Hoofenberg uncertainty principle killed three of those archmages!" She started crying. "Never do that again! Don't you ever do that again! You're my best friend and you could have killed yourself! Don't you know what you mean to me?" "No, I don't. Why don't you tell me more?" The hyper-confident nerdling grinned and walked slowing towards her, bells a-jangle. Her hoof whipped around and smacked him in the face, sending him to the cobblestones, his hat sailing to land in a clanking heap. "This isn't some kind of bucking joke! I love you, you brilliant moron!" Her eyes were bright red and her face was wet with a sudden flood of tears and her whole massive body was shaking. Starswirl shook his head and slowly came to his hooves. "I..." He worked his jaw, blinking tears of pain from his eyes. "I'm sorry 'Tia. I love you too, you know that. I've loved you from the minute I saw you." Her anger was now combined with guilt and she started sobbing in earnest. "I should have just told you, instead of showing off like that. I worked out a compensator for Hoofenberg. A layer of prognostication associated with the spell terminus allows the mage to choose between alternate universes prior to the collapse of the quantum state. I just need to be able to see the target location in order to apply the compensator." Celestia's sobbing calmed as other ponies started to gather to listen to the conversation. "Wait," she sniffled. "You are telling me you've worked out a safe teleport spell? That's one of the three keystone spells the Academy has a permanent grant for, along with time travel and transmutation, the three T's. There are dozens of grown up unicorns making that their life's work, and you worked it out after finishing your homework?" Her anger and guilt were forgotten as she absorbed the implications of what her coltfriend, now mutually and publicly acknowledged, just told her. "It's not like it takes a long time for me to do my homework, 'Tia." He winked at her over a reddening cheek. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to slap you like that, you just scared the hay out of me!" She reached down and stroked his mane. "Please forgive me." "Nothing to forgive. I just hope you forgive me." His hoof reached up, tenderly touching hers as it laid upon his neck. Ballast Blast, a grey with a white mane and a stone quarrying cutie mark spoke up from the crowd. "I'm not sure whether to be amazed or to throw up! Why don't you two get a classroom?" The rest of the group started laughing and hooting, some of them who really understood what was going on applauding, when Celestia bent down and kissed Starswirl lightly on the lips. "Wooo-hooo!" went the crowd as the bell rang. Later in the day, while they were in biology class, Celestia and Starswirl were summoned to the principony's office. Madame Sternruler wore a stony expression on her charcoal face, as she said, "Starswirl, I was informed by no less than five ponies that you teleported in the yard today. Is this true?" "Yes ma'am." "The casting of any form of magic beyond simple levitation and translation on school grounds is an expellable offense, as you well know. And Celestia, I was told that you hit and then kissed Starswirl in the yard afterwards. Is this true?" "Yes ma'am." Fear began to creep into Celestia's innards as she looked down on the stern school matron. "Fighting and physical displays of affection are both expellable offenses." She let that sit on the two miscreants for a few moments. "However, this is a first offense and you are both excellent students. Letters will be sent home to your parents and this behavior will not be repeated on school grounds. Do I make myself clear?" "Yes ma'am!" the young lovers said in unison. "Very well." Madame Sternruler cleared her throat with a whinny. "Given the exceptional display of spellsponyship given by Starswirl, I have contacted the Academy and a representative is on the way." There was a knock on the door and Madame Sternruler rolled her eyes. "Mages and their sense for dramatic timing." She concentrated and the door opened the door for a tall jet black unicorn stallion, with black mane and purple eyes. "Hello, Madame Sternruler. Hello children." He paused, momentarily taken aback by Celestia's appearance, but continued. "I am Magister Obsidian Spark. Starswirl, is it true that you worked out teleportation from first principles?" "Yes, sir." "You know how dangerous it is, don't you? Archmagister Vermillion Heat, a mage with seventy years of experience, teleported himself into a wall thirty years ago and the resulting explosion blew up a wing of the Royal Academy that they only finished repairing when I became an apprentice, thirteen years ago. Seven other ponies were killed and dozens were injured and the repairs cost half a million bits. So, NO MORE TELEPORTING!" Starswirl jumped as the Voice blasted him. "DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" "But sir..." "BUT ME NO BUTS. NO MORE TELEPORTING." The cowed student nodded, backing up to the wall. "Magister?" Celestia looked down on the stallion who was busy intimidating her coltfriend. The mage looked up at her. "Celestia, do you think you have something to add to this conversation?" "Yes sir. I was very upset with Starswirl as well, but he showed me his Hoofenberg compensation calculations at study hall and it looks like a very sound solution to me." "Hoofenberg compensation? I'm so happy that a sixth grader is satisfied that her coltfriend has solved a problem that has eluded the finest minds at the Academy for centuries! Now, be silent young filly! Your mother may be the new Fellow at the Observatory but that doesn't pull any weight with me!" Obsidian Spark's purple eyes flashed angrily. "I will not let you bully Starswirl like that. His solution is brilliant. See for yourself!" "I SAID BE SILENT!" The mage's horn glowed purple and Celestia felt tendrils of power clasping her jaw shut. Now she was mad. The room flashed pink and the mage found himself immobilized, overwhelmed by the sheer strength of the giant unicorn filly. His eyes shone with sudden apprehension as he realized he was not the unicorn with the most magical power in the room. He was not even in her league. He tried to counter the spell but it was like trying to stop a waterfall with his hooves. Starswirl's eyes went wide as he saw Celestia glowing with power, her mane and tail flowing in the invisible breeze of the spell's backwash, her eyes fixed with steely resolve on Obsidian Spark. Starswirl's saddlebag popped open and his notebook sailed out, glowing pink, to open in front of the face of the struggling black unicorn. "READ!" Madame Sternruler, hiding under her desk, wondered at a filly who had the power to use the Voice, the voice that commanded weaker wills to obedience. Obsidian Spark, somewhat offended that she had the power to pin him as well as parallel cast on the book, and having no choice, looked at Starswirl's calculations. After a few minutes, he stopped resisting, utterly absorbed by the mathematics. Celestia gradually reduced her hold on him, eventually releasing him. He was now overpowered by the impossible brilliance of Starswirl's calculations. "The equation balances." He looked at Starswirl and then 'Tia in wonder. "It balances. I can't believe it. And you, young filly, need to learn a little something about respect for your elders. Even when we are acting like flank hats." "I'm sorry sir, I have a bit of a temper sometimes. I just can't stand to see ponies get pushed around, is all." "Yes, yes, I'm sorry. I thought I was dealing with a smartflank colt who knew just enough to be dangerous. But you're rather more than that, aren't you, Starswirl? You too, Celestia. You could knock a castle wall flat if you wanted to. And you aren't even cutied yet. I wonder how much power you will have when you are fully grown... I don't know anypony who is not an archmage who could go hoof-to-hoof with you in the Arena, even now, though you have a lot to learn about subtlety." He shook his head. "Madame Sternruler, you can come out now." The principony emerged from under her desk. "Celestia! That was a shocking display!" The white unicorn blushed. "It's alright Madame." The jet unicorn gave Celestia a sidelong look. "I am unhurt, which just shows you how powerful and well-controlled your student is. She was able to handle me, ME, like I would handle a foal having a tantrum. I am by no means the weakest of the Academy mages. And she used the Voice, untrained. How are her grades?" "Straight As. And no disciplinary problems before this." Obsidian Spark nodded. "I thought I was only going to return to the Academy with one prodigy, but it appears I have two on my hooves. That is, if their parents consent." "Oh thank goodness! You two will be somepony else's problem now!" Madame Sternruler winked as she saw the smiles spreading on their faces.