//------------------------------// // Magic // Story: Finding Your Elements // by RazgrizS57 //------------------------------// Twilight coughed. “So where are we going to start?” The aged unicorn asked before returning into another fit. Her ears had been twitching slightly with every bit of noise heard, whether it be her own or Celestia’s, but oddly the only exception was the heart monitor. Twilight had already suppressed the machine’s annoying rhythmic beeps in preparation for the story ahead. Celestia looked thoughtful. “Perhaps we should go in order, from the first encounter to the last.” Twilight gave a light nod at the idea. “That would probably be best. Who did you come across first?” Celestia leaned forward over the bed and nuzzled her student. The heart monitor spiked for an instant before it returned to its ever annoying metronome-like state. The unicorn smiled as she got her silent answer and tried to return the gesture. She awkwardly missed Celestia’s and instead aimed straight for the alicorn’s withers, but the alicorn compensated and moved accordingly. “Let’s start with Magic,” Celestia whispered. Twilight’s ears flicked in agreement. It was roughly eleven in the morning. The sun was already in its familiar spot high above Equestria, whose land eagerly soaked up the gracious rays of light like a sponge. Princess Celestia was also enjoying the light she provided, sitting in the Canterlot Castle gardens at the edge of a pond, deeply absorbed in a book. A multi-colored hummingbird swooped by for an instant and came precariously close to the surface of the water, but it pulled out of its dive right before things could have turned ugly. Celestia glanced upwards from her text for an instant to watch the bird’s aerodynamic feats, almost as if it was showing off. The alicorn smiled and returned to the book that eagerly clawed for her attention. Oh, reading words was so much more pleasurable to her than writing them, especially when they had nothing to do with politics; which is something she tackled on a regular basis in the form of a literal mountain of paperwork. Right now, she was enjoying the latest adventures of Daring Do, Daring Do and the Medallion of Shadows to be precise. What? A Princess can appreciate a good story and knows one when she sees one. The reckless and unorthodox methods the pegasus utilizes are often ones of hilarity, getting in and out of stomach-churning situations that simply couldn’t be made up. She’d have to meet this adventurer some time, perhaps at her next book signing; wherever that was. She made a mental note to find out if Canterlot was one of the places Daring intended on visiting anytime soon. “Princess Celestia!” A gruff voice called out from afar, a voice that would normally be inaudible yet was easily heard over the tranquility of the gardens. Celestia sighed, bookmarking her space in the novel and closing it shut. She could never escape the interruptions, could she? The gracious alicorn craned her neck around to where the commotion was coming from. What she saw was a unicorn guard trotting up the path to her with impeccable speed, a look of stark determination in his eyes and a bit of worry too. The alicorn immediately deduced that he had good reasons to interfere with her “me” time. “Princess Celestia!” The guard said again between gasps for breath. “There’s been an incident!” A hint of sunlight bounced off Celestia’s headpiece, flashing the guard’s eyes as he squinted away. He took the subtle hint to continue with his address. “At the School for Gifted Unicorns, entrance exams were underway and there’s been a… accident of sorts. By what I know it’s still going on as we speak.” The Princess raised a skeptical eyebrow. “What sort of accident? Is it nothing my guardsponies can manage?” The guard shook his head and went to reply verbally, but an ear shattering crash echoed through the complex transpired to interrupt him. The two equines stared at each other in stock confusion before they craned their necks around to the source of the noise: the School for Gifted Unicorns. Of which happened to be sporting a rather dismal new look. However, the gaping hole in the roof provided an excellent source for the dragon to stick its head out from. Arcane bolts of raw, unabridged magic streaked haphazardly out of the blown out windows of the building, threatening to do nothing short of chaos to whatever they touched. One of the bolts happened to strike the pond in front of them, turning it into vanilla pudding. “I see your point,” Celestia grimaced. The guard awkwardly backed away, gave a salute, and trotted off in the direction of the school to assist in any way possible. Heaving a sigh, the Princess’s horn shone a bright turquoise that teleported her book away for a later read. Her horn continued to intensify until it was flaring like a light bulb, just enough to teleport herself. And in a flash she disappeared from the gardens and remerged right outside the door of the classroom sprouting so much bedlam. Something hit her she hadn’t felt before in a thousand years: fear. It was too early for Nightmare Moon’s return, but had Discord escaped from his stone tomb? If so she was drastically unprepared to face the draconequus, but whoever was inside was currently at his mercy. And mercy wasn’t something Discord fondly gave. Celestia went to kick down the classroom door when it got enveloped with an aura of purple magic, turning into yesterday’s newspaper. Another pang hit her heart when she realized that could have been her if she was a second early. The alicorn however followed through with her kick, sending issues of Equestria Daily everywhere. Straight out of the cloud of paper, another bolt of magic hissed by dangerously close to her neck, turning the wall behind into a giant mural dedicated to cheese. Celestia shuddered and trotted inside to make out the situation. The room was an utter scene of chaos. Two out of place potted plants were off to the side, the teachers that had been judging the student’s performance were hanging near the ceiling, and the dragon awkwardly stood near the center of the room mindless to the spectacle. And at the epicenter of it all was a lavender filly. Celestia was hit with a mix of emotions; relief that it wasn’t the deity of chaos, concern over the filly who was completely enveloped with magic, and halfhearted joy as seeing the filly herself was the source of the unabated energy. The unicorn was overwhelmed with the amount of magic flowing straight out of her horn. So much that along with the random magical arcs and the masterfully difficult art of self-levitation she seemed to have no apparent problem with, her eyes flooded a vivid pure white. This had to be the sign Celestia had been waiting for; the element that would signal all the others. And it was quite convenient that it had found her, albeit troublesome considering the… current circumstances. Celestia took a step forward, fortunately missing the floor tile to the left that had just turned into a bear trap. The alicorn thought if it would be better to fly the short distance to the convulsing filly rather than walk. However that thought never crossed her mind again as another whirl of magic cracked overhead like a whip, turning the air it sliced and the eventual picture hanging on the wall into confetti. Things were seriously getting out of hoof, so Celestia teleported again, this time right behind the filly. The amount of magic the lavender unicorn was producing was staggering, that much already obvious, but from such a close distance away it more profound and far beyond comprehension. Even though concerned, Celestia couldn’t help but be impressed by what she was seeing. Acting fast, she lifted a hoof and glanced at its underside. A small, black gem began to form at the base and Celestia gently pushed it down on the unicorn’s withers. The uncontrolled energy the unicorn was exerting slowly began to funnel into the gem. The filly, still floating, glanced up at Celestia’s omnipotent smile. In a flash of light the unicorn’s magic ceased, canceling out everything she had inadvertently done. The teachers fell into a heap on the floor, the dragon returned to its infant state, the newspapers reverted back into the shape of a shattered door, and the potted plants changed into two very confused unicorns; probably the filly’s parents. The student-to-be landed on her rump with a resonating thud. Her pupils returned to her eyes before they expanded wide in shock at what she had done. Celestia chuckled softly as she studied the gem she still held in her hoof, the one that was now pulsating a beautiful magenta color. She hid it away in her mane for later and her movement stole the attention of the unicorn on the ground. The youngling gasped when she realized the Princess was standing right beside her. Celestia could only smile. “Twilight… Sparkle?” That was her name, right? “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she was quick to apologize. Her eyes solemnly glanced away to the floor. “I didn’t mean…” Celestia interrupted. There was no need for the filly to feel worse than she already did. “You have a very special gift,” the alicorn complimented. Twilight stopped trying to come up with an excuse and snapped her attention back to the Princess. Celestia continued, “I don’t think I’ve ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities.” “Huh?” Was all Twilight could say. “But you need learn to tame these abilities through focused study,” she added. “Huh?!” Twilight gasped again. Celestia giggled a bit louder than intended. There was no way she could just let the element of magic pass straight through her hooves with an opportunity like this. “Twilight Sparkle, I’d like to make you my own personal protégé here at the school.” “HUH?!” Twilight gawked, practically unhinging her jaw. The Princess snickered. If she was in the filly’s position, she would probably react the same way. She brought her eyes down to level with Twilight’s. “Well?” Celestia noticed off in the far corner the teachers were eagerly pushing her forward, thankful to take the burden of teaching the potential danger off their backs. In the opposite corner, the two unicorns (definitely Twilight’s parents) feverishly urged their daughter to accept. “YES!!” Twilight squealed in joy, leaping into the air only to punctuate the enormous grin on her face. “And that’s the day I got my cutie mark,” Twilight added. Celestia tilted her head. “Twilight, who’s the one telling the story?” she teased gently, a warm smile plastered across her face. The aged mare in question sheepishly grinned and turned away from her mentor, tempted to bury her face into the deepest crevices of her pillow. If it was an indication, her cheeks turned a deep red that was easily presentable through the fading shade of her purple coat. “Oops… I didn’t mean to interrupt,” she said before succumbing to another fit of coughs. Celestia continued to smile as she brought up a hoof again, once more sweeping it through the mare’s mane. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” she whispered softly, yet it sounded so loud the entire hospital could have heard it. Save the regular interruptions of the heart monitor’s beeps, the room was so quiet even their breathing made a prominent impact on their ears. “After all, this is your story. You probably know what happens next anyway,” the Princess added. Twilight giggled and spun around in bed again. Her foggy pupils somehow making contact with the alicorn’s upon her first attempt. “Yeah, I think I do,” she whispered back. “After teaching me for so long, you cleverly sent me to Ponyville all those years ago to discover the magic of friendship. It was the greatest gift I ever received.” Princess Celestia thought for a second. “While we’re slightly on the topic, do you know what your cutie mark symbolizes?” Much to the alicorn’s amusement, Twilight questionably stared at her with glass eyes. “It means my special talent is magic?” Celestia snickered. “Well, yes it does.” She rolled her eyes. “But it means something more.” Twilight’s flabbergasted confusion was one of the most adorable faces the deity had ever seen. Fortunately for her, she’s seen it several times over the past decades. Celestia interpreted the bemused expression to continue. “You see Twilight; your cutie mark symbolizes the Elements of Harmony themselves. The five outer stars that surround the centralized one represent the other elements, while the larger one itself is the unity between them. The magic of friendship is that bind.” As the seconds ticked by, her words resonated in Twilight’s mind as the mental gears assembled their meaning. Twilight slowly began to understand what they meant, and grinned so wide she should have split her face in two. “I might be exceptional at magic, but that isn’t my special talent is it?” She said in the cheeriest tone. “It’s making friends.” “I’m a little surprised you didn’t see this revelation sooner,” Celestia said with a nod. Even though the unicorn couldn’t see the motion she easily imagined her mentor doing so. Twilight continued to smile. “And I got my cutie mark the day I made my best friend, didn’t I?” Somehow, those words found their way into Celestia’s heart, set up camp and refused to leave. A small tear began to form in the corner of her eye as she tried to think of something to say. She’s had countless friends over the centuries she’s lived, yet Celestia always avoided calling some of her friends “the best.” Oh how the alicorn just hated choosing between ponies. And above all else she hated lying to them. Her thoughts were interrupted by a tight squeeze around her neck. Celestia snapped her head in surprise and glanced downwards, and the sight only brought more tears to her eyes. Somehow, Twilight Sparkle found the strength to sit up and was currently holding the Princess in a hugging embrace. Slightly trembling, she returned the favor with a hoof over the withers and nuzzled her snout against her student’s. The seconds turned to minutes as the clock moved onwards, punctuated with every tick by the heart monitor whose constant beeps now seemed like a blessing. Slowly but surely, Celestia lowered Twilight back down into bed, resting the unicorn’s head on the soft pillow. “Yes,” Celestia said sweetly as two equines reluctantly parted. “Yes you did.”