//------------------------------// // Chapter 07: Student // Story: Glim // by Smayds //------------------------------// Chapter 7: Student The front door banged open. “MOM! DAD! YOU’RE NOT GONNA BELIEVE IT!” he shouted, galloping at full speed into the living room. “You’re not gonna believe it!” he repeated, a little quieter now that he was indoors and was actually face-to-face with his parents. “Starburst! Where have you been?” his mother said, face full of concern as she stood up and walked over to him. “We were about to go up to the school and look for you, it’s nearly five o’clo -” Her concern evaporated, replaced with surprise and joy. “Your Cutie Mark! Rising! Starburst got his Cutie Mark! It’s a star! Oh, that’s just perfect! I knew you could do it! And you’re still so young! I’m so proud of -” “Well done, Son, that’s really fantastic stuff. Keeping the family tradition alive too!” his father said, beaming as he sat down next to Starburst and rumpled his son’s mane. Then he noticed that his wife had frozen where she stood, and seemed to be choking. “Dear? What’s wrong? Something stuck in your throat?” He followed her petrified gaze to the open front door, and then he choked as well. “Good afternoon. Mr. Rising Star and Mrs. Evening Star, I believe? A very great pleasure to meet you both. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m here to speak to you about Starburst.” “What have you done?” Evening hissed as her husband got to shaky hooves and started to make spasmodic bowing motions, ushering the Princess inside their home. Starburst looked hurt. “I haven’t done anything, Mom! She wants to talk to you about me. She wants me to live in the castle!” “Whuh-what?” Evening spluttered. These words didn’t make any sense to her at all. “Your Highness, I’m so sorry, if our son has been up to mischief and broken anything we’ll pay for the damage-” “Starburst is the most magically-powerful unicorn I’ve ever met,” Twilight said, smiling warmly, “and I’m here to speak to you about his education. I’ve asked him if he’d like to be my private student, you see.” Evening shrieked and sat down, hard. “Oh my! Oh, I’m so sorry, your Highness, I need to sit down for a minute...” Her husband seemed to have gathered his wits. He dashed out of the room and came running back with a glass of water for his wife, who looked as if she was about to faint. “I’m sorry for dropping in on you unannounced,” Twilight began, sitting down on the floor next to Starburst and smiling at the two discombobulated unicorns. “And I’m very sorry if I’m making you feel nervous. But I really do need to talk to you about your phenomenal son here.” “We... Phenomenal?” Rising asked shakily. “Er, Your Highness,” he appended. “The- the school told us that he was too young for general admission, but he kept insisting, and so they let him take the special entrance test. Caused a lot of mayhem, we heard, but they did give him a place despite his age...” “We’ve been worried all day, Your Highness,” Evening said in a very faint voice. “When he didn't come home on time, we’d assumed he’d got himself into trouble, and...” she trailed off. “He didn’t get into trouble, did he?” “His magical potential is enormous. I don’t believe I’ve ever met a unicorn with even a quarter of his potential, in fact. Now, this is serious,” she said, raising her eyebrows slightly. “By law, the most magically powerful unicorns must be properly trained in an accredited magic school. Undisciplined use of that much raw magic can be dangerous, you see, and then irritating things like indemnity discussions and insurance cases start to raise their ugly heads. So, while Starburst will be enrolled at my school on paper - just to keep the lawyers happy - he won't be attending. He’ll be having private lessons with me, at the pace that we both find to be best. I’d like him to move into his own quarters in Ponytopia Castle for these lessons, because they won’t start at pre-appointed times of the day. They might, in fact, happen at all hours of the night as well - a lot of the most powerful magical spells, the ones that draw their power from the sun for example, can only be safely practiced when the sun is down. There’ll be no rosters or exams here. He must be trained at his own pace. I saw him destroy a desk today-” “Oh, I’m so sorry! Can we write you a cheque-” Twilight shook her head, chuckling. “Please, Mrs. Star, you mustn’t think of things like that. Starburst is a very talented little pony and his education is most important to me. As of now, he has official Royal sponsorship for his education. Which,” she added with a wink, “automatically makes him, and you by extension, minor nobleponies.” His parents’ sharp intakes of breath made Starburst start giggling. “As I was saying, I saw him destroy a desk with hardly any magical exertion at all. I’ve almost never seen magic of that power, not even from fully-grown and graduated unicorns. Certainly never from a child. Now.” She got to her hooves. Mr. and Mrs. Star started trembling as they stayed sitting. “Have either of you ever been teleported before? Starburst has,” she said, smiling at the grinning colt. “Teleported? Goodness me, no!” Evening said. “Have you, Rising?” she asked her pale-looking husband. He shook his head. “Oh wow, you gotta try it!” Starburst raved at his parents. “It’s so much fun, it's how we got here, Princess Twilight says that-” Twilight coughed quietly. “Sorry!” he said, grinning at her like a maniac. “Mom and dad, Twilight says that I-” His parents both uttered strangled screams. “Starburst!” Evening hissed. “You apologise to Princess Twilight right this second! I’m so sorry, your Highness, I’m so very sorry, I thought we’d raised him better than that-” “But Twilight doesn’t want me to call her ‘Princess’, Mom!” Both of his parents screamed quietly again and clapped their hooves over his mouth. Twilight’s horn started glowing faintly. “I know this is all a bit overwhelming, Mr. and Mrs. Star, but I can explain all of this to you much better -” There was an enormous flash of reddish-purple light. “- in Starburst’s new lodgings,” she finished. The two unicorns gasped in shock and surprise as they looked around the large, cozy-looking round room. There were soft cushions everywhere, a large number of bookcases, a writing desk that seemed well-stocked with paper and pens and pencils, and a curving staircase leading to a set of doors, presumably an upper floor. Large tapestries depicting many different unicorns casting various spells hung almost everywhere there wasn’t a bookcase. And through the two large balcony doors, the early evening sun was colouring Ponytopia a beautiful red. They were very, very, very high up... As Evening and Rising started spluttering, Twilight bent down to Starburst and murmured into his ear. “I need that chat with your parents that we talked about. You go and read some more of that book, okay?” “Okay!” he said, and galloped off up the staircase to his private study. He vanished through the arched double-doors at the top as Twilight walked over to his parents. “I’ve explained a few things to your son, but, whatever else he is, he’s still a child and he can't be expected to fully understand such important things. You can understand them, and I have a duty to explain myself properly to you.” Twilight sat down before the stunned husband and wife. “Please, sit with me.” They did, and, ignoring their raised eyebrows and wide eyes for the moment, Twilight stretched out on the floor so she could look straight at them. She took a deep breath, and started from the beginning. “This whole situation concerns me on some very strange level. What happened to Starburst was almost exactly what happened to me. It’s not really a secret, but it happened so long ago that nopony really remembers anymore - I went to Celestia’s school as a filly, and became her private pupil, the only one she’d ever had. I was the same age as Starburst, and I received my Cutie Mark right after I accepted Celestia’s offer of tutorship. Exactly the same thing happened with Starburst today. His Cutie Mark is almost exactly the same as mine as well.” “Well, he, uh. Uh, sorry, Your Highness,” Rising said. “Sorry to interrupt.” “That’s perfectly fine,” Twilight said. “Interrupt whenever you like. Go on, please.” “He, um, well, he looks a lot like you, Your Highness. Darker coat colour, closer to mine, but it’s the mane that does it. It’s the same colour as yours.” “And his eyes,” Evening said. “Y-your Highness,” she added hastily. “I’ve noticed. I still need to speak to my Sisters about this. Celestia and Luna will have plenty of ideas, I’m sure.” She looked worried for a moment. “What do you think about all this?” “I- We- Your, Your Highness...” “I’m sorry,” Twilight said. “I’m intimidating you. Please, tonight, talk about this. Go through the possibilities and the drawbacks with each other. And talk to Starburst about it in the morning. It’s Saturday. Take the whole day if you need to. Take the whole weekend. Heck, take as much time as you need. Starburst can stay with you until the three of you make up your mind.” “Your Highness, I’m afraid my wife and I are a bit overwhelmed at the moment...” “Please don’t be.” Twilight was getting distracted. Her mind hadn’t stopped buzzing since she’d seen Starburst dent the classroom ceiling that afternoon. Buzzing with warnings. “Take your time. For the moment, this is what I needed to tell you. I’m very sorry that he came home from school so late today. You must have been so worried, and I apologise. Not knowing where your son was after his first day at a prestigious new school... I should have sent a messenger. I’m sorry, it didn’t cross my mind. I was a bit distracted at the time. You see, I needed to have a chat with him first. “I needed to explain a lot of things to him. I needed to make sure that I was making the right decision, And I needed to make sure that he wouldn't treat me like Royalty. When I started learning magic myself, I was terrified of Celestia. I can understand how you must feel yourselves. You’re sitting on the floor of your son’s new private chambers in the Royal Castle with a Princess sitting right in front of you, having an intimate chat.” Evening and Rising looked, if possible, even more awkward. They were totally out of their element, though they were both starting to get inklings of just how important all of this was. Their son... Their wonderful, fine handsome colt that, despite his propensity for curiosity-fuelled mischief, they both loved with all of their hearts... Their son could be somepony... “I don’t want Starburst to feel that way about me. He did this afternoon,” Twilight said, slightly sadly. “I take a special class once a week at my school, it’s for particularly-talented unicorns. In this class, I insist that my students call me by my first name only. It’s a little bit like that with my lessons with Starburst, but we’ll never really be out of class. Every moment that we spend together will be, essentially, a lesson. I told him that while I might be a Princess, I don’t ever want him to think of me as one. More like a big sister. More like” - she hesitated very, very briefly - “a friend. I learned a lot of magic from Celestia, but I made so many mistakes, and even caused a couple of genuine disasters, because I was absolutely terrified of her, terrified of upsetting her, terrified of disappointing her. Terrified, completely terrified of failing her.” The two unicorns were in danger of spraining their eyelid muscles upon hearing that. “Once I’d done a bit of growing up, everything was fine, but getting to that stage was... It wasn’t fun,” she went on. “I made sure that Starburst understood how much I valued his” - another tiny hesitation - “friendship. I explained that I’ll never be disappointed in him, that I’ll never be upset by anything he does. That we were both on an adventure to discover magic together. And because of these things, he should only ever call me by my first name. I think he’s young enough to allow that to happen. As to our physical similarities...” Her gaze started to wander upwards slowly as she started remembering the pony who used to look out of her mirror, all those long, long centuries ago. Twilight thought a lot about what she used to look like. She used to look a lot like Starburst. She’d had a light-pink streak in her purple mane and tail her whole life, but his hair was a uniform purple. Aside from that... They might have been twins. He had a slightly darker coat too, but their faces... I’ll dig up some of the old pictures. I don’t think I’m imagining it. I think we look almost completely identical. What the heck is going on? She brought her gaze back down to the two worried ponies sitting in front of her. “I don’t think that anything particularly sinister or bad is going on. He may be destined for greatness, or he might be just an ordinary pony with an extraordinary gift. That isn’t important. The only thing that is important is that he gets the proper training. And speaking of training,” she said. “There’s one small lesson I want to run through with him this evening, then I’ll take the three of you home for now. While Starburst and I go through this lesson, would the two of you like a tour of the palace? Or would you prefer someplace quiet, to think things over?” she said, smiling as she got to her hooves. “I, uh, we, um,” Mr. Star said. “We, I think we need a talk, I, um...” “We need some time to think, Your Highness,” Mrs. Star said. “Thank you for the kind offer of a tour, we’ve never been to the palace before,” she said faintly. “Can we... Is there somewhere...” Twilight’s horn flashed deep red for a moment. “I know somewhere you might like. It isn’t far,” she said as a unicorn guard came through the doors and trotted up to her, saluting. “Please, could you take this very important mare and stallion to my garden?” she asked the guard politely. “Get them any refreshments they wish, and then please give them some privacy. They have a lot to talk about.” “Okay, can you tell me what’s different between these two pictures?” Twilight asked. They were both very realistic paintings of a perfectly ordinary housecat, except in one of them, a faint white glow was just visible surrounding the cat. “That one there, that kitty’s glowing,” Starburst said. ”What about these?” The paintings this time were of spoons. Again, one of them had a very faint silvery-white outline, and he pointed it out. The last pair was a glass. The outline was very faint and hard to see, but it was there on one of them. He got it. “So, when I want to lift something up with my magic, I should be able to see something like that? And that’s what I have to grab with my magic?” “That’s right. You need to use your oculus mentis. Your mind’s eye, the magical sight that all unicorns have. What does the psychokinesis book say about that?” “Ummm...” His eyes scanned down the page of the book to his left. “I have to want to use my magic to lift something, and I have to look at what I want to lift, and I can’t be looking at anything else?” He looked confused. “What if I can see two things? Or if I want to lift two things?” “That comes later,” she smiled. “For now, you just have to look very, very hard at the thing you want to pick up. And that’ll show you how to pick it up.” He still looked unsure, so she explained on. “When you want to magically manipulate something, you need to know how to grab hold of it. Leaving magic aside for a moment, if you didn’t know how to pick up this pen,” she said, holding one up with a hoof, “then you might just try something like this.” She put the pen back onto the floor and smacked it with the same hoof. It skittered and spun off to the side, bumping into the wall. “Obviously, you know how to pick up a pen with your hooves, right?” Starburst picked up his own pen and popped it into his mouth, nodding fervently. He looked ready to start taking notes by the ream. “That analogy’s a bit silly, really. Everypony knows how to pick things up. But not everypony knows how to pick things up with their magic. There’s usually a magic class at school, where the unicorns are taught basic psychokinesis. You’re far too young to have had that lesson, though. I was very lucky, because when I was a filly I read a book on magical manipulation - it was the very first book on magic I’d ever read, in fact. I got about halfway through it and just thought to myself, ‘why not?’ and I tried it. I’d never even ignited my horn before, not consciously at least, but I did then, and I tried to turn a page of that book with my magic. And it worked, and I didn’t blow up the book or set anything on fire. If I could do it, you can do it.” He put down his pen and crinkled his brow. “What if it goes wrong? What if I break something?” he asked. “Then we’ll fix it. You know how to ignite your horn. That’s good. Using magic for a unicorn new to the art is like using a muscle you never knew you had. Now, what if you found that muscle was much stronger than you expected? Like, if suddenly you had the strength in your lips to crush your pen?” “That’d be weird,” he said, grinning. “But you have that problem with your magic,” she grinned back. “Now, what if you picked your pen up between your two front hooves instead of just one, and you were, somehow, super strong. You’d squash it, right?” “Well, if you were careful you might not, but you’d have to make sure you were very careful. Right? Um,” he said, “No. Sorry, Twilight. I don’t get it.” “I don’t get it either,” she said. They both laughed at that. “Forget examples and analogies, Starburst. Let’s just try it. The only thing you need to remember is that you can’t just pick something up with your magic straight away. You have to get your magic to show you that fuzzy little white outline with your magical sight. That’s the object’s aura. You can pick the aura up safely, and the object will follow along.” “I don't know, Twilight... I'm not really scared, but... Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I am. I'm scared.” “Don’t be. Please. You can’t hurt anypony and you won’t break anything. I promise.” She had a containment spell ready to fire off at a moment’s notice, just to make sure she didn’t break that promise. “Would you like to try lifting your pen?” “Um...” “What does the book say about squeezing down your magic?” Twilight prompted. Starburst looked at the other book he had open. He read the first few sentences of a chapter called ‘Metaphorical corks’ even though he didn’t really know what a ‘metaphorical’ was. The book’s advice, though, was perfectly clear. He had to imagine a giant cork in his mind, plugging up his magic like the stopper in a bottle. If he imagined it hard enough, it would work. And if it didn't, Twilight had promised that they could keep trying and trying and trying until it did work, no matter how long it took him. He glanced back over at ‘Psychokinetic Techniques as Applied to Practical Magical Spellcasting for the Advanced Unicorn’. Confidence. The most important thing was confidence. He’d always thought he would break stuff before. Maybe that’s why he always did break stuff. “I can lift my pen,” he said. “I can lift my pen up and make it float right in front of me.” “Yes, you can,” Twilight confirmed. He looked down. He looked at his pen. He stared at his pen. He stared very, very hard at his pen. He stared harder. He stared so hard that, if it had been capable of doing so, the pen would have run away because he was thoroughly staring at that pen... “Can you see the pen? Like, really, really see it? It’s the only thing you’re looking at?” “Yes,” he said quietly. “Are you sure? Really sure? You’re not looking at anything else? Just the pen?” She could see his eyes start to water. They were fixed completely on the pen. “Yes.” Almost a whisper. Beads of sweat had appeared on his forehead. “Now, carefully, without trying to use any magic, light your horn.” He grunted slightly. A very, very tiny white spark popped out of the top of his horn and burned out. His gaze became even more set, and a flickering light appeared around his horn, wavered, danced for a moment, then flashed out. “Princess Twilight!” he gasped, jumping to his hooves. “I mean, Twilight! Sorry! I saw it! I saw it, the pen, it was like it was all lit up and it had this funny white glow around it! Like the pictures!” “Well, now that you can see how to hold something magically, would you like to try and pick it up?” He sat down again and stared at his pen, a delighted grin playing on his face. His horn ignited, flickering and sputtering. The grin turned into a determined frown as he really stared at that pen... The glow around his horn steadied into a deep purplish red. Starburst grunted, like he was trying to lift a pair of saddlebags that had been packed full of lead weights. A tiny point of pure white light appeared at the tip of his horn. His pen glowed red on the floor before him, the same shade as his own magical aura and not the bright flaming glow she’d seen around the desk this afternoon. This was wonderful. Even if he didn’t lift the pen, he’d learned how to control his magic. He needed a lot of practice before it became instinctive and natural to him of course, but this was very promising. His pen stayed exactly where it was. He grunted again, the spark of magic at the tip of his horn flickering brighter. And then, as he started to tremble, slowly, very very slowly, the pen lifted gently into the air, the young colt’s eyes locked rigidly onto it as it moved higher, then stopped, bobbing slightly, two feet above the floor and barely six inches from the end of his nose. Twilight didn’t move or speak, didn’t do anything to distract him. The pen stayed floating there for half a minute or so, Starburst’s trembling getting more and more pronounced, until the glow around both the pen and his horn vanished. He let out a huge breath of air as the pen bounced gently to the floor. He gasped in another deep lungful. He was breathing fast, almost panting. “Were you holding your breath?” she asked. He nodded. “Well, it sure seemed to work! Congratulations, Starburst. You just safely levitated your pen.” “Yeah, I did! Wow, that was really, really hard! I’m gonna try it again.” She’d been expecting him to start dancing around the room again, but he was suddenly serious. Elated, sure, but taking everything seriously. “Alright. We have time. We’ll practice until you want to stop, or until your parents come back. Take it easy. If you think holding your breath will help, then do it. But try not to if you can, alright?” “Okay. I’ll try,” he said. His breathing had slowed down by now. He stared very hard at his pen. Very, very hard. Glowing softly, it floated gently into the air. “That was the weirdest day I’ve ever had,” Twilight said as she clopped through Celestia’s doors and parked herself on a cushion. “The weirdest one by far. Guess what?” “Is this to do with our new resident?” Celestia asked. Twilight nodded. “The guards don’t know anything, except that you gave orders to prepare a set of chambers for a new arrival.” She looked expectant. “Have to wait for Big Sister,” Twilight said, a half-worried, half confused expression on her face. “I don’t know if I’ve done the right thing. I might have done the best thing ever. Or the worst thing. I don’t know.” The whooshing of soft wings and a clatter of hooves from the balcony announced Luna’s arrival. “Little Sister, one of my guards tells me that you’ve moved a suitor into the palace,” she said with a rakish grin as she walked in, closing the balcony doors behind her. “Give your guard a pay cut, he's a lousy spy. Our new houseguest is a seven year old colt. How old was I when I became your student?” she asked Celestia. “You were seven, Littlest... Sister. Oh. Oh my goodness.” Celestia’s eyes had gone wide. “Seven? He’s seven?” “He’s seven. The only other unicorn, ever, at least as far as I can find out, to perform magic of any kind at that age. He’s dark purple, his mane is this colour” - she pointed at her own - “though without the highlights, I have to admit. His eyes seem to be a very similar shade to these” - a hoof tapped the side of her face - “his Cutie Mark looks almost the same as this” - she pointed at that too - “his aura just so happens to be this particular hue,” she said as she briefly lit her horn, “and he just spent the afternoon thoroughly amazing me with his magical ability. What the hay is going on? I feel like I just met myself.” Celestia stood up and walked over to one of her bookshelves. Luna just looked stunned. “What’s his name?” the dark-blue alicorn asked. “Starburst. His mother’s a bookbinder, his father’s a librarian,” she said dryly. “Is this, I don’t know, reincarnation or something? But I’m still alive. Like I said to Biggest Sister, the weirdest afternoon I ever had.” “The most magical unicorns in history have always been purple, with purple hair and eyes,” Celestia said, flicking through a small tattered notebook. “They’ve all had magenta stars for their Cutie Marks. Purple and magenta, the two counterpointed colours of magic.” “Clover the Clever looked a lot like you used to,” Luna said. “Dark purple coat and hair. Exactly the same Cutie Mark, as I recall. Though without the five smaller stars.” “He’s got two small stars on his Mark. Do you think the Elements might be moving on?” Twilight asked. “Not likely. They picked you and your old friends. You’re still perfectly alive and healthy, and Equestria’s not in danger,” Celestia said as she closed the notebook and put it back on the shelf. “That’s a few notes I've been keeping over the last couple of thousand years. Every particularly-talented unicorn I ever met, the ones with magic itself as their special talent. They were all purple, though otherwise they all seemed to be perfectly normal ponies to me. You didn't,” she continued. “I recognised you as Magic’s future Bearer when I first saw your Cutie Mark, Littlest Sister. I recognised it in all of your friends when I eventually met them. Did you see an Element in him?” Twilight shook her head. “Nope. He just looks like an ordinary pony. I was surprised when he got his Cutie Mark, though. I’ve seen a lot of Star of Magic Marks but never one with any companion stars. Apart from mine... I don’t know, training him... I have to teach him, don’t I? You’re both too busy and the teachers... He’ll end up putting them in hospital. Am I right to take on this responsibility?” Too late to go back on your word now... “Only you can answer that, Little Sister,” Luna said. “We’ll help as much as we can, of course.” Twilight was contemplating her front hooves and missed the two older alicorns’ shared expressions of glee. They quickly hid them as Twilight raised her head. “Anyway, just letting you know. I won’t pretend that I’m not worried. I hope I can do this properly... I don’t want to get too attached to him. I’ll have to see if this hooves-on thing can be done without getting too... friendly.” I’m SO lonely... And he’s exactly like you... You’ll get along with him so well... He could be a very good friend, you know. And then he’ll die, and you’ll die a bit more inside. Again. “Well, we’ll all see,” she finished. “He’s gone home with his parents, I told them to talk it over between themselves this evening and then talk to Starburst in the morning. Though if that kid gets a wink of sleep tonight, I’ll be surprised. I swear I didn’t sleep for a week after you asked me to be your student, Biggest Sister.” She trotted over to the door. “This is weird. For the first time since I started teaching, I feel like I should come up with a lesson plan. But I don't have a single idea of what to teach him yet. Good night, Sisters.” Just as soon as Twilight had stepped into the corridor and closed the doors behind herself, Celestia and Luna were hugging each other, tears of joy streaming down their faces for their sad and lonely Sister, their Sister who never had close friends by her own choice. Luna’s vaguely-sensed prediction of future happiness for Twilight was finally beginning to come true, they could both feel it. They were both happier than they had been in nine hundred years.