Princess Twilight’s Alicorns 101
“Ahem,” Twilight began, rapping her stack of notes against the lectern. “If I could have everypony’s attention please.” She looked up from the floor of the lecture theatre at her friends who sat in the front row of the crystal stands in various states of readiness. Fluttershy, Twilight was pleased to note, had brought a quill and notebook. Rainbow Dash had brought a pillow.
“Right then.” Twilight levitated her notes and shuffled through them. “Now, I’d like to welcome you all to Alicorns 101, we’ll be going through a brief overview through your new physiologies, magics and how we’ll be proceeding given we’ve doubled the potential pool of Equestrian Princesses. Now, are there any questions before we begin?”
“Uh, is this going to take long, Sugarcube?” Applejack enquired, casting a worried eye across the half dozen blackboards filled to the brim with complicated equations and anatomical charts. “Only, we left the Crusaders in the library and Ah ain’t sure how long Spike’ll be able to keep ‘em corralled.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Applejack.” Twilight smiled. “I’m sure they’ll be able to find plenty of ways to keep themselves occupied.”
“That’s what Ah’m afraid of,” Applejack muttered to herself.
“Any other questions?” Twilight continued.
“Yeah, I’ve got one,” Rainbow Dash interjected, raising a hoof. “Why does your castle got a lecture theater anyway?”
Twilight’s smile broadened. “Well as it happens there’s a very interesting bit of science behind that.” Her horn blazed with light for a moment and, with a rapid fire crackle of teleportation, a new set of blackboards appeared containing even more complicated equations and diagrams. “Harmonious magic is a rarely studied topic but has demonstrated a very high level of abstract problem solving. This suggests that it can incorporate the wishes of the caster to a far greater degree than—”
Rainbow Dash put her hoof up again.
“—Yes?”
“Nevermind, I think I’ve figured it out.”
Twilight scowled at her. After another string of spells the blackboards returned to their original formation. “So, as you all know, an alicorn combines the features of the three major pony subspecies; pegasus, unicorn and earth pony.”
“Ooo, ooo!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up and down in her seat, foreleg and wing extended high. “Are we also part crystal ponies?”
“I...” Twilight frowned. “I think that they’d count as a subcategory of earth ponies. But, that only makes sense if you ignore the fact we were all briefly transformed after restoring the crystal heart.” Twilight stared at her blackboards for a long moment. “I’ll get back to you on that. Anyway, alicorns are a combination of–”
“Hey, what about bat-ponies?” Rainbow cut in. “I hear they have awesome radar vision. Think of all the pranks we could pull with that, Pinkie Pie.” She and Pinkie shared mutual, evil grins.
Twilight sighed. “First, it’s sonar, not radar,and second, thestrals are pegasi under a generational curse rather than a true subspecies. I don’t think we share any of their more infamous traits. Unless anypony’s found themselves able to do an ultrasonic chirp I think we can discount that.”
She turned to look at her blackboards.
“Chp!” Fluttershy let out a impossibly shrill burst of noise that echoed through the theater and made everypony jump in surprise.
“Oh, um, sorry about that,” she said, ducking her head. “The... uh, acoustics are better here than I thought.
Twilight twiddled a hoof in her ear and shook her head. “Okay, I stand corrected. Alicorns can apparently hear ultrasonics... Also I owe Mrs Reedy an apology about that ‘broken’ dog whistle. How long have you been able to do that?”
Fluttershy toyed with the tip of her mane and disappeared deeper behind the obscuring pink veil. “Well actually, I’ve been able to do that since the ‘Flutterbat’ incident.” She gave a sheepish smile. “I didn’t want to bother you about it.”
“Didn’t want to...” Twilight waved that off. “Okay, I think we have to look into this afterwards. Are you free to drop by my lab afterwards?”
“Oh, I guess so. But, is that the lab with all the big, scary machines that–”
“Excellent.” Twilight cut her off before Fluttershy could talk herself out of it. “Okay, so as I was saying, alicorns are a combination of the three primary tribes–”
“And sea ponies?” Pinkie Pie interjected, bouncing in place. “I hear they have great singing voices. ‘Under da’ sea. Under da’ sea–’”
“Oh hay no!” Applejack snapped, shuddering.
Twilight’s mouth worked in silence for a moment as she struggled to process the question. “I... I have no idea. Don’t stick your head in a bucket to find out.”
She riffled through her notecards for a moment, straining to find her train of thought. “Now, we don’t know much about alicorns, although, as a demographic, we’re growing rapidly. For the most part we share the major features of ponykind, in fact the commonalities are far more frequent than the differences. I can recommend a good few books on wing-care and horn-care which are broadly applicable.”
“However, there are some differences worth noting.” Twilight turned to one of the many blackboards and tapped a hoof on the chalk outline of an alicorn. “First, as I’m sure you’ve noticed you’ve all undergone some major changes, even in the features you had before.”
“You’re telling me,” Rainbow Dash interjected, leaning over the desk. “I’ve gained three inches where it counts.”
Everypony in the room turned to stare at her.
“What?” she demanded, staring back.
Applejack was the first to break the awkward silence. “Umm, Sugarcube. Want to run that by us again?”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying there’s going to be some change in performance. Okay, maybe it’ll help with keeping up with the Wonderbolts, but it's going to cramp my style.”
Rarity and Fluttershy went bright red.
“Umm...” Twilight began. “Well, I’m not sure if that was something I noticed.”
“Well of course not,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes and spreading her wings. “You didn’t have a wingspan to measure before.”
A collective. “Oh!” rolled around the room and a look of sudden relief spread across the alicorns’ features.
“Right, right,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “Sorry, I had completely the wrong idea there.”
“Yeah, I thought I’d been to all the wrong Wonderbolt parties,” Pinkie exclaimed, grinning salaciously. Applejack cuffed her over the head with a wing.
Twilight shook herself, silently wishing for an amnesia charm. “Right. Well, moving swiftly onwards. Yes, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, your wingspan will have increased. Likewise, Rarity, you may find your horn is longer. It’s also safe to say we’ve all gained a little height and, estimating from our small sample size, we’ll continue to grow for many years to come.”
“And here was I, hoping I could salvage at least some of my wardrobe.” Rarity gave a dramatic toss of the head and pressed a foreleg against her head. “Still, one must soldier on in these difficult times. That and learn how to sew subtle wing-slits.”
“Look on the bright side,” Rainbow cut in. “Now that you’ve got wings, you’ll be able to make dresses a pony can really fly in.”
Rarity cocked her head. “I was under the impression you already could fly in my dresses, darling. Or am I misremembering the gala?”
“Oh, sure you can fly. But not fly,” Rainbow Dash explained, with her typical disregard for the Equine language. “You’ll figure it out when I get you girls in the air. Which reminds me, you’ll all be joining Twilight’s flying lessons at dawn tomorrow.” She shot a glare at Twilight. “And I mean dawn, not ‘whenever Spike remembers to wake you up’.”
“It was a very fascinating book on flight dynamics!” Twilight protested.
“That was your excuse three weeks ago. Last week was dragon wings.”
Twilight blushed. “Umm...”
“Wait, we’re going to be flying tomorrow?” Pinkie exclaimed, her wings exploding from her sides and knocking Applejack’s hat off. “Whoopee! Soon there’ll be no pony in Equestria who can avoid a Pinkie Party.”
Rainbow gave a smug smirk. “Was there ever any doubt? With me as your coach you’ll be trying out for the Wonderbolts before you know it. Heck, if I could get Shy into the Equestria games then I can get Rarity doing barrel rolls by Spring.”
A shudder ran down Rarity’s spine. “Urgh, must we aim for such a thing? I honestly don’t have the stomach for it.”
“Eh, you’re half pegasus now,” Rainbow shot back, waving her off. “You’ll pick it up easier than falling off of Cloudsdale.” Rarity glowered at her, but Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to notice. “Isn’t that right, Twilight?”
“Well, more or less,” Twilight admitted, pulling a set of notecards out of her stack. “Alicorns share a number of features that are common to both pegasi and other airborne species. You should find yourselves more resistant to the weather, have an innate cloudwalking ability and a far improved sense of balance.” She paused, frowning at her card. “Also, ninety percent of pegasi can ‘see’ which way is north if they squint. Huh, I was wondering what that was about. Good to know.”
“Umm, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy interjected, hesitantly. “You don’t need me for your flying lessons, do you?”
“New wings, new rules Fluttershy. I know I’ve got half a dozen stunts I’m going to have to relearn.” Rainbow grinned. “And besides, I need somepony who knows their patagium from their pasterns. Don’t worry about it, it’ll be just like flight camp all over again.”
Fluttershy sank deeper into her seat. “That’s what I’m afraid of,” she murmured.
“On a similar note, I will also be starting magic lessons in the next few weeks,” Twilight continued beaming. “After talking with Cadence and Luna I figure you should all start experiencing magic surges over the next few weeks. Once that happens, I can start teaching you all some simple spells so that you can get into practice and avoid any unfortunate accidents.”
“Oh, this is going to be so exciting.” She let out an excited squeal and pranced on the spot. “I’ve already got so many books for us to read. Rainbow Dash, I’ve taken your horn lasers’ idea under consideration so we’ll be starting with light-spells. They are some of the most under researched areas of arcane craft in my opinion.” Her horn kindled and half a dozen blackboards spun around, revealing spell-forms of eye bending complexity.
“Urh, Sugarcube.”
“As you can see,” Twilight continued, already lost in her lecture. “While most unicorns consider light to be a byproduct of casting—the ground state of magic as it were—there are a number of interesting ways of generating light directly. Research in the area was first started by a mare called Vain Hoping. A very colourful character who wanted to find an substitute for sunlight to deal with vamponies. If you can believe such a thing.”
“Twi’.”
“Despite the total failure of anypony to validate the existence of vamponies, Vain did achieve great advances in our understanding of light and the magical properties attached to it. Much of her work was later incorporated into the common lightbulb that we use today by a stallion called–”
“Twilight!” Applejack yelled.
Twilight started. “I– Yes? Did you have a question?”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Ah’m sure this is all very interesting, but perhaps you want to save this for the actual lesson.”
“Oh, right, yes that would be sensible,” Twilight said, blushing. “Sorry about that.”
“Interesting?” Rainbow Dash whispered to Applejack. “I thought you were the element of
Honesty?”
“Give it a rest, miss Laser Head,” Applejack shot back, barely moving her lips.
“Well, I guess there isn’t a huge amount left to say about unicorn magic until you start surging,” Twilight continued, unheeding. “Do be aware that you’re going to have quite a deep well of power, so the effects will be greater than a foal’s. But, there’s very little that unicorn magic can do that unicorn magic can’t undo. Just remain calm and seek assistance if there’s anything you can’t handle.”
“Now, that only leaves earth pony magic.” Twilight glanced down at her notes and made a face. “I... well... Over to you Applejack.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “You know, one of these days you’re going to have to stick with mah lessons for more than three hours.”
“It was not three hours,” Twilight exclaimed, her wings spreading wide. “It was—” She paused, counting on her primaries. “—Okay, actually it was three hours. But we didn’t learn a thing about earth pony magic! It was just doing random farm chores.”
“That is earth pony magic,” Applejack replied, with a lazy smirk painted across her face. “Or it was what my Ma and Pa taught me of it. It ain’t something you pick up in an afternoon.”
“But what about leylines, geomancy, biomancy?” Twilight shot back. “We didn’t touch on anything like that. We just picked apples.”
“Twi’, if you’re wanting somepony to teach you about all those fancy terms you’re best off asking up in Canterlot. Ah know how to farm, that’s what I’ll teach.”
Twilight let out a frustrated grunt. “That’s what you said last time.” She sighed, shaking her head. “Anyway, girls. For now, I don’t have the first clue about earth pony magic. You can probably do it, but I have no idea what it is.”
“Hold on a moment,” Rarity interjected. “What about an earth pony strength? Their stamina? Their skill? What about all those wise old earth pony sages?”
“What about Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow Dash said, pointing at the mare who just smiled and waved.
“Yes, yes, those are all well known examples,” Twilight grumbled. “But are any of those magic, or just skill?” She shrugged. “That’s the biggest problem with the entire science of earth pony magic, actually pointing at something an earth pony has done and calling it magic. All the evidence suggests that there is something that sets earth ponies apart from unicorns and pegasi when it comes to certain abilities. But, look at Big Mac. Are you going to tell me his strength comes entirely from magic when he’s got more muscle than the six of us combined?”
Rarity frowned. “I suppose you have a point.”
“Yeah, but what about Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow repeated. “Are you seriously telling me that isn’t magic?”
Twilight shook her head. “I have no idea what that is but the last time I tried to figure it out, I forgot what a Tuesday was. You’re welcome to try and find out.”
Rainbow turned to face Pinkie Pie, who’d somehow managed to find herself a brown cloak when nopony was looking.
“Ah, young one, you’ve come to learn the power of the Horse, have you?” she intoned, her voice deep and husky. “Well, first you must understand that there is no spoon.”
A beat passed. Rainbow craned her neck to look right around the room. Then up at the ceiling. Then under her wing. “Uh, Pinkie Pie. I don’t there are any spoons in here.”
“Exactly.”
“What?”
“The spoon doesn’t exist,” Pinkie explained, with a sage nod.
Rainbow frowned. “What spoon?”
“No, no. There is no spoon.”
“So why do you keep bringing it up?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Bringing what up?”
“The spoon!”
“There isn’t a spoon, silly.”
Rainbow Dash’s head hit the desk. “Urgh... I think I get why you gave up on this now, Twilight.”
“Tell me about it, she managed to convince me to walk into a mirror,” Twilight grumbled.
“It wasn’t my fault, you weren’t curious enough,” Pinkie Pie protested.
Twilight just rolled her eyes. “So, that’s earth pony magic,” she concluded. “I’m sorry I can’t be much more help, Princess duties have prevented me from doing much more than scraping the surface. Still, I’m sure between the six of us we can figure something out for those of you still curious.” She flicked through to the end of the note stack.
“Now, on the subject of Princessly duties. Princess Celestia has warned me that five snap coronations aren’t exactly on the cards.” She smiled. “Sorry about that girls, but it seems something can catch her by surprise after all. Now–”
“Pardon me for interrupting,” Rarity said, raising a hoof. “But I can’t help but notice a glaring omission.”
“Omission?” Twilight flicked back through her cards. “I don’t think so. Three tribes, three magics, outline of lessons moving forwards.”
“A rather pressing concern we all share about our current condition?” Rarity pressed, gesturing with a wing at the gathered alicorns.
Twilight stared, uncomprehending for a long moment “Oh!” she exclaimed at last. “Well I’m afraid I can’t say much about alicorn magic right now. I haven’t had nearly enough time to do much than confirm its existence. However I have a few early conclusions I think you’ll find fascinating.”
Rarity sighed. “I meant the immortality issue, darling.”
“Ah...” Twilight’s ears folded flat and she began to shuffle her forehooves. “That.”
“Ah ain’t liking the sound of this.”
“What’s the problem?” Rainbow Dash demanded, spreading her wings. “We’re alicorns. Alicorns live forever. Or at least thousands of years, right?”
Twilight sighed. “Look girls, all I can tell you about this is what Celestia told me when I asked six months ago. ‘You are no more immortal than I am’.”
“Okay, so we’re immortal, what’s the...” Rainbow Dash trailed off, frowning. “Wait, did she mean we’re immortal or she isn’t?”
Twilight just let out a long sigh.
“Oh come now,” Rarity pressed. “Surely we’re not suggesting Princess Celestia of all ponies is mortal? She’s ruled Equestria for millennia.”
“Three hundred and twenty two years next spring, actually,” Twilight corrected on reflex. “Though her position as a Princess of Equestria dates back to the founders.”
“Urgh.” Applejack slumped over the desk. “Twi’, my granny raised me never to speak ill of my elders—and there ain’t any more elder—but how’d you ever learn anything as Celestia’s student when the mare can’t give a straight answer to save her life?”
“Heh, it’s a challenging teaching style, true,” Twilight admitted. “But I think in this case, she may just not know. How do you even test for immortality without testing to destruction?” She shrugged. “I’m personally trying not to worry about it. It’s not going to affect us in the next ten years, or even twenty. If a century from we’re all still sitting here without a wrinkle between us then we’ll have our answer, but until then I wouldn’t spend too long on it.”
“That’s... unsatisfying,” Rarity said, drumming a forehoof against the desk, a frown marring her features.
“Alas, being an alicorn isn’t a solution to all of life’s problems,” Twilight replied, with a dry chuckle.
“Ooo! What about alicorn magic?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “Because I can do this—” Her horn blazed blue and Rainbow Dash let out a yelp as she lifted into the air. It lasted just a moment before Pinkie’s magic sputtered out and Rainbow fell with a bang. “—But not much else.”
“Can you not do it?” Rainbow Dash snapped, glaring at the alicorn as she rubbed her behind.
“Yes, please practice your magic on inanimate objects for now.” Twilight frowned as she pulled out another note card. “Still, it's a good question. There’s something to the theory that there is a form of magic unique to alicorns. Celestia raising the sun is awe inspiring to see up close and Cadence has a level of mastery over emotional magic I can barely comprehend.” A shudder ran down her spine. “That said, I haven’t started setting the stars in the sky, or even stepped out of the bell curve for unicorn power levels. It’s another of those wait and see things I’m afraid. I’ve felt that my magic has a far greater sense of presence, but that’s just gut instinct for now.”
She sighed. “Sorry, that isn’t very helpful. There’s a lot we don’t know about alicorns. Heck, we’ve got more than half of all the confirmed alicorns Equestria has ever seen right here in this room. Up until Cadence’s ascension the prevailing theory was that Celestia was unique, maybe even divine. That’s hearsay, of course, Princess Celestia has never claimed to be a god despite what some ponies have said. And with Starswirl’s last spell in hoof it’s looking more and more like being an alicorn is a fourth state of ponykind, rather than a symbol of godhood. So far nopony else has ascended after reading the–”
Twilight cut herself off, a blush suddenly rising on her cheeks. “I mean, it’s my theory that nopony will– “
“Nopony else?” Rarity cut in, arching an eyebrow at her. “Twilight, I was under the impression you didn’t want anypony reading Star Swirl’s spell.”
“You certainly put up enough of a fight to stop us reading it,” Rainbow Dash muttered, crossing her forelegs. Applejack cuffed her over the head with a weary sigh.
“That was when I thought it wouldn’t work,” Twilight shot back. “But due to, well, all the confusion after you five ascended that I may have left Star Swirl’s Journal unattended for... let's say the entire rest of the day.” She hid behind her notecards for a moment. “During that time it was read by, to my knowledge: Big Macintosh, Spike, Muffins the mailmare, Lyra Heartstrings, Cloudkicker, Thunderlane, Cranky Doodle, Cloudkicker again, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara.”
Rainbow Dash let out a startled squawk. “Please, please tell me we don’t have Derpy, Princess of Muffins flying around,” she exclaimed, ducking as if at any moment she expected a blond alicorn to burst through the wall.
“None of those ponies ascended, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight assured her. “And don’t worry, the book is now secured.”
“Honestly, Dashie,” Rarity cut in, with a dramatic sigh. “I don’t know why you’re so set against the poor dear. Muffins is a character to be sure, but she means no harm.”
“You say that again next time she demolishes the town hall,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
“Actually I believe that may have been my fault,” Twilight said, with a sheepish smile. “The parasprites had quite an appetite for structural supports it seems. That and barns.” Applejack let out a huff. “Anyway, given the breadth of ponies who’ve used the spell we can say that something more than just reading the words is necessary to become an alicorn. My best guess is that it had to do with our connection to the Elements of Harmony, that or our bonds of friendship.”
Applejack sat bolt upright. “Bonds of friendship? Twilight, where did you say you put this book again?”
“The secure section of my library.” Twilight frowned. “Don’t worry. It’s perfectly safe there, only Spike and I have a key to get past the wards.”
“The same Spike who’s currently looking after the Crusaders?” Applejack pressed, her wings spreading. “The three friends joined at the hip?”
“Oh, Applejack.” Twilight waved the issue off. “I don’t think that Spike will have... Well, I wouldn’t worry that the Crusaders... Even if they did get through the...” Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat. “Umm, can you all excuse me for a moment?”
Twilight set off at a blind gallop for the library.
Her friends shared a look, and then were hot on her heels.
Hey all, sorry again for keeping you waiting on this one. As it turns out making a lecture both funny and informative is quite a task. Not to mention work’s getting in the way of ponies again, which can’t be how the world’s supposed to go...
Anyway, thanks everyone for their questions last time. There’s still a good many unanswered but some will be coming up later in the story, also I needed to call time on this one before I gnawed my leg off. Still, I’m aware that there were a lot of questions about earth pony magic and Twilight left that hanging so I’ll try to give an overview of the magic system I’m using in this story.
So pretty much every species is magical to some degree, but how this expresses itself varies greatly. Unicorns are great at the impossible kind of magic, turing apples into oranges, lead into gold, animating the inanimate and all the weird stuff you find buried deep in the Player’s Handbook that no one really expected to be read. Earth pony magic is the magic of the implausible, lifting objects that should really be too heavy, growing crops in areas that they aren’t native to, or just incredibly fast. Big Mac pulling a house around is a good example of this kind of magic run amok, not physically impossible, but straining believability. And then there's Pinkie Pie 
To put another way, say we’re moving from A to B through C, but it's impossible to pass through C. Unicorn magic doesn’t bother with C at all, jumping straight from A to B. Earth pony magic also doesn’t pass through C, but takes a long rambling route through the backstreets (pausing for tea at Great Aunt Cherry Blossom's) and somehow managed to get to B without anyone ever really being clear on why it was supposed to be so difficult in the first place. Pegasus magic also fits in this example, but they just generally agree to travel through C after all and that it's impossible isn’t worth worrying about. Pegasus magic is best defined as a series of internally consistent impossibilities.
Because of the sliding scale, being really good with one type makes it more than a little difficult to wrap your head around the others. Twilight’s slowly figuring out pegasus magic and is one day going to pick up on the earth pony way, but it's a while of yet. The rest of the girls are all going to pick up their little areas of speciality as we move forwards though, so we'll be back to this later.
I hope that’s answered more questions than it raised. Join me next time for Rainbow Dash’s boot camp. Bonus points if you guess who’s getting the boot.
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Shoo shoo be doo.
The Horse surrounds all internet things. It flows through them and binds them together.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total partybliteration.
It is by will alone that I set my horse in motion. It is by the juice of Pinkie that the punch acquires spikes, the floor acquires stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone that I set my horse in motion...
God, this was a funny chapter well worth its wait. But why do I have that feeling we are about to see the CMC as alicorns?
This part confused me.
Can someone clarify for me?
Wonderful to see a reference to those two stories after all this time. Two of my favorites back in the day, though sadly the only two by that author that I could enjoy.
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Far as I understand it, she's saying that Celestia was Princess of Equestria by title ever since the country was founded (or she was discovered, whichever came first), but she didn't actually have any ruling authority until about seven hundred years after Nightmare Moon.
Or maybe she's adding up and she ruled with Luna for a century, then stepped back for eight before she took up the crown again two hundred years before current time.
I wouldn't worry too much about the Crusaders Twi... you kind of need a Cutie Mark before you can become an alicorn. At least, I THINK that's the case... uh... where did you say that book was again?
You know, you actually managed to make earth pony magic sound cool there. It's all very Taoist Master. "Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know."
LOL LOVED the ending of this chapter hope to read more soon
I want to see the Princess of Bang.
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My guess is that 322 years ago, Princess Celestia became ruler of Equestria. Whatever kind of government they had before, Princess was a noble (and probably landed, given the of Equestria) but not a ruling title. Perhaps said government was interim after the NMM disaster.
This chapter was filled with a few good laughs. Pinkie Antics in the background are always fun. Rainbow Antics as well. Celestia and Twilight have a good point about immortality though. Agelessness/glacial aging is one thing, but you can't really test true immortality, without trying to kill yourself, and if you're wrong... so yeah... Let's not bother with that one
Did it work? Eenope.... *sigh*
Lyra - Princess of (Human? Hands? Anthropology?)
Derpy/Ditzy/Muffins - Princess of Muffins!
Cloudkicker - Princess of Winning!
Cranky Doodle - Princess of Toupees!
The others?
Great chapter ! but this is charging right towards the big problem with getting more Alicorns. You make all the main characters probably immortal and defiantly super powerful . It sets such a divide between them and the rest of the lesser pony's .
If you're part of the vast majority that don't ascend i guess you just aren't worth it or don't have the friends to join our special club. You didn't really live up to your special talent .
Twilight would pull out a chart where she proves that with the rate of new alicorns it's not worth making any new non-alicorn friends.
Alicorn-ification is such a problem when anyone of "worth" can earn it. Keep it to the main 6 , they have the elements of harmony as a good excuse. The CMC shouldn't ascend.
Come on CMC Alicorns! COME ON CMC ALICORNS! Scootaloo deserves to be able to fly, dammit!
+5 for references.
It's too late Twilight, you know that!
Oh shit, don't tell me... no... don't do it! For the sake of Equestria DON'T DO IT!
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Hey, he tried, and now he knows, and that's what matters.
I just like how there a raising demographic. As for CMC Alicorns. It almost feels wrong to take there foalhoods away with ascension.
Okay so the CMC get their hands on the spell book and cast the spell, that would be great especially for Scootaloo, she deserves to have the ability to fly, no pegasus should be grounded like that. Also is the Crystal Mirror that sunset went through in that part of the library, because it would be cool if the CMC knock the journal up onto the platform and it would start up the mirror portal to let the Human Mane 6 and Sunset come through, heck I could see it now, Sunset leaning back against the portal and then it starts to glow and she falls backwards into the portal while her friends try to grab her and fall through the portal right after her, heck several other background humans could follow them, like Human Lyra, Bonbon, Flash, the Human CMC, heck even Human Celestia and Luna, that would be cool to see them all fall or run through the portal to see what Equestria is like.
The end of this chapter in summary
Cutie Mark Crusader Alicorn Princesses Yay!3.bp.blogspot.com/-T9mtcMOEg9c/T9FNa4iwptI/AAAAAAAADm8/-IfbAahu4lg/s1600/CMC-Done-Transparent.png
Short of the alicorns and perhaps Starlight Glimmer I am pretty sure Pinkie Pie is most magical pony. Also assume she just kind of does things on instinct with her magic without actually understanding what she is doing to be able to explain it to anyone else. Just "I wanted to do this so I did it. Don't ask me how!"
what Celestia banished her sister 1000 years ago. Also she ruled Equestria at the time of the banishment. How does the above number make any sense. Or was that a sarcastic number?
7409480 What stories are being referenced?
I would love it if the CMC ended up ascending as well.
The second the CMC were mentioned as being with Spike in the library, I knew something hilarious was coming down the pipe.
Gotta say I'm not really on board with your headcanon about Celestia, though, since it kind of goes against canon and supplemental canon that she's ruled Equestria since the beginning along with Luna.
7409497
Tell that to Flurry Heart.
7409714
Who's really to say they would lose their foalhood? Better question would be how long would they stay as foals considering the only other child alicorn at the moment is an infant. Imagine instead of taking 18-20 years to get to adulthood it ends up being massively longer because alicorn.
7409820 I was confused about that too. Maybe the times Discord and the Sirens took over happened for a longer period of time than we thought.
At least Twilight has been trying to learn earth pony magic off screen, even though she hasn't picked up much yet.
I really like your explanation of the different ways the tribes approach magic. I wish that part had been worked into Twilight's actual lesson, but maybe you'll figure out a way to work it in later.
I would have love it for Big Mac to be an Alicorn... But you made it right, the spell works with friendship in the heart.
I love to see you try to add a stallion to become a Alicorn... Hey what about Snip & Snails? That would be hilarious!
This chapter has made me laugh so much! Thank you for this amazing story
7409580 I do feel the same way but I think having the CMC would make it really fun. Because this takes place before their Cutie Marks? If so than we'll get to see more adventures for the CMC.
How did you get into contact with Pixel-Prism?
And Luna has shown the ability to shape change, implying that they have the signature-trait of the changelings as well, which also undermines Chrysalis' belief that ponies and changelings are a separate species and therefore ponies are just prey. Kinda like how the Europeans originally thought AFRICANS were a separate species from them (100% serious).
Twilight’s mouth worked in silence for a moment as she struggled to process the question. “I... I have no idea. Don’t stick your head in a bucket to find out.”
That was funny.
Cutie mark crusader alicorn, yay?
Why Applejack likely just want to continue to run her farm, immortality at least means she doesn't have to worry about wearing out with years, and she doesn't to wait on Rainbow Dash if she needs some quick minutes weather work, and she doesn't have to hold things in her mouth anymore.
That and learn how to sew subtle wing-slits.”
She's a fashion designer, she's never had to customize a dress for, or design a dress for a pegasus before?
7409863
YES! I LIKE IT BRING ME ANOTHER! :D
CMC Alicorns
I am now very much looking forward tot he next chapter.
Great job on this one.
7409791 Nuuuuuu Discord is happy everypony else runnnnnn
7409903 Being born into it doesn't count. We're talking purely about ascent here.
Rainbow Dash explained, with her typical disregard for the Equine language.
So in character.
“And I mean dawn, not ‘whenever Spike remembers to wake you up’.”
Surprised to hear that given Twilight is a sucker for schedules. And nice to see the bolts having an positive effect on RD.
Last week was dragon wings.”
Hmm?
Soon there’ll be no pony in Equestria who can avoid a Pinkie Party.”
Oh dear.
“Eh, you’re half pegasus now,”
She flunked math didn't she?
“You’ll pick it up easier than falling off of Cloudsdale.”
Bring up bad memory.
“Also, ninety percent of pegasi can ‘see’ which way is north if they squint.
Poor Derpy.
Don’t worry about it, it’ll be just like flight camp all over again.”
Wasn't that a horrible memory for her, Shy, AND Gilda?
... And all because of the same three bullies. OY!
avoid any unfortunate accidents.”
Does the quote at the end belong since she just continues talking in the next paragraph? It makes it seem like someone new is speaking.
“While most unicorns consider light to be a byproduct of casting—the ground state of magic as it were—there are a number of interesting ways of generating light directly.
And Rarity can do it without her magic being visible.
Ah know how to farm, that’s what I’ll teach.”
Says the girl who caused an entire orchard to burst out of the ground once.
Are you going to tell me his strength comes entirely from magic when he’s got more muscle than the six of us combined?”
He still shouldn't have been able to move that entire house by himself. Or when Cheerilee tore down a barricade.
“Well, first you must understand that there is no spoon.”
There also the fact Maud Pie can, ya know, HEAR WHAT ROCKS SAY! And she DOES NOT have that much muscle on her at first appearance, but can obliterate a boulder without even try! And Maud Pie throwing a stone so far and so hard it created a mushroom cloud on the horizon, and she definitely has less muscle than Big Mac!
she managed to convince me to walk into a mirror,” Twilight grumbled.
Twilight, you do that what, once a year to visit Sunset remember?
aren’t exactly on the cards.”
aren’t exactly in the cards.”
And surprised Twilight knows a fortune telling phrase. But nice.
Princess Celestia has warned me that five snap coronations
I still imagine, and will always imagine, it's Celly's imagine plan to pull a Wysteria and make all ponies equal, NOT by pulling them to the lowest common denominator like Starlight did, but by making them all Royalty! But doing so over the course of a thousand years so civilization has time to adjust.
‘You are no more immortal than I am’.”
Well, you're going to all live a freakin' dang long time then at least!
'Twilight won't outlive her friends' as said by the creators of the show. Which means they all become Alicorns, Twilight dies first, or they all die at the exact same time. I prefer the first one personally, and I dead the second one, and the third one is very good or very bad. (Oh, and 'Cadence will outlive Shining Armor' oh dear.)
“Three hundred and twenty two years next spring, actually,”
The math there seems very off. She banished Nightmare Moon a 1000 years ago, and she was already the ruler of Equestria then it seems.
“Can you not do it?” Rainbow Dash snapped, glaring at the alicorn as she rubbed her behind.
Is RD's magic rose colored or rainbow colored?
Is AJ's magic green color or red color?
I never have, and never will, accept Cadence's badly written origin in the chapter books as canon. No, seriously, it stinks.
Big Macintosh, Spike, Muffins the mailmare, Lyra Heartstrings, Cloudkicker, Thunderlane, Cranky Doodle, Cloudkicker again, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara.”
Cloud Kicker was determined. I guess none of them have achieved enlightenment.
And to be honest, the idea of Celestia being an actual deity, a deity that WASN'T around just for the heroes to topple (as a metaphor for toppling the tyrannical elite, even if it's an elite of one) and was actually BENIGN and HELPFUL and willing to let the people live their own lives while still serving as a guide and protector, and wasn't around to die horrible by the hands of the big bad when the writers don't want the heroes killing off said god to give a metaphor for not having support of your parents anymore. AND her JUST BEING THERE and ACCEPTED rather than her greatness being the point of the show or something .... was actually a BIIIIG part of what endeared me to the show to begin with, believe it or not.
The irony is that I DO imagine Apple Bloom and co were destine to succeed Twilight and co anyway. But I imagine that the CMC ascending to godhood WOULD complicate things a lot. And it's not JUST the bonds of friendship either since that would imply Diamond Tiara didn't have any friends or any of the others don't have any friends. Maybe the spell needs to the pony in question to have at least five unbreakable bonds? Or if Twilight is right about the Elements, like I said, I do imagine the CMC are meant to succeed the girls (though since Diamond Tiara tried it and it DIDN'T WORK throws a wrench into that, since she is very much the friend of the CMC now. So maybe Twilight Sparkle is worried over NOTHING.)
7409722
If any pony alive has earned Alicornhood, it's Sunset Shimmer at this point.
The fact that Cloudkicker tried more than once amuses me for some reason.
a?
7410211
Cloudkicker, the Princess of Winning
their prehensile manes and tails/?
Needs one slight correction:
oh, boy.
2.bp.blogspot.com/_wwE6uZWxnuI/S__sHE9ri0I/AAAAAAAACGk/--p9C9F8lcg/s1600/trouble.gif
7409560
Big Mac - Princess of Responsibility.
Spike - Princess of Slaves
Derpy/Ditzy/Bright Eyes/Muffins - Princess of Muffin Deliveries!!
Lyra - Princess of Legends
Cloud Kicker - Princess of Drama
Thunderlane - Princess of Lightning
Cranky Doodle - Princess of The Dead
Cloud Kicker - Princess of Banging
Silver Spoon - Princess of Silverware
Diamond Tiara - Queen of Villians