3. Magic Practice
It took Tempest nearly an hour to tell Discord about everything she's been through. He was polite throughout the story, nodding in understanding, gasping at the appropriate surprising parts and frowning during the sad parts. But finally Tempest told him about her blocking the Storm King from turning Twilight to stone, leading to Tempest and him being frozen instead. Twilight had grabbed her in midair and pulled her back from the ledge while the Storm King had fallen, shattering on the ground far below.
“Yeesh, what a way to go,” Discord commented. “I bet that really crushed his spirits.”
Tempest laughed. “Oh yes, I had to make sure no one unfroze him because that... that would have been really gross to clean up. We just quietly moved the pieces and buried them. But yeah, after that, Twilight offered me her friendship and I agreed, and she taught me that I didn't need my horn to be powerful. That power came from me, and I was great just the way I was. I used my talent for explosions to put on a fireworks show they've never seen before. It was nice, the way they cheered for me. I finally felt like I belonged again. Of course, then you went and fixed my horn, so... who knows what I'm capable of now.”
“We should see!” Discord stood, and Tempest tilted her head.
“What do you mean?” she asked curiously.
“Some magical tests! Try to do something you've never been able to do before!”
Tempest thought about it, then stood up. “Well, I've never quite been able to figure out teleportation. That's kinda high-level though. Twilight can do it, and so can Starlight, but I don't know...”
“I think you can do it, if you just put your mind to it. Go on.” Discord walked over to the other side of the room. “Just teleport over here next to me. That's a short distance, real easy.”
“How do I do it?” Tempest asked.
“It's difficult to explain, like any magic. You just have to want it, and feel it! Just will yourself to go, and your magic will do the rest.”
Tempest nodded and summoned her magic. She could see the glow of her horn out of the corners of her eyes, and she focused, imagining herself moving through the air to be next to Discord. Nothing happened, and she tried harder. Just move. Teleport.
But rather than teleporting, her glow enveloped herself and suddenly tossed her across the room. She yelped as she landed on her front next to Discord, skidding across the floor.
“Ouch,” he said over her.
Tempest huffed, painfully getting to her hooves. “Okay, I don't know what that was.”
“You levitated yourself over. Kinda.”
She rubbed her cheek where it had hit the floor and smoothed her fur out. “Ugh, clearly teleportation is beyond my skill level.”
“Oh don't say that. You have to believe in yourself! Look, don't think of it so much as your magic moving you across the room. Think of it more as... dipping out of reality and bringing yourself back in, in a different location.”
“Right, because that makes sense.”
“That's how I think of it.” Discord disappeared and then reappeared several feet away. Then he was gone again, and popped back into existence over her head, his wings flapping to keep him airborne. “See?”
“Okay, I'll try again!” Tempest turned to face the room, looking at the opposite wall. “I'll try to go over there. Okay, come on Tempest. You can do this.”
“You can do this,” Discord agreed. “I can sense the power in you. You can do amazing things. I believe in you.”
She inhaled, and closed her eyes as she willed herself to teleport. Out of reality, and then back in at a new point. It was worth a shot. She used her magic, letting it surround her, and mentally reached out to where she wanted to go. And... now!
A sudden, startling pressure enveloped her, but before she could even react to it, it disappeared. She stumbled and opened her eyes, finding herself on the other side of the room looking at the wall. She turned around and looked at Discord. “Did I do it?”
“You did it!” he cheered, and summoned a team of other Discords, who all clapped for her and whistled. One waved pom-poms. “Now you can teleport yourself straight here! Good for you!” His copies disappeared and he returned to his seat. “See? I told you, you can do anything! Maybe you didn't get to go to Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, but I bet you can teach yourself all kinds of things! Twilight's library is full of spellbooks. Or, you know what? Your magic seems much more suited for the... chaotic arts.”
“Chaotic?” Tempest wondered.
“Oh yes. Your explosions? Chaotic. The electricity you can zap people with? Chaotic. Those balls of energy that turn people to stone? Guess what? Chaotic!” Discord swept his arm around her. “You're suited for chaos! Leave the harmony magic to the princesses. You can do so much more. Why, I bet I could even teach you to manipulate reality itself!”
Tempest drew back. “Should any pony possess that kind of power?”
“I possess it. Though I suppose I'm not a pony, am I? But I'm pretty in control of it. As long as you have a strong will, you can handle it. I'm confident you would only use it for good. So, what do you say? Want some magic lessons?”
“It would be nice to learn more magic. Now that my horn isn't on the fritz, I can do all sorts of things.”
“Maybe you'll even earn a cutie mark, hm?”
Tempest sighed. “I don't need a cutie mark. It's unnecessary. A symbol on my flanks that tells me what I'm good at. Great. I already know what I'm good at. Plus even the name kinda makes me gag. Cutie mark. Eugh.”
“Yeah they're overrated. I just figured you might be curious about it, at least. I sure know I've thought about what kind of cutie mark I'd have.” Discord casually patted one of his thighs. “What would chaos even look like? Nothing that could be restrained to just my thighs, that's for sure.”
“Your cutie mark is just a void into unfathomable depths,” Tempest suggested. “Anyone who looks at it for too long loses their mind.”
“Hah! I like it. Or maybe some sort of Eldritch horror. Well, Tempest, I can respect it if you don't want a cutie mark. But if it ever does appear, I'm sure it will be a great one.”
“Yeah, I hope so. Okay, I'll learn magic from you. You seem like a good teacher.”
Discord drew himself up proudly. “It's been eons since I've actually taught anyone magic. I'm a bit rusty, but I'll do my best. Where should we start? Transfiguration or manifestation? How about emotional control? Mind reading?”
“Emotional control?” Tempest asked, blinking.
“Ah, yes, I possess some amount of ability to manipulate ponies into behaving... differently than they usually would. Some people have more resistance to it while some others cave in almost immediately. You can get far with some clever words and a little brainwashing.”
“No brainwashing. And I'd rather not read minds, people deserve that privacy. Transfiguration sounds interesting, though. I take it that's just about turning objects into other objects?”
“Correct! Once you get good at it, you can turn anything into anything! You could turn a beetle into a stallion! A rock into a diamond! Or, to get really weird, turn a boring tree into a big chocolate cake! It takes effort, and lots of practice, but once you learn it the possibilities are endless! And then you can head into manifestation! Making anything you want out of thin air! Well to be honest you're manipulating reality on a subatomic level but that's a bit technical. You'll be able to just think about it and create things like... puppies!” Discord snapped his fingers and a puppy fell into his arms out of nowhere. Tempest stared as it wiggled and barked, licking Discord's face.
“Whoa! You think I could learn to do magic like that?” Tempest asked.
“Anything is possible.” Discord held the puppy out. “Oh great, now I have to find someone to take this puppy, I'll feel bad if I just vanish it. I wonder if Fluttershy is in the market for a new pet.”
“I think Applejack said something about wanting a friend for her dog Winona,” Tempest commented.
“Good plan, I'll drop by AJ's place later and ask.” Discord set the puppy down. “Okay, run along and play now.” The puppy scampered off.
“Well, I'm ready to learn whenever you want to teach me,” Tempest said.
“How open is your schedule?” Discord asked.
“If I'm being honest... pretty open. I'm between jobs right now. I've mostly just been helping out at Twilight's library.”
“Sounds good, and I'm not doing much either. We can do some magic practice right now if you want! Really give that new horn of yours a workout!”
Tempest smirked. “Bring it.”
Discord turned out to be an encouraging but fast-paced teacher. He was constantly pushing Tempest to try harder, testing the limits of her magic. At one point he just threw objects to her for her to lift with her levitation, and she was forced to juggle everything at once over her head, and he just kept tossing in more.
She stumbled as the exertion turned physical, and her stomach growled with hunger, her legs shaking. Then he threw several bowling balls to her, and she groaned as she caught them in the aura and rotated them through the air.
She was sure she was about to collapse when he said she could stop, and it took everything she had to carefully put everything down before releasing her magic. She panted, and Discord suggested she start transforming things now that she was done warming up.
“You call that a warm up?” she demanded.
“Now, now, I don't want to hear any negativity. Here's an easy one for you. Take this bowling ball, and turn it purple. So simple, you don't have to change its shape or mass! Just make it purple.”
Tempest stared at the black bowling ball that he rolled to her, then sighed and focused on it. It shimmered, and streaks of purple went through it. After several moments of effort, the entire surface was covered in purple, though it was in stripes of several different shades. Tempest lowered her head when she finished, gasping for breath.
“I was expecting it to be solid, but you know what? It looks great like this!” Discord picked it up. “Now then, remember what I told you about transformation. How does an object need to change to become a different one? That's what your magic has to do, and all in an instant. How about you change this skateboard into a cat?”
Tempest grimaced. “I'm not sure I'm ready to create living animals. What if I do it wrong and they're in pain?”
“I'll be here to instantly correct them if I have to, don't worry about it. Just try.”
“I'd really rather turn the skateboard into another inanimate object.”
“But you've done that plenty of times today!”
“But I'm still learning! I should spend more time practicing on inanimate objects before I try creating animals. Seriously. I'm not like you, I can't just imagine things and make them happen perfectly.”
“Not with that attitude!”
Tempest sighed and blasted the skateboard. It flew into the air, and Discord quickly grabbed it to keep it from hitting him. When he turned it over, he saw that there was now a stylized image of a cat on its underside.
Tempest turned away. “I think that's enough for today.”
“Really? Are you sure you don't want to try anything else? The day's still young!”
“No. I'm going home.” It took effort for Tempest to open the portal back to Ponyville. She gazed through it, at the room Twilight had given her in the castle. She was more than ready to crawl into bed.
“Okay then. Well... you know where to find me if you're up for another lesson.” Discord watched her step through the portal, and said, “Oh, Tempest?”
She warily glanced back at him.
“Thanks again for the presents.”
Her expression softened. “No problem. See you later.” She closed the portal, and crossed the room, closing the door. At least her magic had taken her right where she wanted. She limped slightly as she approached the bed, and once she laid down, she immediately closed her eyes, ready to fall asleep. Yet the Sun was still up, and even with the curtains drawn, she found it difficult to sleep. Her thoughts kept going to her training with Discord. He may have been pushy, but he really did care about helping her improve. She just wished he wouldn't overestimate her. She wasn't a draconequus, or an alicorn. She was just a unicorn, and while her magic was strong, it was only strong in certain areas. He was expecting too much of her.
Or maybe, part of her whispered, he was telling the truth and he could see exactly what she was capable of, and she just had to believe in herself.
Tempest sighed and rolled over, gazing at the muted sunlight streaming in through the curtains. She would work hard to learn how to use magic like Discord, even if it took her years. Somehow, it just felt right for her to learn chaos magic. It may be unpredictable, but she knew she could learn to use it carefully, and do great things with it. She just needed to keep practicing.
She shifted back onto her other side and pulled the covers up over her head, finally drifting off to sleep.
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So.. Discord is a teacher now.. Nice.
Oh I really liked how Discord treated Tempest during this chapter.
oh Tempest, Luna could learn something from you in some stories, Cadance maybe too.
Well at least in all possible animes that training would make her really strong.
I really liked this chapter but I need to stop for now.
8847461
Yeah Luna needs to be careful with that dream watching, who knows what kind of things she could stumble into. :') And oh yeah, Discord's a bit fast-paced but it'll only be better for Tempest in the long run.
8847505
I really think some authors maybe don't think to much about what Luna or celestia are maybe doing sometimes, to me it looks like they often only think like Luna has those powers, so she "owns" the privacy, dreams and everything else she can get into with her powers no matter if it is a character that actually wants it or not.
Well I stop here, I don't want to make a big comment about that again without that being a thing here.
I never thought about the fact those orbs may have been made by Tempest herself, I like that idea. In fact I'm accepting it as my headcannon for those orbs, thank you sir.
8977230
Yeah I wasn't sure if SHE made them or if they were a creation of the Storm King, but considering he didn't really have his own magic until he stole it from the princesses I decided that Tempest must have created them herself. None of the storm creatures ever seemed to use them so yeah. :D
8977436
That does make a lot of sense, he only ever used one and she may have made it for him a while ago.