• Published 18th May 2020
  • 2,190 Views, 15 Comments

Magic Tutelage - setablaze53



Even though they live on a planet completely devoid of magic, it turns out humans are naturally gifted in it. Or at least this one is. Kinda easy to generalize when there's only one.

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Friction

Celestia enjoyed the relative quiet as she walked the halls of the castle. Peace and quiet were hard to come by for someone as important as a princess, especially when she wasn’t locked away in her chambers doing paperwork. She was on her way to a meeting with a minotaur diplomat, but it wasn’t scheduled to begin for another forty minutes, so she had decided to take the scenic route. To reduce the likelihood of her being disturbed, she took side hallways and less used paths. Naturally, there were plenty of guards and even a few maids or butlers wandering about, but they all just bowed and were quickly on their way.

The princess stopped by one of the many windows and opened it, allowing a breeze to come through and give her mane a reason to flutter. Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the fresh air coming from outside. She could smell the flowers from one of the many gardens around the castle. In her many years of life, she’d found that one had to enjoy the moment when they could, lest it pass them by, never to be heard from again. She desperately wanted to spread her wings and go for a flight, but she knew she couldn’t. There wasn’t enough time, and once she was up in the air she wouldn’t want to come down for quite awhile. Cursing her constantly busy schedule, she closed the window just in time for her ears to perk up at a noise.

It was just loud enough for her ears to pick up, but she couldn’t immediately tell what it was. After a second she heard it again, louder this time. It sounded like shouting. As the seconds passed the sounds of shouting grew closer and Celestia began to pick out hooffalls against the marble floor. She began in the direction of the commotion, only to pick up her pace when she heard the crash of something fragile breaking. Before she could find the source of the sounds, it found her as Anonymous careened around the corner in front of her, startling a nearby maid.

The way he moved was strange. He looked like he was skating through the halls. He looked strangely happy as he noticed Celestia and nearly failed at coming to a halt in time to greet her.

“Hey, Sunny. What’s up?”

“Anonymous, would you care to explain what all the shouting and crashing was about?”

“Sure, I’d love to, but I think it would be better if you saw for yourself. He should be right behind me.”

“Who? See what for myself?“

Before she could question further, another figure came around the corner. This one was a pony with a white coat and a blonde mane and tail. He was wearing a fancy suit and was sopping wet from head to hoof. To top it all off, both his fur coat and his suit coat had spots of dirt that had mixed with the water to leave muddy patches all over him. He took a second to gauge his surroundings before locking onto Anonymous with bloodshot eyes. He ground his teeth in anger before letting out a shout.

“There you are you filthy animal!”

Anonymous chuckled. “The only one who’s filthy here is you, Blueblood.” The raging pony charged the human, but Anonymous quickly slid behind Celestia, putting her between the two. Blueblood gave pursuit, completely ignoring that Celestia was there. Anonymous putting her between himself and his pursuer, and Blueblood giving singleminded chase created the scene of human and pony chaotically circling the goddess of the sun. No doubt it would be an amusing sight for anyone to witness.

Celestia stood dumbfounded at what was happening. It wasn’t hard to see what had happened. Clearly, Anonymous has done something to her nephew, something which he probably deserved, and she planned to find out what was going on. Watching the two circle her was starting to make her dizzy. She sighed in exasperation as she lit up her horn, and the two troublemakers were whisked into the air. She held them both in front of her and out of each other’s reach. Blueblood, in his futile attempts to to get at Anonymous, hadn’t noticed he’d been picked up and continued to shout and try to strangle the also dangling human. Anonymous, on the other hand, looked quite proud of himself, which couldn’t mean anything good. Before she could start her interrogation, however, she needed to bring her nephew back to his senses.

“Blueblood,” she called, trying to get his attention. When she got no response, she tried a little louder. “Blueblood!” Still nothing. She could already feel a migraine coming on. She was not in the mood for this. If she needed to get his attention, fine. She would get his attention. In an impressive magical display, she spread her wings as her eyes glowed white with magical power, and her perpetually flowing mane whipped around her so fervently that it caught fire for a brief moment. She put up a sound dampening field in the hallway, as to not disturb the rest of the castle, before bellowing in the royal canterlot voice. “Blueblood!”

If the sudden bright light and heatwave didn’t get his attention, the earth shattering roar of her voice did. He immediately deflated when he realized where he was and what was going on. His shouting stopped and he hung limply in her magical grip. Anonymous was not spared either, as his proud smirk was now gone and in it’s place was... well, she couldn’t exactly tell what had replaced it. He was covering his eyes from the blinding light. Just as quickly as the display had started, it had stopped. She continued in her usual motherly tone, acting as if she hadn’t just spontaneously combusted.

“Now that we’ve all calmed down, what seems to be the problem?” Neither of them spoke up. Blueblood cowered slightly when her eyes landed on him. Perhaps she’d gone a bit overboard, but it was too late to take back now. “Blueblood,” She said in a comforting manner. “Did Anonymous do something to you?”

“Hey, how come you just assume I did something?!”

Celestia’s gaze shifted to the human and she gave him a look that said “really?”

“Okay, so maybe I did something.”

“Oh auntie,” cried Blueblood. “It was horrible. Look at my suit! That mangy mutt ruined it!”

“Really, mangy mutt? You couldn’t come up with a better insult than that, you half baked product of incest?”

“How dare you-“

“Enough, you two!” Celestia stamped her hoof, causing them to quite down again. “Blueblood, continue.”

“As I was saying, I was just doing my duties as a noble-“

“Bullshit-“ Before Anonymous could finish his sentence, he found himself magically gagged.

“I will get to you, Anonymous. Blueblood, continue.”

“I was doing my duties as a noble when this mutant monkey came out of nowhere and poured his peasant drink over my head for no reason! Now my coat and suit are ruined.” He looked at the human with re-emerging contempt. “Do you have any idea how long it takes to get my mane done in the morning!?” Now it was Blueblood’s turn to be gagged.

“Okay, now let’s hear Anon’s side of the story,” Celestia said as she released the gag on Anonymous.

“Wow, Celestia. That’s pretty kinky. I didn’t you were into that sort of thing.” She shot him an unamused look and he quickly backpedaled. “Okay, okay. I get it. No joking around. I was studying material from Luna’s last lesson and I got thirsty, so I went to the kitchen to get a glass of ice water. On my way back, I caught this asshat screaming his head off at some poor butler that clearly had no idea why he was being yelled at. So I did what any reasonable person would do. I dumped my peasant juice on his head and made sure some ice cubes got caught under his shirt. The little dance he did was just adorable. The butler certainly enjoyed it.”

“That explains why he’s wet, but why is he covered in mud?”

“Well, shit-for-brains here got a little pissy after he got the ice cubes out and chased after me, so I reduced the friction on the soles of my shoes and just skated away. After he chased me for a while I got bored, so I once again did what any reasonable person would do. I reduced the friction on a patch of the floor and watched him slide face first into a wall. The impact knocked a flower vase over and it broke over his head. You should have seen the look on his face, it was priceless.”

“As was that vase, no doubt.” Celestia sighed and rubbed one of her temples. With her luck, that vase was definitely one of the few that had survived the move between castles all those centuries ago. She knew a spell that could repair items, but the spell can only rewind an objects physical state up to a minute from the present, which had already passed. A priceless artifact, gone in an instant.

Anon’s smile slipped a bit at seeing Celestia rubbing her temples. “You alright there, Sunny?”

“How dare you address her so informally!” Apparently she had released the gag spell without realizing.

“Shut up Bluebitch, the adults are talking.”

“I am fine Anonymous, I’m just trying to fight off an oncoming headache.” Celestia ignored the fuming Blueblood as well. Frankly, she didn’t want to hear anything he had to say on a good day.

“Ya know... I hear dunking your head ice water can help with that.”

Celestia deadpanned at the now smirking human, causing him to once again lose his smile.

“Sorry, that was in bad taste. Sorry about the vase too.”

“In all honesty, the average history buff would care more about that vase than I do. I’ll just donate the pieces to a museum. I'm sure that will make them happy.”

Blueblood gasped. “Aunty, how can you say something like that? He broke a priceless piece of art, and he’s getting away with it?”

“I thought I told you that the adults are talking. One more outburst like that, and I’m sending you to your room young lady,” Anon said.

Celestia ignored Anon and spoke to her nephew. “Blueblood, I would choose to leave every artifact we have in storage, if it wasn’t practically a social requirement for antiques to be strewn about the halls to show off to foreign dignitaries. With the vase being out in the open, it was only a matter of time before it got broken anyway. I’m surprised it took this long.”

“I always figured you’d be more attached to old things, Sunny. You know, considering your age and all.” She ignored the jab.

“It was just a vase Anon. If I want another one, I’ll just make another one.”

“I didn’t take you for the artsy type,” Anon seemed surprised. Even Blueblood looked interested.

“Well, “considering my age”, I’ve had many hobbies in the past. A good number of the pieces lining the halls were created by Luna and myself.”

“What kind of stuff did you make?”

“I did some pottery, I made a few pieces of music, but painting was my preferred medium. Luna tried much of the same, but she seemed to like sculpting more than anything else. A few of her pieces can be found in the gardens if you are interested.” Celestia enjoyed talking about her old hobbies. It had been over a century since she’d made anything. She’d been so busy with her duties and trying to prepare for her sister’s return that the thought of indulging in art creation had totally slipped her mind. With Luna safe and sound, maybe she could find some time to get back into painting.

“Huh, I’ll have to check that out,” Anon said. “Maybe I could get her to sculpt me.”

“A princess would never consider sculpting such a foul creature!” Blueblood shouted.

“Strike three, Bitchblood. You’re out. You better watch your back, or some hair dye might make it’s way into your shampoo.”

Blueblood gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

“Try me.”

“As much as I would love to continue this conversation, I do need to get to a meeting soon, so I don’t have time to punish you children further. Anon, apologize to Blueblood.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m not leaving until you do, so if you take too long, you can be the one to explain to the minotaur diplomat why I was late for our meeting.”

“Fine. I’m sorry your nephew is a narcissistic prick.”

“I’m not the one you're apologizing to, Anon.”

“Ugh, fine!” He turned to Blueblood. “I’m sorry you’re such a narcissistic prick.”

Good enough, Celestia thought. That was probably the best she would get out of him.

“Now Blueblood, you apologize to Anonymous.”

“Why should I lower myself to apologize to such a loathsome creature?”

“For the same reason I gave Anonymous. You wouldn’t like to sully my centuries old streak of being on time, would you?” Blueblood flinched. Anon smiled at the blatant manipulation. Celestia didn’t care anymore, she just wanted to be done with this situation.

“Oh course not, aunty.” Blueblood turned towards Anon hesitantly. “I’m sorry... that you smell like manure.” Before Anonymous had a chance to reply, Celestia spoke up.

“Good, now that you two are getting along, I suggest you go your separate ways. I don’t want to hear any more about this, am I understood?”

“Yes, Princess,” the both of them droned in unison. She set them back on their own hooves and feet respectively. Anon and Blueblood gave each other a glare before heading in opposite directions. Celestia watched them go, but after a second, Anonymous turned around and lit up his magic. A patch of the floor right underneath Blueblood’s hoof lit up as well, Anon no doubt toying with friction again. When Blueblood stepped on it, his hoof slid out from underneath him, causing him to face plant onto the marble floor.

Blueblood jumped up in rage, chasing Anonymous as he skated down the hall, away from Celestia. The princess sighed. She’d let the guard take care of them. She had places to be.

Author's Note:

Imagine uploading more than once every 5 months. That would be neat, huh?

I want to ramp things up in scale a bit for this story, power wise. I was going to do that with this chapter, but that seemed a bit too soon to me, so I decided to do one more low power chapter. Next time (whenever that is) I plan to ramp things up a bit.

Let me know if you find any typos. I write on my phone and fimfiction doesn't always play nice when I copy it over.

Comments ( 6 )

Celestia enjoyed the relative quiet as she walked the halls of the castle. Peace and quiet were hard to come by for someone as important as a princess, especially when she wasn’t locked away in her chambers doing paperwork. She was on her way to a meeting with a minoraur diplomat,

minotaur

Heh, I liked this one. Especially the apologies.

btw

She was on her way to a meeting with a minoraur diplomat

minotaur

[/]Good enough, Celestia thought. That was probably the best she would get out of him.

Broken formatting command left in.

Nice display of Friction manipulation by Anon there. Got to give him props for creativity.

10495922 10495918
Fixed! Thanks for pointing those out.

This is amazing so far :pinkiesmile:

I have an idea for a spell, how about since Anon loves saying bad words so much, why not sound manipulation? It would be funny and cool.

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