Chapter 11: Unlocking Potential?
~ April 15th, 1020 ME ~
'6:00am'
Tap.
...
Tap! Tap!
...
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
'Snoring'
THWACK! the door to the guest room swung inward upon Twilight's thump to the door "Good morning Blazing!" He rolled over and covered his head with the pillow. "Well the schedule starts early today... sorry for this." Twilight used her magic to levitate Blazing out from under the sheets right in front of her, as she placed him down on the floor.
"Couldn't you have just used that sort of magic to open the door?" Blazing questioned rather groggily and with a hint of irritation in his voice.
"Well I suppose I thought you would wake up faster this way. Turns out you would be in big trouble if confronted in the mornings."
"What time is it anyway? the suns just barely making its morning debut, and I shouldn't try to compete by getting up before it."
"Well the earlier we start, the sooner you can regain some of your ability to manipulate things. Besides, you have to advance past the magic of a foal eventually." Twilight teased.
"Sure, and while we're at it, I'll see how much water I can conjure over your head."
"Impressive vocabulary for this early! I would think with how long it took to wake you, you would only be partially aware right now."
"Oh trust me, I need a cup of coffee if I'm going to start any learning. I just operate slightly better when my senses are heightened from being dragged out of bed... quite literally."
"Well, I'm sorry for the rude awakening and I would love to keep talking, but the schedule I made last night has us starting lessons in 10 minutes, so we better get going if we want to stay organized."
"Alright, but I don't think it's possible for you not to be organized. The soap racks in the bathroom, and color coordinated towels, are just the tip of the iceberg it would seem."
One cup of Jo later and Blazing, accompanied by Twilight, found himself in the fields behind the building, covered in the rays of the morning sunrise. He was surprised by the lack of a castle garden beside a building that basically looked like it could fit in a medieval movie, but then again, compared to Canterlot, he was happy for the downsize. The capital was massive, and the chances of getting lost at some point was approximately 98%, vs. say 40% as a newcomer in Ponyville.
So many things about his current circumstances were impossible, but as they say seeing is believing, and Blazing was experiencing it. There were so many questions about how they had known the same language, had stories with humans as mythological creatures, and advanced some similar technologies, however the general explanation for most of it would trace back to magic in some way.
That’s what made today exciting. Blazing was going to attempt to do things that until recently would be seemingly illogical by human standards. “Twilight, what kind of teaching method do you favor for magical practice?”
“Learning by doing is usually the best place to start. Trying to understand the complexity of magical equations on paper would probably compare to seeing calculus for the first time. The symbols and weaves would slow down progress because a lot of magic is learned by feeling, and manipulation. That’s why the most common place for a unicorn foal to start is telepathy. Today we will begin with magic kindergarten 101, and get you picking items up in your magical grasp. Most unicorns use this form of control for things everyday, eating and hoofwriting being a few examples. Hopefully this lesson will help end some of the bewildered looks you get from other unicorns, and make it easier for you to be out in public.”
“Wow. I’m not sure what’s better, being compared to a foal, or being unorthodox in public.”
Twilight refrained from rolling her eyes and began lifting a pile of individual rocks nearby. As she brought them closer she began giving the rocks orbits around herself in opposing directions.
“When you first begin magic, your mana pool tends to be smaller due to not training it like you would a muscle. However since you were brought here as a full grown stallion, yours is only slightly below average. The typical unicorn can control one object at a time with practiced ease, but when additional objects are added, more focus is required. Since I’m an alicorn, and my special talent indicated by my cutie mark is magic, I can divide my attention and magical connection amongst a large number of objects. However, just like when you try to pick something up with your hoof, the heavier it is, the more it exerts your magic. Additionally-“
“- Twilight I thought you said this wouldn’t be a lecture.”
“Right, sorry about that.” She said sheepishly. “I get excited in my element.” Twilight set the rocks she had been levitating back down into a pile beside Blazing. She then proceeded to pull out a rock hardly bigger than a pebble and placed it by itself right in front of him.
“Really? Are you seriously going to start my training with that.”
“Quite serious. This isn’t going to be as easy as you may think. Now when you want to levitate something, you have to apply a force opposite to gravity, which comes in the form of magic.”
As Twilight continued, Blazing was surprised to hear that a few laws of physics transferred over to Equestria, but it would seem magic was the exception that could override certain constants.
“When you want to lift something with your magic, you first must establish a grasp of the object. Then you can lift with telekinesis by creating a barrier under the item in which the object can not pass through to reach the ground below.”
“First let’s see if we can establish your connection to this pebble.”
“So I just Bluetooth pair with the pebble basically?”
“Blue what now?”
“It’s like a wireless signal that sends messages such as audio to an output device.”
“I see... Well, usually we tell children to think of it like wrapping a present. Surround the object with your mana. First however, you have to learn how to activate your horn to cast a spell. You have done this already when you were charging at the ursa. Your horn flared to life and flowed with your own magical aura which happens to be gold. I’ve never actually seen that color attributed to a pony before, because typically there’s only 6 colors that represent the magic ponies are capable of specializing in.
Don’t be disappointed if this doesn’t work on the first try, but I want you to concentrate on the back of your horn. Feel your mana pathways flowing to that spot like your heart would pump your blood. It should feel like a building sensation in your forehead. Once the magic is built up, your focus must shift to the top of your horn, where the power is released from.”
“I don’t feel anything... besides the fact that this reminds me of meditation. Is that supposed to happen?”
“Just relax. You’ll want to be aware of what it feels like once you do make progress, so that you can repeat it until it becomes second nature.”
“There’s a lot more to this than I thought.”
“Hence why it’s not exactly something that can be mastered, and new spells are always being established.”
“Wait! I think I felt something!” Blazing said enthusiastically.
“What does it feel like?”
“It feels like... uh nope I lost it.”
‘Yup this could take a while.’
'7:34'
“Princess, I don’t think I’m really getting anywhere.”
“Hey don’t give up on me yet. Try thinking of this like turning on a faucet. The water is not flowing right now, so you need to open the tap.”
“Ok here goes...” Blazing began focusing once again on his forehead, but he also tried to remain aware of the rest of his body (which wasn’t hard since he was constantly reminded he had a tail now). After a while he closed his eyes to concentrate. Suddenly he felt something moving in his gut, so he honed in on the location and metaphorically turned the shower handle. Although expecting nothing, like had been the case for the last hour, he felt a very slight mass building behind his horn, that was unlike the headaches in that area. With his mind fixed on the spot, he willed it to move through his horn towards the tip.
Twilight was watching him intently while all this was going on, but was remaining quiet during his concentration. After a few seconds, Blazing's horn began glowing its deep gold. She was surprised by his progress, but it would seem he was unaware of his own accomplishments.
“Blazing look up.” He opened his eyes and looked towards his horn gasping when he saw it glowing, however as he began staring, he forgot that he was the one responsible for directing the mana to the epicenter, so it slowly began to fade away. After gawking at it for a few moments, he realized that although it took over an hour to complete it wasn’t really that hard once he knew what it felt like.
“I... did it! That was so amazing!”
That was only the first half of the equation, and also happened to be the easier half, but she let Blazing enjoy his success for a few moments. “You now have the basic principle that must be applied before nearly any spell can be cast. A majority of the spells we know originate from magic concentrated in the unicorn's horn, and learning how to hone in on your horn is essential! So now you can move onto the second part which is the transferring of your mana into a physical form.”
The next few hours were spent practicing the actual application of telekinesis which unlike some spells only required raw mana to complete. It took quite a bit of time and effort for Blazing to get the first pebble off the ground, but after an eventual success, he began moving to larger objects. By the time they were ready for a break, Blazing was sweating profusely, and was ashamed to admit his exhaustion.
“Well I think that is a good start for the day. Since you're only just starting lessons, you can become magically exhausted from smaller magical applications, so giving your body time to replenish its reserves is a good idea. Remember that if you ever begin experiencing headaches from magic, you're reaching your limit.”
“Ah man. I was hoping to try something related to my elemental magic today.”
“Your cutie mark should make learning easier, however very few if any unicorns have ever possessed this special talent within the last few hundred years, so I won’t be of much help in that area. I will do what I can, but it would be best if we test the limits of your general magic capacity to learn common spells first. Some unicorns can only cast spells specific to their talent, besides telekinesis, which is the most widely used. I, for example, can teleport, But a majority of unicorns cannot.”
“Well to be fair from my understanding of alicorns, you are the exception that can do a lot of things others cannot. Isn’t that why you’re princesses?”
“Well the alicorn species is incredibly rare especially among males, but on top of that, their life spans are far longer than any of the other pony races, since they possess the magic of all three. I wasn’t always one mind you, but Celestia and her sister have been around for quite a few years. They’re more than qualified for their leadership roles.”
“How many is quite a few years?”
“Probably around 1500.”
“1500?!” Blazing was frozen in place in his bewilderment.
“Ponyfeathers... I’ve broken him...”
'12:57pm'
“Thanks Spike. That daffodil sandwich was exquisite!” All the daffodils remained on Blazing’s plate but the sandwich was gone. Blazing had just wrapped up lunch having hardly said anything since magic training earlier. He was beginning to recover, but the thought of an alicorn lifespan was still mind boggling. The amount of history and knowledge that they possess... no wonder they’re benevolent rulers. So much growth and understanding could be obtained within those years.
Twilight was busy in her study, leaving Blazing and Spike some bonding time together.
“Hey Spike, can you breathe fire?”
“Yup! I can send messages with my flames as well.”
“Is it possible for me to learn magic like that?”
“I don’t know... not even Twilight can do that. She relies on me to send letters to the princesses. What makes you think you can do that?”
“Well my cutie mark leads me to believe I can somehow manipulate fire. I was thinking maybe you could teach me?”
“Sorry my ability to breath fire is physical magic that happens without much thought. I don’t know much about unicorn magic, but I’m not sure you can produce fire the same way as a dragon.”
“Hmm, would you at least supervise me?”
“Um I’m not sure that’s a good idea, but I suppose I can have a bucket of water ready. I can’t let you do anything too crazy or you might burn the castle down.”
“Come on, this is going to be fun. Let’s go out back.”
“You and I have very different definitions of fun.” Spike grumbled. Blazing had started walking back to the field from that morning, so Spike rushed to catch up with him. “If we get into trouble... it’s your fault, and I wasn’t here.”
“Sure sure. This will be great. Besides what are the odds I actually successfully manipulate anything today beside a rock.“
Blazing started lighting up his horn like he had learned previously, which was becoming easier even though he had to strain a little to produce the mana, and began thinking about what he should try first. He started by looking at a spot of grass and envisioned heat and a blaze. Nothing. “Flame on!” Nothing. Slowly he started rubbing mana against itself to hopefully create friction, and a heat source. Nothing.
As he tested a few other theories it was becoming obvious he would need more than raw mana to accomplish the task. Twilight had said more complex spells follow a matrix of sorts, maybe that’s something? “Spike, what do you know about spell matrices?”
“Only that we have several books on them, and they look like they’re written in a different language.” He had become bored watching Blazing do whatever he was trying to do, and had begun relaxing in the grass. Sleeping was more entertaining than the apparent lack of action from Blazing.
‘Different language... hmm maybe it isn’t a language, but a series of patterns that have to be deciphered. Perhaps I could just formulate my own pattern by drawing things relevant to fire?
He started by moving his magic around the air in a wide arc resembling a flame. It dissipated with no product to indicate anything had happened. “Well that was a waste of energy.” He racked his brain for any symbol that could work, but it was beginning to seem like a waste of time and effort. Besides Twilight would probably come by soon and see he was out practicing again without supervision. Spike didn’t really count since he had begun snoring little puffs of smoke during Blazing’s magical ‘drawing session.’ Magic might as well be Greek, and I’m Roman. It’s so foreign.
Wait what was that thought? Greek? Eh it’s worth a shot. Blazing began drawing the symbol for delta which he knew from math class referred to a change in a variable, but also was related to fire. He started the triangle with a single layer, and nothing happened, so he added a second triangle and pointed it towards a point a few meters to his left. The grass suddenly burst into flames leaving a charred portion of lawn in its wake. Did he see that right? That flame just burned almost instantaneously! “Spike! Look!”
“Huh... what...?” It quickly changed to “how?”
“I don’t completely know. I just formed a Greek symbol that I thought could be considered a matrix, and pointed it at the grass while imagining thermal energy being transferred.”
“I don’t think I got all that. You mean to tell me you just burned that huge patch of grass?”
“Yes!”
“Twilight is going to be mad now. Let’s get this over with.”
“Aren’t you excited?”
“Ya. I’m happy for you, and that’s super cool, but you kinda went behind Twilight, and I didn’t stop you, because I thought there was no way you’d actually be able to figure it out in one day. Honestly, I didn’t even think a unicorn could create flames. Twilight can heat up a tea cup, but this is different... I think we will both be in trouble for different reasons.”
“Oh.”
Without warning Twilight teleported behind the duo. “What are you boys doing? I could hear you through the balcony window.”
“Yeah I got pretty excited because of that.” Blazing pointed at the patches of ashen soil in the middle of the grass.
“Spike, why did you burn my lawn?”
“Uh he didn’t actually... I did."
“How?”
“Magic.” Blazing said, trying to hold back a laugh.
Finally! He could use that excuse in his favor for once!
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I appreciate the feedback. These are the kind of things that I miss since this is one of my first times working with creative writing. I will certainly look into an editor so I won’t have to keep apologizing for all the mistakes (I know there’s a lot), and I will try to look into character flaws as well. No promises that I will change much of that, but I do see why the interactions could be quite controversial.
10325393
Also in regards to the indignant attitude. I didn’t pick up on it being too intense, but I thought by him continually questioning the laws of their world, the ignorance would seem like he was directly trying to deny their reality. In which case even though it’s understandable that coming to acceptance is nearly impossible. When he questions The princesses, he’s asking things that are second nature to Equestria, and although they probably shouldn’t express so much annoyance (being royalty), it would be like someone asking you why your hair was brown.
Keep up the work!! :D
To be honest, I like Chase. He seems slightly pessimistic, but it's balanced out by curiosity and good intentions.
Also, burning someone's lawn as a stepping stone to learning ones magic is funny and makes me wonder why elemental magic isn't used more in stories
10325676
That’s interesting. I suppose if someone who had no knowledge about something I considered fundamental to my existence, I’d be slightly less than Pinkie-level-friendly in explaining it unless I was acutely aware of the educational deficiency. Not sure what an example of that would be though…