The Genius Named Starswirl

by WinterTwister

Volunteer

January 9th, Year 1543

Today I gave Clover a lesson continuing on the subject of stars.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starswirl cleared his throat. "Clover, open your textbook and turn to page sixty please."

Clover quickly opened his book and flipped to the requested page.

Starswirl spoke as Clover turned through his book. "During the major part of a stars lives, most stars on the Main Sequence will create their energy by the process of hydrogen fusion - the process of fusing two hydrogen atoms to create one helium atom. Energy is created because a helium atom weighs slightly less than the two hydrogen atoms, and the excess mass is converted into energy."

"Um..Teacher, pardon me."

"Yes Clover?"

"Shouldn't we be learning more about magic?"

Starswirl laughed. "You can learn all the magic you wish, but to push the boundaries of knowledge is more powerful than any spell you could learn."

Clover tried to protest. "But to learn more magic is the main reason I came to you in the first place, the school tried to repeat to me which I already knew."

"So you are sure that you know all there is to know about astronomy, geology, and anatomy?" Starswirl asked with a grin on his face.

"I believe so, yes."

Starswirl motioned Clover to stay as he trotted over to his desk and pulled out a blank piece of parchment and a map. He quickly jotted down ten questions and then numbered them accordingly. He trotted back over to Clover with a smirk. "Answer these ten questions correctly and then I will teach you only magic." He left Clover to go back to his desk to read.

Clover lit up at the thought of being taught only magic and he quickly went to work on the paper. Okay... first question, You are lost at sea, Fortunately you have some astronomical tables and instruments and a Universal time clock. 1. It is the spring equinox 2. The Sun is on your meridian at altitude 75 degrees in the south.... He stared at the first question and his mind went blank from the difficulty. Okay.. I'll just come back to that one... He looked down lower on the paper and read the next question. True or False, The monoamine neurotransmitters include norepinephrine, dopa-.. Clover's hooves started to tremble as he looked below the question and saw that they became more difficult the higher the number. Dear Celestia what have I gotten myself in to..I can't answer any of these questions...What if I turn in the paper blank?! He will be disappointed! Wait, wait, what if I just wrote down educated guesses? No, he will think that I'm stupid..

Starswirl looked over the top of his book at Clover and smiled. He is smart, but he knows so little. He had to scrunch up his muzzle to resist laughing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clover questioned my teachings so I had given him a little test, I purposely set the test up to where he would indeed have to be a master in the subjects to answer them; but I am certain it was a good learning experience for him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clover levitated the paper onto Starswirl's desk in shame and lowered his head.

Starswirl picked up the paper and saw that it was covered in sweat stains. He looked at his student and decided to turn it into a lesson for Clover. "I see you didn't even bother to put an answer down."

Clover continued to stare downwards. He choked out the words. "I-I'm s-sorry teacher.. I've failed you."

"Yes, you did fail me and I'm very disappointed."

Clover slouched low.

"You should never question what I teach you, regardless of the subject. I know you are anxious to learn the wonders of magic, but to learn the pure unknown you must first wade into the knowledge in which is more rich."

"It wont happen again, teacher."

Starswirl quietly got up and walked up next to Clover and put a hoof on his shoulder. "You are very intelligent, as I said before. No matter how powerful of a mind you posses, if you do not put in hard work it will become a mess. Now let us continue today's lesson."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know that one day he will become more than I ever will be myself.

January 12th, Year 1543

A third attack has been attempted in the castle and this time it was only 300 yards shy of the throne room and Celestia, pardon me, but still ignorantly passes them off as accidents! I could not allow this to continue so I requested to investigate these so-called accidents.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Starswirl, you have nothing to worry about." Celestia tried to reassure him.

Starswirl gently shook his head. "I'm sorry, princess but I really hope you will allow me to investigate these 'accidents'."

She closed her eyes to think. "Do you really believe these are attacks, Starswirl?"

He really wanted to raise his voice to ask the princess on how after three times she could still think of these as mishaps. He calmly nodded "Yes, princess."

Celestia levitated a scroll in front of her and wrote down on it and then gave it to Starswirl. "This decrees that you are allowed to do as you see necessary about these incidents."

Starswirl bowed and quickly left the throne room with the scroll in his mouth.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After I pressed her, she finally agreed to let me handle the situation. I quickly left the throne room to look at the attack site and the crater had grown in size, I assess that not only are the attackers increasing in range but also power. I studied the crater for an hour and I think I have the area in which it came from - outside of the castle walls and possibly in an old town that I was surprised to still see on the atlas. I will journey there on hoof and bring Clover along with me, I see this as a potential learning experience for my student. I hope there really is nothing to worry about and the attacks really are accidents, but judging by the power of the spell I am skeptical to my hopes and fear that this is more than just an attack.

Comments

[Super]

Hm...

Pseudo Cliffhangers. Damnit.

[WinterTwister]

115196 Meta Knight = Kirby's father.
Also interesting...

[Anonymous XXX]

115430 very interesting.. ONE MORE THING! im really liking this story. it keeps things different from standard writing.

[WinterTwister]

116468 Yeah, it's cool to create his mid-late life, and I haven't even dented the material I can use for this, if you read in the forums how I wanted to write something novel length (50k+words) I can probably do that in this fic, but I'm losing enthusiasm towards it, only like 9 people that read it.

[Anonymous XXX]

116954 i know that feeling lol. id keep writing, but dont force it. when you get inspiration for a new chapter or part, type it out and whatnot. but its never good to force yourself to write something. it usually ends up sucking. past experience.

[Anonymous XXX]

cliffhanger like this? you cant stop writing this here!! i wanna know what happensssss