Chapter 17: First Lesson
Monday, 3:55 PM.
School had ended twenty-five minutes ago. There were no extra-curricular activities scheduled for the flight track on Mondays or Fridays, which is why Silver had chosen those two days. He'd cleared his lessons with administration two weeks ago, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Flight Formation, who would be overseeing everything to make sure it all fell within acceptable guidelines for an extra-curricular activity. Coach Formation would also be providing necessary tools an equipment, like a sports team trainer. Today, that meant he'd procured a large patch of personal clouds, each of which could support the weight of a single pegasus. Flight Formation was treating this like an after-school club, with himself as the supporting staff.
Twilight, on the other hand, saw it as a private tutor session. Payment had already been collected, names recorded on magical contract paper and non-magical normal paper, and other business handled.
Before the clock struck four, Silver closed his eyes and composed the personality he would become.
General Chaos. Minus the Star Wars references, for now. If he wanted the adults to take him seriously, he'd have to put on a good front for a while. A Sidius voice would make a cynical adult believe they were listening to an ignorant child, not a competent teacher.
Putting aside the fun parts of the persona, he focused on the fulfilling aspects instead. On the times he'd taught his soldiers how to think instead of what to think. The times he'd wowed them with unusual and effective strategies. The times he inspired loyalty. Not blind loyalty, but true loyalty, the kind that Socrates inspired in his students. The kind of loyalty that comes from telling unpleasant truths. The kind of loyalty that comes from friends who are willing to voice their disagreements because they do not fear a falling out, friends who know you want the best for them, and who want the best for you in turn. Friends who can afford to be honest with you. Brutally honest, if necessary.
Once he'd crafted that self and stepped into it, he spoke.
"Today," said Silver in a voice that was being magically delivered to everypony in attendance by the necklace he wore, "is your first lesson in pegasus magic." The necklace didn't amplify his voice volumetrically. "However, I won't be teaching you about pegasus magic." It made his voice sound as if it was coming from just behind each pony, like he was a coach following behind them. "You will be teaching you about pegasus magic."
A wave of confused mutters washed over the crowd of seventy-three pegasi.
"In particular," said Silver, "you're going to be re-teaching yourselves something you could probably do at one point in your lives, but can't anymore. Professor Book?"
Mystery Book, who was watching the lecture with an expression that was unreadable – and not just because always-reflective glasses were obscuring his eyes – air-bucked himself upwards a few feet in the air, drawing a few gasps from the crowd, and landed atop an example cloud. After waiting a second to establish that he was, in fact, standing on the cloud, he fell through it as if it wasn't there, which drew even more gasps, and landed right back where he started.
The fact that his hooves touched down firmly on the track's cloud floor in the same projectile motion that involved the initial cloud-phase was not nearly as surprising to the audience as passing through the cloud in the first place.
Silver, on the other hand, almost reeled. Even he couldn't do that yet, and it was his technique. Going from that much freedom to that much determination while also worrying about hoof position took more practice than he'd been willing to dedicate. Or maybe Mr. Book was cheating with his broomstick enchantments, only giving the appearance of having landed on the clouds beneath him less than a second after phasing through the cloud above.
"As you can see," said Silver after making a deliberate effort to turn his attention back to his class, "you're going to learn how to cloud-phase. But again, I won't be teaching you how to do it. Not explicitly. Not right away. You're going to learn it on your own, if you can. And you're going to learn by racing." At the suddenly excited looks on a few of the students, Silver added, "Not the normal kind of race. A special kind of race, one where anypony here has the chance to win, no matter how good you are at flying. In fact, it's a race that I fully expect a colt or filly to win, not a grown-up." At that, the suddenly dejected faces of the youngest ponies became suddenly excited again. "You won't be putting your wings to the test, you'll be putting your mind to the test. Today, my students, we separate the creative from the straight-and-narrow, the intuitive from the deductive, the mentally slow from the mentally fast. Because in order to fall through clouds, you need to have the right mindset. In order to fall through clouds, you need to feel a certain emotion, to have a certain desire. And I'm not telling you what it is. You'll just have to try a bunch of different ones and see what works. That's how I figured it out, after all."
Silver gestured out at the personal-cloud-filled-sky.
"Whoever cloud-phases first wins, and whoever can explain how they did it also wins. Two winners, unless the first winner can also explain what they did. But I don't expect that to happen." Before anypony could fly off to a cloud, Silver continued speaking, still in that distributed voice. "What do you win, you might ask? For starters, all lessons from here on out are going to be free to the winners. But for those who aren't paying for their own lessons, or who want something else, the winners will also get a flying outfit like mine." He gestured at his 'Wondercolt' outfit. "It'll be free of charge to the winners, courtesy of Rarity's Boutique in Ponyville. For everypony else, just tell Rarity that I sent you and you'll get a ten percent discount."
(He was also earning 100 bits for saying that. Business sponsorships were one of many ways to earn money as an entrepreneur, especially in sports and entertainment. It had been his idea, not Rarity's, and she likely went along with it because of the near-death-experience she'd put him through, not because she wanted to be discovered in this fashion.)
"But even free lessons and a flight suit aren't the best prizes," Silver said seductively. "The two winners of this race are going to get something much better in addition to that."
Silver's grin widened at the excited looks on the younger ponies, and yet further at the amused/bored/skeptical looks of the adults.
"You'll get bragging rights. You'll get the right to say, 'Nah nah-nah boo-boo, I'm better than you!' And these won't be just any bragging rights. If you've ever wanted a chance to show up the Wonderbolts and prove that you're better than they are, today is the day, because you'll be competing against the Wonderbolts! Ha ha ha!"
The ponies Silver knew to be Wonderbolts had looks of sudden, shocked betrayal.
The heads of the forty or so under-eighteen pegasi darted around themselves, looking for the iconic suits.
There were no ponies wearing Wonderbolt suits.
A few of the older teens suddenly had looks of dawning comprehension, but the younger ones just looked confused.
"I don't get it," said a colt that looked around eight years old. "Where's the Wonderbolts?"
"They're here." Silver gesturing to the crowd. "Remember, without their suits they're just normal ponies. You'll have to look for their mane colors if you want to recognise them."
The younger pegasi began frantically swiveling their heads and (magical) eyes in search for the celebrities. Luckily for the Wonderbolts who'd decided to sign up, they'd chosen not to cluster in any single place where they might be recognised as a group. They were simply spread out among all the other adult pegasi.
Still grinning, Silver said, "Wonderbolts, if you don’t want to be shown up by a colt… by ANOTHER colt, rather, or by a filly, I suggest you find a cloud and start searching for that literally magical feeling. Oh, and if somepony already knows how to do this, please don’t participate. That wouldn't be fair. I’ll just move you to the next lesson."
There was an off-chance this technique was like gulping air to induce deliberate burping – something that one or two rebellious ponies might have taught themselves how to do in order to get attention as the class clown. He'd known a kid like that back in his brief, disastrous stay in muggle public education.
"IS there somepony who can do it?" Silver asked. "Anypony at all?"
Apparently not.
"Alright, then that's the lesson for everypony. If nopony gets it on their own, I'll step in and say the answer. But I have faith a few of you can do it sooner than that. Let's say... thirty minutes until the end of class is the cut-off point. Before then, the race is on. And one last thing: if you maintain the mindset too long and don't catch yourself in time, you'll fall straight through the stadium, so everypony take your clouds up real high. If you fall through your cloud, glide around for a while until you can touch clouds again. If nopony gets it in the first fifteen minutes, I'll start helping. The race starts now."
And ponies dashed off to find a personal cloud, some of the younger ponies fighting over the closest ones. Silver grinned at the fact that this would quickly turn into one of those 'hurry up and wait' situations; that their adrenaline probably wouldn't help them win in the slightest.
"A low-maintenance lesson plan," Mr. Book observed, eyes scanning the many ponies who were trying and failing to phase and fall through clouds.
Silver turned off his necklace enchantment. "Macro-management," he nodded.
"I see you've picked up a thing or two from my classes."
"More than a thing or two," Silver said. "Rewards and incentives, striking the right balance between lecture and practice, encouraging good students to fly far ahead without leaving the others completely in the dust. Not to mention practical applications." Silver looked out above the field, at the pegasi who were attempting to explore their own magic. "It took me a lot of thinking and a bunch of discarded ideas to finally settle on this set-up."
"A set-up which fits thematically with the lesson," Mr. Book noted in an approving voice. "Giving them the freedom to find the answer for themselves." His eyes, behind the glasses, narrowed. "Though perhaps too much freedom. You might wish to intervene sooner than intended. I believe your youngest students are ready to give up."
"I will. One quick question first. How did you switch from freedom to determination in less than a second?"
"The same way I propelled myself upward so significantly when I first tried to flap my wings two months ago. I thought a single word to myself."
There was a pause.
"And that word is?"
"Dependent upon the desire," said the thestral. "When I first took off, back in that clearing, I thought to myself, up! I see you are kicking yourself for not trying that yourself. Good."
"What about just now?"
"For freedom, yes. For determination, no. You will likely find different words work for you, though I recommend keeping them simple. Single syllable, if possible."
Silver nodded, turned on his amulet once more, then flew off to help the student who looked the most troubled by the task and her failure to instantly succeed at it.
"Having trouble?" he asked, his behind-their-backs voice startling a number of ponies, not least the filly he was actually standing behind.
She bobbed her head up and down, embarrassed.
"What have you tried so far?"
"Um..." said the filly, rather dejectedly. "I tried getting happy, but that didn't work, so I tried getting sad, and that didn't work, and then I tried getting mad, but THAT didn't work either! I tried everything! I don't think I can do it."
Silver rubbed his chin with a hoof. "Hmm... could you tell me how you tried to get happy and sad and mad?"
The little filly's eyebrows scrunched together. "Um... I just... tried to feel it?"
Silver chuckled. "That's not really how it works. You can't just tell yourself 'I'm going to be happy, now!' when you're not in the mood to be happy, can you?"
"No... but how do I do it?"
"If you really want to feel an emotion, you have to remember something that makes you feel that way."
At the filly's confused look, Silver continued.
"I'll give you an example. Almost a year ago, I was in a new classroom at a new school. I wanted to learn, but when class started, the teacher started picking on me. He asked me questions about his class that he knew I wouldn't know, even though it was my first day. I tried to get him to stop, but it just made him worse. He took points away and gave me detention. He even cast a spell on me so I couldn't talk, and locked the door so I couldn't leave."
"That's horrible!" the filly shouted. "He's horrible! What kind of pony does that?"
Not any kind of pony at all, he thought. "Well, my father and him were classmates when they were in school, and my father bullied him, and he thought I would be like my father, so he tried to bully me back."
"That's-" said the filly, then stopped short. "That's... that's..."
"Horrible in the other direction?" Silver supplied. He shrugged. "It is what it is. He and I made up later, and we became... um, friends, I guess. Kind-of." More like allies united against a common foe. And, possibly, united by a shared sense of not being complete, gibbering dullards, like a lesser version of the bond he shared with Mr. Book. "So it worked out in the end. But anyway, I didn't know any of that stuff about my father bullying him that first time he bullied me. All I knew was that I got very, very angry, and that anger helped me get out of the classroom, even though I shouldn't have been able to at that age. My anger helped me do a few other things too, like figuring out a way to get the teacher to stop bullying other students, which had been a problem for a while."
"How?" the filly asked, eyes wide.
Many of the other pegasi had stopped trying to fall through their own clouds, enraptured by the allegory.
"I figured out one of his secrets and did a bit of blackmail," Silver answered with an ironic grin. "Anyway, there were times after that day where an angry me was the best me at solving problems. Whenever a time like that came up, I thought back to the time that teacher tried to bully me. It could make me angry even if I wasn't in the mood to be angry. So if you want to get angry, or happy, or sad, you'll have to remember something that made you angry or happy or sad in the past. Understand?"
The filly's eyes were wide, and she nodded up and down.
Silver smiled, then flew away from her cloud, back down to the field. His necklace had conveyed that conversation to the entire class, who returned to their attempts, now with a slightly better understanding of their own thought processes.
The necklace had also carried the conversation to Mr. Book, who was looking at him with a warning glare that briefly showed through the glasses. That came dangerously close to revealing too much, said that expression.
Silver shrugged apologetically.
Silver hovered in front of one of the Wonderbolts who had decided to check out at least the first lesson. "Having fun?"
"No," said the Wonderbolt, a white/blue stallion named Soarin'.
"What emotions have you tried so far?"
"Happiness, anger, sadness, guilt, and fear," said the stallion. "Nothing worked."
Silver made a hm-ing noise. "Nothing worked so far," he corrected. He said "notepad and marker" with his hoof hovering over his saddlebag, wrote down three words, then asked, "Out of curiosity, did any of those emotions influence the cloud's firmness?"
"Um..." the stallion suddenly seemed thoughtful. "Yeah, actually. I think fear made the cloud harder than it usually is." Soarin' sighed. "A lot of good that does me if I'm trying to make it soft enough to fall through."
Silver flipped over the notepad.
Fear = firm cloud?
Soarin' looked at the note, then at Silver. "Yeah? So?"
"I wrote that down before I asked my question," Silver pointed out. "Part of understanding something," he said in a lecturing tone, voice amplified to the rest of the stadium, "is being able to predict it in advance, like I just did. When I was starting out, I also tried fear before I landed on the actual emotion I needed. When I felt the cloud get harder, I didn't just go, 'oh well, I guess that's not helpful', and move on. I used it to my advantage. If you're trying to figure out how to slip through clouds and an emotion makes the cloud firmer, that's important information. It could mean the emotion you want is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from fear. Or maybe it means you need to try an emotion related to fear. Or maybe it means you need to have no fear. But even if fear doesn't help in the slightest for slipping through clouds, making clouds firmer might come in handy someday. It could give you more traction. It could make a cloud easier to move without breaking it apart. Or it might just make for a more solid surface to buck."
Soarin's eyes had gone wider and wider as Silver spoke. Part of being a Wonderbolt was dealing with weather emergencies, and all those things would be extremely useful to that end. It was why Silver had chosen them as examples.
Silver was extremely tempted to add a line about the importance of little truths to science. That every small detail is important. That they slowly build a portrait of the underlying reality invisible to the naked eye, like puzzle pieces taking shape to form a drawing. The whole picture can only be 'seen' by understanding as many truths as possible – by finding all the pieces and by connecting them in the right places and in the right ways.
But a statement like that would have been a bit too high-calibre for anypony in the stadium besides Mr. Book, Twilight, and maybe a few scattered others.
Instead, Silver said, "Just something to think about. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, but if emotions don't work, you can also try desires. Like hunger. Not that I'm saying hunger will or won't work. You'll have to test that for yourself."
In the middle of helping a student with his current teaching strategy – isolate, inquire, inform, inspire – Silver noticed a colt fall through a cloud.
"And we have our first winner!" he said, startling many pegasi out of whatever mental states they'd been trying. He glanced at his watch. It was 4:50, so about forty-five minutes after the session had started and about thirty-five minutes after he'd initially set them loose. "And what do you know," Silver said with a grin. "A young pegasus, as predicted."
He bucked himself over to the happily flapping colt, who was shouting "Yes, yes, yes!" in the air.
"What's your name?"
"Free Falling," the colt almost shouted.
Fitting, thought Silver.
Free Falling tried to land on the 'ground' (i.e. the cloud surface of the track and field), but found himself falling right through it. "Whoa!" he said, flapping to get himself higher. "That's weird!"
"You'll get used to it," said Silver. He hovered a hoof over his pouch and said, "Pre-prepared note number one and marker." A note entered his grip. He added two words to the note, then handed it to the colt. "Read that to yourself. Don't say it out loud yet."
The colt's two forehooves grasped the note. His eyes focused for a very long moment. Maybe he wasn't a strong reader. Then his eyes widened and he looked to Silver with a mixture of excitement and pleading.
Silver grinned and took off his necklace. He put it around the neck of the colt and said, "Go ahead."
The colt, as instructed by the note, shouted at the top of his lungs: "My name is Free Falling and I'm better than the Wonderbolts! WOO-HOO!"
His voice was amplified to every pony in the stadium. Many of the younger pegasi looked on in envy, while a select few of the older pegasi looked on in glares. Not directed at the colt, of course. They were glaring at Silver, the pony responsible.
Silver retrieved his necklace from the colt and said with a wide smile, "Don't worry, Wonderbolts. You still have your chance to shine. I'm sure you won't be shown up a third time. I don't think Free Falling will be able to explain how he did it... unless you can explain?"
The colt in question said, "Um... I... like flying in the air, I guess? That's what I was thinking before I fell through the cloud, I mean."
"Not good enough, I'm afraid," Silver said with a head shake. Then, at the colt's look of disappointment, he said, "Don't worry, you're still the first winner. Now, while the rest of the class eats your dust, you get to practice the next lesson and get even further ahead."
"More work?" the colt groaned.
"Think of it this way," said Silver. "You crossed the finish line first... but it's a four-lap race. If you really want to win, you should stay ahead. And you need to learn the next step anyway before you go home."
"Why's that?" Free Falling asked skeptically.
"Well, I don't think your parents would appreciate you falling through the floor of their house."
The colt's eyes widened, as if he'd forgotten that entirely.
"Think fast!" Silver said, bucking a small cloud at the colt.
Free Falling did not think fast. The cloud hit him head-on – it hit him – and the colt fell to the cloud floor of the stadium, landing on it firmly. Many of the adults gasped at the sight of the 'teacher' 'assaulting' a student without warning. Even if it was the equivalent of a pillow-fight.
"PHEW!" Silver said before anypony could say anything. "You can touch clouds again. If I hadn't kicked that cloud at you when I did, you might never have been able to walk on clouds again. Good thing I made it in time."
"Really?" the colt asked, suddenly looking scared.
"No, not really," Silver said with a grin.
The colt glared at him.
"Now, now. Don't give me that look. I did help you go back to walking on clouds just now. Or at least, I thought I did. I didn't know for sure. That's why I kicked the cloud at you, just to check. If it didn't work, you wouldn't have been hit. Now, go ahead and try to not touch clouds again."
Free Falling, grumbling, flew up to an empty cloud and closed his eyes like the rest of the class. Well, like the rest of the class should have. Many of them were too busy staring at Silver.
The next success was the orange pegasus from the Cute-ceañara party, Scootaloo, whom Twilight had to Teleport here since she couldn't fly yet. Twilight had also manifested a mattress beneath her little cloud and kept it low, unlike the rest of the class. If the filly actually succeeded, she wouldn't fall to her possible death, she'd land on the solid surface. And she did.
Scootaloo, like Free Falling, couldn't articulate how she'd done it. All she said was that, since she didn't know how to fly, she thought of how it felt to ride her scooter.
There were ten more successes, mostly of young ponies, before somepony finally explained it to Silver's satisfaction. It was, to his surprise (more at the coincidence than anything else), Soarin' the Wonderbolt.
"Freedom," the stallion said, summing it up in a single word.
"Hold on," said Silver, removing his amulet and giving it to Soarin'. "Put that on and say it again."
"Freedom," said Soarin', his voice reaching the entire class. "You have to think of the freedom of the air. The freedom that comes with flying."
"Not just flying," said Silver, his voice only being peripherally caught by the amulet, and so still reaching his entire class. Twilight had programmed that into the spell as well. "It could be any feeling of freedom, so long as it's overwhelming. That's why I gave you all the FREEDOM to find the answer for yourselves, and why the rewards for winning were FREE lessons and a FREE flight suit. Because FREEDOM was the answer all along! Bwa ha ha!" After getting out that small bit of stress-relief, Silver composed himself once more. "But yeah, it doesn't have to come from flying. Like when I talked about breaking boundaries at the awards ceremony, then fell straight through the stadium. The feeling can come from anywhere."
"Yeah," said Soarin', removing the amulet and tossing it to Silver. "Like the feeling of being free and done with this class. I'm out."
Silver was momentarily taken aback. "Huh?"
"I don't care how much it helps," said the stallion. "My teammates will tell me what I need to know afterwards. I'm not coming back."
"What?" Silver asked, ignoring the impossible first part for now. "Why?"
"Cuz you keep dissin' the Wonderbolts," said the stallion. "Have been from the start. You just reminded me of what you said back at the stadium. Unimportant? Do you have any idea what the Wonderbolts do, colt?"
Silver opened his mouth to reply-
A deep, chilling chuckle reverberated around the stadium, bringing all eyes to bear on the pony who seemed to be that chuckle's source: a dark-gray pony with a black mane, eyes obscured by glasses, wings and cutie mark hidden by a cloak.
"Let me guess," said that pony. "They spend seventy percent of their time running drills and training exercises, twenty percent making public appearances and signing autographs, and then they spend almost ten percent doing actual air shows – which are entertainment, by the way, not a practical service."
"We're Equestria's last line of defense!" Soarin' declared defiantly and proudly. "There's nothing more practical than that!"
"The Wonderbolts, Mr. Soaring, have not seen military action since the attempted invasion of the griffins." A thin smile. "That was four centuries ago. In the modern era, perhaps point zero, zero, one percent of a Wonderbolt's career time will be spent getting involved in actual crises. Mostly weather-related, and sometimes caused by the Wonderbolts in the first place. Not that you deigned to get involved in the Nightmare Moon crisis, the greatest of our time. I should know you were absent. I was there, contributing to her downfall. And so was Mr. Silver. But go ahead, Soaring of the Wonderbolts. Tell us what your esteemed organisation does do, if not help."
Soarin' looked ready to fly over to the strange pony and buck him right in the face.
"Okay, that crosses the line," said an orange and yellow mare. She glided down to the cloaked pony. "No pegasus talks about the Wonderbolts like that when I'm around."
Multiple potential replies flashed through his mind, in that moment.
This land has codified freedom of speech into their legal system, like the Americans' Bill of Rights, and so he had a wider range of available options than he usually had when pretending to play the part of an ordinary, law-abiding citizen.
Possibility 1: Laugh, remove cloak, and declare that no pegasus HAS talked about the Wonderbolts 'like that'.
Failure. Needlessly reveals species.
Possibility 2: Pretend to lose. Submit to her authority for now.
Failure. Public appearances are inherent to the problem. Losing would work against interests.
Possibility 3: Goad out stupidity by asking "Like what?"
Probable Failure. Too open-ended, could be exploited. Cannot predict response to satisfaction.
Possibility 4: Avoid confrontation by sinking through cloud floor.
Probable Success with drawbacks. Maintains anonymity, but harms image of self and allies.
Possibility 5...
"And why shouldn't I speak as I please?"
"Because the Captain of the Wonderbolts said so," Spitfire declared. "I think it's time you learned some respect."
The expression of the gray pony darkened. "Of the ponies in this stadium, the behaviours and accomplishments demonstrated thus far suggest I show respect to a single pony. That pony is not you. After all," in a lecturing tone, "most pegasi know the name Swift Flight the Swift Thinker, who pioneered weather manipulation during the seventh Celestial Century. I have yet to meet a single pegasus who knows the names of any of the Wonderbolt Captains during that same time period."
"What about Steel Wing?"
"You are half a century off, Ms. Spitfire," he said in an amused voice, before returning to that chilling, imperious tone. "When Mr. Silver called the Wonderbolts unimportant, those were not his own words. He was paraphrasing me. And although I did not use the Wonderbolts when I originally spoke, that was only due to differing circumstances. I agree whole-heartedly with his application of my wisdom to your organisation. Between the two of you – Spitfire the twenty-second Wonderbolt Captain of the tenth Celestial Century, two-hundred-and-thirty-seventh Wonderbolt Captain in history – and Silver Wing, discoverer-" (or perhaps rediscoverer) "-of pegasus magic fundamentals, whom do you believe shall be remembered three centuries hence?"
Spitfire, put on the spot with such a surprising, insulting, and scathing question, wasn't able to formulate an answer.
Many pegasi, young and old alike, looked on with shock and anger, though some did seem considering, and a few even appeared awed.
"You said you would not let me speak about the Wonderbolts in such a fashion," the strange pony added, voice amused once more. "What do you intend to do about it?"
There was a pause, as Spitfire seemed to evaluate her options.
"By authority of Princess Celestia," said the Wonderbolt Captain, "I'm placing you under arrest for sedition. Maybe a day in a cell will teach you some manners."
The gray pony stared at her for a moment, then began laughing. It was mean and mocking, without the slightest hint of mirth or joy. It went on for a while, which only seemed to make the miffed mare even madder.
"So pony society isn't perfect after all!" Mystery Book declared. "For a moment there, I was beginning to wonder." The stallion grinned in a way that showed teeth. "I read the lawbooks, of course, but even I thought the sedition clause a formality, given pronounced pony propensities towards peace and cooperation. I suppose I was mistaken, that I should have maintained my cynicism all along."
The Wonderbolt Captain didn't seem to understand, which prevented her from immediately responding, but going by facial expressions, she did understand she was still being mocked.
In a voice dripping with distaste, the stallion clarified his criticism. "I suspected the ego of you Wonderbolts would be so fragile that it could not stand censure, but this is just too rich. You intend to arrest me because of my mere words? You think it right to inflict imprisonment after emotional offense only? How harmonious of you." Then the stallion's eyes suddenly widened, and he laughed again. "And you aren't even in uniform! You hold no authority as you are! Don't you know your own laws, stupid mare!?"
Spitfire snapped. "THAT'S IT!"
She launched herself into a dive at the gray pony, who seemed ready to meet her head on-
And a purple barrier popped into existence between them.
"That's enough," said Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, who had been watching in silence the entire time. "I'm only going to say this once," she said in a voice audible to all. "By my authority as the Element of Magic and personal student to Princess Celestia, there will be no violence here, or so help me, I will personally recommend that every member of the Wonderbolts gets an in-depth psych evaluation. Do I make myself clear?"
"You should recommend it regardless," said a voice. "It is clearly needed."
"And you," she said, whirling on Mr. Book. "I see where Silver gets his... his... ugh! That was horribly mean and rude and awful!"
"But all perfectly legal," said the gray pony, undisturbed by her judgement. In fact, he appeared amused. "And entirely fact-based for that matter... within a 5% margin of error on the provided percentages, of course."
"Lawful Evil," Silver sighed, making himself known with the amulet she'd enchanted for him.
The entire conversation thus far had been projected to the class in various ways, not that it needed to be. Ponies had gotten closer to the action, the lesson forgotten as things heated up.
But the quarrel had still been projected – Soarin's voice through the peripheral enchantment on the amulet, Mystery Book's voice through unknown means, Spitfire's voice by just being really loud, and Twilight's voice through a spell of her own.
"Just because something is a fact doesn't mean you have to say it!" Twilight sternly scolded him.
"Mr. Silver," said the gray pony. "In the aftermath of that incident in which you were bullied by that teacher, you made a speech to the student body. Would you care to repeat the opening sentences to that speech, if you remember them? I believe they are relevant to this occasion."
"The truth is sacred," Silver sighed. He'd memorized the speech, and still remembered it. "One of my most treasured possessions is a button which reads 'Speak the truth, even if your voice trembles. This, then, is the truth.' He's right, Twilight. Maybe the way he said it could use work, but he's right. He made valid criticisms. Should the response to that be arrest or assault?"
"They WEREN'T valid!" shouted Soarin'.
"Even if they weren't, then," Silver allowed, "I didn't think the proper pony response to hearing other ponies speak their mind was supposed to be violence. At least, not when the words are harmless."
"Harmless?!" Spitfire spat from the other side of the barrier. "What he said wasn't harmless!"
"Hmm," said the mocking voice of the gray pony. "Yes, thank you for pointing out that gaping wound rent upon your flesh by my speech. I did not notice it until now."
"WHAT?!"
"What I meant to say," said the slightly less scathing voice of Silver, "is that he didn't threaten violence." He glared at Spitfire. "Unlike you. All he did was hurt your ego. And your image too, I suppose, but that was mostly you. What he said might not have been emotionally harmless, but it wasn't exactly physically threatening, was it?"
Spitfire fumed, not coming up with an immediate response.
"And you trying to arrest him for it," Silver continued, "and then trying to assault him when that didn't work... what do you say, Twilight? Is there an excuse for that?"
"It's not my place to say," said Twilight primly, maintaining her neutrality.
Silver shrugged. "Right, sorry. Conflicting authorities and all. Well, since I'm a colt, I can get away with it." He turned back to the Wonderbolts Captain. "If there were such a thing as a Wonderbolts oversight committee, and I were on it, I'd suggest you be demoted from Captain and file a motion to put you on probation. But then, how you look in the eyes of your fans probably matters a whole lot more to you than that, doesn't it?"
Silver deliberately made to look at the forty or so young pegasi who were watching the spectacle with wide eyes, looking angry or hurt or shattered. Most were angry at the gray pony... but some weren't. And the scattered adults were the inverse of the children. The minority were angry at the gray pony, but the majority...
The mare's face went from angry to shocked in a fraction of a second.
"I would put you on probation," said Flight Formation, the former Captain making himself known in that moment. "I should have chosen Fleetfoot to replace me. She wouldn't've embarrassed the Wonderbolts like this."
(One of the mares in the audience blushed.)
Spitfire seemed to suddenly remember that she was in the company of her old boss, who might still have a connection or two-
And then the sound of the school's clocktower rang.
Six o'clock.
Lesson's over.
"I think," said Twilight Sparkle. "That's enough for today. Let's all go home, calm down, and cool off. Everypony is just exhausted from trying to do something new and difficult."
"And mostly failing for two hours straight," Silver took over. "That sort of frustration can get to a pony. Or maybe they're overwhelmed by the sudden feelings of freedom. Oh, quick warning: you might feel the impulse to disregard or disrespect authority when practicing cloud-phasing, so be careful. And I didn't get around to this part of the lesson, so I'll just say it outright: to stop cloud-phasing, think of your parents scolding you. That should work. If it doesn't, just try to be really determined to touch clouds again. Oh, and one last thing. The contract you all signed before the start of the lesson was a magically binding non-disclosure agreement."
It was the closest thing here to an unbreakable vow. Not the non-disclosure agreement part, the magically binding part. Though Mr. Book said the magic also resembled the Goblet of Fire. It was like a mix between the vow and the Goblet, but weaker than either. The contract would bind all ponies who signed it (there was only one page, made longer for longer contracts), but it was temporary, not permanent. When the magic in the contract expired, or if the contract itself was destroyed, the bindings would lift. The agreement is unbreakable, but only so long as the magic in the contract itself still functioned properly.
"Even if you want to, you can't share what you've learned with others until the contract expires. So NO Soarin', you CAN'T use your teammates to bypass the class."
This being one of the many foreseen possibilities Silver had provided to Mr. Book's 'Name all the ways this could go wrong' brainstorming session, and the primary reason behind the NDA.
"You’ll have to show up if you want to learn. I won’t require an apology or anything like that, and you already have the next lessons free. It’s up to YOU if you want to keep learning. Everypony else, I expect you to be able to phase through clouds by next Friday or Monday. If the Wonderbolts are too scared or weak to come back, that's on them. It was all in good fun before, Soarin', but now it's personal. So yes, I'm going to keep dissing the Wonderbolts. Sorry, Coach."
"Oh no, go right ahead," said the school's superintendent. "Be my guest. These Wonderbolts deserve to be dissed."
Many of the nearby colts "Ooooooh"ed when they suddenly realized that they had a cool superintendent. Even some who were initially angry at Silver/Mr. Book had switched their loyalties when the former captain stepped in.
Silver nodded gratefully at his flight tutor, then turned back to the modern Wonderbolts. "If you can't handle the heat, feel free not to come back. Everypony else, if you want the chance to be braver than a Wonderbolt, not just better, I'll see you on Friday at four. Class dismissed."
And Silver dropped through the cloud floor of the stadium, overwhelmed not only by his free schedule, but by the feeling of freedom that always came with defying authority figures.
Yes, he had left a massive mess behind for others to clean up. But then, that was part of the pre-arranged deal he'd established with Twilight Sparkle and Flight Formation. He was only twelve, he thought with an evil grin, and you couldn't expect a young colt to handle every adult responsibility associated with entrepreneurship. Or at least, Flight and Twilight didn't think he'd be able to handle them, and so had promised to take on those burdens themselves. He was in no hurry to correct their assumptions.
In addition to an open schedule, he also had a pocketful of around 2200 bits to spend or invest at his leisure, Twilight Sparkle and Flight Formation having pitched in for free.
And he already had an idea how to spend it.
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Okay.... this chapter is just,
SO AMAZING!!!
I need to reread it.
This fic isn't just one of the best HPMoR fics, but one of the best harry potter crossovers ever! And seeing how many of those there are, that is saying something.
The only flaw I see, because no fic is perfect, is you have a habit of glossing over character development. A lot of really interesting downtime moments. Such as seeing Silver getting scolded, and what I suspect the next chapter won't be the superintendent chewing out his former protege. Or him and Twilight handling the mess Silver left for them.
Of course, these scenes aren't important, so much as nice to see character interactions. And, given this fic was mostly complete before posting, that isn't something that can be changed now.
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Yup, remembered the pies myself about an hour after posting that reply. And after remembering that, I realized that, yes, it was more a matter of public image. He'd do it in an instant if it couldn't be blamed on him, if he could deflect responsibility, etc. etc. And yes, that was Harry from the start of the school year, and this is Harry after Azkaban and dementors and learning to trust others and so on. I think we're pretty much on the same page.
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There WILL be a few flashes of aftermaths in the next chapter, but you're right, Flight scolding Spitfire won't be a part of it. Honestly, as I've written him so far, I don't see him as the kind of pony who goes out of his way to do that sort of thing. He's more of an "in the moment" sort of character, not a 'remember this for a while and exact revenge later' guy like Mr. Book. Or even a "we'll talk about this later" character.
As far as the general critique is concerned, that pretty much nails it. Character development is a place I need to work on. I don't care about it all that much if it's not about the protagonist, and forcing myself to care wouldn't work. Unless, of course, I think of an interesting side scene that makes a wider point and still contributes to the overall plot. I've even got a part of narration in chapter... I think 25 or 26 that directly addresses it. In a roundabout, joking, excusatory way, of course, but I am aware of the problem.
This chapter was amazing! I'd also like to role-play/ state something.
"You are soldiers. Not entertainers. Equestria's last defense. You said it yourself Captain Spitfire, so start acting like it! You are not entertainers! But soldiers! If you can't shape up and start acting like your suppose to, I highly suggest you hang up your suit and goggles and leave. If you even call yourself a Wonderbolt, then shape up and start acting like one! Do. You. Understand?"
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That role play strikes me as more of something that would be said by... hm... nobody from HPMoR comes to mind. Not even Amelia Bones. From MLP... Shining Armor, maybe?
Mr. Book might have said that if he had intended to play the role of military commander at some point during his entrapment, or if he intended to use the Wonderbolts as a military force. It's not inconceivable that he already has the experience to say something like that. Then again... no. You're envisioning what somebody who respects the Wonderbolts, or the IDEA of the Wonderbolts, would say. Mr. Book has no respect for the Wonderbolts at all, especially not as soldiers. He is entirely cynical about them, believing them to be beyond hope or redemption. It'd be like trying to inspire... I don't know, a Communist to be hopeful about the future of Capitalism, or vice versa.
When I upload the next chapter, you'll see why he holds this position.
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Oh, I was going from someone who values the idea and values of a soldier and defender of the people.
And Mr. Book I extremely see why he doesn't like those types of people. Just not him. But I'm interested in your explanation
I still think that the Wonderbolts are for the entertainment purpose only. With the widespread use of the technology, it's the technology that does all the fighting not people.
I love this chapter as well. That said, please forgive me and ignore this comment if this warning is unnecessary, you're already clearly a much better writer than the original author of Methods of Rationality, but one pitfall he fell into which I'm getting subtle vibes from here is such:
Unless your story requires that Silver Wing not make mistakes for its underlying message to function, he should make mistakes. Personally, I felt uneasy when Soarin leaving was twisted around until his proclamation WASN'T a mistake on Silver's part.
There's an old, but very good bit of wisdom that I try to keep in mind, which basically amounts to "Don't poison the truth". Something that Harry Potter from the original fic does to an absurd degree.
Personally, if I had been in Soarin's shoes, I WOULDN'T have been convinced to come back by Silver calling him a coward, and denying the information outside of his lessons. The basic mutual respect between Teacher and Student was broken by the teacher, which breaks the mutual respect between student and learning.
Silver and Book may not have said anything UNTRUTHFUL, but as individuals who present themselves as pursuant of truth and the spreading of truth above all else, they were unable to play to the crowd they were facing, which implied that their desire to diminish the Wonderbolts and expose flaws in those around them outweighed their desire to spread and teach the truth and science of what they had discovered.
I'm not saying this behavior isn't in line with Methods of Rationality's characterization, it absolutely is, but that fic made the mistake of the plot rewarding this behavior. I'm also not saying you strictly made a mistake here, the way characters acted has not YET diverged from what is believable human(Pony?) behavior.
All I'm saying is that Silver and Book seemed to act in a way that feels as though their own pride in exposing flaws got the better of them, which could have led to consequences that, if they didn't result in character growth, at minimum resulted in character acknowledgement.
I'm personally not expecting Soarin to come back. At the end of the day, a child and an outsider used mockery of his creed and group as a learning incentive, which displays a lack of personal dignity, even if you ignore the lack of respect for his position. If he IS a respectable figure, he wouldn't throw aside that basic dignity, even for the advantage of Airbucking. Showing up to another lesson merely proves Silver right in that Wonderbolts are not dignified figures (Whether or not they actually are, of course, is up for debate), because his desire for a flight advantage would outweigh his solidarity and respect towards his fellow Wonderbolts and what they represent.
Can they?
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I strongly disagree
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I disagreed with the particular part of that reply too, and I already hashed it out with him in the comments of chapter 18. No need to bring up old business when it's already been settled.
Minor typo - I shouldn't have.
Hard truths, but truths nonetheless
Misuse of authority, than authority that isn't applicable. Pretty sure Spit Fire will have consequences coming her way, a Captain like her so high in public eyes? She will indeed feel the heat, from her own actions and consequences!
Glorious chapter!
I wonder if harry ever paid his taxes