You're Being Hugged, Harry

by David Silver

18 - Back in Town

"Check this out." Shining waved at a bicycle with a big smile. "Auntie Pinkie lent it to me."

Harry quirked an ear at the bike. "It's a nice bike... What about it?"

Shining stepped up and hopped onto it. With a pedal, the whole thing unfolded, revealing a second seat. "It can be a single or a double. And..." It unfolded further, a shaft popping up with candy stripes and propeller blades at the top. Shining began to lift into the sky under its twirling. "It can fly. You're practicing that, aren't you?"

Harry blinked, dumbfounded a moment. "I am, but the flying I do is really fast. That looks really swell, but not that fast."

Shining came down uneasily, barely managing a graceful landing. "Really? It felt fast to me..."

Harry was pretty sure his broom back in Hogwarts had it thoroughly beaten on speed. "It's still a nice try." He grabbed his dad in a firm hug. "It's nice you're thinking of me."

"Of course I am." He returned the hug firmly. "Well, if we can't practice flying... You do know you're a unicorn, right?"

"Hm?"

"Pegasi do the flying."

"You take that back." A mare was walking towards them with a cocky smile. "Some unicorns love flying."

Steel recoiled in surprise. "Starlight Glimmer! I didn't expect you." One could see the numbers in his head. "This is a long way for you to go for a surprise visit. Is everything alright?"

Starlight waved that away. "I heard your son was back and thought I'd come say hello to one of Twilight's personal students." She looked to Harry pointedly then. "Hm."

"Hm?" Was Harry being judged? "Something I can help with, ma'am?"

Starlight curled a hoof on herself. "You know, I'm also one of Twilight's students, graduated."

Harry considered the purple unicorn. "Aunt's mentioned you before." But he hadn't actually met the elusive Starlight. "You're as good as Auntie at magic, she mentioned." His voice carried doubt. Nopony was as good as Auntie Twilight at magic!

"You heard it, but you don't believe it." Starlight casually brushed Shining aside. "Sounds like it's time for a duel. I love duels."

Harry took an uncertain step back. "I didn't mean to make you upset, miss."

"And you didn't." Starlight waggled her brows. "I just said I love duels. You want the first shot?"

Harry waved a hoof wildly. "Before that, a few rules?"

Starlight snorted softly. "Fine... I guess a few wouldn't hurt." She began tapping her hooves with each point, "This isn't to the death. If a pony can't fight or gives up, we're done. No casting any spell you can't undo, or at least wait until it goes away. Anything else?"

Harry swallowed thickly, his tongue suddenly too large for his mouth. "T-that covers the basics... Now, just to remind, but I'm still learning magic, ma'am."

"I'll go easy on you, colt."

Harry scowled. He was no colt! Well maybe technically. Didn't mean he liked being called one. "Let's start then."

"That's more the spirit." She lifted from the ground, her horn glowing as she picked herself up with ease. "Go ahead, you start." She spread her forehooves slowly. "First shot's free." Her stance was open, welcoming his arcane fury with a cocky confidence. "Impress me."

"Flipendo!" Harry directed his own glowing horn at the hovering unicorn.

"Wow, you--" The magic struck her without a glow or other effect, like she had been punched and sent twirling. "Ooo! Cheating... Fine, we play that way."

Shining backed up as the two began exchanging spells and bolts of power back and forth that only grew more violent and flashy with each round. Harry looked like he was fighting for his life. Starlight was laughing like the whole thing was a grand time. It was, ultimately, perfectly standard for her. "Return him in one peice, kindly."

"Yeah yeah." Starlight gestured as if punching and magic battered at Harry. "As soon as he gives up, I'll stop."

"Stop picking on him!" With a wave of magic that banished all the others away, Flurry Heart appeared with a pop, scowling at Starlight. "Only I get to do that."

Harry took a rough breath, accepting the moment's reprieve for what it was. His eyes were set on Starlight, expecting her to take action.

Which she didn't, huffing instead. "We were having a duel. It was fun, and then you came along and ruined it."

Flurry crossed her forearms, rearing up. "Auntie Twilight's warned me about you. You were going too far, and I don't need my brother encased in crystal or turned into a weasel or something."

"It would have worn off!" Starlight blushed at the accusations. "It's a learning experience. Besides, if you're so good at it, maybe I should 'pick' on you instead, hm?" Her forehooves erupted in energy. "You up for it?"

"Pass." Flurry turned to Harry. "You've been working so hard learning human magic, your pony magic is falling behind. You need to catch up."

Harry flipped his ears back at that. "I'm on holiday!"

"Too bad." She stepped towards him with a smirk. "You're still a school pony, so learning is just a thing you're stuck with for now."

"Since when were you not?!" he countered with a scowl. "You're not my mom."

"Worse, I'm your sister." She booped him on the nose. "And the first lesson starts tomorrow morning, so be ready for that."

Starlight landed as Flurry walked away. "Wow... You have some sister right there."

"You want her?" He smiled ruefully. "I'll offer a discount."

"Mmmm, nah. Pretty sure she'd be a real hoofull if I tried to make her do much against her will." Starlight glanced away. "If you want to scrap again later, lemme know, alright? That was fun. That magic you use, it's not pony magic for sure. Every silly word you said was something I never saw before, and the marks were all off and... I loved it." She clapped her hooves with a giddy smile. "So, let's do that again."

"I'll, uh, think about it." Harry looked at where Flurry had marched off to. "Say, you're a wizard, right?"

"Proudly so." She puffed out her chest with a confident smile. "Why?"

"I'd rather learn from an adult than my sister, so... If you want?"

Starlight leaned in. "Oh ho! I've only actually tutored a pony in magic once before... But I'll try almost anything once, or twice. You want to learn some battle magic, match me at the sparring game? That'll be hard, but I'm ready to try!"

Visions of wild combat danced in Harry's mind. "Actually, flying. You're the only unicorn I know of that can fly with their magic. Can you show me?"

Starlight began to glow as she lifted several inches from the ground. "Bold! Love it... Now, the trick about this--" She tapped at her horn. "Is that you're holding yourself, and you are the perspective, which means it's really easy to get disoriented. There is no 'up'. There is no 'down'. If you can't constantly adjust your frame of reference, you will crash really fast. Trust me, I did a few times getting this right."

"Noted... So how do I start?" He casually snatched up a rock in his magic. "I can pick things up."

"But you can't pick yourself up, can you?" Her voice was almost taunting, watching him. "Go ahead, try."

He dropped the rock, the glow instead going across his withers. He squeezed the flesh just under his mane and pulled as if to pluck himself up by the scruff of the neck. He did little other than list to the side, almost toppling over. "That doesn't work, as I was saying."

Starlight was on him instantly, swatting at where his magic had appeared. "You can't grab yourself like that. You have to support all of you. The whole thing, or you're going to fall over right away." Starlight waved at her body. "See how I'm glowing?"

Harry peered at the glowing unicorn. She was glowing... everywhere. "Huh. Everywhere. No single spot. Alright..." He expanded his grip further.

"More," ordered Starlight, rolling a hoof. "More..." He kept getting a little bigger with each command, but it wasn't all of him. "More! All of you. Now, I'll be honest. With practice, I bet you could do something with just a part of you, but it'd be even more dizzying and probably prone to pain and mistakes. You don't want your whole body being thrown around by your scruff, do you?"

"N-no... What if I..." He moved the magic down, forming a platform to sit on instead. "Ta da?"

"Hey, not bad." Starlight tapped at the arcane disk. "This could work, but it won't be as smooth as how I do it. Seriously, all of you. Why aren't you spreading out more?"

"Because I don't know how?"

Starlight came up short. "Oh..." Right, teaching. that was a thing. "You're too used to focusing, which is a good talent, don't get me wrong. Still, sometimes you have to not. For instance..." Her horn began to glow. "Glowing! But it doesn't have to be just my horn, that's just what we're taught to do." The glow spread out over her. "I am not flying." She bounced in place. "Just glowing, all over. So we'll start there. Glow. When you can glow all over, then we're ready to do more flying lessons."

"I get home from school just to get more work..."

"You asked for this. I don't want to hear it." Starlight hiked a brow at him. "On the bright side, if you pull this off, that'll make you part of a really small club of flying unicorns. Your sister can't do that."

Harry looked up, eyes glinting. "That'd really tick her off, wouldn't it?"

"Oh, so much so." Starlight nudged the more eager unicorn. "So go ahead and show you're better than her." She was not against playing a pony's emotions against them. "Glow. Then we get on with the next step. Until you can target all of you, there's not much more to talk about. Hm, in fact, to test, go to a dark room."

"A dark room? I can see the glow right now." He looked up at his glowing horn. "I don't need a dark room."

"Oh yes you do. A dark room with a mirror." Starlight nodded sagaciously. "So you can see yourself when you glow, and there'd better be no shadows, because all of you will be glowing, or you're not there yet. When you can see yourself in the dark, with no dark spots, you know you got it."

"That's actually kinda clever..."

"I do try." Starlight buffed her chest with a hoof. "Now, go on. Class dismissed!"

Harry wandered off with new magical principles juggling about in his head.

Shining, who had never left entirely, closed with Starlight. "I was hoping to get more physical things done while he was here."

"This was his idea," Starlight said in a defensive tone. "Take it up with him."

Shining clopped a hoof to his face. "This is perfectly him." He smiled a little though. "I love him anyway. Can you really teach him how to fly?" He glanced away, rubbing behind his head. "Don't suppose you could show me?"

Starlight laughed, a sound that made Shining flinch. "I'm not laughing at you. Any pony that wants to learn more magic is alright in my book. Still... You're not a little pony anymore, and this is kind of a big shift in how you approach magic... It may be a bit much to ask."

"Are you calling me old?!" Shining hiked a brow at Starlight. "I am not."

Starlight let out a sigh of a laugh. "Well, fine. You're an adult, you do what you want to do. Congratulations, you now have the same homework Harry does. Glow. All over. Every inch. Get that done and get back to me. We can't do much until you get that, but hey, that's a lot easier than the next step, promise."

Author's Note:

Let's all learn some magic!

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Harry looks for a mirror large enough to see all of himself in an isolated room?

Didnt Twilight move that thing?

[David Silver]

11298660
Oh dear, don't think we want to get that mirror involved.

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

but hey, that's a lot easier than the next step, promise."

That doesn't sound very encouraging.

[harts fire]

so Shining want's to be Shining all over.

[tsaukpaetra]

"it never occured to me that space was the thing that was moving!"self levitation becomes easy when you realize it's just the universe moving itself around you.