First Lesson [Remake]

An awkward silence floated in the Golden Oak library. Sitting across from each other, two unicorns struggled to keep eye contact, preferring instead to stare at the room around them. Aphelion pretended to be intrigued by the library’s architecture, studying every single aspect of the building in a vain effort to appear more relaxed than he was. Twilight, on the other hoof, kept her gaze locked on the sheets of paper right in front of her then shuffled the stack once, then twice, as if she was looking for the beginning of the lessons she was supposed to have begun giving fifteen minutes ago.

The first pony to break the silence wasn’t a pony at all, but a small, bored out of his mind dragon. His words followed a long and annoyed groan. “C’mon”, Spike said while elbowing Twilight, “start the lesson already. You guys don’t have all day.”

“J-Just a moment, Spike. I still need to, uh… Find the start,” Twilight replied with a quick glance at her brother before forcing herself to make eye contact with Aphelion for the first time since they sat down. “Sorry about the wait,” she timidly said. “It’s just…”

“Oh, no worries at all,” Aphelion quickly replied. “It’s completely fine. I can just… Observe the scenery while you get the first lesson in order. Fascinating place, by the way,” he awkwardly added.

With a wide, forced smile, Twilight acquiesced. The two unicorns stared at each other before turning back toward their previous pretend-occupations, much to Spike’s dismay. The little dragon sighed. Dealing with his socially inept sister already tended to be a large pain in Spike’s behind, but now that there was a second, equally socially inept unicorn in the room, things were even worse than usual. Finally making up his mind, Spike rose up from the bean bag and dropped the comic book he was reading on the floor. “I’m going out,” he announced. “When I come back, you two better be talking about magic stuff. Otherwise, I’m bringing Pinkie back here.”

“That-That won’t be necessary, Spike, we’re just about to start!”

“Sure, Twi’. Anyways, see you in an hour,” Spike said as he left the room, leaving the two unicorns sitting in silence. Eventually, Aphelion spoke up.

“So… Who’s this ‘Pinkie’ pony and should I be worried?” he asked.

“She’s a friend… One of the Elements of Harmony, actually. She’s… A lot more outgoing than me,” Twilight admitted.

“Than both of us, you mean,” Aphelion added with a faint chuckle.

“Well, in your defense, you’ve been raised in a… Closed-off community.”

“More like a cult, actually.”

“R-Right… I didn’t want to sound insensitive.”

“Thanks, but I’d rather not sugarcoat things,” Aphelion sighed. “The people who raised me… Did a lot of bad things. Heck, even the magic we use is dangerous in nature,’ he said with a forced chuckle. He wished he could go into greater detail, but Steady’s words echoed in his head. Aphelion had to consider that whatever he told Twilight risked getting leaked. It was already risky for him to talk about the fact he was raised in a cult, but hiding everything behind layers upon layers of lies and deceit to the mare who was supposed to help him relearn magic didn’t feel right to him.

Finally putting down the sheets of paper Twilight had been levitating in front of her face for the past twenty minutes, she smiled. “Well, that’s what I’m going to try to fix.”

“How, though?” the gray unicorn asked. “My whole understanding of magic is based on an erroneous foundation. Not that I’m questioning your abilities, but do you really believe you can re-teach me magic in a week?”

“I… Princess Celestia seems to believe so,” she replied while glancing away. “And I… Don’t really want to let her down. Or you, for that matter. Besides,” her eyes locked on the written material in front of her as she began shuffling through them once again, “we don’t have to start from the very beginning itself… I’m sure we can find some basic, universal understanding of the arcane underneath all that dark magic.”

Slumping in his chair, Aphelion stared at the floor. “If you say so. Where do we begin, though?”

Pulling out the sheet holding the beginning of the lesson, Twilight took a deep breath and forced herself to stop stalling. “First, I want you to tell me about your fundamental understanding of unicorn magic.”

He looked up. “Well… I can do that,” Aphelion said while Twilight grabbed a quill and a pot of ink, readying herself to take notes. He cleared his throat before continuing. “Magic is, to me, at least, a universal constant of the world we live in. It flows through everything, like plants, ponies, or even the earth itself. Different species possess different ways to interact with magic, like pegasi and their wings or unicorns with their horns. It’s kind of like… Everypony uses different tools to get to the same result, the harvesting of magic inside a living organism’s nervous system — specifically, the ley lines.”

Stopping for a moment, Aphelion watched as Twilight frantically transcribed his every word. Quickly lifting her head to indicate to him to go on, Aphelion continued. “Unicorns and alicorns are the species most attuned to the magic around them, being able to channel the stored energy within the ley lines around them to create mental scripts able to affect the physical world around them. These scripts, or spells, become more powerful based on two things: the caster’s own knowledge and personal experience with magic, as well as the number of ley lines used to fuel the spells. The first parameter comes with time and study, while the second defines the three major types of spell that exist.”

Stopping once again, Aphelion noticed Twilight’s confused expression. Guessing that his understanding of magic varied wildly from hers, his shoulders slumped even more. Still, Aphelion decided to finish his description of magic. “The… The first type of spell is the endothaumic type. It’s the weakest one and can only harvest the power stored in the ley lines within the caster itself. Most unicorns can only use endothaumic spells and the effects are fairly limited: basic levitation, summoning lights, maybe even a weak energy ray or a simple teleportation spell. Any self-respecting mage quickly moves on from endothaumic spells to the other kinds.”

“Next up, are the exothaumic spells. These ones only use the magic stored in other entities, like gems, the earth, the air, plants or even other ponies. By harvesting from the world around them, the caster is able to preserve his or her own energy. It also allows the use of more complex mental scripts and glyphs since there’s more fuel to the fire, so to speak. However, exothaumic spells are limited by the environment. If somepony was surrounded by few ponies, or in an area with poor levels of mana around, said ponies would be heavily limited in the types of spell they can use. Oh, and even though these spells almost entirely use other things as the source, there’s still the need for a sort of arcane spark coming from the caster’s own body.”

“Finally, we have the hybrid category of spells. These make use of both endo- and exothaumic sources in order to get the best of both worlds. There are many subcategories within hybrid spells themselves, but the vast majority works in the same way: by harvesting magic in surrounding ley lines and refining it, purifying it within one’s own body, one’s own ley lines. This usually requires a unicorn or alicorn to magically alter their own nervous system to allow the purification process to happen. This process is pretty complex, and even I don’t fully understand it — all I know is that my father was able to overwrite around half of his own ley lines somehow. I… Haven’t even started doing mine due to my condition.”

Finally stopping her note-making, Twilight lifted her head. “Your condition?” she asked.

“I have thaumic atrophy. The ley lines within my body are like dried-out rivers. There’s still a trickle of mana going through, but it’s pretty limited. If I go past a certain threshold, my nervous system becomes completely devoid of magic and my body has to sort of cannibalize itself in order to use more magic, usually leaving me with severe magical exhaustion… Or in a coma, in extreme cases. And since my basic mana pool is so small due to my atrophied ley lines, I can barely use endothaumic or hybrid spells. I can only use exothaumic ones, and even then, it’s usually heavily limited. On a good day, I have enough magic in me to spark two to three exothaumic spells before suffering the first symptoms of magical exhaustion.”

“I… See,” Twilight hesitantly replied as she stopped taking notes.

Shuffling in his seat, Aphelion smiled weakly. “So… Is my theoretical understanding correct?”

“Well, it’s certainly… Exotic. Can you tell me more about these exothaumic and hybrid spells? More specifically, about the other sources of magic that can be… Harvested?” she asked, wincing slightly as she spoke. It was clear to Aphelion that Twilight was somewhat disturbed by his explanation, though there was also a hint of morbid curiosity present in her expression.

“Sure. There are a ton of other sources, with varying degrees of potency. Nature itself is a powerful source, though fairly inefficient and pretty rigid in how its magic can be weaved into spells. It’s fine for things like growing plants or healing living organisms, but not great for anything else. Inanimate objects can also be used, but these sources are usually pretty weak. The only exceptions are for areas that are naturally filled with magic, or for items specifically made for mana storage, like gems and artificial catalysts. The most potent source comes from other living and conscious beings: ponies, griffins, zebras and every other intelligent species. Tapping into the ley lines of others is a difficult skill to learn, but an effective one. It also weakens your opponents by exhausting their bodies and lowering their magical defenses.”

“...How does that last one sound to you, Aphelion?” Twilight asked, her face growing increasingly worried.

“Well… Until fairly recently, I just accepted it as a regular usage of magic. However, given everything I’ve learned recently, I’m starting to think the use of other sapient beings' ley lines is something frowned upon by the larger society.”

With a sigh of relief, Twilight scribbled a few more notes. “Good. You’re at least aware that dark magic is something to stay away from.”

Aphelion acquiesced. “I guess so, though you’re probably going to have to explain to me why it’s such a big deal. I still struggle to see what’s so controversial about it.”

“Well, for starters, any spell that uses the magic within somepony else’s body is bound to have terrible long-lasting effects on both the caster and the target, especially with repeated exposure. It’s kind of like…” Twilight paused her explanation as she searched for the right words, struggling to find a suitable analogy.

Aphelion tentatively guessed Twilight’s train of thought. “... Like donating blood?”

“Yes!” she exclaimed, “exactly! Just like there are different blood types, there are also different magic types. While the effects of using or giving somepony else’s magic aren’t as immediately threatening as donating the wrong type of blood, there are still risks included.”

“I… Can follow that logic.”

“Good. Anyhow, that’s just one reason why dark magic is frowned upon. It also raises ethical questions. I doubt you were taught to ask for consent whenever you wanted to use somepony else’s ley lines.”

Opening, then closing his mouth, Aphelion thought for a moment. “... I guess not. I was told that when using magic, the norm was to simply take as much as was needed and that if somepony didn’t want to have their own magic harvested, they would simply have to be strong enough to resist.”

The purple mare sighed. “The rest of the world doesn’t think like that. If strong ponies simply decided to take from anypony weaker than them, the world would quickly devolve into tyranny.”

“But the world’s already…” Aphelion started, then stopped.

“The world’s already what?” Twilight asked.

“I was going to say ‘under tyrannical rule’,” he chuckled.

“Is that what they taught you?”

“Basically, yes. From my family’s point of view, Celestia’s reign is tyrannical in nature and must be ended. They ingrained that idea so deep into our mind during our education, we never even thought about the possibility of that notion being false. It’s like a dogma.”

“... Like a dogma, huh?” Twilight repeated while carefully observing Aphelion. “And do you still believe that?”

“Not anymore. Getting captured in Canterlot was the best thing to happen to me. Just… Being confronted with the real world shattered my beliefs. I do have to thank Princess Celestia for that.”

Leaning in her chair, Twilight tilted her head to the side. There were countless questions she wished to ask him about, questions concerning the people who raised him, about their magic, about Aphelion’s life… But she instead decided to focus on the task at hoof. They had already lost quite a lot of time due to the initial awkwardness between them, and he would be in Ponyville for at least another week anyway. “... Anyhow, as I said earlier, your understanding of magic is atypical, Aphelion. Not wrong per se, but there are many nuances you weren’t taught about, as well as notions and concepts that aren’t usually part of a regular theoretical model of magic.”

“Well,” the gray unicorn began while grabbing a quill of his own and opening a notebook in front of him, “I’m ready to learn.”

Twilight smiled. Finally, they could truly begin their first lesson.

When Spike came back to the library, much later than he had originally planned to, the young dragon was pleasantly surprised to see the two unicorns still seated at the table having a lively discussion about matters that completely went over his head. Spike smiled, then stepped toward the table. Quickly noticing the dozens of sheets of papers scattered around as well as the many books laid on the table, he spoke up with a jovial tone. “So, lesson’s going well?” he asked.

Both unicorns turned their attention toward Spike, only now noticing his presence. “Oh, welcome back, Spike,” Twilight smiled. “We were just about to finish for the day.”

“It went well, I believe,” Aphelion nodded. “Still a lot of work to be done, but it’s not as hopeless as I originally thought.”

“Welp, that’s good to hear,” Spike replied while making his way toward the kitchen. “By the way, where are you sleeping, Aphelion?”

“At an inn near the train station. The… Daylight Inn, I think? I’ve already left my stuff there,” the stallion explained. “Princess Celestia paid for my room for the week.”

“Nice,” Spike quickly replied. “I heard the inn’s pretty nice.”

“It is,” the purple mare added. “Anyhow, let’s continue tomorrow, Aphelion. We can start on the practical aspects in the morning. You should take the rest of the day to rest and to explore Ponyville, too.”

With a faint smile, Aphelion nodded. “I will. Well, then,” he said as he got up from his chair while placing his notebook in his saddle bags. “See you tomorrow!”

Spike watched from afar as the gray unicorn gathered his notes and as Twilight wished him a good evening, before saying goodbye himself. As soon as Aphelion had left the library and closed the door behind him, Spike turned his attention back toward Twilight. “So, how are you feeling?” he asked.

“... Good, I think,” she hesitated.

“He seems like a nice guy.”

“He is, but… You know…” Twilight sighed. “I still don’t know if I can trust him.”

“Hm. You can still ask Celestia to have somepony else teach him.”

She moved her head from side to side. “No, I’d rather do it myself. Plus, Princess Celestia counts on me. Still, though, I don’t know why she’s bothering so much with him. Anypony else would’ve just been sent to jail, for the misuse of dangerous magic and for infiltrating the castle.”

With a quick shrug, Spike headed toward the kitchen as he spoke. “I’m sure Celestia has her reasons.”

“Yes, but… Isn’t it insulting, especially to Shining Armor?”

“Whaddya mean?”

“From what I understood, Aphelion and these two other mares made a mockery of the royal guard some time before Luna’s return. And now, instead of being punished, Princess Celestia decided to completely exonerate them as well as helping him relearn magic. Why do they get this preferential treatment?”

“Once again, Celestia’s bound to have her own reasons. You can always ask her, too.”

The purple mare groaned before resting her head on the wooden table in front of her. “I tried to, when we first got the letter telling us to help Aphelion, remember? Apparently, being one of the Bearers as well as Celestia’s personal student doesn’t get me a high enough clearance…”

“Ah. Well… Well, I guess there’s nothing more to be done about it. Just do your best and hope that Celestia tells you more with time.”

“I know, you’re right, Spike, but… Still, I thought she told me everything. I thought we had that kind of relationship, y’know, but apparently not.”

Spike sighed, unsure of what to say. Despite his nonchalant attitude, he agreed with Twilight. The fact that Princess Celestia was hiding things was, to him, highly suspicious. He wondered for a brief moment if Aphelion had a role to play in that weird explosion that happened in the woods outside Canterlot more than a month ago. Spike, just about to ask Twilight about it, then heard the mare’s stomach grumble from across the room. “... Want me to cook dinner tonight?”

“... Yes, please.”

He nodded, then made his way into the kitchen. Twilight was already troubled enough as is by this whole situation, the last thing she needed was to spend even more time ruminating about it.

Besides, Spike was getting hungry as well.

When Aphelion pushed the door leading to his room, he couldn’t help but to let out a sigh of relief. It had been a long day, and he was glad to finally be able to finally relax and unwind. Quickly trotting up to his bed and letting himself fall on the mattress, he closed his eyes as the events of the day replayed in his mind.

The trip from Canterlot to Ponyville had been quite long, but to Aphelion, it passed by in what felt to him like mere moments. Sitting next to a window and blankly staring at the wilderness outside, his thoughts wandered back to the events that had transcribed at his father’s manor. The woods the train was passing in front of served as a reminder of the many dead and wounded ponies after his impromptu raid. Despite everything, Aphelion still felt responsible for being unable to save them all.

In his mind, he played a huge part in that tragedy. Had he decided not to go back home, these ponies would still be alive and well. Aphelion’s presence had been the spark that lit up the fuse leading up to the tragedy.

His hooves were covered in the blood of dozens of ponies, some innocent, others not so much. Still, none deserved death.

Staring at his forelegs as he laid in bed, his eyes began to tear up. He took a deep breath, then closed his eyes. It couldn’t have been for nothing, he thought. It had to. He had to convince himself of it. Had he not been there, the Pact could have harvested Nightmare Moon’s essence. To what end, he didn’t know, but it didn’t take a genius to understand that this outcome would’ve been catastrophic.

All he could do was to move on, to keep going forward. To become better, to protect everypony from the Crescent Pact… Even those still working for the cult. They were, just like him before, brainwashed victims waiting to be freed. Just like he was given a second chance by Celestia, Aphelion had decided to do his best to give others the same opportunity for a normal life to those like him.

The first step for him was to completely relearn magic. As he had been told by multiple other ponies since his arrest in Canterlot, the arcane powers used by the Pact were dark and foul in nature, something to be avoided at all costs by sane unicorns. He still struggled to fully grasp how magic, what was just a tool to him until recently, could be so malignant. And yet, he placed his trust upon Celestia’s judgment and upon Twilight’s expertise.

However, a small part of him wondered. By escaping the Pact’s grasp and beginning to follow the path laid out by Celestia, had he simply replaced a dogma with another? What if he stepped from one fanatical belief to the other? Was there even such a thing as a reasonable approach to life?

His tired mind led him down unending winding thought paths, all the way until Aphelion fell asleep just as the sun began to make its way down the sky. And as Aphelion fell into a deep state of rest, the stresses of the day lifting away and dissipating into his subconscious, a creature in the next room woke up from its own sleep.

The creature, a feminine equine form with leathery bat wings and a coat as dark as the night itself, yawned. She grumbled as she glanced at the window, the last sun rays of the day burning her eyes and causing her to reach for the bedside table next to her. Grabbing a pair of dark glasses, she placed them over her magenta eyes before groggily heading toward the small bathroom attached to her room.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror while brushing her long gray mane. Spending a good half hour on her appearance making sure to be as much eye candy as possible, she smirked when faced with the finished result. Perfect, she thought.

And just as she was about to leave her room, she noticed an envelope right underneath her door. She saw her own name on it, Prurience, as well as the Crescent Pact’s seal. Grabbing the envelope with one of her wings, she quickly opened it and read the letter’s contents. She grinned from ear to ear. “Finally,” she said aloud, “the chicken has come to roost.”

After being stuck in this backwater town for two weeks, Prurience was finally able to start having some fun.

Author's Note:

Welp, finally done with the first part of the remake of "The Student" arc. Still slowly getting back in the swing of things, so bear with me if I'm a bit rusty.

This chapter's main goal is to set up a few points and ideas that'll play a role in upcoming chapters/arcs. More specifically, I went a bit more in-depth with Aphelion's understanding of magic. Not the most exciting chapter, admittedly, aha.

Hopefully, part 2 of the remake won't take nearly as much time to write.

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