Intro: A Word with the President
A rapping came from the large oak door at the far end of the President's office, and he glanced up from his papers regarding funding for several schools, and he called out to the door, "Yes?"
The door opened and his secretary poked her head in, "Sir, Doctor Hooves, the Headmaster of the Canterlot Academy, is here for an appointment with you."
"Show him in," he returned his gaze to his papers as a light brown Earth Stallion walked in, and the large oak door closed with a certain force that shook the wall behind the approaching Doctor.
The Doctor sat down in one of the two chairs provided in front of the President's large onyx desk, and he waited for the President to finish his paperwork.
Silence held the air, it looked as if he was sitting in a still painting, for the President's office was rather luxurious: a sharp style of dark colored wood and onyx, with several paintings of various Academies that belonged to the Institution, and large drapes over the massive windows behind the President, letting just a sliver of light inside the gaping windows.
The sound of the President writing something with a pen held in his white magic aura on the papers scattered in front of him echoed throughout the room, the only other sound audible enough other than the Doctor's hearts beating at a mad rate in his chest.
The pen was released from the magic grasp. The Doctor's ears pricked up. The President shuffled his papers together in a swift motion and placed them aside, taking his eyeglasses off and placing his hooves on his onyx desk, "Doctor Hooves.. Headmaster of the Canterlot Academy, a doctrine in Unicorn History, and History in general.."
The President sat back and stared at the Headmaster, "So.. what are you here for?"
The Headmaster sat up straight, clearing his throat and adjusting his tie, "It is the start of the next semester Mr. President,"
The President nodded, "Indeed it is,"
The Headmaster adjusted his tie again, "And I would like to discuss a matter of rankings among students, more specifically that of the top three."
The President furrowed his eyebrows, "What of these three?"
The Headmaster hesitated, "My apologies: the top two."
The President awaited an answer, "Sir these two, Twilight Sparkle and Trixie Lulamoon, they're scores are.. astonishing.."
The President nodded, "And..?"
The Headmaster adjusted his tie again, "Sir.. everything about them, their grades, scores, rank.. they're.. the same.."
The President's eyes widened, "Exactly the same?" The Headmaster bit his lip and slowly nodded.
The President leaned back in his chair, his face widened in astonishment, "And how old are these students?"
The Headmaster hesitated, "I'm not exactly sure sir, but I do know that they're both young mares sir,"
Silence held the moment. The Headmaster adjusted his tie, becoming more and more anxious as the President sat back and stared at him. He adjusted his tie once more, "And so.. I.I.. Um.. Their scores have outmatched our greatest student so far sir," The President raised an eyebrow, "Sunset Shimmer sir, both of their scores have outdone her highest scores."
The President sat forward in his chair, "You mean My Daughter? Celestia's own Private Student?"
The Headmaster nodded, "For young mares they sure are bright compared to even our older, more distinguished students."
The President sat back, "I see. Do these two students attend Canterlot Academy?"
Their was a pause. "No sir.. but.."
"Then I want both of them attending Canterlot Academy immediately!"
The President jumped up from his chair, which startled the Headmaster, "A-As you wish sir.."
The President sat back down and sighed, adjusting his cup that held several of his pens back to where it was before he stood up, "Now, I do recall the name of Twilight Sparkle: she was hoof picked by Princess Celestia herself before the beginning of the semester right?"
The Doctor nodded, "Indeed she was sir, what of it?"
"If she is in Princess Celestia's little group, is this Trixie Lulamoon in anything related to this subject of higher education?"
The Doctor shook his head, "No, she's in the old Hoofington Academy after all,"
The President nodded, "I see. So Twilight Sparkle is already at the Canterlot Academy, Correct?" The Doctor nodded, "Very well, then I want Trixie Lulamoon transferred to the Canterlot Academy immediately, and make sure to give her higher level classes."
The Doctor hesitated, "Do you wish for this Trixie Lulamoon to be in the same classes as Twilight Sparkle? It seems that is what you are inferring."
"Of course I am you bloody idiot!" The President rang out to the Headmaster.
Their was a silence held in the exchange of angry eyes, until the Doctor stood up, "You don't seem interested in the fact of these two beating your daughter sir,"
The President shot daggers at the Headmaster, "But I see a something great in these two young mares, and it's a shame if this is your ego clouding your mind,"
"My ego doesn't fog my thoughts Hooves, watch your tongue now.." The President pointed a hoof at the Doctor.
"Why can't you think of it sir? Why can't you see that these two are bound to be the benchmark of what a Unicorn is capable of regarding to magic? I've never seen such a thing in my life! Can't you see?!" The Doctor threw his hooves out to try to sway the President.
"Fine. If you see good in these two, then do it. I trust in you Doctor, but this seems to be out their in your ways, so I expect good results."
The President sat down while the Doctor remained standing. The President took out his papers and continued his work.
The President glanced up to see the Doctor still standing in front of his desk, "What are you still doing here? Go! Make this farfetched idea work! I want results in a month!"
The Headmaster smiled, turned around and walked to the door, closing the large oak door shut behind him.
Chapter 1: Canterlot Academy
Twilight Sparkle walked the long halls of the Royal wing of the Academy, her small hoof steps echoing throughout the cold, white hall, with the windows letting in the warm glow the sun. The feeling of warmth clinging to her urged her forward into a brisk trot, she was after all heading to her favorite period: Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.
She felt giddy as she rounded the corner, her saddlebag stocked full of various books, a wide smile over her cheery face. She approached the the usual guard posted at the classroom door, and he gave a warm smile, "Afternoon Ms. Sparkle," the guard said as she approached him.
Twilight looked up to the old Guard Pony, "Afternoon to you too Greymane!"
The guard chuckled, "Eager to see the Princess, Ms. Sparkle?"
She nodded anxiously, "You bet! You of all the guards here know this is my favorite period of the day!"
Greymane chuckled, "I'm just Celestia's personal guard, there isn't any other guards here. Security guards maybe."
The naive filly formed an O with her mouth, "Well, what rank are you?"
"You've asked me the same thing everyday Ms. Sparkle; now enough chatting, you should get to class," Greymane opened the door wide for the energetic filly as she scurried inside, a eager smile still on her face.
On a red cushion sat a large, white-pink Alicorn, her rainbow mane flowing into different colors, and a warm smile under her watchful eye.
"Princess Celestia!" The energetic azure filly ran up to her and gave a low bow.
"Ah, my faithful student, talking with Greymane no doubt? you're a minute late." Celestia glanced up to the clock.
The energetic filly's purple eyes shrunk, darting up to the clock and sure enough she was a minute late, "Oh Princess! I'm so sorry! I promise.."
Her voice was halted by an amused chuckle, "Oh you don't need to apologize Twilight, you always talk to Greymane before class anyways, now go take a seat,"
Twilight smiled, and walked over to a 'seat' which was a small cushion she always sat on, right next to an older yellow mare with golden and bright red mane and electric light green eyes, watching the smaller student sit next to her, "Hiya Sunset Shimmer!"
The older mare scoffed, rolling her eyes upwards and back down to the filly, "Hello Sparkle, still the only classmate that I adore having with me."
Twilight's face lit up, "Really? Aw, thanks Shimmer!" The filly looked up to the older mare, who muttered under her breath about being sarcastic.
Sunset Shimmer sat her bag to the right of her, and Twilight watched carefully and mimicked her actions and placed her smaller saddle bag to the right of her. Sunset took out all of her books an sorted them out in front of her, until taking each one and placing them into a neat orderly stack with the use of the green magical grasp. Twilight looked down to her own bag, taking out the books and set them in front of her, and focused hard to grab each individual book into a stack, just like Sunset Shimmer's.
Twilight seemed a little disappointed she couldn't levitate multiple objects at once yet, unlike what Sunset did to all of her books. One of her books, which was all about levitation and other illusion spells taught her how to levitate one object, but she still hasn't grasped the concept of holding several objects, mainly from what was mentioned in the book about something regarding objects of different size and mass made it difficult to properly focus on holding the object, let alone focus on many other objects with various size and mass.
"Twilight!" Princess Celestia's voice spoke up in front of her, "Huh?" Twilight looked up from her Illusion Spell book, she unknowingly was levitating the book in front of her, let alone the rest of her stack of books the was on top of the book she pulled out, all with magic.
"I see you are studying Levitation magic.." Celestia smiled, amused by Twilight's desire to learn about the concept.
"Um.. Yes?" She half-nodded, surprised she was still maintaining the spell, until it started to weigh in on her mental focus and she released the spell, causing the books to fall to the ground in a heap, "But I still need to work on it," Twilight rubbed the back of her head.
"Mhmm, don't worry about it, you'll get it eventually," Celestia smiled, her motherly eyes moving to Sunset Shimmer and resting on the young mare, "And what about you Sunset Shimmer? Have you been studying anything in particular? Something you need help with?"
Sunset Shimmer shrugged, "Well.. I've been studying about teleportation magic.. and sorta singed myself trying to teleport a long distance.." Shimmer eyed her mane, as if it was still stained with scorch marks from her previous attempt.
Celestia nodded, "I see, well Teleportation is a much more advanced magic than Levitation Magic, but none the less, it can be learned, right?" Sunset Shimmer shrugged, unsure of herself.
"Well how did you learn how to perfect levitation magic, hm?" Celestia eyed Twilight, who had her her mouth in a o, her eyes sparkling as she listened intently to the lesson on advanced magic.
"I learned by reading a book about it, and then trying it myself," Sunset glanced down to Twilight, a little amused of the little student, a small smile forming at the side of her face, like she was looking at a different colored version of her, a smaller version.
"Exactly, now you didn't just jump to teleporting a long distance right?"
Sunset shook her head.
"We start with the basics right?"
Sunset nodded.
"Then start from the basics and work your way up, okay?" Celestia smiled, noticing the confidence coming to her student's face, "Okay! So does that mean were going outside?" Sunset glanced at the door to the balcony.
"Ooh! We get to go outside?!" Twilight sprung to her hooves, already excited.
Celestia rose to her hooves as well, "Yes, you two go ahead and grab your books on Teleportation magic in the Transportation Spell book, I'll meet you outside after I tell Greymane we're going outside."
Sunset stood up and grabbed her Transportation Spell book and walked out the balcony door, with little Twilight following her close behind, a book resting on her back and a wide smile on her face.
Celestia smiled to herself, she enjoyed her small class of two. Made them real close with each other. She opened the door with her magic, but to her surprise found the Headmaster standing in the doorway, "Oh, good afternoon Doctor Hooves, is their something I can help you with?"
The Earth Stallion had a rather somber face, "Yes, I need to speak with you about a recommendation from the President of the Institution."
"Oh my, The President, what does he need?" Celestia seemed a little concerned with the mention of President involved with why the Headmaster was here, "He has a recommendation of another student to join your 'group' and well.." he glanced pat her to see the two students waiting for their mentor, "Can we speak about this in private?"
Celestia glanced back to her waiting students, then back to the Headmaster, "If you wish."
Twilight sat by Sunset Shimmer, who was standing with a rather surprised look on her face, watching their mentor walk out of the room with the headmaster.
"Wadya think the headmaster wants?" Twilight looked up to Sunset Shimmer, who sat down and sighed, "I don't know kid.."
Twilight returned her gaze to the door, wondering how long it will take for Princess Celestia to talk to the headmaster.
"Ya think it's something important?" Twilight looked up to shimmer again, her curious violet eyes could melt Sunset Shimmer's stubborn attitude to make a humored smile appear on her face, "It's obviously important kid,"
"Oh," Twilight looked down, "Of course, anything with the headmaster has to be important, right?"
Sunset shrugged, "Probably.." she herself did not know what the headmaster has to say, especially to somepony like Celestia.
"Who knows.." Sunset decided to drop the topic, she couldn't think of many reasons the headmaster would need to talk to Celestia in private, "Besides kid, we should be learning how to teleport," she pulled out her book of Transportation Magic and placed it front of her, waiting for Twilight to do the same so she could occupy her time teaching the little filly.
"Yay!" Twilight whipped her book out and set it perpendicular to sunset's, ready to learn.
"Now," Sunset chuckled at Twilight's excitement, "Do you know what page it's on?"
"Chapter 13, section 12, page 11!" Twilight took a deep breath after sputtering out the mouth-full, while Sunset gave a warm smile, unfazed by Twilight's quick response that would have other ponies left bewildered. Sunset turned to the page and waited for Twilight to find the page as well.
"Did you find the page?" Sunset Shimmer waited patiently for the filly to find the page, until Twilight looked up and nodded. Sunset Shimmer tilted her head, "Alright, read to me what it says."
Twilight licked her lips and cleared her throat, "Teleportation magic is an advanced form of transportation magic, requiring a great deal of mental focus, and apti- aptidtudu- um.."
"Aptitude." Sunset Shimmer finished the complex word.
"Oh, Aptitude?" Twilight glanced at Sunset to affirm she pronounced the word correctly, and she nodded with a smile.
Twilight raised and eyebrow, "Wait what does aptitude even mean?"
"The ability to learn something, and I'm certain you have what it takes for that," Sunset gave a teasing smile while Twilight scowled at Sunset's remark, and Sunset chuckled, "I'm only teasing you kid, now keep reading."
Twilight held her frown for another brief moment until continuing to read, "For a Unicorn to teleport from one position to another is a rather simple feat if taken into consideration of the following: the user's initial position, the user's desired position, and the spell to initiate the mental process." Twilight paused and glanced up to Sunset Shimmer, who nodded for her to continue, "The spell phrase is: Me From Here to There." Twilight's horn glowed with an azure aura, put quickly faded out with the absence of required mental information to continue the spell.
"Why did nothing happen?" Twilight already knew the answer to her question, but asked it without thinking first, and Sunset Shimmer tapped Twilight's book with her hoof with smug grin on her face, and Twilight looked to where she pointed, "Now to continue the spell after the phrase is spoken, the user must know their relative position and an brief idea of where the desire to relocate to, otherwise the spell will dissipate and nothing will happen."
Twilight looked up, "Oh, so if I don't think bout it before hoof, nothing will happen."
Sunset Shimmer rolled her eyes, "You already know that silly filly, otherwise you wouldn't know how to levitate things; you already answered your own question kid, now keep reading."
Twilight thought about it for a moment, until she realized the older mare was right, "Oh, right." Twilight looked back to her book and continued, "Now the tricky part comes into place, as knowing your position and the spell phrase is the easy part. Knowing where you want to relocate puts a hefty toll on your mental focus; but nonetheless, can be accomplished with the right precautions. Be weary this spell is moving your physical presence with your mental focus, so first trials usually do not go well because a simple step is skipped: closing your eyes. Closing your eyes allows you to retreat to focus on your mind to move you to that new location instead of your eyes distracting you; besides, you can't use magic with just your eyes!"
Twilight giggled, "I like the author of this book, always knows when to break up the seriousness with some humor."
Sunset Shimmer nodded, "Yeah, Stars Swirl the Bearded was quite an interesting unicorn, there's an entire section dedicated to him in the Royal Library."
Twilight's violet eyes widened, "Wow really? I wish I could read all of his books!"
Sunset stood up, "Maybe another time kid, but now we have to try out the spell."
Twilight sprung to her hooves, eager to try out the spell now that she read about it, "Can I go first?"
Sunset Shimmer shook her head, "Now let's not get ahead of ourselves, I want you to watch me do it first, OK?"
Twilight pouted, and sat down and watched Sunset Shimmer, "Okay.."
Sunset Shimmer drew her focus in and prepared herself to utter the spell phrase, closing her eyes to deepen her focus until Twilight spoke up, "Do you think Princess Celestia will be back to help us? She's been gone for a while now."
Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes and looked down to the purple filly, "I don't know kid, but whatever she talking to the headmaster it must be important," She didn't really want to head back to the topic, since she dismissed it already.
"You think she's talking about having another pony join us?" Twilight's question made Sunset Shimmer stumble a little at the sudden idea of another pony joining their rather small but private group.
"What do you mean kid?" Sunset Shimmer was a bit concerned now, her full attention on the filly, noticing her sudden sullen mood.
Twilight sighed, "I mean, it's fun having you and Celestia and all, but.." Twilight looked down, trying to figure out how to continue her sentence.
"..But?" Sunset Shimmer raised the fillies chin up to her with her hoof.
"I-I think it's kinda weird learning with older ponies, I mean.. I get older means wiser, but.." Twilight looked away from Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset Shimmer waited patiently.
"I think.. it would be fun to have some pony to have fun with around my age, you know?" Twilight was rather short of friends outside of school, other than maybe Lyra and occasionally her orphan friend Sparkler, but she wanted some pony to spend time with all through out the entire day.
Twilight raised her head up the concerned Sunset Shimmer, "Hey Sunset?"
Sunset Shimmer blinked, "Yes Twilight?"
Twilight took a deep breath "What's it like to have a best friend?"