Who am I?

I left without word to anyone else. I wanted to know more. I knew that there was always more, and I went searching for it. I would never know everything, but I wanted to get as close as possible. I ran into other ponies who had settled, and housed with them for a short while, offering my knowledge and taking what little they had to give. Before long I always moved again, the time I spent at each place growing shorter and shorter.

I had been near the beach... staring out at the vast, seemingly endless stretch of water laid out before me. For the longest while I just watched, looking out on the rolling waves. I knew the wind made the water toss, and I knew that if you drank from it you'd get sick. I wondered what was under the waves, and I wondered how to swim. My hoof stretched out to touch the tide, feeling the water lick my hoof before retreating once more.

I stood. I started, very slowly, walking into the water. It was cold, like liquid ice was moving all around me. I wanted to go back to being dry, but at the same time, the urge to teach myself how to swim was too strong for me to resist. I'd know something more. That was all that was on my mind.

Soon I was bobbing with nothing but my head above the water, and I tried kicking my legs. It didn't do anything. I tried kicking my hind legs, without the aid of my forehooves. It worked, but I had to use them eventually to part the water in front of my face. After about a minute of this, I realized, that I was swimming. I knew how to swim. I had taught myself!

Laughing with glee, I swam to shore again and shook myself off, wondering what else was possible if I could only teach myself...

~~

I went back home, greeted with warm smiles and open arms.The first thing I did that day, was talk to a friend of mine. "Nati?" I asked, walking up behind her. She blinked a few times, turning to face me.

"Riddle!" she cried with a wide grin, rushing up to me and giving me a hug. "Where've you been? We've all been pretty lost without you, you know."

I just smiled. "The place I've been to cannot be named, for it is more than one my dearest friend. But this I can say, for one faithful day, I taught myself how to swim."

"You went /that/ far?!"

Chuckling, I nodded. "Yes...but I need a little bit of your help now that I've returned."

~~

Nati was a unicorn, and magic was a concept I had never bothered to delve into until that moment. Why would I have bothered? I'm an earth pony! Still... The more knowledge, the more understanding. The more understanding, the more easily new concepts came. With this simple truth in hoof, I had Nati describe every spell she knew, scrawling every word she said on my tablets.

Again I noticed one of the many patterns I find in the most unlikely places. The aura. The bone protruding from their skulls was able to conduct the magic, but as I listened I thought of it not as the magic, but the mind. With this theory in hoof, I sent my friend away for the day, allowing myself to sit and think.

Because of the horn on the unicorns' head, their thoughts were much more easily projected. I brought my friend back the next day, and asked her to describe everything she felt as she was using magic. I was surprised to learn that magic was a surge of twisted emotions, thoughts, and the world around us. Seeing this I realized that there /was/ magic in the world, not just in the ponies themselves. It was the magic in /everything/ reacting to the pony's aura, allowing the unicorns to do such feats that they did.

Once again I sent my friend away, and contemplated these new bits of information. Eventually... I started experimenting. I'd meditate for hours, sitting in an empty, silent room, just clearing my head. From there, I would slowly start to shift the focus to my hooves, reaching one out and trying to pick up an object without touching it. The first few attempts were fruitless, but on the fifth try I got an aura to surround my hooves.

I was giddy, but as the feeling came to my mind it sputtered out. I cursed, and tried again. This time, I did not allow my emotions to get in the way of the flow of energy, but I simply let them hang in the back of my mind. Focusing, I tried to lift the small pebble in front of me. I suddenly felt it, its entire texture, weight and size without actually having my hooves on it, my eyes widening as I made it lift just an inch into the air.

I then let it drop, giggling with glee and pride as I stood, having taught myself something new once more.