In all my years, there was nothing like teaching a young one. They were always so curious and so naive, with some exception but even they were utterly adorable. Of course, given Nightmare Moon’s arrival approaching, I haven’t been able to do it as much as I’d have liked. I was lucky to have my current student and…
Sunset.
My heart just ached remembering her. Every tear, every smile, every argument. It never left me. Looking down at the young and innocent little Twilight, who could stop a beast’s heart with just a cute tilt of her head, I swore she would never head down that path. Never again. “So Twilight,” I smiled as she put her bags down beside her. “What do you wish to learn today?”
The little filly scrunched up her muzzle in thought. Oh she was just so precious. Almost like Chrysalis when she was young….Except not chewing on beetles. I wanted to pick her up and cuddle her all day. Sadly, I had a meeting tonight. No matter, I can cuddle her later.
Then she looked up at me with the most curious of expressions, “Can I fly?”
I quirked an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”
“Just the other day,” Twilight spoke. “I saw a pony that had wings like you but didn’t have a horn. Mommy said that was a pegasus and they get to fly all the time. Why can’t I fly?”
I chuckled. Oh, the questions of children. “Because you are a unicorn and not all unicorns can fly.”
Twilight frowned, “Not all?”
I nodded, “Flying is one of the many gifts each and every pegasus carries with them from birth. Just like you have your magic and Earth ponies have a connection to the earth. They come in many different forms and styles.”
“So I can’t fly?” Twilight pouted in despair.
No child will pout in my presence. I lowered my head and nuzzled her. She giggled, which sounded so cute. No, I have to stay focus. Teaching now, cuddling later. “Do you want to fly?”
Twilight looked up at me, with a sparkle in her eyes. “Yes, Princess Celestia.”
I chuckled and levitated a ball over and placed it in front of Twilight. It looked like a dull, gray sphere, but like magic does, there was always something more to it. “Pick up this sphere with your magic.”
Twilight nodded and closed her eyes. Her horn glowed and the magic flowed around the sphere. She gritted her teeth as she struggled to hold up the sphere. I could tell that something was wrong, as if she wasn’t able to push herself to her full potential. I smiled as I guessed why. It would take a while before she would regain all the energy she released when she got her cutie mark. Sweating, she smiled up at me as she raised the sphere shakily up to her head. “Like this?”
“Congratulations, Twilight.” I nodded. “You just lifted your own body weight.”
“I did?” Twilight said with awe, glancing at the sphere.
I nodded once more, “You see, this orb is rather special. When a unicorn touches it with it’s magic, the sphere is designed to copy the caster's body weight. It’s a good exercise to see how strong unicorns are, since a typical unicorn usually can only wield up to half times their weight with simple levitation.”
Twilight’s eyes widened, “So I can lift myself now? I can fly?” She seemed to be getting giddy, smiling wide. She probably would be pronking around if not for holding up the sphere.
I chuckled and grabbed the sphere away with my own magic. It was no trouble for me, given my own magic level. “You do show promise, but self-levitation is an art form in of itself. It’s one thing to levitate something else, it’s an entirely different manner to do so on yourself.”
Twilight tilted her head in such a cute manner. “What’s the difference?”
“Forming a layer of magic around yourself is tricky,” I tried to explain. “Normal levitation is about focusing on an outside object.” I picked up the sphere once more to show my point, before putting it back down. “To levitate yourself, you have to focus on yourself. Unicorns are beings of magic, so to do so, they have to use their own bodies to help the process.” My horn hummed to life and my body started to glow as the magic formed around myself. I raised myself into the air, to the awe of my precious student and then touched the ground and turned it off. “The second piece to the puzzle is control. It’s much easier to control something you can see. Beginners will have shaky bouts of control and will most likely flail around their first several attempts.”
“So how many ponies can do it,” Twilight asked.
My horn lit up and a series of numbers appeared before me. A nice little optical illusion. “Equestria stands with a population about ten million strong. Of those ten million, about two million of them are unicorns.”
“Why only two?” Twilight spoke up.
“Unicorns aren’t the most sturdy of races,” I explained. “As well, babies are rather… tricky to make.” It takes luck and determination for a unicorn to have a child. Given how the Sparkles have two healthy and strong children, I have no doubt they have quite the active sex life. “Now, for every hundred unicorns that are born, ten of them have the ability to ‘self-levitate’ themselves. Let’s divide the two million by a hundred.” The numbers changed as I spoke, going down to two hundred thousand. “And out of these, ten percent can do so effectively on their own. So-”
“Two hundred thousand divided by ten is twenty thousand,” Twilight spoke up.
I nuzzled her, “Very good, my faithful student. Yes, currently there are around twenty thousand unicorns who have the ability and power to self-levitate.”
“And I’m one of them?” The little filly’s eyes sparkled with glee. I nodded and this time, she started pronking. Twilight, you are going to kill me with cuteness one of these days.
“Now, now,” I giggled, resisting the urge once more to take her in my arms. “You still need to be trained and self-levitation isn’t the most reliable.”
“So I can’t go flying like the pegasus?”
I shook my head, “Self-levitation is like flying, that’s true. However, it has limitations. Unicorns don’t have a pegasi’s stamina, so said levitation can only last perhaps a couple of hours if they don’t push themselves. If they start casting other magics, which a unicorn can do since levitation is only a idle spell, they will drain themselves much faster. A pegasus can fly for hours on end, for several days in some cases, before tiring even in combat.”
“Wow,” Twilight smiled. “I wish I was a pegasus, then I could fly for days.”
I chuckled, “Unicorns have their own perks.”
“Can I go fast when I levitate?”
I shook my head again, “Not very. At most, perhaps as fast as a novice flier if you train hard enough.”
“So you don’t go fast and you get tired quickly,” Twilight noted, taking out her notepad and starting to write everything out. Adorable~ After she finished, she looked up at me for me. “Is there a better way?”
I smiled, “There is one way. Artificial wings can last up to a day and don’t tire a the wearer out. As well, they allow you to go faster and are much more nimble. However, they are rather weak and can be burned up if you get too high.”
“Can I have one of those first?” Twilight asked, wagging her tail in excitement. “I want to fly now.”
I held up a hoof, biting back a laugh as I did so. “All in due time, Twilight. First we….” She was giving me the puppy stare, big eyes and pouty lip and everything. That’s just not fair. I sighed and my horn glowed. A pair of butterfly like wings formed on her back.
Twilight squealed in joy. “I have wings and a horn. Does that make me a princess, Princess?”
“A princess’ title is earned not by possession, but by deeds.” I smiled. Perhaps one day, little Twilight. Perhaps one day you will reach your full potential and become an alicorn and then spread the word of friendship! All will find friendship and happiness under this new order! MWUHAHAHAHA!
“MWUHAHAHAHA!” Twilight laughed, before looking at me in confusion. “Why are we laughing, Princess?”
I stopped laughing. Oh dear, I let my friendship plans get the best of me again. This is just like that time that the cake competition came into town… They will never find those cakes. Getting back to Twilight, I had to distract her. “Do you want to go flying?”
She jumped up and down around me, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
I giggled. This was certainly going to be an interesting student.
Author's Note
In response to Starlight's self-levitation/flight, I decided to analyze it. What better way to analyze and explain?
Filly Twilight!
I hope you all enjoyed this story and learned something. That and had some fun.
