Chivalry Reborn

Chapter 18:

Magic 101

“-Thus, the world was saved from evil. Celestia and Luna both took their rightful places as rulers of Equestria.”

Twilight had just finished her incredibly long lecture on the history of Equestria, and the major events that had taken place over the land for the past 1500 years or so. While I probably should have been listening to the whole thing, I merely sat there, nodding my head occasionally, giving the impression I was listening for the most part. She probably wouldn’t have noticed I wasn’t listening even if I wasn’t nodding, anyway. She was that into teaching and spreading her knowledge. I did, however, managed to get enough information to summarize the basic history.

From what I heard from the sections of her rant I actually listened to, this world has always been in peaceful times while ruled by Celestia for as long as civilized ponies have roamed the Earth. The world before then was harsh, full of mischief and disorder. The kind of world where anyone you knew could very likely be found dead the next day. It basically sounded like one of those rotten neighborhoods that my parents told me to always try to avoid when I was younger. …Actually, no. It sounded like the harsher side of Earth in general.

Anyway, Celestia appeared one day with her little sister Luna as a young mare, seeking to put a stop all the madness. Celestia is actually considered the first alicorn in Equestria history in general, and is one of the few warriors of the land who could defeat monsters in the name of justice and for the sake of peace. Due to this many ponies believed that she and her little sister COULD do it. Around this time, the corrupted tyrant Discord, the God of Chaos, ruled the land with an iron claw (I didn’t get this part), and was amused by Celestia’s effort, and challenged her to a war for Equestria.

Celestia accepted the challenge, calling for the other ponies to stand by her side to fight for peace. The majority of them took up their weapons to face and defeat Discord, while the remaining few who remained loyal to Discord’s rule ran back to his castle. The battle lasted for 10 years, having to kill and maim millions of ponies and creatures. Thankfully, Celestia ultimately beat Discord with the help of her sister and some sort of special spell, turning him to stone. Afterwards, both of them took the place of rulers of the land, naming it Equestria.

Strangely, nothing was said about Julius, even though Luna said he was one of the ponies that had one of the greatest parts of the war against Discord. I guess he was hidden in history out of a request. It’d be hard to live in peace with your name all over textbooks.

“Any questions?” Twilight asked sweetly, eager to hear what I thought about all of this information.

I left the question sitting in the air for a moment, letting myself finish thinking about what I learned with this lesson.

“Alright here’s one.” I started, shifting my legs slightly. “Where did Celestia come from to begin with? She couldn’t have come out of nowhere.”

Twilight paused, thinking about the answer deeply. “Actually, no pony really knows.” She admitted. “I’ve never really had the thought come to mind, and there’s been no documented ancestry that shows the Princess having parents.”

“I see…” I muttered, looking up towards the clock up high on the wall above the door. It was 10:30. I’ve killed another hour hanging around a unicorn, and I’m still a pony. I could have turned back to a human the entire time, if I knew were going to go over history the whole time!

I stood up, waking up my legs from sitting there for so long. I’ve been sitting on a cushion Twilight had brought out, sitting and listening the whole time. The joints in my leg whined in protest at the order to move, but still obeyed by a miracle.

“In any case,” I purposed, as I shook my legs to snap them back to full awareness. “Why don’t we practice some actual magic now? I want to know if I can even use this horn on my head.”

“Oh!” Twilight blinked, probably just remembering that I just recently became a horse. “Sure, just let me get a couple supplies, and we can begin.” She disappeared into the kitchen, and the sound of pots and pans began clattering inside.

What is that girl doing? I sighed, starting to pace around the lobby. I think I’m getting used to walking like this now. I’m not really stumbling anymore. I felt kind of proud of myself for learning how animals walk so quickly, even though it felt pretty weird.

From behind me, I could hear the library door chime as it opened.  I turned my head to see who had come in. I hoped it wasn’t a customer. I don’t really want people seeing me as an alicorn. Who knows what talk will come out because of it.

Thankfully, it was just Spike, holding a big brown paper bag. I guess he had just gone grocery shopping. He was staring at me with wide eyes, but then shifted that shocked gaze into a questioning look. He raised an eyebrow and asked “Who the heck are you?” pointing his claw at me.

Everywhere I go, it’s the same reaction... I let out a small chuckle, before I answered him. “It’s me, Spike. Winston Flash, the human from yesterday.”

“Pffft! Yeah, right!” Spike scoffed, rolling his eyes. “And just how can you prove that?”

“You saw me talking to Princess Luna last night, right?” I responded to his skepticism with facts only he and I would know. “On the roof, right? I did say I’ll drop by to talk about it tomorrow, so here I am.”

Spike stopped his snippy attitude to stare at me with a slightly surprised look. He shook his head lightly, walking towards me with the bag still in his small purple arms. “I guess you did.” He passed by me, and went into the kitchen himself. “Wait here, a moment. I need to put these up.”

“Yahuh,” is all I answered with, as I watched him enter the kitchen and notice Twilight crouching down, looking through the closet.

“Twilight, what are you doing…?” Spike obviously sounded a little weirded out.

“Oh, welcome back home, Spike!” Twilight pulled her head to smile at her assistant. “I’m just looking for some sturdy pots for Winston to practice on. I’ll be teaching him how to levitate items, seeing that he’s just recently turned into a pony like us.” She paused a moment. “And Winston is the alicorn in the lobby, if you didn’t know yet.”

“I know that, thanks Twilight.” He let out a puff of air come out, starting to put his purchases into the fridge in an organized fashion. Twilight probably told him to do it like that, I’m sure.

About a few minutes later, he came out shaking his claws lightly. “Now that that’s that,” he perked, sitting on bottom stair, “what did you want to talk about?”

“Just one simple question, honestly.” I admitted, pushing my glasses closer to my eyes. Not very easy to do so with hooves, you see. “Just how much did you hear, last night?”

Spike looked to the side, a slightly sorry look in his eyes. “I didn’t hear much at all, honestly.” He scratched the back of his head, recalling what he was doing at the time. “I had just brought Twilight home from the party. She had a some weird juice, and then started to walk funny, so I walked her home.”

“They make alcohol here?” I popped in, asking what was on my mind. I was honestly surprised, to say the least. This world of happiness, mythical creatures, and abstract construction still had such a thing as ale and wine?

Drunken ponies!? Wow, that’d be a sight! My mental self  bubbled at the thought. That’d be the funniest thing ever!

“What’s alcohol?” Spike tilted is head, curious and confused.

Oh right, BABY dragon. Too innocent. “It’s nothing, Spike.” I waved his curiosity aside. Best to tell him that later in life. “Keep going. What happened next.”

Spike looked at me puzzled for a moment, before he continued. “When we got home, I noticed that there was a royal chariot parked alongside the library. When I helped Twilight to bed, I could hear you two talking about something.”

He shifted a little, looking uncomfortable. “When I peeked up at what was going on, Princess Luna was already gone, and you seemed to have noticed me.” He looked towards me, with a slightly guilty look on his face. “Sorry about trying to sneak into your business.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” I assured him, “you didn’t hear anything major, so it’ll be fine. Just remember, I can’t really afford to tell anypony about what we talked about. Hell, I can’t many ponies see me like this!” I pointed at myself with a playful grin.  “But don’t make it a habit to eavesdrop, okay?”

“You got it.” Spike hopped off the stair, smiling a little. He then sauntered upstairs. “Well, I have to organize the library a bit. See ya around, Winston!”

“Yep.” I waved him off, stretching back. Okay, that settles the possibility of people unnecessarily knowing about this whole Flare affair. So now all need to do is learn about some magic, and then I can turn back to a human to do…..whatever. I can just think of something else to do afterwards.

It was then that Twilight came back into the room; this time carrying a bunch of pots, pans, and a small casket of apples. I looked at the array of items trailing behind her, trying to figure out what she was planning to do with it all.

“Okay, Winston,” Twilight stated, placing the pots and pans in front of me, putting the apples next to her, “this will be a simple exercise to see if you can use the very first spell most unicorns learn.”

“Lemme guess, levitation?” I pretty much knew what she was training me in, I just didn’t know why pots and pans along with apples.

“Yep!” She smiled, nudging a small black, metal pot towards me. “First of all, we’ll see if you can use it, by trying to lift this.”

I blinked, staring at the little pot, confused on how I should even start doing that. I look back up to Twilight, perplexed. “So, do I just tell it to go up in the air, or…..”

“Oh, no, no!” She shook her head, lifting a hoof.

Oh god, she’s about to rant again… I noticed during her earlier lecture that every time Twilight is about to begin ranting on a topic, she lifts her hoof up to side of her face.

“You see it’s quite simple when it comes to spells like this. You need to tap into magic from a source of some kind. Some magic is found within all living creatures, so most if not all living things have a bit inside.-

“Annnnnd…” I stopped her early, before she really started working her jaw, “I can tap into MY magic, how?” I raised an eyebrow up slowly, a mixture of annoyance and interest in my expression.

“You can tap into your reservoir of magic by simply willing it to come out.” She explained, closing her eyes. “Just think about  the item you want to move sitting there.”

Her horn started to shine, purple sparkles gathering around it. “Think about it slowly lifting off the ground.” A frying pan that was lying on the side soon became raveled in purple magic, slowly floating away from the ground.

Twilight opened her eyes, smiling at how I was watching in interest. She put the pot back down, having made her point. “If you do all of that, you should be able to do it too!”

“Hmmmn…” I moved my gaze from Twilight back to the small pot before me. I leaned down, staring at it.

Okay….Focus...

I slowly closed my eyes, letting a mental image of the pot sit there, in the center of my mind’s vision.

Imagine it lifting up….

I body feels like its burning up on the inside.

Lift….

The pot wobbles there in my mind, clattering against the ground lightly.

Lift….!

After a moment, it gently hovered off the ground.

“You did it!” Twilight clopped her hooves in applause. I opened my eyes, seeing in front of me.

“I did?” I look up to see that the pot that was in front of moments ago now floating over my head. It was covered in a black aura, red sparkles glistening around it.

“I did!” I breathed in success. I got up to stare at the pot, a giant grin plastered on my face.

I imagined the pot turning its underside to me, and watched with my own eyes, as the pot complied to my mind’s command in reality.  “This is pretty awesome!”

“It’s really that fascinating, isn’t it?” Twilight was still smiling,  seeming to enjoy my interest in magic. “Would you like to keep practicing?”

“Sure,” I placed the pot down as I answered “what do you have in mind?”

“A simple exercise to see if you can effectively use levitation magic.” She began to explain her new test, shining her horn

once more to lift a rather large and deep pot into the air, tilting it in an angle.

“All you need to do is pick up one of the apples from the casket, and toss it into this pot.”  She pointed at the now makeshift basketball hoop pointing out high up on the wall.

“So basically Basketball practice with magic…?” I raised an eyebrow at the silly concept. It was logical to me, but silly nevertheless.

“Basketball..?” Twilight sounded deeply confused. She looked towards me, looking at me like an alien.

“Nevermind…” I muttered, facepalming. (or Facehooving)  instead of the normal slap against my face, I accidentally whacked myself in the bridge between my eyes. Okay.Ow. I ignored the small sting of pain, making a mental note to watch where I aimed next time I felt like I had to do it again.

“What are you-?” Twilight began, expressing just how weirded out she was.

“Just forget it,” I slapped her question aside, groaning to myself, “let’s just give this test a try.”

Twilight peered at me curiously, before nodding her head and watched on.

I stared at the casket of apples, imagining one that was on top lifting away from the rest, into the air. Slowly, it came to fruition in the real world, as a bright red apple, nestled at the very top of the pile, became covered in my magic, and very hesitantly floated into the air .

I turned my attention to the pot hanging off the wall. Okay, now aim…and... The apple hovered to my side, turning slowly towards the pot against the wall.

There! I willed the apple to hurtle towards the pot, watching the fruit comply, as it flung itself in an upward angle.

Go on… I watched the apple fly across the library, approaching the pot at a high speed. Go in…

It's almost there….

And..

SPLAT!

….Smashed into the wall right above it.

I sighed, turning back to Twilight. Who had a shy smile from watching my failure.

“You simply put too much power into your magic.” She rationed me with a logical reason for why I screwed up.  “It happens all the time. Now go on,” she nudged the rest of the casket towards me with an urging look in her eyes, “keep trying.”

“…”

I sighed, staring at the apples. I hated having to practice at something. But I’ve only been around this subject for two days, so I can’t blame myself or anything for me being so weak on the subject. Hell, I’m surprised I can even use magic to begin with, so I’d be a brat if I complained.

“….Right.” I let my horn radiate with a black aura once more, lifting a new apple. “I’ll get this soon enough, just you wait!”