Riley Ree

Even though I'd spent every last minute of my spare time on it, and some of the time Moon had spared, it had still taken me another month to get through all the exercises in the book—well, the ones before all the unicorn stuff.

Which is why I was at the castle on a weekend, waiting in line with much bigger ponies to see Princess Celestia.

They kept looking at me strange, as if somepony would suddenly come rushing in asking if their foal was here. Well, too bad! As each pony was seen, and everypony else shuffled forward, I moved forward too.

When I finally got to the front of the line, the pony behind me let out a sigh. "Honestly. Who's playing a joke here? Why is such a young filly out without her parents? Are you really going to entertain this charade?" He was talking over my head at the two Royal Guards standing on each side of the door, or possibly to the stallion standing behind a lectern.

"Ahem." The stallion behind the lectern leaned forward and looked down at me—then he winked. "Her ladyship, Riley Ree, daughter of Ambassador for the United States of America Clair Ree, was invited to attend upon Her Royal Highness' time today."

Okay, I really liked him! Turning my head to look back and up to the annoying pony, I stuck my tongue out with all the dignity that Princess Flurry had managed to convey when I'd seen her using it.

"Well, I never!"

The doors opened and the previous ponies came out, staring into each other's eyes as if bespelled—which they might have been. What if Princess Celestia had been replaced by Queen Chrysalis? What if—? I cut my maniacal thoughts off as I realized somepony had said my name.

"Riley, you can come in now," Celestia said. She'd apparently been waiting for me and was standing by the doors waiting for me to notice.

How long had I been daydreaming? Oh, well. "Coming, Princess Celestia." I trotted forward, the old book balanced on my back. "I finished the book—well, all the bits up to the horn parts. I decided to leave notations on what I thought each new chapter was teaching and why it was teaching it. That spread my notes out in little bits throughout each chapter."

"May I?" Celestia's horn started glowing and I noticed a half-smile on her snout.

Who was I to tell her no? Wait! Was this a test? Oh ho! I see what she's doing! Finding my center, I moved it down into the stone under my hooves and let the power of the ancient rocks flow up into my body. With all four hooves planted, I had summoned the ineffable power of the stone to prevent any foreign magic from affecting me! "Sure!"

At first it was just a little touch. Princess Celestia's magic felt no stronger than Dad's when he tried to pick me up. Then it started to get stronger, and stronger, and then I heard four cracking sounds.

My link with the rock under me shattered, the book jumped off my back. "W-What happened?" I asked.

"Look down, Riley Ree."

Of the huge, square marble stones that made up the floor, the one I was standing on had four huge cracks in it. I just kept staring at the broken rock in panic. "I-I-I didn't mean t-to!"

Walking toward me, Princess Celestia practically loomed huge over my tiny (compared to nearly any pony, really, but especially her) form. That's when I felt a rush of earth pony magic and looked down at my hooves. The stone was, once more, whole. "The truth of an alicorn is that we carry all three tribes' magic. The truth of what just happened was you only reinforced yourself, not the stone under your hooves."

"Oh. Uh, how do I do that?" Tapping my hoof on the stone revealed it to sound just the same as it did before I'd cracked it.

"There's exactly three ponies in history who have managed that feat. Clover, Luna, and myself. Of course, most earth ponies can be trained to grip to rock and to use it how you did, but to go further will be your test." Princess Celestia didn't walk toward her throne, instead heading for a side door. "Please let Bright Quill know I will be busy for the rest of the afternoon."

I followed her, ignoring the big Royal Guardpony who headed to the doors behind us. What I quickly realized was that given my size and given her size, I was never going to be able to keep up. "Uh, princess?"

When Princess Celestia turned to look back at me, she paused. "Oh. I keep forgetting how young you are here. Please, allow me." Her horn got brighter and brighter, then flashed really bright gold so I couldn't see anything else. Next thing I know, we're inside a building.

"Princess Celestia! We weren't expecting you today!"

Ignoring the mare behind the counter (since she was talking to the princess), I focused more and realized it was like the entrance to—Oh, there was a sign. Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Well, why am I here?"

"I have a new filly to enroll. She will only be here for one day a week, but I think a proper school environment is the correct place to teach such a gifted filly." Princess Celestia ignored the mare's confused look and looked all the way down to me. "You'll need to talk to Moon Dancer and apologize to her for me that I'll be stealing you on Thursdays."

"You mean to enroll this filly?" The mare behind the counter, with silvery hair and a pink coat, gestured at me with a pencil she was holding in one wing.

"Yes," Princess Celestia said.

"I'll need to contact the—I mean I—" Closing her mouth and eyes, the mare took a deep breath. "Yes, Your Highness. Now, miss, we'll need to have your parents fill out these forms and your current teacher fill out these."

"Thank you, Fluffy Clouds." Princess Celestia levitated the papers into the air and set them on my back. "There's one more place we need to visit."

She didn't give me another opportunity to get ready. The golden flash of her magic grabbed me again and we were soon standing on the steps of a huge library. It was easy to tell it was a library because it had Canterlot Royal Library written in letters about four times my size above the door. "Library?" I asked.

"If you think Clover stopped at just one book, you'd be sorely mistaken. Her notes continued, which is how Luna and I learned some of what she was capable of." Taking two steps toward the doors, Princess Celestia used her magic to open it—which left me having to gallop to catch up.

I swear, when I get longer legs, I'm going to spend all day—every day—challenging ponies to races. If it wasn't for being an earth pony, I would be running out of oomph all the time. I didn't need to use much, but a little trickle had my rushed gallop turn into an easy one—and because I was focused on that I ran right into Princess Celestia's back leg. "S-Sorry!"

"It was my fault, Riley." She was standing before a blank bit of wall. "The book we're after is in a private section." Her horn glowed a little, then the wall opened to reveal a staircase going down.

We walked down quietly, apart from the click-clack of our hooves, anyway. At the bottom was a door that opened into—another huge room full of books. "How many books do you have? Why are these ones kept away from ponies?"

"A lot, and they're not. There are copies of all these kept in the library above. This is where I keep the first editions and manuscripts of books that are important to me." Walking to a display, Princess Celestia opened the glass case and lifted out a long scroll. "This is one story of Clover. He chased an evil unicorn into another world to stop her from using the Memory Stone from erasing others' memories."

"Erasing others'…" I thought on that, remembering the word game Princess Celestia had given me with the book title. Then it hit me. "She erased his memories?"

"This was the last thing we know of Clover. He wrote down everything he knew of the sorceress, used his magic to strengthen the portal she'd created, and chased her into the other Earth world—the one your mother is trading with so successfully." There were tears in Princess Celestia's eyes.

I reached out my right foreleg and got it all the way around her left one with the best hug I could manage. "H-He stopped her, right?"

"I didn't know until recently. One of my former students—living in that world—had an encounter with a young lady who possessed the Memory Stone. The situation was resolved, but the young lady definitely wasn't the sorceress. The stone, thankfully, is destroyed now."

A horrible realization came to me and I found myself squeezing Princess Celestia's leg a bit tighter. "So he was lost in this other world with no memory of how to get home?"

"That is exactly what happened. I like to think that young woman my former student rescued from using the stone is his descendant, but that is likely just wishful thinking. This is probably your best guide for learning to use your specific power." Celestia's golden glow levitated a book down from the shelf and toward me. "This is his personal journal."

Letting go of her leg, I sat down and held out my forelegs for the journal. Opening it carefully, there was some very roughly written words inside the cover.

The Journal of Clover, 10 summers old.

I was startled. "Ten? But foals aren't—"

"There's a reason why I'm trusting this to you, Riley Ree. You and Clover share far more than just a talent. Clover the Clever was a genius, though he was only able to express it with his own learning." I hated the word she used. Yeah, it might mean something to crow about, but people expected so much of you the moment you let them pin it on you.

Thinking about the book and the way most ponies had treated my use of magic. "There isn't a copy of this upstairs." It wasn't a question. She wouldn't be giving me this one, after all, if I could get a copy from upstairs.

"What is your reasoning for that?"

"If you had a copy of this, you'd be lending me that. Even if you wanted to see my notes, I could scrawl them in the border of a fresh book—unless the purpose was to read the notes of those before me. This is a journal, though, not a text book. All such notes would do is prod at the person Clover, rather than their learning. So that means that it's a personal document, and you don't publish those for all to see unless they have historical importance." Taking a breath, I raised an eyebrow at Celestia.

"This journal contains keys to unlocking your magic and personal information both. What I'd like you to do is follow through it and write only the former, as you see use for it. That way I will have something to publish upstairs." She held my gaze, just looking at me as if expecting me to realize something.

And, it wasn't hard to work out what. "You want me to publish a book?"

"I'd like that. This is a rare talent, but as you've shown it is by no means completely absent. Having a book for foals to follow—written by somepony learning the talents themselves—would be a good addition to my library here, and the one above."

So I was right. I couldn't write a book on using earth pony magic with just one source. "I need to borrow his meditation book again and I'll also need a lot of paper."

"I'm sure Moon Dancer can help you plan this out and maybe even do the editing for you. She has you well ahead of the standard level of education for your age—on Earth—so I think a little time to work on a thesis is fine." I could see a lot of laughter hiding behind Celestia's smile.

I was thankful for my earth pony-ness when I had a stack of books to carry home. It would have crushed Saf, but with just a trickle of magic they sat proud on my back. I also had a little token from Celestia that made it known I was a student at her school.

By the time I got home it was getting late, but I didn't care. It was a weekend, and thus I was allowed to have some—

"Riley! What did the princess say?" Moon Dancer sounded a little worried. She looked at me like I was going to turn into a dragon or something. That'd be totally cool. I wonder if earth pony magic could turn me into a d— "Is that a pass for Princess Celestia's school?!"

Oh, right, daydreaming. "Yup! She said she'll be having me at the school on Thursdays, and that you'd understand why that…" Moon Dancer had gone glassy eyed. "Uh, are you alright?"

"Thursday? Really?" Moon sounded like she was about to explode. "Thursdays are when she'd give her personal student tutoring. Did I do something wrong? What—"

"I don't think she's doing that, but Moon, she also wants you to help me with a special project. Apparently she wants me to write a book on how to train earth pony magic as an external force." As I spoke, I noticed Moon calming a little. When it came to telling her the topic, she started bouncing in place.

"The first book about an entirely unknown way of using magic? This is going to be the best!"

"Well, actually not the first book, just the first anypony will know about. You see, there's this journal Princess Celestia gave me. It's fragile, since it didn't get the book-preservation spell until late in its life, but this is Clover's journal."

Moon looked up and down the stack on my back. "So what are all these other books?"

"Well, I could hardly write a book using just a single source. I have the special copy of Clover's guide to meditation, two history books on Clover—because they are secondary sources, I wanted twice as many—and the last is an empty notebook for me to write down all my own experiences with magic so far. That way I'll have three primary sources and two secondary." I had to tilt my head up at Moon to look her in the eyes.

Giggling, Moon used her magic to lift the books from my back. "That's my student. Did Princess Celestia say anything when you started demanding extra sources?"

I giggled too, at first unable to reply but eventually getting a hold of my laughter enough to speak. "She tried not to, but she groaned. You'd think I was asking to take the whole library."

Moon laughed a bit more as we carried the books inside. When we got to the study she used as my classroom, she gestured to my seat and started looking at the books herself. "The first decision is what kind of book will this be? It could be a scientific paper, a practical guide, a training book, or even—" She only stopped because I raised my hoof. "Yes?"

"Practical guide. I don't think I know enough about it to be a training book, and any other framing device might just make it harder for others to follow." I gave a little nod of approval. "I want this to help ponies learn this talent."

"A good idea. Okay, so that logbook will be very useful, since it's going to be your notes on how you learned to do something so you can work backwards from having learned it to teach others." She floated the journal over to me. "This will be invaluable. You can skip a lot of your guesswork with this and see about building abilities without so much trial and error."

It turned out the first logbook wasn't going to be for my own writing. I went through the start of Clover's journal and wrote it out—word for word—excluding anything personal that didn't affect their earth pony skills.

Taking the time to write it all out also meant I read it over carefully several times to say nothing of making sure I didn't accidentally ruin the irreplaceable journal.

Okay, so the first things he noticed about earth pony magic was when he could reach out to trees without touching them. Normally it should take an earth pony touching the plant to say anything to them. Time to turn theory into practice.

Sitting back from the tree far enough that I wouldn't accidentally touch its roots, I tried to reach for it like Clover said they could—through the ground. "Come on, we're both friends. I can reach out to you through some dirt—I'm an earth pony, after all."

Nothing I tried worked, though. Pushing at the ground only made it mound up, pushing my thoughts into the ground only made the grass around me grow faster, and pushing my hoof into the ground only made a hole.

I went back inside and read Clover's journal, but the wording was exactly the same as my copying of it. Back outside again, I sat just away from the tree and slowly slid myself into the meditative state that Clover's other book had taught me.

It was so easy to slide into this frame of mind now, but also a trap. I could meditate all day from dawn to dusk and not notice I had. So, keeping track of the sun, I tried to feel just the ground I was directly sitting on.

The dirt was comfortable and the grass happy to see me—even if my butt was pressing it down. I'd like to reach further. Do you promise not to grow too much if I reach through you?

The grass, of course, didn't respond. Grass wasn't really that smart.

Blade by blade, I reached forward through the dirt. The ones I was touching came easy, but then a little plant I wasn't touching welcomed me with excited photosynthesis. Calm and in control of my power, I welcomed the grass and kept moving forward. The grass, though, wasn't what I was reaching through, it was just a measurement of how far I'd gotten.

What this did seem to take, though, was focus. When I touched a plant, it was like there was a big tunnel opened up for me. I could easily push my magic through the tunnel, but as I worked my way further from my body I realized my power was spraying in all directions.

That's what the problem was!

The meditation made it easier to focus on a single line, but it was still pouring out from the tip. This meant I had to get better at meditating, and now that I had a measure of how good my meditation and focus was, I could do that.

Giving the grass a little boost of energy, I stood up and let my meditative state fade.

"There you are. Was wondering when you'd come out of that. Mom and Dad are at a fancy dinner that they can't take us to, so Dad told me to take you out somewhere you wanted to go." Saf was standing behind me, apparently. When I spun around and tried to come up with something good to yell at him, he smirked at me. "C'mon."

The only reason I didn't actually get annoyed at him was because for however long he'd been there, he'd waited until I actually moved and shrugged off my meditation before he even made a noise. "Just let me write this down before I forget it." Picking up both notebooks, I tossed the one that was copied from Clover's journal on my back and carried the one with my notes in my mouth.

Saf groaned and twitched his wings. "Okay, but you better not get busy doing any massive amounts of writing—I'm hungry."

Putting both books on the table in the kitchen, I flipped mine open and started writing what my next step was.

Magic sprays out more the less I'm focused. I need to meditate better to tighten my flow of magic up and learn how to meditate while walking and moving. Also, I need to thump my brother for reading over my shoulder.

"Hey! Not my fault!" Managing to get out of reach of me, Saf was laughing. "Come on, keep fighting to the door. If I have to lead this horse to—"

"Don't you dare finish that." I pointed a hoof at him. "You're not Dad."

"… dinner and make her eat, I will." He stuck his tongue out at me.

I started galloping after him, and Saf laughed and ran out the front door. "Come back you, you bad-joke-teller!"

"It wasn't a joke!" The annoying thing about Saf was how much faster than me he was. I mean, sure if we had to keep chasing forever I'd beat him, but he could practically dance around and still outrun me. "It was a pun!"

The tree was a full ponylength (an adult pony, not a little runt like me) away. I looked up at Saf, then turned to look at Moon. "It's taken so much practice, and all those lessons on meditation with Princess Celestia, but I can finally do this."

Raising my hoof in the tree's direction, I brought it down to the ground and focused my will on it. This was an order of magnitude more focus than I used to manage. As each little trembling fork happened in my magic, I narrowed my mind on it and snapped off the lossy branch.

When my magic reached the first root of the tree, and the connection was made, everything came together. Hi!

The tree was surprised at my touch, excited, and welcoming.

I gotta go. Sorry I can't chat more now. Despite how short our little meeting was, I knew the tree was always happy to feel me. Heck, I was happy to feel it too.

"So it worked?" Saf asked.

I spun around to glare at him and stick my tongue out too. "Yes! Didn't you—" Of course he didn't, he's a pegasus. "It worked. I reached out to the tree through the ground. As soon as I made contact with it, everything became easier and I didn't need to focus anymore. It was like when lightning sends out leaders and, when they touch ones from the ground, the full power flows really easily."

Pointing at the tree with his wing, Saf tilted his head to the side a little. "Why don't you just send it through the air? I mean, I know you're an earth pony, but it's not like you're a normal, every day earth pony."

"Because…" I tried to think of a reason that wasn't just because I'm an earth pony, but nothing came up. "Huh. Okay, let me try."

Focusing again, I brought my mind back to my magic and my hoof, pointed directly at the tree, and started sending out my magic. After getting it a few inches, I stopped. "This is really tricky. With the ground it's like—like I only have to focus it in one plane. Now it wants to zoop all over the place. Let me try again."

It took so much focus to extend my magic to the tree that although Saf and Moon talked, I couldn't follow their words. This was sooo much harder. When the sun went down, and I was only halfway there, I whined and let go. "That is way harder."

Saf ruffled my mane with his wing. "Something for you to work on, then. How far did you get?"

Ducking out from under his wing, I walked to the point I'd managed to spool out my magic to. "Here. What were you talking about?"

"Saffron asked me if this was anything like how a unicorn uses their magic," Moon Dancer said. "I told him this was more like a unicorn using their magic to affect something on the other side of the world." Ouch. Why did everypony keep calling him Saffron when he preferred Saf?

"Dinner time. Moon, would you like to stay for dinner?" Dad asked from the house. "I have an extra plate ready for you."

"Th-Thanks, Philip, but I think I'll have to pass." Moon sounded shifty, but with a lack of light I couldn't tell her expression. I knew why she was passing—she really didn't like fish. "Maybe another time we could all go out to a restaurant? Maybe celebrate Riley or Saffron's graduations?"

Yup. That would bypass having to be around ponies eating meat perfectly, since most restaurants didn't serve fish. We all walked inside and Moon started gathering up her things.

"It's the fish, isn't it?" Dad asked.

"Well, duh," I said. "Dad, hardly any unicorns eat fish."

Moon and Dad both blushed, and Saf thwapped me lightly on the head with his wing.

"What was that for? It's true!"

Saf snorted and shrugged his wings. "Yeah, but like—the whole world works because we all let everypony keep little lies that everypony knows aren't true. Moon Dancer was being polite and giving Dad a valid reason why she couldn't eat with us."

"I know that, but it's still stupid. Why doesn't everyone just tell the truth?" I looked at Dad for answers, but he smiled at me. "Wel—?"

"You've been working all afternoon, haven't you?" Dad picked me up with his magic, surprising me so much that I didn't try to stay on the ground. When I nodded, he booped me on the nose with his magic and then put me on his back. "You get grumpy when you're tired."

"I didn't even use much magic! It's all the concentration that was annoying. Saf was right, though, I need to learn how to do it the proper way, and that takes way more work." It took me a moment to realize I'd just argued against myself. I sighed. "You're both right."

Moon Dancer left and Saf sat at the table while Dad started bringing out dinner. The front door opened and closed, and I heard Mom's hoofsteps coming loser. When she came up to Dad and they started kissing before saying a single word to each other, I focused on Mom herself and realized how big her belly was now.

"Mom," I said, "you're huge."

"Anypony would think I have a whole new pony growing inside me." Mom stepped past Dad's head and kissed me on the cheek. "How did your demonstration go?"

"Terrible! I mean, I managed to push my magic through the ground and into the tree, but then Saf said I should try it in the air and it was soooo much harder."

"That's because you were thinking too much like an earth pony. You need to think wider. You've got this cool talent and you weren't really flexing it." Saf Picked up a knife and fork with his wings and started digging into his dinner.

Jumping down from Dad's back, I used the downward energy to spring back up again and land on a chair at the table. "Yeah, that's the most annoying bit. You're right."

I scooped my first mouthful of food and watched as Saf lowered his rounded dinner knife to his plate and ran it along the surface, twitching it left and right. He looked into my eyes and winked.

Gulping down my mouthful, I asked, "What?"

He lifted the knife up and wiggled it in the air. "I just figured something out. Can you guess what?" When I just stared at him for several seconds, he lowered the knife back to the plate. "Can only move in a flat plane." He lifted it back up and wiggled it every which way. "Moves in all directions."

"What are you talking about?" I shoved more food in my mouth.

"Your magic doesn't go through the dirt, it travels along the edge where the dirt met the air. That was the plane you felt. In the air, though, your magic can travel in any of three dimensions."

I froze. He was absolutely right and he saw it before I'd even worked it out. "H-How?"

"Earth ponies work in planes, pegasi use all three dimensions. It just came to me like a few seconds ago."

It was obvious, but not really. Okay, it would be obvious to a pegasus. He was pushing me, but also helping me. "Thanks, Saf."

"Don't mention it. Remember, I'm gonna be relying on my little sister to get all the smarts because all I'm good at is flying." Every time he said something like that, I would have to remember this moment. Heck, every time I started thinking like that I'd have to remember how he'd solved this problem first.

"Pfft. Yeah, right. I would have been tripping over a way to describe this for weeks. You just nailed it after a few minutes. Sometimes it takes a pony who thinks a different way see the obvious." I speared a piece of cauliflower in cheese sauce and started munching on it.

Saf shrugged his shoulders and started loading his fork up. "So what do you do with this now?"

"Not much. It all goes into my notes for the book, though." Something got my attention by not being present. Turning my head, I looked at Mom and Dad. "You're quiet tonight."

"Sorry, Riley, just a lot to think about. I'm due in two weeks." Mom's smile looked strained.

"Mom gets a little down before she pops out a new kid. I remember her with you—" Saf said.

Turning to look at Saf, Mom raised an eyebrow at him. "You were only 6 then, how could you remember that?"

"Some things you remember no matter what. When your mom starts moping and complaining about—about things, that sticks with you."

"What were you going to say, Saffron Ree?" Mom used that tone. It was the one that chilled your blood because if she spoke your full name with it, you were dead.

"Fifth Amendment, Mom." Saf grinned and leaned back on his chair with his forelegs crossed behind his neck and his wings steadying him. "You, being a public official, cannot coerce me into giving evidence that would incriminate me once I have invoked my Fifth Amendment rights."

"We aren't in America right now. I could ask Princess Cadance to request extradition—she's a mother too, she'd help me." Mom's features had slid from serious to obviously-joking in barely a second. "I know I'm going to be a little harder to live with for the next few weeks, but just remember that I love all of you."

"We know, Mom," Saf said.

"Yeah," I said. "We know that, Mom. Besides, there's going to be somepony else to love soon!"

Mom got a huge grin and she nodded. "We will! Anyone got any ideas on what we'll name them?"

I nodded my head eagerly. "Princess. Princess Ree."

Saf rolled his eyes and speared the last of his cauliflower with a fork. "I don't think that's how it works. Well, except for Princess Flurry."

"Miracle?" Dad asked. "Well, they will be."

"How do ponies normally pick names?" Mom looked to me as if I'd have the answer. When I shrugged back, she blew out a wicker. "Well, maybe I'll just get the doctors to drug me up and make up something on the spot?"

"No!" The exclamation from Saf made us all jump a little. "I've been putting up with that for 18 years, I won't have a sibling dealing with it. You'll name them Table Lamp or Wittle Myth Moth or something bizarre. I'll ask around how to do this."

"I'll ask too!" I glared across at Saf and saw his determined look. It. Was. On.

Author's Note

Celestia: have you considered having "Magic for Beginners" reprinted as an annotated, commented edition?

"Old habits, mostly. Now I actually can ask the authors of the notes for their permission, I may just do that." Celestia's smile was a counterpoint to her one visible eye—that looked a little sad. "Though most of this will not be useful to foals, I wager."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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