Headmare Starlight’s office looked harmless for the most part. Most of the tile floor was covered up by a large purple carpet with a vintage-looking design. In the middle of the room, there was a large, shiny, wooden desk with some paperwork, trinkets, and photos on it. The walls were littered with awards and certificates for various things, and there were shelves on both sides of the room showcasing trophies, artifacts, and lots of books. There were also some chairs and coffee tables here and there.

It was not the decor that gave the room it's slightly eerie look. It was the fact that the windows that usually showed a spectacular view of the courtyard were shut with their blinds down, and the double doors that usually stayed open for ponies to go in and out as they pleased, were closed and locked from the outside.

Arceus had been to this office many times, but never like this. Her parents had always been beside her, making sure that everything was okay. She’d always walked into it on her own four legs, rather than having been teleported there against her will.

Arceus was terrified. Normally, she could get rid of her fear by rationally going through what was happening and telling herself that it wasn’t so bad. This time, she couldn’t do that, because she had no idea what Headmare Starlight was going to do to her. She told herself that her parents trusted Headmare Starlight, so she couldn’t be as bad as Arceus thought, but she felt like that had already been proved wrong when Arceus had threatened to unleash her powers on the headmare, and all she’d said was ‘That’s what I’m hoping for.’

“You can’t keep me here. Ponies would notice,” Arceus said. Even as she said it, she didn’t believe it. Who would notice? Her parents weren’t expecting her anytime soon. The only pony she knew here was Starcatcher, and after their last conversation, Arceus was pretty sure that he wouldn’t go looking for her. She supposed the teachers might notice, but that would be easy for Headmare Starlight to cover up seeing as she ran the school.

Headmare Starlight sighed sadly.

“Arceus, I don’t want to keep you here. If you cooperate, everything will be quick and simple. It’s important for Equestria to properly understand you, and that will take a lot more research than what your parents felt comfortable with. If all goes as planned, you’ll still be able to go to classes like all the other students. It should just take a few short hours a day of boring activities in my office. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”

“What do you want from me?” Arceus asked, ignoring her question. Headmare Starlight gave her a weary look and rolled her eyes.

“Well first, I need to make sure you understand at least the basics of how magic works. That is crucial. Tell me what you already know about magic.”

Arceus stared at her defiantly, not saying a word.

“Look, I don’t have time for your teenage distrust and drama. If you want to leave my office sometime today, you need to work with me.”

Arceus hated this mare. What right did Headmare Starlight have to force Arceus to do anything?

“Not much,” Arceus started reluctantly.

“I know that it glows and comes out of unicorn horns. I know that some spells are harder to do than others, and that different unicorns have different amounts of magic.”

Headmare Starlight cringed when Arceus stopped talking.

“That’s all? What about Starswirl The Bearded’s Theory of Quantum Mechanical Magic? Or even any of Neighls Bohr’s research on Quantum Mechanics?” Headmare Starlight asked hopefully.

Arceus was at a loss for words. She didn’t even know who Neighls Bohr was. Much less did she know anything about his research on Quantum Mechanics. Was that chemistry or biology?

“Oh dear. I see I have a lot of work to do.”

Headmare Starlight let out an exasperated breath.

“Neighls Bohr was a scientist a long time ago. He tried to figure out if light was a particle or a wave, and he found that light shows characteristics of both. It operates very similarly to a wave, while looking more like a particle on a molecular level."

Oh. That was Physics. Arceus had been reading about that at her home, but she'd only been part of the way through. Was Arceus really expected to just sit quietly and listen to her? She supposed so, but she was certainly not happy about it.

"Then, quite a while later, Starswirl The Bearded was looking into Quantum Mechanics, and made a revolutionary discovery. He learned that magic and light work the same way. At least in the way that even though they're not exactly particles, they're not waves either.

“But, although that might not seem like it would be particularly important, it is the reason that light and magic are so similar in other ways. Just like light, magic can be reflected, refracted, scattered, or absorbed. But the more important similarity, and the one that makes you so important, is the way that light and magic both cause physical damage.

"Light is harmless in small amounts, but as it gets more concentrated, it starts to cause harmful radiation, and if it were to be concentrated enough, it would burn through everything. But light that’s concentrated to that extent is almost unheard of. Magic is the same way. Magic itself is not naturally physical. Unicorns must tinker with it quite a bit to use it for physical purposes. To have enough unaltered magic to naturally make a physical impact, it would take thousands of unicorns worth of magic, and even then, it might not work as it does for you.”

Wait, what? Arceus had always known that she was powerful, but that was insane! The idea of the combined power of thousands of unicorns inside of her was preposterous… Wasn’t it?

Even as she told herself that it was impossible, she could feel all of it within herself. She could feel the hum of all of her magic, constantly trying to worm it’s way out.

Now that she thought about it though, was this really such a big deal? She’d already known that she was powerful and dangerous, and now that she understood herself a bit better scientifically, she was definitely more afraid of herself, but the knowledge alone hadn’t actually changed anything. Physically, she had the exact same amount of magic as two minutes ago. The difference was only her awareness of it.

“If you have that much power in the raw, just imagine what you could do if you knew how to control it! Every unicorn spell, amplified a thousand times over,” Headmare Starlight continued. Arceus had almost forgotten that she was still talking. Arceus gasped at the headmare’s last statement.

“Wait. You mean, I can actually control my power? I can do spells like unicorns can? I can be almost… Normal?” Arceus asked in shock, forgetting her anger and fear for a moment.

“Yes.”

For just a second, Arceus forgot that she didn’t trust the headmare and just reveled in the idea of being normal. Well, not completely normal. She still wouldn’t have a horn like regular unicorns, but maybe she wouldn’t have to worry about hurting ponies when she let out her emotions. It was such a foreign prospect that Arceus could barely even believe that it could be possible.

“But first, I need to see your full capabilities.”

That drew Arceus out of her longing thoughts.

“What do you mean?” Arceus asked suspiciously.

“I mean exactly what I said. I need you to release all of it. I need you to show me the full extent of your power.”

“What? That’s crazy! I can’t do that! It would destroy the whole… School!”

Arceus was originally going to say ‘world’, but she felt that it would’ve been a bit dramatic, and saying that probably wouldn’t have helped her current predicament.

“Not if I put up a powerful enough shield, which I intend to do.”

Arceus felt like that was a bit of a contradiction. Hadn’t Headmare Starlight just said that she had the power of thousands of unicorns? There was no denying that Headmare Starlight was a powerful unicorn, but could she really contain Arceus’s magic? But there was a more important question.

“Why in Equestria would you even want me to do that?”

The headmare gave Arceus an obviously condescending look.

“To study it of course! If I can find a way to replicate your power, I can remake the way magic is used all throughout Equestria! Then perhaps I’d be remembered for something in the history books.”

“And you really think that it’s worth the risk?”

“Obviously,” Headmare Starlight replied.

“I can tell that you’re uncomfortable, but that’s unnecessary. Once I set up a shield, all you have to do is let it all out. I know you’re constantly tense. You just need to give in to your emotions. Find some anger or excitement.”

Arceus looked at her with raised brows.

“You really expect me to just let out everything I’ve spent the last sixteen years keeping inside of me? There’s no way your shield can handle that, and I am not going to test it out.”

Headmare Starlight walked over to one of the shelves, pulling off a small, rectangular case. She then turned back to Arceus. The headmare’s horn glowed, and suddenly Arceus was bound to a nearby chair with sturdy ropes. She walked over to her ominously, her face disappointed. Then, she slowly opened the case, using her magic to take out a curved dagger. Arceus’s eyes widened in fright.

“If I remember correctly, your powers are not only activated by anger and excitement, but also by fear. Is that right?”

Arceus said nothing, but her breath quickened and her legs shook, giving her away. Starlight nodded her head once.

“I can work with that,” she said.

Author's Note

Thank you for getting all the way to Chapter 6! I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please leave a thumbs up, and feel free to comment