Salvation | Rebirth

“So far, I have only instructed you to release the excess energy, yet not how to control it,” Luna told Wild during one of their meetings, “Your powers have begun to settle and stabilize, and now I believe it is time you learned what to do with them.”

The Alicorn Amulet had grown dim, dimmer than before, dull in color as if all vibrancy was sucked out of it, more gray than red and black. A web of cracks spread from its center, and there was but a weak, barely-there pulse as it rested against Wild’s chest. Gone was the menacing and malicious aura surrounding it, dispersed like smoke in the wind. There was little that remained from its dangerous looks, the head of the alicorn warped in a way that made it appear as if it was bowing in submission.

Luna had been observing Wild closely, noting how his behavior changed and how, now, it appeared to have stabilized, returning more or less to his baseline. The Alicorn’s High was gone and done with, leaving him milder than before, more attentive and less twitchy and anxious. In the beginning, his eyes appeared to glow with power, and now they were more akin to smoldering coals, not as intense or as eerie but different nonetheless. Even while his thoughts were closed to her thanks to his mind exercises, she knew there wasn’t hidden malice and cruelty that was ubiquitous among those who had worn the Alicorn Amulet in the past for any decent length of time. Seeing the absence of that evil allowed her to finally relax, relieved that the worst had not come to pass.

Aside from the complete and total disappearance of his scars, the other change to his looks was the lengthening of his horn. It was noticeable to Luna’s eyes, and no doubt his friends would notice the change as well once he returned to the Royal Orphanage. Horn length was indeed associated with and directly depended on power - horns tended to grow hot when too much magic went through them, and the body learned from this heat, making the horn grow to compensate for it, much like muscle grew after having been damaged in exercise. If Wild grew in physical size elsewhere, that was not apparent, although the doorways in this tower were tall enough for Luna, who was, by herself, taller than Wild. She remembered how her sister used to constantly bump her horn on top of the doorways in the Canterlot Castle until she ordered them rebuilt to accommodate. Wild would not encounter any such problems until he became close to Luna in size. He would not need to replace his bed until he was larger than Luna, and he wouldn’t need to get a bigger dorm until he was halfway between Luna and Celestia. By then, it was likely he would be an adult not just chronologically but in abilities as well, meaning he would have his own place, a house or an apartment depending on his preferences and budget, and Luna would warn him about possible height difficulties then. As one grew in height, one also grew in body length, which could become quite annoying in more cramped areas.

Luna wondered whether he would one day become an alicorn. Of course, being physically big was not in any way a guarantee, and neither was having a long horn or great knowledge of magic or excellent magical abilities. If that was all that was needed, many ponies would have reached alicornhood by then. It wasn't exactly known what was the requirement for alicornhood, but Luna was fairly certain that simply aiming to become one would disqualify a person. From what she understood, there needed to be some sort of personal growth paired with doing great deeds.

Luna did not believe in destiny much. She tried not to think that her imprisonment could be a part of her own destiny, because that would be... unfair. Disproportionate. She did not want to be ruled by others, certainly not by some vaguely defined force the existence of which was impossible to either prove or disprove. For all that she had made many bad choices, she hoped that it was indeed the choices that she made that had led her where she was, not... something else.

If she were to believe in destiny, then perhaps she would push Wild towards greatness. Were this a narrative, a story of some kind, then he, in her opinion, had all the signs of being the protagonist. Narratively, it would be right for him to overcome adversity and then achieve the impossible, thus earning his place at the top. Perhaps she would have taken the role of her mentor, even more than now, perhaps like her sister had done plenty of times throughout the centuries. Luna would then guide Wild towards what was perhaps his destiny.

However, Luna knew how difficult it could make his life, how much pressure he would be under to succeed. Some broke under pressure, stumbling away from the path in fear. He... well, she was uncertain where he would fall should the pressure become too great to bear. There was a chance that he would grow arrogant, hungry for power, and she saw some worrying signs that she hoped to counteract, to make sure that he continued to be the good person that she believed he was.

Aside from it all, none of Celestia's students had succeeded in becoming an alicorn despite Celestia's best efforts. The only alicorn to have become one in recent memory did so without any intervention from Celestia, in fact. Perhaps there was something important about it, but whatever it was remained hidden from understanding.

Wild was also an adult with his own dreams of desires, and Luna had no right to force him on a path he likely did not want. From all that she knew of him, he desired peace and quiet, a simple but comfortable life free of hurt. She was also aware that Wild put more trust and confidence in her than was probably healthy, and if she told him to do something uncomfortable for him, he would likely do it due to this very trust. Setting him up on a path to become an alicorn would then be an abuse of that trust, Luna thought. Perhaps Equestria would benefit if Wild were to become an alicorn, but Luna thought it would be best not to force it. If it happened, it would have to happen naturally. She would not repeat Celestia’s mistakes.

The most recent two examples were Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle. The former had grown arrogant and tried to take more than she could, and the latter had grown in magical power but not in social abilities that an alicorn must possess. If Celestia, having far more experience than Luna, still failed at making an alicorn, then it would be for the best that Luna did not do the same.

All those concerns were, however, for a different time. She refocused on the here and now, and began instructing Wild in control.

“There are various forms of control,” Luna said, “There is physical control,” she lifted a small crate of wood in her magic, “This one is, by far, the easiest, as it comes naturally to unicorns as they learn telekinesis. Your telekinesis resembles the way you used to work with your hands, does it not? You would have little difficulty there.”

At her invitation, Wild grabbed that same crate. It felt far lighter than he thought it was in truth. He squeezed, putting some relatively light pressure on it, and the wood flexed under his fingers, creaking. He threw it in the air much like he could a basketball and caught it with another magical hand. He set it back down on the ground, then looked at his hands in amazement. That amount of strength, he did not expect. It was true that he had never tried to lift anything truly heavy before, but he was reasonably certain he would not have such an ease of things previously.

“As you can see, you are not crushing it with your grip and neither are you overshooting your throws,” Luna told him, “Our brains are truly magnificent, able to do subconscious calculations with a surprising amount of precision. Eye-magic coordination can sometimes be even easier than eye-limb coordination since you do not have to keep as many things in mind, consciously or not.”

Wild nodded. Ever since he learned telekinesis, he had little trouble with being precise, at least no more trouble than he had with real hands. In fact, because his magical hands had no limitations his flesh and bone hands had, it was far easier to use them. He wanted to scratch his back? He summoned a hand already at the spot. No need to contort himself in any way, thankfully.

There was also a sort of awareness surrounding him which he couldn’t explain. It had been there before, subtle yet obvious if one looked closer, and now it became far more apparent. He believed it had something to do with having magic, and since Luna had never spoken about it, he assumed everyone had it.

“Now, magical strength is unlike a muscle in a way that you can use precisely as much power as you want to use,” Luna continued, her horn lighting up as she summoned a ball of blue flames, “You can control different aspects of your usage as well,” she demonstrated it by making the ball brighter and dimmer, then bigger and smaller, “Try it with your hands. You need not use anything but your imagination.”

Wild looked thoughtfully for a moment, and then his magical hands expanded until they could easily clap Luna like a mosquito. He blinked owlishly at the ridiculous sight, then let out a couple of light chuckles at it. Breaking his concentration reduced his hands to normal size.

“You must learn to properly conceptualize. Not merely ‘large’ or ‘small’, you will need to use more details. At first, you will need external points of reference, and then you will learn to keep those points precisely in your mind and, perhaps one day, you will not need to actively imagine them at all, just like you are doing with your hands right now. They are far more detailed than they need to be, yet you did not purposefully and knowingly placed those details in them. Look closer.”

To Wild’s surprise, Luna was right - his magical hands held an uncanny resemblance to how his hands looked like as a human, down to tiny details he had no way of consciously remembering, like the pores of his skin and the pattern of lines on the joints and on the palm. Looking closer at the pads of his fingertips, he could even see his fingerprints.

Wild thought to change it, and suddenly his hands lacked definition, looking flat and uninteresting, just four digits and a palm, too smooth and too straight, resembling human hands in the most general terms only. As soon as he stopped trying to imagine it, his hands returned to their original state. If he were honest, he preferred them in that state - the hands that lacked details looked weird.

“Conceptualization will be greatly helped by studying real references. The best way to learn it is to make graphical art, be it statues, paintings, carvings, mosaics, and so on. As I understand it, you attend the Arts Club at the Royal Orphanage, do you not?”

Wild nodded. He couldn’t say he was very good at it, but then he hadn’t been coming to it all that much. He was only really doing it for the sake of Artful, as a sort of exchange for Artful coming to the self-defense classes. Artful had tried swordsmanship specifically, and it didn’t stick to him. It was unfortunate, but Wild didn’t mind it much. In his opinion, Artful wasn’t exactly fit for it, and he thought he also didn’t really want to be a warrior or a fighter in general. Wild... could sympathize. One day, perhaps he too would tire of swinging a saber, though he doubted it. He enjoyed causing pain, and swordsmanship was a guilt-free way to do just that. Violence was a part of Wild’s life, and while a part of him did not want it, another part understood that there was nothing wrong with it as long as he stuck to doing it consensually with others or, as situations arose, in defense of himself or others, where it was perfectly permissible for him to strike with the true intent to hurt and to harm.

Artful, in Wild’s mind, did not seem to be a sadist in any way, shape, or form. This, he silently thought, made his life far easier, and Wild couldn’t help but wish he could experience life that way .

Wild didn’t think he was much of an artist, although he did want to become one... possibly. He lacked any proper motivation despite the fact that he could appreciate beauty when he saw it. Whether he wanted to capture it or imagine his own and then make it a reality... he didn’t know.

“I would recommend that you continue,” Luna said, “Immerse yourself into the world of art, study it thoroughly. While it may not be as stark of an accomplishment as many others, my sister and I are both renowned realism painters. Star Swirl was a great sculptor of his time as well. Many great artists are unicorns, as well as horned magical beings in general.”

Wild found himself fascinated by that fact, wondering if he too could learn to be a great artist. He imagined all kids wanted international renown at least once in their lives, and he was no exception. To be praised, to be the center of attention, that was undoubtedly still a part of him. He was, without a doubt, a master swordsman, and this had given him respect and admiration of his peers, which was something he quietly enjoyed without showing it outwardly.

If Wild learn to be a master artist, perhaps he would receive praise for it, and it would be praise not for his violence but for, perhaps, expression of his inner, true self. He doubted many actually wanted to get to know him on that level, but if he gained acceptance... It was something to think about. At the very least, making art was worth considering just for the benefit of making his magic better. Perhaps he would also grow to appreciate art some more - it had been a long time since he really looked at art. Of course, he knew of some famous things like Mona Lisa and David and some other things, but that hardly counted. The only real experience with art he had was the paintings Artful made for him - and even of him, which was still surprising.

“There are also conceptual views of magical strength, and the most obvious example is teleportation,” Luna continued, “Your strength defines your range, with the farther you want to go requiring more power. The requirement grows linearly and, in theory, my sister and I are able to teleport across the world if we could properly visualize our destination, although our world has yet to be explored in full. However, one question remains - what if you pour more power into teleportation close to you? So far, experiments have shown that it makes no difference to speed or to accuracy, and yet that power is still spent. Today, I will teach you how to teleport, as well as how to teleport efficiently and judge how much power you need for teleportation in order not to be wasteful with it.”

Wild’s excitement grew - finally, he would learn how to teleport properly, consciously, and without any aid from any artifact. He imagined it would come quite handy to him in the future, and he couldn’t wait to learn it.

“First of all, teleportation is not easy despite the seeming simplicity. Many unicorns experience spontaneous teleportation in times of stress, and yet they would still have trouble to learn to do it consciously,” Luna said, “Many spells become harder to cast when one is stressed or experiencing an adrenaline rush - teleportation is different. As you know, under high stress it is entirely possible to achieve multiple teleportations in a row even without clear intent and definite destination. You were... guided at the time, that much is true, but what you have done is not out of the realm of possibility for those not experiencing the same... circumstances.”

Wild would rather not experience those circumstances again, but at least now he knew he would always be able to escape as long as teleportation wasn’t somehow blocked and his magic remained usable.

“Adrenaline allows us to accomplish feats we would never be able to do without it, and teleportation is often the case for unicorns,” Luna said, “Now, any who experience self-teleportation are already halfway towards learning how to do it consciously and deliberately. You have already done it deliberately, although with the knowledge you did not truly posses. I believe you will be able to do it easily now, so allow me to demonstrate the spell sequence to you. The easiest way for me to do that would be to make you feel it, and for that our horns need to touch together.”

That was... somewhat odd, but it also made sense. Wild nodded and, hesitantly, brought his horn closer to hers as she bent down to get to his height. It was somewhat awkward, so he was glad Luna wasn’t making it weird with joking comments or something. She never would, he knew, but he couldn’t stop thinking about little stuff like this.

He felt vibrations of her horn, and a memory arose inside of him, as if something was unlocked. There it was, the teleportation spell, and the only time he consciously and deliberately used it. He found himself vibrating his horn in response, perfectly repeating the sequence.

“Very good,” Luna said, separating from him,”Now, try to teleport yourself. Pour as little power as you can, and then even less than you think you need. We will skip the visualization step, for now - line of sight teleportation is natural and far easier. Your teleportation target is the other end of this hall.”

Wild nodded, focusing on the target, then went through the sequence. He poured a tiny sip of magic into it and, surprisingly, he found himself exactly where he wanted, appearing with a bright flash of light and noise that left his ears tingly.

Smile spread on his face - he did it! Now he would be able to easily escape and to travel far distances in a blink of an eye! It was, honestly speaking, far easier than he thought it would be. Perhaps he wouldn’t be nearly useless at magic after all.

Not waiting for Luna to say a word, he turned around and, quickly, teleported back to his initial position. The rush of magic, the sudden change in where he was, it left him feeling as if he held all the power in the world. If he could do something like this as easily as he did, what more could he then do? What heights could he achieve if he pushed himself?

“Excellent,” Luna praised him with a smile, “Let’s do it some more times, and you will feed less and less magic into the spell until it stops working.”

Wild nodded once again, lacking words to express his... his joy. He felt like he was rediscovering he had magic, now feeling like he was accomplishing something impossible, something he would have never been able to do before. Telekinesis was, of course, impressive in its own right, but teleportation was something out of any realm of human possibility.

With the power he now had and the control he would learn, he knew no one would be able to hold him against his will ever again. Of course, there was Princess Celestia, and likely Princess Luna, but they were on his side, at least for the most part.

Some said power corrupted, but Wild believed it would finally set him truly free.