Learning Magic

Chapter 4: First Spell

“Coming!” Twilight shouted, as she went to open the door.

“Hello darling, let me once again apologize for yesterday.” Rarity said, with a hint of humility in her voice.

“I already told you that I don’t blame you. Now come in, today you’re finally going to learn something new!”

Finally! No more boring tests.

Twilight motioned her towards the nearby table. This time there was only a single book on it, labelled “Pyromancy for beginners”.

“Twilight, I know that you want to teach me as much as possible, but of what use could fire spells be to me? I don’t plan on doing any fireworks.”

“Well Rarity, I can’t teach you any enhancing spells, since they belong to a secondary school of magic. I thought you said you know all about them and that I can skip that.”

Twilight looked at Rarity with an accusing scowl.

Oh no... Caught in the act...

“Eh... Um... I...”

“Maybe I should just tell you the difference, since you obviously simply suffer from a momentary amnesia.”

“Yes, that would be wonderful.”

And now I’ve failed her again. Well done Rarity, she’s sure to continue teaching you at this rate.

“Well, the difference between primary and secondary school is that you don’t need anything except a horn to learn spells from primary school, but you need to be proficient in a primary school in order to be able to perform any secondary school spell. The reason for that is simple: If you, for example, want to enchant a gem with a fire resistance spell, you first need to know that fire resistance spell and be quite good at it. That’s why I decided to teach you some basic spells from each school, so you can then decide which magic school you want to study in depth.”

Seems like there’s a long road ahead of me...

“Now, the first spell I want to teach you is easy and very practical. It is an ignition spell – you can use it to light up a candle without matches and even a fireplace if you get strong enough.”

This spell doesn’t sound as useless as I thought; it will certainly come in handy.

“Since this is a really easy spell, we won’t even need to use the spell book, I have it with me just in case you do it quickly and want to learn another, more difficult, spell.”

“Oh, I don’t think this will be the case, I never came in contact with pyromancy.”

“Alright, your goal for now will be to light this candle,” Twilight said, motioning towards a candle which suddenly appeared on the table.

“In order to do that, you’ll have to clear your mind as much as possible and imagine something with which to light the candle. While more experienced magi can simply imagine the candlewick ablaze without much concentration, you’ll have to do it this way. Don’t worry, it will be easier second time and even easier third time you cast it.”

Twilight cleared her throat and started to read her imaginary checklist.

“Step 1: Clear your mind from anything else other than my voice.”

Rarity closed her eyes and sat in silence for about 10 minutes.

“Done.”

“Step 2: imagine the candle.”

Inside Rarity’s mind, all she could see was blackness. She didn’t have a body and simply floated. After hearing Twilight voice, she tried to imagine the candle. She had to open her eyes few times and look at the candle in order to imagine every detail correctly, but she managed to keep everything else isolated. After a few minutes, a candle appeared in front of her.

There you are.

“Done.”

“Step 3: imagine the object with which you want to light the candle.”

This step was much easier than the previous one. Rarity chose to imagine a match. She didn’t have to be too specific about the match itself – it didn’t really exist.

“Done.”

“Step 4: Light the candle.”

Okay, first, I have to light the match. I’ll simply imagine a matchbox and light it using that.

Imagining the matchbox was just as easy as imagining the match was. Rarity then proceeded to light the match, but suddenly some sort of heat formed in front of her face, causing her to break her concentration. There were several sparks flying in front of her, until after about 5 seconds they disappeared.

“What was that? It completely ruined my spell!”

Twilight giggled at the sight of pouting Rarity.

“Actually, that was you. Let me guess, you imagined a match and tried to use a matchbox to light it, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes, but how do you know that?”

“It’s quite a common mistake. When you stroke the match, you actually performed a different spell. You set an imaginary object on fire, thus performing the fireball spell. That is, however, an advanced pyromancy spell, so your result were just a few sparks.”

Fireball spell? As Rainbow Dash would say: That sounds awesome!

“But how am I supposed to light the candle without creating a small fireball?”

Twilight smiled condescendingly, happy that she can lecture her friend.

“You just have to imagine the match already lit. It will be slightly harder, since flame moves all the time, but you should be able to do it.”

I hate when she puts on this face. It’s like she was talking to a foal rather than to a full grown mare.

Rarity repeated all the afore mentioned steps, this time imagining the match already on fire.

Twilight was right, this is really harder than before, mainly because the flame keeps moving and even flickering...

“Now light the candle, Rarity.”

Slowly, the match crept closer to the candle, until finally igniting the candlewick. When Rarity opened her eyes, she could finally see the candle to be lit.

“I did it!”

“Yes, you did. But as I said before, it’s quite a simple spell, don’t you want to learn another one?”

“I thought I learned the fireball spell?”

“Heh, you did, but you aren’t strong enough to pull that one off yet.”

A determined expression formed on Rarity’s face.

“I think that I can, just give me enough time to practice it and you’ll see.”

“Is that so?” Twilight said, while a mischievous grin appeared on her face. “Let’s make a bet: If you can perform even a very small fireball by the end of the day, I’ll allow you to style my mane. If you don’t, then I’ll move the CMC sleepover I promised to Apple Bloom to your house.”

I would be, technically, doing her a favour even if I won, but her mane is almost a crime against fabulosity and as such must be corrected! I must win this bet! Besides, creating those sparks wasn’t that hard.

“It’s a deal.”

“Alright, let me just give you an advice – try training the ignition spell first, fireball will be easier afterwards.”

“Of course, Twilight, but prepare your mane for a major overhaul!” Rarity exclaimed and trotted towards her boutique.

———

Rarity was frustrated - she spent the last two hours trying to perform the fireball spell, but every time only a few sparks appeared. Even Sweetie Belle, who watched Rarity with anticipation, became bored and went to try getting her cutie mark in chess.

Why. Doesn’t. It. Work!? I have only 3 hours before sundown!

After conjuring another few sparks, she finally resigned.

Alright Twilight, have it your way. I’ll try the ignition spell first.

For about 30 minutes, Rarity performed the ignition spell again and again, each time it got easier and easier.

Okay, how about lighting more candles at once?

This time, Rarity took five candles. Imagining them took a little while longer than before, but it was still quite easy. Then she imagined the match and proceeded to light one candle after another. While it was more demanding than just one candle, it was easier than lighting one candle, dropping her concentration and doing it again.

This is easy! But how about lighting them all simultaneously? Now that’s a challenge!

Once again, Rarity imagined five candles.

Now how to light them all at once?

Rarity imagined five matches on fire. It took considerably more time than ever before, each match taking longer than the previous one. She then moved them all at once to light the candles. And indeed, right after that all the candles lit at once.

I did it, but it was just too demanding. There has to be an easier way!

Rarity continued to ponder about it for about a minute until an idea struck her.

IDEEEEEA! But it can’t be that simple, can it?

Rarity once again imagined five candles, but this time she didn’t put them in line. Instead, she ordered them in a circular pattern, their candlewicks in the centre. She then imagined just one match and moved it into the middle, igniting all the candles at once. This idea proved to be a success, because all the candles lit simultaneously, but this time it felt almost like lighting only one candle.

Success! Seems like geometry can be applied even on magic.

“Now to train the fireball spell...” Rarity said to nobody in particular.

———

Twilight let Rarity in quite confidently – she must have been sure that Rarity couldn’t possibly conjure a stable fireball. Rarity smiled.

“Alright Rarity, show me what you have learned.”

Rarity then lit several candles at once.

“You don’t seem tired, so I’m going to assume you learned to put them into a different order. Good job.”

“Yes Twilight, I did as you said and practiced the ignition spell.”

“It’s a job well done, don’t feel too bad about the fireball...”

“Oh but I can cast a fireball.”

“...What? That’s impossible, show me!”

Rarity then proceeded to cast the fireball spell, but only sparks appeared. However, one spark refused to go out and instead hovered in front of her.

“That’s just a spark, not a fireball.”

“Really? Look more closely.”

After closer inspection, Twilight could see that the spark wasn’t really a spark, but a very small, about half a millimetre in diameter, ball of fire.

All I had to do was to keep focused even after lighting the match. It was hard, but I managed to do it anyway!

“Well, what do you say?”

“It is technically a fireball, but it’s not really what I had in mind...”

“Nonsense, the bet was that I can make a fireball, which I did. You didn’t state just how big it has to be. As such, by the rules of the bet, I am the winner.”

Twilight groaned in annoyance; she knew Rarity was right.

“Alright, you win... You can style my mane.”

———

That night, a lot of groaning, complaining and arguing could be heard from inside the library, as Rarity – to her great delight – styled Twilight’s mane to what she deemed appropriate.