The Element of Magic

by James Caudry

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Random, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other
Length: 5292

Twilight meets a mysterious pony that teaches her all about magic.

Star Swirl the bearded teaches Twilight about magic. From the simplest of spells to the deepest secrets even Celestia doesn't know.

Published 2012-11-14 09:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-09 06:40:13 UTC

Relativity

Relativity

Relativity

In Equestria, magic is inherent in all things. However, despite this inherence, random acts of magic are still incredibly rare. Magic is more commonly demonstrated when a unicorn performs a spell or incantation. Unicorns find this exceptional talent in magic thanks to their horns. The unicorn horn can be separated into two parts. The outer shell, which is a hard material similar to that of the hoof, and a core that is composed of an unknown material. The only known property of this unknown material is, if removed then a unicorn loses his ability to cast even the simplest of spells. Upon further study, sorcerers' found that this unknown material is present in, at least some quantity, everything. The only pony that is known to have studied this material extensively, was Star Swirl the Bearded. Further information on the subject can be found in his book, What is Known About the Unknown.

This was the last thing Twilight remembered reading from the night before. Everything else was either read through shut eyes or blurred with the shadows of a dream. Upon waking up the next morning, Twilight found herself slumped on the floor with her book mark stuck to her face. With an embarrassed sigh, she whipped the paper from her face and pushed herself off the ground. Without much thought Twilight returned the book to the proper place on the shelf and walked to the center of the room. There, she lied down and mentally planned her day out.

She had the whole weekend to herself. Spike was helping the Apple family with a new cider recipe. Rainbow Dash went to Las Pegasus with Fluttershy, something about losing a bet. Rarity was working on a large order for a circus group. She mentioned to Twilight that it wasn't prestigious, but it did bring in quite the pretty bit. Then Pinkie Pie was helping the Cakes order more supplies for their store. So in the end, Twilight had nothing to do but study up on some subjects that she normally didn’t have the time for.

Twilight ultimately decided that she would follow up on her lead from the night before. This, "unknown material," had caught her imagination and she wouldn't let go. She knew she didn't have the book in her library and that meant the only other place that would have it, was Canterlot. “Hopefully I won’t have to wait long for a train,” she thought to herself. Amazingly, Twilight only had to wait thirty minutes for the next train to arrive. From there it was two hours to Canterlot, and a mile walk to the castle itself. Twilight was walking through the castle halls, sneaking around the guards for fun, when she remembered her experience with time travel.

The scrolls that held the time spell, were kept in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing. She was able to recall that most of the scrolls in that room were written by Star Swirl himself. Through reason, Twilight decided that would be the best place to start looking for her book. That, and she wanted to read through some of the scrolls from that section of the library.

It didn't take long to reach the Star Swirl wing and soon she was sifting through incredibly old books and scrolls. After an hour or so, Twilight noticed that she wasn't making any progress. She placed a book back on the self and sat in the middle of the row. She slowly found her head resting on the shelf in front of her, she snorted and sent dust swirling into the air.
Even if Star Swirl actually wrote this book, there still was a good chance that it no longer existed. Fifteen hundred years, give or take, was enough time for a book to be lost or altered. It had been the tragic end of many of her studies. Just when she was near the end of a long search for answers, the final chapter, the last equation, the finalis pagina would not be there. She had long since given up on searching for these books, every time she did it eventually ended the same. In disappointment.

Twilight sighed and stood up. She made one last glance over the nearest books, nothing. She turned to leave, but jumped instead.

“Giving up already?” His voice was rough, like he had been yelling more than he should. She turned to see an old stallion sitting on a chair at the end of the row. A hood covered his face and left his whole demeanor of a person that didn't want to be seen.

“The book I was looking for was written over a thousand years ago, it probably doesn't even exist anymore.”

“What book are you looking for?” Twilight was tired and worn out. She didn't get much sleep the night before and she spent most of her day looking for this book. But she gave in and decided to humor this old stallion.

“The book I was looking for, What is Known About the Unknown, written by Star Swirl the Bearded.” The old stallion lifted his head and Twilight could clearly see him smirk.

“I had almost forgotten about that book. It wasn't very good, didn't sell many copies. Oh, and it doesn't exist anymore, I have made sure of that.”

“Why doesn’t it exist anymore?” Twilight was perplexed. Her tiredness from before had vanished.

“The book wasn’t very good, it didn’t have much information in it. It was more ideas and speculation than real research.”

“What are you saying?”

“I had all the books collected and burned.”

“Only the author of a book can do that.” The cloaked pony stood from his chair and walked over in front of Twilight. She knew she was right, only an author could destroy their own work. Either this stallion broke the law or was a petty vandal, or... it couldn't be. There wasn't any possible way that he was still alive. Even if he was at the pinnacle of health, he wouldn't last that long.

“You are right, technically speaking, but the princess can also remove books if she thinks they are hazardous to other ponies.” Twilight’s eyes were wide with anticipation. She wanted to know, she needed to know if it was really him.

“Are you-” He raised a chipped hoof and removed his hood. Twilight stopped talking, something about his appearance stunned her. His face was noticeable worn and tired. His eyes, a cold grey with streaks of brilliant gold. His mane was bleach white and seemed to flow with an invisible breeze. His coat was midnight black with specks of white that were scattered in arcanic patterns.

“Yes I am, but I am not bearded anymore.” Twilight was awestruck. She sat there trying to get her mouth to work, but the words wouldn't come out.

“You, uh, you’re really him? Star Swirl, but... how? You must be almost fifteen hundred years old.”

“I am only eighty.”

“Huh? But you look amazing. You don’t look much older than me.” Star Swirl smirked and walked past Twilight. As he moved Twilight could see how each step pained him. The sag in his back, the limp in his hind leg, and his long white tail. “There is more to him than I see,” Twilight thought.

Star Swirl sat in the chair behind Twilight and sighed a breath of relief.
“My appearance is the result of many failed and successful spells. My mane was blue when I was born, but as you can see it is now white. My eyes use to be brown and I happened to remove my cutie mark.” Twilight looked and as he said, it was gone. “But I didn’t answer your question. I was born one thousand, three hundred and seventy-five years ago. I have only been alive for eighty years.”

“So you’re telling me time travel is possible?”

“You already know the answer to that question.”

“How do you know that?” Star Swirl levitated a scroll to himself. He unfurled it and laid it across the table next to him. Twilight glanced over and realized it was the time spell she used a few months ago.

“Every time a pony uses magic it leave a mark. The more talented the pony, the more intricate the mark.” Star Swirl’s face contorted as he concentrated on a spell. Twilight noticed that his horn didn't glow the way that most unicorns did when they used magic. Twilight stopped and starred at the forehead of the stallion. He didn't have a horn. Twilight glanced back to the paper and was amazed when the scroll started to glow a soft violet. Somehow he performed magic even though he wasn't a unicorn. “See, you released magic while holding this scroll.” Star Swirl pointed to the left corner and moved his hoof along the intricate pattern. It was a fractal that glowed a mix of purple. Twilight stared at the paper, unable to comprehend what was happening. She looked back to Star Swirl and was about to say something, but was stopped.

"I will answer all of your questions in due time. But first I want you to leave, go home, and rest. Don't try to figure out what I did or what is happening. Forget everything that you saw. Can you do this?" Twilight slowly nodded her head. "Good, I will contact you tomorrow. Our meeting today was by chance. Tomorrow will be more, official." With that Star Swirl stood and walked out of the library, leaving Twilight in a coma state.

It took Twilight a moment to realize what had happened and to start to move again. She had never seen magic like that before. She had never been so mystified in her life. Everything she knew about magic was out the window, but she liked it. She wanted to know everything, to know how he did the things he did. This curiosity electrified her to the very core, this feeling she had felt many times before. But it was different this time, more pure. With this new energy Twilight raced home, half complacent that she was running through the streets of Canterlot.

The Pledge

The Pledge

Twilight arrived in Ponyville later that day. She gingerly walked off the station platform and made a beeline towards her house. Her only thoughts were that of getting home and falling asleep. In the time it took Twilight to walk back to her house, the sun had set and her legs were ready to give out. The soft fluffy clouds illuminated by the moonlight only mocked Twilight further. She made it inside and barely walked five feet before she decided her rug was a suitable bed and, quite literally, fell asleep.
Twilight awoke to find her leg asleep and that her side was sore from the hard rug. She was mystified as to how a rug could look so soft but be as hard as brick. Twilight sleepily got up from the floor and limped into the kitchen. She tried making herself some food, but she could not find her apatite. She ended up laying her head on the kitchen table and watched the condensation collect on her glass. She did not even notice Spike, until he was standing at the other side of the table.

"Twilight, there is someone here to see you." Twilight stared at Spike. His words made sense, but she did not know how. Then like a wave crashing against the shore, Twilight remembered her meeting with Star Swirl and jumped from the table. Knocking the glass to the floor in the process.
She rushed into the library and slide to a stop just short of the door.

"Why hello Twilight, I can see that you are eager to start."

"Sorry, I forgot all about yesterday. I've been running a little slow this morning." Star Swirl smiled.

"I would hate to see what happens when you are running fast." Twilight chuckled nervously and looked back inside her house. "Would you mind if I come inside?" Twilight shook her head and stepped aside to let Star Swirl in. She closed the door and walked to Star Swirl’s side.
“Is there anything I can get you?”
“Just a chair would be fine.” While Twilight searched for a chair, Star Swirl admired the vast collection of books in the library.

"Soo, how is this more official?" Twilight asked as she adjusted a vase of flowers on the other side of the room. Star Swirl ignored her remark and accepted the chair Twilight brought him.

"Twilight Sparkle, would you like to learn more about magic?" Twilight closed her mouth and nodded. "Then I need to set some rules, first, I am like no other teacher. As you can tell, I am an earth pony. Second, you need to listen to what I say and you need to do it. Those are the only rules, any questions?" Twilight raised her hoof.

"I have a few questions if that is ok." Star Swirl merely stared at her. Twilight swallowed nervously and continued. "How is it that you’re still alive?"

"I used a very completed spell that slows time in a bubble. All I would have to do is step in it whenever I felt. The result, I would not age a day for a hundred of years. What are your other questions?"

"Umm, how is it that you can perform magic even though you are not a unicorn?"

"I will answer that question later in our lessons." Only slightly stumped, Twilight thought on her last question.

"What will I be learning?"

"I will teach you about magic, everything about magic. Ok maybe not everything, but everything that is important to understanding it. Is that the last question?"

"Yes."

"Shall we begin?"

"Yes."

"Ok then, pull up a chair."

"First we will start with the core fundamentals of magic. Can you name off the four main classes of magic?" Twilight’s face went blank.

"Classes of magic?" Star Swirl sighed and shook his head.

"What is Celestia teaching you ponies these days. There are four classes that all magic can be categorized into. Alteration, Restoration, Enchanting, and Destruction. You are probably wondering why these and not some other ones. That is mostly because these are taught and studied at schools of magic. There are other fields, but they are just not as popular."

"So what are the other fields?"

"There are many, mostly too small to be considered a field or a combination of two other fields. For example, cooking with magic would be Alteration and Destruction. Cutting the food is Alteration, and the cooking is Destruction. Then, there are fields that are too advanced for most. Did you know that in every spell there is a good and a bad?" Twilight stared at a book in concentration, but eventually gave in.

"I can't say that I do."

"Well in magic there is dark magic and there is light magic. To put it simply they have different results when you use the same spell. Also, I employ you to not study into the field of dark magic. You can easily lose yourself to it." Star Swirl adjusted himself in the chair. "Now on to the basics. Twilight, what is magic?"

"It's the ability that all unicorn ponies are born with to shape the world around them as they see fit." Twilight sounded off without missing a beat.

"And do you still believe that?"

"Well,” Twilight said timidly, “after seeing you perform magic, I am not so sure." Star Swirl smiled and stood from his chair.

"Let's go for a walk." Star Swirl walked over to the front door and waited for her.

"Do I need a quill?" Star Swirl shook his head.

"No, I would rather have you thinking about what I say, over writing it down." With that, he opened the door and walked out. Twilight quickly scuttled over to the door and followed Star Swirl down the road.

"Now Twilight, magic isn't just an ability. Magic is something that all ponies can learn to use. For example, look at the Pegasi. By your logic, they have the ability to fly just because they are called pegasus. Well what about birds? or dragons? They are both able to fly, are they not? Now the true reason they are able to fly is because they all have something in common."

"There wings." Star Swirl stopped walking and looked at Twilight.

"Very good, their wings are what give them the ability to fly. So what are their wings? A mere tool. Look here, we used deductive reasoning to discover why pegasi are so special." Star Swirl walked over to a tree and stopped under the shade. "Twilight, what is one thing that sets unicorns apart from the other creatures in Equestria?" Twilight didn't even have to think about this.

"My horn."

"Excellent. A pegasus is distinct cause of his wings and a unicorn is, cause of his horn. Now the important question, do you know why?" Twilight was stumped. She remembered reading somewhere that the horn was made from some hard material and something else. Twilight's eyes got big as she recalled what she had read.

"The unknown material from your book." Star Swirl nodded.

"That is correct. The unknown material is what makes magic possible. Over the years I've come to call it Intelligence."

"Why Intelligence?"

"Because, Intelligence is what makes magic happen. You tell it what you want to happen, in the form of a spell, and it does it. It is really smart for something that isn't alive."

"So how does this stuff, Intelligence, perform magic?"

"That is the tricky part. Intelligence is needed to perform magic, but so is energy. You can think of Intelligence as the workhorse and the energy as the apples the work horse eats to keep up his strength." Twilight was starting to understand.

"Is that why I feel tired after I perform spells?"

"Yes and no. The reason you feel tired after performing a spell is because you were supplying your own energy to power the spell. That's mostly cause you don't know how to word your spells correctly, yet." Twilight was confused.

"What do you mean, word my spells?"

"Well when you say a spell you are actually able to say where you want the energy to come from." Star Swirl picked up a rock . "Now, I want you to pick up this rock with magic, but you must use the spell I tell you." Twilight nodded and prepared herself for the test. "First I want you to use, rock rise. Then I want you to use, rock rise horn. Last I want you to use, rock rise self." Twilight nodded and faced the rock. The spells Star Swirl said were easy enough, but very childish. Celestia had taught Twilight how to perform spells that ran a few sentences. Celestia even taught her this one spell that would cook an entire meal with one incantation. Twilight sighed and raised the rock with each of the different spells. When she looked back up, Star Swirl seemed distracted.

"Why are you having me use these simple spells? Celestia has had me use ten line spells before." Star Swirl looked back at Twilight and frowned.

"You shouldn't be proud of that. Long incantations are very dangerous. It is better to keep a spell as short as you can."

"But with my spells I can lift the rock and fifty more if I wanted to." Star Swirl lifted an eyebrow.

"Is that so. Then why don't you show off your magical knowledge." Twilight smiled and turned back towards the rock. She thought of the incantation and released the energy for the spell. Surely enough, the rock and fifty others, all rose into the air.

"See, told ya." Star Swirl's face was unchanged. He took a step forward and raised his hoof.

"I will not hurt you." A moment of confusion flashed through Twilight. What is he talking about, she thought. With that, Star Swirl placed his hoof directly over one of the pebbles and smashed it into the ground. At first, Twilight didn't understand the gravity of the situation, but soon she started to feel it. As slow as molasses, Twilight could feel herself getting tired. It started at her ears and crawled its way down her face. The sudden drain of energy made her want to scream, but the strain of the spell kept her mouth glued shut. She tried releasing the spell, but it didn’t work. The energy kept draining from her body same as before. Terror soon overwhelmed, her breathing became sporadic, and her eyes flickered around wildly. The wave of tiredness soon encompassed her shoulders. By this time her vision was blurred, the faint outline of Star Swirl was all she could see. In desperation, she tried calling out to him, but no words formed in her mouth. Her front legs gave way and she fell to the ground. To her surprise, the energy ceased crawling out of her body. At this point Twilight was barely conscious. All she could remember was the swirling of colors and low-pitched drone of sound.

Twilight eventually found herself lying in her bed. Her head was throbbing, but her vision had returned. She tried lifting her head to look around, but she could only lift it a few inches. Instead, she rolled her head to the side. She noticed someone had lit a fire, and she could smell a sweet tea in the air. She tried to say something but her mouth was numb and tingly, like it had fallen asleep

"Ah, you are awake." Twilight looked off her bed to see Star Swirl standing next to her. "I am sorry about what I did, but it was for the best. If one of your enemies had learned that you cast your spells improperly then they would use that against you." Twilight tried to say "why," but it came out more like blah. "I will explain tomorrow, now you should rest." Star Swirl turned, muttered something to Spike, and walked out of the house. Twilight was too tired to stop him, and too tired to think. She took a few sips of the tea Spike brought her and laid her head down. Twilight started to realize how dangerous magic could really be. Up until now, she only had one accident and that was when she got Spike. Though the danger only made it that more exciting. Twilight weakly smiled, “I am going crazy.” She closed her eyes in anticipation of the next day and fell asleep.

Thought of the Matter

It was noon by the time Twilight rolled out of bed and onto the floor. She whimpered softly as the cold floor replaced the warmth of her blankets. Still not fully awake, her hind leg jutted out in a sort of spasm. Her leg made contact with edge of the bed frame and sent a shot of pain through her body. Twilight's eyes exploded open, her breathing intensified. She lied on the floor, crippled with fear of a pain she didn’t understand. Slowly, her breathing tapered and slowed to its normal pass. Twilight sleepily lifted her head from the floor and rested it on the bed.

“About time you woke up.” The sound of Spike’s voice made Twilight jump. She buried her face into the soft covers of her bed. The stress from the previous day now bore a greater weight on her mind, and her emotions. She couldn’t stop the warm stream of tears that rolled down her face. So, she welcomed them. “The stallion that brought you home said it would wear off by morning.”

Twilight wiped the tears from her eyes and faced Spike.

“What would wear off?” Twilight asked in the calmest voice she could muster.

“He said the tea would help you sleep.” Twilight giggled. Like she needed something to help her sleep. She was almost dead from what Star Swirl did to her.

“Can you help me up Spike?” Spike walked over to Twilight’s side and helped her gain her balance. They proceed to walk down the flights of stairs all the way to the kitchen on the ground floor.
Twilight managed to force some food into her mouth and eat it. To say her experience with Star Swirl left her whole body weak would be an understatement. It wouldn’t cover the burning of her muscles, or the stiffness in her joints. Twilight ultimately decided that turning toast into a liquid wouldn’t help her growling stomach. So she cleared her plate, pushed back her chair, and tried walking under her own power. She felt like she was doing mostly well; until she looked down to see that Spike had been helping her since she stood up.

“I think it would be better if you avoided the stairs for a while.” Spike offered. The idea of less work perked Twilight’s ears and she hummed her approval. Spike helped Twilight lean against a wall as he prepared a bed.

Twilight was in the process of laying her head on her pillow, when the door opened and Star Swirl walked through.

“Good, you are awake.” Twilight glared at Star Swirl. She was not sure if she should hate him, fear him, or thank him. She compromised with keeping her mouth shut. “Twilight, would you like to continue today with your studies?”

“Why, so you can finish me off?” Twilight’s sullen mood almost shocked Star Swirl, but he was expecting as much. He replied with a smile.

“Your spells don’t allow for sudden change. You use a kind of spell work known as channeling. It can be useful in some situations, but mostly you want to use different wording for your spells.” An awkward silence followed his words. Only the sound of Star Swirl shifting his weight penetrated the silence. He didn’t wait long before he reached into his cloak and removed a clear blue stone. Twilight watched the stone intensely as he moved it from his pocket to a place just over Twilight’s flank. She was about to yell at him, but something within the stone left her without words. A soft green light emanating from the core of the stone, but that was not all. The light seemed to dance off the facets of the gem, even though the gem was being held perfectly still. The whole scene reminded Twilight of a memory from her childhood. A time when Shining Armor held a snowflake still, using magic. It was the first time Twilight felt a desire to learn magic. Through the fade of a memory, Twilight sorely watched as Star Swirl placed the crystal on her side. Her eyes widened as she watched the light dance down the sides of the crystal and into her body. The pain in her side dissipated as the magic flowed through her body. Her muscles started to relax and the tiredness from before eased.
Before Twilight was able to utter her reply, Star Swirl answered.
“I transferred the energy that was held in the crystal into your body. It’s a very specialized form of restoration, as it only works on magical wounds.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t.” Star Swirl pocketed the crystal and took a step back. “Would you like to continue, now?” Twilight blushed and nodded her approval. Star Swirl brushed his cloak and cleared his throat.

“Yesterday you learned that you want your spells to be as simple as possible.”

“But what if I want to do something complex?” Star Swirl raised a hoof.

“Twilight, has Princess Celestia ever taught you why we use words when we perform magic?” Twilight was discouraged, Princess Celestia never taught her why. Although what discouraged her more, was that she never wondered why. “I see by your silence that would be a no. Well, Twilight, to understand spells then you first need to understand the core of spell work. The wording. Twilight, what are words?” Twilight simply glared at Star Swirl for asking her such a stupid question, but after thinking about it, she found herself stumped. Her eyes flickered back and forth as she thought.
“What is a rose, but a name we give a flower? Words are what we use to shape thought, to convey ideas, to perform spells. Although most ponies wouldn’t know that words aren’t necessary to make a spell. Have you ever performed a love spell? You only need to feel the emotions you have then release the energy needed for a spell, and it works! That is why controlling your emotions is critical to spell work. Celestia was teaching you long spells because a long spell makes it impossible for your thoughts or emotions to interfere. Yet, the spell will not stop drawing energy until it has performed exactly what you told it to do. You experienced that first hand yesterday.” Twilight looked away as her face glowed red. “With simple spells you can rely on both thought and words. Remember the spell I taught you. Rock rise. With this spell, you can simply raise the rock, or you can extend the spell to raise fifty others just by thought. In addition, you can go the other way. If you described the rock in more detail then no matter what you thought about, only rocks with those characteristics could be affected.” Twilight was confused. What Star Swirl said simply made sense. It felt like he was building off her existing ideas, instead of creating new ones.

“Ok, I am ready to continue.” Star Swirl smiled and sat next to Twilight.

“I only have a few more things to teach you before we move on to the next subject. The main reason you get tired when you perform some of your spells is cause you rush the spell. When you perform a spell and you don’t get tired, that is because all the energy required to perform the spell came from your horn. Eh, the Intelligence in your horn. Intelligence produces energy, which is used to power spells, but it can only produce this energy at a certain rate. Let us say you want to change metal into gold. A complex spell to say the least. Now when you first start this spell you will not notice any change in the metal. If you wait for a few minutes then you will see some change. Wait even longer and the entirety of the metal will become gold and you wouldn’t be tired. The length of time it takes a spell to complete the task is solely dependent on your level of patience. You can move a mountain using only the energy from your horn. However, it will take a very long time, if you wanted it to move faster, then your spell would have to find more energy in order to do that. That is when the spell draws energy from you; sense you are the closest source.”

“So I get tired because I word my spells wrong and I am impatient?”
“In a sense.”

“So how am I supposed to perform complex spells without getting tired or waiting till I die of old age?”

“That is part of our next lesson. If you want we can start now or we can wait till tomorrow.”

“Lets wait, I need sometime to understand all of this.”

“As you wish.” Star Swirl stood and walked to the front door. “Oh, Twilight. I want you to have this.” He placed the blue gem on a table by the door. “It’s for the next lesson.” Star Swirl proceeded to bow and then walked out the door.