Friendship IS Magic

Chapter 6: Friendship IS Magic

Gallopia Bastion, The First Kingdom of Equestria

Fifth Month (Spring/Summer Solstice approaching)

Approximately 8,000 B.N.M.C.

Today, Princess Celestia was very eager to start a new lesson with a very new teacher, Starswirl or the famous Ridnarhtim. She loved the way yesterday he wore his funny unicorn clothes and pranced around with his shiny golden bells. Even though he appeared to be a very grumpy old unicorn stallion, he looked like a great grandpony figure for her to tease and wear down.

He didn't seem the least bit angry with anything, he seemed to be writing with his magic in a old book with a engraving of a unicorn on wooden cover with wooden binding. But there was something definitely different about him today:

He was not wearing his cape today at all. He actually had quiet a few scars all along his back and some scars could be found on up his neck.

"Hello today, Grandpony!" Celestia came in to the observatory with her cheery Filly voice singing. "We're going to learn a lot today, aren't we? Learn about the Diamond dogs and alicorns like me and the great dragon slayer of old-"

Celestia gasped. She could now could see every scar that was on his body now that she was so close to him.

"Eh, what?" StarSwirl peeped, turning around with his odd looking unicorn made glasses on. "What? To what are you staring at?" He reacted to Princess Celestia's dumbfoundedness.

"You.......your...YOUR SCARS!!!" The Princess did not mean to shout out his problem with the Royal Gallopian voice.

"These things?" Starswirl asked, running his hooves through the scars' indents "They're nothing."

"No they are NOT!!" Celestia insisted "They're huge! How did you ever get such huge scars? Did you fall into a huge brier patch or something like that?"

"No..." Starswirl looked down at the scars very sadly. "Let's just say for now...it had to do with one of my first use of time traveling magic, a using of teleportation magic, and one of the oddest most frightening weeks of my life." Starswirl ended.

"So, you're not going to tell me how you really got them, are you?" The Princess asked, comically missing the point altogether.

"You see...just...look, I'll tell you about it later in your life, maybe. And that's a big maybe, young filly!"

Starswirl glanced down at his Sundial watch.

"Bah. We need to start school, anywho. Let's see we are in lesson-" he used his Unicorn magic to pull out a text book and then he started reading it "lesson, lesson..."

"Lesson 15." The Princess Piped up.

"Ah yes, thank you, and what lesson is that about?" The old stallion asked.

"It's a introductory lesson about magic, actually." Princess Celestia told him.

"Magic?" Starswirl let out a long, stressful sounding sigh. "Well...well, where do we even start now? We could talk about your...ancestors, your far ancestors or the first...being...now couldn't we? And we could as speak of complex things that would make a Alicorn filly get a bad headache like what the difference between magic and science/technology is, or the origin of magic, or what objects are considered to be magical."

"Won't I learn those things?" Celestia asked in a quieted voice.

"Perhaps. In further lessons at the end of your education when you shall be Queen of Equestria and must know all there is to know about magic in order to defend and rule properly. This is when you will have to (and I mean have to) learn the magic that is the most powerful pf magic: the magical ability to travel through time."

"What?" The Princess of Equestria was confused.

"Yes," the old stallion spoke to her. "There is even a type of magic (that I invented actually) that can cause a pony to travel through time itself. Oh, of course you might wonder how somepony can "invent" a magick, but that is also a footnote in yet another future lesson. But the bottom line is: Magic is a very complicated subject."

"Then how will I even begin to learn it?" The Princess asked openly.

"As long as you remember this simple ancient praise, you will know all of magic in a basic sense: Friendship is Magic."

"Friendship is Magic?" Celestia repeated.

"Friendship IS magic." Starswirl assured her.

"What does that mean?" Celestia lost the point again.

"It means this" The stallion said, getting out a textbook from a shelf and flipping to to first page. He pointed his hooh to the first paragraph, he read aloud: "Friendship can be described as greater or equal to magic because when magic is used properly (and when it is working at all) it works harmoniously like a friendship does. A friendship is a give and take relationship, just like magic is a give and take relationship. A good magic-user understands that with a great gift of using power, a pony must learn to control it as well. Now this is very important: magic isn't really good or evil or has an evil 'side', it can be used to accomplish either good or evil. It can either be used as tool to protect your friends and allies or turn onto them. Do you understand now?"

"Yes." The Princess of the sun told him.

"And that ends the lesson, gladly enough." He shut the book.

"Wait! That's it!? That's it of an entire lesson? Are just saying that to blow me off?" She gave Starswirl a stern look.

"Alright, I will admit it, I did leave out a couple of important notes so I could get back to my reading and writing." Starswirl pulled out the textbook and opened it once again.

"The first rule of magic is to never use it for evil of course."

"There are rules for magic?" Celestia asked.

"For it's proper use and not abuse, yes." After a slight pause of remembrance, he said "Now the second rule is interesting: All visible matter can be magically used or transformed. Now the third rule is-"

"Will this be on some sort of a test?" Celestia interrupted him.

"Yes, later." Starswirl told her. "The third rule is (anyway) that there are different forms and formations of magic, but it is all of the same magi. The fourth rule is only magic users can bestow magic abilities onto a user. And the fifth rule is like unto the fourth: any pegasi or earth pony can be bestowed with magical abilities by the magical giving of a horn. And really..." he closed the book and put it away "that is all you have of this lesson.

"Okay, well thank you." Celestia got slightly starry eyed "Can be with you at all grandpony? Maybe you can tuck me in and read me a story for bedtime." She snuggled up gently to the old stallion.

He had to push the filly softly away.

Starswirl tried to explain why he couldn't be with her other then being her teacher. "I, as much as I would want to, I can't, you see. I am like...the royal magician unicorn of Equestria let's say. And I am used to an environment that is always secluded and quiet. Now if you'll excuse me, I would like you not to be in my room anymore please."

After Starswirl's little speech to her, Celestia was walking down the steps leading to the observatory with a sad little trot.

After a couple short minutes of walking she literary bumped up lightly into Duchess Goethe's frontal sub-torso.

"Why hello little one, I've finally found you." She softly and calmly said "I was coming to you to tell you that the King and Queen will be back inside the walls of our Bastion perhaps in a couple of days or even tomorrow. And the best part..." Goethe broke a smile on her "You'll get to have a day-off tomorrow so I can give you...no, show you how to acquire something that will be useful for the rest of your life. I'll be seeing you, filly."

"I'll be seeing you too, Duchess." The Princess of the day told her.