Sorry for the lack of updates. This chapter is a bit longer in a feeble attempt to make up for that. Enjoy!
Six Months Later
"Congratulations son, and good luck in your future endeavours," the education attendant told me as I firmly grasped his hoof, shaking it with a huge smile plastered on my face. He quickly returned the smile, before I turned around and left the room.
One of the most prevalent issues after the whole "elements" issue was sorted out was schooling. I was almost done grade eleven, and Austin was finishing up grade nine. But when all of this happened, we were torn away from completing our current grade. After we found out about our situation with the elements, we were sent back to school in Canterlot. However, both Austin and I found the work and lessons to be incredibly easy. The princess set up an appointment with an "educational assessment officer," as they called them, to test our level of learning. Upon doing so, I was automatically placed in the twelfth grade, and Austin was jumped up to the eleventh grade. While this may have seemed like a bad idea, we were quickly found to be far beyond the level of comprehension and learning of a peer in the same grade. I maintained a constant mark of one hundred in the course, and once this came to the attention of the professor, it quickly went to the princess, who once again had me evaluated to test my mental prowess. I was found to be beyond the level of a high school student, and was quickly placed under the guidance of a high ranking private university teacher. I completed the work and lessons that were assigned to me in a little over five months. Austin was tested as well, and was also placed higher, being inserted into the twelfth grade. He is currently completing his high school education.
All of the advanced learning can be correlated with what happened to us with the elements. It was a given that our physical strength and endurance had increased, and Celestia knew this. She had also expected us to have increased mental capabilities. When I had asked her how she could know any of this, the answer had seemed painfully obvious. Luna and herself had gone thorough the same thing when they were exposed to the elements. However, because they had never actually absorbed the elements like we did, it happened to them at a much slower rate, over the course of a few decades. But for us, since we got such a large... "dosage," if you will, the rate at which we learned new things was accelerated by a large amount. This led to me being able to complete advanced university level courses in the amount of time that I did. I would expect Austin to be done his grade twelve relatively soon as well...
I left the conference room and quickly ran towards the throne room, clutching my new diploma in my hand. Because of how easy it was, I had quickly lost interest in getting my high school education, but my insatiable thirst for knowledge kept me in line with the school work. I was much more interested in learning a totally new set of skills. Upon arriving, I quickly saw Celestia sitting behind her desk, as usual. Realistically, I don't know how she sat there, at the same time, every day, signing away at the papers that were in front of her for so long without losing her sanity. It was almost like clockwork. Every day, without fail, she would be sitting behind her big wooden desk, signing away, with an attendant refilling her tea when necessary. I can tell you for sure that I do not envy her position.
"Ah, hello Daniel. How did everything go?" she asked me, turning away from the attendant next to her desk. When we first arrived here, we definitely got off on the wrong foot with the princesses, especially Austin and Luna. Those two still butted heads to this day. But over the long time we have been in Canterlot, we have learned to at least try to enjoy each others company, so that we are not constantly at each others throats. While the relationship between Austin and the princesses may be strained, the princesses and I share a somewhat healthy relationship, specifically Celestia and I. There is a reason for that.
Over the past... two months? Yes, it would have to be. Over the past two months, Celestia has been teaching and guiding me and Austin towards being able to manipulate magic. Being the all-powerful alicorn "sun god" that she is, I figured that she would be a prime candidate for being a teacher. So far, the progress has been slow, as expected. Because humans have no innate magical abilities, I was relying purely on the portion of the elements fused with my soul for my conjuration abilities. Recently, I have been getting quite close at being able to conjure a basic levitation spell. Once that was accomplished and the spell was bound to my memory, it was a simple matter of manipulating the magic to do what I wanted. In this case, levitating a small object.
"Everything went fine, see for yourself," I told her as I threw the diploma at her. She quickly caught it with her magic, and slowly unrolled the paper, quickly scanning it over.
"Well that's great news, congratulations! But... I feel that you aren't here to show me this," she said with a warm smile. I nodded, and she sighed slightly. Standing up from her seat, she placed the diploma on the desk, and walked around behind me. I turned to follow her with my eyes, and waited for what she had to say. She then levitated a small book over to herself, and began idly flipping through the pages.
"...identify the differences between conjuration and manipulation," she told me without turning to look at me. Once these words had been spoken, the attendant who had been next to her desk quickly excused herself from the room. I watched her leave in bemusement, but otherwise paid her no mind. I instead focused on formulating my answer for the posed question.
"Conjuration refers to the act of concentrating your magic into the type of spell you want. This process is always done in your mind, and can never be done externally. Once the necessary spell has been conjured, it is then manipulated, which is done by using the spell in the way that you want. The teleportation spell is conjured by focusing your magic into a thought, a place. Once that place has been sufficiently thought over in your mind, the spell is manipulated by physically teleporting to that location," I explained.
"Summary," she said in a slight monotone. I paused for a second.
"...conjuration is the act of creating a spell for use, manipulation is the actual use of that spell," I told her. Celestia did not move, and instead stayed quiet. I stood, waiting for my next question. Celestia, being my teacher, liked to drop surprise quizzes on me from time to time. Then again, what teacher doesn't like doing that?
"...explain magiplasm," she told me. I paused again, gathering my thoughts.
"Magical plasmatic waves, commonly known as magiplasm, is the way that magic propagates through whatever medium you are using magic in. It is akin to gravity, in that while it is not impossible to detect, there is no way to physically observe or alter it, yet it allows the use of magic. Based on this, the concept of magiplasm is still considered a theory. Magiplasm is considered to act like a wave, and a particle. While there is no physical way to alter the way it moves, you can indirectly alter magiplasm. By intercepting a spell, such as absorbing a bolt of magic, you are altering magiplasm by treating it like a particle, thought it is also a wave. Magiplasm is also the way that magic is stored for use by magic using individuals. A sort of "pool" is collected around the individual, which is where the individuals magic is stored. This magic around the person can be two types of magic, either harmonious or chaotic in nature. The type of magiplasm that surrounds the person can effect how the person thinks and acts," I finished my explanation. Celestia remained quiet.
"Explain the difference between harmonious and chaotic magic,"
"The difference between the two types of magic is what effects they each can leave you with. Other than the external factors, there is relatively no difference in what you can do with each type. A healing spell, while generally considered to be a harmonious spell, can also be used in a chaotic way. Using a harmonious spell leaves the user feeling lifted and refreshed by leaving harmonious magiplasm in their magical pool. Once this is achieved, because of the amount of harmonious magiplasm in their pool, chaotic spells become less and less effective. A person surrounded by harmonious magiplasm will generally be happier and more cheerful in character at the time, while also being less prone to making rash decisions. Chaotic magic, however, is much more caustic and volatile in nature. It works virtually the same to harmonious magic, although chaotic magic has the potential to much more... effective. If a person's magical pool is balanced in the two types of magiplasm, then the two types of magic are identical in effectiveness. However, when a person is surrounded by chaotic magic, their magic will be many times more effective then someone who is surrounded by harmonious magiplasm. Being surrounded by chaotic magiplasm changes the way the individual thinks in a negative way. The person will be more prone to rash and hasty thinking, which can leave the person more exposed because they never actually thought out a plan or course of action," I finished. I breathed in a sigh of relief, content with my detailed, lengthy explanation. Celestia remained facing away from me, as I waited for a response.
"Lastly, explain how the levitation spell is conjured and manipulated, and explain why the weight of the object determines exertion rate," she told me as she closed the book she was holding. I smiled at this, knowing that this would be an easy question.
"The levitation spell is conjured by gathering magiplasm at the focal point of the individual, generally a horn, or a hand in my case. Once the magic is gathered, it can then be sent out by-" I was cut short when the princess suddenly whirled around, quickly throwing the book she was holding my way. I reacted by throwing up my arms and holding out each of my hands to catch it, but I was met with... quite the surprise.
Floating in front of me, held in Celestia's magical grasp, was a small, brown, leather wrapped book. But... something was off. Celesta's magic was, from personal experience, always a golden yellow in color. The book, however, was being held by magic that was not yellow. It was... pink. I lowered my hands, and suddenly the book dropped to the floor. I looked back up to Celestia in confusion, only to find that she was simply smiling. That's when it hit me.
"Wait, was that... was that me?" I asked awkwardly. Celestia tilted her head in mild amusement.
"Well, who else could it be?" she asked me with a small chuckle. I turned my head to gaze around the area, only to find that there was no one else left in the room. I looked back to the book, and suddenly finished piecing together the answer to my question. In hindsight, it was a rather silly question. My eyes widened, and I looked back up to the princess.
"Now that you have unlocked the first step towards conjuring and using magic, search you mind. Right now. You know exactly how the levitation spell works, yes? You know how to conjure it, you know how to manipulate it, and you know what it does to you. So find it, and use it. Use it again on this book, right here, right now," she told me. I lowered my head, and began focusing. I knew what Celestia was talking about. Once a magical user had used a new spell for the first time, the spell instantly became committed to the individuals memory. All the person had to do to use that spell again was find it in their memory, and simply use it again. Upon the second cast of the spell, that spell was then forever placed in the user's active spell memory. This allowed the use of the spell whenever the person wanted it.
I searched my mind, using the memory of me lifting the book a sort of a guide. Soon enough, I found it, and upon doing so, I quickly conjured the spell into my mind. Once I was sure that I had a good lock on the spell, I focused the spell into my right hand, and manipulated it so that it was surrounding the book. I could quickly feel my magical reserve being drained. Because I was a new magical user, my reserve of magiplasm was extremely small. Knowing this, I quickly raised my hand into the air.
And the book went with it.
I smiled in triumph at what I had achieved. I was actually using magic. I, a lowly human in terms of magic, was actively using a levitation spell for the first time in my life.
"Yes! That's it! Look at you! You are actually using magic! You, Daniel, are the first human in recorded history to be able to use magic. This is absolutely groundbreaking!" she exclaimed happily to me. Before I could celebrate, I felt the book get heavier and heavier, to the point where I could no longer lift it. I cut the spell off, and watched as the book fell to the floor. Before it could, it was quickly grabbed by Celestia's magic, and she tossed it to me. I caught the book with my hands, my reserve of magic spent. It would take a while before it was built back up, probably at least a few hours. This disappointed me, but also gave me a new area in life to focus on.
"Now comes the hard part. You know how to conjure and use the levitation spell, but your magical reserve is quite small. It will take a long time to build up a larger pool of magic, but it is, of course, far from impossible. My advice is to use that spell at every opportunity you get. Use it as much as you can without killing yourself. When things get hard to hold because you are running out of magiplasm, push harder. When you do this, you capture more neutral magiplasm that is all around us. This is how you grow your magical reserve. Keep this us as much as you can. You have been given the opportunity to rise to the level that Luna and I are on. Of course, we are much older that you, so this will likely never happen," she told me, giving me a large, sarcastic, smile. I returned the smile. Celestia then started to walk, and as she passed me, she gave me one last piece of advice.
"And read that book. Read it twice, read it a hundred times! Learn it, and learn it well. That, is your next step," she told me as she glided out of the room. I looked down to my hands.
"Magiplasm for dummies," I spoke aloud.
Thanks Celestia...