Season: Z

Episode: C

Twilight’s Teacher

(By: Flame Runner)

It was a bright and sunny day outside, but Twilight didn’t have time to enjoy the weather because Princess Celestia had just sent a letter.

My faithful student,

I want you to come to Canterlot for one week. I believe that it is time for you to learn some more advanced magic. Unfortunately, I cannot teach you this week due to preparations for an upcoming event, but I have invited a very special guest to be your teacher. You may bring any of your friends along that want to come. I’m sure there will be something fun for everypony.

-Princess Celestia

Advanced magic studies? A teacher? A week in Canterlot? What was going on? And would any of the other ponies want to go on such short notice? Quickly, Twilight headed out the door to find out if any of her friends wanted to make a trip to Canterlot for the week.

(Insert Theme Music Here)

* * * * * * * * *

The next week, on the way to Canterlot, Twilight was talking with Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

“It’s too bad that Apple Jack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie couldn’t make it,” said Twilight.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t miss this opportunity in a million years,” replied Rainbow Dash, “The Wonderbolts are holding a three day event of racing, stunt shows, and all around awesomeness!”

“I for one am in a fashion quandary and just knew that a trip to Canterlot would reawaken my creativity,” responded Rarity.

The chariot, pulled by two strong Pegasus, hurried rapidly from the small town of Ponyville to the capital of Equestria, the dazzling Canterlot. The three ponies were whisked through the sky until the grand castle could be seen in the far distance, gleaming like a white jewel above the large city. Soon the ponies touched ground outside the castle where they were taken to meet Princess Celestia in the throne room. Massive doors led into the large, open throne room which was decorated with banners and many stain glass windows of brave and adventurous ponies from many ages. The three ponies knew that they too were on some of these windows for their brave efforts against Nightmare Moon and the villainous Discord. When the ponies arrived it was already nearing the evening and the sun was just about to tip over the horizon. Princess Celestia and her sister Luna were deep in concentration as they controlled the rising of both the sun and moon in Equestria. The sun finally disappeared over the horizon and the moon slowly rose into the sky.

“Twilight Sparkle! It’s good to see you again my faithful student,” said Celestia seemingly unexhausted even from the job of moving the sun. “And I see you brought some of your friends. Luna still has some work to do while she moves the moon, so let’s give her some space,” Celestia rose and walked toward the three ponies in front of her. “We can go to the ballroom and talk.”

Princess Celestia walked out the large doors in a very dignified manner and the three ponies followed close behind. The doors slowly closed behind them and the ponies began to speak.

“Wow! So that’s what moving the sun and moon look like. That was totally sweet!” Rainbow Dash commented enthusiastically.

“Princess, in your note it said that I was going to learn about light magic, but not from you,” said Twilight

“Yes, although I could teach you a lot about it, I just don’t have much time right now as we’re setting up for a special holiday. However, I found someone who can teach you much more about light magic than even I can.”

Twilight halted for a moment. “Wait, a better teacher than you? You raise and lower the sun! Who could teach me more than you?”

“Just wait and see. I want it to be a surprise.”

The ponies continued down the corridor. Rarity was admiring the décor, Rainbow Dash was thinking of how cool it would be to fly up and move the sun with the Wonderbolts, and Twilight felt both excited and a little confused when they suddenly arrived at the ballroom. The ballroom was even larger than the throne room to accommodate the masses of ponies who would show up at events like the Grand Galloping Gala. The doors slowly opened and the small party walked in. The group had just gotten comfortable when a guard came up and whispered something to Celestia. “Yes, bring our guest in. I’m sure Twilight is ready to meet her new teacher.”

The guard left to retrieve the guest. The ponies watched the door to the ballroom and awaited the arrival of Twilight’s teacher. Slowly, a dim light started to come from the hallway. The light grew brighter each second and shown through the cracks in the door until they were flung open. Before the ponies stood a large dragon whose scales gleamed as if lit by some inner flame. The dragon’s body shimmered and faded creating a dizzying display of light and beauty.

“Ah, Lumin I’m glad you made it,” Celestia said cheerfully. “I hope your trip was smooth and quick.”

“It was just fine,” was Lumin’s reply. Lumin’s voice did not boom loudly but instead seemed to speak at just the right volume to every pony. For a grown dragon he was rather small, but to a pony he was quite large, filling up much of the ballroom and being able to just fit through its large double doors.

Twilight looked on in shock. Suddenly she didn’t feel so good. Twilight had faced dragons before with calm determination and even had Spike, her dragon helper, but this was totally different. Twilight had never known a dragon to teach and it was possible that this one would be very strict.  What if she failed her lessons? Would she disappoint Celestia? Would she have to leave Ponyville and all her friends? She knew that this was just a worst case scenario, but would having a dragon for a teacher change anything? Twilight didn’t know and was afraid to find out.

“You must be Twilight Sparkle,” said the dragon as he leaned in upon the scared, purple pony. “I will see you tomorrow at eight sharp in the advanced magic center. Don’t be late.” Then the dragon gave a powerful yawn. “I believe I shall go and sleep now. Good night.” With these few sentences Lumin introduced himself and then set off for bed.

“What a lovely creature,” purred Rarity, “I believe I have been inspired! I will have much work to do here this next week if I want my designs to be out before I leave Canterlot.” Twilight didn’t know how to feel, she was glad that Rarity was happy, but she, herself, was not very enthusiastic about her new teacher.

* * * * * * * * *

“Twilight, I think you’re worrying too much,” chided Rainbow Dash. “Nothing bad is going to happen. Besides you’re great at that magic stuff. I’m actually a little jealous; I mean how great would it be to get some serious flying lessons from a dragon! I mean it’s not as great as the Wonderbolts, but still…” Rainbow Dash started to go off on a tangent. Twilight had shared her fears with Rainbow Dash but, after a few words of encouragement, it seemed that Rainbow’s mind was on her favorite flyers. Twilight decided that a good night of rest was all she needed to calm her worries and she soon drifted off to sleep.

* * * * * * * * *

Twilight awoke from a deep slumber with the sun shining in her face. She had rested well and was ready to face the day…until she looked at the time. 7:55 AM. “Aahh! I’m going to be late!” She checked to make sure she had everything she needed. “Paper? Check. Quill? Check. Books? Where are my books? Wait, I don’t have books yet. Ok, I think that’s all.” Twilight thought aloud to herself. 7:57. Twilight looked at the time again and thundered out the door. She rushed across the palace grounds managing to bump into some water buckets and spill them all over her hooves. The gardener didn’t seem too happy, but she just kept running. As she rushed down the hall she took a look at a clock: 7:59. She would make it if she ran just a little faster. She picked up the pace and rounded a corner to arrive at the classroom, but her teacher wasn’t there. She took a look around, “No, this is the wrong room!” She had gone back to her first magic classroom instead of to the advanced magic center. Another look at the clock told her told her that her running had been in vain, 8:00.

* * * * * * * * *

When 8:05 rolled around Twilight entered the advanced magic center and her new teacher was standing right there. “I’m so sorry I’m late. I promise to make it up to you; I’ll work extra hard and…” Twilight trailed off to silence as Lumin looked her over. “It looks like you had a rough morning,” said Lumin. “Here I’ll show you what I mean.” Suddenly, a second Twilight appeared before Twilight. But this one had large eyes, wet hooves, and a frizzy mane. Then, Twilight realized that she looking at herself as if in a mirror. “Ha ha ha ha,” laughed Lumin jovially, “Don’t worry about it. I have my rough days too, but you might want to dry off your hooves.” Twilight felt embarrassed. This was her first impression with her teacher and she managed to show up late, wet, and uncombed, but Lumin seemed to be in a good mood. Twilight dried off her hooves and used magic to straiten out her mane. When she looked back, her duplicate was gone. “How did you do that?” asked Twilight. “That’s what you’re here to learn about,” replied Lumin, “light magic. I figured I would use this opportunity as an object lesson. I have a lot to teach you and very little time to do it.”

Lumin still shown brightly, even in the daytime, like he was made of light itself. Twilight was curious about this strange phenomenon, but decided to not speak about it yet and just focus on her studies. “The first thing for us to do is to see where your current skill level is in the aspect of light magic. So, show me what you can do.” Twilight gathered all her might and her horn grew brighter and brighter, to a dazzling hue that shown like the sun. Twilight felt a little weak after the effort, but was confident that she had given all she had.

“I see. Hmm…This could be a little harder than I thought,” Lumin mused. “Has Princess Celestia taught you anything else on light magic or have you learned anything else from the books you have?”

“Umm…no.”

“Well then you have a lot to learn. Creating light is the most basic of light magic and I am supposed to teach you the more advanced techniques, but we may have to start at the beginning. The Princess has assured me that you are a quick learner so you’ll have to put all of your skill to the test if you want to learn what I have to teach in just a week.”

Twilight’s heart sank, “What if I can’t learn all the advanced techniques in time? Could I study under you for another week?”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not possible.” Lumin looked a little sad for just a moment and then continued, “Plus, Celestia has asked that you show her everything that you learn from me at the end of this week before you return home. I guess you could see it as an exam of sorts.”

Twilight became even more nervous at the thought of showing her magic in front of the Princess. This was going to be a hard week. “Now, shall we get started?” asked Lumin.

* * * * * * * *

Yesterday was tough for Twilight. She had tried so hard to do what Lumin asked, but couldn’t quite grasp everything. She was learning what he called “the basics” but they seemed like so much more. She had no problem with creating light, but pressing light into a small sphere that she could move around or taking light away from one area to make it darker were proving to be a hassle. She was currently at her room practicing distorting light to make a visible blur in the air. “Come on Twilight, focus,” she told herself. Slowly a distortion began to appear in the air. She was able to move it around and blur the objects she saw. She moved it over her bed and the bed looked like it was bending in the middle, almost about to snap. She then hovered it above a flower outside and it looked like the petals grew to a huge size and the stem shrunk. It was quite humorous to look at. Then, suddenly another object came into view where the flower was, but Twilight couldn’t make out what it was.

“Hi Twilight!” said Rainbow Dash, “What are you doing?” Twilight lost her concentration on the distortion and everything went back to normal. Rainbow Dash was standing in front of the flower with a curious look on her face.

“Whatever that was, it made you look really silly,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, you startled me. I was just practicing a little of what I learned today. Lumin says that these are just the basics, but they seem tough. I can usually just try magic once and I get it, but not this light magic stuff.”

“Don’t sweat it Twi. You’ll figure it out fast. You’ve always been great at that kind of thing.”

“Yes, but after my training is up I have to show the Princess what I’ve learned.”

“Twilight, you’ll be just fine. Trust me on this.” Rainbow Dash paused for just a moment before continuing. “Hey, the Wonderbolts aren’t performing for a few days still and I have nothing to do. I tried talking to Rarity, but she’s too busy working on her new designs. So, do you want to see if anything is going on in town this evening?”

“I’m sorry Rainbow, but I just don’t think I have time for that right now but, if you want, you could help me practice.”

“Well, I’ve got nothing else to do. So, what are you working on?”

“Right now I’m working on distorting the light in an area so it blurs anything you see if you look through it, like looking through a piece of curved glass.”

“Well what good does that do? I mean distorting light hasn’t helped anypony that I know of. Why are you learning that?”

“I don’t know, but I have to show the Princess at the end of the week. First, I was scared to be taught by a dragon and now I’m scared to show the Princess what I’ve learned. This isn’t really all that impressive.”

“You know what you need? A break. Come on, let’s see what’s going on in town and just relax a little.”

“I…I just can’t. I have to show Celestia that I’m a good student and that means lots of practice before the week is up. I’m sorry Rainbow.”

“Alright then, see you later Twilight.”

With these words Rainbow Dash walked out the door and into a beautiful evening to enjoy the excitement of Canterlot while Twilight stayed up late practicing what she had learned.

* * * * * * * *

The next day Twilight felt exhausted. She had stayed up way to late practicing, but was determined to make class on time. She got up with plenty of time to spare, brushed out her mane, and headed to the advanced magic center. 7:55, the clock read. Twilight was definitely on time today. Lumin entered and said, “Good morning.” Then, the class started. “Twilight, show me what you learned yesterday and then we’ll see how to proceed.” Twilight went through all of Lumin’s “basics”. She created small spheres of light, darkened the corners of the room, and made movable distortions in the air. “You’ve made good progress Twilight. We will touch on these basics again today and tomorrow we should be able to move into more advanced studies.” Lumin seemed impressed but, for some reason, a little sad.

“Lumin, I’m sorry to ask, but I just don’t see how these basics are helpful to anypony.” Lumin looked at Twilight and gave a big grin.

“Ah, so you want to see the fun stuff? Well, don’t worry. Today we’ll review the basics and I’ll show you what we’re going to do with them.” Lumin paused for a moment and then continued, “So, which basic would you like to start with today?”

“I guess I want to see how distortion is useful.”

“Then we’ll begin with light distortion.”

Lumin had Twilight make distortions in the air and he had her grow and shrink them. Then he made Twilight place the distortion over objects so that they were totally covered by the distortion. He also tried to get her to created two distortions at once, but Twilight couldn’t quite get the technique right; after some time of this Lumin stopped the lesson. “You’re doing fine Twilight. Now, I’m going to show you just one way that light distortion is useful.” Lumin created a distortion and grew it to a massive size. He placed the distortion over himself and then, suddenly, both the distortion and Lumin were gone! If Twilight had been tired before, she was not so any longer. “Lumin?” shouted Twilight as she looked around the room. Just as quickly as he had disappeared, Lumin was back, exactly where he had stood earlier.

“What was that?” asked Twilight.

“One way to use light distortion is for invisibility,” replied Lumin. “If you place the distortion on top of an object and then bend the light around it so that it appears the object is no longer there, you will make it invisible. But, make sure that you have the basics of light distortion down first, or invisibility will be so much harder to learn. Trust me on that one.”

Twilight had come to a new understanding. Lumin’s “basics” were really just what he had called them. They were the building blocks of light magic and all of its wonders. Throughout the class Twilight went over the basics and each time they were done, Lumin would show just one way that these basics could be used for something useful or fun. That evening, Twilight went back to her room and promptly fell asleep.

* * * * * * * *

The next few days went by quickly for Twilight. She hadn’t seen Rarity or Rainbow Dash for a while, but she knew what they were up to. Rarity was working hard on her new designs and Rainbow Dash was busy at the Wonderbolt’s three day extravaganza. Twilight herself had started working on the more advanced aspects of light magic and was thoroughly enjoying it. She learned how to make small objects invisible, but hadn’t quite gotten herself invisible yet, how to manipulate light into what looked like a solid object, just like Lumin had done the first day when the second Twilight appeared, and how to magnify or shrink objects using just light, like looking through binoculars. The more Twilight learned; the better a friend Lumin became. After spending many hours training together, he was more than just a teacher; he was a good friend. Twilight began to notice, however; that as each day passed Lumin seemed a little sadder and on one occasion even a little scared. When she asked him about it, he quickly changed the subject, but Twilight did learn one thing about him; Lumin was no ordinary dragon but a light dragon, a very rare creature. To have the honor of being taught by one was an even rarer occurrence. Wanting to help her new friend through whatever problem he had, and with only one day of class left to do it, Twilight turned to the only place she could think to go: the royal library.

* * * * * * * *

Twilight had spent over an hour trying to find a book on light dragons with no success. Then she tried just regular dragons, but still nothing could be found. Finally, she came across a book of value. “A Brief Guide to Magical Creatures,” she said aloud. She looked through the pages of the old book and began to read.

“Light Dragons-Light dragons are a rare breed of dragon which has great affinities to light magic. They literally glow with the light of the stars. Approximately three light dragons are born every one thousand years and they mature at a slow rate. At the age of five hundred they reach full maturity and are taken into the sky. (See the reference on Star Guardians)”

“Star Guardians?” Twilight flipped to the section on Star Guardians and continued reading.

“Star Guardians-Star Guardians were once light dragons. After a light dragon reaches maturity they are taken up to the stars to become keepers of the heavens. Much like Pegasus take care of the weather; Star Guardians take care of the night sky. They watch the planets and stars. Long ago, before the unicorns knew how, they even made the sun and the moon rise and fall. Light dragons have no say in becoming a Guardian as once they reach maturity their own light magic lifts them into the sky to become one. It is tradition that they are lifted from the place now called Canterlot. If one looks closely into the sky, they may find that the object they were looking at is moving sporadically. This is not a comet, but a Guardian keeping watch over the night sky.”

Suddenly Twilight knew why Lumin was so sad and also why he couldn’t stay to teach her, he was about to become a Star Guardian.

* * * * * * * *

Later that evening, the three ponies got together and started to talk about everything they had been doing.

“I’ve made simply the most gorgeous clothes Equestria has ever seen!” declared Rarity. “I can’t wait to show them off to Canterlot, but I’m going to wait for your special performance with Celestia to show them off Twilight. So, no looking in my room or you’ll ruin the surprise.”

“I can’t wait to see your designs Rarity,” Twilight said. “What have you been up to Rainbow Dash?”

“Only the best three days of my life! I went to see the Wonderbolts’ big race and on the first day I got in the front row, but it gets even better. Turns out the Wonderbolts remembered me from the Gala and invited me to come and spend the day with them! Well, they all liked me so much that I got to spend the other two days with them too. They showed me a couple of new moves that I’m just dying to try out and I got to show them some of mine. They told me with my skills, they might even let me join them someday! I’m totally psyched!”

“Wow! That’s so cool!” replied Twilight.

“Twilight, what have you been up to? I mean, I know you were practicing some magic or what-not with that gorgeous creature, but what else?” asked Rarity.

“Just like your clothes Rarity, I want to save the magic I’ve been learning as a surprise, but I need to talk to you girls about Lumin. He seemed to be more scared as each day passed by, which is strange for a dragon, so I did some research. I found out that he has to leave Equestria to become what’s known as a Star Guardian and I think he’s not feeling so great about it.”

“Wait, Star Guardian? And leave Equestria? What are you talking about Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Ok, a Star Guardian is someone who takes care of the stars, like you take care of the weather Rainbow, and it’s something about him being a light dragon that forcibly takes him away from Equestria to become a Star Guardian.”

“That sounds just dreadful, having to be removed from your home with no say. No wonder he seems frightened,” replied Rarity.

“I know, and I want to help him, but I don’t know what to do.”

“Maybe the best thing that you can do is just to be a good friend to him. After all, friendship is magic and you know a lot about magic,” encouraged Rarity.

“I’m with Rarity on this one, there’s not much else you can do Twilight. Just be there for him like you were there for me when I broke my wing.”

“Ok, thanks girls. I’ll try to do that.”

* * * * * * * *

The last day of class was coming to an end. Twilight had learned a lot over the past week and was going to show everything she learned in front of Princess Celestia and all of her friends. She hadn’t been able to talk to Lumin yet about becoming a Star Guardian, but that was all about to change.

“Just remember Twilight, light magic is only limited by your own imagination. That’s all I have to teach you. You’ve been a wonderful student. I can see why Celestia holds you in such high regards.” After this, Lumin gave a sad smile and then turned to leave.

“Wait!” said Twilight, “There’s something I need to talk to you about.” Lumin turned back around and Twilight began to explain how she knew of Lumin’s five hundredth birthday and what it entailed. She only meant for it to take a few minutes, but she and Lumin began to talk about the unknown and the time began to fly by. Lumin started to cheer up and even to laugh, like one does in the presence of a good friend. The fears of Lumin’s journey were soon forgotten in the conversation and instead hope began to rise in the noble dragon’s heart. The afternoon went on and the conversation finally came to an end. Both Twilight and Lumin left in high spirits; awaiting the night when they would meet for a light show unlike any other to say their final good-byes.

* * * * * * * *

The time came for Twilight to show her new skills in front of the Princess and her friends. Rarity was wearing a golden dress which shimmered and sparkled in a dazzling display of beauty and poise, Rainbow Dash was anticipating some amazing magic from Twilight, and Princess Celestia was eagerly expecting to see what her young pupil had learned from the wise Lumin. Princess Luna was not able to attend the gathering because her duties had taken her elsewhere for the evening. The ballroom was set quite casually for such an important event. No real changes had been made since the first night when the ponies had arrived in Canterlot. The one difference was that a large curtain had been draped across the stage. Everypony fixed their attention on the curtain as it began to ruffle. Then, Lumin, outshining even Rarity’s dress, walked from behind the curtain to the front of the stage. It was barely large enough to hold the glowing dragon. “My good ponies, it is with pleasure that I introduce my student, Twilight Sparkle. You are all in for quite a show, so prepare yourselves to see what light can do.” With these words Lumin exited the stage and came to join the others as the curtain slowly moved apart. Standing there was Twilight who gracefully moved to the front of the stage without so much as making a noise. Suddenly, she began to float into the sky and fly over everypony’s head. She drifted higher and higher until she came to the ceiling and to their amazement, went through it, like it didn’t exist. “Hello every pony!” said Twilight. They all turned around to see Twilight standing behind them all. Rainbow Dash and Rarity looked confused, but Lumin and Celestia had large grins on their faces; Twilight teleported onto the stage and continued her performance. Twilight made the ballroom dark while small orbs of light began to appear. The orbs slowly moved to form constellations. The constellations were so close to the ponies’ faces one could practically touch them. Rainbow Dash tried, but her hoof went right through them. Then, the orbs began to merge into a large mass of light. The mass slowly formed into the shape of a pony and soon Rainbow Dash was standing in front of another Rainbow Dash. The duplicate began to fly into the air in a large arc. Rainbow Dash’s double began to dissolve as she flew, but left in her place was a rainbow that sparkled like a firework and slowly fell to the ground as it faded away. Next, the room began to shift and become brighter as the walls and floors began to be replaced with gems of all shapes and sizes. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds made a pattern of brilliant gemstones as light glistened off of each one. Then, the jewels began to shift into more orbs of light and float toward Twilight. They all touched her horn and began to grow brighter. The light was blinding, like looking into the core of the sun. It grew until the room was filled with a bright white light and, in one final flash, the light grew somehow more brilliant and then faded away to reveal the same ballroom they had always been standing in, but with one exhausted Twilight standing on the stage and panting. Rainbow Dash and Rarity stomped their hooves and shouted their approval. “That was awesome!” “Marvelous! Simply marvelous!” Twilight walked shakily down toward Celestia and her friends. “Well done Twilight,” said Celestia with a warm smile on her face. Twilight beamed at her teacher’s words.

Lumin moved onto the stage and started to speak, “Twilight, excellent work! I couldn’t be happier with you, but I have something to share with everypony. Princess Celestia, I know it is usually Twilight’s place to tell you something she learned, but I would like to have the honor this night. As you may well be aware, tonight at midnight I will rise to become a Star Guardian. When I first came to Canterlot to fulfill my role, as is the tradition, I came with a heavy heart because I was afraid of the unknown and all that lay before me. When Twilight came for her first day of classes, I saw the same uncertainty in her. I wondered how she had come to face a dragon, even though she was afraid. I now know that it was her faith in her friends that gave her the courage to face her fears and overcome them. You have seen her courage in action this night. I may have been her teacher, but she has taught me more than I could ever teach her. I have learned that courage, given through friendship, can break even the strongest of fears. Thank you Twilight Sparkle, you will always be a friend to me, no matter how far away.”

Then, the clock struck 12 and Lumin began to glow brighter and brighter. The light was as powerful as the sun and as brilliant as any star. Slowly he rose into the sky and, like a meteor thrown in reverse, was whisked into the heavens to begin a new adventure; no longer a light dragon, but now, a guardian of the very stars themselves.