“All right mares, welcome to Unicorn Boot Camp.” I say as I look at the three girls. “First question, how many of you were born male?”

The three look at each other, confused, then back at me.

“Sweet Celestia what did I do to piss off Discord this bad?” I say grumbling, so far the only other one I’ve ran into was Noi.

Blaze chuckles, “Wally here’s been dealing with it harder than most.” Looking at me, he nods once, “But in truth we go by pony names more here. I am Rainbow Blaze, I'm the flight instructor for any pegasi that show up, while I can’t do magic, I can generate power.”

Ah-Pee steps forward “I’m Apple Pie, Ah-Pee for short, part of the Apple family clan, if you need help with hoof care come to me.”

“I’m Twilight Velvet, I’ll be running you through your magical training, by the time you’re done here, you’ll be able to use your magic better than you could have ever have used your hands.” Sitting on my haunches, I smile “Ok If you’ll introduce yourselves.”

“I’m Ballad, army engineers.” She says and looks at the mark on her shoulder.

“Corporal Stephany Richards, Army administration.”

With a sigh I stand up and walk over, sitting beside her “Your pony name?”

Steph shakes her head, “I’m Steph.”

“Ok, you have to realize, you were a pony first, we were born as ponies, grew up as ponies, went to school, had families, then 25 year ago all that was taken away. You are a unicorn, you were always meant to be one… we all were. This is our natural forms returning as the magic of the curse fades.”

“Sugarberry.” Steph says, her head low.

Tilting my head I think, “I don’t think I ever met you, pony wise. What's your mark?”

“3 blue diamonds.” She moans.

“Oh like Rarity. You have an affiliation to earth magic.” I say, smiling.

“Earth magic?” Steph looks up, perking her ears a bit.

“Yep, probably have an innate ability to find gems, or maybe shaping and crafting them with magic.” I say, smiling, “Once you get in touch with yourself and your mark again, you’ll figure it out. That could take longer than 3 days though.”

Looking over at the third unicorn, she’s just beaming, smiling ear to ear. “Cipher Splash, US Army Intelligence, Crypto Analysis.”

I look at her, then at Blaze, then back at her, “Seriously?”

“Yep, seriously, I’m in the show, have my own trading card, pony catch phrase is Born Ready.”

“What’s your mark?” I ask.

She shows me her arm patch, all I can tell from it is that it’s blue and purple.

“I um… is that real?”

She laughs and pulls down her slacks showing me the mark.

Blaze and Ah-Pee both come over looking at it too. A blue hyphen over a blue and purple squiggle, looking at each other we blink.

“Trust me, no one in Equestria can figure it out... but me. It’s an enigma, and a symbol of my ability to figure out puzzles. What it actually is, I’m not telling.”

“With our luck it’s actually some kind of 3 dimensional fractal pattern meant to represent a decryption algorithm.” I say with a laugh. “Or it could be a duck on a pond.”

“Mine is three stars, representing magic, in Equestria, I was somewhat of an adventurer, casting spells to help or save others.” Smiling, I look at them, “Now first question, have any of you made your horn’s glow yet, hornshine?”

All three shake their heads slowly.

“Horn shine is both the easiest thing and the hardest thing at the same time, it’s the first real magic most unicorns ever do.” I making my horn glow bright just to show them, “once understood, you can do it whenever you want, the problem is, it’s something that’s alien to humans.”

All three look at me, blinking, before Cipher reaches forward to touch my horn.

Backing my head up I stop the glow and shake my head no, “You don’t touch a unicorns horn without asking, they're very personal, and in some ways sensitive.”

“Sorry.” Cipher says, sitting, with her hooves between her hind legs.

“Now then, sadly this is going to sound like a cross between something like Jedi stuff, and new age mumbo jumbo, but we’re unicorns, we use magic, it has its own rules. Inside all of us, around all of us is magic or magical energy, we call it aether to give it a name. All I want you to do is to relax. To relax, close your eyes, look inside of yourself for the energy, and slowly focus it on your horn. Let it flow into your horn.”

I sit beside Blaze and raise one hoof to hit him, I can see him fighting the urge to laugh, the three young mares sitting there, faces and muzzles scrunched up trying to focus.

Ballad is the first to get hers lit, though it’s not a full horn glow, and the light is flickering, it is, however, a start. Moving over to her I sit down, “Ok calm down, relax, you’ve got the light, just level out the flow of energy.”

Taking a deep breath Ballad’s glow steadies, “Is that better?”

“Perfect,” I smile, “Now turning it off is simply stopping the flow. I want you to practice now turning it on and off, nothing more.”

Cringing, I look over at Sugarberry, and touch my own horn, “Berry, you're sparking. You’re trying too hard, you need to relax, the sparks are a good sign, it shows you’ve found the magic your just pushing it too hard, and not evenly.”

Sugarberry looks up at her horn, blinking, then calms down as a slow glow starts coming out. “I’m doing it, I’m doing it!”

Looking over at Cipher, I blink, her face is scrunched up, and she’s perspiring as she’s trying. “Cipher Splash, stop… stop.” Getting up, I walk over to her, “I said don’t force it like that.”

“I… I can feel it but it’s like there’s a block, when I try and push magic I can feel it backing up and starting to hurt.” Looking at me she reaches up and taps her horn, “Is it broken?”

“May I have permission to touch your horn?”

Cipher nods slowly, and looks cross eyed up at her horn.

Gently I move her mane away from the horn and examine the length of it, “Nothing I can see externally.” Sitting down I cross my horn with hers almost flinching once, why they have me as an instructor I don’t know, because even I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.

“Ok, give it a try again.” With my eyes closed, I concentrate on the flow of energy.

Scrunching her face up, she tries again to make her horn glow, then stops, panting, “It hurts.”

“I… its… gurr why does magic have to be so hard to explain, I feel it but there’s something stopping it… interrupting it. Any head injuries?” I say tilting my head.

“Nope, normal bumps and bruises but never anything serious,” Cipher says.

“Are you on any medications, drugs, illegal drugs?”

“Umm, I was on Intuniv, it’s an ADHD med, but I stopped taking it a while ago. Got a doctors waiver for military service, though, why?”

“Honestly, I think the meds might be the cause, I’d hate to think that because out of the fear that the government might start forcing us to take meds to stop our magic, I just don’t know. Grandfather would probably say something like you were out of harmony.”

Tears in her eyes, she looked at me, “Does this mean I’ll never be able to do magic?”

“I… you… NO, we will find a way through this.” I say, putting my hoof down firmly.

Crossing horns again, I begin to concentrate, “Ok, this is counter to what I said before but I need you to concentrate and push, it’s going to hurt but fight through it, focus and push.”

There is probably a book on how to fix this somewhere. Likely in Canterlot, or in my daughter’s library, maybe in one of the magic schools. But I don’t have access to any of that though, so all I can do is depend on instinct, on things I notice or hear in the show, and on what I can feel right now.

I can feel the blockage, I can feel the pressure behind her horn, I can feel the interruption. I begin pumping magic into it, focusing and channeling trying to draw her magic out, looking for any cracks in the barrier, anything that would let the energy flow properly. It's like a new foal’s first sparks, but Equestria has more aether, so I need to give her more aether, I have to generate more.

My hornshine is too bright to look at directly, I can feel my cutie marks like they are burning, but I can feel the cracks forming in the blockage, my mane and tail flow around me, charged with the energy I am putting into this, almost looking like they are on fire. Then finally, like a dam breaking, her energy is free, causing a massive backlash.

I remember flying… I sort of remember getting caught by Blaze, but I don’t remember just how far I went, the spark explosion sent me a good distance though. I also knew I was going to have have one hell of a headache… whenever I finally wake up from this one.

***

“A young unicorn’s sparks can be powerful and unpredictable; they can cause a lot of damage as they send out random magical effects.” I say, walking in front of the class of foals.

“What we need to learn is how to clean up these sparks, to repair the damage done and or counter the spells. To today, for our foal sitting class, we are going to study how to clean spark effects.”

Looking over my shoulder, I give my little Twi-Twi a gentle nuzzle, she’s being such a good girl, and sleeping through the class. It’s hard to believe she’s only a few weeks old.

“If you’re going to babysit for unicorns, you have to know how to handle these sparks. First thing, it’s best to let them happen, trying to stop them all together can make the magic build up to a violent spark.”

I look over at a golden yellow pony with a fiery mane, her nose buried in a book. “Sunset are you even listening to this?”

“Sparks, magic, don’t force it.” She says, turning a page.

Stomping my hoof a few times on the ground, “Sunset this is a foal sitting class, are you even considering babysitting?”

Huffing ,she puts down her book, “I’m not into the whole foals thing, I’m here because Princess Celestia said I needed the practical experience. Besides, how hard can this be if she let Cadance in here.”

The little pink alicorn blinks and looks sternly back at Sunset, “Harder than you think, because it takes patience, understanding, and love to handle little foals. I know I’m still learning spells, but I have the love and patience needed to foal sit.”

I stomp my hoof loudly “Break it up, you’re your both going to be marked down in this. Since book smarts is only part of this, how will your mentor feel if you get a D+ in a class?”

The threat of a low grade works wonders with Sunset Shimmer, she always has to be perfect, only thing that motivates her more was telling her she couldn’t do something, she was one of those fillies that had to do everything herself.

“So as I was saying, never EVER try and force a spark in a foal, it can cause a pretty violent backlash, you need a special spell for that, so let’s open our books to chapter 4.”

***

Opening my eyes, I put my hoof to my horn, “Oh sweet Celestia what did I do.”

“Disobeyed a direct order,” the LT said sternly.

“Nope, I know I didn’t do that, I didn’t cast any spells, but my head is ringing like a bell.”

“Whatever you did we heard the bang all the way across the house.”

“Cipher had a horn blockage, she couldn’t use her magic and it could have been dangerous. Let the military know do NOT give unicorns ADHD meds… heck don’t give them anything that affects the brain including anti-depressants… we don’t know how it will act or react, our brain chemistry is different than humans.”

The LT blinks a few times, then sighs, “Ok, I’ll let them know.”

“How’s Cipher?”

“Bouncing, flashing her horn, bouncing, and flashing her horn.” Blaze said walking in, “you saved her life.”

“Trust me I know, there’s a spell you are supposed to use to fix an imbalance like that, I taught it to Sunset Shimmer long ago as well as Cadance. What I did was stupid, and totally wrong. Sorry.”

“What I saw out there was the old Twilight Velvet, risking her life to save someone else, giving everything she had without care for herself to ensure others were happy.” Blaze said and stroked my horn with his wing.

“Thanks Rainbow.” I look up at the LT and smile weakly, “It is true through, if I hadn’t, there was a chance she could have hurt herself or died. The drugs had created a block her mind and magic couldn’t work around on their own.”

“Unicorns and their mind melds, any species with half a grain of sense…” We all looked at Henry, who is flicking a rather large needle.

“Umm, you are not planning on sticking me with that,” I say, looking at the needle.

Henry shook his head, “Nope, don’t worry.” Jabbing the needle in Blaze’s butt, he chuckled, “Equine vaccine pack, they sent it down with the unicorns, as well as some fun things for me to read up on.”

Blaze grumbled rubbing his hip looking at Henry, “You could have warned me.” He said, then chuckled, “Oh looks like it’s your turn.”

Henry walked back over, “Small pinch.” Then he jabbed the second needle into Blazes butt.

“Hey that’s not fair, you did me already.”

“Yep, and that was the other one, it’s not an all in one shot, its actually two of them.” He said with a nod. “And I said, small pinch.”

Prepping the next 2 shots he walked over to me, “Ok Velvet, are you up for these, or do you want to hold off for a bit?”

“It’s ok Henry, I’ll take my meds now without complaining like some stallion.”

“Oh ouch.” Henry says, looking at Blaze and smiling. Carefully, he gives me my shots too, dabbing the area gently with a cotton ball. “There you go little mare, all the shots the army recommended to keep you healthy, and safe if you interact with normal horses.”

“That could almost be insulting, but I know what you meant. I’m not the type to hang around horses, but I don’t know if walking where they have walked, or being near a police horse or such could have me catching something, so good to know.” I say, getting out of bed.

“So what exactly is a spark?” The LT asks.

“It’s part of being a unicorn, young unicorns often can’t control their magic, or understand how to control it, they could generate wild and random effects, often called sparks. A grown up can regulate the power they put out easier, and is often using magic so they don’t build up power, but with Discord's curse, adults can suffer sparks too. In the show Twilight talks about it and we see Twilight having a spark when she gets scared.”

“So it’s a magical explosion?” The LT said looking a little worried.

“Yep, and I had to force one to get Cipher’s magic working properly. I remembered afterwards I’m not supposed to do that, I’m supposed to use a spell to clear her mind gently but, that’s like remembering not to cut the red wire, after you cut it.”

“Ok, I won’t write you up for violating light duties.” He said and ruffled my mane.

“Well time to check on the foals.” I get up and head back outside, stepping out the door I can see the three focusing on their horns keeping them glowing and giggle. Trotting up to them I start off, “Okay ladies.”

Cipher looks up and pounces at me before I can say another word, tackling me to the ground and hugging “Thank you thank you thank you, you risked your life to let me have my magic, thank you.”

Holding one hoof up I gasp, “Can’t… Breathe...”

Bounding over Ah-Pee quickly pulls Cipher off me, and sits her down, laughing, “Easy girl, killing your instructor is likely to get you a failing grade.”

Coughing a few times I smile “Your welcome. Ok, so you three have got your focus down? You can charge your horns at will?”

All three nod.

“Good, that was the easy part, now we are going to get you to use that energy. Telekinesis, we’ve all seen the unicorns use it in the show.” I say, then blink as Ballad puts her hoof up.

“Yes Ballad?”

“Umm, I haven’t seen the show.” She says meekly.

“Ok, don’t worry, I hadn’t even heard of the show till a week or so after my change, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Though I hate to say it but it’s a good reference material, the show is actually based on ponies, and seems to be fairly true to our lives.”

Looking over I grab 4 cans of pop from the table setting one in front of each of the girls and one in front of myself, glancing at Ah-Pee I smile, “Want a pop?”

When Ah-Pee nods I open a fifth putting a straw in it for Ah-Pee and set it in front of her then look back at the girls. “Moving objects around becomes easier with practice, it becomes second nature. All I want you to do right now, is get a straw from the table, and bring it over to your pop. That’s it, nothing heavy or hard.”

Sugarberry gulps once, “How? How do you do that?”

“Sadly, this part doesn’t translate well into human thought, think of your magic though as an extension of yourself lighting your horns shows you can control its flow internally, now we are going to control its flow externally, this isn’t about shaping your magic, or even really focusing it, it’s merely about reaching out with it. Look at the straw, think of your magic flowing around it, think of what it feels like to hold it in your magic, then bring your magic back to you, the straw will follow.”

I wonder if this is how Inkwell teaches her class, for that matter I wonder if Cheerilee teaches her unicorn students magic, or is it their mares that are expected to do it. I watch them concentrating hard, I know it’s not the best thing for them, but at the same time, it’s something they need to find in themselves.

Cipher gets her magic going, her aura grabbing the entire box of straws at once at first. Honestly the hardest thing I had to do at this time was keep a straight face. Slowly the whole box would move towards her, then back to the table then towards her, then back to the table, it took her several tries but she managed just to grasp one straw and bring it to her. Though the box had several rips in it now and a few of the straws were mangled.

Looking down at her pop I opened the can for her, and she puts the straw in, and takes a sip.

Watching Sugarberry is like watching someone trying to use chopsticks for the first time, after a few missed jabs, pickups and drops of straws she finally got one over to her, though it was bent and pinched. It takes her a little bit to get used to holding the straw but finally she relaxes enough that she can use it for drinking.

Nodding once, I open her pop for her and she drops it in.

Ballad takes a few moments to get used to grabbing the box, and then flips the box over, dumping all the straws out. Grabbing one she brings it over and looks at me innocently. “What? I’m an engineer, spreading the things out makes it easier to grab, I do the same thing with a back hoe.”

Grabbing the rest of the straws I put them back in the box, shaking my head. “That’s just wrong on so many levels.”

I stand up and smile at them all, “So for the next little while I’m going to let you play, around here there are rocks, glasses, paper cups, box of Kleenex, all I want you to do is get used to grabbing things, picking them up, moving them around. Some of these things are going to be heavier than others. Some are going to be fragile. Trust me, those paper cups can be tricky. I just want you to get used to it though.”

Walking around them once, I widen my smile, “Just think, now you’re at the point where you can do basic things putting on your hat or getting some basic clothing on. I want you to be able to tie your shoes, to pick up forks, to use keyboards. It’s now all about practice and control.”

Sitting down by Ah-Pee I giggle, “They have to work out their own style and limits for themselves.”

“You’re doing great Twilight.” Ah-Pee says, leaning against me.

“I wouldn’t say that, grandfather showed me and I’m just trying to teach them, the way I understand it.”

“Look at them though. Ballad was scared coming in now she’s excited, Sugarberry’s calling herself Sugarberry not Steph, Cipher, well… Cipher didn’t change since she got here, but you saved her.”

“Oh they are happy now, next though comes magical fundamentals 101. So far this has all been foal stuff, blank flank territory. Next comes the part that wiped me out, precise control. The stuff that they teach you at the academy, instead of just home schooling, and trust me, they are going to hate me after this.”

Looking up I see Blaze, sleeping on a cloud, that somehow he’s pulled down to the height of the roof of his grandfather’s house. Pointing up, Ah-Pee looks then starts giggling.

“Well you are on R&R, remember.” She says.

Grabbing my drink I lay back on a lawn chair beside Ah-Pee and relax, I knew there was a freedom about magic, that they were just discovering, it’s like the first time a pegasus takes to the air. I give them a good two hours to play before declaring break. I get up and get them all some snacks. The military was kind enough to provide food, boxed lunches, but these were geared for ponies, they had also provided raw goods, carrots, potatoes, apples, and Alfalfa; in both cube and pellet form.

Dropping a boxed lunch in front of each, I watch as Ah-Pee digs into the raw goods to prep dinner. She has more than enough goods there to feed the whole squad but she's concentrating on pony food right now.

“You’re going to be surprised at how many calories you burn just using magic, so you’re going to need to eat a bit more then you’d think. There’s actually a reason the ponies in the show eat so many sweet foods.” I say, nodding once.

Cipher giggles, “I was told this was going to be a workout, but it’s so easy.”

“Oh good,” I say cheerfully, “then you are just going to love the next part. You can thank Blaze for running to the store for me, because I bought each of you a puzzle to do.”

Grabbing the bag with my magic I bring it over and pull out the first box, “A mothers love, 300 pieces of giraffe and her baby, who wants?”

The girls shrug and Ballad puts her hoof up.

“300 Piece Paris Party, here you go Sugarberry, and for you Cipher Milky Way Farms.” Blinking I look up at Blaze then shrug “Sorry, guess he couldn’t find any good 300 piece puzzles. Now all I need you to do is to put the puzzle together.”

Grabbing a few pieces from one puzzle I start assembling it in midair. “Don’t put down the puzzle, don’t assemble pieces in the box, just pick them up and build the puzzle.” Putting the pieces back in the box I look at their faces. The look of shock and horror says it all, magic fundamentals are a terror for any unicorn.

Trotting over I went to help Ah-Pee, “Yep, that look said it all.”

“That’s actually kind of cruel.” She said, “Who came up with that?”

“Grandfather had me doing it for hours on end to build stamina, concentration and fine control. Trust me it could be worse.”

“Really? How?”

Picking up a potato peeler I went to work prepping potato’s for Ah-Pee’s stew. “Think about that blindfolded.”

When it starts getting dark I call it quits on the training, all three mares look totally wasted, but we were ready, sweetbreads, thick mushroom potato and carrot stew with alfalfa pellets mixed in, and apple fritters.

“So what’s the plan for tonight Twilight?” Sugarberry asks.

“Relaxing, watching some episodes of the show, just to get you all into the mindset of unicorns. It’s not all work, but tomorrow it’s going to be fundamentals all day.”

I notice right away during the meal Cipher and Sugarberry both using their magic more to help them eat, Ballad through, she seems more tired, I’ll have to have her on simpler things tomorrow, she may not be as strong as Sugarberry in her power.

After dinner we all met in the living room, laying down in front of the TV I stretched out on my belly, well ¾ on my belly, hind legs stretched out a bit, forelegs crossed. I was surprised when Sugarberry lay down behind me using my back as a pillow, her chin snuggled against the curve of my back, cheek against my mane.

Ah-Pee on the other hand joins us, lying on her back head on my hind legs resting. Cipher ends up using Ah-Pee’s belly as a pillow with her head by my hind legs too. Ballad chooses to take up the other side of me laying her head on my forelegs. I wasn’t sure how but I became the center point but 3 of the 4 girls were using me as a pillow.

Using my magic I put on the pony cartoon show then lay my head over Ballad neck using her as my pillow. With a large bowl of hot buttered popcorn in front of us, we took turns grabbing some with magic, offering Ah-Pee at the same time so no one was left out.

It was already pretty late, getting close to 9:30 pm, I didn’t know how many episodes we would get through but I wanted to cover as much of the educational episodes as I could, things like cutie mark stories, Pinkie Pie babysitting, every single Rarity episode, and most of the Twilight episodes.

Finally somewhere between 2 and 3 am we had all finally dozed off. I think Grandfather had turned off the TV sometime in the night, and I knew Henry had taken a few photos. I’d have to buck him for that later, for now though. Peace.

***

I lay quietly in the flickering light of the oil lamp, my little Twi-Twi is between my forelegs, asleep, wrapped up in her blanket, her little smarty pants doll snuggled under her. I still remember the day Celestia gave me that doll as a gift, I was so little at the time. Beside me, my little Armor slept, he was exhausted from his Flugelhorn performance. Giving him a gentle kiss on the horn I looked over at Cadance, her wings tucked tight to her as she snuggles to my belly while she sleeps.

Cadance has been here all night with Twilight Sparkle, and it was too late to send her home. I let her sleep against me, her head against my chest, sometimes I wondered if she ever got to sleep with a mother’s heartbeat near her. I knew she was an orphan, Celestia had adopted her when she gained her horn but she grew up with such hardship.

Night Light walks in from the kitchen, cup of tea in his magical grasp “Are you sure you don’t want one, honey?”

“Nope, I’m fine, this is more relaxing then even the best tea.”

“Want some help getting them all into their beds?” He asked looking at Cadance.

I shake my head slowly “No thanks, I’m fine here, you want to join us?”

“I’m fine love, I’ll leave you here and head to bed myself. I need to get up early, Kibitz wants me to do some special work for him.”

“Night dear.” Watching him go upstairs I look down at the little ones and snuggle my muzzle against Twi-twi.

***

I woke to the sound of my cellphone going off. Blinking I lifted my head looking over, then heard Blazes phone go off.

Within seconds the sound of everyone’s cellphones ringing at once, all the phones going off. I can hear the LT running downstairs, grabbing my cellphone I answer to hear the automated message, CALLOUT, all units return to base.

Blaze half runs, half flies over, turning on the field radio, holding the headset to his ear with a forehoof, calmly he calls out what he hears on the radio relaying to us. “All stations, all stations, Flash Traffic, Scud Scud Scud, Dazzle warning for Des Moines, Iowa. Shut down all electronics and prepare…”

The LT turns on the TV, “We are on emergency recall, sound like they are tracking a single target ICBM.”

All of us sit up, watching the TV, emergency broadcasts alert are going off.

Cipher runs over to the radio, grabbing a second headset with her magic and listens to the traffic. “They are going into Snapcount. This is not a drill.”

“Skud call,” The LT said, “that means they have a missile inbound for Des Moines, if they are calling it dazzle, they are expecting it to be a nuke.” Looking over at Cipher his jaw dropped, “Snapcount is a limited nuclear counterstrike, it means our bombers are going after Russia or China’s nuclear sites. Our subs are probably getting the orders now to hunt down and destroy any ballistic subs they can find.”

News channels were showings shaky images of the Des Moines sky, all of a sudden we see a flash, the rainbow explosion on the TV, the telltale effects of a sonic rainboom.

“Blaze…” I breathe.

“I see it.” he glances at me.

“LT, call SOC Please, tell them not to let some idiots blow up the Earth…”

“On it.” The LT is already dialing.

“Blaze…" I said. “Was that your…”

“Yep, that was my little Dash.” He shook his head slowly. “She is so grounded.”