Just As I Once Was

Two months later...

With the first semester of her school over, Twilight contacted the guardians of each of her students to make appointments for conferences. She requested that they bring the student with them when they came in.
The first conference she did was Sweetie Belle's. Winesap, wearing her reading glasses, sat on the right side of Twilight's desk, shuffling papers.
Rarity came in with a slightly sad-looking Sweetie in tow. "Oh, Twilight! I haven't seen you for so long, how have you-"
"It's nice to see you too, Rarity," Twilight interrupted, "but we should save this for another time. We're here to talk about Sweetie Belle."
"Oh, right, I'm sorry." Rarity and Sweetie Belle sat. "Sweetie, won't you tell Twilight what you told me?"
"Sigh....huh? Oh, y-yeah!" Sweetie leaned forward a little. "Uh...M-Miss Twilight, I-I just wanted t-to thank you. Ever since I st-started school here, my night terrors have been getting less frequent and less extreme. Not just that, I don't constantly feel like I deserve to be ignored anymore. I think it's because you're including me more in class. Thank you. I, uh...I got you this." She sheepishly handed Twilight a tinted glass rose.
"Wow, thank you, Sweetie! This is beautiful!" She carefully placed the rose on her desk. "But...we need to talk about your progression in class."
Rarity looked back and forth between them. "What's wrong?"
"Sweetie's a very bright filly. In fact, she scores almost perfect on the majority of the written tests. But on the practical tests...for lack of a better analogy, she does about as well as a bookworm in P.E. class. She really struggles with learning magic, but what I like is that she keeps trying until she gets it."
"How much does she struggle?"
"Not too terribly, but we're learning relatively basic magic here. I'm worried about how much she'll fall behind when we move on to advanced magics."
"I appreciate your concern, Miss Twilight. Now I know I have to work harder!"
"No! Sweetie, no, don't-" Twilight's words caught in her throat. "Don't turn into me. Don't..."
"Miss Twilight?"
Twilight put her head in her hooves. "When I was eight, I was accepted to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I was in much the same situation as you. I worked way harder than anyone else in my class..."
"And?"
"And it got me nothing. I got where I am now because I had potential, not because I could do the most tricks or studied the most."
"What are you saying? That I shouldn't try?"
"No. Potential is not something you force. I..." Twilight waved a hoof. "No, I'm sorry. That's all I had to say."
"All right. We'll leave then." Rarity and Sweetie Belle stood up and left.
All was quiet for a minute, then Winesap spoke softly, still shuffling papers. "You want to talk about it?"
"Not now."
"Just tell me when."
"I don't know if I'll ever want to talk about it."