“Come on, Applebloom! How else are we supposed to get our flying cutie marks if you’re not even trying?”
Scootaloo did have a point regarding the given situation. They had set a small plateau on the edge of their clubhouse and planned on flying. The tiny orange pegasus had just lowered her wings to ask the point, Sweetie Belle still in a squinting mode as if to prepare her magic for flight. She remembered Twilight mentioning how unicorns could fly with simply their own magic and was eager to try it herself. The main issue Scootaloo had with Applebloom was that the yellow filly stood on the ground. She had just removed the ramp leading to the clubhouse, still on the ground without her cardboard wings to even attempt flight.
“Scootaloo!” grumbled Applebloom, “This is the sixth Crusading-related opportunity this week that’s involved a pegasus advantage. Just yesterday, we tried our ‘capture the flag’ cutie marks, and my final flag was too high for me to reach on my own. Sweetie Belle used magic to reach hers, and you hovered long enough to get yours.”
“Yeah, well it’s not my fault that-”
“OKAY!” Sweetie interjected, “That should be enough crusading for one day, perhaps we could try again tomorrow.”
“With what? Another pegasus-only task?” demanded Applebloom.
In an attempt to diffuse the tension, while Scootaloo had her response in mind, she waited a few moments to give the impression she had contemplated the issue, “Maybe we can do unicorn stuff tomorrow,” but any statement that would follow was cut short by a certain filly’s sudden departure. As predictable as it was, Scootaloo still carried a level of shock, “Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”
“Back home,” Applebloom fumed, “I’m sick and tired of being at a disadvantage when it comes to earning our cutie mark. I’m turning in early. Perhaps we can create a new task for tomorrow, but right now, I can’t really concentrate on these tasks.”
As Applebloom left the scene, Scootaloo turned to Sweetie Belle and asked, “Well, what exactly are we supposed to do now?”
“You think I have any idea?” asked the remaining member, “we just got back from lunch, and it’s not even noon yet.”
A deep sigh protruded from Scootaloo as a result, “well, we just need to get down from here first before anything else.”
“But how?”
Neither pony remembered that they left their third companion in charge of the tarmac to the clubhouse. A steep drop bordered their descent to the ground, and the only way to reach it was to drop down. Or, in the case of Sweetie Belle, get pushed off by your pegasus friend. A short shriek of fear entered the air as the white pony plopped down in the dirt.
“Lighten up,” as if those words could diminish any pain, emotional or physical, “it’s not that hard,” and as if to prove a point, the pegasus launched herself into the sky and flapped her wings. She soared further than Sweetie could have, but unfortunately, that brief period of hovering only brought her perhaps a foot or two ahead of her friend. The incident provided her own reason to holler out in pain.
“Hehehe,” the unicorn chuckled, “not as easy as you thought it could be, is it?”
“Eh, be quiet, would you,” the orange filly hollered as she caressed her belly, which had been the first casualty of the fall, “see you tomorrow, Sweetie Belle. Try to think of some unicorn-y stuff to do tomorrow, I think we’re going to get our magic cutie marks, just like Twilight.”
Sweetie Belle wanted to agree, but figured it would be best to bid her friend farewell as well. She had nothing wrong with Scootaloo’s determination, but it did have a tendency to go overboard. It was obvious that Rainbow Dash influenced her ego, perhaps to an irreversible degree. The young unicorn did not put too much stock in these thoughts, she could ponder possible talents for her friends later. Right now, she needed to return to Carousel Boutique; perhaps Rarity might not devise anything interesting, but at least returning to her makeshift home could spark some thoughts of her own.
The walk home was uneventful. That was, unless you counted a surprise greeting from Pinkie Pie once she returned to downtown Ponyville, but then again, Pinkie did that to everypony who entered, even if they lived there. Upon returning to the Boutique, Sweetie Belle closed the door with a smidgen more force than she had planned.
She felt a need to quickly defend herself, “Sorry sis! Little frustrated now!” she screamed, making sure she could be heard throughout the building. In an attempt to calm herself, she trotted into the kitchen to make some food. While she did have lunch at Applebloom’s, the emptiness of friendship’s void left a deeper hole in her stomach. Sweetie Belle reached into the bread box on the counter in hopes to make some toast, hopefully lighter and less burnt than her last attempt.
Rarity caught hold of the impending atrocity, “Oh, Sweetie Belle, you’re not trying to make anything edible, are you?”
“I was going to make some toast. I learned from last time.”
It wasn’t enough to prevent any scolding, “Well first of all, toast usually goes inside a toaster, not a pot to be put on the stove,” her hoof pointing to a box with two slots on the top. The ears of the younger sibling drooped, depressed that nothing seemed to be going her way. The elder tried to console, “What’s got you in such a dreary mode, today?”
Sweetie Belle, though not happily, was ready to explain, “Well, the Crusaders and I were going to try getting our flying cutie marks, but Applebloom ditched us before we could do anything.”
At least Rarity was beginning to understand the situation, “Don’t you all usually try things that involve all of you?”
“Well…Scootaloo defended it by saying Applebloom could have used cardboard wings to fly.”
“How in Equestria does that even make any sense?” Rarity asked, shaking her head, “You do realize Applebloom is an earth pony, right?”
“Well, yeah, but we planned on trying a unicorn day tomorrow.”
There was no point in explaining the differences between unicorns and earth ponies, but Rarity didn’t want to appear to disown her sibling, “You know, I was planning to visit the library, grab a few novels to read during my off-time. Perhaps you could find a book on magic or something that can help you tomorrow.”
Initially, Sweetie Belle wanted to decline the offer; if there was one cutie mark she didn’t want to earn, it was a bookworm cutie mark. She reconsidered, however, when she realized that it would be a valid opportunity to find magic spells to try. Twilight Sparkle had nearly every book ever made, and at least every book of the modern times. To her, it was at least worth a try, and after a quick, yet paced nod, the two sisters departed to the library.
Even though Twilight was out for a business trip to Canterlot, Spike was more than happy to help out with finding books in the library. Part of why he was so helpful, Sweetie Belle noticed, was his infatuation toward the fashionista. It bothered the younger sister, but she managed to shove the thoughts out of her mind as she looked around for any books that could help her. Unfortunately, she’d been staring at the same levels of books for the last five minutes. The only book which seemed remotely close to her needs was The Earth Pony’s Guide to Magic, but once she skimmed through the middle pages, falling on chapter three, she could tell that it was a work of fiction.
Spike could spot her dejected façade, “Are you trying to look for a certain book?”
“Not really,” came the reply, “Just a certain type of book.”
“Well, I know the library like the back of my claw, if there’s any type of book that you are searching for, I can find it.”
“This might sound bizarre,” Sweetie Belle prefaced, “but tomorrow, we were going to try to earn our unicorn cutie marks,-”
“You mean…magic cutie marks?”
“Sure,” whether she agreed or not, she wanted to progress the story, “but Applebloom feels alone because she doesn’t know magic, but Scootaloo isn’t as annoyed because we’ve done all flying-related stuff this last week and-”
“…And you’re looking for a way to help an earth pony with magic?”
“So she can use magic, yes,” the small unicorn could see the pensive look to Spike’s face, and felt any hope was lost, “it’s impossible, isn’t it?”
“Not necessarily,” Spike cautioned.
This was news to Sweetie Belle; her ears perked up at the disclaimer, “YOU MEAN TO SAY-”
“Shush!” Spike quickly covered the filly’s mouth and making sure Rarity wouldn’t catch on, “not so loud!”
“Sorry. But you mean to say you have a book to make earth ponies good at magic?”
“It isn’t quite like that,” he climbed a ladder to reach the fourth shelf and pulled out a fairly new book. After hopping his way down, he continued his point, “While this book is geared toward using your magic, it could be used to help out Applebloom.”
When Sweetie tried to read the title, it proved to be harder than she thought, trying to annunciate what she thought it was, “Face-smile Magic? What’s that?”
“Facsimile Magic,” Spike corrected, “is basically using magic in the form of another pony. For example, you can use at least basic magic I presume.”
“Of course.”
“Well, this book teaches you to use the magic, but also create an aura of a different color around another pony’s magic. In my opinon, you could create a yellow aura to give the appearance Applebloom is doing the magic instead of you.”
“That sounds like the best idea ever!” the unicorn cheered.
“Now wait,” Spike warned, “Two conditions before you take this out. The first one is that Twilight can’t know I lent the book to you. After last Hearts and Hooves day, she’s warned me about knowingly lending you books like this with so many possible repercussions.”
Sweetie Belle tried to consolidate the point, “Don’t worry, I wanted to get this book. I found it on my own,” winking at the emphasized syllables, “So what’s the second point?” It was answered in fairly short order as Spike scoured the lower shelf to find a certain book. He came across it, The Earth Pony’s Guide to Magic, “I already looked at that one, it’s fiction.”
“But does Rarity know?” he took a brief pause, but neither one could answer, so he elaborated on his plan, “It’ll throw her off. Unicorns are taught at an early age that facsimile magic is frowned upon by society, easier to get others in trouble and all that. At least seeing the title, she’ll think you’re just trying to help out Applebloom.”
The unicorn nodded in agreement. She tried lifting up the books with whatever magic she had learned, but Rarity picked them up once the books were about to fall out of the light green aura of her sister; holding them up for twenty seconds, however, was a personal record for the filly’s magic abilities in the situation. Between the two siblings, they checked out their books and returned back home. Rarity took a break from her designing to read up on the latest romantic novels; Sweetie Belle, on the other hoof, studied up on her new form of magic which she hoped would save her friendship with Applebloom.
The next day, the Cutie Mark Crusaders gathered at the foot of their clubhouse where they would attempt their unicorn marks. Scootaloo had already been there first, and Sweetie Belle was close behind. Even though the clubhouse resided closest to Applebloom’s property, she took another fifteen minutes to arrive on the scene. Clearly, she was not on the mood to start up any crusading under the current circumstances.
Sounding dejected, the farm filly sighed, “Let’s just get this unicorn-stuff over with first.”
“You know what,” Sweetie Belle answered, her chipperness almost giving her intentions away, “you two can go ahead and start with the magic stuff, I just need to sort a few things in the clubhouse first. Wouldn’t want to interfere with any of your magic-ness.”
“Or show off,” despite Applebloom’s disheartened reply, the unicorn skipped up the ramp and disappeared behind the inside of the clubhouse.
Before the facsimile magic could be tested on a real pony, she tried it out on a rock and a pencil. The pencil was picked up with a bright red aura and drawn across a piece of paper, but she knew the magic worked as in the book stated because the red aura emulated from the rock, giving the impression the granite soul could be great and powerful. One small side-effect was that Sweetie Belle’s aura also glowed a mix of green and red. It would have to take multiple attempts to perfect it to where she could use her magic color and keep it different from the facsimile magic’s effect, but for now, being hidden could prevent anypony from catching on.
Peeking out the window, she could see Scootaloo giving directions to Applebloom for her first task, “Okay, first thing you should do is lift up this apple with nothing like magic.”
“And just how am I supposed to do that?” inquired the earth filly.
“I dunno, Sweetie Belle’s usually the one who knows how to use magic,” she was quick to add in what she could remember to prevent any fury that could follow, “I think she usually just thinks about lifting the item, so just think about lifting the apple.”
At that cue, Applebloom closed her eyes in an effort to concentrate on the apple to lift it. That effort signaled Sweetie Belle to start up the facsimile magic. She peeked out of the corner of the window, making sure that she focused the aura on the apple to lift it up, and more importantly, making sure the aura shone yellow to give Applebloom the appearance of magic capabilities.
The orange filly noticed what was happening, but had no words to describe it, “App-, Apple-, App- Applebloom…” stuttering was her only mode of communication of the time.
“What is it?” Applebloom asked, but she opened her eyes before she heard the answer. The ‘earth’ filly stammered back in shock, but the aura had dropped afterward and the apple plopped to the, “What the…How the… Is that…”
“Try it again!” encouraged Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle paid attention from this point on, because she knew Applebloom would grow suspicious if the magic ran in spurts. As Applebloom concentrated on the apple again, it levitated with more certainty, spinning as if to inspect its ripeness.
“It worked,” the filly gaped at her own achievement, turning to Scootaloo, she shouted even louder, “It worked!” then took to hollering out to Sweetie Belle, who she remembered resided in the clubhouse, “Hey Sweetie Belle, I can do magic now!”
Though still hiding within, the true unicorn managed to reply to her friend, “Wow, that’s pretty neat,” she was lucky Applebloom didn’t ask her to come back out, which would have ruined the plan Sweetie Belle had formulated.
Applejack, on her trot around the farm to see which apple trees would need to be bucked later on, noticed Applebloom’s cheerful state, “Howdy, Applebloom, what’s got you more hyper than a hedgehog on a racetrack?”
“Applejack! Applejack! I can do it! I can use magic! Look!” and sure enough, a yellow aura sprung out to the apple again to move it in front of her sister. The apple however, conked her sister in the nose, and Applebloom blushed at the unintended action.
“Well, I’m mighty grateful for that, but how did you do it in the first place?” Applejack’s confusion wouldn’t leave her face, no matter how much she tried to make sense of it.
Thankfully, the younger sister never understood, “I dunno! Scootaloo said to concentrate on the apple and I did it, I used magic! Oh my gosh, we gotta go into town to show my classmates my skills!” and with a quick motion to her orange friend, they left for Ponyville in a rush.
They had forgotten one key to their unknown success, the real unicorn, “Hey girls! Would you wait up?!” but the other two were well out of earshot to hear Sweetie Belle’s call for recognition.
One pony did catch hold of it, “You wouldn’t happen to know why my sister has ‘unicorn abilities’, would you?”
“Yes Applejack,” the companion rushed, “But I can’t really explain face-smile magic now, I gotta save Applebloom from embarrassment for as long as I can.”
Applejack had prepared to ask another question about whatever face-smile magic meant. She shrugged it off as yet another question that would be reserved for Twilight.
In the center of town, Applebloom had been showing off her ‘magic,’ lifting tables and chairs now with her yellow aura, and was prepared to move on to the next step. Sweetie Belle was prepared as well, though she also hid from her friends and the public. Although hiding in an alley was a less-than-ideal location, it provided a safe hiding spot from sight, but for how long she could hide, that was to be determined. For the last ten minutes, Sweetie Belle had been responsible for Applebloom’s magic, and was growing tired from the constant, non-stop skills.
“For my final trick, I am going to lift myself into the air!”
“Oh come on,” Sweetie Belle whispered to herself in the alley, “Do you really think I’ll be able to pull it off?”
“Oh, and you complained that you couldn’t fly at all yesterday,” Scootaloo joked.
“Well, today’s different,” Applebloom reminded, “I think I’m ready.”
That was the unicorn’s cue. She lifted Applebloom with her magic, and held her up until a certain calm voice from behind interrupted the flow, “Should I bother asking what you are up to, young filly?”
The voice sounded too regal for Sweetie Belle. It was a voice she only heard a few times before, but when she turned around, it was nopony but the sun princess herself. The unicorn shrieked and let go of the hold of her facsimile magic, and fell to the ground. She could already hear the crowd growing discontent at Applebloom since the magic failed, but there were more pressing issues at hoof.
“Princess Celestia?!” her trademark squeak inquired, “Why are you down here in the first place?”
“Well, this path was a shortcut to the marketplace where I heard Applebloom would be. From the word around Equestria, she had been one of the few earth ponies to actually harness magic abilities.”
“There are others?”
“Indeed, Sweetie Belle,” Celestia sagely nodded, “They harness a power known as telekinesis, using the power of the mind to evoke the same magical energy as unicorns can. This was a power I had not personally had the opportunity to study, and had planned to invite Applebloom to my School for Gifted Unicorns to learn from it. I take it, however, that this talk of the town is not the true case.”
There was no use lying to the princess, “You see, I wanted to be inclusive to my friend. We had done pegasus stuff for the last week and Scootaloo recommended we try magic cutie marks. Applebloom was the most frustrated, being an earth pony and all. So I learned how to do face-smile magic-”
“Facsimile,” Celestia corrected.
“Right. Anyway, that magic is what made Applebloom all…well…magical. I’m sorry I distracted you from your duties and ruined a possible chance like that.”
The filly thought Equestria’s co-leader would have been furious at the fabrications, but she took the high road, “Did you at least learn anything from that incident?”
It took a few moments for Sweetie Belle to formulate what she wanted to say, but she managed to devise her intended statement, “Don’t worry, I learned that you can’t be inclusive to everypony.”
Before she could continue, she paused her letter, understanding Celestia’s giggling meant it wasn’t a spot-on explanation, “Maybe that’s not the right way of putting it. When you were trying to include Applebloom, were you part of it as well?”
“No,” the unicorn admitted, “I had to hide off to the side; I never got a chance to join my friend in the journey, even though I was a part of it. Being inclusive doesn’t necessarily mean just giving them a spot, it also means joining them so everypony can join the adventure as well. Because…what good is earning a cutie mark if you don’t even have a chance of earning it at the same time as your friends?”
The princess nodded in accordance to the vocal letter, “I’m glad to hear you fully understand the situation. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to return to Canterlot again. I must make a reservation at the School for Gifted Unicorns.”
“But I thought Applebloom couldn’t be included now…”
“Yes,” Celestia laughed, “but I also don’t recall facsimile magic being very prominent either. I see potential in you, Sweetie Belle, but promise me one thing.”
“YES?!” she snapped in excitement.
“Earn your cutie mark first, or at least see your friends earn theirs first, schooling may be important, but friendship is an even more important concept to gain hold of and learn before you learn beyond.”
Sweetie Belle signaled her acceptance and bid the princess of the sun on her way. Applebloom and Scootaloo had just passed the alleyway right as Celestia spanned her wings and parted on her way.
Scootaloo was the most puzzled crusader in the situation, “Why was Princess Celestia in an alleyway anyway?”
The only one who truly knew figured her two friends did not need to know every detail, “She got lost, and I had to give her directions.” Although weary of the validity of her own explanation, it seemed to suffice with the others. Continuing with the conversation, Sweetie Belle asked, “So, what are we going to do next?”
Applebloom vented out her frustration, “I thought I could do magic, but as I lifted myself, I fell to the ground. I could do all that magic at first, but just like that, I can’t.”
As much as Sweetie Belle wanted to tell the truth, she didn’t want to ruin the moment of bliss for Applebloom, “Think about it this way, Applebloom, if magic was really your special talent, wouldn’t you have already had your cutie mark?”
The magic came and went in short order, but Applebloom could at least agree, “I s’pose that’s true. But what exactly can we do next?”
“Video Games!” Scootaloo called out. This time, the orange filly realized she made a mistake, even if she didn’t know how she made it.
“We’ll think of something tomorrow!” Sweetie Belle was quick to explain, “Don’t be too upset at us!”
While Applebloom shook her head at the suggestion, this time, a smile crossed her face, “I guess we can try video games next time, but could you answer one question, Sweetie Belle?”
“Sure.”
“You saw my magic back at the farm, was I at least a decent unicorn when I could do magic?”
There was only one reply the white unicorn could give, “Are you kidding? Earth ponies make awesome unicorns!”
