Twilight Sparkle hummed to herself as she sorted through some books in the library. She had finished her daily checklist quite a bit earlier than intended, so she had to find things to do to keep herself occupied. Twilight sighed as she put the last book on the shelf. Today was just too uneventful. She was used to one of her friends having some sort of problem or needing to write a letter to the princess, but today was void of any conflict or letter writing. Twilight was about to just leave her house and see if there was something she could help anypony with when she heard a belch from the kitchen followed by the familiar 'fwoosh' of dragon fire as it delivered a letter. Twilight rushed into the other room to see a young drake retrieving a scroll from the ground.
"Letter for you Twilight." Spike grumbled, obviously aggravated by the sudden letter interrupting his afternoon snack.
Twilight swiped the letter from his claws with magic and quickly opened it, hoping for it to contain some sort of task for her so she wouldn't be bored anymore. That and she liked to help her mentor, but she was currently unbelievably bored.
My faithful student Twilight,
I apologize for not sending a letter about this earlier, but unfortunately I was caught up in various royal affairs. A student of my school for gifted unicorns has advanced extraordinarily through the classes. He definitely has much potential, but I feel he isn't living up to this potential in such a large class where he has to go at the class' speed. I am sending him to you so he can learn at a faster pace and so you can gain experience as a magic teacher. However, I must warn you this little unicorn is a special case. His name is Mystic Spark and you can expect him some time tomorrow. Don't worry about meeting him at the station as he is being sent by air carriage, however I'm afraid I was unable to find living arrangements for him, so I must ask if he may stay in the library's spare room. If you find this accommodation unsuitable, please let me know and I will make other plans for Mystic Spark.
Your mentor,
Princess Celestia
Twilight read the letter again, to be sure she read it right. Celestia was entrusting her with a student of her own. She was going to be a mentor! Twilight bounced around the kitchen squealing like a schoolfilly. Spike grumbled something about how girly she was and drifted out of the room. Twilight hardly noticed him leave as she continued to hop around, thinking of things to do with her student. She would teach him spells, read books with him and... she couldn't think of much else. Nothing to do with teaching magic anyway. She would introduce him to her friends and show him around town but she felt she should do more than just that as a magic mentor. Twilight shrugged. There would be time to think up activities later. For now she had to ready the guest room which hadn't been used since she moved into the library. She'd offered it to Spike but he had chosen to sleep in her room and when Applejack and Rarity slept over, it only made sense to have them sleep in the same room as their host. That aside, she needed to dust the room, put sheets on the bed, set up a desk with a lamp so he could study. 'Finally, I have something to do!' she thought as she skipped up the stairs to begin her tasks.
Twilight squirmed with anticipation. Her student was due to arrive some time today. The guest room had proven easy to clean and furnish, so Twilight had spent most of the previous day preparing today's schedule along with various lesson plans for the week which she would choose based on what he scored on a pre-test she had prepared. The princess wrote in the letter that he was a student with great potential, so the test she prepared began with some basics but quickly delved into some advanced magics. Should he be versed in the advanced magics, she would go straight into teaching him magics she was currently learning, thus achieving her mentoring duty as well as her studies. In the back of her mind she somewhat hoped he wouldn't be that developed, fearing he would replace her as Princess Celestia's personal pupil, but she quickly pushed the wicked thought to the back of her mind. Celestia wouldn't be so cruel as to abandon her for a more able student, and even if he were more apt than herself, she shouldn't begrudge him for it. He was going to be her own student after all so if he did surpass her, she should be proud not jealous.
Twilight was so lost in her own thoughts, she almost missed the knock on the door. She rushed across the room and quickly opened the door with her magic.
"Hello! It's so nice to meet you! My name is Twilight Spa-"
Twilight stopped, confused. There was no one at the door. She leaned out and looked around, not seeing anyone other than some ponies sitting at the cafe.
"Ahem." mumbled a voice from below.
Twilight jumped, startled by the sudden noise. She looked down and saw a little lapis colored colt with a cyan-ish mane. On his flank was a grey and blue star shape somewhat like her own, but lacking the smaller stars that surrounded her own.
"Uhm...," the colt began, "Miss Twilight Spah? Do you know a Twilight Sparkle? I was told I could find her at this library."
Twilight was stunned for a moment, then giggled to herself.
"Sorry," Twilight said, still giggling, "I just didn't finish my sentence. My name is Twilight Sparkle. You must be Mystic Spark. It's nice to finally meet the pony I'm supposed to mentor, but I wasn't expecting you to be so young."
"Oh, um, nice to meet you. The princess told me all about you when she told me about her plans to send me here to study. I hope we get along nicely." Mystic replied politely, lowering his head in a bow.
'Aww, he's a little gentlecolt' Twilight thought. Twilight trotted towards the small table in the center of the room. Mystic followed her inside.
"I've prepared a small agenda for us today so we can get to know each other, then tomorrow I'll give you a small quiz so I know how much magic you know. It's only a few pages, so it shouldn't take long. Then-" Twilight rambled excitedly.
Mystic chuckled under his breath and muttered something about 'that's why' and 'not babying him'. Twilight looked at him, wondering why he chuckled, and finally got a good look at the colt's face. Staring back at her humorously were two grey eyes. So this is what the princess had meant about him being a special case. This little colt was blind.
Plans are changing a bit.
Mystic chuckled to himself. 'That's why she didn't react or try to baby me. The princess probably didn't mention it and this lady didn't even notice.' Mystic thought to himself. Unfortunately he had thought out loud. It was under his breath, but still out loud. A moment passed and Mystic heard a small gasp. 'Seems like she noticed now.' he thought with a sigh.
"Oh my goodness... I- I'm so sorry!" Twilight turned a bright shade of red, "I didn't even notice..."
"Don't worry about it. I'm used to it." Mystic said with a careless tone, hoping it would defuse the situation.
Mystic was genuinely used to these situations. Ponies would notice his eyes then fawn all over him and treat him like a baby, although he actually wasn't that old, being about the age of a second grader. However when he passed advance classes, magic and otherwise, he had expected to be treated normally. And he was for a while. He made friends with some of his classmates, and his teachers held him to deadlines like every other pony. It had actually been a few months since he'd last gotten this reaction. Mystic groaned, realizing he would have to deal with this treatment for a while, being in a new place with new ponies.
"Are you alright? What's wrong?" Twilight asked frantically.
"Huh?" Mystic asked confused, then realized he'd groaned out loud, "Oh, nothing. Just remembering something unpleasant. Seriously though, I'm fine. The princess sent me here because I'm smart, not because I need help with blindness."
Mystic sat for a moment, seething at being reintroduced to this treatment. Then, he promptly facehoofed. This was probably the reason he was treated like this. He was acting like a brat...
"I apologize." Mystic began, "I tend to get a little upset when people act like I need special attention."
Twilight stared at the young colt, wondering what to say. Everything was moving a little to fast for her. After his little gentlecolt routine she hadn't expected his blunt replies, and she certainly hadn't expected an immediate apology. Twilight wished she could start the encounter over. Maybe...
"How about we start over?" Twilight asked unconvincingly, "My name is Twilight Sparkle, you must be Mystic Spark. Pleased to meet you."
The little colt sat awkwardly for a few moments before returning the greeting. He supposed both of them did things a little foolishly, so he decided her idea was best.
"Now then, I had some plans to show you around town today. Would you like to do that or rest here at the library? I know that carriage ride can be a little uncomfortable." Twilight said happily, obviously glad the colt had accepted her offer to restart.
Mystic was still trying to figure this mare out. First she was quite jovial, then she freaked out when embarrassed, and now she was able to act like it didn't even happen. He shrugged, deciding not to think about it. He was about to answer her question when he felt a small pressure in his body. Great, today is just full of things trying to be awkward.
"Uh, before I choose, may I be excused for a moment? Nature calls." Mystic said sheepishly.
This made Twilight giggle.
"Sure, go ahead."
Mystic quickly turned around and headed for the door. He stopped just in front of the door and cocked his head to the side a bit, then took a couple steps to the side before opening the door with magic, the door swinging right over where he had stood originally. Twilight observed this, but filed the matter behind other thoughts. Mystic exited the room and shut the door behind him. With him gone, Twilight was now able to freak out.
'Okay, this is too weird. I'm glad we were able to start over, but I don't know if I can handle this.' she thought frantically. 'And how did he do that with the door? I thought he couldn't see. Memory? He had, in fact, walked through the doorway while entering. Maybe he memorized it's position.' she thought weakly. Twilight sighed, deciding to ask him when he returned. And so, she waited.
Mystic returned after a couple minutes and neatly closed the door behind him. He started forward, then stopped and turned his head for a moment before walking straight to Twilight and sitting down in front of her.
"We still have plenty of daylight, I think it would be lovely if you showed me around." he said brightly.
Twilight frowned. He'd done it again. Despite him being blind he'd known exactly where something was. She'd even moved a bit since he left, as she tended to pace while thinking.
"Just wondering, but how did you do that?" she asked.
"Do what?" he asked in return, a confused look on his face.
"You knew exactly where I was and earlier you walked directly to the door, but moved so it wouldn't swing right into you when you opened it. I thought you couldn't see."
"Well, when I walked to you, I heard you breathing so I followed that sound, but you're right about the door. I may be blind but I'm fortunate enough to be a unicorn." he said, tapping his horn.
"Using a little magic, I can create a visual in my head of my surroundings. I'm not great at it yet though, I can only create a visual about 1.5 meters in radius." Mystic finished matter-of-factly.
Twilight frowned again. This whole day had been very weird so far. Like a badly written novel. His explanation sounded reasonable though. She had read about and tested that spell herself, but found it redundant unless she wanted to see something on the other side of a wall. She shrugged, deciding it made sense for a blind unicorn to work on spells to see.
"That makes sense. I suppose we can start our little tour now, unless you have any questions for me."
"Nope." he said with a smile.
"Well then, let's get going."
Twilight walked out of the library with Mystic in tow. She stopped for a moment and decided where to go first. Carousel Boutique? No. The colt had already said he didn't like being fawned over and she knew Rarity would be inconsolable at seeing the blind young colt. SweetApple Acres? Maybe, though a farm may be a little dangerous for a blind colt. Sugarcube Corner? No, just no. She wouldn't subject the poor colt to that on his first day. Visit Rainbow? No, she doubted they could even if they wanted. Having no wings usually made it hard to visit a pegasus' house.
Twilight sighed, realizing their first stop should have been obvious. Fluttershy's cottage. Fluttershy's kindness was unparalleled. There was no way visiting her could go wrong and after making a friend here in town, everywhere else would probably be less daunting. Twilight turned and started towards Fluttershy's cottage with Mystic. This was definitely a good choice... she hoped.
Author's Note
Still gonna make edits here and there, but here's another part. It's a bit scatterbrained but I'm really really tired. I'll edit this when I'm more awake.
Mystic wondered if the place they were going would be exciting. The mare obviously thought it was the best option since she turned in so many circles while they stood outside the library before choosing this direction. No matter where they went, though, it was probably going to involve him meeting a new pony or two, so he was somewhat dreading it. He liked meeting people, but he hated when people freaked out because he was blind. It just annoyed him when people acted like that. He shrugged and continued to follow the lavender mare, practicing his sensory magic while he walked. He had noticed a recent increase in range by about .2 meters, which he enjoyed. The more his range increased, the more he felt he could make people stop freaking out. He could care less about what others thought of him, but all the whiny voices of people apologizing and fretting were irritating. Mystic was still thinking about various things when he bumped into Twilight who had stopped walking. Twilight giggled, noticing he had probably been lost in thought.
"We're here." Twilight giggled.
Mystic listened around to see if there was anything he could hear. He instantly regretted the decision. His poor ears were not used to picking up so many sounds at once so the resulting onslaught gave him a headache. After several moments of disorientation he was able to pick out individual sounds, though it proved difficult. He mainly heard chickens, clucking their little heads off among a horde of other animals. Deciding it was too much trouble just to decipher some animal sounds, he abandoned the task.
Twilight watched the foal's eyes cross, probably disoriented by the sounds. It was adorable, yet pitiful. To her it was rather moderate drone, but to someone with enhanced hearing, it was most likely dreadful. A few moments passed before Mystic was able to sort himself out and fix his eyes.
"If you want I can have my friend meet us elsewhere." Twilight commented.
"No, I'm fine. Just caught me off guard for a moment." Mystic grunted, shaking his head.
Twilight shrugged. If he thought he could handle it she wan't going to argue. Twilight led him to the front door of the cottage and knocked lightly. A few moments passed. Mystic lightly registered a flapping of wings within the cacophony of noises. The door opened and a little yellow face peeked out from behind it.
"Oh hi Twilight, what brings you all the way out here." The butter-colored face asked.
"Hi Fluttershy! The princess asked me to mentor a student for her, so I'm showing him around town." Twilight replied, gesturing at the colt behind her.
Mystic bowed his head and mumbled a greeting to the girl in the door. Fluttershy was timid for a moment but decided the colt seemed very nice and quiet. She liked quiet ponies.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you. My name's Fluttershy." She said quietly.
Mystic was realizing why his new mentor chose this location first. This mare seemed so shy, even when she figured out about his eyes she probably wouldn't be hysterical. The thought made him glad that the lavender unicorn had brought his preferences into mind when making the decision.
"Oh! Uh... Would you like to come in?" Fluttershy squeaked, realizing they probably were here to visit, not just say hello.
"That would be lovely!" Twilight said excitedly.
Mystic mumbled a reply and followed Twilight inside when Fluttershy opened the door. Fluttershy led them inside and ushered them onto her couch. After making sure her guests were comfortable she went into the kitchen to make tea. Mystic turned towards Twilight trying to give her a look saying he was uncomfortable with this little tea time, but she noticed he was trying to do so, so she feigned ignorance. Unable to notice the intentional ignorance of his silent protest, he pressed against in an attempt to get her attention. She giggled and pushed him away, which caused him to lean back into her. Mystic was determined to get his point across, Twilight was determined to ignore his point.
Fluttershy walked in on the two doing a back-and-forth of the colt leaning against Twilight and the lavender mare pushing him away while giggling. Fluttershy smiled at the scene, thinking it a scene of bonding between the mentor and student. She would probably never find out the real reason behind the strange ritual.
"Tea's ready." Fluttershy announced, causing the two ponies on the couch to flinch in surprise and separate from each other.
Fluttershy flew over with the cups and teapot and began to pour the tea. It was around then when she finally noticed. She had set down a cup in front of Mystic and was looking up to smile at him when she noticed something peculiar about his face. Particularly in his eyes. Though much to the surprise of both Mystic and Twilight, Fluttershy merely gasped quietly, but proceeded to finish setting the cups down and pouring the tea. Grabbing her own cup, she hovered over to her own seat and calmly sat in it.
"Well, I must say this is by far the best reaction I have ever gotten. Even Princess Celestia gave a small start when she saw a blind colt walk into the magic school's examination room." Mystic said, quite obviously pleased with the pegasus' reaction.
"Well... I know what it's like to receive unwanted attention, so I figured you didn't want to be fawned over for something like that." Fluttershy said calmly, though she shuddered slightly when the memories of her modeling career entered her mind.
Twilight, realizing what Fluttershy was probably referencing, decided she had definitely made the right choice for their first stop. Twilight was quite pleased when the foal and her friend began to have a conversation. They talked about various animals and other such topics, which surprised her considering Mystic's first reaction to the sounds of the animals when they arrived. Twilight listened to them for a bit before realizing how much time they were spending. She looked out the window and saw the sun had dropped considerably, leaving them probably around 5 hours of daylight left.
"I hate to interrupt your conversation, but I was hoping to make at least one more stop for today." Twilight interjected, an apologetic look on her face.
"Oh, okay." Fluttershy said, gathering the tea cups, "I'll see you later then Twilight. Bye Mystic, it was nice meeting you."
"It was nice meeting you too Miss Fluttershy." He replied happily.
Twilight grinned. She was so glad her plan had worked out. Now she just had to hope her other friends' reactions would be just as smooth. Her hopes weren't very high though. Applejack's reaction wasn't able to be guessed very well. Rainbow Dash would probably have a nonchalant reply to the situation. Despite that sounding like the best option, she wasn't sure where she could find the cyan pegasus who usually spent all day flying around town. She dreaded the moment when they would finally meet Rarity. Being the drama queen she was, the results would be on an unparalleled level. She loved her friend, but she was still aware of her quirks. Pinkie Pie would probably overload the poor foal's brain with incomprehensible shenanigans. Again, she loved her friends but Pinkie was.... she was Pinkie. Enough said.
Twilight sighed, feeling like she was back where she had started in this little journey, but without the perfect option available to pick. Deciding an unknown reaction was better than a guaranteed overzealous reaction, she picked Applejack as their next stop. Twilight led her young student out of the cottage and headed towards the familiar view of Sweetapple Acres' orchards in the distance.
Twilight was still debating whether this was the best choice when the farmhouse came into view. She was also wondering how much longer Mystic would last, knowing this much walking would usually make Spike quite tired, but the little colt kept up with her and didn't seem tired at all. She shrugged, somewhat used to the surprises that came with the foal.
Upon reaching the farmhouse, Twilight looked around. Usually one of the Apple family could be seen working around the house or the barn, or maybe tending the trees. Today though, she didn't see any of them. Twilight had been able to finish all of her to-do list early the other day, so she figured the family had probably done the same today. Twilight trotted up the the door of the Apples' house and knocked on the door. Several moments passed before the door was opened by a large stallion.
"Hi Big Mac! I'm looking for Applejack. Is she home?" Twilight asked in a jovial manner.
"Nope." Big Mac replied in one of his trademark one word answers.
"Oh, then is she nearby?" Twilight continued.
Big Mac shrugged.
"Do you know what direction she went?" Twilight asked flatly.
"Eeyup."
Mystic cracked up at this, feeling the practically tangible waves of irritation rolling of the mare. He liked this stallion. A pony of few words seemed like the perfect friend to him. Blunt yet friendly.
"Can you show me the direction she went?" Twilight breathed, quickly losing patience.
The large stallion stepped out of the door way and lifted a hoof in a direction. Twilight thanked him and went at a brisk trot towards the direction, almost leaving Mystic behind who was still on the ground laughing. Realizing he might be left if he didn't hurry, Mystic thanked Big Mac and galloped in the direction Twilight had gone. Catching up quickly, he fell back in to step behind the irritated unicorn and continued giggling. Twilight rolled her eyes.
After a relatively short distance, Twilight spotted the orange cowpony standing on a hill next to a cyan colored pony with a rainbow mane. 'Looks like we'll get two done in one stroke' she thought.
Of the two ponies on the hill, the cyan one was facing in their direction. Upon seeing the approaching lavender mare, the cyan mare quickly jump in the air and flew towards her friend to greet her. The orange cowpony was briefly confused by her friend's sudden movement but quickly discovered why upon turning around.
"Hey Twilight how's it go- Who's the kid?" The mare asked once she reached them.
"Hi Rainbow Dash, this is Mystic Spark. The princess asked me to mentor him in magic, so I'm showing him around town and introducing him to some ponies first."
"Oh, sup kid. Welcome to Ponyville. Wanna see some awesome tricks?" Rainbow Dash asked, itching to show someone new how awesome she was.
Before Twilight could tell her he was blind and thus couldn't see her tricks, the colt said yes and Rainbow Dash took off at near-sonic speed. Twilight looked at the foal, shocked. What was he playing at? Twilight couldn't tell but the colt smiled mischievously. obviously up to something. Eventually they reached the orange cowpony, who greeted Twilight with a smile. Twilight returned the greeting and introduced Mystic again, who bowed his head and greeted the earth pony.
"Why he's a right gentlecolt, isn't he Twi?" Applejack said, smiling at the colt.
"Yea." She replied, distracted by her thoughts of what he was up to.
Rainbow Dash returned shortly after performing some of her medium-leveled tricks.
"What d'ya think about that? Pretty awesome huh?" The mare gloated, touching down near the trio on the ground.
"Meh, it was alright." Mystic replied nonchalantly.
"WHAT? What do you mean alright? That was a legitimate triple aileron roll followed by a canopy roll. It was awesome." Rainbow Dash shouted heatedly.
Mystic shrugged.
"That was totally awesome and you know it! What are you, blind?" Rainbow Dash shouted, obviously getting very aggravated.
"Yea. I'm surprised by how many ponies don't notice right away. I thought my eyes were supposed to give it away immediately." Mystic replied with a giggle.
All three mares' jaws dropped. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were both surprised more by the blind part than the manner of his retort. Twilight was shocked by how rude her student had been.
"I- I'm... I- I'm so-" Rainbow stuttered.
"No, don't be sorry Rainbow, it's Mystic who ought to be sorry. That was very mean of you to do use your disability for a cruel joke like that. Now apologize." The unicorn said sternly.
Mystic looked shocked. He hadn't expected this reaction. Thinking back about it, he had been around more boys than girls in his lifetime, so he had thought the prank would've elicited laughs. He'd forgotten guys tended to be more immature than girls. Mystic hung his head, embarrassed.
"Sorry Miss Dash." he muttered.
"Uh... Hey, it's alright, kid... I mean... It was kind of funny." Rainbow replied with a weak laugh.
"Yea," Applejack piped up, "Ah mean, it's only natural for a colt to want to play pranks. Besides, if he's jokin' 'bout his own blindness, it mean's he don't care much about it. Ah heard blind ponies are usually depressed about their problem, so it's a good thing he's comfortable with this sorta thing."
Twilight realized what her friend meant, hearing such things herself, but that didn't excuse such behavior.
"Fine, it's alright then. Just go about it a little less rudely next time. It was kinda funny except for the way you worded it." Twilight said.
Mystic lifted his head, relieved that they weren't angry with him. A light conversation began, mainly consisting of Applejack and Rainbow asking the colt about himself. Mystic felt weird about talking about himself, not being something he did often. He soon got over it though and the conversation moved smoothly. When the sun met the horizon, Twilight declared she had to get Mystic home so she could show him his room in the library. Applejack and Rainbow Dash said their goodbyes and headed to their homes. Twilight led the little troublemaker back to the library and took him upstairs and showed him his room. Upon entering the room, Mystic seemed to transform. He turned from the little colt that hadn't seemed tired to one that could barely stand, his eyes drooping. Twilight helped him into his bed and tucked him in.
"Goodnight" she whispered, turning out the lights and letting the sleeping form rest.
Author's Note
Cue super long chapter! Internet was down for several hours so I wrote more. When you can't play tf2, you get really antsy really quickly :3.
