Being Brave part II

Over the next 10 days, Cory struggled and struggled to improve on his writing and math skills. Though he hardly made any progress, the learning environment was an infinite times better than anywhere else. It's just that it seemed as though there was a wall in front of him. A barrier as to how he could get from a beginner into an expert. There was so much he wanted to say, but he just didn't know how to say it.

Another problem was his patience, which was running thin since he wasn't getting anywhere. He was even beginning to see a pinch of frustration in Twilight's eyes. He noticed her messaging her forehead with her hoof whenever he got a problem wrong after multiple tries, or stopping to get a water break every time she graded his paper. But strangely, when Cory asked her if something was wrong, she assured him it's nothing to worry about and that all teachers go through these ordeals. And yet, he just couldn't shake off the guilt of laying this burden on her. In some way, he loathed himself for doing that to her.

He even sensed a bit of tension in Rainbow Dash during his training sessions. Though he significantly improved in Track and Field as well as basic exercises, it was still the self defense moves that got him the most. Though he practiced his moves day and night on the fields of Sweet Apple Acres, he just couldn't seem to put them into use. It wasn't that he didn't know how, He just didn't know the proper time to use them. But regardless, she cheered him on, and like Twilight, said that every coach goes through these tough times. To help keep his spirits up, Applejack and her family continued to make his stable colt tasks feel like fun games, and always gave him long, decent breaks everytime he felt like he was about to tucker out. This was followed with a pat on the back and a complement or two.

On top of it, Cory was receiving countless requests from all over Equestria via mail. From small communities like Appleloosa and Dodge Junction, to Metropolitan cities like Manehattan and Las Pegasus, ponies from all over were demanding a piece of Cory's exquisite style. Usually he'd be exchanging these works of his during his chauffeuring of Rarity. These times where he'd be assisting this unicorn we're the best moment of his day for him to collect his thoughts, think of a new idea and at least try to memorize what Twilight taught him through his notes. But strangely, Rarity didn't seem to mind Cory talking to himself. In fact she seemed to enjoy her employment of the only human in Equestria as they traveled from town to town to pick up supplies and drop off commissioned artwork. Many times a few Ponyfolk would stop by just to look at his physical stature and ask if he could demonstrate his talent, which made him extremely uncomfortable.

To help keep his spirits up, Applejack and her family continued to make his jobs on the farm fun and engaging, and always gave him long, decent breaks every time he felt like he was about to tucker out, even providing him as well as each other 3 square, hearty meals, which were enough to fill even the emptiest of stomachs. Day by day, he started to fell more and more like part of the family, there were even multiple times where Applebloom would call Cory 'brother', much to his shock. Still, he couldn't seem to shake off the unneeded guilt he felt he was bestowing on Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

One day, while in the middle of Twilight's studies, he had finally a reached a breaking point of frustration and turmoil. It was the middle of the afternoon and Twilight had assigned him to write a small one and a half page essay that described his recent trip with Rarity at Dodge Junction. This was an especially agonizing day, since he had just got back from school after failing to solve a few mathematical equations. But he tried to leave it in the back of his head as he started to clumsily write down whatever memories from his travels popped into his head. He scribbled with this and he jotted with that, until he finally managed to fill the whole paper. He handed over the paper to Twilight for her to grade it while he slumped back into the corner of the room and looked blankly outside the window.

After a few minutes of intense examination, she gave the paper back to him. All over were red markings indicating spelling errors, grammatical miscalculations, glitches in punctuation, and inconsistency in sentence structure. Once again, Cory had failed to write a decent paper.

That was the last straw. Cory's patience within himself had come to an end. He tore the paper into bits and threw the pencils against the wall.

"WHY CAN'T I GET IT RIIIIIIGHT?!!!" He screamed as he banged his fists on the desk.

Then, to Twilights horror, he started violently slapping himself against his forehead and punching himself wherever he could reach.

"STUPID!! STUPID!!! STUPID!!!" he kept yelling to himself. He couldn't see why this was wrong. back in his old school, it was strongly encouraged to beat yourself up for getting a problem wrong.

Twilight immediately flew forward and unleashed a spell that made Cory stop moving, despite the fact he was still screaming. Then, she magically flew him towards her and firmly, but not harshly slapped him across the cheek. She grabbed him by the face with her hooves and gave him a disappointing look. If looks could kill for Twilight, this would have been the moment.

"Never...Do...That...Again." Twilight said firmly after a long pause. "Look At Me!.... Don't you ever hit yourself, slap yourself, kick, punch, smack, jab or bash yourself in the face ever again. Understand!?"

Cory nodded right away with a very surprised look.

"Alright." She breathed in a sigh of exhaustion as she let him go. "I need to lie down."

Then she flew over to her bedside.

"I'm sorry I did poorly on the paper." Said Cory solemnly from below after an hour of cooling down.

"I'm not upset at you because of that." Said Twilight "Your problem is how you handle mistakes. What you need is a way to tone down the stress level in your head."

"How do I do that?" asked Cory.

"I think I might know somepony...or zebra who can help."