TIME: Tutoring In Magical Education

Chapter 1: Beginning at Page One

“But Rarity!” Sweetie Belle complained, “Why can’t you teach me instead of Twilight!?”

Rarity responded with a relatively calm demeanor, “I’m sorry, but I already told you: I simply don’t have the time this week, there is just too much work to be done. With my current client demanding so many custom orders for the Trottingham Comic-Convention, I need as much time as possible to finish. Thank heavens he sent me designs beforehoof or who knows how long it’d take me.”

Both sisters are standing outside a few meters from the library in order to ‘discuss’ the change of plans that had ensued previously while Twilight dried off.

“What’s a Comic Convention?” Sweetie Belle interrupted, to save herself from further confusion if anything else.

“To be honest, I have absolutely no idea. I’m not entirely sure what ‘comic’ means in this case, since Pinkie Pie never heard of it when I asked her about, but the designs I was given are very tacky. I mean really, how somepony would name their son ‘Superstallion’ and allow him to roam around in red and blue with a giant ‘S’ emblazoned on his chest is beyond me. Anyway, the point is that Twilight would be a much better teacher than me. She is Celestia’s protégé for Luna’s sake!”

“But you know how she is when she starts talking about magic.” She and Rarity made a side glance towards Twilight, who is standing at the doorway with a towel wrapped around her mane. Noticing she is being looked at, Twilight gives a whole hearted smile and wave. The unicorn sisters return the favor with a weak smile and a light wave. “Her lectures feel like they go on forever!”

“That may be, but she is the only unicorn I trust to be capable of teaching you properly. Tell you what: I’ll convince Spike to help simplify things, just in case.”

Sweetie Belle merely sighed, seeing as there is no means to convince her sister otherwise. That and the fact that it meant she’ll be spending time with Spike was much more than a consolation prize. They’d only met once during the Summer Sun Celebration and the ‘Luna’s Back to Normal’ party, but it was love at first sight for her. Although, she didn’t want Rarity to hold that over her, so the filly decided to try and not look too excited. “Okay, fine.”

“Terrific, now go to Twilight and I’ll have a chat with Spike,” she declared with a turn away towards Spike and with her back to Sweetie, “Who knows, maybe learning to do magic will give you a hint on what your cutie mark might be.”

“Really?”  Sweetie Belle’s excitement burst from that last sentence, her fate sealed.

“Of course, the magic glow for most unicorns matches a color on his or her cutie mark.”

“All right, I can’t wait to get started!”

“I can’t wait for this to be over…” Sweetie mumbled face down on the desk that was originally upstairs but moved downstairs for the tutoring.

Twilight paced around as Spike was dutifully at the ready with a parchment and quill. Twilight began listing off several things, “Teaching for Beginners?”

“Check,” Spike answered after scratching his quill through the parchment.

“A Foal’s Guide to Magic and Simple Sketches to Spell-Slinging?”

“Check and check.”

“Chalkboard, ruler, and chalk?”

“Check, check, and check.”

“Sweetie Belle, ready to learn?”

Spike took a quick glance to Sweetie Belle, she was already asleep. “Not check.”

Twilight gave a loud ‘ahem’ and Sweetie Belle quickly woke up from her unconscious state. “We haven’t even started yet, please try to stay wake,” she scolded.

“But all I’ve been doing is waiting for you to finish that check list for the last hour,” Sweetie Belle retorted.

“Well, we’re going to start now.”

“Finally.”

The lesson began rather smoothly, thanks to Spike upholding his promise break down the more complicated magical jargon. Sweetie Belle began to have a decent understanding of the workings of using her horn to channel magic; it was the application of doing so that was the issue.

“I know you have it in you; you just have to focus,” Twilight said in an attempt to encourage her young pupil. The fact that she was wearing a safety helmet and taking cover behind an overturned table wasn’t very encouraging.

“I’m trying…” the novice magician replied. Her mane was frazzled from her earlier attempts at magic, a few burn marks at the end of her mane. Scorch marks of various sizes were scattered around the floor; although half of them were from Spike being startled by the spells backfiring, it was still a large amount. Spike himself was relieved of his assisting duties for the day due to excessive non-lethal electrocution.

Sweetie Belle was clearly showing signs of strain from forcing concentration at the object in front of her, an open book; her eyes were also closed as an attempt to focus. Sweetie started to cringe because nothing was happening, but then a single page of the book was enveloped in a light green glow and flipped over to the other side. She gasped loudly and exclaimed, “I did it!”

“That was a great job, considering this was the first day.”

“Well, what color was it?”

“Color of what?”

“My magic glow of course.”

“Oh. Umm, I think it was a green of some sort.”

“Oh.” Sweetie Belle excitement turned to dejection after hearing that and lowered her head.

Twilight tilted her head to try and meet her pupil eye to eye. “Is there something wrong with it being green?”

“Well it’s just that Rarity told me that my cutie mark might be the same color as my magic, but then you told me that the magic color is sometimes the eye color. Now that I know that the color matches my eyes, it’s not much of a clue.” The little filly gave a sigh and looked as though she were about to cry. “I guess I’m not all that special…”

Seeing her pupil so dejected, the bookish mare wrapped a hoof around Sweetie Belle and mustered up a few words of encouragement. “It’s not so bad not being able to figure out your cutie mark so quickly.”

Sweetie sniffled. “What do you mean?”

“It means you’re full of potential. It means you could be great at anything. The possibilities are endless.”

“You really think so?”

“Of course! You could be a great scientist, or an amazing artist, or a famous writer; You could even be mayor of Ponyville someday.”

The pale colored unicorn gave her teacher a tight embrace. “Thanks Twilight, I know it’s just the first day, but I think I learned a lot today.”

“That’s good, but the day isn’t over yet. Want to practice turning pages some more?”

She broke the hug, a excited smile forming. “Yeah!”