TIME: Tutoring In Magical Education

by supernova708

Rating: everyone
Tags: Comedy, Slice of Life
Length: 3562

Twilight decides to make use of her talent in magic to tutor unicorn foals. What can go wrong?

After doing a favor for Rarity and noticing the lack of unicorn-based curriculum in the local school, Twilight decides to start a business as a tutor in magic to teach unicorn foals that need more help than they can get. What could go wrong?

(Characters will be added as they gain significance)

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-23 07:23:01 UTC

Prologue

Twilight had several books surrounding her in bed this morning. The smell of the pages sent her into a strange bliss as she cracked open the first book. That brief moment of intoxication was cut short when a small noise was made from the outside of the library. It sounds like rain, but the weather team hadn’t scheduled any rain today. There isn't even a single cloud in the sky. She stuck her head out to look where the noise was coming from. Searching around a little, the unicorn discovered that the noise was coming from Spike struggling with a hose. She was about to yell out something, but was interrupted by the hose releasing a small torrent of water, soaking both her mane and her coat.

“SPIKE!” yelled Twilight in frustration, “Be more careful with that hose! You almost sprayed water on the books I have out!”

“Sorry Twilight! But the valve is very touchy!” the young dragon shouted back, finally regaining control of the hose.  With a very slight turn of the valve, the water pressure went down to a level that was easier to handle and Spike returned to his chore of watering the plants outside of the library. The reptilian assistant was very careful not to water the plants directly, placing his thumb over the nozzle to make the gushing water to be rain-like when it made contact with the gentle garden.

“It’s a wonder how any housework gets done with Twilight studying so much,” he thought out loud to himself.

“Better go dry off.” Twilight sighed after a quick look in the mirror. Her drenched mane was shining in the light. She shrugged it off and sought after a towel to dry off. The wet pony wasted some time before succeeding in her search. She dried off her coat hurriedly and wrapped the moist cloth around her mane, not wanting to waste any time on searching for a drying spell, for now at least, and to insure the tomes wouldn’t get wet should she shake her mane dry.

A few minutes later and about half-way through with watering, a familiar white unicorn trotted behind and tapped Spike on the shoulder; Spike turned his head. “Hmm? Oh hi there, Rari-“

The love-struck dragon stopped mid-sentence upon seeing the object of his affections, Rarity, and began to stammer to the point of silencing himself from embarrassment. His face was turning a shade of red for being so dismayed.  Seeing as Spike wasn’t going to finish his sentence anytime soon, Rarity began her inquiry with a whimsically cutesy tone, “Good morning, Spikey-Wikey. Is Twilight home? I need to ask her for a favor.”

Spike shook his head to snap himself out of his brief stupor. “Uh yeah, she should still be upstairs.”

“Thank you Spike.” She gave Spike a light head rub and headed inside.

“Heheh, not a proble-“ Spike muttered, loosening his grip on the hose, “WHOA!”

As one would probably expect, Spike immediately lost control of the hose once more and was hit with water several times.

Rarity looked around the library foyer in search of Twilight. She called out, “Twilight? Where are you?”

“Hold on! I’ll be down in a minute!” Twilight replied. At precisely one minute after her response, Twilight, who was now dry, walked down the stairs with a few books levitating behind her, all of them looking heavy as bricks. “Hi Rarity, what brings you here this morning?”

“Well, I don’t mean to interrupt your reading on such a magnificent day, but I was hoping to ask you for some assistance. You see, Sweetie Belle, my younger sister, had asked me to teach her how to do some magic today, nothing difficult of course but…” Rarity said with a twinge of guilt.

“Huh, I never knew you had a sister.” The violet pony pondered this sudden discovery and placed her books back to their proper places amongst the shelves.

“Please Twilight; don’t interrupt when I am regaling you with a back story as to why I’m here. Now where was I? Ah, yes. But I have a really important order to fill and I need all week to finish. With my parents leaving on vacation… again... there is no one at home available to teach her.”

“That does sound like a problem. But why do you need me? “

Rarity looked at her with the most pleading eyes anypony has ever seen. “Twilight, darling. You are one of the most talented ponies I know at magic and the Element of Magic. Not including the princesses, who else could be a better magic teacher than you?”

Twilight blushed a little from the flattery. “Gee, since you think so highly of me… I’ll do it.”

“Thank you, Twilight. You have no idea how much this means to me. I’ll be sure to repay you for this.”

“You don’t need to go that far. I’d be honored to do it. So, when do I start?”

“Well, Sweetie Belle should—“

The designer was cut off by the hollering of a filly, “RARITY! YOU PROMISED YOU WERE GOING TO TEACH ME MAGIC!”

A quick glance to the open door way by the two unicorns showed that the yelp originated from a very irritated Sweetie Belle as she tried to lift a small rock by concentrating really hard on it, ending with the rock hitting her by the horn. She gave a loud groan and kicked the rock in frustration at full force. The rock conked Spike upon the head and caused him to spin around followed by a knock out. The handler’s fall caused the hose to be aimed at an open window. The water goes through the window and soaks, with nothing short of miraculous accuracy, Twilight, and only her, for a consecutive time

Rarity gave Twilight a very sheepish grin. She also took a large step away from Twilight, as the water hitting her was starting to pool on the floor. “Umm… How about after you dry off?”

The twice drenched unicorn lowered her head and gave a small groan.

Chapter 1

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!”

Chapter 2

The lesson for the day had just ended and Sweetie Belle was putting away some books that she got from Twilight into a saddlebag. Looking at the sheer number of books alone could easily intimidate even the most literate of ponies’. Fortunately for Sweetie Belle, the actual content of each book consisted of several large but simple diagrams concerning basic telekinesis and horn physiology. The unicorn filly was all set to go back to Rarity’s. But before she left, she turned back to her teacher to ask, “Same time tomorrow?”

"That's the plan." Twilight smiled. She bid her star student fair well. The violet unicorn went to sorting the books that she had used for the lesson back into their proper shelves. She was about to put back the final tome, but an abrupt slam from the library door opening startled Twilight. She knocked the book into one of the shelves and consequentially spilled over the entire row, burying the mare under.  She breached the sea of books and cried, "For Celestia's sake! What now!?"

"Oops, my bad," apologized a boyish sounding mare.

Twilight turned to look, the cause of the interruption this time was a cross-eyed grey pegasus mare, looking down dejectedly. The unicorn put a hoof to her face and sighed; she sighed again at the sight of all the fallen books and put them away. "I'm sorry, Derpy-"

"Ditzy," she cut in, taking some offence to the nickname.

"Ditzy, for yelling. So what brings you here?"

"Hmm, let's see..." Ditzy took to the air and rubbed a hoof to her chin, pondering how to explain. She floated around the library and regaled Twilight with a tale of her delivering mail, skipping the early parts of the route story, at Twilight's discretion, to Carousel Boutique as her second to last stop. The mail mare got the signature for the package of gold Rarity ordered and noticed Sweetie Belle levitating books. When asked who taught her how to that, the filly answered Twilight had done so. At the end of the explanation, the grey pegasus grinned and said, "And that's why I'm here." She craned her neck to rummage through her saddlebags. "Oh, and here's your letter."

Twilight blinked several times and took the letter, puzzled by that brief back-story and the way Ditzy's eyes kept moving in different directions effortlessly. "I still don't understand why you're here."

"To hire you as teacher in magic, duh."

"But you're a pegasus."

"And?" Ditzy paused for a moment, then giggled,  "Oh, you thought that- the tutor isn't for me silly. It's for my daughter, Dinky."

"Oh." Twilight blushed a little for assuming too quickly. She quickly explained to Ditzy that she wasn't a real teacher and isn't sure if she could teach more than one unicorn due to issues in her schedule and.

"What if you teach them at the same time? My little muffin learned how to do the lifting with magic thing all by herself, I just want her to have someone experienced to help her."

"Hmm, I don't know, I mean I'm not very experienced in teaching. I only taught Sweetie Belle as a favor to Rarity."

"Please! I've seen what you did when that Ursa Minor showed up a while back. If anyone in Ponyville is good enough teach magic, it's you."

"Alright, I'll think about it; although I'm going to need to order more teaching materials if I'm doing this."

"So, you'll do it?!" Ditzy took to the ground gave the librarian a warm embrace. "Oh, thank you Twilight! Thank you! I'll be sure to give your teaching supplies top priority when they arrive!"

"I said I'll think about it, okay?" the librarian answered, feeling awkward from how Ditzy is acting overly-familiar with her . The grey mare gave Twilight a second hug and flew through a nearby window, loudly singing a song about muffins. "I really hope Ditzy's apple landed very far from the tree; I don't think my sanity can take more than what I have to deal with when Pinkie's around."

"Hey Twilight!" sang Pinkie Pie as she came into the library.

"Yes, Pinkie?" the mare replied, looking from a chalkboard facing away from the door. Her voice went down to a whisper. "Just be quiet."

Twilight made a slight gesture towards Sweetie Belle, who was staring intently at a paper on her desk and a pencil in hoof.

Pinkie  got the idea and followed suit, lowering her volume to a loud whisper, "Do you have any books on cannons?"

"Yeah, they should be in the Equestrian Mechanisms section. Why?"

"Just something I've been working on. Don't tell anypony, okay?"

The unicorn nodded.

Pinkie bounced over to collect a small stack of books and came back to her Twilight. "So how's she doing?"

"Even though it's almost been a week since we started, she's been doing very well for a beginner. I'm hoping she'll get the hang of basic telekinesis by tomorrow."

"Finished!" Sweetie Belle called out and put her pencil down. She levitated her paper, albeit a bit wobbly, over to her tutor.

Twilight enveloped the paper in her own magic and placed it on a nearby table. "I'll grade this later, now time for practical part of the exam."

"Aww. But isn't lifting the paper to you good enough."

"I'm just trying to make this as close to the actual thing  from the magic academy."

"Oooh, can I watch?" the party pony chimed in.

"Sure, but we have to go outside for this. Spike, would you mind checking out those books for Pinkie."

"Sure thing," the dragon assistant replied, taking the books from Pinkie's back. The pony trio went out back as Spike set the books onto the check out table and started stamping check-out and due dates on each of the books' time sheets. "Huh, 'How to Build a Better Cannon' and 'Harmless Explosives.' I wonder what she's gonna do with these."

Spike lost his balance after a large boom and a second boom came from outside. Pinkie, covered in dust and bits of ash slid in from the door and yelled, "Spike get a broom! A rock exploded! Twice!"

"Sweetie Belle, what's wrong? You were doing so well just yesterday," asked Twilight as she brushed ashes and dust off herself and the unicorn in question.

The filly was very sullen. Her head drooped to the ground and she occasionally kicked her hoof into the ground. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I don't want to talk about it..." The filly sighed.

Twilight smiled draped a dusted leg over her student. "I'm your tutor; You can trust me. I promise not to tell anypony.

"Alright, I'll tell you: I get nervous when pony's are watching me."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"No, I mean REALLY nervous. Like, Fluttershy nervous."

"That bad? But you do fine around me."

"That's because you're my tutor, you're supposed to help when I mess up."

"We'll work on your stage fright later, how about you try again with that rock over there? Without anypony but me watching."

"Okay."

Pinkie Pie came outside with Spike, with a broom, on her back. "Hey, Twilight! Spike and I found the-"

She stopped when she saw Sweetie Belle struggling, but still maintaining a bunch of small rocks into the air. Pinkie Pie shushed Spike as they walked closer, trying to be as quiet as possible. The silence was broken when the filly placed the rocks down in a neat line. Twilight started tossing Sweetie Belle up and down, shouting in cheer, "Congratulations! You did it!"

"Twilight, put me  down."

"Oops, sorry. But do you know what this calls for?"

"A party!"

Both unicorns were startled, now aware of both Pinkie's and Spike's presence.

"You don't mind being a chaperone, do you Twilight?" She waved a hoof in front of Twilight's face, then Sweetie Belle's. "I see that both of you are too excited to answer."

Pinkie rushed back into the library, leaving a dust silhouette under Spike to fall though. She bounced by with the books on her back, mysteriously not falling or swaying. "Well, see you tomorrow at Sugarcube Corner."

"No, wait I can't go; tomorrow's Diamond Tiara's Cute-ceañera and I don't want-" Sweetie Belle tried to answer as quickly as possible, but Pinkie was already out of ear shot before the filly said anything. "to go..."