On a sunny day in Equestria, Rarity and her little sister Sweetie Belle were heading to Canterlot to meet up with Princess Twilight Sparkle. They were to meet her at the School for Gifted Unicorns. Sweetie Belle had been studying magic with Twilight for some time, the filly had been doing quite well with some spells. She could levitate objects perfectly teleport to and from short distances, and give a pony a moustache.
Twilight decided to give Sweetie the chance to do a spell test at the school's examination hall. There were five pony judges on the far side of the hall. Rarity and Twilight were watching Sweetie Belle from a distance. Twilight looked around in nostalgia.
"Oh Twilight darling, I'm so glad Sweetie Belle is here." Rarity said proudly. "This could give her a chance to shine with the other little unicorns."
"Your sister is a quite the learner." Twilight agreed. "Something tells me she's going to ace this test."
The test was about to start, Sweetie Belle was practicing using her horn.
"It only feels like yesterday when I hatched Spike from his egg, became Princess Celestia's student and got my cutie mark." Twilight told Rarity.
"Didn't you also lose control of your magic and turned Spike from an adorable dragon into a giant terrifying one?" Rarity had remembered Twilight telling her the story of how she got her cutie mark a while back.
"Oh Yeah..." Twilight said as her cheeks turned red.
"I supposed that's why they changed the test from hatching a dragon egg to turning an apple into a gem." Rarity noticed.
The judges were ready with their clipboards and markers, Sweetie Belle walked toward the apple, the spell test had begun. Sweetie Belle focused on the fruit and closed her eyes. Her horn has glowing green, but nothing happened to apple. She tried harder and started to sweat. Suddenly, the apple was glowing just like Sweetie's horn. Rarity and Twilight both starting smiling, hoping she would succeed.
The judges watched the glowing apple, but were still not amused. The apple started to glow stronger, than all of a sudden, exploded onto all the ponies in the room. Sweetie Belle open her eyes, she notice the apple was gone. The filly looked everywhere to see apple mush covering every pony; she had made a huge mess.
"Sorry, Miss Belle. But you failed the test." One of the judges said out loud. The other judges nodded in agreement. Sweetie Belle tried to hard back her tears.
"Wait! Can't I try again?" She asked the Judges.
"I'm afraid not, we only have a limited amount of apples for more qualified unicorns to use." A judge wearing black glasses told the filly. "You can try again in three months."
"Three months!?" Sweetie shouted in shock. The judges simply ignored her and told the next filly to come out. Rarity tried to hug her sister in comfort, but Sweetie Belle ran toward the exit crying. Twilight and Rarity went after her while shouting out to her name. Sweetie Belle didn't listen and continued running.
Sweetie Belle was sitting at the stair entrance of the school crying. Rarity and Twilight walked toward her and sat down beside her.
"I don't understand, I did everything Twilight taught me. I read the spell books she gave me. Yet the spell didn't work and it probably never will." Sweetie said with her head down.
"You know dear, just because you failed at that test today doesn't mean you can't try again later." Rarity said to her young sister while putting her on her shoulder.
"What's the point?!" Sweetie shouted as she gently moved away from Rarity's hoof. "I fail at everything that matters to me. I fail at magic, fail at getting my cutie mark; I'm just gonna be a failure for the rest of my life!"
Rarity looked at Twilight, all while Sweetie Belle slowly stopped crying.
"Sweetie Belle, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself."
Twilight leaned closer to Sweetie.
"If you always think you’re going to fail at something, you will. You have to believe in yourself when you're doing the task, and even if you fail, you just have to keep on trying."
Sweetie Belle said nothing; Rarity and Twilight simply looked at each other. Rarity tried thinking of something to cheer up her sister.
"Why don't we all go look around at the Canterlot shops? Lots of stuff is on sale this week."
Twilight gave Rarity an unamused look, it seem that the fashion-loving unicorn was thinking of how to cheer herself up instead of her sister. Twilight know what most little fillies liked.
"We can also stop for some ice cream." Twilight told Sweetie Belle while giving a big smile.
"No thanks." She said quietly. "I just wanna be alone."
Twilight and Rarity both got up and headed to the Canterlot shopping plaza. Twilight stop for a moment and opened her backpack with her magic. She levitated a spell book of the bag and went back to Sweetie Belle, who was still sitting on the stairs.
"I think this might help you, and remember to just keep on practicing." Twilight was still levitating the book and gently dropped it in front of Sweetie Belle's hoofs.
She looked at the book, levitated it and then saw the cover.
The Guide to Unicorn Magic for Beginners: Volume 3
Twilight had already ran to catch up with Rarity. Sweetie Belle looked at some of the pages.
"Great, another book. Just what I need." she said disappointed.
The small unicorn walked toward the nearest bench and started reading.
Sweetie Belle continued reading the spell book, she then heard the sound of a lawn mower and in front of her was Discord mowing the grass. The master of chaos was wearing candy cane colored headphones and listening to music. Instead of him cutting the grass that was already cut, he was making the grass longer while using the lawn mower.
Sweetie Belle couldn't stand the noise, especially since Discord was only re-growing the grass rather than cutting it. She got off the bunch while levitating the spell book and walked toward Discord. Sweetie Belle shouted his name several times but he couldn't hear her because he was listening to and singing out loud a catchy song.
"We're Apples forever, Apples together"
"We're family, but so much more"
"No matter what comes, we will face the weather"
"We're Apples to the core"
Sweetie Belle lost her patience, she dropped her book and took the headphones off Discord's ears with her magic. Discord looked around in confusion, than looked down to see a little white unicorn with an annoyed look on her face.
"Well, if it isn't little Sweetie Belle, one of the Candy Munch Crusaders." Discord greeted while rubbing her mane.
"It's Cutie Mark Crusaders, and I'm not little!" Sweetie Belle shouted as she fixed her mane.
"Oh sorry." Discord said sarcastically. "I forgot being called little was considered offensive."
"Look, I just want to continue reading this spell book." Sweetie Belle spoke softly as she levitated the book and showed it to Discord. "So could you please keep it down?"
Discord took the book from Sweetie Belle; he flipped the pages while looking uninterested.
"What a bore these books are." Discord opened the book, started shaking it with one hand and words from it fell onto his other hand.
"It's a good thing I don't need to read such dull things." He said proudly, and then put the words that were from a page into his mouth.
He started munching on them as if they were potato chips. Then he tossed the book on the ground. Sweetie Belle became angry, she was alrighty having a bad day and having a book that was given to her be ruined only made the day worst.
"HEY!" Sweetie Belle shouted. "Give those back!"
She levitated the book while turning to the page without the words. Discord spat on the book page, a giant ink blot covered the entire page.
"Eww!" Sweetie Belle looked at the page in disgust.
"For your sake, I hope the words in that book are better to look at than to eat." Discord whipped his mouth clean.
"What's wrong with you?" Sweetie Belle closed the book in anger. "Do you have any idea how important this book is to me?!"
"No, not really." Discord continued with his so called cleaning. He made a basket full of weeds appear in his arms and started planting them on the uncut grass.
"But I do think you should consider changing your name from Sweetie Belle to Grumpy Belle."
Sweetie Belle watched Discord planting weeds on the lawn with a grouchy face.
"How could someone like you have all that magic and waste it on doing stupid nonsensical things?!" Sweetie Belle snapped.
Discord immediately stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her.
"I beg your pardon." He said looking crossed, than teleported right in front of the filly. "You think having all this magic is all fun and games?" Discord snapped his fingers and was now wearing a superhero costume. "Someone I don't remember once told me with great power, comes great uses for it. I think that's what it was anyway."
This didn't help Sweetie Belle at the slightest.
"If I had all of your magic, I can do better things with it than you!" She said out loud.
Discord snapped his fingers again, removing his costume and then crossed his arms.
"Oh really?" Discord remarked while raising his eyebrow.
Sweetie Belle was a little frighten, she realized that even through Discord was reformed; he could still be threatening.
"Um... perhaps." she said quietly.
Discord simply smiled, this made Sweetie Belle even more scared. He used his magic to have two sofas appear so the two of them could sit. Then made two tea cups appear that were filled with chocolate milk for the two of them to drink.
"You know Sweetie, I tempted to loan you all of my magic right now just to see you make a fool of yourself." Discord proclaimed.
He snapped his fingers and Sweetie Belle was suddenly wearing a jester outfit.
"Wait, you can do that?" Sweetie Belle asked while taking a quick drink of her chocolate milk. She didn't even notice she was wearing the jester outfit.
"Of course, I'll even make a deal with you." Discord took a bite of his teacup.
"What kind of deal?" Sweetie was curious.
"If I give you my magic for one day, you must do five good deeds with it."
"Five good deeds?" Sweetie Belle took another drink, and after she was done, a real moustache made of chocolate appeared on her upper lip.
"Like what?" She asked.
Discord tried hard not to laugh at her, now that she was a jester and had a chocolate moustache. Sweetie Belle still didn't notice what she looked like. But Discord continued explaining the deal.
"It can be anything, watering flowers, cleaning toilets, organizing some pony's socks." Discord explained while showing the three things with his magic. "But you have to do them using magic, my chaotic magic." He took another bit of his teacup
"But, what happens if I fail?" Sweetie asked nervously.
"If you fail, and you probably will..." Sweetie grained her teeth in anger. "You must never use magic nor even think about it for the rest for your life.” Discord took one last bite of his teacup.
He then snapped his fingers and the sofas, teacups; sweetie's costume and moustache disappeared. Everything was back the way it was.
"So Sweetie, do we have a deal?" Discord put out his arm.
Sweetie Belle though for a moment, having that kind of magic would definitely have her succeed that test. But if she failed at the deeds, she wouldn't be able to do magic anymore. Sweetie didn't want to fail again, but she also wanted to prove to Discord she could be capable of his magic.
"Deal!" Sweetie Belle put out her hoof.
"I don't need your hoof, it's your horn I need." Discord proclaimed. "That's where I have to store my magic into you."
Sweetie Belle lowered her head, and Discord touched the horn with his eagle arm. She could feel the power going into her. The two of them floated until they were lightly pushed by a magic surge, knocking them onto the ground. They both woke up; Sweetie Belle was a little dizzy. Discord stood up, and then dusted himself off.
"Well, how do you feel?" He asked.
"The whole world is spinning, but I'm feeling fine." Sweetie Belle shook her head to focus on the now power-less draconequus. "What about you? I mean, you just lost all of your magic."
"Believe me, this is not the first time I have." Discord folded his arms. "Well, go ahead, do something with my magic already."
"Ok, let me see..." Sweetie Belle looked around, and saw an apple fell from an apple tree. She used her horn and zipped the apple, turning it into a sparking carriage shaped like an apple.
"Wow, did you see that?" She asked Discord while pointing at the carriage. "That was awesome!"
"Yes yes, you're good with my magic." He said in an annoyed pose.
Sweetie Belle noticed three mice on the sidewalk, she zipped them and they turned into horses. The horses still had mouse ears and noses. Sweetie jumped up and down in excitement.
"Not very original, but fine for an amateur." Discord crossed his arms. Sweetie Belle didn't hear him because she was jumping up and down in excitement.
"I'm a magic master, I'm a magic master!" She shouted over and over, which annoyed Discord even more.
Sweetie Belle teleported to the front of the carriage, she was still smiling with joy and started bouncing on the seats.
"Remember Sweetie, five good deeds before the end of the day; or no more magic." Discord reminded her in a sinister tone.
"I'll have them done before you can say chocolate rain!" Sweetie Belle told him with competence. "Giddy up, horse mice!"
The horses ran off with the carriage and headed toward the Canterlot shopping area to find Rarity and Twilight. This left Discord out in the dust, coughing hard until the dust cleared off.
"She'll came back later begging me to remove my magic from her."
Discord snapped his fingers to teleport, only to remember he couldn't without magic. He remembered that he had wings, but were hard to use without the help of magic. He lifted himself with some struggle and headed toward Ponyville.
"She won't last the day." Discord said to himself while laughing.
