Sweetie Belle's Big Mistake

by Godzillawolf

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Rarity
Length: 4753

Sweetie Belle made a big mistake. Said big mistake turned the town into fruits and vegetables. But thanks to Mayor Mare's quick thinking, that's all passed now!...Then why does she still seem to be acting weird?

Based off the events of the comic "Friends Forever #15: Applejack and Mayor Mare".

Sweetie Belle made a big mistake. Said big mistake turned the town into fruits and vegetables. But thanks to Mayor Mare's quick thinking, that's all passed now!...Then why does she still seem to be acting weird? Perhaps Princess Twilight can help get to the bottom of this.

Another commission by a regular customer of mine, Alexwarlorn . This one in the aftermath of Friends Forever #15 where Sweetie Belle had a magic surge that turned most of the town into fruit and that perhaps Twilight could relate to her situation. Hope you like it!

My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro!

Thanks to wildtiel for the cover art!

Published 2015-05-30 15:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-05-30 15:30:02 UTC

I Made A Big Mistake...

Author's Note

Note, this is based the events of the IDW comics Friends Forever #15 .

I Made A Big Mistake...

Commission: Doesn't Know Her Own Strength
By Kendell2
Commissioned by Alexwarlorn

“Alright, so after school, we're going to try being...ugh, Cutie Mark Crusaders Artists?” asked Scootaloo, the three excitable young fillies trotting towards school. They'd gotten the day off yesterday due to the 'Great Cornucopia Catastrophe'...otherwise known as 'the day Sweetie Belle managed to turn everypony into fruits and vegetables.' Of course only the CMC themselves and few others knew that. Most of the town had just assumed it was a prank by a certain 'reformed' Chaos Spirit and Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader. Discord's response to being asked was 'well, I DID sneeze while eating an apple that day, so it's a possibility.' The Crusaders gave him a hesitant hug for keeping it a secret. He gave them a personal cotton candy cloud. While it hadn't completely rebuilt things between them, it was a start.

“Yeah!” Applebloom cheered. “Sounds great, right Sweetie Belle...Sweetie Belle?”

The unicorn snapped up. “Oh! Yeah! Cutie Mark Crusaders Artists!”

“Are yah okay?” Applebloom questioned, the two foals looking at her in confusion and concern. “Yah seem kinda outta it.”

“Oh! Yeah, just a little distracted is all. Sorry...” Sweetie said, the filly giving a somewhat forced smile.

“Alright class, please take notes, this next part is very important,” Cheerilee told the class, beginning to write on the blackboard.

Sweetie Belle took her pencil in her mouth and began to quickly take notes on the little piece of paper in front of her.

“Sweetie Belle?” asked Applebloom, blinking. “You're using your mouth?”

The art of using a pencil was something many ponies took some getting used to due to lacking digits like Griffons, especially to young foals. The class unicorns, who were still learning to use their magic, considered gaining enough control over their telekinesis to use it instead of your mouth 'cool' (one of the few things Snails had that no one argued he could brag about was this skill), as did Pegasi with their tactile telekinesis (Earth Ponies bragged about gaining enough control over their super strength to not go through a few dozen pencils per class). Sweetie Belle had naturally shown it off when she gained that level of mastery (in part just to see the look on Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's faces at one of the Crusaders getting some form of bragging rights).

Sweetie Belle then noticed Cheerilee giving her a concerned look after hearing Applebloom.

“Oh...my horn is just a little tired right now,” Sweetie Belle replied, giving an awkward smile.

As the final bell of the day rang, the students rushed off to do whatever fun fantasy crossed their minds until dinner time and their parents called them home.

“Ugh, I still wish we'd been going for sports...Anyway, I got us paint from Toola-Roola,” Scootaloo said, looking mildly annoyed.

“Who?” Sweetie Belle asked, still looking a bit distracted.

“Oh this pony Pinkie's friends with I met at a party,” said Scootaloo with a proud smile. “She's an artist and she said she'd even help us try to earn our artist Cutie Marks.”

“Cool! Better than just grabbing some hoof paints!” Applebloom replied, giving a smile.

Sweetie Belle nodded in excitement. However, her thoughts of painting where interrupted when she heard talking from two other fillies nearby. Two ponies who had a habit of making their lives miserable.

“Can you believe they still haven't caught whoever caused that stupid disaster?” Diamond Tiara questioned. “I mean I was just minding my own business walking with my parents, and I got turned into a peach! I was an adorable, beautiful peach, but still.”

“Tell me about it, I spent the day as Samaras!” Silver Spoon replied.

“A what?” The pink bully asked, cocking her head.

“Mama said they grow on Silver Maple trees...”

“Whatever, all that matters is that instead of spending the day with my mom without doctors like I wanted to I spent it as a a stupid fruit!”

“Uh...let's go! We've got artisting to do!” said Sweetie, pushing her two friends faster, a strangely guilty look flashing over her face.

“Whao, Sweetie Belle! What's the rush?” Applebloom asked, giving a confused blink.

“Oh! Well, just thought we should get out of here before Diamond Tiara has a chance to start picking on us, right?” Sweetie Belle asked, the unicorn giving a forced smile.

The two other Crusaders looked to one another. “Good point...” Scootaloo replied, the two not resisting as they headed off to continue their quest to find their Cutie Mark while the two rich fillies continued to talk.

The three Crusaders set at a bench in the park with a pink earth pony with yellow, pink, and orange mane, her tail being blue, green, and purple tail. Her Cutie Mark was a magenta and purple paint brush drawing blue lines. They were currently painting plates that matched their fur color, Toola Roola's having a circle of dots in the same colors as her mane and tail.

“Alright, girls, let's see what you've painted,” the mare said, giving a cheerful smile. She then blew a little tuff of mane out of her face.

Applebloom held up a plate with an apple painted on it. Sweetie Belle's had purple wavey lines painted on it and Scootaloo's had purple butterflies painted on it the same shade as her mane.

Applebloom blinked. “Purple butterflies?”

“I don't know! For some reason being near her makes me think of butterflies!” Scootaloo whispered back. “And is it just me or does she remind you a bit of Babs?”

“They look great, my little ponies,” Toola Roola replied, giving an approving smile.

The trio then looked to their flanks and gave a sigh of disappointment. “Still no Cutie Mark...”

“Darn it!” Scootaloo exclaimed, banging a hoof on the table...causing some pink paint to splash on her. “Double darn it!”

“Don't worry,” Toola Roola replied. “I brought some soap to get that off,” she explained, then blew that annoying bang back out of her eyes. “And even if you didn't get your Cutie Marks, if you leave your plates with me to dry, you can pick them up later. Then you can have something to eat off of that's just our own, wouldn't that be great?”

“That does sound kinda cool,” Applebloom admitted, looking at hers while Scootaloo went to a fountain to wash herself off.

“Yeah, I can show Rarity! She loves this kinda stuff!” Sweetie said cheerfully...though gave a small shudder looking at the apple on her friend's plate for some reason.

Toola Roola then got out a bag. “Hey, are you girls hungry?”

Scootaloo's stomach growling as she returned to the table from cleaning off cut off any response.

“I'll take that as a yes,” the pink painter replied. “We can have cake when you come to get your plates later, but I do have something I just finished painting a picture of before coming to meet you.”

The eager smile on Sweetie's face faded the moment a basket of fruit was lifted out of the bag. “Why let some good fruit go to waste?” Toola Roola asked.

“Uh...I've got to go!” Sweetie Belle stammered out before galloping off.

The artist gave a blink. “Did I say something wrong?” she asked, looking slightly hurt.

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked to one another then back to the confused grown-up. “Uh...ain't your fault, Miss Roola! Just somethin' that happened yesterday,” Applebloom explain, both grateful and annoyed by the fact Ponyville's reputation for weirdness generally meant outsiders knew quite little. It was probably for the best, considering Twilight had told them not to tell anypony.

“"Spike doesn't need to know that, and . . . the Princesses don't need to know one little filly neutralized Equestria's greatest heroes. Sweetie's parents don't need to know she almost destroyed Ponyville . . ." Twilight had said.

“We'll come back and get the plates later, okay? We need to go talk to Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo finished.

“Uh, okay...”

As the two fillies ran off, Toola Roola looked at the fruit basket. “...Huh...what am I gonna do with all this now?” she asked, blowing the bang back out of her eyes.

“Sweetie Belle!” called Applebloom, her and Scootaloo running up to the strangely downtrodden pony.

“Oh! Uh...h-hi girls...” replied Sweetie Belle replied, her ears seeming to refuse to go back up.

“Sweetie Belle...” Scootaloo said. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah! I'm okay! Of course I'm okay, why wouldn't I be okay?!”

“Well for one, you just ran away when you saw a fruit basket,” Scootaloo pointed out bluntly.

“Oh...I...I just was a little freaked out...Nothing big...”

“Are yah sure?” Applebloom questioned.

“Yeah...Oh! I think Rarity's calling me! I'd better go!”

“Ah didn't hear anythin-”

“I'll meet you at Twilight's later for our Twilight Time!”

With that, Sweetie Belle galloped off towards Carousel Boutique without another word.

The two remaining friends gave slightly worried looks to one another.

“Alright, through there, and back out there, and pull it taut.”

“OW!”

Rarity looked over to her sister rubbing her tongue from where she'd poked it with the needle. “Darling, I did warn you that you tend to jab yourself a lot doing it this way.”

“Yeah, I know, I did it even more before,” said Sweetie Belle, remembering when she'd tried sewing without her sister's tutoring. Thankfully a first aid kit was standard issue Crusader gear for any and all ventures. Along with tree sap remover.

Rarity nodded, returning to the lessons. “But may I ask why you suddenly wanted to become better at hoofstitch? I thought you'd gotten so good at using telekinesis.” While Rarity knew the ins and outs of sewing to know that there were advantages to learning both (such as being able to give your horn a break), her sister was a young foal, not a seasoned fashionista.

“OW!”

Rarity jumped, seeing her sister had somehow jabbed the needle into her leg rather painfully. “Sweetie Belle, careful!” she said, carefully removing the needle and getting her sister a bandage, kissing it, then her sister's forehead. “There, all better darling.”

“Thank you, sis...” Sweetie replied, hugging her sister, but looked frantically around the room over her shoulder, eyes finally looking to the clock. “Oh! Look at the time, I need to meet with Twilight!”

“Huh?” Rarity looked over and blinked. “Oh, so it is. Do you need me to-”

“See you later Rarity!” Sweetie Belle zoomed out of the boutique, leaving nothing but some fabric fluttering back to the ground.

“-walk you there...” Rarity gave a sigh. “...I can't help feeling I'm missing something.”

“Alright, girls, it's time to continue your lessons,” Twilight Sparkle explained, in the library of the Crystal Palace. Twilight hadn't questioned why HER castle had formed with a pre-built library ready to be filled with books, she just assumed the Tree of Harmony knew her well. And then ordered more books. So many new books.

Scootaloo had moved on from the unicycle to an actual bicycle. Applebloom had just kept working on new potions, some of which actually had promise. Though some where still plenty mistakes. Like making a stinkbomb when she intended to make perfume or lemons when she tried to make apples. At the very least she hadn't created weird coughing plants again. Her opera singing ones had found a good home with Discord.

Sweetie Belle, however, was currently sitting in the corner staring at the somewhat heavier chair she had been training with after mastering moving the broom. “I forgot about doing this stuff, maybe I should've just told Rarity...” Sweetie muttered to herself, fear in her eyes.

“Sweetie Belle?” asked Twilight, causing the filly to jump a bit. “Is something wrong?”

“Uh...I...I um...I'm not feeling very good...” Sweetie Belle replied, giving a fake cough.

Twilight gave a worried look, putting a hoof to her forehead. “You're not fevered.”

“Uh...well, my horn's sore...” the little unicorn replied, rubbing it and faking pain.

Twilight suddenly looked quite worried. “Your horn? That could be serious.”

Sweetie Belle blinked. “It could?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, a number of very serious unicorn illnesses have a sore horn as a symptom. We need to get you to the hospital.”

The little unicorn gulped. What child liked the hospital? “Uh...I don't think it's that serious. It's just a little sore.”

“How sore?” the Princess of Friendship, looking sincerely worried.

“Oh...you know, just sore enough I can't use magic...”

“Sweetie, that IS serious, if you can't use spells because your horn hurts, you could be in serious trouble,” Twilight warned. “Come on, you're going to the hospital. Spike, please go get Rarity.”

Spike blinked, currently helping Applebloom escape from a vine she'd grown that was presently holding her upside down. “Uh...okay...”

Sweetie Belle whimpered, pinning her ears. Now her friends were looking at her. She knew what would happen if she went to the hospital. Either they'd do some nasty tests on her, or they'd find nothing was wrong with her and Rarity would ground her for lying to Twilight. Or worse, she might get a shot!

“I...I...I'm not sick...”

“Sweetie, I know the hospital is kind of scary for somepony your age, but-”

“But-”

“No buts, Sweetie! Come on!”

“But-”

“Listen to me Sweetie, your sister entrusts you to me for these meetings, if I knew you were sick and didn't do anything not only would it not be healthy for you, Rarity would be furious with me.”

Sweetie Belle's eyes misted up. Now she might get Twilight in trouble too?

“Now come on, Nurse Redheart will know what to-”

“I'M NOT SICK! I JUST DON'T WANT TO USE MAGIC!”

The room went dead silent, Spike stopping right before he reached the door to go fetch Rarity. The only noise was the vine letting Applebloom go and the filly's 'Oof!' Not just from the little child's outburst, but from the tears streaming down her face. Sweetie Belle started sobbing, like a dam had burst. “I just don't want to use magic anymore...” she said in a pathetic, guilt-ridden voice. “I...I don't want to hurt anypony else...”

“Sweetie Belle...Is this about...yah know?” asked Applebloom, looking worried.

The little unicorn nodded her head sadly, sniffling.

“...Spike, please take the girls into the hallway,” Twilight said with an even voice.

Spike nodded. “Okay Twilight-whao!” he was then picked up by the tail by Applebloom's mutant vine.

“But Twilight-” Scootaloo started, her and Applebloom both looking very worried and upset at their friend's plight. In the background, Spike blasted the vine with his fire breath...which ended up teleporting the thing away somewhere, much to the dragon's surprise.

Twilight turned to them. “I know...but please let me talk to her alone for a little bit, okay?”

“Okay...” Applebloom muttered, very hesitantly walking out of the room, hers and Scootaloo's eyes never leaving their friend.

Twilight set down in front of the sobbing filly. “Sweetie Belle, this is about when you accidentally turned the town into fruits and vegetables with that magic surge, correct?”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “I...I'm sorry...I made a big mistake...”

“I should have guessed you felt bad when you asked me if I was going to imprison you...or banish you...or imprison you in the place I banished you too.”

Sweetie Belle whimpered, looking down. “Maybe you should...”

“Mind telling me more about how it happened? Rarity didn't tell me much when she apologized to me,” Twilight asked, giving the small child a sympathetic look.

Sweetie Belle shrunk down, more tears trickling. Twilight gingerly looked her in the eyes. “I promise, no matter what happened, I won't think less of you...”

“...Okay...I...I just wanted to learn something outside of our lessons to show you during our next lesson...”

Sweetie Belle put a basket of fruit on a desk in the park in front of her, then pulled a very large spell book out of a saddlebag. Well, 'basket' of fruit wasn't entirely correct, she hadn't had a basket so instead she'd used a hat. She opened it to page on changing the color of fruit. “Oh! Twilight's going to be so proud when I show her what I learned out on my own!”

“The spell seemed really really simple...”

Sweetie Belle focused hard on the fruit in front of her, magic surging into her horn...but nothing happened. She kept trying, changing position from trying it from the right, then from the left, then by touching her horns to the fruit. She even tried it doing a headstand.

“But it was really, really, really hard!”

The filly kept focusing as hard as she could, pointing her horn right at the bright purple grapes. Sweat drenching her face fur as more and more magic focused into her horn.

“But then...there was a loud bang and...and...”

High above, Derpy reared back, preparing to buck a big thunder cloud to kick the lightning out of it. An innocent act...but not one she would forget the consequences of.

When the thunder roared, Sweetie Belle jumped into the air, her eyes flashing white and green energy beginning to fly wildly in all directions from her horn. One hit the bowl and scrambled the colors. Turning grapes orange, oranges green, pears red, and apples yellow.

Sweetie Belle gave a loud gasp. “I did it! I've got to show Rarit-”

The beams of magic refused to stop. One fired at a nearby filly, turning her into an anthropomorphic lemon. Sweetie's face fell. “Wait, what?! I didn't mean to do that!”

A beam of magic flew upwards, and a few seconds later Derpy landed on the table in front of her, now a pair of cherries, one eye on each and looking in different directions. “Miss Derpy, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-”

The beams just kept firing wildly, by now completely out of the small child's control. “Stop it stupid horn!” she yelled at the part of her own anatomy.

She turned to Diamond and her father and her mother (who looked very much like her, but with a golden tiara Cutie Mark) as they trotted by the park. The resulting beam turned them into a peach, a King Melon, and a cob of corn respectively.

“Hey, what's going on, Sweetie Bell-”

Sweetie Belle gasped as her friends turned into fruit. “I need help...” The panicked foal dumped the fruit out of the hat and picked up her friends in it and a few others into it and put it on her head so she could gallop and headed for help.

But as she ran, her magic kept flying randomly, turning still more ponies into anthropomorphic fruit by the second. “Sweet Celestia what have I done?!”

And her magic just kept going, and going, and going...

By now, Sweetie Belle was sobbing her eyes out. “And the...the worst part is...for a few seconds I actually enjoyed doing that to Diamond Tiara!...Then...then I realized I'd hit her parents too...And then today...today...” the foal hiccuped, Twilight having to get her a tissue for her nose. “That she was just having a day out with her parents until I ruined it...and it sounded like she doesn't get very many of them...” While the filly didn't say it, she knew exactly how that disappointment could feel.

Twilight nodded. “Sometimes even a pony we don't like doesn't deserve everything bad that happens to them...trust me...” she said, recalling a certain azure unicorn that was now her friend.

“But that's just it...she...she didn't deserve it! And...and I didn't want to do it!” Sweetie Belle sobbed. “I...I just wanted to make grapes orange! I didn't want to turn the whole town into fruits and veggies! What...what if I try to use telekinesis and I end up making some tornado thingie?! Or sew a dress and I end up turning everypony into dresses?!”

“Sweetie Belle-”

“Or if I want to use telekinesis to paint a picture and end up turning the whole town into a pretty picture?!”

“Sweetie Belle, please calm down-”

“I know Rarity would probably like both of those better than being cauliflower but I don't want to turn my sister into anything!”

“SWEETIE BELLE! PLEASE CALM DOWN”

The sobbing foal finally stopped and stared at the Alicorn...then needed a paper bag to stop from hyperventilating.

“I...I just...I'm afraid to do anything, Twilight...I just want to go back to using my hooves instead of my horn so I don't have to worry about it...I don't want...I don't want to hurt anypony...Maybe you should just put one of those horn seals on me now...”

To the guilty filly's surprise, Twilight hugged her instead. “Twilight?”

“I don't think that will be necessary, Sweetie Belle.”

“But...but...”

Twilight looked down at her with a sympathetic smile. “Because I didn't need one.”

Sweetie Belle cocked her head in confusion. “I...say what now?”

“Remember my Cutie Mark story?”

Sweetie Belle blinked, thinking back. She then gasped. “Oh...You...this happened to you, didn't it?”

Twilight nodded, looking a little sad herself. “...My parents...may have been a bit terrified of potted plants for awhile...and...when I found out...I told Princess Celestia that I wasn't worthy of being her student...that I didn't deserve a teacher as wonderful and kind as her when I couldn't even avoid harming my own parents...”

Sweetie Belle pinned her ears. “...That sounds a lot like how I feel right now.”

Twilight nodded, but gave a smile. “But I was wrong...”

Sweetie Belle blinked, a few more tears falling. “You were?”

The Alicorn nodded. “Yes...I had a lot of power, but that power wasn't bad in and of itself...I just didn't know how to control it yet.”

“But weren't you scared you might hurt somepony before you did?” Sweetie Belle asked pleadingly.

Twilight nodded. “So were some other ponies, I started to be afraid they were right...but Princess Celestia, Shining Armor, and my parents all made me realize something.”

“...What was that?”

The Alicorn lowered herself down to eye level with her. “Fear isn't logical, it isn't rational...but it isn't is always right...especially when it's a fear coming from only one event and not an average of all events.”

“The average of what?” Sweetie Belle asked, cocking her head.

“Basically, don't judge everything based on one event,” Twilight explained. “Let's do a little thing for your case, okay?”

“Uh...okay I guess...”

Twilight produced a chart with her magic and a quill to go with it. Sweetie Belle didn't question it, it was Princess Twilight Sparkle. “Alright, how many times have we used magic during our meetings?”

“Uh...a lot...”

“And how many times have you used telekinesis to hold your pencil at school?”

“Everyday since I learned it...”

“And how many times have you used it at home to help Rarity with dresses?”

“...A lot...”

“And how many times have you accidentally turned the town into fruit?”

“...Once...but once is enough...”

Twilight finished the chart and showed it. Honestly Twilight's words made more sense to the foal than the chart, but it still got the point across. “So let's see now, ninety nine percent of the time you've used your magic it's gone perfectly fine, only one percent has actually caused any problem.”

Sweetie Belle blinked a bit. “...I guess..But why DID it happen? I...I didn't MEAN for it to!”

The lavender unicorn nodded. “I asked Princess Celestia that too. Do you know how a dam works?”

“Yeah. Cheerilee might have explained it. It keeps water from flooding places, right?”

“Exactly...well, when a unicorn tries really really hard to do a spell without letting the built up mana dissipate, their magic can go a little berserk if they get startled and all that mana gets let loose at once,” Twilight explained. “It doesn't happen every time either. And a unicorn with really high magic potential tends to have...bigger ones. But that part is actually easy to learn.”

Sweetie Belle blinked in confusion, then gave a cry of frustration. “So I did this because I was trying too hard?!”

Twilight gave a sympathetic nod. “That was exactly how I felt...But you're a filly Sweetie Belle, you're still learning. You're going to make mistakes, I did. But learning from those mistakes is always better than just assuming a mistake means we should put ourselves in a jar and never do anything again...If we did that, we'd never be able to grow.”

Twilight put a wing on the foal's back. “And I believe in you, I know you can do it.”

The little filly looked up, tears finally stopping. “...I think I understand...Can you maybe teach me that trick for not getting magic build up?”

Twilight gave the filly a hug which she returned. “Of course I can...”

“...Are you mad at me for turning you into an eggplant?”

“Like I said, I turned my parents into potted plants, I'd be a hypocrite to be upset with you.”

“Thank you...think the others are mad?”

“Of course we aren't!”

Twilight and Sweetie Belle both jumped, turning to see Applebloom and Scootaloo behind them. “Girls! I told you to give us privacy!”

Scootaloo gave a serious look. “Would that have stopped you?”

“...Touche...But where's Spike?!”

Applebloom looked sheepish. “Well...we kinda owe 'em an apology for that...”

Spike grumbled, hanging upside from a mutated potted plant Applebloom had made with a potion. “Their sisters are going to hear about this...”

“But that ain't important!” Applebloom exclaimed. She then galloped up and hugged Sweetie Belle. “Sweetie Belle, yer our friend! Ain't nothin' gonna change that!”

Scootaloo joined the group hug. “Yeah, you're a Cutie Mark Crusader, no way we're turning on you.”

Sweetie Belle teared up and returned the hug. “Thanks girls...”

The lavender Alicorn watched with a smile. “Alright my little ponies...are you ready to get back to your lessons?...Sweetie Belle has a brand new one.”

The three nodded in agreement.

“GIRLS!” interrupted Spike's voice from down the hall.

“Uh...we'll be right back...” Applebloom interjected, she and Scootaloo rushing off.

“Okay, I think I need to talk to their sisters...er, sister and sister figure. I wonder what happened to that first vine...” Twilight questioned.

“Oh not again,” Celestia muttered, finding the vines Spike had dragonmailed attempting to cocoon her. She promptly flared up a flame around her, burning them to a cinder. She then sat down and politely went back to her now somewhat hotter coffee and talking to a very shocked griffon ambassador. “Now where were we?”

“Anyway, should we begin your lesson while they're gone?” Twilight asked, turning back to the filly.

“That sounds good...thank you, Twilight,” Sweetie Belle said with a smile.

“I'm just glad I can be a good teacher,” Twilight replied, giving a nostalgic smile.

“Alright, how many times have you used magic during our lessons?” Princess Celestia asked, using some of Twilight's crayons to draw a table.

“Everytime...” the filly replied.

“And helping your parents with things?”

“A lot...”

“And to take notes?”

“...Everyday since I learned it...”

“And how many times have you turned your parents into plants?”

“...Once...”

Celestia showed her the table. “So let's see now, ninety nine percent of the time you've used your magic have gone perfectly fine, only one percent has actually caused any problem....”

“...I learned from the best. Alright, now the first lesson is to listen to your heart...”

“Aww, that sounds sweet.”

“Well technically you use it as a timer for the mana...”

“Oh...”

Sweetie Belle looked over at the chair. Without saying another word, a green aura formed around it and pulled it over so she could sit down in it and learn.

Dear Diary...oops, I mean Friendship Journal!

I made a big mistake...I felt really really really bad for it...ponies I cared about got hurt and I thought I wasn't safe to be around anymore...that if I tried to do anything, somepony would get hurt...I was so afraid. But Twilight, Applebloom, Scootaloo, and (when I finally let her know) Rarity helped me realize I was being a silly filly. I was 'basing the average on one event' like Twilight said...I had no reason to be afraid. And you know what? I'd rather be a filly learning new things than a scared pony afraid to move. I'm not afraid anymore...I'm just curious to learn more. Who knows, maybe some day I'll be an Alicorn Princess! They do say you can be anything you want when you grow up, right?

Love Sweetie Belle.