A Filly's Guide to Beginning Magic

by Lexicon_Spark

Rating: everyone
Tags: Random, Diamond Tiara, Sweetie Belle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Silver Spoon
Length: 2616

Sweetie Belle discovers a book on magic. Adventure will probably ensue.

Sweetie Belle gets mildly peeved at Diamond Tiara, and decides to try learning magic from a book.
This may eventually contain adventure.
Notes:
A bit of Silver Belle shipping, but not as the main premise
Not canon to anything past before the S4 ending. So no giant crystal castle, and no CMC cutie marks (yet).

Published 2017-05-09 02:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-05-11 02:48:10 UTC

One

Sweetie woke up. And then tried not to have, attempting in vain to return to her slumber. Failing this, she threw her hoof and whacked her alarm clock heavily. Having successfully disabled the infernal device, she began stumbling towards the door, and managed to make it without falling. She trotted downstairs to the Boutique's kitchen, where she smelled waffles. Far superior to pancakes. Her tired mind drawn by the smell, she slid into the kitchen, with the sound of “Waffleeees….” slowly and quietly flowing from her lips. She then saw a note from her big sister. You can always tell if something is from Rarity when it is written in the most elegant and flowing cursive.

The note read,
“Darling, I shall be in Canterlot this weekend due to a surprise coming up. I left some waffles on, though! Ta-ta, Sweetie!”

This added some freedom to what would have been a normal day.

Having feasted on a hefty sum of waffles, Sweetie wondered what would become of her day. She hadn’t this much freedom often, so she planned to take full advantage of it by doing…. uhhh….something she’d figure out trotting around! Yeah! Taking the initiative, she slid out the door.
As she be trotting, she saw her archenemy(and took a moment to attempt to muffle the brief sqeee upon seeing her archenemy's companion- she only mostly succeeded). Upon sighting her would-be assailant, she began a halfhearted and doomed maneuver to avoid Tiara. The despot of her nightmares intercepted her, as was inevitable. If she only had some advantage…

Tiara began her tirade, but by now Sweetie just had a very blank look on her face. In fact, though she was drowning out most of Tiara’s comments, she heard a few about her face being as blank as her flank, etc. However, none of this mattered, as Sweetie’s mind had stopped working. She was too busy daydreaming about one who seemed ever divided from her by bonds of friendship and bonds of family, bonds of class, bonds of etiquette, bonds of culture.

Then Tiara seemed to finish at some point (she had lost track of time long ago), and quickly kicked Sweetie over to the side and left with her companion. Sweetie’s mind shortly returned to the land of the conscious, and so she trotted on as she regained control of her faculties. Having come back into full possession of her conscious, she realized that she was in front of the library. That’s it!, her mind seemed to shout, Magic! I could learn magic!.. But Twilight is probably busy, and I don’t wanna wait on this, sooo… Book! I can book! She slid into the library, and with the skill of a Cutie Mark Crusaders Spies (Yay!), she entered stealthily. Searching for the magic section, she found it, and picked a book at random from what looked like the ‘How-to’ books shelf.

It was A Filly's Guide to Beginning Magic, which seemed promising enough, so she slid over to the underneath of the table and began to peruse the book. Leafing to the first page, she read the first chapter.

Welcome to a Filly’s Guide to Beginning Magic! This book will assist you in casting magic with just barely enough understanding of the mechanics!

I like this book, she thought.
Continuing the book,

Chapter 1: Telekinesis
Section 1: Basic Telekinesis
Okay, so first of, telekinesis means moving things. With your horn. Without touching them. Ok? I’ll assume you can understand that. Now, you do the most basic form of this, lifting an object, by imaging a box. Imagine a box that is just slightly larger than the object you are attempting to lift, and roughly the same shape. If you do this correctly, the object should start to glow. You should be able to feel it. Now, try to move it. It’s that simple. Ok?
If that didn’t work, do a horn test. Make sure it works, and make sure you have one.

Sweetie attempted to use these instructions, managing to just barely lift a pen. Wooo! I can magic!, she giggled(very stealthily).

Section 2: Liquid Telekinesis
Same thing as chapter 1, but with a bucket shape instead of a box shape. Why am I even writing this as a second chapter?

I’ll not try this one for now, Sweetie decided, ‘cause Twilight will go insane if I spill anything on a book.

Chapter 2: Elemental Magics
WARNING: FOR THE SAFETY OF EVERYPONY, PLEASE TRY THESE OUTSIDE!
Section 1: Lightning
Imagine a bolt of lightning hitting whatever you plan on striking. By the way, this does take quite a bit out of you on the first try.

Sweetie slid outside of the library, heeding the book’s warning, and set a small piece of plastic on a street with nopony on it. She then imagined a bolt of lightning striking the piece of plastic. She then proceeded to zonk out.

Sweetie opened her eyes, blearily. Looking about, she saw a melted piece of plastic on the road. The sun was also now about 30° further along its course. She then proceeded to look back at the book for the next type, without skipping a beat.

Section 2: Fire
No. Just no. I’m not teaching random fillies fire magic. This is not a thing I will do. MOVE ON!
Section 3: Water
Imagine the energy inside of you. Now, imagine that energy is now an ice cube. Now imagine it melting.

Sweetie did so, and as she imagined the ice cube melting, she began to feel water drops in her telekinesis. She also realized how tired she was becoming, and how much this was draining her reserves of power. She promptly slid home and walked upstairs. Setting her infernal alarm clock, she cuddled up and began to zonk out; this time, now actually intending to. She needed to replenish her reserves for her next day, which shalt be another, exciting day of Sweetie Belle attempting magic!

Author's Note

First chapter of first story! Also, please, any comments anyone makes would be awesome, 'cause even he people who hate this can help it improve, and help me improve as a writer.

Two

Sweetie Belle woke up again. And then tried not to again. And most of what had happened yesterday morning happened again. She eventually found her way out of the building of the Boutique, and suddenly remembered that she needed to grab something! Dashing inside at the speed of Dashie, she darted in and seized the book on magic. As she trotted outside for the second time, book carefully in her saddlebags, Tiara was nowhere to be seen. Probably a good thing, seeing as it is illegal to use lightning magic on another pony. She tucked the lightning spell to the back of her mind, and decided to attempt to douse Tiara in water.

As she was trotting around, she attempted to figure out what to do today, other than learn from the book, of course. Well, the other Crusaders are in Manehattan this weekend to visit Babs, so maybe just trot to an open field and test out magics?
However, her train of thought stopped. She had sighted Tiara and her companion. And this... was perfect!

Imagining an ice cube directly over top of Tiara's head melting swiftly, she quickly began to feel tired as her low amount of reserves were drained. She had forgotten to eat! Well, anyways, Tiara suddenly made a swift yelping noise which briefly roused her from her stupor. Revenge was sweet. However, her task wasn't done; she had something else to test. She imagined many buckets, flinging the water off of Tiara, and soaking all of her surroundings! Slipping and sliding, Sweetie managed to dart back into the Boutique to recover and eat waffles. And also to zonk out.

After having had a brief zonkage, she grabbed some cold waffles from yesterday’s breakfast, and ate quite a few.
Sweetie then exited the building,and looked around. Having found nothing to do, she cantered over to an empty lot on the edge of Ponyville to attempt some more magic, now that her reserves were back up. Opening the book, Sweetie turned to the next section.
Section 4: Air
Everyone wants to blow hot air, right? So this can let you do that. Well, room temperature air. But eventually we’ll get to temperature. Anyways, imagine blowing air. It’s pretty much just that simple.

Sweetie attempted to expel gas from her horn. She succeeded in expelling gas. Just not from her horn. Trying again, she managed to cause a brief breeze to flow from her horn. She quickly grew bored of this, though, so she decide to go have some fun with these newfound spells of hers.

“Ahhhhh! Confoundeth theis vind!” was the noise that she had managed to procure from the first victim of her antics. One Bon Bon, sitting on a bench, was currently being shoved with breezes from random directions, while a small filly hidden in the leaves of a tree’s horn glowed. She stopped, “Yes, fvinally a moment Fvree fvrom these vinds or torment!”, growing bored of this one and moving on to the next occupant of this section of the park.

As the Sweetie nestled into the bush, her horn began to glow as she caused a drop of water to fall on some green pony wearing a hoodie, who she’d never seen before. Then another drop. Then two more. Then a brief “I didn’t think it was going to rain today!” from the green pony as she cantered away.

Needing to find a second victim, Sweetie went over to another section of the park and climbed to lie in wait. She then spotted the window of Noteworthy’s house, and used telekinesis to carefully untune his piano. She had learned this skill when she had needed to get out of Rarity’s piano lessons.

Tired of being evil for the day, Sweetie began to return to the Boutique. On her way, she saw the train station, and got up on the platform to wait for Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. After waiting for a moderate time, when she was just starting to become bored, she heard the whistling of the train pulling in. Getting up, she called to the train, “How was Cutie Mark Crusaders: Travelers(yay!)?”

After the train had braked to a stop, the other Crusaders bounded off and ran over to Sweetie, who promptly hugged them both. “Me n’ Scoots had a ton o’ fun over at Babs place, Sweetie, but Ah sure am glad to be home.”
“Me too!”, said a very energetic Scootaloo.
“Ye had t’ve had some fun while we were gone, so ye HEV to tell us!”
“Yeah, tell us!”, echoed Scootaloo.

Now at their secret hideout near the brink of the Everfree, hidden in a bush, they began to discuss what Sweetie had been up to, seeing as on the walk there Scoots had non-stop been talking about their time with Babs.

“Rarity had to go to Canterlot because some surprise or something came up,” (“Wooo, surprises!”, Scootaloo interjected), “So I got a bit more freedom than usual this weekend. I decide to try learning some magic,” (an “Oooooh!” from Scoots), “And I learned some telekinesis and a bit of watery-airy-lightningy stuff!”
“Awesome!”, came from Scoots, and a “Wow, Sweetie Belle!” from Apple Bloom. The conversation carried on for a bit, then turning to how late it was, and the fact that they had a test tomorrow in Cherilee’s class. “We’d better return home, Crusaders! Rarity should be back by now, and I don’t want to get in trouble with her!” Nods of assent from Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

Having returned to the Boutique and opening the door, light shone out in a beam of brilliance. Sweetie was then, almost instantaneously, scooped up into a giant hug. “Darling, I hope you still managed to have fun without me this weekend! I’m so sorry for being gone to Canterlot, deary!”
Monologuing of this vein continued for what felt like a half hour before she let her down, “Now, Sweetie, you have to go to bed! There’s a test tomorrowww~”

Sweetie then proceeded to spend the next three hours in the darkness of her room figuring out how to write with her telekinesis. Sure, pens tasted ok, but she wanted to impress her friends by using it on the test tomorrow.

Then she slept.

Author's Note

Sorry for dodging all the Scoots dialogue. I have no clue how to write Scootaloo.

Three

The sun rose upon Sweetie Belle, shining in all its fiery brilliance down upon her face. "Uhhhng." was the noise that proceeded to slip from between the filly's lips. Aaand the alarm clock suddenly flashed on, ringing in its annoying way only alarm clocks could ever manage. Attempting to use her telekinesis, Sweetie Belle tried to make a box around the thing, and then decreased the height. It didn't work, though, for when she attempted it she couldn't decrease the height of the box to occupy the same space as the object. Huh.

Finally swinging a hoof over to shut the alarm clock off, which had been blaring this whole time, Sweetie got to her hooves and the school morning routine started! (This was a fancy way of just saying that she was going to go brush her teeth and eat.)

Having brushed her teeth, Sweetie Belle then ate a few waffles while Rarity monologued her normal morning monologue, then with a “See you after school, Rarity!” Sweetie was off. Beginning her way to school, she saw Scoots waiting at the corner of one of the streets on her route, and so they joined in the walking and did that weird synchronized walking thing. To school.

Idly chatting about the weather and saving the important stuff for when they joined Apple Bloom, they neared the road to Sweet Apple Acres and saw just that aforementioned pony.
“Apple Bloom!”, they chorused over to their fellow Crusader. “Hey, y’all!”, which was the standard response, echoed back from Apple Bloom. The trip to school after that consisted of ideas for what the Crusaders should try next, such as “Dragon riding!”-Scoots, “Wilderness survival?”-Apple Bloom, “Magic crystal finding?”-Sweetie Belle. Eventually they decided to…. decide after school.

Finally turning the corner to approach Cherilee’s school, the bell rang out just as the three of them slid inside. This didn’t work as well as it sounds, though, for they all actually slid in, at the same time. There were a few “UHNG!”ing noises and other such sounds, but that was not important at the moment, for as they quickly got up and dashed to their seats, Cherilee began to hand out the tests for this unit, on the history of Gryphguo, and an emperor whose name sounded like “Cheese Sheet Juan-g”. Sweetie attempted and just barely began to succeed in what she practiced last night; writing in telekinesis. She gained a few looks and stares from this, but continued to just casually take the test. Finishing first, and feeling pretty good about her knowledge of basic Gryphguo history, she turned in the test. By hoof, though, because she was pretty tired, and her magic reserves were beginning to run low after such precise telekinesis for an extended period of time. Well, not beginning. More like almost empty. She decided that she’d go to bed a little earlier tonight, so as to not fall over on her face due to being tired while Crusading.

Author's Note

Sorry about the shorter chapter,
I didn't have much time today.