A Tale of Something New

I feel like the ground is quickly becoming my friend. This is the fifth time Starlight has made me land on it. "It's not break time yet," she scolds, "get up, so we can try again." I do so. As we begin our magic lesson again, I try to dodge her magical blasts again, and again. Her attacks get fiercer each time she fires, but I at least seem to be doing well dodging. That is until a one hits me from the side, and I find that the ground introduced itself to my face again. "I've told you plenty of times, keep yourself aware of your surroundings. Your enemies won't play fair and will try to attack you from the sides."

"Teacher, with all due respect, how often am I going to face a single enemy who is skilled enough to attack me from multiple sides?" I ask as I thank the ground for breaking my fall.

"If this, Comet Blaze, is any indication, then I'd say pretty often. Don't forget, if he said that he was an 'Apprentice Arch Mage', then it's safe to say that he has a master who is guaranteed to be much better at magic than him. Also..." Her voice suddenly trails off as she looks in the other direction to reveal Princess Twilight coming out from behind a tree. "Who ever said you would only be fighting one opponent? The point of the lesson is for you to be aware of everything around you. You never know what your opponent will be planning and Azurinne can't be there for you all the time." I must have hung my head down, because I'm suddenly looking at the ground. At least it's not a close encounter like the previous six times.

"I really do have a long way to go," I see a shadow come in front of where I'm staring and I look up to see Starlight smiling at me.

"Yes, you do, but I said that I'd teach you. If it takes years for you to get it, then that's how long it'll take. Now, if you can show me that you've improved on your magic control by the end of next month, then we'll all take a trip to the Crystal Empire." I can feel myself perk up at hearing that. "For now, our training today has ended. I'll see you tomorrow. Say hello to Sugar Belle for us."

"I will, Teacher. See you tomorrow, and I hope you have a good evening," I then turn to the princess, "Have a good evening, Princess Twilight." As I'm leaving, I shout out, "Azurinne, we're heading home now!"

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"Sugar Belle, Azurinne and I are home!" I shout as we enter the house. She comes out of the kitchen with a sad look on her face. I promptly face-hoof. It's already been a full month since she adopted me, and she moved to Ponyville so I could continue my magic lessons with Starlight, and I still slip, forgetting to call her 'Mom'. "Sorry, Mom, please don't look at me like that. I know you're trying. I'm just having a hard time adjusting. Please don't be sad? How was your day at Sugar Cube Corner?" She sighs and then smiles at faintly.

"I know, Mini Me, I know," we both giggle a bit. "Work was fun, the Cakes and Pinkie Pie are always fun to work with. Pinkie says, 'hi' by the way," I squee at that. "Honestly, how is it that mare managed to catch your attention so well? You don't even see Princess Twilight in the same light that you see Pinkie." As she asks that I trot over to the couch only for her to catch me in her magic. "Oh no you don't little filly," she quickly says as I just about land on the couch, "you gallop right up those stairs and take a bath before you get any furniture dirty." She then sets me down. I'd complain, but I've already seen more than enough of her sad face today. I follow her instructions and go up the stairs. Our new house isn't too large, but it is bigger than our old one. Still one bathroom on the second floor, but it has two rooms upstairs, and both the living room and kitchen downstairs are separated. The walls are a really nice shade of white and they complement the pink carpet very well. All in all, I really like it.

As I exit the shower and dry myself, I can hear Sugar Belle shouting from below, "Dinner's ready, Mini Me!"

"Understood, Mom! I'll be there in a moment!" to which I decide to teleport myself to the kitchen. The kitchen wasn't very special, but it is really pretty. Hard wood floors, cupboards, cabinets, chairs, and a table. All natural in color and set to a white walled background. The table is a decent size, and there are enough chairs for at least ten ponies. Other than that, it has the basics: oven and stove, sink, and a refrigerator. The smell of her sweet vegetable stew made my mouth want to water the moment I reach the kitchen. "Mom, that smells great."

"Thank you, did you wash behind your ears?" I nod reaching my normal chair which was just to the right of Sugar Belle's. "What about using conditioner?" I nod again as she puts the food on the table in front of us. "And you cleaned your mess before you thought to teleport down here?" I was about to nod my head again, but stopped myself and stared for a second. Seeing as how that was what I forgot to do, I teleport to clean up my mess and teleport back to give her a squee. "Good, dig in." We begin to eat. "How was school today?"

"Fun," I respond, "we're getting ready for a play and I was put in charge of stage effects alongside Pipsqueak and Apple Bloom."

"That's nice," she said with a frown.

"Mom," I return her frown, "I tried out for every roll. I'm just bad at acting. We can't all be like Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, or Sweetie Belle. Besides, I like working backstage." She giggles. I smile before tasting more of the stew. The combination of spices mixed in with the carrots, cabbage, squash, and other vegetables is like heaven in my mouth. Way better than when Mom used to make it.

"How are your magic lessons coming along?" She asks. I want to say I was trying to smile, but the frown on her face is all the evidence I need to know I failed.

"To be honest, I don't know," I finally admit. "All teacher has me do is either practice basic magic, spells I've already learned, or how to dodge attacks." I'm pretty sure my frustration is starting to show, but I continue on. "Although, I admit I had never learned some of the basics before, or tried to study how some of the spells I have really work, and more often than not, I was becoming intimate with the ground..." My voice trails off before I shake my head. "But it's still frustrating!" I turn to Sugar Belle, "How am I supposed to get strong enough to save Mom and Dad when all I'm doing is practicing the same old things over and over again?" She smiles. Darn it, she's about to say something that makes sense, and completely drops my argument. How are moms so good at doing that?

"Who are you and what did you do with Cherry Blossom?" She asks. This, of course, leaves me completely speechless. "My Cherry Blossom is smart enough to be able to tell why Starlight has this lesson plan for her. She's patient enough to be able to think about it clearly, and stubborn enough to not complain when the lessons aren't progressing how she wants them to." I gave her a small angry frown, but she continued with a bemused face. "She's tough, brave, sweet, and loyal to a tee. She's smart, passionate, well versed, and can think very quickly. So I ask again, where's my Cherry Blossom?"

"I'm right here, Mom," I respond. At this point, I'm smiling. I go over and give her a hug. "Thanks for that. It doesn't really help to complain, does it?" I look up and see her shaking her head slightly. "How are moms so good at telling us foals what we need to hear?" I let go, and grab my now empty bowl. After washing and putting it away, I leave the kitchen, but not before turning to Sugar Belle, "Thanks, Mom, it was delicious."

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Sugar Belle had recently done many things that she wouldn't have ever thought she'd be able to do. She moved to a new home, she found a job working under some pony, and she adopted a little filly. Albeit, this was no ordinary filly. She was created by some pony else, and was almost discarded because she wasn't 'perfect'. "Who honestly judges a pony's worth at birth?" She thought as she sat at the table alone. "Were they hoping to make an alicorn or something? Cherry Blossom is an amazing filly, and she'll be a wonderful mare when she grows up. I'm just glad to be a part of it, even if that part is only needed until she's reunited with her parents." As she finished, tears ran down her face, but to any on lookers, they would have first seen the great big smile plastered on it.

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"Hey, Starlight, how's the research coming?" Spike asked while holding a plate of milk and cookies for Starlight. She lifted the burdening snacks from Spike's possession, and gently placed it to her side as she chuckled.

"It's not research, Spike. I'm just double-checking Cherry Blossom's performance," she corrected. "And if you must know, then she's doing wonderfully," she said with a smile overlooking the data from today's training. "Especially considering where she started from just a month ago."

"You mean her 'Magic Stiffness'?" asked a new voice from the door, Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship.

"Yeah, I mean I've heard of it, but never thought I'd see a case of it."

"Well what do you expect? She's a unicorn raised by earth ponies in a town full of nothing but earth ponies. The fact that her magic wasn't mentally suppressed is a miracle in that of itself."

"Would you two please explain what any of this means?" Spike asked cutting the conversation in the middle.

"Well, Spike," Twilight said, "Magical Stiffness is a condition usually seen in ponies who don't use their natural magic often, or for some reason don't know how to use it. It creates a door in the patient's mind that limits how much magic they use. Cherry Blossom probably developed it, because as we said earlier, she was raised entirely by earth ponies. It's not uncommon to think that they wouldn't have the necessary information needed to raise a unicorn properly, much less one as gifted as Cherry Blossom."

"So... she has a defective horn?"

"No, Spike, what's wrong with her is that she thinks she has less magic than she actually has."

"Oh... why not just show her she has more magic?"

"It doesn't work that way," Starlight cut in, "in fact, if we show her that she has more magic, we might hurt her more." Spike gave Starlight a confused look as she tried to explain the situation to him. "Think of it this way, say you were a pegasus and you couldn't fly. No matter how hard you worked, it just wouldn't happen. Then someone finally comes and looks at you only to tell you that you're fine and it's all in your head. How would you feel?"

"I'd feel pretty bad, actually. Like I was just some worthless... oh... I get it," he said reaching his conclusion. "Is that why neither of you want to tell that to Scootaloo?" Twilight and Starlight nod together. "Aha! So you did know what was wrong with her! And what was wrong was... nothing?" They nod again. "And it's the same for Cherry Blossom?" They nod one last time. "So how do you help a pony if you can't tell them their fine?"

"You can tell them their fine, though," Twilight said much to Spike's confusion. "You can encourage them to never give up, or make a training schedule completely designed to show them that nothing's wrong with them." She then points to all the data Starlight was reviewing. If one were to look closely, they would have sworn a light bulb suddenly appeared above the little dragon's head. "That's right, Starlight's training isn't meant to make her stronger. It's meant to show her that she's already strong. It also doubles to drill the basics into her, so that she can fall back on them if all else fails."

"What about Scootaloo?" He asks.

"Rainbow Dash is working on that," Starlight commented, "from what I've seen the training is coming along pretty nicely. I saw her hover above the ground for almost two minutes." She then took note of the time. "I think it's time for all of us to go to bed. Thanks for the meal, Spike, I'll take care of the dishes."