Author's Note
Hi everyone! I had a really fun time writing this! I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it! Enjoy!
Practice Makes Perfect
Sunset Shimmer concentrated very hard on the thick hard cover novel, Predictions and Prophecies, that was sitting on the beautiful oak table. Come on, book. Rise already! Please, rise? For me? No matter how hard she concentrated, no matter how hard she wished, Sunset could never seem to get this right. The little filly stared at the book, her eyes squinted and her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth in concentration. Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!, she thought to herself, you can do this, Sunset Shimmer. You are a unicorn. You were born to do magic, right? That is correct.
Suddenly, an aquamarine spark dropped from the tip of her horn and landed on the book. Was this when she would get her cutie mark? She hoped so. She had been waiting so long for this moment! Sunset stared in awe as the spark lengthened into an aura that then surrounded the book. She gasped. The aura fizzed, growing brighter with every second. The book rose, rose, rose, before crashing back down onto the table.
Sunset frowned in frustration. "I will never get this right, no matter how hard I try to!" She stared at the book. "Why can't you just do what I want you to do for once?" All of a sudden, the aquamarine aura surrounded the book once more before the book burst into ashes. Sunset scowled. Are you kidding me? Sunset went to her room, more frustrated than ever before. She wished that a hole would just open up in the centre of her room and swallow her up, her attempted magic never to be thought of or talked about by any pony ever again.
She sighed and lay down on her bed, pondering about what could've possibly went wrong with a simple levitation spell such as the one she had been trying to perform with the book. I think I did everything properly... The yellow-orange filly shook her head. Just thinking isn't good enough, you silly filly! You need to know! I'll never get into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns if I can't even to a simple, first-level levitation spell! What good is a unicorn who can't even make something as simple as a book levitate? No good, no good at all.
She heard her mother, Stellar Flare, enter the house, her hooves clip clopping on the shiny wood floor. Sunset then heard her mother's hooves come up the stairs to her room. She then knocked on the door very lightly with her hoof. "Sunset dear? Are you in there?" Sunset got up off of her bed and trotted toward the door to meet her mother.
"HI, mom! How was work today?" Sunset Shimmer's mother was a chairpony on the Sire's Hollow Town Council.
"It was great, dear. How was your day? What did you do today? Also, where is your father at the moment, dear?" Sunset Shimmer had to think for a moment, her hoof to her chin, to try and remember where her father was, then replied to her mother.
"My day was... great. I tried to practice some spells today, mom. They didn't work out quite so good though," Sunset finished, weeping. Stellar Flare put a hoof under her daughter's chin and lifted her head up from the pit of her wallowing.
"What spells did you practice, Sunset?" Sunset Shimmer couldn't tell if her mother was concerned for her or not. Sunset answered her mother, despite her confusion of her mother's tone.
"Just some simple levitation spells that I... failed at." Sunset Shimmer looked down at her small yellow-orange hooves. Sunset's mother took her face in her hoof again.
"No, no, my filly. You didn't fail. You just need more practice, that is all, dear." Sunset Shimmer hugged her mother.
"Than you mom," she whispered.
"No problem, filly." Her mother broke away from the calming embrace quite quickly. She trotted around the small room. "Sunset, where is your father?" The filly had forgotten to tell her mother where her father was, and now she didn't remember where he was.
Where is my father? I know he told me earlier where he was going to be today, I just don't remember where it was that he said he was going to be. Then the small yellow filly remembered where her father had told her he was going to be today.
"He's in the basement, I think."
"Okay. Thank you filly." Her mother exited the room and turned around to say one last thing. "Practice makes perfect." Stellar Flare smiled at her daughter then exited the bedroom.
Sunset Shimmer could hear her mother trotting down the stairs to the main floor, and then the ones that led into the basement cellar. I wonder why she is so desperate to talk to Daddy. The foal shrugged it off, concluding that she was just going to see what her husband was doing. Stellar Flare's words rang in young Sunset Shimmer's ears, hurting them and feeling as if they were scorching her brain. Practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect. Her mother's words echoed loudly through her mind. It was so distracting that the young filly had to shake her head to clear it. Mother is right. I need to practice and study every day if I want to be good enough to get into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Sunset Shimmer walked over to her bookshelf getting her book called Principles of Magic. I will practice and study! I will study more than anypony has ever studied in the history of Equestria! The filly kept her word. Sunset Shimmer studied. She studied in the morning before breakfast. She studied during breakfast. The young filly studied all day, filling her day hours with many pages, words, and spells. She wanted to memorize every single spell in her book. She wanted to memorize all the spells in Equestria! She would be the most talented unicorn that Equestria had ever seen!
Sunset had kept her promise to herself and had been practicing magic for quite a while. She had mastered the teleportation spell and had moved on to spells that most unicorns her age could not perform successfully such as teleportation with both herself and objects, conjuration, and even growth manipulation when the barber pony had accidentally cut of more of her mane than he was supposed to. She had expected to get her cutie mark in magic, but every time she completed a magical task, the outcome was the same: a bare yellow orange flank with no signs of a cutie mark.
Sunset Shimmer was a quick learner and when you mix a young filly, magic, and determination it can sometimes end up badly but in Sunset Shimmer's early life, that was clearly not the case. Sunset Shimmer was a very talented young unicorn who was determined to excel at magic, but that was not really possible in a tiny cottage that was in a tiny village in an almost forgotten corner of Equestria.
She believed that she was almost ready to apply to become a student at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Almost. Sunset Shimmer still thought that she needed to perform a spell that was much more difficult that she was used to. She was not yet sure what difficult spell it was that she wanted to perform. After a few days of searching through a book called Advanced Spells for Gifted Unicorns she finally chose the spell. The clone spell.
The young filly had never attempted a spell that required speaking. What if I forget the words? What if I say the words wrong? What if I say them backwards... or even in the wrong order? What if I make all of Sire's Hollow turn to dust? Sunset Shimmer was intensely worried now. What if she cloned the whole of Sire's Hollow? Sunset shook her head to clear it of the horrible thoughts of not doing the spell properly. You can do this Sunset. She took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to clear her airway so that she could say the words to the spell clearly and loudly.
Sunset Shimmer glanced at the spell for one last time, scanning over the spell's dialogue, making sure to have every single letter of each word memorized; she made sure that she knew where every single one of the commas and periods were. When Sunset Shimmer was absolutely certain that she had every character of the spell memorized, she drew herself up and spoke the words loud and well. "Let Sunset Shimmer be where she wants. Not in one place, but two at once." Nothing happened so Sunset repeated the spell. "Let Sunset Shimmer be where she wants. Not in one place, but two at once. Let Sunset Shimmer be where she wants. Not in one place, but two at once. Let Sunset Shimmer be where she wants. Not in one place, but two at once!" Chanting the spell multiple times must have helped Sunset Shimmer because an shimmering aquamarine magical aura surrounded her whole body, lifting the small, young filly off of the ground. Sunset Shimmer looked out the window at the sun setting over Sire's Hollow, casting red and orange rays of dusk light onto the small Equestrian town. The image calmed her until the whole world went black.
Sunset Shimmer must have fainted due to the power of the spell, because after performing it she had thumped to the ground, unconscious. At last she was finally coming to, her cyan eyes fluttering open slowly. Sunset Shimmer rubbed her head. There was a large bump on her forehead where she must have hit her head on the floor when she fell. An orange yellow hoof had been extended toward her to help her up.
Sunset Shimmer looked up, expecting to see her father who must have heard her head bang on the floor when she fell and rushed up to help her, but instead she saw a juvenile female unicorn pony with yellow orange fur and a mane that consisted of strands golden and crimson hair. The pony had brilliant opal eyes, much like hers.
Sunset took the pony's hoof willingly, still rubbing her head. Sunset blinked and looked at the strange pony again. This filly seemed oddly familiar for some reason that Sunset Shimmer couldn't quite put her hoof on. Sunset Shimmer trotted to the mirror that was in the hallway and looked at the large bump on her head. Whilst examining the bump on her forehead, the mysterious pony had crept up behind Sunset Shimmer, her face showing in the mirror beside Sunset's. Sunset Shimmer's eyes widened with realization.
The mysterious pony was none other that a clone of Sunset Shimmer herself! Sunset looked at her clone. The filly looked exactly like her, except for one small difference; the clone, for some reason, had a shimmering red and yellow sun, that was not unlike Celestia's, on her flank. Sunset Shimmer's eyes widened even more as she realized what this meant. Sunset Shimmer cautiously glanced down at her flank, half expecting not to see anything there except her yellow orange fur. There it was, her very own cutie mark! She hopped around with glee and her clone did the same. Sunset was overcome with happiness. She had successfully performed her most difficult spell so far and had gotten her cutie mark out of it! This had to be the best day in her short life. She couldn't wait for what was to come in the future.
Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed the second chapter. More to come soon!
