(Un)Skilled

Incognito sat in a chair, squirming uncomfortably under the gaze of his mother. She tapped her hoof against the ground softly as she looked him up and down, seeming slightly concerned. “‘Nito, son, please. I’m not angry, I’m just concerned. Could you please tell me what happened?”

His mother’s tone was firm but held a hint of pleading to it, her worry quite apparent. After all, it wasn’t every day you came home to your foal sporting a brand new curse. The disapproval of the system was no light matter after all.

The colt gave a small sigh and rubbed at his head slowly, eyes closed. He had been dreading this all through dinner, and she had decided to strike right before bed of all times, the awful luck of it!

“The filly I was playing with. She was…she was getting bullied, and I thought about stopping it, but I…I decided it wasn’t worth getting involved and tried to walk away. I felt really bad about it but the filly that was bullying her looked like she was pretty mean, and I didn’t want to risk it. But then…”

He groaned softly as he remembered it, the recollection causing his ears to redden slightly with shame. “I got the notification, and I couldn’t move. I was…so upset with the situation. W-with myself, I felt like such a loser, like I-I…” His breath hitched a bit as he brought a hoof to his mouth, biting it lightly.

His mother clicked her tongue softly and reached up to gently stroke his mane. “Hey now, it’s okay. Just take a breath and keep going when you’re ready.”

He took a moment to collect himself and continued once he had regained his footing mentally. “My reaction to the notification got me noticed anyway, and she hid behind me. The filly who was bothering her decided that she didn’t want to bother and left, and I felt really bad, so I decided to hang out with her and try to help her cheer up. She…she told me I’m her best friend, her only friend.” he said softly as his hoof slid down to grip at the edge of the chair now instead. “I didn’t want to say no, but it made me feel guilty. I don’t deserve to be her friend…”

“And what exactly makes you say that?” Slipcase said a bit more firmly, tilting her head a bit as she looked down at her son.

“W-well, I let her get hit and didn’t do anything about it.”

“Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean that the kindness you showed her or your concern for her was any less genuine, right?” She said gently, her tone softening a bit as she tried to reassure her son. “Here, let’s try to look at this analytically. What is the purpose of a curse.”

Incognito took a few deep breaths and thought, he always did feel a bit calmer when he was thinking things through and was happy to go along with it. “A curse is the system’s way of indicating disapproval.”

His mother nodded, giving him a little smile. “That’s right. Now, the system disapproved of how you handled the situation initially. That’s how you got that curse. But what you did after that was the right thing to do. You made sure she was okay and made sure she knew she wasn’t alone. You could have doubled down and just left the poor thing to find for herself to stay uninvolved, but you immediately took the first available chance to try to correct your mistake.”

Incognito nodded at this, rubbing at his chin with his hoof, the other still squeezing at the edge of the chair. “I mean, I guess, but it was still wrong of me to not do anything, or else I wouldn’t have gotten a curse.”

“About that. I think the way the condition on your curse was worded was very interesting.” Slipcase said, leaning in a bit. ”‘Allow your fear of suffering to overshadow your resolve to act when presented with an innocent in danger’, now what does that tell you, ‘Nito?“

“I..hmm…” he scratched at his head now, going a bit deeper into thought. “I wanted to act, but decided not to because I didn’t want to get hurt?”

“That’s right! It’s not that you didn’t want to help her, you were just too scared,” She said, stamping a hoof on the floor firmly. “So the best way to help you get past this is to make you less scared.”

“That…that makes a lot of sense actually,” he said, seeming a bit more upbeat now that a solution was beginning to peek its head out from the clouds of uncertainty. He faltered for a moment and gave a little frown, however. “But how are we going to do that?”

“Well, you know how you’ve been really working hard lately on learning how to use your magic?” she asked, smiling a bit wider as she spoke.

This certainly got his attention, he smiled again, his ears perking up and pointing alertly forward as he gave a quick little nod “Mhm! Magic is really cool, and Dad’s been helping me learn in his free time.”

“I know, and he’s doing a great job. But with running the library he usually doesn’t have a lot of time to do it. You two usually only get time to practice together in the evenings, or when he closes early, sooooo…” Slipcase’s grin split into a fullblown smile. “How would you feel about getting a magic tutor hm?”

His face brightened immediately at the suggestion, his little head bobbing up and down so fast it was a wonder nothing rattled in the process. “That would be so cool! Do you mean it Mom?” he asked, his prior worry lost at the childish excitement he felt in that moment.

She quickly nodded in return, chuckling softly. “Your father and I had been discussing it and saving money for some time now. We were going to surprise you with it after your first day of school next week, but this seems like a more appropriate time. We managed to find a unicorn with a cutie mark in magic who moved into town recently. We brought up the prospect of tutoring and he said he would be would be willing to reach you. His daughter is a unicorn as well, so you’ll even have somepony to practice with!”
His eyes lit up a bit more at this. Getting to learn magic from a real, properly marked mage, and even maybe getting to make another new friend? Maybe this whole situation wasn’t quite so bad after all! “That sounds great, Mom. Yes! I’d love to learn how to do magic.” he said quite eagerly, slipping out of his chair to go and hug his mother tightly.

“I love you Mom,” he said, leaning in and nuzzling against the floof of her chest as her foreleg came up to wrap around him and pull him close.

“And I love you son. Don’t worry, we’ll have you walking around with your head held high and not a worry in the world in no time!” She said, gently patting his head and tussling his hair before pulling back. And looking him over. “Now, go and brush your teeth and get ready for bed, your tutor will be here tomorrow morning for your first lesson, and you need to get a good night’s sleep after working your horn so hard today.”

“Yes ma’am!” he said quickly, trotting his way down the hall to the bathroom with a bit more hitch in his giddyup, much to Slipcase’s satisfaction. She giggled softly and turned to head upstairs. It was about time for her to be getting to bed too. Buckram would make sure Incognito went to bed if she turned in a bit early, he always was the reliable sort when it came to looking after the little one. That’s a bit part of what she found attractive about him, to be honest.

Her last thoughts as she slipped under the covers and drifted off were of how lucky she was to have such a wonderful family, which slowly transitioned to sweet dreams and soft snores.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Nito was up early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He trotted happily over to the bathroom and got ready for the day, brushing his teeth, combing his mane and tails, even making sure to grab a freshly ironed ascot and affixing it just so. Taking special care to make sure he was looking his best.

He made his way down the stairs, humming a little song he could not quite remember the name of from the top of his head. His Father was already downstairs at his desk, sipping a large mug of coffee reading “#1 dad” in crude Ponish lettering. The stallion smiled at his son, setting the paper down. “Excited to meet your teacher, sport?” he asked, taking another swig from his mug.

“Mhm!” Incognito said as he made his way into the kitchen and prepared some breakfast for himself. Something properly good and sugary to make sure he had plenty of calories to burn so he wouldn’t get too fatigued from casting would do the trick.

He settled on a bowl of Frosted Fragments, quickly devouring them and washing his bowl, putting it on the drying rack before going to sit with his father.

His dad waited for him to get comfortable before speaking to him again “So sport, I heard you and Mom had a little talk last night.”

Incognito gave a small guilty expression and moved to speak before his father cut him off. “I just want you to know that I’m proud of you for being so ready to try to improve. It’s important to make sure not to let stuff like that keep you down, ya know?” he said gently as he flipped pages in his paper with a soft ruffle. “What really shows you what a pony is made of is how they act when things don’t go their way, and I gotta say, you’re not doing half bad in that respect, squirt.”

The colt’s mouth clicked shut at this, mollified at his father’s words and nodding sheepishly. “T-thanks Dad, that means a lot…” he said, rubbing at the back of his head.

“Glad I could pep you up a little bit, now make sure to give em the ol’ Razzle Dazzle for me, huh?” he said half-jokingly before turning his attention back to his coffee and paper more fully with a small yawn.

The colt was indeed, feeling a bit more pepped up than before. His dad must really mean it if he was willing to talk before he finished his coffee!

His thoughts on his father’s morning habits were cut short by the sound of knocking on the library entrance.

“Come in!” Buckram called out with a somewhat tired, cheerful tone, sitting up a bit straighter.

The door flew open, and a small blast of glitter riddled blue smoke erupted from the doorway as a powerful, exuberant, sophisticated voice echoed through the building “Ladies and gentlecolts, fest your eyes on…”

A blue-coated unicorn stallion with a nearly white light blue mane emerged from the smoke as it slowly cleared. He sported a rather stand-out purple tuxedo with yellow trim and an impressive top hat. It was nearly as impressive as the dramatic pose the stallion struck upon his reveal! “Jackpot, The Magnificent!” he boomed vivaciously with a hoof pressed to his chest, a small poof of confetti erupting from behind him and gradually fluttering to the ground along with the glitter.

Incognito clapped excitedly, hooves clopping together from his seated position. Buckram’s eye twitched slightly at the sight of the (g)litter scattered in front of his previously pristine, clean entryway, but he moved past it quickly, clearing his throat. “Ahem, ah! Mister Showcase, thank you for coming. That was…quite the entrance.”

The blue stallion nodded, giving a small smirk as he trotted into the library proper. “But of course! A proper magician always puts his best hoof forward, I’d say. Is this the colt?” he asked as he gave an inquiring look Incognito’s way.

The colt smiled and slipped out of his seat, walking over. He pushed his glasses up with his hoof and extended it, offering a greeting to the magician. My name is Incognito, but some ponies call me Nito for short. Do you really do magic for a living?”

“Why of course my dear colt!” he said smoothly, reaching over and firmly shaking the colt’s hoof. “I typically work in the Las Pegasus area, but my darling daughter will be enrolling in Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns next semester, and I thought that some time out in the country would do us some good. We will be here for a few months or so, plenty of time for us to make sure you know all the basics and then some!”

The colt’s eyes practically sparkled at the sound of the confident stallion’s assurances. “Wow, that sounds really cool, she must be really smart.”

Jackpot gave a little wink and nod. “Why don’t you see for yourself,” he said before taking a deep breath and turning back towards the door and calling out. “Alright, honey, come on out and say hello to my new student!”

The door creaked and opened again, and the sound of hoofbeats sounded from behind Jackpot, getting closer. “Coming father!” A familiar sounding voice called out.

From behind the blue stallion emerged a similarly colored little unicorn fully, wearing an admittedly adorable star-spangled wizard’s hat. “Initiate, you will bask in the glory of the great and powerful Tri-”

Both of the young foals stood there for a moment, shellshocked before simultaneously pointing and yelling.

“YOU!”