Books Are Heartwarming Things

Magic was one the the hardest things in the world to teach a young foal, especially one who had no experience with it whatsoever. The only time she had ever seen magic being used was when I levitated stuff. And that wasn’t much to go by.

So we had to start from scratch.

When Rosy had arrived, I was pulling out a thick book about magic that probably looked like a monster in her eyes, and the butterflies in her stomach ready to learn had just died then and there, and might have crushed her hopes in the process.

Or I could be exaggerating.

Either way, when Rosy walked in, her smile faltered a little. “When my mom said that magic was hard to learn, I didn’t think she meant that hard,” she commented, tossing her saddle bag next to the door as she usually did.

I turned to her, shocked to see her so early. It was only 9:30. “Good morning,” I said, putting the book on my desk and waving a hoof at her. Her eyes continued to stare at the book, and it took me awhile to realize why. “Oh, um, about the book...”

Not a moment passed very long for it to take full effect. “It’s going to take me forever to even levitate something!” she exclaimed and slumped into the big chair, crossing her hooves.

I put a hoof on her shoulder. “No it won’t,” I said, though it was just a lie to get her to stop whining. It was almost as irritating as Rarity’s, which was saying a lot. “When I was younger, I said the same thing. But now look at me.” I made my best cheeky grin.

Rosy gazed up at me, then started making that squeaky, high-pitched noise even louder. There should be a spell that makes foals stop doing that.

“You’ll learn it quickly,” I said over her obnoxious crying. Sadly, I had no experience with young creatures, at least not with girls, and honestly had no clue about what to say to comfort her.

She glared at me. “That’s what you said about the alphabet. And how long did that take us? 3 weeks, Twilight.” Then she huffed at me and turned away. Fillies were so stubborn these days.

“You can try, at least,” I prodded, bringing the book over to her lap and gently putting it down. She winced, and I realized that gently putting it down wasn’t going to change its impact. Rosy pouted down to the book, examining its velvety cover and golden trim.

After a frustrated sigh, she said, “Fine, I’ll try.”

“Good!” I moved the book onto a more comfortable place, my desk, and used my magic to open it to page one. I noticed her sparked interest at how magic worked, and I said, “Magic takes focus and time, so don’t be upset if you don’t get it the first time, all right?”

She nodded.

I smiled and pulled a dark brown feather out of the cover of the book. It was one of Owlowiscious’ feathers. I just used it for a quill, but today, Rosy was going to try to focus her magic on something light.

“Now,” I began, slowly going into lecture mode. “all unicorns have a special magic inside of them. A unicorn’s magic also has something to do with his or her special talent.” Then I realized that I didn’t actually know what her cutie mark meant. “Speaking of which, what’s your special talent?”

Rosy flipped her head to get a good look at her flank. It was a rosebud, but two of the petals formed the shape of a heart. The bud was connected to a curved stem, with three small leaves on it. I had no clue what it meant.

“I got it whenever Mom found out she had cancer. I comforted her and I guess my special talent is... making ponies feel better?” She seemed really confused.

I frowned in deep thought, wondering how you would use your magic for that. It might have been something along the lines of Princess Cadance’s magic, but not making ponies fall in love. It sounded really complicated.

Maybe she didn’t use her magic with her special talent at all?

… No. I didn’t want to think about that possibility. Unicorns had talents that matched their magic abilities. Rosy was not about to be an exception.

“What’s your mom’s special talent?”

Rosy rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, it was hairdressing, but you know how that went down,” she said.

Twilight nodded, not wanting to continue the conversation. “Magic can only be accomplished by three things: focus, insight, and imagination. Without them, magic would be impossible. Are you taking notes?”

The filly’s eyes flickered from the left, then the right, then back at me. “Um... with what?”

She had no quill or notecards. “Oh, right,” I muttered, blush creeping over my muzzle.

Rosy giggled and rolled her eyes playfully. “Focus, insight, and imagination, got it. What’s next?”

“You need to focus directly onto what you want to do. If your attention goes elsewhere, it either won’t work or it will do something totally different,” I continued, flipping through the multiple pages of the book. Rosy stared at the pink magic surrounding the book, entranced, but nodded like she was really listening.

I then placed the feather in front of her. “Now, focus your energy on this feather and see if you can at least form an aura around it. If you can, that would make your studies go faster.”

Seeing that if she did this, she could finish quicker, Rosy squeezed her eyes shut, pointed her tiny horn toward the feather, and thought really hard. There were sparks and sputters as she grimaced under the force. Her magic, from what I could tell by the sparkles, were a light lavender color.

Rosy suddenly stopped, panting and sitting down with a plop. “Did... did it work?” she huffed, lifting her head. The feather hadn’t moved an inch. “Aw, ponyfeathers!”

“That was great, Rosy!” I encouraged, trying to make her feel accomplished. “You got some magic going, but it didn’t hit the feather-”

“I failed?” I froze from my talking and saw that Rosy looked like she got punched in the soul. “It didn’t even move?”

Somberly, I shook my head. “It was a good effort, though.”

“A good effort,” she sighed. “But it wasn’t a great one.” I was hoping her personality wasn’t like this; stubborn, strong-willed, and a bit on the whiny side. Sure, she was nice and gentle all the same, but if you got acquainted with her well enough, you’d find out she was a more persevering than meets the eye.

Her bottom lip then started to quiver and her eyes went wide like saucers. Something twinkled in her eye, which I guessed was a tear. But worse of all, she started making that whiny sound again. I lowered my ears in pain and groaned.

“This is going to be harder than I thought.”