literature

Simple Magic

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A hoof rapped on the wooden door, breaking Twilight's concentration on her book; she glanced over at the clock on her wall, a smile spreading across her face. "Of course you're here now," she jokingly said to nopony at all, "I was just getting to the good part!"

She magicked her sky blue feather bookmark into the page, closed the book and telekinetically placed it on the nearby desk. She turned her attention and magic to the opening door, revealing the gray coated pegasus with a solid blonde mane and tail and golden amber eyes, the left of which suffered from amblyopia. A careless smile rested on her face. To the lazy-eyed pony's side was her unicorn filly, her coat a pale shade of purple; her hair matched her pegasus companion's, her eyes just a few shades lighter. She was clearly nervous.

"Hello Ditzy!" Twilight greeted the pegasus.

"Hi Twilight!" the pegasus cheerfully replied, a wide smile across her face. "Dinky's here for her lesson!"

The unicorn looked down at the filly trying to advert her gaze. "And hello Dinky! Ready to do some magic?"

"Yeah...I guess," the little unicorn meekly answered.

Twilight lowered herself to the filly's height, "Hey, what's wrong? Aren't you excited to learn?"

Ditzy answered for her filly, "I think she's just a little nervous. She hasn't had much practice with her magic at all."

The purple unicorn chuckled. "I wouldn't blame her. But we're going to do great, aren't we?" She pulled the unicorn filly's chin up, "We won't try anything too complicated, alright?"

"Alright," the filly sheepishly answered.

"Alright!" Twilight turned around and trotted back into her library, magicking a number of spell books off the shelves for the day's lesson, stacking them on the nearby desk.

Ditzy Doo lowered herself to her daughter's eye level, ""I'll be back in an hour! Don't worry, muffin; you're going to do great today." The filly smiled at her mother's words of encouragement, reaching in for a hug before her mother left the library behind, mail bags strapped to her back.

"So first thing's first," Twilight preached to the filly, "Magic! Everypony has some kind of magic in them."

"Everypony?" Dinky asked as if she didn't believe the statement. She sat herself down a few feet behind Twilight, trying to hide her nerves as she listened.

"Yep, everypony. I do, you do, your mother does and so do all of your friends, unicorns, pegasus and earth ponies alike!"

"But I thought only unicorns could use magic."

"Nope!" Twilight grinned at the prospect of educating the youth, "Every kind of pony has magic. Pegasus ponies, for example, can walk on clouds, something us unicorns and earth ponies can't do without a magical enchantment. They can create and control the weather which is why you'll always find a pegasus in any city you go to; they're invaluable to the rest of us for their magical abilities.

"Earth ponies, on the other hoof, have a special magical connection with the earth, with its plants and animals and they make terrific farm ponies for a reason; they're much stronger than other ponies. They can go longer with less effort, they can do much more work than you or me to make up for no wings or horn." She tapped her lip in thought, "Though there are some special cases. One of my earth pony friends seems to be able to predict the future with the weirdest little hints; sometimes I think it's a rare kind of magic.

"But while everypony has magic in them, only unicorns can truly control it, to make it do whatever we need it to. While most unicorns can levitate objects with their magic, when you get a bit older and find your special talent, you'll learn all kinds of magic that will help you with whatever it is you like to do!"

The filly shamefully lowered her head, "But I don't have my cutie mark yet."

Twilight smiled. "Don't worry," she reassured, "it'll come soon enough. Just try things that you're good at doing and you like to do. That's always the best place to start." Twilight turned to the stack of books on the desk behind her, "But that's not something I can teach you. You'll have to figure it out on your own; it's part of finding out who you are." Twilight magicked a book from the middle of the stack, "Instead, I'm going to teach you telekinesis."

"Teley-ken-wha?" The filly's jaw dropped.

"Telekinesis," the mare repeated, emphasizing each syllable. "Its the most basic magic ability, the ability to move objects with magic, like I am right now with this book!" Twilight floated the brown book around the filly, who watched it make a circle around her and open to the three hundred fifty-sixth page, which had been bookmarked with a sky blue feather. Dinky studied the pages for a minute or two, trying to wrap her head around the bigger words it used.

Twilight moved around behind the filly, "Telekinesis is the most basic magic spell for a unicorn, and its really simple; just look at the feather and try to imagine it flying up into the air."

The little unicorn stared calmly at the feather as it rested on the pages of the book, unable to move.

"When does it start flying?" She finally asked a minute later.

"You're not concentrating. You need to really believe that the feather will fly around; really imagine it moving around."

Dinky once again stared at the motionless feather, narrowing her eyes into anger and moving around it as if interrogating it for its crimes of lifelessness. She lowered her head, her demeanor utterly serious, a look of aggression in her golden eyes.

Twilight moved around the room and crouched behind the filly once more, "Try it like this; close your eyes and--"

"But then I can't see it!" the filly interrupted.

"And that's okay; you don't need to keep looking at it to get it to move. Just close your eyes and picture the feather rising in the air. Don't think about anything else except that feather floating through the air."

The filly shut her eyes and began picturing the feather floating up into the air. In her mind's eye, the feather leapt into the air and fluttered down to the ground calmly.

"Try it again," she heard Twilight say behind her closed eyes.

She started the show in her mind from the beginning, imagining the feather climb into the air magically and flutter down in front of her nose, held in her mind's levitation magic.

But she didn't understand why she was starting to feel tired. Her muscles felt weak, making her want to lie down on the spot. She struggled to keep her composure trying to keep the feather floating in front of her mind's nose.

"Feeling tired, Dinky?"

The filly nodded, unable to speak as she kept herself standing.

"Then open your eyes."

The little unicorn's eyes cracked open, revealing to her the sky blue feather just hoof's length from her nose, encased in a pink glow of magic. Startled by the sight, she let out a squeaky gasp, the feather fluttering to the book where it had rested before.

The filly looked down in disbelief. "Was I moving it?"

Twilight nodded her head, "You certainly were! Why don't you try it again, this time with your eyes open. Just use the same kind amount of focus you did before."

Dinky stared at the feather before her one more time, putting all her thoughts on moving it through the air as she'd imagined a minute ago. Eyes furrowed in focus, she tensed her muscles, gritted her teeth and watched the feather slowly form a pink glow as it rose into the air and gently landed it on her teacher's nose.

The unicorn mare giggled with her student, "Good job, Dinky!" She blew the feather off her nose and closed the book on the floor. "Now let's try something a bit bigger. Can you put this book on top of the stack on the desk?"

Dinky nodded excitedly, glaring at the book as it rose through the air and onto the desk before fatigue began to set in again. Her magical practice was taking its toll. She struggled to get the book airborne, managing to get it above the stack of twelve before dropping it on the edge of the top-most book, sending the pile toppling over and crashing off the desk.

Twilight stared as the tower of pages tipped and spilled on the ground behind the desk, knocking over a few more stacks of her own research. Days of studies, which moments before had been neatly organized, were scattered around the floor in a mess of papers, books and quills. The mare's eye twitched at the sight.

Dinky covered her head with her hooves, sure that Twilight was going to give her an earful of anger. She clenched her eyes shut when the mare turned towards her and cringed when the mare's hoof gently ruffled her mane.

"Don't worry about it," Twilight giggled. "You can't learn without making a few mistakes." The lavender unicorn turned back to the mess, quickly stacking books back on the desk with her magic.

The filly, relaxed at Twilight's cheerful reassurance, stood up, looking on at the mess her magic had caused. She nervously trotted around the desk, using what was left of her magical strength to pick up the light-weight papers and neatly stack them on the desk.

The mare smiled, "Thanks Dinky!" Her telekinetic grip full of books being stacked into a third pile. Within ten minutes, the books were all neatly stacked again, and papers covered the desk's surface.

Their cleaning was interrupted by a hoof knock on the door. Twilight's horn sparked, the door creaking open from across the room, revealing Ditzy Doo, fresh off her afternoon rounds.

"Hi mommy!" Dinky shouted, trotting over to the mailmare.

"Hi muffin! How was the lesson."

"It was so cool," she excitedly replied, then quickly lowered her head, embarrassed, "until I knocked all the books off the table..."

The teacher mare giggled once again, "A little shaky in her first practice; she did great today!"

Twilight Sparkle began chatting with Ditzy Doo about the day's lesson, relenting all the details. Dinky, however, was captivated by her mother's mailbags, an all-too-familiar scent emanating from within. She closed her eyes knowing full well what object was producing the aroma, making it easy to picture in her mind's eye. She concentrated on the source and meekly levitated the muffin out of the mailbag. She took a mouthful out of the baked good, blissfully chomping away before she realized the conversation in the background had stopped and she was the center of attention.

They both watched with wide smiles on their faces as the filly giggled happily, magically moving the muffin up to her mother, gently placing it on her head.
#MLP-WTG
Submission for Week Eight
Write a story about a pony teaching another pony a skill.

Simple Magic
[Normal]
Twilight Sparkle takes on her first personal student in the field of magic.

Primary Characters
Twilight Sparkle, Dinky Doo

If the premise seems familiar, then you probably just finished reading Pen Stroke's Past Sins [link] . The idea is tossed around in the last chapter and it fit perfectly, so I thought 'what the heck'. If you haven't read Past Sins, then you're a silly pony like Applejack.

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FIRST EDIT, Sept. 18, 2011:
I went through and polished a few scenes, bringing the dialogue together in a better way. I also fixed a little hole in the plot involving a missed detail.

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As usual, feel free to comment and constructively criticize!
© 2011 - 2024 EonEvolution
Comments8
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Ryugaknight's avatar
This was really cute I think seeing a few more stories about Diinky learning magic would be cute. Like maybe learning how to teleport, or maybe making bubbles.