Magic is as Magic Does

by Crazy Crusader

Spell Test

On a sunny day in Equestria, Rarity and her little sister Sweetie Belle were heading to Canterlot to meet up with Princess Twilight Sparkle. They were to meet her at the School for Gifted Unicorns. Sweetie Belle had been studying magic with Twilight for some time, the filly had been doing quite well with some spells. She could levitate objects perfectly teleport to and from short distances, and give a pony a moustache.

Twilight decided to give Sweetie the chance to do a spell test at the school's examination hall. There were five pony judges on the far side of the hall. Rarity and Twilight were watching Sweetie Belle from a distance. Twilight looked around in nostalgia.

"Oh Twilight darling, I'm so glad Sweetie Belle is here." Rarity said proudly. "This could give her a chance to shine with the other little unicorns."

"Your sister is a quite the learner." Twilight agreed. "Something tells me she's going to ace this test."

The test was about to start, Sweetie Belle was practicing using her horn.

"It only feels like yesterday when I hatched Spike from his egg, became Princess Celestia's student and got my cutie mark." Twilight told Rarity.

"Didn't you also lose control of your magic and turned Spike from an adorable dragon into a giant terrifying one?" Rarity had remembered Twilight telling her the story of how she got her cutie mark a while back.

"Oh Yeah..." Twilight said as her cheeks turned red.

"I supposed that's why they changed the test from hatching a dragon egg to turning an apple into a gem." Rarity noticed.

The judges were ready with their clipboards and markers, Sweetie Belle walked toward the apple, the spell test had begun. Sweetie Belle focused on the fruit and closed her eyes. Her horn has glowing green, but nothing happened to apple. She tried harder and started to sweat. Suddenly, the apple was glowing just like Sweetie's horn. Rarity and Twilight both starting smiling, hoping she would succeed.

The judges watched the glowing apple, but were still not amused. The apple started to glow stronger, than all of a sudden, exploded onto all the ponies in the room. Sweetie Belle open her eyes, she notice the apple was gone. The filly looked everywhere to see apple mush covering every pony; she had made a huge mess.

"Sorry, Miss Belle. But you failed the test." One of the judges said out loud. The other judges nodded in agreement. Sweetie Belle tried to hard back her tears.

"Wait! Can't I try again?" She asked the Judges.

"I'm afraid not, we only have a limited amount of apples for more qualified unicorns to use." A judge wearing black glasses told the filly. "You can try again in three months."

"Three months!?" Sweetie shouted in shock. The judges simply ignored her and told the next filly to come out. Rarity tried to hug her sister in comfort, but Sweetie Belle ran toward the exit crying. Twilight and Rarity went after her while shouting out to her name. Sweetie Belle didn't listen and continued running.

Sweetie Belle was sitting at the stair entrance of the school crying. Rarity and Twilight walked toward her and sat down beside her.

"I don't understand, I did everything Twilight taught me. I read the spell books she gave me. Yet the spell didn't work and it probably never will." Sweetie said with her head down.

"You know dear, just because you failed at that test today doesn't mean you can't try again later." Rarity said to her young sister while putting her on her shoulder.

"What's the point?!" Sweetie shouted as she gently moved away from Rarity's hoof. "I fail at everything that matters to me. I fail at magic, fail at getting my cutie mark; I'm just gonna be a failure for the rest of my life!"

Rarity looked at Twilight, all while Sweetie Belle slowly stopped crying.

"Sweetie Belle, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself."

Twilight leaned closer to Sweetie.

"If you always think you’re going to fail at something, you will. You have to believe in yourself when you're doing the task, and even if you fail, you just have to keep on trying."

Sweetie Belle said nothing; Rarity and Twilight simply looked at each other. Rarity tried thinking of something to cheer up her sister.

"Why don't we all go look around at the Canterlot shops? Lots of stuff is on sale this week."

Twilight gave Rarity an unamused look, it seem that the fashion-loving unicorn was thinking of how to cheer herself up instead of her sister. Twilight know what most little fillies liked.

"We can also stop for some ice cream." Twilight told Sweetie Belle while giving a big smile.

"No thanks." She said quietly. "I just wanna be alone."

Twilight and Rarity both got up and headed to the Canterlot shopping plaza. Twilight stop for a moment and opened her backpack with her magic. She levitated a spell book of the bag and went back to Sweetie Belle, who was still sitting on the stairs.

"I think this might help you, and remember to just keep on practicing." Twilight was still levitating the book and gently dropped it in front of Sweetie Belle's hoofs.

She looked at the book, levitated it and then saw the cover.

The Guide to Unicorn Magic for Beginners: Volume 3

Twilight had already ran to catch up with Rarity. Sweetie Belle looked at some of the pages.

"Great, another book. Just what I need." she said disappointed.

The small unicorn walked toward the nearest bench and started reading.

Comments

[Sparrow9612]

The small unicorn walked toward the nearest bunch and started reading.
That word in the sentence seems off to me. Was it supposed to be bush or bench?

[Crazy Crusader]

It's bench, I'll correct it.