The following morning arrived and Aria was woken up before sunrise by Colgate, "Aria, get up. I want us to eat breakfast and get up to Canterlot."
This was one thing that Aria had not experienced in ages, being woke up before sunrise. She wiped her eyes and groaned, "This early? The sun hasn't even come up yet!"
Colgate replied, "If you're going to live with me, you'll have to get used to it. I'm an early riser and I like to get things done as quickly as possible."
Aria nodded and crawled out of bed. She was shocked when she got into the dining room. She discovered that Colgate and Lyra had cooked a hearty meal for them. On her plate were eggs, bacon, toast, hash browns and to go along with it, the three had a pitcher of cider. She was in a state of shock as never had she had such a hearty breakfast. She never had much as a siren and there were times in the human world where she had to do without breakfast and even when she had it, the meals were meager. She asked, "This is all for me? I've never seen this kind of breakfast in my life!"
Colgate replied, "Yep, everything on that plate is for you. You may dislike getting up early but after seeing this, I hope you'll think it is worth it."
Aria gave her a smile, "You bet it is worth it!"
After eating their breakfast Colgate and Aria headed to the train station to head to Canterlot. While such things were common in the human world, she never remembered such things existing in Equestria before she was banished. The ride up to Canterlot was quiet but not uncomfortable. Once they disembarked from the train Colgate said, "Follow me, I'll take you to the library."
Aria followed her as they headed through town. Like she was in Ponyville, she couldn't help but be nervous knowing that it is the capitol city. When they went into the library Aria was shocked. Never before in her life had she seen so many books in one place. She commented, "Wow, this library is huge! It is nothing like any other library I have ever seen!"
Colgate asked, "Aria, I thought you said you lived out in the middle of nowhere and that it was just a couple of months ago that you ventured out on your own?"
Aria replied, "Ok, I did go through uhm....well I can't remember exactly where but they did have a small library. I went in there but they had no books on magic."
This made Colgate wonder a bit about what Aria had told her but didn't think much of it. When they reached the magic section Colgate levitated some of the basic magic books down to them. Aria saw this and was shocked that Colgate could so easily get the books down. She asked, "Colgate, how were you able to get those books down so easily?"
Colgate replied, "I've been studying magic my whole life and I learned levitation when I was just a filly. I actually had it down before I was accepted into Celestia's school."
Aria said, "Wow, you must have been really talented."
Colgate replied, "I am very talented." She pointed towards the books and continued, "Let's get you started."
Aria used her hooves to open the first book and began to go over the material. As she began to read it, it was like trying to read a foreign language to her. She asked, "Colgate, could you help me? While I can read it, trying to understand the material is like trying to understand Latin."
Colgate gave her an odd look and asked, "What the hay is Latin?"
Aria quickly realized that she had slipped up by using something from the human world as an analogy. She replied, "Oh, it was just a term that my parents would use."
Colgate sighed, "Uh-huh." She leaned over Aria's shoulder and continued, "Alright, I can understand that the language here may be a bit hard for beginners to understand so I'll go over this with you in laymen's terms."
Colgate began to translate everything into something that anypony could understand and it didn't take long for Aria to get it. She commented, "Oh, so that's what all that means!"
Colgate replied, "Alright, now that you've read it and seem to understand it, I want you to try to levitate one of these books."
Aria nodded and began to try to do it. She lit up her horn and at first all that came out were a few sparks but she was not one to give up easily. She focused more on the book and grabbed it in her aura. She was grunting and she was putting all of her newly accessed energy into trying to do this and after a few minutes of trying, she was able to lift the book a few inches off the table before dropping it.
Aria had a look of frustration on her face as she was disappointed in her lack luster performance. Before she could say anything a couple of young colts walked by and one said, "Oooh, look at that loser!"
The other added, "Yeah, a full grown unicorn and she can just barely lift a book!"
This angered Aria. She snapped, "You know what, you know nothing about me so just shut up."
The two laughed which prompted Aria to continue, "You know what, you two are the worst!"
The two laughed again before walking away and Colgate had a curious look on her face. She asked, "What was all that about and what do you mean they are 'the worst?'"
Again Aria realized that she had messed up, only much more so. She knew that she simply couldn't let her angry outbursts or the personality she had dating back to when she was a siren show in the event Colgate knew about their history. She replied, "I'm sorry Colgate, I'm just frustrated and them laughing like that really angered me."
Colgate patted her on the shoulder and replied, "Oh don't worry about it. I wanted to say something but had I told them what I wanted to say, I likely would have got us both banned from here." She pointed back at the book and continued, "Alright, you've shown that you can levitate, we just have to get you to where you can put more energy into it."
Aria nodded and Colgate continued to translate the material into words that are easier to understand. Soon Colgate got them to the section she considered vital, learning to add strength into her spells. Colgate said, "Alright, to really get this down you need to not only focus on the object, but picture it being lifted in your mind. That will help you tap into the abilities that you can't access right now."
Aria replied, "Alright, I'll do my best." Aria again grabbed the book in her aura but this time she pictured the book being lifted in her mind and she was easily able to lift the book.
Colgate put her leg around her and said, "Wow, you're learning fast! Even I wasn't able to go from just barely being able to lift it to easily lifting it!"
Aria replied, "Thanks"
Colgate returned those books to their appropriate place and grabbed another book, one on hornwriting. She said, "Alright, since it looks like you have levitation down already, we need to work on your hornwriting."
Aria asked, "Hornwriting?"
Colgate replied, "Your hornwriting. I saw how you were when you were trying to fill out that job application. Unicorns can grab a hold of pens and simply use their magic to make their writing legible."
Very soon it hit Aria as to what Colgate was talking about. She said, "Oh, my handwriting!"
Colgate gave her an odd look before laughing, "Handwriting? What did you do, get up in the night and read Lyra's comic books?"
Aria asked, "Lyra's comic books?"
Colgate continued to laugh, "Her comic books are called 'My Little Human.' They are about these mythological creatures called humans." Her laugh only grew louder, "Get this, my sister actually believes that in some other dimension those creatures actually exist! I've tried telling her for years that they aren't real but even though she is an adult, she still insists they exist."
Aria gave her a nervous laugh, "Yeah, that does sound kind of odd."
Colgate continued, "Ok, enough about my sister's beliefs. Let's get back to work." Colgate went and grabbed some paper and a pen. She then set them down in front of Aria. She opened the book on hornwriting and said, "Ok, I want you to read the start of this, focus on the material and then once you think you are ready, I want you to write your name on that paper."
Aria focused intently on the material and after ten minutes, she decided to take a shot at writing her name. She grabbed the pen and wrote her name on the paper. Colgate was amazed that her hornwriting was as good as it was. She gasped, "Wow Aria, for a unicorn who is using magic to write her name for the very first time, that looks amazing!"
Aria was thrilled that she was able to grasp all of this so easily. She grabbed Colgate and replied, "Thanks Colgate, thanks for helping me with this!"
Colgate said, "Well we will be working on this more during the upcoming week but there is one thing that is vital that you learn to be able to be my receptionist, you must learn how to use a computer.
Aria replied, "But I already know how to use a computer."
Colgate asked, "How? How do you know how to use a computer if you grew up in the middle of nowhere? Where did you learn to use one?"
Once again Aria had slipped up, saying something that doesn't go along with what she told Colgate about her past. She knew she had to lie her way out of this, "Well after I left my hometown and I stopped in a town with a library and computers, the librarian sort of showed me how it works."
Colgate led her over to the computers and said, "Well let's see how good you are."
Aria looked at it and turned it on. She sat down at it and once it fired up and the icons were on the desktop she asked, "So, what program do you want me to open?"
Colgate pointed to the icon for a word processing program. Aria grabbed the mouse and clicked on it. It was hard for her to click it with her hoof at first but eventually got the program up and running. Colgate ordered, "Ok, now let's check your typing skills."
Aria gave her a nervous look and began to type. In the human world it was easy for her given that fingers were small and despite Equestrian keyboards being larger as they were designed for hooves, she still had a lot of problems. Aria tried typing the first thing that came to mind,
"My sitr Adgio ids tge witds, sje toik the aife of thw ;osera thAr saud i shoudln havew sid anytyont avour Somars at het fumerak."
Colgate looked at this and sighed, "Ok, you may know how to use a computer but you have no clue on how to type." She began to walk away and continued, "I'm going to grab a book that will explain the process involved in using your magic to type. It will go into detail about the energies involved in it."
While Colgate headed off to grab the appropriate book and Aria looked at what she had typed. She realized that once again she had made a mistake but luckily it was so messed up that Colgate couldn't make it out. When Colgate returned she placed the book off to Aria's side. She said, "Ok, I want you to read through the first part of this and then try to type what you attempted to earlier."
Aria began to read through the material and as she read it, she couldn't believe how easy typing could be for a unicorn. What bothered her though is that Colgate wanted her to type the exact thing she tried to earlier made her nervous. She did know though that she would have to and hope that Colgate wouldn't think anything of it. She typed,
"My sister Adagio is the worst. She took the side of those that said I shouldn't have said anything about Sonata at her funeral."
Colgate read it and said, "Now that is much better! Once we get back to Ponyville I'll teach you to use the program I use to schedule appointments and the program for billing." She took a closer look at what she typed and asked, "You have a sister?"
Aria replied, "Yes, I do. Her name is Adagio Dazzle."
Colgate and asked, "Who is this Sonata you mentioned having a funeral?"
Aria replied, "She is my other sister."
Colgate asked, "Ok, you mention a funeral. I thought you said that you barely met any other ponies until after your parents died and you went out on your own." Her voice became more intense as she continued, "You make it sound like a lot of ponies showed up to her funeral and that there were some troublemakers."
This really unnerved Aria. While she had figured out ways to lie her way out of other things, she had gone into way too much detail this time. After a couple of nervous looks she replied, "Well this happened after my sisters and I left....." Aria finally realized that she should stop lying and tell Colgate the truth if she wants to stay in her good graces. She held her head low and asked, "Colgate, can we talk somewhere in private?"
Colgate sighed, "Yeah, sure. Let's get going and I'll get us a hotel for the week so I can keep on teaching you more magic. I want you to at least be good with basic magic so that you'll be able to do your job efficiently."
The two left the library and headed towards a local hotel. Aria was nervous, very nervous as she knew that her very future could be at stake over how Colgate reacted to her initial lies and the fact that she is one of the sirens that was banished so long ago.