Days became weeks, and weeks months. Each morning Twilight reported to Princess Celestia in the Vault for endless run-throughs of her assigned spells. And in spite of Celestia's concerns, Twilight revelled in the attention and hard work and progressed far faster than Celestia could have imagined or hoped.
After lunch and a nap, Twilight would often visit the library to look up the references she'd been assigned. Then she would study, intensely, for hours at a time. Occasionally she would become stuck and turn to a toy or game for a little diversion. But soon a book would catch her eye, or she'd see one of the guards or a serving pony doing a levitation spell, and she'd dive right back into it again.
For the most part Cadance allowed Twilight set the pace unless Twilight was clearly becoming frustrated with a difficult question or spell. Yet sometimes she felt obliged to try to pry Twilight out of her self-imposed scholarship.
One morning after a particularly long session in the Vault, Cadance stepped into Twilight's room and found her in what Cadance had come to think of as "air-traffic-control mode". Twilight was seated on a cushion on the floor, Smarty Pants right by her side, with six or seven books spread open around her in a rough circle and piles of more books stacked around them. She was swivelling her head around like a searchlight, flicking pages back and forth in multiple books at once. Now and then a quill would lift, scratch something on one of the many pieces of paper around her, and then be dropped again.
"Change of pace today, Twilight!" she called. "We're going to have a picnic lunch!"
Twilight looked up at her. Her expression looked like someone had just said dentist and doctor in the same sentence. "Do we have to?"
"Uh huh," Cadance replied. "But there's a twist! Come on over here."
Reluctantly, Twilight hopped out of her ring of books and accompanied Cadance over to the couch by the window. At Cadance's gesture, she hopped up and leaned on the back of the couch -- and Cadance noticed it wasn't as long a reach for her as it once had been.
"Now -- where should we have our picnic?"
Twilight looked up at her, puzzled.
Cadance gestured at the expanse before them. "Where do you want to go?"
"Anywhere?"
"Anywhere," Cadance said, nodding. "I mean, not somewhere dangerous, like the top of a mountain. But for once it's a bright sunny day all over Equestria, so we can go anywhere we can see from here."
Twilight looked around, not certain how to choose. "Oh, wait!" she cried. She raced across to her toy-box, knocking over one of the piles of books on the way. Fishing around in its depths, she came running back holding a small toy telescope in her mouth. Clambering up, she slid it open and held it to her eye, and panned it around.
"I see a playground!" she cried, and pointed. Cadance borrowed the telescope and looked. After a moment she spotted it too. It was in a park on the outskirts of Ponyville, at the base of a small grassy knoll. Shaking her head in amazement at Twilight's eye for detail, she smiled.
"Looks fine to me. All right, let's go!"
"Right now?"
"Well, I do have the Royal Golden Chariot booked for the afternoon. But we don't want to keep the nice flyers waiting, now do we?"
Twilight goggled at that. She dropped the telescope and didn't even notice when Cadance fielded it with her magic. Numbly, she followed as Cadance led the way out through the main door.
They ascended several flights of stairs to the palace landing pad. As promised, Celestia's Golden Chariot stood ready with its team of pegasus flyers already harnessed up, and a large hamper and blanket stowed on the riding platform.
As the two of them stepped out onto the pad, the guards snapped to attention. Cadance let Twilight scramble up onto the Chariot's riding platform first, and after speaking briefly with the lead flyer of the team, who nodded in assent, boarded herself.
"Detaiiiill... HUP!" The flyers snapped out their wings, and with several strong flaps lifted the Chariot easily into the air.
Twilight hung on the Chariot's railing for several minutes, watching the clouds passing below them. Then she looked up at Cadance.
"Cadance, are you a Princess too?" she asked.
Cadance had been expecting the question. "Indeed I am."
"Like Princess Celestia?"
"Well..." Cadance smiled. "Not quite like Princess Celestia. She's way more experienced than I am. And she does rule Equestria. But I help out in little ways, any way I can."
"Like with me?"
"Like with you," Cadance agreed. "Especially with you, Twilight!"
Twilight beamed, delighted, and turned back to watching the clouds.
The Chariot touched down in an open meadow near the playground. While the guards unharnessed themselves and took up station at a discreet distance, Cadance and Twilight set up their picnic in the shade of a nearby tree.
"Look!" Twilight cried, pointing to the middle of the blanket. "A ladybug! We should do the Welcome Spell!"
Cadance nodded. "Why not?" And this time she had to try to keep up with Twilight as they sang the words:
Sunshine, sunshine!
Ladybugs awake!
Clap your hooves,
And do a little shake!
After lunch they went over to the playground, which stood empty in the sunlight since it was still school hours for the town's children. Twilight had to try everything: swings, slides, seesaw, roundabout, scurry tunnels, and the climbing web. But she eventually gravitated back to the swings, and Cadance patiently pushed her as long as she wanted.
Twilight sighed happily as she swung back and forth. "I am so lucky to have you as my foal-sitter!"
"I'm the one who's lucky, Twilight!"
"Huh! You're a Princess! I'm just a regular old unicorn!"
Cadance stopped the swing and grabbed her in a hug with a forehoof. "You are anything but a regular old unicorn, Twilight! The things you can do, the things you've been learning... you're going to be way better than me at magic!"
"Well... I can't do feely spells as good as you can!" Twilight objected.
"Give yourself time, you'll get there. And you have two of the best teachers in the land to help you. I had to figure out a lot of it on my own!"
Twilight looked at her, amazed. "Really?"
"Really. Celestia found me because of the spells I could already do, and she brought me here to help me learn more, just as she did with you."
"And you didn't have any books or anything to help?"
"Nothing but the love I felt for other ponies," Cadance said. "But that was enough to get me started, to focus the magic I had to draw on."
Twilight considered that for a long moment.
"Could you teach me some feely spells, Cadance?"
"I've been waiting for you to ask me, Twilight!"