//------------------------------//
// The Memory Palace 
// Story: My Little Student 
// by Lets Do This 
//------------------------------//

"Very good work, Twilight!" Celestia said, as Twilight finished demonstrating her most recent assignment in spell-construction in the Vault. "You're getting the hang of fixing flaws in your spells, and stopping failures before they get out of hand."

"Thanks..." Twilight said unhappily.

"What is it?"

"It's going so slow! Making spells is a lot harder than I expected! I have to figure out every way the spell can go wrong ahead of time!" She kicked a book lying on the floor beside her. "And I can only make such simple spells! Even levitating a book is better than what I can do!"

Celestia thought for a moment. "Would you like to see a spell that I created?"

Twilight immediately brightened up. "Yes, please!"

"All right then. Come this way."

"But, Princess... the Vault door is over here!"

"I know it is, Twilight. Keep up, and don't wander off!"

A different set of doors had appeared in the gray expanse of the Vault: tall, imposing, and inlaid with scrollwork. They swung open, and Celestia stepped through with Twilight close on her heels.

Beyond Twilight found herself in what looked like the Royal Audience Chamber, with Celestia's throne at the far end. But it was eerily silent and empty, with sunlight cascading through its tall windows.

And there was a fourty-foot tall banjo resting against the wall to the left of the throne.

"This is my memory palace," Celestia explained. "I created it a long time ago when I had many more things to keep track of and I kept forgetting them. Oh, yes!" she said in answer to Twilight's amazed look. "Until I really got organized I forgot names, dates, appointments, everything!"

"And this helped?"

"Yes. I found that simply trying to remember things myself wasn't working. Even the usual memory tricks like visualization and name association didn't work. So I took memories of places I knew well, and crafted this spell to turn them into actual places I could walk through, as real and vivid as if I was actually there again. Then as I walked, I could add objects to the various rooms in the palace that were totally out of place, but served as reminders. Like that banjo... I think it was a reminder I had music lessons first thing in the morning... at least I hope it was! And when I needed to recall things, I invoked the spell and then walked through the palace again, and the objects I encountered helped me remember."

"Wow," Twilight said, looking around. "It's beautiful!"

"It's merely a copy of the palace and some of its rooms," Celestia replied. "But it worked well for me for many years. Now that I'm better organized, of course, I haven't had a need for it. I haven't been here for many years, to be honest!"

"You think I can do something like this?"

"You'll want to start smaller, but I see no reason why not. Come on back out with me, and I'll show you the basics."

They stepped back out through the doors. Twilight looked back at the empty palace hall in amazement.

Some day, she thought. Some day I'll be this good.