The day seemed brighter than usual in Equestria. With ponies running about on their daily business, Sketch-it found herself engulfed in the nice mid-day sun, sitting around in the park. She had the book open reading more about the power of magic and the many fun uses such as the following trick she was working on in front of Spike and North.
"Ok I think I got this now..." She began to concentrate her magic into a small flower. It wiggled about and seemed to be trying to grow, it raised about a centimeter before it dropped back down. "Ohhhh... Fudge..." She drooped her head down feeling the trick was beyond her grasp. Spike looked at the flower a bit and with a sneaky remark,
"I can totally see it, it's not much, but that flower did grow... what do you think North?" A bit Skeptical she caught on to his plan and nodded graciously answering,
"Yep, I can't be exact on the measurement but it's bigger than it was before. Come on Sketch you can do it! Make that flower grow!" Sketch-it snickered with a little more confident boost in her ability and she gave in,
"Oh alright, stand back you two." Passerby ponies took a glimpse as they were trotting on their way at the unicorn attempting to grow a flower. She focused as hard as she possibly could literally feeling a headache coming over her, but sure enough the flower began to dance around as the stem raised and the petals began to bloom larger. Spike and North began to grow over excited whispering to one another,
"I think she's got it..." As the flower began to glow brighter with the magic aura around it, two mares stopped in their tracks to observe the spectacle.
A couple of ooohs and ahhhs and Sketch-it couldn't think straight with the noise and broke her concentration, letting the plant droop back down.
"Agghhh Darnit!" She stomped her hoof with anxious frustration! North trotted over and assured her,
"It's no big deal mare, it takes a lot of focus to do magic right, hey if it makes you feel better I still can't use growth magic that well either."
"But North isn't growth magic your ex... mmmphhhhhmphh!!" North plugged Spike's mouth shut with her hoof laughing nervously,
"ahhh yeah spike, it's totally one of my weakest studies of magic." The perplexed pony trotted herself back to her book levitating it up to make sure she was doing it right. North quietly snapped at Spike, "I don't want her knowing that yet, I don't want her worrying about somepony doing something better than her, not until she has enough confidence she can get better." Spike realized her plan and gave her a wink answering back,
"Ahh I gotcha, nice plan." Sketch-it came back to them with the book in front of her face reading aloud, when she took a glance at them, and in response they smiled awkwardly. She laughed at them both answering blissfully,
"Pfft, if I didn't know any better you two are hiding something from me..." She disregarded it as Spike nervously began to sputter,
"Oh no we're not hiding anything, totally not I mean we couldn't possibly hide the fact that North.... AGHOAMMMPHH!" She again stuffed a hoof in his face.
"Oh Spike, sometimes he just can't stop rambling when he's sooo excited about seeing magic tricks heheheh... isn't that right Spike?" Letting her hoof from his face he nodded his head rapidly adding,
"Yeah I really get excited about magic. It's been so long since I've seen good magic performances like yours Sketch." Sketch-it felt honored that they enjoyed watching her attempts, and in truth they were enjoying it. They were hoping that sooner or later that unicorn would get better at it.
"Alright then, well I most certainly won't let you two down, ok I'm going to continue working on multi-tasking my magic with levitations before going back to growth magic." North agreed it was best to keep working on that,
"It'll help you keep your focus, the more tasks you handle and concentrate on, the better you'll get! COME ON MARE YOU CAN DO IT!" With a swish of her mane she attempted to take on as many things as she could.
Taking the small bunch of apples in her satchel she began to juggle three of them in the air while taking another and holding it up near her face while attempting to hold the book up and make it look as if she was reading. Not yet finished she took out a pencil and a small piece of paper and began to draw out nothing in particular. The activities were stressing on her mind but it was quite an impressive spectacle to see so many activities, but one thing was scaring her to go any further. She was able to get all these activities prepared, but she could only focus on keeping them active, she didn't know if she could open her eyes and read, or enjoy eating the apple, nor if she had the ability to focus on what in Equestria she was drawing on the piece of paper.
"Wow, that's pretty impressive!" North complimented as she watched the whole thing unfold. Spike and North both were full of anticipation and hoped that she would attempt to try and do more, but the expression on her face made them worry she was afraid to take a step forward. "Come on Sketch, take that next step. Just keep focusing."
Normally one object at a time for the poor pony was enough but she had seven all at once. She gritted her teeth and attempted to open her eyes, in her mind she felt as soon as she does she would lose her concentration, North could see she was trying too hard and without hesitation she ducked behind Spike yelling, "SHE'S GONNA BLOW!"
"WHAT!?" Spike cried out, as soon as they yelled Sketch-it pushed her eyes completely open and let loose her tension sending the juggling apples shooting outwards, with one bopping a poor pony across the head knocking them over yelping,
"OWWW!" The book dropped, the pencil pierced the paper and the last apple dropped harmlessly on the ground. Sketch-it gave a frustrating sigh, with a bruised pony trotting over to her with a rather unpleasant expression. "I believe this is yours." He growled, the stallion was also a unicorn which just gave her a drop in her confidence as he plopped the apple down beside her strutting off with a sneer, "Ponyvillians HMPH!"
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh...." Sketch-it groaned laying her face on the grass and covering her hooves over her eyes in the embarrassment. North trotted over to her friend poking Sketch-it on the shoulder with a happy reply,
"Hey, don't worry about what he thinks, that stallion I bet is just a one trick pony, most unicorns who prance around like that usually are."
"Thanks..." Sketch-it gave a saddening answer back as she moped over to the bench plopping herself on top sulking quietly trying to stop thinking so much about it. North and her little tag along Spike felt it was best to let her blow off the stress alone.
"Come on Spike, we should leave her be, let's go check up on Sweetie Belle and see how she's doing." Spike knew all too well what North really wanted to do there and that was to see the new fashion she was working on.
"Ohhh hooo noo. Keep your frilly thoughts away from me... I'm gonna go take my mid-day nap..." She squared her eyes at him taking her hoof as she grinned poking him,
"You lazy dragon, being years older and you still act like a big lazeh babeh..."
"Psssh I can't help it, I like my naps, you know how it is in that library, it's sooo boring, so few ponies come around, it's unappreciated I say. Plus I've been having some pretty nasty nightmares lately so I need more naps." She tried to convince him once again assuring him he would not be maliciously dressed up in anything pink and frilly. "Agghhh, alright but if even one girly thing touches a scale I'm out of there."
"Fair enough."
Leaving Sketch-it back she gazed around at the ponyvillians trotting about happily, and she felt out of place being all saddened. She glared at the objects on the ground.
"Might as well go back home and do some paint work..." She hopped up from the bench and as she began to make her way to picking up her mess, a shadow flew over her from above. With a swoop came down a curious pony questioning in a very kind tone,
"Ahhh hello, there again Sketch-it..." Sketch-it turned her head and in a surprise she realized it was none other than the odd quiet pony she seen at her welcoming party, Starlight.
"Oh hello ummm... Starlight right?" The long maned pony gave her an acknowledging nod as she helped pick up the paper and pencil.
"I couldn't help but notice you were doing magic. I was wondering if I'm too late to ask if you could show me a couple..." In a shy manner Sketch-it noticed she was trying to insist on her to stay and show her a magic trick. She seemed excited and hopeful that she would say yes, but Sketch-it had no mood for it, she felt rather dulled by the concentration.
"I don't think I can do any right now, I'm a bit tired out from trying so hard." The pegasus cautiously tried to approach Sketch-it's boundary again insisting,
"Oh well I don't really want a big show, I just really like to watch a simple trick, like juggling, ohhh can you juggle again it looked like so much fun." Sketch-it glanced at her in a bit of disbelief, here stood a pony that seemed to show persistent behavior to watch something so simple any unicorn could do, even Sketch-it. She sighed reluctantly and took the last apple out of her satchel making three, and she began to juggle with a confident smirk staring at the juggling apples as if this was foal's play. Starlight smiled and joyfully answered, "Yay I always loved magic tricks, as a little filly I always went to the circus, or well I also went to parties and celebrations, and I'd see ponies doing tricks, but when unicorns do them it's more magical... I wish I was a unicorn, that would be soo amazing."
The modest pegasus gave Sketch-it a bit of an ego boost, and she slipped the apples one by one away in her satchel smiling with a warm voice to Starlight,
"Well, being a unicorn has its advantages, but I'd much rather be sailing across the sky right now, I have a headache from all this magic practice." Starlight didn't mean to impose but when she heard that she was practicing, the helpful pony took a step closer encroaching in Sketch-it's personal space.
"Ohhh, can I help you practice, I like helping everypony I can, call it a weakness of nature, I'm sorry I'm just... can I help?" Sketch-it was not sure how she could be of assistance, but she didn't have the sensation to go sulk in her bed now.
"I'm not sure if you could help me, this is sort of one of those things that a pony has to do themselves... what did you have in mind?" Starlight started to flutter in the air and pointed off in the distance replying,
"There's a nice little place that's really quiet and sunny it always helps me when I need to think. I'm sure if we think together we can figure out something I could do to help." Sketch-it pondered for a moment, maybe a quiet getaway from the crowded park would be just right for a pony to think freely, she had yet to really get a moment's peace being tugged around so much for the past three days. She agreed to follow Starlight to her little thinking spot.
Sketch-it trotted her way behind the slow flying pegasus. This pony Sketch-it thought, was almost too calm and happy to be true, even for Ponyville she's noticed that this pony was out of the ordinary happy and nice. As she came towards the center of town, she kept her trot along when she heard a large congregation of ponies in the Town Square. For a moment Sketch-it paused and thought to herself why she hadn't been getting any warning of these announcements or invitations.
"Well than again I am fairly new here, maybe I need to ask about that later." She started back on her path as she carefully raised an ear to hear the Mayor announce,
"Now settle down Fillies and Gentlecolts, I know you've been expecting to know when the Autumn Festival will begin, as a reminder we're still low on money and need to raise about two thousand more bits to setup a few more arrangements so everypony please donate if you can. As for the scheduled day we're still unsure." Well the news sure didn't sound important to get any notice, she was so used to celebrations and gatherings being alerted to her attention at Galloport, of course she was living in a wealthy mansion being the Mareweather's favorite pony she would always have access to those alerts.
The two ponies traveled through grassy fields until Starlight descended over by a beautiful little pond stretching near forest timber.
"Isn't this the most lovely place to sit and think, sweet little froggies sitting on lily-pads and blooming flowers, whispering cat tails..." Starlight trotted over to a large rock by the edge of the pond and sat atop it surrounded by cat tails. "Soo soothing, and quiet I could sit here all day and think. A lot of times I'll sit out at night and watch the moon and stars glitter across the sky, space is just so fascinating..." Sketch-it took in the view of the mountains off in the distance where she could see the beautiful castle of Canterlot.
"Wow this is beautiful, and so quiet..." Sketch-it felt for the first time being in Ponyville, a real natural and calm peace with nopony but this mystery filly in sight. She fluttered her ears in the excitement and from her other satchel pulled out a pad levitating it with a paintbrush and pencil jumping out. "I... I feel like I could just..." Before she could finish her sentence she did what Sketch-it did best, she unfolded the tripod behind her pad and stuck it down bringing out an assortment of paints.
Starlight turned her attention over to the heavily concentrated pony awing at how she arranged her paints, her sharpener, the pencil and paintbrush together with such grace began to work together to form a composition of paint oils and graphite. Starlight trotted happily around to see what she was doing, she had begun to capture the lovely image of the scenery in front of her. She had everything detailed including Starlight sitting peacefully on the rock before she moved, as if she took a camera and made a snapshot before she moved. "Some dabs here, a line there, not to hard, a little softer. A great big splash here, oh that cloud is too puffy let's just, yess..."
Starlight was in amazement at the unicorn's performance for nearly ten minutes, when the pony finally dropped her pencil and paintbrush on the side of the pad. Sketch-it admired her work with an expression of longing to just jump into the picture, when Starlight replied,
"WOWWW, you are really really good at drawing, well I mean I noticed your cutie mark and you definitely fit the description it shows." Breaking from her trance she turned to her smiling modestly.
"Ohhh I, well yeah, it's not a big deal..." She turned her attention to the scenery behind her picture, her mind for once feeling so empty of worries and filled with a peaceful bliss. Everything just felt so right at that moment. "Wait a minute." She once again snapped out of her trance and realized the peaceful feeling she was having may be what she needed to help her with learning her magic.
Quickly she ran to a small group of flowers and targeting a bright little pink flower she enveloped it in her magic and tried to focus as hard as she could. Try as she might, her mind again began to pressure her focus until she felt her focus give way. She glanced down to the flower in disbelief that it still didn't grow. "Whatttt... nooo, this it... AGHHH!" Starlight watched as the impatient pony started to gallop away breaking into tears at her failure.
"Wait, Sketch-it wait..." Her voice not carrying far enough, failed to get the upset pony's attention. Starlight turned her attention over to the painting of her little peaceful pond, and down at the little art supplies Sketch-it left in anguish. Upset herself, Starlight approached the painting thinking to herself, "How could somepony fail to be happy here..." The problem seemed so perplexing to her, but she didn't want it to burden her mind so she slowly walked over to her rock and sat on it the exact way the painting illustrated her.
Sketch-it's upset galloping into Town caught the eye of many ponies who threw away the concern to their own business. She threw open her door leaving it open as she ran up the stairs into her room. Closing the door behind and once again in more of a confused state she let out a whimper kicking at the covers.
"What is wrong with me, everything I try just ends up failing, I make unicorn foals look like magicians compared to me. Stupid magic..." As Sketch-It had an upsetting time rolling in her bed. A pair of ponies were having some fun over at the Carousel Boutique.
Sweetie Belle, and North of course being sneaky mares had a blast messing with Spike who at the moment was running around screaming,
"AHHHH I KNEW THIS WAS A TRAP!"
"Oh come on Spike it won't hurt, just try it... it's a very lovely little suit I worked hard on..." Sweetie Belle tried to reason with him.
"Yeah Spike come on, it's a suit, not a dress it's not even frilly!?" North tried her style of reason through her humorous cackling! The frantic dragon made his stand between the two mares and the door was just in his reach!
"I didn't come over here to be an experiment for fashion I came here just to hang out!" Sweetie Belle tried to soothingly assure him he didn't have to keep it on just one try. In an effort he tried to cross by North who jumped in his way every turn! "Awww come on!" He complained as his options were running low. He attempted to make a straight run, but as he began to run, he realized something, he was not moving! "What the..." He turned realizing North had her hoof on his tail! "NOOOOO!!! Please AGGHHHH!" He squirmed as Sweetie Belle began to magically envelop the suit on him! He closed his eyes as fabric pushed around and fitted on him, and he could hear the adoring awwwwwwsss from the mares.
"He's so adorable, look at him..." An agitated expression came across his face as he turned around. Come to find out the suit was not as bad as he thought gazing in the mirror.
"Oh wow, now that it's on me, it's not half bad..." North rolled her eyes laughing as Sweetie Belle commented with a graceful hoof,
"See all that trouble and in the end it looks great!" Spike gave a happy nod answering ecstatically,
"Absolutely, Sweetie Belle you got the skill just like your sis. I feel like a regular Double'O Pony with this, really nice." As he was giving himself some suave looks in the mirror North interrupted him responding,
"Alright Mister self admiration, you can take it off now." Spike's eyes glazed over as he continued to feel so in love with the way he looked he responded with a faint,
"Huh, what's that?" North just disregarded his loss of mind and levitated the suit off of him, "What heyy, come on I was really feeling the moment with that suit."
"Yeah maybe a little too much in the moment..." Sweetie Belle giggled as she took the suit and put it over on a table with some of the works she's attempted.
"Don't worry Spike, the next big event I'll let you have it, but for now I'm keeping this stuff to sorta fill the boutique." Spike liked the idea and pumped his fist with a victorious,
"AWESOME!"
North glanced over out the window and to her surprise she seen something that irked her. It didn't seem like anypony cared, but off in the distance she could see a group of griffins in the vicinity of Ponyville, they seemed to have been swooping down on something, and it was by no means a friendly swoop.
"Ummm, sorry to dash away so suddenly, but I have something I really need to do... ummm Spike you can stay or come with me if you want."
"It's ok I'll stay here, see you later North." Spike answered. North acknowledged and in a flash she shot up like a rocket wasting no time. Something about griffins made a click in her mind that cannot be stopped. One being Griffins were not supposed to be in the area of any part of the Celestial Empire's territory. The only explanation for a Griffin being in Ponyville, is just trouble, and there were three!
She swooped down over a cloud and observed for a little bit before she made any accusation.
"No, STOP... NOT THAT PLEASE!" A helpless earth pony stallion was having his satchel passed around as three griffins were flying around passing his belongings around laughing.
"Look at this guys, an adowable wittle stuffed pony..." They laughed menacingly like a bunch of delinquents. The leader of the griffins a tough dark feathered griffin made a cross examining comment,
"What the, what's a full grown stallion doing with a stuffed pony, what a weirdo HAHAHA!"
"That's for my little daughter, stop this instant you... you!!" The leader swooped down and raised up over the stallion two times his size sneering,
"You, What... what am I to you huh, HUH?!" Intimidated the pony lurched and began to trot backwards. "That's what I thought, tell you what, you can either grow a backbone and take it back from us, or you'll just have to wait until we're through." North growled furiously to herself,
"Those three again, I knew this was trouble." North swooped down towards the stallion and she didn't make it subtle, she flew as fast as she could pulling off a ground ripping slide stopping just ahead of the stallion. The leader took a look at her while the two airborne griffins looked down with a pause. "Jakal, I should've know it was you Kliff and Drabby, only you three bird brains would have the mindlessness to come beyond the borders of griffin territory to torment Ponyvillians." The three griffins identified her as the pony that made fools of them months ago. Jakal glared down at her confident replying,
"Looky what we got here boys, it's that annoying little pony! I say you're the mindless one for coming at us alone this time!"
"Yeah, you're the one that don't brain not have yeah, YEAH you don't have a brain to think the smarts like we do..." Drabby bumbled in his own stupidity, Kliff responded with,
"Drabby stick a feather in it, Jakal doesn't need you backing him up on this, right Jakal!"
"Shaddup both of you...!" He scolded at them only to turn around and add, "Alright, listen here Pony, I donno who you think you are, but we can go anywhere we want, and do whatever we want. So why don't you just go buzz off!" He let out an angry roar staggering the stallion, but North just stomped a hoof and lower her head with an angry stare.
"Get out of here, and I won't kick your little feathery butts back to the mountains!" Jakal took this as a challenge and growled back,
"You're going to regret coming at us alone!"
Just as he began to reach out and grab her, she spun back gave him the nastiest buck of his life crooking his beak. "AGGGHHHHH!" He backed away a bit staggering. He looked at his beak and suddenly in a spurt of anger his wings blew out as he gave a strong eagle like call in the sky! Kliff and Drabby swooped down after her, but she bolted away into the air with both of them crashing into one another! "Don't just stand there like hatchlings, GET HER!" The three griffins launched in the air dropping the satchel and the belongings of the stallion, but left with a thundering down draft of air blowing the stallion back.
North looked back spotting the three griffins coming up on her fast, so she had them right where she wanted them, away from the ground where she could fight them without anypony getting hurt.
"Alright let's see if they will remember this, if they do this may be more difficult to pull off... here's hoping they don't remember." She shot into a cloud disappearing, Jakal's angry rage stopped him from remembering the hazards a cloud could become, he charged inside the cloud blindly yelling,
"HIDING IS NOT GONNA HELP YOU NOW PONY!" Ecstatic about the dopey griffins being too distracted to remember, she was going to fully enjoy playing with their minds. "Agghhh, where are you!?" Kliff came out of one side of the cloud replying,
"She's not over here.... OWWW!" Kliff felt a tug on a feather and a pluck from his skin. After him Drabby yelped for the same reason. Jakal felt his tail feather get plucked.
"AGGH! COME OUT AND FACE ME FAIR YOU COWARD!" He suddenly heard a voice laugh outloud,
"Oh I'm not fighting you right now, technically I'm playing with your minds hehehehe, though I donno if you three bird brains really have one HAHHAHA!" Jakal started to feel his feathers flustering and over and over several times he felt a pluck and he couldn't find the pony quick enough to stop her!
"If we can't get you inside the cloud, then we'll keep your from leaving the cloud! You'll have to come out eventually!"
"Heh, your challenge accepted bird brain." The three griffins surrounded the cloud as they said they would, and when they separated on the sides, North began to sneak around the cloud peering just enough to know where they were.
"Come on you dumb pony try to escape!"
"I don't plan to escape, I plan to KICK YOUR FEATHERY TAIL!" A sharp electric yellow bolt came out of the clouds and another painful buck shot came plowing Jakal's stomach sending him careening through the sky. She zipped back through the cloud sending a jet of puffs breaking apart from the cloud as she basically flew up and dropped her fore hooves right on the shoulders of Drabby sending him dropping down from the sky as well, and she curved around giving a soaring side hoof straight to Kliff's beak! All in one well executed move! "Not even a challenge!" The griffins all dropped down into the fields plowing the ground! Glaring back at the victorious pony. Kliff and Drabby were about to try and shoot back up after her when Jakal cried out with his eagle call.
"LET IT GO NOW, she's not worth it. We'll get her when there's no clouds in the sky, WATCH YOUR BACK PONY! We'll be watching!" North looked down as she stretched herself on a floating puff from the large cloud answering back,
"WHATEVER FEATHER HEAD!" The griffins flew away from the scene with North taking a moment to relax on the little puff, but she felt so exuberant from her encounter that she had the urge to give chase. Her thought immediately blocked by a thankful voice echoing,
"Celestia bless you so much mare! May I know who you are please?" She looked down spotting the stallion father wanting to know the name of his heroic defender. Not wanting to be rude she flew down in front of him giving herself a boasting stance as she announced,
"It really wasn't any trouble at all, I'm North by the way." The stallion gave her a joyful nod as he replied,
"Well I thank you very much North, I was afraid those fiends would have damaged my daughter's birthday present, I came all the way to Ponyville from Fillydelphia to get this beautiful hoof stitched unicorn doll..." He showed her the wonderfully crafted doll with a beautiful white coat and cotton candy pink mane. "Well I better be trotting along back, I can't thank you enough, well... maybe I can, I say you deserve some sort of reward for this..."
"Oh no really you don't have..." Trying to be modest in her fine hour of heroism, the stallion refused her modesty and gave her a few bits he had to spare. The money reward was alright, but North was actually expecting something more symbolic or present like quality than money itself, but she did not argue it was fifteen bits, a good spending amount in Ponyville if you were not looking to furnish a home. Before she could say anything back he started to trot away waving his hoof to her with one last thank you.
She stared at the bits in her hooves wondering what to do with it. She felt like just blowing it all on books, but she still had so many to read from her house and the library itself had enough literature to make a bookworm such as herself content.
Blinding through the sky she made a haste to return over to her home to put the coins in her stash. "Might just save it up for the next Daring Do book... Orrr... ORRR!" She began to remember one book she wanted very badly and mumbled to herself, "I can't believe I forgot about that one, I can use this and maybe some of my stashed cash to totally buy the Steamwork Stallion, Manehatten Times says it's good. I can't believe I would fathom taking a shot in the dark on a book and author I have yet to know, but it's STEAM, and CLOCKWORK!" She attempted to argue with herself as she soared down to the front door of her house, when a random thought came to her, "I hope Sketch-it's still not upset, aggghhhh I should check up on her." She zoomed through her house to her stash in her dresser placing the bits a bit obsessively in a pile separated from her clothes. "I also need to find a better place for my money, uggghhh I need to rearrange a lot of things." Her bedroom was very neatly arranged as it was, but she felt the urge to move it all, to rearrange everything from the stemming problem she didn't have a nice neat little place to put her money in besides a dresser drawer.
She fought with herself on wanting to move her house contents around and wanting to check up on her new acquaintance. She fought as hard as she could but the obsessive desire won her over and she found herself starting to levitate several objects around, lamps, tables, chairs, her couch, the bed, she was even about to move her fridge, but the amount of effort was too much so she left it alone.
The poor pony back at the townhouse was just in a terrible mood. She had her hoof on the bedside table running circles over the surface staring at the light with a longing to understand what was the secret behind clearing the mind.
"Ohhh Celestia why can't I stop thinking so much about this, it's like the first step to actually starting to understand magic, I guess that's why it's so difficult..." Out of the blue she heard a voice interrupt her from the window that startled the pony right out of her bed,
"Well no derp Sherlock Hooves!"
"AGHHHH!" She swung her attention to the window spotting a fluttering North staring into her window. Realizing who it was she trotted over to the window and opened it up with a relaxed response, "Jeeze North you nearly scared my hooves off, what in Equestria are you doing?" North shrugged as she took a few glances around the town answering sweetly,
"Nothing really just wanted to check up on you and see if you were ok, I didn't see you at the park so I assumed you went back home, I take it you still have yet to learn how to clear your head?" Sketch-it turned around sighing with a hesitant head shake. "Well don't feel so down, so what if you're a late bloomer, sometimes it's a good thing." Sketch-it turned to her friend lurching saddeningly with a sarcastic gaze. "Don't give me that look I'm serious, you have a chance to learn things in a different perspective, learn paths that a little filly would not be able to understand. I'd give my left hoof to be so blissful and fresh to learn the old tricks."
"That doesn't make sense naturally the younger you are you learn better... at least that's what I thought..." She began to doubt herself for a moment thinking maybe North knew better, but it made no sense, so to help the perplexed pony North stated as bluntly as she could,
"Ok think about it, when you are young and you learn stuff, sure it's a good habit, but that's just it, it's habits. Ponies learn habits to make for learning stuff, your mind is still fresh because you have so many questions going on, yeah it's bad and all if you want to get things done and you don't know how to go about doing it, but your mind has already put out so many paths to do said job, all we got to do is teach you how to choose a path without all your pathways frustrating you."
"I guess that does make a lot of sense, but if you say it like that isn't that insulting yourself and other ponies who have habits..." North threw a hoof up to her face with her ears pinning back from the sheer confusion Sketch-it was boiling up with her scatterbrained thoughts.
"Look, I didn't say having habits was bad, I just said it's better to have more options open to go about a job rather than having one learning curve which limits you on your paths... Uggghhhh now I'm confusing myself, I'm sure I said it right..." Poor North began to get frizzled and confused and she shook her head in a disappointing manner as if ashamed that she allowed Sketch-it's doubts to doubt herself.
She took a deep breath and pointed her hoof at Sketch-it barking, "Come on you Perplexing Pony, we're going to un-perplex that brain of yours before you give me some terrible mind derping illness!" Sketch-it had nothing better to do so she made her way back down to grab her satchels and carry on outside. North landed by her asking where she would like to go to clear her head. Immediately the pony pointed off to the open fields, she wanted to try again at the place she felt the most comfortable.
As they traveled their ways over towards Starlight's little pond, Spike caught them along the way wondering what they were up to. "Well, well Spike, I thought you'd be sleeping..." Spike shrugged as he waddled along side the ponies mumbling,
"Couldn't really sleep, I had another nightmare..." North gave a quick concerning look to her friend and replied,
"You really need to stop eating so many sweets, there's a remedy for constant night terrors, we can go find it later if ya want."
"Thanks I'll keep that in mind, I'd really like to get some good sleep for once." Spike felt unusually energetic as he followed behind the ponies on a journey to figure out what they were up to. The answer came to him when they all made their way over a hill to a very beautiful looking little pond.
"Oh WOW!" North awed as she gazed through the horizon across the rolling hills to the mountains near Canterlot. "This is an awesome spot, nopony around, I could just sit and read around this little spot for hours..."
Sketch-it noticed that her stuff had been moved and still sitting on the rock lay little Starlight. North curiously approached the pony to find she was asleep. Starlight had made herself tired worrying if she had made a mistake trying to help Sketch-it. She peacefully made adorable snoozing sounds, North felt it wrong to wake her, but it would be invading her privacy to hang around with her not knowing so she went to wake her.
One poke on the back and the pony suddenly jumped out into the air with a loud squealing,
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!" North jumped back disturbed as the pony launched right into the pond like a frog slapping the water loudly scaring said frogs around the pond! North gave an awkward grimmace peering over the rock as Starlight popped out of the water shooting water out from her mouth splashing right in North's face sending her flopping on her flank atop the rock.
"Gahhhh, Oh Jeeze Say it don't spray it pluahh!" Little Starlight gave an intriguing playful smile answering,
"Ohhhhhp sorry, I thought for a moment you were something scary, but I guess I was wrong..." She grew an even brighter smile as Sketch-it and Spike peered over the cat tails at the drenched ponies. "Ohh hello Sketch-it..." With a very warm caring expression she asked if she was feeling better.
"Oh hi Starlight, well as far as I can tell I do feel a bit better, we came here to give it another shot, I'm gonna get it this time!" With a bit of confidence Sketch-it trotted herself over to a small spot in the grass taking out her apples, the book, and a few odd and ends she took from her home in order to have a variety of tasks. Laying them in a pile she grinned with a competitive expression ready to take on the challenge. "Ok let's do this!" Spike, Starlight, and North hopped over to Sketch-it ready to cheer her on.
"Come on Sketch you can do this, show us your magic!" Spike barked with a fist pumping cheerful jump. Sketch-it readied herself and began to focus her mind on the apples first beginning to juggle them about in the air. "Wooo Alright!"
"Foal steps Sketch, don't go too fast." North responded calmly as Spike and Starlight were ready to see some awesome magic feats.
"I know you can do it Sketch-it." Starlight cheered on, Sketch-it began to levitate the book up to her face opening it up to some random page. North quickly before she could add anything more ordered Sketch,
"Ok now before you try anything else open your eyes now, stop forcing your eyes closed, just open them and try to concentrate on the objects." She knew exactly what the problem was, she was trying too hard and North refused this time to let Sketch-it go on further to put her ability down.
"But If I open my eyes I'm just going to..."
"No buts, open those eyes and just keep your head clear, just think about what you are doing right now." Spike and Starlight agreed as they tried to help convince her it was not going to be the end of the world. Inside North's head she thought, 'I bet she's afraid she's gonna start focusing on what she see's rather than focusing on her tasks. She's gotta break the habit of letting her eyes take her concentration.' That task was obviously easier said than done, the only way to get a pony to stop focusing on the things they see, was well a mystery because everypony was different!
They watched in suspense as she began to loosen her grip on her eyes beginning to slowly open them. As she did she could see everything becoming more and more in focus, and as she did she felt her mind start to wonder off with thoughts. North began to watch her magic start to fade and the book began to slowly drop to the ground with the apples slowing their pace. She grew a frustrating expression gripping her teeth on her lower lip and in a burst of fury North stomped her hoof commanding, "KEEP THAT BOOK UP TO YOUR FACE! Let the apples go, just keep the book up!" The outburst spooked Sketch-it but she did as she was commanded and let the apples fall. "Ok now we see you can handle one task with your eyes open. How is this?" North began to pace back and forth to release her frustration.
"Well one task is not that tough, I mean it's just levitating a book, simple..."
"NO IT'S NOT, according to how much you try and worry about failing even one simple task should not be executed with your eyes open, now we've reached the problem and I'm just gonna bluntly say it right now!" Starlight and Spike lurched away from North who now had a very prominent commanding tone ready to mold sketch-it's mind and change some ways of thinking that had been troubling her. "When you do magic mare you don't try to pull out every ounce of energy in your body to do these tasks, you do exactly what you are doing now, shirk it off and act like it's a no brainer. I don't know how you could've let yourself be so challenged to do such simple things, when they are just that... SIMPLE!"
Like a drill sergeant North continued to pace back and forth in front of Sketch-it while the two others were standing back to watch the result. North didn't like to help in such a way but she felt this was an emergency and this pony needed some serious help. "Alright listen to what I say and I want you to focus on these tasks, and I'm not gonna let up, I want you to keep going as hard as you can with your eyes wide open!" Sketch-it nodded nervously as North barked, "Juggle those apples!" Sketch-it began to juggle the apples as commanded. "Now raise that book!" With a painful grit of her teeth she pulled the book up trying to keep from closing her eyes. "Open said book while barking like a dog!"
"Whatt..."
"NO QUESTIONS JUST DO IT!"
"Bark bark, Woof... Bark!" Sketch-it let out little barks and woofs as she attempted to open the book. Spike began to laugh behind Starlight,
"Woww, this is getting really SILLY!"
"Silly but it's working strangely, I didn't think it was going to really." North commented back as she watched the barking pony finally open the book. "Alright now hop on one hoof, juggle the apples higher, start reading the book in your aloud while trying to eat another apple, come on do it... do it now let's go!" As Sketch-it began to bring another apple up towards her mouth she began to hop on one foot, but as she began to read the pages of the book she began to lose her concentration causing her tasks to start going sporadic. "Oh no!" OH YES, Sketch-it was not quite ready to take on reading the book and now she has grown unstable in her thoughts... panic had settled and North cried out, "Stop thinking, just stop thinking all together!" The pony dropped on the ground like a lifeless mannequin dropping everything on the ground harmlessly. North shook her head as she yet again slapped her hoof up to her face wanting to laugh but she was more withheld with disappointment. "When I said stop thinking I didn't mean freeze up and stop breathing dummy." Sketch-it took a deep breath looking back at her feeling she let North down.
"I'm sorry i'm just, ugghhhh I feel really stupid right now I'll shutup." Starlight was about to speak up when Spike had a plan.
"Let me try a whack at this North!" Spike ran over to Sketch-it raising a finger in the air replying, "Ok, I should have a few tricks up my sleeve after being the assistant of one of the most awesome ponies in existence. First off you need to throw away that doubt mare, what always helped Twilight a lot is studying and not caring what other's think. Pretend that you are like in a super secret lab cooking up experiments away from everyone." North squinted her eyes at him growling under her breath,
"Spike that's not gonna work..." Sighing she silently allowed Spike to do his thing.
"Trust me, just try it." Sketch-it figured she had nothing to lose on this endeavor so she closed her eyes imagining herself as a scientist working on the arcane arts in solitude. "Now try to pretend that doing all these things is for like research on some secret project to save all of pony kind." She began to laugh under her breath as she attempted to envision she was juggling apples and reading a book as if it was a research document, levitating an apple up towards her mouth about ready to test a concoction inside the apple she had made to somehow help ponies end hunger.
Imagining all this she felt the objects actively moving around her. Spike was smiling with a satisfied feeling in his stomach of accomplishment as he turned to North raising his eyebrows, "Look at that North, she's already handling these tasks like a pro." Ohhhhh North just adored how he was so confident that she could not help but burst his bubble with her simple persnickety reply,
"Ok now we're back to where we stopped at the park, now how do you get her to open her eyes and keep her focus..." Spike looked back at the smiling pony realizing she had her eyes closed and he felt his confident attempt stumped. He snapped his claws with a downhearted,
"Awwww Haystacks, I was sooo close..."
"Yeah so was I, we were making more progress just a few seconds ago, this is making me not ever want to teach, seriously if it's this hard I feel empathy for teachers, this is hard stuff, and they have to take care of like thirty or more ponies each year, I'd go crazy!" North exclaimed with an anguishing and unsettling sensation running through her head.
"Excuse me..." Starlight attempted to speak up over the two, but Spike cut her off agreeing with North adding,
"All those homework papers to grade, having to deal with little filly and colt drama and getting up every morning five days a week staying for hours on end, Agghhhh it sounds like a nightmare..." North could not agree more and she began to carry on the conversation as Starlight took another shot to raise attention to her with no avail.
"Teaching is such an unappreciated job, the great deal of stuff they go through everyday, I feel for Cherilee..."
"Ummm, if I could just say something I'd like to..." Spiked again interrupted poor Starlight wanting to continue the conversation,
"It totally is, and these new generations of fillies and colts it seems that you have more bad attitudes than anything..." Starlight began to flutter her wings with a tiny cute frustration as she attempted to assert herself in front of North answering,
"If you don't mind could I try and help sketch-it please..." North turned her attention over to the persistent pony's face which was unbearably close to hers giving her an insecure sensation to push her back.
"I don't think I ever said nobody was allowed to help her, if you want to try go ahead..."
"Oh thank you so much, cuz you know I actually have a great idea on how to help, hold on a moment I'll be right back." Starlight quietly fluttered over towards a large group of cat tails when North had a surprise to see a little roof jutting up from them.
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a second!" She flew overhead to get a look at the roof and sure as day there hiding behind the cat tails was the most unorthodox looking shack placed around a moat of water surrounding a garden of aquatic flora, Starlight did not just hang out at this place... she literally lived on this pond!
North dropped down disappearing in the reeds and cat tails leaving Spike mumbling,
"Fine, I'll just sit here and keep an eye on daydreamer here..." He turned to her and observed her motionless playing around with the imagination she had to occupy her mind with the tasks. "I wonderr..." Spike began to have a mischievous grin as he plotted to do something rather funny.
Over at the little dark rosewood shack, North followed the pony inside her humble abode. The interior was so alien to her, the floor was made to let water flow about in streams, it was as if she cut boundary lines to activities she did in her house with the little streams.
"I... this, is sooooooo AWESOME! It's like some sort of water garden only inside a house, you have a waterfall TOO WHAT IS THIS!? DID YOU DO THIS ALL BY YOURSELF!?" Starlight shook her head replying soothingly,
"Not really, my parents were nature lovers and advocated natural flow, they said if a home did not have flow then it was not a real home, so my dad Moon Water and mom Star Lilly built this home from scratch. It was away from everypony, peaceful and it literally just flows with natural beauty don't you agree?" North agreed completely!
"It certainly is a really magical sight... how come I've not seen you around much in town?" A small discomforting frown struck Starlight as she thought about her parents.
"Ummmm... well I do a lot of thinking and I also gather food from nature mostly like berries, and apples, I go to Sweet Apple Acres occasionally to get apples, and I also help Silver Thimble at the Thread and Stitch, I make little stuffed toys for little foals and I help stitch and repair torn fabrics. It's how I make money to provide for myself..." North gazed at her in disbelief, this lonely little pony, could she be the pony that made those stuffed toys the stallion talked about? If so she was getting business across Equestria for her skill.
"You wouldn't happen to be the one who made a white coat unicorn with a cotton candy mane would you?" Starlight turned with a great overflow of excitement in her big smile. It was rare for her to get personal recognition and she couldn't help but accept the honor of making it, not only accept but show another one of the same doll from her collection.
"Hold on a second!" She excitedly fluttered up the stairs where a beautiful waterfall poured just beyond the railing, it looked like a curtain of rain, the whole place looked varnished to prevent water damage so they apparently did not take any chances for their beautiful home to be harmed in any way.
No sooner than she flew up she came swooping back down revealing the very same unicorn doll the stallion had in possession! "Is this what you seen?"
"YES, as a matter of fact I did, I came across a stallion who had it for his daughter... wow you are really good, this doll has no visible seams, how did you..." Starlight smiled sweetly twinkling her eyes.
"Well that's my own personal secret. It's actually a doll inspired from a character in my favorite comic in the whole wide world..." North strolled around the room gazing at the sparkling cleanliness of the wood, the variety of waterfalls, lily pads, fish swimming across the small streams happily with frogs hopping along the floor. For many ponies this would be unacceptable but this lovely pony had some magical love for the beauty of nature and engulfed herself in the most out of place home North had ever seen.
After a bit she found herself staring at a particular picture on a sketch pad. "Do you paint too!?" She blurted in a daze of amazement, to think this pony's creativity exceeded all expectations. Starlight turned around to see what the commotion was about.
"What, no I couldn't possibly paint, especially not that well. That painting was done by Sketch-it, and it was sooo amazing how she did it, the way she used her magic to move around the paints, she was drawing out sketch lines then painting over all at the same time, it was so magical like, like a symphony of colors. She seemed so at peace with herself that it gave me an idea..." She paused a moment feeling a shy moment coming on, she didn't want to be judged by her plan, but a little voice inside her head told her just to say it, "When you said that she was trying too hard I was thinking you were right, and so I thought maybe this will help remind her to not try so hard. The way she looked at her painting, she looked oh so very happy with herself."
That's when both ponies struck the same conclusion of how to solve Sketch-it's dilemma!
"Quick grab that painting and come with me!" North immediately had the plan down and the ponies darted out of the shack to Sketch-it. Confident in her plan North grinned with eager exuberance. The two ponies landed on the grass by Spike and Sketch-it with Starlight putting the painting up in front of Sketch-it while she had her eyes closed.
"About time you ponies got back, hehehehehe..." North commended Spike for watching her until she looked over at Sketch animating herself replying,
"Are you sure this is how you mix this concoction correctly Spike?" Oblivious to the fact he turned her into a derpy clowning pony hopping on one hoof spinning in place. They all started to snicker as Spike nodded replying,
"Absolutely professor Sketch, now you have to touch your nose with your front hooves..." North giggled as she turned to Sketch and with a quick snap of her voice she brought Sketch-it back from her daydream replying,
"Alright Sketch enough clowning around, listen up..." She pointed straight at the painting and announced, "I hear that you did this..." She paused a moment and barked, "This is not done by weak minded ponies, I don't believe this, there's one of two things this painting tells me, either one, Starlight is not telling the truth, or two, you are one sharp magic wielding unicorn with more power than you are letting on!" Before Sketch-it could explain herself, Starlight fluttered over to North insisting,
"But I didn't lie it is the truth..." North ran a hoof down her face aggravated by Starlight's complaint responding to her,
"I know that, I'm just trying to be thorough with this..."
"Oh right, sorry... I'll be quiet now." She withdrew herself beside the painting and watched as Sketch-it began to feel a huge pressure on her confidence.
"Where is this sketch, where is the amazing artistic pony, I have proof here she exists, now I know how your brother must've felt when your art work was on exhibit in the outer colonies, this is absolutely amazing. How long did this take you to make?" Starlight butted in answering the question,
"She did all that not even a half hour."
"See, AMAZING AND AWESOME! Where's that pony. Come on, look if you can clear your mind and focus on a multitude of tasks while doing this..."
"But it's my skill, magic is not really the thing I'm..." Before she could complete her argument, North pointed a hoof directly at her revealing the major flaw in her thinking,
"The cutie mark means nothing, you can be excellent at anything, the cutie mark is just the thing that comes naturally from you. I still don't know what mine means and I'm pretty awesome huh? Sketch don't judge your ability by your mark for Celestia's sakes." North took a deep breath and looked at her very seriously with a sharp tone she gave some choice words of assurance to her, "Ok, here's what I want you to do Sketch, and this is going to be very important because this will be the first BIG STEP, and possibly the hardest one, but I assure you afterwards magic will be second nature to you, I know you can do this because in truth magic is second nature you're a Unicorn! So listen carefully..." She paused quietly and inched closer to Sketch-it's ear, Sketch perked her ears up listening closely to her words of wisdom, "Be yourself, don't try so hard, keep your eyes open and focus on your tasks at hand..." She backed away from her personal space adding, "If all else fails, pretend you are painting an awesome scene of a whacky crazy house with waterfalls and beautiful gold fish and water lilies inside." Oblivious Starlight smiled so warmly to the description with a soft reply,
"That sounds like a really lovely place to live in, I wish I lived in a house like that..." North threw her hoof up into her face so hard whimpering,
"Please tell me your joking Starlight, you're joking right!?" Starlight laughed happily as she responded,
"Why of course I am, I'm not that forgetful, I love my home of waterfalls, lily pads, and little gold fish, I just felt like being silly." North admitted she was caught off by the remark but she was starting to like this pegasus, she had a warm attitude that nopony she has met yet possessed.
Sketch-it gathered everypony's attention as she took a deep breath ready to take on the challenge. This time the unicorn looked like she knew what her plan was, and North felt eager to watch her finally take that big step, though she knew there would be a few more big steps to work on later, but North was more focused on trying to get Sketch to her level of magic ability. Her reasoning behind helping, was more than just some teaching lesson for a random pony, this was a pony she wanted to truly call a friend and she was determined to do everything in her power to help her find her potential!
Sketch-it prepared herself as she aimed her horn bringing her confidence up inside as she thought to herself,
'You know what, they are right. All of it is right, I've let myself down all these years, I felt all I'm good for was painting pretty pictures, when I could've been just as good with anything. I've put myself down too much, it's time I put myself up where I deserve! I can do this, I can totally do this!' She began to imagine herself painting, picking up the brush and pencil to perform a feat of art, but instead she replaced it with her exercises, spinning the apples in the air, levitating the book to her face, bringing up the apple ready to take a bite. Five full actions with five objects which was simple for any unicorn to do when they are trained right.
She pushed the words through her head that she could do it and she continued to just imagine the feeling of painting that beautiful scenery off in the distance. North's eyes lit up as she seen the fruits of her frustrating labor begin to pay off. Sketch-it had taken a seat on the ground, took a nice solid bite out of the apple and began to read,
"Clearing the mind is all about finding your happy place, visualizing the concept may be difficult at first, but once you realize what makes you completely at peace with yourself, you have mastered this all important start that will set you on motion to Tele-Simplysis. The following pages will teach you how to go about finding this said happy place..." She stopped her tasks all together and took a look at everypony. Spike and North were feeling awkward, curious why she stopped so sudden. She gave a big smile and responded, "Well lesson one is done, and to make it feel insulting the steps were right there! I sorta feel a little foalish." North felt entirely relieved and she gave a big nuzzling hug to Sketch-it crying out,
"OMAGOSH THIS IS AWESOME YOU FINALLY GET IT NOW!?" As she withdrew her hug Sketch-it gave a nod answering.
"I'm sorry for being such a pain..."
"None of that really matters, what matters is you finally broke that first step like a pro!" North couldn't contain herself she wanted to give her another hug and so she did! Starlight felt excited and jumped in on the hug making it a group hug as she rejoiced,
"Oh I'm ever so glad everything has worked out, I'm happy I could help you both!" North glanced at Starlight with a smile adding,
"You know what Starlight, you're alright in my book. Why don't you come and hang with us sometime in Ponyville..." It was almost like North had solved some sort of ancient riddle and what unleashed from this riddle was the most extremely energetic firecracker in existence going off right beside her, what felt even scarier was the fact this pegasus got so excited she squeezed Sketch-it and North off the ground flapping her wings all hyperactive squealing,
"OMAGOSH OMAGOSH OMAGOSH DO YOU REALLY MEAN IT!"
"Aggghhhkkk... uhhhh... yeahhh... but can you do somet...hing for me... pleazze..." North choked. The happy pegasus nodded replying back in her normal warm voice,
"Anything for my new bestest, best friends in the whole wide world." Sketch-it wanted to say something but the life was being squeezed out of her and all she could make was weird sounds as she tried to gasp.
"Could... you... let us... go, you're crushing ... uss...." Starlight dropped them immediately with a loud THUD! "Owww...."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ohhhh... are you two ok?" Sketch-it began breathing again turning herself up right nodding as she coughed.
"Yeahh... we're ok, and yes you should hang out with us anytime you want." North agreed with Sketch and the girls turned their attention to the day still bright and full of things to do. "So what should we do now?" Spike looked over at North giving her a reminder of what she promised to do for him.
"Oh yeah I forgot all about that Spike, come on let's get you that remedy."
"Finally, all of this has made me miss my nap, hopefully that remedy helps. I'd trade all my extra naps for a few really good long naps anyday" Sketch-it bid a goodbye to Spike and North as they made their way to the library, she gave a warm goodbye hug to Starlight leaving her to do whatever it was a Starlight does, which she flew straight to her shack to get started on a little project she thought would be very precious for her new friends.