//------------------------------//
// Chapter 0 | A Lesson Left Unlearned 
// Story: Power Trip: Destiny is Magic 
// by Cinnamon Swirl 
//------------------------------//

Crash! A tall stack of books fell to the librarian's desk with a thud. "Aaaaalright, miss! I think I'm ready!" There at the desk stood a unicorn with a purple coat, a long blue mane, and a wide grin on her muzzle, beaming with excitement over the books she was planning to read. 

Behind the desk stood the librarian, Amber Sage, another unicorn with a blue coat, a dark orange mane that clearly hadn't been well maintained, having a pencil poking through one of its many curls. She looked up from her paperwork with a look of 'of course it's you' on her face. "How many do we have here... 4, 6, 8... only 9 this time?" She was blatantly snarky, but knew this unicorn well enough to know her humor was well received. 

"Yup. Just these for now." She giggled. "Going to have a busy weekend of studying, so won't have as much time for recreational reading." Her grin only widened further. 

Amber Sage started floating them across her desk, her light blue aura enveloping each book as she did so one by one, noting down the titles of each, along with the date and who was checking them out. "The fact that you have any time for recreational anything is a bit surprising. Isn't it exam season?" 

"Oh, don't worry about me. I've worked out the perfect study-to-rest ratio to keep my mind in peak performance to pass every subject." She sounded confident in herself, even proud of herself. "You know, if either of your daughters need any help with their studies, I'd be happy to-" 

The serenity of the library was broken by a loud popping sound coming from one of the upper rooms. The whole library froze. The librarian's mane suddenly straightened out as she dropped one of the books. The upper rooms of the library were actually an attached apartment where she and her family lived. Amber immediately knew one of her daughters was up to something. She looked to her assistant, an earth pony with a grey coat and dark red mane, wearing a pair of wide frame glasses. She spoke robotically, trying desperately to maintain her composure. "Primrose. Would you please finish checking these out for me? I'm needed upstairs. It's urgent." Before Primrose could even respond, the librarian took off towards the stairs at full gallop. She ignored the other patrons of the library hushing her as she did so. Who were they going to tell, anyways? 

Up the stairs, across the balcony, and through one of the doors. She frantically looked for the source of the popping sound, and it didn't take her long. There in the living room, lying on the floor was her youngest daughter, Power Trip. Her light pink coat covered in ash, especially around her face. Her purple and orange mane specked with pieces of... wax? Taking in the rest of the room, the floor was covered with partially melted chunks of wax as well. In the center of the room was the base of a candle, the remains of the wick still smoldering.

Power Trip seemed to be more angry than hurt. "Stupid spell!" The filly kicked a piece of wax across the floor with a huff. "Cinder always made this stuff look easy! Why can't I do it?!" She growled as her horn started to glow, ready to cast a spell of some kind. Certainly nothing good.

Amber announced her presence with a small cough. She looked down at the filly with an expression that did more correcting than any real scolding could on its own. 

Trip looked up at her mother towering over her, and the glow of her horn instantly faded as her frustration turned to fear. She knew she was in trouble. Big trouble. "I'm really sorry! I was just trying to light the candle the way Cinder showed me! I didn't mean to make a mess! I'll clean it up, I promise!" She puffed out her bottom lip as tears welled in her eyes. 

Amber let out a sigh. Her daughter's over-acting aside, she knew she really did feel bad for what happened. Her expression softened. "Listen, Trip. I know you want to do magic like your sister, but she's much older than you. You aren't ready to be doing this kind of magic unsupervised yet. You've been told this already."

Trip protested. "But you and dad both work in the library all day, and Cinder is always out with her friends. How am I supposed to learn this stuff if I can't practice on my own?" 

"You will, I promise. But right now, you're still too young for these kinds of spells." Amber gestured to the remains of the candle on the floor. "Last I recall, basic levitation was still a challenge for you. Have you been practicing that at all?" 

Trip groaned. "Ugh, yes, I can do that just fine now. Watch." Her horn glowed a warm orange as a small piece of wax on the floor was wrapped in her aura. She peeled it from the wood with ease, and held it high for her mother to see. "See? I can handle more than you're willing to admit. I just need to practice more, and then I'll get my Cutie Mark, just like yours!" 

Amber glanced at her flank. A white crescent moon eclipsing a red sun, a physical manifestation of her talent as a sorceress. "I see... so, that's what this is about." She thought back to how excited she was when she first earned hers. How happy Cinder Charm seemed. The memory of those elated cries brought a smile to her face. "We can talk about this later, Trip. For now, I want this floor clean before the library closes. Got it?" 

Trip nodded, though still visibly dissatisfied with this outcome. She got to work using her magic to peel the pieces of partially melted wax off the floor and walls. Luckily this was one of the rooms that didn't have carpet, so the task was easy. Brushing the pieces out of her mane would take a bit more time. She sat on her bed, watching through her window as the sun set behind the tall buildings in the distance. She never got tired of watching this, imagining such a monumental task being carried out by a single pony. She wanted to do something special like that someday. Then came the rising of the moon, the craters on its surface forming the silhouette of a unicorn. Seeing that always made her uncomfortable for some reason. Like she was being watched. Still, seeing it move in the sky filled her with wonder all the same. 

With her mane back to its former glory, she moved on to disobeying her parents' wishes in a way that came with less evidence; reading. Specifically, reading one of Cinder's magic books. She knew she wasn't allowed to cast any of them, but that wouldn't stop her from using her imagination. Teleporting from one end of the city to the other, turning broccoli into cake, creating brilliant, dazzling lights for all to see. The possibilities seemed endless, and she wanted to learn it all. 

Her daydreaming was interrupted by a knock at the door. She quickly stashed the book inside her pillow case. A trick she learned since last time. They only move the pillow, never check inside of it. "Hellooo?" She cheerily asked through the door. Absolutely nothing suspicious going on in here, after all. 

The door creaked open. Poking her head through the door was a unicorn with a dark purple coat and a short, wavy, orange mane. It was Trip's older sister, Cinder Charm. "Hey, doofus." She spoke with genuine concern in spite of her choice of words to open with. "Heard you were practicing again, yeah?" She entered the room fully now, closing the door behind her. "Mom also told me why. You think that if you can master the right spell, you'll get your Cutie Mark, right?" 

Trip's eyes widened with excitement. Finally, the two of them could talk about magic without being interrupted. "Yeah! I think I'm really close to figuring this one out, but if you show me again-!" 

Cinder raised a hoof, indicating that Trip was to stop talking. Something only their parents usually did. It was strange seeing her sister do this. "Trip, there's something you might not fully understand about how our Marks actually work. You see, our mom and dad both have the same special talent, that being magic. I also happen to have this same special talent," She gestured to her own Cutie Mark, a yellow star with four points. "Not because of either of them, but because it's what I'm meant to do." 

Trip got excited again. "Yeah! And just like the three of you, I'll be great at magic! Maybe even better!"

Cinder really didn't want to be the one to say it, but knew it would be easier coming from her than either of their parents. "Trip, you need to listen. There is the possibility that magic won't be your special talent. You might not be able to do anything beyond the basics at all because you're meant to be great at something else." 

Trip flapped her lips at the idea. "Puh-lease. Like I'd ever do something lame like 'being good at folding laundry' as my special talent. Don't be read-ick-all-us!" 

Cinder didn't know where to start. Her impulse was to correct her pronunciation of the word 'ridiculous', but there was something far more wrong here. "Power Trip, you know that no one talent is more important than any other, right? I mean, magic is pretty great and all, sure, but that doesn't make me better than the pony that knows everything about flowers, or the one that can make a scale replica of Manehattan out of icing. We're just different. And that's a good thing." 

Power Trip stopped listening at this point. She didn't care about how other talents were special or important. She only cared about the one she had chosen for herself. She was going to be a great and powerful sorceress unlike any other Equestria had ever seen. But until then, she needed to keep practicing, and that meant getting back to reading. "Yeah, I get it, Cinder." She let out a fake yawn while stretching out her legs. "Mind if we talk about this more in the morning? It's pretty late." The sun had only set less than an hour ago, and Trip never wanted to sleep. The act was decent, but her audience knew better.

Cinder smirked, scooped up Trip's pillow, and ran for the door. A playful shouting match ensued as the two trotted back and forth around the room, Cinder keeping the pillow just out of reach while Trip thwarted any attempt at using the door. 

Outside the room, down the hall, and into the living room, Amber Sage joined her husband, Sunstone, for some tea. Sunstone, a unicorn with a light yellow coat and a grey-blue mane, leaned back in his chair taking a sip of his tea, listening to the playful screams from the other room. "Well, I think it's going rather splendid in there. Don't you?" 

Amber wasn't amused by his sarcasm. "Sun, this is serious. She's put a lot of pressure on herself at such a young age. I really think you should try talking to her."

"After how our last talk went? I'm keeping myself out of this." Sunstone scoffed as he took another sip. "Besides, she'll figure out what she's supposed to be sooner or later, and then she'll finally be over all this studying in secret nonsense." 

This did little to ease Amber's concerns. Power Trip had been misbehaving more and more lately, all in pursuit of something she might not even be destined for. They've both been rather lenient about this, secretly hoping her rebellious actions might actually result in her being a sorcerer like them, even if signs already point towards this not being the case. 

For now, it seems, they would all have to be patient. Destiny comes for us all, and finds us whenever it pleases, whether we like it or not.