//------------------------------//
// Tuesday 
// Story: Life Is like a Cookie Jar 
// by TheReaderAndWriter 
//------------------------------//

On the last hours of her first day in her new grade everypony that Raindrop knew were relieved that her father was alright. Raindrop felt very nice when they showed her such open sympathy and she thanked them, very grateful for their compassion. She was a bit curious how so many of them seemed to have heard about it before she had even arrived.
"You know, rumors spread fast," had a little colt said while on the swings.
"I heard one of the teachers talked about it in the teacher's lounge, while the door was open," had been the response of a fellow filly. That had been the day before today, and now while still at home Raindrop was getting ready for the second day.
"Saddlebag?" asked Cloudy to her at the bottom of the stairs. They were about to head out for the day.
"Yes, dad," answered Raindrop.
"Books?"
"Every single one."
"Boxed lunch?"
"Carrots and daisy sandwiches." Her father thought for himself for a short moment. Raindrop noticed a little glint in his eye.
"Cookie?"
"What?" 
"Don't tell your mother," said Cloudy and put a bag with a large cookie inside her saddlebag. "Now, I believe that's everything. I hope you will have a great day today, Raindrop."
"I will, dad. I hope you have a great day too. Thank you so much for the cookie," said Raindrop pleasantly surprised. They gave each other a hug before they went outside the house. He was walking her to school. He didn't need to, but Raindrop liked the company.
"The weather isn't as nice today as it could've been. Did the pegasi really have to do it today?" asked Cloudy and looked up at the gloomy sky.
"When is it going to rain?"
"During your entire school day. The recesses won't be as fun today, I would bet."
"I think they'll be fun. I like it when it rains too. We usually get to stay inside. I usually sit by this other pony that draws things and watch him work."
"Did you say 'him'?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Oh, no reason. Is he good at drawing?"
"No, not at all. That's why I sit and watch him draw things. He usually gets mad and just tosses the entire drawing at the trashcan. It's sort of fun to see him just get out of control like that," said Raindrop and smiled.
"Which one is he?"
"Billy Folds," said Raindrop.
"Oh, I think I've seen him around, I think," said Cloud.
"I like the rain, it's so refreshing," said Raindrop.
"Oh, you've always liked the rain. When you were just a foal we got caught in some really awful weather. You couldn't help but to laugh at the rain for a straight two minutes. Why did you think we gave you a name like Raindrop?" asked Cloudy. Raindrop couldn't help but to feel a little embarrassed. Suddenly she felt something refreshing gently hit her nose.
"Darn it. They've started already? Come on, sweetie. Time to run," said her father. They started to gallop on the road as the weather got worse and worse by the minute. It was raining heavily but there was no wind. Raindrop smiled as she felt the cold raindrops against her face. It didn't take long for her mane to be dripping wet. Today was sure to be better than the last one.

That morning something somewhat odd happened to Raindrop. She was the first pony that arrived at school except for the teachers. The first pony she met there was Cheerilee as she exited one of the few rooms there.
"Hello, Raindrop. A little early today, aren't we?" asked Cheerilee.
"I guess. Huh, I didn't think it would be this early. I guess my parents are pretty busy today," said Raindrop.
"They are pretty hard workers, there's no denying that," said Cheerilee with certain tone unusual for her, at least among fillies and colts.
"Is something wrong?"
"What? No, no, of course not."
"Come on, tell me, Miss Cheerilee," said Raindrop. It didn't matter what Raindrop said, however, as Cheerilee would not say anything. It was certainly about something adult and important. Raindrop gave up, not because she wanted to, but rather because of how futile it was to make her teacher ignore her own principles. It was just one of the several reasons Raindrop respected her so much. "So, what are we going to do today during your lessons?" asked Raindrop in an attempt to distract herself long enough to forget what Cheerilee wasn't telling her, to not be in agony from her own natural curiosity.

One lesson in math and a few hours later Raindrop found herself to have enjoyed the lesson about the weather more than she expected to, but in all honesty she was glad once it was finally over. Learning about the weather was somewhat interesting, but eventually she just wanted the lesson to end. It just wasn't for her. Taking a break was well welcomed at that point, in which she spent some of her time looking at Billy Folds' little struggle with drawing. The reason she enjoyed looking at him fail and fail again then reacting angrily to it wasn't because she enjoyed him failing. It was because he would always pick up the pencil with his magical horn and try again, always. He worked so hard at it, and if one would look at his determination for just a single recess, then you would want to stick around, because you would want him to succeed. You wanted him to improve, you wanted him to get the result he wanted. Raindrop thought that in a certain way she was there to cheer him on, silently, sometimes saying she liked the final, if a bit average, drawing.
"This one came out pretty well," said Raindrop as she looked over Billy's shoulder. The moment she said it Billy just mashed the drawing together and threw it over to the full trashcan using his hooves.
"Not good enough. It has to be perfect," said Billy.
"Isn't there some sort of magic you can use to just paint what you're thinking?" Billy looked up and turned to her. He seemed oddly serious.
"That's cheating, besides, it's super too hard for me," said Billy and looked away a bit. Was that shame in his voice?
"It's that hard, huh?"
"Super difficult. Not even my dad can do it," said Billy.
"Can't you try?"
"No, I don't want to. Just let me focus on my work," said Billy as he scratched his blue mane and took out another piece of paper to draw on. His face focused, his blue coat was a bit ruffled. The dark spot covering the area around his left eye almost looked like it was in the shape of an ellipse rather than a circle from how much he squinted his eyes, just looking at the paper.
"Billy, why do you like to draw so much?" asked Raindrop.
"I don't, and that's the problem," said Billy. 
"What do you mean?" asked Raindrop rather surprised. He had been doing it a whole six months into their second year.
"You see, sometimes, and it's not that common, unicorn horns and unicorn magic act up a bit," said Billy.
"Act up?"
"Yeah. They just make thing happen to you, sometimes you're being brought to places you didn't expect, sometimes they can grant wishes when you're scared or alone. Something like that happened last year," said Billy.
"Really? What?" asked Raindrop, quite interested about it. She had never heard of anything like that, but then again, she didn't know many unicorns very well.
"I was out playing one day, thinking about what I would get to do when I was a grown up. I wondered what my talent would be. That was when my horn just made a light shoot out from my horn, it kept pointing somewhere towards the other end of Ponyville. I followed it, thinking it was super important. I entered that shop, Make & Paint, you know, the one that went out of business a few months ago. They sold so many things that had to do with painting stuff. I was brought right into the shop and right towards the pens, brushes, paint and paper. The light just stopped, and I was just looking at the stuff. The unicorn who owned the shop said it was probably something like my destiny or something, to "know the arts of the paper". I think I'm supposed to be drawing stuff. I was excited at first, bought a whole bunch of stuff and started working."
"And?"
"And I stunk! Stinked? Stank? I-I was terrible at it! Waste of money. After a whole week I just tossed it all out. I was exhausted. Then the stupid horn just lit up again! This time it pulled me back to the shop! Left me right in front of the same shelf with the pens, paper, brushes and paint. I've been trying to find out what I'm doing wrong ever since. I'm sure it has to do with my cutie mark. Although I'm thinking about calling it my "mark of mastery" once I get it, sounds cool, right?"
"Oh. I didn't know you did this because you wanted to get your cutie mar... your "mark of"... Sorry, but I don't think it sounds cool at all," said Raindrop apologetically, but honestly.
"Okay, whatever. And it's not because I want to get a cutie mark! It's because I just want this stupid horn to stop pestering me! Sometimes I wish it was just gone," said Billy and sighed. He drank a little water from a glass on the table he used. Raindrop noticed he didn't lift it with magic, only with his hooves. "Eight times, eight times this horn has led me to places I didn't want to go to that had art stuff in them. Once it even teleported me! I burnt my hooves and was so exhausted I had to spend half the summer in a hospital bed. You would have to be a genius to do that and not faint, I almost died. I just want it to stop forcing me," said Billy.
"Come on, you have nothing to complain about. You have a guide to your destiny, and a great tool for-"
"Will ponies stop saying it's a tool? It's not a tool, not for me. It's a weight on my head."
"But you unicorns use them all the time," said Raindrop. She sat down on a chair next to him. He looked troubled to say the least.
"It takes training, you know. Training that I've never gotten. I wish I was an earth pony like you, not a pegasi, I hate flying," said Billy.
"Did you say you've never had any training?"
"Not even magic kindergarten. I can lift that pencil, if I'm lucky on a good day. I wish it would be easier for me," said Billy and tried to make the pencil levitate, it just rolled away and off the table, almost like it rejected him.
"Why haven't you been to-?"
"Because my parents couldn't afford it, okay!? I'm, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been mean and yelled, but I hear this stuff all the time. It just gets more annoying everytime I hear it. My dad wants to teach me, but he doesn't have a license, and can't get one, even if he could afford it. They say I need this education now, magic will have to wait," said Billy.
"You need a license to teach magic to unicorns?"
"Technically you need four, but yeah."
"Why?"
"Stuff to do with registers and keeping tracks on how much a unicorn can do and stuff, I don't know why." Raindrop thought about it for a little while. She looked out through the window, staring at the rain that seemed to almost gently fall down onto the muddy wet grass. Raindrop couldn't as an earth pony really, properly understand Billy's plight, but she did feel sorry for him. Above all, she wanted to help him.
"Is there anything I can do?"
"No, thanks for asking, but unless you can teach me magic to make this horn less useless or make me draw better, then you can't help me at all," said Billy.  Raindrop looked at him for a little while, but then her entire back suddenly straightened. If it was because of a sudden burst of inspiration or the water that dripped from the ceiling into the back of her neck she couldn't tell, but the point was that she had gotten an idea.
"Hey, Billy. Can't you teach yourself?" asked Raindrop. That suggestion wasn't the idea, but she had to know for sure.
"Sorry, but unless I have a unicorn teacher that knows magic and have the licenses then I'm not allowed to even hold a book about unicorn magic. Not a lot of ponies that has the license are willing to spend a long time teaching just one colt that can't even lit up a room. Self teaching could make me accidentally really hurt myself. The only reason I can grasp a pencil is because a unicorn just sort of... knows this stuff from birth. I don't know how to improve it, though, or to learn anything else. If I could just get permission from someone with a license to read a few books, but I don't know anypony," Raindrop had gotten an answer to one of her questions, and even the second one without having to ask, but she did so anyway.
"So it has to be a unicorn?"
"Pretty much."
"So... does that mean there's a loophole?" asked Raindrop.
"What?"
"Is there a loophole? Can't it be a pegasus or earth pony that just teaches you stuff from a book?"
"But what would the point of it be? They don't know magic at all," said Billy. Raindrop looked around and leaned in close to him, lowering her voice.
"I was thinking, that as a student interested in history and stuff, I could just borrow a book from the local librarian, the one from Canterlot. You know, Princess Celestia's top student. I could borrow a book called Unicorn Magic for Beginners, and when nopony's looking, I, as an earth pony, can try to teach you stuff from the book," whispered Raindrop.
"WHAT?!" shouted Billy so loudly everypony in the room heard him. Raindrop, and indeed, everypony else shushed him. Billy leaned in closer to her. "I'm sorry, but what? Are you insane?" whispered Billy.
"Come on, we could try. It might even be legal. Is there a loophole or not?"
"Well, technically, I suppose. I would have to read some of my dad's books on unicorn magic laws to be sure, but I guess," whispered Billy.
"So we have a deal?" asked Raindrop. She did it because it was interesting, because it was exciting, because she could maybe even help him.
"This is crazy, I don't think I should do-"
"One week."
"What?"
"If we don't get any results by, hm, next monday, then we stop. Alright?" asked Raindrop. The fact he wasn't refusing immediately told her that he was just as curious as her if they could pull it off. Billy took the unfinished drawing, crumbled it up into a ball and prepared to toss it away somewhere behind him.
"Raindrop, I barely even know you, this just seems like it could backfire so darn mu-" as Billy threw the ball of paper, his horn suddenly made a faint but distinct noise and he was thrown off his chair towards the crumbled up ball that harmlessly bounced off the floor before it hovered above him, then dropped right on his face. He angrily tossed it in the trash without another incident and walked back towards the table that was a fair bit away. He sat down on his chair and turned to Raindrop with determination in his eyes. "If it means making this stupid swirled up piece of keratin and bone less useless, then I'm in."

As long as it wasn't technically illegal neither of the two young ponies would be in trouble when it came to the law... possibly. Still, any adult who would find out would of course say they went against the general idea, and their parents would then be unofficially tasked with punishment. It was still unclear if they could legally do this on a technicality, so they were just at the moment working to make sure they could. Raindrop was waiting outside the library. Billy was going to come around any minute. School had finally ended, and so had the rain. The sky was still slightly gloomy, it was in such a strong contrast with how excited Raindrop was when thinking about the prospect of possibly train a unicorn in simple magic. She only needed two things to start, and she saw the first approach her around a corner down the street. Billy ran up to her, he looked around and picked up a thick heavy book from his saddlebag.
"Hey, Raindrop. This is it, moment of truth and all that. The law is right here," said Billy and opened up the book. He searched for a little while and finally found what he was looking for.
"It says 'An inexperienced pony that has never practiced the arts of magic in a environment with properly educated and licensed tutors are lawfully allowed to be taught under the tutelage of a pony that has earned and is officially in the possession of a tutelage license in the subject in question. The inexperienced pony is allowed to teach him or herself if a unicorn with a license has allowed it and registered that decision with the magical academy'," read Billy from the book. Raindrop didn't like it. She didn't know much about law, but what she did know, from her mother, gave her the impression that that wording made it impossible to do it legally. She sighed.
"I think the problem is mainly the line 'tutelage of a pony that has earned'. If it would've said 'of a unicorn' then it we could've done it and said 'but I'm not a unicorn, it doesn't say anything about earth-ponies,' but no such luck," said Raindrop. She looked down at the ground. 
"Oh," was the only thing that came from Billy. Raindrop looked up. She was surprised, he looked even more disappointed than she was.
"What's wrong?" Billy sighed a bit, he seemed reluctant to talk.
"Well, I've sort of been, thinking about this ever since you talked about it. The more thinking, the more I realized that I just want something good to come from this horn for once. I've been lying a bit," said Billy.
"About what?" asked Raindrop.
"Promise you won't tell anyone. I hear you don't break promises."
"Billy, I promise I won't tell." Billy hesitated initially, but he seemed to want to tell her, to tell somebody.
"It hasn't been eight times, or nine. I've counted, and it's been, it's been seventy."
"What?" asked Raindrop. She had never heard of something like that.
"Not even my parents know. Sometimes it really hurts, being dragged around. It's really scary when you are just being pulled along and not being able to do something."
"But, why don't you tell your parents?"
"And what? So that they can worry about something they can control about as much as I can? I just, I just want to be happy with it. If I could actually learn to control it, maybe it would stop. At least I could make it useful. At least I could finally be proud for being a unicorn," said Billy.
"Guess we can't do so now without getting us into trouble," said Raindrop. Billy sighed again and put the book back in his saddlebag. They just stood there a little while, thinking about something to do with their time now when their original plans were no longer safe. Raindrop looked up at the clouds above.
"Raindrop... could you teach me anyway?" asked Billy.
"What?" asked Raindrop and quickly faced him in surprise.
"If anypony finds out, I'll tell them you didn't do anything wrong on purpose. I'll say that I asked you to do an experiment with me, and you didn't know it was wrong when I told you to try it. I'll tell them that I asked you to be my teacher because if anything went wrong I had been planning on blaming you for it," said Billy. Raindrop hesitated for a while.
"Billy, I can't let you do that. I can't just let a decent pony take blame for something that was my idea," said Raindrop.
"Well, okay, we'll say it was your fault, but will you teach me? Please, please teach me," said Billy.
"But, why me? If you're going to break the law anyway you can do it on your own now," said Raindrop.
"No, I can't. Miss. Sparkle inside the library knows she can't lend a book about basic magic to a unicorn like me. I don't want you to get into trouble, but I also need your help," said Billy. 
"Well, this is an awkward situation I've gotten myself into. I mean, if ponies would notice you getting better very quickly it wouldn't be very good."
"I can keep it a secret. I'm good with secrets. But, if you don't want to do it I both can't and won't make you. I don't really want to see anypony in trouble, but I want this horn to stop even more, and-" said Billy.
"I'll do it," interrupted Raindrop.
"What?"
"You can bet your flank I'll do it. I have never heard of an earth pony teaching even a little magic to a unicorn. I can't let a chance like that slip. Also, I really want to see you succeed."
"Me? What?"
"I've seen you working hard almost everyday on your drawings, and now when I know why I just want you to succeed even more. If it means helping you out, then I'll do it for that alone," said Raindrop.
"Wow, thanks, Raindrop. You're a real pal," said Billy and extended his hoof.
"Call me Rainy," said Raindrop and hit his hoof up high. She turned towards the library's front door. "Billy, could I borrow your saddlebag?"

While Billy was hiding nearby, peeking in through one of the windows to see what was going on, Raindrop entered the library.
"Oh, hello," said a green and purple small, rather adorable, reptile. Raindrop had seen that dragon in town several times, but never actually talked to him. She was very interested in talking to him, being a dragon, but she didn't feel like she should waste his time. He was often with the librarian, and she was often busy.
"Hello, Spike, is it? I'm Raindrop, I was thinking about borrowing a book," said Raindrop.
"Well, sure. It's a library after all. What are you looking for? We've got books for and about all sorts of things. We've got books about cooking, architecture, insects, animals, law, parenthood, toys, history, books about books, medicine, time travel, religion, fishing and books about books about books. That's just to name a few. The one about time travel is a newer addition," said the dragon. The only one that had caught her attention on that list was the one about history, but that wasn't the reason she was here.
"I wonder if you had any books about unicorn magic," said Raindrop. Spike had been working on shelving a few books when he turned to her right on the ladder, almost falling off.
"What? Unicorn magic? Why? I mean, may I ask why?" asked Spike.
"You know, been seeing a lot of unicorn magic lately, was really curios how it worked... Also, could I borrow a book on history?"
"Well, I'll have to ask the actual librarian. Be right back," said Spike and hurried down the ladder and into a room in the back. Raindrop took the opportunity to look around the shelves, searching after one of those history books the dragon had mentioned. Before long a purple unicorn entered the room with the dragon. It was Miss. Sparkle. Raindrop didn't know much about her except that she was a student of the princess, that she was one of the six wielders of the Elements of Harmony, and that she also was intelligent enough to actually see through and risk their plan. Raindrop gave her a smile. Was she making a convincing smile? She didn't enjoy lying, but she had to try.
"Hello, Twilight Sparkle. I'm Raindrop Day," said Raindrop.
"Hello, Raindrop. Did you say that you wanted a book about magic, unicorn magic?"
"Yes, that's right. Why? Is something wrong? Oh, you don't have any left, do you?" asked Raindrop, trying to sound a bit childishly disappointed. She was terrified that her behavior looked suspicious.
"No, we do, but... this, this is the first time I can remember that anypony in Ponyville has ever asked for a book about magic, and then the first one is an earth pony. What are you looking for, specifically?" asked Twilight. Raindrop tried not to stutter, she knew this question had to be asked at one point. She had prepared for it.
"Well, I sort of want to know what you unicorns go through, in a way, I guess. I want a book about your magic in general, oh, and a book that you use for learning basic stuff. I mean, I keep seeing unicorn magic from time to time, and until recently it's just sort of been there but now I'm curious. I mean, all ponies have so much in common, but I want to learn a bit about how we're all unique. There's beauty in how we're all unique, and this is just one of those small but wonderful things. I want to learn, " said Raindrop. While her delivery of the line had been good, sounding inspiring, innocent and appealing to somepony who enjoys learning. Sounded so forced, sounded so forced, nopony talks like that. Oh, Celestia, I'm a freaking...
"That's wonderful! That's the most precious thing I've ever heard a little filly say. Here you go. These books are a bit on the small side, I know, but they are a great start. I used an older edition when I was half your age," said Twilight. ...Genious! A pair of thick heavy books floated over from a shelf and was gently placed in the saddlebag. Raindrop could barely stand. She had to wait with asking for a book about history, she would break her back if she even got a pamphlet on top of her. She turned around and started to walk towards the door.
"Thanks a lot, Twilight Sparkle. If you'll excuse me, I'll have to get back home and get to reading these before it rains again. Can't allow them to get wet, right?" said Raindrop and gave them both a smile. She opened the door and walked outside, leaving the library behind. She walked into an alley where Billy was waiting.
"You got them! Did they suspect anything?" asked Billy and helped Raindrop with the saddlebag.
"Maybe at first, but I think I managed to convince them I just wanted to learn. That's not so far from the truth, I actually do want to learn while doing this. It could be interesting," said Raindrop.
"Great. So, let's start!" said Billy. Raindrop had thought about that.
"Actually, Billy. I think I have to use today to study about this, learn what I should do for tomorrow. Also, I don't get why this is illegal. I think I'll have to find that out too. The point is that I think taking it slow until tomorrow could be the best way to learn about this, for both of us," said Raindrop.
"Well, okay. So, after school?"
"Not so fast, we need a good place to do it where nopony can find us out."
"I know a good place. It's an old warehouse by the river, it's ten minutes past Sweet Apple Acres. Been abandoned for months."
"Great! So, how do you know about it?"
"Remember when I told you about my horn teleporting me and it really hurt? The warehouse stored paper at that time."
"Oh."

For the rest of the day Raindrop spent her time in her room reading the first book about magic. She had to wait to clean her room until next week. Her room was mostly blue, it was calming, usually. For the moment her the only thing in proper order was her bed, and she was lying on that to read. She would've used her desk, but she honestly thought that old thing would break under the weight of one of the borrowed books. Raindrop was almost tired of reading, but she knew she couldn't stop at this point. So far the only thing that had made her stop reading was eating dinner with her mother and father. Raindrop looked out the open window, she had to squint her eyes to see the beautiful colors the setting sun's last rays made. Time flies when you're having fun, and with that in mind, Raindrop considered publishing a major discovery, because she was sure she had found a way to make time stand still.
"So boring," she sighed rolling on her bed away from the book, to then immediately roll back to read some more. Despite how new this was, and how much she tried to get into the mindset of somepony who could use magic, she just didn't have any interest in it, at all. She was on a chapter about young unicorns' magical abilities. "'Foals usually have powerful magical abilities which can be used surprisingly easily. Many seem to lose this ability as they grow up, however. Academics believe this to be a change in how their magical essence flows through their body as their bodies slowly mature. Constantly practicing this ability is a good way to keep it strong, similar to how exercise is can have a positive effect on the body. It adapts to the flow of magical essence and adapts to it', sure, but that doesn't explain why colts can't be self-taught," read Raindrop. She sighed again. Raindrop and kept reading. It took just a few minutes for her to find something a little bit more relevant. "'Due to the danger of uncontrolled magical ability, strict laws in the teachings of magic has been in effect for several centuries." Raindrop opened up the other book and quickly went through it until she found something that seemed relevant. "'The most important thing to consider when teaching a beginner is to allow their magical ability to develop naturally. If they can not be considered mature enough to understand the responsibility of having magical ability then making them understand just what they can do is very important.' Wow, they keep saying 'magical ability' over and over in this. Why is it important? It doesn't say so anywhere." Still, Raindrop did not want to risk doing anything dangerous. She would take foal steps. She would make sure that she taught Billy in a responsible way. She would not allow them to regret this.

She was regretting it already. She had to read the first chapter from the book about basic magic for beginners over and over again just to get a faint grasp about how unicorns felt with their horns. It kept referring to things like 'inner magical pulse' and 'concentrated magical energy'. The book talked about it in a way that made it quite obvious even unicorn foals knew what this stuff was. A lot of unicorns probably had a completely different way to experience a lot of things, and they probably never even realized that. Still, Raindrop was in theory at least getting a faint grasp on it. There was even a few ways to train described. They were less like activities like making something levitate and more along the lines of exercise, they were like push-ups for magic, or maybe like meditation. If nothing else Billy could perform those tomorrow while Raindrop tried to catch up on the rest of her reading.
"Raindrop, it's time for bed!" said her mom from downstairs. Raindrop hadn't realized how late it was. She turned of the reading lamp and hid the books under her bed. She got under the covers and closed her eyes. She was pretty sure that actually teaching Billy would be more fun than reading about how to do it.