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

Raindrop slowly woke up from a good night's sleep. The haze left from a wonderful dream still clouded her mind as she gently opened her eyes. She could see her clock on the nightstand. When she finally managed to gather her thoughts enough to actually comprehend things her eyes fully opened and her heart started racing. She was late. She quickly got out of her bed, getting tangled in the covers making her fall to the floor. She quickly regained freedom as she hurried to the door. She didn't even bother to tidy up before she left her room and hurried down the stairs. Raindrop was a bit surprised when she saw her mother in the kitchen. At this point she had usually left for work, but instead she was just there reading the morning paper, eating her breakfast.
"Good morning, mom. Why aren't you at work?" asked Raindrop. Her mother jumped in her chair and turned to face Raindrop.
"Raindrop, why are you still here? You're late for school!"
"I know, but, why aren't you at work?"
"I decided to take today off. I have, well, something important here to do at home. When your father heard he wanted to spend the day with me. We're going out to dinner at that nice restaurant on the other end of Ponyville," said her mother.
"What was that important thing you mentioned?" Sunny looked at her daughter.
"I don't think you have time to listen to that now. You're supposed to be at school, remember?" Raindrop hurried over and grabbed an apple from the bowl on the table. She stopped by the hallway mirror just to get her messy mane to look just a tad more manageable.
"Bye, mom. Love you," said Raindrop and quickly went outside. She didn't give the important thing much thought, even if she would have been interested in it, she still wouldn't have the time to listen, her mother was right on that point.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, miss Cheerilee. My clock wouldn't ring, and none of my parents woke me up. Again, I'm so sorry," said Raindrop. Raindrop walked from the door towards her usual seat, hoping that Cheerilee wouldn't stop her. She just wanted to get into the lesson. She wanted to get lectured in history, not in manners. Fortunately, Cheerilee seemed understanding, as always, and simply continued where she left off. Something was a bit different with Raindrop's seat this morning. Usually, ponies picked a seat and stayed there unless told to sit somewhere else by a teacher, there were no real assigned placements and it was first come first serve, but ponies usually didn't change where they sat. Today someone had upset the order a little bit. Raindrop usually sat next to Twist, a sweet filly, they weren't really good friends, but Raindrop did like her. Today, however, somepony else was sitting next to Raindrop's seat. It was Billy.
"Hey, Rainy. I was starting to worry that you wouldn't come around today," said Billy. Raindrop sat down, noticing Twist paying attention to the lesson a row back and several benches away.
"I wouldn't miss a day of school this early in on the school year."
"Quiet back there," said miss Cheerilee in a strict but still kind tone. Raindrop shut up, straightened her back and turned her head forward immediately. At least it was history, and they were talking about a, to her, dramatic plague once spreading throughout the land. Physically harmless, but creating a strange effect in those affected. Once infected, the pony would just have to look some other pony in the eye, and then knowing exactly what was needed to be said to hurt them deeply, which they would just do, like a sneeze. It was like a magic disease, and it was fascinating. She hoped it wouldn't be nearly as interesting as what she wanted to help Billy learn after school. Billy seemed more interested in learning to use magic than ever, because once in a while, when looking in his direction, she noticed small pieces of paper hover just barely above the surface of the bench.

Raindrop didn't enjoy that waiting for her next session helping Billy seemed to make school feel so much shorter. She was getting some of her stuff, about to head out towards the old warehouse when one of her filly friends walked up to her and started chatting.
"Hello, Raindrop. How are you?"
"I'm good, Ellie, and you?"
"I feel great. I wanted to ask you if you wanted to hang out with me today. We can go to Sugarcube Corner, just like during the summer," said Ellie.
"Oh, well, I would love to, Ellie, but I can't. I'm, I'm helping somepony out today. I wouldn't mind hanging out with you next week, though." It probably would've been much more fun to spend some time with Ellie again, but she had made a promise. She just hoped her friend wouldn't somehow feel bad about it. "Hey, maybe you can invite Twist, or Applebloom."
"I'm not sure. While Twist is nice, she isn't that much fun to be around with at Sugarcube Corner, she's always so interested in how the candy is made. Applebloom always just hangs out with that other unicorn and pegasus. Is it just me, or does she have a really small, eh, limited... what's it called again?"
"Social circle?"
"Yeah, spot on! That's it. Limited social circle."
"Well, if you think so then you should totally ask her to spend some time with you. I have to go now, but I hope you have a great day, Ellie."
"You too, Raindrop, bye!"
"Bye," said Raindrop before she walked through the hallway and out the door. She could see Billy waiting by the road. Once she got closer they walked towards Sweet Apple Acres. It was oddly quiet between the two. Raindrop didn't mind the silence one bit. It was a nice day, and the peace just didn't need to be disturbed. It was just as nice to just walk on the path, soaking in the warm weather and the singing birds. Just lovely.
"What's your favorite food?" asked Billy suddenly. Raindrop turned to him.
"I'm sorry?"
"What's your favorite food?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I was just curious. I mean, we're sort of friends, right?" Raindrop thought about it for just a little while.
"Well, we trust each other, so yeah, I'd say so," said Raindrop. She didn't knew Billy very well at all, but he was a nice pony who trusted her. She just thought that was enough.
"Well, I want to get to know you a little better. I mean, I don't have a lot of friends, but the ones I am friends with I know super well."
"Well, if you must know, I like a simple salad, without grass or hay. And you?"
"Pizza. So good."
"What kind?"
"Any kind. Except every type with pineapples. Whoever came up with pineapples on pizza was, like, insane!"
"Hey, it's not that bad."
"Not that bad? They might as well put small fish on it."
"Ew! That's sounds even worse than the version I tried once."
"What was that?"
"A pizza with peanuts and bananas."
"That... sounds tasty, actually."
"Are you sure that you're not, like, insane?" asked Raindrop.
"Well, considering what I'm trying to do without permission, maybe," said Billy.
"Trying to do what without permission?" asked another voice behind them. They turned around. Applebloom was on her way home.
"What? Nothing, nothing at all. Well, actually, I was about to invent a pizza, but I think you need permission to do that," lied Billy. How Applebloom seemed to believe that lie Raindrop couldn't comprehend. She might have been very naive, or she might not even have cared.
"Are you two going to our farm? We'll be bucking apples today. Want to help? It'll be fun!"
"Thanks for the offer, Applebloom, but we're busy with our owns chores today. I would've loved a day on a farm, but we're a bit too busy. Sorry," said Raindrop.
"Hey, that's alright. I understand, it ain't for everypony anyway. But, why are you heading my way?"
"Well, it is in that general direction," said Billy.
"Okay. Did you two see Scootaloo's parents today?"
"Wait, what?" asked Billy.
"They had a meeting with the principal. What, didn't you see them?"
"No, we missed that," said Raindrop.
"Well, odd, a lot of ponies did," said Applebloom.

Once they had said goodbye to Applebloom and passed beyond Sweet Apple Acres, they quickly got to the old warehouse.
"Billy, I get the impression you've been practicing since yesterday," said Raindrop.
"Well, yeah. I have."
"That's good, but on what?"
"Really small things, I can't lift much else heavier than a piece of paper, though."
"Well, let's start from there, but first I need to ask you something. Have you noticed any difference in your magic when you lift it?"
"Actually, I have. At first when I tried practicing it was hard, but I tried to focus on my horn a bit more, like when you threw rings at me, and it made it a little easier to keep the paper floating in the air, to sort of keeping my grasp on it, but it also made it fly wildly around," said Billy. Raindrop tried to remember what she had read in the book, and she thought she knew what the problem was. She would've been a lot more unsure about her theory, but the fact that Billy seemed to think that her method worked made her believe in it a tad more.
"Lets keep practicing levitation first, alright? I will take this ball of old paper and throw it up in the air. Try to catch it with your magic," said Raindrop. Billy seemed a bit unsure, but he nodded and took a stance signaling he was ready. Once Raindrop threw the first one Billy focused and shut his eyes, straining to get a grasp on it, and failed. The little ball simply just fell down.
"Sorry."
"Don't be. Again!" said Raindrop, fetched the ball and threw it up in the air.

Unfortunately Billy just didn't seem to be able to catch anything while it was in the air, not balls of paper, not simple sheets of paper, not even light leaves. It took two full hours before Billy was getting visibly frustrated, but at least he was a bit more patient today, not to mention more willing to work hard.
"This is stupid! Why doesn't it work!?" exclaimed Billy and stomped his hoof on the floor.
"Billy, when you make just paper that stand still float, do you... feel that you're holding it?"
"Well, not really, no. It just sort of happens when I make it," said Billy.
"So you can't feel if you're grabbing the things I throw?"
"No, but they don't even move, I'm doing it wrong," said Billy. Raindrop thought about it for a few minutes while Billy walked around, disappointedly kicking some leaves and boxes. He picked up a sheet of old paper and folded it into an paper airplane with his hooves. With some effort he picked it up with magic and tried to throw it, but his effort only gave his plane a gentle push before it crashed to the ground.
"You know what? I think you and me might've been going over this a bit wrong," said Raindrop, she walked over to her saddlesack.
"What do you mean, Rainy?"
"See that really big box? Climb up on it for now," said Raindrop while looking threw her stuff. She had all sorts of simple things there, but it took a moment before she found what she was looking for. Once she picked up the object from the sack Billy was already on the box. She jumped from box to box up to him.
"What are you going to do with that piece of string?" asked Billy.
"Pick up that paper ball and get it up here," said Raindrop. After a short moment of the ball unsteadily floating up to them Raindrop had a paper ball, which she tied the string around. She then tied the other end of the string around Billy's horn.
"Billy, lie on your back with your head over the side of the box," said Raindrop. Billy didn't question her despite the odd request, which made Raindrop feel a bit like a real teacher, which made her feel precious. Raindrop nudged the ball so it fell down, while hanging from Billy's horn. She jumped down beneath him and looked up. "Okay, Billy. I thought about this a few hours ago when you said that you couldn't keep floating things very steady, but I didn't do anything about it then because I wanted you to catch the things I threw to make you improve. You couldn't catch them, and I think that both these problems might have the same solution," said Raindrop.
"What does that have to do with this?" asked Billy, looking down at her, or from his point of view, up.
"Vectors!"
"Victor-what?"
"No, vectors. They are, like, how should I explain this? They are like, something that represent a distance, force or direction. My dad works with them all the time when he's doing paperwork for the train station. He explained the idea. It was really boring math stuff. I think that the reason you can't grasp things very well is that you don't let yourself know where they are."
"What? But they are, like, right there!"
"Yes, but when you move them, they are no longer 'right there', instead they are 'over here now'. Let me explain more. See how the string from your horn to the ball is stretched? That is a vector that makes up the distance from your horn to the ball. Try making the ball float just a little bit and raise it upwards to you," said Raindrop. In short order the ball started to move, but it didn't move up, it moved down, away from Billy.
"It's not supposed to do that!"
"Alright, this might support my theory. Let it go. You see, when you grasped the ball, you used it with the help of the vector, you had a point of the magic, your horn, and a goal, the ball. You moved it further down because your down right now is your magic's up. Maybe that's subconscious or something? Nevermind. Billy, you couldn't catch things when they were moving right? But now, with the string in mind, try making the ball stop," said Raindrop and hit the ball, making it go back an forth like a pendulum. Billy tried to focus, and to his surprise eventually the ball started to slow down, and then he made it speed up.
"I'm doing it! I'm doing it!"
"Great! Now, keep holding the ball, push it down, don't let it move," said Raindrop. She kicked it so it flew up towards Billy, and it quickly got out of his control. "You couldn't stop it, or dropped it, because there was no new vector in mind. I think that if you imagine a straight line between your horn and whatever you're trying to lift, things will be much easier, both to lift, and move around. There is another thing you might need to keep in mind. When you move an object, try to move that along another line. A line that pushes the thing into another place.
"This is all really weird to me," said Billy.
"I never thought that dad explaining this incredibly boring stuff would actually be useful, but there you go. Come on, get down here," said Raindrop. Once Billy got down, Raindrop removed the string. She held one of the paper balls. She was ready to throw it, and Billy knew it.
"Remember, there is a line between you and the ball. The ball has its own line you need to stop. Come on!" shouted Raindrop and threw the ball high into the air. It was constantly rising, then it reached its peak. Billy was focusing all he could, while keeping his eyes on the ball. It started to fall. Right before it hit the ground, it stopped in the air. They both looked at it for a short moment, and then they cheered.
"I did it! I can't believe I did it!" yelled Billy.
"I knew you could do it, Billy! Great work!"
"It just, wow, it just clicked!" said Billy, for once he actually seemed proud of himself. He used his magic to pick up the ball, and to their shared joy, he did so without any visible strain. He waved it around, he couldn't quite do it without turning his head in the new direction, but he could do it, he could even do it quickly. He dropped the ball and sat down on the floor. "Okay, I am super tired."
"Billy, this is great! I never knew that unicorn magic was so... so really sensible. This is, well this is great. I'm not even sure I need to do anything else! The rest is you practicing what you've learned. You've learned the point of focus, and where to direct it! Your horn won't be useless anymore!"
"I know! I bet that if I would've had more magic in me, I would've been able to lift one of these boxes... but, well, that's something nopony can fix. But who cares? I can finally use this whenever I need to!"
"Well... I, I guess that's that. Good work, Billy. I'll, I'll see you in school tomorrow," said Raindrop. There was a sudden silence between them, a somewhat awkward silence.
"Well, yeah... I suppose. I'll, see you tomorrow. Thanks for all your help, Rainy. You're a real pal." He couldn't look directly at her for very long, after a while he avoided her eyes. Raindrop was about to turn around when: "Hey, Rainy. I, I still don't know how to make my horn glow in the dark. Could you maybe teach me that too?" asked Billy. Raindrop looked at him, and she smiled.
"I'll see you here tomorrow after school, right?"
"Sure will. Hey, do you want to hang out today, maybe? We can call it a day and just have some fun. Sugarcube Corner?"
"I'd like that," said Raindrop.
"Great, but, I don't have any money if you want something."
"Hey, I'll buy us a muffin or something to celebrate," said Raindrop. She picked up her things and then they walked out of the warehouse.

On their way into Ponyville, Billy often used his horns on small rocks that he passed. He picked each of them up and threw them gently to the side of the road. He seemed overjoyed. Raindrop was just proud, and happy that he finally seemed to feel a bit more comfortable with his own identity as a unicorn.
"It shouldn't have to take having a license to teach a unicorn this stuff. I just think it's stupid."
"Well, I suppose they wrote the law in order to avoid everypony to learn more advanced stuff that could harm themselves and others without supervision. This is basic stuff you could learn on your own if you were just a bit more creative. And if you're not, there's always magic kindergarten. You... were just unlucky not to get to go there," said Raindrop.
"You're right. I thought this was all just so much harder, but it just turned out I needed to think in another way. This is basic stuff after all, as I said, I thought it was all so much harder than it was," said Billy. They had finally reached Sugarcube Corner. There was a unusual amount of ponies there today. The shelves with carefully and expertly made candy were fully stocked, making the already cheerful and colorful room even more so. Raindrop had already been plenty surprised in how quickly they had managed to teach Billy how to move objects, but at least that was to be somewhat expected since it was so basic, but to actually find her father and Tripper Track sitting at a table there and chatting was very unexpected. "Rainy, what is your dad doing here?"
"I don't know. Let's find out," said Raindrop. They walked towards them, but when they got closer Tripper Track noticed them, and he looked like he was panicking. Raindrop couldn't understand why, but she was about to ask him in just a moment. Suddenly, somepony walked up to Raindrop and Billy.
"Well, hello, there Raindrop. I see you are busy with your hard work," said Ellie. Raindrop didn't enjoy the tone in her voice, it made her feel guilty. She had hurt Ellie, to her it seemed like Raindrop was avoiding her.
"Ellie, me and Billy has worked hard today, we were just done earlier than expected," said Raindrop.
"Working? Working with what?" asked Ellie. Raindrop tried not to panic.
"Well, me and Billy was just, well, we were-"
"Bucking apples at Sweet Apple Acres. Yeah, helped out Applebloom, earned a little money," lied Billy. He was better at lying than she was, fortunately enough.
"Why would you want to earn money?" asked Ellie. Raindrop could see Mr. and Mrs. Cake helping each other with getting a big chocolate cake out of the kitchen and up on the counter.
"Because we wanted to, well to buy a cake here. They always look so delicious, and we couldn't wait to one of our birthdays. We just love their cakes," said Raindrop and cracked a smile. Ellie didn't seem to buy it.
"What about you saying you couldn't hang out with me until next week?"
"Well, we wouldn't be able to afford a whole cake in just an afternoon's work," said Raindrop and gave a fake laugh. Billy gently nudged her hoof.
"Don't overdo it, just relax," whispered Billy when Ellie looked over to take a good look at the cake, there were plenty of them there, but that one could draw your eyes to it like a moth to a flame, it just looked so delicious.
"Anyway, Ellie. I'm here now, want to hang out with me and Billy?" asked Raindrop. Ellie looked at them, and being invited seemed to make her simply not care if Raindrop was lying or not.
"You go sit at the window, we're just going to say hi to my dad and Tri- Hey, where did he go?" asked Raindrop. Tripper Track was nowhere to be seen, but her father was still sitting over in his corner and looked at them gently smiling. Ellie left for her seat, and Raindrop and Billy walked over to Cloudy.
"Hey, dad. What are you doing here today? Where's Tripper?"
"He and I have been talking all day. I've taken a short break from work. Tonight I'm taking your mother out to dinner, don't eat too many cookies when we're out tonight, alright?"
"Of course not, maybe just one?"
"Don't tell your mother," said Cloudy and smiled.
"Why did that pony leave, Mr. Day?" asked Billy.
"Well, he, he couldn't quite deal with talking to my kid today," said Cloudy.
"Really? That's not very like him at all," said Raindrop.
"It's been a pretty tough day for him. For me too. I went to the hospital this morning, but there was nothing they could do. My stupid doctor is just overpaid, and there's nothing I can do about it either. Too bad, I could've just saved some money instead of wasting it on that quack. I honestly didn't expect anything," said Cloudy and shrugged.
"I can see why that bugs you," said Billy.
"Well," said Cloudy and lowered his voice. "Did today go well?"
"You tell me," said Billy. He focused his gaze on a cup of hot chocolate on the table, and he made it levitate.
"Great job, you two."
"Tomorrow we're going to do illumination," said Raindrop.
"We're here to celebrate that the first spell works so well," said Billy.
"Wonderful, go get your friend, while I get us all a tasty piece of apple pie," said Cloudy. They both nodded and walked back towards Ellie. Cloudy stepped off his seat and walked towards the counter. Raindrop had her sight set on Ellie. She was to say the least very happy, then she heard a large heavy thud from somewhere behind. Immediately whispers and talking broke out around them. Raindrop turned around to see what had happened. Ponies were gathering around a point, and behind the silhouette of their many legs Raindrop could see the unmoving body of her own father.
"Dad?"
"Is somepony a doctor?"
"Dad?!"
"Is he breathing?"
"Dad!"
"Get this pony to a hospital!"
"Daddy!"