Twilight was running through the library, getting everything on her checklist looked over for the third time. She had the list with her as she examined the bookshelf, making sure that everything had been cleaned and that she’d also taken out the books she thought she’d need for today. She then went over to make sure she had the appropriate amount of supplies.
“Five hundred pieces of parchment? Check. Three different quills? Check. Ten bottles of ink? Check. Practice items? Check. Alright then. I think we’re set,” she said, putting the list down. Filled with nervousness and excitement, Twilight was ready for her first ever Magic Tutoring. “Now I just need to make sure that we have our peace and quiet. Spike, you still here?”
“Yeah. Just let me get washed up before I head out,” he replied, going into the bathroom and cleaning himself off. “Me and Pinkie Pie are gonna have a cake eating contest at Sugar Cube Corner. You sure you know what you’re doing?” Spike asked, thinking back to the events that led to Twilight deciding to tutor in magic.
It was right after the case of the destroyed dioramas at the school. Thanks to the investigative efforts of the CMC, they found that the culprit was not only Diamond Tiara, but that she was also a unicorn. She’d kept it a secret because of her embarrassment of being unable to control it and an accident that caused the loss of someone close to her. It was revealed that she had incredibly powerful magic and not even potions meant to permanently get rid of magic could be effective against her. When Spike messaged her about helping her control her magic, she couldn’t be any more enthusiastic.
“I’m positive that anything that comes this way I can handle. After all, I have years studying magic on my side. My experience with the topic would be enough for even experienced magic casters. She hasn’t been taught anything so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“Alright. I won’t say ‘I told you so’ when you complain about your day. You’re on your own now.” Spike opened the door to leave, only to be met with Diamond Tiara, hoof raised up as if about to knock on the door. She wasn’t wearing her trademark tiara at the moment, her horn visible without the masking effects of its enchantment.
“Oh. Hey Spike,” she said casually, the two staring at each other, trying to figure out what next.
“Hey, Diamond Tiara. You feel ready for your first lesson?” he asked, trying to bring something up before things got awkward.
“I guess. Still feels odd having ponies refer to me as a unicorn. Just feels so…weird.”
“Yeah, well, I’m off to leave you and Twi alone for your tutoring. Take care!” he said, heading off.
“Okay.” Diamond Tiara walked in just in time to observe her tutor carefully adjusting the quills so they’d be in order.
“Oh! Hello Diamond Tiara!” Twilight said, enthusiastic about this opportunity. “Please, have a seat.” The pink unicorn sat down at the desk while Twilight took out her pair of reading glasses and placed it on her face. “While I am tutoring you, you shall refer to me as Miss Sparkle. Understood?”
“Sure,” she replied unenthusiastically.
“Good. Now, I’m going to go over exactly what we’ll be doing today. Since this is your first lesson, I thought I’d give you the introductory content first. Here,” Twilight said, levitating a sheet of paper over to her. “This practice test will let me see how much you already know. That way I can move onto the material that I know we need to cover. Take your time and don’t worry about grades; this is all about learning.”
Diamond Tiara picked up her quill and started jotting down answers. While she was doing that, Twilight went over the concepts she’d most likely have to teach her.
“Now let’s see. First we deal with the basic concept of what magic is. Then, we go over several examples of its use. I then introduce several topics that will come up later on that we can build up to and how it all relates. That should be easy enough.” Twilight decided to look over her lesson plan and pick out what order to teach the material in. She was enthusiastic with her choices of books and wanted to figure out what she’d teach first.
“Done,” Diamond Tiara said.
“Alright,” Twilight said, taking the piece of paper away and examining it. She took out her red quill and was about to mark the things that would need improvement before she got a good look at it. “Huh. This is…interesting. I don’t actually see any wrong answers.”
“Yeah. I actually studied a lot of this stuff before when I was trying to find out how to control it. Didn’t help.” Twilight was surprised at how well Diamond Tiara answered the questions. She’d made certain to include a wide range of content that went from beginner content to expert knowledge. She even answered the question that Twilight got wrong her first time as well.
“Oh. My. Um…maybe we should go over the basics, just to be certain. Now, the basic understanding magic is-“
“Magic is the ethereal connection we have to the world based on our personal power and connection with living organisms that can manifest in many ways, from the obvious unicorn magic that utilizes the horn as a central locus to the magic of an earth pony which can manifest in abilities, such as extreme strength in certain situations or different kinds of intuition.” Twilight’s jaw hung open after hearing Diamond Tiara’s answer. She’d never heard a more perfect answer before.
“That’s correct. Wow. You really do know this stuff. However, I can’t just skip a large chunk of material because you know a lot about some things,” Twilight explained. “We still have the concepts of magic resonance, interference, and I think I’d like to go over transfiguration just a little bit. That’s always a fun one.”
“Do you mind if I try to explain some of the stuff I know about those topics?” Diamond Tiara asked, becoming more active than she was before.
“Sure! I’d love to hear what you have to say.” Twilight sat herself down, taking a notepad to analyze and review what Diamond Tiara would explain.
“Magic resonance is the term used to describe the magic wavelengths that any pony can generate merely with their presence. With unicorns it’s much more obvious and can actually have altering effects if multiple unicorns are within the same proximity. One way is that the resonance can actually cause two ponies to link with each other, sometimes sharing emotions and, in some extreme cases, thoughts. Now, interference is an example where some outside force interrupts spell casting. This can actually be caused by resonance and results in spells losing focus. Something that can cause it as well would be magic absorbing materials such as certain kinds of crystals. Interference can be stopped however if the pony has enough power or focus to overcome such interferences. Focus doesn’t work too well when it’s being absorbed though. Lastly, transfiguration-“
“Alright. I think I get the point,” Twilight said, impressed and slightly put off by how smart her pupil was. “I think you’ve got an understanding of the basics. I know I’m skipping ahead just a little, but how about we do a little practice?”
“Sure. What’d you have in mind?” Diamond asked.
“I actually want to see about a simple levitation spell. I remember that being the first spell I ever performed,” Twilight said, thinking back to those days. “Try to levitate this page of the book.” Diamond Tiara closed her eyes and focused. A red glow enveloped the page and turned it over smoothly. “Great! Now, try to do some more levitating, but don’t just do the page over again.”
“Okay.” Diamond Tiara’s horn glowed again and Twilight expected her to levitate several pages or the entire book. What ended up happening was that the words on the page were actually levitated from the book and started swirling around in the air.
“Wow. You actually levitated the ink off the page and kept it intact,” Twilight said, impressed.
“Thanks,” Diamond Tiara said, sounding a bit more enthusiastic. She placed the words back in order onto the page. “Is that good?”
“Good? I don’t think even I could have done that when I was your age,” Twilight said, surprised at how good Diamond Tiara was. She smiled upon being complimented. “So, it looks like you can be precise with your magic as well. That’s good.”
“Thanks!” Without what appeared to be trying, Diamond Tiara’s horn started to glow again, pulling out all the books on the shelves and moving them around.
“Um, Diamond? You mind putting those back?”
“Oh. Sorry.” With a somber face, the books were placed back in order. “Sometimes my magic will act up like that. I don’t know why, but it’s really annoying.” Twilight remembered the case that Spike had worked on and already knew about Diamond’s trouble with controlling her magic.
“Don’t worry. My job as tutor will be to help you control your magic. Besides, that was pretty good, even if you didn’t mean to do that.” Twilight smiled at her pupil, who in return smiled back. “Now, I think we’ve actually covered everything that I’d planned to teach today. I think we made some real progress though. Class is dismissed then.” Twilight found that saying that line was oddly satisfying.
“Okay. See you tomorrow then?” Diamond Tiara asked.
“Eeyup! Don’t worry. Tomorrow I’ll make sure that I have more for us to do tomorrow. Now I know how much you know, so it’ll be easier to plan out. Good night!” Twilight saw her pupil out the door and closed it. Immediately she started worrying about what she was going to do.
“Oh horseapples! I hadn’t planned on her being so...so...skilled. I thought she just had lots of energy. This is going to throw off the entire schedule. I’ll need to figure out what to do next.” Twilight grabbed as many books as she could and started flipping through the pages. She felt clueless as how to instruct somepony who could learn so quickly. “I guess what I could do is just use these books as a guideline and teach in the order of the lessons. After all, that’s what most teachers do anyway. I’ll look through the lessons and make an activity to accompany when finished. That way we’ll spend our time wisely.”
“Hey, Twi, I forgot my cake eating bib. Did you see it?” Spike asked as he came through the door. “Oh. Sorry. I’m interrupting, aren’t I?”
“No, Spike. You aren’t. We finished the lesson already.”
“Wow. That was pretty fast. Thought you had a ton of stuff to teach.”
“Yeah, well, my pupil was smarter than I thought and knew the stuff already,” she said, both impressed and annoyed. “Trust me though when I say that tomorrow will be different. Much different.”
“Uh, Twi? You sound a bit evil when you say things like that,” Spike pointed out.
“Oh. Heh, sorry. I’m just saying that tomorrow will be a lesson that actually gives Diamond Tiara a challenge. She was pretty skilled with her magic and even knew a good amount as well. Guess she’s been trying to find a way to deal with her magic for a while then.” Twilight floated several other books toward her, trying to figure out what else she could incorporate into her lesson tomorrow. “Hopefully I can catch up with her.”
“Yeah. I mean, how embarrassing would it be if some random filly from an Earth Pony village managed to upstage Princess Celestia’s personal student? That’d be insane.” Spike didn’t realize what he’d said until the words exited his mouth. “Oh. Um, what I meant was-”
“It’s alright, Spike. I’m not offended. It’s a real experience for the both of us, so I’ll be happy to do whatever I can to teach proper magic use. Anyway, I better get back to planning. I think your bib was put next to the cutlery.”
“Thanks,” Spike said, leaving Twilight in peace. She spent the rest of the night looking over her magic texts, absorbing their knowledge and seeing what she could teach.
“Hurray! Hurray!” the crowds yelled out, cheering on the pink unicorn as she was paraded down the street. The streets of Canterlot were filled with confetti and celebration as the pony was carried by her chariot to the castle. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna awaited her there at the end of the street.
“Citizens of Equestria! I present to you the new Element of Magic!” Celestia declared, placing the crown on top of Diamond Tiara. Everypony cheered, including Twilight’s friends. “I declare that this unicorn here is, without a doubt, the most skilled magic user in the entire land. Three cheers for her!”
“GAH!” Twilight yelled, jumping out of her bed. She’d just woken up from what she felt was a nightmare. She could hardly remember the facts, but remembered that it dealt with Diamond Tiara.
“Ugh, Twi, was that you?” Spike asked.
“Don’t worry Spike. I just, um, remembered that I needed to write some more for the lesson tomorrow.”
“You sure that it won’t be too much? After all, you spent the entire evening planning for it already.”
“No. I’m sure it’ll be good for her. After all, once we find what she needs help with, we can work on that. After all, we just went over the basics today. I doubt that she’s skilled in every other field of magic.”
“If you say so.” Spike went back to sleep as Twilight took out the books and started looking over them again. For some reason, she felt a twinge of fear and anxiety as she went over what she’d be teaching her pupil. She didn’t know how that could possibly be and decided to forget about it.