"Hello? Miss Sparkle?" Diamond Tiara asked as she entered the library. "You in here?"
"Oh, hey Diamond Tiara. Twilight's not here right now. She said that she was going to get some supplies for today's lesson," Spike explained. "So how did your lesson go last night? Twilight says you really knew your stuff."
"Yeah. It was pretty easy stuff for me. I've looked over this stuff so many times trying to figure out how to control my magic. Nothing ever seemed to work though."
"You won't have to worry anymore. Twilight's a natural with magic. She's been studying this stuff her entire life! If anypony can help you it's her."
"Thanks Spike. I have to admit that it helps just being able to ask for help. Silver Spoon was the only pony that had known all of this before, but now it actually feels like I've got something off my back. You know?"
"Not really. Guess I haven't had anything like a deep dark secret. Well, except for who I have a crush on." Spike sighed, but then returned to the conversation. "It's not anything like yours though."
"Definitely. I admit that last night really felt...good. Like I had actually managed to do something right. For once I used my magic and something horrible didn't happen. That, or I wasn't scared."
"GOOD EVENING!" Twilight yelled as she burst into her library. "Hello, Diamond Tiara! Glad you're here. We can start right away!" She carried behind her a large wagon filled with what appeared to be random junk. Twilight moved the wagon to the center of the room and then tipped it over, dumping the contents onto the floor.
"NO!" Spike exclaimed. "I just cleaned that floor!"
"No worries, Spike. If today's lesson goes as planned, we'll be able to clean everything up in no time! Now," Twilight levitated a nearby piece of chalk and began writing on a board, "Today we learn about magic and regular objects. Since magic gives off a resonance, it can be attached to nearby objects. One of these items in this pile is enchanted. Your goal at the end of today's lesson will be able to identify which item it is and what kind of enchantment I've placed on it, alright?"
"Can I search now?" Diamond Tiara asked.
"Sure, but I really don't think that you'll be able to find it without the proper knowledge of enchantment," Twilight said, hoping that she'd be able to deliver her lesson in full today. "Now, let's begin with the basics. What is enchantment?"
"Enchantment is the infusing of an object with magical properties based on a specific spell or set of spells. The effects can range from trigger to continuous," Diamond Tiara said, moving around in the pile.
"Exactly. However, There are certain properties to making an enchantment work, such as-"
"Knowledge of the object you're enchanting, the spell you wish to cast, the effects of the spell and when it's active, and the power you wish to infuse it with," Diamond Tiara interrupted. "Also, this tea cup is the enchanted item. It's enchantment is to automatically refill whatever liquid was specifically drunk from it. Becomes null if liquid is not drunk. Low level enchantment."
"What?" Twilight asked, shocked at how fast her pupil had found the item. "But, what about-"
"The other items that had magical residue on them? I could tell that you simply waved your magic over them since their wasn't any organization to the magical patterns that surrounded the objects. This cup however had a specific magical pattern and a practical use for an enchantment." Diamond Tiara then went to the kitchen and then filled the cup with water, taking a sip. The amount she drank was instantly filled up again. "Anything else?"
"Uh, just a second," Twilight said, scrambling to find out what level of skill she would have to be to figure out what items were enchanted without even using magic. Diamond Tiara even went so far as to describe the patterns of the spells themselves. Not even Twilight could master that. "Let's see here. Hmmm. Apparently that level of skill is located in the 'Expert Mastery' section," Twilight said, shutting the book hard. "So, it looks like we don't need to even talk about that topic at all then."
"Alright," Diamond Tiara said, taking another sip. "So, what's next?"
"I was thinking that we might try out some... huh. I just noticed something. You had to go to the kitchen to fill that cup, didn't you?"
"Yeah. So?"
"You do know that you can actually make water fairly easy, right?" Twilight felt like she was getting onto something.
"Really?" Diamond Tiara asked, her interest being revitalized.
"Yes! All that it requires is for somepony to understand the basic structure of water and the concept of it. You create a mental image of it based on what you can attribute to it and then activate your spell," explained Twilight. "Go ahead."
Diamond Tiara took a deep breath and started to focus. Her horn started to glow softly at first, but soon became intense. To everypony's surprise (including Spike, who was watching from the upper level), nothing seemed to happen.
"But, I thought...oh," Diamond Tiara said, feeling like a failure.
"Don't worry. It's your first time trying out a new spell. It's not like I was able to instantly learn spells either. Even now it takes time for me to learn new skills." Twilight walked over to the basement door and said, "You wanna a picture of me when I failed a levitation spell and dropped a cake on my brother?"
"Hah! Sure," she replied, cheering up.
"Okay. Let me check the basement and WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Twilight yelled out as soon as she opened the door. She saw that her basement, the place where she stored all her sensitive materials, whether it be books too rare to simply be put on shelves or personal items, was now flooded. The water reached right up to the top of the stairway. "Oh no. You actually did cast the spell, but just not into the cup."
"Nononono," Diamond Tiara said, worried and turning around in circles. "I-I can fix it! I know how!"
"How?" Twilight said, a scowl starting to form on her face.
"Here. I've been practicing my Undo Spell," Diamond Tiara explained. She went over to the basement door and looked at the small pool that she had accidentally formed. Her horn glowed gently and seemed to radiate a gentle light, causing the water level to lower. After a minute, the water had been removed from the basement, almost as if it had never happened at all.
"Well, that was a good Undo Spell. Let me check out what needs to be repaired though," Twilight said, anger in her tone. She never expected this kind of stuff to happen when she agreed to tutor. Apparently that was something she just had to learn. "Now, let's take a look at you," she said, pulling a random book off of the floor. She expected the book to be soaked and nearly falling apart from water damage, but found it to be in a perfectly suitable condition. In fact, it appeared to be the same condition as it was this morning.
"Did it work?" Diamond Tiara asked meekly. "I tried to undo the spell and its effects. Hope it worked."
"Wait, you're telling me that you not only undid the spell, but all the damage it caused?" Twilight asked. diamond Tiara shook her head. "I don't think that was just an undo spell. I think that was a concentrated Reverse Time spell!" she said, surprised at seeing such a powerful spell be cast by somepony so young.
"Is that good?"
"Obviously. You managed to clean things up, so that's good," Twilight told her. She noticed that her pupil was still trying to avoid eye contact, her head facing down. "Listen, I'm sorry for acting like that earlier. I shouldn't have gotten angry at you for that. I was the one who asked you to perform the spell in the first place."
"It's not just that," she replied. "It's that this usually happens whenever I do magic. Things just get out of control."
"Well, at least you can clean up your messes. That's one thing Celestia told me to make sure of whenever I messed up. She said that sometimes cleaning up what you did is more important than doing the job perfectly. After all, now I know that you're also pretty handy when it comes to time magic, and that's something."
"Thanks, Miss Sparkle," Diamond Tiara said, sounding a bit more cheerful.
"Now, I think we're done our lesson for tonight. Honestly, I think that planning these things ahead of schedule might actually be futile with the way we're plowing through. How about we look at some embarrassing pictures, okay?"
"Okay!" she yelled, the two heading down into the basement.