//------------------------------//
// Chapter 26: Apprentice 
// Story: Secrets of the Everfree 
// by PaisleyPerson 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 26
Apprentice


A light tapping could be heard at the door. 
“I’ve got it,” the little dragon declared.
“Thanks, Blaze,” I said, scooting the jar of pencils to the middle of the table. It was Friday morning, and I had turned the studio into a classroom. Torch had helped me clear enough space for a long folding table last night. The easels and canvases that usually cluttered the floor had been moved elsewhere, making the sun room look much larger than it used to. I wasted no time in filling that space with the table and chairs, of course. When Blaze began helping me run the shop, Heckley had been booted out of a job, so he was more than happy to help me get the supplies set out. He’d already gathered five blank sketchbooks along with plenty of pencils, erasers and rulers. I’d set up the white still life in the middle of the table, composed of randomly assorted styrofoam shapes generously donated by my sister. Wild Flower occasionally used them for creating silk flower arrangements, but as she rarely used the plastic flowers anymore, was happy to get rid of her scrap. 
“They’re here!” Blaze reported from the door. Four sets of hooves could be heard plodding through the shop. I took one last deep breath and turned to greet them. I felt a little more at ease when Heckley curled around my neck like the old days. 
“Hey, Mrs. Acrylic!” Apple Bloom chimed, smiling wide. 
“Hello, girls! Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo. And who’s this?” At the back of their train I noticed an unfamiliar filly. She was tiny, but looked about the same age as the rest of them. Her coat was the deep purple of a violet flower, but light freckles stood out on her cheeks. She had a blue mane not quite as dark as mine, streaked with lavender. It was kept long and straight and bounced over her neck at a similar length to the rest of the crusaders, but she seemed to hide behind her overgrown bangs. Thin yet stylish blue wire-frame glasses rested on the bridge of her nose. Tiny thestral wings remained tucked in by her sides, and like the rest of her friends, she was a blank flank.
“This is our friend Glitter Shine,” Scootaloo introduced, throwing an arm around her. The little filly hadn’t been expecting that, and was almost thrown off balance. Apple Bloom batted her hoof away, allowing Glitter Shine to straighten her glasses.
“Hello, Glitter Shine. My name is Acrylic. It’s nice to meet you,” I smiled. 
“You too,” she started, barely looking up. But when she did, her mouth hung agape, and all she could do was stare, petrified. Sweetie Belle beckoned me close. 
“She’s a little shy.”
“And pretty scared of snakes,” Scootaloo tried not to snicker.
“There’s nothing wrong with being with being offio.... opio...” Sweetie stuttered on the word.
“Ophidiophobic?”
“Yeah,” she agreed, also taking a few steps back from my snake.
“I see. Well, that’s alright. He’s very friendly.” Heckley bobbed his head out a little farther and flicked out his tongue to demonstrate. 
“He ain’t gonna bite,” Apple Bloom assured, reaching out to pet him. “See?” The gesture had done little to settle Sweetie’s nerves, and Glitter still hadn’t moved. 
“Tell you what. Heckley can wait upstairs while we draw. Does that sound better?”
“Much,” Sweetie gratefully sighed. 
“Sorry bud,” I cast an apologetic look at my pouting reptile. He reluctantly snaked his way upstairs, taking care to give the fillies a wide girth. When he had left, I finally turned back to my students. “So, do you girls, and guy, want to get started?”
“Yeah!” four of them shouted.
“Alright,” Glitter softly agreed. 
“Okay...” I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the newcomer just yet. “Well, I’ve got the paper and pencils set out, so why don’t you all go take a seat?”
“Okay!” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo dashed off to get first pick.
“Oh, Acrylic, before I forget, Rarity sent this for you to pay for our class.” Sweetie Belle produced a small gem from her saddlebags. 
“Thank you, Sweetie Belle, but I didn’t mean for you girls to pay for this!”
“She insisted,” Sweetie Belle pressed, prompting me to take it again.
“Alright,” I finally agreed, moving the gem to the counter. There was no arguing with Rarity. 
Apple Bloom chose a seat near the middle of the table, and Scootaloo sat beside her. Sweetie Belle joined them at the end, and Glitter stationed herself at the side. Blaze separated himself and sat on the opposite side. I furrowed my brow and walked up to him. 
“Why don’t you go sit with the other girls?” I quietly prompted. 
“Nah,” he shrugged. “I’m alright over here.”
“If you say so,” I sighed, switching my attention over to the rest of the class. “Alright, so first of all, I want you all to draw this.” I pointed to the still life. 
“What is that?” Scootaloo asked, cocking her head to try and get a different angle.
“Just a mish mosh of different parts and pieces of styrofoam. I want to see what you already know. Don’t worry about how the first one comes out- it doesn’t have to look good.”
“Aren’t ya supposed to be teachin’ us how to do it?” Apple Bloom voiced. 
“I will,” I promised, “but I don’t want to teach you what you already know. You want to learn new things, right? To do that, I need to see what you can do without me teaching you.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Sweetie Belle decided, choosing a pencil.
“What do these numbers and letters mean?” Scootaloo asked, glancing over the pencils herself. She displayed a HB pencil in her mouth.
“These are all labeled according to the value scale,” I explained. “H stands for hardness, and B stands for blackness. Hard pencils give you a smaller, lighter line. Black pencils come out darker and thicker. It’ll also be easier to smudge.”
“What about this one? F?”
“Fine point,” I said. “It’s like a hard pencil. The bigger the number, the harder or softer it gets. HB is where they meet up in the middle. It’s the equivalent of a number two pencil.”
“Like the kind we use at school?”
“Exactly.”
“So why give them all those fancy names? Why not call it a number two pencil?”
“Because only the HB is like a number two pencil,” Blaze clarified. “The rest are different.”
“Ugh! It’s already giving me a headache! Is anyone else confused? Glitter?” We looked over at the young filly, who was already busy at work. She looked up upon being addressed.
“Huh?”
“Aren’t you confused by all these 2H’s, 7B’s and F’s? The pencils?” she added when Glitter still looked confused. For the first time, she looked down and noticed the silver 2B stamped on the side of the pencil she’d been using. 
“Oh. No,” was all she said. Out of curiosity, I peered over her shoulder at what she had so far. 
“Wow, Glitter! That’s excellent!” She’d only gotten one and a half styrofoam shapes down, and they weren’t too amazing, but her depth perception and value scales were off the charts! She’d even captured the shadows perfectly. Even I’d had trouble with value when I was her age. She just blushed. “Can I show the others?” She bashfully nodded. I lifted up her tablet, and the girls pushed in to get a better view. Blaze, who was on the other side of the table, scurried around to see. 
“I didn’t know ya were such a good drawer, Glitter!” Apple Bloom praised. 
“Have you drawn much before?” I prompted. 
“No,” she shook her head. 
“Well then,” I winked, “you’re off to a great start.”
“Why, hello, girls.” We all turned to greet Torchwood, returning home from another round of deliveries.
“Hello, Mr. Torchwood,” they all sang in unison.
“Have you learned anything yet?”
“That’s not fair! We just started!” I complained.
“I learned that a HB pencil is the same thing as a number two pencil,” Scootaloo offered. “But that’s about it.”
“And H means hard and B means black,” Sweetie Belle added. 
“And Glitter turned out to be a real good drawer,” Apple Bloom put in. Torch turned to the unfamiliar filly.
“You must be the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ newest member. My name is Torchwood. Glitter, was it?”
“Glitter Shine,” she shyly looked away.
“Glitter Shine,” he repeated. “How pretty. Well, Glitter, it was nice to meet you. I hope to be seeing more of you around town.” She just nodded. Sensing that she’d rather be left alone, Torch nodded back and moved around to Blaze. “They’ve got you all by yourself over here, eh?”
“I’m not alone, just... separate.”
“Come on, Blaze! You can sit with us if you want!” Scootaloo called. 
“Yeah, we don’t bite,” Apple Bloom voiced her agreement while scooting over a chair.
“I’m good,” he assured. Sweetie Belle shrugged. 
“If you say so.”
“Can’t say we didn’t offer.”
“Oh, go on! You aren’t afraid of them, are you?” Blaze suddenly became flustered.
“I- I am NOT!”
“I’m only teasing,” Torchwood ruffled his spines. Then he turned back to me. “I’ve got new orders in for you. And Graphite sent something about a possible gallery opening. Do you want me to put it all upstairs?”
“Girls, can you excuse me just for a moment? If Graphite sent what I think he sent, I’d rather take care of it now.”
“Go ahead,” Blaze waved, preoccupied with the assignment.
“We’ll be fine,” Apple Bloom agreed. 
“Thanks. I’ll be right back.” Torch followed me out to the lobby.
“What is it?” I fished out the expected envelope.
“Graphite mentioned that he had an opening for a bigger spot in his gallery. There are a lot of clients after it, so I applied right away. I’m hoping this is a letter of acceptance or better yet, a contract.”
“You didn’t tell me about that. Congratulations!”
“I assumed Graphite already told you,” I apologized. “Yep. This is it! I got it! Just a little bit of paperwork and...” I started unfolding the contract, only to find that it kept unfolding. It wasn’t long before it reached the floor.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Torch chortled, stepping outside before breaking into a laughing fit. I rolled my eyes, and reluctantly began the tedious chore. I scrutinized all the little loop holes and fine print until I was cross-eyed.
After an eternity, I signed the thing, and hurriedly slid it back into a fresh envelope. I set it aside to be mailed later, and returned to my class. After all that brain-numbing work, returning to a class felt like a day at the spa.
“Sorry about that,” I apologized, stepping back in the studio. “It just couldn’t wait. Now, is everyone finished?” I looked to Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who all gave affirmative nods. But when my eyes moved across the table, I realized that Glitter was missing. I furrowed my brow, but when I continued on to Blaze, found her sitting beside him. They were drawing together in mutual silence, but I smiled. Glitter was making sure Torchwood couldn’t interject any more of his ‘jokes’.  





“Thanks for the art class Mrs. Acrylic!” Scootaloo waved. 
“See ya next week!” Apple Bloom added. 
“Bye, Blaze!”
“Bye!” he waved from the doorway.
“Goodbye, girls! Be safe!” I chimed. I was just about to shut the door when a bright flash of light followed by a thunderous roar caused the girls simultaneously ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed.’ 
“Hey, Acrylic?” Apple Bloom called back. “What is it Mr. Torchwood’s doin’ with his fire over there?” I casually trotted back out over to the quartet to see what they were looking at. Torchwood was around the back surrounded by a few of my canvases, practicing a new fire dancing technique.
“Oh, Torch told me that he thought he’d come up with a way to dry my oil paints faster without making them crack. I gave him those to practice on.”
“How cool is that?!” Scootaloo beamed, wings buzzing with excitement. 
“He loves to show off. I bet he’ll let you watch if you ask him,” I winked.
“Awesome! What’dya say girls? Should we-” Scootaloo’s friends had already dashed off for a better view, Glitter included. “Hey! Wait for me!” She hurried off to join them, and I followed suit. 
“Hello, Mr. Torchwood!” Sweetie Belle happily called. Torch’s flame puttered out as he turned to acknowledge his visitors.
“Hey, girls! I guess this means school’s out, eh?”
“For this week, anyway.”
“Acrylic was just telling us about your awesome fire dancing!” Scootaloo chirped.
“Hey, Mr. Torchwood, d’ya think it’d be alright if we stuck around to watch?” Apple Bloom displayed a pleading yet hopeful puppy dog face, but that wasn’t necessary. I saw his eyes sparkle at the mere mention of an audience. 
“You want a show, do you?” All four girls eagerly bobbed their heads. “Then a show you shall have!” 
“Yay!” the girls chimed. I settled in the grass a ways off to give Torch some room, and the girls crowded around in front. 
His green-and-orange flame gently crackled to life before the girls, and they leaned in close to better examine it. It flickered lightly in time with the untrimmed grass, and the girls’ eyes tracked its every move. Sweetie Belle was evidently feeling a slightly hypnotic effect, as her eyelids were beginning to droop. Before she could crack a yawn, the flame grew taller, higher, until it bloomed in a stunning shower of sparks. A fiery flower burst forth, and the girls gasped with delight. Torch directed the flame higher until it appeared to have settled behind Apple Bloom’s ear. He promptly snuffed out his fire but left a real daylilly in its wake, to our astonishment.
“That’s new,” I commented.
“How’dya do that?” the young yellow filly excitedly inquired. She removed the orange flower from her hair and showed the other beaming girls.
“A magician never reveals his secrets,” he proudly boasted.
“Pleeeaaaassseeee?” They all whined, big wet eyes pleading for an explanation. Even I didn’t usually get explanations, but their adorable faces softened him.
“Alright, but just this once. You know how Spike and Blaze receive and send letters, don’t you?” The girls nodded. “It’s a simple form of teleportation. Thestrals can do the same thing. While I distracted you all with this...” he summoned up another flame, “I was really focusing on this.” He turned to show us another strip of fire encircling the daylilies Wild Flower had planted by the house. It engulfed one of the blooms, and by the time the fire sputtered out, it had vanished, only to reappear in the other tongue of flame. This one was gifted to Glitter, who pushed her glasses back up her nose to stare at it in wonder. Torchwood radiated with pride as he soaked up their astonishment.
“Slight of hoof,” I realized with a coy smile. “You sly dog!”
“That’s awesome!”
“I wish I could do that!” Scootaloo flitted.
“Only thestrals can do it,” Apple Bloom argued.
“I bet a unicorn like me could learn to do something like that,” Sweetie Belle boasted.
“How are you going to teleport something? You can’t even levitate anything bigger than a pencil!”
“Those are big words coming from a pegasus who can’t fly!”
“Take it back!”
“No!”
“Hollow horn!”
“Flightless!”
“Girls, no name calling!” I interrupted. As Apple Bloom, Torchwood and I tried to get them to settle down, nopony noticed Glitter quietly approaching Torchwood.
“Um... uh... sir? Mr. Torchwood?” Torch looked down at the young little filly at his hooves and pulled away from her wrestling comrades momentarily. 
“Yes? What is it, Glitter?”
“Well, I was just wondering...” she mumbled the last bit.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to speak up, angel.” He bent down even further.
“Uh... never mind.” She tried turning away.
“Go on, Glitter, what were you going to say? We’re all listening.” I stuck my hoof between Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to finally break them up and prove my point.
“I’m all ears.” Torchwood came all the way to the ground to reach her level.
“I... uh...” Torch expectantly looked at her. “It’s just... do you think maybe... maybe you could teach me to do that?” Torch’s face blanked. I knew what was going through his mind, and beamed. He’d found an apprentice. Unfortunately, Glitter took that as a refusal, and hastily turned back away. 
“Never mind. You’re probably too busy.”
“No!” Torch jumped up. “I want to.” Her eyes shone with excitement as she gasped. “I really, really want to.”