//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: A Guide to Magic // by bookplayer //------------------------------// Spike wasn’t feeling much better that evening when he found Twilight in the library. “Want me to make you dinner? I’m not hungry.” She looked up and blinked, then rolled her eyes. “Spike, I told you five times you do not have stomach chill. I don’t think dragons can get stomach chill. You breathe fire.” “I know,” Spike sighed. “It’s not that. I just… talked to Apple Bloom today.” “About her decision?” Twilight cocked her head and set down her book. “Yeah, she wanted to know about Canterlot. So I told her…” Spike frowned. “Twilight, I know you need me here, but could we maybe get somepony else to be Apple Bloom's assistant? She really seems like she’s going to need help.” Twilight raised her eyebrows. “What makes you say that?” Spike shrugged. “She worries a lot. Even if she decides to go, well… it’s like when you worry. You’re just not as good at stuff, and that’s when you need me the most.” “You’re right. I guess I could look for another assistant for her, but that pony would still be a stranger.” Twilight sighed. “Yeah…” Spike nodded and sat down next to Twilight. “Why does this make me feel so bad? Everypony else is worried about Apple Bloom, but, I mean, I don’t even feel like eating because of it.” “I have an idea about that…” Twilight looked at him. “If a pony asked ‘who is Spike?’ what do you think other ponies would say?” Spike smiled. “Twilight Sparkle’s number one assistant.” Twilight raised her eyebrows. “What if I wasn’t around? Then who would you be?” Spikes face fell. He started to feel tense, and he looked around the room nervously, fiddling with his claws. He noticed books he should straighten, and a ball of dust under the desk he really should be-- “Spike,” she said softly. “This is important. Who would you be?” Spike swallowed and made himself look at her. “Some… dragon? Who likes comic books, and food?” “I think you’re wrong.” Twilight gave him a nuzzle. “And I think you were wrong about your first answer. You’re not just my number one assistant, you’re a personal assistant. If you were a pony, I think that would be your special talent. You don’t need me for that, in fact a lot of the time you don’t even get to do the best job that you can here. But then you see Apple Bloom, and you see someplace you really could do your best.” She smiled at him. “It’s like when I see a magic puzzle, or when Rainbow Dash hears about a race. It calls to you.” Spike blinked. “You think that I have a real special talent? Like, a cutie mark?” Twilight nodded. “Yes. I don’t think dragons usually have them, but I think you’re a special dragon.” Then her smile turned wistful. “But, one thing everypony knows about special talents is that you’re always happiest when you follow them.” “Yeah…” Spike frowned and looked up at Twilight. She was smiling, she wasn’t sending him away. But she was all he’d ever known for his whole life, and now… She cuddled him close. “That’s why I think you should go, Spike. I thought about it when I was talking to Applejack, before we told Apple Bloom. She had a really hard time with the idea. She loves Apple Bloom, and she cares about her, and that won’t ever change. But she wants Apple Bloom to have the best life she can, even if it means she has to be out there and not at home with her. And I realized, I feel the same way about you.” Spike hugged Twilight and closed his eyes. “I… care about you too.” “I love you, Spike. You’re my family.” She smiled. “But… I don’t think it’s really fair to call you a baby dragon anymore.” “Thanks, Twilight.” Spike said, smiling back. He felt… hungry. And a little excited, he really wanted to talk to Apple Bloom. But he was mostly hungry. “So does that mean I can have ice cream for dinner?” Twilight raised her eyebrow. “In a totally grown-up way.” Twilight shook her head. Spike crossed his arms. “You know, in Canterlot there’ll be nopony to stop me from eating ice cream for dinner…” Spike glanced at Twilight. She was just standing there, smiling her encouragement towards Apple Bloom. But that wasn’t going to be enough. This wasn’t fair. He looked up at the judges, and wondered if somepony planned this. He knew that Princess Celestia would never let something like that happen. But somepony might have slipped it by if they wanted to make sure Apple Bloom didn’t get in. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that the tests weren’t always supposed to be fair; Twilight’s test had been to hatch his egg, and nopony expected a foal to be able to do it. Twilight had done it, with the help of a sonic rainboom, but other foals got in that year just based on how they had tried. He felt like he was that egg again, but this time he was watching from the outside, hoping there was some way for Apple Bloom to hatch it so he could be her assistant, and they could prove to anypony who even thought about keeping her out that she could be one of the best students they’d ever seen. But she couldn’t do it, and this time it was his fault. He’d failed her. Apple Bloom didn’t have raw power like Twilight, she needed to be prepared, and it was his job to make sure she was. Twilight said it was his special talent. Some special talent, if he was that bad at it. He’d do anything if it would make it right. He’d fight a dragon… well, another, much bigger dragon. He’d jump out on that stage and tell everypony how great she was, and tell them this wasn’t fair, if he thought that would help. But it would just mess things up more. She just had to do something, anything. She had to show them she wouldn’t give up. She had to, for both of them. The sun was setting and Apple Bloom was sitting on a hill overlooking Sweet Apple Acres, thinking. She’d thought so much in the past week she thought her brain was going to dissolve. That would make things easier, at least. It occurred to her that maybe that was why grown-ups drank hard cider, and it didn’t seem fair that she had to make a grown-up decision before she was even allowed to have any. As she was thinking, she heard somepony huffing and puffing up the hill. She glanced over and saw Spike coming towards her. “Heya,” she said. “Hey… I’ve been looking… all over… for you. This… is a big… farm.” He finally made it to where she was sitting and plopped down. She smiled as he caught his breath. “You get used to it. You oughta get out and exercise more.” He scrunched up his face. “That would cut into my food and comics time.” Apple Bloom giggled. “Well, I reckon that’s another thing about a farm. Food is all over the place. Want an apple?” “Nah. I just wanted to talk to you.” Spike took a deep breath. “I wanted to ask if you want me to go to Canterlot with you as your assistant. Like I was for Twilight when she was in school.” Apple Bloom’s mouth fell open. “You’d do that for me?” Spike took a deep breath, then he grinned. "Yeah. And I’ll show you all around Canterlot, and I’ll help you study, and you’ll always have a friend, right there. And we can come back to Ponyville whenever we have time.” “But... why?” Spike shrugged. “I like helping ponies. And you need my help, so… it’s what I want to do. Why do you want to study magic?” “It’s fun. And… it’s important. It holds the whole world together, and there’s so much nopony even knows ‘bout it. And Princess Celestia’s School is where ponies are actually puttin’ it together. I could be part of that someday. I could find new potions, or write new spells, or unlock the resonance access for earth pony magic so  we could direct it and use it on purpose…” She smiled. “Look at me, talkin’ big when I don’t even know if I wanna go.” “Are you sure you don’t know?” Spike smiled and raised an eyebrow. Apple Bloom looked at the farmhouse with a nervous smile. “Ya’ know, Applejack said I was a lucky pony. I reckon she’s right. I got a great family, amazin’ friends who all care about me, I got a chance to do something fun that nopony’s ever done before, and be in a neat city, and have somepony there I know I can depend on. Other ponies ain’t gonna have that. They might get some of it, but I got it all. I guess that means… I oughta give it a shot.” She looked over at Spike. “That sounds like some grown-up thinkin’, right?” Spike nodded. “More grown-up than a lot of grown-up ponies I know.” “Good.” Apple Bloom smiled for real. It felt like the first time in days. “I’ll tell my family this evenin’ and go talk to Twilight tomorrow.” Spike smiled back. “Great. So, I guess now you’ve just gotta study for the entrance exam.” The smile slowly melted from Apple Bloom’s face as her stomach started to twist. She sat frozen like that for a few long minutes. “Apple Bloom?” Spike asked, his brows furrowed in worry. Apple Bloom just flopped back in the grass and groaned. “Now I gotta worry about that exam!” Apple Bloom closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then she opened them and studied the chest. It was covered in leather, with brass fittings on the corners, brass hinges on the back, and big padlock on the front. She could make a corroding potion, that might open the lock, but it would probably hurt the chest in the process. She could easily buck the darn lock off the chest, but that would definitely hurt the chest. Everything she could think of would hurt the chest. This just wasn’t something a pony could do with a potion. If she was a unicorn, maybe she could use some kind of magical lock picking, but… she wasn’t a unicorn. Which was the problem when it came down to it. She was crazy, thinking she belonged here. She looked over at Applejack and Twilight and Spike again. All three were trying to smile, to help her feel better, but it just made her feel worse. They knew she couldn’t do this, why was everypony pretending she could? What good did that do anypony? She was wasting the judges time, and everypony would probably just laugh about how an earth pony tried to pass the entrance exam at Princess Celestia’s and couldn’t think of a thing to do for it. She looked at her useless wagon and thought about bucking that. It wouldn’t open the chest, but the glass and potion ingredients would make a really satisfying crash. But that would be mean, somepony would have to clean it up, and Spike spent all that time packing it for her. She shook her head and walked over to the wagon. She took out the list of ingredients and objects Spike had packed. Maybe she’d accidentally put a set of lockpicks on the list. Not that they would help much, her experiences as part of Cutie Mark Crusaders: Locksmiths would attest to that. But she wouldn’t be standing there like an idiot. The list was full of the things she’d need to make potions. Different plants and scrapings and oils, bottles and fittings, a burner for heating things, and the tools to put them all together. There was no potion that could help her now, but as her eyes scanned the list they landed on something… she shouldn’t have needed it, but Spike probably added it just in case the fittings on the stands that held the bottles came loose. She wished she knew about it earlier, she would have fixed that darn wagon. She looked over at him, he was biting his lip and his claws were in fists, he didn’t even try to smile at her. So she grinned at him instead. She dropped the list and quickly trotted around the chest, nodded to herself, and started pulling out ingredients to make a potion. It only took Apple Bloom a few minutes to put together her equipment and mix up the potion, and then it was just a matter of letting it set. While she waited, she went back to her cart and found the screwdriver. She calmly trotted over to the chest and unscrewed the hinges on the back, being careful not to scratch the brass or leather. She opened it just wide enough for her hoof to fit inside so that she didn’t bend the latch on the front. She felt around until she found the gemstone and slid it up the side and out of the box. Then she carefully screwed the hinges back on and set the gem on top of the chest. The judges were just staring at her, and she felt herself blush. “I… uh… didn’t know a potion that would open the box. But I got the gem out anyways.” The judges were quiet, but she saw them look towards the potion she was making. “Oh, yeah. It didn’t feel fair to do a magic test with a screwdriver. So, I made ya’ a plant growin’ potion too, for your gardens or houseplants or what have ya’. It’s a real good one, just don’t use more than three drops at a time unless you got a whole lotta ponies to feed.” The judges raised their eyebrows. Then the blue mare smiled and said, “Thank you, Apple Bloom. You’ll be receiving the results in a few days.” Apple Bloom nodded and put on her mature, serious face. “Thank ya’ kindly, folks.” Then she packed up her things, hitched up her wagon, and trotted towards the door. Soon as they got outside, Applejack grinned and hugged her tight. “Apple Bloom, I am so proud of ya’! I dunno if ya’ passed the test, but that kinda thinkin’ is a darn useful thing anywhere.” “I know I didn’t know a spell that would pick a lock when I took my test, but I knew one that would undo screws. You did exactly what I would have done.” Twilight grinned and wrapped her wings around the sisters. “I guess you could say you were really… thinking outside the box! Huh? Get it?” Spike waggled his eyebrows. “Spike! That’s awful.” Apple Bloom said, giggling. Spike grinned. “Well, I guess you’re gonna have to get used to it.” Apple Bloom walked over and nuzzled him. “Ya’ know, I’m lookin’ forward to it.”