“Eight multiplied by four?” asked Twilight Sparkle, her eyes focused on the book hovering at her eye level.
“Thirty-two,” grumbled Pumpkin Cake, her pencil wandering around one of a thousand worksheets splayed around the table in front of her.
“Twelve multiplied by twelve?”
“One hundred and forty-four.”
“Five multiplied by three?”
Pumpkin Cake groaned the kind of groan that things make when they die, and let her head thunk into the table.
“Five multiplied by three?” repeated Twilight Sparkle, lowering her book just enough to look over the edge with what Pumpkin had come to term the ‘Dissapointed Princess’ glare.
“Fifteen,” Pumpkin mumbled into the desk, “like it helps me learn magic.”
A snap. A thunk. The sound of a horn firing into action, and Pumpkin Cake found herself being dragged from her seat and levitated over to Twilight Sparkle.
“This was your idea, Pumpkin Cake,” said Twilight, “you said that you wanted to learn from me. I told you that I would teach my way. You said that you didn’t mind, that you just wanted to learn. Or did you lie to me?”
Pumpkin Cake winced. Most of Ponyville, herself included, happily ignored the wings on Twilight Sparkle until one of two things happened: either a mess needed cleaning up, or Twilight somehow turned on that invisible aura that said ‘I am a Princess of Equestria, and you should listen to me or I will be disappointed in you’. It was this second one that Pumpkin was experiencing, and she had to resist the urge to apologise until she ran out of breath.
“I just thought that we’d be doing actual spells, not stupid math,” said Pumpkin, “everypony in town knows that you’re the best at magic around, so I was expecting to be taught actual magic.”
Twilight sighed, and let her horn fizzle out, dropping Pumpkin back to the floor of her castle. Her horn lit up a second time, and a giant projection flickered into life above Pumpkin’s head.
“Do you know what this is, Pumpkin?” asked Twilight. Pumpkin studied the complicated structure, and shook her head.
“This is the spell pattern, that is, the underlying structure of a spell. It is what your magic unconsciously forms into when you cast that particular spell. Take a guess at what spell you think this particular pattern is for,” said Twilight Sparkle.
“Probably an amazing super-complex spell,” said Pumpkin, after a minute.
Twilight Sparkle shook her head, a smile growing on her face.
“No, Pumpkin. This is the spell structure for levitation, the most basic upon basic of spells,” said Twilight. Pumpkin blinked, and Twilight continued on, “It is a seventeen point rotating matrix with three degrees of freedom and evolves with time at a rate of four points per second.”
“But how is math related to that?” asked Pumpkin.
“Everything is math, Pumpkin Cake. Though you can cast most spells with only a little practice, the true value in magic is not just fancy spells. It is understanding a fundamental force of our world, and math lets us take apart our spells at the most basic level. The better you can do math, the better you can understand what your spells are doing when you cast.” At some point in her speech, Twilight had climbed onto a discarded soap box. However, when she looked down, Pumpkin Cake was gone, leaving only scattered worksheets.
******
In Sugarcube Corner, Pumpkin Cake bit into a cupcake.
“Hiya Pumpkin!” said Pinkie Pie, “aren’t you supposed to be at Twilights’ now?”
“I have decided that learning magic can wait until I find a teacher who will actually teach me magic.”
Pinkie Pie slid into the seat next to Pumpkin, and wrapped a hoof around her.
“She pulled the ‘Magic is a Fundamental force’ speech on you, didn’t she?” asked Pinkie
Pumpkin nodded, and took another bit of her cupcake.
“Hey, look of the bright side,” said Pinkie Pie, “now I get to make hotsauce cakes with my bestest neice in the world! Wanna taste the batter?”
Pumpkin was out the door in under five seconds. One numb tongue was enough to swear Pumpkin Cake off Pinkie’s special cakes for life.