Twilight breathed in deeply. She had faced down terrors. She had faced down many forms of evil, from the nearly benign form of chaos, to the Changeling Queen. Still, at this point, what she faced seemed even more ferocious, more terrifying, more gruesome than anything she had ever had to face.
Magic kindergarten.
She didn't understand why she was going to speak to the class. True, she was the element of magic, and it was magical kindergarten, but still, it was kindergarten. These foals weren't going to listen to what she said for more than thirty seconds before their minds strayed.
She remembered her own time in magic kindergarten. Ponies always laughing. Making fun of her. Calling her names. Never letting her play with them. It wasn't a great time.
No, she had decided long ago magic kindergarten was a form of Tartarus in Equestria.
Still, she knew her short speech and the simple tricks she would show them by heart. Moving her hoof away from her chest and breathing out, she opened the door and stepped into the classroom.
"Hello, everypony," she greeted with a smile. "I'm Twilight Sparkle. I'm here to talk to you about magic, since that is my special talent." She paused for a second, looking around the room. At this age, everyone wanted to impress the teacher, but one little filly caught her eye. It wasn't the light pink of her coat, or the silvery-white of her mane, but her posture. While the other foals were sitting up straight, eager to hear what she said for the moment, the filly's head was pointed down, not looking up, and Twilight could tell she was reading.
"So, what does a cutie mark in magic mean? Well, I'm sure it can mean a lot of things. It is a rare special talent to have, and often ponies talents lie in specialized areas of magic, like showponies or illusionist." Twilight kept talking, though the filly didn't even flinch as Twilight started walking around the room.
She stopped just behind the filly, who was so engrossed in the book she didn't notice. "So, I will demonstrate some simple spells I can do. As I'm sure you all know, unicorns magic only help their talent. But there are a few things every unicorn can do, such as levitation." As she said the last word, she reached out with her magic and pulled the book from the filly's grasp.
"Hey, that's--oh." Her expression switched from angered to fearful in seconds. "I-I-I..."
One of the colts nearby laughed loudly, pointing at the filly. She shrunk in her seat, narrowing her eyes at the floor. Twilight thought she saw a hint of tears in the filly's eyes. Oh, no, Twilight thought. She looked at the book, noticing at once it was a textbook that was second grade level, at least.
"Oh, I remember this book." Twilight smiled at the filly. "What's your name?"
"A-Aroura D-D-Dust, ma'am," she stammered out.
She heard one of the classmates whisper something, she couldn't understand, but the whisper spread from filly to colt until the entire room was laughing again.
"Now, everypony, is that anyway to treat a friend?" Twilight asked the class.
"She isn't our friend." "She's a freak." "All she does is read and talk to the teachers." "She's weird."
"Hey," Twilight said forcefully. "Is that anyway to talk about another pony?" Her mind returned to her own magic kindergarten. No pony had been their to defend her. She wouldn't have told Celestia or any of the other teachers, for fear it was something she was doing wrong.
"Do you know what the end of my lesson is, little ponies? Magic, weather it's a special talent like mine, or just something to help your cutie mark like many unicorns, is great. But I, along with some other ponies, have found a much stronger magic than that. I didn't have friends before I moved to Ponyville-" she paused as gasps and small exclamations of how 'cool' or 'awesome' she was came from the foals, "but, that changed. I met some people who thought I was weird. I like books. I'm a librarian. Someponies may think that's boring, but my friends have found that by accepting my differences from them, we have so much fun together." Twilight smiled as the faces of her six friends flashed in her minds eyes. "Another unicorn, two pegasi, and two earth ponies have found a magic that we wouldn't trade for anything...even chocolate rain." Again, gasps from the foals.
-time-
"What is that?" Aurora asked, eyes wide.
"The magic of friendship." Twilight was silent for a moment, letting her words sink in. "And I know all of you, each and every single one of you, are can do this magic right now. Because this magic is special. It only gets stronger if you're nice to each other, if you're friends with one another."
A few of the foals looked down, a few looked over at Aurora or other classmates, and a few just continued to look at Twilight. "So, who's willing to give the magic of friendship more power?" Every foal raised a hoof. "We'll then, I think it's playtime."
Two filly's ran over to Aurora as what Twilight said registered in their brains. "Hey, Aurora, we're sorry we were mean to you."
"Yeah, and you're really good at magic, so you gotta be like super duper good at friendship, right?"
"I-I don't know. I've never had friends," Aurora said.
"We'll, that's okay. We can be friends. Come play with us."
Aurora looked up, her expression guarded. From behind the fillies, Twilight nodded. "We'll, okay. What do you want to play?"
As the fillies ran off together, the teacher walked up to Twilight. "You know, I nearly stopped you when they started making fun of her. I'm glad I didn't."
"I'm glad you didn't either." They watched the foals play for a moment before realizing something. "Oh," she said with a sheepish smile, "I guess I sent them to recess early."
"It's okay. For the change in this classroom, extra playtime is well worth it. Besides, sometimes we learn life's greatest lessons through play.
Thinking once again of her own friends, Twilight nodded. "Yes, we do."