To Be Magical

by Lux

Interlude: Progress

Chapter 7 – Interlude: Progress

The rest of the lesson went without incident as Sweetie Belle practiced her magic under the watchful eyes of Twilight Sparkle. First there was more practice levitating the feather, which Sweetie felt she was able to now with an increasing ease The Twilight even recommended that Sweetie try to write using her telekinesis in her spare time, something that the filly agreed as perhaps it would mean getting her homework done faster.

Next came to moving the candle, something a little heavier to try but nonetheless Sweetie Belle was able to lift it and as a practice of learning finesse to place the candle in its holder and then remove it. Although the filly dropped it a few times at first, she managed to get the hang of it.

“Maybe next time we can try this with the candle lit.” Twilight remarked to which Sweetie Belle beamed that the Princess had enough faith in her abilities to trust her with a potentially dangerous thing. Each new success seemed to boost the filly’s confidence, allowing for her to perform magic without fear of failure. Then the hardest challenge of the day was presented; levitating the book. It wasn’t some small novel that Sweetie Belle would read in her spare time. No, this was a huge book on —as the title read— The History of the Pre-Classical Era of Equestria. This was one book that Sweetie wasn’t sure she was capable of lifting with her hooves and carrying, let alone moving with her magic. After putting her energy into it, she was able to see that the book did indeed levitate off the table. Unfortunately the event was short lived as soon the book fell back on the table with a thud.

“Guess I couldn’t do that today,” Sweetie Belle said as her ears drooped in disapproval.

“You did great!” Princess Twilight Sparkle replied putting a reassuring hoof on the filly’s shoulder, “Do you want to know a secret?”

“What’s that?”

“At first I wasn’t really good with magic myself. I wanted to learn all I could but for some reason I struggled being able to cast a spell. You remembered what happened at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, right?”

“I think I remember. You were taking a test, right? Something to do with a dragon’s egg?”

“Right, I had to hatch a dragon’s egg,” Twilight said eager to see how much Sweetie Belle remembered.

“And then you saw an explosion and your magic suddenly went crazy!”

“That’s one way to describe it,” Twilight said recalling the day that she turned her parents into potted plants and made a dragon oversized.

“So your magic appeared when you saw the explosion? I don’t know how that happened.”

“Well, I’m not sure for sure, but I think that it was because of my friends and I being the Elements of the Harmony. I think that it triggered something within me, showing what I could do.”

“I wish that something like that happened to me, and then I would have known what kind of magic I could do and maybe even get my cutie mark.”

“Well, you are doing fine right now,” Twilight said, “and you made some great progress. But it is getting late and I think we’ve done enough teaching for today.”

“Ok,” Sweetie Belle said, wanting to do more but feeling tired after her practicing, “can I come next week to practice magic?”

“Of course you can,” Twilight said with a smile, “In fact I’m looking forward to it!”

“Great!” Sweetie said as she began to collect her things, putting them in a saddle bag.

“Oh there is one thing that I want to give you before you leave.” Twilight said as she went to a bookshelf and levitated a worn looking book that looked lees like it was old and more like it was well read.

“What is it?”

“It’s my first book about magic that Princess Celestia gave me when she started teaching me, and I want you to have to learn from it.”

“Really?” Sweetie said looking at such an important book.

“Sure. Just take care of it, ok?”

“Oh I will,” the filly replied carefully putting the book in her bag as if it was made of glass, “Thanks for your help Twilight.”

“You’re welcome. In the meantime, try to practice at home or at Rarity’s, okay?”

“Okay!” Sweetie Belle happily said as she skipped out of the library bound for Rarity’s house to tell her about her day with Twilight.

Author's Note:

I know, it's a short chapter. Really it's an interlude, the halfway mark of my show. Consider it like the Training Montage of a MLP episode. Thanks to all who have read so far, and stay tuned for the next half of To Be Magical!

Comments

[rip4thwall]

Seems you posted a version you were in the middle of editing... heh.

[Lux]

3352262

LOL. Missed that part. Now it's cleaned up.

[khatre]

3352262
still adorable though

[DarthWill3]

Oh, Sweetie Belle. I'm so proud of you!

[Rinnaul]

Enjoying the story and how you handle the characters (save a few issues with Rarity's voice and a couple moments that seem a bit out-of-character for Twilight), but some simple errors are bothering me. Beyond your editing notes still being there, and a typo or two here:

“It’s my first book about magic that Princess Celestia gave me when I started teaching me, and I want you to have to learn from it.”

First, "when she". Second, "to have to learn from it" makes it sound like Twilight is forcing a chore onto Sweetie. Perhaps you meant either "want you to have it" or "want you to learn from it"?

Saw a few in prior chapters, but I couldn't find them upon going back and looking. Mainly simple typos, though one thing stood out - question marks go inside quotation marks in dialogue.

Wrong: "How are you today," Rarity asked?
Right: "How are you today?" Rarity asked.

Your ideas are good, you just need to clean things up a little.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So how long til Diamond Tiara starts causing trouble and ticks off Sweetie Belle? I say a day at most, because Diamond Tiara never knows when to give up.

[SilentBelle]

3352545 They are still in there. Just ctr + F the '(' button and you should spot them. I'm guessing it was your proofreader's recommendations for changes. I would recommend using google docs as a great editing medium.

I wonder how this is going to end...

[TechSavii]

3354050
Sorry about that, I was a bit tired editing, I'll make sure not to miss things like that next time.

[Lux]

3360519

Fixed all that. Usually I'm on the ball seeing those things.

[Lux]

3369190

Well I do plan to go a little into the detail about it, but the thing with Sweetie Belle isn't that something is physically wrong with her, but that she lacks confidence. So Twilight just had to giver her a little push to show her she could do it. But again this will be talked about soon.

[ShadowWing09]

Consider it like the Training Montage of a MLP episode

I was suddenly struck by the mental image of Sweetie Belle using magic to do push ups, the kind where you clap your hands, err, hooves, at the peak of each push

Now, Grasshopper, catch that fly with your magic!