Twilight's Pupil

by Mod On Death

Time is Relative(ly Boring)

Diamond Tiara had come early for today's lesson. Twilight hadn't set up yet, so she decided to hand around before Twilight was fully ready to teach.

"So what're you planning on teaching today?" Tiara asked.

"I was thinking something in the realm of Time Magic. You seem to be able to cast it easily, but don't really know anything about what you're doing. I'm going to at least educate you on what you're doing," Twilight explained.

"That actually sounds pretty interesting," her student replied. Twilight was happy to hear something that resembled interest in studies. "So what'll we be doing with it?"

"Since you seem to be able to cast without much trouble, I think we'll be reading from the book today." A large textbook was levitated in front of Tiara and placed gently down, the book opening to the introduction. "Let's start from the beginning. After all, this stuff can get pretty com-"

"Right this way! Please wait on the ground floor before being seated," Spike interrupted with several ponies entering the room.

"Spike! What's going on here?" Twilight asked, seeing her teaching area become filled with other ponies.

"These guys wanted to see a real magic lesson in action and I told them exactly where to come," he explained. "After all, what's better than spreading the knowledge of magic?"

"Normally I'd be excited to spread the knowledge of my craft, but seeing as most of these ponies aren't even unicorns, I doubt that they came here out of a thirst for knowledge." The ponies looked around the room and tried not to look directly in her direction to avoid the accusative gaze.

"C'mon Twi. Don't be like that. I'm sure that most of these ponies here came to-"

"How many of you wanted to see magical explosions today?" Twilight saw everypony Spike had brought in slowly raise their hooves in the air. Eventually Spike did the same thing. "Really? I mean, I expected most of you, but all of you?" Twilight felt that these foals didn't respect magic like her. These wipper-snappers not caring about stuff that really mattered.

"Maybe we'll gain a respect for it while waiting for explosions," one of the foals told her in an attempt to not get kicked out.

"Well, maybe." She thought this through before deciding, "Alright. You can stay as long as you don't interrupt the lesson or talk we'll be okay with it."

"But Miss Twilight-" Tiara interrupted, concerned about her lesson.

"Don't worry, Tiara. Everything will be alright," she explained with a face that said 'Trust Me'. "Now, I think it's time we begin."

"Alright! Everypony follow me to our seats. We'll be staying on the upper level so we can be safe and still get a view." Spike led the group of foals up and they took position to see the chaos that would hopefully unfold.

"So, what do you think we'll see with this lesson?" one of the foals Spike didn't know asked.

"It's something with time, so I guess we'll see things get fast and slow," Snips explained.

"Remember when Trixie did that time spell on us?" Snails reminded him.

"I thought we agreed never to talk about that."

"Shh! Quiet! The lesson's about to start." Spike took the highest seat he could find and brought out some popcorn to pass around. The ponies watched the two curiously as they started reading silently from the book.

"So when does the cool stuff happen?" Pip asked.

"Usually it starts right after Twilight tries to teach something and Diamond Tiara lets her know that she already knew about all
of that. Right about then is when Twilight goes and tries to move onto the practice and that's when things really start." Spike was hoping that mayhem could start soon so he'd be able to give these ponies what they paid for; awesome magical chaos.

"I really hope it's soon. I have homework to do," Featherweight explained. Several other ponies in the group heard this and nodded in agreement.

"Did any of you understand how we're supposed to do the math homework? I really don't seem to get multiplication."

"I do!" Snails yelled out, surprising everypony. "I'm really good at math."

"Really?" the classmate asked incredulously. "I never expected you to, well, know that sort of stuff."

"Sure! You want me to show you how it's done?"

"Alright." While Snails helped out his classmate with math problems, the rest of the group watched patiently to see any signs of magic being cast. All they saw were the two of them reading out of their book, pages turning after several minutes of reading. At first it seemed like they could wait it out, but as they looked at the clock and noticed that half an hour had passed they began to have their doubts.

"Ugh. This is taking forever," Truffle Shuffle said, plopping head on the floor. "I might as well spend my time doing homework."

"Same," Spike said half-asleep, not realizing that he didn't even go to school.

"Well, why don't we?" Featherweight asked. "It's not like we're doing anything else while watching these two. After all, I don't want this to be the day where I learned that Snails is better at doing homework than I am."

"Same here," Twist said as she took out her books. "I'm gonna do some work while waiting. I'll need this extra time for spelling."

"If you're having issues with that I might be able to help," Featherweight told her.

"Thanks." Seeing that others had decided to do homework, the rest of the students decided to join in as well. What was originally supposed to be an exciting show of magical prowess had somehow become a study group. Two hours passed with the group doing nothing but studying and completing homework. When they'd finished they saw that Twilight and Diamond Tiara were still reading the book in silence.

"Well, it really looks like tonight wasn't anything special. Sorry guys. Guess I was wrong," Spike apologized.

"At least we got our homework done. I actually think I get this math now. Thanks Snails!" the foal told him.

"No problem. This was a pretty good study group. Maybe we should come back tomorrow." The rest of the group mumbled in
agreement and picked up their stuff. They then left the library, leaving Spike alone with the two silent academics.

"You guys were pretty quiet," Spike told the two, noticing the both of them shrugging off his comment. "You guys want some tea? I can make some since you've been pretty busy." Again, no answer. He assumed that the two were so engrossed in their book that they couldn't hear any of what he was saying. Thinking that he should give the two a nudge to get their attention. When he got close, a bright light suddenly shone and then dissipated, Twilight and Diamond Tiara finally moving.

"What was that?" Twilight asked, looking at Spike as he rubbed his eyes. She turned her attention to the clock on the wall and saw that they'd been studying for two-and-a-half hours. "What?! How can that be? We've only read ten pages?"

"Uh oh," Diamond Tiara said nervously. "I think that might be my fault. When I saw that one practice spell at the beginning of the book, I tried casting it and noticed nothing happen, so I thought it didn't work." Twilight checked the book and saw what kind of spell Tiara had cast. She recognized it as a "Slow Spell".

"No. You did cast it after all. The problem is that when you cast it, the spell actually enveloped the surrounding area and slowed down time for us. What for us was several minutes was actually several hours," Twilight explained.

"I'm sorry," Tiara apologized. "I'll do the rest of the reading at home after my homework. I promise."

"Thanks. At least I got to experience first hand a time spell like that. Can't believe how long it lasted. Most spells like that are really quick and fade away in about a minute. You really show potential." Giving the book to her student, Twilight sent Tiara off home to study. In the meantime, Spike had prepared tea for the two of them.

"So, it looks like it's getting better for her then," he said, taking a sip.

"Yeah. I remember my time spells. They usually lasted about a minute at most. She can keep it up for hours." She took a sip and then said, "I guess your little business venture to make my lessons into a show failed then. You just saw two ponies reading a book for several hours."

"I guess so. Apparently I started a study group though, so...a thing happened," he said, realizing that it was neither a win nor loss. "Wish I went to school so I could've done some work with them."

"Oh Spike. We both know what would happen if you did that," Twilight reminded him.

"True. So, I'll find something else to do while you plan for tomorrow. Hopefully she won't suddenly become a master of time and space after just reading that book."

"Hopefully not," she replied, looking at her reflection in the tea. "Though, knowing her she'll probably be better than me at least." She finished up her tea and decided to plan for tomorrow, hoping that there'd still be something to teach.