How to teach a Unicorn to believe in magic?

by General Sparky

Ditsy's background

Yuan Feng and Si Ning brought Ditsy to Si Ning's home. Since their parents don't believe in Unicorns, they couldn't see Ditsy.
After placing their school bags on the floor, they proceeded to take out their pencil case and their homework and entered Si Ning's room.

"Wow, you guys have homework too?" Ditsy asked.

"Yes. Our teachers gave us homework to do which is to be submitted tomorrow." Si Ning said.

"What is your homework?" Ditsy asked, intrigued about how homework worked in the human world.

"A history practice paper and some math questions."

"Your homework sounds boring. In my school, homework was about practicing our magical abilities." Ditsy said, recalling about her life in her school.

"But I thought you said you have no magical ability?" Yuan Feng asked.

"I don't have any homework in my school. I don't even know if that is a good thing or not." Ditsy replied. "The teachers told me if I don't find my magical ability before your national exams, I will be expelled from the school."

"Then we better find your magical ability soon. Our national exams starts in early October." Yuan Feng said.

"Why must the deadline be before October?" Si Ning asked.

"So that your studies won't be be affected."

"That doesn't give us a lot of time to work with." Yuan Feng commented.

"Then we better find a way to get Ditsy to find her magical ability soon." Si Ning added, sounding hopeful of the situation.

That night, Yuan Feng and Si Ning discussed ways to help Ditsy without doing their homework. Ditsy, who was outside their room,tried to do their homework as a way to thank them for helping her. Ditsy tried levitating a pen from their pencil case but could not. Ditsy resorted to using her mouth to take a pen. Ditsy took a look at the questions.

Section A: Source-Based Questions
Why did the Brisitsh intervened in Malaya?
Background Information: On 20 January 1874, the Governor of the straits settlements, signed the Pangkor treaty with the Malay chiefs of Perak. This treaty committed Britian to a policy of active involvement in the affairs of Perak. Before this treaty Britian had followed a policy of non-intervention.
Why did the British decide to intervene in the Malay states?
Answer all parts of Question 1

1a) How similar is source A and B?
1b) How reliable is Source C?
1c) How surprised are you by Source D?
1d) How far does Source E prove that the judgement Source F is accurate?
1e) How far does the sources agree that the British intervened in Malaya because of economic reasons?

Source A: An extract from Pangkor Treaty, signed on 20 January 1874

Source B: From an agreement made at Pangkor between the British and Chinese secret societies, 20 January 1874

Source C: An extract from an article in the 'Straits Times Overland Journal', 25 July 1874

Source D: From an article in the 'Straits Observer', November 1874

Source E: From an article from the 'Straits Times', May 1876

Source F: From an article in 'The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser', August 1910

Section B: Structured Essay Questions
Answer one question
Q2: This question is about the peace settlement after World War 1
2a) Explain why the french wanted the Peace treaty after World War 1 to be harsh on Germany.
2b) 'The most important cause of German hatred of the treat of Versailles was war reparations' How far do you agree with this statement?

Q3: This question is on the reasons for the outbreak of World War 2 in the Asia Pacific
3a) Explain why the League of Nations was unable to stop the Japanese takeover of Manchuria after 193.1
3b) 'The most important cause of Japan's expansionist policy in the 1930s was the impact of protectionism' How far do you agree with this statement?

Thankfully, Si Ning had a history textbook inside her bag. Ditsy took out her history textbook and started to do Si Ning's history paper. She wrote down all the answers on pieces foolscap paper and wrote down Si Ning's name. Ditsy did the same for Yuan Feng.

Next, she did the math questions.

In 2016, Ken earned a total of $44000, In 2017 he earned $3900 each month
Q1a) Calculate the percentage increase in his earnings from 2016 to 2017.

A bank offers a savings account with a compound interest rate of 2.35% per year. Ken invests $6500 in this account and leaves the money in the account for 6 years
Q1b) Calculate the total amount of interest he has earned after 6 years, give your answers to the nearest cent.

Exchange rate between Singapore dollars and Euros: $1= 0.66 Euros
Exchange rate between pounds and Singapore dollars: 1 pounds= $1.97
Ken is planning a trip to Europe. He found these hotel prices on a website.
London hotel: 145 pounds per night
Paris Hotel: 145 Euros per night
Ken books 3 nights in the hotel in London and 4 nights in the hotel in Paris. He pays using his credit card. The credit card company converts the prices to Singapore Dollars. Ken is charged a fee of 1.8% for the currency conversion.
Q1c) Calculate the total amount Ken pays for the two hotels, including the credit card fee. Give your answer to the nearest dollar.

A formula sheet was provide. In it, Ditsy found out that the Compound interest formula is P(1+r/100) to the power of n. Simple interest formula is PRT/100.
After doing the workings, she found out the answer. Q1a) 6.36% Q1b) $972.06 Q1c) $1767 She wrote the answers down on both of their answer booklet.

Ditsy look up into the night sky, except it wasn't so dark. Ditsy estimate it to be around 5 in the morning, where the sun is slowly rising in the horizon. Ditsy glanced around at her surroundings, books lie around her, worksheets on the floor, it was just one big mess. Ditsy took out their timetable for today and packed their bags accordingly. After she has packed their schoolbags, she walked towards a bathroom and looked in the mirror. There was no reflection.

"Mirror Mirror on the wall, make my reflection appear." She chanted. A grey Unicorn was seen on the mirror shortly after. A simple spell she learned in school, and it had worked magnificently. Her mane was still solid and that there were still no glitter coming out of her hooves. She sighed, for once she thought she was magical but it was not the truth. What if she couldn't find her magical ability by October? She would be a disgrace to her family, not only that, but become a laughing stock in the school. Why did the rainbow stairs appear for her? She was not a magical pony and she knew it.

A year ago....

Ditsy stood among other fillies. Parents of these fillies stood behind them. This was the Day. The Day where the ponies with magical abilities would go to a special school to learn how to use their powers. If the ponies were magical, the Magical rainbow would form stairs, where the ponies could walk up to the special school, hidden deep in the clouds above. Most ponies that day had Glitter coming out of their hooves and had flowing manes. There were admittedly some ponies without a flowing mane, but at least glitter came out of their hooves. She had shiny hooves but no glitter or flowing mane. Ponies with shiny hooves is a mark of those with magical abilities. However, compared to other ponies, she stood out from the crowd.

Those with flowing manes go up the rainbow first, then those without flowing manes went up the Magical rainbow. She was the last to walk towards the Magical rainbow. As she placed her hooves on the rainbow, the stairs formed and she walked up towards the school. As she was walking up the rainbow, she could hear other parents from below saying things like "Where is her glitter?" "Is she even a Magical Pony?"

She went up the rainbow staircase faster as she didn't want to hear others' parents comments. Once she reached the top of the staircase, she was amazed with the structure of the school. There were four horn like structures connected to each other by a 5 storey tall structure. As she walked up towards the school gates, she got stares from the other students.
She tried to look for those without a flowing mane (which is not that many) and approached them. She became good friends with them quickly due to them all not having a flowing mane.

As time goes by, her friends found their magical abilities and she was the only one left without a magical ability. Her friends encouraged her to try harder but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find her magical ability. With the semester soon coming to an end, and that the final exam is how well magical ponies could use their powers, her teachers recommended her to come to the human world to find people who believe in Unicorns (as they also usually believe that magic exists too). Which leads her to the present.

Can she really find her magical ability here? She hope so. "Si Ning, Yuan Feng, it is time to go to school!" Si Ning's mother called.
As she was about to say the spell that caused her reflection to disappear, she looked at the mirror in surprise,
Her reflection had faded away, without her even casting the spell.

Yuan Feng and Si Ning came out of the bedroom and got ready for another school day. After they wore their school uniforms, they gestured for Ditsy to follow them. Ditsy followed them and went out of their home. They took the MRT from Yew Tee station to Bukit Gombak station, after that they walked 10 minutes from the station to the school.

While walking towards their school, Yuan Feng asked, "How are we going to conceal you from othert students?"

"You don't need to. I can't be seen by other students cause they don't believe in Unicorns. Don't talk to me during your lessons so that things don't seem out of place."

"Okay."

Author's Note:

1) History questions extracted from 2018 MOE-Cambridge GCE O level History (Subject code 2174) Paper 1
2) Math Questions extracted from 2018 MOE-Cambridge GCE O level Mathematics (Subject Code 4048) Paper 2
3) This subjects is what I am currently studying so sorry about that.
4) Leave any criticisms or improvements that need to be made in the comments section down below.
That is all, General Sparky, Out.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

9298865
Okay.

[Bronycommander]

interesting background.