Practice Makes Perfect
As Scootaloo's heart began to race, looking at her wingless back, Twilight cleared her throat. Turning in her direction, Scootaloo found a large mirror floating directly in front of her. Scootaloo looked at her reflection in wonder.
It was clearly her. But it clearly wasn't. Seeing an orange unicorn filly in her place was perhaps one of the oddest things she'd ever had happen to her. Besides being strapped to a metal table in Twilight's basement, that was. This was high up on the list, though.
Scootaloo moved her head experimentally, and the head in the mirror mimicked her motion. No wonder her head felt heavy. If she wasn't careful, she could poke somepony's eye out with this thing.
"Huh," she finally said. "So that spell took away my wings and made me all horny?"
At this, Octavia looked over at her and started snickering.
Twilight turned to look at her, setting down the mirror. "I believe you mean 'the spell gave you a horn'. 'The spell made me horny' means something quite different. Also, that isn't exactly right."
She brought back over the spellbook she had found earlier. "As you can see here, with this spell nothing actually gets created or destroyed. Technically, your wings were absorbed into your body, then reformed on your head as your horn."
"So my wings are actually my horn?" She touched her horn in wonder. "That's weird. Can I do magic with it now?"
Twilight shook her head. "Not yet. But once you learn how, you can. I'll teach you a few simple magic exercises for beginners. You can practice them for the duration of this spell, and you should be on your way to building up your magic core."
At this, Sweetie Belle bit her lip, and looked at Twilight with big eyes. "Um, Twilight? Can you teach me those exercises too?"
Twilight looked back at her in surprise. "These are going to be pretty basic. Hasn't anypony taught you anything about magic yet? Maybe Rarity?"
"I'm so sorry, Sweetie Belle. I just can't tonight," Sweetie Belle said, mimicking Rarity's voice. "I absolutely must finish these dresses by Saturday. Maybe some other time?"
Sweetie Belle dropped her imitation. "My sister never has enough time for me. And my parents barely ever know I'm there."
"Well, I have time right now, and having two students may actually be easier than one, since you can help each other out," Twilight told her. "If both of you and, um, Spike will come down to the basement with me, we'll get started."
"Well, with that, I should get going," Octavia said, finishing checking out her rather large stack of books. "Scootaloo, I'll leave you in Spike's hands from here. Just make sure you aren't out too late."
"Sure," Scootaloo said. "Later, Octy."
Octavia opened the door, then looked back at her. "Oh, and Scoots, try not to let Twilight strap you to anything this time, alright?"
She closed the door without waiting for a reply.
Wait, what? When did Octy find out about that?
Scootaloo stood there for a moment, then got moving when she realised everypony else (and one dragon) was already headed downstairs.
By the time she caught up with the others, she was out of breath. Maybe she did need some sort of endurance training. This time they seemed to be headed in a different direction than her last trip, thankfully.
Pretty soon they got to a wide open area with a bunch of bullseye targets and various different sizes of rocks and pebbles in a pile. Spike dragged out a bunch of cushions and arranged them in a circle facing a blackboard and raised desk.
Twilight grabbed a cushion and placed it in front of the desk, prompting a raised eyebrow from Spike. She climbed on it, and sat down with her hind legs crossed. She waved at Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to do the same. Trying to imitate Twilight, Scootaloo couldn't help but feel her hindquarters were going to fall asleep.
"First we need to clear our minds, and then locate our magical cores," Twilight began in a practiced cadance. Sweetie Belle waved around one foreleg. "Yes, Sweetie?"
"How do we clear our minds?" she asked.
"That is actually the first thing I plan to cover," Twilight answered. "Normally your mind is full of thoughts and distractions. Deadlines, paperwork, whether the books on the shelf behind you are organised properly..."
Scootaloo tapped one hoof impatiently, and Twilight moved on. "Magic takes form based on whatever you may be focused on at the time you use it. As such, a clear mind is vital. One idle thought in your mind or distraction at a critical moment, and your father's a cactus."
As both fillies turned to look at her, Twilight backtracked. "Or something of the sort, anyways. There are a number of ways to clear your mind, but today we'll just do a simple breathing exercise. Once you have that down, we'll go over and practice casting magic."
"So how do we practice breathing?" Scootaloo scratched her head. "Breathe in and out a whole bunch?"
"Well, maybe not a whole bunch. I wouldn't want you to hyperventilate." Twilight smiled. "Just breathe the way you normally do, but concentrate all of your attention on it. You will start to breathe deeper after a while, but don't try to take deep breaths. Just let anything else in your mind drift out and focus as you inhale and exhale. Once you've been able to keep your mind clear for a few minutes, raise one hoof, and we'll continue."
Well, this should be easy enough, Scootaloo thought. Just don't think of Rainbow Dash or flying or anything besides breathing in and out. Easy peasy. She closed her eyes.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. This is boring. Breathe out.
The mare in the back said everypone attack and- No. No music. Breathe.
Air going in. Air coming out, racing past me as I soar through the sky. No, focus, Scootaloo. Don't think of anything but breathing in and out.
Breathe in. Don't think of anything but breathing. Breathing out, and no other thoughts.
Oh, ponyfeathers, now I'm thinking about not thinking about things. Stop it, Scootaloo. No thinking about thinking. Or thinking about thinking about thinking. Breathe.
A loud snore interrupted her thoughts. Scootaloo opened her eyes a crack to see Spike lightly shaking Sweetie Belle to wake her up. She closed them again.
Well, I suppose I could be doing worse. Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out.
A little while later, she raised one foreleg, and was soon joined by a sleepy Sweetie Belle.
Twilight resumed her lecture. "Alright, now that both of you know how to clear your mind, I should tell you that it's mostly vital at your stage of magical ability. Once you've had some practice, you'll find your focus narrowing automatically when you start casting, and while you may want to clear your mind before a difficult spell, you won't need to. Early on, you can mess up badly without it."
"So, later on, we can skip it?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Twilight sighed. "Eventually you can. I'll still want you both to practice clearing your mind on your own. It can also help you with relaxing, meditating, if you need a good nights sleep, or when you really need to focus on something, such as studying, so it's a good skill to have."
Figures. It's just like Twilight to teach us something school-related. Still, maybe I'll try that next time a test comes around.
Twilight got up from her cushion, and waved them over to where the targets were. Scootaloo unfolded her hind legs awkwardly, nearly toppling over. Sure enough, her legs were all pins and needles, making getting up and walking difficult, but she managed to head over to where Twilight had indicated.
She joined Sweetie Belle a short distance from the targets. As Twilight headed over herself, Scootaloo shook her back legs and hindquarters, trying to get them to wake up. Sweetie Belle had no such problem, though she seemed barely awake herself.
"First, let me give a quick demonstration." Walking next to them, Twilight's horn glowed briefly and a lavender beam shot out, hitting one of the targets right in the center. The number ninety-five floated briefly over the target, then vanished.
She walked in front of them, between targets. "That is what you are going to be doing next. Don't worry about the number, as yours will be much smaller initially. The first step is to clear your mind again, then find your magical core."
"Your magical core should be found near the center of your body." She pointed towards the middle of her barrel. "Just close your eyes and picture a glowing warm reservoir of energy, then draw magic from it up to your horn. It may tingle as energy flows through your body."
Twilight paced back and forth. "Once your magic is in your horn, open your eyes, keep your mind clear, and release it from your horn at one of the targets. Right now we're just worried about being able to access your magic, and then your aim."
Scootaloo closed her eyes, and sort of mentally concentrated, looking for anything like what Twilight had described. She was able to find a warm tingly orange glow inside her fairly easily, to her surprise. It did feel all prickly and tingly, much like her hind legs still did, but it somehow felt vibrant, powerful, and full of life. It was hard to describe, really.
She pulled some of it up into her horn, or wings, or whatever they were, then opened her eyes. Her horn was glowing orange, with a few sparks coming out of it, as was Sweetie Belle's, though hers appeared to be light green.
"Good," Twilight said approvingly. "Now, release your magic, concentrating on a stream of magic flowing out in a line in front of you. It may take some effort at first, but keep trying."
Sure enough, it felt like there was some sort of barrier or something keeping her magic where it was. She kept pushing until it finally gave way, and a pulse of magic zapped out of her horn. Sweetie Belle shot a green magical bolt out of her horn at about the same time. Twilight yelped, and quickly threw herself to the floor as they both went right where she had been standing a moment ago, and then fizzled out on a wall.
"Good. A little more effort in aiming at the target and not me, but good," Twilight said weakly. "Why don't I move out of the way so you can keep practicing?"
She scrambled well out of range, and they continued. Eventually they even hit the targets, and it got easier and easier to cast. She wasn't sure a three was a great number to get, especially since Sweetie Belle was getting higher numbers, but then she wasn't really a unicorn. And that was her first hit on a target anyways.
Of course, Scootaloo did manage to paint the walls rainbow colored on one of her attempts when she got distracted. Fortunately, there really wasn't that much to damage in this area. It really looked like this area was intended for what they were doing, practicing spells.
After they'd both gotten the hang of aiming and zapping targets with their magic, Twilight looked up from skimming through a book, and called a halt to the exercise.
"We'll resume that exercise another time, as it helps gauge accuracy and how much magic you can use. Keep in mind that how much you can use at once and how much you have are completely separate things. For now, let's try something more practical."
Twilight tossed a handful of pebbles by each of them.
"This is a bit more difficult, but is really one of the quintessential unicorn skills to learn," Twilight said.
"Um, quintess-" Sweetie Belle attempted.
"Basic," Twilight said. "The thing to keep in mind is that magic doesn't have to travel in straight lines. This time, what you'll do is once your magic is concentrated in your horn, imagine it wrapping around the pebble without traveling there from your horn. Then visualise the pebble rising into the air. It may be difficult at first, but eventually, you'll be able to do it without thinking about it."
Hmmm... Sounds tricky.
Scootaloo tentatively nudged one of the pebbles in front of her with a hoof. She sighed, and began clearing her mind yet again. That was starting to get pretty easy. She drew her magic back into her horn, and pushed through the barrier. And then accidentally let her magic blast out unto a wall and fizzle out.
Hoofclippings. Let's try that again.
Clear her mind. Draw up her magic. Get through the barrier, which wasn't taking as long as it used to. And she sort of flicked her magic at the pebble, which went up, all right. Straight up into the ceiling, where it stuck.
"That was a good first effort, Scootaloo," Twilight said, coming around. "Next time, make sure to keep hold of the pebble, though, rather than just sending it in a direction. Though there are times that's all you'll need to do."
"Um, Twilight? Any idea why the pebble isn't moving?" Sweetie Belle's voice drifted over to them.
Scootaloo looked over at her, and had to fight not to laugh. Her mane was standing up on end.
"Was your mane getting in the way of your eyes earlier?" Scootaloo asked innocently.
"Yeah, kinda," she answered. "Why?"
"I think you levitated it instead of the pebble," Scootaloo said.
Sweetie Belle's mane suddenly dropped right in front of her eyes. Spike quickly came over with a brush. She gratefully accepted it, and brushed her mane back where it wouldn't interfere with her spellcasting..
Scootaloo grabbed another pebble, and started trying moving it with her magic again. After a bit of practice, she was able to hold one up for a few minutes before dropping it.
"Here, why don't you try with a heavier pebble?" Twilight asked. "Part of why I'm using pebbles is so that you can change out the weight as you get better at it. Otherwise, we'd traditionally use feathers."
"Feathers," Scootaloo said contemplatively. "Would I be able to levitate my wings?"
"Well, there'd be two issues with that, actually," Twilight replied. "First, one of the limitations of levitation is that you can't move parts of your own body, though you can levitate other ponies."
"Oh." Scootaloo looked down.
"Second, you don't have wings at the moment," Twilight said.
"Right." How could she have forgotten that? "What if I made some fake wings and levitated those?"
"The trouble there would be moving several objects up and down fast enough," Twilight said thoughtfully. "I could probably manage it, but it'll be awhile before you'd be able to. And you are only a unicorn for a few hours, so it'd be dangerous. It is an interesting idea."
"Yeah, guess it wouldn't work," Scootaloo shook her head. "Where are the heavier pebbles, anyways?"
Twilight sent over a few more pebbles from another one of the piles. She started rapidly making some notes, while muttering something about Pinkie Pie, for whatever reason. Whatever.
She practiced with the heavier pebbles for a while. Sweetie Belle seemed to be on even heavier ones then she was at this point, but she was getting the hang of this.
Then Scootaloo felt an odd sensation. Her horn shivered, and then sunk right back into her head. She felt something flowing to her sides that almost felt the way her magic had, and then her wings suddenly sprouted out on either side.
Scootaloo spread her wings out for a minute, admiring them, and even kissed them before she caught herself. She gave them a few experimental flaps. They still worked as good as ever. Which could be better, of course.
Beside her, Twilight jotted down the time, and pulled a few pieces of chocolate out of her saddle bag.
"Well, this seems like a good time to wrap things up," she said. "Both of you are actually doing really well. Most beginners take far longer to get the hang of using their magic."
She gave one piece of chocolate to Sweetie Belle, who started munching on it happily. "Sweetie Belle, you are making great progress. I'd like you to avoid using your magic without supervision from me or another unicorn for now, though."
Then she passed another piece to Scootaloo, who just looked at it. "I'm actually fairly impressed with how well you are doing, especially with you not being a unicorn. Your power levels could be better, but you seem to have the idea down well, and the exercises should help."
"Thanks," she said. "Um, what's with the chocolate?"
"You've both just used a lot of magic, and your magical cores are likely to be slightly low. Chocolate helps recover from magical depletion. Now, how do Mondays and Fridays sound for practice? You both still have a few things to learn and a lot of practice ahead."
Scootaloo frowned. "I can do that, but what about the rest of my week?"
"Don't worry, I've got some ideas for that," she said, making Scootaloo wonder how much of her schedule was going to be taken up by Twilight. "First, though, how about you, Sweetie Belle?"
"No way am I missing out on this!" she said. "I'll be there!"
"Perfect. Of course, make sure to check with your parents first." Sweetie Belle frowned at this.
"So what else did you have in mind for my week?" Scootaloo asked.
"Well, we need to work on your wing muscles, so for that, I thought we could get Rainbow's help, and Applejack might have some ideas for your endurance and stamina." Twilight said.
"And then maybe Discord for the sigil magic?" Sweetie Belle asked, seemingly having forgotten her earlier concerns about Discord and chaos magic.
"I'd rather not have him turn you into some scion of chaos or something," Twilight answered. "I've been looking through the book on sigil magic, and it looks like you should be able to handle it yourselves, actually. Why don't you read it over, and ask me if you have any questions?"
"Um, well, one question first," Scootaloo said. "Would I even be able to do sigil magic right now?"
"Actually, it doesn't require you to be a unicorn, though with your reserves low, I wouldn't try more than one or two today." She floated the book over to Scootaloo, who stuck it in her bag. "I'll go over the other books in the meantime, and see if I come across anything."
"Alright, we'll, um, study this, and let you know how we do, Twilight. Thanks for all your help today!" Scootaloo said.
"No, problem, Scootaloo," she said. "You are going to eat that chocolate, right?"
Under Twilight's watchful eye, she ate the whole piece. It was really good quality dark chocolate, too. Then they walked back up from Twilight's basement, which Scootaloo was starting to suspect had been magically enlarged.
Once they got back in the main section of the library, Twilight turned to them. "Well, I'll look over the other books you found. There's still a bit of time left in the day. Why don't you spend a bit of it outside, playing, while you have the chance?"
Well, I don't have to be told that twice. I'm kinda studied out, anyways.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle headed to the door.
"Later Spike!" Scootaloo called out. "Later, Twilight!"
As they left the library, Sweetie Belle turned to Scootaloo. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah," she replied. "Lets go see if Apple Bloom's available, head to the clubhouse, and read up on sigils. Maybe we can get sigil cutie marks."
"Cutie Mark Crusader Chaos Magicians, yay!" they said together excitedly.
Elsewhere, in Fluttershy's cottage, Discord sneezed. Idly turning Angel into a handkerchief and blowing his nose, he went back to sipping a cup of tea, ignoring the rabbit's disgruntled glares.
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"Huh," she finally said. "So that spell took away my wings and made me all horny?"
I just had the oddest sensation of déjà vu
... Like I've seen this before somewhere, but where? Hmm, must be imagining things 
.
Great chapter, all in all. The exercises, the monkey mind dialogue, the notion of sigil magic... and the Discord cameo was amusing as well. I was a little reminded of the Jedi Academy trilogy (and its offshoot, "I, Jedi", which is the best bad-fanfic-made-canon story I ever read). Couldn't find any real errors, except maybe a comma missing when there's a goodbye. Sweetie Belle is looking a lot more defined and in character than I'd expect, I wonder if her parents will come around when she starts ripping into the fabric of the real. And Scootaloo's base magic strength being low is... odd. Can't say why, but it feels like this will turn out to be something important later, like some genetic thing.
Even knowing some of the things you've told me, I'm pretty hyped over what'll happen next. There's a lot of potential surprises here, and I'm willing to bet you'll do a few
.
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Thanks, this was one of these chapters I was a bit nervous about. Especially since I finished the final draft yesterday, and kept finding more and more things to revise today. In my original draft, I actually skipped all the transition text between the end of the exercises and leaving the library, and it was one of the last pieces to get properly in shape.
I revised Twilight's dialogue so many times...
The 'horny' pun just felt right. It made me laugh, and just had to stay in there. It was one of these 'the things kids say' moments. I also got to play the 'mother knowing more then her kids think she does' card shortly after that, which was fun. (And totally set up in the last chapter.)
You can probably gather from the monkey mind dialogue that I have done that exercise before.
Sweetie Belle, well, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are both characters I can usually write. I have more trouble with Apple Bloom, actually. That's one reason why I'm interested in writing a oneshot about her.
I was happy with how Sweetie Belle came out in this chapter, though I was worried I might have made her comic relief one too many times. But then, Scoots got to play that role, too. Magic training is going to have mistakes pretty often anyways. (And I even referenced "One Bad Seed" for Sweetie Belle's magic color.
)
As far as base magical strength, well, as Twilight said, how much you can use at once and how much you have are different things. Scootaloo was seeming a bit low on how much she can access at one time.
I'll be interested in what happens next, really. I have some ideas, of course, but really, I'm going to be going through reading about sigil magic first, to make sure I can describe it well, and get more ideas. I need to figure out what a "getting-a-cutie-mark" sigil looks like, after all.
Ah well, back to the next chapter of Cubic Zirconia. It's weird when you find yourself reading about bird injuries and molting patterns for a fanfic. Fortunately, there is no definitive source of information on pegasus molting, so I think I can make it take as long as necessary...
I laughed so hard with the horny pun, and Twilight's reply.
I can't wait to see what you do with your other stories,and I'm headed over to read Scions of Chaos. If only to see my first Sweetie Belle and Discord fic. Hopefully it's as good as the Scootaloo and Discord fic, "Discordant".
Huh, a shout out. That's awesome, Arcum. I really should read this some time. In fact, I know what I'll be doing in my spare time today and tomorrow. *Clicks favourite button* I'll give a critique when I get around to reading it.
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It was one of these things. Once I knew I was adding sigil magic to the mix, and that it was a branch of chaos magic, and Sweetie Belle was involved, there was no way I could stop myself from making the reference. And I loved Scion of Chaos and sequels.
I'm looking forward to the critique. Besides being relevant to the theme, the title also tells you how I've been approaching writing it. Though at this point, I've got a rough outline of where things are going.
Incidentally, this is obviously Scootaloo-centric, though Sweetie Belle has gotten a significant amount of screentime in the last few chapters. On the other hand, I do have a oneshot in another universe called Making Friends that is from Sweetie Belle's perspective. Not so much mentioning it to hype my other fanfics as because I suspect you'd enjoy it...
I really want to see that horn spell used on Rainbow Dash. She's practically bursting with magical strength, so it'd be really interesting to see what she could do as a unicorn. I don't think that's likely to happen in this story, but it's still entertaining to think about. They better not have Scootaloo use her temporary unicorn abilities in any sort of practical everyday situations, though, because it could get really disappointing finding out how useful it is to be able to levitate things, but not actually be able to keep the ability. Giving her a horn briefly is potentially just enough to show her what she's missing.
And that song returns with perfect timing. The whole scene about trying to do the breathing exercise was pretty amusing. Whenever I've tried to do any sort of meditation attempt, my results have pretty much always been the same as theirs, minus the finally-getting-the-hang-of-it bit. I either fall asleep like Sweetie Belle or have a perpetually wandering mind like Scoot.
You mentioned being nervous about this chapter, but these ones in the library are actually the most interesting so far, in my opinion. Backstory and home life is good too, but watching Scoots trying to figure out how to directly tackle her flying problem is definitely my favorite aspect of the story, lecturing and such included. This sigil thing could turn out interesting too, really not sure what's going to happen with that.
Scion of Chaos is one of those stories that've been on my Read Later list for probably like a year now, by the way. Oh, and no matter how many times I see it, I always find the header pic for this story incredibly cute. I know it's just a screenshot, but I like the way Scootaloo's colors fit with the library as the background too.
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It would be interesting, though I think Rainbow Dash would be too traumatised at not having her wings to really care much about the magic aspect of things. And figure she'd have to go through a bunch of lessons like Scootaloo is to use it. That's probably one reason the spell fell into disuse.
The possibility of ponies doing just enough magic to get used to it and find out how much they like it is another. Even worse, could you imagine if somepony got a cutie mark for magic while transformed into a unicorn? There are plenty of reasons why you'd have to go into Princess Luna's private library for it.
Yes, that scene was pretty much written from personal experience with meditation. I'm exactly the type of person that'll start having music running through my head, or start having thoughts about clearing my mind preventing my mind from being clear. She's lucky that snore jolted her out of it when it did.
Part of the nervousness I think dates back to before I worked in the various mishaps along the way that lightened things up. Though the Scootaloo mental dialogue is barely revised from the first draft, and the "horny" joke was in there a few minutes after I ended the previous chapter.
I do like Scootaloo just going after her problem and wrestling with it with her determination and stubbornness. It was a very large part of the conception of the fanfic, too.
Of course, after this chapter, I have a vision in my head of Twilight borrowing Pinkie's flying contraption and powering it with her magic. Probably doesn't fit into this fanfic, but it'd be interesting.
And I'll be interested to see how the sigil magic chapter goes, too. I'm very much in the stage where everything that'll happen in that chapter is still working itself out in the back of my head. I have ideas, of course. For that matter, Twilight pretty much spelled out where I'm going for a bit.
The name dropping seems to have had the effect of the author of Scion of Chaos deciding to read this story, Given that he writes really good reviews of fanfics, I'll be curious to see what he thinks.
Believe me, I love the picture on this fanfic. It may be a screenshot, but it was a very transitory moment. In Show Stoppers, it switches to the book pile around 7:24, Scoots pops up at 7:27, and it's switched back away by 7:29. And, of course, it's carefully cropped.
imageshack.us/a/img209/1080/cmclibrariansyay.png
Scoots colors really do match the library pretty well, though, don't they? There need to be more fanfics involving Scootaloo and the library...
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Or else Rainbow would just burst into a Twilight-style uncontrolled magic explosion, probably spraying rainbows everywhere or something.
Interestingly, the cutie mark for the wrong race idea fits perfectly with something I was thinking of earlier, I think a little while after I made that comment. If people can feel like their bodies don't match the gender they identify with, can ponies feel like they're the wrong race? A unicorn who feels like they were meant to be born a pegasus, and wants to fly more than anything, or such. And if they actually got a cutie mark they couldn't even use without a spell in effect, they'd probably either go nuts, or start to stalk Twilight all the time, begging her to essentially change their race five times a day. But would they be stuck as a blank-flank forever otherwise?
I'm not sure it's easy for anyone to do a "clear your mind" exercise without a bunch of wandering thoughts for a least a little while, really. I'm WAY too hyper-aware of myself to be any good at it, though, horrible at letting my mind relax and just doing things without over-thinking them. A lot of times I can't even read without getting all hung up on the process itself, ala The Centipede's Dilemma.
Ha! You did it again! I had just about the same thought about Twilight hooking herself up to a propeller and using her magic to fly with it. Not that she needs to do that anymore, in any post-season-3 situation, of course.
Spike can't really claim he had nothing to do with it this time, although at least he's trying to help minimize the damage.
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There is definitely fertile ground for exploration. I recall reading one story about an earth pony who had a cutie mark for magic that wanted to study under Twilight. The thing was, they couldn't cast anything but were a brilliant magical theoretician.
And I've read about other pony races finding a way to do magic before, too. I'd actually like to see what other people came up with with my spell, really. It'd be a lot of fun.
The real advantage Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle have with the exercise, actually, is that they only need their mind clear for a couple minutes at a time, whereas we're generally trying for longer. Of course, Scoots should pay attention to Twilight and practice it on her own. If she was paying attention, Twilight told her something that'd help her avoid nightmares.
Music running through my head is actually one of the big ones for me, but if I can't get rid of it, I can usually change it, at least.
And actually, the flying contraption is why Twilight started muttering about Pinkie in the chapter. She had the idea; I just don't know that it'll appear onscreen.
Of course, this isn't a post season 3 scenario at the moment.
We're actually somewhere between "Games Ponies Play" and "Magical Mystery Cure" right now.
Funny thing is I wanted to say Spike didn't get much screen time, but the more I think about it, he was doing an awful lot, it was just all background behind the scenes things. Poor reliable Spike...
Alright, I got through all the chapters. This is a really fun story where I felt it wasn't necessary to be overly-critical about it. It's lighthearted and yet deals with some serious issues. I can tell it's written in a 'winging it' sort of approach, which isn't a bad thing, since that's how I wrote SoC. There is enough of a back-story of Scootaloo here to keep me invested and to care about what happens to her. So, yeah, I really like this story for what it is, a simple and easy read with enjoyable character interactions, and there's enough left open for me to wonder how events will play out.
As I read, nothing really struck out at me being either incredibly creative or incredibly distracting. Well, maybe one thing, I thought that Scootaloo was a acting a little too grown up in the first two chapters with her interactions with Twilight, only a little bit though, and it wasn't enough to detract from the story.
Thanks for writing this, and I look forward to more. I'll also try to find some time to read 'Making Friends'. I'll go give it a fave so I don't forget
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Yeah, this fanfic was actually my first attempt at writing a multichapter fanfic on the fly, as you go. I wrote a rough draft with what became chapter 1, 2, and part of three in one go, then once I had a better later draft of the first chapter polished up, published it.
By now, I roughly know where the whole story is going, and have a few future scenes in my head, waiting to be written, though. I am actually really happy with how the backstory turned out here, though. Especially with the scene with Luna, even if I did cannibalize ideas from an unpublished fanfic for it.
And, you know, keeping from sounding too adult is something I have to constantly watch. I sounded too adult at that age.
Anyways, glad you enjoyed it. Next chapter may take a bit, since I'm alternating between this one and Cubic Zirconia. Didn't really intend to be writing two fanfics on the fly at the same time, but an idea begged to be written and then published. Writing them takes totally different moods, too. I have to be in torture Diamond Tiara mode for the latter.
If there's one thing that may be disappointing on Making Friends, it's that it really should have a sequel. I have five chapters tucked away on my computer, if I'm ever not writing an ongoing fanfic long enough to get back to it.
(YAY! A story where I'm not a starving homeless orphan sleeping in the clubhouse while hiding from abusive drunk parents, and my life doesn't totally suck!)
(*ahem*... language, Scootaloo.)
(Sorry.)
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I'm glad you're enjoying it, Scoots. It sucks being typecast, doesn't it?
Of course, you might want to avoid my story Cubic Zirconia. Sorry, but living in the clubhouse worked there, even if I normally try for something more original. Your life doesn't totally suck in that story, though. That's reserved for Diamond Tiara's life.
You might like my story Making Friends, however. And that's just a oneshot...
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Oh, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against "Scootabuse" stories if they're done well (and in fact, I am also following "Cubic Zirconia") or if it's actually of some significance to the plot; it's just nice to see stories that let her be just a normal kid with normal everyday-level problems, instead of always having to be the Woobie for whom Failure Is The Only Option.
(Same goes for stories which don't go straight for the "Alicorn!Twilight is gonna have to watch all her friends die and end up sad and alone for eternity" angle.) There's nothing inherently wrong with tragic stories, but after wading through umpteen dozen "starving orphan Scootaloo" and "all Twilight's friends are DEAD!" stories, you can't help thinking "geez, doesn't anyone in this fandom actually want these characters to be happy once in a while?" 
(Yeah, I'm getting a little tired of that trope myself...
Great Maker, you "bronies" can be a depressing bunch sometimes! If you want to wallow in gloom and despair, go listen to grunge rock or something.)
(What's a "grunge rock"? I don't think we had those kinds of rocks on the rock farm although come to think of it some of those rocks were kinda grungy so maybe we did and I just didn't know what they were called but I'm not sure why you'd listen to one either I mean I never spent any time listening to them and how do you listen to a rock anyway I mean they're pretty quiet most of the time unless you pick them up and bang them together but that's not really much fun to listen to and...)
(PINKIE!)
(Looks like someone's been hittin' th' Red Bull again. You really oughta lay off that stuff, Pinkie.)
(Nopie-nope! Not drinking that stuff anymore this is something different it's called 5 Hour Energy but since I wanna stay up and party all night five hours won't benearlylongenoughsoIdrankawholeboxofthemandnowI'vegotlotsaenergyforhoursandhoursandhours!)
(...Ah'm just... gonna... back away niiiice an' slowly now...)
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Yeah, I know what you mean. At that, Cubic Zirconia Scoots isn't that bad off. At least compared to Diamond Tiara. She may be living in the clubhouse, but is doing a pretty good job getting by.
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I was keeping that very much in mind when writing her backstory. I wanted Scoots to be the type that actually would want to sing a wicked rock ballad.
is it weird I immediately thought of Blood Mage Sweetie Belle?
Actually, if Discord is around, couldn't they just ask him to give Scootaloo working wings?
(See, this is why his reformation never sat well with me. He's way too useful to be a good guy.)
That said, I do love this type of training stories.
Good ol' Scion of Chaos has a reference outside of Wanderer D's blogs? Huh. Who knew?
Chocolate helps with magical depletion, huh? Did you just randomly think of that, or is it a reference to Harry Potter? Because I'm sure a certain Remus Lupin would agree with that.
Poor Angle.
Discord is best seguei.