Top of the Hill

The day began to draw to a close as Kojack sat on the living room floor with his eyes glued to a book. Other things lay in wait on a small table; wooden blocks of varying size and shape which appeared to belong to a large hollow spherical object with matching cut-outs on its sides. The book itself was small and simple. Telekinesis: A Guide to Understanding. It appeared to belong to the abstract toy, as an image of it was contained on the front cover. Between the covers, Kojack could find passages pertaining to the subject of beginner's magic. Calming exercises, holding focus, among other mental exercises. All watered down for children, of course. He was only seven years old, after all. "Kojack!" A motherly voice broke the silence from a distance, but Kojack hadn't noticed. He was too busy trying to comprehend the depths of his ability through this book. As a trick for thinking extra hard, his tongue stuck out of his muzzle to the side, face contorted in an intensely pensive expression. He wasn't sure how it was supposed to be helpful in any way, but it felt like it should. "Kojack! Dinner is ready!" Feeling like he might have a better grasp of magic now, Kojack turned his attention back to the strange toy. Focusing as hard as he could, Green magic sputtered to life across his horn. His mind reached out to the odd sphere and as many of the blocks as he could grab. Slowly, the sphere lifted into the air along with three blocks. With intense focus, he began to try and align all three pieces with their matching cut-outs to insert them through the sphere and complete the exercise. This proved to be difficult, as always. Not only did he have to align the sphere, but each block had to be rotated on all axises in their proper respective planes. The fact that he could already control that many objects alone was remarkable, but it wasn't enough for him. Magic was so fascinating for the young colt. It could do almost anything! All he had to do was get these pieces into the ball and he would be that much closer to mastering his gift. Forcing aside feelings of being overwhelmed, Kojack first tried recentering his focus to one piece at a time. First, the cube was positioned to the correct orientation. Then the triangular prism. Lastly, the star wound into place. Now the colt could push all three pieces in at once. "Steady..." he reminded himself, "Steady...!" With a bit of fanfare, each block finally found their way into the sphere before he gently set it back on the table. Just then, the loud voice of his mother caused him to nearly jump out of his skin. "Kojack!" Winter Song nearly yelled. Before, she had been calling him from the dining room. Now, she was in the doorway of the kitchen, which connected both rooms. She'd watched him just finish his magic training game with a small smile. She was happy for him, but sore hooves weighed more on her mind than his achievement. "Honey, it's dinner time. Didn't you hear me calling you?" "Oh, sorry, Momma... Look!" Redirecting the conversation, Kojack proudly took the toy into his magic and floated it through the air close to her so she could see it. "Isn't it great? I'm getting better!" His pride beamed a smile from ear to ear. Winter Song indulged the little colt by giving him an approving smile. "You're doing very good, Jack Honey. Just like me when I was your age." "You had one of these, too?" Kojack asked as he brought the toy back over to the coffee table with the rest of its parts. Winter Song chuckled a bit. "Not exactly the same, but yes. I mastered it before every other unicorn in my town. Why, I used to get apples from the other kids at school if I could teach them how to play it better. Then I'd take them home and make Grandma Rose's apple pie recipe." Winter accentuated her last statement with subtle excitement. She knew Kojack was aware of the joys brought by Rose's apple pie. "Cool!" Kojack was practically bouncing up and down now at the prospect of being able to be just like his mother. "Do you think I can do that, too!" "Well-" "I'm home!" Winter was interrupted by the front door swinging open as Tandem Axle walked in. The burly stallion took a moment to hang his vest and hat on the rack next to the door, before getting hug-attacked by Kojack. "Hey! How's m'boy?" he asked with cheer, masking his exhaustion. "I'm getting better at magic, Dad! Look!" Just as he did with his mother, Kojack's horn charged up to grab his toy from the coffee table and float it over before Tandem for him to admire. "Ah... yeah..." Tandem still wasn't wholly accustomed to magical feats himself, being an earth pony and all. He tried to sound excited for Kojack's sake, but his indifference still showed to Winter Song. Luckily, Kojack didn't notice. "It looks very nice, Jack." Kojack grinned with accomplishment, happy that his father liked it. "Just wait; tomorrow I'll be able to put four blocks in at once!" "That sounds awesome." Tandem detected a certain scent in the air as he patted Jack's head. "You know what else is awesome?" he asked him. "No, what?" Kojack went from giggling at Tandem's pats of praise to curiosity for the question. "Smell that?" Tandem asked. On queue, he took loud sniffs at the air, prompting Kojack to follow suit. "Smells like maccaroni and cheese, doesn't it?" "Oh boy!" Kojack nearly screamed as he made a mad dash for the dining room. Tandem chuckled slightly while Winter Song watched the whole scene take place. That's when Tandem shook his head slightly. "Sure wish I had his kind of energy when I was a kid. Heck, I'd give my left hind-leg just to have half of it now..." "Oh, tough day at work, Tanny?" Winter asked sympathetically as she went over to his side. They both leaned their heads together affectionately for a short time. "Ah... Miss Potts hired this new stallion. Built like a string bean... 'bout as clueless as one, too. It took him a long time to figure out how to handle the shipment and finally pay me. I just can't wait to eat and go to bed. How about you?" "Sorry to hear that, Honey," Winter Song said as she nuzzled their cheeks for a moment. With a sigh, the two parted and began to trot over towards the dinner table. "I'm about as well as could be expected. Nothing I haven't experienced befor-AH!" Winter stopped suddenly and held her engorged barrel, wincing from some source of sudden pain. Tandem nearly flipped his lid as he jumped. "What!? What is it!?" he asked in a panic. Winter grumbled a forced sigh, finally explaining after a moment of pause. "Your son just kicked me," she commented, unamused. Tandem, however, after a sigh of relief, seemed quite amused. "Heheheh. Whew! Here I thought I was going to have to do more work." Even though a hoof reached up to smack him on the back of the head, he laughed a little bit while Winter left him to join her boys at the table.