Secret OC Origins Compilation

by Jeweled Pen

Snigurka 02

Play hummed happily as she made her way down the streets of Ponyville. Summer vacation was over, which meant it was time to return to the class room. Her vacation had been wonderful. She'd worked extra hard and caught up on all her back log within the first few days which meant she was able to spend the rest of her vacation lounging about and doing as she pleased. She knew that, technically as a mature, dedicated adult, she should have been working and being productive. But sometimes a pony just needed to lay on a pool chair and let the rays melt away their stress.

She paused for a second as she caught up to a small filly, looking quite sad, with her head hung and each step made as if she was walking to her grave. “Snigurka? Child?” Play asked as she slowed down to walk besides the filly. “You'll be late if you keep at that pace.”

“I don't care,” the filly mumbled. A cloud was practically hanging over her head.

“What's wrong? Is everything okay at home?” A little worry began to nag at the mare. Summer vacation had just ended, so a depressed child was common. But this was full on despair. Her classes weren't that horrible.

“I couldn't do it,” the filly whined. “I-I spent all summer break working on it, but all I could do was make a little bit of rain!” She stomped a hoof angrily.

“Made rain? What are you...” Play's voice trailed off as she thought back to two weeks ago. “You were able to make a rain cloud?”

The filly shook her head. “No. All I could do was make the rain. I couldn't even make the cloud right.” She let out a sob. “It's not fair! I worked so, so hard! I did everything right! Why won't my magic work properly?”

“You managed to make the rain, but not the cloud?” Play asked, staring in confusion. Still, for one so young even rain could be impressive.

“Yes,” she grumbled pathetically.

“Well, that still sounds impressive. It can't be easy making the rain. If you've gotten that far in only two weeks, I'm sure in a few months you'll be able to make a cloud. Possibly even a little bit of snow. Have you been studying those books?”

“Every night,” the filly said, perking up. “Really? Do you think I'll be able to do it?”

“Of course,” Play said with a smile. “If you practice and show the dedication, I'm sure you'll do fine. Even making all the snow you could ever want.”

Snigurka grinned and perked up. “W-well, I did make really good rain. And a lot of it!”

“Well, there you go. The first step is always the hardest.”

“Thank you Miss Write!” Snigurka said before galloping off towards the school, leaving her teacher, chuckling, behind.

The filly smiled as she galloped onto the school grounds, before skidding to a stop. Filthy was there, as were all the other students. Horror flared through her as she remembered their bet.

“Snigurka, Filthy says you're going to cover the schoolyard with snow, is that true?” Cheerilee asked, staring at her.

Snigurka froze, her breath locking in her throat. She wasn't ready, not even close. But everypony was staring. Watching her. She couldn't tell them she'd failed, they'd all laugh at her. She slowly nodded. “Y-yes. I ummm... I... I know the spell,” she managed to squeak out. “B-but I can't do it now, class is about to start. I ummm, after class!” she said quickly.

Filthy snorted. “Hah, I knew it. You can't, can you? I told you, it's impossible to make snow in the summer. It's too hot.”

“I can do it!” she shrieked, before stomping a hoof. “F-fine! I'll do it, just, just give me a moment.” She quickly trotted back out of the yard, hiding behind the corner. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out what she could do. She knew the spell, she had the basics. It had to work, she knew it would. Yeah, she made rain, how much harder could snow be?

She gulped and stepped out, smiling nervously. “Prepare to be amazed, everypony!” she said quickly before her horn began to glow. She ground a hoof into the ground as she pulled on her low magic reserves. “Grrrrr...” Slowly she began drawing the moisture from the air and it gathered over her horn in a big swirling mass of water. It was working, she was doing it! The ponies stared in awe, even Filthy going silent as he stared at the ball of water.

She gathered it up and... then the spell broke. She couldn't make it the cloud like she was supposed to, instead it swirled around into a little ball and began to fall apart, dripping slowly at first, before turning into a drenching downpour. Fortunately, it was only a little water so it didn't last long. Unfortunately, when it ended she was completely soaked.

There was silence for a few moments before the ponies burst into laughter. “Bwa ha ha ha! I knew it! Nopony can make snow in the summer!” Filthy said, rolling on the ground in laughter.

Snigurka just sat there, staring at the laughing ponies. The only compensation was all the rain that fell on her made her tears impossible to see.

“What's going on here?” Play asked as she walked into the yard. “Snigurka? Oh my goodness, what happened to you?”

“She was making snow,” Filthy said before laughing again. That just sent the ponies into another fit of laughter. The filly struggled to contain her sobs, her entire body shaking as the tears refused to stop.

“Okay, that's enough, everypony inside,” Play said firmly. The laughter died instantly and the ponies quickly headed inside. She then turned to the child and motioned towards the building. “Okay then. Come on dear, let's get you dried off.”

“D-don't... don't wanna,” Snigurka said fiercely as she wiped her face off and shook her head. “It's, it's just stupid. It's all stupid. Just... I-I wanna go home.”

Play sighed and gently guided the child into the school. “Now now, I know the first day back can be rough, but--”

“I-I failed!” Snigurka said, before letting out a hiccup. “I... I tried s-so hard a-and all I can do is--” She was cut off by another hiccup. “--make a bunch of useless rain!”

Play gave a soothing pat on the head of the child. “There there. Magic like this takes time. Making rain is very, very impressive for one so young. You're doing fine. All you need to do is keep working at it.”

“I don't wanna keep working at--” Another hiccup. “--at it. I want it now. Everypony expects me to now and I-I can't!” Another soft hiccup followed by a sob broke from the filly. Play shook her head and lead her to the nurses office and grabbed a few paper towels.

“Things take time, Snigurka. Everything worth doing, does. If you want to stop doing it, then make sure you do it for the right reasons.” She started drying the filly off. One of the good things of taking care of so many fillies and colts, they always had plenty of paper towels available. “Don't give up just because it's hard or doesn't work immediately.”

“B-but everypony is m-making fun of me and l-laughing a-and it's not fair! T-they don't know how hard it is o-or how hard I worked,” she said with another sob, before breaking into a few more hiccups.

“I know, I know. Things are hard at times, that's how it works. But if you keep pushing at it, there is no limit to what you can do. Are you still studying those books?”

She gave a small nod. “U-uh huh.”

“Then just keep trying. Making rain is no small achievement.”

She nodded and soon enough she was dry and able to walk back to class, her teacher besides her. Her eyes were a little puffy, but nopony said anything more about her failure and class began.

For a while she managed to even forget about her humiliation. Class was easy and a great distraction. Then, suddenly. “Look, it's snowing!” one of the colts called out.

Her head whipped around to look out the window, but there was nothing there. Then a bunch of small bits of paper rained down on her head. Almost instantly the children burst into laughter and her cheeks burned with shame. There wasn't a lot of paper, but there was enough to make her miserable as her classmates laughed.

“Who did that?” Play asked, looking around. The children made sure to look everywhere but at her, the laughter soon dying down to nervous chuckles. “I will not have tormenting fellow students in my class, is that understood?”

“Yes Miss Write,” the ponies said in unison, grumbling softly.

“Exactly. For that, ten minutes of no recess,” the teacher said before sitting down. “Which is good, because it means I can give a nice, long lecture on how to treat your fellow ponies.” There was another long groan from the ponies.

For Snigurka, the rest of the day flew by quickly, albeit with the occasional humiliation. Her fellow ponies weren't openly taunting her any more, at least not in front of their teacher, but they did keep looking at her and laughing.

On the up side, her rain making spell made the sand much easier to work with and she was able to make half a sand pony during recess. The trip home was uneventful as well, but namely because she hung back and let all the other ponies get ahead quickly, so they wouldn't taunt her on the way home.

She felt so alone. More alone than normal. She'd wasted her entire summer break studying and learning, but for what? All she'd gained was the occasional horn ache and the mockery of her classmates. She'd also lost her dessert, too. Though she'd been smart, asked her mom to give her just apples for dessert this week. But by Celestia, she'd never wanted an apple more than the one Filthy ate in front of her.

She barely gave her parents a greeting as she trotted up to her room and sat down on her bed. She pulled out her homework and put it onto her desk, before glancing down at the books laying on her bed. Weather and temperature spells. They seemed so simple when watching somepony else doing them, but they were so... so hard. Why did they have to be hard? The pegasi always seemed to have such an easy time, wizzing about and setting up the clouds.

She wished she'd been born a pegasus. A pegasus wouldn't have any problems. All they had to do was fly, they didn't have to worry about magic or any of those stupid nuances. She picked up the temperature book and tossed it on the floor. “You're stupid!” she told the book, before tossing the weather one after it.

It wasn't fair. If she was a pegasus all she'd have to do was learn how to fly and that would be it. She could get all the snow she wanted. All the snow she needed. But she wasn't, she was a unicorn. She had to make it herself.

So why wasn't it working? She felt another few tears building up in her. Was it her fault? Was she... stupid? Was she just not good enough? What if she could never learn how to make ice? Frustration built up inside and she let out another sob. She'd worked so hard, yet all she'd managed to do was look like an idiot and get soaking wet. She doubted any pony had ever felt as miserable as she did.

Snigurka cried into her blankets and let all the frustration and anger out. She soon felt exhausted, but better. She glanced over to the books and stared at them. It didn't make any sense. What did the whole stopping water and all those bonds mean? How could you grip heat and send it out? It was like...

There was a little click in her head and she gasped, shooting up. She brought the books back to her and quickly opened them, skimming through the pages. She jumped to her hooves a moment later and galloped outside.

A grin formed on her lips as her horn came alight and the water began gather, swirling over her head. Unfortunately, it soon began to collapse into a small puddle, drenching her again. She shook it off and tried again. “Come on, come on...” Again, she just got soaked. Again and again and again the water drenched her, not forming properly.

Then, after so many tries she was sure it would fail again, her horn beginning to hurt and the frustration making her want to cry again, it didn't rain. The water swirled over her horn and began to expand, slightly. It didn't form a complete cloud, but it didn't begin to rain. Instead a big, almost completely liquid cloud formed in the air. It only stayed for a few seconds before falling apart, but the filly didn't care. A cloud. She'd made a cloud. Barely a cloud, but still a cloud.

“Yes yes yes yes!” she shrieked as she hopped around in a small circle around the puddle of water.

“Snigurka! Dinner!”

“Be right in, mommy!” she called back. She'd done it. A cloud. She'd finally made a cloud. She'd done it. All she had to do was a little more and she'd have a snow cloud. She could feel it.