Quest for Earth Pony Magic: the Disciple

by IMN

Introduction: Ten Years Later.

There was an unusual activity in the palace in the short hours before dawn. A child went missing in the palace ground and the guards are up and about searching for him.

“Don’t worry, Evening. We’ll find him.” Celestia tried to calm her defense minister, whose agitation exceeds that of any guard.

“Me? Worried? Why would I be worried? It’s not like he made it his sole mission to wander aimlessly pestering nobles and guest…” As Evening raved on about his son’s antics, Celestia realized just how homely the ex-general has become; to have every soldier in the castle willingly aid in the search for his son. You’ve come far from that unsure counselor who wanted to please everypony. “…It’s one simple rule, be home before dinner and can he abide by that one rule? No! It’s like talking to a brick wall, I swear.”

“Come now Evening Star, it’s not like this is the first time he got lost. He always found his way back before.” Celestia tried to calm him down again, to no avail, she noted. “What’s so special about him being home this time?”

“Moon Chaser is going to the military academy tomorrow morning,” Evening Star beamed with pride, “and if he is going to miss his sister’s farewell, I’ll make sure he’ll never set foot in the castle again.” Before seething with anger again.

Suddenly a guard came rushing in. “Princess Celestia, Minister Star. We found him.”

“Oh, thank Celestia.” Just like that, all signs of anger from Evening Star evaporated and was replaced with relief.

Celestia grumbled with a pout, “but I didn’t do anything,” though she was promptly ignored by Star who grabbed the soldier by the haunches yelling “Where is he? Is he okay?”

“He is fine, we found him sleeping in the barracks armory.” The soldier replied, albeit shaken.

“The armory?!” exclaimed the princess and her minister. The armory, after the castle vault, was one of the best-sealed rooms in the entire castle, it was next to impossible to break into it.

“How did he even manage to enter that place?”

“Beats me, the weird thing is that it’s blocked from the inside. So we are still trying to open it.” The soldier shrugged.

“How…” Celestia was about to ask something but decided against it when Evening Star suddenly threw the soldier aside and went running toward the palace armory.

Upon arrival at the armory, Evening Star spotted Captain Soaring Blade with two pegasi soldiers trying to push through the front door that doesn’t seem to budge.

“How is he? Captain.” He spoke upon saluting the guards.

“Surprisingly, still sleeping.” Replied the pegasus captain after lowering his salute, “We’ve been trying to open the damn thing for a while now, but something really heavy is barricading the door so we can’t open it more than a crack.”

“Is that so?” The minister watched as the two soldiers tried pushing through the door, only to have them collapse after several minutes of wasteful efforts. Evening Star couldn’t help but roll his eyes upon the soldiers’ fruitless attempts.

“Stand back, both of you.” He then ordered, the soldiers turned in surprise to their captain who only nodded before they parted the way.

Celestia then came trotting to the scene, “Did you get him out?” she inquired her captain only to have her minister reply, “Not yet.” As he removed his prosthetic hoof with his mouth.

“What are you doing?” She inquired as Evening Star handed her his artificial hoof.

“That thing usually gets in my way.” He replied before standing on his back hooves, then placing his remaining hoof on the door and slowly but surely pushed the door that not two well-trained soldiers were able to budge.

“Wow.” Exclaimed one soldier. As he echoed every pony’s thought at that moment.

“Remind to never get on your bad side, Minister.” The captain concluded.

“I do work out, you know.” The minister replied defensively.

“You can take the warrior out of the battlefield, but you can never take him out of the pony’s heart.” Quoted Celestia in response.

“What happened here?” Exclaimed Evening Star as the chaos inside became clear to him.

The once neat and organized armory was suddenly a giant mess as shelves of spears, swords, hammers, and armor were all scattered on the floor.

“It’s like a blizzard passed through here.” Noted the Captain.

“What’s that smell?” A soldier’s voice was heard in the background.

“Sunny! Where are you?” Evening Star called out to his son once he couldn’t spot him anywhere in this mess, his heart pounding out of fear of what possible injuries Sun Light could have sustained in such place. Only to have his fears alleviated as he noticed a ruffling sound from one of the body armor laying in the corner.

Evening Star leaped to the piece of armor and immediately lifted it to find a young colt sleeping peacefully inside, “Sunny?” the father nudged his son to wake him up.

Sun Light grudgingly rolled over, and with a hearty yawn, opened his eyes only to peer at his father leaning over him, “Dad, what time is it?”

“Oh thank Celestia.” Evening scooped up his son with his free arm before giving a hug.

Celestia pouted again as her name was gratified without actually doing anything, only to have her expression changed into mirth upon seeing little Sun Light pleading for her aid with a “help, I’m being crushed” in a muffled voice.

Evening Star had the awareness of putting his son on the ground before causing permanent bodily harm. His expression changed into that of a scold, “What were you doing here?”

“Just, give me a sec,” Sun Light huffed as he sucked as much air as possible, “Okay, I know you're mad but hear me out first.”

“You are right I’m mad,” His father asserted, “It was one rule if you are going to wander, be home by dinner time. One rule, Sun Light, and you couldn’t keep it up.”

“What part of 'hear me out' didn’t you understand?!” Suddenly Sun Light retreated to the safety of his armor-bed upon seeing his father angry gaze being cast like a menacing dragon that had his hoard poached, “That came out very wrong,” He smoothed unsuccessfully, “Can I have another take?”

“You have ten seconds,” Evening crossed his hoof and stomp without changing his expression.

“I was trying channeling but I overdid it and suddenly ended up in the armory with that heavy hammer suddenly falling on the door and even though I tried my hardest to lift that thing but it was too heavy and I ended up exhausting myself so I decided to take a small nap in the armor but time flew by and here we are.” Sun Light finally exhaled deeply, only to abruptly yell, “Stop, don’t go there,” while pointing at the soldier in another corner of the room.

The soldier turned with an inquisitive look, Sun Light explained, “A while back I had to go to the little colts room and, well…” The soldier turned toward every pony in the room with disgust, Celestia cast an anti-smelling spell to limit the stench that was somewhat overpowering.

“Scale back, you were trying channeling?” Evening asked his son in surprise.

“Well yeah, I overheard Mister Night Light and Princess Celestia talk about it the other day in great details, I went to the national archive, did some research and decided to give it a try.” A loud gurgling sound came from the little colt’s stomach, “If I knew I’d end up here, I’d have decided practiced someplace else.”

“Channeling is something only unicorns can do,” Evening Star deadpanned.

“Well, yeah?” Sun gave his father an inquisitive look.

“How did you, an earth pony, pull it off?” That was the trap that Evening had set for his son.

“Well, you see…no that’s not….I mean it’s like…” and that is how Sun fell for his father’s trap, “Look, it’s much harder to explain than you think.”

“Hey, if you don’t want to tell, that’s fine,” Evening waved a hoof in dismissal, “But don’t think you are getting off that easy. Once your sister leaves I am going to insert the harshest punishment you have ever had.”

“Fine,” Sun Light mumbled a few incomprehensible words as he walked passed his father.

“And clean up your attitude, your sister deserves better than a frown before she leaves for military training,” Evening scolded one last time.

Sun looked at his father like he had something to say, only to shake his head and slung it low to the ground with a heavy, defeated sigh, “Sorry for causing trouble princess, again.” He said as he passed Celestia without looking up.

“Cheer up, little one,” Celestia replied warmly as she noticed the small change, “You ought to celebrate, for now, we may not know what you did to get yourself into this mess, but one good thing came out of it.”

Sun Light looks at his princess in disbelief, Celestia chuckled at the young one’s expression before pointing at his blank flank who is no longer blank, “Congratulations on your cutie mark,” She cheered.

“Really!!” The colt cheered up and immediately turned toward his flank, only to be rendered speechless, “its…Great,” he exclaimed with no enthusiasm whatsoever.

“What, you don’t like it?” asked Evening Star in surprise.

“Dad, it’s a triangle,” The young Sun deadpanned.

“At least it’s the same color as your eyes,” quipped the captain of the royal guard only to be glared down to submission by his superiors. “What? It’s been a long night.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Sun Light finally huffed while stomping briskly at the giggles of the adults toward the tower where his sister awaits.

Comments

[Dapper Guy]

Earth pony magic seems to always be a unusual subject for fans to discuss. Where exactly do you plan to go with this?

[IMN]

5718740

To where the title reads.

I think the answer would be clearer once I post more chapters.

[molerat]

Tense is all over the place, switching mid sentence and being generally inconsistent, and there are occasional words that appear to have been eaten by a grue.
Can't even finish second chapter, it hurts my brain.