Quest for Earth Pony Magic: the Disciple

by IMN

Chapter I: The Magic of Siblings.

Sun Light stealthily opened the front door of the eastern tower behind the barracks, a place he became accustomed to calling it his home.

Upon taking a peek, Sun Light was relieved that his sister was nowhere in sight, “The ghost is clear.” He whispered to his father walking behind him, who rolled his eyes in response.

Sun Light then took count of his surroundings. Keeping to the walls would offer him behind cover in case of a surprise attack, but would expose him if ‘she’ was on the lookout. He judged that moving quickly from one hiding place to another would be a better solution, but staying in one place too long would pose a greater risk of exposure. Taking all that into account, he planned a path of multiple hiding spots to get him from the front door to his room upstairs. Alright, first I need to move to the southern tapestry, from there I can hide under the stairs, then….

His plans were however cut short when his father waltzed in declaring in his highest voice, “Moonie, we’re home!” Before proceeding to turn on the torches.

“Dad~” complained the little colt, “if she sees me, I’m dead.”

“You’re dead either way Sunny,” His father reassured, in response, Sun Light sat in the doorway and crossed his hooves. Evening shook his head before turning toward his son, “You knew you were in trouble from the start; being stubborn now isn’t going to change anything you know.”

Sun Light gave a big sigh before deciding to take a plunge with destiny. At least I’ll die by the ponies I know and love, he thought before walking in toward his demise.

Upon entering the front gate, Sun Light stood in the center of the entrance, then yelled at the top of his voice, “Moon Chaser~… Come out, come out wherever you are!”

His voice echoed through the tower like a haunted scream, but no answer could be heard. Sun Light stood there for a full minute expecting a hit to come at any moment’s notice, afterward he turned to his father, eyes filled with false hope, and said, “guess she went to bed.”

His hope was suddenly sent crashing as the front gate suddenly crept to a close, revealing the angry blue eyes that lay hidden behind the opened doors, “How dare you!” came the growl of the angry mare.

“M-Moonie!” shriveled Sun Light at the sight of his sister’s glare, “I’m back, and in one piece this time,” He tried to sooth the fuming beast, “No need to worry, this is your big day today and the only pony that we need to worry about is you,” He straightened his pose with a broad smile on his face, “So, let’s go to your room and start taking care of you,” He then raised his hooves trying to garner as much sympathy as possible.

Moon Chaser’s gaze suddenly reduced from a smoldering volcano to that of a predator in ambush. She walked toward her little brother who gave her an even wider smile coupled with a tail wag and the cutest, widest puppy dog eyes he could ever muster.

“You are in so much trouble, buster,” She replied, her hoof moved too swift for her brother’s untrained reflexes and caught his ear which she subsequently twisted.

“Ouch. Ear. Ear. Ear,” Sun Light yelped as the pain flared through his facial muscles.

“Okay then. I can see you two have a lot to talk about,” Evening Star addressed his children as he walked up the stairs, “I’ll just leave you two to it.”

“Wait,” his son yelled after him, “Don’t leave me.”

“Wake me up when it’s time to leave,” His father replied, deaf to his son’s plea.

“I might need a witness,” His son screamed desperately, trying not to pull too hard from his sister’s grab, “this is foal cruelty.”

“Good night,” His father replied before slamming the door of his bedroom.

Sun Light turned to his sister, “I can explain everything.”

“Save it,” Moon Chaser snarled, “Just tell me one thing. Was it worth it?”

“Huh?” He replied to her perplexingly.

“What you were doing, was it worth skipping on my last day here?” Moon Chaser snarl suddenly had a pleading undertone to it.

“I got my cutie mark.”

Moon Chaser released her brother who fell on his haunches while scrubbing the pain away from his ear.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Show it to me.”

Sun Light turned his flank toward his sister, “I’m not sure what it is though,” As he looked incredulously at his newly acquired destiny, “and it’s not just a triangle, that would have been too obvious.”

Moon Chaser gave it a scrutinizing look, “Well, it’s something alright.”

Suddenly a loud gurgling sound came from his stomach, Sun looked up to his sister who gave him a sympathetic smile, “Is it too much to ask for your pancakes before you leave?”

“No, it’s not,” Moon replied with a chuckle. As she led her brother to the kitchen, when she settled to her normal rhythm of cooking she asked him, “So what happened?”

Sun Light settled on the table watching his sister moving around, “Well, it started a couple of days ago,” He started with his own rhythm of storytelling, “You remember Thursday when I attended Mister Night Light and Princess Celestia’s meeting, right?”

“You mean when you eavesdropped,” His sister correct.

“It’s not my fault no one pays any attention to me when I walk into a room,” Sun defended his position, “anyway, mister Night Light was explaining his research into improving raising the stars in the night sky, it seems Princess Celestia always had trouble raising them, being stubborn and all. So he was suggesting channeling some of her energy that she uses to raise the moon into the stars themselves. He went to great length explaining how to do it, and that caught my interest.”

“And that was when you broke into the national archive?” Moon interjected.

“Yes, and that was when… Hey,” Sun objected to his sister’s trap, who she replied with mirth, “In any case, I learned from the archive a lot about channeling, and how to transfer energy from one place to another using one’s own magic, or another form of conduit. Finally, I stumbled upon something rather interesting.”

“What was it?” His sister started the fire with which she’ll use for the pancakes.

“There was a reference for a lich centaur under the name of Tirek. As I understood from the script, he could absorb the magic of unicorns, the flight of pegasi, and the strength of earth ponies. That was when it clicked. You see, according to Starswirl the Bearded theorem over magic entropy, the origin of magic is one. So I concluded that earth pony strength is, in fact, a form of magic.”

“You know, most colts just want to play outside and have a mud war or something, not learn to channel and deciphering Starswirl the Bearded theorems,” Moon noted as she placed honey and nuts on the first pancake.

“Well, most colts have friends who want to play with them mud wars, and none of them have unlimited access to the most secure archives in Canterlot,” Sun replied before wolfing down the pancake whole.

“Slow down, or you’ll have yourself a tummy ache,” Moon Chaser couldn’t help but chuckle at her brother’s eating habits, always in a hurry, “And don’t talk with your mouth full,” she scolded as he mumbled something unintelligible to her.

Sun then swallowed his meal, “That was delicious,” he announced with a belly rub, he then picked up the plate with a “seconds?” and pleading eyes.

“Already on it,” She assured him as she placed the second pancake on the stove.

“Thank you,” Sun slumped back into his chair, “Where was I?”

“You are about to tell me what happened yesterday.”

“Oh yeah,” Sun returned to his storytelling mood, “So, yesterday morning I designed a simple experiment, I’d set up two points, point A is where I jump, point B is where I land. I spaced them further apart than my normal reach, and started trying to jump from A to B. Simple, No?” Moon gave him a nod. “I theorized that by channeling my earth pony strength from my forelimbs to my back limbs I might jump higher than how I normally do.”

"Huh," Moon Chaser looked over her brother, perplexed as one could be, "and how does that work?"

Sun Light sat back in his chair, hoof under the chin, "It's like a water piston, if I am to put it in other words. You see, magical energy moves in the body in a fluid motion, if you can press it from one side it comes up in the other. Unicorns can channel magic into their horn this way, the horn condenses the magical energy and forces it outward, that is the process of spell casting. I tried to mimic the same effect using body motion instead," he looked at his sister who seemed more lost at this point, "are you still with me?"

“So, basically, you spent the entire afternoon jumping?”

“Yep.”

“Then, how did you end up in the armory?”

“Jeez, things travel fast around here.”

“Helios.”

“Alright, alright,” Sun Light replied in defeat, “It was working,” Moon’s interest suddenly peaked, “I was jumping higher and higher by applying such simple concept, and it was exhilarating. I was able to feel how the energy is moving inside my own body, it was no longer a matter of theories and words and calculations in my head, it was something I could test, and it felt wonderful. Anyway, after a dozen or so successful jumps, I decided to try something different, a big jump packed with as much strength I could muster."

Sun Light suddenly went silent for a moment, Moon waited for her brother’s response but when he took too long she voiced, “then what happened?”

“An explosion came out of nowhere made me jump. I mean jump harder than what I was already intending,” Sun Light concluded after much contemplation on the events that transpired, “The next thing I knew weapons were falling all around me, and a giant hammer was blocking the doorway.”

“Wait, are you telling me you teleported into the armory??” Moon Chaser couldn’t keep the shock out of her face, “but that’s…”

“Unbelievable. I know,” Sun Light replied dejected.

“I was going to say incredible,” Moon walked over to her brother and gave him a hug.

“Thanks,” smiling, Sun Light leaned closer into his sister’s hug taking in as much of her warmth as he can, “I’m going to miss our talks.”

“Come now, Sunny. I’m sure you’ll find someone you can talk to.”

“If you mean dad, then you have no idea how wrong you are.”

“You just don’t know how to talk to him.”

“Because he doesn’t listen,” Sun Light broke off his sister’s hug.

“Let me guess,” Moon Chaser sat in front of her brother, “Dad asked you how you did it and you replied ‘it’s harder to explain than you think.’”

Sun Light looked in awe at his sister, “It’s scary how well you know me.”

“So are you really going to tell him? Or are you going to babble your way around the subject until it goes away.”

“I’m not sure,” Sun Light averted his gaze.

But Moon wasn’t going to let things slide, “He’ll be so proud of you if you do, come on,” She told him with a jab to his shoulder.

“I’m not even sure I can repeat what I did. How can I prove something I can’t at least duplicate successfully?” Sun Light looked toward his sister, hoping for answers he hoped she might have.

“You’ll think of something,” Moon comforted, “You always do.”

“A good cook who knows how to fight better than a captain, and great with little monsters. Is it just me or do you have the whole package.” Came a sudden third voice out of the bloom.

“Oh brother,” Sun Light felt aggravated by the sheer presence of that pink menace.

“Hey Cadence,” Moon Chaser welcomed her friend with a wave, “You’re here early.”

“Well, somepony had to hide in the last place anypony would look into,” Cadence made a hoof gesture toward the only colt in the room, “Which ended up waking the entire castle all night long looking for him,” yawning, she took a seat at the table, “Congratulations on your cutie mark, by the way. I heard it certified you as a genuine blockhead?”

“Oh candy butt, you and your dull jokes,” Sun made an innuendo, “it’s a triangle, not a block. Not that you would know the difference.”

“Enough. Both of you,” Moon slammed four pancakes on the table, “This is the last day I’m going to be here, and I don’t want to break up any fight.”

“Fine,” The Princess and the sibling sounded their defeat.

“How did you lock yourself in the armory anyway?” Cadence took a bite out of her pancake while turning her attention to Sun Light, who was about to stuff his face with his second serving.

“I teleported in there.”

The guffaw that came from the alicorn at the table sprayed pieces of pancakes all over Sun Light.

Sun placed back the pancake in disgust as he removed chunks of the other pancake from his mane. But just as he was about to voice his thoughts, he was glared down by his sister. Sighing in defeat he shrank back into his chair pouting. Moon nodded to him in gratitude which he smiled too, “I’ll go clean up,” He finally said while removing pancake morsels from his mane.

Once Sun Light left, Moon Chaser turned her angry gaze toward her friend, “I thought we agreed that you’ll look after him while I’m gone.”

“Oh don’t worry,” Cadence gave her friend an innocent smile, “I doubt there’ll ever be a filly for him from here to Manehatten.”

“Not that kind of looking after,” Moon smashed her hoof at the dining table, nearly destroying it.

“Sunny and I may have our differences. But I do consider him like a younger brother,” Cadence assured Moon with surprising calmness, “I’ll look after him, so don’t worry.”

“Good,” Moon returned to her seat with a sigh of relief, “I worry about him, I doubt he’ll have anyone once I’m gone.”

“You worry too much about him.” Cadence took another bite, “He’s smart for one thing, and a lot more sociable than you or your father give him credit. But don’t tell him that I said that,” She told her friend while chewing.

Moon let out a chuckle, “I won’t. Tell me, what do you think his cutie mark means?”

“I don’t know, but it has to do with his observation and analytical skills,” Cadence took another bite, “Mmm, these are the best pancakes I have ever tasted, your cutie mark should be honey and nuts pancake instead of that ghastly monster you got.”

“But I like taming monsters,” Moon pouted, “They are like babies, treat them right, and they’ll purr like kittens.”

“Forget about your brother, I doubt I’ll ever find you a special somepony.”

Both fillies giggled at the prospect. Moon then asked, “Speaking of which, are you still seeing that colt from uptown Canterlot?”

“Yeah,” Cadence replied in a sad tone. “He’s leaving today for the military academy with you. Is it too much to ask of you to keep an eye on him? He’s a white unicorn with a blue mane, his name is Shining Armor.”

“Sure thing. Aren’t you going to see him off?”

“Yeah, after I’m done prepping you up,” Cadence cleaned her plate, “Hey, did you know that his little sister is going to be living in the castle soon.”

“Wait, is she the one who hatched the dragon yesterday and nearly destroyed the unicorn academy?”

“The one and only,” Cadence beamed with a bit of pride, “her name is Twilight Sparkle, and I used to babysit her for pocket change a while back.”

“I remember her, I used to escort you to their house when it got late in the evening, isn’t she a year younger than my brother?” Once Cadence gave her a nod, she continued, “Do you think she’ll get along with Sun Light?”

Both mares looked at each other for a long while before reaching the same conclusion, “I should be worried, shouldn’t I?” It was more like a statement than a question.

With which Cadence promptly replied with “Oh, definitely.”

Comments

[Raistlin]

My Little Earthpony: Breakdancing is Magic.

[Blewfire]

I have always like the idea of earth ponies being able to use magic almost the same way as the other races. And all that was stopping an earth pony was trying to and figure out the how to do it as a earth pony. Very interesting and we'll written so far. let see where it goes.