• Published 30th Jun 2015
  • 602 Views, 72 Comments

Aptitude - Kestrel



Ever since Blizzard Warning got his cutie mark, freak accidents and disasters have rocked his home of Hollow Shades. Now Blizzard is being sent to Starswirl Academy to learn how to properly control the power of his 'talent.'

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A Small Wish

Chapter 4: A Small Wish
MLP: FiM
Aptitude
By: Kestrel


Already, it felt like Blizzard’s world was starting to cave in at the edges. Through a completely innocent mishap, one of his new friends had already managed to figure out his secret and let it slip. Word spread like wildfire, and ponies everywhere were giving him looks. Most seemed to be a sort of odd reverence, but he didn’t want the attention all the same. All it meant to him was more pressure to live up to the expectation of his name.

Blizzard had taken to hiding on the roof of the school library building, standing a little ways off from the rest of campus. He could see his friends searching for him, but felt little reason to go down while he was still worrying and moping. But despite trying his best to wallow in self-pity, the bell rung from a central timepiece, beckoning him to his next course. He still had a job to do, famous and swarmed or no.

The nervous colt began to creep silently and stealthily toward his next class in Sun Hall. Interspecies Relations. He had been looking forward to being in this class, as it was the only one he actually chose, the rest being assigned to him. Even so, Blizzard’s enthusiasm had been severely diminished the reason his heritage had been leaked.

He arrived in a timely manner to the class and promptly took a seat in the farthest corner from the front, where hopefully nopony would see him. Such hope was tragically short-lived as a unicorn colt waved up at him and joined the sulking white pony.

“Hey Blizzard,” he greeted him. Great, now everypony knew his name too. That already put him at a disadvantage. “It’s awesome to meet another great unicorn. I’m Regal Virtue and I’m in my fourth year here.” The new pony stuck out a hoof. Blizzard forced himself to look up to see a tall young stallion with a gleaming cream colored coat and a long, bold red mane that was just a little shorter than a mare’s mane, but spikey and dangerous like a character out of his comic books.

Blizzard wanted to be polite, so he reached out to shake the hoof, but did so unenthusiastically. He just wanted to be alone, and this pony wasn’t helping.

“I have to say, I wasn’t planning on attending this class today,” he continued despite Blizzard Warning’s fairly obvious desire to be alone. “But I couldn’t refuse the opportunity to meet up with you when I heard that you were heading this way.” Oh boy… a fan, like Blizzard needed those. It was his family that was great, not him. He just wanted to be able to be treated normally. It would only be a matter of time before all the reverence he was likely to receive would turn to hate once they learned of what his magic did.

Blizzard turned away from Regal Virtue and looked around the room. There were ponies of all kinds here, and some pon— other… students here? Apparently, Starswirl Academy was the temporary home of more than just ponies. There were a few griffons present as well as a lone buffalo, each seemingly formed into their own groups.

The door flew open as a middle-aged griffon strode into the classroom wearing a golden necklace, a ring, and several other shining trinkets. The griffon students stared in awe, the buffalo student cocked her head in confusion, and some of the ponies shielded their eyes as the reflection from the sun glinted off the accessories and into their eyes.

At the front of the room, the griffon wiggled his talons daintily as he picked up a piece of chalk on the chalkboard and scrawled out his name. Professor Giubardo. As soon as he finished writing, he set the chalk down and pushed out his wings, using them to turn on his back paws to the rest of the class.

“Good afternoon, students,” Giubardo said in a voice much lower than Blizzard would have expected from the dainty, feminine movements he had made earlier.

“Welcome to the start of Interspecies Relations. I hope you are all prepared to step out of your comfort zones, because you’re all going to be learning a little bit about your fellow classmates and how they live.”

Professor Giubardo stopped for a moment to pick up a claw mirror and adjust the feathers on his crest. Regal Virtue nudged Blizzard in the side.

“What a preener!” he whispered. “I can’t stand stuff like that, thinks he’s better than all us.” Blizzard managed a somewhat genuine snicker. This particular teacher did seem to be a bit more… comfortable than other teachers.

“Starting this week, we will be going over the history and conflicts of each civilization that makes up the great nation of Equestria. You will learn about the origins of ponies, (earth, pegasus, and unicorn, which are all different and should not be considered to be one race) as well as the buffalo, griffons, yaks, and even the changelings.”

Changelings? Blizzard had read some news articles about how changelings were just misunderstood beings, but he had heard the story of his father’s superior’s wedding and how changelings nearly ruined it and kind of wrecked Canterlot. Despite all the hardship they had faced, changelings had become a more prominent part of Equestrian culture.

And ponies were different? That seemed to fly in the face of what he learned during his early years of education. Blizzard Warning had always been taught that earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi were all the same, not physically, but had lived in harmony for time out of mind. Besides, there was only one time they ever fought, and that was resolved in what became the Hearth’s Warming celebration, right?

“You will learn how to deal with other cultures, which will be helpful in all trots of life,” Giubardo said. “And by the end of the year, I am determined to drive the looks of doubt in some and the looks of prejudice in others I see. We all live together in one land, and I hope to knock some sense into all of you.”

The classroom remained silent as each race present kept segregated and cast looks of doubt to each other. Blizzard felt bad for the lone buffalo calf.

“Look at all them,” Regal Virtue said, breaking the silence near Blizzard. “They’re all separate and scared, scared of us. There’s a reason why there’s not many non-unicorns in Canterlot. Other ponies and the other races don’t like us because of our magical power. They’re afraid of us.” Blizzard was confused. He had seen lots of unicorns in Canterlot, in fact, the majority of citizens there were unicorns, but he hadn’t expected there to be any particular reason for it. “Really, they’re all kind of scary. I’ve heard tales about how unicorns are mistreated out of fear. My parents always taught me that what we didn’t know could hurt us, so we have to protect against all possible threats.”

Blizzard’s mind stewed over his classmate’s opinion. Could there be merit in it? After all, it seemed like what a lot of the mostly earth pony citizens of Hollow Shades did with him. Perhaps harmony wasn’t as easy as the storybooks made it out to be.

The rest of class went on much like the others. Blizzard received a rather hefty textbook, adding to the heavy load in his saddlebags. And he still had one more class to go! When he had received his book, Regal Virtue was right behind him, and he couldn’t help but notice some of the dangerous looks he tossed in the direction of the griffon students, who shot looks back at him.

When the bell rung, students rushed out of the room. Talk about Blizzard being a Starswirl descendant was apparently still hot on everypony’s lips. Regal Virtue came up to his side and threw a hoof over his shoulder.

“Hey Blizzard, stick with me, and I’ll make sure nopony messes with ya,” he told Blizzard. “You saw the looks of those griffons, right?” Blizzard nodded hesitantly, and raised a hoof to object.

“Weren’t you giving them a glare right back?” Blizzard Warning questioned.

“What!?” Well, yeah… but that’s because they were shooting daggers at you!

“Why would they be angry with me?”

Regal shook his head, trying to find the words to explain.

“Well, maybe not so much with you, but with unicorns in general,” he admitted. “You see, my family has a long history in the Royal Guards, and I’ve already done training there. I learned there that griffons value strength and are extremely jealous of those stronger than them. So they don’t like unicorns.”

Blizzard turned his gaze downward, watching his hooves move in front of him, like a piece of clockwork clunking onto the next operation, which turned out to be Health class. Regal tipped Blizzard’s chin up.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Stick with me and my buddies, we’ll make sure you’re not messed with. Come drop by Conjuration sometime and I’ll introduce you to the gang, I gotta run to my next class though, see ya around!”

And just like that, Blizzard felt alone. He took a glance behind him and noticed a griffon looking at him. It didn’t seem like there was any malice in her gaze, but Blizzard suddenly felt a lot less safe now that his self-proclaimed protector had left.

Picking up from a walk to a steady trot, Blizzard left for next period swiftly, not wanting to stick around to test Regal’s theory on griffons.


Blizzard Warning’s health class was on the ground floor of the Sun Building, so he didn’t have to travel too far. The room was slightly different than the other classrooms around the building. Instead of sporting the solar motif and bright colors of day, it was a more drab and bland room, mostly consisting of white walls and old, gray desks. Obviously one of the older rooms of the building.

But one thing the room did have to it was that it was clean. Spotless, even. There wasn’t a speck of dust to be seen, it smelled like it had been bleached down recently, and the whiteboard was so clean that Blizzard could see his reflection in it. He flashed a smile in the mirror-board to amuse himself. A few fillies near the front of the room giggled and swooned. This is exactly what he didn’t need: fillies looking at him like that, more interested in his title than him.

The colt looked away and made his way toward the back of the room, seating himself once again away from the rest of the group.

“What was that about earlier?” asked a deep voice without any actual greeting. Blizzard turned to meet the hard gaze of Double Dose. Of course it would be him, this was a health class.

Blizzard was glad to see a friendly face, but at the same time dreaded any different sort of treatment that Double Dose might give him now that he knew he was the Starswirl descendant.

Double Dose sat down next to him and tossed a concerned look his way.

“Look, you can be quiet all you want, but I know that I and the rest of our friends would like an explanation,” he stated. “It can wait until after classes, but we didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Blizzard put his head in his hooves and propped them up on his desk. He knew they didn’t mean any harm… but thanks to them, Strata specifically, his life would be a bit more complicated now.

“Okay… but I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Blizzard answered after a lengthy silence. Double Dose nodded.

“Alright. I wanted to focus on this class anyway,” he answered nonchalantly, completely unbothered by Blizzard’s attitude. At least he didn’t obsess or try to ask him about his life. Too many ponies had already tried that just during last passing period alone! He hoped that all the hype would die down in time.

Suddenly, Blizzard yelped slightly in pain as Double Dose’s hoof impacted the back of Blizzard Warning’s head bluntly. He looked over, hurt and offended into the undaunted stare of the earth pony.

“Merry Weather gives her regards,” he said before turning back to his notes. Blizzard rubbed the pain out of his head and grumbled to himself, also returning his attention to the front of the class. Now the teacher had shown up. This time, a pony with a grey coat and a strange mane style was waving hello to students showing up.

“Good afternoon children, I am here to see you bloom!” she spoke in rhyme. Okay, that would probably get on his nerves eventually. Why was she doing that? Only zebras spoke in rhyme, which could be cryptic and difficult to comprehend. Maybe that’s why nopony had come across one for some time… and this pony was imitating a zebra.

“Healing is what you shall learn to do, as I teach you things to brew.”

Okay, so based on that, Blizzard deduced that they’d be learning some rudimentary alchemy. A memory surfaced in his head for when he got an alchemy set for his birthday before he had his cutie mark. Heh, even before he had the unfortunate talent to burn forests down, he still managed to cause trouble. After his first brew, he managed to cause a small explosion and burn an art easel in his room. He never tried to do alchemy again.

Suddenly… he felt a bit less confident about success in this class.

Listening to the teacher, Ms. Imani as he managed to pick out, was difficult. She spoke in rhymes that seemed like riddles. Apparently Double Dose was having better luck, as his notebook was being jotted down with notes. Blizzard leaned over to peek at his notes and began copying. Double Dose caught on, but didn’t seem to care, merely rolling his eyes.

Teacher: Ms. Imani.

Course Goals: Basic medicinal alchemy, first aid measures, anatomy.

Test Procedure: Monthly brew exam and identification tests. Three first aid showcases in the first semester, and one anatomy exam. Final during the last week of the course.

So this was what he was up against. He had to learn to listen better, or he was sunk! Good luck identifying potions if he couldn’t identify the teacher’s words! He strained to listen more clearly to the zebra in front.

“Sorry everypony,” she said. “I studied medicine recently in the zebra lands. My voice is still recovering from learning from the best, I hope it doesn’t put you under any duress.”

Most ponies spoke so much more plainly, so Ms. Imani had completely caught him off guard. He prayed that the textbook wouldn’t be written in cryptic rhyme too. Speaking of which… where were the books? There wasn’t even a cart in the room like there had been in other classes.

He was about to raise his hoof to ask, but somepony else beat him to it, also seeming to share a thought process.

“Ms. Imani,” asked a colt near the left side of the room. “Is there a textbook with this class?”

The zebra-pony shook her head wisely.

“I have no book for you to receive, you must learn with an alchemy kit at home, I believe.”

Whaaat!? Now Blizzard had to invest in an alchemy kit? He sighed. Time for a letter home asking for bits…

The bell rung and students started to move from their seats as Imani made a motion of mock dread and theatrical sorrow.

“Oh how the bell does toll, it pains me so to see you all go!” she said in a sing-song voice before Blizzard and Double Dose got up to leave. “See you in class later!” she corrected, trying to get the hang of Equestrian common speech once more.

The two colts walked out of the classroom and into the hallway, opening into the common grounds to the campus’ center. Colts and fillies looked his way from everywhere, like as if they had been drawn to his presence like moths to a flame.

Double Dose tapped him on the side.

“Blizzard Warning, we’ll all meet you for dinner. Buy a hayburger or something and meet us on the stargazing hill by the river.”

Blizzard nodded and trotted on his way back up the hill to the Enchantment dormitory. He had a letter to write.


Back in the dorm room, everything was right once more. Nopony bothering him, nopony oogling over his status or shooting daggers at him for it, just bed. He laid down in his bed and threw a sheet over his head, like he did back home. The sun shined down on the back of the sheet, hitting his head, but he didn’t make a move for another five minutes.

Finally, he remembered what he needed to do. His ink was on the desk, next to a stack of envelopes that his mother had sent with him for the express purpose of writing back. Based on how many she had sent him with, it would probably cover for a year or two, and she’d send more later, he was sure.

Blizzard got down to writing.

Dear Mom and Dad,

So far, this school stuff has turned out pretty well. I got my class schedule and have sorted into classes pretty nicely. The teachers are a bunch of strange ponies, and a griffin, and I still have a class I haven’t gone to yet. I hope that the professor there is good, because I’ll be spending a long time in those class periods.

I got moved into the Enchantment Hall for my dormitory. I’m sharing a room with a rather strange pegasus stallion named Flathoof. He seems to know everything about me, so I hope that you guys keep any of your important financial information and the like secure. Not sure what he might do if he got his hooves on it, cause he could probably find out.

The first night was really fun. I met the headmaster in an assembly and he looks like a pretty cool stallion, and I made some friends! (Flathoof is actually one of them.) They’re a lot of fun to be around, and I think they’re good ponies. I’ve made friends with an earth pony named Double Dose, a pegasus named Merry Weather, a unicorn named Strata, and another unicorn named Regal Virtue. On the first night, we had a really cool picnic! It had fireworks and lots of food and a bonfire.

I do have some bad news though… At that picnic I mentioned, I kind of lit a firework with my magic, and it caused some things to start burning. But you guys were right, the staff at Starswirl is really good. They had it all contained momentarily and nopony caught on that it was because of me… But it only took one day for somepony to discover that I was the pony from the Starswirl family. I want to trust my new friends, but now I’m worried some ponies might only be interested in my name rather than me. I guess time will tell.

Love,

Blizzard Warning

The pen in his magical grip floated down to touch its resting place on his desk as it was exchanged for an envelope. He sealed the letter in the envelope with care, hugging it to his body. While he wouldn’t trade the opportunity to go to this school, even if he had a few things go wrong, he still missed his family.


Sunset dripped down on the horizon as the hours blended together. Blizzard had made an honest effort to try and study on his first day, cracking open each of his textbooks and reading from them. But he just felt so distracted most of the time. It wasn’t like reading his comics, so he got bored and started to forget things.

Like the hours, topics started to blend together, and once Blizzard had tried to remember that the alchemical recipe for a teleportation spell involved griffins and hours of riding a unicycle, he felt it was time to take a break and go eat.

On the way out, Blizzard deposited his letter home carefully into the mail slot. Maybe he’d hear back soon.

In the meantime, it was time to go meet his friends for an outdoor meal on the stargazing hill by the river. But first, he had to buy a hayburger.


Getting a hayburger was easy! Getting out on the other hoof… When Blizzard arrived at the cafeteria, the rumors had spread completely. Ponies got out of his way and let him get his hayburger, cutting the entire line in the process. That was cool, but what wasn’t was the way everypony was staring at him as if they were going to record every time he sneezed or scratched his head.

If he was considering skipping out on his friends to eat in the cafeteria before, he was certainly rethinking it now. By the time he evaded the last of the stragglers following him, his hayburger was no longer hot.

Thankfully, the hill was close by, and Blizzard was soon able to spot the forms of his friends in the distance. On top of the hill was a single tree with a few low hanging branches. When he got to the top of the hill, he noticed both Merry Weather and Flathoof sitting on higher branches while Double Dose and Strata leaned on the low hanging branch.

Blizzard came up behind his friends while they were chatting and propped himself up on the lower branch. The knock of wood warned his friends to his presence, prompting smiles from the majority, while Strata gave him an ashamed half-smile, half-grimace.

Double Dose scooted over to the side to allow Blizzard room to set upon the low hanging branch. On the higher branch, Merry Weather and Flathoof were busy discussing flight techniques, but soon stopped talking as Blizzard joined them. They all had something to talk about.

“Blizzard…” Strata started with a nervous tremble to her voice. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to blurt out your identity, and I didn’t know you wanted to keep it a secret. Can you forgive me?”

From across the branch, Blizzard looked back at her with a sullen gaze. Thanks to her slip-up, things would be a lot more difficult, especially to get privacy on campus, at least for a while. But she seemed genuinely remorseful, and being able to cut to the front of the hayburger line was pretty nice.

“Strata, I’m sorry,” Blizzard responded with his own apology. “I shouldn’t have freaked out like that. I left you guys earlier at lunch because I thought that once you knew who I was, you’d be more interested in my lineage than who I am.”

Double Dose threw a mildly irritated glare in his direction while Merry swooped down from the branch above and made a face at Blizzard while upside down, crossing her hooves over her chest. It was difficult to take her seriously, and Blizzard might have even laughed if it weren’t for Double Dose’s own gaze paralyzing his nerves.

The earth pony and pegasus exchanged glances before Double Dose just snorted and turned away, taking a bite of his own dinner. Merry Weather poked Blizzard in the nose with a hoof.

“That’s low, Blizzard!” she berated the colt. “Give us some credit. We were your friends before we knew who you were. Did you think it’d change after? It’s not like you’re a different pony. We liked you because you’re funny and kind and it’s interesting to talk with you.”

Flathoof swooped down next to Merry Weather, holding a wing in front of him like a vampony.

“It’s true!” he said with a imitation Trotsylvanian accent. “I may have figured out who you were, but I still wanted to be friends, and I even agreed to keep your secret.” The yellow pegasus seemed to swell in pride at this statement while the unicorn filly shrank behind Double Dose.

Blizzard huffed and sighed to himself. His friends all looked back at him again, waiting for a response.

“Alright,” he finally said. “I’m sorry for doubting any of you. It’s just that I don’t want to be famous. I’ve had some issues with ponies back home giving me too much attention, and I don’t want it to repeat here.” He decided to leave out the part that it was rather negative attention, but they didn’t need to know. Then they might not be true friends for a different reason, but one problem at a time for now.

“It’s all good, Blizzard, but I have one thing you have to accept from us as a group before we’re satisfied,” Merry said. Blizzard’s mind raced. A present? For him? That sounds cool! His birthday wasn’t even for another two months.

Blizzard’s train of thought suddenly crashed when he found himself on his back having tumbled partway down the hill from a shove from Merry Weather. Tough love… At least his friends were willing to look past his status to give him well deserved physical punishment. At least they didn’t think he was above the time honored tradition of forgiveness through force.

Merry and Strata rushed over to where he had fallen and laid down next to him, both giggling at Blizzard’s plight while his eyes stopped spinning from rolling downhill. Flathoof and Double Dose joined at a slower pace, forming a ring of ponies looking up at the stars. The ponies’ heads were close together so they could still carry a conversation with ease.

Up above, stars twinkled brilliantly. There were lights dancing in the sky like as if Princess Luna had moved the legendary Grand Galloping Gala into the night itself. For a minute of silent bliss, everypony just stared wistfully above. The north star shined brightly. Blizzard felt as though it was his father looking down at him, trying to lead him onward through his crazy life.

A shooting star streaked across the sea of lights, Merry Weather sticking a hoof straight up to the sky and alerting everypony else. The comet blazed forward, leaving a streak of astral trail behind. Even in Equestria, where Princess Luna ruled the night, shooting stars were rare.

“Hey everypony! Look!” Merry Weather shouted excitedly. “It’s a shooting star! Make a wish!”

The other four ponies gasped in awe at the star, even Double Dose broke his stone faced expression in amazement. They all fixed their eyes to the comet.

“I wish…” Blizzard began as he thought carefully. “I wish for my friends to stick with me forever.”

Smiles lit up consecutively in the ring of ponies. They were all touched by Blizzard’s wish.

“You know,” Strata declared. “I think that’s something that would come true even if you didn’t wish on that star.” Blizzard nodded in agreement. Maybe he shouldn’t have used his wish on something that would be easy to attain anyway, but he didn’t regret it. He still got to voice one of his deepest desires and put in the word to Luna. Maybe his wish would be granted still.

Quiet returned to the hillside as the friends continues stargazing, and pointing out constellations. Suddenly, Blizzard recalled that he was the only pony to voice a wish with the shooting star. He sat up and looked around to each friend.

“Hey, what did you all wish for?”

Merry giggled while Double Dose huffed. The other two remained quiet.

“I don’t believe in asking for wishes,” Double Dose commented. “I prefer to be rewarded for my own efforts rather than it being given to me.”

“Of course you don’t, DD,” Strata said, rolling her eyes. In the time that she knew him, it seemed she caught on to how he acted fast.

“I’m not telling,” Merry said with a sing-song spring to her voice. Blizzard was taken aback and feigned hurt, making a puppy dog face at her. She just laughed.

“Come on!”

“Nope!”

“Tell us!”

“Nuh-uh.”

“I wished for a sandwich…” Flathoof said with a sheepish grin. Everypony looked at him with varied expressions ranging from laughter to disbelief. Strata facehoofed while Blizzard doubled over laughing, Double Dose shook his head slowly with a faint grin.

“A sandwich!?” Merry exclaimed. “I’m so sorry for you! You burnt your wish on a sandwich…” She had to try really hard to not laugh, and it wasn’t working very well, with little snorts escaping her.

“Hey, you know, I’m still hungry, so I wished for a sandwich,” Flathoof replied defiantly, provoking a laugh from Strata while the others continued to be amused.

Soon the night air got too chilly to be comfortable, and the friends all broke apart to head back to the dorms. It was late, much later than Blizzard had expected to be out. Bedtime was calling his name. He and Flathoof walked back to the Enchantment Hall to their rooms slowly. No words were spoken between the two, but that was alright with Blizzard. He knew that his friends were loyal to him already, and status, and hopefully they would be even if they learned of his true talent.

But his mind drifted back to the hillside and the shooting star. Strata had told him that he might not even need the star to make his wish come true. That was a confidence inducing ideal. One that he was willing to work toward, like Double Dose had said. A sudden wave of happiness washed over him, and he was already starting to look forward to the rest of the year. With friends beside him, nothing was impossible, no obstacle was too great, and everything would be alright. He felt like yelling into the night.

“My wish will come true!”

Author's Note:

Man, I really liked writing that last scene on the hill with the stargazing. That would be so cool to do, just sit on a hill and see the stars with my best friends beside me. So out of curiosity, what do you guys think about making wishes?