//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Nucleus // Story: Guiding Light // by Detsella Morningdew //------------------------------// Aurora looked around the classroom nervously, mentally cataloging the occupants. Unicorn, unicorn, unicorn, pegasus, unicorn, unicorn... another unicorn, unicorn, pegasus, unicorn, pegasus... ...and me. She sighed, her eyes falling on her own light green hooves. Her empty forehead. Her bare back. She looked back around at the class. I don't know why I expected anything different, she thought bitterly. This was the third school she had been to in just as many months, and at each of them it had been the same. She set her head on her desk. I bet I'm the only earth pony in Canterlot. The rational part of her brain immediately protested. Well, that’s not entirely true. But at least they are old enough not to go to school. It wasn't as if the courses she was forced to attend were particularly hard. They were actually quite boring. And, well, nopony really knew what to do with an earth pony. Unicorns learned their telekinesis. Pegasi learned how to fly. But earth ponies' magic was all passive. Nothing to really learn there. The best the schools ever did was to give her a few agricultural books and hope for the best. Even that was after she pestered them constantly for something, anything, to do. Unfortunately for her, agriculture was... not that appealing. At all. Well, it might have been tolerable, if there actually was magic included with it, but that was not the case. All it taught her was how to take care of plants. The magic just “happened.” Her parents had both been unicorns, and... well... they were loving and kind. Aurora couldn't ask for better caretakers than Written Script and Cherry Blossom. However, both of them were a different species. Evidently, both had earth pony ancestry and had passed it on to her, but it still meant that they had no idea how to teach her any of the practical skills that Earth ponies usually learned from their parents. And judging by the knowledge of so-called experts, it would not have been much better. Of course, Aurora never believed that earth ponies were in any way inferior. She had heard stories of earth ponies with strange or incredible powers. The problem was that there was nopony that could really teach her anything. Most of those fabled earth ponies discovered their abilities entirely by accident. She lived in a library with two scholars, and while she had developed a passion for magic, the only study materials were all designed for unicorn use. The best she could do was to learn unicorn theory. At least that was interesting enough. So Magic Kindergarten was incredibly boring. Nopony taught theory, even for unicorns, and nopony really knew what to do with her. That was okay, in a way. It was annoying, but she could deal with being bored, as long as she could go home and read later. The problem lay in the fact that she was the only earth pony. The only freak in the show. So she was the target of everything. The target for those that believed that if they couldn't see the magic, then it wasn't there. "Hey! Give that back!" The colt held the small, bronze object aloft, bringing it closer to himself. "Well, well... What is this?" He shook it a bit, then opened the cover. "A compass?" He squinted, reading the letters. "G, D, W, N?" He laughed. "What, did you make this yourself? The points aren't even straight!" He glanced back at her, grinning. "Oh wait, never mind. That can't be right, either." Aurora stomped her hoof, then lunged at the object. "I said, give it back!" The gray unicorn sneered, lifting it contemptuously out of her reach. "And what are you going to do if I don't? Grow me to death?" He laughed at his own joke. Aurora fumed, brushing her dark green mane out of her eyes. He locked his gaze, glaring at her one last time, then scoffed, turning away. "Face it, dirt lover. There's a reason earth ponies stayed as farmers." She cracked. Shrieking, she spun around, placing both her rear hooves firmly in his chest. The impact sent the colt back a few feet and onto the ground. He blinked, stunned by the impact, and all of the other foals watching gasped. The grey aura around her compass flickered and died as she snatched it out of the air with her mouth and ran, tears falling from her eyes. Aurora sat against the tunnel wall, breathing heavily and attempting to calm her racing heart. She groaned in despair. I have to be expelled for sure. I just attacked another pony. I don't think I've hit something that hard before. I... I just couldn't risk losing Dad's compass. Carefully, Aurora pushed the bronze chain back around her neck before letting the compass fall onto her chest. Holding it in one hoof, she pressed the button on the side, opening it up with a small click. Please don't be broken, please don't be broken... G was somewhere at the center. W pointed back down the street. N was nowhere to be seen. Oh, good. I was so worried. Suddenly, D faded into existence, pointing quite strongly towards W, and the direction she had entered the tunnel. Uh oh. She looked up the street, and saw Broad Strike, who she had just bucked in the chest, running down the street. Directly at her. Closing the lid on the compass, she looked around wildly for somewhere, anywhere, to hide. Running back was not an option. Running forward was not great, as it would take quite a while to lose him. She needed to get behind cover. Oh, thank Celestia! A service door! She grabbed the handle and pulled. Nothing happened. She grabbed the handle and pushed. Nothing happened. The sounds of angry hoofsteps grew louder. Oh, crud. Frustrated and hysteric, she spun around again, bucking the door as hard as she possibly could. Near the hinges, of course. CLANG! Whoa, I can't believe that worked. "You are so dead!" Dammit, Aurora! No time to admire your own work! Get a move on! She slipped through the opening, stepping quietly to the other side of the door, and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark. As soon as they did, she gasped. This was certainly no maintenance shaft. It was a spacious cavern, one that was comprised entirely out of crystal. A soft phosphorescent glow lit the darkness of a chasm that opened in front of her. In contrast, the light that streamed through the crack in the door felt like staring directly at the sun. Also, she was about two hooflengths from the edge of that chasm. Aurora gulped. Thank Celestia I didn't just rush in. Suddenly, her ears swiveled around as they registered something from the other side of the door - the sound of hooves. Aurora held her breath as the hooves suddenly slowed, then stopped entirely. Strike had stopped right outside her hiding place. She mentally kicked herself. This wasn’t much of a hiding place at all. The giant dent in the door kind of gave it away. "I know you're in there!" Aurora's heart raced as she looked around the cavern. The phosphorescent glow that had been so beautiful earlier now served a much more mundane function: it allowed her to escape. While the relative lack of shadows was disorienting, she quickly found a path down into the chasm along the side. It didn’t look particularly safe, with all the sharp crystals protruding from the floor, but it would do. I really hope he doesn't have the nerve to follow me, she thought as she edged along the cave wall. Aren't bullies supposed to be secretly wusses or something? She placed her hooves carefully on the jagged ground, making her way downward. The crystals that made up the ground were certainly not flat, and one wrong step meant her balance would be thrown off. And the ground did not look particularly inviting. She shuddered at the imagined pain. Those things are sharp. It was a good thing she had started so soon. Strike had evidently realized that Aurora wasn't coming out anytime soon. He squeezed in awkwardly, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the blackness. They widened at the sight, then narrowed as he spotted the object of his ire. He trotted over to the start of the path, and attempted to bring her back using levitation. She shrugged off the field like it was nothing. Aurora looked back at him, steel in her eyes. She turned back, resuming her downward climb. Broad Strike gritted his teeth. Earth ponies. He started after her, placing his front hooves on the wall for support as he went down the narrow path. She felt a momentary tinge of guilt. I suppose I did hit him pretty hard. Her face hardened, though, as she remembered his expression. The face he was wearing as he took away her most prized possession. He wasn’t chasing her this far just because he was humiliated in front of the class. This was because he was beaten by an earth pony. Aurora renewed her pace as she reached the bottom. She worried less and less about falling, speeding up to almost walking pace before jumping with a loud "clop" to the cave floor. Her initial plan of hiding at the bottom of the chasm now ruined, she ran through one of the narrow passageways into another cave. Apart from a large hole in its center, it was empty, and she ran straight through the passageway on the opposite side. If I can just lose him... Aurora skidded to a stop. This room had no exits, no way out. She was trapped. With a shiver, she heard the sound of hoofsteps again. Her pursuer had reached the bottom, and by the sound of it, had seen which passageway she had taken. Panicking, she looked around the cave. Maybe there was some rock, some protrusion she could hide behind... Just as he entered the cave, she noticed a small hole in the floor, just big enough for her to fit in. She dove instantly, wincing in pain as the sharp crystals dug into her body. With almost no room to move, she wiggled further down into the hole, holding back her cry of pain as the cuts deepened. Her back hooves were only just inside when Strike caught up to her once again, trying to grab her with his telekinesis. She braced herself to fight against it, but to her surprise, it wasn't needed. The field started to form, then warped erratically, reflected by the crystal, sending a feedback pulse back to his horn. Strike cried out in pain, stumbling back. Taking the chance for what it was, Aurora renewed her efforts, climbing deeper into the hole. Strike tried to follow, but flinched back away in pain as his horn hit the hard crystal. Turning away with a "Hmph!", he walked back through the caves, his hoofsteps echoing in the hole where she hid. When the sound finally died, she relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, she paused, tensing slightly. Oh, crud. I can't turn around. The crystals no longer dug into her skin quite as much as before, but the passage was barely big enough for her to crawl forward, let alone turn her body. She crawled forward again. Forward and downward. It wasn't as if she had a choice. I just really hope this isn't a dead end. Aurora grew more and more nervous as the already narrow passage became even more cramped. She had several more scrapes and cuts, and her body was sore from twisting around in the restrictive passageway. Of course there was an exit. Otherwise the narrow passage would be filled with water. That's just how caves worked. But this isn't a normal cave. It somehow... reflects magic or something. I don't think it is anything natural at all. And even if it did work like a normal cave, the passage is only getting thinner. Maybe water can get through, but I certainly can't. There has to be a way to turn around. Maybe if I... Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed that the passage ahead was a bit brighter than usual. It was only slight, but it signified something very important. An exit! Maybe this is possible, after all! She pushed forward, earning a few cuts and scrapes as the crystals dug into her skin. She crawled out the other end, kicking the last crystal blocking her way, shattering it. She stood up, stretching her aching muscles. At least hooves seem to work against it. Aurora jerked her head from side to side, rewarded by a few cracks. Then her eyes finally started to take in the scene around her. She gasped. The cavern was stunning. A large lake dominated the scene, and there must have been some bioluminescent algae living there, as the light from it sent ripples of light dancing along the cavern's crystal walls. She even thought she heard some fish swimming in the water. Fascinating. How can life exist in such a barren place? Aurora turned to leave, but stopped suddenly as she noticed something in the shadows. Something very obviously out of place. It was a door. A wooden door. Her mind immediately supplied an image of the steel door in the tunnel. Could these caves really be big enough to have more than one entrance? She trotted over and took the old handle in her mouth. To her surprise, it opened relatively easily, its hinges creaking slightly in protest. She spit the metal ring out of her mouth, the taste of old rust lingering uncomfortably. She looked through the opening, and one thing was instantly clear. This is certainly no exit. The room was dark, and smelled strongly of old wood and another smell she knew quite well: books. How odd. Why would somepony keep a library be way down here? The faint light emanating from the lake was not much, but it was enough for her to find a small oil lamp located near the entrance, as well as a tinder-box. A tinder box? From what I know, Canterlot was always a city of unicorns... With a bit of difficulty, she lit the lamp, and was both surprised and grateful to find that it still held oil. After that, it was easy to locate and light two more lamps that hung on the walls. It was quite unmistakably some sort of study. It was small and cozy, with a slanted desk and chair taking up most of the space in the room. The rest was taken up by books of all sizes. Her parents were librarians. With one glance, she could tell the age of these volumes. These had to be priceless. With no small amount of frustration, she noticed that it would be impossible to bring them back up safely, not without damaging them in some way. And based on what she saw with Broad Strike's magic, neither could a unicorn. Still, I can't pass up this chance. While I'm here... Aurora carefully pulled one of the books off the shelf, mentally noting its location. It was more out of habit than anything, but still, if there was an organization system, she didn't want to mess it up. Sitting down at the desk, she carefully opened the cover. Aurora almost banged her head on the table in frustration. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why would it be in modern Eqqish? It was still readable. At least a little. But all the characters were written just a bit strangely. Almost every single word was spelled differently. Some words had different spellings just randomly, as if the author couldn't make up their mind about it. The constant use of "thee" and "thou" was confusing, and the fact that some of the "S"s looked like "F"s did not help her brain at all. Some words just simply didn't exist anymore. And almost every single letter was indistinguishable from its capital variant. But Aurora was unable to doubt the importance of her discovery when she managed to read the title. Earth Pony Magic: A General Study Aurora almost leapt to her hooves in shock. Earth ponies were not known for their writing, especially at this point in history. Writing was considered a unicorn skill for the longest time, only really opening up to other races in the last 750 years. Even then, most of that writing was in the form of novels or just personal letters. This... this was a genuine academic volume, written by, or at least written about, earth pony magic. She closed the book carefully, placing it back on the shelf, then tilted her head, painstakingly reading the titles. Silver: the Magic of Life and Death; Earth Magic Projection: A Study. One was simply labeled Passage. With all of her being, Aurora wanted to stay, but... but... But nothing. She was covered in scrapes and bruises. She was going to stay and rest for a while. Getting to stay and read would just be an extra bonus. Now I wonder... is there is some sort of healing spell here...? Her front door opened before she had the chance to touch it, revealing the worried face of her mother. "Aurora! Where have you been? We were so worried about you!" All of her previous enthusiasm left her as she remembered the day’s events. I failed yet another school. "Did you go somewhere after you finished school?" "No." "Well, okay. What were you-" "During school." Her mother’s expression instantly changed. "Was somepony bullying you again?" "Yes." Aurora looked up as she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She saw her dad's face there, smiling reassuringly. "Don't let them get to you, honey. Whatever they said to you, I'm sure that it was-" "He took your compass, Dad." Suddenly, her mother's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I also see that you have it back. Did you-" "I didn't hurt him, Mom." ...that bad, she muttered under her breath. "I just knocked the wind out of him." Her father smiled slightly, then wilted as his wife glared at him. "And so you ran away? For four hours?" "Well, he kept chasing me." She raised an eyebrow. "For four hours?" Aurora shuffled her hooves uncomfortably. "Um... well, I kinda got stuck in my hiding place for a while..." Cherry Blossom looked at her daughter suspiciously. "So where is this hiding place of yours? Would you mind showing us?" Aurora dragged her hoof along the grain of the floorboard in front of her. "Well... it's kind of a secret spot... and I kind of want to keep it that way... and it's not like you could fit anyway... the passage is too skinny." "What about teleportation?" her father asked. "I may not be some fancy mage, but I'm pretty decent. Almost five feet now!" His wife rolled her eyes. “Dear, teleportation is not something to shrug off. I think I know probably three unicorns who can do it. And you are one of them.” Aurora shuddered violently as a sudden thought invaded her mind. Broad Stroke's magic being twisted, forced back onto his horn. "N-no... It's... It's more than a couple feet." "All right," he said, a hint of genuine concern in his voice. "I'll let it go. But we really need to talk about this school thing." "It's not exactly working, is it?" Aurora said, hanging her head. "I'm sorry. I should have... I should have..." Her mother stepped closer, placing a comforting hoof on her back. "It's okay honey. It wasn't your fault." This time. She put a hoof to her chin, then suddenly smiled, glancing at the library that surrounded them. "Hey, I know what should cheer you up! What if we try homeschooling?" Her father stepped in, alarmed. "But dear, we both work. Who is going to teach her?" It was too late. "Yes! Yesyesyesyes! This is awesome! Now I can stay in the library and read things and actually learn stuff-" "What do you mean, 'actually learn stuff'?" Cherry Blossom asked suddenly. “You didn’t tell me anything like this.” Aurora shrunk back again at the sudden shift in tone. "Well, um... there wasn't much to learn... I mean... what do you think they would be able to teach an earth pony?" Her father started to open his mouth, but Aurora interrupted. "That isn't theory." He closed it. "I mean, seriously. All I learned how to do in school is how to run really fast." Both her parents cringed at the implication. "And maybe how to kick things really hard." Cherry looked horrified, then glared at her husband, who quickly tried to look as not-proud as equinely possible. He looked at Aurora, then sighed. "I suppose you're right. It's not like Magic Kindergarten is anything more than a babysitting service, anyway. Go ahead. Knock yourself out." "Yes!" Aurora said, racing along the shelves at an incomprehensible speed then stopped suddenly, looking back at her mother. "Is there any way you could bring me dinner? Then I don't have to stop... and... um..." Cherry smiled warmly at her daughter, then assumed a face of mock-sternness. "Only if you keep your face over the bowl and not the books." Aurora smiled back, rolling her eyes slightly. "All right, Mom. I'll be good." She turned away, tilting her head to read the titles, pausing only to pull interesting ones off the shelf. Cherry Blossom and Written Script walked away, still smiling. Script looked at his daughter, then back at his wife. "Should we tell her that it's already past school hours?" She nudged him playfully. "You do that, and you're sleeping on the couch."