//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Hardened 
// Story: Guiding Light 
// by Detsella Morningdew 
//------------------------------//

	Aurora climbed the staircase slowly, ignoring the now-familiar pain in her legs.

Even Smarty Pants had forgone flying, instead following her at a slow walk. She grabbed the leading edge of her right wing with her mouth, stretching it manually, as her muscles were not yet up to the task.

"Ugh. I am so glad it's finally the weekend, Mom. I don't know if I could last another day."

Aurora arched her neck, stretching it slowly before responding. "Yeah. I definitely need a break. But you know Luna's going to kill us if we don't practice."

Smarty winced. Last week, they had made that mistake. The weekend had come, and they had rejoiced, taking the rest to its fullest advantage. But when it had come time for them to start again... it was painful.

Although she was sure Luna had made it more difficult on purpose.

Just another hard lesson, and one of many.

Smarty looked at her mother in front of her. Everything Aurora learned with Celestia only seemed to make their training more and more difficult as Princess Luna adapted instantly to any of her new skills. If Aurora learned to use her magic to break a unicorn's shield, then half the golems suddenly gained the ability to make shields resistant to that kind of magic.

Fortunately, they were never impenetrable. Luna was kind enough not to do that. But Smarty was forced to learn, and learn quickly. Her part in Aurora's training became less and less optional as it went on. Sure, Luna had discovered that Smarty had advanced in her maturity due to some sort of residual magic, approximately at the same "age" level as her mother. But still, she was only about half as tall, dammit! And Aurora always seemed to be ridiculously powerful in comparison. Luna had been kind enough to teach Smarty some useful Pegasus magic, but it certainly wasn't enough. She found herself asking Aurora for a crash course in some useful Earth pony magic.

Apparently, she was special. She was not really a normal pegasus. She was a "heavy pegasus," a rare hybrid with both kinds of magic.

Unfortunately for her, the two types didn't really agree with each other all the time, hence her initial clumsiness when she tried to fly. It was manageable now, but... it just never seemed to be enough to keep up with the training.

As she watched her mother walking in front of her, she realized that Aurora was just as tired as she was.

Aurora pushed open the door to their room, and Smarty shook her head, clearing her thoughts.

No, this is a time to relax, and have fun with Mom. It's no use to be resentful about any of this. I can do so many cool things now that I would have never been able to do before. Now, it's time to-

"Oh! Mom! Dad! I didn't know you were visiting today!"

Smarty looked up, all traces of pain and fatigue gone as she saw her grandparents standing there, waiting.

She smiled contentedly. Today was going to be a good day.





Written Script paced around the spacious room nervously, looking at the door every few seconds. he turned towards his wife, a worried expression clearly visible on his face.

"The Princess did say she would be back soon, right?"

Cherry Blossom sighed. "Yes, dear. Honestly, you worry more than I do. She'll be here when she gets here. No matter how much you ask, it is not going to make her get here any faster."

"I know. It's just..."

Cherry put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. "I know, dear. I understand. I worry about her sometimes, too. But I trust the Princesses."

He let out a breath. "You're right, of course. Like always. The Princesses know what they're doing. They've had students before." He frowned.

"Although that is part of what makes me worried in the first place."

His wife looked at him curiously. "How do you mean?"

Written Script suddenly looked uncomfortable. He had not intended to say that out loud. "Well, it's just that whenever Princess Celestia takes a student... big things start to happen.

"And... well... from what I have seen in my study of history... it doesn't always turn out well for that student."

Cherry's eyes narrowed at her husband. "You're not implying..."

Written Script's eyes widened. "No! Of course not! But... big events seem to gather around Princess Celestia's students. I know that Luna has taken in a few that have turned out fine, but... I'm just a little worried, that's all." He sighed.

"Like usual, I guess. I just want her to be careful. Or prepared. Or... something. I just want her to be safe."

Cherry leaned against her husband, nuzzling him. "And she will be. The Princesses wouldn't send her into danger unprepared..." She trailed off

Written Script looked curiously at his wife. She seemed to be staring at the door. Her mouth was slightly open.

Wait, the door? Is Aurora...

His mind completely refused to process the picture that his eyes were giving it. There was absolutely no way that his eyes were functioning properly. There was no possibility that Aurora, his little bookworm, was so completely... buff?

"Oh! Mom! Dad! I didn't know you were visiting today!"

His mouth started to move in response, but his brain refused to give it any words, and he was left working it with those random sounds it decided to give him instead.

Cherry turned towards him, still not recovered from her own shock.

"I think the Princess might have everything covered."





Aurora smiled, overcome with a feeling of great contentment. Her parents were here to visit. A small amount of normalcy in the storm of chaos that had been her life recently. Truthfully, with all that had been happening, she had totally forgotten about them, and while she felt a little guilty about that, it was nice to have them finally here...

Wait, why are they staring at me like that?

"Aurora, dear, what sort of things do these 'lessons' entail?"

Oh.

Uh oh. "Um... what do you mean?"

Yes! Act oblivious. Great plan, brain!

Her mother gave her a look. She grinned in what she hoped was a confident smile.

Abort mission! Catastrophic failure imminent!

"You look like you just went through boot camp, dear. I know you, Aurora, and you were never a pony to get into athletics. What happened?"

Aurora shifted uncomfortably. "Well, a lot of Earth pony magic requires a lot of physical movement, so..."

It was technically true. In fact, Aurora suspected that she might have performed the same amount of activity either way.

Well, maybe not if Luna wasn't involved. But she didn't need her mother to worry unnecessarily about her safety.

"Actually, boot camp sounds about right."

Aurora glared at Smarty Pants, who caught on far too late.

Written Script smirked at his wife. "See, I told you!" He lowered his ears a bit. "Although I'm not sure I actually wanted to be right on that one..."

Cherry Blossom ignored him, instead looking back at Aurora with a worried expression. "Is this true? Does Princess Celestia really think you are in danger?"

"No! Of course not! ...well, sort of. Enough for her to want me to train for a while, but not really enough to modify much of what we were planning to do anyway. As I said, a lot of Earth pony magic, is physically-based. The training just changed which things I learned first. She's not scared, Mom, just extra careful. I'm protected by both the Day and Night Guard, not to mention the Princesses themselves. You don't need to worry."

Cherry sighed, putting a hoof on her chest. "Thank you. That is all I needed to hear. I trust you Aurora. I just had to make sure. As long as you feel safe, and you are still happy here, I will support you all the way."

Smarty Pants smiled, taking off into the air. "And the training is really fun, too. Watch this!"

She hovered close to the ceiling, then started to vibrate her feathers rapidly, building up a static charge in her secondaries before quickly transferring that energy to her primaries and out her wingtip.

BOOM

Written Script yelped, jumping in the air while simultaneously attempting to duck.

Aurora's gaze snapped up instantly to Smarty, who grinned uneasily.

"Smarty! We do not do that indoors, and we certainly do not do that without fair warning!"

Her father finally recovered enough to speak. "What in Tartarus was that?"

Cherry glared at him. "We do not use that language around foals... even if they do scare us out of our wits."

Aurora looked at her father, slightly confused. "That was just lightning, Dad. The military and all the branches of the Guard pegasi know how to do that. I thought you already know that."

He slowly regained his breath, standing back up on all four of his hooves. "That was not normal pegasus lightning. That bolt had to have been five meters long. And she charged it up a lot differently than usual."

"Well, Luna did teach me a way to make it a bit easier..." Smarty flapped her wings more slowly than usual, landing softly on the ground. Suddenly, her eyes widened.

"Umm... I probably wasn't supposed to show that to you, actually... If you don't know about it, it might have had a security clearance..."

She smacked her forehead with a hoof. "And it's probably a high one, too, if the military doesn't use it. Ugh..."

Aurora glared at her. "Of course it's restricted! It supports the mixing of your earth pony magic. That means that it was originally designed for alicorns! That alone means that it requires a clearance of Indigo-Cosmic! At least!"

Her parents paled.

"At... at least I know I can trust both of you to keep it a secret, but Smarty, I'd better not see you 'showing off' like this again!"

Smarty folded her ears back. "Yes, Mom," she mumbled softly. "Won't do it again."

Cherry smirked, nudging her husband. "And you were worried she wouldn't be ready."

He raised an eyebrow. "As I recall, you were the one that was saying she wasn't ready for the responsibility."

She poked him in the side. "And you were the first one to mention the subject in the first place."

Written Script sighed. He should have known better than to get into a memory war with his wife. "When was this?"

"When we first saw Aurora's room, remember? Anyways..." She turned back towards Aurora and Smarty, who were still standing near the room's entrance. "Well, what do you two want to do today? We have the whole day to waste, so don't worry about keeping us from anything."

Aurora walked over to her parents, pulling them both into a hug. "And thank you for coming. It really is nice to see you."

She let go. "Now, have either of you eaten? I kind of ate really early with Celestia and Luna. And Princess Twilight. But I could still eat something, and I finally figured out where the mess hall is, so we can get some food without having to wait for the chefs to get it absolutely perfect first."

Smarty smiled at her new grandparents. "And by 'figured out,' she means that I showed her enough times that it finally stuck. Seriously, she has, like, the worst directional sense ever."

Aurora chuckled. "Says the pegasus. Besides, that's why I use Dad's..." She put a hoof up to her neck, finding nothing.

"Oh, right, I put it over here." She trotted over to her desk, opening the main drawer and taking out her brass compass. She quickly clasped it in its familiar position around her neck.

"Luna doesn't allow me to bring it to training. Says it's 'cheating.'" She then smiled, throwing a hoof around Smarty, who blushed. "Fortunately, I have a wonderful replacement."

She batted the hoof away. "Stop it, Mom. You're embarrassing me!"

Cherry Blossom gave her granddaughter a warm smile. "Don't worry, dear. That's just what moms do." She glanced sideways. "Isn't that right Aurora?"

Aurora groaned, and Smarty giggled. Cherry opened the door, stepping to the side.

"Now, my little directional expert, lead the way!"





Aurora smiled contentedly as she watched her parents leave. It had been a nice day, as short as it was. They had been a bit skeptical of her new sleeping patterns, but ultimately, they accepted the change quite well. Almost all of their disappointment was simply because they would not be able to spend as much time together.

When the door finally closed with a click, Aurora yawned, crawling into bed next to Smarty, staring upwards at the arched ceiling.

So much had changed, and in so little time.

Sure she had expected change when she decided to try and attend Celestia's School.

In hindsight, it was probably for the best that she had not been simply accepted normally. The opportunity to learn advanced unicorn magical theory would have been interesting, but the truth was, she could have probably accomplished the same thing at home. Most of the appeal of CSGU was the large number of experienced professors to guide the students in the learning and execution of such magic. And she had already learned to study. Both of her parents, while not powerful mages, were impressive scholars in their own right, and they lived in a library.

Well, Written Script was a clerk right now while Cherry Blossom managed the library, but there weren't exactly many jobs left for scholars. Canterlot seemed to attract an abundance of those.

Earth pony magic wasn't part of the school's appeal, either. At most, she would be teaching them. Everything she was learning was available at home.

Then why did she apply?

To prove I could.

For such a life-changing decision, that is a phenomenally stupid reason.

She closed her eyes.

At least it turned out all right in the end. This is far different, yet far better than I ever imagined.