//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11: Spark 
// Story: Guiding Light 
// by Detsella Morningdew 
//------------------------------//

Aurora shivered, staring down at her hoof.

"It's not your fault."

"I know."

"It wasn't a real pony."

Her head whipped around. "And are you?"

It dropped back down. "No, I'm sorry. I know the difference. Just... I need some time, okay?"

"All right." Smarty leaned against her comfortingly, then glared nonspecifically in the direction of the royal residences.

Who do you think you are, treating us like pawns in your little game?

Trying to desensitize her like that... sick.

Luna said she had a good reason, but... Smarty looked at her companion, who was staring through the floor, a blank expression on her face. I don't care. No matter how good her excuse is, that went too far.

"Hey, uh, Mom? Why don't we go do something? Something to distract us for a little while." She gave a little smile. "We still have that crystal to study." Smarty got up, helping Aurora to her hooves.

"Yeah... that sounds nice."

Aurora shivered for an entirely different reason as her armor dissolved, flowing back into the torc around her neck. She looked over at Smarty hesitantly. "Could... could you make it back into a necklace again? I... I just want something to be normal again."

Smarty closed her eyes. "Of course, Mom." With visible concentration and a slight wince, Smarty focused and the torc once again became fluid, reforming into the familiar compass.

Aurora noticed the brief change in expression, and instantly became worried. "Smarty? Are you okay? Did that hurt you?"

Smarty gave her a small smile, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "It's all right, Mom. Your pain was far worse."

She completed the embrace. "... Thank you. You didn't have to-"

"I know." Smarty disengaged, her smile now larger and far more encouraging. "I wanted to anyway. Now, why don't we go and see what that mystery crystal is made of."

Aurora relaxed, letting out a breath. "Yeah. That will be fun, at least. Now, where would this entrance to the school be?"

Smarty chuckled, more from relief than anything. "Just follow me." Her smile turned mischievous. "Honestly, you have a compass implanted into your head, and you still don't know where anything is."

Aurora huffed. "Well, I have to have at least been there before locating it like that."

Smarty raised an eyebrow. "...You have been there."

She blushed. "Sh - shut up!"





"Admit it Smarty, you're lost."

"No, of course not. I've just never been in this part of the castle before."

"And how is that any different from being lost?"

"Well, for one, I know both where we came from and where we need to go. The only confusing part is finding the exact path that will lead us there."

"Uh huh. Sure."

"Besides, we're really close." She paused suddenly, looking at Aurora. "Hey, shouldn't you already know this? You have the compass thing."

"Yes, but it isn't in my head anymore. Remember? You changed the torc thingy back into the compass. That's all you, now."

Smarty scratched her head. "Oh. Right. Anyway, the entrance should be somewhere around this next corner - "

It was a dead end. The only remotely significant object in the dull corridor was an equally nondescript supporting pillar.

Aurora sighed. "Maybe I do need to bring out the compass."

Smarty quickly scanned the rest of the empty corridor, then grinned. "I just thought of something, Mom." She turned towards Aurora. "So, what, from an architectural standpoint, is the purpose of a dead end?"

"Uh... I don't really know. To use up extra space in a symmetrical structure?"

"And do you really think the royal architects couldn't think of some better uses for that space?"

Aurora rolled her eyes. "Well, personally, I think this castle's architects were clinically insane, but..."

Smarty laughed. "Yeah, simplicity was not one of their strong suits. Still, my point is, the only remaining options are that this hallway was built specifically for future renovations in mind, or..."

She examined the floor pattern near the stone pillar, placing her hoof on a small circle of black marble and pushing down.

There was an audible click.

Aurora's head whipped around, her ears searching for the source of the sound. "Wha - "

A section of the "supporting pillar" moved aside, revealing a dark, spiraling staircase.

"Or there's something we're missing."

Aurora gaped. "How..?"

"I didn't. I did know the school was directly under us, though. And I remember that one of the supports of the castle goes directly through CSGU's roof. I just used a bit of logic."

Aurora grumbled a little, starting to descend the staircase. "Yeah, but you don't have to act so smug about it."

Smarty looked down at the ground, lowering her ears. "Sorry."

She paused, turning around in the narrow opening. "No, it's okay. You were fine. It's mostly just me. I feel like I'm always being reminded of just how much I don't know."

Smarty looked back up at Aurora's face, which was half-obscured in the darkened passageway. Her voice echoed with the surprise now written on her face. "You? You're the prodigy of Princess Celestia! You know so much hidden information, it could probably fill my entire memory bank!

"Sure, maybe I notice a few things you don't, but at least you're a REAL PONY!"

She stepped back and reopened her eyes, surprised at her own volume. She panted slightly.

When did I get that loud?

Her eyes drifted back to Aurora, who was cringing, her ears almost flat on her head. Shocked, she reached forward again. "Oh, no! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean - "

A soft voice interrupted her. "Smarty, you are a real pony. You know that... right?"

She looked down again. "Well, I at least I know I'm different from those golems, if that's what you mean."

Aurora put a hoof under Smarty's chin, forcing her to look up. "Smarty, what makes a pony?"

"Huh? What kind of question is that?"

"An important one, it seems. What makes a pony... a pony? If you are so sure that you do not count as one, you must have some idea of what a pony is."

"But I'm just an... artifact."

"Yes. You are. Now, what makes you not a pony? You have a pony's body. You even have a wellspring of your own."

"So did the golems."

"What were those golems missing, then?"

Smarty gaped. "But you just said that those weren't - "

"Yes, I did. Now, what were they missing?"

"Um... well, they had no... life, I guess. No will of their own."

Aurora smiled, poking her in the chest with a forehoof. "I rest my case."

Smarty opened and closed her mouth like a fish. "But... but..."

"Too bad. You're a pony, whether you like it or not. Now are you going to help me with this crystal, or what?" She walked down the steps, leaving Smarty to follow.

"Not... fair..."

Aurora smiled to herself. Oh, Smarty, when did you ever think it would be fair?


I care about you too much for that.





Aurora looked through the microscope again. "Yep, definitely a kind of quartz. She flipped through the encyclopedia of rocks and minerals she held in her off-hoof.

"And if I'm correct, I think it may be some sort of Prasidite."

Smarty looked between the small crystal and the picture that adorned the book in Aurora's hooves. "Okay, I guess I can see that, but... how does that help us? That isn't any sort of magical crystal, which still leaves us not knowing what this actually is."

Aurora grinned. "Yes, but it still tells us a lot. For example, Prasidite almost never occurs naturally. Certainly not in these quantities. Usually this variety of quartz is created by exposing other varieties to atomic or thaumatic radiation."

Smarty blinked. "Radiation? What were those ponies doing down there?"

She smirked. "I have a feeling we might find out pretty soon."

"What do you mean? This only proves that there was a lot of radiation around. That could be caused by any number of things."

"Yes, but aside from its unusual nature, Prasidite is still just an ordinary rock, with no magical properties of its own. Even the quartz it changed from was most likely just something like blue quartz. So that just leaves one more option to explain its strange properties."

Smarty clapped her forehooves together. "Of course! It has to be an enchantment!"

"Yes. Which makes it a lot easier to study. Enchantments are much more easily identifiable than some undiscovered mineral with magical properties!"

Aurora placed the crystal in the second machine's opening and activated the main switch.

Smarty looked at the readouts closely. "Yeah, I don't know why you didn't just use this one first."

"It's the principle of the thing! Besides, I had to make sure..." She trailed off as the completed result displayed on the screen.

"Huh? What is it? I don't know how to read these sorts of sciency things."

The screen was filled with seemingly random letters and numbers, and quite a few of them were symbols that Smarty was sure wasn't a part of the Eqqish alphabet.

Aurora stared. "... yeah, I don't really know what I was expecting."

She suddenly broke into a slightly manic grin. "I guess it's time to test it the old-fashioned way!"





Aurora held the crystal up in front of her face with a hoof, studying it closely.

"You see, Smarty, I am very interested in how such an enchantment would be constructed. It has always been notoriously hard to 'magic-proof' something, since whatever magic is used for creating it would have to pass through its own barrier.

"The fact that the thaumatic detector array could not identify the magic used means the creator must have used some unusual method. Of they managed to overcome that limitation, this could be a huge breakthrough!"

Smarty raised a hoof. "Um, but you already said before that some magic does go through. The hoof magic. Could they have used that?"

Aurora frowned in concentration, considering the possibility. "No, I don't think so. The body automatically shapes that sort of magic, and it would take a huge effort to change it. But you do have a point. I think the magic that created this enchantment must have been from some similar branch..." She froze.

"Smarty...?"

Smarty looked at her, worried at the sudden change of tone. "W-what?"

"Hoof magic... that comes directly from the wellspring."

"Um... okay? But what does that have to.... oh..."

With an iota of concentration, Aurora formed a ball of magic on her hoof, passing through the crystal as though it wasn't there.

"So does life magic."

Smarty just stared.

Aurora put her hoof back to the ground, dropping the crystal back into her saddlebags. "There's no way this didn't come from the ponies who stored those books. And this enchantment was almost certainly done for some specific reason. Now we just have to figure out what that reason was."

Smarty smiled. "So, I guess we'll have an expedition in the caves tomorrow?"

She stopped, confused. "Tomorrow? Why not right now?"

"Well, your lesson, or... uh... study session with Princess Celestia starts in about ten minutes or so."

Aurora shifted her weight between hooves, clearly uncomfortable. "Well, umm... I like being with her, but... right now, I'm not quite sure I'm comfortable doing that... Right now, at least for today, I want to stay with ponies I know aren't keeping secrets from me."

Smarty paused, her heart skipping a beat. "...Yeah... I understand the feeling. Let me... let me just leave a note for the Princess, explaining why you aren't there, where we're going and stuff. You get ready.

"And bring twice the amount of rope as last time, if you can. It'll save a lot of time backtracking if we can just leave the ropes hanging. And maybe some more food. We might have to stay overnight, if you want to find all your answers in one go.

Aurora nodded resolutely. "All right. Meet you at the entrance in five?"

"Sounds like a plan."

Aurora started up the staircase while Smarty flew down the school's corridors. She waved to Meadowlark, who was still working the front desk. "Hey, could I borrow a pen and parchment? I need to write a note."

Meadow smiled in recognition. "Smarty, right? Sure!" She ducked behind the desk, rummaging around until she found a quill and a blank scroll, which she slid to the young mare.

She watched, slightly intrigued, as Smarty wrote furiously, taking only half a minute to write what seemed to be less a long note than a short letter.

As Smarty rolled up the scroll, she smiled. "It seems that Aurora's taught you a few things, hmm?"

She looked up, distracted. "What?"

"Most pegasi don't tend to write with their hooves, yet you seemed like a seasoned expert."

"Oh, right. Yeah. I'm not as good as her, but..." She hoofed the quill back to Meadowlark.

"Still, you're quite good. It makes for a very marketable skill, I hear. Anyway, it looks like you're in a hurry, so I'll get out of your mane. Nice seeing you!"

"You too!" Smarty said, already rushing through the front door and winging her way to Canterlot Castle.

As she approached the Royal Tower, however, she was immediately barred by two pegasus Guards.

"This is restricted airspace. Identify yourself."

Smarty put a hoof to her face. "I'm sorry, guys. I'm Smarty Pants, but obviously, I have no way to prove that to you. I can just go in the front doors like normal.

I can't believe I did't think of that, she muttered to herself.

One of the guards chuckled. "Yeah, that's probably the best idea."

Smarty looked back up at them thoughtfully. "Actually... I was just delivering a note to Princess Celestia. Any way you could just leave it in a place where she'll find it?" She held out the scroll.

He smiled, taking it. "Now that is a lot simpler. I'll make sure it gets to her."

Smarty sighed. "Thanks." She regarded the guard closely. He seemed vaguely familiar.

"Just curious, what is your name?"

"Lieutenant Strike, ma'am. But my friends just call me Swift."

Smarty rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. Stupid vague memories.

She nodded her head at him, smiling. "It's nice to meet you. But I have to go now. Other things that need to be done."

"Of course. Good luck with... um... whatever it is that you do," he said awkwardly.

Smarty chuckled, turning to glide back in the direction of the castle entrance. "Bye!"







Princess,

As you may have guessed, Aurora does not yet feel up to her lesson today. As such, we have taken to exploring the caves once again, to take her mind off of recent events. Princess... if you value your relationship with her, I do not suggest you try to follow. She needs some time to think. We both do.

However, there is no way to put this lightly.

I know your secret.

Do not worry. While I disagree with your methods, and I initially reacted badly to finding out that you had kept something from us, once I know what it is, I also understand why you may have kept it. I might even agree with you, if I knew of your reasoning. Unfortunately, the damage is done. Aurora knows that you, and your sister, are keeping secrets from her.

This isn't something that will get better with time. It's only going to get worse. If you aren't going to tell her... well, right now, she deserves to know. She needs to know, before the possibilities of what that secret might be consumes her. And if I am the only one to tell her... well, this letter is not secure, but I have a feeling that neither of us are going to like that outcome. It needs to be you. It needs to be you and Princess Luna.

I want to let you know, both of you: While frustrated, I still hold no personal animosity towards either of you.

Please, Princess.

She needs to know.

I don't want to make this decision for you.



Sincerely,

Smarty Pants







Aurora rounded the corner, walking into the tunnel that crossed under Procession Avenue. Smarty was already there, leaning casually against the steel door.

She cocked her head. "Smarty? Why are you wearing armor?"

Smarty pushed herself off the door with her wings, landing back on all four hooves. "Why not? It's comfortable enough. Besides, if there's an accident, I would much rather the crystals hit this-" She gestured at her metal breastplate. "-than my skin."

Aurora looked herself over. "Good point." She looked over at Smarty a bit awkwardly, then applied a bit of magic to the compass' gem.

Smarty smacked her forehead with an audible clop. "Oh, right! Sorry about that."

The pull on Aurora's magic became something of an entirely different magnitude, and with a cooling sensation, the armor once again flowed into existence.

She took a deep breath, turning to Smarty. "You ready?"

Smarty looked back. "Are you?"

Her eyes drifted away, looking vaguely in the direction of Canterlot Castle.

"Let's go."

Wordlessly, Smarty followed her into the darkness.





As they descended into the subterranean world, thoughts of the surface slowly slipped away from Aurora's mind.

Down here, the only sounds were of quiet breathing, of hooves carefully placed on crystal.

Soft, slow wing beats and the light creaking of a rope under tension.

With silent acknowledgement, Smarty followed her down a new, second path, its smooth floor now immediately conspicuous.

The path dipped down, then back up again, curling around to the left, as if skirting the cavern they had explored previously.

Suddenly, they both froze instinctively as the path suddenly dropped into a near-vertical slope.

Smarty broke the silence. "Hmm... all of this is still smooth. How are we going to attach a rope?" She looked down the passage. "It doesn't look like it's too deep, though. You want to risk trying to fly down?"

Aurora examined the area closely. Her eyes stopped at something near the edge. "Wait, is that...?"

She approached the edge cautiously, slowly getting closer to the object of her interest.

"It is! How strange..."

Smarty walked over. "What?"

She suddenly swung over the edge, causing Smarty to yelp in surprise.

A voice came from just under her. "It's a rope! The ponies that were here before needed some way of getting down here!"

She poked her head back over the edge, then tapped the little metal piece she had been looking at before. "These are some very nice pitons. They must have been designed to melt the crystal as they were put in, not just break it."

Smarty sighed with relief, putting a hoof on her chest as her heart continued to race. "Okay... just... don't do that again, okay?"

Aurora looked back up again, slightly confused. "Don't do what?"

"Jump off a cliff!"

She retracted her hoof from the piton, grinning sheepishly and letting her ears drop. "Um.. oops?"

"And how did you know that rope was safe to carry your weight, anyway? That could be hundreds of years old!"

Aurora looked down at her hooves now gripping the rope.

"I... I didn't think of that..."

Smarty put a hoof to her forehead. "Just... just get to the bottom already, before something actually happens."

Aurora nodded mutely, carefully descending.

As soon as Smarty was relatively certain that the rope would not spontaneously snap, she started her own descent, quite glad that the passage was still large enough to accommodate her wings.

She landed next to Aurora, who was examining the rope closely, now that she was in a stable viewpoint at the bottom.

"Now that you mentioned it, it really is odd that a rope is still here. I mean, I did say that the ponies here needed some way to get up and down, but a rope like this should have rotted away already. Or at least if it didn't, it shouldn't have held my weight that well."

"Well, I for one am glad that it did. I really don't want to test out your armor this soon."

And I definitely don't want you to know about the cushion-fall enchantment quite yet. The last thing I need is for you to be even more reckless.

Aurora didn't respond. Instead, she just seemed to stare right past her.

Smarty stepped closer. "Mom? ...Are you okay?"

She remained silent, her head motionless. her eyes, however, darted all over the place. Still, her eyes always looked past her, into... into the room behind her.

Smarty turned around. "What are you looking..." She trailed off.

"...Whoa."

Calling the cavern in front of them "massive" would have been a vast understatement. The far end was so distant, it was barely visible. The ceiling loomed above them, and the floor required a full flight of stairs to reach.

But the cavern itself was not what she was looking at. Not remotely.

When they had first started exploring, Smarty and Aurora had always expected to find some remarkable place, some discovery that boggled the mind. An underground lake. A cavern the size of a small town.

They had not, however, expected to find the small town inside that cavern.

Aurora turned to Smarty, feeling a bit lightheaded. "Yeah. Whoa is right."

She looked back to the city, staring at the central spire reaching towards the cavern ceiling. She smiled, determination clearly written on her face.

"It looks like we need to get some serious information."