This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.
Chapter 19
I sighed deeply as I returned to my body ans sunk to the ground. I wasn't miraculously healed, but for the first time since Oakleaf's death, I felt like my life wasn't just a string of continuous pain. The reason she died, was because she loved me, because she loved all of her friends and comrades. I shouldn't hate anypony for something so instinctual. I knew I would do the same if I was in her position.
“Ahem.” coughed a comforting voice. “Are you alright?” I looked up slowly to Century and wiped away the last of my tears.
“Not quite, but I'm feeling better than I have in about forever.”
Century smiled. “That's what I was counting on. Now stand up. It's time you learn how to use your magic.”
I stood up slowly with a question playing on my lips. “What do you mean?” I asked. “Luna taught me how to use my magic back in training a few years ago.”
“She taught you to influence the Earth with your will. But she did not teach you how to work with the Earth.” Century said, confusing me again. Before I could say anything, he continued.
“As you now know, the Earth is a living thing, with it's own magical conscious. It has it's own wants and aspects that nopony can control with just force. For example, it gets pretty hard to raise large boulders and such after a while, right? But you have a strong will, for this reason you can do things like the earthquake, even if it was a fluke.”
“But that was uncontrolled! Even if I wanted to do that again, I doubt I could.” I interjected.
“Well yes.” Century said slowly. “But that was because you were trying to force the Earth to bend to your will. The Earth is a strong and inflexible element; it doesn't like to be bossed around. But, if a pony works along with the Earth.....” he trailed off. Then he closed his eyes and without his horn glowing, a massive pillar of earth rose from the ground right next to him.
I gawked at it as he continued. “If a pony works with the Earth's will then they won't have any problem moving stone, growing plants, and shifting the world, literally.”
“How did you???” I asked glancing between Century and the pillar.
Century rolled his eyes and fachhoofed. “Alicorn, remember? But it has been a while since I had to do that.” he yawned. “Erda was the best at that sort of stuff.”
I shook off his musings and stared straight at him. “So how do I do this? I don't even have my gauntlets....”
“No need, unless you're not an earth pony. But you already know what to do.”
“But I always needed my gauntlets to use my magic, and I have no clue what to do.”
Century waved a hoof at me back and forth. “Naughty, naughty. Have you forgotten what you just learned? Plus, your gauntlets only amplify your magic, and you really won't need them for this. Believe me.”
“Would you stop speaking in riddles!” I yelled at the elderly alicorn. “I've had enough of this! I thought you said you would help me.”
“Don't get pissy. I already have. Think boyo. What causes your attacks and the magical feedback in you?”
“Wanting to hurt ponies just to save her.” I said, feeling sick as I did.
“Now what made your late wife so powerful? Don't guess, feel. You know this.”
I took a deep breath and felt back to when we were in my mind, when I felt Oakleaf's last moments. A solitary tear slid down on of my cheeks as I remembered.
“It was her love, wasn't it?”
Century beamed. “You're not as stupid as you look.” he joked. “Her love and those strong feelings of wanting to protect you and all of her loved ones let her utilize the Earth's power. Even if she was a unicorn, her feelings reverberated through her magic, and the Earth answered, wanting to do the same.”
“The Earth wanted to protect us?”
Century nodded. “The Earth is strong because it can give life, thus it also wants to protect the life it created. That's one reason the nickname 'mother Earth' is completely correct.”
“You sound like such a hippie.”
“Yeah, real funny, but it doesn't change the fact that it is true. Now use your magic.”
I shook my head thinking about what he had said. It was ridiculous, but I knew he was right. I remembered the rush of power into Oakleaf before she.....before she died. I swallowed my grief again and looked up to the now midnight sky. I whispered a silent prayer to the stars and Luna's moon and opened myself up to the Earth.
At first, I couldn't feel anything, but then I tried to concentrate on the same feeling that I got every time I used my magic with my gauntlets. I had a sharp intake of breath as I felt a small throbbing that I knew emanated from the Earth itself.
“I told you. Now try to use your magic.” coached Century.
I focused as hard as I could on the throb of the Earth's magic as I added my own to the Earth. I choose a small patch of ground in front of me and tried to make it rise. I panted and huffed until I was coated in a thin sheen of sweat, but the patch of ground didn't move. I slumped over and cut off my magic, feeling tired and beaten.
“Don't try to force the earth to do anything it doesn't want to. Remember, the Earth is alive. It wants to grow, to spread its life, to protect the life.” Century coached. I grumbled under my breath, certain that he never felt this tired. Hell, he was an alicorn! They never had the same troubles we normal ponies had.
“Try again.” he said and I cussed at him in a shallow whisper, knowing he was playing with me. Despite this, I tried again.
This time my magic connected with the Earth's much smoother, but it was still weak. However, instead of just trying to force the Earth to my will, I closed my eyes and breathed slowly. I felt the Earth's magic puling at the touch of my magic and I just focused on its beat for a while. Badah-dah-bum, Badah-dah-dum, Badah-dah-bah. Slowly, I felt a small whispering feeling in the back of my mind. It didn't say anything, but gave me a feeling of wanting to spread, to grow and never stop, to be as hard as rock but as sinuous as a sapling. I smiled at the feel of it and I let my magic flow into the Earth. Surprisingly, magic flowed back into me and I cut the connection out of surprise.
I was energized and it was like all the abuses and emotional scars hadn't happened to me. I could feel my body race with energy and I was intoxicated by the feeling. I looked down at my hooves and they seemed to buzz. I closed my eyes and connected to the Earth again. This time, the connection was much stronger and as I let my magic flow into the Earth, it let its magic flow into me. The Earth and I were one, inseparable being, and I knew the time was right to use my magic.
I began to push my will into the Earth's magic, but I stopped before I did anything. 'Don't make the Earth do anything it doesn't want to.' I remembered, so I slowly let go of my wants. I felt the wanting to grow and spread in the back of my mind again, and I knew what I had to do. I focused on the same thing and thought about the patch of ground in front of me growing and spreading. There was a rush of magic and I opened my eyes without disconnecting my magic.
“Very well done for a beginner.” Century said jovially, nodding to me as he walked over to the thin pillar that shot up from the ground. It stood over Century's pillar, but it was thinner and covered in overgrown grass. I smiled at it and felt a flush of warmth over my body. I realized with a shock that it wasn't me that shivered. It was the Earth that spread a wave of warm energy into me.
“It really is alive.” I muttered dumbfounded.
“Haven't I been....SHPIEW—BOOOM!!!!” A loud explosion interrupted Century's words. He and I quickly turned to where the sound had come from, the direction of Ponyville. Another loud explosion went off, and I felt it reverberate though the Earth's magic. I looked at Century with despair and ran off in the direction of Ponyville.
“STOP!” Century yelled as I was caught in a magical grip. I struggled against the magicla bond with all my strength and the Earth's magic fluctuated with my every move, reacting with me.
“Let me go!” I yelled, accidentally using my combined magic. A slab of earth beneath me shot up from the ground and sent me flying towards the woods, away from Century and the stream.
I felt a rush of energy, and the Earth's magic became sluggish and cold in my body. I found myself frozen mid-air between the ground and the treeline. Century flew in front of me and I saw that his eyes were glowing a deep autumn gold. He was obviously angry, but his eyes scared me more than his tense body. They were the eyes of a god. Of an angry god.
“What did I tell you?” he asked in a voice that transcended all time.
“That you would not leave this forest tonight, NO MATTER WHAT.” he answered for me. “I will let you down and unfreeze time, but you will honor your promise.” he warned me. I fell to the ground with a heavy thud, and the Earth's magic became warm and living again. I raised my head as Century landed before me. There was another loud boom in the distance, making me wince.
“If you go now, you won't be able to help anypony.” he said slowly and softly.
“Then why don't you go?”
“It is not my destiny to interfere in this conflict.”
I snorted. “Since when have you cared about 'destiny'?”
He looked at me sadly. “I am sorry, but I speak the truth. But you can help them, however, not now.”
“Then when?” I said sadly and hopefully at the same time.
“After I teach you how to harness your new-found power. Now rise, it is time for you to become a new pony.”
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We spent the rest of the night together with Century instructing me on how to use the Earth's magic correctly and efficiently while I tried my hardest to do as he instructed. He started off by teaching me how to use precision with the vast amount of power, how to focus on the small things like growing grass and how to focus on the big things like raising small hills of earth. The he taught me to use both intricately, fusing the large and the small, like creating a wall of earth that was harder than steel thanks to the grass that wove the massive boulders of the earth together.
Next, Century taught me how to correctly utilize plants as I allowed them to grow and flourish on the Earth's nourishing magic. Small plants could be used to trip up the enemy or ensnare them (like I had done to Shining) and large plants like trees could be used to surprise and stop them. Mixing the plants and the earth together could cause large, intrinsic attacks, but Century stopped me before I could use any of them. He sat me down and looked at me seriously.
“There are three more things I need to mention to you before we go our separate ways.” he told me as the sky started to turn from the darkness of the night to the pale of early morning, before the sunrise.
“First is that the magical energy the Earth holds is enormous. If you feel weak or tired, you can rely upon it to fuel you. However, don't overuse it. It will drain your energy twice as fast as soon as you disconnect from the Earth's magical flow.”
“Second, there is another aspect of the Earth's will you have not used. So far you have used the Earth's will to form and grow, but not protect. Now when you use this aspect of the Earth's will, the magical power will increase, triplefold. But be warned, like using the Earth's magic as fuel, it will put a huge strain on your body. If used for too long, you could die, or worse.”
“There's something worse than death?” I asked jokingly.
Century glared at me sternly. “Yes. Yes there is. Have you ever been to the Royal Canterlot Gardens?”
“Um..yeah? Why?”
“At the very center of the maze is the last pony to stand against Discord's armies alone. He is a hero that died bravely.”
“I remember this.” I interrupted. “Luna told me about him. His name was something weird....”
“Lapis Scutum was his name. His distraction allowed the Princesses to escape from Discord when he first laid wast to Canterlot many years ago. He used the Earth's power, mainly the aspect of protection, and became as he is today.”
“You mean he turned to stone?” I asked, incredulously.
Century nodded. “It is a worse fate than death, because he is still alive. For years, the princesses have tried to undo the horrible magics done to him, but it is all for naught. The only pony who could have saved him died before Discord was even around.”
“So the moral of the story is not to use the Earth's strongest power for too long.”
“I'm glad you understand.” Century said before standing up. The sun started to rise and he walked over to his cloak. He picked it up with magic and started to put it on.
“Wait!” I said, scrambling to get up. “You said there was three things you wanted to tell me. You warned me about two things.” Century scratched his chin for a moment, then his eyes lit up. He tossed the cloak away from himself and turned to face me.
“Sorry about that, sometimes my mind escapes me.” he said as he walked up to me. “The last thing I wanted to tell you,” he said picking up a hoof, “is that you must fight me again before you leave.” he said as he gave me a wicked uppercut.
I pulled my head back and danced away from him before he could hit me again. I spit and tasted blood as I realized the bucker had split my lip. My mouth spread into a large and crazed smile.
“Now you're talking.”
I connected to the Earth's magic as I rushed towards Century. I felt the Earth as it felt me and I readied to attack. However, my dash towards Century slowed as I started to hear Oakleaf's song and started to feel sick.
No! I can't think about 'attacking' or even 'harming'. The Earth doesn't desire to harm, but to grow and nurture, protect and care for. I changed my thoughts from 'attack Century' to 'grow' and immediately felt much better. Strangely, Oakleaf's song kept playing in my mind though.
Century smiled at me and backed up as a ramp of stone grew out of the ground in front of him which I ran up and jumped off of. It was then that Century noticed his hooves were tangled up by weeds and grass, while I fell into a dropkick position. He laughed and cut the plats with his wings, rolling out of the way right as I kicked the ground. But his roll didn't help him. As soon as my hoof hit the ground, a pillar of stone shot up underneath Century. Century yelped in surprise as he was thrown into the air, but he righted himself and dove at me, hooves outstretched.
I rose a solid wall of stone from the ground and jumped out of the way, hoping Century hit the wall, but my plan went awry. Century managed to grab me by my tail and he rose into the air, past the wall, making me hit my own wall with a resounding smack. I heard Century chuckle as I fell off the wall, but it stopped as soon as I bucked the wall and sent two cylindrical stone projectiles right for him. I didn't hear any connect, so I started bucking the wall like crazy until it mimicked a piece of Swiss cheese. I turned around to see if Century got hit, but I saw only my projectiles stickign out from the ground.
“Ahem.” went a voice from behind me. I turned around quickly and stupidly and was hit with a left hook that sent me to the ground. I grit my teeth as I fell on my back and I hit the ground, making two pillars of stone come up from the ground at angles, aimed at Century. He laughed and rose higher in the air, but it was my turn to laugh. He rose so fast in the air that he didn't notice the newly grown, and heavy, tree branch above him. He hit it and his tongue stuck out of his mouth comically. Then he fell out of the sky and to the ground. I got up and rush over to him.
“Hey Century? You ok?” I asked to his knocked-out form. But he wasn't knocked-out, since he bucked me back with his back hooves. I bounced back from him and reared up. I was tired of his playing around. As he got up, I quickly made triangular walls of stone rise from the earth, until they met above us. Then it was just him, I, and complete darkness underneath a dome of solid stone. Unluckily for him, I had been part of the Lunar Battalion, meaning I could see alright in this pitch black. I grinned to myself and silently moved around to the alicorn's back. When I was in palce, I tensed up and lunged.
I was frozen again as the sneaky alicorn turned around and opened up a hole in my dome with a blast from his horn. He smiled at me as his eyes faded to their normal color and I fell down to the Earth once again. Sunlight flooded into the hold he made as he walked out. I slowly followed, shielding my eyes from the bright morning sunlight. I found him slipping his cloak on with a sad smile on his face.
“You passed boyo. Good job.” he said, smiling to the ground.
“So what now?” I asked, truly not sure what to do next. He looked at me smiling sadly, but there was a twinkle in his eyes.
“Now, we depart.”
“Just like that? You won't even come back to Ponyville?”
Century raised an eyebrow. “What for?”
“Oh, I don't know...”
“Ok no getting sappy here.” he said as he came up to me and gave me a hug. He let of and slapped me on my back. “You got to go help all your friends.”
“What?”
He started to walk away into the forest. “Don't worry about it right now! Look at how nice this morning is!”
“Will I ever see you again?” I called to him as he started to walk deeper into the woods. He stopped and half-turned towards me.
“Only time will tell.” Even from that distance I could tell he was smiling.
“Hey Crimson.”
“Yeah?”
“Do me a favor and count to 19.” he said as he walked out of sight into the trees. I laughed.
“Goodbye Century Sentry!” I shouted. I shook my head and took a deep breath. He had come like a flash to me in my hour of need, helped me, aggravated me, and even beat me up. Yet, I wouldn't have wanted to meet him any other way. I chuckled at his final words and I started to count to 19 under my breath.
When I got to 15 I started to hear a strange sound coming from the forest. Whump, whump, whump, whump. Then I head a few tree branches snap and I tensed up.
16
Another tree branch snapped, but louder and closer, and it also sounded like it had crashed to the forest floor.
17
I heard a pony cursing fluently and my tension started to disappear as I recognized the voice.
18
“You ok?” asked another pony, making me run off towards their voices.
19
I came through a thicket of trees to find Ditzy rubbing her head and cursing while Solitary Shadow stood over her.
“Crimson!” Ditzy shouted as she got up and tackled me.
“Boss!” Solitary yelled as he jumped on top of us.
“Don'tyoueverdothatagainyouhadallofusworried!Howdidyougetouthere.....” Ditzy sputtered in a stream of words that rivaled Pinkie Pie's normal speech patterns.
“BossIhaven'tseenyouinsolong!It'stheboss!Jollygood!Timeforthebosssong!Bossbossbossboss....” Solitary spluttered out similarly, only with more insanity.
“Ditzy.” I said flatly.
“Don'tyouknowthatwewerelookingalloverforyou?”
“Ditzy.” I said a little more forcefully.
“Andthenyouweregoneforawholethreedaysandthenlastnight......”
“DITZY!” I yelled.
Ditzy blinked and broke out of her rambling and looked at me. “What?” she asked.
“Could you get off of me.”
“Oh yeah.” she said sheepishly as she moved and Solitary slid off of her still singing his 'Boss song'. As soon as I got up, Ditzy gave me a bone crushing hug while Solitary slinked around on the ground chanting “Boss Boss Boss Boss Bosssssss!” he screeched, hitting a high note and standing up with a grand gesture of his hooves.
“You got weirder since I left.” I deadpanned, making ditzy laugh and let go of me.
“It's 'cause I got ta be a good roll model fer the team and all that Cap'n...er....yeah! Boss!” he said as he put me into a hug that almost broke my spine and lifted me off of the ground. I coughed as he lowered me to the ground and everypony laughed.
“Crimson, everypony has been looking for you for the past two days.” Ditzy said worryingly.
“Let's just say I didn't feel to welcome after I caused all that damage.” I said guiltily remembering the earthquake. But that was all behind me. I now knew how to control my magic and I could make sure nothing like that ever happened again.
“I don't think anypony is worried about that anymore......”Solitary said.
“What do you mean?” I asked rounding on him. “And why are you here anyway? I don't mean to be rude, but you're still in uniform, and even though you are you, I know you're not the type to show up unannounced.”
“Dawwww. You know me so well Cap'n!” Solitary gushed. I sighed and felt a comforting hoof on my foreleg.
“Let's get into town Crimson. We'll tell you all about it there.” Ditzy said softly.
“Won't they try to run me out of town again?”
Solitary snorted. “Not with one o' their princesses in town.”
“WHAT?”
“Yep, Luna's here! So is all of Puck. Come on mate, let's go greet 'em!” Solitary said chipperly, but he grabbed my other foreleg a little hard. I knew something was up, and underneath all his peppy energy, something had gone bad.
“What happened last night?” I asked, stopping everypony in their tracks.
“Come on mate, we'll tell you when we get into town.” Solitary said between gritted teeth as he pulled on me harder.
“Solitary, we can't do this. We should at least tell him.” Ditzy said sadly.
Solitary let go of my leg and let out a long, pent-up breath. He turned to face me and his peppyness was gone. His face was strangely familiar, since I had seen this stern and determined expression so many times when we were on a mission.
“Crimson.” he started before looking me dead in the eye. “Ponyville was attacked last night.”