Stardust awoke the next morning just before noon. A little early for her, but nowhere near as early as the previous day. Her uncle was up and gone, but she was still snug between her mom and Aunt Shadow on the big family bed in the wagon. Little Shadow Agate, her cousin, was managing to look cute for once, curled up asleep as he was in his basket protected at the edge of the bed. The little terror was teething though, so as soon as he was awake he was sure to go for Star's hooves. He had toys that were meant to be chewed on, but apparently, her hooves were better.
As much as she would’ve rather stayed there and snuggled in the pony pile, she was awake now and not likely to fall back asleep. So, first things first, Star wiggled out of the snug and warm bed to head out of the wagon and relieve herself. About two wicks later she came back to find both her mom and Aunt Shadow awake and getting out of bed themselves. Her olive-coated aunt was checking on Agate while her mom was digging in the cupboards to pull out some sacks of what looked like different grains.
“I think a simple porridge will do to break our fast. Best get this started, it will take a candle or so to cook up.” Silver said as she levitated the sacks onto her back. She took the beginnings of the planned meal out of the wagon to start work, leaving Stardust with her aunt and cousin.
“Do you need any help with Agate, Aunt Shadow?” Star asked. Her aunt was currently playing with the hooves of the sleepy colt who was quickly waking up and filling the enclosed wagon with happy giggles. With her cousin like this Star could almost call him cute, but his bitey nature still disqualified him as far as she was concerned. She tilted her head to the side watching the purplish-blue, tiny, nocti colt’s antics — and found herself smiling despite herself.
Leaf Shadow looked up at her niece with a distracted glaze to her eyes and vocalized a small “hmm?” before catching the question. “Oh, no Star, we’re fine. Agate just needs his morning milk.” Stardust immediately winced thinking about what ‘milk’ would entail but tried to hide it. Shadow, however, caught the expression on her face “Oh please, Star. It’s a perfectly natural thing. No need to make that face.”
“Oh, no. I didn’t mean it like that Aunt Shadow,” Star protested. “It’s just, his fangs are sharp enough on my hooves, and thinking of getting bitten there, well…” Shadow immediately burst out laughing, rolling onto her back and kicking her rear hooves with a loud guffaw. Star huffed, it wasn’t that funny.
Shadow’s laughter quickly subsided and she rolled back over to tickle Agate’s belly with a felted wingtip. “Yes, I suppose they are sharp aren’t they, you little terror,” she cooed while Agate released his own giggles under her ministrations. “Don’t worry, he’s usually very gentle. He hasn’t bitten me in weeks. I do wish Silver had been willing to be a nurse mother for him though; he tends to abuse the left one and I’ve been getting a bit sore. But, apparently, you entirely soured her on the experience by biting entirely too often, Star.”
Star’s cheeks flushed crimson under her lilac coat as she stared wide-eyed at her aunt, entirely unprepared for the direction this conversation had gone. She sagged in embarrassment and let an awkward silence fall, what did you even say to that? Finally, Leaf Shadow took pity on her.
“You go on ahead Star, we’re fine here. We’ll join you two in a bit after he’s fed,” she said, offering a way out. Stardust gladly fled the wagon to find her mother smiling knowingly from beside a refreshed fire pit, finishing the preparations for the grain porridge. Star’s cheeks flushed anew as she soundlessly worked her mouth, of course the thin walls of the wagon wouldn’t have muffled the conversation. After a few moments her ears wilted and she looked pleadingly at her mom.
“D-Did I really bite?” Star asked quietly.
Silverlight giggled lightly before nodding once, “Yes, but don’t worry dear. I don’t hold it against you. Why don’t you fetch us some more water? I used the last of it on this and we’ll want new wash water and some to drink. You can use the water carts, they should have refreshed them yesterday.” Star quickly rushed to obey, eager to do just about anything to end the humiliating conversation.
* * *
A candle or so later with the sun high in the sky the family was ready to start their day. The grain porridge seasoned with fresh fruit, namely some of the plentiful blueberries Leaf Shadow had harvested yesterday, had filled Stardust’s belly and now she was more than ready to burn off the food with something fun. Aunt Shadow and her mom had, thankfully, not resumed the earlier topic of conversation and left her early foalhood remain a blissful mystery. The early afternoon light that shone down on the late autumn field that the wagon town now occupied brought with it little warmth, but it was more than enough to get her sweating as Star playful chased little Agate around their little slice of the camp. He had walking down-pat, as most foals his age did, and he had started to get a grip on trotting in the last few weeks, but a proper gallop was likely a year or more off.
Playtime was just about over though; so with her eyes locked on Shadow Agate’s graphite gray tail as she chased him around the fire pit for the fifth time, Star prepared to go into a full run to close the two stride distance and finally snatch up the giggling foal. And promptly fell flat on her flank as she plowed into the chest of her uncle Star Quartz. Agate slipped through between the stallion’s legs and ran to his mother who promptly snatched him up and placed him on her back.
“Time to get this little one over to the foalsitters,” Leaf Shadow sighed. “More foraging to do today. Looking for mushrooms mostly but I’m hoping to find some raspberries too. Have fun you two,” Leaf called as she lifted into the air on felt-covered wings off toward the center of the camp.
Quartz and Stardust called goodbye in kind and then turned back to each other. “Well, let's get to it, shall we? Follow me, I’ve got a good spot picked out.” Her uncle led Star out of the camp toward the river and the opposite direction of Hollow Shades. The pair traveled along the river about half a gallop away from camp where they arrived at a small meadow nestled in a bend of the river. A cottonwood tree grew out of the bank and hung out over the water shading a large sandbar that had formed here. In the warmer months, it would have made a good swimming hole for the locals. Now, with autumn in full swing, it was a quiet and peaceful place with a good atmosphere. Stardust wasn’t sure why her uncle had brought them out this far. Generally when he brought her away from other ponies to train it was because what he wanted to teach had the potential to cause damage to ponies or property. This ‘channeling’ thing hadn't sounded that dangerous yesterday when he described it.
“Why are we out this far Uncle Quartz? You didn’t describe ‘channeling magic’ as dangerous yesterday,” Star inquired, her concern plain in her voice.
“It’s not, at least not to others. Channeling outside magic has very real risks of course, but the risk is to yourself if you fail to control it. That’s why we’re out here. It's quiet and peaceful. Best to keep distractions to an absolute minimum.” Quartz explained. “Now, best to start at the beginning. Unicorns have their horns, pegasi have their wings, where do earth ponies channel their magic?” He had launched into his lecture tone, which he had copied from her mom. He wasn't very good at it so while Silverlight projected calm knowledge Star Quartz came off stilted and fake; like he was putting on a show with a false accent. Still, Star knew from experience that her uncle did know his stuff. Star thought for a moment before answering, “Um, their hooves?”
“Not quite, earth ponies are unique in that our whole body can channel magic. Your mom could explain it better than I, but where unicorns and pegasi are limited to channeling with their hooves and horn or wings respectively, earth ponies can conduct magic around and through every part of our body. It’s where we get our durability and strength. Now, mind you, we can’t channel magic at nearly the capacity of a unicorn or even a pegasus; our magic would burn out, and or we’d hurt ourselves even trying.”
“What about nocti?” Star interjected.
“What?” Quartz blinked at being cut off mid-lecture.
“How do nocti channel their magic?” Star elaborated on her question.
“Ah, well. I’ll leave that lesson for the clan elders to teach if you want the specifics but it’s mostly the same as with pegasi, hooves and wings, just slightly different. Now back to what I was explaining. Earth ponies can use their entire body to channel magic, which means we’re especially good at grounding out and dispersing magic when it touches us. Do you know what I mean by ‘grounding’ and ‘dispersing’?” Quartz continued, prodding for her understanding.
Star thought for a moment before shaking her head ‘No’. “Well, do you remember what I was saying yesterday about how only unicorns can ‘shape’ magic? Magic that has a shape has an effect, like lifting something with a unicorn’s aura, or letting a pegasus or nocti shape a cloud. So when that ‘shape’ gets broken up and or spread out, ‘dispersed’, it stops having an effect. That’s what we mean when we talk about grounding magic.”
Star thought she understood, but this was all sounding very abstract. The words made sense sure but she couldn't begin to understand how to make use of it. “So, how do we start?” she asked.
“If we were to do this the way I learned when I started combat instruction then we’d get a unicorn to shoot a stun spell at you or lift you with telekinesis and you would try to shrug it off,” Quartz chuckled to himself. Star didn’t like either of those ideas and scrunched her muzzle and opened her mouth to protest but was cut off as Quartz continued. “But you're a little small for that kind of instruction. So instead we are going to try something a lot slower, and more fun for everyone instead of just the instructor.”
Star Quartz walked out into the dead and drying grass of the meadow and gestured around with his forehooves. “You see this meadow? We’re going to make it grow.” he declared. “But instead of using our own magic we’ll be using these,” he explained as he reached into the set of saddlebags he was wearing and pulled out a few light crystals. This kind was used to light up wagons with a low light to do detailed work by, or that non-noctal ponies used in place of torches. They were fairly expensive upfront but, so long as you had a unicorn to charge them, cheap to use. Stardust tilted her head in confusion not following.
“Here watch me.” He took one of the softly glowing crystals under a hoof, closed his eyes as his face took on a look of concentration, and for a few moments nothing happened. Then the crystal’s light faded out and Quartz’s fur seemed to stand on end fluffing out like static. As it lay flat again and the ground his hooves instantly greened as new shoots of life grew in and a few flowers even bloomed.
“Wow!” Star exclaimed, duly impressed. True, she’d seen him grow things before, but the process wasn’t nearly as dramatic and usually slower, and he normally looked tired after as it wasn’t really his talent. The results from using the glowing crystal weren’t all that much, a sparse patch of new green life barely a stride across. But it was far more than she’d ever seen her uncle grow before.
“Yes, It’s quite impressive. Personally, I think watching a pegasus build lightning on their hooves and wings to fling at targets is more impressive, but I suppose this does have some flare to it. Go on, give it a try,” Quartz said, tossing a glowing glow crystal over to the filly. “Now, before you begin, you're going to feel for the magic the same way you would listen for an echo when locating a stone, and then you're going to, sort of, pull it into yourself,” he explained. “But do not pull it into your core, that’s how you get hurt. Let it wrap around you like a shell or a second coat of fur.”
Stardust nodded and took the crystal under her left hoof. Thinking about what her uncle had explained she tapped the crystal with a hoof sending a pulse of her magic like she was trying to find it below the surface and felt for the echo. Immediately there was the echo from her magic but she rested her hoof on the crystal and waited, still trying to feel for more echoes. Yes, there was a soft echo - more of a warmth really - sitting under her hoof. So, she pulled at it. Like pulling on a scarf she pulled the magic up from the crystal and around her, down her other leg, and into the ground like she was trying to grow the plants there. Immediately it felt like her entire left leg had fallen asleep painfully. “Ow, that kinda stings…” she half whimpered, shaking out her left foreleg.
“It does, it takes a bit of getting used to but if you let it spread out more and do it a bit more slowly it’s much more bearable. But congratulations! You did it! Take a look.” indeed when Stardust looked down there was a small patch of dense green new life around where her right foreleg was planted in the soil. There was more green life than she had ever grown before and she opened her eyes wide in astonishment and looked up at her uncle. Quartz chuckled and reached to ruffle her mane. And for once, Star didn’t try to dodge his hoof or blush in embarrassment.
They spent the rest of the afternoon practicing, Stardust spent the early attempts trying to slow down and really feel and then direct the path the magic took through her, trying to get it so there was no discomfort. Between each attempt, her uncle would question her on what she experienced and then console her on what to do differently and what she was doing correctly. The afternoon light quickly faded to evening as their training turned from expending the dwindling supply of glow crystals to something new but still channeling-related. A technique that involved sending her magic into the earth and then pulling it back up in little loops to effectively anchor herself to the ground while her uncle attempted to dislodge her. It was a fun twist on a game some of the foals played with a rope trying to tug the other team across some line drawn in the dirt. Though Star suspected she would be accused of cheating if she used this during a game of that.
As the light of day turned to evening the pair was getting ready to head back to camp. Stardust sat with her eyes closed, tapping her hoof on the ground and feeling her magic spread out into the ground before she pulled it back in a loop; sticking her hoof to the ground before letting go and trying again. There was something off about the sensation that had been bothering her all day. There was a sort of echo of magic that came in behind her own magic every time she pulled it back. Star, with her eyes closed, tilted her head one way and then the other feeling for the echo and she pushed her magic out and pulled it in again letting out a soft but audible “hmmm.”
“Something wrong Star?” Called her uncle from a few strides away where he was packing up all the used glow crystals into his saddlebags.
“No, it’s just… there is a sort of echo of magic behind my own every time I pull it back in and it feels like if I pulled harder…” Star listed into silence again thinking. She couldn’t see it turned away with her eyes closed but, behind her, Star Quartz’s eyes went wide in shock staring at her back.
Quartz froze for just a moment before speaking up, “Star don’t-” but it was too late. Stardust set both her hooves, sent out her magic and pulled it back in a loop, and then kept pulling.
Immediately she knew she had done something wrong. Instead of the nettling feeling of a sleeping limb, Star felt intense pain. It felt like plunging herself into a frozen river as magic washed over her and it was all she could do to stop pulling and push it back out again into the ground. Her ears were buzzing like she was surrounded by a swarm of high-pitched bees and she collapsed to the ground as her sense of balance fled her. She felt sick, and a sense of wrongness persisted even with the foreign magic gone. She felt her stomach start to squirm and-.
A hoof touched her shoulder, the world flipped right side up again, and everything felt right.
“Stardust!”
She opened her eyes and blinked.
“Star, are you ok?” Her uncle frantically implored.
“Ow…” Stardust replied weakly. “That was... not fun,” she said closing her eyes again and resting her head.
“No, I imagine not. I warned you at the start that this could be dangerous precisely because of this. Tried to warn you again just before-” Quartz sighed deeply. “Ah, well. Done is done. Stars above Stardust, sometimes I think you should have been born a unicorn with the speed and sheer ability with which you take to magic. What you just did is a very advanced, and very dangerous, application of earth pony magic. Look around you.” And Star did. Blinking repeatedly to readjust her eyes; Stardust saw, but she wasn’t sure she understood.
For ten strides in every direction, the ground was covered in brown dead plants. The green patches of their training were gone and everything else was brown and completely dead. A clear, contrasting, and perfectly circular line divided the area of effect from the rest of the meadow which was merely dying as opposed to completely dead like it was inside the circle. The circle that was centered on her.
“I did that?!” Star gasped.
“Yes, you did.” Quartz sighed again and lay down next to her to nuzzle her neck in a calming manner. “It doesn’t really have a name that I know of, but it’s an advanced technique. I’ve personally never seen it done and only know it by reputation. Life needs magic. And what you did was pull on the ambient magic around you. The weak fragile life of the plants fell to the vacuum you created and then you pulled in that magic too. Fortunately, stronger life, like critters and ponies, wouldn't be affected too much in the short time the vacuum would persist so it’s not too dangerous to us. But, If there had been a unicorn attempting to cast a spell nearby you would have completely prevented it.” Quartz was rubbing her back with a hoof as he explained.
“It’s a good thing you grounded it out quickly. That much outside magic in your body could have killed you or made you extremely sick if you held it much longer. I still don’t understand how you did it. You're supposed to have to train for years to be able to feel the background magic of the world; and then longer still to be able to pull on it. Please never try that again, okay?” He implored.
“Okay, never again,” Star agreed in a sleepy tone. She was sore all over and the back rub was threatening to put her under.
“You feeling ok?” Quartz asked again now that she had calmed down.
“Sore, and tired.”
“Well let’s get you back to camp and you can take a short nap, want me to carry you?” He asked gently.
“Please?” Stardust asked, turning on the childish charm despite her exhaustion.
Quartz snorted in amusement but quickly dipped a shoulder to allow her to climb onto his back. She was a little bigger than most foals when they stopped getting rides but he was more than strong enough to carry her easily, even if he hadn’t been an earth pony.
“Alright, let's get you back.” He said as he stood up and set off back to camp. His steady rolling gate felt hypnotic under Stardust’s belly. Combined with her newfound exhaustion she was having a difficult time staying awake. Despite her best efforts, Star was asleep by the time they reached the first wagons.