//------------------------------//
// School 
// Story: Ice Petal's One and Only Destiny 
// by TwilightSparkleForever 
//------------------------------//

I don't need to learn this. I'm going to be a farmer. All I need to learn is-
Ice Petal's thoughts were broken off as the teacher placed one hoof on her desk, completely blocking Ice Petal's eyes from seeing anything except her teacher's pink hoof. 
Ice Petal looked up as she shifted her face past the teacher's pink hoof, almost toppling over and off her chair. Every single foal was staring at her. Her face immediately turned crimson as she turned her head to look up at the teacher. 

"Ice Petal," her teacher, Violet Summer. "If you want to get all As or at least a decent B or C on your report card, you had better pay attention in class. Now, Ice Petal, can you tell me what we were talking about?" 
Ice Petal sat stock-still. Her mind raced as she struggled to remember any small bit of information from the time before she started daydreaming. "Um...I...Uh...I-I don't know," said Ice Petal, her voice growing quieter with each word. 
The class stared on at Ice Petal's still slightly blushing face, some whispering, a few giggling. Ice Petal deeply wished she could disappear, not just from the classroom, not even just from the school, but from Canterlot altogether. 
Ice Petal did not want to be famous. She did not want to be mobbed by ponies as she walked. She did not want to have her name splattered across the front page of the newspapers whenever she did something unique or exciting, she did not want to be bombarded with TV reporters looking for stories and interviews everywhere she went, and she most definitely did not want to become what her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (and great-great grandparents...you know what I mean,) had become. Why did she have to be born into such a famous, royal family? Why? 
All Ice Petal wanted was to lead a happy life as a normal pony, in one of the more so-called lowly and regular cities, like Fillydelphia or Ponyville. Especially Ponyville. The town was chock-full of farmers. No big buildings, giant mansions or towering buildings. Only simple, carefree-looking straw houses. Nothing more. 

Ice Petal had been scolded who knows how many times for saying this, but she truly and really wanted to be a farmer. 

A farmer...

It was more than unusual for a sophisticated Canterlot unicorn like her to become a farmer.An unicorn? A farmer? Almost impossible for a normal unicorn, impossible for a Canterlot unicorn. 
It was completely ridiculous. It would earn any sophisticated Canterlot unicorn nothing but scorn. 
Ice Petal didn't care one bit about that. Why would she, when she was going to move far, far away from Canterlot one day and possibly never, ever come back? 

Ice Petal now intently watched the teacher, who was now pointing the end of her hoof at the upper left corner of the blackboard at a photo of a ballroom. It was full of dancing ponies, and the picture was entirely black and white. There were a few photos surrounding it; one of a pony posing for a self-portrait, which looked like it had been taken back since cameras were invented, one of a pony whose nose was stuck in a newspaper, with several ponies crowding around him for no obvious reason, and the last of a pony who was lying on a hospital bed, her entire body wrapped in a white mass of the stuff they used to make casts. 

Although Ice Petal had her eyes fixed on the teacher, who was now pinning yet another photo up on the blackboard, she was definitely not listening to the teacher's lecture about the old Emerald Crown Garden that used to stand in the very place the princesses' throne room now was. 

"-and now, class is dismissed. You have five minutes to pack up your things until the bell rings." Ice Petal's teacher's voice quickly snapped her back to reality, where she was still a young filly, not a full-grown mare with children, living in a barn and leading the life she had always wanted. Ice Petal stood up, with no sign of her having been daydreaming at all, and stepped towards the wooden doorway that led out of the classroom and onto the hard black pavement where the school bus was waiting for her. As she rode the bus home, she wondered about how things would have been if she lived in Ponyville. She would probably be walking home right now, on the musty dirt roads that she loved and longed for. 

When she got home, she swung her backpack off her shoulders and onto the sofa, frowning, her head in her hooves as her mother used her magic to open the fridge with a small ckrongclck sound. 

"Mom," said Ice Petal as she sulked on the sofa. "Why can't we go live in Ponyville, or some other town, and live a normal life? Like all the other ponies? I want to be a farmer, Mom, I want to do work on the farm. Harvest plants and vegetables, and not have to be greeted by a pack of TV and newspaper reporters every morning when I wake up. I don't like being followed by them wherever I go. And I most definitely hate Canterlot." 
Her mom glanced up at her with an obvious look of annoyance. Ice Petal had asked this question so many different times in so many different ways, and always her mother had said no and gave her a long, long lecture on how they-
"Ice Petal! Don't you ever say that. We are never going to go live in Ponyville. For heaven's sake, it's the lowliest town in all of Equestria's history! I have no idea why you think I should go live down there and stoop to their level and be a disgusting farmer like all those-those-earth ponies." 
"But Mom, I want to be a farmer, so badly I could run away, to Ponyville, to Fillydelpia, away from you, away from Canterlot, away from every single pony in Canterlot-" 
Her mom shook her head, turning away from Ice Petal to levitate a container of cream cheese out of the fridge, at the same time summoning a loaf of bread from the pantry. 
"Ice-we are not going to ever go to Ponyville or any other lowly town like that, and we especially will never become one of those farmers. I want you to be something sensible when you grow up, like a researcher, a doctor, something fit for an unicorn like you. End of conversation. We are not going to another city, we are not going to move away, and we are not going to let you become a farmer." 

Ice Petal could have already imagined how she could help families, towns, even the whole of Equestria, as a farmer. With her strong magic, she could easily harvest hundreds, maybe even thousands or ten thousands of apples at once. And as she grew into an adult pony, she would probably be able to provide food and drink to the whole of Equestria, plus a giant feast for the princesses, in one day. After all, she did have a lot of princess blood in her family. It was what made her and her mother's magic stronger than most ponies'. 

But why even try when her mother wouldn't let her leave, and the whole of Canterlot would be begging her to stay? Nopony was on her side. 

Wait, she thought. "Nopony is on my side? But that's not possible. There have to be a few..." She muttered under her breath. Her mother showed no sign of having heard what she said. 

Maybe somepony is on my side, she thought, smiling.