//------------------------------// // Finding A Special Pony // Story: Ice Petal's One and Only Destiny // by TwilightSparkleForever //------------------------------// Ice Petal pondered, over and over, about what ponies could possibly aid in her escape from Canterlot. She was quite tired and a bit hungry; but still she stayed locked in her room. In the bright aura of her horn was a small quill, levitated in the air and scribbling on a piece of paper in her notebook. "Let's see..." The pony who sat in the back of her class every day and doodled all over his notebook, Platinum Marble. He was a likely candidate. So was the pony who hated class because she didn't want to be a snobby, royal unicorn. She wanted to be a dueler or racer instead. Something more exciting. Something more dangerous. Her name was Arid Pyre, but she called herself Brick and demanded that others do the same. Only the teacher called her by her real name. Ice Petal and Brick shared one thing in common that made Ice think she was perfect for the job. They both did not want to have an unicorns' type of job when they grew up. Instead, they wanted to be something else-something more fit for a Pegasus or an Earth Pony. Ice finished her list with the name of a third pony, lightly scrawled on the piece of notebook paper she was levitating. She set the quill down, and began to read over her list. 1.) PLATINUM MARBLE. -HE JUST SEEMS LIKE A GOOD CANDIDATE TO ME. I DON'T KNOW WHY AT ALL. 2.) BRICK, OR ARID PYRE, HER REAL NAME. -JUST LIKE ME. ALSO THINKS THAT UNICORNS DON'T NEED TO HAVE UNICORN JOBS WEN THEY GROW UP. LOVES DANGER, SO SHE CAN HELP ME ESCAPE. 3.) PROPHETIC CRYSTAL -SHE HAS SOMETHING THAT I WILL NEED TO ESCAPE FROM CANTERLOT. I'M SURE SHE'LL LEND IT TO ME. Ice Petal smiled contentedly and levitated the torn-out, neatly lined notebook paper towards the thin space under her bed. She slowly slid it under a pile of rubbish and junk, hoping her mother wouldn't notice. Now all she had to do was wait for tommorow, and she would, hopefully, come home with a group of recruits, ready to help her escape from Canterlot. Ice Petal went to sleep without a worry, falling into a deep slumber just as her head touched the pillow. Ice Petal's eyes flung open. "Huh?" Ice Petal muttered. She looked all around her. She was on a glacier, frozen over with ice. The cold, icy ground was laden with dark purple flower petals. All around her, nothing but ice. Probably for millions of miles. She sighed, ready to go to sleep once more. But as she tried to lie down, she spotted something in the distance. A mountain, with a regal, beautiful castle on the side, a white castle, lined with gold and purple, with ponies swarming around it-and she headed towards the castle, ready to go inside. Wait. This wasn't somewhere she wanted to go. This was Canterlot. And-she hated Canterlot. She turned back around, stepping away from the castle-and saw something else in the distance, glowing, and it was red. Like a red beacon, like the red light on a traffic light-it glowed, on and on, beckoning her, welcoming her inside... Could it be? A farm. It was a farm. Ice Petal dashed towards it, all other thoughts gone from her mind. Her goal was not to wander around this icy place, or to return to Canterlot, but to get to that farm. It seemed so warm, and welcoming- The thoughts of what could possibly be inside filled her mind. She smiled, ready to run faster than ever before to get to that farm, that farm- And then it happened. She gasped and tumbled to the icy ground as she looked behind her and saw a crowd of ponies, what looked like an angry mob, chasing after her...and they looked angrier than Ice Petal could imagine. Most of them were unicorns, some of them were pegasi, but there were no earth ponies. She screamed as they pounced on her, clawing at her, pulling her farther and farther away from the barn, the barn she wanted to go to. Then Ice Petal realized who they were, and what they were doing. They were the royal family. The fancy ponies..from Canterlot..and they wanted her to go back. Their angry voices filled her head and pummeled at any thoughts she still had about escaping their wrath and running to the barn, where she would be safe. Out of the angry mob she could hear some voices, drifting into her ears as she tried, desperately to shake them out: "Come back! Come back to Canterlot, where you will be honored..Dressed in the best clothes possible...treated like one of the princesses themselves..." "Don't leave! You'd be a fool to leave what you have here! We will never let you leave! NEVER!" And last of all, her mothers voice, not yelling but begging for her to come back. "Come back, Ice Petal...please...I promise we wont..." The voices drifted away as she started waking up from what she had just realized was only a dream, a nightmare, but a very scary one at that. Ice Petal murmured things in her sleep as she woke and then drifted off back to sleep, this time into another dream... Next morning.... Ice Petal could still hear the haunting voices from her dream. She could still feel the eerie, frightening, icy cold touch of the ponies. They were pulling her, dragging her as she desperately tried to pull herself the other way. She sat still for a moment, imagining the ice-covered landscape, petals strewn across the bumpy ice, then dismissed it as only a nightmare, although she kept thinking of the nagging fact that she would most likely not be able to escape without being caught. Nevertheless, Ice Petal was excited. Today was a new day, and she knew that it meant plenty of new ponies to help her escape from Canterlot. She easily slid out of bed, took off her nightclothes and headed downstairs for breakfast, levitating her schoolbooks and her backpack as she went.