Angels and Demons 3: Winds of Destiny

by lunabrony

Bonding Moments

That day in Ponyville seemed like such a long time ago.

Sarah could remember the day they had moved from Ponyville to Canterlot. The most expensive houses had wonderful views as they sat near the perimeter that overlooked the hills. Theirs was a bit of a compromise, it was fairly large and roomy and for the first time each of them had their very own room. If you went up into the attic there was a small tower spire with a window, and from there you see out across the south of Equestria. See Ponyville as a colourful arrangement on the curving green landscape, and the bluish hue that marked Everfree forest. And a garden! They had a garden! Trees were there, but the grass had been rather unkempt and overgrown when they had come. It must have awakened the earth pony in their mother, because she took a loving to that garden and Sarah soon followed. Trimming the grass, picking weeds. They were planting flowers left and right together. Come next year they would see them bloom together. Dreamfoils, torqouises, rosehearts, windblossoms. Before the move, Cheerilee had at some point taken her aside and explained that while Sarah wouldn't take part in the typical earth pony activities, she was encouraged to take up a botany and growing project instead.

Sarah was starting to be at the point where you wouldn't be able to call her a filly anymore. She was one of three left who didn't have a cutie mark in her year. Blank flank, and by extension a Canterlot-branch cutie mark crusader, though she didn't come to the Canterlot clubhouse too much anymore. Peppermint had earned hers, the herbs she had been aptly named after. The funny thing was that Sarah had known that this was exactly what her friend was meant to do. It was a knack she had, though knowing this hadn't given Peppermint the cutie mark that Sarah thought it would get. It wasn't that hard for her to figure out what a pony could be. Rolling Wave, the second oldest sibling, was going to be an explorer. A pegasus, he had a good second sight, he knew when danger would be coming before anyone else, and though he was still a scaredy colt, that would change one day. Too bad Sarah couldn't turn those powers of observation on herself. After Rolling Wave had come a unicorn, named Emerald. Finally Quick, the youngest, another pegasus.

The only other thing Sarah had as a talent was getting things to grow. Her mother seemed able to get things to grow faster, and seemed to know intuitively what plants needed, but what Sarah didn't have in intuition and instinct, she had in sheer experience.

"Not a bad project to choose. What are you going to grow? Herbs?" Her dad, a blue unicorn with a silver heart and key on his flank asked as he read the manual for assembly. The greenhouse they were building (at her mothers insistence) was all metal bars and glass plates at the moment. These days he was home one or two days each week and he had taken off the entire afternoon for her. Her young siblings, Rolling Wave and Quick, both pegasi, were doing wing exercises with mom. Neither could fly, but they still needed to train their wings. Her little unicorn sister Emerald was at school. Her father levitated a few bars. "Mind holding the lower one with your hooves, Sarah?"

Sarah didn't get to see her Ponyville friend Peppermint as much as she would have liked anymore, not outside of school. The city was not a place for children to be running around by themselves, though it was safe, there was still a degree of common sense. Sarah had an unrelenting determination, she had been to over a dozen cutecineras already, each time arriving with her bright smile and pride for her friends. But it was beginning to become embarrassing to go out in public without a cutie mark, ponies would stare at her in concern, she knew not having a cutie mark was downright unusual. And those who didn't know her could only judge her based on her flank. Was she stupid? Did she not care? Neither of those things were true, but a nearly grown mare without a cutie mark? Something was surely wrong with her. Out in public, she would frequently wear long gowns to cover her flank, but at home, at home she was herself.

"Sure thing, dad." She said with her usual enthusiasm, and placed her weight down on the bars. "Like this?" She couldn't wait for the greenhouse to be finished, she'd heard stories from out west that they had flowers that grew as tall as Princess Celestia, and she wanted to grow them herself or die trying.

They had already laid the foundation, now it was a matter of putting all the things together. Very gently he lowered the sheet of glass into the lower frame that Sarah was holding. It slid in smoothly and the other bars were put in place one by one. "This design isn't Earth pony friendly, you can't just built the metal frame and slot in the window panes. Its a show off design. A challenge to see how many bars can you levitate at once." He remarked with a grimace and focused, lifting up four more and a window pane, eyes almost closed in concentration.

Sarah just shook her head. Magic seemed like such a complicated thing to use, and often gave headaches to the user if it was used too heavily. Her dad had spoken of having a medical condition which gave him frequent headaches, and she presumed that was why he didn't use magic as much as Angel did. "Daddy, if I do extra chores around the house, could I have a raise in my allowance? There's a travelling magic show coming to Canterlot in a few weeks, and Peppermint and I really want to go together." She asked sweetly. Once the pane was in place,she slowly let go, ensuring that it would hold together. If it wobbled at all, she'd latch back onto it.

A few more panes were slotted in. "Hmm, we might be able to work out a raise, if you babysit the your brothers and sister over the weekend." He was fair, but the good thing was that the allowance was never lowered again. "There's actually interesting magic involved in seeds." He said, changing the subject as he finished the metal framework and put in the shelves. Urns already filled with soil littered the lawn, ready to be put inside. He got a small seed from one of her many bags. It was tiny and orange. "This little seed, his tiny little thing contains all the trees that can come from the world. All its children, and its children, all those possibilities inherent, right in this seed. This is..." He sniffed a bit and wondered. "What kind of seed is it?"

To an earth pony, every seed smelled different, and was usually fairly recognizable. To Sarah, she may as well have been trying to smell air. She took the seed from her father, and held it in her hooves. She sat on her haunches for a good five minutes, tears filling her eyes, but gritted her teeth with renewed determination, the teasing of some of her less kinder classmates ringing in her ears. But Sarah never gave up, that was the universal remark that all of her teachers had brought home in the many concerned notes to Silver and Angel. Sarah refused to give up, and often had to be coaxed away and gently told to try again later.

"I know this." Sarah said firmly. "Um... Hickory?"

"I think so. I'm not that good at telling seeds apart from each other." Her father smiled proudly. "Using your eyes, good thinking. But it would have been even better thinking, if you had noticed the bag I had taken it from." He went over close and nuzzled her with his snout. "This little seed, Sarah, can become a tree, and all the trees in the world once started from seeds as well. I can't be a tree, even its leaves get strange because of something that happened." His arms enfolded her from behind and he pulled her onto his belly, lying there together and looking up at the sky. "And you came from us, so you're a pony through and through. Remember that. Even when it seems like you fail at everything else and the world is against you, you can't fail at being a pony.." The clouds were drifting up above them. A few pegasi flew overhead. "You're a smart filly Sarah, heck soon you won't be a filly anymore, and you won't be able to fit like this on me. Learn everything you can, use your cleverness." He considered something and seemed to have an idea. "I know you don't have a horn.. but I think I can let you borrow the use of mine for a bit. I don't know if I can give you all the feelings of having it, but you'll be able to learn about magic that way."

Sarah had frowned when he told her to look at the bag. "But in school we were never allowed to see where the seeds came from, Cheerilee said that defeated the whole purpose of the identification test," She said, a bit confused. "What good is a challenge if you know the answer?" She was quiet for a moment, listening to her father, offering her own thoughts as well. "I've been thinking about my cutie mark too. Maybe.. maybe I don't need one. Maybe my special talent is NOT having one. Maybe my super special talent is not being all that special at all. Instead of being really good at one big thing, I could be kinda good at lots of little things." She said brightly.

Her father nuzzled her a bit and then she heard the glittering sound of his horn. As close she was to it she could feel some of her mane standing on end. The glow connected with her. "Lie still Sarah... this is a spell used when one unicorn has to lend its horn to another who knows a spell but can't cast it. Relax and breathe slowly." The field of magic could always be felt when her mom was using a powerful spell, or when you were levitated. It was a warm soft sensation, and she felt it this time.. against her. And then all of the sudden it was the other way around, she didn't feel the magical sensation going towards her.. she felt it going out from her. There was a distant sensation of some dense long hard rod that was the focal point of her power. It was muted. She was feeling her father's horn. "Breathe slowly, rein in the field, don't over exert my horn, just relax."

Sarah felt her whole body tense up, she had never used magic before, quite obviously, nor ever sensed it. "Dad... I'm scared..." She said quietly, laying against him, shivering just slightly. "Is this how you feel all the time?" She asked.

"Don't worry Sarah, I'm in control.. and, no, I think it was only like that when my magic really started blooming." He said with fondness. "You're the smartest foal I have, and I think you can learn about magic if you want. I know you don't have a horn of your own, and I can't give the ability.. but you can learn about magic. Now try easing the flow.. right now you're radiating energy all over the place." She was noticing the sound now, of his horn cranking out power, the grass around them was ruffling and the air seemed to shimmer.

Sarah always enjoyed learning new things, she soaked up books like a novel soaked up a sponge. She was frequently rushing back and forth to and from the Canterlot Castle Library, which although the majority was open to the public, there were a few closed off and locked sections, which she'd often seen a purple alicorn going in and out of. "Okay, I can do this." She said confidently, and focused her mind, desperately trying to channel the magic onto one of the seeds. "If... I could just... redirect it..." She huffed.

It was the seed she had worked on before. Her intentions weren't clear, but she knew the seed, because she knew the tree. All haricots came from that seed. The connection seemed clear and suddenly magic surged out of her. "Augh.. you've done a spell!" Her father gasped. Power streamed out of her into the seed, it fell directly into the soil. She was aware of white light coming from behind as energy surged out of her horn. which was her father's horn. And suddenly a little tree had sprung and bloomed. Green energies... green... not blue like her father, but green energies tended the leaves that grew, encouraged the branches to grow. She connected with the tree, knew all its possibilities, all the nourishing gifts it could have. And all of the sudden it ended, her connection with the magic was severed quickly and instantly. "Huff... sorry Sarah, the spell was out of control, it was draining me." Again she became aware of herself, the wave of magic she had ridden was over. There was only her five senses. She noticed that her father was sweating and shivering. The energy to do all that had been done there, had to have come from somewhere after all. As she got off he stood up, his legs barely carrying him. He looked at her, wondering about something, and then nodded with a smile. Had he been testing her? "Well done Sarah.. we'll try next time, a little more carefully. Only.. don't tell your mother about this."

Sarah gasped. A spell. A stubborn little earth pony had done a spell. She took a few steps forward, poking at it with her hoof, her eyes wide. "I did that? I did that!" She said excitedly. Even though her father had helped, her spirits were boosted tremendously, it was the first time she'd truly done anything at all extraordinary. Her eyes immediately moved to her own flank. "Did I-..."

Her father studied her flank with equal fascination. No cutie mark, despite all that, no cutie mark. She heard her father mumbling "Of course." And then he stepped closer nuzzling her. "Now you know why Emerald's horn kept doing spells all over the place when she was a baby. I'll teach you need to work on intention and focus, and then I can teach you magic. You won't tell it to your brothers or sisters, and you won't brag about it to your friends. Most importantly, you won't tell it to your mother. If you do any of those, then my lessons will end immediately, however you can learn and I think you should."

Sarah's face fell, she had been so sure. Her ears pinned back against her head. "I won't tell, daddy. I won't tell a single pony. I Pinkie Promise." She had heard her mother use the term before, but hadn't any clue what it meant, only that it was a big deal. "Do you think I could learn to fly, too?" She asked eagerly.

"The only spell I know that can do that, isn't good for the kind of flying that pegasi do. Sorry Sarah, but you're as grounded as I am." He took a few steps and nearly fell over and shook his head. "Lets take a pause, and finish the greenhouse. I think I'm good for levitating a bit more, but next time I'm home we'll practice." There would be refreshments inside. The news of getting to learn magic, even muted like this, and not with a horn of her own, almost drowned out getting to see a carny show with Peppermint.