Guiding Him Down a New Path

by Sai-guy

Ancestry

I woke with a small hoof pressed against my side. I knew without opening my eyes that it belonged to Rising. My next thought was how it was crushing my bladder.

I nuzzled my son then got up and went to relieve myself. When I returned, Squall was hugging Rising and smiled at me. I smiled back; the sight embodied all of what I wanted from life, my loved ones happy and together.

“Trade you,” I said, and Squall climbed out of bed. As she passed me by, she kissed me goodmorning.

I sat beside the bed and watched my son’s barrel rise and fall, wondering when he had gotten so big. He’d certainly been smaller when I’d left, not even two months ago. Then again, he hadn’t had a cutie mark either.

It drew my gaze. He’d be overjoyed; nopony could fully contain their emotions when their cutie mark showed up. But as I looked at it and thought of the story I would have to tell him. It reminded me of his great-grandfather’s.

I shivered.

Then he moved, stretching out for comfort, and he yawned. “Ow,” he said, drawing it out with the yawn. He brought his forehooves to his head and closed his eyes tighter.

I nuzzled his cheek. “Good morning, Rising. You had a big day yesterday. How do you feel?”

He groaned. “My… everything hurts.”

That didn’t surprise me. He looked a lot better after a good night’s rest and Soothing’s ministrations, but he still didn’t look healed. I levitated over the vial she had given us and unstoppered it.

I slid a hoof behind his head and tilted it upward. “Drink this,” I said and put it on his hoof.

He took a sip from it, all there was, really. The effects only took a few seconds to kick in — the biggest benefit of healing magic was its speed. He slumped back, limp, and sighed.

“Wow, Dad, what was that?” he asked, eyes still closed. Then, he gasped, and they shot open. “Dad!”

He wrapped his forelegs around my neck and hugged me tightly. I patted him on the back. “Hello to you too.”

He pulled back. “Whoa, that wasn’t a dream, was it?”

“If you mean saving a dozen ponies’ lives, not even a little. Why don’t you go to the bathroom? We’ll talk at breakfast.”

His brow furrowed as his lower lip stuck out. “You don’t have to tell me to use th— Never mind! I’m going!”

He squirmed out of bed and ran for the bathroom. It figured, given that he’d been out for about sixteen hours. I got up and followed him out, making my way to the kitchen, where Squall was making cream of wheat.

“You didn’t tell him about his cutie mark?” she asked. “I thought for sure I’d hear—”

A whoop came from the bathroom. “My cutie mark! I finally got it!”

I shrugged. “I figured he’d like a nice surprise when he saw himself in the mirror. Sounds like he enjoyed it to me.”

Rising bounded into the room, beaming ear to ear. “Mom, Dad, look! When did I get it, after the spell?” He stopped for a second. “Oh, come on, I slept through it.”

He pouted, and Squall and I laughed a bit. That was some serious mood whiplash, but foals were always spirited about their cutie marks.

“You know, Rising,” Squall said, “you’ll be able to read all about it in the paper today. You probably made the front page with something like that.”

Rising oohed and aahed, twisting around to look at his cutie mark and probably daydreaming about being in print. Meanwhile, Squall added some cinnamon sugar to the pot and deemed it ready, so I doled it out. No need to get a serving spoon dirty when perfectly good telekinesis would suffice and save on dishes.

Between bites as we ate, I said, “Rising, the papers aren’t the only ones who’re interested in you.” At that, it occurred to me that we’d probably end up seeing reporters before too long, but I shrugged it off. There were more important things to discuss.

“Really?” he asked. “Who?”

Squall laughed. “Wouldn’t it be more fun to guess? Think about it! Use that wonderful little brain your dad and I gave you!”

I looked at her. She always loved challenging him. So did I, but this time, she’d beaten me to it.

Rising’s face screwed up as he thought, and as time went on, he ate slower. After a couple minutes, he stopped entirely, a bite of steaming cereal halfway to his mouth. He looked up at us, wide-eyed.

“No way… Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns?”

Of course he’d guess that — at some point, pretty much every unicorn dreams of attending it. For Rising, that dream would soon come true.

Squall’s wings flared. “Yes! I’m so happy for you, my little Star!”

He blushed. “Wow. Oh wow… That healing potion, it came from there, right?”

“You got a lot of visitors, some of the top professors. That was from Soothing Balm, head professor of—”

“Restauraremancy! I have so got to tell my friends about this.” He stopped, and the food he held fell into the bowl. “Where’s Gabriella…?”

“Oh, Rising… she had to leave right away. I’m sorry.” Squall reached out to place a hoof on his shoulder. “But your father gave her his enchanted mailbox, so you’ll be able to keep in touch. That’s something, at least.”

Rising sagged, his ears wilting. “Oh. I really wish I could have said bye.”

He went silent for a while after that, and we let him be. He had a lot to think about, and it was probably best to let him digest that before tossing even more on his plate. He stared down into his bowl after he finished eating but didn’t get up.

“Sorry,” he said, not looking up.

Squall glanced at me and shrugged. “For what, dear?”

“I stopped you from wrestling with Dad in bed when he got home, and I know how much you like that.”

If I’d had any food in my mouth then, I would have choked. As it was, I looked to Squall for guidance. Nothing about this had come up in her letters, but that didn’t mean something hadn’t come up. Luckily, she shook her head — that got to be a talk for a new day, one where he wasn’t about to have his world shaken.

I wished for more time, but reporters would probably arrive sooner than later, and I felt like there were things he needed to know as soon as possible.

I levitated over the letter Soothing had left for him. “Don’t worry about that, Rising. Your mother and I felt it was a lot more important to be there for you. And speaking of being there for you, this letter is.”

His horn started to glow, but he winced and took it with a forehoof. I broke the seal for him, and he took out the paper inside. He must really have gotten used to reading aloud because that’s what he did with it for us.

“Those here today are truly gifted in magic, more so than many thousands of others. Be proud of this, young mages, but also be wary. I have seen others rise to the same level you have only to stumble and meet unfortunate ends. Caution must be your byword — care, your guide — for the lives of those around you rest on your horns. You have surely felt your own power. You know that others could do little to stop you if you wanted them gone. And so you must be their protectors; otherwise, you will become monsters. One need only look to the vile Sombra to see what a mage of your caliber can become if acting in self-interest.

“As you delve deeper into the arcane mysteries, young mages, as you peruse charts and graphs, spells and formulae, keep your goal in mind lest you lose your way. Your goal, dear mages, is to bring light and hope to those around you, to give of yourself that all might benefit, and, at the end of the day, to know that only you could accomplish what you have. Your reward will be the love of your town, of your city, of your nation, possibly. That is for you to decide. What will you do with your great gifts, young mages? I truly look forward to seeing your successes.

“An excerpt from the first welcoming speech of Golden Dawn, Arch mage 203 to 249.”

Rising lowered the paper to the table and mouthed, “If you wanted them gone.” He looked up to Squall then to me. “Um… that didn’t seem… happy.”

No, it did not. In fact, it seemed like just the thing to bring me to what I had to say.

Squall looked down. “I… think I have to go to work. I’ll give you two some privacy.”

We said bye to her as she left more than a couple hours early than needed for her shift. When she had gone, Rising seemed to shrink. He looked up at me, his eyes big and wide. “Did I do something wrong, Dad?”

I sighed and shook my head before motioning for him to follow me. We went into the sitting room, and I got comfortable.

“Rising, you’re not in trouble, okay?” I put a hoof on his chest. “You are a good pony who did a very good thing. You have a good heart.

“But remember how I said we would talk about your great-grandfather when you were older?”

He nodded slowly. “Yes… I’m not going to like it, am I?”

I shook my head. “Black Star. That was his name, thanks to his mane. He was a lot like you, Rising. Instead of books, though, his passion was flowers. He loved everything about them: eating them, growing them, arranging them, you name it. So nopony was surprised when his cutie mark ended up being a small bouquet of Stargazer lilies. It was actually three, two separating away from one in the middle, a lot like yours.”

I traced the paths of the shooting stars on his flank. “Yes, it was a lot like yours. See, cutie marks are strange things. His — being Stargazer lilies — also represented magical aptitude. Naturally, he stuck to the discipline that helped a florist most. Can you guess what that is?”

He thought for a moment. “Mutamancy?”

“If only. No, alteration was a good guess, but he used Necromancy. Flowers which took months to wilt, flowers which lasted very specific lengths of time, flowers which smelled even better after being cut, these things made him a good florist.” I stopped talking, memories of my father telling me the same things running through my head.

Looking sidelong at me, Rising said, “I feel like there’s going to be a ‘but’ here.”

Nodding, I frowned. “You’d be right. But he always had one issue with the spells he used. The flowers turned black from their use. It made them very popular at funerals and for accents to certain dresses, like his wife’s wedding dress. But it galled him that his magical talent and his floral ones overlapped so narrowly. He tried for years to perfect his spells — until finally, he did.

“Practicing on Stargazer lilies, Black Star made a spell which kept the thing under its effect from changing. The flowers’ pink and white stayed the same, and it looked like he’d perfected his craft. It seemed as if they’d never died.”

“Dad…” Rising said, “this story isn’t going to end well, is it?”

He nuzzled against me, and I knew he wanted to be comforted, but the memories swirling in my head were dark things. Tartarus, I wanted to be comforted. Putting a foreleg over his withers, I pulled him to my side.

“Nopony knows what happened inside his head, Rising, but he snapped. I don’t understand it, and I hope I never do… He was going to have a foal…”

“Grandpa Shining Star?” Rising asked.

I nodded. “While his wife was pregnant, it got into his mind that the next great challenge to overcome was a little bigger than flowers. Towards the end of her pregnancy, he killed her, Rising, and he full-cast his spell into her. He could full-cast—just like you can.”

Rising pulled back, his mouth open and struggling to form words. If I didn’t finish now, I never would, so I pressed on.

“It worked… mostly. Ponies stopped seeing her go out. She stayed around or inside their home all the time. Nopony was too surprised. After all, the foal was due in a month. But then his parents came to visit to help them get through the foal’s birth. Nopony ever saw them again… alive. When his brother, Shooting Star, an archer, came back from his tour with the Guard, and he went to visit and got attacked by his dead parents. He only barely escaped.

“Everything went crazy, and Shooting Star eventually had to… put his brother down.”

Rising shuddered. “He killed him? That… It doesn’t seem real. That couldn’t have happened here.”

Arrow-studded lifeless bodies danced through my mind, and I swallowed hard before responding. “Oh, it happened.”

I felt Rising’s hoof on my shoulder. That by itself took me by surprise — he hadn’t been able to before. But then he nuzzled my cheek and asked, “Dad, are you okay? You look… awful.”

I hugged him to my chest, trying to find my voice again. He was my little colt, and I needed to put the past aside and live in the now.

It was hard to do with the memories so vivid.

“Rising,” I said, swallowing hard, “I’m telling you this because you remind me of him. You’re bright just like him. You’re powerful just like him. And you’re going to dive into the study of magic just like him. Having so much at your disposal can twist a pony, Rising, just like that letter said. I know you’re good because you’re my son, but I can’t guide you down this new path you’re on. From here on, you chart your own course, and all I can do is watch and hope for the best.”

He looked away, shoulders slumped, deflated. “It sounds like you knew him yourself…”

“I do — in a way. Shooting Star shared them with Shining Star in a Link, and he shared them with me.”

He lay down like what I’d said had weight he couldn’t carry, and I supposed it did. I couldn’t stand to see him like that. He was too young to have to deal with something like this, but it needed to be done. Still, I tried to soften the blow.

With a forehoof, I rubbed small circles over his withers. “Rising, I’m sure there are hundreds of ponies in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns who are a lot like him, but none of them do what Black Star did. One bad ancestor doesn’t make you bad; they just make for a cautionary tale. I know you will be a great pony one day. With what you did yesterday, you’re already off to a fantastic start, don’t forget!”

He pushed himself up and turned to look at me, cracking a bit of a smile. “Yeah… I am. And I’m just going to keep getting better and better. I promise I’ll only use my magic to help ponies, and I’ll never ever touch Necromancy again.”

My blood ran cold. “Again?”

He scrambled a couple hooves’ lengths away, ears flattening against his ears against his skull. “I just wanted to show Gabriella magic! I only wanted to show her as many types of magic as I could. She thought it was cool. But I only used a little, some grass in the lawn!”

“Hey, hey, Rising, it’s okay, really. Avoiding it entirely is probably overkill… but it’s comforting too.” I tousled his mane and forced a smile onto my face. “And besides, there are eleven other disciplines I’m sure you can master!”

I stood and waited for him to join me. “Now, enough of this awful stuff from forever ago. Let’s figure out what to say to the reporters who come looking for the colt who saved everypony and write your grandma a letter. Wouldn’t want her to miss your cute-ceañera, now would we?”

He grinned, and my smile became less forced. Maybe I was being superstitious because of his name, but I felt that his star was rising and this was only the beginning.

Author's Note:

Thanks to my editor, Cynewulf.

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Comments

[Willsons]

Woooooooo! More back story and now we see his dark family history, I can say I was expecting worse.

[Sai-guy]

4903579
Oh yes, there's always more back-story from me.

[Sai-guy]

5078664
I corrected that error you pointed out.

As for the point of view, I made that decision very deliberately and for a few reasons. First, it would go against the intent of the story, which was to show a parents'-eye view of a child growing up. Second, it would have stretched the story out another 20K easily, and I didn't want the story to be that long. Third, and related to the previous point, I wanted to practice writing wherein a large section of time passes in relatively few words; this has previously been a major difficulty for me. If you have advice for how to write over a month compressed down to the salient points without it coming across in such a way as to disappoint you or others, I'm very willing to learn. I tried looking up advice but failed to find anything helpful. Fourth, I intend to eventually write out what happened in the school in its own story.

There is one more reason I didn't shift to Rising's perspective, but that's not something I want to reveal to the world yet. It's something that — hopefully — will become clear over the course of the stories when they're viewed as a whole.

Responding to the dialogue portion, I often find myself writing too much dialogue. I face a constant battle to avoid talking heads and falling into pointless side conversations. This chapter was also a challenge to myself to imply all the dialogue. It seemed to me — and I may have been wrong — that dropping verbatim dialogue into such a sped-up recounting of events would end up harming the sense of how it flowed.

[PresentPerfect]

So am I right in assuming this is the unmarked sequel to your other two stories? It would explain why the characters are so strong, which is what drew me into the piece. It would also explain why nothing in the second half makes sense. Had this been marked, I'd have gone for the others first; instead, I'm left wondering what the point was, and shaking my head at what appears to be a horrible jumble. Which is a shame, because the first three chapters were just fantastic.

[Sai-guy]

5082770
5082825

I feel like I missed something major

It seems most likely that you missed something around when Stop Watch shows up. Of course, the most of the character know the consequences of the major action previous to that scene. I could have stated it through narration, but I felt like it would be more rewarding to the readers if they came to the conclusion themselves. I thought I dropped enough hints, but I may not have. Though, if I understand correctly, you pieced together why the professors showed up by the end of the story or maybe even chapter six.

So am I right in assuming this is the unmarked sequel to your other two stories?

No, but it's complicated. I'll try to explain without spoilers. They're absolutely in the same continuity, but the other two published stories take place approximately thirteen years later — though they were written first. There are, unsurprisingly, some things in them that would help provide expectations for how this story turns out.

[PresentPerfect]

5085592
Okay, that's about what I thought.

What I feel was missing was an explanation for this "unicorn levels" thing, and an explanation for why and how a half-dozen unicorns would suddenly swarm onto a colt after a magic surge. Granted, we don't really know what got Twilight into the entrance exam in the first place, but it seemed like you were taking far too many liberties with the world and not justifying any of them. Of course, that could very well have been lost in the continual stream of technobabble each character spews. That was thoroughly confusing.

I liked Stop Watch and thought he made sense in context. Obviously, he would show up because he already knows what will happen; as to why everyone else did, it's unclear and confusing. Having left it to just him, and perhaps one or two others (the asshole gravity guy and the healer, to provide counterpoint about what the teachers are like, and of course to heal him) would have made the scene a good bit easier to follow. I can understand if the point was to convey the parents being overwhelmed at this major life change thrust at them, but overwhelming the reader doesn't make for good narrative. :B

[Sai-guy]

5086747

What I feel was missing was an explanation for this "unicorn levels" thing […] Of course, that could very well have been lost in the continual stream of technobabble[…]

It seems like that may very well be the case, as I did have a paragraph to lay out most of how the orders work.

[…]practically all unicorns trained in more than one field of magic. That explained his weird leylines; if he was eleventh order and refused to train in fields other than his, that meant he had over ten thousand leylines devoted to Gravitasmancy — over eleven thousand if he was completely neurotic and hadn’t even gotten two thousand through using telekinesis.

I can understand if the point was to convey the parents being overwhelmed at this major life change thrust at them, but overwhelming the reader doesn't make for good narrative.

Yeah, that was the idea, but I could probably cut Relative Motion, and definitely Decibel Level, while maintaining the same feeling. In fact, I'm already getting ideas for how to smooth the transitions with them gone… I'll work on that. Hopefully having two fewer characters will make the scene less confusing. I want it to be rewarding to piece together what's going on, not aggravating.