Azure Memories

by Silvak

Chapter XII: Talent

"Mommy, why the sky is turning green?"

"It's nothing dear, but we must be quiet now."

"But w—"

"Hush dear, I'll explain it to you when you're older."

Stirring from her sleep, Sapphire opened her eyes to see that dawn had arrived. Normally, Sapphire would stretch a bit before hopping out of bed, but instead of just having a normal dream, she instead focused on what she had remembered from her dream. At least that was what she had assumed when her dream faded into darkness, only for words to be spoken at the end of her slumber. Familiar words from who she assumed to be her mother, with another voice that sounded like it belonged to a foal, which might be herself at a younger age. However, the part where the young voice asked about why the sky was turning green confused her, causing Sapphire to doubt if the memory was just another dream.

Eventually, Sapphire's pondering came to an end when she caught a whiff of breakfast being cooked. Fixing her bed with magic shortly after coming out of it, she headed downstairs to see Rarity cooking some eggs. "Good morning Rarity," Sapphire said.

"Good morning to you too dear, mind setting up the table?" Rarity asked, to which Sapphire simply did as she was told. There was a time where she tried to help Rarity with the cooking, but in only resulted in Sapphire being thankful her special talent involved water. After Rarity finished cooking breakfast and was setting down the meal, she asked "So, how was your night dear?"

"It was fine... I think I remembered something. That or I just dreamed something weird," Sapphire said as she started to eat her meal.

"Oh? What made you think it was just another dream?" Rarity replied as she tilted her head in idle curiosity.

"Well... was the sky ever green?" Sapphire asked, which caused Rarity to raise one of her eyebrows in confusion.

"Um... I think you're right about it being just a dream..." Rarity answered.

Sighing, Sapphire bemoaned, "And here I thought I was remembering something."

"Well, I don't think anypony would want a memory of the sky turning green, that would be a dreadful sight to behold," Rarity commented. "So, do you have any plans for today?"

"Hmm... oh! Twilight wanted to see me so she can study my special talent with water some more," Sapphire answered. It was a few days after the incident with Gilda, which Sapphire just spent either studying or helping Rarity. However, yesterday, Twilight paid a visit to ask if she could study her magic and special talent. Seeing that it either might help her recover some memories or figure out if there is some job that her magic could be useful in, Sapphire agreed to her request without any hesitation.

---

"I'm so glad that you agreed to let me study your magic, it is so rare for a unicorn to have a special talent in water manipulation. Normally, a pegasus would have that as their talent since it is weather related, but to think of the potential applications of the talent for a unicorn is quite exciting!" Twilight exclaimed with glee as she and Sapphire were heading to the river as they cut through the town. The library was an ill-suited place for testing Sapphire's control over water, so Twilight decided that the river would provide enough water and tests to challenge the capabilities of Sapphire's magic.

"So... what should we try first, Twilight?" Sapphire asked when the pair finally arrived at the river.

"I suggest we see how much water you can lift first, though you should only lift at a gradual pace to minimize the effect on the river," Twilight answered as she took a notepad and a quill from her saddlebags that she had brought along for the observation.

"If you say so," Sapphire replied as her horn lit up with her magic. As instructed, she slowly took some water from the river in small amounts, lifting them into the air as she gathered them into a sphere. Slowly but surely the sphere grew in size, which started to draw attention when it grew to the size of a market stall.

After watching the sphere grow even larger, Twilight declared, "Maybe we should stop at this point Sapphire."

"Alright, sure," Sapphire said while keeping her eyes on the sphere as she concentrated.

Taking some notes on what she saw, Twilight asked, "So, how much of an effort is it for you to both draw the water and hold it in place?"

"Not much at first... but the more water I grab, the more focus I need to hold onto all of it. It's not too troublesome right now... but I don't want to try making two of these at the same time."

"Interesting, but isn't the sphere hard to lift? That is a lot of water to hold up in the air after all," Twilight said.

Slowly shaking her head, Sapphire replied, "Not really, just keeping it together is harder then lifting it."

"Interesting, it seems that either your magic projects more power when manipulating water or your magic creates an effect that removes or substantively decreases the weight of water. How about we test that by having you throw a small sphere of water as hard as you can into the air?" Twilight responded.

"Okay..." Sapphire said, doubt clear in her voice as she pulled out enough water from the sphere to make a small ball that could fit in her hoof. Sticking a tongue out of her mouth as she concentrated on both spheres, she hurled the smaller one with all her might. This caused the sphere to rocket upward into the sky till it disappeared from sight. "Um... I think that was a bit overboard," Sapphire commented as she and Twilight stared into the sky.

"Yeah... luckily there wasn't any pegasi currently above us. At least we now know it was your magic that had a stronger effect on water instead of a lightening effect..." Twilight replied before shaking her head clear of the shock of what just happened. "Maybe we should go with something else. How about you try freezing the water you have now?"

Blinking at the request, Sapphire raised an eyebrow as she asked, "Umm... I think casting a freezing spell is outside of my current level of magical knowledge Twilight."

Blushing a bit in realization of her request, Twilight answered, "Normally yes, but frozen water is just the water molecules arranged into a solid form from their liquid form. I assumed that your water manipulation may help you accomplish that, but maybe it is a bit much since it would require precise control of your magic. How about you return the water to the river as I think over our options."

At Twilight's command, Sapphire dropped the sphere of water straight into the river causing Twilight's eyes to widen as the sudden drop of the mass of water caused a rather large splash that soaked the two mares. Dripping wet, Sapphire just let out a nervous laugh as she saw the annoyed expression on Twilight's face. "Sorry about that..."

Letting out a sigh, Twilight looked past her dripping mane at her soggy notepad, as she replied, "It's alright Sapphire, I should have saw this coming."

"Okay..." Sapphire said, as she looked at her wet coat before she shifted her position. Before Twilight could ask about what she was doing, Sapphire suddenly shook herself dry like a dog. After getting all the water out of her coat and mane, Sapphire returned her attention to Twilight only to see her more wet and annoyed than before. "Opps... sorry again."

Letting out a groan, Twilight responded, "Let's just return to the library so I can dry myself," as her horn lit up.

"Um... Twilight, what are you do—" Sapphire tried to ask, only for Twilight to finish casting her spell, teleporting the two into the library's kitchen.

"I was just teleporting us to the library. It's much faster tha—" Twilight explained till Sapphire interrupted her.

"Hurrgggeh!"

"Gah!"

---

"I'm so sorry for vomiting on you..." Sapphire said as she waited outside the bathroom door as Twilight cleaned herself up.

"It's alright, I should have warned you in the first place. Most ponies get nauseous on their first teleport, which would be worse if they didn't expect it in the first place," Twilight called out.

"Though maybe you shouldn't eat so much at breakfast," Spike commented, as he was mopping the floor where the rest of Sapphire's mess ended up. "How can your stomach even hold all this food?"

Rubbing a foreleg with the other one, Sapphire just averted her eyes while Twilight reprimanded, "Spike! Sapphire has a fast metabolism! Her consumption is just reflective of her body's energy use."

"But doesn't she spends most of her time studying?" Spike countered as he grimaced at what looked to be the remains of the eggs Sapphire had earlier.

"Spike!"

"Yeah yeah..." Spike grumbled as he continued his work.

"Sorry Spike, I wish I could help..." Sapphire said, remember that Twilight insisted that she just rest and leave all the cleaning up to Spike. "I'll try to make it up to you when I can."

"Well, since you live with Rarity..." Spike started to say until Twilight came out of the bathroom, causing him to instead say, "I mean, it's alright Sapphire. It was just an accident."

"Okay?" Sapphire replied in confusion as Twilight went to the kitchen to pull out some food from the fridge.

"Since my teleport cost you your breakfast, how about we have an early lunch?" Twilight asked, as she also pulled out a bowl of gems. "And since you helped clean up the mess, you can have some extra gems Spike."

"Oh boy!" Spike exclaimed in joy as he hurried up his cleaning while Twilight set about making a simple meal, to which Sapphire just looked at the pile of gems in curiosity.

"Umm... why are you so excited about gems Spike? I don't see you wearing clothes much..." Sapphire questioned.

"Oh, dragons like to eat gems Sapphire. It's like a treat to some of them, a regular meal to others," Twilight answered, causing Sapphire to stare into the bowl some more as her stomach started to rumble. That was when Twilight realized what she just said, causing her to jerk her head around as she shouted, "Don't eat that!"

---

After explaining to Sapphire that ponies aren't meant to consume gems, the trio were enjoying a nice lunch were Twilight and Sapphire were having some daffodil sandwiches. Twilight thankfully had the foresight to prepare a large plate of sandwiches since Sapphire already consumed five sandwiches before Twilight could finish her own. Even though they were having lunch, Twilight asked if Sapphire could use her magic to maneuver some water into various shapes while moving them around the kitchen.

"Amazing, your control over water is amazing. Not only does your magic exert great force over it, but you actually have a refine amount of control," Twilight commented as she watched Sapphire manipulate a mass of water into a mock pony the size of a filly, while having it gallop about in the air.

"Aww... thanks Twilight, but I don't think it's nothing special. I just happen to have the talent for it, nothing more. I bet any other unicorn with the same special talent would be able to do the same things," Sapphire replied. "Though... any idea on what jobs I could use my magic for?"

Humming to herself, Twilight looked over her notes that she had made on a new notepad before saying, "Well, since the weather team takes care of all the water needs for Ponyville's agricultural sector and you don't have the education for work at the dam..." before stopping as her ears started to droop at the sight of Sapphire's growing expression of hopelessness. "Wait, you could show off your magic!"

"Show off my magic? What do you mean?" Sapphire asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"You could do some tricks with water to entertain ponies, like with those water figures you made."

"Yeah, I bet you could get crowds of ponies, especially fillies and colts, to watch some of things you could with your magic," Spike added in before munching on another gem.

"I don't know... my magic doesn't seem to be that big of a deal," Sapphire replied, doubt clear in her voice.

"It can't hurt to give it a try at least, and maybe you could learn something new or remember something," Twilight countered, causing Sapphire to stare at her half-eaten sandwich for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

"I suppose you two are right. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

Comments

[Hidemain]

Im gonna say this i love sapphire shes adorable and hilarious.

[cyberlord4444]

Okay, if my calculations are correct, Sapphire vs Trixie coming up.

[KingJoltik]

This was a great chapter and...hmm...since Sapphire doesn't remember anything, is she some sort of water spirit or something? And she was turned into a pony or something, which made her lose her memory? Perhaps she's the essence of water or a deity of it.

I'm starting to think it might be something like that...

[edgar_allan_pony]

I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

[ExoDemonG]

I mean, what's the worst that could happen

Now why did you go and say that???

[Golanth]

A green sky, uneducated, hiding, had a hard time getting food...
She's from the past, around the time Celestia and Luna fought discord.

[The Pyropath]

7017391 Either that, or...maybe she was a food source for Changelings?

[ConsciousHaze196]

"Mommy, why the sky is turning green?"
"It's nothing dear, but we must be quiet now."

It looks like Green Giant is searching for them, why else would they need to be quiet.

[Truthseeker]

"Though... any idea on what jobs I could use my magic for?"

Firefighter, DUH!

[Ephedianroyalty]

7013346
damnit, murphy, get over here.

[Amos Anon]

Hmm... perhaps water manipulation could be used in combat? We shall see.

[Golden Fang Ryu Shenron]

"I suppose you two are right. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

Dammit Sapphire, why did you have to go and say that?!

[erictheblue]

"Oh, dragons like to eat gems Sapphire. It's like a treat to some of them, a regular meal to others," Twilight answered, causing Sapphire to stare into the bowl some more as her stomach started to rumble. That was when Twilight realized what she just said, causing her to jerk her head around as she shouted, "Don't eat that!"

did Sapphire just try to eat...a SAPPHIRE?

[Ephedianroyalty]

10348605
That’s a crazy type of cannibalism right there.