This is...

by WatchMeShadow

Just the Beginning part 3

*Knock* *Knock*

Twilight got up from her resting spot, which happened to be on the ground in the middle of the library. Twilight had been waiting for Spike to return with Sweetie as she finally finished translating the unicorn section of the journal. Twilight walked to the door giddy with the fact that she can translate that journal at her leisure now, as opposed to the mind numbing grind it had been. She opened the door to find only Sweetie Belle as she waited outside, “Hello Sweetie, come on in,” Sweetie stepped in, “where’s Spike by the way?”

“He’s helping Rarity. She got really behind on work after I umm, you know,” Sweetie said lowering her head, “I hope you don’t mind.” Sweetie felt selfish, she spent the whole day with Rarity after she got out of the hospital and not once had Rarity spent it doing any work. Now Rarity has tons of things to do, and she can’t help. She’d just mess things up like always. Like when she failed to notice one of her best friends was an orphan and homeless, after two years no less, and how she complained about her own family like they were a nuisance to said friend. She couldn’t get the image of her friends crying at what they believed to be her deathbed out of her head. It haunted her. She never considered how they’d feel if something happened to her. It moved her, made her feel horrible about herself, but also want to be better.

“That’s okay, Spike has helped Rarity out before,” Twilight noticed Sweeties depressed look, “Hey, what’s bothering you?”

“Nothing,” Sweetie said still looking down.

“Alright. What’s wrong, you’re not fooling anypony Sweetie,” Twilight said in concern.

Sweetie looked around to find nopony else in the library, “but it’s just me and you in here,” Twilight face hoofed, “besides who said I was trying to fool anypony?”

“So, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked in concern with a hint of aggravation, not that Sweetie noticed.

“It’s just, do I seem selfish and or self absorbed to you?” Sweetie asked. This had been bugging her since she got back to Raritys after she learned about Scootaloos situation. Scootaloo said it was okay, but Sweetie just couldn’t help but feel inadequate, that she let her best friend be homeless for two years, because she wasn’t smart enough to realize something wasn’t right.

“No,” Twilight responded, ‘maybe a little oblivious at times’ she added in her head, “What makes you ask that?”

“I spent the whole day with Rarity when she had to work to do, and that’s after she spent her time with me at the hospital, and now she has a ton of work to do and I want to help her out but I’m n-no good at sewing, I know that,” Sweetie hated to admit this, and she barely kept it together, “I’m not good at it,” she said weakly, “but I want to help her. That should be me back there helping her, n-not Spike,” she breathed heavily, her emotions were getting the better of her, “and that’s not even mentioning the whole ordeal with Scootal-” Sweetie quickly covered her mouth with one of her hooves, as her state of mind changed from regretful self loathing to alert nervousness, she felt like she just got caught eating out of Raritys sweet mixed nuts jar. Rarity doesn’t mind if Sweetie has them, but Sweetie can’t resist their sweet goodness and ends up devouring the whole thing if Rarity isn’t there to stop her.

Twilight knew something was up, that Sweetie was about to say ‘Scootaloo,’ but she decided to tackle things one at a time, “Sweetie, you know Rarity would shut down her shop for good if she had to for you,” Sweetie removed her hoof with a relieved look, then looked down ashamed.

“I know, I just wish I could make it up to her,” Sweetie responded.

“Sweetie, you already are, Rarity is very worried about you and your magic,” Twilight responded.

“She is?” Sweetie questioned, ears perked up.

Twilight nodded in confirmation, “She doesn’t want you to live in fear that you might do something accidentally, neither do I for that matter,” Twilight stated as a matter of fact, “she’s actually very proud of how much progress you were making before you fell down that hole, now she’s afraid you won’t be able to use your magic again, and that’s why we’re here so you can keep improving, so she can have peace of mind knowing that casting spells is something you can do without fear.”

“I-I guess,” Sweetie stuttered.

“So what’s this about Scootaloo?” Twilight asked, she had a suspicion she knew what it was for, that being Scootaloo's fear of her wings, but the way Sweetie phrased it made it seem much more than a simple fear. She hoped they weren’t fighting.

Sweeties face got sweaty, and her eyes shifted about, “Scootaloo?” she squeaked out, “Hahaha, who said anything about Scootaloo?”

Twilight thought that maybe she’s just over thinking it, Scootaloo might have forgot to tell Sweetie that she also told her about her fear, “Ahh, nevermind,” Twilight dismissed much to Sweeties relief, “So before we begin practice I want to go over what Puddinghead had to say about unicorns in the unicorns section of his journal.”

“Okay!” Sweetie squeaked, all too happy about the subject change.

Twilight levitated her notes to her, just incase, “Well, according to Puddinghead it use to only take two unicorns to raise and lower the sun and moon, but those spells were lost and their replacements weren’t as good-”

“But wasn’t The Gathering fifteen unicorns?” Sweetie interrupted.

“Yes, but I’m talking about before The Gathering. Unicorns were much more powerful back then if Puddinghead’s journal is to be believed, and so far it has been pretty accurate, regardless of how frustrating it is to translate,” Twilight blinked twice, it’s over with for now and she can finally take a break from that, “sorry. Anyways, the replacement spell wasn’t that good and it took three to four unicorns to cast, which, by the way, is the same spell members of The Gathering used, and that should give you an indication on how much magical potential unicorns lost, at least according to Puddinghead,” Sweetie just looked at her interested, and Twilight realized she could talk all day about the revolutions Puddingheads journal provided and not get to the crux of the issue, “My point is, that I’m almost one hundred percent certain you’re now the most powerful unicorn in the world.”

“W-what?” Sweetie yelled high pitched, in surprise, “but I’m just a filly, w-who hasn’t even got her cutie mark,” Sweetie actually thought Twilight was over-exaggerating the first time Twilight told her she may be more powerful than Luna and Celestia combined. She definitely remembers Twilights cutie mark story, and after she learned more about magic during ‘Twilight Time,’ well she hoped she didn’t get a cutie mark the way Twilight got hers.

“Both are true, but magic has little to do with age and cutie marks. Magic is a force that bends reality, even though we don’t know the whys or hows, we do know that it can be controlled,” Twilight brought a quill between them with her magic, Sweetie caught onto Twilights example and smiled, “monitored with various machines,” Twilight said as she gestured to her basement door which goes down to various scientific equipment, “and maintained with the aid of gems and what I’m beginning to suspect is life-force as there’s no way you should be able to contain as much magic as you currently do. Not without some form of magical surges, and all I’ve seen you do is lack control over your spells, which isn’t the same as a surge, and completely understandable. The method Celestia taught me didn’t always work out… It helped me plenty but sometimes my magic just acted out, even when Celestia was teaching me it, and I didn’t see that happen with you, not yet at least,” Twilight lectured, as Sweetie listened intently, “Anyways, I know this may come as a shock but I actually tried the spell you used to stop time, before you got here, and let me just say if I was still a unicorn I think that it would have wiped me out, it required way more magic than I thought it would. You said you had it going for more than five minutes, well I think I used it for all of ten seconds before it began to be too much, I could have probable lasted almost half a minute if I really tried,” Twilight finished, while Sweetie understood what had been said, she just didn’t get the gravity of it.

“But how? Even I don’t know how I casted that spell,” Sweetie questioned.

“I got my cutie mark for being well adept at magic, and I had you explain it to me remember?” Twilight questioned back.

“But all we talked about about was how I felt and… Oh, emotions right,” Sweetie said as she now understood. She had briefly forgotten that unicorn spells start out with emotions, now she knew why Twilight questioned her so heavily about how she felt the moment just before and after she froze time. It made sense to her now, she hadn’t bothered asking at the time, as so much was going on in her mind.

“That’s right Sweetie,” Twilight started, “new spells are generally casted with the aid of emotions, and that’s how I was able to replicate your spell. All that’s needed to copy a spell is enough magic, the emotional blueprints, and knowledge of what the spell is supposed to do so it can be directed properly,” Twilight thought on that for a second, “well I make it sound simple, but the real complexity comes in magic theory, that tries to explain why and how magic works, and I could go on and on about how many different yet well thought out theories there are. Like why do unicorns have different colors as their default magical signature? One theory would suggest it’s genetics, while another would suggest it’s purely a subconscious decision and so many more, some of which fit into well thought out theories that try to explain magic as a whole. For example Tanners theory of Magic Granted, that states...” Twilight continued talking about various theories of magic.

Sweetie stopped listening to Twilight’s lecturing rant soon after Twilight asked her where unicorns got their unique color signature as something Twilight said earlier popped up, and Sweetie couldn’t help but think about it and make her own theory, “life-force,” Sweetie mumbled.

“What was that?” Twilight asked, almost losing her train of thought as she was now talking about one of Starswirl's abandoned theories.

“I said life-force. You said earlier that I should be suffering from magical surges. Yet I’m not, and that the only reason you can think that is because of life-force,” Sweetie said smiling smugly.

“Um, yeah I did, but I don’t know what that has to do with Starswirl’s theory of-” Twilight began.

“No, umm,” Sweetie interrupted, “I mean the question you asked me.”

“The question?” Twilight asked not recalling exactly what question Sweetie was referring to, as she had brought up a decent amount, while she lectured about various theories. ‘Whoops,’ Twilight thought, she was supposed to help Sweetie get better at using her magic, not lecturing about theories.

“Yeah, you asked about a unicorn's magical signature, what if life-force not only prevented me from having magical surges but is also responsible for a unicorn's magical signature?” Sweetie asked in a proposing manner.

Twilight mumbled something to herself as she thought about that possibility, before a spark of an idea came to her. She remembered what the summary had said, she quickly retrieved her translation of Puddingheads summary of his journal to confirm her suspicions. Once confirmed she got Puddingheads journal and skipped to the section just after the unicorns section. It hadn’t changed, her eyes dilated in shock, she needed to translate this as soon as possible. She noticed Sweetie looking at her waiting for an answer, “You might be onto something Sweetie, I suppose that’s as good a reason as any other it’s almost in line with the genetics theory if it’s name is any indication, but if life-force can also maintain magic like I suspect it can then what’s stopping it from also being the reason for unique magic signatures,” Twilight said upbeatly, “among other things,” she whispered darkly, “Anyways I think we’ve talked enough let’s get to some practise.”

With that said, they went to practise. Sweetie was showing slight progress, but clearly had major problems regulating how much magic she put into a spell. Twilight couldn’t stop thinking about about what she fears the next section of Puddinghead’s journal will say, as the pictures paint a clear, well, picture to her, and she doesn’t like it, not one bit. She likes to think herself a scientist, so she’s not going to jump to conclusions just yet. After some more practise it was time for Sweetie to go home, “Can you tell Spike to get back here before it gets dark?” With an ‘Okay’ from Sweetie, Twilight closed the door with a heavy sigh. After a second, Twilight groaned and lightly bumped her head on the door when she realized she’s not done translating the journal.

As Sweetie walked home she thought about her progress a little more positively than previously. She knew she had a long way to go but with Twilight's help she was sure she could make Rarity proud. Things, for once, where looking up.

“Hey Blank Flank!”

...

-------------------
Applejack
-------------------

Applejack was surrounded by apple trees for as far as the eye can see as she trudged past several. She’s on her way to retrieve her little sister Applebloom for supper. As she walked she couldn’t help but think about the vacation she had planned to go on with Applebloom within the next couple weeks. She was nervous about it, there are things she’s never told her little sister that she plans to share during that vacation. She’s chickened out of telling her sister so many times, but soon after Appleblooms run in with a chimera, she knew she had to tell her, and planned that vacation for that very reason.

It was eating her up inside, even though she knows her feelings at the time were that of a broken filly, she still felt a pang of guilt anytime she looked at Applebloom. She’s done everything she could to make that guilt go away, she even made the Sisterhooves Social, but it persisted. Applejack had planned on it being just her and Applebloom, so Applebloom would be forced to talk to her about it after she learned the whole truth. She was glad she caved-in to her friends and let them come along though; Applebloom might need the support. Applebloom has been on the farm a lot recently, and when asked why she wasn’t out crusading, she said that Scootaloo was spending quality time with her sister, and Sweetie had a practise session with Twilight, and finally she wanted to try some things out. Applejack had noticed her sister behaving slightly off, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out the reason why. She wanted to believe it was merely the post traumatic effects of what happened to Sweetie, but Applebloom had made a pretty big statement about that with her bow tie. It left Applejack in the dark.

As Applejack kept walking she became aware of some rather odd looking plants from a daisy whose leaves formed the distinct shape of a pine tree, to a tree that appeared to be growing red raspberries, and things just got stranger from there. She could only think of one being capable and willing to make such strange things. ‘Discord’ she thought bitterly. She didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him. The more she moved the stranger the plants became, she was glad Discord kept her apple trees unchanged, but she didn’t like the idea of Discord picking on her little sister. She moved a little faster.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mirror made quite a bit of ground her first night out of the cave system she called home. Sure it was cold outside but that was nothing new to her living inside a cave all her life. She was very tired but she knew she had to get as far as she could before the sun came up.

She eventually came across a variable forest of hoodoos, as sky slowly lit up. She decided to stay there for the day, as it would provide some shade and she didn’t have much night time left. She snacked on some generic emotions, mainly irritation and contentedness, they’re the changeling equivalent of sugary, starchy foods; filling, but no real nutritional value. She took a decent amount of water with her, as she needed that to survive. It usually rained in the Badlands once a year. When it did rain it rained hard, anything unlucky enough to be in a ravine at that time would find itself drowning and banging into walls. No pegasi was able to change when/how it rained and the ponies and other species needed it to rain more than once a year for their crops to grow. Changelings didn’t need crops, but they did need water. Luckily for them when it did rain their cave system had some natural ponds that they managed to and continue to fight the locale wildlife for. All they needed to do was collect ambient or direct emotions from other races and they’d have food. Mirror dozed off from lack of sleep in the night time in what she thought would have been a safe spot.

She woke up to the loud cracking sound and a huge shadowy figure lunging towards her. It jerked to the side, just missing her. She stared at the figure in shock, as she tried to comprehend what had almost crushed her. She then looked ahead of her and up a little and saw two giant scorpion figures in front of her with soulless black eyes. She knew what they were. Exhilaration, as opposed to adrenaline, shot through her system and she began to run for her life away from them. She didn’t know it but she was lucky, because that cracking sound came from one of the giant scorpions body slamming the one bearing its claw on her, that’s how the claw missed her. She weaved her way through hoodoos and heard as they skittered yet thundered towards her, the occasional strike that was immediately behind her and at one point to the side and in front of her. She ran till the hoodoos got thick enough that they couldn’t pass and continued to run. She finally stopped simply because she couldn’t run anymore, luckily she heard no sign of those huge scorpions in a while.

Fortunately, she was soo tired that she hadn’t thought to take off her saddlebags before she had went to sleep, and was still wearing them during her terrifying awakening. The blinding sun was up and it was unbearable hot outside. She ended up gulping down a quarter of her water supply, while resisting the urge to drink the rest, as she recovered from her unexpected marathon. She began to have doubts about her plan to help the hive. She remembered her parents telling her about the dangerous creatures that live outside the cave. Those had to have been elephant scorpions. Regardless of their name they have a brown tan color all around them, two large beady black eyes with a stinger and legs larger than herself. Her doubt went away as she remembered this lesson her parents gave her. It made her miss them, but it strengthened her resolve to help the hive. If they can die trying to help the hive then she can risk her own life as well. She checked her surroundings and found an unoccupied hidey hole in a hoodoo and got some much needed sleep.

Author's Note:

Next chapter will be an (Optional?) chapter, which means reading it won't be necessary, but highly recommended.

Then we get back to Sweetie and her unexpected run-in with somepony, or someponies...

It would seem Twilight finally is catching on to something that could be very important to her would-be future students.

What could possibly have Applejack feeling guilty?

Comments

[Enderdragonslayer1]

This is...

...madness!

No.

THIS. IS. SPARTA!

please forgive me, I couldn't resist

[F]

It's sad that this story doesn't have a lot of comments,reviews, and/or likes. :/