Guiding Light

by Detsella Morningdew

Chapter 6: Refined

Aurora breathed heavily, her hooves, striking the deceptively soft grass, her eyes focused entirely on her destination.

All right. Canterlot is... really far away. My running speed is...

Not enough. Definitely not enough.

Why would Princess Luna do something like this? It doesn't make any sense! These "training" sessions weren't supposed to train my muscles! They were supposed to train my magic...

Oh, wait.

This isn't training the magic I learned from those books! This is training the magic that all Earth ponies know. This time, however...

Aurora's pace sped up dramatically.

I can use that magic actively.

Taking only a slight amount of concentration, Aurora produced a small amount of healing magic, erasing her pain.

She lowered her head as she ran, watching the terrain speed by and grinning madly.

This... this was awesome.

Aurora walked unsteadily through the cobblestone streets of Canterlot, her hooves crossing themselves frequently as she attempted to keep her balance.

She turned her head behind her, glaring at nothing in particular.

Why, oh why did I have to forget that I needed to climb a mountain‽

And I wasted all my magic on having fun.

She looked at the sun, which was just peeking over the horizon.

At least... at least I made it. I'm not late for breakfast...

Lunch?

Ehh... I'll just call it breakfast.

She yawned.

Less confusing that way.

She walked through the castle's entrance, the guards parting instantly to let her through. As the corridors opened themselves up for her, however, she realized just how lost she was.

I'm lucky I remember where my room is. How am I supposed to know where to meet Luna?

Fortunately, she didn't have to ponder this for long.

Aurora suddenly paused, looking at the figure above her in surprise. "Smarty Pants!"

"Wait, hang on... where were you all this time?"

The grey pegasus landed on her back, which almost caused her to tip over.

"Oops, sorry Mom." She jumped back onto the floor. "Well, after you left, Luna made me something to play on for a while. Then she brought me back here!"

Wait, Luna didn't actually leave?

"After she brought me home, she left to do something else, but she came back in time for breakfast." She suddenly brightened up. "Oh, right! I was supposed to show you where breakfast is!"

Aurora watched as Smarty Pants took off unsteadily from the ground and gestured for her to follow.

She rolled her eyes, smiling. Smarty, do you spend all your time in the air?

She followed, and soon she was looking at Smarty with an increasing bewilderment as she guided her through the castle's passageways with uncanny accuracy.

How does she do that?

The pattern of the passageways began to seem familiar, however, so she wasn't surprised at all to find herself in front of the Princess' private dining room.

She stopped suddenly, hearing voices through the door. Smarty landed softly beside her.

"... don't know that, Luna."

"Nothing else makes sense! Nopony is supposed to be able to run that far! That test was just supposed to be that: a test! To see how long she lasted! Not... this."

Not supposed to run that far? What?

"... never happened before, Luna. We cannot tell her something that we don't even know ourselves. And... even if you are right about this... I... I just want her to have some time first."

She exchanged glances with Smarty.

"Time? From what I saw, there won't be much time left before-"

"And that time will only get shorter if she knows. And as I said before, we don't even know if it is true yet. Just... wait. Please."

"Fine. But it has to happen sometime. She shouldn't have to find out on her own.

What are they talking-

Oh, crud! I just eavesdropped on the Princesses!

Aurora quickly recovered, then pushed open the doors, her confusion at her overheard conversation completely masked by her amusement at the scene before her. Princess Luna had her mouth open, and it seemed stuck that way as what she was about to say died in her throat. Princess Twilight looked as guilty as a foal who had just been caught near the cookie jar, and was looking determinately at anything except Aurora. And Princess Celestia looked like nothing was wrong at all about the situation, and she had just been simply waiting for them to arrive.

"Good morning Aurora. Good morning, Smarty."

"G-good morning." Aurora yawned.

"Good morning!"

Celestia gestured to the two empty seats at the table, each with a plate full of blueberry waffles. Smarty was almost instantly in her seat, digging in.

"I'm sure you are tired, Aurora, but it would be very nice if you could join us before your nap."

Aurora looked back at her quizzically.

"It would not be productive if you were exhausted during our lesson, would it?"

"Oh. Yeah. I guess you're right." She walked clumsily to her chair and sat down. She picked up a fork.

It was surprisingly difficult.

The waffles tasted excellent, though.

Aurora woke up, pulling the blankets off of herself.

Wait, I don't remember falling asleep...

She groaned. Wow. I must have been tired.

She dropped off the side of the bed with a "clop."

"Well, I guess it's another study session with Celestia." She looked around her room.

"Where is she, by the way?"

Smarty Pants landed beside her. "I think I know. I'll go get her for you. I think she's in the throne room."

Aurora looked at her bookshelf, contemplating which book would be the optimal one to start with. "Okay. Go ahead."

Aha! That's the one!

She picked up the promising one, walking over to her desk on her hind legs.

The relevance of Smarty's words hit her.

"Wait! Don't just barge into Day Court!"

She was already gone.

Aurora looked at Celestia, confused.

"What do you mean, Princess?"

Celestia sighed. "I mean, the focus of our studies will have to change. I am sorry I could not postpone this much longer. In fact, nothing would make me happier than studying with you, learning whatever magic strikes our fancy, the magic that intrigues or amuses us.

"However... I do not wish to mislead you. Equestria is not as safe as it always seems to be. As my student, you are very important to me, and I want to be absolutely sure that you stay safe. But by itself... being important to me is dangerous, and while the RGIS is doing its best to handle those threats... I still want you to be able to defend yourself. Just in case.

At Aurora's worried expression, Celestia continued "I do not want you to think that any event like this is likely. But I need you to be prepared for such an event, as unlikely as it is."

"Prepared? To..."

Her mind went back to the pitch black ball of magic that had been in her hooves. And what it could do.

"No," Celestia said firmly. "I want you to be ready, ready to defend yourself. But I do not condone, nor will I ever condone, the use of dark magic on another pony."

Aurora released the breath she now only realized she was holding.

"However, in our study, we should look out for that kind of magic that would be useful should you find yourself in such a situation."

Aurora sighed. At least she isn't expecting me to... well...

"I don't know... most of the magic I learned so far is about healing, and things like that. I mean, it's useful for 'not dying,' but other than that..."

"Do not worry, my student. You told me yourself: most of the magic you know is within the Silver circle of magic. Even so, it is not a necessity to have such a spell. If it comes to that, a physical attack will work just fine."

Aurora suddenly saw the image of the dented steel door, and winced.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Celestia smiled sadly, a distant look in her eyes.

"I always do."

Aurora dragged herself into her room, flopping on her bed.

"What... in... Tartarus?"

Smarty Pants walked in afterwards, yawning and stretching her wings. "That was... hard."

Aurora gave her a look. "No kidding! At least for you it was optional! That was just... I don't even know."

Aurora hadn't expected Luna's little lesson to be easy, of course. Last time had cured her of that. But she knew for a fact that the run from there to Canterlot was a one-time thing, a test.

Instead, when they got there, she was attacked by seven dirt golems. At once.

It was kinda fun, actually. For the first three minutes. Then Luna decided to add more.

Do all of her lessons have to be this painful?

"It wasn't that bad," Smarty said, climbing into the bed next to her. "Luna taught me that lightning thing. That was really cool."

She paused for a second, thinking. "I still don't know how she got dirt to fly like that, though."

Aurora rubbed the side of her head, trying to relieve her headache. "Just don't try to think about it, Smarty. Most of her magic doesn't make sense to me, either. I'm just glad she decided to give us armor beforehoof. I didn't even know they made armor in our size."

Now that I think about it, we are remarkably similar in size now, she thought suddenly. She's certainly older than I thought. Or growing faster. Is there residual growth magic left in her or something?

Smarty put a hoof to her chin. "Um... maybe they make the armor this size for those military schools, like, for pre-boot camp training."

Aurora shook her previous thoughts from her head, diverting her attention back to their conversation. "No, I don't think so, Smarty. They still only allow older ponies in those, like teenagers. So mostly adult-sized ponies. These ones must have been custom-made, which only makes me wonder how Luna got our sizes."

Smarty yawned. "Probably a spell or something."

Aurora dropped her head back on the pillow. "Yeah... Probably a spell..."

"Hey Mom! Get up! It's time for your lesson!"

Aurora groaned, rolling out of her bed for a four-point landing on the marble floor.

A perfect way to wake oneself up quickly.

Aurora winced at the shock. I really hope this waking-up-late thing isn't a trend. I really need an alarm clock.

She put a hoof to her chin.

Or... a body clock.

But that can wait for later. I can't keep the Princess waiting.

She trotted over to her desk, where Celestia already seemed to be waiting for her.

Well, she did have a book open in front of her, so she probably wasn't too bored.

How long exactly was she waiting for me?

Aurora sat down next to her mentor uncertainly.

"Um... well... I don't really know what to show you anymore. I mean, I guess I can think of a few things in the books that might be useful in Luna's... exercises, but..."

Aurora caught an expression of surprise on Celestia's face before it disappeared suddenly, replaced by her usual motherly smile. "Do not worry, Aurora. The only thing that has changed is our priority of what we should study. The content of that study will be the same. We will study and learn new things together, just as before. The difference is that we will not linger on those spells which are trivial in nature."

Aurora pondered that. "So, like, if there was an earth pony equivalent to 'transmute to orange?'"

Celestia chuckled. "Yes, precisely."

Aurora let out a long breath. "That's a relief. But I still want to be able to find something to work against those golems..."

"Besides the use of the dark magic, you mean."

Aurora shuddered. "Yeah. I could see that the golems had wellsprings of their own, but... using that kind of magic, even on non-living things... And those golems look far too lifelike.

"It's not that it would work, anyway. You saw how much trouble I had with it then. That would be far too long of a casting time. And it requires emotions I don't want to have, whether I'm in a 'battle' or not."

Celestia nodded. "Quite. Now, I suggest we start with the other branch of magic you mentioned. The way you described it, it sounded more diverse."

"Yeah. In fact, I'm not entirely convinced it's just a single branch. The scholars who wrote these books, even the Earth pony ones, didn't seem to know it very well. It seems to be just a grouping of a large collection of abilities. Those scholars called the branch 'Earth,' but that was mostly because it contained all the abilities that were associated with Earth ponies at the time. Well, except growing things.

"Actually, scratch that. I think it had more to do with the Earth ponies' military abilities. Abilities like enhanced strength, the ability to break through shields, and just inexplicable teleportation were just grouped into a single category.

"Although now that I think about it, that teleportation ability sounds a lot like Passage, before it was discovered by the other races."

Celestia nodded in understanding. "I see your reluctance to put it into a circle."

"Exactly. I can see connections between some of them, but some of those connections are faint, and some connections I just can't see... I guess this is the one area where I can't just learn things from a single book."

She smiled. "But maybe that isn't such a bad thing! All the experts on the Silver branch knew what they were talking about, and knew that others would be able to understand what they were saying. They knew what words to use, and how to use them. But with these other... areas... they just wrote down what they could, and made educated guesses."

Smarty Pants stopped her flying practice, landing clumsily next to their desk. "Why would that help with anything? It sounds worse."

Aurora shook her head. "No, while it may seem like that, it's just the opposite. They knew that the subject was confusing. In fact, they were confused themselves! So each pony wrote down more than necessary, writing everything they knew, and even more in guesswork! So when I study all of the work from different ponies, and combine it together, I might not only figure out how these 'Earth' branches work, but also Earth pony magic in general!"

Smarty paused, then clapped her front hooves together. "I get it now! That way, you won't just learn spells from the books..."

Celestia finished for her. "She'll be able to make spells of her own."

Aurora beamed. "And I'll learn a lot of spells anyway from doing it! This is going to be so much fun!"

She looked back down at her notebook, which had about twenty pages left.

"... I might need some more paper."

Comments

[Maran]

Love the part in Chapter 4 about how ponies forget that the princesses are also powerful earth ponies. And Luna's lessons are great. I love her style. Although it would probably be more fun to watch from the sidelines than to go through it.

Now I'm curious about what's going to happen to Aurora, and what this threat is?

Even in my “overpowered” earth pony magic headcanon, earth magic can't directly effect other ponies in most cases. There are work-arounds that ponies can figure out, but even then, it's not useful for anything like ranged combat. It's mostly for rejuvenation or increasing a pony's strength, similar to much of what Aurora does in this fanfic.

[HeartfireFirebrand]

8248066
Earth Pony magic most vital function in my opinion is passive magic resistance to all magic types and the more magic an Earth Pony has the more they can resist, if they have enough even Discord couldn't do much.

[Asolem2]

"I always do."

And yet it always does

"... I might need some more paper."

Correction: You need more notebooks