• Published 21st Dec 2019
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Amethyst Star Isn't Prepared For This - MagicS



Sick and tired of being overshadowed by all of the amazing ponies that live in Ponyville, Amethyst Star goes on an adventure into the unknown to show she can be just as special as anybody.

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Amethyst Star and the River

After walking through the jungle for the previous couple of days, Amethyst Star could now hear the sound of rushing water. It was a loud rumble that was quite unmistakable even to her unworldly ears. She was still going dead west and the sound only got louder with each step she took even though the thickness of the foliage kept her from seeing anything at the moment. She just hoped the river wouldn’t be too wild and she could take a dip in it for a second. Her coat and mane were both matted and sweaty after all the time she’d been in this jungle. At the very least she planned to take a short break and plop right down on the riverbank regardless of how everything else was.

Her recent failures did not weigh heavily on her mind because she was doing her hardest to ignore them.

The Undiscovered West was a big place, there was still plenty for her to do and see out here, still plenty of new chances and adventures for her. It was simply logical considering all the little things she had been through and seen already. She may not have had a map of this part of the world but she knew she had barely explored it so far. And until she hit the edge of the world or somehow ended up walking all the way around it she was going to keep traveling west in search of her goal.

She paused for a second and opened up her saddlebag, pulling her canteen out and downing the last quarter of it all in one gulp since she knew she’d be able to refill it in a second anyways. The unicorn also pulled out her compass to make sure she was going the right direction but the needle on the metal tool was spinning around unrestrained and Amethyst Star had no idea what that meant or how to fix it.

With a shrug she tucked the presently useless compass back into her bag and leaned up against a tree. She could still tell the general direction she was going in thanks to the sun but the compass made her feel like a real explorer when she used it. As she looked up she couldn’t really see the sun very well through all the trees right now anyways, she was pretty sure it was noon and that was about it. Maybe when she got to a clearing or out of this jungle entirely she could wait around an hour and see where the sun went to reorient herself.

That river wasn’t getting any closer with her just sitting here though. Amethyst Star got up from her relaxed position against the tree and kept walking in the direction of that sound. Things had been quiet for her the past couple of days, the river might not have been new ponies or a new adventure but it was at least something different from trees, dirt, and more trees.

Stomping through the last bits of greenery, Amethyst Star pushed apart the big leafy fronds of an enormous fern to emerge by the edge of a raging river.

And raging was a more than apt term indeed.

The sound of it from inside the jungle didn’t prepare her at all for what she saw now. The river wasn’t particularity wide, fifty feet maybe, but all across and all the way up and down she could see it was nothing but a chaotic tumbling mass of rapids shooting downstream with enough force that it looked like a boulder would be carried along with the water if you dropped it in. Taking a dip would have to wait for a calmer body of water, if she put even one hoof in there without being careful she was liable to be dragged away by the powerful current.

Amethyst Star pulled out her canteen from her bag again and levitated it with her magic to the water, unscrewing the lid and lightly dipping it in just enough for it to break the surface and get filled up. Even just like this she could feel the river strongly tugging on her magic, trying to take the canteen away. The floral print canteen was filled up in an instant and she pulled it up before she could lose it. Screwing the lid back on she put it away again and frowned at the imposing river in front of her.

“This may be a bad idea.”

She got up as close as she could to the water’s edge without getting in, crossing the river was a must if she wanted to keep going this direction and she somehow doubted there would be any bridges if she just searched up or downstream for a little while. Amethyst Star was confident in her swimming ability but this was a little much, even she could see that. It annoyed her thinking about it though. If she was better at magic, like a certain someone or two, she could teleport or levitate herself across. Maybe if she tried swimming across the river she could use her magic to steady her body or block against the oncoming deluge? Was she strong enough for that? Probably not.

“Hold on… this is just another trial for me. Like that dumb hill. If I give up here or start thinking I can’t even cross a river then it’s like admitting I’m not fit to go on an adventure,” Amethyst Star reasoned to herself. “Yeah, that’s it. No way I’m gonna be scared off by a river. I know there are plenty of ponies tough enough to get through this thing and I can do it too!”

The unicorn stepped forward and slowly pushed herself into the water, the raging rapids already lapping up against her legs after the first two steps. She adjusted the strap on her bag so it rested on her back but if the thing got wet then oh well, she’d just have to deal with it. With another step she was up to her neck and the water slamming into her side threatened to push her downstream like a rag doll.

“This is nothing!” Amethyst Star yelled and finally took the last step needed for her hooves to no longer reach the ground.

Instantly she lurched downstream, nearly being pulled under by the current. Surprisingly though she managed to keep her wits about her and her head above water. Lighting up her horn she tried to anchor her hooves to the ground with magic but it didn’t really do anything. Simple telekinesis was all she had so her next bet was trying to push the water away from her and divert some of the flow of the raging river around her. It would’ve created a nice little pocket for her where she wouldn’t have been buffeted by the water nearly as hard but again, Amethyst Star simply didn’t have the raw power necessary to succeed and the water broke past her magic, the strong current continuing to carry her downstream.

“Bleugh!” Amethyst Star coughed out as she went through a rough rapid and ended up dunked for a moment. Now she had fully lost control of herself and was being carried away. “S-Still nothing!”

Wave after wave crashed over her wet head now, her mane was soaked, her bag was soaked, and the river was going so fast and she kept tumbling end over end in it that she couldn’t think straight anymore. It was so disorientating that the only thing she could do was fight to keep her head above the surface and not accidentally take a big gulp of water. Thoughts of making it to the other side vanished from her for now, replaced by thoughts of not drowning.

Her hooves paddled about uselessly underneath her and in a last ditch effort she attempted a minor version of what she had done before, pushing the water away and diverting it, but just focused around her head instead of her entire body this time.

It worked better than her previous endeavor. Not saying much but it did allow her to keep her head above water again.

“Okay, see? I can totally beat any dumb river!” She shouted to herself more than anything.

Even with the fear of drowning temporarily abated though the fact was she was still being effortlessly carried downstream and there wasn’t really anything she could do about it. Changes in the riverbed and rocks in the river pulled her up and down and side to side with the water, just making her more tired. If this kept up for too much longer she’d get exhausted and that would be pretty problematic. Amethyst Star grit her teeth as this realization occurred to her, she didn’t want to take anything like that sitting down, just waiting until she ran out of energy was no good to her. Even if she couldn’t do anything she’d at least fight until she couldn’t fight anymore.

Amethyst Star started swimming against the current, trying to push herself closer to the other side of the river. “I am so sick and tired of ponies thinking I can’t do anything, or that I can’t do it just as good as anyone else! Well I can! And this water’s cold!”

Racking her brain to come up with something that could get her out of this situation, Amethyst Star actually came up with something fairly clever. Using her magic she encased her own tail in an aura to stiffen it and started waving it like a flipper to propel herself in the water. Paddling with her legs at the same time she started making a small amount of progress even as the river kept carrying her downstream.

“Hah! Take that, world! Sea Swirl, Berry Punch, I bet you’d be impressed right now too!” Amethyst Star grinned as she swam along.

The only problem was she still didn’t have the greatest magical capacity for a unicorn and her little maneuver was starting to exhaust her power. The strength of the river and rapids was adding to that too and she could feel her horn flickering. In the end, while she might have had the will and even the determination, she didn’t have the body. As she had learned plenty of times on her adventure so far, she wasn’t exactly prepared for what she was doing and didn’t have the ability to overcome every (or any) trial. As much as she wanted to prove differently it seemed she couldn’t completely overcome this river.

Her horn went out and she was pulled faster downstream by the current, the strength fading from her body. With a groan she turned around and tried to at least aim herself downstream so she wasn’t fighting the current anymore, giving her more time to adjust and catch her breath.

That’s when she saw the rocks dead ahead.

“Oh,” Amethyst Star grimaced.

An instant later she smacked into them and the world went dark.


“That was some mighty fine angling you did there, Tackle,” a large earth pony in water-proof fishing overalls said to his friend as the other reeled Amethyst Star in on the end of his line, the hook caught around the strap of her saddlebag.

“Best angler on the river,” Tackle replied. “Hope she’s okay though.”

Once Tackle had her up close his companion grabbed her from the violent waters and laid her out on the ground. In a second she began coughing up water and blearily looking around, wondering where she was.

“Hey, take it easy there miss, we aint sure how long you were floating in that river for but it looks like you’ve swallowed a good deal of water,” Tackle said to her.

“You’re lucky we saw you. If the two of us weren’t here you’d have gone straight over the falls just a bit further downstream,” the one who pulled her out said.

Amethyst Star was pretty groggy but she managed to sit herself up. She rubbed her painfully throbbing forehead and took a few deep breaths, if only they had a towel or something too that would’ve been perfect. “Thank you...”

“What happened? You fall in somewhere upstream? Boat capsize?” Tackle asked.

She shook her head. “No, I uh… tried to swim across the river on my own.” She fought to keep from blushing in embarrassment.

The two fishers gawked at her and shared a disbelieving look with each other. Finally the one who had pulled her out of the water raised an admonishing eyebrow at her and asked the question he felt really needed to be asked. “You an idiot?”

Amethyst Star couldn’t conceal the scorn on her face. But it was mostly scorn towards herself.

“Yes.”

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