adventure Guiding Light

[AuroraMLP 59]

All right, this one is technically incomplete, but since it is a really long fic, I will probably have to wait almost a year before it actually is complete. Now, the current word count is over 20,000, so I won't post it all here. I suggest you read it all on Fimfiction here. The main premise is of an earth pony foal who wants to study, of all things, magic.

 

However, if you just want to see if you are interested, here is the first chapter:

 

 

Chapter 1: Kindergarten Woes

 

 

       Aurora looked around the classroom nervously, mentally cataloging the occupants.

       Unicorn, unicorn, unicorn, pegasus, unicorn, unicorn... another unicorn, unicorn, pegasus, unicorn, pegasus... and me.

       She sighed, her eyes falling on her own light green hooves. Her empty forehead. Her bare back. She looked back around at the class.

       I don't know why I expected anything different, she thought bitterly. This was the third school she had been to in just as many months, and at each of them it had been the same.

       She set her head on her desk. I bet I'm the only earth pony in Canterlot.

       The rational part of her brain immediately protested.

       Well, except for the ones that are visiting. But they don't have to go to school.

       It wasn't like the courses were particularly hard. They were actually quite boring. And, well, nopony really knew what to do with an earth pony.  Unicorns learned their telekinesis. Pegasi learned how to fly. But earth ponies' magic was all passive. Nothing to really learn there. The best the schools ever did was to give her a few agricultural books and hope for the best. Even that was after she pestered them constantly for something, anything, to do. Unfortunately for her, agriculture was... not that appealing. At all.

       Her parents had both been unicorns, and... well... they were loving and kind. Aurora couldn't ask for better caretakers than Written Script and Cherry Blossom. However, both of them were a different species. Evidently, both had earth pony ancestry and had passed it on to her, but it still meant that they had no idea how to teach an earth pony any of the practical skills that they usually learned from their parents.

       And judging by the knowledge of so-called experts, it would not have been much better.

       Of course, Aurora never believed that earth ponies were in any way inferior. She had heard stories of earth ponies with incredible and strange powers. The problem was that nopony really could teach her anything. Most of those fabled earth ponies discovered their abilities by accident. She lived in a library with two scholars, and while she had developed a passion for magic, the only recorded study materials were all designed for unicorn use. The best she could do was to learn unicorn theory. At least that was interesting enough.

       So Magic Kindergarten was incredibly boring. Nopony taught theory, even for unicorns, and nopony really knew what to do with her. That was okay, in a way. She could deal with being bored, as long as she could go home and read later. The problem lay in the fact that she was the only earth pony. The only freak in the show. So she was the target of everything. The target for bullies that believed that if they couldn't see the magic, then it wasn't there.

 

 

       "Hey! Give that back!"

       The colt held the small, bronze object aloft, bringing it closer to himself. "Well, well... What is this?" He shook it a bit, then opened the cover. "A compass?" He squinted, reading the letters. "G, D, W, N?"

       He laughed. "What, did you make this yourself? The points aren't even straight!" He glanced back at her, grinning. "Oh wait, never mind. That can't be right, either."

       Aurora stomped her hoof, then lunged at the object. "I said, give it back!"

       The gray unicorn sneered, lifting it contemptuously out of her reach. "And what are you going to do if I don't? Grow me to death?"

       He laughed at his own joke.

       Aurora fumed, brushing her dark green mane out of her eyes.

       He locked his gaze, glaring at her one last time, then scoffed, turning away. "Face it, dirt lover. There's a reason earth ponies stayed as farmers."

       Aurora cracked. She shrieked, spinning around as she placed both her rear hooves firmly in his chest. The impact sent the stock colt back a few feet and onto the ground. He blinked, stunned by the impact, and all of the other foals watching gasped. The grey aura around her compass flickered and died as she snatched it out of the air with her mouth and ran, tears falling from her eyes.

 

 

       Aurora sat against the tunnel wall, breathing heavily and attempting to calm her racing heart. She groaned in despair.

       I have to be expelled for sure. I just attacked another pony. I don't think I've hit something that hard before.

       I... I just couldn't risk losing Dad's compass.

       Carefully, Aurora pushed the bronze chain back around her neck before letting the compass fall onto her chest. Holding it in one hoof, she pressed the button on the side, opening it up with a small click.

       Please don't be broken, please don't be broken...

       G was somewhere at the center. W pointed back down the street. N was nowhere to be seen.

       Oh, good. I was so worried.

       Suddenly, D faded into existence, pointing quite strongly towards W, and the direction she had entered the tunnel.

       Uh oh.

       She looked up the street, and saw Broad Strike, who she had just bucked, running down the street. Directly at her.

       Closing the lid on the compass, she looked around wildly for somewhere, anywhere, to hide. Running back was not an option. Running forward was not great, as it would take quite a while to lose him.

       Oh, thank Celestia! A service door!

       She grabbed the handle and pulled. Nothing happened.

       She grabbed the handle and pushed. Nothing happened.

       The sounds of angry hoofsteps grew louder.

       Oh, crud.

       Frustrated and hysteric, she spun around again, bucking the door as hard as she possibly could. Near the hinges, of course.

       CLANG!

       Whoa, I can't believe that worked.

       "You are so dead!"

       Dammit, Aurora! No time to admire your own work! Get a move on!

       She slipped through the opening, stepping quietly to the other side of the door, and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark.

       Aurora gasped. This was no maintenance shaft. It was a subterranean cave, comprised entirely out of crystal.

       Also, she was about two hooflengths from the edge of a chasm.

       Aurora gulped. Thank Celestia I didn't just rush in.

       Suddenly, her ears swiveled around as they registered something from the other side of the door - the sound of hooves. Aurora held her breath as the hooves suddenly slowed, then stopped entirely. Strike had stopped right outside her hiding place.

       Not that it was much of one. The giant dent in the door kind of gave it away.

       "I know you're in there!"

       Aurora's heart raced as she looked around the cavern. The phosphorescent glow that had been so beautiful earlier now served a much more mundane function: allowing her to escape. While the confusing shadows were disorienting, she quickly found a path down into the chasm that looked reasonably safe.

       I really hope he doesn't have the nerve to follow me, she thought as she edged along the cave wall. Aren't bullies supposed to be secretly wusses or something? She placed her hooves carefully on the jagged ground, making her way downward. The crystals that made up the ground were not flat, and one wrong step meant death.

       Or at least a lot of pain. Those things are sharp.

       It was a good thing she did. Strike had evidently realized that Aurora wasn't coming out anytime soon. He squeezed in awkwardly, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the blackness. They widened at the sight, then narrowed as he spotted the object of his ire. He trotted over to the start of the path, and attempted to bring her back using levitation. She shrugged off the field like it was nothing.

       Broad Strike gritted his teeth. Earth ponies. He started after her, placing his front hooves on the wall for support as he went down the narrow path.

       I suppose I did hit him pretty hard.

       Aurora renewed her pace as she reached the bottom. She worried less and less about falling, speeding up considerably before jumping with a loud "clop" to the cave floor. Her initial plan of hiding at the bottom of the chasm now ruined, she ran through one of the narrow passageways into another cave. Apart from having a large hole in its center, it was empty, and Aurora ran straight through another passageway on the other side.

       If I can just lose him...

       Aurora skidded to a stop. This room had no exits, no way out. She was trapped. Worse, she heard the sound of hoofsteps again. her pursuer had reached the bottom, and by the sound of it, had seen which passageway she had taken.

       Panicking, she looked around the cave. Maybe there was some, rock, some protrusion she could hide behind...

       Just as she saw him enter the cave, she noticed a small hole in the floor, just big enough for her to fit in. She dove, wincing in pain as the sharp crystal dug into her body.

       With almost no room to move, she wiggled further down into the hole, and her back hooves were only just inside when Strike caught up to her once again, trying to grab her with his telekinesis. She braced herself to fight against it, but to her surprise, it wasn't needed. The field formed, then warped erratically, reflected by the crystal, and sent a feedback back to his horn.

       "Ow!" Strike shouted, stumbling back.

       Taking the chance for what it was, Aurora renewed her efforts, climbing deeper into the hole. Strike tried to follow, but flinched back away in pain as his horn hit the hard crystal. Turning away with a "Hmph!", he walked back through the caves, his hooves echoing in the hole where she hid.

       When the sound finally died, she relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, she paused, tensing slightly.

       Oh, crud. I can't turn around.

       She crawled forward again. Forward and downward. It wasn't as if she had a choice.

       I just really hope this isn't a dead end.

[Snow 5,305]

that was a fun lil read ^D^ thanks!

not too sure i liked how easily he gave up at the end though :/ he could have at least thrown some insults down the hole to do as much psychological damage as he could before realising it was no use and storming off, and considering how you said it was incomplete is:

suppose to signify that part of the story is missing? i just assume so because she kinda teleported to a new location 
other than that it was a really nice story. or.. at least chapter 1 (im not much of a reader, just bored) 

[AuroraMLP 59]

that was a fun lil read ^D^ thanks!

 

not too sure i liked how easily he gave up at the end though :/ he could have at least thrown some insults down the hole to do as much psychological damage as he could before realising it was no use and storming off, and considering how you said it was incomplete is:

suppose to signify that part of the story is missing? i just assume so because she kinda teleported to a new location 

other than that it was a really nice story. or.. at least chapter 1 (im not much of a reader, just bored) 

 

Not really. That was just a custom horizontal rule, meant to signify a change in scene. There certainly is no "premium content" where you can only read it on Fimfiction.

 

Just me being unnecessarily fancy. 

[DEAD_ACCNT 46]

It was fun to read it. good job!