Ice Petal's One and Only Destiny

by TwilightSparkleForever

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character
Length: 2834

Everyone says Ice Petal should be a researcher when she grows up. A scholar. A politician. Something more fit for an unicorn like her. Bu she doesn't want that. She wants to be a farmer. But how? Everypony is determined to stop her..

Everyone says Ice Petal should be a researcher when she grows up. A scholar. A politician. Something more fit for an unicorn whose entire family comes from the very top-all the fancy, rich ponies, the royal family itself-maybe even a few princesses. But Ice Petal is a different filly. What most foals would easily grab, she will turn away. She desires something much more simple. Nothing special.

And although most ponies would think it completely uncanny, totally strange, she feels that this is truly her destiny.

She wants this so much, she will fight for it.

She does not want to be a fancy, rich, royal pony. She wants to lead a normal life. No more people crowding around her, trying to get her signature. No more.

She wants to be a farmer.

But who can help her? Nopony is going to accept her..

But maybe that shy colt that sits in the back of his class? And doodles on his notebook all day? Maybe.

Whatever she does, she must become a farmer.

It is her destiny.

Published 2013-09-29 02:10:06 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-01 01:33:37 UTC

School

I don't need to learn this. I'm going to be a farmer. All I need to learn is-
Ice Petal's thoughts were broken off as the teacher placed one hoof on her desk, completely blocking Ice Petal's eyes from seeing anything except her teacher's pink hoof.
Ice Petal looked up as she shifted her face past the teacher's pink hoof, almost toppling over and off her chair. Every single foal was staring at her. Her face immediately turned crimson as she turned her head to look up at the teacher.

"Ice Petal," her teacher, Violet Summer. "If you want to get all As or at least a decent B or C on your report card, you had better pay attention in class. Now, Ice Petal, can you tell me what we were talking about?"
Ice Petal sat stock-still. Her mind raced as she struggled to remember any small bit of information from the time before she started daydreaming. "Um...I...Uh...I-I don't know," said Ice Petal, her voice growing quieter with each word.
The class stared on at Ice Petal's still slightly blushing face, some whispering, a few giggling. Ice Petal deeply wished she could disappear, not just from the classroom, not even just from the school, but from Canterlot altogether.
Ice Petal did not want to be famous. She did not want to be mobbed by ponies as she walked. She did not want to have her name splattered across the front page of the newspapers whenever she did something unique or exciting, she did not want to be bombarded with TV reporters looking for stories and interviews everywhere she went, and she most definitely did not want to become what her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (and great-great grandparents...you know what I mean,) had become. Why did she have to be born into such a famous, royal family? Why?
All Ice Petal wanted was to lead a happy life as a normal pony, in one of the more so-called lowly and regular cities, like Fillydelphia or Ponyville. Especially Ponyville. The town was chock-full of farmers. No big buildings, giant mansions or towering buildings. Only simple, carefree-looking straw houses. Nothing more.

Ice Petal had been scolded who knows how many times for saying this, but she truly and really wanted to be a farmer.

A farmer...

It was more than unusual for a sophisticated Canterlot unicorn like her to become a farmer.An unicorn? A farmer? Almost impossible for a normal unicorn, impossible for a Canterlot unicorn.
It was completely ridiculous. It would earn any sophisticated Canterlot unicorn nothing but scorn.
Ice Petal didn't care one bit about that. Why would she, when she was going to move far, far away from Canterlot one day and possibly never, ever come back?

Ice Petal now intently watched the teacher, who was now pointing the end of her hoof at the upper left corner of the blackboard at a photo of a ballroom. It was full of dancing ponies, and the picture was entirely black and white. There were a few photos surrounding it; one of a pony posing for a self-portrait, which looked like it had been taken back since cameras were invented, one of a pony whose nose was stuck in a newspaper, with several ponies crowding around him for no obvious reason, and the last of a pony who was lying on a hospital bed, her entire body wrapped in a white mass of the stuff they used to make casts.

Although Ice Petal had her eyes fixed on the teacher, who was now pinning yet another photo up on the blackboard, she was definitely not listening to the teacher's lecture about the old Emerald Crown Garden that used to stand in the very place the princesses' throne room now was.

"-and now, class is dismissed. You have five minutes to pack up your things until the bell rings." Ice Petal's teacher's voice quickly snapped her back to reality, where she was still a young filly, not a full-grown mare with children, living in a barn and leading the life she had always wanted. Ice Petal stood up, with no sign of her having been daydreaming at all, and stepped towards the wooden doorway that led out of the classroom and onto the hard black pavement where the school bus was waiting for her. As she rode the bus home, she wondered about how things would have been if she lived in Ponyville. She would probably be walking home right now, on the musty dirt roads that she loved and longed for.

When she got home, she swung her backpack off her shoulders and onto the sofa, frowning, her head in her hooves as her mother used her magic to open the fridge with a small ckrongclck sound.

"Mom," said Ice Petal as she sulked on the sofa. "Why can't we go live in Ponyville, or some other town, and live a normal life? Like all the other ponies? I want to be a farmer, Mom, I want to do work on the farm. Harvest plants and vegetables, and not have to be greeted by a pack of TV and newspaper reporters every morning when I wake up. I don't like being followed by them wherever I go. And I most definitely hate Canterlot."
Her mom glanced up at her with an obvious look of annoyance. Ice Petal had asked this question so many different times in so many different ways, and always her mother had said no and gave her a long, long lecture on how they-
"Ice Petal! Don't you ever say that. We are never going to go live in Ponyville. For heaven's sake, it's the lowliest town in all of Equestria's history! I have no idea why you think I should go live down there and stoop to their level and be a disgusting farmer like all those-those-earth ponies."
"But Mom, I want to be a farmer, so badly I could run away, to Ponyville, to Fillydelpia, away from you, away from Canterlot, away from every single pony in Canterlot-"
Her mom shook her head, turning away from Ice Petal to levitate a container of cream cheese out of the fridge, at the same time summoning a loaf of bread from the pantry.
"Ice-we are not going to ever go to Ponyville or any other lowly town like that, and we especially will never become one of those farmers. I want you to be something sensible when you grow up, like a researcher, a doctor, something fit for an unicorn like you. End of conversation. We are not going to another city, we are not going to move away, and we are not going to let you become a farmer."

Ice Petal could have already imagined how she could help families, towns, even the whole of Equestria, as a farmer. With her strong magic, she could easily harvest hundreds, maybe even thousands or ten thousands of apples at once. And as she grew into an adult pony, she would probably be able to provide food and drink to the whole of Equestria, plus a giant feast for the princesses, in one day. After all, she did have a lot of princess blood in her family. It was what made her and her mother's magic stronger than most ponies'.

But why even try when her mother wouldn't let her leave, and the whole of Canterlot would be begging her to stay? Nopony was on her side.

Wait, she thought. "Nopony is on my side? But that's not possible. There have to be a few..." She muttered under her breath. Her mother showed no sign of having heard what she said.

Maybe somepony is on my side, she thought, smiling.

Finding A Special Pony

Finding A Special Pony

Ice Petal pondered, over and over, about what ponies could possibly aid in her escape from Canterlot. She was quite tired and a bit hungry; but still she stayed locked in her room. In the bright aura of her horn was a small quill, levitated in the air and scribbling on a piece of paper in her notebook. "Let's see..."
The pony who sat in the back of her class every day and doodled all over his notebook, Platinum Marble. He was a likely candidate. So was the pony who hated class because she didn't want to be a snobby, royal unicorn. She wanted to be a dueler or racer instead. Something more exciting. Something more dangerous. Her name was Arid Pyre, but she called herself Brick and demanded that others do the same. Only the teacher called her by her real name.
Ice Petal and Brick shared one thing in common that made Ice think she was perfect for the job. They both did not want to have an unicorns' type of job when they grew up. Instead, they wanted to be something else-something more fit for a Pegasus or an Earth Pony.
Ice finished her list with the name of a third pony, lightly scrawled on the piece of notebook paper she was levitating. She set the quill down, and began to read over her list.

1.) PLATINUM MARBLE.
-HE JUST SEEMS LIKE A GOOD CANDIDATE TO ME. I DON'T KNOW WHY AT ALL.

2.) BRICK, OR ARID PYRE, HER REAL NAME.
-JUST LIKE ME. ALSO THINKS THAT UNICORNS DON'T NEED TO HAVE UNICORN JOBS WEN THEY GROW UP. LOVES DANGER, SO SHE CAN HELP ME ESCAPE.

3.) PROPHETIC CRYSTAL
-SHE HAS SOMETHING THAT I WILL NEED TO ESCAPE FROM CANTERLOT. I'M SURE SHE'LL LEND IT TO ME.

Ice Petal smiled contentedly and levitated the torn-out, neatly lined notebook paper towards the thin space under her bed. She slowly slid it under a pile of rubbish and junk, hoping her mother wouldn't notice.
Now all she had to do was wait for tommorow, and she would, hopefully, come home with a group of recruits, ready to help her escape from Canterlot.

Ice Petal went to sleep without a worry, falling into a deep slumber just as her head touched the pillow.

Ice Petal's eyes flung open. "Huh?" Ice Petal muttered. She looked all around her. She was on a glacier, frozen over with ice. The cold, icy ground was laden with dark purple flower petals. All around her, nothing but ice. Probably for millions of miles. She sighed, ready to go to sleep once more. But as she tried to lie down, she spotted something in the distance. A mountain, with a regal, beautiful castle on the side, a white castle, lined with gold and purple, with ponies swarming around it-and she headed towards the castle, ready to go inside.
Wait.
This wasn't somewhere she wanted to go.
This was Canterlot. And-she hated Canterlot.
She turned back around, stepping away from the castle-and saw something else in the distance, glowing, and it was red. Like a red beacon, like the red light on a traffic light-it glowed, on and on, beckoning her, welcoming her inside...
Could it be?
A farm. It was a farm. Ice Petal dashed towards it, all other thoughts gone from her mind. Her goal was not to wander around this icy place, or to return to Canterlot, but to get to that farm. It seemed so warm, and welcoming-
The thoughts of what could possibly be inside filled her mind. She smiled, ready to run faster than ever before to get to that farm, that farm-
And then it happened.
She gasped and tumbled to the icy ground as she looked behind her and saw a crowd of ponies, what looked like an angry mob, chasing after her...and they looked angrier than Ice Petal could imagine. Most of them were unicorns, some of them were pegasi, but there were no earth ponies. She screamed as they pounced on her, clawing at her, pulling her farther and farther away from the barn, the barn she wanted to go to.
Then Ice Petal realized who they were, and what they were doing. They were the royal family. The fancy ponies..from Canterlot..and they wanted her to go back. Their angry voices filled her head and pummeled at any thoughts she still had about escaping their wrath and running to the barn, where she would be safe. Out of the angry mob she could hear some voices, drifting into her ears as she tried, desperately to shake them out:
"Come back! Come back to Canterlot, where you will be honored..Dressed in the best clothes possible...treated like one of the princesses themselves..."
"Don't leave! You'd be a fool to leave what you have here! We will never let you leave! NEVER!"
And last of all, her mothers voice, not yelling but begging for her to come back.
"Come back, Ice Petal...please...I promise we wont..."
The voices drifted away as she started waking up from what she had just realized was only a dream, a nightmare, but a very scary one at that.

Ice Petal murmured things in her sleep as she woke and then drifted off back to sleep, this time into another dream...

Next morning....

Ice Petal could still hear the haunting voices from her dream. She could still feel the eerie, frightening, icy cold touch of the ponies. They were pulling her, dragging her as she desperately tried to pull herself the other way.
She sat still for a moment, imagining the ice-covered landscape, petals strewn across the bumpy ice, then dismissed it as only a nightmare, although she kept thinking of the nagging fact that she would most likely not be able to escape without being caught.

Nevertheless, Ice Petal was excited. Today was a new day, and she knew that it meant plenty of new ponies to help her escape from Canterlot. She easily slid out of bed, took off her nightclothes and headed downstairs for breakfast, levitating her schoolbooks and her backpack as she went.

School, For The Second Time

Ice Petal peered beyond her musty surroundings and the many square panels of glass that were the bus windows. She looked outside, scanning for anything of interest. Cars zoomed by, with taxis mixed into the throng. Red cars, white cars, blue cars, silver cars, gold cars, and yellow taxis, the same yellow that the school bus was. Their dusty, dirty black wheels, perfect for a small tire swing, one that could just barely fit two fillies, sent them zooming past the bus as it stopped to pick up a certain filly with ruffled, rebellious-looking hair and what looked like a colt's hiking backpack. A clear plastic water bottle was stuck in one of the navy blue side pouches, and the other, perfectly lined up with the one that held the almost-full water bottle, was completely empty except for a few grains of sand and some little bits of dirt.

"G'morning, Arid," said the bus driver, as the small but tough-looking filly growled at him and muttered, "It's Brick, thank you very much."

The filly sat herself down in the very front seat, right beside Ice Petal.

"Hey, Brick," said ice Petal. "I..uh..was wondering...if you'd...if you'd..."

Ice Petal suddenly realized that she had no idea how to explain this to Brick, or any of the other ponies that could possibly help her. She stuttered continuously, trying to find a good way to tell Brick what she wanted her to help her with.

"Well, I-"
Brick stared impatiently at Ice Petal, waiting, tapping one hoof on the ground.
"I'm running away," said Ice Petal in one breath determined to get it over with.

Brick stared at her like she had just come up with the best idea in all of Equestria.
"To where?" Brick asked.
Ice Petal shifted towards the window, turned her head towards the vast land beside them, and thought. "To Ponyville." Her hoof pointed out of the slightly open window and towards the patch of forest in the distance that shrouded the city of Ponyville. Brick gave her a smile as she turned back from the window.
"So...why are you telling me this?"
Ice Petal froze. What did she want to tell her? What did she want her to help with, anyway?
"Well, I was thinking you could help me..."
"If I do, can I come with you?"

Ice Petal hadn't been expecting this as an answer. "Well, uh, I-I suppose so...but why would you want to?"
Brick smiled at her, levitating a colorful piece of paper out of her backpack. A flyer for the Ponyville Dueling Club. "You want to join the Ponyville Dueling Club?" She shifted around in her seat as the bus came to a quick stop in front of a traffic light. Brick nodded. "I intend to surpass all of the ponies there. Their magic is quite shabby compared to us Canterlot ponies, you see, although no Canterlot unicorn who wants to be proper, snobby and formal would join a dueling club. My mom thinks it's for
(have to go to bed, will finish later)