Alchemy is Also Magic

He woke up to a rumble both internal and external. His father, Cliff, was making wheat pie in the kitchen of the house. His mother, Silksand, was cleaning out the dust that had accumulated over the course of the night. "Mom, get out of my room," said Ridgeline as he took note that the quake this time was closer to the house than last time. Ridgeline's mother replied with a smile as she trotted out of the dim-lit room with a broom in her mouth. The small colt fell back down onto his hard grey bed.. "Well Cliff, it seems our little pony is old enough to tell others to stay out of his room," Silksand softly spoke. Cliff could be heard laughing in the other room. His voice was gentle in the coarse environment they all lived in. The days were seeming to shift into each other. This day went just as every other one did, boringly. Ridgeline ate some wheat pie, went to school, had a boring trot home, doing as many chores as were thrown at him, and before the sun set, Ridgeline would ask his father what he was painting this week. Cliff was painting a green field, blue skies, and a golden brown village of happy ponies eating many apples. Ridgeline went to sleep that night both happy and jealous for the imaginary ponies in the imaginary town of imaginary fertility. The next morning, Cliff was making wheat pie again.

Ridgeline was an only child. He went to a small school in a small town. His life at this point could hardly be considered life at all. The sky was always grey, and pegasi were rarely there to move the clouds. The earth had been dry and infertile for years. Through earth-pony magic though, the plants stayed alive long enough to make bare minimum food. Minor quakes rippled the ground often, keeping the houses small and quickly built. Unicorns had mostly moved to more habitable, friendlier places long ago. The earth ponies couldn't make the distance to a better land and had to endure their entire lives in boring isolation. There was still hope though. In the very plants of the scorched earth lied colorful, brilliant hope.

Cliff had a peculiar job in the town. His job was to inspire, create, and generally distract ponies from their miserable day-after-day chores. He did just that, and so much more. Cliff was a painter, not a very good one, but a motivated one. He would spend all day looking for plants to crumble and press into dyes. He would spend nights mixing and stirring. When he would have enough paint, he would create lovingly crafted pieces of art. So beautiful to this drab world were his paintings, that his inspirational works were placed on display so everypony could see his work. Even the ones that the town couldn't understand very well were met with marveled mares' mesmerized gazes. Silksand was always happy with what Cliff painted, but would be swamped with chores to really see the paintings in detail.

Silksand was a loving mother who looked after her only child Ridgeline. She tended the house and kept Ridgeline out of trouble. When she wasn't at home, cleaning and cooking, she would be out in town with her young colt close to her. To the town, this family was a great help to them. Silksand would trot down the rough gravel roads and look for something to help out with. Somepony always needed help from her. Whether it be getting a kite out of a tree, moving aside the wreckage of the last house hit by a quake, or bucking extra apples that the farmer ponies couldn't get on their own. Silksand was a very helpful pony because she felt that with the lack of unicorns, somepony else had to take the responsibilities of the town. She wasn't alone though, Ridgeline was always there by her, assisting in helping the town. Silksand always made sure that her colt was there for anypony who might need a job done.

So this day began the same as every other one. Ridgeline woke up to the smell of wheat pancakes cooking in the other room. Bland but carefully cooked. His mother was picking up empty wooden crates that had fallen during the last quake. A slight breeze swept through the house and brought in a distraught moth that had only recently been outside. It fluttered about trying to find where it came from until Silksand noted its existence, dropped the broom and walked over to a wall. She opened a window and the moth more than happily rushed out of it. "Glad to be of help," Silksand muttered under her breath, "Ridgeline, did you see where the moth came from?" He pointed to a crack in the wall. The crack had deepened during the quake and dawn was shining through it. One layer of plaster later and Ridgeline's room was as dark as the other three rooms of the house. The pancakes were as dull as the earth underneath them, and filled with as many cracks. This breakfast wasn't terrible though, it also had a rare treat to go with it. Applesauce. Out in the distance, an off-key set of bells rang a long forgotten song, signaling that school was now taking in students.

"Ridgeline you're going to be late!" said Cliff from another room.

"Alright I'm a goin..."

"Now Ridgeline, pay attention today, you might find your special talent through research," Silksand soothed as Ridgeline casually trotted to school, mentally noting his blank plot. He was definitely going to be late if he went at this pace.

"And hurry too!" Cliff knew that his son was trotting too slow without even seeing it.

So school went by as every other day. Ridgeline payed full attention to new subjects that the teacher, Ms. Clover, was talking about.

"Okay class, today we're going to be talking about magic."

A series of sighs filled the air as jealous earth ponies heard the word 'magic'. Ridgeline's was one of them too. "Ms. Clover, why do we have to learn about magic? It's too hard to understand and unicorns are never around for it to actually be useful," a bored colt muttered, half expecting the teacher to brush it off and ignore him. He was a dark green and his cutie mark was a bushel of wheat.

"Well mister Hay, The reason you all are going to learn about magic is because unicorns aren't the only magical race in Equestria." Another series of sounds came about then, this time it was more of an intrigued "Huh? sound. Ms. Clover blushed ever so slightly at her own charisma.

"You see magic is everywhere, even in you my little ponies. You are much stronger than unicorns and pegasi because of magic. Well... also because you actually use your muscles, but that can only do so much. Everything has magic in it, and that magic is usually overlooked as a simple characteristic or other more logical explanation. Today we are going to perform some of that magic. Who knows, maybe somepony here will fly today."

The eyes of the small fillies grew bigger than what a cuteness scale could handle. Ms. Clover was especially happy with the excitement she ensued on the class. But this hope was dashed when a rumble sprang forth from the ground. Filles looked to each other and their faces went from happy to a usual glum mood, the quake reminding them of their surroundings... of their meaninglessness.

"Now now class, nothing too bad about a quake. Look, we'll get to do magic some other time. Right now we need to find out which houses were brought down and bring them right back up. Kay?"

When the rumbling stopped, Ridgeline looked out the window while the door out of the class was being bombarded with exiting fillies. The whole area seemed about right. No house in the town was breaking down, but of course Ridgeline couldn't see the entire town because the hills it was built on were as wavy as the sea that he had read about in books. There was a small billow of smoke coming from far away though, and Ridgelines heart sank when he realized where it came from.

"Mom... D-Dad."

As the rest of the class poured out, Ms. Clover looked back in to see if anypony was still inside. Ridgeline was missing. She looked around and saw a small grey pony galloping away to a cloud of black smoke. "Ridgeline!" She was too far away for him to hear her, let alone allow her to catch up to him. Ms Clover shut her eyes and turned her head to the rest of the class, opened her eyes, and straitened her face.

"Just looking for broken houses. Let's check on Mister Wheatley's house. That thing has been rickety for five quakes now." Ms. Clover looked over her shoulder to try to find Ridgeline. He was seen again running up another hill, but really far away this time.

"Mom! Dad! Are you two okay?!" Ridgeline was shouting at a pile of burning rubble, smoke clinging to his eyes and mane. It was hard to breathe. Possibly ten minutes ago he was overjoyed with the possibility of performing real magic, not some cheap trick. Now, he was choking on the fumes of his own house burning, looking for his parents.

"Get down son! It's easier to breathe and cooler down here!" Said a fatherly voice, unlike the normal soothing voice Ridgeline was accustomed to. He looked down and started laughing at them. They looked so funny rolling over to him.

"Stop laughing and get down!" Said another non-soothing voice. This time it was from Silksand, and she also looked funny. Ridgeline plopped down laughing and rolled over to meet them, laughing all the way over.

"Why are you laughing dear? Our house is burning! All of our things with it." Silksand gave Ridgeline a curious gaze only to be met with one full of happy tears blackened by smoke.

"I'm laughing because you two look funny rolling around," Ridgeline babbled through giggles while rolling as well, but not in any direction, "And I'm happy because you are both fine." Silksand and Cliff looked at each other and gained the same face as Ridgeline. They all laughed and rolled about in the dirt, happy that they were all alive and well. None of them even cared for whatever was in the house. A broom, a pan, two beds, some bottles, and crates that kept falling off of other crates.

A moth fluttered about above the billows of smoke looking down upon this humorous scene.