A young Silver Star, or as he was known as the time, Star Apple, sighed in boredom as his half-lidded eyes glanced unblinkingly at the orchards of trees around him. They glanced at his purple-maned yellow-bodied blue-eyed older and younger sisters to his right and left respectively that differed only in height. They glanced at his Ma and Pa, who were standing off to the side, watching them. All the younger ponies, himself included, had been helping out on the farm ever since they could walk, but for the young Star Apple and the younger Lilac Blossom, today was the day.
The big day.
Today was the day when they'd officially buck their first tree.
It was a tradition in the Apple Family for this to be a big deal, something all the farm's workers would watch, as big a milestone as a baby's first words, or the first time one of their drawings got onto the fridge's door, or the first apple pie they baked. Why had they waited so long before Silver's first Apple-buck? He was a Unicorn, they were hoping the farm work would have made him strong enough by now,
"Alright, Brilliant Lavender, show them how it's done!" Night Blossom, Star's pregnant mother, said excitedly, her body and mane identical to her daughters in all but size.
The eldest Apple foal, Brilliant Lavender, smiled and stepped forwards, walking up to the tree, confidence and absolute certainty in every step.
She briefly looked at the tree, as if regarding it as an opponent in a hoof-wrestling contest.
In one fluid, well-practiced movement, she turned, swishing her whole body around, purple tail trailing behind her. To Star, she was beauty incarnate and time seemed to slow down as he watched her strong, lithe body turn to face the tree, her whole body weight resting up on her front hooves, raising her shapely form into the air, and then it started to fall. A small smile appeared upon Star's face.
She pushed with her forelegs and straightened her rear legs, sending her body and all of her body weight slamming back into the tree, straight legs forcing all of her momentum, weight and strength into the tree, causing the hard wood to shake. Leaves fell gently around her as a slow shower of apples fell on either side of her, framing her beautiful form as she kicked back off the tree, landing on the ground expertly. She swished her tail behind her as she turned to look at her siblings, smiling confidently.
The entire movement took about a second or so, but to Star, it felt like at least twelve long, beautiful seconds.
"Alright, now it's your turn, Star!" Night Blossom said, nodding in the direction of the next tree. Lavender moved out of the way, eager to see her siblings buck their first appletree.
Mentally shaking his head to clear it and regain his focus, losing that small smile as his usual flat look returned, he stepped up to the tree confidently, mirroring her exactly. In his mind, he looked back, watching what he'd seen seconds ago once again. His mind focused, and diamond-shaped orange dots started to appear on her joints, with blue lines connecting those dots, forming into a constellation of movement, a wireframe body whose movements could be copied by his body exactly, once he mentally compensated for the difference in limb length.
In his mind, those dots and lines appeared on his body, guiding him as he copied her actions, swinging his body around, tail trailing behind him. He raised his body, and slammed it back into the tree.
The tree shook slightly, and he kicked off the tree, landing normally.
And nothing happened.
No apples fell, no leaves fell, not even an orange or a bird's nest fell from the tree above him.
His kick had accomplished nothing.
He stopped for a few moments as this sunk in.
"...Want to try that again?" His mother offered as his sisters looked confused, and he only half-noticed. Most of his attention was on that tree.
He turned and glared at that tree.
That tree, that vertical block of wood, it taunted him. It mocked him. It laughed at him, as if it was yet another annoying jerk who hated him and hated his skill and hated his mind and found it so freaking hilarious that they'd finally, finally found something he wasn't good at.
That tree thought it was worthy of laughing at him, of judging him, of judging anything about him. As if he was expected to be the greatest ever in all things, just because he was very good at a lot of things, even though he'd be treated with the same annoying level of derisiveness even if he was good at all things. That tree mocked him, as if any deviation from his constant brilliance was to be met with uproarious laughter and scorn, as if it invalidated him, his brilliance, his existence, and every accomplishment he'd ever made. As if that stupid block of wood had been waiting its entire life for this moment, the moment where it could laugh at him.
Well, this time, that tree wouldn't get away with it. This time, he was actually allowed to fight, to punish it for thinking such things.
With hate in his heart and rage in his mind, his half-lidded eyes opened fully. He turned around and threw all his weight onto his front hooves. The same movements, but harder, stiffer, faster, with more strength and power behind them. He raised forwards, then slowed down, waiting for just the right moment...
And then he slammed his body back down, thrusting all of his strength, all of his body weight, all of his being, right into that tree behind him. He imagined the tree screaming in pain, a sound that pleased him.
Once all the force his young body could manage was forced into that tree, his hooves bounced off, and he expertly brought those hooves onto the ground, landing as if he'd bucked hundreds of trees, and this was just another one.
The tree shook a little more.
And nothing happened.
There was something he couldn't do.
Something he couldn't do no matter how hard he tried.
Everypony else could do it.
His older sister could do it.
His little sister could probably do it.
Everyone in his family could do it.
Every Earth Pony in Equestria-
No.
Every Earth Pony on the planet could do it.
But he could not do it.
Why?
Was he not trying hard enough?
No, that was not it.
It was something simpler.
Annoyingly simple.
Infuriatingly simple.
They were Earth Ponies.
He was a Unicorn.
And there were some things he would never be able to do as well as Earth Ponies, no matter how hard he tried.
That's just the way things were.
No.
His black iris, and the black pupil inside, shrunk and started to shake erratically.
He would not accept that.
He would not accept any of that.
He was more.
He was greater.
He was not weak.
He would not blame the world or where he started for how he was now, or for what he could or could not do.
He would become more.
He would become greater.
The hatred within him grew into something more.
Something better.
More than flame.
More than common, wild, unrestrained hatred that burned all it touched.
Something stronger.
Something harder.
A flame with something more behind it.
Steel?
Strong, resolute, unyielding steel?
No. Something more.
Both of those, and more.
It was...
Burning steel.
A sword aflame, to slice through all and leave behind ashes.
But it was more than that.
Steel that could be moulded with its own flame, to be reshaped, to become something more, something greater. To become whatever it needed or wanted to be.
Like him.
"Maybe you'd like to give Lilac Blossom a turn, and you could try again later?" Night Blossom offered, not sure what to think about the look on his face. He was far too young to have that look on his face.
"No." He stated, the burning steel taking hold completely.
He tried again, making the same movements, but this time, his heart and soul was not filled with hatred.
This time, it was filled with purpose.
This tree would be kicked.
The apples would fall.
He would get those apples-
No.
Those apples would fall, and they would fall within grabbing distance.
That tree would obey his will.
That tree would OBEY HIM.
His iris and pupil stopped shaking, and became still. Very, very still.
He raised his body up on his forelegs, not waiting until the perfect moment, but forcing his body to move forwards until it was in the perfect position. He created his own perfect moment.
He paused for a moment, gathering his strength, steeling his will, determination flowing through his entire body.
And then he forced his body back, straightening it out like a sword aflame, driving it into the tree as though he was driving a long, thin blade into an opponent's chest, the opponent a dragon, a mindless beast that simply existed, something that would not listen to reason or pleas or begging, but it would listen to him. It would obey him.
The tree shook, splinters of wood bouncing off from where his hard hooves struck the wooden tree.
It hurt.
It hurt a lot.
But it was worth it.
He would get those apples.
He kicked off the tree and turned to look at it, waiting expectantly.
And nothing happened.
All that, and nothing happened. Nothing was accomplished.
Star blinked.
That was it.
The steel within him reached its maximum temperature, shattering outwards.
He glared at the tree.
His horn glowed.
"Break." He growled.
A magnificent blue light burned on his horn, the same hue as the light that appeared around the tree. An amateur would try to crush the tree, reducing it to sawuct in his mental grip. Not him. He had something better in mind.
The blue light seeped into the tree. The magic went straight for the fluid and sap within the tree, channeling his hatred into it.
In seconds, the fluid was superheated.
A quick toughening enchantment, maximized and enhanced until it counted as a fifth-level spell instead of a standard first-level spell, was cast upon himself with a blue glow, and then lines of blue shot out from himself and targeted his nearby family members before connecting to each other, enhancing and strengthening them all with the additional cumulative layers of the same spell. The blue energy around them faded, but the enchantments it left on them did not.
The tree shattered outwards, the leftover magic leaving a bright blue column of magic where the tree once stood, splinters and chunks of wood scattering outwards along with clouds of sawdust that blew down and outwards, burning leaves falling down around them like feathers, wooden shrapnel bouncing off the magically-toughened bodies of the ponies watching. Lavender turned away and shielded her eyes with a hoof, Lilac watched in awe as if it was a firework, his parents watched in horror, and Star stared ahead into the blue flames and brown debris, into the burning leaves, and felt nothing.
The blue blaze in front of him died down, and the clouds of sawdust dispersed and the burning leaves and the enchantments on himself and his family were snuffed out with but a blink of his cold, hard eyes.
The apples the tree once held started to fall down around him, about to impact upon the ground like meteors, when his magic glow grabbed and slowed the apples before they fell, halting them as they stayed motionless in the air around him, like scattered petals frozen around a burning flower. Around thirty apples gathered around him in this manner, taking everything the tree had that he wanted and destroying all else.
His family stared at Star Apple.
And then he turned, and took his place beside his sister, Lilac.
"Lilac Blossom, it's your turn." Star stated, the burning steel gradually receding as his magic sent the apples into the barrels either side of the space where the tree once stood.
Lavender blinked. This... this was a side of him she'd never seen before. She knew the lazy, brilliant, easily-bored and utterly unflappable Star Apple, with his dull half-lidded eyes and lazy Apple Family drawl. She'd seen him get serious before when they competed, she'd seen his eyelids raise just enough for the fire within him to show. That was just a little fire, normal and healthy. Sometimes, the fire would go out for a while and he'd become distant, but he could be brought back. Sometimes, there'd a bit more fire, but nothing concerning. But this... This was something new. Something more.
Star closed his eyes and yawned as his horn's glowing stopped. When he opened his eyes, they were back to their usual lidded state. "Are you gonna get on with it, Lilac?" He asked boredly. "It's yer turn."
Lilac nodded, and stepped up to the next tree over, opening her eyes wide and trying to force a determined look as she scrunched up her face adorably. She turned and kicked the tree, copying her older sister's moves exactly. The tree shook a little, and when she put her rear legs back on the ground, an apple fell onto the ground, followed by another. And then a third. And that was all.
"I did it!" Lilac said happily.
"Great job, Sis!" Star said happily, rushing over to ruffle her adorable mane with a hoof, causing her to laugh.
"Come on, let's go get somethin' t'eat!" Star said, letting go and walking off as his younger sister followed. "I know this fancy-shmancy restaurant that sells these weird little plant-fish-things, I think they're made with magic or something, but ah betcha ah can get the owner t'give us a discount, since we supply his apples n'all."
He stopped, and turned to look back at his parents from ten trees away. "Hey, ma?" He asked.
"Eeeyup?" She asked, still a little shocked.
"Can Lilac and ah go out fer lunch?" He asked. "We won't fill up on fancy food or nothin', and we'll still be home in time fer lunch, it's just t'try something diff'rent 'n' new."
"...Eeeyup." She said.
"Yay!" Lilac said happily, hopping up onto Star's back as he paused and gasped for a moment, not expecting her to be quite that heavy, and then he smiled back at his little sister as the two went out into town, leaving the other three behind.
