Author's Note

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MkeqitZAxzjHCnqMXp_W0JcsLIsgeNfsP_mRQT6ov5Y/edit?usp=sharing

As I said, my upload schedule is a little derpy and not too very regular. But trust me, it is coming along. There's a lot of testing and whatnot that sorta kills my life. Oh well. I'll still find a way to upload from the grave.

~Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

Blue Lightning

Ow. The first conscious thought in what might as well have been forever, as a pink unicorn came to. It felt like her entire body was on fire, and her stomach churned. Crystal hadn’t felt so miserable in… ever, once she had thought about it. Attempting to open her eyes, she found herself almost blinded by the light flooding in through her barely lifted lids. Nevermind, we can be in the dark for a little while longer. And so she lay on what felt like damp grass until her agony had slowly subsided to a dull pain, and she felt considerably less sick.

What… What the hay happened… and where the hay am I…? Crystal wondered, still being in no shape to answer either of her own questions. Struggling, she fought her hazy memory to try and remember what had happened. School. I was at school… and then my flanks started hurting… and now I’m here… ugh… life sucks… Deciding that the first order of business was to determine wherever ‘here’ was, the pink unicorn started the slow, agonizing process of adjusting her sight to the brightness.

As the world came into focus, her first sight was grass, followed by a lot of trees. She heard the wind blowing, rustling through the branches… though not any branches she remembered hearing. Turning her head upwards, Crystal began to worry. A lot.

Oh buck… this doesn’t look like Canterlot… not even close…

She lay in a small forested clearing, surrounded by tall, alpine trees which were dotted with pinecones. The sky above her was overcast, but not raining, although the condition of the ground below her said that it had.

Where the hay…

It now seemed at least twenty percent more urgent to get on her hooves and start exploring, because, as far as the young unicorn could tell, she was alone in unfamiliar lands. Steeling her resolve, Crystal rolled onto her stomach, stretching as best as she could. There was an incredible amount of tenseness in her muscles which made the unicorn wonder really just how long she had been laying there. Withdrawing her legs under her, Crystal pushed against the ground, straining to simply stand. Nearly all the way up, Crystal felt a sudden, intense dizziness, and so she dropped back to the ground, her legs feeling nearly useless once again.

Ugh… bucking… what the hay is wrong with me… why am I so bucking weak…?

She closed her eyes, letting the world spin in darkness around her. For probably twenty minutes, Crystal lay, not moving, not thinking, just trying to let her strength build back up. A cold breeze blew through the clearing, eliciting a shiver from the lone pony.

Eventually her mind felt more stable, and Crystal began considering trying to stand again. Alright… take it slow… I've got all the time in the world… Bracing her hooves, she pushed again, standing slowly and unsteadily. Once she had reached her full height, Crystal took a deep breath, then a shaky step forward. Alright… we didn't fall… this is good. Making progress… Feeling braver, the unicorn started walking, slowly at first, but, after a short time, eventually managed a circuit around the forest clearing. While much of her physical weakness felt gone, Crystal's mind still was fuzzy, and she could not do much more than think to herself.

*Sigh*. Okay. So, we can move once again. I probably need to find out just where the hay I am, and how the hay I can get some food. Only now did she realize how truly hungry she actually felt.

"I can tell you one thing: you're nowhere near Canterlot". The unicorn jumped, thrown completely off guard. She spun around, looking to find the source of the voice.

"Who are you?" She called out. "Show yourself!"

There was mischievous giggle before the voice, clearly identifiable as female, spoke up cheerfully. "I think, before asking who I am, you should consider where I am."

Crystal panned around again, hoping she would spot the pony hiding somewhere in the trees. Stopping, she thought about where it sounded like the voice was coming from… which was pretty much everywhere. It dawned on her.

“Are you… real?” Crystal felt like she was asking herself, which considering it was thought, she essentially was.

"Heheh, so glad you figured it out. As for if I am real… Well, real is a relative term anyways. We’ll get to that later. Call me Cinder."

Crystal’s mind was reeling. Having woken up nearly dead about an hour ago, she was not yet ready to consider the possibility that her mind was inhabited by somepony… something else. “Um… okay… Hi, Cinder… So, do you know where I am, or what happened to me?” It felt so wrong to be thinking to herself, but not herself at the same time, yet this… ‘Cinder’ responded, quite promptly.

“It’s… um… it’s complicated. Like, really complicated. Also I don’t know all of it.” The sound of that worried Crystal a lot, especially due to her situation. But she felt she could handle it.

“I don’t care how much you know, just tell me.” The unicorn demanded. Information was the most valuable thing she could get at that time, regardless of where it came from. Sitting down, she tried to clear her mind and focus on Cinder.

“Okay. So uh, just so we don’t start this off on too negative a note... uhh… you got your cutie mark!”

Crystal looked down to her sides, smiling as she saw the truth. At least one good thing had come of these events. Now nopony could call her a blank flank again. Of course, it still left her with the worry of figuring out what she was meant to do.

“Heh, so I did. But… that’s not all, is it?”

“Yes, okay, so, uh, the hard part… well… to put it bluntly, Crystal, you created a massive storm that killed or injured nearly everyone in your class and gave Celestia a run for her money as she tried to shut you down. Oh, and you damn near killed yourself, too. It was impressive just how much magic went through your body without vaporizing you, but you got really close. I sorta showed up when you were about to cease to exist and… gave you a bit of a nudge in the right direction, so to speak. Anyways, you turned into a cloud, everyone thinks you’re dead, but you’ve actually been here for the last thirty-six or so hours. Any questions?”

“Thirty-six hours!?” Crystal’s voice echoed around the forest clearing. “There’s no way I’ve been out for that long…” She wasn’t sure how to react, aside from with shock. If she hadn’t been sitting before, well, this definitely would have dropped her.

“I… killed other ponies?” Crystal’s voice was really hard to read. Cinder knew there was dismay, but that was not everything. She thought she detected confusion, surprise, and… maybe, just maybe even a bit of excitement.

“Yeah. You did. Not consciously, but you killed them.”

The unicorn shook her head in sad wonder. There was so much to remember, to learn, to do… She stood up again, then began pacing across the clearing, mind racing as it filled with more questions than Cinder would be able to remember to answer.

“Woah, woah! Slow down! Easy there, don’t get too caught up with all these questions. Look, what I can tell you right now is that you’re here, far away from other ponies, you brought yourself here, and you’re on the track to discovering your destiny. I can also tell you that the sun is going down, and here in an alpine forest, it gets cold at night.”

Crystal looked up, realizing that was the truth. The clouds above had tinged a bright red as if they were burning. It was quite beautiful, but hard to really focus on with everything else that was happening.

“If I were you, I would make a fire as soon as possible. And by that, I mean, right now. There’s plenty of tinder around here from when you arrived. Just grab a bunch of that and light it up.” Crystal started Cinder’s instructions, throwing some sticks into a pile, then stopped.

“Um… Cinder… I, uh, I don’t know how to light a fire…” the pink unicorn hoped her mental friend wouldn’t notice she was blushing. While it made sense considering her life as a medical pony, she still felt embarrassed upon realizing just how little of general magic she knew.

Cinder was slightly taken aback as well. “You… you don’t know how to create fir - wait. Oh, right. Medicine.” Crystal’s mind went silent as the other being tried to figure out how to explain the spell. "Alright, so, fire… is actually really simple. It’s just energy with fuel, so all you have to do to make it is find the right fuel and add energy. You’ve got the fuel, so just add energy. You can do that, right?” Crystal shook her head, frowning.

“They never taught us that kind of stuff. We just learned the basics of magic theory and then started to diverge into medicine.” She felt ashamed admitting that after all her work in school, all the harassment she had to put up with, she knew next to nothing.

“Oh... but that’s okay though,” consoled Cinder, sensing the unicorn's negativity. “I have a pretty good idea why they did it. If unicorns were taught to control absolute raw magic, they’d wipe themselves out before even finishing school. Your kind walks a dangerous path, wielding a power nearly inexplicable by any form of reason that has the ability to literally burn away the essence of your being if used incorrectly. But,” Cinder grew more serious as she spoke, “it means that you have a LOT to learn.”

Upon hearing that, Crystal’s ears drooped, and she looked away as if Cinder was right in front of her. “Oh… I’m no good at learning though. If you know anything about me, you’d see that. I hope you have patience, because… this may take a while.”

“And that is where I think you are wrong,” Cinder refuted. “Sure, you may not know how to do this right now, but remember what you’ve done. You have more magical talent than possibly any unicorn in Equestria. Don’t ask me how I know this. I’m pretty sure that something as simple as this should come naturally to you. All you need to do is try.”

Her hopes still down and mind abuzz, Crystal sighed, “Hmm, alright. I hope you’re right… So okay, how should I do this, then?” There were a few moments of thoughtful silence, then Cinder began her best to explain.

“Well, so it’s really just a focus thing. There’s not an actual spell I can really teach you due to how basic fire is. Just… try and feel the fire. Internalize it. Take any experiences you’ve had with fire, and try to feel them. Then project that feeling into power.”

At first, Crystal couldn’t think of anything. She had lead a fairly safe life; so aside from a very few instances and demonstrations, there was nothing… Except that dream…

Cinder noticed the change in the unicorn’s state of mind. “Hey, Crystal, something up? Bad memories or something? You gotta tell me. I may be in your head, so-to-speak, but I’m not really in your head.”

Crystal couldn’t respond. Her focus was scattered by the thoughts. Knowing now what she knew, the dream had a whole new meaning to her. “I’m a killer. I was supposed to be the opposite of this, but every sign up until now was telling me that was wrong.” This realization felt strange to Crystal, because she felt nothing at all. No fear, no remorse. No emotion, despite knowing she could and had killed other ponies. “And it came so easily… I almost wonder… Is this my destiny?”

Cinder had no idea what to say. Yes was neither the right nor wrong answer at the time, but she couldn't quite explain it in a way that would make sense to Crystal. "That is… up to you to discover.” The unicorn was disheartened by Cinder's vague response, but figured that maybe she was right. "Anyways", Cinder picked up, "Fire. You need it." Nodding to herself, Crystal took a moment to consider the strange advice she had been given. It had never occurred to her that magic might be connected to emotion, but upon thinking of it, it made more sense than anything else.

“Alright Cinder… I trust you.” Crystal let the memories she dearly hoped to avoid flood in. Her dream was vivid once again. She could smell the acrid, charred flesh, hear the crackling of the flames around her, feel the pain, the fear. Her horn lit, and she felt a rush of power though her being. Wait… What am I doing? No answer came.

There was a vague whisper of a thought in the back of her mind as Cinder gave a half gleeful and malicious “Oh, this is going to be so much fun...” before the sky tore itself asunder and a bolt of lightning struck directly in front of her, blasting the ground apart and throwing the young pony backward into the embrace of unconsciousness.