-------------------------Prologue-------------------------
Eons before the three tribes of Equestria, all ponies were of the Earth variety. The weather was unkept, the only pattern being what notes the ponies took. The sun and moon were erratic, and often in the sky at the same time. Even the hours of light were different each and every day, if only slightly. The only thing that was monitored was the food supply, toiled over nearly every day by the ponies.
Many of them were your run-of-the-mill mother, father, son and daughter variety. Some had only sons, or only daughters. Very few had no children at all. However, a condition of greater rarity than no children was the single-child family. The reason was simple: if the family had a boy, they tried for another; a girl, and they would try for a boy. If a family had no children, they usually ended up selling their land to another farm, and lived out the rest of their lives helping the community in various ways.
This family, however, was different. Their one child was a boy, and he was scrawny enough to be mistaken for a girl if you'd not known who he was. His coat and eyes were a light brown, his mane and tail of a dull mustard color, and his flank was bare(not the oddity back then as it is today). Because of his size, he wasn't much use on the farm, and was often sent out to get supplies from town instead. He was forced to make this trip many times due to his size. It was made even more difficult thanks to having farmland miles from the town.
During these trips, he did his best to avoid as many other ponies as possible, as they often mocked him. One of their favorite jeers involved him being too small to lift more than a single ear of corn, according to rumor. Because of this, he earned the nickname "One Corn" around town. At home, he was simply called "Son" due to his parents' apathy of him. Soon enough, however, even they began calling him One Corn out of habit of hearing it so much from visitors.
Eventually, he came to enjoy the romps to and from town, and often took as much time as he could on them. They became his only solace from his miserable life, as he saw it. He began thinking of things, which wasn't very much use to the ponies of then, thus further establishing him as an outcast.
This pony is the focus of our story today. He will go on to do great things, and you will read about them, but that is to be revealed later. Now let us start at the beginning of this influential chapter in One Corn's life, and indeed, Equestria's history and fate. Shall we?
-------------------------Chapter One: Discovery-------------------------
Now, as was said before, One Corn was nowhere near the strongest worker in the town, or even the outskirts. Many ponies think that it is exaggerated when it is said that he couldn't lift a "single ear of corn", and for the most part that's right. However, even if he could lift a few ears more than was said about him, he still wanted more. He had dreams of being the strongest pony in all history, stronger than even the earth itself. However, given his inability, that was nothing more than a dream.
His parents had once told him as a young colt that he should try using his brain more often, and so, he did. Instead of lifting things, as a normal pony might, he devised somewhat-clever strategies to get the job done. This was mainly through the art of inventing, though it wasn't much help.
One of these "inventions" involved a strap, some string, and a wheel. Now, this may seem like a normal pully setup to you, and indeed it was. However, this was revolutionary back then, and also didn't work quite as well. One Corn had forgotten to take into account the fact that the energy to pull the object up wasn't really multiplied, but merely transferred, and so he never succeeded in utilizing the pulley to its potential. Now, there were many other inventions, but we've not the time for them here. So let us skip ahead past all the failures and humiliations and other such things, and instead move towards his self-discovery.
As he was dragging along the supplies from another daunting trip to town, he began imagining himself once again as a much stronger pony than he actually was. He thought of how easy it would be to simply yank up on his dragging saddlebags, and set them lightly upon his flanks. Oh, how blissfully light they would be! So light in fact, that they could practically lift themselves, flying in the sky towards his house! So engrossed was he in his fantasy that he soon realized that he had dropped the bags, and quickly his eyes snapped open and his head turned round to see if they had fallen to the creatures again, Instead, he merely saw something which assured him he was dreaming.
His saddlebags were there, and the strap was indeed still in his mouth, but it looked to him like they were...well, for lack of a better word, floating. He cautiously tugged on the strap and they drifted towards him a bit. He dropped the strap and ducked into a nearby bush, cowering in fear of whatever great power might be out there. He heard a thunk and peered cautiously back to the bags, which were now...on the ground?
He stepped out and shook his head, trying to clear his mind of fatigue, for that was clearly the problem here. Otherwise, he could've sworn that his bags were actually floating in--there they went again, right before his eyes. This time, however, he didn't turn tail into the bush. Instead, he reached out a hoof and tapped one gently, which was a surprising show of strength for him. It began hovering away. He yelped and grabbed it before it could float off into the sky as he had imagined before, when suddenly his forelegs began lifting.
He looked up, and the bag was heading to the sky! Another yelp and a leap, and the wayward thing was brought back to the ground. He carefully got up and stepped away from the bags, which were now floating in front of him again. He suddenly had another idea. He thought of the bags dropping, and so they did. He closed his eyes and began "lifting" them in his fantasy, onto his flanks, when he felt them graze his actual flanks. He looked back, and there they were, practically weightless.
Experimentally, he began inching forwards, and the bags may as well have not been there at all. He tiphoofed, he walked, trotted, even came close to running at one point, but the bags stayed put. He even tried a jump for joy, and still they remained attached to him. At that, he settled it. He would perhaps try lifting some other things once he got home, but for now, he had to GET home. So he began trotting, though one might even say "bouncing", his way home, eager to show his parents that he could now be a proper workhorse.
-------------------------Chapter Two: Experimenting and Accidenting-------------------------
As One Corn continued on his way home to inform his parents of his great discovery, a bird flitted to a nearby tree and seemed to ask why he was so cheerful. "Why, hello, little thing," he pretended to respond. "If you're asking why I'm so happy today, it is for a simple reason. By some stroke of luck, I'm able to lift my bags as far up into the sky as I wish!" The bird cocked its head to the side, almost skeptically. "Oh, so you doubt me? Well then, it's obvious you just need a demonstration!" replied the ecstatic little pony.
He imagined the bags staying where they were as he moved away, and they did. The bird's head shook a few times in "disbelief". Feeling more confident than usual for him, he began moving the bags up and down, and then, in a spur of show-offery, he wrapped his tail around the strap as if he WERE lifting it, and then his mouth, and even just his chin, though this last activity did give him a bit of an ache in his forehead. He then proceeded to give the bags a decent flip as they returned to his flanks, trotting away. "And that, my little friend, is that." The bird's beak was actually hanging open, and One Corn giggled in joy.
As he continues on, he passes his friend Eulogy's house, and stops briefly. Should he tell her? Would she still be his friend afterwards? It was hard enough finding this one as he was before, he couldn't imagine losing her because of this..."moving", he'd decided to call it. No, he would tell her some other time, maybe right after his parents.
"Oh! That's right!" he shouted, realizing his task at hand. Pushing his friend out of his mind for the moment, he continued his journey home.
He soon arrived and bounded through the door as fast as he could, shouting, "Mom, Dad, come qui-oof!" He was interrupted by the back of the stallion he had just ran into, who just looked at him disdainfully. One Corn's mother and father were sitting on the other side, and looked around the stallion on either side at One Corn. "O-Oh, hello, honey. Did you get everything?" asked his mother nervously.
Crashing into the stallion hadn't helped Corn's foreheadache, but nonetheless he replied, "Yes, Mom, I got everything you asked me for." His father butted in, "The flour?" "Yes, Dad." "Milk?" "YES, Da-" "Don't raise your voi-" "LISTEN TO ME!!" His parents were shocked into silence at that little outburst. The visiting stallion was unaffected, by anything except being crashed into, it seemed.
One Corn continued, "I've got something really cool to show you guys! I think it might help us out a bit!" "Now, how in-" "Just WATCH!" He began concentrating, and then moved the bags from his flank to the table, where they landed with a thunk. "See? Wouldn't that be a great help around here?" he continued, a giant grin on his face.
His parents simply sat there in shock, jaws slack. One Corn rolled his eyes and moved their jaws back into position the same way he'd moved his bags. When they clicked back into place, his parents just looked at each other in horror, looked back at the stallion, and, in unison, said "Take him!"
"What?" asked Corn, "Take me where?" The stallion ignored Corn, clinked a bag of coins on the table, grabbed Corn by the scruff of his neck, lifted him easily, and moved to leave the house. "Come on, ya little freak, let's go see your NEW home." Corn looked outside to see a wheelbarrow with crude-looking benches covered in chains. That didn't bode well in his mind, and something told him that he needed to get rid of this situation fast. So, he did the one thing he could think of. He used his moving.
He opened the stallion's jaw, snapping it by mistake and dropping himself to the ground. He then imagined a giant blast of air, propelling the stallion back into the house. Thus, it happened. However, he had sent the stallion crashing straight into his parents, who were now sprawled out on the floor, passed out, with their legs and who-knows-what-else broken. The stallion wasn't moving at all, and didn't even appear to be breathing. Corn had no medical training and so didn't know how to fix any of them, plus he couldn't think straight due to his massive ache in the front of his head not unlike being struck with a mallet several times in the same spot, so he did the one sensible thing he could think of.
He ran off towards town all in a rush. Upon cresting a hill soonafter, he promptly tripped over his hooves and rolled down said hill, hitting his head fairly hard on a rock at the bottom. He laid there for a few seconds, apologizing to his parents and whatever great powers might be listening, as his vision slowly faded to nothingness.
-------------------------Chapter Three: Revealings and Beginnings-------------------------
The first thing he could feel was the massive throbbing in the front of his skull. He groaned and winced before attempting to roll over to curl up. As he did so, he felt that he was on a bed, strapped down by a large, thick blanket. He panicked, and opened his eyes immediately, which was not the best of ideas. He groaned loudly in pain as they crossed powerfully, then shut them tight, maneuvering his hoofs to press and rub on his eyes in an effort to alleviate the extremely unpleasant feeling.
As his hoofs circled, they rubbed up against his forehead, which caused him to exclaim in surprise and nearly open his eyes again due to the fairly decently-sized bump protruding from his forehead. He fought the urge to panic, failed miserably, and began thrashing about under his blankets.
"Hey, hey, hold on there, hun! You shouldn't be moving in this condition!" cried out a familiar and closer-coming voice. Wait...oh, no. One Corn froze instantly and cautiously opened his right eye. He was greeted by the startling and blurry vision of dull yellow eyes directly in his face, and an immense sense of dread.
Standing next to the bed was his friend Eulogy, worried look along with her. With her light-brown coat, earth-colored mane and tail, and the faded black streaks that outlined them, she didn't look unlike the caskets that she so often helped her family with. He started to speak, but was interrupted by a prompt hoof on the mouth, causing him to wince slightly. "Now hush!" she exclaimed.
He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but his forehead throbbed quite suddenly, causing him to instead writhe and groan in pain. He rushed his own hooves up to his new addition and removed them just as suddenly when that proved even worse than before. Eulogy just eyed him worriedly and rubbed his skull in an attempt to soothe and calm him.
"You've been sleeping fitfully for four hours now, maybe more. I went out to get food for the family when I found you on the road, panting and shaking quite fiercely, with that...pardon me, but that thing on your head. I immediately brought you inside and placed you here, and, well, I've been pacing and sitting here worried ever since. Can you attempt to speak?"
One Corn had calmed down by now, and was laying still again. He thought briefly about trying and explaining to her what happened, but instead decided to show her. He looked around, and saw a pillow across the room, where he presumed Eulogy had been sitting. He motioned to her to look over at it, and she silently did, confused look on her face.
One Corn concentrated on that pillow lifting gently up into the air, but nothing happened, and he heard a fizzling sound near the front of his head. He stopped, panting. Eulogy, with a look that suggested a suspicion of insanity, asked, "What are you-" "Ssh!" he hushed her, and concentrated again, pushing her out of his mind for the moment.
This time, the pillow lifted a bit, and One Corn heard Eulogy gasp. He ignored it and brought the pillow over to the bed, noticing a peculiar white glow that seemed to emanate from it as he set it under his head before releasing it. He looked over at her, her mouth agape, and laughed softly before passing out again.
He woke with a start this time, lightly sweating. He was in the same bed, so that was some good news. He sighed, then stopped and looked over to where he saw Eulogy, still sitting there with a shocked look on her face. He hazarded speaking. "Eulogy?"
She was silent, but closed her mouth and shook her head. That was a good sign; she hadn't gone completely insane from seeing an inanimate object move from one end of the room to the next. He spoke her name again, and she just looked at him before speaking.
"I don't know what that was, and I'm fairly certain I don't want to. But rest assured, I won't exile you for it. You are my friend, no matter what manner of strange..." She faded out to silence in the end, staring past the wall next to the bed with a look of revelation on her face.
"Eulogy? What's wrong?" One Corn asked his friend, worrying over if he was the final trigger in her insan-
"Would you like to make that better?" she said quite suddenly, looking right into his eyes. He furrowed his brows in confusion. "The pillow-thing, whatever that was, would you like to get better at it?" she continued hastily.
"Um...I-I guess so? Why do-"
"Wonderful! Well, at the same time terrible, but still mostly wonderful!" she exclaimed, jumping to her hooves with a determined look on her face and startling One Corn quite a bit. "Well, we'll have to be swift, then! And we must start soon! SO, you just rest up there. and we'll get moving as soon as-"
"Wait, moving? Where? What are you talking about? Eulogy, what in the world are you thinking of?"
"Why, we're going to send you to the land of the Zebras, of course! They know so much more about this sort of thing than us pony-kind, that much is obvious and assured! Although, there'll be the problem of acceptance, but that shouldn't prove too difficult, should it? Hmm? One Corn?" she turned to face him at last, only to see another look of dread on his face.
"...WHAT?! Zimbrabwe?! B-But then I'd never be able to see you again!"
"Oh hush now, hun, that is clearly an impossibility. How could you ever forget to come and visit little old me, huh?" she laughed, and continued on, "But in any case, the Zebras know much more about strange happenings, as I said before, so why don't we take you there for them to train you in this...whatever it is? What do you call it?"
"Moving. I know, it's not much, but-"
"Nonsense, it's perfectly fitting, hun! I couldn't think of anything better if given a week's worth of time! But unfortunately, we may not have even that much. Your parents are certainly going to come looking for you soon, no?"
He nearly told her about what he'd experienced at his house, but instead said, "Yeah, I guess you're right. When should we leave, then? And what should I bring? I don't have any supplies, not without going back to my house and getting them."
"Well, we'll leave tomorrow, you should be rested by then. As for supplies, I'll loan you some. You can surely pay me back upon your return. That shouldn't be too hard, should it?"
"...Well..." Her logic was impeccable, and One Corn could think of no reasons to argue. Besides, if he stayed here, surely there'd be some sort of mob after him eventually. He sighed. "No, I guess not. Alright then, I'll go."
"Perfect! Thank you!" Eulogy hugged him tightly, garnering another wince from him before she released him quickly. "Oop, sorry," she said with an embarrassed look on her face.
"N-No problem," he assured her, blushing slightly. "S-So, see you tomorrow?"
"Yes, very well, then! Good sleep, friend!" she exclaimed as she left the room, leaving One Corn alone to ponder to himself for a few minutes before heading off to sleep.
Author's Note
IT'S BACK! Begging your forgiveness, Readers, for my lateness in these. Business with family, friends, and school are not aiding the process of writing this, but I'm not cancelling it. I think I can get this done, hopefully in a way that pleases as many as I can. Not everyone, mind you, I'm not that--oh, I'll stop rambling. Enjoy!
And yes, "Zimbrabwe" is a terrible name, but it's what I came up with after a week's worth of thinking, and that's all I had, okay? Sorry. ^^;
-------------------------Chapter Four: Departure and Journey-------------------------
"Eulogy, are you sure about this?" One Corn asked for what felt like the "million'th" time, knowing full-well that the answer would be the same as every time before and getting tired of it. As he readjusted his pack carefully with his teeth(he didn't want to risk something as small and delicate as a pack strap with his moving), he mouthed part of her response silently and rolled his eyes.
"This is the absolute best option for you to learn how to make the best of this, hun," Eulogy answered as expected, being just as tired of saying it. "else you risk possibly killing someone with an errant thought. Never forget that, understand?" She looked him in his eyes sternly, now.
He gulped and nodded, fidgetting under her gaze. He adjusted the other side of the pack to get away from it, and breathed a silent sigh of relief when she finally moved away, opening the door at the back of the basement where he had made his home for the last couple of days. He looked forlornly at the bed for the last time before Eulogy gently shoved him towards the opening.
"I know, I know. Thanks for putting up with me, by the way. And for setting this whole thing up. I'm immensely grateful, you know." One Corn said as he bowed to Eulogy. She just giggled and gave him a playful kick of her front hoof. "Get going now, hun. No time to waste. Who knows what dangers may be out there, waiting to swallow you up and digest you for days at a time? But enough of these goodbyes. Farewell, and best of luck."
They waved at each other one last time before Eulogy closed the door behind him with a somewhat ominous thump. One Corn took and let out a deep breath, and set off across the cemetery in the direction of the nearby forest, hoping he had enough supplies for the journey.
As the forest's entrance loomed in front of him, he picked out a path and continued onwards. Within a few hours, he had made quite a bit of headway, and could no longer see the entrance behind him. Seeing that it was fairly dark, he decided to make camp, and set up a simple shelter to sleep for the night. In the morning, he cleaned up, ate a meager breakfast to preserve his supplies, and continued in the direction Eulogy had set him on.
And so it was for three more nights, making very good headway into the deep forest. On the fourth such morning however, he awoke to very different surroundings. Tied down, staring at a leather-looking ceiling, he smelled something foul next to him. He scrunched his nose at it, but a striped hoof quieted his expression of disapproval before it took place. One Corn looked up the long leg of his silencer to see that which he had been searching for: a zebra, albeit somewhat displeased.
-------------------------Chapter Five: Arrival-------------------------
The zebra eyed One Corn warningly, and asked “Can you be quiet while I help? Or will sleep better quiet your yelp?” One Corn furrowed his brow at the zebra’s strange manner of speech and decidedly female middle-aged voice, but nodded slowly. The zebra took her hoof off of his muzzle and returned to gently stirring whatever mixture she had on the end table. As One Corn watched in astonishment, it gradually changed from a deep purple to light green. The zebra shook something into the mix from her hoof, and the color changed to a vibrant blue.
“Ah, this will nicely do! Now, be silent, and drink this brew.” The zebra held the “brew” in front of One Corn’s muzzle, which cautiously opened and was filled. It felt sticky, yet smooth, as he swallowed every drop. Upon finishing, his back arched as he writhed in excruciating pain, but only for a moment. As quickly as it had come, it passed, and One Corn found himself sitting up and inspecting his body for any new additions.
“Becalm yourself, foal, for you are fine. I have not given you a new outline. Your body is not the altered place, but rather, your interesting face.” One Corn glanced up in horror and felt around his forehead for the nub, only to wince as he brushed against it. He moved his pack’s small mirror over to inspect, only to find that it had grown larger than before. It now looked like a tiny rounded pole sticking out of his face, no more than half a hoof long, but very sensitive.
“Wonderful, just as we expected you! But now for a challenge of more than brew.” One Corn looked back to the zebra before being hit in the face by a pillow. As he ripped it off of his face to protest, he got hit by another. He ripped it off again, but pulled it back quickly before the next expected impact, though it never came. He cautiously looked around the edge of the pillow, and saw that his moving had caught the next pillow mid-flight.
“Again, you pass, but alas. Is that the best that you can do, or can you strike my visage, too?” The zebra got into a fighting position and readied another pillow. One Corn shook his head in confusion and astonishment. This wasn’t really the time for a pillow fight, but then again, he had been captured and drugged against his will. So he figured, why not get some "revenge" in the bargain?
He hefted the pillow with the moving, and flung it as hard as he could towards the “foe”, who rolled away onto her hooves with a laugh before kicking another at One Corn. One Corn grabbed hold of it and swung it around him, without stopping it, to return towards its kicker. The zebra jumped over it and laughed once more. “Impressive, young one. But you’ve not yet won.” She then kicked two pillows at One Corn in rapid succession, who caught the first and used it to deflect the second. He then lifted them both at once, and sent them twirling at her once again, who dodged each with a laugh once again.
And so it went for roughly an hour or so, with One Corn able to catch, counter, and wield more and more of the projectiles as time went on. His foe still never revealed anything about herself, only throwing more pillows at him. One Corn eventually collapsed from both mental and physical exhaustion due to catching some pillows and dodging others. However, the zebra looked as if she were disappointed that the fun was over, yet pleased that he had managed to last so long and improve so much.
“Rest for the night to heal yourself best. You shall move towards your goal after the moon’s rest.” She then walked into another room and vanished from One Corn’s senses as he crawled back into the bed and laid down to sleep deeply.
Author's Note
Yeah, I'm sorry, you know the deal. Enjoy.
