Heir of Winter

Chapter 4

Those ‘What’ Moments

“Could be worse.” Those were the first words out of my mouth the second I stepped into the door.

The place was an honest mess. Scraps of metal had been thrown haphazardly on the floor that one could just barely make out from the thick layer of dust covering them and everything else. The broom that Metal Brook had more than likely used in the past to clean up his floor from his workings was laying on the floor as if it had been tossed aside in a hurry. Either way, It wasn’t like I had been expecting to be given the best house a pony could afford; pre owned or not, I would simply have to make due with what I was given. Besides, I could always move into a new place once I saved up enough for it.

Thankfully the broom itself wasn’t too worse for the weather for how long it had been laying on the floor so I got straight to work in cleaning up which, incidentally, gave me a small mental checklist of all the things that needed replaced;

One refrigerator for the kitchen, one new bed and replacement forge for the workshop; either that or I would hire somepony to repair it later down the line, considering the fact that I have no idea how to use one to begin with. Though, other than those things, everything else was just odds and ends like food, toiletries, bedding and whatever else I could think of.

On a side note, the piping that was hooked up outside the house was apparently just for winter heating. I had no idea where it was drawing its heat from but it was still my only guess after touching my hoof to one of them.

Either way, I had my work cut out for me cleaning the house out, it took a good few hours before I was satisfied with the inside of the houses cleanliness. By the time I stopped for long enough to look around outside whomever delivered the mail for Ponyville had already come and gone without so much as a word as I noticed the little flag on the side of my new mailbox standing to attention.

Checking inside showed a large bag full of what looked to be some form of gold coin currency, closer inspection told me each piece had a different values ranging from one, five, ten, twenty five and one hundred. Pretty much the exact same values that Earthen money used. A quick coin count told me that I had exactly five hundred bits to throw around, though I didn’t know exactly how far that would get me since I didn’t know how expensive common items are. “Though now that I come to think of it, it’s a pretty damned convenient time for this money to come in. I would of had to spend another night at Cheerilee's since Metal Brooks old bed got eaten.” I mumble to myself, thinking back to Cheerilee's house. “Then again, it’s not like I had slept there to begin with that first time around. I ended up falling asleep reading a book at the castle library.” I continue, talking to myself after deciding to head back into town for a much needed bed.

“And what was up with that note from Celestia anyway? And what did they mean by ‘Tireks kind of work being far from over’?” I mused quietly to myself, walking over the bridge back into town, “ And even more still. Alicorns holding power over the seasons themselves, amongst other things? Good grief Ryan, what in the world did we do get sent here for?” I sighed out, wondering what in the world was actually going on here. It was beginning to feel like whomever this Celestia was could be hinting that the very race of Alicorn she was herself, along with the others of her race, could very well be in danger from an unseen force. Of course that was just speculation, but I'd be damned if it didn’t sound plausible.

“Well, it’s not like that note was meant for you to begin with, you may as well just forget about it for now.” I silently state to myself, now finding myself standing in front of a store that conveniently sold new bed frames and mattresses. “Funny, I ended up exactly where I wanted to go and I wasn’t even looking at the map Dreamy gave me. Weird.”

Funnier still, it turned out that the owner of the store was running something called a ‘Hearth's Warming Eve’ sale so everything was half price. Call me lucky, but I scored a new bedframe and mattress for only fifty bits! Even better still, the owner offered to have them both installed into my house for me! For crying out loud did that ever put a smile on my face, because truth be told I entirely forgot that I didn’t have anything to haul something that bulky with me.

Food was simple enough to find since I remembered my way to the food market from my run-in with that pony named Apple Bloom. Go figure that I found myself passing by her again on my way out after packing my saddlebags full. Either way, I felt like I was pretty good on cash for the next item on the list; that is of course assuming I could find a store that sells refrigerators.

Not has hard to find as I had first thought evidently, the shop in question turned out to be directly next to the place I had bought the new bed from. Though silly me had entirely forgotten that I had a map of the entire town with all the shops and other places clearly marked for easy reading. I immediately facehoofed at that thought the very second the map came to mind after paying for the refrigerator to be installed.

It was thankfully rather cheap since it was the off season and, thankfully, it too was set to be installed in replacement of the old one. I even ended up with some cash back for the old refrigerator since the mare I bought the new one from said she wanted to scrap it for metal to make new parts for repairing other appliances.

All in all, it was easy enough to replace everything that needed to be replaced. Afterwards I found myself bored from shopping for the past hour so I elected to find something to occupy myself with, coming down to the idea of walking to the castle library. Assuming that it would still be open even if Twilight wasn’t around to look after it.

“Admittedly, I have no idea what to do with myself now that I’ve joined the guild.” I think to myself, walking past the same few stores I bought my appliances from, “I have no combat ability or general survival skills, nor do I have all that much for magic aside making things float around with a magic wire and freezing objects solid with ice. What’s more, I’m pretty sure that the ponies at the guild would catch on that if I simply sat around on my ass. Not to mention that my only general idea of Equis itself is dream knowledge or things I read from before when I had just gotten here.”

“I admit that I got ahead of myself when I joined the guild. But what other choices did I really have? I can’t just sit around and do nothing, doing that would just wind up with me being homeless and I for sure never want to deal with that.” One way or the other, I found myself once again standing in front of the castle doors. I politely gave the door a good knock, waiting to be invited inside.

Only a few moments later, Spike had arrived and let me up to the library. I admit not knowing what I had came here for, it just seemed like a good idea at the time to be around some form of knowledge that could point me in a good direction to get myself moving with the guild work that I would later have; one way or the other I needed to know things.
Spike himself was a helpful kid, he knew exactly where to look in the library for anything I seemed to have questions about. The first of which I found myself asking was about the lines of magic that came out of my horn, of which he handed be a rather old and dusty looking book called “Ley Lines and You”.

Ley lines themselves could apparently be seen by an exceedingly rare few of the unicorn population, such ponies that could see the lines of magic are normally ratherly sought after and used by other unicorns in their spellcraft for major fine tuning of their general craft. Even more so, an experienced Unicorn that could see ley lines can also see the very aura of magic itself aside simply seeing the hardened version that other Unicorns see on their own horn or when casting spells themselves. Or morley, having a higher degree and finesse in their spells, as being able to literally see what they are doing wrong makes things a lot easier.

Long story short, that kind of trait is apparently what I found myself with. The ability to see the magic in a more literal sense than normal. More down the same line, the main “Levitation Line” I found myself with was the more basic spell unicorns find themselves in tune with when they first start out dabbling with their own magical abilities, mainly, basic levitation of objects. Simple enough when one thinks about it.

Now to the interesting bit. Most unicorns only start out with the levitation line when they get their horns working for the first time. I, however, seem to have started with both that line and an elemental line of ice. Which apparently, again, was yet another rarity.

Mainly when a Unicorn starts moving on from levitation and onto more complicated spells they usually get confused on how to do something entirely new with their magic, as, evidently, most unicorns never actually go any further than their basic levitation spell.

On the other hoof, well, I was just as confused as what the book suggested that other unicorns get when learning a new spell for the first time. I had no clue how I ended up with ice magic right off the bat, nor did I know how the spell had been made to begin with since the ice line in of itself was, as stated, a simple cyan line of apparently very cold magic.

“I have no clue what the hell I’m doing.” I sighed out as I moved the ley lines I had around idly. I found that they would move through each other if I wanted them to or simply collide like a pair of twigs. The reaction the two differing lines made when they touched was interesting though, as they seemed to join together for a few moments like some kind of static electrified hair to a balloon before I had to pull them back apart with some colors of static coming off the two when I did.

It was fun to mess around with to be perfectly honest, it was like my own personal light show meant just for me. Though that messing around also made me ask myself the question of. “How do I make more ley lines? And is magic exclusively line based or can I make other shapes?”

“No reason why I couldn’t try, it’s not like I have much else to do this morning.” I think to myself before asking Spike if I could check out the book for a while.

“Go right ahead. Just be sure to bring it back in one piece. You would be amazed at how many books used to come back damaged before Twilight took over for the old librarian.” Spike started out with a wince, “Long story short, right after Twilight took over, everypony seemed to be afraid to even damage a single page in any of the books they checked out.” Spike said before handing me the book on my way out.

Though just as I had taken my fourth step out from the building I began to notice something unusual from my vision, mainly the signs of when a person is beginning to wake up from a dream.

The darkening around the edges of my eyes began to form rather quickly as if I was being pulled quickly backwards. And before I could even think of trying to do anything about it, like calming myself down, I already found myself entirely in the darkness of wakefulness.

“What the actual fuck…?” I grumbled to myself, finding my pony body to still be what I was living in my own bemusement. It turned out this entire time I had still been sleeping on Cheerilees' couch in her living room when I suddenly found myself waking up from what I had elsewise thought had been reality.

“Guess this means I am a pony after all?” I mumbled, “Or is this yet another dream? Wouldn’t be the first time I had a dream within a dream...” I added, taking a look outside the window next to the sofa. It was snowing outside, which reminded me of what I had tried out in my dream. Though it also made me look over to the coffee table to see if the paper I had gotten from Twilight was there out of curiosity.

No such paper was found, meaning that the entirety of the events after being brought to this house had never even happened. That made no sense at all! I had gone to Twilight's Castle before even stopping to sleep on the sofa in Cheerilees' house, so why in the world were the books I had borrowed from her as well as the paper now entirely missing from the table?

“Maybe I was more tired than I thought and fell asleep the second I was on the sofa?” I thought to myself in ponderment, now wondering what other inconsistencies were about to pop up from the unusual event of waking up from an apparent dream.

So, wondering if I still could or not, I tried to light my horn up experimentally to see if I could still use my Ley Lines or not. Thankfully, and to my own happiness, I still had both my lines of magic nor was it difficult to get my horn to light like I thought it was going to be like the last time around in that unusual dream.

Though that tangent of thought brought me back to the cutie mark I had earned in the dream, though one quick look did make me rather confused. The same mark I had earned in the dream was still plastered on both my flanks in defiance of being earned in it.

Thinking for another few moments while watching the snow falling outside, I recalled that since I had been dreaming that whole event, none of the material things such as meeting the ponies I had run into or getting my own house to live in never happened either. The same with joining the adventurers guild. Though now that I thought more about it, losing those things wasn’t entirely bad in the long run, I had no idea how to protect myself with this kind of body should something have happened while I was god knows where in Equis. Not only that, I don’t even know if the age for my body was accurate or not since I was on ‘Dream Paper’.

I sighed. “Kind of screwed the pooch on that one didn’t I?” I thought to myself with a chuckle. “What was I thinking I was going to do? Fight some eldritch abomination from the depths of hell in the body of a who even knows how old little filly?! Fuck sakes Ryan those kind of things usually think to rape the girls! Especially those damned moss men from those D&D campaigns that liked little girls for some dumb reason! God fucking damnit… at least I managed to make that species go entirely extinct in that game, but I have no idea what so ever if that kind of abominations exist in this world. Or worse creatures then those even.”

I had found myself frowning at the very thought of those creatures, simply staring out the window for who knows how long before I felt my ear swivel around towards the stairs. Hearing the sound of Cheerilee coming down them I turned myself back around with a sigh, laying myself back down onto the sofa and resting my head on the arm rest.

Cheerilee took a seat on the other sofa across from the one I had slept on for the night, she gave me a worried look before asking, ”So… Wispy?” I nodded slowly from my head rest, “I know you’re probably thinking I’m going to send you off to an orphanage or something, but, since to me it seems like you’ve been living on your own for a while as far as I can tell. Being you fell asleep the second your head hit the sofa pillow. I really don't want to have to do something like that to you since we just met last morning…. I can offer you to stay with me for a while since I have no idea if you have anywhere else to go, Celestia knows how I feel about leaving you out in the cold during winter...” She says in a long winded speech, before pausing to look outside the window to see the snow falling rather quickly. “I don’t even know how old you are.” She adds quickly, looking back over to me.

I sighed loudly, I was hoping she wouldn’t ask that. I ended up giving her the only answer I could think of at the time, being my thoughts were still on the dream I had woken up from. “I… honestly don’t know how old I am.” I said in a slow huffing whine, swearing that I could even feel my ears drooping down to fit with my current mood of Bleh.

Cheerilee didn’t seem to take the answer very well as her own ears drooped in response and her face looking more saddened then it had just been, “I… see…” She sighed out before she seemed to try looking at me more closely, “Well.. this is just a guess since it’s harder to tell a ponies age in a lot of cases since we use both Unicorn years and Earth pony years to tell age in different cities. But… taking a closer look at you, I’m tempted to say you’re maybe… twenty in Unicorn years? Maybe around ten in Earth pony?” She says, squinting her eyes a bit as if trying to look a bit harder for a few moments before adding, “Not too much younger then the ponies I teach in school I think. Though it does seem you have your cutie mark already, so you’re at least ten years of age according to Ponyvilles standard for foal ages; being most fillies get theirs around that age.”

“Ten years old..” I say mostly to myself, I was hoping I was older then that. It would seem I drew the short stick in being suddenly thrust into another world in an entirely different body in that regard.

Cheerilee nods to me, “At least that’s how it looks to me. Though it seems you’re also a unicorn now that I’m taking more time to look at you to notice, I didn’t notice that when we first met. No idea if you ever even learned how to use your horn or not but… well. I’m no unicorn, so I wouldn’t be able to help you in that regard. Honestly one of the other students I teach already has a hard enough time with her magic,” She sighs before audibly mumbling, “I really wish she would ask her sister for some help with her magic, or Twilight for that matter. Though I’ve tried giving her some hints in enrolling in Celestias' school through Twilight in a hope she would try a bit harder to learn. Though only she knows if she could be accepted into it or not..”

“Celestias' school?” I asked, wanting to change the subject away from my age and hopefully away from anything more depressing.

Cheerilees eyes seem to light up at the mention of it as well as her ears perking back up, looking back to me directly after seeming to have an idea, “You know Wispy, that’s not actually a bad idea for you if you can get accepted into it. They provide living quarters at the school itself as well as being able to teach quite a few things to a unicorn that most other places wouldn’t be able to accommodate…” She says to me, then getting herself off the sofa she was on to walk over to a desk next to it to open up a drawer, “In fact, I seem to recall getting a pamphlet not that long ago that they would be accepting new tryouts for the school in a few days from then...” She says while rummaging through the drawer before taking out some papers and placing it on the table. “Here. This is the pamphlet sheet for signups that you turn into the school in Canterlot in person.”

I sat myself up from my head rest to look down at the papers themselves to read it over, having liked the idea of someplace I could both learn and stay for a good while to get my ‘hooves’ under myself for whatever future I found for myself while being here.

The paper was pretty much exactly as she described it, though the actual title of the school was openly printed onto the top as ‘Celestias' School for the Gifted’. It sold itself as a school meant for gifted unicorns as a higher place of learning under the parted tutelage of Princess Celestia herself as well as her younger sister Princess Luna; the later part saying that it was a new edition to the school having been added by suggestion by Princess Twilight, a past honor grade student of the school. It was also noted that Twilight herself was planning on teaching a Class in her open time from being the Princess of Friendship and would be available intermittently.

The second page, however, stated that there would be an acceptance trial for those trying to be admitted into the school as there was limited space on campus for those wishing to join the school and that the trials usual passing rate was about five percent of those actually partaking in it. As the past trial was deemed to be too easy and a danger to the supervisors of the test. Thus a newer test was created and deemed to be ‘hopefully’ safer for both the students partaking as well as those overlooking it.

“Seems like a hopeful idea at least.” I state turning to the last page that had the actual ‘sign here to partake’ slip on it that tore off from the pamphlet. It also seemed to those signing the paper that if they showed the signed slip to their local train station that the expense was already paid for, so that would mean an easy and free way to get there as well. “I don’t have any other ideas for myself to be honest with you Ms. Cheerilee. My getting here to Pony Ville was a fluke enough as is, so why the heck not?” I said after a few moments thought. Taking notice that she had put a feather pen next to the slip itself.

Though seeing the pen made me remember that I have yet even once to actually write something with my own hoof before aside for in the dream. Though, figuring my luck so far with my magic still working, I managed to pick the pen up with my hoof and somewhat messily signed my name onto the slip as ‘Wispy Spirits’ before tearing the paper off with a smile of hopefulness. Even if my chances of getting into the school were slim at best, it was still better then not having anywhere else to be.

“Seems that’s well and settled then.” Cheerilee says, looking over the papers a secondary time before stopping a moment to look at a particular page; I could see her eyes shrink down slightly the moment she stopped on it. “Erm.. Well, It seems that the test for getting into the school is actually being held about five hours from now, while the train happens to leave for Canterlot in about fifteen minutes or so.” She states before walking herself immediately over to the door to grab a pair of scarves, tossing one in my direction. “Thank goodness it’s the weekend else I would have to have you go on your own!”

“I guess we better get going then!” I stake, picking the scarf up and wrapping it snugly around my neck. Interestingly the scarf had a pocket on the inside of it, my guess is that it was made for pony convenience in mind so I elected to put the slip into the pocket for safe keeping. “Certainly beats having to keep it in my mouth the whole way.” I thought to myself, then remembering something else I wanted to grab before getting on the train. “I need to make a quick stop to the library before we get onto the train,” I declared just as we both had gotten out of the door, “There’s a book I want to read on the way.”

Cheerilee nods as we make our way through the snow covering the ground. It took us both a little while to get to the large crystal castle I remembered from the dream; though it does help that I also remembered it from being brought to Cheerilees’ house, It was pretty hard to miss. Even more so, I recalled exactly where the library was and ran myself up the stairs to it ahead of my companion to open the door.

Even more to the dream, Twilight was in the same spot she was just as before but this time around she was reading through the book I myself had read through that Celestia had given her. “Don’t mind me, just borrowing the copy of Ley Lines and You.” I regard to Twilight, remembering where It was that Spike had pulled it from earlier. A part of me was confused on how all those many things from the dream I had still managed to come to fruition so far; though I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth about it because I was already a bit on a time crunch.

Twilight looked up from Celestias’ book with a smile, “Huh. I don’t even remember the last time somepony checked that one out, that’s for sure.” She said while glancing over to where I had been standing only to see nopony at all. “Weird. I could have sworn somepony just checked out a book…” She sighed before putting the book she had been reading down and walking out of the library herself.

I myself had already come and gone by the time I heard Twilight coming out from the library. As Cheerilee herself had been waiting for me at the castle doors we both bolted back out knowing we didn’t have much time to spare for pleasantries. Before too long we both managed to get ourselves to the train station by direction of Cheerilee just in the nick of time for the conductor to be saying the words, “All aboard that’s coming aboard!”.

Naturally, as I didn’t have any money to pay for them myself, Cheerilee ended up paying for both of our train tickets. Not that I had any room to object to it. But, tickets in hoof, we ended up on the train to Canterlot as the two of us now sat in cabin four. And thankfully so, seeing as I had a lot to think about, and, from Cheerilees notion, about an hour's trip before we had our stop.

Now, mind you, I once again had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had several books sitting next to me that now, coming to think of it, I had only just realized I shouldn’t have known existed in the library as the entire sequence of meeting Twilight had been entirely in a dream. And while I did have my suspicions as to why I would have known about them; those being that I honestly still think I’m in a dream of some kind, albeit a rather long and detailed one, and the fact that contextually I’m also starting to have doubts about my being here.

Things had been lining up rather quickly for myself, like I was being pushed in a direction with purpose rather than it being random happenstance. Both of which are honestly freeky to think about the more I sit here on this seat cushion. Like the biggest thought of; How did I manage to get here and why? Here I am thinking all these extra things and I’m not even beginning to think about how I turned into a unicorn. Honestly that should have been my first question since I had been human not but at least a few hours ago.

I found myself hanging my head down with a heavy sigh, I was starting to get the feeling this was all a bit more real then I would like it to be. Incidentally, my sigh seemed to track the attention of my current cabin room mate.

“Stress?” Cheerilee asked with some notable concern in her voice.

I end up sighing a second time before I voice out some of my thoughts, “Honestly? Yes. And a lot more than I would like to have to bear with right now. And I’m even more confused about my current situation then I would ever like to be. So now, here I am sitting in a train cabin heading to a destination that may very well decide my fate. Be it to be an orphan living on the streets or an actual orphanage or to somehow make the cut to get into a high grade school for an education so I have a proper living space for the time that I’m there so long as I keep passing grades.” The more I voiced out my own concerns the more and more depressed I was starting to feel. My situation was, in all honesty, pretty fubared whether I liked it or not, dream or no dream.

Cheerilee on the other hand, actually looked a little taken back by how much I seemed to have on my mind. She mulled over it for a moment before saying something I wasn’t expecting, “You know, Wispy, for being a pony who doesn’t even look like they're any older than my own students back in Ponyville. That’s a surprisingly adult way to think of all that. Then again. I didn’t know you before now so I have no clue how old you actually are or for how long you’ve been on your own, let alone what kind of mentality you have. But I can say this much for certain. Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both care dearly for their ponies, so either way, no matter what happens. I’m sure you will be cared for.” She says, softly patting me on the head. “Besides, the cutie mark of a pony has a funny way of putting you right where you need to be. Hopefully, for you, it will be someplace for you to find yourself.” She adds with a sage smile only an elder could give; or a teacher in her case.

I simply gave a nod and a sigh of,” I sure hope you’re right…” before I picked up the Ley Lines book I had borrowed from the library. I still had no clue if I was just lucky the book was where I found it in the dream or not, but I surely wasn’t going to complain about it when I needed all the help I could get. I had an hour-ish to get as much information crammed into my head as I could manage and I sure as hell wasn’t going to give up hope just yet. So, I sat myself back upright, opened up the book and began to read what I hoped would be at least something of a saving grace to my upcoming dilemma.

A test I had no clue how to finish.

Author's Note

This is it boys and girls~. The rough un-proof read version of chapter 4~. Late night writing mistakes inbound