Wheat from the Chaff (Ch 1)
Author's Note
Hello everyone!
I wrote this almost a year ago, before I got on FimFiction. However, right before I submitted this chapter, I was invited into a writers' group which took up a lot of my time. I never submitted it, and totally forgot about it. I was looking for some unrelated stuff, and stumbled upon this story. I was rereading it, and remembered the concept of this story, so I figured that I might as well post it here. Enjoy.
-CuttleFishGod
Wheat from the Chaff (Ch 1)
1103871 sat bolt upright. She blinked, taking only seconds to clear the bleariness from
her eyes. Her eye’s focused, and her vision cleared. She glanced to the left, before an
aura of magic surrounded the horn protruding from her head. A similar glow wrapped itself
around the piece of paper left on her bed table. 'ITINERARY' the paper read.
Right on time, 1103871 thought. Of course, not once had her itinerary been late-
however, 1103871 had always been left awestruck by Asset Management's precise
attention to detail.
This attention, this drive, had always resonated with her. It had taken years- nearly her
entire lifetime, in fact- of work to get to her position now. When she was only a small
filly, she was singled out- entrance exams into Magical Kindergarten had shown her to
be an extremely gifted young unicorn.
Within days of her test’s, a loud knock rang out from her family's door- as her father
peaked outside, her mother told her to go up to her room. She remembered how long
that silence felt, sitting alone on the floor of her room, only able to hear the faint
mumbling of foreign voices.
An hour later, maybe two, and her father called down to her. “Twilight, dear, come say hello to
the nice mare! She came all the way from Canterlot, just to talk to you!”
She looked up in suspicion at the so-called 'nice mare'. Her coat was a dull gray, and
her mane and tail a muted red. Her eye’s were gray; staring into them, she couldn’t feel
anything. No emotion, no kindness. Just blankness; a flatness. And, most unusual, she
was wearing a uniform. Not the armor that the Royal Guard wore- this garb was much
sleeker, much more refined. Pinned onto it’s front, however, the glaring sun of Celestia’s
troops shown out.
“Hello, little one. Please, sit down.” Her voice was as empty as her eye’s. Listening to
her speak was like reading from a dictionary.
And before she knew it, the meeting was over. Apparently, she had done so well on her
tests that Princess Celestia herself wanted her to enter a special school, taught exclusively by the Princess. She was ecstatic. She had always been a voracious reader- her parents had instilled that into her early on.
As such, she had read countless stories; the tales of great wizards and warriors.
Though surely embellished, these stories engulfed her life. All she had ever wanted was
to be able to live up to the like of Starswirl the Bearded- to pioneer a path forward,
harnessing magic that none other’s had even begun to imagine.
And now, here she was. Accepted as the Princess’s personal pupil.
_____________________________________________________________________
Her first day had been miserable. Once her bags had been packed, she was
shepherded towards a waiting carriage by a soldier of the Royal Guard. Her bag was
taken from her and unceremoniously dumped into the baggage compartment, before
she was nearly lifted off her feet and sat down on the carriages seat. She made the
mistake of touching the edge; the elegant, golden curves having spent the better part of
the day bathed in sunlight had become quite hot.
Twilight glanced back towards her parents. This odd mare had walked right next to her
mother, and appeared to whispering something into her ear. After only seconds, the
mare was done. She executed a swift about face, and trotted to her side of the carriage.
This mare, she noted, was treated with extreme respect by the Guards Ponies. They
held open her door, and even bowed slightly as the mare climbed in. Clearly, she
thought, this mare must be someone very important.
Once she was situated, the Royal Guard Pony strapped himself in and with the
thunderous beating of wings, the carriage rocketed off the ground. As the
ground began to shrink, and the carriage climbed into the bright blue sky, her heart
began to race. Despite her nerves, she was excited. She was on her way to a land she
had only ever imagined. She was headed towards Equestria’s capital city, Canterlot.
_____________________________________________________________________
Gathered in the facility's enormous common’s stood nearly six hundred gifted young fillies and colts, eagerly
waiting to catch their first glimpse of the Princess.
Suffice it to say, they were fairly disappointed when a large stallion entered the room.
He, not unlike the strange mare, was sans armor- however, he was also wearing the
emblem of the Princess on his massive chest.
“SHUT UP, YOU LITTLE SHITS!” he yelled out, his thunderous voice rattling off of
every wall, amplifying an already terrifying sound. Instantly, all the room went dead- not
a peep was heard from anyone. Though only a portion of them had any idea what ‘shits’
even meant, the stallion's impatience was lost on nopony.
“THAT'S BETTER. NOW- FILLIES TO THE LEFT, COLTS TO THE RIGHT.” Nopony moved. He
glared, his gaze sweeping the room. “NOWWWWWW!!!!” Startled out of their shock,
they began to split. As they started moving, he let out another command “LINE UP,
TALLEST TO SHORTEST.”
He turned his attention beyond the large, oak double doors, and lifted his hoof. He gave
a small wave, and two more ponies filtered into the colossal room. Both were gray, like
all the ponies they had seen so far. One of them, a mare, had her hair done up in a tight
bun- perched atop her nose sat a small pair of glasses. Suspended from her magic was
a clipboard, and a pen already hovering above it, ready to begin recording at a
moment's notice. The other was a fairly squat stallion. Held aloft by his magic, a camera
and an odd-looking tool.
As they began to set up, the large stallion bellowed out an additional instruction. “ALL
FILLIES AND COLTS WHO ALREADY HAVE A CUTIE MARK, STEP FORWARD.”
Of the six hundred young ponies gathered within the room, nearly two hundred stepped up.
He gave them a quick motion, and they followed him out of the room.
Only minutes later, he had returned, and not one of the ponies was in tow. Of the six
hundred in the room, four hundred remained.
Apparently satisfied with whatever he had done, he began to walk about the room,
inspecting each line. Starting with the colt’s, he walked down the line, looking each colt
in the eye. At this contact, each and every one of them nervously shifted their gaze
away from the unfeeling eyes’ of the stallion. Satisfied with the colt’s, he began to
inspect the fillies. All was going well, until he got about halfway through the line.
“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!?!” With his hoof, he gestured
directly towards a colt, even younger than most of the ponies in the room, who was
clutching a fillies leg in terror. The stallion stretched out his neck, and grabbed the colt’s
mane with his teeth, ripping him from the line and tearing him from the filly he had been
clutching. “WHEN I SAY ‘COLTS TO THE LEFT’, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS, HUH?” Petrified by fear, the colt could only stutter. In desperation, the filly exclaimed. “He-He’s my brother! He’s never been away from his parent’s! He was
just scared!”
The stallion whipped around, locking his eye’s on the filly. “You. Out. Now.” His voice,
already terrifying, became unspeakably scary as his tone dropped. His horn began to glow a bright
blue, and in an instant, a bolt of magical energy was flung at the filly. Whizzing at
hundreds of mile an hour, it smashed into its target. In an instant, the fillies eyes rolled
back as she crumpled onto the ground. The stallion turned to the colt,
and sent the same spell flying in his direction. He, too, crumpled. Neither pony
breathed.
Without a second glance, he turned back to the lines. “COLTS, WALK INTO THE
BOOTH. YOUR PICTURE WILL BE TAKEN, AND YOU WILL BE ASSIGNED A NUMBER”
Over the course of an hour, the colt’s filtered through the booth. Occasionally, slight
cries of pain could be heard from within. The fillies grimaced, as they awaited
whatever awful fate sat within the booth. All except her. The antics and happenings of
the day hadn’t weakened her resolve one bit. No matter what, she was determined to
finish at the top.
Finally, it was her turn in the booth. She was made to stand in front of a large camera,
and her picture was taken. It was instantly printed off the side, and that print was thrown
into a folder by the official-looking mare, who consulted her clipboard and gave her a
number- '1103871'. With that, the stallion stepped forward, holding the strange
machine- it gurgled, and clanked. The tip began to glow red and her foreleg was forced
outwards. The stallion pressed the brand against her flesh, and she bit down on her lip
so hard that she drew blood.
She refused to cry, or make any sounds at all. With a slight glance, the secretary pony
looked at her, then wrote something in the folder. The stallion approached her, holding a
large syringe.
“Best get used to these,” he said. “You’ll be taking these once a month for
your duration as a student.” She gave a slight nod, her tongue swirling the blood and
spit in her mouth together for her to swallow. And with that, she was passed into the
fillies’ dorm.
By the end of the day, had 1103871 counted, she would have only seen 321 students
enter the dorms.
_____________________________________________________________________
As 1103871 would later learn, the first eight years of their studies were guided, while the
next two were competitive, and the final year was independent. For the next eight years,
each filly and colt adhered to a rigid schedule- they ate the same things, at the same
times, with the same people, every day. They attended classes. If anyone deviated from
their published schedule, or if anyone was late, they would be taken out of their class or
dorm and never seen again.
Though there were, of course, the occasional case of homesickness, it was a very rare
night that the fillies and colts had a difficult time falling asleep. Between weeks upon
weeks of minimal sleep, intensive physical and mental strain, and only being referred to
by their numbers, those number’s became their new identities.
Steadily, who they were originally was lost to these young ponies. All of their coloring
took on a slightly dampened hue, as though their energy was being drained from them
daily. They began to forget their names, their families, their lives. All they were was their
studies and their work.
All of this aided, of course, by the punishment for failure. It was no secret that those that
failed, or under-performed, were asked to visit 'The Stallion', and were never heard from
again. As the pony’s grew older, they began to understand what happened, although
the only ones that knew the specifcs were the ones taken away.
As the ponies grew older, another glaring difference between them and normal ponies
was made obvious- not a single one developed a cutie mark. Though this puzzled
most of the other students, 1103871 understood what was going on. As the workload
piled up, one of the first things she had done was learn a spell that gave her an
edge. Enhanced Rest, published by none other than Starswirl the Bearded.
In short, Enhanced Rest gives the enchanted pony a unique trait- for any given amount
they sleep, the bodily effect was quadrupled. Meaning, since 1103871 had cast this
spell on herself, for every hour she actually slept, her body felt as though she had slept
for four. This gave her time to do a lot of extra studying- so, though her classes were
never easy, she was always ahead. Sometimes, she was able to notice things that the
others would have never even thought to look for.
Such as everyone’s lack of a cutie mark. Just because cutie marks cannot be forced to
appear early, that did not mean that there appearance could be delayed, or be
manipulated. Clearly, cutie marks played a large part in a pony’s life- they serve as not
only an indicator, but as an additive to a ponies thought personality and abilities. This
was the purpose of their monthly injections.
The first group of failing students, the two hundred taken before classes even began,
had already developed their cutie marks. Their personalities had already been
established- nothing that the school could do would be able to mold them into
whatever the school wanted them to be. So, they failed the program.
_____________________________________________________________________
Eight years passed, no one day distinguishable from the last. Each pony grew
more knowledgeable, more powerful with every day- and each day, 1103871 grew more
powerful than each of them. And, in no time at all, those eight years were done. The
conventional studying, and controlled sparring was finished.
The competitive phase was about to begin.
The competitive phase would finally grind down the recruits, leaving only the best of the
best. The concept was simple- based on each student’s performance, a bracket was
formed- and each round was followed by several weeks of additional practice before the
next. After each match-up, one student was dragged from the ring, and the other
walked out.
1103871 completed each phase with ease. She cleared layer after layer, month after
month. None could stand up to her, and she made amazing progress through her bracket.
In all, there were ten brackets- by time the independent phase could begin, only ten
students would be left.
And finally, 1103871 reached the final fight of her bracket. As she stepped into the
court, she glanced out into the judge’s box- seated within, the Princess prepared to
observe the masterpieces of her program prove their worth.
1103871 eye’d up the other unicorn- a cocky, blue thing. She thought back to the
recordings she had seen of the unicorn’s past matches- she was impatient. She liked to
attack fast and hard, trusting her pre-cast protection spells to keep her safe from
counter attacks. With these protection spells, 1103871 knew, nothing short of high-
powered spell would harm her- and, under normal circumstances, the time required to
build up enough magical energy would leave anypony extremely vulnerable to attack.
“STUDENTS, PREPARE PASSIVE SPELLS!” As the blue unicorn began to cast her
protection aura’s, 1103871 began to cast one of her own. She had been developing this
spell for almost a year- she had kept it hidden until the moment she really needed it, the
moment that would solidify her as one of the ten most powerful unicorns in Equestria.
The key to 1103871 involved NOT attacking. She used all of her magical energy to
withstand her very high-power protection aura- an aura specially developed to absorb,
store, and enhance the magical energy sent it’s way. Eventually, this she planned to
channel this energy into a bolt of magical energy powerful enough to break through the
her opponents protection spells.
She stepped into the ring. Apart from her, separated by one hundred feet of cold, stone
floor, she stared into the eyes of her enemy. Over the loudspeaker, a voice called out:
“THREE! TWO! ONE! BEGIN!” The blue unicorn leapt up, immediately sending a bolt of
pure energy her way. It collided with 1103871. She intentionally kept the shield from
absorbing this bolt, and it pinged off towards the ceiling. The blue unicorn frowned, and
sent another small burst of focused energy to the wall behind her. It bounced, and flew
into 1103871 from the rear.
Due to the magically draining nature of her protection spell, it could not be maintained in
a total sphere- it was, in effect, a positionable shield of magical energy. All of 1103871’s
concentration was required to keep the shield between herself and the unending stream
of spells and energy hurtling her way. The blue unicorn knew her weakness, and was
trying to exploit it.
Finally, the new-found power that was coursing through Twilight grew to be too much.
Every unicorn has an energy limit- this limit, through practice, can be expanded-
however, once it is reached, if the unicorn tries to maintain this energy for too long, they
will be overloaded and die. This is how most unicorns meet their end. It takes a tremendous amount of knowledge to cast specific spells; kill spells, in particular, are difficult. The standard tactics of a unicorn in battle involve shooting enough bolts of compressed magical energy at their opponent until they are overloaded.
It was time for 1103871 to release the magic she had built up. She nervously awaited
an opportunity, a moment where her opponent re-positioned herself. Finally, that moment
came. In an instant, her eye’s glowed white, and the pure force of her magical power
was enough to defy gravity itself, as she levitated above the floor. Suddenly, with a
literally deafening BOOM, all the magic that 1103871 had built up was flung outward. It
ripped into the blue unicorn, dissolving her body in an instant. Indeed, the pure mass of
the magical energy was enough to put a sewer-pipe sized hole through the wall of the
magically-reinforced arena.
From far above, emanating from within the judge's booth, 1103871 could hear the
sound of a slow hoof-clap. She looked up, and met the gaze of the princess. Out of six
hundred, she had made it to the top ten.
