The Grey Path of Arcane Gears

Age 13

The sound of a motor snapped Arc out of her memory. A black bus with the words “Lady Cadence’ School for Girls” in bold white lettering zoomed into the distance.

“Horse Apples!”

Arc leaned forward and fell into a sprint. If she was lucky she could get to the next stop. The bus was going down a residential street, so perhaps 20 kilometers per hour? Her best speed was 23, which was not impressive for Earth Pony standards.

She was a white blur that whipped past neighbors waving and tending their gardens. Somehow she managed to shout out the occasional polite response to Good Mornings and Hellos.

The black bus was a small dot slowly getting bigger in her vision one moment then pushing ahead the next. Her young calves were already burning and lungs began to sting despite the soft ocean breeze. As she ran, her mind wandered back to that time. It all came back to her in pieces, mostly delivered through the nightmares she suffered from age eleven.

She began to wonder if it were all just a part of her active imagination. Around that age she would have tea parties with ‘Celestia and Luna’. She had a vivid memory of riding on top of an Ursa Major and running through the Everfree Forest on the back of a Timber Wolf. More importantly, the ‘dots’ hadn't worked for her since her seizure. After that terrible day she didn’t see any more weird writing, excluding today.

Arcane brought her index finger up to her eye and gazed into the black surface. She imagined the feel of a hand pressing her back and pushing her on. She imagined the resistance of a coiled spring. A constellation made from four clusters of small pink dots surfaced on the black tip.

.. . . .
. . ..
. .. ..

Push.

She felt a force burst from her hooves. She yelped once as she went flying two meters ahead yet gained her balance with the next. Arcane leaned her body forward and slammed her hoof down on the sidewalk before another push. She could feel the air parting around her muzzle, her wavy hair whipping against her neck and back.

She let up on her strides when the bus was right next to her. Stunned mares looked out the windows, Earth ponies looked at their hands wondering what they could do as well. Arcane’s hooves made a flash of pink as if she were commanding magic, her race’s very own magic.

Arcane found herself in a very uncomfortable situation after catching the bus, even after getting off and making her way across school grounds. Random mares commented on her sprint,slapped her on the back, or touched her shoulders. A handsome earth mare slapped her on the ass and commented.

“See you on the track, Gears”

Most of it was questions. Her nerdy self loved answering questions, just not an onslaught of questions. Practically every Earth mare in her school buzzed around her like a hive. It was enough to make her heart slam inside her ribs from sheer anxiety.

“… no no.. I’m not ‘part unicorn’. It’s really not that special, I guess my hooves flashed because I was forcing the magic? SeaBreeze is still faster than me, I’m absolutely sure.”

“Every pony has magic, it just works with different ‘sense’. Unicorns use a sense of logic. Pegasi use a sense of emotion. Earth ponies use physical senses.”

“… No! RedClay, stop! I already tried fire magic. Our power is purely physical. Don’t try to make lightning… oh hell. Is he breathing? Alright, can you two carry him to the nurse? When he wakes up, tell him I thought that was impressive, but try a safer element next time.”

Her salvation was found down the gravel path between sparse trees and manicured grass. A pair of adult mares walked side by side towards the double doors of her school. Each was dressed similarly, dark pine green suit jackets and sleek dress pants. On their heads were barrets and along their right arms was the white and gold sash of ‘Her Royal Majesty's Royal Defence Force’.

It was odd, but the symbol finely embroidered on the taller mare’s back was unmistakable. A six toothed gear split in half with a sword in the center. Arcane ran up to the intimidating figure and threw arms around her.

“Dad?! What are you doing here?”

The tall mare froze in place as grey eyes turned down with surprise. Once a look of recognition came over her face the tall figure placed a hand on top of Arcane’s head and tousled her pink wavy hair. One arm curled around Arcane’s backside and hoisted her up without effort.

“Dad… I’m a bit old for this.”

Ivar Gears rolled her eyes, “Gremlin, if anyone complains, tell them to grow up.”

“Why are you here? I thought you were retired?”

She gave that a half nod, “Retired from active service, but you never really leave the military. It’s like how you may one day move out, but you’ll still be family. As for what we are doing? Just a little talent scouting with the senior class. Time to replenish the ranks.”

Arcane perked at the mention of talent and began to speak. She didn’t get a word out before the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted. The distinctly male sound made all three turn to a figure standing before them.

“Am I interrupting something?”

The black stallion had the voice of a smoker, old and gravely despite his apparent youth. What parts of him didn’t have a scar looked no older than early middle age, but the long-healed raw lines across his neck and face made him look ancient.

Dad and the other soldier saluted and stood at attention. He put one one hand in a silent gesture to be at ease.

“I heard you would be here for recruitment, Sergeant Gears. I won’t waste too much of your time, but we need to talk.” He paused to look over at Arcane and back to Dad. “In private.”

Ivar took on a tired and annoyed look before shaking her head.

“Answer is still no. I have a family. Also, the next time you follow me to my daughter’s school to harass me, I’ll punch you in your good eye. Rank be damned, Raven.”

“Sear-“, the black stallion wasn’t pleading. The male looked like he was incapable of begging, but something in his low voice was urgent. “Ivar, The Fireflies found a door.”

The nonsense phrase must have made sense to dad. Her eyes grew wide for a moment before grumbling something to herself.

“I’ll train a team. Good enough for you?”

The Stallion and Dad spoke for a few more minutes about details, all the while using weird phrases like ‘We will need a glass cutter’ and other things that obviously meant something entirely different. This left Arcane just looking on in her dad’s embrace. The black stallion had an eyepatch over his left eye and a scar that traveled from forehead to cheek. That raw skin split apart what must have been a feather-shaped marking on his forehead.

A dizzy feeling came over Arcane as colors all around her became brighter by a degree. It was subtle but everywhere. It was then she saw something so absolutely strange. The Black Stallion’s horn was out, but it was ‘wrong’. It weakly flickered in and out of existence like a projected image, but the projector’s bulb was close to burning out and the lense was filthy.. She looked about and saw Dad’s grey wings and the other mare’s blue wings, but they were pale.

She looked around more as Ivar stopped talking mid sentence.

“Lil Gremlin, what’s the matter?”

Arcane didn’t respond. She kept looking around, her heart starting to beat faster. She could see the words all over now. Runes, swirling text, Braille. It was in the sky and along the trees. Every blade of grass and even the wind. Knowledge, emotions, raw sensations all assaulting her mind without end.

“D.. ddd… a… a…”

She began to jerk and spasm wildly as the world finally began to dim. She was moving, Dad was running.

—

Arcane woke in darkness. The smell of herbs and the light ting of wind chimes immediately letting her know she was in the nurse's office of her school. She should be in a hospital, but here she was.

It took her a moment laying in haze to feel the sleep mask strapped around her head. She called out weakly as her hand rose to take off the mask. Another hand came to rest on her shoulder before she could.

“Keep it on for now, Miss Gears. I’m told you gave your mother and the staff quite a scare.”

“She’s my father.” Arcane corrected.

“Apologies, Miss Gears. My name is Silent Brook. I specialize in helping young mares and stallions with difficult talents. I’m told this isn’t your only episode.”

Arcane’s throat went dry. She hated talking about it. It was bad enough her nightmares gave her unwelcomed flashes of memory. Talking about it just made it worse.

“Once, when I was three. I saw my mom’s teleportation spell. It felt like the worst migraine you could ever have, then next thing I know I’m convulsing all the way to the ER. For the longest I thought it was just a very bad dream, at least I wanted to think that. I didn’t doubt the seizure, it was the rest. That was… too much.”

The older mare nodded. Somehow Arcane could tell. She began to speak and that voice had a gentle smile to it. Odd how sound could be seen if you pay enough attention.

“When I was four my talent appeared. It scared me so much that I couldn’t move a muscle. One morning my mother came into my bedroom after I didn’t come down to breakfast. It was Saturday and she simply thought I was sleeping, so it wasn’t for a couple of hours. When she did, she found me ublinking with every muscle in my body aching to remain still. My clothes were soiled, and even as she tried to comfort me I refused to do a single thing.”

“That’s horrible, but, why couldn’t you move?”

Silent Brook gave a tiny laugh. Arcane could see Silent Brook’s head tilting up towards an open window to feel the sun on her face. Well, not ‘see’ in the literal sense.. She was feeling the motions of this other mare, but how?

“Well, why don’t you tell me, Arcane Gears? But first, take a deep breath and ask yourself what you want to see. It doesn’t have to be the world. Just look for that one answer.”

Arcane slowly sat up to face the other mare. She was sitting in a wooden chair. Dad was just beyond the door pacing nervously. Her wings were out like a frightened mother bird, but those wings were still pale, invisible, and intangible to everyone but her.

“H… how can I see…e…even without my eyes?”

Silent brook gave a smirk and leaned a little closer.

“Because you’re an Earth Pony. Now, don’t take that mask off just yet. Focus on my eyes, let what’s past that door go. Deep, slow breaths.”

She did as she was told. The invisible world she could feel began to grow smaller as she slowly breathed in. Her focus was on her lungs and the current of air filling every space under her ribs. She lost sight of her dad, then the mare in front of her began to fade.

It grew harder as her focus sharpened. The beating of Silent Brook’s heart grew louder in her own ears, but it was slow and calm. She took a moment to focus on this, timing her own heart beat to that controlled rhythm. Eventually her awareness centered on the other mare’s face.

She was barely raising her hands when Silent Brook leaned over and gently took off the mask. Somehow this odd mare knew the moment Arcane was ready to see the world with her own eyes again. Brook’s face was an inch from her own.

Arcane’s face glowed hot pink with a blush as those milky blue orbs made up most of her world. The mare was middle aged but had a youthful round face. The breath brushing Arcane’s cheek was minty, not ‘mouthwash’ minty. Only after all these distractions did she realize those pale eyes were blind.

“Miss Br…”

Arcane was about to bashfully back away as the sparkles in Brook’s eyes caught her attention. There was a pattern there. Small dots in a particular order. It made her feel so strange. If ‘maybe’ had a sensation then this would be it.

“Wait… what?”, Arcane muttered to herself as those irises blurred, doubled. Even small motions began to have hundreds of tiny after images. Arcane leaned back and began to see the world burst into a kaleidoscope. A leaf fell from a potted plant in the corner and Arcane saw hundreds of paths to the ground it would potentially take, and it took all of them at once.

A pair of hands grasped her shoulder.

“Arcane! Focus. Stop trying to be everything, know everything. I know that fear. Be here, just be right here. It’s good enough.”

The images collapsed into a single reality, a single form. Arcane focused on Silent Brook’s unseeing eyes, still quivering.

“Y-you can see paths. Can you see mine?”

Silent Brook formed a sad smile, “I’ve seen a few. What I can’t do is choose one for you.” Brook reached out and touched Arcane’s left cheek. Her fingers lingered as if she was thinking of something to say. With a quiet sigh she stood up and opened the door. The mare stepped aside just in time to dodge a very concerned father rushing in to hug her little pony.