The Young Mage And The Lighthouse

by AlwaysDressesInStyle

Rating: everyone
Tags: Other, Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1497

Dewdrop Dazzle's magic doesn't work the same as other unicorns. The ostracized pony lives as an outcast in a lighthouse outside Baltimare. Most ponies would be powerless to stop the tsunami racing towards the city, but she's a water mage...

Dewdrop Dazzle's magic doesn't work the same as other unicorns. The ostracized pony lives as an outcast in a lighthouse outside Baltimare. Most ponies would be powerless to stop the tsunami racing towards the city, but she's a water mage, and quite possibly the only pony other than alicorn who can save Baltimare. But should she?

This choose-your-own-adventure was written as part of Ponyville CiderFest's Interactive Storytelling Experience. Please note that the hero ending is all new exclusive content and wasn't part of the original app.

More stories from PVCF's 2023 Interactive Storytelling Experience can be found here.

Thank you to the entire Ponyville CiderFest Interactive Storytelling team (Vivid Syntax, Nyronus, Sonicsuns, Note Worthy, SteelTheWarrior, Snowday, Aria E. Diamond, SoloBrony, Skywriter, Ellwyn, Ghost Note, Overlord Pony, RQK, Shade Hunter, Shottsy, Celestilune).

Special thanks to Admiral Biscuit for pre-reading and for being the liaison on this with the PVCF staff.

Published 2024-03-09 05:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-03-09 05:10:01 UTC

The Young Mage And The Lighthouse

Lighthouse keeper. It’s a responsibility taken for granted. It’s a tough job, one that requires living in isolation. A pony can go for months with no contact with the outside world aside from watching ships pass by.

For Dewdrop Dazzle, it’s perfect. The lighthouse sits atop a rocky point in Horseshoe Bay, outside Baltimare. Even without the benefit of earth pony magic, she grows her own food. The unicorn only goes to town a few times a year and stocks up for months at a time.

Dewdrop thinks back to a time when she was a happy little pony. Before her classmates got their cutie marks one by one, and hers refused to appear. The other unicorns started learning magic, but all her horn could do was spark uselessly whenever she tried to do anything. Dewey, as she’d liked being called, was behind her peers. She was stuck repeating magic kindergarten, being made fun of by colts and fillies younger than her. It was discouraging.

Then her magic came in, and her cutie mark with it. She’d ended up with a weather mark, like a pegasus. That only made her the subject of even more tormenting.

Her magic works differently than other unicorns, which is why it had taken so long to come in. Water mages are so rare in Equestria that the last one had been hundreds of years prior. He’d been a pirate, using his talents to plunder from anypony unlucky enough to be sailing in his vicinity. Water mages were different, and the last one had been a very bad pony.

So the ponies of Baltimare had taken to treating her like she was also a bad pony. Teachers looked the other way as classmates bullied her mercilessly. She’d dropped out of school and taken a job that was perfectly suited for a mare of her abilities. Keeping an eye on the ocean, far away from anypony else.

She’s lonely in the lighthouse. Ponies aren’t meant to live in isolation. But she’s never found anypony willing to accept her for who she is. Ponies fear that which they don’t understand.

So she stares at the sea every day, for hours on end. Imagining what the ponies on board the ships are doing, where they’re coming from and where they’re going. She wonders what cargo the freighters are carrying. She imagines herself out there more often than not.

As she looks out over the ocean, she sees a tsunami racing towards the coastline. It’s only minutes away. A normal unicorn would be powerless to do anything but watch it destroy the city.

For once in her life, Dewdrop is happy to be an abnormal unicorn.

[CHOICE]Does Dewdrop save Baltimare?

Yes, of course. (hero)
Yes, this is the perfect chance to show off and rub it in to everypony who’s mocked her for years. (chaos)
Depends on if the city’s willing to pay her price or not. (villain)

Villain

Dewdrop briefly considers doing nothing. She’s hundreds of feet in the air in a sturdy lighthouse designed to withstand a direct impact. She could stand idly by and nopony would even question her as to why she did nothing. Nopony short of an alicorn could ever stop a tsunami. Nopony there would even believe that she could.

She decides it high time she changed that. She gallops down the stairs, making it to the rocky beach in time to see the wave towering high overhead. She’s not scared. It’s only water, and water will do anything she wants it to.

Her horn glows and she starts fighting the tsunami. She may have power over water, but the wave has the power of momentum. It fights back.

She’s sweating as she forces a gap in the wall of water. The wave parts, sparing the lighthouse promontory. Cut in two, the tsunami is no longer a match for her, and she sends most of the wave back out to sea. The wave is powerful, but water is Dewdrop’s domain, and the wave is intruding.

What’s left of the tsunami towers over Horseshoe Bay, threatening ships and the city itself. Dewdrop stands calmly on the dock, and requests somepony bring her the mayor of the city.

The mayor rushes to the bay, as the city’s citizens flee in terror. He recognizes Dewdrop from his teaching days. She was a student of his, before he’d gone into politics. “Dewdrop Dazzle, I commend you.”

“Shut up. I’ve stopped this tsunami. You know as well as I do that without me, this wave would inundate Baltimare, destroying it.”

The mayor nods.

“If you don’t pay me five million bits, I’ll let go of the wave. You’ve got an hour to decide.”

Author's Note

Story notes: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1034859/story-notes-the-young-mage-and-the-lighthouse

Hero

There’s only one pony who can save Baltimare. Well, more like half a dozen, but unless an alicorn teleports in, none of the others are close enough to do anything about it.

Dewey races down the stairs, the clip-clop of her hooves striking metal echoing in the spiral staircase. Sirens are going off in town, but it’s too late. Baltimare is on a coastal plain – there’s no high ground to escape to. The tsunami is much closer to shore by the time she emerges from the lighthouse, but she’s not scared. It’s only water, and water will do anything she wants it to.

Her horn glows and she starts fighting the tsunami. She may have power over water, but the wave has the power of momentum. It fights back.

She’s sweating as she forces a gap in the wall of water. The wave parts, sparing the lighthouse promontory. Cut in two, the tsunami is no longer a match for her, and she sends the wave back out to sea. The wave is powerful, but water is Dewdrop’s domain, and the wave is intruding.

She takes a look around – the city is safe. She trots into the lighthouse, head held high. Her ‘useless’ talent just saved the city and nopony is any the wiser. She’s tuckered out, so she decides to take a nap.

A few hours later the townsponies make their way to the lighthouse, parading up and down the promontory. There’s a marching band, cheerleaders, and the mayor of the city is shouting into a bullhorn over the racket.

“Dewdrop Dazzle! Please come down, we wish to thank you!”

She trots down the stairs slower this time. She’s spent years as an outcast. What can she even say to the ponies who’ve tormented her for so long? Will they finally accept her…?

She opens the door, and the mayor presents her with the key to the city. “Dewdrop Dazzle, on behalf of the ponies of Baltimare, we thank you for protecting our city. From now on, every year we will celebrate this day as Dewdrop Dazzle Day. Three cheers for Dewdrop!”

Dewey blushes as the crowd starts cheering.

Author's Note

Story notes: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1034859/story-notes-the-young-mage-and-the-lighthouse

Chaos

Dewdrop briefly considers doing nothing. She’s hundreds of feet in the air in a sturdy lighthouse designed to withstand a direct impact. She could stand idly by and nopony would even question her as to why she did nothing. Nopony short of an alicorn could ever stop a tsunami. Nopony there would even believe that she could.

She decides it high time she changed that. She gallops down the stairs, making it to the rocky beach in time to see the wave towering high overhead. She’s not scared. It’s only water, and water will do anything she wants it to.

Her horn glows and she starts fighting the tsunami. She may have power over water, but the wave has the power of momentum. It fights back.

She’s sweating as she forces a gap in the wall of water. The wave parts, sparing the lighthouse promontory. Cut in two, the tsunami is no longer a match for her, and she sends most of the wave back out to sea. The wave is powerful, but water is Dewdrop’s domain, and the wave is intruding.

What’s left of the tsunami looms over Horseshoe Bay, threatening ships and the city itself. Dewdrop marches down Mane Street, the wave following her like a puppy. It’s narrowed into a towering wall taller than any skyscraper in the city. She waves to ponies she knows, casually, like taking a tsunami for a walk downtown is the most normal thing in the world.

When she reaches the end of the street she turns around and blows a kiss to the wave, which slinks back the way it came, Dewdrop slowly advancing on it the whole way.

The wave recedes, leaving a freshly washed street behind it, but no damage. Dewdrop’s putting on a show. She wants these ponies to respect her. Maybe even fear her, the way they’d made her fear them all those years ago.

Author's Note

Story notes: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1034859/story-notes-the-young-mage-and-the-lighthouse