An Earthling Earth Pony at Celestia's School of Magic: Year One

It took a few hours, but my parents eventually arrived as I was outside inspecting the dorm damage with Inkwell and Bright. Broken glass crunched under our hooves as we picked our way around the scattered debris. Rocky's parents had already arrived, and he had joined up with them near the entrance.

"Aww! Mom, I need to breathe!" I cried out as she galloped across the courtyard and grasped me into a hug before I even realized she was there. She was so fast and so strong.

"My mouthy little colt! You're safe!" Mom cried as she gripped me tightly against her chest. I really was struggling to breathe, my hooves barely touching the ground.

"Oh my," Inkwell said in surprise, taking a step back from Mom's enthusiastic greeting. "You have quite the formidable-looking mother. I'm not sure how your bones aren't breaking. You're more durable than I thought, Turnip."

My bones might yet break. Mom was way too strong. I was going to die by love!

"Dear, it looks like his muzzle has been injured. You may be causing irritation to the injury," Dad calmly said from where he stood a few paces away.

Mom instantly released me, setting me back on my hooves, and started inspecting my face. "You have been hurt! What happened? Did one of those horrible vines get you?!"

"We got into a bit of a scrap with 'em," Bright said, showing off his bandaged leg.

"They weren't poisonous, so it is just some thorn pricks. It isn't a big deal," I assured my parents, stepping back slightly to escape Mom's probing hooves. I noticed my mom had a bandage on her foreleg. "Looks like you got into a fight with them too."

She pulled her leg back. "Yes, one of them got ahold of me. It took a lot of yanking to snap it."

"Snap it? Took everythin' we had just ta get 'em ta let loose. Don't think we coulda snapped 'em," Bright said.

I couldn't help myself; I smiled. "That's my mom for ya."

A pony in light armor came running up to Inkwell, their armor plates clattering as they pulled up short beside our group. They whispered something in her ear as she intently listened. Her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth as she gasped.

"Thank you for thinking to bring us the news. Be on your way. I know we weren't your destination," Inkwell replied to the pony. They nodded and ran deeper into town, hoofbeats echoing off the stone walls.

Inkwell turned to Bright. "Your sister has just been transferred into Canterlot General Hospital." She raised a hoof as Bright's ears suddenly flattened against his head. "Don't worry, it isn't too serious. She sustained a broken leg and several sprains, along with some bleeding due to thorns, but she should make a full recovery. She has been placed on medical leave for the next six months.”

"Can ah go see her?" Bright asked, stepping forward anxiously.

Inkwell frowned, glancing at the darkening sky above the damaged building. "I prefer students not go off on their own just yet, and it is getting very late," Her eyes passed towards my parents where they stood beside me. "I can't leave the school grounds while messengers are still coming and going. So little of the staff is here as it is. If Turnip's parents are willing, they can escort you."

Mom gave Bright a sympathetic look across the debris-strewn courtyard. "All he needs to do is ask. We can't keep my colt's roommate worried about his sister."

"Presuming he knows the way to this hospital," Dad interjected, carefully stepping around a fallen piece of masonry. "We're not just tourists to this city or this country, but this entire world. It took a lot of asking directions just to find this place—even though we'd been in bucking distance of it earlier."

Bright nodded, already turning toward the gate. "Ah know the way. Mah aunt had ta get treated there once. Visited it lots of times while she were there."

"I expect they'll have gotten the message and be on their way there themselves, but if any of your family comes by here, I'll let them know you have headed to the hospital to visit Candy," Inkwell assured him from where she stood near the entrance steps.

"Your dorm wasn't too damaged, was it?" Dad asked, looking up at the building's damaged exterior.

I shook my head, glass crunching under my hooves as I shifted. "Our floor is fine, but the first floor has some broken windows and stuff. They're cleaning it up now, and going pretty fast at it. There's some world-ending crisis every year, so they've got repair down to a science."

"This happens every year, or something like it?" Dad asked, brow creased. "Perhaps you should come home on the holidays.”

Bright shook his head, stepping carefully around a chunk of fallen stonework. "That won't help none. Somethin' almost always happens every year, but it can happen anytime durin' the year. It happenin' this late this year was kinda a fluke. Last year it was Queen Chrysalis. She pops up about once ever' four or five years, tryin' ta take over Equestria. She hit us durin' the summer. Weirdo wood changelings everywheres. She tried replacin' Celestia with a copy when ah was a lil' tike. Sometimes the crisis is so localized ya don't even know it happened until after it is done an' over with—it could have destroyed the world, but never got past whatever village, temple, ruins, or wherever because of heroes. Let's go see mah sis."

"You seem less shook up about her now compared to a minute or two ago," I observed, falling into step beside him as we crossed the debris-scattered grounds.

He shrugged as we headed toward the road. "She's alive an' will recover. That's all ah need ta hear ta feel better. Still want ta see her. She'll be mad she's gettin' sidelined fer so long."

I smiled. "Well, where's the hospital?"

Bright gestured with his nose toward one of Canterlot's gleaming spires rising above the rooftops in the distance. "This way. T'won't be too long ta get there."

The hospital was busy...like...really busy. I guess that wasn't shocking. There had just been a crisis. Ponies were being wheeled on beds and wheelchairs in droves through the crowded entrance hall. The waiting room was packed, with injured ponies spilling out into the corridors. The line to reach the check-in desk snaked around support pillars and stretched nearly to the doors. My ears flattened against the cacophony of voices and movement. There seemed to be a lot of line-standing in Equestria. It wasn't just the number of lines. Today it was the number of injured. Most of the city didn't have Luster Dawn and our fourth-year students standing guard over it during the attack like our school had.

We got into line.

What really got to me was the crying. I could catch snippets of conversations as we made our way through the crowd. Ponies were crying because they were scared. Ponies were crying because their homes were destroyed. Ponies were crying because loved ones were hurt or missing. The school had it good. We only had a few minor injuries and some easily repairable damage. It seemed others hadn't been so lucky.

"They like ta tell the stories of Princess Twilight and her friends savin' Equestria. Stories always leave this part out," Bright said, ears sagged as he looked around at the chaos, taking steps as the line advanced. "Could be worse. Could be they didn't come save us."

"The school is probably the safest place we could have been during this," I observed, pressing closer to our group as another gurney rushed past.

Bright nodded. "We're there ta learn how ta prevent this. Ya heard the professors—worse is yet ta come. Gotta train up a new generation to be better. Gonna start hittin' from Earth too, threats everywheres gonna get bigger and badder. Ya gotta ask yerself, are ya ready ta stand up and defend everypony?"

"Everyone," I corrected, side-stepping to avoid a nurse hurrying past with medical supplies. "These threats are coming to Earth too, and that means it isn't just ponies in danger. Even if I stayed in Kansas, this will eventually come home. I don't know what I can do to help, but I don't want this happening.”

"We've already got it. You just watch the news and you'll see nothing but suffering. I'm glad we don't have a TV," Mom remarked, pressing closer to Dad as another group of medical staff rushed past. "Wars overseas, people starving, riots in streets, dictators doing who knows what—it's all very depressing. Makes me appreciate Kansas. It may be dull, but nothing like this ever happens. I'd feel safer with you there."

I looked down at the polished floor, watching the bustle of hooves reflected in its surface. "Kansas won't stay safe forever. You know that mechanical spell thing I was told you about? They said that thing could possibly cast spells that are unimaginable right now. People could be casting bad spells that make what happened at Riverview look like a firecracker, and Riverview makes this look like nothing. Nowhere is safe from things like that. I've seen the thing. I know it's real...or will be real...or whatever. I can't see that thing then see this and not want to do what I can. Even if all I can do is give some early warning that it is coming, that's doing something—actually, that's doing a lot. It means someone might be able to do something to stop these things before people get hurt. I need to be close to the people who can take action, not living out in the middle of nowhere."

"Mah Aunt Applejack was at Riverview," Bright said in a quiet voice, barely audible over the surrounding commotion. "She weren't there right when it happened, but she came inta the town right after ta help, she and her friends. She said she never felt so helpless, like nothin' she did was good enough ta really make a difference. None of 'em want ta talk 'bout it. They just say it was bad, worse than they ever did see."

"It was bad," Dad agreed, shifting to let a wheelchair pass by. "They still won't show videos of it. People say it is too disturbing. Our town actually has a refugee from Riverview...old Fallow. He said he watched every house on his block collapse all at once, and if he had been even a minute slower being evacuated he would have been buried under the rubble—probably dead. The fires raged for days. You couldn't even go outside or tell if it was day or night because of all the smoke in the air. Hard to imagine seeing your entire neighborhood and most of your city gone in just an instant, and then people came and said that what could have happened could have been astronomically worse—scary to think about. They say it was like a nuclear bomb hit them. The majority of the ponies living in the city lost their homes, along with a lot of humans. You'd have thought they just abandon the city after that, but they rebuilt." He looked around at the crowded hospital corridors. "People surprise you with how resilient they can be. Canterlot will recover from this before you know it."

"But you can't put dead people back together," Mom countered, her voice tight. "I don't want my colt standing on the front line of these things."

"Next in line!”

We turned toward the desk as the line cleared ahead of us. It was now our turn. One great thing about Equestria was they could quickly move a line.

Bright rushed up to the counter. "Ah came ta see mah sis, Candy Apple. She's a royal guard, but she got hurt. Where is she?"

The nurse on duty checked through a few books, their pages rustling in the busy air of the waiting room. "Room fifty-two, second floor of the Sunset Grace Wing. She can have visitors. To reach it you—"

Bright was already moving toward the stairs. "Ah can find mah way! Thanks!"

"Wait for us! You are supposed to have chaperones!" Mom called out as she hurried after him through the crowd. The rest of us followed, weaving between clusters of waiting ponies.

Bright reluctantly stopped running after a minute—not because of any of the yells he was receiving to not run, but because the halls were simply too cramped with ponies in motion for him to run without running into someone.

It took us about ten minutes of walking to finally find Candy's room, navigating the maze of busy corridors. It was a smaller room that she was sharing with three other guards who had been injured. It was fairly easy to tell which pony Candy was; she was the only mare out of the ponies in the room. She had a deep red coat and purple mane and was lying on her back with one leg supported above her in a cast and sling. Her eyes lit up and she smiled as she spotted Bright.

"Lil' bro! Come ta see mah glorious battle wounds?" she asked as he climbed up on a stool beside her bed. "Careful now! Don't go fallin' off that there stool and needin' ta get a room of yer own."

One of the other patients snickered from their bed. "Can-can's suddenly gone country! If only sarge could hear her."

Candy grit her teeth and growled as her horn lit. The curtains around the other patients' beds suddenly drew closed around them, which elicited outright laughs from the ponies in the beds.

Candy released her magic and smiled again at her brother. "Sorry. Peanut gallery don't hear meh talk like this much. Ah'll give 'em a lesson after ah heal up." She looked at Bright's leg. "Looks like ya had yer own throwdown."

Bright glanced at his leg briefly. "Just some scratches, a vine got hold of meh fer a minute, but ah got loose. What happened? How ya get so hurt?"

Candy looked past him at our group standing in the doorway. "Tell ya in a minute, but ya seem ta have forgotten yer manners! Ya haven't introduced meh ta yer friends. Really, Ma would die at ya bein' rude like that."

Bright sat up straight on his stool. "Oh! This is mah roomie, Turnip Jones, and thems his folks visitin' all the way from Kansas...that's a place on Earth."

Candy seemed transfixed by my mom. "Wooowee! Yer as big as mah pa! Ain't never met a mare so built. Ah'd hate ta get in a wrestlin' match with you."

Her eyes moved to me. "Ya seem ta be missin' somethin'...is yer horn so small it hides in yer mane?"

I shook my head and then smoothed my mane back. "No, I'm an earth pony. The first earth pony to attend the school."

"Wonders never cease!" Candy laughed, then grit her teeth in pain. "Eh...probably should keep the laughter down. Wonder how Caramel will react when he hears about this. Gonna be jealous as ah don't know what.”

"So...what happened?" Bright pressed, leaning forward on his stool.

Candy looked back at him. "Well, there ah was, guardin' the train tracks. Nothin' much had been happenin'. It was pretty dull, and had meh longin' fer my pipe, but ah was on duty. Then, all of the sudden, them vines come barrelin' out of the forest faster than a pack of jackrabbits dodgin' a twister. Didn't know plants could ever move that fast! Meh and the boys, we were holdin' them back, all heroic like, but then a pack of them timberwolves, four of 'em, followed the vines."

Bright gasped. "Did ya beat those timberwolves good?"

Candy chuckled. "Yeah, we got 'em with some concentrated horn blasts...but we couldn't focus on the vines and the timberwolves both...so...well...let's just say that gettin' trapped by a whole mess of those vines don't feel too good. Wish we coulda held our position and stopped the vines, but at least we stopped the timberwolves 'fore they got any further. Ya sure didn't want any of them fellers gettin' ta Canterlot."

"Ah'm just glad yer alright," Bright said. He looked up at the cast. "Mostly alright."

She groaned. "Gonna be miserable havin' ta wait this out back on the farm. Ma is gonna be frettin' over meh all constant like, an' Pa...well...ya know Pa. How'd yer school hold up?"

Bright smiled. "We did good! Turnip an' ah got into a match with some of them vines in a hallway, but we got away. There was some damage to the buildin's, but Professor Dawn did a good job keepin' most the vines back, her and the fourth-years."

"Luster Dawn?" Candy asked, lifting her head slightly.

Bright nodded. "Yep! Ya know her?"

"Seen her in action once or twice. She may not be a Starlight Glimmer, but she sure can swing spells faster than ya can believe. Ah sure ain't never want ta get in a magic duel with her—no desire ta have mah fellow guards see meh get mah tail handed to me—gotta keep mah pride. She's a tough one, alright."

"Ya say keep yer pride while layin' in a bed with a cast," Bright replied.

"Battle scars, bro. Battle scars," Candy chuckled.

"Candy."

We all turned toward the doorway where a massive red stallion with a blonde mane, basically equal in size and build to my mom, had stepped in.

Candy looked at him from her bed. "Evenin', Pa. Ah'd get up ta greet ya, but...well."

Their dad frowned and looked at Bright, then looked at Bright's leg.

Bright sunk down in his seat. "Mah leg's fine, Pa, just a little scratch."

I noticed that their dad also had a bandage around one of his legs. He nodded to Bright then silently gestured with his head for Bright to leave.

Bright instantly jumped down from his stool. "Yes, Pa. Ah'll just wait down in the lobby."

"See yer bein' talkative as ever, ain't ya?" Candy muttered. "Then again, figure ah'm about ta get an earful."

Mom walked up to their father and held out a hoof. "Hello, I'm Turnip's mother. Our colts are sharing a dorm room at the school."

Their dad looked at her upraised hoof and casually tapped his against it. "Pleasure." He looked us over. "Later."

"Think Pa wants some time alone with mah sis," Bright said as he slipped past the two massive ponies.

"Yep," his father replied.

Dad touched a hoof to Mom. "Come along, dear. We can't have that colt off on his own. This place is far too busy for that."

"Is Ma here?" Bright asked.

"Nope," his dad answered.

"Oh," Bright replied. "Well, I'll get going." He then hurried out of the room.

I followed after him and met him in the busy hallway.

"Your dad's a little scary," I remarked.

"He's not that bad, but he an' sis are probably gonna argue. He just doesn't say much when around groups of ponies—he's shy like that, but can sure say a lot when yer alone with him," Bright explained. "He's had ta have been worried. Sis an' Pa might argue a lot, but they do care 'bout one another."

"You seemed a little scared of him," I said, slightly concerned.

Bright blinked. "What? What do ya— Oh! Ah get it. Naw! Not scared of him, just not wantin' ta get caught in the middle of whatever argument he an' mah sis were gonna have. Ah know he can seem scary since he's a big guy, but he's pretty gentle. Ya should understand, with how big an' scary yer ma seems. They're gentle giants."

"I wouldn't call my mom gentle," I said, slightly amused.

"What was that, mouthy colt?" Mom asked as she stepped out into the hallway.

"Nothing, Mom. I love you so much," I said sweetly.

She stomped. "What did I do to get such a disrespectful colt?! Why can't you respect your parents like your friend?"

"Candy seemed to mouth off to her dad," I pointed out.

"Yeah, don't be like her," Mom replied. "Double don't be like her, since she ended up in the hospital after fighting monsters."

"It was the vines that got her, not the timberwolves," I reminded her.

Mom held up her leg. "Yeah, I saw those vines. They seemed pretty monstrous to me. Think I'd rather be fighting wolves.”

"Um...ya know timberwolves aren't actually wolves...right?" Bright asked, shifting away from a medical cart being wheeled past.

Mom blinked. "What are they?"

Bright made a bunch of vague gestures with his hooves. "They're a bunch of wood an' like green glowy magic. They're kinda shaped like wolves, got claws, teeth, an' all, even hunt in packs, but they're much bigger, much scarier, much more dangerous. They don't hunt ya because they need ta eat—they gots no bellies. They hunt ya just ta try ta kill ya."

She stared at him. "Have you seen one of these things?"

He nodded. "Yeah, a few of 'em wandered into our farm when ah was a tike. Aunt Applejack got rid of 'em."

"By herself? How'd she do that?!" I asked.

Bright laughed. "Turns out, ya can stun them by throwin' rocks in their maws. They sit there gaffin' on the stone and ya can take the time ta break 'em up. Once ya break one or two of 'em, the pack runs away."

"And your sister couldn't do the same thing?" my dad asked.

Bright shook his head. "Don't think so. The ones ah saw when ah was little were stragglers. They just wandered a little too far from the woods. The ones today were bein' egged on by the forest. Don't think they'd retreat so easy. Ones ya break apart will reassemble an' turn tail when it's just a few of 'em wanderin'. Forest is what controls 'em, an' the wanderers ain't really followin' any particular orders. Today, they had orders. They'd keep reformin' an' keep comin' till they were burned to bits—or till they run inta somethin' that scares 'em too much ta follow orders, somethin' they don't stand any chance against—like an alicorn or somethin'. Somepony like Princess Twilight can just casually blow 'em ta bits. They ain't messin' with that. They'd retreat an' try ta find a different way ta go where they're goin'."

Dad frowned. "You described them like some sort of magical creation of the forest, but the way you describe their behavior is more like living creatures. A robot dog doesn't care about self-preservation, but a real dog does."

I thought about it. It reminded me of something else, my truestone. It was just a rock, but the way it had been described to me seemed almost like it had thoughts, feelings, and desires. Maybe where there was magic there was life.

I jumped out of the way of a bed as a pony pushed it by. It nearly ran right over my tail. It was still a busy hospital, and we were standing in the middle of the hallway, so it wasn't that surprising in hindsight.

"Let's get down to the front waiting area before someone ends up needing a doctor," Dad said.