The DESTINY Exploration

Chapter 10: Meditation

Rarity was all smiles heading backstage, and I just couldn’t believe what had taken place. Not even an hour before, we were afraid of being mocked for our style. The crowd had applauded and honored Rarity’s creations, the polar opposite reaction we expected. Euphoria just doesn’t capture enough what we experienced; it was beyond words.

We saw Hoity Toity, Sapphire Shores, and Fancy Pants approach us backstage, making a beeline straight for Rarity. She turned to face them, and her posture was visibly shaken at their coming. Hoity Toity started raving about the show.

“My dear, Miss Rarity, we had no idea that you would be featuring such remarkable styles at this convention. Oh ho!”

Sapphire Shores shouting a big “Ow!”, and exclaimed “My dear, Rarity, I might need to get me some of your best blouses for my next photo shoot, your ensembles are just fabulous, dear!”

Fancy Pants finally sounded his praise. “Miss Rarity, it was an absolute pleasure to see your work. How are those friends of yours in Ponyville, dearest?”

Rarity was in shock, but held herself together. “We-well, Fancy Pants, they are all doing well, and we’ve made ourselves a new friend here in this gentlecolt, Tom!” She motions to me as the gathering of ponies looked directly at me.

Hoity was the first to comment. “Tom, do you have any prior experience in modeling?”

“No, sir, I do not. This was just a friend helping another in a crisis.” I scratched the back of my head, pleased with the complement.

Hoity removed his shades, and held a surprised expression. “Sir, you tore those other models apart, you held the most composed, yet fulfilling strides and countenances of anypony here today!”

The conversation continued for about an hour as we sat down outside the convention hall. Rarity and the others continued to converse about other ponies who were impressed with the show, and wanted to contract Rarity for multiple designs in the coming year. She continued to show her pleasure while maintaining her giddiness.

That’s impressive. I would be severely overflowing with tears right now; she must know herself really well-

Suddenly, there was a tap on my shoulder from behind; it came from Princess Cadence herself, with Shining Armor at her side, and another pony I didn’t expect: Twilight.

The Princess began to address me. “Are you Tom? You were fantastic in the show today, I just wanted to come meet the pony my sister-in-law is training. I’m Princess Cadence, the leader of the Crystal Empire.”

HOLY CRAP. She rules that frozen wasteland? I can’t handle meeting so many important people today…

My knees were knocking together, taken aback by her address. “Yuh…Your Highness, it’s a pleasure to meet you, and…“ I turned my attention to the Sparkle siblings. “It’s good to see you both again. Do you need to talk to me?”

Twilight gestured me in the direction of the library. “We are all heading back to my house to talk, we would like you there. Is that ok?”

“Yes, Twilight, I’ll come with you guys.”

The Princess continued to comment on the fashion show, remembering how Shining Armor had recognized me, and talked of the encounter with Applejack, Twilight and I in Canterlot. She also had conversed with Twilight about the events that led up to me being trained by Twilight in the art of magic.

I learned that about a year ago, Princess Cadence became the monarch of the Crystal Empire, which turns out to be a beautiful country protected from the Frozen North by magic. She is the protector of a relic known as the Crystal Heart, a device that shares the joy and love of the crystal ponies, and uses it to power the protection spell around the country.

We finally made it to the library, and all of us had some sweet tea prepared by Spike. Shining Armor turned rather serious all of a sudden, and gave me a stern look.

“Tom…I understand that you are Twilight’s apprentice now. But there is something that is bugging me about when we met earlier: where exactly are you from?”

I was about to speak, but Twilight put a hoof to my mouth. “Shining, I think I can adequately explain this to you. What I didn’t say earlier was that Tom is not from this world.”

The Princess stood up and stepped back a couple steps. The bit of news surprised her and Shining Armor.

“Twily, are you certain?! I’ve never heard of anything like that before. Sure, Princess Luna lives on the moon, but not from this world? That’s not possible!”

I motioned to Twilight, and without speaking, requested that I speak. She relented, and I went through the same tale I told the Apples, Twilight, and Princess Celestia. After that, the two regal parties in the room looked at each other with concern. Princess Cadence quickly approached me with a question.

“Where is your friend Jonah now?”

“He is missing, Princess. There has been no trace of him for weeks. It’s been around eighteen days since I first arrived here. The meteorite we discovered had no evidence of my ship ever landing there.”

Shining shook his head, and saddened. “This isn’t a good sign. The Crystal Empire sentries and astronomers have seen nothing in the past few weeks. There is a very real possibility that your friend isn’t even on this continent.”

Not on this continent?! That’s not good! There are more lands than this one?

It was then that I remembered what Princess Celestia had mentioned when I first received my horn:

“Your Highness, what was Starswirl’s ultimate goal?”

“Unity. He was in the middle of a grand, ambitious project to unite three great nations: Equestria, the Crystal Empire, and the Griffon Kingdom.”

She wants me to unite these three countries? I hardly know a thing about this world in the first place!

I repeated the apparent mission that Celestia imputed to me to everyone in the house, and Twilight’s eyes widened.

“That’s right! She did mention that! Are you now saying that Starswirl’s ideal and Jonah’s disappearance are related?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think either thing is related, but if my friend is in the Crystal Empire or the Griffon Kingdom, it is imperative that I continue my training at once.”

The Princess and her Prince bid us goodbye, giving everyone, including myself, hugs before departing. Twilight and I made our way outside of the library and west, where a giant field spanned across the outside of town. With her was a bag containing six heavy stones, and six lighter ones; she sat the bag on the ground, and asked me to stand across from her.

“This exercise will test your stamina. This is similar to how my zebra friend, Zecora, trained me. In order to maintain your magic, you have to master a higher level of concentration…”

Oh, man! She picks something that I can’t possibly achieve. Staring at rocks for hours isn’t fun at all!

“…I want you to levitate these rocks for as long as you think you can. We will start with the lighter rocks, and then have you rotate them in orbit around you. After you master that, the heavier rocks will be next. That is all we will do today.”

She switched gears to the events from earlier the other day. “I was surprised when I saw you levitate that teapot. Not many ponies understand levitation so close to the time they receive their magic. I never mastered it until about a couple years after my magic manifested.”

The exercise began, as I lifted the six smaller stones above the ground hip-level. With my mind, I commanded the stones to rotate around me in a counterclockwise direction. The energy it took to maintain this motion was staggering, so I let small chunks of the energy return to me, and the rocks fell to the ground. I released the magic and gasped for air.

Oh my God, this is difficult. Did I really need that much to rotate them?

I resumed my previous stance and placed the rocks in orbit around my body. The same power needed to lift and move them took its toll on my body and mind, requiring my full attention. My face cringed as the energy left me and into the objects around me, and my muscles started to flex. Twilight instructed me to loosen up, and I did, keeping the orbiting bodies in check.

The orbit last about eight minutes before I released the magic; the fullness of my body shook and quivered as my energy felt all but depleted.

“Twilight…*gasp*…that was freaking intense! I thought I had more power than that.”

“You do, Tom, but it has yet to be unearthed. We are going to try the larger rocks this time. Remember, they are big, so if you feel yourself passing out, let the magic go. We don’t want you to die on us.”

“Thanks, Twilight. I’m definitely reassured after hearing that...”

Sarcasm’s the name, quick delivery’s my game. Oh dear…

The large rocks inched off the ground as I clutched the ground firmly with my hooves. It took a good ten seconds to get them hip level. The orbit moved at a very sluggish pace, but all the rocks moved, nonetheless. I closed my eyes, and dug deep into myself, when Jonah reappeared at the front of my mind.

Jonah, you might be farther away than I can imagine. I may never…Jonah, you know that I wouldn’t just abandon you in the middle of nowhere like this. I promised I would bring you home after this adventure. Please stay alive for me; this training will be the key to seeking you out, I swear it. Just…huh?

My body shut down and my vision brightened. I suddenly found myself in a white expanse with nothing around me. No rocks, no Twilight, no Ponyville. Nothing.

A figure in the distance began to walk towards me, and I started to run in the opposite direction. I turned back around after a while, and could see him closer than he was before. I gave up the flight, and stood my ground. Approaching me was an old, gray pony that I instinctively recognized.

“Starswirl.”

He stood right in front of me, examining my body from head to hoof. Starswirl kept sizing me up, walking around me as I stood still, allowing his investigation. He stopped in front of me again and gave a small frown.

“When my powers were invested into that meteor, I never expected somepony like you to receive its blessing. I’ve kept a good watch on your memories and your interactions with the ponies of this world; so far, you’re doing a phenomenal job, Tom.”

“Th-Thank you, sir. I don’t know what else to say.”

“Whatever is on your mind, Tom.”

I began my rant at once. “If you know my memories, you know you can trust what I am about to say. My friend Jonah was with me on my way to explore the galaxy, and now we are stranded here. Nopony is allowing me to look for him independently because of this crazy mission that you began. I don’t even know much about this world, much less its countries. I’m trapped between a destiny I’m incapable of fulfilling, and the ticking time bomb that is my friend’s health and well-being. I shouldn’t be INVOLVED AT ALL!”

Starswirl’s face dipped, and he turned away. “…I knew that my magic would be a blessing, but never did I think it would be a curse as well. The way I left this world long ago was very unusual, Tom. You read about it, I assume; then you must understand that I never passed away at all. Just my body is fertilizer now. My conscience is now in you, and soon this will pass away as well.”

My body was alarmed by his revelation. “But Starswirl, why would you wait so long just for this moment?”

“Princess Celestia didn’t know when this meteor would strike the planet, so I likely gave her many years of turmoil. Have there been many major events since my departure?”

“Plenty. And from how I understand it, she managed to resolve each one of them, either herself or with Twilight and her friends.”

Starswirl nodded, and grinned. “That’s fortunate, indeed. Now we have a rather unique crisis on our hands, don’t we? Tom, the reason I appear before you now was pre-planned, even if you weren’t the one that touched the meteorite. But I’m also concerned now because the meteor was originally supposed to react with the blue potion.”

“The blue potion? Then why did it react to the clear potion?”

“The answer to those two questions, Tom, is not something I know. Somepony interfered with my spell between now and the time I passed away. It could only be the work of either one of the Princesses, or ‘him’.”

Uh-oh. “Him, sir?”

“There was someone long ago during my time at the Guild, the most tenured non-Equestrian to ever be a member of our group. His name was Gilgar, and he became the ruler of the Griffon Kingdom shortly before I passed away. I’m sure he’s caused so much grief to Equestria.”

“I remember hearing about him from your book. I don’t have any idea if he is alive or not, but are you sure he could be responsible for the meteor being altered?”

“It’s within his power; even though he is no longer a member of the guild, he has contact with many rogue unicorns from our Guild that are scattered throughout the land. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is responsible for your crash landing, either.”

A griffon king, shooting me out of the sky? That doesn’t sound right, but heck, anything’s possible. Magic. Ponies. Visions. Fashion shows.

“Tom, all of this is speculation, though. Gilgar wasn’t inherently evil, but he never really liked Equestria too well after we destroyed one of his dear friends, King Sombra.”

I gave Starswirl an inquisitive stare. “King Sombra? Who was he?”

“When I was very young and became a member of the Magician’s Guild, Sombra and Gilgar were good friends, and both members of our group. After Sombra mysteriously disappeared, Gilgar became frantic, worrying for his friend’s safety. Gilgar later told me that Sombra had been poking around in the Canterlot Library one day, turning over books about the nature of dark magic.”

That sounds like how I am with Jonah. I hope he’s safe…

“His concern was validated when the Princesses received a dispatch from the Crystal Empire. Sombra had completely wasted the entire country in one day with dark magic. Gilgar was furious with his friend, but protested with Celestia and Luna to find a way to wipe his memory and return him to us. They denied his request, and promptly traveled into the Frozen North to obliterate the new king, Sombra. They failed.”

My mind went berserk. Now there’s an evil king running amok?!

“Fortunately, the Princesses had a bit of foresight, and they imprisoned his spirit under the ice for a thousand years. Gilgar was livid, and abandoned the Guild after his protests were swept under the rug by the monarchs. He returned to the Griffon Kingdom as the only one of his kind who knew how to use magic. The meteorite granted him that ability, and helped him to later ascend to the throne.”

“Tom…” He walked up to me, placing a hoof on my shoulder. “I have gifted you with tremendous power, but it comes at a price. You know that you have to carry out my wishes, and for that, I am deeply sorry. It is going to inconvenience you, but if you can unite my people with the Griffons and the Crystal Ponies, your friend will reveal himself, I promise. Please accept my blessing, and carry my burden this one time.”

I hesitated to speak, but accepted his words. Starswirl walked backwards, and lifted off the white floor of my mind. His spirit began to wipe away like the wind blowing away a pile of leaves, and he was no more.

My vision returned to me, as I saw the large rocks orbiting around me at an alarming speed. However, it seemed that I had total control of their velocity, and so I maintained their current state. Twilight was screaming at me the whole time I was in meditation, but I only noticed now what she was saying.

“T…TOM…TOM, CAN YOU HEAR ME?! Tom!” I glanced at her, easing her concern.

“Tom, I don’t know how you did this, but it’s dangerous. Are you in control?”

I nodded my head, and closed my eyes.

“Well, this is incredible. You have held this posture for about 20 minutes, and you haven’t broken a sweat!”

“Huh?!” My concentration broke, and the stones remained in their orbit as I stood and peering at the floating rocks. They were still moving!

All of a sudden, the rocks dissolved, and a white ring appeared around me as the magic slowly constricted me. It raised me into the air, and with a flash, it clothed me in a glowing aura. My hooves rested on the earth as I stared at my teacher, who looked around me and had a starry-eyed expression.

“Tom, you did it! You got your cutie mark!”

The mark on my flank was indeed there. It was a sword, with the hilt pointed upward, the blade downward, and a six-pointed gold star on top.

And I had no idea how it would shape my destiny.