The day was nice enough, to start out with. It was summer and the sun was shining on the outskirts of Ponyville, illuminating the lush green grass and sending rainbows fluttering off of dew drops sprinkled randomly on the ground. Three ponies had woken up with the dawn in their separate houses, running circles around their parents' sleeping forms yelling, "Can we go play? Can we go play?" A huff from their moms and a grunt from their dads were all they needed, and they sprinted out into the day. A seafoam green filly was the first to emerge, shaking her pastel mint hair, catching the morning breeze. She looked around for her friends, spotting Midnight Skies almost immediately. The baby blue colt grinned ear to ear as he caught her eyes, and raised a hoof in greeting.
"Hey, Tree Fall! Where's Fizzlepop?"
Fizzlepop Berrytwist was tearing her house apart looking for The Ball. The three ponies took turns taking it home, treating it as one shared possession. She was supposed to bring it out this morning because Midnight's week would start tonight. She saw a flash of yellow under the couch and focused her magic on it. Her mind reeled in her catch, and soon The Ball was suspended in midair surrounded by a lilac band of power. She smiled and galloped out of the front door. Her friends were lounging on their backs in the grass, pointing up at clouds passing by. She heard Tree shriek.
"That one looks like a parasprite!"
Fizzlepop sent The Ball flying in their direction, but only hard enough so it would roll and gently nudge Tree's flank. The filly popped up in surprise, but the confusion melted off her face once she saw The Ball and pinpointed its origin. She waved, picking up The Ball with a pale golden wave of magic. Midnight rolled over onto all fours, stretching out each leg in anticipation of what would happen next. As if on cue, all three ponies started trotting, then galloping, tossing The Ball back and forth between them. The trio were seeing how long they could go without The Ball touching the ground, and whoever made the error of dropping it had to retrieve it, and lost their spot in The Ball rotation. Stakes were high, spirits were higher, and the three friends ran far past the city, only slowing their stride to catch their breath in between fits of laughter. Midnight made risky tosses with his powder blue aura that Tree always chided him for, but Fizzlepop loved the challenge. He smiled at her, and threw The Ball in her direction. At the same time, the sky grew dark, and Fizzlepop realized they had wandered too far. They were surrounded by towering trees, and the ambient noise of distant wild creatures. They had run straight into the Everfree Forest. They had always been forbidden to enter it, as there were many dangers that ran amok there. She hadn't realized that they had been running so long. She wasn't even sure how far away her house was; how close to help they might be if something chose to attack them. She had an overwhelming uneasy feeling take hold of her, and felt her mouth open in warning. She was so focused on their mistake, Fizzlepop had forgotten The Ball was careening towards her. She looked back to say something to Midnight as it was about to make contact with her face, and on instinct, flung the ball away from herself. She watched as it sailed over Midnight's head, hit the ground, and started rolling. She let out a panicked whinny as she saw the direction it was rolling in. It was headed for the home of the Ursa Major. Her small yet gangly legs couldn't take her fast enough. The ball was inside far before she ever reached the mouth of the cave. She stopped abruptly, kicking up a storm of dirt and debris behind her. She turned to face her friends, eyes wide and apologetic.
"Aw man, I'm so sorry guys. I'll see if I can help out on the Apple farm or something and make a little money and I can buy us a new one, or maybe my parents would get one, I'm sure they'd understand if we told them what happened. I should have been more careful."
Fizzlepop waited for what felt like an eternity for her friends to respond. Midnight was the first to speak.
"It's okay, Fizz. It was probably my fault, anyway. I lobbed it a little hard at you. None of us were exactly paying attention to where we were going, either. Let's just get off of here before we get hurt. We can get a new ball. Right, Tree?"
Tree Fall's gaze was hard. She was the leader of the trio, and as such always acted with a superiority far beyond her years. Tree let out a sigh and her tone as she spoke was sharp, but almost regretful.
"Fizz, what's our rule?"
Fizzlepop stared at her in disbelief.
"I know I dropped it, Tree, but I can't go in there. That Ursa will eat me alive."
Tree rolled her eyes.
"It's hibernation season, Fizzlepop. It'll be fast asleep. I mean, I get it if you're chicken and want to just go home, but how will you ever get your cutie mark if you're too scared to try things?"
The sudden fear of being a Blank Flank racked Fizzlepop. She would sometimes see a group of older fillies and colts roaming outside of the regular cliques at school, unsure of where they belonged. There was nothing she feared more than getting her cutie mark later than her friends, knowing that they would have to move on in their lives with the road map that their special talent had given them. She couldn't imagine being left behind; being forgotten. Even so, she doubted something as small as retrieving a ball would trigger such a transformation, but other ponies had found their talents doing much less. This inner argument sent her heart fluttering. Tree let out an impatient huff, and Fizzlepop snapped back to the present. If she let them down now, she would lose them almost as certainly as she would if they discovered their talents before she did. It was an awful, sobering thought. They were almost as close to heart as her own family, and the thought of them walking away from her made her stomach lurch. She sucked in a breath, steeled her nerves, and walked forward. As she found herself in the opening of the cave, she glanced back at her friends. Tree smiled encouragingly, but Midnight would not look up to meet her gaze. She had the sudden urge to cry, but swallowed it to return Tree's smile. She shook her magenta mane, trying to loosen the panicked thoughts grabbing her mind like a vise, and disappeared into the cave.
The first thing she noticed was the cold. A wet and unforgiving breeze traveled from the back of the cave towards her muzzle. The air was thick and musty, and there were only thin strips of light streaming in from the cave mouth. Fizzlepop kept her gaze on the ground, trying to make sure she wouldn't overlook the small yellow ball. The cave opened up as she walked further back, and somehow the light was getting brighter. She saw The Ball laying in the middle of the cave floor, and she let out a triumphant scream.
"YES!"
The word echoed through the cave as Fizzlepop picked the ball up with a small stream of magic. Her gaze lifted with the ball, and that's when she saw it. The Ursa Major was right in front of her, eyes closed but nose twitching. Could it smell her? She let out an involuntary gasp, and all at once the bear's eyes opened and she could see its eyes dilating, trying to focus on her shape. It realized she was an intruder, and to protect the cubs it had been curled around, it jumped up, prepared to attack. Fizzlepop flung the ball behind her, desperately hoping it would make it to her friends. She attempted to warn the two ponies waiting outside.
"RUN!"
She was praying they would hear her demand and get their parents. She closed her eyes as the bear roared at her, and focused on making a beam of magic to hurl at the creature. She opened them, prepared to strike, and the bear already had a paw up, on course to connect with her face. Before she could cry out, the swipe made contact, claws scraping down her eye and across her horn. Pain radiated through her, and everything went black.
She woke up in her own bed days later. She thought at first everything had been a dream until she realized she couldn't open her right eye, and when she attempted to use her magic, a shower of sparks sprouted from what used to be her horn, and a blinding pain followed. She cried out, and her parents rushed to her aide. They comforted her, and attempted to update her on what she had missed. Midnight, after losing sight of Fizzlepop, panicked and ran home, leaving Tree at the cave to watch for Fizzlepop's reemergence. He grabbed as many adults as he could, leading them back towards the forest, explaining the situation breathlessly. Tree was in tears when they arrived. She had just heard Fizzlepop scream, and was uncertain whether her friend was still alive. The Ball was resting at her feet. The mares and stallions rushed in, magic drawn, and subdued the bear long enough to pull Fizzlepop out, broken and bleeding. Their focus then turned to happier occurrences. Fizzlepop smiled as her mom spoke of her friends.
"Midnight and Tree have been here in shifts every other weekend. Those are two great friends you have. They'll be so excited that you're awake. Maybe later on this week, when you've gotten your strength back, we can let you go out with them. But I'm afraid we can't let you three leave town any time soon."
She nodded at her husband, and as Fizzlepop looked towards her dad, he cleared his throat before speaking.
"This is going to be a big adjustment, Fizz. We're not sure your powers will work without your horn to channel them, so take it slow. School's back in, but I don't think you're going to feel up to going just yet, which is going to put you a bit behind. I want you to prepare yourself for when you do go back. You're going to look very different to your schoolmates, but you are the same smart and kind filly inside that you've always been. You're still our FizzyWizzy and nothing will ever change that."
Tears filled her eyes at the idea of not being able to use her magic. She would have to relearn everything. Opening doors, picking up things, eating. It would be a HUGE adjustment. She imagined the horrified looks her fellow students would throw her way; the judgment and the pity. But then she remembered she faced an Ursa Major and LIVED to tell about it. She had her parents and her friends, who would always have her back. She didn't have time to wallow in self-pity or to be scared. She wanted to show everyone just how strong she was. She swore a promise to herself not to give up, no matter how hard things got. She felt her eyelids getting heavier with each declaration she made in her head. She let the weight of sleep pull her down, a smile frozen on her lips. She would win over the world, but it would have to wait until tomorrow.
A few weeks later, she was back on her feet and ready to play. It had been the longest month of her life, full to the brim with lessons from a stern Earth Pony whom she was instructed to call Madame Busyhoof, in-home doctor visits where her bandages were changed and her parents were coached through her long-term recovery, and unrelenting nightmares. She dreamed night after night of herself back in the cave, but her horn was already gone. She tried in vain to send out a beam of magic to light her way, and instead from the remnants of the appendage came a grey cloud of smoke. It didn't take her long to realize that plume wasn't smoke at all, but a storm cloud. It grew bigger and bigger until it filled the empty space around her, wind blowing violently and hitting her on all sides. Through the haze, she saw shadows of ponies, running from the tempest in fear. She would always wake up breathless and frightened, unsure of the meaning of the dream. She tried not to dwell on it, but it made her increasingly uneasy as she could dream of nothing else. Last night, her mother had told her before bed that she deemed her well enough to venture outside. She squealed with joy, and was almost too wired to sleep. When exhaustion overpowered excitement, she drifted off back into the cave, back into the storm. This time, the shadows had been given flesh, and they were Midnight Skies and Tree Fall. They looked at her in fear, scared of the terrible thing she had brought to life, trying desperately to back away from her but unable to as they were caught in the wind, frozen to the spot. She reached for them, trying to bring them close, but as soon as her hoof touched each one, they were immediately turned to stone, as if caught by the stare of a cockatrice. She recoiled from them in horror, screaming their names over and over before she was pulled out of the dream by a choking cry that she would only know came from her own mouth as she swallowed and felt how dry and sore her throat had become.
She convinced herself that she was just nervous about seeing her friends again. She knew Midnight and Tree would be waiting outside. She hopped out of bed, and snuck a look in her bedroom mirror, taking a long look at her reflection. The right side of her face was marred by an angry red scab sliding down her forehead and past her lower lid. The doctor had already told her it would scar, but he told her it made her look like a warrior, and her mom nodded and agreed.
"She IS a warrior."
The space where her horn had been was jagged like broken glass. She hadn't used magic since the first day that she woke up after the attack. She had grown used to relying on her own physical strength to achieve things she wanted, but she hadn't seen her friends since she had woken up due to school resuming, and she was unsure how they would react to her loss of magic. She took an unsteady breath, but heard the giggle of her friends through her open window and her heart swelled. If anyone would accept the new Fizzlepop, it would be them. She trotted out of the house with trepidation, but could feel hope lighting a fire inside her. Everything was going to be okay.