All That Glitters

by Lisa Ann Scott

  A few ponies gasped.

  “And the Sun barn has the sunburst gem that falls from the sky during sun storms. They’re very rare,” Belissima said, her eyes wide.

  “And what about Sky?” another pony asked.

  Belissima thought for a moment. “I can’t remember.”

  Daisy cleared her throat. “It’s the sky stone. They’re rainbow colored. They grow on the ground and they can only be collected when a rainbow appears.”

  “That’s right,” Belissima said. “Very impressive.”

  “Thanks,” Daisy whispered.

  “You’ll each be sharing stalls with another pony. Daisy, you’re with Skydancer.” Belissima opened the door to a large stall that looked like a beautiful spot in the forest. Grass covered the floor and trees lined the walls. There were two big bed cushions on the floor.

  It was so wonderful that Daisy’s jaw dropped.

  Belissima giggled. “It’s charmed to look like the forest. We’ve also got stables that look like a meadow, a field, and a rocky glen.”

  Skydancer and Daisy went into their stall. “I love this!” Skydancer said. Daisy was too stunned to say anything.

  Belissima smiled as she stepped out of the room. “See you two at dinner in an hour.”

  Daisy and Skydancer inspected every inch of their stall. “This is so exciting. I can’t wait for our tests tomorrow,” Skydancer said.

  Daisy looked down. In all the excitement, she’d forgotten her worries.

  “What’s wrong?” Skydancer asked.

  “I don’t know my Glitter Gift yet. Do you know yours?”

  Skydancer nodded. “I can talk to any animal that has wings.”

  “That’s so cool!” Daisy said.

  Skydancer smiled. “It’s lots of fun when I’m flying. I talk to the birds going by.”

  Daisy wondered again about her gift. Would it be something wonderful like talking to birds? Or would it be something boring like making grass grow faster? Not all gifts were exciting. But she’d still feel better if she knew hers.

  “You’ll be fine,” Skydancer said. “Don’t worry about tomorrow.”

  Daisy forced a smile and nodded.

  But even after a delicious dinner of carrots and hay, Daisy did worry—all night long. Dad said working hard and believing in herself was enough, but if she wanted to be a royal pony someday, she knew she’d have to be truly special.

  After breakfast, Professor Xayide was waiting for the ponies in the training field. He was no bigger than a hummingbird. He moved as fast as one, too.

  “I thought all the flutterponies had disappeared during the Age of Recklessness?” Daisy asked Skydancer.

  “All but one family did. Now he’s the only one left. It’s quite sad. He’s all alone.”

  “That’s terrible,” Daisy said.

  Skydancer nodded.

  “All right, everyone,” Professor Xayide said in a surprisingly loud voice. “Line up if you’ve already found your Glitter Gift and show me what you can do!”

  Most of the ponies walked over to him. But Daisy was relieved to see three other ponies stay behind with her. They looked at one another nervously.

  Skydancer went first with the teacher, showing him how she could chat with a passing butterfly.

  Professor Xayide nodded, impressed. “That talent could be useful in any of the arts. Take your pick.”

  Skydancer whinnied in delight. “I always wanted to be in guardianship.”

  “Then that will be your study group,” the professor said. “The ability to talk to animals of the air would be very useful when helping your prince or princess oversee their kingdom.”

  “What exactly do guardians do?” a pony near Daisy whispered.

  “They help keep their kingdom peaceful,” a spotted gray unipony said. “They offer their owners guidance. They’re usually the smartest, bravest ponies. They used to be on guard to warn if dragons were approaching.”

  Daisy gasped. She had always wanted to believe the stories, but had never been sure if they were more than myths. “So dragons are real?”

  “Well, they were a long time ago. But no one has seen one in hundreds of years. I’m Stone, by the way.”

  “I’m Daisy. Nice to meet you. You know a lot about the academy, huh?”

  “I have two older brothers who went here. They both studied guardianship. That’s what I want to study, too,” he said.

  “Are you worried you don’t know your Glitter Gift yet?” Daisy asked.

  “No,” Stone quickly said. “No, not at all.”

  They turned their attention back to the ponies showing off their skills. Duke stomped on a nearby rock and it shattered into bits. He did it with one hoof! A cloud of glitter hovered in the air, mixing with the rock dust.

  “Excellent,” said the teacher.

  Duke puffed up his chest. “I can also touch my horn to something and it will change to whatever color I want.”

  “Two gifts?” Daisy asked Stone.

  “It’s rare, but sometimes it happens,” said Stone, sounding a little annoyed.

  Professor Xayide zipped around in a circle, excited. “Very good, Duke. Those will be wonderful for the tricks group.”

  Duke frowned. “But I want to be a guardian.”

  “You’ll all study basic guardian skills, but I believe your gifts are best suited for concentrating on tricks,” the professor said.

  Duke stalked back to the group, pawing angrily at the ground.

  Two more ponies showed off their skills. Electra’s horn and hooves could glow in the dark, and Razzle could copy any sound she heard. They were both placed in the tricks group, too.

  “After a short break for lunch in the orchard, we’re going to put you all through some tests,” the professor said. “Hopefully, we’ll help the remaining ponies discover what they can do. And sometimes, a pony will find they have a second gift, like Duke has.”

  Apples filled the nearby orchard, and Skydancer and Daisy galloped over with the other ponies to pick a few to eat.

  “You won’t believe what I heard from a bird nesting in a tree,” Skydancer said in between bites of her juicy red fruit. “There’s a river just beyond the school grounds that leads to the ocean. Seaponies live there!”

  “Seaponies?” Daisy asked. She hadn’t read about them in her books.

  Skydancer nodded. “They live underwater. They don’t have legs—just a fish tail and fins! A few of us are going to check it out. Want to come?”

  “Are we allowed to? It’s off school grounds,” Daisy pointed out.

  “It’s only a little off school grounds,” Skydancer said. “You can decide later. We’re going after dinner.”

  Daisy wasn’t sure what to do. She’d love to see a seapony, but she didn’t want to get in trouble. After eating a few apples, they trotted back to the training field. For a moment, she’d forgotten how nervous she was.

  Professor Xayide hovered in the air and waited for them. “Time to get back to work.”

  Back on the field, he put the ponies through all sorts of tests. They ran and stomped their hooves in different patterns, hoping to unleash their magic. To her relief, no one said anything about Daisy’s hooves not making glitter.

  Then Daisy spotted the headmaster and headmistress standing on the edge of the field, watching. They were looking right at her. Were they frowning, she wondered? She felt nervous until they headed back to the school.

  Next the ponies practiced leaping. Rose, a pink pony who didn’t know her Glitter Gift yet, flew through the air even though she didn’t have wings. Everyone cheered.

  “I never knew I could do that!” Rose said.

  “That’s an excellent skill for pageantry or guardianship,” the professor said.

  “I pick pageantry,” she announced.

  After testing the ponies to see if anyone else could fly, they took a break. Skydancer galloped over to Daisy. “Did you see what Rose did?”

  “Yes,” Daisy grumbled. She�
�d been working her tail off all afternoon, and not only were her hooves stubbornly glitter-less, she still seemed to be a totally ordinary pony.

  When they were done for the day, Headmaster Elegius appeared out of nowhere with a whoosh. A grayish orb faded around him.

  “He just teleported!” Skydancer whispered. “That’s incredibly advanced magic!”

  He walked toward Daisy. Her heart was beating fast.

  “Daisy, could you please see me in my office immediately?” the headmaster asked.

  “Of course,” she said quietly.

  Then he disappeared.

  “I’m sure everything’s fine,” Skydancer said. But her eyes were big and round.

  Daisy trudged to the headmaster’s office in one of the high towers. Maybe he had been so disappointed with her performance today he was going to send her home. Maybe he’d noticed that her hooves didn’t make glitter.

  As she climbed the tower stairs, she paused to look out a window across the school grounds. She could see the training fields, the orchards, and beyond. Then she noticed light glinting off a river. “That’s probably where the seaponies live.”

  She’d hate to leave such a wonderful place. But that must be why she was being called to the headmaster’s office, right? To be sent home?

  When she got to the top of the tower, the headmaster’s door was open. “Come in,” he commanded.

  Daisy walked in and stood in front of his desk. She didn’t dare look in his eyes.

  “Are you enjoying the school so far?” he asked.

  “Oh yes. I love it here.”

  “And you’re still waiting to find your Glitter Gift.”

  “Yes,” she said sadly.

  The headmaster looked out the window behind his desk. “When I first came here, I didn’t know mine.”

  “You didn’t?”

  He shook his head. His three horns sparkled in the sun streaming through the window. “It took a year before it appeared.”

  “What was it?”

  He laughed. “I can run backward faster than I run forward.”

  “That’s interesting,” Daisy said politely.

  “But it’s not helpful for much. They put me in tricks because they didn’t know what else to do with me. Yet here I am, headmaster of the academy. How could I manage that if I can only run backward fast?”

  “I don’t know,” Daisy said.

  “Because I trained harder at everything than all the other students. I learned whatever I could from anyone willing to teach me.”

  She could do that, couldn’t she? She took a deep breath. “Have you ever had a student who never found their Glitter Gift?”

  “No,” he said, looking her straight in the eye.

  She swallowed nervously. “But Headmaster Elegius, my hooves don’t make glitter.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s possible I might not be able to do magic at all.”

  “I’d be very surprised if that were true. If your hooves don’t make glitter, there must be a good reason why. And you’ll figure that out someday. I know you will.”

  She nodded.

  “For now, I want you to work your hardest. Follow the rules. And while you wait to discover your gift, just believe in yourself. Do you understand?”

  “I do, sir.” But she didn’t know what he meant. Why would she believe in her boring old self? It reminded her of what her father had told her before she climbed the rainbow.

  “Good. Now head back to your stable and clean up for dinner.”

  “Thank you, sir.” She galloped down the stairs, and paused again to look out the window. No way would she be joining the other ponies on their adventure to spy on the seaponies. She’d promised the headmaster she’d follow the rules.

  Daisy hurried to the banquet hall for dinner. She took a few carrots from the trough and a scoop of oats. There was even a dish of sugar cubes with a lever that released a few into her bucket. What a treat!

  She carried her bucket over to the table where Skydancer, Electra, and Razzle stood.

  “Is everything okay?” Skydancer asked.

  “The headmaster just wanted to tell me to keep working hard.”

  Skydancer smiled at her. “See? I told you not to worry.”

  The ponies munched and crunched. Daisy thought she’d never tasted better food. She glanced over at Duke’s table, where he was changing the color of his friends’ apples with a touch of his horn. She wondered if a purple apple tasted different from a red one.

  “Are you guys ready to find the seaponies?” Razzle asked. “A bunch of other ponies want to come, too. We’re meeting outside the stables in half an hour.”

  Daisy pushed away the rest of her food. “I don’t want to get in trouble by leaving the grounds.”

  “Rules are for fools,” Razzle said. “No one will know.”

  Maybe not, but she wasn’t going to risk it. She’d made a promise to the headmaster. “Sorry. You guys will have to tell me what the seaponies look like.” Daisy walked out of the cafeteria while the rest of the ponies plotted their adventure.

  She stopped in the great hall and looked at the beautiful decorations.

  She inspected the map of the grounds. She’d been wanting to take a closer look. The maps she’d seen in her library books hadn’t been so detailed. There was still so much to learn about this place. That was one thing she could do well—read, study, learn. The thought comforted her.

  On the map, she saw the river from the sea twisted down from the North and came close to the forest beyond the orchard. An X marked that spot identifying it. She remembered seeing the river out of the tower window. The ponies wouldn’t be far from the campus, but they would have to leave it to see the seaponies.

  Then Daisy noticed something. She took a step closer and followed the course of the river. Once it left the forest, it went back up and around the school, and it came near the faraway forest on the other side of the flying field. That was on school grounds. There was a way to see the seaponies without leaving school property. It just wasn’t marked with an X.

  She raced off to meet the other ponies and tell them her news. They were leaving the stables when she found them. “Hey, everyone, stop!”

  “Daisy, don’t worry,” Skydancer said. “We’re not going to get in trouble. No one’s going to see us.”

  “I found a way to look at the river without leaving school grounds. There’s another spot where the river comes through the forest. I saw it on the map in the great hall. Follow me!”

  Daisy led the ponies across the orchard to a small forest.

  Skydancer paused. “It’s really dark in there. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”

  “Don’t be scared.” Electra lit up her horn so they could see in the shadowy woods.

  “That’s much better,” Skydancer said, cautiously following Daisy.

  After a while, Skydancer stopped to ask a butterfly if they were getting close. The butterfly informed her they were almost there.

  They walked along some more, then paused.

  “I can hear the river!” Daisy cried.

  The ponies galloped after her until they came to a wide, blue river sparkling in the setting sun.

  “It’s beautiful!” Razzle said.

  “Where are the seaponies?” Skydancer asked.

  “Don’t they live underwater?” Daisy asked. “How are we supposed to see them?”

  “Someone told me they come up if they hear music,” Electra said.

  “Really?” Daisy asked.

  “We have to sing,” Electra said. She started singing a song, but before she’d gotten through the first verse, all the other ponies were pressing their ears flat.

  “They’ll never come up if they hear that!” Skydancer said.

  Electra stuck her nose in the air, offended. But she stopped singing.

  “Let me try,” Daisy said. “My mother used to sing me to sleep. I remember all her songs.” Daisy closed her eyes and started to sing. “Wind in the
willows, moon in the sky, sleep my little pony, while I sing this lullaby.”

  The ponies were silent. Did they think she was horrible? “Maybe I don’t do it as well as my mother,” Daisy said.

  “No,” Skydancer said. “That was amazing.”

  “Look!” Razzle said, pointing her hoof toward the river.

  A few slick heads popped up from the surface of the water. Their snouts were long and their ears were small. Bits of shell and coral were threaded in their manes.

  “Seaponies!” Skydancer squealed. “You did it, Daisy!”

  The seaponies blinked at them with big, dark eyes, then skittered back underwater. They flashed their tails as they dove into the river.

  The ponies ran back to the school, laughing and whinnying as they went. “That was so cool!” Razzle said.

  Electra charged ahead of the group, lighting up her horn and hooves as she raced across the field. “Woo-hoo!”

  Daisy was glad she’d helped them find the seaponies.

  When they got back to the stables, they went to their stalls right before nine and fell fast asleep.

  * * *

  The next morning after breakfast, the new ponies returned to the training fields again. Headmaster Elegius was standing there. Daisy’s heart started beating fast.

  He stepped forward. “Daisy, can you come here please?”

  She walked over to him while all the other ponies stood silently watching. She felt very nervous.

  “I understand you led a group to find the seaponies last night,” he said.

  She took a step back. “How did you know?”

  “I have many animals in the forest and the grounds who keep track of my students. They report everything to me. So, is it true?”

  Looking down, Daisy nodded. “We wanted to see if the seaponies were real.”

  “And?” he asked.

  “They are,” Daisy said, certain she was about to get in trouble—in front of everyone.

  “Daisy found a place to see them without leaving the school grounds,” Skydancer explained.