Misc. Prompts: Harvest Time

>You take one final look in the mirror
>Between your concealing robes and your ornate mask, only your pasterns, jaw, and horn is visible.
>Your saddlebags are arranged over your wings, to prevent any involuntary twitch from giving your true nature away.
>Revealing yourself as an alicorn tends to draw unnecessary attention.
>You don’t want any of that.
>Some of the reasons are personal, sure, but it also detracts from this crisis.
>If a town thinks their savior is an ordinary unicorn, they may look to each other for help instead of waiting for help from on high, and Equestria could use a bit of sisterly love right about now.
>But it helps not getting interrogated about your social status. Some ponies think alicorn means royalty automatically, and that’s an awkward conversation to have.
>Satisfied all is right, you open your door and exit the hovel you were afforded.
>It wasn’t much. In fact, you’re pretty sure it was a subtle snub; everypony’s unneighborly right now, what with the rationing and tension.
>But the three of you thanked your hosts with sincerity. Any shelter would do, especially when two of you had spent little more than a nap in it.
>The field’s not far. The whole town worked through the night, you knew. That’s a lot of effort on three strangers’ words, but flashing the seed your mom’s bags carried – the ones you now wear - was convincing enough.
>When you arrive, you find many ponies sleep where they’d fell on the field’s edge, despite the bright, clear sunlight.
>Among the sleeping are your parents.
>Anon’s gangly form is slumped against a shed, his chin resting on your mom’s head.
>She’s curled up in his lap, leaning against his chest, circled by his arms.
>She wears the same mask and robes as you, even though she’s a normal unicorn. It sells the image, stops some questions about why your own disguise is necessary. It helps you’re the same size as her, depsite only being a teenager.
>Like mother like daughter; not just in appearance. You’ve napped in that pose yourself plenty enough.
>The ponies still awake watch you warily.
>There is more behind those guarded expressions. Whether hope or doubt, that varies from face to face, but everypony has one or the other.
>You’ll show them all.
>If you can get this to work.
>You stand in the middle of the field, now.
>You open your saddlebags with your magic.
>Then said bags light with a brilliant aura as you pull all their contents out at once.
>A cloud of seeds your mother had duplicated surrounds you, rising, spreading.
>Dispersing evenly in a sheet one grain tall, ordering themselves into rows and columns but for where you stand.
>Your tired audience gasps. You’re starting to convince the doubters, but your work isn’t done yet.
>As one, the mass descends around you.
>You push them all into the dirt.
>Your mother had purged and purified this soil of blight and contaminants already, you know. You trust her, but you could also feel it in your hooves, where they sink into the freshly worked soil.
>You had access to two more kinds of magic, afterall.
>You close your eyes to focus, and tap deeper with your earth sense, feeling through the soil, locating all the seeds you’d just planted.
>Remains of the town’s last attempt are still here, some still healthy and viable.
>You nudge them, bringing them to what passes for wakefulness for little seeds.
>The rest you shove deeper into the dirt, with both earth magic and telekinesis where it proves too difficult to manipulate, getting them out of the way.
>Next you turned your attention to the air.
>This would be easier if your wings were unbound and exposed, but you could make do.
>Last rainfall was awhile ago, your earth sense told you. It’d explain one reason why soil contaminants had lingered. Drought and disease together had become a familiar combination by now.
>Fortunately, the same techniques unicorns used to boost their power worked on air magic as well, not that ordinary pegasi knew them.
>You’d pull the necessary moisture directly from the sky.
>Air magic worked on an incredibly diffuse scale. You had not just the whole town, but a good chunk of surrounding countryside to use.
>Slowly, you pulled the moisture inward, bringing it all to this field.
>You heard a few gasps and murmurs as the air becomes sticky, making it feel even hotter than it was.
>You concentrate it even further, to this quadrant of this field, being careful not to cause a local rainstorm.
>You settle the moisture down into the soil, adding your earth magic back into the mix to do so.
>With the seeds properly hydrated and nourished, you let off the air and earth power, returning your attention to the seeds with your horn.
>You realize how heavily you’re breathing.
>You open your eyes, then blink hard behind your mask.
>The world outside’s a little fuzzy, a little hard to focus on.
>You cant stop here, you’re not yet done.
>Time for the last component, and the most difficult.
>It’s been months since planting time.
>That’s a lot to catch up on.
>With the whole quadrant under your spell, you turn the clock ahead.
>Every seed experiences seconds like days.
>Shoots break the ground around you, slowly turning the field from brown to green.
>They grow into stalks of cane surrounding you.
>You pull back on the spell when they’d reach about the present time. Nature can take its usual course, now.
>As soon as your magic stops, a wave of exhaustion staggers you.
>Stumbling a step forward, your wings try to flare out for balance, but are restrained by your saddlebags.
>Disguise maintained, at the cost of your dignity.
>Fortunately, you’re surrounded by young cane now, so nopony can see under your robes when you fall.
>Anon’s at your side now. Good, vertical physiology means less potential to trample precious crops, and he can lift instead of drag you.
>No, that’s not why. It’s because he loves you, silly.
>You hope he didn’t shout your name.
>You can’t remember, didn’t hear.
>So tired.
>He gathers you up in his arms, bundling your legs underneath your robes again. “You did good, darling. Rest now.”
“Mrrhh… when did you… wake up?”
>”I’d never miss your wonderful work. Hush, we can take care of it from here.”
>You close your eyes and nuzzle his chest, then his hand when he uses it to readjust your mask after the motion disturbed it.
>”These plants are strong, healthy,” you hear your mother say. “My sister’s acceleration spell has brought them to an appropriate stage of growth, you all can take it from here.”
>The ponies talk excitedly, even as Anon kneels and fishes a sugar block out of his pocket; the rations he doesn’t need.
>He breaks a chunk off and slips it into your mouth.
>You let the maple candy dissolve on your tongue. All the rations distributed during the crisis come out of the north, since maple trees have been unaffected.
>Not that you’re complaining, even if you had the energy to.
>He repeats the process as one of the townsponies speak up. “Who are you, who perform such miracles?”
>”Our names don’t matter, your mom says. “We’re just here to do our best to fix this crisis a little bit at a time.”
>”Fine, anonymous ponies, then teach us the spells! Even if we can’t do it ourselves, we can go to other towns and teach them! We want to help!”
>Your mom already had pamphlets made up to do just that, you knew. The townsponies’ astonishment faded into a dull murmur as she shared the purification spell she used, and the acceleration spell you did.
>The moisture and the earth manipulation they’d be able to do themselves, with enough ponies of the proper types, as well.
>They just needed to be shown it was possible.
>As your mother’s going over the basics, your dad walks over to her, something you only know by her voice growing closer.
>Too tired to look around, too sleepy to care.
>”We’ll be just outside town, Summer,” your father whispered. “Catch up to us when you’re done here.”
>Whatever her reply is, it’s silent, but your father is apparently satisfied, since he stands again and turns to go.
>The sounds of ponies fade into the background as he walks. The outskirts of town are blessedly silent.
>You’re still out of it.
“Sugar?”
>You nuzzle his chest again, and he fetches the block back out and breaks a corner off.
>You hum your thanks as he pops it into your mouth.
>”We’re going to have to slow down; your exhaustion’s only getting worse, at this pace.
“’ll be fine.”
>By the temperature change, you guess he’s stopped in some shade. He kneels down, then places you on soft grass.
>Oh, that feels heavenly.
>You finally open your eyes once he takes your mask off.
>”No you wont, by the look of you.”
>With a handkerchief, he wipes down where sweat lathered your cheeks under the mask’s straps, then kisses you on the head. “Up real quick, I’ll work under your cloak.”
>You push yourself up into a kneeling position, and your father removes your saddlebags and your cloak underneath.
>He starts wiping down your barrel where your magical exertion lathered beneath the saddlebag straps.
>”You make such a mess when you push yourself like this, sweetie. We’re definitely slowing the pace.”
“But we do so little as it is...”
>One sector of one field. Maybe 15% of the town’s growing area.
>”We did enough.”
“Every day we slow down is a day wasted!”
>”Between unaffected areas and spare capacity, if we did this at every affected town, the blight would be a mere inconvenience. Don’t push yourself too hard; we’re making it happen a little bit at a time.”
>Even feeling better, you can’t find enough energy to argue too much.
>Instead, you take this opportunity to finally stretch your wings, after almost thirty hours of holding them tight against your sides.
>It quickly turns into a full-body stretch, loosening whatever limbs Anon wasn’t wiping down.
>You really did sweat a lot, huh?
>Maybe he’s right about slowing down.
>Robes in the summer heat don’t help.
>It’s nice to be away from town, where you can limber up where there’s nopony to see.
>Or, is there?
>”See? I told you!”
>You freeze when you hear a young voice. That wakes you up real quick.
>You quickly dart behind Anon, whose tall and slim body is not great at hiding ponies.
>The two of you look at a group of three fillies, a pegasi and two earth ponies.
>They look back at you with shining eyes, and the pegasi is bouncing excitedly. “Wings under the bags! I told you!”
>”Wow, are you an alicorn, miss?” One of the other fillies races around Anon to stare at you face-to-face.
>Anon slowly relaxes, then laughs. “That’s what wings and a horn mean, yeah.”
“Please don’t tell anypony.”
>You dip your head low to emphasize your plea, but the filly just mirrors the gesture with a smile. “Does that make you a princess?”
>You shake your head no as Anon replies, “Nope, no royal blood here.”
>”Why not?”
>”Just doesn’t work out that way.” Anon shrugs, then wraps an arm around you to pull you closer. “Only common-blood alicorn in the land. Our little secret. Can you keep a secret?”
>The fillies look between each other, then nod happily. “Sure thing, mister!” one of the earth ponies says.
>The other looks at you with awe. “If we know what you look like, can we know your name?”
>You flash a tired smile.
“That’s a secret too.”
>”We won’t tell!”
>”Her name’s Harvest,” Anon says, squeezing you to him again. “My one and only daughter, light of my life. The mare back in town’s her mom.”
>The awe-struck filly smiles back at you. “Some day I want to be just like you, Harvest!”
>Oh, what a wonderful response!
>You step forward to nuzzle the filly’s shoulder.
“I’m sure you’ll grow up to become someone amazing.”
>The filly nods excitedly, but her two companions are already on the way back down the road.
“Hurry off now. Keep our little secrets, and I’ll pay you back someday.”
>One more nod, and the filly scampers off to join her friends.
>Anon flaps your cloak to clear some of the dirt and dust from it. “Could have been worse.”
>You walk around him to lay down against his thigh.
“It was great.”
>He looks down at you in surprise. “Oh? You wanted the whole charade more than any of us.”
“That little filly… That’s what I want to see, Dad. She didn’t look at me like I was a princess. She looked at me like I was a goal.”
>”Maybe when this is all over, I can convince you that could be the norm, rather than the exception.”
>You close your eyes again.
“When this is all over.”