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A Lost Element
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Trixie stood in Twilight’s door, resting her head on the frame of the door. The mare was still out cold, and alone in the dark room. Alpha clearly hadn’t regained his consciousness, as he would have been here as well.
“Oh, Princess! You’re awake!” Pinkie’s voice came from the hall.
Turning away from Twilight, Trixie made her way over to the large room Celestia had been placed in.
“W-what happened?” She asked, as Trixie and Pinkie both came in to the room, before wincing as she turned her body slightly, “Ouch…”
“Are you in pain?” Trixie asked instantly, rushing to her bedside, “Pinkie, go find a doctor!”
“On it!” She called, rushing out of the room instantly.
Celestia sat up, and looked to her side, then Trixie, and sighed.
“So it wasn’t a dream.” She said softly, her eyes half closed as she spread out her only wing, “You stopped her?”
Trixie wasn’t expecting the sudden shift in conversation, but nodded slowly none the less, “Aurora defeated her…”
Celestia looked past Trixie for a moment, “That’s not all she did, it seems.”
“Wings, I know.” She responded.
The princess tilted her head, and narrowed her gaze at Trixie, as she ran tried to process something in her head, “What’s changed in you? You feel different.”
“Please, Princess,” Trixie shook her head, afraid of what she might say to her, “Don’t worry about me. You need to just focus on yourself!”
“You’re much stronger than the last time I saw you. Which is surprising, considering your friend Aurora seems to be gone from you now.” She said, shifting slightly to relieve pain on her side, “You’re radiating with magic. You’re almost on par with Twilight, and she’s an Element of Harmony.“
Trixie sighed quietly.
////
Twilight grunted as she was roused from her slumber by a small pressure in her head.
“Ouch…” She muttered, looking around to see where it was that she had ended up, “The hospital why the heck am I here?”
Tapping different sections of her body, she checked to see if she had broken something, leading to her being placed in here.
Then it hit her, her baby. Casting a quick spell, which troubled her a lot more than she had been used to, she ran several lines of energy through her body, checking for any part of her, including the baby, that might be damaged.
After a moment, she sighed in relief.
“Thank goodness…” She said, her heart pounding a little harder, and the adrenaline in her body working to clear up the fog in her head.
”What?!” Two voices came at once from down the hall of her room.
The distance kept her from recognizing the who the voices belonged to, but they both sounded quite startled.
Carefully getting out of the bed, she made sure she was capable of walking, and then quickly exited.
////
“How did this happen?!” Celestia asked, leaning forward more than she should have been, revealing a small red patch on the pillow her back had been propped up on, “You shouldn’t have the power to remove an Element of Harmony!”
“It wasn’t me that did it… And I didn’t want anything to do with it, either.” Trixie sighed, looking to the floor dejectedly, “Because the Element was separated from Twilight, Aurora was able to pull it into my mind, and purify it there.”
“What does that mean for Twilight?” Pinkie asked, looking between the two mares with a concerned look, “Can we put the Element back inside her?”
Both Celestia and Trixie shook their heads.
“The chaotic energy caused the Element to part from Twilight’s soul,” Celestia explained, now understanding the situation perfectly, “While it was in that form, it could have moved to anypony. But, it stayed in Twilight, due to her incredible magical potential.”
“But, when the chaos was purified- or, I should say ‘balanced,’ it bonded back to the closest soul it had access to. Which was mine.” Trixie finished.
“So… Twilight’s just—“
“An ordinary mare.” Celestia muttered.
////
“An ordinary mare.” Celestia’s voice said softly.
Twilight was frozen. She had planned on entering the room, but all the talk of her Element being taken away gave her instant pause.
“No…” She muttered, closing her eyes and charging a teleport spell.
It wasn’t easy.
“That- that can’t be true.” She said breathlessly, before furrowing her brow, “No!”
With the spike in emotion, she was instantly able to access the power she needed, and she vanished from the hallway.
“Twilight!” Trixie said, rushing out of the room, having heard her voice. But, she was gone.
////
Appearing inside Star Swirl’s tower, where she had been in her chaotic form just hours before, Twilight fought back tears as she forced herself to use her magic just as powerfully as she had these last few years.
The floor and walls had been utterly destroyed, but she pushed herself as the reason for that to the back of her head, as she tried a spell that would have tested her limits at her peak.
Concentrating, she lifted her right hoof to the side of her head, and focused every ounce of energy in her body to her horn.
Slowly, the pieces of debris scattered throughout the room were engulfed in her purple aura, and slowly lifted from the floor. Then, in her next motion, they all began spinning around her as she levitated off the floor.
“Concentrate…” She muttered, as the heat on her horn became very apparent very fast.
She tried to move on to the next step of her spell, but found herself weighed down. It was like she had been living on the moon, and was now trying to walk on the earth. The amplification effect of the Element of Magic truly was gone.
“Fuck!” She shouted, as she lowered herself back to the floor, and dropped the spinning debris on the floor, “I should have been able to fix this entire room!”
Collapsing, she let out the torrent of emotion that she had been trying to hold back.
She didn’t need to shout anything else into the room. She was content to be silent for now.
////
Alex lay in his hospital bed, still firmly unconscious. Next to him, curled up along his back, was Dash, as she silently felt his heart beating against her cheek.
He was still unconscious from the battle against Twilight, and she had worried nonstop for him since she had woken up. The memory of him in that state was still fresh in her mind as she lay with him.
How far did a person need to be pushed before they lost it? As far as Dash knew, everypony had a breaking point, and Alex reaching his was a completely normal thing. But, was he on the weak side of ponies? Or strong? What were the criteria for being either one?
An emotional pony would buckle under that kind of pressure sooner, but just being in touch with your feelings doesn’t count as being weak.
The opposite could be said of strength.
She sighed softly. Too much was running through her head right now.
“Are you okay?” Alex asked slowly, over his shoulder.
“You’re awake?” She asked, lifting her head up quickly and looking to him.
“Just.” He said, repositioning himself, as he rolled over to face her, “Between all the heavy sighing and your pounding heart, I’m surprised I was asleep for as long as I was.”
“Oh, sorry.” She said, blinking a couple of times, “I was just—“
“Worried about me, I know.” Alex nodded, smiling to her, “You know, I thought that my horn was gonna explode during that fight with Twilight. But I did start bleeding out my eye, which is pretty cool, right?”
“Shut up…” Dash said, hiding her smile at his juvenile attitude, “I’m just glad you’re okay. I was worried sick.”
“Why would you worry?” He asked, tilting his head into the pillow slightly, “I mean, it’s not like I went through anything different from you, right?”
Dash opened her mouth to answer his question, but forced herself to stop, “Right. All I remember is waking up, and attacking Twilight.”
“Me too.” He nodded, “What about everypony else? Are they okay?”
“Yeah,” Dash said, leaning forward to rest her forehead on his, “Some of the girls say they had weird dreams while Twilight had us all out cold. But I don’t remember any of them myself, either.”
“I never remember what I dream about,” Alex said, shaking his head nonchalantly, “Unless it’s a terrible nightmare, or a dream that you join me in. That makes me remember them for some reason.”
“Having your girlfriend invading your dreams? Are you sure you wouldn’t call those nightmares as well?” Dash asked.
“Wow, I was worried that I’d get a smack if I said it, so I’m glad you did it instead.” Alex smiled, leaning forward and giving her a soft kiss, “You’re so sexy when you put yourself down for me.”
Dash smiled.
He was fine.
And as long as she lived, she would keep him from reaching that state of hysteria again. She promised herself.