//------------------------------// // Chapter One: The Loner // Story: Heart of Light // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Heart of Light Chapter One: The Loner Written by TheCrimsonDM Twilight’s Crystal Tree Castle stood quiet, and alone. Crystal Tree Castle wasn’t exactly the right name for it anymore, after Princess Celestia had stayed here for a duration of time she had made a few changes to the place. The most notable was that of the entire castle being turned into white stone, much like the Canterlot castle. Still Twilight was only spending her time in the castle to make sure that it was clean, and up to snuff for when the other princesses came by. For the most part she spent her time in her new home, and considering it took her nearly three years to grow, she felt she had very much deserved it. Without an apprentice, a knight, or a baby dragon, the castle was more quiet then ever. However she was here for only one purpose, her primary lab was located in the castle. Tonight was a special occasion. Tonight she was going to finally get to see the Starfall Ceremony over Ponyville. She was going to study the crap out of the stars. That was of course after she finished her study on the rules of royalty. Trixie had asked for a lesson plan for her students in Ponyville’s magic school. The book she was currently reading had the last piece of information she needed to read about for the night. The rules of royal magic duels; it was almost ironic that Trixie would have requested information pertaining to this subject as well. “Royal magic duels,” Twilight read aloud. “These come up when royalty is challenged. The terms of battle are simple, the first party will attack the second party with a spell, meanwhile the second party will attempt to defend themselves. The order is then reversed with the second party attacking the first party. This continues until one of the party’s either forfeits or is unable to otherwise continue.” Sitting at her desk, with journals, beakers, a wall mounted computer, and various bits and pieces of things lying about, she couldn’t wait. It had been ten years since she had last seen this event, only back then she was more worried about the fabled return of Nightmare Moon than she could ever be about the stars themselves. It was Luna who really taught her the importance of this event. Outside her balcony she could see the stars shining brightly in the midnight sky. The moon hung over Ponyville casting its pale brilliance over the small township. Through much legal action Twilight had managed to stem the tide of growth that Ponyville should have seen after she became an alicorn. It took money, lawyers, and the occasional physical threat but Twilight had managed to, just barely, keep this town the way it was when she had first moved here. Her friends would never fully appreciate what she’d done for them, but that was never the point. She just couldn’t bare to ruin this town, the wonderful ponies living here, and the local environment with her mere existence. Staring outside the window Twilight watched as Four stars grew intensely bright in the night sky. Twilight quickly rushed to the balcony, nearly tripping over her own hooves in the process. The four stars began to move, slowly circling the moon. The quiet tingle of magic filled the air, and she felt energy pouring into her. She was becoming stronger as the stars moved closer to the moon. This was certainly an important event. The stars disappeared behind the moon and for one brief moment it felt like time itself stopped. Twilight glanced over at the clock, and was quite shocked to see that the clock hands had stopped moving. Was it broken? She looked toward her candle lit desk, and noticed an odd stillness to the orange light. The flame on the candles weren’t moving. Time had literally stopped. “What?” Twilight asked as she approached the desk. “What!” Twilight exclaimed as she stared deeply into the candle flame. “WHAT!” Twilight screamed as the flames jumped out at her. The flames grew larger than physically possible for candles. They leapt up into the air and formed themselves into an imposingly large unicorn shape. Twin eyes of bright blue fire looked down at Twilight. “You are the one who will teach her,” it spoke with finality as though every word was a hard cold fact that had already happened. “Teach who?” Twilight asked, still reeling mentally from the sudden appearance of this thing she was simply reacting on instinctual curiosity. “Our successor. The Bringer of Battle. The Furious Flame. The First to Fight but the Last to Fall.” “I… I don’t understand.” The flaming creature leaned downward. “Teach her well. Prepare her for war. For that is what’s coming. The Guardian of Sorcery's Successor, our successor. The Fire Heart, .” Before Twilight could respond the flames vanished. The tension in the air snapped. Whatever magic had been collecting in the area dissipated. The clock hand was moving again. Twilight sat there for several long minutes before realizing that she had to figure out what had just happened. Luckily for her, she had succeeded in one of her many goals in this life. She had managed to build a library in this castle which was impressive enough to rival the Canterlot Royal Archives. With quick hooves she made her way down the stairs and into her library. There were thousands, upon thousands of books in here. Last time she’d checked she had a collection of just over sixteen million books books, though that was last year. Rummaging through the books took several hours and produced no results. So Twilight went to her secure archive. A metal door lined with glowing runes stood steadfast and strong against all entry. A small panel on the side of the door had a flat glass screen on it. Twilight lifted up her eye patch and leaned over. The golden light coming from her eye touched the glass screen and the door shook. An indication that it was now unlocked and safe for entry. After replacing the eye patch she went on inside. Several hundred books, all deemed to be a physical threat to most ponies who dared to read them stood here. She went inside and began the long, and delicate operation of looking through these arcane texts for any information. When she finally found something she was surprised to say the least that it was less than informative. The passage read. “The Guardians: These are the six spirits in this world, each one governing a different aspect of power. These elements work together to stop evil and bring about good in the world, and it is said that their powers flow into their reincarnations once every cycle. These aspects were named as Sorcery, strength, beauty, hope, healing, and bravery. Each one of these aspects have a form associated with them, sorcery tends to appear as a unicorn made from the fires of creation itself. Hope is likely to be the most common one to appear and it comes in the form of a pegasus made completely of light. The others have had many different tales and rumors associated with them leaving it unclear as to what can be part of the original folklore and what is a misconception.” The passage ended there with a small symbol at the bottom of the page. It was that of an eye with an book instead of a pupil. Twilight had seen this symbol before, long ago when reading books from the dark magic section of the Canterlot Archive, which Celestia hopefully never knew and never would know about. It was the symbol of the Seekers of Truth. A group of ponies that had once believed all knowledge should be discovered and shared equally with all peoples. Of course they disbanded and locked away all their information into a vault long, long ago. Leaving only a few measly clues behind as to how to find it again. This vault was aptly named The Seekers Archive. Twilight shut the book and put it away. There was only one course to take now, and she did not like the prospect of doing this alone. Luckily for her, she already knew of one pony who would be more than glad to help her. Twilight let out a quiet sigh, “I guess it’s time to go visit Trixie and Maud, I’m going to need Val’s help.” *** It was just another day in Ponyville. The sun was beating down with its overly bright glare, and a brisk wind in the air kept everypony moving. A group of teenaged ponies were playing in the field being loud and annoying. This was just another day in Ponyville for Valiant Heart. Valiant Heart sat on her haunches, her mahogany hooves flipping through the pages of an old book. Her friendship with Twilight had granted her some unique benefits such as unlimited access to the princess’s private library. As well as a great study partner. Although the difference in age between them was grand, their bond was deep, like that of siblings. Currently Valiant was busy studying up on pony biology, it was one of the classes that she actually enjoyed since getting into high school. Learning about what made ponies tick, and more importantly how to fix them was incredibly useful to her. After all that was one of the dreams she had, to be a doctor, traveling from village to village healing ponies in need. It sounded like she could do a lot of good that way. Of course it also meant talking to other ponies… that part was not as much fun. She stayed there, attempting to ignore the noise around her while reading the chapter quietly to herself. When she got to the next chapter she closed the book, confident that she could pass the test. That was when a red ball flew through the air, bounced off the top of her head, and landed in the grass next to her. Scootaloo, predictably ran up next to her right afterwards with a worried expression on her face. “Uh hey, sorry about that kid. It slipped away from us.” Sweetie Belle followed them. “Scootaloo! You can’t go around hitting ponies in the head like that.” Their leader, Applebloom joined them last. “You okay, cus?” Valiant looked up at her cousin, who looked a lot more like Applejack than she was comfortable with. Valiant shrugged and tried to go back to reading. When the three older ponies didn’t go away, she knew she was in store for another social encounter. “You, uh… wanna play?” Scootaloo asked. She didn’t sound too keen on the idea herself. Applebloom smiled down at her. “Come on, we won’t pick on ya ‘cus yer short or nothin’. It’ll be fun.” Valiant firmly shut the book, glared up at Applebloom and then grabbed the whiteboard and marker that was nearby. In just a few seconds Valiant had written down a response that was most suitable to the inquire. “I can’t do sports. Bad leg.” Sweetie Belle’s tail swatted the back of Scootaloo’s head. “That was mean of you. Don’t you remember what happened when she was a filly?” Valiant couldn’t help but cringe at the old emotional scars. Seven years of therapy and a good home didn’t make those memories go away. It only made her capable of coping with them. Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “No I don’t. None of the adults would tell us what was going on, they all just got really weird about it. Seriously what happened? She broke her leg or something right?” Sweetie Belle looked away and bit her lip. “I’m sure that’s it.” There was no hiding the guilty look in her eyes. It was obvious that Sweetie knew more than she let on, more than Valiant was comfortable with her friend knowing. Applebloom stepped in. “Come on you two. Why don’t we just go get some grub at Sugarcube Corner?” Scootaloo beamed. “Should we? Things get awkward when Pinkie starts talking to us about collage. I mean me and Sweetie aren’t going anytime soon anyway.” Applebloom looked down at Valiant. “You wanna join us? It’ll be my treat.” Valiant looked down at her book, up at her cousin, and then down at her book again. Nopony told her that choosing between studying and free food would be so hard. For several long seconds she debated the choice internally. Could she really deal with the awkward social gesture long enough to get some chocolate cake? Scootaloo leaned over and whispered into Applebloom’s ear at a volume normal ponies wouldn’t have been able to hear, but Valiant was no normal pony. “Really? I mean I’m trying to be friendly to her, but she’s super weird.” That settled it. Valiant picked up her book, slid it into her saddlebags along with her other supplies and rose to her full, albeit rather small height. For a brief second Applebloom smiled, but when Valiant turned and walked away with nothing more than a flick of her lion like tail. Sweetie Belle’s voice turned hot against Scootaloo. “She was about to join us! Why did you have to go and say something like that about her?” Scootaloo defended herself. “I was trying to be quiet, I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings or anything.” Applebloom watched her walk away. “Maybe we can make it up to her later? Come on guys. It’s just the Crusaders again.” Part of Valiant really wanted to join them, to be like them. If only she was normal she could enjoy being so close to other ponies, and yet Valiant knew she’d never be normal. It was an impossible dream. So the other, much larger part of her wished dearly that they would just leave her alone and let her be. Valiant had a few ideas of where she could go hide at right then. All of them seemed a colossal waste of time save one. She was going to visit her best friend and hide in the library for a few hours. Maybe that would help ease the pain of her heart. *** Even though the tree house was absent of it’s one and only resident at the moment, Valiant had a key to let herself in whenever she needed. She did so and with a slight limp made her way into the first floor library. It always left her with such a powerful feeling going through this tree house. After all she had been there when Twilight had planted it after everypony had returned home from the windigo war. It took a couple of years, but soon Ponyville was back to its normal self, and with a brand new tree house to boot. Twilight had made this tree house her permanent residence, only keeping a very small hoofull of service staff in the castle, mostly to clean it. Since then Valiant had earned her keep by taking care of the princess as best she could. It wasn’t a long term solution for her personally, but being the assistant to her best friend wasn’t such a bad position to be in. Especially for a fifteen year old earth pony. Valiant found the first floor library to be a complete wreck. Books were piled up on the floor, notes lay scattered about either crumbled up into balls or recklessly piled up. Red orbs of light still hung in the air over one half of the wall holding up various notes with interconnected lines of energy between them. A half eaten sandwich sat on the table next to an empty glass and an empty bottle of whiskey. With a dismissive shake of her head, Valiant got to work on cleaning the place up. She made sure not to touch the floating notes, but all the stuff on the floor and the table she could do something about. Having worked with Twilight for so many years now she had become practiced at figuring out which of the books and notes were part of the haphazard mess of a sudden research storm, and which were not. Valiant would never say so, but she prided herself on being just as good at assisting Twilight as Spike had been, if not better. About a half hour later the place was looking livable again and the front door opened. Valiant eagerly faced the door. When Twilight walked in with her golden eye patch, and blue robes, Valiant’s tiny heart soared. Twilight had grown a lot over the years and was now as tall as Big Mac, of course with both a missing eye and wingless she looked more like a freakishly large unicorn then an alicorn. “Val?” Twilight asked as she looked around the room. “I just got back from Rarity’s, she and Spike were just planning her thir- er Twenty Ninth birthday.” Val beamed up at Twilight. “I cleaned.” “I can see that. Good job,” Twilight practically glided through the room. “Actually I was just about to go out and retrieve you.” That made Valiant raise her eyebrow. Twilight paused in front of her network of floating notes. “Hmm, yes… so I am going to need my assistant on this one. I am not positive of what I will be doing exactly, not yet anyway. First we will need to speak with Sunset, but after that we may be going on quite the adventure.” Valiant shook her head. “Mom won’t let me.” Twilight made a sour face. “I… had forgotten about that. After everything they’d done for me… after everything you’ve done for me. I couldn’t possibly ask for this favor. Even if I can assure your safety Maud would still be very much inclined to keep you home and safe… Trixie on the other hoof.” This plan was destined to explode in her face, it always did. “Trixie can’t keep secrets from her.” Twilight smiled. “She won’t have too. After all it’s just a research trip. Nothing too severe.” Valiant looked around the room and glared with her one pink eye, if not for her own eye patch she’d be using both of her eyes for the task. “This is not about research.” “Does Trixie have to know that?” Valiant stomped a hoof. “What’s going on?” Twilight shook her head slowly. “If I tell you that now you will be forced to lie to you mothers. I won’t have you do that to them. So it’s just a research trip. But it is one that you would very much like to be on. It’s about the Seekers Archive if that helps any.” Valiant’s heart jumped up into her lungs and got stuck there. She mouthed the words, ‘Seekers Archive’ very slowly. For nearly a minute the words hung in the air with tantalizing promises of hidden knowledge, forbidden secrets, and an adventure unlike any other. To find the Seekers Archive, the greatest resource of information, the largest and most elusive library in the world. It took every ounce of strength that Valiant could muster not to jump into the air screaming for joy. “R-really?” Valiant asked. Twilight turned to her with a warm smile. “Are you interested?” Valiant bit her lip. This was her chance to get to do something she’d wanted to do since she was but a filly visiting Hollow Shades. Now the offer was right in front of her and she couldn’t turn it down. Not if she wanted to be able to look at herself in the mirror with any pride. It was going to take some effort to get this pass her parents, but she already had her answer. “I’m in,” Valiant said in a near whisper. Twilight beamed at her. “Then that’s settled. We will be talking to Sunset first, and she’s already scheduled to come here sometime tomorrow. So I’ll be expecting you at the castle tomorrow after school, okay?” Valiant nodded curtly. “Good,” Twilight’s attention returned to her network of notes. “Now you can tell me why you’re so upset. I noticed your limp was back, and that means that somepony hurt you.” Valiant shook her head. “Just the Crusaders… being… weird again.” “They just want to be friends. Just having me and Sweetie Belle is not enough. I would like it if you reached out to them.” Valiant thought back to the offer to join them at the Sugarcube Corner. She didn’t want to go. Even Twilight’s prompting wouldn’t change her opinion on that. Still, there was some truth in the idea of getting more friends, and Valiant couldn’t easily ignore that advice. It was just a shame that she had such a hard time relating to anypony. “You still don’t trust them do you?” Twilight asked. “No…” “But Sweetie Belle does.” “I don’t exactly trust her either, I just… I guess I like her better.” “Why don’t you at least try? What’s the worst that could happen?” Valiant shuddered to think of what the worst could be. Her mind had no trouble at all in figuring out something dark and frightful. Still she should give Sweetie Belle the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps friendship with the other two could be possible, if she tried really hard to pretend to be normal for a few minutes. A gentle hoof squeezed Valiant’s shoulder. When she looked up into Twilight’s big comforting eye it set her heart at ease. Valiant couldn’t help but to wrap her tiny legs around Twilight. A few soft strokes through her mane were accompanied by a few softly spoken words. “Give them a chance, Val. For me?” Valiant shuddered a little. “F-fine. For you.”