Heart of Light

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Six: Cat's Paw

Valiant Heart looked out the window. The train was slowing down. Once she opened up the window and stuck her head out she could see down the tracks the first couple of traincars including the engine were chugging along down the winding path around the mountain, they were however disconnected from all the passenger cars.

Once she pulled her head back inside the first thing she did was try for the door. It was stuck in place, it wasn’t even locked yet she couldn’t open the door for the life of her. So she sat there, in the quiet room all alone for what felt like an eternity.

Fear joined forces alongside regret on the battle for her soul while she sat there contemplating how she had just allowed Twilight to run off alone. There wasn’t much she could do to help, but that didn’t make her feel any better. It only made her feel worse. There was an alicorn, maybe more out there, and Twilight was facing them all alone. Even when the half of the train she was on stopped moving completely she still didn’t feel any better.

There was a scratching sound at the bottom of her door, and Valiant’s heart stopped. She froze, her mind racing for information. After a moment the scratching stopped, but that didn’t make her feel better. In the quiet room she could hear the scratching sound moving away from her, it almost sounded like a cat, only larger.

A quiet colt’s voice spoke in the back of her mind, for a brief instant her mind rebelled against it. Telling her that it was just imaginary, that it couldn’t be real. Yet here, stuck in this room alone, scared, and worried, she just wanted somepony to comfort her, even if they weren’t real. Valiant removed her eye patch and looked around.

“Boulder?” she asked quietly.

From the corner of the room a blue colt with purple mane walked into the room. He smiled brightly at her, a warm feeling grew throughout her chest. He walked through the seat, phasing through it as though neither he nor the furniture really existed. He took a seat next to Valiant, and looked up at her.

“It’s been awhile,” he said gently.

Valiant shook her head. “You’re my imaginary friend, and I’m fifteen years old. I’m too old to have one of those.”

“If that’s what you want to think.” he replied in an understanding tone.

This was Boulder Dash, her imaginary friend from when she was first picked up by Maud Pie and held tightly. It was a dark night, Valiant was in more pain than she knew possible, her heart and soul were both torn to shreds, her mind merely hanging on by strings of willpower that were snapping one by one. If Maud hadn’t picked her up, hadn’t sung that lullaby to her, Valiant would have just given up. Instead she was able to fall asleep, but not before she heard Boulder Dash speak to her. His only words came out true and powerful, they struck her soul like an hammer of hope against an anvil of light. He told her, “Everything will be okay, your safe now.”

Valiant shook the memory loose from her mind before she could start crying again. She hated crying. “You always seem to know what to do in situations like this. Help me.”

Boulder Dash scratched at his chin. “Well, are you sure? There’s a large hyper intelligent feline with a habit of thieving from unsuspecting ponies out there.”

“Yeah, and my little sister is going to become Twilight’s strongest pupil ever, give me some real advice please.”

Boulder smiled and shook his head slowly. “You really don’t believe that I exist? What about the time I helped you revive a pony?”

“That… look there are plenty of weird things out there, right now I’m alone in a dark room and talking to myself. I need to go help Twilight.”

“Twilight doesn’t need help, she’s doing just fine. Maybe you could heal her when she gets back, but it’s only mild damage.”

Valiant thrust a hoof at the door. “Door’s locked, help now.”

“You’re quite impatient sometimes, I bet you get that from Trixie.”

Valiant frowned.

“Okay, you can unlock the door yourself. You have more than the ability to feel other ponies emotions, to see their inner selves, and to heal them from physical injury. You are special, Valiant Heart. More than you could ever know. Go to the door, place your hooves on it, and use that inner light of yours to will it open.”

Valiant Heart rolled her eyes before going to the door and putting her hooves on it. For a moment she wasn’t sure what to do, she just hoped the door would open, of course it didn’t. So she dug deep into herself, looking for that light. She found it, it was not only inside her but all around her as well. She grabbed the light, and focused on the door. The energy moved through her, collecting on the door, and she saw it, not with her good eye but instead with her broken eye, there was a red aura on the door, it felt like Twilight. Valiant’s white aura interacted with the spell, and gently pushed it aside. For a moment the spell stayed, it refused to move. So Valiant pushed harder. The spell fought back to hold the door shut. Valiant pushed against that spell with all her might, until she was grunting with the effort of moving so much energy. The spell shifted and slid away. Valiant almost fell from the exhaustion of removing that spell, but once she tried the door handle it moved and the door cracked open successfully.

“Good work,” Boulder Dash said. “There’s a lot more you can do, you have only barely tapped into your full potential.”

Valiant slid her eye patch back on and walked out the door. “Thanks, but I don’t need to deal with my crazy at the moment. I have to find Twilight.” She looked back with her good eye and Boulder was gone.

The hall was dark, and quiet save for the sound of sleeping ponies. Every door in this car was opened, and everypony inside the booths were asleep. The only door that hadn’t opened was her own. Valiant could only assume it was because Twilight had put some protective barrier on it. And she had just removed the only thing keeping her safe…

Valiant pushed the fear aside, she’d dealt with much worse. This was foal’s play. All she had to do was investigate the cars until she found out where Twilight was, than she could hang by the princess’s side until things were better. Valiant turned around and began going through the back of the car. There were passenger cars leading all the way to the kitchen. Everyone of them was filled with open doors and sleeping ponies. Until she got to the last car which was all luggage.

She stopped at the doorway when she heard the scratching sound again, along with a raspy voice complaining. “Darn it, there was hardly any good loot on the ponies. I can’t be re-summoned without some good stuff. Gold, rubies, sapphires, these ponies should be rich in the stuff.”

Valiant was usually a quiet pony, easily sneaking up on anyone she wanted too, sometimes without meaning too. So right then she put her skills to the test and moved quiet as a mouse into the room. She’d earned the nickname of Mouse after all.

She followed the scratching noises to a pile of opened suitcases. There were desperate claw marks on the locks of the luggage. Clothes, toys, papers, and an assortment of junk was thrown carelessly on the floor. A blue furry cat was hunched over a suitcase digging through it with reckless regard. He picked up a gold ring, smiled a crooked tooth grin at it before opening his mouth wide and tossing the ring inside it.

“Ew,” Valiant said as she took a step back.

The cat’s ears twitched and it swung its head around to look directly at Valiant. The cat grinned maliciously. “Oh what is this, a foal come out to play? Didn’t your parents ever tell you not to run off alone?”

“No, they threw me out when I was six,” Valiant Heart replied coldly. Ponies were scary, but a talking cat that eats gold is far less so. Talking to it didn’t feel like she was going to have a panic attack, which probably explained why Fluttershy loved animals so much.

“Boohoo, go feed your life story to somepony else, or give me some gold. I don’t care which.”

“What’s your name?” Valiant asked.

“Busy Kitty, now leave.” The cat went back to its search for gold. It was indeed quite larger than normal rodents, not as big as giant cats though, and far from being a dire cat, but it was just larger than a cat.

Valiant found an unopened suitcase and shrugged. Twilight had always told her to make new friends right? She opened it up and was rewarded with someponies bottlecap collection. This was neither a recycling plant nor a post apocalypse, bottlecaps were worthless.

“What are you doing, filly?” The cat asked.

“Helping,” Valiant replied.

“Oh… but why?”

“Because I want to be friends.”

The cat’s laugh was cold and harsh. “Well be my guest little filly. I won’t argue with ponies and their admittedly backwards ways.”

Valiant opened up another suitcase, it looked mostly like somepony had just gotten back from a shopping spree at Rarity’s Boutique. “So why are you here?”

“We were going to crash the train into the city, of course I don’t really care so long as I get my fill of gold.” The cat scratched at its chin. “After all, what good is a familiar if he doesn’t get paid?”

“You’re a familiar? I thought that familiars could only speak to their masters.”

“We can learn your pathetic language if we choose too, but most are far too proud.”

“And your not?”

“What can I say, I’m a cat with a heart of-” he paused to swallow a golden belt buckle. “-gold.”

“That’s funny,” Valiant said without laughing.

“Heh, yeah it is. Most ponies don’t get my sense of humor, and those alicorns are beyond stuck up to anything less than immortal such as myself.”

Valiant gave him an odd look. “So you’re working with the alicorns?”

“Only Lavender and Rose. Their good, if not poor kids. Wanting to spread their empire’s light to the land, by scaring you lesser creatures. I can respect that. Fear’s a good motivator.”

Valiant shook her head. “Friendship is supposed to be better.”

“But you know it’s not as effective?”

Valiant closed her eye tightly for a moment. “I… I’ve seen both. Fear will make a pony move, to run, to survive, to throw even their friends under the bus. Friendship will make a pony move, to run, to survive, and to throw themselves under the bus for friends. I can’t say that either of them are wrong… I think both might be needed.”

The cat paused to give her an odd look.

“What?”

“It’s nothing, you’re just surprisingly intelligent for an earth pony. Are you sure you’re not a familiar in disguise?”

Valiant shook her head. “Nope, just a weird earth pony.”

The cat smiled, only this time it was almost warm. “That’s interesting. I like you. Should we meet again, I’d hope we do so under the banner of, how do you ponies say it, friendship.”

“You think that will happen?”

“No, but I’d like it.” The cat stood up. “I need to get back to Lavender and Rose now, their probably still licking their wounds. It’ll be a long time until they recover from the beating that purple unicorn gave them.”

She watched as the cat waved goodbye before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. For a moment it reminded her of Trixie, but of course when the smoke cleared and the cat was gone, she realized that the cat was much better at the trick than Trixie was. After that she made her way back through the cars, a few ponies were beginning to stir, so she retired to her room and took a seat. If Twilight had really won her battle and chased off the alicorns, than she would be fine, all she could do now was wait.

Twilight’s lack of wings meant she was hoofing all the way back to the train station. Around her were a dozen guards. She very much doubted that there would be anymore fighting today, but the passengers might need assistance, hence all the horsepower. Still she couldn’t help but to worry about Valiant. Twilight had done the only thing she felt capable of, she’d saved the train and all its passengers, but when this got back to Maud and Trixie, Twilight was sure that leaving their daughter unsupervised would count as the most grievous of sins.

It took a little while, especially since Twilight refused to allow any reckless galloping as she didn’t know what lay ahead. Still they reached the train and once they did they found that some of the passengers were already awake, though dazed and confused. The guards went about helping the passengers get back up on their hooves, meanwhile Twilight made her way back to the booth she shared with Valiant. The locking spell had been removed from the door.

Twilight threw the door open, ready to kill anypony brazen enough to not only break her lock, but to bother Valiant Heart. Inside she found Valiant sitting on the seat studying in silence. The filly glanced up at her with one eye before looking back into her book. Somehow Twilight felt like she was being scolded for tardiness.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked.

Valiant beckoned Twilight over with a hoof. Upon following this instruction Twilight received a surprise hug. Twilight embraced Valiant back, her heart sinking from the thought of having left her alone. Of course the white light emitting from Valiant’s body warmed Twilight’s heart and soul. The pain in her head cleared quickly enough. Soon Valiant let go and went back to studying.

“I’m fine,” Valiant replied. “You got hurt.”

Twilight lowered her head. “It was nothing.”

Valiant didn’t reply.

“Oh come on, don’t give me the silent treatment, that’s supposed to be reserved for ponies you aren’t friends with.”

Valiant flipped a page in her book without even a glance.

“I’m sorry that I left you alone. I shouldn’t have done that. But those alicorns were going to crash the train into the city, the only reason any of us are still alive is because I stopped them.”

This time Valiant did look up. “I’m not mad.”

“You promise?”

Valiant gave a tiny nod, though she didn’t smile. This was probably the closest Twilight was getting to forgiveness at the moment, and she would be forced to wait until later before she could make it up to her. As of right then however she had another goal to work on.

“Hey, Val. It’s time to get out of here. I guess we’re hoofing it back to town, you can ride on my back if your leg’s troubling you,” Twilight offered.

Valiant shook her head and quickly got to packing things. It wasn’t fair that Twilight couldn’t be a mind reader or an empath, it would make communication with ponies so much easier. No it was ponies like Cadence or Trixie that got those abilities. Instead Twilight had to rely on good old fashioned learning to read ponies. Of course that only carried her so far.

The two of them walked out of the train side by side. By the time they got out the train tracks were filled with the passenger ponies and the guards who were waiting on Twilight’s word to lead them back to town. Once Twilight gave the word the guards began leading the herd back to Canterlot, and Twilight followed behind them with Valiant by her side.

Maybe about halfway to their destination did the sun become brighter, the air warmed up, and a huge shadow passed overhead. It circled overhead before lowering itself and coming into a landing right behind Twilight. Princess Celestia stood there with a worried expression on her face.

“Twilight, Valiant Heart, whatever happened? Why is there a train engine sitting in the middle of Moonscape Lake?” Celestia asked.

Valiant gave a dirty look to Twilight who could only shrug in turn. Twilight scratched the back of her head with a wing tip. “Okay, so you might not believe this, but there were two alicorns on the train who were planning to crash the train into the city. I had to do something…”

“Alicorns?” Celestia asked.

“Yeah, you see they were from the Alicorn Empire.”

Celestia frowned. “They’ve been gone for over seven years and this is how they return. By attempting to destroy my city. Why would they do this, and why now?”

Twilight shrugged. “We know next to nothing about the Alicorn Empire outside of the fact that they had once enslaved all of pony kind and waged war on the draconequus race.”

“Not just the draconequus, they stood against all demon kind.”

“Should we gather all the princesses for this?” Twilight asked.

“I will send word to the active princesses, but until we have more information it is best to keep our eyes open.” A guilt ridden look crossed Celestia’s face as she glanced at Twilight’s closed eye. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-“

“It’s okay, it was my fault, I shouldn’t have tried to run head first into a ball of balefire. Tends to be bad for the eyes.” Twilight shrugged. “Though I miss my eye patch. It was hard to make that thing. All the enchantments, the gold inlays, the built in lay line pathways… it’s going to be a long time before I can make another o-“

Celestia’s horn was glowing with the light of the sun as Twilight’s eye patch seemingly appeared from nowhere. It floated over to Twilight who grabbed it quickly and put it on. It was a little damp and smelled like pond water, but it made her feel at ease. The energy began collecting in her eye again instead of floating out uselessly. A grin spread over Twilight’s lips.

“I take it your pleased,” Celestia said with a warm smile.

“Incredibly! Thank you. Now we just have to get to Ink Pots and I can get our first clue about the Archive,” Twilight said excitedly.

That warm smile faded as Celestia looked right at Twilight. A growing sense of dread told Twilight she was about to receive more bad news. Celestia’s tone came out gently, but it held a stern coldness to it that Twilight rarely ever heard from her mentor. “Ink Pots is in the hospital. She’s… her time is almost up.”

Twilight looked back to the road. Her horn lit up as she picked up Valiant Heart and tossed the small teenager on her back. “Flowing Water’s Hospital, right?” Upon receiving a nod from Celestia, Twilight took off in a full gallop. There was no time to waste.