//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirteen: Personal Matters // Story: Heart of Light // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Heart of Light Chapter Thirteen: Personal Matters Written by TheCrimsonDM Grounded. That was the one thing that Valiant never thought would happen to her, after all she was a good pony… most of the time. She didn’t use her powers, she didn’t fight with others, and she was the assistant to a freaking princess. When Spike was her age he was going out there and helping Twilight fight off hordes of monsters and even before that he was going out and helping Twilight face off against the likes of Discord. So why was she the one in trouble? It just wasn’t fair. If it wasn’t for the deep respect that Valiant had for Maud and Trixie, she might have chosen to runaway after that fight, as it was she just stayed quiet and decided to deal with it. Twilight would need time to put the clues together anyway. It wasn’t like Twilight would leave her out of the final adventure. Morning came and went, school passed on by, and afterwards Valiant went home. She studied, she ate, she slept. This was the extent of her fun for the next two days. When her grounding started to become more lenient, she was then allowed to go and hang out with Sweetie Belle but not to go anywhere near Twilight Sparkle, for fear that Twilight would drag her into a dangerous situation or corrupt her. Honestly Valiant thought that Maud was completely overacting, but what was she to do? Fighting it would only make her grounding worse. So there she was, sitting at Sweetie’s house and finding herself with nothing left to do once again. Sweetie Belle was busy doing her make up in the mirror, and Rarity was somewhere downstairs. Valiant rolled onto her back and sighed. “I’ll be done in a moment,” Sweetie said. Valiant kicked her legs a little and sighed again. “Oh come on. You could help you know.” Valiant rolled her eye, and yet once more sighed. Sweetie gave Valiant a dirty look which lost all emotional context as Valiant saw how good the makeup looked on her. For a moment Valiant was sure she was looking at a smaller, younger version of Rarity. The only difference came from their manes. “W-what?” Sweetie asked. “I need the practice if I’m going to start dating.” She looked away and her cheeks grew a little pink. “I… I sort of want to.” Valiant blinked. “You want to date? I thought you said stallions were gross.” “They are…” Valiant picked up on the hint right away. “Oh, well… okay. Anypony in particular? It’s not Scootaloo is it?” Sweetie almost dropped the makeup brush. “What? NO! She’s so, weird, and obsessed with sex. I don’t like her, like her. But… there is another pony.” Valiant sat up, she found herself interested in who it could be even though she had no interest in dating herself it was exciting to think that Sweetie might date somepony. Even if it was another mare. It wasn’t that Valiant had problems with gays, she just couldn’t understand anypony holding sexual interest in mares, or well anypony for that matter. It than occurred to her that perhaps Sweetie was going after a fellow mare because they were easier to relate too, that made some amount of sense. “Who is it?” Valiant asked. “I… I… um, well, it’s uh…” Sweetie’s face was growing redder still. “What about you? Are you interested in anypony?” Valiant shrugged. “Not really. I don’t get why ponies do that stuff. It just isn’t fun.” Sweetie’s face sunk a little. “Oh… no not… what about love?” “I’ve seen love, my parents love each other, but they also enjoy sex way too much.” Valiant tried to keep the disgust out of her voice. “Really, I think I might be happier just being really good friends with somepony and maybe getting a place together. Didn’t Octavia do that?” “I’m pretty sure that Octavia and Vinyl were dating.” “Oh, well that’s not very… I mean, ugh,” Valiant buried her face into her hooves. “I’m weird, I just don’t like anypony enough to want to… do anything with them.” “Not even kiss?” “Why would I kiss somepony that I don’t love?” Sweetie’s face sunk a little more, she turned back to the mirror and continued putting her makeup on. Sweetie’s movements became stiff, almost robotic in nature. “I’m sorry that you don’t feel that way.” Valiant rolled over. “You don’t have to worry, I’m not judging you or anything. I just… I think I’m asexual.” Sweetie’s movements stopped. “Wait, what? That’s… are you sure?” “I think so.” “But, does that mean you’ll never date anypony?” Valiant shrugged. “I think I might try it eventually, but only with a good friend.” “When’s eventually?” “I don’t know.” “Like a few days, months… years?” “I don’t know.” Sweetie Belle looked over at her. “So you’ll only try dating a really close friend. You don’t know when, but that’s the only option for you?” “Well, it won’t be as… weird I guess.” What Valiant didn’t add was that it wouldn’t be as scary either. Sweetie smiled and returned to the mirror. “I can wait for that.” Valiant raised an eyebrow at that. Wait, wait for what? I only said I’d try dating one of my friends. I mean sure I only have two friends right now, Twilight and swee- Valiant stood up and looked at the door. “I… I think I need to use the bathroom.” “You know where it is.” Valiant left the room, shut the door behind her and walked down the hall right past the bathroom and down the stairs. It was true, Rarity was in the boutique sales floor working on some dress. She asked some kind of question as Valiant made her way to the door. Valiant merely waved a hoof and said, “Tell Sweetie I had to go home.” Rarity looked shocked, though whether it was from the fact that Valiant was leaving so abruptly or because Valiant had actually spoken to her, Valiant couldn’t tell. Still she had one goal right now, to go home, find Trixie or Maud, and then ask them what she was supposed to do about this. About her best friend having a crush on her. *** Twilight paced back and forth in the study of her library. Behind her stood a tact board with various notes, images, and a web of multicolored strings covering everything. She’d been at this for two days straight. Even with all three clues she just couldn’t figure out where she needed to go. It didn’t make sense. There was something she was missing, but what could it be? If only Valiant was here she was sure she could get the help she needed. That or Pinkie Pie, but for whatever reason Pinkie was decidedly against helping her at the moment. Then again Pinkie was married with two kids, of course she might have more pressing concerns than Twilight’s obsession with finding the archive and by extension this prophesized pony that she was to train. Twilight slammed her head into the wall out of frustration. “Darn it! Why can’t I figure this out? Where are you hiding Archive?” There was one pony she could ask for help, but she’d been avoiding this. Getting help from Sunset was easy but she’d already pulled that card, same as with Starlight, but there was one pony who could possibly help, but Twilight wasn’t sure she wanted to confront her yet. After all, how was she going to explain the fact that she couldn’t bare foals to the mare of her dreams? A shiver ran down Twilight’s back at the mere thought of having that conversation. Deciding that the wall made a poor pillow Twilight pulled away, or at least she tried too. Her horn was stuck in the wall. “DARN IT!” Twilight cursed as she pulled back as hard as she could. “By Celestia’s blinding light, why does this have to happen to me again?” Her horn was freed with a pop and Twilight went rolling backwards. When she stopped she let out a sigh. She wasn’t really looking for extra help for her research, although that was always appreciated, she was really just looking for some loving, kind company. It had been far too long since she was last with her moonlight after all. There was going to be one Tartarus of a conversation to be had, but Twilight accepted that. Okay, it’s time to get Luna. *** Valiant arrived home just in time to ask about Trixie about what she was supposed to do about Sweetie’s crush. It was unexpected when Trixie laughed over it, and a little mean when she almost blew it off as being something foals her age just did. Valiant was tempted to kick Trixie for not taking her problems seriously. “Okay, okay, I get it.” Trixie said. “You’re worried that this will hurt your friendship aren’t you?” Valiant nodded. “Don’t worry, she should still be your friend even if you don’t return her feelings. Still, I’m a little curious, are you really not interested in dating at all?” Valiant had her whiteboard in her hooves, she was too upset to speak to anypony, even Trixie. She flashed the whiteboard at Trixie. “No, I’m not. I know it’s weird, but I’m a weird pony anyway.” Trixie shook her head. “Well that’s fine. I… I guess I can’t blame you. At least you know that Sweetie wouldn’t hurt you, right?” Valiant nodded. “Good, than that much is settled. Maybe you could talk to her? Maybe tell her that you aren’t ready for something like that?” Valiant wiped the board clean with a hoof and scribbled some more. “She said she could wait.” “Well… hmm… and your positive you’d never be interested in trying a relationship with her?” Valiant bit her lower lip. That was a hard question to answer. It wasn’t like she could see the future, maybe she would be interested eventually, but as of right then she just couldn’t see the benefit of a romance. Especially not when things that were actually important were on the line, such as discovering more about the wisp. “It’s never an easy question I’ve found.” Trixie shook her head slowly. “You know even if you end up together, and get married, you might still have troubles. I remember during me and Maud’s second anniversary, I was terrified that she had forgotten about it. I tried to hint at her, and I was getting desperate. Then she dragged me along for one of her silly geological survey’s over to Unicorn Range.” Trixie shook her head. “We left you and Amber with Fluttershy for a few days. When we arrived at Unicorn Range it was daytime. Sure it was nice to look at, but Maud was so focused on finding one particular spot for research that I was losing my mind. She spent all day dragging me around until we found this nice little hill and decided to camp there. I was understandably angry, our anniversary was the next day and she was more interested in rocks than me. “Then the night came and I looked out over the rolling hills. What Maud didn’t tell me is that there was a special kind of rock out there that would glow when exposed to the magical energies of the moonlight. Maud had spent the entire day looking at and playing with rocks so I didn’t pay attention to what she was actually doing. As the moonlight shone over the plains, and the stars shined bright overhead, those rocks began glowing. Out in the plains the rocks had been rearranged so that they spelled four words, ‘I love you, Lulu.” Trixie sniffled and wiped a hoof at her eyes. “I… I didn’t know what to do. I was angry with her for forgetting our anniversary, but it turned out that she was more cunning than even me! I didn’t think anypony could be.” Valiant listened in on the story, it wasn’t the first time she’d heard something like it, but for some reason she didn’t remember ever hearing this particular story before. Glowing rocks and Maud’s secret anniversary gift. It sounded almost farfetched. “You see, even if you do fall in love you might have troubles, but what’s important is that even when you’re angry you still love your other half,” Trixie looked down at Valiant. “Now tell me that this doesn’t sound like fun.” Valiant rolled her eye. It sounds like a lot of work. “Really? That didn’t sell you on the concept? Wouldn’t you like it if Sweetie did something like that for you?” Valiant considered it for a moment. Sure it could have been nice but that didn’t mean it would make it worth it. Valiant wasn’t sure if she could ever even trust anypony enough to kiss them. Let alone let them into her heart like that. Love just made somepony vulnerable, but then again, Sweetie was a friend first. It wasn’t like Sweetie was planning to hurt her, in fact it seemed quite the opposite, instead it sounded like Sweetie was trying to be very patient and understanding of Valiant’s particular situation. Sure that didn’t mean that Valiant had any romantic feelings fostered for her, but perhaps one day that would change. Valiant laid her head down on the leg rest and closed her eye. “Thank you.” There was a smile in Trixie’s voice as she replied, “Your welcome.” The front door opened and shut. The hooves walked into the living room where Valiant heard Maud speaking. “Trixie, can I talk to you in the kitchen?” Trixie got up and followed her. “Of course.” Valiant was tired, emotionally, and physically after her run here. It was time to take a nap, yet she couldn’t help but to listen in. Snooping was a skill she’d learned from the best unicorn in Equestria, and one she was quite good at by this point. “It’s about…. Boulder,” Maud said quietly. Trixie sounded worried. “Are you ready to talk?” “It’s just… I’m having trouble. I see Valiant and the danger she’s in and I’m scared. I can’t lose another foal,” Maud said, her voice was tinted with fear. “Shh, come here. It’s okay, Valiant’s in good hooves. I mean it’s only natural that she’d be interested in doing heroic stuff, after all she hangs out with the CMC and Twilight all day. When Spike was nine he was facing off with threats like the Timber Wolf King and still coming out on top. Of course Valiant would want to emulate that kind of behavior.” “But she’s my baby.” “She’s our baby, and she is growing up. I think she needs to be able to stretch her wings and fly as they say.” “She doesn’t have wings.” Valiant smirked. Doesn’t mean I can’t fly. Maud’s voice was even quieter. “I lost my first baby, I can’t have anymore.” “I know, but we can’t keep her safe all her life. If we did that she’d end up like Marble.” “And the problem?” “You know what I mean. She already has so much difficulty growing up and talking to other ponies, we can’t keep her like a pinned up slave.” Maud let out a quiet whimper. “But I lost my baby, I lost Boulder Dash.” Valiant’s ears perked up. Boulder Dash? “That was due to a miscarriage, it’s not the same thing. I bet he would have been quite the adventurer too, and probably would have loved rocks just as much as you do. But that was fifteen years ago, you can’t let that hurt your relationship with Valiant now. Yes Valiant messed up when she ran away in the middle of the night to go hangout with Twilight, but it’s not like it’s the first time she’d done that. You never grounded her for it before, just made her do extra chores.” “I love her though, I don’t want to lose her.” “If you keep holding on this tightly you will. We both know that we are lucky for any time we get to spend with Valiant; she chose to live with us. You have to keep that in mind. She could survive better than the two of us combined if she was on her own.” “I won’t let Twilight take my baby.” “She won’t. I promise. This thing with Twilight means the world to Val. We need to let her have this. After it’s over we can talk to her about how much this scares us.” “…” “Maud…” “Okay. I… I’ll let her help Twilight.” “Thank you, and when she discovers the Seeker’s Archive she can be famous, almost as famous as me,” Trixie joked. There was silence for a moment. Then there was a wet sloppy kiss sound. Followed by another. The table screeched as it was pushed along the floor. Valiant stood up and looked into the kitchen. Oh Celestia no! I told them not to do that in the freaking kitchen! *** Twilight stood on the balcony overlooking the sky. The horizon was lined with orange light as the sun slowly sunk in the sky. Behind her somewhere the moon was just starting to rouse from its daily slumber. Even if she was alone in her little old tree house, she didn’t mind too much. There was a sound behind her, and for a half second Twilight was ready to jump. A warm, soft dark blue wing fell over her back. That warmth spread from her back into her chest. Twilight didn’t have to look over to see who it was, she recognized the wonderful mare by her side by feeling alone, it also didn’t hurt that she smelled like violets. “Princess Luna,” Twilight greeted. She couldn’t hide the smile on her face even if she tried. “Princess Twilight, how doth thou feel?” Luna asked. For a moment Twilight blinked. “I, uh, what?” The snicker from Luna was only barely audible. “How are you feeling my sunset?” Twilight rolled her eye but snuggled into that deep blue fur. “You know that would have been a good nickname at some point, but with Sunset Shimmer here it just gets confusing.” “For whom? You know very well that I would only use pet names in private. Not even my sister suspects us.” Twilight laughed. “I highly doubt that, I just think she doesn’t want to know.” “That would be awfully cruel of her, but accurate.” Just a little more time, that was all Twilight asked to have in Luna’s warm embrace before she had to tell her about the two most pressing matters in her life thus far. It was too cruel that she couldn’t be a normal unicorn, that she had been turned into an alicorn by the will of the elements of harmony, even if that was an unprecedented feat for the relics. Sometimes she considered what it would have been like if the elements had chosen somepony else to make immortal, but they choose her. Not Celestia, nor Luna, nor any of her friends, or anypony before her. Even Sunset wasn’t turned into alicorn thanks to the elements, as far as Twilight could tell Sunset just had her mother’s blood in her. “What is wrong?” Luna asked. “N-nothing,” Twilight said. “No, you’re worried about something. I can feel it in your muscles.” Luna nuzzled Twilight’s hair. “You can tell me anything.” Twilight sucked in a hot breath. This was going to suck, and she was going to cry. How could she admit that she was useless as a mare? That she’d never be able to be a real mare. A quiet sigh escaped her lips. “I can’t find the Seeker’s Archive.” For a moment Twilight paused, she hadn’t meant to say that, but it was a useful distraction from the truth. She dearly hoped that Luna would buy it. It took a moment but Luna finally replied, “Twilight, I am not very good at finding lost ruins. I have spent my time studying this land since I’ve returned and it is so very different from the world I grew up in.” Twilight tried to smile. “I know, I didn’t think you’d be able to offer that much assistance after all.” “Now if your done with your excuses, why not tell me what is truly bothering you?” It failed and Twilight felt ashamed for even trying to distract her. Of course Luna would want to know what was wrong, she’d probably seen Twilight’s nightmares already. Or maybe she was curious as to why Twilight had been avoiding sleep… avoiding her. Twilight pulled away and looked down over the balcony and at the flowerbed. “I… I can’t have foals.” Luna didn’t move, nor press for any details. “I see.” “Why did the elements of Harmony make me into a freaking alicorn. Why couldn’t they have hit somepony else. Like Rainbow Dash?” “Rainbow Dash, the alicorn Princess?” Luna asked. “I think not.” “I have tried to have babies, tried several times in fact. Yet each time I do I just… I can’t take it. It hurts,” Twilight shook her head. “And to top it all off I will have to watch all my friends fade away one by one. Why?” “That is our curse as immortals, to watch our loved ones die off one by one. I have not had to deal with this myself yet, but my sister has watched so many ponies she loved die. If not for your presence, I fear I would not have the courage to keep going through with this.” Luna lowered her head. “Well… I did wake up to find out that my entire world was gone, everypony I knew, every township, every landmark, all of it just gone. Even my sister has become a stranger to me.” “Luna, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ A wing tip was pressed against Twilight’s lips to shush her. Luna offered a small smile. “But I have discovered that I now have much more than I ever did before. My sister was not the kindest sibling in Equestria one thousand years ago. The fact that she is nice, understanding, and full of love now is strange indeed, but I enjoy it. Not to mention that now I have you.” Twilight moved that wingtip out of the way and lunged forward. Her lips met with Luna’s. She only pulled back just far enough to look into those beautiful eyes. “I love you, Luna.” “I love you as well, Twilight.” Before either of them could continue there was a crashing sound from inside. Twilight raced inside and found a small mahogany filly lying over a pile of books, with a map over her head. Luna appeared at her side. “It looks like we have company.” Twilight could have been angrier with Valiant for intruding on her private moment, but chose better the path of understanding. If Valiant was here it meant that either her grounding was over, or that she was in some sort of trouble, enough to warrant running away. “Val, are you okay?” Twilight asked. Valiant rose and shook her head. “I’m not grounded and my parents are having sex on the kitchen table.” “I… uh… okay… um, well I’d never, do, that,” Twilight’s cheeks were running hot as she thought of taking her moonlight, bending her over the table and- “Twilight,” Valiant said. “What are the clues again?” Twilight frowned. “I’ve been working on them for three days straight now. I still don’t know what they mean. Let’s see, I believe they are; Past the tall tail’s shadow you will find knowledge, Just east of the mountain of smoke will you find truth. And only when surrounded by darkness does the mind’s light shine.” Valiant looked up, the map was still covering her head. “Did you say Tall Tell? As in the city?” Twilight rolled her eye. “No, I said tall tail, as in a pony’s tail.” Valiant threw the map off of her head and looked more closely at the map. “Are you sure about that? I mean, the Smokey Mountains are right freaking next to the city.” Twilight’s pupils shrunk. Her horn grabbed both Valiant and the map and dragged both of them up into the air before her. She took one look at the map and then at Valiant. She discarded Valiant on the floor next to her so she could better look at the map. “That… okay, but where? There’s a lot of places east of the mountains. This might be a break through, but how are we going to find it?” Valiant shrugged. “I don’t know.” “Do you have any ideas?” “No,” Valiant closed her eye and laid down on the floor. “Ugh, I just can’t stop thinking about what Trixie was talking about, before you know…” “Uh-huh,” Twilight said absently as she stared at the map, her mind going into overdrive to find anything that could link the third clue to the location of the Archive. It couldn’t be Cloudsdale, mostly because the city moved sometimes, but also because the clouds didn’t glow at night, nor could an earth pony easily access the place. “Trixie was talking about Unicorn Range,” Valiant said. “Never been there,” Twilight stated. Valiant was still lying there looking a little more relaxed. “You should, it’s got these glowing rocks that you can only see at night.” Twilight stopped looking at the map. “Wait, what?” “Yeah, it sounds kinda pretty.” “Glowing rocks that can only be seen at night… as in when surrounded by darkness?” A wild grin spread over Twilight’s lips. “Then I know exactly where we are going next.” Valiant opened her eye, she looked tired. “Where?” “To Unicorn Range.” Twilight looked over at Luna. “Could you tell Princess Celestia that I have found the likely location of the Seekers Archive?” Luna nodded. “Of course I will. Even if I had had other plans for tonight.” Twilight gave her a sad look. “We need to hurry, those stupid bad guys are going to find it eventually, and probably burn every book in there because their ignorant and evil.” That brought a smile to Luna’s lips. “Ignorant and evil you say, that does sound awful.” “It is.” Luna left out the balcony door and flew into the ever darkening night. “I will see you later, my sunshine.” Twilight beamed. “You as well my moonlight.” With that Luna was gone, and even if it left an empty spot in her heart, Twilight vowed to keep on. She was going to get to that Archive and save the knowledge from the forces of evil. It also helped that she knew she could get more information on that prophesized mare as well. Valiant stared blankly at the balcony door for the longest time. It was beginning to worry Twilight that her assistant had become so silent. Of course Valiant did speak eventually. “When did Luna get here?” Twilight laughed. “She was here before you.” Valiant shook her head. “That’s… I was talking… in front of her… crap.”