Heart of Light

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Seventeen: New Day

A few days had passed since the discovery and saving of the Seekers Archive, and now that Valiant was completely rested and healed she was free to move around again. Of course when she came back home with a few burns and bruises Maud had been furious, at least until she saw what shape Twilight was in. Twilight had told Maud that she didn’t plan on going on any big adventures again, she forgot to mention that it was only until she was fully healed and done with the Archive.

Things with Celestia hadn’t really improved, she was hiding out at Canterlot Castle, and hadn’t even sent a letter to Twilight. Though, Valiant doubted that Twilight would want to see it anyway, given the circumstances. In fact Twilight seemed more obsessed with finding a series of spells that could completely change the entire make up of Ponyville Castle.

Valiant was just fine reading her own books, the ones about her own people. The Wisps had been a fair race using their medium abilities as well as healing arts to help ponies in need. Though they stood opposed to the goals of the Alicorn Empire back when it had ruled over the three primary pony races with an iron hoof, they never fought them. Apparently the Alicorn Empire didn’t even see the wisps as being equine, but rather saw them as being something above the normal races, perhaps their close relationship to death made the wisps somehow safe against the immortal gods perfect order.

As for the Umbrum she hadn’t found out much about them. Then again she didn’t care too much either. There was one umbrum still out there, and she could only hope that he might view her more as a friend than an enemy now.

The last thing that Valiant had to do now was talk to her mom. Seeing Maud stand in the kitchen as she washed dishes caused a lump to form in the back of Valiant’s throat. She finally came to terms with how much her mom cared, but she still hadn’t really made up for it.

Valiant cleared her throat before speaking softly, “Mom?”

Maud stopped washing dishes and looked back at her. “What do you need?”

“I…” Valiant walked over and wrapped her forelegs around her mom’s waist. “I’m sorry.”

Maud returned the embrace. “I forgave you the moment you messed up.”

Valiant rubbed her muzzle into Maud’s fur. “You guys came to rescue me. You held me and sang to me when I was hurt. You… you saved me. Of course you don’t want to see me get hurt, or for me to do dangerous things and I didn’t think about how you must have felt. I’m so sorry.”

Maud brushed a hoof through Valiant’s mane. “And I didn’t consider how much of a grownup you already are. Or how important learning about the wisps was to you. I’m sorry.”

For a moment the pair were silent before Maud asked in a near whisper, “Do you still need me?”

Valiant sniffled. “I’ll always need my moms, both of them.”

Maud tightened the embrace a little. “And I’ll always be there for when you need me.”

A knock at the door signaled Valiant’s appointment. She pulled away from Maud and trotted to the door. “Thanks, I’m going out with Sweetie to the diner. I’ll be home later.”

Maud smiled and wiped a hoof at her eye. “Be careful.”

Valiant opened to door to see Sweetie Belle standing there. Sweetie smiled brightly. “You ready?”

Valiant nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Twilight had finally finished reading the book about the guardian hearts. But all she got from it was that there were at least four guardian hearts, each of which were responsible for raising a child that would one day alter the very fate of Equestria. Either for good or for bad. They tend to appear a generation before an extinction event. The last time they were reported was with the cat races of Saddle Arabia. Apparently Baast was one of them, she represented love and war from what Twilight could tell, though for some unknown and quite eerie reason she felt a deep connection to that cat.

Still even if the book didn’t help any, she did find a nifty magic spell that she had plans to put into work soon enough. She was going to transform her castle into something that was a little more… nostalgic. It was going to take a lot of energy though.

So while Twilight sat at her coffee table, taking the last sip of her morning cup of coffee and putting her book down she felt almost content. She was pretty sure what she was going to do with her immortality now. There was one thing she could offer this world that would be of value; her knowledge. Before she had taken on an apprentice because she saw no other way to help Starlight and it worked out for the best too. But now she realized that there was more she could do, she could teach others, become a teacher, or just take on a series of apprentices. And after that she could become a caretaker for the elements of harmony, keeping an eye out for the next group of heroes. Almost like Celestia had done, only Twilight had plans to not be a totally irresponsible jerk about it.

Of course that would all be for future Twilight. For now Twilight would just try to enjoy the friends she did have around her while they were still here to enjoy.

The knocking at the front door jolted her out of her thoughts. Twilight quickly went to the door, it was opened a crack and a book was wedged through the doorway. Gah, another late return. Can’t the ponies that borrow my books just face me? I’m not that scary.

She opened the door and-

Splash.

It was cold, wet, and smelled faintly of mildew. Twilight shook the bucket off of her head, looked down to see that the book was not actually one of hers, as well as being wrapped up in plastic to keep it protected from the water now dripping from Twilight’s soaking wet mane. Anger flashed through her as she looked around and spotted the little pink filly laughing her tail off next to one of Twilight’s bushes.

“YOU!” Twilight shouted.

The filly sat upright and blinked. It wasn’t a moment later before she dived around the side of the tree house in a gallop. This time Twilight was not letting the filly get away. She gave chase. Luckily being taller than most stallions allowed Twilight to easily out run the filly as she chased her to the backyard flower garden.

Twilight had just barely watered these flowers, so the earth was still wet when the filly went running through them. Little pink hooves trampled the daisies which were being reserved a special meal. Twilight was just about to reach out with her magic to grab the filly and stop her from destroying the rest of the garden when the filly tripped over one of the decorative rocks.

The air tightened as the filly fell. Magic was drawn in from everywhere around her, and Twilight even felt the pull at her own magic. The filly hit the earth and her entire body for just a moment burned white. Those lavender eyes burned with bright white light that was almost blinding and then fire erupted from her body in a circular wave that caught and utterly wrecked the entire garden.

Twilight simply stood there, frozen in a state somewhere between horror and amazement. The filly looked up, tried to move but collapsed back into the dirt. A trickle of blood ran down her nose.

“No,” Twilight said. “It… it can’t be.”

“I-I’m sorry,” the filly protested. “D-didn’t mean to. I can’t control my magic yet.”

Twilight shook her head. “You just exploded! With fire!”

The tree in the backyard creaked as it fell over, on fire.

The filly closed her eyes as if she was in physical agony. “I’m in trouble, so much trouble. Mom’s gonna kill me.”

Twilight approached the filly carefully. “You’re Trixie’s daughter right?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Thought so, Amber was your name?”

“Y-yes misses Twilight.”

“Actually it’s Miss Twilight, or because I’m a noble Lady Twilight. Misses would mean that I’m married and-“ Twilight stopped herself. “I’m getting off track. How often do you do… that?”

“It’s getting worse. Mom says that I need to learn control, but I don’t think she knows how to help me…”

Twilight looked up at the sky. Sure it was early morning and the stars were gone from the sky. Yet she had the funniest of feelings that there was one particular star looking down at her right now with a smug look on its dumb flaming face. Twilight did the most mature thing she could and stuck her tongue out at the star.

When Twilight looked back at the filly she received an awkward look. “What?”

“You’re weird.”

Twilight laughed. “And you’ve got mud on you’re cutiemark.”

Amber scoffed, “But I don’t have a cutiemark yet.” Amber looked down at her flank where a softly glowing mark of a lavender colored rose coiled by a ring of fire sat. Her eyes widened.

Amber swallowed. “I didn’t have one at least.”

Twilight smirked. “And I didn’t have a new apprentice either.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Twilight only grinned. “It means that I’m going to help you learn to control that power of yours, Amber.” And help stop Armageddon in the process.