//------------------------------// // The weakest link lights the way // Story: Tale of a Comet: White Light // by Ashfur //------------------------------// Pain. It is a sensation not many can say they enjoy, and fewer can say they have never known. Of course, for the average pony, their natural magic will cause wounds to heal faster than most and hurt less, especially when it is related to their tribe. Earth ponies can get up after a good rest despite having pulled muscles in every leg the day before. Unicorns can recover from negaitve magical effects with greater efficiency. And the average pegasus can get up from a small crash landing with nothing more than a bruise. Astral Comet was not an average pegasus. In fact, his lack of available magic not only made it harder to recover quick, but it also could not lift him off the ground completely. Unfortunately this meant that everything was a lit more dangerous to the colt. Case in point, his current position: his body splayed out in pain as the doctors popped his dislocated front shoulder back into place. "And that should do it. Don't you go doing anything strenuous for a few days, Comet," Dr. Cross instructed. "If there's residual pain, take the pain medicine I'm sending to Princess Cadence, and if it gets worse come back and see me. Okay?" His patient nodded. "Then go on home to the palace. I'm sure everypony is waiting for you. Sure enough, the princess of love, her husband and daughter, and a few guards were there to greet Comet in the waiting room. Flurry heart was quick to run over and hug her best friend tightly. "I'm so sorry I wasnt there to help! You aren't hurt anymore, are you?" A chuckle, albeit pained, escaped Comet's mouth. "I'll live. Doctor Cross said if I had hit the ground any harder, I probably would have broken my leg. Not too big a deal, right?" While Flurry and Comet chatter, Cadence and her guards grimaced. They knew the reality of the situation, a grim reminder to keep Comet safe. Without magic at his disposal, breaking a leg might cause him to never recover, much like their ancient ancestor the horse. Cadence made a note to assign a guard to him at school to prevent a recurrence, as it was in all honesty an accident. Some colts pushed Comet off a ledge thinking be could fly, and nothing good came of the situation. Still... "I hope you aren't mad at those other ponies that pushed me, Mrs. Cadence. They didn't know." Comet looked hopefully at the pink princess. "They already stopped by to say sorry, and promised to not do it again. I don't think they meant to hurt me." Cadence nuzzled the colt reassuringly. "No need to worry, Comet. I understand the issue. I will be assigning a guard to keep you safe at school, though. I refuse to let any of my subjects get hurt, even more so those close to me and my family." With that done, the royal entourage left back for the palace, the guards paying extra attention to the carriage. Twilight looked up from her lab work as a familiar gray colt trotted in. "Hey there, Miss Twilight. Mrs. Cadence said you had something to show me?" "Oh, yes! You are just on time. I was just working on a solution to your magic problem." Comet tilted his head to one side. "You mean the fact I have next to none? I didn't have any in the human world, so it's not to big a deal..." Twilight shook her head. "It is a big deal. Your lack of mana reserves mean that you are very fragile. It wouldn't take much to knock you into a coma or worse, as your body needs a certain amount of magic to survive. So, I made a solution. Or at least, a temporary one. She pointed to a large selection of crystals, and a pendant that each crystal was sized to fit into. "Here I have a stash of some magic Crystal's charged with energy. They should act as temporary mana batteries so you can use magic, but it will only augment your natural defense and healing. You can't use it to fly, as that would run the risk of you needing to swap crystals midair and get seriously hurt. So until we can figure out why you don't have as much magic, this will have to do." As she levitated the pendant onto his neck, Comet felt the magical energy in the crystal. It felt foreign, yet somehow familiar. Twilight ran her magic over him to check his body, and her muzzle scrunched in frustration. "That's... odd. It should be giving you way more magic than that. It's barely operating at five percent efficiency!" "What do you mean, Miss Twilight?" She grumbled for a moment. "Please, just call me Twilight. I get enough of that at my school. Anyway, that pendant was supposed to use 20 percent of its magic to transfer the other 80 percent to you. But for some reason, it's spending 20 percent and you're only getting five percent! Where is the other 75 percent of the magic going?" Comet shrugged. "I dunno. How do we find out?" "Well, I... oh! I know, give me that pendant." Taking it in her magic, she enveloped it in a bright glow of magic. "There. I altered the enchantment so instead of sending the magic to you, it will instead point a light to where the magic would be going. Maybe it's just sending it to the wrong part of your body? This is kinda unknown territory for me." Nodding, Comet took the pendant and placed it around his neck again. As expected, a small beam of white light pointed straight to his chest. However, seven more beams of light shot upwards at slightly different angles, each one a different color. They passed through the roof of the lab. One other beam shot out upwards, another white beam, and the pair noticed it appeared to be moving toward the wall. Slowly but surely, the beam changed its angle to shine out the window, pointing straight at a falling star as it cut through the evening light and caused a massive cloud of dust and snow in the mountain range beyond the empire's warmth. "So uh... are we gonna go check that out, Miss Twilight?" "We most certainly are."