//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty One: Bonds Born // Story: Heart of Magic // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Heart of Magic Chapter Twenty One: Bonds Born Written by TheCrimsonDM Trixie watched as her family sat nearby the fireplace at one end of the library. It kept them nice and warm as the days grew dark and cold. Of course from what she heard the pegasus teams were bringing a cold front to the town and even if she didn’t understand weather science enough to know why, she agreed with most everypony, it sucked. Of course she wanted to join her family, but she was currently stuck at a table with a pile of unfinished paperwork. Half of it had stains smelling faintly of alcohol with scribbles that when legible were still gibberish. Some of it was random apologies without any reason given, some of it was complaints, mostly about Celestia, and a very rare page had random notes pertaining to some kind of magic spell Twilight was working on. At first she had just hoped to finish Twilight’s left over work. The more she found of these spell notes though, the more she grew concerned. It was only a fraction of some kind of spell. Something that involved alicorn magic, a whole heck of a lot of alicorn magic. In fact the numbers here indicated that it required so much alicorn magic that Trixie didn’t think it would be possible to get that much if everyone on the planet was an alicorn. What was Twilight studying to come up with these numbers? What if she was analyzing how powerful this darkness they now faced was. The “Pony of Shadows” as Twilight’s notes had called it. Could it truly be this powerful? Trixie’s studies were interrupted as a warm breeze went through the room. Trixie glanced over at the entry room to the library and saw a very surprising sight indeed. Princess Celestia stood there, her very presence bringing with it great warmth. Trixie’s family in the corner all took note of her presence, though at this point they’d all become so familiar that none bowed, they simply watched. Celestia walked over to Trixie’s table first. “Trixie.” Trixie nodded. “Celestia.” Celestia knelt beside the table, and was still slightly taller than Trixie. “I see your studying her notes. Have you made much success?” Trixie shrugged. “It’s a mess. Half of it is rambling apologies for crimes I refuse to believe. The other half are notes that make little to no sense, or more sense than I feel comfortable with.” Celestia nodded. “That sounds like her.” Trixie put her book down and stared at Celestia. She could feel something mixed in with that warmth. A deep emotional wound that was bleeding emotion through. Val must have sensed it as well because with steps as quiet as Fluttershy’s she too had came to Trixie’s side offering a small smile to their ruling princess. Celestia smiled back. “This event has… affected us all in different ways. I’m sure it has not gone unnoticed how Twilight’s carefully woven web of control has come undone.” Trixie nodded. “Yeah, it uh… it sucks. I’m just going to be honest. I never expected that Twilight would have done so much damage to her best friends. I don’t think I can fix this mess.” Celestia looked slightly down and at the table. “She’s always been off… balance. I pushed her into places, and into doing things that made her cross lines she shouldn’t have. I should have taken more responsibility with her. Especially after the damage that had happened to her back in New Slate.” Trixie recalled how she became friends with everypony originally. They found her living with Maud, a depressed, suicidal, and magicless mess. They fought against some deep, ancient horrors, and Twilight came under full possession of such an entity. To be fair, Twilight had never fully recovered from that event, and perhaps, just perhaps it was the true start of Twilight’s downfall. She’d never stopped to see if Twilight was actually okay. Nopony had. They just all assumed that Twilight, as their leader, would be just fine. But if there was any one thing Trixie had learned about dealing with those elder things. It was that they caused long term psychological damage and trauma. Thankfully Sunset had gone on a crusade to wipe all traces of those things from this Equestria, and done a great job of it too. Her mission kept her out of politics, and away from friends and family, but she did good work. In fact she wondered if maybe Sunset could help Twilight now. Trixie reached out with a wing and gently squeezed Celestia’s shoulder. It was tense and surprisingly muscled. “Celestia, we are all to blame for not seeing the signs sooner, or at least ignoring them when we did. All we can do now is hope that when Twilight does come back she will be better.” “The last two times my students ran away after doing something bad, they changed into villains…” With her other wing Trixie moved Celestia’s chin to make her there eyes meet. “Listen to me. I am getting daily reports on Twilight’s progress. She is doing fine. Better than she has in years. She even made a new friend. She will come back to us.” Celestia blinked. “But… will her friends forgive her?” Trixie felt like something was stuck in her lungs. This was a question she could not answer. Despite how much she really wanted to. If she could do anything she would make everything okay with them, but the damage was done and Twilight might never get those friendships back. Not now. Val broke the silence in the room with her gentle soft spoken voice. “In time, they will be friends again.” Both Celestia and Trixie looked at Val. Neither of them spoke as she stared at them with one bright eye. The look in Val’s eye brokered no argument, as if her beliefs were made of stuff stronger than steel. Trixie smiled at her determined, grown up daughter. Trixie looked back at Celestia. “I know it’s a bit odd, but we’d love it if you joined us by the fireplace for awhile Celestia.” Celestia looked away. “I’m not interrupting your grief?” Trixie reached forward and wrapped her legs around Celestia’s neck. “We’re not the only ones grieving here.” For a moment Celestia froze, likely not used to the pony on pony contact. Slowly she wrapped her massive wings around Trixie and it was like being wrapped up in warm loving embrace of the sun on a warm summer day. After a long moment Celestia pulled away and smiled. Trixie decided she could put her research away for a moment. In time she will find herself pressed for time without a chance for a break, but that time was not now. She could take a few minutes to simply relax and enjoy the company of her family plus Celestia. After all, Celestia had adopted all of her most gifted children and acted as a second mother to Trixie in her youth, she was for all intents and purposes, her mother too. With Maud on one side, and Celestia on the other, Trixie enjoyed the rest of the evening in front of the fireplace with her family. It was a beautiful evening. In the back of her mind she could only hope that Twilight could enjoy some of the same warmth she was now. *** “No,” Twilight said trying to conceal a giggle. Cozy Glow flittered in the air shaking her curly head back and forth. “Of course it is. How else could something like Lord Tirek be defeated?” “It wasn’t being punched by magic that did him in.” Twilight put a hoof to her chin and tried to think of how best to explain it. “It wasn’t exactly the magic of friendship either. It was… a combination of ancestral magic and the power of friendship that beat him.” “Oh come on, he was like a god. You can’t tell me that some happy feelings and well wishes beat him.” Twilight laughed. “If I did I’d be lying. Simply put if we didn’t have the power of friendship we couldn’t unlock the rainbow magic that beat him.” Cozy Glow landed. “What happened to the rainbow magic then?” Twilight felt her face scrunching up as she thought about it. “I… don’t really know. We’ve never accessed it again. The power just kind of… vanished.” Just like her friendships did. Cozy Glow folded her forelegs over her chest. “Well that’s lame. Sounds like that was the most powerful magic you ever had. Why not use it again?” Twilight shrugged. “It just never happened again. Not sure why.” “Maybe you should ‘convince’ the magic to come back.” Cozy made a punching motion in the air. “You can’t just force magic to work for you. If you could everypony could just become a god like Princess Celestia or Tirek. You need to follow the rules.” And on rare occasion break them entirely. The echoes of her hooves were heard before she even appeared in the room. Starlight came around the corner and into the antechamber, quickly becoming known as ‘Twilight’s Spot’ bringing a tray with tea and cupcakes. She set them down on the floor between the two and smiled. “Two energetic ponies talking about magic. Sounds like you’re having lots of fun.” Twilight beamed up at her. “Of course we’re having fun! I didn’t know Cozy Glow had such an interest in magic, and having someone to talk to about it is super fun, she knows a lot about history as well making her doubly interesting to talk to, magic, history, princesses, monsters, villains, and even the rainbow magic,” Twilight paused to take a breath, “she’s like the best!” Cozy and Starlight both started laughing. Starlight added, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you be quite this energetic. It’s nice seeing you having so much fun with your new friend.” Twilight beamed. “Of course I am. I mean… we are.” Twilight looked at Cozy. “You’re having fun too right?” Cozy’s face screwed up into a smirk before she exploded into laughter. “I’ve never had so much fun. You’re the best pony ever!” Twilight grinned. She took a sip of the tea and felt her heart at ease. She then looked at the cupcakes, they had pink frosting on the top of them. For a moment she stared at them, something in her heart twisted and a sharp stabbing pain went out through her heart. “Pinkie…” Starlight was still laughing with Cozy as they both enjoyed a cupcake. Neither of them were looking at her, so they didn’t see Twilight’s pain for the brief second she allowed it to show. With practiced ease Twilight forced a smile on her face and took all the confused pain she had in her and shoved it deep down in a hole where it would only return when it was the most inappropriate time. Twilight let out a sigh. It became suddenly clear that for the first time in many years she was having fun, real fun… and it was without any of her friends. Did she really change so much that she pushed them that far away? Or did things just change as she grew older. She didn’t feel that old. In fact it was kinda hard to remember the past twenty or so years of her life. The most vivid memory she even had of Ponyville was not of the castle or the plans she was making. It was the Treehouse, and of a certain magical book of Starswirls that Celestia loaned her. One that had changed her destiny forever.