Heart of Magic

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Thirty Seven: Surprising Sea

Amber’s horn lit up and surrounded her with a bubble of fire. She couldn’t see her target but she could feel her. The air seemed to shift in subtle ways as Fluttershy’s nearly invisible movement and speed created new currents. It had taken the better part of a week to figure it out the first time, now she was beginning to learn how to read those currents.

What she was reading right then was that Fluttershy had flown far away from her. Seeing as how they were training in the bottom of the valley again, this did not bode well when there were so many places nearby for Fluttershy to move. Just like that the air shifted, a sudden push and pull let Amber know Fluttershy was on her way back and she was coming in fast.

Amber strengthen her shield and prepared for the worst. Suddenly she felt Fluttershy stop. What was she planning?

In the sky she saw a black dot. It slowly grew in size. Surely Fluttershy had stopped moving so what was this thing heading her way? The larger the dot got the more apprehensive Amber felt. It was a large circle at first, and then it started to round out. When it became apparent that it was the size of a wagon Amber understood what was heading her way.

Amber put more magic into her shield and braced herself as the boulder crashed down into her shield. It shattered upon impact. Her shield flared and she watched as the bits of flaming rocks went into different directions. Amber roared, “YOU THREW A ROCK AT ME!”

Fluttershy’s voice whispered next to Amber’s ear. “How else was I supposed to distract you when you were watching my movements so closely?”

Amber spun and transformed her shield into a flaming whip that lashed in a spiral around her. Fluttershy was only inches away from her and flipped back out of the way of the fiery whip. Amber stared at her target trying to keep her eyes on her this time. She just had to land one hit and she’d win the duel, but if she got hit…

Amber’s horn flared once more and she felt the magic in her rising to its full fury. Her mouth tasted like copper. Fluttershy flittered around like a little wasp waiting for the opportunity to sting. Amber waited. Seconds drawled by like minutes as Fluttershy flittered about almost aimlessly. Finally Fluttershy vanished from sight and Amber felt the air blow past her right side.

Amber jumped to the left and just where she was she saw Fluttershy swinging at empty air with a hoof. Amber released her pent up spell and her entire body exploded in a fiery explosion. The fire raced out and hit Fluttershy across the side sending her sailing back and into the hard rocky earth. Amber stood there, her muscles burned, tiny cuts and burns covered the surface of her legs and sides. Yet she stared on at Fluttershy who was busy picking herself up out of the trench she had carved.

Amber spat a red glob to the side. “I think that should count as a win.”

Fluttershy shook her head. There was a trail of crimson running down the side of her face but she was smiling. “That is a tie.”

Amber took a step forward and felt her legs collapse beneath her. She hit the ground and cried out in pain. All of a sudden the hurt was doubled and she had to force her legs underneath her to force herself upright once more. “No, I hit you first.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “You hurt us both at the same time.” She walked calmly over to Amber. “And did much more damage to yourself in the process.” She smiled and looked up at Amber. “Of course, few ponies can say they’ve actually made me bleed. You’ve now joined the ranks of people like Trixie and Queen Chrysalis.”

Amber blinked. “I…” Suddenly she felt way too dizzy. Amber sat herself down, and the pain seemed to lessen a little. “Ow.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Whatever that move you used is, it’s powerful, but it is costly. So unless you want to put your allies in danger after they come to pick up your body from using it, I’d advise against using it in combat.”

Amber laid her head down. “I can agree to that.”

Valiant Heart seemed to float down from the valley edge to where they were standing. That was when Amber knew she’d gone too far. If she was seeing earth ponies fly she’d hurt herself too much. As Valiant Heart got to work healing her Amber smiled. “I’ll accept a tie.”

Twilight was still sitting on the top deck and reading a book to pass the time. The land beneath them had already changed into a rolling see of green lush jungles. Near the wheel she saw Wind Rider at the helm with Blackout by his side. Just past them the shaft of golden orange light was still circling around Sunset much like a beacon of hope that cut through the clouds themselves. Whatever Sunset was doing, it was going to be amazing.

Wind Rider’s voice changed gears ever so slightly, “And then I met your mom. Rainbow Dash, the one pony who could beat me, surpass me and to top it all off she was a better hero than I was.” He paused for a moment but continued, “I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t impressed the first time I saw her. I was also incredibly jealous.”

Blackout waved a hoof dismissively. “Whatever, everypony is jealous of mom. That’s nothing new, you’re still cooler.”

Wind Rider smiled. “Thanks for that, but I think maybe you should give her more credit. Honestly I’m glad we get to spend this time together but you really should have listened to your mom.”

“No, I shouldn’t have, she lies, she’s never around, and she won’t even let me meet my own dad.” Blackout crossed her legs over her chest. “Why should I listen to her?”

“Because in a lot of ways she’s right about me.” Wind Rider explained. “I’m not proud of it but when I first met your mom, after my initial impression of her, my jealousy took over. I tried to frame her and ruin her career. I thought that the record of mine she beat was the last thing I owned, the last thing that was mine. So her taking it drove me a little crazy.”

Twilight saw him for a moment, his eyes glossed over and the lines around them grew more intense. In that moment she saw a life time of regrets inside him. He closed his eyes and refocused on the path ahead. “I made a serious mistake and I guess… I couldn’t make up for it.”

Twilight felt a part of her heart grow heavy. She looked around. Wind Rider never talked about his friends, sure he talked up his various conquests with mares, but the only two ponies he seemed to ever really respect of were either Rainbow Dash or Sunset. In fact he was so dedicated to Sunset that he was willing to risk it all for her. Maybe, just maybe he too had been alone and needed a friend despite his mistake could he be forgiven and redeemed? Twilight thought about Starlight, she destroyed the universe with her spell several times over, or well at least created several timelines where everything was ruined. Yet Twilight took the time to get know Starlight, forgive her, and help her redeem herself. The amount of deaths that Starlight caused with those timelines is innumerable, the amount of times Twilight was forced to watch her friends and loved ones die or suffer in those timelines caused mental wounds that still hadn’t closed… and what did Wind Rider actually do? Cheat on Rainbow Dash, and try to frame her but got caught for it?

Was Wind Rider really beyond redemption for such trivial things? Honestly from what Twilight had seen, he had hardly even flirted with anypony since she met him, let alone actually taken a pony to bed. He was old, but age didn’t mean he didn’t have a friendship problem that needed fixed. Something inside Twilight stirred. An old light, once snuffed out by time and misery began to glow and she stood up. Without even thinking about it she had already decided, she would fix the wounds between Rainbow and Wind Rider, she didn’t expect them to date, but she could get them talking, get them to be friendly again. She was sure of it.

Cozy cleared her throat. “Uh, Twilight? You good?”

Twilight shook her head. “Um, yeah, sorry I think I got caught up in something.” She sat back down.

Blackout was looking away from her dad now. Wind Rider was quiet as well. In her moment of realization, Twilight missed something. She listened in again.

Blackout spoke. “I… I don’t know how you could do that to somepony, even mom. Still that was like seventeen years ago right? Like, I’m still part of both of you, and I don’t think you two should still be all crazy because of something that happened so long ago. I mean… did I really cause that much of a problem?”

Wind Rider looked down. “You are not a problem. You are a blessing upon this world kid, and with my charisma and your mom’s looks, you’ll do a lot of good here.”

Blackout nodded. “Thanks, dad.”

Wind Rider smiled wide. “No problem. And hey, once this is all said and done, if your mom doesn’t kill me first, I’ll teach you how to fly my ship.”

“What’s the ships name?”

Wind Rider looked ahead once more. “The Dash.”

Something stabbed into Twilight’s heart when he said the name. She knew the ship had been around for a long time. Originally owned by the Flim Flam brothers but since they were out of the picture Wind Rider had taken it over. He obviously renamed it but to think he’d name it something so obvious after all this time… was he really still a bad person? No, she didn’t think so, he had made some huge mistakes, and once upon a time he was a bad person, but now, now he’d grown and learned from his mistakes. She’d argue that Wind Rider was probably an okay guy, and since she was the element of magic, she was going to make sure she helped him out with his current friendship problem, once this mess was over.

Blackout looked ahead with Wind Rider. “I like that name.”

In the distance ahead Twilight could see something. The air was growing, oddly purple. She used a bit of magic and teleported to the front of the ship and looked forward. This was impossible!

There was some kind of sea? A sea of purple liquid covering where the jungle once was. Spires of dark purple rock seemed to jut out at sharp angles out of it. The ooze seemed to cover everything in sight on the horizon. When did this sea get here? What was it?

From the sea far ahead she saw what looked like a massive tendril rise up out of it. A huge ball of purple ooze formed at its tip and it leaned back and away from them. What was this stuff, it looked familiar but she couldn’t quite place why.

Discord’s voice rang out. “Oh crap, not this again!”

The tendril whipped forward and the ball of ooze launched itself from the tip. Twilight watched as the ball of ooze flew toward there ship growing larger still by the second. It was massive, and it continued growing in size until she realized it was larger than the entire ship.

Wind Rider’s voice cried out over the deck. “Hold onto your rumps ponies! This is going to be a wild ride!”