//------------------------------// // Scars // Story: Fizzlepop's Past // by milesprower06 //------------------------------// The unicorn stood behind the filly as she stood on a step stool in front of her bathroom mirror. It still felt otherworldly to have two ponies standing at the mirror, and only seeing the filly. She was staring intently at the bandage taped around her right eye. She began to pick at the corner of the tape, and got it started. She winced as she slowly peeled it from around her eye. "If you do it quick, it'll hurt, but it'll be over quicker." The unicorn commented, not getting any kind of reaction in response. The filly gritted her teeth as she slowly but steadily pulled the bandage away. Her right pupil adjusted to the light that it had barely seen the past two weeks, and when her vision cleared, her eyes widened at the scar on both the top and bottom side of her right eye. Closing her eyelid, she traced the fresh line of flesh from her broken horn down to her right cheek. The unicorn heard hoofsteps in the wooden hallway behind them. "Everything okay, Fizzlepop?" A mare asked as she came around the corner halfway into the bathroom. The filly had been counting the days until she could take this bandage off. Finally, the nightly ointment applications could stop. "No..." The filly replied sullenly, her eyes glued to the reflection staring back at her, the pink sliver of skin contrasting sharply with her dark orchid coat. "Give it a little while, hun. It'll fade a little bit." The look on the filly's face gave the impression that she wasn't really interested in hearing it, but the unicorn knew that her mom was only trying to help, to make things easier. "I'll be out back if you need anything." The mare said, resigning to letting her daughter be for now. The filly tossed the bandage in the trash, took one last look in the mirror, then hopped off of the stool, tugging the cloth purple hat back on as she stepped out into the hall. The unicorn knew she was inexorably connected to this little filly. She slept when she slept, went wherever she did. So she kept pace behind her as she walked down the hall back to her bedroom. The filly went to the bottom of her bookshelf and pulled out a box containing a jigsaw puzzle, and brought it over to her desk. She opened it and turned it over, dumping the pieces out onto the smooth wood surface. She started to organize and sort the pieces of the 100-piece puzzle, but as she came to some of the pieces that had landed upside down, she was having difficulty turning them over with her hooves. Despite having early success by carefully sliding the pieces one at a time to the edge of the desk and catching them turned over in her other hoof, she quickly lost patience for the two dozen pieces that had landed upside down. Out of frustration, she slid all the pieces back in the box, returned the lid to the top, then shoved it back down onto the shelf. Soapberry had finished her second muffin, and was looking at the heart monitor connected to Fizzlepop, watching the scrolling green light travel from left to right, peaking steadily along with her heartbeat, when she heard approaching hoofsteps enter the room. She turned, and saw Zecora, mane just a little damp, holding her daughter's staff that had been knocked from her grasp by the timberwolf. "It took all morning to find, but I know she would want it when she wakes from her mind." The zebra said, offering the golden staff to Soapberry, who took it in her hooves, and looked it over. Soapberry didn't know too much about smithing, despite living in the same neighborhood as the local blacksmith in Foal's Peak. But she could tell the golden staff had been painstakingly crafted, just by the detail that was in it at first glance. Fifteen diamond-like gems had been set in the top half of the staff, five high, three wide as it went around, looking about the size of something you would find in a piece of jewelry. A much larger gem of the same kind was set in the top, secured by three considerably sharp-looking prongs serving as the staff's tips. It looked as ceremonial as it did deadly. "We gave that to her on the day she was sworn in." Another voice said from the doorway, pulling Soapberry's attention away from the staff. It was a heliotrope unicorn mare. "Starlight Glimmer, Headmare of the School of Friendship, and former Ponyville E.U.P. Battlemage." She formally introduced herself, coming in to shake the earth mare's hoof. "The stones are aetherium, gems with some of the most wide-ranging, magic-based applications. That's why they're named after Aetherius, the realm that's believed to be the source of all magic. Sorry, I tend to ramble sometimes. I came by to see how she's doing." "Not a peep since last night. I'm hoping that's a good thing. So, this staff... I'm guessing it helped her with her magic? According to what Grubber told me, the Hippogriffs didn't restore her horn until several months into her service." Soapberry asked. "It took days in front of a furnace to get right. Rarity was able to fit an aetherial conduit onto her first helmet. Combined with the gems in the staff, we were able to attune it to her horn, and augment and stabilize the magic she had left." Starlight explained. Soapberry offered the unicorn a muffin from the container, which she accepted. "Miss Starlight, if I may... How did this all start? Fizzlepop's involvement in the E.U.P.?" Soapberry asked. Starlight smiled, lit up her horn, and teleported a stool onto the floor out of thin air, which she then pulled up right across from Soapberry, and sat down, as Zecora turned to leave and head home. "She returned to Equestria just over three years ago... As the head of a foreign invasion force. Personally, I saw very little of it; As soon as the attack happened, Trixie and I got as many ponies down the mountain as we could, holing up in Ponyville, trying to come up with some kind of plan of resistance. From what I hear, she chased down Twilight and her friends all the way south to Mount Aris. Whatever deal she had made with the Storm King, he reneged on it, and Twilight saved her from being thrown off the balcony by the superstorm that he had generated over Canterlot. She shielded them from his last-ditch attack, and that was that. Well, not quite. Once the Friendship Festival wound down, Princess Celestia was prepared to formally charge her with high treason against Equestria. Twilight came to her defense, took responsibility for her, and brought her down here." Soapberry softly swallowed. How lost she must have been... High treason was an extremely rare, extremely serious crime to be accused of. "It was clear that she was quite a fighter. I figured while Twilight taught her the basics of friendship and companionship, that she could put what she was already proficient at to good use. Twilight had never founded an official E.U.P. division for Ponyville, so we put her in charge of that. Within a couple weeks, she had a dozen volunteers. She put in so much effort every single day. Effort that eventually made it into a nationally distributed newspaper, and that's how her old friends Glitter Drops and Spring Rain found out that she was back. That reunion was a bit rocky, but she eventually came around." Her mother remembered how much more withdrawn Fizzlepop had become when they had left for Celestia's school. One of her biggest regrets in hindsight was not taking more control of the situation then. " About six months later, she had the squad up to about two dozen ponies, and started turning her attention to Mount Aris. Besides Canterlot, it was the other location the Storm King's raiders attacked that she was directly responsible for. Her and her expedition were gone for just about a month, but the difference they made down there was incredible. They cut down Hippogriffia's reconstruction schedule in half, if not more." "Grubber told me how their ruler restored her horn in return for her efforts. And if forming an E.U.P. for Ponyville was your idea, Starlight... Thank you." Starlight smiled warmly. "She's already thanked me plenty. With words, enchanted robes, and the rank of Lieutenant, at least until the School of Friendship needed a new Headmare. And I hope you don't take this the wrong way, Soapberry. I know this is a scary situation, but I can confidently say that if the worst happens, she'd rather lose her leg than her horn."