Kindness
Chapter 1
Twilight Sparkle sat in her darkened bedroom with a pen in her hand. From her desk, she could clearly make out the full moon from her window, slightly obscured by a thin layer of smoky clouds. It was a quiet night, a peaceful night. But like every night, Twilight would stay up late to study.
It wasn’t like she was failing her classes, in fact, the very opposite. Twilight was the brightest witch of her generation and – quite possibly – the most powerful. She’d gotten into one of the most prestigious schools for young witches when she was just seven years old. She’d performed a spell to hatch a baby dragon in front of three very powerful, judgemental witches and warlocks and as a reward for such a high scoring mark; she was allowed to keep the dragon.
Twilight’s previous classmates had been bitter towards her success. She had always been quiet, a little girl who instead of playing tag on the playground, would be bound to a book about assorted spells in a shaded corner. Twilight could hear the vicious remarks of her fellow classmates and she’d been many a time victimised by some cruel magical practical jokes. Still, it never bothered her. Twilight Sparkle didn’t see the need for friends. Her books kept her company and that was all that mattered to her.
Lazily, Twilight lifted a finger into the air and drew it over the page of her latest book. Immediately, the page lit up with a pink glow and turned itself over. Telekinesis was something most witches were gifted with at young ages and Twilight was known for taking advantage of it – especially to help carry her books around – in fact, Twilight hardly saw it as magic at all. At the moment, she had been busying herself with teleportation spells. If she was able to teleport herself safely from class to class, she’d never need to worry about her fellow classmates causing any kind of trouble. In fact, she had a book somewhere in her pile that spoke of an invisibility charm that would prove just as useful.
Twilight saw spells as her way of proving herself. Her teachers were always praising her when she revealed her latest spell and in that way, she felt like she belonged. Magic was everything to her and because of that, she had to make sure she was always several steps ahead of her classes at all times.
However, on this warm spring evening, just as Twilight had lifted her hand to turn the next page, she heard something outside.
In fact, more than a something. A someone.
“Oh no, Oh no, Oh no!”
SMASH
Twilight’s head shot up instinctively as the noise reverberated through her room.
At first, Twilight considered the fact that it might just be another prank. God knows how many times she had had someone from her school throw an egg at her window or maybe jinx her bike. She’d long since started walking to school, so that didn’t matter to her. However, from her window she could clearly see a cloud of dirt, like something… someone had fallen. From where, she couldn’t tell, but whoever it was or whatever it was, she knew she had to do something.
Quickly, Twilight swung her lilac bathrobe around her nightgown and slipped on a pair of boots. Carefully, she tiptoed through her house, checking to make sure her mother and father were still asleep. She also checked in on her brother’s room, but knew it was really a waste of time. Her brother could sleep through the apocalypse so she doubted a noise from outside would even cause him to stir.
As Twilight made her way to the back door, she could see the cloud of dirt clearing and quickly moved to unlock it. Being in a hurry, she simply levitated the key inside the lock and turned it as quietly as possible before slipping out into the cool spring air.
“Hello?” She whispered as she took a step towards the cloud.
As the dirt cleared entirely, the moonlight shone down onto the figure in the grass. To Twilight, all she could see was a mound of bright pinks and yellows, but as she made her way slowly closer, she began to notice other things too. Two pale arms were sprawled out in front of a young girl’s head. She couldn’t see any of the girl’s features for there were masses of pink hair in the way. Her slender legs were bare up to the knee length green skirt she was wearing. Twilight frowned as she lifted a hand into the air. Quickly, her palm began to glow a bright pink, illuminating the rest of the girl’s body. Twilight had just begun to kneel down towards her when she saw them.
Two bright yellow feathered wings were sprawled out along the girl’s shoulders. One had tucked itself rather neatly into her shoulder blade; however the other lay outwards, ruffled and presumably injured. Twilight’s breath caught in her throat immediately as she fell onto her knees. She scrambled back unsurely as the injured wing twitched and the strange pink-haired girl gave a yelp of pain.
Twilight found herself frozen as she stared disbelievingly at the girl in her garden. She blinked, rubbed at her eyes and blinked again, but the image in front of her was still very clear. A girl, possibly around Twilight’s own age with… wings.
“It can’t be.” Twilight whispered.
It appeared her voice had been heard this time as the girl in front of her shifted and again let out a tiny yelp of pain. Her voice was soft, even though Twilight could clearly see the thing attached to her back was very likely broken.
Twilight’s mind began to work again as the girl began to come around. No matter who she was or what she was she needed medical attention. Twilight considered the variety of spells she had self-taught herself but knew that she was no way close to figuring out the healing spell. She didn’t want to end up causing the girl even more pain.
“Okay, fine. No healing spell.” Twilight muttered to herself as she rubbed her face in frustration, “That’s fine…” Her eyes widened suddenly with a bright spark as she remembered something else. She’d done a first aid course a while back, it hadn’t been much and she’d only ever properly trained on animals but… wasn’t this the same sort of thing? When she was ten, a bird had gotten caught in her room with a broken wing and her mother had taught her how to splint and bandage it. If she could do it to a bird then surely she could…?
“What am I thinking?” Twilight muttered to herself as she pushed her face into her hands.
This was insane, she was insane! There was no way she was staring at what she thought she was staring at. Not one chance in the matter.
But then the girl groaned again and this time she lifted her head, “R-Rainbow Dash?” She muttered to herself airily before her eyes snapped shut and her chin hit the ground.
Twilight sighed in defeat. If on the very off chance she wasn’t having some kind of strange dream or hallucination, she couldn’t leave this girl in the dirt. She had to help her.
Gently, Twilight shook the girl’s uninjured shoulder and waited for a response.
Only a few moments later did the girl groan again. One of her hands fisted the grass in her palms as she groggily tried to lift herself up.
“No, wait!” Twilight cried, instantly grabbing for the girl’s arm, “You’re… You’re hurt!”
The girl didn’t seem to understand, because she simply tried to push herself up again. This caused a searing pain to shoot from her wing up into her shoulder and down her arm. She let out a soft yelp before promptly falling against the dirt again.
“W-Where am I?” She asked after a moment’s hesitation. Her voice remained in a dulcet tone.
“Canterlot.” Twilight said with an eyebrow raised, “My garden, more specifically.”
“Canterlot?” The girl squeaked, obviously alarmed. Her arms scrambled against the dirt and this time she lifted herself up, wincing against the pain as her wide blue eyes scanned the area. “Oh no, oh no!” she squealed, “I can’t be here, I can’t!”
Her voice was small and pained as her breathing hitched and she began to hyperventilate.
Twilight’s eyes widened as she took the girl by her uninjured shoulder, “Hey, it’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you.” She frowned, “Why can’t you be here?”
If the girl had heard her, she didn’t show any signs of it and instead carried on babbling, “Oh… they’ll lock me up if they find me! They’ll never let me out again. Oh! How could I be so stupid?” Her voice was so soft and smooth, if Twilight couldn’t plainly see the fear in her eyes she wouldn’t have believed how afraid she truly was.
“Who would lock you up?” Twilight asked, alarmed.
“Oh…” The girl quietened down, her breath calming as she realised Twilight was now staring at her intently. “I…” She cleared her throat and looked at the floor, “It doesn’t matter… I have to go now.” She moved to stand up, only for her wing to slide to her side uncooperatively. She let out a muffled cry of pain as her wing lay lifeless at her side.
Twilight stared at it questioningly. It acted just like any other limb… except of course… it wasn’t. “What are you?” Twilight asked, snapping her lips closed the minute she realised what she’d said.
The girl looked at her, confused for a moment. Then she stared down at Twilight’s still glowing palm. Recognition lit in her eyes, “You’re a witch.”
Twilight closed her palm instinctively, effectively closing off the light, “Yes.” She said, as if it were obvious, which of course, it was. To anyone who lived in Canterlot.
A small smile quirked the lips of the winged stranger, “I’ve never met a witch before.” She said whimsically, “I mean… I’ve seen your kind before but never had the courtesy of speaking-” she cut herself off, a look of terror in her eyes, “Because I’m not supposed to talk to you… we… I can’t. This isn’t right.” She shook her head and looked about herself desperately. She couldn’t leave; she could barely stand with the searing pain shooting through half of her body.
Twilight only stared at the stranger in confusion, “Our kind?” she bit out icily, “What are you?”
The girl looked to Twilight and smiled, “I… I’ve said too much.”
“No.” Twilight remained stubborn, “You haven’t said enough,” she motioned to the girl’s wing, “and you’re certainly not getting anywhere with that in the state it’s in.”
The girl sighed, “I…”
“I’ll help you.” Twilight said suddenly, still eyeing the wing warily, “I don’t think it’s broken, it could be dislocated though.”
The girl looked at the floor and winced, “R-Really?” She asked, biting her lip.
Twilight nodded, “Come inside.” She said gently, sticking up a finger as a thought came to her, “And quietly.” She added, “I don’t want my parents to see you.”
The girl quirked a brow, “Are they witches too?”
Twilight frowned. What an odd question to ask. Of course they were. What else would they be? “Yes.” She said.
The girl’s eyes sparkled in wonder, “Wow…”
“I mean what I said though.” Twilight said, “Come quietly and I’ll see if I can um… relocate your…” she couldn’t bring herself to say the word so she simply motioned for the girl to follow and walked off back the way she came.