//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: One Heart's Destiny // by Robobrony //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Twilight was in her library as she and spike were looking through the books she had on illnesses to see if she could find anything that might tell of why Heart Wing is unable to use magic. “I just don’t get it, there’s nothing in any of these books that even hint at an illness that prevents a unicorn or alicorn from using magic, there are some that weaken it or make it difficult to control, but nothing similar to what’s going on with Heart.” Spike was a little dragon with purple scales, a light lime green belly, green spines that ran from the top of his head down his back and had lime green frills on the side of his head. He was afraid that Twilight was about to worry herself to death over this whole mess. “Take it easy Twilight, even if there isn’t anything in any of these books, I’m sure you can find out something yourself.” Twilight then got an idea that might work to help her figure out why Heart was unable to use magic. “Your right Spike, and I think I know just the spell to help, you can come with me this time to meet him, I’ll need you to take down any notes in case I can find something about what’s going on.” Spike gave a salute to Twilight. “You can count on me.” He then hurried to gather the things necessary to take down any notes Twilight would need while she did what she could to find out why Heart Wing was unable to use magic. It was almost time for the doctor to look over Heart Wing and Twilight wanted to be there, so with her saddle bags packed with blank scrolls, ink wells, and quills, she and Spike made their way to Sweet Apple Acres. Upon Twilight’s arrival and entering Applejack’s house, she found all her friends there eagerly waiting for the doctor to come. “Hello girls, I take it you’re here to see what Doctor Stable will have to say once he finishes his examination with Heart Wing.” The girls all gave a collective nod. It wasn’t long before doctor Stable finally arrived with a black saddle bag filled with medical supplies to perform the examination, he gave a warm smile as he said his hello. “Good day all, I take it you all are here to see what I might find is wrong with your friend?” He too was answered with a collective nod. “Very well then, Applejack, would you be so kind as to show me to my patient?” “Right this way doc.” Applejack then led the doctor to Heart Wing’s room. Applejack and Dr. Stable entered the room to find Heart Wing still just staring out the window with his cloak on. When he heard them enter, he turned around to see them. Upon seeing the new face, he grew somewhat nervous. Dr. Stable saw this and spoke to try and calm him down. “Hello there, my name is Dr. Stable, I’m here to give you a checkup to see what the source of these chest pains you’ve been getting are.” Heart Wing became less nervous then before but was still wary around this new face. “I tried to tell them that they would be wasting your time with this, I had a doctor look at me about those chest pains when I was little and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me.” “Well medicine has come a long way since then, so why don’t you just humor me and let me take a look at you, I was already informed that you’re an alicorn and I promise that will stay a secret between you, me, and your friends out there.” Heart Wing hesitantly undid his clasp and removed his cloak. The doctor was in a bit of awe at the fact that he was in the presence of an alicorn, he quickly shook those thoughts out of his head and set his bag aside. Applejack figured it would be best to let the doctor work in peace. “I’ll just leave ya to it then, I’ll go join ma friends while you do this.” Applejack then left the room. The girls all waited in the living room for the doctor to finish with his examination. Some were calm, some were nervous, and some let their mind fill with the worst possible outcome as they shook with fear over it. The minutes seemed to creep by as they waited, even Spike was feeling antsy. “Geez, how long does it take for this examination to get done?” Twilight looked to Spike with a bit of annoyance. “Spike, the doctor is just trying to be thorough, we don’t want him to miss anything. Just be patient.” Spike gave out an annoyed sigh as he folded his arms. After almost half an hour, the doctor finally came out to give the girls the news about what he found. They all were very anxious at this point as Twilight greeted the doctor. “Well, did you find out what was wrong?” Rarity spoke next. “It isn’t serious is it?” Then Rainbow Dash. “Is it the feather flu?” Fluttershy came next. “Is it the pony pox?” Finally Pinkie. “Is it some horrible new disease that will spread and make everypony sick and turn us all into zombie ponies?” The girls and Spike all looked at Pinkie with a confused look. “What?” Was all she said in response to their stares. Every ponies attention was back on the doctor so they could hear what he had to say. “Well, for some reason, I couldn’t find anything wrong, whatever these pains he’s been having are, it isn’t physical, I just couldn’t find anything. I did try a magic scan for some magical disease, and again, I still couldn’t find anything. I’m sorry, I wish I could tell you more. I do have a bit of good news, his injuries from that tumble you told me about should be all healed up by tomorrow.” The girls were all disappointed that the doctor couldn’t do anything, Twilight gave her thanks anyway as the doctor left. “Well, I guess it’s up to me.” The others got curious at her statement. Applejack spoke up. “What do ya mean Twilight, can you find out what’s wrong with Heart Wing?” Twilight gave a confident smile as she answered. “I believe I can, I thought of a spell I recently found in one of my older books that is guaranteed to reveal whatever is wrong with a pony. Once I find out what it is, we can take steps to help Heart Wing get over it. Come on Spike, time to get to work.” Spike then followed Twilight to Heart’s room as the others were left to wait once again. Twilight and Spike entered the room and greeted Heart Wing. “Hello Heart Wing, I brought someone else with me, this is spike.” Spike gave his greeting. “Hi there, I’m Spike, Twilight’s number one assistant, it’s nice to finally meet you.” Heart Wing looked to the dragon as he spoke. “Hello. Well Twilight, I told you the doctor wouldn’t find anything. Whatever these pains are, they’re just nothing to worry about.” “I don’t believe that, besides, just because the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with you doesn’t mean there isn’t anything wrong, there’s still the mystery of why you can’t use magic, and I’m going to find out why. I know a spell that will show me what is wrong, I found it in one of my older books and it is difficult, but I’m confident I can pull it off.” Heart was skeptical but he knew by now that these ponies weren’t going to give up on him. “Fine, just do it and get it over with.” Twilight levitated her saddle bags off and set them aside. Spike then opened one up and took out a quill, inkwell, and a blank scroll to write on so he would be ready to write down any notes. Twilight ignited her horn with the spell and stepped closer to Heart Wing, she touched her horn to his head and, in a brilliant flash from her perspective, she soon found herself in a black abyss. Twilight looked around frantically for any sign of anything, seeing nothing, she called out. “HEART, HEART, WHERE ARE YOU?” She was answered with the abyss fading out and revealing a village, it was dirty looking and seemed very dreary. She found herself surrounded by other ponies, all wearing grim frowns on their faces. She tried to call out to him again, but no sound came from her mouth, she was now very confused and scared. Then she heard little ponies laughing in a mean way at something. She quickly followed the laughter to a group of little foals and fillys all pointing and laughing at a little pony in the center of their circle, it was a little pony with a white coat and a black mane and tail, he also had a pair of wings and a horn. She heard the mean things the other ponies said to the little alicorn. “Freak!” One said. “Monster!” Said another. “You can’t do anything right, your just a worthless little mutant!” Said another. Twilight felt bad for the poor little foal, she tried to call out to the ponies to make them stop but she just couldn’t speak. It was then that she realized who the little alicorn was, it was Heart Wing, she was in his memories. The scene soon changed before her and she was now in a rundown old house, she saw little Heart Wing with a unicorn mare with a light blue coat and a purple mane and tail, her cutie mark was a crystal ball with four stars around it. There was a Pegasus stallion with a black coat and a grey mane and tail with a shooting star for a cutie mark. Twilight figured these must be Heart Wings parents, it looked as if they were trying to comfort him as he just sat there with a frown on his face. She heard the unicorn mare speak. “Now Heart Wing, you need to just ignore what those mean kids said, you are not worthless, your special, you just need to try and believe in yourself.” The stallion then spoke up. “Son, I know you might not believe us, but you are destined for great things, you need to just ignore what they said and listen to what where telling you. I promise one day you will find out just how special you are.” Heart Wing looked up at his parents. “Dad, if I’m so special, then why do I keep getting these pains in my chest, what does it mean, so far it only happened three times.” Heart’s mother answered. “Those pains are your heart trying to tell you something, you need to stop fighting it and listen to what it’s trying to tell you.” Heart Wing spoke again. “I don’t want to listen to it if it hurts so much. What’s the point anyway.” With those last words, the scene changed again. Twilight then found herself in the abyss again, but this time there was a dark grey floor and blackness all around. As she looked around, she found Heart Wing as he is now without his cloak. “Heart Wing!” She called out to him, suddenly startled that she was able to talk again. Heart Wing didn’t answer, he had his back turned to her looking up at something. Twilight made her way over to Heart to see what he was looking at. She came up next to him and tried to get his attention. “Heart Wing, what is it, what are you looking at?” She then turned her head and looked up to see what he was staring at. Before her was a large black door with carvings of ponies that appeared to be in pain, she could swear she heard wailing coming from it. But there was something else about the door that didn’t seem right, something that seemed out of place. As she looked upon it, she saw nine cracks on the door, One on the top of it coming down in a vertical way, three on one side horizontally, three other horizontal cracks on the other side, and two more vertical cracks on the bottom, each one seemed to be emitting a white light. “Heart Wing, what is this?” Twilight asked with worry and fear, the door itself seemed to fill her with sadness and fear as she looked upon it. She looked to Heart Wing to try and get an answer, only to find him staring at it with utter terror. His eyes were wide with fear, he then collapsed to the dark floor, quivering and whimpering before this door. Twilight grew worried for Heart. “Heart Wing, what is it, what’s wrong, please answer me!” Nothing, he was just too scared of the door to do anything but cower. Twilight couldn’t take it anymore. She decided to try and remove this door herself. She faced the horrid thing, charged her horn with magic and fired a bolt of purple energy at it to try and destroy it. The bolt hit the door, only to have it rebound back to her and violently forced her out of Heart’s mind. Heart Wing and Twilight both fell backwards from the force. Spike saw this and cried out in fear as he dropped the parchment and quill and rushed to Twilight’s side. “TWILIGHT, are you ok, what happened?” Twilight slowly got up as she rubbed her head. “Oh my head, what was that? OH MY, HEART WING!” Twilight then looked to see if Heart Wing was all right. She quickly got up and made her way over to him only to find him cowering and muttering something to himself that she couldn’t make out. Twilight carefully put a hoof on his shoulder to try and get his attention and calm down. As soon as she touched him, he seemed to snap out of it. “AH, UH, huh, T-Twilight, wh-what just happened? What was that door that frightened me so much?” Twilight looked down at Heart Wing with a frown. “I-I don’t know, I’ve never seen anything like it.” Heart Wing finally stood up. “Do you think it has something to do with why I can’t use magic?” “It must be, whatever it is. I can only think of one pony who might be able to help in dealing with this.” “Oh yeah, who?” “Princess Celestia, she’s sure to be able to help in some way.” Heart Wing still kept his skepticism. “Yeah right, why would she bother to help some lowly pony like me?” “Because I’ll ask her to, I am her personal student after all, and besides, she is very kind and caring. Heart Wing, there is something seriously wrong with you, that…….thing, whatever it was shouldn’t be there. I just know that once I inform her of it, she’ll want to take immediate action.” “If you say so, I’m still having trouble understanding why you all are going out of your way just to help me, this…..friendship thing just doesn’t make any sense to me.” “Spike, take a letter please.” Spike saluted again. “Yes mam.” He then rushed over to the parchments they brought and got ready to take a letter. Twilight began to dictate. “Dear Princess Celestia, I have some urgent news to report. A new alicorn has appeared in Equestria, he has been here for a few days now. I am sorry for not informing you sooner, but he was injured when Applejack found him. His name is Heart Wing, he has been recovering from his injuries at Applejacks place. It seems that there is something wrong with him. Every once in a while, he gets these chest pains that eminate from his heart, I had a doctor give him a physical examination but he couldn’t find anything wrong. Also, for some reason, he is unable to use magic, I used a spell I learned to try and see if I can find out why. Upon casting it, I was unexpectedly sent through his mind where I then found a very strange dark and disturbing door with depictions of ponies in pain.” “I tried to blast the door with my magic as it seemed to fill Heart Wing with fear, but I couldn’t destroy it, when I tried, I was violently forced out of Heart’s head. I request your help with this in hopes that you might be able to help Heart Wing. Sincerely, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” Spike then wrote the last line on the letter. “Got it, It’s all ready to go.” Spike then rolled up the letter and put a red ribbon on it to seal it. “Thank you Spike, go ahead and send it please.” Spike made his way over to the window, opened it, and blew green fire out of his mouth on to the scroll, in a puff of smoke, it was gone. Heart Wing spoke after the letter was gone. “I still say you’re wasting your time. She’s not gonna want to waste her time with a lowly peasant like me.” “She will if I ask her to, she always has time for my friends.” It wasn’t long before a response was received as Spike belched out a letter from Celestia. Spike picked it up and read it out loud. “Dear Twilight Sparkle, I am most intrigued by this bit of news, I can understand why you did not inform me of the alicorn sooner. I am very eager to meet this new friend of yours, I am however curious about what seems to be wrong with him. I must say that what you described sounds like very dark and ancient magic at work. I would be more than happy to do what I can to help. You and all your friends are welcome to come to the castle tomorrow, I, my sister Luna, and Cadence will be there to greet you. Signed, Princess Celestia.” Twilight smiled at Heart Wing. “Told you she’d want to help, looks like we’ve got an appointment with royalty. You go ahead and rest up, I’ll go and tell the others about what’s going on. See you tomorrow Heart Wing.” Heart Wing was once again left in disbelief that a princess was willing to help him. He didn’t know what to make of all this, he was curious about what that door inside of him was and why it filled him with such terror just from looking at it. He figured that he would get his answers tomorrow when he meets with these princesses of Equestria. Little does he know that he is about to meet other alicorns like himself.