Friendship May Be Magic, but Trust is Power

by VampireFluttershyTails

Chapter Six - The Calm; In the Care of Kindness

It had almost been two days, at around the same time Kirby had returned Apple Bloom safely and secretly to her home and then went back to his own “home”, that Twilight Sparkle had finally unlocked herself from her bedroom, levitating her tear-soaked pillow as she half-trotted down the stairs, her eyelids narrowed in an unusual sorrowful expression. She sighed as she saw her still sleeping friends who had been there since the mid-day she had come home after almost ruining her friendship with Fluttershy.
     Or ruined… I don’t completely know… she sighed again, her tail swishing softly. All of the mares and one dragon in her library, even dilapidated Rarity, had tried many varying times to talk to Twilight, get her to talk, and get her out of the room…
She looked to Spike, who tried twenty times, and was now sleeping upside-down next to Rarity, who, with her head on the podium next to the shimmering star, had tried only ten times. And then she looked the Pinkie Pie, who was asleep in the same spot she was when Twilight came home, and had tried as many times as she was able, which was more than what Spike and Rarity did combined.
The light grayish mulberry unicorn then smiled a bit, and all that smile did was add some happiness to her face; as she then continued clopping down the stairs, she mentally said, Bless her heart…
Twilight was now on the main floor, and she looked at the star calmly for a while, taking small breaths.
Yes… she was finally calm.
The calm after the storm, but finally calm.
She realized that she had some hurtful, regretful things to it, while she was crying into her now tear-soaked pillow she currently levitated around, and wanted to say something… you know, not hurtful, and sighed. Twilight had also realized that, while locked in her room and having nothing to focus on but her thoughts and memories, the star was more, much more, than a mere link to this pink puffball…
It… could feel whatever he felt and vice versa,—she cast a spell on the pillow to dry it, but to no avail—and was also like a transmission of sorts,  meaning that whatever she or anypony heard in its vicinity or told it, the pink puffball also heard. She shoved down the nervosity that arouse from the star being a transmission—No… she lightly chuckled, it… it doesn’t… does NOT mean that it’s a spying device...—as hard as it was.
And even though she wasn't entirely sure of her thought, she didn't want a replay of what happened two days ago.
And, speaking of that, judging by the way the star acted when she was about to dash it against the wooden floor—she paled…
But… Rainbow Dash’s words from all those days ago echoed throughout her mind, I get the feelin’ that that star is fragile, so…
The star is fragile... and so is life...
She knew it wasn't a scientific explanation, but it would just have to do until she found one or something similar; nonetheless, the explanation made her pale even more.
The star is connected to the pink puffball’s life… so, if I had’ve done what I was raging to do, I… she bowed her head with a quiet sigh. After thirty seconds, she finally finished, I… woulda been… I… would’ve killed…
Twilight then turned even paler than she thought possible, and held the tear-soaked pillow closer to her face; after trying one last time to dry it with magic, she gave up, for her thoughts were too centered around this puffball, this star, and her own feelings for her magic to even work properly, and sent it back onto her bed, watching it all the while, before she then turned to the note canvas and star, walked over to the canvas, and, levitating a feather pen to her notes and dipping the point in ink, added to her notes these new pieces of information gained just by thinking on her past, but raging, “experiment” and put a small but noticeable question mark by the very last piece of information:
“The star is connected to the puffball’s life-force.”
She then looked at the star itself, a light grayish hoof on one side of it and a river of drool on the other, and the light mulberry unicorn mare silently gagged. Twilight, as she then focused on the star, picking it up with her magic, was thankful that none of the drool had tainted it, and then she, with her magic, picked up the canvas of notes, and headed to the real laboratory located within her basement. She had a lot of ground to cover if she wanted to make up for the past two days; even though she pretty much covered it with her thoughts and observation of memory, she wanted to test and examine the star more, to see if her thoughts and observation were scientifically correct.
Twilight sighed as she looked at the star floating via her magic beside her, and offered the best of her apologetic smiles, hoping the pink puffball could see it but knowing it was probably impossible, Hey, there... I'm really sorry...
Meanwhile, still walking the way to the hollowed tree, Kirby couldn't see the smile, but he felt it and her thought, and was unsure of them since he sensed that it was the same aura he kept feeling all those days ago, the same aura that turned stormy and hurtful that one day.
The scientific, yet magical, aura, he termed it...
It was calm now, and seemed to want to right those wrongs, but he was still unsure about it.
What the mare said... it hurt... more than it should have and more than he thought it would because of that thousand-year barrier... but it hit so close to home... and many buttons too...
And what she almost did to him too... he felt the reaction of his precious star, and thus also felt it.
It felt horrible...
He should be used to it though, so he had no idea why this one in particular was effecting him so much.
With all that said, he... he couldn't accept these new vibes.
Twilight Sparkle sighed, and understood his uncertainties. She'd just have to regain that trust... if she even had it to begin with.
She commanded her magic to set the star on the table which was next to a machine she had used to test things every so often, and not far from that machine was one she used to examine Pinkie's strange sense.
Which was a complete failure, she had noted with a sigh.
The light grayish mulberry unicorn focused her magic on hooking these lines to each point of the star, and then she activated the Power Clarification and Identification Machine, it then clicking and whirring and lighting up. She had done her observing. It was now time for tests.

Meanwhile, the pink puffball continued his trek along the path to the hollowed tree in which Apple Bloom and he had taken refuge, and he could sense something... dark... and chilling... lurking somewhere...
...watching him...
He could hear its harsh breaths, and he slowed his pace, looking around and cautiously pulling out his weapons. Unfortunately, he took another step, leaving his right shoe-foot vulnerable, and the thing zipped out from the brush, a blur of spikes and darkness, and punctured the bottom of his foot right in the middle! Kirby cried out, falling to the ground and dropping his weapons, and then after a while he flipped over onto his back and twisted his foot so that he could see, and his eyes widened when he saw it.
It was a ball of blurry darkness, and it didn't appear stable, but that didn't really matter. He could feel a dark influence invading his bloodstream, and he felt dizzy and out of it. The pink puffball stretched his stubby arms towards it, and then grabbed it, trying to pull it out of his foot. The demon ball wouldn't allow this, and it grew sharp spikes where his hands were, and Kirby cried out in pain once again, blood dripping down the spikes, but he didn't let go; he kept pulling...

The light grayish mulberry unicorn, while she was in the middle of running a test on the star, noticed, with horror, that the star was, from its tips, starting to turn gray, and then black. At first, she thought her examination was causing it, so she turned off the machine and then walked over to give the star a closer look. The black color didn't go away, as she'd thought it would and also hoped; in fact, it continued to crawl its way towards the middle, however slowly.
Twilight sighed in relief that it wasn't her fault for once, but the relief was only short-lived, and she narrowed her eyes at the black color. As much as she wanted to examine this, she could tell it was evil and that allowing it to cover the whole star could spell catastrophe; therefore, she had to get rid of it. Twilight then put her forehoof on the star, and, even though she felt major chills, closed her eyes and concentrated, her horn starting to glow a rich magenta color. The star started to glisten even more than it did with just her presence, and the glow stayed there, eventually making the black color shrink back. Twilight couldn't see what she was doing, but continued concentrating, and the demon ball on Kirby's foot pulsated with pain.
Soon, the black color dissipated completely with a bright flash, and the demon ball, utterly weakened, slumped, retracting its spikes from Kirby's stubby paws, and then the pink puffball, his strength regained and the dark influence retreating, tried once again to pull out the demon ball and succeeded, tossing it a few yards away and not even bothering to study it. The demon ball, squirming, then crawled away as Kirby groaned in pain.
What... what was that...? he wondered with a pained sigh. In his disoriented state, he couldn't even begin to recognize it. He knew one thing, though, and that was that he had to clean himself up, as it soon became apparent to him that his foot was bleeding.
Very badly...
That... thing had left a huge wound in his foot, and he let out another sigh.
Being careful, he grabbed for his roll of bandage wraps, but, as he soon noticed, his hands were also bleeding for reasons he couldn't remember at the moment, and the roll of bandage wraps were only enough to cover his hands, and he growled at his predicament.

Twilight, finally opening her eyes, then saw the black color was gone, and she smiled at the once-again healthy star, and then walked over to her machine to turn it on again.

The small wounds on his hands were now cleaned and bandaged, and the now empty roll was pocketed in his cloak. He let loose another sigh, and then he grabbed his weapons, and, instead of resheathing them, stabbed them into the ground so that he could get up, blood still dripping from the wound on his foot and pain still pulsating from it, and he growled again, keeping himself steady on his impromptu crutches. Kirby had to get a move on, and, though he worried about the trail of blood he was bound to create, hoped that the elements would soon cooperate and erase it from the path. And so, he kept limping, the blood, as he predicted, leaving a trail, determined to make it to the hollowed tree. It had been only thirty minutes, but he felt so weak...
The blood loss was starting to take its toll on him; he knew it...
He then collapsed, very fatigued; he couldn't go on...
And yet... he... if he died here...
...he...
And then he heard a gentle, soft voice, almost in a whisper, but then the voice grew louder in what seemed to him was excitement and worry. Kirby then felt a harmless poke in his side.
And then... he blacked out...

The pale, light grayish gold pegasus, ever since she got up at around the same time Twilight began her testing, had been rushing around her cottage treating and taking care of her animals.
One reason.
She woke up majorly late, and had some catching up to do.
Being a veterinarian is no easy task.
And it's not a task you can slack off either, so she had to work double to make up for the many hours she'd spent sleeping. A lot of her animals had gotten sick or wounded today for some reason, and, though she blamed it on herself for not getting up like she was supposed to, she felt it was something else...
Like... something ominous in the air...
...and it was something to which her animal friends seemed highly attuned, and, thus, to an extent, so was she.
Fluttershy had just finished treating and wrapping a baby hedgehog's wounds and had set a bowl of cabbage in front of it before moving on to an animal who was sick. The mare bundled her up and prepared some warm carrot soup for her to drink; she fed the bunny with a ladle, and then, putting a cold towel on her forehead, moved on to another animal.
She was covered in sweat by the time she was finished treating and caring for her animals, and even then she had to check on the ones who took residence in the Everfree Forest, and so, donning her saddlebags and swallowing her fear, she headed into the forest, prepared to take flight should she encounter problems. Fluttershy then felt the vibes of darkness were stronger than ever in here, and, stopping to feed a young hatchling, shivered at the major chills pulsating through the air. She walked deeper into the forest, and the sense got even stronger she swore she was about to faint, but her resolve kept her going, and then she stopped to treat the wounds of a small, blue dragon. Fluttershy narrowed her eyes.
What is doing this to my poor animal friends...? she wondered, almost angry, but the worry drowned out her anger, and she let loose a sigh. The pegasus then felt the near overwhelming strength of the darkness abruptly fall, and her eyes widened; she could feel warmth again. The mare smiled for only a bit, and then looked around; seeing no animals, she cut through the trees, stopping here and there to answer the chittering calls of monkeys, badgers, and birds. It took her thirty-one minutes to get to the other side of the field of close-knit trees, and she started smelling blood. Fluttershy followed the scent, worried beyond relief, and almost retching due to how strong and pungent it was, and then she saw him...
Her moderate cyan eyes widened considerably, and then she slowed her pace as she tiphooved over to the fallen puffball.
"Oh... my... Celestia... I finally found him..." she half-whispered, now next to him, minding the weapons she had also seen pointing outwards beside him. Fluttershy looked him over, "Why is he...?", and then saw the gaping, profusely bleeding wound on his right foot, and she put a forehoof to her mouth, "Oh my Celestia! oh... oh oh! that is a nasty wound!"
The way he was just lying there scared her, so she did the first thing that came to mind.
She poked him.
Fluttershy sighed in relief that he was still warm, but she had no time to waste. Carefully, she slid out the weapons and put them into her saddlebag, and then she scooped him up onto her back, the blood staining her mane and tail and coat, but she didn't mind this at all, even as the blood dripped down the middle of the determined face as she lifted him over her head. Sighing, she then took to her cottage, leaving fruits, vegetables and pellets behind so that somehow her animal friends could get to them, saving the puffball the only thing on her mind...

Kirby's eyes fluttered open, and he groaned a little bit. He was a little too groggy to open his eyes all the way, and his sight too blurry for him to see anything. All he saw was brown, but that, once the memory of where he was returned to him, began to confuse him.
Wasn't heaven... white...? with poofy clouds...?
....wasn't hell red...? with blazing fire...?
W...wasn't I... in that forest...? he wondered, narrowing his eyes a bit. Shouldn't I... have never awoken...?
He made a move to scratch his head, only to realize that these wraps on his hands that he now saw were soft and clean.
...What?
His vision started to clear up more, and he could finally take in his surroundings; he saw that he was in a room, lying on a couch, which was also extremely soft, and saw a few pictures in exquisite frames hanging up on the wall in front of him. In some of them, he saw a strange, mismatched creature posed in various stances appropriate to the situation with a large toothy smile on his face. And in all of the pictures, posed shyly with a soft smile on her face, was the pale light grayish gold pegasus he'd seen only two times, but both times had a warm impact on his heart. And it sorta killed him to run away from her like he did...
He looked around once more, and it didn't take long for him to realize that he had been captured, and his eyes widened at this, feeling a fear that had only been felt when those scientific caravans, carriages, and vehicles were chasing him several years ago. His breath hitched, and his breathing grew frantic, as his eyes went wild; he shot up, expecting to break through shackles, but felt none. The puffball's shock and confusion had no limit at this point, but he was still terrified.
What...? what is this? no shackles? no captive devices? what... what kind of lab was this?!
No matter... he had to escape this place...
He... he had to...
Kirby then jumped up onto his feet, and when his right shoe-foot touched the sofa, he let out a strangled cry of pain.
Ah...! that... hurt... so this... this is the shackle instead...? he narrowed his eyes, biting his lip and slightly chewing on it. It... it wouldn't... I wouldn't put it past them to injure me...
And, all of a sudden, a blur of yellow flew to his side, startling him into even more fear.
"Please don't!" a gentle voice politely commanded, and he had a growing urge to pull out his weapons, not even recognizing the voice in his frenetic state; he stepped back from the voice, unknowingly causing himself more pain, but he then heard a hoof stomp the floor and then the voice said, "You'll hurt yourself! your foot has yet to heal!"
His eyes widened, and then it all came back to him—the demonic spike ball of darkness attaching itself to his foot... him limping a distance and leaving a heavy trail of blood... and then him collapsing...
It all came back, and the pink puffball felt himself calming, and the frenzy faded from his eyes. He slumped a bit, breathing heavily, which the timid pegasus noted with slight alarm, and then he closed his eyes.
He was so tired...
That freak-out had leeched away whatever energy he had, and he was already weak...
"Um..."
Kirby opened his eyes and looked at the pegasus, who licked her lips tentatively and then pursed him, before she then asked, "Are you okay now?"
The pink puffball narrowed his eyes at her, giving only a slight, curt nod. She lowered her head, sighing and looking down at the wooden floor. He soon realized, if her body language was of any indication, that his way of answering her was kinda harsh, but he had yet to see if he could trust her, even if the mare had calmed him with her presence alone... all those days ago...
The pegasus then lifted her head a bit, discreetly eyeing the bandage wraps with which she'd covered the wound on his shoe-foot after also having cleaned it out. She was trying to see if it needed to be changed, but it was difficult because the pink puffball had slumped forward, not back, so he was still standing rather awkwardly on the couch.
Fluttershy narrowed her eyes a bit in thought, taking her moderate cyan gaze off his foot. The pink puffball then looked at her, taking her in a lot more than he had when they first met. The mare still looked down at the floor, almost unsure if this was even real. It took almost all her willpower not to glomp the pink puffball with happiness and motherly love.
She just couldn't believe this...
For all she knew, Luna could have spun this whole thing just for fun... the pegasus then felt majorly guilty, for she knew it wasn't so....
She had taken many a hot bath just to get the blood off her coat and mane, so that could have woken her up anytime. She hummed a bit, still feeling the dull red eyes scanning her. The only logical explanation...—oh, my... I sound like Twilight... and she cringed at both the name of her friend who had come by two days ago to mess things up and at the very thought she thought...
...it seemed mean... and thus unlike her...
But, anyway... the only logical explanation... was that this... all of it... was real and palpable...
She had finally found Kirby... and had him in her home...