Heart of Stone: Recovery Light

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Three: The Sparkle is Gone

Long, dreadful silence crept over the house, and not a single pony spoke. The house creaked and groaned with age, the wind outside rustled against the windows, and Trixie could hear her heartbeat thumping in her ear. Twilight laid there next to Valiant, slowly she looked around, blinked a few times and then smiled.

“Um, h-hi…” Twilight said, her voice was weak and raspy.

Valiant stood up, faced Twilight and her lip trembled. “You’re okay?”

Twilight nodded, cringed and said, “Everything hurts, but I think so.”

Tears rolled down the filly’s face and she reached out with her legs and wrapped them around Twilight’s neck. Her legs were so short that they couldn’t reach all the way around. “You’re okay!”

Twilight tried to lift her right leg, gave a yelp and went for her left leg instead. She hugged the filly. “Why? Did something happen?”

Nopony spoke, and Trixie assumed it was for the same reason that she didn’t speak. She didn’t want to be the one to tell Twilight how bad it was. Her injuries, the scars, or Canterlot and the windigo war. Who could be so heartless as to want to tell Twilight those things?

“Wait a minute,” Twilight said as she tried and failed to push Valiant Heart away. “Did… did you just speak?”

Valiant shook her head and nuzzled into Twilight’s neck.

Maud stood up. “She doesn’t like to talk, at all. Even Trixie has to make do with the whiteboard. But she’s been reading to you, every single day since you were hurt.”

Twilight’s eye sparkled, and she bit her lip. “She… she has? I don’t even know what happened.” Slowly Twilight lifted a hoof and wiped away a few tears forming in the corner of her eye. “Thank you, Val.” She touched her hoof to the bandages covering her left eye and her expression went ridged. Slowly she prodded the bandages with her hoof, feeling up and down. Half of her face was covered by bandages, only her mouth was free of them.

“What, why, when, how, how much?” Twilight asked in rapid succession.

“You were hurt in our retreat from Canterlot,” Trixie said.

“Retreat?” Twilight asked.

“You don’t remember?”

“I…” Twilight closed her eye and cringed. “I think, I don’t, why? What happened? How are the princesses, my friends, everypony?”

“The princesses are fine, so are your friends. Applejack has the cutest little baby, we have pictures, I’ll show you later,” Trixie said.

Sunset sat down. “The civilian losses in Canterlot were minimal. In fact, it was a well excited or extremely lucky escape. I suggest though, that we not discuss the war, politics or the state of our nation with Twilight any time soon. For that matter I suggest we stay away from anything that might alarm her, or cause distress. As for me, I am going to need to send a letter to the Princess right away.”

Trixie piped up. “I can do that!”

“That bird is not going to work.”

“But… the Doctor finally came back to me. Even if it was just to keep an eye on Twilight,” Trixie said.

“I swear, I could kill the both of you for naming your pets’ absolutely horrible things,” Sunset said. She turned toward the door. “Besides there are details I need to add personally.” She opened the door and stopped just before leaving. “Twilight, do you wish for me to tell the princess anything?”

“C-can you tell her that I want to see her?” Twilight asked.

Sunset smiled. “Of course I will.”

Once the door closed behind Sunset, Trixie felt her heart start to fall through her chest. Twilight was awake now, actually alert and acting like herself. This left her wondering what they were going to do next.

Twilight looked down at the right side of her body, and the absolute horror that spread over her features made Trixie’s heart stop. Twilight’s left wing stretched out limply and mock flapped, the whole time Twilight stared at her shoulder where the right wing used to be. The stump had to be removed so it was bare. Her eye glossed over and then she closed it. Slowly Twilight lowered her head to the floor, and Valiant took a couple of steps away from the mare.

“I can feel it,” Twilight said.

Trixie knew what she was talking about. Some days Trixie still awoke thinking that she had both of her wings, and Trixie had only had them for a short time compared to Twilight. There really wasn’t much that Trixie could do or say, but she had to say something. Anything was better than letting terrible silence devour the room.

“Twilight,” Trixie said softly. “I’m sure you have questions; lots of them. I want to be able to answer any that you might have, but first you should know that whatever is wrong now I’m sure that we can fix.”

A harsh laugh escaped Twilight’s lungs. “Oh yea? Am I supposed to get a metal wing? Who says that I wanted wings in the first place? I was the perfect unicorn before Celestia tricked me into being an alicorn! Now I’ve lost one wing, one! Not to mention that I’m covered in bandages… how bad is it?”

“It’s bad, but you’re still an alicorn so your scars will go away… eventually.”

“After years of suffering and pain? My wing won’t grow back.”

Trixie let out a quiet breathless sigh. “No, you’re wing won’t. Neither will mine.”

Twilight opened her eye and stared at Trixie’s back. “How?”

“My alicornhood was ripped out of me. I knew that I wasn’t a real alicorn already, but I didn’t realize just how easily my transformation could be undone.”

“I… I think I remember seeing you in a hospital bed. You were hurt really badly.”

“Not nearly as bad as you are. Believe me when I say this, Twilight. We are all here for you, and we will do everything in our power to help you recover.”

Twilight closed her eye and stayed quiet for nearly a full minute before she said, “The right side of my body hurts, and I look like a Frankenstallion monster…”

“You’ll get better. I mean, there are things we can do to help your wing. You can get a new one,” Trixie frowned as a thought came to her. “Or… you could get the other one removed.”

A choking sound came out of Twilight’s throat. “N-no, I don’t want to be one of them.”

“A lot of pegasi that suffer injuries like that can’t fly anymore, so they… opt for removal of both wings. Try to become earth ponies, you know…”

Twilight opened her eye. “But I was special.”

“You are special.”

Twilight blinked, and a few tears rolled down the side of her face. “I was the princess of friendship. An alicorn princess. Celestia made me special. I don’t w-want to b-be…”

That’s when Twilight began crying. Tears streamed down her eye over her cheek. Valiant cuddled up next to Twilight’s ‘safe’ side and began whispering into Twilight’s ear. At first Trixie wasn’t sure what she the filly was saying, it was hard to hear over Twilight’s sobs. As Twilight’s sobs quieted, Trixie began to make out the lullaby.

That was all Trixie could stand to listen too before she knew she too would cry. This wasn’t a time for her to show weakness, Twilight needed her to be strong so she did the only thing she could. She trotted over to the back bedroom. “I have a gift for you, Twilight.”

Once she arrived in the room she found the portrait that showed Twilight standing with all of her friends in front of the old Golden Oaks Library. They were all so young that Twilight was still a unicorn in the photo. Written on the glass in black marker was a message from Pinkie Pie. It read simply, “Get well soon my little stalker.”

Trixie could only assume from the journal she read that this was reference to the time that Twilight had spent some time stalking Pinkie Pie and trying to learn the secret of her Pinkie Sense. Of course this only made Trixie wonder just how long Pinkie had had feelings for Twilight. Maybe she’d been in love since the beginning. It really was a shame that it never worked out between them.

Hot tears rolled down Trixie’s face and she had blink them away in a desperate attempt to see clearly. Her heart hurt for her wounded friend. Even if this hadn’t been Twilight’s dream, she had taken so much pride in becoming what Celestia wanted her to be. Now though, Twilight was broken, and as far as Trixie could tell, scarred beyond belief. She may be that way for many years before she looked normal again too.

The portrait was enveloped in a purple aura and lifted into the air. Trixie walked back into the living room, portrait in tow. Once there she set down next to Twilight and gave the portrait to her old friend. Twilight took one look at it, mouthed the words written down and then cried more. Slowly she moved her right leg, bandaged as it may be and weakly grasped the portrait with both hooves.

“Pinkie Pie! I’m so sorry!” she cried into the picture. “I’m so sorry.”

Trixie didn’t dare touch Twilight’s right side, but she did carefully lean over and kiss the top of Twilight’s head. “I swear to you, Twilight. I will not rest until you are back to your old self, I will never abandon you, and together we will find a way to make everything okay again.”

Twilight looked up, her eye was streaked with red. “I’m supposed to be taking care of you.”

“Heh, well it’s the great and loving Trixie’s turn to care for you,” Trixie said with a knowing smile.

Twilight smiled back, it was small, but it was still a smile. If Twilight could smile through this, then perhaps it was possible for Trixie to make good on her promises. Or at least that’s what Trixie told herself.

The front porch was quiet save for the depressing tunes whining from Trixie’s guitar. The door next to her opened up and Sunset along with a light blue earth pony that had a deep blue and purple striped ponytail stepped out. This other pony was Sonata Dusk, Sunset’s rather innocent wife. There was an owl on Sunset’s back that gave Trixie a distasteful look. Sunset smiled softly. “Celestia and Luna should be coming to visit soon. There hitching a ride with Twilight’s knight.”

“So Starlight is coming over too?”

Sunset smiled. “Yeah. She feels very close to Twilight since she’s her mentor after all. Well that and the fact that she’s Twilight’s first knight.”

The owl blinked down at Trixie and spoke. “You know I never trusted that Starlight Glimmer. She nearly destroyed the fabric of reality and caused enough emotional trauma to Twilight to make her start getting into dark magic in an attempt to protect her world.”

Trixie strummed a particularly low chord. “Oh, come on. I enslaved all of Ponyville, and look at what happened to Canterlot. I can’t very well judge Starlight. I’m just jealous of her power.”

“Well considering how limited your magic is, I cannot blame you.”

Trixie’s horn lit up and she grabbed the owl in her aura. She yanked it off of Sunset’s back and glared into its eyes. “You know, familiars are supposed to be immortal. Shall we test that theory?”

“Ahem, allow me to restate that. Every unicorn should envy an oddity such as Starlight, even if they have as much power as the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

Trixie growled and released the owl. “That’s better.”

“Um,” Sonata said. “Can you like, speak bird?” She looked at Sunset with pleading eyes. “Sunny, I wanna speak bird too!”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Trixie can’t speak bird, that’s her familiar. A pony can speak with and understand their familiar. It’s a difficult skill learning to speak with a familiar that does not share a bond with you. Hence the reason why Twilight thought the owl here was a ‘normal’ owl for years. She actually thought she had a pet!”

“Yeah, she destroyed my home and stole my familiar, hooray,” Trixie said un-amused.

“It’s not like you had the magic to actually work with him anyway. Only recently you’ve been in need of another familiar. Just be glad that he came back to you,” Sunset said.

Trixie growled. “Great, now you’re doing it too.”

“Doing what?” Sonata asked.

“I assume,” Sunset started, “that the owl had started mouthing off about Trixie’s skill level with magic. Trixie is still better at illusions than Twilight is.”

Trixie beamed. “Hear that Doctor?”

“I hear it, but I don’t belie-“

“Doctor Hoot!” Trixie nearly screamed.

Sunset facehoofed. “Doctor Hoot, and Owlicious, why do you both give him such horrible names? Can’t you come up with something good?”

“I thought it was clever.”

“It’s not!”

“I prefer Owlicious myself, but perhaps that is only because the other name is obviously a parody of an old hero. One that I quite dislike.”

“He was a cool hero, and he lives in Ponyville now. Why shouldn’t I name you after him? Because he’s a really smart scientist? A great pony? A super old immortal stallion?”

“No because he is quite maddening. Have you tried to hold a conversation with The Doctor?”

“Uh… n-not really. He kinda intimidates me,” Trixie admitted. “… do you really want me to call you Owlicious?”

“If you would not mind master.”

Trixie let out a sigh. “Well I’m sure that Twilight would appreciate it as well. Fine, until otherwise stated you are hereby renamed Doctor Owlicious Hoot.”

“Why?”

“Because your greatest strength is still your encyclopedia of a mind. Oh and uh, you can answer to Owlicious or whatever.”

“I refuse to answer to the name, ‘Whatever’.”

Trixie growled. “You, suck.”

Sunset trotted off. “I’m going to meet Celestia, and when we get back here, please stop this mind numbing argument. You two both sound stupid when you argue like this.”

“Can she understand me?”

“I don’t think so,” Trixie said, “She’s just stuck up sometimes.”

Sonata quickly followed behind Sunset. “Good luck, Trixie!”

Trixie leaned back and let out a sigh. Just as she began playing a soft and sad song on her guitar, Owlicious landed next to her and began messing with his feathers. “You do look rather crazy when you hold an argument with an owl.”

“Shut it,” Trixie said. “The Great and Musical Trixie is practicing.”

Once Trixie had finished playing music she made her way back inside only to find Twilight lying on the couch. Maud must have moved her somewhere a little more comfortable. Valiant Heart was sitting on the floor with her back to the couch. It would seem she refused to leave Twilight’s side, even now that she was back.

Twilight gave a weak smile to Trixie. “I heard you arguing with somepony outside. Is everything okay?”

The owl sitting on Trixie’s back began pruning his wings. “Who?”

“You very well know who it was,” Trixie told her familiar.

“Who?”

“It was you!”

“Who?”

“You, Owlicious, the owl, and pain in my butt.”

“Who?”

“ARGH!” Trixie exclaimed. “You are so infuriating. It’s no wonder that I didn’t go looking for you.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “Um, T-Trixie, you do realize that you are arguing with an owl… right? He can’t make any noises other than hooting.”

Trixie gave her a blank stare, blinked, and then looked up at the owl. She got the distinct impression that it was smiling evilly, even without lips with which to smile. “It would seem that she does not realize what I really am.”

With that said Trixie gave up on the argument, and instead took a seat on the couch opposite of Twilight’s. “This is my old familiar. You remember that I had an owl familiar do you not? I sort of lost him after the first incident with the ursa minor.”

Twilight blinked and then her mouth slowly opened. “Wait… you mean that Owlicious is… he was your familiar?”

“Still am.”

“He still is.”

Twilight shook her head slowly, cringed and stopped the movement. “That explains a whole lot. You received a familiar of knowledge correct? I never did a lot of study on them considering the fact that I never had a familiar myself.”

“Yes, I made a pact with Doc- er, Owlicious here. I thought that his knowledge and wisdom would be helpful. It turns out he was better at organizing my notes than he was at helping me cheat at tests.”

“It would have been wrong of me to aid you in cheating, oh great and honorable Trixie.”

“Silence,” Trixie said. “Anyway, yeah, he’s my familiar. I guess he took a liking to you, he even likes your name for him better than mine.”

Twilight tried to smile again, and then she cringed again.

“Are you okay?” Trixie asked.

“The pain medication hasn’t kicked in yet… and I have… n-nevermind.”

“Look, Celestia and Luna are going to be here soon, if you need something let me know.”

This time the smile stayed on Twilight’s lips. “Luna’s coming to visit?”

Trixie nodded. “She’s been very busy so she has only come to see you once in the past three months. That was… uh…”

“Two months, three weeks, and seven days ago.”

“It’s actually been almost three months since she came over.”

“That, is not what I said.”

Trixie smiled.

Another pained expression came over Twilight’s face. “I need to pee.”

Oh… well that explains a lot. First Trixie looked around and could not find Maud. Second she looked for the wheelchair, that too was missing. This was proving to be a bit of a conundrum.

“B-badly,” Twilight said as she grimaced.

An idea popped into Trixie’s mind. She cleared her throat got off of her seat and walked over to Twilight. “Okay, come on. I’ll help you to the bathroom.”

“This isn’t fair.”

A purple aura surrounded Twilight and she slowly she was pushed off the couch and onto Trixie’s back. A gasp escaped Twilight as she settled onto Trixie’s back. “I’m sorry, I know it hurts, but I’m not strong enough to carry you with magic.”

“I-I thought your telekinesis was really strong?”

“I can move a lot of small objects at once, for long periods of time, and really quickly. I am not however,” Trixie huffed as she lifted up Twilight’s weight and took a few steps, “I am not good at heavy lifting. Especially since my magic is still in recovery. I apologize for my weakness.”

“It’s fine. I…” Twilight cringed once more and let out a small whimper. “I-I-“

Trixie got a quick start toward the bathroom and got as far as the hallway before warm liquid began running down her back. Trixie nearly stopped dead in her tracks. There wasn’t much to say as Twilight began crying, and Trixie couldn’t do an awful lot in this position. So she tried to give a warm smile to her friend.

“It’s okay, Twilight. I uh, I have accidents too.”

Twilight simply cried and Trixie decided not too much until she was finished. It was all over after a half a minute or so, and Trixie along with the floor was covered in wet. Maud walked out of the restroom, took one look at the two of them, and the puddle on the floor before going straight to the closet and pulling out the mop and bucket.

“It happened again. How bad?” Maud asked.

“Just urine, and uh… yeah I’ll get us cleaned up.”

“A-again!” Twilight cried. “N-no, I didn’t mean t-to. I-I’m sorry.”

Trixie shook her head as she walked to the bathroom. “It’s fine. You were holding it in for a while weren’t you?”

“I-I didn’t want to bother anypony.” Twilight sniffled.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed to ask for help. Do you realize how many times I had accidents when I first moved in with Maud? At least once a week. Either I would have a complete mental breakdown and collapse into a ball on the floor, or it would be a nightmare. Maud had to clean up after me, a lot. Valiant has accidents too sometimes. So don’t worry, you’re living in a house full of ponies that pee themselves, constantly.”

Twilight wiped her nose into Trixie’s fur and pulled away. “S-sorry.”

“I’m already covered in pee, a little snot in my fur isn’t going to bother me. Seriously Twilight, don’t feel bad about this,” Trixie tried to reassure her.

They went to the bathroom and Trixie used a sponge to wash Twilight’s uninjured parts. When that was done she checked to see if any of the bandages had gotten wet, luckily they were dry, though they were going to need a change soon anyway. Maud would have to do that bit. Finally Trixie cleaned herself up and took Twilight back into the living room.

The floor was cleaned by the time they were out, and Maud was just putting the mop back. She gave the two of them a glance, and smiled at Twilight. “We will take care of you.”

Twilight sniffled. “I-I’m so useless though.”

Maud shook her head. Closed the closet door, and said, “You are hurt. You need cared for. We can do that.” She walked over to Twilight and kissed the top of the princess’s head. “Now go lie down and remember we love you.”

Twilight’s lip quivered and tears welled up at the corner of her eye. She blinked and a few escaped to run down her cheek. “You’re so nice.”

Maud walked back into the bathroom. “You’re family.”

“Um,” Trixie said. “Where’s the wheelchair?”

“The wheel is loose so it’s in Twilight’s room until I can fix it.”

Trixie nodded, and smiled down at Twilight who had closed her eye was trying to hide her face against Trixie’s neck. They made their way back into the living room where Trixie laid Twilight down on the couch. Just as she did there was a knock at the door.

“Is that my Luna?” Twilight asked in a tiny voice.

“I bet it is,” Trixie replied joyfully.

Trixie opened it up and saw Celestia standing on the front porch, Starlight stood beside her. Trixie looked around and realized with startling urgency that the most important pony was missing. Celestia frowned and averted her eyes. Something wasn’t right.

“Celestia,” Trixie asked in a warning tone, “where is Luna?”