//------------------------------// // Magic Touch // Story: Twilight Manages to Screw Up More Than Usual // by Fire Gazer the Alchemist //------------------------------// “I thought it’d be cooler looking.” Vinyl’s voice cut through the collective silence of awe. Not to say anything respectful, interesting, or even the slightest bit intelligent. Just… that. Twilight narrowed her eyes at her friend before turning back to the Tree of Harmony. It rose a solid twenty feet out of the ground, sparkling in the mid afternoon sunlight. The crystal trunk and branches bore several elaborate markings, and the whole thing dominated the tiny cave that it called home. “Cooler?” Twilight asked. “Really?” Vinyl shrugged. “Yeah. It just doesn’t strike me as anything other than a typical mythical artifact birthplace.” Octavia gave her a sideways glance, halfway between concern and annoyance. “And how many ‘typical mythical artifact birthplaces’ have you seen?” “You’d be surprised.” “Okay, Vinyl trying to be funny aside.” Bon Bon shot Twilight a glance. “You said this thing is the key to re-finding the Elements?” Vinyl blinked. “What do you mean trying to be funny?” “Yeah, I did.” Twilight took a few steps toward the Tree, craning her neck back to observe as much of it from the base as she could. “According to everything I’ve ever read about the Tree of Harmony, it has an immensely strong magical connection to the Elements of Harmony. I was thinking maybe, just maybe, I could use its connection to the Elements as a springboard for my tracking spell to pinpoint their locations.” Her shoulders slumped. “I-If I still had any magic left that is.” “So we have a half-plan that we can’t even try?” Lyra managed a nervous smile. “T-That’s great to know.” “Sorry.” Twilight lowered her head. “I know it’s not the best idea, but we’re low on options. If we could find a way to make this work, then maybe we could get the Elements back and stop Discord and Nightmare.” “So we just have to wait for your magic to come back?” Octavia asked. “Doesn’t that take a long time?” Bon Bon asked. Twilight winced. She wasn’t wrong; her magic took hours to come back, and usually it was a good night’s rest that did it for her. Considering it was an effort to stand without falling over right now, she doubted even that would do it. For a moment, she really regretted letting Shining go, but she remembered he didn’t even know the tracking spell in the first place, and wouldn’t be much help because of it. “Cool, so we’re just waiting for the world to end then.” Vinyl pressed her lips together. “I’m gonna at least take a nap, then.” “Really, Vinyl?” Octavia watched as the DJ walked around, looking for a decent spot to lie down. “Yeah, really.” Vinyl’s sight turned to the Tree of Harmony and she drew close. “I’m tired! We’ve trudged through the Everfree, fought changelings, got knocked out, fought changelings again, met a demon-chaos-thingy weirdo, and escaped snake-breathing snakes. Call me crazy, but I think a nap is justified.” “With the world about to be plunged into eternal chaos and eternal night?” Twilight asked. “Come on, Smart Mare, there’s not exactly much we can do about that now. Besides, I thought you learned by now that staying awake forever was a bad thing.” Twilight opened her mouth to retort, but she made the grave error of thinking she had something witty to reply with. Begrudgingly, she closed her lips as Vinyl perused the Tree’s periphery for the best sleeping spot. “How would that even work?” Lyra asked. “Eternal chaos and eternal night? I’d think that a night that lasted forever would be pretty chaotic already.” “It was the first time,” Bon Bon answered. She tapped her chin. “But then again, we were in the Everfree for most of that, so…” Twilight sighed. This conversation was getting them far off track. Though, it wasn’t like there was much track left for them to get off of. Until her magic came back they were stuck doing nothing while not one, but two maniacal super villains treated Equestria like their personal playground. They were just waiting for the world to end. It was then that she noticed Derpy had been particularly quiet throughout the discussion. She glanced over to her friend and was surprised to find that she wasn’t even paying attention to them all. Derpy was instead gazing off into the purple sky, her brows crossed in a pensive look and her lower lip in the process of being chewed to bits. “Derpy?” Twilight asked. Just like that, the concentration snapped away. “Huh? What?” Derpy blinked, falling back to reality and crash landing in the process. It took her a few seconds to come back in full and she stared at Twilight. “Did you need something?” “Just wondering what you were doing.” Twilight met her eyes… or rather, one of them. “You all right?” “Mmhmm, I’m fine. I was just…” Derpy looked away, to the ground. “Thinking about something.” Twilight furrowed her brow. “Anything you want to share?” Derpy frowned and shook her head. “Here we go.” Twilight turned her head back around to see Vinyl lowering herself onto the ground, nestling onto a spot right by the Tree. “See you girls in about an hour… or longer.” Her eyes lowered and she reclined against the Tree. Suddenly, her entire body jerked and Vinyl leapt forward. “Holy mother of Celestia!” “Vinyl?” Twilight reflexively flinched as her friend landed face first in front of her. “Are you okay?” “Dandy,” she muttered into the dirt. Everypony quickly surrounded her, Octavia being the first to help her up. “What happened to you?” “Don’t know.” Vinyl rubbed her head. “My back just touched the Tree and it was like a million amps fired on me all at once.” She stared at the Tree of Harmony, unease dominating her face. “I think it hates me. Can trees hate?” “I want to say no,” Bon Bon replied. “But then again I can only speak for the regular kind. Super-ancient, Element-creating trees… maybe?” “Great. It hates me.” Vinyl closed her eyes, frowned and groaned. “Geeze, now I don’t even feel sleepy. Freaking thing robbed me of my nap!” Octavia rolled her eyes. “Please, you could fall asleep after drinking a gallon of coffee.” “Well it feels like I just drank two gallons of coffee then!” Vinyl huffed, stamping the ground to vent her frustration. “I’m telling you, I’m not tired anymore.” “So what, the Tree of Harmony just zapped you with energy?” Despite the disbelief dripping from Octavia’s voice, the sentence gave Twilight pause. If Vinyl wasn’t lying—which, why would she if she could be napping?—then had the Tree of Harmony somehow affected her when she touched it? The Tree was supposed to embody Harmony magic in its purest form, according to pretty much all of her research. And from what her tracer spell told her it must have a lot of magic, since it could spread its roots all over Equestria. Maybe the Tree was willing to share? Curiosity was killing all of Twilight’s cats with this one. She turned back to the ancient super-weapon birthplace with one thought on her mind: I gotta touch that. Under normal circumstances, she’d grab some equipment, hook it up to the Tree, and proceed to spend several days observing it. This would be intermingled with things like hypotheses and experiments, as well as research in an attempt to find past examples of this phenomenon. But these were not normal circumstances, so Twilight was already walking over to the massive crystal structure. “Uh, Twilight?” She heard Bon Bon’s concerned voice, but didn’t really acknowledge it. Her eyes were locked onto the Tree as she drew closer. She focused, trying to sense the magic energy within it that she now knew should be pulsating out from all directions. If it could send Vinyl flying with just a touch, there had to be enough in there to revitalize her power. “You think Smart Mare’s lost it?” Vinyl asked. “Vinyl!” Octavia huffed. Twilight still wasn’t paying attention. She raised her hoof, ready to touch the crystal trunk of the Tree. So close… “Whoa!” A green blur slapped her hoof away. Twilight blinked in surprise, looking over at Lyra. “What was that for?” Lyra frowned. “Are you crazy? You can’t just touch something like this! Just look at what happened to Vinyl.” Twilight nodded. “Yeah, and I was hoping it could do the same to me. You know I need my magic back if we want to find the Elements.” “And what makes you think the Tree won’t disintegrate you or something? Maybe Vinyl was just lucky!” Upon saying this, Lyra noted how close she was to the Tree and took a step back. “I am pretty lucky,” Vinyl chimed in. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Girls, the Tree is supposed to be the embodiment of Harmony magic, it disintegrating me just won’t happen” “But you don’t know what will happen,” Octavia pointed out. That got Twilight to bite her lip. “Well, no, but I have to try something! Discord turned the sky purple for pony’s sake. Who knows what else he could be doing right now? Not to mention Nightmare Moon is about to…” Her words stopped there, leaving the last bit unfinished. Is about to kill Princess Celestia. She shook her head, pushing that thought from her mind. “I have to try this, otherwise we won’t get the Elements in time to stop either of them. Please, just let me try.” Her friends exchanged looks between them, save Derpy who was back to staring off into space. Twilight knew her idea was risky, but she needed her friends to trust her on this one. Eventually, Lyra sighed. “All right. But please don’t disintegrate. I’ve been through a lot of stuff today, and I don’t want to add sweeping up my friend’s ashes to that list.” “Don’t worry, you won’t.” Probably. Most likely. With the rest of her friends nodding in agreement and offering supportive, if not worried, smiles, she turned to face the Tree again. Confident there would be no interruptions, Twilight raised her hoof once more. The polished surface of the Tree showed her reflection inching ever so closer. The moment before contact, she hesitated as all the doubts and concerns her friends expressed flooded the forefront of her mind once again. Shrugging it off, she touched the Tree of Harmony. The first thing she noticed was that Vinyl’s description didn’t do it justice. Pure magic coursed through her veins in an explosion akin to lightning. It felt like all of her neurons were firing at once, a reflection of the intensity of the energy entering her body. It was at this point, that Twilight’s senses started malfunctioning. She tasted metal, saw nothing but white and heard a shrill ringing noise. All of this happened within the first second of touching the Tree of Harmony, because that was all the time it took for Twilight’s reflexes to kick in. She ripped her hoof from the Tree, falling back and landing on her rear. As her vision faded back to reality, she rubbed her head and groaned. “Oh, Celestia…” “Twilight?” Bon Bon was suddenly by her side, followed by the rest of her friends. “Great, the Tree hates you too, huh?” Vinyl asked. The feeling of the overwhelming flood of magic was fading, so Twilight put her hoof back down and tried to stand. She wobbled at first, but found her footing before too long. It was… weird, but she felt like her exhaustion had been completely wiped away. If the world hadn’t been in the middle of ending, she might’ve been up for a marathon. “Are you okay?” Octavia asked her. “Did… Did it work?” Lyra looked her over, trying to see if she could tell whether or not Twilight’s magic was back. That, or she was checking to make sure touching the Tree hadn’t resulted in any horrific mutations. Not feeling particularly mutated, Twilight tried to call upon her magic. POP! Twilight almost flew backwards as her horn erupted to life. Her magic pulsed out of her in a way she hadn’t expected. Reinvigorated, she looked up to face her friends, meeting their surprised faces with a grin. “It worked, I take it,” Bon Bon noted. Twilight gave a confident nod. “Yup.” “Man, it’s too bad we had Cadance leave. One touch of the Tree and she would’ve been back in business,” Vinyl said. Twilight winced, realizing Vinyl was right. It was too late to get her back though; Shining and Spike were undoubtedly hoofing it back to town at this point. But that was all right, she’d be fine back in Ponyville where she could rest. “So you can cast the tracer spell now?” Octavia asked. “Yes,” Twilight said, confidence filling her voice. She focused on her magic, preparing to cast the spell. Her jaw clenched reflexively as her concentration hardened. She reached out to the Tree of Harmony, hoping that its connection to the Elements would help her track them down. It probably would; it had been nice so far. The raw magical energy of the Tree was easy for Twilight to detect. However, she shrugged it away and started searching for something else, piggybacking off of the energy of the Tree to find samples just like it. What she got was a plexus that seemed to span almost endlessly. Confused, Twilight realized that it was instead the roots she was seeing. With a grunt she willed the Tree to show her the Elements instead. The roots slowly faded to the background, and six new signals blinked into existence. They were faint, but present nonetheless, and what they represented was clear. Twilight grinned. She focused harder on these six new signals, but that was no easy task. Few, if any, were even remotely close to each other. They were divided across the series of roots from the Tree, spread across all of Equestria. Her grin shifted to a grimace. How were they supposed to get all of the Elements like this? If she led everypony around on a scavenger hunt across Equestria, Nightmare Moon and Discord would be left to their own devices for days. Who knows what could happen? At best they had a few hours before the situation was irreversibly dire. So she wouldn’t be able to get back all of the Elements herself, but then the only other option would be to… split up. Cracking an eyelid open while maintaining as much composure as possible, Twilight glanced back to her friends. A few weeks ago, she would have no qualms with that idea. She’d be ecstatic, actually. But now… now she couldn’t see that happening. She needed those mares by her side. She needed her friends. They kept her grounded, sane, on edge, and even creative. Without them she never would have made it this far. And yet, now they wouldn’t be able to go much further together… Twilight sighed. Splitting up was their best option, their best chance, to make this work. If they didn’t, everypony in Equestia, Princess Celestia, Cadance, Shining, Spike… they’d all be doomed. “Girls,” Twilight said, her decision made. “I need your help for this.” “Uh… what do you need?” Lyra asked. “Get in close.” “Aww, Smart Mare wants another hug,” Vinyl gushed. “No, I—” She stopped short, realizing that this could be their last chance for one. “Yeah, okay.” “Bring it in, everypony!” Lyra was the first to wrap Twilight in a hug, almost knocking her over in the process. As Twilight struggled to keep her balance and maintain her concentration, Vinyl came in and practically tackled her from the other side. Octavia was next, far more gentle than the two before, followed by Bon Bon, and finally Derpy lowered herself from above until she was practically roosting on her back. Twilight smiled; feeling the warmth of the group hug spread all over her. In the back of her mind, she silently wished that they could stay like this for a long, long time. But in the front of her mind, she was already casting the spell. She took one of the signals and matched one to each of her friends. She had no idea if the right Elements were given to the right ponies, but it didn’t really matter if they were. They could always just exchange when they met up again. Plus… she kind of had a feeling the Tree of Harmony would make sure they were the right ones. Clearly it trusted her friends with the Elements now, so she would trust that it knew what it was doing. With a blink, the spell was over. To anypony that might have been watching, it would have seemed very anti-climactic. One bright flash of light, and it was done. Her friends broke the hug immediately, each feeling the effects of having their brains slightly tampered with. Twilight could feel it too; the tugging sensation was back, telling her just where to go to find her Element. “Oh stars, my head!” Vinyl gripped her scalp, glasses slipping off to reveal her widening, red eyes. “Make it stop!” “Vinyl, calm down,” Twilight said. Surely it wasn’t that bad. “Um, Twilight, what did you do to us?” Octavia asked, rubbing her temple. “I gave each of you the coordinates for one of the Elements,” she explained, looking over their confused faces. “Oookay…” Bon Bon tightened her lips and shook her head. “Well, forgive me if I opt out of future group hugs if this is the end result. Celestia, if feels like there’s an angry bee in my head.” “You could’ve at least warned us,” Lyra complained. “Sorry.” Twilight grimaced, realizing that suddenly being hit with the tracer spell probably wasn’t the best feeling in the world. “But at least now you all should know where your Elements are.” Lyra blinked, turned around, and stared off into the distance. “Uh… yeah. Got it.” “I… yeah, I can feel it too.” Octavia was looking into the opposite direction. Twilight nodded, almost turning her own head to face the direction of her Element. The tugging of the spell was not easily ignored. “I know it’s not ideal, but we need to split up in order to find all the Elements in time. Can you girls handle it?” Vinyl grinned wildly. “What’s the matter, don’t trust us, Smart Mare?” She smiled softly. “No, I trust you.” “Great!” Vinyl flung her foreleg around Lyra, knocking her out of her staring-trance. “By the way, it kinda looks like we’re going in the same direction.” “We are?” Lyra asked. “Oh boy. I don’t envy you, Lyra.” Octavia giggled slightly as Vinyl shot her a look. Bon Bon massaged the side of her head, likely trying to alleviate the stress of the tugging sensation. She stared off into the distance for a moment, before nudging Octavia. “I think ours are in the same direction too.” “Great,” Twilight said. “Buddy up if you can, but we can’t afford to stand around anymore. We have to get the Elements as soon as possible.” Vinyl raised her hoof. “Question: what if we have to do something illegal to get our Element?” Octavia promptly smacked her. “Vinyl! What kind of question is that?” “...How illegal?” Twilight prodded. “Don’t tell me you’re entertaining the thought!” Octavia gasped. With a shrug, Vinyl replied, “breaking and entering, or that kind of stuff. Just planning ahead in case my Element landed in like, a billionaire’s summer home or something.” “Well… hopefully it won’t come to that.” Twilight said, shivering at the thought of what Vinyl might do in such a mansion if she had the chance. “But I’m sure Princess Celestia would pardon us if we end up saving the world.” “Fair enough.” “This is ridiculous.” Octavia shook her head and flicked her tail. “Come on, Bon Bon, we need to go.” “Sure thing.” The two of them started off. Vinyl pushed Lyra into motion. “Same to us. We’ve got a potential mansion to break into.” “Uh…” Lyra shot Twilight a look that was somewhere between ‘Help me’ and ‘Oh dear Celestia, help me! HELP ME!’ It was probably the latter. As her friends started off to recover their Elements, Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, letting go of her focus so the tug in her head could direct her. Once she had a good feel for where to go, she opened her eyes again and got all of two steps in. “Twilight, wait!” She froze, turning her head to see Derpy landing next to her. Twilight was surprised; Derpy had been so silent lately that she’d almost forgotten she was still here. “Um… yes?” Derpy bit her lip and shuffled her hooves. Twilight could tell immediately that something was on the gray mare’s mind. Or at least, she thought so. She wasn’t the best at reading ponies. “What is it, Derpy?” she pressed, needing an answer soon. “Well… I-I...” Derpy fumbled over her words. Twilight frowned. They did not have time for this. “Listen, we both really need to—” “I want to go after Nightmare!” “...” Derpy furrowed her brows. “Um… Twilight?” “No.” She shook her head firmly. “No no no no—” “But—” Twilight held up her hoof. “You didn’t let me finish.” Derpy slowly closed her jaw, clenching it tightly as she waited. “...No.” “But Twilight, she’s about to make the biggest mistake of her life!” Derpy stamped her hoof in the ground. “I know you don’t really like her, or trust her, or anything, but please… I know she isn’t as bad as she makes herself out to be. She’s just hurt, Twilight. She’s broken and she’s pushed everypony away because she feels hated and alone.” Tears actually began welling up in Derpy’s crossed eyes. “I know what it’s like to feel so alone, like no pony is there for you. But I know if she just had a friend... if she just believed I’m her friend, then…” Derpy sniffled. “Please… she’s been alone for so long, but she’s really not a bad pony deep down. But if she goes through with this then she might never be whole again. She’ll never have a friend or anypony who can help her… We have to stop her, Twilight. We just have to.” Hot tears streamed down Derpy’s face. “You know, in all the time I’ve known her, she’s been rude. She’s been downright mean. But you know, she’s never made fun of me… for this.” Derpy indicated her eyes. Their crossed, forever goofy expression made her an easy target for teasing. The phrase ‘derped up’ came to Twilight’s mind: a prime example of just that. But in truth, she couldn’t remember anything Nightmare might’ve done to make fun of Derpy for her eyes. “That’s why I have to believe, that deep down, maybe she cares too much to hit me where it hurts. Maybe… maybe she sees me as a friend. Maybe she could see all of us as friends, if we just helped her this one time.” As Derpy’s speech finished, she wiped the tears from her cheeks. Her sniffles were now stifled as she tried to appear more determined than emotional. She looked at Twilight, mismatched eyes only conveying one thing: please. Twilight would be lying if she said she wasn’t moved, at least a little. But certainly not enough. Logic told her that they wouldn’t be about to pull friendship out of the black void that was Nightmare’s heart. Somepony who was so casual about killing her own sister… could even the Elements fix that? “Derpy, it’s a mistake. Look, I’m worried about Celestia, but I have to believe that she can hold her own until we find the Elements of Harmony. They’re our only hope right now, so that’s what we need to focus on.” Twilight chewed her cheek as Derpy deflated. “I know you feel like you’ve built a bond with her, maybe you have for all I know, but she’s got a thousand years of hatred inside of her. Do you really think you can wash that away with a little love and tolerance?” Derpy folded her ears down. “You know, I… I thought you finally understood friendship.” Twilight flinched. Derpy turned around and spread her wings, ready for a take off. Twilight tensed up, prepared to… well, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do if Derpy tried her foolish plan. Derpy crouched down, ready to leap off. Before she did, however, she glanced at Twilight again. “She could have killed us back there, when Discord freed her. Easily. But instead she let us go. I know it sounds crazy, but you can’t tell me there isn’t somepony in there worth saving. If I have to do it myself… I will.” Twilight’s muscles locked up at that. Derpy took to the air, her eyes dead set on Canterlot. “Wait!” She screeched to a halt and looked back at Twilight. The outburst had undoubtedly surprised her, but not as much as it had Twilight. Derpy hovered for a moment and lowered herself down a few feet. “Yeah?” Twilight sighed, unable to believe that she was about to say this. “All right, okay... I’ll come with you.” A grin wide enough to split Derpy’s head in two erupted across her face. “Really?” “Yes, really,” Twilight grumbled out. Then she wheezed as a bone-crushing hug suddenly ambushed her. “Oh, stars…” “Thank you so much, Twilight!” “Oh, don’t thank me,” Twilight coughed out. “If Nightmare ends up killing me, I’m going to come back and haunt you till the end of time.” “I don’t doubt it.” Derpy said, releasing her. “Now let’s go!”