• Published 4th Feb 2016
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Hero Souls: Awakening - SvenFoxx



Twilight always knew she was different. She just never imagined it was her soul that was different.

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27. Journey to the Center of the... oh, wait.

“How fast do you think you can fly now?”

Fluttershy paused in step for a moment and looked at Rainbow Dash. “I’m sorry?” she asked, the question having caught her off guard. Realizing she had stopped she continued walking with her friends towards the mountain.

“Well…” Rainbow fidgeted for a moment, looking uncertain. Fluttershy wondered if something was wrong. “You said you’re basically the best thing a Pegasus can hope to physically achieve. So… how fast are you?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Fluttershy hummed in thought. “I… don’t know? I mean, the top speed Steve Rogers ever reached was roughly thirty miles an hour in a dead sprint, but humans weren’t built for speed, nor could they fly under their own power.” She shrugged. “I don’t know how fast I can go, not without trying first. Why?”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, but paused. She seemed unsure about something, before shaking her head. “It’s nothing, Flutters. Just curious.”

She jumped and flew up ahead towards Twilight. Fluttershy watched after her with a feeling that she was missing something important.

---

“Hey, how much further is it, Twi?” Rainbow asked, flying up next to Twilight, who was walking like the others.

“At the rate we’re going, we’ll get there maybe an hour before nightfall. We may have to set up camp at the base of the mountain and continue in the morning,” Twilight said after a moment of consideration.

“What?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “You mean we’ll be doing nothing but boring walking all day?”

“Gee, I didn’t think you hated us that much,” Applejack said sarcastically from behind. Rainbow Dash winced, realizing how that sounded.

“Darling, none of us are happy about this journey,” Rarity commented. “My mane is going to be matted with sweat and grime before long, and I have a backorder of outfits that need to be finished before Monday.”

“And ah got work on the farm that needs to get done. We fall behind, and our income suffers fer it,” Applejack reminded her friend.

Pinkie bounced by. “I’m happy! We’re gonna make a new friend! The Cakes can run Sugarcube Corner without me for a day,” she exclaimed happily.

“I’ve got research to do at home,” Twilight explained. “I’m studying for the Archmage test. If I pass, I become a registered Archmage, with access to the highest tier of spells in the Archives!” She looked giddy at the idea.

“I’m normally gearing up for a sweep around the edge of the Everfree for wild weather… or maybe a nap,” Rainbow grumbled.

After a moment, everyone looked at Fluttershy. Said Pegasus was looking at the ground, obviously lost in thought. She looked up and blinked at the fact that everyone was staring at her expectantly. “Oh! I’m sorry, what did I miss?”

“We were talking about what we do at home for work,” Twilight explained.

“Oh,” Fluttershy said. “Well, I take care of the animals of the forest if they come to me, as well as the pets of the townspeople, and… ” she trailed off and looked down again.

“Are you okay, dear? You seem awfully distracted lately.” Rarity asked.

“What?” Fluttershy asked, looking up. “Oh! I’m sorry, I just… well…”

“Fluttershy? Are you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked, flying to her friend.

Fluttershy nodded. “I’m fine!” she said, smiling. “Just… had a nightmare last night, that’s all.”

“Are you sure?” Rainbow asked in concern.

“I’m sure,” she reassured her friend.

Rainbow Dash didn’t look convinced, but let the matter drop. “If you say so,” she said.

---

The group, as Twilight predicted, reached the base of the mountain shortly before sunfall. As they were unpacking their camping gear, Rainbow Dash thought of something. “Hey, Twi!” she called.

Twilight pulled her head out of her pack, pulling a… stack of books with her? “Yes Rainbow?” she asked.

Rainbow stared for a moment, before remembering herself. “First, how did you fit that many books in your saddle bags?” she asked, unable to hold in her curiosity.

Twilight blinked, looking at the books and her bag, before realizing what she meant. “Oh! There’s a rune for space expansion stitched into both of the packs, as well as a rune that links them. I did it a few years ago when I got worried about the muscles I was developing from carrying so many books everywhere I went.” She shrugged. “I would have just made a Master Book, but I don’t have the fine control necessary to weave the spells together correctly, and pre-made ones are expensive.” She frowned. “Really expensive.”

Rainbow Dash sweat-dropped as Twilight started to run off into a mumbled tangent about ridiculous prices, greedy store owners, and ponies that corner the market in enchantments. After it became clear she had lost Twilight’s attention, she cleared her throat.

“What?” She looked up. “Oh! I’m sorry Rainbow Dash. What was the other thing?” she asked in mild embarrassment.

“Why don’t you and I just fly up to the top real quick and see what the situation is? Between your strength and my speed, we could kick any dragon’s butt with ease,” Rainbow asked.

“Ah, that.” Twilight pushed her saddle bags aside so she could focus on Rainbow Dash. “Well, on paper it’s a good idea. After all, we’re not entirely sure what’s going on, other than the fact that there’s a sleeping dragon up there. Once that was confirmed, Celestia ordered the Guard to withdraw.”

“So… why don’t we?”

Twilight glanced at the mountaintop, where an eagle-eyed pony, or a Unicorn with telescopic vision, could spot a cave with black smoke billowing from it. “Because politics suck.”

“Eh?” Rainbow Dash said in confusion.

“The Skyland Concord forbids a pony from trying to force a non-aggressive dragon to do anything. You could be imprisoned for up to twenty years for trying. If we fly up there as fast as we could and start demanding answers, the dragon would be well within his rights to have the Royal Guard detain us for being unnecessarily aggressive,” she said the last bit sarcastically.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t quite stop the disbelief from showing on her face. “Unnecessarily… He’s blotting out the Stars-be-damned Sun!!!” she exclaimed. “How is that not an aggressive action on his part?!”

Twilight sighed. “Because we have no proof that he’s doing it on purpose. For all we know he could be injured and unable to move, and expelling smoke because he’s trying to burn something from his body and failing. The possibilities go on, but the point remains the same. If we move aggressively now, we get fingered as impatient, uncooperative, and generally the bad guys on the national stage. It doesn’t matter if we had good reason to be suspicious. We need proof. That’s why I said politics suck.”

She looked away. “Besides… there’s another possibility the Princesses shared with me, one that’s kind of worrying.”

“More so than the potential century-long Night?” Rarity asked, having overheard the conversation.

Twilight nodded. “What if the dragons are doing this one purpose? What if they’re hoping this will provoke an aggressive reaction?” Her eyes narrowed.

“What if they’re trying to drag Equestria’s name through the mud?”

Author's Note:

Lore: Master Books are enchanted tomes that can be used to copy the contents of any written document that is not, itself, inherently magical in nature into the book. The size of the book never changes, but the amount of pages it can hold depends on how much magic is fed into the book during its creation.

The knowledge to create a Master Book is not actually secret, but the enchantment process requires both large reserves of magic and incredibly fine control over magic. There are currently only seventeen Unicorns alive today that can actually create the books, making them a rare product and therefore incredibly expensive.

Princess Celestia has claimed she is incapable of creating the books, but only because she tends to use too much power too fast, resulting in the runes etched into the binding self-destructing.

---

Author's Note: So... I just realized that, with the dragon background as I have made it, I can't really make the Smaug wanna-be... well, be a Smaug wanna-be. Being granted what basically amounts to a passport to other worlds is a privilege for dragons, one not handed out lightly to a single dragon or small groups of dragons. It makes it too easy for said small group to make the dragons as a whole look bad if they mess up badly. That means that if I go the route of canon in terms of characterization, I make the dragons look like absolute dicks, which isn't what I want.

So that's gonna change.

You know, that dragon backstory I made was something I threw in on an impulse. I'm not only glad it was well received, but I ended up finding a way to incorporate it into the overarching plot of the Hero Souls trilogy. Yay sporadic muse! :yay:

Finally, I just now found it, but someone mentioned that, way back in the first chapter, Twilight should have been skewered by the magic sword when she saved Fluttershy. I could make an excuse as to why it didn't, and I even know of a theoretically sound reason why it shouldn't have skewered her, but frankly I'll be honest. I had completely forgot about that when I decided on Twilight's magic weakness.

I could go and change it now, or even give you that excuse, but I think I should own up to that mistake. I fumbled the ball so badly here that it wound up in the opposing team's goal. I'm going to leave it there as proof that I messed up, and a reminder to try not to make that mistake again.

Besides, I am a die-hard believer in Rule of Cool, and any of you who says that wasn't cool wouldn't know cool if it gave you frostbite.

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