Cardcaptor Twilight

by Yukito

The Glow

Twilight felt groggy when she woke up this morning. It had been a full week since the incident where Trixie had given her half of her magic, but she still felt the effects of having another pony’s magic running through her veins.

It also didn’t help that Trixie’s magic was a lot more reactive than her own, albeit in shorter quantities. She had to learn to tone down her spells, so that they wouldn’t strain her too much, and also had to be careful not to exhaust herself each day.

‘Trixie was able to perform many spells each day, and didn’t seem worn out at all… She must have discovered some method to harnessing her own magic efficiently. I’ll have to ask her about it when I see her again.’

Today, though, was no time to feel worn out. Today was the Running of the Leaves race, and Twilight had intended to participate in it once again this year.

“Hi-hi-ho!” Kero shouted as Twilight walked over to her mirror, and began to brush her mane. As she looked into her eyes, and noticed the changes in them since that incident, she immediately turned away.

One eye reflected what she had lost, and the other eye showed what somepony had given up, to save her life. She looked up at Kero, who was floating above her, stretching his legs. “… Kero, I have to ask you something.”

“Sure. Go ahead,” Kero said, floating down and landing on Twilight’s desk.

“… Level with me, Kero: how dangerous exactly is this whole ‘Cardcaptor’ thing?”

“What d’ya mean?”

“I mean, how many more creatures like that one that attacked me and Trixie are going to show up?! How many more times is somepony’s life going to be in danger?!”

“… As long as the Clow Cards remain on the loose, nopony is safe from them. The only way to stop it, is to seal them away. As for that boy, it didn’t seem as though he came here for the Clow Cards. Though, I’d be lying if I told you that there aren’t those out there that will be after them. But right now, you and that brat should be the only two able to seal them away. So long as you keep your identities as Cardcaptors hidden, you should be fine.”

“… Is that the truth.”

“It’s all I can offer you.”

Twilight sighed, and resumed brushing her mane, only taking periodic looks into the mirror, to avoid any long-term eye contact with her own reflection.

“Alright… I’m going now, Kero. The Running of the Leaves starts at noon.”

“You’re not gonna eat before the race starts?”

“The girls and I are going t have a picnic together over at Applejack’s.”

“I see… Hey, wait! What about me?!”

“… Just, try not to eat out the entire fridge, okay? Other than that, do whatever.”

“Hmph. Just use Dash and win that stupid thing already.”

“That’d be cheating!” Twilight shouted. “I’m not going to do something like that! The purpose of this race is to have fun, and get the leaves to fall off of the trees with all of our running.”

“Alright, alight. It was only a joke, don’t get so worked up over it.”

“… Later, Kero.”

“Later, egghead.”

---

“Racers, on your marks!” Mayor Mare waved the flag in her forehoof down. “GO!”

All of the ponies gathered at the start line took off immediately, leaving the mayor in a cloud of dust. At the back of the pack was Twilight Sparkle, following her books’ lessons and taking the first leg of the race slowly.

“Such beautiful scenery. I wish Trixie were her to see this.” Twilight wondered why she wanted Trixie to be there at that moment, but shook of the strange thought. ‘I just want to share this view with somepony. That’s all.’

Above her, Twilight noticed Pinkie Pie and Spike in their hot air balloon, performing live commentary on the race below them.

“And in the lead is Applejack, followed closely by Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash takes the lead! Now Applejack! Now- Oh! This sure is a surprise!” Spike facepalmed. Twilight wasn’t sure why, until she heard Pinkie Pie’s next line. “Taking the lead is: Surprise!”

Twilight giggled at Pinkie Pie’s pun, and continued her slow running through the woods. She looked to her left at the trees to her side… And then gasped, when half of her vision suddenly changed. The left side of her vision was still the trees with their orange leaves, but the right half…

‘W-What the? What’s going on?’ She stop running, but still found the right half of her vision to be moving. It looked like some kind of stone labyrinth, only, the walls extended pretty high up. She tried to move her head, but the vision wouldn’t change. At least not as she expected it to.

She saw another pony there, though she didn’t recognise them. She couldn’t even tell if it was a stallion or a mare, because they were wearing a hood. Suddenly, an object came into view. ‘Trixie’s staff?’

“Ooh, pretty!”

Twilight was snapped out of her thoughts by Pinkie Pie’s voice, and suddenly, the strange image was gone. Looking up at the balloon in the sky, she could see many green lights filling the air. “Looks like a gift from the heavens! What do you think, Spike?”

“I think they look like green jewels in the sky!” The baby dragon extended his tongue to try and taste one. “… Only, not quite as solid…” he said in a disappointed voice, accompanied by Pinkie Pie’s giggling.

“Twilight!” Twilight jumped, and turned around, to find Kero flying behind her. “Twilight, I sensed a Clow Card! Is everything alright?!”

“Kero… W-What are you doing?! What if somepony saw you?!”

“Well, what else was I supposed to do? But forget about that now! Tell me, has anything strange happened yet?”

“Well… there’s that glow in the sky.” Twilight pointed up to where the green lights were floating in the air.

“… Oh. Is that all it is?” Kero breathed a sigh of relief.

“What do you mean? Is it not anything to worry about?”

“Nah. That’s Glow. Like Flower, Glow is completely harmless. It’ll just create those lights in the sky, that’s all.”

“I see… So, it had nothing to do with that vision then, huh?”

“Hm? Vision?”

“Oh, nothing!” Twilight cautiously looked around herself. “So, where’s Glow’s main body?”

“You’re gonna capture it now? What about the race?”

Twilight looked behind herself. “… I doubt I’ll catch up now. Besides, after the race, ponies might come and investigate.”

“Well, if you’re sure you want to… You just have to go to where the lights are coming from.” Kero looked up at the lights in the sky, and then down to a path leading up the nearby mountain. “They seem to be comin’ from up there.”

Twilight nodded. “Right. Let’s go do this… Y’know, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah. It feels good to finally see some action again!”

---

As Twilight passed the finish line, receiving the last place medal, she was immediately swarmed by her friends.

“Twilight, what happened?” Applejack asked. “Ah thought ya’d get at least tenth out there today!”

“What, you pull a muscle out there or something?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight decided to use that as her excuse. “Uh, yeah… Something like that.” She was quickly pulled aside by Rarity.

“Twilight, darling, you went out a captured a Clow Card all by yourself, didn’t you?” she whispered into her friend’s ear.

Twilight was shocked. “H-How’d you know?”

“Because Kero told me,” she said.

‘Kerooooo!’

“Twilight, I cannot believe you would keep me out of something like this!”

“C-Calm down, Rarity! Fine, I’ll stop by your shop later and show you the card I got, so you can make your new costume. Happy?”

“… Well, I suppose, it’ll have to do. But in the future, please don’t leave me out of such things, Twilight. I hate to think of you going up against such things all on your own.”

Twilight smiled at her friend’s concern for her. “Right. I’ll try harder to keep you in the loop next time.”

“Hmmm… It’s strange,” Kero said.

“What’s strange?” Twilight asked.

“”Well, earlier, I sensed two Clow Cards, at the same time. But, the other one vanished, just now.”

“Must have been Trixie,” Rarity suggested. “That would explain why she didn’t show up here, at least.”

“I guess so, but… What’s strange, is that I was able to sense it.” Twilight and Rarity both looked confused at that. “Remember, I can only sense Clow Cards when I’m meditating. I was bored today, so I decided to meditate, to see if there just happened to be a Clow Card nearby.

“However, I usually can’t sense a card as far away as this other one was. I wonder why I could this time?” Neither Twilight nor Rarity had an answer for him. Kero decided to break the short silence that followed. “Ah, whatever! Twilight got a new card today! I say we celebrate by throwing a party, naturally with lots of cake!”

“Did somepony say party?” Pinkie Pie asked, suddenly appearing in-between Twilight and Rarity. All three gasped, and Kero quickly adopted ‘stuffed toy mode’. “Hey, that’s a great idea! A Running of the Leaves party, to reward all the ponies that worked so hard to clear up the falling leaves!”

Twilight quickly used her magic to stuff Kero into her bag, receiving a few mumbled grunts from the Guardian Beast. “Y-Yeah! That sounds great, Pinkie Pie!”

“Alright everypony, party at Sugarcube Corner, pronto!” Pinkie Pie pulled Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy from somewhere, and huddled everypony together into a big group hug. “By the way, cute toy, Twilight.”

Inside Twilight’s bag, Kero groaned, and shifted about to try and find some breathing room. Twilight simply giggled nervously. ‘Sorry, Kero. I’ll get you a big slice of cake, so just bear with it, okay?’

Comments

[AkatsukiKaizoku]

Short update it seems, but I am glad to know this story is still going!

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Glad to see it continuing as well.

[Mattricole]

WHY IS THIS SO UNDERRATED !? I'm sure everypony would agree this deserves more views.

[Yukito]

2319308

I've noticed that crossover fics don't tend to get as many views as other fics. Most of the views for my fic Chibi Changeling probably came from me mentioning it on DT Likes Anime. Or the cute pic of Berry Punch and Pinchy.