• Published 19th Feb 2018
  • 6,064 Views, 1,290 Comments

The Ties that Bind - the7Saviors



This is the story of a bond forged between three fillies and the many trials and tribulations that strengthen that bond as they grow older. Friendship, secrets, and a dark journey awaits.

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A Return to Reality

A day.

It had been more or less a full day since Blue Moon had cast her spell, and both Fia and Corona had been worrying nonstop for their friend. When she had first cast the spell, they had both nearly had a heart attack.

Blue Moon had leaned in next to Wild Evergreen -- horn aglow, there was a bright flash of pink... and Blue Moon had fallen over like a puppet with her strings cut.

It had taken a good half an hour or so for both Rouge and Yojimbo to convince the panicking fillies that Blue Moon was alive and well -- at least, they knew she was alive at any rate.

Either way, neither Wild Evergreen nor Blue Moon had woken in several hours and as it got later in the day, the others were forced to move them into the stationary caravan for the night.

Ancient Scroll had yet to wake from his own slumber, but it was much clearer to see that the old stallion was okay. Magical exhaustion, while not nearly as severe as magical burnout, still required a large amount of rest, and Ancient Scroll would be out for a while longer.

Fia had taken this opportunity to scour Ancient Scroll's collection of tomes to see if she could find anything on Blue Moon's Mind Walking spell, but to both her and Corona's surprise, suspicion, and worry, they hadn't found a single book detailing such a spell.

So all they could do in the meantime was wait and worry.

Yojimbo had suggested splitting up Blue Moon and Evergreen, but despite her misgivings, Fia had opted against the idea. It was her reasoning that separating the two might have adverse affects and the black filly wasn't willing to risk finding out if that was the case.

And so it was that everyone had gathered in the sitting room, Blue Moon and Wild Evergreen taking up two of the cots next to each other. They had observed the occasional twitch from the borderline comatose duo, but neither of them had made a sound.

Nighttime had well and truly fallen as Fia and Corona watched over the two. They both sat a little ways away, books open to pass the time and twin mugs of the apple cider they had picked up from Apple Core's tavern resting on the floor next to each of them.

Fia did her best to try and focus on the book she was reading, but she couldn't help but take notice of Corona's constantly shifting gaze. Every now and then, the maroon coated filly would look up from her own book to give Blue Moon a contemplative look.

After about ten minutes of this, Fia couldn't take it anymore and sighed before closing her book and giving Corona a pointed look.

"Corona, we can't just stare her awake, y'know," the black coated filly said flatly, "I'm worried about Blue Moon too, but we can't do anything right now except wait."

"She's right, little one," Rouge added from the armchair, her own book in hand and a mug cider on the small table in front of her, "a watched pot never boils, and fretting so much will not bring the filly out of her current state."

"Yeah, the pup's fine as far as we can tell, just need to wait for her to wake up," Yojimbo said from his spot on the couch. He looked up from the book he had begrudgingly chosen to read while they waited and glared at the dark green mare on the other cot, "the little lightning bug can stay that way though. Makes much better company that way if you ask me."

"No, that's not it," Corona replied to each of them, slowly shaking her head as she eyed the pale blue filly on the cot, "it's the spell she cast," she turned to Fia with a furrowed brow and a concerned frown, "where did she learn it if not from any of Uncle Scroll's books?"

"I... I don't know," Fia admitted, turning her own bemused gaze towards Blue Moon, "but she said she had more or less learned the spell inside and out."

"Exactly," Corona replied with a nod, "how? And from who?"

"You think she was taught by somepony?" Fia asked, turning back to Corona with a look of surprise, "she's been with us the whole time, though. Who could've taught her to do something like that?"

"I don't know," Corona answered uncertainly, "but... doesn't this Mind Walking spell strike you as something above what Tr... Blue Moon is capable of -- above what any of us are capable of right now?"

"Well, I don't think it'd be that hard to learn," Fia muttered, taking a sip of her cider to hide a small offended frown, "Trix -- er... Blue Moon is a lot smarter than we normally give her credit for, and she's just as diligent as we are when it comes to studying magic, if not more so sometimes."

Fia set her mug down and turned back to Blue Moon as she spoke.

"If she can learn something like that, I'm sure we could too," she concluded, "it's just a matter of how she learned it. It would've had to have been from... a... book..."

Corona raised an eyebrow as Fia trailed off, her eyes widening momentarily.

"Fia?" the maroon filly asked warily, "are you okay?"

Rather than answer, Fia furrowed her brow in thought.

"Maybe... was it from that book?" she muttered, "it was focused on Mind Magic, and I didn't get that good of a look at it, so it might be possible..."

"Fia?" Corona asked again, somewhat annoyed, "what is it? Did you find something out?"

"Maybe," Fia replied distractedly, rising to her hooves and quickly trotting past a surprised Corona, "I'll be right back, I'm gonna go check something real quick."

"But... wait, Fia! What..."

Corona called out to the other filly, but Fia was already closing the door behind her. Rouge and Yojimbo glance at door, then to each other. The husky merely shrugged and went back to his book while Rouge looked over to the annoyed maroon filly.

"What was that all about?" Corona muttered grumpily, "if she found something out, she could've at least told me what it was..."

Rouge chuckled lightly before addressing Corona.

"If it bothers you so much, why don't you just go after--"

A loud, sharp gasp from the direction of one of the cots drew everyone's attention and they all turned to see Blue Moon shoot up from where she lay, her horn sparking a few times before dying down.

She shuddered and held her hooves to her temples, letting out a groan of pain and exhaustion. Corona, Rouge, and Yojimbo all gave various cries of surprise as Blue Moon's horn sparked brightly once more.

This time however, the bright spark Blue Moon's horn discharged caused her disguise to fall away in a flash of green flame, revealing Trixie beneath the facade.

Trixie groaned again and fell backwards onto the cot. Seemingly unconscious once more. So sudden and unexpected was Trixie's reaction, that the others didn't notice Wild Evergreen's face twist in pain and her body give a few violent spasms before settling back into a peaceful state.

For a few moments, no one moved or spoke -- all of their eyes wide and locked on the two cots. It was around that time that Fia threw open the door and trotted back into the room, a book held in her magenta aura.

"I think I may have found something on what happened to..."

She paused and looked at the trio in confusion before following their wide eyed gazes to the cot where Trixie lay. Her own brows shot up in surprise and she quickly trotted over to the azure filly.

"T-Trixie?" she cried incredulously before turning to the others, "what happened? Why is her disguise gone?"

"I don't know!" Corona replied, raising her hooves defensively, "she suddenly woke up and her horn was flashing, and then poof! Her disguise just... vanished!"

Fia was quiet for a moment, her mind working to process what could've transpired while she had left -- the book she had brought with her now forgotten on the floor behind her. She turned back to Trixie just in time to see her shift on the cot.

The azure filly groaned again and cracked her eyes open. She slowly sat up once more, blinking rapidly and shaking her head before looking around in confusion.

"Trixie is... wait," she blinked again and turned to see the others staring at her with various looks of shock and confusion, "so... Trixie is back, then?"

The response she got was to be pulled off of the cot and into a tight hug by the other two fillies. She gasped for breath and weakly patted Fia on the back.

"Trixie is... glad you missed her, but... she can't... breathe!"

The other two fillies released her and stepped back, both throwing incoherent, half formed questions her way all at once. This lasted all of a minute before Rouge and Yojimbo intervened on Trixie's behalf.

"Alright, that's enough of that," Yojimbo announced, walking over to the fillies, "come on, girls, give her some space. Let her breathe a little will ya?"

"Agreed," Rouge said, from where she sat, "Trixie has no doubt been through much on her journey through the--"

Rouge was cut off by another loud gasp that was quickly followed by a pained grunt. She and the others turned to see that Wild Evergreen had awakened. The dark green mare looked much like Trixie did when she had first awoken.

She was sitting atop the cot, her eyes clenched shut and her hooves clutching her head in obvious pain. She shuddered and gave an agonized and drawn out groan before shaking her head and snapping her eyes open.

Wild Evegreen's body suddenly seized up with a sharp intake of breath, relaxing again a second later. She blinked a few times and shook her head again before frowning in confusion.

The others watched with various reactions ranging from wariness to confusion to trepidation as the dark green pegasus finally took in her unfamiliar surroundings.

"Where the buck..."

Her eyes settled on Trixie and stayed there.

Trixie's breath hitched in her throat as Wild Evergreen continued to stare at the filly blankly. After a moment the filly raised a shaky hoof and gave the mare a weak and nervous smile.


"T-Trixie is... u-um... glad... to see you're o-okay... Fell Wind."

Author's Note:

I wanted some specific things to happen in the near future, but I just made it a bit more difficult for myself with this turn of events... :ajbemused:

Ah well, I'll think of something. :pinkiesmile:

Also 200k words! Finally! :pinkiehappy:

Well, technically it's a little under 200 words short, but come on, let me have this one, guys.

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