The Ties that Bind

by the7Saviors

A Distracted Twilight

Twilight entered the cottage just as Ancient Scroll popped into the middle of the living room, breathing heavily from the combined exertion of the water manipulation and mass teleportation spells.

"My age is catching up to me..." he grumbled as he fell to his haunches. Twilight levitated off her borrowed scarf and galloped over to where Ancient Scroll and the others were.

"Are you okay, Uncle Scroll?" she asked as she slowed to a stop in front of the winded stallion.

"I'm fine, little filly," he panted, giving her a reassuring smile, "just gimme a minute and I'll be good as..."

He trailed off as his gaze idly swept over the unconscious blue filly, eyes widening in alarm.

"Uncle Scroll?" Twilight asked following his gaze, "what's - what happened to Trixie!?"

Various patches of fur had been singed off when Trixie had made direct contact with Sunset during her surge, showing heavily scarred skin underneath. Ancient Scroll had already known of the scars, but it seemed Twilight had only just noticed - much to his dismay.

"Uncle Scroll?" Twilight asked, turning to the stallion for an explanation, "what happened to Trixie? Did Sunset do this?"

Ancient Scroll grimaced and turned away, unable to look at the worried filly.

"...Uncle Scroll?"

He was quiet for another moment before giving a weary, resigned sigh and turning his gaze to Trixie.

"...No, little filly," he said quietly, "those scars are old."

Twilight's eyes widened and she stared at Trixie, her mind racing with possibilities and scenarios.

"What... how did she-"

"Don't ask, little filly," Scroll said with a shake of his head, "it's not for me to say. You'll have to ask her yourself," he gave the blue filly another once over as Twilight sat frowning at her hooves in thought.

"Some small burns, but nothing serious, thank Celestia," Scroll muttered as he observed Trixie, "some ointment and fur growth tonic should fix her right up."

Twilight flinched at the mention of Celestia.

Ancient Scroll grunted as he began lifting Trixie onto his back.

"Look after Sunset for me a moment, would you, filly?" Ancient Scroll asked, "I need to take care of Trixie."

At that, he trotted off to the bathroom, leaving Twilight alone with a sleeping Sunset Shimmer and her own thoughts.

Her thoughts.

She didn't even know where to begin with her thoughts.

It had been a total of five days since they all began their assignments. Normally, Twilight would've just been finishing up her first read through of both her books and begun her extensive note taking procedures for her second read through, but she had been distracted.

Ancient Scroll had given her one book on the dangers of Dark Magic and how to avoid them, and another book on Dark Magic fundamentals. She had only ever read about how dangerous the practice could be and had never taken the time to explore it in any way.

As it was, she had only just started reading through the book on Dark Magic fundamentals for the first time when everything started to fall apart.

She had been able to more or less suppress her thoughts on her own situation thus far, but reading through her second book had begun to pull those thoughts to the surface, as a lot of the subject matter regarding Dark Magic was rather morbid.

It had begun to remind her of what she suspected became of her family. Her memories of the events leading up to her arrival all the way out here were still hazy, but she had her suspicions of what had occurred.

She was also starting to get homesick.

Twilight had asked Ancient Scroll about how she had ended up near his cottage. He had explained that, during a magic surge she couldn't quite remember, she most likely teleported all the way from Canterlot to a secluded area just shy of the Unknown West.

That was his guess anyway.

Twilight was stunned initially, she couldn't fathom the kind of power it would've taken to pull something like that off and she was certain the attempt would've killed her outright.

Yet it was the only thing that made sense, given what she did know of her situation.

Either way, she missed her family, she missed her home in Canterlot, and - as afraid of the answers as she may have been - she wanted to know what happened to her parents and brother.

The nightmares weren't helping either.

She had been plagued by horrible images of half remembered events that she was unable to recall when she inevitably awoke. She may not have remember the dreams, but the fear and sadness stayed with her.

All of these thoughts and feelings made it almost impossible for her to concentrate on her studies and she found herself falling behind more and more.

And now she had new issues to worry about on top of the ones she already had.

Up until yesterday, she had been content with minding her own business and dealing with her own problems, but that had changed when she overheard Ancient Scroll and Sunset talking in the study.

Twilight had wanted to ask Ancient Scroll for some advice on how to clear her thoughts and focus. Her anxiety had been getting to the point where not even Cadance's breathing techniques were helping. Sure, she was able to keep up a relatively positive attitude around the others - and there were even moments where she was genuinely happy.

But she was beginning to feel the strain of hiding her stress.

So it was that she had decided to consult Ancient Scroll on the matter, only to stop just short of the doorknob when she heard Sunset's panicked voice.

She hadn't caught everything that was said, but what she did hear shocked her deeply.

Namely that Sunset Shimmer had had some kind of personal relationship with Princess Celestia and that the Princess had done something awful to Sunset. And from the sound of Sunset's voice, Twilight could tell that whatever it was, was very bad.

What was Twilight supposed to think?

She had never personally met the Princess, but she had always assumed, like everypony, that the Princess was a kind and benevolent ruler with a strong devotion to her subjects, and here Sunset was, outright calling her a bad pony.

And then there was Trixie.

Twilight didn't know much about the filly. Setting aside her illeistic tendencies and apparent conceit, Trixie never really talked about herself in any meaningful sort of way - none of them, including Twilight herself, did now that she thought about it.

Despite some of Trixie's more irritating qualities, Twilight had come to enjoy the blue filly's company and was beginning to see her as a friend. Sunset on the other hoof, had always seemed more distant to Twilight. There was just something about the orange filly that seemed to push Twilight away, which made it difficult to form any kind of bond between the two.

Now, as she sat in front of the fireplace looking over a slumbering Sunset Shimmer, she had time to reflect on the other two. She found herself feeling guilty that she hadn't tried to learn more about the other two fillies. She felt awful that she couldn't help Sunset during her magic surge and equally as bad when she saw Trixie's scars.

Of course she couldn't have known - they had been covered by her fur and Trixie had never said anything about it, but Twilight still could've just asked. She could've gotten to know Trixie - and Sunset - better and maybe then they might've said something.

Maybe she could've said something about herself.

Then they might've all been able to deal with their problems together, as friends.

It was then and there that Twilight decided.

Once Sunset and Trixie were better, she would do her best to push aside her own problems and reach out to the others, no matter how long it took. And once they all became friends...

Then maybe...

Maybe they would help her find out what happen to her family.

Author's Note:

The wheel of fate begins to turn!

Now the story can really begin!

...or at least that's how I feel, at any rate.

Comments

[Ma Zedong]

... In which Ma Zedong officially wins his 25 bits because of a traumatized Twilight and is now starting to feel kinda bad about it.

With every chapter you deliver a more and more interesting story, and you just keep delivering. No notable errors, solid and interesting characters, and delivered on an almost-daily basis. Major kudos on that, most authors on this site only get two out of those three things accomplished at most.

[the7Saviors]

8772451
Thanks for the high praise!

I'm trying to work out the story as I go and I think writing (or at least trying to write) at least one chapter a day really helps keep the story fresh in my mind.

[theoldhunter]

And thus the plot thinks

[Venerable Ro]

Dark magic. I'm digging thru my canons and I am having a difficult time thinking of very many utilitarian uses for dark magic, at least uses that would appeal to twilight.

Don't get me wrong, an infuriated Dark Mage, robed in his power and commanding a full understanding of his field; is a black horror on the battlefield. But that is not at all what twilight wants from her life, not at all. So what can dark magic offer, that twilight would actually want to learn?

There's shadow work; invisibility, shadow-walking, an obscure form of planeswalking if you're willing to wring the concept out of your paradigms.

Equestrian dark magic in particular includes crystal magic, (for some reason), the ability to create your own crystals tuned to specific purposes is actually very useful. Sombra demonstrated the variety of enchantments possible with that talent. Twilight could actually get a lot of mileage out of the practical application of dark magic crystals in the greater realm of equestrian magiks.

Blood magic, oh-hell-to-the-f**k-NO.. if you'll excuse my Klatchian, there's nothing anyone needs to think about here.

Fear magic; in addition to the well-known propensity for terror-auras, this branch of dark magic usually includes a near total immunity to magically induced fear, and a fair resistance to mind-altering magics in general.

So yeah, there's some possibilities, but most of it tends to curve back around to winning a fight, or doing something unpleasant to someone in some other fashion. Twilight's rendition will certainly be interesting to see, It is always good to add a new facet to one's paradigms, and peaceful uses for dark magic will be quite the facet!

Edit- whoops, almost forgot one of the biggest facets! dream-craft! yes, dreams, while they can be affected by mind magic, properly belong to the sphere of the Dark. Luna's full dominion is potentially open to Twilight, from dream-walking, to lucid dreams of her own. The limits are only defined by the imagination of the dreamer, and twilight has quite a mind!

[light997]

All magic is great magic and anyone who says otherwise is bias and emotional.

[Victor07]

I'm telling you, Trixie suffered from parental abuse

[DiscoPanda84]

8886378
Can also be used for medical purposes, if done right... Like, say, binding an undead's will to the undead person rather than the customary option of binding it to the one who raised said undead, so that a healing spell has time to repair fatally catastrophic damage to the body, after which they simply become normal living again...

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/429737/hinterlands