The Ties that Bind

by the7Saviors

A Miraculous Surge

"...think they'll wake up, Uncle Scroll?"

Black.

An endless comforting sea of darkness.

Trixie didn't know what was going on or where she was, but that was okay.

She was calm.

She was content.

Perhaps more than she'd ever been in her life.

"...oken up by n..."

She could hear voices, but they were far away and unimportant.

The only thing that mattered right now was the darkness, wrapping her in a comforting embrace like a mother would it's ch-

Mother.

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT!"

Twilight gave a startled yelp and scrambled backwards as Trixie suddenly shot up from the bed she was lying in, panting and shaking as she frantically looked about the room.

She suddenly stopped and whipped her head around to face a wide eyed Twilight and a grimacing Ancient Scroll. She continued to stare at them as her look of panic changed to one of confusion.

"What happened to Trixie?" she looked around once more, "Trixie doesn't remember going to bed. What-"

She spotted Sunset Shimmer asleep on the other side of the bed.

Memories suddenly came rushing back to the blue filly and her eyes widened in shock as she looked at Sunset.

"What... what did Trixie do?" she turned to Twilight and Ancient Scroll for answers. Twilight in turn, looked to the old stallion for the same answers.

Ancient Scroll stroked his beard in silence as he thought on the matter.

"Well..." he began, "what do you think happened, little filly?"

Trixie blinked and turned to Sunset Shimmer once again, furrowing her brow in thought.

"Trixie... doesn't know. Trixie wasn't thinking, she just... acted," she looked back to Ancient Scroll with a worried frown, "is she going to be okay?"

Ancient Scroll nodded with a small smile.

"She'll be fine, girl," he assured, "just give her a bit more time to rest. In the meantime..."

His smile turned to a curious frown as he looked at Trixie.

"I may not know exactly what you did, little filly," he said slowly, "but I'm willing to bet my bottom bit that there was some latent Mind Magic at work."

Twilight and Trixie gaped at the stallion.

"Wha - but... that's impossible!" Twilight cried incredulously, "you can't just tap into your latent magic and pull a successful spell out of your horn like that - not without practice! It takes years of extensive-"

"And how exactly did you manage to pull off a teleportation spell that would've killed a full grown unicorn with four times your skill?"

That stopped the lavender filly cold.

"I... that - we don't know if that's what happened for sure," she mumbled looking away, "and that was just a normal magic surge..."

Ancient Scroll shook his head and gave Twilight an admonishing frown.

"Now don't lie to yourself, little filly," he said sternly, "you and I both know that wasn't any normal surge."

Twilight shifted uncomfortably.

"And besides, just what do you think a magic surge is, little filly?" Ancient Scroll challenged with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight huffed indignantly. She puffed out her chest and raised a hoof as if to give a lecture.

"A magic surge happens when a unicorn - a foal usually - loses control of their Soul Magic due to-"

"Any magic."

Twilight blinked.

"...what?"

"Now, usually it is primarily Soul Magic that's prone to go out of control, as that magic is the most strongly tied to our emotions," Ancient Scroll continued in a lecturing tone to match - and surpass - Twilight's, "however, that doesn't mean other types of magic aren't affected.

"Though it's rare, magic surges of any other type can occur in the right - or wrong - conditions," he had started pacing at some point, lost in the lecture as he was. Trixie had hopped off the bed and now stood next to a starry eyed Twilight as they watched and listened to the old stallion.

"If you'll remember the little fiasco that happened just yesterday-"

"Wait, yesterday?" Trixie interjected in surprise, "what do you mean yesterday? Trixie's been out for a whole day?"

"Oh, right," Twilight said, grinning at Trixie sheepishly, "we forgot to tell you. You and Sunset Shimmer were completely out of it until now," she cast a quick glance at the still sleeping orange filly, "well... Sunset's still asleep, but we tried to wake you both up and neither of you would even budge. So we just put you two in bed and waited."

Trixie looked at Twilight a moment, before turning a worried gaze to Sunset Shimmer.

"And... she still hasn't woken up..."

Twilight noticed a bit of fear hiding under the worry, and she trotted over, giving Trixie a quick hug and reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, Trixie," she said, stepping back, "Uncle Scroll said Sunset was going to be okay, so let's just trust him, alright?"

Trixie kept her eyes on Sunset for another moment before nodding. She turned to say something else, but Twilight had already shifted her attention back to Ancient Scroll.

"What were you saying about yesterday, Uncle Scroll?" the eager lavender filly asked.

Scroll nodded, "It may have looked somewhat similar to a normal magic surge born of Soul Magic, but the incident yesterday was a prime example of an Elemental Magic surge - one of the more dangerous surges if you ask me.

"They're all dangerous of course, but you saw how quickly things could've gone from bad to worse if Trixie or I hadn't acted when we did," at this, he flashed Trixie a proud smile.

Trixie's face grew red and she looked away,

"Anyway," Scroll continued, "that's all beside the point, because what Trixie did wasn't a magic surge."

"It wasn't?" Twilight asked, brow raised in surprise. Trixie made a similar exclamation at the same time and Ancient Scroll chuckled.

"Nope," he said simply, "what Trixie did was much more uncommon and - interestingly enough - happens only to foals," he began pacing again, the two filly's eyes following him as he trotted back and forth.

"Thaumatologists haven't quite pinned down how it works just yet, but there have been instances of unicorn foals unconsciously tapping into their latent magic without the effects of a surge to pull off some amazing feats of magic that even adult unicorns struggle with. However, like I said before, it's very uncommon."

He gave Trixie an impressed nod before turning an inquisitive eye to Twilight.

"Your case is more than a bit strange though, little filly," he said, half to himself.

Twilight nodded with a frown, already seeing where Ancient Scroll was headed.

"If what you think happened to me did actually happen," she surmised, "then I shouldn't even be alive."

He nodded and continued.

"It's not just that, girl," he said stroking his beard as he spoke, "your little stunt showed both the characteristics of a surge and what thaumatologists call a 'magic miracle'.

"By the blackened horn I saw when we first met, I could clearly tell whatever magic you had cast had gone out of control, as that only happens when a unicorn bites off more than they can chew - and when that happens, nasty, and often deadly, magical feedback is sure to follow."

He shook his head and looked at Twilight in wonder.

"But that didn't happen to you - not exactly anyway," he tapped a hoof on the floor for a few seconds, trying to collect his thoughts, "like Trixie, you were able to pull off a magic miracle, but it seems as though it was only at the last second."

He looked Twilight in the eye with a grim expression.

"You very nearly died, little filly."

Both Twilight and Trixie shuddered involuntarily at the thought.

"Another thing I don't understand though," Scroll continued, "is why your... miraculous surge, was born of Soul Magic."

"What do you mean, Uncle Scroll?" Twilight asked in bemusement.

"One thing those folks over at the Institute have figured out, is that, while they don't know the how or why of it, they do know that magic miracles are always born of a unicorn foal's latent magical affinity."

"And my latent magical affinity is Dark Magic..." Twilight deduced with a contemplative frown, "that... doesn't make any sense."

Trixie looked between the two in confusion, before a thought came to her.

"Can unicorns have two magical affinities?"

Twilight and Ancient Scroll stared at the blue filly.

"...What?"

Trixie continued to look on in confusion as the other two unicorns glanced back at each other with wide eyed expressions.

"That..." Twilight began nervously, "that should be impossible... shouldn't it?"

Ancient Scroll frowned at his hooves.

"...Maybe not, little filly," he said slowly. He suddenly trotted towards the bedroom door, "I need to check something a moment."

After a moment of hesitation, Twilight followed after the stallion.

Trixie sat there in bewilderment as the door closed behind Ancient Scroll and Twilight.

"What did Trixie say?"

Author's Note:

Thus, the plot thickens...

And I ain't talking about Celestia and her cake.

Comments

[Ze1a7in]

... Screw Twilight having two. If she is still going to be the Element of Magic, why wouldn't she have an affinity for all of them? Maybe her affinity for Dark Magic is just strongest?

[the7Saviors]

8776678
Don't make assumptions just yet, there's still plenty of story left to go.

It's like I said before, we're just getting started.

[Tali_The_Lamia]

8776678
As much as I love twilight as best pony. That would make her WAY to Over-Powered.
And unless the story is based on her being over-powered, then it kind of ruins the story a bit. Like Starlight Glimmers appearance. If you like her, good on you.

[Snow]

8837407
Imagine a library. This library is utterly infinite. Every speck of knowledge false and true, mythical, lost, or yet to be discovered is shelved, organized, and every version of its writing that ever was or will be can be found, and all you have to do is ask for it.

Except... To every question one might ask, there are a subset of an infinite number of answers that are nearly infinite themselves. So you have all the answers, all the power, all of the options in all the world, and it is utterly worthless without knowing the exact. right. question. Sure, you could grab at random, and what you find has just as equal odds of being rubbish as being useful, and that's if it's even in a language you can read. Or even comprehend.

Power at your fingertips is meaningless without knowing how, when, and why to use it. How to even access it. And having a thousand doors to choose from doesn't help when you only need one, and you aren't sure which. Perhaps Twilight really does have all the options in the world, but without the knowledge or the stamina involved, what good is it? And with so many choices, how does one know what to do? It's why you always find so many stupidly powerful - but specialized - characters. Because people don't know the best option. And the more things they can do at any given time... the more chance they make the wrong choice.

[Thatsnoreason]

"Can unicorns have two magical affinities?"

Twilight and Ancient Scroll stared at the blue filly.

"...What?"

Trixie accidentally provided a ground breaking question.

8898887
Wow deeply insightful.

[ShadwSonic]

8898887
Such is why, even in this digital age, there are some better suited to finding the answers than others... the true power of the Internet only reveals itself to those who can ask the right questions.
However, in the context of "why not all affinities", I'm not sure that mentality applies... such a thing seems more to me like tools in a toolbox, and there may be times where using these in conjunction with each other can achieve results impossible to reach otherwise. THIS is what it means to have a talent for magic in general (without being too OP), and Twilight's talent has only deviated from that in a small handful of fics... even less do so convincingly.

[The Lurking Creep]

Thus, the plot thickens...

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img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1489/46/1489464979977.jpg

[The Cynical One]

I swear the author is sat outside my window watching me write these comments... if you’re watching this then do tap the glass. I’d be very rude to keep a guest outside. Besides my latent paranoia... this is the good stuff. You have robbed me of very important sleep... I commend you on that!

[PrimordiusLordofThestris]

I loved this chapter and cant wait for more but also to see more of the VERY interesting Thestral always love to see a well made Thestral character and if my gut is right (and it normally is) our secret friend will be important very important

[Raziel80]

Delightful thus far cant wait for more (added to favs)