Crystal Note - Where life leads us

by TalkingToMyself

Hearth's Warming - Part IV

Author's Note:

Some exposition, mixed with a little fluff.
This chapter was originally a stand-alone story with Sunburst instead, but I think Starlight Glimmer works so much better for it and this is a perfect occasion as well, so here it is now.
Merry Christmas everyone!

“Okay, now let’s get started.”

Crystal Note nodded and took the spot in the middle of the almost circular room. Starlight Glimmer had cleared out this study from every piece of furniture and Crystal Note’s special talent let her hear a deep humming in the background from the protective wards the unicorn mage had set up. Starlight Glimmer used this room to experiment with new spells or work on very difficult or dangerous ones, so she and Princess Twilight had decided for a little extra security, just in case.

Not that any of it would be necessary for Crystal Note. Even though she had a horn and access to unicorn magic, her magic talent remained underwhelming even with practice. She could not get past basic level spells and she didn’t have the magical endurance to keep any spell up for a long time, with the exception of her ‘bubble of silence’ spell. Princess Twilight had not been surprised by that, this spell was based on sound, so it was only natural that this spell would work exceptionally well for a unicorn with a special talent in music like Crystal Note.

Starlight Glimmer had been the one to encourage her to explore her special talent further and find more uses of it. Ever since she had become a crystal unicorn, Crystal Note could hear magic. She could hear when a unicorn was using a spell around her and she could detect large sources of magic like the protective wards in this study or the crystal heart back at home. With some practice, she could soon even tell apart different unicorns from another while they used magic. When she focused enough, she sometimes even could tell the spell they were using. Magic sounded like music and she got very good at recognizing the complex melodies and patterns that made up spells and enchantments, while different unicorns sounded like different instruments to her.

Today, Starlight Glimmer and Crystal Note would work some more on her skills. Crystal Note sat down in the centre and closed her eyes as she gathered her magic. Starlight Glimmer sat close by, her own horn already glowing. She could not hear magic like Crystal Note, but the very skilled mage had a natural understanding for magic and developed a vast variety of spells to analyse magic.

Crystal Note ignored the music in the background. Starlight’s teal magic always sounded like piano music to Crystal Note and this spell came as a slow and sedate melody. She called for a spell that was natural to her by now and with a soft glow of turquoise around her horn, a small ball of light of the same colour appeared, hovering just above the tip of her horn.

“Good. Now pour a little more magic into it, nice and slowly.”

Crystal Note followed that order as close as she could and in her mind, she started singing the song that corresponded to the light spell a little louder. A trickle of light penetrated her closed eyelids, telling her that her mage light was indeed glowing brighter now, just as she had intended.

“Great work. Notice how your spell gets more difficult to control like this? That’s because you need to strengthen the spell matrix as well when you put in more magic.”

Crystal Note frowned but kept focus on her spell and pouring more magic in

“How do I do that?”

“Most unicorns do it by instinct. You need to adjust the wavelength of your spell for the increased amount of thaumic feedback.”

Crystal Note’s frown deepened. She knew she didn’t do so on purpose, but Starlight Glimmer used some terms she simply didn’t understand. Sometimes, they seemed to be talking in different languages altogether.

‘Wavelength’ was something she knew from music as well. It meant something about how high or low a note would sound. In her head, she started singing her song one octave higher than usual and somehow, she felt some kind of pressure she barely even noticed before fade away, even as she increased the volume further.

“You did it, Mommy! Look!”

Velvet Heart’s voice almost made her lose control of her spell. She opened her eyes and saw her filly sitting next to Starlight Glimmer. Somehow, Velvet Heart must have slipped in while she had been concentrating and now she took everything in with wide-open eyes. Crystal Note smiled gently at this. There was no fear in Velvet’s eyes, only curiosity and fascination.

She looked up at her mage light and understood why. Usually, her ‘torchlight spell’ helped her create a small ball of light, maybe a little bigger than an apple. Right now, she had a ball that was easily four times the size floating above her.

She looked at Starlight Glimmer and the mares smiled

“Great job. Try to keep it at this level for as long as you can. Are you feeling tired yet?”

Crystal Note shook her head and closed her eyes again in focus

“Not yet. I just feel a little strain.”

“That’s normal. I’d say you’re using about five times the amount of magic like you normally do. If you’re not tired, let’s try something else now.”

Crystal Note nodded and waited for further instructions. She was a little concerned about Velvet Heart being so close, but she trusted Starlight Glimmer to protect her in case something went wrong

“Okay, you changed the spell matrix and magic output. Now you’re going to try and relocate your origination point.”

“Huh?”

Starlight giggled softly

“Sorry, my bad. Um, you’re going to try and move your spell around the room instead of having it float above your horn.”

“Ah.”

Crystal Note smiled, she had done that before, albeit with smaller light orbs. She quickly changed a few notes of her song in her mind and under Starlight’s watchful eyes, the mage light travelled through the room in any direction she wanted

“Perfect. Now for something tricky: Let’s try and change the colour of your light.”

Crystal Note blinked and tilted her head

“You can do that? I always thought the colour depended on the unicorn who casts the spell.”

“Nope, not at all. You can modulate the output fluctuations by applying different forms of… um, I mean you can control it almost like you control the size. Let me show you.”

With a flick of her horn, Starlight Glimmer summoned half a dozen lights of her own, all while maintaining her analysis spells and a protective spell for Velvet Heart. Crystal Note felt just a little envious when she noticed that. She was already feeling the strain for keeping up only her light spell.

She closed her eyes and focused on Starlight’s magic. She noticed how the melody of her spells changed and Velvet Heart oohed as the lights started to glow in a different colour each. Crystal Note couldn’t figure out any relation between the colours and the changes of the spell-melodies, so she just tried to mimic as best as she could. It was very hard to focus by now, so she hummed the notes of her spell under her breath to stay in tune. She tweaked a few notes here and there, but with her eyes closed, she couldn’t see if it really worked.

After a minute, she heard Starlight Glimmer and Velvet Heart giggle softly

“Really? Pink?”

“I think it’s pretty!”

Crystal Note opened her eyes and couldn’t help but smile. Her light spell still glowed brightly, but now in a pale shade of pink instead of the usual turquoise. She tried to change the spell into a different colour, but suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her horn. With her focus broken for that moment, she lost control. The ball of light quickly grew in size and there was a bright flash. Even though she clenched her eyes shut, it blinded her for a moment.

She snapped her eyes back open when she heard a shriek nearby and even though she couldn’t see, her head jerked from side to side and she reached out with her hoof

“Velvet Heart!”

The moment of blindness passed and she wrapped her hooves around the filly who jumped towards her

“Mom! Are you alright?”

“Of course I am, dear. But what about you? Are you hurt?”

The filly shook her head but stayed close in the embrace

“You startled me.”
“I’m so sorry, Velvet.”

Velvet Heart quickly calmed down again and after a nuzzle from Crystal Note, pulled out of the embrace to sit next to her mother. All the while, Starlight Glimmer was watching with a pensive expression

“Sorry, I probably should have warned you ahead that something like this might happen.”

“Wait, you knew this was going to happen?”

Crystal Note glared at the unicorn while reaching out to hold Velvet’s hoof, more to calm herself than anything else really. Still, the thought that Starlight would possibly put Velvet in danger didn’t really go well with her.

“I was expecting it. We were trying to push your magic endurance after all. You just lost control of your spell, that’s all. “

Starlight at least blushed when Crystal Note’s brow furrowed more

“I would never try anything dangerous with Velvet Heart around, I swear!”

Crystal Note sighed as Velvet Heart squeezed her hoof

“I know. I’m sorry, Starlight.”

“Don’t be. I should have told you.”

Velvet Heart looked between the mares and pouted

“I’m not a baby! You can stop worrying now.”

Starlight Glimmer chuckled and visibly relaxed as Crystal Note’s frown turned into a proud smile for her filly. When she thought Crystal Note wasn’t looking, Starlight mouthed a ‘Thank you’ to the filly who just smiled

“Mom, can I ask you something?”

“Of course, dear. What’s on your mind?”

“Flurry Heart said you fought back the Windigos with your magic. How did you do that?”

Crystal Note just shook her head with a smile while Starlight hid her giggle behind her hoof

“I’m afraid Princess Flurry Heart exaggerated with that story. Prince Shining Armour fought them and Princess Cadance chased them away. All I did was buying a little time before they arrived.”

“Can I see?”

Starlight grinned and winked at the crystal unicorn

“What do you say, got enough juice left for a shield spell?”

Crystal Note closed her eyes and nodded

“I think I might. Give me a second.”

Velvet Heart got up to give Crystal Note some space, but Starlight just motioned for her to stay at her mother’s side. She watched in awe as her horn started to glow softly at first but quickly grew as bright as before. She was holding her breath, excited to see what would happen next, when Crystal Note started to sing

When there was darkness all around

And no other pony to be found

I sit alone in the dark

And I cry

Velvet Heart had heard her mom sing before, of course, but only rarely with that kind of intensity. When she sung lullabies, her voice was gentle. When she sung on stage, her voice was full of emotion. Right now, she sounded kind of hard and severe. The song wasn’t one of her usual repertoire, none of the sad songs that had made her famous or the cheerful songs she sung nowadays. To Velvet Heart, this one sounded almost angry.

With the song, the light from Crystal Note’s horn spread out into a half-sphere that covered them both. She had seen it before from Flurry Heart once and recognized this as a shield spell, just like Starlight Glimmer had said. The dome of light was semi-transparent and of the same turquoise colour that surrounded Crystal Note’s horn. Velvet Heart looked between the mare and the magic. It had been a long time since she’d been nervous about magic, but this time she felt the complete opposite. With the magic bubble around her and her mother next to her, she felt incredibly safe, protected even.

Starlight Glimmer was outside of the little barrier that just covered the two crystal ponies. She knocked her hoof against the shield with a smile. Velvet Heart realized she was testing it. Starlight winked at the filly and leaned forward to poke her horn against the spell. Next to her, Crystal Note closed her eyes more firmly and her singing grew a little louder.

The barrier flared up as Crystal Note poured more magic into her spell and her voice was strong and clear as she pushed back against Starlight Glimmer

I need your love

I’m a broken rose

Come and heal me from frozen pain

Your smile, your eyes

Save me just for me

Starlight Glimmer grinned and pushed a little harder, and with a soft ping even Velvet Heart could hear, the barrier shattered. Crystal Note opened her eyes again and Velvet noticed that she was breathing harder

“Not bad. You’ve been working on it.”

Crystal Note smiled weakly to Starlight and shook her head

“Not really. But I guess I’ve been using a little more magic in general recently.”

“Well, there you have it. I told you, you’d be better with magic if you kept practicing more.”

Crystal Note just smiled and surprised Velvet Heart with a hug

“I’ve got all the magic I could ever need.”

“Mom! That's embarrassing!”

They giggled at Velvet Heart’s pout and the filly wiggled free. After a quick glare to her mother, she turned back to Starlight Glimmer

“How comes you could just break her spell so easily, when it could even hold back Windigos?”

Starlight smirked and winked

“I’d love to tell you that I’m just that good, but I suppose the answer is far more simple, Velvet Heart. Your mother is a crystal pony.”

“Huh?”

Velvet Heart looked back at Crystal Note who giggled softly

“The day the Windigos attacked, I was very desperate. And as you know, strong emotions mean strong crystal magic. I was somehow able to put that into my shield spell, at least for a little while.”

Starlight Glimmer nodded

“Emotions can influence unicorn magic in many different ways. Adding crystal pony magic into the mix can amplify that even further.”

Crystal Note smiled and nuzzled Velvet Heart

“Luckily, I’ve never had to rely on that ever since.”

Starlight gave a wry smile and nodded

“I'm glad, too. I would love to explore how that sort of magic works, but at least that means you haven’t been in any severe danger anymore.”

Velvet Heart just smiled and nuzzled back

“Sounds fair to me!”

They laughed together as Starlight Glimmer lit up her horn with another spell

“Hm, seems like your magic has mostly recovered, Crystal Note. So how about the next lesson?”

Crystal Note nodded and focused on her magic once more, while Velvet Heart stayed at her side and watched in awe as Starlight guided her through another exercise.