Heart of Magic

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Twenty Four: Edgy Princess

Heart of Magic

Chapter Twenty Four: Edgy Princess

Written by TheCrimsonDM

Twilight stared at the book. She’d been reading for over an hour now and her vision was beginning to suffer from it. The words on the pages had become washed over by a layer of fuzz. For a long while she laid there trying to read pas the fuzz yet unable too. It had been many, many years since her vision had done this when reading.

A long time ago, although it only felt like a little bit ago, Twilight would on occasion have issues when reading for extended periods of time. Twilight put the book down leaving it open and with a flicker of magic summoned a pair of reading glasses. Once she put those on she went back to her book. Pieces of her mane kept falling in front of her face though so she put her hair back into a bun before continuing.

She stayed like that for quite some time until she noticed something at the corner of her eye. “Starlight, why are you staring?”

Starlight shook her head. “I’ve just never seen you wear glasses before.”

Twilight let out a sigh. “I haven’t had to since long before I first met you.”

“So you used to have vision problems?”

Twilight put a book mark into the book and closed it. Reading it would seem was going to be an impossibility no matter what she did. “Yes.”

“When was the last time you had to use them to read?”

Twilight grumbled. “I don’t know.” After a moment she gave a better answer. “Back when I was trying to figure out why the Crystal Ponies lost there shininess. We figured it out eventually, but I read a lot of books then.”

Starlight nodded. “So it was before you were an alicorn.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah it…” she blinked took her glasses off letting them vaporize back into pure magic. She rose to her hooves and galloped to the restroom, shutting the door behind her. Twilight stared into the mirror. “Before I was an alicorn…”

Twilight lifted the eye patch up off her eye and opened it. The magic contained within shone bright, and vivid. Her vision seemed to change, to expand when she did. Hesitantly Twilight forced her good eye closed and sat still. Her breath stolen from her as she realized something was different from before. Something that filled her with unlimited amounts of both joy and fear.

She could now see out of the place where she kept her alicorn magic.

And in the mirror, just behind all the light Twilight saw it.

Her eye had returned.

***

Trixie was standing in the workshop located on the first floor of Twilight’s castle. A large open square space where one would see all kinds of strange machines. Modified vehicles with strange shining weapons built into them, pony shaped metal suits filled with arcane magic and science parts that boggled Trixie’s mind. A few of the weapons looked far too devastating to consider ever using. This place was less a workshop and more an armory.

It had also been locked behind seven layers of magical wards which took her, Celestia, and even Luna three days of cooperative work to disarm. Looking at these weapons she understood why. Celestia looked on with disapproval, Luna had already left like a ghost.

Trixie was looking for something, she wasn’t sure exactly what, but she was looking for it. An orb she assumed from the notes. Celestia picked up one of the weapons, Trixie recognized it as a riffle, only covered in shining runes of many colors. There was a trademark apple on the stock. “What was Twilight making in here?”

Trixie found a pony shaped helmet, it was bright pink and had three balloons etched into its metal. “I don’t think she was alone. I’ve heard tale that Applebloom and Pinkie had been working with Twilight on some secret projects. I just didn’t expect them to be so… militarized.”

From the doorway a familiar voice stated, “Ah can tell you both right now, that most of what we did was military.”

Trixie turned to see Applebloom standing there. She had a holstered revolver at her side. Trixie blinked. “Why are you armed?”

Applebloom shook her head. “What, y’all didn’t think Twilight wouldn’t put some kind of warning system in for us? Ah’m sure Pinkie saw the alarm too, just don’t know if’n she cares enough to stop a possible thief.”

Celestia stared at her. “And you?”

“Ah know the kind of damage these devices can cause if they are let loose into the world uncontrolled.” She eyed them both. “But Ah trust you two to have good judgment on what to do with these.”

Celestia narrowed her eyes at some of the weapons. “These look like… the kind of inventions found only in the Seekers Archive. Weapons I have done my most to keep away from pony’s minds, and thoughts.”

Applebloom nodded. “Yep, most of them are based on schematics Twilight copied from there. She recruited me and Pinkie to help her find the schematics. She recruited Flim and Flam to help construct them.”

Trixie looked around her. “But… why? Why build all of this?”

Applebloom laughed. “After the windigo war Twilight realized that all it would take is one more conflict like that to wipe Equestria from the map… also what do you mean all of this?”

Trixie and Celestia both looked at her with widening eyes.

Applebloom smirked. “This is just a workshop, surely you didn’t think this was all there was.”

***

Twilight walked through the town, her eye patch back on her face. Last thing she wanted to do was to have everypony staring at the light bulb in her socket. Of course she might require that magic eventually. Her mind filtered back to the threat Equestria was currently facing, but out here it felt so far away. Not at all like it was a real threat. Everypony seemed so happy here, not at all concerned for the issues facing the country. Then again Twilight was reminded that this town was a bit odd for a pony town. It technically did not fall under Equestrian jurisdiction due to a series of laws and border markings, this town was actually a sovereign entity but one that let Equestria rule over it due to the benefits gained from the trade goods.

If the enemy was targeting Equestria itself then this town would be safe. It was also likely why she hadn’t seen head nor tail of any soldiers in town. They couldn’t put a military presence here without violating some treaties. Meaning the town was normally defended by its resident ruler and alicorn princess ‘Starlight Glimmer’ and that was fine for smaller tasks. Heck she could likely be a tactical nuke against a horde of dragons if she wanted to, but this threat was beyond anything Twilight could imagine.

She paused to look at the sky. Her throat was growing dry. She wanted some answers, answers to keep everypony she loved safe, even if they didn’t want her. Lucky for her the flask was long gone, or else its allure would be too much for her.

“Hiya, Twilight!” Cozy’s voice chirped.

Twilight was getting used to her random appearances at this point. “Hi, Cozy.”

Cozy landed beside Twilight. “You have that look in your eye again. The one that says like, ‘I’m concerned about something really far away and not important to the here and now’”

Twilight glared at her. “I have a look now?”

“Course ya do. It’s the same look you were making when I first met’cha. The one that made me want to say hi and snap you out of it. You-” Cozy said with a pointed hoof to Twilight’s chest, “-need to stop brooding.”

“You know a little bit of what’s out there at this point. And how I screwed it all up.”

Cozy blew a raspberry. “Come on, Twilight. Those things are left for other ponies. Let’s just focus on having fun, and relaxing, and being super cute.”

Twilight blinked. “Did… you just call me cute?”

Cozy smirked. “Oh you wish. I’m the cute one, you’re the uh… smart one.”

“Oh, wow, thanks.”

“Well it’s true, I’m supposed to be cute and silly, you’re supposed to be smart and edgy.”

“Edgy!”

“Of course!” Cozy giggled. “You’re always like, ‘the world is ending, and it’s all dark, and I did bad stuff and don’t deserve good things’. That’s what I call edgy.”

Twilight sat down. “Of all the things I have been called over the years. Edgy is not one of them.”

“Your welcome!”

Twilight let out a sigh. “Fine, let’s do your plan. Let’s have fun.”

Cozy squeed and flew into the air doing a loop. She stopped so close in front of Twilight’s face there muzzle’s were touching. “YOU MEAN IT!”

“S-s-sure.”

Cozy landed and started to walk forward. “Then come with me, I’m going to show you a secret place of mine! It’ll be an adventure.”

Twilight followed a little reluctantly. There was something about the mare that reminded her vaguely of Pinkie Pie. It caused her heart to ache a little but at the same time it gave her a bit of hope. Maybe Cozy was right, maybe she just needed to relax, have some fun, and try to forget about things best left to better ponies. For now she should just focus on herself and her rehabilitation.

It’s not like anything bad was going to happen anytime soon right?

Comments

[TheCrimsonDM]

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Tempting Fate or asking fate to come into your home, break your knees, and then steal everything you own. Considering Twilight's track record in the universe so far...