Heart of Magic

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Twenty Nine: Shattered Trust

Heart of Magic

Chapter Twenty Nine: Shattered Trust

Written by TheCrimsonDM

“Listen here, Twilight. Never tell your ex that she’s looking like she put on some weight. Otherwise she’ll lock you up in a magical flask for over a decade.” Discord laughed as he spoke.

Now Twilight noticed that everypony was staring at the small goey form of Discord. With a fascination that was caused by a mixture of shock and horror Twilight watched as Discord grew to his normal height and his body solidified back into its old form. He stretched, worked his arms and legs, and yawned as if he was just getting up from a nap.

Twilight blinked. “Discord?”

He almost purred in return. “That’s my name, try not to wear it out.”

Well she had completed her objective… but now she had a lot more questions and a distinct feeling of disgust rising up inside her. “You were inside my flask?”

Discord laughed. “Of course, how else do you think I was able to help you out so much these past ten years.”

For a long moment Twilight simply stared, stunned into silence that not only was her flask actually a magical artifact, but it was where Discord had disappeared too for all these years. There were so many questions she had about this, about everything, of course she didn’t know where to start.

Luna jumped in with a question, “So… which part of you was the mouth piece of the flask?”

Discord winked. “You don’t want to know.”

Twilight could already taste bile on the back of her tongue. This was not the line of questioning she wanted to go down, ever. Instead Twilight decided to change direction. “So, all these years, every time I’ve gone to the flask for answers… it was you giving them to me?”

Discord shrugged. “Who else could answer all of your questions besides me?”

Twilight growled. “You, you were responsible for destroying my whole life.”

Discord’s yellow eyes met Twilight’s and she felt a chill run down her spine. “Now, now, Twilight. Was I the one who killed the Pinkie Clones? Did I brain wash the entire town into falling in love with a doll? Did I force the entire town to play a ‘prank’ on Rainbow Dash letting her think she killed everypony and zombiefied them just to teach her a lesson?”

Twilight swallowed. All of these examples were from back when Twilight was sober, and Discord was still everypony’s friend.

Discord nodded. “You see, Twilight. You already caused wounds that may never be healed, all I did was force you into a place where you’d have to see the damage you did, and actually work towards fixing it.”

Twilight lowered her head and took a step back. He was right. She had been an awful pony in the past. How many times did she do things that were pretty horrible but never once questioned them. Heck she had spent an entire day spying on and stalking Pinkie Pie once, because she was obsessed with Pinkie’s psychic powers. She knew better, but she did it anyway.

Discord nodded. “Now you can actually reflect on your actions and try to make up for them.” He then studied Twilight and a cold smile grew over his lips. “Ah, I see your little spell worked.”

Twilight looked back up at him. “What do you mean?”

“You wanted to go back in time to before you had hurt your friends,” Discord laughed, “Let’s just say that was a terrible idea. So I helped you do something better.”

Twilight could feel herself, it was like her skin was crawling. She knew for awhile that something had happened to her, but her blackout drinking had blocked the memory of exactly what. “What did I do? What did you do to me?”

“I did not do anything to you, Twilight.” Discord put his hands behind his back and paced back and forth. “You did this all to yourself. You reversed your own clock so to speak. Rewound time on yourself to a point just before you became an alicorn. I realized your addiction, your power, and your mistakes were all too much for a thirty something year old Twilight to handle. So what better way to fix it all then to rewind to a place where your body wasn’t afflicted by so many devastating traumas. As far as I could see, it was the only way to heal you and get you back on the right path.”

Twilight sat down. “So I really am just a unicorn again.”

Discord met her gaze and grinned. “I think you’re missing the point, Twilight. You ARE a unicorn again.”

Twilight stared at him blankly. “So… what?”

He glanced at Luna and then back to Twilight. “Not sure if it’ll work with Luna being a female and all, but you can finally fix one of your most painful problems. Since you’re not an alicorn, you no longer have their problems, right?”

Twilight stared at him for a long moment in silence. What he was trying to suggest was going right over her head. What was he trying to imply here? She glanced at Luna who seemed to be contemplating something herself. Was she just not getting it?

Luna glanced down at Twilight, “Twilight… I think he’s implying that you and me, we, could do something we’ve always wanted to do.”

Twilight blinked at her. “I don’t get it.”

“Since you’re not an alicorn,” Luna said as she leaned down to brush her muzzle against Twilights. “You can get pregnant.”

Twilight blinked. “I… I can?”

“How many nights have you spent crying in my embrace about having lost the chance to be a mommy?”

Twilight looked back at Discord. “But why?”

Discord shrugged. “Nopony expected it? Don’t ask chaos why it does things, it just does things.”

Celestia let out a sigh. “I think he’s trying to say that in his own way, he cares about you and wanted to help you.” She smiled at Discord. “And he’s still trying to fix some of my mistakes.”

Twilight felt lighter. It was like this huge weight she had held for so many years, for so long she had just grown accustomed to it being there, was gone. Sure she’d lost her friends, pushed them all away, and ruined the friendships. Still she somehow had Luna in her life, and further more had made new friends in the likes of Cozy, but most important of all, she was able to finally have her own kids. She swore that after the threat to this world was over with, she’d finally settle down, settle down and start the family she’d always wanted.

Maybe… maybe she could try and repair the damage done to Amber while she was at it. After all she had pretty much adopted her… and then abandoned her much like she did everypony else. Once this over, once she saved the world this one last time she would try and make it up to the others.

In order to do that though, she was going to need Discord’s help.

***

Trixie sat at the map table in the same chair once occupied by Twilight Sparkle. Each of the other five elements of harmony had taken their respective seats around the table. Maud was sitting on a chair Trixie had dragged in for her, and as always was by her side. Of course these chairs were the single most uncomfortable thing in the universe, even more so when they were crystallized. Whoever decided that they didn’t need cushions was a liar and could go straight to Tartarus.

Floating in the air held aloft by a lavender aura Trixie held a letter she’d received from Princess Celestia. She didn’t think it would fix things, but she knew it was important now more so than ever before to have a complete open door policy. She wanted to make sure she was being fully honest with the other five.

“So,” Trixie started, she already felt uneasy about this but was going to try her best, “I received news from Princess Celestia. News that I thought you should all be made aware of.”

Everypony had a growing look of concern in their faces. Once everypony seemed to have acknowledged what Trixie was suggesting, she continued. “Luckily it’s good news this time around. Twilight showed up for her meeting with Celestia.”

Rainbow Dash made a sour face. “Oh, yay. And what did she do this time, vomit on Celestia’s hooves?”

Trixie fixed her with a glare. “She’s sober now. Like, actually sober.” Trixie let that sink in for a moment. Rainbow Dash’s expression softened. “In fact, Celestia tried to give the flask back to Twilight, but Twilight refused it, she even destroyed the thing.”

There was a small gasp from them around the table. Rarity chirped in. “She almost got into a hoof fight with me once cus I accidently misplaced it when she left it at my house… are you sure she really destroyed it?”

Trixie nodded. “Yes, because it was only thanks to that destruction that we discovered that it was actually a dark magical artifact. One that had been slowly consuming and corrupting Twilight for many years now.”

Everypony gave a nervous look at one another. At length Applejack spoke, and she seemed to speak for everypony at the table. “Look, even if that’s true, some of the stuff she did to us, it was long before she ever got that there flask. We ain’t just gonna let her back into our lives because she was being corrupted by a magical whatever.”

Trixie nodded. “And I understand that. I don’t expect you to forgive her, I wouldn’t ask you to do that. But here me out on this. After the flask was destroyed, Discord actually came out of it.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Discord was imprisoned in the flask for many many years. If you ever wanted to know why Twilight would get magical answers from the flask, know things she couldn’t possibly know, and was acting, for lack of a better term, ‘chaotic’ it was thanks to him telling her what to do. She still chose to do those things at the end of the day, but I wanted you to know why her actions had become as manipulative as they had.”

Everypony seemed to be quiet and sit on that for a little while. Trixie was sure that nopony there would want to let Twilight back into their lives, not ever again. They were right, some of the things Twilight had done over the years, they stretched all the way back to when Twilight was first in Ponyville. She’d done some absolutely crazy things, and flirted too closely to chaos too often. Honestly, Trixie felt she finally understood why Discord and Twilight seemingly hated each other for so long. They were too similar in certain ways to one another, and hated seeing themselves in another person. Or so she assumed.

After awhile Fluttershy rose from her chair and spoke. “I’m glad to hear she’s getting better, but after the damage she and Discord both caused me and my family.” She fixed a gaze at Pinkie. “I won’t forgive either of them.”

Applejack was next. “It was mah family, yer wife, Trixie.” She shook her head. “Even hearing this, Ah can’t let her back in. Ah have to keep mah family safe.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “She’s a piece of crap. I’ll work with her, but don’t expect me to be nice or anything.”

Rarity looked down at the table. “For Spike’s sake I’ll be nice to her. But I will always keep both eyes on her. She can’t be trusted. My poor Spikey Wikey is still torn up about how she just left all of us. Nopony makes my hubby cry. Not even his own mother.”

Everypony turned to Pinkie Pie and waited in silence. Several long seconds passed by. Trixie could almost hear the slow ticking of the clock. Finally, Pinkie Pie spoke, it was quiet, almost a whisper, but every word was as clear as day, “She faked my sister’s death. I… I don’t ever want to see her face again.”

Trixie slumped back in her chair. She’d tried, but the damage was done. She couldn’t fix this mess, and she sincerely doubted that Twilight could fix it. If even after these revelations they wouldn’t let Twilight back into their lives… she highly doubted anything would fix this.

Trixie let out a sigh. “I suppose there’s only a couple more things you should know then. Twilight is currently in a recovery program to get better from her alcoholism. She’s living with Starlight Glimmer’s family right now. She has decided she wants to retire from being a princess, not that Celestia will let her, and last but not least; Twilight Sparkle is no longer an alicorn, she’s a unicorn again.”

Everypony glanced at Trixie at the mention of the last thing. It seemed to surprise them that of all the ponies who would revert from being an alicorn it would be Twilight Sparkle. Trixie agreed, she wasn’t going to go into detail about how Twilight came to be a unicorn again, but she was still surprised never the less.

“Now,” Trixie said, “Let’s get on with the really important part of today’s meeting. Twilight’s secret weapon to fight the Pony of Shadows.”