The Revival of a Heart

by TheMessenger

A Day of Rest

A Day of Rest

A bitter, burnt smell lingered in the air over the Everfree. Had anypony been up and about they might have seen bursts of flames fly out from the forest. But today was a Saturday and most ponies were still in their beds, sleeping. Besides, the dragons of the forests kept to themselves and always dwelled in the deepest parts of the forest.

The curious thing was that there had been no smoke following the flames. Even if the dragon's fire failed to set any trees or bushes aflame, smoke would still have been released from the beast's nose.

The explanation was simple: Ash wasn't a dragon. He was a Human, a very very unhappy Human.

Ash bent his knees and leaned forward, panting. Wit the back of his hand he wiped away the sweat on his brow.

He fell back a groaned. What a waste of energy. Meditation would have been a better exercise but this morning, Ash didn't want to be calm, at least not that way.

Ash closed his eyes. The vision was still fresh. Sethiop's smirking face was still fresh. Matilda in the prince's arms...

A giant fireball filled the air followed a dragon-like roar. Ash was a bit too close to the inferno but he didn't care. He didn't care that his skin on his hand was beginning to blister and crack as he held the flaming ball up. He didn't care that his knuckles were bleeding again, didn't care that he wasted Twilight's efforts in patching them up after he punched a hole the floor in his sleep.

The rage burned out with the fireball and Ash collapsed, exhausted. It had been a total waste of energy and time, he knew. And though his anger was spent, he felt no better, no more content. Just tired. Tired enough to sleep right here, with his face in the dirt.

He groaned as he struggled against his exhaustion and shifted himself onto his back. Ash closed his eyes and took a deep breath out of the charred air. He sighed.

Coming here alone was not the wisest thing to do but Ash managed to convince himself and Twilight otherwise. He promised not to go to deep in the forest but that meant there would be a greater chance of being discovered. But, as he told Twilight, he had to release some steam. And the best way to release some steam, Ash knew, was to throw fireballs haphazardly in the air with complete disregard.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't the smartest way but it was what Ash felt like doing. And as they say, you reap what you sow and now the Mage was at his most vulnerable. He was an easy prey if he had been discovered by a wolf or a manticore.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FLAMING PHENOMENON FINDERS ARE GO!"

Or by a trio vicarious young fillies. Of the three, Ash couldn't decide which he'd rather be found by.

With a loud grunt, Ash sat up. Only after he had gotten to his feet did he recognize the problem and began to panic. He was still, most definitely, a Human. If those three found him like this...who knows what would happen next. Another unflattering article of him trying to eat three little ponies at the very least.

Ash tried to run deeper into the forest, hoping to hide behind a tree. His legs, however, refused to cooperate. His body was still tired from his magical outbursts. The Human grit his teeth as he willed himself to move. He could hear hooves pound against the earth, like war drums.

Come on Ash urged his body. His legs turned to jelly in response and Ash folded over, his face kissing dirt.

Ash began to crawl to the trees. The hoof-steps were getting closer; he could hear them getting louder. So was his heart as it beat violently against his chest in fear.

The cheers and laughter were coming closer as well, driving him to crawl faster. It was in vain. The cover of the trees was much too far and he'd never make it before the Crusaders got here.

So Ash did the most sensible thing anyone in his position would have done; he shut his eyes and hid his head underneath his arms and played dead. Hopefully, the three fillies would find no interest in the dead shell of a strange creature. He struggled not to shake nervously. Corpses do not shake nervously, after all.

"Hiya Ash! Whatcha doin'?"

Ash opened an eye. Applebloom stood in front, looking down and tilting her head in confusion. "Are yah lookin' fer bugs?"

"Isn't obvious?" Scootaloo scoffed. "He's pretending to be a rock."

"He's really good too," Sweetie Belle added. "For a second I thought he really was a rock. Must easy since you're so grey."

Grey? Ash glanced at his hands. Not hands, hooves. Ash sighed in relief. He was a pony again.

"Hey, maybe that's yer special talent! Bein' a rock!" Applebloom jumped behind him. "Can yah stand fer a sec? Nope, still a blank-flank."

Ash expected to have been wobbling as he stood so that the cream-colored filly could examine his rump. Surprisingly, he stood straight and strong. He felt strong too, as if he hadn't been spending his energy on wasteful fireballs for the past hour or so. Any sign of his previous exhaustion had disappeared with his Human form. Ash made a mental note for Twilight.

"Geez, what's that smell?" Scootaloo asked, holding her nose. "Smells like a Sweetie Belle breakfast special. Hey, what are you doing here anyways?"

"Yeah," Sweetie Belle piped in. "When we got to the library Twilight told us you already left."

"Did yah forget about our plans?" Applebloom said, frowning.

"Who cares why I'm here. Why are you three here? I thought the Everfree Forest was dangerous."

"We saw a giant fire ball in the sky," Scootaloo explained calmly.

"Yup," Applebloom added, nodding her head. "So we decided tah check it out."

"Yeah!"

"Please get off my head."

The Unicorn filly crawled off the Unicorn stallion. As soon as Sweetie Belle was safely off his head, Ash began to shake it.

"That's dangerous. You three could have gotten hurt. Who knows what you might have found."

"Then why are you here?" Scootaloo shot back.

"Did yah see tha fire too?" asked Applebloom.

"I...you know...practicing...magic. Yeah. I was so busy I didn't see anything like that."

"Oooh, can you show us some?"

"Huh?" Ash turned to the filly who had spoken. "What, magic? But you're a Unicorn. Why would you want to see my magic when you could make your own?"

Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Rarity says I'm too young to be practicing magic so she won't teach me. 'Sides, everypony's magic is a little different."

"Ah wanna see a trick too."

"Me too."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. We might attract unwanted attention. We're still in the Everfree after all. Who knows what might see us..." The remainder of Ash's argument died away as his eyes met the quivering eyes of the Crusaders.

"...Sure, why not."

"YAY!"

With a sigh, Ash began to prepare a spell. His audience looked on him with expecting eyes and he knew he had had to meet those expectations else be treated to sad sad looks of disappointment. On the other hand, anything too exciting could be dangerous, especially since, at least magically, he was still adjusting into his Unicorn body.

He settled on a simple lantern spell. Just a small orb of light but if he changed the colors a bit, the Mage could easily amuse the three. Ash had done it before and even when a rowdier child recklessly touched the magical ball, the child remained unharmed, though a little shaken when the little sphere bursts with a sharp pop.

Ash closed his eyes and began to concentrate. He had never done this sort of spell as a Unicorn. He hadn't done any of his spells as a Unicorn, really. But, he said to himself as he felt the magic seeping from his horn, creating a lantern was a simple feat, the spell itself harmless. What could go wrong?

The first thing he noticed was a sudden resistance, as if something was fighting against his spell. Clenching his jaw, Ash pushed against the wall by adding more magic into the spell. The wall collapsed and Ash began to relax. He could feel the lantern take form. Soon it would be a small ball of light. Ash released more energy to expand the orb and add some color. The Mage grinned triumphantly as he heard gasps of amazement from his little audience. Spell-casting was becoming more easier. After this, he thought, perhaps he could try something harder.

"Um, Ash?" Sweetie Belle's words interrupted his thoughts but not his control over the spell. "Don't you think that's big enough?"

"Hm?" Ash opened his eyes. A shadow was cast over his face. Strange, the sky was cloudless only a few minutes ago. He looked up and dropped his jaw with a hard thud.

There, in the sky, was his lantern. He could tell something went wrong with the spell. First, it was suppose to be pink, not the greenish-blue color it was now. Second, the lantern was far too bright, almost enough to hurt his eyes. Third, the lantern was only to be a few feet in the air, not high over the treetops. Any attempts in preventing the reveal of their location would prove futile thanks to this beacon.

Oh, and the orb was suppose to have a diameter of at most half a foot, not one at least twenty five feet across. From Ash and the Cutie Mark Crusaders' vantage point, the giant blue bulb appeared to have swallowed the sun, replacing it as the main source of light in this world.

And yet all Ash could think of was how a ball of light that size could cast a shadow. A hard tug at his tail brought him back and the stallion quickly picked his jaw back up.

"Er, right. Yeah, it's not suppose to be that big."

"What went wrong?" asked Applebloom.

"I...have no idea--Wait, don't start panicking!"

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had just sucked in breath to scream. At Ash's request, they released the collect air without a sound.

"I'm going to try to contain this thing," the grey Unicorn explained. "I need to concentrate though so I need you three to keep quiet. And don't move."

The trio nodded obediently. Satisfied with their response, Ash turned back to the issue at hand.

At least he had been sensible enough to choose a spell like lantern. The orb thankfully produced very little heat despite its brightness. Had he decided on practicing something more exciting he and his audience would have been charred ashes.

Closing his eyes, Ash began to draw magic out of the ball and back into himself. Just as when he had attempted the spell in the first place, there seemed to be a resistance, something in the way, acting as an obstacle. Ash could feel sweat drip down as he doubled his mental strength and charged at the barrier.

He could feel the orb begin to shrink. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo noticed nothing but Ash could sense the magic returning, slowly leaving the magical lantern, little by little.

A few minutes passed in frustrating silence and soon even the three fillies could see a difference being made. Celestia's could be seen again, peaking from behind Ash's unintentional imitation. Already the ball had been reduced to three-quarters of its original size.

Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle watched in agonizing stillness. For a while, watching the giant ball of magical light shrink provides some amusement but after a few moments it lost its novelty. There was a reason why the three lost at 'Shh' so quickly and soon all three were fidgeting.

A small breeze blew through the forest, brushing Ash's white mane to a side. If the Unicorn noticed the wind, he didn't show it. The trees watching over the ponies were more expressive than he, releasing loose leaves into the air. Gently, the leaves floated to the ground, like large pieces of confetti. One particular leaf had the notion that it was destined for greater things and found itself on the tip of Scootaloo's nose instead of on the forest floor with its siblings.

The Pegasus filly wrinkled her nose in annoyance. Stubbornly, the leaf hung on. With a huff of frustration, Scootaloo ejected the offending plant part into the air, where it was caught by another breeze blowing in the other direction. The wind took the leaf onward and upward before letting it fall back to the earth once again. Slowly the leaf fell, down toward the bright bowling ball sized sphere Ash had managed to bring closer to the ground.

The leaf met the magical lantern and for Ash, the entire world went white.

Comments

[Menoshe]

First thoughts?

Legends speak of a powerful Demon (Discord) who reigned over all the land. With his mighty sword (reality bending), he crushed all opposition with despair. Only through the power of the Essences (Elements) of Concord (Harmony) was the Demon (Discord) able to be defeated.

A thousand years later, the Demon (Discord) shows signs of reawakening. As the Humans (earth ponies), Elves (pegasi), and Dwarves (unicorns) create an alliance to fight the Demon's (Discord's) armies, six young heroes (ponies) have been chosen to recollect the Essences (Elements) of Concord (Harmony) and seal the Demon (Discord) once more.

Hm... Nope! Total coincidence!

[TheMessenger]

673273 That's flattering. Me gusta
Not sure I see much of a connection but I'm flattered regardless

[Menoshe]

And now that I read it, I know why it was like my previous comment!

...I should've read first...

...NAH!