spark-of-magic-archive

[spark-of-magic-archive]

heart-tips:

Twilight Sparkle was, without a shadow of doubt, the number one prize winner of the ‘asking awkward questions’ contest. Or, at least, ‘asking questions Heart really didn’t know how to answer all that well.’

He did raise an eyebrow as she walked, seemingly content with helping a random, admittedly strange - he was punching a tree like it was some video game with cubes - and not even batting much of an eye.

“I… kinda didn’t learn that spell. I’ve had some training-” He shuffled a hoof nervously as he walked, with that. “-but it wasn’t in raw magic. That was a power surge - from…” And he sighed, as he decided he was going to bite the bullet and hope she believed it. “…the Crystal Heart. I’ve got a link to it for emergencies, but it tends to go off like that sometimes.”

Twilight was...let’s say, incredulous. The Crystal Heart was hundreds of years old, a beacon of power that rivals even the most powerful of dark mages. It wasn’t something that just anybody could draw power from. So she was more than a bit suspicious.

On the other hoof, the same could be said of when the Elements chose six random ponies from the middle of nowhere to be their champions against Nightmare Moon. Ancient artifacts could be fickle like that. And that would explain the magical outburst he had...

“So you can draw power from the Crystal Heart,” Twilight repeated, mulling it over like she was trying to figure out all the things that it could mean. “It’s not unheard of for magical artifacts to develop bonds to a pony it deems worthy, but I never considered that the Heart had that kind of power...”

Her tone was bordering on the fascinated. Every word seemed like it was leading her further down the rabbit hole of unknown knowledge (unknown to her, at least), something that she always enjoyed finding. As she spoke, the two came across Twilight’s castle at last.

Twilight’s horn lit up as she pulled open the castle door for Heart and herself to walk inside. Once she stepped into the large crystalline entrance, she spoke again.

“It must be interesting having a link like that to the Crystal Heart. Even if it does seem to have its ups and downs.”

[spark-of-magic-archive]

heart-tips:

“As truly interesting a sight being carried along by a Princess of Friendship may be, I am able to walk; but thank you.” Really, the entire concept of being carried along like that was cognitive dissonance for Heart; he was rarely carried, and even then - generally, it was only to abuse the fact that he didn’t have wings but some of his friends did.

He began to move to match her; ready to start the - admittedly rather short - trot towards the imposing Castle. It was hard to miss; it dominated the local skyline.

(She was going to have an interesting time parsing through what was making Heart so… agitated.)

“…thank you for your help, by the way.”

It was said in a delicate tone; a deliberately understated phrase.

(No plan survived contact with the enemy; or in this case, a pretty mare with a cute mane.)

“It was nothing,” Twilight replied as she trotted along, careful to keep pace with Heart. “I’m always happy to help a pony that needs it.”

It might be a little cliche, but it was true. Twilight did get a simple pleasure out of helping others. She considered it the most important of her princessly duties, possibly moreso than saving the world from villains planning to destroy all of Equestria.

At least those only happen every few months.

As she walked, though, she found a question prodding at her mind, egging her to ask a question that was burning at her thoughts. Something about this stallion felt familiar...She couldn’t place it, but she thought she knew him, or at least knew of him.

“If you don’t mine me asking,” she started, casting him a curious glance, “Where did you learn that kind of magic? Most unicorns don’t have the raw power to cut down trees with their horn. You must have had some kind of training.”

[spark-of-magic-archive]

"How is Wallflower Blush doing?"

“I wouldn’t know. You’d have to ask Sunset for specifics on that one.”

[spark-of-magic-archive]

Is it just me, or does my version of Twi seem to fall in line more with her Season 4 characterization than her current one?

It could just be my imagination, but idk. Earlier seasons of Twi seem easier for me to write for some reason. Could just be cause I joined in Season Four so that’s just my default imagining of her? :?

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"You know, I'm happy that you took Starlight under your wing. In a sense, I can see a lot of potential out for her and I hope that you always steer her right, Twilight. She's a wonderful girl and I'm always wishing her the best."

“I agree completely. Though I think not nearly enough credit is given to Starlight for her efforts. I could never have done if it she hadn’t wanted to change for the better, and I know that as long as she continues down the road she’s on, she’ll continue changing in spectacular ways.”

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Why are you so... Afraid of Magical Kindergarten?

“Imagine if you built your entire identity on a single idea, one that you love so much that you dedicated your entire life to studying it since you were a child. Now imagine someone else than you just told you that you might as well go to the lowest level of training for that idea because you were never as good as you hoped you were.”

“Can you imagine how humiliating it would for that to happen? When I was younger, magic was my entire identity. If I was deemed so terrible at magic that I had to go back to magic kindergarten, that would mean I failed at the most important thing in my life. At the time, that was really scary.”

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"I got you a cup." Starlight floats over a wrapped cup. Under the wrapping the coffee mug was plain white with a green "bookworm" painted on it with glasses that said "world's best teacher."

“Aw, thank you Starlight, that’s sweet of yo-”

Twilight hadn’t even finished her sentence by the time she unwrapped the present. Once she did, however, her words died in her mouth.

There are no words to describe how Twilight felt upon seeing the inscription and picture on the cup. It was silly, but this was something that made her incredibly happy. It’s the kind of gift she always wanted. A nerdy sort of teacher-wish-fulfillment.

With a smile, she leaned forward and wrapped a hoof around Starlight in a tight hug.

“...You’re the best, Starlight. Thank you so much.”

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Why are you so afraid of failure?

“…”

“Twilight Sparkle, you have a very special gift. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities.But you need to learn to tame these abilities through focused study.”

“Although Luna and I once wielded the Elements, it is you who now control their power, and it is you who must defeat Discord!”

“Bravo, ponies, bravo! Harmony in Equestria is officially dead. Discord rules, Celestia drools.”

“If I can’t find a friendship problem, I’ll make a friendship problem!”

“But Twilight, in the end, it must be you and you alone who ultimately assists Princess Cadance and Shining Armor in doing what needs to be done to protect the Empire. Do you understand?”

“We can’t just dance around with con artists, make rainbooms in the sky and expect everything to work out! It’s not enough! We are not enough!”

“No, Twilight! We stuck together! We were gonna get the help we needed! The only thing that stopped us was you!”

“…I’m a princess. Failure for me is different than for everyone else. There are consequences when I mess up, and they don’t just affect me. They affect everybody else. I can’t fail.”

[spark-of-magic-archive]

Book Horse is not amused.

spark-of-magic

  ;; just threw a curveball rp partners love…

(( [Twilight voice] “Fists up, snake horse.” ))

“Quesadilla.”

[spark-of-magic-archive]

Why are you so neurotic?

“I’m not ‘neurotic’.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. Another baseless accusation in letter form, as usual. Really, some of these things just don’t make sense, do they?

Twilight’s horn lit up with magic for a moment before falling dim. Then it lit up again, then fell dim. This happened two more times -- four, a safe and even number to stand on -- before she finally used her magic to pick up the letter in question.

“Neurotic behavior is defined as when obsessive thoughts, compulsive acts, or general anxiety dominate a pony’s personality, but have no base in a physical disease. I don’t know where you got the idea that I’m neurotic, but I can assure you that it’s not true.”

As she spoke, she tapped a hoof against the ground. Once, twice, three times before she trotted towards a trash bin. As she did, she subconsciously noted where her hooves fell on the floor. A certain distance between each step, no more and no less. It wasn’t a major concern, but it felt nice to walk to a rhythm. It felt right, more than anything.

“As you can see, I’m perfectly in control of myself. Sure, sometimes that’s not always true, but it’s not enough to make some sort of accusation about my mental health.”

Once she reached the trash bin, she dropped the letter inside before rolling her eyes.

“Really, where do ponies even get these ideas...?”

[spark-of-magic-archive]

Reblog if you want a "why are you so..." in your ask.

[spark-of-magic-archive]

heart-tips:

(Oh god, I’ve been invited back to the Castle. How do I even handle this?)

He carefully withdrew his hoof; aware of her casting her gaze over him; obviously eyeing his injuries; he knew he looked bad. Thankfully it was worse in appearance than in pain.

(He was ignoring the ache.

Twilight’s judgement was spot on; Heart did not want to talk about his problems. Not at least because Twilight was deeply involved.

Still, he had no direction to go but along.

“…sure. Thank you, Princess. …I guess talking about it would be good.”

(Perhaps he could plant the seeds of doubt.)

“Thank you.” Twilight’s smile became more genuine. She really was thankful that he was taking her up on her offer of help.

She had already turned and was ready to trot over to her castle. She turned her head to look back at Heart.“Can you walk on your own? If not, I could carry you...” As she said that, her horn took on a lavender-colored glow, as if she was ready to pick him up here and now if he just gave the word.

She didn’t entirely understand what Heart was bothered by, but that was secondary to getting his hoof help, if only slightly.

[spark-of-magic-archive]

"The next statement is true. The previous statement is false."

Twilight.exe has stopped working.

[spark-of-magic-archive]

heart-tips:

Heart was injured; and it was a good thing too - the dull throb from his hoof was what was keeping him grounded at the moment. He also knew of his proclivity to blurt things out - and given the operational security a recent event mandated…

…he was going to need to be careful.

“It’s… a stress thing.” Slight, slight was the sharp edge; that stress bleeding into his tone of voice even as he tried to quash it.

“I do not cope with stress well, and I am under a lot of it at the moment.”

A deep sigh. He filed away thoughts about his plotting and planning to the back of his mind; focusing on the now. (Besides - came the errant thought - how often does a Princess talk to you?) A sly part of his mind wondered if this was a subtle arrangement by the forces of magic themselves; but he put that aside. That would be implausible.

He held out a hoof; intentionally handing her his clean, undamaged hoof; even as it shook slightly as he put the majority of his weight on his injured hoof.

“I suppose I should introduce myself… you did save me from a nasty tree accident. I’m Heart Tips. A pleasure to meet you.” He would not pretend to not know her name; she was a Princess. Even the Diamond Dogs knew of the Princesses.

“I understand,” Twilight said, a small, sympathetic smile appearing on her face. “I’m the same way. Although I typically don’t deal with my stress through hitting trees...” She shook her head, meeting Heart’s hoof with her own. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. It’s nice to meet you, Heart Tips.”

After introducing herself, she found herself eyeing his wounds once again. The bloodied hoof clawed at her attention like a moth to a light. She really wanted to help him out, but she was starting to get the sense that he didn’t want to talk about his problems. The way he continually mentioned how ‘okay’ he was and blamed his issues solely on stress gave her that impression.

Still, maybe she could coax him out of that.

“You know, I have a first aid kit back at my castle. If you’d like, we could head there and bandage up your hoof. I even have some spells that could help the bleeding.”

She tilted her head towards the direction of her castle, a useless endeavor since it could be seen from literally anywhere in town with ease. “And while we do that, you could tell me what’s bothering you. Would that help?”

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How proud are you of your student Starlight and what she’s accomplished Twilight😊?

“Extremely. Starlight has that she’s really taken to the lessons I’ve taught her. She’s even taught me a few things. I’m proud both to call her my student and my friend.”

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While you have Starlight learning under you and the school of friendship... Did you think to take a foal like Celestia and make it your protegee teaching him or her everything just like Celestia did with you?

“I’ve considered the idea in the past. I always dreamed of taking on a pupil I could share my knowledge with when I was younger, after all. And I got my wish through Starlight and my school, so I can safely say I succeeded in that regard.”

“As for whether I’ll take on a new student now that Starlight’s graduation, that’s a hard question to answer. Between the school and my own duties are the Princess of Friendship, it may be some time before I take on a new student.”

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heart-tips:

There was a pause, a blink in time; as Heart processed what was happening. His emotions - still in a flux, a quantum mess from the strain of the contract he was trying to break; adding the stress of Twilight motherfucking Sparkle appearing to help…

His brain, to use the common phrase (oft favoured by Silver Streak), did a bunk. He stopped, struck dumb, barely able to think.

“…I… am okay… I think.”

The brief connection to the Heart had already faded, and he was calming; he had lost his will to be angry.

“But thank you.”

He didn’t sound okay. If anything, he sounded like he was in shock. If Twilight had to guess, the strain of that spell must have taken a lot out of him. Plus he was already angry, and judging by the look of his hoof, he was also injured.

Once she was sure there would be no more magical feedback, Twilight lowered the shield. The rest of her power went towards the tree, as she tried to gently lower it to the ground so that he could rest his horn.

Now that the situation had died down, she turned to the pony next to her, and felt her confidence dwindle some. Threats to a pony’s life were easy, but she knew from experience that emotional difficulties were a lot harder to handle, and a lot more delicate.

If she wanted to help, she’d have to be sensitive, tactful, and most importantly, she couldn’t under any circumstances make his more stressed out than he already was.

“It was nothing,” Twilight replied. As she spoke, her eyes fell once more on his injuries. “But you can’t but okay if you’re out here punching trees.” She gestured to the aforementioned tree, which sat on the ground lifeless and battered. “Do you want to talk about it?”