Magic is Friendship

The blue coated unicorn found herself spent from the long run… ”How long have I been running?” She wasn’t sure. Though she would later discover she had run all through the night and the following day before collapsing by an unknown lake. The water was a deep blue, far deeper than her royal coat which was stained with dirt from her long run; her mane in tatters. It was a plain lake… as plain as any other. Waters of an increasing darkness seemed to haunt the lost and confused filly as she stared out across its depths, the water was painfully still; reflecting the dark overcast looming above.

Long ago her cloak was lost, her star dabbled hat being left in the town she was fleeing, her legs quivering as she collapsed against the water. Sky-blue muzzle breaking the royal blue waters as she drank slowly from its once still surface, attempting to freeze the racing of her heart. Breathe coming in haggard gasps. Her liquid silver mane falling around her face and into the water; its dirt was spreading lazily in the once pure liquid though she didn’t notice it anymore.

Eyes red and sore, she was crying. Even now water poured down her cheeks uncontrollably, but she felt it was useless to try and stop them from burning paths down her face. Nothing she was trying would stem their flow and at that moment she felt so very hopeless.

Pulling back from the lake, she pressed herself low to the ground. The crying pony looked into the deep water for a long time until it stilled again… stilled enough for the unicorn to make out her own reflection. She felt the throbbing in her head, all the doubt swirling around. “Who was she?” the poor girl couldn’t tell from looking into the water, not recognizing her reflection. To her the battered and dirty pony was some foreign alien which had seemed to have taken over her body. “How did she use to look?” The pony could not remember, nothing there seemed proper anymore, as if something inside of her was broken and out of place. “What was I called again…?” she asked herself, the voice inside her mind having no shape or solidity, unaware of how she was meant to sound. The filly stared down into the sky-blue reflection of this stranger. Reddened eyes welled up, spilling their bountiful tears more at the throbbing in her head; the pounding inside her head so violent to the point where she could barely think.

Slowly, realizing that her mouth was moving, she was talking… that voice, that voice was hers. She was asking a question. “What do the words mean?” trying to focus through the dull throbbing on what she was saying. “That voice… is it my voice…?” leaning into the water more, consciousness failing. Slowly she saw her reflection bend and alter, her eyes losing their focus. Inside the water she saw… herself? She wasn’t sure. The brilliant pony had little resemblance to her as it stood on hind legs, a magnificent lavender cloak dotted with stars loose in the wind. The reflection’s front hooves were spread wide to the world, her face was clean and filled with a powerful smile. Noticing the sparkling wand on the reflection`s flank she turned to check her own. There it was the same telltale mark of a wand with magic flowing from its tip. Only now was it that her voice was able to reach her ears.

“I’m… I’m still the Great and Powerful Trixie… right?” the voice spoke, yes, Trixie. That was her, the unicorn, leaning forward; front hooves breaking the water’s surface lightly as she stared deeper into what was her. Everything flooding her mind at once: the lies, the person she had forced herself to be to get by. Going from town to town riding on the gifts and foods she could scrape up until people would run her off. She remembered the Ursa Minor wreaking havoc in Ponyville, all the illusions dispelled; everything about herself torn apart, that identity she had made, “The Great and Powerful”, what was that anymore? Where would it take her to follow those lies again, and beyond that, could she? Trixie looked back into the water before kicking violently with her hoof, her eyes once again filling to the brim with tears. The violence of her kick dissolved the shadow of what once was. Trixie started to pull back from the edge of the water, the throbbing in her mind switching over from one side to the other as her panicked and painful thoughts switched from who she was to who she was going to be.

She had been “The Great and Powerful” for so long that the unicorn sat there on her haunches looking out over the water having no idea who she really was under the smoke and mirrors, under the magic she had been using for so long. What did it mean to not have those shields any more, to be completely open? The thought of it was causing Trixie to seize up a little, she felt her haunches shake and shiver coldly, unable to comprehend what was happening and again her reddened eyes poured their tears.

“Are you okay, there?” came a soft voice, confused, sounding out above the crying unicorn. Trixie’s body twitched almost violently as she forced herself, out of habit, to remove the feeling of dread and loss in the face of another, hooves wiping away her tears quickly. Turning her sky blue neck and moving her matted silver mane out of her eyes Trixie looked up to the approaching pegasus, a filly of dull grey with a golden flax mane and eyes of transient amber which seemed to move apart from one another unnaturally.

As the unicorn opened her mouth to reply she was cut off by the pegasus’ wild screaming as she dashed right past her, the force of the air almost lifting Trixie off her hooves and into the water. The water was no longer still. The unnamed pony flew past her mark and crashed. Careening into the water, saddle which was once on her back flying off spilling its contents: envelopes and parcels everywhere in the crystal blue purity. The unicorn sat and blinked for a moment of almost unearthly silence as all she could hear was the pounding in her head. ”She could help; she knew that, she had magic. She once had magic. Did she still have magic? Now that she wasn’t great or powerful. Would the magic listen to her? What if she tried and failed… would she be able to recover from that?

“HELP!” came the cry of the pegasus from the water as she kicked and fluttered her wings forcing herself out of the icy cold lake, trying to break free of the harsh water and rescue the discarded packages.

Trixie hesitated a moment more before another cry from the clumsy pegasus pulled her back to reality. Closing her midnight eyes she focused all of her might to trigger the unicorn magic which had once flowed so readily through her. It had flown through HER, it was of HER and she was her own tool to control. The magic would listen to her, she knew it, demanded it, Great and Powerful or not, the magic was of her blood. Temporarily forcing all doubt from her scattered and lost mind she was able to grab hold of the mystic energies being stored and collected within her horn. The telltale lavender glow encompassed her body and to her delight the envelopes and parcels within the water began to glow as well as she pushed out with her unicorn magic to wrap around them.

It took her only a moment to have them all lifting out of the water towards the shore. A few more for the clumsy pegasus to realize what was going on, and stop her frantic struggling: half flying, half swimming her way to the shore. “Thank you ever so much, dear.” She said landing beside the unicorn smiling vapidly, her eyes un-focusing a little. The oddity of it making Trixie tilting her head… confused as to what to make of this new filly. “I’m Ditzy Doo, what’s your name?” Ditzy said holding out her hoof towards the unicorn as Trixie lowered the books to the ground, allowing them to fall the last few inches as the magic left her.

She looked at Ditzy, and opened her mouth to speak her name, that must be easy. She knew her name, speaking it should not be hard. But poor Trixie found the words to speak out of her reach. They caught in her throat and choked her violently as she tried harder she found herself getting short of breath. "Was she Trixie? Was that all she was, was she something more?” She remembered being something more once… at least, in her mind. Her face contorted she tried to speak, to force the word but found she couldn’t. Ditzy Doo noticing this leans forward; in that moment she seemed a lot less ditzy. Her eyes straightening and her goofy grin going away even just for a moment. “It’s okay, you don’t need to tell me right now.” she whispered once her mouth was close to Trixie’s ear. Her smile returning as she pulled away, going over to pick up the stuff she had dropped.

Trixie hooved the ground a little, turning away from Ditzy; she hated herself for not being able to talk, for not being able to say her name. HER name, it was hers… or had it belonged to somepony else for so long that she had forgotten how to use what was her right by birth? She looked sadly at the grey pegasus who smiled back and started loading her bags.

“Where were you going…?” Trixie spoke, barely above a whisper. Apparently, she could talk she found, but her name would still not touch her lips. Far off in the water she saw the glimmer of that telltale coat and hat, of powerful magic and a world within the smoke and mirrors.

“Oh? I was heading south to deliver some packages to Appleloosa, then head further west to Hoofington, and spin around north to Canterlot and finish it all off by landing back in Ponyville.” Ditzy said, running down the list. Those places, names, Trixie recognized them; she could pull images of them to mind. They were there, she had seen them… been to them… but was it her…? It felt like somepony else had been there, not her… was that her? Pushing those thoughts from her mind she looked at the grey filly and spoke… her voice soft.

“But you were flying east… not south.” Trixie said, the fogginess of her run lifting slightly, she remembered it… having run east from Ponyville, the same direction that Ditzy seemed to be flying.

“B-but… what?” Ditzy Doo said looking around; it was late now, getting close to night fall the sky covered in a grey overcast. She seemed to recognize the lake but paused longer trying to figure out if this particular lake was east or south. “Well for the love of hay.” Ditzy said reaching up a hoof and rubbing her head. “It’s a good thing I saw you, isn’t it? Last time this happened I flew all the way across Equestria and back before I noticed.” The pegasus laughed ruffling her wings putting the last package into her saddle pouch, which had a flap on each side for her mail. Just as she did the first drop of water rained down from the cumulus sky above and landed right on her nose. “Uh-oh…”she mouthed looking up, to the thick storm clouds. “Quickly! This way, come on!” Ditzy said as she was moving over beside Trixie, stumbling over her own hooves slightly. Confused, Trixie looked around wondering what was going on when the grey filly's wing wrapped over her back, pulling her alongside.

“Where are we…?” Trixie started to say as she was pulled, stumbling alongside Ditzy when the heavens opened and the rain began to fall. Now moving under her own power to stay beside the pegasus as they galloped around the lake she ran low. Keeping beneath the protective wing offered, staying as dry as she could. They ran up a sloping hill with thick grass wet with the torrential downpour, the top of the small slope reached up into one of the several peaks of the Everfree Forest and there was a visible cave; large enough for at least two ponies to enter at once. They were close, maybe fifty feet, when it happened, the rain had made the hill slippery and muddy. Trixie found her weak, fatigued legs couldn’t support her any more. A terrible burn moved up them like she had never experienced before, forcing them to give way beneath her, collapsing hard against the muddy ground; her coat getting covered in it as she fell and began to slide down the hill. Thunder roared and lightning blinded her eyes violently and for all intents and purposes Trixie thought that was the end of her. That she would never find out who she really was, she would lay there in the cold, unable to move till something came and took her for its meal. But a voice, concerned and worried tore its way into her void and confused mind, familiar but distant. Why would somepony be concerned for her, somepony with no name; a nopony with no idea of who she was?

Ditzy, sliding back down the muddy hill, was forcing her muzzle underneath the unicorn’s stomach lifting the blue pony over her golden hair and onto her back. The pegasus; wings fluttering furiously pushed her way back up the hill with the weakened pony on her back. “Hold on!” Ditzy cried back over the storm. Pushing the two up with all her might, her wings fluttering with all her power to keep them moving since her feet could barely hold to the ground without sliding in the thick mud.

Then there was relative silence as the duo entered the cave. Trixie slid herself off of Ditzy once they had entered what appeared to be a fair sized antechamber with several tunnels leading down beneath the mountain at the back. Her eyes were unfocused, but she could feel Ditzy moving around her… calling to her, could feel a muzzle pushed up against her neck and felt her cheeks growing hot.

“Can you start a fire?” The voice right by her ear cried out, causing focus to return to the dazed unicorn. Trixie looked down; there were some dry branches and leaves, gathered in a makeshift pile. Leaning her neck down the blue unicorn pressed her horn to them and searched, deep within her core, for the place where magic was hers to manipulate… a place that felt so far and distant to her now and pulled from it fire, raw and elemental.

Warmth flooded the dry cave from the small fire created at the tip of the unicorn’s horn, sparking and dancing along the branches. Trixie pulled back, the warmth sinking into her form pulling her back to consciousness, from the edge of fatigue. “How do you know of this place?” Trixie asked looking around, the cave’s formation was unnatural it seemed as if somepony had been here before, piles of wood scattered around for fires, a bucket for water. It was suspiciously furnished for a natural cave.

“I’ve been here before.” Ditzy said walking over slowly to Trixie, bringing with her a towel. She pushed the cloth against Trixie’s flank and began rubbing her down, her body was scratched pretty bad, far worse than she had realized, and covered in thick mud. She blushed at the feeling of the other pony rubbing her down.

“I can do that…” she said weakly moving to grab the towel, in response however Ditzy rapped her nose with a flick of her wing.

“Hush you.” Ditzy said seriously, scrubbing all the mud and gunk off the unicorn’s hide. “Now lay down. We don’t want you putting weight on those legs.” the grey pegasus said moving out of the way, and Trixie found herself compelled to do as told. Gently laying herself down on her side making sure not to press down on her knees which were so torn; moving around Trixie, Ditzy began to rub down the unicorn's other side getting as much of the dirt and grass off of her before giving the towel a toss out into the storm. A violent thunder blast shook the cavern fiercely reminding both ponies of the forces outside.

Trixie felt the initial, almost magical, warmth of the fire’s inception begin to leave her and she found herself shivering coldly, her teeth clashing against each other to create a low chatter. Ditzy, startled by the quiet noise over the raging storm which she had been watching, turned her lopsided eyes back into the cave to see Trixie’s flushed face and weak eyes. She walked over to the unicorn and sat behind her pushing her slightly larger body together with hers, a wing wrapped around her slightly cut stomach. Trixie found herself blushing more, beyond the sick feeling she had inside of her was her embarrassment at the warmth of the other’s body. “You really don’t…”

“Yes, I do.” Ditzy said in her high, bubbly voice, resting her head in the other’s mane to help spread some more of her heat.

Trixie laughed hollowly into the fire as she pushed herself up against her new companion, deciding to accept the warmth that was offered. “Quite a predicament we have here isn’t it?” she said softly, eyes lowered in shame. She felt weak, impossibly weak, as if everything she had once been; that mysterious cloaked version of herself had abandoned the weakness… her… and had left her behind for dead. "To think I could have been more than all this once…" Trixie said her feverish eyes unfocused on the magical fire before her. "To think I was once powerful… great…"

"But I suppose that had all been a lie, hadn't it…? Just a way for me to survive… town to town… lie to lie. Never myself… I always had to be something more." She ranted, unable to see Ditzy's concerned face. The silent pegasus wondering if the fever was causing hallucinations in the wounded unicorn. "I guess all those lies caught up with me… didn't they. Now my home's leveled… I can't return to that town… not now. Celestia knows how much damage that Ursa Minor really did beyond my wagon…" she said, almost bitterly, it was hurting her to talk; finding her throat to be raw.

"What was it all for…? Why did I even start those lies…? Was I afraid of whom I was? Was I running away…? It's been so long I can't remember… and now I can barely remember what I am… who I am. How did I get so far down this road… is there any redeeming quality I have…" it wasn't a question, the tone was too absolute. Trixie was looking deep into the fire, her mind aflame. She had become lost, desolate. The part of her she had spent years building had rebuked her utterly and now she had nothing; nothing but a cold loneliness. It was several long moments before Ditzy's soft voice broke the lingering silence.

“It could be worse.” Ditzy said, her eyes closed, hiding their odd demeanor. "You could be dead." it was a statement of somepony who had faced and dealt with death before. To somepony who had seen the horrors this world had to offer… and could still find a reason to keep on living.

Trixie left herself to her thoughts for a long time. She had almost forgotten the pegasus… she wasn't alone… not right now. Not this moment. Suddenly an urge awoke inside her, to keep Ditzy talking… it may had been the fever; she would never know. But she wanted to hear that voice, a voice other than her own.“When were you here before?” Trixie asked, her voice teetering on the edge of consciousness. But she was far too scared to sleep, and risk never waking up. Wanting the other to talk to her, hold her tight; anything to keep her awake.

“I’ve been here a few times…” Ditzy said noncommittally, looking into Trixie’s far off eyes. “On my flights to deliver the mail all over Equestria, I tend to spend a lot of time alone in caves like this one.” she said and not even her bubbly voice, goofy eyes, or happy smile could hide the bitterness in those words.

“Sounds like hard work…” Trixie said in response noticing the other’s tone, pushing her head up into the others neck nuzzling her softly.

“It’s not that bad I suppose…” Ditzy said looking away, hiding her eyes when she noticed Trixie looking up to her. Sighing deeply, Ditzy began to talk. She wasn’t talking specifically to Trixie… it was as if she was sitting in this cave all alone again, her body battered by wind or monster which had occurred in her travels around the world to deliver the mail to her friends and everypony else. “It’s hard when they have no idea what it’s like. But whenever I’m around them I can’t speak, I can’t seem to even stand… through snow and storm I have to travel every day, every week over and over again, storms they make, storms I make. Forced to take the blunt of the things they create…” she paused looking about the dark cave, the magical fire’s dull radiance casting monstrous shadows from the unicorn and pegasus combo of some multi winged, horned demon. “Through darkness and light, for weeks at a time, I have to travel all alone, and quite often in the wrong direction.” she scoffed at herself, the bubbly tone in her voice pushed aside by the palpable bitterness.

“Over long seas where there’s no rest for days, in skies where not even the birds can fly, nor would they if they could. For the creatures that call those places home are not for the faint of heart. All this to make sure, to be there for them… nothing more than that…” her voice was trailing off sadly, Trixie assumed by now that Ditzy had forgotten she was there, nestled against her for warmth. “I wonder how they think it feels… for me to go through all that… just to be there for them… and all they can do is laugh… sometimes it feels they’re just mocking me… for how I look, and how clumsy I am… and it feels the only way to stop it is to keep my eyes closed… forever.” There was silence now, at least from the two ponies… for the storm still raged, the lightning and thunder violently accenting the poor pegasus’ tale. Though Trixie couldn’t see her face right now, she knew the pegasus was crying, and there was very little that she could do in that moment.

She leaned in closer and pressed her face to Ditzy’s neck in a gentle nuzzle, reminding her of her presence. “I’m not laughing…” was all she could think of saying, her own eyes teary from her companion’s rant; hidden in Ditzy's neck.

Ditzy laughed and lifted up a hoof, brushing away her tears. It was a genuine laugh, happy to be pulled back to the present. “No, no you’re not.” she said happily, leaning into Trixie.

“And I’m sure your friends don’t mean to hurt you…” Trixie whispered softly, her blue eyes closing. She was sure that no friends of such a nice and kind pegasus would ever hurt her intentionally in any way. At this moment Trixie had a very hard time imagining she’d still be alive if it wasn’t for her clumsy new friend.

“Friend…?” As the word crossed her mind Trixie found herself looking up to the half-asleep pegasus. Trixie felt like that was new to her; there had been people around her… when she was that other self she was sure of that. She remembered being in front of people all the time, all around her, some with faces of awe and wonder, others with faces of distaste and distrust, but none that she would call friend… had she never had a friend before…? The young unicorn wasn’t sure… she had been travelling for most of her life, she was positive of that remembering the caravan she had once used in Ponyville being crushed and destroyed by the Ursa just two nights before. She looked up into those golden eyes and felt warmth radiate from her heart, warmth that the past life she had lived could never understand, warmth it had never held.

Slowly she leaned her neck up and used her cheeks to brush aside the tears of the still semi crying pegasus, a gentle loving gesture of compassion; their bodies pressed tightly together. “I’m your friend Ditzy, and I’m not going to laugh.” she said in the softest whisper, nuzzling their necks together, noticing the other’s eyes straighten, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

The two rested there together close and tight for a long time till they fell asleep near Trixie’s magically lit fire, the darkness of unrest seeming to leave them in their discovery of friendship, a magic like none other.

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Light… bright and pure blessed the entrance to the little cave where Trixie and Ditzy had spent the night, its soft warm glow forcing the pegasus from the thralls of unconsciousness into the world of the living.

Slowly the stillness of sleep left the slightly cross eyed pegasus and she opened her eyes, yawning with a high pitched squeak. She looked over beneath her wing where the nameless unicorn had fallen asleep the night before but there was nopony there.

For a moment there was nothing but panic and confusion in Ditzy’s mind. Had she imagined it all, every bit of it? It was the first thought in her mind and it made her panic all the more. Maybe she had finally slipped over the edge and had crossed a line in her mind to the point where reality and dreams whereas translucent as water. Panicking she jumped to her hooves and spun around on the spot looking for anything to prove that the night had been real. And she was rewarded with her hoof crashing into the ash remains of what was once the unicorn’s magical fire.

“Morning!” came a cry outside the cave and Ditzy felt a sigh of relief escape her lips as the voice was distinctly Trixie’s. Galloping out of the cave, flinching at the brilliant light the pegasus looked out to see the unicorn from the night before down by the lake face focused on a book. “I hope you won’t mind…” she said hesitantly to Ditzy as the winged pony approached. “I got up earlier and I noticed this among your packages…” she said motioning to the book before her.

“Is it a good read?” Ditzy asked looking at it having a hard time understanding the oddly written words within, not overtly upset that she had taken the book.

“Sort of.” the unicorn said with the most genuine smile Ditzy had ever seen, looking her over the unicorn looked a lot better now than she had the night before. Her legs had healed nicely and her coat had a fine sheen to it.

“Come here, this book has a spell in it I really want to try.” the still unnamed unicorn said to Ditzy who came close to her. “And you have the two things I need to make it work!” she said excitedly.

“Oh and they are?” Ditzy asked her bubbly voice high and happy to help.

“I just need a few of your feathers…” the unicorn mumbled slowly leaning her muzzle down and pulling out some of Ditzy’s feathers from her wings.

“Ouch… and…?” Ditzy asked, flinching at some of her feathers being pulled out, a little more from surprise than from any sort of pain.

The unicorn blushed and leaned up and pushed her cheek beside Ditzy's; warmth like none other flooded the two of them as they paused in the moment, perfectly still. “Just a little bit of friendship.” she whispered into Ditzy’s ear and brilliant blue light flooded the air. There was the taste of raw untamed magic in the air as brilliant blue lightning bolts swirled and violently tore Trixie away from Ditzy and up into the air, the blue light wrapped and encompassed her till the two ponies could no longer see each other. The world shook and stuttered at the raw energy at work, and with a crash mightier than the greatest thunder there was a magnificent explosion of brilliant sapphire dust as the sphere of energy around the unicorn dispersed immediately.

There, hovering in the air however was not the unicorn that had entered the magical sphere, but a pegasus with the same coat, mane and cutie mark, her wings fluttering slowly to keep herself a float. The new Trixie looked down at Ditzy who was looking up into the sky dumbfounded, with no explanation or idea of how to react with the given situation.

“Now you don’t need to be alone anymore.” The new born pegasus said happily looking down at her friend. “As long as we’re close by I’ll keep my wings and we can fly together.”

She reached her hoof down to pull Ditzy into the sky as the pegasus slid the magical book back into her saddle bag, taking up into the air after her friend. The once unicorn’s sweet voice called out sounding like music in the crystal clear air.

“My name’s Trixie… I’ll be sure not to forget who I am this time.” she said smiling back to her dear friend before they both took off, swinging to the south on a journey that would take them all across Equestria and through a whole new world of friendship.