//------------------------------// // 3: Flashback // Story: The Spark of Something New // by Pip232 //------------------------------// Two days ago Iron Aegis’ bloodcurdling cry echoed throughout the throne room as Spike sank his teeth into his horn, all the magic he’d overloaded it with unleashed in an instant, throwing both of them away from each other. Spike’s back slammed into the ground as he continued to slide across the smooth marble floor. Aegis was not as lucky, his left side colliding with a pillar on the far end of the throne room. The force of the impact drove the air from his lungs. He would’ve cried out as his ribs and foreleg broke. Every breath he took in a desperate bid to get his wind back sent a shooting pain through his side as a burning ache radiated through his broken foreleg. He reached up and felt where his horn should’ve been, but his hoof only met empty air. Across the room, the chains binding Twilight went slack across her body. Her mane began to wave again as magic flooded into her horn. With a simple nullification spell, the chains disappeared. She focused and teleported over to where Spike was, gently helping him sit back up. “Spike, are you okay?” He groaned and rubbed his head, spitting horn fragments out of his mouth, but he smiled when he saw she was free. “Yeah, yeah I think so. You?” Twilight nodded, beginning to use her magic to heal Spike’s injuries. The cut on his chest and the bruising on his scales began to fade, and Spike looked at her appreciatively, pushing himself to his feet. “Thanks, Twilight. What do we do with him?” Both turned to the crumpled form of Iron Aegis, seeing him trying to push himself back to his hooves and the obvious pain it was causing him. “Come with me, Spike.” Aegis looked up to see Twilight and Spike approaching him, a feeling of panic beginning to make itself known but he used his anger to force it down. He propped himself up on his elbow and looked Twilight right in the eye. “So, what’re you going to do now?” “I want to know why you attacked us, Aegis.” His eyes flashed dangerously as he pushed himself to his hooves, holding most of his weight on his right side. Twilight winced at the state of his foreleg, but Spike didn’t let his guard down, ready to finish what Aegis started. “Stop calling me that! I hate that name! I’ve hated it since the day it was forced on me!” The fury in his voice suddenly evaporated, but the cold tone that was left behind disturbed Twilight even more. “As for why I attacked you, you don’t really think nopony was hurt the day you fought Tirek, do you?” Twilight thought back to that day. Overall the fight had been largely away from Ponyville, save for when the Golden Oaks Library was destroyed. It wasn’t until later that she learned that more than her books had been lost in the blast. “No, two ponies died that day. A couple. I found out they had a foal, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. I don’t know what became of him, but I always hoped he was alri-” Her words died in her mouth as her mind quickly put the pieces together. “It was you. You’re their foal, aren’t you?” His foreleg trembled under his weight as he carefully lowered himself back into a sitting position. He took in a deep, shuddering breath, a feeling of weakness spreading through his body. His side was beginning to hurt more and more but he concentrated on it and used it to keep himself alert. “I was their foal, but that was another life. A life you took from me!” Spike gave a low growl, taking a step closer. “In case you never noticed, Tirek was the one who destroyed the library. If it weren’t for Twilight, who knows how many other lives he would’ve taken.” This didn’t dissuade Aegis. “If it weren’t for her, no ponies would’ve died at all! Tirek was after her! She could’ve led him anywhere in Equestria, and he would’ve followed her like an imprinted duckling, but she brought him right down on us! It’s a miracle more lives weren’t lost.” His words had a sting of truth to them, but Twilight tried to reason with him. “Maybe, but if I’d tried to lead Tirek somewhere more secluded, other lives could’ve been lost. We can debate this but it won’t change what happened. What matters now is that you’re alive and how we move forward.” Aegis’ eyes burned into Twilight. “Forward, forward?! I have no forward. Look at me! My family was ripped away from me, I was taken from my home, stripped of my real name, used as a pawn, and for all that, destiny said I was to serve you, the mare who ruined my life! I lost everything, including myself!” His anger finally broke, leaving only sorrow in his tone. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to live your life feeling like you’re trapped with no way out?” Twilight snorted derisively, a tone of resignation in her voice. "Of course I do. Do you think I wanted this life? Spending every waking moment having to worry about everypony in Equestria? All the stress, the responsibility, the... Everything? No. I never asked for it. Celestia simply told me that it's my destiny, and like a fool, I believed her. It took me a few years, you know. To realize that I was her retirement plan. By the time I did, it was too late. I'm trapped here. My friends will die, my family will disappear, and I will remain, carrying the burden of the day, night, and Equestria itself on my shoulders. I thought about retiring or leaving many times. But I can't. There's no one who can carry this burden but me. So I'm damned to stay as everyone I care about dies around me until I'm so detached from everypony that I can do to somepony what Celestia did to me!” She only noticed the tears running down her cheeks at the end of her speech, brushing them away with her hoof. “I do know what it’s like to feel trapped. It’s a terrible, terrible thing, but you don’t have to be.” Aegis’ hatred was replaced by utter confusion, “I don’t understand. I betrayed you, tried to destroy you, why would you help me?” Twilight’s expression softened. “Compared to other ponies I’ve met over the years, that’s not that bad. After all, Starlight nearly destroyed the fabric of time itself and I made her my student. Fizzlepop led an invasion against Equestria and now she’s in charge of protecting Ponyville. I helped both of them, and I can help you, too.” Taking a chance, she slowly approached him. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, and I’m sorry that after it happened, no one was there for you like your parents had been. We can’t go back, and I know you think there’s no way forward, that you’re trapped, but that’s not true. I couldn’t help you then, so let me help you now. You can move forward, and the first step is for you to trust me.” A wave of empathy rushed over him. For so long he thought he was just collateral damage in her rise to power, that she’d gained the throne without having to sacrifice anything. But for the first time since he was a colt, he was willing to admit that he’d been wrong about her. They were more alike than he’d realized. Neither of them had asked for their lot in life, others had chosen it for them, and while to outsiders they may seem like successes, they knew the paths their lives had taken weren’t of their own volition. But she was willing to help him, and the fact she understood how he felt made him confident he could accept it. “Alright, Twilight. I trust you.” A gentle smile crossed her face, and her horn began to glow once again. “Wonderful. Just hold still.” Magic enveloped him, a comfortable warmth and a gentle pressure accompanying it. He could feel his ribs and foreleg recovering, the bones being knitted back together by her magic. It felt like his whole body had been wrapped in a warm hug. A thought occurred to Twilight while she worked, “You said you didn’t like the name they gave you. Do you still remember your old name?” He answered with a small nod. “Of course, it’s something I’ll never forget. It’s Star Spark.” He flexed his foreleg and felt that the pain was gone. He was good as new. Well, almost. “Thanks for healing me. I could’ve done it myself if I still had my horn.” “Star Spark, what a wonderful name. I like it.” When he mentioned his horn Twilight gave him a sympathetic look. “I know, but I can fix that, too.” Spike frowned. “Are you really sure that’s a good idea, Twilight?” “Absolutely.” she turned to where the fragments of Star Spark’s horn had been left, levitating the pieces over. “It works both ways. I can’t ask him to trust me if I won’t do the same.” He huffed in disapproval, but supposed the risk was manageable. Without any more weapons or the ability to effectively nullify Twilight’s magic, they could handle him if he pulled anything, horn or no horn. Star Spark could hardly believe it. She was willing to not only heal him, but restore the horn of the same pony who’d tried to assassinate her not ten minutes ago? Either she was delusional, or she really was willing to trust him. Through Twilight’s magic he could see the pieces of his horn meticulously rearranging themselves and coming together. “Hold still.” Twilight repeated, although it wasn’t as if he could move even if he wanted to. As she brought it towards him he felt a tingle in his head that only grew in intensity until it made contact with the base of his horn. Star Spark felt a tingle run through his horn that he felt from his skull to the tip, the fact he could feel it proving Twilight had done as she’d promised. Before he could thank her he was pulled forward by her magic. It dissipated as she embraced him, but the feeling that he was being wrapped in a warm hug never left him. After the initial surprise wore off, he allowed himself to enjoy it. He had tried to destroy her, and not only wouldn’t she punish him, but help him to move forward in his life, and she would be able to do so because she understood him. For the first time in a long time things looked bright for him, and he truly believed there was a way to not be trapped anymore. He took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, it felt like a weight had been lifted. A small smile crossed his face as he returned the gesture. The pleasantness lasted only seconds more before a feeling of nausea and pain gripped him, lines of magic arcing across his body. He released Twilight and stumbled back, his limbs feeling less obedient now. He felt something changing within himself and not for the better, like one half of a two-piece jigsaw puzzle was being flipped around and forced back in place. “What’s ha-happening to me?” Before he or anyone else could take a moment to guess, the tingling became agony, green fire erupting all over his body. Star Spark tried to use his magic to do anything, but he couldn’t focus enough, and a sense of panic quickly set in. “Agh, help me!” Twilight recognized the fire instantly, she’d seen it when Chrysalis had banished her to the caves beneath Canterlot. She used a spell to drench him with water, but the fire wasn’t the least bit abated by her efforts. Switching tactics she used a disabling spell, trying to neutralize any magic in the conflagration. The fire vanished, but Star Spark felt a sense of hollowness. He felt something deep inside of him break and shift, his panic being replaced by sheer terror. There was a bright flash, and all that was left of him was a pile of armor that clattered to the floor. “What did you do, vaporize him?!” Spike asked with disbelief, looking at where Star Spark had been just moments ago. Twilight’s eyes widened, staring at the empty armor. “NO! No, this isn’t how it was supposed to be! It was just supposed to-” Twilight was cut off by the sounds of infantile crying coming from beneath the armor. She and Spike shared a look, completely befuddled, before he went and dug through it. When he lifted up the body plating his eyes widened in surprise to see a tiny foal beneath it. His cutie mark was gone, but otherwise he seemed unharmed. Spike carefully picked him up under the forelegs and cradled him. He was surprised to see Star Spark’s eyes had changed from green to a vivid yellow. Regardless of the aesthetics, he still didn’t know what to think of this discovery. “I can’t tell if this is better or worse.” Twilight approached and got a good look at Star Spark, casting a weak sleep spell on the foal. She felt a twinge of jealousy seeing him fall asleep, knowing she now had a very long night ahead of her. “It’s... different. Let’s go with that for now.”