"Starburst?"
Star turned around. She had never spoken to Dove before, or even seen her. So why was Dove following her outside?
"What do you want? Shouldn't you be with mom?"
Dove pawed at the ground. "I don't want to learn magic. It's scary."
Hearing that baffled Star. "Scary? What's so scary about it?"
"Well... one wrong move, and everything goes wrong. It can easily hurt somepony just because you weren't focusing, and it can take over your body. But... my mommy doesn't understand, and wants me to learn anyway."
They stood in silence for a moment. Nothing Dove said made sense to Star, but one thing was certain; She needed to help Dove get over this fear in some way.
"Let's try something," Star said. "I'll try to fly, and you help me."
Dove tilted her head. "Help you? How?"
Star winked. "With your magic, of course!"
Dove's eyes went wide. "Wha- but that's dangerous! Why do you think that will work?"
Star smiled at her. "My mommy would lift me with her magic, and it would feel like flying! So let's give it our best shot, right?"
Dove sighed. She didn't like how Star talked like she already agreed to it. "... fine. We'll try."
Star squealed and hopped. "Alright! Let's do this!"
Dove raised an eyebrow. Why is she so excited? Then again, her mommy was kind of like this earlier.
Star spread her wings. "Alright! You ready... er," She tilted her head in confusion, "What's your name?"
Dove sighed. "Dove."
Star nodded, then resumed her positioning. "Alright! You ready, Dove?"
Dove looked at her horn in concern. "I guess?"
"Let's do this!" Star leaped up... then promptly face-planted into the ground.
Dove looked at the prone filly, worried she just saw somepony die. "Uh, Star?"
Star lifted her head, spit out her mouthful of grass and dirt, then gave Dove a deadpan look. "You were supposed to catch me."
Dove giggled nervously. "Sorry."
Star sighed, stood up, and dusted herself off. "Alright, let's try again."
Dove nodded. Star got in a lowered position, spread her massive wings, and leaped up in the air. This time, Dove focused on catching and holding her in the air. A light blue glow surrounded Star, and she didn't fall right away. Sure enough, she was flying.
Star started laughing. "I'm flying! I'm flying!" She did flips and spins as if nothing else was in control. "This feels great!"
Dove smiled. Her magic was simply holding Star up, not controlling her. "That looks like fun! I wish I cooooooohhhhhhh!"
Star felt something gripping her stomach. "Dove? What's wrong?" She suddenly couldn't move like before. "D-Dove?"
Dove clutched her head in pain. "Not... now..."
Star felt something yank her around. "Dove! Stop! What are you doing?"
Dove started to cry. "I can't... control it..."
Star's body suddenly felt like it was pulling itself apart. "Control it! Control it!"
Dove squeezed her eyes shut. "I... can't..."
Star suddenly shrieked, then fell silent...
Twilight closed her book. "And that's the basics of levitation! Were you paying attention?" Twilight looked at the empty seat to her left. "... Dove?"
Anthea tilted her head. "Huh. So she did leave."
Twilight looked at her student. "You noticed and didn't say anything?"
Annie blushed. "Well, I wasn't sure."
Twilight sighed and stood up. "Come on. Let's find Dove, then you can play with Star." Twilight made her way out of the room, lifting Annie on her back.
Twilight decided to search outside first, in case they were playing out there. As soon as she opened the front door, however, she heard a shriek.
Annie's eyes went wide. "Was that... Star?"
Twilight took off in the direction of the shriek, Annie holding on at tightly as she could.
Once Twilight got to the top of the hill, she saw something that tore her heart in two.
Dove was facing away from them, gasping for breath.
Annie was getting worried. She was only able to see blobs of color, but even then what she saw bothered her. "What's going on? What's all that red?"
Twilight slowly turned towards Dove, the reality of the situation settling in.
"I... I'm sorry."
Twilight stepped forward, finally seeing the red glow around Dove's eyes and horn.
"I couldn't... control it."
Dove screamed into her gag and pulled at her bindings as pain shot through her whole body. Twilight stood nearby, her expression hollow. No matter how she pulled, jerked, or thrashed, Dove's bindings wouldn't give way, and the device on her horn never showed signs of coming loose as it drained her of her magic.
She honestly preferred that. She couldn't risk what happened eight years ago to happen again. The sight of Star like that was still burned into her mind.
Suddenly, numbness started flowing from her hind legs up to her horn, until she couldn't feel anything at all. At this point, the numbness felt more like relief. She stopped struggling, and started breathing normally again.
Twilight's eyebrow twitched. A part of her was furious that Dove looked so relieved. A mare like her didn't deserve relief. At the same time, however, a part of her was more upset with herself. Dove had suffered quite a bit over an accident, hadn't she?
Nothing was coming off of Dove, though. They both remained the way they were for a few minutes. Twilight had to make sure that Dove had as little magic in her body as possible.
An alarm started ringing. Twilight turned it off, then moved a table with a spoon on it in front of Dove. Dove stared at it as Twilight removed the gag and MDD (Magic Draining Device).
"Move it."
Dove focused on moving the spoon as much as she could. She was still in a daze from having her magic drained, but knew better than to not try moving it. Had Twilight had a better expression on her face, Dove would have used her nose as a joke.
A few minutes of trying later, and the spoon hadn't budged a centimeter. In an odd way, both mares were relieved. For Twilight, it was a successful experiment she had no need to feel bad over testing. For Dove, it was a fear now in her past forever.
Twilight undid Dove's bindings. "Congratulations. Get out."
Dove gave Twilight a somber look before leaving the room. She went up the stairs out of the basement, up to the living area, and into one of the rooms.
"Hey there, Star."
"Dove! You're here! How was it?"
Dove dizzily made her way to the side of the bed. "I think it's all gone now."
"Is it? Yay! Now nothing like before will happen!"
"How can you be so cheerful while you still have all those bandages on you?"
"I like looking towards the future. I haven't been able to do much else lately."
"I'm... sorry."
"It's not your fault, silly. It was that nasty evil magic that's gone now. Don't be so hard on yourself."
Dove smiled sadly. "I'm trying, but it's hard when your mom keeps treating me like a criminal."
"She'll get over it. Hey! I can take you flying when I get better!"
"But you haven't flown on your own yet! How could you take me with you that quickly?"
"I'll find a way!"
Dove started giggling. "You're so silly!"
Twilight watched Dove from the doorway. It was hard to remember at times, but she wasn't the only one hurt by that incident. But there was always a reminder waiting for her.
Like Dove talking to an empty bed.
Author's Note
Definitely one of the darker things I have written, and this was written on a whim. I saw an image, and my mind jumped to "What's the worst way this could possibly go?" And I think I found it. I don't think GIFs can be used as story images, though, which is why I'm not using said image for the cover.
Also, if you don't quite get what happened, I hope that's because you didn't catch the hints, and not my writing being bad.
