Nothing But Memories - Junicorn 2022

Sonnet watched as a single phoenix leapt out of the flames, sparks trailing behind the long tail feathers as it twirled in the air. He could feel the heat from the flames and the hot air in his face, as the phoenix beat its wings, fanning the flames even higher.

Resplendence was beaming with delight, and Sonnet could see the same excitement in the eyes of Minuet, his uncle, and his grandmother And he could also hear the excited murmurs of the crowd of Quirlicorns behind them, all watching with anticipation of when the next phoenix would come out of its shell. 

He wondered what Baroque would say, if his little half-brother was still in Candentia to watch hatching of the phoenix eggs. Sonnet felt something along the lines of regret nip at him, as he wished Baroque could see the marvelous sight in front of him.

No. Sonnet refused to feel any regret about his half-brother not seeing this rare event. It could only be thought of as Baroque's fault, that Baroque wasn't here. Not Sonnet's.

(After all, his brother was the entire reason why their father had left Candentia, to embark on a long journey with no perceivable end. If Baroque hadn't.... perhaps Sonnet's father would still be here, in Candentia, by his side.)

Sonnet felt the magic of the fire pull at him, so he reached out with his pyrokinesis, to feel the way the fire was burning. The fire seemed to call to him, asking him to make the fire burn brighter and the flames taller, hotter. He offered the fire his magic, using his pyrokinesis to guide the fire to be larger and hotter.

A second phoenix egg cracked open, and Sonnet grinned as the second phoenix flew up with a musical cry, to join its sibling in the air. 

Moments later, the third and final phoenix egg hatched. Sonnet stared up into the air, as the three phoenix siblings flew in a circle above their heads. It was marvelous, being able to witness the ring of phoenixes, and the fire that trailed behind them, flames that were as much a part of the phoenixes as their gorgeous red and orange feathers. 

The phoenixes dived down, one at a time, to greet Sonnet, coming close enough that he could feel the stinging fire on their feathers, before flapping their wings to soar back. It was as if they wanted to say something to him, perhaps thanking him for lending his fire magic to the flames. 

Sonnet watched as the three phoenixes then dived into the fire, delighting the gathered Quirlicorns with a strangely mesmerizing dance. The phoenixes then continued to alternate between flying high above in the clouds, through the air around them, and in the large fire that continued to burn.  

As it became clear the phoenixes had no plans of doing anything else, the gathered Quirlicorns began to move away, the crowd dispersing. Sonnet, however, remained mesmerized by the phoenixes and their fire, not lifting his eyes away, even as Minuet whispered to him, that she was leaving. 

Then the moment of enthrallment ended, as Sonnet let out a sharp hiss. He fell to his knees with a gasp of pain, and a sharp, gritty, burning feeling in his chest.

As he inhaled and then exhaled, trying to fight away the pain, he realized what that 'storm' that had felt inside him, in the wake of his father's departure, was: pure magic, coursing through his blood. But not the magic he already wielded, not the magic he already had. No, this was more than that, more magic than he could control. 

He knew the magic, and where the magic hailed from. It was easy to identify the sharp, biting flames of Anevay, bringing with it the feeling of hooves on hot sand, blazing sparks, and a burning heat. 

The magic inside him, that was trying to be released, wasn't the entirety of the magic Anevay wielded. Sonnet knew how much power his grandmother had, and how comparatively little the magic inside him was. Yet it was still a lot of magic, more than what the average Quirlicorn would expect to ever master. 

As the air around him burst into flames, and Sonnet gave up fighting his magic, he realized the magic he now had, was dangerous. 

From beside him, Sonnet heard Minuet stepping towards him to ask, “Sonnet? What happened?”

“Stay away!” Sonnet bit out, lifting his head up to look at Minuet, all while trying and get the flames leaping in the air around him under control. “I don’t know what this magic is! No, scratch that, I just don’t know what to do about it!”

“What do you mean?”

Sonnet decided to ignore Minuet for a moment. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to steady his breathing. He just needed to control the fire, and everything would be fine. It was his magic, after all. He breathed in, and out. He could hear the flames crackling, and the burn of embers under his hooves, even though he knew he wouldn't be hurt by the fire. The fire was his, and thus it would be tamed by him. And with that knowledge, he soon felt exhilaration, as he realized the flames and the fire were his.  

Slowly, as minutes passed, Sonnet felt as though the fire was finally under his control, no longer as wild as it had been. He opened his eyes, to see Minuet looking at him, with both concern and admiration.

“Remember those theories about chimes and magic we read? And the stage where Quirlicorns get access to a small subset of one region's magic?”

“Is that what happened?”

“Yeah,” Sonnet answered, unfurling his wings to give his magic some outlet. The feeling of the storm in his heart had disappeared, replaced with a sense of eerie calmness, now that the fire had been released. “I thought I had more time… but I guess not.”

Minuet moved closer to Sonnet. “So now, you have access to Anevay's magic?"

“Yeah, I think,” Sonnet dryly replied, his heartrate slowing down as the flames also began to die away. 

"What did it feel like?" Minuet asked, offering an open wing as an embrace.

With the flames gone, Sonnet leaned into his sister's hug, letting her wrap his wings around him. He didn't want to know how much magic he had just used, to leave himself this exhausted and drained.

"It felt amazing. It felt like everything we read about Anevay's Desert Magic, but also so much more. It felt like it was truly mine."

(But, even though Sonnet would never say it, he still had to admit to himself, that despite how much the magic seemed to belong to him, it wasn't his. It was much more than he could deal with, much more than he knew how to handle.)

  

As he walked back towards the palace with his sister at his side, Sonnet realized something: that today, in a certain sense, would mark the end of his foalhood, better than any other day possibly could. Partially because he now was blessed with the magic of the Deserts. But also, because he now knew the full power that he held within him, and had finally realized the potential for his magic to both help, but also to hurt. (Because, if the other Quirlicorns hadn't left, Sonnet knew what his fire could have done, what his fire would have done.)

He now knew, what his grandmother had meant by magic being a both a burden and a blessing.