Heart and Song

[Elsa]

A mark symbolizing their talents...

Elsa momentarily glanced at Sweetie Belle's flank, but she found that there was nothing there. So the young unicorn was still a blank canvas, as it were. Her possibilities were endless and she just had to find out what she was good at. The prospect kind of brought a sense of wonder back to Elsa. What would Sweetie Belle excel in that no other unicorn could? More to the point, what skills did the little one have with her horn? If they had the power to heal, could this young pony do the same?

"I see... It all sounds very interesting. But what about unicorn powers? Do unicorns have the ability to heal where you come from? Or is there some other sort of magic?" Elsa asked. She couldn't help but find herself intrigued by the idea. As long as the topic stayed away from what her own skills were, Elsa would be okay. In fact, she was feeling a lot less anxious than she had been when she'd finally laid eyes on the list. Perhaps this conversation with Sweetie Belle and Anna was really helping her to keep her mind off of things. She hoped that was the case, at any rate. Elsa didn't want to have to abandon either of them mid-way through the conversation.

[Deleted]

Sweetie Belle had to think about that question for awhile. She wasn't sure if unicorns could heal. Twilight had all kinds of magic but the young filly hadn't seen her heal any wounds or anything. "To be honest I am not sure myself." she said with a tiny frown. "I know my sister can use her magic to levitate things and create dresses and Twilight can do so many things with her powers...so healing is probably a possibility."

Now the young filly was even more curious about her own kind. And Twilight's own magic. "Do you need something healed Elsa?"

[Anna]

"A ball?" she repeated, to Sweetie's mention of the Grand Galloping Gala. "I think we used to host them in the castle once, but I was young so I don't remember much of them. We have a big ballroom there, at any rate, but no balls there ever since our parents shut the gates." Why they had was still a mystery to Anna; apparently Elsa had needed her privacy to prepare for being queen down the line? But a whole castle's worth of privacy when Else hardly even left her room struck Anna as a bit excessive. She wasn't going to bring that up here, though.

Instead, the younger princess wondered what her own cutie-mark may have been, had she been a pony. What would she call her special talent? Her persistance, perhaps - she had spent the better part of ten years, on and off, trying to goad an unwilling Elsa out of her room, at any rate. If that wasn't being almost persistant enough to verge on ridiculousness, Anna wasn't sure what was.

She was suddenly aware that the conversation seemed to have left her behind a little while she'd been pondering, and Anna couldn't help but wonder what she'd missed. The small unicorn was asking Elsa if she needed anything healed - and in spite of her self-made resolution not to pry too deeply, Anna found herself waiting incredibly curiously for her sister's answer, almost anticipating Elsa to reveal something of why she had needed to secret herself away in her room for so long.

[Elsa]

The only hint Elsa offered Anna was another awkward brush of her fingers against the side of one of her gloves. She'd told Jack of her powers, true enough, but Anna? Anna was the one person who could never know as far as Elsa was concerned. Besides, even if Sweetie Belle or any other unicorn could heal her or rid her of her powers, Elsa would still have the horrible memory of what she had accidentally done to Anna. It wouldn't erase the nightmares she had regarding that very subject, and it wouldn't erase the fear she had had for ten long years.

"...No. I'm all right. I was just curious about whether or not you knew of any unicorns with healing powers," Elsa said. Her fingers continued to brush uncomfortably against the side of her glove in an effort to ease her discomfort some. Whether or not it worked was up for debate, but Elsa knew better than to try and say anything about it.

[Anna]

Anna tilted her head curiously, regarding her sister. Suddenly, Elsa seemed closed and guarded again, and this time Anna was sure it wasn't to do with anything she'd done. Catching the movement, her eyes trailed down to her pale-haired sibling's gloves and she watched as Elsa brushed the fingers of one against the side of the other. There was some sort of secret beneath those gloves, Anna was becoming surer of it by the second - and while she didn't want to ask, the not-knowing was bothering her something fierce. She and Elsa had used to share everything; why couldn't Elsa tell her now if something was wrong?

"Are you sure you're okay?" Her tone, as she spoke, was cautious. "You were acting a bit odd on your way here just now..." Please don't shut me out again, please just tell me. Elsa, it's only me, your sister, you KNOW I won't judge you, whatever it is. She didn't dare to voice her plea alound but still, Anna almost hoped Elsa could see something of it in her eyes. She knew the trust between them wouldn't be instantly rekindled in just one day, but secretly, the younger princess was afraid that at any moment, Elsa would turn away and slam metaphorical the door in her face once again. If they could just talk about whatever-it-was, if they could just be open with each other about her sister's secret, it would be much harder for that to happen again.

[Deleted]

Sweetie Belle could see that there was concern in Anna's expression along with the tone of her voice. It was just like the filly's relationship with Rarity. Though more of the other way around. She couldn't help but notice that Elsa seemed much more tense now. Maybe bringing up healing wasn't the best move for Sweetie Belle to make. "Um, maybe she saw the fight list." she said. "I know when I saw it, it made my stomach all twisted like a knot."

In a way, Sweetie had been relieved that she hadn't been chosen to fight. Sure, she felt horrible feeling relieved when Scootaloo and Babs were fighting but it wasn't the same thing. "I think everyone's a bit nervous today, weather or not they are in the fights."

Maybe she was making the situation worse. This seemed like a sister talk. And Sweetie Belle wasn't their sister (though somehow she felt like she was just talking to them.) Elsa and Anna were probably the first real human girls that Sweetie Belle had talked to. The rest of her circle was kind. She had gotten to know a boy named Kevin and Yosuke (who had been kind enough to help with her homework) but these two girls treated her like a pony with a cutie-mark and hadn't teased her.

She wanted to help them in anyway she could.

[Elsa]

Elsa did kind of want to tell Anna, but the secret was too important. The whole point of her isolation had been for her to learn to control her power, and keeping Anna in the dark had been a part of that for a reason. She couldn't just let the secret spill out. Not after ten long years of isolation and loneliness. As much as Elsa wanted to allow Anna in, it was much too important that she didn't. Her fear was that Anna would be afraid of her if she knew the truth about what had happened to her. The last thing she wanted was for her own sister to fear her... To think she was a monster.

Slowly, Elsa tried to move her hands apart from each other and allowed a shaky breath to escape through her nose. She had to calm herself again. Her power wasn't reacting as badly this time, but Elsa still feared it would accidentally show itself somehow. At length, she shook her head a little.

"I'm all right, Anna. It's nothing to worry about. Really," Elsa said. She was trying her hardest to make herself sound convincing, but the way she had brought her hands back together subconsciously after bringing them apart wasn't really making her argument much better. Then, Sweetie Belle spoke up. Her suggestion that Elsa had seen the fight lists was actually accurate, and in a last ditch effort to keep Anna off of her trail, Elsa ran with it.

"Y-Yes... Yes, that's it. I did see the fight list when I was in the library. The whole idea of our fellow students fighting one another has me kind of uneasy. That's all," she finally said. Was either of her statements convincing in the slightest? Elsa hoped so. Having to cover her tracks and hide her power from her sister in this environment was becoming more difficult, she realized. Sooner or later, something might slip out. Whether it was the nightmares she had on occasion or her power itself that showed itself first, Elsa wasn't entirely sure of what would happen. She'd have to hope for the best.

[Deleted]

Sweetie Belle stared at Elsa for a long time. She wasn't as good as reading emotions as others, but she could feel that Elsa was not telling her the whole truth. Something was wrong, but the filly knew that it would be rude. It would have been like becoming Diamond Tiara and trying to find out people's secrets to get under their skin and to tease them.

Her green eyes cast down at the floor. She wondered if Elsa had a friend who was fighting tonight but she decided not to ask. Hoping to get the tension out of the air, Sweetie Belle thought quickly, "So, Anna, um, do you have a favorite class or teacher?" she asked.

[Anna]

"Elsa..." Anna started to press her sister for a real answer and had even reached out to grab her arm, then stopped, reconsidered. While the younger princess was certain she wasn't being told the whole truth, she didn't want to jeapardise her friendship with Elsa again; and though she hated feeling as though her sibling didn't even trust her, Anna was also aware that demanding Elsa's secrets wouldn't gain her any standing with her sister at all.

"Oh, that's all it is?" For once, the younger princess' bubbly attitude seemed entirely absent, and she sounded not just deflated and unconvinced, but hurt too. Whether she ought to have expected anything else or not, Elsa's lack of trust stung, and Anna couldn't keep that pain completely out of her voice. Why couldn't Elsa at least try to trust her again? What had she ever done wrong? Anna had to bite her lip to keep herself from blurting the questions aloud.

Finally, her attention was diverted from her sister as Sweetie spoke again, and as Anna turned to look at the small unicorn she hastily blinked away the tears that a moment ago had been threatening to form. There was nothing she could do to make Elsa trust her again, as much as Anna might wish it.

"I don't really know," she replied, at length, still sounding more subdued than would ever be normal for her. "It's all so new and different, it's had to pick a favourite."

[Elsa]

Elsa could see Anna's expression plainly, and her own answer had begun to hurt for a few moments. She wished she still had the trust for herself that she did many years ago. It was the fear that she would harm her little sister again that kept her from trusting the redhead as much as she once had. However, that didn't mean Elsa didn't want to have that trust between her and Anna. She wanted it more than words could describe. However, Elsa knew better than anyone that it was better this way. Her parents had to have known what they were doing when they agreed to isolating her, closing the kingdom gates, and keeping her and Anna apart those ten years. ...She just wished it hadn't been so painful for the two of them.

The topic, thankfully, shifted before long and Elsa was allowed a slight reprieve in the conversation. As Sweetie Belle asked Anna her question, Elsa was allowed the opportunity to try and bring her guard down again. Keeping it up all the time may not have been taxing physically, but trying to keep her emotions and her power in check was always difficult. She hoped the two would... Oh. No, they wouldn't understand. Neither her sister nor Sweetie Belle knew anything about her powers. She hoped to keep it that way for a while longer.

At long last, Elsa seemed to find her point of comfort. This allowed her to at least let her hands go into a more relaxed position and it didn't look as though she was about to use them to cover her chest for no reason. Maybe now Elsa would be more comfortable if another question or comment was directed at her.