The Fourth Star.

by Golden Paw

Echoes in the Darkness

Foresight was scared; there was no two ways about it. After she had seen Shakala turn on Sky and knock him out she soon found herself at the mercy of the cult ponies. Foresight had been bound, gagged and some kind of lodestone hung around her neck: This last item made her magic feel limp and weak, not that she knew any spells which could get her out of this mess any way.

She found herself being led by her captors towards the mountains that loomed off to the west. Sky Strike was bound hoof and wing and Shakala following behind, the same vacant look in his eyes as the earth ponies. As they approached the gathering of cult members increased, there were thousands of them.

Foresight saw unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies all being lorded over by the altered breeds, but this wasn't all: There were also griffons, boars and other races among the throng. Foresight thought she caught sight of other stranger creatures also, some were driven forward by sharp spears and barbs from negasi, but most seemed docile and under the sway of nightborn enchantments. Few turned to look at her and her friends, they were just another set of captors in the crowd.

Foresight whimpered as Sky Strike was carried off in a different direction, quickly followed by the mesmerised Shakala. She wanted to cry out, to do something but Foresight was utterly powerless to help them as they were led into the milling crowds, leaving her utterly without friends in this strange place.

"Don't worry, they will be well taken 'care' of," came the insidious sound of the sender that had taunted her all the way here: The dark unicorn that was responsible for their capture had gloated and mocked almost nonstop since Foresight and her friends had been subdued.

Foresight glared at the stallion who just laughed at her in a condescending way, "As for you little one, Catalyst will reward me well for bringing you in. Is that not right my 'faithful' minions." The nightborn was enjoying his role of slave master it seemed, forcing the two earth ponies carrying Foresight to nod in agreement.

They were soon making their way through a cave entrance and once inside it became clear this was no simple hollowed out rock face. There was another barrier of darkness here and as they passed through it Foresight left the cool night outside to be replaced by disturbing architecture of massive proportions. It looked like the same kind of style as the ruins in 'Down Town' at High Point, but in a much better state of repair and on a far grander scale.

Everywhere loomed statues showing Nightmare Moon and her followers ruling over the other ponies and creatures of the world. It was all decked out in finery that would have been lost on any who didn't have true night vision and though it would have moved Foresight's heart to see such examples of skill and craftponyship, it was all subtly wrong.

The level of skill put into it had been turned to domination and darkness, too many sharp edges and gloating art works. The whole effect sickened Foresight, the decorations calling out to her soul in some deep way that made her feel very uneasy and tainted just by looking at them.

Foresight was carried along broad paths that had all sorts of creatures going about their business: Reminded her yet again of Down Town, but the feeling in the air was different here. High Point gave off a dirty feeling of freedom, it was harsh and gritty, with the inhabitants just doing their best to live in a hostile land.

The world within the mountain was more like an oppressive slave market with nightborn at the top. There were signs that every other race present were considered just a commodity. Even the negasi seemed to be treated with badly hidden scorn as a role of needed servants, but servants nevertheless. Those unfortunate day time creatures entrapped here were all in chains and forced to ware darksight goggles as they plodded their hopeless way along.

"Is it not magnificent! Seeing things done the way they were meant to be. Nightmare Moon gave us 'shadow weavers' such a grand task and the skills to do it." Her captor who’s name turned out to be 'Dark Star', 'sent' with a dramatic whisper and all the assurance of the truly indoctrinated.

Foresight was unable to give any reply other than a muffled snort and as the party progressed further into the underground she saw they were heading towards what looked like a temple to Nightmare Moon. Dark Star halted them before a massive set of embossed doors, which depicted a battle scene in which Nightmare Moon had cast down Celestia and stood triumphant over her still cooling corpse.

To her surprise, Foresight's hooves were freed and the gag removed. A couple of negasi guards stood to attention holding spears watched her with a cold malice but otherwise made no move. She was just starting to wonder what these cultist were up to when a completely new voice entered her mind:

"Allow her to enter, I would speak with the mare myself." This one was a far removed from the likes of Dark Star's insidious tones, it was like finding a tropical fern in the middle of frozen tundra. Where the others had been quiet and scornful, this one was rich and pleasant and reminded Foresight of a caring father figure trying to teach a wayward foal.

The two negasi nodded and pushed open the doors to reveal an opulent chamber beyond. Though still in total darkness the room was alive to Foresight's night vision. Fine furniture and art works were everywhere, little trinkets that would have taken profound skills to make covered intricately the carved dark wood tables.

At the far end of the room was a dark unicorn, lounging easily on a couch like a panther in his lair. His eyes were a vibrant purple, his well kept mane and tail the shade of dark green leaves. About his neck was a talisman of silver with a blue gem crafted to appear as a slitted eye. The stallion wore a high collar along with other rich dark clothes which would not have looked out of place at the grand galloping gala.

"So you are the young mare who is the cause of so much trouble? I would have expected you to be older if I am honest, but then again, we all know that it's not what's on the outside that counts, but the inside no?" The dark pony seemed to reside in a patch of greater darkness more than just the simple absence of light.

Foresight, seeing she had little choice but to go forward cautiously stepped over the threshhold. She felt the temperature drop even further than the normal in the stronger darkness of this place. This pony before her was a powerhouse of magic if she was any judge and to Foresight's dismay, the richly dressed nightborn held the small sphere she had recovered from under High Point in one well cared for hoof. Thankfully the small ball was just as dead and lifeless as Foresight remembered.

"It pains me to see that this little bauble has given up its secrets already. I had so very much wanted its insight into things which were to come, but it seems that you beat me to it little filly." The stallion went on in a bored manner. Foresight didn't respond and just stood there watching the other pony as if he was a snake ready to pounce.

"That leaves me with the more 'interesting' way of getting the information I want. Less pretty but I must admit far more pleasing." Foresight had mentally braced herself for what she guessed was coming, but to her surprise the mental probe when it did come felt little more than a caress on her mind. Like some pony gently rubbing the tender spots of her mental framework.

The stallion's face changed from one of smug knowing to one of genuine respect: Foresight could see the stallion’s horn glow with effort but to her amazement she felt almost nothing. With the magical suppressor on she had no hope of stopping this stallion’s attempt, but for some reason his probes were not working on her.

The other dark unicorn gritted his sharp teeth and poured more power into his attempts, but to his mounting anger and Foresight's dark delight, all she felt was a slight tingle about her temples. After a few moments of strained focus the stallion before her gave a snort and the mental attack stopped.

"Well well, this is a surprise, Enigma said you were like an open door to her. Yet here I am unable to get the simplest of thoughts from your pretty little head. I wonder what could have caused such a change in you?" The disembodied voice of her interrogator floated into Foresight's thoughts.

"As you are far more skilled in shadow casting than I first took you for, I will speak to you with my own mouth as a mark of respect Miss Foresight. I will also tell you my name, which I do not doubt you have heard already.” The dark stallion paused for dramatic effect before announcing; “I am 'Catalyst'," he spoke out loud, in a voice that carried the same confidence and assurance as his sending had. Foresight got the impression that this pony seldom used his own voice by the slightly dry quality to it.

She started upon the mention of Enigma, Foresight had thought her dead in the collapse of High Point. It was not an action that this dark unicorn failed to notice and he grinned in an unpleasant way, "Ah yes Enigma, you met her briefly at our true home. What a clever little mage she was. Enigma was cooperative in the end, every pony is when confronted by the truths we bear."

"What have you done with my friends?" Foresight demanded.

Catalyst waved a hoof in a vague way as if Foresight's question was of no consequence, "We will come to their fates soon enough. That, however is not your concern now. What you need to worry about is giving me what I want. Seeing I can’t break the information out of your mind with my normal means, I will have to use other methods."

The stallion flashed Foresight a winning smile and though she was loath to admit it, he was very handsome. She imagined paintings of princes royal having a face like that. This Catalyst seemed to have all the right marks for a pony of good breeding and class.

Foresight's heart screamed at her that this pony, despite his appearance was rotten to the core. She didn't know why she felt this so deeply, it wasn’t just the evidence that this pony was a first class Tyrant, the disgust for him seemed to run deeper than that.

"So as such, I ask you nicely and with the respect from one powerful mage to another that you share your insights into our blessed creators return. If you do this of your own free will we can give you much here fellow shadow caster. All you have to do is open your mind to me and I will show you such wonders," Catalyst asked in doting tone.

Foresight could feel the pony in front of her trying to use very subtle mind magic on her once again, it was so skilful that Foresight was astonished she recognised it so easily. This latest attempt was like a burglar trying to rob a house it during a busy day with the owner watching his every move. It seemed far beneath the skill she would have expected from a pony of such reputation before her.

Foresight wasn’t the only pony shocked by this as Catalyst leaned back in confusion. For the tiniest of moments she thought she saw beyond the mask of self assurance and class of Catalyst to the hungry wolf beneath. Foresight had just not only blocked but reflected the magical attack, with absolutely no idea how she had managed it.

The mask was back instantly and Catalyst thought for a moment before looking down once more at the small sphere. A large grin formed on his face and he let out a small chuckle, "Ah I see now, very clever of you, very clever indeed." Foresight was confused, Catalyst seemed to be directing the comment to the globe before him.

He arose slowly from his seat and Foresight caught a glance of his cutie mark which was a number of black chess pieces trapping the white king. Catalyst trotted lightly around Foresight, studying her in more detail than before, like a cat that has found a particularly interesting mouse.

"Yes, there is nothing special in your skills, you have no real talent," he almost looked disappointed, I have missjudged you once again it seems." Catalyst was sending again, his 'voice' resumed that condescending tone, "I will therefore have to use more 'direct' methods to get what I want."

With that announcement made the two negasi guards opened the doors and Foresight found herself being led away to an uncertain fate, Catalyst's predatory stare lingering upon her right up until the doors were shut behind with an ominous thud.

---

Sky Strike listened to Enigma's explanation with a mix of dread and amazement He'd never heard the story of High Point told that way. To be honest Sky had never thought that deeply about it. His home was more than just the refuge it seemed; Enigma telling him of how when it was first founded the town was known as 'Moon's Citadel'.

The mountain had been the chosen home of those ponies who had been banished from Equestria nearly a thousand years ago because they had chosen to follow Nightmare Moon's rebellion: Even when she was defeated they would not renounce her cause. As with all such places based on dark ideas of domination and control, revolution had not been far behind.

The other pony breeds and enslaved creatures that had been forced to work under the shadow casters, along with forward thinking descendants of those first settlers helped drive out the oppressive dark unicorns. It had been a bitter fought battle, a micro example of the first Nightmare war. Enigma knew all of these legends of High Point as a story passed down by her family line. Now it seemed the outcasts had returned to reclaim their second home once more.

"So what you're basically saying is that Down Town was what was left of Moon's Citadel?" Sky Strike reasoned out loud. With the darkness being complete there was little else to do but talk and think. Shakala had calmed down during the tale as Enigma struggled to tell it.

She sounded in a bad way and Sky could only guess what methods this Catalyst had used to break Enigma. There had been rules in High Point about what a nigth born could get away with, but Sky doubted there was anything like them here.

"Then what is it we are to be doing now? Surely we are to escape somehow?" It was the first thing Shakala had said since they had discovered Enigma was being held in the prison with them.

"I have tried, but there are too many of them, and what would be the point? As I said if Catalyst has gotten hold of Foresight then were doomed any way. I hoped the fall of High Point would have allowed you to escape, but now even that has failed.]" Enigma moaned in their minds.

"It's only over when we give up," It sounded weak to Sky Strike even as he uttered the words, but it was better than rolling over and surrendering.

There was the sound of a metal door opening somewhere in the blackness and Sky heard Enigma whimper in her cell. Still unable to see anything all Sky strained to hear the sounds hoof falls until there was a cry of a mare that he recognised.

"Sky, Shakala! You're both here! I was so worried they had done something terrible to you both!" Foresight called out, no doubt seeing her two companions easily in the blackness. Sky heard the sounds of a metal gate being opened and scuffling followed by a thud and a further gasp from Foresight.

Sky sat in his cell, as the hoof falls of the guards receded once more. After a few moments silence Foresight gasped, "Oh Enigma, what have they done to you? Don't worry I didn't tell them anything." Sky felt his own heart falter as Enigma let out a defeated sigh, not even bothering to respond.

"Yeah right, the filly who couldn't keep out the simplest mind probe. I bet Catalyst could read what you thought when you were only three days old Foresight." Enigma finally responded mockingly.

"No really he couldn't get in my head, I don't know how but he couldn't get in. Come to think of it, that other nightborn who turned Shakala on Sky Strike said something like that too," Foresight said excitedly and Sky heard Shakala groan as his part in their capture was brought up again.

Enigma snorted, "Even 'if' you do have some kind of special way to resist Catalyst, which I still don't believe you do, then he will just find some other way to get what he wants. We're not going anywhere now and he has all the time he needs to break you."

"Well I don't plan to spend the rest of my days rotting in a cell like this. We will think of something." Sky said again, not sure who he was really trying to convince, himself or the others. "If Foresight is still okay in the head then all is not lost yet," Strike said with more conviction this time.

"Thanks for trying Sky, but Enigma's right: I don't see how we're going to get out of this one," Foresight called out sleepily and Sky Strike finally admitted to himself that things were pretty hopeless. Without attempting further encouragement he lay his head down on the cold floor and slowly slipped into a troubled sleep.

---

The dreams were back and they were becoming more vivid: Foresight prepared herself for another round of screams, pain and terrors, but this time she found herself standing on the parapet of a castle that she didn't know. From what she could tell it was approaching dawn.

Foresight instinctively wanted to raise her aura of cold and darkness to shield herself but to her dismay she felt nothing happen. The dark unicorn shrunk back just as the first sun's rays came over the surrounding mountains in the distance. As they struck her she expected to feel a hot burning, but to her delight it just felt gently warm and comfortable on her body.

She slowly uncovered her eyes and for the first time she had ever been able, looked towards the sun. It was beautiful here, not the harsh blow torch Foresight had come to know it as. Looking around she saw other ponies down below, they were still in shadow behind the castle wall, but their happy faces looked up to welcome the morning’s rays.

A movement caught Foresight's attention and she looked up to see princess Celestia standing on a balcony with a smile on her face. The crowds below were cheering and celebrating. They were all showering praises on the princess of the sun and Foresight didn't blame them. She knew the wise and graceful ruler of Equestria and felt she deserved their praise.

"Is she not wondrous? Is she not such a sight to move ponies to joy?" Foresight started as she found another pony at her shoulder. Turning she saw a dark blue alicorn looking up to Celestia with a frown on her face. "My dear sister, earning the praise of her subjects."

Foresight took a little time to recognise the pony before her, she had seen many examples of her likeness, but to see the princess in the flesh. They didn't do her justice: Most of the history books showed Luna a bitter and twisted mad mare, any good she may have done being overwritten by the Nightmare she would become.

"Are we not so deserving of such praise?" A dark phase echoed in Foresight's mind. It was a whisper that carried ice, darkness and sorrow in it. Luna had not said it out loud but the thought was as clear in Foresight's mind.

"Of course your majesty, why would you say otherwise?" Foresight said, but to her astonishment the voice was not her own. Looking down she saw that she was not herself in this place. Instead of the black fur and blue mane, she looked about herself to see a yellow body with a pale brown tail.

"We said not any words to that effect, thy ears must be in need of checking my dear Star Glow. One was merely commenting on our older sibling basking in the love of our ponies," Foresight didn't feel so strange being called Star Glow, on some level it felt right to her.

Star Glow looked up into Luna's eyes and felt another twinge of unease. There was a dangerous look in the princess' stare. A hardness about the cheekbones and muzzle that spoke of a hidden hurt so deeply buried that not even its owner fully understood it was there. The princess of the night turned away from the crowds and headed back into the castle.

Star Glow mused on how strange it had been to think she didn't know this place. This was the palace of the royal pony sisters. Things were just as they should be, but she could tell her mistress was under a cloud of unhappiness. There was nothing so crass as angered rants or cross words, but deep in Star Glow's heart she felt something was amiss, plus Star knew she had heard that echo in her mind, despite Luna's assurances.

"I am sure you are just tired your highness, it was a long night and you have been working so hard," Star Glow tried to lighten the mood as best she could. Star Glow didn't talk like the ponies in Equestria's capital, despite the best efforts of the head maid servant trying to drum posh speech into her, Star Glow’s accent was from a small village far west of the realm called River Gate and it won out over any amount of teaching.

It had been one of the strangest things about her employment, it seemed princess Luna had discovered Star Glow’s hobby for star gazing and had sought her out. She’d liked of free spoken manner as well as Star Glow’s obvious love for her stars

"Not that any pony bothers to see it, unlike the sun and fluffy clouds my sister puts out," Luna replied with the following: "Of course thou are right my faithful servant. One has been working themselves too hard," Star Glow shook her head, there was a kind of double take there as if two voices were both trying to be heard at once.

There was what Luna had said out loud, but overlaid was a dark whisper that seemed to say something opposite. Star Glow was nervous that she herself was going crazy, but dared not say anything about it.

Luna was kind, gentle and always put on such beautiful displays every night. The Princess would never think such things surely? Star Glow assumed it must have been something the unicorn was doing wrong. The nagging doubt that something was very amiss would not leave her though.

"Shall I leave you to your rest then your majesty?" Star Glow asked quietly. Luna nodded and bid her servant good day and closed the door behind her with a flash of magic. It was perhaps a little harder than normal and Star Glow could have sworn there was an angry glint in Luna's eyes just before the it closed. Shaking her head Star Glow began to trot back to her own room.

"She thinks she's going mad, but it's really you." Star Glow froze, she definitely heard something that time. Looking around Star Glow saw she was alone, but the malice and confusion in that last phrase was really frightening. Star Glow Resolved to talk to some pony about this. There was only one pony she would trust other than Luna to voice her worries to, that was Temporal Balance the head court wizard.

Yes that's what Star Glow would do, Balance was wise and knew lots of things that other ponies didn't. He would be able to help her. Star Glow Was about to head off to the library when she heard a knocking coming from Luna's door. The unicorn thinking she must have forgotten something rushed back and tried to open the door, but it was stuck.

"Your Highness, do you need me? Did I forget something?" Star Glow tried the door once more but it still wouldn't budge. The knocking came louder from within and there were the sounds of grating stone. "Princess Luna? What’s going on?"

Star Glow was starting to panic now, she couldn't get the door open and Star felt it was vital that she did. The knocking became a banging and the door shuddered. Tears were forming in Star Glow's eyes now and she was really scared. "Princess what’s wrong?! Please let me in Luna I want to help!" Star Glow was shouting now, trying to make herself heard over the pounding on the princess' door.

All of a sudden the wood splintered and caved outwards, forcing Star Glow to raise a hoof in protection. What she saw within, once she plucked up the courage to look, was a tall dark alicorn, but it was not Luna. Sharp teeth and wicked looking slitted eyes bored into hers......

Foresight awoke with another scream. The cell was dark and cool and it took she a few moments to remember where she was and who she was. Taking a deep breath and wiping the sweat from her face Foresight looked around her, the other inmates were still asleep. This last nightmare couldn't have been as bad as the last one, if it was then surely Foresight would have awoken every otherpony in the dungeon.

Foresight pressed her hooves against her head and realised that the pounding hadn't stopped. Looking about she tried to pinpoint where it was coming from. After a few minutes of listening carefully Foresight discovered it was coming from the back wall of her cell.

Pressing her head against the stone work Foresight was sure of it. There was the rhythmic sound of something striking stone with a clang and it was coming closer. With little else to do and not sure what this meant Foresight dared not cry out again, all she could do was press her back into the bars that closed off her cell and wait.

Foresight stared in a mixture of fear and wonder as the stones lining her cell began to buckle and soon a hole appeared as one after another they fell away from the wall. She saw shapes moving in beyond and a pair of slitted eyes filled with blackness looked at her through the hole.

"She is here and we are not too late," The Lithi said in its grating voice.