• Published 6th May 2012
  • 7,919 Views, 723 Comments

Static World - Kendandra



Discord haunts Twilight's dreams as she and Luna share romance. Celestia frets over Discord's seal. There is more to the the story of these three ancient beings than meets the eye, and Twilight Sparkle is about to get a crash course.

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30: Timelines: Town Life

“So I suppose you’re going to tell me that Gratis, Helia, and Selena went off to have magical adventures and stuff? That they traveled through time and space in Gratis’s flying castle? Is that where this is leading?” Twilight Sparkle sighed. “Because perhaps you should be focusing on these Dagr and Nótt spirits they seem to have some connection to the sun and the moon. Wait a moment… is this whole thing just an elaborate way to tell me you two don’t control the sun and the moon? It’s been these spirits the whole time?” Twilight stood up and started to pace. “But if that’s the case then why isn’t the sun moving now? Princess Celestia’s incapacitation shouldn’t cause the sun to stop rising if she’s not the one controlling it, right? Is there something I’m missing?”

Princess Luna shook her head. “Yes, there’s a lot you are missing. Sit back down and I’ll finish telling the story. You are the most impatient mare I have ever known.”

“Because you’re not telling me what I asked to learn!” Twilight shouted. “And it feels like it’s taking months for you to tell this story! Can’t you tell this any faster?”

“If you want to learn, I’ve got to tell it right. And that takes time.”

“Speakin’ of learning, Twilight,” Applejack said with a smirk. “You should be quiet an’ let the Princess finish her story or you won’t pass the quiz at the end.”

Twilight’s face melted to pure the-sight-of-Pinkie-Pie-with-a-twenty-eight-gallon-barrel-of-genuine-Coltlumbian-espresso-and-a-swirly-staw horror. “QUIZ?! No pony ever mentioned a quiz!” Twilight sat back down and her ears pricked up attentively.

“Thank you, fair Applejack. I’ll have to remember that trick.” Luna nodded to the orange pony.

“What trick?” Twilight asked with a bit of confusion. “Did I miss something? Will it be on the quiz?”

Luna inhaled deeply. “Now, it is true that Gratis, Helia, Dagr, Selena, and Nótt did have many adventures and fantastic tales over the years, but this is not that story and perhaps you are right. So I will skip ahead about fourteen years to a particular set of incidents that I think you will find very interesting.” Luna nodded thoughtfully as she contemplated how to start the next part of the tale and after a moment of staring at the floor she sighed. “The Keep in the Sky would slowly float over many lands. To many it would seem that it was traveling with a divine purpose, but in reality it was simply following a small wagon that rolled along on the ground. Helia’s family traveled for a time around the area, looking for a stable food supply, which they finally found when they met up with another laager resting by a river near the forest. This laager had grown tired of running and they dismantled their wagons and began to build more concrete structures. Houses and barns, the first makings of a new town out in the frontier. It was the first true pony settlement outside of the tribal homelands. Progress, the mark of a changing world. As a whole, the town was excited to bolster its numbers with fresh blood. But individually, many ponies objected to such a strange family taking up residence in their midst. After all, while none in the town knew of it, two of these ponies had gained the favor of the gods….”

A shadow crossed over the unicorn mare’s face. The pony let out a large yawn and rolled on her back. Helia attempted to wave the shadow away from her snout but found it an impossible task. She clutched her hooves against the book she was using as head rest. She finally opened her eyes to the bright sunlight and blue sky above her. She smiled at the beauty of the day; it must have been late morning judging by the brilliant blue of the sky. She glanced around with another wide yawn, searching for the source of the shadow that interrupted her sun drenched sleep. It took a little while to spot the culprit hovering above her. Selena’s light blue coat blended in well with the clear sky, but Helia could not mistake the distinct sound of her sister’s wings flapping in the air. “Morning, Selena.” Helia yawned more than said.

“Good morning, sister. Nice mane!” Selena said with a giggle. Helia did not bother to try and check her appearance. She knew she woke most days with bed-head that could rival the appearance of a molting griffon. Helia stretched her hooves and back as magic flowed through her mane, fixing her appearance radically. Selena lowered herself down to her sister’s eye level. “How’d you get up here?” Selena glanced around at her sister’s chosen sleeping spot. Somehow her sister had spent the night on the top of one of the town roofs, specifically the roof of the bakery.

“Teleported.” Helia said as she shook the sleep from her eyes. “It was late and this looked like a comfy spot.”

“You and your magic…. Staying up reading for the library again?” Selena said as she tapped the book Helia had been reading with her hoof. “Does that one seem like a good book for the Keep?”

“All books belong in our library. But yes, this one is particularly….” Helia fell to the ground and began to cough violently. Selena quickly landed next to her sister and placed her hoof on Helia’s back. After the coughing subsided, Helia pushed Selena’s hoof off of her back and stood back up.

“Are you alright?”

Helia shook her head. “Yes! I’m fine! I wish everypony would stop asking me that!”

“You know sleeping on roof tops can’t be helping that cough….” Selena sighed. “Not that’d you listen to me. Anyway, just wanted to make sure you were up! You’re such a night owl I’m a tad afraid you would sleep all day if you were allowed.” Selena took back to the air and smile. “I’ll see you tonight, right?”

Helia smiled. “Of course, I’ve just got to do a few things first. Tell him I’ll be there this afternoon.” Selena nodded and zipped off into the sky. “Never lands for a second that one….” Helia chuckled. Helia yawned once more and stretched out her forelegs. “Well… time for another day in this boring town. Right, Dagr?”

Helia wrapped the book in her magic aura and lazily swayed off the edge of the roof. She hardly seemed to care about her safety as she plummeted to the ground. With a last second blink out of existence she teleported from the air to the ground halting her momentum. The young unicorn mare set her hooves down on the dirt road and sighed. She was fully grown now and was fetching to the eye for many colts around her, but she had no interest in those things as she gave a false hearted wave to the baker who was walking out of the building she had just jumped off. The baker was balancing a tray on his back, containing the same collection of rolls and loaves that she had come to see from him every day. The book spun inside her magic aura as she walked away from the bakery and down the street. She hummed a tune to herself to resolve her of some of her boredom.

The town was already bustling with ponies carrying out their day to day humdrum lives. As she sauntered down the lane she was oblivious to the ponies rushing in each direction, crisscrossing in front of her snout. Apparently they had the most important world saving tasks to attend to with such great haste that they could not be bothered to watch where they were galloping; such tasks as haggling of the price of six eggs and the task of purchasing a length of fabric ten yards long. She used her magic to open the book and buried her snout in it. Helia attempted to block out the sound of what was about to happen next. It was her least favorite part about walking through town.

“There she goes now, such a strange mare, that one.” One of the ponies mumbled. The pony smiled as she waved. “Hello, Helia!”

“No, no. They broke up again.” A pair of ponies passed Helia, too busy with their own conversation to notice her.

“Snout in a book again. Doesn’t she look so haughty just because she can read?” Another pony shook his head then raised his voice to make sure he was heard. “Good morning to you, young lady!”

“Oh look, the unicorn who thinks she’s a princess is here….”

“Such a cute mare she is. Surely she’s not single?” One pony said.

The pony’s friend leaned over and pressed a hoof to his mouth for a whisper. “Careful, that’s Helia. She’s not very nice….”

“Good morning! How’s your husband doing? Still have that rash?”

An elder stallion passed by. “Hi, Helia!”

“What an odd pony, that one is…”

An older mare pulled her young filly back from the street and whispered. “Watch out Blossom Belle, a mare that age without a cutie mark has no doubt something wrong her.” The mare smiled and waved. “Say ‘hello’ to your mother for me will you, Helia?”

“I don’t think that seems like a fair price for those, I could go as high as two rubies.”

A pony pointed at Helia. “Such a strange one… and her sister too…”

“Then I said to her, I don’t think that’s what that’s for!” A young stallion laughed.

“Looks to be a great day, Helia!” Another pony tipped his hat to her. He sighed then added in a whisper, “Head always in the clouds.”

“Cretins…” Helia said under her breath with a large belying smile. She turned the corner and walked past the metal smith. She peered out of the corner of her eye to catch the smith press his hoof against the bellows. Smoke billowed in the sky above the town. “Such a waste of time.” She mumbled. Why could they not simply transmogrify bio-matter into metal? After all, it was such a simple spell for her to perform. A merchant pushed a cart full of apples into the street. Another group approached from the other side of the street. She braced herself and pulled her book closer to her face, it seemed it was starting again.

“Special today, three for the price of one!”

“Then three apples please! No that one has a bruise could I have… Oh, greetings, Helia!”

“Hel…lo…” Helia strained out through her teeth as she passed by, pausing from humming her song for only a moment.

“Talk about a bad apple!” The merchant shook his head.

A stallion reached his hoof up to wrap it around the mare’s shoulder. “Hey, Helia, you know you walk by here often and after all these months I think I’ve finally worked up the courage to…”

“That hoof touches my coat, and you’ll need more than apples to stay out of Doc Needle’s office.” Helia said softly as she turned another page in the book. The stallion gulped and galloped away with a tear in his eye. She turned a page in the book and continued walking. She passed the loom house and turned the corner. She sighed again, only more street left. She let the book float downwards as she cast her gaze to the forest in the distance. The outline of the Keep in the Sky was visible above the woods. She gave a quick genuine smile until she was pulled from her thoughts rather quickly from a small colt. She narrowly avoided colliding with the young colt who was not watching where she was going.

“Hello, Helia! Sorry didn’t see ya there. What’cha readin’?”

Helia raised an eyebrow with a subtle smile. “It’s a text recovered from the tribal lands. It depicts unicorn linage down the third royal…”

“Sounds fascinating, have to go!” Without so much as a pause in breath, the colt raced away.

“… line within the Starcatcher family…. Fine… never mind.” Helia closed her eyes and shook her head. She glanced back up to the outline of the Keep in the Sky. “I hate this place. If only mother didn’t love it so much. But she’s just getting too old for wagon puller life.” Helia sighed once more and turned a page in her book. “One more street…” She said as she lowered her book to make sure she made the turn. She stopped in her tracks at the sight before her. She quickly skidded off to the side of the street and pressed her body up against the side wall of the ally. She peered over the edge of a barrel and spied on the event that was unfolding in the street crossing in front of her. “Mother…” She whispered.

A light blue earth pony smiled. “Well that’s too kind of you, young ones.”

A large stallion was circling around, much like a vulture circling prey. “No thanks are needed, Gaia, no, no thanks at all.” The stallion reached out and placed an apple in Gaia’s hoof. A second stallion approached the mare quietly and reached for her saddlebag.

“But surely you want some payment for it?” Gaia said as she reached for her saddle bag. “I mean, I can’t just take advantage of your generosity.”

“No no, you needn’t pay at all. Think of it as my treat.” The stallion said quickly, placing a hoof on Gaia’s shoulder. The stallion behind her hesitantly pulled his hoof back.

“Well if you’re sure….” Gaia said with a smile. The stallion hiding in her shadow quickly reached his hooves in to Gaia’s saddlebag and swiped a series of dull colored gems. Helia’s eyes widened and she let out a guttural growl.

The stallion smiled. “Well you have a good day now, Miss Gaia. Say hello to those lovely daughters of yours for me, will you?”

“I certainly will. It’s so nice to see such gentlecolts.” Gaia bowed and turned to walk down the street. “Good day!” She said as she glanced back and waved a hoof.

The two stallions began to laugh. Helia’s eyes narrowed as she watched the strings of saliva spray from their mouths as they bellowed their throaty laughs. She felt her teeth clench as the stallions tossed the gems in the air. One of the stallions chuckled. “Well smashingly pulled off, dear brother of mine, simply smashing.” The stallion took a bite of one of the apples he was holding. “You know the pegasi have an ancient saying that a sucker is born every minute.”

The other stallion slapped his knee. “Never more true in today’s times, ol’ brother of mine!” He grabbed the gems and tossed them up in the air. With quick reflexes he caught them and grinned devilishly. He flipped the gems up in the air again. He reached out to catch them once more but was surprised when the gems did not fall back down. He leaned his neck back so he could see the gems and found them enveloped in a soft yellow glow. The gems floated away quickly before he could snatch them.

Helia stood up from behind where she was standing and caught the flying bag of gems in her mouth. “I wouldn’t count your winnings just yet.” She said with a grin.

“Oh look who it is. It’s the mother’s little freak.” The stallion said with a smirk. “Now why don’t you be a good little filly and pass those gems back over here.”

“I don’t think I will, actually.” Helia smiled as she flipped the gems up in the air. A brief flash of golden light blanketed the area. When the light faded the small bag of gems was gone. “Sorry, guess that makes me a bad little filly, huh?”

“Where’s our gems?! What did you do with them?” One of the stallions asked through clenched teeth.

“No pony messes with my mother.” The unicorn said. Her eyes flashed with a primal fury and her horn glowed softly. It was just a flexing of her power. She tried to hold restraint, but it was difficult with the emotions currently welling in her chest. The ground underneath one of the stallions cracked and jolted upwards. The stallion was flung into the air and impacted against the wall of a building. The stallion groaned in pain while Helia smiled wickedly.

The other stallion dug his hoof into the ground, readying a charge. “Oh, you’re going to get it now, freak.” He broke into a gallop and prepared to tackle the unicorn. His hooves dug into the ground, kicking the dirt road up in swirling clouds. He picked up speed faster than any would have expected, fire obviously in his heart. He leapt into the air; the wind flung the dust clouds upwards around his body. As he approached, Helia did not flinch. She did not react at all, and if her flesh had been replaced by stone at the time, none would have noticed it. The stallion’s face crumpled together, his brow lowering as he braced for impact. His target may not weigh much, but he was tackling with such force that he would need to be ready for anything. Helia did not balk in the slightest, the only reaction she showed was a slight smirk of her mouth. The stallion’s hoof neared Helia’s muzzle, the full power of his charge behind it. Helia’s resolve to not move was unshakeable, and in the primal part of the stallion’s mind, this screamed a surge of fear. It would have looked like the mare was oblivious to the stallion’s attack as it connected with her jaw, if it were not for the bored expression worn on her face.

What happened next was a mystery to the stallion for the rest of his life. He would try to recount the tale to his grandfoals and he would stutter and shrug as he attempted to explain what had happened. Out of all of his future retellings one thing was constant, a blinding flash of light erupted from the area. The stallion was thrown backwards, his body bouncing haphazardly against the ground. Helia cracked a small smile. The stallion came to a rolling stop at the base of his brother’s hooves. He cried out in pain and held his hoof. A brilliant light shorn forth from Helia’s body and large spectral wings spread forth from her sides. An angelic voice boomed around her, “This one is under my protection, and no harm shall befall her!” Helia broke out laughing, her head thrown back and her mouth agape.

The stallion screamed out in pain. “Gah! I think you broke my hoof!” His brother helped him up. “Fine! Keep the gems! You’re not worth the trouble.” The stallion’s hobbled off into the distance as Helia fell to the ground laughing.

The angelic voice spoke once more, “You must be more careful, sweet Helia.” The spectral wings pulled themselves away from Helia’s body and took the form of a phoenix.

“Oh lighten up, Dagr!” Helia said, covering a laugh with her hoof. “It’s not like…”

A voice called out from around the corner. “Over there! There was… this… freak-thing! Down this way!”

Helia shook her head. “Well then… up for a quick run?” Helia laughed as she sprinted down the road. She leaned into a bank, her hooves skidding in the dirt as she rounded a turn. She raced past houses and through the streets. Dagr floated alongside her at what appeared for him to be a lazy pace. After narrowly squeezing into an alleyway, she focused cast a teleport spell to blink on top of a roof. She leapt from roof top to roof top, chased by the shouts of a group of angry ponies in the streets below.

“Helia!” Dagr called out, as he floated backwards in front of her snout. “We need to talk about this.” The phoenix shook his head and sighed.

“Can it wait for a bit? I’m in the middle of running for my life.” Helia said in between breaths. She slid forwards and jumped. Her hooves spread outwards as she sailed through the air. For a moment it felt like she was flying. An exhilarating wind rushed through her mane. She closed her eyes and pretended she had wings like her sister; a set of beautiful, pretty wings that she could use to soar through the clouds. Her daydream came to an end as she felt herself begin to fall. She focused magic into her horn and flashed to the ground with a fizzling noise. She laughed widely as she raced off into the depths of the nearby forest. She slid to a stop, her hooves kicking up a group of twigs and dead leaves.

“Now can we talk?” Dagr asked with a tilt of his head.

Helia laughed. “Yes, yes I suppose we…” She dropped down to her knees and started coughing.

“Helia!” Dagr shouted.

“I’m…” Helia wheezed. “I’m…” She fell on her side and shook violently. Sickening sounds echoed through the forest as blood trickled from her mouth. She shivered and then coughed a few more times, each time less violent than the last. When it seemed the coughing fit was subsiding Helia exhaled softly. She slowly closed her eyes and smiled. “I’m fine, Dagr.”

“You most certainly are not.” The phoenix said.

Helia stood up and fixed her main. She wiped a bit of blood from her mouth. “I am now.”

“You know, all that running cannot be good for that cough. You wouldn’t have to run so much if you would stop getting all that trouble.”

“I don’t get in that much trouble.” Helia chuckled.

Dagr shook his head. “Two days ago you set fire to…”

Helia stamped her hoof. “It was only one barn! And they we’re going to demolish it anyway!”

Dagr landed on Helia’s back and sighed. “I have been charged with protecting you by father. I will never let any harm fall upon you, but you must stop causing so much trouble.” Helia began a slow walk through the forest. She craned her neck up so she could admire the leaves on the trees.

“But it really isn’t important now.” Helia chuckled. “Oh, it feels so good to be out of that dreary town, full of its unchanging boredom. Monotony, repetition… that’s all that’s there in that place. Can’t stand it in the least.”

Dagr leaned against the pony’s back as the ventured deeper into the forest. “I wouldn’t say it’s entirely like that. Your mother did get robbed.”

“No, you’re wrong. Even its ruffians are predictable. It’s like the whole place is static. Unchanging, bound by some impossible law of order. Drives me insane.” Helia laughed. “At least it doesn’t feel like that in the Keep or in this forest, for that matter.”

“I suppose.” The bird said.

Helia walked past a small spring and kicked a pebble into it. The water splashed with a satisfying sound that made her grin. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked before, but do you know what this place is called?”

“The forest?” Dagr asked, more to himself rather than Helia. “I don’t think it has a name. It’s just father’s garden.”

“That’s too bad. I always feel so free here. Like, this is how the world is supposed to be. Wild and just a tad dangerous. Mystical and old.”

“Dark and chaotic is more like it. My sunrays cannot reach most of the ground here.”

She chuckled. “Well, trees are what trees are.” Helia looked up at the sky, visible through the trees. “It’s such shame….” She gestured up with her hoof. She pointed the Keep in the Sky floating lazily over the forest. “That he never comes down that is. Why doesn’t Gratis ever come down? The world would be such a splendid place if he did, I think.”

“He never comes down, even before we met you and your sister. He always stays in the Keep.” Dagr looked upward as the floating stone island. “Before he met you, he would stay in the cloud pocket. But I think he would get lonely, and every three hundred years he would make a trip to this forest. His garden he called it. Here he would spend the day, one single day doing nothing and then he would return.”

“Well at least we got him out the cloud pocket. That’s something I guess.” Helia nodded to herself. “Why did he hide in there?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t understand father even in the best of times. He’s magnificent and ancient, and he burned at the center of creation itself. He sees everything and nothing at the same time. I think it must be a tad maddening.” Dagr rolled on his stomach and draped his wings over Helia’s body. “I once asked him why he never left the Keep. Why he ran and hid in the cloud pocket.”

Helia glanced back over her shoulder at the creature riding on her back. “And?”

“He spoke a lot of words. I doubt they all had meaning. He spoke of destiny and the equilibrium of the universe, the laws of existence and balance. How negative magic seeks destruction psychic-emotive… and the scale of the… thing. Sorry, something about the… uh… wibbly-ness of the… uh… stuff.”

Helia chuckled. “That sentence started out well…”

“It… well… it’s very complicated....” Dagr inhaled sharply. “I think he’s just scared. I’m not sure of what though. But, must not have been too scary. He’s still in the Keep, but he’s left the pocket in the clouds. It doesn’t even exist anymore. I’ll never understand how you got him to do that.”

“Well you tend to be a bit thick.” Helia slid down a small slope. “Not too much further ‘til the sundial. I bet Selena is already up there, stuffing her face on whatever feast Gratis has conjured up.”

“She’s quite entitled to it.” Dagr chuckled. “It is her birthday, after all.”

“Fair enough.” Helia looked around. “Tell you what, while I take us there, why don’t you sing me that song I like so much?”

“It would be my honor.” The phoenix said as it opened its mouth to sing.