Bloodfeather
Only Star Swirl was surprised to see her. His ears pricked arrow-straight as the silly pink beard swung under his gaping mouth. The look lingered for less than a heartbeat before the unicorn’s face snapped back into place.
It lasted just long enough for Sunshower to know she’d ruined whatever scheme he’d cooked up. She couldn’t help a spiteful little smile. “What is the matter, stargazer? Have I disturbed your research of the habits of cavefish and glowworms?”
The pegasus breathed slow and rolled her stiff shoulders. Her muscles wanted rest after that blind dash through the dark and something in the air of this room made her blood nervous. But toss it to Tartarus if she was going to tremble before this lot. “You have assembled a large company just to explore caves. You must be an incompetent scholar.”
“Not at all.” Star Swirl blinked at her coolly. “’Tis safety in numbers when exploring new places. Caves, especially. Great are the hazards that dwell in the dark to seize a little pony.”
The gangly flutterpony of flimsy wings and full of moth holes giggled in her glass ball. “Well, is this not interesting?”
Sunshower spared her the briefest of glances and whetted her glare upon the unicorns and the Mustangian peering behind them. “You have not told me the truth.” She pointed a bladed feather at Star Swirl as he opened his mouth to argue. “Do not refute me with technicalities. A snipped section of truth is not the truth. Do not offer me scales and tell me it is a dragon. Think me a brute if you will, but what I am not is a fool.”
Heartstrings glanced at Star Swirl with a frown. Star Swirl tossed his head with an annoyed little nicker, as if the pegasus had merely inconvenienced him.
“Not a fool, but sometimes mistaken.” The blades hissed as Sunshower splayed her wings flat and angled them towards his neck. “I should have looked closer. In the time I have known him, Cinquefoil has feared only dogs and dreams. I should not have disregarded the dreams. They all spring from somewhere…I know the look in his eyes when it rears up and swallows him. I know the black fog that bites at his heels at night.”
In the corner of her eye, Cinquefoil moved. He might have said something, but Sunshower had no ear for it. She kept her eyes on the bearded unicorn and nothing else. “Not until tonight did I remember that I have seen this look—this terrible thing I cannot slay—in his eyes when he looks at you. The shifting bones, the terrible light… you have done something.”
The look in the unicorn’s eyes confirmed it.
Sunshower ran her tongue along her teeth. If she cut him down then and there it would fully be within her right. It was her mountain and her earth ponies to protect. Certainly, it would have gladdened her heart to do so, and were Sunshower under the wings of Heartthrob or Firefly, she surely would have. But she was under Wind Whistler and knew there was a time and a place for hearts, even when they crawled up one’s throat and into one's mouth. Logic first.
“You are why he hurts so. If not in all parts, then in some. Tell me why.”
Star Swirl twitched his ears at the hiss of the wingblades but his stance never changed. “Aye, in part, and I don’t deny my share of it. ‘Tis a time when hurt comes with healing and cannot be helped.” His mouth flattened into a thin, bleak line. Tension thickened his noble highland accent, the ends of the syllables curling in a heated lilt. “And thy help does more to harm. ‘Tis no Mustangian before thine eye; the frightful knowledge of what once was is what pains him. Furthermore, the volume of thy voice does naught to aid him, nor I, nor thyself. Lest the aim is to rouse thy father.”
“Please.” Sunshower sniffed and flicked her tail. “He’s been roused since this afternoon and sleeps less than you do. He is atop Sill, not in it. If he suspects something, then he’s been at the ready before you came down here. Alerting him will change little.”
“Knowing Yarak, that’s probably true.”
Sunshower stiffened at the new, familiar voice.
“And I’d really appreciate it if the two of you spoke to me and not over me.”
Sunshower flattened her ears. “Cinquefoil, I can barely stand to look at you right now.”
Of course, when she felt his presence at her shoulder, she looked anyway. That look in his eye was back, quiet and cacophonous and entirely unsurprised. He’d been expecting her. Cinque, I swear if you make me cry in front of these unicorns...
“Tell me something, herdless Mustangian. What would you have done if I had not followed you? Huh? What would you have done if I slept and patrolled and shone my armor all night instead?”
“You wouldn’t have and you didn’t.”
“Which is more than you deserve. Answer my question.”
“I’d…” Cinquefoil licked the side of his mouth and took a sweeping glance at the dank place around him. His ears drooped. He examined the inside of his pale hoof for a long moment before he looked back at her. “Then I would have come back.”
The earth pony stomped at Sunshower’s doubtful expression. “I would have! I’m the fastest thing on four legs in these mountains. I outran a pack of starving ferals, you don’t think I can outrun Star Swirl?”
Heartstrings finally brought her head up. Quietly, she said, “’Tisn’t Star Swirl ye’d have to outrun.”
Cinquefoil glanced back at her. “I can outrun him, too. I’ve got twice the legs.”
“But there was no need to wait for me to follow.” Sunshower flapped her wings like bellows as she stoked her anger. “You could have said something. You could have left a message or a note or anything besides an empty room for me to find.”
The earth pony flinched.
“What was I to think, Cinquefoil? I had no idea what had become of you. You might have said something. You had weeks to say something!”
“I had nothing to say then. I can’t confess what I don’t know. You know how my head gets.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Not that I know what to say now, so I suppose that’s not much of an answer.”
“No,” Sunshower said. “It is not. It is entirely unsatisfactory and borders on insulting.” Her tail swished behind her, curling up like the crest of a wave. “But it is yours, and it is honest, I think. It will do. Are you alright?”
“No more or less than I usually am.”
“Good.” She folded her wings and sat, relaxing her tired muscles. Cinquefoil, after a moment’s hesitation, moved closer and nuzzled her shoulder. The pegasus leaned into him and let the smooth oilskin rub against her feathers.
For the first time, Sunshower took a closer look at the strange room around them. She’d seen the verdigris door twice before and both times paid it no mind. (What could be gained from wondering about a door she could not open?) It was some sort of workroom or storage, just as she suspected. But for who? It was so strangely proportioned; the shelves were too tall for unicorns, too short for pegasi, and too organized for griffons. What manner of creature made this place?
Sunshower’s ears twitched at the soft breath against them. She made a face and glanced up at Cinquefoil, who just blinked and smiled at her. Sunshower swept the soft edge of her feathers along his cheek and smirked when he fidgeted.
Her eye followed the Mustangian’s smile to the swift edge of his jaw, down to his neck and stiff shoulders bunched under the oversized hood, and further on down to the long, long drag of green behind him. “Why do you not get a cloak that fits you? It would not be difficult to find one.” Sunshower tilted her head at him. “Have you never noticed that it is oversized? Three Cinquefoils could fit in there. It is very inefficient.”
Cinquefoil’s smile faltered.
“What?” She felt him grow tense. Sunshower frowned. “Do not misunderstand, I am not insulting it. The garment is well-crafted and I am sure you are fond of it, but it is simply too big for you, Cinque. The way you gallop through the mountains, it seems like a safety hazard and—”
Sunshower’s eyes caught Heartstrings’. The old mare’s face fell as if it’d been shot from the sky. Her gold eyes shone with secrets and pity and would not look directly at her. She was all but ready to wrap blankets and condolences around Sunshower’s shoulders any moment.
Star Swirl stroked his beard nonchalantly. The flutterpony smiled sweet as springtime.
Sunshower pushed away from the earth pony. “That is all I can stand!” The stomp of her hooves echoed flatly in the cavern. “There is more here than you say and there has always been. Stop staring at me like a dying foal!” She looked from pony to pony. Her voice was small and stiff. “Your mercy does me no favors. What are you not telling me?”
“The cloak wasn’t always too big.” Cinquefoil’s whisper matched hers. “It fit better before. I was taller then.”
Sunshower’s wings twitched. “Before?” She stared after him, waiting for Cinquefoil to elaborate, but he did not.
“Oh, sun and stars in a siphon!” Star Swirl flattened his ears and cut between them. “For once, I agree with you, Sunshower.” He gave the earth pony a hard glance. “This has gone on for more than enough. The one you know as Cinquefoil is not your Cinquefoil and he never was. ‘Tis no Mustangian before your eyes. Nay, not at all.”
“I knew that much already.” The pegasus pawed the stone as if she could kick the conversation to a faster pace. “But there is more than that to know.”
“Yes. I’m sure there is,” said Cinquefoil (or the pony that called himself so). “I don’t entirely know what. But I can feel it—him—now, closer than before.”
Sunshower took another look at the earth pony. The muscles beneath his coat rippled, taut from strain, as if the skin didn’t fit right. His eyes pinched tight when he blinked and he fought to breathe steady. There was something bigger than fear here. “Are you sure you are alright?”
“I’m used to it.” He shook himself and waved off her concern. “Comes and goes, like I said.” He gritted his teeth and shook himself again. “But Mustangian or pony or herdless or… or whatever, I am your Cinquefoil.”
Sunshower frowned. She’d known Cinque long enough to know when he was on the run.
“I am the same Cinquefoil who was with you on the hackberry and ate dinner with you in the smithy and raced you in the hills and argued over word semantics. I am the same Cinquefoil that listens from his window and smiles when he hears jackdaws because they sound like your laughter and knows that there is no sound in any world—any world old or new—that has ever sounded better. I am the same Cinquefoil you have always known, the same Cinquefoil who loves nothing so much as your company and can’t understand how ponies could call the Caulkins a miserable place when you fly above them. I...” The earth pony paused to gather himself. “I’m not so sure about what I am lately. But I am sure of who.”
Sunshower’s feathers fluffed anxiously. Her face and ears felt warm and she prayed her coat kept its color.
A warbling little coo echoed through the cavern. Sunshower and Cinquefoil looked up at the flutterpony, who stared back with fat, round pupils. Her tattered wings glistened with health, spread wide as if in embrace. White needle teeth parted as she tasted the air and hummed contentedly.
“Forget-Me-Not, do you mind?” Cinquefoil snapped.
“Hmm? Oh my, no.” Hiccups bounced between the flutterpony’s giggles. “I don’t mind at all! Go ahead. Please do.”
Sunshower pointedly ignored the flush in her ears and considered the flutterpony carefully. “You are the one he was singing to. Just before I entered.”
Heartstrings nodded. “Aye, she holds the key t’where we’re a-goin’.”
“And that is?”
“Up into the nest o’ your da’s Roc. This one here wanted a ballad as payment. One with love behind it.” She sighed nostalgically. “I remember he used to sing that one when he went fishing for carp.”
Sunshower lifted an eyebrow. What would he possibly want with carp?
“In most songs I know one of them or both of them die. Or betray each other. Or one of them is never seen again. Or the ending is ambiguous.” The earth pony shrugged. “It’s the only one I know where everything turns out okay in the end.”
“How does it end?” asked Sunshower.
“She does exactly as he asks. Janet holds Tam Lin in her arms and doesn’t let him go, even when he transforms into fierce creatures that bite and claw her. Even when he changes into hot coals that scald her skin, she doesn’t let go until Tam Lin changes back into himself. Then she wraps him up in a blanket and they go home together.”
Cinquefoil sat back and ran his hooves through his curly mane. “But what I am isn’t what I was. I don’t know what will happen when Star Swirl changes me back. I don’t know what you will do or what I’ll do or feel or say. But I don’t really think we’ll be going home together.”
Star Swirl tossed his cape with a curt, bitter laugh. “You’ve a higher opinion of my talent than I’m due. I debated it for a time, but there is no doubt now: I cannot change you back. Not by my power.”
Heartstrings snapped her head around to stare at him. “What? And just when were ye goin’ to share tha—”
The unicorn gave her a severe glance. “Hollow horn or archmage, nopony can break that basic rule of magic: I cannot move a man that will not be moved and cannot make any creature into what it is not.”
Star Swirl sighed and turned to Sunshower. For the first time since she’d known him, the unicorn spoke plain and true. “I concede. Your Cinquefoil is as he claims to be: a lovestruck little pony of the earth. Certainly, had you not followed us here he would have gone back. And had he gone back, he’d have stayed. I knew that when you came by this afternoon.”
“She was here this afternoon?” Cinquefoil’s ears stood straight up. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“For one, you were sleeping and needed to rest. For another, ‘tis as I said before, you’d have stayed. Mayhap for only a few days or a week but it is too much time. ‘Twill be another month before the moon is gone and we could risk the Roc again. By then, the situation will be more foregone than it already is.” The unicorn shook his head, resigned. “I am not a soothsayer in full. I don’t know what will be, only what might be.”
Star Swirl began to wander. He drifted from shelf to shelf, a lazy stride an unobservant pony might have called aimless. His tail trailed behind him like a wisp of smoke. “I’m no storyteller either, but I know how this one will play out.” He glanced towards the flutterpony. “Ears up, Forget-Me-Not. You’ll like this story.”
Sunshower fidgeted in her armor. Heartstrings was looking at her again.
Star Swirl wasn’t looking at any of them. He rounded a little table and examined a hollow jar of footstep dust. “Cinquefoil will know no other name, no other identity than Cinquefoil, the mysterious Mustangian from the south. Courier by day, courser by night. He will fear small, tight spaces, yet be content in his borders and fear the land beyond his fence of mountain peaks.”
Cinquefoil’s expression never changed, but his forehooves fidgeted with themselves. He kept rubbing at the strange scars on his fetlocks. Sunshower nosed his neck and slowly, he stopped.
The unicorn’s face twinged in a smile or a grimace as he inspected a bottom shelf. It was crowded with little bowls full of broken glass and old wires. “‘Tis a soft, green grass behind a fence with life that’s soft to match, sweetened by love. Rarely will he recoil from remembered sorrows or sigh for forgotten joys. Never will he want for broken sidewalks or take comfort in the shadows of iron skeletons. He will not know the name he was born with, nor the name of his mother, nor the names of his many, many kindred still trapped behind the mountain he sleeps beneath.”
Sunshower flipped her tail as she glanced at the black walls around them, thick and stale with magic. “In Sill…”
“Aye, they will remain in Sill. But at least he will be happy, methinks.” Star Swirl’s voice was precise as cold as a scalpel. “Rain brought by pegasus wings will nourish him. Soft clouds will smother the harsh light of humanity to let him sleep. The wild-grown cinquefoil, five-petaled and bearing false fruit, will linger in the vase I fashioned. The roots will scrape at porcelain edges and never grow as they suck up stagnant water. Alive but unnourished. The human I knew will wither under his withers.”
“And I…” Star Swirl’s eye met Cinquefoil’s and looked away. He fiddled with one of the bells on the collar of his cape. It made no sound when he touched it. The ice in his voice melted. “I will miss him. Greatly.”
Star Swirl cleared his throat and turned to Sunshower. “No, he is not Mustangian. He is not even a pony. He is—was…” The unicorn frowned and flattened his ears. “Is a human. The last human left free. The rest, of what number I don’t know, are trapped in the hollow depth of Sill, taken and delivered there by the White Roc under the command of your father, General Yarak.”
The stargazer took a step back and watched Sunshower, ready to receive her reaction. Cinquefoil and Heartstrings turned as one to stare. The three ponies watched her as if expecting shock or horror or disbelief or wonder. Perhaps they anticipated tears? Sunshower didn’t know.
“What?” The pegasus twitched her ears and tilted her head. “Am I supposed to do something now?”
“Don’t ye have anything t’say about it, lass?” Heartstrings summed up Cinquefoil with the spread of her hooves. “I mean, this is no triflin’ matter here!”
“I never said it was.” Sunshower flipped her tail, a little confused. What she had to say was inconsequential. Species didn’t change from matters of opinion, after all.
“But your beloved is a mythical creature!” Forget-Me-Not squealed. She twisted in leisurely somersaults in her ball. This was her first real dose of raw, unfiltered eros. The flutterpony was warm and cozy and quite giddy from it all. “He is your mentor and father’s eternal quarry, the legend that stalks through tapestries, nightmares, and dreams! The contradiction creature, the elder keeper. The woodwraith, the little lord of the earth, the paragon of predators. The augmentation of earth and adorner of ships. Grand cousin to Megan herself. Oh, and the last of his kind on top of it! O, legacy upon legacy! O, generation upon generation!”
“In action, how like an angel?” Cinquefoil smiled dryly. “In apprehension, how like a god?”
Forget-Me-Not sniffed at him. “Well, someone has a high opinion of himself.”
Sunshower leaned at Cinquefoil’s ear. “Is this creature always like this?”
“More or less.”
Forget-Me-Not’s delicate wings tossed the dust into swooping spirals as they buzzed. “All the old world sweeps behind him in a millennial cape of blood and steel, stitched with ambition and dyed in fortitude. Oh, and yet all of it would he abandon for his one and only!” The flutterpony wheeled and clacked her teeth. “This is the best thing I’ve seen in centuries! Oh my land, I think I need to sit down.”
Sunshower blinked slowly. “If you are finished with the dramatics?” She watched and waited before continuing, “I do not know why you all act as if I should grasp my chest and sob like some Heart Throbbish filly in midsummer. I wanted to know the circumstances of the situation. Now I do. And that is all.”
The pegasus raised a wing to the brown little pony in the oilskin. “I did not know he was human, but I am not surprised. I knew something was strange here.” A little smirk hung on the edge of her mouth as she winked at him. “I knew no earth pony could be that handsome.”
Cinquefoil blinked with a lopsided look, as if unsure whether he was being complimented or not. “You think I’m handsome?”
“You know, Thistle Whistle called you homely and I nearly knocked her from the air.” Sunshower shook her head and laughed at herself. “It is a relief, to tell truly. This whole time I have been so worried for my honor, wondering if we would have to defect to some remote patch of land the Empire couldn’t reach or—oh, I do not know. It was silly. I am a silly pony.” She laughed again, a little worried what she’d do when she stopped. “No identity could outdo the scandal of an earth pony. How could I not be relieved?”
Sunshower’s laughter sloped into a sigh. “In addition, I have no idea what a human even is.” She nodded to Cinquefoil’s oversized cloak. “Besides that it is tall.”
“But how?” demanded Heartstrings. “Of all ponies, I’d have expected the general’s daughter t’know near everything of humans. Why, he’s kept them longer than your lifetime. Surely he’d ‘ave said something!”
“You have not met my father, have you?”
Star Swirl rubbed his beard. “Humans are… well, they’re an odd sort. Two-legged, mostly bald, something like a clipped sasquatch. They make things—amazing things! Carriages that drive by their own power, water that comes from walls! Fearsome weapons and at night their tall cities—they are so tall!—they light up inside as if by starlight.”
“So they are creative.” The pegasus swished her tail. “I do not see how this is different from ponies.”
“Aye, but they can be fierce ones, too,” said Heartstrings. “They conquered the whole of the land, ye know. All there was t’have. No finer predator exists, they say. And no kinder. Oh, there’s so much to say!”
Indeed there was. The unicorns went on and on about contradictions and cities and kindness to manticores and Megans and flowers knitted into manes.
Sunshower lifted an eyebrow. “That is all very impressive, but this is still nothing a minotaur or griffon or pony could not do. We can be tenacious. We can be kind and we can be cruel, though we do not like to think so. Sometimes we are both at once. It is a bit unusual to be all these things at once, I suppose.” She also had to admit she liked the sound of those braided flowers, too. “But I still do not see—”
“There is no magic,” Cinquefoil said. “Not how earth ponies or griffons don’t have magic. I mean, there is none at all. Where I am from the weather works on its own and the rocks and flowers form by themselves. Where we are, magic vanishes. Like it was never there at all.”
Sunshower’s other eyebrow went up. She was silent for a minute, then another. “Oh,” she whispered. “That is why…why the clouds…”
“That’s why.” Cinquefoil nuzzled her shoulder. “The clouds aren’t your fault. They were never your fault. Really, you’ve done a great job, considering.”
“Hmph. It is a little late for flattery, is it not? But I am glad you told me so.” Sunshower flapped her wings, struck with a thought. “But now I must know! In the stargazer’s room, there was a great metal wing. It was yours, yes? One of the things you can make?”
The earth pony nodded. “Flying machines that could go from one end of the world to the other in less than two days’ time. We called them planes.”
“Ha!” Star Swirl reared and nudged Heartstrings’ shoulder. “There, I told you they knew how to fly!”
Heartstrings wrinkled her nose at him.
“Technically, we can’t. That’s why we made something that could.” Cinquefoil squirmed under his cloak as he looked at Sunshower. “But when I’m myself again, you won’t. I’ll take the flight from your feathers with a touch. You won’t know the sky anymore and either fear me or stubbornly love me anyway. I’m not sure which is worse.”
Sunshower leaned her neck to look at him. His mane hung to curtain his face from her and she could not see beyond his drooped neck. She could feel him shivering through her armor.
Too soft for anypony but her to hear, he said, “I don’t know what will happen to us.”
The pegasus sighed. Her wing lifted to curl around him, but stopped just short of contact. She shook her head and blew the curls out of his eyes. “Oh, Cinque. You have not heard me at all.”
Sunshower cracked her neck and licked the edge of her teeth. Slowly, she approached the glass ball. She hoped this would not be more difficult than necessary.
Forget-Me-Not swished her silky, moth-bitten tail and smiled. “Hello, there. Oh, what a serious look we have!” She tapped her little hoof against her chin. “My, my, what could we be up to?”
“You are a dishonest and greedy creature.” Sunshower folded in her wings and slowly blinked at her. “I do not think I like you. You have received more love than your quota demands. It is clear from the look on your face and the health in your coat. Yet you have not exposed the path into the Roc’s nest.”
“Well…” The flutterpony giggled with an innocent little shrug. “I never did say when I would show the path.”
“No. I believe it was your full intention to reveal it. I believe you would have already done so, had I not entered.” She narrowed her eyes. The wingblades rustled as her shoulders gently shook. “You are holding out for more. Very well.”
Sunshower was not a musically inclined pony. Songs were rare in the Caulkins, practically unheard of in Sill, and she held no particular fondness for them besides a detached appreciation for rhythm. The song was too jaunty and jagged, better fit for a marching chorus than a solo.
“My quill and keep
My aerie and air
There is no flight without this tether
Mine and always
Always mine
Bloodfeather, bloodfeather, bloodfeather.”
She didn’t sing it tender or sad or sweet. Her notes were crisp and simple, as if reading a shopping list. But Sunshower was sure the flutterpony saw the shine of her eyes and the growing lump in her throat.
“There you are, you glutton.” Sunshower heard Cinquefoil’s hooves come closer. His eyes bored against her back. She kept her eyes firmly on the flutterpony’s. Her shoulders shook harder. “No more of your misdirections. Tell us where to go and we will go there or I will shatter that glass myself and stab you with the pieces.”
Forget-Me-Not swept her tongue over her teeth. “Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine?”
“I am not. I am Sunshower, and that is very different. I am still a pegasus, and I know my weather patterns; there is a time for sun, there is a time for rain, and there is a time for both. I have lived in these mountains all my life. I know no land, no weather but this one. I know for a long time—a far longer time than it ought—the Caulkin Mountains see nothing but rain.”
She spread an armored wing to the black ceiling. “It rains to such an extent, almost nothing can grow. The leaves cannot absorb enough sunlight; the roots are drowned and washed away. It has rained for so long we know of nothing else. I know the weather should not behave so. Rain may last a long time, but not forever. I received my mark upon my cessation of a flood. I know these things. I do.”
Sunshower’s feathers rose and settled. The primaries were still ragged at the edges from her anxious preen. There’d been no time to fix them. She felt a quiet, persistent throb in her wing where the tertial ripped out. Sunshower glanced over her shoulder at Cinquefoil. “I told you that you had roots and I was right. I will not see them drowned.”
Forget-Me-Not yawned. “You really are no fun. I like the unicorns and your little courser better. They stomp their hooves and get cross.” She held up a porous hoof at Sunshower’s glare. “Patience, I’m getting to it. The Roc is through the door.”
“Where?” Star Swirl frowned. “Which door? Where is it hidden?”
“Hidden? Hardly!” The flutterpony threw back her head and laughed. “What, are you blind? That door! You know, the big green one with the runes? It’s a little hard to miss, sweetie. Have you considered getting a spyglass?”
“But we just went through that door!” Cinquefoil protested.
“You’re going back to yourself, are you not? You are letting loose a chunk of the old world back into the wild, yes?” Forget-Me-Not put her hooves on her hips. “Well, how else do you return someplace? You go back the way you came.”
“Of course.” Cinquefoil sighed, too worn for wonder or exasperation. “Of course you do.”
Star Swirl narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he approached the door again. He peeked behind the green brass at the long black tunnel they’d gone through. The unicorn cautiously glanced back at Heartstrings and Cinquefoil, who nodded and shrugged respectively.
“There we are, then.” The stargazer shook his cape off his shoulder and wrapped the threadbare silk around his hoof. Gently, he pushed the verdigris door shut.
Star Swirl flinched as something in the room shifted, like the air turning over in its sleep. It made Sunshower’s wings tired and Cinquefoil’s hooves antsy. Heartstrings’ light sputtered like a dying candle. It went dark a few seconds before the glow came back in full. The old mare had to push for it.
Mist crept through the hairline crack under the door and through the keyhole in soft, curled eddies. Cinquefoil shied away from it, still pawing at the ground.
“Cinquefoil?” Sunshower frowned. She could feel the panic mounting on his shoulders, growing denser as more fog leaked in. This could get very bad very fast. “Cinquefoil!”
He nickered and bobbed his head, eyes flickering from the mist to the four walls of the room. The stallion stomped his hooves, anxious to run with no place to run to.
Sunshower hung back and watched, sea-green tail swishing at her hooves. With a sigh, she removed her helmet and shook out her mane. Slowly, she approached him. “Cinque.”
The pegasus flattened her ears, reared back and bashed her skull against his.
The force of the headbutt knocked him into a stumble. The earth pony that was not a pony at all cursed under his breath as he steadied himself. “What on earth was that for?” He winced and rubbed his aching poll.
“It became clear that words were insufficient, thus I defected to alternative methods to grasp your attention.” Sunshower tossed her mane over her shoulder with a snort. “Did you not hear me before? Must I repeat myself until I am raw? I will not have you afraid while I am here. Do not fear the White Roc or my father or Star Swirl or yourself. You are under my wing and while it is not unbreakable, it is still strong. Just as I know you are. I’ve seen you, and I know that you’re swift and bold and steadfast and brave, even if you don’t!”
She began to shake. The knot in her throat swelled to push up tears and splinter her voice. “If you have not heard me before, then hear me now! Hear an-and believe me…”
“I do.”
There was a strange flapping sound and the dim light grew dimmer. Sunshower blinked up with watery eyes at the oilskin spread over and around them like a tent. Out of the unicorns’ sight. She heard the metallic chitter of blades on armor and realized she’d been trembling. Cinquefoil nodded gently to her and politely looked away.
There was a time and a place for emotional expression. This was the time. Cinquefoil gave her the place.
Sunshower’s legs buckled. Her vision blurred. The keening sound at the back of her throat was squeaky and shameful. All of this was shameful. It was shameful and unfair and had the absolute worst timing. After the first tears fell they would not stop. The blades scraped against the stone as her wings drooped. The keen came again, stretched and fragmented.
The oilskin drew in tighter, as if in an embrace. The pegasus curled up in her armor and sobbed herself hoarse.
When her shoulders stopped shaking, Cinquefoil peeked under the cloak and said again, “I do.” He leaned against her and nuzzled her cheek. It made his nose very wet. “I have to. The pegasus tribe are terrible liars.”
Sunshower coughed and sniffled. Her throat still hurt and she was getting a headache. “Thank you for that.”
Cinquefoil put his damp nose to hers. His little smile curved like a broken flower.
The pegasus wiped her eyes and wiggled out of the oilskin. Taking care not to hurt him with the blades, she set her wing around Cinquefoil’s shoulders. Her voice hadn’t recovered, still soft and ragged as a baby bird. “I will do all I can to help you. Whatever you are, whatever you have been, it does not matter to me. You are Cinquefoil and my bloodfeather.” She chuckled sadly and shook her head. “Do you not know this, you silly pony?”
“No, I knew that part.” Cinquefoil bumped his head against hers in a gentle shove that mashed their manes together. His eye blinked up at her. “I, um... just don’t know what a bloodfeather is.”
“I—” Sunshower pulled away and gawked at him. “You cannot be serious. I just sang a whole song about it!” She pursed her lips as her rosy face grew redder. “And it was an exceptionally awkward song to sing, I will have you know!”
“Well, yeah.” Cinquefoil shrugged. “But I still don’t know what it means. How am I supposed to know pegasus metaphors?”
Star Swirl loudly cleared his throat before Sunshower could argue about the art of context clues and reading between lines. “This is all well and good, but our time is not infinite. Time stretches strangely underground—more so in a witch’s den, I expect. The dawn grows closer and the Roc greater.” He was not looking at any of them but at the verdigris door, mapping out the land beyond and above it. He shivered in his thin black cape. “We must away now, or not at all.”
Cinquefoil flattened his ears. He absently pawed the rug, glancing from Star Swirl to Sunshower to the inner pockets of a cloak too big for him. He frowned and bobbed his head towards the door.
“I think it only locks from the outside,” he said to himself. “Meant to keep people out, not in, so…” He pressed his hoof on the iron latch and pushed.
The door smashed open. Cinquefoil jumped back as the rock cracked against the brass. The little ponies felt it vibrate through the cavern, though the impact made no sound. The mist tossed in great rolling arcs and swelled like a bloated body. The stony path beyond it was the pale grey of the sun behind smog. Feather down the size of pegasus wings floated in the air. He nickered low in his throat.
“Wait a moment.” Heartstrings held up a hoof, nose deep in her saddlebag. Slowly, she pulled out a long object wrapped twice around in checkered cloth. It dangled awkwardly in her teeth. “I’ve got something that belongs t’ye.” She set it at Cinquefoil’s hooves. “Maybe I should have given it sooner. I was waiting for a proper time, but…” Heartstrings sighed and shook her head. “Naught t’be done for it now. And no time more proper than this.”
Cinquefoil took a corner of cloth in his teeth and pulled. Out spilled the strangest dagger Sunshower had ever seen.
It was something like a typical stiletto, but the blade was a little slimmer, a little longer, and (she was loath to admit) the edge a little fiercer than the Empire’s daggers. Dried blood speckled from the tip to the odd handle jutting straight out. No curves or tooth grips, completely unfit to be wielded by mouth and too cumbersome to be handled by hoof.
Cinquefoil snapped it into his jaws without a thought. It was a relic he knew well.
Sunshower took a small step back. The old mare was correct. It was his.
She saw the bright wink of steel pull him in as the river pulls leaping salmon. She saw it catch in his throat to wrench out histories hidden deep under skin and sinew. She saw new memories fall back and recline as the old memories stretched and yawned.
The pegasus saw the bursting seams of his disguise in the curve of his spine. She saw it in the flick of his ear, the pale shade of his hoof, the sway of his flank, and the gleaming veneer of sweat on his neck. The idea that he was now or ever a stallion was not only absurd, but impossible.
The dagger was his and Sunshower knew it. She knew, because for the first time in weeks, she saw that wild waterfire-shine skip along his eyes, just as it had the first time she’d spoken to him, as he observed the patchwork lands beyond the Caulkins. Yet, it was nothing like that day at all, for this time, the look did not disappear.
Sunshower folded her wings back in and put her helmet back on. “Your weapon suits you. I like it.” She gave him a wry little grin. “I trust you know how to use it?”
Cinquefoil slid the dagger into his cloak. It clinked against the lockpicks as he moved. “I do, but not with my mouth. I don’t know what good it’ll do against the Roc, weapons didn’t help much last time. But I’m glad I have it again.” He glanced at Sunshower and lifted an eyebrow. “What’s that look about?”
“It is about nothing.” The pegasus casually inspected the acuity of her wingblades. “I was just thinking that the timing is very inconvenient. I would have preferred this happen after spring.”
Heartstrings looked away and snickered.
Star Swirl frowned with a little snort. “That timing is literally the opposite of convenient.”
“Why?” Cinquefoil’s eyebrow lifted higher. “What happens in spring?”
Sunshower just chuckled. “It really is your first time as a pony.”
Star Swirl rolled his eyes at all of them. He danced anxiously from hoof to hoof in the doorway. “So? Are we ready?”
Cinquefoil met him at the shoulder and sniffed at the billowing mist. He laughed as he stepped through. “Absolutely not.”
The path into the Roc’s nest was lighter than the path to Draggle’s room, though not by much. They could see through the sallow dark without Heartstrings’ horn, but not well. The rock moved in fluxing meanders; it split along the sides to form jagged gaps of air and let itself out to fat walkways or sucked itself into skinny rails of stone.
If the ponies were very quiet, they heard the rainfall outside and rumbling thunder. There was something else too—subtle and restrained and hushed, like a breath behind clamped hands. But this was only if they were very quiet, and Cinquefoil was now rarely quiet.
The stallion that was not a stallion leaned close to Sunshower so he would not look down at the mist curling at his hock and kept his eyes on her eyes so he would not notice feather down the size of bedsheets. Louder than his thoughts and excited with old knowledge made new, Cinquefoil eagerly told her all that had happened to him. He shared all he could remember, from warm malls in winter, to bashing the attercop attacking Star Swirl, to Conemara, to the time he made a splint for his pigeons, to the way his mother made vegetable stew. Some stories were clipped and abridged, others vivid and slow. He breathed between syllables and ignored the dryness of his tongue. He took advantage of every second to speak; he didn’t know when he’d get another chance. Sunshower went beside him in a high-step trot, asking a question or exclaiming every now and again, but mostly listened.
Heartstrings and Star Swirl followed a few paces behind. The old unicorn flattened her ears with effort. Keeping her horn lit was a struggle that grew by the second. An emerging headache pulsed with the dull hum of magic as sweat ran down her nose. She gritted her teeth and tried to ignore it.
Instead, Heartstrings looked on ahead. Sunshower’s head popped up and exclaimed at something Cinquefoil said, then laughed in disbelief. He shook his head and laughed with her.
“He’s takin’ all of this well, isn’t he?” The minstrel glanced at Star Swirl. “Looks more himself than he has in ages. I think mayhap I should’ve given him that dagger sooner.”
Star Swirl was quiet, his expression intense and distant. He scratched his beard and played with his bells. For a time, Heartstrings thought he hadn’t heard her. “No,” he finally said.
The minstrel lifted her head, surprised.
“No, I think you were right to wait. Had you given it earlier, the effect might have miscarried. He was already in a fragile way when we got here, it may have sent him into one of his bad turns. Could have spooked him, made him more despondent and anxious than he already was. He’d want naught to do with it after that. Like with—”
“With you?”
The unicorn shuffled awkwardly. “…That, um... isn’t the example I aimed for, but yes. On the other hoof…” Star Swirl paused and squinted in the dark. He angled his horn towards the walls and sniffed the air thoughtfully. He went on slowly, eyes bright and busy.
Heartstrings hung back to catch up to him. “What’re ye up to?”
“I’m up to nothing.” The stargazer took another sniff. The fur at his neck stood up. Without looking from the walls, he continued, “If we tried the stiletto after he’d adjusted to his Mustangian skin, he’d have dug his hooves in the dirt and denied it until the day he died or something else dragged him back to humanity. You know earth ponies; they’ll cling to the steering wheel long after the ship’s sunk beneath the sea. ‘Twas better to try after he’d accepted it.”
Heartstrings didn’t answer him. It was too much effort to speak and keep the light going. A swift and cracking ache ran from the tip of her horn to the root of her teeth. The light flickered. Heartstrings rubbed her temple and forced the glow brighter.
Star Swirl stroked his pink beard and peered at her the way he peered at his notes or the alignment of the stars. But whatever he was thinking, he kept to himself and all he said was, “And I’d not be so quick to judge his mood, were I you.” He motioned toward the pair of ponies trotting through the mist just ahead.
Cinquefoil’s voice bobbed through the lull in the conversation. “—I mean, I’d taken creatures bigger before, I didn’t think anything of it, but how was I supposed to know that the boar’s hide was so tough? But if I haven’t always been fast, I was always nimble.”
Sunshower scoffed, “It still sounds exceptionally foolish.”
“Hey, I never said it wasn’t. Anyway, the tree…”
“’Tis a good trick, to be certain.” Star Swirl’s voice was soft, his smile thin and pale. Heartstrings thought she saw empathy in it, but it looked so foreign to his face she wondered if it was a trick of the light. “However, he’s not half the illusionist Pyrite was. He knows better. I don’t think the bubble he’s built will last long. Not here.” He slowed again. The stargazer took a long, long look at their surroundings. “Anywhere else, maybe. But not here.” His beard wafted, as if in a light breeze.
No… no, there was a breeze. The old mare glanced back, in pain and a little confused. She felt a slight tickle in the soft fur of her ears. Where’d that breeze come from? She tilted her light closer to the wall, where the mist was thinner.
The rock reminded her of the flutterpony: pockmarked with holes. Holes of all sizes and jagged scores of scars of night ripping all through the ceiling. If she squinted, she could barely see the stars. How could there be stars? Nothing could be seen in Sill but rainclouds. They all ought to be well soaked by now.
“Star Swirl,” she whispered, “where are we?”
“Sill, of course.” Star Swirl swiveled his ears. “Just a different section.”
Heartstrings paused and did the same. She frowned. There was no pat of rain, but she could hear water. Water moving quick and swift, like a brook or a little waterfall. Heartstrings’ twitched her nose. She smelled smoke. Smoke and another familiar smell crouching beneath it, too smothered to identify. Heartstrings groaned. The pulse of water marched in step with the merciless throb in her head.
Cinquefoil stopped and shook his head. Sunshower leaned close, her voice worried. She cried out when he fell.
Heartstrings looked back to Star Swirl. His long horn was unlit and still angled toward the wall, the lines of his face tight with concentration. He caught the minstrel’s stare and sighed.
“What? Did you think I was exaggerating before?”
Heartstrings’ horn went dark. No flicker, no stutter, no quiet wane into black. The light clapped out of existence, like a stomped firefly.
There was still light. In the dark, firelight danced through the cracks in the wall. It bobbed and swayed, the shadows swooping to follow. The smell of smoke thickened with the light pop of unseen embers.
“I cannot change him back.” Star Swirl kept his voice low. “At the top of my power, I could not change him back. Nopony could. Not here.”
A tall shadow passed over them and ducked away. There and gone again like a wisp of smoke. Heartstrings strained her ears to hear someone unseen whisper-light and soft and anxious.
“Fortunately,” Star Swirl whispered, “you don’t need a unicorn to dispell magic.”
Despite everything, Sunshower found herself vastly impressed. He did not scream. Not once.
The one she knew as Cinquefoil twisted into a tight little ball, his legs all tangled up in the oilskin. His eyes squinted up at her before they rolled back and squeezed shut. His throat scratched for breath.
Sunshower’s wingblades chattered with anxious flutter as she scurried from one side of him to the other. She stared at the unicorns, eyes wide and frightened and lost. “Is…is there anything you can—?”
The unicorns exchanged looks and shook their heads.
The pegasus tossed her head and nickered under her breath. Cinquefoil jolted in little spasms in her shadow. She nosed his neck; every artery, every rope of muscle stretched and trembled like a novice bowstring. Sunshower sighed and knelt beside him. She laid her head next to his and opened her wings to embrace him as he trembled and groaned. Gently, she nosed his ears. It was all she could think to do.
Under the oilskin, muscles bunched and clenched and twisted and slackened and bent in ways they never meant to bend. The tunnel echoed with little pops and cracks, like somepony crushing branches underhoof, sporadically broken by a thunderclap of snapping, shifting bones.
Cinquefoil hissed through his teeth. There was a sound like wet leather slowly ripping apart. In the dim light, Sunshower saw beads of blood on hairless skin. She gulped and looked away, glad of the dark.
Another groan, agonized and low. Cinquefoil violently coughed once, twice. Something wet and soft splashed against the rock. The spasms shrank into trembles. The trembles faded into twitches.
There was too much of him now to fit beneath her wing.
Sunshower lifted her head. Her feathers felt… strange. They felt wrong. They felt empty, as if she were in molt, yet the quills were still long and healthy. The feeling grew. Her wing twitched nervously but held fast.
They could have been there for a minute or an hour, Sunshower didn’t know. It all felt the same.
When the spasms stopped completely, she lifted her wing and gave him room. He was taller than she anticipated.
A gangly silhouette dragged itself up, bent in half as the oilskin dangled under him. The tall legs shook as spidery paws braced on the rock. He coughed again, wet and thick.
The human sat back on his haunches. He leaned against the rock and wrapped the sweaty cloak around him as he caught his breath. He brushed back his wet hair—thicker than Cinquefoil’s had been—and looked at her with dark, little eyes that were somehow very much the same.
The pegasus flicked her ears and stared back, wondering where the rest of his face went. She stretched her neck and sniffed him. The cozy smell of Topsoil’s house hid under the scent of blood and sweat, and a new scent louder than the rest. It made her feathers ruffle.
The spidery paw reached out to her, naked and spindly. It was the color of Cinquefoil’s coat and blood caked under the blunt little claws. Sunshower lightly nuzzled it. The human cupped her face and gently smoothed her coat.
The human leaned in close and whispered in her ear.
Sunshower pulled away and smiled. “I like it,” she told him. “Your name suits you well.”
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Absolutely fantastic chapter
Wohoo! New chapter and a great one at that! *does a little happy dance* Glad to see you back, boss!
Sunshower is best marefriend.
Again! this is amazing. I'm glad to see... umm... this one guy back to his usual self!
'They say light reveals who one realy is, this is not true. Every creature has a color at wich it can hide no more, where all of its secrets are displayed in plain view for even the dullest of creatures can clearly see.
The color is always diffrent, and yet the color is always clear to those who watch.'
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He's not a pony anymore and he killed Sunshower's magic!
And he's back!!!!
Again: really hoping it doesn't follow the source material when it hits that certain point.
I see we're still on Namek.
At last. Thank you for another delivery.
Now kiss
Those one way doors are always a pain.
If humans supress magic, then just how magical must the Roc be to be just as strong right on top of such source of supression?
What prevents the humans digging down, and out, expanding? Limited growth of food underground?
Now that he's back is he going to kill something? That hasn't happened in a while.
4423364 such a tender moment, then this is the comment i first run into
No wonder she fell in love with a contradiction creature.
A fantastic chapter. It had everything I could ask for. Eagerly looking forward to more.
Question (to either the author or the audience): Is there a map that was used to help write this story, or one that has been made based off of it?
I've been looking into making a 'Preclassical Era' RPG of sorts, namely, using details from Gen 1 and trying to make the story/locations fit the mythos. And there isn't a decent map of 'ponyland' anywhere, since there wasn't much officially released in that regard.
Regardless, the story is wonderful. Have been following it since the beginning, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes even now. Keep up the good work!
4421301 Now you're just scaring me...
This was a very amazing chapter, well worth the wait. But seriously, JULY!?!?!?!?
Uni starts again on June and I won't have enough time to even read anything (textbooks don't count) by then.
Hehehe, Sunshower not in front of Starswirl and Heartstrings you silly filly.
Showed him the knife! *Yeessss*
His ponysuit is gone! *another Yess*
His memories are back I think! *FINALLY*
He broke Sunshower's wings!
...
That dick!
I'm enjoying this story more than I make out I do. I just regret I didn't find it when it's done.
Pony on, author.
4422791
From what I gathered, the Roc is less "Magical construct under Yarak's control" and more "Force of nature that has decided to listen to the insignificant pony for a bit". As such, it's not eligible for dispelling with humanity's Murphy aura.
Anyway, good to see Bob back on his own two feet. I'll be referring to him as Bob until told otherwise. Also trying to remember if scritchies has been shown to be a thing for ponies yet, and what Sunshower's reaction to the possibility will entail interests me.
It's also nice to be reminded depth of character does not necessarily equate to drama. I think that's something we authors forget sometimes.
Awww yeeaah, we're back in business.
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Also ooh, I just realised that The Last Unicorn is on youtube.
4421301 You aren't the only one desperately hoping that.
Ooh, I see you saved revealing the story's major twists - those which make the narrative diverge from the original one - towards the end. Niiice...
Although now I'm wondering when Star Swirl is supposed to learn how to wield his magic. Or even will that happen at all? Poor fellow. I'd feel doubly sorry for him, then - Schmendrick always used to be my favourite character in Beagle's book. Honestly, by now it seems like the universe is screwing him over more than it does Sunshine or ex-Cinquefoil, even.
4421301
I think we're already past the point of worrying about that now. From how the reverse transformation was handled, I expect the finale to have a different tone and likely play out differently than it did in The Last Unicorn. Think about it: on a global scale, the original story was about restoring order to the world. Here, however... They will restore something alright, but to a lot of creatures, the result of their actions will be akin to toppling the world over. I do not see why the personal stories of out characters should remain the same in the midst of all that ;)
*dose a fist pump* Humans are back baby!!!
Nice btw with the reveal that Tirek was Scorpan brother had it reveal that the white roc was made to hunt humans long before the cloud due to the chance one lear Tirek way of stealing magic an turning to a centaur. (thoug that might have been due to harmon ny opposite the rainbow of darkness.)
I have been on pins and needles wondering how this will play out. The story has, by necessity, jumped off the rails of TLU at some points simply because humans are the opposite of order.
Now I know how Rainbow Dash felt about "That anticipated Daring Do novel" when I must look forward to July. Waiting to find out how you will do the biggest rail-jump of all since humans are unheard of in Celestia's court thosands of years from "now", but our intreped ex-mustangian stayed right on the rails for the most bittersweet part of the tale, -all to save humanity.
-Poor Sunshower, she took a hit right in the feels...
How on earth did I miss this update! The suspense of the last half of the story's been let out!
Can someone help me with the story? I've always had this problem where, i can read the whole story 2=3 times and every time my mind starts to wander and next thing you know, I've read the the whole chapter with only having picked up small details or not understanding anything of what i just read. So what I'm asking is if its possible for someone to post a detailed yet somewhat small summary of the story and specifically of this chapter, i feel as though I've missed out on something important.. please...
I've caught up with this story. And it's beautiful.
But her wings...
-Spirit
EDIT: Ooh, good thing I decided to wait until now to read this story. It's mid-July, new chapter soon enough!
I swear he was around other ponies without killing their magic. Though maybe it's only if he is touching them.
Ohh...I'd definitely want to see a snark off between Cinquefoil, Sunshowers, and Forget-me-not. Maybe you could put it in an omake? I hope Sunshowers wings aren't permanently damaged.
Why can't I find a woman like this? No fuss, no muss, takes it as it is with a level head, no drama. AND can find time to compliment him in the middle of it all? There always fictional... And equine apparently. Shame.
to know
4421891 Okay, that made me laugh.
Sunshower, you silly pony, don't headbutt your boyfriend. :V
4421301
I always found the unicorn's inherent aromanticism to be fascinating (also the relationship wouldn't have worked from an interspecies point alone, especially given how the original material portrays human-mythical creature interactions and possibilities) but I do see what you mean. The Last Unicorn has always dealt with things carrying a lot of emotional maturity (the unicorn crying she can feel her mortal, human body dying) so I don't see why the aromantic aspect would have to go - except for the fact that the human is not an immortal unicorn, and might not be aromantic or have the nature an immortal classical unicorn would.
Christ in a handbasket, I'm digging this like a grave!