//------------------------------// // Part II - Chapter 5: Leave Them Underground // Story: Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky // by PortalJumper //------------------------------// Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky Part II - Chapter 5: Leave Them Underground * * * The sun was low on the western horizon when Starlit emerged from her hovel. The morning's argument was still fresh in her memory, so it came as some surprise that she saw Sun outside, a spade floating in his magic and tamping down an earthen mound. "Is that for the—" Starlit began. "Thestral, and yes it is," Sun interjected. "I figured I'd take care of it before you woke up, given your aversion to them." "Well, thanks for the consideration Sun," Starlit replied. A chill raced down her spine as she thought of its blackened and emaciated flesh, its clouded eyes locked in a forward stare. "I know you said not to bother studying them, but I did something of an autopsy on it," Sun continued. "I wanted to see if there were any weaknesses in their physiology to exploit if and when we run into a live one." "What'd you find out?" Starlit asked, biting back the accusation she wanted to hurl at him. "Now, I'm no biologist," Sun replied, "but given the state of its innards and musculature that thing shouldn't have been able to move, let alone be as much of a threat as you claim they are." What do you mean? Were they shriveled, hacked to ribbons by whatever unholy magic powers those things?" Starlit spat. "I wish," Sun answered, sticking his spade back in his bags and turning to face Starlit. "They weren't there." "Impossible," Starlit replied, "they have to have something prolonging their wretched existence." "That's exactly what I thought, so I did a bit more digging—" "Poor choice of words," Starlit interjected. The mere thought of digging in a thestral's corpse sent a chill down her neck. "Right, but bad wordplay aside, I did find something in there; a sort of network of tubes lining the chest and abdominal cavities and leading up through the limbs and back up the neck, like thick arteries or nerves." "And you're saying that it was those tubes that are powering it?" Starlit asked incredulously. "In a way," Sun answered as he stepped to the side. "As I said, biology and anatomy aren't my thing, but I've done extensive study of the arcane system that powers a pony's intrinsic magic. In every type it works differently but the conduit is a series of vessels that act like nerves and arteries mixed into one." With a shudder Sun turned back to look at his makeshift grave. "Whatever the Wasting did to that thing, it cannibalized their organs and all unnecessary bodily mass to widen and strengthen those vessels, turning the arcane system into a horrendous mishmash of tubes that filled in the place of everything the disease destroyed." Starlit's breathing grew rapid as Sun kept talking, and every fiber of her being was telling her to clamp a hoof over his mouth. "Was there..." Starlit began, swallowing her nerves, "was there anything left untouched?" "Nothing, not even the heart," Sun answered. "Whatever the Wasting is, it lives up to the name; it consumed that unicorn from the inside out and left it as a mindless shell powered only by horrifyingly corrupted magic." Starlit sat down on the warm sand, only finding the strength to blink and breath. Such a clinical description of such a terrible fate had her stomach tied in knots and her mind frantically recalling memories she had long since buried inside of herself. "There was one other thing," Sun continued as he sat down beside Starlit. "I was able to make out their Cutie Mark through the mottling on their skin." Slowly Starlit turned her head to face her companion, still flabbergasted by what he had already told her and haunted by the thought that this thestral was actually a pony at one point. "It was a tree," Sun said, "lush and green. Whoever that thestral was in life, it had something to do with plants, and that means that this whole place used to be green too." Starlit didn't reply, only turned back down to stare at the pale beige dust beneath her hooves. A few teardrops fell from her eyes and stained the sand before she quickly regained her composure. "Don't you see, Starlit?" Sun continued, the timbre of his voice rising. "Once we handle the Queen and get her to stop whatever is making this place a desert, this place can be green again, it can support life again!" "And then what?" Starlit asked. "We all forget what's happened, pretend it wasn't anything more than a bad dream?" "Well, no, I mean the sheer ecological damage alone would take—" "Sun, you are a smart stallion, but you're naïve," Starlit interjected as she stood up and walked towards the building with the cellar. "C'mon, we need to see where this cellar goes." Quickly Starlit cantered into the building and down the cellar, past the bloodstain and drag marks that Sun had made carrying the body outside. She didn't want him to see her tears, quick as they were. * * * The cellar was as nondescript as they came; a few torches in their sconces on the wall to illuminate it, a few shelfs with jars whose labels had long since worn away and whose contents were almost certainly inedible at best or pure poison at worst, and a table with some farming implements on it. The pair had been searching for any point of origin for the thestral to have come from out of the sealed basement, but their efforts were proving fruitless. The room looked to have been carved out of the solid rock when the house was built on top of it, leaving no entry or egress points save for the stairs up. "Well this was utterly pointless," Starlit groused. "Come on, we need to get a move on. We're losing moonlight." "Just give me five more minutes," Sun replied, "I need to confirm some things." "Like what? We are on something of a schedule, Sun." "Mainly trying to figure out these torches," Sun answered. "I want to know if this is some sort of everlasting fire enchantment or not, because if it isn't then that means somepony had to have lit these." "Well, don't take too long," Starlit admonished. "I'll wait for you outside." Starlit was halfway out the front door before she was stopped by a grinding sound coming from the cellar, followed by a yelp of terror and a series of thuds that grew fainter and fainter. Quickly she pulled an about face and ran back downstairs to see a large opening in the far wall, a section of it having swung open and one of the sconces angled downward. "Sun? Are you okay?" Starlit called. "I've been better," Sun yelled back from the cavernous hole. "On the plus side, I think we know where our friend came from." "Hold on Sun, I'm coming down." Starlit stood precipitously on the threshold of the wall, gazing into the cloying void just outside of the torch's sphere of light. It was dark, the walls had a slick quality to them that betrayed the fact that there was naturally occurring moisture, and the floor of the cellar gave way to a series of stone steps. The passageway was narrow, and the ceiling just high enough for her to not scrape her horn on it. Swallowing the knot of fear caught in her throat, Starlit descended the steps. She walked deliberately, taking care to secure each hoofstep before taking the next. While her magic had been growing stronger by the day she still couldn't sustain a light spell for as long as it would take to get to the bottom of the steps, nor did she want to risk dropping a torch and making any more unnecessary noise. After an amount of time that was certainly shorter than what it felt like she reached the bottom of the steps to see Sun, horn illuminated with pale green light and a splotch of the wall moisture on his cloak. "Are you okay?" Starlit asked. "That sounded like a pretty bad fall." "Just a few flesh wounds and a sore back," Sun answered, "nothing to get worked up over." "If that's the case, then what say we figure out what this place is," Starlit said, the pair turning to face the left side wall. "We'll need to be quick, because if one thestral came out of here than there may be mor—" "Y'all take one more step and I'm gonna lay you out," a third voice intoned from behind them, a male one with a very distinct drawl that set Starlit's brain firing and caused Sun to let out a yelp of fright. "Now I don't know what the two of you think you're doing down here, but this place ain't for you," the voice continued, "so y'all are gonna turn your hindquarters right back around and hightail it out of here. We don't want anything to do with the Queen, and the only ponies that come out here are on her business." "Listen, we made a mistake, we were just looking for some shelter and found this plac—" Sun said before Starlit cut him off. "You're an Apple, aren't you?" she asked. The room grew deathly quiet, and neither Sun nor Starlit dared to turn around. All they did was exchange quick nervous glances between each other while their interrogator maintained his silence. "What of it?" the stallion asked. "Okay, then if that's the case I need you to listen very carefully to me," Starlit answered. "We're not here on the Queen's orders, and we didn't get a summons from her either. Your relative, Applejack, was kidnapped by some of the Queen's ponies and my friend and I are out here trying to track her down. We came upon this place by happenstance, but if you really are an Apple then you'll help us out." "And why would I believe you?!" the stallion shot back. "This is all just a little too convenient if you ask me!" "You should believe me because if you don't then you're going to lose any and all chance of seeing her ever again," Starlit replied, a little more forcefully. "Plus, we've got a dead and buried thestral outside that says these catacombs have an outbreak of the Wasting, which is something you're going to want some help with." The silence hung in the air like a thick blanket, and despite her veneer of confidence Starlit's heart was racing. The stallion behind her was certainly an earth pony given his shared lineage with Applejack, and if she was anything to judge off of the last thing Starlit wanted was a physical altercation with any relative of hers. "...Follow me," the stallion relented, "and don't try anything funny." "Believe me, we won't," Sun replied as he and Starlit turned to face their erstwhile captor. He was wearing some sort of full body covering that only left a small amount of space around his eyes visible, and in the dim light she could only tell that his eyes were a dull green color. With a jerk of the head the stallion bade them to follow him down the dark hallway he had emerged from. It too had a slick quality to the walls and floor, giving off a sickly and slimy appearance as the green glow of Sun's magic illuminated it. "Y'all have names?" the stallion asked, more demand than question. "Setting Sun," Sun replied, his voice cracking ever so slightly with surprise. "Starlit Sky," Starlit answered back. "You?" "I don't think that that's much concern to you two right now," the stallion shot back. Deciding not to press the issue lest he turn hostile, Starlit let the sullen silence refill the air, permeated only by the sounds of their own hoofsteps and the occasional dripping of water from the ceiling. The tension gave her flashbacks to when she was a filly and had accidentally let a batch of carrots mold. Twisting and turning down the endless hallways was playing hell with Starlit’s sense of direction; at this rate, even if she wanted to escape she doubted she'd be able to find her way back to the surface. Judging by the amount of sweat pouring off of Sun’s forehead, Starlit figured he'd come to the same realization and wasn't doing nearly as good of a job at hiding it. After an interminable walk the trio came up to a solid rock wall, a sight which perplexed Starlit but seemingly bemused her captor. “Y’all turn around, and if I catch either of you trying to use magic to see what I'm doing I'll have your leg bones for quill-holders,” the stallion ordered. Not wanting to be messily dismembered, or worse vivisected, Starlit happily complied. Sun didn't even need prompting, although the threat of gruesome repurposing had sent his knees shaking. All Starlit heard was the sound of a hoof scraping against the wall, followed by a harsh grinding sound accompanied by a stream of light and noise. Daring a glance she turned her head to see out of her periphery. “Oh my stars,” Starlit said as she turned to take in the sight. Sun quickly followed suit and his mouth simply dropped open in wonder. Before them was a town—nay, a city—seemingly hewn from the rock of the cave they were in; buildings carved from stone, large plazas decorated with precious stones that glowed of their own accord, and more ponies than she'd ever seen gathered into one space ambling about and living their lives. And dominating it all, at the far side of this wondrous cavern, was a massive building of carved sandstone, adorned with parapets and minarets to connect it to the ceiling of the cave and festooned with more of those glowing gems. Large tattered banners of fierce reds and oranges hung from its walls, although their insignias had long since worn away, and where there was once a drawbridge now was a ramshackle bridge of equal parts wood, metal, and stone. “C’mon now, you two’ll have time for sight seeing later,” the stallion said as he walked down the ramp connecting the tunnel to the floor of the cavern. “Cherry Jubilee is gonna want to talk with you about why you’re here.” Starlit and Sun both followed him down the ramp, the both of them nearly tripping off of it as they gazed in every direction they could. * * * “I never knew there was this much civilization left in the whole world,” Starlit said as the trio wound their way through the crowded streets. “What is this place?” “It had some fancy name a long time ago, but nowadays we just call it Undersand,” the stallion replied. “It's also home to a lot of ponies; families, friends, merchants and the like.” “How in Equestria do you sustain yourselves down here?” Sun chimed in, his coltish curiosity betrayed by his voice. “I mean, without natural sunlight you can't possibly grow plants down here, and given how secretive you all are I'm assuming trade is out of the question.” “We make do,” the stallion continued, “but I'm not telling you anymore until Cherry gives me the okay to.” “Cherry?” Starlit asked. “You mentioned them before, are they your leader?” “She's more than just our leader, she's the one keeping the whole operation afloat,” the stallion answered. “Without her skillful mind for logistics this place would've torn itself apart a long time ago.” “If she's half as smart as you say she is, then I'm certain she'll see our reasoning,” Starlit replied. “I'm sure she will,” the stallion scoffed. The rest of the walk to the other side of the city was spent with taciturn silence from their captor, but gasps of wonder and confusion from the common ponies of Undersand. Questions about who they were whispered just loud enough to hear, mother’s bustling their foals out of sight even as they begged to see who the strangers were, and a few snorts of derision from some of the older ponies that they passed. “Is it just me, or are they not thrilled to see us? “ Sun asked. “I'm pretty sure it's just you, Sun,” Starlit answered. “After all, you have a certain puckish quality that’s just screaming to be shoved in a mud puddle.” “Oh har-dee-har-har,” Sun shot back. “If anything, they'd probably want to throw you, all tall, dark, and mysterious, out on your flank before me, being the milquetoast stallion of science that I am.” “So, agree to disagree?” Starlit said with a smile. “You said it, not me,” Sun replied with an equally smug smile. “If y’all are finished with your little game, then we're here,” the stallion cut in. Before them stood not the palace, but a smaller square building about a hundred yards away from the bridge to the palace. “You two wait here, and don't go running off,” he continued. “As you’ve no doubt figured out, nopony here will help you if you try to make a break for it, and quite a few of them’ll likely try taking you down themselves.” “Not that you wouldn't love to see them try,” Sun replied. “Just stay put,” he replied tersely, pushing open the door and slipping inside. A few muffled voices made it out of the rough wooden door; one was their captor, and the other smooth and feminine. Starlit put her ear up to the door to try and catch what they were saying, beckoning Sun to do the same. “Braeburn,” the female voice, probably Cherry Jubilee, said, “if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times, ponies not on business with the Queen are welcome down here! You had no reason to hold them captive like that!” “And what would you have me do about a mare with a sword at her hip and armor bearing a strange insignia alongside a stallion who has all the trappings of one of her court sorcerers? Just let ‘em waltz on in, have their run of the place?” “Well certainly not threaten them with death, which I'm certain you did! Anyway, it's a moot point now, so just see them in so I can have a look at them.” Quickly Starlit jumped back and pulled Sun away from the door, the pair standing casually as Braeburn opened it back up. “Cherry’ll see you now,” Braeburn said, holding the door open for them. “But no funny business, y’hear?” “Not at all, sir,” Starlit answered. “Not at all.” The interior of the room was decorated conservatively, with only a single rug in the middle and a simple but comfortable bed off to one corner to belie the fact that somepony actually lived here. The rest of the one-room abode was taken up by tables and chairs covered in all sorts of scrolls, charts, and instruments. Standing on the far side of the central table stood a cream-colored Earth Pony mare with rich, shimmering crimson hair that matched her equally vibrant eyes. The lines on her face showed that she was roughly the same age as Starlit. “Firstly,” Cherry began, “let me give you two my sincerest apologies about Braeburn. He's always been a tad gung-ho about security, which makes him a suspicious sort of pony, although he's more riled up than I've seen as of late.” “It's alright, ma'am,” Sun replied. “Honestly, we didn't expect to meet anypony when we wandered down here, much less see this wonderful city of yours.” “And his being ‘riled up’ might be our fault,” Starlit continued, “as well as being related to our business here.” “Well, I'm certain that any knowledge you might have would be greatly beneficial for both of our causes,” Cherry replied. “I'm Cherry Jubilee, by the by, although I'm sure Braeburn told you my name as he was bringing you down here.” “I'm Starlit Sky, and my partner here is Setting Sun,” Starlit said, bowing her head as she did so. “I'm to assume that you’re in charge around here?” “In a manner of speaking, yes,” Cherry answered. “We don't have an officially established government, but most ponies gravitate towards a few of us here to sort things out, and I just so happen to be one of those lucky few.” “And what is it that most ponies come to you for?” “Mostly for tips on scavenging the palace, but I'm also in charge of surface excursions and security detail here. You two are a long ways away from home, aren't you?” “Yes, some further than others,” Sun answered. “I'm from Appleoosa, but Starlit comes from central Equestria.” “Appleoosa, you say?” Cherry asked, brow furrowing in confusion. “Didn't think anypony still lived out that way. Braeburn had kin that way, as do quite a few ponies here in Undersand.” “That's why we were wandering the desert, actually,” Starlit continued. “One of Braeburn’s relatives, Applejack, got kidnapped by some of the Queen’s goons, and we’re trying to track down the Queen’s palace to get her back. If you could possibly offer a few of your guardsponies as an escort to see us there, then we’ll both be on our way.” Cherry let out a peal of hearty laughter, trying and failing to stifle her sudden onset of giggles with her hoof as Starlit and Sun shifted nervously at her outburst. “Is something about this funny to you?” Starlit demanded. “Applejack could be dead for all we know, and you’re going to laugh about this?” “I'm sorry, truly I am,” Cherry answered, waving her hoof as she regained her composure. “It's just that what you’re asking is not only impossible without a summons from Her Majesty, but something that ponies down here have been attempting for years and years with absolutely no success.” “I'm still not seeing the humor,” Starlit said, voice seething with anger. “It just strikes me as odd that somepony so far removed from the culture of victimhood that the Queen’s reign has fostered would still have that self-same goal that everypony else in Undersand has.” “Victimhood?” Sun asked. “You mean the sunlight, and the kidnappings?” “That much, yes,” Cherry answered, her tone growing serious, “and so much more. Slowly Cherry turned her gaze downward, contemplating the beige stone of the floor as if it held answers to every question she had ever asked. “Do you know what it's like, Setting Sun, to live every day of your life not knowing if your neighbors are going to be there the next morning?” “...No,” Sun answered meekly. “And tell me,” Cherry continued, tone rising in bitterness, “have you ever seen the terror in a child’s eyes as they wander the streets, unsure of where their parents went, only realizing far too late that they're never going to be seen again and there's nothing they can do about it?” “I–I don't, but I'm sur—“ Sun sputtered before being shouted down. “Then let me illuminate some facts for you, Setting Sun and Starlit Sky!” Cherry continued. “We have a very fragile and hostile relationship with the Queen that has seen family and friend ripped away from each other for as long as we have records to recall such things! There is nothing in this world I would love more than to see that detestable and loathsome mare removed from her throne and for her blood to run red through our streets, but I will not sacrifice more of our citizens on a fool’s errand!” Cherry slammed her hooves onto the table, the rough wood groaning from the strain. Starlit could see Sun shaking like a leaf at Cherry’s protestations. “You two will get no support from my people if you want to throw your lives away, and that is the end of that,” Cherry hissed, turning her back to them and facing a large set of charts and graphs on the wall. Sun tugged on Starlit’s armor, motioning his head to the door. Quickly Starlit brushed his hoof off and stood tall, facing the table. “Cherry, I have a daughter,” Starlit said. The last word caused Cherry’s ears to perk, and she turned her head so that she could see Starlit out of her periphery. “Do you think this will garner some sort of sympathy with me? We all have loved ones.” “I'm not so sure of that,” Starlit replied. “You and I, we’re about the same age, and we’re of a similar temperament as well; stubborn, bossy, and just a little too set in our ways.” Cherry fully turned to face Starlit, the lines on her face and the slight bags under her eyes betraying her hard-lived life. “You've lost somepony dear to you, haven't you?” Starlit asked. A hollow silence hung up in the stale cavern air as the two mares, so alike in countenance that it was like they were staring into a mirror, dared the other to make the first move. It would be Cherry that broke their standstill as the beginnings of tears formed at the corners of her eyes. “A son,” Cherry answered. “Taken from me about seven years ago, give or take a few months. The Queen’s ponies came in the night for him while we slept.” Some of the smoothness in her voice left as the tears fell from her eyes in earnest, belying an accent not too dissimilar to Applejack’s or Braeburn’s. “I didn't even have a chance to fight for him; I just woke up one mornin’, and he was gone.” “What was his name?” Starlit asked, a knot of empathy and sadness buried in her chest. “Shady Grove,” Cherry answered, wiping off her eyes in futility as more tears fell. “A hopeful name, to be sure. He always wanted to go someplace green.” “Then let me cut a deal here, from one mother to another,” Starlit said. “You allow us to come and go from here peacefully and use Undersand as a base of operations until we set off, and I promise you on my life that I'll find out what happened to your son.” Cherry Jubilee turned her red-rimmed eyes to face Starlit, and even through the sadness of having to recall such painful events, Starlit could see the faint Glimmer of hope shine behind those crimson eyes. “Very well,” Cherry answered, her voice returning to its smooth tone. “You have my blessing; for as long as you two are here you will be given no trouble, as well as all the help the citizens of Undersand can provide. However, when y’all set off for the palace, it will be on your own.” Starlit was about to ask Cherry to reconsider before Sun cut in, his mind for tactfulness overtaking her mouth. “That'll be just fine with us,” Sun said. “We understand that you don't want to risk any of your friends and neighbors on our suicide mission. Just some supplies and information will suffice.” “Then go outside and tell Braeburn what I've just told you, and he’ll get you set up with lodgings for while you’re here,” Cherry replied. Without another word she turned back to her wall of charts and graphs before pulling a few pages down and examining them more closely. Slowly Starlit pulled the stuffed rabbit out of her saddlebags, eyeing its fine make and jeweled eyes with a worried gaze as Braeburn led herself and Sun to their temporary home.