Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky

by PortalJumper


Part II - Chapter 6: The Palace, And More Dangerous Things

Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky

Part II - Chapter 6: The Palace, And More Dangerous Things

* * *

Mornings in Undersand were difficult for Starlit Sky to get a firm grasp on; she had been so used to rising with the sun that its distinct absence in the cavern was throwing off her sense of time.

So when she awoke for the third time that week to the sound of Setting Sun rapping on the door to her room, her frustration was justifiable.

“C’mon Starlit, time’s wasting,” Sun said, his voice too chipper for Starlit’s sleep-drunk head to deal with. “We want to get an early start today, after all.”

“And what, pray tell, defines it as being ‘early’?” Starlit murmured.

“My internal clock, which is telling me that it's probably ten o’clock in the morning. Besides, Braeburn just came by with a message from Cherry Jubilee. She wants to see us, something about the thestral that you told Braeburn about.”

Starlit’s ears perked at the mention of the word. She had spent the last three days trying to drive the thought from her mind, distracting herself with the comings and goings of Undersand. The cavern city reminded her so much of her hometown in its prime, with a semblance of society to hold back the uncomfortable reality of the world around them, that the thought of it being overrun by thestrals bursting out of the walls was not one she wanted to entertain for long.

“Give me a minute to get my things together,” Starlit replied as she pulled herself upright on her bed. “And to possibly find a stiff drink.”

“Well, you may want to move with some alacrity; Braeburn said Cherry seemed anxious.”

Softly Sun closed Starlit’s door, his hoofsteps growing fainter before the front door to their temporary home also opened and closed, leaving her alone with her thoughts again.

”This thestral problem isn't going to get any better by trying to ignore it, you know,” Starlit thought as she got up and stretched, working the kinks out of her joints. She hoped that the kinks in her mind would come out as easily.

Levitating her armor and weaponry into place was getting easier and easier, and not just from the exposure to magic; it felt natural now, not like something she had to force out of herself like wringing a towel. She couldn't do much else with it other than open a door and levitate her belongings, but it was far easier stuff than maintaining her warding lines back at home.

”If I ever get back to Twilight, I think I'll have a talk with her about my heritage,” Starlit mused, ”see if there's any truth to what she says about my being magically gifted.”

All her armor and belongings secured, Starlit pulled the small black amulet Twilight had given her up in her magic. She had grown wary of its power ever since it showed her the vision of Applejack’s kidnapping, but figured the utility of its function was worth the risk of carrying it around. Gingerly she placed it around her neck before tucking it away into the leather folds of her armor.

The bustle of the Undersand ponies greeted Starlit as she stepped outside her small lodgings; the merchant stalls that lay across the thoroughfare were already in full swing, their proprietors peddling their wares to the crowds. A few hooded guards not unlike Braeburn marched by, eyes locked forward and a grim countenance etched onto their faces. Starlit thought better than to disturb them.

Try though she might, it still took Starlit some getting used to to navigate the crowded market streets; it had been ages since she'd been in such a populated town, and the subtle art of slipping in between ponies without disturbing them was lost on her. Many hurried apologies and intonations of “Excuse me,” and “My bad,” were uttered before Starlit found her way out of the crowd and onto the high street that led to the palace and Cherry’s home.

Braeburn was waiting for Starlit as she arrived, his normally stoic expression replaced with a smile. Not necessarily a warm one, but a smile nonetheless.

“Your friend’s already inside,” Braeburn said. His voice was lower than yesterday, and much of its edge had left in favor of weariness. The turnaround put Starlit’s nerves on alert.

“Is there something wrong?” Starlit asked.

“It's been a... rough couple of days for me,” Braeburn answered. “Doin’ a lot of thinking and introspection, that's all.”

“Braeburn, we’ll find her, I promise,” Starlit replied. She hoped her attempt to reassure herself was hidden in her proclamation.

With a heavy sigh, Braeburn opened the door to Cherry’s home. It creaked softly on its hinges as it did.

“Good luck, Starlit,” Braeburn said as she walked in, “and may cool sands guide your way.”

Cherry’s home was in the same state of dishevelement as it had been when Starlit had first seen it, save for the pile of scrolls and charts that had littered the table being piled on the floor to make room for a massive map that Sun and Cherry were poring over.

“Ah, Starlit, glad to see you,” Cherry said hurriedly. “C’mere, you need to see this too.”

The map on the table was almost immediately recognizable as Starlit looked over it; it was the castle that dominated the western side of Undersand, the same one that they were no more than a hundred yards away from. The image was crisscrossed with tunnels and rooms of intricate design, as well as a few more recent additions to its surface made in a blue ink.

“So, what are we doing here?” Starlit asked. “Sun said you needed to know something about the thestral we faced?”

“It's actually worse, if you can believe that,” Sun answered. Starlit could feel her heart beat against her ribs even before Cherry started speaking.

“Now, I have good news and bad news,” Cherry began.

“Not the best way to start a conversation, you know,” Starlit interjected.

“The good news,” Cherry continued, “is that we have a way for y’all to get to the Queen’s castle without an invitation.”

“Is that where the palace down here comes into play?” Starlit asked.

“Precisely,” Cherry answered. “Stories say that back in the old times, the Queen had a more humble palace that she would open up to anypony who asked, at least before the unification of Equestria. When she built Sunspire, she had the other castle sunk into the ground to make way for her more grandiose abode.”

“Wait, wait, hold on,” Starlit interrupted, “do you mean to tell me that we've been underneath the Queen’s castle this whole time?! Why didn't we see it from the surface before we came down here?”

“That's what I was just telling Sun about when you came in,” Cherry answered. “Only ponies with an invitation for audience can see the Queen, and she takes that idea very literally; if you don't have one of her golden tickets, you can't see the palace or enter it, no matter how long you try.”

“It's almost certainly a concealment enchantment,” Sun interjected. “I only know about them theoretically since attempting one would probably kill me, but a sufficiently powerful one can render even an area as large as Sunspire completely invisible and intangible.”

“So, unless I'm mistaken, the good news is that we can get in there, and the bad that we won't be able to perceive its existence once we’re inside?” Starlit asked.

“No, that wasn't the bad news,” Sun replied. “The bad news is that we’ll have to go up through the underground palace to get there, and according to Cherry it's swarming with thestrals.”

Starlit's heart froze in her chest as Sun continued speaking, his words falling on her freshly deafened ears. Hellish whinnies and thundering, near-dead hooffalls filled her mind. The only sense of feeling she still had was one of a dull thudding coming from the black stone pendant around her neck, its jittering pulse replacing the rhythms of her body.

Unconsciously she sat on the floor, eyes fixated on the window behind Cherry and a thousand feet beyond it, boring into the ancient masonry of the palace as its tattered banners hung limp and lifeless. Her mind was consumed, enraptured by the thought of those nightmares on legs existing not a few hundred feet away.

“Starlit! Starlit, snap out of it!” Sun called. Slowly Starlit was roused from her trance, blearily looking at Sun and Cherry in turn before rising to her hooves.

“Sun, what was that?” Cherry asked, tone more accusatory than concerned.

“It was nothing,” Sun replied, “Starlit’s just got a problem with thestrals. I was worried that this would happen, but it shouldn't impede us too much.”

“I see,” Cherry replied. “And what about you, Starlit? You think you're up for this?”

Starlit didn't reply. She shifted her weight back and forth on her hooves, staring at the floor and trying to get the visions in her head to go away.

“Could you, uh, excuse us for a moment?” Sun asked, taking Starlit by the shoulder with a hoof and turning her towards the door. In her stupor, Starlit didn't resist.

Sun led Starlit out past Braeburn and down an alley near Cherry’s home, one that afforded a modicum of privacy in Undersand’s cramped conditions.

“Starlit, are you okay?” Sun asked, sitting the pair of them down. “I've seen how you react to thestrals, and I knew this would be tough news to hear, but this is... this is new. You've never just locked up like this and frankly I'm really wor—“

“Sun, just shut up for a minute,” Starlit said, eyes still locked on the middle distance behind him. Her tone was passive and impotent, a far cry from her usual authoritative voice.

They sat in silence for a while. Sun shifted nervously as the minutes ticked by and Starlit barely moved a muscle save for her eyes, which darted around every bit of the environment around them save for Sun’s face.

“Starlit, I know this is scar—“ Sun began.

“What did I say, Su—“ Starlit protested.

“No, your going to listen!” Sun countered. “We’re both in a lot of hot water now; we’re about to go into enemy territory with no support, we’re hunting for a Queen that could probably kill us with a thought and expecting to convince her to return to a throne left unoccupied since time immemorial, and there's no guarantee of success or even a useful death.”

As Sun went on, Starlit could see his eyes growing wet with stress, his voice straining to maintain composure.

“We've gotten ourselves in way over our heads,” Sun continued. “I mean, I never even wanted to come out here, not really. At least, not like this!”

Starlit snapped out of her stupor at his words. Now it was his turn of his eyes to be cast downwards, trying to maintain control of himself.

“I just wanted to know how the Queen’s magic worked,” Sun continued. “Maybe find a way to fix Appleoosa, the Plains, everything so that it would be a decent place to live. I didn't want to get wrapped up in your quest, or have to deal with things like thestrals or underground cities.”

The tears fell from his face as he spoke, thick streams that showed just how strongly he felt.

“I'm scared, Starlit. Terrified, in fact. I thought I'd just live my normal life back home but I couldn't because when I met you, I knew I had to help. Now look at me, blubbering like a foal because if you’re scared than what sort of hope can there be for me?”

Sun weeped softly for a time, letting his tears stain his face while Starlit sat and stared at him. Slowly he calmed his breathing, wiped his face with the hem of his cloak, and with a deep breath he held his head up high. His eyes were bloodshot and his lip quivered when he spoke, but there was strength in his words that Starlit wished she could muster right now.

“But, despite all of that, I'm going to keep going,” Sun said. “I'm going to do this, even though I'm scared out of my mind, because it'll help. It'll help my home to not be a sun-blasted wasteland, it'll help Undersand to thrive out from under the Queen’s hoof, and it'll help you do whatever you need to do with her. And if I can do this afraid, then what does it say about you that you can't?”

Setting Sun, whatever his other faults, was a good speaker. Starlit had never been the best at motivation, but she knew when it worked. The visions of death and thestrals had receded from her mind, and the spot in her psyche where she stored those memories seemed smaller now.

Starlit quickly wrapped Sun up in a tight hug, and Sun reciprocated just as swiftly. Together they sat for a while, sharing in their fear at what they had both been roped into.

“Thank you, Sun,” Starlit softly said. Someday, she would tell him what happened to her, but now wasn't the the time.

* * *

The underground palace was a sight to behold from afar, so to see it up close was giving Starlit a strange sense of vertigo as she stared up at its precipitous heights. She could also feel her pendant thrumming its rhythm, now faster than before.

”Perhaps proximity to death is what sets it off,” Starlit thought. It wasn't a very comforting thought.

Sun busied himself next to Starlit, going over the map Cherry Jubilee had given them at their meeting the other day. It certainly wasn't complete by any stretch of the imagination, but it showed enough of the inner structure of the palace to give them a sense of where they needed to go, as well as a few marks for hazards that prior explorers had discovered.

Starlit decided to make herself useful and went over her belongings one final time. It was better than standing there and trying not to feel her heartbeat.

Her saddlebags were, for the most part, pared down to the essentials. The only extraneous item she had in there was the rabbit doll she’d picked up, the rest of the bags filled with provisions and dungeoneering gear that had been provided by Cherry and the ponies of Undersand. Her sword had still been in pristine condition, but she'd taken it to a blacksmith a few days ago and had it sharpened anyway to be on the safe side.

“Nice to see we’re both nervous about this,” Sun quipped as he tightened his cloak.

“Figured our little heart-to-heart would've gotten it all out of my system,” Starlit replied.

“Starlit, are you sure that you're ready for this?” Sun asked. “We can wait until tomorrow, if it's alright with you.”

Starlit snorted as she lifted her bags up to her back.

“It'd be better to get it done swiftly, like pulling a tooth,” she answered. “Waiting won't make the problem go away, and if anything it'll only make it worse.”

“...Fair enough,” Sun said. “Do you want to hold the map, or should I?”

“Your magic’s stronger, you do it,” Starlit answered. It was a better excuse than saying she couldn't maintain a levitation spell with how frayed her nerves were.

“Right, right, stupid question,” Sun replied. With a flick of the horn he pulled the map up and unfurled it before himself, leaving the pair standing before the yawning portcullis.

The seconds ticked on inexorably as Starlit stared down her foe; the haunting darkness that seeped out from the castle’s raised gates looked endless from where she stood.

With a sigh of resignation Sun took the first steps forward toward the palace. The lantern hanging off of his saddlebags illuminating with a puff of green magic as he did.

“C’mon Starlit, there's no time like the present,” Sun beckoned. With trepidation in her every step, she followed him in.

The cloying darkness was claustrophobic at first, but Starlit’s eyes adjusted to the dim in due time. Sun’s lantern provided a modicum of light, but not nearly enough to illuminate everything in the foyer.

Every surface was coated with a thick layer of dust, which for a chamber of this size was an impressive amount. Starlit accidentally inhaled a mote of dust the size of her ear that she had kicked up from the ground, sending her into a hacking fit that cascaded around the room.

“Starlit, you okay?” Sun asked as he cantered over to her. He held a handkerchief out for her, which Starlit tied around her face.

“Just... just swallowed... a dust bunny,” Starlit replied through her wheezing.

“More like a dust puma,” Sun replied. “The last set of explorers to come through here must've been quite a while back for there to be this much dust.”

“You'd better cover your mouth too,” Starlit said curtly. “Don't want to make any more noise than we have to in here.”

Starlit didn't want for Sun’s reply as she pressed forward past him. Her eyes had adjusted enough to let her see a large stairwell on the far side of the foyer, leading upwards into the upper reaches of the castle.

”The sooner we get to the surface the better,” Starlit mused. She cantered up the stairs, the only sounds being her own hoofsteps and the ever growing thrum of the black amulet around her neck.

Hours upon hours Starlit and Sun spent wandering the halls and chambers of the castle, going upward but never seeming to progress. Everywhere they went was just an extension of the last place they were in; the same ever present dust, the same tattered carpets and tapestries, the same cracked masonry. Nothing showed any signs of habitation, by pony or thestral, and the lack of activity had set her teeth on edge.

“Sun, where are we?” Starlit asked, stopping to stretch her legs as she did.

Quickly Sun laid the map in front of her, pointing to an area around the middle of castle.

“If we've been following this map properly, about here,” Sun answered, his voice muffled slightly by his own makeshift air filter.

“What do you mean ‘if?’” Starlit shot back. “We have been following it correctly, right?”

“Yes, of course we have, but you've got to admit it's hard to judge where anything is when every hallway and room looks damn near identical,” Sun replied.

Starlit didn't reply, instead choosing to pace back and forth across the hallway and kick up small clouds of dirt and dust as she did.

“Starlit, we've been at this for hours, maybe it's time to bunker down and rest,” Sun said. “You'll be calmer after some food and a half-hour’s break.”

“No, we press onward until we’re out of here,” Starlit replied. “I don't want to spend one extra minute in this death trap if I don't have to.”

“Starlit, you're talking nonsense. We haven't met a single thing in here; no thestrals, no ponies, not even any of the hazards that were marked off on the map. Now would be as good a time as any since we're in a relatively safe area."

“That's just it, Sun, we've encountered nothing! That doesn't make you a bit nervous?” Starlit asked sharply. “What if this is just another one of the Queen’s illusions? What if she's got us running ‘round in circles for her own sick pleasure?!”

“Starlit, your paranoid, you need to res—“

Starlit didn't hear the last of his sentence as the thrumming beat of her amulet accelerated to the fastest pace she'd felt it give off. In addition to the disconcerting beat she also felt it pushing against her armor, urging her forward just in time for her heart to drop into her hooves.

The dust behind Sun had stirred, forming three perfect circles of immaculately clean carpeting. Standing in those three circles, eyes illuminated a dull grey and skin a mottled, taut black, were thestrals, slavering and salivating.

”RUN!!” Starlit screamed. She didn't even wait for Sun to start before she turned on her companion and sprinted away into the dust and the dark.

The handkerchief slid from her face, pushed by her staccato breaths as she kicked up puffs of dust. Behind her she heard echoing hoofbeats, whether Sun’s or the thestrals’ she couldn't say. Slowly the sounds of whoever was following her faded away as she darted down hallways and up staircases, paying no heed to which direction she was heading.

The dust stung her eyes as she ran, forcing them shut. She never saw the thestral in front of her until she slammed into it and sent them both sprawling.

It got to its hooves before Starlit, and she found herself skittering backward from the monster in a panicked frenzy.

“Get back! Stay back!!” Starlit screeched as she drew her sword. It wavered and flailed in her magic, and with a singular panicked thrust she pitched it forward.

The sword was buried up to the hilt in the thestral’s forehead when Starlit looked, blood oozing down the creature’s forehead. The monster twitched and sputtered for a moment before its grey eyes faded and it slumped to the ground.

Starlit drew her sword from it with her magic, shaking all over as she stared at its corpse. The blade clattered to the ground as she lost focus, gaze flitting all over and jumping at shadows.

”Get a hold of yourself,” Starlit thought. ”You killed it. It's dead now, and it can't hurt you anymore.”

Quickly Starlit picked her blade back up, this time in her teeth as her nerves were too stressed to try and use magic. She did a full rotation, looking at the stone walls and the dust floating in the air as she tried to gather herself and ascertain her location.

”Damn. Damn, damn, DAMN! Starlit thought, realizing she was now hopelessly lost, with only the thrumming of her amulet to keep her company.

A thrumming that was growing faster and more powerful.

Quickly she backed down the hallway, eyes darting every which way as she waited for the next ambush. Not noticing where her hooves were falling, she brushed one of them against her freshly dead foe.

Much like when she had felt Applejack’s blood, Starlit’s head was filled with sights and sounds and feelings, none of them good. She saw the castle, and its dusty corridors being disturbed by some sort of magic. She felt the thestral’s mind, its all consuming thirst for blood and violence, and she saw herself. She heard her own voice scream, saw herself flee with Sun not too far behind, and then nothing as the thestral’s consciousness faded away.

Starlit then felt its mind again, but spread out like grains of soil over a long road. It slowly coalesced and as it did she felt it forming the dust in the air, assuming its mind and form once more to catch herself unaware. She saw the fight she had had with it, and when she stabbed it she felt its pain as its consciousness faded into nothing. Then there was blackness, a dreaded nothingness that was infinite and personal all at once, a feeling she kept as the vision faded.

Starlit found herself on the floor, breathing in the dust and stale air and grappling with what she'd just seen.

“They're in the dust,” Starlit announced to no one. “And if they're in the dust, then I've bee—“

Starlit felt a horrible pain in her chest and lungs, one that ripped and tore and burned her throat as a monumental amount of dust poured from her mouth and nose to form a swirling mass in the air.

The dust swirled over head like a whirlwind as it slowly pushed itself together, forming many distinct shapes. They were all pony sized and shaped, and all burned with that baleful grey light.

The thestrals touched down in a circle around her, maybe a dozen in total, as she hacked up blood and phlegm. Her amulet beat like a thousand ponies running at once, and she noticed a small grey light shine out from the neckline of her armor. She grabbed up her sword with her teeth, but her mouth was so slick with blood that she couldn't hold it.

The thestrals didn't give her a chance to try again. They were upon her before the sword hit the ground, stomping and biting and screeching as they tore her apart. Her armor held for a few moments, but was soon ripped off and cast aside.

The pain was excruciating. Starlit's belly burst open, her bones snapped like twigs, and hot blood ran from dozens of cuts and punctures. A jagged horn took her left eye, and she knew this would be the end.

”I’m sorry, Eclipse. Mommy failed,” Starlit thought as blood and tears poured down her face, the last thought she could think before everything faded into a maelstrom of screaming and anguish before death finally took her.

And then Starlit woke up, with a sharp gasp and Setting Sun staring down at her.

* * *