Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky
Part III - Chapter 2: Rigor Mortis
* * *
When Starlit came back from the blackness of death her nostrils were filled with an acrid, acidic smell. She stirred as she opened her eyes to find that she was covered in a thin sheet. Her head ached where the machine-pony had shot her, but she felt no blemish or burn where the bolt had landed.
She pulled the sheet off of herself as she sat up from the cold metal slab her body had been laid on. The stone walls and every horizontal surface were immaculately clean, more clean than Starlit had ever seen, and various devices and tools hung from racks on the walls. She noticed, with some dismay, that a few of the tools had blood on them.
Starlit's eyes eventually fell onto the table next to hers, with another sheet covering an indistinct lump. The body underneath it was just a tad too big for the sheet to fully cover, and she saw a pair of tattered grey wings poking out from underneath. She felt her throat catch as she thought of what those wings might be attached to.
Slowly Starlit slid off of the table, taking care not to tip it over or make too much noise as her hooves hit the floor. She surmised that, wherever she was, it wasn't going to be a place that was used to ponies coming back to life.
As carefully as she could Starlit sneaked around the room, checking in cabinets and drawers to find her equipment. She had given her weapons up as lost since that was what had gotten the machine's attention to begin with, but if she could at least get her saddlebags back she could make some headway.
Starlit was rooting through a drawer on the far side of the room when she heard the telltale sound of a door opening and closing, and she froze. A lilting female voice was humming as she went about her business, oblivious to Starlit's skulking. With as few extraneous movements as possible Starlit turned to try and catch a glimpse.
Her unexpected guest was a unicorn, her coat a lustrous white and with a deep purple mane that was pulled back into a professional bun to keep it out of her face. She wore a set of red spectacles as she looked over a few pieces of parchment, and Starlit could see that her cutie mark was a trio of diamonds.
"Diamonds? For a corpse loader?" Starlit wondered. Starlit was so transfixed by her confounding cutie mark that she forgot to notice when her quarry was turning back around, and the pair of them locked eyes.
The unicorn stared for a long moment, her pupils the size of pinholes, before her mouth dropped open to let out a shriek. Starlit quickly muttered a spell to shut the mare's mouth before she alerted everypony in the building to her presence.
"Miss, don't panic," Starlit said calmly, stepping out into the light provided by a series of flameless lamps embedded in the ceiling. "I don't want to hurt you."
The unicorn started to cry as she struggled in vain against Starlit's hold on her mouth, but she didn't make moves to try and run. She looked too paralyzed by fear to try, much to Starlit's relief.
"Listen to me very carefully," Starlit continued. "I just need to know where I am and where my things are. After that we can part ways and forget any of this ever happened. Do you understand me?"
The unicorn made a hasty nod, flinging tears from her eyes with its ferocity.
"Good. Now, I'm going to let go of your mouth, and when I do I need you to not scream. Can you do that?" The unicorn nodded again, and slowly Starlit slackened her grip on the unicorn's mouth.
As soon as she was able to the unicorn started to shriek, sending Starlit into a panic. Without really thinking to she grabbed up a metal bowl from one of the shelves on the wall and walloped the unicorn upside the head with it. She must have been of a delicate constitution, as the unicorn went down like a puppet with its strings snipped. The edge of her face caught the second table at a corner, leaving a nasty gash across her cheek and pulling the sheet off of the table.
Starlit wanted to retch when she saw what the sheet had been covering; the corpse of a pegasus thestral, it's back flayed open and parts of its skull pulled away to expose its brain. Starlit quickly yanked the sheet from under the unconscious unicorn and flung it back over the thestral.
"Just when I thought I was done with these creatures," Starlit groused, "life finds a new and creative way to shit in my dinner."
Starlit turned back to the unicorn she had knocked out. A pit of guilt formed in her stomach when she saw blood stream down her cheek and a large knot start to form on the back of her head. It was necessary, but the knowledge didn't make Starlit feel much better about the whole ordeal.
Fortunately Starlit was surrounded by medical equipment, and while she didn't know what most of the devices on the walls did she had found some bandages, ointment, alcohol for disinfectant, and needle and gut for stitching during her rummaging.
Starlit gathered up her requisite materials and flipped the mare over with a quick bit of magic. Twilight had given her a crash course in basic telekinesis during her stay at the Oak, although Starlit had hoped to not need to put it to use so swiftly.
Starlit worked diligently to stitch together the unicorn's cheek, as aside from the cut her face was actually quite lovely. She obviously took good care of her appearance even for a job as grisly as hers was, and a large nasty scar would stick out even worse for her efforts.
"When was the last time you had to stitch up a wound, huh?" Starlit mused to herself as she worked. "Was it when Eclipse had cut herself with the shears, or when Warden had gotten bitten by that feral dog while on patrol?"
With a practiced horn Starlit tied off the end of the stitches and examined her work. It hopefully wouldn't scar, but it was up to the unicorn to take care of them properly to ensure that they wouldn't. She smeared a bit of ointment onto the stitches before placing a linen pad onto them and tying it in place with some wraps. She then took a rag and soaked it in some cool water to place against the lump on her head to try and stop the swelling.
Suddenly remembering that she was technically supposed to be dead, Starlit ran over to the door on the far side of the room and locked it shut from the inside. She then took one of the small knives that was laying on a counter and jammed it into the lock before breaking it off inside with a quick stomp from her hoof. The room secured for the time being, Starlit started to mull over her options and what she knew.
"Sun certainly knows I'm alive given that he knows about the amulet," Starlit muttered to herself, "but he won't know where I am or how to contact me, and if enough witnesses saw me die then they'll think he's insane for asking where I am. I have a hostage as a potential bargaining chip, but even then…"
Starlit continued to talk to herself, trying to figure out a way out of this situation that wouldn't draw attention to Luna or her machines. She wasn't pulled out of her reverie until she heard another shriek start up, and with another muttered spell Starlit clamped her captive's mouth shut.
"Miss, if you keep doing this then I'm going to have to hit you again," Starlit said, taking note of how quickly she had woken up. Perhaps she wasn't as delicate as she looked.
When the unicorn didn't try to muffle out a protest Starlit turned around to face her. She was gingerly feeling the bandages on her cheek as well as the lump on her head.
"You can thank me for those stitches," Starlit continued, walking over to the unicorn as she did. "You cut your cheek pretty badly on the corner of the table and I didn't want it to get infected and ruin your face."
The unicorn looked up at Starlit with confusion, her head cocked quizzically to one side in leu of asking why she cared. Starlit sat down in front of her.
"Like I said, I really don't mean you any harm. You're just trying to do your job and I'm certain that you aren't used to ponies leaping to life after getting a magic bolt through the brain."
The unicorn glanced to the side with a shrug, a gesture of affirmation at least.
"Now that we're on a more even playing field, can I let go of your mouth without having to worry about you screaming? Because if you do I'll just have to knock you out again."
The unicorn cast an eye to the bowl that Starlit had struck her with, as well as the large dent in it, and nodded calmly.
"Good," Starlit replied as she disspelled the magic. Mercifully the unicorn did not start screaming again.
"Are you… are you a thestral, ma'am?" the unicorn asked. "Because if you are then you're not like any thestral I've ever examined."
Starlit's stomach twisted at the unicorn's assertion, but for the sake of their tenuous relationship she held her tongue.
"No I'm not, as far as I can tell, but what say we start slow. My name's Starlit Sky, and its a pleasure to meet you, Miss…"
"Rarity," the unicorn replied. "Forgive my rudeness, but as you can imagine this is a very stressful situation for me."
"The feeling is mutual, I assure you. After all, I'm the one that got killed."
Rarity shuffled back a bit, and Starlit silently cursed herself for her lack of propriety.
"So, you did actually die," Rarity said. "You weren't just unconscious, or in a coma?"
"It's a complicated story and I don't really have the time to tell it here," Starlit answered, "but for simplicity's sake, yes. I did in fact die, and this amulet brought me back to life."
Starlit gingerly lifted her black stone so Rarity could get a better look at it, and her eyes lit up when she saw it.
"Goodness me, is that obsidian?" Rarity asked with childlike wonder. "That's a rare gemstone around here, sells for a very high price."
"So I've heard," Starlit replied, remembering how she'd been accosted on the street. "I'm not from around here, and this stone is a bit more common where I'm from."
"Oh, you're an out-of-towner? No wonder the automaton attacked you, especially since you had weapons."
"About that," Starlit began, grateful to be getting back onto the topic of her concern. "The machine said something about me being 'unidentified' and a restriction on weapons for 'Class C' citizens. You wouldn't happen to know about any of that, would you?"
"Wow, you really aren't from around here, are you darling?" Rarity replied with a more serious tone. "I've never been anywhere that the Council's automatons aren't, but since you wouldn't be in the records that provide the basis for their intelligence it makes some sense that they wouldn't recognize you."
"Care to repeat that, but in a way I can make sense of?" Starlit asked. "Who are the Council, and how do I get into these records so that I don't get attacked again?"
Rarity started to laugh but quickly stopped with a hiss of pain as her stitches pulled against her cheek.
"Ma'am, you don't just 'get into the records,'" Rarity answered, "there's a whole process for doing so that happens when you're born and can take weeks of careful interviews with the family and a mountain of bureaucracy. As for the Council, they're so far above my head that I've never even seen them. All I know is that they run the city and build the automatons."
"They run the city?" Starlit asked incredulously. "What about Luna? This is her city, isn't it?"
Starlit felt a tingle go over her lips as her jaw closed tight, it being enveloped by a pale blue magic. Starlit looked up to see Rarity's horn alight and an expression of shock and worry staring back at her.
"Don't say another word!" Rarity hissed. "We don't speak of the Night Mare, it's punishable by imprisonment at the very least."
Starlit felt her heart sink at Rarity's warning. She had at least been able to speak of Celestia and ascertain some information about her, but this taboo against mentioning Luna suddenly made her job infinitely harder than it needed to be. Starlit motioned for Rarity to let her mouth go, which the white unicorn obliged.
"Rarity, I won't talk about her any more," Starlit began, "but I need to see her. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that the fate of Equestria itself rides on my speaking with her."
Rarity stood up with a start, her shocked expression not filling Starlit with much confidence.
"Starlit, you must be out of your mind!" Rarity replied. "Did that magic bolt take some of your brain with it? No pony goes to see her except for the Council, and even then it's only to keep her confined to the palace for a little while longer."
"Maybe I am a little cracked," Starlit said as she too stood up, "but I have a duty to uphold. Part of that duty requires speaking with Luna, and I need help to make that happen."
"Well, you'll not get it from me!" Rarity retorted, levitating her spectacles back onto the bridge of her nose. "Have fun on your suicide attempt, but I have family to provide for and I'll not put them in jeopardy by helping you."
Rarity stomped past Starlit and made for the door, only to find that the handle stuck. With some force she tried to turn the lock over but found it sticking in place.
"Rarity, I'm trying to help my family too," Starlit pleaded, "and I'm not asking you to accompany me. All I need is my things and a lead, and then you can go right on your merry way and forget we ever met."
Rarity kept fumbling with the handle, not giving much indication that she had heard Starlit. With a sigh Starlit worked her magic into the lock and removed the broken blade from inside of it, causing Rarity to stumble as the door swung open.
"I promise you that I won't say a word to anypony that you helped me," Starlit finished as the blade clinked to the stone floor.
Rarity looked back at Starlit, her nervous gaze slowly softening as she looked at Starlit's despondent face. With a weary sigh Rarity turned back to face the hallway.
"Let it not be said that I'm not giving to those in need," Rarity said, beckoning Starlit to follow her. "Come with me, but keep your face down."
Starlit hurried after Rarity as she went into the hallway, happy to find a pony willing to lend a hoof.
* * *
If there were ever a time that Sun was thankful for his hooded cloak it was now. After a few bad run-ins with the locals he took to keeping his face concealed. He was less likely to be bothered as long as nopony thought he was an out-of-towner.
"Take a left here," the voice in Sun's head bade him. Quickly he ducked into a side street that separated him from the seething crowd he'd been working his way through for the past fifteen minutes, stopping short before he continued to follow it.
"Any particular reason why?" Sun asked his brain-neighbor.
"What, don't you trust me?" the voice replied facetiously.
"We don't get to trust until I get a name out of you at least," Sun snapped back. "Why here?"
"There is a pony here who can help us get into the palace, if you must know," the voice replied curtly. "And you can call me whatever you like, I'm no good with names."
"How's 'Silence' treat you?" Sun snidely asked. "It gives me a bit of a goal to strive for vis a vis getting you out of my head, and it sounds vaguely ominous."
"I'll take it, but passive-aggression isn't your strong suit," Silence replied. "Now hurry up before our friend gets away."
"How do you know they're here?" Sun asked.
"Call it a hunch. Now scoot!" Silence flippantly replied.
As soon as he felt Silence's presence ebb out of his conscious mind Sun started down the alley, silently cursing his luck.
Sun was a learned stallion in many regards, even in some things that weren't well known. A childhood spent with knowledgeable parents from a God-Queen's city and the free time to pursue his interests followed by practical application of his knowledge when he had to find work gave him a well rounded body of information. Silence and whatever magic put her into his head was one of the few things he was absolutely in the dark about, and that lack of knowing was like a horrible itch he couldn't scratch.
Even still, Sun found Silence at least useful. It had taken a few hours for her to get used to his mind and the stimulus from his senses, but she was soon capable of predicting when he was being approached, where the machine-ponies were making their rounds, and generally acting as another set of eyes and ears. She was useful, but she was cagey.
The side street was much like the alley he and Starlit had appeared in, with pipes lining the walls and various flotsam and jetsam strewn about. An old pegasus slept in among the garbage, looking to Sun like he might already be dead were it not for the shallow breaths he was taking. At the far end of the alley were a few shops, their signs barely legible but indicating that they were of ill repute.
As Sun approached the stores he felt Silence's presence tug on his brain, directing him towards the right side stall that was up against the alley's back wall. As he approached he saw an earth pony behind the counter arranging a few rocks. Her coat was a dull grey and she looked terminally disinterested in what she was doing.
"Uh, Miss?" Sun asked nervously.
"Welcome to Maud's Stones and Gems," the proprietor announced flatly, not taking her eyes off of her work. "Are you interested in buying or selling today?"
"Neither," Sun replied. "I was told you might be able to help me."
Maud looked up at Sun through her dull purple mane, her eyes as unfathomable as the rest of her face. Sun couldn't tell whether she was upset, or annoyed, or happy, or anything. She didn't even looked bored, she just didn't emote.
"I can help you with rocks and gemstones, sir," Maud replied. "You'll need to see my sister for other things."
It was all Sun could do to not show his palpable relief at their being another pony he could speak with, although it was tempered by the thought that Maud's sister might be just as dreary and unreadable as her.
"Then could you go fetch her for me?" Sun asked.
Maud looked back up at Sun with her piercing gaze before standing up from her work and walking past a tattered curtain that led to the inside of the shop.
"Hey Silence, is it the sister I'm supposed to talk to or Maud, because I would very much prefer it not be Maud," Sun thought.
"Couldn't tell you," Silence replied. "All I know is that somepony in this shop needs to talk with you."
Sun bit back the scathing criticism he wanted to give Silence about her usefulness, as angering a magical entity that lived in his brain was almost certainly a terrible idea. Sun didn't have to wait for long before Maud's sister came to the stall front, although he soon found himself wishing he had Maud back.
"Well, hello there stranger!" The bright pink earth pony in front of Sun squeaked. "What can I do for you today?"
"Maybe lowering your voice by a few octaves," Silence retorted.
"Quiet, you," Sun chided before addressing the pony. "I was wondering if you could do me a pretty big favor."
"What kind of favor?" the pony replied at a breakneck pace. "If it's something easy like recommending a necklace then I can do that no problem, but if it's something big like stealing the power source for one of the Council robots then that might be a bit of an issue. Of course, if it's a medium sized fav—"
"Wait, hold on, stop," Sun interjected, desperate to stop her chattering. "Let me explain, then you tell me how big of a favor it is, deal?"
"Okey-dokey! My name's Pinkie Pie, by the by, what's yours?"
"Setting Sun," he replied tersely. "Now, if I were to tell you that I needed to get into the palace, how would you react to that idea?"
"Are you telling me that or aren't you?" Pinkie asked with a coy smile.
"For the sake of argument let's say that yes, I am. I want to get into the palace and see whoever's in charge around here."
Pinkie thought deeply for a period of time that was both too long and seemingly not long enough, her face screwed up in an exaggerated scowl. Whereas Maud barely registered any emotion, Pinkie seemed almost too expressive, like she was making up for her sister's lack of expression.
"Well, if you wanna see who's in charge around here then the palace isn't your best bet," Pinkie said. "The Council really runs the show, nopony's been to the palace in a really long time."
"Isn't Luna the one that runs this city?" Sun asked. "Or do you know her by a different name?"
Pinkie Pie tensed up when Sun mentioned Luna's name, but before she could reply they both turned at the sound of clanking hoofsteps. One of the machine-ponies was marching past the alley, and until it passed neither Sun nor Pinkie moved a muscle.
"Hey, if I were you, I wouldn't go asking around about the Night Mare," Pinkie whispered. "Those robots are designed to arrest anypony that does, and you can't really argue with a pony that doesn't have a brain."
"I've already seen their handiwork," Sun replied in an equally hushed voice, "but that's neither here nor there. I need to get into the palace, and a little birdie told me that you can help in that regard."
"Who told you that?" Pinkie asked back. "Not that it's not true, but how did you find out?"
"Yes Sun, how did you find out?" Silence asked snidely.
Sun's heart started to pump faster as he tried to come up with a convincing story. From what he could tell Pinkie was a mare that was too energetic for her own good, but surprisingly good at asking just the right kind of question in just the right sort of way. Her sincerity was refreshing, but it made trying to lie to her a fearsome proposition.
"Let's call it a hunch," Sun replied. "You don't have to come along with me, but if you could point me in the right direction I'd be forever grateful."
"Pssh! Nonsense!" Pinkie chided, playfully flicking Sun on the nose. "You're new in town and have no idea where you're going or where to even start looking. You're going to need me if you don't wanna get roughed up by the locals or the robots."
Before Sun could protest Pinkie ducked her head back into the doorway behind the stall and hollered her intentions up to her sister. After a moment's pause Pinkie trotted back inside, presumably to gather up a few things before she took off.
"She seems nice, if a tad on the squeaky side," Silence said.
"Are you sure she's the right pony for this?" Sun asked. "I like her earnestness and verve, but she does draw attention."
"Still trying to find all the answers instead of making your own, hmm?" Silence remarked. "Why ask me if she's right? I'm just a disembodied voice that lives in your head. All I can do is offer some advice, point you in what I think is the right direction, and tell you when you're about to be attacked. I can't make your decisions for you any more than Starlit can."
Sun wanted to rebuke Silence, but couldn't find a way to do so that didn't sound petty and pedantic. He knew she was right, and the knowledge that she had him so throughly pegged ate away at him. It scratched at his soul, and he was determined to prove her wrong.
Pinkie soon bounced out of the doorway and over the counter, carrying a few odds and ends in her small travel sack and wearing a snug cap over her head. How she managed to contain her voluminous mane inside of it would be worth further study.
"Got my work credentials, got my cap, and I'm all good to go!" Pinkie chirpped. "Come on, we've got quite the walk ahead of us and I need to go see a friend about some stuff. She works down at the morgue, and that's all the way on the other side of the district."
Before Sun could answer Pinkie skipped down the alley, her bubbly and vivacious personality at stark odds with the run-down hovel she lived in. As Sun made to follow her, he thought that he might be able to learn a thing or two from her.