//------------------------------// // Part III - Chapter 7: The Caretakers // Story: Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky // by PortalJumper //------------------------------// Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky Part III - Chapter 7: The Caretakers * * * "Alright, let's wrap it up!" the pink unicorn ordered to her cadre of machines. "I want to be home in time for dinner." As the last of the loose wires and odd devices had been attached to Luna's cocoon the machines froze at attention, their glowing eyes locked on their overseer. With a wave of her horn the machines fell in behind her, marching with absolute precision as they disappeared into the darkness behind the crystal. Starlit and Pinkie waited until the stomping faded away into the distance before they opened the door the rest of the way and entered the chamber. The hissing steam and bright brass of the devices the unicorn left behind clashed against the calm blue of the room's lamps and walls, and the parts attached to the crystal even more so. "You know, I didn't think she'd be quite so… entombed," Pinkie quipped as she looked up at the crystal. "Neither did I, and this just makes my job that much harder," Starlit replied. Her amulet hadn't stopped thumping when the unicorn and machines had left, tarnishing her theory that it could detect danger before it happened. Whatever was causing it to go off was still in the room. "Pinkie, go look around, see if you can figure out what these devices are for," Starlit ordered. Pinkie gave a sharp salute before bouncing off to one of the larger devices. As Starlit approached the crystal her amulet began to pull and tug towards it from inside her saddlebags, drawn to its glimmering surface like a lodestone. The pulsing beat it gave off was thundering against her hip even through layers of leather. Gingerly she pulled the stone out with her magic and fought to keep it in her grip. When Starlit wrapped the thin leather strap around her hoof the stone itself held straight out in front of her. "Hey Starlit, this stuff isn't mining equipment," Pinkie called from across the room. "Then what is it?" Starlit replied, keeping her focus on her stone. "It looks like it's monitoring her. There's a lot of weird dials and lights and a few readouts, but nothing I can make heads or tails of." It made sense that the equipment would be analyzing Luna; she appeared to be comatose or in a very deep sleep. "Okay, tell me if anything about any of those readouts changes," Starlit said. She carefully unwrapped a part of the necklace strap from her hoof, letting the stone draw a few inches closer to its goal. "Some squiggly line just spiked, but it's back to normal now," Pinkie reported. "What's that necklace you've got there?" "It's a powerful magical artifact, one that I'm fairly sure is connected to Luna's cocoon. Pinkie, I'm going to try something, but I need you to not get scared if something happens to me. Can you do that?" "What might happen?" Pinkie asked, some of the squeak gone from her tone. "I don't know," Starlit admitted, "but I need you to keep an eye out for anypony coming or going, as well as for my well-being. I need you to promise me this, Pinkie." Starlit looked to her companion, and while she didn't look upset or worried she did have a nervous air about her. "I promise," Pinkie replied, "cross my heart and hope to fly." Starlit gave a nod before turning back to the task at hoof. The leather strained against her hoof as the stone yearned to break free from her grasp. Slowly she let it slide out of her grip, the stone inching closer and closer before it flew away from her and struck the cocoon with a hollow echo. The sound of glass striking glass reverberated throughout the chamber, blowing the flameless lamps out as Luna's cocoon bathed the room in pale grey light. Pinkie shrieked from across the room, and Starlit saw her clutching her head in her hooves. She started to run to her when the light intensified, and Pinkie's agony along with it. The sound of shattering glass was swiftly replaced by a hollow, thundering beat, but it didn't hurt Starlit the way it was hurting Pinkie. The stone drew Starlit's eye even as she desperately tried to go to Pinkie's side, and despite the intensity of the light she found looking at it was not painful in the slightest. The cocoon may as well have not been there, replaced instead by a field of grey light and Luna's prone form floating in amongst it. Slowly Luna unfurled her legs, arching her body out of the fetal position it had been trapped in. Her star field mane swished and swirled about her head like magic, and her black coat was as void-like as the door to the chamber. With elegance Luna stretched out, manifesting pieces of midnight blue armor onto her chest, hooves, flanks, and head until she stood as tall as her sister on a floor of light. Then her eyes snapped open, revealing teal whites and cat-slit irises as she flashed a wicked snarl with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. "Who, pray tell, art thou that would disturb my rest?" Luna asked, her voice regal and grand in its antiquity. Starlit bowed nervously, her horn touching and splitting the swirling clouds of light that crept along the floor. "Your Highness, my name is Starlit Sky, and you are needed in Canterlot," Starlit answered, keeping her voice level despite her awe and fear. Starlit froze, and not just bodily. Her thoughts stopped still as she was thinking them, and slowly her head rose outside of her control. Luna's horn was encased in shimmering blue, and Starlit found a similar magic colored her vision. "Then thou art several centuries too late," Luna replied. "Hast thou not heard? Canterlot's end came and went long before thy birth was naught but a figment of thy parents' imagination." Luna eyed Starlit over like a colt preparing to pull the wings off of a fly. Starlit couldn't speak, couldn't think, only silently scream inside her own head as the Princess eyed her with a predatory gaze best reserved for wild animals. "Still," Luna continued, "I have been severely lacking in conversation since my slumber began all those moons ago. Tell me, to whom do I owe the invitation back to that crumbling monument to the sins of my past?" The magic slowly faded from Starlit's vision and Luna's horn, and gradually Starlit felt her brain come back to life. Her head ached like no other, but she had to seize the opportunity to explain the situation before Luna's patience ran thin. "Your Highness, Equestria is dying," Starlit said. "It has been without the magic of you and your fellow Princesses for too long. Fields lay fallow, monsters prowl every road and forest, and even your names are being lost to history. We are about to hit a breaking point from which there will be no going back, and only you and the others can stop it." Of the responses Starlit expected to get from Luna, mild amusement was not high on that list. "Then we must make haste, must we not?" Luna replied with a smirk. "Although such a thing may prove an insurmountable task for yours truly given my current state." "What do you mean? What's wrong?" "This crystal," Luna continued, gesturing to dim vision of the crystal through the outpouring of light, "this damnable prison, is binding me. I cannot leave or even move until the seal is broken." "If that's the case," Starlit replied, "then how are we speaking now?" "Ah, thou art perceptive as well as foolhardy," Luna answered. "Dost thou know what artifact is in thy possession, or didst thou mistake it for a trinket?" "I know what it is, and I know what it does," Starlit answered. "I've died three times over the last two weeks, and each time that amulet has brought me back to life." "Then surely thou hast made the connection between that shard and my prison?" "I'd say that it was made readily apparent when the light started flooding the room," Starlit answered, a bit annoyed that she was being given the run around. "The amulet opens the prison, correct?" "Indeed it would, under normal circumstances, but these are unusual ones indeed," Luna answered. "It would seem that the shard's power has been split, given or taken by another who is not present. Only when whole can the shard free me." Starlit ran through everything that had happened to the amulet since she had received it, and only two moments could've possibly tampered with whatever properties would allow it to free Luna; when Sun cast his location spell on it, or when Celestia tried to destroy it. "I may have an idea of who I need to talk to, but if this pony turns out to not be the one that has its power then there will need to be another way to get you out of there." "And what other option would be considered too drastic to undertake?" Luna asked. "Of my possibilities, there are two ponies that I could speak with; either a friend of mine who attempted a location spell on the amulet and activated some latent power in it, or your sister who very nearly destroyed it." Luna's pupils contracted until they were straight black lines in her eyes, and with her teeth bared she looked uncannily like a wolf about to pounce. "Thou hast spoken with Celestia?" Luna growled. "How, and when?" "It was a week and a half ago, give or take," Starlit hastily answered, "and I came to her with the same plea I'm giving you. I'll admit you are being far more amenable to the situation at hoof than she was." "Where is my sister now? If it were my choice I'd have torn her to pieces all those years ago, and I am very much looking forward to making up for lost time." "Celestia has returned to Canterlot," Starlit answered. "I'm surprised you didn't notice it, although being trapped in a prison of crystal might have precluded your ability to notice a great many things." "I see all that goes on in my palace, that much I can assure," Luna remarked with a sneer, "as I have noticed that unicorn and her machines assembling all manner of devices in this very room." "Then, if I may be so bold, what was she here to do?" Starlit asked, her attention was piqued at the mention of the mystery unicorn. "She also seeks to free me, although her method is far more barbaric and for entirely the wrong reasons. That being said, she has invested much time and thought into releasing me, and for that I give her accolades." "Will her method work?" "Given enough time and effort, perhaps," Luna replied, "but not for a while yet. I'd say she still has many moons of preparation and testing before even attempting to break my prison." Starlit's heart sank and Luna's frank assessment. The nature of the amulet was still a mystery to her outside of its abilities, and she didn't want to experiment with it if she didn't have to. Finding Sun to figure out if he had absorbed some of its power in Sunspire would be daunting, particularly if its power were in some way related to the cave-in. "Then it seems that I have my work cut out for me," Starlit replied. "I'll return with news soon." "I, personally, don't think that you will," Luna said, "since the interloper and her machines are at this very moment racing back here. Make your preparations, and see to your friend as well. The pink one is unwell, for reasons that escape me." As quickly as the light had come it vanished, leaving Starlit alone and the room silent save for Pinkie's moaning and the sound of her amulet clinking to the ground. Starlit ran to Pinkie, who had collapsed to the floor and was wriggling in pain. "Pinkie, what happened? Are you injured?" "My head," Pinkie moaned in answer. "Everything feels fuzzy, like… I had too much to drink." "Can you stand? We need to leave, but I'll carry you if I have to." Pinkie waved Starlit away as she tried to get to her hooves, but her knees were wobbly and she listed towards Starlit. She was only prevented from falling over by Starlit bolstering her at the last second. "My hero," Pinkie said, a tired smile crossing her face. "Jokes later, escape now," Starlit ordered as she used some of her magic to haul Pinkie onto her back and grab her amulet. Her horn ached from all of the magic she'd been using of late, and her stomach twisted to think that there wouldn't be enough left to get back down the hole and into the mine tunnels. The sound of clanking hoofbeats echoed down the hall that the mystery unicorn and the machines had left from, growing louder with each passing second. With a deep breath Starlit started running for the door, horn alight to push it open with one of her incantations. Her horn sputtered and sparked as she tried to channel the magic, and after her reckless usage earlier as well as Pinkie's added weight she found the strain too much to bear. Her magic faded and Starlit couldn't slow down fast enough to avoid bouncing off of the door, sending Pinkie sprawling to the ground and a flash of spots across her vision. The clanking grew louder and louder, and Starlit turned to find that there would be no use in trying to run away. The purple machine ponies flanked Starlit and Pinkie's prone forms from either side, and the unicorn commanding them strode confidently underneath Luna's prison. She was frowning bitterly, like she had just smelled something foul. "What have we here?" the unicorn asked. "A pair of treasure hunters looking to pillage the palace, perhaps?" Starlit stayed silent, glaring at the unicorn fiercely. Inside, her mind was traveling a mile a minute trying to formulate a response, but it wouldn't help her case to let those worries show. "Not talking, hmm?" the unicorn continued. "Are you scared, confused, or just ignorant? It's so hard to tell with you commoners, it truly is." "None of those things," Starlit answered as she stood, venom on every word. "I know exactly why I'm here, and why I'm here is for the good of every pony in this city. The question we should ask is, why are you here?" "It speaks!" the unicorn proclaimed. "And so forthright as well!" The unicorn chuckled to her machines, their focus still turned on Starlit, before stamping her hoof twice. The machine just to her right went from teal to yellow, and it's horn lit with magic that clamped Starlit's mouth shut. "Let me educate you on a few things, commoner," the unicorn continued, her affability falling away. "You don't get to question my business. I don't owe you or anypony else an explanation for my actions, and you should count yourself lucky that I haven't had my automatons here pound you into mush. You only live by my goodwill, and you are starting to wear it thin." Starlit felt the magic fall away from her mouth, only for the unicorn to grab her face with her own and squeeze it together. "Now, why are you here?" A piercing, near-ultrasonic shriek sliced through the air like a hot knife through butter before Starlit could answer. Everypony present clapped their hooves over their ears, and even the machines were starting to jitter and malfunction from the screeching. Starlit rejoined Pinkie on the floor as the scream continued to echo across the room, the two mares huddling their heads together as they tried to ward off the noise. Starlit felt that her eardrums were about to rupture when the screeching subsided, waning to a tolerable level. Hazarding a look around, Starlit found the source of the sound. Standing over their prone forms was a pony, but unlike any that Starlit had seen before. They had wings that were leathery and black in contrast to their dull grey fur. The fur on their ears rose up in tufts and they had an overall more shaggy appearance, as if they were in need of a trim. Their mane and tail were a dark blue, almost black, and astonishingly this pony had no cutie mark. The bat-winged pony screeched at the unicorn and her machines, driving them back down the hallway from whence they came. Starlit's ears rang with a high-pitched noise when the pony stopped and turned to face herself and Pinkie. The bat-pony looked female, and her eyes were yellow with the cat-like slits that Luna's had had. "My Lady has spoken with you, and so I must come to your aid," the bat-pony said. "We'll discuss your trespassing later. For now, let's go find your friend." * * * The bat-pony, who Starlit later learned was named Chirox, recoiled at the light of the setting sun as they exited the mine. A few stars were already starting to twinkle in the sky, but she patiently waited in the tunnel as the sun vanished beneath the horizon. Pinkie was still laying astride Starlit's back, sleeping peacefully. The stress of Starlit's communication with Luna and Chirox's sonic attack had proven too much for even her infectious energy to take. "Chirox, if I may," Starlit said as she waited for the sun to set, "but why did you save us back there?" Chirox flicked her eyes to Starlit, giving an impassive glance before looking back to the stars. "My Lady commanded it, and I must heed her call," she answered. "I got that much back in the palace, but there must be more to it than that," Starlit replied. "After all, that unicorn is trying to do the same thing I am but for different reasons. Why go after her and not me? Surely freedom is freedom no matter the method." Chirox fluttered her wings nervously, their leathery surface making a sound like an insect crawling over a rock. "Starlit Sky, I am very old, though my appearance belies that fact," Chirox said. "I remember when My Lady was different. She was more humble, gentler in her manners and more forgiving. When she came to my people and told us of her plans for a grand city we were all swept up in the fervor of her idealism." "But then things changed," Starlit said, finishing Chirox's statement, but slightly confused at the tangent she was going down. "Yes, they did. You are quite learned of these matters. Few ponies these days are." "Let's just say that this isn't my first time dealing with something like this," Starlit replied. "My people have always been My Lady's stewards," Chirox continued. "We helped build her castle, used our knowledge of true flight to educate and empower the ones you call pegasi, who fluttered like baby birds before we taught them proper techniques. This city was beautiful, a haven for the weak and a beacon for the great." "When My Lady went off to war we thought she wanted to broker peace. She was always gentle and forgiving, there was no reason she wouldn't be again. She did not return for many years, and when she did she shut herself away from all of us. She brooded and fell into a malaise the none could extricate her from." "And then the Sundering happened," Starlit said, recalling Pinkie's story. "Is that what you call it? It is certainly a more poetic name, I suppose. My people have no name for it, terrible as her might and wrath was. She unleashed the machines that that crystal birthed on her own people, and we knew that there would be no going back for her." "But what of the civil war that was raging through the city?" Starlit asked. "Didn't Luna need to send the machines out?" "Starlit Sky, if you think that was the first bit of civil unrest New Selene has seen then you are woefully naive," Chirox chided. "My Lady had a good mind for diplomacy, but the war warped her keen and empathetic soul." The sun finally fell below the horizon, and without a word Chirox rose and began walking again. Starlit followed after her, wanting to know more about Luna and her past. "What did you do?" Starlit asked. "What happened that made Luna wipe out so much of this city?" "Now is not the time for such things," Chirox replied. "Now we must find your friend." "Chirox, tell me! If I know what happened, I may be able to help her." Chirox's hair whipped against her face as she turned to glare at Starlit, her pupils reduced to angry slits and her teeth bared. A pair of vicious fangs protruded from her upper jaw, glimmering in the new moonlight. "Knowledge does not come easily, Starlit Sky. There are things she has done that are too horrible even for me to bear witness to. You would do well to know when ignorance is the better of your options." The air around Chirox shimmered like heat rising off a desert, obscuring her form for a moment. When the air settled Chirox looked like a normal pegasus pony, with grey feathered wings and normal pupils set in her yellow eyes. "In your patience possess ye your soul," Chirox continued. "Knowledge will be yours when My Lady has deemed you capable of bearing it." Chirox turned and stalked off, not caring for Starlit as she struggled to catch up behind her. She fumed at Chirox's presumptions, but held her tongue if only for the sake of civility. * * * The trek back into New Selene was a long and uncomfortable one. Pinkie still lay astride Starlit's back and Chirox still refused to speak. Starlit caught her gleaming eyes darting back and forth as they walked as if she expected an ambush every time they turned a corner or passed an alley. Given Starlit's prior experience in the city, she felt Chirox was justified. A dull thump from her amulet drew Starlit's attention, nearly causing her to drop Pinkie after so long spent in silence. It tugged slightly to her left, down an alley with two brass pipes and one steel one. "The amulet's acting up, Chirox," Starlit said. "We need to go down this one." Chirox said nothing, only followed as Starlit followed her amulet. The alley smelled putrid, like old blood that had been left to rot. Looking at the ground proved her nostrils correct as her small lantern showed dull red splotches leading all the way to a door with a red cross painted on it. The amulet thumped rapidly as she approached the door, and cautiously lifted a hoof to knock on it. The door flew inward before she could rap her hoof against it, revealing a face Starlit hadn't expected to see in such good condition, if she could see it awake at all. Setting Sun stood in the door, his vibrant green eyes locked on Starlit as hers were locked on him. Neither pony could say anything, and Starlit figured it was for the same reason. "Hi, Sun," Pinkie mumbled from Starlit's back, flopping one of her hooves in a half-hearted greeting. "Good to see you're not dead." Starlit couldn't help but let out a nervous chuckle, which slowly grew into a hearty laugh and then further still into a full-on cackle, one that Sun was more than happy to join in on. "Has she been like this all day?" Sun asked, wiping tears from his eyes. "I thought I had it rough, but at least I still have some tact!" "It's th-thanks to her that I'm not wallowing in c-crippling anxiety right now," Starlit answered through her giggles. "Show s-some respect for her, tactless th-though she may be." Pinkie slowly slid off of Starlit's back and shuffled inside as she and Sun chortled and guffawed at her perfectly timed comment, with Chirox following closely behind. Starlit could barely see through the tears running out of her eyes, but for a moment she swore she saw a sly grin on Pinkie's tired face. Starlit and Sun embraced as they both composed themselves. The knot of worry that Starlit had been nursing since the cave-in melted away. Sun was safe, and they both could push forward together. "Starlit? Is that you?" a familiar voice asked from inside. Starlit peered past Sun's shoulder to find Rarity at the foot of the stairs. Her mane was ratty and done up in a hasty bun and she was covered in bandages and scrapes, particularly on her hooves. Sun let Starlit go, inviting her inside to go talk to Rarity. "Rarity, what happened? You look like you fell off of a wagon and down a ravine." "This is the price I pay for doing a good deed," Rarity replied, haughty but kind. "Our mutual friend was incapacitated after the cave-in, and who else but little ole me could drag him back to civilization for treatment?" "You carried him from the mine, all the way back here?" Starlit asked incredulously. "Starlit, you ought to know by now that a mare must always have a few tricks in her saddle," Rarity answered. Starlit's hooves were wrapped around Rarity before she had even finished her sentence. Starlit held her warmly and tightly, and when the tears fell from her eyes this time they were from gratitude. "Thank you so much Rarity." "It was the least I could do, darling," Rarity replied, returning the embrace. "So, are long and emotional displays of gratitude the norm for you ponies?" a sixth mare asked from the top of the stairs. Her coat was white and her mane was a pale pink, and she wore an expression of humorous resignation. "Why do you ask?" Starlit asked, pulling away from Rarity. "Because these two," the pony replied, gesturing to Sun and Rarity, "exiled me to my room for two whole hours while they caught up on stuff. I mean, for him it was understandable because he nearly died, but this is just getting ridiculous." Starlit's ears perked and stomach dropped at the earth pony's statement, and she turned to look at Sun with equal parts worry and anticipation. "You nearly died?" Starlit asked. Sun shuffled his hooves nervously, before gesturing to the dining room table. "We have a lot to talk about," Sun replied. * * *