Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky
Part III - Chapter 8: The War Room
* * *
It took two hours to catch everypony up to speed on what had happened in the mine; Starlit and Pinkie had to tell of the mystery unicorn, who they now knew as Starlight Glimmer, as well as Starlit's talk with Luna and who Chirox was. For her part Chirox didn't object to Starlit's explanations, but neither did she voice any opinions of her own. Redheart had quietly excused herself as they got into the more serious points of discussion, likely to avoid learning any truths she didn't need to hear.
By the time Starlit had finished her part of the story it was well past one in the morning, and after the day everypony had had it was decided that Sun and Rarity's side of things could wait for the morning. Redheart was slightly put off at having to house five ponies at the drop of a hat, but she made do with some of her patient beds and putting the living room to good use.
Starlit thought that sleep would be hard to come by after everything that had happened, but she soon found herself slip away. Sun was safe, everypony was armed with new information, and tomorrow they would be planning their next move. Security, it would seem, proved a better blanket than anything Redheart could provide.
Starlit awoke the next day to the sounds of clattering from downstairs, and found that Redheart and Rarity were already awake and working on a rudimentary breakfast. The two mares chatted warmly, and Starlit was pleased to see that the bandages on Rarity's hooves were fresh and far less blood-stained.
"Morning you two," Starlit said, still rubbing the grit from her eyes. "What's on the menu?"
"Just some eggs and cooked greens with a bit of garlic," Redheart answered. "It's not much, but you'd be surprised what a fantastic seasoning hunger can be."
Starlit's stomach rumbled loudly, and she realized that the only food she had eaten the previous day was Pinkie's candy and a little bit of hardtack from her saddlebags as they'd been walking in the mine.
"Mind if I help out?" Starlit offered. "I'd feel rude if I didn't at least offer."
"Actually, if you wouldn't mind rolling out that dough and making some loaves from it," Redheart replied, gesturing to the small table to her right. "That'd be a big help."
Starlit trotted over to the wash basin and cleaned her hooves off before going to the table and setting to work. It was refreshing to do something domestic for a change; so much of her time as of late had been consumed by magic and godlike beings and other sundry horrors that it felt good to get back to something she was familiar with. Kneading the rough brown dough beneath her hooves and parsing it out into individual blobs that would become loaves later reminded her of home.
"Starlit, if you could come over here and start plating the eggs up, I'll finish with the bread," Rarity offered. Starlit and Rarity swapped places in the tiny kitchen, taking care not to bump into the myriad pieces of kitchenware that hung precariously about.
Starlit had just begun plating the eggs when she heard the telltale sound of magic being cast. She turned to see Rarity standing over the loaves, concentrating her magic on them and causing them to cook right on the pan. The scent was heavenly, and Starlit had to cast a quick bit of magic herself to keep from dropping her spatula.
"How did you do that?" Starlit asked, awestruck. "I've never tried to cook with my magic before like that. How are you doing this without an incantation or passing out?"
"It's a little trick I've picked up over the years," Rarity replied nonchalantly. "Magic has always come easily to me, I must confess. It's one of the reasons I didn't die in the cave-in."
"I don't follow," Starlit said.
Rarity looked like she was mulling over a decision for a moment before she shook her head and continued speaking.
"This was going to come out later anyway, but sooner rather than later and all of that. I'm a geomancer, which basically means that I have large amounts of magic and the control over it to find things hidden underground. It's why I was the overseer of Starlight's mine project; I had just graduated from mining school when Starlight picked me out for the project because of my skill."
"Can you do anything else with your magic?" Starlit asked.
"Just your basic earth-based spellwork and magic," Rarity answered. "Finding light-gas veins, identifying stones and precious gems as well as their origins, moving quantities of ea—"
"Wait, did you say you could tell where a stone or gem comes from?" Starlit interjected. This could be her ticket to understanding more about her amulet.
"Of course, and I think I know where you going with this," Rarity answered. Quickly she illuminated her horn, beckoning Starlit over to her. Starlit finished plating the last of the food and sat down at the table.
Starlit pulled her amulet off and slid it towards Rarity, who took it into her magic and cast a focused stare at it. Starlit's stomach started twisting as Rarity rotated the stone, looking over every facet and detail with a jeweler's keen eye.
"This is… this is a very old stone," Rarity said, not taking her focus off of it. "It has the outward appearance and structural characteristics of obsidian, but there's something off about it. It looks like it's been altered on a level too small for me to detect, but enough that its effects are noticeable."
"What about where it's from? Can you figure that out?" Starlit asked, her anxiousness growing with each passing second.
"Hmm…" Rarity murmured. "That's… odd."
"What, what did you find out?"
"This stone is from everywhere," Rarity answered, "and I mean that quite literally. I'm finding traces of its origin in this house, I'm finding it through the city, and even the palace. This stone's source is everywhere."
"But that's impossible," Starlit protested. "It has to have one source, how can something come from more than one place?"
"Starlit, this stone can bring you back from the dead, I'm fairly certain that this is not beyond the realm of possibility."
Starlit stared at the stone in Rarity's magic, it floating idly and silently taunting her. Every time it seemed like she had gotten an answer from it two more questions rose to replace it.
"Is there anywhere where its 'source' is particularly concentrated?" Starlit asked, grasping for whatever string she could.
Rarity focused intensely on the stone, and the glow from her magic was starting to illuminate the table and the bread. A bead of sweat formed on her brow, and it looked like she was about to pass out before she stopped.
"North," Rarity said, out of breath, "somewhere frozen. There's a massive presence of this stone's source there."
The amulet fell to the table with a dull thunk, and for a split second Starlit saw a flash of gold under its glossy black surface.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to lay down," Rarity said as she stood up. "I trust you can finish the bread?"
Starlit gave a nod and patted Rarity on the shoulder as she walked past. Carefully she picked up the amulet and tied it to her neck, uncertain of its power but certain of where she was going next.
* * *
Breakfast was an interesting affair, especially since Starlit had never shared a table with more than two ponies before. Pinkie Pie had recovered from whatever had afflicted her in Luna's chamber, and she was exhaustively trying to engage Chirox is conversation on any number of topics. Sun and Redheart had struck up a lively conversation about medicine, much to Rarity's horror due to the rather table-unfriendly details they were discussing. The only one who had nothing to contribute to the ruckus was Chirox, although she seemed more at ease after getting fed and being allowed to assume her natural form.
"Sho," Pinkie said to Chirox through a mouth full of bread, "are yew half-bat, or ish that jusht a weird mutashun?"
"Pinkie, mind your manners!" Rarity chided. "Don't talk with your mouth full, and if Chirox wanted us to know she'd have told us by now."
"I'm actually a little curious myself," Sun added, breaking off his talk with Redheart. "I've never heard of anypony like Chirox even in old stories and legends."
"Does nopony have any common courtesy anymore?" Rarity asked the room. Nopony paid her much mind.
"It's quite alright, Rarity," Chirox replied, the first thing she'd said all morning. "A little curiosity is natural for the young. To answer your query, I am not half-bat, nor is this the result of an abnormality of my birth. My kind are most akin to pegasi, in that we have a few traits that are similar to bats but result from completely different circumstances."
"Like how pegasi have hollow bones to help them fly better, despite not being descended from birds," Redheart added. "It makes setting a pegasus' bones a nightmare because of how delicate they are, and since no pegasus really flies it just serves as a handicap."
Rarity let out an exasperated groan and focused on finishing her meal. Pinkie snorted a laugh and nearly choked on a bite of bread, which made Sun, Redheart, Starlit, and even Chirox giggle.
"C'mon Rarity, you have to admit that this is a little interesting," Starlit said.
"I'm not saying it's not interesting," Rarity replied in a huff, "but there are more appropriate places to discuss such things than the breakfast table."
"Oh, don't be such a wet blanket," Redheart said. "Go on, ask something."
"No, absolutely not, I will not be party to this," Rarity retorted, taking a bite of her greens.
"C'mon, there has to be something about her that you want to know," Pinkie said.
"If you are worried about offending me, you can put those fears to rest," Chirox added. "I am perfectly comfortable answering any question about me that you may have."
Rarity chewed her greens thoughtfully and more forcefully than was necessary. Everypony's eyes were on her, and Starlit fought to suppress another giggle.
"Fine!" Rarity relented. "I'll play along, if you're going to press-gang me into it; Chirox, can you echolocate?"
Everypony breathed a sigh of relief save for Pinkie, who let out a squeal of delight at getting Rarity to come down to their level.
"Yes, I can, as Starlit and Pinkie Pie can attest," Chirox answered with a smile. "My kind have eyesight comparable to a pony's, and with that comes a disinclination to seeing in the dark. Thus, we developed our echolocation as a way to cover for this weakness, as well as serving as a natural defense mechanism."
"Defense mechanism my left hoof," Starlit interjected. "The way you were screeching yesterday I thought my eardrums were going to explode."
"My apologies for that, but the precedent was getting Starlight and her machines to flee," Chirox said. "I may have overexerted my abilities to that end, and couldn't correct for it until you were behind me."
"Echolocation would've been handy yesterday," Sun said. "Maybe we could've figured out how that thestral got pinned without us hearing it."
"Speaking of which," Starlit replied, pushing her cleaned plate away as she did, "perhaps now would be a good time to start planning for how we free Luna before Starlight does."
Everypony else exchanged a few glances before reaching the same, silent consensus. Every plate was clean, Pinkie's exceptionally so, and Redheart cleared them away as everypony else settled in.
"I'll be in the kitchen cleaning if you need me," Redheart said. "Try not to need me; the less that I know about all of this the better."
Redheart quickly bustled herself away to the kitchen, clattering the plates into the wash basin a bit louder than was strictly necessary. She shut and locked the thin door separating the two rooms, leaving five ponies around a table and one of them feeling the pressure of the situation settle squarely onto her shoulder.
"I guess we should pick up where we left off," Starlit said, gesturing to Sun. "What happened to you yesterday."
Sun's shoulders slumped as he was put on the spot, fixing his eyes squarely on Starlit. He looked like he was trying to narrow his perspective to just the two of them, doing his level best to speak directly to her and not to the room at large.
"I just want to say, first off, that most of my memory from yesterday is muddy," Sun began. "After the explosion I blacked out and didn't start coming around until a few hours later, and even then I couldn't think properly for hours more than that."
"All we need is what you do remember, Sun," Starlit replied. "Any gaps I'm sure Rarity can fill us in on."
"Of course," Rarity said.
"But before I get into everything that happened, I need to preface something," Sun continued, his voice heavy with contrition. "It's something I should've told you about before we even went into the mine, and I've been kicking myself that I didn't ever since."
Starlit could practically see the pall fall over Sun, and for a moment it looked like he was muttering to himself. There was a brief pause in his mumbling followed by an emphatic bit of speech before he turned back to Starlit.
"Starlit, I have a… voice, living in my head," Sun said. "She started talking to me after you got killed yesterday, and I'm pretty sure she's the one that saved my life."
Every eye was turned on Sun, and Starlit could empathize with the others wholeheartedly. She felt a seed of worry for Sun's sanity form in her head, but quickly shook it loose. Sun wasn't crazy, and Starlit had seen enough over the last few weeks to tell her that this wasn't outside the realms of possibility.
"Alright, I follow," Starlit replied. "Does this voice have a name? Can she speak with us?"
"I've taken to calling her Silence since she won't tell me her real name," Sun admitted, "and as far as I know she can't communicate outside of my head. I haven't honestly tried, but I don't even know if I have the magical power to attempt to broadcast her speech."
"Rarity, Pinkie, did you know about this?" Starlit asked. "You both ran into Sun before me, did anything seem off?"
They both shook their heads, and Starlit saw Chirox casting a focused glare at Sun.
"Chirox, do you have something to add?"
"Not yet," Chirox answered. "Let him speak."
"She's been helpful, to a degree," Sun continued, more nervously than before. "She helped get me to Pinkie Pie, who then led me to Rarity, and on the whole has pointed out hazards before they could affect me."
"Except for the cave-in," Rarity added quietly.
"Except for the cave-in," Sun repeated solemnly. "She says she's more of an observer to me than anything else, but even that doesn't explain why she let me nearly die yesterday."
"Then let's delve further into that," Chirox said, an edge on her voice. "What happened to you?"
Sun breathed in deeply, looking like he was girding himself. Given how Starlit had reacted to her first death and the circumstances thereof, she could hardly blame him for some measure of trepidation.
"Sun, you don't have to tell them yourself if you don't want to," Rarity interjected. "I was there, and I likely remember more of it than you do."
Sun looked to Rarity, relief visible in his eyes as he nodded his approval.
"It was just after he came to check in on me," Rarity continued, "when I'd tugged on my communication rod. Sadly it was destroyed in the blast, as was Sun's, which is why we never tried to contact you."
"Figures," Starlit said ruefully. She wasn't looking forward to the conversation she'd be having with Twilight about losing all of her things again.
"The reason I'd pulled my rod was because of a small disruption in the wall of the cave that had a crushed thestral under it. The poor thing was writhing and thrashing about, and I was worried about it leading others to us."
"How did it get there?" Pinkie Pie asked. "You were the last one through, we would've heard a small rock slide like that, and it's not like a thestral to lie in wait. If it had been there when I came through it would have attacked me."
"Sun and I didn't give the idea much thought, to be honest," Rarity continued. "He decided to put the thing down himself, but I couldn't stop him before he cast a spell on it."
"That's when it exploded," Sun cut in. "I put a bolt of magic through its head, and it exploded into blue fire. That's all I remember until I woke up in a wagon that Rarity was running through the city."
"The fire was blue?" Starlit asked, trying to mask her concern. "That's the same color that Pinkie's light-gas burned."
"The prevailing theory is that the thestrals are attracted to the latent magic in the gas, and when they spend enough time around it it seeps into their skin," Pinkie explained.
"No, this is something far more insidious," Starlit said. "I once encountered a group of thestrals that had bonded with ambient dust in the air and could use it to dissipate and materialize at will."
"Are you saying that thestrals absorb magic?" Rarity asked.
"It would fit with what we know about them," Sun mused. "A pony starts to turn when they start losing magic and purpose, so why wouldn't a thestral be able to make any environmental magic their own? They're trying to get whatever magic they can from whatever source they can to stave of their disease, and that instinct lasts even after they go feral."
Starlit thought back to how the thestrals that had killed her grandmother had attacked their wards, and shuddered when she pictured them absorbing its warding magic to protect themselves.
"What happened after the thestral exploded?" Starlit asked, steering the conversation back on course.
"The tunnel collapsed from the blast, although I'm sure you're aware of that," Rarity answered. "When I checked him Sun seemed dead as dead could be. I dragged him out of the mine to give him a proper burial, but just as we got outside he started talking. Then I threw him in the wagon, ran him here, and he got better."
"That was not a pleasant experience," Sun added. "Everything hurt, half of my skin had been seared and melted, my left eye had all but popped, and I had a dent in my skull the size of your hoof, according to Rarity and Redheart. Did it ever hurt for you?"
Starlit thought back to all of her deaths; the thestral attack in Sunspire, Celestia running her through with her flaming sword, and the machine-pony braining her with its magic.
"Other than the injuries that caused my deaths, no," Starlit admitted. "I just went to a black space, and then I would wake up a few hours later no worse for wear."
"Then whatever power I got from your necklace that gave me Silence and this regeneration power is incomplete, to say the least," Sun said.
"If it troubles you that much, then you could give it back. The amulet can let me speak with Luna, but I can't free her without all of its power, which it is now readily apparent you have a portion of."
"If you have any ideas on how to do that, I'm all ears," Sun replied. "I'd take death over the type of agony that I was put through."
All eyes turned to Starlit as she removed her necklace. The stone landed on the table with a dull thunk, its surface silent and cold.
"When you activated it the last time, you were trying to locate it, right?" Starlit asked. "Maybe trying that same spell again will open it up again and let the magic flow back into it."
"My magic hasn't been great since I woke up," Sun replied. "I haven't even been able to levitate anything larger than that rock, much less do anything with it."
"You have to at least try," Pinkie said, patting Sun on the back. "You know what you'll get if you don't try something."
Starlit smiled at Pinkie, who gave a sly wink back. The longer she was in Pinkie's presence, the more she felt that there was something to her brand of relentless optimism.
Sun sucked in a deep breath and focused on the stone, his horn flickering with pine green magic. It was paler than normal, a side effect of leaving Sunspire that was only exacerbated by the stress his body had just been put under. The stone flickered with magic, even rattled a few times, but stayed on the table as Sun ended his spell with a gasp of exhaustion.
"See?" Sun said. "Barely a shake."
Starlit took the necklace back, tying it to her neck by hoof. Showing how much her magic had progressed after seeing how much his had regressed would be tactless, and not in the fun way that Pinkie Pie was.
"It's alright, you'll just have to come with me when we go fetch Luna," Starlit said. "We'll sort this out later. In the meantime, why don't you go get some more rest? I'll catch you up on the plan later."
Sun looked down at where the necklace had been for a long moment, before silently nodding and standing up from the table.
"I worry about him," Rarity remarked when Sun left earshot. "He's determined almost to a fault. He wanted to come find you as soon as he got up, you know. It took Redheart and I an hour to talk him down, and even still he wanted to leave as soon as possible."
"Having known him for about half a month, I can say that your assessment is spot on," Starlit replied. "But let's not waste any time. We need a plan of action, and I'm open to any and all ideas."
* * *
Sun stirred in his bed, silently cursing his luck. His magic had been the only thing he could lay claim to as a skill; if it had degraded this much in so short a time, he'd be less than useless in accompanying Starlit any more.
"Silence, you there?" Sun asked, waiting for the familiar pressure on his brain to set in.
"I'd say that this is a unique set of circumstances," Silence answered, "But very few things can surprise me any more. What do you need?"
"Somepony to talk to, mostly," Sun answered.
"Since when did I become a confidant? Is Starlit not cutting it anymore?"
" It's not that, it's just that… this is a problem I don't think she can help me with."
"Then let it not be said that I won't help when asked," Silence replied, her tone more friendly than usual. "It's about your magic, isn't it?"
"You tell me, you're the one that listens in on everything I do," Sun retorted, angrier than he'd meant.
"Now now, let's not get snippy. I understand, to some degree, what you're going through. Losing magic hurts, particularly for one so talented as you in this age where talented unicorns are few and far between, and I can't help but feel at least partially responsible."
"How? What did you do?" Sun asked desperately as he sat up in his bed.
"Repairing your body was a taxing process, for the both of us," Silence answered. "I had to use some of your magic to get the last of your healing done, as mine was nearly depleted."
If Silence had been corporeal Sun would've throttled her, but for now he had to settle for projecting seething anger at her.
"I can feel you directing hate waves at me, but let me finish," Silence continued. "Unlike you, I can regenerate my magic quickly and naturally over time rather than relying on environmental factors to determine my abilities. So how about we set up a trade?"
"Of what?" Sun asked, his anger slowly giving way to curiosity.
"In exchange for continuing to let me observe you, I can let you use some of my magic to bolster your own. Seems like a pretty equitable trade-off, all things considered."
Sun thought hard about the ramifications of this offer, putting his keen intellect to work trying to work out every possible angle or catch that could exist in a deal like this.
"Don't feel the need to answer right now, I know you're a stallion who values thinking time," Silence added. "Why don't you sleep on it, and just know that if you need me for this I'll be here."
The pressure in Sun's head faded away, leaving only himself and his thoughts. He flopped back into bed, worry after worry stacking up on his brain. The pressure from them was worse than Silence's.
* * *