It was a cold, dark night with the clouds covering the half-full moon, but it was more than enough light to see the ashes of his life.
Shivering his wings in the dark pre-dawn, just moments before Princess Celestia would raise the sun, Starjumper Astra walked slowly towards the tumbled ruins of the small tower that had been his home while he was here. He was in his armor, feeling a bit weary after spending literally the entire night flying with Moonshade to get used to wearing it while on the wing, and she’d gone on to the palace to get some sleep, which allowed him to come down here and see the aftermath for himself. There was still heat around the ash-choked pile, the heat of the embers buried under the rock and insulated from the cold winter air, warming the stones to where the snow had been melted well away from the rubble. It was that heat that was the reason why they hadn’t yet started to clear the rubble, because moving the stones would supply air to those heated embers and cause the fire to reignite. They would have to douse the pile with a large amount of water to cool it off. No doubt the Princess had arranged it with the pegasi from the weather department to park a small storm cloud directly over the rubble and have it rain on the debris to drown the embers. But until they got that arranged, the pile remained.
Ashes.
He knew it would happen. He’d known all his life just what would happen if his secret ever got out, but to see it in such stark terms, it hit him like a hammer. That debris had been his life. Almost everything he owned had been in there, all his books, the dozens of journals he’d kept over the years, writing down the events of his life and the way he saw it as a Lykan, and all the small things that made a collection of rooms a home, they were all gone.
Just like that.
He’d held out a feeble hope that maybe something might have survived, but seeing the pile of rubble, feeling the heat emanating from it, he knew that had been a foal’s dream. Anything not crushed by the weight of the stone had been burned by the fire, or blackened and charred by the smoldering embers. There hadn’t been very much in there. He’d come with just two saddlebags of personal effects, each barely half full. But in a way, the fact that he had so little made losing it that much more crushing. What little he had was precious to him, and it had been taken away by the blind hatred and cruelty of ponies that had only seen what they wanted to see.
Yes, he had a new place to live, a place that he rather liked. Yes, it was already full of furniture and books and a few little knick-knacks that made it feel more like a home than a temporary abode. But it was the principle of the matter. The ponies of Canterlot had had no right to destroy everything he owned. They had no right to treat him the way he’d been treated, and seeing everything he owned in ruins made him far angrier than he expected to be.
Princess Celestia said that somepony set the fire on purpose, and that when the found out who it was, the punishment would be quite harsh. But standing there, seeing the wafts of smoke rise up from the spaces between the tumbled-down, blackened stones, he wasn’t sure if her merciful demeanor would allow a punishment deserving of the crime.
This was the first time he’d been out by himself since waking up. Summer Dawn, her parents, and his parents had done a good job keeping him constant company yesterday, and he realized as he stood there that they’d been keeping him inside his house. They’d kept him company every moment since waking up, and after sunset, he’d gone out last night with Moonshade so he could acclimate to flying in armor. Moonshade had made sure to keep him well away from Canterlot, almost as if they were all working together to keep him from seeing this, sheltering him.
He couldn’t blame them that much. His family knew about his temper, and the Princess had said that the absolute last thing he could do right now is lose it. The Night Stone could affect him if he lost control of his emotions, connecting to him in a moment of anger. And since it was currently under attack by Moonshade’s mother, all of its pain would be pushed onto him…and the last time that happened, it had required Princess Luna to take drastic measures to heal his mind.
He wasn’t afraid of the Night Stone. Princess Celestia had done a good job explaining what happened in a way that he wasn’t afraid that it would do him intentional harm. But it could do him accidental harm, so he had to take steps to make sure that didn’t happen. And the biggest of them was making sure he kept in control of his emotions.
Usually, that wasn’t much of a problem. Living with his condition had instilled into him a great deal of discipline, keeping both his emotions and his temper in check. But it was a little different now that there was a consequence for losing his temper…and he had a temper. He was thestral enough to have an absolutely vile temper, it was just that he was very, very good at keeping it under control. For ponies like him and his mother, when they lost their tempers, it was a sight nearly as terrifying as it was momentous.
Actually, that was something of a general thestral trait. Most thestrals had nasty tempers, and it was the ability to control that temper that varied from thestral to thestral. Some could be set off by a single unkind word, where Starjumper, his mother, and his siblings were the other end of that spectrum, requiring considerable provocation to make them lose their cool. But whether a thestral’s temper was long or short, when they were set off…watch out. No matter how kind or gentle or nice a thestral was, when they lost their temper, they were as savage as they were dangerous.
And it required him to clamp down on his temper to look at what was left of his life. It made him feel both vulnerable and helpless to see it, to know that it had been so easy for some pony to come along and destroy everything he owned, and that they had walked away without getting caught. They may have been able to sneak away, or they might have just walked down the steps and marched away in full view of anypony that was out and about, and those ponies weren’t talking. That was what really made him mad, that ponies may have seen who started the fire, but weren’t going to say anything because they saw nothing wrong with what he or she did.
One thing was for sure…he wasn’t going to let this go. He had two days before Summer Dawn was ready for the journey, so that gave him two days to hunt down whichever pony had burned his house down. And if he managed to find out who did it before he left…he very well may dispense his own justice.
That was why he was here. Advancing up to the edge of the debris pile, opening and lowering his wings in an arched canopy over the ground to still the air under them, an old thestral trick, Starjumper walked around to the sidewalk leading up to it, then he lowered his muzzle and brought his nose down close to the paved stones. Whoever burned his house down had to be close to it to do it, and there was a good chance that their scent might be detectable. It was very difficult to smell anything past the smoke and ash, the smell of charred wood and scorched stone, which forced him out away from the ruins. And that ruined the idea. When he got to where he could smell anything other than the remains of the fire, there were far too many scents on the stones for him to isolate a potential suspect. The Royal Guard and the firefighting ponies had been all over the place, and their many scents crisscrossed the stones. All of them were the same age, laid down about the time of the fire, making it impossible for him to isolate one that seemed the most suspicious.
Well, it was worth investigation. Few ponies knew about the sense of smell possessed by thestrals, had no idea that wherever they went, they left behind a scent trail that a thestral could follow, which made it very easy for thestrals to use scents against them.
He decided to range out into the grass just to be thorough, and found more of the same. Dozens of scents all jumbled together, crossing over one another, which concealed the cuplrit’s identity. He moved out onto the churned snow, far enough away that the heat of the debris hadn’t melted it, and there were even more scents out there, some of them much younger…students. The students must have gathered to gawk at the fire. He moved back onto the grass, picking through the many scents to isolate them one by one, and then memorizing them. If he couldn’t pick out the arsonist’s scent from the many left behind, he’d memorize all of them and see about finding the culprit through the process of elimination. If he could disqualify all the other scents present, then the pony left behind was in high likelihood the suspect.
That task was going to be fairly daunting, given the sheer number of ponies he was smelling, but he really couldn’t think of anything else to do. He didn’t know a magic spell that would help him find the culprit, and since his memory of the event had been completely purged from him, he had absolutely nothing to go on. All he had was what other ponies told him, and they just didn’t pay attention to things the way he did. The critical little hint that he would notice, they would not, so they wouldn’t tell him about it.
The only real hint he had to go on, as far as a pony with a motive was concerned, was that Nova had been here. It was Nova’s taunt that made Starjumper lose his temper, he’d been told, and there was no real reason that Nova should have been close enough to his apartment to be here to watch it burn unless he knew it was going to burn beforehoof. North Star’s hatred of him meant that he and his family were the only ones with demonstrated motive to do something like this, since they were the only ones in Canterlot that had a documented history of taking real actions against Starjumper.
A pony that would hire a private investigator to dig up something to get him thrown out of school would have the motive to do something like burn down his house.
No doubt, North Star knew that he was the primary suspect, and that would cause him to cover his hoofprints. If he did it, then he hired somepony to do it for him…and no doubt that pony was no longer in Canterlot.
That had possibilities. North Star was the primary suspect, and it might be worth his while to do a little digging, in ways that the proper and lawful Royal Guard and the Princess might not. North Star only cared about the rules when they worked in his favor…well, Starjumper was cut from the same cloth.
But, that project would have to wait. He noticed the sudden increase in light in the cloudy sky, and knew that the sun was about to be raised. Summer Dawn would be awake soon, and he needed to get her to where she could cast the spell so she could begin practicing its basic version while he got some sleep. His father would be there to keep an eye on her, he knew the spell even better than Starjumper did. His parents were going to stay in Canterlot until they came back from the Nightlands, so Comet Tail could help out by helping with Summer Dawn while he was sleeping.
He could use the sleep. Moonshade had kept him out all night, making sure he could fly long distances wearing the armor, and give him extended time to get used to wearing it.
He was almost surprised when the sun rose above the horizon behind the mountain, as the sunlight seemed to pierce the rock and his armor and flesh and go straight into his soul. He gave a gasp and quickly spread his wings before they were affected, getting them out away from his sides, and just barely managed to get them in place before the pain hit him as they seared to ash without flame, then crumbled away. He gritted his teeth and raised his head even as his horn tore through the flesh of his forehead and grew with magical speed, turning on itself to form the telltale spiral pattern, the horn almost perfectly extending through the hole in the helmet he was wearing, which now had blood soaking the inside padding as ash mixed with the blood that oozed from the charred pits behind his shoulders that had once held his wings.
He took a cleansing breath and opened his eyes as the last of the pain ebbed, as his shoulders healed and the flesh sealed around his horn. He took a very brief moment to adjust to the change in his senses, the dulling of them more than anything as he lost his enhanced senses of hearing and smell, and the colors only visible to thestrals were hidden from him once again, but also the awakening of a new sense, his sense of magic. That sense told him nothing about what had happened here, outside of getting a very faint sense of magic buried in the rubble…the clock. The clock was destroyed, but the magic that made it work still lingered in the pieces of it that hadn’t been burned or melted by the fire. He’d know that magic anywhere, he’d carried it with him most of his life. It had ruled over him more powerfully than any master had ruled over a slave, and it still felt very strange to him to know that he didn’t need it anymore. The reason for him to carry it was gone, since everypony knew his secret.
It was all that was left. His life, burned away like his wings. There was nothing left but ashes.
Ashes.
He had to fight back a surge of anger and indignation, pointedly turning his armored rump towards the ruined tower, putting it behind him. The metal armor clanked a tiny bit as he walked away, his hooves stepping from grass to snow as the air chilled when he moved away from the lingering heat of the fire-scorched stones, still almost too warm to touch after nearly two days. At least nopony was going to burn down his new home…if they could find it. If they could get to it if they knew where it was. It was a reflection of himself, hidden in plain sight, hidden behind a wall that nopony would think was anything unusual. He had led a very strictly regimented life meant to project an image, the image of a unicorn so absorbed in his studies that he missed the marching of the world around him, hiding the truth of who and what he was. Hiding his skill, hiding his true power, hiding who he was so those that had ill will towards him would underestimate him.
But there would be no return to those old ways. He had no intention of staying in Canterlot now, not after this, but he would come back to see Summer Dawn. And when he was here, he would act more like the thestral he was. Proud, strong, and if anypony so much as looked at him the wrong way, he’d pound that pony into the floor. And all the justification he needed to act that way lay in the smoldering ruins behind him.
In midstride, Starjumper vanished in a circular burst of golden magic, and he reappeared in his new home, in the large open area between where he had his kitchen and his sitting couch—or more to the point, where his mother had put it after she rearranged the furniture. Nopony was here yet, leaving the large circular room quiet…and a bit empty. Well, not entirely empty. Rocky dropped from his perch at the top of the dome and flew around him a few times, then landed on his back, his claws gripping the armor, and gave a few deeper pitched, chirping squeaks. He indulged his roommate by teleporting a couple of gems from the vault into midair in front of him, then caught them in his magic and floated them over his shoulder to put them in reach of the rock bat. The crunching of gems reminded him that he hadn’t eaten all night, and that realization made him hungry enough to turn around and open the pantry door with his magic, pulling out the ingredients to make hash brown potatoes and blackcap flapjacks, made from a nutty-flavored mushroom that grew in both Equestria and the Nightlands. Rocky rode on his back as he started laying things out, then heard the rock bat’s claws scrape across the metal of his armor.
“I know, I’ll take it off once I get the batter mixed,” he told the bat absently. “I almost forgot I had it on. It’s not that bad once you get used to it. At least in here, where it’s warm. This stuff’s not comfortable at all when the winter cold seeps into it.” He was quiet a moment. “That reminds me, I need to start on the heat stones,” he added to himself. He gave a long yawn. “At least after I get some sleep.”
He had the batter half mixed when the stone door to his abode opened, and the fact that it did meant that it was a pony that knew the concealed door was there and knew how it worked. The door itself was his main defense against intruders, since it was built to look like the rock wall, blended into it perfectly, and had no visible latch or knob. A pony had to know where the secret lever was that unlocked it to get in. He looked back to see Princess Celestia stepping inside, having to duck her head down considerably to get in, and he set his breakfast aside and hurried up to her. He gave a bow as she closed the door behind her, pushing it closed with her back leg rather than magic. “Your Highness, I didn’t know you were coming,” he said apologetically.
“Moonshade just reported to us, and I thought that with you being out all night, that you might be a bit tired today,” she smiled down at him. “So I took it upon myself to make something for you.” She turned her head slightly, and six large crystals appeared in a circular burst of golden magic. He recognized them immediately, they were heat stones. “You mentioned that you had yet to make them, and I thought it might speed things along. Besides, I thought you might like one for your armor if you go out to train again tonight,” she smiled.
“I would very much, thank you, your Highness,” he said with honest gratitude, taking control of them with his magic and bringing them close. They were permanent heat stones, something he couldn’t make himself. That meant that he wouldn’t have to constantly recharge them. “No, Rocky, these aren’t food,” he warned as the bat leaned over his shoulder, eying one of the crystals intently. “Odds are, it would give you a massive stomach ache if you did eat it.”
The rock bat took off from his back and circled higher and higher, then flipped up his legs, grabbed his perch, then settled in hanging inverted off of it, wrapping his wings around himself.
“I have everything prepared for your training with Summer Dawn, Starjumper,” she continued, walking past him and towards his kitchen area, causing him to follow along. “I have a room prepared for her to practice interacting with unshrunk objects, things I think you might encounter on your journey. I had some rocks brought in to simulate needing to walk across the kind of terrain you’ll encounter in the Nightlands, and a created a small pool of water so you can demonstrate the dangers of it. And there is some furniture there for her to learn to deal with as well. My, I haven’t smelled that in ages. Is that blackcap mushroom I smell?”
“Yes ma’am,” he replied, impressed. “I didn’t know ponies ate it.”
“Usually no, but I’ve had the occasion to enjoy thestral fare,” she answered. “And I was quite taken with blackcap bread.”
“I’m making flapjacks, so it’s a slightly different recipe. But, if you want some really good blackcap bread, my mother can make it for you.”
“I’ll make a point to ask her about it,” she replied.
The chiming sound of teleportation magic interrupted them, and Starjumper turned in time to see the last vestiges of pink magic fading from the air. Summer Dawn was standing in an open area by the wall near his writing table, a safe place to appear in the room. “I’m sorry I’m late—your Highness,” she said suddenly, bowing on her front legs.
“Good morning, Summer Dawn,” the Princess answered. “Feeling well today?”
“Yes ma’am, just eager to get started,” she replied. “Just running a little late. Why did you put the armor back on, Star?”
“I never took it off,” he answered. “We just finished before sunrise.”
“You were out all night?”
He nodded, a bit surprised when the Princess took up a mixing spoon with her magic and picked up the bowl holding the batter, then started mixing it. “Moonshade said I needed as much time as possible to get used to wearing this while flying. That and she wanted to make sure I was strong enough to still be able to fly after wearing it all night. I found that a bit insulting,” he snorted, which made Summer Dawn giggle a little.
“You didn’t get any sleep at all?”
“No, but I’ll be alright,” he answered. “I plan to take a nap once you’re to where you can practice casting the spell. I’ll have Dad answer any questions you may have while I take a nap, he knows the spell even better than I do. He taught it to me, after all. Then after I wake up, we’ll go to the palace and let you practice moving around shrunk.”
“That’s what I came to tell you, Summer Dawn,” the Princess injected. “Luna explained what you have planned, and I have everything arranged. I have a room prepared filled with things we think you may encounter on your journey, to allow you to get experience interacting with them in a shrunken state. That, and I think I’d like to see how far along you are in your training. And help with breakfast,” she added with a gentle smile, lifting the bowl a bit with her magic. “I feel that if I help make it, Starjumper won’t be too cross with me if I steal a pancake or two. I haven’t had blackcap pancakes before, and they sound quite delicious.”
“What is blackcap?” Summer Dawn asked.
“It’s a kind of mushroom, fairly common in both Equestria and the Nightlands,” he answered. “You saw some, they were those large black mushrooms I picked that were close to the pool, remember? I kept them to eat. Thestrals use blackcaps instead of flour because wheat is so expensive there, they mash it into a pulp and use it that way. They make breads, pastries, and cakes out of it, you know, anything a pony can make out of flour.”
“Blackcap bread is very good,” the Princess told her. “It has a rich, nutty flavor that I very much enjoy. And I’d never considered using it to make pancakes. But now that I have, I’m quite looking forward to trying it.”
“I’m fairly sure I have enough for two, your Highness.”
“Three,” Summer Dawn corrected. “Now I wanna try it. It sounds good.”
It felt…well, weird cooking with the Princess right there, and it would have felt weirder if she just sat at the table waiting, because that would have made him feel very nervous as she watched him cook for her. She instead helped out, even had Starjumper teach her the recipe, which made her seem far less aloof and regal and more like a real pony. Starjumper had the chance to take off the armor while the Princess minded the flapjacks in the pan, which made him feel surprisingly better. He hadn’t noticed the weight of the armor after wearing it so long until he took it off. By the time they were setting the plates on the table, the door opened once again, and both his parents and Summer Dawn’s parents filed in, one at a time because of the size of the door. “I see you beat me to it, ducky,” his mother noted lightly as she strode over, then bowed fluidly to the Princess. “I was going to make you a nice breakfast.”
“I didn’t eat all night, I think Moonshade was seeing how long I could go without a meal,” he grunted, which made Summer Dawn giggle a little.
“She’s a tough one, I’ve noticed,” Fleur de Lis observed.
“She’s a thestral soldier, ducky, you have no idea how tough she is,” Nightsong answered. “She can fly two days straight wearing armor through a blizzard with no sleep, food, or water, and when she reaches her destination, she’ll go straight into battle without so much as dropping her packs.”
“She’s more of a stallion than me,” Starjumper grunted, which made most of the room burst out laughing.
Their parents let them eat, then they got to work. Starjumper felt a whole lot of self conscious working with Summer Dawn with the Princess looking on from discrete distance, engaging Summer Dawn’s parents in conversation but very much paying attention to what Starjumper and Summer Dawn were doing. Fortunately, Summer Dawn didn’t make him look incompetent, picking up where they left off and proving that she’d done a little work of her own last night, probably practicing the spell on her own, against his orders. It barely took two hours for her to work out how the parts of the spell that could change affected the casting, and by lunch, she was ready to cast the spell.
When it came to this spell, the first casting was never done to one’s self. He set one of the chairs form his table in front of her as she sat on her cushion, then took a couple of steps back. “Alright, Summer, time to give this a try. What are the parameters?”
“Shrink it to half its size, charge it to last two minutes,” she answered, staring intently at the chair.
“Correct. Are you ready?”
“Ready.”
“Then do it,” he ordered.
She bit her lip a little bit as her horn flared with pink magic, then she raised her head deliberately as she cast the spell. An aura of pink magic surrounded the chair, and then it visibly began to get smaller. Its legs scraped across the floor as it shrunk, and he gave a nod when it reduced to half its size and then stopped. She’d gotten that part of the matrix correct. “What do you never do?”
“Cast the spell on an object that’s already shrunk, unless I’m reversing the spell,” she answered, then she gave a laugh. “You told Frostmane not to do that when you shrunk Nova.”
“Not to a living thing,” he told her. “Reversing a charged shrink spell on a living thing makes the subject pass out, and I wasn’t about to do that. But reversing the spell on an inanimate object is fine.”
“Ah, okay.”
“Is the chair lighter?”
“Yes, but I can make it not change its weight if I cast the spell the right way.”
“Correct. Is the chair easier to break?”
“Yes, but if I don’t change its weight, then I don’t change its strength either.”
“Correct,” he nodded, then noticed that the spell was wearing off. In seconds, the chair returned to its normal size. She hadn’t charged it enough to last two minutes. “You got everything right but the duration,” he told her. “But practice can fix that.”
“I was sure I charged it enough,” she fretted.
“Like I said, practice will fix that,” Starjumper told her, then he gave a yawn. “And I think Dad can help you with that part. I need to take a nap.”
“You do look tired,” she said, looking at him.
“I’m sure that Comet Tail has other things to do,” Princess Celestia spoke up. “If you don’t mind, young Summer Dawn, I’d be happy to help you with your practice.”
“Really?” she said with a gasp.
“It’s not a bother, young one. Starjumper already taught you the spell. I’ll just be helping you with your charging,” she smiled.
“Then I believe I’m leaving you in the most capable hooves in Canterlot, Summer,” Starjumper said evenly.
He retreated to the top of the dome and cast a zone of silence and a spell of darkness so they wouldn’t bother him, then “laid down” on the stone, making sure to press just about every part of him that could dangle against the stone so he could cling to it. Everything, from his belly to his tail to his cheek and muzzle, was clinging to the stone so nothing would hang. The stone was cool against his cheek, almost inviting, and it barely took a moment for the warm darkness lulled him to sleep.
The room the Princess prepared wasn’t as much a room as it was a gallery.
It was on the third floor of the palace, the gallery directly over the grand ballroom, a very large chamber meant for storage whose floor was raised in an arch across the middle, the top of the grand arched ceiling of the ballroom beneath it. One side of the large chamber had been cleared out of all its stored goods and converted into three separate areas meant to give Summer Dawn and Moonshade experience dealing with things they may encounter on the journey. One area held furniture and other things that they might find in a dwelling or building, one area had been littered with dirt, rock, and stones to simulate the rocky, mountainous terrain of the Nightlands, complete with a small pool of water, and the third area wasn’t so much an area as the air above it, as several small clouds had been brought into the room and set near the ceiling, which would give Summer Dawn experience moving around on clouds both shrunk and unshrunk. The Princess had supplied her with another magical trinket, a small pegasus feather pinned into her hair that conveyed upon her the ability to walk on clouds like a pegasus. So long as the feather remained in contact with her coat or mane, it would give her its magic.
“I had no idea something this cool was inside the palace,” Summer Dawn said eagerly as they looked around. All three of them were wearing armor, so he and Summer Dawn could further adjust to it, and the heat stones that the Princess gave them were affixed into torcs they were wearing under it. The chestplates pushed the heat stone against their fur, which made sure that they stayed in contact with it and stayed warm.
“It took my guards a little doing to set it up,” Princess Celestia said as she walked in behind them, towering over them when she stepped up between him and Moonshade. “The things in here are things you may encounter on your journey while shrunk, my young ones. This will give you a chance to learn how to deal with them as obstacles. Mainly you, my young unicorn,” she said, looking at Summer Dawn. “Moonshade will have a very easy time of it because she can fly, and Starjumper can walk up and down things during the daytime. But you will have to learn how to manage dealing with things that are much too large for you to easily navigate.”
“This is about learning how to not use magic as much as you can, Summer,” Starjumper added. “The temptation to just levitate yourself or teleport will be strong, but remember that you tire very quickly when using magic while shrunk.”
“This looks like it might actually be fun,” she said in an animated voice.
“Foals,” Starjumper sighed.
“That makes you an infant, Star, I’m older than you,” she winked in reply.
“Will it be different for me to fly?” Moonshade asked.
“A little,” Starjumper answered. “The air will feel much thicker, and from your perspective, you’ll be flying in high winds most of the time.”
“I can work with that,” she said professionally.
“I’ll leave you to your practice, my friends,” the Princess said. “Either of the unicorn guards that will stand post by the door will be able to reverse the spell for you at any time.”
“But I thought that you didn’t cast it on a pony.”
“The charged version, my young one. Starjumper will be using the permanent version. You will remain shrunk until Starjumper or one of the guards reverses the spell.”
“Just so,” Starjumper nodded. “We have no idea how long we’re going to be here, so I’ll use the version that we can reverse whenever.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Well, that sounds a bit unnerving,” Moonshade grunted.
“The guards will be able to reverse it at any time, Moonshade. You can get their attention with that,” the Princess assured her, pointing at the small piece of smooth stone, like a large tile, directly across from the door. “The stone is enchanted so that if you stand upon it, it will give a magical sound that will alert the guards. When you are ready to return to your normal size, just stand on the stone and the guards will cast the spell. Remember, my dear thestral, they cannot understand you if you try to speak to them while shrunk.”
“Oh yeah, that’s right,” she murmured.
“I have matters to attend, my young ones. Be careful, but have fun,” she smiled, then she turned and strolled regally out of the room, the door closing behind her.
“Ready?” Starjumper asked.
“Let’s do this,” Moonshade said, stepping closer.
“Ready!” Summer Dawn answered.
“This is gonna feel a little weird,” he warned. “And the first few times you shrink using the spell, you’ll be just a tiny bit dizzy after you’re shrunk, but that passes quickly. So don’t move too much until you feel steady.” His horn blazed with golden light, and then he built the spell and released it with practiced skill. The world suddenly started growing, expanding, from his point of view, the guards behind them and the furniture in front of them both growing larger and larger and seeming to get further and further away. He shrunk them all the way down to the size of insects, and when the spell ended, he took a deep breath of air that seemed thicker to his lungs and turned to look at Summer Dawn and Moonshade. Both of them looked a little woozy.
“Go ahead and get the laughter out of the way,” he said in a light manner, his voice so high pitched that no pony could possibly make that sound at full size. They both gave him a shocked look, then Summer Dawn did just that, broke into sudden laughter. “Trust me, you’ll sound just as weird to us, Summer.”
“You sound—I sound like an angry chipmunk!” she said, then laughed again.
“The only reason you can hear this is because your ears shrunk along with your vocal chords,” he said as Moonshade gave a slight smile. “This is why the guards can’t understand us. If they hear anything at all, it’ll be faint squeaky chittering. Feel up to moving, Moonshade?”
“I’m good,” she replied. “I’m gonna go ahead and take off, get used to flying at this size.”
“Just be careful at first,” he said with a nod. “Summer, go ahead and use magic. Get an idea of what it’s like, and how fast you tire.”
“Okay,” she nodded as Moonshade spread her wings and took off.
Since he had lots of practice operating at that size, Starjumper more or less just parked himself on top of a table and let the other two adjust to the differences. And it did take practice, as Moonshade learned that flying when one was the size of a grasshopper introduced an entirely different set of flight mechanics, and Summer Dawn learned that magic was much, much harder to use at that size because of how quickly it tired her. But, it also showed off her incredible power, because she managed to cast far more magic then he would have been able to manage. When shrunk, Starjumper could manage six or seven spells before he was exhausted, or only one if it was a very strong spell, but she managed to cast well over two dozen spells before the effort started getting to her.
But she wasn’t here to use magic, she was here to learn how to deal with a giant world and not use magic as much as possible. He watched as she climbed up and down large rocks, learning quickly that she was much stronger shrunk than she was at full size and could jump very long distances—at least on that small scale—and also learned that she could fall a very long distance without injuring herself, due to the air resistance and pressure on their tiny bodies. It was the same reason that insects could fall long distances and not be hurt, though their exoskeletons helped a great deal with that.
Moonshade landed beside him after flying a while and they watched Summer Dawn climb up a large rock, folding back her wings and looking down at her. “She’s like a little pup, isn’t she?” she asked bluntly, speaking Thestralla.
“In some ways. I find it charming,” he replied in kind. “She has a very innocent view of the world, Moonshade, but it’s not an innocence based on ignorance. It’s an innocence based on her desire to see the good in everything. That, and her enthusiasm and adventurous spirit, it makes her seem more like a foal than a mare sometimes, but never doubt that that mare is smart, or observant, or not capable. Once she learns what she needs to know, I’ll put my life in her hooves without hesitation, Moonshade. She’s certainly nothing like any other unicorn in this stuffy town,” he noted, unable to help smiling a little as they watched her clamber up the last slope of the rock, then she gave a little hop of elation and stood proudly on top of her little mountain, surveying her kingdom.
She gave him a long look, then looked back down again. “So, that explains it.”
“Explains what?”
“Why you’re doing this,” she answered. “You have no reason to help us, not after everything the thestrals have done to you. I fully expected you to laugh in the Princess’ face and celebrate when the Nightlands burns.”
“I’m not doing this for the thestrals. I’m doing this for Equestria,” he stressed. “If we let Sombra take the Nightlands, by the time he comes across the eastern sea and invades Equestria, he might be too powerful to stop. You’re right, I have no love for the thestrals. I care about my mother and my family, and that’s it. The rest of you can rot in Tarterus for all I care. I’m doing this because I owe Princess Celestia my life, and the Princess asked me to do this. That’s the only reason I need.”
“Oh, there’s another reason,” she said sagely, giving him a sly look.
“You believe whatever you want to believe, Moonshade,” he said shortly.
“While we’re in a place where nopony can understand us, I thought we might talk about your apartment,” she said. “I think I may know who burned it down, or at least who gave the order.”
“How would you know that?”
“Because the arrogant snot gave me the info that got Summer Dawn tangled up in things,” she answered. “He told me about her, and her connection to you. And he wanted me to kill you.”
He gave her a long look.
“It’s no stretch that if he tried to arrange to have you murdered, it wouldn’t be much further for him to burn down your house,” she continued.
“North Star,” he growled savagely.
She nodded. “A few days before we had our little dance,” she said lightly, “he came to the palace and told me about Summer Dawn, that she would know where you are, and that she was the only thing that would draw you out of hiding, that she was the only thing in Canterlot you would fight to protect…and it turned out he was right. All he wanted out of it was for me to kill you. It seems that he finds the fact that you’re only half unicorn to mean that you’re a stain on the unicorn race,” she said with dark amusement. “I’ve seen hatred, Starjumper, but his is that special kind of hatred that burns like a bonfire on a clear winter night.”
“I thought he might be capable of it,” Starjumper said darkly. “But proving it’s going to be another matter.”
“What’s there to prove?” Moonshade shrugged her shoulders, causing her wings to bob. “He wants to kill you, Starjumper. Any other thestral would take him down just for that alone.”
“This isn’t the Nightlands,” he told her. “I can’t just challenge him to batara and kill him, and if I were to act now, the Princess would know it was me, and I’d be the one to get in trouble. They don’t do things like that here.”
“And they think this realm represents justice,” she snorted.
“Did you tell the Princess what you know?”
“They already know, I told them about North Star after our fight, but before your apartment burned. But I haven't told them I think he did it, at least not yet. I wanted to talk to you first. Give you the chance to deal with it the thestral way,” she answered. “It’s the proper thing to do.”
“Well, thank you for your consideration, but it’s better if you tell the Princess. She has resources we don’t, she may be able to find out the truth.”
They stayed in the room long enough for Starjumper to change—him being tiny in no way altered that process—and he spent the hour or so they were there after sunset flying around the room, until he felt Summer Dawn had enough experience being tiny to have practical experience with the unique dangers it presented and keep herself safe during the journey. After gathering them up, they stepped onto the plate, and moments later, one of the guards returned them to their full size. “I am so hungry!” Summer Dawn declared as soon as they were normal size again. “And I’ll be very happy to get out of this armor!”
“When are we leaving, now that we got this done?” Moonshade asked.
“The day after tomorrow,” Starjumper answered. “Summer almost has the shrink spell learned. One more day of practice with the variants and she’ll be ready to go. So, let’s plan to leave the morning after. You feel ready for the flying?”
“Do you?” she challenged in reply.
“I’ll do my share,” he told her.
“I’ll be ready, I promise,” Summer Dawn declared. “You ready for me to take you home, Star?” she asked eagerly.
“You two go ahead. I’ll be over around midnight,” Moonshade told them. “Be ready for wingblade practice. You need as much practice as you can get before we leave.”
“Alright,” he replied with a nod. “That’ll give me time to get a meal and a little rest.”
“Same,” she replied starting towards the door as one of the guards opened it for her.
“Ready?” Summer Dawn asked.
“Ready,” he answered. She wasted no time, her horn blazed with pink magical energy, and they were teleported from the palace to his cave home. She landed them in the open area behind the couch, and in a true testament to how much she had learned, how far she had come, she had done it without any resistance at all. Her teleport was smooth, swift, and flawless. The single room abode was empty, and after they took off the armor, Summer Dawn rushed towards the kitchen area.
“I am starving,” she complained, opening the cold storage pantry door with her magic before she was anywhere near it. “Please please tell me you have some leftovers.”
“I should, but if you’re that hungry, why don’t you go raid your own kitchen?” he challenged. “You have way more food than I do.”
“I’d rather eat here,” she said. “I have a few questions about the spell, we can talk about it while we eat.”
That answer seemed…off, at least for her. She already knew enough to cast the spell, so there was no need to talk more about it. And the timbre of her voice…she was being, being deceptive. And that was almost anathema for her. She was playfully deceitful, but never about anything important. “And what’s the real reason you’re staying?” he pressed.
She glanced at him, blushing slightly through the fur on her cheeks. “While you were sleeping, I talked with the Princess about the Night Stone. I wanted to talk to you about it,” she answered. “I’m worried, Star.”
He gave her a look as he walked towards the kitchen area, as she pulled a large bowl out of the pantry holding vegetable soup, magically sealed to keep it fresh using a spell Starjumper had learned from his father. They used it in the shop to sell foodstuffs, keeping it magically preserved until the container was opened. Her horn flared with magic once she set it on a stone slab on the counter, and the soup began to simmer and bubble as she magically heated it. “Worried about what?”
She looked up at him. “You don’t remember it, but I do,” she told him. “When the Night Stone took you over, it…it hurt you. The magic was too much for you. You always tell me that you’re not as strong as you look, and I never really believed you. You’re always so amazing with magic, I thought—I mean, you can do almost anything. I never believed that you’d have…have limits. Then I saw what the Night Stone did to you,” she said, her eyes on the soup. “I’m worried about you, Star. If you touch the Night Stone, I’m afraid of what it might do to you.”
“From what the Princess told me, it won’t do anything to me,” he told her. “If I’m touching the Night Stone, that means we’ve taken it from the Night Queen, and it won’t be under attack anymore. That’s what made it do whatever it did that’s making you nervous. I’m sure that as long as it’s safe, then I’ll be safe too.”
“But we don’t know that,” she said, looking up at him. To his surprise, her eyes are shimmering, full of emotion, looking up at him in a way she never had before. “You have to promise me, Star, that you won’t touch the Night Stone unless you absolutely have to. If it’ll let you touch it, it’ll let you levitate it. Levitate it, teleport it, but don’t touch it.”
He gave her a surprised look, the power of her gaze quelling the dismissive retort that was forming on his lips. She was seriously worried about it…worried about him. And a part of him was deeply touched at the concern in her eyes. She was honestly and sincerely worried, very worried, and to know that she cared that much, it truly touched him. “Summer,” he said in a gentle tone, reaching out a foreleg and putting his hoof on her shoulder. “I’ll be alright, I promise. But if it worries you that much, then I’ll do what you ask. I won’t touch the Night Stone unless I have no other choice. And if you’re there to help me, then I won’t have to touch it at all. Just help me get close enough to use the mirror, and we can steal it right out of the building without getting anywhere near it. I can teleport it to us, shrink it to make it easy to carry, then you’ll get us out of the Nightlands in minutes. If we do it right, I won’t have to touch it at all.”
“You promise?” she pressed.
“I promise,” he answered. He was a bit surprised when she lunged forward and wrapped her forelegs around his neck and shoulders, hanging onto him “Whoa, hey now, sassy mare, personal space,” he joked gently, but that just made her wrap her legs around him even tighter. “Summer.”
“I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe,” she said close to his ear. “I promise.”
The power and emotion in her voice startled him, caused him to lift his foreleg and pat her on the back and shoulders comfortingly…and he couldn’t help but realize how nice it felt to be this close to her.
And what Moonshade said to him hit him, a sudden revelation. He was doing this for her. Not for the Princess, not for Equestria, not for the thestrals or the Nightlands, but for Summer Dawn. Because if he didn’t, then her life would be disrupted, that the innocent joy he saw in her eyes and her actions would dim as the harsh reality of war, strife, and turmoil infected her perfect life. He would keep her safe, he would protect her, and protect the somewhat sheltered life she led. She was so charmingly naïve about some things while being so worldly about others, so infectiously enthusiastic about magic, and he wanted her to keep that foal-like innocence about the harsh realities of the world. He wanted to keep the joy in her life.
She was the only thing in Canterlot he would fight to protect.
Could this be…love? Did he love Summer Dawn? She was definitely a friend. He enjoyed being with her, being around her, and he thought about her all the time. Was that love? Did the fact that his home seemed empty when she wasn’t there mean he loved her? Did the fact that he arranged his days around her mean that he loved her? He’d never been in love before, so he had no idea what he was supposed to think, what it meant. All that he really knew was that she was the brightest part of his life, and he didn’t want to be without the light she brought into it. If that was love, then so be it. If that wasn’t love, then so be it. Either way, everything he was doing, he was doing for her.
It took her a little while to settle down, and she looked a little sheepish, even a bit embarrassed, when she finally let go of him. She cleared her throat briskly and moved the bowl to the table with her magic, turning away form him and almost trotting over. He didn’t press the issue, gave her a bit of space, turning partially away to move towards the pantry and opening his wings out fully, shivering them, then closing them again. He fished what was left of the blackcap bread out of the pantry and carried it over to the table, opening his wings enough to sit down without the spines scraping against the floor. She didn’t want to meet his eye as she ate, as if she felt she crossed some invisible boundary…but he couldn’t figure out what, or why. She’d hugged him before, even kissed him, and had never acted like this afterward. Those had been times when she was worried about him, just like this time, but they’d been more immediate, more a reaction to him being in a sick bed than a worry about what may come. She ate the entire bowl in silence, almost awkward silence, then washed it as he finished his bread. He put his own dish away and walked up the wall, towards the storage room, as she almost compulsively cleaned his plate as well, then he dug out something he’d made a while ago, but had never used.
She looked up at him as he came back down the wall on three hooves, carrying a sturdy vest-like garment made of heavy canvas. He returned to the floor and approached her as she walked towards the couch in the living area in the cave, giving him a curious look. “What is that?” she asked.
“A while ago, you made me promise to take you flying. I never got around to fulfilling it,” he told her calmly. “I guess with everything that happened, all the craziness, it just got…forgotten. Well, I am a thestral that lives up to my obligations,” he declared in an excessively noble voice. “Put this on, so I don’t rip your fur and skin off. And you might want to bring your heat stone, it’ll get cold out there.”
The smile that slowly bloomed on her face was all the warmth he needed, as she took command of the vest with her magic and floated it over to her. She shrugged it on over her head the moment she figured out how to put it on, then tucked the torc holding the heat stone underneath it as he walked towards the door, flexing his wings to get them warmed up. He was easily strong enough to carry a passenger, any thestral in his family was thanks to their tall, heavily built bodies and large wings, especially a unicorn as lithe as Summer Dawn. He opened the door as she hurried over to him, the awkwardness of a few moments ago completely forgotten as she went out ahead of him and stood on the small platform that formed his porch, shaped so it was nearly impossible to see from the ground. Her house was visible just below them and to the left, the waterfall that fell onto her property and which gave the manor its name just to the left of them, the sound of its tumbling water like music in the night. But to the right, down there on the ground, was North Star’s manor, and from up here, it looked…ominous. He looked down at it as Summer Dawn made room for him, her hooves right on the edge of the platform, proving that she wasn’t afraid of heights…but she had no reason to be. Even if she fell, she could easily catch herself long before she got anywhere near the ground.
“Ready?” he asked after he closed and locked the door.
“Ready!” she said eagerly. She watched him as he vaulted straight up, getting enough air under his hooves to use his wings, then they pulled him higher into the air. He drifted directly over her, then reached down and put both forehooves on the vest, clinging to it just behind her shoulders, the optimum place where she would feel very little discomfort. He had plenty of practice doing this with his brother, and since Silver Moon was so much bigger than Summer Dawn, he had no doubt he could easily carry her.
If anything told a pony just how strong a flyer he was, it was that. That he could carry a pony that weighed more than he did betrayed just how strong his wings were. He certainly wasn’t doing any aerobatics when he carried his brother, but he had no problems carrying him as he flew. He pulled them up and out off the platform, then she gave a gasp when he suddenly dove down. He pulled out of the descent right over the rooftops of the rowhouses, then she gave a bright laugh when he swooped up and banked, giving a very lazy roll, letting her feel the force swinging her around, then gave a wide loop around the palace. Her self-levitation couldn’t come anywhere near as fast as he was going, and it was that speed that was delighting her, watching the rooftops of Canterlot whiz by under her hooves, feeling the biting cold air rush against her face. He ranged out past the edge of the city, the streets and houses below suddenly giving way to a vast black abyss as they went out over the mountainside and into the valley, then turned widely, swinging back around to let her see the lights of Canterlot from the air almost on level with the Royal Palace, which even to thestral eyes looked majestic and beautiful. He banked upwards sharply and climbed higher and higher over the city, climbing up the mountainside, until they reached the snow-capped peak, jagged and broken and covered with both ice and snow. He flew a full circle of the peak, coming back around to Canterlot, then Summer Dawn gave a scream when he suddenly dove, pulling her close to his belly and tucking in his wings for a power dive.
“This…is…amazing!” she managed to shout as they hurtled towards the city below at shocking speed, then she gave a gasp when his tail whipped around and slapped against her belly, clinging to it and holding fast, then pulling her tightly against him as he pulled out of the dive. His tail on her belly gave him three holds on her, allowed him to pull out of the dive without her swinging wildly out and getting her back twisted. They came down so low that they were below the rooftops along the Promenade, the buildings and housing a shadowy blur on both sides as they raced along the second story level, then he ascended again, banked towards the edge of the city, and then left it behind, flying out into the valley whose south end held Ponyville and whose northwestern edge held Cloudsdale, at least most of the time.
For two hours, Starjumper flew Summer Dawn through the central marches of Equestria, flying her up to Cloudsdale and letting her see it from the vantage point of a flyer, then down to Ponyville to fly over Princess Twilight’s crystal-tree palace, then over the Everfree Forest, where they saw two manticores flying low and slow over the treetops, no doubt hunting. He took her to the top of the tallest peak in the Foal Mountains, which was not Canterlot’s mountain, then down into the depths of Ghastly Gorge. He let her enjoy the wind in her face and her hooves having nothing under them but empty air, then he ascended up and slowed, then landed on a cloud hanging low in the valley not far from Canterlot. The capitol city was visible on the clear night to the northeast and the lights of Ponyville were visible to the south, Princess Twilight’s castle easily visible from that distance. He set her down—she was still wearing the pegasus feather charm, which would allow her to walk on clouds—and then let go of her, then flitted to the side and dropped down onto the cloud beside her, his hooves sinking into the cloud a little from the force of his landing, but then he sprang back up and bobbed a little, which made her giggle a bit.
“That was so amazing!” she said brightly as she nearly trotted to the edge of the cloud, then looked down. “I can totally understand why you love flying so much!”
“If I had to choose between my horn and my wings, I’d take my wings,” he told her honestly, walking up beside her and looking down himself. “I love magic, but nothing compares to the freedom I feel when I have the wind under my wings, the ground far under my hooves, and the entire world on the horizon. Sometimes I think I could reach up and touch the stars,” he said distantly, looking up at the bright winter night sky, a carpet of stars glittering in the darkness and a crescent moon hanging high in the sky. “Once, I flew up so high that I passed out,” he told her. “Where the air was so thin that I couldn’t breathe anymore. I woke up about five seconds from hitting the ground,” he chuckled without humor. “And Luna’s moon, was Mom furious. She told me never to do that, but I just couldn’t help myself. I was young, and silly, and I was trying to fly high enough to see the stars from above instead of below.”
“Since when were you ever young and silly, Star?” she asked playfully.
“A long time ago, it feels sometimes,” he replied soberly, sitting down at the edge of the cloud, opening his wings fully so they didn’t poke into the cloud, raising them up over his back. He was quiet a long moment, then he gave a sigh. “Summer.”
“Yes?”
“You made me promise to be careful. Now I want you to promise me something.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t forget the pony you first met,” he told her, looking over at her. “When we leave Equestria, you’re going to see the worst part of me. The thestral in me,” he said, closing his eyes halfway and looking down, looking at nothing. “I’m not a unicorn. I’m not an Equestrian pony. I am a Lykan. I am a predator. I have it within me the capacity to kill, and to kill without remorse or regret. I was born from a race of warriors, and I’ve been taught since I was a foal that violence is my best defense against those that would do me harm. When you see that, when you see the part of me I keep hidden from the world, just remember the pony you met and know that I will always be that pony to you. What you may see me do to others, I could never do to you. Never you.”
She was quiet a long moment, then reached over and raised his chin, making him look at her. “I’ve already seen that part of you, Star,” she told him earnestly. “When you fought Moonshade and the other thestrals. I saw the warrior in you then, and I wasn’t afraid of it. It’s a part of who you are, and without it, you wouldn’t be the pony I know. You wouldn’t be you. There is no Starjumper Astra without this,” she said, reaching over and touching the leading edge of his wing with her hoof. “This is who you are, and without it, you wouldn’t be that pony I first met. This makes you strong, Starjumper Astra, far stronger than any other pony in Canterlot, and what girl doesn’t admire a strong stallion?” she asked in a winsome voice, giving him a gentle smile. She ran her hoof along the edge of his wing, then touched his shoulder tentatively. “You’re cold,” she observed.
“I’m used to flying in the winter,” he replied stoically.
“Hmph,” she sounded, then to his surprise, she cuddled up against his side, leaning her head against his neck. She was warm because of the heat stone, enticingly warm, and he covered her with his wing without even thinking about what he was doing.
It was a simple act, but it told him far more than any words ever could. He leaned his head down over hers, felt her push the top of her muzzle up under his chin, her horn rubbing against the his jaw and the side of his head, and he pulled her against him with his wing just a little more. He didn’t have to say a word. Neither did she. And in that moment, he did not care about anything else. The world ceased to exist, leaving nothing but him, her, the little cloud that was his new universe, and the chilly air that made him appreciate the warmth of her against him that much more.
His life had just changed. He knew it. His life was no longer him, it was her. She was the most important thing in this new universe, and there was nothing more in the world that he wanted than to see her smile. To hear her laugh. To give him those adorably acerbic looks when he teased her. To see the delight in her eyes when she learned something new about magic.
To feel the warmth of her against him on a cold winter night.
To be with her, always.
This had to be love. It just had to be. And if this was what love was, then so be it.
So be it.