Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky
Part IV - Chapter 3: Cold Days And Cold Hearts
* * *
The morning came later than Starlit had expected, and were it not for a hoof pounding on her door she may not have even noticed it was sun-up.
With a start Starlit sat upright, the banging in her door still coming and sending shocks of pain down her ears with every beat. As quick as her beleaguered legs would carry her she ran over to the door and swung it open.
"About time you woke up, it's only been morning for about four hours," Rainbow Dash chided. "Get your things together and get some breakfast at the commissary, we leave in an hour."
Starlit started out her window, noticed the sun barely over the horizon, and blinked the type of blink that only the utterly bewildered can.
"That's impossible," Starlit slurred out, "the sun's just barely up."
"And you're burning precious daylight," Rainbow answered as she trotted away. "Unless you wanna be traveling the frozen tundra at night, I'd suggest you get presentable."
With sluggish hoofsteps Starlit dragged all of her things together, clipped her heavy cloak onto her armor, pulled her sword-belt on, and with saddlebags slung across her haunches walked out into the pale blue light of early morning.
The whole Outpost was already awake and ready for business, with ponies going about their day-to-day as if it wasn't horrendously early. A metalsmith blew the bellows with his magic while he turned a hot piece of iron in the forge, a merchant pony was busy arranging her stock and looking out for customers, and even the children were scampering through the streets on there way to wherever it was they were going.
"There is no way these ponies have been up for more than ten minutes," Starlit thought through her sleepy haze.
A series of signposts directed the way through the tight alleys and paths in between the crude shacks and stone hovels that made up what Starlit assumed was a merchant district, although calling it a district was doing a disservice to the term. Despite how small it was, this patch of buildings was doing a fine job of turning Starlit around until she finally stumbled back into Rainbow Dash while rounding a corner.
"About time, I was just coming back to grab you," Rainbow scoffed. "You're as slow as a glacier, you know that?"
"Sorry, it's just that I'm incredibly tired and the layout of your town is very confusing," Starlit replied.
"And that's why you have me to get you to the Empire. Otherwise you'd just walk out into the white and never come back."
"And I'm sure you'd just love that," Starlit replied ruefully.
"I would, but then Spitfire would give me a demerit and I'd be scrubbing the latrine for a month," Rainbow answered. "You're just lucky that way, I suppose."
Starlit just started trudging forward, with Rainbow quickly making her way ahead and leading Starlit towards the commissary. It was a squat, ugly little building where a few of the walls had been replaced with metal sheets, but the interior was warm and smelled like heaven.
"Hey Starlit, over here!" she heard Sun call from a few tables down. He seemed bright eyed and bushy tailed, although how was far beyond her current ability to comprehend. He had a small metal plate with some seared root vegetables and a cup that smelled strongly of coffee in front of him.
Starlit dragged her way to the table as Sun pulled a second plate of food and mug of coffee to her. She slammed back the coffee as fast as the heat of it would let her, taking in a few mouthfuls of the nicely seared, if slightly flavorless, vegetables in between sips.
"You look like death," Sun commented as he ate. "Did you sleep alright?"
"I slept just fine, it's just that I was woken up about four hours earlier than I expected," Starlit answered as the coffee did it's work on her brain. "When did you get up to be this alert?"
"About two hours ago. The sun was still down when I got up, but that's why I went to bed so early. I tried to tell you not to wait up for Rainbow Dash, and this is why."
"Your friend's got a point," Rainbow chimed in as she sat down with her food. "Days here are really short and nights are really long. I don't know how far south you came from, but we're lucky if we get eight hours of daylight during the summer. If you try to set your sleep schedule by the time of day you'll always wake up tired."
"You'd think Celestia would've done something about that by now," Starlit groused without thinking.
"If you're expecting some magic sun goddess to fix the days here then you're even worse off than I thought," Rainbow casually commented. "Celestia hasn't helped us out since the war, it's why our days are so messed up."
Sun's fork clattered to his plate as Starlit agonizingly turned to look at Rainbow Dash next to her.
"Why are you two giving me death glares?" Rainbow asked, scooting away from Starlit and taking her food with her.
"You know about that?" Sun asked, his tone half-incredulous and half-amazed.
"Yeah, everypony up here does. There was a big war between the Empire and the Princesses of the old Equestrian Kingdom, and when it got too tough to handle the Princess of the Empire brought on the Chill and froze everything to keep anypony from taking it."
Rainbow shook her head as she finished her explanation, taking a swig of her own coffee as she did.
"Don't even know why I'm telling this to you two, you're just gonna freeze to death before you even get there."
Starlit and Sun exchanged a look, silently debating between themselves who was going to let the horseshoe drop.
"Rainbow Dash, do you like stories?" Starlit asked, trying her best to sound non-threatening.
"Yeah…" Rainbow answered quizzically. "As much as the next pony, at least."
"Then when we get underway there's a few details of your story that we need to fill you in on. Away from here, though; this isn't something for everypony to hear."
"Don't think you're going to try and bribe me with information," Rainbow curtly replied, "and if I can know this then everypony has a right to know. It's only fair."
"If you want to tell them after we come back then feel free to, but do you really think they'd trust a couple of outlanders like us?" Sun said.
Rainbow thought about it for a moment, and then give a relenting head nod.
"You've got a point, and not just the one on your head," Rainbow conceded, "but it better be worth it."
* * *
The group finished their breakfast and elected to meet up at the northern gate to the Outpost, which gave Rainbow Dash a few minutes to catch up with Scootaloo before she left. The filly would be heartbroken to hear that she was leaving for so long, and it wasn't a conversation Rainbow was looking forward to.
The facade of Scootaloo's schoolhouse, as rough and weatherbeaten as it was, gave Rainbow a pang of nostalgia for when she had learned there. The desks were made of stone and she wasn't quite sure that Mr. Brightbolt had been all there in the head, but it had been some of the best years of her childhood.
A loud gong rang out from inside, alerting the children that it was time for recess. She watched a few fillies and colts stream out to go play in the fresh snow before Scootaloo came, dragging her sled behind her. She and Rainbow locked eyes, and Scootaloo gave a big smile and a wave before running over.
"Heya there, squirt, how's school?" Rainbow asked as Scootaloo hugged her leg.
"It's alright, but Mr. Brightbolt said that he saw a bug-pony coming out of the snowfields yesterday, so most of our lesson was just his conspiracy theories again."
"I am amazed Spitfire lets him keep that job," Rainbow mused as she shook her head disapprovingly.
"So what're you here for?" Scootaloo asked. "Did you make up another story already?"
"I wish, but even I'm not that fast," Rainbow answered.
Scootaloo drew back, a look of mild confusion on her face. Rainbow kept smiling, but she knew how bright Scootaloo was; she could tell something was up.
"Is it bad?" Scootaloo asked.
"Kind of," Rainbow relented, letting her smile fade. "I'm gonna be going away for a few weeks, kiddo. Spitfire has a job for me and I have to do it, even though I really don't want to."
"Well, why can't you just say no? I know Spitfire's important, but if you don't want to then why don't you just tell her to get some other pony?" Scootaloo asked, her dejectedness growing with every word.
"Because she doesn't trust any other pony but me to get it done," Rainbow answered. It was a slight embellishment, but Rainbow knew it was the truth even if Spitfire hadn't said it.
"You're not going out into the white, are you?"
The fear in Scootaloo's voice was palpable, and for the first time in a while Rainbow couldn't make her words come to her.
"Why does it have to be you?!" Scootaloo continued, kicking her sled aside. "Ponies go out there, and sometimes they come back, but most of the time they don't! What is this even for?!"
"You remember the outlanders I told you about yesterday?" Rainbow asked.
"Them?! Scootaloo retorted. "She has you going out into the white because of two outlanders?!"
"Scoot, kid, I don't like it any more than you do," Rainbow replied, getting down into her knees so she could look the filly square in the eye. "But Spitfire's in charge, and if I don't listen to her then I'm gonna get in a lot of trouble. If she thinks this is worth the risk, then that's what I have to do."
The tears that had been welling up in Scootaloo's eyes finally spilled over, freezing onto her cheeks as she stared at the ground, bitter and angry.
"Hey, is that any way for a future patrol pony to act?" Rainbow asked gently, lifting Scootaloo's chin with her hoof.
Scootaloo kept her red eyes to the ground despite her head's position, and Rainbow gently took her cheeks in between both hooves, forcing her to look ahead.
"Listen, I swear to you, right here and right now, that I will come back home safe," Rainbow stated with authority. "Nothing is going to keep me from coming back, and when I get back I'm gonna have the best Daring Do story ever for you. You hear me?"
Scootaloo slowly pulled Rainbow's hooves from her face, taking a few steps back and trying not to cry any more.
"Even better than the Temple of the Shifting Sleet?" Scootaloo asked.
"Even better than that," Rainbow answered.
Scootaloo mulled it over before quickly pulling Rainbow in for a big, tight hug, the type of hug that a pony gives when they know it might be their last for a long time.
"Please come back," Scootaloo pleaded softly.
"I promise, and I never back out on a promise."
* * *
Sun trotted nervously back and forth near the northern gate, mostly to keep his blood flowing but also out of nerves. Every few seconds or so his eyes would flick over towards the horizon, and the vast, all-encompassing emptiness that went out seemingly into forever.
Nervously he checked his compass; the leather cord pointed to his northwest, out into a patch of the snowfield that was currently masked by a small snowstorm. He silently prayed that it led to the dead patch in the wards around the Empire, but he knew that it couldn't be that easy.
"Something on your mind?" Starlit asked, pulling Sun out of his worried trance.
"Just getting a really strong sense of deja vu. If it weren't for the constant snowstorm, I'd swear we were trekking out into the Searing Plains again."
"Traveling across a vast, inhospitable expanse of flatness searching for an ancient kingdom that can't be found by normal means?" Starlit replied, putting a hoof to her chin. "I can see where you're coming from."
"At least in the case of New Selene we got dropped right into an alley," Sun said.
"And then I was promptly killed by an unfeeling machine," Starlit answered back.
"And later I was blown up in a mine shaft," Sun continued.
"And later still we were both nearly deafened and screamed apart not twenty feet away from our goal."
Sun and Starlit both exchanged a long, uncomfortable look. Though it had been bad at the time, in hindsight their trip to New Selene had been a truly hellish couple of days.
"I think I preferred the desert," Sun finally admitted. "At least with that you knew what was going to kill you."
"Good grief, what kind of life are we living that being scorched to death in the desert is seen as the preferable option?" Starlit asked, shaking her head at the sheer absurdity of it all.
"You two got all your stuff together?" a third voice called from behind Sun. "Because I am not gonna wait here for you because you forgot your stuffed bunny or something stupid like that."
Sun turned around to see Rainbow Dash trudging through the snow towards them. She was wearing a thick coat that had flaps designed to cover her wings while still allowing her to fly, as well as a heavy scarf, a head wrap, a muzzle mask, a thick fur hat, heavy boots, and a pair of goggles wrapped across her eyes. The only way that Sun could even tell it was her was from the small tuft of rainbow colored hair peeking out from under her hat.
"Here, Spitfire told me to give these to you," Rainbow continued as she approached. She roughly tossed a set of her head equipment to each of them, which Sun was only barely able to catch.
"Thanks for your consideration," Starlit replied.
"Just don't say I never did nothing for you," Rainbow sniped back. "You're going to need them anyway unless you want your nostrils and eyelids to freeze shut."
Thus warned, Sun quickly threw all of his headgear on in a rough approximation of the arrangement Rainbow had. The effect was just about immediate, as his entire head felt like it the temperature had gone up by nearly twenty degrees.
"Also, since you two obviously don't have these from wherever it is that your from, you'll need one of our guidesticks," Rainbow added, carefully pulling a pair of long wooden sticks with those glowing crystals at the top of them from off of her back.
"We could just use our horns to signal each other," Sun said, looking over the sticks.
"Only if you want it to freeze and snap off, or for the hypothermia to set in faster than it's going to," Rainbow retorted. "Using magic takes energy, and energy is what we need to preserve at all costs to keep warm and keep moving. You only use your magic if it is a life-or-death situation, understood?"
"Understood," Sun relented, taking one of the guidesticks as he did. Starlit took hers as well, although she didn't look too pleased about it.
"What, worried it's gonna shock you again?" Rainbow snidely asked to Starlit.
"No, just wondering how long it'll take for me to figure out how to catalyze my magic through it," Starlit answered, "so that I could zap your arrogant flank with it."
"Just you try, see how long you hang on to that thing for afterwards," Rainbow retorted.
"Ladies, we're not even out of the village and you two are already threatening each other," Sun interjected, his voice muffled by his mask. "Could we at least wait until we're wandering through a blinding snowstorm before we resort to murder?"
"Works for me," Rainbow replied as she marched towards the gate leading out of town. A pair of unicorns illuminated their crystal-laden horns and pulled the rough sheet metal up, causing it to make a horrific shrieking sound as it did.
Starlit followed out behind Rainbow Dash as she pulled her goggles down, keeping a fair distance with Sun bringing up the rear. Sun caught one last look behind himself as the gate shrieked closed. He couldn't help but feel like he was walking to his execution.
* * *
The first day's march was long, slow, and silent. The snow had grown deep as soon as they had left the immediate area outside of the Outpost, and no matter how often Sun kicked his hooves he couldn't seem to extricate the snow inside of his boots. It just melted down into a cold slurry, and whenever they made a moment to stop he would have to pour them out.
The sun had set quickly, just like he knew it would, although the moon was still mercifully bright. The weather had calmed down enough for Rainbow Dash to order them to make camp on a nearby flat and compacted patch of ice, and as Sun was setting up his tent he felt a familiar pressure settle on the back of his head.
"You take me to the nicest places," Silence sarcastically cooed. After the hours of trudging through the howling wind and empty white nothingness, her voice was actually a welcome distraction.
"You should've seen the desert, you would've gotten a real kick out of that endless expanse of nothing."
"I've always preferred the cold, if I'm being perfectly honest," Silence replied. "I enjoy how everything slows down when it's cold; it gives one time to savor where they are rather than constantly fretting over where they're going and where they've been."
"Did you need something Silence, I'm a little busy," Sun asked as he contemplated how to pound tent stakes into solid ice.
"I just wanted to tell you a few things before I have to go away."
"What do you mean you have to go away?" Sun asked back with a start. "I was just getting halfway used to having you around."
"I wish I didn't have to, but there is the slight problem of that deafening zone of anti-magic that you are about to waltz right into. The effect is powerful enough that I won't be able to maintain my connection to your mind, and by proxy you won't have access to my resurrection magic."
"What about Starlit's necklace, will that still work?" Sun asked, slightly panicked.
"It might, but tell her to be careful nonetheless," Silence answered. "Now if you're done with your questions, I have some critical information that I need to pass onto you."
"Firstly, I have seen inside the Empire, despite their anti-magical defenses," Silence began. "The Empire is in a very sorry state, and there are creatures roaming the streets that I have never seen before. I don't know if they're a different breed of thestrals brought on by the concentrated magic in the area or by the magical frost Cadance conjured, but you must remain vigilant; these things attack each other as quickly as they do prey."
"Secondly, Cadance herself is… in a state, to put it mildly. I know that Starlit has great powers of persuasion and charisma oozing out of every pore, but I don't think Cadance is in the right stage of mind to even comprehend of you as more than a figment of her fragmented mind. You may have to drag her back to Twilight for healing before she'll return to Canterlot, and I doubt she will come willingly."
"And lastly, I leave you with this; when you enter the Empire, I would highly encourage you to seek out the Astral Conservatory. Starlit is holding onto something she wants answers about, and I feel she will find them there. I just hope she's prepared for the answers she receives."
Sun took a mental note of everything that Silence had just told him before sitting down on the ice and fidgeting with the tent stakes.
"Do you think you'll ever come back?" Sun asked, trying not to let his genuine dismay leak through.
"It's hard to say," Silence admitted. "As of right now I'm operating on the assumption that this will be our last conversation, which is why I'm giving you all of the magic that I can."
Before Sun could protest he felt his entire body start to tingle, like his leg had fallen asleep but extrapolated all over his body. As the power coursed through his arcane system he began to feel stronger, more like himself again.
"Think of it as a gift," Silence continued, her voice now far softer than it had been before. "I've come to appreciate our time together, and when our paths cross again I would love to pick up where we left off."
"Goodbye, Silence," Sun said as he felt the pressure ebb out of his head.
Sun received no reply, felt no pressure in his brain. There was nothing to hear but the silence of the chill night air.
* * *