Starlight felt like the elevator had been rising for an eternity, but it was probably the number of strangers she shared it with more than anything. Along with Maple, Gerardo, Valey and Felicity, a whole cohort of armored sarosians flocked around Jaxy, standing still from floor to passing floor. But eventually, the blue-lit ceiling drew into sight, and after minutes more they reached it, the magical platform sliding smoothly to a stop and stone doors splitting open.
They stepped out into a white stone plaza considerably far up the mountain, one half disappearing in buildings and tunnels into the rock face and the other dropping off steeply without even a railing. Only the barest edge of the city was visible below, testifying to their height, though Starlight was sure if she walked closer she could see things just like she had from the airship. They had to be near the summit, though she guessed there were still a few more layers to truly reach the top.
Batponies filled the courtyard, evenly split between ones wearing armor and ones wearing robes. Most of the armor looked ceremonial, and she doubted it would stop any fighter truly determined. There was also a clear difference between what the males and females were doing, and she was sure one side was more important, but couldn't put her hoof on what it was.
"Right then, follow me," Jaxy commanded, turning right past a fountain and towards the inward mountain slope. "If it's the council you wish to see, then by the council you will be seen!"
Starlight's fur prickled as all of the passing batponies regarded them with curiosity and interest, her old aversion to being the center of attention stirring slightly in her mind. She distracted herself by studying the fountain. There were four like it in the plaza, and this one showed two batponies, a lower one with their head stretched upwards, smiling as a higher one poured an endless stream of water on their face from an urn. If there was a meaning to it, it was lost on-
POOOF!
A sudden, painless shock coursed through her body, frizzing her mane and causing all her fur to stand on end. She flinched, and Maple jumped beneath her with a surprised yelp. "Starlight!?"
Everyone stopped to look at her, making Starlight even more self-conscious, especially now that her coat was messed up, though whatever had caused it was gone. "Aha," Jaxy chuckled. "Hahaha! You've got a knack for fashion, girly-girl. How did you pull that one off? Some unicorn trick, I suspect..."
"No, I... I didn't..." Starlight shrank against Maple's back, wishing she still had her shadow cloak. She rubbed her face against Maple's neck to try to smooth her fur, but that only ruffled Maple's, too. "Please stop staring..."
She was sure her cheeks were burning, but Gerardo came to her aid. "You heard the filly," he commanded. "To the temple, Captain?"
Jaxy shrugged and continued, though Starlight continued to wish she was invisible. Her fur didn't poof out again... but as Maple resumed her pace, Starlight looked behind them, noting that they had just crossed one of the city's glowing blue veins of light.
"Maple?" Starlight poked her mother's shoulder, whispering as they crested a staircase in a tunnel and emerged onto a higher plaza.
"Are you alright?" Maple hummed back.
"See those lines?" Starlight pointed to this plaza's midnight veins, two of them flowing down from above and one splitting in two. "Please don't step on them. I think they're what made my fur do that."
"Mmm," Maple quietly agreed. They had to cross both of the geometric bands to reach the next entrance where Jaxy was leading, and Starlight watched her hooves as they approached. Maple carefully stepped over, and Starlight felt a faint, tingling fuzz, but there was no shock or poof.
"Jaxy?" Maple asked after another set of stairs and another, smaller plaza. "What are these blue lines?"
"Conduits for the Night Mother's power, my inquisitive friend," Jaxy chuckled, lowering his head. "Gemstones energized by this temple's core. Most sarosian cities have them, though they take centuries to build, so this one's are the grandest by far."
The temple's core...? Starlight blinked. This city wasn't built on another Tree of Harmony, was it? That wouldn't make sense if every city could to that. They had passed by several on their flight already, and there couldn't be that many trees. But now that she looked again, the energy veins did remind her of the pulsations in the natural rock of Ironridge, at the lowest levels the elevator to the crystal palace cut through before it actually reached the crystals.
When they reached the next vein, her curiosity got the better of her, and she hopped off to take a closer look. The material seemed to flow just like a liquid, carrying light and brightness along at an even rate, yet retained the perfect, rigid form of a solid, and she was sure if she pressed her hoof to it it wouldn't feel like it was moving.
The light itself was strange, too. It almost reminded her of the brightness she saw around ponies when she was moon glassed, only now she was fully harmonic and could see color clear as day. Part of her yearned to reach out and touch it, though she could feel her fur threatening to rise just from getting close and knew that if being on Maple when she touched it poofed her entire coat, making contact herself would probably ruin her mane beyond any semblance of repair.
At the same time, something was off about the light in the conduits. Staring into it for more than a second, she began to feel a vague unease prickling at her insides, like someone was hiding around a corner. She couldn't place why, and was sure these veins were more good than bad, but knew that she wouldn't be able to watch them forever without eventually growing paranoid.
"Well, someone's curious," Jaxy remarked, sensing that the group was breaking up and strolling back over. "Appeased by the pretty lights, are we?"
"What is this?" Starlight asked, staring him straight in the eyes.
Jaxy took her look as a staring contest and accepted with a sly grin. "But I just said! They're conduits for the power of the Night Mother!"
"That's what they do," Starlight challenged. "I want to know what they are."
"What do I look like, a metaphysicist?" Jaxy frowned, then spread his shoulders and shrugged, turning his back on her and beginning to pace away. "We call them ether crystals. They're created in the places they are, inch by inch in accordance with ancient ceremonies, grown out from one another like a tree. You'd have to ask a real monk to tell you more."
Felicity furtively cleared her throat, motioning at Starlight and then herself.
Starlight got the message, nodding to let Felicity know. Valey poked the veins a few times herself, squinting into them now that they were the center of attention, but Jaxy was pressing on and soon everyone else was too.
By the next plaza, Starlight was riding on Maple's back again, though they were climbing enough staircases that she had to constantly watch and ensure her mother wasn't getting tired. "You're okay carrying me, right?"
"Up the stairs?" Maple smiled and nodded. "Starlight, I don't regularly carry ballast for nothing. I like having you close. I'm fine."
Jaxy made a mushy face and led on, continuing along the pattern of enclosed staircases that led between separate extrusions on the mountainside. The next plaza had extensive plant life, streams of water running through shallow troughs in the stone floor in the shape of a circular sigil, decorated by low hedges and vines hanging from pillars. But instead of green, all the foliage was a ghostly teal, decorated with deep violet and midnight accents and hues. It glowed from within with a phosphorescent light, and Starlight suspected the plants were like that from exposure to the city's veins.
"Enjoy the botany while you can," Jaxy advised, acting as an impromptu tour guide. "Visitors in the past have asked, and no, it won't continue doing that if you transplant it somewhere else. Even taking these shrubs below the cloud layer can rob them of their luminescence."
"I am sorry, darlings, but I think I'll have to enjoy it a little while longer," Felicity declared, abruptly stopping to pant. "Though the last week has been pleasant and restful, I am still me, and that's about as many staircases as I can handle without needing more than a day to recover."
Jaxy blinked, then frowned. "That was three mere flights, my good mare. Are you unwell?"
Felicity raised a wing for him to stand down. "If you're considering fetching a healer, there's another mare on our ship who would benefit from it far more than I would. I merely need a rest. And don't you dare threaten me with the indignation of carrying me in public."
"Carry you?" Jaxy tilted his head. "Who would do such a thing, mare?"
Valey innocently looked away.
"Never mind." Jaxy sucked in a breath, drew up his shoulders and opened his eyes. "I shall run ahead to inform the council yet again you are coming. Yesna, command the goon squad to escort them further along at whatever pace they choose."
Yesna returned a frustrated bow. If the other guards knew how they were being referred to, they didn't react, and everyone was free as Felicity made for a waterside bench.
Starlight slipped off Maple's back and followed her, looking over her shoulder to make sure her companions stayed close by. Now that her grayness was gone, she didn't have the same burning, lingering need for Felicity to trust her that she did then, so while she was going to give the mare the benefit of the doubt, she wanted her friends nearby, too. "You know something about the ether crystals?" she asked.
"I'm barely old enough to remember them firsthoof, so pardon me if my knowledge is rusty," Felicity begged, patting the bench. "And do take a seat. But you wanted to know what these are, yes? As in what they're made of?"
Starlight pondered. "Probably," she decided.
Felicity took a few more minutes to catch her breath. "What I know for sure is the way they're made, darling. When you want to add more, you find a branch that already exists, and you perform a special ceremony over it. The centerpiece to the ceremony must be some event of immense emotional power and significance revolving around hope for the future. Not just any joy or happiness will do; it has to be about wishes for what will happen. Two of the easiest examples are weddings and the birth of a foal, but other things can do it too. Coming of age, the reconciliation of mortal enemies... Combined with the proper rites performed by a sufficiently powerful monk, and the crystal grows an inch or more."
Her eyes drifted across the garden plateau. "And yes, that means each of the lines we've crossed on our way here took perhaps hundreds of events or more, just for the portions you witnessed. Building them is a project that's spanned all of this city's thousand-year history, guided by the Night Mother, and they're still being expanded at the edges of the city today."
"So they're crystallized emotion," Starlight murmured, staring at the plants. Kind of like Gerardo's sword...
"The conduits themselves," Felicity confirmed. "Then they're actually empowered, of course. I believe they're connected to a dusk statue, though of course I've never seen for myself. My understanding of this is a bit more limited, but they act like a reservoir of sorts. From time to time they even grow dim for minutes or hours. Tradition there is that this occurs when the Night Mother calls back her power because she has need of it herself, and in the meantime, she spreads it among us so we may bask in it."
Starlight stared in thought. "And does it do anything?"
Felicity shrugged. "Some say it's the source of Mistvale's eternal twilight. That's clearly an illusion, since the land would freeze if it truly received no warmth from the sun, but this is the most powerful magic source that's plainly visible to be involved."
"Huh." Starlight kept thinking.
"It's also responsible for the glowing plants," Felicity confirmed. "And it has other effects, too. Anything involving creation is easier, here. Trees produce better harvests, artists feel more inspired, children who are extremely young tend to grow faster and be healthier. We haven't had enough outsiders to know for certain, but there are rumors that brands appear more easily, too."
Starlight's heart froze.