Myths and Birthrights
By Tundara
Book Two: Duty and Dreams
Chapter Nineteen: Sojourn of the Stars
The route back to Ioka was indirect, at best.
Shyara led Twilight to a distant corner of her realm. Pockets of devastation dotted the journey like pimpled pox scars, each reminding Twilight of the dangers she had to shield her little ponies against. The ferocity of a mad star, twisted into a beast with the sole purpose of fighting the alicorns left a hollow feeling in Twilight’s stomach. Shyara wobbled in her flight, wings unsteady where Thuban had managed to wound her, giving testament to the resilience of even a newly Awakened alicorn. Twilight had difficulty imagining any single pony being able to wage such a battle and win.
And, if a town, or nation, was caught in the middle… Images of Southern Prance as seen by the stars, and the battle waged between Faust and Zeus crept upwards.
Her heart lingered, battered as if it were a ship in a storm, coiling fears through her stomach. She hardly saw the raised platform that marked where Shyara first set hoof in the Endless Library. It were like she were an observer on the outside, aware of events, but not fully engaged with them.
The platform was a large circle, over a hundred pony-lengths from edge to edge, and surrounded by dozens of archways. Some of the archways were placed on additionally raised edges, or in a sunken, little dip. Stairs lead up to the platform from the rest of the library, but not to the arches themselves. Runes covered the archways, and Twilight could have at another time spent days just sitting there, pondering their functions.
Focused on the plight of her little ponies, Twilight hardly glanced in the runes direction as Shyara opened a gateway to another world.
It was not Ioka the stepped onto, but the Midway-Garden of Roads. Here the destruction caused by Shyara and Thuban was greater still, the damage more lasting where the gardens keepers were missing, if it ever had any.
Here again was a place Twilight could have studied for years on years, and yet she barely lifted her head to glance about.
Winding her way through the garden, following deserted trails and roads, Shyara at first seemed lost. Impatience prickled along the nape of Twilight’s neck.
“This is a little more difficult,” Shyara said just as Twilight was about to snap. “I had the hemmravn bring me every scrap of knowledge on this place. It was what I was reading when you arrived, point-of-fact. Intent and intuition are paramount in this place. The roadways shift and doors move from time to time. The alicorns who used to tend to this place have all been destroyed, and without them, it tends to grow in odd patterns.”
“If all these are doorways, why don’t we just pick one?” Twilight flipped her wing at a rather plain arch.
“Because, not all of them return to Ioka, and most are locked regardless,” Shyara said as if that explained everything.
Passing by a large, fountain square, Shyara stopped, and then back-tracked. Her eye narrowed behind her veil, and then she quipped, “Here we go.” She limp-skipped ahead to one of the many archways filling the gardens.
It was a crumbling thing, cracks running through columns made of blocky stones. Dark moss covered one face, while the other was blackened as if from a fire.
Tenderly, Shyara traced her good wing down the cold stone. Stiffening, she hissed, “Here it is. This will take us back to Ioka.”
Twilight missed what Shyara did next, the smaller alicorn leaning in and whispering something to the rune-inscribed stones. An inky veil unfolded in the breadth of the arch’s arms, and through it came the scent of flowers on a damp, chilly breeze. Without waiting, Twilight cantered through the gateway.
Her fur tingled, and then she stood in the ruined hall of some castle. At first she assumed she’d been transported to the Castle of the Sisters, but the rotten decor was all wrong, as were the small, slate grey stones that littered the ground. A heavy scent of spent magic lingered in the air, like morning dew in a field. Turning around revealed a great gouge torn through the side of the hall, framing distant mountains beyond rolling forests. The tops of the trees were missing in a line leading towards a gouge in the side of a mountain.
“I know this place,” Twilight whispered through tight lips.
Glancing down revealed a dark patch, a shadow seared into the ground where something horrific had died. Where the doshaa was slain. The flagstones themselves wounded by its corrupted blood.
“Trixie died right there,” Shyara spoke softly, her voice cracking with sadness. “She was mother’s champion, and that made her your champion too. Through your blessing she channelled the powers to destroy a greater demon, but it cost her life in the process. Perhaps that is why you know of this place.”
“No… I saw it. Was shown it by Leviathan,” Twilight replied in a slight daze. She moved over to a spot to the side. A dark red stain marred the stones where… “My biological father was killed here because I failed to protect him, you, and Trixie.”
Tension tightened the edges of Twilight’s jaw.
What had been a day of relative success continued to blacken in her estimation. Leviathan had been correct about everything. About how she’d failed everypony.
Well, she wasn’t going to fail this time.
A tug at the edges of her mind reminded her that time waited for no pony. Beyond the mountains Sol was barely a sliver, the velveteen tapestry of night beginning to stretch across the heavens. Blinding light hidden above the ocean of her magic, the stars were decidedly not where the should have been.
Momentary panic gripped her, and with a mental sweep of her wings she returned her stars to the heavens, where they belonged, and where they would soon be joined by their long fallen sisters.
Their return was none too soon, as Polaris’ glimmering light appeared in the sky at the same instant the last of Sol’s light blinked into darkness. For perhaps the first and only time, the ponies of the disc remained utterly unaware of any of the upheavals occuring overhead. Only a few of the more ardent astrologers and astronomers noticed a new star in the heavens. Home with her sisters, Thuban reclaimed her rightful place among the constellation Draco.
A relieved sigh hissing between her teeth, Twilight turned her attention towards finding her stars. She trotted to the hole in the wall, the ground dropping away down a steep incline. Pausing only for a moment to contemplate the lingering traces of her own magic permeating the ruins, Twilight took to the sky.
Twisting up over the hilltop, she cast her gaze far and wide in search of a clue as to where to go. Twilight had never been to West Equestria. In truth, it looked just the same as the Heartlands. Rolling hills with tended woods interspersed by wild forests. Cleared fields surrounded the towns. Here and there a castle, relics of the War of the Sun and Moon, half collapsed and left as ruined monuments to a war nopony wished to remember. During that long-ago conflict these had been the wild frontiers, now the land had been settled for centuries, with little to distinguish it from the rest of Equestria but for a few architectural quirks and local accents.
Paying the village a short distance away little attention, Twilight was drawn towards a pond in a field on the other side of a short woods. Away from the ruins, another source of familiar raw magic tingled across her wings. It was her own magic, but turned inside out and scattered. Necrotic motes mingled in with purer strands of aether, giving the air a sickly taste.
Landing next to the monument at the pond’s edge, Twilight buttressed her heart against the foulness crawling through the earth and air. Given time, this would become a terrible place. The land would sicken and die, the air would become a poisonous vapour choking in the throat. It was like standing before a forlorn, untended grave. Her grave.
Upper lip curling, Twilight fully understood what Hades meant when he said she was already dead. She’d died here. Somehow.
Unlike with Thuban there was no body, no focal point, she could use to gather the stray threads of aether. She wasn’t even certain such a method would work. Aether and souls were different things, though closely woven.
Fanning out her wings, she attempted to to gather the aether as she’d done with Thuban, but there was no broken chains with which to follow, to use as a vector around which Astraea’s shattered soul could be gathered. In the end magic swirled, unnatural winds howled through the trees and grass, turning the pond’s still surface into turbid waves, but nothing more happened.
Her next dozen attempts and methodological revisions all produced identically null results.
It was going to take some time and experimentation to discover a method to recover the missing half of her soul. Time was one of the few things in short supply. Now she was back on Ioka, she could hear the lamentations of the mothers who’d had their daughters stolen. They cried out to Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and to her in a constant, buzzing humm in the corners of her ear.
For their sakes, she had to heal herself. She had to reclaim this missing piece.
Night turned to day, and still Twilight remained stuck.
No matter what she attempted, the ‘soul’ portion of the aether refused her touch. The aether itself could be manipulated, but it was just aether. Raw. Wild. And tainted with sadness and fear.
It was not what she needed.
Twilight growled in frustration and stamped her hoof at the end of the second unproductive day.
“Perhaps it can’t be done,” Shyara suggested. She’d summoned her throne-turned-lounge of books, and lay curled beneath a blanket of sapphire dark wool. Propping her chin on her good hoof, with a scroll floating in front of her, she hardly glanced in Twilight’s direction since it became apparent that nothing was going to be accomplished. “Maybe you are not Astraea after-all.”
“No, she and I are connected.” Twilight tapped the bare stone ground. “I just can’t get a grasp of the missing part of me. Every time it slips through my aura like I’m trying to pick up water with my hooves.”
“Maybe that is because mother is at the bottom of the pond.” Shyara rolled down the scroll to the next section.
Blinking a few times, Twilight snapped, “Why didn’t you tell me that days ago?”
“I thought you’d know just being here,” Shyara shot back, snapping her scroll shut with an angry snort.
Ignoring Shyara’s snide remark, Twilight focused on the pond itself, rather than the aether in the air and earth. As with previous attempts, the pond refused to give up its secrets. Stepping to the pond’s edge, she tried again. Her hoof sank into the soft loamy ground, and then ice shot up her leg. Eyes widening in surprise, concentration broken, Twilight let out a nicker and back away a few steps.
There was no reason for the water to be so cold. The pond was fed by a small, babbling brook and seasonal rains, rather than some glacier stream. Given its size and apparent depth, the pond should have been refreshingly cool.
June had come, and with it the long days had turned sticky with growing heat. The sky was perfectly clear, not a cloud in sight, Sol’s rays feeding the last remaining days of a glorious spring. In a few short weeks it would be time for the Summer Sun Celebration.
Cautiously, she approached again, this time focusing on her hooves rather than attempting to gather any stray aether.
“What happened?” Shyara stretched half off her couch.
Waving for Shyara to stay put, Twilight waded out into the water. Unnatural chills pierced deep into her legs. It was identical to the day she’d encountered Astraea’s shade in the library all those months ago. A leaching, sucking force that drained her of energy and will. Only, this time she knew how to ward off the intrusion.
“Wait there,” Twilight called over to Shyara, and then she plunged into the frosty waters.
Shimmering veils broke through the ponds surface leaving Twilight in a world separate from any other. Sapphire blues and murky greens swirled around Twilight as she used her wings to descend to the bottom of the pond. Leaves and small sticks floated behind her, caught up in her wake.
At the very bottom of the pond, just as Shyara had said, lay the remains of Astraea. Torn in two, the shade had transformed into a pair of jagged violet crystals. Sheer sides created a multifaceted mirror, strands of light bouncing through the unsettled pond. From them leaked the aether Twilight had been trying to collect.
Floating closer, Twilight was confronted by her reflection. No ordinary mirror, the crystals showed a thin, bordering on emaciated mare. If not for the water, Twilight would have gasped. It wasn’t that she was missing any part, per se, it was more that she was threadbare, like canvas stretched over a large from. Or some comparison of butter and bread.
At least, that was the implication of what the crystal showed.
It could easily have been that the image was Astraea herself, woken by Twilight’s presence. Doubt that this was the case prickled at Twilight. Something told her that what she saw was indeed herself.
Much the same as what had become of Authea, only larger in size, Astraea’s soul crystal beckoned for Twilight to approach. Ready in case some semblance of sentience remained in the reflective facets, Twilight drifted close enough to lay her hoof on the nearer shard.
A jolt dug into the frog of her hoof, followed by a deeper tingle along the contours of what made her ‘Twilight’. Whatever remained of Astraea rushed forth, drawn along the physical connection. And with it came a sense of relief, of hope, and a myriad other disjointed emotions. But, no memories. No guiding wing giving them shape or form. Just simple remnants of a dead goddess.
Strongest among these fragments were two paired final regrets, one of failure to protect those she’d sworn to watch over, and the other a last surge of focused fury that ended in bitter defeat.
As the remnants mingled and merged, fusing with Twilight, rejoining that from which it had been separated there came something like a whisper. Not a true voice, but the meaning was unmistakable; ‘We were Many, and are now One, and We will never fail again. The Stars guide, watch over, and protect. We shelter the Dreams of mortalkind beneath our wings. We are the beacons of Hope. No matter the cost, We will safeguard this and every other world.’
“I promise,” Twilight said, clutching her hooves to her chest as the crystal remnants turned into silty residue, their power where it belonged.
Bursting back to the surface, Twilight rose from the pond and settled back next to the monument. The land was still sickly, but it would never become some cursed vale or haunted woods. In time it would heal.
Waving Shyara over, Twilight said, “It is done. Now to find and reclaim the missing stars.”
Tilting her head, Shyara asked, “Do you need them? You are exuding a presence comparable to Zeus. Or Hemera when angered. A queenly crown is easily within you grasp. The Queen of the Night, perhaps?”
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t want any crowns. Titles are pointless. I must return all my stars to the heavens if I am to be certain that Hades will have no power over me. Fortunately, I already know where we can find several stars. Well, Stellar Beasts, to be more precise. Come on, every minute we waste ponies are having their daughters taken away.”
Without preamble, and in a act that would have usually been considered rather rude, Twilight teleported herself and Shyara. They were on the disc, and the stars could see almost everywhere, and she could go to anyplace they saw.
Not that she needed her stars for this first teleport.
Mizar and Yildun, better known as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, still slumbered deep in their cave in the Everfree Forest. Exactly where she’d left them a few years ago.
The titanic stellar beasts stirred at Twilight’s approach, black lips curling to revealing fangs longer than wagons. Paws the size of cottages sprouted dark black claws that carved stone as if it were warmed butter. Their nose crinkled in rage at being awakened again and the pair thundered out of the mountainside.
Standing her ground, Twilight craned her neck to stare at the mythical monsters. Behind her Shyara backed up until she was half-hidden in the thick vegetation of the Everfree.
“I’ll wait here!” called the young goddess, shrinking further behind a stout cedar as if the tree could provide protection.
Twilight absently nodded and trotted up to the Ursas.
Ursa Minor snorted, and charged around her ‘mother’. Opening her maw wide, the smaller stellar beast unleashed a roar that sounded across the forest. Flocks of birds, and the odd manticore or chimera took to the sky in fright for miles. Raising her massive paw, Ursa Minor swatted at the invader to her territory.
Twilight stood her ground, not even flinching as she was swallowed in expanding shadows nor when she was struck fully across the head and body. Compared against Leviathan’s rage or Hades’ malice, Ursa Minor’s swat was almost cute. The earth underhoof trembled and buckled, but Twilight did not. Confused, Ursa Minor glared at its paw and the pony in the shallow crater.
Confusion morphed into worry and then fear as Twilight stepped up to Ursa Minor’s thick hewed leg and laid her wing upon the twinkling starfield fur.
Touching a living stellar beast was very different than Thuban’s inert, dead form. Ursa Minor’s deepest heart was laid bare, open as a summer day window. Broken shards of a former life danced along the edges of perception. The poor creature’s fears, worries, joys, and the lasting betrayal were carved deep into her ancient soul by Nightmare Moon. With the visions came a name, Yildun the Neglected, carried on a current of sorrow.
Cupping Yildun’s soul, Twilight collected the disparate fragments and melted them into a new whole. Ursa Minor died in an explosion of light that cut through the miamsic horizon to be seen in Appleloosa a thousand miles away. Then the light and body of the great beast collapsed in on itself, sucked into a single point from which no light could emerge.
For a brief moment there was only a dead lump of cold, black diamond held between her forward spread wings. Then a flare of black and silver burst from the crystalline core, and a new heartbeat began as Yildun was reborn. Floating upwards Yildun hiccuped, and than began to dreamily orbit Twilight.
Howling with fury and loss, Ursa Major opened her maw wide and lunged.
She too died and was reborn.
Twilight stared at the spot the pair of Stellar Beasts had occupied. She shifted her gaze down to her still outstretched wings. The edges of her feathers had turned a ghostly white, as if horrified by her own actions. She’d killed another living thing, crushed them with her aura alone, leaving their final moments etched into her heart. Yes, they’d been Her stars, and as such extensions of herself. Yet, they’d also been their own individuals, with their own hopes and dreams, and now those lights had been snuffed and relit.
Instructors at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns warned their students that killing with their aura left scars on a pony. An intimate connection was formed between the unicorn and their victim, one that left wounds that could never be fully healed. It was worse in some regards than even using Dark Magic. It was why battle-magic or weapons were used when it’d have been so much easier to just strangle a victim with the mind. Even the Nightmare refused to kill in such a manner.
And now Twilight had done it. Twice.
Except, it wasn’t really killing. More like transformation. And Yildun and Mizar were extensions of herself. Sort of. And she didn’t die. No, she was very much alive. More alive than before, by her estimation.
No matter the justifications or logical reasonings, Twilight was unable to shake the sensation that what she’d done was wrong, and that she’d have to do it again.
Stepping out of the shallow crater, Twilight sent Mizar and Yildun home to the heavens. ‘Thank you,’ the stars whispered as they returned to their sisters at long last. Shyara was silent, contemplative, her eye dark behind her veil. With a slash of her horn Twilight teleported herself and Shyara towards the next stellar beast.
Had they stayed a few moments longer they would have met Celestia and Cadence, the pair spotting Twilight and Shyara for a second as they flew over the Everfree. Celestia could have called to Twilight, but momentary confusion stayed her voice at the dark maroon magic edged in black that flowed from Twilight horn, rather than her usual vibrant pink.
Collecting the remaining Stellar Beasts took the better part of a week.
Scorpius they found in the border regions between the Great Dragon Desert and Zebrica. She tried to drown Twilight in sand, dragging her into an underground burrow before Twilight restored her, and Satavis was a star once more.
Cancer, or Acubens, slumbered in a hidden inlet on the eastern edges of the Taiga. At Twilight’s approach, the crablike stellar beast scuttled across the ocean floor to escape, only to be caught as Twilight blocked the inlet with a wall of ice.
Leo prowled the hot, fetid southern jungles of the antarctic, stalking prey among the giant trees. Unlike the Ursas, Leo knew better than to charge headlong at Twilight, and lead her on a long game of cat and alicorn. False trails lead to cliffs or murky swamps, or disappeared in swift flowing rivers. For three days Leo avoided Twilight, until Twilight laid a snare of her own, and Venant was restored.
Taurus charged across the empty deserts and arid hills of Saddle Arabia, resting at night in the city ruins that had once been home to Man. Fast as the desert sirocco, Taurus fled from Twilight, smashing through anything in its path to escape. Twilight was faster still, and returned Tascheter to the heavens.
Centaurus was next closest, living in the rolling hills and grasslands inhabited by the Pegasi Hordes. The pegasi watched from their clouds as Twilight confronted Centaurus. With its celestial bow Centaurus fired arrows as large as full grown redwoods. The fight was short lived, as Twilight nullified the arrows, and reforged Alpha Centauri.
Orion alone welcomed Twilight, the giant hunter sitting alone and forlorn on an unnamed island at the disc’s edge. Shaped into man, Orion was the most feared of the stellar beasts, though far from the most powerful. Whereas the other beasts could scare away any threats, Orion was actively chased, the hunter was in turn hunted by entire towns. In sorrow, Orion sought complete solitude and a life alone. With open arms, Orion became Betelgeuse once more.
Twilight then returned to Marelantis for Pisces, whose body rested in the sunken ruins. Leviathan’s maleficent presence pervaded the deep black water, snuffing out the light and casting everything in absolute darkness. Even Twilight’s strongest spells formed illuminated no more than a couple pony lengths around her. Undersea monsters moved in the darkness, felt only in the currents that buffeted Twilight from time to time. At last, Twilight found Pisces on the slopes of the once more dormant volcano and Haftorang was restored. With her the four Watchers were at last home, and the last of the Stellar Beasts were no more.
Tracking the beasts had proved time consuming, but relatively easy. Their chains had been easier to follow, the bonds meant to connect them to Twilight still partially maintained. Even Pisces.
The stars who’d actually fallen proved far more difficult.
Some she already knew where to find, such as Samalla who’d been buried in Zerubaba. The locations of a few other fallen stars were recorded in history. Deciding to leave Samalla for later, Twilight instead returned to her foalhood home of Sparkle Manor. If anypony would have records pertaining to where the other fallen stars were entombed it would be her mama, Whisper Runes.
Twilight realised she’d made the correct choice the moment she and Shyara appeared before the manor. One of her stars was near.
Being late afternoon, the family was gathered for the most part in the gardens. Velvet and Glitterdust played croquet while the rest of the family heckled or encouraged from some shaded benches. A well placed thwack sent Glitterdust’s ball rolling, and a cheer lifted from one half of the observers, and a groan from the others. Laughing, all smiles, Glitterdust went to do a little dance at her success. She halted mid prance as her eyes met Twilights, and she froze in shock.
“Twilight, honey!” cried Glitterdust in joyous surprise. “Whatever are you doing here?”
Not answering straight away, Twilight scanned the faces of her family, drawn towards the pull of her star. Her gaze locked with that of an unfamiliar halla, though to Twilight all the halla were strangers. River didn’t shy away and stood her ground as Twilight and Shyara approached. Briefly, she considered Shyara, before returning her attention to Twilight.
“You have part of me. I need it back,” Twilight said without preamble. Time was wasting. She needed to hurry. Along the edge of the wind whispered Wynn, the former star locked in endless dreams in the sword at River’s flank.
The High Priestess of Spring didn’t balk, nor did she present her sword.
“Llallawynn be unable to give,” River stated in broken Equestrian.
“Twilight, what is this about?” Velvet asked, coming up to join the growing half-circle around Twilight. “You are supposed to be in Zebrica. Princess Celestia’s plans hinged on you portraying yourself as equal to mortals.”
Shyara scoffed, and Twilight barely clamped down on a pronounced eyeroll.
“That was a naive plan, mother, and you know it.” Twilight shook her head. “Leviathan ruined it before I’d even reached Zebrica. My mere presence attracts enemies commiserate with my own powers. The God of Dead is threatening Ioka, and has already taken the first-born fillies. It is only a matter of time before he expands his scope to encompass every mortal pony. I’m the only pony who can stop him, but to do so I need Wynn and the rest of my fallen stars.”
The joy at seeing her daughter melted from Velvet’s face as Twilight spoke. “What has happened to you? You do not sound like my Twilight.”
Snorting, Twilight stamped a hoof that shook the manor, the grounds, and the town beyond. “I am fulfilling my duty to protect everypony. Hades can control me because a part of my soul is dead. But, you probably already knew that, didn’t you, mother?”
From the lack of reaction, Twilight knew she’d hit close to the mark. If she’d been wrong Velvet would have laughed.
“On the same subject, I came here to speak with you, mama,” Twilight addressed Whisper, her second mother partially hidden behind Two-Step and Star.
“You need to know where the other stars rest,” Whisper reasoned, a space made to allow her to step forward. “I have most marked down in my notes. There are several fallen stars that remain unaccounted. Oropalla, Posey, Vana, Acumar, Tian Yuan Liu, Maia, and Zana have no mentions of where they died, only where they were last seen. Of them, Oropolla was rumoured to have been in Hackney some two centuries ago, and then disappeared, while the others were all spotted in Southern Prance, Espanya, or Trotolonia as recently as the return of Nightmare Moon, but subsequently vanished. Wait here and I’ll get my journals.”
Spinning on her back hooves, Whisper marched into the manor.
“Southern Prance?” Twilight chewed on the information, her gaze shifting back to River, and dropping to the hilt of her sword as if pulled. To herself, she mused, “That is where Faust fought Zeus. Could there be a connection?” Putting the thought aside for the moment, she said in a stronger voice, “Regardless, I require Wynn.”
Shifting so that her sword was hidden, River said, “Llallawynn be gift from Iridia. I not be giving her away. Even for you, Lady of Stars.”
Ignoring River’s protests, Twilight simply reached for the sword. A sharp flash accompanied her aura grasping Llallawynn’s hilt. Radiating violet sparks flowed across the blade as it was drawn in a ring of singing steel. Within the brilliant blue diamond set into the pommel, the gem large as an eye, Wynn’s soul swelled. Twilight gasped, the chain meant to bind her and Wynn reforming of its own accord. The pulse of a heart came from ornate crossguard, as if the pegasi whose wings swooped outwards had come alive, and gently thrummed into Twilight’s aura. Each pulse grew, and with it so too did the sparks along the blade.
Around the family Sparkle Blossoms bloomed, poking through the grass and growing as they sought the sword’s light. From the gardens and fields Twilight sensed Wynn’s presence. The former star permeated the grounds and fields beyond, her essence in the flowers House Sparkle had cultivated since settling the land so many centuries ago.
‘MMm, Mistress, it is good to feel your touch at long last,’ sighed the sword.
“I’m here to return you home.” Twilight wasn’t certain why she said what was obvious. It felt like the thing to say, given the situation.
‘Home? Yes, I should love to return to the heavens. But, what then? I can not return to watching. Too long I have waited for the chance to protect the ponies I love. I see you seek to fight a great evil, one who threatens the innocent and defenceless. Take me with you, as the star-turned-sword, as your sword, and we will cut away the danger to those we ward.’
Twilight’s nose crinkled. “I hate swords—”
‘So you hate me?’
“No!” Twilight rapidly shook her head.
‘Then it is not swords you hate, but violence,’ reasoned Wynn.
“Only if it isn’t used as a last resort.”
‘Then why do you hate me?’
“I don’t! I hate swords because they are sharp and hurt ponies!”
‘So, you hate knives too?’
“What? I don’t see—”
‘But, you must have magic that is as dangerous—if not more so—than any sword. Though, not as dangerous as me.’
“A-a few spells, yes,” Twilight’s ears flattened, and a drop of sweat trickled down her brow. “Okay, a couple dozen. No, a hundred, give or take. But that is different.”
‘I’m not certain I see how, mistress.’ Twilight was certain Wynn would have shook her head, if she’d been a pony.
“Look, none of this is important. I need all my stars back in order to stop Hades from stealing the souls of all the first-born fillies.”
‘And I am back. Once I dreamt and now I wake, mirror to desires hidden deep, aspect of who you could have been, were, and are again.’
Letting out an exasperated shriek, Twilight hurled Llallawynn into the heavens. The sword spun higher and higher, and then pierced the celestial barrier in a flash. Wynn sparkled for a moment as she rejoined her sisters. Sure, she wasn’t a proper ‘star’ at the moment, but Twilight couldn’t deny that Wynn was bound to her and alive.
“Did I miss something?” Whisper asked as she rejoined the circle gaping at Twilight. Looks of bemusement mixed with those of shock, worry, and exasperation covered the faces of her family.
“Only Twily being Twily,” Glitterdust cooed, reaching a hoof across her foster daughter’s back in order to yank her into a hug.
“But, Llallawynn!” River protested, aghast as she stared up at the sky.
“I’ll get you a new sword when I am done sending Hades packing back to Tartarus,” Twilight flicked her tail dismissively and shrugged off her mama. Putting on a cracked smile, Twilight said to Whisper, “You have the list?”
“Um, yes,” Whisper pulled out a long scroll. “Seventy stars have been mentioned throughout history, oral stories, myths, and legends as having fallen. Most fell in the Old World, naturally, with only a few in the last thousand years having fallen in Equestria. I’ve provided a map with the last known locations, and marked the optimal route to collect them.”
A bright red line zig-zagged across a map of Ioka, heading at first north, then curving east through the Crystal City, south across the Heartlands and Equestria, darting back west to the Scorched Wastes, and then due south towards the sub-continents of Mu. The line then made of long dash to the antarctic, curled around the rim until reaching Inponesia, Neighpon, Canton, and then hit a large star marked over Stalliongrad. From there it snaked back and forth across the Old Queendoms, before ending at Zerubaba.
“What is this?” Twilight indicated the star shaped mark.
“That is the home of one of my contacts, Mrs. Snih. She knows more about fallen stars than anypony else. If she has no more leads for you to follow, than nopony will.”
Twilight nodded, going over the path a second time, and stifling a small sigh. Many of the locations were near places she’d already been while hunting down the Stellar Beasts. If she’d gone home first, she’d have been far more efficient.
“Well, thank you mama,” Twilight said, rolling up the map and list, then putting them in among her other scrolls.
Turning to leave, Twilight was confronted by a round, purple face peering at her with hopeful reverence. Spike clutched at Velvet’s leg, obviously torn between running up to Twilight, and staying put. After a second he’s mouth pulled up into a smile, and he gave her a thumbs-up. A sudden compulsion overcame Twilight, and she grabbed Spike in a crushing hug, one that was joined by her many little sisters and brothers. It would have been almost impossible for her to pull away in a timely manner if Shyara hadn’t cleared her throat.
“Princess Twilight, Lord Hades?”
“Yes, of course,” Twilight released her siblings, “I’ll be home soon, I promise. Once everypony is safe.” A few manes were ruffled, and then they headed off on the next leg of their journey.