//------------------------------// // Vines of Thought // Story: Her Sunlit Lineage // by Graglithan The Greater //------------------------------// When Sunset found herself on the second island, she wasted no time trying to find another flower. The island itself had more trees on it and was close to being a small forest. Her diligence was rewarded when she saw the yellow lily sitting at the edge, waiting for her. There was no hesitation from her as she placed a hoof against the petals, being rewashed in the white light. When the light cleared, Sunset thought for a moment that she hadn’t been sent anywhere. She was still in the forest, but the lily was gone. The thought was dashed quickly when she saw her parents walking through the woods, one a little more wobbly than the other. “So, you came from another world?” Her father asked with a raised eyebrow. “Well, It’s the only explanation I can think of.” Sunny Days answered with a small giggle. “I’m not exactly used to being a pony, after all. I’ve also never even heard of lands such as Equestria before coming here.” “Okay, fair.” Hot air rubbed the back of his head a bit and chuckled. “I probably should remember that more than I do, shouldn’t I?” Sunny Days smirked a bit and skipped ahead of him. “It would be a start.” Sunset followed them as they walked amongst the trees in silence. The path through the forest was peaceful and relaxing. She always wondered what kind of mare her mother was. It was heartwarming to see her act with such joy and kindness. The silence was broken when Hot Air and Sunny Days reached the edge of the woods and looked out over a nearby town, one Sunset recognized as Ponyville. They were still close to Canterlot, but their perch gave them a magnificent view. “So, what was it like? Your world.” “Well, let’s see...” Sunny Days tapped her chin in thought, giving a small hum as she sat down. “I lived in our kingdom’s capital. We’re not a large kingdom, per se, but we make do, what with being only a few decades old.” Hot Air sat down next to her as she looked off into the distance. “To be honest, your world looks to be farther along than ours. Your capital is so beautiful and full of life! Even the hamlets look to be prospering on their own.” A sigh fell from her lips as Sunny Days let herself rest in the grass. “We truly would be better off if Father would let go of his hatred for the mages.” Sunset’s jaw dropped a bit as she listened in before she looked down at her hooves in thought. “Farther along? Mages? That doesn’t sound like my world at all.” Hot Air laid down next to her and gave her a curious glance. “Could you tell me about your family?” Rolling her eyes, Sunny looked away from him with a small frown. “There is not much to tell. I had Mother, Father, and my sister.” Her frown turned into a slight smirk as she kept thinking. “Though, there was that old coot Starswirl. He recently decided to stay within our kingdom and was very open with the people who talked with him. He did keep his secrets, but he was more than polite and Mother found his company to be quite humorous.” Her smile fell as fast as it had come, eyes filling with sorrow. “Father... did not appreciate Starswirl or his work. More so when he became like a second father to my sister and me.” Sunset’s eyes shot up from her thought induced stupor, as her head whipped back to her mother. “Starswirl? As in, Starswirl the Bearded? But he was just part of a legend. At least he was in the human world.” Sunny Days continued regardless of Sunset’s confusion. “He taught my sister and me so many things. Basic table manners, posture, how not to cook, though he would deny that last one.” Her gaze fell back to her hooves, one idly passing over the other as she rubbed where fingers had once been. “But, he always refused to teach us the arcane. He claimed we lacked the ‘aptitude’ for such crafts.” Hot Air rubbed his chin in thought for a moment before shrugging. “Well, I can kind of agree with him.” Both Sunset and her mother were shooting a heated glare at him, even if he could only see one of them. “Wow, Dad, way to stick your hoof in your mouth.” One glare was more than enough to make the stallion backpedal and wave his hooves frantically. “I-I don’t mean anything by that! It’s just that at the moment, you’re an Earth Pony.” Huffing, Sunny turned and held her nose up as she looked away. “You still have yet to explain that detail to me. What is such an issue about being a certain type of pony that it would prevent me from doing magic?” Rubbing the back of his head, Hot Air tried to do some damage control. “Well, uh, earth ponies can’t really do any spell casting. Neither could a pegasus, no matter how much they wanted. We can fly, sure, and earth ponies have that innate connection to the land, but if I wanted to sling a spell around, I’d need to have a horn on my head. So we’re both out of luck there.” Sunny Days pursed her lips as she kept looking into Hot Air’s eyes. “Truly?” At his nodding, she turned back to look at the distant Ponyville. “Hmm. I guess I should have listened to him more.” The somber tone of her voice was not lost, and the two sat in silence for a moment. “Hot Air?” Hot Air looked over with a raised eyebrow. “Hm?” Sunset felt her heart stop for a moment when she heard her mother’s next words. “Am... Am I really unable to leave?” “From what the princess told me, you came through on the very last night the portal was supposed to be open. It will be thirty moons before the portal opens again.” Hot Air put a hoof around Sunny Day’s shoulders as they started to tremble. He pulled her into a small hug, even as her body shook from the tears leaking from her eyes. “Hey, cheer up. It’s not like you’ll be gone from there forever. It may be a while before you can go back, but that means you will one day.” “I know... but I’m scared-” Before Sunset could listen to more, the memory started to fade out, and she found herself being flung back. Sunset stumbled out of the memory and shook her head a bit. “Okay... something’s off here.” Looking to the lily, she saw yet another path made from the oversized roots and trotted across. “One, Mom was talking about things that I am pretty certain didn’t happen within the past fifty years in the human world, seeing as Canterlot City is not part of a budding kingdom. Two, she went on about mages like they were common, albeit unliked, despite that worlds only recently gained magic. And three, I apparently have an Aunt I never knew about, and Dad forgot to ever mention.” Her hooves came to rest on an island made of sand, and Sunset growled in frustration. “Makes me wonder if any of that was true.” a quick shake of her head was followed by a growl. “No Sunset, this is the one place he can’t lie. Misremember, maybe, but there is going to be a hint of truth in everything.” Glancing around the island, she couldn’t spot a new lily. Sighing through her irritation, Sunset started to wander on it until she could detect something. That was when she noticed that a chunk of the island’s edge was not made of sand. Curious, Sunset trotted over and took a closer look. Her breath hitched in her throat as she glanced down. All along the side of the island, the sand had been melted into a sheet of solid glass. A closer look showed the molten sand was slowly eating away at the rest of the island. Sunset stepped back away from the glass and looked out at the rest of the islands floating around her. She hadn’t noticed at first when she arrived, but she could see them now. Individual islands looked damaged as if a fire had ravaged them. Islands of sand were turning into glass, forests were left charred, and plains immolated. “Is... is this what his dementia has done?” Sunset glanced down at the glass again and hesitantly reached a hoof towards it. She instantly pulled back when she felt the heat still radiating off of it. More important was how it was starting to spread up the sides. “I need to get out of here.” Sunset looked around for any signs of how she could continue, spotting a lily back on the previous island. She dashed back across the path the last memory had made for her, but before she could dive through, a specific hot air balloon flew by the island.  This time, however, Line Writer noticed her. His eyes widened for a moment in surprise, before he glared down at Sunset. “You!? What are you doing here?” “I could ask you the same thing. What the hay are you doing in my Dad’s head!?” Sunset growled as she glared. “Cut the act you little harlot!” Line Writer snapped as he leaned slightly over the basket’s edge. “You and I both know that you’re far too young to be his daughter. I don’t know what kind of spell you used to steal her appearance, nor do I care. I will not let some imposter stop me from doing what needs to be done. You will leave immediately if you know what’s good for you.” “Not without you, I’m not!” Sunset lit her horn, only to find her magic unable to grab onto the basket of the balloon. “You have no more right to be here than I do!” It was faint, but Sunset caught Line Writer muttering something about being stubborn under his breath. Line Writer’s balloon started to drift off as he lit his own horn. His magic blasted into the island and Sunset jumped back as it left a small crater where she once stood. He glared at the spot for a second before sighing. “I’ve gotten rusty.” “Get back here!” Sunset ran to the edge of the island and watched helplessly as the balloon floated away.  She let out a scream and stomped her hooves into the dirt. Sunset sat there, panting as she tried to calm herself down even a little. When her breathing was level, she sat there in thought. “Line Writer and Dad were friends, so why would he endanger Dad’s mind? What would he even get out of this?” Her attention was taken when she looked back to where Line Writer’s blast had hit, and her breath stopped.  From the center of the small cater, the ground had begun to char.  “This looks just like the other damaged memories.” Sunset stepped away from the char as it started to spread. “If he’s the one causing this... how long has he been jumping into Dad’s head?” As Sunset contemplated her question, she didn’t like the answer she came to. Regardless, Sunset knew she needed to get away from the spreading magic. When she looked over to her side and spotted the lily from earlier resting in the grass, she dived into the new memory, hoping the destination for this one would put her ahead of Line Writer.