3.
Locals and Locales – Part Two
From the shadows between the houses attached, like the nests of swallows, to the underside of the island, inhabited mostly by thestrals, Starlight followed the walkway back into the harsh sunlight. She idly considered that a thin wooden plank was the only thing between her and a good two miles of empty air, grateful that a milenia of living almost exclusively on islands suspended high up in the sky had caused ponies as a people to lose the fear of heights.
Of course, if she really were to fall, the spells in her clothing, like in that of any unicorn, earth pony or pegasus or thestral too young to fly on their own, would break her fall, allowing her to glide safely to the desert below and send out a magical emergency signal, prompting the closest airship of the royal navy to come pick her up.
Clearing the idle thoughts from her mind, she looked at the scene before her. The small island was covered by a grove of trees, animals of all shapes and sizes populated the island. Nearly every tree had at least one birdhouse mounted to it somewhere, squirrels jumped between the trees, butterflies gracefully fluttered among the wildflowers that dotted the ground and a narrow path snaked through between it all.
Following the path, Starlight heard only the gentle whistling of the wind in the leaves and the musical chirping of birds. The closer she came to the center of the island, however, the more did it sound like the birds had formed a coordinated choir.
Finally, she breached the inner edge of the ring of trees, finding a clearing in the middle of the island. At its heart stood another tree that seemed to be incorporated into a small cottage, it's branches bent protectively over the small home.
Slowly walking around the cottage, Starlight found a single pony on it's other side. A butter yellow pegasus with a long light pink mane stood before one of the smaller trees on the inner edge of the ring. Within the branches sat a large collection of birds, lined up in orderly rows and, apparently, singing under her direction.
Calmed by the gentle melody, Starlight sat down in the grass, a respectful distance away, listening carefully. Ephemera faded into view and curled up at her side, eyes closed, but ears perked and pointed at the choir of birds.
Several times, the pegasus corrected birds singing off cue or out of tune with gentle words and every time, much to Starlight's bafflement, the addressed bird corrected its mistake the next time. Only when the birds got increasingly distracted by their impromptu audience, did the mare turn around to see Starlight sitting in the grass with her eyes closed, a relaxed smile on her face.
Only a startled 'Eep!' from the pegasus before her caused her to re-open her eyes. Seeing the mare sitting in the grass, her wings clasped tightly to her side and her face hidden behind her mane, Starlight felt sorry for her. "My apologies. I didn't mean to startle you. Miss Fluttershy, I presume?"
A quick nod was all the response she got.
"My name is Starlight Glimmer, I was sent by the Princess to supervise preparations for the Sky Light Festival. I'm here to check on the music and, if I may say so, it sounds fantastic." Seeing how she got no response, she chose to once more interrupt the awkward silence. "Well that's really all I'm here for, so I suppose I'll be leaving then." She got up from the grass. "Come on Ephemera."
A sudden gasp drew her attention back to the pegasus who was suddenly directly in front of them, floating in the air with gentle flaps and studying a rather startled Ephemera who made to fade from view again. "Who is that? I've never- Huh? Where did she go?"
Starlight couldn't help but chuckle. "That's Ephemera. I think you startled her. It is odd though. That's the second time today she's become visible in front of strangers." She stretched out a hoof, stroking the seemingly empty air beside her. "Calm down Ephemera, it's alright. Miss Fluttershy is just curious."
Under her gentle ministrations, the prism wraith became visible again, jumping onto her back and curling up there. While she and Fluttershy held an impromptu Q&A session, Starlight walked back to where she had seen the library earlier.
Just when Fluttershy was asking if Ephemera knew of any other prism wraiths, they reached the door to the Library. It was truly impressive what earth ponies could do with their magic given time. The library was built into the massively widened trunk of an, obviously still living, oak tree. "Well if you want to talk with Ephemera some more, you can do that, but I have to meet up with the others here."
Without any further prompting, Ephemera jumped off her back, and sat down on the bench beside the library. While Fluttershy sat down beside her, Starlight continued on into the library. Given how much time she'd spent at Sweet Apple Acres, she wasn't at all surprised that Sunset and Twilight were already present, the latter of whom was currently brushing her mane which was a complete mess.
"Goodness, sis, what happened to your mane?"
"Rainbow Dash happened."
"Okay then."
And so she joined Sunset in researching a way to stop Daybreaker's return or, failing that, a way to defeat her once she did return. Once her mane was once more somewhat under control, Twilight joined them in their search. The most promising lead were, of course, the Elements of Harmony that were always mentioned in the same breath as Daybreaker or the Sunshadow.
However, try as they might, they couldn't find any reference to the Elements. Nothing, no text, no illustrations, not even so much as a footnote.
By the time they finally took a break, it was late afternoon. Twilight and Starlight sat down in the library's hopelessly understocked kitchen, while Sunset ventured into the basement, hoping to find any stocks of food or drink that might have been kept there. Unfortunately, it seemed, there was little to be found.
"Nothing," they heard her voice call up the stairs, "but with a few small modifications this place could be turned into a great laboratory and-" She cut of and they just barely heard the words 'where does this go' echo up the stairs. After a moment, she called again, more quietly this time, further away. "Girls, come have a look at this."
Seeing how they had little else to do for the moment, not only Twilight and Starlight, but also Spike, Philomena and Ephemera, who had faded into view a few hours into their research, made their way down the stairs. The basement was just as round as the ground floor above it, but made mostly of earth and rock, nestled between the roots of the old tree. Sunset stood before another door on the opposite side of the room. "Come on, this way."
She turned around, walking down the stone steps going a good distance deeper, followed quickly by her sisters and their familiars. Finally a gust of wind heralded the end of their descent and the staircase ended in another door that opened up onto a pier attached to the rock on the underside of the island. It was currently vacant.
"Hold on. The library has a private airship dock?" Spike called out from behind the mares. "Neat."
Starlight turned to her sisters. "Think we should go get the Lumiere and dock her here? At least we have some actual food on board."
"Good point, and if we really need to get somewhere, this place would be easier to reach than the harbor. It's far more central. Can you get the clamps working?"
An electrical noise caused her to turn back towards Starlight who was stood next to the small maintenance panel for the magnetic docking clamps. "Already done. Shall we?"
Sunset smirked. "Nice. Philomena, would you mind flying to the harbor from here and meeting us there? Then you can guide us back."
With a nod and a trill, Philomena flew off, and the three unicorns made their way back up the stairs, Twilight and Starlight each carrying their respective familiars on their backs.
It only took them a few minutes to reach the harbor at the north east end of the island and board the Lumiere. Starlight went below deck to get the drive core running while Sunset and Twilight went to meet Philomena on the upper deck.
A few taps on the helm console later, the engines were running and the docking clamps released. With practiced grace, Twilight guided the ship below the island and followed the phoenix who was flying ahead, the embers coming off her wings lighting their way.
Two minutes later, the Lumiere settled into dock beneath the Library. The docking clamps attached the ship firmly to the island once more and Twilight gave Starlight the go-ahead to shut down the drive core. Moments later, the six of them gathered back on the private pier and made their way back into the library tree above.
They were surprised, to say the least, to find the library completely dark. They most certainly hadn't closed the curtains when they left. Before any of them could light their horns to see through the darkness, the lights came on and revealed the library to be packed with ponies, all of them shouting one word.
"Surprise!"
The main room of the library was decorated with balloons, streamers and a large banner that read 'Welcome to Ponyville Starlight, Sunset and Twilight!'. Plenty of food was spread out across several tables that certainly hadn't been there either. And everypony was smiling at them.
Especially the pink one right in front of them.
"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie, and I threw this party just for you! Were you surprised? Were ya? Were ya? Huh huh huh?"
The three of them gently applied their levitation to remove the earth pony from their personal space.
Sunset was the first to speak up, "we've been gone for maybe fifteen minutes tops. How did you set all of this up that quickly? That shouldn't be possible."
"It probably isn't, darling," A familiar voice spoke up from beside them. Turning, Sunset saw the familiar form of Rarity. "But it's Pinkie Pie. Trust me: it's best not to question it."
"Gotta agree with Rares on that." Twilight turned to the left to see a familiar sky blue pegasus with a multi-hued mane. "She just does these things every so often. Try not to think about it too hard. We've all tried to find the logic in what she does. None of us've managed it."
"Mhm." Another pegasus had taken position right next to Rainbow Dash.
"Enough o' all that though." Once more, the three turned, this time back to the front where Applejack had stepped up next to Pinkie Pie. "If ah recall correctly, there's a party ta be had."
"Absotutely! Come on you three, have some fun. Make new friends. Enjoy yourselves."
The three rolled their eyes at the locals' casual acceptance of the insanity that was Pinkie Pie before looking around the room in earnest. One by one, they let their eyes settle on the various baked goods spread out across the tables. "Well," Starlight finally managed. "We did want to get some food."
Despite their remaining concerns, the three mingled at the party. They had tried and failed to find any hint towards where the Elements of Harmony might be kept. All things considered, they were well and truly out of options. The only thing they could do now was to enjoy the party and hope that the princess had been right.
Even though they had some trouble keeping their worries in check, they still managed to enjoy the party. Even with magically distorted space making the interior about twice the size of the exterior, it was impressive just how many ponies could fit into the library.
The ponies of Ponyville were all friendly and welcoming to the three and, perhaps more surprisingly, almost all in attendance. When asked why, they all, without exception, answered with the same sentiment: 'Nopony misses a Pinkie Pie party.'
Still, the party eventually wound down, late in the night or, depending on perspective, early in the morning. Despite that, even the foals had been allowed to stay until the end seeing how everypony was staying up for the festivities at dawn anyway.
Finally, the early morning twilight drew near and everypony gathered near the stage. Sunset had been right. The lanterns hung all around the group of islands were as numerous as they were beautiful. Their blue light, reflected off of the strategically placed clouds and fog banks above, below and around the islands gave the entire scene a mystical atmosphere. In the distance, through gaps in the clouds, the golden lights of Canterlot, the red glow of Manehattan and the emerald shimmer of Fillidelphia stood out amongst the sea of smaller lights in all colors, coming from the numerous smaller villages and towns spread throughout the Equestrian sky.
Stood among the five mares they had gotten to know over the previous day and with their familiars on their backs, the three unicorns watched with some trepidation as the moon sank beneath the horizon.
In the absence of its glow, the lanterns provided the only light, creating the otherworldly atmosphere only found at the Sky Light Festival. Only one element of the official celebration was conspicuously absent:
Princess Luna
The ancient monarch of Equestria, they knew, should have been here by now. They had seen the Selene docked in the port when they had gone there to get the Lumiere. They knew that Luna didn't care much for speeches in her honor and enjoyed making a dramatic entrance, but her absence was growing far longer than usual.
They were not the only ones to notice. The other ponies in attendance were growing nervous as, even after a full minute, the princess was nowhere to be found.
Then the eastern horizon lit up orange. After just a moment, the Sun peeked over the horizon, the vaguely pony-shaped shadow that had marred its surface for centuries absent. For a short moment, its light seemed to focus into a tight beam. Pointed straight above the stage where it ended in an orb of white.
The beam cut off, but the orb remained, before bursting apart and revealing a pure white alicorn wearing what seemed to be ceremonial battle armor that was, if the orange glow coming off it was any indication, heated almost to its melting point. Her cutie mark was that of a sun and her mane and tail were made of dancing flames.
With high pitched, cackling laughter, she fell to the stage below, landing with a loud thud. The sturdy wooden planks immediately began smoking under her glowing shoes. Her slitted eyes roamed across the silent crowd and she gave them a fanged smirk.
"Well now, Equestria has changed quite a bit in my absence. You've done admirably to survive under such harsh conditions. But fear not.
"Your Empress is back."