//------------------------------// // Chapter 17. // Story: The Desert Prince // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// It has been months of hard work for the horses of the city. They had spent days searching for the injured in collapsed structures before the actual cleanup could begin. Then the sad duty of recovering the bodies of those that perished in the battle and honoring those dead began. After that, it was weeks of work cleaning the debris from the breach, as well as the buildings around it. Some homes and shops had suffered major damage and still showed scars from the battle. Windows and even some whole walls had been covered with heavy canvas to protect them from the elements. Piles of debris had accumulated by the wall, waiting for recycling and sections of the wall that were unstable had finally been removed. Now would begin the long process of rebuilding, repairing the breach. Extra cannon and gun points had been moved to the wall to protect the area, and extra patrols and guards assigned to keep the horses safe. At any one time, an observer would be able to see dozens of the Royal Guard in their duty to keep the denizens of the City of Gardens safe. I walk down the street looking in awe, many of them have lost so much, yet their faces are full of hope. Families had returned to their homes to rebuild what they could. Shops are just starting to reopen in this part of the city, and life is slowly returning to normal for many. Glancing up, I can see Guerina flying in fast from the desert. I open my mouth to call, then I realize there’s no way she’s going to hear me. Lighting my horn, I fire a little pop of magic into the air, flying up in a sparkling trail to end in a greenish puff cloud. The griffin slows, looking around, then dives down landing in front of me, panting heavily. “I’m back, we’ve got a problem.” One of the guards, curious about the puff trots up looking at the griffin. “Problem?” Guerina looks to the guard then to me. “I was coming back with mail,” she says patting her mail bag, “When I flew over a sandstorm. Big one, maybe four or five hours out. It’s heading right this way from that direction.” She points. The guard groans, “That’s going to flood the gap, this area could end up buried under feet of sand.” I look at the guard then at the horses working on the wall, as well as the horse around their homes. “All that work for nothing,” the guard says, turning and sounding the alarm as he charges down the street. A moment later I hear bells ringing, as the guard start calling out and trying to clear all the horses from the area. There’s more than enough time but this is going to set repair back weeks more. I look down, seeing a family fleeing one of the damaged houses and shake my head. “Umm, Ki, I know that look,” Guerina says, tilting her head. “Don’t do anything crazy.” “Clear the area!” I yell, the sound coming out much louder than I expected, reverberating off the walls and down the roadways. “Oh, nice use of the royal voice,” Guerina says, tapping the side of her head. “But don’t do anything flashy or stupid, you are way too heavy for me to carry home.” Lighting my horn, I stomp a hoof on the ground hard, in response plants burst to life around the breach quickly climbing and forming a lattice across the breach. Spreading my wings wide, the sand of the desert responds, rushing into the breach and mixing with plant fibers and water from the nearby fountains, along with lime in a swirling mass. Guerina blinks, taking a step back as she sees the white light shining in my eyes. “Ki, be careful, don’t overdo things.” I snort softly. “This won’t need much; Dawn’s taught me the control, all I need is a little time.” I reach out with my magic and grab the rocks and stones from the piles near the wall. I use them to rebuild the wall, locking them in place with mortar. The plants acting as a reinforcing layer till everything sets, but it should be enough to keep the city safe. As I’m finishing up, I pull hard on the water in the mix, curing the outer layers in a matter of seconds to a hard sheen. The coming weeks will allow it to cure fully all the way through. But this hard shell of the wall will withstand a sandstorm. Several of the craft horses made their way back to inspect the wall, Bijan leading the way. Bijan’s students have been working with me and others in clearing the debris, as well as dozens of magic privateers, primarily unicorns from Equestria. Some of those unicorns are inspecting the newly built wall. “Ki, your wings.” Guerina says sharply. “Oops,” Quickly I hide my wings back under my cloak and adjust my scarf, letting the silks settle down around my body. One of the privateers walks down the scaffolding and plants himself before me. “I’ve seen that kind of stuff done by ponies out of the Gifted Unicorn School,” Shaking his head, he taps his hoof, “But always amazes me, none the less. Combining telekinesis with a repair spell, some of the strongest ones can fix entire buildings on their own.” Glancing at me, he chuckles, “You’re a real ten percenter.” “Pardon?” I blink, confused. “Top ten percent of unicorns, who go to the Gifted unicorn’s school. You must have been top of your class.” I scuff a forehoof, “I did okay.” I use a forehoof to wipe my nose. It comes away red. I hurriedly plant my forehoof on the ground, hoping he doesn’t notice the blood. Bijan shakes his head as he walks past me mumbling just loudly enough for me alone to hear, “Darn alicorns… Can’t even get the paint right to match the rest of the wall.” “Well, I guess it can be painted.” I pant as I turn back down the wall and descend down a set of stairs into the city proper. I’m pretty sure that the other horses noticed what I did. I up my speed to a canter to get towards my home. Guerina takes to the air to keep up with me as I head deeper into the city. I keep an eye out as I walk. This part of the city took the brunt of the damage from the invasion. The various ring walls that separate the different parts of the city still need a lot of work. Horses all over are keeping busy rebuilding buildings, and internal walls of the City. All in all, nearly a quarter of the City of Gardens was demolished in a matter of a bit more than a day by a dragon and her hordes of creatures. A quick glance at the sky tells me it’s getting quite close to sundown, even with the outer wall repaired, the sandstorm will require us to hunker down for the time being. It sounds to me like it will hit shortly after full dark. The white walls of the buildings of the city have a reddish hue. I join the throngs of horses leaving the various work sites. Sometimes it really boggles my mind how the horses are able to get so much done without magic like the unicorns or wings like the pegasi. The horses are keeping busy and building out the damaged parts of the city at rates I could never even begin to dream about. Within a year of the absolute devastation from this attack, the City will be rebuilt, stronger than ever. I walk over a small bridge and look down, iron pipes are being welded together for fresh water from the cisterns, and another trench is being lined to handle waste. The horses are upgrading the infrastructure in addition to rebuilding homes. I look up, a massive crane is lifting materials on a platform up to the top of a new building. Looking across the street, horses are crafting the façade of a building to look like a pegasus’ wing. No griping, no anger, just joy. The horses are happily working, upgrading, just showing love for their home. The smiles all around are infectious. I slow as we get into the sector where my new house is. Working for the Padishah, a magic user working to repair the City has paid handsomely. I’ve bought my own home, along with a few other purchases. Guerina taps my withers with a claw. “You know, Ki, you don’t want to show off the fact you are an alicorn to the Equestrians here.” “I folded my wings before they saw me.” That gets rolled eyes. “Yeah, and yet you do magic like that. Keep it up and one of them will put two and two together, and when they get back to Equestria, we’ll have a pony princess here asking about a pony prince she doesn’t know about.” I look at her. “Don’t you have mail to deliver?” She clicks her beak. “Don’t you try to distract me, Ki. This is serious.” I nod. “I know it’s serious, Guerina. But I couldn’t let…” “Yeah I know, you couldn’t let the horses lives be disrupted further. Like you couldn’t let horses die, or you couldn’t let those birds be killed.” “Right!” “You are putting yourself at risk, Ki.” She glances at the doorway to my home. “I don’t know if you can be killed, but you can burn yourself out.” She reaches out and grabs my foreleg, lifting it up and showing the red streak on it. “You came close. You’ve gotten so damned close to killing your magic. And you’ve seen how Dawn is, after losing hers. Do you want to end up like her?” I pull my foreleg away and whirl towards my home. “Dawn is adjusting fine, and we aren’t giving up. We will fix her magic.” “You’ve been spending time nearly every day after you’ve been working to fix the city trying to fix her. You’ve even purchased her from Ghaliya so she has to stay with you.” I duck my head. “She’s a free pony now.” Guerina rolls her eyes. “To you, to me, to Ghaliya, but not legally. Her contract was purchased, but she’s still got to fulfill the requirements of the contract until the time frame expires. You still legally own her.” I look over my shoulder and narrow my eyes. “She stays with me by choice, I’m helping her.” “You’re giving her false hope.” That gets me to slam a hoof on the street, I stop and look at the paving stone and sigh. I must be angrier than I thought. I light my horn and only moments has the shattered stone made whole again. “Look, Guerina, I know it doesn’t look good right now. But we are going to fix Dawn. She’s a magic user, she has lived her whole life until four months ago using her magic all the time. Yes, she’s having an adjustment period without her magic. But I’m going to get her back to normal as soon as I can.” “Well, I might be able to help with that, Ki,” Guerina says softly. “What are you talking about?” “I was able to visit the library that Dawn told me about. I was able to get a few magical reference books I still think we’d be kinder to saw her horn off and let her adjust to her new life, I’ve never heard of a unicorn being burned out as bad as her being able to be brought back. The stories she’s talked about are just that, stories. Ponies would never willingly burn themselves out like the stories. I think some of the stories about Celestia are overblown.” I sigh and look at her expectantly. “The books, please?” She grumbles for a moment before opening her messenger bag and pulling them out. “Look, Ki, ee may have to accept reality as it is right now.” She glances at the door. “Life is good for you now. Ghaliya has been readmitted to the Royal family for her actions on that day. And you never know, he might admit you eventually.” I roll my eyes as I pick up the books from her claws with my magic. “He’s letting me marry her as a prince, but I won’t be eligible for succession. I don’t care about that, and I’ve let him know I don’t care about titles. I care about Ghaliya, that’s my only concern.” That gets a grin from the beaked griffon. “Yeah, well, you earning your own gold from all your magical work hasn’t hurt one little bit.” She stops, looking at the door. “I’ll be by later, Ki. You head inside and I’ll finish my deliveries and grab supper with you and Dawn later.” I smile at her as she turns and streaks into the air. After powering herself straight up, she turns and darts towards the Palace. I look at the books she gave to me. I’ll have to read them inside. I head to the door to my house, I don’t need a key to enter, magic does the trick. Though non mages can enter with the right key. I shrug off my robes and hang them up. Thinking of the Equestrian natives working here in the City. My first times where I’ve spent entire days in the punishing sun. They have no sense, not a turban or a cover between the lot of them. I shake my head as I sip from the fountain in the entryway. Don’t they realize the sun is murder and water is life in the sands here? Oh well. I cannot force them to avoid being burned by the sun. “Ki?” A familiar voice calls out. Though not the one I expected. “Ghaliya!” I chirp happily. I nearly prance as I head over to her. We are in private, so she graces me with a nuzzle on my cheek, which has my heart soaring. It doesn’t feel as though my hooves touch the ground as we make our way into the house proper. “So, this is what you chose? When you decided to move out from my offices?” I grin. “Yeah, saved up in just a couple of months to buy it outright.” She cocks her head to the side. “With you doing the work, you could have gone to a moneylender in the City and financed a much bigger place.” Her smile, though, shows she’s just as pleased as I am with the place. I shrug. “I told you what happened to the former owners, they did not make it when the dragon attacked. I paid as much as I did to ensure their foals are well taken care of by their families.” “I know, love, but you could have paid a lot less.” Shaking my head I sigh, “You know as well as I do that the price was more than fair for the location, straddling the line between the mid to upscale merchants’ homes, and the nobles district, while a still not being noble. Its size is more than I will ever need. And when we wed, we can either use the place an investment, or sell it for a tidy profit. I’m not worried, I’m being paid more than I ever could spend with this job.” “I know, Ki.” She glances around, noting it’s just the two of us. She comes over and sits down next to me, snuggling closely to me. “It’s just good to know you have a good head there. You have smarts when it comes to finances, going for minimum debts and not incurring debt by doing well with less.” She nuzzles my cheek. “And using the money you are earning with purpose, not just frittering it away.” I look at her cute muzzle only inches away, I want to kiss her so much, to feel the touch of her. Looking at her, I think that’s what she desires as well. I inhale slightly, I so want her next to me all the time. A soft clearing of the throat behind us gets Ghaliya to tense up momentarily. “You know, as an unattached mare, the only reason it’s proper for you to be here in the home of an unattached stallion is he’s got a slave mare, both for propriety reasons, and supposedly for his needs to be met as well.” Ghaliya relaxes against my side. “Dawn, you are not a slave anymore. Ki bought you and freed you.” That gets a sigh. “I know, Ghaliya, but that only applies to us. As far as the Padishah and every horse outside these walls understands, I still belong to Ki, and no words or documents or desires can change that fact until I’ve served out the term, I will be his bondsmare.” I hear a few steps, though with Ghaliya and I leaning against each other, I really am not worried. “In the house, and when we are outside the city, yeah, I’m free. But I’m still a unicorn that’s lost her magic, broken. Something everypony with a horn is terrified of. It happens so rarely among Equestrian citizens. It’s been four months, Ki. You’ve done what you can, hell, you’ve regrown my mane and coat. So at least I look normal again. But my magic. It’s gone forever and you know that.” I nuzzle Ghaliya fiercely for a long moment, relishing touching her in any way I can. Then I turn and look at Dawn. “If it’s an injury, it can be healed. I just have to figure out how.” Dawn rolls her eyes. “You’ve said that, and you’ve spent hours upon hours in a trance, your magic working through me. You haven’t been able to feel the break, you haven’t been able to trace out the pathway for magic, where my horn connects to the magical fields of this world. Ki. You haven’t even been able to feel my presences magically anymore. To your horn, I’m a non-entity. I’m nothing, no more than the walls, or the ground or sky. You have to face facts. The worst possible thing that can happen to a unicorn has happened. I paid the price to save you, to protect you, it was my duty to do so.” “You said I can’t die.” “I don’t know that for certain, you are certainly hardier than anypony, but that Dragon was putting her all into killing you. I held out against that for what? Half a minute? And I am…” She blinks a few times then looks down. “Or was a level five unicorn, among the strongest known in Equestria. I was powerful enough to come to the notice of the Princess of Equestria. If it is possible for you to be killed, that would have done it. I couldn’t take that chance.” She sniffles a bit. “The price was paid, and if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment. You are alive, Ki. The cost of my magic was a small price to pay for that.” She turns around with a flick of her tail, holding her head high, “I may not be your slave anymore. But I do have a lot to learn now. Since I don’t have magic anymore, I’ve been working to learn how to do things I would normally do with my magic without it. Earth ponies have done it for generations, if they can do it, so can I.” “And the horses that live without magic?” Ghaliya adds in tilting her head. I suppress the urge to chuckle. It’s really not funny, but some of Dawn’s attempts to bring her life back to normal have been…hilarious. Or would be in other circumstances. I shake my head, sometimes it seems my sense of humor has darkened a bit since Dawn was injured. Dawn’s voice floats from the kitchen. “You hungry?” Just the mention of food has my stomach grumbling. I take a step, and my foreleg decides to take that moment and crumple beneath my weight. I tumble forward, my nose smacking into the floor before I get my other forehoof to pick me up. I shake my head and stumble forwards. Ghaliya staying close by, using her body to help me stay balanced, the look of concern on her face has me firming my legs as I walk. “Oh, Ki. I am definitely getting the hang of cooking like an earth pony.” She’s got the hearth fire roaring and the brick oven has food in it as well. She’s flitting from pot to the oven like a pro. I watch with amusement as she works. The smells of the food are certainly enticing. Then she’s balancing a spoon in the crook of her fetlock when she turns back towards me. Then her face become stone, her eyes snapping to look at me seriously. “Ki, what did you do?” I narrow my eyes. “What?” She points with the spoon. “Ki, I know that look, you are hiding magical exhaustion from me. I may not be able to feel it anymore, but I can see the effects in you.” She cocks her head to the side. “But your nose wasn’t bloody when you came home.” Instinctively I reach up and swipe across my nose. The fur of my foreleg coming away bloody. I blink a few times, I thought I had cleaned up the blood from earlier. Then I remember. “Oh, it’s no worry, Dawn. My foreleg decided it didn’t like me and dumped me nose first into the floor. You know perfectly well how clumsy I can be at times.” Dawn looks at Ghaliya, noting the small nod from the horse before looking at me, “So, you did overdo it, huh? How bad and did anyhorse or pony see you?” I shake my head, “No, of course I didn’t, I just tripped over my own hooves.” Waving my forelegs while sitting I smile. Dawn sets the spoon down carefully, then she stalks slowly towards me, her tail thrashing. “Your leg wouldn’t have failed you had you been merely tired from a long day of work, Ki. You did something. Tell me, or I’ll head down to the breach tomorrow and find out from Bijan.” I stop. “You wouldn’t.” “Don’t test me, Ki. I didn’t sacrifice so much for you to bloody kill yourself some other way,” She says scrunching up her nose and pushing it against mine. That gets me to stop, I look at Ghaliya, then I look at Dawn before gulping softly. Standing take a few steps back. “Well, you couldn’t really, since there isn’t a breach anymore. I kind of, you know, fixed it.” My voice dropping with every word to where the last word isn’t much more than a whisper, as I look away noting the craftmareship of the ceiling supports. “WHAT?!” Comes from two different throats at the same time. Flattening my ears, I flinch, lifting a foreleg and cringing, “There… There is a sandstorm coming, if the breach hadn’t been fixed, the work would be set back weeks, if not months. What’s worse the horses living along the wall would have to endure so much longer their lives being disrupted. They could have been made homeless again.” I hang my head. “It wasn’t that hard.” Dawn rushes forward, her fetlock to my forehead just under my horn, and another along my neck. “Ki, Celestia damn it!” She pulls me forward and settles me before the table, in a matter of moments, hot bread and butter is before me, along with fried eggs and more food than I would be able to eat on a normal day. She keeps making trips, grumbling the entire time. “You are lucky I was able to get some good deals in the marketplace today. I was planning on making a lot of dishes, and having you do the stasis spell to prevent the food from spoiling. I was going to make a couple of weeks of food here. To help me get better at domestic work. And then you have to…” She stops, blinking. She looks at Ghaliya then back at me and takes a few steps back. “And then you have to be you, Ki. I’m never going to get you to change, am I?” I swallow the bread I was chewing. “I’ve got to…” That gets Ghaliya to put a hoof over my mouth. “Ki will be Ki, no matter how much we say, Dawn. I guess we simply have to do what we can to help him.” She sighs heavily. “You will help where you can, will you?” I nod. “But isn’t that how ponies should be?” Dawn tsks. “For the most part, ponies tend to be more community minded, and want to help others. That is our nature. Horses here are a little different, while they do think of their community, they believe being the best they can be for themselves also helps the community at large. I think both approaches have merit, one reason I became a merc. But doing for others at the expense of yourself can be dangerous, Ki.” A knock at the door has me scrambling to answer it. Though upon opening the door, I have to suppress a growl, Guerina saunters through the door and makes a beeline into the kitchen, only pausing to hang up her messenger bag. I pick up the books I had set down next to my robes and bring them into the kitchen while Guerina is giving Dawn and Ghaliya an earful about what I did at the wall. I find myself sighing as I sit at the table, using my magic to shove food into my gullet as fast as I can as I let the girls’ conversation wash over me. “Ki!” I blink a few times, my plate is empty, and all three are looking at me with decidedly predatory looks. “What?” I say around the last mouthful. “Seriously, Ki?” Dawn says. I hang my head. “I know. But the horses…” “I already know that I’m not going to change you being the pony you are, you don’t need to defend yourself in that respect. But why didn’t you give me the books?” I light my horn and bring them up from my side and float them before Dawn. She reached out a hoof and grabs them with a sigh. She looks at the expression on my face and flinches. “Sorry, Ki. I want you to keep using your magic at every opportunity. Your instincts, your feelings, will push you to use your magic more an more.” She stops for a long time before slowly opening a book. “I’m just not able to join you in doing so. And yes, that makes me sad.” She looks up at me. “And there will still be times I cry over my loss. But you need to understand, I’m not upset at you. I’m not, even for a moment, regretting the decisions that led to my loss.” She stops again, her eyes glistening. “I did what I did to protect you. And you being around, hale and hearty, is worth the price I paid.” She looks at Ghaliya, then over at Guerina, before settling her gaze on me. “But that doesn’t remove the pain. And I don’t want you to blame yourself for my pain, understood?” I look down. “But what if…” “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY!!!” She shouts so loud I find my ears pinning back. She breathes heavily for a moment, before continuing a bit softer. “You did what you could, I did what I could. I had to pay a price that nopony with a horn ever wants to pay. And I paid it willingly, if not for Sparks, I would be in the next world, but I’m still here. And I know every time you look at me, you feel like you failed. But I don’t want your pity, I don’t want you to feel as though you are less because of what happened to me.” She sniffs. “The Ki pity party ends, right here, right now. I am fine. We are holding out hope that I can be healed.” She blinks a few times. “Well, you are holding out hope. I’m adjusting to what reality is. And that is fine. But if you continue with this horseapple concept that you are responsible for my predicament, I’m going to grab you and show you why I was able to stand out as a unicorn in a primarily earth pony town. Do you understand me, Ki?” I blink a few times. “What?” She lowers her voice to a growl. “In case you’ve forgotten my lessons, physically, Earth ponies are stronger than unicorns. But I was the one getting awards, I was the one recognized as more than just a good student. I was top wrestler in my age group. I was able to whip ponies with size and strength on me. So don’t you think for a second that you being an alicorn prince is going to stop me from whipping your tail from here to the palace.” She glances over at Ghaliya. “And don’t you think your marefriend is going to even think about trying to stop me. She agrees with me on this.” I look over at Ghaliya, who nods firmly, then I lower my head. “Fine. What happened to you is not my fault.” I look up, fixating her with a look. “But I AM going to fix you.” That gets a smile from the blue unicorn. “I wouldn’t want it any other way. If anyone can fix this, it’s you, Ki.” She reaches out and grabs a book, fumbling it a bit in her forehooves. “Now, let’s see what Guerina was able to find.” Dawn sits there for a long while, I finish eating, and Ghaliya as well as Dawn help me clean up as the unicorn pony reads. She would usually use her magic to turn the pages. But she struggles using her hooves to do the same job. Finally she grumbles. “Ki, come over here.” I sit down next to Dawn, she runs her hooves over the pages. “Okay, this is something we know already…Long ago, ponies had settled in a great valley, with winding rivers, waterfalls, beautiful hills, and temperate weather. The valley was pure paradise, with few predators, an fewer still dangers. The earth ponies took up farming on the wide plains and grasslands. The pegasi built great cities in the sky that spanned for miles, and the unicorns created a wonderous castle.” I look at her, then at the book. This is not the language I’ve been taught to read. I tell Dawn this face, she giggles. “Yeah, I know, this is much older than the Eponese you’ve been reading. This is old Ponish. Here is some more. Aside from living in the same valley, however, the three tribes shared little in common. The Unicorns felt themselves above the ‘others’ due to their magic. The pegasi considered themselves great warriors descended from a warrior god and paid little heed to what they considered the weaker races. And the earth ponies felt themselves oppressed, for while they grew crops, both the unicorns and pegasii demanded tithes for perceived services.” “Oh I know this, this is the hearths warming story, You’ve told me all of this.” “This is a little more involved than that. The windigoes were only part of the problem.” She clears her throat. “Then, the cataclysm happened. Something stopped the sun from raising and setting. The planet quickly began to die, as half of it began to freeze solid with snow and massive glaciers covering the land, while the other side began to bake, with endless stretches of scorched dessert and even areas of molten rock forming.” “Tidally locked.” “Pardon?” She looks at me. “It’s… when one side of a planet or moon constantly face the body they are orbiting.” “That’s logical, but why did it happen? How?” “I… I don’t know… I just remember the term from somewhere.” She turns the page. “Needless to say, according to this the ponies left their lands and traveled towards the twilight band, an area between the daylight side and the night side, where they could at least have a chance of survival. Meanwhile on the other side, great deserts quickly covered the land ensuring little could survive without help.” She points to a passage on the page “The ponies then banded together in their new land and, I can’t tell if they were given, or created, a powerful staff. Unicorns had learned they could start moving the sun again with their magic, but the act burned their magic out. In response a great staff was created to help ease the load and help them recover the magics they had lost.” That gets a chill to run down my spine. “A staff, you say? You mean there is a staff out there that could heal Dawn? Ghaliya pulls the book and inspects the pages. “I think so, if the legend is true.” Guerina growls. “That is NOT the way I heard the story end, but it does kind of explain some things.” She looks over at Dawn. Dawn sighs. “I think it just ends up creating more questions.” Ghaliya runs a hoof along the bottom of the page. “When Celestia was old enough, though, she found she could move the sun on her own, and the staff was no longer needed.” I narrow my eyes. “Where’s the staff now? In Equestria?” Dawn drags the book back in front of her, offering an apologetic grin to Ghaliya, who smiles back encouragingly. “I… don’t think so… there is mention of it being returned to some great temple or shrine. So that its magic could be preserved in case it was ever needed again. The shrine was marked with a Laurel Wreath around a central star, with 5 smaller stars outside of the Wreath placed in between each of the main stars’ points.” I slap a hoof on the table. “That’s a cutie mark. I’m sure of it.” Dawn nods. “Probably, but I don’t know who it belonged to. That is what we need to find to start.” I get to my hooves. “Dawn, we are going to get your magic back. That staff has to be the answer.”