//------------------------------// // Part V - Chapter 7: A Thread, Cut // Story: Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky // by PortalJumper //------------------------------// Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky Part V - Chapter 7: A Thread, Cut * * * The pain in Sun's forehead went from a dull ache to blindingly excruciating as he stared at his own shattered appendage in the water. An involuntary howl of pain, rage, and sadness bellowed out from his lips as he fell back against the tree behind him, clutching his forehead to try and stanch the bleeding as warm blood ran down his face and into his eyes. "Sun!" Fluttershy called, sprinting over to him and trying to move his hooves away. "Sun, you have to let me see it, please! Where did your horn land?" Sun couldn't stop screaming, only pointing with a free hoof to the bobbing shard of bone in the water. Fluttershy quickly picked it up in her teeth, but as she did it fell apart into three bleeding splinters, leaving Fluttershy with a mouthful of useless bones. "Oh no, oh no, no, no," Fluttershy moaned as she spat the remains of Sun's horn back out. "Sun, I… I don't think it's salvageable." "Then just… fix the… bleeding hole… in my forehead!" Sun grunted out through gritted teeth as he tried to stop himself from screaming. A low howl and a sudden burst of crying followed shortly thereafter. Fluttershy quickly pulled out several jars from her pouches; one he recognized as the plaster she had used on him when they first met, alongside a thick white paste that stank horrifically and a watery, dark blue mixture. As she set the jars out on a nearby tree stump she gathered up the fragments of his horn and locked them as solidly back together as she could manage. "Now Sun, this is going to hurt a lot, but it might be the one thing I can do to save something of your horn," Fluttershy said, her voice low and soft as she held the horn pieces between her hooves. "I need you to take your hooves off of the stump, and when I put the pieces back on and say so, you need to hold them in place as tightly to the stump as possible. Can you do that?" "Yes, yes, please, just hurry!" Sun growled, pulling his hooves off of the stump of his horn. They were covered in blood, though it was hard to tell compared to his fur color. Just as Fluttershy started to put the horn shards towards his head Sun felt a fresh wave of agony rocket through the stump and every single nerve in his face before a massive burst of grey energy spewed out of the wound. Fluttershy fell backwards into the ankle deep water to avoid getting his square in the face with it, and after a moment the blast faded out and Sun felt his muscles go slack. "Are you okay?!" Fluttershy asked as she gathered the horn pieces back up. "Tired… so tired…" Sun croaked, barely mustering up the strength to speak. "Please…hurry…" Fluttershy worked quickly, much quicker than she had been so she could avoid another blast, should it come. She took up the jar of black liquid and poured a portion of it onto the stump, washing away the blood and releasing a caustic smell as it did. Another shot of pain lanced through Sun's forehead as the liquid seeped into the wound, and it took all of his willpower to not try and beat Fluttershy away. Fluttershy took out a long, thin vine, and working quickly with her teeth and hooves wrapped it around the broken shards of his horn to hold them together. With the final loop tied taut, Fluttershy gently lifted it up towards Sun's forehead, his eyes tracking it to the point of going cross-eyed. "When I say so, I need you to hold this in place," Fluttershy reiterated. "Do you understand?" "Yes… I'm tired… not deaf," Sun groaned as he sluggishly lifted his forelegs towards his head. "Steady… steady… now!" Fluttershy said, planting the horn right back onto the stump. Sun howled in pain as the sharp, broken end of the bone dug into the soft flesh of the marrow, exposed nerves, and leaking blood vessels. He clamped his hooves down onto the sides of the horn as Fluttershy quickly grabbed the white paste and started slathering it at the base where the break was. The stink of the paste was nothing compared to the immediate chilly, nerve-tingling sensation that ran through his head as she generously applied the medicinal goo. "Okay, I can hold it now if you want me to," Fluttershy said as she put the jar back on the tree stump. "That just needs time to set before I apply the rest of it to try and seal the breaks in your horn, and then the healing plaster and the moss to give you back the blood and tissue you lost." Without a word Sun dropped his hooves to his sides, causing Fluttershy to jump forward and readjust the horn to the proper angle. "Maybe warn me a bit next time?" Fluttershy said, looking into one of Sun's eyes with a frustrated, and then a worried expression. "Hooves feel like… weights are… tied to them…" Sun muttered. "So tired… need sleep…" "You can sleep if you want, I'll set the candles up after I finish with your horn," Fluttershy said, softly running a hoof down Sun's face. "You poor thing…" Sun needed no further prompting, letting his heavy, aching eyelids fall shut as the weariness overtook all other sensations save for the throbbing pain in his head. Blackness overtook everything, but in the distance of this dreamless sleep there was always a hint of grey, just at the periphery. * * * Fluttershy rested her head against the smooth bark of the cypress that Sun had cracked his horn against, eying over her handiwork with a critical eye. Sun was currently resting on the tree stump, his cloak neatly tucked up around himself so he could stay as warm and comfortable as possible. His breathing was steady but shallow, and a thin trickle of blood slid down his head from underneath the layers of paste and plaster Fluttershy had had to use to keep the horn fragments from coming apart again. Fluttershy took a moment to wash her hooves off in the water she was sitting in, keeping an ear up for anything that might venture too close. She might not be any good in a fight, but she was quite good at running, and in Sun's current state if they needed to flee they would need all the head start they could get. The silence surrounding them was a good sign, but Fluttershy still couldn't shake the roiling, awful feeling in her gut that something was going to go wrong again soon. "Why did you do this, you idiot?" Fluttershy asked to her own distorted reflection. "You could be home right now. You didn't have to care about him, and even if you did it didn't have to be to this degree." Her reflection gave no answers, just an increasingly more unsure expression. Her heat beat faster in her chest, she could feel the bile rise in her throat, and without thinking she started beating at her reflection, spraying water all around and onto herself as she pummeled the ghost of her own poor decisions. "Why do I have to care so much?! Why can't I just leave well enough alone?! I try to be kind, I try to be understanding, but all it gets me is pain and awful situations! I'm a hermit for crying out loud, I don't owe anypony my time or my care! I don't have to care about anypony but myself, so why do I?!" Fluttershy fell back against the tree, her breathing heavy and her heart racing. A bobbing silver light trailed by, one of many that were dotting this entire part of the swamp, which she now could surmise was the Misty Vale. It's lazy, aimless path flitted this way and that without direction, and as she watched it Fluttershy felt her pulse slow." "You have to care because if you don't, then who will?" Fluttershy muttered to herself. She closed her eyes, trying to recall her mother's face on the day that she had given her that piece of advice, but it had been so long that Fluttershy couldn't even recall the sound of her voice. Fluttershy's gaze fell back to Sun as the bobbing light moved towards his stump. Curled up on the rough wood, clutching his cloak tight and utterly motionless save for his breathing. He was defenseless, hurt, and scared, and in that hurt, in that fear, Fluttershy saw so much of herself that it brought tears to her eyes. "We're not that different, you and I," Fluttershy muttered to herself as she stood up and started pulling out the citronella candles. The jars they were in would be buoyant enough to stay afloat, and there was nothing resembling a flow to the water so they wouldn't drift too far afield while she caught some sleep as well. When the last candle sparked to life, Fluttershy carefully arranged them in a perimeter around the stump before sidling up against it, her back facing Sun as she sat down and let her head fall forward. It wasn't that comfortable, but it was something, at in the end that was what would count. * * * A snapping of a twig and a splash in the water roused Sun from his death-like sleep, his ears flicking and every bone in his neck popping as he straightened out from the curled up position he'd been holding for hours. The pain in his forehead was now a dull ache, but one that was impossible to ignore. Every beat of his heart sent a pulse of blood to his reforged horn, and every pulse of blood sent a fresh wave of pain through his face and forehead. Twisting his head around so he could look in the water, Sun examined his horn with some mild discomfort. The medicine Fluttershy had applied to it did its work, certainly; the horn was reattached and obviously in one piece, and he had feeling in it. On the other hoof, it was now crooked and warped from having to be pieced back together, and there were several noticeable indents and scratches in its surface aside from the typical spiral. Gingerly Sun ran a hoof down the length of the horn, testing its strength and getting a sharp, piercing pain through his head for the effort. It was very tender, and would be for some time, but that was the least of his worries in regards to his broken appendage. Taking a quick, shallow series of breaths to psyche himself up and prepare for the worst, Sun tried to channel some of his magic through the horn. The dull ache quickly intensified to a sharp, throbbing pain as he worked his magic into the horn, trying to merely cast a simple light spell. Sun gritted his teeth and strained his neck as he focused, the feeling being akin to an extremely bad bout of constipation. Just when Sun didn't think he could take any more of the pain, a massive shot of magic spewed out from his horn and raced into the trees. Most of it was silver, but there were traces of his original green magic within the blast of light as well. Fluttershy shrieked with surprise and fear as the beam jettisoned from his forehead, and Sun nearly clipped her when he instinctually turned his head towards her. He quickly shut the flow of magic off, the energy fading to a trickle before ending completely. "What was that?!" Fluttershy asked, a hoof to her chest as she hyperventilated. "That was testing a theory," Sun answered, his own breathing ragged as he slumped back down onto the stump. "Come again?" Fluttershy asked back, her head tilted at a questioning angle. "I wanted to see how bad the damage to my horn was, so I tried casting a spell," Sun explained. "Not only was it ridiculously painful, but that was just a simple light spell." "That was supposed to be a light spell? That nearly took my head off!" "Exactly," Sun continued, dejectedly trailing a hoof through the water. "It felt like all of the magic I was trying to conjure just kept backing up inside my head until it couldn't hold any more, and then came erupting out of me. I may have the horn back, but I certainly don't have my magic back." "I wouldn't be so sure," said a third voice, one that Sun recognized but was astonished about since it wasn't inside of his head. Sun quickly turned to Fluttershy, whose eyes were wide with fear as she looked to the trees for the source of the sound. "You heard that?" Sun asked, stepping off of the stump. He nearly lost his footing coming into the cold water, only for Fluttershy to help him steady himself. "I did, and I don't like it," Fluttershy answered. "This is the Misty Vale, Sun, and ponies don't come back from here." "Perhaps they don't, but it is not by my hoof that they are waylaid," the third voice said again. "Chrysalis, show yourself!" Sun called out to the swamp and woods around him. "You know why I'm here and you know what I've been through to get here!" "Indeed I do, and while we may not be able to meet in flesh just yet, I can at least pose as a simulacrum for your convenience," Chrysalis answered, her voice low, sweet, and with the barest hint of menace. A chill wind suddenly whipped through the trees and splashed the water around Sun's fetlocks. Fluttershy reactively grabbed a hold of Sun, dealing one of her wings over Sun's back and pulling him in as she wrapped her hooves around his neck. He could feel her shaking through his chest, and at the moment he felt exactly the same as she did. As the wind whipped and blew through, a thin, black mist rolled in along with it, just above the surface of the water. It was shallow and nearly see through at first, but thickened and grew in size before it started to twist and mold itself. The wind blew this way and that, as though it were beating the mist into form, until it died when the black fog assumed its final shape. Standing before them was a tall, lanky, vaguely translucent black pony. It had a horn, twisted and crooked, and wings that flittered and buzzed like an insect's before laying across its back. There were no discernible facial or bodily features that Sun could make out, save for what appeared to be numerous holes in the silhouette's hooves and legs. Finally, with a flash of silver light on the silhouette's face, a pair of large, glowing bright teal-green eyes appeared. The whites were a slightly lighter shade of green than the irises, and the pupils were slitted disturbingly like Spike's, save for the fact that the eyes were obviously compound like a Changeling's. "There, that's better," Chrysalis said, flicking her shadow form's hair away from her eyes. "My apologies for giving you a fright, but my methods of communication with my servants have been limited for quite some time. I'm afraid the finer points of interpersonal interactions have become lost to me." "And… you're actually Chrysalis," Sun said, pulling Fluttershy a little closer. "Not a proxy, not one of your Changelings. You're the real deal." "In the mist, as you see me," Chrysalis answered. "I understand that you might have come to mistrust beings such as myself after your interactions with the alicorns back in Equestria, but unlike them I have nothing to hide." "Then why did you go through Silence for so long?" Sun asked back. "Why didn't you just try to contact me directly? And why have your Changelings been attacking us? If you wanted to see me so badly, you sure know how to roll out the welcome mat." "Allow me to answer a question, with a question," Chrysalis replied, sending a wave of frustration coursing through Sun's chest. "Why would I so willingly expose myself to one of my most hated enemies, whose servant was in your company for the last month, by contacting you directly?" "You wouldn't," Sun answered, already starting to see where this conversation was headed. "Precisely," Chrysalis replied with a tilt of the head. "You see, Setting Sun, I haven't gotten this far ahead in life by being reckless; I pick my battles carefully, and I know when it is better to keep to myself and when it is better to be more direct in my machinations." "Then why have your Changelings been attacking us? Doesn't seem like a wise move, trying to kill a pony that you've invested a lot of time and effort into." "For the drones that you have encountered thus far, let it be knew that they were no brood of mine," Chrysalis continued, the edge in her voice growing more pronounced. "In the aftermath of that dreadful business in Equestria some of my children were severed from my control through Twilight Sparkle's magic. They went feral without my guidance, and proceeded to make their own hives by interbreeding with ponies while in their glamour." "That's… that's horrific!" Sun exclaimed, suddenly feeling ill at the very notion. "They were your Changelings, why didn't you try to stop them!?" "You think I didn't act for lack of wanting to?" Chrysalis countered harshly. "I was badly weakened after what happened in Canterlot, and it took all of my strength just to come back here so I could spend centuries recuperating in communion with the Heart of Fate. What my wayward children did was outside of my control, this I swear to you." Chrysalis closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly let it back out. Sun was getting a worse and worse feeling in his gut the longer he spoke with her, and Fluttershy shaking like a leaf next to him wasn't helping his nerves. "Setting Sun, I am sorry," Chrysalis said, regaining her composure. "I don't mean to be so curt, but time is short and we both have neither the time nor the energy to waste on moralizing about things neither of us can change. You need to find me, and quickly." "And we get to the core of the matter," Sun interjected. "Why me? Why have you been doing all of this? Why couldn't you have taken care of any of his by yourself?" "You ask many questions, unicorn," Chrysalis rebutted. "I consider it one of my more charming personality traits. You obviously need me for something, so why not just lay it out in the table? It's not like I'm in any fit state to refuse you." Chrysalis tilted her head again, a sharp, jerking motion like a wasp adjusting itself in flight. The being in front of Sun exuded an odd, subtle aura of otherness that he just couldn't shake, and it sent a shiver down his spine that he couldn't blame on Fluttershy. "Very well, if you insist," Chrysalis replied. "I require a servant, a channel for my power that is also bound up in Twilight's 'great work', as she once called it. It was auspicious that you possessed the magical acumen to worm your way into one of my shards, and doubly so that you also are descended from those that Twilight Sparkle cursed." "Cursed?" Sun asked. "How?" "Why do you think magic is so perilously rare and so incredibly weak in her domain?" Chrysalis responded with another jerking tilt of the head. "She decided your fate long before you were even a whisper of an idea. You, your ancestors, nearly every pony now living, is marred by one of my wayward shards, bound to your mind and soul in such a way that it siphons your natural magic, holds it in place like a tumor." Sun slowly raised his hoof, before placing it to the back of his head where the small, soft pulse was beating. "Yes, indeed," Chrysalis continued. "You, more than most, are intimately familiar with this affliction, but from the curse that Twilight Sparkle laid upon your kind I will give you salvation. Find me, to the south; in the bog where no light shines you will find my magnificent hive, resplendent and terrifying. I will be waiting for you in the innermost brood-chamber. There you will be given my offer." With another chill wind the figure dissipated, blown away like smoke from a campfire. Sun's hoof was still on the back of his head, and Fluttershy slowly turned to look at him as she finally let go of his neck. "What now?" Fluttershy asked. "We go on," Sun replied, his voice, like his heart, growing hard. Starlit had to be warned. * * * Chrysalis's eyes rolled forward with a slick sliding sound, her body pulsating slightly. It had been ages since she had had to perform that style of magic , and though the memory was as fresh as ever she was still well out of practice. As her eyes refocused she scanned the chamber, taking in the old, familiar surroundings; the long diminished Heart of Fate hovered a few inches above her chitinous throne, a pale shade of the mighty, beating Heart it had once been. Even as she gazed upon it she saw an infinitesimal fragment shave off and vanish in a small nimbus of silvery light. "Time grows short, and I grow reckless," Chrysalis muttered to herself. With a beating of her diaphanous wings Chrysalis flew upward, high above the heart and the throne to the highest point of her hive. She felt a small gust of fresh air blow in through the hole in the very top, before the cool gust enveloped her as she ascended high into the ever-darkened sky. With deft, soft steps Chrysalis landed atop the hive, the highest point she knew of in all of the Glowing Waste. From this singular vantage point she could look out over all of her domain at once. It was a soothing sight normally, but Chrysalis found her heart laid heavy with guilt. She had acted hastily when she pulled Fluttershy and Setting Sun into her domain, and she was remorseful for the pain she had caused to Setting Sun in the breaking of his horn. Such a precious conduit for such precious magical energy, and it had snapped like a twig. "Why do you mourn for that which you know was pre-ordained?" Chrysalis asked herself. "The horn needed to break; to compromise his sense of self, make him a more willing vessel when the time comes." Chrysalis breathed deep the cool air, trying to find the same sense of comfort that she normally found whenever she came out into her shrouded domain, but it did not come. So much hope laid onto one soul, and Chrysalis found her surety lacking. With another beat if her wings she descended back into the hive, down all the way to her throne and the Heart, she knew she could not afford to indulge her more base emotional predations. Too much was at stake to let compromise worm its way into her heart. Channeling her magic into her Heart, Chrysalis forged that age old connection to her primal source, entreating it to take away these feelings lest they cause the plan she had been hatching for centuries to come crumbling down. Chrysalis slowly raised her head, seeing the dissipation of magic from her horn that she did not remember casting. The Heart was beating more strongly now, why she could not surmise, and a sharp pain tore through her right foreleg. Raising the limb she could see a new pit digging into her leg, a sign that she had succumbed to her better nature and required absolution. "Thank you for this pain, that I remember myself and my purpose," Chrysalis said to herself as clear ichor dribbled from her fresh wound. * * *