//------------------------------// // Ascension: The messenger. // Story: Supernova Shadow // by professor space n time //------------------------------// ~November 1286, four thousand years ago.~ A unicorn stallion with caramel-colored fur, hay-colored mane and the drawing of a parchment on its flanks was walking a rocky road in the early hours of the morning, accompanied only by its backpack, the last weeks had been hard, crossing half a continent and crossing the ocean was not as good an idea as thought '"you are the one" they said, "it will be fun" they said.' he said to himself 'Why the heck did I accept?' He asked 'they didn't even tell me what is all this for! Am I really that easy to convince?' His thoughts were interrupted when he saw a great wall rise in the distance "what the heck?, This was not on the maps!" He said annoyed and confused “I must have lost myself again!" he growled loudly to vent his anger, he took a deep breath and relaxed a little 'I guess I'll have to go over to ask for directions' the stallion approached the great wall noticing how this was not a straight wall but a round fortress, he approached the only entrance he could see, a large metal fence, and tried to look out for a guard or anypony who could help him. "Hey! Hey you!" A voice shouted from above. "Sorry?" The stallion looked up, the sun did not let him see much, but he could make out two stallions with a rudimentary armor of cloth and metal, the one on the right made him some signs. "Yes I'm talking to you! What do you want boy?" the one on the right asked. "Yeah, gentlecolt I'm looking for the village of Norcolt Lane, I got lost and I need directions, could you tell me where it is, or at least where I can find someone to tell me?" He said kindly. The two stallions looked at each other, bursting out laughing. "Excuse me, did I say something funny?" said the stallion a little irritated. The two guards continued laughing for a few minutes "boy you are in the Norcolt Lane village" said the one on the left still laughing slightly. "What?! That's impossible! The town has no walls" The stallion told them "Do you think this is a joke?" "We built the wall last month, besides, can't you read?" he said pointing to a small sign on the side of the road and in front of the entrance with the inscription "Welcome to Norcolt Lane" "Oh. . . " He said blushing embarrassed "my apologies" "Nah, it's fine, what do you want?" said the one on the right. "I need to speak with the leader of the village, it is a matter of the utmost importance" he said imperatively but politely. The two stopped laughing and took a serious expression "give us a second" Said the one on the left. Both disappeared from view, they seemed to shout something from the other side of the wall and then there was silence, the sound of chains hitting invaded the air and the great metal fence rose, two figures approached, two earth ponies, mares by the texture, one of them with white fur, pink hair and eyes of a fuchsia tone, around her neck a blue band with a small gold medal with a red ribbon, on the right ear two gold earrings, a small ring at the top and a thicker ring at the bottom, on his flanks a bright sun, on his face a happy smile and a confident. On the right side another mare younger than the first, with dark blue fur, light blue mane and aquamarine eyes, on its flanks a large crescent moon surrounded by a large spot and black dots, wearing a slightly worn brown wool shirt , in her front metal battle protectors with leather straps, she carried in her right leg a wooden spear with an iron tip, her gaze and smile happy and determined with little splashes of tranquility and strategic insight her mind a little lost in planning and analyzing her surroundings like a soldier with incomparable experience. The mare with the blue band was the first to speak. "Good morning, I am the mayor of this village and this is my sister the leader of the militia," she said in a kind and friendly tone, but with the direct and imposing tone of a leader. “Mayor? I am here on behalf of the Chancellor. I'm looking for the leader of the village” Said the stallion. "Our mother is the leader of the village, what do you need?" Asked the other mare. ~Minutes later.~ The four of them were in the living room having tea inside a medium-sized house on the edge of the village. "So, there is some terrible thing, and I have to go to the Canterlot Valley for some meeting about it?" Springboard summed up with a tone and expression that showed confusion, disbelief, and disinterested boredom. "So it is" replied the messenger. "And can't you just tell me here?" Springboard asked him with a serious face, bored and disinterested by the stallion's words. "I would if I could ma'am, I don't have much information myself" replied the messenger in a considerate and friendly tone. ". . ." Springboard was thoughtful in silence, the two mares looked at her waiting for her answer while the messenger watched her confused, curious and somewhat impressed. Springboard was still silent. ". . ." she closed her eyes "Congratulations girls! You are going to Canterlot" said Springboard cheerfully. "REALLY?!?" yelled both mares excited and smiling. "But this is for village leaders!" Objected the stallion. “It's just the chance for the nobles to show off and do their work, I want them to know that we know our place. I've got more important things to do. Besides, they'll eventually be the leaders of this village. They might as well go” Springboard said with the wise and caring tone of a mother. "Fine ma'am" Said the stallion kindly "I think there will be no problem, what is the worst that could happen?" he said in a more relaxed tone. "I'm glad you understood boy" she said affectionately "now girls, pack your things and remember to take care of your manners, I want you to behave" "Mom, you don't have to tell us, I'm the mayor of the town, my sister is the leader of the militia, I think we know very well how to behave in a political meeting," said the mayor. "You're right daughter, I was just saying it to make sure, your mother cares about you, you know?" Springboard said playfully, ruffling her daughter's hair a bit. "I know mom," said the mayor with a cheerful smile as she fixed her hair, gave her a kiss on the cheek and the two mares left to look for their luggage. "It will take a while, more tea?" Springboard asked the messenger. "It would be a pleasure ma'am" He answered politely. After a few minutes the blue fur mare peeked through one of the doors "Do you think Supernova should come?" she asked. Springboard took a sip of her tea with a thoughtful look "It's a good idea, it will be very useful for making decisions, I also think it will not be a problem for her, she has not had much work lately and I think it would be good for her to do something different" The two mares came out with a big backpack each and without their clothes "perfect! Let's go find her, surely she must be dying of boredom" "Excuse me, who are you talking about?" Asked the messenger confused. “About a friend, she is our consultant, she helps us in many things in our work, we learned everything together, I can say that she is an expert in everything, she's a very educated and gentlecoltly pony, she can come with us, right? it will be a nuisance" She said with a smile on her face. The stallion looked at her with a frustrated expression, he was in a short hesitant silence “I think. . ., I think there will be no problem" "Excellent, I think we should go now, let's not waste time." said the mayor, opening the door. The first to come out was the blue-furred mare "See you later mom." The messenger followed her "Goodbye ma'am, it was a pleasure meeting you." Finally, the mayor went out the door "Goodbye mom." "See you later" Springboard said with a smile. They walked a small path until they reached the most inhabited part of the town, the glances of the others towards the messenger became evident, most of them were looks of astonishment from the young people, but there was hidden among the crowd the fixed, rancorous glances and full of hatred from the elders and ex-soldiers. The messenger was a bit uncomfortable and nervous, but kept his composure, he had already been taught about how to act in these situations with the mud ponies before. "So. . . " The mayor said, pulling the messenger out of his thoughts, the mare's face was slightly flushed. “We never introduced ourselves correctly. I am Celestia and my sister is Luna" The messenger was dumbfounded for a moment “Umm. . . " Until now he had not noticed the beauty of the mare, that perfect white hair, that pink, smooth and shiny mane, and those eyes, those beautiful magenta eyes with hints of lavender, beautiful as a pink sapphire, with a cheerful and optimistic shine so beautiful as a sunset, at that moment his cheeks flushed and his heart beat his chest “I am Golden Papyre. Nice to meet you!" he said quickly. "It is also a pleasure to meet you Golden" Celestia said with a sweet smile. "So. . . Who is this "Supernova"? How is she like?" He asked. "Well she-" Celestia was interrupted by Luna who jumped between the two of them. "She is fantastic! She is the best cook I know, she is an impressive scientist and chemist, she designs all kinds of inventions, expandable shields, weapons that launch fire, smoke bombs, machines to create illusions, even automatic machines" "Automatic?" Golden repeated confused. “They are machines that work on their own, for example, the shirt that I was wearing was woven by one of her machines, all the military clothes are made on those machines, you can make dozens of copies of the same shirt in a few hours "said Luna. "Hours?!!" Golden said surprised "That's impressive, so she's an inventor, it sounds very interesting" "Oh no, no, no, no, no, she's not an inventor" Said Luna, shaking her head quickly "it's more of a hobby of hers, she is dedicated to solving mysteries" "So she's a detective, I wonder how they let her join the police academy?" Golden said thoughtfully. "She is not a police officer, she works on her own," Luna told him. "So she's a private detective," he said. "No, I don't think you understand me, she works alone, only her and no pony else," Luna said. Golden looked at her surprised and confused "So she's an amateur" Luna looked at him seriously "Listen to me well friend, maybe she is an "amateur" but she is the one who solves all the crimes in this village and the other 80 in Buckingham no matter what the police say, she does it all, without help , without magic, without gadgets, without forensics, just her brain and her eyes" she said with a penetrating and frightening look. "I-it's okay I believe you, I believe you" He said trying to calm her down "I just want to ask something, they told me about two detectives on the way here Jackpot and Onyx, they are supposed to be the ones in charge of all the cases, how does that works? "Asked in a slightly ironic and somewhat mocking way, Golden thought about unmasking what he saw as an obvious lie. Luna looked at him with a satisfied smile "Well that's simple, Supernova is a consultant, when Jackpot and Onyx don't know how to solve a case, that is, most of the time, she helps them solve it, sometimes she just gives them advice or she solves it in the comfort of her home, sometimes she goes to the crime scene and investigates a little, no matter how she does it she always solves the case, then Jackpot and Onyx pay Nova for her work and take all the credit" Golden looked at her confused and curious "Do you have proof of this?" Luna took a few papers out of her bag "Read this" she said, handing her the papers. Golden took the papers with his orange magic, the first was a newspaper report done on a very poor paper "They catch the mountain butcher" was the title "Today October 12, 1285, detective Sir Jackpot Mark and his colleague Dr. Onyx Strikes captured the mysterious mountain butcher, and it turns out to be a mare! As ladies and gentlecolt read, the person responsible for these horrible murders is miss River Breeze, a hiker who collected truffles for chefs haute cuisine on the slopes of Mount Helvylin, strong-looking but meek, with a humble and youth-friendly personality, she seemed like just another good ponie from the lot, but in reality she was a bloodthirsty, malevolent, cold, ruthless and without any respect or appreciation for the life and integrity of others, as had already been reported in previous editions, 3 bodies of young ponies had been found on the south face of Solar Pike Mountain; to refresh the memory of our readers we will give below a chronology of the events. A few days ago on October 8, the body of the young Sweetie Daisy was found on the side of the mountain, hidden among the stones, the autopsy showed that the young mare died of a brain contusion caused by a blow to the head with an object with the shape of a half cylinder, the body also inexplicably had multiple cuts and stab wounds but these were carried out after death leaving the police puzzled, a few days later, on October 10, two other bodies were found in the same area, those of a couple, Star Cupcake and her coltfriend Silver Spirit, in the words of Dr. Onyx "the bodies were practically unrecognizable, the full details of what they did to them are too grotesque to say out loud" simply to exemplify we will give the basic details, Star's body was open from the throat to the belly and inside her stomach she had the severed head of her coltfriend, the rest of her coltfriend's body had multiple blows and fractures, the police were puzzled and did not have a suspect, but today Sir Jackpot Mark and Dr. Onyx Strikes surprise us once again by catching the culprit of the, all the details of the investigation have not yet been published but according to Mr. Jackpot Mark "It was actually something very simple, from the beginning I knew that we were looking for someone strong but it was an obvious factor that it was not a stud, it also had to be someone who knew the mountains" a complete article with all the details of the investigation and the history of the criminal will be published soon, for now we can rest easy knowing that this criminal is off the streets thanks to the rapid work of the police" "Now read the other one" Luna told him. The other paper was a letter, made on a paper that was soft to the touch, but resistant to folds, it was written in italics "My dear Luna since you could not come to visit me today due to the incident with the guards on the river, and since I know how much you like to chat about ancient mysteries and listen to me narrate my cases I have decided to tell you how I solved a case that I just received today, surely you already saw in the newspaper the three corpses that they found in the Solar Pike mountain, I will not delve much into the details because the newspaper already talked about the bodies, I will write about the wounds and the deductions that I used, the first thing I noticed at the crime scene was the location of the body, whoever brought it carried it on his back because the earth around it had no marks that something was dragged, that means that it was someone strong, this hypothesis was verified by checking the rocks around the body, they did not agree with the rest of the rocks in that area, someone carried those rocks and used them to half hide the body, the second thing I noticed were the wounds, the first thing was those cuts and stabs, it is supposed that they were made after death but that is what the police are wrong about, they were not done after death, they let bleed after death, those wounds are made in specific points of the body that cause extreme pain, but not death, that means they were torturing her, the criminal closed her wounds constantly, with tweezers, probably, causing the blood to clot inside the body causing internal bleeding but the wounds did not bleed until after death, he also made extra stabs to hide it. The fatal head wound was made with a shovel obviously, but it was a special kind of shovel, I took samples of the dirt around her shattered skull, you had to see it! The right side of the skull was shattered, one eye was stuck out of its socket and fell into its mouth, the teeth were completely embedded in the bone, the cheeks and some even dug into the roof of the mouth, not to mention that her brain was shattered , surrounded by blood and cerebrospinal fluid mixing inside her skull in a shade of diluted light red and a little yellowish, sorry for that, you know dear that these things excite me, as I said, when I analyzed the samples with the naked eye I knew that it was not soil of the mountain, the color, texture and shape of the grains proved to me that it is soil from Mount Helvylin, a closer examination let me know that the soil contained some small pieces of truffle, there are no truffles on Solar Pike Mountain, but there is on Mount Helvylin, this means that the murder was carried out on Mount Helvylin, before death the victim was tortured and his wounds were constantly closed, finally the murderer got bored and killed her, I know he got bored because he could have tortured her even more, but he didn't, he didn't feel uncomfortable with the body, he carried her from a mountain to another on top of him without flinching, the blood didn't bother him, the mortal blow was performed with a truffle shovel, the land was a clue but it was confirmed when I bought one of those shovels and it coincided with the wound on the corpse. All I needed was to find the murderer, or murderess in this case, how do I know that she is a mare? Let's review the facts, it was not by chance, someone who was passing through the area saw her and kidnapped her, tortured her, didn't abused her, killed her, walked away and buried her, wait what? It is not one of the things that I am totally proud of, but in all these years I have seen many cases similar to this and this one has two details that make this theory practically impossible, let's see an adult whose target is foals and teenagers is usually because he wants to abuse them, if that were the case it would not be strange to hide the body because those profiles, provided they do not believe they have powers like "The Parisian Tailor", they tend to feel ashamed and hiding what has been done usually alleviates that part, but let's remember that she was not abused and that simple detail, no matter how insignificant it may seem, changes all things, it makes moving away to a mountain 85 kilometers away have another meaning, distraction and excitement. She carried the body there to give the impression that the filly had disappeared, but it would be useless to take her that distance if it is logical that the kidnapping and murder occurred on Mount Helvylin since the filly had not reached that far of her own free will, there was nothing in that place, that shows excitement, after killing her she was excited, and she thought about hiding the corpse in a place where a common pony would not find it, if I take into account the force necessary to kill her, carry her and move the stones to hide her I can know that it took her an hour to travel the 85 kilometers, this only proves the level of excitement that the murderer felt, she traveled 85 kilometers for an hour carrying a corpse without flinching, she put it on the most rugged side of the mountain and then. . . she hid it between a few rocks, she was so excited that she did not even hide it well, she was not tired, she traveled 85 kilometers in an hour carrying a body, covered it with stones and then had to travel those 85 kilometers again to return to the mount I could have hidden it better, taking all of the above into account I can assure you that the responsible is a mare. In short, a strong mare who was surely dedicated to looking for truffles on Mount Helvylin with knowledge of the mountains, kidnapped Sweetie Daisy, tortured her by constantly closing her wounds, killed her with her truffle shovel, left the wounds to bleed out, charged her for an hour to the side of Solar Pike mountain, she hid it between some rocks and then she left, all I had to do was find someone who matched my deductions, it wasn't more than half an hour before Raggedy brought me Miss River Breeze's description, the mare matched everything I was looking for, strong, she is dedicated to looking for truffles, she is a hiker and therefore knows the mountains, I managed to collect some information from her and invited her to my house to ask her some questions , she, her family and friends assure that she spent the whole day working in the mountains and the amount of truffles she brought with her would be proof of this, it is more obvious to me that she is the culprit, it is theoretically possible to get the amount of truffles she collected and you would have three hours left to spare, But those idiots Jackpot and Onyx swallowed her alibi, I decided to send one of my boys to follow Miss Breeze to confirm her alibi, It was no surprise to me when I was informed that they had found two other bodies just a day after the young Astral gave me his report, Miss Breeze worked collecting truffles for four hours, then she left her bag of truffles hidden in the bushes and went in the direction of Mount Solar Pike, she disappeared for three hours, came back with blood stains, cleaned herself, picked up her jacket and continued working for another two hours, Jackpot and Onyx have already arrested her, I'm not going to talk much about the bodies of the couple, they were interesting and I got to examine them a bit. I hope you liked my writing, hope to see you soon. Always yours: Supernova Shadow, October 11, 1285." Golden read the date one more time to make sure his eyes weren't lying to him, he was impressed, he would never have imagined something like that but there it was, there was no doubt that what Luna said was true "I-I can't believe it" "And yet there it is, right in front of your eyes" Luna said taking the papers and putting them back in her bag. "You know what this means?!!" He said indignantly "It means that those two are a disgrace, why hasn't your friend tried to claim the honor, appreciation and respect she deserves? How is she able to bear such dishonor? Those two are stealing her credit." He asked. Luna looked at him with a shrug with her lips pursed in a horizontal line in an expression of 'What do you want me to tell you?' “I don't know how things are back in Canterlot, but here it is very difficult to get respect, Nova has had a difficult life, teasing here, insults there, over the years people got tired and bother her less now, she is fine, the fewer people you meet, the less problems you will have, is what she says, we are her only friends, there are ponies in this village who have known her since the day she was born and they still don't know her name or they attack her in the street" "Attack her? Why?" Golden asked. Luna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Well, it's all due to her ap-" Luna stopped and ran to a candy stand. "Caramelized lemon peel! Honey and cocoa bars!" She ran to the small wooden stall, pulled out a small bag, and started talking to the vendor. "Luna!" Celestia yelled at her in a scolding tone "Get back here right now!" Celestia turned to look at Golden "I'm so sorry, my sister is still somewhat young and can act very childish sometimes, she-" "Blueberry cake!" Shout Luna excitedly from a distance. In less than a blink, Celestia's eyes seemed to get bigger, her pupils were huge and bright, a smile formed on her face “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Again in less than a blink she ran to the candy stall to wait in line with the excited face of a little filly, taking little excited leaps from time to time. "Okay. . . ?" Golden said to himself looking at the two mares in the distance, the stallion turned to see his surroundings and saw a foal on the corner of the street with a notebook in his left hoof and a pencil in his mouth, the foal had gray fur and a black mane, his face and body were covered in dust and dried mud in some parts, when he got closer he could see what the foal was doing in the notebook, it was a perfect pencil portrait of Golden, "Good draw kid" He said impressed, suddenly the boy looked at him, quickly ran out and turned the corner. Golden was confused for a moment, then Celestia appeared next to him "What are you looking at?" she said with a face full of cake crumbs. "There was a colt here, it just ran away, it was drawing in a notebook, it was a drawing of mine, I thought that earth ponies weren't capable of drawing" He said confused and curious. Celestia looked at him puzzled "Of course we can draw! Why on Equestria would you think that we are not capable of drawing?" "Well because earth ponies are nothing more than illiterate farmers with nothing in the least special in them, they are just Nils-" Golden noticed Celestia's irritated expression and furios glare, a bead of cold sweat ran down his back making him shake "*Gulp* at least- *Gulp* at least that's what they told me back at home" "I see. . . " Celestia said in a serious and slightly annoyed tone, then walked away. "W-wait!" Golden sped up his walk and approached Celestia “I'm so sorry, really, it's just that I've never left Canterlot before and all the unicorns there always say things like that about all races and species. Please give me a chance, I know that if you show me what you earth ponies can really do I will know you are not useless and maybe I can change things back at home, just, just give me a chance" he said in a pleading tone that seemed embarrassing. Celestia was about to hit him, just for fun and because she had no patience for such things when she saw the sparkle in his eyes, she had seen that sparkle only in one place before, but she knew that that sparkle was pure sincerity, she hesitated a little. "Agk! FINE! But listen to me well, if I hear you say any of your insults again, it will be better for you if you don't ever speak to me again, understand?!" "yes!" he said as soon as she finished the sentence "I appreciate it so much, I swear that I will not dishonor your race again" Celestia took a moment to understand the phrase, finally it clicked in her head, then she just turned and said to her sister "Luna come here we gotta go" 'I just fucked it up big' was the only thing Golden could think of. Luna came over holding a bag of sweets "I'm ready, did I miss something?" Celestia glanced at Golden "Nothing important" Celestia said, staring at the stallion. "Very good, then let's go, Nova's house is a few blocks away" She said, going ahead and going around the right corner. Celestia approached her sister in silence and the two of them walked together, Golden stayed behind them, he thought about the words of forgiveness he said to Celestia 'Why- why did I apologize?' He asked himself surprised, But he was more surprised when he reevaluated the question 'What, "why did I apologize"? I'm a chivalrous unicorn, of course I should apologize!' However, it seemed something strange, he felt that it went against his nature, since he was a colt he had been taught and made appreciate the honor and superiority of the unicorns in an almost sectarian way, they had taught him almost on the same level the inferiority of other races and species, he had always felt the same contempt for the non-pure that others had, but that day it seemed as clear as water that all this was nonsense, a earth pony that was a mare was the mayor, her mother was the leader of the village and her sister was a military leader, even a colt without Cutie Mark and covered in dirt had a talent for drawing that he hadn't seen any unicorn have "that kid was drawing with his mouth! A perfect portrait just using his mouth!". At that moment he thought of his teacher, that scholar who had been like his grandfather, whom he loved more than his own parents, the one who had taught him everything had once told him about the distant lands to which he had traveled, places where the unicorns did not go for multiple reasons, caprice, hatred, contempt for others and even the mere fact that they were not welcome there, he told him about the beauty of the lands and how beings worked without magic, he said that to him it was an honor and a pleasure that he was allowed to do a job with only his own hooves and he told him that there was nothing better for him than to finish a job well done and wipe the sweat on his forehead, at that moment he seemed to access memories from his youth which his existence had already forgotten, Golden remembered vividly how his teacher used the time left over from his lessons to re-educate him against the beliefs of his parents and of practically any unicorn about others races and species, those memories made hatred come back to light, that strong and repressed hatred towards the ponies that he had to call his parents, he remembered how they destroyed his childhood dreams about knowing the world and the beings that inhabited it, He remembered with fury and pain that day, until the last minute of that day his parents yelled, scolded and lectured him to the point of exhaustion about the superiority of unicorns and taught him, forced him to love that superiority and to hate other races and species. Tears formed in his eyes as he had unlocked such traumatic memories, he looked at the mares walking in front of him and a part of him felt determined like never before, guided this time not by hatred as had happened before in his ideas to explore the world against his parents desires and beliefs, but of hope and longing for knowledge, he felt in his heart that childlike flame that fueled the foals dreams of changing the world, the conviction was formed in his heart 'We three will teach those idiots from Canterlot that they are not as important or superior as they think' a hopeful smile formed on his face, he thought at that moment of that Supernova Shadow, if that girl was half of what Luna said she would shut those racist and classist unicorns mouths as soon as she stepped hoof in Canterlot. "It's here!" Luna said stopping. The street was lined with several identical apartments next to each other, they had two floors and a facade of strong red clay bricks, the windows had white frames and the door was of a dark brown varnished wood, almost black, all the houses had a balcony with black metal railings, the bars at the corners of the balcony ending in a spiral. Golden actually found the apartments very nice, they had nothing to envy the ones in Canterlot, at least on the outside. "It's this one" said Celestia stopping in front of a door with the number 106, Golden looked at the door for a moment, then Celestia approached, there was a hole in the sidewalk where a hoof could fit, there was a piece of metal in the bottom, she moved her hoof from the inside to the outside and cleaned the mud from the hoof, then repeated this with the other three and climbed the two steps that led to the door, she raised the heavy polished metal bell that was under the lock and hit hard three times.