//------------------------------// // Chapter 5. Young Pioneer Camp // Story: From Ashes, Acid, and Absinthe // by Hope //------------------------------// The kids arrived the next day. Sunset had been up early, ostensibly to forage for berries. Her true purpose was to try to find a use out of what she had learned the previous night. She walked out in aimless directions, trying to detect ley lines or any other signs of magic. After nearly an hour of searching, she looked up in the direction of a dragging sound, and detected two strong magical sinks approaching her. Restoring her natural vision, she waited until two figures emerged from the woods. Two girls with straight strawberry-blonde hair, wearing matching striped long-sleeve shirts and blue jeans. They couldn’t have been more than twelve years old. “Hey, are you a Friend of Starlight?” the taller of the two asked. She looked back at the very full suitcase she was dragging, and the other girl was pushing. “This thing is really heavy.” Sunset checked them again, just to be sure. Both of them had been completely drained of their natural stores of this world’s magic, and rather recently. “Yes,” she said, finally. "Let me get the wheelbarrow.” As she was walking away, she stopped suddenly and whirled around. “Who are you two, anyway?” “I’m Ellen, and this is Mary Jo,” the shorter one said. “We’re Marcus’ daughters.” Sunset turned back around quickly, so that the girls would not see the scowl on her face. ‘As if I didn’t trust that old buzzard already,’ she inwardly fumed. ‘He’s been draining his own daughters’ magic for himself!’ Ellen let go of the suitcase and ran towards Sunset as she turned to leave. “Mary Jo can watch the luggage,” she said happily. “I smell pancakes! Oh, and you didn’t introduce yourself.” For a moment, Sunset was strongly—and strangely—compelled to tell the girl her actual name, but the thought of who her father was dissuaded her. “Alice,” she finally said in a curt manner. She then began walking quickly over to the cabin. “Wow, that was a quick turn,” Ellen commented, catching up with her. “What’s wrong, do I smell or something?” She took a whiff under one armpit. “OK, maybe I do. You try to smell like a spring day after dragging fifty pounds of clothes through the mud.” “So I guess I’ll stay here,” Mary Jo exclaimed sarcastically, sitting down on the suitcase. “You do that!” Ellen called back. “You brought fifty pounds of clothes?” Sunset asked. She suspected that the contents were a good deal more suspicious than that, given who must have packed that suitcase. “Yes, Alice—if that’s your real name,” Ellen said, squinting her eyes at Sunset, “we did bring fifty pounds of clothes.” Then she laughed. “Just kidding about the name thing. Yup, fifty pounds of clothes. At least, I think they’re clothes. Marcus locked the suitcase and wouldn’t let us see what was inside. Said that ‘innocent children like yourselves will be perfect transport for this innocent cargo of garments.’” The last part was said with a fair approximation of Marcus’ voice. Ellen’s eyes then suddenly went wide. “Hey, that sounds really suspicious when I repeat it like that. You don’t think it’s full of counterfeit hundred-dollar bills, do you?” Sunset rolled her eyes. “No, I really don’t think you’re smuggling counterfeit bills.” “Good. Are we close to the cabin? I’m hungry.” Sunset pulled a single blueberry out of her basket and offered it to the teenager. It later turned out both of them were right: the suitcase did not contain fifty pounds of clothes, and it did not contain fifty pounds of counterfeit currency. It contained fifty pounds of peyote. The luggage lid clicked closed as Starlight, stony-faced and grim, looked over the top of it at the two children, who looked annoyed more than upset or scared. “We’ll have the church built soon, but for now I’ll give you my room in the cabin,” Starlight said finally. “At least until we can figure out why your dad decided to bring you here. Nothing’s finished yet, so this place is not much fun for a couple of kids.” “He sent us here to spy on you and prove you’re up to something,” said Mary Jo flatly. “He sent us here to get rid of us while he did something illegal,” Ellen said at the exact same moment. The two sisters glared at each other. “You’re wrong!” they both then shouted at each other. Sunset sighed as she watched all this. “Father of the Year material for sure,” she muttered. “Great,” Starlight said with a forced smile. “Either way, that means you’re going to be stuck here, spying on me as I babysit you for a while. So I’m going to tell you some rules, and if you don’t follow them, I’ll mind-control you to make you obey them, capiche?” “Can she do that?” asked Ellen. “What does ‘capiche’ mean?” asked Mary Jo. “I think it means she’s in the Mafia,” said Ellen. “And she can totally do that. I mean—look at her eyes!” “Those are freaky eyes,” Mary Jo admitted reluctantly. Starlight’s smile got a bit more genuine, even if it was more of a smirk now. “Yeah, sure. Mafia, and yes my glowy eyes mean I can totally mind-control you, no effort. So! The rules are as follows. You will not go anywhere near the construction. This means that if you can see the construction, you’re probably too close. I don’t want you two eating nails or something.”  The sisters rolled their eyes. “Two, you will not open any of the containers I keep in the cabin. If you do, I won’t even have to mind-control you, you’ll just instantly die,” she lied.  The sisters looked silently at Sunset for confirmation. Sunset grimly nodded her head. “Three, you are required to eat at all three group meals; and four, if you’re bored, tell me so I can find something for you to do. Okay?” “Fiiine,” Mary Jo said for the both of them. “Now please tell us you have a stereo, because if I can’t play my records I will trip.” Starlight relaxed a bit. “I’ve got a stereo and a record player. Do you two know how to use a record player?” “We know how to use a record player,” Ellen said, a bit insulted. “Marcus listens to those Crowley speeches on his stereo all time, and we’re the ones stuck turning the platters over when he’s too stoned to move,” Mary Jo added. “Of course he does, the pompous bastard,” Starlight said in a kind tone. “Come on, the stereo is in my room.” Starlight guided them to her room, took a few things out of her room, and then shut the door, leaning her head on the wood with her eyes closed for a moment before turning to walk away and almost running into Sunset. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I forgot you were there. You’re quiet when you want to be,” she swore softly, straightening her shirt. “Well how else are you going to overhear how the god-empress created the planet?” Sunset quipped. Starlight stopped, squinting at Sunset for a moment. “Even in a spirit world, I don’t believe you’d have a planet creator thingie, nice try,” she said before brushing past Sunset. “Fucking Peyote, of course he sends… You know how impure this stuff is? Well… Not impure, but tied up, the residual energies are so… specific, so easy to be snared in conditionals.” Any reply by Sunset was cut off by the trippy music coming through the closed door. “Lime and limpid green, a second scene A fight between the blue you once knew. Floating down, the sound resounds Around the icy waters underground. Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania. Neptune, Titan, Stars can frighten.” Sunset banged loudly on the door. “Some of us are trying to have a conversation here!” The music got noticeably quieter. “Pink Floyd,” Sunset said after a moment. “They have good taste, I’ll say that.” “Good music,” Starlight agreed. “As for the drugs thing, I’ll trust their judgement. Also, what are the chances that Marcus was just dumping it on you because the fuzz had gotten too close?” Starlight resumed walking, brow furrowed. “It’s… possible, but I’ve never gotten the impression he gives me access to anything that he doesn’t intend for me to use. I’m a… conduit for him, a power source. You don’t put coal into a furnace for safe keeping.” She arrived back in the living room, to look at the suitcase, which she popped open again, running a thumb over a bulb of the cactus and biting her bottom lip in contemplation. “Oh how I could burn, if only I could figure out a proper target. Too many things in this world are just… distractions. They look real and valuable until you press them, and then it’s all fool’s gold.” “Well, that’s just sort of a general thing,” said Sunset. “Sometimes I think that my world was nothing but a big mass of distractions.” She pointed at the two of them. “Now this—this is the good stuff.” “I’m not good stuff,” Starlight said as she stood abruptly, facing Sunset. “I’m not, I can’t be good or bad, that’d… It wouldn’t work. I’m just… a force. A vector, that’s it, ok?” Sunset opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself. After a few moments she finally said, “I know this sounds immensely hypocritical from me, but you think too much.” Starlight laughed, and shook her head. “I have to think. I’ve got too many brains not too. Come on, let’s check on the church.” As they turned to walk away, part of the next song started seeping out of the closed room behind them. “Ginger, ginger you're a witch. You're the left side He's the right side. Oh, no! That cat's something I can't explain.” Starlight closed the suitcase and strode outside, sweeping along the dirt path until the church came into sight. So far it was just a cleared spot between the trees, cradled by the old oaks and pines with a short wall of stones marking the foundation’s borders, forty one feet by forty one feet, with the digging beginning on a small cellar in one corner. “Well, even though its height isn’t impressive, I do like the look of it,” Starlight admitted, a few of the working members glancing up with smiles, a purple glow shimmering across their eyes, or possibly just a trick of the sunlight. Sunset frowned a bit at that last part, before looking over the site and nodding. “It’s compact. I like that. Not like those Catholic cathedrals in New York City. All that opulence while the masses are begging for bread in the back alleys.” “I want to burn down a cathedral some day,” Starlight said, grinning. “I feel like it’d be thematically appropriate. But all we need is one big room, and then we’ll start building more cabins. One room for each person is my goal. One room, three meals, one prayer a day,” she recited as though she’d been holding it as a precious ethos for a very long time. “Sunrise or sunset?” asked Sunset, having a very clear mental image of the masses of ponies beseeching Celestia at sunrise the last day before Sunset left Equestria forever. “Sunset,” Starlight said firmly. “Prayers offer a calmness that helps us sleep.” “Oh,” Sunset said with a smile. “I like those kind of prayers.” Starlight stepped forward and started walking through the worksite. “Our mother, who art with us always,” she began, as members of the group spoke the next words in sequence, as they worked as though they’d practiced it a hundred times. “Give us the strength to serve our fellow man.” “Give us the love to be content as we are.” “See our souls through the pains of this world.” “And deliver us to the freedom that comes only from loving one another.” As Starlight reached the other side of the construction, she turned back to look at Sunset with a grin, her eyes seeping purple smoke into the air. “If Marcus tries to take this from me,” she said coolly. “I will rip his heart out.” Sunset blinked several times as she was broken out of the trance caused by hearing the prayer. “Way to ruin a mood,” she muttered under her breath. Nevertheless, she looked nervously over at the room where Marcus’ two daughters, his two visible symbols, were staying. “I have no intention of hurting them, ‘Alice’ as much as they are his children. They… shouldn’t carry the blame for their father,” she said as she started walking back to Sunset’s side. Sunset nodded deferentially. “Of course.”  “Now, this wouldn’t be fair, if we just stood here and watched,” Starlight said with a grin, leaning down and picking up two rough sacks. “We need rocks!” Sunset put down the spare hammer she had just picked up. “Rocks?” She pictured in her mind some sort of imaginary earth pony temple, where purposely-placed rocks balanced on each other, causing whole continents to float into the sky. “Well yes, we aren’t going to buy concrete, only mortar. So we need rocks to form the foundation and fireplace,” she explained. “Can you believe some people actually buy rocks in bulk? There are plenty out there in the forest.” “Oh,” said Sunset, feeling foolish. “Yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking of.” “Oh come on, you’ve got to have rocks where you come from,” Starlight said as she led Sunset out into the forest, heading towards a rocky hill in the distance. “No, we have to make them from scratch out of sand every time,” Sunset said flatly. As they walked, they passed by a quartet of barrels full of water, and a series of planter boxes with small sprouts or divots for seeds in them, being worked on by three members of the group. “Sand makes glass, not rocks,” Starlight said, rolling her eyes. “Are we really having a discussion about geology right now?” “If you’d rather talk about magic, I can do that too, but we are out here looking for rocks, so it’s a pertinent topic of conversation.” “Fine,” Sunset said with some exasperation, then grabbed one of the sacks from Starlight and started filling it. “Rock, rock, rock that turned into dirt, rock, snack, rock…” The “snack” was a pine cone. Starlight squinted, but didn’t say anything as she started gathering rocks as well, though she focused on only getting a few large ones, before they had to head back to the church, not wanting to overload themselves. As they headed back out for another trip, she finally took the bait. “You’re not actually going to eat a pinecone are you?” “Not on a full stomach I’m not,” Sunset replied. “Maybe with a full hindgut, but that’s neither here nor there.” Starlight fully stopped walking as she took in what Sunset had said, and tried to process it. “Hind…. Gut. Like… Like cows?!” “You did NOT just call me a cow,” Sunset stated. “Wow. How rude.” Starlight, cheeks bright red, turned and charged off into the forest with her sack, searching for rocks again and trying not to meet Sunset’s gaze. Sunset made an imaginary mark in the air. “And another point for me.” Dinner was a bit of a spooky affair, in Sunset’s eyes. It was well after the sun had set, and there weren’t enough light sources to illuminate everybody now that the campfire had nearly burned out. Also, Sunset was keeping an eye on the girls sitting next to her, and so saw their apprehension at the unfamiliarity of everything going on and sort of absorbed a bit of it herself. “Well, with William’s car arriving, that means everyone is here,” Starlight declared as dinner was spooned up into bowls, a rich stew over rice. “Which means I must introduce everyone to everyone! After all, many of you were at Raven Creek waiting for me, so… Let’s start off with those of you who have been here the longest.” She didn’t even have to say any names, as an old woman with ratty grey hair nodded and sat up a bit. “Hello… all. I am Esme. Been… sticking around Starlight for about three years now. Someone’s got to look after her.” There was a round of soft laughter around the campfire, and Esme smiled. “Joined with her two months ago, when the getting was good for the chems and all that, and… Well, guess I’m sort of the seamstress of us, till we get a better one. Need clothes fixed, I’ll help.” She nodded to the group, and focused on her bowl, as the rest of the group introduced themselves in similar style, how they were connected to Starlight, how long they’d been around, how they could help the group even if it was just being a good listener. It was easy to notice that only a quarter of the group mentioned being “Joined” specifically, and Sunset knew what that meant. But eventually, their eyes all looked to Sunset and the children. Repeating last night’s ritual of introduction didn’t sound very appetising to Sunset, though. Once again, she had to fight to get her false name out. “A...Alice,” she finally said. “And I’m not really sure where I am with this group. I have skills, but they don’t really apply here. I guess I’m here to learn about the true nature of reality.” “A noble goal,” Starlight said, smiling. “And you, girls?” The shadows made Starlight seem more than sinister, they etched her face into something inhuman, grinning as if waiting for the children to make a mistake. “M...Mary Jo. And Ellen,” the elder sister said, standing in front of and speaking for her sibling. “And we’re here to see that the true purpose of this assemblage has not been forgotten.” She looked shocked after she had spoken these words, as if they had not come from her by choice. Sunset appeared to notice this, giving the pair a new, sympathetic look. A cool breeze blew through the clearing, and Starlight laughed, slow and soft, shaking her head. “It’s alright Mary Jo,” she said sympathetically. “We know the true purpose of it all is to get you fed and happy.” But behind her words were eyes of furious hot steel, as something hardened in her. The bowls of stew were delivered around the circle, and one of the assembly sat on the other side of the children from Sunset, talking to them about music in happy tones as Sunset noticed Starlight abandon her bowl on a rock and stand, striding slowly out into the darkness beyond the forest, hands clenched in fists beside her. Sunset excused herself and found a roundabout way to join Starlight. “Back on my world, I’ve got a spell called ‘Lifting the Veil’. Very useful. Sadly, it doesn’t work here.” Starlight said nothing, refusing to turn to look at her. “...Right,” Sunset said after an awkward few minutes. “I’ll go back and keep the group together while you think through this.” As she did this, Sunset reflected that Starlight’s earlier threat to mind-control the sisters was way too on-the-nose. “Sunset?” Starlight whispered, before turning to see if she was still there, seeing Sunset had already made it halfway back to the campfire. “Yes?” Sunset said as she backtracked. “Tell me at least in your world, magic doesn’t get used to make kids into puppets?” she asked, voice cracking as she did, cheeks shining from the distant light of the campfire. Sunset sighed. “Once. Only once, long ago. And the king responsible lost his whole kingdom as a result.” Starlight nodded sharply, and looked away again. “Some day… If we build a way there, can you show me your world?” she pleaded. “Yes,” Sunset said, reaching out to take Starlight’s hand. “I’d like that very much.” Starlight held her hand tightly as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “God I fucking hate that Marcus has his claws in my heart. He’s not here, and I can be true, I can be pure, but the moment he shows up…” She laughed bitterly, looking up at the stars. “I’m just a power source again. I’m just a tool, and I want to die.” Sunset turned to look Starlight in the eyes. “We’ll get through this together, Starlight Glimmer. That human has no power over me. And if he wants to pervert your pure purpose, he’ll have to do it over my dead body.” Starlight turned and hugged Sunset quickly, before pulling away and nodding. “Yeah… Well… We’ve got a week before he shows up, probably. So let’s do some good for these kids until then.” “Yeah,” said Sunset, leading Starlight back towards the others. “Oh and Sunset?” Starlight asked, hanging back a little. “Yes?” “Earlier, when I called you, you must have been fifteen, maybe twenty feet away.” “So?” “I whispered your name, Sunset. How did you hear it? Or did you read my mind?” there was an odd tone to Starlight’s voice, as if she wanted Sunset to be able to read her mind. “Oh I heard it,” Sunset said. “I have really good ears.” She reached up, her fingertips momentarily closing on nothing a few inches above her head before lowering to momentarily grip the tops of her ears. “Sure,” Starlight chuckled. “Not gonna fall for that again.” She touched Sunset’s back as she passed her, headed for the campfire. “Fall for what?” Sunset asked nobody in particular. Starlight was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a young woman screaming. The scream was then cut off, as if someone had covered the screamer’s mouth. She had no hesitation, jumping off the couch in the cabin and running towards the sound, flinging open the door before a moment of disorientation reminded her that this was her room, the room where the kids were staying. “You can’t have her!” screamed the voice of Mary Jo. “It’s alright, I’m here, it’s ok,” she said, without even thinking, as she slipped closer to the bed, blinking sleep out of her eyes. “S...Starlight?” Ellen asked, after prying Mary Jo’s hand off of her mouth. “It’s just Starlight,” she told her sister. “Yeah,” Mary Jo said sheepishly. “I can see that now. We’re...we’re sorry we awakened you.” “Hey, hey, sorry I scared you,” Starlight said, kneeling by the bed and holding out her hand. “Come on, hold my hand, it’s alright. It’s alright. I… I have nightmares too. Everyone does, okay?” She vividly remembered some of her followers having nightmares that spread like wildfire through her own mind, and always the solution was physical contact, humans were simple creatures. It was with some confusion that she looked down to see that the hand she had taken was no longer there. She hadn’t felt the hand sliding out of hers. It was just at one moment it was there, and the next...it wasn’t. “I’m sorry,” Mary Jo said. “It’s just the way we were raised. Marcus forbids us to touch anyone but each other. Weird, I know.” She seemed to have no awareness of the supernatural aspect of how Ellen got her hand back. Starlight’s face fell, in pure grief and sorrow. She looked into the eyes of the two children, and she saw something of the pain being brewed inside of them like a seed, primed to sprout and destroy them. But half awake, she didn’t have the eloquence to do anything about it. She licked her lips and blinked slowly, looking away, before standing and shuffling to the corner, opening her book bag, an old battered one covered in pins and precious iconography, before she found what she was looking for and walked back over to the bed, kneeling again and holding the object out. It was a stuffed snake, soft as velvet with little bead eyes, and a stitched pattern in the back. It even had a little capsule in the tail with a couple of small seeds inside, to act as a rattle. “Snakes aren’t people, so… So maybe he can help,” she said in a rough tone, with a hollow smile. Ellen looked at the toy, tilting her head. “That’s nice,” she said, politely taking the stuffed animal. “But we’re not exactly children anymore.” “No,” Starlight sighed as she stood. “No, but adults are allowed to hold hands. Be hugged. Have comfort. So… Until then? Until things get better for you? I’d say hold onto the things that helped when you were kids.” “We don’t have anything from when we were kids,” Mary Jo said, her eyes on the snake. “Not since...the bonfire. But thanks for the gift.” She looked back at Starlight and smiled. “We really appreciate it.” “Yeah. You’re welcome. I… hope someday I can actually help. Do more… I…” Starlight looked back at the kids, and in their eyes she saw Marcus, and she knew anything she said could get back to him, and if she showed any doubts of him that he could crush her. “Sleep well, kids. Don’t be scared to call out. I’ll be on the couch.” Then she stepped out and closed the door, walking numbly to the couch before curling up on it and crying herself to sleep. She never heard the sounds of the rattlesnake tail rattling, or the gentle giggles that followed.