Argyle Starshine strolled down the path, away from the lighthouse he called home. He’d grown up there, himself, and now he was raising his daughter there as well. The lighthouse had been passed down from generation to generation on his mother’s side of the family.
The thing that he liked most about the old lighthouse was that it was located outside of town, well off the beaten path. Argyle was now keeper of the family tradition, and custodian to the greatest treasures of antiquity. The lighthouse had more history crammed inside its nooks and crannies than the Maretime Bay Historical Society’s building in the center of town. In a perfect world, it would be a museum.
But Equestria was hardly a perfect world. By all accounts it had never been perfect, but he had more than enough evidence to prove that it had once been a much better place. A world where magic existed. A world where earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns lived in harmony.
The ponies of Maretime Bay had always been closeminded. They’d been just as afraid of the other tribes when he’d been a colt, and his mother and grandfather had both confirmed it had been that way when they were each younger too. It was hardly an appropriate environment to raise his own daughter, his only surviving family.
His parents had long since passed on, barely even having a chance to meet their granddaughter before succumbing to old age. Sunny had few memories of them, and it broke his heart. It was his own fault for waiting so long to start a family. Well, partially his fault. Most ponies had been avoiding him his whole life, as they didn’t like the words coming out of his mouth. Friendship and tolerance were lovely things, they’d say, but not for flying brutes or mind-reading hornheads. Then one day, a young mare, almost half his age, listened to his message. They clicked. It had been love at first sight. She’d born him a lovely daughter, and a son. A son that he’d held in his hooves exactly once.
He could still remember that night vividly. He’d taken Sunny to the hospital to witness the birth of her little brother. It had been a miraculous day, and the rumor of unicorn blood in his family line had been proven true, as the little colt had been born with a horn. He and Falling Star had named him Twilight Star.
Then he’d taken Sunny home for the evening, so the hospital could keep an eye on mother and newborn son. There was nothing unusual about that. He’d gotten the call an hour or so after putting Sunny down for bed. There’d been ‘complications’ from the birth. Neither his wife nor son had made it.
He was convinced the only complication was that his child had been born a unicorn and not an earth pony. Records indicated that it hadn’t uncommon for two ponies of one tribe to have a foal of a different tribe. At least not back then. The blood of all three tribes still flowed through most ponies, so what happened when an earth pony bore a unicorn or pegasus foal? The foal disappeared and it was recorded as a stillbirth. Falling Star had fought back. He’d found out about that much too late from a nurse who’d been there. A nurse that had objected until they’d threatened to make her next.
Sunny was all he had left. Sunny, and a burning desire to reunite the three tribes once and for all. Now, he was being taken from both. Hitch Trailblazer had come to his home in a panic, warning him that the townsponies were tired of his heretical talk and had formed a lynch mob. Hitch had begged him to take Sunny and escape. Argyle had refused, and tasked the young stallion with keeping Sunny safe. Safe, and oblivious. If she were to have any hope of uniting the tribes, it would do her no good to know that the ponies of Maretime Bay had killed her mother, baby brother, and her father. She would resent them. She’d run away to Bridlewood or Zephyr Heights and there was no telling what might happen to her there. It was one thing to invite ponies from other tribes to come visit you, it was quite another to walk unannounced into one of their centers of population.
He hurried down the path, desperate to put as much distance between himself and the lighthouse as possible. They’d killed an infant, he couldn’t trust them not to kill a filly too. If they caught him in town, he sincerely hoped it would be too much trouble to go to the lighthouse to get Sunny too. If they did, Hitch would have enough warning to get her to safety. He was a good colt. In a perfect world, he’d have welcomed Hitch as a son-in-law. But Equestria wasn’t a perfect world. That much was apparent as he drew closer to town and the angry mob that had gathered there.
He was quickly grabbed by the town’s sheriff and dragged to town square, then forced into the noose. Argyle was relieved as he saw that the mob seemed satisfied with only him. Nopony was headed to the lighthouse. Sunny was safe, and she would be able to continue their sacred mission to restore magic to the world.
The floor dropped out of the makeshift gallows and everything went black as Argyle's neck snapped.