The Morning Star, Celes, hung high over the peaks of the Foal Mountains. It’s late afternoon light filtering through the bare boughs of an orchard on the outskirts of the sleepy little town of Hollow Shades. Stardust, a lilac-colored earth pony filly, sat near a covered cart that rested next to the small path that led from the farmstead to the main road back to town. Her mom was currently negotiating with the farm’s operators to do maintenance on the farmstead’s Hearthstone. Leaving Stardust to shuffle her hooves next to the cart and listen to the whispers of the group of three earth pony foals sitting off to the side who were currently trying to discreetly stare at both her and her mom.
“Do you think she’s really a noctal pony?” says one small colt about the age of six.
“Maybe? Her ears have the elongated tip and tuft of fur like they are described to have at least.” replies a slightly larger colt, likely the older brother of the first. “But her eyes are normal, and she doesn’t have the bat wings so maybe not. What’s with the beads in her mane?”
“Well we’re not going to talk to her either way.” interjects the last of the trio, a yet older filly who stood protectively beside and to the front of her two younger brothers; as if her presence could ward her brothers from Stardust’s presence, some fifty strides away. “Mom recognized the unicorn, apparently she passed through the year before last and did acceptable work on our Hearthstone then. But she came into the valley with the noctals so we have to be wary. Still tainted by Discord they are. Keep an eye on the filly, make sure she doesn’t try to sneak anything into the back of that cart of theirs. I’m going to check with mom again.”
They likely didn’t think they could be overheard, they were keeping their voices low and at that distance, a normal pony might have heard indistinct muttering at best. But Stardust’s tuft ears still twitched as she forced herself to ignore the ignorant remarks.
“Star, come over here for a moment. I’m going to need your help digging up this Hearthstone,” Star’s Mother Silverlight called from the front of the farmhouse. Stardust hurried over from the cart to the front door where her mother and five other earth pony adults from the farm were waiting. Two stallions, one orange, one apple green. And three mares; a yellow plump one, a gray athletic one, and a red-orange elderly one.
“Now hold on, dig it up? Nopony has ever needed to dig it up before. When you came through two years ago you were able to charge it just fine from up here,” protested one of the two stallions in the group, the fairly buff looking apple green earth pony.
“You mentioned that you’ve been getting an abnormal number of timberwolf sightings in your northeastern orchard Mr. Bushel?” replied the robin-egg-colored unicorn. “If you’re only seeing them in that direction, and not all over, the wards could be weak in that area. That’s indicative of possible damage, not just a weak charge.”
“Ah, yes, well it would be best to check it then. I’ll go get a shovel” Mr. Bushel replied nervously, probably thinking about the expense of repairing something as delicate as a Hearthstone.
“No need, besides there is a chance of damaging the engravings with a shovel. Star sweety, why don’t you put what your Uncle Quartz has been teaching you to work. It’s right over here from what I can feel” Silver said, indicating an area off to the side of the front door in front of a kitchen window with a wave of a hoof.
“Ooh Okay!” Stardust happily replied before hopping over in little pronks to stand over the supposed burial site of the Hearthstone. There she stopped on the hard-packed soil and began to tap alternatively with her fore and rear hooves. With each tap, she extended her senses and earth pony magic down into the ground trying to feel for the large slab of marble, granite, or similarly hard rock that would make up the body of the Hearthstone. Each tap brought back a sort of magical echo of what lay beneath her hooves. It took a few moments of slow tapping while her mother watched on smiling encouragingly. The farm ponies watched with befuddled expressions before she was sure, but eventually, she stopped and dragged her hoof to draw an ‘X‘ in the dirt.
“Yep! Right here. About um, sixteen hooves down? But um…” Star trailed off before looking down at her X and tapping twice. She tilted her head to the side before looking back up. “I think there is a big slab of slate or something on top of it.”
“Is there now,” Silverlight smiled down at her daughter before nodding. “Smart if there is. Keeps it from being worked to the surface from frost cycles and protected from accidents. Are we going to need the shovel after all? To get down to the cover slab?”
“Nope nope! I got it” Star happily bounced. “But you might want to move that casserole from the windowsill and close the shutters,” she directed at the farm ponies. They all looked at each other with widened eyes before one of the mares, the plump one, darted inside to take care of the cooling dish and shut the window. None of them were quite sure what to expect. What was this filly going to do to dig up two very large rocks that were buried nearly two full pony’s height under the hard-packed ground?
“Alright, first step, loosen up the dirt.” Stardust reared back and brought her forehooves down in a foalish stomp over her ‘X’. In contrast to the childish nature of the stomp, a pulse of magic spread with a small tremor, the shutters of the kitchen window rattled slightly in their casing. Numerous cracks rapidly spread over the surface of the hard-packed dirt and the ground seemed to rise up slightly and the earth became less densely packed. Leaping to the side onto undisturbed earth, Star surveyed her work. “Yep, should work. Now for the lifting dance!.”
And Stardust began to prance. Each of her four hooves struck the ground firmly in a sequential staccato. The ground rumbled and there was a slight grinding sound as the earth and soil under where her mark had been drawn rose steadily; spilling earth to the sides in loose chunks as the mound built itself up under the seeming influence of the small lilac filly. Then with one final “Whoop!”, she took to the air in an aerial leap that took all four hooves off the ground, and then she struck down with her forehooves once again at the edge of the loose earth.
The strike, with rear hooves bucking high into the air behind her, was far harder and heavier than a foal her size should be able to make. With one final mini tremor, accompanied by the rattling of window shutters, a large roughly rectangular slab of dark gray slate burst from the mound of earth; flipping away from the house and off to the side, showering Stardust in dirt and pebbles with its passage. As the dust cleared it revealed sitting at the top and peeking above the mound of fresh earth was a near-perfect cube of a hard gray and white marble. A block etched with arcane runes.
“Did I do good mom?” Stardust panted out looking a bit winded.
“Wonderfully my little star,” Silver replied, walking up to nuzzle the top of the filly’s head.
“H- How… ” Mr. Bushel breathed out, he and his family looking slightly slack-jawed at the little filly that had just dug up several hundred pounds of stone with what looked like a dance.
“It’s earth pony magic, same as rock farmers use,” Silverlight offered “Most earth ponies can use it if they learn how. It’s very similar to apple-bucking too. Same kind of kinetic transference magic at least.” Silverlight walked up the mound of loose earth and began using her aura to move the loose earth away from the sides of the granite block, further exposing the Hearthstone. “Now then, let’s take a look here…” Silver leaned down to examine the runes closely before clicking her tongue in irritation. “Well, bad news. I was right that there was some damage. Looks like some of the alchemical brass used to fill the carved runes has cracked. Star, go fetch the wire from the cart please.”
Stardust turned and hurried back to the cart, leaping up and wiggling under the canvas cover, to find the roll of brass wire produced by one of the clan smiths before dashing back with the spool gripped in her teeth. The whole family was looking at the Hearthstone now, gathered around the top of the mound she had worked up with the block of arcane granite.
“It would have had to be something big or magically dense. It takes a lot of load to cause burnout like this.” Silver was saying “Have there been any Ursa or other star-beast sightings?”
“Not that we know of, but then if the wards have been keeping whatever it is off pony’s property then we wouldn’t have” answered the elderly mare of the group.
“Well, the good news is it didn’t damage the stone itself, just the brass filler which acts as a conductor. So, I can melt and flow in some new brass, charge the stone, and we can have it reburied and good as new inside two hours. I’ll need a few extra bits to cover the cost of the alchemical brass, but that’s it.”
* * *
The early evening light of Celes turned a dim autumn yellow as it fell on the valley in the foothills of the Foal Mountains where the budding settlement of Hollow Shades lay. Stardust stepped brightly along the road into town, humming as she skipped along. Her light purple-gray lilac coat was spotted with road dust from a day of traveling the cart paths outside Hollow Shades. She and her mother had been out most of the day. Silverlight walked alongside her, tugging the small cart filled with the spoils of the day’s work and the remains of their work materials. This was Stardust’s first time following her mother along on one of her jobs outside the caravan; she had finally been judged old enough at twelve. Thus, it was also her first time seeing a proper town up close. True, they had spent most of the day east of town visiting the farms, orchards, and various other homesteads that dotted the wilderness outside town so she hadn’t seen much of it. But they had crossed through the town as they set out that morning, and were about to pass through again on the way back to the wagon caravan that was home to their clan, so she could see more of it now.
Star found the fixed buildings and the ponies that lived in them fascinating. Her family’s wagon rarely sat in the same place for more than a week; she could hardly imagine living in the same place for so long. The straight strands of her pale fuchsia mane and tail lifted slightly, both from the bounce of her step and the light cross breeze, as she whipped her head back and forth turning to try and take in everything.
“Star, remember we’re outsiders here. It’s rude enough to stare at ponies, but these ponies will take it worse from us” her mother half-whispered into her ear from the left. Stardust whipped back around to look at her mother, caught the tired look in her eyes, and immediately tried to make her pony watching less suspect. Indeed, now that she was looking for it the ponies of the town often gave them sour looks, her ear also caught the occasional whispers of the less polite names for noctal ponies. A few gave an outright hostile glare. Thinking back over their day, even the ponies out in the countryside had treated them coldly, if less so than those in town seemed to.
Most had kept their own foals back, so Stardust had been unable to play with them while her mom had recharged their Hearthstones with her magic. The town itself had its own Hearthstone that the crown’s ponies maintained, but the farmers on the outskirts and beyond had to maintain their own. And this far out into the wildlands you needed one. So they tolerated her mom, ignored Star, and paid mostly in crops from their harvests before sending both on their way. At least their cart was now filled with fresh produce; namely turnips, carrots, potatoes, apples, and a barrel of packed local olives. Stardust could hardly wait to get back to the wagons of the caravan for dinner.
Yes, they were outsiders here. Not because of their tribes; indeed, neither a unicorn nor an earth pony filly would be out of place in Hollow Shades. But because of the colorful beads woven into their respective manes. The trio of short braids with white, navy, and gray beads that hung to the side from just in front of Silverlight’s left ear and matching pair of braids in the filly’s mane marked them both as noctal. Members of one of the many nomadic clans that had roamed from settlement to settlement since long before the founding of Equestria. Though, in Stardust’s case, the fluffy tufted ears were a far easier tell.
The ponies at the various farms they had visited that day had almost all looked askance at her tufted ears, a sign of nocti blood from her father. They almost always wanted to know if she had the fangs too. She didn’t. Having more than one indicator of the heritage in a non-nocti was somewhat rare. Sometimes Stardust wished she was a full nocti, like her dad, or aunt, or baby cousin, then she could have her own pair of wings. Perhaps not the fangs though. She still didn’t see how they were supposed to be cute like her aunt claimed. They weren’t cute on her cousin that was for sure. No, his fangs were sharp. And he kept wanting to chew on her hoof!
Star’s mother had explained what the ponies outside the noctal clans thought of them. The clans’ migratory nature made them good scapegoats for anything that happened to go wrong in a community they were passing by. Missing pots? Blame the noctals, they will be gone in roughly a week, so there was less risk than in falsely accusing a member of the community. Thus, noctals gained a reputation for theft and other mischief.
According to her mother, the noctal clans had a tenuous relationship with the ponies of Equestria. The clans had technically joined the nation at roughly the same time as the other three tribes, signing on a mere five years after the initial treaty. But the way they still held themselves aloof without settling into one area gave many ponies the impression they didn’t consider themselves to be a part of the nation. It kept the noctal in the realm of the unknown. And that probably aided the stories of ‘Bat-Pony’ warriors that hunted the night.
It probably didn’t help that the stories about hunting had some truth to them. Nomadism did not lend itself well to much farming. Equestrian ponies still considered it unnatural to make any amount of meat a staple of their diet, and so noctals gained a reputation as savage and or uncivilized. When ponies find out about how they supplement their diet with small game and fish meat, they get unsettled. No matter that the pegasi tribes used to do the same — and pegasi still ate fish! Ponies also saw the appearance of a full nocti as somewhat intimidating. With their tufted ears, slitted eyes, and leathery wings; add small fangs protruding from the muzzle, and you get tales of vamponies who stalk the night, looking for blood. Tales not helped by the partially nocturnal nature of most noctal sleep schedules.
So while the various noctal clans that roamed Equestria acted as nomadic traders, continuing to live much as their ancestors had. Noctal were often viewed as strange, perhaps savage, ruffians, and sometimes thieves. It seemed unfair to Stardust, she couldn’t really understand why simple things like appearance or living in a wagon that moved, instead of a house that didn’t, made much of a difference. She had grown up with pegasi, earth ponies, unicorns, and nocti all as members of her clan. True, the vast majority of the clan was nocti and a lot of the other tribe members had noctal traits from nocti ancestry, but these ponies didn’t seem all that different from her. So why did they see her as different from them?
Still, A full clan caravan carrying goods from far-off and specialized crafts ponies that a small settlement was unlikely to have is a wonderful trade opportunity that few would turn away completely. So Silverlight and Stardust walked relatively unmolested down the main street with their small cart of goods. But it would still be unwise to tarry. So they walked purposefully towards the other edge of town, where the clan camped out of sight of the small town, a full gallop from the nearest building or field.
Stardust continued her pony watching discreetly. There were a lot of interesting ponies in town, one pony was working to make barrels in an open workshop she had just passed on her right. He had a great stack of completed ones out front. A cooper, she was fairly sure that was what you called a pony who made barrels. Just like you called a pony who baked bread a baker. Her muzzle scrunched as she thought about the word. A baker made sense because a baker baked, but she wasn’t sure if a cooper cooped so the name seemed a bit suspect to her.
The next building looked to be a flower shop with a small floral garden out front with an older orange mare who appeared to be taking a break from tending to it to eat an apple. The mare was also giving Star in particular a furious glare, so she pointedly tried to keep her eyes forward and avoided looking in that direction. She had almost succeeded when an apple core bounced off the top of her head to land in the dirt in front of her. Star looked back, met the mare’s glare for a moment, and blinked.
“What are you staring at half-breed?” the mare growled. Star turned and then stood unnaturally still as a scene seemed to superimpose itself in her mind’s eye. The same mare was climbing a ladder up the front of the flower shop, a bucket of fresh thatch in her jaw, presumably to repair a hole from a recent storm. A back hoof slipped as she neared the top and… Star’s ears wilted as she turned her eyes away from the fading image back to the real mare, and drew in on herself further when she realized she had been staring.
“I said, what are you staring at?!” this time the growl neared a shout. Star flinched, she hated it when she saw things, but she had to say something.
“Sorry, um, you should be careful around ladders in the near future? Have somepony watch you if you use one. Otherwise, you’ll fall and get really hurt…” she trailed off awkwardly, trying not to meet the mare’s angry eyes.
“Are you… threatening me?” The mare at the cart broke in, tone questioning but irate. “Or have you night-kin started giving out curses?”
“No, no, I just saw……” Star didn’t know how to explain. Not even most of the ponies in the caravan believed her when she talked about this.
Silverlight meanwhile, had ducked out of the yoke of their cart and walked up behind her daughter. Her eyes filled with concern as she gently nudged Starcdust with a hoof back into motion down the road before looking up to the suspicious mare. “I’d take her advice to heart. The things she sees usually do happen. The clan elders say it is connected to dream magic, but it’s been a long time since the clan’s last seer so they aren’t sure.” She turned and nudged Star along without looking back.
“Bah, it’s bad enough to have the bats come to town to trade. Now they have crazy fortune-telling half-bat fillies too!” The mare continued ranting, her voice fading into the distance as the mother-daughter pair trudged out of town.
Once they were a few strides out of town Silver stretched her neck down to nuzzle her daughter’s ear. “You warned her little star, perhaps that will be enough. Don’t dwell on it, you can’t do anything more.”
“I just wish I didn’t see as many things where ponies get hurt.”
Silverlight “hummed” in response, looking back down at her daughter with concern. “How many things did you see today? We visited a lot of new ponies.”
“Six,” was her soft reply.
“And how many were bad like that mare back there?”
“Just the one, why?” Star tilted her head to look up at her mom, trying to figure out where this was going.
“Just trying to point out that most of the things you see aren’t bad and those are the things to focus on. One of the things Princess Luna taught me when I studied under her was that it’s easy to remember the bad, but the good things are there too. I know it’s not easy to see some of the things you do… You were very young when you first started, and you’re still pretty young, but there will always be ponies around to help. Just like the first time.” Her mom’s voice was soft and kind. Star carefully rubbed against her mom’s right side in a form of a walking hug.
Her mom was right. The glimpses with bad things like the mare in town in them were far from common, but most of the visions that came to her unbidden showed events that significantly impacted ponies’ lives. She could see other things, She had forced a vision a few times just to see a few hours ahead into a perfectly ordinary day. Those were nice, though Star wasn’t sure what use it was to see ahead if nothing significant was going to happen. No, Star was glad she was able to warn ponies ahead of time when bad things happened, she just wished she didn’t have to see the bad things first.
It took another half hour of walking to reach the wagons of the caravan, parked in a well-ordered but still lively camp outside Hollow Shades. The clan had made their own little town out here off to the side of the road. Though, perhaps little was a bad descriptor. The Stella Noctus clan outnumbered the ponies of Hollow Shades nearly two to one. There were several hundred ponies milling among the wagon-lined “streets” of the camp. Over half had the membrane wings, tuft tipped ears, and fierce fangs and slitted eyes of full nocti; but the remaining not insignificant portion was split between pegasi, and earth ponies with a few unicorns sprinkled among them. The bloodlines of the nomadic nocti clans had begun mixing long before the founding of Equestria. But as far as the clan was concerned every last pony here was a noctal and family.
Silver towed the cart of foodstuffs to the back of the large, boxy, brightly painted, enclosed wagon the family called home. Painted in greens and yellows, the wagon would make a fine contrast to the rather drab homes of the ponies in Hollow Shades. A small shuttered window adorned the left side, while a door on the back granted access to the interior. They parked the cart alongside the family’s wagon on the side away from the camp street to not disrupt traffic. Once emptied, the cart would be lashed to the wagon roof before the clan moved again, but it could sit there for now.
“Go and wash up Star, we’ll be having dinner in a few hours, and your aunt and I could use some help.” Her mom did look tired. Star wasn’t sure how many Hearthstones her mom had worked on today. She had stopped counting around twenty when they had stopped for a light lunch, but it had clearly taken a lot out of her. Still, silver leaned down to whisper conspiratorially with a bright look in her eyes. “I happen to know Aunt Shadow found a bunch of wild blueberries yesterday and went to pick them today, so we’ll probably be making a pie.”
Stardust gasped and rushed to fill a washbasin to clean up. Pie was the best. Aunt Shadow's pie was the best of the best. Today had been a long one, and it hadn’t been looking to end well, but no day could be bad if it ended with pie!