//------------------------------// // 2 - The Last of the Unicorns // Story: Re:Harmony // by starcross7 //------------------------------// "Never thought I'd see a unicorn in my lifetime," said the freckled orange pony. "Or two of them." "Let her go," growled Trixie. "You know, I'd love to, but you see, I'm kinda in a hurry. Now, if y'all would be so kind as to take me to where y'all live as I'll be needin' a place to hide before the Clones show up." "My hoof you will." "You do want your pretty marefriend to live, doncha?" Sparkle, who should be more scared than she was, felt a pool of warm liquid gathering on her hind hoof, and its smell confirmed it was blood. That same blood ran down the orange earth mare’s leg off from a wound she suffered on the trunk of her body. That somersault leap exacerbated her injuries, and even now Sparkle could feel the katana rattling almost inaudibly between the orange mare’s teeth. "You're hurt," Sparkle said to her. "We need to bandage you up." "Not a chance, pretty filly. I appreciate you givin' me the kiss of life, but an Apple always takes care of herself and accepts no charity from friends or strangers. Especially from unicorns like you." Aside from her duster coat and Stetson hat, the orange pony also wore a watch-like device whose tiny screen turned from yellow to red. She cringed upon that sight, and whatever worries she suddenly developed weakened her. She drooped forward slightly, but she quickly recovered to keep the blade on Sparkle’s throat. "They're here. Well, if you and your unicorns don't wanna die, I'd advise y’all to take me to your village." "Why in all the stars in heaven should we trust you?" asked Trixie. "Girl, there are Clone Soldiers after me. They're the reason why your kind is almost extinct, but I can see stubbornness ain't just for mules. Well, fine! See if your fancy magic can handle a hundred Clones." "Trixie, we can take her to my secret cave," said Sparkle. "Sparkle," said Trixie. "Surely you're not--" "Whatever!” cried the orange pony. “Just git me there on the double! Now drive that thing to that cave of yours!" The orange pony leaped on the hover truck bed. This would have been a great opportunity for Trixie to blast her back into the waters, and the blue unicorn kept her horn aimed at the earth pony. She couldn’t fire like she wanted to, for Sparkle leaped alongside the orange pony and blocked the path of Trixie’s spell. "Just get on," Sparkle said to her friend. "Please?" Trixie groaned. Willingly she complied and leaped onto the truck bed, but she kept her distance from the orange Earthian while keeping her horn aimed at her. Sparkle took the driver’s seat with a slim hope that her best friend and the stranger would be on their best behavior and not attempt to knock one another off or kill each other. With the hover truck, Sparkle moved faster than she would on hoof or through magical levitation. She made one high ascent through the Great Chasm and forwarded into one of many large cave entrances. She steered through twists and turns of the tunnels that were barely wide enough her newly acquired hover truck, and occasionally she looked in the rearview mirrors to check if the earth pony and Trixie had accidentally fallen off. If they did, Sparkle would have heard and felt something, but so far neither the earth pony nor the blue unicorn had lunged at each other's throats. They kept their distance in the small space of the truck bed with horn and sword poised at one another. Eventually, they reached a tunnel too narrow to pass through with the hover truck, and the three ponies were forced to abandon their transport. This part of the cave system was shrouded in complete darkness, but both Sparkle and Trixie used a glow spell ignited from the tip of their horns to light their way. Once again Sparkle took the lead, and she worried over Trixie and the earth pony attempting to kill each other behind her back. Eventually, they arrived at what appeared to be a rock wall, but when Sparkle inserted her horn inside a round hole the machinations behind it whirred to life. The false rock wall had split open. Electricity powered up several light fixtures to reveal a large room filled with impressive technological trinkets and literature a certain Sparkle had collected and tinkered with over the years. Wall to wall, the Secret Cave had shelves of artifacts Sparkle proudly tagged and organized. She even had her own mini-library of Earthian books and magazines all the way in the back corner. "Get in here Earthian," said Trixie. "Sparkle, let's lock her in." "Hold your horses," grinned the orange pony. "If you’re thinkin’ about lockin' me up, you best be reconsiderin'." From underneath her duster, she procured an olive-green ball-like object that had a metal attachment at one end, which she held high up in a threatening manner. "This here is a Fusion Grenade," she continued. "If you decide to lock me in, I'll detonate it, and this cave system will be so rocked to the core that your village won't survive the cave-in." "You're bluffing," Trixie hissed. "You'd be blasted along with the explosion." "I ain't sure about that. Your friend here has an impressive collection of doohickies and doodads from the surface. I'm sure I could scrounge up something that would shield me from the explosion." "Sparkle, we can't keep her alive! We’ve got to throw her back into the Chasm!" "We'll do no such thing!" Sparkle cried. "This goes against our tribe’s rules of killing another pony!" "She'll kill us if we keep her alive!" Sparkle stepped closer to Trixie so that the blue unicorn could see the cold stare of her friend and the faint magenta aura forming from the base of the purple horn. "DON'T. HURT. HER. Or I'll tell mother that you disobeyed my order." Rarely did Sparkle use her position as the Chieftain's daughter. This might as well be the first, but for the young mare to invoke her mother's name, she was serious. Despite her fascination with technology and that surface world, Sparkle was an exceptional magisister. If she were serious, Sparkle would be able to obliterate the Great Chasm with a Class 4 Spell just to get her way. She hated threatening her best friend in such a manner, but she would not have any pony killed tonight. Thusly, Trixie lowered her head in defeat, and trotted backwards out of the Secret Cave to wait outside. "As for you..." Sparkle began. "I don't need no thanks for that, sugarcube. I coulda handled your friend." "You’ll need this." A white metal box covered in a magenta glow floated in front of the orange pony. When the glow vanished, the box landed right in front of her hooves. "There are bandages and salve in there. Please try not to move and rearrange my things. I will come back later." Though concerned for the orange pony’s welfare, Sparkle was still cautious that her guest might suddenly grab the katana with her teeth and slash away once she turned her back. In the first few steps, Sparkle kept her muzzle pointed towards the stranger, whose eyes remained keenly suspicious of her host. The unicorn finally made it out, and trusting her guest, she turned her back. Nothing happened. Sparkle used her magic to close the false doors until there was enough of a crack to satisfy the earth pony’s slim chances of escape. While she would appreciate it if she would not touch and reorganize her things, Sparkle knew that the stranger would undoubtedly rummage for anything that might aid her. The unicorn was confident that the stacks upon stacks of batteries providing the Secret Cave’s electricity would last at least a fortnight, and hopefully the orange pony would not use it to signal her comrades and betray the unicorns. There wasn’t much in the manner of communication equipment, and Sparkle had doubly made sure her Secret Cave had been mostly shielded with all the lead she could find. "You know I have to tell your mother about this," said Trixie as she joined Sparkle down the secret path to the village. "Trixie, please. At the very least let her recover so she is well enough for me to show her to mother." "Sparkle, this is a serious omen! The Starswirl Prophecy stated that the appearance of a pony with the Trinity Apple Glyph and a sword marks the beginning of Tribulation." "It's just a prophecy, Trixie. Other ponies, Earthian and Unicorn, have washed up at the base of the Chasm with a sword." "But they were all dead when we found them. I hope you're not keeping her alive for the slim chance that she might know your brother." Sparkle suddenly stopped. It was a low blow, but unintentional nonetheless. Even now she had to restrain her lashing out at her friend for bringing up sad memories about him. "Sparkle, I'm sorry,” said Trixie, “but it's been years. Who knows if he’s still alive?" "He’s alive Trixie. He is." The purple unicorn continued on in silence as memories of her brother flowed forth into her mind. In spite of the harsh training he suffered under the Chieftain, he always made time for Sparkle. In some ways, he was like the father she never knew. The two unicorns soon locked on to the soft glow of their village whose light squeezed through the cracks of an old igneous boulder. It was Sparkle’s secret door, despite Trixie and a few other villagers and magisisters knowing about it. Perhaps the Chieftain knew about it, yet she took no action since Sparkle had almost always been punctual to her studies. She could have sealed it tightly with her magic or created impenetrable hexes. Then again, the Chieftain never cared enough for her daughter’s frivolous hobbies to give a damn. She hardly cared for anything other than harsh study. They were home now. Their village resided at the base of a large and open cave structure where almost all of the houses were hollowed out from the walls, though there were many buildings built as standalone structures on the ground level. The sun spell loomed high above them with enough energy to grow the few crops they could muster on the poor quality of cave soil. It was noon according to the central sundial obelisk, and no other ponies were seen in the streets or outside in their yards. "Starswirl's beard!" Trixie cried. "It's almost time for our prayers! Hurry Sparkle!" The young mares galloped through the main street, past the sundial obelisk, and into the stone temple, where they snuck in the middle of a silent prayer. The entire village of almost a hundred was present and sitting on padded pillows on the ground. Sparkle and Trixie tip-hoofed to their seats at the very front. Luckily, Chieftain Velvet had her back turned when her daughter and her best friend sat down. "Praiseth the Sun and the Moon," Velvet began, she soon recited further praises and the divine struggles of the Unicorn Race, who, at one point, lived on the surface before being driven underground by the Earthians. She led the fold with chants and hymns, all of which Sparkle knew by heart and route, but never took too seriously. Trixie on the other hand was a devout Unicornian and devoted to Velvet. Sometimes, Sparkle wondered if she wanted to be her daughter, if not a candidate to become the next Chieftain. The hour had passed, and the sermon had ended. The unicorns stood up from their haunches and, inspired by their prayers, resumed their quiet daily life in the underground cavern village. Sparkle and Trixie tried to sneak out, but the stern calling of Velvet--who had her back turned--froze them. "You two were late," she said. "Meet me in the back in five minutes for your punishment." The two mares swore that Velvet had eyes in the back of her head, but more than likely it was her highly tuned mother's intuition. They could not simply just escape quietly or noisily. Whether running or teleporting, Velvet would, faster than a blink, put up a solid magic barrier or an anti-teleportation hex to trap them in the temple. Rather than facing Velvet's magical wrath, Sparkle and Trixie resigned themselves to their punishment, which consisted of... ...keeping a boulder levitated above their heads for an hour. Back when they were fillies, the boulders were initially small rocks they had affectionately given names to based on the novels Sparkle had found washed up on the Chasm's river. As they grew over the years, so did the rocks. At first, they served as practice, and now they served as a punishment should Velvet's two daughters ever misbehave. Every time they did, she fused more rocks into the already large object. The strain was hard on both unicorns, and if one had a lapse in concentration, they would immediately be crushed. Velvet would do nothing to assist them during the punishment, and maybe she was confident of her two top protégés’ abilities. Either that, or she had a revival spell tucked away should the worst happen. "Sparkle," grunted Trixie. "I think Dan has gained weight." "Says you," grinned Sparkle. "Tom is much heavier than the last time I lifted him, and I think he's heavier than Dan. Mother must have compressed more rocks into it. Trixie, I don’t know what I am doing to deserve this. Mother always seems to favor you." "Have you no respect for the Chieftain? She's only giving you a hard time because she wants to make you the next Chief." "And remain here for the rest of my life?" "Surely you don't want to live where the Earthians reside. If that orange pony was any indication of their society, I would not want to leave here." "Trixie, we can't be living in this hole for the rest of our lives." "Pray tell," said Velvet, "why should we leave the safety of Unicornia?" "Mother!" "Chief!" cried Trixie. Both Sparkle and Trixie moved their boulders over to the side and allowed them to slam on the ground. "I didn't tell you two to stop," said Velvet. Without breaking much of a sweat, Velvet levitated both boulders simultaneously high over her two protégés, and released her spell. Immediately, Sparkle and Trixie caught them with their magic just inches above their horned heads. "I asked you question, my daughter," said Velvet, unconcerned over Sparkle's suffering of keeping a boulder from fatally injuring her. It might be that Velvet was also using her magic to push the boulder further down without leaving a telltale aura. "Mother," grunted Sparkle. "There... have... been... a... lot... of... earthquakes... and cave-ins... And we also narrowly avoided... a famine." "We have survived, haven't we?" "At what cost? There have been deaths, not including Trixie's parents, Dinky's mother..." "Those fates are unavoidable considering our predicament." "There aren't many of us left, mother! We have to crawl out of this hole and live on the surface like we're supposed to in scripture! How can we praise the sun and moon if we never see them?" "There will come a time when we will finally take our rightful place on the surface. For now, our priority is survival. We cannot risk anypony crossing the Chasm." "Then we'll remain here for another thousand years if that happens!" "If that is our destiny, then so be it. I cannot risk any more lives than I have to." Defiantly, Sparkle tossed the boulder aside, causing Trixie to do the same, but only as a worried reaction to what she was about to witness in the daily life of the Sparkle Family. She even backed ten paces and prepared to duck should sparks fly. "You just don't care, do you?” cried Twilight. “You don't care if Shining Armor and dad are alive or not," "I told you before that you will never speak of them," said Velvet. "But..." "Pick up that boulder, now!" Sparkle did so as her mother commanded, but instead of hovering above her head, she launched it at Velvet at high speeds. Before it could even reach her, Velvet, without expressing so much as a flinch, caused the Boulder to explode into a thousand dagger-shaped shards, and hurled them towards her daughter. Sparkle tried to cast a barrier, but the shards passed through her magic like they were nothing. She was really going to kill her for her disobedience, and Sparkle flinched. The shards stopped midair and hovered mere inches from every part of the purple unicorn’s body. "There are exactly a thousand shards of rock pointed at various vital points of your body," said Velvet. "The Clone abominations fire weapons in the tens of thousands with bullets laced with residual magic created when they grind unicorn bones to dust. If you can't survive my attacks, how could anypony survive theirs?" She was right. Defeated, Sparkle collapsed to the ground, thus signaling Velvet to allow the shards fall harmlessly to the ground. "I want you to reassemble the boulder," said Velvet, "but add two hundred more pounds of rock. You know where to get them." As Velvet left the back area of the Temple, Sparkle remained still and furrowing her brow at her mother's complete and utter harshness and her lack of sympathy for the fates of her own husband and son. A few minutes later, Sparkle bolted up from her hooves and stomped out of the temple grounds with Trixie following her from behind. The other unicorns in the village obviously heard the argument, and they made sure to avoid a very angry Sparkle marching down the street, lest they incur her wrath, or worse, the wrath of her mother. "You have to assemble Tom, I mean, the boulder again," said Trixie. "Who cares," Sparkle grumbled. "She's going to yell at me again." "I know you don't want to hear it, but I do agree with your mother. We unicorns may be powerful, but we're no match against the Earthians and the sheer number of their clone armies. Besides, crossing the Great Chasm is a challenge in and of itself." Sparkle suddenly stopped. Oh, why didn’t she think of that? Maybe she’d cross the Chasm someday, but the best resource about life on the surface world had landed on their shores. The furrow disappeared, and she felt a grin spread across her face. "Oh no," said Trixie. "You better not do what I think what you're doing." "In that case, you don't mind if I go," said Sparkle. "But what about the task your mother--I mean, the Chieftain commanded you to do?" "You can fix up Tom for me! Please, just this once?" "You said that the last time! And the time before that! And that time before--hey, wait! Come back!"