The good unicorn found himself wrapped in a heartfelt embrace, Twilight’s muzzle buried into his neck.
“I missed you too Sparks...” He pried her from his vest and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Look at you... you’ve certainly grown-”
His words were cut off as Twilight’s hoof planted into the side of his cheek with one solid punch, leaving a large reddish mark under a watering eye. She stood there, facing Crescent Star silently as her hair covered any expression she might have had. “Where were you?”
Crescent Star only stood there stunned as she continued with her rant. “One year... one full year! That’s how long I’ve been looking for you Star! I’ve tried to write you, I’ve asked around for you, hell, I’ve even tried to create a spell to try and find you myself! For one full year I’ve heard nothing...”
She silenced herself and began to softly sob, crescent Star dragging her into another hug. “It’s okay... shhh... everything is alright...”
“No! Everything isn’t alright. Where were you for three years?”
“Oh Sparks... that is very long story, one I’d rather tell over dinner... You tried to make a spell for me?”
Twilight blushed and smiled in his vest. “Well I...”
Crescent Star only shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You can tell me over dinner...” he paused and looked over to the Stranger, staring at him awestruck, “...hello... You’re not equine...”
“That’s some acute sense of deduction you have, my friend...”
Crescent Star stepped forward and slowly examined everything about this new being, “And what are you then? I’ve seen many different creatures with intelligence... but never one like you...”
“I’m... a stranger...”
“Hmm... mind telling a researcher like I a little about your people?”
“When I find out... I’ll tell you,” the stranger replied. Crescent Star tilted his head in confusion, prompting Twilight to tell him about his amnesia and forced him into secrecy about the stranger’s existence for the time being.
“So,” Crescent Star finally said after Twilight’s lecture, “He’s just, ‘the Stranger’?”
“Well... none of us have really sat down long enough to think of a name to call him...” Twilight rubbed her mane sheepishly.
He frowned and trotted forward, “This will not do...”
In a slow circle, Crescent Star traced and examined the stranger more thoroughly, trying to take in as much detail as he could. It stood at a firm 6 feet and an inch, without an evident disability or even a slouch: a straight board from head to feet. Through the clothes on what he interpreted as its shoulders, lean yet apparently strong muscles molded into his sleeves and back, no doubt only the tip of the iceberg for whatever strength he held in his arms. When he looked at his face, he noticed it held a firm and masculine symmetry to it: a square jaw and flawless complexion finishing the look. The eyes, a clear watery blue, stared back at him and seemed to pierce his soul: giving Star the impression of scholarly ingenuity but a deadly sense of intelligence, especially when he spoke...
“I do not believe I need a vicar to bestow myself a name... I’m sure I can find a suitable one in due time...”
“That’s it!” Star exclaimed, “Vicar! One who arbitrates in one’s behalf... it gives an air of intelligence and strength to a being like yourself... it’s perfect for you.”
Twilight looked between the stranger and Crescent Star, trying to make sense of his logic, finally adding, “Better yet... Vicar Saint...”
“Like in Les Miserable?” the stranger pondered her thought before snapping his fingers in agreement. “I like it.”
“Excellent.” Crescent Star fixed his vest as he flexed his shoulders. “Now that that’s order, I cordially invite you, Mr. Vicar, and you; Lady Sparkle and company, to join me for dinner... share a story or two...”
Twilight smiled and gingerly bowed in a playful manner. “I would love to.”
Crescent Star smiled in return as the stranger nodded and Applejack whooped in delight. “Ohh-ee, Pinkie’s gonna have a ball with this one.”
________________________________________
Canterlot’s Arcem Solis, as it was officially titled, had little in the means of enclosed ventilation. Apparently, the larger than normal rooms made for a surprisingly more temperate climate inside. The only exception to this, were the rooms that were deep enough inside the citadel to need lighting, such as the Princess’ personal chambers and the dining hall, to where the heat would need to be vented, requiring a simple ventilation system to carry air in and out.
Fortunately for Kaius, he had memorized this weaving kiddies-maze of shafts and passageways shortly after he stole a map of the entire citadel an hour before. It was his failure for agreeing with his blood brother on abandoning the prisoner. The Prophet of Truth was in no receiving manner for such news, and he explained carefully and vividly what would happen if he and his clerics failed him again: it almost made death seem like a privilege for his success over an expectation of his future...
...not pleasant indeed...
So here he was: seven other clerics under his charge, on two simple missions for the Prophet himself, about to scale the castle walls to the vents. Searching for the prisoner and his liberators were his prime directive for these missions... the prisoner was under strict rules to be brought to the Prophet alive... luckily, he mentioned nothing of the liberators, leaving creative commons on their demise to Kaius.
“Finish your prayers my brothers and ready your claws... let the Marker’s will be done!”
They all growled in the darkness as their eyes lit up a bright orange in the moonlight.
One of the clerics, Kaius’ deacon for this mission, turned to him and stared up at the wall. “Most Revered Kaius, what will we do when we find the Reclaimer?”
“My deacon, we are under strict orders by His Eminence to capture him alive... he holds a plan for the mutt...”
Kaius turned to his clerics and flexed his shoulders in this armor of bone and cartilage. “Clerics let us go forward...”
“Let us march to glorious Convergence,” they all chimed together. Kaius swiveled around and pounced onto the wall, rapidly clawing up in total silence. Soon the other seven followed his lead and under the shadow of night, the eight of them pushed on and climbed without a hitch. This was their element: shadows and darkness. None could see them directly and if any of the equines saw the movement, it could easily be dismissed as a trick of the moonlight... their element indeed...
In a few short minutes they were all clinging to the stone wall, surrounding a medium-sized ventilation shaft that they could easily fit into and use. Kaius, taking his place at the lead, broke through the thin metal with his body mass and expertly crawled in, using the free space to his advantage. The sound of clawing and scratching echoed against the metal as the weight of eight, fully grown, Inferi clerics caused it to groan and buckle ferociously.
“Spread out!” he ordered, “Only a few at a time... listen for your turn.”
Several clerics backed out and waited on the wall while three continued on deeper into the interior. After a couple meters, they came up to an opening to a brightly lit room. It gave hints to an opulent bedchamber with lavish styles and a study on the opposite end of the room. Over a fancy fireplace in the center, giving a sense of glowing brightness over all other objects in sight was a glistening sword-like object with a hilt that shaped into the image of a shining sun.
“You two wait here, I must retrieve that sword...” Kaius jumped from the vent and landed onto a soft bedspread of bright pink and yellow covers that almost made him want to vomit. Bile coating his mouth and throat, he came down onto all fours and pushed on to the prize of his second mission: the sword. There was no sharpened edge, the end of the blade forming a clean cut off over a point. Inscribed with rich, flourishing letters near the hilt were the words “Mundantes Ignis” on one side and “Celestia Kyra Galaxia, Grand Duchess of Canterlot” on the other. Taking the hilt into his claw, he removed it from its resting place and placed it under a plate of armor to improvise a sheath.
His clerics had the privilege of helping him recapture the prisoner, but under Unitology and the Prophet of Truth, the great witness to the Marker, this was his burden to bear alone.
________________________________________
Dinner was the first time the ponies learned that the stranger was an omnivore... and that he couldn’t digest daffodils...
Since his discovery, he never asked or had hinted towards an immediate need of food, so the six never had the need to ask at the time. Vicar, as he was so dubbed, never had the opportunity to explain his apparent dietary needs, which much to the dismay of the equines, was meat and calories of energy. The priority of finding him something he could eat came to them all at once, even going so far as to the chefs creating everything on the menu for him to examine and sample as he pleased. After some hits and misses, he finally settled on the apple products, which he seemed to have enjoyed the most. He now sat happily with a plate of apple cores and bread crumbs in front of him and a full stomach, much to Applejack’s delight.
The fiasco luckily didn’t do anything to impede the enjoyment everypony felt during the feast. Vicar seemed to strive on Pinkie’s eccentricity, able to match her pace and outlandish randomness at the best of times, all the while being capable of maintaining an intelligent and “proper” conversation that pleased Rarity and earned him her appraisal and affection. It was Crescent Star, however, that seemed to hold the spotlight, even with a strange unknown being as competition.
Crescent Star seemed to be a perfect host within his inability to actually properly talk to anypony. He held an appreciation and wisdom of living even though he was no older than Twilight, who sat at his side telling him about the adventures of her and her friends with the return of Nightmare Moon, Luna’s freedom, Discord’s plot of chaos and even her brother’s wedding to Cadence. Star managed to sit comfortably, and relaxed at the fact he didn’t need to talk, listening patiently and held high interest in everything that had happened since he left. He took the most joy in hearing everything about how Twilight made friends with the five mares that now surrounded him. He found it reassuring to know that the mare he considered his best foalhood friend had a happy life in his absence.
After dinner was finished and Twilight completed her stories, the ponies and Vicar settled down and turned their attention over to Crescent Star, who sat in an awkward state with the seven of them staring at him. He levitated a cup of Andromedan Tea to try and hide his anxiety, trying to give them the idea he was unaware of their reasoning.
“So... mister Star,” Rarity started, “Tell us all about your fancy adventures beyond Equestria.”
“I’ll be happy to tell you.”
The six others leaned in closer as he cleared his throat and set the tea down. Only Vicar remained as he was, showing no hint of his thoughts.
“Okay... as you all know, Twilight and I have been ‘friends’ for nearly all of our lives. That sort of connection allowed us to both build upon our magical talents and improve on our own already powerful and extremely potent magical capabilities, thus making us both as powerful of unicorns as we are today. However, we both came from two very different magical backgrounds. Twilight had Princess Celestia herself, the greatest magicians and spellcasters in Equestria to support her, I only had my parents: Ivoryheart and Jade Necklace...”
Rarity perked up at hearing his parents’ names. “As in the Ivoryheart and Jade Necklace, the legendary jewelers of Canterlot?”
“The very same... now please don’t interrupt, this is hard enough as it is. So where was I... oh yes. My parents encouraged me to follow in their magical footsteps and continue in the family name of jewelry, but I refused. I despised working with jewels and such merchandise, so I told them my real passion was science and history. They dismissed this as pure nonsense. At first, they figured the studying would slowly drive me crazy and back to the business, when that didn’t happen, they said the tests would, then when that didn’t happen, they eventually completely forbade me from doing so any further. For two years, I did my best to hide the fact that I went behind their backs to continue my passion. When they found out... it wasn’t pretty, but they let me finish my studies. I then received this gem of a Cutie Mark after I passed as an Adept: the double moon and star coming from the spell I used to show my skill.
“Ooooo...” Pinkie Pie awed at the symbol of fiery oranges and yellows. “That’s a strange Cutie Mark...”
“Now, now... what did I say about interrupting?” he asked rhetorically as if to a little filly. “But it was that, that made me who I am today. I strived so hard to be separate from my parent’s name... perhaps harder than most others. It paid off too; only a year before Twilight and I left from Canterlot, I was able to go around the numerous schools in Canterlot and lecture on my free time: give the students a sense of what you could do if you put your all in magic. I stayed so happy for most of that year, until the Society blacklisted me from any further great lectures and lessons.
“It wasn’t til the day Twilight left that I met a wealthy stallion who wanted me to examine some ruins that he found on some land he came in possession of north of the Equestrian border... north even of the Arcadian border... I accepted and took the train to Stalliongrad, then to Trottingham, where I then took a boat up the Marelin River to Coat D’Azor in southern Arcadia. There, I met Emperor Arcos III.”
Twilight grew wide-eyed, “As in the Emperor of Arcadia himself? The Arcos Galaxia III?” A gentle look from her foalhood friend caused her to shrink a bit. “Sorry for interrupting...”
Crescent Star only smiled, apparently more comfortable with his storytelling. “Well I guess that had to be asked. Yes, the Emperor of Arcadia himself: horn and wings and hooves. I stayed in his company for a few days as I prepared an expedition into the Gorgon Desert, where my contractor told me his land was. The trip was horrendous: intense heat and little in the means of protection from Celestia’s beloved sun, not even a cloud in the sky. On the third day, we were almost out of water and our food supply had to be strictly rationed to last a potential trip back. Many of us thought we would die in that desert.
He paused letting a wide-eyed Pinkie gawk and ask what was on everypony’s (and Vicar’s) minds. “What happened next?”
Crescent Star smiled, apparently completely abandoning his ‘no interruption’ policy. “Like a miracle, we finally found it. Surrounded by large canyon walls and with only one entrance, we came across a large oasis marking the spot of our stead. We drank the water like savages and ate the full meal we had in days from the plants surrounding. After our fill, we then found the most magnificent ruins ever seen. They were massive, filling the rest of the canyon, jutting out past the edge of the mesa above us, was a city of pure stone and impressive masonry that was unmatched by any other ruin I’ve ever seen. There, we spent two or three months studying and researching everything we could and most importantly, unraveling any and every booby trap we could find in this Forgotten City. Archaeologists from all around flocked to our site to aid us in discovering its secrets. It was a dream and playground for us, oh, and the things we found there... the manuscripts, the art, the architecture and hints of a civilization of old... all older than Equestria itself, even the tribes.
“What’s so interesting about old stuff like that?” Rainbow asked.
“Well, my dear Rainbow, it’s a scientist thing. I find it absolutely fascinating to find something that is on a level, dare I say, beyond, the level of what we have today, yet still made before we learned the practicality of magic itself...”
“Whoa... that’s a long time...”
“Most indeed, and for five months we continued on, digging as much as we could until my personal team reached the center of the city and what appeared to be a city hall. There, in that particular building, we came across a specific artifact of importance. It was made of something similar to brass, forming a complex web sphere that surrounded a solid sphere in the center. It rested on a pedestal in the center and was in front of what turned out to be a massive map of our world: more detailed and larger than what we knew of the world here in Equestria, going beyond into the unknown lands. I found myself staring in awe for hours, and I realized that the sun was going down, so I finally decided to back out and leave. I then ran into the sphere in the center of the room and caused it to topple towards the floor, so I jumped for it and caught it in my hooves... and inadvertently caused a booby trap to go off and send a large blade to fall down and nearly cut me in half. As I rested there to take a breath, I stared at the sphere until the sunlight reflecting began to flicker in my eyes, so I set it down where it was exactly before I pushed it, where I then discovered what the sphere really was. It was a map, designed to be positioned in an exact way to then reflect the sunlight in such a manner as to project locations onto the map on the wall at a specific time of day. One of these beams was the Forgotten City, which then drew a line south to a region of the known world that we call the Fringe where another beam of light pointed. I found four of these beams in total, two of which went past the known world.
“I wasted no time in trying to mark their locations for future reference before the light past, eventually rushing back to Arcadia. There I contacted my benefactor and he agreed to fund my passage and board in the Southern Continent. I boated back to Trottingham, and then trained straight to Stableside, where I then took an airship to Andromeda. From there, I traveled on hoof, across the unrelenting Emberbrace Mountains and the parched Muudi Desert into Zebrica, which I used as a lodge due to its closeness to the Fringe. I stayed there for a year, searching the wilds of the Fringe on multiple expeditions. On the last, I found myself lost for bering, unable to find my way back to Zebrica, where I found it.
“It was completely destroyed: crumbled into stone and quickly being retaken by the jungle, turning into dust. There was only one exception, a particular building that extended past the canopy and with greater condition than the other buildings. On the inside, it quickly dawned on me that it was an observatory, capable of accurately mapping the stars above. There, I found another sphere of similar design as the one from before, which after some time I discovered it did the exact same thing: pointing to the same four places as the Forgotten City. At this new ruin, which I labeled the Dust, I managed to translate some of the glyphs, noticing the connection between the two ruins and who created them. They were the same race of beings, and at the Dust I managed to find out who they were. They-”
“Wait!” Vicar raised his hand and stood up.
“Oh, come on Vicar!” Rainbow Dash yelled with irritation, “He must be getting to the good part.”
“Can’t you hear that?” Everypony hushed and strained to hear whatever Vicar was pointing out. Sure enough, Twilight caught her ear flicking at some unknown noise. “Where is it coming from?”
Vicar kept a blank face, glancing at everything in the room until he set his eyes on what seemed to be a metal grate to a ventilation shaft. His eyes squinted into the dark beyond and saw a faint orange glow.
“It’s them... Twilight, they’re here!”
She looked up to where Vicar stared and without a thought grabbed a random object in the room and tossed it with her magic as the vent cover exploded to reveal the monsters from the mines. The said object, a fork, hit it cleanly in the head and pushed it off balance and against the far wall, giving enough time for the ponies and Vicar to bunch together in the center of the large dining hall and away from any vents.
Another cover exploded as another monster came out and landed firmly near its leader. The first one got back to its feet and heaved the fork from its embedded position in his skull in one strong pull. It simply stood taller and smiled towards the group before crushing the fork in its palm.
“Admirable... at best...” The creature spoke with a grotesque voice, like hooves against a chalkboard. “But why don’t we talk like civilized beings... it’s like a book... you can't skip the boring parts and go straight to the actions now can you? Now let’s try this again... I am Kaius, Servant of the Marker...”
Rainbow Dash snorted, “That was the most stupid analogy I’ve ever heard...”
“Besides,” Applejack added, “What’s there to talk ‘bout? Y’all are probably just tryin’ to hurt our friend Vicar here.”
Kaius scoffed, “Your friend? Dear Madam, your friend is a dangerous criminal of Unitology...”
“Vicar has done nothin’ to show us that,” Applejack came forward and stepped in front of Vicar, placing herself between him and Kaius and his cohort. Vicar looked down at the cream pony as his eyes watered with happiness...
...they were willing to defending him... a complete stranger...
“That’s right,” Rainbow Dash splayed her wings to prepare a charge, “You’re not taking him anywhere, ugly...”
The deacon took a growling step forward before his upper barked at him to stay back. Kaius stifled a laugh as three more clerics came into view beside him. The sudden build of growling and shuffles attracted the attention of some in the group, who found that the other side of the room had three more clerics blocking their way to the door. “You think you can last against a single cleric, let alone eight? We will slaughter you for taking prisoner... we’ve never lost a fight dear equine... take Kaius’ word for it...”
“Well there’s a first time for everything, creep... take Rainbow Dash’s word for it.”
“Rainbow, stop.” Everybody (pony, cleric and Vicar) turned to Twilight, who stepped forward and stared at Vicar. Applejack seemed to know what was on her mind. “No Twi’... We ain’t givin’ him to ‘em.”
Kaius gave a blood-curdling smile as Twilight pushed Applejack away. “Sorry, but it’s the right thing to do...” She stepped towards Vicar and looked over towards the clerics. She closed her eyes as if to think a small prayer then ignited her horn as she quickly grabbed a knife and stabbed Kaius in the hand... hard.
Kaius howled in pain as the knife pierced into his flesh and bone, going all the way through and jut from both sides. Twilight stepped back calmly and looked towards his clerics. “I’m sorry, but I won’t allow you to harm Vicar. As a representative of Princess Celestia of Equestria, I now ask you to leave this castle at once...”
“Then it is your demise,” Kaius replied. His voice had lowered and became darker, seeming to strike every nerve in everypony’s body with shivering fear. In a quick motion, he yanked the knife from his hand and flexed his muscles in pain as the wound closed up and healed itself. He reached into his armor and pulled out a bluish-black sword, handing the moon-shaped hilt to one of his underlings, then did the same with a bright golden one. “Make sure these get to the Prophet of Truth as soon as possible.”
The cleric nodded and stepped towards the vent, only to watch another kitchen knife fly past his eyes and lodge into the wall, startling it. “I recognize that sword... you... You stole from the Princess herself! You will return it at once!”
The cleric ignored her, slowly proceeding with his task, disappearing into the vent it came from. Kaius and the other clerics remained where they were, unmoving.
“The blessing of the Marker has touched you, violet one... I doubt you would have such a resolve before tonight.”
“If it means protecting my friends and loved ones, I would.”
Kaius perked up, “You would stab and wound another? That sounds a little dark, equine...”
Twilight blinked as she thought about his words. It made sense, of course. Before tonight, she had never hurt anypony like that. Sure, she had on many occasions physically harmed others, if by accident or on the rare occasion, intentionally, but stab them? Such thoughts have never crossed her mind before, the concept of actually drawing blood and physical pain made bile rise in her throat.
She was so lost in thought that she was caught off guard when a cleric began to charge her, screeching to life with the full intent of harming her. She prepared a magical burst in an attempt to stop it, but was beaten to the punch when it was shoved back by a maroon aura of magic.
Crescent Star calmly put his hoof forward and charged his horn again. “If you want to get to her, you’ll have to get through me.”
Kaius huffed. “And you, Adept, you who chase ghosts and memories. You barely can talk to others without it being a lecture or education.” He took a step forward and tilted his head. “Don’t you want to know what happened to your precious ‘ghosts’?”
Crescent Star frowned and discharged his horn towards Kaius. In an instant, he ducked and his clerics lashed out as chairs, tables and shelved began to fly around the room and litter the floor in an attempt to hinder both parties. Any cleric that crossed the improvised blockade was either quickly bucked away by Applejack and Rainbow Dash, or pushed back by a magical burst from Crescent Star and Twilight.
Then it grew deathly silent. Not a single breath was uttered as the clerics stopped everything they were doing and hid behind the maze of toppled objects. Crescent Star and Twilight kept their guard up and horns charged as the clerics, which easily surrounded them on all sides, made no moves or sounds.
“Those dawg-garn creeps are plannin’ somethin’, I can feel it...”
“I hope it’s a plan to stop,” Fluttershy whimpered as Vicar worked to try and calm her down.
“Maybe they’re planning a surprise!” Pinkie interjected, “With cake and confetti and even presents!”
The lights then dimmed suddenly as the flames of the candles flickered violently, many going out under the stress of the sudden breeze, leaving only a minute few that did little challenge to the darkness. “Ooohhh, it must be a really big surprise...”
The presence of the clerics soon erupted back to life again. Every so often, the group would catch a shadow moving or hear the noise of their feet against the hardwood floor, every time only enough to cause them to jump in fear or fire an unnecessary bolt of light. Eventually, Crescent Star caught his attention on a particular cleric near the far wall, sticking its head out from its shield of a china cabinet. It glared directed at the group, not making any more sudden movements or noises. As Star examined closer, he noticed the glinting of its reflective eyes shifting, as it was moving its eyes in a manner as to think... or calculate...
‘The bucker’s planning to bull-rush us...’ As if it read his thoughts, the creature’s head disappeared for a second, only to return as it recklessly charged forward, screeching a battle cry. Crescent Star released the energy built in his horn, aiming it straight at the charging brute...
...only to have it miss completely and hit the floor behind it. The creature lowered its head and impacted Crescent Star square in his chest, tossing him into the air like a ragdoll and leaving large gashes where its spines pierced his skin. He landed on his back and howled in pain as the creature roared one last time and sprinted back to its previous vantage point.
“Crescent!” Twilight reared around and tried to assess her friend’s injuries. He had a large gash on his leg and a smaller one near his jugular... blood pouring out of both in scary amounts. She magically applied pressure to his wounds, doing anything she could think of to try and keep him stable until a doctor could help... which meant after these clerics were dealt with. Vicar looked down at the two as Crescent Star took slow, painful breaths, refusing to speak and Twilight as her horn glowed a rich lavender and her eyes watered with tears. He closed his eyes and he felt like something punched him in the stomach. He keeled over and kept the bile from rising in his throat, his chest throbbing in a phantom pain...
...a memory... one he could only grasp as it passes like water through his hand, leaving him empty and sorrowful at the scene before him. Looking up and noticed the movement in the corner of his eye. He turned and saw Kaius, charging him with incredible speed and in total silence. He was completely tunnel vision on his prize, unnoticed by the equines as he made a death stare at what Vicar could only guess was him.
Sidestep... It was as if time itself slowed down, so slow that thought and observation became nearly impossible. Without further question, he instinctively sidestepped and watched as Kaius’ body moved closer and crossed him, revealing his neck and spine.
Break second vertebrae, death: instantaneous... Again on instinct, he lifted his right arm and with all his strength brought it down on Kaius’ neck. There was a sickening *pop*, and Kaius fell to the ground like a puppet with cut strings as his momentum scraped him against the floor.
He didn’t get up.
Vicar stared at his hand, then at the limp cleric priest, them back at his hand. Without a thought or plan, he just killed a living being...
“How did I do that?” he asked himself. The sudden flood of light filled his eyes and broke his concentration as everybody looked towards the door.
“What is going on here?!”
Soon, the familiar screeching sound filled the room as the cleric from before charged towards the light. Vicar extended his hand in warning, “Look out!”
The air around the new pony’s head sizzled with yellow-orange light and shot forward towards the cleric, engulfing it and causing it to drop to the ground. The remaining clerics became startled at this newcomer. Witnessing the death of their priest and their deacon fall was enough for them and they retreated back into the vents. Everypony stared into the doorway as Applejack and Rainbow worked to get Rarity and Fluttershy back onto their hooves. Only Twilight remained where she was, still applying her magic to Crescent Star’s wounds without looking up, tears still flowing from her eyes.
The new pony took a step forward to reveal a white hoof covered in a gold shoe, but Vicar stepped forward and tried to make it keep distance, the sudden urge to protect these ponies filling his being.
“Who are you?” he asked, “Are you friend or foe?”
The silhouette took another step forward as the candles magically relit with her magic. “I am Princess Celestia, and whether I’m a friend or foe will depend entirely on your next move...”