Sunlit Hearth looked up in awe at the tower. It was carved from a huge projection of dark gray-black stone, and reached from the ground almost 200 hooves and seemed to merge with the stone ceiling. It was like a pillar had remained to support the mountainside while the rest crumbled away. There was no mistaking the basalt spire.
Gulping worriedly, he slowly circled the 50 hoof wide monolith, looking for the door. He reminded himself once more that he had to follow this, his only lead. As he reached the inner side, his back to the mountain, he found the door.
it didn't live up to expectations. It was a regular sized, unassuming slab of mahogany, and while sturdy, was rather disappointing. The tower's facade implied a huge, portcullised black gate, but instead the entry seemed incongruous.
Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Sunlit took a deep breath, and knocked.
After a full minute without response, he knocked again, this time loud enough to actually be heard. After repeating this several times, he reached out and opened the door, then froze.
It was pitch black in the tower, as if someone had hung black velvet drapes around the one pitiful ray of sun which intruded.
The forest floor was dark from the thick canopy, but the ray of light which fell through the doorframe still did not illuminate enough. It was as though the darkness which pervaded the inside of the tower was holding the light at bay, allowing only that which the sun shined directly upon to be visible; the world was reduced to an arch of light on glassy smooth black stone.
Hesitantly, Sunlit stepped in. The gloom seemed almost solid. He tried his best light cantrip, admittedly a novice feat, but the shadow itself seemed to snap up the glowing orb as soon as he pushed it forward.
Suddenly the door turned black and slammed shut with an ominous click, plunging Sunlit into total pitch dark. As he frantically tried to pull open the heavy locked door, he heard something that made his blood run cold: a growl of anger, almost not pony, and brimming with wrath.
"Who, I wonder, could be so stupid as to disturb MY slumber without so much as a warning?" Came a voice from the darkness, gravelly from disuse and seething with annoyance.
Sunlit looked around, but could perceive nothing through the thick, inky black around him. "I'm Sunlit Hearth," he said hesitantly,"I was looking for a friend of mine."
Suddenly he felt something grab his rear leg and hoist him abruptly off his hooves and into the air. It didn't feel like magic, or jaws or a rope. It felt distinctly like...talons.
Sunlit's eyes went wide."Oh sweet Celestia, you're a griffin, please don't eat me I'm not worth it!" He babbled, panicking instantly.
He heard a rough laugh from the dark. "Now why would I do that? I assume pony is stringy and gamy, and it is known to be bad manners to eat someone without serious provocation. Also, I'm not a griffin." The hidden figure's voice was growing clearer with every word, and Sunlit realized he was addressing a female pony. "I suppose you must fear griffins," she continued. "This spell takes the form of the fears of its target."
He started breathing easier, knowing he was not about to be a snack for a large creature with razor claws and vicious beak, but gasped sharply when she prodded him in several spots while turning him around, most painfully on his his left side, right in his still-healing wound. "Ow! Stop, that hurts!" He yelped, as she turned him over in several directions, looking at him. Suddenly he wondered if he would have been better off griffin food.
"Now tell me, why are you really here?" She asked. Her voice had gone from slightly curious to cold and calculated in a heartbeat. Sunlit was rather frightened by this pony who seemed to cast aside usual rules of conversation like an old toy. "That bit about a friend was an obvious lie. This time be honest, or I'll throw you out and let a shadehound chase you off for me."
Sunlit gulped, wondering what a shadehound was. "I-I was looking for a relative. I heard that Shadestar might be here. She's my cousin." He said hopefully, worrying that he wouldn't be believed.
At the word cousin, Sunlit suddenly toppled to the floor as the magic grip holding him up released. The blackness around him faded from opaque to just dim. He was still unsettled by the way the blackness seemed to writhe. As he focused on the direction of the voice, he could then make out a faint pattern of silvery lines and a silver mane, not five feet from him.
"Are you one of the old Obsidians? No, no, you have a white coat. The old Obsidians all dyed theirs black.... Anyway, Sunlit was it? You need look no further, for you have found Shadestar Obsidian." Her voice had allowed a slight hint of panic in, before her control forcefully reasserted itself.
A candle on the far side of the room lit, revealing a lean, jet black mare with a long silver mane and a silver pentagram cutie mark. She was wearing a pair of goggles, and an amulet around her neck.
Sunlit was stunned. This couldn't be the same mare who'd lived in Ponyville for a few months thirty years ago. She had to be her daughter. Had she lived alone in this tower for years? It was too much to take in.
Shadestar looked at him appraisingly. "Why did you seek me out?"
Sunlit furrowed his brow in slight confusion. He'd thought his purpose would be obvious. "I want to find out more about my family." He answered.
Shadestar looked grim. "You may soon find out all too much."