Berry Bright should have cried, she supposed, when the Shadow Soldiers killed her parents. It was only right, after all.
She should have cried.
But she didn’t. Honestly, she couldn’t, even if she tried. All she did was stare with wide, glass-eyes at the soldiers who stormed her home and dragged her parents away, not truly seeing anything at all.
And then she was suddenly being thrown to the floor when a blast of dark magic-magic only the shadow unicorns could use-was being blasted at her. There was another earth pony standing over her, green eyes wide, shielding the pink pony with her flank.
“Yer alright, right?” The mare asked, and the pink pony stared back. The green-eyed mare drew herself up to full height, glaring back at the other shadow soldiers with fire in her gaze.
“We’re done here, ya hear that? This one’s not involved in the uprising’, we’re goin’ home!”
For a moment, the tension was so thick that a unicorn’s horn could pierce it. Then the soldiers turned, trotting out slowly, ghostly-green eyes still trained on them as they retreated into blackness.
The shadow soldier looked down at the pink pony out of the corner of her eye, until they were completely alone. Then she offered a hoof, and when Berry Bright didn’t take it, the pony nudged Berry to her feet with a firm muzzle in her side.
“Yer gonna have ta get yerself up an’ get a move-on, I’m not takin’ a bludger in, get that? Hell, not even sure why I’m takin’ ya in, but I am, so get yerself up before I drag ya by yer mane back home.”
For the first time, Berry Bright looked at her savior, and gave a slow nod. The earth pony smiled, giving a slow tip of her hat.
“Name’s Cobber. Captain Cobber, Captain of the Fourth Rider’s Cavalry of Shadow Soldiers, also known as the Night Wailers. What’s yers?”
For the first time that Berry Bright could ever remember, she was suddenly aware of things.
And for the first time in her life, she wanted to speak. She wanted to answer; she wanted to…she wanted to…
She wanted to be happy. But-
Tears rolled down her muzzle, and Cobber’s eyes widened.
“Hey, hey, don’tcha go doin’ that now, watcha cryin’ for? It’s okay, it’s okay hun, don’t cry, don’t cry…” and when Cobber put a hoof on the pink mare’s muzzle, and Berry jumped like she had been burned, before leaning into the earth pony and crying out everything.
She was trapped.
Trapped.
Falling. She was falling and falling and there was no one there to catch her and-
-she was caught. And she was-
-jumping back, shaking hard because there was something in her that was screaming to be let out, something in her very core that was banging against the walls of her heart and demanding to be free, and that was impossible because she was going to fall and then she would never get back up-
“It’s gonna be alright, okay? Don’tcha worry, everything’s gonna be fine, okay?”
The pink pony slowly shook her head, wrapping her hooves around herself, her straight, limp tail like a blanket against her chest. Cobber walked forward, giving a small, delicate smile.
“Hey, ya know, yer tail could look like fairy floss, if it was curly. Mind if I call ya that, until ya tell me yer name? Fairy Floss?”
The pink pony shook her head, blue eyes suddenly lit aflame. Taking a stick from the firewood box, she slowly drew her name in the dirt.
“Ya can read?” Cobber asked in amazement. Berry Bright froze and dropped the stick, eyes wide with fear.
“Hey, hey, don’t worry, I ain’t gonna turn ya in. Yer okay. Now…come on, Berry Bright. I’m takin’ ya to ma home.”
Slowly, Berry Bright turned to look at her, a question in her eyes.
“Because…because…I never leave an innocent to suffer.”
The lie was slowly killing her inside.
The two earth ponies, one silent because of her fear, the other silent to keep the rot away, started to make their way to the home of the soldier. Berry Bright kept her head down and her mouth shut, eyes focused on the black pavement.
She remembered when she was little, that there was always someone in the sky, riding on the clouds, calling down lightning with her voice alone. A streak of colour would weave through the black clouds, breaking sunlight through, or summoning storms and screaming into the raging wind until her voice was sore, rain beating her until she could no longer fly, the bolts of lightning challenging her importance-her existence.
That mare, she would not give up on herself, she set her expectations high and beat herself up if she couldn’t get to it, hiding it with a smile and arrogance. She had to be seen, she needed people looking at her to feel like she was worth anything at all.
Berry Bright would dream sometimes.
She would dream that she had people who would catch her when she fell.
She would dream that she was important, that she wasn’t made of glass.
She would dream that there were four Goddesses who watched out for them, and that, unbelievably, someone like her was friends with one of the Goddesses. That she was valuable, that she was needed-
Yeah.
It was always just a dream.
Cobber bucked open the back door with her hind legs, sending it slamming in. At Berry’s flinch, Cobber just laughed.
“The damn thing never opens right, ya always have to giver ‘er yer all to get ‘er to move.” Cobber explained. While Berry tilted her head and just stared, Cobber walked inside, hanging up her white scarf, and taking off her hat.
Finally, she noticed that Berry wasn’t moving.
“Come in, yer gonna stay here. It’s okay.”
Berry blinked slowly.
“Yeah, it’s really okay. Yer not gonna get in any trouble, Berry. It’s okay, don’t worry.”
Slowly, the pink mare walked inside, muzzle close to the ground, tail dragging in the dirt.
She didn’t know how to feel anymore.
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Dawn Star was a mare with no home, and never really had one to begin with in the first place.
Even when she tried her hardest to remember, the only thing she could recall was the biting, stinging cold, and the flames that comforted her afterword. The fire that danced in front of her eyes like the rays of the sun, like the way the sky lit up just before dawn.
She had never actually seen the sun before, but she had heard of it, and often dreamed of it. When she thought of the sun, she would think of magenta eyes that were filled with so much love and kindness, it was like they were filled with the power of the sun themselves…
Sometimes, she thought of the moon, of the stars.
It wasn’t like the ponies of Equestria lived without light entirely.
There was a false star, one that burned a ghostly green over the Castle of the Queen, created by the Shadow Queen. The wealthiest of the ponies-the generals in the Queen’s Guard-lived closest to the light, drawn to it. The iron gates that surrounded the City of Stars were guarded by the Queen’s magic, which would kill anyone that was not Marked by the Queen. They lived guarded by the false light of the Queen, unfeeling soldiers that were nothing but puppets.
Outside of the iron gates, the City of Roses was the second-wealthiest of the three, and was the most common for raids by the Shadow Soldiers. Ambassadors, politicians, merchants, and guards took residence there, and in the past several Star Cycles, several underground rebellions had been taken down by the Shadow Soldiers. With each passing raid, the penalty for betraying the Queen was becoming higher and higher, until even breathing a word against her would result in banishment to the Mirror Realm.
And no one had ever returned from there.
There were rumors, of course, about what happens to ponies that are sent into that realm, but they were mere whispers at best. Some say that your soul is trapped in the mirror, and that all you are is your mind, trapped with the manifestations of your emotions becoming reality. Some say that you are frozen in time, never moving forward, for eternity.
And still, others say that you are now just a spirit, moving freely between realms, free at last…
Some took the punishment of the Mirror Realm, just for the mere rumor that they would finally be able to see the sun. For others, it was their very personal hell.
The City of Roses was a city of fear, certainly, split into several towns that spanned the entire countryside. Life flourished-barely-but they could survive, and that was okay.
The City of Dreams was the last of the three courts.
Well, it wasn’t so much a city; it was more of a name for anything outside of the Capitols.
The City of Dreams was a place inhabited by bandits and rogues, by robbers and farmers and hunters, but it was also the only place that a pony could truly find hope. Because here, they could plot rebellions, and dream about the sun. Here, they could find freedom in despair, and dream of the day the four goddesses would return to them.
The City of Dreams was the birthplace of Dawn Star. It was where she was saved by the roaring flames. And it was where she realized that, in order to live up to her home’s name; she would have to return to the City of Stars.
Sometimes, she thought of herself as a little moth with no wings. Drawn to flames, and burning up in her dreams. But it was okay, because, in the end, she knew that she would be happy.
Raising her head to the sky, the unicorn mare watched as a storm began to brew over an outer district of the City of Roses, brought on by a strange, vibrant, stream of colours.
And, she was brought to it.
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Raider screamed into the sky, and the sky screamed back into her.
She didn’t care anymore. She didn’t care about the black clouds that rolled in her mind and stole her heart. She didn’t care about the blackness that crawled under her fur and the betrayal that seeped through her mind.
She didn’t care anymore.
And she hardly noticed when everything stopped, and flames that did not burn danced in front of her sightless eyes.
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When Melody sang, it was beautiful.
She could not hear it herself, nor could she ever truly appreciate her own talents, but the others could.
Birds were called down from the trees by her, and rats followed her, as if drawn by her song. She loved them all.
But only because they were useful to her.
She was a hypnotist, a paradox in herself. She never hurt those she used, but she never truly cared about her friends either. She felt nothing, only the words she sang, only the feeling of the wind in her wings.
She very nearly missed it when she passed by a unicorn, trapped under a fallen tree, her breaths coming in shallow and weak. Immediately, a buck used his powerful antlers to help the unicorn get away, and Melody sat back on her haunches, watching carefully, waiting to see if the unicorn was okay.
Slowly, azure eyes opened, and pale lips moved. Melody twitched her ears, and shook her head, showing that she simply could not understand. The unicorn, drawing herself to her hooves, tried to use her magic to spell out the words for the pegasus, but she collapsed the moment she tried to move. Melody sang again, and her animals moved the unicorn to her home, where she lay for three days, recovering from some kind of terrible injury.
She recovered slowly, as there was no way for the pegasus to truly help her-medicine was something lost with the sun, so all she could really do was let the mare rest.
As soon as the unicorn could gain consciousness, she tried to run out the door immediately, only for Melody to block her, and make sure that she stayed until she was fully recovered. The unicorn opened her mouth, and Melody could feel the vibrations in her hooves, but she didn’t know what outraged the mare so. Realizing this after a few moments, the unicorn used her magic to write in the air.
‘I’m Aurora, my sister was taken from me by the Shadow Soldiers, I need to reach her as soon as I can, and you can’t stop me!’
Melody frowned, and shook her head. She pointed to herself with her hoof, saying that she was going with the unicorn.
The other mare didn’t object, and Melody smiled.
A life debt was worth a lot, after all.
The next day, the two mares set out, Aurora leading the way, never looking back.
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In the Realm of Mirrors, a shadow stirred, and a light flickered to life.