//------------------------------// // Part I - Chapter 1: Strange Occurrences // Story: Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky // by PortalJumper //------------------------------// Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky Part I - Chapter 1: Strange Occurrences * * * "It is said that in ages past, when ponies gathered in great cities and the land was rich with life, there existed five great Princesses. They had each been bestowed with a great gift, and used these talents to bless their subjects and rule over the land fairly and kindly. Twilight the Wise, Mother of all Magic, was gifted with great magical abilities that she used to perform wondrous feats for her subjects. These skills were given to her by an ancient and wise dragon with scales a lustrous purple and verdant green, and as repayment for the dragon's generosity she granted the unicorns the gifts of spells and sorceries through education at her Grand Library. Celestia the Bright, Regent of Light, was gifted with the strength to move the very sun itself. This was a power given to her by the ancient magic of the Solar Plains, where she built her grand castle of Sunspire. Her illumination gave the land the energy to flourish, and she gave the gifts of strength and connection to nature to the earth ponies. Luna the Dark, Regent of Night, had the grace and elegance to dance the moon across the heavens. She was bestowed this power by the ancient and secretive race of bat ponies who had done so for eons, and they continued to serve her at her grand mansion in the city of Selene. Her lunar essence brought peace and comfort in even the darkest of times, and she gave the gifts of flight and control of the skies to the pegasi. Cadance the Beloved, Empress of the Heart, was gifted with the kindest heart and gentlest soul of all. She and her beloved husband Shining Armor used their own love for each other to warm and enrich their lands, allowing their Crystal Empire to be a beacon of hope and light even in the frozen north. She felt the struggles of the ponies in the land, and so gave them all the gifts of love and mercy so that they might make their own lives warmer as Shining Armor had made hers. Chrysalis the Dreamwalker, Wayfarer of the Dead, had a great command over the very essence of life and could feel its ebb and flow from her Great Hive in the Glowing Moors. Nopony truly knows where she gained this connection to life, but it was this connection that allowed her to grant ponies calm and peace at the end of their lives. She would then use her Changeling children to ensure that their souls be taken to their eternal reward. Together the Five Princesses came together and joined their disparate kingdoms, forming a single unified Equestria. With their powers and their kindness they ruled together from a single spot, the grand castle-city of Canterlot. Built up an entire side of the Equus Mountain, the city could house all the ponies of the kingdom, giving them free reign of the prosperity and excess that the Princesses could provide. But it was not to last Nopony knows who cast the first stone, but the effects would be felt the world over. War broke out between the Princesses the likes of which Equestria had never seen before and has never seen since. When the dust finally settled and the eerie silence of peace born from conflict blanketed the ravaged country, the Five Princesses of Canterlot had vanished as if in a whirlwind. Their like would never be seen again, and their age of harmony and prosperity would come to an end. Now it is the age of the common ponies, who toil the lands and survive by the sheer force of their will. They have no need for their Princesses, as they have certainly not had need of their subjects for some time. But the common pony will persevere, for such is our fate." * * * "I don't understand why you like this story so much, Eclipse," Starlit Sky said. "It has a rather depressing ending, wouldn't you say?" "Maybe it does," White Eclipse replied, "but it does have a happy beginning. I just love thinking about what the ponies that lived during the time of the Princesses were like. All of them so regal and happy with the Princesses there to guide them." "Well, if it makes you happy, then it makes me happy too," Starlit said with a warm smile. Softly she kissed her child on the head and pulled her blanket up to her chin "Thanks for reading it to me, Mommy," Eclipse said. Slowly she yawned wide and let her teal eyes fall shut. Soon enough her chest started to rise and fall in the steady breathing of a child asleep, and Starlit Sky left the room and shut the door with a quiet click. "Reading the Legend of the Lost Princesses again, are we?" asked Stalwart Warden, her husband. "Mm-hm, every night just like clockwork. It's the only thing that gets her to sleep these days." "Well as long as it works then it can't be that bad," Warden said as the pair went downstairs. "Anything to get her in bed. That's quite the rambunctious little filly we have." "How would you know?" Starlit sniped back. "You're always off on patrol when I'm at home with her." She gave him a playful wink, but Stalwart's gaze was fixed on the far wall. He was staring at a small picture White Eclipse had drawn with a pensive look in his eye. "What's wrong?" Starlit asked as she beckoned him towards the hearth. "You seem... distraught." "I just worry," Stalwart answered as he sat down beside his wife and put his head on his forelegs. "There's so much to worry about in this world we live in. Where our next meal will come from, how we'll prepare our daughter for the rigors of the outside world once she gets old enough to want to explore it, what we'll do when she is fully grown and gone; So many things to worry over, and too little time to prepare." "Don't worry, Warden. Eclipse is a bright filly with an infectious cheer, something so desperately lacking in this place. When the time comes for her to make her way in the world, she'll persevere." "I hope you're right, for all our sakes. I've seen firsthoof the things that fill this land, and it doesn't give me a lot of confidence. Horrible beasts that roam the countryside with only a set of warding lines to keep them out, ponies just on the verge of losing themselves to hopelessness and insanity or already too far gone to be reasoned with..." "Well, do you want to know what I see?" Starlit asked. "Can't be much better than what I do," Stalwart answered. "I see a father who risks his life every day to ensure that we stay safe and happy. I see a daughter who is full of life and joy despite everything that she has to be responsible for even at her tender age. And I see a fireplace filled with warmth, a reminder that we aren't entirely without hope." "How is it that you always know exactly what to say to make me feel better?" Stalwart asked. "Call it a wife's intuition," she answered, laying her chin on top of her husband's head. The two shared a long tender embrace as they sat together in front of their meager fire, trying to make this fleeting moment of love and kindness last as long as they could. "I have to be off, Stalwart," Starlit said as she glanced out at the night sky. "Somepony has to take the watch on the warding lines tonight, after all." "Indeed they must," he answered. Quickly they rubbed their horns together before she put on her warm coat and left the house. She lit up a small oil lantern as she walked down the path through the garden, both for its meager light and as a source of heat against the bitter cold that night could bring. Their small plot of land wasn't much to look at, but it served their needs all the same. In dusty soil that had nearly been sucked dry of its nutrients sat a few rows of carrots and potatoes, as well as a few heads of lettuce. Beyond the small trail leading to their home was set of faint white glyphs that encircled the property. These warding lines were all that protected them against the fell beasts that roamed the night, and Starlit and Stalwart took turns each night recharging them with their magic. A lustrous blue light bounced off of Starlit's dusky indigo horn and into the lines as she muttered an incantation under her breath to feed them. The age of wordless magic had left them with the Mother of Magic, or so it was said, and the unicorns of the land had to compensate somehow. Slowly the energy drained out of her until she could give no more, and the lines radiated with a wondrous white glow from her efforts. Pleased with herself, Starlit set herself up in the small shack that lay just inside the lines and took up her shift for the watch. Most nights were quite dull, and this night was proving to be no different. Slowly the hours ticked on, the moon moving across the sky in sharp juttering motions as it had for as long as she had lived, and nothing stirred in the night. Starlit Sky let her eyes sag, and before she knew it sleep had taken her. "It is a nice night to sleep among the stars, isn't it?" a voice queried, one just behind Starlit. With a yelp of terror Starlit jumped to her hooves and readied the one offensive spell she knew. Its blue light illuminated the intruder, but much to her chagrin whoever had trespassed across the lines was obscured by a dark and rough-worn cloak. "What do you want, stranger?" Starlit demanded. "If it's food you want then I'd be happy to send you on your way with some carrots, but thievery is not something I can abide." The stranger let out a peal of laughter, a hollow sound that held nothing but the faint memory of joy. The stranger sounded female, and her apparent size would seem to confirm this fact. "Ma'am, if I wanted to rob you, then you wouldn't have been roused from your slumber. The question you should be asking is how I managed to cross your warding lines." "It doesn't matter to me," Starlit shot back. "Go back to wherever it is you came from, stranger, unless you want me to force you." "That was a lovely story you read your daughter tonight, Starlit Sky," the stranger answered, seemingly unconcerned with Starlit's threat. "A happy tale with a bittersweet ending, one meant to rouse the common pony into action in the absence of their Princesses. I can see why young Eclipse loves it so." Now Starlit's attention was piqued. However this mare had made it across her warding lines and however she had learned who she and her family were, Starlit was going to find out. "Who are you, stranger," she asked, "and how do you know about my family?" "Perhaps if you quit threatening me with that paltry magic of yours I'd be more inclined to tell you." Hint taken, Starlit lowered her horn and let the magic dissipate from around it. She certainly felt more vulnerable, but she had the nagging feeling that if this mare wanted harm to befall her, it was going to whether or not she fought back. "There, isn't that better?" the stranger asked, head cocked playfully to the side. "For you perhaps," Starlit spat back. "Now, who are you and what do you want with me?" "Who I am is of no concern to you," she replied, "and what I want is for somepony else to understand what I've suffered through. The knowledge I bear is a terrible burden, one that I am sick of shouldering alone." "She's probably just some wandering street magician, looking for a few coins and with enough magic to cross a ward to get to them," Starlit thought as she rolled her eyes. "If you wish to insult my intelligence then please do so verbally," the stranger remarked. "And no, I am not some 'wandering street magician' looking for a handout of money that I know you cannot spare." "Then who or what are you?!" Starlit asked. She could feel her heartbeat jumping up by a few beats; never before had she encountered a pony that could read minds, and the notion wasn't one she wanted to ponder on for long. "Just a pony who remembers happier times. Times when the sun didn't scorch the land and the moon didn't drag across the sky like a pony with broken knees, when love flowed freely in the hearts of ponies and death was kind and peaceful, and when unicorns didn't have to speak tongues to work their magic. Here, take this," she added as she offered something in her cloth-wrapped hoof. It seemed to be some form of dancing light, white in the edges and growing a dull grey at the center. It bounced merrily around the stranger's hoof, and something about its innocence intrigued Starlit. Acting against her better judgement, she took the sprite into her hoof and drew it close to her eyes so she could get a better look. The light then leapt out of her hoof, and Starlit was too slow to catch it again. It traveled down her horn and into her mind, enrapturing it with flashing lights and colors, all discordant and without real form. Try though she might, Starlit could feel her head swimming, and she felt her body land on the cold floor of the guard shack. When her vision cleared, all she could hear were shouts of terror, and all she could see was fire and arrows raining from the heavens to lay waste to the innocent below. Masonry fell from the ramparts of the castle walls that she was sealed in, threatening to flatten her unless she sought out shelter. She quickly scrambled to her hooves just as a chunk of the wall slammed into where she had been laying, and she ran for the nearest door. Swiftly Starlit navigated through this nightmare world, desperate for some release from it or at the very least an explanation for what that blasted sprite had done to her mind. The sounds of battle both magical and mundane made a cacophony of noise as she ascended a narrow spiral staircase up one of the castle's towers. The door leading to the ramparts had already been blown off of its hinges, and ponies in ornate armor were running back and forth to repel the invaders scaling the wall. They seemed completely oblivious of Starlit's sudden presence, but she could hardly be bothered with that. What had drawn her full attention was the battle taking place far off in the distance, set against the blood-red sky and a monumental solar eclipse. There in the sky, as if they had torn themselves from the pages of White Eclipse's story book, the Five Princesses fought. They hurled magic at each other with great ferocity even as they used blades mounted to their armor to tear at each other's flesh. Despite their distance from her Starlit could see the hate and anger painted on all of their faces, the primal rage that drives ponies to madness. Starlit Sky could barely stand as she watched the carnage and mayhem unfold, but even as she grasped the magnitude of it a series of colors and lights flashed across her vision. She could feel the magic of that sprite pulling her out of the memory, but not before showing her four locations. Each of them were unique, but they also carried with them the same sense of dread and loss. The first vision was of a great holdfast of white alabaster stone, the sun piercing the heavens and searing the lands below it. The second, a solemn keep of deepest blue, illuminated by black fire and the light of a steady moon. Thirdly was a walled city encased in ice and snow, with a great beacon of light reaching from its center to the heavens. Finally, a mired swampland leading to a towering chitinous structure glowing a sickly green. The memories ended almost as quickly as they begun, and Starlit relished the feeling of cool, rough wood against her cheek. She had barely started to rise when the stranger beckoned her. "Follow me," she said, "and make haste. There is still quite a lot you have yet to know, much less understand." Before Starlit could give a response the stranger was off, marching confidently back over the warding lines as if they didn't exist. She was headed in the direction of the great forest that lay a few miles off from their village. It was a place of decay and fear to the common ponies, but Starlit was now more sure than ever that this pony was no commoner. With a last glance back at her home she followed, unsure of if she was making the right decision. * * * The trek through the forest was thus far made in silence, which Starlit was grateful for; her mind had a lot to process, and unecessary chatter wouldn't help with the processing. The story of the Lost Princesses had been told and retold for as long as she could remember, and for equally as long she thought that it was just that; a story, and nothing more. But the visions swirling around in her head, and the clarity of it all, were making her doubt the validity of such skepticism. "How can any of this be true? It's just an old filly's story, and nothing more," Starlit mused to herself. "No power like that could possibly exist, and even if it did it had certainly vanished from the world ages ago!" "You're troubled, aren't you, Starlit Sky?" the stranger asked, breaking the tension. "That would be putting it mildly," Starlit answered as she suppressed a shudder. Her new 'friend's' implicit telepathy was starting to grate on her nerves. "You're worried for your family, and your own safety, aren't you?" "Seeing as you are some form of mind-reader, why don't you tell me?" Starlit groused. "Starlit, though I may have the acumen for telepathic magic, I am not reading your mind," the stranger replied. "I only did so earlier to get you to comply; I have a bit of a compunction against invading the privacy of other ponies' thoughts unless absolutely necessary, especially those of a mare with whom I have a very tenuous relationship." "Then how did you know I was worried, hmm?" "I've had a lot of practice at reading emotions and personalities, and you are about as easy to read as an open book written in bold, red ink," the stranger answered with a small chuckle. "Then why don't you give me an excerpt?" Starlit asked as she sidestepped a large root in the path. This mare was going to start giving her some answers, even if she had to trick her into it. "Firstly, I'd say you're a mare who has had a hard upbringing," the stranger replied as she cleared some branches with her magic. "Not that hard to guess, given the state of the world, but you're different than the listless, hollow ponies that roam around lacking purpose; you didn't let this world break you. You simply stared it in the face and dared it to blink first." "That almost sounded like a compliment," Starlit interjected, a single eyebrow cocked. "Take it however you will, I'm just stating my opinions, which you also have in abundance; a thought on everything you know of, and busy forming thoughts for the things you don't. You show a spark of brilliance that I haven't seen in quite a long time, one that was forged by an inquisitive mind and tempered with worldly experience." "Alright, now you're trying to make me blush," Starlit said. She wouldn't give the stranger the satisfaction of knowing she was succeeding. "Thirdly," the stranger continued as the path they were on started to widen, "you have a singular devotion to your family. You work as hard as you can to provide for your daughter alongside your husband, and your precious filly is your reason for existing. Were it not for White Eclipse, you would have joined the listless masses a long time ago." "I would thank you not to discuss my daughter," Starlit interjected. "Whatever you've brought me out here to do concerns me, not her." "I'm sorry, did I touch a nerve? If so, I do apologize for that." "You did, and I thank you for your consideration," Starlit answered with a curt snort. The journey through the forest went back to sullen, uncomfortable silence, punctuated every now and then by an owl hooting or a sudden shift in the shadows as the moon lurched across the sky. The trail continued to widen out, and a few yards ahead the trees opened up into a clearing. The stranger passed through the tree line, but as Starlit made to do the same her snout bumped into a barrier that shimmered with the impact. "Oh, goodness, my apologies," the stranger said. "I so rarely have visitors that I forgot to lower my own wards. I'm sure you understand the need for prudence, what with my living in a 'haunted' forest and all." A quick flick from the stranger's horn caused the ward, now a translucent silver color, to part just wide enough for Starlit to pass through it. Carefully she stepped over the threshold, trying her level best to keep her jaw from dropping as she did so. While the clearing had appeared barren when seeing it from the tree line, passing over the ward showed her what actually stood there. A massive oak tree, tall enough and wide enough to comfortably fit her cottage five times over, loomed over her. There were windows cut straight into the tree, and from the outside she could tell that the interior was hollowed out to make for ample living space. Up higher there was a balcony where some sort of device stood on a tripod, and in front of her was a rich red door made from the same wood as the tree itself being illuminated by lantern. "Starlit Sky, welcome to the Golden Oak," the stranger said with the sort of smugness that only comes from great achievement. "Did you make all of this?" Starlit asked, eyes still flitting over every inch of the gargantuan tree. "Indeed I did, and it was the last great work I made before the end of the Age of the Princesses. I knew that their time was going to one day come to an end and this world would start to fall apart at the seams, so I grew this great haven from a single acorn to serve as my bastion against the darkness." "Your bastion?" Starlit cut in. "With this kind of power you could do so much for the common ponies of Equestria! Why do you stay holed up in here when you could be out there doing so much good with this power!?" "Because my magic has been waning over these many long years, and I'm no longer the spell weaver I once was," the stranger replied with her head bowed. "The sorceries that I could do in ages past would've made you weep with awe, but now I only have enough left in me to maintain my wards and keep this place alive and verdant. I'm no better now than a meager street magician." Starlit could feel a knot form in her stomach, and she wished she hadn't been so harsh with her speech. This pony's words carried with them a great sadness, but it was an impotent sadness; it had no real weight or investment, just the empty memories of how things used to be and the knowledge that they could never be that way again. "...I'm sorry, I didn't know. If you don't mind my asking," Starlit continued, walking toward her companion, "but who are you? You speak of things nopony in living memory has seen as if you were there yesterday, your magical skill is leagues beyond anything I've seen any unicorn do, and whatever that vision you showed me was would not be something any old sorceress would have access to. You are somepony special, that much is certain." "Maybe I was somepony special, but that time has long since passed. Still," the stranger continued, "I suppose I owe you this much for dragging you all the way out here and taking you away from your family and responsibilities." Softly she walked over to the door so that her cloak was illuminated in the lantern light, her hood casting an impenetrable darkness across her face. She set her horn aglow with a rich magenta magic and used it to pull her hood down. Her face was youthful, a vivid purple, with a neatly pulled-back, midnight-blue mane with a streak of magenta and a streak of violet. What Starlit noticed the most, however, were her eyes; her eyes were a deep violet, and they were the eyes of a mare far more experienced than the face they were set in. "My name is Twilight Sparkle," she said with head held high, "the Wise Princess of Equestria and the Mother of Magic." * * *