Velvet Sparkle and the Queen in Stone
By Tundara
Part Fourteen
Sandwiched between Iridia and Celestia, conflicting energies and ideas flooded her, leaving Cadence’s thoughts foggy and adrift. Both alicorns pulsed with an over-abundance of magic, rivers glutted by unending rains, their banks ready to burst and sweep her towards the sea. Likewise, they both verily crackled with life, love, and warmth.
It made concentrating on containing Abael all the more difficult. The rune circled in the back of her mind, a hungry panther among the sheep of her other runes. Cadence had thought herself well accustomed to the nature of Bright runes—she possessed over a thousand of the type—yet Abael was so much greater in all regards. It seemed to feed on the stray aether escaping her aunts.
Relief welled in Cadence as the fields of sparkle flowers and the old manor beyond came into view. A relief short lived. The remains of the village crowd lingering on the front lawn, partaking of the manor’s hospitality, offered no good omens. Of greater concern, however, was the tangled knot of fear that permeated the usually placid strands of love.
“Bank around,” Celestia called over to the guards pulling the chariot. “We will set down quietly in the back.”
Appreciating Celestia’s prudence, Cadence leaned over to Iridia and said, “Hold on tight, aunty. Landings can be bumpy.”
“Can they? Oh, good! I have such an itch in my—” The rumble of wheels hitting loose gravel, and the accompanying jolts, thankfully interrupted Iridia before she could complete her thoughts.
Before the chariot had come to a stop a pair of Crystal Guards had stepped forward from their usual places near the rear entrance.
“Dasher, Lightning; what is going on out front? Has there been trouble?” Cadence asked as they gave stiff salutes.
“You could certainly say that, ma’am,” Dasher replied, his tone sharp and professional. “One of the lesser daughters went a-missin’ last night. The Baroness and Her Royal Highness have been a-trackin’ her with some conjured beasty.”
Lightning grimaced, adding, “This in addition to the news of the Baroness’ sister passing, along with her herd, out in Manehatten. House fire, they say. We doubled the patrols in case it was the first of an attack on the family, ma’am, but things have been quiet otherwise.”
Cadence grimaced, understanding why the emotions permeating the manor were so twisted. She sighed and promised to chastise herself later for failing to recognise the signs of grief when she’d checked on Shining back in Canterlot. There was no excuse for the error, even if Celestia and Iridia’s presences were affecting her sight.
Iridia huffed and jittered her wings, eyes narrowed at one of the second story windows. “She’s being a fool again. I keep telling her…” Trailing off, Iridia marched towards the doors with more certainty than Cadence had expected. Cadence tilted her head, wondering who or what had drawn Iridia’s ire. Over her shoulder, Iridia added, “Follow my lead.”
Celestia wore a little smile that wavered between and smirk and small wonder. “So, bitterness does not hold total sway over the pleasant memories?” she absently asked the empty air before following her aunt into the manor. “I feel almost like a young mare again.”
Cadence followed last, frozen for a moment, once again floundering to reconcile the disparity between what she expected and the reality before her. Celestia was halfway through the door before she pushed that all aside for later and followed. They trotted to the living quarters, servants giving little ‘oh’s of surprise as the queen and princesses passed. On reaching the door to Velvet’s room, Iridia stopped and snapped out a wing, signalling them to hold and wait.
Through the door, Velvet’s voice, muffled though it was, could be heard, and from the rolling flow of her words, she was once more caught up in the telling of her story. Cocking an ear, Cadence caught Velvet say, in a gruff, raspy voice, “The queen must remain in stone.”
Rolling her eyes, Cadence moved to push past Iridia’s wing and enter the room, only to find it as unyielding as stone, and her great-aunt firmly shaking her head.
‘Wait,’ Iridia mouthed, sparing Cadence a stern look. Looking to Celestia for support proved fruitless, her aunt peering at the door with something akin to curiosity, but also reflective and pondering. Cadence would have thought it bemusement, but Celestia did not become bemused. Only once she gave a nod of acquiescence did Iridia lower her wing and turn back to the door, drawing a second, more exaggerated eyeroll from Cadence.
They remained there, servants silently passing by, not daring to look up at the three eavesdropping alicorns, as the story progressed, was interrupted by short lived arguments, resumed, and was broken by a spat of worried whispers from Tyr. For most of the story, Cadence frowned, glaring at the door through Iridia’s back. A smile only tugged at the corner of her muzzle at the fear filling the filly’s voice over Abaddon.
At worst, the archon was a sleepy tiger. Certainly, for a mortal to look on the seraph was to invite madness or death, but it was for that reason that she remained hidden.
Cadence’s smile quickly returned to a frown, especially as Velvet told of Sombra’s final moments and Namyra’s brief appearance. At the mention of that name, one she’d only ever heard Celestia mutter in her most bitter and angry moments, she darted a glance to her aunt and saw… nothing. Celestia’s face was unreadable as ever, but so too was her heart. She was greeted only by the same, overpowering warmth and energy that had been pulsing from Celestia all day.
It was far easier to read Iridia. There was no need to check her bonds of Love to see the effect the story had on her.
Iridia’s wings sagged to brush the floor, and for the first time, Cadence could nearly see the true weight of centuries hefted upon her great aunt’s back. Cadence began to extend a wing in condolence, when she was shocked by Iridia bringing up a hoof, pulling it to her chest as she took a deep breath, then pushing it away along with a whooshing exhale.
When she’d calmed, recovering her imperious poise, Iridia pushed open the door just as Velvet finished describing her flight over the battlefield.
The room beyond exploded in epitaphs and shock at the intrusion. Cries of ‘Your Highness!’, ‘Iridia?’, and ‘What in Faust’s mane?’ echoed around Cadence’s ears. But it was Tyr’s cry of, “Mother,” and Shining’s swift embrace she noticed most of all.
Ignoring Iridia as she began all-but yelling at Velvet about guilt or responsibility, and causing the baroness to turn red faced, Cadence nuzzled Shining for just a moment before turning to find Tyr beneath a bundle of quilts next to Luna.
“Love, did you find what you went looking for?” Shining asked after an appropriate length of nuzzling and a kiss.
Nodding, Cadence started to explain where she’d gone and how she’d received Abael. The story had barely begun when it was cut short as Cadence was propelled towards the library by Iridia, with Celestia, Velvet, and Luna in their wake.
Protests falling on deaf ears, Cadence only had time to give Shining an apologetic look before being whisked away. Once safely ensconced far from the children’s prying ears, fresh tea already waiting along with scones and jam tarts, Velvet began the true discussion.
“So, we need to undo the Fostering. How?”
“It will take a ritual,” Cadence said, stating what everypony already knew before launching into a more detailed recounting of her conversation with Abaddon. At the end, Cadence unlocked the corner of her mind containing Abael, summoning the rune in its pure form as Abaddon had done in Phoenicia.
As Cadence finished, magic alighted along Celestia’s horn, and she said, “And I bring my Ursëa.”
Flames erupted from Celestia, rising from wing, mane, and horn alike into a spiralling, eight pointed shape around a central looping knot. The appearance of her aunt’s rune left Cadence speechless. She understood now where Celestia’s calm center and flames both originated.
Clapping hooves yanked Cadence’s attention away, and Abael almost slipped from her grasp. Wrangling the troublesome rune back under full control cost her a moment, and when she opened her eyes Cadence found a similar rune floating above Iridia.
“This is my Cuil. She’s been with me… oh… since… I can’t remember.” Iridia giggled and covered her mouth. “It’s been a while since I have had cause to bring her out.”
“Show offs,” Luna playfully grumbled, adding an exaggerated roll of her eyes.
Staring hard at the runes, Velvet’s face morphed in a pained grimace, followed by a shudder that worked from her tail to neck.
“I know the spell…” Velvet barely whispered, but it was enough to draw everypony’s attention. Before anypony could press her for more, she grabbed a sheet of parchment, quill, and set about sketching a spell equation.
Dismissing their runes, the alicorns gathered around Velvet to watch.
Cadence was not well versed in higher magic. Certainly, she had more knowledge and understanding than most, but it was not a passion of hers as it was with Celestia or Twilight. Still, even a laypony would have recognised that the spell being crafted was complex and unlike anything practiced within Equestria or the Old Queendoms.
It was a five-pointed spell, with Abael flanked by Ursea and Cuil, along with two runes Cadence had never before seen, but by their form, twisted and viciously curving inwards, they had to be dark runes. Far more curious was the lack of the base-frame-cap structure used in all modern spellcraft. The five great runes were not alone either, Velvet added more and more, entwining them this way and that in an array that would have left academics gaping and magical engineers throwing their hooves up in exasperation.
“Oh, very good!” Iridia clapped her hooves at some segment of the spell. “An Antipodal Albedo Lattice! Amazing.” Leaning over, Iridia loudly whispered to Cadence, “Your grandmother loves using those in her spell-work too. This is true craftswork. True… Oh dear…” Iridia jittered and twisted about, much like a dog about to lay down. “Excuse me… This, this requires my attention…” And with that Iridia wandered over to a chair, where she promptly fell back deep into the flow of the Font.
Either ignoring, or having not noticed Iridia at all, Velvet moved from drawing the spell’s matrix to describing its casting equations, writing out the order and methodology and all the steps necessary to make it work. Cadence frowned as she skimmed the equations. There was something off about them, more so than the strangeness of the matrix itself. It took her a few minutes to piece together the error, for she couldn’t think of it being anything else.
“Velvet, this is beautiful,” Celestia said, her praise coming just as Cadence was about to voice her concerns.
Surprised, Cadence pointed to the offending lines, and said, “But this… this can’t possibly work. It’s impossible for Selene to block Sol, especially at noon.”
“An eclipse, dear niece,” Iridia called from her corner, eyes remaining shut as she tended to the Font. “They were once somewhat of a thing… when my sister and I were young mares.”
“Again?” Luna asked with an uncharacteristic whine. “The last time we dispelled Nauta Anar Isilye everypony hid inside for a month thinking Selene was about to come crashing down. I always get the blame.”
“Maybe this time we can leave it undone.” Celestia shrugged her wings as she poured over the nearly completed spell. “There isn’t much reason to maintain it anymore, except tradition. I’m sure Selene would love to stretch her metaphoric legs again and Sol could certainly use the company from time to time.”
“Well, Sol has been getting a bit strange from being alone for so long,” Luna agreed with a cheeky half-smile, swatting Celestia’s flank with her tail. Her amusement only lasted until her eyes returned to the page. “And I won’t be the Shepherd of the Night anymore—again! That’s my favourite title.”
“I know, but father gave you plenty of others as well.”
“Yes, well, I am not a pirate or reaver anymore, either.”
“If it is too much to ask, I’ll find another way of undoing my mistake.”
Cadence couldn’t help but stare at the playful back-and-forth between Luna and Celestia. It was so strange, seeing them act like sisters, almost surreal. The sisterly love between them was so strong, Cadence had trouble imagining what it had taken for them to fall out and fight all those hundreds of years before.
“Your mistake?” Luna heaved a sharp laugh. “There you go again, thinking all Equestria rests on your withers alone. No, we harmed Tyr together, whether through inaction, or the best of intentions. We’ll help her as a family.” Cadence jumped as Luna reached out with her wings to bring both her and Celestia into a hug. “It is simply having it come so suddenly. How often do we talk about undoing the Nauta Anar Isilye, but never get around to the act?”
Shrugging off Luna, Cadence said, “I’m a little lost.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Velvet who spoke up. “This spell,” she indicated the sheets of paper in front of her without breaking stride with her quill, “needs to be cast underneath an eclipse while the Font is flooded with life giving energy. Thus enabling it to compel and empower Iridia to restore the subject of the ritual to her, or his, true-self, undoing any and all magical—and physical—effects upon the recipient. Scars will be healed, old injuries mended, and enchantments dispelled. It doesn’t sound like much, I know, but to overcome the Fostering without bringing harm to Tyr, a spell of greater power is required. There will be side-effects as well, and the cost is high.” There was a morose slump to Velvet’s posture, a weariness that hung off her like an old, weathered cloak. “My greatest work…”
“But, how? A spell like this should take years to make! And you did it within a half-hour.” Cadence shook her head in awe. “This is impossible.”
Collecting the pages and setting a duplication spell to make copies, Velvet cast off the sad air, and gave Cadence a slightly amused smirk, as she would a filly that just did something rather cute. “Part of being ‘The Sorceress’ is being able to see how magic connects. Though, I admit it’s never been this easy before.” Standing up while the transcription spell did its work, Velvet looked around the room. “We’re going to require a fifth. I’ll have to take the lead, as there’s no time for me to teach you all the Dark runes. And, even if there was, the odds of them accepting any of you again is low.” Velvet turned away from the princesses and concentrated on the Dreamer’s Crystal. “Before you ask; no, I won’t teach them to you either, Cadence.”
Pouting, Cadence wanted to say that she hadn’t entertained the idea. It’d have been a lie.
After a glance out the window, Celestia said, “Come on Luna, we better start preparing the ritual site now.”
Luna followed Celestia towards the fields next to House Sparkle’s warding stone. The spot offered the best location for such a ritual, saturated as it was in the protective energies that had guarded over the manor and surrounding grounds over the last several centuries.
After the princesses left, Velvet started towards the door, saying, “I’ll go speak with Blessed. I imagine this is why she is here.”
And like that, a thoroughly put out and confused Cadence was left behind in the middle of the library. Only Iridia remained, though she was too lost in her duties with the Font to even notice the departures. Apparently unneeded until the ritual was ready, Cadence decided to spend the evening with her husband and foster daughter.
She found all the foals, and a few of the older Sparkles, in Tyr’s room. It was a noisy, fractious scene, with Melody and Spike arguing over details of Velvet’s story, Adamant jumping back and forth from a chair to the bed, and Shining laughing at something Limelight had said.
When it became apparent that Velvet wasn’t going to continue her story, Spike and Adamant decided to go play in the gardens. Tyr didn’t last long, drifting off to sleep, forcing Elegant and Melody departing for the drawing room with Limelight. With only slight prodding from Shining, Pennant pled boredom and left in search of a sparring partner to work out some of the tension of the Season. Unfortunately, before Cadence and Shining could appreciate the newfound solitude, the children were replaced by Iridia, the magic-drunk queen stumbling into the room and unceremoniously occupying the largest settee. Grumbling inwardly at the lack of privacy afforded her family, Cadence accepted the intrusion with her usual outward good graces until the dinner bell tolled.
It was a late dinner that saw the family and guests gather once more. Hosting so many, the dining table was filled to capacity with a vast assortment of trays arrayed in a splendid feast. Refreshed by her short nap, Tyr demanded to eat at the table that night, rather than have her dinner brought up to her room again. Glitterdust did not attend, electing to remain at Star’s bedside, and with so many ponies present, Whisper hid herself away in her study. Their absence brought no comment from the younger Sparkles, beyond Elegant asking if Star was going to be alright.
“Of course,” Comet replied with absolute certainty as the serving staff brought out dish after dish, filling the room with warm, mouth watering smells.
On having been told that she was serving almost the entire royal household, the cook had almost fainted on the spot. After recovering, she flew into a flurry that would have been met with something close to approval by the royal chefs back in Canterlot. Therefore, the meal was respectable and did no discredit to the House, though it left the pantries quite bare.
As they ate, the predictable calls came from the younger Sparkles for Velvet to resume her story. Focusing more on the carrots in front of her than the children, Velvet clamped down on the excitement with a crisp, “Not right now.”
“Fie, and you’d almost reached the end as well,” Iridia said with a disappointed whine. “You can’t possibly leave things as they stand.”
“There is too much to do tonight. I’m sorry, but the story will have to wait.” The way Velvet spoke, hardly lifting her eyes from her soup, told the little Sparkles that she was lying, and the story would not continue.
Caught by surprise, a low grumble flowed from the children, Spike and Adamant going so far as to let out loud protests. Cadence wanted to ask what work there was left to accomplish, but a touch from Celestia under the table, accompanied by the slightest shake of her aunt’s head, told her stay out of the conversation.
“What about River, though?” Melody persisted, her tone a perfect foil for Velvet’s stern bark. “At least tell us what happened to our sister.”
Velvet shoved back her chair, the heavy rattle overpowering the children’s questions. Tangled, twisted emotions burst from Velvet, scraping over Cadence’s senses like a briar patch. But, as quick as the emotions came, they were contained.
“Excuse me,” Velvet said to the table at large, her voice flat and hard. Standing, she moved for the door at a brusque pace. Velvet, pausing, said over her shoulder, “Limelight, there are some things we need to discuss.”
Limelight opened her mouth to protest; it was bad enough for Velvet to leave in the middle of dinner when it was just family, but to do so when nearly the entire Royal House was in attendance? She held back her tongue, though, certain that to rebel would only make the situation worse. Hastily spooning as much soup into her mouth as she could, followed her mother out of the dining room.
“Well,” Iridia huffed as the door closed behind Limelight. “If she won’t finish the story, then I will. Let me see…” She clicked her tongue a couple times and leaned back in her chair, swirling her wine. “How to begin? Perhaps… A little bit of… no… Oh! I got it!” She took a deep breath, and in a voice that rattled the crystal glasses in their cabinets, said, “Lo, it was many years ago that—”
“Inside voice, aunty, please!” Cadence interjected with an equally voluminous snap, then, much softer, said, “You’ll wake Star.”
“Not to mention crack the foundations,” Spike grumbled to Melody.
Blinking a few times, Iridia looked around at the Sparkles all rubbing their ears, and with a meek laugh, apologised. “Something a little less formal then…”
I remember being cold the most.
I’d been aware, in a way, of events on the disc for some time. Some, I’d seen more closely than others. The grand, sweeping events that shaped history were the clearest. Events such as when my beloved nieces fought one another after my failed attempt at atonement or when that curse was unleashed upon my dear, unsuspecting halla.
Warning them had taken much of my strength. The Elements of Harmony had sealed me within a multitude of enchantments. Breaking through the cage sapped much of my strength, and cast me back into a vast sea of dreams.
I slept deeper than I had in several centuries that year. It was a worried, fretful sleep. For, even through my exhaustion, I could feel the sorrow of my Halla. Their anguish tore at me, and in the silent darkness, I wept for them all.
A distant stirring woke me from my mourning.
A force gathered. A powerful, desperate call reached into my prison, gabbed my weakened form, and pulled me back to the disc.
The enchantment that had encased me for fifteen hundred years began to crack. Threads snapped, one by one, each loss weakening the whole, causing more and more to break until I was surrounded by a cacophony of light pierced by the shattered rapports of a crashing bell. Sound, true sound, roared into me. Shouts, screams, the bangs of spells, the ring of steel on steel, and above it all Velvet’s voice pleading for my favour.
Over and over again she said the same words, “Iridia gyr ibenrëon muq punamyr awöoden.”
‘Iridia, give to me the blessing of a foal.’
Chills ran down my spine like ice water dripping on exposed skin, shivers running through my wings and tail. I tried to squirm, to shake away the ice. Stone cracked and shattered, shards showering and clattering across the ground as my wings flexed for the first time in centuries. Silence returned to me, and for a dreadful moment, I wondered if perhaps what I’d heard had only been in my imagination.
Such had been common enough during the early years of my imprisonment. Phantom sounds and sensations assailed me from every direction, driving me to madness until all I could do was curl up inside myself and hope the nightmares would pass.
I drew in a sharp breath at the fear of going through those years again, and as I did I tasted the warm summer air.
It had been so long, I’d forgotten what it was like to fill my lungs. Greedly, I took another deep breath. I rolled those wonderful, subtle tastes the wind can carry over my tongue. So often, they are not noticed. Ask a pony what the wind tastes like, and they will look at you funny. To me, it was the most beautiful sensation. I stretched up onto my back hooves and craned my neck upwards, with wings flared wide for balance, as I took a deeper gulp of that sweet air. Pine mingled with the lingering traces of rain from the previous day, a hint of peat and ripe, wild fruit. Apples. I distinctly remember there being apples.
But there was something else, something troubling, sharp and metallic.
Blood.
At last my eyes opened, and almost at once had to be closed again as Sol’s wonderful light stung them deeply. More cautious, I blinked away the glare, adjusting to the brightness.
What laid before me almost made me wish I’d not been awoken.
Velvet kneeled before me on slick stones, clothed in torn robes. Dried, cracked blood clung to almost every inch of her, with patches of still wet additions giving her a terrifying visage. Ugly bruises covered her face, and a large swatch of fur was missing down one side of her neck where she’d been burned. A shield of conjured crystal, the same colour as her mane, wobbled at her side, its surface pockmarked from blocking spells and hurled spears, while on the other hovered a large sabre, blood dripping through the flickering aura upon its grip.
Behind Velvet stood the towering form of a northern Roc, wings spread for balance and a halla pinned beneath one talon. The great bird watched, not me, but a ring of halla that filled the courtyard.
They were clearly broken into two groups. The smaller, bedecked in robes of various quality, stood with their backs to Velvet and I, while the much larger faction stared mouths agape at me. Members of this second group began to tremble and back away, nickering in terror or throwing themselves prostrate on the worn cobblestones. Several bodies were strewn around the courtyard within which we stood, most concentrated near the shattered remains of a gate.
I would like to say I’d never been confronted by such a sight before.
Alas; I cannot.
I’d both witnessed and been a party to enough desperate, last stands to recognize another.
The cloudy grey, battered pony kneeling before me had, with a small cadre of friends and followers, battled her way to my statue and enacted a spell or ritual to break my imprisonment. Along the way those guarding my statue had fought back and been killed. On the precipice of failure, the pony had completed her spell.
Admiration and guilt tugged on my heartstrings at her success, and at her having to rescue me at all.
Slowly, I lowered myself back to all four hooves. The crunch of dirt was so novel and new, yet familiar. Memories of running through fields as a filly with my herd, my sister, my daughter and nieces, and many, many lovers all mingled together in an indecipherable mesh.
Everyone was still and silent, watching as I shifted then scuffed a hoof. Somepony laughed, making me start and back up a half-step. It took the frightened gasps from the halla for me to realise the laugh had been my own.
I touched my throat to make sure that I had not imagined the sound, or the fresh wind that ran through my mane, tickled the fur on my face and caressed my feathers. Assured that it was all real, I again focused on the pony.
“You… freed me?”
She returned my question with a stare, her mouth opening and closing slowly.
Then she said something that I could not understand. It sounded a little like High Halla, but twisted around, as if somepony had taken the sounds, tossed them into the wheel of a water mill, and then poured them onto a board before decreeing that this was how things should be pronounced.
“A moment.” I held up a hoof in the universal sign of ‘stop’, which she did, clamping her mouth shut and looking very small and frightened right then.
From what I’ve been told, at that moment I was rather intimidating indeed. My eyes blazed with wrath and my jaw clenched and unclenched as I again took in the mayhem around me. With slow, purposeful steps I descended from the plinth on which I’d been placed for who-knows how many years. Long enough that the halla no longer knew that the statue in their courtyard was my prison, rather than the one hidden deep within their vault.
I had a good laugh about that when I learned they didn’t know that they’d hidden the wrong statue.
My movements were slow because I was terrified of losing my balance and falling. Every muscle felt gelatinous, as if I’d just ran across the length and breadth of Marethon’s plains again.
While I was unsure of the specifics, I knew that I’d never get to the bottom of things if I could not speak to the pony or halla. She trembled as I approached, and what I’d taken as fear was in actuality mere exhaustion. She battled every moment not to show weakness. The steel in her eyes—so clear and blue—did not waver, nor did she shy away when my horn touched hers.
It was a rather simple spell, at least as I’d once reckoned things, one that copied the understanding of all languages known by the subject. Even it took a great deal of effort to avoid the spell fizzling.
“There, much better,” I said as I stepped back to look down on Velvet. “Now, answer me this; to what purpose did you free me of my prison?”
Repeating her reason was hardly needed. The echoes of her call, the words that brought me back to the disc, continued to reverberate through my sinew and bone in a compulsion to act. This pony had made a request in the old way—in the proper way—and I could not deny a response for long.
But, there was a propriety that needed following. A wave of the horn and a few words of, ‘There, all done,’ would not suffice. She’d gone to great lengths, and the least I could do was perform my appointed role in the play.
“My daughter, cure her, please.” Velvet gestured to a small bundle laid out before her, and I confess to have not noticed before.
From within the swaddling, her breath shallow and raspy, sat a quiet little half-breed fawn. Or perhaps foal. Either works, I suppose.
I recognised what she was at once. Such a cute little thing, all wrapped in her swaddling and staring at everything with her big, brown eyes. So innocent and pure. My heart ached to look on her, because it brought so much clarity to events. Velvet pushed her closer to me with such relief on her face! Yet, I was duty bound to bring only disappointment.
Slowly, I shook my head.
“I’m sorry, but that is not why you woke me.”
Velvet mouthed a few incoherent words before she managed to sputter, “Yes, I did! That is the only reason I have to wake you! Everything I’ve done these past few months has been to save her. I’ve done terrible, terrible things. I’ve hurt those I called friend. I’ve sacrificed those I love. Left them to die. I… I…”
I kneeled down in front of her, in part so my own legs would not tremble, but also to give her comfort. Brushing back her mane, it was evident that the mare before me, while young, had seen and done more than a hundred other mares would in their lifetimes.
“I can tell you, truly, that was not what woke me.” I tried to keep my voice soft, yet firm. Comforting, but with an iron core of certainty. Apparently, what the crowd heard was more thundering and terrible, like I was every bit the titan-revenant they’d been taught through song and legend, a moment away from cracking the disc with fiery rain and bitter tempests.
They probably exaggerated.
“You requested the blessing of a foal,” I explained levely.
“Yes!” Velvet almost shouted and began to rise, her good hoof reaching out to grab my shoulder. “Please. Bless my daughter. Cure her of the Gasping.”
Again I had to shake my head.
“You misunderstand. It was to be blessed with a foal. To conceive one strong and healthy, who will go on to do great deeds.”
Velvet’s mouth fell open as I spoke, tears rimming her eyes.
“So, everything has been pointless?” she eventually asked in a whisper close to a sob, exhaustion both physical and spiritual tearing down her armour.
“Tell me, what have you done? It must have been an extraordinary journey.”
And so she told me everything, recounting all that had transpired from the time of my warning the previous fall to the moment I was awoken. At first I was amazed by the resourcefulness the group had possessed in figuring out what would be needed to save the fawn. To reach the ruins of my temple and open the doors was itself a feat. My heart ached to hear what had befallen my priestesses, but I was not surprised either.
But it was the mention of Sombra that changed everything.
“So… he lives?” I hissed through clenched teeth, my wings shaking with age-old rage.
Low, frightened mutters wound their way through the observing halla.
To my shock, Velvet shook her head, and calmly said, “No. I killed him.”
“You… killed him?” The words felt entirely unsatisfying.
Not because I’d been denied my revenge. For some time I sat there wondering at just what I was feeling. There was anger, yes, but it had been so long that it was just… there. A low, single ember that could flicker briefly, but held no threat in its bed of ashes of returning to a true, passionate flame.
No, what I felt, what clung to me as if it were moist leaves in the fall, was regret.
And acceptance.
What he had done was ancient history, literally, as point of fact.
“I wonder how he did it,” I mused, much to the surprise of the crowd.
The wounded had long since been tended, and the dead removed to a place of respect. The crowd had grown somewhat, halla drawn by the fighting congregating around Velvet and I. Whispers at my release echoed now and then, and there was a palpable taste of worry in the air.
Among the crowd, I noticed members from all facets of society; warriors and crafts-elk next to scholars, philosophers, and more. Some bowed or said prayers in my name. Most did not.
“Continue,” I said to Velvet.
And she did, telling me of her time beneath the surface, from the moment of the tunnel’s collapse within the catacombs, to the eventual battle for her freedom. By the time she reached the moment she tore Prince Selim’s soul asunder I was filled with both pity and admiration. What came afterwards, I was not surprised to learn.
It seemed a story I’d heard time and again. One I’d written for myself during my own fall. When she finished, all I could do was shake my head and sigh.
Slowly, I stood up, and in a voice that carried far, I said, “An amazing tale you spin, Velvet Sparkle. You admit to abusing dark magic, and the murder of your friends. The slaughter of tens of thousands brought about by your cruelty and inability to master the gifts presented to you. So many crimes you committed in your efforts to free me.” I began to pace as I spoke, turning my gaze from the small, exhausted mare before me to the still growing crowd. “And I can not blame nor judge you on these crimes. I have done far, far worse when there was not a glimmer of hope of saving my own foal.”
I stopped in my pacing to lean down and help her to stand. Once on her wavering hooves, I wrapped a wing around her and brought her close to my chest.
“In you I see a pony who has walked the same paths as I, who has looked into the same darkness and let it consume her, as it did to me, and has been able to turn away only through great hardship and pain. In you… I see kindred.”
Your mother wept, truly wept, that day. Many times have I come to visit this home, as a traveling minstrel—not my best disguise, I admit—and many, many other ways. My favourite must be as Twilight’s dance instructor. How your sister’s flailing antics brought me so much joy! Ahem, sorry…
But, yes, it was the only time I’ve seen her despondent and broken.
After her tears were spent, Velvet broke away and picked up River in her hooves, gently cradling the fawn.
“She’s the White Hind, though… Surely—”
A little snicker interrupted Velvet, she casting a sharp look up at me.
“Your daughter is not the White Hind, I am.” I gave another little laugh. “As is my sister, and Celestia.”
Seeing her confusion, I explained.
The White Hind, you see, was the title I was given when I returned to my family during the First Age of Ice. The last sorceress had just summoned a great evil to the disc, and in so doing, winter gripped all the lands in frozen terror. Marelantis was gone, swallowed by the ocean for its hubris, and in those days all despaired. And then my sister and I discovered what we were; Life.
Over the eons we lost sight of this truth. Things become muddled and distorted by increments, like a glacier marching across a landscape, until one day you are such silly things as Motherhood or bloody Fate.
Fate!? Ha! My sister is in for a sound earful about that…. Ahem, sorry, again.
But yes, Life. I carry the title Springbringer because I slew Witiko and ushered in the first spring in a century. While I can bring about spring, and did so for thousands of years afterwards, it is more a side-effect of what I am truly doing; bringing a spring of life. It is not just to ponies and halla that I grant foals. From birds and bees, to even the trees, through the Font, I grant them all new life.
I explained all this, though I focused more on the effects fifteen hundred years have on myths and lore. What they thought of as a White Hind were alicorns.
We can see things the mortals can not. We can speak to spirits great and small. And, by my first feathers, can my sister get around! Why are you sniggering? She is fast. Through the weave of Harmony she can be anywhere needed in an instant, with far more precision than mere teleportation.
Eventually, the halla came to believe that these abilities were possessed by those very, very few of them born white.
“What now, then?” Velvet asked when I finished explaining things to her.
“You woke me for a reason, and I have granted it.”
She looked up at me confused for a moment.
“I’ve marked you, Velvet Sparkle. When you decide to have another foal, he or she will indeed be blessed.”
Pain flashed behind her eyes and she looked away from me.
“But, I can’t have another foal. The dogs… they gave us poisons in our food and—”
“Trust me. I’m the Goddess of… you don’t seem to have a word for it, actually…” I scrunched up my face as I looked for what I wanted to say. “Rejuvenation, the Spring, Birth, and Fertility; I am all these things, and yet… not? Being the goddess of a concept is hard when talking to somepony who doesn’t actually have that concept. Regardless; pray to me when ready and you shall receive your foal.”
Velvet didn’t appear all that reassured, even when I laid a hoof on her withers and smiled.
“But now, we come to something far less pleasant.” I retracted my hoof and again spoke as much to the crowd as to Velvet. “While I will not judge you, Velvet, I cannot permit you to stay within the Taiga, nor can I allow you to spread word of my return. By the old ways, as decreed by the ruling council of Marelantis, when a sorceress is shown to have lost all control of her powers, a geas will be placed upon you. So long as it is active you will be unable to access the spells you have learned during your quest to save your daughter, nor will you be able to speak of what has occurred since you set hoof within the Taiga. This geas will last until such time as you are deemed worthy, at which time you will be free to share the truth, and have full access to all that you learned; if you have learned to master yourself. Should you not and you remain a threat to the disc; it will strike you dead.”
The actual casting of the geas I will not bother recounting. Just suffice with knowing I am still astonished I managed to avoid blowing up the castle. Fifteen hundred years as a statue, and the second spell I cast is a Marelantian sigil? I attribute my lack of judgement to a bought of sheer giddiness at being able to move.
On the following day, Velvet was teleported to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters within the Everfree Forest. It was the only teleportation marker I had within Equestria at the time.
But that was not the end.
Velvet waited for Limelight to emerge from the dining hall before leading the way towards her study. Limelight staggered a little when Iridia’s initial bellow shook the manor. She almost turned back to check on the dining hall, but an impatient noise from her mother reined in her impulse.
She wondered what differences there'd be between Velvet and Iridia’s stories. Curiosity dueled with duty until they were heading up the main staircase and an invisible threshold was crossed, leaving her committed.
Studying the tension in her mother’s withers and back, Limelight wondered why Velvet would take the unusual action of pulling her away from dinner. Such actions would have caused unimaginable scandal under normal circumstances.
There was something wrong with the placid smile Velvet wore as she indicated for Limelight to enter the study first. Once her daughter was seated, Velvet took her usual place behind her desk and pulled down a fresh sheet of parchment and quill, not so much as glancing at the quill as it began to dart across the page. When she at last turned to address Limelight, there was only a vague hint of the pinched emotions from the dining room on her features.
“Limelight, I wanted to talk to you about your paramour. This Intrepid Plowshare, if I recall?” Velvet paused for a beat while Limelight grew more flustered and her cheeks darkened. “He is a strapping young stallion. Firm flanks and a strong jaw. But that is so common to Earth ponies, it seems. He certainly isn’t hard to look at out in the fields.”
“M-Mother!”
Pushing ahead, Velvet waved an airy hoof. “Your mom isn’t wrong that it’d cause problems, but that isn’t as important as whether you love him or not. If you have that then everything else will be so much easier.”
“I… No, I don’t. Love Intrepid, that is.” Limelight rubbed her left cannon. “He is nice but…”
“Well, that is a shame.” Velvet’s voice resonated oddly with disappointment. “And here I had a whole speech planned about following your heart and to Tartarus with House politics.”
Wilting a little, Limelight gave a dejected sigh. “Because you’ve decided to make Star the matron.”
“No, because I made the mistake of marrying for politics twice. Take it from somepony who found and squandered love. When you find it, you grab it for dear life and never let go.” Velvet grinned at the surprise on Limelight’s face. She savoured that look before adding, “I’ve decided to name you my heir, and that is already more hardship than I should force any of my daughters to assume.”
Limelight gaped at her mother, working her jaw in a futile attempt to say something. Despite arguing for herself as the better candidate, Limelight knew she was woefully unprepared for taking up the mantle of Duchess. She’d seen some of the lessons Twilight had gone through and knew them to have been but the bare minimum. Correspondence with the daughters of other Houses had shone a dim light on the preparations other heirs suffered. Tutored in history, etiquette, politics, and magic to a degree that, honestly, daunted her.
From the pity that flickered behind Velvet’s gaze, Limelight suspected her mother shared similar thoughts.
Velvet winced and looked away to inspect the pages covering her desk. From them she pulled a letter, already sealed, and pushed it towards Limelight.
“I’ve put together this letter for you to take to Lady Blackwell. You’ll need some allies in the House of Ladies, and she’ll jump at the chance of having House Sparkle in her debt. There is no shortage of allies and enemies right now, but who knows how things will shift when word gets out. Lady Blackwell can be almost as hard and cutthroat as me, so you’ll have to be careful, but I know you’re more than up to the task, Limey.
“On the domestic side of things, I’d appreciate it if you spent some time with Two-Step and Briny. It’d be good to at least have the jist of things when they discuss the flowers and draughts of potion. Your brother is excellent, but he might not always be around to help. If he ever finds a mare and settles down, you’ll need to be able to stand on your own.
“Which brings us full circle to my original point. The only other thing left is finding a suitable husband and wife.”
Fighting down stronger words, Limelight interjected with a sharp, “I think that is my choice. You said not five minutes ago to follow my heart rather than what everypony expects.”
“Yes, but there isn’t anything saying you can’t try to do both.” Velvet replied, pulling a scroll out from her nearby bookshelves. “While you have an advantage in that you could just ask your sister-in-law for guidance, I think that sort of cheating isn’t something you’d entertain.”
Limelight cringed and unconsciously leaned away. “Ugh, Tartarus no! Love isn’t something to be parcelled out so mechanically. I… respect and like Cadence, but I hate how she plays matchmaker all the time. Ponies should be free to stumble into love without an all seeing alicorn pushing them into each other. It cheapens the experience. If I relied on Cadence, I’d always wonder if it was true love. That’s the list, isn’t it.”
Velvet nodded as she twisted the scroll over and over. “Yes.” A fire cantrip spat from her horn and lit the edges of the scroll.
“Mother?” Limelight stared hard at the scroll as it was consumed, embers caught by Velvet’s aura and snuffed before they could fall onto the floor.
“This might be the only time you’ll hear me say this, but, the House be damned. You’re free to make your own mistakes and find some ponies to love of your own. If you’re happy, then the House will be well served.”
Confused a half-second, Limelight didn’t know how to respond, then the hugest grin swept up over her features and made her eyes twinkle. She stepped around the desk and, in an act that caught Velvet off-guard, gave her mother a hug.
“Thank you, mother,” Limelight whispered, and a little of the tension drained from Velvet. “I promise I won’t let you or the House down.”
“I know, dear. Now, go on and enjoy what little freedom you have left. Things do not get easier from here.” There was a playfulness to her words, but also a hard ring of truth.
Another squeeze, and Limelight stepped back. Velvet didn’t let go right away, and there was a slight ring of tears underneath her eyes. Limelight paused at the door to look back, her entire being so at ease and joyous.
Basking in that glow long after Limelight had left, Velvet found herself drawn to work. Several sheets of parchment floated to her desk. Quills sprang up with inkwells, blackened tips darted and the room was filled with the sharp scratches of writing. Settling back in her chair Velvet closed her eyes and just wrote, allowing the words and spells to flow through her onto the pages. Not cognisant of what exactly she was making Velvet sank back into the memories of her foalhood and the journey to wake Iridia.
She smiled at the remembrances of Crisp Winds and his lessons on summoning. The exhilaration on binding Lord Auroras. Theories and practices of healing spells taught by Blue Winter and the spells she herself had created out of the Dark Runes dashed across the crisp parchments as they flooded up from her memories.
A neat stack of papers completed, she became aware of being watched. She jerked out of the memories and turned to find Glitterdust standing in the doorway with a candle.
“It’s gone ten, love,” Glitterdust said, stifling a cute, little yawn. Setting down her work, many of the spells half finished or with equations unstarted, Velvet got up and followed her wife. “You’re feeling better, I see,” Glitterdust noted as they entered their bedroom.
“Just a little,” Velvet admitted, heading to her small vanity.
Whisper had already retired to her private room, the door bolted shut for additional privacy, and Comet stood by the wardrobe, his nightgown and cap waiting on a hanger. There was a little twist in the corner of his mouth, like he’d just eaten a sour drop when he’d expected a sugary treat.
“I’ve been listening to your story, dear,” Comet huffed undoing the collar of his vest with a sharp jerk, “and I must say I’ve been growing more concerned. The way you speak of this Growler… It…” He clicked his tongue, thought better of what he was going to say, and instead focused on undressing.
“Dear, is that jealousy I detect? I didn’t think you had it in you.” Velvet playfully called.
“I think you’ve had us all wondering if we aren’t just some consolation prize. We aren’t, are we?” Glitterdust’s question caught Velvet by surprise, making her look up from her jewelry box.
Velvet didn’t respond right away, and when she did it was with an unconvincing, “No,” that rang hollow in her own ears. “You are not…” Velvet’s voice failed as the words she wanted to say refused to leave her throat.
No words could soothe the hurt and worries that flitted behind Glitterdust’s eyes. She wore her emotions on the brim of her hat, always in plain sight and free. The way she caught the corner of her lower lip between her teeth spoke more than a single tearful confession of doubt ever could to those who knew her well.
A little electric buzz flitted through Velvet. Glitterdust was just so cute when worried.
When they’d been courting, Velvet had taken to watching in secret while Glitterdust worked and fretted over her stage designs.
A warmth blossomed throughout her, and before Velvet was fully aware of her actions, she wrapped her hooves around Glitterdust’s neck and brought her into a fierce kiss. Her heart thrummed in her chest like a wild bird caged, lips tingling where they mashed against her wife’s. She hadn’t felt so alive from a kiss since their wedding night.
“Love, what’s gotten into you?” Glitterdust gasped as the kiss broke. “You, mphh!”
Another kiss, more passionate and needy than the first silenced any further questions before they could break the mood. She would not allow anything to douse the heat rushing through her veins, or the electric need flitting across her skin and making her fur stand on end.
Breaking the contact, Velvet gave a dusky whisper. “You are my family, and you are all more precious to me than you know.”
Turning to an open mouthed Comet, Velvet all but pounced him. Wrapping her hooves behind his neck she pressed onward, trailing kisses over his jaw as she made him stand on his back hooves. Legs entwined, breath hot against his skin, Velvet licked Comet’s ear in that special way that never failed to turn him into putty.
He shuddered and an almost delicate sigh flitted over her, telling her that she’d hit the mark again. In a sudden shift he took control, hefting her up and then pressing her to the wall, his strong hooves tight to her barrel. Comet’s mouth sought her own, missed, and instead wandered down her throat, and then up to her horn.
A wonderful jolt shook Velvet’s body as his teeth touch the very tip, arcing down her neck to the base of her tail. Her tail swished in anticipation of more such touches, and a playful laugh bubbled from her throat as she took back control, pushing off the wall so they fell onto their bed.
Breathing deeply of Comet’s musky scent, Velvet glanced up to see Glitterdust hovering between her wants and embarrassment.
“Join us,” Velvet purred, her sultry eyes bringing out a growing grin on her wife’s muzzle.
The bed shifted a little as Glitterdust joined them, crawling up Velvet’s back. Glitterdust’s hoof made swirling motions over Velvet’s cutie mark, then gave them a rough slap.
Into the gasp the strike elicited, Comet took over, rolling Velvet onto her back in a burning embrace. His lips found her ear, soft bites planted at the edges before switching sides.
A turn of her head brought her lip to lip with Glitterdust.
She moaned, loudly, pent up urges leaving her quivering with need.
Closing her eyes Velvet surrendered utterly to her desires.