• Published 18th Feb 2012
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The Steadfast Sky - Greytercakes



Celestia, Luna, and Discord grow into their godhood by unearthing the Elements of Harmony. EqD 6 Stars.

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XXXII : Celestia

The Steadfast Sky : Chapter 32
The Grey Potter
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/11495/The-Steadfast-Sky
http://cosmicponyfanfiction.tumblr.com/

~Celestia~

“I said I was fine!”

“You are not fine. You passed out on your way here.”

“I did? I mean… I probably just fell asleep.”

“No, you passed out. Now, let the nice man examine you.”

Don’t talk down to me like that.”

Discord curled up in what little space was allowed, practically falling off the edge of the squat table. A red welt burst from his shoulder, specks crawling all the way down to his elbow. The walls of the small room could hardly be made out in the light of two guttering candles. Lining the shelves were strange bottles, and stranger instruments, curling hooks and curving blades made the space seem, well, rather unlike a Healer’s office. Honestly, it was a little hard to believe the sign out front. But the unicorn attending did have the Healer cutie mark… He adjusted his glasses, looking down over Discord.

“Fascinating creature…” he muttered. Discord did his best to pull away, glancing over the edge of the table, ready to drop at a moment’s notice. I hovered behind him, ready to catch his stupid… We were here to help him, and here he was being obstinate about it! The nerve! “However,” The Healer continued, “I really only deal with ponies. I’m not sure how much I can help you here.”

“Can you please take a look?” I said, firm, “It’s just his foreleg.”

“Well… lie down, ah, what was your name again, young man?”

Discord,” he snarled.

“It will do you no good to snap at me, now lie down, on your stomach.” He looked over his shoulder, distracted. “Let me just
get some supplies, I’m sure I have something somewhere… “

Discord watched his back, then waved me over with his good arm.

“He’s gonna cut me up,” he hissed.

“He is not!” I shot back, whispering, “Did you see his cutie mark?”

“Do you see the knives?!”

“He won’t use those on you, I’m sure.”

“Are you?!” Discord snapped, “Why’d you bring me here?! He’s going to--!”

“Look,” Luna piped up, holding herself high. “I’ll clear this whole thing up, kay?”

Luna!” I snapped at my sister, moving to stop her… But then what if Discord fell again? And so, my sister trotted over to the Healer, stiff with self-assurance.

“Mister Healer!” she proclaimed.

“Hmm?” He glanced down at her, half a dozen little jars hovering above his head, “Yes?”

“You’re not going to cut up Discord, are you?”

The Healer chuckled. “No, no, no… well, if he needs an amputation, then maybe.” Discord fell back, clutching his arm, and I had to physically shove him back on the table. I knew this would happen! “But I doubt it’s that serious. Just had to find a pot of this.” The Healer hovered down a small clay jar, carefully prying off the cork top. “Now then, Discord? Where does it hurt?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Discord grumbled. He hesitantly held out his thin, birdlike arm, suppressing a wince as he shifted his shoulder.

“Just the arm then? Please, onto your stomach.” His horn began to glow a bright green, filling the small space with a strange light, drowning out the weak candles. The Healer waved his horn over Discord’s shoulder as my friend settled onto his stomach, still refusing to look away from the unicorn.

“Yes, it’s just my arm. Friends are just overreacting.”

“Worrying isn’t an overreaction!” Luna stated, nudging her chin up over the table, “If I fell out of a tree, you’d rush me somewhere, wouldn’t you?”

“You can’t climb trees.”

“But you would.”

“Yeah, sure, I guess…” Discord flipped away from my sister, swiping at the Healer’s horn. “There is nothing wrong with my back!”

“There were lumps under your fur, I assumed they were bruises,” the Healer explained. “Are they natural?”

“What?” Discord shifted again, rubbing his good paw down his back. I looked more closely myself but… I could see nothing, not in this dim light. His fur looked a little matted, but Discord’s always been a bit of a mess, fur-wise. “Lumps? Were there bruises?”

“They seem more like hives,” the Healer said. Then, more carefully, “But since I am unfamiliar with beings of your type...”

“Yeah those aren’t…” Again, Discord ran a paw down his back, prodding certain spots. “Right…”

“An allergic reaction, perhaps?”

“I didn’t think I was allergic to anything,” Discord mumbled.

“Have you eaten anything strange lately?”

“I dunno, some berries…”

“You’ve still been eating those, Discord?” I cried, glaring up at him. He avoided my gaze. “I told the both of you not to pick up any random fruits! It’s dangerous!”

“Eh.” He just shrugged away my comment, like the advice was hardly worth minding. Well! No wonder he fell, with how much he was already hurting himself…

“Why do you keep eating them?!” I demanded, a sort of unintended whine edging into my voice.

“I like the taste maybe?” he snapped back.

“Well, I think you should probably cut back on the berries. Focus on your grains, your vegetables… Not enough nutrition in berries, it’s not healthy for a, ah, growing boy like yourself. Now please, lie down so I can mend your arm.” Discord hesitantly laid back down, digging his head into his unhurt arm. The Healer hovered a silvery substance from the pot, magically applying it to the wound, weaving a spell around it. The bruise glowed green, then the flesh almost seemed to almost turn silver itself. Apparently satisfied, the Healer wrapping a bandage around the silvery mark. “There we are. Keep off of it for a few days, nothing strenuous, and it should be fine. Now…” The Healer turned right to me, adjusting his glasses once more. “My payment…?”

“Oh! Right…” I looked back to my bag, though… Goodness, knowing the standard prices in Canterbury, there is no way we would have enough. “Might be well, a little bit short.” And there’s the beggar voice again, light and pleading. Why? Why does it come to me so easily? “But um, is there anything we can do here, in the town for a little spare change?”

The unicorn stared at us.

“I’d be willing to exchange for one of your necklaces, if you’re a little low.”

“No.” “No, no, no way.” “They’re very special to us.” “Not for sale.” “No.”

The Healer was silent once more as our voices all stopped tumbling over each other. I don’t know about the other two, but, even though I don’t have an element of my own, the thought of losing one of the Elements felt like a literal punch in the gut.

“Okay…” he glanced at the clock, a small thing stuffed around the sharp clutter. “Can I just see what you do have?” I took a tiny little breath and hovered him the very last of our cash. He stared at the miniscule stack for a moment, then glanced up at the clock again. “I’ll just… put it on your tab. Now hurry along.” He pulled a cloak from the shadowy mess around him, dragging it over his shoulders, “It’s late, and I should’ve been closing up fifteen minutes ago.”

I curtseyed briefly, hurrying towards the door, watching Discord struggle with the ledge, staring over it as his wings fluttered open. Luna circled around the table, watching him.

“Discord?” she asked.

“Uh-huh…”

“I’m sorry for shouting you out of the tree.”

With a single flap of his wings, Discord eased himself down. On the ground, he lifted a paw to rub his shoulder, stopping
before it even hit the bandage. Instead, he snatched up his own cloak, practically yanking it out of my saddlebags.
In a low voice, almost angry, “No. I’m sorry for falling.”

“But…”

“Look, we can’t go around in circles, apologizing to each other. It was no one’s fault. For now, let’s just…” I nudged my head towards the door and hurried out, everybody following after me. The Healer practically ran past us, hooves clicking in a familiar way, too familiar for my tastes.

“I guess not…” Luna yawned, “Can we just find a place to sleep for now? Maybe head out of the city, find a nice soft patch of leaves…”

“Or we could, you know, go here.” Discord waved the letter around with his good hand, crumpled and torn. “And maybe they’d be able to help us. Both with a bed and this money issue.”

I looked down at the crumpled note, jaw set, ready to put my hoof down. Not in this town, not in this strange, creepy town. But with Luna tired, Discord injured… maybe I’m being a little too obstinate.

“Alright. BUT!” I whip my own cloak on, glare split between the two of them. “If any funny business starts happening, we’re getting right out of Hock, okay?”

At the first sight of the town of Hock, I wanted to turn us right around, run to another town, see if they had any kind of Healer there. The town, larger than a hamlet but nowhere near as big as Stringhalt or Canterbury, was constructed out of that smooth black cobblestone, the same stone Canterbury was constructed from. If anything, Hock looked like something Canterbury spat out, splattering down the countryside, walls replaced by roads that crisscrossed up and down little farms in the hills.

I didn’t want to go there, of course, but taking a chance on a different hamlet was a shot in the dark. Why would they even need a healer, if they could just travel to this dark, dark city? In the end, it took Luna marching right down into the heart of it for me to work up the courage to follow. It’s rather embarrassing to think about, actually, having to be directed by my little sister.

It was lucky that we had settled down early, as we caught the doctor before he closed down his shop for the night… But… wandering corridors of black stone again, and at night of all times. I know Stringhalt didn’t have Draconequus kidnappers, nor did any other town we arrived in. But that stone… The knives in the Healer’s office were nothing compared to it. Healers have weird tools. There was only one other place this stone shared similarities with. But now we were walking the roads at night, and I’m sure I was not the only one put off by the color of the rock, even if it didn’t have the intimidating walls to go with it…

And another thing, unrelated to the architecture. This place, this little city of Hock, it had its own style. In its own way, each town we passed through did. In every town, the people lived and spoke in certain ways, gathered in certain places, wore a certain style of clothing, or none at all. Canterbury was a town where most would go bare, save a ruff here or there, only pulling out fancy gowns for parties. Wherever I went in Stringhalt, everyone was wearing some sort of scrap across their shoulders, and I saw a lot of tunics, a lot of doublets.

Here, apparently, they all liked to wear cloaks? The kind where you can easily hide both your face and cutie mark? We were talking to one such individual now, a shadow on the walls, face gone, cutie mark firmly hidden.

“Good evening children,” he drawled, voice strangely high-pitched, almost nasal. “Are you attending the ceremony?”

“Uh…”

“Hey,” Discord interrupted my thought-sorting moment, waving around the scrap of paper in his good hand. “Where’s this place, Fallow Street, The Chapel of the Hurricane?”

“Oh! Such loyalty, from such youth!” The pony sniffled as dramatically as possible, “Such a wonderful thing to see, and from strangers as well! Are you from one of our sister towns?! Are you from Cob? Gaitsville?”

“No.”

“Well, you go tell all your friends, wherever you’re from. The Stallion will be pleased.”

“Sure,” I squeaked, looking pointedly at Discord, “Sure we’ll do that. Where is it?”

“Just follow the crowds,” the strange stallion waved to a modest line of ponies behind us, a strange sight for this late. “They’ll lead you right there.” Goodness gracious, did we start talking to the town fool accidentally? This is almost embarrassing to listen to. I mumble my thanks and shove our group away from another cry of youth and loyalty and—

The Stallion.” I hissed.

“You know,” Discord retorted, stuffing the scrap back under his cloak, “‘stallion’ is such a generic term. If we reacted to every single instance of that word--”

“Don’t give me that, he said ‘THE’ Stallion. What if he’s here?! Apple could’ve known where The Shadow Stallion was going, and sent us right to him!”

Discord was silent as well fell behind the modest line of ponies, completely blending in with the simple fact that we were also wearing rather large cloaks. Discord forced a sigh.

“I am tired, hurt, and hungry. I don’t wanna argue this.”

“We did say that we’d go take a look,” Luna said with a nod, “And if funny business happened…”

“This is the funny business! There is nothing funnier than this!”

“The knives were funny business,” Discord said low, hissing again. “Thought I was going to get my arm cut off, you didn’t care.”

“Evening, kids!” We all jumped as another group passed us by on the wide street, a black faceless mass of flowing cloaks. “Heading to the Ceremony are you?”

Luna nodded, “Uh-huh.”

“Well, don’t dilly-dally! You don’t want to be late tonight!”

I smiled as the form passed us by, then ran up to Discord, wanting to talk face to face…

When Discord had fallen out of that tree, he had a very particular look about him. No, he looked like a totally different person. His fangs were bared, a mismatch of jagged canines and flat molars. His eyes, when they opened, were sunken in, the yellow ‘whites’ almost turning brown. As he curled up, clung to his arm, I could almost see his bones pressing against his skin, his ribs. I wondered, was this a result of the pain? When was the last time I really looked at Discord? This felt strange but… was he always like that, and I just never noticed the details?

Here, now, he looked no different. He looked ill as drew away from me, yanking his hood over his eyes. Even in the dark, I could still make out the bones in his ankle, down his arm.

“Celestia, the pain is killing me,” he grumbled, “If we get in trouble, we can just blast them. Apparently an element can purify a heart.”

“Ooh, really?” Luna ducked her nose under the pin of her cloak, pulling up the glittering blue gemstone. “That makes sense I guess…”

“Luna, put that away. And…” I was going to say how the Elements only worked when they were all together. How this was still a crazy idea, how we were all going to wind up worse than before. But I couldn’t. If I was the one looking out for the good of the group, then…

I looked back at Discord. I can’t argue with him. Not when he’s hurting. Any other time, I’d have us all run somewhere else, because I knew we could put up with it. But right now, discord looked about ready to drop. I couldn’t force him somewhere else in this state. He still needed help. And as slim as the chance was, maybe this Chapel place could do that for him.

“Well…” I cleared my throat, “Well alright. Let’s go.”

“We’re here!” Luna cheered.

“What?!”

“That’s it, right?”

Luna pointed to the stream of cloaks, like living shadows flowing to a single location. The Chapel, and it did seem to be The Chapel, was a low building. It was bigger than those around it, but in berth, not in height, and oddly shaped at that. It was circular, built from that same black cobblestone… It was strange, seeing the familiar color in such an unfamiliar shape. In Canterbury, anything with an official sounding name like ‘Chapel’ would be built high and tall, competing with the never-ending walls and towers.

But it wasn’t only the shape that was strange. While there were a few stallion banners here and there, another one joined it. A gray tornado and storm cloud, imposed on a field of blue. I wondered, was that the symbol of this town? Were they allowed to have their own banner, like Stringhalt?

I set those thoughts aside, and did as the strange cloaked stallion had told us, follow the crowds. Even here, the streets weren’t Stringhalt packed, but they were lining up at the doors of the Chapel, making the crowd seem larger. They would have all fit through the door nicely if it wasn’t for two pony-shaped figures at the door, greeting each pony with a single hoof that almost seemed to appear from nowhere in the dark.

“Are we going through the front?” Luna asked. And before I could reply, Discord marched forward, shoving himself as close as he could get to the front. I followed him, what else could I do?

“You.” I reached Discord as he approached at the greeter, “We’re looking for…”

“You’re right on time, child!” the greeter replied, overjoyed. A pink hoof emerged from his shadow and waved excitedly inside. “Now hurry and find a seat!”

“But we were sent by Apple…”

“Oh, Green Apple sent you?” He squeaked, “How lovely, we thought he was lost! Now hurry along!”

“No, Big Apple!! Stringhalt’s…!”

“Hurry along now children, more people wish to enter! Welcome! Welcome!”

Discord was shoved inside, and I followed after, dodging away from the greeter’s mysteriously hovering hoof. The crowds forced us to some sort of antechamber, filled with the whispering breath of hundreds of ponies, the loud clatter of their hooves. I could only just barely pick out Discord’s frail frame from the lot, as he made his way to a wall, squeezed against it to avoid being swept through of the many archways that lead into what looked like a dimly lit amphitheater, the chapel proper.

He glared at me, as if daring me to say something.

“We’ll wait until this ceremony’s over.” I refused to reply, honestly not wanting to argue the point any more than he did.

“Hey, um, guys?” Luna called out, trying to be heard over the whispering. I lowered my head, trying to find her through the sea of multicolored hooves. Her little cloak, blending almost perfectly into the sea, was standing next to an open archway, one that lead to the chapel proper.

“Luna?”

She stabbed her hoof through the archway.

“Look! It’s a statue, an alicorn!”

“What?!”

I dashed over the archway my sister stood under, waiting for several ponies to pass before I could see it for myself. Lit by a sort of magical glow above… yes. Yes, it was an alicorn. But was it the same kind of… A body moved into my line of sight. I pushed my sister forward.

“Front row, now.”

“Why? We can see it from here.”

“I have to see the details, if it’s a replica, or actually like the other statue…!”

I pushed my sister down the stone rows, lined with candles, all the way to the front. Everyone settled directly on the cold stone steps, so when I reached the front, I did the same. It was cold. I expected cold. I tried to not mind the cold. Instantly, I glued my eyes to the statue.

Rearing up at an impossible angle, frightening, or frightened himself, I couldn’t tell. The figure was huge and muscular, slightly larger than life… but then, so was the statue of Golden Jubilee, right? This alicorn was dressed in a studded barding, a style I had never seen before, and his mane whipped around him, between his massive wingspan, as if caught in a tremendous gust. Individual strands rose and fell from the stone, thin enough to be practically unbelievable… Fetlocks carved, teeth and mouth unbelievably twisted into an enraged scowl. And the cutie mark, the same that I had seen on the banners outside. A thick tornado descending from a cloud, inlaid like Jubilee’s was, darker than the stone around it and smooth as can be.

At his feet, an epitaph. A very familiar epitaph.

GENERAL HURRICANE

SKILLED TACTICIAN

VALUED FRIEND

“That’s it!” I whispered to my sister, “It’s the real deal. This must be his tomb! Where he was buried.”

“So that means his Element should be here, right?!” my sister whispered back to me.

“Somewhere.” I chuckled, honestly surprised. Taken aback, even! “Apple wasn’t kidding, I guess. This is exactly where we needed to go. Now let’s get to…”

Discord, wounded arm held tightly to his chest, shot beside me, taking a seat right as a blast of organ music filled the chamber. Its blast shook dust from the ceiling, and only barely drowned out the sound of the doors being slammed behind us.

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