Dawn Of The Silver Sun

by Nameless Narrator

Impossible - Part V: The Ancients

For the first time in weeks, Straw had gone to sleep with a smile on his muzzle.

What wasn't unique, though, was the knocking on the door of his room waking him up.

"Princess Twilight?" Straw recieved the mental equivalent of a cup of coffee when the princess looking as if she hadn't slept at all showed at his door. The more pressing matter was Cromach's wisp sitting on her head. It was visibly distorted, and it looked like a rising sun covered in pink clouds.

"How are you feeling, Straw?" Twilight's voice rang with concern, but also urgency.

"Good enough, What went wrong?" he asked with absolute certainty.

"Several things, as it seems. Princess Celestia transferred some of her power into the soul which had the usual effect of changing its appearance, but also an unusual one of... weakening it, maybe? I have no way to figure out what's wrong, nor the time to find one. My only two guesses are that either we are giving the wisp too much power too quickly, or that its time is running out much faster now that there is so much power inside. You see the problem with these two paths."

Straw scratched his head.

"If we find another alicorn to give up their power then it might destroy the wisp, and if we wait for it to get used to us giving it power it might fade away anyway. So, what do we do?"

"I- I have no idea."

"Come on! You are supposed to be the smartest princess, the living embodiment of knowledge. Do you really have no clue what to do? Please, princess...!"

"The best I could do was to eliminate all the less likely possibilities and focus on the two I've just told you. Right now, all we can do is basically flip a coin and hope. Since you are the one who came up with all this and without whom there wouldn't be even the smallest chance of Cromach coming back, I think it's up to you to choose."

"That can't be..."

"I'm afraid it is. Cromach was respected and liked by everypony, but his closest ones are... dead or out of our reach. Considering that without him you would not be here anymore... well, you know."

"Do I have to answer right now?"

"No, but if time really is running out then you'd do well not to wait for too long."

Straw needed to talk about it with somepony.

"I'll just talk about it with Leo."

Twilight shook her head.

"He's on patrol all day. With you having a day off to recuperate, he took both your and his today's shifts on himself. You could ask the shift manager where he should be at this time of day."

Having patrolled the city regularly, Straw knew that looking for a single pony even in a known district would be more about luck than anything. That meant looking for somepony else. Fortune was out of the question, which left only Contradiction.

"Damn! I'll think about it."

"I'll be in my lab, trying some more tests. Maybe there is something I overlooked," Twilight said without any real conviction.

"Thank you for your help, princess... no matter how all of this ends."

"Straw, I CAUSED this. There is now way I wouldn't try to make things right, or at least right-ish."

"What do we do in case I decide to rush things?"

"Princess Celestia took me once to a place where alicorns gather from time to time to meet somepony just like them. I can send you there," Twilight waved her hoof defensively, "This time WITH a way of coming back."

"Thank you," Straw bowed, and Twilight took the clue to leave him alone.

Shockingly, brushing his teeth did not give Straw the answer he needed. If he made the wrong choice then there would be no coming back, no hope for a second chance. There was no way of knowing what the right choice was, or was it? Nightmare was his 'guide', but its goals were not the same as his own. He needed somepony with a conscience, or at least some involvement in the situation.

With that, he knocked on the door of Connie's room.

Once again, he was greeted with muffled groaning. This time he banged harder.

"Connie, I need a bit of your time, please!"

"MMMMMMMHMMPH!"

"Connie?"

The sound of something breaking made Straw risk getting shot like a bullet again.

Confusion quickly gave way to combat focus when he realized the mess inside the room was mostly black tentacles wrapped around Connie, most noticeably - her neck.

The tentacles did not seem to have even noticed Straw as he clawed at some of them with little to no effect.

"Mmmmmmmmhh!" Connie screamed into one covering her mouth as she got slammed into a wardrobe, shattering its door.

Straw looked around for something, anything, sharper than his talons. Connie's greatsword lay in its sheath next to an overturned coat rack near the door.

The thing was HEAVY. Even with two sets of talons locked around it, Straw wasn't sure he would swing it with any kind of efficiency, and Connie could levitate it like a toothpick.

He swung the oversized blade, and one tentacle cleanly split into two and disappeared. A new one immediately wrapped itself around Connie's hind legs, crushing her yet again. However, the movement gave Straw a clue where the things were coming from.

It looked like a book hidden under splinters of a bed.

The black mass came out of it like a thick stalk, and not even a strong swing could damage it. Straw was determined not to ask Nightmare for help. He could feel the difference between today and yesterday, and he could think clearly, or at least clearer.

Clearly enough to solve the situation? Hopefully so.

Call for help? No, one or two guards wouldn't be enough, and Connie couldn't last much longer.

Keep hacking at the stalk? No, it kept regenerating too fast.

"MMhmmm..."

Connie went quiet with another squeeze of the tentacles.

He desperately looked around.

The castle was fairly old-fashioned with its lights, so despite electric lights being around, there still were coal hearths in many rooms. Hearths and emergency oil lamps, one of which lay on the bedside table, miraculously unbroken.

The flint and tinder sparked, the fire burst out, and the lamp landed on the book.

As if there had been only the book, as if the tentacles had been only a dream, the dry paper lit up and turned to ashes, leaving the black mass disintegrating without a trace.

Just like dead observers.

Straw rushed over to Connie. He didn't know where to touch and where not to, they hadn't taught him anything about saving ponies. The best he could do was clean wounds and apply a bandage, none of which mattered here. There were no visible injuries, but Connie didn't seem fully awake. As he rolled her over to see if there was something on her back, she pushed him away.

"Butcher..." she groaned weakly.

"Heavens, what was that? Wait, are you okay? Where does it hurt?"

A hoof on his muzzle shut him up. On a third attempt, Connie let out a croaking whisper:

"Everything hurts," she sat up slowly, "Nothing feels broken, though."

"What happened?"

"I... I think Blinding Light knows we've tapped his journal. I checked it for a new entry, and it started talking to me... writing. It laughed at me, and then tentacles happened. If it weren't for you... well... I would have gone through some things mares only dream about."

"Uhhh..."

"This makes us even."

"For what?" Straw reacted to something he at least marginally understood.

"For you walking on me when I was... you know what."

"Uhhh..." Straw shrugged.

"You can't be serious."

"What WERE you actually doing last time? It looked as if you were swallowing a really thick cucumber... and then you threw me out."

Connie opened and closed her mouth like a choking goldfish.

"You... you really have no idea?"

"Uhhh..."

"Have you ever been with a mare?"

"I've had lunch back home several times with a friend."

"SEX! HAVE YOU EVER HAD SEX?" Connie couldn't handle it anymore. Either Straw was the best actor in the history of Equestria or...

...or he really had no clue what she was talking about.

"Well... no," he lowered his head, blushing for a moment, "What does it have to do with anything?"

The unicorn facehoofed, walked over to the broken wardrobe, pulled out a box from the mess, and levitated a strangely shaped stick. It had a suction cup on the bottom followed by a bulbous area and then it slimmed down to a not too sharp point. Straw gave it a blank stare.

With utter disbelief on her face, she levitated a new stick, larger, thicker, an ending in a flared tip.

Straw knew this one. He would be a total idiot if he didn't. He looked at the replica of a stallion's... privates, then at the other one, than back, then once again at the unknown one. He recalled the semi-real image of Walter standing in front of Connie last time.

"That's a griffon one?" he asked, more puzzled than embarrassed, "But why?"

"Hello? I know this is the first time we're talking, and that nopony called Fortune had ever said anything incriminating about me, but I'm slightly tipped in favor of griffons, huh?"

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant. You're really pretty and all, why would you need these? Even if you wanted to spend time with two ponies at once then there are a lot of single guards around."

Connie finally realized Straw wasn't being sarcastic or making fun of her. He really had no idea.

She smacked him over the head with the pony dildo.

"One day you will make some mare really sad. Fortunately for you, if she doesn't give you a second chance then I will personally punch all her teeth out."

"Uhhh..."

"Stop doing that! I just don't want to look for somepony every time I want some, right? That, and spreading rumors, checking for diseases, using pills, and so on."

"Sorry, I don't know much about that stuff."

"I noticed!" Connie threw her stuff back inside the box, "Now, back to the topic of tentacles in my room trying to kill me. What did you want from me? Not that I'm the least bit regretful that you came, no pun inten-"

Connie stopped herself. What was the point in throwing out innuendos?

"Ehm, well, how to say it... there's a chance sir Cromach might be still alive."

Connie raised an eyebrow.

"I saw him turn into a pile of dust. Contrary to popular belief, you can't treat that with aspirin."

"His soul seems to be hanging onto his life, and we found out that if we use divine power on him then he might be able to reconstruct his body or something."

"We?"

"Princess Twilight, Leo, and I. I couldn't find you since last time, so it was just up to us."

"Why not Fortune?"

"You know... obsession."

For some reason, Connie grinned like a cheshire cat.

"I see. What do you want from me then?"

"I... I must choose in which way we continue trying to help sir Cromach. If I choose wrong then he dies, and we have no idea which way is the correct one. We can either keep infusing him with divine power, which might just suffocate him, or we can give him time to get used to it, but it's time he might not have. I just needed somepony to talk about it, and Leo wasn't an option."

"I see. Will waiting give you a better chance at finding the right answer?"

"It will either kill him outright, or possibly just bring him beyond the point of saving, or allow him to keep doing what we've been doing until now."

"Then I would keep going, Straw. Don't call me impatient, I'm not Fortune, but if it is a fifty-fifty then I would go for it. I also know that Cromach was more the action type, not the waiting and analysis one. Trust him, and put more and more on his shoulders, he's the type to rise to the level of his enemies."

"Yeah, I was leaning towards it as well. The alicorn of Death himself told us it could work, and Cromach seemed to know him. I believe Void is a good judge of character and strength. He wouldn't have sent us on a wild goose chase."

"Can I help in any way?"

"You could come with me on the next trip. Leo is busy, and we don't have time to spare."

"Cool, let me pack my stuff and leave a note to the cleaning staff."

"So... you're not going to tell somepony about the tentacles and a book talking to you?"

"I am one hundred percent sure that Blinding Light... or whatever was writing to me through the journal will still be there when we're done, and I would much rather face it with Cromach watching my back. Well, maybe I should tell princess Luna not to use the enchanted roll of toilet paper too much. You know what? I'll report to her and then meet you in your room, how about that?"

"Just come to princess Twilight's laboratory when you're ready."

"Sure."

Choices. Sometimes they end up wrong, sometimes they work out. The only important thing is that they have to be made. I, personally, would never choose to stand still.

That was what Straw had seen carved into sargeant Cross' statue in his personal training grounds. With little time to spare, he had to agree, although he had a sneaking suspicion that Cross' reasoning was a little different from his.

"Have you made up your mind?" Twilight asked when Straw sat down on the mattress in her lab.

"Yeah. I don't think waiting is the right option. So, what's the next place you thought of, princess?"

"It's an alicorn bar."

"Something like that actually exists?"

"Yes, it is run by the alicorn of Winds, Zephyr. Since most alicorns usually spend their time in some solitary place, they like to occasionally see somepony of similar state of mind."

"So, no weapons necessary, as usual."

"Yeah, there's no point."

"Who should we look for?"

"We?"

"Connie said she would come with me. She should be here soon."

"I see. Well, Zephyr is a good friend of Void and he should help if you ask and say it's Void's plan. After that, I don't know, talk to anypony who might be there."

"What about you?"

"What about me?" Twilight looked at Straw quizzically.

"Your alicorn power."

Twilight froze mid-breath.

"Wow... I haven't even thought of that. I guess I just thought of myself still as a unicorn. I don't know, sure I'll try to help, but I don't even know if I have anything to give. Say what, if Cromach isn't back when you return then I'll try to wring something out of myself."

"Everything counts, princess."

"I know, I know. I've just never done anything... alicorny. I'm still the same as before princess Celestia caused my ascension, only with wings now... and more responsibilities."

A polite knocking on the lab door interrupted Twilight's introspection. Connie was let inside, and Twilight gave Straw a little glowing cube with a single button. In the meantime, Cromach's wisp flew back into Straw's bag.

"When you're ready to come back just push the button, and you should appear right here," Twilight explained.

"So, where are we going?" Connie asked chipperly.

"A bar," Twilight grinned.

"What?"

"Brace yourselves!"

"AAAAH!"

Connie slid down a sand dune, miraculously able to keep her balance after another one of Twilight's shaky long-range teleportations. Straw, on the other hoof, was now experienced and simply transitioned from a ten out of ten landing into a careful walk.

Quite obviously, this place was a desert. It seemed to Straw that when an alicorn wanted a bit of quiet space they either decided on a desert or a mountain. Unlike Void's dead home, this desert look much more like Straw thought it should look. Aside from them being inside what looked like an eye of a very thin hurricane.

"What is this?" Connie examined the flowing wall of wind and poked it carefully, "It feels like dipping my hoof in cold water."

"This should be the home of the alicorn of Winds. I guess we're at the right place then."

A quick look around revealed a square, single-story building with several windows covered by drawn blinds. A buzzing neon sign hanging above the entrance spelled "Zeph's".

"Looks like a cheap diner," Connie commented as they got closer to take in some more details, "What now, 'boss'?"

"Let's just go in. All the alicorns I've met until now have been a bit weird, but quite nice in the end."

"Well, you're the expert now, I guess."

The main room of the diner was dark, with only rare rays of light coming through the blinds and illuminating the place. There were three ponies around, only one of which was an alicorn. Straw recognized one of them, though, and so did Connie.

"What brings ye to Zeph's, young lad and lass?" the brown alicorn behind the counter talking with a heavy country accent smiled at them widely.

"Erm, princess Twilight Sparkle sent us here to ask for help," Straw came over and sat down on a tall bar stool. Connie sat on the one next to him.

"Young Twilight, eh? But where are my manners, my name is Zeph. What can this fine estabilishment offer ye? In terms of what we serve, I mean."

"We just-"

Connie put a hoof on Straw's shoulder. She knew how the world worked better than he did.

"Got anything fizzy?" she asked, "Preferrably related to apples, possibly a little alcoholic."

"Are ye of age, young lass?" Zephyr asked, but laughed it off immediately, "Not a question I get to ask 'round here much. Just wanted to try it at least once. Two apple ciders coming up! That'll be six bits."

When they produced the required amount, Zephyr levitated a glass and started cleaning it with a marginally presentable cloth.

"About the help then," he commented out of nowhere.

Straw opened his bag and presented the shivering form of Cromach's wisp.

"In short, this is a soul which needs some divine power to be able to recreate its body. Void believes it should be possible, and he has already given up a little of his to help. so did both Equestrian royal sisters and an alicorn called Scream. It still doesn't seem enough, so we're looking for more help."

"Who is it?" Zephyr's horn glowed yellow, the wisp was enveloped in it, and put on the counter, "That he is so important that four alicorns seek to help him, especially the one set on preserving the balance between the dead and the living."

"His name is Cromach. He-"

"I KNEW THE LAD WOULD GET FAR!" Zephyr laughed and laughed when he heard the name, "KNEW IT THE SECOND HE WALKED IN HERE WITH NOTHING BUT A BAG OF GEMS. Of course I'll help, and I think ya'll be fine with the price as well."

"What do you want?" Connie measured him suspiciously.

"Nothin' big, lass, don't give me the evil eye. Just tell the young griffon to pay me a visit to talk about what he's been up to. If ye succeed, that is."

"They won't!" shouted an annoyed voice from a corner table. It was a white, blonde-maned unicorn Connie and Straw had recognized from the Order mansion.

Magnus, was it?

"Calm yer tits, Maggie," Zephyr objected, "I'm up for giving the young catbird a chance."

"Don't bother," Magnus came over, levitating a glass of something blue, "It's not gonna work."

"Void said it might," Straw said, trying not to lose what fragile hope remained.

"Then you didn't listen to him properly if you're doing something as dumb as just slapping divine power onto a soul over and over."

"You seem like you know what you are talking about," Connie stared at the tall unicorn defiantly, "What makes you think you know more than the alicorn of Death about souls?"

"How about being the best necromancer in existence, the best mage in existence, and the most knowledgeable researcher of magic in history?"

"Hey, who gave this oversized ego a pony form?" Connie turned to Zephyr, who looked surprisingly serious.

"Why wouldn't it work, Maggie?" he asked.

"Why should I explain something?" the unicorn shrugged non-commitally, "Void knows about magic quite a good fraction of what I do, so he should have given them the right clues to make this work. If they're not smart enough to work them out then it's their problem, not mine. I'm already doing you a favor by telling them what they were proposing can't work."

"Alright, why should we listen to this guy?" Connie scowled at Magnus.

"LASS!" Zephyr raised his voice, "'This guy' is the original alicorn of Magic, a title which now belongs to one of your princesses. The-"

The door to the diner slammed open, a pair of armed griffons ran inside and aimed their rifles at Zephyr.

"This is a stick-up! All gold and jewels on the table!"

"Not now!" Zephyr's horn glowed, and without even looking at the bandits, the alicorn threw them outside and bolted the door, "Where was I? Right. Maggie here is Harmony's first alicorn, just Like Void is Nightmare's and our dear passed sister is Discord's. He knows the most about the rules of this world and those connected to it. If he says Void's solution ain't gonna work then it ain't. If that's not enough for ye, then Maggie here is the only pony in existence who achieved immortality without divine power."

"Alright, what can we offer you for your help?" Connie rolled her eyes. Nothing in the world was really free.

"Help? You can't afford my help, little girl," Magnus snickered sadistically.

With Straw just sitting there dejectedly, Connie knew it was up to her to solve this. The alicorns felt as if they were playing a game. A game which had to have a solution, otherwise they wouldn't have bothered talking to them. Magnus definitely didn't seem like the friendly sort.

"Hmmm... can I afford information?" she tried again.

"Maybe," Magnus smiled at her a little more respectfully, "Zeph, give me a moment."

Magnus and Connie disappeared.

"Sir," Straw said quietly, "Gathering divine power is the only clue I've got. Can you give Cromach's wisp a bit of yourself?"

"Despite it being the wrong way to do things?"

"Void said to do that. I might have forgotten something else he said, but that part was clear."

"Alright. I'm not sure what Maggie wants from your friend, but I'll be damned if I say no to the needy," Zephyr looked at the third visitor, a grey earthpony with dark brown mane wearing a tie, "Chrony, ye gonna help too?"

"Hmm? Huh? What?" the earthpony looked up from his drink, "Sure, what's going on?"

"Power transfer, just a little."

"Oh?" the earthpony came over, looked at the wisp, and his eyes flashed green, "OH! Right, right, Twilight Sparkle's coming rule and Harmony's return, did I get it?"

"Twilight became a princess some two years ago, so about right, yeah," Zephyr answered, and turned to Straw, "That's Chronos, the alicorn of Time. He needs to recall where and when this form of his is currently existing. He likes travelling so he disguises himself as an earthpony most of the time."

"Alright, let's do this!" Chronos was strangely cheerful, "You first, Zeph. The wisp is going to look much better when I'm done with it."

Does he know what's going to happen?

Straw decided not to ask and push his luck. A voluntary help was more than enough.

The transfer ritual was over quickly. With Zephyr wiping the sweat off his forehead and Chronos returning to his table without any movement, simply making it as if he'd never left, Straw looked at the counter to see...

...Cromach.

A talon-sized, see-through, blue griffon with glowing, green eyes. It took Straw a little time to realize it still was just the wisp, only turned into a more 'real' past form using the alicorn of Time's power.

The cider inside Straw's glass rippled.

Connie and Magnus were back. While Connie was trying to stop a smile creeping on her muzzle, the ex-alicorn of Magic looked a little more 'tame'.

"So..." Connie sat back down and sipped her drink.

Magnus coughed.

"In your... hurry to save the soul you may have overlooked, or forgotten, a one very important thing. Souls which fail to depart are staying because of an unfulfilled wish. I would suggest that you should look for something which would remind your not-completely-dead friend why he doesn't want to depart."

It was at that moment Straw remembered one very important alicorn he had forgotten about, everypony had.

"We have to go, Connie!" Straw swept the griffon wisp into his bag and pulled out the teleportation device, "I know what mister Magnus here means."

"Not even a thank you?" Magnus frowned.

"You got your 'payment' already," Connie smirked at him. After his annoyed 'harumph!' she rubbed her muzzle against his, making him blush profusely and recoil, "Thank you."

Straw bowed, stood next to Connie, and pushed the button on the small box.

He didn't know where the next place he had to go was, but he knew WHAT it was.

Twilight Sparkle's power might be useful, but...

...without the alicorn of Hope this wasn't going to work.

Comments

[Anonymous Critic]

"Uhhh..."

Straw's best line... ever.

Well, so far.

[Anonymous Critic]

"I saw him turn into a pile of dust. Contrary to popular belief, you can't treat that with aspirin."

Aww... What about Tylenol though?