The Starlit

by Tzelael

Twisted Promises

Twilight had just left the blacksmith shop after having brought iron ore to be crafted. She left with a crude, barely crafted weapon that cost her three bits: a hammer, though that was a generous term for it, since it was really more of a steel pike jammed into one of the iron ore chunks. Still, the Fae were weak against iron, and the purer it was, the better. This was about as pure as it got, as much as it was just a rock on a stick. She held up her hooves, seeing Braeburn on the street.

“Miss Sparkle! Is something the matter?”

“Braeburn! You should get everypony out of the town now!”

“Er, why?”

“Just take my word for it, as an Element of Harmony?”

“Um...”

“As Applejack’s friend?”

Braeburn stared for a few moments at the unicorn magician in front of him. In the next second, screams rang out from the Salt Block as it suddenly caught fire. Braeburn simply nodded slowly, complying to her wishes. He rushed toward the buildings and shouted to everyone in town.

“Come on, everypony! We’ve got to get out of the town! A few of us will stay back to put out the fire!”

Twilight spotted the inn and the salt-cached drunkard pounding on the carriage that Caprice rode in on. The ponies that pulled it were gone, as were most ponies from the square in front of the inn. While the drunkard pounded the door and screamed indistinctly, Twilight hid behind a crate, peeking over it every so often. Caprice stepped out, and in the split seconds after they started talking, a dark figure shot from the rooftop, though tumbling across the ground when it hit the drunkard.

“Onyx?” Catching a glimpse beneath the hood as she swung about, bumping into the drunkard again in an attempt to strike at Caprice, she saw the navy blue coat and bits of the sky-blue hair. “Definitely her... But what’s she doing out-” Suddenly, she saw the pegasus charge at the Fae in disguise, duck, spin, then impale the drunkard instead. Twilight’s eyes widened, her jaw slacking and hanging limp as Caprice seemed to turn to her and grin... Though she was too far away to see, right?

“Did Onyx just stab somepony in the chest...? I mean, I think it was that same stallion who was flirting with her, but she wouldn’t just kill somepony because he was annoying her.” Truth of the matter was that Twilight wasn’t sure what to think, though the Princess’ apprehension about the actions of the Starlit certainly came to mind while watching this. Her musings on the fact that she just watched somepony get brutally murdered in front of her were interrupted by a loud CRASH as both Onyx and the dead body her blade was attached to flew into a wooden pillar holding up the inn, then flew into the carriage, then slammed into the ground over and over.

Twilight saw a moment in which she had to act. She shut her eyes and concentrated heavily, her horn shining with a bright magenta light, and from her bag rose the iron hammer. She opened her eyes and stared right where she wanted the hammer to fly- right through Caprice’s horn. The hammer ripped through the air, smashing through the Fae’s horn, knocking it down while shrieks of agony howled from his mouth. Twilight took a deep breath and began to walk toward the creature. When it rose up, its appearance changed to its insectoid visage, its yellow eyes within its eyes locking on Twilight herself.

“That thing... Is a Faerie?” Twilight gulped, choking back her disgust. She took a deep breath before approaching the creature, hardening her stare, trying to keep her composure. Her violet eyes stared straight ahead, breathing in and out through her nose. The creature’s eye contact- or numerous eye contacts- pierced into her while the creature spoke, a rustle in the back of his voice that scratched the air that it traveled through to get to her.

“Twilight Sparkle... I should have suspected as much.”

“Don’t get any bright ideas about turning my luck sour... It doesn’t take much to launch this hunk of metal at you.” With her back left leg, she roughly drew an “X” on the ground near the hammer. When she finished, she started walking toward the creature again, keeping her eye contact locked with her adversary.

“You already know my name, so it seems there’s something we need to discuss.”

The Faerie’s disguise fell apart, its true form completely exposed. It seemed to walk on bladed spikes rather than hooves, its body covered in a dark green, armor-like carapace and wrapped around by thorny rosebush bramble, though with none of the flowers that would be included. The speculation of this creature’s relationship with Changelings seemed to be justified then and there, since while Changelings were vaguely insect-like, this creature was far more so, taking on an appearance not unlike a Praying Mantis and only vaguely equine.

“I’m assuming this discussion is going to involve determining which part of my body that hammer is going to smash through?”

“I haven’t decided on that yet,” Twilight remarked simply, stopping her approach just a few feet in front of Caprice. Onyx groaned as she tried to turn up to her compatriot before she started speaking again. “Actually, I wanted to cut a deal.”

Even with her dark blue coat, Twilight could clearly see Onyx’s skin blanche at the very idea of her making a contract with the treacherous Faerie, gasping out a “WHAT?!” as soon as the previous sentence was finished. Twilight ignored her comrade, maintaining eye contact with Caprice, who, despite the nature of his appearance, she could almost see his face light up at the prospect of making a contract with her.

“Is that so...? Well, I trust you already know procedure for a Fae Contract.”

“Yes. I must state exactly what I want out of the contract in as precise terms as possible.”

“Correction: You must first tell me your name, THEN state exactly what it is that you want in as precise terms as possible.”

She took a deep breath. Twilight had spent a great deal of time considering the exact terms of the contract that she would make with this creature, going through it over and over in her head to make sure she didn’t miss anything and covered all of her bases. Onyx, however, did not see the situation in that way and berated her comrade in a raspy, labored voice.

“Are you crazy?! You know what happens to ponies who make contracts with Fae! He’s going to-” Onyx was silenced when the creature slammed its back left leg into her face, a hiss rattling in the back of his throat as he turned to her.

“Shut it, little foal. Can’t you see the grown-ups are talking?” Caprice turned back to Twilight, his tone of voice suddenly calming down, the creature taking on the voice of a seasoned businesspony. “Now... What are your terms?”

“I, Twilight Sparkle, submit to you the terms of this Contract: You are to walk with me for 30 minutes, never to exceed more than six feet away from me and to follow my movements exactly. In that time, you are not to act upon other contracts that you have made except the one you’re in with me, whether it’s completing another contract or causing one on another pony to backfire. In the 30 minutes that you are with me, you will answer every question I ask of you honestly and completely to the absolute best of your knowledge. When I ask for you to abbreviate your answer or summarize it, you are to do so in a clear, concise fashion that includes relevant, important details in a similarly abridged manner.” Twilight closed the contract there, Onyx’s eyes widening as she heard the terms just stop. The broken pegasus mare desperately tried to rasp out the word “Price,” though was interrupted by sputtering coughs that sent drops of blood splattering into the sand only to be soaked into it.

“Agreed,” Caprice replied, suddenly adjusting his position to be exactly six feet away from Twilight’s body. “Admittedly, this has to be one of the most specific contracts I’ve had in a long, long time... I daresay you play this like a professional.”

Twilight said nothing, turning around and walking away from Onyx. When she did, Caprice shifted slightly, facing the exact direction that Twilight did, and when she walked, he did so at precisely the same pace.

“Seems to be working so far. He’s following the directions of the contract to the letter.” Twilight took a deep breath and took full charge of the contract, beginning with her first question.

“Are you the only Fae left?”

“No. There are others who are in hiding, as I was along with them until recently,” Caprice responded with such immediacy as though the reply was reflexive, rather than considered at any time.

“What brought you out of hiding?”

“A contract was made with me by the descendant of some very old clients of mine.”

“Does this contract have anything to do with the insurrections that have been caused throughout the Equestrian border?”

“It is the very reason they occurred.”

“Tell me the exact wording of this contract.”

Suddenly, Caprice spoke in a female voice, one with a dignified, regal melody. The voice he borrowed was clearly already familiar with the decorum and formality associated with a Fae Contract and spoke as though she knew exactly what she was getting into.

“I, Argent Terne, submit to you the terms of this contract: You are to cut off communication to the outside world to all outlying small towns on the border of Equestria, then cause enough unrest for them to attack Royal Officials. Do so in a pattern that would gain the attention of the Starlit.”

Twilight was taken aback by the rapid change in the creature’s speech, not only by the fact that it so perfectly imitated a female voice, but the voice sounded strangely familiar. “Who is Argent Terne?”

Caprice quickly switched back to his male voice, the rustling hiss behind his throat ripping with his speech. “Current leader of the Sisterhood of the Night, the Scion of the Gibbous Moon. I’m surprised your Starlit Masters have yet to tell you anything about her or the Sisterhood of the Night.” His voice dripped with condescension in the sense that, if he had lips, they'd be twisting into a smirk by now. Twilight's brow furrowed momentarily, but she immediately took her mind off of the fact that the Starlit didn't tell her anything and focused on the task at hand.

“Why do they want you to keep our attention?”

“They’re looking for something and wished to buy time in order to find it.”

“What is it that they’re looking for?”

“They did not tell me.”

Twilight furrowed her brow, breathing quickly through her nose as she kept walking, keeping an eye out for the “X” she drew on the ground earlier. In the meantime, she ran her thoughts through the answers she was given.

“I should probably just end the interrogation here and now. It’s clear now that he was only here to keep us distracted, and all the insurrections everywhere else are just the symptom of something worse... Whatever that is.” The creature began to speak again while he followed Twilight, his pace slowing along with hers as she got lost in thought.

“If it isn’t out of place for me to say so, perhaps there are some seedier secrets you’d like to know. I am Fae, and I am several thousand years old... I possess knowledge and secrets that you couldn’t hope to discover anywhere else.” The numerous eyes within its eyes quivered for just a second, then each of the pupils dilated at different intervals while the lids steadily narrowed around them. Twilight cringed at the sight, though looked straight into each of the little eyes and stood her ground, stopping the pace.

“The knowledge of a supernatural being that’s lived for thousands of years...? And the contract makes it clear that it’s all there for the asking... Oh, what do I want to know? So hard to-” Suddenly, a bolt of rationality and logic strikes her from the blue. “NO! This is exactly the kind of trick he was sent here to do! He’s deliberately trying to waste your time so the Contract runs out before you realize it...

“Still, this is a good opportunity to gather intelligence, and as long as I manage my time wisely, I should be able to get enough relevant information that the others can use. I’d need to be sure to ask things that wouldn’t be simpler for the Starlit to answer, though. I still need to take advantage of the ‘Hidden Knowledge’ part of his offer.” She carefully thought of the sort of information concerning a Faerie that would be useful and that she didn’t already know. Well, a Faerie that had connections to a group of people that evidently had a history with the Starlit.

“Can a Fae Contract be broken?” Twilight finally asked, a grin on her face as the words left her mouth.

“To this day, there are none who ever did. However, I would not discount the possibility of the Fae Contract being broken, but it would take a magical force too great for any one pony to harness.”

“Great. Apparently, anyone who gets enhancements from these contracts had a pretty secure source of power. Wait...” She was hit with another stroke of inspiration, asking a different question. She gulped for a moment before she finally formed the words in her mouth, realizing that this is exactly the kind of question that would take too long to answer in a reasonable amount of time and would likely eat up the rest of the time on the contract, but it was something she had to know.

“How exactly does a Fae Contract work after it’s made? I mean, how is it accomplished?” She braced herself for a very long explanation, trotting along while swerving her head back and forth. The creature’s voice scratched through the air, something almost involuntary about the way the words poured out of his mouth in response.

“To properly explain how a Fae Contract works, you must understand the nature of the flow of time. All of-”

“Summarize.”

Caprice suddenly stopped, the torrent of his speech held back only temporarily before it came out as something else, bursting out with all of the volume of an old dam breaching.

“Think of all of Time, Space and the Fate of sentient life forms as an enormous Bramble, with infinite vines and branches twisting, turning and wrapping around others, all the while continually growing and moving forward until they are either cut off or simply stop growing.”

“So the universe is just a big rosebush.”

“It is how all Fae conceptualize the universe. When a Fae is performing the terms of a contract that requires alterations to their circumstances, we reach into lower parts of the Bramble and shift the vines and branches in such a way that produces the desired result.”

“Wait... Are you saying you reach back in time and change the past?”

“Correct.”

“But... Changing the past is impossible! Even if you did go back in time and try to change something, everything would end up going the same way it did before, creating a causality loop! That’s why time spells have a limit as to how long one can travel back, so you’re not stuck IN the loop!”

“You’re half right. For a pony, changing the past is impossible. A Faerie, like myself, however, knows exactly what changes that we make to the past will result in. Ponies will fumble around and either get caught in those... ‘Causailty loops’ as you call them, or change nothing at all.”

“Then how do Fae manage to do it?” Twilight stopped, staring at Caprice straight in the eyes with her hooves planted firmly in the ground. The creature stopped in suit, the thorny vines slowly uncoiling themselves from his body.

“We reach back into the past and change small aspects of circumstances leading up to the current situation. Our magic allows us to change these small things, such as the arrangement of certain objects, the intensity of sunlight, where the clouds are in the sky, even the sturdiness of certain building materials.” Caprice’s vines slither downward, sprawling out on the ground beneath Twilight’s hooves.

“Of course, these are such small changes that no pony would ever notice them. Once the changes are made, they’re ingrained into the Bramble, treated by the rest of the universe as if they were meant to be.” The vines suddenly lashed at Twilight, wrapping around her body while the thorns punctured her flesh. She widened her eyes in shock as she’s lifted off the ground, one of the branches sliding up her torso and wrapping around her neck.

“And you, too shall meet your fate, Twilight Sparkle...” Caprice remained still, though the vines tightened around her while blood dripped from her body, soaking into the sand below.

“Great... I didn’t know about the vines until now.” Twilight groaned in pain, though she stared at the creature straight on as she simply allowed herself to be held in place. “He still needs to mimic my movements perfectly, so as long as I stand still, he’s not going anywhere.” Caprice, meanwhile, maintained eye contact with the unicorn before him.

“Come now, you’re not even making this fun for me. Go on, struggle, beg for your miserable life, say that this wasn’t part of the deal!”

“I... I...” Twilight barely managed to gasp out the word with the thorny branches tightening around her neck.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you, could you try that again?” The Fae’s bramble loosened its grip on her throat, Twilight staring at the creature straight in the eyes.

“I said... I warned you about getting any bright ideas about turning my luck sour.” Her horn shimmered with a violet light, Caprice’s pupils shrinking. In the distance, the air was torn asunder by the rapid approach of an object from behind the creature. The Faerie turned around to catch a glimpse of the object approaching him, seeing the very same iron hammer that tore his horn off heading straight for his head.

The iron hammer rammed into Caprice’s head, a loud sizzling noise accompanying his shrieks of agony. The area of impact cracked, extending black tears across the green carapace while the hammer ran its way through the Faerie’s head. A trail of ash blew behind the hammer from each part of the creature that it touched, finally bursting out the other end of Caprice’s face. The magenta glow faded around both it and Twilight’s horn, the hammer falling to the ground.

Caprice’s body quickly blackened, the cracks from the area of impact spreading outward while the carapace withered away. The vines that held Twilight aloft simply snapped, the unicorn crashing to the ground. She lifted herself up and watched the creature’s body dry up. Its limbs cracked and curled into themselves, each snap of the blackening chitin sending shivers up the unicorn’s spine.

She stared at the withered husk- the most appropriate term she could think of for it- for several moments. She had little time to linger as she heard hoofsteps in the distance, then dashed back toward the inn, finding the bloodied mess of Onyx crawling about on the ground. She grinned despite her injuries, giving dry heaves of coughs.

“What took you?” she wheezed as she rolled on her side. Twilight didn’t bother to answer, reaching her hoof to touch the wounded pegasus’ shoulder. Closing her eyes, she focused her magic, her horn glowing a bright magenta before the two were engulfed in a flash of light, appearing in their room at the inn the very next moment.

****

Looking outside, Twilight saw the crowd of ponies gathering around the town square, finding their town drunk stabbed through the chest, a withered bundle of bramble down the road, and the stallion with the destiny carriage nowhere to be found. It wouldn’t be long before the town grew suspicious and attempted an investigation.

“Hold still.” Twilight pulled off Onyx’s cloak, tearing it into strips and using her magic to wrap it around the pegasus’ numerous wounds while levitating her above the bed. Twilight set her down, the pegasus holding up her hoof after she was set down.

“Kid... That was some really stupid horse shit you pulled back there.” Onyx coughed out something that almost sounded like a giggle. “At least you got the creep. Speaking of which... Did you get anything good from him?” Twilight stared at Onyx with unease, the image of her stabbing the drunkard flashing back to her immediately. She swallowed for a moment and shut her eyes, trying to shut out both the image of what her cohort did, and the crackling noise of Caprice shriveling up in front of her that echoed in the back of her mind. She took a deep breath and turned back to Onyx, making eye contact as she replied.

“Yeah... I’ll tell you what I found out.”

Comments

[Tzelael]

1053259 You know, you're the second person who's ever told me that the story reminds you of Torchwood, when truth be told, I've never actually watched it. I have watched quite a bit of Doctor Who, though.

[Viper5012]

Rip last chapter XD. Just got into the good stuff