Shroud of darkness

by LeTriggs

Chapter 3

Aftermath

Stargazer’s eyes slowly opened the light momentarily blinding him. He felt pain in his chest and groaned as it flared up prompting a familiar voice to shout out.

“Celly! Celly get in here quick!!” there was the sound of hurried hooves on wood as the door was flung open Celestia standing with a look of dread on her face that quickly returned to relief as she saw the stallion lying there his eyes adjusting to his surroundings.

“How do you feel?” Celestia’s voice was as soothing as it always and was filled with the concern of a mother finding her child in the hospital.

“I guess she IS technically my adoptive mother” Stargazer thought to himself.

“well she’s more a friend than a parent” he put a grin on his face to add some reassurance to Celestia who looked at him worry rising into her face slightly at the pause he took to answer her question.

“Like complete shit” he laughed as Celestia grinned relieved that he hadn’t lost his odd sense of humour. Stargazer let out a gasp of pain that erupted from his side. Looking down he saw the cause of it, Luna had thrown herself onto the bed and was hugging him through the duvet that covered him. He realised the toll the battle had taken on her. Her wing had a piece of gauss wrapped around it to keep it in place whilst it healed and her leg was covered in bandages from the gash that had been there. His eyes shot open and sat up a bit in shock as his mind settled the last thing he remembered they were battling Discord for the fate of Equestria.

“What happened!? We were fighting Discord and we were hurt and he was going to win and then.....The elements! What happened!” his eyes darted around the room in fear. Was he dead? Had they lost? Was Equestria’s fate sealed? Celestia walked up to him and gave him a comforting smile.

“Okay so maybe this is real no way could my mind make her smile that comforting” he thought the words as he fell back into the comfortable bed and listened to his friend talk

“Don’t worry its over Star, we beat him, we don’t have to live in fear anymore. The elements are safe too” she pointed over to a desk where on it was a chest piece and a mask which Stargazer realised how it stayed on his head, there was a thin piece of metal that ran round the back of it designed to keep the mask from slipping off.

“Well that’s good we beat Discord lived through it and got some souvenirs too” he chuckled then coughed lightly cause him to wince in pain.

“One last thing……where the hay are we?”

“We’re in a farmhouse on the outskirts of the town of Ponyville. After you fell unconscious we brought you here it’s been 3 days. Luna hasn’t left your side since” they both looked down to see Luna had fallen asleep still with a firm grip on him. He smiled as he saw her remembering back to when he used to sleep in the same way with her when he was a young colt after having a bad dream.

“You should rest you’ve been through allot. I’ll see you tomorrow” with that she left the room leaving Stargazer in silence save for the soft breathing of Luna. He looked over at the items left on the desktop wondering to himself.

“What was that all about? The elements went into us and then we got those things, and then that voice what was it?” he decided not to ponder on questions he couldn’t possibly answer and let himself drift to sleep comforted by the warmth of his friend.

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The next day Stargazer was up and wandering around. It was early afternoon and he had only woken up a while ago due to Luna jumping and falling on the floor due to her shock of having spent the night sleeping next to her friend and had in her embarrassment run out of the room knocking a table over in the process.

He also spent many a minute kindly arguing with one of the family that owned the farm an older stallion with a large build by the name of Applebuck. Who had come with a glass of water and seeing Stargazer already up and checking the full extent of the damage done to him. He was in a pretty bad way but could’ve been worse; his body had bandages around covering what he assumed was one or two broken ribs due to the pain in his side whenever he flexed the area. He also had more bandages dotted around him from deeper cuts but most of the smaller ones had been left to heal on their own along with some burns. He also had a splint tied to one of his hind legs which he assumed had been from the large boulder that he saved his friends from.

“Note to self no more kicking boulders that are ten times the size of you” he chuckled to himself as he made the mock mental note walking down the stairs of the Apple family home and wandering outside.

As he emerged into the orchard he realised that he was incredibly lucky to be walking around at all. All around tents were set up with ponies rushing around, the entire place had been turned into a makeshift hospital for all those that were hurt in the battle. They had expected casualties but not this many he wasn’t even sure if there were this many ponies in the small force they had made to combat Discord. He realised that many of the ponies had been on the side of Discord and that they were being treated the same as the militia. Most of those under Discords command didn’t want to fight for him but were forced under threat of death of them and their families. Only a small amount of Discord's army was actually loyal to him and had escaped the battle as soon as they heard their master was defeated.

“They keep findin more of ‘em out there” Applebuck was next to Stargazer their faces in the same combination of horror and disgust as each other.

“This is horrible….” Stargazer looked at the sight it was something that nopony could be prepared for.

“They can’t even bury em all gotta burn em to nothing but ash. It aint right. A load more died in the night they jus’ couldn’t hang on anymore” Applebuck sighed as he moved over to a cart filled with dead bodies and moved towards a plume of smoke in the distance. Stargazer moved as fast as he could away from the wooden building which wasn’t all too quick considering his broken leg, he didn’t want to be here anymore he felt sick.

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As Stargazer meandered over a small hill he saw the town of Ponyville for the first time. It was a small settlement there were only a handful of buildings but it was all the town needed. He remembered Celestia talking about it awhile ago in high regard. Apparently it was one of the oldest locations that ponies had settled at and was situated right near his old home of Canterlot within the Evergreen forest but he had never come out here even when he was forced to leave and go into hiding with Celestia and Luna and subsequently made the Militia to fight back against Discord.

The town had tents in and surrounding it with ponies that weren’t injured in the battle many of the soldiers were in their tents most likely resting they had been through allot and were still taking duties to help clean up the battle that had taken place. He wandered through the town taking in the sights around him. There weren’t many buildings and most of them seemed to be houses with the ground floor turned into shops of different kinds all of the buildings seeming to have the same general design with an old look about them, like a grandmothers cottage. It seemed like a place where everypony knew every other pony and everything about them.

He wandered to the centre of town on the cobblestone path and could see a few foals playing with one of the better off guards making him chuckle it always warmed his heart when he saw ponies having fun. As his mind went on as it seemed to do the ball they were playing with landed by him prompting a small filly to bring him out of his head.

“Hey mister! Can you kick our ball back?” Stargazer quickly knocked it back to the group prompting thanks from the little ones.

“You wanna play?”

“Maybe another time when all my legs are working, besides I got something to do” He carried on towards the building in front of him seeing 2 guards keeping watch he deduced that this must be where Celestia was.

“I simply can’t thank you enough mayor for letting our troops stay here” Stargazer slipped in with Celestia and the mayor of Ponyville a seemingly average earth mare with a brown coat and bright orange hair were talking and he didn’t want to interrupt.

“It is the least I could do your majesty even if you weren’t royalty we owe our freedom to you and the entire…..” she trailed off as she saw Stargazer standing in the corner of the room waiting patiently for them to finish prompting Celestia to turn to see him.

“You should be in bed resting Star you need time to recover” she scolded him making his ears flop back in shame but he had learnt to stand his ground against his teacher over the years.

“I don’t think I could stay another minute in there without going crazy” he looked back hiding his smugness at talking back to the princess as she wavered in front of him.

“Very well then we were just about to discuss the next plan”

“You mean like fixing Canterlot back up and going back to our old lives?” he couldn’t contain his excitement at being able to go back to his old home but Celestia was quick to burst his bubble.

“Actually we aren’t going back we were trying to think of a place where we could build a new home and also what would happen to the evergreen forest and our old home” Stargazer’s face dropped at the prospect but quickly pulled himself up as he had an idea.

“Why not there?” he wasn’t pointing at the map laid on the table but instead was pointing straight out the window at the mountain that loomed in the distance

“That would be an ideal spot wouldn’t it? Just on that flat bit jutting out, it would make the place impossible to attack unless cloudsdale decided it wanted to turn against us and we could get a brilliant view of all Equestria from there.” He stopped speaking as Celestia and the mayor looked on in astonishment at what he just suggested.

“That seems perfect but what about the forest and the old castle? There are some things there nopony should have that we can’t move”

“We leave it how it is, no weather patrols no cleaning up of the forest we just let the world take it. That’s what those who died there deserve, to be left in peace” Celestia nodded at the prospect wrote a few notes down then lead Stargazer out into the town and lead him up onto a hill on the outskirts of town.

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“Stargazer I can’t believe how fast you’ve grown up I can remember you being scared of the dark as a little colt and now look at you giving me advice on what to do I keep thinking of you as the little foal from years ago but you’re not now. You’re dare I say quite a dashing young stallion now in both body and soul. I’ve never seen a pony quite like you you’re always throwing yourself out to protect others without wanting anything in return. Ther’s nothing I have to teach you and well. I guess what I’m trying to say is if you want you don’t have to stay with me and Luna anymore you can go and make your own life out in the world that is…..if you want to” Stargazer merely looked straight ahead for a time as the sun began to set. Luna would be raising the moon soon. He looked over at Celestia and saw all the age that she had all the wisdom that coursed through her mind and thought.

“Is that really how my life will be? Immortal? Living through the ages watching others live their lives, grow old and then die? No constant in my life apart from the ground beneath my hooves? I guess nopony thinks about how much a curse it is being able to live forever is until they are able to. All of time spanning out before them sounds kinda daunting when you look at it like that.” The moon had fully risen during the time he sat thinking to himself when he came to an answer and playfully nudged Celestia the same smirk on his face he always had when he was re-assuring somepony.

“Celestia. Why do you think I wanna leave? My life would be so boring without you and your sister to keep things amusing and somepony has to watch out for you two” he indicated to his broken leg with that same grin on his face.

“So Celestia if you really don’t have nothing else to teach me then I won’t stay as your student” she sunk her head as he spoke expecting him to leave but not wanting him to. But that was just something she would have to get used to, ponies leaving her. He put a hoof up to her face and turned her to him as he spoke looking in her eyes with a warm smile completely different to his usual smirk.

“But I will stay as a friend” she leaped at him pulling him into a deep embrace making him grunt in pain. As the tears she was shedding before turned to tears of joy she whispered into his ear.

“Thank you Star. Thank you so much.” She let go of him regaining her composure and stood up to walk back into Ponyville whilst Stargazer merely stayed sat on the grass.

“Are you not coming? It is getting late after all”

“Not just yet I’m gonna stay here awhile I guess I’ll see you tomorrow” Celestia turned nodding at him and continued her stroll towards bed.

As Stargazer sat in the silence of the night he looked at the sky with a content smile on his face.

Unknowing what awaits in his future………