Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky

by PortalJumper

Interlude - Reconciliation

Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky

Interlude - Reconciliation

* * *

"Starlit, what is that?" Stalwart Warden asked, his voice tremulous as he stared up at Spike's lumbering form.

"Where's Eclipse?" Starlit asked, panic edging into her voice as she tried to temper her pure fury.

"She's inside, but what is that?!" Warden asked again. "Starlit, you've been gone for a month and you come back home with a stranger and a monster, what have you been doing?!"

Starlit shoved past Warden and sprinted for the house, rage punctuating her every thought. She shoved the door open with a quick burst of magic and found her daughter sitting in front of a slowly dimming fire.

White Eclipse looked thinner, but her initial burst of shock from to door flying open soon melted away into joy and relief at seeing Starlit again, and she ran crying into her mother's waiting embrace.

"You're back!" Eclipse cried into Starlit's chest. "Daddy said he didn't know where you'd gone, and we couldn't leave the house, but I knew you'd come back!"

"I'm so sorry sweetie, I'm so sorry," Starlit answered as every ounce of her maternal instinct poured into her poor, crying filly. "I promise that I'll never let anything like this happen again, I'm so sorry."

"Where were you?" Eclipse asked, her shimmering teal eyes streaked with tears as she looked up to Starlit. Even through the sadness and the relief there was that ever-present spark of curiosity; Starlit didn't think that such a simple question could buoy her spirits, but it did all the same.

"I think we'd all like an answer to that question," Warden stated from the doorway.

As soon as Warden spoke Starlit felt her righteous indignation bubble back to the fore of her mind; Starlit could take being lied to about her mission, she could take being manipulated for a nebulous end that she didn't understand, but this was a bridge too far. Starlit could feel, deep in her heart of hearts, that Twilight Sparkle would be made to answer for this treachery.

Sun walked up behind Warden, who didn't make room to accommodate the stranger in his home but didn't try to shove him away either. Warden's face had a tapestry of confusion, anger, and relief woven into it, much as Starlit assumed she had one woven into hers.

"Warden, if you could let Sun in, we can explain everything," Starlit replied, lifting Eclipse up onto her back as she stood up. "Including the dragon."

"That's a dragon?!" Warden exclaimed.

"There's a dragon outside?" Eclipse asked.

"There is, and he's a very nice dragon who I sure would love to make your acquaintance," Starlit answered. "Why don't you go say hello while your father and I have a grown-up conversation?"

"But you just got home, I wanna stay with you," Eclipse protested, hugging around Starlit's neck. An ache shot through Starlit's heart, but she knew how to placate her daughter.

"If you're a good filly and give your father and I some time, I'll tell you everything that I've been up to while I was away for your bedtime story," Starlit offered as she floated Eclipse down to the ground in front of her, keeping her voice as cloyingly sweet as she could given the circumstances. Eclipse giggled as the magic formed around her, and she dried the tears from her face as she touched the floor.

"Everything?" Eclipse asked.

"Everything," Starlit affirmed before she turned Eclipse around and scooted her to the door with her magic. Warden made to try and stop her, but her size and his slow reflexes allowed the filly to slide past like she had during so many sessions of roughhousing with her father.

"Starlit is that thing safe?" Warden asked. "It's a dragon!"

"Spike was raised by ponies, he's not the vicious beast you've heard about in stories," Starlit answered. "Sun, the kitchens just across from the living room, if you could put some tea on while I speak with my husband I'd appreciate it. There should be some in the cupboard above the fireplace."

Sun, ever the observant pony, read the room and gave a quick nod before beating his retreat to the kitchen. Starlit could hear giggling outside from White Eclipse, leaving just herself and her husband.

"And who is this stranger you've brought home?" Warden asked pointedly.

"His name is Setting Sun, he's been a companion of mine while I've been away," Starlit answered, bluntly and factually. "Come here, let's sit down; this is a long story to tell, and I'm so upset right now that I could very well explode."

Starlit and Warden walked into the living room, set out a pair of pillows in front of the fading fire, and settled into their usual conversation spot. Starlit pulled the sword-belt off of her hip, unbuckled her saddlebags, and for the first time in days let herself do something akin to relaxing.

"Eclipse looked thin, and so do you," Starlit said. "How much food have you had?"

"We've had enough to last us," Warden answered, "although the cellar was starting to get low this morning. I've been doing my best to harvest what you planted before you disappeared, but I just don't have the skill with my horn that you do."

"And I've been getting ever more skilled with it," Starlit said as she levitated a log off of the pile by the fireplace and added it to the fire. A shower of sparks shot up the chimney, and the log soon caught aflame.

"Starlit, where have you been?" Warden asked. "You were out keeping watch on the warding lines one night and the next morning I wake up to find you missing and a dome of silver fog encasing our entire property. Trust me, that was quite difficult to try and explain to Eclipse. She cried for a week straight when you didn't come back."

"You remember that old story I used to tell to Eclipse, the one about the old Princesses of Equestria?" Starlit asked, a pit of nerves sinking into her stomach.

"Yes, it was her favorite story," Warden answered. "I tried to tell it to her a few times, try to ease the pain, but I could never remember all of it."

"It's true," Starlit replied. "All of it; the five Princesses, their war over Equestria, the loss of magic, everything. Every last sentence of that story was based in fact, and I learned it from the source."

To say Warden was shocked would be a gross understatement; he looked just about as shocked as when a dragon fell out of the sky in front of him.

"Alright, that story is truth, okay," Warden replied, trying to regain his composure. "Who was this source?"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle herself," Starlit answered, eliciting another snort of disbelief from her husband. "She showed up at the house the night I vanished, told me some cockamamie story about how Equestria is dying due to the loss of its magic, and that she needs somepony to recover the other Princesses and force them to retake their thrones in Canterlot so that magic can flow through Equestria again."

Warden's eyes grew wider and wider as Starlit continued to explain the events of the last month or so of time; the Searing Plains, Sunspire, New Selene, the Crystal Empire, everything. The only parts she censored were the descriptions of the multiple times she had died, if only to spare Warden's constitution and her own peace of mind.

The sun had gone low over the horizon by the time Starlit finished her recitation, and just in time for White Eclipse to come back in from playing with Spike. The filly looked unhurt and with a smile as bright as the stars, but a long yawn betrayed how tuckered out she really was.

"Did you have a good time, sweetie?" Starlit asked, putting on her most motherly voice.

"Mm-hm," Eclipse murmured with a nod. "Spike was really fun, and he talks in my head. He said he had to go to the forest for something but he'd be back by tomorrow."

"That sounds good," Starlit replied. "How about you go upstairs and I'll come tuck you in and tell you my story in a few minutes."

"Okay," Eclipse answered as she traipsed up the creaky wooden steps to the bedrooms.

Starlit turned to look back at Warden, whose expression during her recitation had gone from appalled to stern. She knew the expression better than any other one he made; he was focusing on a task at hoof, whether mental or manual, and needed time to parse through it.

"I'll give you a moment while I say goodnight to Eclipse," Starlit said, giving Warden a loving kiss on the cheek before she went upstairs.

Starlit softly opened the door to Eclipse's room to find everything exactly as she remembered it; a small pile of toys on the floor by the dresser, a few old books on the shelf that Starlit and Warden had made together during her pregnancy, and a perfectly filly-sized bed with a tired mop of blonde hair poking out from under the sheets.

"Hey sweetie," Starlit said as she walked in and lit the small bedside candle with her magic. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay," Eclipse said. "That was some pretty neat magic. Did you learn that while you were away?"

"I did, and I learned a lot of other things too," Starlit said as she sat on the bed and ran her hoof through Eclipse's mane. "Would you like to know more about it?"

"Mm-hm," Eclipse said, a tired smile across her face as she settled in. "Tell me everything."

"Well, on the night I went away, I met a mysterious pony who told me that I had to go on a mighty quest to save Equestria from utter destruction," Starlit began.

"What was their name?" Eclipse asked.

"Her name was… Flurry Heart," Starlit lied, "and she was an alicorn just like in the old stories that I would read to you."

"Really?" Eclipse asked, trying to sound enthused but failing because of her tiredness.

"Really she was, with a horn and wings, and she was the most beautiful and regal mare I had ever laid eyes on."

Starlit continued to tell the story, doing her best to cover up the less savory parts and trying not to let her anger at Twilight's betrayal seep through. Eclipse fell asleep just as Starlit was describing Applejack's farm, and with a final brush through Eclipse's hair and kiss on the forehead Starlit blew out the candle and crept out of the room.

Starlit could hold her anger in for one more night, if only to keep her daughter at some measure of peace.

* * *

Having heard Starlit go upstairs, Sun poked his head past the small wall that separated the kitchen from the living room. He had wisely chosen to stay in the kitchen during her story so that he wouldn't draw any ire or make the situation any more awkward than it already was, but Sun figured that it would do well to introduce himself to her husband now that he had the chance.

Levitating a small kettle of tea in Silence's grey magic, Sun quietly walked in, eliciting a turn of the head from Stalwart Warden.

"I, uh, kept the tea hot for you," Sun said, holding out a pair of small ceramic cups. "I'm not the best at making it, but I hope this is alright."

"Uh, yeah," Warden replied, gesturing his horn to a small table on the face side of the room. "Just drag that over to set it on."

With his head Sun carefully moved the table until it was just in front of Warden, and he set the kettle and cups down and began to pour. Warden looked like he had just been told that his favorite pet had died.

"You know, you have an extraordinary wife," Sun said as he pushed a steaming mug to Warden. He quickly picked it up in his teeth and drained the whole thing back.

"Apparently far more extraordinary than I thought," Warden replied as he set the cup back down. "You were with her that whole month, right?"

"Not for the beginning parts, but she picked me up in Appleoosa when she was going to hunt for Celestia."

"Did she ever… talk about us?" Warden asked. "Me and Eclipse?"

"Every opportunity she got," Sun answered as he sipped his tea. "She was initially a bit cagey about herself, as you'd expect for a pony in a new place and surrounded by strangers, but as we got closer she opened up some more."

"Closer how?" Warden asked, his tone growing harsher and sending a shiver down Sun's spine. This stallion could curdle milk with a glare like that.

"Nothing untoward, I promise!" Sun hastily answered. "It's just that, when you travel around the world and go through several life threatening scenarios with somepony, you start to grow closer. Bonds of kinship and shared experience, that sort of thing."

"Okay," Warden answered as he let out a low snort. "It's good to know you were with her for all of that, then. I'm still trying to process all of it, and she only told me about it; I can't imagine what all of that must have been like to live through."

"Believe you me, I'm still trying to process most of it too," Sun replied, pouring out more tea for the both of them. Again Warden drained his back while Sun took careful sips.

"You do strike me as a bit of the dainty type, no offense intended," Warden replied.

"You would be absolutely correct in that assessment, sir. Before all of this I was just a shut-in scholar who thought that going on a grand adventure with your wife would help my research and give me some closure on my past."

"She did tell me all of that mess about your parents, and I'm truly sorry about that," Warden replied with a solemn nod. "I was lucky enough to have a fairly stable upbringing, so I can't imagine what that situation must've been like for you."

"I learned to get past it, even if it does still sting to think about," Sun replied. "That's another thing that Starlit helped me with, I suppose."

Sun stared down at his drink, looking at the few dregs from the leaves at the bottom as his thoughts went back to darker places.

"Sun, could I ask you something? Make a request, so to speak?" Warden asked, pulling Sun back into the conversation.

"Sure, anything," Sun answered.

"Make sure she comes home again," Warden stated.

"What makes you think she's going to leave again?" Sun asked.

"Sun, I've known her for all of my adult life, I know the type of mare she is. She doesn't leave a job half-finished and she doesn't back out on promises. She's going to give this Twilight Sparkle what for, and she's going to try and fix what's wrong with this world. I just need you to make sure that she can get back home to us when it's all done."

A knot twisted up inside of Sun's guts at Warden's request, and for the first time in their conversation he saw the older stallion's stoic facade crack, and just behind the surface lay a scared pony who doesn't want to lose the mare he loves.

"Okay," Sun answered as he drained back the last of his tea. "I'll make sure she gets home safe and sound."

"Then you will have my eternal gratitude," Warden replied as he poured another cup of tea and gently sipped from it.

The two of them sat in silence for a long moment, taking their drinks and letting their worries settle into their minds. Sun could feel the thumping in his head, but pushed it away from the fore of his mind; he didn't have the patience for Silence right now.

"You're a good stallion, Sun," Warden stated. "I'm sorry for the fact that you got dragged into all of this, but I'm at peace knowing that you've been there for her despite it all."

Sun looked into the fire, it's flames flickering away merrily. He savored this one peace of domesticity before turning to face Warden again.

"Glad I could help," Sun answered.

A door softly closed upstairs, followed by a soft series of hoofsteps as Starlit made her way back downstairs, drawing both Sun and Warden's attentions. Starlit looked to the two of them, a moment of peace shattered by the iron bar of reality reminding all three of them exactly what was happening and what the stakes were.

"Dear," Warden said. "Did you want to talk some more, or do you need to rest?"

"I think some sleep would do well for us all," Starlit replied. "Sun, I'm sorry that we don't really have anything more than throw pillows as far as comfortable furniture is concerned, but—"

"It's alright, I can just use one of the bedrolls," Sun replied. "The pillows will definitely help though, thank you."

Starlit gave a quick smile and a nod, then gestured to her husband for them to retire upstairs. As Warden followed after his wife, he gave Sun one last glance followed by a warm, welcoming smile.

Sun quietly unrolled his bedroll and set one of the pillows at its head, falling asleep fitfully as the thumping in his head continued. It eventually faded into the sea of worries that was his mind right now, but at least he had a fire to warm himself with.

* * *

Starlit slowly roused to consciousness the next morning with the feeling of Warden's hooves wrapped around her and the sound of his snoring in her ears, and her heart ached at how much she had missed this feeling. The bed wasn't especially soft, but it was familiar; the sheets were patchy and let the draft in a bit too much, but their texture was like the softest down to her. Starlit wished she could just freeze this moment in time and never leave the comfort and familiarity of it.

Both she and Warden shot upright when a thunderous crash echoed from outside, rattling the rafters and sending dust cascading down from them.

"That would probably be Spike," Starlit wearily announced as she flopped back into bed. "I'll go check on Eclipse, make sure she's not crying from the noise."

"Mm-hm," Warden murmured. His eyes were still closed, but he slowly dragged himself to consciousness and made his way out of the room and down the stairs. Starlit listened the make sure he didn't trip and fall down them in his stupor before getting up and going across the hall to Eclipse's room.

The door to her daughter's room burst open, just barely missing Starlit's shins as a small bundle of white and yellow bounded out and down the stairs, giggling all the way down the stairs and out of the house. Starlit blinked blearily at seeing her daughter so exuberant after yesterday's events, but just shook her head with a tired smile and made her ways downstairs.

"Morning," Sun said from the living room. "Spike's back."

"I gathered," Starlit replied, "and good morning to you as well. Would you mind getting some tea on while I go see what's going on?"

"Can do," Sun answered as he made his way to the kitchen.

Starlit clomped her way out of the house and down the small steps off of her porch to find the massive purple and green form of Spike seated just outside of her warding lines, his attention already fixed on Eclipse as she tried to climb up his thigh and get onto her back. Warden was positioned underneath her to make sure she didn't hurt herself.

Seated in front of Spike's forelimbs was something she didn't expect to see again; the teleportation pad from Twilight's tree, seemingly carved out of the stone it was formed from and taken back here. It was covered in soot and scorch marks, but the structure of it seemed intact all the same.

"Thanks for the wake-up, Spike," Starlit called up to the dragon. The eye facing her shifted in its socket until his gaze locked on to her.

"GOOD MORNING, STARLIT SKY," Spike greeted as Eclipse finally mounted his back. "YOUR DAUGHTER FINDS ME QUITE ENTERTAINING."

"She enjoys the old stories I tell her, so seeing something from one of those stories seemingly jump off the page and into the real world would make for an entertaining sight, I'd think. She isn't bothering you, is she?"

"ON THE CONTRARY, I QUITE ENJOY NOT BEING VIEWED AS A HARBINGER OF DESTRUCTION AND DIRE KNOWLEDGE," Spike responded. "BEING A CHILD'S PLAYTHING IS A WELCOME CHANGE OF PACE, BUT THAT IS NOT WHY I AM HERE."

"TWILIGHT SPARKLE'S TREE HAS BURNED TO CINDERS," Spike continued, this time projecting his voice audibly to everypony around. "IT WOULD SEEM THAT SHE HAS DECIDED TO CUT HER LOSSES WITH STARLIT'S MISSION AND IS TRYING TO DENY YOU ANY MEANS OF STOPPING HER PLANS. HER LIBRARY IS NO MORE, AND ALL THE STORES OF KNOWLEDGE CONTAINED WITHIN ARE LOST."

"Was there anything worth salvaging, save the obvious?" Starlit asked, gesturing to the teleportation slab.

"TWILIGHT WAS QUITE THOROUGH IN HER DESTRUCTION, IT WOULD SEEM. BY THE TIME I COULD BEAT THE FLAMES OUT WITH MY WINGS ANYTHING OF VALUE WAS DESTROYED. IT IS A SHAME TO SEE SUCH KNOWLEDGE BE LOST TO TIME, BUT THANKFULLY STONE IS FAR HARDIER THAN PARCHMENT AND PAPER."

Starlit let out a snort of frustration as she wracked her brain for their next step. Sun would have his means to find Silence with the teleporter, and Starlit had Spike to get her to Canterlot, but save for anything Spike could tell her about the layout of the city she would be walking in blind, as would Sun in the Glowing Wastes.

"Mommy, are you okay? You're making that face you make when I do something bad," White Eclipse called down from Spike's back.

"I'm just thinking, honey," Starlit off-handedly answered.

"Do you need help?" Eclipse asked again.

"No sweetie, I just need some quiet," Starlit answered back.

"Are you sure, because I think that if me and Mr. Spike here put our heads together and thought real hard about it, then we could definitely probably help yo—"

"Eclipse, be quiet!" Starlit hollered as her patience, combined with her tiredness, anger, and frustration all roiled together and came erupting out of her mouth before she could think to stop herself.

Eclipse immediately ducked behind one of Spike's back spines, holding the bony growth tight and barely peeking past.

"I'm sorry," Eclipse whimpered, "I was just trying to help, that's all."

"Eclipse, swee—"

Eclipse hid behind the spine before Starlit could even get out two words of apology, and seeing her own daughter that frightened of her hurt her soul more than words could describe.

"Warden, could you calm her down?" Starlit asked her husband dejectedly. "I need a minute to cool off."

"Sure," Warden answered, moving around to Spike's other side to try and coax Eclipse down. Starlit got up and walked to the back of the house, out where she planted the potatoes and radishes.

Starlit sat and thumped her head against the worn wood of her home, staring out into the expanse of scrub and grassland that stretched beyond the rough wooden fence that hemmed in her garden. The grey sky melded with the grey earth to form an endless expanse that was at once disconcerting and oddly peaceful.

Starlit's breathing evened out as she rested against the house, staring at her garden and her grey world, before her mind started to crank back to life from the inaction. Feelings of guilt for upsetting her daughter, rage at Twilight's betrayal, and most of all weariness at her endlessly complex and taxing trials.

So many thoughts roiled and raged in her mind that she didn't even notice that she was wearing her black stone necklace again until it's soft weight pressed into her chest unusually.

She looked down to the necklace, the tiny glint of her own eyes reflecting back in it's roughly hewn surface, and in a fury she ripped the leather strap with her magic and threw it full force into the wall. The necklace clattered against the surface as she held it in her magic before she pounded her hooves into its mocking form, hoping upon hope she could shatter it and be done with all of this.

Pounding hooves rattled the rafters as she poured every ounce of rage she had in her body into trying to destroy this abysmal thing, and her grunts of exertion soon transformed into screams of fury and hatred. Starlit had never felt hatred this strong, and certainly not for something so small, but it was a hatred so pure and forceful that her senseless pounding against the stone didn't cease until she put one of her hooves through her own wall.

Panting from the physical exertion, Starlit dragged her hoof out from the hole, and with it came the necklace, still whole and floating in her magic. A few wood shards came with the stone, the stings of their splinters digging into her hoof and fetlock.

The back door to Starlit's house swing open with a bang as Sun looked out, a tea kettle in his mouth and a worried expression on his face as Starlit turned to face him. Gingerly Sun set the kettle down on the ground.

"You really did a number on your wall there," Sun said nervously. Starlit appreciated the attempt to lighten the mood.

"I suppose I did," Starlit replied, dropping the necklace into the dirt. "Good thing Warden is a good craftspony. This'll be a nice project for him for a few days."

"Pretty unorthodox coming home gift, if you ask me," Sun replied back as he got closer. "Any reason you've decided to start punching holes in your house?"

Starlit plopped back down onto the ground, letting a long, slow breath out as her senses came back to her. She winced a bit as the splinters dug into her hoof.

"I don't know if I can handle this, Sun. All of this; this mission, the betrayals, the lack of any real direction, this," Starlit added, lifting the necklace up for him to see. "It's all gotten to be too much for me."

"How?" Sun asked, sitting down next to her. Unconsciously Starlit rested her head against his shoulder, and he gently ran a hoof across her back.

"Spike confirmed that Twilight burned her library down to deny us any information going forward," Starlit answered with a weary sigh. "On top of that, I scared Eclipse by accident because she was distracting me while I was trying to think."

"That's pretty bad, I'm not going to lie," Sun replied. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know, and that's the part that's killing me inside," Starlit answered. "We both have our destinations, but we have no idea what's waiting for us there when we arrive, and I don't even know what I'm expecting to find when I finally track Twilight down."

"Did we ever really know?" Sun asked. "Every time we went out for Twilight, the things we found were completely different than what she told us to expect. Why should we worry about a lack of information now?"

Starlit lifted her head up, looking to the hole in the wall, to Sun's patient gaze, and then back out behind her to the expanse of grey that had, until very recently, been her entire world.

"I suppose we shouldn't," Starlit answered.

"Then let's not," Sun replied, turning around with Starlit to face the wilderness beyond. "We've come this far, why not a little further?"

"Thank you, Sun," Starlit said, giving him a hug across the shoulders. "I know I don't say it nearly often enough, but this endeavor would've ended a long time ago without you there to help guide me and keep my worse nature from getting a hold of me. You're more than a friend; you're like the brother I never had, and when this is all done you will always have a place in my home waiting for you should you need it."

"You'll have to get in line for that, Applejack already made me that offer," Sun replied with a chuckle. "You can never have enough free homes, I suppose. Thank you, Starlit, for all you've done for me as well. Before you dragged me off to Sunspire I was a shut-in who'd be content to while away my days examining the deeds of better ponies than myself."

"And now you're one of the ponies whose deeds will be examined for ages to come," Starlit replied. "Not bad for a shut-in scholar from a dying desert town."

"Not bad at all," Sun affirmed as he grabbed the tea kettle with his grey magic. "I'll go get this warmed back up for you, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," Starlit answered as the two of them stood up. With a nod Sun made his way back inside.

As Starlit rounded the corner of her house she could see Spike's massive form, and Eclipse on his back running a slalom course between his back spines as Warden followed her pace on the ground.

A pleasing warmth spread through Starlit's chest, followed by a comforting weight as her necklace manifested back onto her neck.

* * *

Comments

[aline1]

Yeah I am finding it really hard to believe that Twilight would burn her own library no matter how crazy or corrupted she was which makes makes me even more suspicious that Starlit hasn't been dealing with twilight at all...

[JMP]

Poor Eclipse....finally gets to see her mother again after a month and she gets yelled at. To be honest, it's amazing Starlit's come this far without snapping. Twilight's actions are...concerning. At least the teleportation circle was salvaged.
9967123
It's not like any of the Princesses have really acted like we'd expect them to.

[platogkrone]

9970647
So, what you're basically saying is something along the lines of this?
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[StuffBuddy]

Don't mind me just checking if there's an update coming up soon. I understand that writing can take a while and sonetimes things just inconveniently happen in life, so there's no need to rush. Just wanna show show my support to the author of one of my first and favorite fics i've ever read. Love your stuff bro keep it up!

[BirdsBooksBrownies]

A grand tale, I look forward to seeing what happens next. With that said, I am deeply troubled by this latest turn of events. Twilight Sparkle adores her books and the knowledge within, I could say that some of the things before were lies of omission or perhaps based on faulty information, or in Spike's case perhaps she did it with good intentions, or kind of like Luna and Celestia she was trying to avoid painful memories. but utterly destroying her library doesn't seem like something she would do.