The Last Unicorn Princess

by DaisyDaedal

Chapter Two

'She did not understand the words, but the song made her think longingly of her home.'
-Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

Chapter 2

Opening her eyes after a dreamless sleep, Amulet Azalea felt stiff and cold everywhere on her body- except the nape of her neck. Something the weight of a broach sat there, exuding warmth. If she focused, she could even feel a light and quick pulse against her fur. Something living was resting on her.

At her movement, the weight lifted, and a green and yellow figure darted in front of Azalea’s face. It was a long-legged pony-shaped creature with butterfly wings and antennae, and Azalea recognized it from a book she’d read in the royal library as a filly- a Breezie!

She had never seen one outside a painting before, as they tended to avoid ponies, but had always thought they looked beautiful. She met the Breezie’s orange eyes, saw it looked distressed.

“Run!” it told her in a panicky, cricket-like chirp.

“What?” Azalea asked, wondering if Breezie’s words were was a warning or a threat.

“You must flee! Race to the horizon and let my frail heart stay together only by the knowledge of your safety,” the Breezie pleaded. It fluttered around the princess, looking like it wanted to touch her, but stopping itself multiple times.

Azalea looked around for any dangers nearby. There were no serpents on the castle’s stone, no wolves nearby ready to pounce- even the sky was cloudless. Azalea had lived by herself a long time and had avoided many dangers- she was sure she could handle whatever the creature was worried about. But she had to know what she was dealing with, at least.

“Why?” she asked it.

“The unknown comes! It will take my Sonnet away if she insists on this path, and I once again will be alone in my desolation.”

“Sonnet? Do you mean Silver Sonnet?”

“The door to safety will open soon! Come, dear moonbeam, and be secure at my home!”

“Do you know my sister- Silver Sonnet- or not? Is she alive?”

“She stands before me now! Please do not fret, and instead let us leave this place so your voice may return to the joyous tone that stole my heart!”

Azalea tried to force a smile on her face, thinking if she acted kinder, the Breezie would be more open to answer questions. Whether it was fake or not, the small critter seemed to brighten at the attempt.

“Let me properly introduce myself. My name is Amulet Azalea- may I inquire upon yours?”

“You name is a precious gift! My own is underused, unworthy compared to yours. Not an even exchange for such an honor! Yet, I do so desire to bring you happiness! Perhaps if I could rescue you it would be a much more even exchange? Come, let us leave!”

Azalea’s facade dropped and she scowled- she was never good with maintaining such acts.

“I’m not going anywhere unless you answer my questions!”
The Breezie winced as if in pain, then sighed.

“I have been alone a long time- but when I had friends, they called me Butterbean. Perhaps with you on my side it could be the key to end my loneliness. So please, let us go away from danger so we may live together in safety!”

“Were you, or were you not referring to a unicorn mare who has silver fur and blue eyes when you spoke of Silver Sonnet?”

“Worry not of the past! Please, let the wind carry us fast as we start a new friendship away from this realm!”

Azalea snorted in frustration. Butterbean seemed to figuratively dance around the answers like the lords and ladies from her father’s court used to, but the Breezie was the only lead she had left to find out what happened to the unicorns. She inhaled and exhaled, trying to calm herself down, then tried a different method of questioning:

“Please, I don’t know where most of my family went and I’m worried they could be hurt. Would you please tell me what you know of my sister?”

“Hers was the sweetest voice I ever heard. Her song gave me the courage to leave my hiding spot, if only to be closer to her. But I was a coward when the Centaur came, and returned to hiding. There was nothing a small and unworthy being could’ve done, I couldn’t help her.”

“A Centaur? What Centaur? What did it do to Silver Sonnet?”

“Please, let me atone for my sins and care for you. You won’t need for anything, I’ll be like a shadow, unseen if you’d rather not see my pathetic self. Only let me take you away from here!” Butterbean begged.

Azalea held back the angry words rising within her. She wanted to grab and shake the answers out of the Breezie, but Butterbean was so small and fragile it could harm the being. The idea of resorting to violence left an ill taste in her mouth, and that action would make sure she’d never know fully what Butterbean remembered of her sister.

Like a puzzle piece snapping into place, a thought occurred to the unicorn: if she could get memories from her mother’s remains, perhaps she could get them directly from a living being.
She lifted a hoof towards Butterbean in a beckoning gesture, and the Breezie wordlessly landed on it without breaking eye contact with the mare, his eyes ever pleading. As Azalea began to cast the spell, the Breezie’s wings fluttered nervously in response.

“Use me as you will, as my everything belongs to you. But please let us not linger here!” Butterbean pleaded one last time. She completed the spell, and for one dizzying moment she was looking up at herself through the Breezie’s eyes. Then the world shifted.

Everything was so much bigger as a Breezie. Azalea seemed to be flying as high as her normal eye line would be, but bushes were like mini forests, and trees were like mountains. The unicorn had of course never flown before. While she didn’t have any senses beside sight and sound in this memory, it felt weird to be in the air with nothing holding her up.

Azalea saw that Butterbean had been flying in a line with several other Breezies, all with pollen-filled baskets harnessed to their sides. Through they all cautiously watched the world around them, the Breezies shared friendly chatter with each other as they flew.

It caught Azalea completely off guard when everything suddenly tilted in an arc to the side, and the ground below started spiralling closer and closer. There was a moment when Azalea was so close to the ground she could make out the veins on the leaves of the forest floor, then everything went dark.

When the Breezie’s eyes opened again, it was night instead of day. Butterbean looked around the immediate area but none of the other Breezies were around. Butterbean got into the air for a better perspective but still saw nopony. The Breezie flew high and low, calling out their names frantically, and got no response. Azalea started to get pieces of memory of Butterbean looking around in different times of day, landscapes, and seasons, and never once seeing another Breezie.

Finally, one memory in autumn was clearer than the rest. Butterbean, ragged and lethargic, collapsed on a stone next to a stream.

“It’s no use. Without my friends, I’ll never see my family or my home again,” the Breezie cried to himself. “I’m trapped in this wretched world.”

The Breezie seemed to stare at the stream for a long time. Azalea was alarmed when Butterbean sudden seemed to move towards the rapid-like water without caution, but a voice stopped the Breezie. Although it seemed to be coming from far across the plains, the song it sang was silvery, ringing out clearly with words of determination and fighting against the odds. Azalea recognized it right away as her sister’s voice.

Butterbean was drawn to the sound, flying what seemed like many acres towards it until he was flying over what seemed to be countless unicorn stallions in armor- the royal army. At closer inspection, Azalea could see they looked dirty and beaten, but all their eyes shined with hope as they looked upon a single mare in shiny silver armor standing up high on a wagon: Silver Sonnet.

Standing on the ground on either side of the Princess were three of her brothers, also suited up for battle. Bronze Spear looked like he was listening respectfully, but Azalea recognized the tight lips he made when he was hiding his irritation.

Treasure Tome fidgeted as he stood, but Azalea knew that was only because he wasn’t used to wearing armor. All of her brothers had been trained for knighthood, but Treasure Tome wasn’t well suited to it- preferring intellectual battles like debate. The fact that he had to be on the battlefield meant that the situation was very dire.

Only Granite Guard seemed to be enjoying their sister’s singing, as he usually just stood at attention when in armor, staring straight forward as he waited for instructions. But despite his neutral expression, he stood facing his sister, his eyes fully focused on her.

Of their father Red Throne and their eldest brother Golden Rule, Azalea saw no sign, but hoped it was because that they had divided the army in two, and we planning some sort of flanking maneuver.

When Sonnet finished the song, the warrior unicorns cheered, but the princes looked uncertain. Butterbean crept closer to hear as the royals began to speak softly to each other.

“-down to a third of our army- do you really think a song’s going to change anything?” Treasure Tome asked with a worried tremble in his voice.

“Father wouldn’t have wanted us to give up, brother dear. And if there isn’t a king here now to follow his example, perhaps there should be a Queen,” Silver Sonnet declared, looking challengly at Bronze Spear.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Silver Sonnet- you know that crown is mine!” Bronze Spear snapped. “But I agree that we shouldn’t surrender. Come dawn, we attack!”

Azalea was jolted out of the vision, and saw the Breezie panting in exhaustion in her hoof.

“Butterbean?” she asked, worried that she had pushed the Breezie too hard. A mixture of shame and guilt filled her head, temporarily distracting her from what she’d learned in the vision.

“I’m fi-” the Breezie started to reply before Butterbean’s eyes grew wide in shock at something behind them. The Breezie’s wings fluttered frantically, but didn’t seem to have energy enough to fly.

Azalea turned her head around to see what had frightened Butterbean, and only caught a glimpse of a dark brown figure before a large potato sack went over her head and covered her body. Whatever was ponynapping the princess knocked her off her feet, and despite kicking as much as she could, she felt her legs being held together. Something coiled around her legs and she felt them being hogtied together.

She was still too weak from the magic she cast earlier to break herself free with it, but in desperation still she tried- nothing but sparks came out. As she felt the bag she was in being lifted, she tried her best to stab her captor with her horn, but it was hard to from her upside-down angle. In response, her captor plopped her back onto the ground and began dragging her on the ground by her feet.

Hope draining from her body, she wondered where Butterbean was during all this. The Breezie had seemed so devoted to her, yet she hadn’t heard Butterbean make a sound as she was being taken. Would the Breezie try to save her? Or had Butterbean run away while her captor was distracted with subduing her? The Breezie had tried to warn her- but what creature had captured her was certainly not an unknown danger.

It had felt Azalea she had been dragged a long time over rough ground before she stopped, and felt the top of the sack go slack. The steps of her captor thudded away, and though Azalea wanted to use their absence to free herself, she felt too tired and stiff to move.

Not long after the captor left, it came thudding back with what sounded like more beings yelling at each other.

“She was very dangerous! I had to act before she hurt me!”

“You have to use your words, Rex! You could seriously hurt someone this way! Hold on, child, I’ll have you out in a moment.”

Azalea felt the bonds on her legs come away, and she rolled backwards away from the voices. After a couple of unbalanced attempts, she managed to quickly push herself to her hooves and shake the canvas sack off of her.

She was inside a shelter that seemed to be made up of patched gray fabric stretched over long poles almost as high as her family’s castle. Bales of hay were laid out into rows on one side of it, plus in a circle in the center of it. The side opposite the rows of hay was shorter than appeared, and Azalea could see that was because it was curtained off. It was a sight she’d never seen before.

“She’s a unicorn!” a male voice gasped in awe, drawing Azalea’s attention to the trio in front of her: a tortoiseshell Abyssinian, a dark brown diamond dog, and a dark blue stallion whose patched gray conical hat and clock hid which pony race he was.

“Who are all of you? Why have you brought me here?” Azalea demanded, pointing her horn at them as if to use magic- despite not knowing if she had the energy to. The cat-like woman stepped forward slowly, smiling apologetically as she raised her paws to show she had no weapons- other than her claws, of course.

“My apologizes, sweet one- my name is Cait Sidhe. When we saw the light of magic being used in the old unicorn kingdom, I sent Rex here to investigate. If he found a living being as the source of the magic, Rex was to invite them to join us, not ponynap them. Rex, apologize to the mare.”

“... I sorry,” the diamond dog grumbled. ‘But you have pointy-scary on your forehea-” Cait Sidhe slapped him upside the head.

“That is not an apology!”

“Sorry.”

“What do you want with a magical being?” Azalea asked guardedly.

“Why, to join my circus of wonders, of course,” Cait Sidhe said, gesturing to the structure around them. The princess had never heard of a circus before, but “wonders’ wasn’t a word typically used to describe something dangerous.

“And why would I want to join a group that ponynapped me?” Azalea scowled.

“Oh dear, sweet kitten, we won’t force you to stay. But before you leave, let us show you what you can be a part of,” Caith Sidhe purred.

They were suddenly plunged into darkness, and Azalea heard movement around her, but couldn’t see anyone. Just as Azalea was thinking she’d see if she could manage a light spell, a spotlight appeared over Cait Sidhe now standing in the center of the ring of hay stacks. The cat now wore a dark blue cloak that glittered like stars in the sky under the spotlight.

“You may be alone in this world, with no friends to trust, or family to look after you. But you are not the first to have felt that way. Everyone here in my circus was abandoned or cast aside by their kin before they joined me, so together we have made our own family. Let me introduce them…”

Cait Sidhe pointed, and a spotlight lit up a nearby cushion for the unicorn to sit on. Azalea still didn’t trust these strangers, but the lack of light kept her from spotting any escape routes. In the darkness, she could be surrounded by all sorts of beings that could be blocking her escape. She decided to play along for now, and sat on the cushion.

Out of the darkness, a white orb barely the size of a teacup appeared out of nowhere. Somewhere out of sight a melancholic tune began to play. Slowly the orb drew closer to the mare, and she cautiously braced herself to flee. She saw flickering light exuding from it, and as it neared ever closer to her face she heard crackling coming from it, like a tiny bit of thunder. When it was merely a head length away from the mare, a blue hoof grabbed it, and Azalea met the grey eyes of a dark blue stallion. He smiled at her, and the music stopped.

Somehow sounding loud, the disembodied voice of Cait Sidhe whispered:

“Swift Star, the magician,” Swift Star opened the dark cloak covering his body, and revealed two more white orbs and his wings. Azalea wondered how a winged pony could do such magic. Was he an alicorn, a being her family prayed to? But her attention was quickly recaptured as Swift Star began tossing the orbs into the air, and thrusting them back into the air as they started to fall.

After a couple of juggling rotations, instead of throwing the orbs that landed in his hoof, one by one he blew on them, causing them to dissolve like they had never been there to start. Azalea was awed, and seemingly encouraged by her expression, the stallion took his hat off. He had no horn. Azalea knew that his being an Alicorn wasn’t really a possibly, and but she still found herself hiding the disappointment on her face as he continued his trick.

Swift Star pointed the hat so she could see the inside of the cone, and proceeded to turn it inside out to show that it was truly empty. He stuck his hoof back inside his hat, and began to pull the tip so as to turn it right-side out again. Only as his hoof left the Hat, a brown rabbit came with it. Swift Star held the rabbit up by a two-toned pink Jester collar, and Azalea was startled to see that the rabbit had a horn sticking out of its forehead.

“Our jubilant jester Jezebella the Almiraji,” Cait Sidhe whispered.

Jezebella swung herself around so she had a grip on one of the pegasus’ voluminous sleeves. Swift Star tried to shake Jezebella off, but she had a tight grip, and instead climbed higher so she was actually holding his arm.

With a thoughtful expression, he lifted the arm Jezebella was on to scratch his face. When she was close to his head, the Almiraji leapt up and grabbed the magician's hat. The pegasus tried to grab her, but Jezebella quickly landed on the ground and hopped a short distance from him. Before the stallion could chase her, she withdrew plate after plate from his hat and promptly threw them towards him.

Swift Star scrambled to keep them from falling, soon juggling six plates into the air. When she ran out of plates, Jezebel started to throw knives almost as long as short swords to the juggling mix.

After she had thrown three knives, the floor vibrated. The horned rabbit’s ears perked up as the sound of giant steps continued to shake the ground, getting louder as they neared.

Jezebel started to run, and leaped into a barrel just when a large head the size of a sheep peered its orange eyes through the curtains at the magician. It had a slightly longer face than a pony’s, with a single horn that pointed upwards, a short yellow mane, and shiny black and yellow scales instead of fur.

“Onyx Bolt, the strongest Karkadann alive,” narrated the cat. Coming out of the curtains. Azalea saw the large being had a saddle on his back that had a curtained canopy on top that she suspected hid some pony.

The moment Onyx Bolt reached the center of the performance ring, a flash of gold - almost like sunlight in the dark tent flew quickly out of the canopy. The figure halted in the air next to the juggling magician, and Azalea recognized it as a golden and white griffin with green eyes. She wore a bronze vest resembling a piece of armor around her torso, and Azalea wondered if the griffin was as aggressive as her family’s royal diplomats once claimed.

Without touching the plates, the Griffin began kicking the knives out of the magician’s juggling rotation, each knife flying straight into the middle of the target held up by an obsidian claw sticking out of the canopy.

“Xanthe, the shimmering blade master.”

When all the blades were out of juggling rotation, the creature holding the Target uncoiled himself from the canopy. He was a pony-sized black dragon with silver eyes that made Azalea nervous- didn’t dragons eat ponies? The dragon tossed something into the air and exhaled a stream of fire, immediately flying into the flames he made. As he flew through the air Sparks crackled around him, lighting up his scales so they shone like gems. Exhaling another stream of flame, he began to roll his body in the air, making the stream of fire spiral around his body.

“Jett, the fire dancer dragon.” As he landed gracefully on his back legs, Jezebella climbed out of the barrel and began to frantically dig into the hat. As if searching for something specific, she pulled out an apple, a bouquet of flowers and three juggling pins, throwing them over her shoulder and once again adding to the oval made by Swift Stars’ juggling.

The almiraji’s face lit up when she pulled a wooden bucket out of the hat. Jezebella tucked the hat under her arm, then rushed towards the dragon, spilling water with every step.

By the time she reached Jett and tried to throw the contents on him, it was empty. He eyes widening in fear, Jezebella tossed the bucket into the air and hid behind Onyx Bolt. When it came down, the bucket landed over Xanthe's head.

The griffin blindly threw a knife towards the Horned Bunny, which instead nearly hit Jett, who breathed fire to repel it and accidentally lit every flammable thing the magician was juggling on fire.

While Xanthe removed the bucket and glowered at Jezebella, Jett cartwheeled across the stage, flipped into the air high above Swift Star and hovered when he upside down but above Pegasus. The dragon lowered himself so he was close to the peak of the juggled items and began to grab the items, putting out the fires in his mouth and returning them to the flow seamlessly.

As a magician juggled with his upside down partner, Jezebella dodged Xanthe’s swiping claws, using the Karkadon’s legs as a barrier. Onyx Bolt quickly grew impatient with the smaller creature. Seizing the tiny Jesters collar in his mouth, he tossed her high into the air near the tents Apex. Jezebella flailed her arms around to stop her fall untill she grabbed a hold of a tightrope wire. Looking terrified of the ground below her, she wailed for help.

Like a spell, a giant shape Azalea had mistaken for a tent pole walked away from the tent wall, banging on a drum and to emphasize the steps it took. Coming into the light, Azalea saw it was a figure walking on tall stilts: a tall reddish bear that unlike regular Bears, had ram horns growing out of the sides of its head.

“Asher, the stilts walker Onikuma.”

Asher strided easily under the horned rabbit. But Jezebella looked unwilling to receive the demon bear’s help, dodging the bear's claws by twirling around on the tightrope.

Asher looked down morosely after it was obvious she wouldn’t let him help her. The Griffin and Dragon exchanged looks, and together each grabbed a stilt to hoist the demon bear higher. To get a better grip now that he wasn’t solidly on the ground, the Onikuma grabbed the tightrope and reached for Jezebella.

Onyx Bolt looked determinedly at the others. The karkadann stomped over them, sticking his nose underneath Jett and Xanthe and letting them slide back onto his shoulders as he lifted his head again. This action caused the tightrope to stretch upwards until it snapped under the pressure, and the Horned Rabbit began to fall.

With the speed of lightning, a light blue being with both the features of a dragon and a unicorn dropped from the top of the tent. Almost instantly Jezebella was scooped up by the dragon/unicorn, but both creatures were still falling fast to the ground.

Swift Star caught all the plates in a pile, let the other objects he had been juggling on top of them, and placed them on the ground. He then seized his fallen hat from off the ground and pulled a long pole out from within it.

The Karkadann, nearby, quickly grabbed the other end of the pole in his mouth just in time for the falling female to make a turn in mid-air, landing her back legs gracefully on the level pole.

“And our Aerodynamic acrobat, Lavana Belladonna,” Cait Sidhe announced, finally stepping out of the darkness to join the performance.

Amulet Azalea stared in awe before her mind came back to the present- the players had drawn Azalea completely into the performance. She felt energized, and as everyone took a bow, she was quick to stomp her hooves in appreciation, feeling a smile on her face for the first time in a long time.

“So you enjoyed the show?” Xanthe asked, her voice teasing.

“Yes, it was wonderful!:

“And think of how much more we could do if we added unicorn magic to the ACT!” Cait Sidhe beguiled. Azalea was uncertain- she liked watching the circus, sure, but the idea of performing herself made her anxious. Not to mention staying here meant she’d never know the full story of what happened to her family and the other unicorns.

“I'm not much of a performer,” Azalea eventually replied, hesitant to speak her entire mind to strangers.

“Everybody's a beginner at some point,” Jett said. “We could teach you what you need to know.”

“But I'm not so good with an audience,” Azalea argued.

“You can use your magic behind the scenes, too,” Jezebella suggested. They did give some excellent reasons why she should stay. But the unicorn princess still felt a pull in her mind that she couldn’t ignore. It was clear she’d have to reveal her goal to avoid hurt feelings.

“I'm on a journey, looking for more of my kind,” Amulet Azalea explained. Surprisingly, the cat smiled at her words.

“Well, you needn't look any further,” Cait Sidhe declared. “Lavana Belladonna here is half unicorn.”

To be continued...

Author's Note:

Sorry again for the long wait! I hope it was worth it.