Light The Beacons

by Kari Kurofai

Thunderstruck

Trepidation. Yes, that was the word, Chance thought as he stood at the base of the stairs. Above him towered the Castle of Friendship, its huge double doors the only barrier now standing between the young earth pony stallion and his goal. Though word had spread quickly about the special permissions granted to him by the Princess herself, Chance stood in the castle’s shadow alone. The houses that lined the roads leading there had kept their doors and windows shut when he passed, and nothing more than nervous eyes peeking between shutters had followed him to his destination.

He almost felt as though he was breaking an ancient taboo as he took his first steps onto the crystal stairs. The layer of leaves and dirt didn’t part beneath his hooves, and he gently swept what he could aside as he made his way to the double doors. True to Princess Luna’s warning, there were no handles adorning the crystal surface before him. The doors would open for an Element bearer, or not at all.

Heart thudding in his chest, Chance reared back onto his hind legs and braced his forehooves against the doors. He stood there for a moment, taking note of the hush that seemed to have fallen over the world the second he’d made contact with the doors. Dusk had begun to cast its dim light across the crystal angles of the castle, bathing Chance’s green coat in streaks of radiant orange. In the darkening sky, he could just make out the ever-present line of light arcing up into the stars from the Crystal Empire. It was almost poetic, he decided as he finally leaned his weight against the heavy doors, to open the long sealed Castle of Friendship during the time of day known as twilight.

To his delight, the doors swung open for him as though their hinges had been freshly oiled. Chance fell back onto all fours over the revealed threshold and ducked his head as a gust of wind whipped past him to stir up the stale air inside the crystal halls. Cobwebs and dust littered almost every surface in sight, including the green glass of the windows. What natural light that was left of the dying day was blotted out with the decay of time. The stallion squinted into the darkness, barely able to make out the rotting violet and gold tasseled tapestries that hung between crystal pillars. Hesitantly, Chance took his first step into the castle, and whinnied in alarm as the crystals hanging from the ceiling lit up in a sudden, dazzling array of colors.

Cursing profusely under his breath, Chance staggered back outside onto the steps. The safety of distance now achieved, he could admire the spellwork that must have gone into magic that could still be activated after a thousand years. Once his heart rate had settled back into a rhythm that didn’t make his breath hitch quite so much, Chance cautiously walked back into the foyer. The crystals above winked cheekily down at him as they bathed his green pelt in a myriad of pinks, blues, and golds.

The entrance hall stretched out before him as the crystals continued to flare with light above. So entranced was he by the effect, that the sound of the doors swinging shut behind him took him entirely by surprise. He jumped, the fur on his back standing on end as he glanced at the re-sealed doors and gulped. “Right,” he whispered to himself. “I guess that’s my cue to finish what I’ve started.”

A shiver passed through him as he continued forward, and a weight seemed to settle itself between his shoulderblades that reminded him distinctly of a hoof thrown over his back in camaraderie. It wasn’t the first time he’d felt such a presence, both around him and within him. It was the same feeling he’d held in his heart when he looked Princess Luna in the eyes and told her with absolute certainty that he would be able to open the castle doors. But now it seemed to tug at him with a new sense of urgency. This way, it seemed to whisper without words.

A huge, master staircase loomed up before him at the end of the hall, parting in three directions near the top. Forward, Chance thought with an odd certainty in his steps. His pace quickened as he took the stairs two at a time. He could feel warmth blooming in his chest the further into the castle he went, an ancient magic beckoning him to find it. It was hardly a malicious pull. Rather, the presence was comforting, almost playful as tickling wisps of thoughts other than his own curled into his mind. In his head, the shapeless words began to become more coherent with every step forward he took, the firelight inside him growing stronger. He grasped at every bit of it, letting the magic draw him in. Chance did not really believe in such things as destiny, but this was perhaps the closest thing to it. A purpose. A magic that called out to him and him alone to show him his purpose.

He came to another set of double doors at the top of the stairs, and once more reared back to plant his forehooves against it. Just like with the entryway, the doors opened easily at his touch. As they swung open to reveal the crystalline great hall he could finally make out the words that the magic was murmuring into his ear.

“See, I’d never leave my friends hangin’!”

Before him stood the place he’d centered most of his research around, and it took his breath away. Overhead on a chandelier made of twisted, petrified wood hung a litany of unique crystals. They lit up every corner of the circular room, chasing away dust and cobwebs with their light so that the thrones seated around the table at the room’s center shone like new. His heart still pounding in his chest, Chance stepped closer to the thrones to peer down at the table’s surface. As the records said, it was a complete map of Equestria, though Chance was disappointed to see that it was apparently magically capable of updating itself. When he’d read about it he’d half hoped to find it in the condition in might have been in during the height of Princess Twilight’s reign. But even from where he was standing he could see the changed features of Equestria. The eastern coast was still scarred, cities that had once prospered still marked by the ruin of war. The train tracks that once ran between Equestria and Griffonstone were severed, leaving only ocean between them. Ponyville was as expansive as it was outside the castle walls at that very moment, the remains of the Everfree Forest just a crescent at its edge. Rainbow Falls was wiped entirely off the map, a rough hole in the Crystal Mountains where it had once stood. And beyond that, he could make out the Crystal Empire, its boundaries stretching out among the mountain peaks where a great wall had been erected as a border. Chance gasped as he noted the bonfires along the wall flickering as they would be at this time of night, and at the Empire’s center, a white jet of light reaching up into infinity beyond the map’s limited skyline.

Though he felt compelled to touch the map, Chance moved away from it, focusing again on the thrones that surrounded it. Crystallized cutie marks embezzled their crowns, and the sight of each of them surged a new emotion through every fiber of his being.

Reverently, Chance dared to pass a hoof over the throne that had once belonged to Princess Twilight Sparkle, the magenta star holding his attention for a long, silent moment before he felt the pull again. Almost there, the magic urged him in feeling alone. Almost home.

Chance squeezed himself between the table and the throne directly to the left of the royal seat, his breath catching harshly in his throat as he set his forehooves upon the base. It was like he’d been struck by lightning, every nerve and bone in his body singing with an ancient magic all at once. Tartarus, maybe he had been struck for real. After all, the mark upon this particular throne was a single white cloud with a rainbow bolt descending from it. Steadying his trembling limbs, Chance climbed onto the throne properly, the sensation of being called and tugged at fading gently away. Here. He was here. This was his place, his throne. It had been waiting for him.

Chance stared at the map before him, the rise and ebb of the feeling that had brought him here leaving him stunned and at a loss for words. The table glittered in its sapphire hues before him, and it was with mindless, reckless abandon that Chance reached out to place a single hoof upon it.

A flash of light burst upwards, bouncing off the crystal walls and lighting up every window within sight. Chance was certain all of Ponyville would be able to see it, and perhaps maybe even Canterlot might witness its glow from its position on the mountain above. Now that he had touched it, Chance couldn’t bring himself to remove his hoof. A different feeling bubbled within him now, a sense of waiting and wanting that curled in his gut. A minute passed, then another, each seeming to be longer than the last as Chance stared unblinking for the map. The castle had waited for him, so now he too would wait for the castle.

Another minute passed, and Chance startled as another flash of light cast its presence into the room. But it was not one of the castle’s lights, nor did it originate from one of the many glimmering crystals. No, the warmth in Chance’s body had focused itself on his flanks, and flashed a brilliant gold within in clover-like cutie mark. He watched, still beyond words as mirror image of the mark pulled away from his coat, shrinking as it dashed over to hover above the map and fix itself over Canterlot.

Although Chance was annoyed at the prospect of returning to Canterlot so soon when he knew there was so much more to see of the castle, the tugging feeling had returned to its place in his chest, and he no longer had the option of ignoring it. He had been chosen, and now he was being summoned. Though what the map expected him to do, to find within the royal city, Chance couldn’t even begin to wonder. All he knew was that he was needed there, a new sense of purpose urging him onward.

~~~***~~~

Brilliant, crimson light erupted into the night sky like a single burning firework. Though it was hardly blinding, Ivory Spirit squeezed her eyes shut as it burst up from the Castle of Friendship and lit up the shadows that stretched across the balcony upon which she stood. The presence of Loyalty that rippled through the world acted like a violent shock wave upon her, and her legs buckled. Before she could hit the ground, her wings instinctively flared out to soften her fall.

“Ivory!”

Her hooves held over her eyes, the petite pegasus could only hear the hurried approach of her mentor clicking harshly on the marble floor. A wing folded over her body, and Ivory dared to peek out from between her hooves beneath the comforting embrace. “He did it,” she whispered.

“We knew he would,” Luna soothed as she tugged Ivory Spirit closer to her with her outstretched wing.

Shakily, Ivory stood and made her way closer to the edge of the balcony. The single explosion of red light had begun to fade from the sky, though it’s glow was still lingering above the distant lights of Ponyville. “Princess,” Ivory whispered as the darkness began to settle around them once more, “why did you really choose me as your student?” To her dismay, Luna did not immediately offer up a reply. Instead, the Princess of the night merely came to stand beside her at the railing. “Was it because of what happened in Manehattan? Did you know that this day would come? Or was I really . . .”

Ivory puffed out a startled breath as Luna’s wing once again wrapped around her shoulders. “My dearest student,” Luna murmured against the top of the pegasus’s head. The familiar words echoed between them like an old lullaby, a bygone promise. “If you are asking me if you are worthy, there are no more assurances I can give you than what you believe yourself.”

Pulling away slightly, Ivory glared up at the Princess. “But am I worthy because of who I am? Or is it only because of what I am? Am I nothing more than what a . . . a tree has chosen me to be?” The soft chuckle that escaped Luna did little to quell Ivory’s distress. Her ears flattened against the top of her head, a frown settling across her features.

“Ivory,” Luna murmured. Ivory reluctantly glanced at her as one of Luna’s hooves settled beneath her chin guiding her head up as the Princess lowered hers until they were eye to eye. “Ivory,” she repeated, “the Tree of Harmony does not choose the Element bearers. You chose yourself.”

“What?”

“Did a tree tell you to make the decisions you did?”

“No, but-”

“A tree didn’t force you to risk so much for others with no reward for yourself. You did that,” Luna reminded. “Your decisions cast you as exemplary in the eyes of the world, and in doing so, you awakened the Element within yourself. The old magic of the world did not make you, just as it did not make Chance of Ponyville. You have both made yourselves by embodying the greatest aspects of Harmony with your actions.”

“But if I’d walked away that day in Manehattan . . .” Ivory began.

“Then no, you would not be my student,” Luna confirmed. Ivory Spirit’s ears drooped again. “But,” Luna continued, “it was not an Element I met that fateful day, dearest student. It was a simple pony who had proven herself worthy of embodying one.”

Ivory flushed as Luna nuzzled her cheek briefly before turning to look down over the distant spires of the Castle of Friendship once more. “I expect he’ll be here by the ‘morrow to fetch you whether he knows it or not.”

Cheeks still tinged with pink, Ivory muttered out a quiet, “Probably.”

“I’ve already arranged for you two to board the midday train to the Crystal Empire.”

Wings flaring out in alarm, Ivory got to her hooves. “What?!”

“The Empire,” Luna said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. Ivory glared as the Princess cast her a knowing smile. “You will need to visit there to access the complete collection of Twilight Sparkle’s memoirs, of course.”

“Of course,” Ivory parroted hotly. “Princess, please. If it was just that you would have given me a little more warning. I’ve been with you for twelve years now, I know when you’re scheming.”

In the far distance, the pillar of light that marked the heart of the Crystal Empire flickered ominously as Luna directed her gaze towards it. “Chance’s achievements tonight will not have gone unnoticed by the Empire,” Luna said. “She will be expecting us. Or perhaps more accurately,” Luna smiled, “she will be expecting you.”

“Princess, if I may be frank,” Ivory said with mock formality, “this is a horrible idea.”

“I know,” Luna laughed.

Author's Note:

Sorry this one took an extra week. The art has been done for awhile but the chapter itself took a bit longer because of how swamped with my actual job I've been lol.

Unlike the original posting of this story, I'm keeping Ivory's Element a secret for awhile. There is some specific wording that will give it away if you're looking for it, but it won't be blatantly stated until much later in the fic.

Comments

[erias velam]

se ve prometedor , en espera del siguiente capitulo . 2 elementos ,4 mas por ir

[The not-so-ultimate writ]

Well, this is interesting. The elements of Loyalty and Generosity are shown. I don't know much about them, but I'm sure more character building is to come. I kind of expected Ivory to be Laughter or Kindness.

[The Great Derpsby]

I'm still not seeing what Luna sees in the two of them. We know almost nothing of Ivory, and Chance is not someone I would want as a friend. At least not yet.