This story is a sequel to Fairlight - Blood of the Foal
The land of the eternal herd is one of light, joy, sunshine and happiness. Or at least, it should be. Fairlight's corpse, frozen and stolen away by his thestral mate, lies in the heart of the ruins of his ancestral home whilst his spirit is finally reunited with his dead wife and daughter. However it would appear the tapestry of Fate has not quite finished the story of this stallion, nor that of his family. Things long since dead begin to stir once more as history begins to wake from its slumber, bringing with it a power that could threaten both the world of mortals and that of the gods themselves.
Chapters (25)
This should prove to be interesting
Ah, good, ol' fashioned combat.
It's been a while and with time and many other fics my memory has faltered a bit. But I think I remember that bit about Luna and her father...and it becoming more important later on.🤔
You accidentally typed "Glimmer" here when it should be Briar talking.
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Whoops. Thanks, I'll get it sorted now.
oh boy time for another adventure
Well, I'd like to say that it seems Fairlight's making new friends, but they're definitely giving him way more than the cold shoulder whenever Maroc is mentioned...
Oof....that was a bit of a mood whiplash. Gone from treachery and a big reveal to being stuck with an inescapable looming threat to loved ones to "they got killed anyways" to everyone's actually alright (to a varying, stretched definition of "alright", anyways). And apparently Vela's been planning stuff out for a long, long time.
Given the bombshell in which the beginnings of this long-held plan were revealed, I'm worried for everyone as the rest unfolds.
Well...that was an unexpected, but depressing then wholesome and well-needed closure. Part of me had wondered if he'd ever run into his dad again in the afterlife and well...here we are now. And it's nice that it happened with good terms.
Accidentally got a slash there instead of a period.
...Well crikey. THAT certainly wasn't a welcome return to the Herd. Several cases of betrayal, an attempted assassination, plus all but cornered by the law, all within the span of about a day.
Fate's a bitch.
I've always felt that there was a lot more to Jelly Bean than meets the eye. Wasn't ever sure to what capacity, though. Now this just raises a lot of questions.
It's a little odd to see Celestia be so non-adversarial towards Fairlight since their last encounter. Then again, it has been a long time since then, and Fairlight's done a lot. Maybe to some degree it was also just a front maybe then or now?
Speaking of long spans of time, hello again, Rush. It has been quite a LONG while. There was some sense of..."satisfaction(?)" there reading the past protagonist interacting with the current one. All around this was a good break that Fairlight really needed. Looks like it's now time to move onwards, though.
...Did...did he just?...
Almost forgot, I noticed a couple typos:
Well, looks like he didn't. But he's betrayed Star Swirl in some form...for now, at least. Or he just might be thinking it. Speaking of whom, I bet that guy's busy doing something on the other side of the portal. Otherwise he probably would've followed up by now.
I don't buy what Vela's selling at all, but where they are now is the reality of situation and everyone seems to be playing nice for now. Not much to do but move forward and get some answers.
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Thanks!
Amendments made
Oh boy...the magic curse slowly gets undone and things get pushed into motion.
One thing I really like from your lore is the Crystal Empire ships. Haven't seen one of those for a while. If memory serves, wasn't Albacore/Scylla in a previous book? I don't recall.
I'm a little confused as to what's going on now, more specifically on how Fairlight got back to the land of the living. There wasn't much of a transition between the boat trip and what happened next, but based on what he said to Lyrin before he left though the portal, that he felt some part of him was still alive, my current guess is that he's been there all this time. Shadow's kept his body in some sort of magical stasis (more than likely with some help from Star Swirl) for much of the time since some point after he died, so it still remained in the land of the living (if so, this raises many, many questions...like "why" and "how is the body functioning"). This entire book has been Farilight's adventures though the afterlife/spirit world, with him now really crossing over to a real-world place when travelling though the gate from Tartarus to the Crystal Empire pocket dimension. When the curse unraveled and fell apart, everything merged back into the living world and by some bit of magic (and possibly a bit of help from the boat), his soul returned to his body.
...Then again, I might be very wrong. It has been a long time and I might have forgotten something or my mind's just going off to places.
My mind wanders off to places all the time. If it didn't I wouldn't write these things!
You're right though, the sentient flying galleons of the Amethyst Fleet featured in Ice Fall. These were The King Sombra's Revenge which was Gretel's ship, and the Wind Wraith which was previously captained by the late Aeon. The Albacore wasn't one of them, instead being trapped in the dimensional pocket with the rest of the capital city of the empire.
In the last book and this one, there are several references to Fairlight still being alive. When he first speaks to Tingles after arriving in the herd, she tells him how his body began forming ice around itself before Shadow snatched him and whisked him off to the fortress. Star Swirl tells him this, but naturally cynical of the old wizard, Fairlight doesn't want to believe it. It's only when the portal rejects him that he realises it's because he's still technically alive. I say 'technically' because the premise is that when a wendigo is critically injured their body can go into a kind of stasis, using the magic to create a form of protective coccoon whilst their body heals. In Fairlight's case his soul ended up in the herd instead of staying with his body. I haven't covered this in much detail yet, but it will come up in more detail in a later story. No spoilers on that!!!
I left the part regarding the Albacore taking Fairlight's soul back to the mortal realm deliberately vague to emphasise his state of mind at that time. The magic of the pocket was failing as the empire began to reassert itself, and the Albacore used her magic to send him back to his body. Something like Charon the ferryman ferrying souls across the river Styx.
Hope this clears things up
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well i assume she putting on a false front while rush is there dont want to show him her hatred and after dealing with nobility for a thousand year i assume celestia be a master at masking her emotions, and also he dead so not really a threat to her anymore that will have tempered her hate, but will see .
im assuming then rush is from another story i clearly not read
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Rush is the protagonist from the series which starts with When the Snow Melts.
with this version of star swirl, a old saying come to mind he may be a bastard but he our bastard
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Ah, okay I guess I forgot about some of that. Looks like I was partially right.
Yay! Happy reunions with everyone at the village!
Except for this guy. Looks like there's a bit of a lead now on who blew the place (and Fairlight) the hell up four (good grief) years ago.
Hang on a dang sec...isn't that one of the guys from the agency?
Also, I wonder who that fellow was that tried to talk to Fairlight earlier at the fortress...
Of course that peace didn't last very long...fate just constantly has to be a bitch towards Fairlight.
I think you're missing a word there.
Well, at least that ended well...for some at least (poor Dimple). That stallion was just one sick, twisted bastard that needed to be put down. At least they also got the commissioner, They had issues with her for a long time. Time to find out where the new names lead to.
Also, I'm getting a strong feeling that Fairlight and Noctem might bang at some point.
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Thanks for the heads up on the missing word!
Last chapter up today. Epilogue to come soon.
A couple typos:
Guess it's just down to rebuilding from what's left. Who knows if the Heart will be a part of that in the end? For now though, it's great that a lot of the place is still well-preserved after a thousand years. Twilight's gonna go absolutely ham on all those books when she gets the chance.
Good to see that loose end tied up with that guy from earlier.
Fate being what it is, Fairlight will run into Starswirl again at some point. And it's not gonna be pretty.
Some more typos - these are titles and should be capitalized:
Another story wrapped up, then. At least it's on a pretty happy note, with prosperity returning to the fortress and the old wendigo lands, along with more people. But Veritas and Vela still remain at large, and there's conflict brewing on the horizon...
Looking forward to what comes next.
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Edits made.
Glad you enjoyed it
I will start writing the next adventure before too long. In the meantime I'm off on my first holiday in 33 years, and my very first visit to the US. Two weeks in Maine to be precise. When I get back I'll start to thrash out the full storyline for the finale. At the moment I have a lot of bits and pieces of ideas, but they all need pulling together.
Thanks for sticking with the series!
Amazing story, Good writing, a well controlled flow and pacing. Not once was i left thinking that events dragged on for too long, or that things paced ahead too fast. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story from start to end!
Thank you for the good read ! I'll be sure to check out Fortress of the Four winds and Blood of the Foal as well.
[edit] - It seems theres actually a lot more to catch up on, im intrigued by the Fairlight universe this is part of. Will try and give em all a go!
Nadir? that's the name of my ship! what a coincidence.
no but seriously, I applaud your creativity with the naming of both organisations (other than 'the Agency' of course) and characters, it certainly gives the story a well traveled feel to it
This is giant piece of slice of life that I can not stop reading. Why does this story not have many views? This is absolutely great writing and needs more views.
I tend to upload my stories in one hit rather than dropping a chapter once every so often like many writers do. It means I don't get seen as often on the site of course, but personally I hate waiting for a chapter to land which may or may not ever be written. I loved 'Rangers of Wintertrot' for example, but it was never finished. Personally, so long as some people see the story and enjoy it I'm happy.
I'm really glad you're enjoying the stories. Made my day!
Purple Sands