Piece of Parchment

by Metemponychosis

Anamnesis

Starlight Glimmer was happy to be outside their mediocre hotel. The sun shone above Manehattan, dominating the blue sky. Only a few cottony clouds shared it, breaking the monotony. The air seemed heavier than in the country cities, but far from unpleasant. It smelled of a large city, and it sounded like it, too. The air seemed stale and heavy with the smell of ponies. Not unpleasant, just filled with peppy talking and carts. Different from the smells and sounds of Ponyville.

Pony-pulled carts hauled cargo and other ponies around the liveliest city in the world. The streets were noisy and crowded compared to the small town Starlight Glimmer took to liking so much. And not only the thick flow of creatures crowded the streets, but the air too. Flying creatures streamed past them, zipping above the street. Pegasi, griffons, hippogriffs and even an odd thestral or dragon. Starlight was sure she saw a changeling at some point. How they never crashed into each other, she did not know. There seemed to be an etiquette everycreature followed, or even a set of laws. Ponyville had nothing like that. Pegasi just flew around at their leisure.

Manehattan hit her with an air of endless opportunities. An earth pony city, it didn’t have cloud mansions or white and gold spires, but it had skyscrapers and all manner of creatures lived there. Countless shops for everything she could ever need. Storefronts lined the walkways as far as the eyes could see, while buildings rose to the sky with apartments or offices. Everypony seemed busy with something. While polite to each other, they didn’t have time to stop and grab her for a conversation in the middle of walking. All professions had a place in the quintessential earth pony city. Artisan studios where ponies displayed their wares to small delicatessens. Massive manufactories to offices where ponies worked on the job of keeping jobs organized.

On the other side, all those ponies made the unicorn constantly shift her eyes. How easy was it for someone to hide in the middle of all that? She constantly avoided somepony else’s stare. Grinning awkwardly at their wishes of a good day and seeing someone staring at her from every shadow. Behind every corner and post. She could swear she heard her name a few times in the conversations of ponies passing by.

“Will you relax?” Spike said next to her. He shrugged and threw his hands. “You know, I’m kinda freaked out too, but you’re just drawing more attention to us.”

“I know! I know! Keep your voice down!” She grimaced and whispered, eyeing a couple of mares talking and staring at them from a magazine selling shop. They were merely looking at the news and innocently commented on something while they looked their way. Or had they? “I just can’t help it! It was just so much easier when I was spying on Twilight and you guys. I had nobody looking for me! Don’t you feel like somepony is watching you?”

“Actually, you were under watch by the Royal Guard. Princess Celestia had you on the dangerous unicorn watchlist even before the whole Our Town incident.” He spoke casually, grinning at the comic books on display before he resumed walking. “But yeah… I don’t really feel like that. No. But I didn’t feel that while you were spying on us. So…”

While the unicorn mare gave him an annoyed, frowny stare, the young dragon chuckled and pointed. “Hey! We’re here! The Clock Plaza! Sweet!”

The aptly named Clock Plaza was the center of a park. An area of paved spaces and walkways among the lush, earth pony-tended grass. Carvings filled with gold on the concreted ground helped read the time of day. Or at least the gold covered whatever filled them. The ‘gnomon’, the golden blade which provided the shadow and showed the time of day, was a stylish image of Princess Celestia. She was rearing on her hindlegs so her horn’s shadow would show the time.

The purple dragon and unicorn stood near the center of the plaza. Right next to the sundial, by the rail that kept ponies from stepping on it. Starlight raised an eyebrow at the thing. It was probably ancient and useful at some point. Its well-kept state spoke highly of how esteemed it was, especially if it was as old as the time ponies still used those things. As she was scrutinizing the sun clock, Spike unceremoniously climbed onto her back.

“What are you doing? Spike!” She said with angry grunts and a yelp because of his sharp claws on her rump.

Her companion, standing on her back, covered his eyes with a hand and frowned. Fortunately, nopony seemed to mind the two weirdos. The city must be full of strange creatures doing strange things. Regardless, Spike scanned the plaza from one side to the other. “Sorry. I got so used to doing this with Twilight I didn’t even think. This place is packed, though! I can’t see anything from the ground!”

Starlight fared little better, stretching her neck while trying not to drop the small dragon on her back. She could see a good deal, though. Various vendors set up stands in the paved areas. They sold hayburgers, carrot dogs, popcorn, and sweets. Others even hosted fair games like horseshoes and darts. A gazebo protected a small earth pony band from the sun, and a collection of merry ponies danced before them. Other such buildings sheltered ponies who just wanted to enjoy a relaxing time.

A small amphitheater could accommodate a hundred ponies and whoever wanted to use the space. All the hurry and rush stayed outside of the park, and Starlight could see ponies walking by on the sidewalk. Like two different dimensions.

The smell of green grass rose from the ground and mixed with cotton sugar and popcorn. Colorful islands of flowers here and there brought little insects. Some ponies had taken their pets to play, and foals ran every which way, joining playful barks with delighted laughter.

Ponies everywhere. Walking around. Talking. Flying lazily or trotting to and from all sides of the park. Foals laughed, danced, and sang at a small birthday party. In the amphitheater, a blue earth pony held a fake skull and recited something.

But no ponies seemed to search for them. Whatever that would look like. In reality, Starlight wasn’t even sure of what she should look for.

“Do you see anything?” Starlight turned her head back to look at Spike, despite her annoyance with his weight.

“Nah. Not yet…” He said with a distracted tone, still scanning the plaza with his hand covering his eyes. “Keep acting natural.”

“We couldn’t look less natural.” The unicorn rolled her eyes, grabbing him with her telekinetic magic and landing him on the concrete. “I mean, we’re a pony with a dragon on her back, looking for something in the most obnoxious way possible.”

Spike agreed with a nod and a quizzical frown. “I suppose you’re right. Ah. We don’t even know what our pony is supposed to look like. I mean, are they even a pony?”

“Keep your voice down. They must be ponies. They didn’t want to meet with griffons. If that means anything.” Starlight’s brow wrinkled while she too scanned the place as best as she could, sitting to stretch her neck as long as she could. Finally, she let her ears drop and let out a heavy sigh. “This isn’t working. It sounded much easier talking in the hotel.”

Spike held his jaw with an inquisitive frown and a deep hum before Starlight spoke again. “I suppose they would rather find us than let us find them.”

Her words caused Spike to light up and raise a finger. “They’re probably looking around for us.”

Starlight nodded and looked around the plaza for a second before she nodded again, with a grin, for Spike to follow. A quick walk took both to the amphitheater where the earth pony had just finished his presentation. His audience clopped their hooves on the concrete unenthusiastically and a dozen ponies streamed out of the seatings.

When Starlight Glimmer approached, they politely gave way for her and Spike to walk up the stairs in the opposite direction. Upon reaching the highest seats, Starlight sat down and patted the place next to her.

“This is your plan? Just sitting here?”

She shushed him. “They’re looking for us. This is the best we can do to not draw attention and let them see us! Try to pretend you like whatever is coming now.”

It all seemed tacked on. No proper planning, no setup. It would have helped if the griffons had been more friendly, or if Naminé wasn’t so spooked and secretive. But there was no helping it. Her idea seemed to be the best one, given the circumstances. Thus, Starlight simply stayed put with the dragon next to her.

A white unicorn mare with a red mane and a graduate’s hat for cutie mark walked into the stage. Followed by a couple of floating stands and rolled up sheets of paper, her magic commanded them to place themselves down. Spike groaned again but took his place next to his unicorn friend.

Elbows on his knees and an angry pout on his snout, Spike watched as the pony finished setting up her stands. She unfurled sheets of paper, and they showed bold lined drawings of tadpoles. After she cleared her throat, she started explaining the differences between the tadpoles of different species.

Starlight Glimmer made herself comfortable and paid attention. Spike caught himself wondering who, in their right mind, would go to a public park to attend a presentation about tadpoles. Who, for Harmony’s sake, would make a presentation about tadpoles out of the city’s university campus?

There was a friendly looking griffon making balloon animals. They could have gone to watch him. Spike could be at the small birthday party or playing with the ponies and their pets. He was sure he could find one of those comic-reading clubs. Watching the sun spin the princess’ shadow around the sundial was probably more fun than watching a pony go on and on about tadpoles.

Time crawled at a snail’s pace, but the presentation ended eventually. Just as Spike had had enough, the unicorn thanked her audience. He almost thanked her back. Next to him, Starlight Glimmer had fallen asleep and didn’t see his baleful glare at her. Spike meant to wake her up, preferably with a loud noise for making him sit through that. Glowering at her, it took all his self-control not to shout her name.

An approaching pair of earth ponies distracted him. A couple of smiling and friendly mares with luscious silvery-gray coats and manes in different shades of purple. Let free, their manes moved with the bopping of their gait and the breeze like the images on Rarity’s shampoos. They were probably sisters and even wore cute, white, and blue matching dresses. One of them took a step forward and grinned at Spike like she knew him, and then some more.

“Oh, my! Hello! Would you happen to be Spike of Ponyville? Great and Honorable Spike the Brave and Glorious?” The mare said as she grinned at him. Starlight Glimmer woke up with a start and some incoherent mumbling.

“Well, that depends on who wants to know.” The cocky little dragon put his hands on his waist, pushing chest forward.

The earth pony couple shared a small grin and one of them smiled at him. “Our boss would like to meet you, Spike. What say you to that?”

“Hold up.” Starlight Glimmer’s voice made Spike turn to her. The unicorn’s unhappy glare turned the smiles right around. “Does your boss have a name?”

“We’ll take you to Naminé. You know she can’t come out in the open.” The mare on the right matched Starlight’s unfriendly glare. “We don’t have time. The local militia is looking for her. You must come with us. Now!”

Spike blinked, staring at Starlight with a wince. Her eyes, though, shifted fast, and her head went from one side and the other. A pair of unicorns stood by the entrance. Above, a trio of pegasi rudely hovered above the open amphitheater. Other ponies seemed to not have noticed, but the other entrance too had a pair of ponies, a unicorn, and an earth pony. Both males wore gentlemanly attire, which was not wrong, but something about them rubbed Starlight the wrong way. They all looked too similar, but more than that, they had a posture that normal ponies just didn’t have. They looked more like Royal Guards than common ponies.

“So, are you taking us to meet Naminé?” Spike opened his arms earnestly, turning back to the ponies.

“Or you should just tell us where the princesses are, and she will meet them there.” The other mare added.

Starlight pulled Spike closer to her with a hoof around his shoulder and her ears folded back. A challenging frown formed on her brow. “I don’t think they work with Naminé, Spike.”

Hard eyes under a threatening frown, Starlight Glimmer knew very well she was not any random unicorn to be trifled with. But she took a step back again. Her horn filled with magic in an instant as her mind went through the arcane formula of a teleportation spell. Nothing too fancy, just something quick to get them from the middle of the oblivious audience and put some distance between them and those mares.

None of the excitement of magic flowing through her came. Focused magical energy exploded from her horn, and she winced back with the shock of a failed spell. She screamed, her stomach turned, and a spark of pain flashed behind her eyes. Before she understood her spell had failed, Spike yelped and one of the earth ponies pounced at her. She slipped behind Starlight and held her neck in a chokehold, pulling back and forcing her forelegs off the floor. The commotion caused the surrounding ponies to yelp and jump away.

Starlight’s legs thrashed in the air, and she found the other earth pony holding the growling dragon to the polished concrete. “Spike!”

Her body filled with furious energy, and she threw herself in the direction her opponent tried to throw her, but her horn shone again. It hurt, as it was sore from the botched spell, but her telekinetic magic added to her strength. She dropped herself on top of the earth pony on the level below of the stands. Scared, yet unaware, ponies shrieked and jumped out of the way just as Starlight Glimmer threw her head at the earth pony mare’s chin.

Once free, Starlight Glimmer quickly found Spike. He, perhaps a bit more flexible than the earth pony mare thought, sunk his teeth into her leg. She jumped back and screamed, giving him enough space that he squirreled away from her.

“Behind you!” He yelled at Starlight, and she reacted out of pure reflex.

A lightning fast and practiced kick connected solidly, and a pained grunt came behind her. Starlight’s intentions were to teleport herself and Spike away, but her eyes blurred, and the world spun around her in the same second she tried. She shook her head, confused and with a nauseated huff. When she found Spike again, he was on his back, fending for himself, swiping his talons at a pegasus stallion with enough viciousness that his aggressor backed off.

Before Starlight could do anything about the pegasus, the unicorn she had seen earlier teleported closer to her. His top hat flew from his head as he waved his horn forward and yelled at her. “Stand down, ma’am! We don’t want to hurt either of you!”

The bastard was probably messing with her spells! It might be silly, but in the heat of the moment, she felt so offended at the fact she almost shot him with a magical beam. But as his horn filled with magical flux, she came to her senses. In an instant, all the boring and repetitive training with Twilight and her friends came to fruition. If a unicorn mugger ever attacked you, follow ‘One, two, three’. Identify, counter-spell, riposte. Preferably with a spell that won’t land you in jail.

It took a heartbeat, but Starlight controlled her impulses and let him cast his spell. A zap of lightning magic, no doubt meant to shock her into submission. Starlight cast a simple bubble shield spell. Even through it, his magic tingled her hooves and made her mane stand up. Then she cast one of the simple self-defense spells she had learned, and the unicorn found legs tied with an obnoxiously large ribbon tied in a bow.

The purple-maned unicorn screamed with his eyes going wide in shock and toppled. Dropped like a sack of potatoes to the stand beneath them. One of their assailant earth pony mares laughed at the scene, but a pegasus landed on the seating above. “Get this gecko under control already! And you!”

He never finished. While Spike screamed something improper at being called a gecko, the pegasus drew a baton from inside his stylish tan jacket. Unfortunately for him, Starlight thought faster. A quick spell turned it into a bouquet of daisies. Angry at her smug smile, he let go of it and readied to pounce at her. She almost zapped him with another spell. A whistle overcame all the screaming. Between panicked ponies trying to flee the commotion and the shouting from the fight, someone else ordered everypony to stop. A pair of earth ponies stood by the entrance to the amphitheater, one brown and another cyan, both wearing the leather barding of the local militias.

The brown mare, with the angry scowl of a teacher catching her students making a mess in her absence, spit the whistle from her mouth. “Quit it and get here right now! Everypony is going to meet the Lord Protector!”

Her companion, the cyan stallion, pointed with a hoof and gasped. “It’s Spike! And Starlight Glimmer!”

The silver lining in that mess was that he had recognized her.

Flintlock pistols showed up. Even worse, more whistles sounded in the distance. Ponies had cleared the grandstands, and that turned Starlight and the others into prominent targets. Something more important presented itself, though. Starlight Glimmer felt it before she looked at the unicorn with the tied legs. She realized too late he didn’t need his hooves to fight her. The white magical aura around his horn undid itself before she could react. A chilling cold gripped her core and shuddered her entire body. All her energy vanished from her, and her gasp blew a cloud of cold air from her.

“Disengage!” a pegasus still in the air cried amid the whistles. “Disengage!”

Gunshots started ringing and another pegasi landed on top of Spike just after he cried for Starlight, reaching for her. She cried back to him, best as she could, getting down on her knees with the heaviness that took over her legs. Meanwhile, the unicorn burned her ribbon to cinders and jumped to his hooves.

The pegasi cried his orders one last time before he bolted, and the unicorn teleported away to leave Starlight alone. She tried to stand, but her legs were just too weak. One of the silvery earth ponies wrestled with a local militia as another tried to reach the stairs up to the stands. One of the strange silvery ponies tackled him, but gave up the fight, looking at Starlight and running off after the others.

Spike’s voice made Starlight look at him while the pegasus held him under his shoulders and lifted off with him. From somewhere, a unicorn cast a spell on the dragon and suddenly the pegasus held him easily in the air. Spike never stropped thrashing and shouted at Starlight. “Get to Twilight! Tell her what happened!”

Starlight barely put her legs straight under her when more of the leather-barded ponies started arriving at both entrances to the amphitheater. They wasted time taking stock of the chaotic situation, but one of the first to arrive had already ordered her to not move. When a unicorn mare saw her and drew the magical stun baton from her barding, Starlight summoned sufficient willpower to do something about it.

She quickly cast the teleportation spell and materialized only a hundred hooves from the white walls of the amphitheater. Her legs failed again, and she crashed against a hay dog stand. A couple of scared ponies hid behind it and shrieked. One of them, a lime-green mare with a pink mane in a yellow dress, raised her hooves.

“She’s here! Officer! She’s here!” The damnable mare shouted, as though the toppled cart and screeching ponies weren’t enough of a mess already.

Starlight didn’t look to see if any of the local militias had heard. Her legs still responded sluggishly and stiffly. She tried to teleport again, but the proper formula never came to her mind, too drained by the cold, the tiredness, and her sore horn. The unicorn let escape a scared gasp and did the best she could with her heavy legs. Her intended gallop barely reached a trotting gait, but it would have to do when whistles sounded behind her.

The chaos which took over the entire park at least provided some cover before the pegasi finally spotted her. When they did, she was already turning into the first alley between the buildings. Out of the blue, a bout of magic grasped her. Her stomach sank. They caught her! But, instead of pulling her back, the magic dragged her out of the alley and into a yard walled by planks.

Cranes, concrete mixers, steel beams, assorted construction equipment, and materials everywhere. Strewn around the yard surrounding the husk of a building under construction. A skeleton of one of the many tall buildings, a structure of reinforced concrete beams still to be built upon. Only then she noticed a pony wearing a green cloak, just as they pushed her toward the edifice to be. Starlight’s strained legs almost caused her to trip and fall face first, but the pony was gentle.

“Hurry! They’ll look for you here!” A snappy feminine voice urged as she shoved Starlight again towards the building. “You have to hide!”

Whistles drew closer, and a dog was barking. Starlight didn’t think twice. As her strength was barely coming back, Starlight clumsily climbed over a pile of steel beams before the edifice’s future entrance. It seemed sketchy, going into an unfinished and dark building, but Starlight followed the other, who ran around the steel beams. Several hooves under the unpolished reinforced concrete, the cloaked pony magicked open a pair of crude metal trapdoors. The hinges screeched, but she kept them under control while her hoof ushered Starlight Glimmer through it. Her yellow muzzle poked from under the hood with a distressed grimace.

A dark hole. Starlight couldn’t think of a better definition for that place. “This doesn’t look like a good idea!”

The barking and whistles convinced her before the cloaked pony even needed to say anything. Hopping into the dark, she lit her way with her horn while the unicorn outside closed the doors. Trotting down dusty, concrete stairs, she mostly focused on walking so her numb legs wouldn’t cause her to trip and just kill herself already. Going down seemed like a better idea than staying within sight if the doors opened, anyway.

The faint lavender shine from her horn bathed the way as the doors creaked closed behind her. Soon enough, she found another floor of reinforced concrete. Rough pillars, more construction materials, unlit improvised light fixtures made most of the objects she found in the dark. A cellar? Basement? She didn’t know enough big city skyscrapers to understand what such a room was for. But she found some space to hide behind a cart filled with debris and discarded materials. The coarse dust scraped her legs as the unfinished cement wall scratched her coat, but she was out of sight as soon as she extinguished the light from her horn.

Once settled in the absolute dark, she noticed how fast her breathing had become and how stuffy her joints felt. She closed her eyes and did her best to control her panting, lest someone could hear her. Her chest lacked the thumping she expected, though. It finally dawned on her that the unicorn had hit her with an ice elemental spell. Her ears, perked at high alert, dropped at the realization of just how close that unicorn had come to killing her.

She doubted it was his intention, though. He had used it to subdue her, but Starlight would never do that. It was a crime; simply too dangerous. It would have worked too, had the local militia ponies not arrived when they did. Her teeth chattered with the cold and she let out a tired sigh.

“They better not hurt Spike!” She whispered to herself in the dark.

The words came out uneven, and she gasped again, hearing voices from upstairs. She tried reigning her breath again. For better or worse, the cold elemental magic had a calming effect on her.

She couldn’t make out the words. They were not as angry as she had expected. A female seemed to talk about how they were concerned and that they wanted to help the Princess’ friend. That they didn’t know who those ponies attacking them were, and that they were looking for Spike, too. Finally, that Twilight and her friends were in danger and that the cloaked pony would better assist them. Starlight’s savior talked softly, and Starlight barely heard her voice whenever she talked to them.

Little noises here and there in the absolute dark made her wince, but she resisted shuffling around. Strange smells she never identified made her nervous, but her state made it easier for her to ignore it all. Her sluggish mind slowly convinced her there was likely nothing to fear in this place. It was just a dusty construction site, and the militiaponies were more dangerous than anything in there.

No yelling, no sounds of fighting or struggle reached her. After a couple of minutes passed, the metallic doors opened. One of the barded unicorns shone a magical light down the stairs and another came down. His ears kept swiveling from side to side as he reached the bottom. The dogs never came, though. One of them yelled that somepony had seen Starlight Glimmer further down. The policeponies excused themselves and left in a hurry, without further bothering the cloaked unicorn or properly searching the basement.

Starlight Glimmer sighed with relief but remained hidden. She lost track of time as she waited for the unicorn to call her up again. Enough light entered that the objects in the basement cast shadows, but seeing the scurrying rats made their noises less nerve-racking. Meanwhile, her body seemed to have regained its heat as the unicorn’s magic waned off. She welcomed the warm touch of her own legs and hoped she’ll never have to go through that again. And just as her legs felt strong to stand again, she heard the unicorn calling her from the top of the stairs. The artificial lighting made her into a cloaked shade, but her welcoming hoof beckoned Starlight back up.

Standing and climbing the stairs easily, Starlight met the grinning unicorn, who had lowered her hood. And… “Wow.”

Her yellow coat and platinum-blonde mane took warm shades under the weak, yellow light. It was clear enough that Starlight could see her pink eyes full of life, matching her cute and endearing grin. But more than that, her face showed a flaking white paint. It made an open pair of alicorn wings around her eyes and combined with her horn. Crummy, long fetlocks, mostly unkempt, were a mess challenged only by her long mane. And only then Starlight Glimmer noticed the unicorn didn’t wear a green cloak, but a cloak made with a tight mesh of grass. All the dirt dulled her coat’s shine, but paying closer attention, the painting on her body became clearer. Parallel lines came down her neck and her forelegs, while also seemed to go to her back.

None of that diminished the sheer joy the pony radiated. She reminded Starlight of Pinkie Pie in a weird but pleasant way. Grinning like the pink mare herself. Waiting for Starlight Glimmer to be done gawking at her.

What broke the spell was when a plank in the wall surrounding the construction site raised outside. Starlight startled at the creaking noise from the planks, and a pony strutted in from beneath it. And then another, and then a few others. The plank finally banged back into place after a dozen ponies passed beneath. They hopped over the steel beams by the entrance or walked around it, chatting happily. Some even did little dances, coming into the future lobby of the skyscraper. Stopping, the first to enter flashed a radiant grin at Starlight and the grass-cloaked pony.

“The silly guardsponies will be all the way to the Scrapyard by now!” She said in a fit of giggles.

She wore a green-brown-gray-ish… Thing. A coarse blanket of undefined colors over her back, but she had the body build of a pegasus. Her mane looked like it would be puffy as an icy-gray cloud if it wasn’t so tangled. Her blue eyes and properly kept fetlocks made up for her dirty mane. The blanket also had straps hanging from it, like she could wrap herself in it when the weather was cold. The others all looked too different. Some wore old and tattered clothes, or none at all. They looked dirtier than ponies should be, but mostly healthy and well-fed. Some also had some painting on their coats, but only small decorations like flowers or butterflies. Nothing like the unicorn’s.

“Sorry!” Starlight said and shook her head after she gawked at the collection of eclectic ponies. Then she offered the yellow unicorn a hoof which the grass-wearing pony gave a hearty bump and smiled even wider with a little hop. “Thank you for saving me. I don’t know if I could get away without help!”

“It’s alright!” A handsome stallion came closer with excited gestures and a wide grin. “What kind of ponies would we be if we didn’t help?”

Starlight’s eyes swept over the place. It was a construction yard, alright, but the inside of the unfinished building seemed like a cozy home. Not only with magical lights, but also with a pile of stuff covered in a tablecloth to make a sofa. A large table with a little vase and a single white flower stood in the center. An old and damaged refrigerator unit used a small mana battery, and a barrel held burnt wood. No flames burned at the stereotypical poor pony’s heater, but it was there. Several improvised beds made of straw and pieces of cloth occupied out of the way corners. Starlight spoke again before the silence became too awkward.

“Do you guys live here?” Starlight let her ears flop. Only then she noticed it might have sounded rude and that she pitied them.

“She does!” The yellow, painted unicorn grinned, hoofing at the pegasus under the blanket before pointing at the others. “Cloud Nine was the first to make a home here. Some of them too. I live in a grove outside of town. I like the forest more than the concrete jungle!”

“Is that a problem?” Cloud Nine let her head tilt and gave Starlight a quizzical stare.

“Ah… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend!” Starlight put forward her hooves and winced. There were no homeless ponies in Ponyville and, try as she might, she didn’t know how to process that. She knew the cities had shelters for the homeless, but she felt like prodding would be offensive. She stopped talking but couldn’t stop shuffling her hooves or shifting her eyes away.

“She thinks you are poor, Cloud Nine.” The painted unicorn smiled. “I mean… I live in the grove and you in an abandoned construction site, while she lives in a palace with a Princess.”

Starlight’s face became so red she might as well help provide light to the room. She put her hooves up again and waved them frantically. “I’m sorry! I really didn’t mean it like that!”

“It’s alright, silly!” Another stallion chuckled and waved a hoof at her. His smile shifted into a smarmy, knowing grin. “You were in the park looking for somepony, weren’t you?”

“Oh! Yes!” Starlight grinned again, and her ears perked back up. “I fear we made a mess, though.”

“You were looking for us! We’re Namine’s Herd” Another mare, an earth pony mare with a once fancy, tall, and complex blonde mane-do stepped forward. She pointed at a stallion with a dusty black top hat with more holes than hat. “Dusty Hooves was supposed to meet you near the sundial!”

He bowed at Starlight Glimmer and made an apologetic frown. “I am sorry. Those peculiar ponies made things complicated. They are far more tenacious than the locals.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow at his way of speaking, but that sounded fair. Anyway, she laughed apologetically. “I guess we didn’t make your job any easier.”

“Everything is as it was supposed to be, silly pony.” The grass wearing unicorn simply kept grinning until it became a reassuring smile she complemented with a sweeping gesture of her hoof. “Even when everything seems borked beyond unborking. Harmony doesn’t throw dice.”

Starlight’s smile turned to a perplexed frown. After blinking a couple of times, she smiled again, confused more than happy. “What?”

“Even to this day you are still guiding ponies, helping them find their way. Even if you mess up sometimes. It is how it works; perfection is fake and the promise of a phony goddess of pain and sorrow. A goal none will ever reach. That is why Harmony loves Kindness and Loyalty more than duty. Generosity and Laughter will rule the land once again, and Honesty is the biggest power of the Magic of Friendship that Amicizia bestowed upon us.”

“Ah, you lost me.” Starlight Glimmer gave an awkward grin with a curt laugh. What the fudge? She sounded like Twilight, but crazier.

The unicorn raised a leg with a giggly laugh and a snort, shedding some blades of grass from her cape. “You guided us from the Green Harbor to the Moon Lagoon. Ah… Not them, but I was one of those ponies that followed you when Harmony called us. Along the way, we called you a bunch of ugly names, like Arrowbutt. I thought you had gotten yourself lost, but silly me. Everything happens the way it is supposed to. Even our present situation. It is all as it should be.”

“What are you talking about?” Starlight frowned and lowered her voice.

“It would be better if I showed you.” The yellow unicorn gave Starlight a mischievous grin. Not a dangerous one, but one like Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie might give her before inviting her to shift all the books in Twilight’s library out of place.

Starlight Glimmer took a step back with a gasp. The flowing magical energies charged the air with wind and sparks as the streetpony’s horn filled to the brim with magic. It felt like powerful magic, but not otherworldly powerful. Different. In such a way Starlight felt she could barely comprehend. The unicorn’s pink eye looked up to her own horn as swirls of white energy spiraled around it and a dot of light grew from the tip. It grew into a little star and exploded with a flash.

The last thing she saw was the stallion with the top hat. He grinned at Starlight. “Buckle your seatbelt, Starlight Glimmer, ‘cause Manehattan is going bye-bye!”

She wanted to scream, so garish the feeling was, but she couldn’t. In the next moment, Starlight walked against a furious storm of sparkling rain and howling winds. Thick raindrops exploded at the naked stone with sparks of chaotic magic.

Her hooves struck coarse, hard dirt, dark under the missing sun. Her small herd of forty-one ponies followed with determined stares even as the wind flailed their wet manes around. The oldest one, a large gray unicorn, carried a hollowed-out horn closed with moss. It hung in front of his chest, shining with the embers inside. The others carried supplies, and a bloated pregnant mare led a goat pulling a rope. Others led sheep, cows, and llamas behind them. Some even carried small cages made of twigs with chicken hidden from the storm under wraps made of stitched together leaves.

Was it fear or excitement that quickened her breath? Before them spread a desolate wasteland of jagged rocks and mad colors in the sky. Diluvial rain pelted them and howling winds screamed in their ears. To her left, many hundreds of hooves away, another group also braved the storm. Their guide started on a narrow path up a hill. The first of his forty-one ponies snaked their way around the protruding rocks while the others waited for their turn to start up too. To her right, a third group followed their guide down a slope and into a wide ravine. Her way would lead them straight through the badlands castigated by the storm and winds.

She stopped at the top of a soft mound and looked back. A soft, insecure little neigh escaped her, and her ears perked forward. Behind them was the vast forest which protected the meadow where they lived, showered by sunlight through a hole in the sky. Tall trees with deeply brown and bulky trunks topped by flame-shaped, impossibly green leaves. It was an island of calm and serenity. Safety in the middle of the dead, dark and gray wasteland stretching in every direction. Other groups had left too, taking every route possible from Green Harbor. Each group of forty-two colorful ponies taking a direction, their leaders simply knew where to go. One led, a unicorn showing the way, and the others followed.

Part of her screamed and cried for her to just walk between those ponies following her and go back. Green Harbor was safe and comfortable, but looking back at the trees bloomed a sadness which tugged at her throat beyond that. Her ears relaxed with a gentle nicker and her vibrant, alert eyes softened. They had left somepony behind. But she couldn’t go back. Her ponies counted on her.

Yes, the way forward was scary and ugly, but she was their guide. She was the one who knew the way to the place they were supposed to reach. She couldn’t stop. What would the others do without her? They needed her. They must reach their destination. That they did was the most important thing in existence. More important than any single one of them. Even more important than that pony they had left behind. Her parting words returned to Starlight’s mind and her ears perked again, as though she could hear it again.

Go now. March onward and do not look back. You must reach your destination. We have prepared you as best as we could, and you must prevail over the challenges ahead. Take care of each other and do not allow the coming hardships to dishearten you. I promise you it will become easier. That it will all be worth it. This is all for you. From the littlest insect to the greatest beast you meet, you must care for it. It could be no other way; this is the dream Harmony has dreamed for you. Now go and forget us. Forget this place. You do not need us. You do not need this place. All you need is each other. And if it gets too hard, remember that this is what you were made to do. Heed the Ancient Pact and hold it in your hearts. Look to the skies and remember we will always watch over you. Look at each other and see us within the pony next to you.

Another soft, sad neigh escaped her. A sorrowful, silent goodbye. Then Starlight turned to face the badlands again and resumed her walk. All of her forty-one followers too resumed their peregrination, following her. She was still sad, but it was what she must do. One hoof after the other, until they reached their destination.

And then she was back at Manehattan. Starlight screamed, pulling herself away from the strange unicorn. She sat on the floor and winced. The noise of the chaotic rain stayed in her ears. Her chest ached and tears streamed from her wide, shocked eyes. The two ponies sat before her, and the others watched from behind them. The pegasus in a blanket gave a curious stare while the unicorn smiled at her.

Images of little huts made of grass haunted her and the flame-shaped leaves of the tall trees forced themselves into the foreground of her thoughts. The magical tingling of the magical storm tickled her back, like waking up from a dream that refused to leave her. The Goddess’ parting words echoed in between her confused thoughts as they struggled to bring her back to the present. Slowly, the noises of the modern city returned. The sight of the unfinished building and the smells of concrete and dust won, eventually.

Starlight gasped. A sense of pride welled in her chest. She did it! They reached their destination ages ago. Or at least a pony who lived ages ago had, and she shared her soul with them. Such was the first explanation that came to her mind, but it had all been so real. The conversation with the Princesses about how souls came and went returned to Starlight. Of how they lived, died, rested, and lived again. She remembered how the princesses disagreed on whether the ponies who shared the same soul were indeed different versions of the same pony.

Princess Luna’s argument that death destroys the mind, and the creature ceases to be, seemed more reasonable. That feeling, though. It was so powerful. She knew, rationally, she had never been there. But her emotions… In a way, she was there. She had led a group of herself and forty-one ponies across a chaos-stricken world and settled near a lagoon. It kept coming back to her, and she held a hoof to her mouth. They made a fire with the embers the big unicorn carried and called that place home. Then the magic of Harmony did its thing. It became a beautiful meadow with a lagoon. The Moon Mirror. She lived there until the last of her days.

What was the meaning of all that? She still suffered from that terrible longing until she remembered she didn’t have to feel like they had left somepony behind anymore. The four great ponies, with their elegant horns and powerful wings, filled her head with a comforting sense of homeliness. It was a bizarre sensation. Starlight had known Princess Celestia almost from the day she was born. She knew Luna and Cadance too, and Twilight Sparkle. She talked to Twilight almost daily, and she often met the other princesses after she joined Twilight’s friends.

She knew those ponies, but whatever the unicorn’s magic did, it awakened something in her. She realized she knew them much more than she ever imagined. It was like meeting somepony and then remembering they had been best friends a long time ago. She simply had no words for that feeling.

She knew the unicorn, too. She had followed Starlight out of Green Harbor and shared the cave with her once they arrived at their destination. Starlight remembered the distressed, crying unicorn drawing on the walls. Drawing the image of the ponies-they-should-have-forgotten.

“What was that?” Starlight gasped, and her jaw dropped open. The yellow unicorn smiled and held Starlight’s hooves.

“That was us. We did it. The Mother of Storms said we couldn’t do it. That life was not possible without her. That our Matriarch couldn’t do it. But we did it. More than once! No matter how monumental our task was, we did it. We brought Harmony to the world. And now the Harpy hates us because of that. She wants to destroy us. But she can’t. She’s not powerful enough, and the world doesn’t belong to the griffons anymore. Our Mothers gave it to us, and we made beautiful things with it.”

Starlight pulled her hooves away from the unicorn’s. She knew that way of speaking. The tone and words of a pony who knew all the answers. Of the one who led others into the way she thought was right. Because she could not possibly be wrong. And that was a path Starlight had walked before. What was it that Discord had told them?

I simply want to make sure that you ponies don’t hurt yourselves along the way and that you don’t come out of it with the wrong ideas. What I mean is... Careful with Naminé. She is dangerous because she doesn’t understand the things that she knows, and knowledge without wisdom... Well... It defines me when I was created.

Starlight frowned. Then she let her jaw hang open for a moment, softening her frown. She frowned again. “Who are you?”

“Princess Luna named me after the ebbs and flows of time in the cycles of creation and annihilation. She said I am the Living Harmony’s response to something she called the ‘Mortality Anomaly’. I carry the memories of all souls and I preserve them into the beginning of Creation.”

“I am Discord’s madness that tried to destroy the world. I am the alicorn goddess who remembers her godhood. The turning point. The standard-bearer of the Luminary. I am the fulcrum in the War Older Than Time; the Mother’s promise of a happy world. I am the harbinger of the Harpy’s destruction.”

“You’re doing it again.” The pegasus let her ears flop with a pained whine. “It’s kinda cringe…”

“Oh! Sorry!” The yellow unicorn giggle-snorted. “Ah… The fact I was born is a sign that Harmony is ready for us to kill all the evil griffons and claim the world for Our Mothers. So that it can be what it was always meant to be. But you can just call me Naminé.”

Comments

[new55]

That was a good chapter. I wonder how this Naminé pony and her cult will change things.

[Jinnchin]

Was that a Matrix reference? That was a Matrix reference wasn't it.

Guess we'll find out soon enough if Starlight's newfound "friends" are going to be a blessing or a curse!

[Metemponychosis]

11839885
It was a reference to Wizard of Oz, inside a reference to Matrix, inside a pony pun.