• Published 31st Jan 2020
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Brightly Lit 2: Pharos - Penalt



Equestria and Earth have met in the town of Brightly BC. Will the fires of friendship be enough to keep the small, isolated town safe? Or will demands from both worlds tear it apart?

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Chapter 27: Genesis 3:24

Children.

Children have been described poetically in many ways. “The joy of life and warm sight to the sore eyes,” says Islam. The Bible refers to them as being, “Like the arrows of a mighty man.” While Judaism considers them to be perhaps the purest form of being created in God’s image.

One of the true marks of a parent, be it by the act of birth or through taking up that role for one who is not of their blood, is that they hope to see their child grow and surpass their own accomplishments, that the child will go farther in life from having stood on the shoulders of one who loves them.

But if this is perhaps the greatest hope of all parents, there is a matching fear. A fear that fills the heart of a mother or father with dread, and has caused many a door to open in the middle of the night for a surreptitious check on a sleeping form. The fear that their child will stumble and fall before they truly begin to run. That they will outlive their child.

Fear of and for one’s child has given mothers the strength to lift entire cars, and the courage to stand unflinching and unbowed before those who would do harm to the small lives that they nurture and cherish. It has given fathers the endurance to carry on through conditions and wounds which should have killed them, to return from places and situations that no mortal should ever return from.

And so it was with the parents of Seeker, aka Romana Pedersen.

Two sets of ears heard the radio call of “Code Gandalf”, heard the exchange between Pumpkin Spice and their daughter, and heard Seeker’s declaration of love before she passed through the barrier around Earth’s only magical tree.

Two sets of hooves bore a pair of bodies directly through a suddenly very porous wall, carrying them up along the road with the sound of thunder, and upon hearing that sound, the pony of that name, his wife, and their family came pouring out in pursuit because the best of friends are also family. Only extended.

The rocketing herd moved at the speed of fear, gathering sons, daughters, friends, neighbours, guardians, teachers and companions in its frantic haste along the roads and into the woods outside of the town. Soldiers and scholars felt the earth rumble beneath their feet, causing them to look up and scramble out of the way as the assembled mass blazed past, only to be sucked along in its wake by the powers of concern and curiosity.

It took the mass of humanity and ponies only a few minutes to cross the distance from Arnold Kye’s home to where the tree stood, and even though it was a trip that should have taken half an hour, to those who made that run it felt as if it had taken days.

ROMANA!” cried Foxfire, as she skidded to a stop centimetres short of the coruscating wall of energy.

“I tried to stop her,” Ram apologized, beating at the shield with her now empty service weapon as brass casings from its expended ammunition littered the ground around them.

“What’s going on?” Iron Hoof yelled as he arrived, his young eyes wide as he took in the scene of his father and adoptive mother in front of a strange barrier of gently humming light.

“It’s Seeker,” Iron Heart stated, pointing a hoof to where the young pony stood on the other side of the barrier, eyes closed in some sort of communion with the tree. “She said the tree needed her and her magic.”

“Thorry Mom,” Seeker murmured, and the onlookers saw the young pony’s hoof begin to sink into the tree itself. “But the tree needs me. Then the tree can help everybody like it did before.”

“I need you,” Foxfire declared. “WE need you.”

The statement echoed through the clearing as Thunder, Windweaver, and their small herd arrived, along with Seeker's sister, Shield Maiden. The young leader of the Power Ponies quickly moved up beside her mother and the two shared a worried look before the younger unicorn’s eyes fell on Apple Bloom.

“Any idea what she’s doing?” Shield Maiden asked the Equestrian, instead of her mother or adoptive father who were both attempting to batter their way through the tree’s shield. Blow after thunderous blow from Iron Heart struck the barrier, while Foxfire had begun to blaze away with her magic, restored as it was through the enchanted falchion Iron Heart had forged for her.

“Ah uh… “ hesitated the red maned pony. “Ah think she’s tryin’ to give herself to the tree.”

“Say what now?” was Shield Maiden’s confused reply. Apple Bloom was looking more and more embarrassed and somehow ashamed, refusing to meet the young unicorn’s eyes.

“It’s okay, you can tell her,” Scootaloo said, giving her friend a comforting nuzzle.

“It’s a thing some earth ponies do when they want to… pass on,” supplied the pony. “They can kinda give themselves and all their magic back to the ground. I heard Applejack talking about it once when Granny Smith was sick.”

“But Seeker doesn’t want to die, she just wants to…. Oh,” Shield Maiden replied, stopping as a recent memory came back to her.

The leader of the Power Ponies found herself reliving the moment when each member of her family had taken up the bronze blades that had been made for them. Each sword had asked them a question and their responses had shaped what had come next. For Shield Maiden, her sword had called itself the Seed of Love, but her sister’s blade had referred to itself as the Seed of Giving.

“Where I am planted there will be no want, but beware for I am selfless,” murmured the unicorn. “Selfless. Selfless… That’s it!”

“Mom! It’s a gift!” Shield Maiden shouted, dashing the remaining few feet to her mother’s side where Sweetie Belle had been trying, and failing, to get Foxfire to stop trying to force her way through the barrier with her magic.

“The tree doesn’t have magic, Mrs. Foxfire,” the little Equestrian unicorn was saying. “The tree IS magic. I don’t think even Princess Twilight could make a hole in that.”

“I have to try!” Foxfire replied, breaking off the conversation as her older daughter ran up. “What do you mean, a gift?”

“Romy’s giving herself as a gift to the tree. Her sword is the Seed of Giving, remember?” Shield Maiden insisted, even as her sister’s mane and tail started to fade into translucence. “She’s gonna give all of herself to the tree cause the sword said it was selfless.”

The edges of the clearing were becoming more and more crowded as more people and ponies managed to arrive after having threaded their way through the scrub forest, but were unwilling to crowd in on the drama unfolding around the tree itself.

“Sweetie Belle is right, people,” said Captain Malinski, his hooved feet and equine tail were on full display at the moment but the Canadian officer didn’t care one bit with his mission to protect this place and these people in jeopardy. “We can’t use mundane force against a natural force of magic. It just doesn’t work.”

Iron Heart and his son both ceased battering away at the shield with their hooves as they heard that and in unison turned in frustration toward the captain.

“Then what do we do?” Iron Heart asked, looking back at Seeker whose face held a beatific smile as if everything was good and right with the world.

“I dunno, but like Rainbow Dash says, ‘We’ve got to give it all we’ve got’,” stated Scootaloo. “We’ve gotta give till it hurts, whatever it is.”

A hush fell over the clearing as the words of the pegasus echoed, and for long moments the only sound in the clearing was that of breathing, and shifting hooves and feet. What the young Equestrian had said triggered something in both mother and elder daughter and the two looked at each other even as their brows furrowed in concentration.

“Seed of Giving… ” Foxfire said, her tone thoughtful as Shield Maiden’s words echoed in her mind. She could tell her older daughter was on to something, but the fear for her younger daughter was clouding her mind..

“Apple Bloom, did Seeker say why the tree needed her?” Foxfire demanded, turning so quickly her white mane and tail were like a sudden fall of snow.

“N-not really,” the earth pony answered, more than a little nervous at being the sudden center of the elder unicorn’s intent regard. “Just that the tree was scared of getting hurt again, and wanted to be like the Tree of Harmony, an’ that it needed her so that it could help everypony.”

“It needs Seeker to give it the power it needs,” Foxfire said, thinking out loud. “But it can’t take it. It needs—”

“A gift,” Shield Maiden reminded her mother.

“Right. A gift freely given, a selfless gift. A gift of love and of caring,” Foxfire finished, nodding in acknowledgement to her daughter. “That’s got to be the key somehow. Everything keeps coming back to giving.”

“No one has greater love than this, that they give their life for another,” Thunder quoted, as he stood in the circle of his own family.

“But is it my daughter who is being selfless to the point of sacrifice, or is it her sword?” questioned the white unicorn, her mind diverted.

“Does it matter?” asked Iron Hoof, pointing toward his step-sister. “Seeker’s fading even more now. We’ve gotta do something!”

“It’s your call, Foxfire,” Malinski said, watching with approval as the men and women of JTF2 and the PPCLI continued to take up protective positions without interfering with the civilians, or the pre-eminent civilian authority on magic that was present. “My people are ready to do whatever you think is best.”

“I don’t know if there is anything you can do, because I’m pretty sure you were right and force isn’t the answer,” Foxfire concluded. “We can’t magic our way through.”’

“Can’t bash our way through either,” chipped in Iron Heart.

“Explosives didn’t work,” Pumpkin Spice commented.

“I… I don’t know,” Foxfire finally admitted, ears and shoulders both slumping in defeat. “Does anyone have any ideas?”

Moments passed, and the mood of the crowd became visibly sadder and grimmer as the moments stretched out longer and longer, until nearly a full minute had passed.

“You know, the solution is obvious, once you think about it for a moment,” said a voice of gentle power that cut through the hush like a sudden dawn carving through an early morning fog.

It was a voice that had been trained to speak and had years of experience in doing so. A voice that had carried light into some of the darkest reaches of human souls, had been raised in joy for those who had triumphed against the demons they carried within themselves, or had comforted those who had lost against those self same demons.

“Father Addison,” Foxfire said, her ears pricking up with renewed hope, as she saw the Anglican priest make his way through the crowd “Please, if you have any suggestions on how we can get through and save my daughter. Please, now’s the time.”

“Foxfire… Jean,” the bat-pony priest replied, smiling as both he and his wife trotted forward through the assemblage. “You were so close. You almost had the answer without me.”

“Father Addison, we don’t have a lot of time here,” Thunder stated, flaring a wing toward where Seeker’s fading body had begun to lose its vibrant colour. “I know you like to lay things out bit by bit in your sermons, but this isn’t the time.”

“Answer me this then, where are we?” Addison asked, pressing forward, and his question sent the mind of those present whirling.

“Earth?” shouted Scootaloo, trying to be helpful.

“Brightly, British Columbia, Canada,” Malinski stated. “Fifty-two degrees, twenty minutes north latitude, one hundred twenty-seven degrees thirty minutes west longitude.”

“That’s both the modern location and the most generic one,” Addison replied, with a smile. “Think older, but more specific.”

“Heiltsuk territory?” Windweaver asked, after a moment of thought.

“Bingo. We’re on the unceded territory of my forefathers from the Heiltsuk First Nation,” congratulated the priest pony, his crucifix a flash of silver against his midnight blue chest fur. “And do you remember what my people were known for and were persecuted for under the Indian Act?”

“POTLATCH!” Foxfire yelled out, slamming her own hoof into her forehead. “Of course! Father Addison you’re brilliant and by the Goddess, you were right, we almost had it.”

“I have certain advantages of birth,” replied the Anglican priest, nodding graciously. “But one of you would have gotten it without me.”

“Well, I don’t get it,” Iron Heart commented. “What’s so big about the potlatch?”

“Missionaries had the government use the Indian Act to stomp on the potlatch for several reasons, but one of them was that the ceremony was essentially weaponized giving in challenges for social standing and political influence among coastal First Nations,” Addison explained. “To the point that some families were beggaring themselves to compete, which the Christian missionaries found abhorrent; considering it to be wasteful and a sin.”

“So if guns, hooves or magic won’t get us through to help Seeker, weaponized giving might do the trick,” Malinski said, slamming one forehoof into another in a gesture of satisfaction. The captain froze for a moment as he looked down at his changed forelimbs. “Looks like that apple you gave me is still working, Pumpkin Spice.”

“Recon,” groused Ram, but her tail drooped as she realized that the other name had well and truly stuck to her.

“Cute ears though, Captain,” laughed Windweaver for a moment, before turning to look over at her friend and neighbour.

The seamstress and the sorceress had shared their time and lives with each other until they were as close as sisters, and so Windweaver was able to read Foxfire's intent in her eyes. She knew what Foxfire was about to do and gave her friend and neighbour a small nod of encouragement.

Turning, the gravid unicorn approached the shield until she was close enough to rear up and support herself in a standing position against it, forehooves braced against the humming rainbow coloured energies that rippled and moved underneath her. Beyond the barrier stood her youngest daughter in a similar position against the tree, her legs becoming fully translucent.

“Tree,” Foxfire began, in a voice filled with care and worry. “That’s my daughter in there with you. I know you need her magic, and the magic of her sword, but please take me and my magic instead. My powers have only brought me troubles and problems, but my daughter uses hers to help others.”

Everyone fell silent again, listening to the impassioned words of a mother trying to perform the ultimate duty of a parent. To protect their child in times of danger, and if need be, to take that danger on themselves, even at the cost of their own life.

“Please tree,” Foxfire implored the font of magical power. “Take me, instead of my daughter. I’m her mother, and I’m stronger than her besides.”

Heartbeats passed in silent supplication, and then the hum from the tree changed in pitch, first dropping and then rising above the base tone of the barrier before returning to normal.

“I know,” Foxfire nodded, seeming to understand. “I know I’m not my daughter, and you might still need her. So if you still need her gift, please accept my gift as well. I’m her mother, let me come with her.”

The song of the tree rose by a harmonic third and Foxfire felt her hooves sink slightly into the barrier and then stop. Reflexively the unicorn tried to move her forehooves, only to find them stuck in place even as a warm sensation began to envelop them.

“I think it’s accepted me,” gasped Foxfire, feeling herself winded all of a sudden. “It’s taking me as a gift as well.”

Iron Heart moved up beside his wife and nuzzled her for a moment, feeling how she sagged against him and knowing his love had made her choice and was content with it.

“I’ve lost one wife,” the dark stallion stated. “I’m not losing two.”

“What?” Foxfire had time to ask, before the night black mane of her husband meshed with hers as he reared up beside his love, smooth white strands mingling with curly black.

“Tree,” Iron Heart declared, as he matched his wife’s posture against the shield. “I’m Seeker’s father. Adoptive maybe, but still her father. I’m also Foxfire’s husband, so I’m asking you to accept my gift alongside theirs. Take me. Take my power and my strength. Use it to protect yourself and others. It’s the duty of the strong to protect the weak.”

“I’m Seeker’s father,” Iron Heart repeated. “Take me with her.”

Like those of his wife before him, Iron Heart’s hooves sunk partially into the barrier before sticking in place. The stallion leaned against his wife as he too felt the tree begin to drain away his magic and power, and in response to the influx of power the song of magic sounded a new note to blend into the growing harmony.

“I think it's working!” shouted Shield Maiden, and matching her mother on her unoccupied side, the filly declared, “I’m Shield Maiden. I’m Seeker’s sister. Take me with her.”

“I’m Seeker’s brother,” stated Iron Hoof, as he flanked his father and followed his example. “Have my power too. Take me.”

As the last member of Seeker’s family declared their intent to give of themselves, the song of the tree rose into a full chord, seeming to signal its acceptance of the gift offered.

“Seeker’s stopped fading,” Windweaver said, her practiced eye noting the change. “I think whatever they are doing is working.”

“There’s only one way to make sure,” Thunder answered, before turning to his assembled herd. “I’m going to help Foxfire and Iron Heart. None of you have to come with me, okay?”

“Whither thou goest, there I will go,” Windweaver quietly stated, a soft smile gracing her muzzle.

“Yeah! We wanna help too!” Scootaloo and Darter declared in unison, each matching the other in their exuberance as they both dashed over to the barrier and slammed their forehooves against it.

“We’re Seeker’s friends, take us too,” the pair stated together, still speaking in almost a single voice.

“I’m Seeker’s neighbour, babysitter and friend,” Windweaver stated as she placed herself in the same position as the others. “Take me.”

“I’m her neighbor and friend too,” Thunder added, matching his wife and laying a wing over the back of his impetuous son as Skylark, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom also offered themselves up. “Take me, take us and our gift.”

A second choral chord joined the first, with wordless ethereal voices singing a song of magic that began to fill the glade with power and majesty.

“I’m Seeker’s shield,” Pumpkin Spice affirmed, as she added herself to the group. “Take me.”

“I’m Seeker’s guardian and protector,” Captain Malinski said, stating his position. “My job is to protect and defend. Take me and my gift.”

Ponies and people began streaming toward the magic barrier to place hands or hooves against the shield of magic that the tree had erected to protect itself, and as each person stated their relationship to Seeker and their intent to offer themselves alongside her, the music of the tree grew in power and complexity.

Dozens offered themselves as gifts, then a hundred, then two hundred. Until there was no more room to touch the barrier itself and those arriving had to place their hands and hooves on the backs of others. Scientists and soldiers, retirees and restaurant owners, people and ponies from all walks of life had been touched by the simple friendship and friendliness of the small pony that was Seeker.

Only the three Equestrians in their midst realized that the people of Brightly had managed to tap into the strongest magic known to Equestria through the selfless gift of themselves. The Magic of Friendship rose from the tree in a gigantic rainbow shaft of light as the song of the tree’s magic wound around it in heavenly chorus.

Rising toward the heavens the poly-chromatic pillar split into each of its discreet colours, with each beam blazing across the skies toward a different destination. As the skies lit with chromatic hues the magical dome around the tree began to rapidly expand, pushing everyone back several meters before passing through the bodies of all those gathered around it.

As the magic of friendship effortlessly moved their physical forms, it transformed each and every one of them into ponies as well as changing the land around them. The colours were deeper, sounds more melodic, the earth softer and more welcoming. Wider and wider expanded the power of the tree, travelling rapidly through the nearby town, enveloping the Carmanah Dam and its crews.

This was the magical power that had thrown off Twilight Sparkle’s calculations, causing the imbalance that had created the conditions for the portal’s collapse. This was the magic that had combined with Equestria’s power to saturate the land with so much magic that even the most mundane of humans had begun to be able to cast spells, and now it was the power that returned magic to Brightly, changing each and everyone person within a eight kilometer radius into ponies.

Without the barrier holding all of them up, the Power Ponies, their friends and family had all fallen to the ground. Foxfire felt a small, solid weight against her chest and her heart leapt as she looked down to see the grey streaked purple mane of her daughter, Seeker.

“Romy!” Foxfire cried, clutching her daughter, who was small and precious and perfectly in one piece, tightly to her body.

“Hi Mom,” said the little pony as she lay against her mother. “Thorry.”

“You! You ever scare me like that again. I’ll… I’ll… “ Foxfire broke off, unable to finish the sentence.

“Wow. Look at that!” a voice exclaimed, and all eyes were drawn to the tree.

Just as the tree had changed and transformed all of them, so had the gift of life and magic changed the tree itself. No longer a thing of wood, bark, leaves and fruit, the apple tree that John Leung had planted so long ago was now transformed into a structure of crystalline beauty with leaves of literal emerald green chiming against each other in the light breeze.

Apples of pure ruby hung from tourmaline branches that grew out of a tiger’s eye trunk and the whole of it gleamed with mystical power even as the musical leaves continued to sing a song of magic that everypony present could feel in the air around them, and around the whole of it there circled the sword.

Seeker’s sword, the Seed of Giving, had been the gift that the tree had chosen to keep for itself. Twirling and swirling around the former confines of the tree's protective shield, the blade of bronze now marked out the point beyond everyone knew the tree would allow none past. A feeling that was confirmed as Thunder got to his hooves and the blade shifted to orient on him in obvious warning.

“And in the east of Eden,” quoted the pegasus, “He stationed an ever turning fiery sword, to guard the way to the tree of life…”

The pony turned back toward the Anglican priest who was busy helping several new ponies as they struggled with their new bodies. “My God, Father Addison. What have we done?”

Author's Note:

I've been building on the magical nature of Leung's tree since almost the very beginning of the original Brightly Lit. It's very nice to see this magical font finally step out into the open, so to speak. Next chapter will continue to deal with the fallout of this world changing event.

Like many parts of the Brightly story, this chapter also had music for much of it's inspiration. Here is that inspiration...

It has been just under three years since My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ended, and yet the community continues to create such works of glorious wonder and majesty. It is my pride and privilege to be a small part of this fandom.


Every month my patrons get to vote on which story they would like to see me work on following this, my commissioned story. This month, my patrons have voted for another chapter of How Twilight Sparkle learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Baddies, in which Shining Armor will have his encounter with Nightmare Rarity.

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