Brightly Lit 2: Pharos

by Penalt

Chapter 32: Starlight by Firelight

For nearly an hour the gaggle of eight happy young ponies and three confused, but willing women made their way along the access road to Carmanah Lake. As they traveled, Iron Hoof took time to point out various tree and plant species that were common to the area, along with their various uses in preparations that Foxfire could make.

“How do you know all this?” Summer asked, her flat black hair drinking in the late afternoon sunlight that managed to poke through the stands of ancient pine and fir trees.

“I’m Foxfire’s apprentice,” Iron Hoof replied, with a sudden attack of shyness as all three adult women focused on the young colt.

“And you’re awesome at it!” Darter added, swooping in to give his friend a quick head rub before shooting back up to move between the various trees in the swift motions he was named for.

A barrage of questions piled in from the three women after that. How long had he been an apprentice? What was it like? Were there any special rituals? Iron Hoof answered them all, until the happy herd came alongside the bole of what had been a very large tree with one end of it shattered and seared by some great force, and Iron Hoof’s words fell away into silence.

“Wha—” Chilly began to ask, stopping mid-syllable as Shield Maiden held up a hoof for silence.

As the others watched, Iron Hoof silently walked up to the fallen giant. Reverently, he touched a hoof to one of the massive charred splinters coming out of the broken end of the tree. Iron Hoof stood there for several moments, long enough for his four friends to come up and join him, each lending comfort through their presence.

“Am Ah missing something?” Apple Bloom asked, sensitive to the emotion but confused as to the reason for it.

“This… “ Iron Hoof began, turning to face the CMC and the three women. “This is where I almost died.”

“That’s terrible!” Scootaloo exclaimed, zipping up to join the group hug; and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom wasted no time in joining their fellow Crusader.

“Empty Night,” Char swore, “How?”

“Iron Hoof smashed this tree apart with one kick of his hooves,” Darter answered, and the woman’s eyes widened as they matched the size of Iron Hoof against the size of the tree behind him. “But the tree smashed his legs too.”

“Princess Luna’s Night Horse came down from the sky and healed him,” Seeker added. “It was a good faerie.”

“And when it healed him, he got to be the first one of us to get their Mark of Power,” Shield Maiden concluded, leaning in close to ask, “you okay now?”

“Yeah, I just… you know,” Iron Hoof replied, drawing himself upward, bolstered as he was by the firm friendship of friends and expanded family. “Why don’t we tell them about our first adventure?”

The other ponies agreed enthusiastically and the rest of the walk to the dam at the head of the Carmanah River was taken up by an energetic retelling of how the Power Ponies used their abilities fully for the first time. Each of the five told their parts of how they came together with the Brightly Fire Department in order to save the dam, and their small town downstream.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were just as enthralled as Foxfire’s possible new apprentices. While they had heard much of the story before, it was the first time they had heard the story in its entirety and by the end, they were all cheering for their friends and adoptive siblings.

“I can’t believe your spell worked the first time,” said Sweetie Belle, as the bulk of the Carmanah Dam loomed close. “I had to practice a whole lot before I could get anything right.”

“I didn’t get it right that time either,” Shield Maiden responded. “I used too much power and I wound up including Mom and Mrs. Harding into the spell.”

“Uh, girls?” Char asked, plopping her tired body onto a stump by the side of the road. “We have a problem.”

The rest of the group turned their attention from the storytellers to the direction in which the young woman was pointing. A groan of disappointment went up from everyone as they took in the sign that stood at the turnoff to the small campground that was attached to the area around the dam.

‘Closed due to Construction’ was plastered across the BC Parks sign.

As if to further punch a hole into the good mood of the group, a large klaxon sounded from the dam and moments later dozens of dirty and tired looking men began to walk out of the dam’s expanded administration and control building. At the rear of the group was a lean, green haired woman in jeans and a T-shirt, who after making some small talk to several of the men, waved tiredly at the ponies.

“Who’s that?” Summer asked wearily, sitting down next to her friend.

“That’s Shaushka, the dam manager,” Seeker answered, brightening. “She was the one working the controls at BC Hydro when we fixed the dam. They made her the manager at the dam cause she did such a good job.”

“Maybe we can ask her for a ride back to town?” Chilly suggested, supporting herself on a thick piece of rusted cable that was suspended between two large chunks of wood to form a boundary between the road and the grassed picnic area near the dam.

“I thought you were on a quest?” Iron Hoof responded, poking the woman’s knee with a hoof. “Find the herbs, learn magic.”

“But the campground is closed, and we’re beat,” Summer said, head and hands hanging. “We do want to learn magic from Foxfire, but we’ve been on our feet all day. And now we’ve got to walk all the way back to town.”

“Walk? Why?” Shaushka asked, coming in at the tail end of the conversation. “If you need a lift me and Dan could probably give you a lift back into town.” It was a very poorly guarded secret that Shaushka and Brightly’s media manager, Dan Wilcox, had been dating for months now.

“Oh thank God, yes,” Summer replied, looking up at Shaushka like someone bringing food to the starving.

“You’re supposed to be camping tonight and finding herbs tomorrow as part of your test,” Shield Maiden stated, rather hotly for someone addressing a person twice their age.

“Test?” Shaushka asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

As the dam manager listened patiently, the group explained to her how the three women had come to Brightly to beg Foxfire to teach them magic, and how in return they had been set the task of finding several herbs from the area. By the end of the tale, Shaushka was nodding her head in understanding and at least a little sympathy for the three adult women.

“Well, I’m not about to interfere in anything to do with magic, and it sounds like if I do take you back to town it’s pretty much an automatic fail. Sound right?” Shaushka asked, her slight British accent creeping into her words.

A forest of nodding heads replied to the lean expat.

“I’d hate for you to come all this way only to fall flat on your faces ‘cause the campground is closed, especially as that’s my fault,” explained the woman, waving in greeting to some men who were coming in to start the evening shift at the dam. “I had the campground closed because of all the work we’re doing to get the Number Two turbine reinstalled before fall and the rains hit.”

“So, seeing as this is partly my fault,” continued Shaushka, who suddenly began to smile. “I’m gonna fix it by giving you all a run out to Black Bay. How does that sound?”

All of the ponies cheered enthusiastically, which absolutely confused the newcomers who had no idea where or what “Black Bay” was. The confusion was put to rest by the explanation that Black Bay was a small cove on the shore of the lake about a mile along the old logging road. The shore of which was a rare black sand beach whose overlying cover of rock had been scraped away during the last ice age to reveal the distinctive surface.

“Hop in the back of my pickup and I’ll run you up, unless you really do want to call it quits,” Shaushka added, and there was a pregnant pause as those present felt things balanced between one of two possibilities.

“I’m in,” Char stated, standing up. “We’ll never get a chance like this again.”

Summer and Chilly both agreed and a few minutes later a battered old F-150 pickup truck trundled out of the dam parking lot piled high with ponies, people and all their gear. None of them noticed the shadows watching them from the trees as the ponies' protectors did their best to let their charges have as normal a life as possible.

Those shadows did their best to pace the old truck, and only managed to do so by knowing where the pony pile was headed for. By the time Shaushka pulled off to the side of the logging road, several camouflaged watchers were already in place and diligently checking the area for threats; natural or man-made.

A beaten path through the trees traveled the bare hundred meters that separated the road from the cove, and the three women gasped in appreciation of the natural beauty around them as they emerged from the treeline at the top of the beach. The whole cove was twenty meters across at most, forming a “U” shape with steep rocky sides; and the black sand that gave the cove its name along the base onto which the group had emerged.

Both cliffs rose only a few meters vertically, but both had broad, flat tops that were perfect for camping on, and even from below the group could see a picnic table outlined against the sky.

“Still want to call it quits?” Iron Hoof asked, rhetorically. He might have been young, but even he could see the pure enchantment on the womens’ faces.

“No way!” Summer declared, smiling. The chance to sit down had revitalized the trio, even more so as they had also taken the opportunity to eat some of the snacks Windweaver had plied them with before leaving town.

The next hour was filled with both the fun and mundane tasks of setting up camp. Neither Summer, Chilly, or Char had any experience camping and Foxfire’s tent hadn’t come with instructions. The combination caused several instances of laughter as poles were put together incorrectly, in the wrong sleeves, or in the case of Iron Hoof, pounding in a tent stake so far as to almost be unretrievable. Which caused Scootaloo to laugh so hard she nearly rolled off the cliff and into the water below.

Fortunately for all concerned, Apple Bloom caught her fellow Crusader in time and Shield Maiden and Sweetie Belle were able to work together to retrieve the tent stake. Once the tent was up, with sleeping bags and bedding in place for the night to come, the group spent the last hours of the afternoon cooling off with a swim in the ice cold water of Carmanah Lake.

“This water is freezing! In August!” Chilly appropriately stated, goosebumps covering her skin as she waded back out of the water. “How?”

“Carmanah Lake is super deep, and it’s fed by a glacier,” Shield Maiden replied, as the rest of the group continued to splash around.

“So we’re literally swimming in ice water? No freakin’ wonder,” snorted the woman. “I don’t know about you, but I need to warm up. We have anything to start a fire with?”

“We’ve got some old fire cubes, but we’re gonna have to scrounge for firewood,” Iron Hoof called back, splashing water at Sweetie Belle, who promptly responded by using her magic to shoot water at Iron Hoof from behind, while dashing water at him with her hooves from the front. “No fair!”

“Campfire Two to Command,” whispered a camouflaged soldier into his radio as he watched over the scene and wished he could take a cool dip in the water as well. “Campers need firewood, do we let them gather or what?”

“Command here,” came the swift reply from Recon, back in Brightly. “Foxfire says she would prefer they gather their own and requests you have fire extinguishers on standby due to the campfire ban.”

The soldier was from an elite unit and therefore too disciplined to curse out loud, but the slight pause before he replied was as eloquent as a shout to both Recon and the rest of his hastily formed ‘Team Campfire.’

“Roger that. Forgot about the fire ban,” Campfire Two replied, mentally reviewing what he and the rest of the squad had for fire fighting and coming up low.

“So did the kids,” Recon said, in a reassuring tone. “As you and your team rotate out for breaks you can come back to the dam. We’ll have a supply of portable extinguishers there for you. Anything else to report?”

“Camp is up, group is swimming… Oh, Campfire Four chased off a kermode bear earlier. Curious was all,” Campfire Two replied, finishing with, “nothing else to report. Campfire Two out.”

The byplay between guardians went completely unnoticed by those being guarded. The protective detail, drawn from members of Canada’s elite special forces team, had taken pains to maximize their camouflage and maintain as much distance as possible from the campers. The goal was to protect the campers, from even the idea that they were being protected at all.

The afternoon began to turn to evening and the Furred Five, now an augmented Insane Eight, spent a couple of happy hours searching the immediate area for fallen branches, trees and other forms of deadwood, which were stacked into a large pile a full two meters away from the blackened stone firepit that generations of campers had used over the years.

All five of the local ponies took the opportunity to teach both the new ponies and the new neophytes some of the local flora that was good to eat, or had uses for other things in the wild. Such as which leaves could be used as a toilet paper substitute and which definitely were not, where to dig for certain roots, and several other uses.

A crackling fire rose soon after, sending a plume of smoke into the darkening sky and providing a handy heat source for the cooking/burning of hotdogs and the baking of several foil wrapped potatoes. Windweaver had made sure that all the ponies were fully provided as well with condiments along with a full bag of marshmallows and a box of graham crackers.

“No chocolate?” Char asked, as she speared one of the soft white cylinders onto a sharpened stick.

“Bad for horses and ponies,” Skylark responded from where she sat on the ground snuggled up against Char’s thigh. The two taciturn individuals had slowly gravitated toward each other over the course of the day.

“But I love chocolate back home! We have chocolate sundaes all the time back at Sugarcube Corner,” Sweetie Belle tossed back, the other two Crusaders backing her up with enthusiastic nods.

“First time I had a chocolate bar as a pony I got super sick for a few hours,” Darter said, supporting his sister, who had shrunk down a bit as her words were challenged. Skylark might be the stronger of the two siblings in the air, but unless flight was being talked about she consistently was shy and retiring.

“Dad said he couldn’t be sure it was chocolate that did it, but he said we shouldn’t take chances,” Darter concluded, extending his own marshmallow to roast.

“Can I get another hotdog?” Scootaloo asked, prompting a sputter from Summer. “What?”

“Hotdogs are meat. Well, mostly meat,” Summer explained, eyebrows furrowed. “You’re a pony, and ponies are vegetarians. Won’t eating a hotdog be like eating chocolate?”

“Horses can eat meat just fine,” Darter stated with all the confidence of a boy who was sure he was right. “But it’s kinda like junk food for us.”

“So make sure you have a bun with that,” Shield Maiden decreed, floating over one from a package.

Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked a little queasy at the remains of their own hotdogs. “Did Ah just eat… a cow?” Apple Bloom asked in shock. “We got cow tenants on our farm!”

“Remember the cows at our farm when we took you there?” Skylark asked, speaking back up. “Remember what it was like trying to talk to them?”

“Yeah, it was like talking to a brick wall. Nobody was home,” Apple Bloom said, making the connection a moment later. “Oh, Ah get it.”

“It’s still meat, and it’s still animal,” Seeker added. “Tho if it makes you feel bad, don’t eat it, but it’s not like ‘Questria. I like the taste.”

“Yeah!” exclaimed Scootaloo, sucking the weiner into her mouth like a bird sucking down a worm. “I like how they taste. Kinda salty and stuff.”

By the time the last of the hotdogs and marshmallows had been eaten, along with various treats that Windweaver had snuck in amongst the various bits of things the ponies and people had carried, the sun had set and night was fast approaching. Conversation had slowed to a stop as all in the group succumbed to the ancient lure of staring into the flames of a fire.

“Think we’ll ever get home?” Sweetie asked quietly, as the sound of insects merged with the lapping of waves against the shore.

“You will,” Shield Maiden replied. “There’s a whole world out there trying to get you home.”

“And when you do, we can come visit, and you can show us Ponyville,” Seeker added.

“And you can introduce Mom to Rarity,” Darter said, giving a jaw-cracking yawn. “Can you imagine those two talking about sewing?”

“We’ll have to pry them apart with a crowbar,” giggled Skylark, trying and failing to suppress her own yawn.

“Okay guys. I think we need to call it a night,” Iron Hoof said, getting up and stretching. “I’ll go down to the beach and grab some water to put out the fire with.”

“I’ll do it,” Skylark offered, adding as Iron Hoof raised an eyebrow in mute question, “Pegasuses have better night eyes.”

As the others cleaned up their share of debris from the evening’s dinner and time around the fire, Skylark gracefully swooped down over the surface of the small bay, the handle of a bucket held in her hooves. With the ease of a creature born to the sky, the dragon marked pony scooped up some water, climbed up and performed a flawless Immelman to return back to the small campsite.

Iron Hoof nodded his thanks to his friend as she concluded her performance with a pinpoint accurate water bombing of the fire, before dropping off the now empty bucket by the tent. The earth pony finished putting out the fire by stirring the pit of coals with a stick until the whole of it was soggy and fully extinguished, which gathered him an unseen nod of approval from the hidden guardians watching via infrared cameras.

Full night spread its dark blanket over the world, and the campers climbed under a collection of sleeping bags and blankets to keep off the evening chill. Though there was some argument over whose hoof was here and whose mane was in someone else’s mouth. It had been a long and exciting day for both the women and the ponies who were with them, and soon the only noise that could be heard from the tent was that of a chorus of soft snores.

Three hours later there was a changing of hidden guards in the dead of night.

“Anything new?” the relieving man asked the other, who was very ready to stretch and head back to town to his own bed.

“Not much. They’re all asleep. Nothing bigger than a rabbit on the IR and they did a good job putting out their campfire, so no worries about that spreading,” reported the first guard, flexing his stiff shoulder and neck.

“Alright, just give me—” began the relief.

“Movement,” the first guard whispered intently, focusing on the image that was appearing in his night vision scope. “One of them’s coming out of the tent. Looks like Iron Hoof by the size and shape.”

The earth pony had risen to the commanding urges of half a thermos of lemonade, and had made his way out of the tent as best he could, though a few grumbles told of missed steps. Iron Hoof fumbled for a moment, before flicking on a red lensed flashlight, the colour of which would ensure he kept his night vision. With some urgency, he made his way to some bushes to answer the call of nature. He had just turned the flashlight off when he chanced to look upwards, and the sight made him think of the three women in the tent with him.

Three women who, by their own words, had spent most of their lives in or around cities.

“Psst, hey wake up,” Iron Hoof whispered a few moments later, nudging Summer’s shoulder.

“Huh? Whazzup?” the woman groggily asked, poking her nose up from under her covers.

“You’re gonna wanna see this,” Iron Hoof said, shaking her again. “All of you are gonna wanna see this.”

“Iron Hoof? What are you doing?” Shield Maiden asked, raising her head from its pillow of Chilly’s side.

“Wake everybody up, they’ve got to see this,” Iron Hoof stated, and setting actions to words set about nudging everyone awake.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Scootaolo asked as she was woken up, echoing the question of the rest.

“Summer, Chilly and Char spent their whole lives in a city,” Iron Hoof reminded them all. “They’ve never seen what the night sky really looks like.”

“Who cares about a few stars?” Char asked, looking a little disgruntled at being woken out of a sound sleep.

“C’mon outside and tell me that,” Iron Hoof said, with a broad smile. “Oh, and keep your flashlights off. Just use the red ones if you need to.”

“Uh, okay,” Char replied, wrapping a blanket around her to take up the challenge and step out of the tent. “I don’t get what the big deal— Oh… oh God.”

In a large city, light pollution from tens of thousands of light sources obliterates the gentle light of the heavens except for a few of the brightest stars and the moon. Get away from that, go into one of the wild places of the world and look up, and you will see the sky in its true splendor.

Rather than the moon and a few stars, thousands upon thousands of mighty suns shone down their radiance upon the eleven humans and ponies who looked up in awe at the revealed majesty of the heavens. Crossing the great bowl of the night, the easily discernible silver path of the Milky Way arced overhead, its gleaming length having shone since before the earth cooled, as it would continue to do so long after the world itself was dust among those self same stars. Dancing across the eternal tableau shot ephemeral streaks of light as bits of the Perseids ended their lives with bursts of fire and light.

The silent reverent joy in the faces of every person and pony as they gazed upwards was all Iron Hoof could have hoped for.

“Thanks,” Char whispered, folding Iron Hoof into a huge hug, blanket and all.

“This… this is the true magic,” Shield Maiden said, her voice small against the immensity above them. “It’s more than spells or books or anything.”

“It’s joy,” Seeker added, leaning against her older sister and adding to her words, “and love, and it wants that for us.”

“God?” Summer asked, eyes locked on the heavens above.

“Maybe. I dunno,” Seeker answered.

“It’s why we’re Power Ponies, or Crusaders, or witch students,” Darter said, fluffing his fur a bit for extra warmth. “We all want to be happy, and we want everyone we love to be happy too.”

“For Happiness,” Iron Hoof declared, summoning the Seed of Joy.

“For Love,” Shield Maiden responded, calling her Seed of Love to her side.

“For Everyone around us,” the pair stated, and succumbing to their continued impulse, touched their blades to each other.

As they did, a golden chime rang out that echoed back and forth from earth to sky and back again, repeating until all the world was alive with the sound of joy and love made manifest in that timeless moment. The sound danced equally through fur and flesh, over branches and twigs, until the stars themselves seemed to bend to the music of magic manifested in the moment.

“This job may be weird a lot of times,” whispered the watching, hidden guardian to his relief, “but it’s never dull. That’s for sure.”

Author's Note:

This chapter came in just under the wire due to a great many issues of life. But it is here and is probably the last calm chapter for awhile....

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Comments

[Morphy]

That was a beautiful scene at the end. I'd almost say you timed it for that hopeful feeling of New Year's, heh. I'm envious of the view however and a bit of the Northern Lights would have been a cherry on top for that magical night-- although the scary implications of the lights would have tempered that somewhat since it's all highly charged particles slamming into the magnetic shield that would have killed you slowly instead through cellular decay as well as stripping the very atmosphere from Earth. You only need to look at Mars to see what happens without a shield.

[coyotethetrickster]

11465556
that was me lol. not on purpose though, i've been very busy and he gave me puppy dog eyes to at least work on it before december ended so we ended up with a new year's chapter

[Aremna]

Hope things are going better for you. Another great chapter as always