On Wings Of Black And White

by DreadAngel1711

Bury The Light - Part 1

Starburst’s House

2:30AM

“Here we are…” Starburst groaned, eyes half closed as she and Mysteeri shambled into the house, the witch simply letting her clothes fall off her as she approached her usual seat by the fireplace, Starburst quietly hopping into the other one.

Silence fell.

Only to be broken by the two letting out exasperated, exhausted sighs, the shining vibrancy in Starburst’s mane seeming to vanish into the cold air that pervaded her home.

“Fuck…” Mysteeri groaned, deflating into the chair and dragging her hand down her face, staring into the black, empty fireplace, the slight groan she let out slowly rising into a scream as she threw her arms upside her face, clutching onto her hair on the other side of her head “FUUUCK!” She bellowed out, throwing her arms down “CHRIST!”

“I know, right!?” Starburst joined in on the yelling “It’s been how many days of just nothing but fighting!”

Mysteeri ran her hand through her hair, taking in a deep breath before letting it all out in another scream “Even for me that’s way too FUCKING much!” She let out a yelp as her wings suddenly extended to their full size with an audible FWOOF “Oh, great, now THESE things want to be a problem!”

“I feel like any more magic’s gonna smash my horn open!” Starburst howled, burying her face into the seat’s arm.

“I don’t care what anyone says, we deserve to sleep in…” Mysteeri once again covered her face with her hand “God, look at this, Starburst,” she turned to the unicorn, hand extended “The coat’s gone from my suit to my goddamn hands.”

Starburst cried out again as she rolled over onto her back “How are we going to even get ANY of this done!?”

“Not like this we ain’t…” Mysteeri sighed “I need some damn sugar…please tell me we got enough of those crystals, I don’t want to spend another day going back and seeing that cu-“

Mysteeri’s extreme curse was cut off by the door slamming open, followed immediately by a familiar voice.

“SHE KNOWS!” Luna shouted, rushing in and slamming the door behind her “My sister knows you’re here!”

She was met by another unified scream that she swore she could probably have heard from Canterlot, only then noticing how…absolutely exhausted the two were, Mysteeri’s spiked up hair was drooping, along with that shimmer now completely vanished from Starburst’s mane and tail “Oh, I’m sorry, did I come at a bad time?”

“Half two in the morning could be considered a bad time…” Mysteeri said after glancing to Starburst’s clock “Shouldn’t you be in people’s dreams?”

“Yes, I should be.” Luna nodded “However I was able to find an opening in time where there are no nightmares plaguing the land for now. I knew I had to come warn you the moment I noticed.”

“Great…” Mysteeri grumbled “I’m basically 80% through the transformation, we have, like, two days until closest approach and now Celestia knows where we are. What next, a nuclear space station crashes into the planet?”

Luna and Starburst exchanged a glance at the last part of the question “How many more things do you need to prepare?”

“White gold.” Starburst said, rubbing her eye with her hoof “From…the Canterlot Moun-“ She stopped short upon realising what she was saying “Fuck.”

“I’ll go when I wake up.” Mysteeri said “Alone.”

“Surely you jest.” Luna interjected “Alone is suicide, if you are right next to Canterlot, my sister will assuredly be able to tell your exact location.”

“How?” Mysteeri returned “She doesn’t know anything about how to read my energy, that’s one thing we have going for us. I could be right above her and she wouldn’t be able to tell.”

Luna shook her head “My sister has had many years to hone her magic, I never thought to ask but even I should assume she has a spell that is capable of detecting anomalies and other things from beyond this world and the next.”

Starburst sighed “And no spell I can cast would be-“ She was interrupted by a yawn “…be able to hide you from someone like Celestia. Not that you’re going, anyway.”

“I am.” Mysteeri broke through her exhausted mind to respond in a firm tone “There’s no other way.”

“I would acquire it for you myself, but once again my duties prevent me from doing so.” Luna frowned “You have my sincerest apologies.”

Starburst simply waved her hoof “Don’t worry, you have more important…” Her eyelids slowly shut as she spoke before closing completely, her head drooping down before she began letting out light snoozes.

“Poor little thing.” Luna gently placed her hoof on Starburst, her horn lighting up before the fireplace roared to life “Wouldn’t want one of my subjects sleeping in the cold on my watch.” She then turned to Mysteeri “You’re not going to change your mind, are you?”

“Nope.” Mysteeri replied, yawning herself “I already said I’d fight Celestia if it came down to it.”

Luna nodded slowly “Fighting my sister…you are quite the warrior, Mysteeri. I can’t say I approve of the idea; she is my sister after all, but if you must fight her, then I hope you are prepared.”

“I’ve survived Aunt Rem blasting me through a city.” Mysteeri smirked at the memory, placing her head on her fist “What’s the worst…that…she can do…” The witch, too, was quick to drift off the moment her eyes began to close, going entirely silent and still save for the rising and falling of her chest.

Luna chuckled to herself, turning to the clothes Mysteeri had strewn about behind her, levitating them up onto the table before turning to the door “Good luck, Daughter of Darkness.” She glanced behind her as she opened it, stepping outside and gently pulling it shut behind her “You’re going to need it.”

With that, the princess of the night took to the air. She gave the distant, yet night-piercing comet a glance. It was bigger and brighter than ever, yet even in its glowing white splendour, it felt wrong to call it a beautiful sight.

6AM, Canterlot Castle

“Ah, good morning, sister!” Celestia greeted Luna with a cheery smile, as she always did and always will “How was your dreamwalking?”

“Quite uneventful, I’m afraid.” Luna replied, rubbing her eyes before yawning “Nothing too interesting happened.”

“I see…” Celestia nodded “I hate to bother you about it now of all times, but did you find that strange dream energy again? The one that could have come from the offworlder.”

Luna paused.

“No.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate.” Celestia put a hoof to her chin “How strange, even they must have to sleep.” She pondered, then looked to Luna once more “Well, you go turn in for the day, then.” She smiled once more, raising the sun into the sky without much of a thought.

“Of course.” Luna yawned once more, even a princess like her couldn’t help but drag her hooves as she walked away from her sister. Taking a look behind her, she saw Celestia silently observing the land below from the balcony, already looking as if she was incredibly deep in thought.

“That’s all the time I can buy you.” Luna thought “I pray to Faust it’s enough.”

Celestia was snapped out of her thoughts some time later by the approach of a guard in a much more lavish set of armour than the rest “Your Majesty.” He said in a gruff voice. He waited in silence for a minute. Then two. Then three.

“Princess Celestia.” He said, slightly louder.

That got her attention, the princess’ ears flicked, and her eyes glanced over to him. She let out a quiet, short gasp upon noticing the guard’s presence “Oh, I’m sorry, Captain, I was much too deep in thought!” She laughed, to which the Captain smiled “Do you have something to report?”

“I do, your majesty.” The Captain nodded “We know for certain that the offworlder has been in Ponyville since before even they were spotted outside of Carousel Boutique. Investigators were able to find out someone has been housing her, but the pony doing so is an absolute ghost. They couldn’t find a trace of her name.”

“That is quite the pony.” Celestia replied, once again glancing out to Ponyville, then looked back to the guard “Is there anything else?”

“Yes, and this is quite pressing. The offworlder is on the move again.” The Captain walked up to beside Celestia on the balcony, pointing to the faintly visible train tracks that lead from Ponyville “It was spotted following the train tracks by a guard on patrol, he said it’s wearing some strange new clothing as well, perhaps to disguise itself.”

“Go on.” Celestia nodded.

“When it noticed it had been spotted, the guard said it moved faster than anything it had ever seen with legs. Which leads on to something else that had been recently confirmed: the offworlder has the legs of a pony.”

Celestia shuffled on the spot at such a mention “Excuse me?”

“The offworlder’s legs are that of a pony.” The Captain repeated “It was confirmed by the investigators, but they don’t look like that of Lord Tirek.”

“What in Faust’s name are we dealing with, then?” Celestia quizzed “And do we know where it’s going?”

“I can only presume…here.” The Captain replied, Celestia’s expression turning serious “The tracks it was spotted following lead straight to Canterlot Station, with only one stop in the mining town just before.”

Celestia took a deep breath “I will deal with this offworlder myself, then.”

“P-Princess?” The Captain stuttered, his rough expression fading in an instant “Permission to be frank?”

“Permission granted.”

“That’s absolutely ridiculous.” The Captain huffed “For you to leave Canterlot to deal with an issue the guard itself is more than capable of, why?”

“Because it’s already nearby.”

Glimmering Tool Town, not far from Canterlot

A large, muscular stallion grunted as he hefted a trailer of coal behind him, the gravel on the floor crunching beneath its weight as he tugged it along the path through the town, the mountain winds sending a cold chill throughout.

The stallion came to a stop when he saw a strange creature standing atop a nearby fence, perfectly still, looking out to a distant ridge. Its long black coat moved with the wind, yet the creature’s precarious perch remained steadfast.

“Hey!” The stallion called out “Can I help you?”

The tall, slender creature turned its attention to the stallion, hopping off the fence and approaching in absolute silence. They stared at each other for a moment before the creature spoke.

“White gold. You got any?”

The stallion looked to the same ridge where the creature had just been staring “…Sorta. It’s all under that ridge you was just lookin’ at, but-“

“Good enough. Where’s the entrance?” The creature interrupted.

“Well, we’re not meant to go in often. It’s an extremely long mine now, been mined out so much, we only go get it when there’s something coming…up…” He trailed off as a single golden glow appeared from the gap between the creature’s face covering and hat, boring into his very soul as they slowly leaned over the stallion “It-it’s by the old watchtower, can’t miss that.”

The shadowed creature immediately broke eye contact, turning around in a swift movement with their coat flowing out behind them from such a movement, revealing briefly to the stallion a pair of pony’s legs, his eyes scanning the creature from the back as they walked off.

“Just a little…longer…” The creature growled to themselves.

Inside the mountain…who knows how much later

It felt like she had been walking for hours now, the faint glow of scarcely placed magic torches illuminating the spiralling path. Up, down, all around, it took her in every conceivable direction imaginable.

Mysteeri finally perked up upon noticing faint glimmers coming from the walls. Finally.

Putting her face up to them, she could just barely make out specks of a glimmering, brilliant white. White gold.

But then came the other issue: there was barely any here. Anything she could see was barely even the size of a nail, even if she gathered all this…

Her attention was then grabbed by a pile of boulders blocking the path, along with the ever so faint whisper of winds. Mysteeri approached the boulders and closed her eyes.

Behind here.

She put her hand on the closest boulder, her palm illuminating with a pink glow before the whole tunnel rumbled from a mighty blast, loose rocks clattering to the ground, along with chunks of the boulders that once obstructed the path.

Mysteeri was met with a bright white light as the dust cleared, slowly opening her eyes to see the source of it all being that of a room filled with huge chunks of…white gold. Positively tons of the stuff – for once the witch cracked a confident smirk as she strutted into the opening, looking up to see the sky itself above her, sunlight shining into the opening – creating the brilliant luminescence.

Stuffing her hands in her pockets, Mysteeri began whistling to herself as she inspected each chunk.

Her window shopping was interrupted by her ears flicking underneath her hat. The witch was quick to leap into the air in response, an enormous blast of magic impacting the point she was once standing.

Landing with a slight stumble, the witch stared at the crater left behind by the blast, grunting to herself as her eyes darted around for the attacker.

Nothing.

Until she heard the flapping of wings, glancing up to the opening in the roof.

“HALT, OFFWORLDER!”

Mysteeri’s disguise faded in ashes of purple light at the bellowing voice’s call, her hair letting out an audible fwoof as it sprung out in all directions, her wings slowly extending as the shadow of a pony became visible against the sun. Large wings and an equally long horn with a flowing mane and tail…

Princess Celestia touched down gently on the shining floor, her magenta eyes meeting Mysteeri’s revealed golden one. The witch couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“And here’s our guest of the hour.” She quipped, Celestia giving her no reaction “Sucks we had to meet in such a situation.”

“I shall give you one chance to surrender, offworlder.” Celestia’s voice was hard, firm and commanding “Lay down your arms, and I will allow you to return peacefully to whence you came.”

Mysteeri’s playful smirk was swiftly replaced with another scowl “And what gives you the impression I’ll do that?”

Celestia stood up to her full height, head held high “Your very presence here is causing an imbalance – in you, this world and the next. If you continue to persist, you shall cause irreparable damage to both yourself and the very fabric that makes up these worlds.”

Mysteeri shook her head “Exactly what Twilight said.”

Celestia’s stern look wavered for a moment at the mention of her student.

“I haven’t seen the world collapsing around me so far.” Mysteeri said, pacing back and forth yet kept direct eye contact with the princess “If anything, I think your world seems to like me.” She gestured to her back, her tail flicking behind her “Not that the feeling is entirely mutual.”

“Once your transformation is complete and you are unable to leave this world, I assure you, it will begin to have tremendous consequences for all of us. You do not belong in this balance.” Celestia took a step forward “And if you refuse to leave peacefully, or refuse to leave at all, then I’m afraid I have no other option.”

“No other option, huh?” Mysteeri responded, her guns slowly materialising in her hands “Sure you can’t just let me go? Magic of Friendship and all that?”

“What is your choice?” Was Celestia’s hard reply.

“Trial by combat.” Mysteeri snarled, raising her black pistol to the princess.

“So be it.” Celestia replied, spreading her wings as an ethereal glow radiated off of her.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Comments

[creative_Procrastinator]

The cover picture with a Celly sized pegasus had me worried, but the story flows well and is clear in it's storytelling. Nice work.

[DreadAngel1711]

10566546
Damn, finally, about time someone commented. I don't blame ya for being concerned about the cover art, but I guess the reason she's so big becomes apparent once you read the story. Either way, thanks!

[creative_Procrastinator]

10566546
I think people are getting flashbacks to sonic OCs when they see neon colors on an otherwise dark character and go "nope, ain't reading that". It was certainly my first thought.