Chapter 63: Aquire Bigness
Firefly had never visited Lilac while actually serving in the grove before. Sometimes they traveled together, but those visits were always spent at one uniform size, where there was no need to confuse Firefly’s already crowded mind with the difficulty of breezie existence.
Lilac had always meant to find the time to explain it, in the same way she always hoped to really dig into Firefly’s weather magic, and see if there was some cloud-based analogue to runecraft. Unfortunately the time continued to elude her. She’ll understand. We have more important things to worry about than how breezies work.
The Good Folk were clearly not bothered by the visit. As she flew across the grove, Lilac caught many excited scents, and just as many eager whispers about what their arrival could mean. Were more ponies renouncing their backward lifestyles and accepting the harmonious life in the forest?
She would’ve told them not to get their hopes up, if she didn’t think that would only make things worse. It’s going to be a fight when I try to leave.
She found Firefly in the central clearing, where valuable flowers were kept from growing and all rocks and refuse were dumped. There at least large-sized visitors with no respect for the ground wouldn’t destroy the hard work of fairy craftsmen.
Lilac would never quite get used to seeing ponies from so very far below. Her friend loomed terrifying against the trees. The nervous buzzing of her wings alone produced a current that kept the Good Folk from getting too close.
They assembled in the clearing around her instead, finding perches on whatever plants they could. It would be hovering-room only soon, with so many watchers. Even the fairies skeptical of outsiders and unhappy with Lilac’s presence were eager to see how this conversation went.
“Lilac?” Firefly called, more insistent. Her voice was so loud it made Lilac’s antennae curl in pain. Did she have to be so obvious? If there was anyone hunting them, they couldn’t miss a shout like that. Even fairy magic could protect them only so well.
Lilac flew straight up to her, stopping in the air about a foot from her face. That close, her physical similarities should be obvious, even to weak pony eyes. “Right here. Please stop yelling.”
Firefly blinked, her eyes struggling to focus. She recoiled, both wings spreading with her surprise. At this size, even Lilac could feel the sudden static in the air, like a thunderstorm had rolled in from nowhere.
Well not nowhere this time—there was a thunderstorm right now, raging across Willowbrook with devastating winds and pouring rain. The magic of the Good Folk kept its wrath from the clearing, though. As it passed down from the upper canopy of the trees, the rain transformed to a dense fog, which the plants greedily drank up.
They would allow the rain to come down, too, but only after dark, when sane fairies had found cover and the wild ones could dance with the falling gods of death.
“Lilac?” Firefly asked, barely any quieter than before. She reached for her with one hoof, but Lilac withdrew, dropping out of her reach. “Why are you tiny?”
“She isn’t,” said Saffron, buzzing into the air beside her. Lilac wouldn’t admit it, but she felt safer with another fairy close by. There were hundreds watching, but none close enough to help her. It was nice to have a reminder what size creatures should be. “You’re a gigantic, greedy distillation of rain and lightning. For her sake you’re here, cloudborn. Speak quickly.”
She glanced over her shoulder, as though expecting someone to be there to help. There was nopony else there. Firefly sighed, then settled onto her haunches. “Is that how you’ve been hiding?”
Lilac saw nowhere simple to land, so just had to hover there. She could just about manage it without bobbing around too much. Even so, the effort would exhaust her quickly. She had only so much endurance.
“Yeah. Risk is here somewhere. Probably still walking here, he’ll catch up in a minute. What’s going on? You came all the way here; it must be important! Is Equestria here, hunting for you? We can make room, right Saffron?”
“Over the stallion? Simple. She has much magic to give, and strange tales of distant places. Void-touched and darkness scarred, here perhaps relief waits for her. If she can accept a change of profession. It is not for us to tell the clouds when to gather, and when to release their deluge. Harmony requires acceptance, not control.”
Firefly shook her head. “Lilac, that’s not—how do I even tell you…?”
She did, or she tried. It took her over an hour, beginning at how she’d flown back from the burning house, then wandered across Willowbrook until she eventually returned home.
At some point Risk arrived, watching from the ground at their hooves without drawing much notice to himself. Lilac noticed because she wasn’t blind—but if he didn’t want Firefly to see, then she wasn’t going to spoil it for him.
Lilac landed on one of Firefly’s outstretched wings, which proved quite a bit more stable than her own hovering ability. Her friend overflowed with magical power, but none of it hurt her. Firefly would be careful.
What followed was a harrowing story of confrontation with the Lightless Star, which would’ve ended in her best friend’s death. More than once her friend had to stop to recollect herself, crying raindrop-sized tears onto the soil. Lilac could offer little comfort at her size, but she tried anyway.
There were other strange details. They’d always known her father was appointed by the Lightless Star, but he wasn’t even a pony. Rescuing him from the storm came near the end of her story.
“We spent the night up there,” Firefly finished. “There was nowhere to go back to in the morning. The cult is hunting for us now. Th-they want me dead. I dunno why. I don’t understand any of what they do anymore.”
“That can’t be right!” shouted a tiny voice, from down by the ground. Lilac heard it, but only because she was used to listening to fairies from a great distance. It came easier with practice. “We’ve been here for days! Like... three or four or... a week maybe?”
Maybe Firefly was more attentive than Lilac gave her credit for, because she looked down, to Risk’s outline perched on the grass far below her. “Risk? You let her bug you too?”
“Yes,” he said, puffing out his chest. His wings were all spread, but not flapping to hold him up. Instead, they twitched occasionally, making little adjustments to help him keep his balance. A few days with the Good Folk wasn’t long enough for a unicorn to learn to fly. “Are you sure it was only a few days?”
Saffron reappeared from the flowers, circling past Lilac. “He assumes that time is equal from all views. He does not consider how much more of it we enjoy here, in civilization.”
Even Lilac didn’t really understand that subject. She had a vague sense of time moving differently when she visited the grove, of being able to accomplish weeks of work and never miss school. But she’d never investigated too seriously, in case seeing the magic somehow took away its effects.
Just now there were more important thoughts on her mind. If they had a few more days to recover than linear time would suggest, that was strictly a good thing.
The Lightless Star had turned on them. “We always knew something like this would happen eventually,” she said, ignoring the question completely. “We’ve been pretending to be the gods they wanted, so they wouldn’t kill us or turn us over to Equestria. But we were only ever a psychiatrist and a real estate agent from Earth. We can’t make divines where none existed.”
“What do we do?” Firefly twisted her wing until she held it out in front of her. “I thought about running away from Willowbrook. But my dad says that won’t work. The Lightless Star has bits and pieces of everyone. With enough time, they can attack us no matter where we are in Equestria. We could think we escaped, then just drop dead.”
“The fateless parasite is correct,” Saffron said. “Sympathetic magic defies borders and distance. It cannot reach you here, however. This grove is sacred, half a world away from the high magic of great ponies. No search will ever find you within the shelter of the trees, no matter how powerful. The Dawnbringer herself could not pierce the veil that surrounds us. But fly beyond a single blade of grass, and the blind eye will see again.”
Firefly tilted her head to the side, annoyance in her voice. “Doesn’t matter, you won't let my dad come in here. I’m not staying here while he’s still vulnerable.”
Saffron turned on her. It was rare enough to see Saffron talking directly to Firefly—but he did this time, speaking harshly. “You discovered yourself, pony. Septum is a changeling. He cannot enter this ground without stealing its strength. The magic that would allow you to join us as Lilac has would not work for him. Even if his own powers were sufficiently advanced, it would be only a mask.”
“We were never planning to hide, were we Lilac?” It wasn’t even a question. “If we can’t get back home, and the Lightless Star wants us dead, then we have to look somewhere else for help.”
“Do you know somewhere?” Lilac asked. She had to be careful—she could offer no reason for her desire to leave that would insult the Good Folk. But she also couldn’t lie, or they would seize on it like thread, and use it to tie her.
“I know someone,” she answered. “Ponies I met while you were on that airship. I didn’t tell them very much last time—but they never tried to kill me, and the Lightless Star did.”
“You should not go to Equestrians without understanding the truth.” Saffron flew past her, hovering above Firefly’s wing without landing on it. “You could go before the Dawnbringer, but there’s no guarantee she will hear you. It would not be unlike her to slay the danger before it can grow. Her students may be soft, but she is not.”
“I know you want us to stay,” Lilac said. She kept her voice neutral now, with difficulty. Part of her wanted to stay, too. Escape the cult, somewhere she could continue studying magic without worrying about her past injuries, or Equestria, or anyone. Being small barely even mattered, so long as she stayed in the valley. “But if Firefly goes, I’ll go with her.”
“And I’m going!” Risk said. “I stayed for you, Lilac. But I don’t belong here. Even the breezies keep saying it.”
Saffron took her by the foreleg, pulling her up into the air. “I know, child. You are like so many others, caught in the illusion that your conflicts serve you. I will not keep you here against your will. But I would prefer your departure not be doomed for certain death. You should know the truth of the ancients—understand the gods your cult worships, and why the Dawnbringer guards against their return.”
“Can you tell us?” Firefly asked, way too loudly. “That would be... amazing!”
Saffron shook his head. “We do not know all things. But I know where you can find the answers.” He spoke quietly then, for Lilac alone to hear. Risk could have, if he hadn’t been down on the ground. The pegasus would never stand a chance. “In Equestria’s capital is the Royal Archives, history of all Equestria has done. Secured in the deepest wing, entombed in ancient stone, is a star that never shines. Whisper words of darkness to it, and it will open. What you find there—even I can’t say.”
“You’re letting me go?” Lilac asked, surprised. “You know I can’t hear about a mystery like that and not want to solve it.”
The fairy wrapped one foreleg around her shoulder in a brief hug. “When you return to us the final time, I want you to know the outside offers you nothing. The Good Folk are patient. Besides—we could never enter that library. You can. What you discover will serve us too.”
Of course it will. They didn’t do anything without expecting a return. “I think we’re ready to go now,” Lilac said. “If you could change us back... that would be good.”
“Pity,” Saffron said. “The stallion could’ve been civilized, with enough time. He will go wild if we release him.”
“Even so,” Lilac insisted. “Change us both back, please.”
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That was unexpected, but great! Always look forward to seeing more Willowbrook :)
Hmmm... A hunger for knowledge would definitely fit what we know of Saffron now, so it's probably legit. It is kinda strange though... In Canterlot's archive, a lightless star (hah, I see what you did thar) hides the secrets of the ancient alicorns? Sealed behind a dark magic key that the ancient alicorns absolutely could cast? Sounds like a faulty security system. Unless, of course, that lightless star and archive wasn't made by Equestria, and Saffron pretending that it is, is an effort to force them back to him...
So changelings can't enter the grove because of their magic? We know that all of this story is happening prior to Thorax and the reformation, and Septum is unreformed,at least in body. Makes me wonder if a reformed changeling could.
Learning the truth is a smart move before going to Equestria. Though the sisters should be cautious. There's no telling what dangers might be waiting inside. Or if Saffron is waiting for them to open those secrets.
Countless generations of a magic-less existence only serve as evidence against the divine. The truth will reveal whether the Lightless star acts in ignorance, lies, or something else.
What they learn will determine how they should proceed.
Regardless of whether they were called here accidentally or intentionally and whether or not they possess divine power, they deserve the truth.
i am really starting to wonder what saffron's agenda is here
cant just be to make buddy buddy with the two most magicpowerfull pony's in the world
ahaha... As if anyone from Equestria could keep them safe. we are talking about the same ponies that will run away from bunnies. And some really incompetent guards that seems to fail at most "guard tasks"
Truth and answers at last??
why that's the one thing everyone was looking for from the start! I'm sure there will be no crisis of self upon learning
Uh-huh... cause getting caught sneaking into a restricted area to speak Void-words to a dangerous artifact is gonna look great for them.
The Dawnbringer might slay you to contain the risk... Seems like this Celestia may not be all Sunshine and Rainbows.
Twilight and the other elements are likely a safer bet.
11331604
My reading is less that changelings can't enter the grove so much as they're not allowed.
11332495
If we are talking about fairies. Allowed and Able are the same thing.
11332348
Even in pure Canon, Celestia banished her own sister to another planet, trapped her enemies in stone, and went toe to toe with God's and demons to trap them in Tatarus. She will do anything to protect her ponies.
Inb4 they catch a ride to ponyville on a conveniently docked airship and Lilac faces her most perilous foe yet! The love triangle.
Go wild XD
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
"Practically from the day we met. I also let her turn me into a breezie."
Oof. Poor fateless parasite. His magic is inherently incompatible with the breezies'. Every contract has its exceptions, and porous hooves belie matching loopholes in fae dealings.
In any case, Lilac has a mission. We'll see how well it goes. Even getting to Canterlot in the first place could prove to be quite the undertaking, much less finding the hidden portions of the Archives. Saffron is confident she'll return once again, and exactly once again. We'll see if he's right.
11332872
Being willing to do necessary things to active, malicious, rampaging threats is not the same as being willing to do ANYTHING to ANYONE with little to no cause.
THIS Celestia might, but canon Celestia absolutely would not.
11333019
I don't think Celestia would nesseccarily just banish Lilac and firefly as they are, but they ARE fallen gods and as far as Celestia is concerned the only thing stopping them from going full rampage again would be gaining back their memories. She would probably require assurances. And it's definitely on the table if she thinks equestria is in danger.
11332348
That's the issue though, they're likely to get Celestia involved anyway since the original investigation came from her. And the sisters can't simply say that Celestia might kill them. The elements are likely to dismiss them outright or lose trust in them. Don't forget that Lilac was the one that summoned the first demon. That would already lose trust points. The sisters must confirm that Celestia will not harm them if they want to go to the elements for help.
The sisters need a better solution than hiding with the breezies anyway. I seriously doubt it would be satisfying to Firefly given her personality. I am certainly curious to figure out what exactly the truth concerning the gods of the cult is.
Tiny, domesticated stallion.
When a Pony sneezes near a Brieezie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEEM2Qc9sUg
There's an actual Lightless Star? Huh. Didn't expect that. Please make the dark words to get access be "open Sesame" 😂