EverDream

by mm1145

Rough Diamond: part 3

The present, a clearing in a forest somewhere south of the Dragon Toof Mountains

Starlight wandered slowly around the edge of the clearing that the Everdream had come down in. He thought on balance that Rapier had been right; considering what had happened they had gotten off quite lightly. He looked back at the Everdream. It was sitting, almost level, at the end of the trench it had ploughed as it had hit. Looking back along the line of flight, there was a clear path of destruction through the trees, caused as the ship had cannoned through them.

It only extended a few times the length of the ship, showing that no matter how hard their fall had been, they had not actually been going that fast forward when they had finally hit -- but as Genoa had pointed out, it would be a clear indication for anything that found it that something interesting was at the end of the trail.

The ship itself was a swarm with ponies. All of the crew was out, and most of them where working on fixing the damage. Gangs of crew ponies worked at various tasks all about the stricken airship. He could see a group of them working one of the trees that they had knocked over. They were striping the branches away, and a second group was working ropes around it, getting it ready to be hauled back to the Everdream. He presumed that that was going to be the replacement for the broken support that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

Even from this distance, he could see Genoa pacing around the deck, and he could swear that he could hear the cranky old pony’s voice as he bellowed orders at the work gangs. That was the main reason that Starlight had volunteered to ‘patrol’ the edge of the clearing. It kept him far away from the grumpy captain. Genoa had been incredibly bad tempered since they had crashed; something he seemed to subconsciously blame Starlight for, and his bellowing had upset Starlight’s head.

Starlight put a hoof up and gently rubbed his head. Despite what he had told Papyrus and Rapier, his head did not actually feel right to him; there was a dull ache and an sort of prickly feeling that would not go away. It was better when he was outside, another reason why he was here walking the edge of the clearing.

It was strange that, he thought as he slowly paced around, my head is far better when I’m on this side of the clearing, rather than the other. When he was around the front of the ship he felt almost normal, when he was around the stern he felt almost as bad as when he had been inside. Maybe it is the sun.

He looked up and located the afternoon sun. It was tight of the starboard quarter of the ship, so where he was standing was in full sunlight. So maybe not the sun, he thought. He looked around; there were just as many ponies here as the rest of his route, in fact there was quite a large group working at the bow of the ship.

When they had crashed they had still -- despite much effort -- been slightly bow down, and the bow had taken quite a bit of damage to its heavy armour plating, as well as damage to its internal structure, so in addition to a team working on repairing the damaged lifting envelope and a team working on the spell plate and its connections, there were a good many ponies working with hammer and pry bar to remove damaged plates and beams and replace them as best they could. The noise was certainly penetrating, but despite all that, his headache seemed much better here that at the stern.

As he walked slowly around past the bow, Starlight looked out where both the fore and aft lifting envelopes were spread out on the grass of the clearing, surrounded by teams of ponies trying to repair them. The fore balloon had a jagged gash running right the way along it, going almost top to bottom, while the aft one only had a comparatively clean cut, through where Rapier had slashed it. Unfortunately, warship levels of redundancy or no, both need to be fixed if they wanted to be able to fly properly. So the crew had carefully drained the remaining lifting gas out of the aft envelope and laid them out.

One of the problems with airships of the Everdream’s class was that they had a very bad weight to lift ratio, and therefore needed an almost complete set of lifting envelopes to maintain stable flight. Obviously the lifting envelopes were not just the simple bags of gas, but were just as complex magical devices as the spinner engines or the cannons. Each one consisted of a close woven series of gas cells, with a stronger canvas bag over it to provide more protection. The honeycomb-like system inside it was designed in such a way that it would be very hard for more than a few of the bags to be damaged, but of necessary all the sections of the honeycomb needed to be connected to the spellplate at the bottom. This connection allowed the magic of the spell plate to permeate the lifting envelope, giving the lifting gas the physics-defying buoyancy required to float a ship the size of the Everdream.

Apparently they had been very unlucky that the hole the falling crystal had put in the fore envelope had managed to tear it apart completely. When Rapier had slashed the aft envelope he had only acutely damaged less than half of the gas honeycomb’s and that was one of the reasons that there was much less work to do on the aft envelope

The second was that the first shard of crystal had managed to damage the spell plate. The spell plate was the main source of power and control for the lifting envelopes. Under normal circumstances, the lifting gas would have barely managed to get the weight of its own balloon and maybe a basket with half a dozen ponies in it off the ground, let alone an airship of the Everdream’s size. But the spell plate focused magical power through the special conductive threads woven into the balloons structure, and it was that magical charge that made the envelope able to lift many, many times what it should have been capable of.

The process was not instant; it took time for the gas to become sufficiently charged to provide enough lift, especially in the case of a ship as large as the Everdream. But when the front spell plate had been impaled by the falling crystal shard, it had shorted out the complex spell patterns -- and in order to prevent harm to the crew, Genoa had shut them down. Fortunately the damage was repairable, but until it was repaired they were grounded.

Yes, Starlight thought, as he slowly paced the clearings edge. Grounded in this forest full of things with, as Papyrus had put it, ‘ravenous intent’. Most creatures of limited intelligence had at least realized that ponies were too much trouble to try to eat, but this far away from the more populated parts of Equestria you could never be sure of that -- after all, you still heard of manticores attacking ponies, even the countryside surrounding Canterlot.

At least they had managed to separate the damaged lifting spellplate from the rest of the ship’s magic network, so at least they could use the cannons, but a lot of them had been damaged in the crash -- most of them thrown loose from their mounts when they had hit ground. Until they fixed the sunlines and some of the rest of the ship, they would have limited firing capabilities for a sustained fight.

Starlight’s thoughts brought his mind back to what he was supposed to be doing out here, and he made an effort as he walked to peer into the overgrown gloom of the forest in search of anything that might look hungry for pony.

He had made nearly a complete circuit again, and was approaching the bow from the port side, He was starting to wonder if he should abandon this patrol, as his head was starting to feel worse again, and go and admit to Papyrus that it was probably not as undamaged as he had thought, when he had heard the noise.

He froze, and very slowly moved his head, scanning the undergrowth and trying to locate the source of the movement. He heard it again; one of the bushes had rustled. He held his frozen posture, considering. That was not the wind. It was definitely something moving through those bushes. What he really should do now was to raise the alarm, but he stopped before he did. He was not sure what was making that rustling, and he would look pretty stupid if it turned out he had gotten all worked up over a rabbit. He considered calling out a greeting -- after all if it was a rabbit or something, it would be impolite not to greet it. But he bit his tongue; whatever was there had almost certainly seen the ponies now, and if it had not called out to them, it was not going to answer him.

He made his mind up and carefully walked closer to the edge of the forest. He saw more movement and something disappeared into the undergrowth. He pushed on, walking out of the clearing and under the forest canopy. Carefully pushing through the bushes, he nearly jumped out his fur, as a squirrel leapt off the branch not more than a leg’s length in front of him and darted away across the tree branches. When he had recovered and gathered his wits about him, Starlight started to laugh.

Yes, he thought, he could just see the expression on Rapier’s or even Rainstorm’s face. If they could see me now. He could imagine Rainstorm’s comments about being afraid of a squirrel. He looked off into the direction his adversary had headed. He thought he could hear a strange tinkling sound, and with less trepidation and more curiosity, he pushed on through the bushes and towards the sound.

----

The sound turned out to be a small stream cascading over a waterfall to form a small pond. Starlight looked at the crystal clear water and realized that he was terribly thirsty. Without hesitation he walked up to the stream and ducked his head into the pond. That was better he thought, as the cool water ran down his throat. Maybe it was this thirst that was causing my head ache, he thought as he drank deeply.

Now he came to think about it, he was feeling much better as he drank. At the back of his mind was the thought that this forest was dangerous, and that he was supposed to be back at the ship watching out for anything that might pose a danger to it. But the thought did not get very far, as he finished his wonderful drink and raised his head, looking over the other side of the stream.

And straight into the eyes of the White Pony.

For a few heartbeats they stared into each other’s eyes. Starlight’s mind froze. It was her. She was standing clear as day on the other side of the little stream. Then suddenly she smiled at Starlight and leapt away, disappearing into the undergrowth.

“Wait!!” Starlight called out desperately. He tried to leap after her, but his hooves tangled up in each other and he tumbled head first into the pond.

“Please wait!!” he called again as he pulled himself dripping out of the water and up onto the bank. He pushed through the undergrowth and out onto a small forest trail. In the distance he caught a flash of white disappearing past a tree.

“Please come back,” he called out, as he galloped down the trail after her. As he reached the tree he again caught a glimpse of her and he again galloped after her. His mind was reeling. What was she doing in the forest? he thought as he galloped faster after fleeting glimpse of a white tail or hooves.

It was really her. She was really here after all these years of seeing her in his dreams, he finally knew she was real. Part of his mind wondered if he still might be imagining it, but he stamped on that thought. He had seen her, she was there, just ahead of him -- and he would find her. She was just up ahead. He galloped around a last corner and skidded to a halt in front of a sheer cliff face. He twisted left and right, trying to find where the White Pony had gone, but here was no sign of her. He looked around, but the path just ended at this cliff face. He walked up and down the base of the cliff, searching desperately for any sign of the White Pony, but all he could see was the shear rock face extending up at least a dozen pony lengths.

She must be here, he thought desperately. She was just in front of me , she could not have vanished. A small part of his mind insisted that it was quite possible that she had just vanished, and that she had not in fact ever been there. Then he spotted something in the distance; there was a shadow in the wall of the cliff. He galloped down the cliff towards it.

The shadow turned out to be a cave. It was bigger than a pony but not as big as the cave where they had found Twilight Sparkle and Spike. He hesitated outside the entrance, his natural caution telling him that there was every likelihood that the cave contained something dangerous; a manticore or a cockatrice perhaps, but he shook the thought off. She had gone in the cave, he knew it. He walked towards the cave and cautiously, but firmly, went inside.

-------

Ponyville school, the past

Rarity knocked a little nervously on the door to the classroom. “Come in,” a voice called out from inside. She pushed open the door and walked inside the little classroom.

“Have a seat,” Cheerilee called out from behind the desk, waving a fore leg to the chair in front of it. “I will be with you in a second, just finishing up some marking.

Rarity came in and sat down on the offered seat. Even though she was a fully grown pony -- and a mother herself, and even through she had been at school with Cheerilee -- she still felt strangely nervous sitting there, waiting to talk to a teacher. It was like being a foal again.

“Did you have a nice time in Canterlot?” the schoolteacher asked without looking up from her marking. “A fashion show was it not?”

The clash of steel on steel, the cries of ponies and worse. The sulphurous breath of dragons mingled with the smell of sweat and blood.

“Yes,” Rarity replied a little too quickly, “a fashion show.”

“Did you get to see the princesses? I know that Twilight always sends word to them when you are going to be in Canterlot “

Celestia, her mane no longer its normal pastel colours, but instead a brilliant rainbow of flames, her armour golden and bright as the sun, standing in the middle of a group of pony guards. Her sister, expression filled with defiance, standing by her side.

“For a bit, they were very busy with affairs of state -- you know how it is.”

“I bet. I do not know how they manage it. I just have this little school to manage and I am over worked.”

“I suspect they have a lot of help.”

“Anyway, I am sure you and Spike managed to spend some time together.”

The terrifying monster bearing down on her, its black eyes pits of darkness, its razor claws slashing at her. The large purple claw picking it up throwing it in the air, where a white hot jet of flame incinerated it.

“It was nice to have him around, he is always very attentive of me.”

“I bet it is always nice to spend some quality time with your friends.”

Twilight standing at the centre of the semicircle of ponies. Her horn starts to glow and then the crown on her head picks up the same radiance. The jewel around Rarity’s neck starts to glow, as well as the ones around her friends. As the magic takes hold, she can feel it flowing through them, be part of them as they start to lift off the ground.

“Yes, it is always nice to remember what brought you together in the first place.” Cheerilee shut the last book and put the pile to one side.

“Yes it is, is it not.”

She got up and pulled her chair around to the front of the desk and sat down next to Rarity. Rarity relaxed at this; it made it feel much less like she was getting a telling off from teacher.

“Well, now you are back from Canterlot I thought that we should have a little talk about Rough Diamond.”

Rarity nodded, it had seemed likely that was what this was about; it was very unlikely that the school mare had wanted a dress designed.

Rarity looked out the windows to where her daughter was playing in the small school’s playing field -- or much more to the point, not playing. The rest of the colts and fillies had gathered together and where playing a ball game. But Rough Diamond was sitting a bit forlornly on the swings by herself.

“It has not gotten any better?” Rarity asked. It was not really a question; she had not managed to spend much time at home recently, but it had been plain even to her that her daughter’s problems had not gotten any better.

Cheerilee shook her head. “I have tried to encourage her to make more friends with the other foals in the class and I have worked hard to teach the message that our differences just make us more exciting, but…”

Rarity nodded. There was really no way around the essential facts of the matter; Rough Diamond was just not a normal pony, and the blunt fact was she was not a pony at all.

“And the whole Cutie Mark thing just aggravated it even more.”

Rarity nodded again. Ponies had Cutie Marks. A special ‘picture’ that appeared on their flanks when they realised what their special talent was. It was one of the defining moments of a young pony’s life. Their mark told the world who they were and what they were; it was their own special symbol and guide to their purpose. But dragons had no such marks, and nopony knew if Rough Diamond would get one.

“Everyponyelse in her class has their mark by now, and well…”

Cheerilee tailed off and Rarity understood what she was getting at. Ponies got their Cutie Marks at different ages; some ponies took longer to find their talents -- some talents were complex or more hidden. But by a certain age almost everypony had their mark. Rarity did not know of a pony as old as Rough Diamond who’s flank was still blank. As time had gone on and her daughter did not get a Mark, Rarity had tried to encourage her; she’d had her sister Sweetie Belle Talk to her.

Sweetie Belle and her friends had been very late developers, only getting their Marks at what was a quite old age for ponies. But that had only helped for a little bit, all the stories of the former Cutie Mark Crusaders were about how they tried to find their Marks. As time when on and it became obvious that Rough Diamond was not going to get a Cutie Mark, she became more and more depressed.

“I think you or Spike are going to have to sit down and talk to her.” The schoolmare said seriously. “There is only so much I can do. Maybe if you or Spike could spend some more time in Ponyville, or maybe take her with you to Canterlot, she would feel less like an outcast.”

Daggers stabbed through Rarity’s heart. This was what she knew that she needed to do, and it was what she could not do. She and Spike had talked at length with all their friends about it, including the princesses.

“Maybe if she could stay with her aunt Sweetie Belle, or with some of the Apple clan...” Rarity started lamely.

“Rarity,” Cheerilee interrupted sharply. “Sweetie Belle or Scooterloo or even Big Mac will not help. You are her mother, Spike is her father. You need to spend time with her; show her that she is loved, whatever she is. What can be more important than your family?”

Rarity wished with all her heart that she could tell the kind school mare. To open her heart and pour out all the things she had seen over the past years, but she could not. When Twilight and Spike had invited the rest of their friends to Canterlot and Princess Celestia had told then about the enemy, Rarity had been horrified. First with the secrets that her best friend and her husband had been keeping, and then with the nature of the threat. And she herself had been sworn to secrecy. Much as she yearned to tell her old foalhood friend the truth, she could not.

“It is work,” she lied lamely, “it is just too busy; I just cannot take the time off.” She knew that it was a hopelessly feeble lie, but she was not good at this deception, none of them really where and they dealt with it in their own way. Twilight and Spike had had years more of it than their friends and had developed methods of coping. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie just pretended that they had gotten better jobs in Canterlot, and mostly moved out of Ponyville, only coming back occasionally to visit their families. Poor Applejack just refused point blank to explain, clamming up every time anypony asked.

Cheerilee gave Rarity a pleading look. “Rarity, what is wrong? I know you are not busy with work; there has not been a new dress in the window of Carrousel Boutique for months, and I know from friends that you have not been showing at exhibitions in Canterlot. What is going on? Is it to do with the latest news?”

Everypony had heard of the increasing tensions, but only the Dusk Hunters knew who the real enemy behind their puppets was. And she could not tell her old friend; the knowledge was just too dangerous and horrific, and the burden knowing it would place on a pony was too much for her to dump on her friend.

“No, no it is just I have a lot of special work in Canterlot and Spike and I need to spend a lot of time in the city. Rough Diamond would just not be able to spend time with us there. And she would have no friends. You know what sort of elitist Canterlot ponies can be.” She almost pleaded with her eyes for Cheerilee not to ask any more questions.

Cheerilee leaned forward “Rarity, please, what is wrong.” She reached out and placed her foreleg on her friend’s shoulder. “forget the fact that I am your daughter’s teacher. Forget all the things that we have become over the years, tell me as the filly that you gossiped with about colts behind the school.”

Rarity opened her mouth to speak again, but Cheerilee shushed her. “Rarity, the entire town knows something is not right. just tell me please, I want to help you.”

Rarity again looked at her foal-hood friend. “I can’t, Lee,” she said sadly. “I wish I could, but I cannot.”

Cheerilee started to say something again, but this time Rarity put up a hoof to stop her.

“Please do not ask any more because I cannot tell you. Please, if any part of you still trusts, me accept this.”

Cheerilee nodded. “Okay Rarity, I will. But what about Rough Diamond?”

Rarity looked out of the window. “It is best that she is here.” Cheerilee started to object. “No, Lee, it truly is.” Rarity smiled. “I may not like to admit it, and when I was younger I may have overlooked it, but Ponyville is one of the nicest places in all of Equestria. And -- especially now -- one of the safest.” There were tears in Rarity’s eyes. “She truly is better off here.”

Cheerilee stood and put her foreleg around her friend. “Okay Rarity, I will do what I can.” She held her for a bit. “Come on, let’s go and see her now; at least we can do that much.”

---------

A cave in the forest, the present

The cave wound its way back into the cliffside; after a little way it became dark and Starlight considered turning back, but then, just as he was about to retreat, he saw a light ahead. It was not the bright light of day, but neither was it the flickering of fire or torchlight. Curious, he approached the corner and the source of the light.

Starlight let out a gasp. The tunnel had opened out into another large cave. This cave was nowhere near the grandeur of the one they had found Twilight and Spike in, but despite that it was still impressive. It was not as big for one thing, and it lacked the majestic stalactites and pillars of that proper dragon’s cave, but what it lacked in size it more than made up for in clutter.

The cave seemed to be filled with piles of… well, stuff would have to be the only word for it. The walls were hung with pictures and rugs; where there was free wall space, there were bookcases and cupboards pressed up against them. Some of the cupboards were half open and Starlight could see that they were filled with more things. Clothes, books, piles of gems and scrolls. The rest of the cave seemed to be covered in tables and other furniture; these were also buried in more things -- pictures, statues, ornaments, and mysterious items that Starlight could not begin to guess at. He saw a telescope leaning against one wall, a plain yellow dress draped over it.

The light was coming from the roof where there were a series of jewelled chandeliers, but they did not have candles or oil lamps in them, instead the gems themselves seemed to glow with a strange constant light that illuminated the strange collection.

Slowly, Starlight stepped into the cave; as he stepped forward he noticed that the floor had changed, it was no longer the sand or rock you would expect in a cave. The floor in here was wooden floorboards with rugs on it.

This is not a cave, he thought as he walked slowly forward. It is a house.

As he walked he noticed that he had stepped through an arch about twice the height of a pony. It was made of three columns of marble that twisted together as they climbed. Along its length it was studded with perfect blue gems. He stopped and examined it, and then looked back at the room.

Yes, this is a room, not a cave, he thought, as he stepped through the doorway but who’s? A further thought struck him. Could it be hers? Could this be where the White Pony lived?

He walked further into the room and examined one of the tables -- it was littered with scrolls and books, some open, some closed -- it looked like the working desk of a busy scholar, but the inkwell was dry and other signs showed that it had not been used in a long time. He looked at some of the books, but he could not understand the language. He thought the writing looked a bit like that he’d seen in the book they had picked up from Spike’scave.

What had Papyrus called it? Formal pony. Yes, formal pony, but he could not tell. He moved further on into the cave, passed a whole herd of dressmaker’s forms, some of them supporting half completed outfits, and came to a large picture on the wall. He stopped and looked at it. It seemed to be a copy of a photograph, blown up and framed. It showed six young mares; they were standing in a street outside a shop -- again he could not read the lettering on the shop sign -- but the sign itself was a large donut.

The six ponies seemed to be having fun, they were all smiling genuine smiles of laughter, and the pink one on the end seemed to be so happy she looked like she was about to leap off the picture at him. They were dressed in formal outfits, but as Starlight examined them he noticed that they all seemed to be ragged or ripped, as though they has been dragged through a hedge. One of the two unicorns seemed to be missing one of her glass shoes. He looked at the label beneath the picture

‘Our best night ever,’ it read. There was a card stuck behind its official label. ‘To Rarity, happy birthday from the rest of the gang.’

Starlight looked back at the happy ponies. Something was nagging it him about that picture. He looked carefully at it for a few more moments and then it hit him. The other unicorn -- not the one with a missing slipper, but the other one, the purple one -- he recognised her. It was Twilight Sparkle. The dress she was wearing covered up her name mark, but he was certain it was her.

Starlight reached out and gently placed a fore hoof on the picture of the purple mare. “Who were you really, Twilight Sparkle?” He asked “and what is your connection to the White Pony?”

“The question, pony,” a rasping voice from behind Starlight asked, “is who are you?”

-------------

“He’s what?” Rapier asked incredulously.

“He’s gone missing.” Rainstorm replied.

“What do you mean missing?” Rapier injected.

Behind him the crewponies and a group of flyers hauled the now repaired aft lifting envelope back up onto the deck from the clearing floor.

“I mean that he is not where he should be.” The pegasus waved her hoof at the edge of the clearing. “He is supposed to be out there keeping an eye on the forest, but he is not there now and nopony knows where he is.”

Rapier stood there, his emotions battling between shock and anger. Finally he got himself under control. “Who saw him last?” he asked.

“Windrush says he saw him walking around the edge a few hours ago, just before they started to move the replacement canopy support, but nopony has seen him since.”

“A few hours ago!” Rapier almost shouted. “How can we not have noticed that he has been missing for that long?”

Rainstorm’s wings flicked out angrily. “Hay, we have been busy trying to fix the ship. And it is not our job to keep an eye on him.”

Rapier visibly took control of his anger and backed down. “I know,” he said conciliatorily, “it is just he has been a bit...” he trailed off, helpless.

“Yer, I know as well.” Rainstorm finished, refolding her wings. “I suppose we should go and get after him. I will go and gather up a wing.” She started to turn, but Rapier put out a hoof to stop her.

“No, don’t.”

She turned back and looked at him quizzically. “Like you said before, you are all busy repairing the ship and there is no point dragging him back here if we are still grounded. I will get Papyrus and we will go and find him and drag him back.”

“Who are we supposed to be dragging where, my young ponies?” Papyrus’ voice interrupted. Both ponies turned to see the old unicorn walking along the deck towards them.

Rapier explained. Papyrus just sighed and looked out over the forest. “Well, I suppose he could not have gone far,” he said.

“He should have not gone off at all. What is that pony thinking of!” Rapier said, his anger showing again.

Papyrus shook his head. “I do not think he is thinking very clearly at all at the moment. We better get after him, Rapier -- no knowing what sort of trouble he will have gotten himself into.”

Rapier sighed. “Okay.” He turned to Rainstorm. “Did Windrush give any indication of which way he might have gone?”

Rainstorm shook her head again. “Like I said, nopony saw him, he could be anywhere.”

Rapier sighed again. “Okay, well we will do a spiral search and see if we can pick up his trail; it is not like he is likely to be trying to hide or anything. Rainstorm, we will leave you a trail of our own to follow when we find him. Come on Papyrus, let’s get going.”