White Sun

by The Psychopath

Supplies

The body gittered and slowly rose from the table, exciting Twilight, but where she expected eyes full of life and a restored body, she only saw an empty husk. The mare slumped, disappointed.

"Darn. I thought for sure that I had it this time." She looked away and started mumbling to herself. "I guess I got the operation done correctly?" she said hesitantly as she eyed the undead up and down. "It's not slumping over, tilting around, or groaning." The undead pony turned around and walked forward, its movements stiff and unnatural. Twilight watched it curiously until it smashed into one of her shelves and almost destroyed months of research in one go. "That was close!" she strained. The unicorn held everything in her magic and painfully set everything back into place. "I guess I should have thought about the brain too," the mare grumbled. "There's always something I'm forgetting." She sighed and took the undead towards another chute and dropped it. "Have fun with the others!" she said before shutting the door.

Twilight made to rub the back of her neck but remembered her dirty gloves and thanked Celestia she had remembered. Using her magic, the unicorn removed her protective equipment and dumped them into a wooden box sitting a few steps away from her clean equipment. They sizzled when they made contact with the caustic, yellow fluids held within. Tired and weary, the pony decided that now would be the best time to go and get some more supplies at the nearby city of Flarolina. It was a little under an hour's worth of walking from her home, but Twilight could use some fresh air. She was almost blinded by the sunlight above when she left the tunnels, instinctively bringing a foreleg up to shield herself. Several beetles flew past her face, ignoring the giant creature stuck in place.

"Thank you, sun, but you don't need to be that aggressive," Twilight assured it. It never answered. "Safety check," she said to herself. The bushes and trees hiding the cave entrance were still there. They had grown even bigger than last year. Her saddlebags were on her back. Several of them, in fact. One of the bags was filled with... "Good! Don't have to push anything for-waaaah!" The mare yawned. "I should probably get some sleep after this."

With a hop and a skip, the lavender unicorn made her way through the thickening foliage of the forest. It wasn't quite spring yet, but the plant life thought it prudent to start budding already, not to mention the ones resistant to the freezing cold. A few predators were circumvented and some newly made holes in the ground were mentally noted by the mare. They could be used as traps for any pursuers later on.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the many, many buildings of Flarolina past the tree line. Despite its immensity, it wasn't walled nor regularly patrolled because the inhabitants had an uncanny connection with one another, aiding in spotting any would-be criminals. Twilight wished she could study how such a thing came about, what it meant, and how it worked, but she was too busy. When Celestia was brought back the unicorn would dive into it. Instead, as long as she didn't do anything that warranted suspicion, they would leave her relatively alone.

The roads were only just starting to be cobbled, leaving a well-used and muddy road leading into Flarolina's interior. Twilight greeted every mare and stallion she came across when they seemed amenable enough for an interaction. They lived in what were slowly becoming stone houses with tiled roofs. For an agricultural hub, Flarolina always impressed Twilight with how massive it was. Throughout the city were several trading centers where creatures from around the world would haggle fruits, vegetables, seeds, and even meat to the carnivores that lived in Flarolina's confines. It didn't smell very nice despite all the fruits that could be put on display, but that didn't really concern Twilight all that much. It still made her laugh when she saw some of the richer ponies pulled in fancy carriages cover their faces with powdered cloth in a bid to free themselves of the horrid stenches.

Twilight, however, wasn't going to haggle with these folk. She took several corridors that twisted and turned into the entrails of the city and came upon a rather sizeable winery currently being delivered barrels of grapes and yeast. When the mare went into the parlor, she was met with the acidic fragrance of alcohol clearing out any stuffiness from her nostrils. There was a loud brouhaha of the patrons drinking themselves under the rounded, wood tables. Several were sitting at the bar, chatting with each other and the bartender about whatever subject interested them at the moment. Above the bar hung ropes of garlic, onion, spinach, and multiple green and red plants the mare didn't recognize, all dried out.

The unicorn's entrance didn't cause any reactions by, but one of the bartenders: A gruff looking stallion that did his fair share of physical labor, nodded to Twilight and gestured to the right with a movement of his head. The mare nodded in return and walked towards a wine rack and pushed seven in a seemingly random pattern, opening up the room to a secret wine storage room. They filled the room with a golden hue and a fragrance that only a true alcoholic could enjoy, but Twilight wasn't here for it. She ignored the racks on the walls and reinforced shelves holding their treasure in rectangular, metal boxes sporting a tiny window for would-be purchasers and winemakers to observe their progress. Using her skills in magic, Twilight silently worded a spell, tracing sharp runes that pierced themselves in the air. She felt lightheaded for but a moment and found herself in yet another underground tunnel. However, it was significantly larger than the ones she took to reach her buried home and also significantly more rough-looking. It was like Twilight had jumped into a shadowy, flipped version of the Canterlot she preferred to keep in her mind. Ramshackle huts lined the 'streets', clashing with more grandiose buildings of white marble, golden trims, and jewel walls. The disparity in this underground city was more apparent than it was on the surface.

Several creatures walked back and forth, several carrying bags with something trying to get out of them. Even though it disgusted her as well, Twilight couldn't do anything about the creatures she saw being carted away in cages. If they were lucky, they had just been 'purchased' by one of the liberators that partially annoyed 'ingredient hunters' as some called them. These 'ingredients' would be hidden from them and inaccessible when spotted on the surface, but at least their captors were fairly recompensed for their efforts.

Twilight preferred to keep her thoughts to herself, otherwise she would never be able to come back to the only place she could get her food, drink, and equipment. Plus, to the untrained eye, this was a hole filled with very unsavory individuals. Ingredient hunters, illegal tradesmen, malpracticioners that lost their medical degree through one bad ordeal or some political event and could no longer get work, those who simply couldn't have an honest day's work if it was offered to them by Celestia herself, and those that went into the study of forbidden and forgotten magics. Twilight was one of the last ones, and she was a well-known frequenter of this underbelly of civilization. In fact, she was so well known that every creature that crossed her path would take a wide berth to avoid bumping into her. The unicorn couldn't figure out why. She never harmed anypony, at least not intentionally. At least, she always tried her best to be as friendly as she could.

The unicorn saluted several ponies draped in black robes and followed them into a simulacrum of a barrow where she got to take in several thick aromas of food and spices. There were even stalls selling gallons of fresh drinking water. It wasn't that these folk were selling tainted or rotten food, but being part of the seedy underbelly of civilization meant you would eventually become infamous and barred from any establishment that could supply you with just about anything you needed.

Twilight's eyes sparkled when she saw black flames somehow illuminating the dark walls of the barrow. "Black wickerlit candles!" she said with amazement. "Those are soooooooo rare!"

Said candles were thrice the height of a pony and sported the thickness of one's torso. Along their black bodies were various patterns that ran up and down in swings and sways. It reminded Twilight of the tribes from the islands north of Equestria that was always engulfed in fogs and primal magics. She would have to visit the many barrows that existed up there one day.

"I made 'em!" a voice responded. "Took farevah 'n took even longah tae get the ingredients."

The voice belonged to a short, stout stallion. His silvery coat gleamed in the odd light of the candles that accentuated the deep blue of his eyes. His red mane was combed in such a way that Twilight found he looked like a rooster. It even leaned to the right, like a rooster's crest. The rest of him was hidden behind a full-body cloak, much like the other ponies.

"Hey, Silvery Gleam!" Twilight greeted the stallion. They both embraced each other in a hug before resuming their conversation. "Getting a big muzzle?"

"Whach-nu!" the stallion sputtered. "I'm johst spakin' mey pride!"

"Big nose," Twilight insisted.

The stallion snorted, but his frown hid his amusement. "So, whet yeh be lookin' fehr tadey?" he asked.

The mare tapped her own muzzle. "Well, I just need food and water. I don't need anymore equipment right now."

Silvery Gleam raised a brow. "But yeh also wehnt teh see if weh got books?"

Twilight jumped up, dropping her hooves on Gleam's shoulders, and scaring him enough that he fell down. "You have new books?!" the mare asked with excessive enthusiasm.

Unnerved, the stallion brushed her hooves off. "Yeh. Just...kalm yehself, pla-ease." He gestured to Twilight. "This way, ma li''le necromancah."

Twilight felt herself twinge at the moniker. 'Necromancer'. She knew what that entailed, but her goals and actions were pure and true! That's how she was going to get her precious mentor back. She took in the moldy smell of old books and parchments reaching her nostrils.

"Oh, I got more research to give you as payment," Twilight was good to say.

Giant bookshelves of thirty or more layers rose to the ceiling above where lamps dangled to poorly illuminate the corridors. Several hooded ponies and griffins perused the contents of this forbidden library, and Twilight could have sworn she even saw a kirin. She passed some dangling bands of cloth into a smaller room covered with Saddle Arabian carpets, silks, and pillows, creating a strange mixture of colors and patterns.

"Here yeh go. The usual fer ya," Gleam said.

A pile of boxes and water jugs were waiting just for Twilight's hungry hand. "Even got yeh a small cookbook. 'L help yeh fer coo'in' pastries 'n such."

"Thank you so much!" Twilight exclaimed. "And what about the other books?" she asked as she levitated everything into her saddlebags.

The stallion raised a hoof. "Ah yes! Of course. You'll get to choose one, unless your research is more revolutionary this time." Silvery shuffled through a pile of old pillows and pulled out a box of books that had, judging from the state they were in, been pulled out of some royal archive somewhere.

Shuffling paper came from one of the unicorn's saddlebags, revealing a large amount of paper held together with a thick rubber band. Silvery removed it and started shuffling through the papers. While his expression was that of apathy, he quickly started showing surprise and enthusiasm and eventually became so engrossed in Twilight's notes that he had forgotten that Twilight herself was still there.

"Silvery?" she called out.

Hearing his name caused the stallion to jump. "Ah! Scared meh!" He leaned over the stack of notes again then waved it at Twilight. "Tell ya what, just cuz I like yeh 'n yer a good client." He placed the notes on a short table to his right. "Yeh went n discovered eh new way o' revivin' bodies 'en kepin' 'em fresh. Whach-nu! Yeh jehst revlutionized 'em!" He ran back into the library then came back a few minutes later with a book in tow after the librarian cursed loudly at him. "Been sayin' yeh ned an assist'n."

"But I--" Twilight tried to start.

Silvery shook his head. "Nah! Yeh keep takin' all of dem weighty things 'n get hert every time. Take this." He handed the unicorn a book on dragon anatomy and how magic affected them. "Yer one-a the best. Get yehrself a dragon assist'n."

"Ooooo," Twilight coo'd as she floated the book in front of her face."

"And din forget the book!" the stallion reminded her.

"But I don't need an assistant," Twilight said. "Just another mouth to feed and they'll backstab me," she growled.

Silvery wrapped a foreleg around the unicorn's neck despite the size difference. He was standing on the tip of his hooves. "Ya dun need a livin' assist'n." He winked.

"But they're always so stupid..." Twilight lamented.

Silvery Gleam shrugged and let her go. "Ya meed stuff leyk those notes. Yeh can get yerself a dragon assist'n. Now get goin'! Goht a tilly nearby full of 'em. Go'n peeck a good one." He stopped Twilight before she could take a second stop. "After droppin' all this off, yeh?" he suggested with a raised brow. "And takin' yer free book."

Author's Note:

I decided to publish my non-pony books myself, accomplishing a dream I set out to do when I was 17. I currently only have Reverting Scales (book 1) out right now which you can get on Kindle for 5 dollars or in paperback for 12. If you can't or don't want to purchase it, I would be grateful if you could share it. I'm aiming for twenty sales before starting the second book. You can find it on every Amazon (I think. There's a lot of them).

The main character is a dragoness that starts out as a 'thing' developping in her egg and grows into a drake over the course of the story. It was partially inspired by Tui. T. Sutherland's Wings of Fire and E.E. Knight's Age of Fire books where dragons are the main characters.

Naydrus is a dragon born to immense parents who live with and serve humans. When the dragonling hatches, it is revealed that she doesn't look anything like her family and she has a passion for fighting. However, she also carries a deep hatred for the hominid 'caretakers'. This inspires her escape from the city through the sewer system and find other dragons that share her mindset. However, the world is a big place and very old. Much has happened and continues to happen without Naydrus being aware of it, causing her to cross paths with dangerous individuals and end up in hazardous locations.

You can find it through these links:

US Link
UK Link
DE Link
ES Link
IT Link
NL Link
PL Link
SE Link
JP Link
CA Link
AU Link

Comments

[DarkSnowGaming]

Well this is an interesting story, I'll keep tracking on it.

[The Chronicler]

Hmm... So Twilight never hatched Spike in this universe? At first it sounded like the divergence point was sometime after the Summer Sun Celebration, but now it doesn't seem like it.