Part Fifteen
Velvet Sparkle and the Queen in Stone
By Tundara
Part Fifteen
Iridia sat up with a start, groggy hooves scrubbing at her face while she smacked her dry lips. Reaching over for the decanter of wine she kept by her bed, Iridia found it, and the stand on which it should have been waiting, both missing. Her bed likewise was wrong. For one, it was not a bed, rather one of the modifiable couches called a futon. She was also leaning up against something warm, soft, and breathing.
“Oh, by my mane, not again,” she groaned.
Careful not to wake the pony—or ponies—beside her, Iridia started to get up, only to find her wing pinned beneath her companion. A short snort made her freeze, breath held tight in her chest as she waited for her paramour to either wake or drift back off into their dreams. After a long, agonizing minute marked by the ticking of a clock the pony settled, rolling over in the process and freeing Iridia.
Clutching her lower lip between her teeth, Iridia stepped onto the floor and freedom. A quick check over her shoulder showed her a cherry blossom pink back, with a darker, rose red mane tipped with honey-gold highlights, and the figure of a mare.
This was a bit of a surprise.
Iridia had never had much time for the company of other mares herself. Finding stallions to share her bed had never been a problem in her more adventurous phases, and during her settled periods she’d prefered monogamy. Not out of any dislike of the herding practices of almost every society on the disc, rather she had never found a wife she could bear the thought of losing.
Which probably said something about her attitudes towards stallions; a thought she promptly shoved aside to be examined in a century or three. That was something to guilt herself over later.
Before she could slip out of the door, Iridia was brought to a stop by the difference in her surroundings compared to what she expected. Beautiful oak panelling replaced the cold stone walls of her tower, and alternately smiling and stern portraits of unicorns loomed down at her. It was a room she recognised as previously having been the bedroom for her daughter.
Twilight’s writing desk and bookshelves were gone, replaced by more generic tables and a cabinet. There were also far too many chairs, and even a sofa… all covered with sleeping ponies.
A cold sweat broke out along the back of her neck as she took in those present. Scrunching her eyes shut she tried to remember the last few days. Events and snippets of conversations dashed upwards, scrambling into each other as they always did during the season. There’d been an orange coated guard, Cadence, free flowing wine and something about flying. Interspersed were playing a Stones game with a stallion—she was pretty sure she’d lost as well, but couldn’t be certain—dinner with her nieces, and something about a particularly smooth gouda cheese. Piecing together the order and specifics, however, eluded her.
Deciding it wasn’t worth the effort, Iridia tip-hoofed across the room, and over the sleeping forms of Two-Step and Pennant before slipping out into the hallway. She bumped almost at once into Velvet, the much shorter mare wrapped in a dressing gown and carrying a steaming cup of coffee.
“Iridia, you’re up early,” she said in a hushed voice while indicating she should be followed. “It’s only Wednesday.”
“Is it?” Iridia scraped her tongue over her dry mouth as she joined Velvet in the matron’s study. “Feels more like a Friday to me.”
At the periphery of her thoughts she could detect the beckoning tempest that was the Font calling for her guiding hoof. She almost gave in right there, so easy would it have been to just fall back into the warm, spicy flow of life and magic permeating the disc. Stumbling a little, she caught herself with a reminder that she needed to know what she was doing at Sparkle Manor.
“So…” Iridia’s voice trailed off as she settled in a plush chair and noticed the stacks of arcane tomes piled up on either side of Velvet’s desk. Coupled with the heavy bag underneath her friend’s eyes, there was no doubt that Velvet had been up all night doing research.
For a blink it wasn’t Velvet Iridia saw, but her own Twilight. The similarities were uncanny, and served only to heighten Iridia’s sense of having chosen her daughter’s foster family well.
A smell that was not a smell broke the illusion, and Iridia had to work hard to stifle the silly grin that wanted to take over her mouth. The musky energy clinging to Velvet was unmistakable, and it took no imagination to picture the steamy cause. The love, passion, and heat contained in the act. Curiously, there was more, but before she could explore the energies further her thoughts were snagged.
“Tyr is dying,” Velvet said, dragging Iridia’s mind back into the room.
Fantasies shattered, Iridia cocked her head a little to the side like a puppy, or confused foal. “Is she? Is that why I am here?”
“In part. You’re also here because you kept pestering the guards in Canterlot to find Twilight and rut her.” Taciturn disapproval flitted behind Velvet’s eyes, along with a slight glimmer of hidden humour. “And something to do with Cadence and some crystals.”
Letting the knowledge sink in, Iridia let out an embarrassed laugh. “Well, that is to be expected. I used to torment my sister endlessly… a long, long time ago.” A grin ghosted across her features, and a pang for her sister’s company pinched the corners of her heart. The loneliness and sadness were fleeting. Eventually they’d be reunited, all she needed was patience, and for a mind as old and immortal as hers that was easy. She tapped her chin. “I’m not sure what crystals have to do with Cadence though.”
Shrugging, Velvet returned her attention back to the books floating around her. “You’d have to ask her about it. She didn’t say much, and what I gathered is from snippets she muttered to herself. Whatever you did clearly shook her enough to divert her attention from Tyr’s situation, if just for a few angry minutes.”
“Yes, you mentioned Tyr dying.” From her private reserve, Iridia summoned a bottle of plain apple cider, well chilled by the teleportation, along with two large mugs. Pouring out the drink, Iridia said, “If you desire me to do something about this, I should warn you my hooves are rather tied by my sister’s curse. There once was a time I could have done something about Fostering, but that is many, many years ago.”
Closing one book and setting it aside, Velvet hardly looked in Iridia’s direction. “I know. That doesn’t concern me. I already know you require an eclipse, and have gotten the spell together. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and even Blessed have all agreed to take part.”
Iridia couldn’t contain her surprise.
An eclipse meant the sun and moon were no longer diametrically bound. For this to happen, Celestia, Luna, or most likely both had to have shattered—again—her oldest work. The shifts and changes the disc would undergo as a result would be calamitous, especially for the coastal regions as the tides grew wilder and ponies adjusted towards the new status-quo.
Besides the effects on the oceans, there were those on magic itself.
Many spells in the old days had depended on the moon being in specific phases or positions in relation to her sister. Keeping her locked into being always full and in Sol’s opposition had allowed for a number of spells to be far more effective, while locking out large swaths of those deemed unsuitable. A shiver worked up Iridia’s spine as her mind wandered to the real reason she and her sister had locked Sol and Selene in place; to close the Silver Gate.
Not natural to Ioka, the gate connected to a single other world, and had been the portal through which a horrible enemy had emerged. Destroying the gate not an option for fear of what would happen to the rest of the disc, and magic in general, Iridia had devised the spell, based on the lessons of her first teacher, the Sorceress Salandria, to keep the gate shut through use of a flaw in it’s operation.
Weighing the gate reopening against the life of an alicorn, the choice was simple.
Besides, it wasn’t like the sigil hadn’t been destroyed before and replaced. Celestia’s fall preceding the Long Winter, the War of the Sun and Moon; both had shattered the previous sigils. At the worst it was the work of a few weeks to recast the spell and set everything back to normal.
“So… you have everything you need then.”
Velvet nodded, then sighed. “I don’t like it though. This spell in my head,” she tapped a hoof to her temple, “will require a sacrifice in the old ways. A life for a life.”
“I hate those spells,” Iridia agreed in a lazy, uninterested voice as she watched the books orbiting Velvet were one by one filed away and replaced by sheets of empty parchment.
She tilted her head as words and runes began to appear on the sheets, formed by little lines of shimmering blue magic. Once a page was full it flew to Velvet’s desk where it was neatly stacked. In the space of a minute several such sheets were completed.
“You’re making a grimoire.” It was a statement of fact. Iridia had seen the process many a time over the millennia, always when an especially practiced or knowledgeable wizard sensed either a completion to their life’s work, or the end of said life. “There is something else that happened that you are not telling me. What is it?”
“I’m just feeling a bit old after telling my story and having had one last, little adventure. Luna and I had a bit of a time yesterday morning looking after Star.” The grin Velvet put on was threadbare and ragged, meant to deflect while simultaneously begging for a follow-up. “I have one final spell to cast today, and then… I suppose I will rest for a while.”
Suppressing an eyeroll, Iridia let out a short, harsh bark. “Fie, old friend. You are too young to be growing so morbid and fatalistic. So, this spell requires a life? As I recall you have a few to spare that you’ve gathered over the years.”
“And spent,” Velvet said as she began to work on a letter, writing it with quill and ink while yet more pages of the grimoire filled themselves around her. “I used the last of my stolen lives saving Star. The thane has already arrived, Iridia, and is waiting for me.”
“Perhaps I should send her away, or lock her back up in the ruins of my temple,” Iridia snapped, rising to her hooves so she could pace across the small study. “I do not like losing my friends when they are still so young. Too few are the days you mortals get to enjoy. It is wrong for them to be cut shorter still because we gods made an error.”
Velvet stared at Iridia a few moments, and then tossed back her head as she laughed; deep, long, and free. Her body shook with guffaws and shorter chortles for a long time. Long enough for Iridia to grow a tiny bit irritated. She fluffed her feathers and pouted, hoof tapping the floor as she waited for Velvet’s mirth to pass.
When her friend’s laughter had subsided into a few, lingering snickers, Iridia said, “If you are set on this path, then far be it from me to correct your course. You are my champion and friend, and though I have granted you many boons over these years as a matter of course, I wish to grant you another. My debts to you can not be repaid in the single lifetime of a pony. When next you come to the disc, what life would you like me to grant?”
“I’d ask for something nice and quiet, but I doubt that is in the Weave’s design for me.”
“Fie! I think you’ve lead a quiet life once in all the dozen I’ve known you.”
“It’s been that many? I sometimes wonder about these past lives, or if they at all matter to me. Will what I’ve done effect whoever comes next? Is it fair to put on her my sins?” The melancholy hovering around Velvet grew as she spoke, then was banished with a sharp snort and flick of her ears. “Bah, listen to me try to philosophise! No, it doesn’t matter. She will be herself, and may she do better than me. Give her what life you think best, and that is it.”
Iridia nodded and smiled, ideas already dancing on where to place her friend when that season came.
Nobility, naturally. Nothing too high though, that always hampered more than helped Velvet’s predecessors. Perhaps the gentry then, or one of the lesser Houses. Something where questions would not be asked when Iridia began taking an interest in the filly.
“Stop it,” Velvet playfully snapped, shooting Iridia a sideways glance. “Just a good life. She won’t otherwise require any of your meddling.”
A wolfish grin pulling at the corners of her eyes, Iridia waved a hoof. “Well, of course you won’t. But it makes things far more interesting.”
They shared a nice, long laugh, both at ease with the other.
“Something you can do for me; make sure Star receives this grimoire when she comes of age. I don’t want her meddling with these forces until she’s ready.” Velvet patted the growing stack of pages. “I’ve already sent a letter to the Arch-Mage to keep an eye on Star once she returns to the school. I’m certain she’ll keep atop of things.”
“It will be done, of course.” Iridia flicked a wing in a dismissive gesture. “Honestly, I thought you’d be in a flurry of activity, trying to micromanage every little detail.”
Velvet snorted and rolled her eyes. She increased the number of pages floating about her, and the speed with which she wrote, as if to prove that she wasn’t being blase about her fate.
“I’ve tried to run a rather tight ship with my House. Believe you me, I thought much the same when I realised what the spell would require. I found that other than the paperwork to confirm Limelight as my heir, which Blessed just so happened to have on her, of course—seriously, your sister and her acolytes really need to tone down their smug all-knowingness—but otherwise, there is precious little that needs attending."
“You’re certain this is the best course of action?” Iridia indicated the floating pages. “You’ve always been rather adamant about never sharing this magic.”
Rolling her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug, Velvet didn’t answer right away, instead inspecting one of the many spells. “Celestia got me thinking. There is so much about magic that we destroyed. Is it right for me to do so again? Especially when in a few hours these runes will be used for good. It does not negate how dangerous they can be, and how poorly I used them, but perhaps another will be able to do better. I can’t allow this magic to fall into the wrong hooves, so there will have to be safeguards.
“It is my hope that Star will be able to prove herself worthy and open this tome. If not, there will be others, and one day… maybe… maybe through them I’ll be able to atone.”
“More likely some cultist will get ahold of the book and attempt to use it for evil. Probably an attempt to steal Celestia’s throne.” Iridia huffed with a little grin to show she was jesting. “If this is your wish though, I’ll put the book someplace safe behind a layer of wards and traps and what-have-you, ready for the eager and foolish. These things are still done, yes?”
Smiles turned into a patter of soft laughter, Velvet saying as the moment faded, “Yes. There are a few choice places. A secret compartment in the House mausoleum is the most common. A series of cryptic riddles necessary to discover the means of locating and opening the panel.”
“Oh, no, that is too simple!” Iridia’s grin grew wider and she felt an upsurge of simple happiness. She thrust up a hoof, and declared, “Nay, I shall have you hidden away someplace in the north as you are my champion. A tomb befitting your deeds and adventures will be placed beneath Sunfall Stone with the other grandmasters of the Ravens.”
“Too obvious, if we want to keep my secrets out of troublesome cults hooves.” Velvet tutted, fully into the game, and began to pull out some maps for them to pour over. “First we need a secluded but meaningful place that will not draw suspicions. Of course! Ponyville!” Velvet tapped the map excitedly.
“‘She rests ‘ere beneath the Star’s Gaze’,” Iridia intoned in a low, powerful voice.
“‘Fixed to the North, by three mountain’s breath,” Velvet added, mimicking Iridia perfectly. “So, a small temple dedicated to Twilight?”
“Small temple? For where our Twilight awakened? Never! It will be a grand cathedral the likes of which has not been constructed in this era. A landmark denoting the beginning of the return of the gods! It will stand for four thousand years, until ponies lose all grasp of why the cathedral was built, and simply marvel at its magnificence and wonder how the ancients could have formed such beauty.” Fully caught in the fantasy, Irida leapt to her hooves and began to pace. Her wings jittered with excitement, her eyes flashed with mirth, and her words tumbled one over the other in their desire to be spoken. “A secret order of knights will be formed to stand vigil and maintain the wards and riddles, acting as guardians and guides to those seeking to unearth your greatest secrets. Some texts will paint you as the mortal mother to a goddess, others as her confidant and teacher, and scholars will argue and debate which is true or not for centuries. They will hold one-half of the cypher needed to follow clues carved into monuments and places of importance, and the other will be given to your descendants. It will take teaming up with a brave and intelligent professor—of antiquities, of course—to finally uncover your greatest secrets.”
“It certainly makes for the beginning of a good story,” Velvet chuckled.
Iridia slowed in her pacing and her excitement tapered away, thoughts growing hazy as the Font pressed harder against her mind. She let out a happy hum, redirecting a life with the push of a hoof. Time began to crawl along, Iridia giggling and fluffing her wings as she went back to her appointed task and Velvet focused herself on creating her grimoire and accompanying letters, all thoughts of cyphers, adventures, and tombs abandoned.
Shortly after dawn there was a knock on the door preceding Mr. Cane entering with a tray of breakfast scones—cheese covered no less—with a cup of coffee for Velvet, and a glass of port for Iridia. As she took a plate and her glass Iridia gave the butler a kiss on the cheek. He blushed a little, but said nothing in response, instead focusing his attention ahead in stoic professionalism.
“The princesses are taking their breakfast in the garden, ma’am, and requested you be told that everything is ready on their end for this noon.” Mr. Cane waited for the nod of acceptance and follow-up dismissal before making a curt step back, and then stopping. He hesitated, eyes darting from Velvet to Iridia and then the door, before returning to his employer. “Ma’am, I know I am out of place, but, I just wanted to say we are all with you. Naturally, all of the staff have the fullest confidence in your ability to overcome whatever malady has afflicted princess Tyr.”
Melancholy acceptance flickered across Velvet’s face, and she thanked Mr. Cane with a stiff, “I know. Could you tell Mrs. Hardtack I wish to speak with her?”
It was some time later that Iridia was next aware, hours passing in the space of a blink filled with warm scents and an ever shifting current of new life. At some point she’d been brought to the garden. No, she’d teleported. There’d been a brief instant of cold within that hazy warmth. She sat in the corner of the gazebo on a comfortable bench with a wing draped over Tyr.
The filly sat blowing her nose into a hoofkerchief, eyes watery and shot with red veins. Her little body shuddered, and then she glanced up at Iridia.
“You really believe I’ll be accepted after all that has happened?” Tyr asked, uncertainty giving her voice a pained treble.
Iridia blinked at the question, and try as she might to retrieve the conversation that had preceded it, all was an indiscernible mess. Rather than attempt to sort through the jumbled moments between Velvet’s office and the garden, a futile effort at best from past experiences, Iridia reached down and swept away the tears that clung to Tyr’s cheeks with a wingtip.
She was spared having to stumble through any answers by the arrival of Cadence. “It is time,” she said as she guided Tyr with a wing towards the hill. Behind her came the rest of the house, everypony from the servants to guards and all the Sparkles in attendance.
Bluebirds gathered in the boughs of the old oak above the wardstone, twittering and chirping a spring song. A warm wind swept up from the south to rustle the leaves and tug at the manes of the loose herd up the hill. On either side of the wardstone sat Celestia and Luna, their work on the casting circle long completed.
The day had all the hallmarks of one of those halcyon days, idyllic and perfect.
Already, there were signs of that this spring day, this brilliant Wednesday at the end of April, would be one of prominence in the history books.
High above, Selene and Sol shared the day for the first time in centuries, the moon so pale and ghostly in the blueness of the sky. Likewise, a few stars remained awake, twinkling over the center of the disc. Perhaps they’d been attracted by the oddity of seeing their nightly companion already returned, or something else had grabbed their attention. Only Twilight would have been able to tell everypony what was going on with her stars. A sad smile flickered across Velvet’s features.
She regretted Twilight’s absence more than ever before. There would be no chance for them to make amends now. Unless there was a miracle. Even surrounded by the disc’s pre-eminent deities, Velvet knew better than to hold such a hope.
There was so much left unsaid between Velvet and her eldest daughter, even though Twilight was not, technically, her own. She darted a quick glance to where Iridia sat in the shade of the gazebo, once more lost in the currents of life flowing from the Font. No, Twilight was her daughter, no matter the circumstances of her birth.
A long sigh rattled from Velvet and she basked in the warm rays a little longer.
Twilight would have loved the past week, with all the stories, history, and magic.
Looking up the hill, Velvet imagined Twilight up there as a filly, sitting in the shade given by the old oak, a half-dozen books spread around her. A much younger Shining made his appearance, a teenager once more, watching over his sister from beside the wardstone. Limelight and Two-Step faded into view on either side of Twilight. The former braided her older sister’s mane, much to Twilight’s annoyance as she tried to focus on her reading, while Two-Step commented about some aspect of the book’s contents. It was a history book, Velvet decided, on the founding of Equestria. Pennant appeared next, while all the others grew a little older. She glared from off to the side, pawing at the ground with a hoof, before turning away and marching off in a huff past a starry eyed Star. Shining drifted away, and in his place appeared the twins, with a little Adamant, barely more than a tottering foal, and an equally small Spike, the quartet laughing and giggling as they played under the Sun.
Loath to cast away the imagined past, Velvet tried to picture where her children would travel in the years to come, but found it impossible. Her thoughts refused to be moved, etching the fantasy deep into her heart and making it glow with pride.
A polite cough from Cadence at last brought an end to the happy past, and the household began to make its way up the hill.
Velvet lingered longer than most at the bottom, gazing around at her home and family. Pennant and Shining trotted side-by-side, and it was the first time Velvet could recall the pair together and not arguing about something. On Pennant’s other side was Two-Step. He was talking in his usual quick manner to Adamant. Ever inseparable from the youngest of the Sparkles when he was home, Spike laughed and made private, little jokes with Adamant. With their short legs, the two had to cantor in order to keep pace with their older siblings
A little behind the first group, Star rode on Comet’s back, her hooves wrapped around his neck and face buried into his mane. On either side she was flanked by her moms, Glitterdust chattering away in a happy buzz, while Whisper was her usual silent self.
Limelight, Melody, and Elegant followed last, the twins peppering their sister with question after question on what was about to happen. None of her answers satisfied, as she herself knew little more than the thinnest details. Still, they persisted, and filled in the gaps with guesses and conjecture. From the laughter, they didn’t suspect anything other than a perfect, glowing outcome.
How Velvet wished she’d be able to live up to those expectations. She knew that she should send all the family away. But there was no way the ritual could be done in complete secret. At least, this way she had some control, instead of the little ones sneaking out and interrupting things.
Separated a respectful distance from the Sparkles, the House’s servants came in a loose group. Mrs. Hardtack and Mr. Cane both smiled and nodded to Velvet as they passed her. Both knew something was awry, but also that it was not their place to question. In the inner breast pocket of her frock, Mrs. Hardtack carried a key to a box of letters given to her by Velvet just a few minutes before the family had begun to gather. The box itself sat, hidden, in Mrs. Hardtack’s desk down in her office next to the servant’s quarters. The key weighed heavily on her, and a few times she slowed to glance over her withers at her ladyship. There was nothing she could say or do, no small comfort that could be given, the walls between their respective classes too high to surmount. This was a relief to Velvet. She didn’t want or need any further attempts at consolation or being dissuaded from her course.
The various guards and soldiers that had accumulated around the manor in the past few weeks took up the rear. Velvet paid them little attention, barely enough to acknowledge their presence.
On reaching the summit of the hill, Velvet cleared her throat and addressed her family in a grave voice, saying, “All of you are to stay put, no matter what happens. I’d much rather you wait in the library, truthfully, but we all know you’d sneak up here regardless.”
There were a smattering of nods, chuckles, and smiles.
Poor dears.
Guided by Cadence, Tyr was lead to a spot in front of the wardstone. She gave Tyr a hug and then took her place along the outer rim of the circle.
Velvet went to her spot, and looked around the rim to make certain everypony else was in place.
“Follow my lead,” she said, though it was hardly necessary, as she began to pull on her magic.
The ritual started off just as she’d shown the princesses. Velvet laid down the first rune, the powerful divine rune Ablyss, crafting it into the base of all that was to come. The air hissed against the rune’s edges as it formed from the point of Velvet’s horn. Even braced and accustomed to the Dark Runes ways, the hungry pull of the rune almost knocked Velvet to her knees. Ablyss was one of a selection of runes Velvet had always been too afraid of unleashing.
Closing her eyes, Velvet spread her legs a little more, and paid the rune its toll. Into it she poured little pieces brought up over the past week retelling her past. Guilt, love, moments of joy and despair; she used them to feed the voracious rune. She let out a grunt, and had to wave off Shining as he took a step forward. Ablyss tried to latch onto the spike of love and warm memories that surrounded her son, and for just an instant Velvet began to lose her grip on the rune.
To the outside observers, Ablyss merely flickered. For Velvet, it was like trying to bind a hungry dragon using thin strands of twine. Heart pounding, a bead of sweat rolling down her brow, she tightened her grip and began the arduous task of placing Ablyss into the casting circle.
Grass yellowed and died as she gently set it upon the ground. Daisies and spring blossoms withered away in seconds. All around Velvet spread a circle of decay.
A nod signalled Celestia and Luna to begin adding Ursea and Cuil.
Neither princess had to struggle with their runes. Both flowed as naturally from the princesses as breath. The potent Harmonic runes crackled and snapped as they were bound to their Dark cousin. Fire—golden and ruby—merged with the smokey, oily essence of Ablyss on one side, while on the opposite it was a spinning nexus of greens, yellows, and blues that sang from Cuil. Together, they formed a buttress and buffer for what was to come next.
The same moment the three runes began to touch, Cadence began to call on Abael while Blessed formed the divine rune of the seraphim Raphael, John. From where or how the rune had been discovered remained a mystery whose answers were known only to the Revered Speakers, and Faust herself. Velvet didn’t concern herself with such questions, and chalked it up to Faust being the Goddess of Fate. Velvet herself had found the rune in a very old text hidden away in the family library only a few years earlier.
She gave these thoughts not even a passing moment, focused entirely on what was to come next.
Overhead, Selene began to eclipse Sol, and all the disc’s aether was thrown into turmoil.
They had to act fast now, but none so quick as Velvet herself. She had only a few seconds to alter the course and dynamics of the spell from what she’d shown the princesses, to what was necessary to save Tyr.
Before Abael and John had even fully been integrated into the spell’s base, Velvet set to work. She grabbed hold of Ablyss, and overtop of the rune slammed its sister, P’DoraI, dislodging Ablyss from the weave.
Celestia and Cadence both called out to Velvet, demanding to know what she was doing, but their words became lost in the rush of wind and magic that poured from the now completed base of their spell.
At the center of the magic, Tyr squirmed and twitched.
There was no time to question Velvet, and so all the princesses had to simply trust her. Luna and Blessed both continued their casting without hesitation. Celestia and Cadence quickly followed suit, lest the spell fizzle to disastrous consequences.
Acting half on instinct, and half desperation, Velvet forged the necessary runes in rapid succession. The whites of her eyes turned to green, with similarly tainted aether leaking around the edges so it appeared she wore a mask of emerald flames.
Again, Shining made to interfere, this time joined by Pennant. Both were stopped at once by Iridia’s outstretched wings. She shook her head slowly, and though both showed their concern, they didn’t move any further.
While the others followed the original spell to perfection, Blessed alone showing fatigue and her age as she struggled to keep pace with the trio of goddesses and the Sorceress, Velvet continued down a different path. Everything began to cascade together, runes falling into place one after the other. This was a spell unlike any other seen in two thousand years. Not since the fall of ancient Thuelesia and the start of the Airborean Period had any pony dared to craft a new sigil.
In the corner of her eyes Velvet became aware of the thane standing next to the old oak. She began to cross the grass towards Velvet, heedless of the rolling waves of excess magic rushing across the fields. The thane came to a stop beside Velvet, and started to stretch out a wing.
The spell increased in tempo, and Velvet’s mana sang in a chorus from her horn. Not just from her, but the others as well. They were a small orchestra, the spell a grand finale to the last movement of some hitherto unknown opera. Tyr was lifted into the air, held by gentle golden bands, spinning slowly as silver and emerald fire washed over her body. Her eyes flitted open and she reached out towards Velvet. She tried to scream something, a warning perhaps, but her voice was utterly subsumed by the music of the spell.
Leaning over, the thane whispered, “It is near time, Velvet.”
Ignoring the thane, Velvet prepared to place the last of the hundred runes.
A wide, sad grin grew on her features, and she turned just a little to take one last look at her family. She was so full of life and love in that moment, her heart ready to burst with all the pride and joy her fillies, colts, wives, and husband had brought her. Her eyes connected with each of theirs in turn, and in them she saw awe, worry, confusion, and hope.
Only Glitterdust and Shining realized what was about to happen.
Why, no pony could say, but it was Shining who grabbed Glitterdust as she started to charge into the twisting nexus of wild aether. He held her tight while the other Sparkles looked on in surprise and fear. She tried to reach for Velvet, a plaintive hoof outstretched, her wife’s name tearing from her throat.
Velvet mouthed the words, ‘I love you all,’ and reformed Ablyss. The rune came back ten fold as hungry and violent as before, angered, perhaps, by Velvet’s snub only a few minutes earlier. It latched onto her love for her family like a lamprey. This time it would not be dissuaded, and she made no attempt to fight it. Engorged, Ablyss began to cap the spell.
Everything was cast into chaos.
Tyr knew only darkness and pain. An ethereal python wrapped her in it’s freezing coils, squeezing the warmth from her small, too frail body, invisible scales grasping her with a cold so deep and biting it seared through skin, through sinew, into her bones, and beyond. She tried to screams and cast off the vile serpent, to hurl it away from her with all the might of her alicorn heritage. Her howls came as no more than a ghostly whisper, while her thrashing passed through the incorporeal beast without effect.
Hard as she tried, never could Tyr break the serpent’s hold, as it was no beast that wrapped her tighter and tighter, but a vast plane of bleak nothingness. It was the Void itself, that indiscernible realm between realms, that divided the physical from the unknowable and strange places within which reside the spirits.
On one side stood all that was Ioka, with her rivers, mountains, forests, oceans of water, and even space through which the great world-turtle swam. To the other were the places from which dreams were born and carried by the oneiras, the dank halls of shadows and secrets where the hemmravn hid all the knowledge they gathered, and seven hundred other such creations forged by the errant thoughts of gods and demons in a time before time itself, before the first heartbeat and the first mewling babe was birthed in the chaotic swirl of war of creation.
She spun and plummeted for an age through that dark realm of pristine cold. Madness crept along the fringes of thought, seeping in between the searing agony and edges of hope.
Death would have been preferable. Or, perhaps she was dead and this was where alicorns went when they died.
No sooner had the idea begun to crawl along the contours of her mind than she struck something with a wet thwack. Numb, Tyr lay in a shallow layer of water. Looking around showed nothing, not water, not ground, just the endless expanse of the void. It took a while for her to roll to her hooves, almost all of her strength sapped by the cold. She staggered a step, her stomach lurching when she looked down to find infinite waiting beneath her, waiting to swallow her whole. Waiting with all the patience of a space where time was a foreign concept.
Biting her tongue to hold in a scream, Tyr looked around. There had to be something, anything on which to focus, that she could use as a guidepost. But there were no stars nor horizon. Not a flicker of light twinkled within the void.
Her legs gave out, and Tyr fell hard, chin striking whatever invisible matter it was on which she stood. Hissing back a frustrated scream, she rubbed at the stinging.
A change in the air rippled across Tyr, pressure building at the base of her horn as the frozen serpent vanished, replaced by a crushing weight. Spots began to pop across her vision and a low hum deafened all thought. Bracing herself, Tyr tried again to take a step.
She took another, her hoof crashing down with a heavy splash like she were a colossus walking into the ocean.
Another step, and the pressure became as if the disc itself were riding on her back.
The spots now popped with such regularity that she was blinded by their ghostly orange afterimage. Through the orange glow she made out a slight movement. She blinked and her heart hitched in her throat. A trick of her mind, no more, she couldn’t allow herself to fall prey to desire and baseless hope.
Hooves splashed down, but not her own. Out of the orange gloom two shapes took form, striding across the void on long, thundering strides. Her mouth went dry and she started to back away, fright quickening her heart more than any hope. Back legs giving out, Tyr trembled all the more at the ponies before her; Apollo and Aphrodite.
Around her parents extended an aura that drove back the cold. Rather than provide comfort, it only further drove shivers up her spine at the disgust that twisted their features. Titanic in size, Apollo and Aphrodite loomed over Tyr, their aspects frightful in their rage. Lightning crackled behind their eyes and fire cloaked their wings in billowing curtains. Taller and taller they grew, until they were as mountains.
“You are not our daughter,” they intoned together in voices that crashed down on Tyr. “She of our essence would never allow herself to be twisted and corrupted as the thing that grovels before us.”
“Our daughter was made strong,” Apollo curled his upper lip and turned away. “Never would she cower and blindly accept the rule of the tyrannical.”
“They stole you from us, and you allowed it.” Aphrodite twisted her eyes shut, shame trembling along her throat. “You did not fight for us, for yourself. Instead, blindly you accepted the imposters.”
“No!” Tyr protested as loud as she could, but her voice was as the whisper of a butterfly’s wings against the howling wind of a hurricane. “I did—”
“Nothing!” Boomed her titanic parents. “You stood idle as they stole from you, as they took your wings and lustre, as they took us. We are your parents. We are your heritage. All that you are is what we gave to you, and you squandered those gifts. At the first challenge did you fight? Did you prove yourself worthy of the mantle waiting to be claimed? Like a mortal you accepted defeat, instead of bending the world to your will until triumphant. There is no drop of divinity or worth left in this thing that grovels before us.”
Tyr trembled and shook, the words of her parents cutting her to the quick. She could not deny their accusations, as all were true. She hadn’t fought, and instead moped and pouted like a common foal. When disease took hold of her, rather than break the curse ravaging her, she’d allowed others to fight her battles.
Allowed herself to wallow in self-pity and sympathy. In misery and the shower of affection, surrounded by so much love, given freely when she was a stranger interloping into their family. Not once did they treat her any different than any of their own flesh and blood. Given how much importance mortals placed on such things, it was a wonder she’d never realised how lucky she’d been to fall in with Cadence.
But, what else could have been expected from a goddess of Love?
They’d given her everything she’d ever secretly wanted. Her parents had never shown her one ounce of affection.
For all their flaws. For even being the cause of her illness, Cadence, Shining, Celestia, and the others had only ever had her best interest in heart, never their own. It would have been so much easier to cast her aside, or to outright destroy her. Any potential threat she presented, a not insubstantial upheaval to their entire order at least assured, would have been ended before it could have even begun.
Tyr never could claim the same about Apollo and Aphrodite.
Only her sister had shown her any passing sort of kindness, and even she’d been too wrapped up in her own affairs to spend more than a few moments with Tyr. Despite being well into her second century of life, she’d spent more time with the ponies of Equestria than any of her original family.
“You don’t get to judge me,” Tyr snarled, hurling over a hundred years of resentment and longing into the words. “You are supposed to be gods of protection and love, but you know nothing of either! Only your own self-interest and desires. Cadence is a far greater Goddess of Love! When it became clear the damage her inaction caused, she at once went to rectify her mistake. Going so far as to confront a seraph in order to glean a morsel of knowledge that might prove useful.
“You, however, have always put yourself first and foremost. I was a thing to be carted out to the masses and shown off.” Chest heaving, Tyr did not relent at the shock that flashed across the faces of her titanic parents.
Onto them she hurled a century worth of longing and bitterness. Their abandonment became spears, Cadence’s acceptance a coat of armour, and thusly girded Tyr unleashed everything she’d ever wished to say. Accusations, recriminations, hatred and love, self-doubt, and the awakening Equestria had brought about were all brought to bear. Quickly they flew, one atop the other in a restless need to be spoken, until Tyr’s chest heaved with spent ire and tears stained her cheeks.
Underneath her barrage, Aphrodite and Apollo began to shrink. Neither had any counter to Tyr’s onslaught of pent up emotions. Smaller and smaller they became, until they were no larger than normal.
“I don’t need you anymore,” Tyr concluded, the words shocking herself more so than even the spectres of her parents.
Her declaration seemed to shock Aphrodite, who blinked and rocked on her hooves as if physically struck. Next to her, Apollo merely contorted his features into an enraged sneer, and vanished. A ripple crossed Aphrodite, like wind skipping atop a grassy field, and a softness came to her eyes.
“My daughter…” She clamped her mouth shut, and shook out her long, bouncing mane of pinks and golds.
Tyr became aware through the dissipating anger that had carried her thus far that something was awry with the image of her mother. Behind Aphrodite appeared a familiar arch, one that lead to her grand temple on Cyprus. Though numerable years had passed since Tyr had last seen the temple, its corinthian columns and vaulted roof filled her with a subtle comforting warmth, as they had done the first time she’d been brought to be shown to the masses of Aphrodite’s followers. The memory could not last against the tempest raging in her heart, and was quickly lost among unearthed bitterness.
Resettling her haughty pose, Aphrodite asked, “Is that your judgement?”
The question struck a chord in Tyr, resonating through her in a pleasant chime, silencing all the turbulence and turmoil tormenting her.
It was simply wrong how she’d been raised. An injustice had been committed, stretched over her entire life until it tainted every aspect of her being. Her parents abused the naive, absolute trust of their foal. It was wrong, and the wrongness of it all set her every fibre on fire with a need to see the crimes redressed.
Losing everything tying her to Gaea freed her to finally see what had been done. She’d never have realised the truth without the light cast by Cadence.
A slender, hesitant smile inched along her muzzle. Around her Tyr could feel the presences of Cadence, Shining, Celestia, Luna, and Velvet. Their love, given without preamble or condition swelled in her chest.
“You are not my mother. You never were.” Tyr flared her wings and spat the proclamation, and it felt so right. Proper.
Aphrodite vanished, along with the temple behind her, and in their place Tyr was confronted by a different temple, or perhaps palace. One made of the whitest marble, the face imposing and proud. At the top of a long series of stairs stood a statue of herself, but not herself. It was a stallion raised on his back hooves. His right fore-leg was shorn off at the knee, while from his left hoof dangled a set of scales.
Palace and statue existed just long enough for Tyr to let out an exclamation, then both disappeared, and Tyr was falling again.
Fear slashed across Velvet’s heart as a devastating blast of foreign magic erupted from the very heart of the circle. The runes, so carefully laid, began to unravel, all the energy placed within bursting in a long chain. Jets of multicoloured fireworks spun into the sky in long, ear-piercing shrieks that ended with terrific bangs, one on top of the next, as though a hundred cannon ship-of-the-line had been conjured with both broadsides roaring.
A heavy blow struck Velvet’s chest, throwing her up and away from the center of the conflagration. Spinning backwards, time seemed to slow to a crawl, though this too could have been some effect of so much magic released in a contained space. Celestia and Iridia were both well protected behind their own protective barriers, confusion and strain etched into their all but frozen faces.. That Iridia had reacted so fast was impressive enough, her wide shield even sheltering the other onlookers, while Celestia managing to abandon one spell for another within a sliver of a second would have been beyond awe inspiring at any other time. Luna had been just a little slower, showing in the few sparks that had made it behind her shield, singeing her cheek, while Cadence just barely managed to deflect the bulk of the onrushing energy in time. Blessed was not so quick, and like Velvet, the Revered Speaker was sent hurtling through the air.
In that moment, Velvet was unprepared for the return of all the emotional energy she’d fed into the various Dark runes. The joys: the brush of Growler’s lips on her own, the first bleats of all her foals, the day she’d first set eyes on the endless expanse of forest forming the western Taiga. The fears: River’s first coughing fit, Gamla Uppsala’s tunnels collapsing all around her, and being dragged, bound and gagged, back into those same tunnels by laughing Diamond Dogs. The guilt: Sylph’s final words, her myriad betrayals of those who’d put their faith and trust in her, and her failure to reach Growler. And the sorrows: the loss of so many, ponies and halla; her parents, friends, loves, and, lastly, River. She shook and spasmed as if caught in the pulsing strobe of lightning as each pummeled her with its return in an unrelenting stampede.
Velvet was barely aware of landing several lengths away from the casting circle, the smell of burnt fur that stung her eyes and nose lost in the maelstrom.
Through the ringing in her ears, she heard a voice… Cadence screaming Tyr’s name, then others calling her own. Between the blades of swaying grass she caught sight of Glitterdust and Limelight, seemingly untethered to the earth as they rushed to her side. There, too, was Comet, holding Whisper tight, the small mare trembling at his side, her face buried in his neck.
Then Glitterdust was at her side. “Love! Velvet, can you hear me?” she shouted, her hooves moving over Velvet’s barrel and then cradling her head. “Please, dear Faust, don’t be dead.”
“I’m fine,” Velvet croaked, honestly believing the lie—if only for a second. She brushed back Glitterdust’s gold and magenta mane, smiling despite the terrified eyes that stared down at her. Faust, she could have stared into those luscious eyes, rimmed with fright and consternation as they were, for years. She couldn’t, and the peaceful moment passed all too quickly into worry. “Tyr… Blessed… Are they?”
Glitterdust shook her head.
Icy fear raked through Velvet, chilling her blood and making the disc spin. She tried to stand, but her back legs just twitched in response, their entire length numb.
“Blessed looks… okay,” Limelight supplied, her head craned up to look around the hilltop. “I can’t see Tyr, though.”
“Help me.” Velvet tried to pull herself up, one leg hooked around Glitterdust’s neck, only to slip and fall back to the hard earth. “Help me up.”
She growled at her weakness and rolled to her side with Glitterdust and Limelight’s help. Terror twisted in her gut at the thought of what she’d find. Her legs wobbling beneath her, Velvet almost had to push Limelight out of the way to reach what remained of the casting circle.
The energy of the broken spell had become such that the casting circle’s lines had become glass, and the rest of the ground glowed molten hot. A jagged fissure split the wardstone from top to bottom, and half of the old oak had been blackened, sooty skeletal branches twisted and tangled together by the chaotic nexus of exploding magic. For all the intensity, the release of energy had been contained to a rather small area; all focused on Tyr.
Celestia and Luna stood close together, blocking Velvet’s view with their broad wings. Leaning heavily on Glitterdust, Velvet shambled ever closer, dread building in her gut with every step.
At the epicentre, the forces on Tyr…
Velvet shook her head sharply to prevent her thoughts from spiralling. Instead, she stumbled and nearly fell, her head spinning and pounding. Vertigo and dread gripped her stomach in icy claws, nearly spilling its contents at every step.
Just a little further…
For the briefest moment she was back in Gul Moloch’s arena, the roars of the crowd reaching up from the darkness of the past. A filly lay just out of reach, but, instead of the barklike skin and leafy mane of a dryad, it was the soft cream coat and tri-coloured mane of Tyr. Her insides twisted, and all Velvet could think was, ‘I failed again.’
A few more steps…
She had to know. All that energy… three goddesses, could it have harmed Tyr? She was the Sorceress, had spent her entire life immersed in mysteries few dared dream of as a shadow of possibility, yet she had no idea why the ritual had failed, or why half of Sparkledale wasn’t a crater.
Just a few…
The princesses were pushed out of the way. Not by Velvet, but by Tyr herself, vital and full of energy. Shocked speechless, Velvet staggered harder against Glitterdust as Tyr slammed into her and squeezed her tight.
“You scared me.” Tyr shouted into Velvet’s shoulder. “When I saw all the destruction, and you were missing…”
Tyr broke the hug, stepping back and thrusting out a long, slender wing as though to add poking Velvet in the chest to her continuing admonishments. There was a brief pause as every eye turned to focus on the offending limb. With a cry of pure shock, Tyr jumped and twisted around to stare at her restored formed. Everypony crowded around them, each speaking and shouting over the other to create an indecipherable din.
Velvet’s head spun faster, and all at once the fortress of her mind broke underneath the shifting emotions. She sank to the scorched ground and wept. Joy, despair, self-recrimination, utter relief; her emotions were too confused and conflicted, switching from so many extremes in the span of a few moments.
It was Elegant who brought quiet back to the hilltop with her shrill cry of, “You got your cutie mark!”
Tyr blinked a few times at Elegant, a pinch to her brow, before a jab of the filly’s hoof to her flank made her twist her head around. A slow glow spread across Tyr, her wings unable to be contained in her budding excitement. Contained within a laurel wreath stood a vertical sword, a set of scales balanced upon their point, all still glowing from their emergence.
“What does it mean?” Adamant asked, crawling up onto Two-Step’s back in order to get a clearer view.
“Justice,” she replied without hesitation, her voice oddly flat, and a little sad. The grin that had grown on first seeing her mark became brittle, cracked, and then Tyr was sinking onto the burnt grass. “I’m the Goddess of Judgement.”
“Are you alright?” Cadence raised Tyr’s chin with a wingtip.
“No. Yes. Both, I guess. I had a vision, and…” She shook her head and tried to put on a brave grin. “All part of your spell, I guess.”
A harsh snort broke from Luna. “Nay, the spell failed at the last instant. A good thing too, as somepony changed it without informing anypony. If I am not mistaken, and I very well could be, but those alterations would have cost the caster their life. That was a very foolish thing you attempted, Lady Sparkle.”
“It should have been the only way to break the Fostering,” Velvet explained, her voice weak in her own ears.
“Well, whatever happened, it has all turned out for the best.” Cadence looked pointedly at everypony, as if daring them to rebuff her. “That damned curse is gone, and may it never be cast again! Everypony is well, if a few a little singed, and this whole sordid chapter can be put behind us at last.”
Drained, with her head starting to ache from the sheer amount of magic expended, Velvet called to Mrs. Hardtack to have something prepared for lunch and brought to the garden. Almost in a fugue from happiness and relief, she kissed Glitterdust and Limelight on the cheek. She wanted to hug and kiss all her family, and just never let any of them go.
“I’m so glad that, for once, your plans failed, my love,” Glitterdust whispered, laying her head against Velvet’s neck. “And if you ever—ever!—try something so daft again, I’ll kill you myself.”
They spent the rest of the day in the gardens, laughing, talking, enjoying each other’s company. Around them, the foals raced and played, hooting with happiness; later, they took to re-enacting the spell, Spike using his fiery breath to mimic in miniature the moment it was sundered.
Velvet used the time to plan and contemplate. The wardstone needed to be replaced as soon as possible. Its loss was a shame and dampened the victory, if just a little. A thousand years, dozens of generations work, destroyed. Even were it possible to mend the physical stone, the enchantments would never be salvaged.
There was opportunity too, in replacing the wardstone. Already, ideas circulated in the back of Velvet’s mind. When her ancestors had placed the stone they’d already cast aside the Dark and Chaotic runes. With access to them, there was so many more options open to Velvet.
As soon as she returned from Manehatten and the funerals were complete, she’d begin in earnest.
A little more of Velvet’s happiness sank at the reminder of the loss of her sister and her family. With everything else going on, it’d been easy to push it back. Now…
Velvet let out a sad sigh and called Mr. Cane over. “I need you to go into town and get four tickets on the late-night train east, Mr. Cane. Have Miss Darning pack a travel case for the both of you, Limelight, and myself.”
He didn’t question, bless his soul, the order expected for some time. He’d already packed his own luggage the previous afternoon, and set aside some appropriate attire for Velvet.
With a curt nod, Mr. Cane hurried off.
“It looks like your lessons are going to have to start on the worst possible subjects, Limelight.”
Grimacing, Limelight simply nodded.
An hour passed, the manor settling into a peaceful state. Coffee and tea was brought around, along with some warm biscuits fresh from the oven to tide everypony over until dinner. Shortly after tea, a guard came up to the gazebo. He saluted sharply, and passed a collection of scrolls and notes to Celestia. Among them, Velvet spied no less than three tied with red ribbons to denote their urgency.
Everypony grew quiet as Celestia read the notes in quick succession. Her fabled mask was in full effect, and nopony other than perhaps Luna could have hoped to guess her thoughts. The mask cracked at the last of the scrolls, Celestia growing rigid with what Velvet took to be a mix of fear and shock.
It lasted for only an instant, and then the mask returned.
“Apparently, our vacation is at an end,” Celestia pushed herself up and motioned with a wing for Luna to follow. “I must return to Canterlot, there has been trouble in Ponyville, again. Also, a group of halla seem to have crossed the mountains some time ago. There has been trouble between them and the village of Diamond’s Down.”
“Diamond’s Down?” Luna tilted her head to the side in thought. “I have a teleport anchor not far from there. A half-hour by wing at the most. I shall go and see what has transpired.”
“Perhaps you should take Iridia with you?”
“Because they are halla?” Luna flattened her ears. “I doubt she could assist in her current condition, Tia…”
Ears pricking up at the mention of halla, Iridia left her spot next to the railing. “Oh, that is the new Lioness Lodge,” Iridia commented around a mouthful of biscuit and cheese. “They’ve made a herd and have been crossing into Equestria. A little over two-hundred of them, in fact.”
Luna flicked her attention over to Iridia, her mouth pressed into a sour line. “They have? And you knew, and didn’t think to inform Celestia or myself?”
“Of course I knew. They pray to me every morn and dusk. I don’t have near enough supplicants that they’d get lost in the noise. As for telling you; when would I have found the opportunity, both of you doing your level best to avoid my presence until this last day?” There was no bite to Iridia’s reply, rather, it was carried with a giggling bounce of playfulness. A glimmer of joy made Iridia dance a little on the spot. “I wonder if Thundering Mountain is with them. I hope he is.”
The name tickled Velvet’s ear, and she turned around to join the conversation. “The scrawny little fawn from Ironbark Vale? That Thundering Mountain?”
“He was hardly scrawny, or a fawn, even when the Eagles brought him to Thornhaven.” Iridia gave Velvet a playful nudge, followed by a vivacious wink. She quickly sobered, though not all the excitement left her as she rattled off a quick explanation for the family. “You left a big mark on the Taiga, Velvet. Holm Mountain and Snowflake were the only two bear masters to survive the Battle of the First Vale. While she settled down and her troops disbanded back into their herds, he was ready to march on Reinalla itself to free me. Some misguided notion I was the Eagles’ prisoner entered his head. Ha! Thornhaven is my home, not theirs.” Iridia chuckled and fluffed out her wings. “As if they could hold me if I wished to leave.”
She paused, and her face twitched in annoyance before adding, “To prevent a civil war, certain fawns and younglings from key lineages were exchanged. I may also have, from time to time, visited the various new towns set up at the vales. Hmmm, now I think on it, I should probably head home soon just to make certain they haven’t taken my departure as an excuse to club each other over the antlers.”
Celestia fully agreed with Iridia returning to the Taiga as soon as possible to prevent a civil war, and reiterated that Luna should take their aunt with her. Luna tried to argue, pointing to how Iridia was already wobbling on her hooves, eyes focused beyond the material plane as she tended to the flow of life giving energy washing across the disc.
“She’s growing more lucid, Luna. And if it is her the halla are trying to find, it makes sense to take her to them. I don’t want any more misunderstandings between our little ponies and the halla.”
Looking over to Velvet, Luna suggested, “Perhaps you should come as well?”
Velvet brought her hooves up quickly to fend off the idea. “I am the last pony you would want near any true Halla, trust me.” She then leaned over to wrap a hoof around Whisper’s back. “Besides, that part of my life is behind me now.”
A slight despondency came over Iridia, her grin sliding off her face while her wings came to settle along her back. Velvet could see there was something her friend wanted to say, but didn’t yet have the words. She hovered there between giving her thoughts voice, and hiding them away once more.
Velvet waved a hoof in a shooing motion. “Go,” she added for emphasis. “Deal with this wayward herd. None of us are going anywhere.”
Despite assurances, Iridia lingered, only moving off when Luna called to her for the third time in a row. She quick-stepped up to Luna, and then they vanished in a silver flash, off to the west and north.
Celestia departed only a few minutes later by chariot. She waved to the ponies down below, swung once around the manor, and set off towards Canterlot.
Content, Velvet leaned back, and let out a long, happy sigh. Before she could begin to relax, however, an early dinner arrived on steaming platters. Mrs. Hardtack had tables and awnings out, and the silverware laid in splendid order.
What they ate escaped Velvet’s attention. It was a decent meal, that was certain, but the specifics eluded her as thoughts began to wander into a vague, tired haze. There was so much laughter and brilliant smiles, that Velvet was at peace.
Desert came and went, and Sol sank towards the western rim.
Cadence was aware of the shift in the air first, the way her ears pricked up and eyes darted across the fields giving the others just a moment before there was a brilliant lavender flash next to the gazebo.
Before the light had fully dissipated, Star was scrambling out of her chair. “Twilight!” Star yelled, bounding out onto the grass and then around her sister. “How are you here? Did you teleport all the way from the ship?”
“Heya, Little Star,” Twilight wore a strained smile, and reached down to ruffle Star’s mane, only for her hoof to pass right through her sister. Grimacing, she let out a little sigh. “Right. Astral projection. Can’t touch anything.”
Star’s eyes glittered, and she let out a long gasp. “When did you learn this spell? Who taught it to you? Can you teach me? What runes does it use?”
“Slow down there, give Twily some room,” Shining chided softly, pulling Star back a little so she wasn’t trampled beneath their siblings in their rush to greet their eldest sister.
As delighted to see Twilight as everypony else, Velvet couldn’t help but be concerned as well. She’d seen Twilight fake happiness when something weighed on her mind too many times not to recognise the expression. There was a droopiness to her ears, and a heaviness to her step that couldn’t be fully hidden.
Still, she didn’t press, and instead watched as Twilight greeted each of her siblings in turn. Whatever troubled Twilight was lifted a little by the time she reached Tyr. Twilight gave Tyr just a little nod, then said, “You got your wings back. That must feel great. We should go flying sometime, when I get back to Canterlot.”
Tyr, who’d been in the process of a stiff half-bow, gave a wide, dopey grin, and bobbed her head eagerly. “Yes! And my lustre. I can feel the earth again! And the sky!” She beat her wings quickly a few times, enough to lift her just a bit off the wood flooring of the gazebo. “And I found my domain too!” She added, turning a bit to show off her cutie mark while telling Twilight all about what her mark meant.
“That’s great.” A little more honest happiness inflicted Twilight’s tone. “I guess you’ll be helping Princess Celestia and Princess Luna with court, huh?”
Gasping, Tyr covered her mouth. “I hadn’t thought of that!”
With that, a new game was made, that of Judge Tyr. She gathered up the other foals, and went to play. Even Star took part, set up in a shady place where she could sit and pretend to be the prosecution. The foals’ grasp of law and courtly etiquette was rather poor, to say the least, and more than a few times came the resounding shout of, ‘Objection!’ from Elegant, she having been selected as the defense. It was good to see Tyr, at last, being just a regular, normal foal.
Even if she was also a goddess.
“Everypony is okay?” Twilight asked as she settled next to Cadence, and across from her mothers. She looked pointedly at Star, worry playing at the corner of her mouth.
“Perfectly fine, now. Star just took a bit of a tumble the other night. She’ll be fine in no time at all. What about you? Why are you sending an astral projection of yourself over a thousand miles? That has to be taxing.”
“Huh?” Twilight blinked a few times and jerked her head away from where her siblings played. “Oh, yeah, a little. It just takes some time getting used to the experience, that’s all. Luna can make two actual clones, after-all. I should be able to master this. Honestly, it is a little like when I extend myself into the stars. Except, everypony can see me.” She wiggled a hoof, as if for emphasis.
“Mother also kept them in relatively close proximity, Twilight,” cautioned Cadence. “Be careful, okay?”
Pouring a little lukewarm coffee for herself, Velvet clicked her tongue loudly. “You didn’t answer my question. I know about astral projections, Twilight. Tell us what is bothering you.”
Ears folded back, Twilight let out a long, nervous titter and looked everywhere but at her mother. Now, Velvet had no doubt something was wrong. For Twilight to break her promise not to leave the ship transporting her to Zebrica, it had to be something important on her mind. Even if, technically, Twilight hadn’t left the ship, her body remaining behind.
“Celestia and Luna aren’t around?” Twilight asked and swung her head this way and that in an overly exaggerated motion.
Whisper groaned and, with a little bite to her tone, replied. “They left a little while ago, honey. Now, answer your mother.”
Instead of a direct answer, Twilight looked down at her hooves in shame. Her tail swished a few times as she turned over various responses in her head, a little droop entering her wings. Everypony at the table waited, all well used to Twilight’s eccentricities.
“How do you do it mother?” She eventually asked. “How do you deal with having hurt somepony? Being responsible for them dying.” A heavy sigh made Twilight sink further into, and through, her chair. “After Countess Lulamoon died in that duel, and everypony started calling you the Bloody Baroness behind your back, you never seemed bothered by it at all. You just… I don’t know.”
“What happened?”
“I got a bunch of ponies killed today,” Twilight admitted, her voice hitching in her throat so that she had to take a few seconds to regain her composure. “Pinkie and Rainbow almost died as well. Fleur is in a coma. Everypony has been trying to tell me it’s okay. We just had the funeral for the sailors, and I just needed…”
Pity and understanding washed over Velvet, and she let out a quiet, “I know, love. I know. Whatever happened, happened.” She slipped away from Glitterdust and Whisper, moving to sit beside Twilight. Unable to offer a hug, given Twilight wasn’t truly there in a physical manner, she tried her best to console Twilight. “Everypony is different, and some handle guilt better than others. Don’t dwell on things, but don’t forget either. Take what you learn and put it somewhere safe. You think of your mind as a library, so, make the experiences a scroll, and tuck away in a safe place where it can remind you of what you did wrong, but doesn't control every moment of your life. And, when you inevitably make other mistakes, repeat the process.”
“That makes it just like any other learning experience,” Twilight protested, head jerking up. “Doesn’t that, I don’t know, demean their sacrifices?”
Velvet sighed, and thought back to all the friends she’d lost over the years, and all those she’d killed. Growler, Sylph, Sombra, Juniper, Violet and Red Phosphorous struck her the most. If she closed her eyes their faces would appear in perfect clarity. King and Prince Selim, and the diamond dogs of Gur Moloch. For a brief instant, she wondered what had happened to the city, if it still survived, or had one of the other diamond dog cities had come in conquest following the loss of its armies.
“No. It would be worse to become crippled by guilt, or to forget them entirely.”
Twilight stared into space, and thought over her mother’s advice. Eventually, a tiny smile began to creep along the corners of her mouth. “Thanks, mother. That helps, I think.”
“Good.” Velvet clapped her hooves once. “Now, if that’s settled, you better float over to Star and sate her curiosity a little before you poof back to the Bellerophon, or nopony will hear the end of it.”
Giggling, Twilight went to join the foals, waving back and her parents as she left.
Velvet relaxed at long last, and wondered what adventures awaited her family in the future. Would it be Adamant, a young knight duty-sworn to his niece-princess? Melody and Elegant, ever inseparable, working their way through the pitfalls and secret dealings of the nobility and gentry? Star, without a doubt, would strive to take her place among the other eminent wizards, chasing after her heroes. Pennant was set on her course in the navy, but would she attain an admiral’s flag? Limelight was now the House Heir, and much hardships awaited her, all the scheming and politics of the nobility laying in wait to pounce. How would she fare in that deadly game? Two-Step belonged in academia, or perhaps a detective agency, putting his beautiful mind to work. As for Twilight, well, adventures would always be in her future. The same held true for Shining. Being married to a princess-goddess was not conducive to a quiet, settled lifestyle.
The warm spring breeze washed through Velvet’s mane. Her adventures were, at last, over. It was time others took the spotlight.
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I wonder what changed the spell. I'm glad to see that this is over and that Tyr has gotten her Cutie Mark.
So...what, exactly, saved Velvet? It doesn't feel like it was all that clear. Or was that something to do with Tyr's Domain?
7512052
She wasn't "saved" per se. The spell was disrupted before it could be completed and much of the backlash was absorbed by the alicorns' shields. At least that was my understanding.
I think that should be 'much hardship' or 'many hardships'. Also I believe it's properly 'lying in wait' except that I want to say it should be 'waiting' too but I can't give a reason why for the latter. Something is weird about the wording.
It was interesting reading the part with Twilight talking about guilt and how to deal with it then having the mindful education episode for Steven Universe air not long after.
I greatly enjoyed this chapter. Though I fear the ripples of Rarity's fate have even begun to sink in.
Have a cheeky light-hearted comment:
How much sand is covering everything currently? (sorry, couldn't help myself) :)
Argh, curse struck and closed the window accidentally, losing my in-progess editing notes. Much harder the second time, as one keeps feeling "I've read this before" and skims.
Corrections offered without malice.
first and last sentences of this paragraph seem to disagree. Did you mean "couldn't bear the thought of losing"?
coupla "it's" -> "its":
Iridia
from which
cults'
mountains'
cheese-covered
canter
judgment is the American spelling, thanks to Daniel Webster, I'm told…
delete extra space
Rune's or Runes', depending on whether she is accustomed to the one or the set, respectively.
with anger and violence tenfold increased,
century's
thusly-girded
poor phrasing; implies the other half is. Perhaps better: "why there wasn't a crater replacing half of Sparkledale."
form
generations'
Dessert
Poor Leviathan. My heart lies with her.
was
I want to hear more about her.
I want to hear about that too.
So by unlocking the sun and moon from each other have they opened the door for Zeus and Hades?
Also, does every disc share the same underworld?
I'm not sure how to read this. Did you mean "the war of creation"?
I would drop the "protective" as the sentence flows better without it and also get rid of the double period.
Did you always plan for the fostering to fail? I did not see the plot going that way.
Unlike most people I was never that mad at Celestia for the fostering, especially considering the consequences of not foster Namyra, but if Velvet had died to undo Celestia's fuck up I would have been pissed.
I didn't even notice the wardstone had been destroyed in all the commotion.
Does Luna's meeting with River occur after this chapter? I guess that means I knew Velvet lived all along. I only read that like a day ago, I'm not sure how I forgot.
What happened with Star anyway? Did she really just go for a walk and fall?
Did Twi not tell them about Polish?