If you knew you were going to die, what would you do with what time you had left? For Stellar Lights, the clock is running down. An unfortunate stroke of fate has left her with a ticking biological time bomb in her chest. Her family is wonderful and loving, but Stella certainly isn't blind --- she can see the distant truth in her husband's eyes and her daughter's hugs --- and she can't bear it any longer.
And then the enigmatic Princess Twilight arrives on her doorstep with a proposition. Stella will undertake an epic journey, so terrifying in scale that no pony has any hope of making it back alive. At the end, the lost destination of Celestia and Luna, whom disappeared from Equestria all those centuries ago. But Stella doesn't have to make it back...
The end she isn't worried about. The journey is all that's left.
a story written by Rust with proofreading by RoboRed and editing by _____________
Fig. 1: The Mk. IV [prototype] Interstellar Traversal Transportation Platform, in orbit around Equus, ACL 457. The final model, christened "Starjammer" (RS-46) by the members of Project Galaxy, and piloted by the deceased bat pony (pega nocturni) Stellar Lights, of Everfree City. The whereabouts of both craft and sole operator are unknown, and presumed to have perished in their voyage to the edge of the universe and beyond.
"The need to rise above is not something that can be measured; it is an intrinsic desire stitched into the very fabric of our souls. We are all imperfect creatures who strive for that impossible horizon, and in reaching ever onwards, we realize a potential we never thought we'd be able to bear. Some achieve spectacular heights, if only because their ascent started from so low. Stellar was one of those ponies. We found one of the best among us, and she had no qualifications, had no background, had never even considered piloting anything other than the family skywagon. But she had heart, and the willingness to rise above and beyond every expectation of the engineers, the doctors, and even myself. We sent her forth into the unmapped darkness, and prayed for her to come home. She went in peace for all Equestria, and all Equestria is in her debt.
Yet, some explorers do not return. And that loss settles unfairly on a few. One family in particular shares that burden more than any other today. Now they must face life and grief... without her. That is a lonely, wretched sorrow, but know that they are not alone. As time passes, they will find the support and grace to see them through. And in the Pale Mare's time, we pray for a reunion that will come.
I speak now to any who have lost a mother, a father, a loving guardian. You need to know, they love you, and that love will always be there with you. They are proud of you. And you can be proud of them for the rest of your life.
The final days of her life were spent looking down on this world. Stellar once confided in me that she was terrified not of the last sleep that might await, but that her existence on such a vast, eternal land would be forgotten to the sands of time. Now, in every country she could see from her time among the stars, on every pair of lips, her name is known and brought close to heart. The Cathedral of the Sisters has bestowed her a sainthood. She will always have a place in the hallowed halls of our heroes, now and forever.
A late summer's evening rolls in, and fireflies have come out to play. Shadowy ghosts wither away into an austere sky. Twilight is magnificent, as it always will be.
In a small suburb near the outskirts of Everfree, a lone mare turns from closing up shop to admire the colors chase each other under the horizon. Leathery wings shuffle in place upon her shoulders as a pair of tall, tufted ears swivel to catch the sounds of fading daytime. She turns again, and the shooting stars falling across her haunches seem to shine in the streetlamp.
Like most Fridays, she locks the door behind her, entombing the astronomy equipment behind it for the weekend. This far away from the borders of ordered territory, the stars always dance in greater splendor than other places. Business is good enough to let her take a night off, every once a blue moon.
Tossing her key into a well-worn saddlebag, she begins the trot to her next destination. The warm summer air feels pleasant, so she allows her wings to dangle half-unfurled at her sides. There's no reason to fly; she has plenty of time and the trip will do her some good. She won't admit it, but she's been glancing at herself in the mirror lately. All this time in the shop must have been making her a tiny bit plump.
She slowly ambles down the cobbled road. The stones, baked in the sun all day, are still deliciously warm to the touch. Cricket serenades compete for her attention. It's a sort of racket that she loves.
Just over the distant treetops, she can pick out the spires of the Princess' castle. tall enough even to be seen even in Ponyville. The crystalline keep sparkles, a far-off jewel caught in daylight's last breath.
Her tummy gurgles. She blushes, checking left and right to see if anypony heard. The streets are empty this time of day. She feels a strange twinge, then it passes.
She thinks nothing of it.
A left turn at the second intersection brings her to a bridge crossing the crystal clear canal that zigs and zags around Everfree proper. Most Equestrian cities didn't have a waterway so intimate with their layout, but Everfree had never pretended to be anything but different. The city wasn't built, per se, so much as it was grown. Here, modern steam tramways, skylanes and cobblestone streets mesh almost seamlessly with winding trails and the towering, ancient trees.
At the heart, the old Cathedral of the Sisters still stands at the center of Fluttershy Park, just across the gap that spanned where the canal ran deepest. Some said you could still feel the spark of divine magic in those old stones, but Stella wasn't one to put much stock in old pony tales like the Goddesses.
She takes a sharp corner once past the bridge. Best take the long way home, work off the pudge. Meandering along the canal was quite beautiful this time of year, after all. Small restaurants sit their patrons outside to watch the canal, and the spices of Everfree cooking seduce her nostrils while a live band or two fills the air with pleasant music.
A stray firefly lands upon her snout, and she pauses, scrunching up her face as her eyes cross. It tickles. She sneezes, accidentally launching it out across the canal. It whizzes past the shoulder of a pony she didn't notice before. A melancholy stallion sits at the railing, watching small skiffs poled up and down the waters, lanterns swinging from the bows. His face is obscured by the shadow of an unruly mane.
She trots next to him. "Everything all right, friend?"
"Not particularly," the stallion replies. "I was waiting here for my wife. It's our anniversary tonight, and I had it all planned out. I think something went wrong."
"Oh, um." She's thankful he faces the river while she takes a small step away. Perhaps it was wrong of her to intrude. "I'm sorry to hear that. Did she ever show up?"
"Yes. I hope. But..." His shoulders slump.
The poor dear looked quite out of it. "But?"
"Something went wrong," he repeats. His voice is cracking. "Very wrong."
"Sir, are you sure you're okay?"
"Are you okay?"
The mare raises an eyebrow, glancing down at herself as if she'd missed something earlier. She felt fine. Sure, a little tired from work, but nothing like a good rest wouldn't fix. And maybe a few less chocolates.
"Are you okay?" the stallion asks again, still fixated upon the boats in the river.
"Maybe we should get you some help," she begins, but freezes when he looks at her. The streetlamps strike through the shadows covering his face. Cracked and yellowing bones grin madly at her between hollow sockets. There's nothing there, no flesh, no sinew, just skeleton.
The skull moves, his voice comes out. "Are you okay?"
There's that twinge again in her gut. She can't speak; couldn't even if she wanted to.
It continues anyway. "Stay with me. Please."
The mare stumbles backwards, squeaking as her breath hitches in her throat. Her gaze whirls around. The restaurants are empty! The chairs and tables are deserted, the bands have fallen silent.
They're alone...
"Anything, please. Try anything." The stallion rises to his hooves. His image seems to flicker. "Don't leave."
She turns and runs.
Streetlamps race past. She's galloping harder than she could imagine, eating up the cobblestones. But there, ahead, he stands, the skull face expressionless as he holds out a hoof to her. She sees a small detour coming up --- bolts for it --- darting around parked carriages and trash bins, casting glances behind her.
Even her eyes can't see him in the gaps of shadow, but her ears pick up the sound of another set of hooves on the stone.
"Don't go!" comes the cry.
She bites down a scream and hurls herself onward.
The city melts around her. Signposts drip street names, building facades slump and bend towards her. She feels like she's going faster than ever before, but not moving an inch.
Something's coming up behind her. She can feel it.
A small alley appears. She dives through, tumbling into the shadows and knocking her breath out upon the ground. There. Must be safe now. Have to be...
"Please..."
Stars no.
It's there again, standing at the entrance to the alley, blocking the way out. She scrambles away until her back strikes brick wall.
"I love you. I love you. I love you!"
Each slow, unhurried step accompanied by that declaration. Her eyes scan frantically, looking for some kind of escape, something, anything. They settle on the sky.
There!
She surges forwards, wings snapping out. The ground sinks away, the monster vanishes into the shadows. She breaks over the rooftops, heading in a random direction --- as long as it wasn't here. Her breath is ragged and hoarse. She keeps flying until her wings feel like they'll rip from her sockets. It's hard to see through the tears, but she manages to roughly land on the top of an apartment building, skidding on the gravel roofing.
For a while, she simply lays there, exhausted, chest heaving. Eventually, she rolls onto her back, wiping her face.
She freezes.
"Stella."
The skull's empty sockets burn holes into her soul.
The doctor lowers his clipboard, mumbles a final word of apology, and retreats from her. The door opens briefly, filling the sterile room with the busy hum of a hospital, before shutting with a metallic click.
They're alone.
Stella can't take her eyes off a fold in the sheets. At the bed side, she hears her husband desperately trying to control his breathing. It sounds like he's about to cry. Ironic, given the circumstances.
"Shhh. Blue." At his name, he jerks. Sniffles. "C'mere."
His warmth takes her from the side, and he slumps over her shoulder, shuddering. Stella can't focus on it, can't focus on anything really, but she knows he needs somepony right now. Even if it shouldn't be her. She strokes the back of his neck. Something warm and wet is dripping onto her pillow. "Shhhh.... shhh, hun. It's okay, it's all right..."
Stella can't bring herself to join in his misery. By all rights, she should be hysterical right now. She should be screaming, raging against the fates and the unfairness of it all.
What's going to happen to them?
That's it. That's the only thing in her mind, repeating itself endlessly. Why? Surely she should feel something. Anything. Was a cold sweat too much to ask? A single tear? Alas, her face might as well have been carved from stone.
So she lies there in her scratchy gown, comforting Blue when he finally couldn't hold it back any longer, and holding him long after he fell into a fitful sleep.
She watches the shadows race across the floor. Watches as the moonlight shines in through gaps in the blinds. Watches the rise and fall of her own breast, irritatingly consistent. Watches as the sun comes up. Watches as Blue twitches, lost in a nightmare.
At some point, Stella realizes she accepted her fate as soon as the words left the doctor's mouth.
"...Blood tests... startling... cells aren't acting properly... there's nothing like this ever seen before... we aren't even sure... possible magic mutation... no, not genetic... wrong cells in wrong places... spell can hold it off... temporary measures... delaying the inevitable... total organ failure... slow collapse... one year... we estimate about one year... one year..."
One year.
Miss Lights, you have one year to live.
Stella gently wriggles out from underneath her sleeping husband, placing a kiss upon his cheek as he whimpers into the pillow. She stands, stretching the cramp from her wings. A familiar feeling down below leads her to the bathroom.
After doing her business, she looks into the mirror.
A placid expression stares back at her. No red eyes, no puffy cheeks, barely even a dirty coat. Aside from a messy mane -- which she kept short, anyway -- she looked fine.
The nasty lurch in her stomach returns. There's that stabbing again. Her eyes widen. She rushes back to the toilet, barely making it in time before she heaves, spewing dark liquid into the waters. "G'hhhaaaach!" It hurts, feels like something's taking her insides and turning them inside out.
When she's done, she wipes her mouth off with a hoof and staggers to her hooves.
The door to the bathroom opens, and the doctor walks in. "Miss Lights!? I heard the noise, are you--"
"No," she interrupts. "I'm dying. Left a gift for you, by the way." She jerks her head towards the toilet. "Sorry about that. Are those for me?" She doesn't wait for him to answer, simply lifting a bottle of pills out of his stunned grip and plodding past him. "Thanks."
Somehow she slithers back into bed with Blue without disturbing him. He unconsciously nestles into her, pulling her close. She doesn't resist.
Stella is gone the second her head hits the pillow.
"I mean, I could call in, get somepony to cover me..."
"Blue, I'll be fine."
"M-maybe I shouldn't go, we have enough savings to last another week or two."
"Blue."
"This is a bad idea, I shouldn't have to leave my wife alone like this..."
"Blue!"
They're standing on the threshold to the street, plush carpet beneath their hooves and the rising sun peeking through the windows. Stella gently nuzzles the stallion hesitating at the door. Behind her comes the sound of pancakes on the griddle and the Monday morning Holopone.
Blue fidgets with his tie. "I... just." He's looking everywhere but her.
She kisses him, murmuring into his ear, "I know. But this will do you good. We've been cooped up in here for half a month. Go, get out there."
"But what about you?" He lays his neck over hers.
"I'll manage. Galaxy has school off today. I'll spend as much time as I can with her. Okay?"
They stay like that for a while, drawing comfort from the embrace. "Are we ever going to tell her?" He doesn't wait for a response, adding, "I hate this, I hate feeling like this."
"Like what, hun?"
"Useless," he mumbles. His voice is bitter. "Afraid."
"I've got the pills now," she reminds him. "The attacks won't bother me anymore. It was just that first time on our anniversary, and the hospital."
He is silent.
Eventually, he steps away. "I should go."
Stella offers him a smile, but he still isn't looking at her. She holds the door open for him as he steps into the morning and is swallowed by the sunlight. Leaning against the open doorway, she shifts her bathrobe against the breeze. It's a windy day today, and the family skimmer wavers a bit in air, before rocketing up and away into the metropolis of Everfree.
With a sigh, Stella closes the door and returns to the kitchen. Breakfast is almost ready. She flares her leathery wings, grabbing the spatula with the tips of the finger-like bones that make up the limbs and stirring the batter.
The Holopone is reporting the news for the moment. Pleasant background noise, really, but an interview with Lady Sparkle emerges, and Stella can't help but twitch a tufted ear towards the conversation.
"...truly remarkable, Your Majesty. What inspired you to initiate such an ambitious undertaking?"
"That's a fantastic question. I always knew there was more potential for the space program after ponykind returned to the Moon. Now, I say returned not because Princess Luna once dwelt there for a time, but also because it became the home of the lost pegasus tribe during Discord's short reign, ancestors of modern day nocturni, the Night Pegasi. It was actually Luna who brought them back when she returned, but for many years, we wondered what had became of the kingdom they left behind. After we re-established a colony there from ponies of all walks of life, I wondered if there was more out there. This program is intended to answer that question, once and for all."
"Fascinating. Are you at any liberty to discuss the progress your project has made?"
"Not entirely, save that this has been something I alone have worked upon for many years, and only recently expanded operations once I was certain the theories behind interstellar travel were sound, not to mention safe. The first launch is scheduled in three months, once we have finished testing the prototype craft and training the crew."
"Your Majesty, there are some among us who are wondering if there might be any ulterior motives to this program."
"Ulterior motives?"
"Yes. Would it be too much trouble to set rest to a few rumors?"
"Please, go ahead."
"Is it true that the secondary objective this program is to discover the location of the long lost Celestia and Luna?"
"..."
"Your Majesty?"
She blinks, realizing that somehow her attention had drifted to the Holopone. Something acrid makes her nose wrinkle, and glancing down, she gasps at the sight of the pancakes on the griddle. Blackened and scorched. Ruined.
"Ngghhhhh! You've got to be kidding me! Ffffffff---"
There is a small pegasus filly sitting at the counter, watching her with a curious expression.
"---ffffffuuuudge."
An awkward pause.
"Morning, Momma!" her daughter brightly chirps.
Stella sighs, scraping the mess into the incinerator. "Good morning, Galaxy. Did you sleep well?"
"Mhh-hmmm." The little scamp rubs at her eyes, stifling a yawn. "What was that?"
"It was breakfast." Stella presses a button on the counter, and the griddle descends, covered up by ceramic plates. Trotting around the counter, she ruffles the filly's mane. "I think I should leave the cooking to your father from now on. Want to go out for food?"
Galaxy's eyes light up. "Yusssh!"
"Okay. Wash up, and be ready to leave in ten."
Her daughter tumbles off her perch, small wings flapping excitedly. She giggles as her mother deftly catches her with practiced movements. "Can we do something fun today?"
"Hmmm?" Stella sets her down. "Like what?"
"I gotta new sim from one of my friends at school. It's the newest Daring Do!" Galaxy proudly announces, tail wagging with excitement. "I traded it for a bag of cookies!"
Stella's face crinkles with amusement. "Your father's cookies? I can't say this friend of yours has bad taste. Hmmm." She pretends to think hard for a moment. "Run along, and we'll use the link at the park to play. All right?"
"Yuppers!" The filly scampers away. "Love you!"
Stella watches her vanish down the hallway, before shaking her head with a mirthful chuckle. She notices she's still holding the spatula in her wing, now coated in charred bits of pancakes. Her faces sours for a moment, then relaxes.
"I know, baby. I know."
She never really got used to the feeling of a sim. Too much, too smooth. It was like she was forced into experiencing the world around her. She couldn't tune out if she tried.
Still, she reminds herself, at least this wasn't real. Horses of Heaven help her if it was, because she's terrified out of her wits as it is.
And the overly-enthusiastic commentary is not helping in the least.
"Ha-ha-ha-haa! Can you believe it? You're about to do something nopony has ever done before. Ever! You're dropping into the throat of a frozen volcano, mares! You're gonna ride the inside of Kilamarejaro --- nothing but pure darkness in there --- you're gonna be riding blind!"
A sharp warning siren blares from the cockpit of the vehicle, a pilot roughly smashing his hoof into some buttons a few times until it quells. Outside, nothing can be heard over the scream of the storm but the deafening chud-chud-chudding of propellers beating desperately at the air.
"...That's, that's rock'n'roll, mares, that's what it is, that is a deadly descent." The entire craft shudders violently, pitching the sole occupants in the rear passenger space about. "Heheheh, bet the only thing you two can think of right now is the sting of vomit in the back of your throat, eh?"
Stella places a hoof over her chest, trying to control how hard she's breathing. Her heavy winter ensemble flexes with the movement, more of a second skin than thermal protection. Her heart is absolutely pounding against the inside of her chest, and she fears it might actually break her ribs.
She turns to her daughter in wide-eyed disbelief. "This!? This is what you do for fun!?"
Galaxy is too busy rolling around the floor of the infernal machine as it sways in the wind. "Wheeeee! Oh, yeah, Momma, this is tons of fun! I do this stuff all the time! All we gotta do is make it to the bottom and grab the treasure. Just like Daring Do!" The filly staggers over to her mother, patting her on the shoulder. "I mean, if you don't want to do this..."
Stella takes one look at those big, glistening eyes and she knows there's no escape.
"Let's do this," she says uncertainly, stepping onto the board glowing at the center of the space. A long, thin, curved board materializes beneath her hooves, attaching itself by some unknown force. It has her mark on it --- two shooting stars --- something that seemed oddly comforting.
Galaxy joins her, a much smaller board forming underneath the much smaller filly.
"Are those flaming skulls?" Stella asks, eyeing her daughter's equipment.
"Yah-huh. Do ya like it? This is my custom ride. It's totes magotes the gnarliest plank that ever shredded that dopesauce pow-pow this side of the Crysties." She's positively wriggling with unrestrained joy.
"....What?"
The pilot's voice drifts back from the cockpit. He sounds like he's struggling to hold the craft in place. "Put it out of your heads and start your nerves. Prepare to drop on my mark!"
Galaxy hops up and grabs onto an overhanging bar above their heads with her wings. After a moment's hesitation, Stella does too, and with little time to spare. She gasps as a hidden pannel in the floor drops away, and nothing but the black, monstrous yaw of open sky below them. The howl of frozen wind that rips into the craft is deafening. Its almost like the mountain is roaring at her.
"Galaxy..."
"Shh, this is the best part!"
The pilot cries out. "Three..."
"Galaxy...!"
"Can't hear anything love ya buh-bye now!"
"Two..."
"Oh Tartarus screw my butt sideways with a flaming baseball bat."
"ONE!" Galaxy lets go and vanishes out the hatch, disappearing into the darkness with a stream of childlike giggles. A strong beam of light sparkles to life from the filly's head lamp, and Stella can see it swallowed up by the frozen mouth of the volcano.
Screaming in terror, Stella lets go and falls after her.
"... And those lava pits were the coolest things ever! They were everywhere, too! I had to grind across the rocky ledges so I wouldn't fall in. I looked down into one and I was all like whoooaaaaa that's a long way down and there's fire and stuff in there too! Did'ya see me, momma? Huh? Did'ya?"
Stella shivers, rocking slowly back and forth as she leans against a tree in the park. A thin film of sweat is drying off in the noonday sun, and each breath is quick and shallow.
It happened again.
Surely not as bad as the first episode... but enough to jolt her right out of the sim. Enough to knock her down into a seizure right there on the projection pad. Stella thanks Faust that her daughter was still rigged into the virtual world, that she hadn't noticed her own mother convulsing on the ground next to her.
But... wasn't she on medication?
"Oh, I remember now, you didn't, 'cuz you fell into one. Like, three times." Galaxy giggled. "And then you went straight into the wall at that one turn! I think the sim actually glitched a little you hit it so hard. Hehehe... You look a little sick, there, momma. You alright? Ooop!" The little filly is swept up into a crushing embrace, all the air swept out of her lungs with an adorable squeaky noise. Sometimes she forgets how strong her mother is, being a nocturni. "Ghaaack! Mom... c-can't, breathe!"
Stella fixes her with a stern glare even as she suffocates her daughter with love. "Your mother thinks you shouldn't be playing those horrible, awful, nasty sims anymore." She squeezes even harder, finding comfort in the fruity scent and warm, wriggling body.
"Ghhkt! J-just... sayin'... that... cuz... I beat y-you..."
Stella sighs. "It was my first time!" She relaxes her death grip.
"Nooooob." Galaxy breaks into peals of laughter as her mother ruthlessly pins her down and tickles her. "Aauuughhhhaahahaa!" She squirms and wrestles away, before launching a retaliatory pounce with all her might. Down they go!
For Stella, the stress of the incident melts away in bliss. Squealing, the two mares tumble across the sunlit park in a ball of feathers and fur.
The sun is setting.
Stella plods wearily down the sidewalk, but there is a small, melancholy smile on her face. Galaxy perches between her shoulders, tiny pink wings outstretched to catch the evening breeze. The little filly nurses a comically oversize ice-cream cone between her grass-stained hooves.
"Momma?" Galaxy manages to speak between licks. "How come you've been home so much? You have a job and stuff." She has enough tact to notice that her mother's fluffy ears suddenly wilt. "I don't not like it! Please don't be sad."
Exhausted more than she should be, Stella slowly shifts over to the edge of the sidewalk, where small but steady stream of pedestrians won't have to edge around her. She sighs. "Mommy sold her store."
"What!?" Galaxy sits bolt upright, almost dropping her ice cream. "But you've got the bestest telescopes in Equestria! I thought everypony loved your shop. Those really smarty-smart-smart College ponies always buy fancy things from you!"
"No, honey," Stella gently soothes her. "I didn't go out of business. I sold off the store and all the wares to your great uncle Starbuck. Remember him?"
Galaxy frowns, her muzzle scrunching up in effort. "The big scary bat pony from the reunion last year? From the Knight Guard?"
"Mmhm! That's him. You have such good memory."
"He talked funny." Galaxy scowls. "Why, though? Momma, you loved that store."
That she did. Stella and Blue had built the place with their own hooves. A lot of memories lived atop the glass counter in the back. She couldn't count how many initiates to the Everfree College she had sold her telescopes and lenses to. Stella has to resist the urge not to sniffle as she wipes at her eyes for a second.
"M-mommy... yes, mommy loves that store very much. But I also love you very much." Stella lifts one of her leathery wings and strokes her daughter's mane. The tiny filly gazes back at her with a surprisingly serious expression. "And, recently, I had to chose between the two. Does mommy work, or does mommy spend time with her little star?"
Galaxy's expression softens. "You chose me," she realizes.
"It wasn't even close." Stella gives her a gentle peck on the forehead.
"I just don't want you to be sads." Galaxy stares at the ice cream cone clenched between her hooves. "Being sads is bads."
She offers her mother the ice cream. Stella takes a generous lick.
Hmmm. Blueberry...
"Are you and daddy getting a divorce?"
The question is so sudden that Stella actually stumbles off the sidewalk, nearly falling completely over. She catches herself at the last second, her reflexively-opened wings the only thing that stops Galaxy from toppling off her perch. She looks at her daughter with wide eyes, gobsmacked. "Your father and I love each other very much! Why in the world could you think that little star?"
"I hear daddy crying sometimes when you aren't around. Are adults allowed to cry?" Galaxy mumbles sheepishly. "It makes me feel funny because it must be very serious if adults cry, and my friend from school told me when parents get a divorce they sometimes cry."
"..."
Stella simply stares.
"Momma?" Galaxy chirps. "What's a divorce? If we get one I promise I'll take it for walks every day and feed it and clean up its nasty doo-doo so it doesn't make you cry."
"..."
Wordlessly, she steps back onto the sidewalk and kicks into a canter.
She makes it about a block before she can't hold in the snickering any longer.
Stella reclines on a small, cushy chair in her daughter's room, a storybook tablet long fallen dormant on her lap. She watches Galaxy as she sleeps, blankly taking in the gentle rise and fall of the blankets or the occasional kick as the filly dreams. The door is open a crack, flickering light painting a thin streak across the floor from the holopone left playing out in the living room. Stella's tufted ears twitch. She can hear the soft opening and closing of the front door even from halfway across the house.
Shuffling, scuffling, something moderately heavy settling on the floor. Deep breaths, slightly hitching. Light, but solid hoofsteps. Her husband is home.
A thick, feathery wing nudges the bedroom door open wider, his shadow cushioning the sudden intrusion of light. He doesn't see his wife sitting in the darkened corner at first, creeping across the room to bend over Galaxy.
Blue gently adjusts the blankets, murmuring so slow even Stella can't hear it. When he's finished, he gives the filly a kiss of the forehead, before backing away a few steps and sitting down on the floor.
For a while, both parents contemplate the sleeping form of their child, one unaware of the other.
Stella wonders what she'll say. She'd been thinking about it all day since she got home from the park. Now, hours later, she finds she is still at as much of a loss of words as before. But something needs to be said. This isn't the sort of thing you let lie.
She chirps. All noctunri can do it, a small pulse of noise barely discernible to the equine ear. Her vision pulses a little, the darkened room clarifying for a small instant. She notes Blue's sudden twitch. Despite herself, she feels proud of him. It took years for him to be able to pick it up. Her husband peers around in the darkness for a second, spotting her in the corner. She can see the reflection of her eyes in his, dimly glowing as they were wont to do. Blue jerks his head to the door.
She gets the message. Rising, she follows him out into the hallway, shutting Galaxy's door behind her.
Blue is waiting for her in the kitchen, nursing a small cup of cider. He greets her with a hug, and she leans against his strong chest for a moment, gently swaying.
"How was your day?" he finally asks.
"I..." she begins. How to tell him? "We went to the city park. Galaxy showed me her new game, we played all day. Got some ice cream on the way home, too. Little star is all tuckered out."
He looks like he's about to say something, but chews on it.
Stella fills the void before she can stop herself. "It happened again, Blue."
Her husband blinks, starts. "You had another attack?" He steps back to peer at her, intent. "Are you all right now? I thought the medicine was working..."
She shivers at the loss of his touch. "It... it was. Or maybe it still is. This wasn't nearly as bad as the first time. I didn't pass out out or anything, and there was none of that freaky dark puke this time..."
"But it happened again."
"Yeah."
"We need to go back to the hospital." Blue ran a hoof through his short mane. He looks away. "There's got to be something they have that will work."
Stella can't answer him. It isn't in her heart to deny her husband a ray of hope. Maybe she might even start believing in a miracle, too. So she simply sighs and leans back against the counter, watching him nurse the cider by the light of the holopone.
...Huh.
She could have sworn she'd set the 'pone on sleep mode.
The projector is emitting a simple envelope, glowing softly enough for Blue not to be perturbed, but for her eyes it might as well be a flashlight. "Who in the world is sending messages this late at night?" she mutters. Blue takes notice as well, and makes for the machine.
"Dunno. But it can wait for tomorrow. Need to get hold of the hospi--"
Stella watches as his ears shoot straight, eyes widen. The mug of cider falls to the floor, bouncing gently away on the rug. "Hun?" Stella asks. "What is it? Something important?"
Blue merely reaches out and takes the hologram off the emitter. He turns it around so she can see. It's a crest, and a familiar one.
The Evening Star sparkles in stark relief against the whiteness of the envelope.
"It's from Lady Twilight," Blue manages to whisper.
Once upon a time, a mighty, dark forest stretched across much of Equestria. Then it became a city.
This didn't happen immediately, of course. Everfree was built at the site of the original Sister's Castle, a sprawling old ruin perched atop a thick spire of rock. To all sides, a mighty gorge plummets more than half a mile into wet, rushing darkness, an impressive natural defense that made it ideal for settlement. Once upon a time, it made the perfect place for two Goddesses to make their home.
Much has changed since those days. Two-thousand, three-hundred and six years will tend to do that.
About seven hundred of those years under the rule of Lady Sparkle will tend to do that even more.
So was created Everfree.
From afar, it appears as a great flower, six petals radiating out from the great Bastion at the center. A road lines the center of each petal, a spine wide enough for two star-beasts to stride abreast. Every road tapers off into the old forest, vanishing beneath the trees, before emerging again on the far side, slimmer and packed earth, before spearing off towards any and all points on the compass. Between these roads lies an intricate spread of waterways and canals, like the veins of a leaf, linking the many neighborhoods together by boat and barge and bridge. The city itself stretches across the entire horizon, so vast that it could take days to traverse it on foot. It was not uncommon for one side of the city to have different weather than the other, simply because it was so large no normal weather system could cover it all at once.
Great, sweeping spires pierce the sky here and there, entrenched between hard, brutal angles and sweeping cloudscape frescoes. The entire city is a marvel of mixed engineering. There are few old buildings, save those near the Bastion itself.
Diamond walls ring that old fort, nearly a hundred feet thick. Not even a dragon could smash through them*. The Bastion stands dominant on the central island in the city, an elegant yet practical castle grown by some of the best geomancers the Crystal Empire ever knew. This was the spot the Lady Sparkle claimed as her own the day she stepped out of Ponyville and onto the world stage.
In the wake of the Golden Age, Equestria needed a fresh start. And so, a new seed was planned, from which ponykind might blossom forth into a new age, the Twilight Age. They never expected it to work quite as well as it did.
In the span of a decade, the old Sister's Castle had been rebuilt, save for the original great hall, which the Church of Heaven converted into a proper cathedral. Once a mighty fortress designed to repel wild invaders of the wood, the settlement had exploded outwards against the confines of the gorge into a marvel of urban engineering. Designers from all three tribes came together, melding elegant unicorn design, pegasi architechture, and earth pony technical ingenuity. Combined with the Lady's renowned logistical talents, the only limits the founders met was the gorge itself.
The next century overcame that issue, converting the fabled gash in the earth that had once tested the Element of Loyalty into the centerpiece for Everfree's waterways. The city exploded over the original barriers, rising as fast as it could be built. Such rampant urban expansion normally gave way to slums and broken ghettos, but the growth was strictly regulated by a particularly draconian secretary of the Crown.
Five more centuries after that, and Everfree had become synonymous with the might of Equestrian, a place of culture, science, politics, education, and magic. The Everfree College produced some of the worlds finest doctors in all fields. Apple Industries kept their Research and Development site near the campus, eager students always welcome to present new ideas. The original forest, much of it still standing despite having lost its name and danger over the long struggle, became a refuge from the changing world. Oddly enough, the Zecora Nature Reserve became the last bastion of the world's exotic folk; changelings, goblins, sprites, and any wishing to connect with the old ways. The irony of the park existing side by side with the pinnacle of progress long faded as Everfree soon grew to learn respect for their odd neighbors.
History recalls the other Equestrian cities receiving word of Everfree's success... poorly.
Understandable. Build it, and they shall come. And take away the skilled masons, scientists, lawyers, doctors, and workers a city needs to survive. The Commonwealth of City-States appeared as if almost overnight. Fillydelphia and Manehatten were the instigating duo, rightfully worried that upstart Everfree would take their businesses and peoples. Los Pegasas joined soon after, and with Vanhoover next, it made a perfect ring around the fledgling settlement. Secession from the kingdom was unheard of, but drastic times called for drastic measures, they supposed.
Text from those times dictate of a simple strategy; choke the life out of Everfree, and the Commonwealth would get it's stuff back. Schoolyard bully stuff. They symied trade with Everfree in the form of sanctions and strict import taxes, each city-state implementing even more draconian rates in an effort to simply snuff out Everfree'd goods.
Of course, they hadn't counted on going up against Lady Sparkle. In the span of six months, the city of Everfree was entirely self-sufficient, and with the aid of Apple Industries, was producing its own goods for dirt cheap.
Equestria hadn't seen civil war in millenia, but it came pretty close at that point.
So the Elements of Harmony themselves called a summit at the abandoned palace of Canterlot to sue for peace. The Commonwealth of City-States sent a small army of leaders and ambassadors to once and for all stamp out the troublesome little thorn in their sides.
Everfree sent only one delegate; a young dragon named Spike.
The Commonwealth was dissolved the next day.
As the seasons came and went, as Equestria shrank and grew, there was one constant, always had been for as long as anypony could remember.
So it came to be that the alicorn formerly known as Princess Twilight Sparkle, the mare who reshaped the entire world, who lit the candle of knowledge for all to see, who oversaw the rise of the mightiest empire ever known, who gracefully stepped down from office at the height of her power, looks up from her paperwork one summer's evening.
Because there was a knock at the door.
A guard opens it. "Visitors for you, m'lady. The two you sent for."
