Starry Sparks is a wandering alicorn. Adventure follows in her hoof steps, and now she has to stop an ancient villain from taking over the Equestria. Easy, right? Yeah...let's go with that.
Starry Sparks is an alicorn. She's wandered the planet for five thousand years. Her journeys have taken her to every kingdom while pretending to be a tall gray unicorn. But when she's in the quaint town of Ponyville, things go wrong as they never have before.
Except maybe once.
Or twice.
To answer all of your unspoken questions: This in not notnot any form of alicorn insert story. Don’t be apprehensive. I assure you. It’s not. And this is to all the people who have commented about their apprehension and then later discovery.
P.S: If you down vote my story. Please explain why. You can't get better if you don't know what to fix.
Starry Sparks trotted along the path, the dirt hard under her hooves. She lit up the area around her, her horn glowing with magic in the dark. Starry still had several miles to go, and she was really looking forward to a bed. Everfree forest rocks made extremely uncomfortable pillows. Her short purple mane caught the sudden breeze, moving quickly and then settling back against Her light gray coat. The breeze traveled down her back, grabbing her travel cloak and blowing it up, revealing for a brief moment the wings on her back.
The wind died down, Starry’s cloak resting against her flank once more. She quickened her pace, her trot bordering on a gallop. Why does there have to be absolutely nothing between Appleoosa and Ponyville. Finally, she spotted the woods clearing up ahead of her. The mare came out of the trees and stood out looking at the moonlit town. It was a small, and for the most part quaint little town. Only one thing made it stand out. The towering crystal castle did not belong here, its design befitting more the grand cities of her homeland, Everian, then a little village, barely in sight of the Equestrian capital.
“Well,” Starry sighed, “I guess someone important lives here.” She walked down the small hill and into the village. Quickly, she found an inn; a small place simply called The Ponyville Inn. Heading inside, Starry noted the cheery colors and clean smell of the inn. It’ll do, she thought, walking up to the bell lying on the bar counter. She rung it, and soon enough a young mare came scurrying from the back.
“Hello,” the golden mare smiled, “How can I help you?”
“One room, just for the night.”
“That would be five bits.”
“Here,” Starry handed her the little gold coins from the purse she had summoned.
“Here’s your key. Room 204. Good night!”
“Good night,” Starry half muttered, turning away and trudging up the stairs. She turned right, finding the room labeled 204. Sticking her key into the door, she turned the lock. It opened into a small room, fairly typical for an inn. There was a bed next to the window, and a small table with two chairs. A chest stood by the foot of the bed, with a washstand in the corner. Starry heaved her fully loaded traveling pack onto a chair, plopping down on the bed. She lay down, basking in the glory that was a mattress, sheets, a pillow and a proper blanket. Two weeks of using a pack as a pillow and only being covered by her cloak had left her desperate for the comforts of civilization. It's not like you’re not used to sleeping outdoors, since you can’t seem to stick around in civilized places for long.
Shoving away her dreary thoughts, Starry pondered the question at hoof. Where to go next? Head up to Canterlot, or perhaps stick around for a day or two, see what Ponyville had to offer. There was always the possibility of moving even further out west. She had not been to Vanhoover or Las Pegasus in a long while. Equestria had probably changed a lot since she’d last traveled through it. Her current course had been a stop in Trottingham, followed by ac sail down the coast, a trek inland to Appleoosa, and now the northward journey to Canterlot. Ooh, Starry thought suddenly, I could go north to the Crystal Empire. Now there’s somewhere I haven’t been in a long time. She decided that this would probably be her final course of action. May as well stay in this little village a bit. Canterlot is on my way, after all.
Starry sighed, levitating the blanket to cover her. She curled up, dozing off tl sleep
Starry Sparks awoke to the morning sun shining in through the window into her face. She stretched, hopping out of the bed. She stumbled over to her pack, rummaging around until she found a comb. Starry yawned, looking into the mirror over the washstand as she combed out her mane and tail, unknotting the myriad tangles and snarls that it had formed in the past couple days. This is what I get for not taking proper care of myself, Starry thought as she splashed water from the basin into her face. She scanned herself, making sure she was presentable, and fastened her cloak once again over her withers.
The mare opened her door, heading downstairs into the common room. The tables had a few ponies sitting at them, eating. Starry headed over to the innkeeper. “How much for breakfast?”
“Two bits.” The golden maned mare replied.
“Here’s seven, I’m staying another night,” said Starry, placing the coins on the counter.
“Thank you. I should introduce myself. I’m Busy Bee.” the innkeeper smiled warmly.
“Starry Sparks,” Starry replied, smiling back. She went to a table and sat down. Soon another mare came bustling up.
“What can I get you this morning?” The smiling waitress asked.
“I’ll take the pancakes,” Starry replied. Soon enough, there was a plate of chocolate chip pancakes and a glass of water in front of her. She devoured the pancakes. Good food was rare on the road, and she hadn’t had more than travel rations of two weeks. Gulping down her water, Starry finished quickly, standing up. She headed out the door onto the dirt sunlit streets. Turning out of the side street, Starry came across the main town squares. Desolate at night, it was now crowded with ponies of all shapes, colors, and sizes. Stalls and carts of every kind littered the square, and nearby, a bakery stood, its pink roof and interesting shape very distinctive. As she looked, an orange mare with a yellow mane set out a cart of apples. The door to the bakery opened up, a stout blue mare with a swirly pink main sticking her head out. A young orange unicorn popped up beside her.
Starry headed across the square to a stall selling jewelry Scanning over the different pieces, there was one that peaked her interest. It was a golden circlet, one band, with a single golden circle, filled in, at the center. The pony running the stall was a beautiful amethyst mare with a white and purple mane and dark teal eyes.
“You like that?” the shopkeeper asked.
“It's rather simplistic. I find it quite beautiful.” Starry said.
“That's great. Very few ponies appreciate simple beauty.” “I’ve always been a fan of the simple,” Starry replied.
“So am I. I’m Amethyst Mirror. Amethyst Mirror Shining Bright.”
“I see your parents weren’t so big on simplicity.”
“No,” the mare laughed, “They really weren’t.”
“I’m Starry Sparks.”
“That's a much nicer name. Can we trade?”
“No. After all, my third name is Stinkbug.” Starry deadpanned. Both mares looked at each other for a moment, then burst into giggles. Their laughter echoed through the square, making other shoppers tur to look at the two hysterical ponies.
“Anyway,” Starry said, regaining her composure, “I’d like to buy that circlet.”
“You know,” Amethyst answered,” I like you Starry Sparks, so I’ll give you the necklace for half off. It’ll be fifty bits.”
Starry paid the money. Pausing in front of the stalls mirror, she fastened the circlet. It glinted in the morning sun. Strolling away from the square, Starry headed in the direction of the looming crystal castle. She walked along staring at the gleaming monstrosity of a building, its crystalline shape resembling a tree. Staring upwards, she failed to notice the violet mare heading down the road towards her, who likewise, with her nose stuck in a book she was levitating, failed to get out of the way. The resulting collision sent Starry Sparks sprawling.
“I’m sorry,” The strange purple unicorn said. She reached out a hoof, helping Starry to her own hooves. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, pleased to meet you. I really should have paid attention.”
“I’m Starry Sparks, and don’t worry about it. I wasn’t watching either.”
Starry now had a chance to catch a better look at Twilight. She was taller than most mares, though not as tall as Starry herself. She had purple eyes, and a purple mane with a pink streak through it. Then Starry noticed the wings resting on her back. An alicorn?! Surprised, Starry gently probed deeper with her magic. Second level alicorn, she thought to herself, not a born first level like me, but raised to her place by one.
Twilight looked at her, confused. “Starry, what spell are you casting? I’ve never seen one like that before.”
“Oh, it nothing.” Starry did not want to explain the spell that she was using. It was a simple alicorn spell, and since Twilight did not know it, she must not know very much about alicorns and their magic. She was probably still using unicorn spells and power, instead of tapping into the alicorn kind, which was much deeper, and involved a different set of spells entirely. Starry had spent all her wandering times pretending to just be a tall unicorn, because most creatures thought of the Equestrian rulers as the only existing alicorns.
“Nothing.” The smaller alicorn looked skeptical but shrugged it off. “well, have a good day.”
“You too,” Starry replied politely. She could now guess well who owned the castle, so she turned around. Heading through the small town, Starry made sure to locate the train station, as well as the town hall. As evening colored the sky red, she once again traveled through the market. Amethyst Mirror was closing up her shop.
“Hey,” she said as Starry approached. “I’m gonna go to dinner. You want to join me?”
“Sure.” In Equestria, and especially in small towns like these, it was fairly easy to tell who to trust, and Amethyst was definitely one of those.
The pair sat in a little diner on the square, watching ponies go by. They split the tab. Hiking back to Starry’s room, the gray mare explained that she was a wanderer, an adventurer. Amethyst was fascinated, asking for stories. Starry told her some of the more entertaining ones.
“Wow,” Things must be really exciting in your life,” Amethyst commented after a particularly amusing tale.
“Nah,” Starry grinned, “Traveling is actually about five percent high adventure and ninety five percent watching similar looking rocks go by for two weeks on end.” This comment cracked Amethyst up.
Suddenly, a banging coming down the hallway caught Starry’s attention It seemed to be moving closer. Three sharp knocks came on her door. “Open up!” came a rough voice from outside. Starry didn’t move. Amethyst, sitting near her, looked petrified with fear. The door burst open and five Unicorns of Celestia’s Solar Guard came through the door way in their golden armor. The commander in the lead shouted, “Starry Sparks, you are under arrest!”
“Starry Sparks, you are under arrest,” the commander’s voice echoed in Starry’s eardrums. Amethyst stared at her, shocked and scared. Cowering behind the guards in the doorway was the innkeeper, Busy Bee.
“Shit,” Starry muttered, watching the guards. Louder, she asked, “What are you arresting me for?”
“Murder in Baltimare,” the commander responded, sticking his spear towards her.
“Come on,” the mare complained, “That was over twenty years ago.”
“You’re still coming with us Starry Sparks. And your friend too”
Starry looked behind her. Amethyst was sitting there, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. Next to her was the window, its shutters open. The guard trailed her eyes. “You really think you can escape that way?” he asked. The other four guards, Starry noted, were edging around the room. They were going to close in and jump on her at the first opportunity.
“I’m simply wondering why you haven’t ordered these lovely stallions to attack yet?” she smiled at him. “They’re all so rather eager to apprehend a real, dangerous criminal. I know how boring the job is, here in Equestria.”
“I just wanted to see how you’d react to having murdered a stallion.”
“He totally deserved it.”
“You can tell that to a jury.”
“I'd really not rather deal with that.”
The commander frowned. “You don’t exactly have a choice in the matter.”
“I don’t, suppose I do,” the gray alicorn commented lightly, “By the way, you seem to be forgetting something.”
“What?” the commander growled, surprised and a little confused.
Starry Sparks sighed, “I never realized just how idiotic the Solar Guard really is.” She fired up her horn, and in an instant had teleported herself, her pack, and Amethyst Mirror into the street below. Starry had never had any talent in that particular type of magic, so the short hop was as much as she could handle. Starry grabbed the smaller purple unicorn, dragging her along. Soon enough, the mare had regained her senses, and began moving on her own. They ran side by side through the dark streets. The sound of the Guard’s hoof steps were ever behind them, and Starry led them through twists and turns, losing herself to lose their followers.
“You’re a murder?” whispered Amethyst, gasping as they paused in a shadowed alley.
“As I said,” Starry replied, “He deserved it. The stallion tried to rob me. Twice.”
Still,” the mare seemed beyond shocked, “You’re wanted for murder.”
“and probably a dozen different crimes in a dozen different places,” starry confided, “A mare has to do what a mare has to do.”
Amethyst stared at her incredulously. “You’re that callous about killing ponies.”
Starry looked back at her, “My life hasn’t exactly been easy. Not like the ponies in a soft little town like this.” she thought back on all the five thousand years of her life. The battles and robberies and murders. The weeks spent stealing when she had run out of money, trying to get home. “Not easy in the slightest,” she muttered, partly to herself.
The sound of hooves brought her out of her oblivion. Starry pushed herself and Amethyst further back into the alley as ten Solar Guards galloped by. The peered into the alley, but wither Starry’s dark cloak covering them, the two mares were already galloping down the other direction. Starry looked around. She quickly recalled the way to the train station. Galloping past it, it was evident that the guards had gotten there first. Skipping the idea of catching a train, Starry trotted out into the dark country side. They finally stopped for another rest in an apple orchard outside of town.
“where are we?” Starry asked Amethyst. The orchard was unfamiliar to her. Each tree had apples on it, and even in the dark Starry could tell they were healthy and well-tended. Nothing could be heard except the occasional hoot of an owl.
“I think we’re at Sweet Apple Acres,” Amethyst told her, looking around. “it's the biggest and oldest farm in the area. The Apples have lived here for generations.”
“We’ll take a break here,” Starry said, acknowledging Amethyst’s obvious exhaustion. The mare was evidently not used to running long distances. Starry sat, looking up at the trees. My pack has some supplies, she thought, But certainly not enough for two. She lit her horn, picking apples off the trees around her. Sticking about five of them in her bag, she looked around. Amethyst had already fallen asleep, dozing on the grass. I hope she wanted an adventure, Starry commented dryly to herself, because she’s going to get one. Not necessarily the one she hoped for, but now she’s on the wanted list, right next to me. I was insane to bring her along, but it's too late now. Suddenly, she heard voices on the path nearby, breaking her out of her stupor.
“You think she’s out here?” one asked.
“Nah,” the other replied, “If I were her, I would’ve bolted. I’d be miles away by now.”
Looking up at the moon, Starry realized it was near its zenith. Preoccupied with her thoughts, she had not noticed how much time had passed. Starry went over to Amethyst, gently shaking her awake.
“Break time’s over,” she whispered. “we need to get out of there. Groggily, Amethyst stood up. Hearing the guards, she turned around. Unfortunately, one of the guards took just that moment to look over into the trees.
“There!” he shouted, and within moments an entire contingent of guards came crashing towards them. Starry and Amethyst looked at each other in panic for a moment, before turning tail and galloping away. The guard's horns lit the area, making the fleeing mares visible. They closed in. Each second the stallion in the lead came closer and closer. All the guards were yelling now. In a few moments the troops would be upon them.
Turning around to face their pursuers, Starry screamed, “Run Amethyst! I’ll catch up!”
The smaller unicorn kept galloping as Starry ignited her magic, her horn shining. At the last moment a light blue shield erupted in front of her, the front guards bouncing off it. The unicorns in back began using their own magic, attempting to crack her shield. Starry knew she couldn’t hold for long. There were ten unicorns, and even her magic wasn’t that powerful. She continued to hold the shield up, watching the cracks appear and spread across its surface. As her shield splintered, Starry sent out a blast of power, knocking the guards to the ground. As she fled, Starry considered what she had done. I always attempt to avoid applying force. Yet somehow, violence always seems to find me.
But now was not the time for consideration. She galloped and caught up to Amethyst, who she found hidden behind a bush, panting. The purple mare was even more shaken then before, if that was even possible. “Are we safe?” she asked, looking up at Starry Sparks. There was fear in her eyes, and Starry knew that the unicorn had been pushed to her limit, if not beyond it.
“ We’re safe for now,” Starry responded, leading her into a nearby copse of trees. “For now.”
“I’m just trying to process this,” Amethyst Mirror said as they sat under the trees. In the few hours since their escape the purple mare had spent most of her time in a haze of thought. “You’re a wanted murderer and who knows what else.”
“Yes,” Starry Sparks replied evenly. She knew that the younger unicorn was going through a period of shock and wanted to avoid upsetting her.
“Do you do this everywhere you go?”
“I try not to. I’ve only been banished from Kludgetown so far.”
“How the hell did you manage that?”
“I um... I may have burned down Verko’s favorite mansion. He's the big crime boss that runs the place.”
“You did what?”
“It was an accident! Sort of.”
“how have you even managed to survive this long uncaught?” Amethyst asked.
“I haven’t.” Starry didn’t elaborate. She really didn’t want to explain what happened the times she had been caught. Amethyst began to inquire further, and Starry replied simply, “You don’t want to know.”
Amethyst shut up, but she still did look inquisitive. Starry knew that if she didn’t do something soon, the unicorn would start probing again. It seemed to the gray mare that her companion had a rather curious and chattery nature and she had to distract her. An idea suddenly hit her brain like a chariot crash.
“What’s your family like, Amethyst?” Starry asked.
“Oh,” Amethyst replied, “They're okay, I guess. My parents are two of the more upscale Ponyville ponies, Ivory Pearl and High Step. I think they expected me to be high society like them. You can see how that turned out.” She pointed at herself. “I never was one for their upper-class life.”
“why not?”
“Because I’m not good enough at being a snob.” She pointed her nose up to the sky and sniffed haughtily. They both grinned. High society ponies were often obnoxious and rude, in an ever so mannered fasion.
When they had calmed down, Amethyst continued. “I was always obsessed with jewlery, staring into my mother's jewel box and trying things on. Then came bead necklaces, and flower garlands, and things like that. One day one of my mother’s necklaces broke, and I fixed it. I also made it prettier, if I do say so myself. Then boom, I got my cutie mark.” she finished, brandishing the string going through a gem on her flank. “I grew up, started my shop, and not much else. My parents are okay with it. What about you?”
“There’s not much to tell of my childhood,” Starry lied. “That's why I left home, to get away.” the second part was true, but she did not want to escape boredom. Everian was never boring. It was just too much for her, too much beauty and vanity and perfection. When every crystal place was glimmering and spotless, and everything from the streets to the ponies was immaculate, anything that dared to be flawed was looked down upon. This, of course, included everything outside their kingdom. The ponies of Everian considered other nations, including Equestria, inferior to them.
Amethyst looked at the sky. “It’s getting near sunset.”
“We’ll get on the road soon.” Starry said. She got up and wandered into the patch of trees. As the moon crested the horizon and the sun sank beneath it, she lit her horn. Stars began to appear twinkling in the sky. When the moon was finally in place, Starry wandered back over to Amethyst.
“What were you doing?” Amethyst asked, rising.
“Nothing of much importance.”
The two mares traveled under the light of the waxing moon. Starry watched the land around them. Amethyst walked along, staring at nearly everything she saw, jumping at every sound. Once, a bush rustled and she leaped behind Starry. Moments later, a mouse appeared out of the bush. Starry rolled her blue eyes. Amethyst resettled, keeping pace with the taller mare. Each ominous hoot of an owl or sound of a wolf howling in the distance terrified the young pony. She had rarely left Ponyville before, and had certainly never traveled by night, in open terrain.
Starry groaned at each of their frequent stops. On her own, she could have covered forty or more miles in a night. At the rate they were going, Starry approximated they would maybe make twenty, if they were lucky. Amethyst was clearly not used to anything but a luxurious lifestyle.
Is this how I would have ended up if I stayed at home, Starry thought? Sitting around on my ass, tired after a few miles. Spending all day making jewelry? What kind of life is that? She looked behind her. Amethyst was beginning to lag behind again. The purple unicorn was losing energy quickly. Starry sighed as Amethyst called for another rest. “Okay,” Starry said, “But this one has to be short.”
“I know I’m slowing us down. Where are we going, anyway?”
“a village that’s so tiny, it's not even on the map.”
Amethyst looked at her. “Why would we go there?”
“We need somewhere to lie low. A tiny little nowhere town is just that. And Amberhill is just that.”
“Okay. How far is it?”
“Still another fifty miles yet.”
“Oh.”
Amethyst quieted down, and the pair walked along in silence. Even while keeping and ear and an eye on her surroundings, Starry let her mind wander. For the first time in longer than she cared to admit, she thought about Everian, about her family, and about her youth. She thought about her mother, her long golden mane and disapproving glare. Her mother had never liked her odd, imperfect daughter. Starry’s love for the world outside, reading and exploring alike, had given her, and in extension her family, a bad reputation. So Shimmery Dawn made sure to publicly rebuke her daughter, dismissing any and all ideas she came up with as foolish. When Starry had finally received her cutie mark, at age fifty-three, it only displeased her mother further. Shimmery Dawn certainly did not want her only foal to take after her missing father. So Starry had left the place she had been born in, searched for something new.
So lost in thought was she, that Starry did not realize that the gray dawn was beginning to peek over the horizon. She only came out of her stupor when Amethyst tapped her shoulder. Looking up and seeing the sun starting its daily course, she veered into a gathering of bushes. Before Amethyst reached them, she had already cast her magic. Adding a spell of protection once Amethyst was inside the bushes, Starry settled in for another day’s rest.
Starry roused herself from her slumber at about seven in the evening. Amethyst slept next to her, her chest rising and falling evenly. Her face was calm. Starry rose after watching her sleeping friend for a short while. She watched the sunset, the pinks and reds splashed across the sky, fading to blues and purples as the evening wore on. When the moon had risen, she woke Amethyst.
The two mares traveled through the night. Amethyst was better for a long rest when she wasn’t high on adrenaline, excitement, and fear. She kept up easier and asked for fewer breaks. They had walked twenty-five miles by the time the sun rose. By that point, they were walking on a dirt path leading west. Starry knew it as the road into Amberhill, if road it could be called.
Starry decided that their hiding spot should be out of sight, while within close proximity to the road. As they ducked into a small grove of trees well of the road, Amethyst commented, “How do you always seem to know where’s the best hiding spot?”
“Practice.” Starry muttered dryly.
“You must be really good at escaping.”
“I’ve gotten that way. When traveling for a long time, you can’t exactly guarantee that those you meet will obey the law, so you can’t always.” The first time she had truly broken the law had been in Dragonvale. She had gotten in a brawl with a couple of drunk dragons, broke a few bones, and had spent three months in a jail cell before escaping. That she was wanted there didn’t matter, of course, because Dragonvale was three thousand years gone.
They spent the day hidden, each lost in their own thoughts or sleeping. Once they heard the sounds of heavy hoof steps and cowered in the bushes for five minutes, staying silent until the stranger was long gone. When evening finally settled in, they started out on the last stage of their journey.
The final leg was much shorter, about ten miles. They reached the outskirts of Amberhill as the moon reached its peak. Stopping at the edge of town, the two mares stared, mouths open. The village, or what remained of it, was burned. Charred husks of buildings loomed out of the darkness, and bodies were scattered throughout, burned to a crisp. Starry was speechless, while Amethyst leaned over and unceremoniously threw up into a pile of debris.
“Shit. What happened here?” Amethyst whispered, her voice a petrified squeak. All Starry could do was stare mutely around her. She had seen battlefields, with the dead and dying covering them in blood and bodies. But why would somepony burn down a village like Amberhill, a little nowhere place. There was no reason. The fire was not an accident, there was too much damage. No accidental fires killed an entire town. She knew there had to be some explanation.
“Come on, we should search for any...” she did not finish her sentence. Something told her that nopony had escaped the flames. Amethyst nodded, though she was looking a little gray. They wandered the ruins, looking for anything, any survivors. All they found were ruin and dust, ashes floating away on the stirring breeze.
Starry began to haul a few bodies from the rubble. She told Amethyst to start digging a grave by the road, a task which the unicorn was more than willing to do to escape the sight and stench of fire and death. As she pulled the blackened corpse of a little filly from the ashes, Starry wept. What kind of monster would do this to innocent ponies, innocent foals? She knew that when she caught them, they would burn, burn in a fire like nothing else. She was grateful for the magic inside her that would allow her to do that, that would allow her to burn the monster in the fire of a raging star. She thought of this as she hauled body after body into the grave that Amethyst had dug. After all the ponies had been placed in the grave, from infants to elders, they began their work on covering it. Once that was done, Starry moved a large stone over to the howe, planting it in the soil. Using her light blue magic, she carved the words, ‘Here lie the one-hundred and three residents. of Amberhill. They were taken from us in the year 1653 E.R., due to a fire. May they rest always in peace.’
Standing there, Starry offered them a prayer. “May you be taken up, into the eternal wings of the Father of Night, and there find rest from all labor. There you will find joy, and no sorrow shall ever trouble you again. May you race through the fields of the sky, your spirits forever set among the twinkling stars.” Amethyst whispered the age-old words along with her as they stared at the tomb.
Numb, Starry looked up. The moon was just touching the horizon. It seemed appropriate for them to have been buried in the dark, so they could better find their way into the hooves of Father Night, keeper of the beloved dead. Even if they had no families left to mourn their passing, these ponies deserved the best his land could offer. She planted a gold bit into the ground, an offering to the dead, and Amethyst planted flowers in a circle around it.
“we should go,” Starry said quietly. Amethyst nodded silently, and the two began to walk along the path leading out of town. They traveled in quiet, not thinking of the fact that they journeyed in broad daylight. Starry could not stop seeing the town, the rubble and corpses, and the scent of burned flesh still filled her nostrils. So oblivious was she, that she didn't hear the black and gray stallion in the bushes before they were nearly on top of him.
In haste she threw up a shield. His magic shattered through it. Magic-breaker, she realized, her only thought before she lay on the ground with him on top of her, a knife to her throat.
“Do you know who destroyed my home? Tell me, do you?” He screamed, fear and rage and sorrow lacing every word.
“No,” Starry breathed out, “I just came from Amberhill. We were heading there, and all we found was ruin.” She shuddered, even as he held the blade to her. Finally, he let her up. Rising, she looked at Amethyst, who was standing frozen behind her. “Can you tell us what happened?” she asked.
“I guess,” he snarled. “My name is Shadow Shield. Things happened so suddenly, I can’t quite wrap my head around it. It was mid afternoon. Everypony was just going about as normal. I was on the edge of town, sitting in the glade, when I heard screaming. I saw a great shadow, and suddenly everything was burning. The town went up in flames, a big blaze. I hid in the glade, watching the town go, the ponies dying. The shadow cut down anypony who tried to escape, threw them into the flames. There was so much screaming, and the stink of burning flesh and hair was like nothing I ever smelled. I cowered in the woods, helpless to save anypony. The little filly I used to help with her homework... Oh gods, watching her slowly burn was like nothing I've ever seen, and hope to never see anything like that ever again. When all was quiet, I snuck back into the village. Right in the town square was this symbol, which faded even as I looked at it. It was a white S, on a big black star, and behind that a sword. I think it was a cutie mark.”
Starry gasped. She stared at him. “what did you say?”
“The symbol in the square was a big S, on a black star with a sword. Wait, do you know what monster did this.”
“Not a monster. The monster. The original one. I need to get a message to the princesses, and more importantly, the Queen.”
Epilogue
Princess Celestia watched the messenger rush into the room. “an urgent message for Princess Luna,” he shouted, “It just appeared in the main hall!”
“what is it?” her sister asked, grabbing the scroll from him. She opened in and read it, her face going from slightly worried to outright panic.
“What does it say, sister?” Celestia asked.
“The message says, ‘You need to evacuate now. There is a huge danger and you two must escape.’”
“But we couldn’t leave our ponies. Anything else?”
“It finishes, ‘Trust me Princess Luna, you know me, you know how serious this is. -signed, All the Stars in the Sky.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that we need to get out of here right fucking now.”
“Why?”
“Because I know who wrote this, and if she thinks it's important, then it is.”
Celestia was beginning to agree. Whatever this was scaring her sister to the point of making her curse, and very little scared Luna. “Still, we can’t leave our ponies undefended from whatever this threat is.”
“No, we can’t. So, whatever's going to happen, we’d better prepare for one hell of a ride.”
Starry Sparks sat in her dreamscape, waiting. Being a child of the night, she had limited control over her own dreams. She could clear her mind and send her consciousness into the dream world. She could also step out of nightmares on her own. She now sat in her conscious dreamscape. It was in a glade outside her home city, a place of quiet she had often escaped to as a filly.
A small stream trickled through the glade, and gentle moonbeams shone through the dappled leaves. the grass was a blueish green in the moonlight. It was a place of natural beauty and serenity. The one thing that marred the area was the hunk of a misshapen cracked rock looming up in the darkness. It was part of why she liked the location, the hint of imperfection, a reminder in her far to perfect childhood home.
She sat in silence and reminiscence, remembering what had been, and what was yet to come. She often came to the glade in her dreams to contemplate. Tonight, she waited for another.
Starry felt the door in her dream world open, knew who entered through it. She knew, so she did not start when Princess Luna appeared in front of her. The Dark blue alicorn hovered in front of her.
“Starry Sparks,” Luna said dryly.
“Luna,” Starry replied in the same voice.
Then they both grinned, diving into each other, hugging. They squealed, talking back and forth at rapid fire pace
“I haven’t seen you since my return.”
“I was outside Equestria.”
“You look better without the cape.”
“I need it in the waking world, but not here.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye to you girls.”
“It's okay. They understand.”
“What have you been up to the past hundred years anyway?”
“A lot, what about you?”
“Nothing much. Just returning home, reuniting with my big sister and facing a few more threats and returned enemies.”
“Then you are not going to like what I’ve got to say.”
This sobered both mares up. They separated, each regarding the other.
“What is it Starry? Why did you send that message?” Luna asked.
“The town of Amberhill was destroyed, its ponies slaughtered, and I think I know who did it.”
“how did you know who?”
“It was in the mark he left in the ground, seen by the only survivor. His cutie mark.”
“How do you know it's this pony, not someone else using the mark?”
“because nobody here would know it.”
“Why wouldn't they?”
“Because,” said Starry, “He is one of our legends our people. Tharykk.”
“Odd name. Who is he?”
“The first prisoner of Tartarus.”
“What!?”
“Tharykk was a monster, the first enemy of newly formed Everian, forty thousand years ago. Nopony remembers what he did, but he was why our people formed the eternal abyss. It was his prison, and others were added there later.” “Forty thousand years,” Luna shuddered. “How long has he been planning what he’s going to do. How do you stop an enemy who’s had that long to plan? And why have I never heard of him.”
Starry sighed, rising. “Luna, you were barely twenty-five when you left. You never got the full education, and you have forgotten things like the legends of history we scare foals with.”
Luna looked at her, “Sometimes I forget how old we are, as a species, and a kingdom, in comparison to Equestria.”
Starry nodded. Alicorns changed so little that it was easy to forget that she was older than Equestria. Time had little meaning when you lived practically forever.
“So,” Luna continued, “What happened in Amberhill?”
“I’ll show you,” Starry said, shifting her dreamscape. The glade faded away, reshaping into the smoldering ruins of Amberhill. Luna visibly paled, looking at it. “This Tharykk must be stopped.”
“That may well prove to be impossible. You have never heard of him, but I went digging a couple of centuries ago for things about our legends. They’re old enough I wanted to know. There was this old bit of writing in the Athenaeum of Everian. It dates back thirty-six thousand years.” In her dream she showed the paper, to Luna, a worn scrap of parchment. Written in an elegant script, it said, ‘When full, his power blotted out the stars. In his enormity, it took an army to defeat him. The slaughter was terrible. In the end, they were victorious, and locked him in a prison, that he would in all hopes never escape.’
She watched as Luna read the paper. “You see? Tharykk was only defeated by an army working together. An army of alicorns.”
“Could we get something like that?” Luna asked.
Starry sighed. “The alicorn kingdom is filled with a bunch of ponies that go about their lives pretending everything is perfect. They would no more fight then you would spend another thousand years on the moon.” She sighed.
“This paper also mentions a slaughter,” Luna pointed out, “What could slaughter an army that big.”
Starry shuttered. Suddenly the setting changed a new scene appearing before their eyes. Now the mares were standing on a battlefield. Corpses lay smoking and rotting across the bloodstained field. Some wore shining steel armor, while others wore gray embossed with a flame. In some places the ground was scorched bare, and there were pools of blood scattered everywhere. As quickly as it came, the village faded, the woodland glade shaping itself around them.
“What...what was that?” Luna asked, shaking slightly. Her eyes were large, the pupils somewhat dilated. Her mouth hung open, and her voice shook.
“That,” Starry told her sadly, “Was a reminder.”
“A reminder of what?”
“A reminder of what I am, what I can be. We all have scars. Some run deeper than others. Some run through who we are, down to our core. Some never truly heal.”
Luna watched her friend carefully. The blue alicorn had not heard all the details of her friend’s history, she knew that there were tragedies and nightmare’s that made Luna’s own experience look like a playground. She could barely imagine what it must be like, knowing what Starry knew, witnessing what she’d witnessed. Starry's eyes had the look of one who had seen far too much over her life. She had been part of horror’s for millennia. Luna had never even dared ask her friend what atrocities she herself had committed, how many she had killed.
They both felt a little ping. It was a reminder by their bodies that dawn approached in the real world. Luna spoke first. “I really must be going. I need to tell Celestia about this.”
“Just don’t mention me,” Starry reminded her, “It would be far too hard to explain.”
“I will not. I remember well what we were told. The oaths we swore."
“Goodbye Luna.”
“Goodbye Starry.”
Starry Sparks watched Luna fade away, before turning to herself. She willed herself awake. The birds were just beginning to sing as she opened her eyes. Shadow Shield and Amethyst Mirror slumbered next to her. She did not feel the need to wake them up yet. A little time alone to consider their next course of action was necessary.
She wandered over to the tree line, looking down at the road. On it were but a few hoofmarks, visible in the early morning light. I guess there’s only one course I can take, she thought. Why does it have to be me though, why does it always have to be me? She turned back away from the beaten earth path, to rouse her companions for the long path ahead. One of many paths, and the only one available to them. Finding Tharykk, and keeping him from whatever he was doing.
The three ponies trotted down the road. The morning sunlight glinted off the golden circlet the tallest one wore on her head. She was slightly ahead of the other two, leading the pack. To the passerby, they might seem an odd company, as only one carried saddlebags. Of course, for a passerby to note this, there had to be a passerby.
Starry Sparks kept a sharp eye on the terrain around them. Her golden shoes were stuffed into the saddlebags. She also kept a watch om the sky, alert in case any pegasi were in the air. So far, they had seen nothing today. She fell back, lining up with her two traveling companions.
“it's time to take stock of our abilities,” she told them. “We’re going to need to know what we’re capable of.”
“Well,” Shadow Shield began, “You know I’m a magic breaker.”
“And that, as long as our opponent isn’t too gifted and well prepared, will be a blessing,” Starry said.
Amethyst sighed, “My magic isn’t much of use. It's just a little bit of illusion and gem magic, that’s all.”
“And I’m shielding, general magic and blowing things up,” Starry summarized. Blowing things up happened to be a specialty of hers. Explosions tended to crop up in her wake, and more than a few had been her fault.
“That’s a pretty good mix of talents,” Shadow commented, “We could use a healer, if we run into any violent trouble though.”
“And that would never happen,” Starry intoned dryly. “if we’re ever going to do anything, we’d better find somepony that’s half decent at healing.”
“That will be totally be easy, since you’re a wanted criminal and we can’t just walk up to somepony and ask them to join us on what’s quite probably a suicide mission,” Shadow retorted.
“Never said it would be easy,” Starry told him. “Anyway, we’ve got to stop at the next town. There are not enough supplies for three. Of course, I can’t go into any towns right now, so I’d suggest you do the shopping.”
“And where will you be?” Amethyst asked.
“Keeping my head down. Far down. So far down its gonna get stuck in the mud.” Amethyst grinned at this. Shadow continued to frown, thinking.
“What if you get caught?” he asked, coming out of his brooding mist.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan.” She smiled at him. “And my plans only fail occasionally.”
He looked at her skeptically. With a reassuring shrug, she refocused on the land around her. They were passing under a rock formation of towering stones, which she watched carefully. They were about an hour away from the town of Randhoof, and anything could lurk in the rocks, pony or otherwise.
Within a short while, the companions were in sight of the town. The noon sun shone brightly overhead, illuminating the many buildings of Randhoof. It was a town similar to Ponyville, but without any crystal palaces. The sturdy homes were shingled rather than thatched, and there were fewer odd shaped buildings. A river wound through the valley, a number of bridges crossing it. It was a homey looking town, like many Starry had walked the streets of.
She would not enter the town. Sheltering amongst the rocks scattered across the ridge, she nodded Amethyst and Shadow onward. “Come back by sunset.” she called after them. They nodded. They headed down into the valley, while she remained behind, watching them. She sat in the shadow of a boulder. She sat creating plans, considering their next move. She had figured out their next step when she finally broke out of her own mind.
The sun was crossing the horizon when she looked up. There were no signs of Shadow or Amethyst. After a few more minutes, Starry began to worry. She had rarely had more than herself to take care of on her travels before. She wasn’t sure whether to honestly expect her companions to be on time or not. Looking at the setting sun, she turned, and putting her hood up walked down the valley.
The town was bustling with ponies. Either finishing up their shopping or going home from work, mares and stallions filled the streets. It was hard to find anyone pony, and even her companions distinctive coats were invisible in the fray. The only advantage was that it hid her too. There were tall enough ponies around that nopony looked at her too closely.
Starry wandered through the town market. She smiled as she spotted a gray coat next to a purple one. Amethyst, it seemed, was talking animatedly with one of the shopkeepers, while Shadow kept trying to pull her away. Rely on her to get distracted, Starry thought.
She watched the two leave the stall, trying to run to catch up with them. They turned into an alley to void the traffic jamming the road. She lost them for a moment when a crowd of ponies crossed in front of her. When she approached the alley, she heard voices. Starry hesitated, clinging to the wall to listen.
A rough voice was saying. “Might either of you have seen this mare? We're looking for her. Wanted for murder.”
“N-no.” Amethyst stammered
“You’re lying said a colder voice. “I’m an expert at truth spells.”
“Well then. I think we may have to detain you to see what you know.”
At this, Starry risked a peak around the corner. Four guards had Amethyst and Shadow backed up against the wall. Amethyst cowered while Shadow seemed to be preparing a spell. All Three of the guards were unicorns though, and all of them were preparing their own horns. Starry watched as the leader grabbed Amethyst, while two of the others went for Shadow. He bowed his head. He was probably planning something, but Starry wasn’t going to leave them to get out of the situation themselves.
She stepped into the alley, pulling her hood off her head. “I believe it was me you were looking for,” she told them. She grinned, the cocky grin that she had shown the guards in the inn in Ponyville. She blasted a spell at the guards as two of them charged her. The captain and the earth pony hung back, watching Amethyst and shadow while calling for aid. Starry’s spell shattered, and she realized that one of the unicorns must be a magic breaker. She looked at the two advancing guards. None of her spells were set up well enough to fight a magic breaker. She hated fighting in close.
She did the smartest thing possible. She ran. She dashed away, the guards in pursuit. The other two abandoned Amethyst and Shadow, and she looked back once to see them fleeing for the hills. She skidded around a corner and slipped between two stalls. The guards chased after her. Starry galloped as fast as she could, dodging swerving, and occasionally teleporting away. She led the guards through a chase, trying to lose them.
Through the streets they dashed, ponies darting out of the way as they crashed through. Starry occasionally through a spell behind her. The magic breaker cut through it easily. Starry knew her best bet was to outlast them luckily, centuries of conditioning made it easier for her to maneuver, and her stamina was insane. The guards were good, and they weren’t falling behind. Several more seemed to have joined the chase since she had last looked.
Galloping, Starry found herself in an alley ending in a brick wall. She gulped. Ten guards were right behind her. Starry looked around frantically. She had no escape, and her teleportation was depleted. She had only one option, talk.
The chief guard stepped forward. “Starry Sparks, you are under arrest. You’re coming with us, whether you want to or not.”
“That,” she said, “Is a similar speech to what I heard last time. How did you find me last time, anyway?”
“One of the privates spotted you. Remembered your face from a wanted poster.”
“I have wanted posters? This I have to see.”
“Oh, you will,” the guard told her, “You’ll see them on the walls of the jail.”
“and why would I ever want to go there?” She asked in a mockingly sweet tone.
“Because you have no choice.”
“I always have a choice.” She smiled at him and threw something on the ground. All the guards took proper bomb precautions and backed away. The thing erupted, smoke filling the alley. Starry teleported away in the momentary confusion, using the last of her teleportation magic. The other side of the wall led to the land beyond.
Starry galloped up the hill. Under a tree, she met Amethyst and Shadow. Amethyst was bleeding and Shadow was treating her.
“At least we got supplies,” he commented as she approached.
“Yes, we did. And we also got a destination.”
“Where?”
“Vanhoover. I remembered where we can get ourselves a healer.” she indicated Amethyst’s leg.
“Hopefully it will go better than this excursion.”
“We can only hope,” she said, “because anything could happen now.”
Twilight Sparkle stood looking up at her mentor Princess Celestia. The white alicorn was angry, Twilight could see it in her eyes.
“Twilight Sparkle. I command you and your friends to find the criminal that is running through our kingdom and bring her back to me. Use the elements if you need to. Her name is Starry Sparks, and she is a villain who must be stopped.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded, her five friends nodding alongside her. It was an order from the princess, and they were always fine with tracking down wrongdoers. Then she looked at Princess Luna. The moon princess stood beside her sister, her jaw clenched, her eyes staring down. As if she wanted to say something but wouldn’t.
Or couldn’t.
Twilight wondered what Luna was thinking. And what she knew that nopony else did.
“How exactly are you going to find anything in that?” Shadow asked, pointing to the city. Vanhoover was a crazy city, filled with ponies. It wasn’t nearly as bad as Manehattan, but Shadow was from a tiny village in the country. She wasn’t too surprised to see him stare.
“Who we’re going to see will be pretty obvious," She told him. She walked over to the road, the other two following. They joined the groups of ponies traveling into the city, disguising themselves as part of the crowd. They avoided downtown, instead heading out towards the outer part of the city, and some of its poorer districts. The sprawl of homes spread out for miles. Shadow was looking around, trying to take in everything around him. So was Amethyst.
Starry sighed as they stopped to look at yet another statue. “I know tourism is a great cover, but we have places to be.”
“Where exactly are we going?” Shadow asked, tearing his eyes away from the fountain, where a rearing Princess Celestia spouted water from her mouth. Amethyst too, turned, looking curious.
“To visit an old friend,” she told him. She turned onto a quiet street, the other two following. Starry led them through empty alleyways and desolate parks. Eventually, they stopped at a house.
The house was a first glance dark and scary. It was dark gray, with a black shingled roof. It seemed to be leaning slightly towards the house across from it. An arch over the narrow street supported both houses. An eerie orange light seeped from the half-shuttered window. A creaking sign above the black door read, ‘The Witch’s Cauldron, Potions and Magic’, with a bubbling green potion below it.
“Your friend lives in there?” Amethyst asked, shaking a little.
“Yes. She rarely bothers to fix up the place. Said it made it more mystical. She's like that.”
Amethyst looked at her inquisitively.
In response, Starry simply pushed open the door, stepping inside. The orange light came from the numerous candles glowing with orange flames. The walls were draped with tapestries depicting scenes of magic. Transformation, alchemy, enchantment, illusion, each of the woven works portrayed unicorns working at different tasks.
“Mystic, are you home?” Starry called.
“Who is it?” A melodic, lilting voice asked from a side room. A unicorn poked her head out of a door. She was middle aged, with turquoise blue fur and an olive mane. Her face had light makeup, and a half-veil covered her kohl outlined eyes. She was holding up a candle, her light green aura enveloping its base. She looked at them, then gasped.
“Starry Sparks,” she squealed smiled. “Oh darling, it's been so long. I never thought to see you again.”
“Hi Mystic,” Starry said. The shorter mare looked up.
“what brings you to my humble shop?”
“We kinda need help.”
“We?”
“Oh right, I forgot.” Starry cleared her throat. “Mystic Melodies, this is Shadow Shield and Amethyst Mirror. Guys this is my old friend, Mystic.”
“I was but a young mare when we met,” Mystic told them. Then she looked back at Starry, “Does it have anything with you all over the wanted papers.”
“Actually, it does.” Starry looked at her friend, “Remember when we were in Baltimare and that Stallion tried to rob us, Gold Mine.”
“Yeah...?”
“Well, after we parted ways, he tried to rob me again, with a knife. I had to. Anyway, we need to know if there’s any healers around here willing to join in on an adventure.”
“I might know one or two,” Mystic said. “Starry, can we talk in private.”
“Sure,” Starry replied, allowing Mystic to lead her into the back room.
After the door was shut, Mystic turned to face her friend.
“So those two gaping country foals are your new traveling companions?” She asked.
“Yeah," Starry sighed.
“Do they know what you are?” she indicated Starry’s cloak
Starry shook her head. “Mystic, they don’t have your curiosity, guessing talent, or future telling.” Though Mystic’s magic was mostly the fraudulent work of a fortune teller, she occasionally had prophetic visions, making her more formidable than most of her line of work.
Mystic lifted her veil, revealing her lavender eyes. “Starry, I need to tell you something about the healer I'm taking you to.”
“Yes?”
“She’s not a pony.”
“So?”
“Starry, I know that you don’t care, but do they? How do your companions feel about non-ponies?” She nodded to the door behind them.
Starry looked closely at her friend. “They’re going to have to get used to them.” More and more creatures of a variety of species had been coming to Equestria. Many ponies complained about the influx of creatures, even the species that had lived on the continent for millennia before ponies came. Starry had found that Equestrians considered themselves superior over all other species. Knowing the might of the dragon armies, the grace of the hippogriffs, the magic of the kirin, the potions of the zebras, the power of the changelings, the ferocity of the griffons, the strength of the yaks, Starry couldn’t have agreed less. It was a similar attitude to that of her own people, who believed that since their magic was greater than any others, they should not care about the rest of the world. Starry hated this mindset. It was part of why she left to wander the world. But prejudice was everywhere.
Starry followed Mystic back out of the room, where Amethyst and Shadow were standing talking.
Amethyst was saying, “Oh, I’ve got lots of family. Six cousins, in Las Pegasus and Manehattan.”
“I used to have three sisters, and four cousins.” Shadow told her. “My oldest sister lives on Fillydelphia. She’s the only I have left now.”
Amethyst looked back at him silently, sorrow in her eyes.
“I’m sorry for you, but we have to get moving,” Starry commented, breaking the silence. She walked out the door, Mystic by her side. They traveled through the city. It was more crowded here. The quarter of the city they had entered was mostly foreigners. As ponies, they stood out, turning heads as they traveled. Starry was well accustomed to being the only one of her race around, but Amethyst and Shadow shrunk away from the looks.
After twenty minutes walking, they stopped at a house. It was blue, with a seashell painted of the door. Mystic turned around. Looking at Amethyst and Shadow, she announced, “The healer we are going to see is a hippogriff. I hope you’re okay with that.”
Both nodded, though Shadow looked a little apprehensive. He had never met a hippogriff, or any other species for that matter.
Mystic raised a hoof and knocked on the door. They waited as sounds of clattering objects came from inside. They heard something go thump, and a muffled “oof”. A few moments later, the door opened, and a head poked out. The hippogriff was light gray. She had long tousled purple hair. Stray hairs stuck up in different places. “Hi Mystic,” she cried, smiling.
“Hey Wave Dancer,” Mystic replied. Then Wave Dancer spotted the three ponies standing behind Mystic. Her eyes widened.
“Who are these?” she asked.
“This is my friend Starry Sparks, and her companions Shadow Shield and Amethyst Mirror.”
“The Starry Sparks,” Wave Dancer whispered. “The one who’s all over the news?” “Whatever you heard, she’s not like that.” “But...”
“I know who she killed, Dancer, and she did the world a favor.”
“If you say so, Mystic. But we should get inside.”
She ushered them into the house. It was ocean themed, waves and shells decorating every wall. Everywhere there were things. Books covered the floor, and various herbs hung from the ceiling. They passed a room where a bubbling cauldron simmered, surrounded by flowers. Wave Dancer popped into the room for a moment to give the potion a stir.
They entered a sitting room. There were a few chairs and a sofa, all blue. The low glass coffee table had wavelike legs. Starry sat in one of the chairs, Mystic in another, with Wave Dancer taking the third. Amethyst and Shadow plopped down on the couch. “So, what do you want Mystic?” wave Dancer asked.
“Well,” Mystic told her, “You told me you wanted an adventure. Starry and her friends happen to be on one. Trust me, Starry’s journeys are always great, if you’re looking for excitement.”
“They want me to go on an adventure?” Wave Dancer stared at them incredulously.
“We’d love to have you.” Starry said.
“Yes,” Wave Dancer squealed, “Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes!” Then she looked at Starry. “So, what are we doing?”
Starry sighed, “We’re off to stop an ancient villain from destroying Equestria.”
“Ooh, that sounds fun. Just give me a moment.” Wave Dancer shot upstairs, and five minutes later returned carrying a set of saddlebags, jammed pack with books and healing supplies.
“I’m ready to go, so what are we waiting for,” she called. Starry sighed again.
Six mares stood, looking out at the great western city, and the glittering bay beyond. The one in the lead scanned the buildings. “Come on girls, let's go stop this villain.”
Starry Sparks really disliked troublesome, painful, bloody, world-changing adventures. That’s why it really sucked that she always seemed to end up in them. Like that griffon emperor she’d ended up helping to bring down three thousand years ago. It wasn’t her fault that he’d wanted to put her in a menagerie. Griffons were weird. Or that corrupt Dragon Lord, back near the founding of Equestria. She didn’t even like to think about that one.
“I hate this gods dammed, festering, midge ridden swamp,” she muttered, smacking yet another mosquito off her hind leg. They were stuck in the one of the bogs that were scattered in the forests between Vanhoover and Las Pegasus. Even Wave Dancer’s high spirits were smothered, though one of her books had been handy in avoiding a poisonous snake two days ago. The hippogriff was flying, keeping her hooves and claws out of the mud. Starry wished that she could pull off her cloak and use her wings, as she would have done when it was just her and Mystic, or just her, but she couldn’t.
The mare felt a little better when Wave Dancer crashed into a tree. The hippogriff fell backwards, battling with a collection of hanging vines and losing badly. Within moments, she was entangled in them, wings stretched out, limbs splayed, and cursing up a maelstrom.
Mystic disentangled Wave Dancer with her magic, laughing. “Dancer, that’s the funniest I’ve seen in a long while,” she snorted, “Probably since Starry blew her tail off messing with a grenade. Shoulda known the pin’d been pulled.”
Starry grinned, “Why do you think I’ve clipped my tail short. Much less likely to get scorched.” Mystic grinned back, “I thought you did it to improve the view.”
Starry gave her a vulgar gesture it was hard to believe one could manage with hooves. Mystic smirked back before cutting the last vine, causing Wave Dancer to come tumbling to the ground from where she had been dangling, six hooves up in the air. The gray female grunted as she hit the ground. Not, of course, that it was very solid ground. She began to sink into the muck. Wave Dancer shoved herself back up. Mud splattered half of her body.
The entire group moved on, but as she walked by, Starry spotted something lying in the mud where Wave Dancer had fallen. She picked it up with her magic, inspecting it. The object was a little blue gem, shaped like a lightning bolt. It glinted oddly in the sunlight. Noticing her, Wave Dancer turned back from the rest.
She came over to where Starry was standing. “Can I have my gem back?” she asked. Starry passed Wave Dancer the gem, and she snatched it and replaced it in her saddlebags. “Please, just don’t mention it to the others.”
Starry raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. She had kept more than a few things from those she was traveling with, and also preferred to have leverage if say, Wave Dancer discovered her little secret.
“Thanks,” Wave Dancer said as they trotted to catch up.
Starry looked out at the battlefield, as she had done thousands of times before. Every time she was too tired, too exhausted to control her dreams, she saw it, over and over again. The bloodstained field stretched on and on. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of corpses littered the ground. Being the memory that it was, groans came from everywhere, those too badly wounded to be healed but still breathing.
Some had a symbol resting upon the flanks of gray armor. A flame. The others were dressed in shining steel armor. It had no marks upon it. Both armies consisted of a variety of creatures, young dragons, griffons and ponies alike. There were even a few water buffalo rotting among the dead.
Starry stood on the edge of a rocky cliff overlooking the plain. The Plain of Fallen Tears, it would later be called, forever marking on the maps the spot of one of the bloodiest battles of all time. Every unguarded night, Starry returned to the field. With effort, she could’ve reverted back to the glade, but she never did. It was a reminder, a lesson she would never forget.
During these dreams, the mare was glad for her self-awareness. Her magic allowed her to know it was a dream, that she was not back on that plain of blood and death. The other things that had happened to her, they were nothing compared to this. And it's all your fault. The words echoed in her head, as they did so many nights.
Starry awoke before the dawn, as she had done for centuries. She lit her horn as the sun crested the horizon, doing the work she had been born to do. Sitting and watching the sunrise, she didn’t notice when Mystic sat beside her.
“You explained what we’re doing on this little quest last night,” The unicorn commented.
“Yes?” Starry asked, waiting for what came next.
“You also told us about the info you found in the ancient libraries. I know you, Starry, you don’t do anything for no reason. What were you researching?”
Starry looked at her sharp friend, “I... I was searching for information about nightmare forms.”
“You mean like what Princess Luna went into when she became Nightmare Moon?”
The alicorn sighed, “Yes. Nightmare forms. Alicorns can step into a nightmare form, transforming themselves body and mind. They make you many times more powerful. But they're also horrible. They feed off your worst emotions, worst traits, bringing them out in the process, as well as taking control of you. Tharykk, the texts say, was in his nightmare form. One of the most powerful alicorns in history, in nightmare form. That is why it took so many to defeat him. His power, it would be unimaginable. He’s laid low, since he escaped Tartarus. But Amberhill, I’d bet that's just the beginning of the atrocities. I’ve seen what kind of damage can be done.” She shuddered.
Mystic put a hoof around her shoulders. “Starry, I get the feeling you’ve shared more with me than with most of the creatures you’ve ever met. I know though, that there is much you’d rather not share. But when you’re ready, if you’re ready, I’ll be there.”
Starry’s horn fizzled out with a ‘pop’, the spell leaving her. She frowned up at the magical extremity. “why isn’t the spell working?” She complained, “There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be working.”
“Perhaps it's because he’s teleporting?” Amethyst asked, “I'm sure he could.”
“Amethyst, you can track a teleporter using where they appear,” Mystic butted in, “It's like connect the dots.”
Amethyst stared at her, mouth agape.
“Remember, you don’t have any university education.”
Shadow, looking up from where he was setting up the sleeping bags, they had bought in, “Yes, I suppose you do know better, being so high and mighty.”
Mystic looked at him apologetically, “It's just that I’m used to dealing with creatures who question my knowledge at every opportunity. I have to pull the university card a lot.”
“Of course,” muttered Shadow before turning back to his work.
Luna paced across the floor of her bedroom again. Then she looked up at the map pinned on her wall. There were a few locations marked on it in gray wax. Ponyville, Amberhill, Randhoof, Vanhoover. There was another dot in Amberhill though, this one in black.
Officially, Luna was in charge of tracking Starry Sparks, and relaying information to the Elements. What she was really doing was seeing where Starry went and preparing to give her backup if necessary. She was also tracking Tharykk, trying to locate him. The black alicorn was staying under the radar. In her free time, Luna had been borrowing every book her sister had brought with her about their homeland. A few had mentioned some great evil at the founding of Evern, but all knowledge of the event was shrouded in vague hints and legends.
Luna looked at the book lying on her bed. Magic of the Highest, it was called. She would need to hide it, before the cleaning staff came in. She had never allowed anypony to patch the loose stone in her mantel for that reason. The maids were specifically instructed not to touch it, because she had put up several powerful warding spells. It would take an extremely strong alicorn magic breaker hours of preparation to shatter them. Luna had spent the days of magical set up necessary to ensure that.
She slipped the text in there with a few other objects. One of them lay blue and gleaming. Luna took it out. It was a shard. A shard of her old armor, from when she had been blown out of her nightmare form. She had kept just one piece, as a reminder. Since she had stopped torturing herself in her dreams, she had looked at it nearly every day. The shard of blue metal had been caught in her mane, making it unnoticed for the first little while after her return.
Luna touched the hole in the mantel, reshaping the stone. She turned back to the map on the wall. Where are you, Starry.
Twilight strolled down a street in Vanhoover. She looked at a fountain, one with a statue of Princess Celestia. She was here, she thought. Starry Sparks had been spotted at the fountain three days ago, as reported a young guard on patrol. The mare was accompanied by the purple unicorn who had ended up with her in Ponyville. They had been joined, she was told, by a gray stallion, also a unicorn.
“Hey Twi, found anything yet?” Rainbow Dash asked. The cyan pegasus was flying above, looking down at her friend.
Twilight shook her head. There was nothing to show. All she saw was normal street life. Heading across to an alley, she looked down it. Then she felt something pulling on her hooves uncomfortably. Twilight looked down, caught on one of her hooves was a purple hair. Purple, in the shade of Starry Spark’s hair. Twilight read the magical signature. It was the same as that of the mare she had run into.
“I think,” she told Rainbow Dash, “I’ve got something.”
Wave Dancer was reading. This was quite the feat, because she was flying. Starry wished she wouldn’t. The oblivious hippogriff had nearly run into a tree. Twice.
Mystic had assured Starry that this was completely normal. Wave Dancer, it seemed, often ended up in near death situations through complete oblivion. As of the moment, it seemed fairly likely that the female would die of The Pony of Shadows: Dark Legends of the Equestrian Continent.
It was one of the times that Starry hated traveling. They’d been on the road for days. Nothing exciting had happened, and even the countryside seemed the same. eastward was always boring, because the climate was similar. Only a few places in Equestria were fantastic and interesting.
Of course, Starry handled the boredom the way she always had. She experimented with new spells as she went. It was impressive that there were enough spells in the universe, much less that she could remember them all. Starry had decided long ago that alicorn minds were designed to hold more, so that they could retain the sheer amount of information pouring in over thousands of years.
Of course, this magic spell, one that involved warning the caster when life forms approached, evidently did not work quite as planned. Starry could tell because it did not warn her about the approaching chupacabra. In fact, she was so preoccupied that she didn’t even see it until it was on top of them and Amethyst screamed.
“What is that?” The unicorn gasped.
“What is what?” Starry asked, looking up. “Oh, shit!”
The chupacabra leapt, coming straight for them. “Behind me!” Starry yelled as she brought a shield up to meet the beast’s charge. Amethyst and Mystic dove behind it at the last moment. The light blue shield repelled the creature. It struck again, again bouncing off. The chupacabra kept smashing itself against the shield. Starry could see what it was doing. It was attempting to break through it. She could feel her defenses weaken, slowly.
She held onto the shield, fueling it with her deep pool of mana. Starry watched the chupacabra, silently cursing herself. Why wasn’t I paying attention. I should have noticed it coming. Suddenly, she had an idea. With it came a plan. It was a desperate ploy, but Chupacabra’s were not highly intelligent. It attempts to shatter her shield were more that it was not giving up rather than a planned attack.
“Mystic, can you hold the shield?” Starry asked.
“For a short while,” The unicorn replied.
“Okay,” Starry said. “Just hold it. I’ve got a plan. ”
“What kind of plan?” Mystic inquired. Starry shook her head. “Oh, That sort of plan. Shooting Star?” when Starry nodded the unicorn mare grinned. “Good luck.” She lit her horn, her light green magic adding a second layer of shield to Starry’s. Then It became just one, blazing green shield, which Starry jumped through. Amethyst, Shadow and Wave Dancer gasped.
Mystic smiled, even though her face was covered in sweat, her teeth gritted. Starry smirked back before dashing away. The chupacabra looked up. Here was easier prey, running and unprotected. It chased after her.
Starry kept running. “Come on,” she muttered as she led the creature on a chase, “Just a little further.” The beast was closing the distance. Across the road she led t, putting more and more distance between her and her companions. Starry slid to a stop before an outcropping of rock, leaned forward, hooves dragging her to a halt. They were out of range of the shield now. With a grim smile, she lit her horn. It did not glow its usual blue, but instead a blazing, fiery white.
The chupacabra hesitated for a moment. Holding onto the burning sea of magic with all her might, Starry shot a giant white beam with her horn. The blast when it hit the beast was deafening, exploding outwards in white fire. It shook the ground with the sheer force of the explosion, dirt flying. When the dust finally settled, all that was left of the chupacabra was a blasted and scorched spot of the ground.
Mystic lowered the shield at last, and all four came galloping over. “Are you alright?” Amethyst asked.
“I’m fine,” Starry assured her. The gray alicorn was covered in dust, and there was a little dirt and dark gray ash splattered on her coat. “I’ve pulled something like that before.”
“What was that?” Shadow studied the scorched earth. “I’ve never seen anything like that?”
Starry gave him her small smile, “I told you I was good with explosions.” She dusted herself off as best she could. “we should get moving. Who knows what we attracted with something that loud?”
The others nodded. They all began to move again. Starry was very conscious of Shadow watching her. The gray stallion’s eyes followed her as she walked next to Mystic. I wonder how much he knows, or at least guesses, she thought. Mystic had figured it out with the first week. But she was probably one of the smartest mares Starry had ever met. With precognition, she was adept at discovering secrets. Shadow, it seemed, was of a similar nature, if with less magic and experience.
Starry kept a mental watch on the prickling sensation. When it subsided, she finally sighed a breath of relief, hearing Shadow begin a conversation with Amethyst. She did note, however, that Mystic was rather attentive to the conversation, casting glances at Shadow, a small frown on her face.
The alicorn groaned. Well, that relationship is off to a bad start. Let's hope it doesn’t get worse. After all, travelers fighting are travelers lost.
She tried the tracking spell one more time. They needed to know where Tharykk was. But once again her magic was broken, this time by Shadow’s voice. He was right near her. “Starry,” he asked quietly, “How did Mystic know what you were going to do.”
Starry sighed. “Shadow, we’ve done that before. Similar situation. With a chimera. And a wild type manticore. She saw my plan. It was a traditional escape, well thought out.”
He nodded, still looking skeptical. Starry looked to him. “And now, will you stop interrupting me. I’m trying to work this spell.” She filled herself with magic one more time. Her eyes began to glow slightly. She saw a map in her mind’s eye. She was flying above the landscape of Equestria. There was a spot of white, glowing in a little wood. Amberhill. Then a city, in the North East. He was in Vanhoover? Finally, the glow showed another spot. Manehattan.
Starry faded out of the vision, panting. She smiled broadly. She had done it. She had seen were Tharykk was. Now, of course was the long journey to get there.
“I know where he is,” She announced proudly. The others grinned.
“Where?” Wave Dancer asked.
“Manehattan.” Starry acknowledged their gasps and groans. “We have a long way to go.” I only hope it will be worth it. That he won’t leave before we get there. That we don’t die out here. We’re balancing a lot on hope. But that’s how it is on adventures. We've got to trust that we’ll survive, and then do anything in our power to pull through.
It was raining. The storm pounded outside as Starry and her friends sheltered in a cave near the road. Water poured from the sky and thunder boomed. At times, forked white bolts of lightning arced across the sky. The clouds were a deep gray, covering the sun and coating the land in a shadow.
Amethyst and Shadow sat at the mouth of the cavern. Starry wandered over to join them. “It’s so wet and dreary,” Amethyst commented when she approached.
“Now, don’t act like that,” Starry chastised, somewhat mockingly. In all seriousness, she added, “The rain isn’t all bad. Ponies used to say such things of the night, too. Look where that got us.”
“But there is no alicorn of the rain,” Shadow grumbled. Don’t be so sure of that, Starry thought. She sighed.
“Didn’t you play in the rain when you were little?” She smiled at them, “We all do that, and have a lot of fun.”
“Yeah, but the thunder always frightened me,” Amethyst insisted.
“Don’t look at the rain and see only the bad things,” Starry told her, her. “When you only see the bad things, life loses its meaning. Look for the good things: the rhythm of rain on the roof, the feel of letting it pour down on your face as you laugh, the joy of splashing in the puddles as a child. Keep those things in mind, and the world will seem a little brighter.”
“Huh?”
“What I’m trying to say is, don’t feel so sad. There’re plenty of good things about the rain.” Starry trotted out of the cave, getting splashed thoroughly by the drip from the overhang. Lightning flashed, and Starry laughed. “Oh, you want to play now, don’t you?” She dashed out onto the empty field, grassland spreading before her.
“Is she trying to kill herself?” Shadow asked.
“I’m honestly not sure this time,” replied Mystic from the back, “I’ve never seen her do this before.” The three unicorns and the hippogriff stood at the cavern mouth, watching. They trialed their eyes on the gray mare as she galloped, springy grass bending.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot out of the clouds. It hit where Starry was running. Or had been running. The mare leapt out of the way of the bolt, her legs propelling her just out of the strike zone, a shield protecting her. She laughed. “That's the best you could do?”
“Definitely has a death wish.” Mystic commented.
Starry took off. Lightning followed in her wake. Each bolt nearly struck her. Her small audience watched in terrified awe. Each blast was shockingly close. The smell of ozone filled the air. Wach had to look away as the nearby lightning flashed in their eyes, leaving bright spots across their vision. Even then, they could not turn away from the spectacle for long.
Suddenly, as Starry leapt away from a lightning bolt another one jumped down from the skies, hitting her just where she had landed. Amethyst gasped, and all four rushed out on to the field in a panic. They galloped to where Starry lay, knocked to the ground, small amounts of ash covering her, her mane sticking out on end, and an unholy grin on her face.
“What the in Celestia’s name were you thinking?” Mystic yelled as she looked down on the gray mare. Starry smiled back up at her.
“I wouldn’t have done it if I thought I’d actually get hurt,” she mumbled as Wave Dancer dug out her little kit of medical supplies. “Nothing like the inside of a star.”
Wave Dancer rolled her eyes, “Now I'm sure you’ve messed something up. Starry, did you hit your head or something?”
“Nah, I’m all right,” Starry batted the hippogriff’s claw away. “I shielded myself well, and that wasn’t even a strong bolt.” She stood up, shaking little bits of ash off, and running a hoof over her mane. “That game is never played maliciously.” She smiled at Wave Dancers confused expression. “It was nothing you’d be able to follow.”
The hippogriff still appeared skeptical. She looked over at Mystic, who shrugged, giving her a glance that said, that’s her. You'll get used to it.
The woods were silent. The companions walked in peace and silence. As soon as the rain had ended, they had moved on, and in two days had come to the very tail end of the Everfree Forest. The southern end of the forest was far more peaceful than the north, so there were far fewer monsters, strange plants, and other dangers.
Starry walked in her own thoughts. Her rare play with a thunderstorm being a foremost. Oh, how close to slipping up she had been. The fact that a lightning bolt had not hurt her was probably enough to raise warning bells. Of course, ponies were not very suspicious by nature. Neither were hippogriffs. They may have bought her lie about the shield. In truth, the bolt had hit her full on. That much electricity and heat was a little dizzying, even for her. She had said some things she shouldn’t have, but she could hope they dismissed it as senseless rambling.
Amethyst and Shadow were conversing with Wave Dancer about a book of shared Equestrian and Hippogriff history in her bag. Starry was fairly sure that by that point the hippogriff had most of her companions thoroughly confused.
The gray alicorn looked up. The sunlit sky was bright. Suddenly, from the trees ahead came a massive flash of light. A flock of birds rose up into the sky, their exodus spreading in all directions. “What was that?” Wave Dancer asked.
“I have no idea,” was Starry’s only response. Whatever it was, it was definitely magical, and she wanted to see what it was. She kept walking, heading towards the second flash that occurred, sending more birds flying.
“Wait, you’re going to head towards whatever that is?” Shadow questioned.
“Sure, why not?”
Shadow groaned as the group trotted towards the burst of magic. Inside a clearing, they found the source. A young teenage unicorn was sitting in the glade, crying. They watched for a moment. Her horn lit bright, and another flash. She collapsed, tears running down her face.
“Oh dear,” muttered Starry, “I’ve rarely seen one this bad before.” The unicorn was very obviously having a magic flare. Occurring during the teenage years, Magic flares were the result of a unicorn’s power growing into its full potential. Much like the magic of an infant, the flares were uncontrollable. The bigger the flares, the greater the magic. This young unicorn would obviously be very powerful, but for now, they had to control or contain the flare somehow, in case it became destructive. She remembered clearly one of the worst of her own flares, during which she had nearly destroyed a public garden.
Looking at the other unicorns in the group and seeing that they recognized the symptoms, Starry strode into the clearing. The unicorn filly peeked up, saw her coming, and pulled herself into a sitting position.
“You’re a unicorn,” she said as Starry approached, “Can you figure out what's going on. My horn started doing this. Mother and Father kicked me out, said I couldn’t come back until it stopped. Is something wrong with my horn?” The words came bubbling out, filled with desperation.
“Hush,” Starry told the filly, sitting beside the filly. “Nothing's wrong with your horn. You’re just having a magic flare. Has nopony told you about it?”
The filly shook her head. “Nopony at home is a unicorn. But my great grandfather was, on my dad’s side. And my great-great grandmother, on my mom’s.”
Thinking about complicated pony genetics, Starry shook her head. “Well, miss... what’s your name exactly?”
“Lighting Flash.” the blue coated filly answered.
“Well, Lightning Flash, magic flares happen as your magic develops. Every unicorn goes through this. What your giant flares are saying, is that you’ll be very powerful one day.”
“Really?” Lightning asked.
Mystic wandered out of the tree line and sat next to Starry. “Really. Now, it's been a while. What's the cure for a magic flare again? I can’t quite remember.”
Amethyst and Shadow walked out. “You’ve got to take your magic and spread it through your whole body. To do that, you have to sink to your power base.” Shadow answered, looking at the filly.
Lightning nodded. She closed her eyes.
“Next,” Shadow continued, “You have to find where the power flare is. You can see it, right?” Another nod. “Take all that power, and let it spill through your body, spread it around, lessen the impact of the increased power flows.”
It was obvious that Lightning was doing what she was told. After a few moments, her body began to glow slightly. When she opened her eyes, the unicorn filly was smiling shyly. “It's gone now. Oh, thank you all so much.” She got up, trotting into the forest.
“What town did she come from?” Mystic asked.
“There’s a little earth pony village near here.” Starry replied. “I can’t think of its name at the moment. I passed it by not needing supplies or distractions.”
“Wait,” Wave Dancer pulled out the most complex map of Equestria Starry had ever seen. “This has been taking up a lot of space in my bag. It's time to put it to use.” She scanned the map. “I think this village is called Greendale.” The hippogriff went to put the map back in her bag.
Starry held up a hoof. “I’ve got space in my bag.”
“Okay,” Wave Dance handed the gray mare the map.
“I think Greendale is too small to have heard of us yet. We should stop, discreetly, to get more supplies.”
“Consider how our last resupply went. We could always stop at the inn ten miles south. I don’t think they realize Mystic or Wave Dancer are with us yet.” Shadow muttered under his breath.
“Oh, it’ll be fine.” Starry smiled. “It's actually a shortcut.”
“You know the saying. Short cut’s make long delays.” He told her.
“She smiled again, “But inns make longer ones.”
Six mares wandered through a swamp. The three with wings flew, while the others walked along.
“This place is dreadful,” Rarity complained. “Who would want to come here?”
“A criminal on the run and trying not to be tracked,” Twilight responded from above. “It’s what I’d do.”
“I hope we catch up to them soon,” Rainbow ash muttered. “This is booorrinng.”
“Twilight looked back at her. “We will. But I want to follow her trail as well as we can. We’re one step behind, and maybe I’ll find a clue to put us ahead.” The others nodded.
“Dang it,” Applejack muttered as she stepped in knee high mud. “When we find her, ahm gonna give her something to remember us by. For all this trouble.” The earth pony had a special dislike of those who committed seriously dishonest acts.
Fluttershy flew up to Twilight. “Are you sure we can’t reform her? Is there only the option of arrest?”
“She committed a horrible crime Fluttershy. We can try, but I’m not sure it will work. I think Starry Sparks doesn’t want to be saved. Though, if it comes to it, we can try the Elements of Harmony. Maybe they’ll reform her, maybe they won’t.”
Fluttershy nodded. Twilight hoped they could convince Starry Sparks to come back with them. If not...
The village of Greendale was small, even by Equestrian standards. From Starry’s estimation, maybe seventy ponies lived in it. Of course, very few would want to live in the Everfree Forest. Even in the safest areas, the forest held many dangers.
For all its quaint appearance, Greendale was a lively happy town. Fillies and colts ran under hoof, and mares and stallions talked loudly. Everypony Starry saw was an earth pony. Each house was obviously built by hoof, and well maintained. Ponies smiled and waved at them as they went by. Starry often smiled back. Small villages like these were the true heart of Equestria, places where nothing had broken the core values. Or at least very few things. Even good-natured ponies could not escape the flaws of the world.
Overall, though, Greendale was one of the most peaceful towns Starry had ever seen. There were no loud arguments, very little to break the relaxed, homey atmosphere.
Let's just pray our visit here goes smoothly. Starry thought as she handed some bits over for a pile of apples. She carefully placed each one into her bag before going and rejoining her friends, who had been shopping separately.
“What exactly are we going to do with this?” Shadow asked pointing to the pile of assorted supplies.
Wave Dancer nodded. “We don’t have anywhere near enough space to carry this much food. We'd never fit it.”
“Leave that to me.” Starry said smugly. “Wave Dancer, have you noticed that the map you gave me isn’t sticking out of my saddlebags at all.”
“Wait...” The hippogriff looked at her bag. “How is that possible. Your saddle bags are smaller than mine?”
“Yes.” Starry smiled. “But they will fit anything in them. With limitations of course. If it's an object that wouldn’t regularly fit into a bag this size, it won’t go in.”
“That form of magic is nearly impossible,” Mystic commented. “Where did you get these. And why did you never tell me about their capabilities.”
Starry sighed. “Because of all of the questions. Yes, that kind of magic is extremely challenging. I paid a very high price for these, a long while ago. Perhaps too high.” The final comment was more for herself than for the others as she looked down at the worn, dirty bags. Looking back up at them, she finished, “I can carry enough to get us a long way. So, let's get packing.” Allowing the others to fill their packs, Starry took the rest and piled it into her saddlebag. Afterwards, Mystic peeked inside looking down, she stared. All the objects were piled into what looked like a giant room. They were tossed about randomly. Other things also sat down there, a few of which the green unicorn didn’t even have names for.
“How the hell do you even get what you need?” she asked.
“It's hard to explain,” Starry told her. “Just know that it took me a while to get the hang of it.” She closed the flap. The bag went back to its appearance of normalcy. Walking out of the alley, they found someone waiting for them. It was the young unicorn from the forest, along with an earth pony mare and stallion.
“Hello,” the mare began, “My name is Violet Wishes and this is Iron Hoof,” she indicated the large stallion. “We would like to thank you for helping our daughter.” The little unicorn nodded, obviously loath to speak. Her parents did more than enough to make up for her shyness.
“You all simply must stay the night,” Violent Wishes announced, “We’d all be happy to have you.” The family near pushed them through town, ushering them towards a lovely little cottage. Amethyst was the only one to join Violet Wishes in her chatter conversing eagerly as they wandered the streets. Once inside, they all settled in a parlor obviously decorated by a family who loved gatherings. There were enough sofas and chairs for the entire company plus the family.
Sipping cups of hot tea from the kettle that hung over the fire, the company talked with their hosts. Or, more specifically, Amethyst, Wave Dancer and Mystic talked, while Shadow Shields and Starry sat quietly on the couch. As time went on, Mystic began to entertain the couple with stories of adventure, embellished by her small, but impressive, magical tricks. Most of the stories Starry recognized for many of them were a little exaggerated and altered versions of her and Mystics own adventures, without the blood, violence, or bloody explosions.
In the corner Amethyst was teaching Lightning Flash some small spells. Learning and practicing those would assist the filly in learning the art of magic. However, after rejoining the group, she made an announcement to Violet Wishes ad Iron Hoof. “Your daughter needs to go to a magic school,” she told them, “Any unicorn could tell that that filly has a whole boatload of power, and she needs it trained.”
“If she has as much power as we think she has, "Mystic added, “It's probably best she go to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. They’ll be able to help her reach her full potential there.” Both parents and child stared at them, shocked.
“We need to send her away?” Iron Hoof gasped, “To a magic school in Canterlot.”
Starry finally nodded, “Her magic flare was a very big one. That one was at least not highly destructive, but the next one might be. A unicorn of her capabilities needs to be trained and trained well. Not just out of books, but with a real teacher, at a real school that can handle it before things get out of hoof.”
“You mean that Lightning’s magical flares could...” Violet Wishes gulped, “Hurt somepony or even k-kill them.”
“Maybe, though that is fairly unlikely.” Starry nodded, “I’ve seen very few flares that have seriously injured anyone, and one of those was mine.”
Violet Wishes steeled her resolve. “I guess,” she looked down at Lightning, who nodded.
“We’re sorry to pressure you like this,” Mystic told them, “But unicorns need to be trained.” She sat down, the entire company silent as the family deliberated. Finally, a pot started to make a bubbling sound.
“Oh, that’s dinner,” Violet Wishes announced. She and Iron Hoof began to finish their preparations while the company helped set the large table. After thanking their hosts again for their kindness, they all dug in. The vegetable stew was delicious, and their plates were cleaned. Only Lightning asked for seconds. That lines up Starry thought. Flares were like growth spurt, just with magic. They often had similar symptoms.
As the finished, a sharp knock was heard. Iron Hoof answered the door. It was another mare from the town. Her eyes were wild, her voice shaky. “You helped Lightning,” She looked desperately at Starry, “Can you help me?” She gasped inward, “My son, he ran off.” Another gasp. Then she whispered, “Into the forest...”
Starry leapt from her chair. “Your son has gone missing? Where? When?”
“Just a few minutes ago.” The mare coughed. “He was being bullied, like he sometimes is by the other colts, and he ran off into the forest, northways. I tried to follow him, but I ran into... something. Something big. I knew I had to find someone who can brave the forest. The deep forest.” Starry remembered it coming up in conversation that villagers often entered the deeper forest, but never farther than a mile from the village.
Starry grabbed her saddlebags. “Mystic, Shadow, come with me,” she called. Mystic responded quickly, grabbing her bag and leaping up with a practiced ease.
Shadow rose more slowly, grabbing his stuff with his deep maroon magic. “Where are we going?” He looked at her inquisitively.
“Well, we’ve gotta find him, don’t we?” Starry looked at him expectantly.
“I guess.” He came to her side, trotting to catch up as the two mares took off down the street. As they galloped, Starry looked up, igniting her horn for a few moments. Turning down the street, they galloped straight towards the northern edge of the village. The cobblestones were hard under her hooves. Under the light of the crescent moon, the houses blended together.
Finally, they reached the tree line. Shadow and Mystic hesitated for a moment. The forest loomed overhead. The dark canopy blocked out any moonlight, throwing the woods into pitch blackness, so pitch black that Starry could barely see her hoof if she waved it in front of her muzzle.
Shadow steeped under the trees. He blended in, becoming nearly invisible. “Do you have any idea which way that colt took off?”
Starry lit her horn, keeping it bright enough to see by but too dim to attract too much unsought attention. “Remember that tracking spell?” She formed the spell, casting it while thinking of a small lost colt and a desperate mother. A trail of blue footprints hopped along the ground, leading deep into the woods. “I can only hold this up for so long,” she told them, “And it will prevent me from doing any complicated magic. The most I’ll manage is levitation.” Mystic nodded along with her speech.
“Oh, so its near-overload working then,” Mystic commented, “the magical recoil would break the spell.”
“And you would know that because you’re so very university educated,” Shadow muttered.
“I know that because I spent nearly half a decade trying to research precognition magic,” Mystic retorted, “and that is known for having a low distraction tolerance, being extremely near overload if not all the way over the line, and having a massive magical recoil sometimes knocking a pony out.”
“And why would you research that?” Shadow asked.
“Because it’s a very interesting and little studied field,” the green unicorn replied, “There is so little known about it, because so few have that gift. And it's not a magic a pony can learn, you’re either born with in or you’re not.”
“Of course.” Shadow grumbled. Starry listened to the bickering while keeping her eyes focused on the trail in front of her. Her magic lit the imposing trees on either side. The village was out of sight now, but they still trotted through the outer forest. Monsters did not lurk in such numbers in the outmost rings, and the many dangerous flora of the Everfree were less in number.
“Shhh...” Starry said suddenly. Both Mystic and Shadow stopped short behind her. Starry pointed her hoof. In front of them was a cave. Great snores could be heard from the inside. The blue hoofmarks could be seen going around the cave, the prints going through a small cut in a patch of blue flowers.
“Crap”, a voice whispered in Starry’s mind. She smiled.
“Oh Mystic,” her gaze never left the cave. “It’s good to have you back in here. I’ve missed this.”
“We’ve gotta avoid waking whatever’s in there up,” Mystic’s voice sounded a little worried.
“Don’t worry. Just follow my lead.” Starry whispered her answer out loud, so Shadow could here. Horseshoes off, Starry began to quietly make her way around the cave. That was the easy, soundless part. Much harder was treading the small path while not touching a single flower. Each step was carefully taken. Her eyes always watched in front of her. Shadow muttered a curse as he tripped, his hoof stopping just above the plants.
Starry sighed with relief as she stepped out of the Poison Joke. Mystic and Shadow soon followed. The trail continued, its northward line stretching onwards. The ponies followed it in silence.
“I know we haven't done this in a long time.” Mystic mind-spoke into Starry’’s mind. “But this feels right.”
“It really does,” Starry sent her response back with a feeling. The feeling of warm sunshine. That was kind of what having Mystic back in her mind felt like. Those years together had left an imprint on them both. It was comforting, always having another to talk to. Communication was as quick as a thought, and sensations and emotions could truly be shared. It was not the same, after she and Mystic had separated.
Starry’s thoughts, and her conversation, were interrupted. “Uhh, guys,” Shadow’s voice came from where he had ducked into a shadow. Starry looked up. In front of them was a large manticore. She frowned. It growled in return.
Starry dodged quickly as the manticore charged. Mystic leapt out of the way as well. Not able to let go of her tracking spell for fear of losing it permanently, Starry could not use her explosive magic. Using the one magic she could, Starry reached her magic under her cloak. Shadow gasped as she pulled something out. Two knives were held in her magical grasp, their wickedly sharp twin blades glinting almost copper in the magic light.
As the manticore swiped at her, Starry swiped back. Mystic drew her own sword and charged in. Manticores were magic resistant, so she knew that her spells would be of little help. In the ensuing battle, Shadow stayed in the darkness. He had no combat experience, and no weapon to assist them.
Starry weaved in and out. She came in from one side, while Mystic attacked from the other. Dodging, twisting and slashing, the two mares were blurs as they moved and reacted. Warnings flashed between them as quickly as a thought. They drew blood with nearly every attack. Soon, the red liquid was splashed through the forest.
Hacking, Starry cut through the Manticore’s stinger. With a great roar, it lashed out, smashing Mystic away from in front of it before turning and galloping off.
Starry looked at the stinger, lying in a bloody puddle on the ground. “It’ll grow back, and then that manticore will continue on with its life,” She told a shell-shocked Shadow. Then she looked over to where Mystic was lying against a tree.
“Shit, she muttered as she galloped over, ignoring the blood coming off a cut on her cheek. Mystic was groaning, blood pouring out of a wound on her chest.
“That looks bad,” Shadow whispered as he came over. Blood was pouring from the deep wound. The manticore had cut through her skin and most of her muscle.
Starry went digging into her bag. “I know absolutely no healing magic. My power isn’t compatible. But I do have this which Wave Dancer gave to me.” She brought out a healing potion and poured it down Mystic’s throat. She then pulled out a roll of bandages and began to wrap the unicorn’s chest. After that was done, she and Shadow sat for a few moments of terse silence.
Mystic opened her eyes, coughed, then winced. “I got hit bad, didn’t I?” She said, her voice quiet.
“Sure did.” Starry replied. “If you’re okay, we need to get going.”
“I’m as good as I can be, with a hole in my chest.” Mystic smiled weakly. “It's not as bad as its been. Remember that one time in Las Pegasus.”
“I told you cheating was a bad idea.” Starry grinned back, “Now we probably need to carry you, so...”.
Lifting her friend onto her back, Starry continued onwards. They followed the trail carefully. Starry could feel the night growing older, even as they walked beneath the tree cover. The moon would be at its zenith.
They walked until they came to a moonlit glade. Starry stopped for a moment, lowering Mystic onto the ground. She attempted to catch her breath. Carrying another pony was hard. Especially while also trying to hold up a complex magical spell. They were running out of time before the magic ran out.
That was when Starry and Shadow noticed green eyes glowing in the bush in front of them. Starry scanned around. Surrounding the glade were green eyes, peering from the shadows.
“Timberwolves!” Shadow gulped.
“Escaped from goblins to be caught by wolves,” Starry muttered under her breath.
“What do you mean by that?” he asked.
“Oh, just an old saying.” She watched as the first timberwolf lumbered out of the shadows, its wooden teeth gnashing together. The others followed, until the entire ring of beasts was closing in on them. One leapt, and Shadow blasted it instinctively with his magic breaking power. The timberwolf shattered into pieces, the magic holding it together dispelled by his power. Meanwhile, Starry felt her own magic begin to fizzle.
“I need to go!” she shouted.”
“I’ll hold them.” Shadow Shot another spell at the next timberwolf. Starry galloped off, dodging between two timberwolves. One tried to give chase, but Shadow blasted it. Turning in a circle, he kept the creatures at bay while Starry slipped off into the trees.
Galloping along the fading trail, Starry kept her magic burning. Nearly two hours of holding the spell was draining her of her magic, and quickly. Each step, she worried it might end.
Starry felt her magic drop, the spell tearing away from her. The blue hoofprints began to fade. Starry kept following the barely visible marks. As the last one faded, she found herself in a little glade, much like the one she had left her friends in. Great trees ringed the clearing, and inside sat a little colt.
“W-who are you?” He asked.
“I’m Starry, and I’m here to help you.” She replied walking over to him.
“You can’t help me,” he cried, “Nopony can. I just want to die! All the time, they call me a weirdo. A freak.” He pointed to his back. Two little nubs stuck out. Wings that had never grown fully. She also noticed his eyes. One was green, one was blue. “I just want it to end.”
“Never say you want to die,” Starry told him. “Do you know the name of the star up there?”
“Estel, right?
“Do you know why she’s called that?”
“No.”
Starry smiled softly. “Estel was a pegasus mare, nearly six thousand years ago. She faced many issues as a filly. Depressed, bullied for being, well, against her societal norms. She stopped being able to stand it.”
“What happened,
“Well, one night, she flew from her home, and, landing on a cloud, prepared to take her life with a knife.” She had the colt’s attention now. Starry continued. “But Estel looked up, and she saw the stars. They whispered down to her. The stars, they told Estel to stop. To not throw her life away. The stars led Estel down another path, one of helping other fillies and colts like her.”
“Really? "the colt said, “what happened to her?”
“Estel spent her life helping pegasi, and other creatures, with depression, bullying and the like. When she died, she rose to the stars. That’s where they go, the world’s hope bringers. Once, there were no stars. But when some creatures began to spread hope, they appeared. And now, those that give their lives to bring hope to others, they rise, become stars themselves, watching over those below. So, young one, look up now. Think of Estel, all the hope, everyone out there facing this with you. and know that you are not alone. Think of all the stars in the sky." She held him, speaking softly.
He looked up at her, seeing the tears in her eyes, as she repeated the last lines, "All the stars in the sky."
Starry watched the bloody field. She knew that she had to get a grip on herself. Luna was coming soon. Starry had felt the other night traveler’s purpose. However, her emotions were running too high. The story, the choices she had made that day. They were the right ones, she knew that. But how many centuries will it take to stop feeling this guilt. How many right choices to balance out the wrong. The wrong choices I keep making.
She sat there in her thoughts. Then, looking out the field, she noticed a new detail. She gasped, her eyes widening. On the field, lying there in front of her, was an infant. A tiny filly with a light blue coat and a white mane, wrapped in cloths. Starry looked down at the filly in terror. She stared at it, unnoticing of anything else.
“What...what is this place?” A voice sounded from behind her. Starry jumped, turning to face Luna, who was standing, staring at everything around her in shock.
Starry sighed. “What do you have Luna? To remember.” The words came out a whisper. She looked back to the field.
Her friend, standing next to her, spoke, a thoughtful and sorrowful expression gracing her ageless face. “A shard. A blue shard from my helmet.”
“This is mine,” Starry told her. “This is my reminder of my mistakes.”
“What happened?”
Only the comfort of her longtime friend and another who could understand heled the words out of her mouth. “Luna, I’ve made wrong choices, but this was my worst. Three thousand years ago, in a land far to the east, there was a mare. After having watched the injustice and horror of the world, wanted to change it. But she made some horrible mistakes. She let herself be ruled by her fear, her hate, her sorrow and anger sitting for centuries inside her arising. She transformed into a nightmare form of herself, called Nova. Nova took the throne of a warrior tribe in the north through killing its former holder. From this seat, she began a campaign to conquer the world and bring it under her rule. That campaign culminated in a single battle, the Battle of The Fallen Stars, which occurred here.” She swept her hoof across the landscape. “The Plain of Fallen Tears. Creatures on both sides were slaughtered, and the grass was tainted red. Nova was defeated, and a dear friend, with the aid of a small collection of creatures brought her back from her nightmare form while she sat in prison. But she spent centuries, trying to get over what she’d done. And she will never, ever, forget the crimes she committed, and regretting the wrong choices she made. Never stop seeing it.”
“Oh Starry,” Luna held the gray alicorn in her embrace. “You carry this around with you... every day. I-I never imagined.”
“And it is my burden to bear.” Starry finally left the hug, staring back out at the field. “Every bit of it is my fault.” She scanned the plain, seeing each pool of blood, each mangled body. “It's my lesson. I was not meant for power, for leadership, for fame. And so I’ve faded into the background. I’ve erased my trail from history. Only here am I remembered, and only as a villain.”
They sat for a while silent, wrapped in the embrace of another who understood. Starry let the tears flow, tears seen by so few through the centuries, tears so often shed alone and in secret.
Starry awoke on a sofa sitting in the bedroom of Violet Wishes and Iron Hoof’s home. Mystic lay in the bed, still asleep. The unicorn looked much improved. With Wave Dancer’s aid, over the course of two weeks she had healed, and Starry and the others had thanked their hosts time and time again for their generous hospitality.
Starry’s own small wounds had healed, and her magic had returned, though she had spent the good part of two days with little more than a drop. The gash on her cheek had healed well, leaving only a small scar, joining the many others adorning Starry’s body.
The gray alicorn watched her friend’s chest rise and fall for a minute before gently pushing a thought into the turquoise unicorn’s mind. Mystic, you need to wake up. Today’s the day we finally can get on the road.
Mystic’s eyes drifted open. She groaned, before lifting the covers and swinging her hooves off the bed. She stood up, walked in front of a mirror and grabbed the brush in her aura. The unicorn styled her olive mane into its usual extravagant style. Then she pushed open the door before heading down the hallway.
As the two mares went downstairs, they were joined by the other members of their little company. Shadow was rubbing his eyes, while Amethyst and Wave Dancer chatted about something of which Starry was not sure, but probably involved the uses of willlowbark in herbal teas and spa treatments. They both seemed happy.
After a hearty breakfast, the small crew got on the road. Saying farewell to their hosts, they turned back east, onto the dirt road leading away from Greendale. The path was far more well-trodden than many others they had taken. Starry kept her hood up, sticking to the middle of the group.
The five had been going on for a while, when Amethyst suddenly looked at them all, a goofy grin on her face. “You know, if we pick anypony else up, we’ll have six,” She commented. “Same number as the Elements of Harmony.”
Starry began to laugh. Amethyst looked at her. “What?”
“It’s just comparing any group with me in it to the Elements of Harmony is just so ridiculous,” Starry chortled. “It's like comparing Trixie and the Flim Flam brothers to Celestia and Luna.” She chortled. Amethyst looked skeptical.
“You keep making references like that. I know you...have done some things in the past but killing in self-defense isn’t all that horrible.” Wave Dancer commented. She watched as Starry sobered up.
“Yeah, what do you always seem to be thinking about.” Shadow added. “I was up the other night, and I heard you muttering in your sleep. You were sweating too.”
Starry frowned. “It's none of your business.”
“It kind of is our business,” Shadow insisted, “Anything that might give the Solar Guard even more reasons to hunt you is our problem.”
“Trust me, this has nothing to do with Equestria,” Starry told him. “And what I say isn’t your business isn’t your business.” She stared at him coldly, her blue eyes turning as icy as the frost. Shadow backed away from her, a little nervous.
“YAAHHHHH!” A loud scream suddenly cut through the air. It came from up ahead, around a bend in the road, and seemed to belong to a mare.
“Are we really going to do this again?” Shadow asked. He watched the others gallop forward. “I guess we are.” He trotted after them. The entire group cleared the bend, coming upon an unexpected sight. In front of them, a brown earth pony mare with the cutie mark of an open book with a castle. was facing down a furious blue Ursa Minor. The creature was snarling at the mare in front of him, while she backed away, her green eyes wide behind her red framed glasses. Still, she stared the Ursa down.
Well, we can’t use magic. Mystic commented to Starry. So how are we going to remove that thing. I don’t see any water towers around.
That’s easy, Starry replied, I’ll talk to the thing. See what it wants.
Are you insane?
The answer to that is yes. But not about this idea. Starry looked at the others. “Can you get the mare. I want to try something. Just be prepared for plan B if this doesn’t work.
“What’s plan B?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
The ponies and hippogriff galloped towards the brown mare. Starry, on the other hand, aimed at the snarling Ursa Minor. She watched the star speckled creature. It growled and swiped at her as she approached. That is one angry creature, she thought. How unfortunate to the mare for having met it like this.
“Stop this right now!” she shouted. “What are you doing! Why are you doing this, star-child?” She used the traditional formal name for a creature of the night. The Ursa Minor, who had been preparing to slash at her, paused as she said the words. It looked at her, cocking its head.
Starry looked at it, perfect calm on her face, “I hear you, star-child.” She listened, hearing something no one else could. “Yes, I know this is your territory. I know you’re hungry and she had food. But this is unbecoming behavior. Its impolite to someone just passing through.”
The bear nodded. It roared.
“You’ll just have to get over it. There’s some fish in the stream back that way.” Starry pointed behind her. “Don’t bother ponies who have never done anything to you. That’s against our way.”
The Ursa growled before lumbering off towards the river. All Starry’s companions and the new mare stared at her.
“What was that?” the earth pony asked.
“My little secret.” Starry grinned at her.
“Who are you ponies? And hippogriff.” the mare added a slight bit of venom to the last word. Then she covered her mouth at Wave Dancer’s glare. “Oh, sorry,” she added, “I spent most of my childhood hearing that, even though I know it's wrong, the speciesism still comes out.”
“Before we answer your question,” Starry said, “I think it's fair you introduce yourself first. We did save you, after all.”
The earth pony nodded. “My name is Fable Notes. I’m from a noble unicorn family in Canterlot, and was studying Magical Theory before my family disowned me. I’ve been looking for work.”
To Starry, the earth pony seemed soft. It was probably obvious why she couldn’t find work. Earth ponies mostly did labor, and studying magic wasn’t practical.
Fable blushed. “My family is proud to be unicorns. They weren’t exactly proud of me.” She waved to her forehead. “I was trained with a unicorn's education. You studied something similar?”
“Yes.” Mystic replied. “I’m Mystic Melodies, and this is Wave Dancer.” She nodded to her hippogriff friend.
“I’m Shadow Shields,” the gray unicorn added.
“My name is Amethyst Mirror,” the purple mare said.
“And I’m Starry Sparks,” Starry finished, taking off her hood. At the lack of shock and fear in Fable’s eyes, she asked. “How long has it been since you were in a large town?”
“Not in a month. After I left Ponyville, I’ve wandered the Everfree towns.”
“Oh,” Starry commented, “Where are you heading now?”
Fable looked at her a little skeptically, “uhm...the coastal cities.”
“That’s where we’re going.” Mystic commented. She smiled at the brown mare. To her, Fable seemed nervous, probably because she was talking to strangers, in the woods. The blue mare held out her hoof. “We’re on our way to Manehattan. Want to join us? When traveling, large groups are better than small.”
“I guess,” Fable said reluctantly. She reached out and shook Mystic’s hoof. And with that, Shadow groaned.
“Can we get going now.”
“We can stop,” Starry replied. “Get a chance to know our new companion.”
Fable Notes smiled, settling down beside her own bags. The earth pony reached up into her butterfly and pencil barrette. The pencil came off, and the mare pulled out a notebook and began to write. “This just gave me an idea.”
Starry settled down. “This Fable Notes is a rather interesting mare,” she whispered to Wave Dancer.
“Personally, she’s not my favorite pony so far,” wave Dancer muttered, “But since you seem to be picking up random ponies, I’m getting the feeling we’re stuck with her.”
