Chapter 1: The day, that became night.
1070 years ago. Canterlot.
“Be quiet,” said a soft, yet strangely familiar male voice. “I think he’s starting to wake up.”
The head was wrapped in lines of tight bandages, rough and uneven. This was his first and the sharpest feeling – that something alien and interfering, irritating the skin was wrapped around his forehead and around his temples. It was dark, almost like night time in a damp cellar. His thoughts were mixing together, refusing to make a clear picture. Everything, that happened before Starswirl lost conscious, it was all returning in very far away images, which he couldn’t add up or make sense off. Inside his head, he felt a very painful, desperate confusion, that didn’t wish to stop or simmer down.
“Starswirl,” spoke another familiar voice, this one being really close to his ear. “Starswirl, can you hear me?”
“Huh?” this simple and short “Huh?” probably was the only coherent thing he could say at the moment.
“He can hear us. That’s good,” spoke the soft male voice again. “At least his hearing wasn’t damaged.”
Starswirl felt sick. His head wasn’t hurting, no. For some reason, he thought his head should have been hurting. Maybe, because it was wrapped in bandages – from his horn right down to his snout, closing his eyes. The sickening taste of vomit was coming in waves, and collecting in his throat, not to mention he felt something some odd swimming in his skull, sloshing lazily, and then spreading trough his head. It was much more frightening, than all the darkness around him.
“You know, it’s weird,” contentedly said another voice, almost above his head. This voice was young, full of energy, but at the same time very soft and caring, but also very tired. Young mares don’t have such voices. “He shouldn’t have survived. But yet he did, and that’s good…”
He couldn’t understand what they were talking about. It was pretty hard to understand the meaning behind their words. It felt like the words crawled very slowly from his eardrums to his brain - slow, very slow. So far, he did understand a few things: he was lying, covered by something thick and warm; his head was wrapped in bandages for some reason, while close to him, in the darkness – some strange creatures were speaking about something in an unknown tongue. Then, finally the phrase from before hit his brain
Eventually, he started to understand everything; things were starting to calm down, the pain in his brain began to simmer as well; he carefully listened how his heart rate began to slow down.
“Nurse Stetha Scope, can I speak with him?” The second voice asked. It was a young stallion voice, maybe close to Starswirls age. He knew to whom this voice belonged, at some point he spoke with this stallion, he used to remember who this person was – but at the moment, the memory about it flew out of his head.
A light, yet soft coughing was heard.
“I wouldn’t recommend that sir. He shouldn’t be stressed…But, I don’t know – maybe if you could”
Someone got close to him. Starswirl couldn’t see who it was, but close by he felt something warm-living – feeling someone’s presence, he then sensed the smell of dry and freshly cleaned clothes, helping him understand that someone really was by his side. Extending his hoof, he tried to understand where this person was – he then felt something soft wrap around his hoof, almost someone or something was controlling its direction. It didn’t feel like he was being forced, just guided until his hoof met with another one.
“Do you remember me?” The voice asked. “It’s me, Sombra! Starswirl, do you remember me?”
“Please, don’t rattle him so much, Prince Sombra” The female voice assaulted Sombra, the voice who’s owners name he heard a second ago, but didn’t wanna stay in Starswirls head. “It could be possible that he just didn’t suffer memory loss. I honestly can’t recall any situation, when a pony would survive such an injury…And yet he’s alive, it’s a miracle itself. Not to mention, we don’t know if he can even move…”
was something Starswirl wanted to ask, but then something resembling a memory began to form in his mind and the reason why he was here. When you wake up like this, you can’t fully understand the world around you, for example not realizing who is calling you or why. The same was with Starswirl, only he had a much harder time waking up.
“Sombra….” He whispered. “You….”
“Yes, me,” he responded, while Starswirl could only give a forced smile.
He remembered who Sombra was, but the phrase spoken out loudly was meant to help with that. He wasn’t speaking to anyone. Then, it all came back rushing, what happened a while ago, forcing his heart to beat rapidly, shocked by the sudden revelation. He recalled practicing some new spell to impress Princess Celestia and Luna, it was a simple transformation spell, but then he recalled something going during the half point. Then object started to twist and shake, instead of turning into a different thing, the energy beam suddenly fired right trough the roof. When that happened, the building around them began to crumble and fall apart. Last thing he remembered were several metal beams and rocks coming down, as he pushed the princess away, then everything went black. Then he grabbed Sombra - Prince Sombra, his companion and fellow student – by the shoulders.
“Sombra! Princess Luna and Celestia…Where..Where are they?!”
“What’s wrong with him?”
From the darkness, he caught a scent of something sweet, tart and stuffy; someone softly forced Starswirl to lie back on the pillow.
“Just lay still, Starswirl,” said another male voice, the soft voice from before, but yet now the tone changed, to the point it wasn’t recognizable. “Just calm down…”
“Wait…” now he understood that he had to tell them everything, so they wouldn’t hold him back. He tried to rip off the bandages from his eyes. He had to hurry. ”I….Luna…Celestia…We need to help them…”
“Quickly, hold him down!”
“Please, don’t move,” Said the mares voice again, this time sounding harsher. “Please, just calm down…”
He obeyed. Laying his head down on the pillow. Weakness was bringing a new wave of vomit, a much stronger wave.
“Just lay there,” Sombra suggested. “You are not alone here; I didn’t come alone, also brought Discord with me. An Stetha Scope, great mare, she’s the one who saved you. A high class surgeon I must say.”
Discord…he recalled the strange creature, an amalgamation of various animals stitched together. Clever, with a good sense of humor, maybe a lil’ crazy at times, but still a very nice person. He heard his voice laugh in the darkness – by the sound of it – followed by him saying something, something uplifting, but what it was – he didn’t memorize…
“Sombra…What happened? Where am I and…it doesn’t matter, how did you get here?”
“Well, you’re actually not any place but the royal hospital. An well..mm..you were brought here..”
There was a long pause, which felt like it extended for centuries. Then, Sombra spoke again after clearing his throat.
“I arrived at the scene, when the royal guards were dragging you out. When I saw your head, with a large hole in it, I quickly rushed to ask for the details. Honestly, I wouldn’t imagine in the drunken state that you’d still be alive. The guards said that you saved the princess, but got buried by debris, so both Celestia and Luna had to use their magic to dig you out. When they found you, you had plenty of bruises and scratches, not to mention a pipe going trough your skull. So course everyone thought you were dead; I was about to head in and talk to them, when you my friend made a sudden miraculous recovery and pretty much came back from the dead. I looked at you – and then I saw your eyes moving behind your eyelids, while you were mumbling something. I didn’t even have to ask the guards; they quickly loaded you into the chariot and flew here. When the doctors saw this ‘beautiful’ picture, first they froze from shock, and then quickly took you to the operation room.
What they did to you there, I have no idea. Don’t judge me, but at that very moment I was at Celestia’s castle, making sure you didn’t get into any trouble, or weren’t gonna get kicked out.”
“…..T-Thank you, Sombra.” Starswirl said quietly, interrupting Sombra’s story.
“Hey, no prob Swirly,” the darkness let out a gentle laugh, followed by a few coughs. “Anyway, I was lucky enough to run into them. They both were mostly asking if you were okay yourself, they seemed pretty worried. Also, Celestia said she was really impressed on your magic abilities. Though she did say that next time you should try to concentrate more, if you’re gonna perform such a spell.”
“So…?”
“So, in a way you are forgiven”
, Starswirl thought with some relief, but didn’t say anything out loud. A cold silence went trough the darkness. Starswirl felt like he couldn’t talk anymore, he was way too tired and drained out.
“We will visit you daily,” Discord finally spoke after a long silence. “Just wait a few days. In two-three days they’ll remove the bandages, and you’ll see everything again…”
Several days have passed since then, several days of total darkness. Starswirl then found out, that he could only orientate by voices, his heightened hearing also helped him distinguish who was approaching. Light, half silenced hoof steps – nurses. Light, skipping with the additional sound of claws – Discord. Firm, calculated moves – Sombra. An this mare, - who’s name he could never remember, her movement was close to a stallions, self assured – but also very silent. It was weird. It was sad that he could only hear them; he wanted so badly that they would remove these bandages! Darkness was all around him. He was starting to hate it, just like you hate a person.
They would always visit him. Sometimes just one, sometimes all three, even Luna dropped by once. He couldn’t remember what they would talk about. Well, he could, but hazily – he only recalled bits and pieces of their conversations: About Celestia, how he was forgiven. He recalled Discord talking bout something, something involving gryphons, and something else…but he couldn’t remember what. He tried to imagine his surroundings, what was around him, to create a picture in his head from the small details. For example, he knew that the door to his room was two-three feet away from his bed: usually that’s how much it took for a visitor to reach his bed. To the side of the door there was a window, well maybe not to the side, but it was somewhere close by. Behind this window he could clearly hear the wind shimmering leafs, and whispering coldly. For some reason, Starswirl imagined that the tree that grew behind the window was an oak – growing very close by, and should he just reach out his hoof he would feel one of its branches. The more he thought about it – the more he wanted to remove the bandages, and see was it just as he imagined or not.
Sometimes, as he lay in this darkness, he carefully went over the details of what happened, and what he remembered before getting buried, and no matter what he couldn’t understand how he managed to survive. He remembered the rocks falling on him, then something hard and metallic hitting his head, remembered the sudden abyss washing over him, after that – something hot and sticky – possibly his blood. But, what if he didn’t survive? What would happen then? Just thinking about it, made a cold convulsing shiver run down Starswirls spine. Perhaps, he’d be in the same darkness like now – but this time it would be permanent, and he wouldn’t be able to escape it. He quickly tried to push away those thoughts, instead focusing on different things. The removal of his bandages, being able to see everyone’s smiling faces, being able to see the world around him.
When he would fall asleep, he wouldn’t have any dreams, instead he recalled his childhood, how it all started and how he came to where he was now. The memories would sometimes be fuzzy, sometimes just bits and pieces like an almost faded photo.
He was born in Canterlot. His parents were truly an odd couple to say the least, by personality they would push others away, and should have not fit with each other, but at the same time they were like a perfect combination. His father Novashine Zodiac was a court magician; he was a rather large unicorn, with a dark grey fur, black mane, and black thick moustache and cold blue eyes. His personality was moody, plus his face always had an expression as if he suspected everyone as a potential thief; his mane was always neatly combed, while his left eye was blocked by a large monocle. This was a difficult and rather harsh stallion.
His only virtue was probably the rare silence, but even it didn’t save from his approaching anger which would appear whenever he entered the room. Objectively, there was nothing in him, that would suddenly drop the spirits of his companion, but underlined condescending, fastidious politeness, with which he would sometimes speak, plus the narrowed gaze – all this would create a revolting effect that would make anyone desire to end the conversation much faster.
His mother Nebulus wasn’t any better. She was an earth pony from a once high class rich family, who lost their fortune due to her fathers gambling addictions and making silly moves on buying various companies, resulting with her becoming a simple pottery master. Appearance wise she was a soft dark blue mare with a golden mane, and chestnut brown eyes. The only reason she married Novashine was because of his status – making the entire thing appear like a bad comedy – a former rich mare marrying a high class status unicorn, only to fix her own status and money issue. Her husband in return wanted to marry someone who was least close to a rich bloodline, and this pale, dry, hopelessly withered at the peek of her childhood, almost like a flower that was grown from a bad seed, mare was his only candidate for this option. The only thing that remained in this mare, from her rich bloodline was either her tendencies for migraines or her fur color, which barely stood out now, that didn’t bother him much. They were a perfect fit for each other, almost a sort of caricature but at the same time very disheartening. Seeing them together, it was hard to imagine that they could even have children.
The very idea that Novashine would copulate with such a mare like Nebulus, was not only repulsive, but vomit inducing, in fact most thought that only a stallion who was least approaching eighty years, and had seen so many mares that he wouldn’t care about whom he sleeps with, would approach Nebulus. But they did have children. What children they were!
There were two of them – a filly and a foal, the filly being older than her brother by eight years. Looking at them, it was impossible to believe, that these energetic, life loving children were born and raised in Zodiac family. Even appearance wise they were radically different from their parents, as if creating a counter balance to their parent’s repulsiveness – they were pure and clear. Starswirls sister was named Galatina. She was a beautiful unicorn with a cream light fur, a soft chocolate brown mane which was always done in a ponytail, and gentle emerald green eyes, all his best memories were about his sister.
From the day of her brother’s birth, she looked after him, replacing his mother both as his soul mate and his friend. Age difference didn’t change anything – it was obvious, that before Starswirl was born, she never received enough love and care from her parents, because of that she didn’t get jealous when the newborn came, how it would usually happen in families which have an older child. But having the desire to take care of someone, and making sure, he had a much warmer and loving childhood than she did was her top priority. He recalled how she would let her mane down, letting it flow in the wind, while her eyes shined like jewels as they would watch the sunset together. Her eyes weren’t like her fathers – they were warm, and more loving.
She was the one who taught him how to read, how to write, even how to use his magic, she gave him all he knowledge, which should have been given by his mother. They grew up together. He remembered how they would play in the garden: the glistening of rain drops on fresh roses, the clear sky. Galatina smiling spiritedly, she would peek out from behind a tree, and then she would gallop away – “catch me!” He would chase her, and would catch her by her tail, and then she would have to close her eyes and count, while he would find a spot to hide from her, and she would look for him. Instinctively she might have been giving herself a countdown that she had to give her sweet brother everything, so he could grow up healthy and smart.
But when Galatina was approaching her sixteenth year, and Starswirl his eight, she began to languish. She was starting to become more quiet, started getting tired, and the sparkle in her eyes would begin to die down each day. She was having a harder time to breathe, it was even getting harder to run around and play with him. She would run ten feet, and then stop, catching up her breath desperately. And- that painful tired smile of hers which said: “Sorry, I can’t do this anymore…”
It would seem that their parents didn’t notice it. Starswirl knew that only he loved her: both their parents only cared that their offspring’s were financially provided, the rest didn’t bother them. He would forever remember that day, when he entered Galatina’s room; he saw her lying on the bed in her party dress and boots. He thought, that she must’ev gotten really tired at the party, and didn’t have the strength to get undressed.
“Sister…You always told me, that you shouldn’t be sleeping in your clothes. You should have called me, I could have helped.” He said with a playful tone.
He then used his magic to grab her boot, they probably have pressed on her hoofs already, so course she needed help. But something was wrong. Touching his hoof against her cheek, he felt that she was cold like a marble statue on the snow.
Terrified, he quickly climbed on the bed, and placed his ear to her chest – in response he hollow, dead literal silence. He jumped back, only now noticing that Galatinas eyes were half opened, as if looking at him from the other side and screaming: “help me!” He screamed and ran away, nobody believed him at first, when the lil’ colt, flustered like a pigeon, sobbing loudly and painfully told his parents that his sister has died….
It was the first time he saw his mother actually cry, how his father was punching the wall with his front hoofs. They both blamed themselves that they didn’t pay attention to her sickness that they allowed for it to consume Galatina, as little Starswirl looked at this; he slowly stopped crying and instead began to fill with cold boiling desperate hate. He thought that they don’t have any right to cry for her, to feel all this grief, they never loved her, that with these tears and anger, which meant nothing they were insulting her. So he told them that, for which his father gave him a beating of a life time, and said if he say’s it one more time, they’ll lose another child – and this time they won’t grief.
Then, his parents send him to a school – a simple magic school. It was the only way to get away from them, so he took into arms all the things that his beloved, gentle, immortal, sweet, passed away sister gave him, and sank into studies. He loved learning, and soon enough he became the best student in class. Teachers couldn’t have been happier. But Starswirl himself was becoming quieter, sullen. He wanted to die as well, just like Galatina did. Sometimes, as he lay in his bed, he’d look at the sky and dream; how his sister would come down as an angel from some star (there was no question about it that she’d be an angel), hug him and would take him away from this life. His sister was very religious; she believed in Lunas and Celestia’s kindness, she believed in angels….
But then, he actually made some companions, one was his classmate: another unicorn named Sombra, a cheerful prince, always full of energy and friendly with everyone, he actually went against all the stereotypes of being a prince. He wasn’t stuck up, he didn’t glare down at other common ponies, not to mention he didn’t care for his status, unlike some other high class ponies Starswirl met, Sombra actually was smart and cared for his grades. Plus, he was the only pony who was able to beat Starswirl in chess. He never spoke about his own parents, giving Starswirl an impression, that Sombras childhood wasn’t exactly sugar cane and roses as well. They were probably just as cold and distant as Starswirls, maybe even worse.
The other one was Discord, the strange prankster or well as he classified himself “The King of Chaos and fun times”; the draconiquis wasn’t exactly a student. He would just drop into the school from time to time, even during class times. One time he made pink clouds appear, which rained chocolate milk, another time he would go mini size and help some students with their tests. The teachers would always complain to Celestia about his antics, to which the princess would just giggle and say “He’s just having fun, calm down.”
They managed to help him to push away his anguish. When he and Sombra turned twelve, Sombra had to leave Canterlot and head back to the Crystal Kingdom. Starswirl recalled him saying something bout his parents falling ill, and that they wanted to give him ‘better’ education back in his kingdom. He did promise to write from time to time though. So, it was Starswirl and Discord, but soon even the draconiquis had to leave for some unknown reasons. By this point, the desire to die has long been extinguished in Starswirl. He would still remember his sister constantly – but from painful memories, it shape shifted into something that would clear his mind, and would be remembered straight without any soul cringing pains. He began to desire a different thing: he wanted to become a powerful wizard, to help ponies like him – he didn’t wish for any other pony to suffer or die again, he didn’t want for relatives or families to be filled with grief and sorrow. The wound was too deep and too painful.
Naivety is truly a child’s thing. With time, he understood that. But he didn’t wish to turn away from his goal. He didn’t wish to become his like father, he didn’t wish to be a grand wizard and become cold and heartless like his father, it disgusted him just like his father did. The only thing he did, was obey his father’s final order – was to enter the royal magic academy, in which the stallion studied before. That did open him a path to new perspectives, and could have helped him achieve his goal faster, since the education was more promising. So, he wasn’t angry at his father for this suggestion.
Entering the academy was easy, due to his high grades and knowledge, completing all exams with high marks was an easy stroll for him. He went trough several courses, until he was approached by princess Celestia, offering him more high level lessons, so course he jumped at the chance the second it was spoken off.
The rest of the memory simply dispelled in his head. Just like when an old man remembers his younger days perfectly, but entirely forgets what was said to him a few minutes ago. Starswirl desperately tried to latch on the last few strands of memories he had, before the faithful day: An arranged meeting with Celestia, Sombra telling him the good news, researching new spells, and writing them down….An then nothing else. He simply wished for this to be over, so everything would just return to normal….
Days passed. By his inner clock, he calculated that at least three days have gone by – he fell asleep three times in his cocoon, though in reality, or in a dream deprived slumber, it was still the same….Finally the day has come, when he would finally be able to see what was surrounding him, it was starting to become unbearable.
He asked for Sombra, to come in three days, even asked to bring Discord, and that mare, whose name he still kept forgetting, even though it was a rather simple one. He wanted them to be the first whom he was gonna see, nopony else. They came as promised. Starswirl sat up on his bed, and that mare – Steath Scope! That’s what her name was! – began to slowly remove the bandages, tightened around his head.
The grip of the bandages, began to slowly loosen up, his cheeks started to itch from feeling the fabric, falling from his forehead, he felt a few of the rough bandages dangling from his horn. Starswirl then began to help Steath Scope with the removal, using his magic; the desire to finally open his eyes was really high, finally the last wrapping fell down, he tightened his eyelids, as if drawing out the moment where he’d return to the world, and then opened his eyes wide. At first, he thought he has gone insane. Then, he understood that he didn’t, it was just that his eyes haven’t gotten used to the light yet, and that’s why everything looked like….then it hit him – it was night outside, and the lights were turned off, but why? Maybe it was just some sort of joke, yeah just a joke….he should tell them to stop…
“Discord…” He said quietly, “Sombra…please don’t joke like this. This is a very bad joke it’s not funny…please tell somebody to turn on the light…”
There was no response. Maybe they went to get a lantern? But it was still very dark, and he didn’t hear any hoof steps. Starswirls heart swelled painfully and rolled under his ribs, and then it began to get small, until it would just spasm from pain.
“Somebody, please turn on the light…I beg you” He said, trying to push away the guess out of his mind – it couldn’t have happened, it just couldn’t “I implore you! It’s...its night right now…right? Please tell me that you were only joking....”
He turned his head to the left, then to the right, thinking that he would find, even a pitiful source of light – and nothing. Darkness was still around him, covering him in a tight, strangling cocoon. He felt that he was starting to have a hard time breathing, his hoofs went for his throat – when he suddenly let out a desperate and heart wrenching scream.
Unknown to himself, his hoofs began to desperately tear at his eyelids, as if trying to tear away the tight black plastic, which was blocking the light. Then he felt that he got grabbed, with his hoofs removed from his face, as he was pushed on the bed, as he still trashed and screamed.
“What in the…” Said a familiar voice beside him. “What is wrong with….Wait is he…I see now…”
It became quiet and dark. Very dark….
