Searching of the Soul

Faust woke up with a smile on her face, opening her eyes and looking upon the room as she lay there. Stains covered many parts of the room, the black ooze still slick and shining as when it had first gotten there, for it was incapable of drying.

She honestly wanted to let it stay, for it reminded her of the simpler time, before things had gotten so…crazy. But she knew it could not, for if anypony saw it they would freak, and it could possible cause more problems with Nebula and the elements if they got…ideas.

So with a sigh of defeat she got out of bed, opening all the shades and the door to the balcony, and then walking outside. She didn’t bother cleaning herself off, for she knew she wouldn’t need to, and instead lit up her horn and raised the sun.

As the sun crested the horizon and light began to touch her body, the ooze began to fade, slowly at first, and then in earnest. She knew why of course, the ooze was a thing born of the dark, not meant for the light; as such it could not stand the blinding rays that came from the sun.

But there were good things that came with the fading of such shadows, and it became quite apparent when she looked at the room. All the places the ooze had touched were immaculately clean, looking as though they had never seen any kind of wear, and upon the bed Chrysalis lay upon pristine sheets; her fur, mane and tail glowing bright as though they held their own light.

Faust walked back to the bed, leaning down to nuzzle her mate, who yawned before looking up and Faust and smiling, “You’re glowing.”

“So are you,” said Faust with a smile, “now come on, let’s go drop some jaws.”

“Have you any leads yet?”

Nebula growled as she heard this comment, looking up to find the sad looking face of Sunset Shimmer, who had been by almost every day since Nebula had begun her research.

“No Sunset, I don’t have any leads, nor will I likely have any tomorrow.”

“…ok, then what about…”

“Also no,” said Nebula, “like I told you before, I will let you know when he writes me back.”

Sunset slumped, completely defeated now. Ever since Nebula had announced to the other alicorns that she was working on finding them their soul mates, Sunset had been hounding her day after day for news, especially when she had found out about an old acquaintance of Twilight’s.

One of the things Nebula had started doing to help with her search was ask the alicorns what they could remember about their soul mates, and when Sunset had described her mate to her, she had immediately been reminded of the stallion Flash Sentry.

When Nebula had told Sunset about her she had become near obsessed, coming every day for news on Flash’s whereabouts, no matter how many times Nebula told her not to.

Nebula noticed Sunset looked like she was about to open her mouth again, but luckily Spike came upstairs, a letter clutched in his claw as he made his way over to her.

“Letter from Faust,” he said, handing it to her before quickly leaving the room, his eyes glancing occasionally at Sunset.

“He still doesn’t trust me does he,” said Sunset as Nebula read the letter, looking at where spike had left.

“No,” said Nebula, “I think he still blames you for what happened to his family, even though it was Twilight how did the killing.”

“Yes,” said Sunset glumly, “but she was reacting to my emotions and tendencies, and I probably would have done the same thing if I had been in control that day.”

Nebula didn’t say anything, instead going back to reading the letter, only to grown as she finished. “Goddess dammit Faust…” she said, then sighed, before turning to Sunset to speak to her. “Hey Sunset, I need a favor from you.”

“Whacha need?”

“Well it seems Faust is going to keep nagging me till I get some help in my search, so I was hoping you could head over to the crystal empire and get my sister Cadence, then maybe I can get that nagging creation goddess off my back.”

Sunset nodded, then got up to leave, Nebula watching her go before turning back to her papers, only to have another letter appear before her which caused her to sigh. “It’s going to be one of those days…”

Sunset boarded the first train heading to the crystal empire she could get on, and now rested comfortably cabin all to herself, though she wished she could ignore such luxury. While yes, hundreds of years ago she had been the personal student of Celestia, and she had been privileged to similar indulgences, she had never partaken in them.

Sadly now she could not do as she used to, for now she was an alicorn, and anytime an alicorn started to act like a normal pony the citizenry began freaking out. So instead she allowed them to give her this compartment, knowing it would not do good to argue, and plus she could use the alone time to think.

But as always, her mind kept drifting back toward her soul mate, who she knew was out there somewhere, battle scarred and in need of love. She had extracted every detail from Nebula the mare was willing to share with her, and now she couldn’t help but go over every detail as the train made its way onward. Flash was an old stallion from everything Nebula had told her, and old stallion who had lived through several skirmishes against the griffins in the few times they had tried to invade Equestrian borders.

Griffins were a dangerous and violent species; they had always been so, even during their earliest age. When Ponies had been stuck in simple tents and mud huts, the griffins had been forging metal into steel swords of the finest caliber, perfecting the arts of metal craft and war long before Ponies began to make their first forays into those arts.

When the two species had finally encountered each other, the results were devastating for the ponies. Being carnivores, the griffins had seen the ponies as a valuable food source, despite the fact that they were sentient. It had been a bloody war, and it had looked like the ponies would end up as slaves to the griffins, had it not been for the dragons.

The dragons, like the alicorns themselves, were a long lived and wise race. However, unlike the alicorns, they had no qualms about interfering in the affairs of creatures they saw had potential, and thus it was with a vengeance that that descended from the heavens upon the griffin nations, raining fire and death upon them till they backed off. It was also why dragon migration patterns took them so close to equestrian borders, for they wanted to keep an eye on the ponies and make sure nothing else tried to wipe them out.

Of course the peace never truly lasted, and despite the ever present danger of dragons descending upon them, some rouge clans took chances and attacked along Equestrian borders, but by the time the rouge tribes had gotten the courage to do so Equestria had already strengthened enough to repel them, but some were still bad.

“Not as bad as the one he had to go through,” thought Sunset, her eyes never leaving the horizon as the train kept going. From everything Nebula had told her about the raid Flash had suffered through, he had what many ponies would call a cursed day, for it had gone from bad to worse so fast it had to have been the product of Discord. He had already been having a bad day due to his partner being on leave, thus he was alone. During his patrol, he had come upon a village that was under attack by griffin raiders, who had struck one of the few brood villages left in the kingdom, right during foaling season.

Nebula had refused to go into detail about what he had seen, but Sunset could guess pretty easily, though she forced herself not to think of it now. So instead she moved to the floor, placing her elbows on the seat before beginning to speak.

“Oh great protectors, hear my plea, watch over Flash Sentry and keep him safe from harm, till we are brought together once again.”

With her prayers done, she got back up, looking out the window to see that they had stopped moving, growling as she went to the door of her cabin and peaked outside, getting the attention of the nearest servant and asking them to go see what was keeping them.

She hadn’t even gotten comfortable however when a knock came at the door, causing her to sigh before speaking again, “Enter.”

The servant entered quickly, bowing low before looking back up to speak. “Your highness, it seems the mountain passage has collapsed, so unfortunately we will have to head back to Ponyville, the conductor extends his apologies for the trouble.”

The servant left after that, Sunset sighing as she looked out the window again, before smiling as an idea struck her. Back before her possession by Twilight, Sunset had been a priestess of the old gods, something many ponies had hated her for. To many of the ponies of her time, the old gods had been considered deceivers, blinding them and keeping them from worshiping the true gods, Faust and her alicorns.

But Sunset knew better than that, for the old gods were alive, and they still held major influence over the world. Each race had some, from the giant cats of the great Feygiptian desert, to the apes and their ever changing pantheon, each was unique and powerful, and Sunset prayed to them all.

For unlike normal magic, being devoted to the old gods provided many powerful spells, many of which would be beyond even a young alicorns ability to perform, and there were many spells the gods provided which she had not tried, one of which would solve her current problem.

So she got up, lighting up her horn as she closed her eyes, bringing forth the image of the crystal empire as she spread her wings and began to speak.

“Omnipotent power, creator of all things, forged by the gods in eternal chaos, fold the space between us and bring me to my destination.”

Cadance watched from the balcony of her palace as a bright light appeared over the city, knowing who it was even before the light dissipated to reveal the golden furred alicorn gliding to the ground. She had been friends with sunset many years ago, before she had left for Canterlot to become Celestia’s pupil, and eventually consort.

She also knew why she was here, for she had gotten a letter from Faust earlier saying that Nebula was finally accepting help, and to expect to be sent for soon.

But before the mare could touch ground, Cadance cast a quick spell; Sunset lighting up with a bright pink aura, while another pink aura appeared outside Cadance’s door, like she suspected it would.

“Sargent Sentry, please come here,” said Cadance, returning her gaze to the outside as her spell ended and the door opened, revealing the grizzled old face of Sargent Flash Sentry.

“What is it you need your highness,” asked the old guard, his remaining eye glaring at her as he waited for her to speak.

“Another one of the princesses has arrived here to meet with me, I would like you to go out and meet her and escort her here, just make sure to remain calm around her.”

“As you command your highness,” said Flash, before turning around and leaving the room.

After the door closed Cadance turned back to the window, smiling at the thought of being able to prove Nebula had made the right choice so early, and sat down to wait.