Sunlight, Moonlight, Love, and Friendship

Chapter 1: A Mark of Destiny.

She had one. They’d gone by a different name ages and ages ago, a Cutie Mark, but times and names changed. Now they were called Marks of Destiny, even if it didn’t roll off the tongue quite the same. Either way the basic principle still held, the symbolized a thing a pony was good at, something they could do better than anypony else.

Big Heart had one now, an amazing thing really. She’d been starting to wonder if she was ever going to get one, she was almost twelve years old. Surely that was old enough to know what one was going to do with the rest of their life.

Big Heart yawned and checked the bundle next to her for the umpteenth time. Still sleeping with his head against her flank with his matted cobalt mane coming out in chunks and way too thin to be healthy. He was six, maybe seven if she stretched it a little. No Destiny Mark, and his sable fur was patchy. She hoped he wasn’t diseased, she hoped it was just a lack of food that was making his fur fall out. Sun and Moon knew he’d missed more than his fair share of meals, judging from the little ribs poking out of his sides whenever he breathed.

As for herself, she wasn’t exactly plump either but she knew some things about finding food that probably came from having parents for a little while. You learned things while watching your folks try to raise food. She knew plenty of things just from watching them.

She knew this colt was an earth pony, though it was the first time she’d seen one in a year. She knew she was a unicorn but she didn’t know a lot of magic. Her parents—who now that she thought about it hadn’t actually been her parents at all, just kind ponies—had been pegasi. That was the word for two or more Pegasus.

And she knew tons of ways to find food and water and hiding places, not to mention reading and writing which was a little bit useless except for keeping foals occupied during long Nights. She liked to read though, and those books had taught her even more things. She knew more than the average pony, that was for sure.

Big Heart strained her ears for anything, the footsteps of strange creatures or the roar of monsters. Nothing, outside was blazing hot because they were in the middle of the Sun season, so it stood in the center of the sky. It made it hard to sleep, not that the colt was having any problems.

Big Heart blew a few sunset red hairs out of her eyes and peeked out of their makeshift shelter. It was a standard lean-to, nothing fancy but it didn’t take a lot of work or materials and was good enough if she kept her guard up.

She was almost twelve years old but a bit bigger than that, nearly the size of a small adult pony. Her first mother had been right to name her Big. She had sunset red hair and burnt orange fur. Sunset colors, the best colors in her opinion. On her flank was her brand new Destiny Mark, an iron shield with a pink heart on it.

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“Do we have any more food?” Big Heart sighed and checked him over with a well practiced eye. He’d probably be able to handle it without getting sick, so she passed him some more of hers.

It was the only thing he’d said since she’d found him holed up in the ruin of what was probably an old shed. Or chicken coop. She wasn’t sure. Anyway, he’d only asked about food, eaten, and then slept for the past two days since she’d gotten her Destiny Mark. She didn’t even know his name.

He was looking a little stronger today though, a little less sleepy. Maybe he’d be able to tell her.

“Hey, what’s your name? Mine’s Big Heart.” He didn’t even pause, still swallowing some lettuce she’d been saving and using his right forehoof to shield the two carrots he still had, as if he thought she might take them back. She didn’t even like carrots.

“Trotter.” He answered around a mouthful of lettuce. Big Heart rolled her eyes at him and finished her own meal. She needed to find more food, fast, and since Trotter wasn’t up to much besides eating and sleeping they were probably going to stay at that old farm for a while so she should probably build a better lasting shelter. The wind last night had almost knocked the lean-to over.

“I’m going to find more food. Wait here.” She got up and began hoofing it, tying her saddle bags on tight around her middle and taking a second to make sure the lean-to wouldn’t actually fall over while she was gone.

“Wait!” She soon found a patchy colt wrapping his hooves around her in a hug that was more like a stranglehold. “Don’t leave me, please! I can help carry food!”

“Whoa, whoa there Trotter!” She neighed, nearly rearing up in surprise. He should really know better than to startle ponies bigger than he was. As frail as he was right now she could’ve seriously hurt him.

“I told you I’m just going to get more food. I’m not taking off without you!” She disentangled him from her neck and set him down at the entrance of the lean-to. He had the biggest, wettest blue eyes she’d ever seen.

“You will! You will!” He protested, breathless with panic. Big Heart shifted on her hooves, very uncomfortable now. He spoke like a pony with experience.

But he was too weak to follow her right now. He’d make himself sick trying. She didn’t have any medicine to help if he did get sick. There was nothing for it.

She nudged him back into the lean-to, following close behind to keep him from fighting her. She took the blanket they’d been sharing and wrapped it warmly about the distressed colt. She nuzzled him softly and kept whispering assurances that she’d never leave him behind. He didn’t have to worry anymore because Big Heart was going to be watching out for him from now on and she couldn’t do that halfway across Equestria, could she?

He fell into an exhausted sleep soon after that. She made sure he was comfortable and had some food in case he woke up, and then she left the lean-to.

The area had been pretty picked clean and the grass growing here wasn’t the kind that was good to eat. It would fill them up but wouldn’t actually give any energy. Trotter had probably been eating a lot of that grass, keeping himself alive.

But there was food if you knew where to look. Nuts that were half buried, and a few stalks of oats that had started growing wild. She even found some wildflowers when she went into the forest, though they were kind of small. She wanted to get as much as possible so she wouldn’t have to leave Trotter alone again.

Saddle bags only half full she finally returned to the lean-to. Big Heart hesitated as she came closer. If Trotter was awake he wasn’t going to be happy with her, though food might distract him.

She shook herself briskly and walked in. She’d take her lumps like a grown mare.

Trotter threw himself at her as soon as she stepped hoof inside. He was sobbing and making a mess of her fur but she simply rubbed his bag until his wailing started to sound like words.

“I thought you weren’t coming back!” She scoffed at that thought and sat herself down deliberately on the floor.

“I told you I was just getting food, geeze!” He would not be consoled though. Big Heart rolled her eyes at him again and laid them both down to sleep after he’d exhausted himself.

This happened every couple of days with Trotter more often than not trying to follow her but unable to do it as weak as he was. He got a little stronger every day and it seemed her continuous returning earned a bit of trust with him. He would be less and less panicked every time she left until soon he was merely glumly resigned to it.

She found less and less food every day, and had to go farther and farther to find it. When all she had to show for an entire Wake Cycle was half a bag of dandelions she knew they’d picked this place well and truly clean. There was nothing else for it. It was time to move on.

“Where are we going?” Big Heart thought about that for a minute, casting a discerning eye over the little colt beside her. He’d filled out a little in the past two weeks, but he was still very thin and easily tired. She’d probably have to carry him at least part of the way.

Decided, she levitated her most prized possession out of her bag.

It was a map, worn and faded but with the hints that it must’ve been as colorful as a rainbow at one point. It showed all of Equestria from before the fall of the princesses.

“We’re around here, at this region called Unicorn Range, the mountainy side of it.” She explained. “I think we should head towards White Tail Woods, here.”

“How come?” Trotter asked.

“Forests have lots of food.” And where there was food there was living things, maybe even ponies.

So they turned south, which was difficult to do as the Sun hadn’t moved very far in the past two weeks. It still sat mostly in the center of the sky and she had no way of knowing if they were going in the right direction except that she knew they were supposed to go over a couple of mountains to get there. She hoped mountains had food on them.

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It turned out that mountains did have food on them, just not a whole lot of it. Big Heart spent more time looking for food than she did actually covering ground. Trotter was a little trooper, never complaining even when she could hear the growls of his angry belly and she could see his limping stride. Sometimes it came down to arguing about carrying him, which more often than not she won by silently plopping him onto her back while ignoring his protests. It was a win in her book.

“Really, I can walk, I swear!” Trotter tried to convince her. “You’re probably tired of carrying me, right?”

“Nope.” She could do this all day. He didn’t weigh much.

Trotter groaned theatrically and slumped further on her back. Big Heart paused a moment, each shift in weight forced her to stop lest she loose her balance on treacherous terrain, and noticed some flowers growing on a cliff overhead. With a satisfied nod she wrenched them from their roost with her magic and placed them inside her saddle bags. Every little bit helped.

“Hey, Big Heart?” She gave a noncommittal grunt.

“How come you’re taking me with you?” His voice grew steadily softer until she had to swivel her ears to catch the last two words.

“Because I want to help you, duh.” She rolled her eyes. It didn’t get any more complicated than that. He was just a little colt, she was a big mare, it was her job to look after him because she was bigger than he was.

“…My parents said they were going to find food, but they took the blankets and other supplies with them and never came back.” Big Heart tested the ground in front of her. Although she wanted to stamp her hooves she knew the ground wasn’t stable enough to handle it.

“My parents died.” She informed him after a moment of silence. “They were Earth ponies, but I can’t remember their names or Destiny marks because I was so little. Two pegasi found me a couple days later and raised me until they died a year ago.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Trotter murmured, shifting again and causing yet another delay on their journey. Maybe it was time to let him walk again?

“Don’t be.” She shook it off. She could barely remember her first parents, but the loss of the second pair had been…traumatic. Yeah, that was a good word for it. They hadn’t had much to begin with, but they hadn’t hesitated to take a little filly in when they found her.

Once, she could remember looking at her reflection in a still pond. The water was dirty and had several poisonous plants floating in it, but she could still see her reflection. Back then, she’d been smaller, just a foal.

They’d found her there looking at the water, and Quick Silver had dived down as fast as he could to prevent the filly from drinking the contaminated water. She hadn’t been planning on drinking it, but he did not know that. She’d just been staring at her reflection.

Even then, three or four years old, she’d known that a pony was born with either a horn or wings or neither and that didn’t change no matter what. That was what mama and papa told her when she asked and they’d never lie to their precious filly.

“Hey now little one, where’d you come from?” He asked, balancing himself on his three remaining legs. The back right one had been taken by a manticore when he’d saved the mare who would become his wife.

“There.” She pointed roughly towards a hoof-made cave, made by the strong backs of an earth pony couple out of boulders and the trunk of an ancient tree.

Drizzle flew towards the cave and peered inside. Inside lay two bodies of diseased ponies, the filly’s parents, she’d wager. They’d obviously partaken of something deadly, their bodies had distended stomachs and foam had stained their coats.

She shook her head to her husband and they shared a look. The little unicorn filly was alone, she’d die if they left her here.

A look, and the sure knowledge of the consequences, decided it for them.

“My name’s Drizzle, this old stallion is my husband Quick Silver.” The mare knelt down so she could look the filly in the eye. She had beautiful colors, sunset colors that were dull and matted but some patient grooming would fix that.

“I’m Big Heart!” The filly smiled, sweet and carefree and not entirely sure why her parents never woke up.

“Well Big Heart, how would you like to come with us?” The filly looked uncertainly at the cave, then back at the dirty pond.

“But…My mama and papa…” She whimpered, torn.

“Your mama and papa can’t take care of you anymore.” Quick Silver sighed, drawing the filly close enough to nuzzle her. “Don’t worry though, we’re going to take care of you. That’s our job.”

“Job?” Big Heart had repeated, sniffling. Drizzle gave her a sad smile and nodded.

“We’re big ponies, you see? And big ponies have to look after little ponies.” She explained.

Big Heart was quickly placed on Drizzle’s back and given an apple to eat while they flew, with strict instructions not to move too much or else she might fall.

And as Big Heart finished the apple down to the core she wondered how it was that an earth pony filly could grow a unicorn horn.

Big Heart shook away her earliest memory. Letting her mind wander like that was a quick way to end up with a broken neck at the foot of the mountain. Trotter was counting on her now, she needed to pay attention. There were all sorts of creatures that called these mountains home.

The sun pounded mercilessly down on them, driving them to rest in the shade far more often than Big Heart would like. Trotter was content to roll in the dust to cool off and search nooks and crannies for snacks. She watched him at work and noticed that his system was at least as good as hers, just very unpracticed.

Quick Silver and Drizzle had flown from place to place, searching for food from on high. They always kept one pair of wings in the air while another gathered the food, at least until Big Heart grew too big to carry for long distances. Then it became her job to look for food, a job she found she had a remarkable talent in, compared to her parents.

She’d used to believe that food gathering would be her greatest talent, that her ability to read the ground and find water or food no matter where it grew was a manifestation of the mark she’d someday have. Now she wondered if it was just an earth pony thing, something even a mixed up mare like herself could do.

Trotter didn’t just look at places where food seemed likely, he watched the earth beneath his hooves. He stamped the ground to see the dust cloud that rose up and from that knew if they were moving towards or away from a water source. He could look at rock formations and find places that didn’t get direct sunlight every cycle, and find the plants that often grew in those places.

It was the same thing Big Heart was always doing. She knew just from the way the erosion was pointing which way she had to go to find food. She could tell by the sounds of wildlife what sort of creatures prowled this area, and from that she could discern what grew here and what didn’t based on their eating habits.

“I found some gems!” Trotter’s excited cry came from around the next bend. Tiredly, with a fond sigh, Big Heart rose to her hooves and trotted over to where he was digging in the dirt around some sapphires.

“Those won’t do us much good unless we find a herd of unicorns.” She informed him. Unicorns could use the gems for their magic, or some of them might use them as decoration, she didn’t see the appeal.

Of course, gems might save their lives if they stumbled across a dragon.

One errant breeze away from bolting wildly, Big Heart fought to stand her ground against the rush of memory and emotion that thoughts of dragons invoked.

Trotter thankfully did not notice her sudden fright. He was pleased as punch though when she levitated the gems into a side pouch in her bag. He loved contributing to their supplies.

They made camp in behind a natural buttress that blocked the wind. A small stream trickled nearby, probably from a mountain spring somewhere above them. They refilled the two canteens they had and rested and dozing in the shade.

Trotter always took this time to indulge in a bit of play. He’d stack rocks and toss them one by one over the cliff just to hear them drop. He pretended a passing eagle’s shadow was a griffin and he’d use a stick as a sword. All normal foal things to do when they had free time. It was kind of fun watching him even if she was too tired from walking and foraging to play along.

But sooner or later Trotter got tired, and like any foal he fought sleep’s sweet embrace. That’s when Big Heart knew it was time to do her job as a big pony and get him to sleep, so she called him over for stories.

“Once in the history of this land, there were four princesses who ruled over Equestria.” She began the routine. In no time Trotter was laying against her side, cuddled up as close as he could get without actually being on top of her.

“Two of them were sisters, Celestia and Luna, and as all sisters did they sometimes fought but always forgave each other in the end for a sister is your very first friend.” She saw Trotter squeeze his eyes shut, probably trying to imagine a pony with wings and a horn, but as big and strong as an earth pony too.

“Celestia was the Princess of Sunlight and Luna was princess of Moonlight, and together they made the sun and moon revolve around the earth.” She described. “Not at all like now, the sun and moon moved in hours, not cycles.”

“Don’t princesses live forever? How come they’re gone now?” Trotter asked. She wondered if his parents had ever told him before. It had taken years before Big Heart’s own parents had thought her mature enough to handle the full version.

“Princesses are immortal because they never age, but they can be killed if someone stabs them or something.” She considered this. “Of course, alicorns were said to have nigh infinite power but its possible they over taxed themselves and caused their horns to shatter. That’d kill most unicorns so it probably would’ve killed them too.”

He stared at her horn in horror, as though it could explode at any time and leave her as a headless corpse.

“Don’t worry, I don’t know any big spells so there’s no way I can overload myself.” She reassured him before continuing the story.

“There were two more princesses, the first one was Princess Cadence. Some ponies say she still rules the Crystal Empire, or what’s left of it anyway, but back then she was the Princess of Love. She taught ponies that they couldn’t give up on finding love, and when she married a mortal stallion she taught them that even though the relationship might be short, it’s still important.”

“What happened to the mortal stallion?” Trotter asked.

“No pony knows. He and all the crystal ponies just up and vanished, seemingly.” She answered. “But of the four princesses, the youngest was the one the normal ponies knew best. No pony can agree if Princess Twilight Sparkle was the Princess of Friendship or the Princess of Magic, but she was an element bearer.”

She’d told the story of the elements last cycle, so he knew a little about the things princess Twilight had done.

“Together, Sunlight, Moonlight, Love, and Friendship spread across Equestria. No pony went hungry, and there were huge glimmering cities that every pony lived in together.” She’d seen the ruins of a few towns but she’d always secretly dreamed of finding one of those amazing cities.

“What happened to the princesses?” She sighed, annoyed by yet another interruption.

“I’m getting to that!” She mock glared at him, making the colt giggle. “Nearly a hundred years ago, a threat rose against Equestria. This threat was unlike the god of Chaos, Discord, or the demon Tirek, this threat came in the form of two armies poised to tear Equestria asunder.” She saw his confused look.

“Asunder means to destroy.” He nodded in understanding.

“The Boarans of the south and the Zebricans of the far west attacked, fiercely and without warning. The boars believed that ponies were infringing upon their land while the zebras desired more land to expand into.” War had swallowed whole towns and cities and the army could only do so much.

“The six elements of Harmony, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, were sent to the front lines to hold the Boarans back while Princess Celestia and Princess Luna went to the Zebras, there were even rumors at the time that they were preparing to enter peace negotiations with the Boars when…” She paused, watching the glow of anticipation in the colt’s eyes.

“Word came of an assassination. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, along with their entire guard, were slain.” The wind around them howled against the rocks, making both ponies shiver.

“They say Princess Twilight’s rage knew no bounds.” Stories of entire armies turning to stone and left to crumble, of water sources drying up and crops burning in their fields. A princess’ revenge was swift and merciless.

“Equestria entered a period of great mourning and Princess Twlight vanished, none know now where she is or even if she’s still alive. But her rage woke something in the Frozen North, something ancient, and cruel.” Spring never came in the lands north of the ruins of Canterlot.

“This time Princess Cadence rose to defend all ponies, the Crystal Empire fought against the Yetis, creatures of ice and fur that longed for the frozen corpses of any living creature. The ponies of Equestria and even our allies, the Griffins and Saddle Arabia, fought bravely.” How the earth must have trembled then.

“The Yetis were forced back to wherever they came from, but by then the Crystal Empire was as good as gone, with only a few survivors, among them Princess Cadance.” Big Heart continued.

“Isn’t there a happy ending?” She blinked down at the foal. She’d almost forgotten that this was supposed to be a bed time story. His eyes were as big around as saucer plates and his nostrils were flaring in fear.

Instantly she was angry at herself. She’d meant to explain in the nicest way possible why there weren’t any princesses left, not scare him out of sleep forever! She wracked her brain for a way to fix this, a way to give the story a happily ever after like all the others.

“Sunlight and Moonlight are gone, nothing can change that, but the ponies of Equestria have endured that. We’re still here. Even though our enemies attacked us one by one, wearing us down, we’re still here. Somewhere out there I believe Love and Friendship still exist, despite every force in the world trying to destroy them.” She began hesitantly, but gained power as she continued.

“It was Friendship that stopped the armies in their tracks and it was Love that defended us from the northern threat. So long as every pony remembers the lessons they taught us I believe that we will be able to endure and build Equestria anew someday.” Trotter smiled at the thought, the dream. “We’re still here, after all! That’s all the happy ending a pony needs, the chance to wake up tomorrow and try again.”

“I can’t wait for that day, Big Heart.” Trotter yawned. “I want to see Equestria get better as soon as possible.”

He didn’t say anything more. He didn’t have to. He’d given Big Heart enough to think about for a life time.