Four Stars (Draft One)

by Arctic Soul

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Other, Princess Luna, Changelings, Original Character, Random, Adventure
Length: 7295

Inari joins a group of ponies who are trying to release princess Luna from the moon.

Inari, a kitsune, joins Kamari, SilverHoof, and SummerStar on a journey to release Princess Luna from her imprisonment on the moon. To free her they must find the four star towers and defeat their guardians, to gain the keys to her prison.

Warning: this is the first draft of the story, not the finished product.

Published 2016-04-27 00:40:04 UTC
Last updated 2016-05-27 13:07:29 UTC

1: An Unexpected Friend

Inari

I really need to fix this entrance. I thought, while walking through the long twisted tunnel that was the entryway to my home. I lived in a large cave, that was inside a humongous glacier. Every day I did a basic routine. I would wake up, walk outside and look for food, then, even if I didn’t find any, I would go back in my cave and carve on the back tunnel for the rest of the day. After that I would go into the bedroom that I had made, and I would cut a groove into the wall signifying how long I had been here. I had currently been living in the arctic for the past 359151 days. Or you could say, 983 years, 11 months, and four days.

I personally hated living here, but I couldn’t leave. The farthest distance that I could go from the glacier, was about three miles. The cause of this limitation was my pearl. My pearl was in the center of the glacier, and was the only thing that kept me alive. Normally a kitsune doesn’t actually need their pearl to live, but because of an important event that happened in my past, I was cursed with a poison that would kill me if I was away from my pearl for too long.

I had figured out that if I worked on the tunnel all day every day, I would reach the cave in another 1000 years or so. So far I had only reached a little less than halfway to my pearl.

When I finally reached the end of the entrance tunnel, and walked outside I was instantly struck in the face with a cold blast of wind. The wind was coming from the north, which was where it always come from. I’ll never get used to that will I? I thought as my entire body shivered. Looking up I saw the same scene that I had seen everyday, rolling hills of white snow in every direction with no color anywhere. Everything was either white, silver, or one of many different hues of blue.

I walked out after a few seconds of trying to get used to the sudden drop in temperature. I sat down and focused… … … Nothing. Usually I was able to find some food without much trouble, but for some reason over the last week I had only found one snow hare. Two days ago I finally ran out of my food reserves, and now I was actually starving.

It wasn’t like I haven't starved before. There were many times in the past years where I had no food for sometimes up to a month. The same curse that poisoned me to die without my pearl, also made me immortal as long as I had it near me. The curse didn’t actually poison me, it severed my soul from my body, and placed it into my pearl. With my soul separated from my body, even if my body died, my soul would live forever.

A soul is completely indestructible, so when it is removed from the body, whatever it is placed in becomes effectively indestructible too. This object is then called a soul-jar. Because my soul was ripped from my body, I could still feel pain and hunger, but I could not physically die.

Suddenly I felt a small twitch in my tail. My ears perked up and I swiveled my head to look to the North, letting the strong gales of wind to hit me in the face. I squinted and saw a small glint of sunlight flashing off of a metal surface. I sniffed, and caught a slight smell of a warm blooded creature, carried on the wind.

Normally I would start stalking this creature, but I had never smelled this smell before. It smelled almost like a pony, but different, more exotic. Slowly I started walking the two miles to the hill where I had seen the flash of light.

*****

I arrived at the bottom of the hill around 30 minutes later. Using the slight magic that I had without my pearl, I merged my body with the shadow of the snow. In the shadows, I moved up through the snow until I could see the creature. It was the shape of a pony, but I couldn’t see any of its features. The figure was cloaked with a brown, grey mottled cloak, and had a pair of saddlebags made out of the same material. The wind blew and the cloak shifted slightly, revealing white forelegs clad in leather armor, which also looked like it was made out of the mystery material.

The pony was looking through binoculars towards my cave. It set the binoculars down and grabbed a notepad, and a feather pen, along with a small ink pot out of its saddlebags. For the next half minute it just wrote on its paper, occasionally dipping the pen back into the ink. I couldn’t see what it was writing due to being inside the snow’s shadow.

“I still can’t see where that fox went.” He said to himself, with a noticeably masculine voice. “It started walking over here, then it just disappeared.” He continued. I couldn’t understand what he was saying though. It seemed like a language I had once knew but had long forgotten. Even though I had not seen another sapient creature in my entire duration of staying in the arctic, I was hesitant to show myself to him. Maybe, that actually was why I was so hesitant.

Finally I decided that it would be fine to show myself. I shifted until I was a short distance to the left of him, then rose from the shadow, and reformed back into my usual self. Slowly I walked towards him.

“Hello?” I said in Gaterin, the language of kitsune. I could see him flinch from hearing someone next to him. He turned, and looked at me.

“What did you say?” He asked. Stepping back from me.

“What language are you speaking?” I asked, not understanding him, then paused “Can you speak Gaterin?” I continued in Gaterin, looking up at him.

“Wait” He said “Are you speaking Gaterin? I haven't heard that language in years.” I just looked at him questioningly. “Oh sorry, I forgot that you can’t understand me when I’m not talking in Gaterin.” He continued, my ears perked up at the word Gaterin. “Just a second,” I continued staring at him blankly. “Are you speaking Gaterin?” He said slowly in Gaterin, with a noticeable hesitance, like he wasn’t sure if he knew the right way to say that.

“Yes. What language were you speaking? I think that I have it heard it before, but that was many years ago.” I said.

“Oh, I was speaking English.” He said. “It is the most common language in Equestria. How have you not heard it before?”

“I have heard it before, just not for a very long time. I have been here for.” I paused, thinking. Then said “Wait here.” I ran back to my cave and inside it. A few minutes later I came running back. “I have been here for 983 years.” I said panting.

“Really?” He asked surprised. “but that means you have to be almost as old as I am. And you must have been around when Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon, and was banished to the moon. Though you might have been here for that.” When he finished, he turned to look at me, and saw me gaping at him. “What?”

“What happened to Luna?” I asked. Shock spread across my face.

“Well, when Luna and Celestia went to the crystal empire to save it from King Sombra. Sombra cast a spell that slowly made Luna go insane, causing her to transform into NightMare Moon. Or at least that’s what ponies say. I wasn’t there when this happened” He said

“That may have happened.” I said. “You see I was Luna’s pet for 93 years. When she went to fight Sombra, she told me to stay in the castle but I ignored her, and snuck with her to the Kingdom. When we got there Sombra cast a spell at Luna, but she dodged it. His attack instead hit my pearl.”

“Your pearl?”

“Yes. I am a kitsune, that means that I cannot live without being close to my pearl. Because Sombra hit it, the pearl went flying to the West. As soon as it got too far away I ran from Luna to go look for it.” I explained, continuing my story. “When I found it, it was covered in a large glacier of ice. Normally I would have been able to dig through the ice, but without my pearl, I am much weaker than I should be. The other problem is that King Sombra’s spell was meant to contain, Luna for many years, and I am much weaker than Luna even with my pearl.”

“Wait, you’re a kitsune?” I nodded. “Your species has been extinct for the last four hundred years. Anyway if you are a kitsune than why do you only have one tail? I've heard that kitsune are supposed to grow a new tail every hundred years, and according to you” He said pointing at me. “You are well over a thousand. Yet you still have only one tail.”

“That's because without my pearl my aging has stopped. Even though I have been alive for 1077 years, I am technically only 93.”

The zebra was nodding his head as I spoke, but when I reached the end of my sentence. He suddenly looked confused. “Sorry, but what were the last few words? I haven't spoken Gaterin in a long time, so I don’t know all the words.”

I explained what I had said, using different, more simple words. Then I said “What's your name? Mine is Inari. It was given to me by Celestia, before she gave me to Luna to be her pet.”

“My name is Kamari.” Kamari said. Lifted the hood of his cloak off, revealing his striped face. “Where do you live? You said that you have been here for almost 1000 years, but the only place I’ve seen you was in that small cave.” He said pointing with his hoof towards my cave.

I turned to look where he was pointing. “I live in that glacier. It is also the glacier that contains my pearl.” After I said this I remembered why I had left my cave in the first place. Next I realized that running a few miles in a couple minutes, while starving, is probably not healthy. Then I proceeded to do the most amazing thing ever. I collapsed.

“What, the?” Kamari said in confusion. Looking down at me in worry “Inari are you alright?”

I groaned. Then I managed to say. “I haven't eaten anything in a days.”

Kamari walked to my side and picked me up, placing me on his back. “You'll be fine. I’ll take you to your cave, then I can cook some food for you.” He said, as he started walking, slowly, towards my cave.

*****

Kamari

The weight of the sleeping fox on my back was starting to get uncomfortable. I had been carrying her for the last two miles, and although she was a small fox, that did not mean that it was easy to carry her for miles. But finally, when I was about 100 yards from the cave entrance. I felt Inari stirring on my back. “You’re finally awake?” I asked, looking back over my shoulder at her. I could see her head resting peacefully on my saddlebags.

“Gnnnhg” She mumbled, shifting slightly on my back. Then, I heard a louder grumble coming from her stomach.

“Sorry I can’t give you any food. We haven't even reached the cave. So I haven't started cooking it yet.” I said, looking back towards the cave. It seemed much bigger now that I was standing close to it. I could also see some scratches in the ice, around the entrance. As I walked closer, I saw that the scratches were actually poorly drawn images, carved into the ice.

Finally, I reached the edge of it. The opening was an arch that was four feet tall and around three and a half feet wide. I stopped by the edge of the cave to look at the carvings. As I had thought they were purposely cut into the ice. The images were small, noticeably old, carvings of ponies. Because of the bad condition of the carvings, and how poorly they were carved, I was not able to tell who the ponies carved in it were.

After staring at them for a short while trying to figure out who it was, I decided I should probably go into the cave to start cooking some food. As I walked inside I watched the walls. There were carvings stretched across every surface. The farther I walked, the better, and more precise the carvings were.

As I was walking around a small bend in the tunnel, I stopped and looked closely at one of the cravings. It looked just like the one at the entrance of the cave, but this one was in far better condition, and looked expertly carved. Now I could clearly see an image of King Sombra, the evil, tyrant, unicorn king of the crystal empire, firing a bolt of magic at Luna. In the next carving I could see the magic missing Luna, but it looked like it hit something standing right behind her. I guessed that it was Inari that was showed as being struck by the spell.

I continued walked down the path, still looking at the walls. Now I could see that they weren't just expertly carved images in the ice, there started to be small statues embedded in the walls. Again these ones weren't the best carvings, but it seemed that the artist had plenty of practice from carving the other images.

I rounded another corner, and stopped with my jaw hanging open. I had reached the end of the tunnel, and entered a large chamber. The ceiling of this chamber was easily, 20 feet tall. And the walls of the circular room, were about 50 feet wide. I could see multiple tunnels branching off of the chamber, and the walls were covered in the best carvings that I had ever seen. The lines were not just flat cuts, they were of differing depths. This caused the images to almost look 3-D.

Then there was the statue. In the center of the room there was an eight foot tall statue of Luna. The statue was a perfect replica of her. Somehow the ice had been cut so that you could see many different shades of blue. And as if by magic, the mane actually looked like it was moving, and swirling, just like the princesses manes always did.

Slowly I collected myself, and closed my mouth. I started walking left, still staring at the statue, then stopped at the entrance of the first tunnel, and looked in. This room looked like It was a bedroom made completely out of ice. Somehow the ice was different colors, some of it was red, green, and even yellow. There was a large bed in the corner of the room. The bed was brown, with a green and blue blanket on it. Everything was made out of ice, somehow even the blanket was.

I decided to go into the room. I walked by the edge of the bed, turned my head back and carefully lifted Inari onto the bed. After making sure that she was comfortable, I left the room to go find a place to cook.

After exploring each room, the best place that I had found was the only unfinished tunnel. This tunnel was on the far side of the room from where I had entered. This tunnel's walls were precisely carved all the way until the very back of the tunnel, which was jagged and had clearly only been started on.

I started setting some enchanted wood, that I kept in my saddle-bags, into a pile. This wood never actually burned, it would light on fire, and keep burning until I put the fire out. But it never turned to ash. I set my portable stove over the flame and added some water to it. Then I put some carrots, onions, celery, and potatoes into it to start a stew.

*****

Inari

I opened my eyes and saw my usual dream. A hallway of doors. This hallway was the result of a concentration technique, taught to me by Luna. Behind each door was a ponies dream. I had never mastered the spell, so I could not control whose dream I entered.

The only reason that I was still sane after so many years of solitude, was my ability to dream-walk. After I was separated from Luna everypony's dreams had steadily got worse until it was a constant nightmare. When I noticed this I decided to try to fix some dreams. After the first few years of this the dreams started to return to normal.

Recently some ponies, have started calling me Luna. So I decided to that while in the dreamscape, I would take her form. Though some ponies are extremely scared of this form. They usually will run away while screaming “Nightmare Moon!”. Until now, I had never known who Nightmare Moon was, but I had guessed that it was some type of mare’s tale told to children. Now I knew that she was the dark form of princess Luna.

I walked forward and stopped at the first door on the right side of the hallway. It was a light blue door with thunder-clouds around the top and bottom of the door. The door had a simple handle, and had small red-gold inlay designs of a lightning bolt coming out of the top storm clouds.

Slowly I opened the door and walked inside.

*****

The bright Summer sun was invisible, covered in a thick layer of storm clouds. Causing a distinct feeling of depression throughout the village. Or maybe, maybe there was another reason for this dark feeling. I used the power of a Dream-walker to fly above the town to get a good look at the surrounding area. I couldn’t see anypony walking around in the town. Not even a filly.

Over to the side of the village was a small cemetery, on the other side of the village there was a caravan of wagons heading to the East. I flew over to that gate. Everypony was there, every single stallion, mare, filly, or aged grandparents, were either walking or riding in the wagons. I turned myself invisible, and flew over to the nearest wagon.

“It’s so sad that we have to leave.” A small green filly with a blue mane said.

“Mother? Why are we leaving?” Asked another, this one with a purple mane.

“Princess Celestia ordered the town to be evacuated. She didn’t tell us why though. Some of the stallions are saying that she’s going to build a containment center for Nightmare moon when she returns.” The mother said looking down at her foals, and petting the blue maned one’s mane.

The clouds broke and dropped their load of water down in a torrent of rain. And a bolt of lightning struck the ground near the wagon train. Everypony in wagon huddled closer together.

“Where are we going?” The purple maned one asked, looking up at her mother.

“Do you remember Cloud shifter? She lives in the town a few miles from ours. We're going to go to her place, for a while. Or at least until we can buy our own house.” The mother said.

I still couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I had gotten used to not knowing. Over the past few centuries I had gained the ability to understand most of what is said by only hearing the tones of their voices.

Lightning flashed, and thunder boomed. A bright light, much brighter than the lightning, spread across my vision, then the dream ended.

*****

I woke up in my bed and looked around. I was in my bed. I never slept in my bed anymore, I always laid down at the base of my Luna carving, and usually fell asleep there. I rolled over and fell off of the bed.

“Oww.” I said, sitting up and rubbing my head.

“You okay?” A voice said from behind me. I quickly turned around and saw Kamari. He wasn’t wearing his cloak or the armor that I had seen on him earlier. “I made you some stew. Here” He pushed a bowl of the warm food over to me with his hoof.

I looked at the stew. Then at him. Then back at the stew. Then at him. Then back at the stew. “Really?” I asked skeptically. I continued looking back and forth between the two.

“Yes, really. You can have it. I already ate a few minutes ago.” He replied with amusement in his voice, and pushing the bowl closer to me. I tentatively reached for the bowl, then quickly pulled to me. The stew wasn’t the best, but when you’re starving, everything tastes good.

“Thanks.” I said, while licking the bowl clean. “Do you have any more?”

“Yes, here.” Kamari said, pushing an, already filled, second bowl to me. I quickly ate that one too. While I was licking the second one clean, Kamari said. “Do you want to help me?”

“With what?” I asked.

“My quest. For the last six centuries I have been searching for a way to save Luna from her prison on the moon.” He said.

“Oh. I would want to help you with that, but as I said yesterday, I can’t leave this area. Without out my pearl I would die.” I said

“Hmmm. Well I can't help you too much with that, because I have to leave. I must find a way to save princess Luna. I could make it easier for you though. Here, take this.” He said, giving me a small bottle with an orange liquid inside. “That should melt the ice, or at least weaken it.”

“Thanks.” I said, grabbing the bottle and placing it beside me. I looked back up at him and noticed him grabbing his cloak and armor from the corner where it was lying, and putting it on. “Wait, are you leaving?” I asked.

“Yes, like I said, I have to save Luna.” He said, as he finished fitting the cloak over his armor.

“Don’t go.” I said, looking at him sadly. “You're the first person I’ve seen since I was locked here. And I don’t know how long it will take for someone else to find this place.”

“I’m sorry Inari, but I have to leave. The only reason that I came here was because I sensed a large concentration of old magic. I will come back every six months to check on you.” He said, as he walked out of the room. I followed him to the end of the entrance tunnel. When we got there I asked.

“How are you going to leave? There’s no town for miles in any direction.”

“Part of the reason I want to save Luna, is because she saved my life. When she saved me, her spell left lingering affect on me. It caused me to age much slower, and it gave me the ability to travel to, and live on, the stars.” He replied.

“Oh. I guess that kind of makes sense.” I said.

“Goodbye Inari.”

“Goodbye.”

Kamari looked up at the sun for a few seconds then he disappeared. I sighed, the first person I had met in almost 1,000 years, left after only one day. I turned around and walked back into the cave. There was no reason to hunt today so I might as well try using the potion, and see how much it helps.

When I reached the back tunnel on the far side of my Luna chamber, I poured a few drops of the potion onto the back wall. Like Kamari said the wall started melting as soon as the liquid touched it. After two hours I finally ran out of the potion. In those two hours, I had melted about 100 years worth of digging.

“Well that helped.” I said. Then, realizing that I was thirsty, I walked back out of the cave and over to the nearest water. The pool that was about a mile behind the glacier. The glacier was one and half miles in diameter so it took around half an hour or so to get there.

I was using one of the bowls that Kamari had left to scoop out some water and drink it. This bowl was much better than what I had been using. For most of my time here I would either just put my face in the water to drink it, or I would break off a piece of ice with a dip in it, and use that for a temporary cup. While I was in the middle of drinking I heard a loud shattering sound, and then was thrown forward into the river.

Gasping, I climbed out of the river with my fur clinging to my body. Looking in front of me, I saw that there was a large mess of ice chunks scattered around where the glacier used to be. I started running towards what was left of my home.

*****

“What could have done this.” I thought for the hundredth time since reaching the first piece of ice.I stepped to the right, walking around another large section of ice. On this one however, I could see remains of some of the carvings I had made over the past thousand years. On the other side of the ice chunk I could see a big crater. Big enough that I thought it looked about the same size as half the glacier. walking around in the center of the crater, there was a small, silvery-blue, figure.

I started picking my way down the steep slope of the crater. The side I was climbing down was much steeper than the other side. Almost as if it was hit from an angle, and I was climbing down the far side of it.

As I neared the bottom of the slope, I heard a quiet, male, voice say.

“Why was this here? I haven’t seen any of king Sombra’s magic this far away from the empire before.” Somehow, even though I could tell that he wasn’t speaking in Gaterin, I could fully understand every word that he said.

While I was walking closer towards him, I could see that he was a silver, unicorn, stallion, and that his mane was dark blue in the center, with a lighter blue lining the outer edge. He was only wearing two things, a pair of small blue saddlebags, and a short necklace with what looked like an acorn tied to the end of it.

He whirled around and looked straight at me. Causing me to jump in surprise. Which therefor made the water on me, that had now frozen, to fling off in every direction. "You." He said. "Do you know why this residue of Sombra's magic is here, and not near the empire?"

"Yes." I said slowly. "Who are you?" I asked.

"Me? My name is Silver hoof. And before you ask I am here because I have been searching all around this arctic for any trace amounts of Sombra's magic. When I find some, I destroy it. This is the first large spell that I have seen while doing this though. So I'm going to ask you, will you please tell me why this is here."

I sighed and sat down. "You might want to sit down." I said. "This is going to take a while." And so, I explained everything to him. Who I was, why this was here, even about Kamari. When I told him about my pearl though. I stopped, and looked around, sensing which direction the pearl was in. It felt very near, but I couldn't tell exactly where it was.

"Are you looking for this?" Silver said, reaching into his saddlebags, with a dark blue magic, and pulling out my pearl. "When I hit this, I felt all of the left over magical aura gathering in a very small space. When I found it, this was there." His magic lifted the pearl thought he air and set it down by me.

I reached for the pearl, then hesitated. I had been trying to get this for the past thousand years, and now here it was. I grabbed it. As soon as my paw maid contact with the glimmering surface, I felt a rush of energy, strength, and finally, the ability to use my magic fully again. The other thing that happened when I touched it was, all of the power from king Sombra's spell, and all of the magic that Silver had used to destroy it, was imbued into my body. That was one of the other powers of my pearl. It absorbs all raw magic near me. Then, when I touch it, it gives all of that raw magic to me.

Then I realized what everyone realizes when they finish the goal that they have had almost all of there life, what should I do now?

"Silver? What are you going to do now?" I asked.

"We'll, that was the last remnant of king Sombra's magic, that I know of. So I will probably go back to my old job." He replied.

"And what was that?"

"Well, I used to be a farmer, and I made a living fine. I had a little stretch of land in the fields around Centerlot, but then Celestia found that I had an affinity to opposing dark magic, and asked me to destroy all of the left over magic from Sombra's reign. For the last 16 years I have been searching the arctic for any and all dark magic. Recently, Celestia told me that there was only one more spell left for me to destroy, and gave me this location." He said. "Now I'll just go back to being a farmer."

"Oh. Well, could I come." I asked, hopefully.

"Why? Why would you want to be a farmer? I know from personal experience that it is one of the most boring jobs there is." Silver said.

"I want to go with you, because like I told you, the only reason that I was here was to get my pearl, and now I have it. Also, I would go back to Luna, but she was banished to the moon, so. Now I have nowhere to go, and nothing to do. Except wait for Kamari to return." I replied.

"Well in that case, I would love to have you help me. It's always nice having another set of hooves, er, paws, to help with the farm." He said, while turning to start the long walk back to the nearest settlement.

"Wait." I said. "Just a second, I have a lot of built up magic in me right now. Just let me cast a spell real fast." I looked up at the blue sky, and concentrated. Soon I felt the steady stream of magic in my mind and cast a spell. Immediately the sun went down, and the moon rose. "Oh. I've never actually had that spell work before." I said as Celestia was obviously trying to right the time. "Luna told me to use it whenever I needed to release any extra magic I had."

"It was probably because you haven't used any magic for almost a millennium." He said, thoughtfully. "In any case, we'll have to find a different way for you to release magic from now on."

"Agreed."

Author's Note

If you have any ideas to improve this chapter, please comment with suggestions.

Please tell me any mistakes that I make. I haven't really edited it yet.

Also, did you catch the reference to the video Canadian Horse Pirates? It's in there. :raritywink:

2: Seven Years Later

Inari

"Yay!" I said, while continued to bounce. For the last few minutes I had been bouncing in joy. For today was, technically, my 100th birthday, and I had gotten a second tail. Along with this tail, I had gained the ability to change form. I still didn't have great control over my basic magic, so I was very hesitant in using this ability. But that wouldn't keep my happiness down. For some reason even though I was over a millennium old, I still acted like I was 7.

On the other side of the room, two stallion farmers, who I had grown to be friends with over the past seven years, were having a conversation.

"I know that she always acts like a little kid, but really? She's been at it for minutes." One of them said. He was a large, dark green, earth pony, with a brown mane.

"Well, if you know her, you know that she'll stop soon." The other stallion said. This one was a red maned, brown, Pegasus. "Her little happy moments always last about five minutes." Neither of them noticed Silver hoof walking towards them.

"Carrot Joy, Plowed Fields, come with me." He said, then whispered quietly so only they could hear. "Code: apple, terra, 3." Immediately both stallions stood up and followed him out one of the back doors. When they got outside the they stood side by side with Silver in front of them. Then Silver Hoof asked. "Now, Hive Run, Carapace, what are your reports?"

Carrot Joy/ Hive Run stepped forward "There has been no change in the Northern provinces of Canterlot." He said in a emotionless voice, then stepped back. Plowed Fields/ Carapace then stepped up and said, using the same tone as HiveRun.

"Nothing has changed in the Southern provinces of Canterlot." He then also returned to his place in line.

"Good. I don't have anything else to do for Celestia yet." Silver Hoof said. "Now, go find Pewpa. I need to know about the Eastern provinces." Both stallions turned around, and before entering the party again, loosened their muscles to act like a normal pony again. What no one noticed however, was me, hidden in the shadows of the corner of the room. What are they doing? I thought. I had my false me bouncing in the other room, so nopony would know that I was spying on them.

"Inari I know your standing there." Silver said, turning to face me. "That's why I told them to give false reports." Well that failed I thought.

"Why won't you ever let me know what your doing? You know that I know your doing something, but you never tell me what." I said, while extracting myself from the shadows. "I know that you, Hive Run, Carapace, and pewpa are changelings, but still you won't tell me anything." Then I remembered something, from when I was with Luna.

*****

I stalked out of the small room I was in. Sure Luna had said to stay there until her meeting was finished, but that room was boring. Which led to me using my pearl to escape the room. I then used it to focus my magic to hide me in the shadows. This was one of the many spells that Luna had taught me during the past two years. She called it Shadow Walking. She even said that with enough practice I would be able to not only meld into shadows but into any substance.

Creeping through the shadows I walked past the meeting room and down the hall. I often did this so I knew all the places to avoid. Such as if I turned left here there was a spell in place to cancel all magic spells, but if I turned right I would be able to just walk past the spell because it was only a one way version of the spell. I turned right, and walked right into Luna.

Looking down at me she asked "Inari why are you out of your room?"

"Because it is boring." I replied taking a step back.

"I know it's boring, but it's supposed to be boring. That room is for meditating and practicing magic. It isn't supposed to have anything fragile or distracting in it." Luna said calmly. "You are supposed to be practicing your magic for the next hour. What were you doing instead?"

"Practicing magic." I said happily. "I was seeing how many guards I could sneak past using the Shadow Walking spell without being noticed."

"And, may I ask, how many did you get past."

"None." I said looking down, then I looked right at her slightly angry. "But that's only because you stopped me before I could reach any of the guards."

"And you know that the guards are trained to see through that spell, you wouldn't get past a single one of them." She replied, starting to walk past me back towards the meeting room.

"Hey Luna, why weren't you in the meeting room?" I said walking after her.

"Because I put a spell on the door of that room to know when you went through the doorway." She said looking back at me for a moment "Go back in there and continue practicing." She then walked back into the meeting chamber.

Slowly I walked back towards the practice room to follow what she said. On the way I saw Luna and Celestia talking to some small silvery blue stallion talking to them. Interested I cast a hearing spell.

"So what is your report for this month Silver Wing?" Celestia said, not looking bored like she usually is this late into her meetings. Instead she looked genuinely interested in what he was going to say.

"The disguised changelings are still working well on their farms." A voice that I guessed was Silver Wing said. "All of the Equestrian ones report nothing unusual about their areas. But some of the ones near the Crystal Empire have noticed someone there that they think looks suspicious."

"What do you mean by 'suspicious'" Luna asked.

"I don't know. That's all that they have sent me. They didn't even say who they thought it was." He replied. "Anyway that's all that I have to report. What did you learn abou."

I walked past the reach of the hearing spell and then cut the flow of magic. I started walking faster towards the room just in case Luna looked out and saw me listening.

*****

"I also know that about 950 years ago you lost your drone Night Stalker in the Crystal Empire." I said

Silver noticeably flinched when I said that. "How do you know about that? You only met me 7 years ago, and I haven't spoken of him in the last millennium." He said.

"Back when I was with Luna, I overheard some of your reports to Celestia. I heard you say that some of your drones from the around the Empire hadn't reported back in a few months. Then later I heard another report where you said that Night Stalker died." I said. "Now, will you at least tell me why you won't tell me what your doing?"

"Fine." He replied. "I wasn't going to tell you because, first it has nothing to do with you, and second, I wanted to see how long I could keep you from figuring it out. All that I am doing is helping Celestia. Since it is common knowledge that changelings are 'Evil', SolarWind, the ruler of Equestia at the time, had us prove we were loyal to Equestria by hiding and reporting anything wrong in the land. After we were aloud to live freely here, we decided that it wasn't too bad of a job to secretly help Equestria, so we did. As a disguise we were told to act like local farmers wherever we lived. Over the past 17,000 years me and my drones have protected Equestria, either by alerting the current ruler, or by handling the situation ourselves. To avoid suspicion, each drone has 73 Pony names. Every 73 we have them pretend to die, and then they pretend to be their past forms son, whose name was whatever the next name in the cycle was. All of my names have had the name Silver somewhere in them. Silver Hoof. Silver Wing, Quick Sliver, and Silvair, are some examples." He said.

Introduction

Once upon a time, near the magical land of Equestria. The Crystal Empire was being overruled by an evil unicorn king. King Sombra. He stole the Crystal Heart, an ancient, protective artifact powered by the positive feelings of the Crystal ponies, and had hidden it. In doing this he destroyed their only defense and ruined their unambiguous emotions. With the ponies weakened and defenseless he enslaved all of them, and forced them to join his army. After his rise to power, Sombra started to wage war with Equestria.

As soon as the royal sisters, Celestia and Luna, learned of his belligerence, they gathered the royal guard and marched to the Empire. After arriving they proceed to seal Sombra, as a shadow, and imprison him the arctic around the empire. But before he lost all of his powers, The King cast a curse on the land, causing it to disappear for as long as he was imprisoned.

Prologue

Inari

Let me explain what a kitsune is. A kitsune is a blessed fox that, throughout their immortal life, will gain power, and another tail every hundred years, up to nine tails. Each kitsune has their growth mark, every mark is different but, they all have nine of one symbol, five of another, and one last symbol. These symbols are small marks that represent that kitsune.

For example, my mark has nine triangles pointing outward from a moon. The moon has five circles on it, and inside the moon there is a skull. The nine objects represent the nine tails for each year of growth. Power, Form, Control, Power, Knowledge, Power, Memory, Creation, Ascension. The five other objects represent five locks, these locks contain the dark form of the kitsune, or the Nogitsune, and lock it inside of the kitsune. The locks also contain strong emotions such as love or hate.

A kitsune’s locks can be opened in two ways, first the kitsune tries to open a lock they control, or their emotions start to match those which are contained. For a kitsune to control one of the locks they must gain a certain Skill from the nine skills. The skills that will let you gain control of a lock are, Power, Control, Knowledge, Memory, and Ascension. Every other 100 years they gain control over a lock. This allows them to open or close that lock instead of it opening based on their emotions and closing when they are calm and peaceful. Sometimes the locks seemed to have a mind of their own, and just open when their host is in need.

All of a kitsune’s power is contained within a pearl that they keep with them. Only kitsune can use the power of these pearls and only certain kitsune can use each pearl. Kitsune can only use their magic if they have their pearl, and will only gain their Skills and tails if they are holding their pearl when each 100th year of their life ends.