Book 1 The Darkness: with the darkest of ponies

Chapters

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eight

Chapter One

Captain Celaeno’s most recent shipment of goods and merchandise was a success. She ticked off the crates she received while the dockworker checked off his own list. Taking a long look at her crew at work, she felt a bit bittersweet. Her crew used to be the most amazing swashbuckling adventurers in the sky, but now they have to try to find some small solace in at least getting their job done. Most of the time, it was just silly stuff in the crates, like bobble heads and engraved tiny spoons, but today, and in the recent months, she’s been delivering what seemed to be more like weaponry.

She knew this meant trouble, and especially with the sheer amount of crates being sent to the Storm King’s strongholds. What she didn’t know is who would be the next target for the Storm King’s mad desire for magic.

With a shake of her head, she went back aboard her ship.

Meanwhile, in the dark hold of the westernmost encampment, three of the storm guards were chuckling and pushing a fourth one toward the inventory room. He wasn’t too thrilled to count inventory, even less thrilled to do it in the room that all the guards knew had the creepy broken light.

The lamp dangled on strings that swung on a ceiling that they couldn’t even find. An endless vaulted ceiling existed there that didn’t even make sense with the structure of their castle. The lamp itself was large, and had ominous cracks in the glass that cast eerie shapes where the light did manage to reach. They did have to change the oil in it on occasion, but nothing seemed to take away from the feeling of death that hung around it.

There were, thankfully, torches all along the side of the inventory room that they could light. However, it wouldn’t be the first time a guard had been set on fire with an accidental brush against one.

He stepped up to the heavy wooden door and peered back to his companions. The other three had changed from their chuckle to a stony silence, and all four felt their fur stand on end as the first one began to slowly creak the wooden door open.

The inventory had to be counted, and occasionally carted in and out, every week, but the storm guards were in no way comfortable going in there. Besides the eerie lighting, the stuff the light shone on was equally terrifying. The Storm King enjoyed collecting rare magical items, or really all magical items, and they could be sure they had every chance at setting one of them off.

“Hah! The only monsters you fools have to worry about are your own ugly mugs!” a harsh voice ran out.

A look behind them confirmed that there were two menacing ponies standing behind them. The one, a dark orchid colored unicorn with rose colored hair and a deep scar down her face. But most intimidatingly a broken horn on her forehead. The other, an earth pony with a grey coat and a dingy white crop of hair. Along the edge of his front right hoof were scars twisted into the most bizarre shapes. These scars were the most attention getting, but the storm guards were more scared of it than anything else. It didn’t take long for the storm guards to fling the door open the rest of the way and troop in with a bit more haste than necessary.

The two ponies supervised as the storm guards did their routine inventory check and then went back to their headquarters.

Grubber was sitting in the corner with a piece of what looked like cherry pie, which wasn’t as sweet as what he normally would eat. Still, Grubber was Grubber, he’d eat just about anything that you’d find on the dessert menu.

“Alright, we have one more task to take care of and we’re heading out. I need you,” the purple one said as she turned toward the grey pony, “to see to it that it gets done. You’re really the only one here capable enough for it.”

“Oh, no let me do it!” Grubber jumped into the air while holding tight to the pie, “I got this!” And he crammed the rest of the pie into his mouth, so that little bits of crust crumbs flew out toward the purple one, whose name was Tempest Shadow.

Both of the ponies weren’t amused, and the grey one nodded his head at Tempest before she departed from the room.

For a brief moment, Grubber waited until Tempest’s hoofsteps could be heard down the stairs. And when, finally, it was too far away to make a sound, he made his way closer to the remaining pony. The grey pony had been sitting at the desk looking over the new attack plans, which Grubber was too short and too far away to read for himself.

The grey pony had not been with the Storm King for very long. He was a new one, picked up from the village at the foot of the Himaneighin Mountains, and he thought he was such a big shot. He was only going to be used for information at first, but Tempest must have seen something more in him because she was willing to take him under her hooves and make him her personal apprentice.

He must have had a name, but it seemed to be on a more need to know basis because everyone just referred to him as the other pony. He was one of the only two ponies they had in their group, so it wasn’t hard to figure out which one they were referring to.

Grubber would have rather gagged than see this upstart in his old office. But after seeing the papers in his hooves, he had an idea.

“You know, Tempest doesn’t tell you everything. Yeah, she told me she has a huge job that even she doesn’t think she can handle. So she threw it into the trash already,” Grubber claimed, pointing at a balled up scrap in the waste basket.

The grey pony pretended to ignore Grubber, he was already fed up with the little guy and wanted nothing to do with his foolishness.

Grubber hopped up onto the desk and put his face between the paper and the grey pony so that the grey pony had to look directly at him. The intense stare Grubber met with slightly took him off guard and he started shrinking back before he regained himself and continued.

“You might not believe me, but it’s true! She thought maybe you two could do it together, but the Storm King said it was too dangerous and...”

The grey pony lifted a hoof for silence and continued looking at the map, but he couldn’t help but get excited at the thought that there might be a way to prove himself one more time to Tempest.

He couldn’t help but shift his eyes down toward the badge he always kept proudly displayed on his front. A reminder that he was the trusted and appreciated apprentice.

“How do you know about this plan anyway?” the grey pony inquired.

“Ha! I’m always handling their correspondence, duh,” Grubber said and took out another pie, this time pumpkin.

The grey pony stopped looking at the plans he had been given and turned toward the papers piled up in the basket. Maybe Grubber was right? He wasn’t a very smart henchman and wasn’t likely to lie unless it was to get out of trouble. Maybe the grey pony could take a chance on this project. If it even existed.

The grey pony started muttering an incantation under his breath. A glow started running through the scars on his hoof.

A dark form that looked like some sort of minipony appeared from the shadows and walked over to the basket to pull out the paper Grubber had pointed out. It trotted back to the grey pony. Grubber cringed a little as it walked. He knew this grey pony could manipulate darkness, but it never stopped being unsettling to him.

When the grey pony got a hold of the paper, he uncrumpled it and began examining the writing on it. Sure enough, Tempest had written out some plans, but she stopped halfway through as if something big had come up that stopped her. So far, it looked like Grubber had been telling the truth. He rolled up the paper and gave Grubber a quizzing look. But Grubber was already making his way out of the room and only stopped to give his own knowing look back at the grey pony before slipping into the hallway.

Chapter Two

Starry Emerald and her two pals were working diligently for the Friendship Festival.

Starry had sent out all the instructions on public safety to the firefighter ponies and guard ponies of Canterlot.

Meanwhile, Bumble Bee drank some chamomile tea.

Starry got a new book from Twilight Sparkle and spent hours practicing new firework spells.

While Cassiopeia found a new buddy to play Celestopoly with.

Starry had completed all her backlogged customer orders for necklaces and earrings.

Elsewhere, Bumble Bee and Cassiopeia came up with a new drinking song for when they went out for fizzy sodas.

She looked back at her friends with a sigh and a smile. They may be useless, but at least they weren’t getting in her way!

She had woken up that morning with the determination to get all her preparations finished up today. She had looked herself over in the mirror. At her light purple coat that occasionally turned brown from the heat of the forge. To her soft yellow mane that she had tried, unsuccessfully, to model after Rarity’s. To her neat little bow that rested over her simply wavy tail.

I got this, she told herself. And she repeated it all the way to the forge.

It was only one week until the Mane Event, and everypony from Appleloosa, Ponyville, Manehattan, and Canterlot would be crowding the streets around the castle enjoying the magical power of harmony that held Equestria together. Of course, there may be even more ponies from other farther away cities.

Starry tried not to think about those. She may not be Fluttershy, but she did feel a little more responsibility and anxiety when it came to all the performances she would have to give in front of all those ponies.

She was confident that she could do some of the easier light shows, but what about the Twirling Whirling Ribbon Splash? A huge display of colored lights where they begin dancing in their own circles before combining into ribbons that leap into all the corners of the sky in a choreographed dance? It would take a large amount of concentration and all eyes would be up there watching it. She couldn’t let everypony down, and she had already promised she would do it. She had tried it once before with a little success, but it was only a miniature version in her backyard with only her pet squirrel Rochester watching.

Starry also had several metal ornaments she needed to create for Rarity’s new stage for Songbird Serenade. Rarity was her idol, but she knew she couldn’t do all the fancy, frilly stuff Rarity could do. Starry’s favorite place was in the forge at Ponyville, where she used some spells but in general hoofskills to create her intricate metalwork. Everypony who was anypony knew that Starry could come up with the perfect setting for any jewel. So while Rarity could place them on dresses, Starry could make the accessories to match. Anytime Rarity needed new accessories, she could hit up the jewelry shop and buy something designed and crafted by Starry.

While Starry was pondering all this back in her forge, her friend Cassiopeia burst through one of her windows. She was used to doing this. The shutters were always notoriously swinging and Cass always thought it fun to try to fly past them when they swung out. It was like the game little fillies play at the swing set when all their friends are in motion and they run through.

“Hey Em, would you help me with the clasp on this locket I found? It’s all dangly and I can’t quite get it to shut,” Cassiopeia asked as she held up a locket in her feathery wings.

Starry picked it up with her magic and examined it. It was clearly a locket, but it wouldn’t pop open. It was circular with some odd writing in what Starry could only guess was Old Ponish on the edges. It didn’t look like it was something somepony would just lose on the side of the street.

“I think you should work on finding the owner of this, it seems pretty valuable...” Starry began. She went ahead and remolded the clasp so that it was working properly again.

“Oh Em, you’re so silly! Finders keepers!” and with that she took off back into the sky.

Starry turned back toward her work on the metal ornaments.

Of all her friends, she would be considered the one with morals. She had known Bee and Cass since she first came to Ponyville after finding her special talent. They claimed her as much as she claimed them. They weren’t completely useless. Bee had her own thriving business and Cass had a productive hobby doing whatever it was she was doing. It was still a mystery to Starry.

The locket is probably safer in Cass’s hooves than its previous owner’s hooves anyway, she decided.

It was still a few days off from the festival and she didn’t have time to worry about that just yet.

Chapter Three

An extremely confused grey pony found himself stuck in the midst of a battle.

He had woken up and banged his head on the top of the crate he had been placed in. With a bit of effort he was able to kick his way out of the crate, only to find that he was surrounded by many other crates in a dark hull. There was a low buzzing from somewhere as if a motor was running, and he had the feeling that he was at a higher altitude than he ought to be.

It was only when the storm guards began hopping out of the air blimps that the grey pony managed to find his way out without being noticed. But the scene before him had not helped. Everywhere, he saw the monstrous creatures smashing up decorations and grabbing at the brightest colored ponies he had ever seen. He couldn’t tell where he was, but he just wanted to get away.

After a few minutes he managed to make it into an alley. He took one leap over a pile of old cider crates and launched himself into a lumpy mess of discarded junk in a corner. It was noisy, but not noisier than the chaos going on out there.

He wanted to take a moment to collect his thoughts. But every time he tried to think of what he was doing in that crate or where he was before that, nothing came to mind.

He couldn’t remember what those beasts were, or if he should even know what they were. He heard the shouts from the ponies around the streets. Seemed like nopony understood anything except that the princesses were gone, the brave defenders of Equestria were being chased down, and that anypony else was being rounded up. For what reason, he didn’t know, but he didn’t want to know.

He did happen to think of one word. It repeated itself endlessly in his head but it made no sense. He was about to place it on the tip of his tongue when he was distracted by a large cart flying into the opposite wall from where he hid. It brought his attention back to the outside.

Everywhere he looked he saw more scattered ponies, more monstrous beasts rounding them into cages. He didn’t know if he could take on their monstrous staffs and claws, but hiding in the garbage was not the most flattering image he could think of himself in.

From where he was, he could get a good partial view into the nearby street. He could just barely see one purple and yellow unicorn creeping around behind somepony’s fence. She seemed to be looking for somepony, or some opportunity for escape. He was in the middle of trying to figure it out when the crate beneath him began to wobble...

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Starry tried at first to get as far away from the main square as she could, but she didn’t want to leave her friends behind. It didn’t take long before Starry was able to locate her two pals in the cages nearest the soda shop. They both had slightly flushed cheeks and were singing somewhat in tune to the song they had written. She took a quick peek around to see where all the storm guards were and noticed that, while some were still rounding up ponies, a good hoofful of them were starting to patrol the already caged ones.

Suddenly, two started making their way right in her direction. She could feel half of her body starting to run away but the other half didn’t want to budge. It was too much of a shock.

They were almost on her when a grey blur landed in front of her and faced off the two, making them stop in their tracks. Being a bit taller than her, his hair blocked her view of the scene. She crept around closer to the alley nearest her friends’ cages and watched as the scene unfolded.

The two guards were being joined by some of their companions, who circled about the grey pony in the center. His eyes were now locked onto the first two.

In a few quick grey blurs, the guards were knocked on the floor and dizzy. The grey pony was a bit surprised himself, like he didn’t know where his own energy had come from.

Starry wasn’t sure either. She took a moment to run over to her friends in their cages and try at the locks, but the cages were made out of a magic proof metal she had never seen before. Her friends didn’t seem to mind. They were both too out of it to make coherent words, but the sounds they made got on Starry’s nerves.

“Oh, will you two ever just shut up for once!” Starry snapped. When she turned around she saw the grey pony still fighting off more and more storm guards. He happened to catch a glimpse of her after one swooping kick at a guard and yelled “Go!” And before she knew what she was doing she was bolting down the alley with the grey pony dashing after her and a squad of storm guards yelling off in the distance.

They couldn’t stop running until they were out of Canterlot. Starry’s heart was beating up in her ears and her skull felt like it was detached from her body. Her throat was intensely dry and cold. She felt a bit at a loss on how to help her friends, and she was about to cry until she remembered the grey pony that helped her escape. She looked back toward him.

The grey pony looked like he wasn’t too bothered about the run-it didn’t seem to phase him too much. Although, he started looking around him as if he was unsure of where he was.

Starry had never seen a pony edgier than him, other than that Commander Tempest. He was also wearing a similar uniform to that one, which she hadn’t thought about until now. But on top of that, he had the most hideous scars running along his front right hoof that made her wince just looking at them. She figured he might be working with the Storm King, and if so, she wanted to keep an eye on him. Also, she wasn’t sure how a pony could even be that edgy.

He started walking a little hesitatingly toward the train tracks. Starry took one last look at the airships above Canterlot with a small wish that she could find a way to rescue her friends before turning back to him to say:

“Thanks for saving me back there.”

He paused and glanced back at her.

“That was nothing. Those guys were pretty pathetic.” What he didn’t want to say was that he only ended up there because a crate fell and launched him out onto the street very much against his will.

Starry’s eyes widened in surprise and she started pawing at the ground, unsure of what to say now. Those guards had seemed anything but pathetic but she wasn’t going to argue. The grey pony kept staring down the train tracks like he wasn’t sure if he should follow them before he began muttering under his breath. Starry began leaning in closer to hear but couldn’t make out a word.

“I guess I’ll be leaving then?” she asked.

“You won’t be able to make it out there. You’d be a lot safer if we traveled together.” He didn’t want to admit that he didn’t actually know where he was going, other than for that word that kept spinning in his mind. He didn’t know if it was a place, or what he was supposed to do if he got there. But he figured that having a pony native to this area would be a helpful guide. He may not remember who he was, but he knew he wasn’t going to directly ask for help from a silly looking pony.

“That is true that we’d probably be safer, but-,” Starry piped up. She didn’t want it to come off as harsh, but to herself she thought, I’m a pretty good metalsmith and a lot of the spells could probably be used against those guards if I chose to. She sent off a few tiny sparks and even managed to strike down a tiny weed that had grown up next to the track.

The grey pony nodded without looking at it and continued staring down the track one minute and then at the sky as if he could read the clouds and come up with a map.

“We’re going to have to leave the track, it would be too easy for them to follow us that way,” he finally said and trotted back to where Starry was.

“If we start making our way through this forest we’ll be able to use it to cover our tracks. Those goons wouldn’t be able to come through there without crashing and bumbling around, and when they do, we’ll be a step ahead and aware of their presence.”

With a somewhat reluctant nod, Starry began to trot after the grey pony as he started trotting off toward the trees. The forest seemed a bit darker up close and the vines and bramble looked a bit rougher than Starry would have liked. The grey pony didn’t want to admit it was a little offputting to him, too. He hesitated almost unnoticeably and turned back toward her.

“If you’re so good at those light bursts you do, by all means, mares first!”

*** *** *** *** *** ***

When they first got into the forest, Starry started asking the grey pony where they thought they were going to go, and if he’d help her get her friends free, and at least what his name was. But all she got was an affirmation that he knew where he could go for help and that they’d be back there soon enough, before he fell back to muttering and ignoring her again.

They had been traveling for a while in silence before they felt they were far enough from the guards, the chaos, and destruction going on at the capital.

The grey pony walked a few feet ahead of her, leading the way, but he kept getting caught in some of the brambles and it started looking more comical than painful. Starry was about to laugh at the sight when she ran into a star spider and its family. She quickly inhaled before tiptoeing around them as they lifted up tiny arms menacingly toward her.

She looked up and saw that they had built a small web in the lowest branch of the tree and it had gotten ruined by a bunch of vines that had been moved during Starry and the grey pony’s tramp through the forest. It didn’t look like it would easily be remade.

Starry looked at the presumably angry faces of the star spiders again before she reached up and started searching for a hole in the tree. She thought she wouldn’t find one for a minute, until her hoof felt a small indent two branches above the one they had been at. She felt around and broke off some of the decayed bark and wood until there was a decent sized hole in the tree. With a levitation spell she gently tugged the remnants of the web free and placed it as well as she could in the hole.

“There, now when you remake your web it won’t be out in the open where it could get so easily destroyed. And you’ll still get plenty of bugs to eat!” she added, as she could already see some insects flying around the oozing sap of the tree. The star spiders climbed back up to see the work she did and began to make themselves right at home.

With a smile she began walking forward again. When she looked back at the grey pony he was already letting a winding vine start tangling itself around his front hoof as he reached for the next tree to pull himself by.

A bit of magic streaked past him and cut the vine away so suddenly he fell forward. He jumped up and shook himself off before continuing to struggle through yet another vine.

“You might be pretty edgy but you’re not edgy enough to cut through those yourself,” Starry said behind him. He continued trudging on, so Starry added, “So is that your name then? Edgy?”

At this he looked back at her as if to correct her, but found he didn’t have an answer.

So he kept struggling.

Starry was tired of waiting behind him and she decided to take matters into her own hooves.

Edgy had been wearing a bright metal badge on the front of his uniform. She didn’t think he’d mind too much to lose it if it’d help their cause. Her horn began to glow as she levitated it off his front with her magic and started molding it into a small knife. Soon she was using it to cut away at the vines two, five, ten feet ahead of them.

Edgy, as he might as well be called, looked a bit stunned before he continued trotting ahead as if it didn’t happen.

This continued for the next hour until they finally made it onto an actual path cutting perpendicular to their own. It was wide enough for two pony carts to travel side by side and looked pretty well worn. They started heading down the way that wasn’t going back toward Canterlot.

“So where exactly are we going, Edgy?” Starry asked and came up alongside him. She felt she needed to ask again, just to make sure he hadn’t forgotten.

“I have an idea of a place we can hide out in. I know it is a little bit farther away from here but I think we can make it before nightfall. Or, at least, I know I could. And ‘Edgy’ is not my name.”

“Okay. Well, what is the place called then, Edgypony?” Starry added.

Edgy winced for a moment and looked like he was about to fall over. Starry noticed a pair of star spiders creeping along near where his hoof had been. They seemed to be frantically hopping around something.

There, right inside Edgy’s indented hoofprint, was a small baby star spider.

Both Edgy and Starry were shocked still for a second, both unsure and waiting to see a breath, a twitch, anything to prove that the baby had survived. Its parents continued to frantically walk around the baby before finally launching themselves toward Edgy again.

Edgy didn’t know exactly where to turn to, and Starry was still petrified by the thought of the baby that she sat down while Edgy started backing up toward the middle of the path.

“Wait!” Starry screamed out.

Edgy came to a halt and the two star spiders took the chance to give him one last jab. “Ouch!”

Starry had levitated the baby spider right in front of his parents and they could see him slowly lifting his legs and beginning to stand up on the ground before them. The two star spiders began rejoicing before hurrying their son back into the thick forest.

“Poor spiders, their child could have ended up way worse,” Starry said, if only to make the situation a little less awkward. Edgy wasn’t up for talking. And the somewhat silent trek through the forest had just turned into the even quieter trek on the dirt path.

In another hour, the path suddenly came to a halt at a vine covered wall and a huge stone double door. Edgy and Starry both tried to peer into the forest for the end of the wall, but not only was it squarely in front of the path but it went on for what seemed like a mile. They gave each other a look before Edgy gave the door a knock.

It had a dull sound, and there didn’t seem to be anything waiting on the other side to answer. So he knocked on the door again.

Before they could say anything, a thousand star spiders had begun creeping downward from the vines above them. They came down the wall in a swarm and some had carried two large woven nets which they threw and scooped up the ponies with, dragging them back up the wall. The ponies struggled but found that the webs were made out of something stronger than regular star spider silk. Starry started trying to cut through it with the knife but several of the star spiders knocked it out of her magic aura and it fell on the ground. She could see the spiders claiming it for themselves down below just as she and Edgy were dragged inside.

Starry and Edgy ended up in a large nest within the wall. Star spiders were everywhere and only left a small empty area for the two entangled ponies to be placed in. Both ponies were a bit anxious to know what would happen to them, but the spiders didn’t appear entirely interested in them. Most of the spiders were beginning to scurry off into the far corner of the cavern, which was too dark to see.

Starry didn’t want to get in trouble and use her magic, knowing whatever spell she cast would anger the spiders into a certain attack before she could manage to get out of here. Edgy seemed unsure of what to do. But both squinted a bit as they heard creaking wheels coming toward them.

The sight was ridiculous. There on an old bird’s nest sat the royal star spider family. Each member had an intensely tiny crown on their head. The nest sat on an old red wagon that was pulled by teams of star spiders from around the nest. These seemed to be the fattest of all the star spiders in the cavern.

The star spiders on the edges of the cavern looked toward Edgy and Starry and started creating massive webs. They could see their lives flashing before their eyes, which didn’t take too long for Edgy.

“You know what would be great? If somepony here had the magical power to rip things to shreds. You know, but of course, we totally don’t have anypony with powers here. Or! even if we had a knife, that’d be so awesome,” Edgy muttered.

Starry started looking around at the star spiders, “yeah, well, I just don’t want to end up hurting any.”

“Great, so when we die and go off into wherever, we can tell them we were a noble sacrifice so that a million irritated, ugly bugs could live for another day or two. Perfect.”

Starry’s horn began to glow in spite of herself and sparks started appearing. Wherever they landed on the nets the nets began melting away. The star spiders stopped everything they were doing and began to scatter. Several of the sparks began landing on the buff ones dragging the wagon, and they began screaming in agony before running in all different directions, upsetting the wagon and the nest and the royal family themselves.

As soon as the nets started evaporating, Starry and Edgy got back up onto their hooves and began running toward the exit. They could see the edge of the wall and a crack into the outside world and they both took a leap.

A few of the star spiders were still wandering around the edges, but they didn’t want to get anywhere near the sparks that continued to shoot up in their direction.

With a thud the two ponies crashed onto the ground below.

Edgy dusted his uniform off a bit and started walking back down the dirt path.

“See? It wasn’t that hard now was it?”

Starry looked back toward the wall. It seemed like there were millions of beady eyes gleaming behind the wall of vines. She had to turn away. She didn’t want to go too much further with the thought that she had somehow caused so much chaos and pain back there. It terrified her.

“I know they wanted to eat us, I just can’t stand the thought I couldn’t get us out without whatever that was that I did,” she admitted.

Edgy stopped for a second and turned back toward her.

“If it’ll keep you from moping for the rest of the trip, at least the only ones you hurt were on accident,” Edgy said and saw the surprise on Starry’s face. She didn’t think he’d try to cheer her up, though in truth he just really wanted to make sure she would start moving again.

“You saved us,” he muttered, too low for her to hear, before beginning to walk down the path again.

Starry started to cheer up a bit. It wasn’t like they weren’t kind to the two families they met before, after all, and she actually did do the least damage possible in their escape.

This time, they would have to cut through the other side of the forest, which was less dense and seemed to be easier to travel, with actual paths running through it and the occasional clearing.

[Bestiary Note: The common star spider is an easygoing and harmless creature that you’ll see around the Everfree Forest on occasion. The genus of star spider seen here is from a wild strain of the gene that had managed to isolate itself in this region. Please don’t take this out on your local star spiders. Thank you!]

Chapter Four

It didn’t take too long before Starry was bored. Edgy had been tramping along in his huff and gruff manner, with the occasional inaudible murmur, and it didn’t take too long before she was nearly going to ram his skull in with her mercury vial.

It was one of the few things she always carried with her. It was small and snug enough to hide under the fur around her neck. It wasn’t too strong when she froze it with her magic, but she felt like she could do a lot of damage with it anyway if she tried.

She snapped that image out of her head. Instead, she brightened up and a few sparks flew from her horn before she skipped directly ahead of where he stood contemplating a tree branch on the ground. He sighed before glancing up at her only to get a huge smile beaming back at him.

“What is it now? Also, I really think you need to get that thing checked out,” Edgy said as he indicated toward her horn.

“Yes, yes, yes. But! guess what I learned before we left?” And she shot up a burst of light toward the nearest tree. Instantly it disappeared and was replaced by a row of hedge ponies, one managing to plop itself right on Edgy’s head before falling on the ground beside him. Each one looked like a happier version of Edgy and the one that had hit him had been the only one not doing a funny pose.

“Ha ha ha! That’s brilliant! Do me next!”

A bright pink pony burst out of the trees and landed on top of Edgy’s back, making the whole pile of ponies and some random knapsacks crash onto the ground.

Starry couldn’t believe her eyes. The pink pony had the curliest short hair she had ever seen, and both the hair and coat were brighter pink than most ponies could dream of. His eyes were the blue of a bluebird’s feathers but she only had a brief chance to see them before he hopped off Edgy’s back and bounced his knapsacks back onto his own back.

“What are you two doing in a forest like this, by the way? Ooh! is there a party?” the pink pony shouted excitedly, pointing his snout in all directions eager to see where the celebration would be. And all of a sudden he threw out from one of his knapsacks a bunch of streamers that managed to fit themselves just so in the surrounding trees.

Before the pink pony could get any further, and he was already pulling out hooffuls of confetti, Edgy placed a hoof on his forehead and cringed.

“Look here, we are not having a party. We are trying to make it through this forest to find an old shelter I know of. We are in a hurry so we don’t have time for this mess.” Edgy started trying to walk off and then tripped over a few pinatas full to bursting with candy. His entire front crashed onto the leafy forest floor and he looked so stunned that Starry couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

The pink pony joined in on her laughter and both were sprawled on the ground as Edgy picked himself back up again.

“Hey, this is SOO much fun. Why don’t you two come over to my place?” the pink pony grinned.

Starry looked over at Edgy and all he did was humph. She turned back to the pony and agreed, and the three of them ended up making their way through the forest together.

“My name is Button Top, by the way,” the pink pony told them.

“I just have so much I want to show you guys! We’re going to play games and throw a celebration! I have loads of cotton candy. Want some?” And he brought out two cotton candy cones for the travelers. A blue one for Starry and a grape one for Edgy. Edgy took one bite and had to spit it out. It wasn’t a regular grape flavor; it was a sour grape.

“Just kidding! Here ya go!” and the pink pony took out another blue cotton candy cone that Edgy proceeded to eat reluctantly. The two hadn’t eaten since that morning and with the long tramps in the forest and the attack from the pony eating star spiders, they really gulped down the cotton candy and the rest of the treats that Button gave them.

It wasn’t long before they reached a massive clearing. There, in the center, was what looked like a circus tent. Carnival music played and they could see a few clown ponies.

“I’m actually a gypsy, but they let me perform part of their show,” Button added when he saw their gaze over the whole scene. “I mean, I miss my old wild days, but we have some wild times here!”

They reached the big tent and saw hay bales stacked along the walls, partly to hold down the tent flaps, partly as a marker for the center ring, and partly to make really bouncy seats. Edgy had been wide eyed the entire time, he couldn’t remember ever seeing anything like this. Starry had seen a few carnivals come through Ponyville, and she was absolutely sure this pony was just like Pinkie Pie, whose parties could be just as over the top. Edgy hadn’t meant to watch a show, but he couldn’t leave without Starry, who had already eagerly sat down on an extra fluffy hay bale.

The clown ponies began the show. First, one leapt onto the top of a pile of five other clown ponies. Now he was soaring on a trapeze, only to land gracefully into a canon that blasted him across the tent.

Soon, there were three ponies gliding around in the ring. They were decked out in ribbon covered dresses that billowed as they danced. Each time they turned past each other, the colors of their dresses changed and even the dress style changed.

The two could see when Button Top came into the ring. He sprang up out of a shower of confetti and began reading the minds of other ponies who had sprung up into the audience during the show. Each pony was amazed and gasped at hearing their darkest secrets being brought up out of the mouth of the gypsy.

Button Top came up to Edgy and Starry. Edgy tensed up as Button looked directly into his eyes. But instead of whispering back his dark secrets to him, Button Top merely looked away and continued on a different pony five seats over.

Edgy wasn’t all that relieved. He wished Button had read his mind. Maybe Button Top would see something about Edgy’s past and who he was, so Edgy would finally know about himself.

The show continued with more astounding wonders, but Edgy and Starry were exhausted from their trip. They both started nodding off in their seats until they had to be woken up by a delighted Button Top after the show had ended and all the other ponies had gone home.

“Wasn’t that an exciting show!” Button Top exclaimed.

“Yeah, it was great,” Starry said, half asleep.

Edgy had secretly enjoyed the show for its grace and mystery, but he was also a bit annoyed. He hadn’t thought about his mysterious past since he and Starry first met up, and now that Button Top made him start thinking about it his head began to ache. Questions about what his name was and why he was here loomed in the front of his brain. And somewhere, deep in the corner, was that word that kept repeating even when he wasn’t conscious of it.

But before he could try to make it out, Button Top had begun dragging both of them to a smaller clearing in the woods. There, in the edges of the clearing, were cages of animals. None of them were familiar to Edgy, although he felt like he should know what they were, but Starry also seemed unfamiliar with half of them.

“Why are they all locked up?” Starry asked Button.

“It wasn’t my idea,” Button looked down at the grass, “the boss likes having them in cages so that they all have their own place to live, though.” He put on a cute grin and started introducing Edgy and Starry to each beast in turn. At each one, the two travelers could tell that the beasts were restless.

“We’ll take them out for a show later and then you guys can see how awesome they are!” Button Top beamed, and he carted them off back toward the main clearing. They made it back into the main tent and saw that there were two scattered piles of hay set aside from the hay bales used for the audience. Edgy and Starry were more than happy to have a spot to rest for the night, and almost immediately as they touched the hay, they fell asleep.

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Sometime during the night, Edgy’s head was throbbing with the thought of that word again. He knew it was the thing guiding them in the direction they had been taking all along. Somehow, they were heading for it, but he just couldn’t make out what the word was or why he felt so strongly about it.

He got up and headed for the door to pace around in the cool night air. After about two laps, he saw Starry coming from one of the other tents.

“So you’re up too? I started feeling hungry again and found the tent where they keep all their food,” her horn sparked a bit and she pulled out a bag of popcorn she clearly meant to save for later.

“You can have some, you’re probably starving too.”

Edgy hadn’t thought about food for a while. His stomach grumbled a little at the thought. He couldn’t figure out why, but he wished he could have something more savory than carnival food. He pictured spaghetti. A plate full of spaghetti. It made his mouth start to water until Starry had to wake him up out of his trance. He walked over to the tent himself to see what else it had. It was mainly what he expected: carnival food. There was popcorn and cotton candy and all sorts of sweets. There were some hot dogs in there, but it wasn’t good enough.

They both snacked a bit more before they heard a loud screech coming from the adjacent clearing. Edgy started running in that direction and Starry followed suit.

Hiding in the bushes near the entrance, they could see a terrible sight. One of the cages had been opened and a large creature that stood on two legs emerged from it. It looked a bit like a monkey, but it was colored orange all over and it was the size of three ponies. It looked surprised at its own escape, but it finally composed itself and ran off into the forest around it. Its fellow prisoners all looked after it and a dejected hush fell over them all.

Starry and Edgy didn’t know what to do about it, so they went back to the main tent and tried to pretend they hadn’t seen it.

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Button Top woke them up in the morning.

“So, we had a bit of an eensy weensy problem this morning,” he began.

Neither of the witnesses wanted to bring up that they saw it escape. Edgy was able to put on his stern face and said nothing. Starry continued her innocent look.

“It looks like we lost one of our side attractions. But it’s okay, I told the boss that we would be able to get a replacement,” Button finished.

Starry and Edgy both continued just looking at Button, unsure of what to say.

“So yeah, I thought it’d be super duper fun if you pretended to be a wild beast for me!” Button giggled, and grabbed Edgy by the scruff of his uniform and began dragging him to the clearing. Edgy tried to struggle free, but Button had a firm grip on the collar. Starry considered it a little quizzically, but then she thought it might actually be fun to see him get mocked for a bit, so she followed along.

The whole time Edgy was getting dragged along on his back he stared up at the treetops and muttered how lovely the weather was this morning.

“Our lovely host has graciously let me witness the spectacular view today. Look, a tree. Fascinating,” his sarcasm only made Starry find it more amusing.

By the time they got to the cage, Edgy had run out of comments to give. Button threw open the door to the first empty cage and stuffed Edgy inside.

But before the door was shut, Button Top turned toward Starry.

“You know what else is super duper awesome? You can join him!” And with that, Starry was unexpectedly tossed in the cage next to Edgy, who seemed a bit smug that she was now in distress as well.

“Not so funny when you’re the one being mistreated, now is it?” he asked.

Starry did have her pride hurt a bit, but she glanced at the bars of the cage. They weren’t metal, but wood. If it was metal, she’d be able to handle it pretty easily, but since it was not she would have to rely on something else. She wasn’t sure how she managed to make those acidic sparks that she had done in the star spider lair. Edgy kicked at the bars a bit listlessly but agreed that they seemed too strong to just kick open. Starry couldn’t quite see the lock on the door they had come through. It was a large lock that wrapped around a latch on the wooden door. Oddly enough, the lock had also been made out of wood, and so was the latch. She knew if it was metal she would be able to melt it easily, but wood she had no control over.

She took out her vial and lifted out some of the mercury into a vague key shape and started feeling around in the wooden lock with it. It was extremely difficult but she thought she could just barely get it to work. The wooden lock was some sort of puzzle on the inside though.

With a sigh, she gave up and returned the mercury to the vial before slipping it back around her neck.

Edgy rested himself on a pile of orange fur in the corner while watching Starry struggle along.

“Well at least now you’re going to be the star of the show. I think that’s what I should call you. If you’re going to call me ‘Edgy,’ I’m going to call you ‘Star.’”

Starry shot a menacing glance back toward him. She was about to snap back when she noticed the pile he was laying on.

“This was the cage the creature that escaped came from, right?” She started looking at the door and the bars again. It didn’t look new, as if the circus ponies had to replace busted open pieces. You could see the weathering and even more orange hairs on them. Starry couldn’t see where they could possibly be forced open, even by a creature of that size and strength. She couldn’t remember if the cage looked broken open last night.

After a few moments of the two of them looking around, they couldn’t see where there could possibly be any other entrance or exit to the cage.

It was almost as if the beast was let out, not just an escapee.

She looked back at Edgy and realized he had the same idea.

“I think somepony hasn’t been honest with us. Seems like we were meant to be the entertainment all along,” he muttered. They both felt the betrayal and while Starry began moping about near the door, Edgy started looking around the rest of the clearing.

He was not going to be imprisoned like this. The other animals already looked broken and defeated. Their eyes showed a dullness that words couldn’t express, like a well that long ran dry.

He was not going out without a fight.

“Star, we’re going to get out of here. Right. Now!” He launched himself as hard as he could toward the bars closer to the forest. They resisted him and he fell back onto the floor with a few new bruises. Still determined, he got right back up and launched himself again. Starry felt annoyed but she decided to join in. They both kept trying to knock on the wooden poles until finally Starry felt a snap.

It wasn’t the poles, and thankfully it wasn’t their bones. But she could see her vial necklace slip onto the grass below and begin to roll away.

“No! Shoot!” She began levitating the vial back toward her.

“Not so fast!” an amused Button Top came up and jerked the vial out of Starry’s magic aura.

“I think I’ll hold onto this. I already have ten gazillion ideas of what to do with it!” Button claimed, and bounced back toward the main clearing.

“We have to get that back. I can’t lose it!” Starry whispered to Edgy, who didn’t seem phased at all by its loss.

“Just get another one when we get out of here.”

“But it won’t be the same one!”

“That’s kind of the point?”

Starry looked exasperated and started ramming the poles harder. Edgy decided to take a step back and reexamine them. There had to be some more weatherworn than the others. After a close inspection, he noticed two near the end were beginning to give way. He told Starry to stand back before he gave them a solid kick. With a loud thwack they both burst away and hit the tree nearest the cage.

Starry and Edgy both leaped out and before Edgy could dash off into the forest, he saw Starry already heading back to the main tent. He put a hoof to his forehead before chasing after her.

By the time he reached the main doors he could already tell something was wrong. He didn’t want to look but he peeped in anyway.

Inside, the audience was in a hushed silence as the gypsy continued his rounds like he did the day before. Several times the audience members would go into squeals of laughter. Maybe today wasn’t for the dark secrets, maybe it was something else? He started wondering how much the gypsy would really know. If maybe the gypsy would be able to tell they had escaped by now.

Edgy saw a blonde plume of hair sitting off in the edge of the audience a few feet away and knew it had to be Starry’s. He edged over to get a better view.

There, Starry sat, unamused at the show this time around. Edgy was about to snap on her for wasting time like this and then he noticed an unusual gleam around Button’s neck. He was wearing the vial around his neck for the show.

Button started bouncing around to a pony a few seats over from Starry when a magic aura pounced around Button’s neck and snapped it off him with a pinch that made him yelp.

Button whirled around to the spot where Starry had been, but she had already made it toward the door where Edgy still stood.

Starry used her magic to snap the chain whole one more time, before resting it around her neck once more.

They didn’t say much to each other until they had gotten far enough away from the tent and the insanity of the circus. The whole time Starry had a look of determination on her face. She didn’t want to admit that it was her fault that they were trapped there. She also didn’t want to think about what would have happened if she was never able to find her vial again. But her embarrassment didn’t last for long before she fell down on the ground and just started cradling it in her hooves.

“So what’s so special about that vial?” Edgy finally managed to ask.

Starry stopped cradling it for a small second before she weakly replied.

“It’s not really all that special, I just, it was the only thing I had connecting me to my past. I lived in an orphanage for so long. When I finally left they gave me this. They told me they had found it on me when I showed up at their door. I really don’t know what it means or why I would have it, but I need it,” Starry said, and she started getting up onto her weak hooves.

“It isn’t just that either,” Starry managed a smile, “When I look at it, I think of how everchanging life is, you know? How the outside world can change its size and shape, but it is so fluid and bright.”

Edgy couldn’t understand why her mood shifted so much. She seemed so calm for the longest time and now just went from crying to wistful in seconds. Some things about ponies he thought he’d never understand.

“Save the philosophy for later. We still have a long journey ahead of us and thanks to your detour we wasted two days,” Edgy remarked, before they began heading off into the unknown again.

[Bestiary’s Note: Some of the creatures in the cages were as follows: zebra, kangaroo, orangutan, gorilla, monkey, deer, antelope, reindeer, and moose. More than half of those creatures are protected under local Equestrian law and are not allowed to be enclosed unless under a signed contract. The circus has been sought out but the authorities have yet to find them, or the one they let escape.]

Chapter Five

For the next two days, Starry had some questions. They were already long out of that forest they went through and neither knew exactly where in the wide world of Equestria they were.

Edgy had said four days ago that they were close enough to the place where they were going to get help. She still didn’t even know where that was or how they would get it. She couldn’t help but think about her two friends that are still left in cages under the Storm King’s control.

For Edgy, he wasn’t sure how long they were going to last. They had found a few wild plants that were edible, some nuts and berries. They weren’t starving but they had been close to it several times. He still couldn’t figure out what that word was or who he even was yet, and he had started having nightmares at night. Visions of shadowy figures that lurked behind the trees.

Both of them occasionally found something to quarrel about. She didn’t want to question his direction, but she didn’t like the fact that she felt they were lost. He still wasn’t going to admit he wasn’t entirely sure where they were heading, so he tried to avoid the subject.

When they finally managed to come upon an area filled with food, they didn’t even question it. It looked like a somewhat cultivated yet natural garden in the middle of the open plain.

Starry gathered up some cucumbers she found and squeaked something about the recipes she could perform with them. Edgy picked up a few fruits and stuffed them in the pockets of his uniform. They weren’t too likely to get squished in there, but even if they did it would still be a welcome snack in case they don’t find more food in the next day or two.

Edgy reached up for a bright blueberry at the top of one trellis when the trellis snapped and he, the remnants of the trellis, and the blueberry tree came crashing down.

Suddenly Edgy felt something slap his back and a creeping bunch of leaves grabbed a hold of his right front hoof and begin to drag him away. With a swift kick he was free, but the branches, for they were willow branches, began shooting out at him again.

Without knowing how he was doing it he was fighting off a giant willow tree that was slowly creeping toward him as its powerful branches came at him like a kraken taking down a ship.

Starry was out of harm’s way, but she came running up closer when she heard the commotion and was going to take a few slashes at the branches herself if she was sure she wouldn’t accidentally hit Edgy.

“Stop it, pet.” a harsh, crackly voice barked.

The willow tree retracted its branches and came to a rest where it last stood. It started acting like it was dozing off and laid itself down onto the ground.

Starry and Edgy turned toward the pony that had stopped it. She was an ugly old crone, was all Edgy could see. Starry thought the stranger seemed kind of lonely, but the crone began whacking her with her cane. Starry started backing away and Edgy backed away slightly himself, before the crone began chewing them both out.

“We’re really sorry for trespassing here, we’ve been traveling for about a week and we were just so hungry. If you’d forgive us for the few things we took we won’t bother you anymore,” Starry said as she looked from one pony to the other. The crone started whacking at the both of them again, so Edgy grabbed at the cane and ripped it out of her hooves. The crone started falling forward and Starry reached out a hoof to steady her before the old crone swatted it away in disgust.

“We just need a few supplies and we’ll be on our way,” Edgy said, before handing the cane back over.

“A likely story. I know hooligans when I see ‘em and you two looks like ‘em! And if you don’t give me back the produce ya both picked I’ll set my Wandering Willow after the both of ya again!” the old crone replied. She raised her cane once more.

Edgy leapt in front of Starry and leaned close to the hag.

“You know, I’d suggest stepping back by about five hoofsteps. Just in case your pet happens to wake up again.”

He peered around to where the tree was peacefully napping.

“Bah! The Wandering Willow is under my command. It’d much rather rip you two to pieces. So I’d suggest you both skedaddle on out of here before this stick isn’t the only thing bearing down on you.”

Edgy didn’t even wince, but casually leaned even closer.

“You act like it doesn’t have any feelings at all! Don’t you care about the tree you raised since it was a sapling?” He pouted a bit, his voice raising evermore.

“I’m the only one that cares about it!” the crone bellowed.

Suddenly, a loud crash was heard as the Wandering Willow dragged itself by the roots and slammed one side of it back onto the ground. Its branches started swirling in the air and Edgy launched himself at Starry to push her out of the way. She quickly hopped back up and let out a huge burst of energy at the center of the Willow before Edgy made a dash toward the back of it to give it a resounding whack to the back of its presumable head.

The Willow paused at that and let out a groan, and both Edgy and Starry bolted for cover as the old crone started screaming.

During the fight, she had let out a low cackle from where she had been hobbling about. At some point, the longest branches of the Willow had started twining themselves around her, creeping up her next to useless hindlegs and crawling up her middle until she was encased in a whirl of willow leaves. Now only her muzzle could be seen above the foliage, as she gave one last wail before the tree finally claimed its victim.

From their hiding spot they could see the tree draw the pile toward itself, and Starry could hardly make out what happened, but in the dash of branches the old crone seemed to have utterly dissolved and been absorbed into the bark of the willow, with only a rough pony shape etched into it, with a look of utter agony.

“How’d you know that would work?” Starry asked Edgy, when they were out of earshot of the tree and the horrible image stamped on it.

“Why wouldn’t an idea of mine work?” Edgy responded. But at Starry’s questioning glance, he continued.

“I’d seen Wandering Willows before. They are loyal to their masters, but they also have a nasty habit of eating them. They like the quiet; if anything raises their voice at them they will attack. The lady must not have yelled around it before and talks so raspy otherwise that she must have thought it wasn’t a danger to her. Her mistake,” Edgy replied.

It was weird the odd tidbits of knowledge somepony could have locked up in their memory. Or maybe his wasn’t fully gone? Edgy thought that maybe he could remember his own past if he had something to trigger it, much like how his memory of the willow was triggered when the crone mentioned its name.

Chapter Six

The plains they had been wandering on finally came up to a large river. The two ponies didn’t like the looks of the dark murky waters. A search around the bank led them to a quaint bridge connecting across. It didn’t seem to be used for much except litter, though they did find a few items and a sack that might be useful.

Starry picked up an old tin can that she reshaped into a water canteen and scooped up some of the water from the river below. She looked closely at the water. I know we can’t be too picky, but, and she looked again at the litter on the bridge and could only imagine what could be in the river itself below them. If the bridge itself was so littered, the water may be undrinkable too. It looked fine though, but just to be safe, she began to use her magic to boil the water.

Edgy could only watch as she had set up her own small lab on the bridge to purify the water. She had the same look on her face as she did when she was hard at work in the forge. Her eyes catching every little detail of the water to not waste too much and her hooves as steady as they could be. Her tongue stuck out a little when she was concentrating the hardest. It was an amusing sight, and a welcome one, especially when Starry finally decided the water was good enough to drink and she handed Edgy one of the two canteens she had made.

Edgy could only nod back at her for it. Though he was grateful for the water, it seemed to him that he had already had to thank Star for so much on this trip and it was getting annoying.

Starry was used to this sort of thing from him by now, however, so she trotted on as they went side by side down the rest of the bridge.

The plains continued after the bridge for another mile or two before the grass become sparse and they could see rocky cliffs in the distance.

They finally came up to an empty gorge. The sides looked like they could drop on the ponies at any moment, but Starry and Edgy continued on. There was no way they could climb to the top of the cliffs, and it would take them another week off their journey to go around.

Starry had seen the Ghastly Gorge in Ponyville, and she knew that one was filled with monstrous quarray eels and all sorts of obstacles. Rainbow Dash even used it as an obstacle course on a regular basis just to test her own speed and agility. This gorge here was different. It seemed empty.

There was an occasional screech of a large bird up above, and Starry could squint past the sun and see them soaring by. They had made the mistake of going in at a little after noon, and the sun took it out on them by following directly in the middle of the gorge and directly onto their own heads. Starry wished Celestia knew what the sun was doing right now and would move it at least a degree away. A few times they were able to find a ledge to hide under and drink up the water they had been trying to ration, but Starry’s was near the last drop already.

Edgy had about a half of his canteen still full, but he knew it wasn’t going to last him until the end of this trip. They needed to find a new source of water fast.

Starry had kept walking behind him without looking ahead when he suddenly stopped. She would have crashed right into him if he hadn’t sidestepped out of the way. He looked directly at the ground and began digging at it with his hooves as hard as he could. With any luck, there may be an underground spring. After all, something must have made this gorge, and maybe they’d be lucky enough to find an underground spring, some remnant of an ancient river.

Starry wasn’t going to be bothered with digging. She couldn’t lift her hooves much more than to slide forward, at this point, so she rested under a ledge nearby and told herself it would only be a quick nap.

He dug for a good bit before he hit solid rock. His hoof was scratched in the process but he wasn’t going to give up just yet. He was about to start digging in an area about five feet away when the birds that had been soaring above swooped down and grabbed him. Starry perked back up as she realized he was being lifted into the air, and went to grab at the closest one she could get. That one flew her up into the air as well and they were both soaring.

They could see the whole rest of the gorge and the clifftops around them. Off in the distance, there was a waterfall, flowing into a pool of water at the bottom of another cliff. The birds had started heading in that direction, but they took a detour and began going toward a cliff with a nest as large as twenty ponies.

The ground below them was a few hundred feet away, but Edgy noticed they were coming close to a ledge that would only be about ten feet below. Just as they were above it, he launched himself with all his energy at the bird carrying him and Starry used her mercury to slash at the one carrying her. They both fell on the rocky ledge with a few cuts and bruises, but they had no time to lick their wounds when they heard the screeches of the birds starting to come after them again.

The two started running with all their might until they found a cave in the cliffside and ducked in. The birds didn’t see where they went and had to fly off with one last angry cry.

With a sigh of relief, they looked around the cave. Starry’s horn glowed and showed that the cave ran along for a few miles. They weren’t sure if they should follow it, but they both agreed to stay when they heard it: the steady stream of cold underground springs.

Washing their wounds and refilling their canteens, they decided to rest up in the cave before continuing their journey.

“We’re going to have to travel in the dark of night, I guess,” Starry said after a strong gulp of water that hurt her sore throat. She wanted it to sound dramatic and fun, even though her energy was still sapped.

Edgy agreed.

The rest of the day was spent trying to rest through the soreness.

That night, they decided to avoid the rest of the cave. Caves can go on and on, could have dangerous creatures, and might lead to one or both of them trapped forever. Out in the open, they at least knew where they were going. And now, they didn’t fear the birds that were hopefully resting throughout the night.

They kept going toward where they had seen that waterfall. It seemed like another two days journey toward it, and Starry was too tired to care anymore about how long their journey was taking.

Every now and then, she wondered how Bee and Cass were making it under the Storm King’s rule. It didn’t seem like a stretch to believe Twilight and her friends would end up saving the day before Edgy and she got back there. In fact, Bee and Cass were probably already safe in Ponyville at the moment, wondering where Starry was.

But the journey wasn’t all that pointless. Edgy still claimed he knew where he was going. She still had to keep an eye on him, after all. And she had long since realized she wasn’t sure where she was. Ever since the time at the star spiders, she knew they were way too off track for her to find Ponyville on her own. It wasn’t even guaranteed the opposite side of that one path would lead remotely to Canterlot.

Edgy right now was her only hope. Sometimes irritating and extremely aloof, but her only hope.

As for Edgy, he felt more strongly every day that they were going in the right direction. He couldn’t see how lost Starry felt, because every time they came somewhere new, she seemed relatively comfortable in it. It was like no matter what environment they were in, she would take it in stride. It made it easier to keep her around as a companion. He didn’t want to ever admit it to anyone, but he doubted he’d have been able to make it out here without her.

He may be leading the journey, and he may have had to save her hide on multiple occasions, but her skills and talents have helped them just as much. Her occasional bursts of happiness were also welcome. He didn’t particularly like it at first, but over the last week or so he came to expect it.

Starry had been a little down the last day or two before they came to the waterfall. She was full of a resigned calm. And Edgy, being unsure of how to handle it, let her be.

It took the two days they thought it would and they finally came upon the waterfall.

Starry finally perked up again at the sight. At first she dipped a sore hoof into the water, and then another, and then completely jumped in. But she slipped on some smooth pebbles and fully crashed onto the bottom of the pool. With a laugh to feel the frigid water all over her aching body she started splashing and swimming around.

Edgy didn’t let it show on his face how relieved he was that she was being normal again. He refilled his canteen and walked around a bit under the waterfall itself. The uniform he had been wearing ever since he woke up in the crate had been helpful to catch his sweat and keep him cool for the most part, but it was good to feel the cold water through it.

It was the most welcome part of their journey so far, and it seemed to them that maybe their journey was coming near a close.

[Bestiary’s Note: The large bird they came across was a Volatu. They usually keep to themselves up in the highest mountains. They have the personality of a griffon, but are less civilized. Probably from the lack of oxygen up there.

Chapter Seven

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Edgy had been tossing and turning. Tonight the nightmares had gotten worse. He couldn’t make out all that much from them but there was a dense atmosphere. Figures, voices, everywhere, screaming and groaning all at once and chasing after him. He couldn’t fight them off, couldn’t take it...

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Starry woke up in a daze. It wasn’t supposed to be nighttime, but she was surrounded by darkness. She rubbed her eyes and tried to make out the forms of the rocky walls that were supposed to surround them. She started walking forward with her front hooves out and actually bumped into a wall, dislodging a rock that crumbled onto the ground.

“Star? What happened?” Edgy called out. She could hear him shuffling around in the dark.

“I’m not sure. I’m going to try to see what’s going on,” she called back. She started thinking about producing a warm glow from her horn. But even though she could feel her magic wanting to come through, she couldn’t see the glow lighting up anything.

“Edgy? Can you see my horn?”

“No? Where are you?” he continued to shuffle around so she started trotting toward the sounds.

“I’m right here, I think I can reach y-,” was the last thing Edgy heard before a scream and then utter silence.

“Star? Star?? Star!” Edgy yelled, but he didn’t get a response. He was panicking. It was the first time in their whole journey that she was actually gone. It was really the first time since he found himself in the crate that he had been physically alone. He wanted to scream.

“No, don’t leave me alone.”

He sat down and felt like he was going to cry. After all the villains they had faced, this was suffocating and confusing. There was no entity they could punch. No place they could jump from. And at this moment, there was no they.

His hoof touched something cold that began rolling away. He launched himself toward it and found that it was a tiny vial attached to a chain. Even though he couldn’t see what was inside it, he knew not to open it. It was Starry’s mercury vial.

She’d never part with this intentionally, he thought and his eyes grew big. Frantically he continued feeling around the floor for any sign of Starry, or even their campsite at this point, but he couldn’t feel anything.

Suddenly, the darkness began turning cold, a breeze started lifting up in the darkness and it began to turn into the harshest cold blasts of a wintry blizzard. He found that after a while, he couldn’t feel it anymore. All his senses numbed and he felt like he had lost all sense of his physical form.

There was nothing but darkness.

Suddenly, his memories of the time before the crate and the airship hit him. All at once in a pain of agony. He had tried to raid a town of...he wasn’t even sure. By the time he walked around it himself it was already wiped out, the citizens long carted away or chased off. He had felt so proud that he didn’t even care. He had a few of the storm guards loot the wealthier looking buildings before they boarded their air ship again.

Tempest looked at him in disgust. The Storm King raged. It wasn’t the right village. It wasn’t the one he thought he was supposed to attack. Grubber had changed the name on the map he pointed out. It was the wrong place. Grubber had tricked him.

The pain got worse as his memory turned to the moment Tempest sent a blast toward him, from what, he couldn’t tell. But he knew it was what erased his memory. From then on he had been in the crate, ready to be dropped off into some other dungeon far, far away from the Storm King or anypony that could help him.

Edgy slumped over. The pain left, but his insides burned with knowing he was once a part of the Storm King’s army, and he was going to be sent to die. He had sent the raid to destroy so many innocents.

For a while he just sat there, still huddled over. Until finally he saw a light up above him. It looked warm and inviting. Star?, he thought, but it was the sun itself. He looked around to see that he wasn’t in the gorge anymore but a grassy hill. All around him were small huts with smoke billowing drearily from their rooftops.

Edgy got up and managed to take a few steps before he remembered. This is the village I came from. He started thinking back in his mind and found he remembered.

Trot Town was one of the most ancient villages. After the Windigoes were defeated and Equestria was made, small outcrops of pony villages grew stronger and spread out and many new ones were founded. Trot Town was on the far reaches of Equestria. It had a solid pony population, but it was also home to creatures from the outside world. The primordial world before ponies began their civilization.

Edgy could recognize some of the types of creatures that had been at the circus were walking around freely in the town. They wore their raggedy aprons and hobbled about with their carts of merchandise. One older gentleman with a cart of cabbages had been trying to sell his wares to many of the passersby, but he had priced them too high for the majority of the citizens.

Edgy could see a tiny colt with a grey coat and dingy white hair creep up from under the cart and grab a cabbage before darting back into the alley.

It was him.

He had, during the journey, remembered a little of his childhood. It wasn’t something he wanted to think about. Not while he was with the Storm King, and not now.

His time trying to take care of his aging mother. The years alone. Even then, he still didn’t have a name to call himself and gave nopony any to call him by. It was there that he realized that, even though he wasn’t a unicorn, he could control magic. With the use of his scars he could recite the same spells as unicorns to get the same results. But he found he could do even better.

He practiced forming figures out of the darkness, at first to be his friends, but then to be his accomplices. No one in the town was better off than any of the others, but he was able to rob any travelers that came near enough to Trot Town.

It was this that Tempest saw in him. His willingness to live independently of everyone else. His talent that led the Storm King to agree. But it wasn’t just this.

The Storm King had been alerted to the great amount of magical energy Edgy had when Edgy performed the greatest feat of magic he would ever commit, that he wasn’t sure he could even do again.

He paused the moon.

Edgy watched the memory fly by. His weeks of agony afterwards. The scars on his arm had never shone out brighter and it had burned him the whole time. The storm guards that came and hauled him away when his own town gave him up, betraying him for the promise of a few months’s worth of food.

Edgy shut his eye to everything. All his memories of his time with the Storm King came back into his mind and he didn’t want to relive it. It wasn’t him anymore. It kept replaying over and over and as it was coming close to the time his memory was being blasted away, he saw a face.

Chapter Nine

They had finally come upon a small town and Starry knew it meant more towns would be nearby, hopefully Ponyville included.

They both trotted in a little unsure of where they were. Edgy didn’t want to let on that with the search for the word over, he really didn’t know where to go. If there wasn’t a village, he might have had to attempt some even deeper soul searching. The village was a welcome sight, though they didn’t feel all that welcome coming toward it.

The ponies of the village were minding their own business for the most part. Some occasionally gave them weird looks, but no wonder. Edgy was not a normal looking pony. On top of that, they were both dusty, sweaty, and scratched up. It was clear they weren’t local and they weren’t just out for a stroll.

Edgy contemplated his appearance more critically. While he wasn’t going to ever be able to do anything about his scars, his uniform was a bit unnecessary now. He wasn’t sure how many ponies would recognize it for one of the Storm King’s, although, at this point it looked far enough away from its original appearance. It had been torn in multiple places, the color faded, the badge long gone. It was more of an odd fashion choice.

They continued to wander until they found the open marketplace. They didn’t have any supplies left after they left the gorge. Other than the water in their canteens, they had survived off of the little bit of vegetation that managed to grow in that harsh environment. Without any bits, though, they weren’t going to be able to buy any more supplies.

A shopping cart started rolling by them when a wheel busted.

“Oh no! Here, I can help!” Starry exclaimed. And before the cart owner could say a word, Starry added, “But if I do, can we have a meal. We’ve just come from a long journey.”

The cart owner didn’t have much to lose from it, since she couldn’t move the cart in this condition and she didn’t have a spare wheel.

“Huh, if you can fix it for me you can take whatever your hooves can carry. But only that,” she added, as she noticed Edgy sizing up the cart’s produce.

Starry took one look and snapped the cart wheel back into its normal shape.

“Well, there you go. Thanks for your help,” the salespony said, as the two gathered up a few hooffuls and started off on their way.

A pony came up behind them when they were out of earshot with the salespony and grabbed Starry by her hoof. She dropped what she was holding and let out a yelp.

Edgy didn’t let it show on his face that he was annoyed, but he set down what he had been holding onto the ground next to Starry’s. He wasn’t sure if he would need to tackle the mare but he wanted to be ready for it. The mare was an angry purple pony with light blue hair. She was a little heavier set than most mares, and her hooves totally dwarfed Starry’s.

“I know one of you must have broken that cart wheel on purpose to scam those vegetables from her. I just know it. Which one of you did it?” she demanded.

Starry couldn’t believe her ears. She was not a criminal, and had actually felt proud for a moment that she was able to help them get supplies.

“I honestly di-”

“Nothing honest about it! You two take what you stole back to her before I report both of you.”

Edgy wasn’t sure what to do. Monsters, he could fight. Old ladies wielding canes he could stop. Angry middle aged mares that were somehow also delusional, he wasn’t sure how to handle. He started looking more uncomfortable than Starry did.

It was about that time that a familiar pegasus swooped by them and landed just a few inches away from the mare.

“Em! Picking fights without me? What a shame! And who is this?”

It was Cass. The angry mare realized she was far too outnumbered and gave up with a scoff.

“Oh Cass! I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ve been really worried about you! This is Edgy. He helped me escape the storm guards when they attacked,” Starry said, hugging Cass while Edgy started picking up the produce they had dropped.

“We just waited around until Twilight Sparkle and her friends saved us. Which we thought you would do as well.”

“We thought we’d be able to come back and save you guys ourselves, but we got lost,” Starry chuckled.

Cass and Starry had started walking down the street, chatting away to catch up. Edgy lagged behind them a bit while still carrying the produce, which he at least started to eat.

From what Cass said, this town was close enough to Ponyville. It was its lesser known rival town, about as big but not as well or long established.

“It goes by some dumb name, like Neighport. I don’t know what kind of name is that. Ponyville has such a nice ring to it, to me anyway,” Cass was saying.

Starry just sat back and let Cass do her thing. Cass was more into talking than Starry was sometimes. Besides, Starry finally let her weariness from the journey show in the bags under her eyes and the droopiness in her gait, the blurriness of her speech...

“Oh my goodness, Em fell asleep!” Cass picked Starry up and situated her on her back. She was about to fly off when she remembered Edgy, who was still lingering a few feet behind.

“Hey, you can follow along. I know we can set you up with a place when we get there,” Cass added, and she led them to the train station where she bought a few tickets and they all were able to relax on the way back home.

Chapter Ten

When Starry woke up she was back in her own bed and her own room. The sun was pouring in through her favorite seated window and she knew her two favorite friends would be waiting for her when she finally got ready for the day. She couldn’t believe they had finally made it back to Ponyville, and that everything they went through was now a distant memory.

She thought about Edgy, too. She wasn’t sure what he was going to do now. Maybe he’d go back to Canterlot and find wherever it was he left behind, or whoever it was he left behind. There was still so much she didn’t know about him and she felt she would probably never know.

Thinking back on Canterlot and the day of the Friendship Festival, she remembered how she was supposed to do the light show at the end. She was told by Cass yesterday that somepony else managed to take her place and did a fantastic job, though nopony was sure who did it.

Starry’s face fell a bit. She had been nervous, but she planned on that being her show. The ponies weren’t disappointed at least, but she wasn’t able to be there at all.

It wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on.

She hopped out of bed and opened the window to take in the sunshine and the cool breeze of the day. Everything seemed so beautiful this morning. She could see Rochester in his little nest in the tree just outside, he and his wife were chattering away, but he took a moment to wave at her with a smile.

Turning around, she picked up a silver comb with her magic and began looking herself over in the mirror. She already started looking like she had never gone out of Ponyville. The scrapes and bruises were healed. She lifted up the mercury vial in her hooves as she combed and spilled a bit of it on the top of her dresser. Designs started forming in the puddle she had made as she started crafting out her ideas based on the sights they had seen on her journey. And after about two were fully thought through she began to smell the aroma of warm baked goods coming up from downstairs.

Trotting down the stairs she could see that Bee and Cass already had breakfast ready for her and a kitchen that needed cleaning up. Edgy had managed to come with them. Starry had been awake for when Cass set him up a room at the Ponyville Days Inn, but it was nice to see that he wasn’t going to sulk in there the whole time he was here.

Edgy sat back in a chair deep in thought over some words he was writing down on a scrap of paper. Either his hoofwriting was really bad, or it wasn’t in current pony writing. Neither Bee nor Cass could read it, so they had stopped teasing him over it a few minutes before Starry came upon them.

“Hey Em! We baked you some muffins! They are blueberry, your favorite,” Bee said and put one with a smiling face drawn on top on a plate in front of Starry. Starry sat down and began chewing on it. It was delicious. She hadn’t eaten actual baked goods since they started the journey and she had been starving for so long.

She looked at Cass and Bee but they shrugged back at her.

Cass and Bee continued seeming excited for a while, but it seemed like they were hiding that something wasn’t quite right.

Starry found out soon enough.

“I guess I better get back to the forge today then. I must have so many orders to catch up on.”

Cass and Bee flew over to Starry.

“We think you should probably take today off. You just got back, after all, and you’re obviously tired.”

“Your customers can wait. I already told them not to expect you back for another week.”

“But I feel fine right now. I really want to get back to work. I haven’t had a chance to work on anything more than a few odds and ends until now and I have a whole bunch of new ideas for designs thanks to our trip,” Starry said and smiled at Edgy. He glanced up and nodded before continuing his writing.

“Really, Em. You need a break. Your customers can wait.”

Edgy got up.

“I’m going to be gone for a while. There’s something I have to take care of.” He nodded at Starry before walking out the door. From the window, she could see him trotting off toward the train station.

Cass and Bee both had to stop for a second themselves as all three wondered why he left so suddenly, but Starry was used to it and snapped out of it soon enough to begin arguing with them again.

The two would have continued arguing with Starry forever, but Starry shut them up and was going to march straight out the door when Cass called out to her.

“Em, the jewelry shop dropped your works. He doesn’t want to help you sell your work anymore.”

Starry was stunned. He was her biggest customer. Sure, she had many customers that she could sell directly to, but having Clear Carot handle most of her sales for her was a big help. It made up the majority of her earnings and helped her have the free time that she did to pursue her designs rather than finding customers for them. Without him her forge was going to falter. She might have to go back to the boring but functional work she used to do with mending carts and making basic appliances. Factory and menial work she had promised, by Celestia, she would never do again. And the very fact that he was dropping her must have meant there was a big change. They had been doing business for years.

“Why won’t he carry my work anymore, Cass?” She said it softly, a little out of breath and a little wilted.

“Well, while you were gone, he ran out of merchandise of yours to sell and he had to turn away a few customers. That’s when Sunny Sapphire showed up. I know, her name is so ridiculous, it’s got nothing on yours, Em. But her work is pretty good. She could make the same stuff you did at half the time and price and Carothead decided to hire her. Plus, he wasn’t sure you were ever going to turn up again.”

“Did you all talk to him?”

“Yeah...” Bee started. She had a flashback of a rather snooty Clear Carot saying he wouldn’t take Starry back for the whole world. “He said no.”

Starry left the room and ran up to bed to bury herself under her covers. It didn’t matter that her friends were down below now starting to worry about her. It would take forever to work up a steady customer base like what Clear Carot had. She might not be able to recuperate from the losses from the past two weeks. Everything was going downhill. Life might as well be over.

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Edgy didn’t want to have to explain to Starry why he was going. He needed to get back to Trot Town. He wanted to face the neighbors that had given him up as a slave. He wanted to find what was left of his family’s home.

He hopped aboard the train with a ticket Cass helped him buy earlier. It led to the closest stop to Trot Town, still a few days journey away. While it hurt going on a journey by himself, he didn’t want to drag Starry into it. Not for the way he was going. This time he knew the powers he was capable of. Using those, he could turn the trip into a matter of minutes.

But what would Starry think? She was pretty accepting of most of what he did by now, but it still wasn’t normal for a pony other than a unicorn or an alicorn to have the powers he did. He didn’t want her to overreact to it or think of him differently. And even if he tried to hide it on the journey there, the residents of Trot Town would make it abundantly clear they know of his powers.

He was going to go. Alone. But, at that a few images from the past few weeks swam through his head and what looked like a smallish crease at the corners of his mouth appeared, not entirely.

Chapter Eight

Star.

He made a friend. Unintentionally.

And over time, she taught him what it was like to truly be a friend.

Her kindness, her laughter, the strain on his patience before he finally gave up on letting it bother him. She had stuck by him through everything and was going to see this journey to the end, even though she herself didn’t understand where it was they were aiming for.

“I don’t have to be alone anymore. If there are more ponies like her in the world. I don’t have to live with that anymore.”

The darkness, which had been unconsciously his own doing the whole time. The physical manifestation of his desire to remember. The nightmares that kept creeping up on him every time he went to rest his head. It finally came out to explain itself. And now he remembered how to control it.

With his teeth clenched, he concentrated on erasing the darkness. It didn’t seem to budge for the longest time. He wouldn’t give up. Slowly, the darkness began to fade into an oppressive grey, and in spots it was turning the white of his hair. Soon, the blue of the sky peaked through and the dusty cliffsides could be seen again.

The scars that had been aglow were suddenly their dull fleshy color again.

He let himself relax and found he had been holding tightly onto Starry’s necklace.

He looked around. She still wasn’t anywhere.

Edgy began calling through the gorge. In spite of those monstrous birds or whatever else may be hiding in the gorge. He wasn’t going to let them stop him. If they dared come near he knew he could handle them easily.

It started seeming hopeless when he noticed a blonde plume of hair pop up from the dirt. It wavered a bit as Starry dug her way out and started saying something about the dust storm that they were caught up in. Edgy didn’t want to correct her. With his regained powers he still didn’t know how other ponies would react to it.

“At least it managed to shut you up for a bit,” was all he could say, but on the inside, he was just relieved she was back.

Starry didn’t seem offended, not that he would notice if she was anyway. Ever since the waterfall, she had gone back to her chipper self, and just agreed before beginning to trot off behind him again. They were already at the end of the gorge, and they could see a village out in the distance.

He couldn’t tell, but he felt more relieved. The pain that had once throbbed in the back of his mind was gone. The search for the word ended. He decided wherever he was, he was finally home.