Amulet

Blue Sky trailed the caravan, hidden in shadow. Wheels creaked and ponies talked, pulling wagons or walking beside as the elderly and young rode inside. A pink coloured mare walked beside a pair of stallions pulling one of the larger wagons, chatting affectionately. She said something that made one of the stallions, a tan coated pony, blush furiously, his orange friend laughing uproariously.

This is foalish. They know you are here.

Blue didn’t care. They had left a bowl out for her. They didn’t want to hurt her.

It was a trap. They want to lure you in so they can turn you over to the Guard.

Blue could always run before they did that. The Amulet had made her faster.

Yes, I have. But you cannot fly if they lock you in a wagon and bind your wings.

Blue shivered, remembering rough rope bruising her sides and digging into her wings, drawn tight enough to draw blood. They couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t let them do that.

Do not give them the chance.

Blue didn’t want to leave. This felt safe. Safer than her parents, safer than the Everfree. No one here had their wings bound. No one was ever beaten.

This is not safe. We cannot stay.

She could. This was a good place. The trio in front of her were still there, the mare still needling the blushing colt as the third kept laughing.

You do not know that.

Blue stopped walking, letting the caravan draw away down the road. It felt wrong. She wanted to keep following, keep listening to the warm chatter.

There are other caravans. We can follow-

The wagon in front of her had stopped. There was shouting from ahead. Blue felt a jolt of panic run down her spine. Had the Guard found her? Had the caravan noticed her? The Amulet began to glow brighter, Blue’s senses starting to sharpen.

The sharp, coppery smell of blood met her. The ponies up ahead were screaming, and Blue could see the flash of weapons reflecting sunlight. Vague figures dotted the sky ahead, occasionally swooping down and plucking an unfortunate caravaneer from the ground.

We need to leave. They are hunters. They will find us.

There were ponies dying, being slaughtered, in front of her.

You will be found. You will not be able to hide.

The Amulet was powerful. It could make Blue powerful.

You would throw away your protections for ponies you have never even spoken to before? You do not know them. You do not know what they will do to you.

Blue could save them.

Are you sure this is what you want?

Blue hesitated. If she stopped this, saved them, she wouldn’t be able to hide from them anymore. They’d know she was there, even if they couldn’t see her. Her only option would be to leave.

A shriek came from the trio in front of Blue. One of the stallions pulling the cart, the orange coated one, has been torn from the harness by a griffon clad in twisted iron. He twisted frantically in the cruelly hooked talons, cutting into his shoulders and sending droplets of blood raining down onto his companions.

Blue could stop this.

The griffon’s head, clad in a nightmarish helmet, darted down, beak snapping shut on the stallion's throat. His companions screamed louder as a warm spray of blood misted the air.

Blue couldn’t move.

Do you want this?

The griffon dropped the still twitching body and darted towards the mare. Time seemed to slow down as the griffon’s front talons reached toward her.

Blue wanted to help.

Blue felt power surge into her, pulsing hot energy running through her veins. The Amulet was engulfed in roiling crimson fire. The world around her slowed to a near stop. The air around her thrummed, ready to burst into a storm, stoked the magic she held.

Blue flexed her wings, feeling the air around them crackle with power. The griffon was turning towards her, moving as if through honey. Storm clouds billowed and sparks of lightning popped around her. Blue felt a well of power building, begging to be released.

Hold it back.

The clouds grew thicker, stronger. The sparkes grew more violent, arcing off the ground. Blue held firm, keeping the tempest under control. It kept building, growing stronger, the well of thrashing energy pushing against her.

Focus on the target.

The griffon pumped his wings in slow motion, adjusting its course to head towards Blue. The power roared, pushing against Blue’s control. She fixated on the griffon, looking it in the eyes. Grim determination met her, glaring bright through the creature’s helmet. A strand of lightning lunged towards him, thin and blinding.

Release.

The strand made contact, and the griffon's eyes widened. The air around blue was whipped into a frenzy of motion, sending the thick black clouds swirling. There was a deafening roar as the strand exploded into a million arcs of blazing electricity.

The lightning blasted through the griffon and into his airborne companions, a shining wall of light dividing land from sky. For a moment, time seemed to stop, the world cast in shadow by the brilliant light. Those below hadn’t noticed, frozen amidst a battle that was already over.

In a second, everything resumed. The Amulet dimmed into darkness for the first time since Blue had left the Everfree. The clouds around her dissipated, crackling electricity fading with them. Everything seemed dim and quiet. Flecks of ash drifted down from the sky.

The surviving attackers, those who had been below the blast, shouted faintly as the retreated in a disorganized scramble. A ringing silence pervaded the area, smothering the fading sounds of battle. The caravan ponies wandered among the carnage, a strange stillness in the air hanging near the corpses left behind. Fires cast flickering shadows throughout the wagons.

Blue felt the pulse of power in her veins, the humming, electric feeling in her wings, fading with each heartbeat. The noise around her gradually supplanted the ringing in her ears, and the fuzzy, dark filter over her vision slowly faded. Blue suddenly felt very tired.

“Over here!”

The two ponies in front of her were calling out to somepony, gesturing in her direction. Blue’s vision began to swim, sending her stumbling. When was the last time she had slept?

“Is she okay? Somepony get Gentle!”

Blue fell, world spinning around her, black seeping into the corners of her eyes. No, no, she couldn't pass out here, she had to stay awake, she had to stay on guard. Her eyelids felt heavy, closing despite her protests. She saw ponies standing over her, felt herself being lifted, felt something warm being placed over her. When had her eyes closed? She didn’t remember. She was so tired. She was forgetting something, something important.

A warm red glow silenced her thoughts, cradling her into a dreamless sleep.

Tirek threw his head back, bellowing with laughter. Celestia resisted the urge to grind her teeth, maintaining her cool, uncompromising air. If only Luna was here. She was always better at this type of thing.

“I’ll tell you what,” Tirek grinned, turning and grasping the bars of his cage, looking up at Celestia, “Let me out, and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“No.” Celestia’s flat answer sent Tirek back into hysterics.

This was a waste of time. Tirek was obviously not going to cooperate. Celestia turned around, starting down the stairway that lead up to Tirek’s chamber.

“Why the sudden interest in genealogy? Have you taken up an interest in scrapbooking? I doubt ash makes for good reading material.”

Celestia paused. He was taunting her. A hint of information, enough to whet her appetite, and nothing more. There was nothing to gain here.

“That’s all that’s left besides you and your sister. Ash and dust.” Tirek had lost his mirthful demeanor, shifting to a taunting, cruel tone.

Celestia very purposefully started back down the steps.

“You really don’t remember, do you?” A hint of disbelief edged the question. Amusement began to seep back into Tirek’s voice as he continued, “Did you really forget everything? Did it just slip your mind? Came all the way down here to jog your memory?”

Celestia stopped.

“I was barely old enough to walk. Luna was an infant.” She replied in a quiet voice. “I was too young to remember anything.”

“Really?” Tirek purred, “You remember nothing? Nothing at all?”

It was a lie. Tirek could tell. She remembered being confused, bundled with her sister and carried away from her home. The strange contrast between burning heat and icy cold mountain air when the chariot strayed too close to the city.

“Nothing.”

Nothing important. She had no name for the city. No names for the faces.

Celestia refocused. She couldn’t sulk here, surrounded by monsters that would take any hint of weakness as an opportunity. She started down the stairs again, ignoring Tirek’s laughter.

Starlight had probably over prepared for the expedition. Well, calling it an expedition was probably misleading. Expedition brought to mind images of untamed jungle or scorching desert, not cheap hotels next to appropriated construction sites in the middle of Manehattan.

The pith helmet probably would’ve been unnecessary anyway.

“No, I’m afraid we haven’t found any other piece like it. We’ve recovered coinage with similar symbology on it, though.” Dust Sweeper, head archeologist of the dig, stood beside her as she examined the uncovered mural.

Depictions of alicorns were, unsurprisingly, everywhere. Even before the diarchy, winged unicorns (or horned pegasi) were already a symbolic shorthand for power. The most prolific producers of alicorn artwork had resided in the area that now held Manehatten. There wasn’t actually a name for this civilization, a written language had never been found, so the name ‘alicorn civilization’ had been given to forever confuse and excite conspiracy theorists and armchair historians alike.

Starlight, having only recently become interested in the field of archeology, only discovered this after making the trip to Manehattan. She felt she had adapted to the new information rather well.
The mural was interesting, at least. It depicted a two alicorns, one black and the other white, that would have easily been identified as the battle between Celestia and Nightmare Moon if it didn’t predate it by nearly two thousand years.

“So this mural is unique?” Starlight had been peppering the older pony with questions for the past half-hour now. She would feel bad about that if Dust hadn’t confided in her earlier that he would much rather answer her questions than deal with the mountain of paperwork he had back at the office.

“As far as we can tell, yes. The current working theory is that it’s a highly symbolic depiction of a war the alicorn civilization fought with a neighboring country.” Dust himself was a supremely helpful source of information. “The white alicorn represents the aggressor, probably a group of pegasi. Various nomadic pegasi came into conflict with the alicorn civilization before it disappeared.”

“Hmm.” Starlight had a few theories of her own about the mural. The black alicorn held a striking resemblance to the one depicted in the Alicorn Amulet, even sharing the same pose. The white alicorn was proving harder to identify, and it wasn’t the first time Starlight had seen something like it.

Another pony hurried up to Dust’s side, glancing at Starlight before addressing the archeologist.

“Dust, I’m afraid I have to pull you away from this. The landowner is demanding to speak with you again.”

Dust pressed a hoof to his forehead, groaning softly before looking apologetically at Starlight.

“Sorry, I have to deal with this,” Dust shrugged at an impatient-looking pony standing at the edge of the site, “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Starlight nodded, still examining the mural. It was simple really, but it was the most upfront depiction of the Amulet she’d found. It wasn’t obvious, but whoever had made it had definitely seen the Amulet before. The black alicorn was too similar to not be at least inspired by the design.

Something about the white alicorn bothered Starlight. Wherever she found depictions of the Amulet, there was almost always an opposing force. Something fighting against it, working against whatever it was doing. This was the first time it was pictured as losing.

The mural depicted a black alicorn standing above the fallen body of a white alicorn, one hoof resting on top of its opponents head. In the background the sun was at the horizon, either setting or rising, Starlight couldn’t tell.

Starlight shivered. Something about the mural set her on edge. It was faded, with large parts of it scratched away, but the head and wings of the black alicorn remained untouched, glaring at her with an empty eye.

There was a commotion behind Starlight, but she remained transfixed on the mural until another pony blocking her light grabbed her attention.

“Excuse…” Starlight didn’t finish the sentence. It said something about Princess Luna, that despite being the personal student of royalty, Starlight was still struck dumb by her presence.

“A pleasant surprise. Greetings, Starlight Glimmer.”