Fading Star

The inn Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack stayed at for the night, owned by Sunflower’s elder sister, Daffodil, gave a brief sense of comfort from the fear surrounding their journey. The inn was cozy and pleasant, a sort of oasis in a town of bustling markets and constant action, even in the nighttime. Mapleville was the name of the town, sitting between two mountains in the Smoky range, and had dry summers and snowy winters. The town was relatively self-sustaining, and as a result didn’t involve itself too much with the affairs of its neighboring communities. Sunflower greeted them in the lobby that morning, after a good night’s sleep. Rainbow was eager to get started. She had barely been able to sleep, the wait was eating at her.

“You guys ready?” asked Sunflower, warmly. She had a cup of coffee in her hooves and a backpack on already.

“As ever. Let’s go,” replied Rainbow, ready for some action.

“Oh, and by the way, my brother is coming with us, he knows the mountains better than me.”

Right on cue, A golden colored stallion with light brown hair that stuck up and small bits of stubble that covered his face stepped beside his younger sister.

“Hello there, strangers,” the stallion said, tilting his head a sign of respect.
“Hi, I’m Rainbow Dash, this is Fluttershy, and Applejack.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all, I’m Hickory,” he said with a smile. Almost immediately, he had found himself fixated on Applejack, who admitted to herself he had caught her interest as well.

“So uh, how long does it take to get there?” asked Applejack, trying to make simple conversation.

“Oh, just a little more than half an hour. The weather’s looking like it might rain soon, apparently there’s a cold front moving in from the north.” Hickory had a smooth, deep voice, his tone honest and straightforward.

“Then we better get a move on,” said Sunflower. Both siblings had a touch of a southern accent, and seemed like trustworthy ponies.

However, there was one issue, an issue Applejack had kept her eye out for since arriving in town. Both had bright green eyes, just like those a changeling in disguise would have. Though both seemed friendly, she had to remind herself they couldn’t be trusted fully yet, especially now.

The fivesome moved out of the town on a path that led straight up towards one of the mountains. The mountains were covered in grass and short bushes, swaying in the cool morning wind that would proceed the storm to come. Hickory led the group, Applejack right beside him and Rainbow in the back. As they hiked up the grassy side of the mountain, Applejack continued talking to Hickory, trying to figure him out.

“Sunflower said you spend a lot of time in these mountains?”

“Well, not so much anymore. Nopony really comes up here anymore, these mountains sort of have a bad reputation.”

“How’s that?”

“Weird noises, strange occurrences, the lot of it...the last time I was up here, I was with a buddy, we were checking out a newly discovered addition to the mines, we heard something coming straight towards us, the sound of wings flapping, like an insect but the size of a whole pony…”

Applejack stopped dead in her tracks. Hickory stopped too,worried he said something that offended her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Wings like an insect?”

“Yep, that’s the best I can describe it.”

Applejack glanced over at Rainbow and Fluttershy, who had listened in and shared a look of concern. Applejack turned back to face the siblings.

“Look, both of you, maybe I should explain a bit more of why we’re coming up here before we put you two in danger.”

Hickory raised an eyebrow, while his younger sister stared up in curiosity. Applejack continued.

“Our friend, the one that was ponynapped, was taken by a...very dangerous pony...have either of you ever heard of changelings?”

Sunflower held in her laughter. Hickory couldn’t. After a brief silence, he bellowed and wiped away a tear, struggling to balance her seriousness with what she just said.

“Changelings? Come on, Applejack, changelings are just old mares’ tales, they’re not real.”

Rainbow took this moment to join in, flying in closer.

“Well, they are, and me and Applejack and Fluttershy here, and all my other friends were captured by those changelings not too long ago, until Starlight Glimmer, the one who’s been taken, came and rescued us. Thanks to her, all the changelings were reformed, no longer out to hurt other ponies, all except for one, their leader, Queen Chrysalis. She vowed revenge on Starlight for ruining her kingdom, and here we are. Chrysalis has Starlight somewhere, and we owe it to her to rescue her.”

The way that Rainbow put it somehow changed Applejack’s perspective on the situation, ever so slightly.

‘She did save us, didn’t she…’

Hickory wasn’t laughing anymore, now just skeptical.

“That’s a good story...hard to believe though...who are you ponies exactly to be mixed in with changelings?”

“We...we’re-”

“Have you heard of Twilight Sparkle?” interjected Fluttershy, seeing Rainbow had run out of momentum.

“Of course! The newest princess!” said Sunflower.

“We’re her friends.”

“You’re all friends with Twilight Sparkle?” said Hickory, now in total disbelief.

“No way! Where is she then?” scoffed Sunflower.

“Well, she and two other of our friends went north into the Crystal Mountains to search for our missing friend there, and we came west to search for her here.” said Applejack.

“Wow, so, we’re helping with the princess’ business?” said Sunflower, ecstatic. Twilight was a personal hero of hers, after all.

“You...could say that…” Rainbow said, taking advantage of opportunity.

“This seems a bit much...and if they went there, does that mean you don’t even know if she’s here or not? I’d rather not go in those caves with whatever’s in there if your friend ain’t even there to be found,” said Hickory.

“Well, based on what you said you saw in the cave, that sounds like a changeling to me.” said Applejack.

Hickory took a moment, scratching the hair on his cheek,deep in thought.

“Alright, we’ll do it, but we’re in way over our heads.”

“Do we get to meet Twilight if we do it?” said Sunflower, elated, like a little kid about to go to an amusement park.

“Sure, she’d love to meet you.” said Rainbow, cheerfully.

“Really? Yes!”

Hickory rolled his eyes and started walking again, the others soon following behind. Applejack was pretty confident they weren’t changelings now, as changelings weren’t very good at playing nice and innocent for long. Now, she didn’t have to repress her growing affection for Hickory as much.

Rainbow felt confident. Now that they actually had a lead, they weren’t going in blind anymore. Plus, they had two extra ponies who knew the area well enough to help them. Even Fluttershy seemed more mentally prepared about going through with this. Rainbow thought about what Twilight had said,

Don’t engage right away. Call all of us back so we can go in together.

Rainbow disregarded that and decided that they could handle this themselves for now.

Hopefully that wouldn’t be a mistake.

Queen Chrysalis had decided Starlight had been tortured enough for one week, and, as she had her own business to tend to, left Starlight with only her thoughts to occupy her in her prison cell. Chrysalis fastened a noose tied from around her neck to the ceiling, nearly lifting her up above the ground. Her hooves were all bound together, forcing her to stand on her tippy-hooves to stay breathing. Occasionally her legs would give a little, pulling on the noose and squeezing her neck. She glanced up as Chrysalis flew away into some tunnel up above, disappearing out of sight. Starlight had to breathe manually to ensure she didn’t choke. This all didn’t hurt as much as it did wear her out. She could only prop herself up for so long, once in a while dropping a little to rest her legs, cutting off circulation to her head. She breathed deeply as her face turned red from the strain. But the real pain was all in her mind. She felt empty, alone, and hopeless. She didn’t even know if she wanted a rescue now.

‘Things can’t go back to the way they used to be…’

All her life she had doubted herself. It was true, what Chrysalis said, she did fail all three applications to Celestia’s school in Canterlot. She just wasn’t good enough.

Inadequate.

That’s what the rejection letters all read. Her father never let her read them, for fear she’d give up trying all together. She silently wept through soulless eyes as she struggled with her noose. Her father really did love her, for whatever she was worth. There was somepony who cared about her unconditionally. And she had gotten him captured by some demonic witch.

Unconditionally.

What was her condition? Who was Starlight Glimmer? A failure? Starlight wanted to believe otherwise, but beliefs and aspirations just don’t suffice in favor of cold hard evidence at the end of the day. And Chrysalis provided her with lots of it.

‘How did she know so much about me?’

Chrysalis seemed to be almost obsessed with Starlight, she knew exactly what emotions to exploit to break her down. It scared her, that anypony could and would do that to somepony else. Starlight still believed she was wrong for all of her time travel and indoctrination sins of the past. What Chrysalis had convinced her of was that her existence really did mean nothing in the end. She had truly failed in every endeavor, her most well-known accomplishments being those of her evil past, not her reformed present. There was a great, heavy pain in Starlight’s heart. She had struggled so long all her life to build a dam to block out those negative, self-deprecating, angry emotions, and Chrysalis just opened it. There was no hope to escape this dark cave, this relentless torment. Because, did she really deserve to escape? Isn’t this what she deserves?

I deserve it.

Those were the words Chrysalis had gotten her to say back when this all started. She had already admitted it. Now she believed Chrysalis wasn’t insane, just a sociopath.

‘So, still insane, I guess.’

She chuckled to herself. That was all she had left, herself. Spinning in circles as her noose tightened, standing on the tips of her burning hooves in a prison cell, in the side of a wall of a cave, in a place nopony knew about.

‘I was a failure my whole life. But now, I can make it better.’

She closed her eyes in a final admission of defeat. Chrysalis was her queen, and she was nothing. Just a worthless pet.

Twilight and company took every safety precaution as they stumbled over descending rocks in the cave path, small animals scurrying into crevices in the ground out of fright for approaching creatures. Shining Armor was deathly focused. He hadn’t lost a pony on a mission in a few moons, this mission had to at least end up a success. Otherwise, he could never forgive himself. At this point, they were about back down at ground level, having descended all the way down through the mountain. They had been walking for a good four hours, mostly silent the whole way, until they came into a larger vestibule within the cave, where other tunnels bled into. By now, Rarity couldn’t take anymore.

“Could we please take a rest? We’ve been going on for hours!” she cried.

Shining Armor rolled his eyes.

“I thought time was of the essence.”

“Well of course, but we wouldn’t want to have to fight Chrysalis when we’re all exhausted...” said Rarity, making Twilight freeze.

“Chrysalis? What are you talking about?!” asked Shining Armor, raising his voice.

“Oops, I meant…”

Twilight jumped in.

“Don’t be mad!”

“You didn’t say Chrysalis would be involved!” he said, targeting his aggression towards his sister as Rarity stepped aside.

“Look, my friend didn’t just disappear, she was ponynapped, by Chrysalis! And there are horrible things being done to her, and we need to help her! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth, but I needed your help to get here!”

“You should’ve told me earlier…” he said stoically, his eyes hidden by shadow as he bowed his head.

“I would’ve told Cadence, then we both could’ve gotten a piece of that bug.”

“You’re...you’re not turning back?”

“Turning back? I hate Chrysalis more than anypony, Twilight, you think I wouldn’t want to help you finish her off?” he said, invigorated.

Twilight smirked and hugged her brother. The crew members were less enthusiastic.

“Hold on, Captain, I see that you are a-okay with being lied to, but I am most certainly not,” said Radish, the scruffy soldier Twilight had saved from falling, “Nopony said anything about having to fight Queen Chrysalis…”

“Yeah,” said Fritz, the scout, joining him. The cartographer too, seemed fearful of that name, and stood near his comrades spitefully.

“It may not come down to a fight, if we’re careful. Our main goal is just to save Starlight…” said Twilight, trying her best to negotiate.

“It’ll be a fight if I can help it…” said Shining Armor, approaching his stallions, who were all standing together in defiance.

“Don’t forget it was Chrysalis that almost killed me and my wife…”

“Not my wife, Captain,” said Radish, through an unkempt beard and rebellious eyes. He was a bit smaller than Shining Armor, had light brown fur, and had a long face, which was covered in a dark brown beard and messy dark brown hair. Shining Armor took what he said as an insult.

“Doc died for us to make it here...you’re going to let him die for nothing?”

Radish took a moment, glancing at the floor in a brief spit of shame, before resuming his defiant posture. Fritz and the cartographer let him do the talking.

“I do miss that old stallion dearly, Captain, I do, but...this is Queen Chrysalis we’re talking about, if...if she’s…”

His voice trailed off as he noticed the others tense up. Silence filled the cave. The ponies all stopped moving, looking around. They had all heard something, some kind of noise. Shining Armor glared at Radish, who picked up his spear from the ground gently, in preparation. Shining Armor slowly nodded and glanced back at Twilight. The sound they heard was like a dull vibrating, and seemed to come from very far away in the cave, down one of the tunnels that led into the vestibule. Twilight took a moment before she could confidently confirm the noise to be what she feared.

“Everypony hide! Now!” she whispered commandingly.

They did, avoiding stepping in a large puddle of water on the ground, scurrying around the room looking for places to hide, behind any rock large enough. Twilight waited for everypony to get situated before she herself tried to hide, but found there was no place. Fritz, on the other side of the room, also had no place to hide. Twilight was in full panic mode as Shining Armor peered over and saw the shadow of a pony-like creature approaching. Twilight, seeing as there was no time and no place to hide, went to her last resort. She shot a spell at Fritz and then herself, making both completely invisible. It took Fritz a moment to understand what just happened. Invisible, he scooted towards a wall and lied against it, while Twilight crouched near another rock, both completely unnoticeable. A few seconds passed as the noise of buzzing wings grew louder, and louder, until it felt as though it was right inside everypony’s ear. Twilight silently let her mouth drop as none other than Queen Chrysalis herself flew into the vestibule, where all seven ponies were hidden. Sweat dripped from Shining Armor’s face onto the stone. Chrysalis paused in the cave. Something was...off.

She sniffed around, then glanced around, then stopped flying, putting all four hooves on the ground.

Shining Armor knew in his heart it was her, but couldn’t risk moving his head to see, for fear of being caught. The urge to just blast her to pieces and get it over with was killing him, but he knew Twilight had other plans.

Chrysalis began walking around the vestibule, a confused scowl on her face.

She smelled ponies, nopony in particular, just the general smell. Yet, she saw nothing. She shook her head.

‘It’s still early, Chrysalis.’

She remembered she was already late for where she was heading and didn’t have time to waste snooping around some dusty old cave, and continued flying, but through a different tunnel than the one the ponies came through. Everypony remained frozen for a little while, until the buzzing noise subsided completely. Twilight blasted Fritz and herself, making them seeable again.

“It’s safe, everypony...That was close,” she said, exhausted from having to cast two invisibility spells on top of every other magical feat she’s had to perform today.

All the ponies came out from their hiding places, still frightened.

“That was so scary!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie. “I mean, she was this close to seeing me!”

“You turned me invisible! That was amazing!” said Fritz, who was chalk-full of adrenaline.

“Hopefully we won’t have to use it again,” said Twilight, stoically.

Shining Armor approached Radish again, who seemed a bit shook up.

“So, still feel like leaving?”

Radish glanced up at him. He was more than a few inches shorter, and had no dominance in the situation. Radish looked at everypony else, all staring directly at him.

“I’m with ya.”

“Good.”

Shining Armor grabbed his shoulder in appreciation, both smiling at each other like brothers. He turned back to the others.

“Alright, we know Chrysalis came out of that tunnel there,” he said, pointing at the one they weren’t planning on going through.

“So now we need to know if she was coming from her lair or going to her lair...Plat?”

Plat, the cartographer, was already studying his map. He was a red pony with spectacles and a full head of dark red hair. He was older than everypony else, but not by too much. He had a distinct, nasally voice.

“According to thisguide, that tunnel actually goes right off the cliff face, outside…”

“Wouldn’t she fall off?” asked Fritz, not having been paying attention.

“She can fly you know,” said Pinkie Pie condescendingly, happy to contribute.

“So the way she came probably leads back to her lair,” stated Shining Armor.

“Most likely. Or at least to someplace that will give us a clue.” confirmed Plat.

“We better hurry then, we don’t know how long she’ll be gone,” said Rarity.

“Rarity’s right, this may be our only chance for all we know,” said Twilight.

The group gathered their things and proceeded in a line down the tunnel.

“Everypony stay quiet, we need to hear if she comes back…” said Shining Armor.

“And if she does?” asked Rarity, nervously.

“Twilight will have to use that invisibility spell, seems convenient enough, definitely more convenient than hiding behind some rocks.”

Twilight nodded, but was secretly a little unsure. She hoped she would have the power to cast seven invisibility spells repeatedly. Teleporting everypony up here was tiring enough, then having to fly ponies to safety through the thick snow, then the mental stress of the Doctor’s death, now the pressure of time...it was getting to be too much.

‘It’s all for Starlight,’ she thought, promising herself this would end up okay.

‘I should be rejoicing. Now we have a definite lead to where Starlight is.’

The group moved at a faster pace, in single file. First Shining Armor, then Radish, then Plat, then Rarity, then Pinkie Pie, then Fritz, and in the back Twilight, who would constantly turn her head backwards to look out for Chrysalis. She felt motivated, more than ever before on the journey. She smiled to herself. This was going to work out, Starlight would be saved, and everything would be fine.

Hopefully.