A tale of Starlight

Chapters

01. A letter and the disappearance of a certain Princess Twilight Sparkle
02. Information and the Journey ahead
03. In the Crystal Empire
04. North, further, much further than anypony before
05. Giant Claws
06. The northern abyss
07. Magic sickness

01. A letter and the disappearance of a certain Princess Twilight Sparkle

Chapter 1

A letter and the disappearance of a certain princess Twilight Sparkle

“She’s… gone?” The question echoed through the hallways of the friendship school. Starlight asked outloud as a couple of students stared. Trixie herded them away as the headmare walked into her office, the messenger pony having delivered the letter leaving. Trixie soon joined Starlight in the office.

“What do you mean she’s gone?” asked Trixie.

“Just that.” A defeated sigh followed the reply as Starlight laid against her desk, covering her face with her hooves. Magic enveloped the letter as Trixie Lulamoon levitated it so that she could read it.

“Dear Starlight Glimmer, it is not hard to tell and to bring this news to you… yadda yadda, formal speech and whatnot… Ah! Earlier today a powerful and sudden magical discharge enveloped the royal quarters of the Canterlot palace, more specifically the bedroom of the Princess of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle.” Trixie looked towards Starlight. “Really?” Starlight looked on the verge of crying as she finally lifted her face to look at her friend. “Do they really need to take so long to say that Twilight is missing after an explosion?”

Starlight looked dumbfounded for a second. “T-trixie! Princess Twilight is dead!”

Trixie looked unamusedly at her friend. “Reeeeeeaaally? Twilight Sparkle? Princess of friendship and element of magic? THE Twilight Sparkle?” Starlight stared for a second, unable to comprehend. With a sigh Trixie continued. “Must I spell it out for you?” She wrapped her hooves around her friend and showed her the letter. “A magical discharge and explosion. If Twilight herself didn’t cause it then it’d take much more than that to get rid of the princess.”

Ignoring Trixie’s choice of words, Starlight thought for a second as her magic took hold of the letter, giving it one last read. “Trixie… YOU’RE RIGHT!” Trixie beamed.

“Of course I’m right, I’m the grrrreat and powerful-AH!” Suddenly assaulted by a hug from the headmare, she stopped.

“Twilight can’t be gone!” Starlight exclaimed once she broke the hug. “Something must’ve happened. A spell gone wrong. Maybe she attempted a high level teleportation spell from the ancient manuscripts and misread the ancient equestrian? I’ve told her many times to never try those without me or Starburst to help her out with it!” She was now pacing the room, thoughtful. “But what to do now?”

“Maaaaaybe go to the palace and scan the magical output that remains from the discharge?” Trixie nonchalantly said, spinning a hoof. “If it was that big then the-“

“There’s bound to be enough left to analyze and discover what the spell did!” Hugging her friend again, Starlight interrupted. “Trixie, you’re a genious!”

“Yeeesss… Can’t… breathe…. Ugh…” Trixie finally inhaled dramatically as Starlight ran around the office, grabbing scrolls, her saddlebags and essentials. “What are you doing?”

Without stopping, Starlight said “Getting all I need. I have no idea how long I’ll be in Canterlot and I must pack the essentials.” Trixie was unsure but nodded slowly.

“Oooookay… And who’ll run the school once you’re gone?”

Starlight stopped. “Well… you, of course.”

Chuckling Trixie shook her head. “But Starlight, I won’t be able to because…” She stopped and muttered “pause for dramatic effect…” She jumped on the desk as a firework went off behind her, scattering some papers meant for grading. “I! The grrrrrreat and powerful Trrrrrrrixie!” she went down from her desk, Starlight being used to her antics simply seeing the charred papers with a slight feeling of impassiveness. “Will be coming with you!” Trixie said, hugging Starlight.

“But, ah…” Starlight sighed. “Alright,” she said with a smile. “I’ll send a letter to starburst to come and help out with the school.” She rapidly wrote a couple of letters and proceeded to close and seal them, putting them on a basket on the desk. “These should do it.” She approached Trixie. “Ready?”

“As ready as I always am, Starlight!”

"Soooo... not ready?" Starlight teased. Trixie was about to complain but was interrupted by Starlight's spell.

With a flash and a bright glow, the two disappeared leaving a smell of smoke behind as a confused student walked into the office, wondering what had just happened…

Author's Note

Info concerning future chapters:

The Symphonic Poem that accompanies this story will be linked on the title of the chapter or at the part of the chapter that the piece of music takes place. Just click the chapter title or the piece link and read alongside the music whenever the chapter has a piece that accompanies it!

Enjoy!! :twilightsmile:

02. Information and the Journey ahead

Chapter 2

Information and a journey ahead

“…the reconstruction of the…” flash and a humph as the guard collapsed under the weight of two mares.

“Oh! Sorry!” Starlight said stepping off. Trixie took a second to realize, smirked for a second and got off as well. “There’s usually no creature standing in this…” she looked around, seeing the sky and a wall that was supposed to be there… gone… “…corner.” Trixie chuckled.

“No worries ma’am.” The guard stood up and looked at a large pony next to them.

Princess Celestia stood there, a slight smirk at what had just happened. Starlight and Trixie both bowed rapidly with Celestia laughing out loud after failing to contain herself at their surprise. “No need for that, Starlight, Trixie,” she said as she composed herself. Her face turned sour as she followed up with “I believe you are both here due to the letter that was sent?”

Starlight nodded and retrieved it from her saddlebags. “Yes princess.” Celestia smiled sadly as she gestured for the guard to leave them for the time being. “We came as soon as we could.” Trixie shook her head.

“Starlight had a breakdown and it took me, the great and powerful Trixie, to bring her to her senses.” Starlight blushed slightly. “What would she do without me,” Trixie said teasingly, but a clear and true smile as she poked her friend playfully.

“Har har… what would I do without you indeed,” Starlight replied whilst rolling her eyes. “But yeah, we came to see what we could analyze from the magical residue left by the magical discharge.” Celestia nodded and gestured for them to follow. As the moved down what was usually the royal quarters of the palace (now reduced to a ceiling-less walkway with the windows broken and half the tower gone with the other half perilously hanging by what seemed like an impossible angle and the bare minimum of hurriedly put together building material to keep it from collapsing.

They stopped in front of what was Twilight’s room, now a void that led down to the abyss under Canterlot. “Twilight had been researching a spell that would allow ponies to transport goods halfway across Equestria without the need for extremely long journeys or ridiculous amounts of mana. I believe you suggested the idea at some point, Starlight?”

Starlight scratched her chin momentarily before nodding. “Yes, I remember now. But it was simply implied on a purely theoretical basis. The possibility of said spell is too ridiculous to even consider seriously.” Trixie peaked down the abyss, seeming to dare herself to see how far she could stretch before retreating and whistling in boredom. Starlight and Celestia ignored it. “To think that she actually began to research that… Why didn’t she consult me?”

02. The letter and a journey Ahead

Celestia sighed. “I’m sure she had her reasons. Maybe in her mind this was simply a side project, and nothing important that required to distract you from your duties as headmare. She mentioned this little project to me once or twice, which is how I know of it and of the possibility of this being related to that. It was only but two days ago when she mentioned she was close to developing a spell that could allow large amounts of matter to be transported. The largest indication to this is the lack of debris from the tower. It appears the magic didn’t just break the tower, but disappeared it.”

“Which would explain the possibility of Twilight trying out the spell…” She peaked down the abyss and closed her eyes. Her magic reached out to the environment and she almost felt herself go dizzy at the sudden assault of magical residue. She opened her eyes, her spell dissipating; not having expected so much she had been taken by surprise. Celestia looked worriedly at her.

“Are you alright?”

With a nod, the purple mare nodded. “Yeah… I just…” she inhaled and exhaled slowly to compose herself. “I just was not expecting this much magical residue. Only an extremely powerful spell would leave so much…” She closed her eyes again.

Prepared for it now, she slowly unfurled her magical reach, feeling the magic around her as her mind began to analyze the feelings it gave her. It felt extremely similar to when she teleported, and possessed a similar smell, faint charcoal and a metallic sort of flavor in the mouth. It was amplified, however. It definitely implied the spell had been much more powerful than a simple teleportation spell, and the spell seemed to contain many more feelings that indicated it wasn’t just a teleportation spell. Maybe Twilight had misinterpreted it and the spell she had uncovered or developed had more than just teleportation purposes?

She was about to retract her magic when she felt it. Her magical signature.

“T-Twilight?” she muttered; her eyes still closed, her magic reached towards that familiar feeling.

“Star…light…” Faint whisper.

Suddenly, her mind went blank and just as sudden fast flashed crossed her thoughts. An ocean. Mountains. Griffons. Ponies but… larger. Horse, yes, they were horses. And there, at the end, a familiar purple pony. Before she could do anything with that information, she was kicked backwards by a sudden magical flow. Her body was sent flying, a loud thud as she hit the wall on the other side of the ruined hallway.

“Starlight!” Trixie shouted as she rushed towards her friend. Celestia also went, concern written clearly across her face. Starlight’s eyes were moving fast underneath her eyelids until she suddenly opened her eyes. She stared blankly as Trixie moved her hoof in front of her friend’s face. “Hello? Equus to Starlight?”

“I saw her!” Starlight rapidly stood up, feeling her body disbalance for a second as she regained her senses.

Celestia leaned a wing to keep her stable. “Are you alright?” her motherly voice asked with deep concern.

Nodding, starlight replied “Yes, being pulled out violently like that from a magical scanning spell is… not pleasant. It will take a few minutes for my senses and my body to readjust but apart from that I’ll be fine. However, that’s not important!” She looked at Celestia. “I saw Twilight. And she needs help.”

“Where is she?” Celestia’s voice still sounded concerned, but now excitement seemed to be filling in as well.

“She’s…” Starlight closed her eyes. The final picture she had received had been the map in Twilight’s castle. Maybe the map would help? “I have to get to Twilight’s castle. Maybe the map has some clues we could use.”

“And how do you know?” Trixie asked, unsure.

“I just feel it.” Convinced, Starlight looked at the two. “I’m going to be heading there. Where are the rest of our friends?” She hadn’t gotten to speak with the other five about this and they were by now most likely notified.

Celestia unfurled her wings. “I’ll gather them there. My sister will join us as well.” Starlight nodded as Celestia took off.

Starlight approached Trixie. “Ready?”

Trixie looked worriedly at Starlight. “You know… those teleportation spells aren’t good for you. You should use them long distance so much.” Starlight rolled her eyes.

“It’s an emergency! Come on. No time to lose!”

Flash. They’re gone.

Arriving to the castle, Starlight took a few moments as she gasped for air, half collapsing onto her friend. Trixie looked worriedly as her friend finally stood back up again, resolve on her face.

“Let’s go.” Her voice was resolute. Sure of herself. They would find out from the map and get Twilight back. Trixie, who had been previously smug and sure of herself (as always) did not seem as convinced.

“Err… Starlight, I really don’t want to be the party pooper here but,” they crossed the hallways and reached the door to the map room. “…are you certain the map will tell us? Maybe it’s not something you want to hear. What if she’s too far away from our reach, or worse?”

Opening the door, she stopped to look at Trixie. “Trixie, you don’t understand.” She looked down. “Twilight is not just my friend. She’s my mentor, she taught me friendship and I grew thanks to her. I cannot let her be gone. She could be in danger, alone, lost… and I cannot let that be. Not when there’s a chance, even if small, of saving her.” Starlight resumed her trot and stopped on the map next to Twilight’s chair. “Now… What will this table tell me now.” She scanned the map. It seemed as normal as always. Having not called them in years for friendship problems, it had sat there, abandoned except for the occasional meeting held there instead of Canterlot. It was, truthfully, sad in some ways. Reminding her of the past, and how much things had changed now. Twilight’s vanishing had only brought her memories from the times where they used to have more adventures and things would be happening all over the time.

In a guilty way, she felt excitement for the first time in many, many years…

Flash!

Pulling her from her thoughts, she stared at the map, which was doing something on the very edge, to the northeast. She ran to that side of the map and stared. The map was shining faintly there, but it seemed as if the map wanted to go…

“Further…” Trixie muttered. “The map wants us to go further…”

Starlight nodded. The map was telling them about it, but it was unable to give them the exact location. That meant they were meant to go further than the reaches of Equestria. Trixie was looking at her flank, to which Starlight finally noticed a faint shining on her cutie mark. She slowly turned and saw the same on her own. It wasn’t a vibrant shine and movement as when friendship problems used to happen, but rather… as if it were having soft heartbeats, barely managing to show themselves. It was similar to the light. It wasn’t showing them their cutie marks on the map, but rather a faint light.

“What do you think this means?” Trixie asked uncertain. “The map doesn’t work like this, does it? It hasn’t even worked properly in years!”

With a curious glare and some uncertainty on her mind, she thought of what to reply for a second. Starlight hadn’t seen that happen before. “I think it means we’re going far.” She looked at Trixie after looking at the map. “Very far.”

As she finished her thoughts, the doors sounded loudly as familiar ponies walked into the room. The two mares looked at the door as Celestia walked in, Luna in tow. The lack of five other mares was immediately noticed by Starlight.

“W-where are…?”

“They’re off.” Celestia said as Luna nodded solemnly.

Trixie almost shouted “They’re off?!” Everypony looked at her. “No, don’t look at me like I’m exaggerating. We have the map here telling US where to go! And they just LEFT?!”

“Trixie!” Starlight said. “Calm down!”

The showmare noticed her horn glowing, sparks coming out as she had lost her temper. She looked apologetically, having realized her outburst.

“Why didn’t they come here first?” Starlight asked, confused. “The map!” She pointed. “It’s telling us where to go!”

Celestia shook her head. “Discord.”

Both mares looked confused. “Dis…cord?” Starlight asked.

“Yes, Discord. He appeared as I was rounding them all up and said he would help. He claimed he had received a message of help from Twilight and that he needed them all for that. They all agreed and left with him. They can be in Yakyakistan by now for all I know.” Luna replied to Starlight’s question, taking a step forward. The displeasure in both was evident, as well as their confusion at the fact that that had happened.

“Well…” Trixie pointed at the map. “It’s telling us to go there… Should we gooooo or…”

Celestia nodded. She looked at Starlight. “Starlight.” she then turned to Trixie. “Trixie.” She unfurled her wings, determination on her face. “I want you to find Twilight, protect her friends and come back. I don’t know if Discord is being truthful about this, but this is all too suspicious to me. I trust you both to get this done and find her. Luna and I will remain in Canterlot and resume our duties until Twilight’s return. I can only hope it won’t be a long journey, but I have total confidence in you both.” She smiled warmly as she closed her wings once again.

Starlight bowed and nodded as she looked between the two princesses. “We will do this. We will find her!” Trixie nodded.

“The grrreat and powerrrful Trrrixie won’t let the princesses of Equestria down. She’s too great for letting down others.” She winked at Stalight who chuckled. The two princesses joined in the chuckle.

“Be safe, you two. Please keep in touch, don’t lose faith and trust in friendship. I’m sure we will see each other again soon.” The two princesses hugged the two mares, who were surprised at first but replied in kind. Once they broke the hug, Starlight nodded.

She inhaled and exhaled, feeling the pressure of the task build up. She had hoped to do this with the others, but it appears they were going to be alone for this. “We’ll go pack and head to the station. There’s a train that leaves in an hour to the crystal empire. I’m sure We can continue our journey north from there. And I can say hi to a dear friend.”

With that, the two left the room. They felt as the princesses teleported away, probably back to the palace in Canterlot to resume their duties.

“Starlight…” came Trixie’s voice. Starlight had been so inside her head that she hadn’t noticed Trixie behind her stagger for a bit.

She stopped and looked at her friend. “What is it, Trixie? We can’t wait longer. We’ve got to pack quick!”

The light blue mare nodded. “I know, I know, but shouldn’t we think about this further? It’ll be far. It won’t be like the time we went together to fix a friendship problem. We may not…” she stopped and sighed. “We may not come back,” she said weakly.

Noticing her friend, Starlight hugged her. “We will come back! It’s going to be an adventure, and once we find Twilight it’ll be even easier to return. You and me together, we’re unstoppable!” Trixie smiled and nodded.

“Well,” she said, hiding her fears once again. “with me on the team we cannot go wrong.” Starlight smiled as her friend returned to normal. Trixie had resumed walking, leaving Starlight slightly behind. “Well, What are you waiting for! Let’s go! No time to lose and all that.”

Starlight chuckled and followed her friend. A journey remained ahead of them, and they were about to take the first step…

03. In the Crystal Empire

Chapter 3

In the Crystal Empire

The train whistled as the announcement was made through the speakers of their arrival to the Crystal Empire. Trixe had been asleep for a big part of the three-day journey, with Starlight being awake most of the time. The tired Starlight woke up Trixie as the train came to a stop and all the ponies around them began to grab their luggage and head out to the station. Trixie yawned and stretched as she opened her eyes.

“Have we arrived?” she asked sleepily.

With a nod, the purple mare got up and grabbed her small saddlebag. She had chosen to travel light. Trixie stood up and the two got off the train. The wind was chilly, as it usually felt so north. While no snow was present due to the protective magic that the crystal heart created, it was still colder most of the year than the rest of Equestria, and the seasonal changes were much less noticeable as the heart kept a steady and consistent ‘season’ all year.

“Let’s go get your cart and we can head towards the palace,” Starlight said. Trixie nodded as they saw two worker ponies unloading her beloved tour cart. They approached the cart with Trixie inspecting it, making sure all was safely in place and no harm had come to it during the journey. She had wanted to travel in it all the way from ponyville, but the need to arrive sooner to the empire had made them choose the train instead after a short debate. Thankfully, the train had an option to load the cart into the cargo compartments and they had managed to bring it along. It would definitely help them as they went further north into unexplored and uncharted territory.

“Is everything fine, Trixie?”

With a nod, the showmare unlocked the cart and walked inside. Starlight followed, seeing how much bigger it looked without all the show props. While Trixie had agreed to part from some of her magic show props, she had brought a couple of ones she claimed were going to be a necessity. A couple of fireworks, smoke bombs, and other things Starlight hadn’t bothered to ask about still remained inside the cart, but sleeping inside would be much more comfortable. With the light travel choices of Starlight, the cart felt like an entirely different space than when they had travelled together all those years ago.

“I just wish I could’ve brought everything,” Trixie lamented. “Who knows how many unexpected possibilities I could get of throwing an improvised show, and I won’t be able to give the best show I can without all my equipment and props!” Starlight patted her friend lightly on the head.

“It’s for the best of our mission. Once we return, we definitely should go on a looooong trip with all of your props!”

Trixie smiled. “Alright, on to the palace!” They both exited the cart as Trixie strapped it unto her back and they trotted towards the palace. While Starlight had seen the crystal empire, Trixie had never seen it in person. She marveled at the buildings and looked in amazement at the palace. “You never told me it was THIS splendid!” She looked around. “I would’ve come here to throw a show if I’d known it was this amazing! Imagine how EPIC it would look with a show by the great and powerful Trixie!” She paced under the palace central courtyard, admiring the heart for a few seconds as Starlight recalled all the events that had happened there, and wondering how Sunburst would be when he saw her.

They reached the entrance of the palace, being let in by the crystal guards who promised to keep a lookout for Trixie’s cart. After a slight warning about making sure nothing happened to the cart from the showmare, both proceeded to enter the palace. Just as the door closed, Princess Cadence greeted them.

“Starlight, Trixie!” She smiled warmly. “Celestia sent me a letter about you coming and explaining what had happened. I promise I will do all I can and is within my power to help you find her.” She looked down. “I wish I could join you but the crystal empire needs both myself and my husband… Now that Twilight disappeared, we are on high alert just in case something happens.”

Starlight chuckled nervously. “With the empire’s track record, it wouldn’t come as a surprise…” Cadence nodded. “But! I am sure nothing will happen! Haha… ha…” Starlight added with nervous laugher as she noticed the tense aura the room got at her joke.

“Starlight!” Sunburst ran and hugged her friend as the unicorn arrived to the entrance hall, having obviously been running there from wherever he had been in the palace previously. Starlight hugged him back. “I heard it all from princess Cadence. If there’s anything I can do, I shall do it.”

“Thanks Sunburst.” Starlight smiled as they broke the hug. “It’s nice to know we’re not entirely alone after all of Twilight’s friends disappeared with Discord.

Trixie groaned. “Why would that draconeequs even mess with things now, either way? He never helps out. Not properly, anyway.”

Sunburst looked confused. “Isn’t he a friend? He probably heard what happened and had to help out.” Everyopony looked unsure.

“But regardless, we understand you are going on your own way to make sure that the lead that you had from the map is looked into, right?” Cadence added.

Both Trixie and Starlight nodded.

“We will make sure that the train route to the north is opened tomorrow for you two to go as north as possible without having to tire yourselves. I’m afraid we can’t do much further north since Yakyakistan territory begins and we can’t go in there without causing some sort of tension.”

“But I thought everycreature is friends now?” Trixie asked.

Starlight cleared her throat, having had to explain that to many ponies and other creatures before. “Not exactly. While the friendship school has definitely managed to reinforce ties between various different races of creatures, it has not reached the point of making nations not have conflicts here and there. Politics are a bit more complicated than just having the young ones become friends. However, once the young ones take over then things will definitely be much easier.”

Cadence nodded as Trixie mouthed oh showing she understood.

“I’m sure the yaks know and will help you both in your journey north. However, from what I understand their infrastructure isn’t as developed and it’s only going to get harder once you leave the Crystal Empire’s railway system.” Sunburst added that as he handed them a map. Starlight unrolled the map as Trixie peeked behind her. “This is the most update map of the northlands that we have. While we haven’t managed to explore too deep into Yakyakistan itself, we do have some points further than the country of the yaks itself. The northern border of Yakyakistan isn’t properly defined by them either, from what we managed to gather. While I’m sure they’ll be able to guide you to the place you need to go, they don’t have the most reliable maps. This one includes all we know, all they Yaks have told us, and even some more information that comes from legends and word of mouth that could be true, could be false. It’s all marked in it so you know what type of information you are looking in the map.”

“This… this map gives me a headache.” Trixie complained this as she rubbed her head. Starlight rolled the map and placed it on her saddlabags.

She bowed at Cadence and smiled at Sunburst. “Thank you for this map. It’s definitely going to help us in our journey and save us a lot of trouble. I’m sure you dedicated a lot of effort into it, Sunburst.”

Sunburst scratched his neck nervously as he nodded. “A little bit, yeah.”

“You can sleep here tonight, and tomorrow early morning you can take the train north. It will be a day and a half ride north. Once you reach the last station, it is my understanding that an envoy from the Yaks will be waiting to help you cross the country.”

Starlight was surprised at the last part that Cadence had revealed to them. “I thought Yaks were hard to deal with for help like this.”

Cadence nodded. “They usually are. But they were more than joyful to help the headmare of the friendship school they cherish so much.”

“The friendship school? Our school? They cherish?” Trixie asked confusedly.

“They seem to find the idea of friendship extremely well. They’re eager to meet you, Starlight. And of course, you too Trixie.” Trixie puffed her chest in pride. Starlight could imagine her going inside her mind, chanting her name over and over again with imaginary fireworks and dramatic air under her cape.

“I’m afraid that’s all we can do. Sunburst insisted that he wanted to join you, but we sadly need him here in case trouble arises.” Cadence’s words made Starlight frown slightly.

“I was really hoping you could come…”

Sunburst nodded sadly. “Me as well… But I have a position that’s too important to just leave unattended. The problems of being the really important and definitely real royal mage, I suppose.” The two chuckled, remembering how he had invented that as the two reunited for the first time all those years ago.

“I’d say that everyone should go rest, a long journey will come for you two and this will probably be the last good sleep you can get in a while. Sunburst will show you to your rooms, as I have to go check the borders again to make sure nothing abnormal is happening. My husband has been out looking for anything, but his mind is too preoccupied on her little sister so my help is required.” They bid their goodbyes to Cadence as she left them. Sunburst guided them to their room and wished them goodnight.

Another day over in their adventure, and it already felt like they were so far away from home. Soon, they’d be where no pony had been before, trekking unknown places. And with those thoughts, both mares fell asleep, resting for what laid ahead…

Author's Note

This new chapter is accompanied as well by The leter and a journey ahead. I hope you guys enjoy and I'll try and update soon :twilightsmile:

04. North, further, much further than anypony before

Chapter 4

North, further, much further than anypony before

“Thank you for coming with us, Sunburst.”

Starlight smiled as her friend nodded and apologetically added “I wish I could join you for the expedition though. I was allowed only up to the last station. After that, I can only wish you the best.” He sighed. “I just wish I could go.”

“Do not worry at all, Sunburts. The great and powerful Trixie will keep Starlight safe. I always do!” she proudly proclaimed. Starlight smiled and nodded.

“There, I’ll be safe. We will all be. I also wish you could come but you have responsibilities here.

Sunburst sighed as he nodded. “Very well.” The train whistle sounded across the cabins as the train finally came to a stop. Starlight peeked outside, opening the curtains. It was quite dark, with the clear sign of a snowstorm around them. She could barely see a few feet ahead, with the lights of the station approaching rapidly. Trixie joined her in looking outside the window, as the two wondered how hard their journey would be the further they travelled.

“Are you sure about this Starlight?” Trixie said, forcing herself to not sound scared while clearly being at least slightly concerned. “Why don’t we just head back now? The crystal empire looked comfortable, lots of ponies to entertain, a comfortable room in a palace to sleep in? We can always continue the trip next week! A relaxing rest before the journey?” she finished, a nervous smile showing.

Starlight smiled. “Is the great and powerful Trixie scared?” Trixie’s face showed Starlight her choice of words had proven useful.

The blue mare scoffed as she looked away. “Me?! The great and powerful Trixie is NEVER scared. I was just… saying.” Starlight chuckled as the train came to a stop. The howling of the wind echoed around the cabin, rocking slightly with the wind.

The three ponies went down from the train, feeling the cold cover their bodies as soon as they stepped off. The wind and the snow made it hard to look forward, but Starlight managed to see a couple of Yaks that seemed to be waiting. Most likely the envoy sent by the Yaks to help them on their journey north. Looking to her left, she saw the crystal ponies busy unloading Trixie’s cart from the train and bringing it over.

Noticing the ponies, the Yaks approached with the largest one taking the lead. They stopped as they finally stood a few feet apart. Starlight smiled (as much as she could while being attacked relentlessly by snow and wind and cold) and introduced herself.

“H-hi! I am Starlight Glimmer, this is Trixie Lulamoon and the crystal mage, Sunburst.”

The lead Yak looked at them for a few seconds before replying as he stomped on the ground. “I am Darko! Prince sent me to escort north!” The rest of the Yaks stomped as he said north. “North perilous! Ponies do not survive.” He said, seeming to ignore the straightforwardness of his statement. Starlight smiled nervously. “But Yaks will protect! Yaks best at protecting!” The chorus of Yaks erupted in agreement. Darko stomped and all the yaks fell silent. “However, I will ask. Ponies sure?”

Trixie turned to Starlight. “Let’s head back home? Pleeeeeeeeease?”

Starlight sighed. “I want to, but we don’t have much of a choice…” She looked at Darko. “We are sure. Please, help us in our journey.” Trixie shivered, for cold or fearfulness, it wasn’t clear. Sunburst simply looked at Starlight, concern in his eyes.

“Ponies have spoken, then!” Stomp. “We will go north.” Stomp. “Ten day journey, very cold, very wet. Many monsters.” Stomp. He turned to the rest of the Yaks. “NORTH!” Together all the yaks chanted north a couple of times as Darko turned to Starlight. “We go. Night is dangerous.”

Trixie sighed as she began to set the saddle for her cart on her back. Starlight turned to Sunburst. “Well… that went well, right?”

Sunburst simply looked at Starlight, seriousness clear on his face. “Are you sure about this Starlight?”

“Well, what do you think?” Starlight replied exasperated. She groaned as she shivered and felt the intense cold. “I don’t want to go. I Just want to be back in the school, teaching young minds about friendship.” She began to think about all the little ones wanting help as exams approached right around the corner. “My office would be lined with all sorts of creatures wanting advice, I’d refer them to Trixie since I would’ve been too busy making sure everything was ready for the tests ahead.” She smiled. “Twilight knew this so every year she sends me an invitation to have tea with her once a week in the palace. She knows I don’t need a formal canterlot invitation, but she still does it to show me that I have both my friend and the ruler of Equestria to help me.” She looked down. “Now Twilight depends on me. I have to go. I cannot turn back, not when I’m so close to reaching the edge of the map.”

Unclasping his cloak, Sunburst gently placed it around his friend. Starlight immediately felt warm, much lighter and… safe.

“I… I enchanted this cloak. It has protective spells. You won’t be cold, nor hot, it will help dampen the hit against any non-magical objects that may hit you and will let me know if you are well.”

Starlight looked at it and tried to get it off as she said “Nonononono, I cannot accept this! It’s your precious cloak, and who knows how many years you’ve been working on it to add so many protective and complex spells! I could never…”

Placing his hoof on her shoulder, he shook his head. “Take it Starlight, I won’t bring it back with me. But you must promise me you’ll return it. I have more experiments to do with it and it better not even be dusty!” he said, ending in a joking manner with a slight smile on his face. Starlight simply nodded, unsure if she should insist more. However, the warmth and feeling of safety it gave her was highly reassuring.

“Ponies must hurry. Longer the wait, darker it gets.” Darko exclaimed this loudly, although Starlight noticed a really slight hint of worry. After spending so much time as the teacher in the friendship school, interacting with yaks had allowed her to pick up one or two things about their generally careless and hard to understand behavior. This Yak was not completely certain of something…

Having said their goodbyes, the two mares followed the Yaks into the big expanse of snow and cold. Their first ascent into the mountains north of the crystal empire was hard and extremely complicated, although with the help of the yaks the two mares managed to move at a steady pace. Not but an hour after leaving the train, Trixie got a yak to help her with the cart, as she was finding it incredibly difficult to move in the treacherous path without risking dropping the cart with herself in tow down from the cliffside.

As the storm seemed to subside, they arrived at a little valley in between the mountains and Starlight managed to see the stars for the first time since they left the capital of the crystal empire. It had turned to night and she hadn’t even realized it. That meant they had been walking almost nonstop for at least 8 hours now, and her hooves were no particularly happy about walking on the snow. Noticing the stars, Trixie (who by this time had managed to convince a yak to carry her) seemed to be lost in thought for a second. She thanked the yak as she jumped off and walked next to Starlight, who was panting and barely able to think much of the sky above.

(0.3 Light of the Stars)

“Starlight… look up.” Trixie’s voice wasn’t worried, but rather had a hint of awe and wonder that Starlight had never heard her friend utter before. She stopped in order to be able to focus on looking up, her brain being extremely tired from all the walking and the cold.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Green, purple, yellow… a multitude of colors dance above them, lighting up the night sky. The stars, much clearer than she had ever seen before, seemed to give as much light as the moon itself did. The constellations, now in entirely different positions, had the clearest forms the school headmare had ever seen in her life.

With a playful chuckle, Trixie booped her friend and closed her opened mouth, which she had opened in awe without noticing. “You can close your mouth now.” Starlight looked at Trixie.

“This is…” Starlight stopped, thinking for a word.

“Beautiful?” said Trixie, completing Starlight’s sentence.

Starlight shook her head. “No, that word cannot describe this beauty enough. Why can’t we see this in Equestria?”

“Because ponies too distracted.”

Both mares hadn’t noticed the lead of the Yaks, Darko, approach them.

“What do you mean by distracted?” Trixie asked.

Darko thought for a second. “I not know. Darko feels it. Ponies not see the sky as Yaks do. Yak sky is best sky!” The common proclamation rang through the small group of travelers, with Starlight looking once more towards the sky.

“You know Darko?” she began. “I think I can agree with that one. It is magnificent.”

Darko was about to reply with a smile on his face when he stopped, his face looking stiff. All the Yaks suddenly got in a circle around Trixie and Starlight, with the Yak pulling Trixie’s cart rapidly unfastening it from himself. No words were uttered as all of this proceeded. Starlight and Trixie uttered confused questions as the Yaks grew still.

“Wha-“

“Shh pony,” Darko exclaimed, albeit uncharacteristically quiet. “Danger.”

(04. Yaks Stomp)

Both Starlight and Trixie’s ears perked up. While the night sky was incredibly bright, it was still much darker than daylight and they could barely see anything mor than a couple dozen feet ahead with a little bit of clarity.

Starlight carefully approached Darko, making sure her hooves made the lightest noise possible. “Darko… what is happening?” Darko did not reply immediately, but rather stoically looked ahead.

After a few tense moments, he replied without taking his eyes off of the distance. “Giant claws.” His reply was as vague as it could’ve been. However, Starlight pressed further.

“What’s a giant claw?”

As soon as her question was over, she heard a low growl, then noticed shadows around them, swiftly moving in a circle. She could barely see, but if she had to guess there were around a dozen of them. She hoped her eyes were playing a trick to her, but seeing Darko stomp once, breaking the silence they had maintained thus far. The other yaks followed in his example, stomping. The snow was soft at first, but the more they stomped, the harder it got as they compressed it and the sound coming from the stomp grew louder and louder. Soon, the stomp was so loud both Trixie and Starlight had to cover their ears.

As painful to their ears as it was, the two mares noticed that the shadows seemed to reconsider, growling once more before fading back into the darkness of the night. While Starlight hadn’t managed to see them in detail, the shadows had given her a clear picture of a possible feline animal. Maybe something similar in size to a panther, or slightly bigger.

The yaks remained stomping for a few minutes more before Darko stopped. Slowly, all the yaks stopped their stomping and, after a few more minutes, stopped staring around and broke their protective circle around the cart.

“No more stopping,” Darko said. “We move now.” The yaks started walking and, as Starlight and Trixie began to walk, they were picked up by two yaks as another one strapped the cart unto his back.

“Huh?” came Starlight’s confused reply at being picked up and placed on Darko’s back. Darko simply looked at the group once more, confirming everyone was good to go as he resumed his walking.

The yak then addressed Starlight. “Ponies slow. Ponies get tired easy, more than yaks.” Starlight was going to reply but was cut off by the big Yak. “For safety, yaks will carry ponies now. No harm to fall on headmare Starlight, said prince Rutherford. And Darko will protect purple pony and purple pony’s blue pony friend.”

Starlight did not reply, but instead shivered as the sky was once again being slowly covered by clouds, limiting the light for them to see. This suddenly seemed to make Starlight’s body subconsciously remember how cold it was, making her hug herself as she felt Sunburst’s cape flutter as the wind picked up slightly. She slowly closed her eyes, not managing to keep herself awake…

Author's Note

Two pieces for this chapter!! I hope you all enjoyed. I'll be updating soon!

05. Giant Claws

Chapter 5

Giant Claws

Soon, they had arrived at a little outpost that appeared to be abandoned. It’s two huts were covered in snow and a large bonfire in the middle seemed to not have been used in many, many months. I had a short fence with one door that seemed more to mark the area of the outpost than to keep anything out.

The yaks visibly relaxed as they arrived within the little outpost, Darko lowering himself to allow the sleepy unicorn to get off. The two mares saw as the yaks began to clear the huts from snow and getting the fire ready. The yaks seemed to know their way around the outpost and everyone set out to do their individual tasks fast and efficiently.

Feeling useless for the time being, Starlight sat down and took out a little notebook, in which she began to scribble. Trixie peeked and asked.

“What are you writing in there?”

“A journal of the trip. I’m sure Twilight will be more than excited to learn anything from what this trip might reveal. That includes the yaks, and whatever we encounter from now on. I don’t recall any mention of giant claws anywhere in the entire canterlot library, and I’m sure I would’ve noticed if something was mentioned in the ponyville one about them. I just want to keep everything logged and ready to present to Twilight.”

Trixie groaned. “Even in a trip to save Twilight, you are thinking about showing off to her.” Starlight looked annoyingly at her friend. “What?! It is true. While I do not think that is a bad idea at all, maybe you should… I don’t know, rest or something like that?”

“No Trixie, I don’t have time for rest. I rested enough on Darko’s back.” Starlight answered as her voice grew slightly impatient and concerned. “The yaks are doing something while we two just stand here doing nothing. I’d feel bad if I weren’t doing anything remotely productive.” She then looked back at the notebook as she scribbled faster. “What will they tell prince Rutherford?” Starlight stopped and grabbed Trixie worriedly as she imitated the Yaks. “Headmare pony is useless. Headmare pony not tough. Yaks not send yaks to friendship school more and declare war on ponies!” She finished with a slightly mad look, her left eye twitching slightly.

“Dooooon’t you think you may be exaggerating…” Trixie said, pushing Starlight off her carefully. “Now, don’t get me wrong. I would worry if we gave them a reason to distrust the great and powe- ahem! The ponies and friendship school. However, I am sure that they won’t think you’re weak, and even less declare war.” She smirked. “I think Twilight’s rubbed off on you a bit too muuuuch.”

Starlight looked at her for a few seconds before sighing. “Ah… You’re right Trixie.” She closed the notebook just as Darko approached.

“Outpost is safe. We rest and move in four hours. Darko asks ponies to join the yaks near bonfire.” Both mares followed the large yak as the fire began to grow. The party of yaks were already sitting around the fire except for one, who seemed to be atop one of the huts looking around, most likely for any danger.

The group remained silent for a few moments before Darko stomped. “Ponies, we now welcome you to Yakyakistan!” Stomp. The rest of the yaks stomped in response. Starlight and Trixie smiled nervously, unsure about replying. Trixie hesitatingly stomped once. “Yaks are sad we cannot show capital to pony friends, but will make sure you are safe crossing yak territory. Perhaps on return, ponies will want to join us in the capital!” Stomp. Stomp reply.

“Yes! We would love to,” Starlight replied smiling. The yaks looked at her, expectantly. She chuckled nervously and looked at Trixie, asking silently for support. Trixie gestured for her to stomp. Starlight did and the yaks replied with a stomp of the own.

Darko smiled. “Ponies get Yaks!” He pulled both mares in for a hug. “You now Darko’s friends.”

“Y-yes,” Trixie replied, barely managing the words as the yak squeezed the air out of them. “Cant- breath-“

The yak let the two go and laid down, with Trixie and Starlight staggering to their seats on the left of the large yak. “Since ponies friends, I will introduced yaks to ponies.” He pointed at the firs yak to his left.

The yak, a smaller but bulkier-looking yak pointed at himself. “I am Bor! Ponies are safe with me,” he proudly stated before sitting down. The next Yak and who appeared to be the only female stood up next. “Zora.” With that, the rest of the Yaks introduced themselves. In total there were 6 yaks: Darko, Bor, Zora, Volo and Kaz, who introduced themselves a brothers while banging their heads in a painful way causing both Starlight and Trixie to flinch, and the one on the roof, Vad. Vad could be seen faintly thanks to the moonlight that occasionally filtered through the thick layer of clouds. He appeared to be the thinner one of the group of yaks from what Starlight remembered when they were travelling earlier.

Starlight smiled. “My name is Starlight Glimmer and this is my friend Trixie. We thank you all very much for your hospitality and for helping us stay safe earlier today.” She then looked at Darko. “What were those creatures?”

“Giant claws. They are vicious beasts. Eat yaks, terrorize the rest,” came Bor’s reply.

Darko nodded. “They live all over yakyakistan. Yaks can beat them; our stomp is powerful. But a lone yak cannot. We are mighty together!” This was awarded by soft thuds as the yaks stomped, albeit much softer as they all appeared tired.

Trixie and Starlight shared the warmth of the bonfire as the yaks slowly drifted to sleep. The two sat closely, trying to feel warm by the fire, but not too warm that it burned. As soon as the yaks appeared to be asleep, Trixie stood up.

“I’m heading to the cart to sleep. We should probably rest.”

Starlight nodded and followed her friend. The two got in and got comfortable, slowly drifting to sleep.

“UP PONIES, UP!”

The loud call from Darko outside the cart woke the two in surprise, with Starlight yelping as she fell off the hammock. Trixie got off and rubbed her eyes. “Couldn’t he have woke us up less, I don’t know… aggressively?”

Starlight looked outside and saw as the yaks seemed to be making the final checks before departing. “I think they actually allowed us to sleep in much longer than we should have.” She yawned as Trixie opened the door and exited the cart. Starlight followed and was soon greeted by a rough wooden plate being handed by Darko.

“Ponies eat now. No time to waste.”

Without saying anything else, Starlight levitated the plate off of the yak’s hooves and looked at what it was. It appeared to be a piece of bread and one leaf. While she wasn’t going to be picky, the leaf made it look extremely depressing. She slowly bit the bread and almost spit it out. While she wasn’t going to be disrespectful to Darko, the bread wasn’t exactly the that far from inedible. Trixie, however, did not have any reservations.

As she gave it the first bite, she looked confused for a second before dropping it on the floor. The yaks looked at her for a second before laughing and continuing what they were doing. Starlight looked confused as she debated between panicking due to her friend possibly offending the yaks or their laughter in response. Darko seemed to notice her confusion and laughed as he roughly head patted her. “Yak travel food can be rough for ponies. Yaks laugh at weak pony.”

Trixie heard that as she huffed and pulled out her own piece of bread from her cart. “You don’t have to be strong to eat that. Just have no idea nor a sense of ta-“ Quickly stopping her, Starlight looked at Darko apologetically, who seemed to not be paying the two mares any attention anymore as he surveyed the outpost getting cleared. Starlight struggled with Trixie as the showmare tried to get Starlight’s magic off her mouth so she could talk. Once Darko was no longer nearby, Starlight release Trixie.

“Hey! That is rude!”

“Sorry Trixie, I just don’t want to offend the Yaks at all. They’re helping us out a lot and who knows what can happen if we were to get them to hate us!” Starlight looked suspiciously around them, with Trixie rolling her eyes.

“Paranoid! That’s what you are!” She then proceeded to stuff the bread in her mouth.

Soon, the group was on its way again. The sun was up and the clouds were gone, but the cold was still there. However, the yaks carried the two ponies on their backs from the start, making Starlight feel useless. Trixie seemed to be enjoying herself, however. She was laying back, as if she were on the beach.

They went on for a few hours, nothing relevant happening. Starlight was making sure to track their location on the map, which seemed to be updating itself magically as they advanced further north. Locations that were wrongly placed or out of date changed around it and a red dashed line seemed to be marking the route they were taking. Starlight thanked Cadence and Sunburst for the map mentally, as it was going to prove to be extremely useful should they need to return without the yaks once they rescued Twilight, and knowing the way they came was going to make it much easier.

Starlight was lost in thought just as she heard Vad, who’d gone scouting ahead earlier, return panting. He exchanged a few words with Darko, who then began to frantically look around. The rest of the yaks began to form a circle as they had done the other night. Starlight and Trixie jumped off the yaks’ back and stood next to the cart, which was now entirely surrounded by the yaks in a protective circle.

“Darko, is it giant claws again?” asked Starlight.

Darko nodded. Right after her question, a deep growl was heard around them. It wasn’t dark anymore, and the sun was shining down brightly allowing her to see as a large feline head covered in white fur come out of a hill. Next to it, other head appeared and, soon, she managed to see around a dozen feline-like white animals running at them. They appeared to be similar to tigers, but much leaner and agile.

However, the thing that caught Starlight’s attention the most was the claws.

Each giant claw sported… well, a set of giant claws on each front paw and another set of smaller (albeit still large) claws on the back ones. The claws appeared to be at least half the length of her own legs, and Starlight couldn’t help but wonder how they didn’t stab each other, or themselves for that matter, as they charged towards them.

“Staaaaarliiiiiiight!” Trixie shouted worriedly as the yaks began to stomp as they had done last night. Starlight readied herself. She knew she could probably stand against one of them. Maybe two, without risking herself. However, the stomping of the yaks seemed to stop them for a second, as they slowed down their charge and began instead to stalk the circle, going around them like a pack of hungry wolves… but instead they were hungry tiger-like felines with giant claws.

The yak’s stomp was thunderous, and Starlight noticed that the giant claws seemed to reconsider and were about to leave again. However, this time one of the giant claws seemed to ignore the stomps and throw itself against Zora. Zora noticed and headbutted the leaping attacker, sending it flying away before landing with a thud on the snow and rising back up again, growling louder. The rest of the giant claws then attacked at once. Starlight gulped.

Most of the giant claws were repelled by the headbutting of the Yaks, who used their larger size and strength to keep the off. Their horns proved to be useful as well, as the giant claws became weary once one of them seemed to get hurt by Darko’s.

Two, however, managed to leap inside the circle. The beast’s original idea seemed to have been to simply attack the yaks from behind, but once it spotted Trixie it licked its lips. A nice meal had presented itself in there, seeming defenseless.

“Oh no you don’t!” Trixie was shaking in fear, and couldn’t possibly fend the giant claw off, so Starlight teleported herself between the two and used a blast of magic to send the giant claw flying away. Just as Trixie was about to thank her, two more giant claws managed to pass the wall of yaks. Starlight readied herself and blasted the first one before they even managed to notice the two ponies inside the circle. The other one quickly turned and growled at her. Starlight prepared another magic blast, but this time the giant claw was faster. With one swipe of its paw, Starlight was sent flying a couple of feet. Trixie looked shocked as the giant claw pulled back its claw.

There was no way Starlight hadn’t been… She saw as Starlight struggle to move and pictured the worst. That claw had definitely hurt her friend! Trixie stopped shaking and levitated a rock that landed roughly on the giant claw’s head, who had gone to give the killing blow on the fallen unicorn. It yelped and instantly turned its head, growling at the blue unicorn. Trixie gulped and focused. She couldn’t let her friend get eaten by a beast like that! Or any beast! As the giant claw charged at her, Trixie prepared her own magic blast.

While Starlight was immensely more powerful than herself, her tutoring had allowed Trixie to become an actual magician. She could perform harder feats and many spells that most common unicorns could not. While a magic blast was not common at all and Starlight had resisted teaching it to her, with enough insistence she had managed to convince her. It was not nearly as powerful, but would certainly do the trick. At least until a yak turned to help.

“You. Won’t. Touch. Even a hair!” Trixie exclaimed, as she struggled to get the blast powered up and remain stable without blasting on her own face. After a second, or what felt like minutes to the showmare, the blast left her horn and managed to land a direct hit on the giant claw. "The great and powerful Trixie shan't allow that!" she exclaimed as the blast sent the animal tumbling a few feet back, not nearly as much as what Trixie expected. Noticing that, Trixie gulped nervously and took a step back. However, as the giant claw began to stand back up, a yak unknowingly took a step back.

Stomp.

The giant claw moved no more.

Trixie gulped and looked around, searching for any more giant claws that had crossed the yak circle. After making sure no others were a danger to Starlight or herself, she ran to Starlight who was slowly rising back up.

“Ugh… that hurt…”

“Starlight!” Trixie exclaimed as she helped her up and inspected her friend for any gashes the giant claw could’ve made to her when she got swiped by it. Upon inspection…. Nothing seemed wrong. “Bu-ho-how?” Starlight was confused at first, but then noticed a long scratch on Sunburst’s cloak. It hadn’t penetrated it!

“I'm definitely going to thank Sunburst once I see him again... What happened to the giant claw?” Starlight asked, as she looked around. The rest of the giant claws outside the circle had fallen back, with the last one turning back once, growling and sprinting off into the woods.

Trixie pointed at the fallen giant claw and Starlight just mouthed oh.

Darko finally turned around after a few minutes had passes since the giant claws left. “Ponies okay?”

Both nodded. “Yeah, we’re fine,” Starlight said as she caught her breath. While the giant claw’s strike hadn’t wounded her, it had been enough to knock the wind out of her and disorient her. That’s when they noticed Zora flinch slightly. Darko approached her and looked at her leg, which seemed to have been hurt.

“Zora fine!” Zora protested as Darko inspected her to make sure nothing else was wrong, but the larger yak ignored her please.

After a few moments, every yak had been checked by Darko.

“Zora will be at the front. Vad, keep looking ahead. Ponies, I will carry both. Hop on.” Darko finished organizing all the yaks. Bor strapped on Trixie’s cart.

Soon, they were on the move again.

06. The northern abyss

Chapter 6

The northern abyss

The next three days proved to be uneventful. The yaks remained on high alert, as it appeared that the giant claws hadn’t given up the chase, but simply waiting for a time to strike again. Vad reported a couple of times that giant claw tracks seemed to always appear around their campsites in the morning, and the occasional growl didn’t not help to lift the uneasiness that the group seemed to be feeling. While Starlight and Trixie were unused to this sort of situation, the yaks themselves appeared to be uncomfortable. After a short conversation with Darko, the yak told Starlight that usually the giant claws would leave once their assault had failed. The fact that they hadn’t left meant that they were probably very hungry, or their hunting grounds was extremely reduced do to more packs of giant claws in the vicinity.

This left Starlight increasingly concerned about their trip as they approached the northern border of Yakyakistan. The yaks were only supposed to accompany them up to that and then it’d be back to Starlight and Trixie on their own. This, adding with their new knowledge of dangerous beasts and the map nearing its sge did not help in Starlight’s overall positiveness.

Trixie, on the other hoof, appeared surprisingly calm. Travelling atop a yak had definitely given her a lot of rest and, although the cold seemed to bother her as much as Starlight, she seemed to be able to keep herself distracted from their predicament and the future of their journey.

Well, that or she just didn’t think much about it nor cared. Trixie did usually have a much more careless train of thought. Starlight envied that at the moment, as her anxiety kept increasing once they reached the last day in Yakyakistan.

“Starlight,” Trixie’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

“Huh?” she replied.

Trixie pointed ahead. Starlight looked and jumped off the yak she was riding on. Starlight did so as well as the two looked. In front of them stood a massive crack on the ground. It was so big, it could easily swallow the friendship school, maybe even more. The crack spread to the sides as far as the eye could see, and she was guessing it probably continue way beyond what even she could imagine.

“What is that?!” she asked, not managing to hide her shock. Darko stopped and chuckled.

“Abyss of the world. It is rumored that an ancient glorious battle created crack, too much power. The world could not sustain. Legend says ponies with wings and horn cause the Abyss of the world.”

Starlight looked at the crack. “You mean princess Celestia and Luna?”

With a shake of his head, Darko replied “No. Ancient. More ancient than two pony sister princesses.”

Trixie looked confusedly. “But that would mean that this crack was created thousands and thousands of years ago…”

Starlight nodded. “This abyss has got to be from the age of magic!” The group had now approached the crack and Starlight’s voice echoed lightly on the massive hole in front of them.

“Err… Age of magic?” Trixie asked, having never heard of it before.

Starlight smiled. She had studied that since before she became Twilight’s student, so she had gotten extensive knowledge of it. “It’s also known as the lost era. Rumored to have been a time in which alicorns ruled the world.”

“Soooo… Kind of like now? Twilight does rule Equestria.” Trixie’s inquiry received a shake of the head from her purple friend.

“No, as in an entire civilization of alicorns ruling the entire world. Not just Equestria or just the rulers. Hence why it’s known in ancient texts as the age of magic. In modern history, since most texts referring to it as such are in the forbidden section of the Canterlot library and the knowledge of it has been lost, it is known as the lost era.” Starlight looked down. “I do not know much about it, since even the texts from the library referring to it are scarce…”

Darko approached Starlight. “Abyss of the world is dangerous. It is also end of yakyakistan.” Starlight suddenly realized that the yaks would now go their own way. “We were instructed to go to the furthest barrier of yakyakistan. Ponies now continue alone.” As he said that, Zora approached carrying two bundles of cloth. She laid them down in front of Starlight and Trixie. “This gift from yaks. North is dangerous, more than yakyakistan. Worse legends than just giant claws.” Trixie opened up on of the bundles and lifted a heavy object with her magic. As soon as she got a good idea of what it was she chuckled nervously.

“Ahhh ha-ha-ha…” Starlight gulped as she peeked into the other bundle and pulled out what looked like a rather archaic sword. It was really rough, but seemed sturdy enough and definitely dangerous and sharp. The yaks smiled in pride as the two mares looked at their respective swords.

“Yak gift! Sent by prince Rutherford, to let ponies protect themselves in dangerous north.” With a proud stomp at the mention of their prince, the Yaks smiled. “Darko wishes ponies best of travels. May we meet again. Prince ordered yaks to wait here for twenty days. We will wait more if necessary!”

Starlight looked surprised. “You will wait for us?” Darko nodded. “That won’t be necessary. We shall be bringing princess Twilight with us and won’t need protection.” She chuckled nervously, knowing she was wishing for the best outcome. However, she felt wrong by having the yaks wait for them in the cold and dangerous area that this place seemed to be.

“Yaks wait! Ponies deny yak honor!?” Darko exclaimed alongside disapproving glances from the rest.

“N-no! We just-“

“We shall gladly appreciate the gesture,” Trixie interrupted the now nervously blabbering Starlight. “We know how important we are and the more care we are given the better.” Starlight wanted to thank Trixie for her intervention, but her ego was… a bit too high at the moment.

“Good! Then we wait! Now go before dark, ponies. Crossing the Abyss of the world is impossible. Even less during night.” The yaks turned around and began to set up a camp. Trixie and Starlight looked at each other, with the purple mare sighing and looking at the gigantic hole in front of them. She began to approach it, Trixie soon joining her side as soon as she had attached her cart to herself.

Something weird was happening, however. The more Starlight approached, the more pressure she seemed to sense from it. Or not pressure… It was a feeling that made the large abyss seem to be sucking them in. It wasn’t wind, that was for sure as both their manes were completely still, barely swaying back and forth as the two mares walked. No, this was an attraction of the magical kind.

Her confusion was complimented by Trixie. “Starlight, I feel weird. My horn is…” Starlight could feel it too. It was as if the abyss was sucking the magic off of their bodies through the horn. Like when a spell was performed, but this was much more uncomfortable, almost painful but not quite. Soon, they were at the edge, and both couldn’t help but look down.

They both immediately regretted it.

The feeling of their magic being sucked out of the bodies increased tenfold, with the mild uncomfortable feeling escalating to immediate pain as their limbs were sucked off of the magic that naturally ran through their bodies. The two immediately retreated, collapsing on their behinds clumsily. Both rubbed their horns, a headache seeming to extend from their.

Once Trixie managed to calm down, she looked at Starlight, confused and still startled at what had just occurred. “WHAT WAS THAT!?”

Starlight felt as her body regenerated the lost magic, her body slowly recovering. It was as if she had suddenly performed a highly taxing spell that she wasn’t quite as prepared to cast. As she thought about it, the feeling was not too uncommon for magic learning unicorns. One of the first warning when learning magic was to never to something too taxing for one’s magical potential, or else tragic consequences could ensue. It was similar to physical exertion; when one prepares themselves for it, the individual will be able to perform more heavy lifting, or a longer run. With magic, it was the same. A unicorn had to practice and get ready for a spell, or else the spell would cause the unicorn to drain all of their magic and collapse from exhaustion. While not usually permanent, this could cause heavy problems when somepony had this happen constantly.

It was a similar feeling now, as if she had exerted her magic too much.

“I… I don’t know Trixie.” Starlight stood up. While the experience had been uncomfortable and she would never attempt that again without more caution, she had learned now what the issue with the abyss of the world was. “It’s sucking our magic forcefully.”

“Yeah, it felt just like when learning a new spell, but much more painful and uncomfortable,” Trixie said, annoyingly. “I guess teleporting to the other side is the only way to cross without… well, whatever happens to unicorns when they deplete entirely off of their magic.”

Starlight didn’t want to think what would happen should a unicorn lose all of their magic. Usually, whenever something like that had happened, the unicorns remained with at least a bit of magical traces. It had been like that with Tirek as well. While most of the magic was gone, traces remained. If this abyss was a black hole for magic, then no magic would remain. Or so she hypothesized.

And she had no plans of proving that any time soon.

“Most likely.” She approached and touched Trixie with her hoof. “Hang on.” Before Trixie could protest, a flash and smoke enveloped the two.

Starlight opened her eyes. Something was wrong.

“Staaaarliiiiiiiiiiiight!” Trixie’s scream was rather accurate for their situation as the two fell freely into the abyss…

07. Magic sickness

Chapter 7

Magic Sickness

“Staaaaarliiiiiiiiiiiight!”

Trixie’s shout pulled Starlight our of her surprise. She immediately casted teleport as she clung to Trixie, making sure not to let her best friend go. As the spell charged, she realized it was taking too long. She also felt her magic dissipating… However, she managed to will herself and focus enough to charge the teleportation spell. Seeing a natural platform formation on the side of the abyss, she focused it there.

Flash. Smoke. THUMP.

The two landed heavily, the cart almost braking into pieces, barely managing to hold itself together. Now that they were not in immediate danger, Starlight managed to feel the sickening feeling of her magic being drained. However, her adrenaline seemed to be countering it for now as she looked for any ways of escaping. The rock they were on seemed to be helping as a shield against the abyss, but here the magical pull was much stronger than outside the abyss. She needed to come up with a way to escape, and fast.

“Starlight, what will we do?” Trixie seemed to be barely holding herself together. The unexpected teleportation, combine with the fall and their current predicament seemed to be a lot on the poor showmare. “The great and powerful trixie… Does not have any great and powerful tricks for this situation…”

Starlight could feel herself getting more anxious by the second, but managed to steel herself and focus on getting them out. In a way, the magic falling into the abyss was like a huge waterfall of magic, so she could probably use that.

Maybe… If she could use it faster than the void was attracting it… That was it!

She grabbed Trixie and shook her a bit. “I know how to get out of here!” Trixie was pulled out of her desperate state and looked relieved. “But I will need you to help me out.” Fast nodding from the light blue mare. “Remember how I use magic to let me float around?” More nodding. “We will need to do that, but on the entire cart.” She opened the cart and went inside. Trixie remained outside, confused. Starlight went outside and grabbed her. “Come!”

Starlight took position on the front of the cart as Trixie went to the back confusedly. “What must the great and definitely not confused Trixie do?”

“Channel all the magic you can unto me!” Starlight began casting the levitation spell but focusing on the entire cart. The exertion was clearly worse than it was when levitating herself, but as she began to focus on the torrent of magic flooding down, her body felt lighter than ever; she had never felt so much power flowing through her as her spell powered up. Trixie, who had been unsure on how to proceed, immediately began focusing as well, as her horn shone with a blue light. A beam of magic shot out towards Starlight, who began to levitate slightly from the cart’s floor. As Starlight’s spell powered up, Trixie managed to open her eyes and look around.

Starlight was completely focused, her eyes shut tight as her mane shimmered with power. A halo of light surrounded her body as the cart began to turn a magical purple hue. The cart shook slight and seemed to begin to move upwards slightly. However, it remained still in the air for a few seconds, prompting Trixie to ask confusedly.

“Ehh… Starlight, when will we be mo-“ her question was interrupted as the cart shot forward extremely fast. Trixie screamed in surprise as she lost focus on her magic transfer spell. She tumbled against the back of the cart as Starlight seemed to collapse from her position, her magical aura fading instantly and tumbling backwards on top of Trixie. The cart flew up into the air and out of the hole, giving Trixie enough time to slow its descent unto the ground, her light blue aura enveloping the cart. It was not enough to make a soft landing, however. The cart landed hard as the wheels broke off, sending wooden splinters to the sides. Trixie was sent flying against the door, braking a hole through it as her body landed roughly on the ground in front of her poor cart.

She rubbed her horn as she suddenly realized the headache she seemed to have. However, the amount of magic the void had seemed to steal from her had been much less than when they were tumbling to their deaths. She stood up slowly, making sure she was alright. She had a few scratches and would definitely have a few bruises, but otherwise appeared fine.

Then, she saw her cart.

“M-my…” She approached it slowly, her mouth opening and closing, unsure if she could finish her surprised exclamation. “MY BEAUTIFUL AND MAGNIFICENT CART IS DESTROYED!”

While not entirely true, it seemed like the cart had sustained major damage. The wheels were a lost cause, with only one remaining in place, although lacking a good chunk of it to make it usable. The windows were cracked and the door had been broken in the middle from where she had broken through. However, she realized that Starlight was still inside.

Running inside, she called out to Starlight. Her friend seemed to be passed out in the back, with cuts and bruises around her body as well and an odd burning smell coming from her. “Starlight!” Rushing to her friend, she inspected her to make sure she was alright. Noticing her coat seemed eerily faded and slightly burnt, she casted a health scanning spell as Starlight’s body shone blue for a second. Trixie gasped as she felt a shivering cold course through her body. Starlight was almost entirely drained of magic, which explained her faded coat and passed out state. Using the same spell as before, she transferred some of her magic unto the passed out mare. She finally stopped once she began to feel dizzy and awaited her friend’s reaction.

A few seconds passed and made Trixie get restless. “Come of Starlight!” She casted the magical transfer spell once more, feeling her headache begin to get worse and her legs start to feel wobbly. Trixie stopped as she began to pant, yet Starlight was not moving, only managing a quiet shiver.

Trixie carried Starlight off the cart, and dragged her as fast as she could closer to the crack. While it would suck their magic, the showmare guessed that the extra magic going inside could be used to make Starlight wake up.

She finally set her down and scanned her once more. While she appeared to be better, the cold remained; this meant she required more magic.

The same spell was casted as she began to take in the surrounding magic, taking advantage of the flood that poured down the abyss. While not as effective a tactic as it had been down on the abyss itself, she managed to feel the magic fill her reserves and immediately transfer to her friend. A beam of light connected their horns as Starlight began to turn her natural brighter light purple. Slowly, her eyes opened allowing Trixie to stop the magic flow into her friend, the beam of light fading away.

“H-huh?” Starlight slowly opened her eyes. Trixie, suddenly realizing how cold it was, rushed to hug her friend.

“Don’t ever do something so risky Starlight!” Starlight was surprised as her friend latched unto her. She felt Trixie shivering, unsure if because of the cold or the shock of having her friend passed out like that. “What happened to you? You were unresponsive… I though you-” she didn’t finish.

The purple mare patted Trixie. “Magic sickness…” came Starlight’s reply. “When a unicorn spends all their magic.” Trixie looked at her for a second, concern in her face as she proceeded to hug her tightly. “I’m sorry Trixie. I couldn’t think of anything else.”

Trixie nodded, breaking the hug. “However, you can now thank the great and resourceful Trixie for saving you,” she said, her voice returning to its normal pompous air, albeit shivering due to the cold air. Starlight chuckled and got on her hooves, her legs giving away for a bit as she shakily managed to gain balance.

“Starlight… your cart!” she rushed to the cart as Trixie finally remembered about her cart. “It’s broken…”

Trixie sighed. “After that landing, I’m surprised it’s still in one piece. Or at least, in a reasonable condition. I can fix it, just…” She looked around. What appeared to be around them was a barren frozen wasteland, no trees or anything noticeable that rose above the perfect plane in front of them. “…there’s nothing to fix it with.”

Starlight looked around and proceeded to head inside and pack her stuff inside her saddlebags. She hung it on her back just as Trixie went inside. Starlight noticed Trixie taking her time with the cart, and once she came out she saw her friend appeared clearly distressed, but seemed to be hiding it as she gave the cart one last look. “I will return, my faithful cart! You won’t be abandoned here!”

Nodding, Starlight patted her friend in the back before hugging her once again. “We will come get it back, Trixie.”

“We better!” Trixie exclaimed as she turned around and began walking. “And princess Twilight better give me something worth the trip!” Starlight chuckled as the two began to walk into the frozen wasteland, with nothing in sight.

Author's Note

Music for next chapter!! Let me know what you guys think of the story so far. While I'm writing it mostly to accompany my symphonic poem, I can't help but feel like this story is becoming a bit more than just that...