“Come on, Princess, focus.” Sunset Shimmer admonished her young student.

“I told you not to call me that.” The younger unicorn spat back in a huff of frustration.

“Sorry… Starlight.” Sunset relented with only a hint of sarcasm. “We’ve gone over the fundamentals of this spell a dozen times, it should be second nature for you by now.”

Starlight trotted over to one of the many chairs and couches in one of the many spacious rooms in the Equestrian Royal Palace and sat, blowing an errant lock of her mane out of her eye. She looked up at the portrait of her parents, King Firelight and Queen Nova Aurora, meeting their imaginary judgmental gaze for only a moment before turning away. Seeing this, Starlight soon found herself with company on the couch.

“Now, Princess Starlight,” Sunset said with a serious tone to her voice. Before Starlight could protest, she found a cookie with an opal aura surrounding it between her lips. “You know how rare it is for unicorns such as us to have the magical talent that we do.” Sunset continued with nothing to interrupt her other than a quiet sound of chewing. “It’s our duty to master it and be of service to the Kingdom, and for you, it goes without saying that that’s doubly important. It’ll be your duty one day to protect your people as Queen.”

“I never asked for this,” Starlight countered after swallowing. “Why couldn’t I have just been born in a normal family?”

“That’s not how life works, sweetie,” Sunset explained. “I’m a farmer’s daughter, I never asked for my lot in life, but I set my mother’s hair on fire by accident when I was half your age, and here I am teaching you some of the most important lessons that could very well save her life.”

That last statement caught Starlight off guard and gave her pause.

“What do you mean by that.”

Sunset exhaled and muttered. “I said too much… Look, your father felt that causing you to worry was too high a price for telling you the truth, but seeing as I just let the cat out of the bag, here goes.” She explained. “Things aren’t as peaceful as you’ve been told. Civil war is brewing and,”

“And that’s why you’ve been drilling me on offensive and defensive spells.”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Months, a year I hope,” Sunset said flatly. “There’s no avoiding it I fear.”
Starlight responded to this news by summoning over two cookies from the table across the room, and for a few peaceful moments, the two sat and enjoyed them.

“Alright, let’s try this again,” Sunset said, getting up and Starlight following her. “Picture the spell matrix in your mind and channel your thaum.” She explained. “Good, good. Now say the keyword, and remember, enunciate.”

“Kamvoi!” Starlight exclaimed in old Eqqish, literally meaning silence, causing the room to fill with the sound of rushing air like it was filling a void.

Starlight looked around for a moment and looked at her teacher, her mouth moving but no sound left her lips.

“Yes, Starlight, you did it! I’m so proud of you!”

Starlight looked at her with a puzzled gaze, and Sunset shook her head, remembering that the Silence spell was double-edged. While it made the caster completely silent to the world, it also rendered them deaf. Sunset closed her eyes for a moment before her horn surrounded itself in an opal aura.

“Zev.” Sunset spoke, activating the counterspell, noisy being the literal translation, and sent the spell right at her pupil. To Starlight, the world seemed to come rushing in all at once and it left her slightly dazed.

Sunset rushed forward and pulled Starlight into a hug, pulling her out of her daze. For a moment, Starlight didn’t know what to do, she couldn’t remember the last time she had been hugged. All she knew is that wasn’t her parents who embraced her last.

So she did the only thing that seemed right and returned the hug just as tight.

It had been several hours since her lesson had come to an end, and her bed called her name.

Pulling her blanket closer to her chest, she went over the spells she had learned, kamvoi, zev, and the most fun of them all, thúb.

Meaning ‘change’ in old Eqqish, the spell let its user change the colour of their hair and coat for a short time. They had spent the better part of an hour laughing at the absurd colours they experimented with.

But like all things, the fun came to an end when the sun set and dinner was called.

The meal was a typical, boring affair. Even though this was in private, relatively speaking with the palace staff present, her parents insisted on protocol and tradition. Everything in its place, and at the appointed time.

Father yattered about something in court, mother nattered about the new set of gowns she had ordered, neither had even bothered to take notice that the highlight in their daughter’s mane was blue.

Starlight simply rolled her eyes and quietly ate. She almost burst out laughing in the final course when she noticed the head Hoofcolt’s, Apple Split was his name, eyes bulged, his smile giving away that he was trying not to laugh when he noticed her hair. Starlight smiled and shrugged at him as she finished the last of her cake.

As loyal as the palace staff were to the crown, nearly every one of them held a special spot for the princess. Helping let a little bit of rebelliousness go unnoticed was one of the ways they showed they cared for their princess.

With a smile, Starlight drifted off to sleep.

“Starlight!”

What is it… she thought, as her eyes fluttered open to see that it was still night.

“Starlight, get up!”

Her eyes fully open now, she noticed that while it was still night, it wasn’t dark. Eerie orange light came in through the window, and in the distance, she could hear the cracks of rifle fire and glass breaking.

And screams.

Starlight shot straight up in bed, the sudden adrenaline that came with fear waking her fully.

Standing at the side of her bed with a look of worry on her face was Sunset. At her door was Apple Split in his nightclothes keeping an eye out.

“Remember what we talked about this afternoon?” Starlight asked. Starlight nodded. “It’s started, I need you to come with me. Do exactly what I say and stay quiet.”

As soon as she said that, a unicorn maid in her nightgown that Starlight couldn’t name came in with a book that she instantly recognized as Sunset’s grimoire.

“Thank you, Tealove,” Sunset said, taking the book and placing it in her saddlebag.

“The hall’s clear, Mistress Shimmer, head to the servant’s quarters, it’s the farthest away from where they broke into the palace grounds,” Apple told them. “When you get through the door, under the third light fixture on the left side is a moon carved into the moulding of the wall casing, press it and a hidden door will open, it’ll lead out into the palace gardens.”

“I can’t thank you enough, Apple, you two need to get out of here now,” Sunset told them.

“Not until we know the young miss is safe, Mistress Shimmer.” Tealove countered with her voice equally determined and full of fear. Apple’s expression mirrored that of the maid.

“Very well…” Sunset said with regret coming through her voice. “Good luck,” she said quietly. “Starlight let’s go.”

They made their way through the long corridors of the palace, the horrific sounds going on around them seemed to fade.

What could only be described as a sickeningly wet ‘pop’ followed by a horrific scream that could only come from Tealove made the two of them stop in their tracks. Sunset knew only one spell that could make that sound. Rɔipɔɔ. Crush. When they heard the same sound again a short while later only confirmed her suspicions and one name came to mind.

Night Light.

“Starlight… Run.”

Now racing through the halls as fast she could, Starlight could see her destination. Sunset reached out with her magic and tried to work the door handle, but the lock wouldn’t give.

Without slowing down, she ran headlong at the door, spinning around on her front hooves at the last second, throwing her weight into bucking the door as hard as he could and sending it off his hinges and splintering the wood around the door jamb.

Stopping to catch their breath, Sunset looked around, counted the light fixtures on the ceiling and just as Apple had said, there under the third one was a moon carved into the wall casing.

Placing her hoof on it, she gave it a press, and part of the wall next to it clicked and popped open slightly.

Pulling it open, both ponies entered the dark corridor within and pulled the door closed behind them.

“Apú,” Starlight spoke, casting the illuminate spell and forming a white orb on the tip of her horn.

The corridor was made of stone, much like the exterior walls of the palace grounds and likely just as old. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, which sent shivers down Starlight’s spine.

“We gotta keep going,” Sunset said, her fear showing through her voice.

“What happened to Apple and Tealove?” Starlight asked.

Sunset thought about telling her what spell was used but thought better of it.

“They’re dead.” She said flatly. The silence that followed was deafening. “Look, I’m sorry, but we need to keep our wits about us,” Sunset spoke, stopping to turn to her young charge, finding the young mare on the verge of tears.

“I know, it hurts, but we need to focus on the here and now. They gave their lives to make sure we had a chance to escape, we can’t let that be in vain. We can grieve later.” Sunset said, forcing a reassuring smile.

“Ok.” Starlight said weakly and followed after Sunset.

For another five minutes, they wandered the corridor as it snaked around what Starlight could only imagine was between various rooms in the palace before it came to a dead end.

“What now?” Starlight asked.

“I don’t know, there’s no door,” Sunset responded, looking around for something similar to the button that originally got them in here in the first place.

Whatever urgency they had only doubled when they heard the scraping of metal on stone. Sunset instantly recognizing it as someone was scraping a blade on the wall, something that her former mentor Night Light Sparkle did to intimidate her during their advanced duels near the end of their training. She still had the small scar just under her jawline where his sword that he expertly wielded with his telekinetics had cut her ‘accidentally’.

“Buck it…” Sunset exclaimed. “Starlight, cover your ears.” She ordered then focused her thaum. “Káf!” She screamed, and the wall exploded into dust before her.

As the dust settled, as well as the ringing in their ears, Sunset could see the trees that filled the palace gardens, and beyond that, she knew was the fast-moving Everfree river and their best hope.

“There you are, Sunset, I would recognize that káf spell anywhere.”

Without thinking, Sunset picked Starlight up and slung her across her back and ran into the trees. Starlight looked behind them to find a blue unicorn running after them, a large sword held aloft in a pale blue aura.

But he wasn’t alone, behind him was a younger unicorn, this one had a white coat and blue mane.

All their running came to an end, however when they reached the edge of the gardens and its hedgerows of trees that they had somehow used for cover from their pursuers. Before them was the Everfree river, its rushing waters over two dozen feet below, which served as a natural barrier.

Frantically looking back, she could see trees starting to fall, likely Night Light’s doing, he was always quick to break things when he was frustrated.

With only a few moments left, Sunset made her choice and turned to Starlight, who looked at her in complete dread.

“Starlight, I’m sorry,” She told her princess, as she took off her saddlebag and put it on Starlight.

“Shɜɜw avɔɔ,” Sunset spoke, picked Starlight with her telekinesis and threw her into the river, then turned towards where her pursuers were coming.

“Kamvoi,” Sunset said finally, accepting her fate, and sat on the ground, exhausted.

Then she waited.

“You gave us quite the chase,” the young unicorn Sunset knew was Night Light’s son, Shining Armor. “Where’s the princess?”

Night Light strode up next to his son. “She’s not here is she?” Night Light asked.

Sunset simply stared at him with pure, spiteful, contempt.

“Enough of this, if you won’t talk, I’ll force it out of you.” Night Light said grimly, raised his sword and brought it down towards her head, cleaving her horn in two in one clean stroke.

Opal sparks and crimson blood flowed from the wound as Sunset screamed silently.

“Oh, I see now, clever girl,” Night Light laughed. “Zev.”

Sunset’s screams weren’t silent any longer.

Starlight tumbled in the water, trying to keep her head above water. She was a poor swimmer and that only served to fill her mind with panic. When she took a lung full of water she thought she was done for, but the pain never came, she never drowned.

It was then she realized that the words Sunset spoke were Eqqish for ‘fish lung’. She cast a water-breathing spell!

No longer panicking, Starlight focused on looking for a place on the shore where she could get out of the water.

After what seemed like ages, she finally found a relatively rock-free shore on the left-hand bank and she pulled herself out of the water…

Only to find herself unable to breathe. Instead of panicking, she remembered what Sunset had taught her that spells were often double-edged, like the silence spell making you deaf as well as totally silent. She grabbed her teacher’s grimoire out of her bag and thankfully found it no worse for wear after her trip through the river.

She flipped through the pages until she found the counter-spell.

“Kazha jɔɔy” Starlight managed to gurgle out, immediately thankful when her magic expelled all the water from her lungs and that properly enunciating Eqqish for ‘breathe deep’ wasn’t needed, leaving her a coughing mess. Rolling onto her back, she laid there, taking in deep breaths.

Then she started to laugh.

And cried.

Then wept.

When tears no longer came, she steeled herself, remembering what Sunset had told her: focus on the here and now, grieve later.

Remembering attending Confederation Day celebrations when she was little in a small hamlet downriver from the Palace, she started walking and kept walking, unsure of what was coming next.

Author's Note

I don't know what it is with me and writing late at night (it's nearly 5 am), but here I am...

This is my second attempt at writing this story (the first one I cancelled and deleted from my account), and I hope you enjoy it.

To say that this story's world is drastically different from the MLP canon is an understatement, it is what one would call a 'dark timeline', a truest Alt Universe if there ever was one.

The 'Old Eqqish' used in this story is a 'Conlang' (constructed language) using a language generator. It is a complete language with syntax, pronunciation and everything. There will be a second one used when the humans come into the picture.

Next chapter will have the human side of the story, I look forward to writing that, expect that in a week or two, I hope.