Dark as Chitin

Chapter Music

"It must've been hard." Starlight said as she hugged me.

I felt something leave me when she said this. Almost like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. "Thank you."

"What kind of mayor would I be if I didn't protect my citizens? It was no problem. Besides, a friend of my daughter is a friend of mine. "

She's the mayor too?

"Now would either of you mind telling me what in Tartarus was going on?"

Dawn was the first to speak up. "He was trying to eat Anon!"

"What?!" Starlight said, rearing back.

"It's true, he was trying to eat me, but Dawn showed up just in time to save me."

"Good job, sweety," Starlight said as she ruffled Luster Dawn's hair.

Luster Dawn smiled brightly.

Starlight stopped and took on a more serious expression. "Anon, could you tell me everything that happened exactly?"

"Sure, but could we get out of this clearing first?"

"We could go back to your place." Luster Dawn suggested.

Oh, shoot.

"Uh, well, that's actually..."

Starlight and Dawn looked at me expectedly.

I sighed in defeat. "I don't actually have a home."

Dawn looked confused. "I thought you said you lived in the Everfree."

"I do, I just don't have a set address. I kind of just go... wherever."

Dawn was now looking sad, while Starlight had a stern expression. Out of nowhere, Starlight grabbed my face with her hooves and pulled me into her chest.

"That's no way for somepony to live. You are welcome to stay at our castle for as long as you need to."

I rubbed my right forehoof nervously. "I don't know. I don't want to bur-"

Starlight shushed me with her hoof and just smiled at me warmly.

"I hate to interrupt this wholesome moment, but I believe I just so happened to something of your interest." Discord said as he presented Starlight with a ring.

She grabbed the ring in her magic and levitated in front of herself.

He's just as weird looking as the history books said, but not remotely as malevolent looking.

"Why, thank you kindly, miss. Now if you'll excuse me, I really must be going. It's movie night at Fluttershy's and I can't keep her waiting, she'll give me the silent treatment again," Discord said as he winked at me, stepping through a doorway that I could guarantee wasn't there before.

After he closed the door behind himself, it vanished. That is some interesting magic. Wait, thank you for what? Did he just read my mind too? Just how many more people can do that? I need some kind of safeguard against something like this.

"Let's head back to the castle, we have a lot of questions that need answers, and I have a feeling this ring's full of them." Starlight said as a bright flash of light consumed us.

Sometime later...

"Ouch! Easy, easy." I said as the doctor poked and prodded my ribs.

"Alright, luckily nothing seems broken. Aside from a few fractures and multiple contusions, you should heal up just fine with a few healing spells." Doctor Bristle said as he pulled out some bandages and began bandaging me up.

"Thanks, doc."

"Don't mention it. You stay out of trouble now, you hear," Doctor Bristle said as began channeling magic into his horn.

After hitting me with his magic, the pain I had been feeling in my ribs began to subside. The Doc grabbed his tool bag in his magic and began heading out of the room. I scooted toward the edge of the bed.

He gave Starlight and Dawn a courtesy nod as he walked past them out the doorway.

Dawn was the first to approach me. "It doesn't hurt, does it?"

"Just a little, but I'll be fine."

"Any idea who that guy was?"

I hummed to myself. "I have some idea."

Starlight trotted over to me levitating the ring in her magic. "You know anything about this?"

I shook my head. "No, not at all."

Looking at it more closely, the ring looked downright creepy. It was silver with weird engravings in it, but that wasn't the creepy part. Instead of something normal like a gem in the prong of the ring, there was a black eyeball in its place. I wasn't sure if it was real, but I was more inclined to believe that it wasn't just a gem.

The eye was slitted and seemed to be burning with some kind of primal fire. More strangely, the ring seemed to be devoid of magic.

"Before he attacked me, he mentioned something about pulling some kind of stunt inside a stallion's body."

Starlight narrowed her eyes while looking at the floor. Slowly, her eyes began to widen as if she just had an epiphany.

"You don't think-"

I nodded before taking on a stern expression. "Yeah, it's gotta be related to what's happening in Ponyville."

"Dawn, take care of your friend for me, I need to go speak with the princess. If what your saying is true, then something way bigger is going on, and I don't like the look of it."

Dawn nodded to Starlight before her mother disappeared in a flash of light. There it is again, is she teleporting? I have to learn that sometime soon.

Now it was just Dawn and me in the room. "Again, sorry for following you into the Everfree."

"Come on now, if it weren't for you, I'd be a pile of pony mush inside some creep's stomach," I said as I chuckled.

Dawn rubbed the back of her head with here forehoof nervously. "Y-yeah, I guess you're right."

I looked down at the floor. "I'm really weak, you know. I realized that after what happened today. I didn't stand a chance against that guy."

"Anon, you're not-"

"I am. After I saw you fight, I realized just how much work I have to do. I couldn't even block one attack with my barrier, but you were able to take multiple with a single barrier. And your mom..."

She was on a completely different level and she wasn't even an alicorn. I have to acquire a level of power to match two alicorns and a chaos lord combined.

I sighed in frustration as I clasped my head in my hooves before falling back onto the bed.

A moment of silence passed before anyone spoke. Dawn was the first to break the silence. "Then you'll just have to get stronger."

Go figure.

"And I'll help you," Dawn declared.

"Help me?" I asked, removing my hooves from my head.

"I may not be a strong as my mother, but I was mentored by the princess herself."

That's pretty amazing, it's no wonder she was able to handle herself so well.

"Earlier, in the library, I noticed you were reading Magic for Foals. The princess wrote it for me as my first birthday gift because she and my mom are good friends."

"It was really helpful."

"I noticed it when I first met you. Your magical aura was woefully unrefined and flowing through your body strangely, but you had a great deal of it inside of you. That's why I was so excited when you approached me, and my suspicions were correct. Looking at your magic now, it's far more refined and under control. You're not weak, you have potential, and I can help you realize it. Get some sleep, we'll talk more about it tomorrow."

Dawn walked over to the doorway and flipped a switch next to the door frame; the lights in the room turned off.

"Good night."

It's been about an hour since Dawn left and my mind still can't relax. So much happened today.

"Mom."

She didn't reply, but I knew she was still there, I could feel it. There was so much sadness and confusion, and at the center of it all was me. It was okay, she didn't have to reply. I understood why she was upset, but I don't regret what I did in the slightest.

"Good night, mom," I said as I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep.