Starfall

Chapters

Chapter 1 | Cart
Chapter 2 | Wagon
Chapter 3 | Tribe

Chapter 1 | Cart

The Morning Star, Celes, hung high over the peaks of the Foal Mountains. It’s late afternoon light filtering through the bare boughs of an orchard on the outskirts of the sleepy little town of Hollow Shades. Stardust, a lilac-colored earth pony filly, sat near a covered cart that rested next to the small path that led from the farmstead to the main road back to town. Her mom was currently negotiating with the farm’s operators to do maintenance on the farmstead’s Hearthstone. Leaving Stardust to shuffle her hooves next to the cart and listen to the whispers of the group of three earth pony foals sitting off to the side who were currently trying to discreetly stare at both her and her mom.

“Do you think she’s really a noctal pony?” says one small colt about the age of six.

“Maybe? Her ears have the elongated tip and tuft of fur like they are described to have at least.” replies a slightly larger colt, likely the older brother of the first. “But her eyes are normal, and she doesn’t have the bat wings so maybe not. What’s with the beads in her mane?”

“Well we’re not going to talk to her either way.” interjects the last of the trio, a yet older filly who stood protectively beside and to the front of her two younger brothers; as if her presence could ward her brothers from Stardust’s presence, some fifty strides away. “Mom recognized the unicorn, apparently she passed through the year before last and did acceptable work on our Hearthstone then. But she came into the valley with the noctals so we have to be wary. Still tainted by Discord they are. Keep an eye on the filly, make sure she doesn’t try to sneak anything into the back of that cart of theirs. I’m going to check with mom again.”

They likely didn’t think they could be overheard, they were keeping their voices low and at that distance, a normal pony might have heard indistinct muttering at best. But Stardust’s tuft ears still twitched as she forced herself to ignore the ignorant remarks.

“Star, come over here for a moment. I’m going to need your help digging up this Hearthstone,” Star’s Mother Silverlight called from the front of the farmhouse. Stardust hurried over from the cart to the front door where her mother and five other earth pony adults from the farm were waiting. Two stallions, one orange, one apple green. And three mares; a yellow plump one, a gray athletic one, and a red-orange elderly one.

“Now hold on, dig it up? Nopony has ever needed to dig it up before. When you came through two years ago you were able to charge it just fine from up here,” protested one of the two stallions in the group, the fairly buff looking apple green earth pony.

“You mentioned that you’ve been getting an abnormal number of timberwolf sightings in your northeastern orchard Mr. Bushel?” replied the robin-egg-colored unicorn. “If you’re only seeing them in that direction, and not all over, the wards could be weak in that area. That’s indicative of possible damage, not just a weak charge.”

“Ah, yes, well it would be best to check it then. I’ll go get a shovel” Mr. Bushel replied nervously, probably thinking about the expense of repairing something as delicate as a Hearthstone.

“No need, besides there is a chance of damaging the engravings with a shovel. Star sweety, why don’t you put what your Uncle Quartz has been teaching you to work. It’s right over here from what I can feel” Silver said, indicating an area off to the side of the front door in front of a kitchen window with a wave of a hoof.

“Ooh Okay!” Stardust happily replied before hopping over in little pronks to stand over the supposed burial site of the Hearthstone. There she stopped on the hard-packed soil and began to tap alternatively with her fore and rear hooves. With each tap, she extended her senses and earth pony magic down into the ground trying to feel for the large slab of marble, granite, or similarly hard rock that would make up the body of the Hearthstone. Each tap brought back a sort of magical echo of what lay beneath her hooves. It took a few moments of slow tapping while her mother watched on smiling encouragingly. The farm ponies watched with befuddled expressions before she was sure, but eventually, she stopped and dragged her hoof to draw an ‘X‘ in the dirt.

“Yep! Right here. About um, sixteen hooves down? But um…” Star trailed off before looking down at her X and tapping twice. She tilted her head to the side before looking back up. “I think there is a big slab of slate or something on top of it.”

“Is there now,” Silverlight smiled down at her daughter before nodding. “Smart if there is. Keeps it from being worked to the surface from frost cycles and protected from accidents. Are we going to need the shovel after all? To get down to the cover slab?”

“Nope nope! I got it” Star happily bounced. “But you might want to move that casserole from the windowsill and close the shutters,” she directed at the farm ponies. They all looked at each other with widened eyes before one of the mares, the plump one, darted inside to take care of the cooling dish and shut the window. None of them were quite sure what to expect. What was this filly going to do to dig up two very large rocks that were buried nearly two full pony’s height under the hard-packed ground?

“Alright, first step, loosen up the dirt.” Stardust reared back and brought her forehooves down in a foalish stomp over her ‘X’. In contrast to the childish nature of the stomp, a pulse of magic spread with a small tremor, the shutters of the kitchen window rattled slightly in their casing. Numerous cracks rapidly spread over the surface of the hard-packed dirt and the ground seemed to rise up slightly and the earth became less densely packed. Leaping to the side onto undisturbed earth, Star surveyed her work. “Yep, should work. Now for the lifting dance!.”

And Stardust began to prance. Each of her four hooves struck the ground firmly in a sequential staccato. The ground rumbled and there was a slight grinding sound as the earth and soil under where her mark had been drawn rose steadily; spilling earth to the sides in loose chunks as the mound built itself up under the seeming influence of the small lilac filly. Then with one final “Whoop!”, she took to the air in an aerial leap that took all four hooves off the ground, and then she struck down with her forehooves once again at the edge of the loose earth.

The strike, with rear hooves bucking high into the air behind her, was far harder and heavier than a foal her size should be able to make. With one final mini tremor, accompanied by the rattling of window shutters, a large roughly rectangular slab of dark gray slate burst from the mound of earth; flipping away from the house and off to the side, showering Stardust in dirt and pebbles with its passage. As the dust cleared it revealed sitting at the top and peeking above the mound of fresh earth was a near-perfect cube of a hard gray and white marble. A block etched with arcane runes.

“Did I do good mom?” Stardust panted out looking a bit winded.

“Wonderfully my little star,” Silver replied, walking up to nuzzle the top of the filly’s head.

“H- How… ” Mr. Bushel breathed out, he and his family looking slightly slack-jawed at the little filly that had just dug up several hundred pounds of stone with what looked like a dance.

“It’s earth pony magic, same as rock farmers use,” Silverlight offered “Most earth ponies can use it if they learn how. It’s very similar to apple-bucking too. Same kind of kinetic transference magic at least.” Silverlight walked up the mound of loose earth and began using her aura to move the loose earth away from the sides of the granite block, further exposing the Hearthstone. “Now then, let’s take a look here…” Silver leaned down to examine the runes closely before clicking her tongue in irritation. “Well, bad news. I was right that there was some damage. Looks like some of the alchemical brass used to fill the carved runes has cracked. Star, go fetch the wire from the cart please.”

Stardust turned and hurried back to the cart, leaping up and wiggling under the canvas cover, to find the roll of brass wire produced by one of the clan smiths before dashing back with the spool gripped in her teeth. The whole family was looking at the Hearthstone now, gathered around the top of the mound she had worked up with the block of arcane granite.

“It would have had to be something big or magically dense. It takes a lot of load to cause burnout like this.” Silver was saying “Have there been any Ursa or other star-beast sightings?”

“Not that we know of, but then if the wards have been keeping whatever it is off pony’s property then we wouldn’t have” answered the elderly mare of the group.

“Well, the good news is it didn’t damage the stone itself, just the brass filler which acts as a conductor. So, I can melt and flow in some new brass, charge the stone, and we can have it reburied and good as new inside two hours. I’ll need a few extra bits to cover the cost of the alchemical brass, but that’s it.”

* * *

The early evening light of Celes turned a dim autumn yellow as it fell on the valley in the foothills of the Foal Mountains where the budding settlement of Hollow Shades lay. Stardust stepped brightly along the road into town, humming as she skipped along. Her light purple-gray lilac coat was spotted with road dust from a day of traveling the cart paths outside Hollow Shades. She and her mother had been out most of the day. Silverlight walked alongside her, tugging the small cart filled with the spoils of the day’s work and the remains of their work materials. This was Stardust’s first time following her mother along on one of her jobs outside the caravan; she had finally been judged old enough at twelve. Thus, it was also her first time seeing a proper town up close. True, they had spent most of the day east of town visiting the farms, orchards, and various other homesteads that dotted the wilderness outside town so she hadn’t seen much of it. But they had crossed through the town as they set out that morning, and were about to pass through again on the way back to the wagon caravan that was home to their clan, so she could see more of it now.

Star found the fixed buildings and the ponies that lived in them fascinating. Her family’s wagon rarely sat in the same place for more than a week; she could hardly imagine living in the same place for so long. The straight strands of her pale fuchsia mane and tail lifted slightly, both from the bounce of her step and the light cross breeze, as she whipped her head back and forth turning to try and take in everything.

“Star, remember we’re outsiders here. It’s rude enough to stare at ponies, but these ponies will take it worse from us” her mother half-whispered into her ear from the left. Stardust whipped back around to look at her mother, caught the tired look in her eyes, and immediately tried to make her pony watching less suspect. Indeed, now that she was looking for it the ponies of the town often gave them sour looks, her ear also caught the occasional whispers of the less polite names for noctal ponies. A few gave an outright hostile glare. Thinking back over their day, even the ponies out in the countryside had treated them coldly, if less so than those in town seemed to.

Most had kept their own foals back, so Stardust had been unable to play with them while her mom had recharged their Hearthstones with her magic. The town itself had its own Hearthstone that the crown’s ponies maintained, but the farmers on the outskirts and beyond had to maintain their own. And this far out into the wildlands you needed one. So they tolerated her mom, ignored Star, and paid mostly in crops from their harvests before sending both on their way. At least their cart was now filled with fresh produce; namely turnips, carrots, potatoes, apples, and a barrel of packed local olives. Stardust could hardly wait to get back to the wagons of the caravan for dinner.

Yes, they were outsiders here. Not because of their tribes; indeed, neither a unicorn nor an earth pony filly would be out of place in Hollow Shades. But because of the colorful beads woven into their respective manes. The trio of short braids with white, navy, and gray beads that hung to the side from just in front of Silverlight’s left ear and matching pair of braids in the filly’s mane marked them both as noctal. Members of one of the many nomadic clans that had roamed from settlement to settlement since long before the founding of Equestria. Though, in Stardust’s case, the fluffy tufted ears were a far easier tell.

The ponies at the various farms they had visited that day had almost all looked askance at her tufted ears, a sign of nocti blood from her father. They almost always wanted to know if she had the fangs too. She didn’t. Having more than one indicator of the heritage in a non-nocti was somewhat rare. Sometimes Stardust wished she was a full nocti, like her dad, or aunt, or baby cousin, then she could have her own pair of wings. Perhaps not the fangs though. She still didn’t see how they were supposed to be cute like her aunt claimed. They weren’t cute on her cousin that was for sure. No, his fangs were sharp. And he kept wanting to chew on her hoof!

Star’s mother had explained what the ponies outside the noctal clans thought of them. The clans’ migratory nature made them good scapegoats for anything that happened to go wrong in a community they were passing by. Missing pots? Blame the noctals, they will be gone in roughly a week, so there was less risk than in falsely accusing a member of the community. Thus, noctals gained a reputation for theft and other mischief.

According to her mother, the noctal clans had a tenuous relationship with the ponies of Equestria. The clans had technically joined the nation at roughly the same time as the other three tribes, signing on a mere five years after the initial treaty. But the way they still held themselves aloof without settling into one area gave many ponies the impression they didn’t consider themselves to be a part of the nation. It kept the noctal in the realm of the unknown. And that probably aided the stories of ‘Bat-Pony’ warriors that hunted the night.

It probably didn’t help that the stories about hunting had some truth to them. Nomadism did not lend itself well to much farming. Equestrian ponies still considered it unnatural to make any amount of meat a staple of their diet, and so noctals gained a reputation as savage and or uncivilized. When ponies find out about how they supplement their diet with small game and fish meat, they get unsettled. No matter that the pegasi tribes used to do the same — and pegasi still ate fish! Ponies also saw the appearance of a full nocti as somewhat intimidating. With their tufted ears, slitted eyes, and leathery wings; add small fangs protruding from the muzzle, and you get tales of vamponies who stalk the night, looking for blood. Tales not helped by the partially nocturnal nature of most noctal sleep schedules.

So while the various noctal clans that roamed Equestria acted as nomadic traders, continuing to live much as their ancestors had. Noctal were often viewed as strange, perhaps savage, ruffians, and sometimes thieves. It seemed unfair to Stardust, she couldn’t really understand why simple things like appearance or living in a wagon that moved, instead of a house that didn’t, made much of a difference. She had grown up with pegasi, earth ponies, unicorns, and nocti all as members of her clan. True, the vast majority of the clan was nocti and a lot of the other tribe members had noctal traits from nocti ancestry, but these ponies didn’t seem all that different from her. So why did they see her as different from them?

Still, A full clan caravan carrying goods from far-off and specialized crafts ponies that a small settlement was unlikely to have is a wonderful trade opportunity that few would turn away completely. So Silverlight and Stardust walked relatively unmolested down the main street with their small cart of goods. But it would still be unwise to tarry. So they walked purposefully towards the other edge of town, where the clan camped out of sight of the small town, a full gallop from the nearest building or field.

Stardust continued her pony watching discreetly. There were a lot of interesting ponies in town, one pony was working to make barrels in an open workshop she had just passed on her right. He had a great stack of completed ones out front. A cooper, she was fairly sure that was what you called a pony who made barrels. Just like you called a pony who baked bread a baker. Her muzzle scrunched as she thought about the word. A baker made sense because a baker baked, but she wasn’t sure if a cooper cooped so the name seemed a bit suspect to her.

The next building looked to be a flower shop with a small floral garden out front with an older orange mare who appeared to be taking a break from tending to it to eat an apple. The mare was also giving Star in particular a furious glare, so she pointedly tried to keep her eyes forward and avoided looking in that direction. She had almost succeeded when an apple core bounced off the top of her head to land in the dirt in front of her. Star looked back, met the mare’s glare for a moment, and blinked.

“What are you staring at half-breed?” the mare growled. Star turned and then stood unnaturally still as a scene seemed to superimpose itself in her mind’s eye. The same mare was climbing a ladder up the front of the flower shop, a bucket of fresh thatch in her jaw, presumably to repair a hole from a recent storm. A back hoof slipped as she neared the top and… Star’s ears wilted as she turned her eyes away from the fading image back to the real mare, and drew in on herself further when she realized she had been staring.

“I said, what are you staring at?!” this time the growl neared a shout. Star flinched, she hated it when she saw things, but she had to say something.

“Sorry, um, you should be careful around ladders in the near future? Have somepony watch you if you use one. Otherwise, you’ll fall and get really hurt…” she trailed off awkwardly, trying not to meet the mare’s angry eyes.

“Are you… threatening me?” The mare at the cart broke in, tone questioning but irate. “Or have you night-kin started giving out curses?”

“No, no, I just saw……” Star didn’t know how to explain. Not even most of the ponies in the caravan believed her when she talked about this.

Silverlight meanwhile, had ducked out of the yoke of their cart and walked up behind her daughter. Her eyes filled with concern as she gently nudged Starcdust with a hoof back into motion down the road before looking up to the suspicious mare. “I’d take her advice to heart. The things she sees usually do happen. The clan elders say it is connected to dream magic, but it’s been a long time since the clan’s last seer so they aren’t sure.” She turned and nudged Star along without looking back.

“Bah, it’s bad enough to have the bats come to town to trade. Now they have crazy fortune-telling half-bat fillies too!” The mare continued ranting, her voice fading into the distance as the mother-daughter pair trudged out of town.

Once they were a few strides out of town Silver stretched her neck down to nuzzle her daughter’s ear. “You warned her little star, perhaps that will be enough. Don’t dwell on it, you can’t do anything more.”

“I just wish I didn’t see as many things where ponies get hurt.”

Silverlight “hummed” in response, looking back down at her daughter with concern. “How many things did you see today? We visited a lot of new ponies.”

“Six,” was her soft reply.

“And how many were bad like that mare back there?”

“Just the one, why?” Star tilted her head to look up at her mom, trying to figure out where this was going.

“Just trying to point out that most of the things you see aren’t bad and those are the things to focus on. One of the things Princess Luna taught me when I studied under her was that it’s easy to remember the bad, but the good things are there too. I know it’s not easy to see some of the things you do… You were very young when you first started, and you’re still pretty young, but there will always be ponies around to help. Just like the first time.” Her mom’s voice was soft and kind. Star carefully rubbed against her mom’s right side in a form of a walking hug.

Her mom was right. The glimpses with bad things like the mare in town in them were far from common, but most of the visions that came to her unbidden showed events that significantly impacted ponies’ lives. She could see other things, She had forced a vision a few times just to see a few hours ahead into a perfectly ordinary day. Those were nice, though Star wasn’t sure what use it was to see ahead if nothing significant was going to happen. No, Star was glad she was able to warn ponies ahead of time when bad things happened, she just wished she didn’t have to see the bad things first.

It took another half hour of walking to reach the wagons of the caravan, parked in a well-ordered but still lively camp outside Hollow Shades. The clan had made their own little town out here off to the side of the road. Though, perhaps little was a bad descriptor. The Stella Noctus clan outnumbered the ponies of Hollow Shades nearly two to one. There were several hundred ponies milling among the wagon-lined “streets” of the camp. Over half had the membrane wings, tuft tipped ears, and fierce fangs and slitted eyes of full nocti; but the remaining not insignificant portion was split between pegasi, and earth ponies with a few unicorns sprinkled among them. The bloodlines of the nomadic nocti clans had begun mixing long before the founding of Equestria. But as far as the clan was concerned every last pony here was a noctal and family.

Silver towed the cart of foodstuffs to the back of the large, boxy, brightly painted, enclosed wagon the family called home. Painted in greens and yellows, the wagon would make a fine contrast to the rather drab homes of the ponies in Hollow Shades. A small shuttered window adorned the left side, while a door on the back granted access to the interior. They parked the cart alongside the family’s wagon on the side away from the camp street to not disrupt traffic. Once emptied, the cart would be lashed to the wagon roof before the clan moved again, but it could sit there for now.

“Go and wash up Star, we’ll be having dinner in a few hours, and your aunt and I could use some help.” Her mom did look tired. Star wasn’t sure how many Hearthstones her mom had worked on today. She had stopped counting around twenty when they had stopped for a light lunch, but it had clearly taken a lot out of her. Still, silver leaned down to whisper conspiratorially with a bright look in her eyes. “I happen to know Aunt Shadow found a bunch of wild blueberries yesterday and went to pick them today, so we’ll probably be making a pie.”

Stardust gasped and rushed to fill a washbasin to clean up. Pie was the best. Aunt Shadow's pie was the best of the best. Today had been a long one, and it hadn’t been looking to end well, but no day could be bad if it ended with pie!

Author's Note

Hello everyone! I haven't written anything in a long time but I've had this story swimming in my head for so long now that I had to get it out.

Some notes for Clarity:

Units Time:

Candle - roughly one hour
Wick - roughly 5 minutes
Day -> Week -> Month -> year etc.

* very few time pieces at the start of the story

Units Distance:

Hoof -> ~ 6 inches, or width of a large stallions hoof
Stride -> ~ 2 feet, length of average pony travel in one full stride
Gallop -> ~ 1/2 mile, minimum Distance a healthy pony should be able to travel at a full gallop with out stooping to rest

Chapter 2 | Wagon

Getting ready for dinner was a minor production that every family in the camp participated in. Among Noctals, the evening meal was served just after sundown and marked the end of the workday and the start of evening recreation which would last until near midnight when most families would head off to bed to sleep till past sunup.

The wagons were a bustle with all the ponies returning from foraging and finishing with their other tasks. Larger families set up multiple cook fires, or often long cook fires with multiple utensils and pots set up to cook. Water would be fetched either from the large barrel wagons near the center of the camp or from the nearby river, depending on if the pony felt like braving the line or the longer walk.

Frequently, multiple families who were friendly would park their wagons close and team up to make larger meals with less effort, sharing labor and food. Extended families often did the same. Stardust liked it when they shared with another wagon, it usually meant tasting something new, but it always meant more company to talk to while they worked on the food. Tonight however there would be no sharing, mostly because their meal would be a little early on account of Stardust and her mother’s early start to the day. But, Star’s primary concern was that there would be no need to share the blueberry pie.

The Mother-daughter pair had started by selecting some of their fresh produce. Star went to fetch their water from the barrel wagons while her mother went about getting their own cook fire ready. They both set to work washing and cutting to prep a simple stew base. Around the time the water had started to boil, Aunt Shadow fluttered in on silent felt-covered wings. The olive-colored mare had an infant colt strapped to her chest, little Shadow Agate Stardust’s baby cousin, and two large baskets suspended over her back, filled with goodies foraged from the surrounding area. Silverlight, took the opportunity to retreat into the wagon to take a nap, leaving Star and her Aunt to finish dinner’s preparation.

Evening had well and truly fallen as Stardust bent over a small, low, work table set outside the back of the family wagon. She sat with a rolling pin in her hooves rolling out the hot water crust for the top of the pie, constantly glancing back to the ceramic pie dish next to her for reference on size. The bottom crust was already in the dish, ready for filling. Piecrust was very time-consuming, but it would absolutely be worth it. Finally achieving a roughly circular shape, of an even thickness, large enough to cover the pie dish, Stardust grinned and looked over her shoulder at the dark olive green nocti with a gray mane tending to a pot hanging over the fire pit.

“Crust is done, Aunt Shadow!” Star called. Her aunt Leaf Shadow looked up from her work and grinned at the filly.

“Oh, is it now? That sure took you a while. The filling is prepped in that bowl, on the log at the back of the wagon there.” Shadow said, gesturing with her hoof. “Go ahead and pour it in, then crimp the top crust closed, and I’ll put it in our oven.”

Star carefully fetched the bowl in question, it was more of a small pot. It was made of fired clay and filled with a syrupy blueberry filling which had been reduced over the fire a few minutes before. The bowl was still hot, and the syrupy filling was still steaming. Star carefully scraped the filling into the pie dish with a spoon. Then placed the top crust down, trimmed it off with a knife, and crimped it closed before cutting a few steam vents into the top of the crust. This pie was going to be the highlight of the week! When she was done, Aunt Shadow retrieved the finished pie and carefully lowered it into a cast-iron oven she had been heating in the coals at the very edge of the fire pit. The lid was then replaced on the oven and covered in coals to properly heat it.

“Alright little star, the stew should be ready here in a bit. Why don’t you go fetch your uncle from chopping firewood, and I’ll wake up your mom from her nap, eh?” Leaf Shadow said while ruffling Stardust’s mane. Star ducked under her aunt’s hoof, quickly fixed her mane, and then beamed up at her aunt.

“Okay, Aunt Shadow! I’ll be right back.”

“Oh, no, take your time. It will take a bit to wake your mom.”

While Leaf Shadow disappeared into the family’s covered wagon, Star dashed off to find her uncle Star Quartz. He, like her, was a noctal blooded earth pony with tuft tipped ears, but he also had slitted eyes. Rounding a wagon-lined corner of the camp’s street, Stardust found a makeshift lumber camp breaking the line of wagons. There, a group of ponies were chopping up dry firewood which the Clan had piled up and left at this site last year. Still other ponies were pulling in fresh trees from the forest to replace the wood for the next time they passed through. Star spotted her uncle working with an ax and chopping block near the edge of the encampment, but he was also deep in conversation with a dark blue noctal blooded pegasus hovering off to the side. Star didn’t want to interrupt, so she settled herself to sit and wait for an opportunity to interrupt.

“I’m telling you Quartz, the rumors drifting south from the Crystal Kingdom are bad. No traders in or out of the city in months. Tales of some dark mage declaring himself king and tossing out princess Amore. We are not going to be able to winter there this year. It’s not safe to approach the city!” the pegasus was insisting.

“Alright, Nightsong. Alright! I’ll bring it up with the council and advise my mother accordingly. They were already worried enough when we first started hearing these rumors a week and a half ago to send my brother off a message to the princesses. I still don’t know why you insist on going through me though.” Quartz relented.

“Because your mother is the clan head, and you sit on her advising council, obviously,” Nightsong shot back, some of the urgency leaving his voice.

“And the reason you don’t go directly to her with your reports?”

“Because then I have to contend with her aid Shadow Ink and she hates me, I’d be lucky if Elder Nightwind ever heard my reports,” Nightsong dismissed.

“Yes, well. I’ll pass along your news. In the meantime, I’ve got more wood to chop and I’m sure my wife will be along in half a candle or so to fetch me for dinner.”

Sensing her opportunity, Stardust dashed up to the staked rope divider that encircled the logging area marking a safe perimeter. “Uncle Quartz! Aunt Shadow says dinner is ready. I helped make a blueberry pie!” Star exclaimed brightly, her tale bobbing back and forth in an excited wiggle.

Star Quartz chuckled lightly. “Ah, speak of the draconequus… I’ll speak with you tomorrow afternoon, Nightsong, have a great night.” Quartz tugged a canvas sheath over the ax head and set it atop the chopping block for another pony to use, placed a small pile of wood on his back to bring back before trotting to a break in the rope parameter and over to Stardust. “So a pie huh? Did you help make it?”

“Yep! I made both halves of the crust, rolled it out, and everything!” Stardust replied.

“I can’t wait then, I’m sure it will be great.” Star Quartz set a sedate pace back to their wagon so as not to drop any wood. “You were out with your mother today, right? Did you help with any of that?”

Some of Stardust’s seemingly endless bright energy seemed to melt away at the question. “Not really, no. I can’t help with the charging, and she only had to dig up one Hearthstone.” some of her energy seemed to come back as she looked up at her Uncle grinning. “But I sure helped with that one! It was covered with a big cap of slate, but I pushed it and the Hearthstone right up sixteen hooves, no problem!”

Quartz chucked again and reached over to pat the filly’s withers. “Sounds like you’re ready for the next step of your training then. Grounding and channeling outside magic.”

“What does ‘grounding and channeling magic’ do?” Star excitedly inquired.

“Oh, all sorts of things,” Quartz offered. “Negate a unicorn’s spells, ignore a Pegasus’s weather magic, make a wild magic area safe. All things we earth ponies can do when we use our talents right. It might even let you control your visions better” The bridge of Star’s muzzle scrunched and she hummed in thought before stopping to look back at her Uncle.

“But wait, I thought only unicorns could channel magic!?” Star said, latching on to one of her mother’s old lessons about the differences between pony tribes.

“Only unicorns can shape magic,” Quartz countered. “All ponies can channel magic, take it in, and direct it to new places. The difference is that unicorns get to tell magic what to do when it gets there. But that’s enough for now, we have a delicious dinner to enjoy. Why don’t you fetch bowls for everypony and wait by the fire?”

The arrival at the family’s wagon brought the conversation to an end. As Quartz deposited the extra firewood Stardust scampered off to fetch bowls from one of the chests tied to the side of the wagon. Star Quartz stepped up to the back of the wagon and knocked at the door before opening it to step up and in. It was a cramped space inside, a small aisle with just enough space for two ponies to squeeze past each other. Both walls were lined with storage cupboards, with the left side hosting some counter space and a small table attached to the wall under a currently open window with some benches for seating. The front of the wagon was completely taken up by a large bed with a suspended upper bunk on the front wall. This is where he found his wife, infant son, and sister-in-law.

On the large bed atop the covers his son Shadow Agate napped quietly in a little carrying basket, protected at the back of the bed near the wall, while his wife Leaf Shadow was laying next to Silverlight, gently stroking her back and withers with a forehoof. The olive nocti looked up as her husband walked in before looking back down with a smile at Silver.

“She completely exhausted herself today. But she brought back that cart absolutely packed. We’ll likely need to trade some of it off to the rest of the clan or do some preserving work before we break camp. Wanted to let her sleep some more but now that you’re back it’s time to wake her,” Shadow said before reaching down to nuzzle into Silver’s neck and then poke her side with a hoof. “Food’s ready and everypony is waiting.”

Silver, for her part, woke readily; quickly snapping her head up to look around before resting her eyes on Leaf Shadow. “Not fair Leaf, I felt fangs in that nuzzle and thought you were Echo,” Silver complained.

“Don’t worry Silver,” Shadow replied, patting Silver’s shoulder with a hoof. “He should be back from Everfree in a day or two. He’s a fast flier and knows how to stay safe. There is a reason he’s usually chosen as the courier when we need to send something to Princess Luna.”

“Yes, I know. It’s how I met him after all,” Silverlight sighed.

“And here I thought it was because as the son of the Clan Head he’s one of the few nocti who can drag some respect from the nobility in Everfree,” Quartz scoffed from the door. “Come, let’s eat. I know there is a particularly hungry filly waiting as well.” he continued before turning back to the door to exit the wagon. Silver chuckled and she got up off the bed to exit after him. Shadow brought up the rear, smiling softly as she fetched the napping Agate and his basket from the back of the bed.

Outside all three adults were greeted by a nearly bouncing filly who had collected four pairs of wooden bowls and spoons and set them out on the log round they had been using as a work surface near the fire and hanging pot of stew.

“Everything is ready mom! Well, nearly. The pie is still in the oven but if we eat now it will be finished by the time we’re done!” Stardust exclaimed in a rush, dashing over to Silver’s side. “You’re not too tired still are you?”

“I’m much better now little star, thank you for helping your aunt finish while I took a nap.” Silver replied, nuzzling the top of the filly’s head. The group sat down in a small circle off to the side of the fire as Silverlight collected the pot in her aura and levitated it over to the rest next to the fire before lifting the bowls, ladling a healthy serving into each one, and floating them off to each member of the family present.

The meal was a simple but pleasant vegetable stew with the occasional fortification of a small chunk of what Stardust presumed was rabbit or squirrel. She hadn’t paid too close of attention when Aunt Shadow brought them back. Not that the meat made her uncomfortable, she could eat it just fine like any other pony, she just didn’t like to see the mess that resulted from the preparation. The blood made her squeamish.

The adults were quietly talking as they ate whilst Star idly daydreamed. Full night had fallen by this point but none of the ponies around the temporary wagon town seemed to pay the lack of good light any mind. Most of them had absolutely no trouble seeing in the low light of the moon and fire; even if they hadn’t inherited the distinct slitted eyes of the nocti. Star’s mind turned to who else would really enjoy this stew, the missing member of her family. “Hey, mom? When is dad gonna get back?”

“In a few days sweetie, He should be nearly back from Everfree by now, it’s only a four or five days flight for him provided the weather is good.” Silver replied kindly. Star’s ears seemed to wilt and she muttered something affirmative in a dejected tone. It was clear the filly missed her father, Echo Berry. Silver quickly darted her eyes about trying to think of a distraction. Settling on Star quartz she smiled slightly. “Did you tell your Uncle what you did for me today Star?” Star immediately perked up and nodded enthusiastically.

Quartz chuckled through a mouthful of stew before swallowing and confirming. “Yes indeed, she made it sound right impressive too, lifting that much stone up through the ground is quite the feat for a filly. She is far stronger than she has any right to be for her age. I’m thinking she’s more than ready to start learning how to ground and channel at this point”

“Hmm, Then perhaps you should take tomorrow to start on that. Do you have time Quartz?” Silver inquired thoughtfully. Inconspicuously studying Stardust out of the corner of her eye.

“Yeah, suppose I could at that. Only really had more wood chopping and a council meeting early before noon. I can start training her in the afternoon just after breakfast.” Quartz confirmed before going back to his stew.

Star alternated between glances at her mother and uncle with a look of confusion on her face that slowly took on a measure of understanding. “Is there… a reason you’re always having me jump onto the next thing?”

Silver lowered her half-empty bowl of stew to look down at her daughter, a concerned expression on her face. “What do you mean sweetheart? Do you feel like we’re pushing you or something?” she questioned.

“Well it’s just, I never see the other foals training nearly as much as Uncle Quartz and I do. And you’re always teaching me to read and write and work with numbers. Things I know most of the adults in the clan can’t really do. And then Aunt Shadow is always teaching me survival stuff every chance she gets. So, it just seems like you’re all putting extra effort to prepare me for something…” Star trailed off looking confused but not discouraged. The adults all shared a look Star couldn’t quite read but if she wasn’t mistaken there was a slight bit of panic in Aunt Shadow’s eyes.

Silver’s face took on a determined but kind expression and shifted closer to her daughter, bringing a hoof over her withers to hug her gently. “Star, honey, with your… talents, your life is sure to be ‘interesting’. And that is as much a curse as it is a blessing. Additionally, while we may not talk about it much, your father and thus you are in the line of succession for Clan Head; at the very least you’ll likely end up on the council when you’re older. Reading, Writing, and Maths are important skills for ponies with that kind of responsibility to have. Why even Quarts here can read and write, though I did have to teach him after I met Echo…” Silver trailed off thoughtfully realizing she was a few seconds from rambling.

“My point is that the earlier you start learning the easier it is to learn new things later in life. Princess Luna taught me that. We just want you to have the best chance to enjoy your life we can give you, and teaching you everything we know seems like the best way to achieve that. If it seems like we’re rushing you along it’s because we…” Silver paused again, deliberately stopping herself from tracing that line of thought. “We just want the best for you.” Stardust simply nodded thoughtfully and finished off her stew by dipping her muzzle straight into the bowl.

Silver chuckled softly and ruffled Star’s mane a bit. “Well let’s check on that pie shale we?” With practiced ease utilizing her aura so that none of the others would need to bother with protective gear she removed the coals from the lid of the cast iron oven, casting them back into the fire. Then she lifted the large pot out of its coal-filled hole placing it next to the stew pot. Lifting the lid revealed a golden brown pie; bubbling with sticky berry filling, slightly burned in spots from the imperfect heat of coals it still looked absolutely delicious, and way too hot to eat.

“This is going to need to cool for a bit, why don’t you go find some of your friends and play for a candle or two Star? When you get back we can all have some pie for a dessert. Then we’ll do a bit of reading and get some early sleep. We both started really early this morning.” Silver offered.

Star looked sideways at the cooling pie with a longing look before looking back to her mother with a new smile. “Okay, I’ll go see if Skitter Leaf wants to play. I’m pretty sure her dad made her a new ball, that will be fun if she wants to share. ” Star announced, and without further ado, rushed off into the camp nightlife.

Chapter 3 | Tribe

Stardust awoke the next morning just before noon. A little early for her, but nowhere near as early as the previous day. Her uncle was up and gone, but she was still snug between her mom and Aunt Shadow on the big family bed in the wagon. Little Shadow Agate, her cousin, was managing to look cute for once, curled up asleep as he was in his basket protected at the edge of the bed. The little terror was teething though, so as soon as he was awake he was sure to go for Star's hooves. He had toys that were meant to be chewed on, but apparently, her hooves were better.

As much as she would’ve rather stayed there and snuggled in the pony pile, she was awake now and not likely to fall back asleep. So, first things first, Star wiggled out of the snug and warm bed to head out of the wagon and relieve herself. About two wicks later she came back to find both her mom and Aunt Shadow awake and getting out of bed themselves. Her olive-coated aunt was checking on Agate while her mom was digging in the cupboards to pull out some sacks of what looked like different grains.

“I think a simple porridge will do to break our fast. Best get this started, it will take a candle or so to cook up.” Silver said as she levitated the sacks onto her back. She took the beginnings of the planned meal out of the wagon to start work, leaving Stardust with her aunt and cousin.

“Do you need any help with Agate, Aunt Shadow?” Star asked. Her aunt was currently playing with the hooves of the sleepy colt who was quickly waking up and filling the enclosed wagon with happy giggles. With her cousin like this Star could almost call him cute, but his bitey nature still disqualified him as far as she was concerned. She tilted her head to the side watching the purplish-blue, tiny, nocti colt’s antics — and found herself smiling despite herself.

Leaf Shadow looked up at her niece with a distracted glaze to her eyes and vocalized a small “hmm?” before catching the question. “Oh, no Star, we’re fine. Agate just needs his morning milk.” Stardust immediately winced thinking about what ‘milk’ would entail but tried to hide it. Shadow, however, caught the expression on her face “Oh please, Star. It’s a perfectly natural thing. No need to make that face.”

“Oh, no. I didn’t mean it like that Aunt Shadow,” Star protested. “It’s just, his fangs are sharp enough on my hooves, and thinking of getting bitten there, well…” Shadow immediately burst out laughing, rolling onto her back and kicking her rear hooves with a loud guffaw. Star huffed, it wasn’t that funny.

Shadow’s laughter quickly subsided and she rolled back over to tickle Agate’s belly with a felted wingtip. “Yes, I suppose they are sharp aren’t they, you little terror,” she cooed while Agate released his own giggles under her ministrations. “Don’t worry, he’s usually very gentle. He hasn’t bitten me in weeks. I do wish Silver had been willing to be a nurse mother for him though; he tends to abuse the left one and I’ve been getting a bit sore. But, apparently, you entirely soured her on the experience by biting entirely too often, Star.”

Star’s cheeks flushed crimson under her lilac coat as she stared wide-eyed at her aunt, entirely unprepared for the direction this conversation had gone. She sagged in embarrassment and let an awkward silence fall, what did you even say to that? Finally, Leaf Shadow took pity on her.

“You go on ahead Star, we’re fine here. We’ll join you two in a bit after he’s fed,” she said, offering a way out. Stardust gladly fled the wagon to find her mother smiling knowingly from beside a refreshed fire pit, finishing the preparations for the grain porridge. Star’s cheeks flushed anew as she soundlessly worked her mouth, of course the thin walls of the wagon wouldn’t have muffled the conversation. After a few moments her ears wilted and she looked pleadingly at her mom.

“D-Did I really bite?” Star asked quietly.

Silverlight giggled lightly before nodding once, “Yes, but don’t worry dear. I don’t hold it against you. Why don’t you fetch us some more water? I used the last of it on this and we’ll want new wash water and some to drink. You can use the water carts, they should have refreshed them yesterday.” Star quickly rushed to obey, eager to do just about anything to end the humiliating conversation.

* * *

A candle or so later with the sun high in the sky the family was ready to start their day. The grain porridge seasoned with fresh fruit, namely some of the plentiful blueberries Leaf Shadow had harvested yesterday, had filled Stardust’s belly and now she was more than ready to burn off the food with something fun. Aunt Shadow and her mom had, thankfully, not resumed the earlier topic of conversation and left her early foalhood remain a blissful mystery. The early afternoon light that shone down on the late autumn field that the wagon town now occupied brought with it little warmth, but it was more than enough to get her sweating as Star playful chased little Agate around their little slice of the camp. He had walking down-pat, as most foals his age did, and he had started to get a grip on trotting in the last few weeks, but a proper gallop was likely a year or more off.

Playtime was just about over though; so with her eyes locked on Shadow Agate’s graphite gray tail as she chased him around the fire pit for the fifth time, Star prepared to go into a full run to close the two stride distance and finally snatch up the giggling foal. And promptly fell flat on her flank as she plowed into the chest of her uncle Star Quartz. Agate slipped through between the stallion’s legs and ran to his mother who promptly snatched him up and placed him on her back.

“Time to get this little one over to the foalsitters,” Leaf Shadow sighed. “More foraging to do today. Looking for mushrooms mostly but I’m hoping to find some raspberries too. Have fun you two,” Leaf called as she lifted into the air on felt-covered wings off toward the center of the camp.

Quartz and Stardust called goodbye in kind and then turned back to each other. “Well, let's get to it, shall we? Follow me, I’ve got a good spot picked out.” Her uncle led Star out of the camp toward the river and the opposite direction of Hollow Shades. The pair traveled along the river about half a gallop away from camp where they arrived at a small meadow nestled in a bend of the river. A cottonwood tree grew out of the bank and hung out over the water shading a large sandbar that had formed here. In the warmer months, it would have made a good swimming hole for the locals. Now, with autumn in full swing, it was a quiet and peaceful place with a good atmosphere. Stardust wasn’t sure why her uncle had brought them out this far. Generally when he brought her away from other ponies to train it was because what he wanted to teach had the potential to cause damage to ponies or property. This ‘channeling’ thing hadn't sounded that dangerous yesterday when he described it.

“Why are we out this far Uncle Quartz? You didn’t describe ‘channeling magic’ as dangerous yesterday,” Star inquired, her concern plain in her voice.

“It’s not, at least not to others. Channeling outside magic has very real risks of course, but the risk is to yourself if you fail to control it. That’s why we’re out here. It's quiet and peaceful. Best to keep distractions to an absolute minimum.” Quartz explained. “Now, best to start at the beginning. Unicorns have their horns, pegasi have their wings, where do earth ponies channel their magic?” He had launched into his lecture tone, which he had copied from her mom. He wasn't very good at it so while Silverlight projected calm knowledge Star Quartz came off stilted and fake; like he was putting on a show with a false accent. Still, Star knew from experience that her uncle did know his stuff. Star thought for a moment before answering, “Um, their hooves?”

“Not quite, earth ponies are unique in that our whole body can channel magic. Your mom could explain it better than I, but where unicorns and pegasi are limited to channeling with their hooves and horn or wings respectively, earth ponies can conduct magic around and through every part of our body. It’s where we get our durability and strength. Now, mind you, we can’t channel magic at nearly the capacity of a unicorn or even a pegasus; our magic would burn out, and or we’d hurt ourselves even trying.”

“What about nocti?” Star interjected.

“What?” Quartz blinked at being cut off mid-lecture.

“How do nocti channel their magic?” Star elaborated on her question.

“Ah, well. I’ll leave that lesson for the clan elders to teach if you want the specifics but it’s mostly the same as with pegasi, hooves and wings, just slightly different. Now back to what I was explaining. Earth ponies can use their entire body to channel magic, which means we’re especially good at grounding out and dispersing magic when it touches us. Do you know what I mean by ‘grounding’ and ‘dispersing’?” Quartz continued, prodding for her understanding.

Star thought for a moment before shaking her head ‘No’. “Well, do you remember what I was saying yesterday about how only unicorns can ‘shape’ magic? Magic that has a shape has an effect, like lifting something with a unicorn’s aura, or letting a pegasus or nocti shape a cloud. So when that ‘shape’ gets broken up and or spread out, ‘dispersed’, it stops having an effect. That’s what we mean when we talk about grounding magic.”

Star thought she understood, but this was all sounding very abstract. The words made sense sure but she couldn't begin to understand how to make use of it. “So, how do we start?” she asked.

“If we were to do this the way I learned when I started combat instruction then we’d get a unicorn to shoot a stun spell at you or lift you with telekinesis and you would try to shrug it off,” Quartz chuckled to himself. Star didn’t like either of those ideas and scrunched her muzzle and opened her mouth to protest but was cut off as Quartz continued. “But you're a little small for that kind of instruction. So instead we are going to try something a lot slower, and more fun for everyone instead of just the instructor.”

Star Quartz walked out into the dead and drying grass of the meadow and gestured around with his forehooves. “You see this meadow? We’re going to make it grow.” he declared. “But instead of using our own magic we’ll be using these,” he explained as he reached into the set of saddlebags he was wearing and pulled out a few light crystals. This kind was used to light up wagons with a low light to do detailed work by, or that non-noctal ponies used in place of torches. They were fairly expensive upfront but, so long as you had a unicorn to charge them, cheap to use. Stardust tilted her head in confusion not following.

“Here watch me.” He took one of the softly glowing crystals under a hoof, closed his eyes as his face took on a look of concentration, and for a few moments nothing happened. Then the crystal’s light faded out and Quartz’s fur seemed to stand on end fluffing out like static. As it lay flat again and the ground his hooves instantly greened as new shoots of life grew in and a few flowers even bloomed.

“Wow!” Star exclaimed, duly impressed. True, she’d seen him grow things before, but the process wasn’t nearly as dramatic and usually slower, and he normally looked tired after as it wasn’t really his talent. The results from using the glowing crystal weren’t all that much, a sparse patch of new green life barely a stride across. But it was far more than she’d ever seen her uncle grow before.

“Yes, It’s quite impressive. Personally, I think watching a pegasus build lightning on their hooves and wings to fling at targets is more impressive, but I suppose this does have some flare to it. Go on, give it a try,” Quartz said, tossing a glowing glow crystal over to the filly. “Now, before you begin, you're going to feel for the magic the same way you would listen for an echo when locating a stone, and then you're going to, sort of, pull it into yourself,” he explained. “But do not pull it into your core, that’s how you get hurt. Let it wrap around you like a shell or a second coat of fur.”

Stardust nodded and took the crystal under her left hoof. Thinking about what her uncle had explained she tapped the crystal with a hoof sending a pulse of her magic like she was trying to find it below the surface and felt for the echo. Immediately there was the echo from her magic but she rested her hoof on the crystal and waited, still trying to feel for more echoes. Yes, there was a soft echo - more of a warmth really - sitting under her hoof. So, she pulled at it. Like pulling on a scarf she pulled the magic up from the crystal and around her, down her other leg, and into the ground like she was trying to grow the plants there. Immediately it felt like her entire left leg had fallen asleep painfully. “Ow, that kinda stings…” she half whimpered, shaking out her left foreleg.

“It does, it takes a bit of getting used to but if you let it spread out more and do it a bit more slowly it’s much more bearable. But congratulations! You did it! Take a look.” indeed when Stardust looked down there was a small patch of dense green new life around where her right foreleg was planted in the soil. There was more green life than she had ever grown before and she opened her eyes wide in astonishment and looked up at her uncle. Quartz chuckled and reached to ruffle her mane. And for once, Star didn’t try to dodge his hoof or blush in embarrassment.

They spent the rest of the afternoon practicing, Stardust spent the early attempts trying to slow down and really feel and then direct the path the magic took through her, trying to get it so there was no discomfort. Between each attempt, her uncle would question her on what she experienced and then console her on what to do differently and what she was doing correctly. The afternoon light quickly faded to evening as their training turned from expending the dwindling supply of glow crystals to something new but still channeling-related. A technique that involved sending her magic into the earth and then pulling it back up in little loops to effectively anchor herself to the ground while her uncle attempted to dislodge her. It was a fun twist on a game some of the foals played with a rope trying to tug the other team across some line drawn in the dirt. Though Star suspected she would be accused of cheating if she used this during a game of that.

As the light of day turned to evening the pair was getting ready to head back to camp. Stardust sat with her eyes closed, tapping her hoof on the ground and feeling her magic spread out into the ground before she pulled it back in a loop; sticking her hoof to the ground before letting go and trying again. There was something off about the sensation that had been bothering her all day. There was a sort of echo of magic that came in behind her own magic every time she pulled it back. Star, with her eyes closed, tilted her head one way and then the other feeling for the echo and she pushed her magic out and pulled it in again letting out a soft but audible “hmmm.”

“Something wrong Star?” Called her uncle from a few strides away where he was packing up all the used glow crystals into his saddlebags.

“No, it’s just… there is a sort of echo of magic behind my own every time I pull it back in and it feels like if I pulled harder…” Star listed into silence again thinking. She couldn’t see it turned away with her eyes closed but, behind her, Star Quartz’s eyes went wide in shock staring at her back.

Quartz froze for just a moment before speaking up, “Star don’t-” but it was too late. Stardust set both her hooves, sent out her magic and pulled it back in a loop, and then kept pulling.

Immediately she knew she had done something wrong. Instead of the nettling feeling of a sleeping limb, Star felt intense pain. It felt like plunging herself into a frozen river as magic washed over her and it was all she could do to stop pulling and push it back out again into the ground. Her ears were buzzing like she was surrounded by a swarm of high-pitched bees and she collapsed to the ground as her sense of balance fled her. She felt sick, and a sense of wrongness persisted even with the foreign magic gone. She felt her stomach start to squirm and-.

A hoof touched her shoulder, the world flipped right side up again, and everything felt right.

“Stardust!”

She opened her eyes and blinked.

“Star, are you ok?” Her uncle frantically implored.

“Ow…” Stardust replied weakly. “That was... not fun,” she said closing her eyes again and resting her head.

“No, I imagine not. I warned you at the start that this could be dangerous precisely because of this. Tried to warn you again just before-” Quartz sighed deeply. “Ah, well. Done is done. Stars above Stardust, sometimes I think you should have been born a unicorn with the speed and sheer ability with which you take to magic. What you just did is a very advanced, and very dangerous, application of earth pony magic. Look around you.” And Star did. Blinking repeatedly to readjust her eyes; Stardust saw, but she wasn’t sure she understood.

For ten strides in every direction, the ground was covered in brown dead plants. The green patches of their training were gone and everything else was brown and completely dead. A clear, contrasting, and perfectly circular line divided the area of effect from the rest of the meadow which was merely dying as opposed to completely dead like it was inside the circle. The circle that was centered on her.

“I did that?!” Star gasped.

“Yes, you did.” Quartz sighed again and lay down next to her to nuzzle her neck in a calming manner. “It doesn’t really have a name that I know of, but it’s an advanced technique. I’ve personally never seen it done and only know it by reputation. Life needs magic. And what you did was pull on the ambient magic around you. The weak fragile life of the plants fell to the vacuum you created and then you pulled in that magic too. Fortunately, stronger life, like critters and ponies, wouldn't be affected too much in the short time the vacuum would persist so it’s not too dangerous to us. But, If there had been a unicorn attempting to cast a spell nearby you would have completely prevented it.” Quartz was rubbing her back with a hoof as he explained.

“It’s a good thing you grounded it out quickly. That much outside magic in your body could have killed you or made you extremely sick if you held it much longer. I still don’t understand how you did it. You're supposed to have to train for years to be able to feel the background magic of the world; and then longer still to be able to pull on it. Please never try that again, okay?” He implored.

“Okay, never again,” Star agreed in a sleepy tone. She was sore all over and the back rub was threatening to put her under.

“You feeling ok?” Quartz asked again now that she had calmed down.

“Sore, and tired.”

“Well let’s get you back to camp and you can take a short nap, want me to carry you?” He asked gently.

“Please?” Stardust asked, turning on the childish charm despite her exhaustion.

Quartz snorted in amusement but quickly dipped a shoulder to allow her to climb onto his back. She was a little bigger than most foals when they stopped getting rides but he was more than strong enough to carry her easily, even if he hadn’t been an earth pony.

“Alright, let's get you back.” He said as he stood up and set off back to camp. His steady rolling gate felt hypnotic under Stardust’s belly. Combined with her newfound exhaustion she was having a difficult time staying awake. Despite her best efforts, Star was asleep by the time they reached the first wagons.