The Last Light of the Evening Star

Evening Star hurried down the hallway, peaking around corners and glancing into half-open rooms for reasons that even she was unsure of. She'd spent the first five minutes after waking having another existential crisis, this one mostly caused by her inability to identify what her dream had meant.

She had eventually been pulled out of her spiral by the sound of the laughter. The possibility of being in a room with another soul was a comforting one. And the delightful sound mixed so wonderfully with the odors of sugar, butter and fried batter, that even the most stone-hearted pony would have been incapable of resisting it.

She paused outside the doorway to the dining area to peek inside. Rarity and her family were eating pancakes, and, in spite of Rarity’s laughing objections, the meal had turned into a game of trying to squirt each other with bottles of syrup. Evening Star grinned. The world was as it should be, she was being silly again.

Still, she would feel more comfortable once she was out of the castle well out of sight of it. She gently nudged open the door, ducked inside and creeping past the massive table and in the direction of the exit.

“Miss Star! Well rested I trust!”

Evening paused and turned reluctantly to nod at Rarity.

“I’m afraid that Pinkie Pie made far too many pancakes and well, usually she’d finish them herself...but she’s busy helping the others with the repairs…in any case, you simply must join us for breakfast.” Rarity explained, jumping off her seat and trotting over to Evening Star, with her most winning smile.

Evening glanced at the smiling faces behind Rarity, inviting her to join them in their ridiculous competition. Then she shook her head. “I’m sorry, Miss Rarity, but I have to get back to my library. I appreciate everything you and the others have done…but I need to get started on…putting things back where they belong."

“But the whole town is in total disarray dear…at least tell me you are going to stay here until the repairs are finished.” Rarity said, seemingly scandalized.

“I’ve imposed enough on all of you…you don’t have to worry about me.” Evening Star said. “I have to get going. I’ll let you get back to your breakfast…”

She’d not made it two steps when Hondo jumped down from his chair and padded over to her.

“Ah, Evening Star, right?” He asked.

She nodded, mournfully.

“You saved my wife and my daughter…I just want you to know, as far as I’m concerned, your part of the family!” He said with a grin.

She startled. “Oh, umm, thank you sir but I-”

Then he’d wrapped his hooves around her, joined by Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Cookie Crumble in quick succession.

“Wherever we call home…you’re always welcome dear.” Cookie said.

Evening felt a squeeze on her leg and looked down to see Sweetie Belle smiling up at her. With some difficulty, she drew backward, then she yanked herself away from the group.

“I-I have to go.” She mumbled, avoiding the surrounding looks of confusion and concern. Eyes shining, she turned and galloped out of the room.

She was halfway back to Ponyville before she slowed her gait, eventually pausing on the cleft of a hill to catch her breath and stare at asymmetrical line of trees in the distance, which denoted the border of the Everfree Forest.

Then she collapsed, striking the dirt until her hooves hurt and she was too tired to do anything but lie down. She pressed her horn, buzzing and sparkling with the force of her emotion into the cool dirt, until its glow finally faded the downpour within had slowed to a trickle.

She was so stupid, letting those ponies treat her with care, letting them tell her she was one of them or that she could rely on them. Letting them…hug her. Like she was just a lost little foal who needed them to love her.

Well, she did need them, but she didn’t deserve them. Evening Star didn’t remember life before Ponyville, but she knew, deep in her heart, that she had done something truly terrible. Her research had indicated that memory loss could be caused by shock and the guilt she felt, whenever she looked at other ponies, having fun or being kind to one another, told her that whatever had traumatized her, she had brought it upon herself.

If her family were still alive, they would want nothing to do with her. And why would they, all she did was suck the happiness out of other's lives. She didn’t belong here; it was simple as that. She was a single puzzle piece left in the box, because she didn’t fit with anypony else’s life.

And then she’d had the dream, where she’d felt so strongly that for once, she belonged. But that had been ripped away from her, back to this world where she never would.

She shoved her face back into the dirt, her tears salting the soil as she cried out in a low whimper. “Please…please…whoever you are…forgive me…forgive me.”

She didn’t know who she was speaking to. She didn’t know what she needed forgiveness for. But she couldn’t stand another day, waiting for answers that might never arrive.

Eventually, when all the tears were gone and her legs had started to go to sleep from kneeling for so long, she continued on her way down the road. She had a lot of work to do.

Her stomach grumbled. She ignored it.

Evening Star spent the rest of the day using her horn to pick up beams and branches and pile them atop the library, in her best estimation of what a roof looked like. While the rest of the town worked hard to protect each other, to repair one another’s homes and businesses, she stood in this empty library, trying and failing to plug leaks that she knew, deep down, would cause the entire structure to collapse, the moment a strong storm rolled in.

She should have stayed at the castle. She should have accepted the hoof of friendship. She knew that. But she also knew that it was too painful, waiting around for ponies who were so much amazing than she was, to discover that she wasn’t worth the effort. It was better to hole up here, where she could hoard books that she could barely afford and be sure the rest of the world didn’t want or need her.

“Hey, Evening…”

She glanced away from the gap in her make-shift roof that she’d been staring at for the past ten minutes. “What is it, Trixie?”

“I-I’m really sorry…about taking that book…”

“It doesn’t matter.” Evening Star said, sauntering over to one of the empty shelves and staring at the wood. It had gotten wet last night, after the Bearer’s had helped her save all the books. The wood was warping. If the pegasi didn’t arrange drier weather soon, it would rot, and all the shelves would have to be replaced.

Not that the town would have the funds to do so, after what it had just been through.

“No, it-it does matter. The-the Great and Powerful Trixie…is not a thief.” The other unicorn said as she trotted closer.

Evening Star bristled. She couldn’t handle it. One more pony touching her or being near her or telling her how sorry they were or how much they appreciated her.

This is why you stay in the library. A voice reminded her. The outside was too…painful…too dangerous, too upsetting. Too real.

You don’t deserve real life. She reminded herself.

“Trixie, please…I’m really busy right now…and I don’t care anymore okay…I tried to save one book and I just made things worse. Now please, leave me alone so I can clean everything up.” Evening said.

“But I got all the bits together, to buy a replacement of that book!”

Evening Star paused and turned to stare at Trixie, more precisely, at her hoof, where a sack full of shiny golden bits now rested.

She looked up into the smiling eyes of the blue unicorn, her expression of horror eventually causing Trixie to go nervous.
“Did the I mess up…again?” She asked.

“Your caravan was destroyed.” Evening Star said.

Trixie blushed. “Well, yeah, but…”

“Trixie, the stage…all your props, your fireworks…they’re all gone and…and you’re probably going to have to move. Nopony will be able to pay for magic shows, with half the town destroyed.” Evening Star said.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie always covers her debts!” Trixie declared, with a little flourish of her cloak.

Evening Star was atop her a second later, wrapping her hooves around her neck and holding her tight. “I’m sorry I got so angry…I’m sorry I’m like this…you-you're the best roommate I could ever have…I’m so sorry for everything! Please don’t go!”

Trixie gently broke the embrace. “The Great and Powerful Trixie accepts your proposal…” Then she winked. “And you don’t have to apologize, Evening Star. You were right…I knew it was wrong and I did it anyway.”

Evening Star tackled her with another hug and Trixie, with a sad smile, gently patted her withers and stroked her mane, until she’d calmed back down.

Trixie ended up helping with the repairs, but their work was soon cut off by the fact that both of them were starving. After a belated dinner, made rich with the sound of laughter, the two of them passed out on their beds, the temperate spring night a blessing given their drafty residence.

That was when it happened.

It was another dream. Evening Star was back at the castle. Only this time there was arguing. Distorted voices cried out from either side of her, full of righteous anger and petty jealousy.

She saw herself rise above the clamor, two great purple wings appearing from behind her back to bring her aloft. Then she felt it, as the chambers shook with the sound of her voice, her demand for quiet. The magic she exuded was far superior to anything she’d accomplished in reality; it was intoxicating to imagine and terrifying to witness.

The Evening Star flapped her wings, then slammed her hoof down on the crystal table, her horn pulsating with barely contained magic. She was crying in the dream, but she didn’t know why. She was angry about something, possibly angrier than she’d ever been. But she’d no place to focus it, no clear target to direct her passion at.

And when the voices ceased to be cowed and returned to their accusations, the alicorn had fled. Fled up the pearlescent staircase, into a private library. That’s where she’d found it. The book. The key to solving all of her problems.

What had been its name again?

Evening Star opened her eyes. She was not in the Castle of Friendship. She was in her library. And she was not an Alicorn or a princess. She was a librarian, with a lot of work ahead of her.

When the day’s repairs were complete, or at least, as complete as they would be with Trixie holding a show at the library (she said it was to raise morale for the whole town, but Evening Star knew that Trixie needed the limelight as much as the residents of Ponyville needed a distraction).

After an amusing, if curtailed show, many of the ponies stuck around to help with the repairs and Trixie insisted that Evening Star take a break before she busted her horn trying to be useful. It was scary, to venture outside once again. Her home had been wrecked, but it remained hers, a place where she’d believed she could control. It was a relief in some ways, to have everything around her shattered so profoundly, just as it was a relief to be forced away from that damp and cluttered interior.

Still, even though she knew that the ponies doing the work were more experienced and talented at this than she was, even though she knew she would merely get in the way, she longed to return as soon as possible to make sure everything was going according to plan.

She had to force herself not to return. She had to remind herself that she trusted Trixie and the ponies of this town. And that the worst had already happened and that she was entirely powerless to stop the situation from somehow degrading any further.

She ended up going to Sugar Cube corner, just for something to do.

“Can I help you?” Asked the pony behind the counter. She had a gray coat with a dark lavender mane.

“Uh, hi…are you, new here?” Evening asked. There was something…familiar about the pony. She’d…never met her before, she was sure of it. But the feeling remained.

“Pinkie Pie is helping with the repairs…so she asked me to fill in for her.” The pony said. Then she lifted a hoof to point to the hastily scribbled name tag perched on her sweater. “I’m Maud.”

The name tag read: MAUD.

“Okay…I would like three blueberry muffins please.” Evening Star said.

Maud nodded and turned, lifelessly, toward the racks of hundreds of brightly colored pastries. Then she removed the muffins, one at a time, placed them in a paper bag and slid it across to Evening Star.

Evening had just begun to reach for her purse when the strange pony lifted a hoof.

“No need…any friend of Pinkie’s is a friend of mine.” She said, reciting the comforting statement with all the warmth of a tundra outhouse.

“Oh, okay…thank you, Maud.”

Maud just stared at her, and Evening Star quickly exited the shop, before the interaction could somehow become more uncomfortable.

As she sat down on a stone, overlooking the pastures surrounding town, she removed "Foal's and Horsehold Tales" from her saddlebag and gently used her magic to open it up. The olde grammar and faded illustrations, once unnerving at best, were now comforting somehow.

She skimmed over the contents, careful to avoid getting any crumbs on the yellowed pages as she ate. Then she paused, when she came across a story she’d never before heard. It was entitled “The Foryeten Prynce” and featured an illustration of two stallions quarreling over a beautiful mare.

After finishing her second muffin, she flipped the page to begin the story.

“Long ago, there were two alicorn prynces. The ealdor was sharp of mind and unequaled in the ways of spellcasting. The younger was stout of spirit and the boldest of jousters. The two were insevarable, ruling the kyngdom of Alicorns with cunning and might. But when a glamorous mare arrived from a distant climbes to visit their fair land, both desired her. Each toiled day and night to impress the mare, neglecting their duties to win her favour. When she chose the younger, the ponies of the court were relieved, that the wiser of the two might return his attentions to affairs of state. But the ealdor brother did not forgive his brother nor forget the mare. And so, he did a fierce thing and tried to change the heorte of the beautiful mare with magics…”

She frowned. Usually, tales collected in volumes such as this one, like the one that Trixie had been reading for the entertainment of the foals at her show, were based on true events. Exaggerated? Yes. But usually, they could be followed back to a particular incident, which had been mythologized.

But this one suggested the existence of a pre-Celestian kingdom of Alicorns, something which went against all she knew of Equestrian history.

Before the two princesses had awoken the Elements of Harmony, the lands which made up Equestria had belonged to the three great tribes. And before that, to Discord and the legions of Tartarus.

If indeed, there had been an Alicorn empire, the land should have been scattered with relics of their mightiness. And if this story was based on some element of truth, why had she never heard of it before? It certainly wasn't as memorable as the Three Billy Goats Gruff or the Little Red Riding Hoof. But shouldn't it have shown up in storybooks other than this one?

As she frowned at the words, wondering if there were any other books in her, somewhat limited inventory, which might better elucidate this line of questioning, her contemplation was interrupted by the sound of laughter.

She turned her gaze to see a large red stallion, exiting the town, with a yellow filly bouncing about at his hooves. The filly wore an adorable red ribbon which bounced with her every step and a smile that was so infectious that the stallion, although he was no doubt exhausted from helping with the repairs, couldn’t help but return it.

Evening Star watched as they made their way in the direction of the farmlands, the fading sunlight shining off their coats. It was then that she remembered she had a brother.

She still could not picture his face, nor remember his voice. But she could suddenly remember other things. Things like thundering hooves that she struggled to catch up with. A warm flank on which she’d climbed to reach a higher shelf. And a cutie mark, shaped like a shield.

She couldn’t recall what had become of him. Nor did she know how she could have forgotten him. But she knew that someone had loved her once and that knowledge was far from a disappointment.

As she watched the pair make their way in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, she heard a screech, echo over the fields and watched as a massive, winged creature emerged from the canopy of the forest. It was a Cactus Wren, another monstrosity from deep within the Everfree Forest which she’d believed she’d go to the grave without ever seeing.

Each wing was the length of a saguaro, and its fleshy, green skin was covered in massive, pearly white spines. With a beat of its wings, it made trees creak and groan at the rush of air.

Evening Star sprang into action, galloping toward the pair, who were now galloping back in the direction of town, no doubt hoping to take cover beneath one of the few sturdy structures. Using her teleportation, she appeared alongside them, urging them both along, while she glanced back at steadily approaching monster.

Glancing at the young filly, whose brother had now picked up by the scruff of the neck, Evening Star skidded to a halt and turned to face the wild eyes, vicious talons and moisture-cracked beak. Her horn glowed brightly, and she fired a beam of pure energy straight at the creature’s wing.

She watched as a hole formed in the semi-translucent flesh of the wing, causing wren to let out a squawk of pain and for water to gush down on the road into Ponyville. The creature shuddered and beat its wings frantically, as it worked to return to the almost effortless gliding it had achieved moments ago. As it fought against the increased air resistance, Evening Star galloped after the stallion and his sister. She was almost to the town hall, where the little filly was desperately motioning for her to follow.

Then the wren, unable to fly straight, crashed its water-swollen bulk into the side of the building, sending shards of wood flying everywhere. The young filly had fallen off her brothers back and now both she and him were dazed and half buried in the rubble. The wren yanked itself out of the wall of the building, leaving behind half a dozen spines, each as big as a yardstick.

Evening Star galloped faster than she ever had, leaping onto a stall once used to house flowers and using it to propel herself toward the beak of the creature. As she readied her horn to fire another searing bolt into its face, a talon reached up and snatched her out of the air.

In an instant, she was in agonizing pain, thrashing against the spines on the inside of the wren's palm. Ignoring her feeble attempts at resistance, it beat its wings, sending shingles spilling off nearby structures and bits of rubble flying throough the air. The gust created just by its movement was powerful enough to send the few ponies brave enough to attempt to intercede, flying head over hoof onto their backs.

As it rose above the town, it closed its grip and Evening Star thrashed in agony as three immense spines pierced through her stomach, hind leg and chest, the last of which, tickled her ribs.

The magic she’d been holding onto, released, if only because she lacked the presence of mind to hold onto it any longer. It streaked out in every direction, cutting through the talon that was crushing and stabbing her simultaneously, and searing the face of the wren.

It let out another squawk of pain, this one even more deafening than the last. Then the spines drew out of Evening Star and her whole body was falling free.

For a moment, she felt the wind rushing through her mane and imagined simply spreading her wings and letting them glide her to the ground. Then she saw a sunbeam land on the still living wren. An explosion of solar energy tore through the air, creating a blinding flash of orange and yellow fire. Most of the spines evaporated midair, but the remaining few blackened and snapped from the force of the shockwave. The air filled with the scent of burnt cactus flesh, as charred chunks flew in every direction.

Then from the center of the shockwave, She appeared, as radiant as the sun and as colorful as the sky. With a grace and alacrity that would have made any pegasus jealous, she streaked down through the air, the yellow glow of magic rippling over her pristine coat like a heat haze. Evening Star. Princess Celestia had come to save her. She was so much more beautiful and majestic than Evening could have imagined.

Evening Star closed her eyes, her body paralyzed by the excruciation of the snapped spines still lodged in her chest. Then the rushing of the air stopped, and she was being cushioned by those massive white wings. Evening felt the warmth of the princess's aura and finally gave into unconsciousness.