Lost Summer

There was little sleep to be had for anyone the night of the attack. It was two A.M. before Rarity and Sweetie Belle were able to go to bed for the night. They got a new room together in a completely different hotel at the behest of their mother before she departed into the emergency room. They went to the hospital first thing in the morning to check on their parents. They entered their mother’s room, groggy, Sweetie with tears already in her eyes.

Cookie laid elevated on her bed. She had a splint on her left foreleg, bandages around her head and a dressing on her burn. But she was awake and lucid at least. She hugged Sweetie Belle who began to sob and then she hugged Rarity.

“I’ve been worrying all night,” she whispered.

“Did anything else happen to you last night after I left,”

Rarity shook her head. “No.”

“Did you see your father?”

“Yes,” wept Sweetie. “He's covered with tubes and looks dead.”

“He’s not dead,” she assured her. “They're keeping him asleep in a coma to protect his brain. He's going to be okay.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he's very strong. The rest of him was in pretty good shape considering his fall.”

“I just don't understand any of this,” cried Rarity. “Why did they attack me like that? It seems so senseless.”

Cookie sighed. “Listen, girls… I have something huge I need to tell both of you. We've reached the point where keeping it a secret any longer is just reckless.” She closed the door quietly with her magic and pulled the curtain the rest of the way over the window leaving them alone in a dimly lit room.

Cookie stared at the ceiling, trying to gather her thoughts. “In a perfect world I wouldn’t have to tell you this ever. Well… in a perfect world… none of us would have ever met at all. I hardly know where to begin. Kirin are real. Those stories I used to tell you, most of them are true. A lot of them were about me and things I did a long time ago. I'm a retired spy from the Ice Clan.”

Rarity and Sweetie exchanged confused glances. Rarity shook her head. “What are you saying? You must have head trauma.”

Cookie looked directly into her with profound sincerity. “No. Everything I'm about to tell you is real. My true name is Diamond Dust. Twenty five… six years ago I was ordered to sneak into the Lightning Clan's castle and assassinate their infant princess asleep in her cradle. I couldn't do it so I left my clan and the Kirin, taking the princess with me. Rarity, you are that princess.”

Rarity’s mouth hung open. Her mother being a former spy actually didn't seem as far fetched as it should have when she thought about it. But the story was so earth-shattering in implication it was beyond belief. “But… That's impossible. We're not Kirin, we're ponies; you can see that plainly.”

“We are Kirin and I'll show you.” Cookie placed her hoof on her own horn. “Diamond Dust.”

She winced in pain as the transformation agitated her injuries.

Sweetie and Rarity gasped as their mother changed form right before their eyes, pony-shaped but so radically different in mane and coat. Even her colors had changed.

“I don't believe this.” whispered Rarity, fumbling for meaning in this revelation.

Cookie spoke to them again. “Now it's your turn. Let magic idle in your horn, touch it with your hoof and say your given Kirin name. Rarity, your birth name is Summer Storm. Sweetie Belle, yours is Frostbane.”

“Frostbane?” she blinked in dismay. “Do I look like a Frostbane?”

“You act like a Frostbane,” quipped Rarity.

“Frostbane is a beautiful and intimidating Ice Kirin name,” growled Cookie.

The sisters looked at each other warily and touched their own horns. They said their names in unison and just like that their pony bodies melted away, leaving them with lithe frames and bushy curls everywhere. They looked back at each other with mouths agape. Then at themselves.

“This is what I'm supposed to look like?” asked Rarity. “My cutie mark is gone but my mane is somehow even more luxurious. How does this work? Did you put a spell on us when we were foals?”

“No. This is a natural Kirin ability. You can do it to yourself and others. Kirin call it their ‘animus’ form but it looks just like a unicorn. Maybe we all have a common ancient unicorn ancestor, or maybe unicorns really come from Kirin, I don't know.”

“So we’re all Kirin?” asked Sweetie. “What about dad?”

“He's a pony. Sweetie, you're half pony and our biological child. Rarity… Uh… I never personally met your mother or father.”

Rarity lifted a foreleg to wistfully examine the unfamiliar shaggy fluff of her fetlock and sighed. “So I’ve been adopted this whole time… Or rather, stolen. I guess that makes sense when you think about it.”

It felt like the ground beneath her hooves had crumbled away. Everything, every basic thing she thought she knew was a lie. She wasn't a pony. She wasn't even related to her family. Her name was fake. She was the lost princess of some place she'd basically never even been to. She didn't know who she was at all.

“Why did you take me from my home? Couldn't you have just left me with my real family?”

Cookie's face fell. “I made a snap decision, Rarity. You would have been a princess which might sound nice to a pony but things are different with the Kirin. Their rulers are conniving and cruel. You would have been groomed to be a tyrant instead of the you you are today.”

“But it was still wrong, don't you think? It wasn't your place. How do I even know that explanation is true?”

“I’m sorry I kept this from you for so long but I was trying to give you the most normal life I could. I taught you how to protect yourself and I let you follow your own path and supported you even when it scared me. If you want me to apologize for kidnapping you and being your mother for two and a half decades I… I don't think I can do it. I understand if you resent me for depriving you of knowing your biological parents but if you're going to reject me as a parent, that really hurts. Hondo and I love you.”

“Does dad even know about any of this?”

“Yes. All of it since before you could even talk. Can you believe that? He was willing to marry me and be your father even knowing the kind of trouble we could be in.”

Rarity wasn't sure if that was reassuring or cause for a deepening sense of betrayal. She covered her face in dismay. “I… This is a lot. I need a moment.” She turned away to the door and paused. “Summer Storm.” Her body changed back to unicorn and she quickly stepped out of the room. She locked herself in the hallway bathroom and began to cry.

How could a single twenty four hour period go from cloud nine to absolute terror to complete identity crisis?

She looked at herself in the mirror over the sink, staring into her own eyes, wondering how she never saw that there was a Kirin in there.

This revelation reframed the whole attack. Those three Kirin put the only parents she'd ever known in the hospital but were they really bad guys? What if they were just trying to rescue a missing Kirin for a long grieving mother? But they seemed so angry and violent. Could they not have just approached her and explained? No. That wouldn't have worked. Hearing the words straight from Cookie was the only way she'd ever believe them.

It felt so isolating, like she was an interloper in someone else's family. No, that wasn't quite right. It wasn't as though she was here intruding by her own decision. She didn't choose her family but then again no one ever chooses their family. She'd never look at any of them the same again.

Sweetie hadn't known about any of this either but at least she was with her biological parents. Rarity was lost. She began cycling furiously through so many fond memories, looking through a new lens and questioning if they were all illegitimate now. Being a parent was difficult. Cookie didn't personally gain anything from kidnapping her. She hadn't been exploited. Maybe she really had just taken pity on her. The love she remembered was immutable and couldn't be fake.

Rarity wiped her face. When she returned to the room, Sweetie was laying next to their mother on the bed as if they were comforting each other. They had both returned to their animus forms.

“Rarity,” murmured Cookie. “Are you alright?”

She gave a wordless nod and came to her bedside. Cookie floated a necklace into the air, a simple strap with a rough cut glowing stone.

“Remember this? I found it on one of the intruders after the fight.”

Rarity squinted at the accessory. “That was on the server at the Occasions Fashion Showcase.”

Cookie floated it away from Rarity, toward the window and its light began to fade. “This thing right here is how they found you. The stone reacts to only your presence it seems.”

Rarity took it to look closer. “What is it?”

“I don't know. I couldn't ID those Kirin, figure out what their orders were or who they're getting them from.”

“How did they even know to look for me there at all?” wondered Rarity.

Cookie shook her head. “Can’t say for sure but it's possible they've been canvassing cities and specific events incognito like that for years. Even though you were only a baby when you disappeared, they've probably constructed a profile of you based on your family. They knew how old you'd be. They knew you'd be hiding as a unicorn. They might have known your animus coloration. They may have made an educated guess based on your pedigree that you'd be in or around the upper crust of society and attracted to fancy, posh things.”

“The next question is, why were they looking for me? They weren't assassins. If they wanted to kill me, I'd most certainly be dead.”

“Yes,” agreed Cookie. “If they tried to drug you, the plan was to abduct you. The crate on the luggage cart was probably for moving your unconscious body but for what purpose I'm not sure.”

“Could it be possible that my mother has been searching for me all this time and is just trying to get me back?” posed Rarity.

Cookie swallowed. “It's… a possibility,” she admitted. She didn't want to think about the ironic prospect because it would undermine her reasoning for taking Rarity. Surely by now the princess had handed down her tiara to a new heir. If she was still looking for her Summer Storm, it would be for no other reason than she was still grieving and unable to accept her loss.

“But,” Cookie continued, “there's no way of knowing. One thing that stood out to me about the attack was that there was one Kirin from each clan trying to capture you. Clans working in tandem like that would have never happened when I lived there. Kirin have been harshly divided on those lines for forever. That makes me think they might have been rogue operatives.”

“But it's been twenty-five years since you lived there,” argued Rarity. “Things could be very different than how you remember them.”

“They could but something like that would take some kind of seismic political shift, a revolution.”

Rarity shrugged. “Then perhaps there was and the three clans live in cooperative harmony now.”

Cookie frowned. “I'm not saying it's impossible. Maybe someone powerful is reaching out to you but we don't know their intent.”

“We don't know a lot of things,” sighed Rarity. “This is too big. It isn't something I can just pretend didn't happen and then move on. I need answers. You may not have them but someone out there does.”

“What are you suggesting?” asked Cookie fearfully.

“I'm saying that maybe I should acquiesce their invitation and… go find the Kirin… and myself.”

“What?” shrieked Sweetie Belle, barging back into the conversation. “You can't go to them. That's insane.”

“No. She is actually right, Sweetie… to a certain degree. I had always hoped that this collision between worlds would never happen. I had always hoped that we'd been forgotten and could just live in peace. Clearly that's not the case. If there really is a Kirin princess or someone who sent that team, word will get back to them and they will send more. They know who you are and what you look like. If they don't know where you live, they can figure it out.”

She stroked Sweetie's mane. “The game is up. We're a family who's put down roots. We can't just run forever. Your sister is an adult and while this plan terrifies me for many reasons, it may be the only real option we have.”

“I might be a designer by trade but I have the tools to get to the bottom of this,” declared Rarity.

“I have no doubt that you do. I hope that this is something that can be resolved diplomatically but don't assume that it is. Always err on the-”

“Side of caution,” finished Rarity. “I know and I'm sure that any or all of my friends would be willing to come with-”

“Don't bring your friends,” warned Cookie.

Rarity blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Don’t bring anyone who's not a Kirin. The Kirin are an isolated society. When I left I'm not sure that anyone even knew there were civilizations beyond our territory. I certainly didn't. Obviously at least some Kirin have figured it out now but bringing ponies into their territory might be very agitating to them. Also, any non-Kirins will stick out and draw unwanted attention to you.”

Rarity frowned with concern, imagining herself hacking through the jungle completely alone on a self guided Daring Doo adventure. “Okay,” she groaned warily.

“Operate with the assumption that you're being tailed by dangerous characters until you have good reason to believe otherwise. Don't go anywhere or do anything without scouting it out first.”

Rarity twirled her hoof in the air. “Okay but how do I even get to the Kirin?”

Cookie grunted as she adjusted her hurt leg. “I kept a secret journal detailing everything I knew about the clans and the players in them and you and the situation. It used to be for work, then it was for living in hiding and then it was for documentation so I didn't forget things that might be important some day. It also includes maps, some of which I made from memory but it's better than me pointing out the window. Make sure to seek out the Lightning Clan first. Sky's Edge is your hometown; anywhere else may be extremely dangerous for you.”

“Sky’s Edge,” she murmured. ‘What's it like?”

“It lies in the shadow of a mountain. Many stone buildings. Their economy used to be focused on mining but the mines have been slowly running dry since I could remember. They've probably moved away from that by now.”

“Are you going to be safe recovering in a hospital room?”

“Safe from other Kirin? I think so,” she bluffed. “They want you, not me.” She omitted the fact that someone might be inclined to drop in wanting info on Rarity or her whereabouts.

“You need to go back to Ponyville as soon as possible. Take Sweetie Belle with you.”

“I wanna stay here with you,” protested the filly.

Cookie shook her head at the ceiling. “There's nowhere for you to stay and you need to go to school and you need to be safe.”

“It's almost Summer vacation anyway.”

“You have to go, Sweetie,” she replied sternly.

“I'm just going to live at home alone?” she shrugged.

“No. You’re going to go live with the Apples, maybe for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll be out of here before then.”

“What about dad?”

“I don't know yet. He might be here for a while; he did fall out a four story window.” She turned back to Rarity. “Watch your back on your way. Make sure you're not followed. Switch trains at least once. Go back to our house and find the journal; it's under a loose floorboard beneath my side of the bed. Take any of my gear. Then leave Ponyville again as soon as you can. Be very careful if you have to return to Carousel Boutique… Rarity…” She gave a poignant pause. “Everything I did was for you. Even before I knew you.”

“I know.”

“...Don't pack your hair dryer.”

“Ugh, mother,” she scoffed.