Colt of Snow and Starlight

Though there was no sunlight I could still feel the shift as the time came to walk up. I lived in nothing more than a wooden shed with a bed of hay, and one window. I could make out the constellations from the window, and the clear sliver-white moon. I had a small dresser about the size of a bedside table. In was a few outfits, mostly for cold weather, and my saddle bag. On it was three idioms. A lantern with a half melted wax candle, a clock telling me it was in fact morning, and a brush. We still used words like morning and night, even though there hadn't been a morning in years. My brush glowed with my black, and magenta magic. I brought to my red, pink, purple, and white mane. Next I levitated my pink scarf, and black cloak and boots I pulled up the hood setting the brush back down. I stepped over a spell book I had been reading last light, and braced the cold. My coat was black so you would think a could absorb more heat. Luckily my mother taught me a protect from elements, spell young. I cast it. My horn lighting up. It did take some level of concentration, but it was a very handy spell to have. I walked what could barley be called a path. I past more small homes. I had been thinking about fixing up mine. Re-doing the thatched roof, and adding some more furniture. But in a place where so many of us had to ration food to survive it felt wrong to spend any extra bits I had on frivolous things like furniture. As little bits as I had. I tossed a bit to a small filly selling matchsticks. The earth pony smiled up at me before running to show her mother. As I walked past stalls I pawned a ruby necklace. It was only thanks to the yaks this settlement was even able to exist. Many came to escape the war here. Mostly from the Lunar Republic. A unicorn like me blended in fine. The yaks had run out of room for refugees within their walls. But they treated us much in the way of food for the crystals we managed to mine. I heard they weren't much better off as us. I wouldn't know. We tended to isolate ourselves from anyone outside the village. A yak manning a stall sold me ten bushels of cherries for seven bits. A steal really. I levitated them into my bag. A stillness came over our village. That's when I knew our mayor, our leader was approaching. She smiled at me.

"Heartshine. Can I barrow you for a moment." Starlight Glimmer spoke.

"Of course." I said in answer. We were big on helping out our community and the yaks. But no one said no to Starlight. She was well revered. I fallowed her down the street to her humble two story home. She opened the door with her own magic. The way I tried to keep a low profile when joining. Starlight had seen potential in me. So in return for a small sum, and access to any spell books she had managed to acquire over the years where mine to read as long as I occasionally did a favor for her.

"Could you look at this?" She pointed with her hoof to a broken necklace. I lit up my horn, and raised the magnifying glass and the necklace off the table. I couldn't stop my gasp.

"The Alicorn Amulet." I'd know it anywhere. This was Dark Magic. I could still feel the echos of it. I felt the shadows in the room shift.

"So you do recognizing it." She says. Sound somewhere between approving, and condescending. Reminding me so much of my mother.

"Where did you get this?" I ask trying to mask my coldness with a false smile.

"Oh just some some traveling unicorn. She traded it to me, saying it was useless now that it was broken." She looked at me like she was measuring me. My worth to her. It made me shiver despite the burning of the fireplace. "Could you fix it?" There was something unspoken in her eyes. So she can fix it herself or else she would've done some already. All that power in her hooves. Starlight wasn't evil in the way some ponies could be, but she had enough power as it is. She most certainly could not get the power of this amulet. I studied it. Pretending to think as whispers filled my mind. The fire sent shadows dancing across the walls. I could fix it perhaps with time, research, and skill. but I would need to find a book on the ambulance creation itself, and not just notes of what it was and what it did.

"No." I said with finality. "I can't." Then not being able to help with my curiosity I asked, "Do you know how the amulet was created?" She sighed.

"No. One of the world's many, annoying mysteries." She began pushing me out the door. She slipped two bits into my hoof. "Anyway I much work to do. Goodbye, and have a good night Heartshine." It was just as she closed the door I slipped something else into my hoof. Then leaving the door open a crack she said. "And this stays between us Heartshine. Yes?" I could hear the lingering threat in her voice. There are many subjects we never talked about. Her leadership, and magic, and origins.

"Of course. You keep my secrets. I keep yours." I say being bolder than I usually was around ponies like her. She seems satisfied, though, with my answer and close the door with a bang. I quickly made it towards my house. Hoping she wouldn't notice the missing horn of The Alicorn Amulet. The I doubt it she could find anyone to fix it. I still figured it was better to be safe than sorry with giving a unicorn like her more power. I may not be the best, but I still have common sense. I was too obedient for my own good that's what they always said. This was the way things were now. We were in a time of war. In return for not having to worry about battles breaking out we instead to worry about a power of cult leader. Seemed like a fair trade to me. I could never understand how when the older ponies talked. They talked about the good old days. Before the Luna Republic, and Solar Empire had spilt, and Equestria had known peace, and harmony. That was a time I had never known and very few still remembered. This was our lives now. So I simply accepted what was.

There was little hope, little love, and little friendship here. As I trotted along the snowy bank a bright red, and yellow mane caught my eye. She too was a unicorn. She also was wearing a black cloak, and a black hat. Something about her mad me think she was from the Solar Empire. When she saw me she gave me a curious look. Then the small crowd of passers by parted, and Starlight stepped out. The world seemed to hush. Even the wind.

"Well if it isn't a new pony come to join our small, cozy village." Starlight began as if she had reversed this many times over.

"I'm not here to join your little cult." The yellow mare snapped. Gasps ripped though the crowd. No one used that word. I doubt many ponies even realized what this was. What we were. And I was just another cog in it's machine. I waited, listening, and instantly for the unicorn to speak again.

"Come now. You shouldn't make a assumptions about ponies you don't even know." Starlight said with a false smile. " We love new friends here." Love bombing had been the tactic she had tried on me too. "Us and the yaks even build you your own little home, and the we have a party to celebrate. Besides," she added. "It's so much safer here then out there isn't it?" The mystery pony scoffed.

"There is no where safe. Believe me i've been all over Equestria." A pony looked like they wanted to ask her a question about the world outside, but they were quickly hushed by Starlight.

"So why did you come here?" Starlight asked sugar coated venom.

"To explore, to journal, and to trade. I hear you have a small collection of magic books, and magical artifacts. I'd like to see them." She pulls out something to trade. A crown. A gold crown with a purple crystal. Purple... Twilight Sparkle's crown? How did she- Who was this unicorn? Starlight scoffs this time.

"We have plenty of crystals here. You'll just have to rely on the kindness of my village to house you given that we don't exactly have any inns around here." Then barely a whisper. "Take your junk somewhere else." Then Starlight turned on her hooves, and left. The noise returned. I walked up to the strange yellow unicorn. I had never met any pony like her before. She was in stark contrast to everyone else here. Rebellious, questioning, and fiery.

"What?" She demanded.

"You can stay with me for the night." I say.

"It's always night." She says, but fallows me out of the cold anyway. I try to light my small black stove in the corner. She lights it with a simple spark from her horn. She takes off her cloak, her revealing like a cutie mark. A sunburst. Magic. Her talent is magic. Much like my own.

She took off her cloak now. She had a cutie mark of the sun. Magic was her gift. Much like my own talent. Three purple starburst. Representing my own affinity for magic. With a large crystal heart that they surrounded. Representing my affinity for specifically love magic. As well as a destiny, I did not completely understand. The purple crystal heart had a single crack through the center. That in particular felt like an omen. Of my future or of my talent with relationships, I didn't know. Perhaps both. She looked at my cutie mark for a long time before speaking.

"You always let that pony boss you around." I couldn't think of anything nice to say in return. So I said nothing. Keeping my curses to myself.