literature

The Sun's Song, Ch. 8

Deviation Actions

Recamen's avatar
By
Published:
2K Views

Literature Text

As Rainbow Dash began to make her escape, the other three ponies ducked out of sight. For a moment, upon being detected, Fluttershy wondered if one or more guards would investigate further. But as she waited to one side of the window, nopony came.

She began to wonder why, but didn't have to do so for long. Luna trotted over to the window and looked outside. "They're gone," she said. "Quick thinking... Octavia."

At that moment, Fluttershy realized she could hear the sound of the cello playing. It was odd how she couldn't even notice it until somepony explicitly pointed it out. "How did... I thought one of them would come in here! It's not like Rainbow Dash was the only one!"

Octavia gave a sly grin. "The Music can have a strong influence on the weak-minded," she said, raising her bow from the strings.

Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow. Music sounded lovely and all, but making oneself hidden to others or even hiding the idea of the presence of other ponies was entirely new to her. But she said nothing. After all, none of her friends were particularly gifted with musical talent... unless you counted Pinkie Pie, and then her use of "gifted" could mean anything from "uplifting" to "destructive" and anywhere in between.

"Now looks like our best chance to leave," Luna noted, seeing no guards outside the open window. She turned to Octavia. "But you can't fly..."

"Well..." the earth pony hadn't thought this far in advance, and now looked unsure of herself. "I always figured I could just..."

"You helped us escape. They'll take time, but they'll figure out you helped us. This is your best bet, and we're wasting time. Get on my back and hang on," Luna commanded. Octavia hesitated, looking sadly at her cello until Fluttershy added, "And I can carry that for you. It'll be okay."

At that point, all three ponies took off, taking advantage of the distraction. Between the darkness and Rainbow Dash getting all the attention, they managed to put a good bit of distance between themselves and the castle. Yet neither pegasus was clearly in good shape--Fluttershy was breathing faster from carrying the cello, and Luna was straining to bear the weight of a second pony. At least Octavia wasn't moving around much, as the earth pony strongly disliked heights and merely buried her head in Luna's mane. Luna just wished Octavia would lighten her grip around her neck. It wasn't choking, but it was uncomfortable.

The pegasi continued onward into the afternoon dark. The castle gradually faded off into the distance. Luna noticed that from time to time, Fluttershy would pause and glance back at the castle, as though worried somepony would come after them. But after a few looks back, Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief and smiled. Luna looked back to see what she was happy about, and caught a brief glimpse of rainbow before it dissipated into nothingness. "A rainbow? On a day like this?" She asked.

"Oh, it's Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom," Fluttershy spoke up excitedly. "She's the only pegasus around that can do it! If that showed up, that means she got away safely! I was so worried for her... I'm glad she's okay."

"Sonic Rainboom... THE Sonic Rainboom? No wonder your friend was so brave, taking on those guards by herself," Luna responded. Octavia, for her part, just raised her head an inch, then lowered it again as the wind slapped her in the face to remind her that they were still flying.

"Of course she's brave. She's a pegasus, and the fastest flier in Equestria," Fluttershy said fondly. "She's always practicing, too--stunt flying, marathon flying, sprint flying, she's done it all. I sometimes lend a hand by cheering her on, though I think sometimes I'm too loud, and I wind up distracting her..."

Fluttershy began to bank off to her left; Luna, having no other direction she could think of, followed. Faint lights could be seen far off in the distance, indicating the town of Ponyville. Really? an angrier part of her mind asked. We're on the run now from Celestia's professional soldiers, and we're going to go right into a town? Luna shook her head. I guess we have time before they organize, but it won't be long...

"So, Luna." Fluttershy turned her head to look at the pegacorn. "Maybe you can explain something to me. I figure your explanation of how you wound up in the dungeon can wait, since the others will want to know, too. But in all my years, I always thought that music was just, well... something to listen to. Today I've learned that music can make a pony invisible or put ponies to sleep, even when they're not sleepy. It's like there's some kind of magic involved with it. How do you do that?"

"Hmm... it's not common knowledge..." Luna began slowly. "But, you did help me get free, and it sounds like we'll be fighting the lich together... alright then. Let's start with this: you know that Celestia and I raise the sun and moon. But do you know HOW we raise them every day and night?"

"Uh... I just assumed you used unicorn magic," Fluttershy answered. "That made sense to me."

"Really, now? We may be royalty, but not even an alicorn is that adept," the pegacorn said. "Not at all. The truth is... both Sister and I are composers, and we each came up with a song--one to summon the sun, and another to summon the moon. In essence, they are the same song, known to us as the Sun's Song."

"You... summon the sun and moon with music?"

"Of course. Even back when we were fillies, ponies adored us for the musical masterpieces we wrote. We were so young, so talented! And yet..." Luna paused for dramatic effect. It might have succeeded had not Fluttershy had some experiences with child-ponies--three very energetic fillies who were only after one thing...

"You wanted your Cutie Marks, and what you had written so far didn't do it," Fluttershy answered.

"Oh! Erm, well, yes, that's it," the pegacorn said, feeling disappointed. "We knew well enough that composing was our calling. But no matter how hard we tried, we just couldn't get that acknowledgement. After all, once you have those marks, you know who you really are and what you can do. It's a rite of passage.

Anyway, no matter how beautiful our compositions were, no matter how many ponies we pleased, we just could not get them to appear! So we put our heads together and thought long and hard about it. We decided that we were on the right track--we just had to think, well, bigger.

That's where it all started. One night, I was looking up at the moon. I was thinking how every night, it just rose as it pleased, same as the sun. And every night, though it did its best to light up the night sky, everything was so... dark. Which I suppose brings us to liches and why the use of lethal magic brings them about..." Luna paused, listening to their wings beat for a few seconds. "Shall I keep going? I love telling stories, but this one... it will take some time."

"Hmmm... so you both decided to come up with songs to raise the sun and the moon..." Fluttershy understood the gist of Luna's story. "But... why? If they already come up on their own, why not let them?"

"Why? ...To stem the tide," the pegacorn answered. "This was before anypony coined the phrase 'Friendship is Magic'. This was also before Celestia and I unified the lands that make up today's Equestria. Those were dark times... conflict within, conflict without. Skipping the details for right now, there were hordes of undead roaming our lands. Celestia and I realized that sunlight destroys undead. That was why today, we can raise the sun or moon--raising the sun at will left vast majorities with nowhere to hide. Those who could not hide were destroyed; those who remained could no longer flee once they learned the sun could rise at any moment. So we saved our land, though it came at a price. We discovered after a time that the sun and moon now depended upon us. If we did not bid them rise, they would not come."

"And the sun hasn't come up today," Fluttershy remarked. Ponyville was quite close now, and the two began to descend with their cargo. "But... it seems so unreal. After all these years, could Celestia really have been taken?"

--------

Trixie had to keep herself from using Celestia's body to scream.

She'd realized after the poisoning of the guard that the "poison" wasn't of the lethal variety. It merely made them appear corpselike, not kill them. Still, it did get the point across to Celestia's mind--she could control corpses (even ones technically not dead). Celestia's mind took this to heart--or in Celestia's current case, her cerebrum. Necromancy is not yet lost to this world, she noted. The languorwine stalled her for now, but if she can get an actual corpse, she will start to become much more dangerous. I'll have to resist that for as long as I can.

Trixie decided that the castle was not a safe place to put one lone pony under her control. It would have been detected too quickly and easily beaten. Whether the pony was killed or not was irrelevant--it would have raised questions. Difficult questions, numerous questions. Questions that at this time, she, the great and powerful Trixie, could ill afford.

In the end, she had settled for the castle gardens... only to be thwarted by the blasted castle gardener! Worse yet, as she was hearing now:

"...witnesses reported seeing a blue pegasus pony with a rainbow mane and a yellow pegasus pony with a soft pink mane galloping to the lower levels, Your Majesty. The guards in the dungeons reported the same--one of them set Princess Luna free, then they escaped with some kind of jewel."

Trixie inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. Don't lose your temper yet... that's the key. It is much too soon. It's no big deal. They might still be in the castle...

"...We later found the blue pegasus, but she... was much faster than our guards and Sonic Rainboomed away into the night..." the messenger finished, his ears flat, his body quivering. "We found... no trace of... Princess Luna. Or her yellow companion."

Problem? Trixie could swear Celestia's mind was grinning at her. Trixie scowled.

"W-we believe the blue pegasus to be Rainbow Dash, milady," the messenger continued. "The yellow one may go by the name of Fluttershy, who was supposed to be banished from the castle gardens after the debacle at the Grand Galloping Gala."

"I see." Finally, some good news at last. "Rise, messenger. You have done nothing wrong," Trixie gestured with a long hoof for him to rise, giving him a reassuring smile. She may not have Luna... if Luna told ponies that it was not her fault the sun failed to rise, problems could occur. The show only went on so long as the audience was convinced you were who you said you were--Trixie knew that lesson well. If challengers arose to your side of the story, they needed to be put down quickly. Otherwise, your audience would dwindle away and vanish. But Luna had help to break her out of prison... two ponies who were easily identified. So in conclusion, the night was lasting "forever", and the suspect had outside help. Trixie knew a stage act when she saw one. THIS was as good as it got!

Celestia pawed the ground, looking sad. "It seems my sister has been falling back on... old habits. Oh, how I've tried to steer her back and get along with her! But my efforts only delayed the inevitable... now, she's escaped once again, and this time with retainers of her own. Her cunning knows no bounds." She sniffed, looking as though she lamented Luna as a precious, wayward sister. "It pains me to say this, but... send word throughout Equestria. Tell all ponies to be on the lookout for Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, or any of their friends. They are wanted criminals now, for the crime of aiding and abetting my traitorous sister. They shall be..." Celestia paused to mull over her decision. "...They should be captured alive, if possible. If not..." she closed her eyes, and bowed her head. "Do what must be done."

"They will surrender, or pay with their blood," the messenger vowed, a determined look in his eyes.

Celestia gave him the ghost of a smile.
You know what my problem was with Ch. 7? I spent so much time wondering how to proceed. With Ch. 8, it's more that I've got so many ways to proceed and only so much room to put everything down! You see, I'm a fan of shorter chapters. (I get put-off if something's too long, even if it is fantastic.)

Still, I'm gonna leave this up for a day or two and see if I don't think of anything more to add before this and 7 both get shipped off.

Prepare yourself for a heaping helping of backstory!

EDIT: You know, reading this a second time, I like it. I think I keep wondering, "Is there something more I could be doing", but this is good. I'm happy with it.
© 2011 - 2024 Recamen
Comments13
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
eeveeextreme's avatar
"Problem? Trixie could swear Celestia's mind was grinning at her."

I believe my signature sums it up in a nut shell