The Starmaker


Chapter 7- The Lady and the Starmaker

"Twilight!" Applejack cried once she saw the purple unicorn, throwing her hooves around her. The ponies had gathered in a small atrium that had been miraculously untouched by the destruction.

"Spikey-Wikey!" Rarity hugged the baby dragon after he hopped off Twilight's back, causing him to blush and swoon.

"Is everyone okay?" Twilight asked.

"Yup," said Applejack. "Thanks to her," she nodded toward Gogo Gadget.

"What?" Twilight did a double take.

"She led us here! All of us!" said Pinkie Pie, her usual bouncy self.

"Wow…Thank you, Gogo.." Twilight said softly. She was starting to feel bad for being jealous of the odd unicorn.

"Do not mention it," Gogo said simply.

Twilight looked around. "So…wait…where's Fluttershy?"

Rainbow Dash sighed. "She's right here." She moved aside to reveal a quivering pot. "Fluttershy!"

"Have the explosions stopped yet?" came Fluttershy's muffled voice from inside the pot.

"They seem to have stopped for now," Twilight observed. "Which brings me back to my original question; what in Equestria is going on?"

She was met with blank looks.

"Isn't it obvious?"

The ponies turned to Gogo Gadget.

"Abysma the Corruptor has begun her assault upon Equestria."

This statement was met with wide eyes.

"You mean to say," Applejack started, "that Abysma can make it rain fire?"

"It's possible," said Gogo. "She is a powerful sorceress. Or, she could be using dragons that are under her influence."

Rainbow got into Gogo's face. "And how do you know so much about Abysma, Miss Know-It-All, huh? Huh?"

"I read."

"Rainbow!" Applejack shouted, pulling Rainbow Dash back. "Hehe, sorry…she's just a little on edge. We all are."

Twilight nodded. "And we could use all the information we can get. I hate to say it, but Princess Celestia didn't leave us with much."

"She didn't say anything to you when you were alone?" Rarity asked.

"No," Twilight shook her head. "She was called away on business before she could say anything," she paused. "Celestia…where is she?"

"That I do not know." Gogo admitted. "I was searching for her when I found the others."

Twilight sighed. "Before she left, she did mention the princesses in the story, and that the third one was important. Now…given an alicorn's long lifespan, we can assume that two of those princesses were, in fact, Celestia and Luna, sun and moon."

"So who's the third?" Fluttershy asked. "The stars?"

"Exactly. We don't know."

"Oh." "The Starmaker." Gogo said in her monotone.

"What?" the ponies questioned all at once.

Gogo went on. "The legend of the Starmaker. The tale of a pony who could create stars, painting the night sky like a canvas."

"Could that be the third princess?" Applejack asked.

"Hmm," Twilight pondered. "I think Princess Celestia wanted us to find this third princess…this Starmaker."

"That's it!" Pinkie squealed, jumping up and down. "Celestia wants you to find the third princess because it took three to beat Abysma the first time, and it'll take all three to beat her now!" Noting everyone's surprised glances, she added, "What? I can't be the one to figure things out once in a while?"

"It makes sense…" Twilight stated.

"I don't get it," said Rainbow Dash. "Why don't we just use the Elements of Harmony?"

A murmur of agreement rose up from the group, except for Twilight and Gogo, the latter of which shook her head.

"No…those won't work."

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Now I'm starting to think Rainbow was on to something when she said you knew too much."

"Trust me on this one."

Pinkie rushed to Gogo's side. "Yeah! She did rescue us after all! Right, Twilight?"

"W-well…" Twilight stammered, "…yes. But I think some sort of explanation is in order." Everypony else nodded in agreement.

Gogo sighed. "The reason the Elements of Harmony won't work…is because Abysma is the one who created them."

Gasps all around.

"Now that just don't make any cotton-pickin' sense!" Applejack declared.

"How is that possible?" asked Twilight. "And how do you know this?"

"Celestia told me." Gogo stated.

"But she never told us. She never told me…" Twilight sniffed.

"Because she didn't get the chance. She told you there was more to the story, didn't she?"

Another murmur.

"Abysma wasn't always a tyrant," Gogo explained. "She used to be beautiful, a being of pure light, ruling over the land that was to become Equestria with love and peace. She wasn't called Abysma then, either. She was known as "The Lady." She ruled justly, and was loved by all of her subjects, especially one…"

"Who?" asked Pinkie, eyes wide, enthralled in the story.

"Discord, the Avatar of Chaos, a mischievous spirit, fell in love with The Lady. The Lady, however, did not reciprocate. Discord grew jealous with rage, declaring that 'as she had stolen his heart, so he would steal hers.' And so he did. Literally."

"He literally stole her heart?" gasped Rainbow Dash.

"Oh my," said Fluttershy.

"And so," Gogo began to wrap up, "The Lady's light faded, turning her into Abysma the Corruptor, and plunging the land into complete darkness, until the princesses rose up and created the sun, moon, and stars, restoring light to ponykind."

Applejack whistled. "Never heard that version of the story before."

"Do you know where we can find The Starmaker? Do the legends have anything to say?" asked Twilight.

Gogo shook her head.

"Well, shoot." Applejack griped.

"You can say that again!" Rainbow Dash joined in. "We're practically back where we started!"

Twilight stood, deep in thought. "Back where we started…that's it!"

There was a collective "Huh?"

"The book! The mysterious one I received a few days ago! The one I gave to Zecora! It mentioned Abysma, maybe it says something about the Starmaker!"

"Yeah! Like a book of fairytales!" Rainbow Dash agreed.

"Told you so," Rarity said under her breath.

"Anyway," Twilight continued, "Let's get back to Ponyville, get these three home…" she said, eying the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who had been remarkably quiet up to this point, timidly absorbing all this information.

"Awww…." The Crusaders groaned.

"…and stop by Zecora's…hopefully she'll have more of the book translated."

"Sounds like a plan," said Applejack. The others nodded in assent.

"All right, girls!" Twilight declared. "It's back to Ponyville!"