//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: The Dresden Fillies: Iron Gate // by Lighthawk //------------------------------// Applejack was not having the best day of her life. She wasn’t exactly having the worst day, but that was mostly because nopony nor no-thing was trying to kill her or her friends, nor trying to take over the world. Or just end it. It probably said something about her life that such things could be considered points of reference to judge other events by. What it said she wasn’t sure though, Applejack was just a simple farm pony after all…most of the time anyway. You know, when she wasn’t busy battling dark goddesses, climate destroying dragons, all devouring swarms, subterranean canines, or deranged ancient cults. Yup, just a simple farm pony here, nothing to get all excited about…cough. Things had gotten off to a rotten start in the early hours of the morning, early even as reckoned by farm folk. Applejack was knocked out of her bed by an explosion that nearly rattled the house down. It left streaks of color across her vision as the light came blasting in through the window like the curtains weren’t even there. Half blind, half deaf, and twice addled, she just about broke her neck trying to run down the stairs. Luckily she managed to turn the fall into something of a semi-controlled bouncing roll that none-the-less was likely to leave bruises. It did however give her a bit of extra oomph towards getting out the front door in a rush, though her haste nearly ended up getting her impaled. The shattered and sharply splintered end of a good eight feet worth of four by four came arcing down from the sky to plant itself into the ground close enough for her to reach out and touch it. It landed with a hearty thunk of impact and a disturbing squelch of mud. It wasn’t hard to figure out where the wooden missile had come from, seeing how the barn suddenly had a sizable hole in the roof that hadn’t been there when she’d gone to bed. Applejack could see wisps of smoke curling from the shingles around the opening by the light of Luna’s moon. She could also see three little fillies standing in the hayloft, courtesy of the open door, and as the ringing in her ears started to fade she could hear the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the midst of what sounded like a heated argument. “There ain’t no explanation that’s gonna be good enough for this,” she muttered to herself. “Eeyup,” Big Macintosh agreed, and nearly scared her right out from under her hat. She glared at him for sneaking up on her like that in the middle of night, and grumbled something about him being way too quiet for such a big stallion. Sure enough, Applejack found her little sister’s accounting of events more than a few bits short of acceptable, or even sensible. Now granted, she would be the first to admit that she wasn’t a scholarly pony, and that her knowledge of astronomy or astrology or whatever was limited to the names of a few constellations. However she was pretty sure that looking at the night sky and trying to fly up into it were two entirely different fields of astro-whatever, and trying to mash them together by strapping fireworks to a telescope just was fated to end badly. And as a matter of fact, had done just so. Celestia’s sun was just starting to peek over the horizon by the time Applejack finished hauling Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo home, swapping explanations for apologies with their mortified parents, and then getting herself back home. There was nothing to do then but to just make the best of what sleep she had gotten and get right to work. Big Mac had already made some solid headway on the barn, and Applejack was happy to leave him to it. He had a better hoof for carpentry anyway, not that she’d ever say that out loud. So instead she grabbed up the plow and spare yoke, and headed for the fields Mac had been planning to till over that day. The plow work turned out to be a real pain in the neck, in the most literal sense. Applejack felt like she must have tweaked something during her fall down the stairs, and the yoke around her shoulders wasn't helping. The ache wasn’t content to stay put either, and was currently leading a steady and inexorable march of conquest right up to her skull. What should have been an hour’s worth of work turned into three, and even her normal stubborn determination was ready to raise the white flag by the end of it all. Applejack could feel every heartbeat in her head as she unhitched herself from the torture device the plow had become, pounding away like her brain was somepony’s personal drum set. Her neck and shoulders ached, and not in the normal, good, burning ache that accompanies hard work. This was more like having a hundred tiny diamond dogs burrowing through her muscles, sharp spikes of pain flaring with every motion. Her legs felt like she’d been dragging the plow through solid rock, and she found herself having trouble focusing on things clearly. Applejack eventually staggered her way back inside with a mind to do…something or other. She opened the front door, and nearly made a mess of the welcome mat as her stomach lurched at the aroma that came wafting out. Baking apples and pastry, cinnamon and spice, the hint of vanilla. The normally mouthwatering scents ganged up on her in her ragged state and sucker punched her right in the gut, making her insides churn in a truly unsettling way at the mere idea of food. Choking the rising bile down, Applejack made her way through the ever-thickening cloud of deliciously sickening miasma to the source. Granny Smith was busy bustling around the kitchen, which had turned into the usual warzone it always did whenever the matronly pony got rolling. Five different cutting boards were scattered with three times as many different fruits and vegetables, all sliced or chopped or minced as best suited each. Jugs and jars and bottles and crates and containers of ingredients were stacked, piled, and crammed into whatever space they might fit. And everywhere there was flour, flour, and more flour. Even as she came to a slightly wobbly-legged halt, Applejack watched Granny flip the oven door open, deftly juggle out six different pies, and just as quickly slip another half dozen in to replace them. The still steaming pies were wrapped in cloth and promptly set into a waiting basket, one of the few objects in sight not so much as dusted with flour. Another four baskets already sat ready, each loaded up with pastries that, Applejack knew without needing to check, would be resting on several bricks that would have been heated up in the oven in order to keep everything nicely warmed. “Uh, Granny?” Applejack ventured uncertainly. “You do know it’s a chore day right? Ain’t nopony going into town to…” “There you are Applejack!” Granny Smith cut her off as she finished loading the last basket. “'Bout time child, you want all my hard work to go getting cold? Now help me get these loaded on the cart. I had Applebloom bring it ‘round the back.” “Granny, I just said…” Applejack tried again, and again the eldest Apple just talked right over her. “And don’t forget your lunch. You went and started working without breakfast, again.” Granny sniffed with disapproval. “You’re going to start getting all scrawny if you keep that up girl. Just look at yourself, here!” She shoved a thermos into Applejack’s hooves, and then picked up one of the baskets and started lugging it towards the back door. Applejack regarded the thermos for a moment before daring to crack it open. A familiar, nose wrinkling scent wafted out. Her stomach tried to rally for another venture up her throat and outside, but the pungent aroma clubbed the sensation down before it got much momentum. Granny’s all-purpose-cure-all wasn’t about to let anything be more unpleasant than itself. Applejack grimaced at it, but ultimately decided that she actually felt bad enough to take the vile concoction. It might smell like something dead and baked in the sun for three weeks, and tasted even worse, but it could kick the absolute stuffing out of aches, pains, stomach ailments, coughs, and congestion with equal disdain. Applejack found herself smiling weakly. Granny had obviously seen the trouble she’d been having, sussed out why, and whipped up a proper excuse to get her granddaughter out of the fields before her stubborn pigheadedness got her hurt. Well more hurt, at any rate. Granny Smith might not be the straightest knife in the drawer, but she was still plenty sharp in her own way. The trip into town wasn’t fun…not at first anyway. The cart was heavy enough to make her already abused muscles cry for mercy, but eventually the medicine started to kick in. The pain didn’t exactly go away, so much as it lost its freedom of speech. Granny’s concoction flooded through her system like an angry brute squad, bludgeoning down dissension and forcibly imposing a sense of order with ruthless efficiency. By the time Applejack reached Ponyville, she was feeling so much better, and was intoxicated enough, that she didn’t even really mind that her late start meant all the good spots in the market were already taken. She ambled in a somewhat wavy line for a bit before setting up shop on the outskirts of the town square, and began the joyfully non-strenuous work of trying to convince passing ponies that they just couldn’t possibly make it through the day without a fresh apple pie, tart, fritter or the like. Even with the less than prime location, Applejack managed to get a steady business going and was generally feeling that the day had nicely turned around on her. Truth however was that she’d merely turned around on it, and the treacherous day took the opening to stab her in the back. There was the sound of shattering glass, and a speed-blurred something came flying out of the house across the street right at her. Applejack had an instant to think ‘Ah crabapples’, and then her head was lit up like her sister’s fireworks display had just gone off inside her skull. Applejack felt that the blow must have left her concussed, because when her eyes figured out how to open themselves again, she would have sworn that Princess Celestia was standing over her, looking concerned. “Applejack? Applejack!” The farm pony’s head slowly turned towards the sound of her name to find a worried, purple face filling her vision. “Oh, hey there Twi,” she drawled, sounding pretty slurred even to her own ears. She wasn’t sure if that was the head trauma, or just the hooch that was the base ingredient of Granny’s cure-all. Maybe both. “Man, she does not look so good,” a scratchy voice remarked, prompting Applejack to flop her head to the other side. It took her a bit to make it happen, but she eventually found Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie flanking her. “Quick, AJ,” Pinkie said seriously. “How many hooves am I holding up?” Applejack squinted blearily at the party pony. “Um…five?” “Oh, well then,” Pinkie remarked, sounding relived. “Seems alright to me.” An odd pressure began to ease itself around Applejack’s head, not unpleasant really, but impossible not to notice. It actually felt kind of nice as it flowed down over the rest of her body, her muscles somewhat relaxing under the sensation. Her gaze tracked skyward as she tried to make some sense of things, and once again she was looking up at what really seemed to be Celestia, the princess’s horn glowing with a soft, golden light. “Is she alright?” Twilight’s voice swam into her ear. “She will be,” the apparition of Celestia answered gently. “Her injuries aren’t severe, though I would imagine they are rather…” The princess cut off as Applejack reached up a hoof and poked her, right in the brisket. Violet eyes blinked down at her, and the farm pony felt her face suddenly heat. “Oh dang, that really is Celestia, ain’t it?” she asked as her brain started to untangle itself from the knots it had been tied in. The princess smiled and gave her a soft, musical chuckle. “Yes dear Applejack, it really is me.” She felt the alicorn’s magic flow under her, lifting her up and gently turning her over to set her on her hooves. The world kept right on turning around Applejack for a while, making her wobble. Fortunately, Pinkie and Dash quickly took up positions on either side of her, their shoulders pressing against hers to keep her from toppling until her sense of balance was hauled, kicking and screaming, back to the job. She was vaguely aware of them talking, but something in her head seemed to have not taken well to being set back upright, and her ears were filled with a dull, steady roaring noise that reduced everything around her to a muted buzz of unintelligibility. Applejack could just make out enough to recognize voices; Dash’s brash tones, Pinkie’s bubbly chatter, the princess’s musical notes, the slightly breathless tint Twilight took on when she was flustered by something. There was also a deep, rich sound that she didn’t recognize at all. Applejack tried to look around for the owner of that voice, though her attention kept getting stuck on things around her; a dog making off with an apple fritter, a gleam of sunlight reflected off a window, a shifting shadow down an alleyway… There was a sizable crowd surrounding them she realized eventually, already forgetting about the unknown voice. The gawking mob wasn’t too hard to figure out, even with her brains half dashed out. It wasn't every day that the princess just waltzed into town. There was another crowd a bit off from them as well, peering with vulturish interest at something that the press of ponies was blocking from her sight. Celestia’s voice rose slightly, and Applejack watched the princess pass by, parting the sea of ponies before her with just a few words and a determined stride. The crowd opened, and Applejack got a brief glimpse of a nervous, almost panicked, white coated, blue maned unicorn. Said unicorn seemed to be in immediate danger of being throttled by an irate, grey coated, dark maned earth pony. Applejack’s hearing cleared a bit, enough to catch some of the snarling dialog. “…utterly sick of your irresponsible partying,” the grey mare was saying, right over the sputtering protests of the unicorn. Then Celestia’s shadow fell over the pair, and they both blinked up at the princess with near identical expressions of surprise that swiftly started to turn into embarrassment. Everypony was thoroughly engrossed as Celestia calmly broke up the squabble, her voice gentle and soothing as she asked for an explanation for such behavior. The princess patiently listened as the two hastened to answer, often talking right over each other, usually with contradictory comments for something the other had just said. In fact, everypony was so busy watching the princess work that none of them noticed the unfamiliar grey stallion that casually just walked right through the open door of the house across the street. Nopony except Applejack anyway. She might not literally know everypony in Ponyville like Pinkie Pie did, but she’d lived in the town, well on the outskirts anyway, for her whole life. She was at least familiar with all the faces around town, and she was as certain as the sky was wide that she had never seen that particular unicorn before. It would be rather hard to forget somepony with scars that distinctive. 'So just who the heck is he, and what is he doing sneaking into other pony’s homes?', Applejack had to ask herself. She managed to back herself out from between Pinkie and Dash without either of her friends noticing. They were too busy watching Celestia gently interrupt the pair before her, their explanations teetering on the edge of breaking out into a rather heated argument. The princess pulled them both back from that edge with a few, well-chosen comments that took the fight right out of both of them, leaving the pair looking ashamed and at a loss for words. Just as the mysterious stallion before her, Applejack was able to just walk right in through the front door without anypony even glancing her way. The interior of the house was a mess, though she’d seen worse, especially when a few of Pinkie’s more boisterous parties had gotten completely out of hoof. The mysterious unicorn was nowhere to be seen however. A quick circuit of the main floor turned up nothing but more party debris, and she headed upstairs to give the rest of house a look over. Applejack found the subject of her search in the second floor bedroom, his gaze tracing the interior with slow, steady intensity. She paused for a moment as she came close enough to get a proper look at the fellow, and felt her breath catch in her throat as she really saw how bad the old wounds on his face were. The eye on that side wasn’t just damaged, it was flat out gone, an orb of gleaming metal filling the socket instead. And it felt like that silvery eye was staring at her, staring right into her as if her skin and flesh were nothing more than panes of glass. It was an uncomfortable, intrusive sensation, and Applejack was more than a little relieved when the unicorn turned his head to regard her with his thankfully normal eye. The stallion’s metal gaze had knocked her on her backside, emotionally speaking, and it took her a moment to get back up enough suspicion and indignity to jab a hoof at him and demand, “Just what the hay do you think you’re doing in here?” Applejack blinked at her own words. They had sure come out a whole lot softer and hesitantly then she’d intended. The scarred pony didn’t exactly look like she’d rattled him much...or even a little...or even at all. 'Dang blast it.' “I suspect much the same as you are,” he answered calmly, already turning his attention back to the room. “Uh, how do you figure?” Applejack asked. “We are both motivated by the trespass of another.” “Uh…well yeah,” Applejack replied lamely. She sighed in frustration at herself, and used the feeling to put a bit more force into her words. “So um, you gunna come quietly or what?” Better, but still not really what she had been going for. “I suppose that depends…” the unicorn answered, peering intently at a spot on the floor. “Oh yeah? On what?” the farm pony managed to ask with some belligerence. “Are you a member of the local law enforcement?” he asked casually. Applejack hedged. “Err, well, not exactly, no…” “Then this is your home?” the stranger inquired, nudging the bed over with a bit of magic. “Well no, but…” she began, but he cut her off. “You are a friend or family member of the home’s proper owner then?” His magic picked up what seemed to be a small patch of tattered cloth. “…no,” Applejack admitted shortly. “Ah,” the unicorn said simply. He made as if to place the cloth scrap away into saddlebags, and then seemed to notice that he wasn’t wearing any. He regarded the strip of fabric a moment, then just rolled it up and tucked it behind one ear. “Then you yourself are trespassing as well, are you not?” “Okay dang it, maybe I am,” Applejack scowled and stamped a hoof. “But I only did so because I know you’re not from around here. This might not be my home, but this town is, and I’m not about to let some stranger just go walking into pony’s houses. Folks around here watch out for each other, ya hear?” “I hear you,” the stallion said. “And I can respect that view point. Though I feel the need to point out that Princess Celestia is quite literally right outside this building, and you might well have better achieved your goal of protecting your fellow villager’s property by informing the princess of the unlawful act in question. At the very least, it would have granted whatever action to be taken the measure of lawfully appointed authority.” “…I…you…uh” Applejack spluttered for a moment, then growled. “I just had my bells rung, all right,” she muttered finally. “I quite understand,” the stallion replied in a tone that suggested he really did. “In fact, if it helps, I’m perfectly willing to let you take me down to the princess so that you may explain the situation to her.” Applejack goggled at that. “…what?” “I’m done here, and Celestia is likely to be interested in what I have discovered. And she seems to be bringing the events outside to their conclusion.” Applejack blinked, and glanced out the broken window to see the princess lay a comforting wing across the backs of each of the formerly bickering ponies, the now softly crying pair hugging each other tightly. “Yeah, I guess she is huh?” Applejack agreed, then brought her attention back to the pony before her. He calmly walked over to stand before her, and gave her a look that plainly asked if she was ready to go. “Who are you?” “Please, call me Rashid,” he answered with a slight bob of his head. “No offense partner, but that’s kind of an odd name.” Rashid smiled pleasantly. “None taken. And yourself?” “Applejack.” “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Applejack,” he said in formal tones, that for some reason sent a shiver down the farmer’s spine. “Same to you, I guess,” she replied hesitantly. “No offense?” Rashid asked with a raised eyebrow, his smile never wavering. “On that account, I can’t rightly say yet,” Applejack told him with blunt honesty. “Something about you is…I dunno. Off. If I weren’t looking right at you, I’d swear you weren’t even a pony.” That made the unicorn raise both eyebrows at her, the motion tugging at his scars. His expression became one of consideration. “Really now? And what would make you say that?” “I really don’t know,” Applejack admitted, shaking her head. “Something about you just feels…false. Which is double odd, cause I believe your words, twisty as some of them have been. But I don’t believe…you. I dunno how to explain it.” “Instinct perhaps?” “Maybe. Or who knows, maybe it’s some weird Element of Harmony thing. Celestia knows, but my life has gotten strange enough since those things became part of it.” “Hmm, another one?” Rashid said, almost too soft to hear. “What was that?” “Sorry, thinking out loud.” Applejack glared at Rashid for a long beat, her suspicions about him growing by the second. Something was just not right here, something she just couldn’t put her hoof on, but which she swore was staring her right in the face. “What are you?” she demanded, her mouth seeming to run all on its own. “You ain’t a pony. I don’t know how I know it, but dang it, I know it.” Rashid tilted his head slightly as he regarded her, calculations clearly running through his mind. Whatever it was he was figuring up, he reached the conclusion quickly enough. “Very well, if you really must know. You are quite right, I am no pony. I’m a human.” Applejack blinked at that, and suddenly felt something in her head click into place. “A hu…oh dang blast it, that’s what it is!” She exclaimed in understanding. “That’s what it is about you, you got the same feel about you that I got from…” She cut herself off, suddenly wondering just how much she really ought to be giving away. “From Dresden?” Rashid supplied, making the point moot. “Oh…you know 'bout him, huh?” “My dear pony, where I come from, the circles I run in, it’s hard not to know of him.” He flashed her a knowing smile. “It is extremely hard not to…” “Heh, yeah I guess he doesn’t exactly try hard to keep his head down huh?” Rashid chuckled heartily, and made to slip past her. Applejack let him, turning to follow him down the stairs. “That is a rather monumental understatement.” They had to pause at the front door to let the two formally bickering ponies come inside, the pair too busy passing apologies back and forth to even take notice of the strangers in their home. Rashid watched them walk by with a slightly impressed expression before heading outside and making a direct line for the princess, Applejack hurrying along behind him. Celestia looked up from within the mob of ponies surrounding her, her gaze falling upon Rashid. Applejack couldn’t see the look on the scarred face of the faux pony, but it couldn’t have been anything good given the effect it had on the princess. Faster than Applejack would have reckoned it possible without magic, Celestia had gracefully extracted herself from her adoring subjects, gathered up Rashid, Twilight, Pinkie, Dash, and Applejack herself, and had the whole lot of them on the move. The farm pony had raised a brief note of concern about her apple stand, only to watch the whole thing vanish in a flash of golden light. “Uh, thanks…” Applejack commented uncertainly. “It’s alright Applejack,” Celestia told her kindly. “You’ll find it back at your farm.” The princess then turned her attention to Rashid, her horn once again igniting with magical power, and Applejack felt an odd sense of pressure drop over her ears for an instant. It cleared quickly enough, but it left her sense of hearing oddly warped, sounds coming to her as if from the far end of a giant metal tube. Then Celestia spoke, and her voice was comfortingly normal sounding, even as the background noise of Ponyville remained twisted. “Was that enough time for you?” she asked Rashid. “Yes, thank you,” he answered with a nod, his voice coming to her normally as well, and Applejack figured that whatever the spell had been, it didn’t affect their group. Or maybe it only affected their group. It was tough enough to wrap her head around magic on the best of days, and today sure wasn't one of those. “Princess?” Twilight spoke up, looking a bit taken aback. “That conversation you had with Vinyl and Octavia…it was just a distraction?” “Why does it have to be just one thing Twilight?” Celestia replied with a motherly smile, making her student let out a little ‘oh’ of understanding. “So you were expecting him to go snooping around then?” Applejack asked, feeling like she was missing a large chunk of whatever story she had just been plopped down in. Celestia’s wings moved in a shrug. “Somepony needed to, and if I had it would only have drawn more attention to the situation. As it stands now, I believe most ponies will be willing to put the whole incident down as just one more argument between two roommates who haven’t quite managed to find the courage to admit their true feelings for each other.” “Yeah but, what about that horrible shrieky noise?” Rainbow Dash asked, and a shudder seemed to pass through her. “I mean that was…not normal,” she finished softly. “Hmm, no,” Celestia allowed, though she didn’t seem too concerned about it. “But from the context of some of the arguments I heard, it would seem that Vinyl Scratch’s exploration of the limits of music have often produced some very unusual sounds. Some time to allow the sharpness of the details to fade into memory, and I should think most will be perfectly willing to rationalize the event away as something relatively normal.” That brought a short bark of amusement from Rashid, earning him the attention of everypony. “Sorry,” he said mirthfully. “It just amazes me some times to find what is and is not universal. I’m not sure if I should be comforted or alarmed to learn that self-delusion for the sake of maintaining normalcy is not something unique to my own people.” “It would be an interesting philosophical topic,” Celestia mused. “However, now is probably not the best time to delve into it.” “No, indeed not,” Rashid admitted, his smile fading. They walked in silence for a moment before he spoke again. “I fear that something dark might have followed me here.” “I see,” Celestia said simply. She took a deep breath, and released it as a long sigh. “Do you know what, exactly?” “Yes, I am fairly certain.” The scarred stallion’s expression turned grim, and it made Applejack glad to have the princess between herself and him. The look was a rather…intimidating. “While other possibilities do exist, most are far too unlikely, and one far too likely.” He let out a long sigh. “Would you just spit it out already!” Dash demanded. “You’re killing me over here!” Rashid nodded, and though his expression remained foreboding, Applejack thought she saw the slightest hint of an amused light in his eye. “It is most likely a vampire, one of the Black Court. And one of considerable age and power, to be awake and moving about in the daylight.” Applejack felt a chill settle into her guts, and was annoyed by it. It didn’t seem fair that after dealing with things like a demon possessed-Trixie or the stomach-turning horror of that 'Walks Behind You' monster, that the mere mention of some new dark creature should set her nerves jangling. She ought to be getting used to such things by now, shouldn’t she? Somehow though, after learning just how bad some of the things out there really could be, it just made things even worse. It really had been easier when she could just laugh such things off as old mares' tales and ghost stories. The dread feeling however only had a few seconds to sink its teeth in before it was banished by a simple, and rather unconcerned, “Oh, is that all?” from the princess. Applejack blinked up in surprise at Celestia. For that matter, so did all her friends. So did Rashid. Open surprise did not seem to be a natural look for the fellow, and it was actually rather comical to see it on his features. “I…can only hope and assume that, from your casual attitude, you have some means of dealing with the creature swiftly and easily?” Rashid spoke, his voice sounding pensive. “I can't say I know about this Black Court specifically, but I have well dealt with vampires before,” Celestia nodded. “And I saw to it that their kind would never again find Equestria a feeding ground.” “So then the old stories…?” Twilight spoke, her tone questioning. “Are mostly exaggeration and fantasy,” Celestia answered. “Mostly. There are some bits of truth, and one of them is of utmost importance.” “Which?” Twilight asked. Pinkie Pie beat the princess to the response however. “Sunlight!” the party pony bubbled as she bounced along. “That’s gotta be it, right? All the stories talk about sunlight making vampires go ‘oh no, it burns!’ and then POOF, they’re dust.” “Exactly so,” Celestia said, nodding in approval. “A few unexpected midnight sunrises saw to most of them. As for the rest, I…discouraged them by ruining their food supply.” “Uh…but aren’t vampires supposed to feed on…on blood?” Twilight asked. “On pony blood, right?” “Vile as it is, yes,” Celestia said. “And so I saw to it that they would find that blood as harmful to them as the light of the sun itself.” “Whoa,” Dash said slowly. “You...changed everypony’s blood?” “Not exactly, no,” Celestia replied. “More precisely, I changed the sun. I enspelled the light and the power of it to last on, to maintain the quality within it that was harmful to vampires. So it was that the very grass and trees and all other plants became infused with that power as they took in the light, and were able to pass it along when they themselves were consumed.” Applejack whistled, impressed. She might know next to nothing of magic, but she had a hunch that such a feat wasn’t exactly a bit of everyday spell-casting, even by the standard of the princess herself. The absolutely dumbstruck expression of awe on Twilight’s face seemed to back that intuition up. And Rashid…well Rashid had that look of somepony running calculations again. Only this time, he looked like somepony facing a problem, and having no idea where to even begin working it out. Without a word, his magic floated the rolled bit of cloth from behind his ear and passed it over to the princess. Celestia accepted the scrap with a curious expression, which quickly shifted into a look of understanding. “Well, this makes things even easier,” she commented. “Perhaps,” Rashid said, his tone cautious. “You must understand that the Black Court has been all but eradicated on my world. Those that remain do so without any major power base to support them, and their weaknesses are widely known. Any that manage to survive long enough to gain the kind of power they would need to be active during the day…” “Have not done so by being stupid or reckless,” Celestia finished for him, nodding. “We must assume that the creature will have made preparations for unexpected company.” “I would assume that it would not find our company unexpected,” Rashid said. “You think it might have left this scrap behind on purpose?” “It’s possible,” he replied. “It would make good bait. It’s too small and fragile to be the focus of any heavy spellwork. It’s not of the creature itself, which added to its delicate nature, would make it nearly impossible to use to target the vampire with a magical attack. It’s good for little more than tracking, and it’s a focus with a potentially short window of use. To escape the spell, the creature has only to discard the article of clothing that the piece came from. It could even be extra cautious and burn the clothing, giving the spell nothing to locate at all.” “Good bait for a trap indeed,” Celestia mused. “Its only practical use is to lead us somewhere, and if we are to use it, we must do so quickly, without the chance to plan in detail or make lengthy preparations. Easy enough to end up rushing headlong into trouble, if our quarry is ready for us.” Rashid nodded, and they both lapsed into a contemplative silence. Applejack and the rest followed along quietly, a sense of exclusion from the conversation keeping even Pinkie’s mouth still for the moment. The farm pony wasn’t even sure what it was exactly that made her suddenly reluctant to pitch in. Somehow, the discussion had become something just for Celestia and Rashid. And that rather irked her. After everything they’d done for Equestria, after taking on the burden of being the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, after risking their necks time and again for the good of the kingdom and doing so willingly, without even asking for reward or recognition or compensation, and this pony-posing human just drops right in and nudges them out? Her mouth just started speaking out of sheer contrary stubbornness. "Pardon, princess, but... well, it doesn't seem like there's much to think about, so far as using that there scrap goes." “Oh?” Celestia asked, giving her an appraising look. “Please, continue.” “Well, as I understand it, this here vampire fella is pretty dangerous. I mean, even if it can’t drink nopony’s blood, that ain’t the same as saying it can’t hurt nopony, right?” “True enough,” the princess acknowledged grimly. “Well then, suppose it goes and tries again, ya know, just to make sure that the first time wasn’t a fluke or something,” AJ went on. “And it gets the same result. And maybe it gets angry. Maybe it takes its frustrations out on whatever is nearby.” Celestia stopped walking. Everypony else stopped with her. Applejack watched as the princess took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let it out slowly. Her eyes snapped back open, and there was something dangerous in those violet orbs. “An excellent point, Applejack,” the princess said, her voice hard. “That…cannot be allowed.” “So then, we track the creature down immediately?” Rashid asked, though his tone suggested that the answer was obvious to him. “Yes,” Celestia answered as they reached the front door to the library. The door swung open in a glow of golden power, and the princess practically stalked inside. “We will find it, and we will make sure it never hurts anypony…ever again.”