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// Chapter: 9 In the dark of the night 
// Story: Empty Pages 
// by Blind Gardener 
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'Hey You' was happy. She was somewhere with flowers, plants, and sunshine. Other 'Hey You's were there too, but she was the only 'Hey you' that was her. The thought of being one of the other 'Hey you's made her giggle as she wondered what it felt like to look out of their eyes. She felt the happy giggles bubbling out of her horn.

The other 'Hey You's noticed the bubbles, and backed away from her. Looks of worry flashed across their faces. The smaller 'Hey You's were not afraid, but they were quickly corralled away by the larger ones.

Little bubbles popped around her, letting their happiness flow into whatever they touched making it sing with magic, and she relaxed into the song. The other 'Hey You's started screaming. This startled 'hey you'. She lost the thread of her magical song, and it burst from her control, quickly turning on her.

Now she was scared, and her fear was feeding the flames bursting forth from her horn. More and more fear, more and more power. The 'hey you's around her were being filled full of magic, frightened magic now instead of happy fun magic, and when filled they turned on one another. Locked hoof to horn to wing they fought.

'Hey you' screamed and scrambled about, trying to get away, trying to make them stop, trying to regain control.





Twilight Sparkle rolled over in bed, half awake, and pressed her muzzle into Smarty Pants' lap. She brushed her horn against Smarty, rubbing the fringes of magic gathered on it, and the leftover wisps of memory mixed with foalish fantasies and unfounded fears. 

Now awake, she started through her waking checklist. Saddlebags, check. checklists in saddlebags, check. Smarty Pants firmly placed in place of honor on back, check.

The moon was still gloaming through her window, so switched to her 'sneaking out of home at night' flowchart, feeling very adult and responsible. Glance out door. Nopony there. Poke nose down stairs, quick check couch! A 'you' was sitting on the couch, asleep with a book over her face.

Following the flowchart, Twilight used a little TK to make herself lighter and her steps quieter as she slinked down the stairs. She also used her TK to deaden the sounds, stopping the vibrations before they could travel far. The pony on the couch shivered, her breath steamy in the chill of the subtle spell.

She stared firmly at the pony on the couch, trying to practice identifying ponies based on their traits. She started the list. Book. Horn? hard to tell. In Twilight's house. Wearing a sleep mask, with cucumber over the eyes. Female. Shimmering under the surface invisible yet leaving a touch of an impression were hugs, warmth, and food but Twilight couldn't tell which sort of food. It was probably either Cadence, Mom, or Celestia. Too small to be Celestia, so either Cadence or Mom. What color was Cadence again? Twilight had forgotten. It was hard to tell colors in the dark anyway.

Probably Mom though, Twilight was pretty sure this was her house. This wasn't like that time she had wandered into somepony else's house... right? She decided to double check that this was her house. Books, check. Smarty pants, double check. Bed, check. Fireplace, check. Twilight paused a moment. This was a terrible checklist, it needed updating. Later, however. Right now she was restless, bothered, and antsy, though she no longer recalled why. She worked her way backwards, whispering the steps of the day back to herself. Right, bad dream, that's why she was restless.

With a nod to herself that everything had been sorted, and a note to herself so that next time she wondered she'd know why, as well as a reminder to update the 'is this my house' checklist to be less foalish. She glanced at the front door. According to the flowchart, it squeaked. She intensified the sound deadening spell, and pushed her way through it. As she slinked out of the house, frost flowered intricately across the silvered oak door frame before blooming onto the midnight grass. Dark mist condensed out of the air around her, falling heavily to the ground like ink dropped in a glass.

Fascinated by the interaction between her magic and the environment, Twilight kept her chilly silent spell up in the thick, humid summer night.

A scarce memory flashed before Twilight. A foal, between her age and Shiny's running from her in terror. Yesterday. Here. His soul brightly bare to her magically inundated eyes. That's why she'd had the nightmare! She pulled out a note and marked it down, just in case she forgot. This was important!





Canterlot had hard, heavy streets, designed to withstand the hooffalls of thousands of ponies and the weight of their carts. Twilight lightly trapeezed down the streets towards the castle. Her feet barely left a patter in the cloak of her silencing spell. Behind her mist trailed like a cape, sweeping the streets behind her. 

She drifted steadily from corner to corner, inexorable in her course. 





A young gryphonic scholar by the name of Crane Westling was sleeping by one of the many fountains in canterlot. He felt a cold chill drifting across his feathers, and shook a little, rustling his wings. The chill got colder and became somewhat damp. Annoyed Crane opened an eye to make sure one of his pony drinking compatriots hadn't started splashing cold fountain water on him.

He froze, seeing a huge cloak of mist spreading through the square. At its center was a ghostly purple pony figure that moved with no sound. Tiny purple flashes occasionally burst from its horn. It drifted up to him, its wide black eyes staring deep into his own. He squeaked softly, frightened.

Its lips moved but no sound emerged. Then crane heard a ghostly filly's voice, so soft as to nearly be inaudible. The only word he could make out was 'where'. Crane whimpered softly in response. The ghostly pony tilted its head to the side, ears flickering. It repeated the nonsensical muzzle motions that somehow failed to match its voice. 'where?'

Crane screamed and flapped his wings once, twice, bolting down a path. The phantasmal pony drifted after him. With a cry he took off, and was thankful to see that this finally left the spirit behind. Sweating bullets he flew back to his cramped scholar's apartment, and swore never to go drinking late at night again.





Twilight exhaled a grumpy sigh. The gryphon had not been very helpful. At first she had thought that he was leading her to the pony that had run from her, but then he took wing. Maybe he was bad at giving directions to earthbound ponies? Grumbling to herself she sniffed at the air, seeking the magical residue that marked the frightened unicorn from yesterday's path.





Guards patrol in pairs so that one can report back to central while the other handles the threat. Hard Knocks was patrolling the outskirts of the noble district when he saw the rippling sea of mist traveling up the street. As old and experienced as he was, this didn't really phase him. It was probably some unicorn farting around.

Unicorns were mighty strange. Whenever anything strange happened, it was usually a unicorn's fault. Sometimes it was a pegasus. Hard Knocks was pretty sure that earth ponies had been put into equestria to serve as the sane, unrufflable straight pony to the rest of the universe. He watched the misty figure drift through the gate and into the noble's district. He inflated his barrel and let out a long breath of air. Whelp, now it was officially his problem.

At least there was an upside. He had been paired with an obnoxious young recent graduate named Avocado Hills. He reached over and poked Avocado with the tip of his hoof. "You."

Avacado jumped, leaping nimbly over the edge of the wall, only to be caught by the tip of Hard Knock's spear slipping between her armour and her body, holding her up. her own spear uselessly fell to the streets below. Hard Knocks carefully levered Avacado back over the wall shaking his head. Maybe he was the only sane pony in the universe. Knocks remembered his mom telling him "Hard knocks, honey, if you're the only sane pony in the universe, who is it most efficient to lock up for your safety. You, or everyone else?"

Hard Knocks put the shaking Avocado back on the bricks of the wall. "Right." Hard knocks said "Did you see that mist thing?"

"YES!" Avocado said, quavering in fear. Hard Knocks hoped that she hadn't peed herself, cleaning urine out of the uniforms was surprisingly time consuming.

"I'm going to report back to command that we saw it, and get another patrol to cover our shift." Hard knocks said. "Your job is to follow it." This wasn't, strictly speaking, true. It was far more common to leave the other guard on the pair following the normal patrol route. Still, it was a command decision that was occasionally permissible, especially for pranking raw recent recruits.

"B.b.b.b" Avocado stammered "It's scary!"

"Yes." Hard Knocks said with a firm nod. "That is why it is your job to follow it. Make sure it is safe. Keep other ponies away from it. I'll be back with reinforcements soon enough. We will follow the tracking charm in your armour. Go"

Avocado gulped, and headed to one of the towers to clamber down the stairs and follow her orders. Hard Knocks sat on the top of the wall, whistling for a moment, then headed towards the patrol center. If he was lucky, they'd still have some of that chocolate rooibos tea, imported from the Zebra Lands, that he liked so much.

The shivering Avocado tippy hooved after Twilight, shaking so hard her teeth felt like they were going to fall out of her head. She hoped that the scary mist monster didn't notice her. Perhaps to her fortune, Twilight did not.