The Filly Without a Name

by Scribble Script

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

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CLOSING THE CIRCLE

It was winter, all colours were looking pale and bleached out, even the sun that setting in the west. Between the grey, barren pine trees the snow was covering the layer of dry needles with white heaps. And yet, she wasn’t feeling cold at all.

“Where am I?”, the filly asked out loud. She didn’t get an answer, but it took her a few moments to realize why this bothered her so much: She was alone. For the first time in two weeks she was missing Cloud Dash’s presence. No well-meant advice, no awkward comment, no silliness, he just wasn’t there. Already, she couldn’t recall an occasion where her friend hadn’t been at her side, from the moment she woke up in the morning to when she lay down to sleep at night. How could he be gone, all of a sudden? She was left alone in this strange, washed out place, wherever it was.

The filly tried to recollect what had happened to her. What was the last thing she could remember? She and Cloud had followed these two guard ponies to the shores of the lake, hadn’t they? But afterwards there was only blackness.

“I suggest ‘Dawn’. I like that name.”

Oh yes, right. She had a name again. The pegasus, Firefly, had given her a new name. Dawn.

“It’s sounds like hope, and I think you of all pony could use a little hope, right?”

Use a little hope… A little hope, yes. Just spelling her newfound name made Dawn more confident already. On the brink of her mind, she could feel that there had been something dark, scary and threatening, something a merciful faint had wiped from her memories. But in this place, she was save from it.Somehow the look over these frozen fields felt important. Familiar even. In front of her eyes a village’s road was laid, little more than a broad track of beaten and frozen mud. And over this mud, a grubby foal was dragging their hooves, struggling with a bundle of firewood.

Dawn let out a sharp yelp: “That’s me!”

Although she again received no reply, she was undoubtedly right. The filly was smaller than that startling reflection Dawn had seen in the mirror the other day, and some years younger. Nevertheless, it was her. The same colour of mane and coat, the same eyes. But that image of her over there on the trail looked even more miserable than her reflection had, it appeared to be on the brink of breakdown; the logs were too heavy for her and she was shivering with cold. It was enough to make a stone cry!

Powerless and with a feeling like she would herself pass out any minute now, the filly watched the younger Dawn struggling with the firewood for a few more steps, before she eventually tripped over a ground wave and keeled over. The logs spread over the whole street. But there was nothing the older Dawn could do for her younger self: The woods, the fields and the path, those all were but memories. A dream, an echo of something that had happened a long time ago. Nopony could change the past…

Suddenly, Dawn heard the clip-clop of hooves on the frozen ground. She turned around and faced a group of ponies at a quick trot appearing out of thin air just like that. Very much to her shock the newcomers paced right through her.

This was because it was a memory, Dawn realised. Whatever she was about to witness, it had already happened long ago, in her past so to speak. And because she hadn’t seen were those ponies had come from and back then, she now wasn’t able to see it now. But what had brought up this memory? Dawn couldn’t even recall her real name; why, why then could she remember this day? Why and how could this day and those ghost ponies be more important than her name?

The group of ponies, ten or maybe twelve in number, really looked like ghosts. Many details were blurred and faded out where oblivion had gnawed at them. Dawn’s memorial self still cowered in the middle of the road and thus stopped the ghostly shoal. The filly looked up to the strangers with large, wet eyes. “Dear sirs”, she begged in a brittle voice. “Please, could you spare a few bits for me?”

One of those stallions, however, seemed a little ill tempered. “Insolence! Do you not know who is standing before you?“ he started harshly.

With shock, the filly now broke up in tears.

“Shame on ye, baronet”, another stallion scolded. “Now look what ye have done. Ye have made the poor thing cry.” He had an outdated way to speak, and strangely his voice sounded familiar. Like she had heard that voice only recently. He shifted the other stallion aside and stepped forward.

“There is no need to cry, missy”, he continued and carefully bowed down to the filly. “Thou canst not possibly know who I am, and this noble knight appears to have forgotten. But lightning shall strike me if I ever forget who I am and what I stand for.”

After these mysterious words the stallion collected the scattered firewood and placed it to the filly’s hooves. From the point where Dawn watched the scene, the friendly stallion turned the back on her. He was a knight in armour, she noticed, and contrary to everything else in her dream his cloak didn’t look faded at all: It was bright red in the light of the setting sun. Half pudent and half curious, Dawn started to pace around her dream-self. With every heart beat the stallion’s figure became more and more distinct. Now the knight stuck his muzzle into one of his saddlebags and fetched out a small purse with his mouth. He then lifted the filly’s front hooves with his own and dropped the pouch. Coins jingled as the filly caught it.

Just a few steps more and the older Dawn would finally be able to look into his face.

“For wise use”, the stallion said, and it sounded very much like he was smiling. He undid his cloak and put it around the filly’s shivering shoulders. “And I believe thou needest this more than I do.”

As if this had been all her subconsciousness had wanted to show her, the figments of Dawn’s dream suddenly started to unravel as she was drifting away from the world of slumber into the wake world. And still she hadn’t been able to recognise who her mysterious benefactor had been!

“No, wait! Not yet!”, Dawn pleaded. She tried her best to fight against waking up, yet of course there was no way to hold grasp on a fading dream. But just like if he had heard her, the unknown stallion turned around once more just as the dream had almost completely dissolved. And then Dawn saw his face, just before everything turned completely white and she fully woke up.

-<0>-

Dawn didn’t know were she was when she opened her eyes, she had never seen this wood-panelled ceiling before. “Would bother me more”, she muttered. “If this wasn’t the first pleasant wakeup in forever.”

“We have been through a lot, that’s for sure.” Cloud Dash’s familiar face pushed itself into her point of view. He was lively as always; of course, ghosts or whatever he was didn’t need sleep or did ever get hungry. “Morning”, he greeted. “Good to see that at least one of us can sleep in peace.”

On second glance, Cloud had very well undergone some change. It was not a visible one, though, except maybe for the look in his eyes. Was it doubt, worry, or something else entirely, Dawn couldn’t tell, but she surely didn’t like this expression. It reminded her of the hospital and that Cloud, as a ghost or whatever, was almost completely powerless in the world of the living. Truely, Cloud Dash was the reason that she hadn’t curled up to die at this point, but as much as he had saved her life, Dawn had saved him in return, from fading into oblivion again, at least.

“Saved? Thou art save now, for the time being, at least, if that is what thou meanest.”

This new voice that mingled in Dawn’s thoughts sounded strangely familiar. If the voice’s owner couldn’t read her thoughts, she apparently had formed a habit of muttering to herself. Guiltily Dawn turned around.

And then unexpectedly, she encountered a remnant of the dream she had deemed the most important thing in the world only a few minutes ago; a dream that yet strangely was about to fade again from her mind already… But no doubt, there he was, still looking almost the same as back then. The stallion with the white eyepatch that had given her his money and his cloak on that cold, harsh winter evening. At most he looked a little more tired, today.

“Better close thy mouth, missy, a bug is coming.” The stallion smiled before he turned serious again. His watchful right eye rested on Dawn for a moment, concern and pity in his look.

“I… I…” she stuttered without being able to produce a meaningful sentence.

“Am I crazy or does he seem know you?”, Cloud Dash uttered, but Dawn couldn’t pay attention to him; her eyes stood glued to the stallion.

“Well, I believe I have never introduced myself properly”, the subject of her undivided attention said. “Something that seems to have become a bad habit of mine, lately.” He bowed a little. “Silver Blaze, captain of the royal guard, off duty at the moment but nevertheless at thy service.”

Now Dawn was overwhelmed even more. Her eyes turned wet. “I… I know”, she inappropriately stuttered and then quickly tried to correct herself in a politer way, only leading to her stumbling over her own words even more. “I mean, I know you… Your name… I… somepony has told it to me… At least, I think so…” At this moment, she got a little, helpful jab from Cloud Dash that at once stopped her rambling. She shot him an evil glare, gulped once, and then shyly concluded as she was rubbing her eyes dry: “You can call me ‘Dawn’, sir.”

“And blow me down and pick me up, you know that stallion as well, huh?” Cloud turned his head between Dawn and Silver Blaze. He still had that look on his face. Dawn opened her mouth to give a reply but was interrupted by another pony that entered the room.

It was that ginger unicorn guard, Sliderule, balancing a tablet with freshly baked bread and a glass of jam on his back.

“Excuse me, captain, sir”, Sliderule addressed Silver Blaze. “Master Nightshade says, if the filly is awake, he wants to discuss our next steps.” He tilted his head at the tablet on his back. “But I thought… um… maybe Dawn should have… um… breakfast first?”

Silver Blaze tried to stifle a yawn. “Ye are right: Let Dawn have her breakfast. Go and get the others, Constable, we may as well have our briefing right now, we can talk while she eats. With all his wisdom, Nightshade yet needs to learn that not everypony jumps just because he says so.”

The prospect of breakfast looked very well to Dawn, although she felt uneasy because the others were watching her. Only the physician, Ragstitch was absent, he had to attend to his duties at the House of Healing. Firefly and Sliderule, Silver Blaze and Nightshade, Dawn wondered whether they were afraid she would try to run away again. And most of all Nightshade was making her nervous. She had already noticed it before, but now there was no doubt to her. She couldn’t really explain it, but Dawn really felt like there was something about him that wasn’t fully pony. And it wasn’t helping either that he wore that necklace shaped like the head of a unicorn, only with wings, and that bore a red gemstone seeming to glow weakly with its own fire.

“Trouble’s brewing, huh?” Cloud said into Dawn’s ear. Her ear twitched but she tried to ignore him. The others were already looking at her oddly enough without her talking to somepony only she could see and hear. She tried her best to stay put and just have her breakfast until after a felt eternity Silver Blaze took the word again:

“Last night I have stifled Firefly’s question about what had happened because we all were too tired to consider such dark matters and I wanted us to get some proper sleep first. Well, I for my share am not much more rested than yesterday evening, worry and my own curiosity kept me awake half the night. But nevertheless, these things that ye, Master Nightshade, said were ill to hear while the world lied in shadows, I think we must discuss them now.”

Master Nightshade gave Dawn a mindful look with his uncanny violet eyes, which in return gave her crawlies. Then he slowly nodded.

“First, I want to ask Firefly a question, if it is alright with her.”

The young mare fidgeted uneasily as the sorcerer addressed her, but she replied: “I am fine with it, sir.”

“Very well”, Nightshade said and put his hooves together. “What did you feel?”, he asked and because Firefly just stared at him confusedly, he sighed and then explained: “At the lake, you got closer to… well, the presence than any of us. What did you feel?”

Firefly pondered thoroughly. It wasn’t easy for her to recall details from the past night, she had to admit. The fog from the lake seemed to have brewed in her head as well, in addition to the impressions she would rather not remember if she had the choice to. But at Nightshade’s urging, she tried her best to recollect everything as good as she could. Eventually, Firefly thought to remember.

“It felt… lonely”, she drawled. “It felt like being caged up in a dark place, without any hope. And there was something else… It was horrible, I felt like I’d lose my mind: The hatred, oh, it burned… I… I… I fear it will burn everything…” With every word she forced herself to utter, Firefly shivered more and more. Now her voice failed as she was threatened to be overwhelmed by the horror that boiled up with the memory.

“Enough”, Silver Blaze barged in harshly. He looked at Firefly almost as concerned as he had looked at Dawn. In a softer voice, he added: “It is alright, say nothing more, Royal Guard. Stir not up those bad dreams.” And with a look as fiery as the stone on Nightshade’s chest, he turned towards the sorcerer. “Is this really important?”

Nightshade took a deep breath but then he took Silver’s outburst very calmly. It was important, he explained because he had felt something very similar from the moment he had walked through the gates of Hollow Shades, and that somepony had experienced the same confirmed his impression. Those influences had been all but clear, nevertheless they had been strong enough to make him play out his authority card: With the royal sorcerer's badge he could unopposedly take a closer look at everything suspicious in the town. He had felt the dark presence all over town, but it had been strongest in the sanatorium. But he had also found something else within those old walls, as well. Something he hadn’t expected and also didn’t really understand, something, that was dark and yet not evil…

“You’re talking about me!“ Dawn squealed.

„No, he’s talking about US”, Cloud who was still acting as a bug in her ear corrected her. This time, Dawn couldn’t resist a ‘shush’, luckily nopony paid attention to that slip because Master Nightshade was already continuing.

“Yes, I am indeed talking about you, filly... I mean Dawn.” He searched for the right words. “I am not good at explaining things, but maybe I can put it this way: It is like a scent that does not naturally belong to you, Dawn, like with a perfume. I can feel there is something with you, something that is not you. Do you know what I am talking about?”

Dawn nodded. She turned her head to see Cloud Dash and once again became aware that all the others were watching her. The blue pegasus colt made big eyes. “Do you really think they’ll believe you?”, he said, but Dawn’s decision was already set. No more lies, she was willing to take the jump into the cold water.

“I know what you’re talking about, Master Nightshade”, she said, and then blew the whistle: “His name is Cloud, sir. Cloud Dash.”

If it was at all possible, everypony now looked even more worried. A silence arose, even more uncomfortable than before. The eternity felt even more infinite this time, and Dawn had a lot of time to worry.

“So, what you two are saying”, Silver Blaze once again broke the silence. It surely costed him all his self-control and yet he couldn’t wholly stop his voice from trembling. “Is that Dawn is, somehow, possessed by Count Rainbow’s dead son?”

“There is an evil will haunting this town”, Nightshade replied, apparently losing his patience. “And believe it or not, Dawn’s connection with -Maybe with Cloud Dash’s ghost, is it that impossible?- is something that goes not according to his plans. Why else would he want to kill Dawn? He has already tried it twice, and I will not allow him to try a third time!”

The eye-patched stallion rubbed his temples with both his front hooves. “We have something evil against us, I can believe that”, he admitted. “And whether I believe there is a dead pegasus colt haunting Dawn is not important, right now. To argue about this matter does not lead to anything.”

Silver Blaze didn’t sound like he actually believed her, though, and he was giving her this pitiful look again. The thought that he could have already written her off as a madpony gave a sting to Dawn’s heart. But it wasn’t so much because he wasn’t believing her, if she was honest. Something in her subconsciousness told her that the stallion she now knew as Silver Blaze had somehow been dear to her, but that wasn’t the reason her heart was aching. It was because Dawn was beginning to fear he could be right to disbelieve her. What if she really was just imagining things, what if she really had lost her mind, eventually, and was just imagining Cloud Dash? The loss of her memory didn’t speak in her favour either, did it? But if she really was mad then that meant in conclusion that Doctor Calm Mind, the pony she hated more than anything, had been right to lock her up. It meant that she indeed belonged in that cell… Dawn lowered her head, so the others couldn’t see the tears welling up in her eyes again.

However, the first teardrop falling on her breakfast plate perhaps didn’t slip Silver Blaze’s sharp eye. He suddenly clopped his hooves together with and audible ‘tock’, so loudly that Dawn almost jumped out of her skin. But the shock very well brought Dawn back to her full senses.

“Master Nightshade”, Silver Blaze said. “This story is still missing a conclusion, and I would want to hear it. Ye mentioned ‘him’ multiple times. Ye said ‘he’ would try to kill Dawn. Master Nightshade, what is there ye are not telling us? Do ye know what we are up against?”

For the first time, Nightshade was visibly looking uncomfortable, when he replied. He actually had had no intention to tell them, but now that it couldn’t be helped, he had to admit that Silver Blaze was right. He said that he had indeed recognised the presence he had felt, or at least had thought to realise it. As something or rather somepony that should have been dead for centuries.

“To find that he is still alive or at least his evil will is still lingering in Equestria, this was worse news to me than any of you can imagine, for it means my mistakes in the past still haunt me until today and yield depraved fruits. I wanted not to tell you because to cope with this is my task and my burden, and only mine, although I knew that it would exceed my powers, even if he does not have all his old strength.”

He paused for a moment and touched the red stone of the amulet on his chest.

“So I had to wander far and long to retrieve this”, Nightshade said. “It is dangerous to use it, but this amulet can strenghten the magic of its bearer, enough so I can equal him, and maybe are even able to overcome him, while he still is weakened. Our trial of strength last night shewed him just this, even if I my victory hung on a hair.

True, maybe you can help me to some extent, but we must act now, while he still licks his wounds. If he can regain his full strength, there is no power in Equestria today that will be able to halt him!”

“But who is he?” Silver Blaze wanted to know. “What kind of evil force is this pony ye are talking of?”

“He is no pony in the sense of the word, not anymore, at least. If I am right, and I doubt not that I am, our enemy is one of the great plagues that have stricken our lands in the past. His powers may have faded but still his mere presence means madness and ruin, as can best be observed with Herbal Green.” Nightshade looked into the round seriously.

“My friends, I fear our enemy is none other than… Discord, the Spirit of Disharmony.”

-<0>-