> Lost Souls
>  by Claystead
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Lost Souls chapter 1-2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lost Souls 

I wonder if she’ll bring gifts from Canterlot?

Lyra Heartstrings played around with the thought of delicious chocolate as she trotted down the dark main street of Ponyville, happily chewing a sunflower seed sandwich she held with her magic. A sudden gust of cool wind made her shiver for a second, interrupting her train of thought. She really shouldn’t have stayed that long at Pokey’s, now the only light was that which emanated from the windows lining the street. Why was it so cold now, anyway? It was May, for Celestia’s sake! Must be the anticipated May storm brewing in the east. Maybe she should have a talk with Rainbow Dash the next time sh-

What was that?

She could have sworn… Ah, probably just the wind wailing in between the Everfree trees. She was just about to bite into the sandwich again when she once more heard the sound. This time it was no doubt it was made by a living creature.

A cry? A scream?

She looked around and tried to determine which building it was coming from. Her eyes fell on a familiar one. She slowly approached the building. She tried the door. Locked.

She made her way around to the back. Suddenly she became aware of some light coming out through a small cellar window close to the ground. The cries, for now she was certain that was what she was hearing, appeared to be stronger here near the window. She kneeled down to take a peek inside. A small black curtain obscured most of the view of the cellar, but if she tilted her head and craned her neck perhaps she could… She caught a glimpse of the scene on the other side.

DEAR SWEET CELESTIA!

She withdrew from the window, losing her sandwich in her panic, not sure whether to faint or roll into a ball, sobbing. She decided to scream.
“AA-*urk*”
Her scream was cut short before it had a chance to begin properly. After a confused couple of seconds filled with coughing and spattering she realized the tightness she felt in her throat was actually due to a piece of rope tightening around her neck.

“Eugh! *Cough* Heeel- *spatter*”
Her wheezing and waving of hooves appeared fruitless, so she instead tried to use her magic to free herself. To her horror she realized somepony was keeping it too tight around her neck. As her hooves scratched ineffectually against the fibers of the rope she desperately wished her magic had been stronger. As the world turned blurry and started to fade she could have sworn she heard a familiar voice next to her ear, whispering in an almost loving tone.
“How fun, another playmate”

Chapter 1: Calm

Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz gasped and panted heavily while attempting to orientate himself. Upon spotting the sweaty covers piled around his lower body, he realized he was in his sunrise-lighted bedroom, sitting upright in his bed.
“Gah! Another nightmare? Seriously, I’ve got to pull together…”

He dragged himself out of bed and went over to the bath. Splashing some water in his face felt good. He looked in the mirror above the sink, noting that his dark brown mane was now almost one and a half hoofwidths long, judging by the forelock dangling down next to his horn.

I really need to get it cut before it exceeds regulation…

As soon as he had freshened up he went over to his kitchen corner. He couldn’t help but feel thankful for the regulation that stipulated that commissioned officers had the right to rent their own apartments. It might be a tiny little ground-floor one-roomer, but it sure as hay beat the barracks. 
He was just about to pour himself a glass of orange juice when he noticed the wall clock. 

Oh, shoot. Looks like somepony has to skip breakfast today…

Minutes later he was fully uniformed, looking over the details of his armor in a large mirror he had hanging close by his door for exactly this reason. The shining gold finish of the armor of the Equestrian Royal Guard seemed to blend with, rather than contrast, his almond-brown coat. Making sure his entire mane was covered by his helmet, he took one step back to take a look at himself.  The brown unicorn stallion looked several hoofwidths taller as he stood tall, chest puffed out. From the light blue eyes to the gold-colored shoes, he couldn’t help but think that he looked more like some poster colt than his usual self. If only his parents could… No, no time for that. He picked up the ceremonial spear he had parked next to his front door the evening before and went out onto the bustling Canterlot street.

As he crossed the main entrance hall of Canterlot Castle he spotted a wiry beige pegasus with a black mane hurrying towards him across the hall.
“Mornin’, Storm! Why in such a hurry?”
“G’ mornin’, Dusk. I’m lookin’ for ya, in fact. Got worr’d when y’ were late for th’ Sat’rday mornin’ briefin’, y’ kno’?”
Quartz smiled at the familiar sing-songy eastern accent. “Well, I’m here now, so let’s walk there together, eh?”  

While they walked across one the many open balcony/walkway combinations near the top of the wall of the main building, Storm suddenly exclaimed “’ey, watch out, Dusk!”
Quartz stopped right in front of a menacing-looking crack in the floor extending from a missing piece of balustrade.
“Whoa! Thanks, Storm. They really should fix that before somepony falls to his death here…”

He sent an irked look in the direction of the large crack he had nearly gotten his hoof caught in.  “And look at that! A large piece of the balustrade has fallen out, too! I tell you, Storm, if that isn’t fixed by Wednesday I swear to Celestia I’ll feed the pony responsible for masonry maintenance to the first manticore I can find.”
Storm chuckled. “Oh, th’t reminds me, Dusk. Me ‘nd Wooden ‘and som’ guys from Sec’nd Nite ar’ h’ded down t’ th’ movies ‘is evenin’, t’ see th’ new Rainbow Factory. Y’ wanna come?”
“From the Second Night Company? Who’ll be there?”
“Don’t kno’ for sure yet, but ‘t least Sunshine Smiles , th’t’s for sure. Possibl’ also Ruby.”
“Corporal Star? You know she always bugs me, Storm! Why’d you invite her in the first place?”
“Y’ kno’ she has a good eye for ya, Dusk. Why ev’n stay ‘n the Guard if not bec’se mares love stalli’ns in uniform?”
“This is different, and you know that! Mares are one thing, but a mare that is in uniform as well, of the same height and strength as you, who displays an unhealthy obsession with you and who also knows at least one martial art… Hay, several martial arts for all I know, is a mare I’d prefer to ignore, okay? Anyway, I- oh, here we are!”

The two guards stopped outside an unremarkable door, its purpose only revealed by a small bronze plaque encased in the white marble wall, reading “Briefing room 12: Royal Guard 1st Comp. (Day)”
As Quartz opened the door a steel grey earth pony guard standing just inside gave them an indifferent look. “State your rank, name and platoon, please.”
“Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz, Third Platoon.”
“Serg’nt Storm Cirrus, Th’rd Pl’toon.”
The guard nodded, located the right list and checked them off.

Quartz sighed. “Seriously, sergeant Wool, is that really necessary? We pass through here every Saturday and have done that for three years now…”
“Sorry, sir, but regulation is regulation, ya’know?”
“*Sigh* Yeah, I guess we do.”

Quartz and Storm left their spears in a rack and turned to the crowd in the room. It appeared all 170 members of the First Company (Day) had turned up and were now chatting quietly in the large briefing room.
“I’ll think about RF, okay, Storm?” Quartz said in a low voice as they split up to find their respective places in the audience.

Mere minutes after Quartz found his position with the two other second lieutenants on the front row the buzz of voices fell silent as the ponies in audience directed their attention towards the yellow earth pony checking in with sergeant Wool at the door.
“Room, ten-HUT! Lieutenant Grove!”
All the ponies in the room snapped to attention at Wool’s call, adopting the usual stone-faced expression of the Royal Guard.

Lieutenant Grove walked over to the rostrum, twitched his greying mustache a little and spoke up. 
“’Morning, gentlecolts,” he stopped to smile at the hawking sound from one of the back rows, “…and -mares, naturally.  We won’t have any terribly exciting things to go through today, and I suppose we should be thankful for that. The main point of discussion for today’s briefing will be the temporary rerouting of the patrol schedule to cover for the missing pegasi from the day after tomorrow through Thursday.” He stepped up to a map of Equestria hanging from a wall. “As your platoon leaders have informed you, all able-bodied pegasi  are to report to the Weather Control Center in Los Pegasus,” He placed his hoof on the city on the map. “for support during the moving of the much-anticipated storm front from the West Coast to the East, providing rain for Equestria’s farms and forests along the way.” He moved his hoof in a sweeping movement from Los Pegasus to Manehattan. “The interested among you may have learned that this is their largest front in over ten years, requiring all helping hooves they can muster to move it. Now, any suggestions for the Palace Gardens routes?”

Fifteen minutes of monologue only occasionally interrupted by questions and suggestions later the meeting was drawing to a close.  Quartz tightened his jaw muscle while slightly opening his mouth, a nearly invisible yawning technique new recruits quickly learned in order to be conditioned for maintaining the same facial expression in the four hours between guard changes. Even now as a commissioned officer Quartz winced at the thought of his old drill sergeant. He stood in line when somepony barking his own name caught his attention. It was Grove.
“Hmmm?”
“Second lieutenant Quartz, I asked for you to stay behind!”
“Why yes of course sir, pardon me, sir!”
Quartz turned to the crowd exiting through the door. He caught the eye of Storm Cirrus and mouthed “No can do” while shaking his head slightly. The nod he received in response was enough to tell him that Storm understood he would not see him tonight. 

As the last dark brown Pegasus closed the door behind him, the only ponies left in the room were Quartz, with his helmet placed on a small table by the door, and a fully armored first lieutenant Grove restlessly pacing in front of him. The plume on the top made him seem far taller and more imposing than what his relatively compact stature would usually pose.
The silence lasted for about half a minute before Quartz, sick of standing at attention, tried a small hawk. When Grove did not seem to react, he decided to take the word.
“You wanted to see me, sir?”
“Huh?” Grove stopped in his track and looked like he had been woken from a worried dream. “Oh, second lieutenant Quartz, of course, a thousand pardons…”

Grove stood in front of Quartz and looked him in the eye in a way that seemed almost irate.
“Second lieutenant, I assume you know why I have called you here?”
“Sir, no sir! No idea, sir!”
“Ah, don’t play the slightly oblivious subordinate with me, Dusk! You know perfectly well why you are here!”
Quartz did indeed have a sneaking suspicion what this might be about, but as the lieutenant had started to walk towards the map of Equestria, so he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Grove looked at the map, or rather through it, judging by the absent-minded look on his face.
“Strange, this with rank, eh? Had I gone to the Army instead of the Guard I’d be a major by now. Still, here the highest rank is captain, and I, a lieutenant, am in charge of an entire company… Well then, let’s get on to business, shall we?”
Quartz assumed it was a rhetorical question, so he decided not to answer.
“As you know unless you are deaf, blind and dumb, I’ll retire in three months,”
This reminder of the lieutenant’s age made Quartz wonder why Grove had refused promotion to the rank of captain two years ago, a position that had gone to the far younger Shining Armor.

“and, let’s cut to the chase, you are the most likely candidate for the newly opened rank of first lieutenant.”
“Me, sir?”
“Don’t look so surprised, you knew this was coming. Ever since your guardian angel Shining Armor hit the CO ranks you have been fast-tracked up through the ranks faster than a greased Wonderbolt. You went from private to officer school to second lieutenant in three years, while it took me nearly eight years to do the same… But,” he sighed, “I’ve got to admit, you do have talent, especially at the theoretical things like bookkeeping. You are an intelligent stallion, and that is also apparent from your school records. Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns? That’s not an easy to place to get in for a plebeian such as yourself, let alone getting a grant for the fee… But I do wonder about one thing, Quartz. Why did you come to the Guard instead of going to a fancy university or college?”
“It was only temporary to begin with, sir, an old dream of mine. And then I discovered I really like the job. Like a cross between police officer, soldier and mare-magnet.”
Grove looked at him again and gave him a grin and a hearty laugh.

“Indeed it is, second lieutenant, indeed it is. Met the missus that way, y’know.”
“Well, in any case I am honored that you would consider me as your potential suggested successor, sir. Was there anything else?”
“Actually, yes, it is. Do you have any plans for the evening, Quartz?”
“Just cancelled them, sir.”
“Excellent. I just got a request from Captain Armor. Two days ago we sent a couple pegasi down to a nearby town to help the townsponies search for a missing filly. They telegraphed up yesterday asking for two more guards to help them. Me and lieutenant Ayre both agreed to send one of our second lieutenants down there. Due to the Los Pegasus storm front we can’t send any more pegasi unless it is absolutely necessary, leaving you as the obvious choice for our company. Also, I thought you could do with a trip out of Canterlot now before you are transferred to a desk job.”
“Of course I accept, sir. But, what about Third Platoon, sir?”
“Ah, one of the NCO’s can step up as temporary platoon leader. I’m sure they’ll do just fine. It’ll be a quiet week due to the storm. Anyway, then you can meet up with second lieutenant Dawn at the trainstation at noon. Take the Friendship Express 3 westwards.”
“Sir, yes sir!”
“Excellent. Dismissed.”

Quartz went over to the table and put on his helmet and grabbed his now-lonely spear from the rack. As he opened the door he suddenly remembered he had forgotten to ask something.
“Excuse me, sir?”
“Yes?” answered Grove, his attention already focused on a stack of papers.
“What was the name of the town again?”
“Some little place on the edge of our precinct. Ponyville.”

Chapter 2: Light Air

“Lieutenant Dawn. Does that sound familiar to you?”
Staff sergeant Wooden Clearing scratched his chin with a hoof in the bright light of the train station platform.
“Sorry, Dusk, doesn’t ring a… Wait, did ya say Dawn? As in second lieutenant Winter Dawn?”
“Umm… Yeah?”
“Dude, it’s the pegasus stallion with no wings from Second Company!”
“Seriously? The guy who has been stuck at the same rank like forever?”
“Positive, Dusk.”
“Great… Just what I needed. A deadbeat almost double my age to babysit me…”
“Ah, you’ll get through. It’ll be fun!”
“Yeah, sure. Anyway, are you sure you can handle Third Plat for the next two days?”
“Don’t ya worry, Dusk. It’ll be fine. And Storm promised to look after the pegasi going to Los Pegasus, too.”
“Well, okay, then. See you on Tuesday!”
“See ya, Dusk!”

Quartz watched the earth pony walk away towards the exit. As he sighed and turned towards the filling train he suddenly heard some words that made him twist his ear in the direction they had come from.
Missing… Ponyville…
Although he could not pick up anything more, he determined the source of the conversation to be a couple of earth ponies nuzzling by the door to one of the wagons. As he observed them, the crème-colored mare with a pink and violet mane said goodbye to the blue stallion and jumped on the train. He made a quick decision and followed her. He stayed a few steps behind her until he saw her find a seat in an empty compartment. He went to stand in the door opening and knocked gently on the doorframe as the train started moving.

The mare looked up from a book she had opened.
“Can I help you, sir?”
“I just wanted to ask you something, miss… or is it missus?
“Still miss, I’m afraid,” she remarked and smiled at the blue stallion waving to her from the platform with a nervous smile, “but I am working on that. Sweetie Drops here, Bon Bon among friends, pleased to meet you. Now, how did you say I could help you?”

“Err… I couldn’t help but overhear that you mentioned Ponyville to that stallion back there. Is that were you are going?”
“Yes, born and raised there. I’ve been in Canterlot some time for… personal reasons.”
“Excellent, excellent. You shouldn’t happen to know about a certain missing filly, should you?”
Sweetie Drops looked surprised. “No, I can’t say I have, but then again I’ve been here almost two weeks. The only “missing” Ponyville resident I know of is my friend Lyra. She said she would send me a letter, but she hasn’t, and she does not respond to the telegrams I have sent her.”

Quartz thought about this for a few seconds. “Hmm… Well, I’m sure she’ll turn out alright. Probably just got a bad case of the flu. It’s been a lot of that aro-“ TOC!
“Ouch! What the-“ Quartz looked behind him into the corridor to see which pony had hit him over the helmet. Upon seeing the back of a Royal Guard armor piece disappearing into a compartment he suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing.
“Oh, shoot. Well, sorry Ms. Drops, but I have to leave now. Thank you very much for your assistance.”
“Always happy to help the Guard, Mr..?”
“Quartz. Dusk Quartz. Oh, and if you need help with anything or remember something else, I and a few other guards will be in Ponyville the next few days. Come see us if you need us.”

Sweetie Drops nodded and gave her attention to the book again. As Quartz went out into the corridor he couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the thought of the cover. Stereotypical mare-targeting romance novel, he guessed, judging by the marriage ceremony at the cover and the ornately fonted title spelling out Second Chance. He shrugged and went into the compartment he had seen the other guard enter earlier.

“So, finally finished flirting?”
“Pardon?” Quartz looked confused at the light brown but decidedly older guard.
“I had to stop you, you know. Couldn’t let you compromise the line of duty for a dame.”
The big grin of the stallion was enough to light Quartz’ fuse. He gritted his teeth.
“Excuse me, sir, but I was not flirting with that mare. I was asking her questions.”
“Sure you were, sonny, sure you were…” The stallion looked out the window with a disinterested expression.
“Well pardon me for trying to do something useful with my time instead of sitting on my rump and looking out the window!”

The other stallion finally raised his voice. “You? YOU aren’t here to do anything. You are just some pipsqueak turd they dug up to babysit me!”
“Well, I didn’t ask to be babysat by some grumpy old fart, neither!”
Silence ensued after Quartz finished the sentence. He sat down on the seat.
“*Sigh* Let’s try again, shall we? Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz, First Company, pleased to meet you.”
The stallion remained silent for a few more seconds before he spoke.
“Second lieutenant Winter Dawn, Second Company.”

The journey continued in silence for a few hours as the train did a complicated pattern down the mountainside and past all the outlying towns in Canterlot Municipality. Finally Quartz spoke again, trying to avoid looking at the stumps where the pegasus’ wings had been.
“Do you have any more details on what exactly we are to do down there?”

Winter Dawn sighed. “A few days ago some local filly managed to get lost on the way home from buying flour. The mayor telegraphed to Canterlot and asked for a couple guards to help coordinate the search. The town is within the precinct that Guard polices, so she got her request granted. The search was concluded without result yesterday. However, somepony in that town must have bigwig friends, because instead of sending back the privates from our company that they had “borrowed”, they actually got them to send two more. And here we are. We are going to take a look around and see if anypony has any clue of her whereabouts. If we suspect something criminal is involved, we are to call for the Manehattan PD to send some ponies up.”
As the mechanical-sounding recitation drew to a close, Quartz spotted an approaching train station platform out of the window. 
“Looks like we are here, Dawn…”

The sunlight beamed off the golden finish of their armor as they stepped out onto the small station platform. Quartz couldn’t help but notice that their arrival raised a few eyebrows.
Dawn seemed to notice as well. “Well, if nothing else we’ll hopefully give the search a morale boost. I suggest we go-“
“Lieutenants Dawn and Quartz?” 
The two stallions looked around to find the pony who had spoken. They spotted the two almost-identical white pegasi guards coming towards them around the side of the building. Quartz would have had problems telling them apart hadn’t it been for the fact that one them was wearing a pair of sunglasses that really contrasted the formality of the armor.

“Yes?” Dawn asked in a cautious tone.
The sunglass-wearing pony beamed towards them and pulled a quick salute. “Welcome to Ponyville! I’m Pfc. Sailing, and this here is private Raff. We’ve been in charge of this circus the last couple of days. Pleasure to meet you!”
The effusive greeting left the two lieutenants at a loss of words for a couple of seconds, until Dawn responded with a halfhearted salute and a “Hello to you, too…”
Quartz did the same. “Hi. Nice to meet somepony friendly already.”
“Always an honor, sir. Riff! Take ‘eir saddlebags, eh?”

Private Raff mumbled something and signaled to Quartz that he’d take his bags. Quartz shook his head lightly, and was delighted to see that Dawn had the decency to do the same.

Private Sailing didn’t seem to notice, and instead started trotting towards the end of the platform. “Follow me, sirs! I’ll give you a sitrep as we go along!”

The main street of Ponyville managed to give both a sleepy and bustling impression simultaneously. Quartz elegantly sidestepped an orange pegasus filly who appeared to have thrown herself off a roof in an effort to fly. He stopped and gave the filly a puzzled look. “Er… Atta girl?”

The filly burst into a grin and ran around the house, presumably to try again. As Quartz turned his attention back to the situation report of private Sailing he couldn’t help but wonder if he had just caused a sprained ankle in the future.
Sailing continued uninterrupted. “… from a local apple orchard, Sweet Apple Acres. Applebloom’s the name of the filly. Went out to buy some flour one evenin’ and never returned.” He whinnied exasperatedly. “We’ve been looking for two days now. Not a trace. Poof! Gone… Well, at least we are not alone now. Y’know, we were really surprised when we heard you were coming.”

Quartz and Dawn exchanged a worried glance. 
“Beg pardon?” Quartz tried.
“Well, we had only telegraphed for permission to interview the locals, we had not expected ‘em to send two officers down here.”
Private Raff, who had remained mostly silent, nodded concurringly.
Dawn raised an eyebrow. “Peculiar, we were told we had been sent for.”
Sailing looked surprised for a moment, then shrugged. “Probably one of the townsponies, then. The mayor, perhaps? You’ll get a chance to talk to her yourself in the mornin’”

The mere mention of breakfast time made Quartz’ stomach murmur a protest towards the non-existent amount of food it had received today. He decided to drop a hint. “And what are the plans for this evening, private?”
“First of all dinner. We’ve found a lovely little restaurant. Then…” He stopped and appeared to be trying to look sad, an effect the sunglasses mostly blocked. “Then you two have to find housing on your own. We rented the last two rooms at the town inn, I’m afraid.”

A few hours later Quartz’ stomach had received a healthy omelet was a lot happier. As the sun set over the hills to the west the four guards discussed the final details of how they’d split the bill. Quartz was trying to catch the eye of young mare selling oranges, more to see if he could rather than planning any romantic advances, when he suddenly realized another pony was staring right at them.

“Can we help you, miss?” he called out to the young white mare.
“Oh, how can I be so rude?! Pardon my intolerable behavior, sirs” she answered to the group that was now all aware of her presence.
She came up to them.
“I am so sorry, gentlecolts, but the pattern of that collar piece on your armor sets have gave me the most miraculous bout of inspiration for a new piece of haute couture! I simply cannot wait to get back to my boutique to put it to paper and cloth!”

Her next two minutes of descriptions of whatever fashion accessory she was planning left the four stallions with little other than blank looks. Suddenly Dawn interrupted her in the middle of the description of a vivant hat ribbon. “Excuse me, miss, but are you a local?”
The purple-maned white mare looked befuddled at him. “Why yes, yes I am indeed. Why do you ask?”
Do you know where my colleague here and myself might find lodging for the night? We are in quite the pickle here.”
The mare scratched her muzzle with her hoof. “I guess… I suppose you could try at the library. My friend who takes care of it lives there, and she has a couple of extra mattresses. Just walk straight down that street there until you see a big tree. Can’t miss it. Tell her Rarity sent you.”

“Thank you very much, Ms. Rarity. We are here to aid the two blockheads over there in their search for the missing filly… Applebloom, was it?”
“Oh, yes, horrible. I know her sister, Applejack. Poor thing is wrecked, although she doesn’t show it. A terrible tragedy, this. I hope she turns up alright. Ah, that has to be enough sadness for tonight. I am headed home to look after my little sister, Sweetie Belle, so unless you gentlecolts have anything else you want to ask me, I’ll be on my way.”
Dawn looked in the direction of Quartz before he spoke. “Only one thing, miss. Is it okay that one of us four drops by tomorrow and ask you a few more questions?”
She smiled as she started trotting away from them. “Of course, receiving any of you gentlecolts would be my pleasure. Farewell!”

As she trotted merrily down the street away from them, Dawn kneed a slack-jawed private Sailing in the ribs with his front leg. “What are you doing, private?”
This seemed to restore Sailing’s ability of speech. “Whoa… Whoa… Did you guys see that mare? Sweet Celestia! Dibs on that interview, totally! I mean, look a DAT RU-“ TOC!
The hit over the back of the helmet stopped his wordflow quickly. Dawn looked irate as he turned to the others. “Private Raff, tomorrow you will interview her. Private Sailing will go to the outlying farms to ask if anypony has seen the little filly. Lieutenant Quartz and I will deal with the town center. Have I made myself clear? Good. Now, Quartz, should we go find that library?”

As the two trotted along alone, Quartz was deep in thoughts about apple fritters when an exclamation from Dawn got his attention. He stopped and noticed Dawn had done the same. “You say something, Dawn?”
“Look up, you fool!”
He did. It took a few seconds for his mind to process the jaw-dropping tableau above him. A gigantic cumulus cloud, several miles high, towered in the sky while drifting slowly westwards. The sunset colored it in such a strong pinkish-red that it took almost half a minute for Quartz to spot the thousands of pastel-colored dots skipping around the cloud, apparently herding it along. Some of them seemed to shimmer, as if they were metal-clad. But what kind of sky creature would wear some kind of armo-

“Celestia! Those are pegasi?! There are so many…”
Dawn laughed. “Right you are, Mini! That’s the Cloudsdale cloud, headed for the rainstorm in the west. Took’em weeks to make just this one, and soon it will join together with more than two dozen others…”

The way Dawn’s tone changed from amused to melancholy made Quartz painfully aware of the two stumps where the pegasus’ wings had been. He decided now might be as good a time as any to ask about it.
“Uhm… Excuse me, Dawn, but whatever happened to your wings?”
The older stallion froze for a few seconds before speaking so low that Quartz could barely make out the words. “I’d rather not talk about that. There are certain things we would not like to revisit, eh, Quartz?”
“Uh, okay…?”	
“That’s a nice surname, Quartz. You know that? Having a miner in the family?”

Quartz was taken aback at this sudden change of tone. “Uh, probably far back somewhere…”
Dawn rolled his eyes. “Listen, “Quartz”, don’t ask about my incident, and I might not report you for being in violation of the recruitment regulation.”

Quartz’ eyes widened. “H-how… I mean, what are you talking about?”
“Don’t try to play fool with me. You were well informed at the recruitment office that you could not enter the Royal Guard without being a citizen from birth. Everyone gets that pretty little speech.”

Quartz tried to come up with an effective reply, but decided to resign. “*Sigh* Okay, you win, Dawn. How did you know?”
Dawn sighed and started to walk again, with Quartz following close behind“I used to be a melee training advisor for the Manehattan Police Department. Also got to assist ‘em in the occasional case, too. I got extremely good at picking up quirks. Your telling quirk was that your “r”s were a millisecond too long. I couldn’t tell if it was a speech defect when I first heard you, talking to that mare on the train. So I decided to make you angry in the hopes of finding out the truth. And jackpot! You yelled at me with a clear accent that does not resemble anything I’ve heard in Equestria.”

Quartz blushed, half out of anger, half out of shame. Luckily Dawn spared him a response. “Listen, Quartz, I won’t ask too many questions. I can see you are no traitor. Just tell me one thing. Does anypony else know about this?”
“Shining. I mean, captain Armor. He was just a corporal back then, but he did a day at the recruitment office to earn some overtime. He was the one who signed me up. Ever since he has acted as some sort of friend for me. I’m pretty sure he had a hoof in my acceptance into the officer school, as well.”

Dawn nodded sternly. They continued in silence until they reached the tree that housed the Ponyville library.

Quartz knocked. A few seconds later the two stallions could hear ruffling and shuffling from the inside, before a purple mare opened the door.
Quartz took on the stone-face of the Guard as his colleague had already done. “Good evening, miss. Lieutenants Quartz and Dawn from the Equestrian Royal Guard. We would like to…” He trailed off when he looked the mare in the eyes and realized he was seeing a familiar face. 

“Sparkle?” he said dumbfounded. “What are you doing out here in the boondocks?”
“D-Dusk?” was all the violet unicorn could say. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before she threw her front hooves around his neck and started crying into his coat.
Quartz was the only one more surprised than Dawn. “Okaaaay… That was… unexpected. What happened to the oh-so-serious Sparkle I knew?”

Dawn looked at them. “You two know each other?”
Quartz cast a worried glance down at the still sobbing unicorn. “Well, yes, sort of. I went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns three years above Sparkle here, but we never really talked until I joined the guard and were posted right inside the Royal Library. One day she was there studying for an exam in… err… What was it?”
“*Sniff* Spell improvisation. Dispositio, logos, faciéndam, memoria, actio and repetitio.” Twilight said as she finally let him go. Quartz noticed she had stopped crying, although her eyes were still red.

“Yeah.  That. She was really surprised that the guard at the door knew the answer to the questions she asked herself, but then again I did go to the same school, after all. We had several interesting conversations the two months I was posted there. Then she went away somewhere. I thought it was Manehattan or Los Pegasus, but I suppose it was here, then…”
He was pleased to see that Twilight had regained her composure enough to give them a small smile. He decided to try again to speak directly to her.

“Uh, we… were sorta looking for a place to sleep for the night, and a mare called… Rarity, was it, Dawn? Well, she told us you had some extra mattresses, so we kinda… uhm…”
Dawn raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in the speech of the usually eloquent stallion, but Twilight luckily understood. “Why, of course! Come in, you must be freezing with this cold gale coming through! I’ll light the fireplace and make some hot chocolate, just come right in.”

Quartz nodded and stepped inside, but Dawn grimaced and massaged his left wing stump with a hoof. “Could you two excuse me for a while? I need some painkillers.”
Twilight nodded. “Sure. There is a pharmacy just down that alley and ‘round the corner to the right.”
“Thanks a million, Ms… what did you say it was, Quartz?”
Twilight shot in before he could answer. “Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle.”

A few seconds later Twilight was lighting the fire in the fireplace with a whiff of magic while at the same time moving various kitchen objects around to make hot chocolate, still with magic. The two ponies themselves were sitting next to fireplace and watching the glow spread. Quartz was impressed. “Wow, Sparkle, you have really improved! I have barely learned any new spells the last couple years, but you must have practiced to be doing that without even looking!”
Twilight smiled. “Thank you, but please, Qua- Dusk, call me Twilight. I’ve already used your first name two times, and it would be awkward if we went on like this.”
“Well, okay then, Twilight. I must say, you see to have become quite sociable compared to how you used to be, all locked up in the Ivory Tower when you weren’t at school.”
“Why thank you, Dusk! My stay here has been a great learning experience, if somewhat lacking in ponies interested in the same things as I. You know, just here a few months ago I performed for delegates from Saddle Arabia to the Princess! “
“Really? A shame I didn’t get to meet them or at least some of their travelling companions. I have so many questions…”
Twilight looked dreamy for a moment. “You know, Dusk, I had a magical duel beforehand.”
“Seriously? With who?”
“Trixie Lulamoon, a travelling showpony. I… had… sort of embarrassed her a couple of years ago, shortly after my arrival here. She had now procured no less than the Ancient Alicorn Amulet to defeat me…” Twilight went on to recount the story of how she had beat Trixie through trickery.

As the story ended, Quartz was intrigued. “This amulet you speak of… do you have it? Can I see it?”
Twilight looked worried for a moment, but nodded and went over to a shelf to retrieve a small wooden case. Quartz removed his helmet with magic to see better as she placed the case in front of him. She opened it to reveal the metallic amulet. Quartz for some reason felt a shiver go down his spine, but he carefully lifted it out with magic to examine it more closely.

“Fascinating,” he exclaimed as he flipped and turned the amulet slowly in the soft glow of the fireplace, “it does not resemble any design I’m familiar with, and you know I always was interested in magical objects. The lines are too straight for it to be Equestrian, but the metal is of too high quality to be Zebrican or Griffonian… Prance, maybe? Or somewhere outside our knowledge altogether?”

The academic tone caused Twilight to merrily join in in the observation of the amulet. “Hmm… I had a look at it earlier. Appears to be a rather simple, reusable design, though, Dusk. This is no magical battery. I think… I think it draws excess magical energy into the metal from the skin of the wearer, and then the energy is channeled into the focusing crystal there in the middle. It then sends the energy in pulses through the nervous system into the brain and horn, judging by the way Trixie reacted. That might also explain why she became more aggressive, the increased neural activity would trigger growth of the amount of neural connections in the areas of the brain where the energy travelled through, most likely the areas controlling aggression and dominant behavior…”

They went on discussing the properties of the amulet for a minute or so longer until something suddenly struck Quartz. “Wait, Twilight? If the amulet is a simple amplifier, why is it humming as if it contained a magical charge?”
Twilighted hoisted an eyebrow, but put her horn close enough to the amulet that she could too feel the weak vibrations in the magical field of the object.
“It is probably nothing Dusk, just the anti-removal spell.”’

He turned it and looked at it from behind. “No, that sits in the chain. It looks more like it comes from… the eye…”
He dropped the amulet into his hoof and held it close to his eye to examine the tiny red gemstone. “I wonder…” He put his horn to the the tiny stone. 
Nothing happened. Well, it had been worth a t- 
aegisaegisaegisAegisAEGISgottofindsomwheretohideafraidnomustgivemessage SIGMA EPSILON BETA EPSILON RHO THETA EPSILON CHI OMIKRON RHO DELTA KAPPA IOTA LAMDA LAMDA THETA EPSILON BETA EPSILON SIGMA SIGMA EPSILON LAMDA does this work now testing. Testing. Ah, there we go.
Loyal member of the Herd;
If you give this amulet to Lord Skuggfaxi, he will see to it that you are rewarded thousandfold. Please refrain from receiving the rest of the message; it is not meant for your mind, and the Lord will decide whether or when you will hear it legally. Thank you for your cooperation.

Lord Skuggfaxi;
This is Scorpio. Our operation to capture Councillor Ty has backfired horribly. Aquarius and Libra are both dead, and so is the Councillor. The old stallion did reveal details about the Prophecy before his passing, though. I am afraid I must be the harbinger of news most dreadful. Not only were our fears indeed founded, but the truth far exceeds our worst expectations. They will indeed allow Its return, dooming our race, but this apocalyptic scenario will also destroy the way of life for the puny sub-equines who live in blissful ignorance of our existence. You must move to stop it by dealing with the Vessel in the manner I told you in the beginning of this message before it is too late. You might wish to try to enlist the help of Skinfaxi, or Celestia as the sub-equines call her. She knows the land and has not been in contact with the poisonous influence of the Council since the Day the Sky Burned. 
I am afraid I’ll have to cut this thought recording short. The Emperor’s stallions are on my back. I have arranged for this amulet to be brought to the land of Equestria by a merchant I have instructed to never sell it to anypony who does not bear a similar token. Shortly I will leave it with him, so I can turn and face my enemies. I know my sacrifice will not be in vain, even though my powers will be weaker without the amulet. These fools will learn what it means to take on a pure-bred alicorn!
I will now give you the identity of the Vessel, as described by the Councillor. Just in case, it will be in code:
6-9-11-90-100-9-57-38-9-37 
Key:
When I felt compelled to seek to consider the short spark of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, -memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis - , the little space I fill on this day, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of space of which I am ignorant, living in the night, and which knows me not, I were frightened, and were astonished at being here rather than there, why now rather than then? Who placed me here? By the order and leadership of who was this place and this time granted me? What unites me with other creatures? Now I know the answer, and it sickens me.
Servant of the Herd in life and death;
Scorpio
Vivat Armento
…
Whoa! What was that? Never mind, with this amulet, I, Trixie, will reclaim my title as great and powerfu-

“Dusk? Are you alright? You have been staring into space for about two minutes now!” The violent shaking of Twilight Sparkle rattled Quartz out of his trance.
“Ugh. I’m okay, Twilight.” he groaned. “Just some dusty old recorded message. Seems your friend Trixie got it, too. The message was quite disturbing, though, something about codes Do me a favor and keep that thing safe. It feels… evil.”
“Hmm… maybe I should ask and show the Princess. I’ll send her a letter telling her I’m coming in a few days. SPIKE! Get down here and take a letter for me, would you?!”

Quartz smiled as the baby dragon showed up and gave him a surprised, almost scared look. He decided to say something to the air to calm him down while he wrote the message that Twilight just had given him. “Spike’s doing fine, I see?”
Twilight whinnied. “Yes. He is a good friend and assistant…”
From the word friend her mood seemed to drop again.

“Listen, Dusk, I am sorry about the whole crying thing back at the porch. I have just felt so lonely with all these disappearances that any familiar face is like a rock…
“Of course it is okay, I under- wait, did you say disappearance-s?”
Just at that moment the front door slammed open. A distressed-looking Dawn appeared to be the guilty while a crème colored mare Quartz recalled as Sweetie Drops from the train tripped nervously around at his side. Dawn looked him in the eye before he spoke. “There is a problem, Quartz. There have been more disappearances …”

> Lost Souls chapter 3-4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lost Souls - Part II

Chapter 3: Light Breeze

RE: POSSIBLE DISAPPEARANCES
CONTINUE INVESTIGATION STOP
CONTACT MPD IF VIOLENT ACTS ARE BELIEVED TO BE INVOLVED STOP
SUGGESTED THAT YOU VISIT MAYOR FOR ARCHIVE ACCESS STOP
GOOD LUCK [MESSAGE END]

“Bad news, sir?” The telegraph office clerk looked worried at the frowning Royal Guard in front of his desk.	
Second lieutenant Winter Dawn looked up. “Possibly. Thanks, anyway.” He threw a couple of bits at the counter.

Outside the bright May sun spread its radiant shine across the hills surrounding Ponyville. Dawn’s gaze fell on the two ponies chatting by a picket fence across the road. He went over to them.
“Seriously? You were involved the Discord incident last year? And the reappearance of the Crystal Empire? Next thing, you’re going to tell me you and your friends somehow had a hoof in the return of Princess Lu-“
Dawn smacked his tongue to catch the attention of the guard. Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz stopped mid-sentence and turned away from the purple unicorn he had been talking to.

“Oh, hey Dawn, Twilight here was just telling me ‘bout-“Quartz was distracted once more, this time by a few strands of his grey-white plume falling down in front of his eyes. Dawn went for the opening.
“That is no doubt very interesting Mini, but we’ve got to go see the mayor about those disappearances Drops told me about. I’m sorry, Ms. Sparkle, but I’ve got to borrow him for a few hours.”
Twilight nodded understandingly and bade them farewell.

The two stallions started trotting in the direction of the central plaza of the little town.
“What happened to Raff and Sailing? Where’d they go off to?” inquired Dawn. 
“I sent the privates to interview the guests from somepony named Pokey Pierce’s party. Apparently the last thing Bon Bo-, sorry, Drops, heard from Lyra Heartstrings was that she was going there one of the evening while Drops was away. And here’s where it gets interesting: the party was the same night our little filly went missing.”
“Hmm… interesting indeed…”

“What’d the telegram say?” The question was innocent enough, but Quartz’ inquiring tone had a ring of curiosity to it that contrasted it greatly from the slightly disinterested professional tone they had kept so far. Dawn looked at his partner for a second. His blue eyes had given an impression of naiveté when they first met on the train, but now he could see that they had a… twinkle, of sorts. These weren’t the eyes of an up-and coming more-brawns-than-brains hooflicker, but focused eyes that seemed to hint at a cold and calculating intelligence working behind them. Dawn blinked a couple of times and remembered what he was doing.

“That we were to continue our search. Captain Armor answered personally, it seems. He suggested that we go see the mayor to ask her about these disappearances. The town must keep some tabs on what ponies suddenly do not turn up to work or at home one day and remain as such for weeks.”

A few minutes later they arrived at the town hall, a somewhat imposing building compared to the low houses around, despite the dolled-up design.
Dawn raised an eyebrow as they entered the small foyer on the ground floor. “Mini, stay here. I’ll head up the mayor’s office. Try to find out where the archives are, would you?”
He started walking up the staircase on the other side of the room without looking back to see if Quartz nodded.

Dawn approached the female secretary sitting behind a small desk outside an important-looking office door on the second floor. “Excuse me, but is this the office of the Ponyville mayor? I would like to have a quick chat with her about some reported disappearances, if it is not too much hassle.”
The secretary gave him a smile. “Naturally, sir. I’ll ask if she has the time on her hooves.”

She opened the door next to her just enough to poke her head through. “Excuse me, ma’am, but there’s a gentlecolt from the Royal Guard who wishes to speak with you about some disappearances here. Do you- Yes, I see, naturally, Mrs. Mayor, of course.”
She turned towards Dawn with a fake smile. “I’m afraid the mayor is presently indisposed. She is busy… drawing up plans for… home development near the Everfree Forest. She’ll be busy with that and town council meetings for the next few weeks. Do you wish me to set you up for an appointment in June?”
“I’ll skip. Have a nice day.” he replied in a cold voice, before turning and going down the stairs again.

Quartz noticed the frown on his companion’s face as soon as it came into view. “No luck, Dawn?”
“Nope. Refuses to see me. Now how are we supposed to get into the archive?”
Quartz thought for a few seconds. “I have an idea. See that mare over there, by the side door? She’s gonna bring some accounting documents to the archive, or at least that’s what she told that clerk over there,” he pointed with a hoof to a light gray stallion fumbling with some drawer, “and he’s gonna find’er the keys. However, she’s been ogling me whenever she thinks I don’t look, which gives me an idea for a plan!”
“What is it, Mini?”

Quartz told him. He braced for the inevitable TOC! of having a hoof hitting him over the helmet, but strangely enough it never happened. He opened his eyes. Dawn looked pleased.
“Hmm, that just might work, Quartz, but we’ll need a small, quick and agile pony for the task. For example a minor.”
Quartz smiled for himself at the fact that he wasn’t called “Mini”, but answered the question out loud. “I might just know somepony we can use! Stay here.”

Luckily the orange filly appeared to not have broken any bones from her roof-jumping the day before. Quartz found her dragging a mattress in place under the edge of the same roof, indicating that she might have been planning to do the same thing again.
“Hey, kid!”
“Hmmm?” The orange filly hardly paid attention to him.
“What’s your name?” 
The filly stopped and looked at him, mattress corner still in mouth. “Scftfoo…”
She spat out the mattress. “Scotaloo, at your service!”
“Well, Scootaloo, are you fast?”
Scootaloo puffed her chest out. “Fastest in Ponyville! Well, except Rainbow Dash. And Applejack…” She looked down. “And I’m not a great flier…”
Quartz gave her a grin. “That doesn’t matter. Hey, Scootaloo, are you interested in earning fifty bits?”
Her widening pupils and raised eyebrows answered the question long before her mouth formed the words.

Golden Harvest placed the final documents in the folder. She sighed. Ponyville should really have hired someone to do this. Having to place her own land tax receipt in the archive… it would have been laughably easy to simply… She banished the thought from her mind. She was not that kind of pony. 
She went back out the door into the foyer. 
Now, what do we have here?
As she had been about to close the door somepony had leaned onto it. It was the young stallion in the Guard armor from earlier, now without his helmet. She loved unif-
“Excuse me, miss, but are you from around these parts?”
She was startled for a moment before she realized she had just been staring. She tried to suppress a blush. “I.. yeah, umm… yes?”

For Celestia’s sake, Golden, pull together!

She thought she heard a swish behind her, but a hoof on her shoulder kept her from turning around to look. 
The stallion pulled her closer and looked her directly in the eye. She felt like the blue eyes stared into her rather than on her.
“While I am sure a good-looking mare as you yourself is so busy, I would really like to ask you some questions…”
Golden Harvest felt a tingle of excitement in the pit of her stomach. Again she heard a swish, but this time she didn’t even try to turn. She brushed her mane away from her face and batted her eyelids in a way she hoped looked sensual.
“It would my pleasure, Mr…?”
“Quartz. Dusk Quartz.”

She opened her mouth to say something in response, but was interrupted right after presenting herself by a middle-aged… pegasus? He appeared to have had his wings cut clean off near the root.  He wore a similar uniform to Dusk, only with a blue plume and tail coloring instead of Dusk’s grey-white.
“Quartz. I need to see you right away. If it was okay with the miss, we’ll drop by later.” The beige stallion gave her a nod.
Dusk nodded understandingly. “Sorry, Ms. Dawn, we’ll come see you later today.”

Quartz left a confused- and hurt-looking Golden Harvest to close the door to the archive. He met up with Dawn and an eager Scootaloo in the opposite corner of the room. Dawn beamed towards him and handed him his helmet.
“Magnificent job, Quartz! You held her eye like a boa hypnotizing its prey!”
Quartz frowned. “Maybe so, but this boa feels horrible about it.”
“Chin up, Quartz, it was for the greater good. And Scootaloo here got what we were after.”
The orange filly grinned and extended a file marked “Disappearances”. “Right under D, as you said it would be, mister!”
Quartz took it and started flipping through the pages, looking for the right year.

Dawn gave Scootaloo a small bag of coins. “There you go. Don’t spend it all at once, or your parents will tell something is amiss!”
Scootaloo made a move which was probably meant to resemble a curtsy, and took off out the front door.
Dawn turned towards Quartz. Quartz was staring at a page in the file, silent. 
“Err… Quartz, you okay? You look sort of pale…”
Quartz handed him the file without a word. Dawn looked at the open page. “Oh, paint me white and call me Celestia…”

The door to the mayor’s office flew open with a bang as it hit the wall. The secretary slipped herself into the doorway in front of the two brutish guards. “Sirs, please, you cannot enter without an appointment!”
The older guard pushed her aside. “Under the criminal authority of the Royal Guard I suspend all her current appointments and demand an immediate audience. Now, with all due respect, miss, please return to your desk or we’ll be forced to apprehend you for obstruction of justice. Have I made myself clear?”
The secretary gave a weak nod and stepped aside.

The mayor winced behind her desk. She felt like sinking into her chair.
The younger of the two closed the door and leaned towards it, as if to block an escape route. The mayor swallowed audibly.
The oldest stallion slammed his front hooves onto her desk. He looked furious. She tried to ignore the all-to-familiar file folder under his right hoof and instead put on a brave show.
“Can- Can I help you, sirs?” Her nervous grin felt woefully inadequate when confronted with the anger of the stallion in front of her.

“Help us? HELP us? Well, as a start you can tell us what THE HAY IS GOING ON HERE?!”
“I- I’m afraid I don’t understand…”
“Oh, you do, I’m certain. We were dispatched here to help you look for some missing filly, but within HOURS of our arrival I am approached by a local mare who tells me her friend is missing and that there are rumors more are? And when I today try to pay you a visit to ask you about the matter I am rejected with some asinine excuse? And finally, when we at last do get archive access, we find that there have been no less than… How many, Quartz?” He looked towards the stallion leaning towards the door.

“Thirty-six. Thirty-eight if you count Applebloom Apple and Lyra Heartstrings.”
The older stallion turned back towards the mayor.
“…Thirty freaking eight disappearances over the last three years, from a town of only a thousand or so ponies? And at no time during this process did you or anypony in town management figure it might be wise to report this upwards? So, I ask you again: What. The. Hay. Is. Going. ON?” He punctuated each word by slamming his right front hoof onto her desk.
The mayor shook all over. She felt an incredible urge to roll into a little ball in a corner.

“S-sorry, b-but as ma-mayor I am not at liberty to discuss town issues with-without an of-official-URK!”
The stallion had hooked her collar with his hoof and pulled her so close to his face that only she could hear his irate whisper.
“Mayor Mare, if you do not immediately give us unrestricted access to all available information, I’ll personally see to it that you are removed from office on a misconduct charge, and that you never, ever, have any shot at rising to a public office above that of mayor of some unremarkable backwater town that nobody gives a flying feather about! Have I made myself clear?”
She nodded her head furiously.
“Excellent,” he exclaimed in a normal voice as he let her collar go. “Now, tell us everything”.

“Turns out they hired a private detective after the fourth disappearance, a Twist something. The detective found nothing, I’m afraid, so the town council decided to simply hush it down and pretend it didn’t happen in order to not frighten the populace.”
Twilight scratched the back of her mane and looked at Quartz. “Oh? Seems strange…”
Quartz took a deep sip of his iced tea. “Ah-hah. We’ll ask Canterlot to clamp down on ‘er just in case. Can’t have a mayor risking the lives of her townsponies to avoid bad publicity.”
Twilight nodded silently and made a melancholy glance at the café they were sitting outside. She was worried about what this meant for her friends and herself. The purple unicorn spun her glass of ice tea for each sip, as she used to do when distracted.

“Do you- do you think something criminal is going on, Dusk?”
Quartz opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by private Sailing, who had emerged from the café. “Lieutenant! Lieutenant, I think I might have something, but I need your help!”
Quartz rolled his eyes and stood up. “Yes, what is it now, Sailing?”
“The waiter, I think he might have seen that Heartstrings mare, but his accent… I have trouble understanding it.”
“Excuse me, Twilight, I’ll be back in a moment.” Quartz sighed.

Hors d’Oeuvre twitched his hooves nervously. The stone-faced armored stallion came back with another one in an almost similar suit and with a similar facial expression. He had seen armored stallions like them before at events involving the princesses. Had he offended somepony important? Were they going to deport him back to Prance? The first of the stallions looked at him.
“Okay, Mr… Duvr, please explain lieutenant Quartz here what you told me.”
Hors swallowed. “I… uh… messieurs, I… err… she… zees mare…”
The new stallion interrupted him. “Nous pouvons prendre cela en français, si vous préférez, monsieur…»
Hearing his own language made Hors feel like a wave of confidence swept over him.
“ Vous n'allez pas me déporter?]”
The stallion shook his head and smiled.
“Non, bien sûr que non. Dites-moi ce que vous avez vu.”

“I had no idea you spoke French, sir?” Sailing raised an eyebrow as the exited the café.
Quartz smiled. “An elective subject at the SGU. Luckily I was good at it.”
“What did he say? I hardly understood a word of that la-la nonsense…”
“He said he had seen the missing mare, Lyra Heartstrings, pass by here four nights ago, just as he was about to cl- Oh, hey, Dawn! We have a ‘last seen’ time on Lyra Heartstrings.”
Winter Dawn was standing over by Twilight’s table with private Raff and a yellow pegasus earing a blue shirt Quartz recognized as the Wonderbolts’ off-duty uniform. Sailing had apparently noticed too, because he whispered “Wonderbolts? ‘Pretentious-bolts’, more like. Self-righteous bastards all of ‘em…”

Dawn didn’t seem to pay heed to the two of them. He rather looked immersed in what Twilight was talking to the pegasus about.
“… so, no, I’m afraid I haven’t seen Rainbow for weeks, Spitfire.”
Dawn finally turned towards Quartz and Sailing with a worried look. 
“Quartz, Sailing, meet Spitfire, current lead of the Wonderbolts. We know each other from a couple years back. I met her now on my way back from retrieving Raff from Rarity’s shop. She… well, you can tell them yourself, Spit.”
The yellow pegasus looked at them. “One of our aspiring Bolts, Rainbow Dash, head of weather control in this town, never showed up to one of our sessions. Because I… owe her a favor, I came here myself to look for her. But, as you heard from Twilight Sparkle here, she’s not here either, apparently.”
Quartz’ expression reflected the worried look on Dawn’s face. They looked at each other.
“Thirty-nine?”
Dawn nodded with a grim expression. 
“Thirty-nine.”

Chapter 4: Breeze

“A quarter past ten, I am sure.”
“You are certain, Mr.  Pierce?”
“Yes, I looked at the clock minutes before she left.”
“Well, then we’ll be in contact with you if we need you any further.Thank you for your cooperation.” The white pegasus guard closed his notebook. He walked over to his three colleagues. 
“Pokey Pierce says Heartstrings left his party at quarter past ten. Matches with the time you provided, sir.”
Quartz was pleased that that private Raff was warming up. He had hardly said a word the day before. The fact that Sailing, the usually more talkative of the two privates, was currently in a sour mood, might have been part of the reason. The swollen blue eye he had gotten during the interview with Golden Harvest had sent him into a fit of moping.
“Excellent, job… What are your first names, anyway?”
“Riff.” said private Raff.
“Smooth…” murmured his comrade.
Dawn laughed out loud. “Smooth, eh? Well, you gotta work to live up that name, son, or you’ll keep getting ‘gifts’ to your face like you  did back there with that mare!”

Quartz held up a hoof to stop Smooth Sailing’s angry reply. “Focus, everypony. Listen, quick recap of what we have learned so far today: there is a large number of missing ponies, but at the present, the only cases fresh enough to be viable to pursue are those of Lyra Heartstrings, the missing filly Applebloom, and possibly a weather control pony by the name of Rainbow Dash. Guests at Poky Pierce’s party, as well as an eyewitness, Hors d’Oeuvre, confirm that Heartstrings most likely disappeared within the town center somewhere between 22.15 and 22.30. Sailing, I want that info to appear in the Ponyville Express tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will lure out more eyewitnesses. Don’t mention more than you must on the total number of appearances. Say we are looking into a ‘couple’ of related cases. Raff, did you say that Rarity pony knew nothing of the Heartstrings case?”

Private Raff nodded with a stern look on his face.
“Well, I want you back there to look into the Dash case. Twilight told us they were friends. Dawn and I’ll head up to another friend of hers, a certain ‘Fluttershy’. Understood, everypony?”
The two privates gave a unison “Yes sir!” , while Dawn nodded.
“Good. Raff, meet us at the Sweet Apple Acres farm at sixteen-hundred hours, and then at twenty-hundred hours we’ll all rendezvous here. Any questions?”

Sailing slowly raised a hoof. 
“Yeah, Sailing?”
“Sir, I would appreciate it if you did not piss off any more dames before I am to talk to them. I can’t make them… comfortable if you have angered them first, as my eye evidences…”
Quartz rolled his eyes. “At least that eye made you take those silly sunglasses off… But that is noted, private. Anything else, anypony? No? Good. Let’s get going, it is Sunday today, and I promised a sergeant to be back by Tuesday, so chop-chop!” He smacked his tongue twice to speed up the separation.
Dawn closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his forehead, before he and Quartz started walking towards the Everfree forest.

“What did you say the pony we’re seeing was called again?” Dawn asked Quartz as they trotted.
Quartz looked into a small notebook he had bought earlier the same day.
“Fluttershy… something, I didn’t write down the surname. Local animal shelter administrator, licensed but not practicing veterinarian…  Huh, probably a middle-aged hag. Why don’t you use your grizzled charm to-“ DONK! “Ouch! What the hay is this thing?”
While he was looking down he had trotted right into something that looked disturbingly like a giant jar.
“Looks like a giant jar.” Dawn ingeniously remarked.
“Whoa, that was a clever one, Sherclop… But why is there a giant jar here in the middle of the street?”
“It’s not a jar, it’s a tub!”
“Huh? Who said that?” Quartz scanned up and down the quiet street, to no avail.
“Me, you fool!”

He looked up. A head had appeared over the top of the… tub.
“It is a tub, not jar! A tub of jelly!” The grey stallion made a strange smile before descending back into the jelly.
Dawn scratched the back of his helmet. “What in Celestia’s name…?”
A flash of light shattered the side of the tub. A very confused-looking stallion covered in blue jelly came sailing out on top of a small wave of the same material.

The stallion sat up on his hindquarters and looked towards the smashed tub. “You… you monsters! My tub! How could you do such a-“
“GET DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW! PLACE YOUR HOOVES ABOVE YOUR HEAD!” Quartz yelled, his horn glowing with a golden hue just a few hoofwidths from the stallion’s face.
The stallion complied, only to have his face pushed into the mud by Quartz’ hoof.
“You are under arrest! Where is the kid?! WHERE ARE THE BODIES?!”
A gasp suddenly made Quartz aware they were being watched. There were ponies standing on their porches and in their windows, observing the spectacle in the street.

“Err… I mean… Nothing to see here, everypony, please go back inside!”
He felt a hoof on his shoulder.
“Quartz, what Celestia’s good name are you doing?”
He turned towards Dawn. “Can’t you see this must be our stallion? He lives in a giant jar-“
“Mfubb” it came from under his hoof.
“Sorry, a giant tub of jelly. He is clearly crazy, and he loiters near the place where Heartstrings disappeared. Du-uh…”
Dawn facehoofed. “You have only insinuations, Quartz. You can’t just go about arresting ponies because they are different. Now leave that poor stallion alone!”
Quartz begrudgingly stepped off the stallion.

Dawn shooed him on, and turned his head towards the grey stallion as he followed.
“My apologies, sir. You can mail the Equestrian Royal Guard at Canterlot Gardens 3c for compensation for your… tub.”
The pair of guards quickly trotted away from the scene before the stallion could realize he was angry.

Fluttershy’s “house”, a cottage apparently built into a small mound, lay on the edge of a forest Twilight Sparkle had called “Everfree”. As the two stallions approached, they could hear a soft tune being sung from somewhere ahead.
“Now where can that be coming from?” Dawn wondered out loud.

Quartz thought it was coming from the garden next to the tree. He looked around the corner, and was treated to the sight of the most incredible mare he had ever seen.
Dawn followed his gaze. “Oh, hello there, miss. Are you Fluttershy? We would like to-“
“Eeep!” The yellow pegasus ducked into the bush she had been tending to.
Dawn raised an eyebrow. “Okaaay… Quartz, have a look around the property, would you? I think this will require tact, something you obviously lack…”

Quartz hesitated, but the TOC! of a hoof hitting him over the helmet helped him resist the urge to pull the pegasus out 
of the bush and give her a hug, instead sending him trotting towards Fluttershy’s shed.
Dawn looked back towards the bush and tried again. “Please, miss, I am not here to arrest you. I just want to ask you some questions about your friend Rainbow Dash so we can find her…”

The door of the shed creaked open. Quartz tried to adjust his eyesight to the low-light conditions by rubbing them with his hoof.
He stepped over the sill. Nothing. Just darkness. He fumbled around for a light switch, but…
“Ouch!” He had cut himself on something sharp.
He suddenly went silent when he heard a clicking noise from his right. The sound came with regular intervals, as if something was walking around in there with him. He reached with his hoof towards the source of the sound. It sunk into something soft and warm.
“What in Celestia’s name…”

He lit a small light on the tip of his horn and moved it towards the soft spot. His eyes shot open. “Would you look at that…”
The cat stretched and looked hazily towards the new light source. A dozen or so little heads popped out from under the belly he was touching.

Quartz scratched the cat behind its ear.
“That’s a good mom. Who’s a goo-“
“Fluttershy? Is that you?”
He instinctively placed his right hooves behind his left ones and made a rapid parade spin by pivoting around the right hooves.

In the doorway there was a pile of scrolls that hadn’t been there before. The pile appeared to hover a few hoofwidths above the ground. It took a few seconds before Quartz’ brain made the logical connections.
“Oh, hi Twilight! Spike’s still doing alright, I see. Was he asleep when we came last night?”
“Dusk? Yes, he was asleep, but how come you are h- Move Spike! Go back to the library. I’ll come look over the checklists later.”
The pile of scrolls murmured something and disappeared off to the left on a pair of purple dragon legs.

Quartz stepped back out in the daylight. A somewhat tired-looking Twilight met him. 
“Dusk, what are you doing here?”
“Oh, we’re just asking Fluttershy over there some questions about the disappearances, and I thought I’d check the shed for any clues…”
“Fluttershy is a suspected foalnapper?” Twilight laughed out loud. “Now that was something I’d never expected to hear…”
“Twilight, you know as well as we do that this might very likely be a criminal case we are dealing with here. If that is the case, we have to suspect everypony.”
“What? Even me, Fluttershy and Spike?”
“Well, Spike is a lethal destruction machine in spe, after all…”
They looked at each other for a second before bursting into laughter simultaneously.

“Oooh… Haha… No, seriously, Dusk, I need your help.”
Twilight’s sudden change of tone to a sad one caused Quartz to stop laughing as well.
“Yeah, Twilight? What is it?”
“I… with all these disappearances… my friends… I just want to… I wanna… I feel terrible, but…”
She started crying. Quartz gave a soft sigh. He lifted her chin with a hoof and looked her in the eyes.
“Don’t cry, Twilight. I promise we will find your friend and the others. The sadness will not help. I myself have had ponies I care about in need…”

Twilight sniffled and met his gaze. “What happened to them?”
Suddenly images flashed over Quartz’ retina; charred bodies, mouths agape in silent pain, the sneers of the withdrawn lips and the empty stares…
“Err… An… accident. They, uh, got through alright. Living up in, eh, Vanhoover at the moment.”
Twilight pushed away his hoof, but she looked less forlorn now. 
“Thank you for sharing that.”
“It’s nothing. Chin up, girl, this will turn out okay!”
He hoped.

“So, what are you doing here, Twilight?”
The two of them were walking up to Fluttershy’s house, were the owner was standing in the doorway chatting with Dawn, finally.
“Oh, I just wanted to have some tea with Fluttershy and talk about all that’s going on. Hey, how’s my brother, anyway? I’ve been trying to remember to ask you.”
Quartz thought for a moment. “He seemed okay last I spoke with him, but that was over a month ago. I’m up for a promotion, so we don’t want to be seen together in case ponies start talking, you know...”
Twilight nodded. “I’m sure he is happy. Well, here we are!” They stopped a few steps nehind Dawn. Twilight kept speaking. “I might be late tonight, by the way don’t stay up for me. I have to make a quick trip over to the next town to buy a book on ancient amulets. I’ve mailed the one we looked at to the Princess. I’ll probably head up to Canterlot the day after tomorrow to look at with her, and I will need to do some research beforehand. I promise to be back home before midnight, though.”
“Good luck with that, Ms. Sparkle.”

Both of them turned startled towards the approaching Winter Dawn, who had spoken. He patted Quartz on the back signaling him to walk with him.
“We need to get to Sweet Apple Acres, Quartz. This Fluttershy knew little of interest, I’m afraid, soooo we’ll try the filly’s family. Any luck looking around?”
“Nope. Nothing pertaining to the case, at least.”
“Huh. Let’s hope talking to the family will be easy and enlightening, then.”

“Y’all want me to what?” 
Private Raff raised a hoof. “Please, miss, it is in order to ease our investigation. You are a little… intrusive at times, and-“
“Intrusive? Intrusive?! Ah’ll show ya how intrusive mah hoof feels when it is nudged up in yer-“
“Up his what, miss?”
Raff turned relieved to the familiar rumbling voice of second lieutenant Dawn. He was coming up the road they were standing on.
“A thousand pardons, sir. I’m just trying to tell Ms. Apple here that-“
Dusk Quartz came up to Dawn’s side. “Is there a problem here, private Raff?”
Raff clicked his hooves and saluted. Quartz noticed he had not done it for Dawn. 

Well, I guess that makes me an authority figure, at least. Am I really scarier than old No-Wings over there?

Raff started speaking, looking at the air about a hoofwidth over Quartz’ eyes.
“Sir, I was awaiting you here as per your instructions, sir, when Ms. Apple here started bugging me. She’s been all up in Smooth’s and mine faces ever since the search was called over. I just told her that she might want to go to some relatives elsewh-“
Quartz  pushed him aside and walked up to the orange-coated mare he had been talking with.

She looked him in straight in the eye, apparently furious. Quartz did not look away, neither, opting instead to wear the standard stone-faced expression of the Guard.
“Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz, Equestrian Royal Guard, Third Regiment, and temporary co-commander of this stallion here. Who are you and why are you harassing our privates?”
The mare still did not flinch.
“Y’all can call me Applejack, not that fancy-pansy miss thing y’all seem to have going on. It happens to be mah little sister that’s missin’, and from what Ah’ve been hearing, one of mah friends might be missin‘ as well. And Ah have had it up to here with yer guards sitting around on their rumps collecting their pay from our tax money while not doing a darn thing to help find mah little sis’!”

She looked like she would keep her tirade going, but a red stallion had jumped the fence around the apple tree orchard down the road, catching her attention. Quartz guessed he was related to her. 
“Dawn, handle this, would you? I’ll have a chat with that guy once he gets over here.”

“So you have not seen neither Lyra Heartstrings nor Rainbow Dash for several weeks?
The guard looked at Big McIntosh, who thoughtfully chewed on a straw.
“Ehm… Nope?”
“But what about your sister? Applebloom, was it?”
Big Mac could not suppress a pained look at the thought of his sister being alone and scared.
“Applebloom… She was playin’ with her friends after comin’ home from school that day. She seemed all normal that morning, Ah swear. She was supposed to buy some flour on her way home, but… Nnnope…”
The guard noted something down in a little book and looked up again.
“So you did enjoy those absolutely wonderful parties of the gracious Mrs. Orange, did you?”
The two stallions looked confused at each other before turning towards Applejack and the older guard. Her accent had been so different, having a strong upper-crust Manehattan accent with a clear sarcastic ring to it, that Big Mac had not realized it was his sister speaking, at first.

The older guard gave them a sheepish look. “I… uh… turns out I knew her aunt and uncle from my time in Manehattan. She’s apparently spent some time there too…”
The brown unicorn guard rolled his eyes and turned to Big Mac again.
“What was the names of these two friends of her?”
“Sweetie Belle and Scotaloo. They go to the Ponyville school, if y’all need to talk to ‘em.”
The guard raised an eyebrow at the mention of Scootaloo, but jotted the names down in his notebook.

“Thank you very much, mister. One last question, if I may; have you ever considered joining the Guard? A stallion of your build would have a breeze passing selection…”
“Uhm… Nnope?”
The guard, only slightly shorter than Big Mac, looked him in the eyes as if to say something more, but suddenly turned his head.
“Miss, don’t make me have private Raff restrain you!”
Big Mac sighed when he saw his sister shaking the older guard violently.

Dawn used his right front hoof to fend off the irate mare.
“Please, I just meant that we would have an easier time finding your sister if you let us do our job in peace- ouch!”
Applejack had slapped him with her hoof. She briefly switched to the Manehattan accent again.
“Oh, so the gentlecolts cannot handle a little lady, is that it? Ah’m gonna-“
Quartz skid in between them, horn glowing and pointed at Applejack.
“Last warning, Applejack, or I will be forced to restrain you!”
“Y’all dare threaten me? Why don’t you go and- *Urk* Big Maaac! What in Equestria are ya doing? Let me go!”
The brawny red stallion had simply picked her up with his teeth by the skin of her neck. Applejack’s hooves were flailing ineffectually.  Big McIntosh looked upset.
“Nnnope!”
“Let… me… go!”
“Nnnope!”

Quartz whinnied exasperatedly and turned towards Raff, who had been staying in the background for the last minutes.
“I agree with your initial assessment, Raff. Would you please escort Applejack here on a train to… err… mister, does your sister have any relatives that can be reached in under a day but who live too far away for her to walk home?”
Big Mac nodded, shaking his sister around.
“Eeyup! In Appleloosa!”
“Good. Take her to Appleloosa, would you, Raff? We’ll see you tomorrow.”
Raff saluted and trotted off with Big McIntosh towards the farmhouse on top of a nearby hill. The latter was still carrying a flailing Applejack.

Dawn turned impressed to Quartz. The younger second lieutenant had acted with all the bearing of an officer, decisive, swift and formal. The contrast to the impulsive arrest attempt earlier the same day was clear. Dawn wondered if it was the tense situation that had prompted the behavior change. 
Quartz looked at the setting sun and sighed. “I’m starving… Let’s call it a day and get us some grub and a good night’s sleep, eh?”

The young colt couldn’t sleep. His head was filled with memories… bad memories. If he closed his eyes the screams and the pain would come back. He just had to stay awake and then mommy and daddy would come tomorrow and all would be- 
A creaking sound drew his attention, shortly followed by the light from the hallway bathing his room in a yellow color. He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, only leaving small strip between his eyelids, so that he could the blurry outlines of the ponies in the door. There was three of them, and spoke in a strange foreign language.
“And here we have one of the survivors. Poor foal can’t sleep, so we gave him his own room. Looks like it worked.”
The female voice came from the outline on the left. The one in the middle, the tallest of the three, and with some kind of brush on his head, answered.
“You sure do a great job taking care of these ponies, doctor.”
The left outline laughed shortly and without joy.
“None of them would have survived if it wasn’t for you and your platoon, second lieutenant.”
“Just doing my job, doctor.”
The middle outline disappeared. The right outline finally spoke.
“What is his name?”
The left outline lowered its head as if looking at something. The young colt became aware of some low wheezing coming from another side of the room, but ignored it.
“According to the label we found inside his sweater, Dusk. Dusk Kva- err…Kv-… I’m not even gonna try and pronounce that.”
“Does he have any family?”
“Doesn’t look that way. From what we hear tell from the other survivors, his father died out there, and the one we think was his mother died from her injuries a few hours ago. We are trying to find any family members, but we can’t even find out which country he is from…”
There was a brief respite. Then the outline on the right spoke again.
“If you can’t find any, do you think we would be able to adopt him?”
“Pardon?”
“You heard what I said. You know Heather and I can’t have children of our own, Dr. Spring.”
“Well, I’ll see what I can do, Mr. Quartz.”
The door closed.
The young colt wondered why he had been able to understand what the outlines had been saying. He did not speak the language, but still he knew the words… As if… As if he had learned the language, and this was only a memory. Or a dream. Yes, of course this was a dream. He remembered now. He was Dusk Quartz, and not a young colt at all, but a fully-grown stallion who- Again with that wheezing! What was it?

Dusk Quartz opened his eyes. He was staring up at the roof of Twilight’s library, or at least the darkness where he assumed the roof would be. There was no moonlight shining in through any of the windows, leaving the room in almost total darkness. He closed his eyes again.
They shot open again at a gurgling sound followed by a wheezing.

The sound is not a dream! That was not Dawn! Meaning… there is somepony else here. Twilight? No… why would she make that sound?

Quartz made his decision and rolled sideways off the mattress he had been sleeping at, landing as silently as possible on his hooves. He sent a silent thanks to Celestia he had been sleeping without his heavy and noisy armor.
He slowly backed up until his rump hit a bookshelf. He started moving sideways along  the wall, his eyes fixed on the spot in the darkness the wheezing sound was coming from. He had to get behind whoever had entered, or casting a light- or paralyzing spell would light him up like a firework.

Almost now, almost, almoooo-

His rump hit something of a familiar shape. Quartz couldn’t help but smile a little at the plan forming in his head.
He closed his eyes and hit the light switch with his rump. He waited a second before opening his eyes slowly again, forming a knock-out spell in his mind.
As his eyes got used to the light in the room, he could, to his confusion, not see anything out of the ordinary, except an open front door. He sighed and let his spell die down. He looked over to Dawn, who was rubbing his eyes at the sudden light. Suddenly he stopped rubbing and looked terrified at a spot next to Quartz. 
Quartz forced himself to follow Dawn’s gaze. A scream of terror and pain filled the room.

Outside the library, a pony smiled to herself at the sound. She checked a mental checkbox in her mind, and trotted along into the night while whistling a gleeful tune.


> Lost Souls chapter 5-8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lost Souls - Part III

Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz felt like he was moving through jelly. His own reactions felt woefully slow, his yells silent. And all the while that infernal screaming! WHY WOULDN’T HE STOP?!

It stopped. Spike, the baby dragon, gave him a quizzical look before slumping to the floor unconscious. It took a few seconds before Quartz realized that he himself had hit the dragon with a knock-out-spell. It was just that horrible screaming of his! The dragon had been screaming for several minutes, ever since he saw what was lying on the floor by the front door. Quartz regretted ever turning on the lights, he might not have woken up the dragon if not for that.

“QUARTZ! What the HAY are you waiting around for?! Get me those bandages NOW!”
The yell from second lieutenant Winter Dawn kicked the world back into normal speed for Quartz.
“Of course! Still looking!”
He quickly scanned the upper floor of the tree library for a bathroom door of sorts. He found one next to Twilight Sparkle’s bed alcove. 

Where is Twilight, anyway? She said she’d be back well before midnight…

Underneath the sink he found a small metal box with a red cross. He popped the top off the medical box and dug through its contents with magic from his horn until he found  a roll of bandages.
“GOT THEM! I’M COMING!”

He scurried downstairs, past the mattresses the two royal guards had been sleeping on only a few minutes earlier, and over to his colleague.
“Here! I assume you remember the emergency first aid course even after all these years?”
Dawn gritted his teeth and nodded, keeping pressure on the wound he was facing through a blanket.
“Yes. Been a while, but some things you never forget. Okay, unfurl that, and- yes, you’re ready? In three, two, one...”
He pulled the blanket aside, revealing the flank of the bloodied mess of a pony that must have stumbled through the front door of the library while they were sleeping.

Quartz quickly lifted the body ever so slightly from the floor with magic, and started wrapping bandages around it, covering up the gruesome wounds that shamed a flank that once had held a cutie mark.

With his tongue between his teeth Quartz finally secured the bandages with a large fabric clip from the roll. The two stallions sighed in unison and collapsed towards the bookcases on both sides of the door. The light brown unicorn and beige-grey pegasus looked at each other for a few moments where the only sound was the rasping breath and gurgling of the unfortunate pony, the sound that had made Quartz turn on the lights in the first place.
Finally , Dawn spoke. “What happened to this poor sod, anyway?”
Quartz shook his head. “No time. Go! Get help! I’ll stay with… her.”

Dawn nodded and disappeared out the door. Quartz sat in silence for a couple seconds before turning the injured mare around. There was a mangled stump on her forehead which probably had been the root of a horn once. Otherwise the mare was fairly indistinguishable. She was covered in blood from the open wounds where her cutie marks had been; making her coat mostly red with only a few visible splotches of white, clean fur. The mane appeared to have been partially torn, which together with blood clots made it hard to determine the original color of. Quart’z guess was purple or dark bl-
His examination was interrupted by a soft moan. He quickly extended a hoof underneath her head. Her breath quickened, allowing Quartz to spot a row of broken and missing teeth. Whatever had caused this had hit her several times, as her face and upper torso was all battered and bruised, with the occasional cut or slash. The mare started batting her eyelids as she regained consciousness. Suddenly Quartz recognized the face as the attractive unicorn that had talked to him and the other three guards two days earlier.

He tried speaking to her. “Can you… can you hear me? R… Rarity, is that your name?”
To his relief the mare nodded slightly and made a grimace that might have been an attempt at a weak smile.
“Listen, you are safe now. Remember me? Dusk Quartz, from the Royal Guard? You are with us, you are safe. Help is on its way, you just got to…”
Rarity’s eyes closed. 

“Hey! Hey, don’t you fall asleep on me! You’ve got to do something for me now, Rarity. You have to stay awake. Can you do that? Focus on my face, come on, open your eyes and look at me!”
She squinted, but did as asked.
“Okay. Now, try to say something. Anything. It will make it easier for you to stay awake.”
The unicorn opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again. Then she smiled weakly.
“I… wove my wittw sistew.”
The broken teeth seemed to mess up some letters for her, but the clarity of the sentence at least confirmed that she had not sustained significant brain damage for whatever had hit her.

“Good girl. Okay, Rarity, can you tell me who or what did this to you?”
Her eyes shot open, an expression of sheer panic on her face. She sat up and looked wildly around the room, only calming down when she concluded it was empty save for Quartz and herself. She turned back to him and tried to say something.
“Kiwwew! Wu haf to-… Wu haf to g-“ Her sentence was interrupted by a spate of coughing. Tiny droplets of blood shot out of her mouth at each cough.
She was still trying to talk.
“HARK! KRF! … Appwebwoo… CHORK! … Pinkie…”
With a final cough she closed her eyes and fell together in a heap on the floor once more.
Quartz lifted her head up again with his hoof.
“Rarity? Rarity, do you hear me?”

She shot back up into sitting position so fast she nearly headbutted him, eyes wild like a feral animal. She put a hoof around his neck and pulled him closer.
“Twiwight!”
Her eyes rolled up and she fell over again. Quartz was worried for a second, but her heaving chest told him that she was just unconscious.
He sighed and laid her sideways, pulling her head back to make breathing as easy as possible for the poor mare. Finally he sat down on his mattress.

So that’s why the dragon was screaming… He recognized her immediately… Maybe I shouldn’t have knocked him out? Oh well, done is done. 
…
Did Rarity say “Twilight”? But isn’t she…

He froze in his train of thought. Twilight was supposed to be home hours ago.

Oh no, don’t say that he has… Oh Celestia, not Twilight! 
Oh nonononononononono… “…NononononoNONONO! YOU MONSTER!”
Quartz smashed his hoof into a bookshelf so hard that one of them chipped. He did not care which one.

Don’t worry, she might be alright. She’s just late, that’s all. Ah, who am I kidding? That mare is always dead on time. Huh, “dead”. Has he killed her? Or worse, kept her alive to do whatever he did to Rarity to her?

He felt nauseated, so he stormed outside. Deep breaths of cold night air calmed him. He looked around. The dark windows of the nearby houses seemed to mock him with their emptiness. Strangely enough his mind felt clear as ice, despite his body being red hot with rage. He needed to vent that range, his brain concluded. He gasped for air and yelled as loudly as he could.
“Are you out there?! I… will... FIND YOU! Do you hear me?! I… will… FIND YOU, and if you have as much as touched a hair on her head, I MIGHT just get a little less observant of the rules of prisoner treatment, CAPISCHE?!”
He felt both awkward and angry at the same time, so he turned and stamped his way back inside, slamming the door close behind him just as windows started opening in the surrounding houses.

Chapter 5 - Light Gale

“You want me to get a cab, sir?”
Manehattan Police Commissioner Booth shook his head to the young detective that was holding his coat.
“No, no, I’ll be fine, boy. These old air sacks need some cold midnight breeze…”
The aging pastel yellow unicorn took his coat and put it on, but the detective hawked before Booth could put on his hat.
“Yes?”
“Actually, sir, it is closer to 3 AM.”
“What? Really? HEY, FLAKE!”
The “old air sacks” produced a voice that boomed down the corridor of the third floor of the Manehattan Central Police Station. A head popped out a few doors down.
“You still here, Commissioner?”
“YOU’VE KEPT ME HERE ALL NIGHT, YOU SON OF A MULE!”
“I’m awfully sorry, Commissioner, but you know we had to finish thi-“
“Snow! Snow! Where are y- Ouch!”
Both of the stallions fell silent as a mare crashed into the commissioner.

The mare looked more irate than apologetic.
“Hey, watch i- Oh hi, Commissioner! I am so sorry… Have you seen captain Flake? I just got a telegram from Ponyville, and it is really urgent and…”
Booth used his magic to snag the telegram from under the wing of the pegasus mare.
“Let me have a look at that! Let’s see… mhm… aha… “
The old stallion fell silent. The detective who had held his coat felt awkward.
“Er… 	Sir, you okay, sir? You look awfully pal-“
He stopped as Booth threw his coat in his face.
“FLAKE! Get me the files on the Silo Fire incident!”
Flake stepped completely out into the corridor, and raised an eyebrow.
“Public ones or the real deal, sir?”
Booth smacked his lips. “Latter.  We might just have ourselves a situation here.”

The doctor shook his head. “Too early to say anything definite on her chances, I’m afraid, but her condition is overall stable.”
Quartz put his helmet back on and prepared to exit the Ponyville hospital.
“Any ideas when she might be able to answer some questions? It is likely the police will want to have a chat with her once they arrive.”
“A couple of days, at least, mister.”
Quartz sighed and opened the door. He turned his head to ask something.
“One last thing, doctor…”
“Yes?”
“I know you just got Rarity in, but could you just give your passing impression of what caused her injuries?”
The doctor, a relatively young yellow unicorn, raised his eyebrow and made a small “Pop!” with his lips, while stroking his chin thoughtfully.

“Oh, I don’t know… Looked like she had been struck repeatedly with something blunt… Those cuts where her cutie marks should be… I thought they looked… too clean, so to speak. Like if they had been made with a surgical scalpel or something… Finally, that horn breakage of hers? Not a breakage. I’ve never seen anything like it here before, but my cousin works in woodworking, and it looked like one of the saws she uses. Some sort of hacksaw, like a larger version of those we keep here for cutting bones.”
Quartz closed his eyes and nodded.
“Thank you, doc. I won’t occupy you any longer.”

Outside the hospital private Raff was waiting for him. The two of them starting walking into the night.
“Did you send the telegrams, Raff?
“Yes sir! The clerk was not too happy to be dragged out of bed at four in the morning, but he got’em sent.”
“Any answers yet?”
“Not from Canterlot, but the MPD said they’d have somepony up here by noon tomorrow.”
“ ’kay. Before we go back home, Dawn and I better finish the last couple of interviews to make things easier for the colts in blue. Come morning, I’d appreciate it if you could buy me some banana bread and milk for the return trip, and then pick up private Sailing at the train station. Oh, and drop by Fluttershy by the Everfree Forest and ask about somepony named ‘Pinkie’, would ya? Rarity mentioned her earlier.”

“Yes sir. But, sir… er…” Raff hesitated. Something about the way the second lieutenant spoke told him everything was not okay.
“What?”
“You seem a little… upset, that’s all. Is there anything else?”
Quartz sighed.  “We might have another missing pony. A friend of mine, this time. Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville librarian, Princess Celestia’s favored pupil, ace student of the School for Gifted Unicorns, and, most importantly, Shining Armor’s little sister.”

Both of them grew silent for a few seconds, before Raff spoke.
“Celestia… Captain Armor’s little sis? Our rumps are on the line here if she doesn’t turn up alright, aren’t they? …Sir?”
Quartz shook his head. “Too late to worry about that, I’m afraid, Raff. Anyway, I’ll head back to the library now. Dawn’s waiting for me there. Go get yourself some sleep, would you?”
“Yes sir.”

Two knocks on the door made Commissioner Booth and Captain Flake of the Manehattan Police District look up from the old papers they were reading.
Booth hawked. “Come in!”
The door opened, and the young detective poked his head into the small office.
“Excuse me, sirs, but as per your request, detecti-“
“Get out of the way, Snow!”
The detective was pushed aside and a grey earth pony mare with an orange mane stomped into the room. She looked both tired and irate.

“Cap, you better have a damn good reason for waking me at five in the mornin’ and- Oh, hello, Commissioner.”
She extended a hoof. “Detective Hopper, Caballicide Section.”
Flake interrupted the greeting with a hawk.
Both of them turned to him.
“Hopper, we have gotten a telegram from some Royal Guards in the small town of Ponyville, near Canterlot, about some mysterious disappearances and a case of assault. We want you to take a CSI team up there by midday tomorrow.”
Hopper frowned. “Why? Doesn’t sound that serious?”

Booth and Flake looked at each other, before Booth turned to Hopper.
“Young lady, have you heard about the ‘Silo Fire’ case?”
The mare looked confused. “Can’t say I have, sir…”
Booth sighed. “Well, it all started fourteen years ago…”

“Fourteen years ago…”
Dawn’s voice was coming from the balcony on the top floor of the Ponyville Library. Quartz hurried up the stairs, nearly stumbling over the still knocked-out baby dragon, and out onto the balcony.
“You talking to yourself, Dawn?”
It was no moonlight this night, and the only light was a red ember seemingly floating in the darkness before Quartz.
“Maybe.”
Quartz’ eyes adjusted to the dark, and he could make out the silhouette of his colleague leaning on the wooden rail. He also realized what the ember was.

“You smoke?”
That was not a very common habit in Equestria.
Dawn let out a small cloud of smoke.
“Not for fifteen years, Dusk. It is not good for you.”
Quartz decided not to comment on the fact that he was smoking right now, instead opting to be glad that Dawn had used his first name for the first time. He said nothing further, and they stood there together looking into the night for some time.

Finally Dawn broke the silence.
“It never ends, you know that, Dusk?”
“What never ends?”
“Everything.” Dawn sighed. “When I joined the Guard seventeen years ago, it seemed like such a good idea. My big brother was in the Corps, and I wanted to be with him. Also I would get to protect our benevolent ruler and feel accomplished… Huh, what a steaming pile of manticore-turd…”
Quartz raised an eyebrow.

“What happened?”
“I’d rather not tell you, but if you tell me  why the hay you as a foreigner is in the Guard, I’ll tell you in return. Deal?”
Quartz sighed. “Okay, that is a quick but painful story… You are right that I am not from Equestria. Fifteen years ago, when I was little more than a foal, a very young colt, I was going to visit Equestria as a tourist. Due to storms over the ocean, our airship went north. I’m not sure what happened next, but we must have gotten caught in a storm and driven west, because we ended up near Vanhoover. Then, over the Crystal Mountains…”
He paused and moistened his lips.

“Then some, some beast attacked us. The airship went down. I couldn’t find my father, but my mother… my mother told me to hide underneath some pieces of furniture from the ship… Then- nothing, save screams and crying. I hid under that rubble for hours. Felt like an eternity. Then, somepony lifted it away. It was a pegasus from the Royal Guard Corps. More of his friends were landing as we looked at each other. He looked so… looked so heroic in that armor, even if his eyes were pained. Later on this memory caused me to- Hey, are you even listening?”

Dawn looked absent-minded and almost… pale, as far as Quartz could tell in the darkness.
There was a slight tremble in Dawn’s voice as he spoke again.
“Was the name of this airship the Dorothea?”
Quartz furrowed his brow.
“Y-yes, I think it was. How did you know?”
Dawn opened his mouth again with clear hesitation.
“Fifteen years ago…”

The cold air made the armor of the three Royal Guards zing with an icy bite. The three pegasi were flying at a relatively low altitude, but the wind and exposure still took its toll. The second lieutenant fastened his scarf over his muzzle, looking backwards to see if his two wingponies had done the same. They had, but the staff sergeant on his left wing was to his irritation using the radios they had been given to tell the corporal on his right wing a no doubt hilarious anecdote revolving around the making of rainbows.
“Hey, you two! Cut the chatter! These radios are expensive, and only to be used in case of emergency, have I made myself clear?”
The two pegasi answered in unison. “Yes sir!”
“Good. General frequency is 4. If you set your transmitters to that, the other patrols will hear your messages. Use that to call for medevac for any survivors of the crash. Eyewitness reports said it should have gone down somewhere in these mountains.”
They looked out over the vast arctic expanse of the Crystal Range, which shielded Equestria from cold polar winds from the Great Frozen North. The second lieutenant noted the flying conditions with the trained eye of a graduate from the Cloudsdale Flying Academy.
“Wind is seven knots, south-southwesternly. Temperature steady below freezing, low risk of down-drafts. We should bank towards- Wait… Eyes on missing airship, map sector B12.”
The two wingponies followed his eyes. The crashed vessel lay in a wide, snow-covered valley below. The corporal, a young green mare, chuckled.
“In less than half an hour…. Those locals are lucky the Princess was in Vanhoover, they’d spend days locating this on their own!”
“Attention both of you!”
The wingponies looked towards the second lieutenant again.
“Corporal Luck, call it in. Our callsign is ‘Blue Bird’. Sergeant, come with me. We’ll head down there and look for-”
He was interrupted by a shadow passing over them. The three of them looked befuddled at each other for a few moments before the staff sergeant cried out loud.
“DRAGON!”
All three of them dove simultaneously, but corporal Luck was still grabbed by the claws of the dragon. She managed a short scream before a razor-sharp claw impaled her lungs, but her limp body was then thrown away like a discarded can of soda.
The other two nearly slammed into the ground near the wreckage. The second lieutenant made a quick decision.
“Quick, hide behind that pile of debris over there! I will try something…”
The staff sergeant did not hesitate to follow the order.

The dragon landed with a THUMP! that shook the ground. He looked surprised at the one pony standing in front of him. The second lieutenant pulled his scarf down.
“Excuse me, Mr. Dragon, but my name is second lieutenant Dawn of the 2nd Equestrian Royal Guard Company, and I wondered why you are attacking us?”
The dragon seemed confused at this. It was probably a long while since somepony had spoken directly to it.
Finally it mustered its vocabulary.
“You trespass on my territory. I’ll kill you dumplings just like I did with the flying boat, to send a message to other dumplings.”
The second lieutenant did not appear fazed this prospect.
“But if you kill everypony, who can deliver a message?”
The dragon hesitated for a moment.
“I never thought of that. What do you propose, dumpling?”
“Let us and any potential survivors from this crash go. We promise to never return and to warn everypony to not trespass on your territory again, okay?”
The dragon considered the offer for a few seconds.
“Huh… well, sounds reasonable enough. What if I refuse?”
“Then the Royal Guard will hunt you down and the most powerful unicorns in Equestria will destroy you.”
Once more the dragon took a break to think.
“Okay, then, I’ll call on your offer.”
“Thank you. You will not regret this.”
The second lieutenant turned to leave, but the dragon hawked as it took off. The officer turned. 
“Yes?”
“How many dumplings does it take to deliver a warning?”
Second lieutenant Dawn looked puzzled for a second before realizing the ramifications of this. Moments later he was incinerated by the stream of fire from the dragon’s mouth.
“NOOOO!”
The staff sergeant galloped towards the charred body as the dragon flew away.
He stood and stared at the stallion he knew so well for a few minutes, before his training kicked in, spurring him to pull out his radio and flip the switch on the transmitter to ‘4’.
“All units, this is… this is Blue Bird. We… have found the vessel. Several dead, but some movement. We have been attacked, but the danger has passed. The corporal and… the second lieutenant are both KIA. Need immediate support in map sector B12, over.”
The words passed from his mouth, mechanical and distant. A few seconds went by with nothing else than static, before a reply came.
“Copy. This is Yellow Snow, we are right over the hill. Be there in a sec. And, sergeant, sorry about your brother.”
Staff sergeant Winter Dawn moaned an unintelligible answer to the sky before a low whimper caught his attention. He cautiously approached some pile of furniture from the airship. He flipped a table over, and was met with the large blue eyes of a small brown unicorn colt.

“… I was promoted to second lieutenant shortly thereafter, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of helplessness. I asked for transfer to an advisory role in the Manehattan police. I kept my rank in the guard, but I spent my time teaching young officers in the MPD instead. And it worked. I was happy. I met a mare and married. Then I lost my wings and the world fell apart for me.”

Quartz waited for a continuation of the story, but it didn’t come. He decided to say something himself instead.
“It was… you, all those years ago, Winter? I… I really don’t know what to say. I’d thank you, but at the same time… I feel horrible about what happened to your brother. And…”
“Don’t. It is nothing. I was just doing my job.”
The little light of the cigarette was thrown into the darkness and faded away.

The two stallions stood in silence for several minutes, looking at the very first rays of the rising sun spilling over the distant mountains in east. 
“You said you were married, Winter?”
Quartz could vaguely make out a smile on the other stallion’s lips.
“Oh yes. The most wonderful mare on this side of the ocean. But we don’t see each other much. I can’t visit her in Cloudsdale in my… condition, and she’s too busy to come to Canterlot often… We managed to conceive a wonderful little bundle of joy, though. She’s ten now, and the spitting image of her mother… I wish I could see her more, but we keep contact through mail.”
“Why did you come back to Canterlot?”
Dawn sighed. “Have you ever heard of the ‘Silo Fire’ case, Dusk?”
“Er… No, sorry, can’t say I have…”
“Of course, you were only a young colt at the time. Well, I assume you have seen me in Canterlot before. How do the other guards say I lost my wings?”

The question came unexpected for Quartz. He hesitated for a moment, not sure what the appropriate answer was.
“I… er…  They… I am not from you company, so I haven’t heard much about you or seen you more than once or twice, but one of the stallions in my platoon told me a friend in the 2nd Company had heard a hydra tore them off…”
Dawn laughed a short and barking laugh.
“A hydra? That’s quite some story, but I am afraid the truth is not that… colorful. They were hacked off, by a pony. One you know, even, Dusk.”
“What? Who?”

Dawn’s ears drooped down, as if the memories caused him great emotional turmoil.
“I… Well, after the incident with the Dorothea and the death of my older brother, I transferred to the MPD, as I told you. Although the mainstay of my advisory role was as a ‘melee combat and restraining instructor’ as they called it, I also occasionally helped with cases where we needed a bit of diplomacy, for example in domestic disturbances… It was during one of those instances, fourteen years ago, it happened.”
He paused shortly to regain his composure.

“There had been a problem over several years with abandoned wagons found near one of the main roads into Manehattan. Nopony could explain it, so police officers were sent out to question the locals. One of them was going to a particularly… ‘challenging’ household, so I tagged along. I was recently married and finally satisfied with my lot in life, so I didn’t think twice about such a routine assignment. Then…”
Another pause.

“When we arrived at the farm, we were greeted by a smiling mare. She said her husband was out in the field, but invited us to cakes and coffee while we waited. We accepted the offer, but… The coffee was drugged with something. Before we could say ‘kerfuffle’ we were on the horizontal. When we awoke, she… We were strapped by our hooves to tables she had leant towards the walls in her silo, facing each other.  In the room there were… effects from other ponies, no doubt the owners of the abandoned vehicles. The straw on the floor was colored red, and by this point we were pretty much certain it was not tomato juice. 
The young officer I was with, Cheese was his name, and I started to devise an escape plan. Our hooves were bound with rope to the legs of the tables, and my wings were too, but one of his hooves was not as tightly bound. Before we could do anything, however, she returned. She had various kitchen knives with her, including a cleaver she lodged in the table less than a hoofwidth from my head. That’s when the... the cutting started. She did horrible, horrible things to young Cheese, right in front of me. He screamed and screamed, forever, it seemed. But then he stopped. And she turned her head and looked at me with a gaze that put me in no doubt I was next…”

Quartz felt a weak nausea, but kept listening.
“But then she turned back to what was left of poor Cheese and untied him from the table, before dragging his remains out the door. I was scared, more scared than I ever had been, but at that moment… a crazy plan started to form in my head. The cleaver next to my head, I grabbed it with my teeth and used it to cut the ropes restraining my front hooves. But I couldn’t reach my back hooves because my wings were bound just above the root to the table as well, and I couldn’t reach those ropes either. So I thought about my daughter and my wife, and then I… I hacked my wings off.”

The silence was total between the two stallions for a couple of seconds. Dawn swallowed audibly and finished his story.
“Of course I made quite the yell, even while biting the cleaver… I just had time to cut the ropes around my back legs before she came storming back in again. I was quite dizzy from the pain, and so she was able to wrestle the cleaver from me and pinned me down. I… I grabbed the only thing I could reach, an old oil lamp, and smashed it over her head. She grew limp, but the flame from the lamp made the straw next to us catch fire. I staggered towards the exit, completely disoriented, when I saw it… Behind some farming tools a young foal was hiding, no more than three-four years old. I have no idea how much she had seen, but I figured as much as that it was one of the insane mare’s daughters. I… I couldn’t leave her, so I grabbed the little filly and carried her out. Outside the silo I collapsed, and I stayed there unconscious from the pain and blood loss for about fifteen minutes.

When I awoke in the hospital, they told me the farmer, the crazy mare’s husband, had found me and his daughter outside the burning old barn. Amazingly it turned out he had no idea what his wife was doing while he was tending to his field. He was cleared of any involvement and got to stay on the farm with his kids. The Manehattan Police Department decided it was no use to ‘rip open old wounds’ as they called it, which is another way of saying she had been a relative of somepony important. In the publicly available case documents it was treated as a tragic fire accident, not a murder case. Finally, in case I decided to be… talkative, they had me transferred back to Canterlot. I had serious mental issues for a time and barely avoided a Section 8 discharge. That basically froze my career in its tracks, and I still have nightmares, a decade and a half later…”

The story ended. Quartz looked at Dawn. In the now stronger light conditions he could see that the older stallion wasn’t looking at him, but staring into space. Both of them stood there with their own thoughts for several minutes.
“Okay, let’s get some sleep in the few hours we have left here, eh, Dusk?”
Quartz startled at the sudden  change of tone from Dawn. The pegasus seemed to have repressed the bad memories for the time being.
“Uh, yeah, of course. Just take care not to trip over the baby dragon.”
“Why is he still down, by the way? Aren’t those knockout spells supposed to last like fifteen minutes?”
“I gave him a pony-sized bout, and also I believe he is sleeping. We should make sure we are awake and out of here before he wakes and remembers what happened.”

A mile away somepony knocked on Fluttershy’s door. When no answer came, the banging became more intense. This time the pony on the doorstep could hear a faint, sleepy answer from the window above the door:
“Not now, Mommy, just a little longer…”
The pony sighed and fished out a reserve key from under the doormat. It was no fun when the playmates were sleeping.

Chapter 6 - Gale

Monday May 16th was a bright and happy day in Ponyville. However, Raff had his doubts it would last. The red sunrise he had seen the same morning had heralded the approaching rainstorm, and on the top of that this missing-filly case of Smooth Sailing and his had turned into something else, something… dark and elusive.

Raff did not like this. He was a simple stallion, who enjoyed things in an orderly condition so that he could easily understand them. These webs of deception and lies was something for politicians and their ilk. He wondered whether his lack of curiosity and interest in complicated affairs was part of the reason he was often set to guard rooms where bigwig meetings were taking place. He had even accompanied the Princess on occasions.

Speaking of which, why doesn’t anypony in this place recognize me?

Here he was, walking in broad daylight along the street in the very town where he had guarded the Princess’ tea party! And nopony seemed to remember him! He had talked to dozens of these ponies while looking for Celestia’s flaming bird! That purple unicorn, the Captain’s sister, had even been the one who had the phoenix in the first place, but not a glimpse of recognition… He had hoped somepony would approach him about this, so that he could suddenly remember in front of Smooth and the second lieutenants that he had several times been assigned to the Princess’ personal protection detail…
He sighed.  

I guess that is to be expected when half the company are white stallions with blue manes… I wonder if it is an intentional act on the recruiters’ part to pick volunteers whose mane ‘match’ the color of Second Company’s blue plume?

As he walked down the bustling street, unsure of where the bakery the Princess had visited was, he suddenly recognized a grey mare from his last visit. He felt a weak hope being rekindled within him. He approached her.
“Excuse me, miss!”
The mare turned and gave him a blank, wall-eyed look.
“Er… Do you remember me?”
The blank look remained. Raff sighed.
“Yeah, I guess I have a forgettable face… You shouldn’t happen to know where the nearest bakery is, should you?”
Still the look. Raff shrugged and was about to leave, when suddenly…
“Muffins!”
Raff turned back to her.
“Huh?”
“Muffins!”
The mare started galloping down the street. Raff had a confused look for a few seconds before he realized that bakeries sell muffins. He galloped after her.

The grey mare came out from the bakery, munching cheerily at a muffin, just as he arrived. She had been surprisingly fast. Raff took a second to catch his breath before he opened the door and stepped into the bakery. A shrill and saccharine voice greeted him.

“Hi! The Sugarcube Corner special of the day is cu- hahhhhh!”
The unexpected intake of breath was accompanied by a shocked expression frozen in the face of the pink mare behind the counter. Raff wasn’t completely sure how to react to this.

“Er… Hi? I’d li-“
“HIII!” The mare leaped over the counter and started hopping in a circle around a very confused guard. 
“I remember you, do you remember me? Have you come to visit? Should we have a welcome back-party? Oh, oh, I can get cakes! We’ll have streamers, and fireworks, and… and…”
“Er… Do I know you?”

The mare bounced up to him and placed her face uncomfortably close to his own, grinning.
“Of course you do, silly! You were one of the guards at the door during Celestia’s tea party here! Don’t you remember me? Pinkie? Pinkamena Diane Pie?”
Raff tried to remember the tea party guests and found that he could vaguely recall an unusually energetic pink mare with a poofy mane. He looked at her again. Poofy mane? Check. Pink? Check. Energetic? Nah, more like crazy as a drunk hydra. Still, there was no doubt.

“Oh, now I remember you. Hey, did you say your name was ‘Pinkie’? I am looking for you.”
“Ooh, why? Is it a surprise? Don’t tell me, I love surprises! No, wait, is it because you want me to throw a party because I’m the bestest party pony?”
“What? Er… I mean, no, I was actually just going to ask if you had seen any of the missing ponies.”
Pinkie pulled back from his face, looking confused.
“Missing ponies? Who?”
Raff ran the mental list of the names of the ten last disappearances in through his head.

“Many. But most important are Lyra Heartstrings, Applebloom, Rainbow Dash and possibly Twilight Sparkle.”
“My- my friends? Missing?”
Raff sighed when he realized he’d have to ask in detail, as this witness apparently knew several missing ponies.
This is going to take a loooong time…
“Yes, miss. Let me go through the list of missing ponies with you and see if you remember anything out of the ordinary. First, Beryl Moss…”

Ten minutes later the list was coming to a close.
“…Violet Velvet…”
“She was at one of my parties a week ago! It was super-duper fun! We had cakes, and ga-“
“*ahem* …Applebloom…”
“She bought some flour here on Friday…”
“…Lyra Heartstrings…”
“Haven’t seen her since Twilight had this awesome magical duel with this pony named Trixie? Do you know Trixie? I know Trixie, but she wouldn’t be my friend because she was a big meanie! Will you be my friend?”
“…and finally, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Oh, you silly! Twilight isn’t missing; I talked to her yesterday morning! She said she would come by today and help me bake cupcakes!”

Raff massaged his forehead. His head hurt after listening to this mare for ten minutes.
“Fine. Whatever you say. In any case, I actually came down here to ask if you had any ban-“
“Here! Do you want some peppermint cupcakes with it? I found them in the oven this morning!”
She held up a bag. He took it and to his surprise there was a banana bread inside.
“What the… how-“
“That will be three bits, but you don’t have to pay!”
“Uh, why?”
She grinned and showed him three bits she held up on her hoof.
“Because I already helped myself to them from your saddlebag, silly!”
“Huh? How did you…? Never mind, I don’t want to know. If there was nothing more I have to pick somepony up at the train station. Another guard may come and ask you some more detailed questions later, so don’t go anywhere.”
“Okeydokey-lokey!”
Pinkie beamed towards him and waved as he turned to go.

The shrill ring of the school bell caused a stampede of recess-ready fillies and colts out of the Ponyville Elementary School. Sweetie Belle didn’t notice the separation of the stream before she crashed head first into something large and hard. She noticed it was a leg, but the apology stopped in her throat as she followed the leg upwards with her eyes. The two stone-faced royal guards somehow caused her to feel a deep angst. They had the same expressions as the dozens others she had seen with the Princess and in Canterlot, but there was something in their eyes, a pain…
Her wide-eyed observation was interrupted by a brazen Scootaloo popping out of the schoolhouse door, seemingly excited about the two stallions who had appeared.

“Oh! Hi misters Guards sirs! Need some more papers?”
The expression of the guards did not change, although one of them seemed to loosen it up a bit.
“Hello again, Scootaloo. Actually we were hoping that Winter here could have a chat with you about your friend Applebloom.”
Scootaloo frowned, but nodded.
“Also, I am looking for someone named ‘Sweetie Belle’. Have you seen her?”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes and pointed a hoof at Sweetie Belle next to her. The guard looked surprised.
“Oh! Well, that saved us some time. Sweetie Belle, would you come with me?”
She didn’t want to, but followed the guard to a picnic table near the copse by the school.

They sat down, and the guard, a brown unicorn, sat down and placed his front hooves together in front of his mouth, frowning. They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity until Sweetie Belle broke it.
“Yes?”
The guard sighed. “It… it is about your sister…”

“Howdy ho, Riff Raff!”
Private Raff groaned and massaged his brow beneath the edge of his helmet.
“Smooth, what in the hay are you wearing?”
The cheery guard hopped down from the train and looked up at the wide-brimmed hat cresting his own helmet, causing the plume to droop down on the sides.

“This? Just a hat I picked up in Appleloosa. Gotta get in th’ mood, you know?”
Raff sighed. “Okay, whatever you say. Let’s go, we have to visit somepony named ‘Fluttershy’. Some… things have happened since yesterday. I’ll tell you as we go.”

Cheerilee gnashed her teeth as she was correcting tests during the recess. The school grade average had dropped almost a full level recently, and she suspected she knew the reason. Here she had been moved to this “special attention” class, reducing her output to the ordinary students. 

If only these weeds knew how they ruined my perfect garden of students… They should be uprooted and-
Her thought process was interrupted by a crying noise. She looked out the window directly across the classroom from her desk, and noted that indeed, Sweetie Belle was crying. Cheerilee found this odd, Sweetie Belle hadn’t exactly struck her as the type to cry over some playgr-

Wait… are those…

Scootaloo had come over to Sweetie Belle’s side. Although she was not crying, she looked like she had been shocked by something. What Cheerilee had noticed was who Scootaloo was talking to. The backs of two tall stallions were just within her field of vision, and they appeared to have unusual manes, standing right up… Unless they weren’t manes, but plumes, such as the ones on the helmets of…

Guards!


She used her right lower hoof to slam one of her desk drawers shut, in order to hide her little bottle of after-work “elixir”.

Okay, calm down. They probably just want to ask the pupils about Applebl-

Scootaloo pointed towards the school building, and the two guards turned and seemed to look her right into the eye. She felt as if frozen to her chair. One of the guards, an earth pony or pegasus, said something to his companion, a darker unicorn. The unicorn went up to the front door and knocked. It took a few seconds for her to formulate a coherent answer.
“I… er… come on in! I’m in the first classroom on the left!”

As the guard entered, she repeated to herself that this was most likely just about Applebloom. She felt a little more relieved when she noticed that the guard was not as burly as your average Royal Guard, but somewhat scrawnier, and he appeared to be five-six years younger than her. He was quite handsome, actually.

Don’t worry. You’ll deal with this one nicely.

“Hello, my name is Cheerilee! I assume you are here about Applebloom, Mr…?”
The guard seemed taken aback by her large grin, so she toned it down a little. The guard scratched his neck for a moment.
“Er… Uh, I mean Dusk Quartz, Equestrian Royal Guard Corps, if you couldn’t tell by the armor. Could you pl-“
“Take a seat, Dusk, take a seat, by all means!”
She extended her hoof towards a couple of chairs standing by the wall, grin still plastered across her face.
“Ehm, thanks, I guess…” Dusk Quartz replied sheepishly before placing the chair across from her on the other side of Cheerilee’s desk.
She leaned forward.
“Now, tell me why you are here, Dusk…”

“My colleague; second lieutenant Winter Dawn, and I were sent here to provide additional aid in the search for your missing student, Applebloom. I ju-“
“Oh, I am so crushed by this whole ordeal!” She put on her best puppy-eyed face. “I love those little foals as if they were my own. Do you have children, Dusk?”
“Uh, no, miss, no children.”
Cheerilee leaned a little closer, changing her tone voice to a softer tone.
“Oh? Doesn’t your wife want any?”
“I’m… eh, I’m not really married yet, miss.”

She leaned up close to him, making her voice more sensual.
“Is that so? But surely you have a special somepony?”
Quartz looked notably uneasy.
“No, not exactly. I’m a little at it and back again, but I don’t really have the time to go out that much, and…”
Cheerilee congratulated herself inside. It had been more than ten years since she had had to pull off the old “discomfort the interview away” trick, but she still had it. She leaned so close to him that he leaned away from her and swallowed audibly, causing Cheerilee to give herself a mental ovation.
She looked him directly in the eyes and spoke again, so softly it was little more than a whisper this time.
“I cannot understand how such an attractive stallion as you yourself can possibly…”
She was interrupted by a hawk.
“Am I interrupting something?”

She virtually threw herself back into her chair due to the surprise. Once she regained her composure she dared a quick look at Quartz and realized her spell had been broken. The guard instead looked relieved at the stallion who had spoken. She cursed silently and turned smiling towards the guard in the doorway.

“No, not at all. I was just telling this gentlecolt here how grateful I am for the aid you give us in finding my poor little student…”
The older, beige stallion didn’t answer, but stared at her with an intense look as if trying to remember something. He slowly moved across the floor and whispered something to his younger companion, before taking the other chair by the wall and sitting down next to Quartz.
Suddenly both erupted in simultaneous, ear-to-ear grins.

Celestia! They know-they know-THEY KNOW! Horsefeathers! Could that young one have played me for fools all along?

The elder stallion spoke.
“Hello again. If there is one thing I never expected to see it was ‘Wild Violet’ correcting elementary school tests.”
Panicked, Cheerilee tried one last gamble.
“Pardon me? My name is Cheerilee, not this… Violet Velvet you are talking about.”
The beige stallion lifted an eyebrow.
“I haven’t mentioned your last name, Violet…”
Cheerilee felt a strong urge to bang her head into a wall at her own stupidity.

The old stallion continued.
“Judging by your reaction when I entered, I’d daresay you don’t remember me, Violet. Such a shame… What was it you promised me last time? Something about a cherry, if I remember correctly…”
Suddenly she recognized the older stallion. He had been an advisor at the Manehattan Police Department Headquarters, and present at more than one unpleasant interview she had been through. She couldn’t hide her blush.

Under their persistent grins she gave up.
“Okay, you win, Dawn. What is it you want in return for not having a loose lip about my past? Money?”
Winter Dawn made an unconvincing impression of somepony who had been insulted.
“Money? We are the Royal Guard, Ms. Velvet. We don’t take bribes. In fact just trying to bribe us is a criminal offense.”
She winced a second, but regained her senses. He obviously wanted something.
“Dawn, I remember you, always trying to convince me to start fresh over. Well, here I am, as Cheerilee, a small-town teacher with gardening as a hobby and a perfect track record. Even if it is false, I am not who I was fifteen years ago. And I think you can tell that.  I don’t think we’d even be having this conversation unless you wanted something, so what is it?”
Dawn dropped his grin, and the other guard did as well. Instead he looked concerned.

“Information, Velvet, information. You already know about Applebloom, but there have been more disappearances. Including Twist; one of your former students, the elder sister of Sweetie Belle; one of your current students, and finally the mother of another of your students; Diamond Tiara.”
Cheerilee thought about this for a second.
“Rarity is missing? But I saw her just the oth-“
She stopped as she realized the common denominator of all these ponies; herself.

Dawn raised an eyebrow.
“I see you understand, Violet. Give me something, anything, to remove you from a potential suspect list. Otherwise, I will be forced to go public about your background as part of the investigation.”
Cheerilee felt beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

“There is… one thing about Applebloom. But I cannot tell you, or might drag me to court to testify, and then my real identity may…”
Dawn pointed with his hoof towards the wall clock. It was a quarter to eleven. 
“See that, Violet? At twelve PM today, a team fro-“
He was interrupted by the ring of the school bell. 
He sighed. “Dusk, deal with it, would you?”
Dusk nodded and headed out the door to great the pupils with a “Fifteen minutes extra recess, everypony!”

As the collective cheer rose, Dawn leant towards Cheerilee.
“…a team from the Manehattan Police Department will arrive here to investigate a possible murder case. If you cooperate, I will sign you off as fully interviewed. If not…”
“Are you threatening me, guard?”
“Why yes, yes I am, ‘Cheerilee’.”
Cheerilee gave a deep sigh and sank back as Dusk Quartz entered the room again.
“Okay, you win, guards. I lied when I said I last saw her at school. I saw her that same evening, buying flour at Sugarcube Corner, presumably because the store was closed. I didn’t want to tell, in case that made me the last to see her.”

Dawn smiled and stood up.
“Thank you, Ms. Cheerilee. I must have misidentified you. A pleasure talking to you.”
He then promptly exited the room.
Quartz lingered a second.
“Er… thanks, miss. And hey, you could need a vacation. You look stressed. We have enough with one fillynapping maniac.”
He scurried out and after his colleague.
Cheerilee massaged her temples and moaned. She opened the drawer with the liquor. Class or not, she needed something to steady her nerves.

“What the hay was that all about, Winter?”
Dawn did not answer Quartz’ question immediately, just smiling to himself.
“’Cheerilee’ back there is apparently not who she claims to be. I immediately recognized her face, one I saw many times when I was with the Manehattan Police. Her real name is ‘Wild’ Violet Velvet, and she… No, you don’t want to know. Anyway, I figured I could exploit that, and that’s why I asked you to grin. It had to look like the entire Guard was aware of her identity.”

Quartz made a mental note to himself that he should try to find out about this mare whenever he got the chance.
Dawn looked like he was about to say something more, but was interrupted by a loud thud behind them. They turned in unison, to see two visibly upset white pegasi guards. One of them was wearing a big hat.

“Private Sailing?” Quartz asked, “What’s the deal with hat?”
Sailing shot him an irate look. “Forget about the hat already, everypony! We have bigger problems.”
He threw the hat into a bush.
“Raff and I went up to-“
Private Raff interrupted him.
“It appears we have another disappearance, sirs.”
Dawn moaned and closed his eyes.
“Celeeeestia… Another one? In the name of the royal tush…”
“Who?” Quartz asked.

Raff licked his lips.
“That ‘Fluttershy’ you told me to see with Sailing, sir. We went up there, but the door was open and we the only things we found were an angry bunny and signs of struggle in the bedroom.”
Quartz raised an eyebrow and looked at Dawn, but he shook his head.
“Let’s leave that one for the professionals. They’ll be here in little more than an hour. We should focus on our new lead, Sugarcube Corner. Private Sailing, have you been there with Raff during your first days here?”

Sailing fished out a notebook from a hidden pocket in his armor between his wing and neck.
“Just a moment, sir… Ah. No, sir, we were going to, but the owners are on vacation in Baltimare. We figured asking the assistant was not worth questioning.”
“What was the name of this assistant?”
“Pinkie Pie,” Raff answered, “I was just down there and talked to her when I bought your banana bread this morning, lieutenant Quartz, sir.”
He extended the bag, and Quartz took it with his magic and put it in his saddlebag.
“Thank y- Er… Winter, you okay?”

Winter Dawn stared into space, visibly pale. When he answered, it was almost a whisper.
“Raff, describe her.”
Raff looked confused, but answered.
“Er… Pink, poofy mane, blue eyes…”
“…Cutie mark shaped like three balloons.” Dawn finished.
“Uhm, yes. How did you know, sir?”
Dawn looked at Quartz, his ears drooping.
“Dusk, remember the Silo Fire Incident I told you about?”
“Oh, Celestia, don’t say that…”

Dawn nodded at Quartz’ question.
“The Pie Rock Farm, just outside Manehattan. Raff just described the little filly that was there.”
There was an eerie silence for a few seconds, the sunshine and singing birds a mocking contrast to the sinking feeling the guards felt inside. Finally Quartz turned to Raff.
“Private Raff, how fast can you fly to Canterlot and get reinforcements?”

Author’s note: Yes, it is a Cupcakes sequel. Or is it?

Chapter 7 - Strong Gale

“Dusk, I need the current time and the ETA of those reinforcements.”
Dawn and Quartz were standing in an alley near Sugarcube Corner. Dawn was observing the windows of the building through a small pair of binoculars he supported with a hoof.
Quartz craned his neck to look through a nearby window at a wall clock inside.
“Eleven forty-seven, Winter. Raff said he’d need half an hour each way, and he left around ten fifty-five… Hey, what is Sailing doing?”
Smooth Sailing had been sent ahead to scout around the building, but was now gesticulating wildly from the wall to the right of the façade.
Dawn sighed and lowered the binoculars.
“Let’s go find out.”

Sailing let out a sigh of relief as the two others came over to him.
“Thank Celestia you are here. I stepped in something…”
Dawn facehoofed.
“You did all that waving because you stepped in something?”
“You didn’t let me finish! Uhm... sir! I leaned forward to look at the old sandwich or whatever it is, and…, well, look for yourself.”
He pointed to a low basement window.
Next to what looked like the rotten remains of a half-eaten sandwhich was a peeled-off part of the paint that was covering the window.

Quartz went down to his knee and put his eye to the place where the paint had peeled off.
Inside was a light blue or white room lit up by a strong blue-white mobile construction lamp. However, in the corner of the room was…
“There’s a cage in there, with…” Quartz squinted “… a filly?”
From somewhere behind him he heard Sailing.
“Yes. She looks a lot like the picture we got of the missing one, sir.”
Dawn put his head beside Quartz’ and tried to look into the opening as well.
“Can you see any of the other missing ponies in there? That on the lower right wall, is that the top of a cage?”
“I’m not sure, Winter… I think I  can see the tip of a yellow wi- WHOA!”
Both of them tumbled backwards in unison. A blue eye had appeared behind the opening, staring at them briefly before disappearing.

Dawn was heaving for breath.
“…Celestia!”
Quartz looked at the two others.
“We need to move now. We can’t wait for the police or the reinforcements. She knows we know, now.”
Dawn nodded.
“Stack at the door! Go!” he called out.

The three stallions galloped around to the front of Sugarcube Corner and hugged the walls on each side of the door, Quartz and Sailing on the right and Dawn on the left.
“Now what?” Dawn asked, “We have no weapons, and I haven’t done a breach-and-clear since Basic Close Quarters Training, almost two decades ago…”
Quartz wasn’t sure what to answer. He too hadn’t done any breaching maneuvers since basic traini-
“Lieutenant Dawn, you clear the left, I’ll take the right. We will be prime targets in the door, so get to the sides as quickly as possible. Lieutenant  Quartz, as a unicorn you are the only of us with ranged attack capabilities, so stay in the rear.  If we encounter narrow spaces, I am the quickest of us, so I’ll take point. Lt. Dawn, in that scenario you’re rear guard. We don’t want to expose Lt. Quartz.”
Both second lieutenants looked confused at each other for a few seconds before realizing Sailing had been the one to speak. They both stared surprised at him.

He looked embarrassed.
“I… er… before the Guard I was a SOCOM operative…”
Dawn looked even more surprised.
“You were Special Forces?”
“Uhm… Yes. Why shouldn’t I have been that?”
Quartz held up a hoof to stop Dawn’s snappy answer.
“There’s no time, you two. Ready? Okay, Winter, open the door on the count of three.”
Dawn nodded. Quartz took a deep breath.
“One.”
All three of them tensed up.
“Two.”
Sailing swallowed.
“Three!”
Dawn stood in front of the door and bucked it with all his might. It flew open, and the three of them stormed in.

Dawn slid sideways, eyes peeled to the left side of the room.
“Clear left!”
Sailing did the same on the right side.
“Clear right!”
Finally Quartz entered straight ahead, his horn glowing with a dark orange hue.
Nobody was in the room, so the glow faded from the horn as Quartz stopped forming the spell in his mind.
“Room clear. Okay, Smooth, Winter, we are looking for some way down into the basement. Spread out!”
The three of them searched the different rooms on the ground floor of Sugarcube Corner.

Sailing entered the kitchen, trying his best not to make the floor creak as he checked in cupboards and under counters for any clues of the whereabouts of a way downstairs.
He found a batch of freshly baked cupcakes, still without frosting, standing on one of the kitchen counters. After thoroughly checking that the room was empty he grabbed one and munched happily on his first meal since breakfast that day.
Next to the cupcakes were the ingredients that had obviously been used to make them. However, amongst the flour, sugar, baking soda and milk stood a little jar with some indeterminable red paste and a teaspoon in it.

Sailing was just wondering whether it was some sort of jam when he noticed a small spot of the same material on the floor. Whoever had brought this here had spille-
“Lieutenants! I think I found a hatch of some kind!”
Next to the spot there was a hard-to-see small hatch of the same material as the floor.

“Should we go right here?”
“No, keep heading forwards, Dusk.”
The three of them had descended into the hatch, only to be met at the bottom of the short flight of stairs by a corridor more pitch black than a coalmine at midnight. Sailing’s plan had been abandoned, with Quartz using a small magical light at the tip of his horn to illuminate the way instead.

“Okay, Winter.”
They passed the menacing doorway, or rather doorhole on their right, heading straight ahead instead. After a few paces it felt like the space around them widened, and the sharp smell of rotting meat, formaldehyde and a public restroom tickled unpleasantly in their nostrils.

Sailing put words to what they all felt.
“I think we are in the room we saw from the window, or at least next to it. She’s here somewhere…”
Dawn fiddled around in the dark at their right with his hoof, and whispered intently to them.
“I… think I might have found a light switch. Don’t look up now!”
They all looked down, but failed to avoid being temporarily blinded by the shine as Dawn flipped the switch.
The room was greyish, and stunk of rotting meat, bleach and formaldehyde. It was decorated as if a party was about to take place, but the only pony there was a cyan-blue pegasus mare who faced away from them, next to a small table.
Quartz went over to her, and noticed a number of knives and surgical tools on the table, as well as a small packet marked “Contact lenses, dark violet” and a cup with some red lip marks all around the edge.

Ignoring this for the moment, Quartz gently pricked the mare on her shoulder.
“*ahem* Excuse me, miss, but I am afraid you’re under arr… ar…”
He trailed off as he noticed no reaction at all. Also, the mare was surprisingly cold to the touch.
“Uhm… Miss?”
He leaned forward and around her to see her fa-
“WHOA!”
He gaped in sheer surprise and shock. The mare had no eyes, only dark cavities. Also, she had scars in her face, scars that were near her cutiemark and abdomen as well… Almost as if…

“She’s… a… she’s… stuffed?”
He turned shocked towards the other two, but to his further surprise they weren’t staring at the mare, but at the room, mouths agape. 
Dawn whispered so Quartz could only barely hear:
“A-are those streamers…? C-Celestia preserve…”

A pale Sailing walked blindly backwards, mouth opening and closing without a sound coming out, until he stepped in a bucket. He lifted his hoof, covered in some sort of red paste, to his eyes and screamed loudly, before storming back out the doorway.
Quartz now paid attention to the party decorations as well. He noticed that in-between the streamers the decorator had placed plastic skulls, a strange choice given that there was five months left to Nightmare Night.

Wait… those look awfully detailed. Almost as if they aren’t plastic, but r-

He was interrupted when he noticed that the streamers weren’t streamers at all, but some sort of red tubes. Why wou-
As the realization of the true horror of the room dawned upon him, he remained still, staring into space in a stupefied daze.

“H-hello? Are anypony there?”
The soft call ripped the two second lieutenants out of their trance. Dawn looked around.
“The cages! They must be in a side room. We mu- Are you eating?!”
Quartz had used his magic to fish the banana bread out of his saddlebag and break a piece off it. He swallowed it.
“Banana bread. Very heavy consistency. Calms the stomach if you feel sick. Want some?”
Dawn shook his head. 
“Don’t think I can ever eat anything again…  Hey, I think that’s a door over there. Wait here.”
Quartz did not object as Dawn ducked into the side room. He himself had noticed the most terrible of the many horrors of the room.

Alongside one of the walls was a sort of tilted metal slab with what must have been a pony attached to it with chains.
However, it had no coat. The poor soul had been skinned.
It, or rather she, as she looked distinctly female, had once had a horn, which appeared to have been sawed off close to the base, leaving only a bloody red stump in the forehead of the mare.
None of these things, however, were as horrifying to Quartz as the eyes staring into space. Their irises were purple.

He stepped up to the mare.
“Oh… no, Twilight… Celestia, no!”
He startled as the eyes of the unicorn rolled towards him and the chest started to expand and contract more visibly. A wheezing breath was audible. She was… alive.

“Twilight? Listen, focus on me!”
On the table behind him, a knife was lifted.

“It will be okay, do you hear me? We are here! You are safe now!”
A trained eye identified a pulsating artery, and adjusted the knife accordingly.

“I’m so sorry, Twilight…”
Quartz rammed the knife he had picked up from the table with his magic into her artery. The eyes shot wide open a few seconds before they turned glassy.

“I’m sorry…”
“Did you say something, Dusk?”
Dawn poked his head out of the doorway.
Quartz turned towards him.
“I said I found Twilight Sparkle. She’s gone…”
Dawn looked pained for a second before focusing again.
“We have time to mourn the dead later. Right, now, I need your help opening these cages! We have two survivors here, a conscious but shocked filly and an unconscious pegasus mare.”

Smooth Sailing felt like he would never stop vomiting.
Celestia! I ate… I ate.. pony!
He did, however, stop. He took a deep breath and looked towards the room he had just run out of. He could not enter it again.

I’ll just stay here in the corridor, and… what was that?

A creak made him spin around; only to promptly slip in his own vomit and fall in the doorway they had passed a few minutes earlier.
He landed in a pile of something that felt like wooden sticks.
“Eugh…”
He tried to stand up again. His hoof touched something round, about the size of a hoofball. He looked at it, and screamed. The pony skull seemed to mock him with its grin as he flailed wildly backwards through the pile of bones he had landed in.
Suddenly the room went dark. 

Sailing froze. Only his own, heavy breath was audible. No, not only his breath. There was another breath in the room, not following his pattern.
He tried to slowly back out of the room, but stepped one some bone that snapped audibly. Mortified he heard something being broken off somewhere in front of him.
He swallowed. “Uh-oh.”

“Who turned off the lights? Sailing? I can’t see a thing… Dusk, use your horn!”
Dawn had just put the unconscious Fluttershy over his back and but a crying Applebloom around the neck of Quartz when they heard the scream. Seconds later the lights went out.
Quartz lit the small light on the tip of his horn again. Applebloom hugged his neck tightly and cried into his coat as the two guards cautiously fumbled their way back out into the short corridor with only the help of the small light.
“Sailing, are you there?” Quartz whispered intently.
“Sail- WHOA!”
Quartz hopped a little backwards as Sailing fell out of the doorway on their left hand side, nearly hitting him.
The two guards leaned over him.
“Sailing, you okay?” Quartz tried. No reaction.
Quartz leaned close enough that his horn illuminated Sailing’s face, but quickly recoiled.
The stallion had gotten something that looked like a rib stuck in his eye socket and probably into his brain, judging by how very dead he had looked.

Dawn and Quartz look at each other, Quart’s horn barely showing their horrified faces. The Dawn’s expression turned into one of grim determination.
“Dusk, extinguish your light.”
Quartz did as asked.
“Why?”
“We’re too visible,” Dawn whispered back, “now, I need you take this mare…”
Quartz felt a heavy load being placed on his back.
“and make for the exit as quickly as possible. I’ll stay here and try to stop her.”
“What?! No, I’m not leaving you here alone in the dark, Winter!”
“Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz, as the more senior officer of the two equally graded of us, I order you to do as I say!”
A cackling laughter suddenly burst out of the darkness somewhere, and Quartz wasn’t going to argue any longer. He galloped towards the exit at full speed. He felt it as if the darkness was squeezing him in, trapping him… 
He went full speed up the stairs, through the kitchen and the kitchen door, and collapsed outside in the bright, seemingly mocking sunshine.

“Sir, sergeant Fern and troop reporting, sir!”
Quartz looked up with tired eyes and saw six burly white pegasi in shining armor accompanied by a worried-looking Riff Raff.
Quartz couldn’t even feel relieved; he just waved his hoof in the general direction of the door.
“Down… there. One KIA and one covering my back. Go… use… flashlights… it’s dark…”
Suddenly Quartz felt incredibly tired. He welcomed the soft darkness of unconsciousness.

“Is he in here?”
“Yes, Bugsy. He’s all yours.”
The detective stepped aside from the office door in the Ponyville town hall.
“Excellent. Bean, go down to the front entrance and tell Mr. Magnum that he and his wife can see his daughter Rarity tomorrow at the Ponyville Hospital, would you?”
“’kay, Bugsy.”
She took a deep breath and opened the door. Inside sat a very tired-looking Royal Guard. He was unshaved and he had dark rings under his eyes, but when he looked at her he could see that they still shone bright and clear.
“Hello,” he said.

“Hello,” the mare that had just entered replied “I am detective Grass Hopper from the MPD, and-“
Quartz smiled and interrupted her.  
“Like the insect?”
She rolled her eyes, but smiled warmly.
“Yes, like the insect. They call me ‘Bugsy’ down at the station for a reason.”
Both laughed. Quartz looked at her. She was a grey mare with an orange mane and green eyes, about his own age.

Doesn’t look half bad, neither.

He shook this out of his mind.
“Well, I’m Dusk Quartz, and I must say, I am glad they sent you to do this. I’ll take a pretty mare any day over that dolt out there.”
She feigned indignant surprise.
“Mr. Quartz, how do you know I don’t have a big, scary boyfriend who doesn’t like you complimenting his special somepony?”
He grinned. “Because that aforementioned dolt just complained loudly to one of the CSIs that if you didn’t stop rejecting him you would become a vicious old spinster.”
“Bean?” She shuddered. “Ugh… Then I’d rather be a spinster. Bean smells like a bag of old farts.”
They both laughed out loud.

“Seriously though,” Hopper said, “I’ll have to ask you some questions, mister.”
Quartz sighed. 
“By all means, go ahead. But tell me one thing first. The survivors… How are they?”
Hopper thought about it for a moment before apparently deciding to tell him.
“The filly is with her family and a crisis psychiatrist in Sweet Apple Acres. The pegasus has been placed with the unicorn mare you brought in earlier up at the Ponyville Hospital. Your colleague Raff has volunteered to stay with them until we get more officers up here.”

Private Raff was deeply worried for his friend Sailing. None of the six guards who had entered Sugarcube Corner had wanted to tell him anything except that they had not found the culprit nor second lieutenant Dawn.

If only they’d let me see lieutenant Quartz…

He shook his head and looked around the hospital room. The unicorn was still out dark, but the pegasus, Fluttershy, if Raff remembered correctly, was awake. However, she was just staring into space and holding her blanket, not saying a thing.
Raff sighed and returned his focus to the magazine he was sitting in a chair reading.
He was just ogling the image of a particularly well-formed mare by the name of Prima Vera when the nurse knocked softly on the doorframe.

“Miss Fluttershy, there’s a guest for you. Do you feel strong enough to see her?”
Fluttershy nodded weakly. The nurse looked over to Raff who shrugged and returned his focus to the image caption where Prima Vera told the magazine how she loved strong, slient stallions in uniform.
“Surprise! You didn’t expect to see me again, did you, Flutters?”
The cheery voice of the guest drew his attention away from Prima’s hind quarters. The first thing he saw was the mortified expression on Fluttershy’s face.

It took a few seconds before his brain made the logical connections. Within milliseconds his wings had taken him across the room and into a dive-tackle of the mare that had just entered.
While holding the wriggling mare down he turned to Fluttershy.
“RUN!”
Seconds later he was bucked off. She had not been strong enough to buck such a big stallion over, but he still collided with a little wheeled table the nurse had left earlier that day.
He stood up again, but noticed a sudden sting in his neck.
He looked down and saw a syringe dangling from his neck.
“Oh, s-… sh-“
The world rapidly turned dark and he slumped to the floor.

Detective hopper wrote down Quartz’ final statements in a notebook.
“Thank you very much. Is there anything else, Mr. Quartz?”
Quartz thought about it for a second.
“Yes. I have two requests.”
“Go ahead…”

“First and foremost; can I take Twilight Sparkle’s baby dragon and owl back to Canterlot with me? I know her brother, and somepony need to take care of them.”
Hopper bit her lip a second before nodding. “Granted, as long as you can come down to Manehattan to answer some questions when we call for you. What was the other request?”
“You are from Manehattan, right? Do you know Ristorante Pizza è Magia on the corner of 53rd and Van der Clop Avenue?”
She searched her memory for a few seconds. “Uhm… Yes. What for?”
“When all… this, is over, would you like to grab some dinner there one evening? I’ll pay.”
She snorted. “Mr. Quartz… I’ve never…”
“This case will probably make your career, remember? Come on…”
She smiled. “Okay then. But don’t tell anypo-“
Hopper was interrupted by the entrance of the detective Quartz now knew was called ‘Bean’. He whispered something in Hopper’s ear. The only word Quartz could make out was ‘hospital’.
She frowned. “Get back to Sugarcube Corner and check on the CSIs, would you? I’ll go there.”

Hopper turned back to Quartz.
“Mr. Quartz, it is almost midnight. I recommend you get on the midnight train to Canterlot. Then you can be back with your company before sunrise.”
Quartz hesitated. “Wait. What was all that about? What did he tell you?”
Grass Hopper sighed. “There’s been a fire at the Ponyville Hospital. I am afraid the unicorn and your colleague have been found, dead. My condolences.”
Quartz’ mouth felt all dry. “Wh-what?”
She continued.
“We haven’t found the pegasus yet, but things look bleak. I’m sorry. Now, I’ll get somepony to escort you to your train.”

Chapter 8 - Storm

Quartz moaned and massaged his temples. There was a low murmur of voices from the six other guards returning home on the Canterlot Midnight Express. He placed his helmet next to the sleeping baby dragon and caged owl in the seat next to him.
He stepped out into the walking space between the rows of seats and walked back to sergeant Fern, who was engaged in a low-key conversation with one of the other guards.
“…found a dress made out of the coats of other ponies! A dress! Who wears something so macabre? Hmm? Oh, Lt. Quartz, sir. What is it, sir?”
Quartz sighed.
“I’m just having a terrible headache, that’s all. I’ll just go and get some fresh air. Look after the owl and dragon, would you, Fern?”

The cold night air cooled Quartz as it blew over the end wagon of the train. He took a deep breath of it when he was hit on his muzzle by a drop. He looked up.
And saw the most incredible sight of his life.
A massive storm front darkened out the stars one by one, seemingly going from horizon to horizon. In front of it, more little dots than he could count zipped back and forth in the moonlight.
“So many pegasi… It must be millions…” he said lowly to himself.
He shook his head and went back inside. He did not hear the sigh of relief from the mare hiding behind a crate in the wagon.

A torrential rainfall washed over Canterlot as Quartz opened the door to his home and placed the owl and baby dragon inside. He whinnied irate when he realized he had to go to the palace for debriefing.
He kicked his doorframe in anger and galloped back into the rain.

“… and then the mare said: ‘No thanks. Cider for me. Aquavit makes my hind quarters so sore!’”
The whole guard room burst into laughter at sergeant Clearing’s joke. He was playing cards with the night shift guards who were guarding the main Canterlot Palace gate. 
They were interrupted by a banging on the gate.
“Who can it be at this time of night?” sergeant Sunshine Smiles wondered out loud.
Clearing stood up and stifled a yawn.
“Well, gentlecolts, I have lost anyway, so I’ll go see.”
He went out of the room and headed over to the gate, opening it slightly.
“Yes? State your business?”
Outside was a hooded mare in a raincoat. Something looked… off about her face, but Clearing couldn’t place a hoof on it.

“I have a fun surprise for the Princess!”
Clearing laughed out loud.
“Ha! Anypony else you wish to speak with? The sheik of Saddle Arabia? The Chancellor of Gryffonia? Get lost.”
“Wait,” Clearing felt a hoof on his shoulder and saw that it was sergeant Smiles talking “I know her. That’s Twilight Sparkle. I saw her a few years back at the Nightmare Night celebrations in Ponyville. She’s a friend of Luna’s…”
Clearing’s eyes shot wide open. 
“What? I mean…” he opened the gate and let the mare in “…Come on in, ma’am. An honor!”
The mare smiled and tripped past him. As she trotted deeper into the palace she turned to the two guards.
“If you see Dusk Quartz, give my regards!”
The two stallions looked at each other and shrugged.


They had just started walking back to the guard room when somepony banged the gate once more.
Clearing rolled his eyes.
“What is it now? You go back to the others, Smiles, I’ll take it.”
He went over to the gate door and opened it slightly again.
“Yes? State your bu- Lieutenant?”
Outside was a very wet and very tired-looking Dusk Quartz. He seemed equally surprised.
“Wooden? What are you doing here? This is the night shift!”
Wooden Clearing opened the door to let him in.
“I’m just playing some cards with Smiles and the others…”
Quartz moaned as he stepped inside.
“Ooooh, it has been nasty this weekend, Wooden. I’ll tell you all about it later. Now I need to get to debriefing.”
Clearing remembered something.
“Oh, lieutenant… Twilight Sparkle sends her regards.”
Quartz frowned. “What are you talking about? Twilight Sparkle was found dead this morning. By me, I might add.”
Clearing looked very surprised.
“Really? But… Smiles just identified a mare that went through here as Twilight Sparkle…”
Suddenly Quartz felt like the pieces of a puzzle clicked together in his mind.

…She had been skinned… …“a dress made out of the coats of other ponies”… “I’ll probably head up to Canterlot the day after tomorrow to look at with her”…

“Celestia…” he mumbled to himself.
“Pardon me?” Clearing asked,
Quartz turned distressed towards him.
“Where’s the shift commander?”
“Er… Lieutenant Cloud is at lieutenant Grove’s retirement party up at the third floor… But you can’t-“
Quartz bolted off.
“I have to, Wooden! You did not let in Twilight Sparkle, but somepony far more…”
Clearing did not hear the last word as Quartz disappeared around a corner.

The wineglasses rattled pleasantly as they hit each other in a toast. Laughter filled the small dining room in the West Wing of Canterlot Castle. Lieutenant Grove gave a broad smile and shook his head to the middle-aged earth-pony mare he was standing next to.
She pouted her lips. “You didn’t even give me the chance to speak, Green!”

Grove kept smiling and looked into the fizzling golden liquid in his glass.
“I already know what you are going to ask, Laurel,” he directed towards the light green mare, “and the answer is still ‘no comment’.”
Laurel frowned and brushed a lock of greying blonde hair away from her face.
“No comments on the Discord case?”

Grove smiled ever wider now that he realized he had been correct in guessing the intentions of the aging editor of the Canterlot Times.
“Absolutely no comments, Laurel.”
“But what about the Crystal Empire? Rumor has it that ponies from Equestria aided in its reappearance? Or what about Princess Luna? If I have understood it correctly, when she came back from the moon she was regretful and immediately was offered her old position back by Princess Celestia… But something isn’t right with that explanation there… Was she really not vengeful after being beaten and exiled by her own sister?”
Grove shook his head again.

“All inquiries for official comments on internal matters should be directed to the relevant Ministry, or alternatively the Court Press Liaisons Officer. If you have any questions regarding the Guard’s role in these matters, please direct your inquiry to captain Armor on the second floor of the East Wing.”
Laurel rolled her eyes.
“Come on, Green, we have known each other for twenty years, and all you can give me is that old drone response?”
Lieutenant Green Grove winked and went over to a group of stallions standing close by.

Outside the door, Dusk Quartz had met an obstacle in the form of Sgt. Wool.
“Oh, come on, Wool! It is an emergency!”
The young sergeant shook his head.
“No can do, sir. Lieutenant Grove gave me strict orders that only the commanding officers of the Companies, a few personal friends and their escorts could enter.”
Quartz tripped nervously and considered whether he should simply force his way past the slightly shorter but bulkier sergeant when he recognized a familiar character trotting down the corridor. He galloped over to her.

“Spitfire! Spitfire, you have to help me get inside that room!”
The head of the Wonderbolts, for the occasion dressed up in a tasteful evening dress, raised an eyebrow as the stallion stopped in front of her.
“Second lieutenant Quartz? What are you doing here? And why are you trying to get into the party I’m attending?”
Sgt. Wool became curious now as well, but an irate glance from the second lieutenant made him turn his eyes away from the pair. He could still hear them, though.
“Spitfire, could you describe your missing Wonderbolt trainee?”
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you in a second.”
Wool dared to glance over at them again. Quartz closed his eyes and sighed as Spitfire described a light blue pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane.

Quartz leaned over to the mare and whispered something in her ear that Wool couldn’t make out, but whatever it was he could see Spitfire’s pupils widening in shock.
A minute or so later a slightly upset-looking Spitfire followed Quartz over to Sgt. Wool.
“Guard, I am back. This is my escort. Would you please let us back in?”
“Of course, ma’am!”
Wool stepped aside and let the couple into the room.

“Mr. Pants, as I’ve told you for three years now, I will not accept bribes to promote your nephew!”
Grove rolled his eyes and whinnied angrily.
Fancy Pants immediately became defensive.
“It is not a bribe, Green, just a departing gift for a dear old frie-“
Lieutenant Grove’s other conversational partner, lieutenant Cloud, interrupted the rich unicorn.
“Mr. Pants, I think it might be best if you left us now. We guards have to talk.”
As the unicorn begrudgingly walked away from the duo Cloud turned frowning back to Grove.
“Green, you know he will turn to your successor once you’re gone, right?”

Grove sighed.
“Yes. However, I have faith in young Quartz. I’m sure he will make a fine first lieutenant. Where is your successor, anyway? Even though you have nearly six months left here, we all know second lieutenant Lightning is your golden colt…”
The elderly light blue pegasus smiled at Grove.
“He’s up in the storm, heading the guards we sent last week. He’s a goo-“
He was interrupted by a young guard virtually shoving his face into the lieutenant’s ear and whispering quickly and intensely. Grove’s eyebrows shot up in confusion when he realized the young guard was none other than second lieutenant Dusk Quartz. He couldn’t make out the words, but Cloud’s responses were worrisome enough.
“What?... How do you know…? Oh, I see… This is not good.”
The two stallions looked at Grove. Cloud spoke first.
“Green… It appears we might have an emergency at our hooves. I’m afraid this party’s over.”

Corporal Ruby Star looked doubtful at the mare in front of her. She had been awakened from her pleasant doze thinking about a certain handsome stallion when this character had shook her violently. Now the mare was asking to be let into Princess Celestia’s private apartments, the door of which Ruby was guarding. She sighed.
“No, I’m sorry, miss. I really cannot let you in at this time, whoever you are or aren’t. The Princess is asleep, and can’t be disturbed.”

The mare opened her mouth as if to say something, but was interrupted by a loud scraping sound from inside Ruby’s armor. Ruby pulled out a small radio receiver from the left side of her armor and listened to the message.
“… and prep to evacuate the VIPs. Repeat: All guards are to be on full alert. We have a code 47; a dangerous and possibly armed intruder with hostile intentions on site. Guards are to lockdown the area and await further orders, and prep to evacuate the VIPs…”

A sudden jab of pain in the neck made Ruby drop the receiver. She looked at the mare with a frightened and surprised expression, then down to the neat little knife being pulled out of her throat, and back to the mare again.
“I’m so sorry,” the mare said, “I hope I didn’t hurt you…”
Ruby felt her knees buckle and slumped to the ground while trying to fight off the rapidly approaching darkness.

“I didn’t even know we had radios.”
Quartz looked puzzled at lieutenant Cloud, who was lowering a radio transmitter from his muzzle. The two guards plus lieutenant Grove were standing in the West Wing security central with a couple of very confused night shift guards in the same silver-colored Night armor that Cloud was wearing. Grove was busy shouting his lungs out into another radio transmitter, something about getting all the companies down to the castle, even the training company stationed outside Canterlot.

Cloud turned to Quartz and smiled weakly.
“We got them only two months ago. So far only the ponies guarding the Royals and a few patrol leaders have them. W-”
He was interrupted when one of the two Night Guards whispered something in his ear. Cloud nodded grimly, and turned back to Quartz.
“None are guarding the room of captain Armor and Princess Cadenza, second lieutenant. Could you please go there and ask the Captain to get over here in a hurry? Take these two greenhorns with you.”
Quartz nodded and headed for the door, but stopped in his tracks when Cloud yelled his name. He turned.
“Yes, sir?”
“Don’t forget this!” The lieutenant threw him a radio. “Good luck, second lieutenant. We might both need it tonight…”

The old, bearded cyan unicorn stallion fidgeted nervously between the two Royal Guards. 
Regina Celestia looked interested at him as captain Vellus, who stood to the right of her desk, finished his statement in a low voice.
She stood up from her stool and walked around the desk to look the elderly stallion in the eye.
“Senatorem Aquarius, centurio Vellus mihi dicit ut vos aperuit portas civitatis quia barbari. Quare? Cur remque dignitati tuae, honor et vitam pro aurum?”
The senator returned her judging stare defiantly.
“Ego non fecit id pro aurum, Regina…” he spat out.
Celestia frowned.
“Ergo cur?”
Senator Aquarius grinned coldly.
“Quia…”
Suddenly he grabbed the gladius from the belt of one of the guards with his magic and cut the neck of its owner before planting it firmly in the chest of the other guard. Captain Vellus drew his own gladius with his teeth, but a bolt of magic hurled him screaming over the balcony to Celestia’s right.
However, the senator never got the chance to lunge at Celestia herself, as she slammed him into the marble wall of her office with the weight of her body. Her magic further restrained him, as well as forced the blade of the gladius to his throat.
Celestia leaned over him so closely that her eyes were less than a hoofwidth from his own, red ones.
“Qui estis? Qui operaris est?”she demanded.
He didn’t answer, just peered down his neck.
She followed his gaze, and saw an Ancient Alicorn Amulet that had been revealed between the folds of the toga the old stallion was wearing.
She shivered all over. The old stallion smiled.
“Quod sic. Eram quod es, eres quod sum.”
Suddenly his body started to change and grow, until Celestia saw his true form.
“Non…” she whispered under her breath.
“Ita.” Aquarius said, “Volunt vo mortuis. Vos erant utilis, ‘Regina’, velut quoddam instrumentum ut aufero vermem Discord, sed nunc civitate vestra ardet…”
“Non…” Celestia tried to shut out the screams and the crackle of fire from outside, sounds that had inched closer over the last quarter of an hour as her soldiers fought desperately to defend the city.
“Sed, ut defecit…” Aquarius finished, “Dulce et decorum est pro armento mori. Vivat Armento!”
With that he used his magic to wring the gladius out of Celestia’s hold and slit his own throat with it. He gargled and spurted warm blood in Celestia’s face.
“Merda!” Celestia exclaimed, completely forgetting her royal bearing.
She felt Aquarius grow limp.
“Non!” She called out, shaking the body violently, “Non!”
“He is dead, sister…”
“Excire ex hic, Luna!” Celestia barked, before realizing Luna had spoken another language.
Suddenly memories flooded her mind, and she realized that…
“Luna, what have I told you about snooping in other ponies dreams, especially mine? Back when we were enemies I had to train my entire court in resisting your mind invasions to keep a dagger out of my back!”
Luna came up to her sister, but looked more fascinated by the marble-walled office and balcony than apologetic.
“I am sorry, sister, but I thought it was my duty as the Princess of The Night to intervene in nightmares to help ponies sleep… But, this is not an ordinary nightmare. We are in your office in Equa. This is not a usual dream, but a memory…”
Celestia looked away.
“Yes. We are in the old Equestrian capital of Equa. I am surprised you remember my office; it is almost fifteen centuries since this… incident happened. Remember that amulet Twilight Sparkle sent me a few days ago?”
Luna nodded. Celestia smiled, but the smile did not reach her sad eyes.
“I destroyed it. This here is the last time I saw an amulet like that. It was the same night the barbarians burned Equa. Hopefully this was just an old artifact imprinted with a practical joke from a former owner, but the message it contained seemed…”
She trailed off and went to the balcony. Luna remained still.
“You know, Luna, it might be good that you came here. You might as well know this now rather than later. You are all grown. Our brother, our sisters and even I lied to you, Luna.”
Celestia turned and looked Luna in the eyes.
“At dawn I’ll tell you how our parents really died. Not from illness, as we told you. And bring the Minister of Defense and the head of the armed forces. Just in case this amulet was not a joke, I would like to review some mobilization timetables and civilian evacuation plans.”
Luna frowned.
“What is so important that you would lie to me, your own sister?”
Celestia sighed.
“Look at the body, Luna.”
Luna did so, and gasped.
“No, it is not possible! How can this be, Celestia?”
“He was using a shape shifting spell to pose as Senator Aquarius. If I remember correctly, you used a similar spell during your journey to Saddle Arabia a thousand years ago.”
“No, I meant… how can he be…”
Luna was interrupted when she suddenly became glass-eyed and literally translucent. She turned to Princess Celestia.
“It appears somepony is trying to wake me, sister. I will see you at sunrise.”
“I will.” Celestia promised.

Princess Celestia yawned and sat up in her bed. She looked at the clock. Still several hours to sunrise.
“Bad dreams, Your Highness?”
The familiar voice calmed Celestia down.
“Nothing, Iris, just some nasty memories of a time long past.”
Celestia’s room was only very weakly lit by the moonlight coming in from outside, but she could see a glass being reached her.
“A glass of water, Your Highness?”
“Thank you very much, Iris, you read my mind.” Celestia thanked her chambermaid.

The glow of the two cigarettes looked like a pair of glowing eyes in the copse a few hundred paces from Sugarcube Corner. Detective Bean and one of the Crime Scene Investigators stood and observed the trees from outside a shed they had just exited. On the other side of the room filled with the bones of unfortunate victims the investigators had found a passage leading to this shed, no doubt the escape route of the murderer.
Bean spat out his cigarette and trampled it into the ground with his right front hoof.
“Nasty business, this.”

The CSI nodded silently as Bean continued.
“Well, if I do a good job without getting sick, maybe Bugsy will finally gain mor-… more resp…”
He trailed of as he had noticed something odd poking out of a bush some distance from the shed.
He turned back to the CSI again.
“Do you have a flashlight, perchance?”

The CSI ruffled through a saddlebag and gave Bean a flashlight.
With the flashlight between his teeth Bean went over to the bush and brushed the branches aside. He gasped at what he found.
“Dear Sweet Celestia…” he turned to the CSI, “Get Bugsy! We have a problem!”

Quartz knocked on Shining Armor’s door, trying to ignore the constant descriptions of Pinkie Pie that were rolling out of the radio as guard after guard reported for duty and asked for instructions.
Princess Cadance opened, wearing a pink dressing gown.
“What is it at this time of the night?” 
“… second lieutenant,” she added.
A few years ago this would have impressed Quartz, but he had enough experience with Canterlot bigwigs to know that many of them had learned to note the number and width of differently-toned stripes in the plumes of guard helmets, the Guard’s own way to denote rank.

He spoke quickly.
“Princess, I need you to follow these two guards. We have a Code 47.”
Cadance nodded. She had lived in Canterlot most of her life, and had been through several drills, enough to remember the usual codes and expected reactions.
“I understand,” she said, “I’ll evacuate at once. I assume you’ll want my husband?”

Quartz nodded once.
“That would be very much appreciated, ma’am.”
Cadance yelled for Shining Armor before slipping out of her dressing gown, grabbing a tiara and some jewelry, and following the two guards that accompanied Quartz.
Armor showed up at the door, clearly tired.
“Dusk? What are you doing here at this hour?”
Quartz looked pained a moment as he realized nopony had told Shining Armor about his sister yet. However, more pressing concerns were at hoof.

“We have a Code 47, Shining. You need to go to the West Wing security central ASAP!”
Armor’s eyes shot open wide, and he disappeared into the apartment before emerging in his purple captain’s armor.
He nodded to Quartz and galloped off in the direction of the West Wing. Quartz whinnied exasperatedly and trotted after him.

Princess Celestia felt dizzy. She had tried to go to her private bathroom to wash her face, but warm feeling was spreading in her torso.
Suddenly she stumped her hoof on something. In the moonlight, she could barely make out the features of her handmaid, Iris. She froze in horror.
“Feeling alright, Your Highness? Not dizzy?”

Celestia now realized the soothing voice had never come from Iris. She sighed. 
“I congratulate you, assassin. In my one thousand, nine hundred and forty-three years of reign, I have survived no less than eighteen attempts at my life, and you are the first to succeed.”
She turned towards the place the voice had come from. Her body started to feel numb, and the warm feeling entered her neck.

“Too bad, what will happen to you next…”
For the first time in centuries, Celestia’s Royal Canterlot Voice thundered “GUARDS!!!” across the rooms and hallways of the castle.
Celestia took a deep breath and prepared to yell again, when she noticed the assailant in the moonlight for the first time.
“You?” she whispered, before the warmth reached her head and the world turned black.

“Calling all guards. I repeat: Calling all guards. Halt search. False alarm.”
Quartz stopped dead in his track when lieutenant Cloud’s voice came over his radio. He pressed in his own transmitter.
“What?”
The answer was vibrating with anger.
“Second lieutenant Quartz, Pinkamena Diane Pie, your supposed intruder, was just found dead in Ponyville. Detective Hopper sent us a telegram. Second lieutenant Dawn must have done her in, meaning you’re just paranoid, wasting Guard resources on your wild goose chase!”
Quartz felt like his whole world was crumbling around him.

However, as soon as Cloud let go of his transmitter, the airwaves were once more filled with the chatter of the other guards. The difference was that this time it sounded panicked.
“What was that...?”
“…Somepony yelled for us…”
“…Was it the Princess…?”
“I heard it over the radio. Do you think somepony have squeezed their transmitter in too tightly and not let it go…?”
“I can’t get hold of corporal Star…”
“…She was guarding the Princess’ apartments last I saw her…”
Suddenly it felt like something clicked together in Quartz’ mind. Something he had seen in the basement of Sugarcube Corner that he had forgotten. 

So this is how it all comes together…

He swore long and hard in his own language, while sending a silent thanks to colorful vocabulary of his father, before galloping off in the direction of the Royal Apartments. 

> Lost Souls chapter 9 (final)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lost Souls - Part IV

Chapter 9 - Hurricane

She looked at Princess Celestia’s lifeless body, shining milky white in the beam of moonlight that entered the Royal Bedchamber through a window. She relished the sight. In a moment the storm clouds that now covered almost all of the sky would obscure this last vestige of moonlight.

She looks so peaceful…

She stood up straight again and sighed. In the end she could not muster the courage administer Celestia a lethal dose of the poison. It seemed too wrong of her to stab the Princess in the back like that. However, Celestia would remain in deep semi-coma for hours yet, more than long enough to complete the plan. If she couldn’t kill the Princess, the laws of physics were always willing to give a helping hoof. She thanked herself for having the foresight to plan a fake demise for the Princess that could double as a real one if her own courage faltered.

She gently lifted Princess Celestia with her unicorn magic and walked out into the hallway. She had hoped she would not have to kill the guard before she was done inside, but the mare had realized what was happening when the radio message came. She wondered a second about this. The radios did not figure in her plan, despite all the scouting and observing she had done. They must have been purchased recently. 

A thought struck her. She could easily eliminate this disadvantage. She placed the Princess on the marble floor of the corridor, next to the body of her handmaid Iris, and turned to the corpse of the guard lying in a crumpled heap by the door. Although panic struck her for a minute when she noticed the “transmit” button had been stuck in the “on” position when it was pressed against the floor, she calmed down when she realized that the only sound loud enough to be caught by the radio out here was the Princess’ yell for guards.

In any case, that meant help was on the way here. She quickly used a spell she had gotten a lot of practice with in the basement of Sugarcube Corner over the last couple of years. Soon the cleaning spell had removed all visible blood from the area. Contented with her handiwork she brought the guard’s body over to Celestia. 

She was just going to remove the Princess’ necklace- or was “collar” a more fitting word given its’ size?, well aware of its emergency function, when suddenly she realized that she could hit two timberwolves with one rock. She smiled to herself malevolently when she heard the clop of hooves against marble approach. She picked up the little radio set she had picked off the guard and opened the transmitter part. She moved a few wires around and threw it away, satisfied with her sabotage. She assumed it would take about thirty seconds before it kicked in.

Dusk Quartz galloped through various corridors towards the Royal Apartments in the Outlook Tower. He was closer to the Ivory Tower, home of the Royal Library and Observatory, meaning he would have to either go down three floors to reach the throne room level and then run up even more floors up the tower, or brave the rainstorm outside and run across one of the many slippery-when-wet walkways in Canterlot.

As he ran, he tried to get through to the lieutenants in the West Wing security central, but the channel seemed occupied by some young private talking about empty apartments without trace of neither Princess nor maid nor gua-
A screeching sound erupted from his radio, an electric static that seemed to fill the channel. Quartz was so surprised that he tripped and fell
. 
He stood up and threw the useless radio away in anger. Only then did he notice the two guards standing as if frozen and staring at him from an alcove. They both had the golden armor of the Day companies, but the blue plumes seemed to indicate that they were not from the same exact company as Quartz’ grey-plumed one.
One of them smiled sheepishly and tried to hide a big piece of rock salt he no doubt had just licked on duty. However, Quartz did not have time to be angry now.

“You two!” he barked at them, “What are you lazy sons of mules standing around here for? Haven’t you heard we have a crisis on our hooves?”
The taller of the two blinked a couple of times. “Crisis?”
“Yes! Follow me!”
“Uh… Yes sir!”
“Why are you two even up at this hou-“
Quartz stopped mid-sentence. A sort of warm, vibrating pulse came down his horn and sent shivers down his spine. Suddenly he realized what it was.

“So, the crystal in the Princess’ necklace is… some sort of beacon?”
Twilight Sparkle looked confused at him from the reading table of the Royal Library.
Private first class Dusk Quartz gave her a smile. He leaned towards a bookshelf by the door.
“Yes. Magical. The unicorns of the Guard are trained to detect and locate it. Magical detection and location are usually things for high-level unicorns, but it can be so crucial for the Guard that we do it anyway. The beacon activates if the Princess’ magical aura shuts d-“
“Can you teach me?” The young mare’s eyes were shining with excitement and curiosity.
Quartz raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
Twilight nodded eagerly. “Yes! Yes please, if you have time, I mean.”
He shrugged and returned to all four. “I’m here for three hours more, anyway. I’m just surprised you want to know about it, Sparkle, that’s all.”
Quartz came over to her.
“Okay, close your eyes, Sparkle.”
Twilight closed her eyes.
“As you know, contrary to popular belief by non-unicorns, magic does not come from our horns. Rather it is a
latent physical energy…”
“… that can be manipulated via the nervous system by the brain through our horns, to refract light to create illusions, affect the density of air to levitate objects, and even change the properties of matter by way of molecular separation.” Twilight interrupted him, annoyed, “I did pass Magic 101, you know…”
Quartz frowned at her. “You didn’t let me finish, Sparkle. It is a latent physical energy that surrounds us, and therefore we can detect disturbances in the field if we empty our mind and simply feel the stream.”
She snorted. “You sound like one of my teachers.”
He rolled his eyes. “Just keep your eyes shut and pay attention to what I am telling you, okay?”
…

Quartz felt pained at the memory. He had trouble believing that Twilight was… was…
He shook his head and emptied his mind, ignoring the curios looks from the two guards. He closed his eyes and simply felt the magic energy flow in the room around him. Although rumor had it that Princess Celestia could scan all of Canterlot this way, unicorns in the Guard could mostly only feel fifty to hundreds paces around them, even shorter when inside the thick marble walls of the castle. Quartz could do seventy, buy that was not necessary, as…

He froze and turned slowly. The pulsating signal was coming from only about fifteen paces away, behind a door almost right behind him.
Quartz turned back towards the guards. None of them were unicorns, only normal drab-colored earth ponies. They stared nonplussed at him and seemed utterly incompetent as he saw them now. He could only hope they remembered their silent operation training.
He held a hoof to his mouth to signify silence, nodded his head towards the door, looked back at them and smacked his tongue twice to order them to follow him. Thankfully the shorter one seemed to understand. He nodded and elbowed the confused-looking taller one in the side. 

The door was a standard Canterlot outer gate, only smaller. It felt oddly familiar, a feeling that was explained when he inched it open and saw the same catwalk that he had taken with Storm only four days earlier. It felt an eternity away.
He slipped out of the door somepony were standing over a heap of something just a few short paces away. He could probably close the distance silently in less than ten sec-

A magically propelled knife shot out of the rain and passed so close to Quartz’ temple that he felt the whizz. He turned when he heard a metallic *clang*. The knife had bounced of the neck protection of the tall guard who had followed behind Quartz, and fell harmlessly over the balustrade and down into the darkness. This catwalk was not above the Royal Gardens, but the steep lightly wooded hillside that Canterlot was built on, meaning it was a long fall.

The guard grinned stupidly, but it faded when he noticed the cut on the right side of his neck. A red stain coloring his coat was streaming out of the severed artery. He stared blankly at Quartz, his facial expression one of light surprise, before he stumbled to ground. He whimpered and tried to cover the wound with his hoof, but Quartz knew it as too late for him. With such a cut he had about ten seconds before he lost consciousness and three minutes before he died of blood loss. Too short to do anything without even a bandage.

The other guard had frozen, horrified, on the other side of the half-opened door when he saw what happened to his friend. He looked frightened at Quartz, who mouthed “get help” as visibly as he could. Seconds later the door slammed shut, apparently sealed with magic, judging by the glow. Quartz forced his gaze away from the dying stallion, and turned to look at the murderer, a flame of rage building inside of him because of all the troubles he had been through because of this one pony.

“TWILIGHT! WHAT THE HAY ARE YOU DOING?!”
Twilight, who had been busy lifting the body of the handmaiden over to the crack, turned back to him and raised an eyebrow.
“Haven’t you caught that yet? I’m killing the Princess, of course. Or rather, gravity will do it for me.  I thought you were quick, Dusk…”
This last little insult carried Quartz over the top. He roared in anger and used his magic to hurl the spear at Twilight. She easily deflected it over the balustrade with her magic, but this left her vulnerable to Quartz himself, who came smashing into her with his full weight.
Twilight got the air knocked out of her lungs as she was smashed into the balustrade. They were locked so closely together that none of them could really hit each other; they just stood flailing as Quartz pressed her against the balustrade.
Quartz saw an opportunity and started to hit her head repeatedly with his own, helm-clad one. In response, she kneed him the stomach and used the opening to send of a spell. Quartz saw a violet flash before everything turned dark.

Lieutenant Grove massaged his forehead with a hoof. “And the Princesses?”
The private swallowed. He was not used to seeing so many officers in the same room, and it made him nervous.
“Uhm, Princess Luna is underway, sir, but we can’t find Princess Celestia, sir!”
Grove sighed. “What a waste of our time…”
“Nightingale! NIGHTINGALE!”
A drab guard came running down the hallway outside the so fast that he slid past the door to the guard central when he tried to stop.
Grove rolled his eyes and turned to one of his fellow officers, still dressed in the evening dress from his interrupted party.
“Flora? Yours?”
Lieutenant Flora Nightingale  nodded and sighed. “Yes. He’s mine.”
The guard came running in and made a weak salute while catching his breath.
Nightingale waited patiently.
“Private Sponge? Are you up at this hour? What is it?” she asked softly.
Sponge huffed and puffed. “Catwalk… Princess… dead…”
While Sponge tried to form a coherent sentence Nightingale turned to Grove with fear in her eyes. Grove felt like a lump had formed somewhere deep in his guts. He swallowed and turned to the private he had just been talking to.
“Do we have any pegasi who can check the catwalks?”
The private shook his head. “No, sir. All are either up in the storm of carrying the royals’ carriages.”
Grove cursed silently. It would take at least several minutes before they could get anywhere at the rate the confused, tired and scared private Sponge managed to take them to wherever the Princess was.

Twilight whistled a happy tune as she dumped Iris’ body over the edge of the catwalk through the crack in the balustrade.
A moan interrupted her tune as she turned to Ruby’s body. She looked over to Quartz, and to her surprise he was forcing himself up on his legs again. She thought the last strike had knocked him out, if not snapped his neck. But here he was standing again. Small amounts of smoke came from his coat, which had been partially burned underneath his neck, where her bolt of magic had hit. His helmet had been blown off, but he only had a small cut on his muzzle, no serious injuries.
“Why, aren’t you a stubborn one…” she quipped.

Dusk moaned again and swayed dangerously, his eyes trying to focus on her. He was winced and clutched his side at what must have been a sudden jab of pain. Twilight guessed he had broken a few ribs. She looked more closely at him. She hardly recognized the tall stallion she had been so impressed by several years earlier. He was unshaved, pale, his mane was a wet and fat mess, and his eyes seemed to almost have sunk deeper into his skull in the last few days. For a brief moment she reflected on what had been and if maybe they, if things had been different, could have… No. She shook the thought out of her head, but Dusk had noticed the weakness in her eyes.

He extended a hoof towards her, as if trying to touch her. “Twilight…”
She shook her head. “Don’t talk to me, Dusk!”
“But… why? Why are you doing all of this? Is it that amulet?”
She looked surprised at him. “No. You made me this way! It is your fault!”
He frowned at her hard words. “Me?”
She grew angry, but at the same time sad. “No, you big dumb mule! You in plural! Everypony! She did it,” she extended a trembling hoof towards the Princess, “and nopony helped me!”

Suddenly Quartz’ expression changed to a grin. However, her next sentence made his face fall into pained folds again.
“I thought you were different! That’s why I cried when you came! I even almost told you at Fluttershy’s, but you brushed me off before I finished the sentence…” a few tears rolled down her cheek, to her chagrin “It turns out you are no different than the others. Nopony listens! Ever!”

Suddenly she felt a calming theoretical buzz from her brain. She spoke again, this time in the emotionless and cold tone of a lecture.
“I displayed clear signs of psychopathy. At the very least paranoid schizophrenia. Borderline Obsesssive-Compulsive Disorder, an extreme need to please… her,” she spat in the direction of Celestia, “and an extreme fear of failure… Etcetera, etcetera. You could have found all of this out if you just asked somepony about me, but nooo, you just care about your assignment, ‘second lieutenant’…”

Quartz bit his lip. “I’m so sorry, Twilight, I really am. But… why didn’t you ask for help if you could see all of this?”
She lifted up Ruby’s body with her magic and angrily sent it flying over the balustrade into the darkness.
“Sorry doesn’t cut it! I couldn’t ask for help because then they would stop my… hobby. The ponies around town that knew me were getting worried about my fits. And then one day Pinkie told me what her mother had done all those years ago… I couldn’t stop myself, I had to see how it felt. That power. I who had always been Celestia’s lapdog, with power over life and death? Could anypony imagine?”

Quartz shook his head, apparently in disbelief.
“But… Some of them were your friends! How could you do this to them?”
She sneered. “I wrote everypony I knew down on a list and assigned them a number. That included them. I had my doubts about it, but by the time Rainbow Dash’s number came up… I had long since found great pleasure in my ‘work’. You should have seen her face, Dusk, when…”

Twilight’s horn lit up for a second before she was engulfed by a flash of white light. When Quartz regained his eyesight a few seconds later a pink earth pony with a poofy mane stood in front of him.
“…when her bestest friend in the whole wide world gutted her alive. ‘I want to go home, Pinkie’ she said. Pathetic.” The sneer didn’t fit the saccharine voice with which she was speaking.
“I did of course have to remove Pinkie. She had told me, and even if she didn’t understand, she might tell honest Applejack or one of the others, and boom! I’m gone,” she continued, “But I let her continue with her usual business until yesterday. She didn’t even think about where all the extra cupcakes I used to dispose of… evidence came from. That banana bread of yours was without pony, by the way. Anyhow, I couldn’t play with her, of course, like the others, but I did get to look her in the eyes and tell her about what Rainbow Dash thought of her before she died.”
Another flash of light and Twilight was back in her normal form.
Quartz shook his head again. “I still don’t understand how you could do this to your best friends.”
“I had to!” she exclaimed, “I had to because of Celestia! I needed to be free of her! Freedom isn’t free, I had to sacrifice to go on with my plan. When Lyra found me out I realized I had to stop dreaming and hurry up. I had to!”
Quartz stopped shaking his head and frowned. “Celestia?”

Twilight sighed. “Yes. All my life I have been bound to her tried to please her. For what? Her approval? What is that worth? A future job as a court magician? I don’t know why anymore. I needed to take my future back. Permanently. She can’t die on her own for millennia yet, so I had to… help her.
That is why I telegraphed my brother and asked him to send some guards down to Ponyville. I wanted you to find my nighttime lair under Sugarcube Corner. When you returned to Canterlot I would leave a greeting for you, and you would assume that some insane Pinkie had killed Lyra Heartstrings, or rather me, as the ‘purple eyes’ I created on her with contact lenses would seem to suggest. After you roused the castle, the body of Pinakamena Pie would be found near the exit of the Sugarcube Corner tunnel within days. Turns out…”
Another flash, and Lyra Heartstrings stood where Twilight had just stood. “that the brave Lyra Heartstrings fought her way out and killed the assailant. Sadly she has to move to Vanhoover because of the stress and trauma suffered.”

She morphed back and gave Quartz a content smile.
“However, to the great dismay and sorrow of the nation,” she finished, “a panicked guard started a false alarm, and in the darkness the Princess, her handmaiden and two of her guards fell off a broken catwalk. One of them was Dusk Quartz, the panicked guard. So now, in order for me to be free, I have to ki- Why are you shaking your head all the time?”
Quartz had started once more after Twilights changed tense. He stopped and looked her directly in the eyes. Twilight felt a shiver go down her spine, for some reason.
“Twilight,” he said, “please just give it up. You need help. It is over. While you have been spilling your guts one of the guards I was with has gotten more. Look!”

Twilight swallowed and turned to the windows on the wall on one side of the catwalk. Behind the stained glass windows depicting some historical scenes she could she shadows moving and muffled voices arguing. They had the plumes of Royal Guards. She winced when she started to hear banging at the magically sealed doors on both ends of the catwalk.

“Twilight…”
She turned back to Quartz, and felt like her whole world was in shambles. All her carefully construed plans, for naught.
“Twilight, let me help you… Just take my hoof.”
She heard Quartz’ voice faintly, saw his outstretched hoof as in a blur… But his face… His face was no longer the face of second lieutenant Dusk Quartz, it was…

“Twilight, let me help you. You take the back hooves.”
Twilight looked frightened at the young green foal sitting in the rowboat with her, but nodded. She couldn’t stand the mocking voices and hateful faces of the other foals at shore anymore. She just had to do this, and she would be cool. Then everypony would be her friend.

She grabbed the kid by the hind legs as good as she could. She just had to chuck it in the lake for a second, it would walk along the bottom to the shore, and eveypony at the magic kindergarten would be friends with her. Everyone knows that goats walk the bottom. Right?

She closed her eyes, and at the count of three from the other pony, the young unicorn foal threw the kid as far as she could.
She followed it with her eyes until it splashed in the water. A few bubbles broke the surface, and everypony waited in silence. Seconds passed, minutes.

“I see something!” the green foal exclaimed. He grabbed a long pole with a hook in the end that lay in the boat, and started fishing around in the water. After a little while, he pulled the kid aboard.
Twilight looked horrified at the cold glare into space and the open mouth, and knew that nothing would ever be the same again.
She was a killer. A murderer.
Twilight whispered the words a second before the green foal said them out loud.
“It is dead.”	


“It is dead!” Twilight yelled, “IT IS DEAD! THEY ARE ALL DEAD! I will kill you all! I will be free!”
Quartz covered as a wild bolt of magic shot over his head. Twilight had suddenly descended into a thus far unseen madness. Her eyes left glowing strips in the air as the magic pulsed through her, and her hooves lifted off the ground as she started floating in the air. Raindrops fizzled and evaporated into small pillars of vapor as her horn lit up brighter and brighter to the point that the magic was almost white.
He realized what was going to happen. Twilight was unable to control her magic and would let out one huge raw magic strike in his direction. Raw magic had no intended effect, making it an almost uncontrollable force capable of incinerating nearby ponies with pure energy and cause horrifying magical effects to everything else nearby.
Strangely enough, he didn’t feel fear at his imminent death. He had expected that. Neither did he feel any anger. He only felt sorrow, sorrow for Twilight.
Suddenly a yellow streak in the periphery of his vision reminded of the pegasus he had seen and spent the last ten minutes shaking his head to keep her from busting into the conversation. Now she was headed straight for Twilight with the fury that seemed as burning as a thousand suns.
“Fluttershy, no!” was all he managed to call out before the yellow pegasus hit the purple unicorn at full speed and caused a giant bolt of white magic to go shooting uncontrollably into the sky.

High Winds flapped her wings to get some altitude as the height of the cloud banks increased. Contrary to popular belief, clouds could have complicated “valleys” and “hills” even when they looked like flat blankets from the ground. She sighed.

I am a Wonderbolt! I should be directing pegasi at the sides of the bank, or at the very least be getting a good night’s sleep… But noooo, patrol duty. Thanks a million, Spitfire, I hope you enjoy the party…

As she gained altitude, she could see across the vast expanse of the rain storm cloud. It seemingly stretched from horizon to horizon. Here and there the moonlight revealed two-pegasi patrols such as her own. Speaking of which…
A grey mare came flapping up to her, attempting to hide her breathlessness.
“Don’t… make such sudden moves, ma’am. You… can be hard to see, let alone… follow.” she gasped.

She was probably referring to High’s curly mane, which was large enough to cover most of her body from behind and the same time was the color of the night sky. She pretended not to understand.
“’Hard to see’?  My coat is milky white, Rainstorm, even if most of it is hidden by my Wonderbolts costume.”

Rainstorm nodded weakly.
“Yes, ma’am. But with all due respect, ma’am, why are you wearing that here? The aerodynamic benefits must be minimal at such an altitude.”
High smiled to her. “You have much to learn, Rainstorm. When you gain a mark of distinction, you must wear it proudly so that people associate you with it. I am here not as High Winds, but in my capacity as a Wonderbolt. Now, continue your story about last Hearth Warming Eve.”
Rainstorm gave her a big smile as they started flying in a southeastern direction.
“Well, as I was saying, I was giving my dad a plush pony I made myself…”
High Winds let the soft voice lull her senses as they maintained a steady speed and heading. It was way too late at night. Or rather too early in the mo-

She was distracted by a growing light in the clouds just in front of and beneath them. Rainstorm was happily chatting away, but High’s distraction training from the Wonderbolt Academy kicked in, causing her to call out a warning.
“FLASH! Cover your ey-“

The huge bolt of magic tore through the clouds just a few wingspans in front of them. It singed High’s mane and left glowing dots on her retina for several seconds after she opened her eyes, but she had covered them with a hoof in time. Rainstorm had not been as quick.

“Ahh! I can’t see!” She yelled as she spiraled helplessly downwards into the clouds.
High zipped down and grabbed her under her front legs, finally having the Wonderbolt strength training pay off as her wings carried the weight of both of them.
“Don’t worry, Rainstorm, it just lasts half a minute or so. You should be happy we weren’t closer. That… thing would have done far worse harm than temporary blindness.”
“Y’ n’d help?” 

A wiry beige pegasus descended next to her and took over the weight of Rainstorm. He was wearing the gold-clored armor of the Royal Guard, and High figured he was one of the guards who had been brought in from Canterlot to help keep order in the gigantic storm-moving project.

Together the three of them ascended back up above the clouds, Rainstorm’s own wings carrying more and more of her own weight as she regained her sight and sense of direction. Another guard, in silver-colored armor, was waiting up there, and gave High a quick salute.

“Hello, ma’am! We were patrolling nearby when that little fireworks display back there alerted to us to the fact that you might need a tad of assistance.”
He turned to the other guard, who just had let go of an insecurely flapping Rainstorm.
“Good job, Cirrus! Now, I suppose you are in the Wonderbolts,” he said to High, “but allow me to introduce myself. Second lieutenant Grouse Lightning, Equestrian Royal Guard, First Night Company. That heavily accented klutz over there is sergeant Storm Cirrus, Second Day Company.”
“High Winds, Wonderbolts,” High rejoined, “and that there is St-“
A loud rumbling interrupted her. All four pegasi turned to the sound and saw flashes of lightning between clouds and rolling thunder filling the air.

“That… thing energized the clouds!” Lightning exclaimed, “Sweet Celestia, if those bolts reach the cloud barracks by the front edge… The sleeping cloud herders will be toast!”
High had thought the same. “We’ve got to warn them!” 
She and Rainstorm zipped off in an easterly direction. Lightning was about to follow them, when he noticed Storm Cirrus lingering by the hole that the magic bolt had left in the clouds.
“Cirrus! What are you doing? Get you rump in gear!”

Storm still hesitated.
“’t cam’ fr’m C’nterlot, sir…”
Lightning was slightly surprised, but remained focused at the crisis at hand.
“I’m sure Canterlot can handle themselves just fine, Cirrus. Although it wouldn’t surprise me for a second if that idiot platoon leader Quartz of yours was somehow behind this. Now come on!”


The idiot platoon leader Quartz of his ducked to avoid a stray bolt of magic from Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn was have a furious fight with teeth and hoof with Fluttershy, who was as enraged as a wounded harpy. He wasn’t sure how she had come to Canterlot or where she had been, but she had been circling above them for about five minutes, only keeping her distance because Quartz shook his head. Now he wasn’t sure how to separate the two, as his magic was not strong enough to lift two heavy and struggling objects like these. He could try brute force, but then one of them might fa-

His train of thoughts stopped in its tracks as he saw the two roll over the edge of the crack in the balustrade and fall over. It felt like moving through syrup has he lunged forward and grabbed Fluttershy with his left front hoof. Lacking digits of any sort, the hold slipped quickly, but allowed Fluttershy to clamber around his waist, dragging Quartz with her.

He just managed to grab onto one of the poles of the balustrade with both his front legs, carrying the weight of both him and Fluttershy. To his terror he discovered his trembling legs were not strong enough to pull both of them up.

Quartz looked down at the horrified pegasus clutching his abdomen.
“You’re a pegasus, for Celestia’s sake! Fly up!”
She shook her head and clasped her wings close to her body.
“I- I… I can’t”
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
“I’m… too… sc-“
Quartz never got to hear the rest of the sentence as she was interrupted by the jingle of broken glass and yells. He looked up and saw a familiar face.

“Well, you certainly took your time, Winter…”
Winter Dawn beamed down at him in response. “My apologies. Ms. Fluttershy there and I had to take a later train due to the cuts she got from jumping out from a hospital window. So… How’s it hanging?
Quartz rolled his yes. “Y’know, hanging out and stuff… But hey, one thing, could you please DROP THE FRIKKIN’ PUNS ALREADY AND HELP ME OUT HERE?! In case you haven’t noticed I am about to plummet to my death here in a minute or so…”
“Sure thing, Dusk,” Dawn assured, “just a second. Hey, you! Yeah, you! Get over here and give me a hoof, eh?”

A few seconds later Quartz felt  a strong leg under each foreleg of his, lifting him up. A few seconds later a burden was relieved as another guard took Fluttershy in the same fashion.

Within moments he was standing on the catwalk, trying to hide the slight tremble in his forelegs. A large group of guards, including several lieutenants, had stepped out onto the catwalk. Most of the officers seemed to be arguing, and lieutenant Cloud attempted to explain into a radio transmitter why they weren’t at the guard central. Quartz guessed captain Armor was on the other end, judging from Cloud’s servile and apologetic tone.

Dawn came up to his side. “Sorry for the late entrance here, but the lieutenants didn’t take kindly to the idea of breaking a ten thousand bit stained glass window to get out here. After that little fireworks show back there I made the decision for… Uh-oh, trouble’s brewing…”

Quartz followed his gaze and noticed a very irate lieutenant Grove shoving his way through the other guards towards them.
“Dawn! I explicitly told you not to touch that window! Now look at this mess!”
Grove turned his attention to Quartz after the unicorn let out a sigh of relief at two guards in the background confirming that Celestia still had a pulse.
“And Quartz, what the hay is going on here?”
Quartz smiled weakly. “it’s okay, sir, it has been dealt…”

He stopped as the lieutenant did not pay attention to him. In fact, everypony on the catwalk was looking slackjawed at a point over his head. In their eyes and in the raindrops still falling in front of him he could see a violet shine.
“She’s right behind me, isn’t she?”

Quartz turned and saw in a flash of lightning from the distance that Twilight Sparkle was lifting herself with her magic to hover just over the edge of the catwalk. She looked absolutely furious, but whatever she yelled to them was impossible to make out over the rolling crashes of thunder and howling wind. 

Quartz wasn’t really sure what to do. He was hurting all over and doubted he’d  be able to cast any protective spell at all, and there were only three other unicorns on the catwalk, all of them standing like paralyzed.

Suddenly he felt a hoof on his shoulder. It was Dawn.
“I’m getting too old for this business,” he yelled, to be heard over the intensifying sounds of the storm, “but I have to finish all of this!”
“What do you mean?” Quartz yelled back, but Dawn had turned from him and said something to lieutenant Grove, who looked doubtful, but nodded.
Only when Dawn started stepping backwards did Quartz realize what he was about to do. He grabbed Dawn by the neckline of his armor.

“Oh no-ho-ho, don’t you even think about it, Winter!”
Dawn nodded to Grove, who pulled Quartz towards him. 
“Tell Aury I’m sorry, Dusk!”
“Who?” Quartz asked, but Dawn had already run forward and leaped at Twilight Sparkle, dragging them both down into the darkness.

The wind and rain whipped Winter Dawn over the face as the two ponies fell together, the mare struggling as he hugged her tightly with his greater weight and strength, but he didn’t care. For the first time in far too long he was in the air! Weightless! He smiled and closed his eyes…

…he opened his eyes as he tore through the cloud and entered the bright daylight of the ever-blue skies, as happy as a pegasus could be. He barrel rolled and zoomed in between the outer buildings of Cloudsdale. As he gradually slowed down he started recognizing faces in the crowd. Friends, neighbors, the old stallion who owned the bakery at the corner… He waved and smiled, eliciting similar responses.
Finally he approached a familiar abode in a quiet corner of the bustling cloud city. He heard the excited calls of his daughter as she clumsily but eagerly flapped towards him. The filly had learned to fly not long ago, and was eager to show off her newfound ability to her daddy. He laughed heartily and gave her a hug, then swung the young’un onto his shoulders.
A vivacious laugh answered his from inside the house. She met him on the doorstep. He looked her in the eye and stroke her over her soft mane with his hoof, sayi-

Quartz tried to block out the soft thud. He turned in disbelief and shock towards Grove.
“He… H-he…”
Grove shook his head with a grim look and walked away. Quartz was left staring into space for a few seconds before silently walking over to the place where Fluttershy was sitting, leaning towards balustrade, huddled in a blanket. Quartz slumped down next to her, still silent. She was crying.

Her soft sobs were the drop that filled his glass over the brim. He could not hold his emotions in check any longer, and for the first time in a decade and a half Dusk Quartz cried.