Upon Nightmare Moon's return, the Elements of Harmony did more than just purify Luna: they released an ancient creature with a mysterious, perhaps malevolent, agenda.
Upon Nightmare Moon's return, the Elements of Harmony did more than just purify Luna: they released an ancient creature with a mysterious, perhaps malevolent, agenda.
Well I've seen that you've grown now. With the horses you ride. Gonna have your say now. See the new moon rising!
The Scourge of Glaciostel: A Short Tale of the Griffo-Equine War
Darkness upon the cruel skies fell The battle-torn fields of Glaciostel. Ponies, griffons, clashing steel; Forever din, endless peal.
Victory on the precipice For griffons of greatest avarice. When suddenly the tide was turned; His memory to this day is spurned.
Like some beast from deepest hell Emerged the Scourge of Glaciostel. Bastard of the warring races, Bringing fear to griffon faces.
Wings like sharpest obsidian blade Coated with blood of those he slayed. His eyes black as a coal in fire, Spreading death his prime desire.
Without warning he took the moors. Enemies he slew in scores. Flying like a wicked ghost, Or daemon spawn with mortal host.
Danced through blades without a scratch, Never once to meet his match. With feathers keen like tempered steel, Griffon innards did reveal.
As quickly as appeared was gone, As night relinquished to the dawn. Ponies cheered in victorious splendor; Griffons knelt in loathe surrender.
Equines celebrated all around, Their savior no where to be found. As if departed through unseen door, The Griffons' Bane was Nevermore.
The Everfree was swallowed in black, foreboding silence. Creatures scurried through the mystifying maze of trees, vines, and bushes with only the noise of their fragile breathing as company. Night suited the Everfree, and its many predators made good use of this unusually long one. Disturbing terrors waited, muscles strung tight like a guitar string about to snap, ready to end whichever insignificant critter crossed its sight. The Everfree housed many beasts, ancient and dangerous.
The raven stood perched on the end of a sturdy oak branch, gazing with strange intensity at the moon, which had lurked there even after what should have been the solstice sunrise. His gaze seemed to question the moon's purpose for breaking its usual cycle, which the bird hadn't observed since...
He had experienced a long night before! He was sure of it. He hunted through his vast collection of memories, but as soon as he found the fringe of the sought-after prize, it was pushed away by a singing fog. Music enveloped his entire waking consciousness until rational thought was all but impossible among the glorious sound. The raven blinked several times and shook its head as if to clear it.
This was a somewhat normal occurrence for him; many memories seemed to be buried in this subconscious cloud, and no matter how many times he tried, he was blocked out. This probably would have concerned him if he had access to his former cognitive abilities. But these too were buried in the cloud, out of his reach.
With the voices cleared, he returned his stare to the moon. Other than being tardy for the moon-set, something else seemed to be off as well. With another few minutes of examining and pondering the raven found its answer. The mistress in the moon had departed. For some reason this struck him as something that might be vitally important, although he couldn't imagine why. He was sure that it meant something, something important, someth--
"Na, na na, na na na na! Na na na na, Hey-ey Ju-ude!"
The music echoed in his mind, too beautiful to not elicit his full attention. He patiently waited for the glorious sound to fade into infinitesimal whispers that forever lingered, a never-ending song reverberating in the deepest canyons of his mind. He tried again to focus on whatever he'd been thinking about, and after a brief struggle gave up.
The raven gave a quick flap of his wings, stretching them out of boredom. He wished he could remember what he'd been thinking about. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was almost positive it had been something interesting. But he knew better than to try again; if it didn't come to him the first time it wouldn't come at all. At least he could recall that much.
The music began to rise in his head once more, and he was mentally preparing himself for its memorized lyrics when he realized it wasn't his song playing. His head swiveled, frantically searching for the source of the sound. Once located, he flapped off the branch without hesitation, heading for the direction of the curious song.
He twisted and dived through the dense, knotted branches of passing trees with an agility that comes only from extensive experience and familiarity of terrain. The sound of the new song crept closer and closer, and within moments he found himself in the clearing of it's origin. Now he could finally make out the words.
"--ack up at the creepy. Whoop it up at the weepy. Chortle at the kooky. Snortle at the spooky. And tell the--"
Several mares seemed to be spontaneously singing at a grove of dead trees. That was at least somewhat interesting, a break from the monotonous repetition that had haunted him for so long.
As the musical antics of the ponies below devolved into laughter the raven became aware of a familiar presence in the grove. Before he could place it, the ponies continued on through the dense foliage. Not wanting to lose them, the bird followed.
These mares were by far the most interesting thing to cross his path for a long time. The Everfree had been his home for as long as he could remember, and ponies had never been ones to enter lightly. The raven inferred that these ponies were here for a reason, and he intended to find out why they had come. Something this intriguing might not happen again for awhile.
As the mares walked he gave them each a closer inspection. The leading pony was of lavender hue, a unicorn. Her eyes seemed to scour everything thoroughly. She carried herself with a sort of involuntary dignity that he rather liked.
Despite her cataloging gaze, her observant eye glanced right over the shadowy bird. The raven was adept at remaining hidden, a talent he had long owned but never fully understood. He was thankful for it now; he didn't want to distract them from whatever goal they were pursuing.
The other mares consisted of a timid looking yellow pegasus, a bouncing pink pony, an orange pony in a stetson hat, a white unicorn, and finally a blue pegasus with a chromatic mane. The raven wondered what all of these ponies (of all different races) could possibly be doing in a group together. While he had never had a problem with it, he was vaguely aware that most ponies frowned upon the inter-mingling of the differing pony subspecies. Very curious.
The raven watched with growing curiosity as the mares made their way through the Everfree. They came across several trivial obstacles, breezing through the silhouetted forest and the frothing current of an initially dangerous looking river dragon. The raven was thankful that he'd chanced upon this strange group. He only wished he'd been able to see their tale from the beginning.
The ending to the mares' journey came much faster than the bird anticipated. The final obstacle was a gaping rift, the bottom no where in sight. The raven watched as the lead pony discovered, almost fatally, that the rope bridge wasn't tied to on the other side. Luckily, the blue mare grabbed her by her tail and pulled her to safety in time.
Beyond, a castle loomed ominously. The rope bridge lay limp several yards down the ravine. The mares hastily came to the decision to send the colorful pegasus to retrieve it and tie it on the other side.
All the while, a sense of nostalgia built up within the raven. This castle... he had definitely seen it before. His mind desperately yearned to place the memory, but he fought down the urge. He didn't want to miss a moment of the action. Forcing his thoughts back under control, he returned his focus to the situation unfolding.
Across the chasm, the mare had begun to fix the bridge, tying one of the ropes to a post. Before she could finish the other, a group of dark-clad pegasi, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, struck her up in conversation. Upon seeing them, the sense of nostalgia and of that familiar presence grew exponentially stronger. He could feel the music on the cusp of his mind, trying desperately to ambush his mental domain. Somehow he managed to maintain focus, but it took continuous and conscious effort to do so.
While the raven regained control of his fluctuating mind, the pegasus was hidden in a veil of mist. The music in his head quickly died off, and he brought his thoughts back to the ponies, who were now nervously discussing the blue one's return. Their fears proved to be fruitless, as within moments the pegasus popped out of the mist with the rope secured.
Continuing to ignore the escalating sense of familiarity, he took wing to the portentous structure of the ponies' destination. He perched on a crumbling fortification and observed as the mares tread with care over the dizzying drop.
The spacious hall the ponies entered had long ago entered a state of ruin. Holes punctuated the ceiling, piles and chunks of debris scattered the floor, cobwebs were strung in the corners, the tiles were unpolished and cracked, and the forest had begun to reclaim much of its former territory. The only aspect of the room that held any semblance of the castle's former dignity was a statue standing at the room's center, although it too was covered in vegetation.
The odd masterpiece consisted of a large nucleus at the center, mounted on a pillar, surrounded by five smaller orbs on similarly smaller pedestals. These smaller orbs seemed to be what the ponies had come for. The two pegasi retrieved the heavy talismans and the ponies began to examine them. The raven noticed carvings resembling jewels etched into each of the spheres. He also felt an ambient energy emanating from the orbs.
The lead unicorn must have sensed it too, as she began to envelope them in her magic, trying access their power for some unknown purpose. The rest of her group left her to her work, but the raven remained, staring intensely at the totems. Their unusual purifying energy seemed to be effecting him, for he was experiencing a long unfamiliar but much welcomed clarity of mind.
It was then that the raven noticed a flowing midnight blue aura descend upon the unwary unicorn, enveloping the orbs in a sudden vortex of godlike magic. The unicorn gave a cry of surprise and jumped without hesitation into the maelstrom. As quickly as it had appeared, it vanished into nothing. Hearing the commotion, the violet pony's followers raced into the room to come to her aid only seconds too late.
But the bird lost all attention of the event after the aura appeared. The beautifully melody raged without mercy in his mind, like pleasant shards of infectious glass being pound into his head by a gavel. His thoughts became an incoherent mess of unfinished recollections and hazy, ancient nightmares. If he had been capable in such a state he would have screeched until collapse.
He continued to writhe even after the aura's departure, and it took him several minutes for him to get himself under any sort of semblance of control. With no small amount of effort he lifted his head to gaze at the ponies. Without even consciously acknowledging it, he had come to the insane conclusion that if he could see these strange mares complete their task everything would somehow work itself out.
The mares were gone.
It took a moment for this to sink in. When it did he flung himself off his shallow shelf, forcing his wings to unlock and take him into frenzied flight. He searched frantically for any sign of where they could have gone and saw a white light emerging from a far wing of the palace. Without a pause he swooped off for it.
When he arrived, time slowed and reality bent. A bright helix of color was wrapping itself around the mares, who were now floating about a five hooves above the ground. The raven gazed in wonder at the increasing familiar sight, and when the stream dived across the room, his gaze followed it. He had time to observe everything, as if it were happening in slow motion. He gazed across the hall to the dark alicorn
luna her name is luna luna luna mistress luna who saved me but I couldnt save her I couldnt save
before she was engulfed in a swirling clamor of color. Then all was white.
The raven collided with a wall as the purifying wave of energy caressed his tired mind, which had by this point shattered. The benevolent force he'd witnessed earlier picked up each piece of memory previously shrouded and blended into chaotic agony, and replaced each of them in their proper place. Rational images slowly began to surface.
Wicked blades and sharpened claws danced past his face, narrowly avoiding lethal contact with his unarmored body.
A dear friend lay on a bloody cot, dying before his eyes.
A dripping red voice tittered, a terrifying being from the space between spaces.
He held a knife to his own throat, only to have it thrust away by an unknown force.
A voice cried out, a mare's voice, "What is it? Please, take it, take it away, I don't want it! Let me behold it nevermore!"
Individual memories began to organize themselves into chronological order. The puzzle began to reveal an unpleasant picture, but a picture that made merciful sense nonetheless.
After hours in this limbo, Nevermore opened his eyes, brimming with new intelligence. He beheld a solstice morning, glimmering with happy sunlight. Before taking any visible action, he took stock of what he had just witnessed.
The Elements of Harmony had new bearers. They had used them on his mistress. He would need the Elements to achieve his goals, previously halted by Celestia.
He continued to ponder his course of action for some time, and decided that more information would be necessary before further activity. In particular he would need to learn more about the Element bearers.
Having decided on a course of action at least for the short term, Nevermore cleared his mind and took to the sky. With a burst of practiced magic he slid into his true form like a worn in shoe without missing a wing-beat.
The Golden Oaks Library rested in comfortable silence beneath the Huntress Moon. The day had been productive for its three occupants; Twilight, Spike, and Owlowiscious had spent the majority of it reshelving all the books in the place, as well as cataloging new books donated from the Canterlot Central Branch and individual donations from around town.
The hollowed tree's residents had unanimously decided to take the night off, and each lay relaxed around the library, engrossed in a book. Owlowiscious was examining a birdwatcher's manual, focusing primarily on the nocturnal section. Spike was enjoying a comicbook about "Apocalypse Cowponies". Twilight had a stack of freshly donated history textbooks at her side, her face buried in a particularly large one.
She lay propped up on her favorite pillow, the current book in her hooves eliciting a slight frown. The book in question concerned diplomatic endeavors preceding and leading up to the end of the Griffo-Equine wars. The frown was caused by a series of events that didn't seem to make any sense.
In the years preceding the war, Clover the Clever had been the primary diplomat on Equestria's behalf, making several successful visits to several of the then-young Equestria's border states. But about seven years before the wars began, she suddenly ceased her visits to the Griffon Empire. Friendly negotiations turned sour with the Griffon Empire following her absence, an absence for which the book gave only a flimsy explanation. Perhaps if she sent a note to Princess Celestia requesting some of Clover's old journals she could--
An obnoxious burp derailed her train of thought, followed by a yelp of surprise from Spike. Twilight glanced over as her assistant made his way to where she was sitting, a roll of parchment in claw.
"You got a letter," said Spike, laying the scroll before Twilight. He stifled an incoming yawn. "Kind of a weird time to send it though. It's" --he glanced at the clock-- "almost eleven. I'm usually in bed by then."
Twlight stood up and stretched, her legs sore from sitting so long. "Thank you for reminding me. You've had a long day and deserve some rest. Head on up. I'll come up myself in a few minutes. I just want to have a glance at this letter before I turn in."
Spike looked like he wanted to argue, then seemed to think better of it. "Alright, I'll see you in few then. Night."
"G'night."
Twilight watched as Spike ascended the stairs to their bedroom and turned away as the door shut. Her focus went back to letter currently gripped in her magic. Spike had been right about the letter's arrival. She couldn't remember the last time a message had been mailed this late.
Oh well, no harm done. She could even request the journals she wanted in her reply. She unrolled the parchment and began to read. The letter was short and to the point.
Twilight Sparkle- A new threat has presented itself to Equestria. The Elements of Harmony and yourself are required at Canterlot Castle as soon as possible. Chariots will arrive at the library at 0600. Be ready for pick-up with the Elements at said time. Do not allow anypony outside the Elements or your courier access to this information. All will be explained upon your arrival.
As she read through the message, Twilight's frown deepened. This was not good news, and the letter revealed that whatever crisis was at hoof had the potential to be more serious than any of the previous ones she and her friends had faced.
First off, it was not written by Celestia. That much was easy to see. It had been written on a typewriter instead of the calligraphy Celestia usually used. In addition the note had used military terminology and was incredibly formal, something Twilight had never read in any of her teacher's letters. Even when Discord had been rampaging the princess had taken the time to write out a letter. The fact that she had needed someone else to write her the letter set off alarm bells in Twilight's head.
In addition, emergencies necessitating the use of the Elements had also never required privacy of any kind. If anything, Celestia had encouraged the Elements' successes to be displayed for the public. She'd wanted everypony to see the example of friendship that she and her friends had set, not hide it. So why all of the sudden secrecy? What could be so dangerous or important that only a select few could know?
Oh well. Twilight supposed she and her friends would soon find out. She removed a few pieces of parchment from a nearby desk and scrawled a hasty letter on one of them, explaining what little she knew of the situation. She then cast a quick spell to transfer the message to the remaining papers. After sealing them all she turned upward to face her night-time assistant, his beak still buried in the ornithological guide.
"Owlowicious, can you come down here please?" Twilight asked. He glanced up from his book, then gazed back down at it longingly. With what looked like a sigh the owl fluttered down from his perch. "You can look at the owl chicks when you get back." Twilight hadn't thought it was possible for an owl to blush. Hmm. She'd have to note it later.
"Right now, I need you deliver these to my friends." Twilight handed her nocturnal friend the scrolls. "Don't leave until they've read through them. Especially Rainbow. She'll probably fall back asleep before she knows she's awake."
Owlowicious gave a quick salute. "Good," Twilight yawned. "Thanks for the help." With that, Owlowicious flew out the window on his errand.
Twilight yawned again. She wanted to get some rest, but needed to be ready for tomorrow morning. And knowing herself, she probably wouldn't get much sleep after reading that message. Instead of heading upstairs she buried her nose back in her history text. She didn't very far, though. Her mind continued to wander back to the letter...
Twilight paced to her window, glanced out, and paced back to the door. Why weren't her friends here yet?
Owlowicious had come back hours ago, his mission complete, with letters of reply from all her friends (even Rainbow). Each had responded that yes, they would be here by six, ready to be taken to Canterlot for whatever duties Celestia needed them for. But it was only ten minutes to six and still none of her friends had shown up.
Twilight moaned inwardly. What could possibly be holding them up?
She sighed and decided to go through her mental checklist (again) to pass the time.
1. Write note to Spike explaining where she was and what needed to be done this week (in case she was gone that long).
Check.
2. Pack small saddlebag of bare essentials for the trip.
Check.
3. Review relaxation techniques Cadence sent you.
Che-
She saw five figures approaching in the distance. Finally, there they were! And with only five minutes to spare! She grabbed her bag sitting by the door and galloped out to greet her friends.
"Hey girls, thanks for coming! I was starting to get worried when you didn't show up! What took you so l- oh."
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were struggling under colossal bags of luggage on their backs. Rarity was close behind carrying a dainty travel bag with her magic.
"Umm, Rarity needed some help with her traveling accessories, so Rainbow and Applejack volunteered to help. I... don't think they realized quite how much Rarity was bringing," Fluttershy offered, seeing Twilight's amazed expression.
"Rarity, why are you taking so much? You didn't need all of this stuff when we were going to take care of Discord," Twilight deadpanned.
"I know darling, and it was tragic! I didn't have time to gather up all of my things the last few times! We were shipped off to Canterlot so quickly, and with no warning! Since we were given a bit of prep time, I took the liberty of packing a lady's essentials!"
"The chariots aren't going to be able to fit all that. Sorry Rarity, but you'll have to leave them in the library. Spike will take care of them while we're gone."
"Must I?" Rarity moaned. "I have just the perfect little outfit picked out-"
"Yes."
"Oh, very well. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, would you be so kind as to-"
"I'll take care of it," said Twilight, cutting her off. As she levitated the bags into her home, Applejack and Rainbow Dash flashed her tired smiles of gratitude.
While she took care of the last of the bags, she heard Pinkie squeal in excitement. "Ooh, there they are! I can't wait to try out my new pinwheel. I got it imported from Saddle Arabia just for the occasion. Flying is just the perfect time to try out pinwheels! Don't you think Twilight?"
Twilight's first instinct was to ask how Pinkie had gotten a pinwheel imported when she'd just found out about the trip last night, but hastily quashed the thought. It was just Pinkie being Pinkie. She would probably just receive an incomprehensible response anyway. Instead Twilight sighed and nodded.
When the chariots arrived, the girls divided themselves into groups of two; Twilight and Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow. Each pair got their own chariot. Once the mares were settled, the pegasi pulling the chariots took off.
In the distance, a silent figure watched the event from a rooftop. Once the chariots were out of sight, the pony clambered down a ladder and back to its home to send a message.
The flight to Canterlot was not an especially long one. Nonetheless, Twilight used the time to convey her feelings about the last night's strange note to Applejack. Out of all of her friends, Twilight felt she could be the most blunt about her feelings with Applejack, as demonstrated by her Element. Twilight could be completely honest around Applejack without a trace of self-consciousness regarding her concern of the letter.
"Considerin' all ya've told me Twilight, yer concerns seem justified. If the Princess normally sends a letter and couldn't afford to this time, it sure seems like somethin' mighty important is ahoof. It seems fishy, and I don't like it. Either way, I suppose we'll find out fer sure in a few minutes. We're almost there!"
Twilight turned to face front, and sure enough Canterlot was about five miles distant. The castle that usually seemed so welcoming had an out of place, ominous vibe today. As they passed into the palace's shadow, Twilight shivered.
Once they landed and dismounted the chariots, the Captain of the Guard came forward and greeted them. Since Shining Armor's departure for the Crystal Empire, a new Captain had been picked, one Twilight had not had the honor of meeting. Upon seeing him for the first time, two things surprised her.
First off, he was a pegasus. Pegasi hardly ever got to chosen as Captain; it was usually a spot reserved exclusively for unicorns. If he had gotten to be Captain without the normal unicorn status, there must be something about him they weren't seeing. He was extremely plain, with a dull brown coat and an unkempt black mane.
Which led to Twilight's second surprise; the Captain's extreme informality. He didn't have lick of clothing (let alone armor) on him and greeted them with a wave as opposed to a salute. Twilight should have felt insulted, but something about the big goofy grin on his face swayed her swift judgement.
"Top of the morning to you! What are you six be-youtiful mares doing up so early? Bit of an odd place to have a morning jog, don't ya think?"
Before Twilight could form an appropriate response, Pinkie replied with a matching enthusiasm.
"Heya Mr. New-Guy-I've-Never-Seen-Before! We're here for the 'We-Fought-A-Super-Powerful-Bad-Meanie-and-Now-They're-Gone-Party' tomorrow night. That's about when we should be done kicking their flank!"
"Mr. New-Guy" chuckled. "Oh, you must be Elements of Harmony! What an honor! Allow me introduce myself: I'm Lock Pick, the new Captain of the Guard. And if I do say so myself, the suavest gentlestallion on the block since Chico picked up that Mexican chick in The Magnificent Seven."
Pinkie blinked, taken back by how the stallion had somehow outmatched the weirdness of her response. "What?"
Lock Pick just grinned and replied, "Don't worry, just a little inside joke."
Twilight made up her mind to move things along. "Thank you for the introduction Mr. Pick. If you don't mind, I think we ought to be moving things along. We're supposed to see Princess Celestia, I belie-"
"Yes yes, of course! As a matter of fact, I'm your escort! Feel free to ask any questions along the way. I'll answer what I can, which isn't much. But in case you're not interested in the impending doom, I've been told I'm a great conversationalist!"
Lock Pick led the six down the ornate hallways of Canterlot castle, steering them toward Celestia's study.
While her friends and the Captain conversed ahead her, Twilight examined their guide more closely. One of the first things she looked at was his cutie mark, hoping it might provide some explanation for how he been chosen as Captain. Unfortunately, it wasn't very helpful. Just a red key next to a keyhole. It looked as if something could be viewed through the keyhole, but it was too far away to get a good look while still being discreet.
However, looking at his cutie mark did lead her another discovery. He wasn't completely without garb. Just above his cutie mark was some sort of pouch belted around his hind leg. It held a small, strange device that Twilight didn't recognize. As she examined her mental catalog for something useful in identifying the object, Rainbow fell back to talk to her.
"Hey Twilight, what's up?"
"Not much Rainbow, just trying to figure out what's up with our 'escort'. He seems like he could give Pinkie a run for her money in the random department."
"Yeah, he is a bit strange, but he seems nice enough. And by the sound of it, he's got a pretty impressive resume."
"Resumé."
"Yeah, whatever. You know he took on an Ursa Major with some of his friends? And won?"
"What? That's impossible Rainbow! Are you sure he said 'Ursa Major'?"
"Yup... well actually, no. He said one hundred hoof tall bear, but what else could that be?"
"I don't know. Well, maybe he was just pulling a joke on you. He seems like that type."
"Meh, could be, I guess. But he sounded serious."
"Hey, what are you girls talking about back there?" said Lock Pick, falling into step with them. "Look, I appreciate all the attention, but I'm married, and happily, believe it or not."
Twilight tried (unsuccessfully) to stifle a blush, but Rainbow burst out laughing. "Ha, in your dreams, buddy."
Lock Pick grinned. "Like I said, happily married. I only wish I saw her more often. It's been almost a year."
For the first time since they'd met him, Lock Pick frowned. The change was dramatic. Compared to the upbeat stallion he'd been literally moments ago, the change took them off guard to say the least. The expression (after such a mirthful introduction) seemed almost wrong on his face. He sighed and muttered something under his breath. Before Twilight could inquire as to what he said, she was cut off by the Captain.
"We're here," remarked the Captain. The door to Celestia's personal study was just down a short hallway. "This is where I get off. The information regarding this... incident is on a need know to basis, and from what little the Princess has told me, the Elements are the only ones who really need to know. It's been nice meeting you, and good luck!"
With that, he trotted down the hallway, leaving them before the door to see Celestia.
Twilight glanced back to say goodbye, but he was already gone. She'd have to ask Celestia about him later. She wondered how such a... character could become Captain of the Guard. Then again, her teacher was known for enjoying whimsical conversations. Maybe that was the reason. But whatever her teacher's reasoning was, they'd have to put that aside for now. They had a job to do.
With that in mind Twilight opened the door revealing Celestia's personal study. Twilight had been in a number of times, but it was a completely new experience for the rest of the girls. They gawked at the array of unknown instruments before them. Every device in the room seemed to have a mysterious purpose and each mechanism looked more fragile than the last.
The mares trod carefully across the room to where Celestia stood with her back to them, gazing with interest at a table before her. As the girls got closer they realized that it was a scale map of Equestria.
The detail on the map was astounding. Mountains jutted up like the spines of a slumbering dragon, tiny streams actually flowed through forests filled with minuscule trees. Upon looking even closer at Ponyville in particular, each mare recognized their own house. In the streets they could even see the market being set up for the morning grocery shopping of the town's residents.
While her friends observed the map in awe, Twilight looked up at her teacher. She wore an expression of intense concentration, small beads of sweat forming on her face. Tiny white lines were trying to intersect over the map, but they missed each other every time, although Twilight did notice that the lines got closer and closer with each pass.
Twilight hastily hushed her gossiping friends, gesturing toward the Princess. She needed quiet for whatever delicate task she was working on.
For several minutes they watched in silence (even Pinkie managed to restrain her normally frequent outbursts). And finally... success! The two lines finally met, instantly locking into place.
The tension that had been mounting in the room eased up, and the group drew a collective sigh of relief. Celestia turned to her subjects at last.
"Thank you for patience and cooperation, my little ponies. I apologize, but I had been triangulating that position for over an hour, and couldn't afford to start over. I hope you understand."
"Of course we understand Princess!" Twilight replied. "But please, tell us why we were brought here. Is there another threat to Equestria? And why does it need to be kept secret?"
"Worry not, my faithful student. All will be explained in due time. Come, follow me. We will be sitting over there," said Celestia, pointing to a group of cozy looking chairs. "We may as well be in comfort while I relate this tale, for it is not a happy one by any means." ,
Once the seven were situated, Celestia began.
"As you all know, one thousand years ago my sister Luna became Nightmare Moon and tried to purge all the world into night eternal. And as you all also know, I managed to stop her with the use of the Elements of Harmony, banishing her polluted form to the moon itself. And two years ago you stopped her once more and did what I could not; cleansed her of the tumor that clung to her being for so long. As I have stated before, for this service I will be forever grateful.
"However, that fateful evening that you faced the Nightmare, you also released, unbeknownst to any of you, another danger. A danger that has the potential to wreak just as much havoc, if not more, than even Discord. Not to mention a much more permanent havoc."
The girls gaped, stunned by this revelation. After a moment of reflection Twilight voiced what they were all thinking. "Princess, what did we release? And how? I thought, we thought, that the Elements of Harmony destroyed evil and chaos. How could they have caused what you're implying?"
"To answer your first question," Celestia started, "the... thing you released went by many names in his time. Some of his titles were 'The Obsidian Wing', 'The Moon Shadow', 'The Griffon's Bane', and the 'The Scourge of Glaciostel'. But his most famous title was also the simplest- 'The Raven'."
The girls confused looks echoed their thoughts. They had never heard the supposedly famous (or perhaps infamous) name before. Naturally, they all turned to Twilight. To their surprise, she wore a look of similar bewilderment.
"The Raven's tale, as I said, is not a particularly pleasant one. He grew up in poverty, shunned by all around him. You see, back when he was in his youth, a little over a thousand years ago, ponies were not nearly as... accepting as they are today. The Raven was among the most despised creatures of that time; a hippogriff."
This time Twilight was able answer her friends' looks of confusion. "A hippogriff is the offspring of a male griffon and female pony. Has the front half of a griffon, the back half of a pony. Despite the relative commonness of inter-species relations in modern times, they are still very rare, primarily due to the facts that hippogriffs cannot have hippogriff offspring and that they are not easily conceived."
Celestia nodded. "Thank you, Twilight.
"Now, the Raven was recruited into the Equestrian military during his adolescence, and proved himself one of our country's most formidable soldiers in the Griffo-Equine War. He had a great part in helping Equestria win pivotal battles, and eventually the war.
"My sister, Luna, saw his prowess on the battlefield, as well as his sharp mind. She decided to take him under her own wing in tutelage, much like I did for you, Twilight. He was a fast learner, and even made significant breakthroughs in the magical arts, specifically runes."
"Wait," Twilight interrupted. "As far as I know, hippogriffs have no outlet for channeling magic. How could he have contributed to the magical arts at all?"
"Unfortunately Twilight, I cannot answer that. I had no part in his teachings, and, for reasons you'll soon learn, cannot ask Luna."
Twilight frowned at this inconvenience, curious about how a creature with no magical potential could make such breakthroughs.
"Umm, excuse me Princess?" asked Fluttershy. "This is all very interesting, but so far, it doesn't seem like the Raven did anything wrong. Why did you call us here to deal with him?"
Celestia sighed. "Unfortunately, his innocence was lost. And even more unfortunately, I didn't see it coming at all.
"Throughout his days learning under my sister, I got to know the Raven as an acquaintance, and maybe even as friend. And in all the time I knew him, up until his betrayal, he was one of the most thoughtful and sensitive beings I ever knew. He hated his titles, particularly the title of 'Scourge'. Even more so he hated to discuss what he had done during the war, acts he seemed to consider atrocities. I had hardly ever met a creature more noble."
At this point Celestia's mournful face suddenly hardened. Her eyes took on an angry light that was foreign there. The result was disconcerting, and even a little... disturbing.
"But it was all a lie.
"The Raven had a very close attachment to my sister. He would have done anything if he thought it were in her best interests. They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and this proved to be the case with the Raven. When my sister began to feel lonely in the night, with few to gaze upon her nocturnal masterpieces, he took it upon himself to comfort her. He seemed to be helping her, in all honesty, so I thought nothing of it. On occasion, I actually thanked him for it! He simply responded that he was doing his duty to his teacher, helping her through her hour of need.
"How could I have known of the secret hatred of the ponies who hid from his master's night growing within him? How could I have known that he would plant these seeds within my dearest sister as well? How could I know–"
"Princess?" asked Rarity. "Certainly you don't mean–"
"Yes. The Raven was the chief cause my sister's transformation into Nightmare Moon. But how could I have seen it coming? The change was so swift, so sudden, how could I have predicted–"
"Don't blame yourself, Princess," said Twilight. "You couldn't possibly have known what would happen!"
"Yeah, if anything, blame that Raven guy. He sounds like he needs a big horseshoe shoved up hi–"
Twilight zipped Rainbow's mouth shut.
"So, what happened to the Raven after, you know... Nightmare Moon's... departure?" ventured Twilight.
"After I banished the Nightmare, I directed my full attention to that monster. I wanted so badly to simply smite him on the spot. He deserved nothing less. Not only had he transformed Luna into that... thing, but he also murdered one of my most trusted advisers in the process.
"It was here I let my memories get the better of me. By all means, I should have executed him on the spot. But I had known him for many years, and it seemed... wrong of me to administer such a harsh punishment on one who had once been so benevolent. So I chose a different option.
"Using my magic, I transformed him into his namesake, a raven, and hid all of his memories from him. He would live out the rest of his days as the beast he had become. I believed he had passed on years ago.
"Until a few weeks ago, when I began to feel the world's very energy begin to fluctuate in discernible patterns, as opposed to the usually random fluctuations. I began to investigate further, and discovered that these variations were being caused by runes. He may as well have left a signature. There's nopony alive today with the expertise necessary for such a complex rune system. Whatever he's up to, it cannot be good."
"But Princess, ya've left a few questions unanswered. How do ya know the Elements released him? And since he's so evil, how could the Elements have released him? Aren't they used to stop that kinda thing?" inquired Applejack.
"The first question is simple to answer. When any spell is cast, it leaves a sort of imprint wherever it is begun and finished. Powerful unicorns or alicorns can use one end of the imprint to find the other. Since I knew where I cast the spell of the Raven's transformation, I could use it to trace when and where the spell finished; in the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters on the night you defeated Nightmare Moon.
"As for the second question, I honestly have no idea. You're right. The Elements emit intense purifying magic. How such magic could have released such an impure creature is a mystery to me."
"Wait," said Pinkie, who had finally processed what the imprinting spell did. "Is that what you were doing with the super cool mappy thingy; tracing where Birdy McMeaniebritches came back?"
"No, but I'm glad you brought that up, Pinkie," answered Celestia. "Let us have another look at it, shall we?"
They walked over to the colossal map, and were once again entranced by it's intricate detail. Celestia gestured to the two white lines crossing.
"I was using an advanced magical technique to pinpoint the source of the energy fluctuations I mentioned earlier. Their origin is here." She indicated the city that the lines were hovering over: Baltimare.
"That is where I will be sending you. Incognito, of course. If anypony were to catch wind of this, the news would travel fast. Within only a few hours, the word would no doubt reach Canterlot, and by extension, Luna."
Twilight frowned. "What would be so bad about that?"
"I'm not entirely sure. The topic of the Raven has not yet come up between my sister and I. I believe that she thinks her former protege to be long dead. And for now, I would like to keep it that way. She is still in a vulnerable state since her return, and upon hearing such news, she would no doubt want to visit her student. No good could come of that, my little ponies. Although I do not know for certain, I have hunch that the Raven is plotting to bring about the return of Nightmare Moon.
"Can I count on you to do what's necessary to protect Equestria, and to keep this dire situation a secret to the best of your abilities?"
"Of course Princess. You can count on us!" Twilight answered for the group.
"I thought so." The Princess smiled. "Now come. We must equip you with the Elements and get you on the next train to Baltimare as soon as possible!"
In the pitch black, ancient slo-trans engines hummed, recently resurrected from an era before anypony could remember. Nevermore had little difficulty seeing in the dark. His eyes were suited for it. He was currently repairing one of the final machines in his project. He thought he would have it up and running within a few hours.
As he allowed himself a rare smile, he noticed a nearby screen flashing green. He walked over to it and saw that it was a message. Its sender didn't mince words.
They'll be there by this evening at the latest. Good luck. -R.
His smile grew wider. Perfect. He quickly typed out a reply:
Thank you for your selfless service. I wish I could repay you for your invaluable help. Until we meet again, long days and pleasant nights. -N.
Within two hours Nevermore finished with the machine.
Lower your guns even if love has turned to spite. We may find the enemy waiting inside.
The train ride to Baltimare was tedious, but relatively peaceful. This was primarily due to the fact that Celestia had commandeered a private car so that the Elements could discuss the challenge at hoof without curious ears listening in. But for the most part, what the mares had to say probably wouldn't have endangered the mission in the slightest.
Rarity and Fluttershy were talking about the new Captain of the Guard, hardly a classified topic. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were discussing the equally trivial topic of what kind of pie would best compliment Pinkie's new ice cream flavor. Rainbow Dash was daydreaming by a window, her face pressed up against the glass, observing the passing landscape in boredom.
Twilight was digging into new reading material that Celestia had lent her to help them face whatever lie ahead. Well, new probably wasn't the right word. In fact, the tomes were ancient, at least several centuries old and falling apart at even the most gossamer touch. Twilight had to keep the books carefully aloft with her magic or else risk damaging them. Once she was finished with a book, she would levitate it cautiously into her saddlebag, which protected its contents with a shock absorption spell.
Twilight was currently scanning the table of contents of a tome concerning the Griffo-Equine War, hoping to find something useful. Near the bottom of the table, she found a poem whose title rang a bell: "The Scourge of Glaciostel". One of the Raven's many titles. Twilight flipped to the page and began to read. The poem wasn't long, but by the time she was finished she had begun to feel queasy.
"Heya Twi!"
Twilight almost jumped out of her skin. Then she realized it was just Rainbow, and quickly composed herself.
"Sheesh Twi, why're you so jumpy? Readin' a scary book or somethin'?"
"Kinda," Twilight replied, a slight waver in her voice.
"Ooh, is it that one about the clown in the sewers? I've been meaning to get to that one, but--"
"No Rainbow," Twilight cut her off. "But I can get that for you if we get back to Ponyville. I was reading one of those books Celestia gave me."
"When."
"What?"
"You meant when we get back to Ponyville. Not if."
"Oh, right. Yeah, that's what I meant. Of course!"
Rainbow frowned in concerned. "Let me see what you're reading."
Twilight reluctantly levitated the book in front of Rainbow. She watched as Rainbow's lips silently formed the words, saw her eyes begin to widen. Before an expression of terror could completely engulf her face she managed to regain control, putting on a face of indifference. But Twilight had seen.
"Eh, he doesn't sound so tough. I don't know what's got you so worried Twilight. I could kick this guy's flank easy, and with the Elements of Harmony we'll kick it twice as hard."
Twilight bit her lip. "Rainbow, we can't count on the Elements working! After all, they're what freed him in the first place. If they don't work, we're going to be in serious trouble. I might be able to make a shield with my magic, but there's no guarantee. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm scared. Anypony would be freaked out if they were in our situation."
Dash sighed. "Okay, maybe that poem did put me a little on edge, I'll give you that much. But I still think I could kick his flank!"
"For all of our sakes, I hope you're right Rainbow. I mean, the Princess wouldn't send us against something she didn't think we could handle."
Rainbow smiled. "You're probably right." She stretched her back. "Well, I'm gonna get a few hours shuteye. Gotta be alert once our job starts, right?"
She trotted back over to her previous spot, laying down across the two seats, leaving Twilight alone to her work.
As Twilight poured over one of last texts the train finally came to a screeching stop. She heard a muffled "Umph" as Rainbow tumbled off of her seat from the sudden halt. She couldn't help but giggle a bit. Now that the anticipation was over she felt lighter, more confident in their mission. They'd find that Raven and make him sorry for showing his face again!
As she followed her friends off the train she heard Rarity give yelp. Suddenly fearing the worst, Twilight rushed to her aid.
"Rarity, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong? What's wrong?! Just look at this place! It's filthy! Oh my! Garbage on the floor, which by the way, doesn't look like it's seen a coat of wax in years! Disgusting!"
Although Twilight was a bit annoyed by Rarity's dramatic outburst, she had to agree with her analysis. The place looked like a glorified landfill. Stray cans and bags littered the floor, dirt and grit layered the walkways, and it looked from the excrement on the ground as though several birds had made a home in the rafters. Twilight wondered how ponies could treat public property like this, leave everything in such a mess.
Applejack saved her from having to reply. "Rarity, while I'll admit that the place is a bit untidy, that's downright rude of ya to say! T'ain't proper to just insult somepony's home, especially so quickly and so... meanly."
Rarity huffed. "I suppose you're right, but I'm going to have a word with the Princess when we get back. This station is quite simply unhygienic, and it really ought to be cleaned. I do hope the rest of city isn't like this!"
As soon as they stepped outside, Rarity's fears were confirmed. Everywhere they looked, the city was just as dirty, if not dirtier, than the station they'd just left. The buildings were drab and grey, a far cry from the architectural wonders of Canterlot. The whole place had a utilitarian undertone. Each building, slab of concrete, and shop had been built to serve a function, not to look pretty. In addition, the ponies roaming the streets appeared to be less than friendly. Everypony they passed seemed to have a permanent frown glued to their face.
"Why do all these ponies look sad, Twilight?" asked Pinkie.
"I don't know Pinkie. It could be the planet's energy fluctuations that we're here to stop, but I doubt it. It seems to me that the city has been like this well before the Raven showed up," Twilight answered.
"Hmm... Oh, I know! I should throw them a party! That'll cheer everypony up and turn those frowns upside-down! Just a sec girls, I'll go find a party store!"
Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie by the tail before she could get away. "Sorry Pinks, but we got a job a to here. Besides, these ponies don't exactly look like the partying type."
"But Dashie, everypony likes to par--"
"'Ey, did somepony say party?"
"Yes!" Pinkie replied instantly.
A group of three stallions were calling to them from across the street. Twilight instinctively disliked the look of them. They wore smiles that seemed to stretch their features into a caricature of feigned friendliness. Their manes were slicked with grease. Twilight frowned at these newcomers.
"Ya, I know real good place to party!" said the lead stallion. "Come back to my place, I have perfect place to party! We show choo real good time. Lots of fun for everypony! Whachoo say?"
"Thanks for the offer, but we-" Twilight began.
"Oy! Shaddup nag, I wasn't talking to choo!" snapped the stallion. His friends snickered. He turned his attention back to Pinkie. "Sorry, she not invited. But choo and and your color friend should stop by. We get real crazy, have lots of fun! Get down and dirty! Let's go!"
Pinkie's enthusiasm halted dramatically. "Hey you big bullies, you can't talk to my friends like that! I don't care how fun your party is! You can count me out."
"Aww, thees nag has some fight in her! Come on over here and I show choo good time!"
"And I said I'm not coming! So you can can put an egg in your horseshoe and leaf!"
"Listen nag--"
"SCRAM!!"
"Pfft, come on guys, there's 'nuffin to do here. Let's go."
"That's right!" screamed Pinkie after them. "Wow, what a bunch of... what?"
Pinkie's friends stared at her in amazement. Dash was the one who finally broke the silence.
"That... was... awesome! Dang Pinkie, I didn't know you had it in you! Nicely handled girl!"
"Yeah Pinkie, thanks for sticking up for me."
"Yes, quite a job well done, darling."
"Woo hoo."
"Ya can say that again."
Pinkie grinned. "Thanks you guys! But really, now I just want to get out of here as soon as we can. Let's just get started looking for Birdy McMeaniebritches so we can leaf too."
Finding the Raven turned out to be easier said than done. Twilight's magic could detect the energy fluctuations quite easily. Tracing the source was another story. She couldn't seem to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from; scratch that, she could tell where it was coming from, but it didn't make any sense. The fluctuations seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Twilight wasn't sure if her magic was being deliberately tampered with or if there was something critical about the nature of the fluctuations that was escaping her.
As Twilight tried to remain patient in her efforts, her companions attempted to stave off boredom. While they followed Twilight around the city there was nothing to really do. There were no sights to see or attractions to visit and they couldn't help her with her magic. They couldn't talk either, because she needed to concentrate. By four o'clock, Rainbow had had enough.
"Twi, you've been at that for hours. Why don't we take a break? Look, there's a restaurant up ahead, let's go catch a bite."
Part of Twilight wanted to keep searching, but her logical mind told her that taking a break was probably a good idea. "Yeah, you're probably right. I could use a break, and I'm sure you all could too. Besides, I haven't eaten since this morning."
They settled on one of the less dingy looking restaurants called The Dixie Sprig. While her friends looked over the menu, Twilight slipped into the mares room.
Even the restrooms of this city seemed trashier than usual, a remarkable feat considering the state of most public facilities. Yellow and brown stains covered the floors, but more surprisingly the walls and even the ceiling. Were they even aiming at the toilet? In addition, graffiti adorned the wall, ghetto prophets like Bango Skank and Backstreet Bucker leaving cryptic messages.
She picked a stall, closed the door, and sat down. It was a good thing she was sitting on a toilet, because she almost pissed herself when she saw the door. Amid the usual stall graffiti, in towering, yet neat, letters, read a message. "TWILIGHT, OPEN YOUR SADDLEBAG." She felt her skin crawl.
As if in a trance, Twilight did as the note suggested. At first she allowed herself a sigh of relief; there was nothing new in the bag. Then she felt it, a scrap of paper. Twilight was organized and never left stray papers in her bag, always in a tidy little notebook. Twilight swallowed and removed the scrap.
It was heavier than she expected, and she soon found why. A piece of glinting black stone had been attached to the paper with a short length of string. The stone was shaped like a musical note.
Twilight returned her attention to the scrap, and found, as part of her had expected, another message. This one read, in the same hoof-writing, "Odd Lane Sematary. Lenore." She reflexively wrinkled her nose at the misspelling. Despite the error, the message was clear. Odd Lane "Sematary". That's where they needed to go. She could figure out the Lenore part later.
Before leaving, she wiped the stall message with her magic and hid the note back in her saddlebag. She hurried out of the restroom, her previously urgent "nose powdering" forgotten. She rushed over to her friends.
"Welcome back Twilight," said Rarity. "We saved you a seat, and as soon as you're ready to order--"
"Sorry girls, we're gonna need to postpone this meal." She lowered her voice. "I foun-- received a clue."
The smiles on her friends' faces disappeared, and after a brief explanation they moved on.
"Twilight, I'm not so sure about this. It could be a trap! Heck, it probably is one!" Rainbow exclaimed as they neared their destination. They'd found Odd Lane without too much trouble and were trotting down it now.
"Yeah," whispered Fluttershy in agreement. "Graveyards are scary. Maybe you should just keep searching for the Raven with your magic."
"Girls, I understand your concerns, but I really think this is the best course of action. If we want to keep this secret, we should stop it as quickly as possible. Not mention it's the only lead we have. Trap or not, this seems to be our only option."
"Are you sure you can't just find a different way to reach him," ventured Rarity. "Perhaps--"
"I don't think so," Twilight interrupted. "Honestly, I'm impressed the Princess was able to narrow down his location this far! Since trying to tap into it when we got here, I've had pretty much zero success. I know the choice seems dire, but-- ahh, we're here."
Now Twilight saw why the note had been misspelled. The actual sign above the entrance to the boneyard read "Sematary." The yard itself was strangely tranquil, and even seemed peaceful, not at all the ominous place Twilight had been expecting. Even Fluttershy seemed to have put her fears put to rest for the moment. Twilight turned to her fellow bearers.
"Girls, it's time to put on the Elements. I don't think we can afford to not wear them." She magically removed them from her bag and bestowed them onto each corresponding friend. Upon finding their mark they disappeared.
"Woah, what happened?" inquired Pinkie.
"Don't worry, I only cloaked them. Just an extra precaution to make sure nopony sees and panics," explained Twilight.
Now that they had arrived at the graveyard, Twilight turned her mind to the second part of the message; "Lenore." Twilight had no recollection of the word, but it sounded sort of like a name. If you assumed that, the next connection was obvious.
"Okay, lets have a look around for a grave with 'Lenore' written on it. And stay together. We don't want to be separated."
They shuffled awkwardly around as a group, each member scanning the headstones for the strange name. It didn't take long for Applejack to spot it.
The grave was ancient, certainly several hundred if not over a thousand years old. Twilight mentally noted that this was completely possible considering the city's age. Assuming this, it was amazing that the inscription was still legible. "Lenore" was written in beautiful calligraphy, and beneath the name was a short, incoherent couplet.
Her music played for Nevermore
A jar stood the Unfound Door.
Beneath the poem was a small indentation of the same shape and size of the totem Twilight had discovered earlier. "Girls, be ready for something to happen," Twilight said, not realizing she was whispering. The mares tensed as they waited with rising discomfort for Twilight to slide the talisman into the slot. Twilight lifted the stone with her magic and held it up to the slot. She didn't even need to move the note forward; it snapped into place like a magnet.
At first, nothing seemed to happen. But slowly, the note began to glow as if it was a cinder that was cooling off in reverse, slowly gaining luminescence until the symbol almost seemed to blaze in front of them. Then came the music, a strange melody alien to their ears. A somber tune of which the lyrics were incomprehensible due to its volume, barely a whisper in the now failing day. Before they could give this much thought, light streaked from the burning symbol, splitting the hallow earth with a staircase.
The staircase did not actually seem to appear; it was more like the earth around it disappeared, leaving only a neat metal stairway for the ponies to follow.
Fluttershy, who had been hiding behind Applejack, squeaked in terror. "Duh-do we ha-have to g-go down there?"
Twilight nodded. Fluttershy moaned.
"Twi, I think I'm with Flutters on this one. Underground isn't really my thing," Rainbow interjected. "You know, pegasus and all."
"Besides," added Applejack. "Now this, this here is clearly a trap."
A pained expression formed on Twilight's face. She knew her friends were right, but they would have to go down there eventually. "I can't think of a situation where we could have an advantage down there, girls. We need to go at some point, and it may as well be now, before his plan accelerates any further."
Twilight lit her horn and walked into the newly formed chasm, trying to display more confidence than she felt. Her friends reluctantly followed. After going down about twenty hooves the entrance sealed itself. Fluttershy let out a brief shriek before catching herself. She wasn't the only one of them startled though. All six of them were shaken.
Twilight mustered up her voice. "Well, nowhere to go but down."
And they began their descent. The silence seemed palpable. The world was cruelly limited to all they could see from Twilight's steady light. Rainbow glanced nervously at the steel, seamless walls and ceiling currently bathed in purple magic, uncomfortably aware of the confining flight space. She instinctively stretched her wings.
After three minutes of constant decline, the stairway leveled into a hallway, which proved to be much shorter. At its end, the girls met an open expanse of unknown size. In response, Twilight cranked up the power of her light, illuminating the entire room. They all gasped.
The girls beheld a room of impossible size, seeming to stretch onward into infinity, carved into brutal rock in contrast to the hallway and stairs. But this only held part of their attention. The rest was fixed on what the room contained. Dusty machines, wires, and lifeless screens populated the cavern, seeming to cover nine tenths of the floor. In the background was a hardly audible hum, just loud enough for the girls to notice it.
Without warning Pinkie began to speak, as if in a trance. "All is silent in the halls of the dead. All is forgotten in the stone halls of the dead. Behold the stairways which stand in darkness; behold the rooms of ruin. These are the halls of the dead where the spiders spin and the great circuits fall silent, one by one."
Her friends stared at her in petrified awe. After a few moments, Pinkie came to her senses, just as confused and frightened as the rest of them.
Rainbow Dash flailed to diffuse the tension. "Umm, hey Twilight? This place is, uh, huge, and full of... umm... stuff. H-how do you think the Raven made it all so quickly?"
"I did not create this place or build these machines," uttered a disembodied voice.
They all froze. The voice, in its sudden appearance, had the effect of rendering them all immobile, unable to move or look around for fear of what they would find. This time Twilight recovered first.
"Show yourself, Raven! We've come here to stop you! You're not going to do anymore harm to Equestria or Luna!"
After a brief silence came the reply. "Very well. But please, don't call me the 'Raven'. I suppose that's what Celestia called me. After all these years, it seems she's forgotten my displeasure for that title. If you would be so kind, call me Nevermore. But enough of that; let us palaver."
A shadow appeared at the peak of one of the monolithic machines. Instead of flying down, as Twilight had expected, it hopped down from machine to machine. The silhouette's movements were fluid, almost feminine in their grace. If not for the voice accompanying the figure, Twilight might have mistaken him for a her. After a few moments, the creature reached the ground, still hidden by the shadows of the colossal devices behind him. He stepped forward.
His appearance was nothing like any of them were expecting. All of the villains they had faced so far were ominously sized demigods towering over them much like Princess Celestia did. They had all exuded power, seemed to be have an excess of it to the point of gluttony. In addition, all of these menaces had had a sort of implied immortality about them, as if they had existed and would exist forever in some form or another. The figure before them embodied none of these traits.
The Raven's stature was humble, not even the size of the average pony. In fact, he was slightly smaller than Fluttershy, the shortest of their group. He did not seem to have any particular sense of power about him. He had nothing to signify authority; no magical aura surrounding him, nothing but a dull ebony layer of feathers that that gave way to similarly colored fur. Twilight couldn't sense any magic on him at all. But his age was by far the most surprising. Based on his appearance, he couldn't have been older than any of the mares present. He definitely did not look like a millennium year old mage bent on Equestria's destruction.
But despite his many unremarkable features, one in particular stood out. His eyes. Orange eyes that seemed ancient, full of terrible experience. The eyes conveyed immense sadness, but also alluded to a fundamental deadliness. Yet she knew as the Raven gazed at them, with a small, genuine looking smile on his face, that she and her friends were in no immediate danger. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted before he could do so.
Rainbow Dash had been trying to hold back laughter, but the dam finally broke and it flowed out. "Pfffftt.... Hahahaha!"
Her friends gasped at her reaction. She had just blatantly laughed at the (perhaps deceptively) powerful vagabond whose primary purpose was their deaths. Was she crazy?
But the Raven just raised an eyebrow in amusement. Once the chuckles had begun to die down, he spoke. "Inside joke?" he inquired.
Rainbow got a hold of herself enough to reply. "Heh heh, no, not really. It's just, you're a pipsqueak. We were all freaking out back in those tunnels, and it turns out beating you is going to be a peace of cake. I could kick your shrimpy flank by myself!"
"Overconfidence is a rather unbecoming trait Ms. Dash. Thankfully, I'm willing to overlook such trivial quirks; I have quite a few myself. And besides, I owe you all debt of gratitude. Without your interference, I would still be a mindless bird and my master would still be corrupted."
"Wait," said Applejack. "I thought ya turned Luna into Nightmare Moon. What the hay are ya talkin' about?"
"A justified misconception. You see–"
"Don't listen to him Applejack!" injected Twilight. "He's trying to trick you."
"Yeah Applejack, he's just trying to trick you!" said Rainbow. "I'll teach him to lie to our faces!" Her wings snapped out, and before any of her friends could protest she flashed forward, hoping to catch the Raven off guard and take him down.
The fight was over within seconds.
The Raven didn't register any surprise at Rainbow's charge. Instead, he sidestepped it, no simple feat considering Rainbow's speed. As she passed, he lightly tapped her forward hoof. At such a fast pace, even a small change in angle could be disastrous. Rainbow slammed into one of the machines with an audible crackle, followed by a string of pained curses.
"AHHH! FFFF-SHHEEIIITTT!! My wing! Augh..."
Rainbow quickly got control over herself, no easy effort with a compound fracture and a concussion. She tried unsuccessfully to get to her hooves. She somehow managed to calm herself, but got worked up again upon seeing the Raven approach her. She spared a glance at her friends, and saw that they were all too petrified to move. The hippogriff was upon her.
But he once again betrayed their expectations.
The Raven gave a soft sigh. "I appreciate your enthusiasm, Ms. Dash, but please understand that I needed to defend myself. Hopefully this will discourage further brutish behavior." He then raised his clawed foreleg to her wing.
Rainbow tensed, ready for serious pain, or even death. Instead, she felt a euphoric sensation on her wing. She looked back and almost puked. Her bones, tendon, cartilage, muscle, even blood and feathers, were floating back into place. While the sensation felt amazing, the effect was disturbing to look at to say the least.
She turned her attention to the Raven and saw him holding a tender claw over her injury, a symbol glowing white on his palm. Her stomach settled. The symbol's light flowed like water. The curving, intricate design branded upon the beast before her somehow conveyed a sense of peace and comfort.
After a few moments the light dimmed. Rainbow slunk from under the Raven to join her friends, her face burning.
"I apologize for such a violent introduction. Understand that while I have no wish to harm you, Ms. Sparkle, or your friends, I will defend myself if it becomes necessary. And believe me when I say you have no hope of winning such a battle." The Raven's tone was smooth and calm. "Now, if you would be so kind–"
While he spoke, Twilight had arranged her friends into formation. "Alright girls, now we work together! Use the Elements!"
The Raven's gaze snapped to Twilight Sparkle, a flicker of amusement and irritation in his expression. The mares rose into the air as their respective Elements became visible and manifested, before finally coming together in a chromatic wave. The wave thundered towards their adversary, who had made no move to avoid it. It washed over him, bathed him in it's purifying light. It became too bright to see.
When the light broke, the girls collectively gasped. Nothing had happened. The Elements had had all the effect of a fancy light show, its main consequence being that their enemy's eyes needed to adjust. "H-how!? Why didn't the Elements work?" stammered Twilight.
A tone of mild annoyance crept into the Raven's voice. "Oh come on Ms. Sparkle, she told me you were smarter than this! Think! Why wouldn't the Elements have worked? The answer should have been obvious once Celestia told you that the Elements freed me!"
Twilight maintained her confused expression.
The Raven sighed. "I'm disappointed Ms. Sparkle." And he really did sound disappointed, like Celestia after the Smarty Pants incident. Not overtly angry, just saddened by her failure. Hearing that tone in his voice enraged her.
"Oh yeah!? How do we know you didn't curse the Elements, or somehow used runes to make yourself immune to them? Huh?"
"Ms. Sparkle, you can tell as well as I can that there is no alternative magic at work here. I suppose if you cannot face the music, cannot see what is staring you face, I will tell you. The Elements of Harmony did not effect me because I am harmonious. I am at peace with myself and the world. The Elements have no effect on something that is already in a peaceful, beneficial state."
Twilight's anger evaporated, replaced with realization dawning on her face. Her friends could tell from the look on her face that she was thinking, analyzing his conclusion from every possible angle, trying to poke a hole in his statement. After a minute Twilight gave in. "How could I have missed it? The answer makes perfect sense, but how is possible? The Princess said–"
"I am afraid Celestia was mistaken, although through no fault of her own. You need not worry; I have no intention of harming Equestria. As matter of fact, I intend to leave it, and save it if I can. Now, if you would all calmly follow me, we shall palaver over a meal I have prepared for us."
The mares looked to their leader for guidance. Twilight just shook her head. With the reflexes he had displayed with Rainbow, it looked as though her magic would be just as easily avoided and countered. She didn't want test the idea. "Girls, I'm afraid without the Elements, we don't have a prayer of stopping him. That was our trump card, and it's gone. We'll just have to see what he really intends, for good or ill."
The unwilling guests followed their host through corridors of steel, dead light bulbs, keyboards of buttons with incomprehensible letters, switches, and dark screens. The Raven seemed to have the labyrinth memorized, never hesitating and moving ever forward. Eventually they reached their destination, a nook about an acre square. Unlike the rest of maze, the consoles here blinked and whirred, the low hum they'd heard earlier now permeating the complex. At the far end of the yard was a group of six short pedestals, each with a thick wire trailing to a rectangular frame.
Her curiosity temporarily overpowering her anger and fear, Twilight ventured a question. "How did you build all of this? I've never seen machines this complex before. Do they use magical forces to run, or draw on runes, or–"
"No, I didn't create these machines. I found them here, in this laboratory. When I arrived, they were not in the condition they are now. I'm honestly only a glorified repairpony in regard to these technological behemoths. I understood enough about them to get them up and running, and tweak them a bit, but that's about it. As for where they draw their energy, you and your group will find out soon enough."
"What's your cutie mark mean?" asked Pinkie.
Twilight turned her attention to the Raven's equine flank. It was a curved outline of something. "A feather?" she guessed.
"Close. Very close. A knife," he replied.
Twilight opened her mouth to ask another question, but was stopped before she could speak. "I will answer any questions you do or do not wish to know the answer to over our palaver. Come."
He led them to a circular table off to one side of the yard. In its center was a stack of daisy sandwiches. The Raven gestured to the pile. "Pick one." Pinkie Pie instantly grabbed one from the pile. Before she could stuff into her mouth, the Raven snatched it out of her hoof and swallowed it in one bite.
"Hey, what was that for? You said 'Pick one.'" exclaimed Pinkie.
"Simply to display I did not poison the popkins, Ms Pie. I allowed you to pick one randomly so that I could not have positioned one for me specifically to eat."
Understanding snapped onto Pinkie's face. "Okay then! But call me Pinkie. 'Ms. Pie' sounds weird."
"Very well Pinkie. Everypony please have a seat and dig in." Everypony sat and, reassured that the sandwiches were safe, dug in. They had been forced to skip their meal at The Dixie Sprig and all of them were famished. While they ate, their insistent host began to speak.
"Now, I am well aware that I have given none of you any reasons to trust me. As a matter of fact, you have a very good reason not to trust me. I assume Celestia told you that I brought about Luna's corrupted form, Nightmare Moon."
The mares nodded, unsure of where he going.
"While I do not deny that I committed various atrocities throughout my life, I do not take responsibility for my Mistress's fall from grace. I do not expect you immediately believe me. Nonetheless, it is necessary for my plans that you do believe me."
"If you think that we're gonna help you, you're nuts!" said Rainbow. Her friends nodded in affirmation.
"You are absolutely right. I would have to be insane to think that you help me on my hazy endeavors. That is why I intend to explain my situation to you as best I can. I urge you to observe as best you can the tales you are about to be shown. They are my own, and I hold them very precious to me. My life will be an open book before you. I only ask that you respect what you see. Also, be aware that nothing you observe here can harm you. They are nothing but the illustrations of an age old tragedy."
"What do you mean observe?" asked Twilight. "And why do you have to tell us your whole life story? Wouldn't it make more sense to just explain what you want?"
"Ms. Sparkle, would you believe anything I told you? Or would any of your friends?"
The mares shared a glance of confirmation to his question.
"I thought so. That's why I cannot simply tell you my past. I must show you in a medium without lies, or at least without intentional lies: memories."
Applejack spoke up. "Wait just a sec. How in tarnation are ya goin' to show us yer memories?"
"With the machines around around you. What used to be a holographic security system, which displayed your worst fears by analyzing memories, I have modified to show any memories that I wish. The holograms used to be able to manifest physically as well, but I disabled that feature."
Before Twilight could ask about the holograms, the Raven continued. "As for what I am doing and why, my reasons are derived from several moments in my past, which in addition were built off of earlier events. Delivering my whole story would be just as concise as explaining my reasons, not to mention more coherent.
Twilight put her hoof to chin in thought. After a few moments, she spoke. "Girls, I can't see any way out of this but his way. I think we're just going to have to go along with him. But my opinion isn't the only one that matters. What do you all think?"
"Honestly darling, I don't see another way either."
"I suppose we could give it a shot. And I should be able to tell if'n he's lying."
"I like stories, even if they are about bad guys. What have we got to lose? You know, other than our lives, Equestria's freedom, possibly Luna's sanity–"
"I don't like this Twi. But if you're all for it, I guess I'll stick by that."
"Umm, I think it would be okay to give him a chance at least. He hasn't actually done anything to hurt us yet."
"'Cept for my wing," grumbled Rainbow under her breath.
"It seems we have reached an agreement." A three dimensional image of an infantile, even somewhat cute, hippogriff appeared on the floor before them. "I shall begin my tale as my first guardian always began her's: Once upon a bye, before your grandfather's grandfather was born..."
When he told us he was lonely, he was speaking from the heart. I was much too young to know him but I knew it was a start... I was- raised on the radio! Raised on the radio!
...I heard a voice. It was a mare's voice.
The voice sounded exhausted. She was panting, barely able to breathe. She was also terrified, screaming in reaction to some unknown horror that was tormenting her. My new found consciousness wanted to help her for reasons I couldn't understand. I tried to move closer to her, my new muscles straining to bridge the gap between us on instinct more than actual thought. She shrieked louder.
I tried to open my eyes, but they were stuck shut. This seemed perfectly natural. Sound was my only connection to the outside world.
I could hear other voices around her trying to calm her down. One was male, the other female. They tried to comfort her, to tell her it was alright, their tone attempting to convey a sense of tranquility. My ears tuned out their specific words. My entire focus was on the voice of the mare. Her voice began to form patterns. I didn't understand what these patterns of sound meant. Later, once I understood language, the words would fill me with a potent mixture of sorrow and vague hate.
"Dear Celestia!" She was crying. "What have I done? What is it? Please, take it, take it away, I don't want it! Let me behold it nevermore!!"
My young mind somehow registered the emphasis of this last word. My mouth gaped open, trying to imitate it.
"Nuh, nevah," I struggled. "Nevahmo-ah."
The mare was wracked with another series of sobs. I felt a set of talons wrap around my middle, lifting me up. Another sense had been revealed; touch. The clarity of my memory here begins to fade. I remember the wail of squeaking hinges and the sharpness of a cold that seemed to contour to my body. They go from crisp recollections to dull, obscure feelings.
My first memory ends.
The first memory, a recollection of the moments directly following my birth into and immediate rejection from the world, was an anomaly. My next extensive recollection seems to take place several months later. After the second memory, the vague, half memories recede. There are no longer islands, pockets of blurry memory amid a black sea of forget.
I could see the street before me, crowded with griffons buying and selling various goods, jokers dancing and singing, surrounded by a crowd. Hear the laughter, conversations of blissful interaction out of my reach. Feel the cool, early spring breeze, ruffling my feathers and whipping my fur. Smell the vendors around me, tempting me with their delicate odors. Practically taste the comfortable atmosphere, an air of friendliness and community I could never truly belong to. I hated them.
I must have learned to walk on my own. Speak coherent sentences-- I did not need to often. Think coherent thoughts-- usually they involved food. Steal to get sustenance-- steal sometimes just to prove I could. Hide when it became necessary-- it was necessary a lot. I was a self taught survivor.
Based on most of my later interactions, it seems unlikely I was taught by others, at least directly. I figure that I must have picked up these basic skills from observing others from the figurative shadows. You see, hiding was instinct for me by that point. I could hide in plain sight if I wanted to, a horrible freak, an unholy blend between griffon and pony, unnoticed among the crowds of a busy town street. I do not remember it well, but I must have learned by then that no one wanted to see me. I obliged.
I was good at remaining unseen. It came naturally for me. I never questioned where this ability came from. When I eventually looked into my ancestry, years ahead at this point, I found that none of my relatives shared this talent with me. Perhaps it was destiny. Another word, whose definition was years ahead of me, would describe my unprecedented talents better.
I reached for an apple from a griffon's stand. I knew that it was wrong. I must have acquired this vague sense of morality by heeding the actions of the populous around me. It must not have meant much to me, because I stole anyway. Whether it was necessary or not, I did it. It was as good a payback for their treatment of me (whatever that might have been) as I could manage.
The roadside market was crowded with early morning shoppers. The sound of rattling silver coins, idle chatter, and haggling filled the plaza. It was busy. The perfect time to nonchalantly swipe away an apple as I was passing by, a small, indistinct figure in the shifting pride.
My claw reached out while the clerk was busy conversing, wrapped around the fruit, and stashed it beneath my wing. The key was to move your body at a normal pace. Moving too fast or slow would only draw more attention to your movements. Of course, back then I wasn't analyzing these techniques. As I said, they came naturally. Honing these skills, going over their every detail to make myself unnaturally unnoticeable and deadly, would come later.
The minute my crime was complete, I felt something wrong. Well, perhaps not wrong precisely. Different is a better word. I suppose this memory may stand out because of this particular feeling. The first major fluctuation in what had up to that point been a consistent, if subconscious, system. Cite target, walk down the street without attracting attention, snatch said target without stopping or glancing at it, eat when out of sight. Never hit the same place more than once a month. No more than one place once a day. If I did it right, all of these steps could be completed in under thirty seconds. Funny feelings were not part of the system.
It was too dangerous to stop and figure what was "wrong" right then and there. Griffons would notice I'd stopped, start really looking at me and seeing me. Again, none of this actually entered my thoughts. It was all taking place in my subconscious. I knew what to do without thinking about it. I kept walking.
I waited until I thought I was safely concealed in a back alley, then turned my attention to the feeling I'd just experienced, trying to place it. It was unfamiliar. I removed my prize from beneath my wing, sat down, my back against a vine-clad brick wall, and began to chew thoughtfully. By the time I'd finished the meal, I hadn't gotten any further into figuring it out.
A shadow fell over me from the alley's entrance.
"Hey, kid!"
My cover had been blown. I ran. I didn't get far.
I hardly gotten ten hooves when the griffon overtook me. The sun shined behind her, so it was hard to see her clearly. She tackled me and pinned me to the ground.
"Woah kid, what's your problem? Why did you- oh. What?"
I cringed. I knew what was coming. The insults. The names. "Bastard. Freak. Monster." The names were inevitable once somegriffon got a really good look at me. I remember these thoughts in my head, so I must have experienced this before, even if I don't now explicitly recall it. But this new griffon surprised me.
"Holy shit! Look at you! What have you been eating!? You're as skinny as a fucking skeleton! When was the last time you ate? Before that apple, I mean."
Somewhere in the back of mind, I registered that she had been the cause of the funny feeling. She had seen me steal the apple. No one had ever seen me steal before!
But for the moment, she captured my attention for an even stranger reason. It was like she hadn't noticed what I was. I knew that I was somehow fundamentally different from those around me. The other griffons could see it. That was the reason I had to hide, remain unseen. The others didn't like to see me being different. But this griffon hadn't even mentioned it. Was something wrong with her eyes? Was she stupid? I honestly didn't know.
As my brain tried to process this, she asked me again. "Hey, pay attention! When was the last time you ate? And how much?"
For a moment I just jawed at her, trying to comprehend this baffling situation. It took me a few seconds, but I finally managed, "Uhh, yesterday. I filched a chicken leg."
Her eye twitched. "That's all?" She stood silent for a few moments before continuing. From the way she frowned, she must have been considering something important.
While she pondered the situation, I took the time to look at her. She seemed to be an adolescent, probably no older than twelve. This was not uncommon. Griffons achieve independence at a young age, and she certainly seemed to be making decisions for herself. She had the front half of a kestrel and the back half of a lynx, so she was pretty small, even for her age (although she still dwarfed me). Her eyes gleamed with fierce intelligence.
She spoke, snapping me out of my examination. "Alright, I got it. You're coming with me."
"But--"
"Shush. I wasn't making a suggestion. Follow me."
So I did. I walked beside her, careful to stay in her shadow so as to not be seen by the griffons we passed. It wasn't difficult. She towered at least three or four times my height.
This girl put me on edge. She wasn't like the rest of the pride you saw on the street. Something was different about her. I couldn't count on normal reactions like I could from the rest. She was an unknown variable that seemed impossible to evaluate. It frightened me.
It surprised me even more when she held up our conversation. "How old are you, kid?"
I maintained silence.
"Something wrong with your ears kid? I said how old are you?"
"I dunno," I mumbled.
"Pfft, you don't don't know! How don't you know? I mean, everygriffon knows that! Just looking at you, I guess you aren't more than a year old. Even I can work that out. When's your birthday?"
I shrugged feebly. "Dunno."
"Sweet ancestors kid, what do you know? You got a name?"
She was starting to make me angry. What did she think I was, an idiot? Not that she was wrong about me not knowing, but that wasn't the point. For some reason it seemed vital that I prove her wrong. Not having a formal name, I said the first word that came to mind.
"Nevermore."
"Heh, Nevermore, huh? What kind of stupid name is that? It sounds made up!"
"Yeah, well so what if it is?" I defended, tears beginning to mist my eyes. Who was she to judge me? "I-If you're so great, what's your name? I bet it's not any better than mine!"
She blinked at my outburst. Then she laughed. "I like you kid, you're no pushover! Alright, I'll tell you. Name's Lenore. And I take it back about your name being stupid and all. Nevermore's pretty neat I guess."
My curiosity regarding her sanity returned. She liked me? No one liked-- well, maybe it was better not to question it. Being liked didn't seem so bad. My anger towards her dissipated.
Her interrogation continued. "Where you been living, Nevermore? Based off your looks, don't seem like you're living with your folks."
I tried to match her suave, all-knowing tone of voice. I wanted to keep us on an even playing field. "Eh, I've been living around."
"Hmmf. A kid your age? That's a damn shame."
We approached a run down shack. We'd been walking into the poorer part of town, but this place was the worst I'd seen yet. It looked as though it had been built with scrap wood on the foundation of another building that collapsed. Broken bricks were scattered around the surrounding yard, and some had been stacked around the bottom the shack's walls to give them a sturdy base. There was one window, which was slanted and had a moth eaten blanket as a curtain.
I gazed at the building critically. I felt comfortable enough around Lenore now to give her my two bits about the place. After harassing me, returning the favor was the least I could do. "You live in there? Sheesh. Why not make a cloud house or something?"
"Don't know much, do you kid? Sure I could make a cloud house, easy. It would take a while though, and I'm not gonna spend a valuable month of time crafting a house that I'd be leaving in two months anyway. This only takes me a few hours to set up. Not to mention I'd have to pay one of those cheap ass unicorns in the classy part of town to jinx all my stuff so it wouldn't fall through the clouds. That's why there's so many homes on the ground. Duh."
I'd never considered the unicorns before. It made sense though, and I felt stupid for not realizing it.
We walked into the home, which consisted of one room. It had a bed and a strangely shaped case. That was about it.
I revisited my argument. "Well it's not like you'd have much to get jinxed."
"You obviously don't know how cheap those unicorns can be when they set their minds to it. Believe it or not, that's still out of my price range."
"But you could just make the bed and case out of clouds too."
"It's not like the case is empty."
"Oh." I felt stupid again. It must have showed, because she walked up beside me and put a wing around me. For a moment my body went rigid. I wasn't used to personal contact in any context. Then my body relaxed. It felt... good.
"Hey, listen, don't feel bad. Honestly, there aren't even many hatchlings your age who could talk at all, much less hold up an even mildly intelligent conversation, or steal so gracefully. That's why I followed you, and brought you here."
I blushed. She had seen me take the apple.
"C'mon, we'll palaver out back."
"Palver?"
"Palaver. Chat it up while we share a meal." My stomach moaned, and I heard her stifle a giggle.
We walked through the rear doorway (well, opening really) of the shack to a modest fire pit with a rusty, makeshift grill frame set over top of it. She lifted up an average looking wooden plank a few hooves away to reveal a small, but densely packed, nook in the ground filled with raw possum. She slapped four slabs on the grill, and used two stones to light the pit, which already had kindling underneath. The smell of the cooking rodents made my mouth water.
As we sat beside the crackling fire, our conversation continued.
"So kid, can you fly yet?"
"Uh, no, I haven't been taught. It looks like fun though, I guess. But it also looks pretty hard."
"Eh, it's no big deal. It's something you're gonna need to learn though. We're gonna be traveling a lot, and the fastest way to do it is by flying. Once I got you all learned up, we'll be heading off to Plateau City. Lots of money to make there, certainly more than in this crummy, backwater town. I'm not sure why I even came here. Not that I regret it now though."
My mind was reeling from the amount of information conveyed to me in a few short sentences. It was overwhelming. I tried to wrap my brain around what she'd just told me. After several moments, I finally managed a question.
"Why don't you regret it? Coming here, I mean."
"Cause I found you. My new little partner in crime," she said affectionately.
"What!? W-why me? Why choose me so fast? Why are you doing all this?" It couldn't possibly be real. It was like something out of some clichéd fairy tale. Some nice girl whisking the downtrodden child off to a new life. That didn't just happen!
Upon seeing my distress, her kind demeanor tapered off, replaced with a melancholy sigh. "Nothing gets past you, does it kid? Guess I'll be straight with you, Nevermore. I saw you sneak that apple back at the market like a pro whose been at it for years, and you didn't even look like you were trying. The only reason I saw you was because I was looking at the right place at the right time. That kind of expertise isn't just some run of the mill talent; that's what I call a gift, kid. I could help you put that gift to better use.
"You see, I'm a con-artist of sorts myself. You've seen some of the jokers around the city, yeah?" I nodded. Some performed magic tricks, others acted out skits, others were simple bards. None of them ever lasted long around here though. Griffons were pretty frugal around these parts.
"Well, I'm a performer of the singing and playing variety. Not a terrible source of income, but I don't exactly rake in coins either. Especially not in a place like this. It's real hard for a joker to get by in this town."
I nodded again, in recognition of her predicament. Still, I was unsure of how this could possibly have to do with a partnership.
"What some jokers do to work around this is making an agreement with a thief to go around as they perform. You know, taking extra donations, if you catch my drift. Only from those too tight-winged to donate, of course. Then the joker and the thief split the profit. That way, each can get more than they would on their own."
Now I saw where she was coming from. "You want me to travel with you to be your thief?"
"Pretty much. It would work a bit differently for us though. Since you can't really take care of yourself yet, we would pool the money to spend together. We'd each have a bit set aside for ourselves, but most of it would be shared."
This I could comprehend better than simple good will. She was getting just as much out of the relationship as I was. But there still seemed to be some genuine concern for me buried in her proposition. She didn't have to pool the money and take care of me. She could just leave me to my own devices with it. But instead, she wanted to teach me, live with me, take care of me. And even if all that was ploy to win me over, it was more than anygriffon had ever wanted to do for me, or to do with me.
"What do you say kid?"
I looked up at her, jerked away from my thoughts. My eyes misted up, and I tackled her in a desperate hug.
"Woah kid, take it easy! I-It's alright. It's fine. Hush now, hush... hush..." Even though she must have been inexperienced at comforting others, she attempted to console me. She stroked my feathered head with her claw, and I felt secure. I hugged tighter.
Slowly, I calmed down. After a few minutes, I released her, wiping stray tears from my face. Lenore gazed at me with a puzzled and somewhat troubled expression.
"What was that all about?"
I tried to articulate what I was feeling. "N-no one ever wanted to be around me before. Because I'm... a freak, I guess. I'm different. But, you... do you not see that or something?"
She sighed again. "Of course I see it. You're what's called a hippogriff, Nevermore. Not a freak. Some griffons, bastards that they are, think that hippogriffs are wrong. Personally, I don't give shit. Jokers can't be too picky about their company. Ponies and griffons can do whatever the hell they want in the bedroom for all I care. Besides, even if I did think it was wrong, it's not like it's your fault."
I sniffled a bit. A few details flew over my head, by I got the gist of what she'd said. "So... you don't care?"
"Nah, that's not the kind of thing I care about. What I care about is results. And I think I can get them from you. So what do you say kid. We got a deal?"
No hesitation. "Deal!"
"Fantastic. Now that that's out of the way, we can dig... in." The meal was scorched. Pretty much inedible. "Eh, I'll put some more on. Possum's cheap anyway."
As the new supper roasted, its succulent scent teasing us, our conversation went to lighter topics. She told me jokes, stories, and even some old legends. It was a night I hoped I would never forget.
My eyes blinked open to darkness. We were sharing the bed in Lenore's shack. I must have fallen asleep outside, and she'd carried me in. In hindsight, I can hardly blame myself for dozing off. It was by far the most emotional draining day of my life (so far, anyway), although not in a bad way. Whether she brought me in because of maternal instincts, or just simple kindness, I didn't care. It felt good to be taken care of, to be looked out for. I snuggled closer to my new friend. It was then I discovered what woke me up.
A small but definitely not imagined noise was buzzing in my ear. It sounded like... singing. The music was coming from behind me, where Lenore was laying. But something was off.
The voice singing wasn't hers. It was the voice of a male; no, several males. They sung in perfect harmony. Their voices had a melancholy rhythm. Even though I didn't understand what the words meant, the song was beautiful. A familiar instrument strummed the melody as the voices sang in sad concordance. Their mysterious lyrics stayed with me.
"Hey Jude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her under your skin,
Then you'll begin to make it
Better better better better better better, oh.
"Na na na na na ,na na na, Hey Jude...
"This is 100.3 WKIT FM, late night radio, with The Beatles classics playing all night. That was Hey Jude folks, and next up we've got... Happiness is a Warm Gun. You know, Bang Bang, Shoot Shoot!"
As the next song started, I turned to look over at Lenore. What the hell was she saying? How was she switching voices without skipping a beat. Why did her voice sound all fuzzy, far away?
When I saw her, I had to stifle a shriek of surprise. She was still asleep. Her mouth was hanging slightly open, a small drip of drool trailing down her beak. Her mouth wasn't moving. Sound was just coming out, like water trickling out of a leaking pipe. Thousands of questions sprung into mind. Should I wake her up? What would happen if I did? Was it worth the risk? Why didn't she tell me about this? Did she even know about this?
I gaped at her, trying to figure out what to do. Waking her up seemed too risky. She might go crazy, who knew? After a few minutes of picking over the situation, I decided to just try to fall back asleep. Maybe a solution would present itself in the morning.
I turned around, facing away from her. But that creepy image of her beak just lolling open, with some being far away using her like some sort of puppet, a demented ventriloquist controlling everything she said, stayed fresh in my mind. The hauntingly mesmerizing music echoed in my ear all night. What could have been a lullaby in a different context kept me awake most of that first night.
Can you see the Joker flying over, as she's standing in the field of clover? Watching out, every day. Wonder what would happen if he took her away.
I didn't have much time to dwell on peculiar events of the previous night the following morning. Right after breakfast (more possum), Lenore and I hit the streets, the oddly shaped case strapped under her wing. Once we found an open plaza, we stepped into an alley to form our plan.
"Alright Nevermore, this should be pretty simple. Me, I'm gonna play my guitar out there. Griffons're gonna gather 'round to listen. Some (not many, but there's always a few) will offer a bit of coin for my services. Most won't. Your job is to make sure that those less willing to give give anyway. I'm leaving how you do that up to you. We'll meet up here around three. That should give you plenty of time collect bank. Any questions?"
"Uh, yeah. What's a guitar?" I had never heard of one before.
"An instrument. Makes music." She opened her case to let me see. Now that I saw it, I recognized it. I'd seen them around, used by other jokers. I also realized that that was the sound I'd recognized in the song last night. The familiar instrument.
I tried not to let on my apprehension. "Oh, one of those."
"Be careful around it. It's the most valuable thing I own. Any more questions?" I shook my head. "Alright, I'll head out. You follow a couple minutes after the music starts."
I watched from the alleyway as she set her case in front of a wall for her to lean against and clicked it open, leaving it like that for the generous to toss coins into. She took out the guitar, battered and worn, and began to tune it. She plucked each of the strings to test the sound and, once she was satisfied, settled down to play.
She took a few notes to get her rhythm, but once she had it she never let go. The tune started out slowly, and after a few moments she added her voice into the mix. The familiar sound chilled my bones, and for the length of the entire song, I stood frozen.
"Hey Jude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better."
The song was almost exactly the same. I could tell a few elements were missing, some of the background sounds and such. Her voice was also different, not the harmonized group from last night. But otherwise she played it note for note, sang it word for word. I could tell it was the same sad song from the last night. I couldn't bring myself to move a muscle until the song had ended.
Once it did, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. I'd have to ask where she knew the song from. Figure out what the hell as going on. But that could be investigated later. For now I needed to focus on the task at hand.
I had never pick pocketed directly off somegriffon before, although I was confident I could do it. It just hadn't been necessary before. I could get what I needed from stalls along the street, not having to encounter the higher stakes of stealing straight off somegriffon. I thought I could accomplish this with relative ease, but I'd need to apply more concentration to do it flawlessly. And I wanted to do it flawlessly. To impress Lenore. I gave myself the goal of not letting even Lenore, who'd be looking for me, catch me in the act.
I'd stayed in one place long enough. If I remained any longer, griffons would start noticing. I walked calmly out, acting as if it were perfectly normal for me to be there. I worked my way down the street, pretending to gaze down the lane, while really donating most of my attention to Lenore out of the corner of my eye. A crowd was begin to form around her. I took careful note of who had and hadn't contributed to the meager pile of coins in her case, all the while keeping myself moving.
Lenore, meanwhile, seemed completely engrossed in her music. She had started her next song, another one from the group the interluding voice from the previous night had referred to as "The Beatles" ("Happy ever after in the market place. Molly is the singer in a band."). Her talons strummed the guitar with practiced ease, flowing from note to note of the strings like a trickle of water in a calm creek. She smiled as she sang, and seemed content to play her songs in a blissful eternity of melody.
I turned my attention back to crowd, trying to pick out who might contribute the greatest profit. I spotted a middle aged griffoness dolled up in jewelry, not the cheap fakes either. Her face had slightly less makeup than a circus clown. She was at the edge of the group. First target.
I passed by in as casual a manner I could muster, slipped my claw under her wing like it was the most natural thing in the world to do, and removed a silk pouch jingling with coins. Jackpot. But there was no time to celebrate just then. I continued my easy stroll for another block, then ducked into an alley. I hid behind a pile of garbage, counting out the earnings of our first catch. There were fifteen 20 bit pieces, more money than I'd ever seen in my entire life. Three hundred bits! My eyes glowed. This was only the first hit of the day? I could barely believe I would have more by three o'clock!
Although my first victim had by far the most coin, by three I'd still collected a grand total of six hundred bits. Having so much money gave that whole first experience a vibe of unreality, like it was pleasant dream that would have end at some point. In way, that was true, but it wasn't destined to end today.
When I crept into the assigned alley at three, I was met with a livid Lenore. I put on my most unemotional face, all the while grinning internally. From the way she steamed, she had been too focused on her songs to see me. Perfect.
"Nevermore, where the FUCK were you! I played for five hours straight, and didn't see head or tail of you the whole time! What the hell are you trying to pul"- I pulled out my bag of coins- "llllll... holy shit. Uhh, how much you got in there?" she asked sheepishly.
"Six hundred bits," I said, revealing my smug smile.
"What! Where in the hell did you get six hundred bits? You couldn't have gotten them from the griffons I was playing for, I didn't see you the whole...." She dwindled off as I continued to smile. "No, no... you didn't... holy shit..." she breathed, trying to put together how she hadn't seen me. After a few moments she caught herself, and within seconds she was composed. "Aherm, eh, nice job kid. You did pretty well for your first time. Now wipe that smug little grin off your face and let's get back."
She had tried not to let her amazement at my feat show through, but it was clear to little ole me that I had blown away her expectations. I had set the bar high, and I had no intentions of disappointing.
That night we shared the tiny cot of Lenore's shack again. I struggled to keep myself awake, refusing to let sleep's happy embrace take me. I wanted to confirm that what I had witnessed the previous night hadn't been some screwed up dream, or a bizarre fluke. I was starting to drift off when my insomnia paid off.
That song was playing again. "Hey Juuuude...". I turned to look at Lenore, and was greeted with what was essentially the same circumstances as before. Mouth gaping, song emitting, this seemed to be a regular nocturnal occurrence.
My restless mind picked up where it had left off last night. What to do about this? I reviewed my earlier options, and dismissed them as before. I had no idea how to proceed. As much as it pained me to consider the thought, the only reasonable option seemed to be to scurry off. This was too weird. My life before had been alrigh– tolerable, right?
My thinking was interrupted by the same voice as yesternight. "You're listening to WKIT-FM 100.3, late night radio brought to you by Radio Zone. Sorry folks, no Beatlemania tonight, just Judey, as usual. But fear not, we still play your favorite classics every night! Tonight we're start off by getting the Led out! When the Levee Breaks, folks!"
A steady rhythm began, different yet somehow holding a common... theme with the previous night.
"If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break,
If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break,
When The Levee Breaks I'll have no place to stay."
Perhaps it was the same genre of music. Despite the songs' fantastic origins, I felt compelled to listen a bit. After getting over the immediate shock of disembodied voices speaking through your new found guardian's gawking jaw, I took a moment to realize that the sound was almost hypnotic.
The sounds weren't terrifying, as I initially thought. They were strange, to be sure, but in their foreignness gained a hard to place attribute I found interesting. For now, I could tolerate them. In time, I would be hard pressed to sleep without them.
The next day, I was charged up for another chance to prove myself as a thief to Lenore. I wanted to see how long I could avoid her noticing me at work. She had other plans.
"Why can't we go again?" I whined, as we trekked to the outskirts of the city. "I'll get even more this time! We could have a feast or something!"
"Nevermore, we've got more than enough bank to keep us steady for a while. Besides, we'll be back on the circuit soon enough, and hopefully in Plateau City," she explained. "Which is why I brought you out here. Nice open space for gliding and such. You're a bit young, but we've got to get you flying. I can't carry you all the way to Plateau City, and we sure as hell ain't walking."
I perked up at this news. It might not be stealing, but I would still have the chance to prove myself worthy of her attention. If I was as good at flying as I was thieving, it would be a walk in the park.
She carefully explained how to get liftoff, maintain flight, and land, as well as demonstrating each a few times. I took mental note of everything with rapt interest. Finally, her lesson tapered off.
"That about covers the basics, at least as I was taught. Now before you start practicing, I've got to set some goals for you. Gives you extra motivation. With the work we're doing, you need two primary flight skills: stamina and stealth. First challenge is pretty simple. Stay in flight for six hours without rest, keeping up with me the whole time. If you get caught thieving, you need to be able to make your escape without getting winded. Next challenge's trickier. You got to sneak up on me without me noticing. I may not have shown it yesterday, but I didn't see you once while you were snagging that coin. Do that in the sky, and we'll be ready to get out of this shitty town."
"You're not gonna tell me how to do that stuff?"
"Eh, you seem like a smart kid. Figure it out. You can't always rely on me, you know. Anyways, I'll be close by." She gestured to a nearby tree. "I'll be under that tree, taking a nap. Once you're ready for the stamina test, come get me. I reckon that'll be in a few months."
"Months!? I can do better than that!"
"Heh, good luck." She smirked, walked over to her patch of shade, and slumped down.
I screwed my face up into a determined scowl. I would get my task done today! Yeah! That would show her!
I took my liftoff stance and prepared for take-off.
I returned to our shack twelve hours later. Lenore had come back a few hours ago, and was sitting by the fire out back. I slumped down at to the fire next to her, exhausted and covered with dirt and bruises from head to claw. I was too tired be embarrassed. Lenore took it in stride, without teasing me. She didn't even spare me a second glance. She'd known this would happen.
"So, how many times did you crash?"
"Ugh. Lost track after 500."
"Not as easy as it looks, is it?" She held out a possum shish-kabobbed on a stick. "Saved some for you. Figured you'd be hungry."
I grunted a quick thank you and began scarfing down my meal. Once I reduced the rodent to bones, I finally looked up and spoke through a mouthful of food. "How long did it take you to learn. To fly, I mean?"
She pondered the question a few moments. "Umm... I'd say... about five months, give or take a week or two."
I swallowed my food and sighed. "Jeez, that's like forever from now. I can't wait to get out of here." I'd had a lot of time to think while practicing flying, and I had come to a few conclusions. One of the biggest ones was that I hated this place. All it had for me was bad memories and bad vibes. Lenore was right: this was a shitty town.
Lenore passed me another skewered possum. "I'm right with you kid. This town blows. Besides, I got no friends here. In Plateau City, on the other hand, there's a whole nest of jokers and thieves. Know most of them pretty well. We'll be at home there. And trust me when I say none of them will judge you like the cum stains around here. Like I said, jokers can't be picky about their company."
I smiled. I had known her for all of two days, and she was already reading me like a book. I scooted closer to her and leaned on her. She stiffened at first, then let me rest on her. She stroked my head like she had the first night, when I'd cried. That made me want to start crying all over again. Not in confusion, but in relief. Thankfully, I managed to stop myself. I was home with her. I was safe with her. As far as I was concerned, everything was going to be fine from now on.
The next few weeks were busy, but left me content. Our schedule was sporadic, with days of flight practice, stealing, and just palling around interspersed randomly. A lot happened in those first few weeks.
After the initial week of repeated crashes, things began to get easier almost without me realizing it. Before crashing, I would hover a few seconds. Then I'd be hovering a few feet forward, before pulling off an awkward landing. By halfway through the third week, I had gotten exponentially better. I was flying for half an hour with no breaks, and was already attempting to make my flights less noisy.
Lenore was content with my progress. She seemed to have predicted my quick learning curve (despite her earlier sentiments), and once I was able to maintain flight began to teach me more, using the self proclaimed technique of "tough love". She seemed to have rebuked her philosophy of do it yourself learning as well. She pushed me to limits without mercy, but her method of "tough love" proved effective. By the end of each four hour training session, I was exhausted, but always happy. Happy because I knew I was making progress.
I always practiced my stealth on my own. If I was going to surprise Lenore, I didn't want her to see my improvement. Some nights I stayed out late, trying to sneak up on owls, because I knew that they had the best hearing of all birds. Over the weeks I got closer and closer before disturbing them.
Each night, when we returned to the shack from my endurance training, we would share a meal. She wasted no time in teaching me how to start up the fire and cook. We switched off kitchen duty every night at my request. No one could accuse me of not pulling my own weight. After dinner, Lenore would tell me old legends of ancient monsters, all the bravest warriors, and of kingdoms risen and fallen. She would begin each story the same way: "Once upon a bye, before you grandfather's grandfather was born..."
It wasn't long before I wanted to read stories of my own. Using some of my share of the money from our scams, I had Lenore buy me book of old tales using my share of the money, since I couldn't buy it myself. She was insistent that I buy the book and not steal it. She said that griffons with normal jobs needed to make a living too, and that we made enough just doing what we did without taking any more from them. Essentially, her point was why steal money if you're gonna steal everything else anyway. It didn't make much sense to me, but I did as she asked. It was the least I could do after she had done so much for me.
Reading proved a much less difficult challenge than flying. Once Lenore taught me the basic letters and their sounds, I pretty much got it. All the words and sounds just kind of clicked together, and before I knew it I was done with the book and hungry for more. By the time I reached my third book, Lenore suggested I buy a saddlebag to keep them in for when we would be travelling. Lenore was never as interested in books as I was, but encouraged my hobby nonetheless. By the time we left for Plateau City, I would have moved on to nonfiction. Magic interested me in particular, despite my inability to actually perform it.
Nights continued in the same pattern I described earlier. After about a week, I stopped being freaked out by it. In three weeks, I stopped wondering about it too, and just accepted it as a part of my life. Besides, the music was good. And the first song never changed. The rest of "the lineup" was different almost every night, but "Hey Jude" always came first. After how chaotic my life had been before, another constant was always welcome.
Throughout all the other activities keeping us busy, we still found time to do our jokering and thieving two or three times a week. We raked in at least 500 bits each session, and one time we even had a combined 900 bits. We were by no means short for cash. At one point, it occurred to me that with all this money, we could be staying at an inn or something. Lenore scoffed at the idea, saying that would be a great way to get found out. I think that was only part of it. She seemed to genuinely enjoy "roughing it", as she put it, living in her own place with her own rules. To an extent, I could see the appeal myself.
After two months of intense flight training, I decided to knock out two birds with one stone. Both challenges done in one day.
Lenore was flying on the outskirts of town. She didn't seem to have any particular errands in mind, she was just flying for the hell of it. And why not? It was a beautiful day in early summer, the sun was shining warmly down on the world, and nothing could possibly ruin her fligh–
Once I'd gotten close enough, I barreled into her, bringing us both crashing to the earth below. The second I hit her, she gave a shriek of surprise, which devolved into laughter once she realized what was going on. By the time we somersaulted down, we were both laughing like hyenas, gasping for breath. It took us a few minutes to finally get ourselves under some semblance of control.
"Well," said Lenore, wiping her eye, "that was nice. First test passed, with flying colors. Honestly, I thought you were going to pass the endurance test first. You've gotten pretty strong wings for shrimp."
"Yeah, thanks to your running me into the ground every day."
"Hmm, guess you're right. Once you pass that test, you owe me a thank you." Lenore hadn't helped me too much with the stealth lessons, but endurance was something she excelled in.
"That thank you will be coming sooner than you think. The second test was what I had in mind for the rest of the day," I said, already stretching in preparation. "I want to get this done so we can get out here. You game? Or still a little sore from my sneak attack!"
She grinned. "You think you're ready for that too? I'm not so sure. Remember, you got to keep up with me, not just glide around for six hours straight!"
Despite my small stature and wingspan, I had confidence that I could complete the challenge. "Hey, you're the one who said I had 'strong wings for a shrimp'. I can keep up easy."
"Prove it."
In response I leapt into the air, snapping my wings open and giving a few good pumps to get airborne. I glanced down and saw Lenore had just taken off as well. I grinned and flapped harder, trying to keep my lead. But even with my head start, Lenore was caught up within seconds.
"Nice try, but no," she said as she kept pace next to me. "Besides, this is about endurance, not pure speed. You'll wear yourself out going that fast. Ease up a bit, and just keep up. If you like, I can help you practice speed work later. Honestly, you need the help. That was awful."
"Fine, fine," I answered. "This test is gonna be easy anyway. I bet I could race the whole thing and still pass!"
"Sheesh, you've got a big head all of a sudden. Calm down Nevermore!"
I opened my mouth to retaliate, but then realized she was right. I mumbled a quick, "Sorry," with a burning face, she muttered an obligatory, "It's all right," and we flew in silence for the next hour.
After the hour of silence, we gradually began to talk again, and soon were joking around as if nothing had happened, my superiority complex safely kept under lock and key by my subconscious thanks to Lenore's comment.
We flew until the sun had set and the moon had traveled above the horizon. I was dripping with sweat and my movements were jerky. I barely stopped myself from simply colliding with the ground. As soon as I touched down, I did collapse, a pitiful smile of accomplishment on my face.
Lenore landed easily next to me, and ruffled my head. "Still think you could've raced that?"
I coughed out a wheezy laugh. "Pfft, yeah right."
She grinned. "Glad to see you've got that ego under control. Tell you what, head on back to the shack. I'll be back in a few with a surprise." She began walking toward the other side of town.
I let out a dramatic moan. "Alright. Oh, and by the way..." Lenore turned around. "Thanks!"
Lenore grinned. "You got that right!"
She continued her way as I dragged myself to my feet and forced myself to walk back to our shelter a mile or so away, stretching my wings and wincing as I went. At least my legs weren't tired. When I arrived, I wasted no time in lying down on the cot and waiting. I was almost asleep when Lenore made her appearance. She placed something behind her and turned around to face me, blocking whatever she had brought with her.
"Wake up Nevermore. Can't have you falling asleep yet!" she exclaimed.
"Why?"
"Are you familiar with the 'Coming of Age' traditions of griffons?" she asked.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I mumbled, my eyes closed.
"Well, there's a specific tradition we have for first extended flight. A little ceremony to be shared between teacher and student!"
"Can't it wait for tomorrow?"
"No. Now open your eyes. Once your done with the ritual, I promise you'll sleep like a hatchling. Hell, you're barely older than a hatchling now." I opened my eyes reluctantly, and found her holding two small bottles of smelly brown liquid. I wrinkled my beak at the odor.
"Whisky? Isn't that for grownups?" I ventured. I'd only ever seen older griffons and ponies drinking it.
"Almost! First off, you're having graf, not whisky. Whisky's a bit strong for you, so that's for me. Secondly, this is how grown ups become grownups. I'll admit, usually griffons are older by their extended flight, but it is tradition. Now drink up!" She thrust one of the bottles into my claw and smiled at me expectantly.
I looked down at the beverage, sighed, and took a swig. Then I started gagging and rolled off the bed. I could hear Lenore laughing in the background. Once my episode was over, I dragged myself off the floor and onto the cot. "What the fuck was that for?" I gasped.
Lenore grinned. "Like I said, it's tradition. I remember when my brother made me do it. I had pretty much the exact same reaction. But really, it's harmless. Besides, you should have seen the look on your face!" I just glowered at her. Her smile faltered and she sighed. "Tell you what, I'll buy you any book you want with my share of the money the next time something catches your eye. Guess I should've remembered it wasn't all that funny when my brother did it to me, huh?"
I could see that she was really was sorry, and although I wasn't feeling very forgiving at the moment, I tried to perk up at her offer. For her sake. "I guess that'd be nice."
"Great. And if I were you, I'd wait 'til we're out of this shit heap of a town before getting that freebee. I heard they got lots of good books in Plateau City, and we'll be heading there in a few days."
I groaned. "Why not tomorrow?"
"You really think you'll be ready to fly tomorrow," she deadpanned.
"Heh, suppose not."
"That's right kiddo. Sleep in as late as you want tomorrow morning. Trust me, you earned it. Not to mention you'll need that rest for our trip. You can trust me on that too."
I did trust her, and happily obliged at her offer.
It took me four days to recuperate from my extended flight. Although Lenore hadn't shown it the first night, she'd been pretty swamped, and required two days to get her strength back. She promised that on the actual trip, we'd be flying in three to four hour intervals. Enough to tire us out, but not enough to put us out of commission for days. After my six hour flight test, this news came as a relief.
We traveled light. I had Lenore sell all the books I was done with back to the store, and put the half read magic texts in my newly purchased saddlebag. Lenore brought her guitar, kept in its case for the trip.
She was also insistent that we didn't bring food, because she wanted to teach me how to hunt. She wanted to make me as self sufficient as possible. When I asked why, she explained that she and her brother had once been caught thieving, and had to camp in the wilderness for a few weeks. Neither of them had been trained to hunt, and had to learn from experience. Not a pleasant time. A very hungry time. She didn't want that to happen to me.
It took us just over a week to reach Plateau City. Living outside the city was a disconcerting experience for one who had never left it. Everything was different as we made our journey east. The landscape was natural and flowing, and full of trees. The world was quiet, except for the chirping of birds, the occasional slursh of a creek or whoosh of wind, and the faint rustlings of animals below. The air tasted and smelled fresh, especially to somegriffon who had only ever breathed city air.
Hunting came easily after after my nights of trying to sneak up on owls. Mostly it was a matter a patience, waiting for the prey to get into just the right position. Because of my thieving experience, this didn't prove much of a challenge either. I was able to catch possum, rabbit, raccoon, and the like without much trouble.
I didn't mind the hunting in the least. It provided a mental as well as physical break from the long hours spent exclusively in the air. Catching my own food also provided a sense of satisfaction that couldn't be replicated, as well as provided an opportunity for me to take my mind off the world. Being able to just focus on the task at hoof without outside distraction left me feeling refreshed afterward. After such an exciting few months, that was just what I needed. A short period of rest, free from the problems of the place we'd left.
Each night followed a casual routine, consisting of dinner, storytelling, reading, and eventually sleeping. The nightly songs continued, which was a relief for me. Having another consistency made the transition from city to wilderness then back to city much more bearable. Lenore ,of course, was the other consistency, for which I was infinitely thankful. I thought she would never leave me.
Once we reached Plateau City, my life would change, mostly for the better. Of course, that only made the fall all the more painful.
Plateau City came into sight the morning of the ninth day. I was enraptured by it. If you've ever seen it, you know exactly what I mean.
We had just crested over a hill when the trees suddenly broke behind us, giving way to plains that stretched to the horizon. Out in the middle of plains rested a plateau elevated at least ten thousand feet above the surrounding countryside, huge flatlands spotted with plantations and the occasional township.
Atop the enormous mesa was a skyline silhouetted against the sun rising in the east. Even from our significant distance away, I could tell that this city was far superior to the one we had left. The buildings were taller and more majestic, and had a timelessness about them. I felt that if I visited this place in a thousand years, it would look much the same. The domes and spires seemed to be a natural part of the landscape, just as sturdy and immovable as the tableland it sat on.
I almost crashed while I gaped at the colossal masterpiece before me. My painful faceplant was thankfully prevented, as Lenore managed to catch my tail and swing me upright so I could land.
As I tried to form coherent sentences, Lenore spoke up. "I know, right? Biggest earthbound city in the Griffon Empire, not to mention richest overall. This is where all the action happens. Lots of money changes claws there (especially among the politically inclined), and us jokers and thieves get to reap the benefits.
"It's the best of both worlds, Nevermore! Altitude for us flyers and stairways up for others. I'm no scientist or anything, but I think that's why this city's so successful: access and relative comfort for all, not to mention cheaper than cloud cities. It's not that hard to figure, really.
"And aside from all that mumbo jumbo, it's beautiful. If I had to stay in one place, I think it would be here. Yeah..." Then she too fell silent, seeming to realize with embarrassment that she was making a speech. Instead, she simply beheld the view before us, anticipating our flight over.
I waited for her to say something else, but she stood quiet next to me. I broke the silence after a few minutes. "Should we go now?"
She blinked, as if woken up suddenly from a trance. "Umm, yeah, yeah. Let's not waste anymore time, I guess." With that, she took off, me trailing a couple seconds behind.
As we flew over countryside, we saw ponies working the fields below, growing a bountiful harvest for the rest of the year. I had never seen so many ponies in one place before.
"Why are there so many ponies down there?" I inquired.
"We're pretty close to the border of that new country Equestria. Lots of migrants from over there end up here as well, since the soil's s'good. You'll see a lot of ponies in the city as well. This place's got the best trade anywhere in a hundred wheels, Griffon Empire or Equestria."
Equestria back then was a new country, and rather famous everywhere. This fame came from the fact that the country had essentially popped up overnight, yet was one of the most prosperous. This was usually attributed to the country's diarchs, who had also seemingly come from nowhere, but somehow kept the place running smoothly despite their apparent lack of experience.
As we neared the plateau, I began to make details out of the city. A long, narrow path wrapped around the plateau, leading all the way up to the city proper. At the base of this path, there was a small village, where numerous carts and wagons were being inspected before gaining admittance to the road.
Later, Lenore would explain to me that they were being taxed on whatever goods they bringing to sell to city. Flyers got to bypass this system, because it was assumed a single griffon or pegasi couldn't carry enough to make too much of a profit. When I asked about sky carriages, Lenore said she didn't know.
I also noticed that the city seemed to have a mist speeding by just above it, which the tallest of the buildings just managed to scrape. It took me a moment to realize that this was actually cloud, considering the city's altitude. I surmised that because the clouds were moving so fast, it must be too windy to set up residences in them.
We landed in an alleyway just off of a busy plaza. The marketplace was more crowded than any I had ever seen. I could see why Lenore had said there were so many jokers and thieves here. You could probably take the coat off somepony's back and they wouldn't even notice, in a place with that much movement. My already potent first impression of the place somehow grew. It looked like it would be impossible not to make money in a place like this.
Lenore tapped my shoulder, and I tore my gaze from the plaza next to us. "Listen Nevermore, I'm gonna have a look around for some of the jokers I know from here. They change where they gather and camp about every two weeks or so, or at least they did the last time I was here. I need to find out where it is. Since I know this city better than you, I can get around faster on my own. Meet me back here at noonish. Until then, just explore a bit, but don't steal anything yet."
My gaze had already drifted back to the market. "Sure, sounds good," I said. With that, Lenore flew off and I was left to my own devices.
I plunged into the crowd without hesitation. Among the throng of bodies, both equine and griffon, I felt in control. As I had done in my old town, I simply acted normal. No one seemed to notice my unwelcome presence as I traversed the stalls and shops of the market.
My eager eyes flitted from merchant to merchant, trying to take in all the culture at once. I saw exotic foods I'd never seen before, being sold by strange striped ponies, with mohawks and bizarre jewelry, who were equally exotic. Another vendor sold animals unknown to me, from multicolored bats to a raccoon-like creature that gazed at me with gold ringed eyes. I was drawn to a stall that dealt in tomes of the magical arts. The books looked about at thick as a brick, and I already knew where to get Lenore's promised freebee from.
I observed more intense kinds of jokering as well, a pegasus fire thrower and an griffoness plate thrower. She held dual metal plates (sharpened keen) in each of her claws, and threw in intersecting patterns through her partner's sentient fire, screaming some indistinguishable word as she did so. I gawked as the plates whistled between the narrow gaps of flame, their paths crossing before embedding three inches into a narrow but solid piece of wood with a great twang. The plates were so close together that I couldn't have stuck a slip of paper between them. The fire thrower was just as impressive, her flames flitting into images that danced.
A large group had formed around the two jokers, and I observed that the occupants of this city seemed a lot more generous than the residents of the town I'd left behind, leaving over 300 bits for the duo. Considering how much this pair was raking in without even resorting to thieving, I wondered if my services would even be necessary. Sure, Lenore's music wasn't nearly as impressive as the spectacle here, but she might still be able to manage here on her own. What if–
Somepony had their hoof in my bag. I spun around to find a teenaged colt red hooved. Despite my smaller size, I saw fear in his eyes. Getting caught would mean disaster not only for him, but for his jokering accomplices as well. I felt an urge to rat him out, but stopped myself for two reasons. One, I could sympathize with his situation. Two, I'd undoubtedly meet him later. I didn't want to get off on the wrong hoof with the jokers and thieves in this city.
Instead of yelling, I glared at him. "Better luck next time, friend," I whispered. "Now scat!" He threw me a sheepish grin and galloped off, his blue body melting into the ambient crowd. When I turned back to the show, I noticed angry glances thrown my way from the performers every so often. I decided I'd stayed in one place long enough, and moved on to another stall.
As promised, I met Lenore back in the alley at exactly noonish o'clock.
"You look pleased," I commented, as she glided down to where I waited. A smile lay on her beak.
"That's right. I found out where we're gonna be staying. Apparently we've been bribing some merchants to let us set up camp in their shipping yard on a permanent basis. We'll be heading on over after we buy some food from the market. I thought we'd try some Zebrican. Weird lookin' shit, but tasty."
"Are they the striped ones?" I asked, more interested in them than our future home, at least for the moment.
"Yup. They're pretty much earth ponies, but with accents. Generally a pretty nice bunch. I'm sure you'll meet a few once we head over to the shipping yard. Anyways, let's head to the market and pick up that grub."
As we walked, Lenore asked me what I thought of the city. "There's so much to look at. It's all kinda overwhelming, honestly, but once I get used to it, I think I'll be alright."
"What was your favorite part?"
"No clue. The book stand was full of all this really archaic shit, and that was fascinating. I'm definitely getting my freebee from there. There was also this pet store with a weird raccoon thing. Oh, wait, I know! The best thingby far was the performance I saw. There were these two girls, a griffon and a pegasi, who were doing this routine with a throwing plate and fire twirling. I don't think I've ever seen anything that cool in my whole life!"
"Plates and fireworks, aye? I think I know who you're talkin' about. That'd be Molly and Charlie, respectively. They'll probably be back at shipping yard. Once we get back to camp, be sure to give them a compliment. I've seen their show too, and it is pretty awesome."
I frowned. "I don't know, I don't think they liked me much. There was a thief with them, but I caught him before he could get anything off me. After I sent him off, they glared at me until I left."
Lenore seemed unperturbed. "HA! That's funny! Can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they see you stride into camp! They'll be embarrassed as hell! What'd the thief look like?"
"Blue colt, a bit older than you."
"Earth pony?"
"I think so."
She laughed. "Blue Snatch. Poor guy, what an awful name. His parents must've been sadists or something. Sheesh, they're never gonna let him hear the end of this one. Can't even pickpocket a kid not even a quarter his age! That's gotta hurt!" She saw me mock pouting, so she added, "Course, that's to be expected when dealing with a thief of your caliber, Nevermore!"
I grinned. "You got that right!"
By that point, we'd reached the food stand. I let Lenore order, since I had no idea what was good. I observed while the cook prepared our meal, some sort of mushed up mixture of meat and spices in turtle shell dishes. The elder zebra heading the stall smiled at my curiosity. When I noticed him watching, I asked, "Aren't you guys like ponies?" He nodded. "Then why are you preparing meat? I thought ponies didn't like meat."
He spoke up in a thick accent. "It is true we Zebricans eat not meat, but Griffons find it a tasty treat. If our business is to stay afloat, we cannot deal in only oat."
"I forgot to mention they speak only limerick," Lenore cut in.
"No, I think it's a couplet. Right?" The old Zebrican nodded. "Why do you do that?"
"T'is a tale too long to tell, and as old as The Turtle's shell."
"What?"
"Oh, I know this one! 'The Turtle's shell' is the earth, right? That's just your way of saying it's really old, right?" Lenore asked.
The zebra nodded again. "The Turtle's shell is as old as time, as is our story of why we rhyme."
Before I could ask anymore questions, out food was ready, held in a casing of two turtle shells clamped firmly together. Lenore shoved it in her bag and we set off for the shipping yard, taking flight and getting a much closer view of Plateau City. Spires and domed temples whizzed by as we flew. We weaved between buildings with me following Lenore, who was much more familiar with the surroundings.
After a couple minutes of flying, and passing over too many stores and open markets to count, we landed outside a large warehouse. Griffon, pegasus, earth pony, and zebra alike were moving crates to and fro in some unfathomable pattern. Other species I'd get to know later, like deer and buffalo, were also helping.
I'd learn later that Plateau City was one of the most integrated cities in the world at the time, and everyone pretty much tolerated each other (if not always happily). I hadn't noticed it at that point, but the zebra who sold us our food had no problem with me, something I'd later take for granted. When the Griffo-Equine War broke out, Plateau City was the only neutral territory between the two countries. Unfortunately for me, I was long gone by that time.
Lenore walked up to a pegasus wearing a badge, had a brief conversation with him, gave him a sack of bits, and came back. "Easier than I thought it would be. I hinted at our intentions, and he set the whole thing up. We can head on in now."
We walked casually through the warehouse, and no one stopped us. After exiting out the back, we came to a wall of shipping crates, which went on to create some sort of perimeter. I extended my wings to fly over, but Lenore stopped me.
"The guy I talked to said there's a force field over top. They paid a unicorn to set it up. There's only one way in."
"Wow, fancy."
"I know, right? Come on, follow me." Lenore led me to an inconspicuous crate marked "19" and opened it up. We clambered inside, and Lenore shut the door behind us. "Sorry for the dark, it's the only way for it to work," she apologized. She wasted no time in opening the opposite side of the crate. We stumbled back into the sunlight.
Before us stood a microcity. Almost all of the buildings were fashioned out of used crates. These makeshift houses and shops radiated from a fire pit in the center of the complex, which in turn was surrounded by wooden benches. The entire thing was almost too simple.
After contemplating it for a moment, I saw the genius of the setup. If they were ever discovered by some governing authority, they could have their camp broken down within an hour, possibly even less if there was unicorn present. What was left would look just like any old shipping yard.
"Let's go commandeer a crate, Nevermore," said Lenore. "The sooner we get ourselves settled, the sooner we can rest and get to know the others."
It took us a few hours, but by six o'clock we were moved in. I was glad Lenore had thought to get dinner in advance, because after setting up a whole house, I was exhausted and didn't feel like going anywhere.
We sat down at one of the benches around the blazing fire pit. Several griffons, ponies, and other species were also lazing around the fire, eating and chatting with each other. Lenore took a seat nearby Charlie, Molly, and Blue. They smiled at the sight of Lenore, but visibly flinched at the sight of me (especially Blue).
Lenore took this in stride. "Heh, you guys are right to be so freaked out. My little buddy saw through your ruse in like five seconds. Didn'tcha, Nevermore?"
Mimicking her cocky attitude, I gave a confident nod. I almost cracked a grin when I saw their outrage.
"Pfft, c'mon Charlie, Molly, Blue. I'm just fuckin' with you! Mind if we join you?" Now that the joke was over, the entire group relaxed a bit. Lenore started to catch up with Charlie and Molly. I was stuck in the awkward position of making conversation with Blue. Even though we were both calmer now, there was still some tension.
At first, Blue and I just didn't talk. That was fine by me. I wasn't very familiar with casual conversation anyways, since I had only ever interacted with Lenore. Besides, the Zebrican food was more than enough to hold my attention. Lenore had been right. It was delicious! Despite the awkwardness, after a couple minutes of quiet chewing between us, Blue asked me a question.
"Ain'tchoo kinda young tuhbe a thief?" He spoke with a thick Trottingham accent. "Wut is ya, ten monfs old?"
It took me a moment to realize that this wasn't insult, but a sort of disguised compliment. "Uh, yeah, I guess that's about right. Don't know my actual birthday."
"Mighty 'pressive, that. I dint git roped inta thievin' til 'bout six year ago, an' it took me 'bout a year tuhget 'alf desunt. You's makin' me look bad!"
I shrugged. "It just kind of same naturally to me."
"Juss my luck, I surpose. Anywhose, 'ow'd yoo git roped in wiv Lenore? I'll bet thas a story! 'Ow'd she convince Jonah tuhlet yoo along?"
I blinked. "What? Who's Jonah?"
"Wut dooya mean 'oo's Jonah?' Yuh know, Lenore's olda brutha! Ain't ee bin travlin wiv yoo?"
I shook my head. "I think she might've mentioned a brother, but never by name."
Blue's eyes widened. "Oh! Oh shite. Oh, umm... juss fergit I sed anyfink 'bout it. Dint say nuffink."
I frowned. "Why?" I pressed. Jonah mimed zipping his mouth shut, locking it, then tossing the key over his shoulder. I thought for a moment. "How about I tell you how Lenore and I met, and you tell me about Jonah." Blue narrowed his eyes in thought, then proceeded to reach behind him, grab the invisible key, unlock the zipper, and unzip his mouth.
"Alroight then. Yoo furst."
I opened my mouth to argue, but his firm expression told me it'd get me nowhere. "Alright, alright. I was orphaned, I guess. I sort of remember my mom, but it's hazy."
"Least ya mum wasn't batshite crazy. I 'ad tuhleave cuz the crazy bitch"–he saw he was interrupting me–"Oh, sorry!"
I rolled my eyes. "Anyways, I was living on the streets when Lenore happened to glimpse me nabbing some food from a stall. She was impressed, so we formed a partnership. After I learned to fly, we headed here. That's about it."
"Well, that wuz short." I glared at him. "Oh, um, anywhose, yoo nevah met anygrif named Jonah, didja?" I shook my no. "Thas real odd. I wonner if mehbe they 'ad a fallin' owt?"
I shrugged. "I have no idea. I guess I'll ask her about it later. I wonder why she never mentioned him."
"No idear, mite. Moight be a good idear tuhaxe 'er in private, though. Moight not be sumtin she wants spread 'round. Othawise, she woulda sed sumfink already."
I nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Thanks for the tip. And, uh, sorry for the, you know... earlier."
Blue just laughed. "Ain't no big fing! Kinda funny in 'indsight."
I smiled, glad I had earned myself a friend (and not an enemy) in this new city. After a few more minutes of idle chatter and finishing my dinner, Lenore called us over to join in their conversation.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Just wanted to show off my little buddy! These featherheads could hardly believe you got the best of them!"
Charlie leaned over the fire to get a better look at me, her fiery coat glinting. "Eh, he doesn't look like much. How old are you?"
"A little under a year old, I think."
Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a bit young?"
Lenore sighed. "You don't know anything a bout griffons, do you?" Charlie shook her head. "We age out of our hatchling stage very quickly compared to ponies. I reckon hippogriffs age the same way. He's about the equivalent of a four year old pony foal right now. He'll age at about the rate of a pony from now on, though. At least that's how griffons age."
"Right, right I knew that!" Charlie recovered. "Anyhow, that's still young to have that kind of skill."
"Just natural talent, Charlie," I teased. I decided to ask a question of my own. "Hey, uh, isn't Charlie a, uh–"
"Boy name? Yeah, it's short for Charlene. Nickname my dad gave me."
I blinked. "Actually, I was going to say griffon name. I figured it was a nickname. Ponies usually have names like Blue's, don't they?" Blue blushed. "Oh, sorry!"
"I guess. I don't know. I didn't choose my name, ask my parents!"
I sensed she was aggravated, but I had another question that was bothering me. "How can you manipulate fire if you're not a unicorn?"
Charlie snorted. "It's my special talent, duh. Lenore said you were smart!"
"It's just that in all the books I've read, it says only unicorns and other select creatures can directly manipulate magic. I never heard of a non-unicorn who could do it."
Charlie grinned savagely. "Maybe I'm not using magic, Einstein! Ever think of that?"
"What? Einstein?"
"Ah, shit! Nevermind!"
I sighed, muttered a quick apology, and fell quiet. The conversation was over. Charlie headed back to her tent soon after. We were all left in an uncomfortable silence.
Lenore decided to break the quiet. "Eh, don't feel bad Nevermore. Charlie's always had a temper on her, hasn't she Molly."
Molly nodded. "You get used to it, learn how to skirt around it. Not your fault bah-bo. Just tread a bit more lightly next time. She's real sensitive 'bout her fires, but she's a real sweetheart once you've known her awhile."
"Thanks," I said. "Hey– wait, are you sensitive about your plates?" Molly shook her head. "Okay, where'd you learn to that?" Remembering what Lenore said earlier, I added, "That throwing earlier was incredible!"
"My mother. Helluva lady, let me tell you. She could split a grain of rice from 25 meters with her eyes closed. Not to mention she raised me up okay."
"That throwing sure attracts a lot of people."
"Eh, kinda. I think that Charlie's fires attract them, and my plates keep them there awhile. At least long enough for Blue to do his job."
"Yuh got that right!" said Blue.
"Speaking of jobs, Nevermore and I ought to be getting some shut eye. You know, so we can do what we do best tomorrow. What do you say?"
"Sounds fine," I replied. I followed Lenore back to our crate. Since we had just moved in, we only had pile of hay to sleep on. Not the most comfortable thing, but better than the floor. After settling in, I recalled my earlier conversation with Blue.
"Hey, Lenore?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"It's late, Nevermore. Can it wait?"
"I don't really want it to."
Lenore sighed. "Alright, shoot."
I didn't mince words. "Lenore, what's up with your brother? You've mentioned him, but never went into any detail. Blue said his name was Jonah. Why isn't he here? Why haven't you told me abou–"
"He's gone."
I almost flinched. "Oh... sheesh, I'm sorry Lenore. I didn't know he die–"
"He's not dead."
I took a closer look at Lenore, and saw she was staring into the wall. Spacing out. I continued carefully. "But Lenore, you said he was–"
"Gone. Not dead."
"Where's he gone?"
"Shooting stars and crescent moons. Lost pets. They took him. Jonah. Through the door, in the field. Then the door closed, and they were aaaall gone. Poof. They wanted his radio."
"What? Radio? What!?"
"With every one of those late night stations playing songs, bringing tears to my eyes. I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver."
"What are you talking about?" I was starting to get scared.
Lenore shook her head, a pained expression on her face. "Ugh, what? Listen, Nevermore, it's late. Your question can wait 'til morning, m'kay? G'night," she mumbled. The next second she collapsed into the hay. I rushed over to check if she was alright. I could feel air coming out of her mouth. She was breathing.
I let out a sigh of relief. She was okay. But what had she been babbling about? Radio? Crescent moons? What was all that? What happened to Jonah?
I went to bed with these questions plaguing my mind. Then Lenore's music started, and I drifted off.
Despite the rough start, our time in Plateau City was some of the best years of my life. Lenore and I had a weekly set of tasks that we performed without really thinking about them, joking and thieving, spending time with each other and our friends, perfecting flight skills that weren't quite right, and anything else that came up.
I made fast friends with Blue, and stayed on good terms with Molly (Charlie was always a bit short with me, but warmed up to and tolerated me after a while). I made friends with others too, but none as strong as I did with Blue and Molly.
Blue and I would spend days goofing off around town. I think it unnerved him at first that I was so much younger than him, but I kept up and pulled my weight, so he got used to it over time. Mostly we'd pull pranks on unsuspecting bystanders (I always made sure they never went too far).
My flying ability proved invaluable in these pranks, and through them I built up stealth ability without even realizing it. By the time I was six years old, I could be just as invisible in the air as I could on the ground. One day this would save my life.
The time I spent with Molly was a lot more... practical. She had grown up in farming village far away, and the griffonesses there had perfected plate throwing. When I showed an interest in her stories of throwing, she decided to let me have shot. After a few years of practice, I was almost as proficient as she was. I could throw the plates with unwavering confidence and know I'd hit the target. I wasn't cocky, I trusted my own abilities. This self trust, being sure of my own movements, would also be immensely useful.
Throughout all of this, I continued my self imposed studies. As before, my primary interest was in magic. I learned the fundamentals quick and moved on to more advanced stuff. These took me longer to grasp, but through steady work I learned as much as I could from the books. From Star Swirl's Laws of Conservation to Clover the Clever's then more recent discoveries in gravity manipulation, I learned them all.
One theory stuck out to me the most: The Ambiance Theory. This theory stated that the world around us is filled to the brim with potential magic, which unicorns draw from. According to theory, all magic comes from the world around us, and unicorn horns are just a way to make it kinetic and enforce direct motives upon it. What interested me in particular were accounts of non-unicorn entities, such as earth ponies and pegasi, utilizing magical influence outside normal parameters (normal parameters being cloud manipulation, etc.). The book I had didn't go into too much detail, but just the idea of it made me excited.
I wanted to find out if the theory was true. To test some of the theories, I began to modify equipment with magical amplifiers, trying to get them to work on the world's potential magic. I also built some of my own equipment, trying to measure the supposed "Ambient Magic". My results were... null. It was really just a hobby more than serious research, just something to do and take joy in. Later, necessity would be the mother of invention.
Over the blissful years I spent in Plateau City, Lenore and I only got closer. She participated in a lot of Blue and I's pranks, sat in on my training with Molly, took as much interest as she could in my magical yearnings. I thieved for her and got better at my craft, listened to her music (night and day), practiced obstacle and agility flying with her, and hung out with her whenever I wasn't doing something else. We were inseparable.
I grew to love Plateau City as she had. When she felt nostalgic for the place, she said it was for the place itself. That's wrong. It was for the happy times that the city held, first for her, and now for both of us. I became attached to the place just as she had. I wanted to live there forever.
I was seven years old. I had lived in Plateau City for six years of my life. Life since arriving, as I've said, had been good. I was accustomed to the city, knew it inside out. I was used to being treated, if not nicely, than at least adequately by most. Being singled out for my species was a distant, unimportant memory. You forget those kinds of things fast. I enjoyed life, both working with Lenore for our money and being with my friends. It was like a pocket of paradise. Nothing outside the city mattered.
I was about to get a reality check.
It's amazing what can happen in one day. Your life as you knew it can go to hell, for instance.
Lenore and I were walking down the street, just returning from a tough but enjoyable flight session. I was laughing at a joke Lenore had just told when she stopped. She was staring at the ground, her jaw slack. I turned to see what she was looking at.
Chalk drawings on the ground. The moon, stars, comets, most likely drawn by foals.
I turned to Lenore. "Lenore..." I asked. "Are you alri-"
"No, no, no no..." Without warning, she took off. A second later I was trailing behind her. I could hear her mumbling under breath. "No, no, not again... can't be... please, for fuck's sake, no... lost pets..."
She touched down in the marketplace, making an instant beeline for a wall littered with posters, advertisements, and the like. She stared at one particular poster. I read it:
Looking for our lost cat
Female, Brown Tabby, Small
May be with small, black kitten
Will respond to Jude or Poe
If found, please return to this address (with kitten too)! We miss her very much!
Large Reward!!!
At the bottom of the page an address was listed.
I turned to Lenore and stifled a shriek. The look on her face was of pure, undisguised horror. Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates, her pupils as small as pins. It was hard to look at her in such a state. And worse, she seemed stuck, in another one of her trances. I knew this time, I had to snap her out of it. I didn't question how I knew, it was just instinct. I hugged her, and she flinched, gawked at me, then gawked at the sign. After a minute, she got herself together.
"We have to go."
Without waiting for a reply, she took off again, this time heading for our camp. As we flew I glanced over at her. The raw look of terror was still on her face, but other emotions had entered it as well. Anger. Determination. And almost scarier than the terror I saw there, desperation. I saw that whatever she was doing, nothing was going to get in her way. Such pure resolve might kill. Little did I know that before long, my face would hold the same expression.
The flight back to the camp was the fastest we'd ever done. Once we had returned to our crate, Lenore began shoving everything in sight into her travel bags. She glanced up at me, still panting from the speedy flight back from the market. "Anything you need, anything that could be identified as yours, bring with you."
I didn't ask questions or argue. There'd be time for that later. I threw my books, experiments, anything I could reach into my bag helter skelter. Once I had everything, we hurried out of the camp and flew out of the city, leaving it trailing behind us. We were heading east.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Equestria. Just shut up for now, Nevermore. I need to think. Once we stop for the night, interrogate me all you want."
I did as she asked. Considering the flurry of emotions I'd just witnessed, she seemed owed a bit of time to think.
Once we had set up camp (fireless tonight), I considered what to ask Lenore about our sudden departure. As it turned out, I didn't have to.
"Nevermore, since you've known me, have I ever done anything... weird? Anything I wasn't aware of?" Lenore asked. Her voice was tense.
This was it. I had to tell her. I mustered up my courage and responded, "Uhh... define weird."
"Nevermore..." I'd never heard her so pissed, not even when I tricked her on our first thieving session. She wasn't in the mood for jokes.
I sighed. "Okay... at night... you sing in your sleep. Except it's not you... others are singing, it's not your voice. What does this have to do wi–"
The change was instantaneous. "WHAT!? NEVERMORE, WHY, IN THE FLYING FUCK, DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!? DOESN'T THIS SOUND LIKE SOMETHING I'D WANT TO KNOW ABOUT?" She wasn't just angry. She was shaking with rage.
I tried to shrink away, on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't know it was important! I didn't know what would happen if I told you! It seemed crazy! I thought if I told you, you might go crazy!" I closed my eyes and turned away, ashamed of myself and scared to look at her. Tears seeped through my eyelids.
"WELL YOU THOUGHT WRONG! AND NOW, WE'RE BOTH IN DANGER! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?"
I was full on sobbing now. "N-no, I don't understand. Please, tell me what's going on." Once I managed to overpower my tears, I chanced a watery glance over at Lenore. She was still fuming, and glaring at me, but seemed to have herself composed now. "W-what's going on I?" I repeated.
"First off, come over here." I looked at her eyes, and saw regret swimming in them. I walked over and sat on her lap. All anger left in her face dissipated. She wrapped her front legs around me and held me tight. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Look, I'm scared. I shouldn't have yelled. You didn't know what was going on. You just did what you thought was right. I can't fault you for that."
"Lenore, what's going on?"
Lenore thought for a moment, then responded. "Years ago, before I found you, I had a brother named Jonah. He... he did the same thing at night, you know, that I do. For awhile, everything was fine. But one day, we saw the chalk figures, and the pet signs. 'Grey tom, will respond to Edgar.' We were a little spooked, but didn't do anything. A week later, I woke up and he was gone. I searched everywhere, and found him in a field, being forced into a door."
"Just a door in a field? Was it attached to anything?" I asked. She continued as though I hadn't spoken.
"Two ponies shoved him into the door. Only they weren't really ponies. I don't know what they were, but they only looked like ponies. Anyways, they shoved him in, then walked in themselves. The door shut, and disappeared. I waited in that field for a week. The door never came back.
"Deep down, I knew why they'd taken him. I still don't know how I know, but I know I know. It was the music he sang at night. Coming out through his open beak. They wanted it for some reason.
"Do you understand why I'm scared now, Nevermore? They want to take me too! And you! As much as I want to see Jonah again, I know I can't let them. Whatever they want, it isn't good."
We sat in silence for a few minutes. I sat there, mulling over her story. There was no question that I believed her. I thought everything through twice before I spoke up. "So, we're going to Equestria."
"Yeah."
"Where in Equestria?"
"We'll figure that out later. I'm tired."
"Will we be safe there?"
"I don't know. But life is gonna be rougher, a lot rougher, than in Plateau City, that's for sure. Ponies there aren't nearly as accepting as those where we came from."
I nodded, thinking I knew what this entailed. I didn't know anything.
Lenore was asleep a minute later. The music started, and for the first time in years, it made me shiver.
In the town they're searching for us everywhere, but we never will be found. Band on the run, band on the run.
After a few days mulling over our choices, Lenore and I finally decided that Baltimare was our best option. It was supposed be an extremely crime ridden and violent place, perhaps the only tarnish on Equestria's map. Although it wouldn't be the safest in general, it would definitely be the best for covering our tracks. So much shit would be going on we'd be lost in it.
Once we reached our destination, however, we discovered a painful oversight. In our hasty departure from Plateau City, we left all of our bits behind. I suggested that we go back, but Lenore decided it would be too dangerous, not to mention foolish. Whoever had taken her brother would no doubt be waiting, and even if they weren't, someone would have taken our money by now. It was a useless endeavor.
Because of this mistake, we'd need to start from scratch here. It certainly seemed simple. Just a couple of jokering and thieving sessions would have us back on track. The day that we arrived in Baltimare, we wasted no time in going to work.
Lenore laid her guitar case in front of her, sat down, and began to tune. Before she even began to play, things went sour. From my nearby alley, I saw ponies passing by kicking the case without even looking down. They were treating her like dirt, and for no discernible reason!
That would have been bad enough, but one pony took it a step further. He was a green behemoth of an earth pony. He deliberately stopped in front of the case, looked Lenore in the eye, turned around, and defecated into the case. Lenore and I's jaws dropped. We glanced around the street. Somepony must have seen. They had to have seen! Some clearly had! And they were laughing!
A moment later Lenore recovered. "What the hell!? Who the fuck do you think you are, you fucking cum stain!?" asked Lenore, incredulous.
The effect was instantaneous. The hulking pony kicked Lenore in the face, drawing blood. He clenched her by the feathers of her head with his teeth and slammed her into the wall she was been leaning against. "Teach you to talk me like that, little bitch. Got off lucky! Now scurry on back to your nest and get outta 'questria. I see you again, you'll have more than a few bruises." His point made, he continued on his way, not even sparing her a look back.
It took all of my self control not to leap onto the bastard's back and tear his ear off. The only thing that stopped me was the knowledge that he'd probably kill us both if I tried. Certainly nopony would try to help us.
As much as I wanted to rush out to Lenore, I knew this would only aggravate the situation further, especially with all the attention she'd drawn. If they reacted like that to Lenore, just imagine how they'd react to me! I waited for painful minutes as Lenore got up, picked up her guitar (she left the case behind), and came to my spot.
We flitted behind a pile of garbage and caught our collective breaths.
"Lenore, are you okay?" I whispered. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Nah, nothing you can do. I'll probably have a black eye for the next few weeks and I got headache like you wouldn't believe, but nothing critical."
"What the hell happened?"
"Remember how I said we might run into less kind ponies in Equestria?"
"Yeah."
"I think I might've underestimated that a bit." Lenore smiled sheepishly. One of her teeth was knocked out.
"Holy shit, you think all of them are like that? Lenore, we can't stay here! Let's book it!"
She shook her head. "This is our best hiding place. We're not going to abandon this city after one day. We're made of sterner stuff than that. For now, I want you to scout out the city. Look for good places to thieve."
"What about jokering?"
"Nevermore, I don't think we can honestly expect a warmer welcome than the one we received. Jokering's gonna be tough for a griffon in this city. For one reason or another, they hate us. No way they're gonna give anything to a griffon joker in this town."
"So I'll just be thieving on my own?" Lenore nodded. "What will you be doing?"
"I'll be doing some scouting of my own. For a job. Hopefully someone will at least hire me. As much as they seem to hate griffons, standards can't be too high in this shit heap of a city."
"Alright then. I'll meet you back here when I'm done. With some luck, I'll have some money by then."
"Sounds good."
We took off in opposite directions, each scouring the city we'd be spending the next few months in.
As shitty as Baltimare was, and as much as I already hated it, I had to admit that the thieving conditions were phenomenal, just as good (if not better) than those of Plateau City. From a purely thieving perspective, the city was perfect.
First off, the place was sprawling, much bigger than Plateau City, which had been restricted by the mesa it sat on. There were at least two dozen large markets, and countless smaller ones. I could visit and thieve at a different marketplace every day for a month!
Second, the city was full to bursting. Ponies, the city's primary residents, almost needed to squeeze past each other just to get around. Such crowding would make it elementary for me to grab the money out of somepony's bag without being noticed.
Finally, I could tell just from a few hours of flying that this city was swelling with crime. Not the kind of crime in Plateau City, like the petty thieving I did. Bad crime: hoof fights in alleys, rape, murder, and the like would keep everypony's focus. A couple of stolen bits would be the least of their problems.
Satisfied that I'd seen enough (as well as weighed down with a couple dozen bits), I flew back to the alley. Lenore was already waiting.
"So, what do you think of the city, Nevermore?"
"It's awful. I don't think I've ever seen a worse place in my life!" I scrunched up face like I'd smelled something terrible. "But I think I can make a killing a here. Should be some of the easiest thieving I've ever done."
"Fantastic. I had some luck too. Found a job! It even hoo- comes with an apartment. Small little piece of shit, but it's better than nothing, right?"
"Wow, that is good news! What's the job?"
"Not important. Come on, let's get over there and settle in." The aversion of the question wouldn't occur to me until later.
The "apartment" turned out to be a run down wooden shack, not much different from the one Lenore and I first stayed in. There was even a fire pit in the back, just like our old place. Once we arrived, we unpacked our belongings. Lenore's guitar sat in one corner of the room. My experiments and books laid on a small table against a wall.
The bed was a glorified cot. Lenore insisted on taking it, saying she would get me my own, more comfortable bed once we had decent money. For now, I slept on some hay I brought in from out back. It looked more comfortable than the cot, so I didn't complain.
"So," said Lenore from the cot, "this place does come with a catch. We only get to use this place during the day. Tonight's the only exception, so we can get settled in. Ponies who work the day shift get the place at night. We're gonna have to become nocturnal, since I have a night shift and you can't stay here during the day."
I frowned, confused. "Where does the day shift guy keep all his stuff?"
"Umm, uh, in that chest." She gestured to a chest on the far side of the hut.
"So it's okay to keep our stuff lying around, but not okay for him?" Lenore nodded. "Sounds like day shift got the short end of the stick."
Lenore gave a nervous chuckle. "No kidding.
"Anyways, we should hit the hay. After all this travelling, I'm looking forward to sleeping through tonight and tomorrow!"
Our nocturnal way of life was easier to get used to than I thought. Within a week, it seemed natural. Just before moonrise, Lenore and I would get up, have supper, then part ways for our jobs.
I prowled markets clogged like arteries,scanning for potential targets. There were many, but the thieving wasn't as easy as it had first seemed. These ponies were used to a criminal lifestyle, and were much more careful and aware of everything around them. The city was also extremely poor; just a few bits would be missed, so I made a point to steal from the wealthier looking ponies. A few times I was noticed, and had to flee or risk injury (I never mentioned these instances to Lenore). I was working harder and yielding less than I ever had before. It was aggravating, but sharpened my skills nonetheless.
I continued my experiments when I had the time. For some reason, once we arrived in Baltimare, my contraptions were more successful. I attributed it to a sort of karma at the time. The rest of my life was on the decline, so to balance it out, my experiments were working out. Unscientific, and it still left all of my questions unanswered (why did my inventions work here only when unicorns could use magic anywhere?), but it worked for me.
Lenore occasionally asked about my little projects, and began to take a greater interest in them. She asked me how they worked, and how I knew about them, what laws of magic and theories explained why they worked. I was happy but perplexed about her sudden interest in my studies.
Although I didn't know exactly what Lenore was doing, I could tell it must be draining. Whenever I returned to our shack for the day, she was always exhausted. The area around her eyes was puffy, but she never cried when I was around. To make matters worse, whatever job she'd taken didn't pay well, a little less than I earned while thieving.
She began to take a drink with supper when we woke and at breakfast before we slept. When I asked her why, she gave me a curt response. "To forget." The whisky was depleting our money just as fast we earned it, but I didn't say anything. She looked like she needed to forget. I was willing to accommodate her habits. It wasn't like she was hurting anything, and I could take one for the team if it meant she wasn't too unhappy.
Lenore and I continued to be treated like shit wherever we went, and it wasn't long before we found out why, via word of mouth and eavesdropped conversations. The Griffon Empire and Equestria were on the brink of war. Apparently, over the past seven years or so the initially friendly negotiations between the two nations had deteriorated. Border disputes had arisen and already there were skirmishes as well as deaths on both sides of the border. War seemed inevitable.
For Equestrians, who tended to segregate not only other races, but also their own unicorn, pegasi, and earth pony groups, this was just another excuse to be assholes to griffons. I was considered far worse, an abominable bastard of both races. It was only through my ability to go unseen that I wasn't driven from the city or put on display for public humiliation.
Our life was in the gutter, and I wanted desperately to go back to Plateau City, where life had been simple and happy. I missed our old friends, and the good times we had. But as much as I wanted to go back, I never said a word. I knew Lenore was in a tough spot, and I didn't want to press her. There was no need to put any more stress on her.
Besides, we had a good reason to be there, and there hadn't been any symbols on the ground or lost pet signs that I had seen. Since that was our prime reason for coming here in the first place, I tried to consider our move a success, no matter how much everything else pointed to the contrary. Unfortunately, the hardest one to fool is yourself.
I kept my silence in regard to how I really felt, tried to hide my true thoughts on the situation. Maybe if I'd spoken up, things would have turned out differently.
I remember the night in extremely vivid detail. Sometimes your mind can betray you that way.
It was autumn, and the weather had begun to chill, especially at night. Although I didn't have enough to afford a coat, my plumage and fur kept me from freezing. The cold was just enough to make my thoughts dreary and my claws clumsy. Thieving with numb claws wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do, but I had to come back with something.
I got caught around one in the morning, my claws deep in the saddlebag of a pegasi with a quick hoof. I managed to escape, but not without a couple of scratches and a shiner under my eye. I decided I'd had enough of this shit for the night, and began my flight home, where I planned on getting some extra shuteye behind our shack.
I was thinking about how I could hide my injuries from Lenore. The scratches I could explain away with some bullshit story, but the black eye would be harder. Considering my coloration, I thought maybe I could hide it, but that idea was hastily dismissed; Lenore had a keen eye, and would either notice I was hiding the eye or notice the eye itself. I thought coming clean might be the best option, but decided to think it over back at the hut before actually saying anything.
As soon as I landed behind of the hut, I knew something was amiss. I could hear grunts coming from inside the shack. Grunts of pain and pleasure intermingled in a way that seemed... wrong . I recognized one of the voices. The one in pain. I rushed into the shack.
A monstrous silhouette was throbbing on the cot. My eyes adjusted, and I was rendered speechless.
The top part of the rocking behemoth was a hulking green earth pony, his mouth stretched in a horrible grin, his eyes bloodshot, and reeking so badly of booze that I could smell him from where I stood. Later, when I was in my right mind, I would recall him as the pony who had shit in Lenore's guitar case.
Beneath the huge bastard, squashed under the intense weight, was Lenore. One of her eyes was swollen shut, and red tinted tears wept out of both eyes. Her good eye widened when it saw me, pleading for aid.
It took a few moments for me to register what I was seeing. After that, my body seemed to act on its own. What I did next was terrifyingly natural.
The pony hadn't seen me, despite the fact that I took no precautions to be quiet or sneaky. The monster was too concentrated on what he was doing. I walked, in an eerie calm, over to the table. I picked up a long, worn kitchen knife, the blade already slicked with blood. Lenore had used it to divide shares of possum. Now, I would be using it on another animal.
I walked over to the cot, and I could hear shallow rambling under the pony's breath. "Fuckin' bitch, I toljer I'd getcha if I sawed you aggin..." he mumbled in a drunken slur. I laid a claw on his sweaty shoulder. He turned to face me. "Ay, lissen, I paid for this bitch for the next hou-"
I jammed the knife into his throat. His eyes snapped open in lethal surprise. He gurgled for a few moments, blood dripping out of the wound in his neck. A moment later, blood began to cascade out of his mouth, making a slapping noise as it spewed onto the floor. He grasped at his neck, gave a final cough of shock, and collapsed off the bed to the ground.
I scrambled to Lenore's side. Blood was caked into her fur and feathers, multiple stab wounds covering her body. Blood had coagulated all over the cot, which was mostly red
red crimson not good red like a rose bad red like insane eyes
by this point. There was no question about it. Lenore had lost too much blood. She might last another half hour at most, but she was going to die.
A feeble moan escaped my mouth. I wrapped like forelegs around her neck, like a foal wanting to be picked up, and hugged her close. I heard a whisper in my ear.
"Nevermore..." she wheezed, her voice straining and weak.
I wanted to tell her to save her strength, but stopped myself. She was dying, and if talking to me gave her comfort, what did it matter if she lost a few minutes. "Yes?"
"They didn't get me... I escaped..." she whispered.
I nodded frantically. "Yeah, yeah, you did."
She sat up a bit. "Nevermore, I'm sorry about this. I should have told you. My job... I was..." She couldn't finish. But I understood. The drinking. "To forget." This was her job.
"Why?" I moaned. "Why?"
"I was... saving. In the box." The box that had supposedly held the belongings of the nighttime shack dweller. "Inside... money... for you..."
"No..." I cried. "You, you didn't need to. We had enou-"
Lenore continued as if I hadn't spoken. "I saw how smart you were... I thought maybe... with money... you could get schooling... I just want you to understand... this is no life... for you..." Her voice was getting weaker and weaker. "I'm sorry... please forgive... me..."
I buried my face in her fur, took her claw in mine. "Nothin' to forgive," I sniffled. I looked up and her eyes were closed.
Then the music started.
"Buh-buh-baby cuh-can you duh-dig your man? Baby huh-he's a righti--Get it out, guh-get it out, get your fucking voice out of my he--meone saved muh-my life, tonight, sug-"
The songs were stuttering and skipping into each other. Some of the things I heard didn't seem to be songs at all.
"-ine out of ten housewives prefer Nozz-a-la to--on't fear the reaper--tain Trips rumored to be 90% fata--M O O N, that spel--ey Jude...--ppiness... is a warm gun... bang bang shoo--WKIT Late Ni--rive a Takuro Spirit-"
The voices were getting choppier, beginning to fade. Her breathing slowed. She was fading.
"-and on the run--oing to kill m--nineteen ninet--ome Commal--pink--arked her rig--nd echoed... in the sound... ofsilence..."
She had entered the clearing at the end of the path. I clutched her body and sobbed with abandon, staining my coat with her lifeless blood.
They say you're never lonely. They say you're with the best, but when they turn those lights out, I bet you spin and turn, and cry just like the rest, and cry just like a baby.
That was how the city guards found me. Sobbing into Lenore, with the body of the bastard who'd killed her sprawled out next to me. I was covered with their blood.
I was taken away. I didn't struggle. My world had shattered, and all resolve had shattered with it.
I remember being put in a jail cell for a couple of days, while they decided what to do with me. While I was incarcerated, I was attacked and ravaged by the cell's other occupants. I suppose this probably would have happened under normal circumstances. It was a place ruled by hardened criminals, murders and rapists. The fact that I was of an abhorred race must've made me a particularly tasty chunk of fresh meat.
They beat me into an inch of my life. They raped me. They spit and pissed on me while I lie beaten and violated, defenseless, on the floor. I didn't fight back. I didn't care.
After a few days in that hell, I was introduced to a new one. The guards decided to put me in the hole for six months. I suppose they thought being beaten and raped to death in a cell would be too quick a punishment. The hole would provide the torture of isolation and a slow death, for I would almost certainly die. In a sense, I was digging my own grave.
I was given a shovel and ten hours to dig. Guards watched, laughed, and taunted as I created my own prison, and what they thought would be my final resting place. My body and spirit were already severely battered, and digging the hole took all of the energy I had left.
Even so, all the time I was digging, the only thing I could think of was what they'd done with Lenore's body. Buried it? Not likely. They'd probably burned her, or else just tossed her in the garbage. They would waste no effort disposing of the nameless corpse of some "griffoness slut". It made me sick to think that her final resting place might be among the filth.
When the ten hours were up, I'd dug a hole about seven hooves deep. The diameter was barely enough for me to lie down. When I turned to my guards, they wrenched my shovel away from me and used it to bring a heavy blow down on my head.
When I woke up, I was at the bottom of my self made prison with nothing but a bucket. A slab of rock had been pushed over top of the crevice. There was a small gap for air and throwing down food.
The bucket was attached a length of rope that reached out of the gap. At the bottom of the bucket was a note that read: For water and bringing up shit. I was to use the same bucket for both.
I found another valuable service for the bucket as well. When it rained, I had to flutter up to the gap and bail out water. Many times I was tempted to the let myself drown, but my instinct always took over before it could happen. It once down-poured for three days straight, and I had to bail out water without rest. At the end of that ordeal, I slept for at least two days straight. If the rain had gone on for a fourth day, I don't know what would have happened.
The cell confined my limbs to uncomfortable positions. This may seem like a meager complaint, but when hours turn into days and days turn into weeks, trivial things can gain weight. My muscles screamed to move, wings ached to soar, my joints roared for that heavenly crackle from full extension. My body was limited by the constraining earth.
I was thrown down scraps of fruits and vegetables about once every three days or so. Since I was half pony, I could digest these okay, and get some energy, but all it did was sustain me. I needed meat for true sustenance. I grew thin from undernourishment, barely able to do more than think. My body grew thinner and sicklier as the weeks passed, to the point where every rib was visible.
Most of the time I spent in my personal cave was in near darkness. A solitary beam of sunlight entered my cell around midday for about an hour , and a moonbeam found its way in around midnight, but other than that, I lived in a world of black.
At least I did at first. After a week or two (I lost track of the days), my eyes adjusted and I could see the cell clearly even in the absence of light. I began to scorn the daylight; it blinded me and scathed my eyes, became my daily tormentor. The moonlight, in its gentler shine, became my nightly companion.
But the worst part about being in the cell wasn't the cramped space. It wasn't the food. It wasn't the darkness or the hateful daylight. It was the guilt and the grief. Time is unreliable, bends and stretches at its own discretion, when you've got nothing to pace yourself by.
For all the time I was down there, my only companionship was my own thoughts. My thoughts were not pleasant company. Grief over Lenore's death berated me constantly. In hindsight, the signs of something gone awry with my friend were painfully clear. Her reluctance to talk about her job, her insistence that I stay away from the shack at night, all those little signs should've tipped me off. Looking back, I felt I could have done something to stop Lenore's ultimate fate. These thoughts tortured me.
Guilt also came from a less predictable source; the stallion I had killed. It wasn't so much the killing itself. I couldn't see any way around that, and the bastard surely deserved to die. No, what haunted me was the feeling of exhilaration, the surge of unmistakable rightness, that this was what I meant for. I felt a rush of adrenaline, felt ready to take on an army, felt that I could slaughter thousands, happily. In that split second, I felt all that, and I felt fantastic. I could not deny this. It terrified me.
With such awful conditions, both mental and physical, one must wonder how I escaped, for if I had stayed the whole six months, I have little doubt I would have died or gone insane. A terrible, but true, fact of life is that the only emotion with more raw power than grief or guilt is boredom.
Like I said, time passes slowly when you have nothing to measure it. It's a malleable thing. I would later find out I was in my cell for six weeks. It felt like years. Considering this, it wasn't long before I grew bored, even in my intense self loathing. In my efforts to fend off the doldrums, my grief was broken and I found my escape.
It started with a small slab of rock. I was bored, and figured I may as well do something to pass the tedious time away. I used my sharp claws to scritch random doodles into the stone. I drew stick figures of ponies, griffons, random curves and designs, whatever came to mind.
Over the weeks, I continued my etched out "artworks", digging new stones out with my claws. My carvings became less sketchy, had fewer and fewer mistakes each time. With nothing else to focus on, I spent all of my energy (what little I had) making the drawings as perfect as possible.
One day, something new happened. I was carving into a stone, like usual. I was completely focused on my task, carving intricate, flowing designs into the rock. I became so engrossed in my work that I became unfocused on a conscious level. I was paying no conscious attention to what I was carving. But at the same time I was paying attention, and working with a purpose. Thinking and not thinking at the same time. I think Lenore may have done something similar when she jokered and channeled her nighttime songs.
I had carved so many stones, put so much effort into what I was doing, that my subconscious mind was able to take over, working with more precision and accuracy than I could ever muster. My claws flew across the stone of their accord, drawing what they wanted, what I needed. I had hypnotized myself, or something of that nature.
Once I was finished, I just sat still for a time, still in auto-hypnosis. After some period of time, I came to, suddenly conscious after working for hours on... what? When I looked down at what I had made, I let out a choked cry of shock.
The design was glowing. The intricate curves, flowing lines, every indent was lit by a pale blue glow, beams of light shooting out. After spending so much time in the darkness, I had to squint to see what I had created.
I grasped the shining stone a bit tighter in my claw on instinct, and yelped in pain. It's a good thing I didn't hold it too tightly, or I would have taken my fingers off. The stone's edges had become impossibly sharp, leaving impressive gashes in my palms. I let the stone fall to the ground, where it stopped glowing.
I took quick stock of my injuries. The cuts were shallow, and although they bled profusely, I thought they'd heal without much trouble.
I turned my attention back to the stone. I picked it up, carefully ran a talon along the edge. It was no sharper than a stone ought to be.
Questions whirled through my head. What the hell had happened? Where had the energy come from, how had it manifested into something sharp? What did the designs I'd cut into the stone have to do with it? Why were they glowing?
Cogs began to turn in my mind. Slowly, I made the connections. Somehow, I had made a rune without even realizing it. That was the only explanation that made sense to me. Runes were often used in complex spells, channeling a unicorn's energy into pre-prepared side-spells that took less concentration, which might be necessary to augment the primary spell, where the bulk of the unicorn's focus was.
That explained the glowing designs. I'd made a some sort of new rune that work independent of a spell, subconsciously given myself a tool when I needed most. Maybe runes were a part of everypony's subconscious, and we just needed something to unlock them. At least that's what I thought at the time. The true answer of where my runes came from would be much stranger, and make itself clear later.
Still, that left one major question unanswered. Where had the energy for the rune come from? This took me longer to figure out, but eventually it hit me. The ambient magic! The Ambiance Theory was correct. Magic was thick in the air, and my rune had yanked it out and used it, just like a unicorn could do naturally! It acted as both a siphon for the magic and as a way to direct it! My mind acted as a bridge between the energy and rune-spell itself. Think of how this could change lives everywhere, make everything easier, make–
Then reality smacked me in the face. I was down in a seven foot hole. Even if I pleaded with the guards, told them what I'd accomplished, they'd just think I was insane. Besides, what would I want to give this new magic to ponies for? They were the ones who'd put me down here in the first place! Fuck them!
With that sudden flare of temporary rage, my resolve returned. I was ready to escape.
I picked up the stone a tried to concentrate. I made sure to grip the rock lightly, so as not to cut myself again. After a few minutes, the stone began to shine. I flew up the boulder that was the ceiling and thrust the rock in, hoping to cut through it to my freedom. Naturally, a new problem presented itself.
The stone was too small. Simple as that. The stone was jammed all the way into the boulder, and since I couldn't reach it, it was stuck.
I think that was the closest to insanity I ever got while in the hole. Having such a promising hope, having my resolve restored, having a means to escape my horrible fate, then having it snatched away without mercy, drove me mad with rage. I clawed at the ground, screeched and sobbed at the unfairness of it, scrabbled at the small hole for air in a vain attempt at reaching the surface.
After a few minutes of this distress, I managed to bring myself back under control. I thought carefully about the situation. The next step was deceptive in how obvious it was. Just make a new rune. I thought I could achieve a similar state of self induced hypnosis if given enough time, and I had nothing but time!
As I began to relax and clear my mind, another problem struck me. None of the stones down here were long enough to cut all the way through the boulder. The stones were inches long, but the boulder blocking my exit might be whole hooves thick! I needed something else, something longer to cut with.
But there was nothing down here but me and my stones! I had nothing to work with! I was still trapped. Still all alone, in the dark, kept prisoner in the earth. There was nothing down here that could help me cut all the way through the boulder. Just me. Just-
Me. Me! Of course, how could I have been so stupid! I could use my own body to harness the runes! My wings were easily long enough to make it through whatever size boulder was constricting me. My body acting as the siphon for the magic, the director of its energy, and the consciousness allowing it to happen. It was perfect, genius! Just draw the runes on my wings and I could slice through the rock with them in ten seconds flat.
All I needed now was something to inscribe the runes with. My gaze fell on my palms, still dripping from when I'd cut myself. Blood would do just fine.
I had researched the magical properties of blood, and remembered that using blood for runes established the most permanent connections. Using blood required less effort on the caster's part when consciously using the rune and provided permanent runes, which could be used as many times as the caster chose. Using my own blood would also make the rune even stronger.
I dug a shallow dip in the floor of my prison. I dipped my talons into the gaping wounds of my palms, hissing in pain as I did so. An involuntary tear of pain slid out of my eye, but I remained resolute. I drained the blood into the hole, creating a puddle to take my paint from. Once I felt I had enough, I dunked the tips of my talons into the blood, placed them on the underside of my wing, and waited. I was patient, willing to give the process as much time as needed.
It's hard to remember exactly when I began to paint my designs again, but it happened. My unconscious seemingly took over once more, providing me with the tools necessary for my escape. Serenity filled me, and I let whatever force was creating the runes have its way with me.
When I awoke, I surprised to have decorated both of my wings with the symbols. I could feel the now cool blood wetting my wings. I had only meant to do one wing. I wondered what could have prompted this extraneous effort, but dismissed the thoughts quickly. I had what I needed. Little did I know how invaluable this tool set would be soon.
I wanted to immediately try out my new spell (it gave me joy just to be able to perform a spell), but opted to wait for two reasons. One, The blood needed to dry. Who knew what might happen if rune the changed mid-spell? In addition, I had the foresight to wait for sunset, so it would be easier for my eyes to adjust to the world above.
I relaxed and decided to get some much needed sleep. I'd need as much as energy as I could spare once I was out. It was the first good rest I'd gotten in weeks.
After a few hours recuperating, I woke to find the meager sunlight that reached my cell fading. I checked my wings, and the blood was dry. I was ready. I flapped up to the ceiling, clenched my eyes shut in concentration. After a moment, my wingtips began to tingle. I could feel, feel, energy zipping through my feathers.
I opened my eyes, and found the edges of each individual feather glowing. The span of each wing looked like it was made up of hundreds of gleaming arrowheads. The intricate symbols I'd drawn were glowing on the underside of each wing, where I had etched them. The effect mesmerized me.
I took an experimental slash at the air. I beheld a swift blur of light dance in front of face, accompanied by a high pitched whine as the infinitesimally sharp wing seemed to literally slice through the dark.
After a few more slashes, I got down to business. Without hesitation, I arced my wings up into the stone above me. I grinned at the dull sound of the rock separating. Cutting through rock was just as easy as swishing through the air. I took a couple more swipes at the once mighty boulder from different angles, and within seconds chunks of split rock were tumbling down past me. I was almost struck by a few larger pieces, but managed to dodge away. I watched with satisfaction as the barrier between myself and the world crumbled.
Once the boulder had a wide enough gap, I wriggled out into the night. A full moon greeted me, a greeting I returned by stretching my wings. I savored the crackle my joints made once they were extended, a pleasant pain as I was reunited with full mobility.
My feathers still glowing (as I hadn't consciously stopped casting my rune), I took to the sky, sweeping and diving through the airspace above my former prison. I was free!
"Hey!"
I glanced down, saw a pegasus guard below taking off after me. He must have been on patrol or something, since I was pretty sure they didn't post anypony to my cell. Just bad timing.
I raced away without hesitation. I wasn't going to be caught again! Not after just seconds of freedom.
I was still exhausted from my time in the hole. While down there, I'd had no means of exercise, hardly any food. I was going as fast and as hard as I could, but the guard was gaining fast. In addition, my lighted wings must have me an easy target. I was so panicked I forgot to turn them off. The guard hadn't bothered to call for any assistance. That was one small blessing. He probably figured I was weak and he could take me by himself no problem.
After only two minutes of chase, we were neck and neck. Before I could duck away, he tackled me to the ground. We hit hard, and my already emaciated body crumpled in new pain.
The guard, who had fallen a few hooves away, recovered quickly and raced over to where I had landed, looming over me. He brought up his hoof to strike a me, and I extended my wing to protect my body from further damage. When his hoof began to rush down, a closed my in anticipation of the coming pain.
The pain never came. Instead, I felt something warm and wet surround my wing, then wrench away. The guard shrieked. I opened my eyes and joined him.
The pegasus stallion's entire foreleg had been split cleanly down the middle. Blood, tendon, bits of shattered bone, all seemed held in stasis for a few moments, still suspended in a gruesome cross section of his leg. Then they poured out, spraying red
crimson red like the terrible eternal gaze of an insane king on his throne of skulls a king who wants to bring every world every world every world to its knees
all over the ground.
His screaming came to an abrupt stop, and the guard fainted. I rushed to his side, checked for any signs of life. I put a talon over his mouth and felt ragged breathing. He was alive. He might need a wooden leg for the rest of his life, but he was alive and breathing for now.
Our shouts of terror had not gone unnoticed. In the distance, I heard voices getting closer. I hesitated a moment, not wanting to abandon the soldier who'd only been doing his job. Then I thought about it and decided to leave. Me staying might prolong his getting medical attention, and there was nothing I could do by staying but get captured or wounding, killing, even more ponies.
I took wing and fled the city, tears almost blinding me as I went. I didn't look back to see if anypony was giving chase, I just focused on flying as fast and far away as possible. I think I went about twenty minutes before landing, if you could even call it that. It was more like a controlled collapse.
I made myself get up and find shelter, a small den in the base of a dead tree. I tried to fall asleep, but was kept awake by the gravity of actions. I had only meant for the rune to be a tool, a tool for escape. Within moments of escape, my tool turned into a weapon. I had turned myself into a weapon, a sheath filled with thousands of tiny daggers.
I was disgusted with what I had become, what I had made myself, a tool for destruction, destruction of the most precious thing imaginable: life. I had been so caught up in the rune I pretentiously thought I had created, I hadn't even considered there might be a price. The responsibility of such a powerful tool was clearly beyond me. I might have killed somepony tonight, taken yet another life, this one even more innocent than the last.
Even if it had been an accident, I hadn't been careful enough. Whether I'd meant for his death or not didn't matter. Because I'd still felt the rush, the feeling of undeniable, horrible joy as I maimed the innocent. A creature that obtained such mirth from misery shouldn't be allowed to live.
I was tempted to end it all right there. Just raise my wing, still glowing, to my neck, and give a slight twitch. That's all it would take, a twitch. I was guilty, and it was no less than I deserved. I managed to bring my shining tools of murder up to chest, up to shoulders, up to my neck. Then, before I could bring about the twitch to end it all, I lost my nerve. I turned the rune off. I couldn't muster the courage to do it. I was a coward as well as a killer.
My mood descended even further when I noticed the fresh brand on my flank. A cutie mark, a curving white line silhouetting a feather. I hadn't even known was capable of getting one, and the one I received represented the tools of destruction I'd created. The thing I was best for was bringing death.
I decided what to do next right then and there. If I couldn't carry out my punishment, I would do next best thing; make myself scarce. I considered returning to the city and turning myself in, but I didn't trust myself not to escape. The hole had been hell, and I had no desire to return to it or whatever other torture they came up with. Again, I scolded myself for a coward.
I would find a secluded place in the wilderness, and live there. Away from anypony else I might harm. I would learn to control myself and my new-found ability, figure out ways that it could be helpful. With these pinpricks of hope floating in mind, I managed to fall asleep, already exhausted by the night's proceedings.
For awhile, my plan worked.
I found a spacious cave that served me well for a residence. I was shielded from the rain, wind and other elements. I disguised the place with branches and boulders, so it would look uninhabited. I could slumber in safety.
The survival skills Lenore taught me on the way to Plateau City came in handy while I struck out on my own. I made a bed using the same type of leaves Lenore had used when we traveled, and I was comfortable enough. I burned the firewood of trees that Lenore told me made less smoke. I hunted using the techniques Lenore showed me. My entire life in the forest was facilitated by her teachings.
When I wasn't busy doing business necessary for survival, I was practicing with my runes. I say runes because during the months of hiding, I discovered several new ones to go along with my wing blades, utilizing the same method of self hypnosis to find and create them. Most of them happened by accident, I would be doing something when all of a sudden I'd fall into the hypnosis. Usually the rune ended up helping me with whatever I was doing, so I told myself it was my subconscious doing its work again. It never crossed my mind that somepony (or something) else might be helping me along for its own purpose.
The first was the rune of organic time reversal, which I painted onto my palms (you witnessed them when I rectified Ms. Dash's injuries). It had to be applied quickly to work properly, but completely restored whatever it was used on. It was best used for healing. I also found a rune for far sight, allowing for augmented vision. I could only use it in short spurts, or else risk eye damage, but it proved useful for observing many things over long distances in a short period. Although I discovered invisibility and sound muffling separately, I generally used them at the same time, almost as one rune. Utilizing techniques from these runes, I also figured out how to mute the glowing created when I used any of my runes, so that I could disguise the fact that I could even use runes when it became necessary.
I spent most of my time finding ways to use my abilities constructively. I used my wing blades to chop through dense foliage, firewood, and (taking care to clean my wings beforehoof) for cooking. My far sight was useful for scouting out land for hunting and for snoopy ponies who might get too close, so I could avoid them when they came by. Invisibility and muffling were also useful for this, as well as hunting more effectively. Healing was good for ridding myself of bothersome scratches and bruises that were usually inevitable when living in the woods. I also trained myself to turn my runes on and off quickly, almost to the point of instinct.
Still, in the back of my mind, I always thought of how these powers could be used dangerously. Wing blades would be used for battle. Far sight could augment reaction time in soldiers. Invisibility and muffling could be utilized in espionage. Even the supposedly beneficial healing rune could help send ponies back into battle faster, only to wreak more bloodshed. No matter how much I tried to push these ideas away, they were always playing Discord's advocate somewhere deep in my thoughts.
Once I grew comfortable enough with my cloaking abilities, I began going on nighttime excursions to the city to pick up books on magic, generally from vendors, unicorn scholars, and private collectors. While the selection wasn't nearly as wide as that of Plateau City, it satisfied my appetite for new knowledge. I hoped to someday break into the magical community with my discoveries, and if I was to have any hope of having my work taken seriously, I needed to keep my studies as broad and current as possible. I was also always careful to remember where I took the books from so I could return them when I was finished. It would be an insult to Lenore's memory to steal from those who needed the books. I only borrowed.
Yes, I spent all the time I could spare on improving the abilities which I'd been either blessed or cursed with (I've still yet to decide which) and learning as much as I could from the limited resources I possessed. Even with these obstacles, I managed to keep my knowledge up to date and sharp, and kept my powers honed even sharper. I didn't want to risk another accident from my potentially lethal clumsiness. I also made sure to study my unique runes themselves, observe everything I could about them
Everything was going about as smoothly as could be expected.
My next step was to compile my findings. Bring together all the information I'd discovered concerning the Ambiance Theory and my runes into a paper, then find an institution where I could submit and publish my work anonymously. I doubted that any respected magical authority would be willing to publish something written by a hippogriff, and the public would probably be hard pressed to see anything discovered by a half-griffon as credible. Still, I could make a difference for the better, trust ponies to use my findings for the right reasons.
That would have been my next step, anyway. Until the recruiters showed up.
Didn't take too long 'fore I found out, what people mean by down and out.
I saw and heard a lot on my midnight book runs into Baltimare. I wanted to keep up to date on what was going on in the world in general. Nothing I observed was good.
Mostly I saw the normal going-ons of a city like Baltimare. Muggings taking place in dark alleys. Drunken ponies brawling outside of seedy taverns. The homeless begging for bits, scrounging like animals through bins for scraps of rotting food. Jokers and thieves doing their work, then fighting afterward about how to split the score. One night, I heard something useful. I heard about the recruiters.
It was a pair of pegasi leaving a bar, both of them stumbling over their own hooves. They whispered loudly to each other as they went.
"'Ey, you 'eard 'bout Bone? They nabbed him lass week!"
"Them recruiters! Ya'know, them yu-ni-cerns in them red yu-ni-ferms been takin' folk!"
"Nah, ain't 'eard!"
"Yeah, yeah. Been takin' earth ponies an' pegasususes. Got 'ole teams of them yu-ni-cerns, roundin' us up an' bringin' us nerth ta'fight in'na war!"
"They been takin' folks ta fight in'na war!?"
"Thas what I juss said!"
"An' they got Bone?"
"Celestia damn it, innit that what I juss toljer?"
"Ugh... fuck..." The pegasus proceeded to vomit into the street, then started crying. "Ah shit, fucker. Bone owed me tree fitty. Wherm I gonna get all that now?"
"Hahaha! I 'ear if ya'give that Slimy Fetlock feller a hoofer, he'll pay'ya juss 'bout anythi-"
"Shut up you son ova nag!"
"I'll teach'er ta call me that!"
The pair began their intoxicated fight, and I flew off. I didn't think much of it at the time. Drunks were always babbling about stuff like that, so why should this be any different?
Still, it might be worth it to be careful anyways. On my nightly excursions, learned that while I was trapped underground, Equestria and the Griffon Empire had gone to war at last, fighting over the northern territories. Public opinion concerning the war was not favorable, despite the intense hatred for griffons in general, so it made sense that recruiting might be something the equine government needed to resort to. But even so, kidnapping ponies seemed unlikely.
A few weeks later, I saw the recruiters for myself.
It was a group of unicorns in official looking uniforms, red cloaks, just like the pegasus at the tavern said. There were four of them, and they had a muscular earth pony and his fillyfriend cornered in an alley. I watched in disgust as the quartet blasted them with magic. The stallion was trying to protect the filly, blocking her from the barrage of spells, but within moments they were both unconscious.
The head recruiter walked up to their sleeping forms, pulled out two large metal rings, opened them, and strapped them around the necks of the poor ponies. The others magically lifted the pair and hefted them into a nearby cart, where they landed with a dull thunk.
It hurt me not to be able to help the couple. Clearly they were being brought in against their will to fight in a war they probably didn't believe in, possibly to die far away from home in the frozen north. Yet I didn't want to resort to violence, even with the recruiters, and cutting them loose would be too risky. I ultimately decided that it was the ponies' problem, not mine. What a mistake that was.
After that first time, it seemed like I saw recruiters every other night. It was always the same: pegasi or earth ponies, usually in groups of three or less, being corralled somewhere they couldn't escape by a team of unicorns. Never any other kind of pony, always unicorns did the deed.
It hadn't dawned on me until then that there might be some social tension between even the pony races, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The tribes had been separate up until nineteen years ago, and back then they had full on hated each other. It would take time for those wounds to heal. I saw much more of this blatant discrimination when I was transported to the front line.
Once I saw what was going on, I made special care to cover my tracks and immediately hide when there were recruiters around. I had hunch they would take me just as easily as pegasi or earth pony, and if it came to an all out fight, I wasn't sure how well my runes would fair against their magic. Besides, I didn't want to hurt anypony, even bastards like those recruiters.
They found me while I was sleeping in my cave. I still don't know how. They poked me awake, and I found a sneering face inches away from my own.
"Surprise."
His horn glowed, I felt something zap my face, and I was out.
When I came to, my entire body was sore. It took me effort to lift my eyelids. I tried to observe my surroundings by focusing on the other senses. I felt wooden plank rocking beneath me, and heard the rumble of wheels turning over cobblestone. I was in one of their wagons, being taken north to the front.
I heard sobbing to my left. With great difficulty, I opened my eye. I saw a filly leaning over the mangled body of a pegasus stallion. I could tell he was injured from his ragged, uneven breaths. I looked closer, and saw bits of skin protruding higher on his chest than the rest. His ribs were broken, stretching the skin.
Strength somehow flowed back into me. I staggered to my feet and walked to the pegasi's side. It might be a bit late, but I had to at least try. With my throbbing headache and body, it took more effort than usual to concentrate, but after a minute or so I managed to set my claws aglow. I watched with satisfaction as the stretched, bruised skin flattened and regained its former color. He let out a cough and his breathing steadied.
The minute the rune was finished, all vigor left me and my legs buckled. I lifted my head and saw the filly had retreated to the corner of the wagon, staring at me with deep fear in her eyes. A choked laugh at the irony escaped me.
I dragged myself to the corner of the wagon and sat back down to rest. Just traversing the wagon was enough to exhaust me. I examined my body for injuries and found several lumps or my head and bruises, hidden by my dark coat, covering the rest of me. I used my healing rune again, restoring my body to its former condition.
During my self examination I found a metal collar strapped around my neck. A quick glance at the other prisoners revealed they were wearing similar bonds. While the bonds weren't attached to anything, I got the distinct feeling there was magic behind them. Running away wasn't the best idea. Who knew what would happen?
I turned my attention to the ponies pulling the wagon. A quartet of melancholy earth ponies and pegasi, trudging forward, presumably north, and sporting collars of their own. To either side were unicorns, wearing red cloaks over polished gold armor. In addition to whatever combat spells they almost certainly had, each carried a long spear. Wonderful.
I brought my gaze back to the wagon. Other than the pegasus and crying mare, there were somewhere around ten other ponies, all adults, bundled in the cart. None had the look of being there by choice. They were all huddled together in groups, some speaking in harsh whispers, others drowsing. I was by myself in the corner, and based on the mare's reaction to saving her coltfriend's life, probably wouldn't be welcomed among them.
I also noticed a secondary, smaller wagon strapped to the back of the first, where another pair of guards were dozing. I guessed they took shifts on watching us. I doubted the job was very hard, considering the collars around our necks, which probably stopped us from escaping with some sort of magic.
I sliced experimentally at my bindings with a feather. Whatever magic was at work did its job. My feather went through the collar, but it reformed less than a second later. So much for that.
I settled on following the example of the others and getting some shuteye. Best to get it while I had the chance.
The moon had risen when I was shaken awake. "Get up."
I was thrown out of the cart to the ground. I wobbled to my feet and was shoved forward. I walked blearily in the direction I was pushed, my eyes still adjusting to the night. A yoke was placed around my neck. A glance around showed the ponies previously pulling the cart hopping into it and receiving a ration of bread, and three other ponies hooked up to the cart like me.
The hard wooden shaft of a spear smacked my flank. "Move!"
The cart was heavy, even with three other ponies to help pull it. Within minutes my already sore muscles were aching, and in a half hour I was panting.
The unicorns guarding us were talking casually to each other. They looked well rested and fed.
"'Bout how much farther have we got to go?"
"A few hundred miles, same as yesterday. Stop asking."
"Come on, we've gotta be gettin' closer!"
"We are getting closer, just slowly."
"Can't we get these sacks of shit to move any faster?"
"Nope. We need them in okay condition once we get there."
"Eh, fine."
The pair were silent for a while, but then, another unfortunate topic came up.
"Hey, what the hell's that one?"
Fuck.
"The weird, griffon lookin' one?"
"Yeah."
"He's, a... uh... crossbreed, that what they're called. Some pony slut fucked a griffon, and that's what happened."
"That's gross."
My face burned.
"I know. Why a pony would want to fuck a griffon I'll never know. And just look at the result. Sweet Celestia."
"So it's a half griffon thing?"
"Yeah, a crossbreed, like I said. Pay attention. I swear, I'd like to kill all them crossbreeds, and all their whore mothers, but they are good cannon fod–"
I couldn't hold it in any longer. "Hippogriff."
They stopped in their tracks. It took them a moment to understand what happened. They trotted forward to catch up.
"What'd you say, bastard?"
No turning back now. "Hippogriff. The cross between a pony and a griffon. If you're going to insult me, at least do it rig–"
The wooden end of a spear thwacked me in the face. I crumpled to ground.
"Don't you talk back to us, dog. That back talk earned you another shift pulling the cart. Now get up and shut up."
The shift went until sunrise , and the next shift lasted into the early afternoon. I didn't speak again.
As our trek northward continued, the weather grew colder. The guards donned heavier cloaks and set a magical fire in their cart to keep warm. We received scraps of ragged blanket to share. There was barely enough to cover one of us. As the temperature dropped, we began to huddle together. They even let me in. They needed all the heat they could get.
I almost savored my turn to pull the wagon by that point. It might be miserable, but at least I got to warm up my muscles and stretch a bit. Mobility in the cart was limited with everypony so close together. The lack of movement reminded me of being back in the hole.
The front drew closer with each passing day, and soon other wagons pulling their own equine cargo joined us, or rather we joined them. By the time the snow started to fall, we were a caravan of two dozen carts, all carrying disheveled, cold, hungry ponies to what would be for many of them their final destination.
After about a month of nonstop travel, we reached the town of Overlook. Aptly named. The village lay on the precipice of a glacier, which bordered an inland lake so huge you had to squint to see the other side. According to the chatter of the unicorns, that's where the griffons were making camp. At night you could see the pinpricks of campfires on the distant shore.
Saying the Glaciostel Lake was big would've been an understatement. The thing was big enough to have its own tide, so the frigid water never had a chance to freeze over. Icebergs, some as big as houses, dotted the lake. If you looked closely, you could make out pegasi shaping the ice into makeshift battlements.
On the day we arrived, all of us, unicorns, pegasi, earth pony, and other species alike were lined up for a speech. The head of the Equestrian military apparently spoke to everypony on their first day to lay down the law. I was aware that Equestria was matriarchal, so the fact that the leader of military was a mare didn't much surprise me. What did was the fact that she was a pegasus.
"Good afternoon. My name is Commander Hurricane! I'm the one in charge around here. In this camp, I may as well be Celestia herself. You will obey any order I give you or any order your officer gives you like they were a goddess themself.
"Now I know what you're all thinking," shouted the mare, decked in dark grey armor and a matching galea helmet. "Why the fuck am I here? Why does Equestria see fit to fight for this wind-whipped northern back country?"
There were mumbles of agreement from the crowd.
"DID I SAY YOU COULD FUCKING SPEAK?"
The crowd fell silent.
"Better. Now, we are fighting for this goddess forsaken piece of dirt for respect. This is a young country we live in. We are a prosperous country. Do you think we need this land? I'll answer that for you. We don't. But that doesn't matter. We'll fight for it anyway, cause it's ours. We need to let those beak-faced, flesh-gnawing sons of nags we can hold our own. That they cannot just take from us."
I was stunned. The leader of the Equestrian fucking military had just explained why this war was useless. Unnecessary. They were spending lives for no fucking reason. Screw respect when there were lives at stake!
"I am also well aware that many of you were brought here against your will. The fact that this is even an issue disgusts me, but it is, so let me explain a little something about those collars around your necks. If you've tried to run already, you know what they do. Disobey an order, desert your post, try anything an officer doesn't like, those little beauties will constrict your throat as we see fit. I recommend you don't let that happen.
"Now, you stallions and mares, willing or unwilling as you may be, will be split into five camps. Officers, like myself, will report to the Overlook Hotel. You're based in and around that building. Pegasi, while I know you'd like to stay in the clouds, they are simply too heavy and cold here to be viable. You will stay in the shipyards. Unicorns, you'll be staying in the taverns. Be warned that anypony caught stealing alcohol will be sent directly to me. You don't want that. Earth ponies bunk in any spare bedrooms of town residents. All ponies will report to battle training in the morning.
"Dogs will be escorted to their camp by yours truly."
The ponies split into their respective camps. Few were left with Hurricane. Among us were donkeys, zebras, dog creatures, pegasi with bat wings, and of course, me. We were the dogs.
"Follow me, dogs," she ordered. The collars left us little choice. We followed.
As we walked behind her, she continued to speak. "Now, I'm a tolerable mare. I got nothing against earth ponies, or unicorns. We keep them separate because they need time to get used to each other. If that day comes under my watch, we'll merge the camps. But you..." she grimaced. "I'm disgusted to call you 'Equestrians'. If there's one thing I ever questioned the Princesses on, it was their decision to allow non-ponies citizenship.
"But I'm a tolerable enough mare, even if I have to stoop low to deal with you, so I want to make one thing clear. You are dogs. You will be left to your own devices, to your kennels. You may not leave, but you will not be bothered until battle. In battle you will fight. Other than that, there will be no interaction between us."
She stopped at large field on the outskirts of town. It was already occupied by a multitude of tents and campfires, which were populated by other "dogs".
"You will stay here. Rations will be left every morning. Do not leave. We will know if you do, and you will pay the price."
She turned around and flapped off without another word.
I looked around at my fellows. Unlike the ponies, there were a fair number of children mixed in with this group, not to mention the elderly and pregnant. I couldn't recall any such recruits among the "true Equestrians", only hardy stallions and mares of around twenty to forty years, yet here at least a fourth of the population was made up of those who had no business being here.
I remembered what the soldier had meant to call me on the way up here. "Cannon Fodder." Was this an attempt to cleanse Equestria of undesirables? I thought so.
The newest of us dogs began slowly making our way into our camp. Those already living here barely spared us a glance, going about their day as usual. Patchwork tents were set up around dozens of crackling fires, where most of the populous was huddled, trying to keep warm. Some of the younger dogs were playing in the dirty snow, making snowponies, wrestling, making forts.
In a strange way, I actually preferred this forced segregation. No one was cringing away from me, shoving me to the ground. Here I was on even ground.
I made way towards the playing kids, but stopped halfway there. I hadn't realized it until just then, but I wasn't really a kid anymore. I was the age of a kid, looked like a kid, but I knew I wasn't. I'd seen my best friend killed, been sodomized in prison, and been stuck down a hole for several weeks.
I turned around and took an empty spot around the fire. I gazed into the wavering flames and wondered what was coming next.
I was awoken by the sound of a stampede. I squinted at the harsh morning light, made more fierce by the reflective ice that covered everything. What was the commotion?
I followed the snowprints and the sounds of violence and screaming to what seemed to be the entire camp crowded around something. Many were fleeing from the center of the ruckus, carrying food. This must be the morning rations Hurricane mentioned.
People clawed and bit at each other, stamped into faces, pulled at manes and fur. Shrieks of triumph and pain echoed as everyone fought for rations, probably scarce rations if it caused this. I stayed out of the mob, not wanting to get involved, not trusting myself to get involved. I might panic and activate my runes, then bloodshed would be a certainty.
It took fifteen minutes for the crowd to completely disperse. There was nothing left, not even a crumb. I got the distinct feeling that asking for food would yield nothing, so I considered my next move.
I needed food. No debate there. I couldn't let myself starve. I also couldn't get involved in the morning mobs, or I might hurt someone. So where else could I get food?
Bribe a soldier, maybe. What did I have to offer? Teaching runes to a unicorn? Nothing good could come of that, and it would only work for until I ran out of runes. I could prostitute myself, but I really wanted to avoid that if at all possible.
What were my other options? Hunting. But I couldn't leave the camp, or else risk being discovered and choked. I could fly within the camp's airspace and take down any birds flying through. With all my self imposed rune training, I could easily chop a few out of the sky. If I got a surplus, I could even trade for blankets and other stuff.
With no other ideas, I acted on my plan. Most of the birds up north by the lake were seagulls, which tasted like shit, but I could stomach them if I had to. I knew I'd need to take out as many as I could today, because soon they'd learn to steer clear of this flight space. To lure them back I'd need to bait them with food, which I couldn't get until I traded a few of my kills. I needed to get at least some extra food before the gulls learned to stay away.
After an hour I had ten or so birds, certainly enough to warrant a trade. There was no trouble finding customers, and by the day's end, I'd accumulated enough to last me for days with bait leftover.
"Gimme a bird." An order, not a request.
It was a few days later, and I was in a steady rhythm of hunting and trading. I turned around to face the voice. It was a diamond dog (I'd learned their species' name by that point), at least twice my height.
"You got something to trade for it?" I asked, already knowing the answer. I'd seen this guy around camp before. He didn't trade. He took.
"Gimme the bird," he repeated. Shit.
"No."
Now a crowd was gathering. Not a time to show weakness. If I gave him the bird, everyone would know they could just take from me without consequence. I also didn't want to hurt him, at least not with my runes. A compromise was in order.
"The bird," he said, taking a step closer. He was well fed, lean and muscly. Another step forward. I hunched down, tensing myself for an atta–
Two pairs of claws seized me from behind, clamping down hard on my wings. They forced me to the ground, where they sat on top of me, victorious.
The head dog crouched down in front of me, sneering in my face, eating one of my gulls raw. I glanced around. Everyone was still watching. I kept my expression neutral, waiting for an opening.
When he finished the bird, he wrapped his gargantuan claw around my head. "Should've just given up the bird, you little shit," he said, squeezing his hand. "Better hope you go unconscious for this next part, I'm gonna tear you a new o–"
I jabbed my head quickly forward, slicing his palm with my beak. He shrieked and whipped his hand off, jamming it in his mouth to suck it.
I darted through the new opening, feeling my wings dislocate as I did so. Worth it. The thugs' grips slipped, and I was out. Without waiting for a counterattack, I pounced the head dog, ignoring the throbbing pain blossoming in my wings. I knelt on his stomach, angling my beak a hair over his neck. He eyes widened and he held his breath, afraid to swallow.
"Call off your mutts," I breathed. "You got a fair trade. My scrawny bird for your scrap of dignity." I raised my voice at this point. "Beaten by a fucking hatchling. You try to take from me again, I'll finish this fight." I thought for a moment, then added, "Take from anyone again, I'll finish this fight.
"These people watching, they know what you tried here. To steal from a child. You try to kill me while I'm not ready, they'll know you for the coward you are. They'll know you're an honorless, worthless pile of dogshit."
I got up, collected my birds, and began to walk away.
"Spineless cumstain!" shouted a voice from the audience. Then a deafening bang, like nothing I'd ever heard before. I searched frantically for the source, and found it.
A filly, a batpony, about my age by the look of her, was hold a smoking, beautiful metal object in her hoof, pointing it at something behind me. I turned and saw one of the diamond dogs had been caught mid-pounce, thrown back by some mysterious force. His eye was gone, replaced by a red crater. I swerved back to the filly, jawing, trying to formulate a response.
One of the dogs was racing towards her, She seemed to be in shock by whatever she'd just done, and hadn't noticed. I moved before I could stop myself.
"Look out!"
I lit my wings and sliced the bastard's head off. The cut was clean, and there was no resistance. There was a brief spray o blood, then it just gushed, painting the ground
red fucking red like redrum like the mad king who even now watches from his hateful balcony gazing upon the field of roses
with its ghastly color.
Sound erupted from every direction. All the onlookers were scattering, screaming as they went. In the chaos, my eyes found the filly's. Her eyes found mine. It felt like we stared at each other for an eternity.
Then a voice, magically amplified, broke the spell. "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!?" We ran, lost to all but ourselves in the mayhem. We found an empty tent and hid inside.
"Your wing's bloody. Wipe it off," said the filly. I obeyed without a second thought, transferring the blood to the wet earth. I winced in pain, realized my wings were still injured, and relocated them with a quick rune.
"Hide your... thingy," I suggested, indicating whatever she'd used to plow a hole in the dog's head. She tucked it under her wing.
It took over an hour for the camp to calm down and the voices of unicorn officers to finally cease. Neither of us spoke a word. It was her that broke the quiet.
"Well, no one's gonna fuck with you now," she said without smiling.
"Nope." The silence persisted. I tried to think of something to say. I settled on, "Thank you."
"Welcome. The harrier forgot his father's face, however ugly it might have been. He needed a good killing."
I kept my silence, unsure of how to respond. He'd meant to kill me. Intended to. Was it wrong to be glad he was dead?
I sighed. "I don't like killing if I can help it, but... you're right. He would've hurt someone else eventually, maybe even killed them. He needed a good killing."
"Don't like a killing, huh?" I nodded. "'Fraid I got some bad news then." She lowered her voice to a whisper, like she was telling me a secret. "We're in a warzone."
I cracked a wan smile. "Guess so." I got up and stretched my legs. "I think it's safe to go out now."
She nodded and stood up, her flank falling into the light let in by the tent's flap. Her cutie mark was a rose, wrapped around the image of the thing she'd used earlier to kill the "harrier".
We trotted into the sunlight, blinking as our eyes adjusted. Whatever soldiers had come to stop the riot were gone now, and everything seemed to be back in order. Everyone went about their business as usual, albeit tensely, as if waiting for a loud noise.
I made my way back to where I'd left my gulls, the filly following close behind. Turns out it wasn't worth the time. Someone made off with my wares in the panic. Figured.
"Next one I catch is on house," I said. "Another thank you for... saving me, however you did."
"I shot him."
"What?"
"I shot him. That's what I did."
"Like a cannon. Is that what that thing you have is? A mini cannon?" I asked, now genuinely curious.
"That about sums it up."
"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you don't want that spreading around, especially with the..."
"Regular ponies?"
I nodded sheepishly.
"That's right," she answered.
"Then why tell me?"
She opened her mouth to answer, closed it, and stared at the ground. When she finally looked back up, she said, "Ka."
"What?"
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Considering you just ignored my question and will probably continue to ignore it, how about you tell me your name first," I replied, starting to feel irritated.
"Petal."
"As in Rose Petal?"
"Yes," she said, embarrassed.
"Thank you. I'm Nevermore."
"It means destiny."
"What?"
"Ka means destiny. I think we're meant to be ka-tet. Those bound by destiny."
"Oh...kay. Can you answer my questions in order please? Also, if you want to be friends, or look out for each other, just say so. You don't need to make up a bunch of hokie words and mysterious bullshit."
For a second I thought I caught a look of offense in her eyes, but if I did, it was gone in before I could be certain. "Okay. Lets be friends. Also, if you don't, I might let your freaky superpower thing slip to wrong pony. The rest of the crowd might be able to convince themselves you had some sort of sword, but I think we both know better. I also think you don't want your slicy wings getting too much publicity."
I frowned. "Friends don't blackmail friends."
"It's not technically blackmail yet."
While our "friendship" was uneasy at first, it quickly became genuine. When we weren't catching gulls (she managed pretty well without "slicy wings") and trading them, we were practicing fighting in an obscure corner of the camp. This stemmed from the fact that neither of us felt like dying when we were deployed (probably as cannon fodder).
She was just as good at hoof to hoof and conventional weapons combat as with her mini cannon, as I called back then. I'd learn the wondrous tool's true name later. I was somewhat proficient at hoof to hoof when I began, as I'd needed to use it quite a bit when training myself with my runes. Even so, my skill at the style improved exponentially over the course of our training.
Petal knew exactly what she was doing. One day she told me she'd been taught by her father, Alain. He'd been a mercenary in New Yoke, and hadn't been there when she was taken by the recruiters. Petal's eventual plan was to get back there and find him. She insisted that we'd never see him up here unless it was on a rescue mission for her, because he was too good to be captured.
I was more reluctant to share my story, but after a few weeks I caved. I left out the parts about the night singing and supposedly kidnapping ponies. It barely made sense to me, so it wasn't worth the effort to try and explain it to her.
Petal and I gradually fell into a steady routine. Routine's always present themselves if you do the same thing long enough, and this proved to be the case even here. We hunted in the early morning, sold our birds until noon, then trained, talked, generally got to know one another until evening, interspersing meals whenever we got hungry.