Midnight carefully poured the contents of the pitcher into the empty lantern. As the last drop made it inside, he turned to smile at his friends, now illuminated with the green glow of the lantern.
“Thanks for making the trip to the store for me, guys...”
Gravity smiled back. “Not a problem at all.”
Desert stepped forward with a smirk. “You should’ve seen the look on that shopkeep’s face when we said we didn’t want any lighting stuff in it!” He chuckled. “He was so confused...”
“So where did you find her, anyways?” Thunder asked, trying to ignore the unicorn.
Midnight shrugged. “She just kinda... asserted herself.”
The pegasus’s head crooked. “What’s that supposed to mean.”
“Well...” The changeling crooked his own head. “For lack of better words, I kinda threw her up.”
“You ate her?!” Desert half-gasped. A smile creased his snout with pride. “That’s pretty hardcore.”
Midnight flinched. “What? No... She just reconstituted herself...”
Gravity crooked her head as well. “...in your stomach?” she asked with a hint of disbelief.
“I threw up immediately.” Midnight shook his head. “Gravity, you’ve eaten wretch before, you know what happens! I don’t know how she did it, but it almost killed me!”
Gravity sighed. “Sure, alright... But how did she get there in the first place?”
Midnight exhaled and shook his head. “Well, it’s a very... unsettling wretcher trick.” He looked back toward the lantern. “Apparently, consuming any part of a wretcher can instill within you their very essence.” He shrugged. “And apparently, if the original wretcher dies and your thoughts... your emotions are aimed enough on them...” He waved his hooves in the pattern of an explosion. “Fwoosh. The essence just ignites and grows into a whole new wretcher. Like a phoenix, rising from the ashes.”
“Like an extra life?” Desert asked.
Midnight gestured toward the lantern. “Not without its kinks, of course.”
Brucie stepped forward. “So... is it too late to ask what a wretcher is?”
Midnight chuckled and gestured toward the lantern again. “That. That’s the only wretcher left.” He smiled. “And her name is Elegiac.”
“Sorry to interrupt or confuse...” Gravity started. “But couldn’t Advantage have come back to life through you or Elegiac?”
“They... They tried.” Midnight solemnly nodded. “Remember that zebra in the bed? That was their essence acting out. I’m not sure what stopped them from coming back...”
The lantern flared up.
“Whatever it was,” Midnight continued, taking small steps toward the table the lantern sat on. “I’m sure Advantage would have gotten around it if they really wanted to...”
He picked up the lantern with his magic.
“Either way,” he continued. “We should probably get back to Canterlot.” He smiled.
“But first...” Gravity stepped forward. “We should probably go to Appleloosa.”
Midnight crooked his head. “Why?”
18 hours later...
“In their haste, they forgot someone rather important, didn’t they?” Gravity plainly stated as they trotted through the woods.
Finally, they made it to the familiar clearing. The light of Celestia’s sun shone through the trees enough to make out a familiar jar. To the group’s dismay, it was broken and empty.
“Extra life?” Desert asked.
They trotted up to the jar for a closer look. A green film covered the bottoms of the jar pieces, obscuring the surfaces farthest from the breakage.
“We need to leave.” Midnight turned without waiting for anyone else. “Now.” He galloped back into the darkness.
The rest of the group followed the dim glow of his lantern back through the forest. Finally, it disappeared into the bright light of day.
Thunder flew out ahead until he was in front of the changeling. “Wait! What’s going on?”
Midnight shook his head. The lantern flared back up to its usual brightness.
“Is everything alright?” Gravity asked, coming out of the trees with the rest of the group.
“We need to get back to Can...” He winced at his syllables and shook his head. “We need to leave. Town. Now.”
“Can’t you at least tell us what’s wrong?” Gravity asked.
Midnight shook his head again. “Let’s go.”
Desert looked back at the forest. Unseen eyes looked back, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. He took a step closer to the threshold of the trees. He could hear something hyperventilating in the farthest distance. He squinted his eyes to try to hear better. The tall grass at the edge of the forest shook in the absence of wind.
A claw grabbed his shoulder.
“Desert!” Gravity yelled. “We need to go now!” She pulled his shoulder back toward the group, who was already moving back toward the station.
Desert checked over his shoulder, but the forest was almost unnaturally still and silent. He shook his head and rejoined the others.
A pale, drooling snout covered in Kernel’s remains poked out of the forest, watching its prey escape. It trembled under its lungs’ irregular breathing pattern. Its tired eyes watched the changelings disappear into the town. The snout vanished back into the forest completely unnoticed.
The group couldn’t get Midnight to say more than two words until the train was finally in motion. The changeling took the window seat for the first time. He glued his snout to it as if expecting to see someone wave at the station. But finally, the motion of the engine jerked him out of his position.
“Are you alright?” Gravity asked.
Midnight shook his head. “I can’t talk about it. I can’t think about it.” He nodded his head. “That’s how they get you...” A smile broke out on his snout. “You think about them...” The smile broke into giggles. “...They get you.”
“Are the ponies in danger back there?” Thunder asked.
Midnight shook his head again. “No. Only changelings.” He shuddered. He exhaled as he rocked in his seat. “Just forget about it. That’s all we can do.”
“Well, that’s a pretty lame thing to do,” Desert replied. He pulled out his spear. “If it wasn’t going to hurt me, why didn’t you let me just go out and kill it?”
“I said forget about it!” Midnight snarled. “Desert, for once in your miserable life just... just--”
“Calm down,” Thunder finished, addressing both parties. “Midnight... I know you don’t want to talk about it, but if it could be a threat...”
“It’s not.”
“Can you talk about it... Non-verbally?” Brucie asked.
Midnight nodded and gestured toward the lantern. “Desert,” he whispered.
The unicorn crooked his head. “What?”
“The Drooling Oasis.”
“What about it?”
Midnight just chuckled and nodded. “Indeed.” He shook his head. He exhaled, closed his eyes, and looked back at the queens he had served again.
Chrysalis wanted to kill him. Advantage wanted to save him. The third... She just stayed in the corner of his mind, staring at him with emptiness behind her eyes.
He shook his head out of it. For a brief moment, he could feel his hairs stand up on end as eyes scanned his back. He turned quickly to the window again to see nothing but moving landscape.
“We’re going to forget about it, okay?” He sighed. “The jar slipped and broke and he died. Nothing more to it. I just wanted to get home already. I just want this all to end already.”
Brucie spoke up. “Is there anything we can do to make sure we don’t ‘slip?’”
Midnight smiled. “I think I know a little trick.”
With a flash of green, the earth pony and pegasus sitting across the aisle didn’t feel any different at all.
“You want in on this, Gravity?” Midnight asked.
“What did you do?” the griffin asked.
The changeling shrugged. “Just the smallest of changes.”
Brucie looked up and down the aisle to make sure there were no ponies. With a flash of green, his true form was revealed. The blues in his eyes and carapace had been changed to hues of yellow.
“See?” Midnight said. “Should make it easy to identify an Equestrian that way, right?” He chuckled.
“Midnight, are you okay?” Gravity asked.
The smile disappeared from Midnight’s snout. “I... No. But hey... With the wretchers gone, at least we can be yellow, huh?”
A green flame enveloped him for a moment, doing nothing to his appearance.
Gravity nodded. “That’s true. We can be yellow.”
“It’ll be harder for enemies to sneak in. It’ll be harder for us to get hurt... If we’re yellow.”
Gravity nodded.
A few hours later...
Midnight opened his eyes to find Brucie and Squee sitting across from him.
“You told us to forget,” Brucie said. “And I realized we don't have a lot to remember.”
“We were hoping you could tell us more about life here in Equestria,” Squee added happily.
Midnight stretched and yawned. “Of course. Of course!” He rolled his shoulders and sank back into his seat. “I'm... Not even sure where to begin.” He chuckled awkwardly.
Brucie crooked his head. “Well, can we start with a genuine apology.”
“I'm sorry?”
Brucie smiled and shook his head. “Not from you... From us. We judged you quite heavily on your past sins. But now that we've seen your friends and the care you put into making sure everyone is safe... Well...”
“I’M SORRY!” Squee blurted out. “Okay, I'm good,” he added at a barely audible volume.
Brucie and Midnight chuckled. Brucie nodded. “And I am too. You really aren't that ‘Foresight’ we knew.”
Midnight smiled. “Thank you.” He looked around the cabin. “So what have you two been up to since the hive fell?”
Squee shrugged and Brucie crooked his head to one side briefly. “You know,” Brucie explained. “We just traveled around. Kept a low profile. Decided to head to the Equestrian Games and found Verti... Gravity on the train.”
The unicorn nodded. “Her new name does take some getting used to.”
“So, should we be worried about whatever broke that jar?”
“You mean gravity?” Midnight said. He winced at his own word choice. “Not... the griffin Gravity... Actual... It got dropped, arlight?”
Brucie leaned in. “Please, don’t do this cryptic stuff again...”
Midnight rolled his eyes. “It’s for your own safety, I promise.” He sighed. “It can smell fear like a shark smells blood.”
“And you’re sure the ponies aren’t in danger?”
Midnight let out a much deeper sigh. “No. But they don’t know that so they should be fine. It’ll realize the wretchers are all dead and go back to the Deadlands.”
“You’re willing to risk it?”
He nodded. “Sadly, the odds are best this way.”
“Dude...” Squee chirped up, turning to Brucie. “I thought we were gonna sleep tonight. Why are we talking about this?”
Brucie bore a patient smile. “There’s nothing to talk about, Squee. There’s no monster out there.” He turned to Midnight. “It was just your imagination, wasn’t it?”
The unicorn chuckled. “Yep.” He nodded. “Pretty much.”
The earth pony nudged the pegasus. “See? It’ll be fine.”
Midnight smiled. “We’ll get to Canterlot and get you two a real home. It’ll all be fine. You just gotta remember that.”
Squee yawned. “Okay.”
The train pulled into the station of Canterlot. The group had awoken from a pleasant sleep without any nightmares. Midnight breathed a sigh of relief. He hurried Elegiac to his office, letting the two ponies behind guide the new changelings to the complex.
Midnight quickly placed the lantern on his desk and reached into the drawer on the right, pulling out his stash of hay. He spilled more of his blood into the lantern to keep Elegiac glowing with health.
“Isn’t that unhealthy?” Thunder asked from the door.
Midnight jumped and placed the hay back inside the drawer. He wiped his snout clean before speaking. “Yeah, a little. But I don’t want to lose anyone else, you know?”
Thunder sighed. “Surely there’s some better way to keep her alive?”
Midnight shrugged. “Not without losing a changeling.”
“Speaking of... What took the jar out?”
The unicorn sighed and shrugged. “I think it was dropped in the chaos.” He chuckled awkwardly. “I almost thought it was... There was this monster that Advantage used to talk about.”
“A monster other than themselves?”
Midnight shook his head. “If you thought Advantage was a monster...” He shuddered as he thought about it. “This... thing they fought over a thousand years ago... They called it Corruption.”
Thunder scoffed. “Corruption, huh?”
“Sounds kinda lame until you realize that Advantage names others based on their best attribute.” A cold breeze shivered down his spine. “The monster was informally known as a ‘drooler...’ It fought against the wretchers in hopes of gaining their crazy survivability. Advantage eventually fought them off.”
“But you never saw them in real life though?”
“The story always sent a shiver down my spine.” He shuddered again. “Which is why I refuse to share it. Honestly, I wish the wretchers had kept it to themselves.” The cold breeze persisted. “It’s like... It gets in your head. And then it just appears. You figure it's just a nightmare. You figure it can’t hurt you. And that’s when it gets you...”
“That’s... Pretty messed up.”
“Yeah... You can see why I didn’t want to tell the rest of them.”
Thunder nodded. “Good thing the jar was broken by accident then, right?”
Midnight nodded back. “Oh yeah. Shame about that.” His ears perked up. “Oh, right! I need the papers for Brucie and Squee!” He ducked behind the desk to search for the forms.
Thunder left him to his search and greeted the rest of the group as they turned the corner. “He’s getting the forms ready,” he explained to the two newest members.” He opened the door. “Go on in.”
The two departed, leaving just Desert and Gravity.
“Well, I think I’m gonna take a walk around town,” Gravity said, stretching. “Wanna join me?”
Mirage hesitated, looking at Thunder with that familiar glint of adventure in his eye. Thunder returned with a confirming shake of his head.
“Nah,” Desert replied. “I’m gonna stay around a bit longer.”
“Suit yourself,” Gravity said. She walked away and disappeared into the sunlight.
Desert turned to Thunder. “Did you learn anything about the monster?”
Thunder smiled. “Oh yeah. It’s called ‘Corruption,’ it’s also known as a ‘drooler’ and appears to be some kind of powerful changeling that eats wretchers and other changelings.” His head perked up but his eyes couldn’t find the source of the draft of air chilling his back.
Desert could.
The unicorn approached the dark window at the end of the hallway. Using his magic, he promptly closed it. Beyond the glass, two bushes rustled.
Desert looked back at Thunder. “I think I know where to look first.”
The two ponies trotted out and around the complex until they found the bushes. Scratches along the fence behind them indicated something had climbed over recently.
“I’m getting a bad feeling about this,” said Thunder.
Desert scoffed. “Come on, it can’t even hurt us, right?”
A twig snapped and fell between the ponies. Their gazes sent something rustling along the branch, around the trunk, and scampering across another branch before jumping off. But the ponies were already in pursuit.
A changeling landed in the next yard over. Thunder tackled it to the ground. It shook beneath him. He waved Desert to calmly approach as his eyes met the terrified ones of this changeling.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
The changeling looked over the large pegasus that had pinned him down. “Whi... White...”
Thunder crooked his head in confusion. “What?”
It put a hoof to its heart for a moment, then pointed it at the pegasus. “...You?”
“Thunder Sword,” he said, backing off and helping White up. “And this is Desert Mirage.”
Desert just looked over the changeling without holstering his spear.
“Don’t mind him,” Thunder continued. “Do you mind me asking what you were doing in that tree?”
The changeling hyperventilated for a quick moment before regaining its composure. “I... I’m scared.”
“That’s okay.” Thunder patted the changeling on the back. “We can take you somewhere safe. Would you like that?”
White nodded with a smile.
“Desert, go up ahead and warn Midnight we have another changeling coming in.”
The unicorn nodded and led the way. Thunder carefully brought the new friend along. Its black hoof trembled around his foreleg.
“Where... Where are we going?” it asked in its shaky voice.
“A few friends of ours are changelings. They can take care of you.”
“Really?” White crooked its head. “Other changelings?”
Thunder nodded. “They're nice ones. I know the hive can be brutal, but these guys are nice.”
White nodded solemnly.
The trio trotted into the complex. Before Thunder could even say a word, Desert burst into Midnight’s office. Brucie, Squee, and Midnight’s heads rose from their paperwork.
“She wasn’t lying about you people not knocking,” Midnight noted. He crooked his head. “What do you need?”
“We’ve got another one!”
“What?”
“Another one.” He beckoned Thunder and White inside.
Midnight’s ears perked up at the sight of another changeling. “Oh!” He ducked down in search of yet more paperwork. “I’ll get you signed up right away!” He froze. He slowly raised his gaze to the new changeling. “This isn’t a hostage situation, is it?”
Desert smirked. “Maayybe...”
White looked confused.
“No,” Thunder sternly affirmed. “He just wants a safe place to stay,” he explained.
Midnight nodded and resumed the search.
“All done!” Squee chirped happily.
A green glow pulled the form away from the changeling and placed it with the others. Brucie took Squee out of the office, allowing Thunder and White to step closer. Midnight’s snout rose to meet them as they approached.
“Please, take a seat.”
With Thunder’s help, White sat down across from Midnight. The unicorn put the form down in front of it. The changeling looked over the strange piece of paper with a crooked head.
“Are you literate?” Midnight asked.
White shrugged.
Midnight sighed and smiled. “I can sign it for you, uh...”
“White,” Thunder finished.
The unicorn nodded. “White. I can sign it for you and then we can help you get situated here in Equestria.”
White crooked its head at Midnight.
“It just means you’ll be... nice,” Midnight explained. “As long as you can control your hunger to the point that you won’t hurt anyone, you’ll be fine!”
White nodded.
“Okay then.” Midnight signed the form. “Just ‘White?’”
White nodded.
Midnight nodded back. He put down his quill as his horn glowed. “You might feel a slight tingling sensation.”
With a flash of green, White was now shades of yellow where blues once were.
“And you’re all done!” Midnight said with a smile. “Any questions?”
White shook his head.
“Alright.” He turned to Thunder. “Take him back to Brucie and Squee. When Gravity gets back, she can help them integrate properly.”
Thunder nodded. He helped White out of its seat and lead it out of the office.
Alone again, Midnight looked back at his lantern. “We’re actually doing it...”
“Yes, you are,” a voice answered from the door. The Colonel trotted in and sat down. “I asked for a dragon-fire report, but this will do.” He smiled. “I see you’ve dyed a few more changelings.”
“Well, it’s not really a dye as much as it’s--”
“The point I’ve come to affirm is that you’re doing good work,” the Colonel interrupted. “Good enough work, in fact, that your organization will persist the fall of ‘changeling immigration.’”
Midnight crooked his head with worry. “Sir?”
“There’s nothing to worry about, Midnight. Your little project here is simply taking on a change of identity.” He shook his head. “Not a change of function or even form.” He looked back toward the door. “Judging by how you’ve been handling the ‘immigrants’ so far, I think we can call you Project D.Y.E.S.”
“Is that like an anagram or..?”
“It’s whatever you want it to be. Either way, immigration proper does not wish to get their hooves dirty signing on changelings, so you’ll be a parallel entity instead of a mere branch. DYES will be in charge of filtering out good changelings from bad ones, and keeping the peace in all changeling affairs.” He shrugged. “At least until something happens that changes everyone’s prejudices.”
Midnight snorted. “Yeah, like that’ll ever happen.”
The Colonel gave him a folder. “These forms will need to be filled out. I need everything about your organization on file, who does what and whatnot. Take your time.”
With that last remark, the Colonel got up and trotted out of the office.
Midnight got right to work, yet something still felt off. He turned behind him to see nothing but a plain wall lit up in green. Yet it was like something was staring straight at him.
He jumped as the office door opened and a griffin walked inside. “So I put the three--” she started before realizing Midnight had been looking the other way. She gestured back toward the door. “I probably should have knocked, huh?”
Midnight’s head bobbed into triangles before he had the shaking and nodding call a ceasefire. “What... What were you saying?”
“So I put the three recruits to bed early. I figure we start up early enough they can watch Celestia raise the sun.” She nodded. “I’m sure they’ll enjoy that.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
She crooked her head. “Did White seem... ‘off’ to you?”
“What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “He seems nice so I didn’t confront him about it, but I’ve worked with enough psychotic changelings to know when one’s brains aren’t working quite right.”
“Are you saying he’s... Evil? Dumb?” He crooked his head. “What?”
Gravity shook her head. “I don’t know. Something is wrong.”
Midnight shrugged. “He’s probably just scared. It can really affect a changeling’s behavior.”
She half-shrugged. “I guess.” She crooked her head. “You don’t think he’s that monster you mentioned?”
Midnight’s snout fell as laughing punched through his composure. He shook his head as his snout slowly regained control. “That’s what this is about?!” He chuckled. “There’s no such thing!”
Gravity’s beak stayed perfectly straight. “You’re lying through your fangs.” She shook her head. “You know you can’t fool me.”
“Forget about what I said,” Midnight assured. “There’s nothing out there that can hurt us.” He gestured to his paperwork. “Look, I’m making you one of our top agents in this project!”
Gravity frowned, looking between the changeling and the forms on his desk. “Denial was what made you Foresight. Your acceptance made you my friend.” She turned and walked out of his office.
Midnight stared at the closed door for a few minutes. He shook himself out of his trance. “Denial is the only thing that’s going to save us though,” he muttered under his breath. “The jar broke on its own, and I have to believe that. Because anything else would be...” He shook his head. “...Impossible.” He looked over to his lantern. Elegiac knew much more about Advantage’s tales than he remembered. “Wouldn’t it?”
The light dimmed. Droolers have no limit on their appetite. The light brightened. White... He is not someone I recognize, but he is safe. But his name is off-putting.
Midnight crooked his head. “What do you mean?” he asked the lantern.
Droolers often care more about their appearance... Who else would be named for a color?
He shrugged. “He sure doesn’t act like one.” He crooked his head toward the lantern. “And didn’t you drool for a bit? You never were named for a color.”
The lantern giggled.
She whispered into his ear. His eyes widened and he shook his head. “I’m just gonna forget that you ever said that.” He looked back at the forms. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to figure out how much authority to give to Mirage.” He looked back at the lantern. “What... What is with you girls and knowing these obscure colors anyways?”
The lantern flickered as the giggle rang through Midnight’s mind.
“So this is it,” Gravity said as she looked over the recruits in their bunks. “We’re actually doing it.”
Thunder smiled. “Yeah, almost didn’t expect to actually help some changelings after that crazy week.”
“Kinda sad we didn’t get to kill any more monsters,” Desert chimed in. “...If I have to be honest.”
“So any idea where we might find more recruits?” Thunder asked Gravity in an attempt to ignore Desert. “You’ve been on a pretty good streak.”
Gravity shrugged. “That’s all dumb luck if I have to be honest.” She giggled. “Maybe I’m just that much better than Midnight at this job.”
Thunder nodded. “Yeah, I actually signed on when I heard this job was hurting the guy’s health.” He crooked his head toward her. “Of course, now I realize he was weak from keeping you alive.”
She nodded. “And now that sea monster has got him.”
“Kinda surprised he didn’t just kill her off yet,” Desert noted.
“She’s the last member of Advantage’s Hive,” Gravity explained. “He’s kinda slow to let things go...” Her voice trailed off. She sighed. “Of course, he’ll also tell the scary stories of Advantage’s Hive in his grief as well.” She looked back toward the general direction of Midnight’s office. “I gave him such a hard time for scaring us half to death back in those woods...”
“That’s what that was about?” Thunder’s head crooked back toward Midnight’s office for a moment. “That would explain why he’s been so secretive about it.” His smile betrayed his emotions. “Believing a ghost story to be true just in the hopes of keeping some part of a dead friend alive.” He shook his head. “We need to help him get over this loss.” He turned back to Gravity. “Any ideas?”
Gravity smiled. “Of course. Just get another evil changeling.”
“Huh?”
“We use it as a vessel to get that sea monster back.” She shrugged. “He’ll probably snap out of it pretty quick once he sees her in the flesh again.”
Thunder chuckled. “Well, if his track record is anything to go off of, finding evil changelings should be easy.”
“Yeah, what are we waiting for?” Desert asked as he started toward the door.
“Not so fast.” Gravity raised a claw to stop him. “These changelings here might need our help.” She shook her head. “And I don’t think we want to get into trouble until they’re ready.”
Desert rolled his eyes. “Oh, please.”
A sudden shriek interrupted them, followed by the sound of carapace hitting pavement. They turned to find that White had fallen out of his bed.
“Okay, maybe you’re right,” Desert conceded.
“Huh. I forgot that some changelings aren’t actually used to beds,” Thunder admitted.
Gravity helped White back under the covers.
“We can stop muddling around the issue,” the thoroughly bandaged Gorman said. “You were trying to help that monster. After everything.” Gunter sighed. Gorman put his good claw on Gunter’s shoulder. “I will need you to teach me this niceness.”
Gunter shrugged. “I just figured, you know, we had already won. Why did she need to die?”
Gorman smiled. “And if she gets up and tries to kill us again?”
Gunter crooked his head. “She’s still alive?”
He chuckled. “Of course she is! Any demon of Advantage’s wouldn’t be killed so easily.”
“Well...” Gunter gulped. “I sure hope she’s forgiving after a defeat.” He looked around the rather ruinous structures around them. “Is this Griffonstone?” he asked in an attempt to change the subject.
Gorman nodded. “Yep. Syndicate has gone to tartar sauce as you ponies say.”
Gunter blinked a couple times. “Nopony says that.”
Gorman chuckled. “Either way... Our best bet is to lay low and try to learn to put the chairs with the tables.”
“Are you suggesting we become waiters?”
Gorman crooked his head. “What? No waiting! We act! Quietly... But we act!”
“You lost me.”
“The actions of nicety... Nicessity!”
“Oh.” Gunter nodded. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying now. We need to help people out!”
“But quieterly!” Gorman warned. “They don’t trust if you’re on the beak about it.”
Gunter chuckled. “I think we can handle that.”
Midnight lay on the floor of his office. He couldn’t get back to sleep. He looked at the dim light on his desk. The lantern flared up, lighting up more of the room.
“I almost wish you were Vertigo.” He sighed. “That all of this was just one big nightmare.”
Advantage wouldn’t want you moping about.
He sighed again. “But the droolers... They killed them.”
No, they didn’t...
Midnight got up and crooked his head at the lantern. “What?”
Advantage did not get killed by droolers.
He tried to pace his breathing. “Then how?”
...Not droolers.
“How?!”
Gorman. They tried to defend themselves, and remind him that they’re not actually enemies... But it was all in vain.
Midnight put his hoof to his forehead, then slid it down his snout. “I should have known. They probably broke the jar Kernel was in too...”
Probably.
“But...” He shook his head. “Why? Why Gorman?” He sighed. “They fought Chrysalis, the droolers... Why some random griffin that wasn’t even after them directly?”
“To die in battle...
In the middle of a war.
But not the one fought.”
...It’s something Advantage used to tell me. They said it was about how true heroes never die in the wars they fight.
Midnight sighed again, from relief this time. “So they went out like... Like heroes.”
They said that you would go the same way.
His eyes widened. “I’m not sure I would... Say that.”
They would... Or, they did.
“You really think I’m a hero?” He scoffed. “I’m nobody. I couldn’t even do this job right...”
Then drink me.
Midnight stared at the lantern in disbelief.
See? The moments it matters, you’re the hero I know. You know just as well as I do that you’ll find someone fitting to slurp me down.
The lantern giggled.
You saved a lot of lives, Midnight. Advantage would be proud.
Midnight nodded and smiled. “I suppose I did. But what about--”
Shh... We both know the ending to that sentence isn’t worth saying. Just go back to sleep.
Midnight nodded. “We’ve got a lot of lives to save tomorrow, after all.”
Exactly.
The lantern giggled. The light dimmed to a mere flicker.
Midnight closed his eyes to peaceful slumber.
Tomorrow was a new day.