The strange fog all around overtook Night much quicker than he had time to react, and within a moment's notice, he was lying in the snow, unable to move and unable to see, passing between states of unconsciousness. There was a soft groan. He couldn't even be sure that it was his own. It seemed distorted. Slowed down. Faint.
He felt gravity pull against the whole of his body, his hooves hanging limp off of the side of a strong figure that lifted him up and now carried him away. Last-minute thoughts raced around his mind, leading to one conclusion. This was where his time expired. This was where he was going to die, at the hooves of some unknown group of bat ponies.
No more than a moment later, he felt himself lay against a wooden surface. A hoof, later two, move over his body, as if he was being examined. Cloth ripped to his right, and it, coldly wet, was pressed to a small wound that burned instantly. He wanted so desperately to yelp or cry, yet no noise was to be heard over the figure working.
At this point, it was too difficult to make out just what was occurring. The shredding of cloth, the burning sensation on his skin, the pain of his mysterious wounds. It made sense, but it didn't. Who was doing this to him?
Then, Night finally dozed away.
***
The grey fanged pegasus gradually woke to a throbbing migraine, met instantly with dim candle light all around a natural construction-type room, toward his hinds on that wall resting a half-filled, unsymmetrical-shaped wooden bookshelf that appeared to be custom carved.
Wincing at the pain in his head and rubbing a hoof against his temple in an effort to tone it down, Night regained his bearings within a minute of coming to. His eyes shot open, adding a brief spike of pain to his forehead, and looking down at himself.
Armorless and stripped of weapons, but okay. Patched up with red-tinting bandages on the upper hoof, chest, and wing, but alive. Better yet, he was not chained or strapped down to the flat wooden platform he had been sleeping on.
A new thought came to mind as he suddenly remembered—his squad. Gasping quietly, Night jumped up to begin searching, then stopping when he glanced down to the floor, finding everypony resting on hay nests, breathing softly and also with bandages over different areas of their body, Lodestar seeming to have the most, as well as bruises all over.
Well, everypony except for three. Shieldhunter, Midnight Blade, and Duskbloom were nowhere to be found. A new feeling began settling in. Not one of panic, but one of worry.
Before another move could be made, a single step to his far right and behind snapped him around, gesturing toward the figure as if he had a weapon in his hooves, except none were there. Night glanced down to his hooves, breathing slowly yet deeply. His eyes shifted back upwards at the darkened figure.
"Wh-who are you?" Night spoke half-weakly, his heart beating quicker by the moment.
The figure approached cautiously, the flickering of a nearby candle revealing his true form. All along his muscular body were white and black stripes, around his neck a type of silver tribal necklace, and tail looped with matching silver rings at the base. His mane was of a mixture of black and silver, shaped up in a mohawk quite similar to Sharpblade's, but notably longer.
"Please, calm yourself. You have no need to worry," he spoke in a soft, even soothing tone and raised a hoof to his chest. "I am Zava, I have brought you to my home to heal you and your friends."
Night eased his muscles a bit, though not entirely. "Where is everypony else? The other bat ponies, the ones that attacked us?"
"I only spotted a few when I came by and rescued you. It seems as if they may have some sort of resistance to my dust potion."
"That fog... that was you, wasn't it?" Night grunted, teeth slightly clenching.
"Yes. I deployed it to put all I could to sleep and save as many as I could," Zava answered, retaining his soft voice but more stoically.
Night jumped up again. "What about Shieldhunter? Duskbloom? Midnight?!"
Zava raised his hoof that forced Night into a silence, a calm one. He then handed over a small wooden cup of a bluish fluid. "The Duskbloom you speak of was not present. Gone."
"He was taken. You took him!" Night growled threateningly.
"A better statement would be... they took him. As I have said previously, I saved as many as I could," Zava said, this time with a sigh.
"And... Shield?" Night's ears began to fall back.
"If he is the white pegasus you speak of, I am afraid I found no life with him."
"What does that mean?!"
"It should be obvious," came a voice from behind.
Night snapped to glance at the red-maned pegasus standing opposite Night with the others in between, having entered from another room. He floated carefully over them to the pegasus' side.
"Zippy!" Night shrieked with surprise. "You're okay!"
"Which part?" Zipline questioned grimly, a tinge of anguish mixed in. "Shield's gone, Captain."
"Please, Zipline, tell me you mean the captured kind..." Night felt his heart begin to tear open within his chest. Surely, he wasn't dead.
Hesitantly, the snow-white pegasus shook his head slowly, his eyes shutting and chin lowering. The cup in Night's hoof fell to the floor, contents spilling out around it near Zipline's hooves. Within seconds of the nonexistent words reaching him, the fanged pegasus found himself in a ball on the table, sniffling and attempting his very hardest not to completely break down in front of the two.
"I would like to give my sincerest condolences. Both of you," Zava bowed his head slowly and respectfully.
The words offered no comfort, instead breaking the silence as Night himself burst into a wail of sobs. From a defensive captain, right back to a normal, worrisome pony, all within a matter milliseconds, with a zebra and another pegasus observing, one actually showing emotion in his expression.
"No... no. NO!" Night screamed out, his hoof punching into the wood beneath him, yet not damaging it one bit. His sobs continued to fill the air.
Losing a pony to captivity was one thing. Losing a pony altogether was another, especially one Night vowed to protect and ensure their safety while they ensured others theirs. It was devastating enough being put through two major calamities that forever changed his and the rest of his own colony's way of life, and another that was just plain confusing. This, however, topped it all.
By just past dusk, Lodestar had awoken to a similar amount of confusion as everypony else was met with. As he sat up, immediately pain rounded a punch that forced him to lay back down. He groaned audibly, startling Zipline and a distraught Night Shadow, having not budged an inch from the table.
Lodestar glanced around him to the others, primarily Halfmoon, Scarlet, and Stellar, who remained sound asleep. Zava strode up to his side and knelt with a small cup, just slightly larger than a shot glass, holding it close to Lode's muzzle.
"Here, drink this," Zava spoke softly.
The dark cyan pony's eyes moved up to the zebra, soon returning to the cup and parting his lips slightly, leaning forward and taking tiny sips. Half-anticipating a horrid taste, Lodestar found himself with shock that the liquid was soft to his throat and had a taste similar to that of lemon-and-blueberry-infused water, but also with the slight fizz of soda.
His lips quietly clicked as he ran his tongue across them, easing his head back down onto the soft hay when the cup's contents were gone, letting out a much softer groan, this time from a throbbing migraine.
Slowly, Lodestar turned his head, eyes setting on Zipline and Night Shadow. "Did we win?" He smiled weakly.
Zipline took his focus from Night, returning Lodestar a genuine smile. "Hey, you're up," the smile then quickly vanished. "I'm afraid not."
"What..." Lodestar eased himself up onto his elbows, groaning painfully again. "Happened...?"
"You were knocked unconscious," Zava flatly answered. "Strangely enough, you were out long before my dust bombs were released."
"Dust bo—"
"Best not to question it," Zipline cut him off, prompting Lode to ease himself back down.
"Okay..." Lodestar spoke in a half-whisper. "Cap, are you alright?"
Zava and Zipline glanced at Night, the blanket-wrapped stallion swaying back and forth in a gentle rock. Zava returned his gaze to Lodestar.
"He is in distress."
"That's an understatement of the century," Zipline rolled his eyes, stroking a hoof up and down Night's back to ease him down a bit.
Lodestar, from the pile of hay he rested on, cocked his head to the right, this done so he may observe the three above him. He soon began to softly chuckle, putting on a big grin. "Everyone's good, though. Right?"
Zipline frowned with a quiet grunt, ears losing their previous perk. A heavy whimper emanated from Night moments after, Zipline resuming his gentle attempt to calm the distraught pony.
To the side, with a reassuring yet serious look on his face, Zava faced Zipline. "He will not seem like his usual self for the rest of the night."
"Another understatement," grumbled the white pegasus, briefly peering at the zebra stallion.
"The syrup he has ingested will heal his wounds, but at the cost of parts of his brain shutting down," Zava further explained.
"So, his brain will sleep, but he won't?" Zipline blinked.
"Precisely," Zava nodded, turning and moving around the corridor to a shelf of numerous unlabeled vials filled with multicolored liquids, some glowing or bubbling.
Night briefly shivered violently, then sat upright, glancing around him as if he'd come to his realizations. "S-so, Zava..."
"Hmm?" Zava answered from just out of Night's field of view.
"This... place. Everything in it, even the furniture, the medicine... did you make all of this?" Night asked softly, removing the blanket.
"I did, yes. Where I originate, my people set their priorities to connect with nature around us. There, we discover the true keys to survival, where we determine our place in the world. Our parents teach us the basics, we learn the rest, and from that moment on, we lead our own life. So on, and so forth."
Zipline glanced up to Zava as he returned to them. "You are a zebra, obviously. Do you know another named Zecora?"
"I am unfamiliar with her, I am sorry. Where does she reside?"
"Everfree Forest. Near Ponyville, to be more exact. She once locked up the entire town because nopony knew who she was, or where she came from," Zipline motioned his hoof while he answered.
"Zecora still does not ring a bell. Once again, I am sorry. It is possible she comes from a tribe apart from mine, or a different land altogether," Zava responded, picking up a small cluster of mint leaves and bringing them to a pot held over a small flame, mixing them into the contents as they begun to boil.
Night shifted to stand up off of the table, groaning to himself as his muscles ached once more. He managed onto all fours, striding with a slight tremble toward the incrementally-taller zebra stallion. "That aside... what no—"
Down the corridor to the right, a knock came on the wood door. A slow, weak knock at that. The three ponies' and the zebra's ears all pointed up, Zava's head immediately turning with his eyes set in the direction of the door.
"Wait here," he whispered just audibly to them, setting down a wooden spoon beside the pot, he carefully made his way down the hallway with an eyebrow raised.
Silencing his hoofsteps, Zava stopped at the foot of the door, squinting an eye through a small hole. To his surprise, there in the weak lantern light stood a dark purple thestral in the same armor his unexpected guests wore. Some suspicion built up, only to be topped with a twitch of confidence that this was not an enemy.
Zava slid the three wood locks open, pulling the door inward and stepping to the side as a blustering, snowy breeze blasted inside. "Please, come in, warm yourself up," he said welcomingly with also a tone of concern.
"T-th-thank y-you," shivered the mare, entering the significantly warmer home, built underground with the door situated in a small hole between hills.
Zava checked the narrow snow-covered landscape outside the door one final time, closing the door and sliding the locks back in place as the storm outside battered against it. He turned around, following the mare inside.
"Your friends are in the back," he spoke softly.
"M-my... friends...?" Midnight Blade snapped to the zebra with wide-eyes and chattering teeth, immediately rushing down the hallway to them.
"Wait! Allow yourself to rest, your blood must warm before you can move like that!" Zava protested, chasing after her.
"Sweet m-mother of Luna!" Midnight screeched for joy, leaping and tackling Night to the ground in a tight embrace.
Grunting as he fell to the hard floor surface, Night shook his head to regain his senses a second time. "Midnight! Where were you?!"
The mare, body ice-cold and shivering, stood back up and yanked Night back to his hooves. "More like, where were all of you? You abandoned me out there!"
"What?" Zipline tilted his head. "No, we didn't!"
"Then what really happened?!" Midnight snapped at him. "Why couldn't I find any of you?!"
"I took them here," Zava stepped in, staring at Midnight before grabbing a blanket to bring to her. "You were nowhere to be found. I assumed I had collected everypony."
Midnight's hoof pushed Zava's away, reluctantly turning down the blanket. "I was a mile away at least. They were everywhere! They were like bees around a nest!"
"While you were a mile away, for Celestia knows why, we were knocked out. We only just woke up," Zipline said. "Zava brought us here during that time. You must have returned afterwards."
Midnight glanced back to Zava from Zipline. "You are Zava, I presume?"
"I am," nodded the zebra.
Midnight moved closer, looking up at him and sighing softly. "Thank you. Thank you for saving them. For a while, I believed I was going to be the only one left alive."
Lodestar burst out into a fit of laughter. "Hahaha! Us, dead? Haha, we're the Zodiacs, we're Luna's guards!" then began to hilariously hum the Lunar Guard tune, prompting Night and Zipline to roll their eyes in annoyance.
Blinking twice, the purple draconic-winged thestral shifted her focus from Lodestar. "What happened to him?"
"Side effects," Night said.
"It should not be much longer until he passes out again," Zava added, proceeding to wrap the wool blanket around Midnight's form. "Now, please, rest. Your body temperature is still dangerously low."