Chapter Four: Golden Peaks and White Mare
Elegant, white towers with golden roofing flak the distant horizon, each stretching high into the sky. In contrast, the veranda looks miserable, and dull: tents and crates; animals not unlike sheep being led into fences; ponies standing around with faces of fear and worry.
They appear to be ponies from all over the region, from every corner and crevice of Equestria (except the Crystal Empire). Desperate, sad, and still miserable, they don’t look like they carry any hope.
“Why did you decide to come?” Sunny Dance, the smaller mare next to me, asks.
Without turning my gaze away, I answer her. “I didn’t,” I say, my words flowing steady and strong, without the slightest hint of hesitation or detestment hidden away in it. From the corner of my vision, I see one of her forehooves cover her mouth in an attempt to stifle a gasp I assume. “It isn’t that bad. I’m glad I came. I got to talk with you after all.” I smile at her.
That seems to have helped, but she is still put off. “Why? Why come? You could end up losing everything. You could—”
“But I won’t! Anything I have left to lose is my life, and that won’t be taken anytime soon,” I shout, grabbing the attention of all around. They turn and stare, fear and helplessness as only things present in their eyes.
Sunny takes a step back. She doesn’t say anything, but pain is evident in her eyes. She gallops off, not knowing where she is going (since she has never been here before, it is safe to assume that at least).
I take off myself, but not after her. No. I go to the nearest guard. I approach a massive white stallion. “Where might I see the Princess?”
“Um… well, the Princesses aren’t—”
“Where?”
He gulps. “In the court. They are discussing how they want to act.”
“Thank you,” I say with an insincere smile. And I turn to make my way to this court.
Even if I don’t have a clue as to where I am going, by some pure coincidence, I know that I will end up there at an opportune time. The higher altitude is leading to colder temperatures, I note with a shiver.
I stumble past tents filled with ponies. I watch their faces as they look up to me. They all look confused, and like the rest scared and afraid. But some look on with a sort of puzzlement. Most likely because I am carrying myself with strength… at least, that’s what I hope they’re giving me that look for.
Once I pass the tents, I am surprised to see that the rest of the city is perfectly normal. Sure there are a couple foreigners like me, but otherwise it is just the Canterlot ponies that fill the streets and restaurants. I follow my nose as I pick up something hearty.
I am led to a small restaurant that seems to be getting no business. A swing door is set up. I push it once, watching as it sways back and forth before it stops and comes to a stand still. I push it once more to watch the door sway again, a smug look of satisfaction on my face.
I go to do it again, but a voice shouts from inside. “Come in, or leave!”
How nice, I think. I’ve never been to an “insult-restaurant” before. Do they serve insult, or is that a side… why am I being mean? I must just be exhausted. Four and a half hours of nothing but pure, straight, and undefiled magic theory would make anypony tired.
Except Sunny... “What have I done?” I ask myself, dread washing through my whole body.
“I told you to come in or leave. I don’t care about your emotional turmoil over a stupid door or something or whatever. I’ve got ponies to feed, and one less will make it easier.” A mare says, only a hint of satisfaction spread on her face as I pushed open the door.
Stepping inside, the hearty aroma wafts through the entire place. “I’d like a table for one,” I tell her.
“Make that a table for two,” I turn and see Tilde standing there with a friendly smile on his face.
From behind him I can hear another voice, but this one is a mare. “No, make it a table for three.”
“One, two, three, it doesn’t matter how many there are of ya. You’ll get whatever table I give you.” I am not liking this mare. She seems really… uptight, and snobby. Well, snobby is going too far, but uptight still fits. “You’ll have to wait five minutes to be seated,” she sneers.
I walk out the swing-door. “What are you guys doing here?”
Sunny answers first. “I was hungry, and I followed my nose.”
“I was getting followed, so I came here when I saw you.” Both Sunny and I look incredulously towards Tilde. He shrugs us off.
“Excuse me, ma'ams and sir, but would it be possible if I join you at your table? See, if I were to try to get a table on my own, I would be turned away.” I look up to see a cloaked figure, barely peeking from out of their hood are two small white fangs barely and the whites of the pony’s otherwise bright green eyes.
The pony looks familiar, almost as if I have seen them before. “Um… do I know you?”
They shake their head. “No ma’am. I noticed this little group forming and needed to eat. So I thought it was the best chance I would get to eat.” The voice is definitely that of a stallion. “And if it is any consolation, I can pay for myself,” he added.
“Hmm…” I think aloud. “Would you pay for me as well?” I ask with a bat of my eyes.
“For you, yes.” I look for more details on him. I can see very little, but from what I can see is that his coat is blue and that he most likely has wings.
“What about her?” I ask, pointing at Sunny.
He taps one of his hooves to his chin. “Well, it will put a damper on my coin-purse, but I don’t see why not.”
I smile at him. He is either really nice, a fool, or has alternative motives, I think in my head. And if I had to go with anything… I’d have to go with him having alternative motives. “Something is just fishy…” I accidentally blurt out in a soft whisper.
The stallion lets out a small chuckle. “It should be. Tonight is fish night here, so most of the ingredients will be fish based. But I am sure that they have more… animal friendly things available,” he adds after a careful pause.
I am having a hard time with trusting this pony. He seems sneaky and clever. He must be hiding something. I don’t see what else could explain the strange feeling I am having.
“Hey, your table is ready,” the mare points out from inside.
I sigh and push the swing-door open. I step inside the place of eating and am surprised to find a fully furnished table, set with silverware, glasses of water, and many other things I couldn’t even begin to name off. “Wow! This is better than I thought it would look,” I admit.
“Thanks, it’s not like it took long to set up or anything,” the waitress says with both sarcasm and a sneer.
Ignoring her, I almost sashay to one of the large cushions put out on the floor around the large, circular table. I take notice of two candle sticks in the center of the table, or perhaps they are incense (as they seem to be making the room have a different aroma the closer they are). The cushion is like one of the largest and softest pillows I have ever sat on. I continue to sink into it the more my weight rests into it.
The others take a seat, including the cloaked pony... and like myself, they all sink down into the comfortable pillow (some more than other probably). The waitress comes around the table, dropping each of us a menu. Like the restaurant, the menus are fancy (not that rich snobby fancy, but fancy compared to what I was used to. Add in the fact that each menu is laminated, and it becomes a much bigger deal.)
The pony in the cloak glances around the place slowly but carefully. After a few scans, he seems satisfied and reaches up with his blue forehoof and proceeds to pull off his hood. One of the first things that comes to my focus is his ears, which unlike normal ears his seem to be more pointed and split ever-so-slightly at the ends. His eyes are less rounded and more slanted than normal as well.
He sees that I am practically staring non-stop at him and gives a smile. Two small fangs adorn the corners of his mouth. I hear the waitress sigh as she sees him. This isn’t very strange, but that thought I had on him having wings is looking more and more promising. I can tell because of the way his muzzle points upwards in the smallest bit at the end.
“Look, if I have to feed a Thestral then I am doubling the amount needed to pay,” the waitress huffs.
This instantly breaks my focus. “What?!” I snap at her. “Why? What did he ever do to you?”
She stomps her hoof, and I quickly back up slightly. “Now you look here. The Thestral are to blame for what is happening now. They’re part of the main reason why all this bad stuff is happening.” She paused, shooting the “Thestral” a glare. “So, I won’t stand here and let one pounce about and act like they own the place,” she says, with a slight undertone of challenge.
“They started…” I began to mutter, a bit confused. I stop myself. I stomp my hoof back at her jumping up from the cushion. “How is it their fault? I’m sure he—” I point towards the cloaked pony “—hasn’t done anything wrong!” I yell at her, almost challenging her to make a comeback.
She sends me a glare, which makes me rather afraid to be anywhere near her, but I refuse to back down. “Do you know that these Thestrals helped break Tirek out of Tartarus and with the help of some unwilling Unicorn brought back Sombra? And they have since teamed up with them to help conquer Equestria to enslave us all.”
“What proof do you have? Besides you can’t blame all for the actions of a few,” I snarl.
Her eye twitches. At that moment, I realize that every eye in the restaurant is on us (well, out of the few that are in there). “Get out!” she shouts.
“What?” I ask absentmindedly, having been distracted by eyes.
“Get out of my restaurant and don’t come back!” I look to the others, and they shrug back at me. “Go! Get!”
I start to trot to the door, glancing back one more time to see the others standing up and preparing to leave. The cloaked pony throws his hood back on, and the rest are already moving to the door.
I step out into the cold, evening air. It’s midday, and the air is freezing to me. What kind of place is this? I take a gander at the sky to see dark, heavy clouds. “Oh…” I mutter aloud. The others make it outside just as the first few drops come down.
“Brr,” Sunny Dance exclaims shortly after stepping out.
I see the cloaked pony take off his cloak and throw it onto Sunny covering and protecting her from the rain. “Here you are. Wouldn’t want you to get sick,” he says with a slight smile.
“Oh, thank you,” she smiles, looking at him. Her smile reveals her teeth, and other than this one random small spot that looks like lettuce or something else just as hideous, they are perfectly white. Good, strong teeth… why am I focusing on her teeth?
I steal a chance to check out the now uncloaked pony. He has a solid blue coat and a brown mane and tail. His mane, while cut, is longer than most stallions would have. And his wings are perhaps most interesting. They are large, leathery instead of feathered, and a charcoal black, with the blue coat color still tracing along the bone structure of the wings.
He isn’t a Pegasus. I know that much. He reminds me of a bat. “What are you?” I blink as I realize what I just did. “Whoops… meant to only think that,” I gulp with a slight blush across my face.
“How about we get out of the rain, then we talk?” he says, not responding to my accidental blurt much to my appreciation. We all nod at the question. “And I know a place that will be dry.”
“Lead the way,” I tell him. I’ll be keeping an extra eye on him though. “And think you can make it quick? It is getting cold up here.” He doesn’t even finish his nod before trotting to the front of our group.
--- --- ---
He pushes a broken down sliding door to the side and we all run in as quickly as we can. Once inside, he pulls it shut. With the dark, almost ominous clouds covering the sun, it is hard to see anything. “Don’t worry. I have a lantern over there,” he is most likely pointing off in some direction, but I can’t see anything past my hooves. How helpful.
I hear hoofsteps on the paved group, each step rhythmic and even. Exactly the same distance apart from each other… Whoever they belong to must be trained in one of the many forms of Martial Hoof, or even worse is trained to make their steps practically vanish on almost any surface. As soon as I find out who they belong to I’ll—
Light floods the room from somewhere, and I am blinded. I cover my eyes with my left foreleg. It takes a little bit, but my eyes slowly become adjusted to the light. As soon as I can make out the tiniest bit of detail around me, I lower my foreleg slightly to allow room to see into the room. I squint as I try to make out more than just the fuzzy detail around me.
“Sorry,” I hear somepony say, but with my focus on my sight I can’t figure out who said it. The light starts to dim, but it doesn’t vanish, it only turns down to an amount that I can actually see against. I lower my foreleg setting it back on the floor where it should stay.
“I didn’t mean to turn it up so high, and I was blinded by the light. So it took me a little while to turn the light down again,” I hear and see the non-Pegasus “Pegasus” say. “Now, I would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.”
“Do you have anything to eat in here?” Tilde asks without any hesitation. Of course.
“Um… no,” the pony answers with a frown.
“What is your name? You haven’t told us,” I think for a moment. “My name is Night Zone.”
“And I’m Sunny Dance. Would you like your cape thing back?” she asks, staring at the dark fabric in an attempt to identify what it was again.
“It is lovely to meet you both. I am Mist. And yes, if you don’t need it any further, I would like my cloak back,” he replies in a friendly tone. He trots over to a bag sitting on the floor, opens it up, and searches for something inside.
He pulls out a small flask-like object, opens it up, and pours a silvery liquid all over the floor around him. “What are you doing?” Sunny beats me to the questioning. Darn.
“I am masking our scents. In case any… unwanted attention should fall upon us.”
“Who is it that might bring that?” she continues to question.
“It could be anypony, but I do not know right now,” he answers with a soothing tone.
I stop paying attention to the banter Sunny and Misk seem to be having and begin to look around. It seems Tilde has the same idea. I take a scan of the room, trying to find anything that sticks out.
The entire room is incredibly large. It is exactly like a storage building. I can even see a few massive crates spread throughout the room. Some metal stairs lead up to a catwalk. There aren’t any windows. There are only three exits, by what I can see from where I’m standing. One we came on through, and the other two, a huge, metal sliding door the color of the walls and a small wooden door located at the end of the catwalk that is painted like the metal (but lacking the qualities that the look of metal has). It doesn’t appear to lead outside, but into a suspended little office room or something like that.
I trot over to the metal stairs. I set a foreleg on the first step and push down. It groans a little under the weight, but it doesn’t break. I jump onto the first step, making sure that I land only on the step. With a small thud, it still doesn’t break.
I smile with satisfaction as I begin to climb the stairs. On the catwalk I see small grating holes lining the bottom spreading the entire length of them. As I walk across, I can tell that they are being used as a sort of traction device to help keep everypony from falling off. This would be a hard place to sneak, as every step leads to some noise or another.
The catwalk has railing as well, but it barely reaches the bends of my legs. If anything, the only thing this railing will be helping with is causing somepony to fall, not stopping them from falling. And what good is having it then. At most this would stop colts and fillies from falling. Genius designers.
I shake my head. I am already at the door. I pause to look at the railing again. Stop thinking about the peculiarities of rails. Resuming my quest, I tap a hoof on the door. It sounds hollow, and it feels wooden (mahogany I believe). I reach for the doorknob, and give it a twist. For some reason it is locked.
I tap the door slightly harder to see if anything would happen, and my hoof goes through. “Whoops,” I whisper to myself. I pull my hoof out and start to break it apart enough to let me hop through.
Splinters jab their way into my hoof, but I ignore it as I continue to break apart the door. Wood chips spread the flooring inside of the room. Wait… I set my splinter-ridden hoof on the catwalk, and reach my good hoof in. I feel around until I find a little lock. I give it a turn and hear a soft click as the door unlocks.
I turn the knob once again and push it open. Inside I can see many beakers, and test tubes resting on several tables. And unlike the rest of the storage building there is a window, but by the looks of it, it is a one-way mirror-like window.
I trot around looking at each table. There are papers with notes hastily scribbled onto them (that I would say the only pony able to read it is the one who wrote them); Bottles, flask, beakers, and many other containers all filled with a liquid which looks like it moves on its own, almost as if they have a life of their own.
I stop when I see a darker purple liquid in a beaker with one simple word neatly labeled on its side: Sombra. I can see many other colors swirling around occasionally in the beaker, but the two most prominent are dark purple and a brighter green.
“What is this place?” I think aloud.
“A place you shouldn’t have come into,” a deep, sinister voice whispers into my ear.
As my eyes widen, I feel something sink into my neck, a sharp pain constantly stabbing into my skin. My vision begins to blur. I feel… I feel light-headed. I try to scream, but no noise comes out of my opened mouth. My body begins to go limp. I can feel the stabbing pain suddenly leave.
“Now be a good little mare and sleep.”
I try to resist, but my eyes are heavy. My vision is continually becoming worse, and I fall to the ground after two warm things stop touching me. I struggle to keep my eyes opened. I can’t. It is too hard… I… I…
~ ~ ~
I see nothing but blackness, but slowly, very slowly, I begin to hear voices.
“Can we go to the park?”
“If that is what you want, then we will do anything.”
“Yay! We’re going to the park~ We’re going to the park~”
My sight slowly comes back to me. And I can see a little filly with her parents. But… I am in the air and high in the air. Am I? Am I hovering?
I try to move my hoof, but nothing. I feel… sore? Why am I sore? Then I feel it: my sides are moving. Or an extension of my sides. What can it be?
I start moving, but not of my doing. My movements are rigid and clumsy. Exactly like how somepony would move if injured, and badly at that. I hover in the air high above the little family of three.
“When will we get there?” the little filly asks.
“Oh, I think it is only a few minute walk. It isn’t far.”
Through the air, I follow as they make their way to the park that they are talking about. I seem to keep my distance; as if I get close I will be harmed or worse.
“What are you doing?” an authoritative mare’s voice asks.
I turn around to see a cream-colored mare wearing the armor of a royal guard. I take my attention off of the family and slowly I fly my way to the guard. “Apologies,” I say as I get closer and closer. “But it seems that you have let them get away… but no matter. You volunteered.”
“V-volunteered for what?” she asks hesitantly, fear slightly trickling into her voice. She shakes her head and steels herself. “Stay back, or I will use force.”
I chuckle a real low chuckle. My voice comes out like acid. It nearly burns a hole through her. “The problem with a Pegasus is that they seem to think they rule the sky. But they don’t, and I will prove it to you.”
At a greater speed than she could react to, I soar the distance between us, and with a smack from my hoof she goes flying down. I drop into a dive to make up the space she gained away from me. Before she hits the ground, I swipe her up in my hooves and carry her gently to the ground.
We land with a thud and I am on top of her, pinning her to the ground. Fear is the only thing in her eyes now. I lick my lips, open my mouth, and bite down on her neck. My teeth sink down to a vein, and I can taste a sweet nectar flooding my mouth, bringing a warm feeling throughout my body.
She tries to scream, but nothing happens. After a short while my teeth leave her, and I whisper in her ear. “Now be a good guard, and sleep.”
She tries to fight it, but she can’t. Her eyes close and her breathing becomes rhythmic. I cover her face with my wing. I can see that it is leathery and a charcoal black color. I flap my wings once and take to the air.
My vision slowly goes dark as I climb higher and higher. Any sounds are fading away as well. Until I see and hear nothing.
~ ~ ~
I hunch over and vomit the contents of my stomach. My neck feels like it is on fire, and wet. Through my blurred vision I reach for my neck but something stops me. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You need to remain calm.”
I try to focus on the one talking, but my vision is too blurred. My other senses seem to mostly work. I can hear it well enough to know that the voice belongs to Tilde. It isn’t hard to tell his voice from the rest.
A rich and deep tone that brings an air of restfulness. “What happened?” I manage to ask with a contrasting weak tone.
“You were bitten,” I hear somepony else say. “It would have to have been a Vampony. They are the ancient ancestors of the Bat ponies. When others refer to Bat ponies as Thestrals, they are referring to the name of our old ancestors that would drink blood to survive. Though, they are still born it will only be in that family. And once all the Vamponies families die, they will be gone.”
I can smell something being held in front of my mouth. I can’t quite place what the smell belongs to, but it smells familiar. “Relax, it is a bit of a flower, nothing poisonous. I assure you.” I keep my mouth closed. “It will help make you feel better. Once bitten, a pony can sometimes lose their life or become a Servan.”
“What’s a Servan?” I hear Sunny ask.
“Exactly like the name makes it sound. They are the servants to the Vampony that bite them, but they are also called Vamp-minors, because they are minor Vamponies,” the only voice left has to be Must’s. Why does he know so much about all of this?
I open my mouth a crack, and found that is all I can move it. Something, hopefully this flower being talked about, slips into my mouth. “Chew as much as you can; it will speed up the process.” I begin to chew it to the best of my abilities, which just so happens to fall upon five bites.
I swallow it, which feels like a chore. I look on with my blurred vision. Four figures are gathered around me. All looking down at me or they might be. I can’t tell if they are or aren’t. I feel woozy again. Deciding to not fight it, I close my eyes, willfully falling into the tender grip of the darkness on the other side.
--- --- ---
Something cold is running on my shoulder, and neck. It isn’t something that I remember being there. I open my eyes. White? Something of pure white is filling my vision, and it seems to be moving.
“She’s awake!” I hear Sunny’s voice yell excitedly.
The whiteness fades all at once as I close my eyes. After a few seconds I risk it, and open them again. The only blurriness is that which would be in the field of vision normally after waking. I can see! I can see that I am lying down with a damp cloth covering my neck, though I felt that one.
Sunny is sitting with the look of glee on her face. I start to sit up. A throbbing tells me that it is a bad idea, but I continue regardless. “What did I miss?”
“They started doing signings for the first battalion. And nopony stepped forward. That is until an hour ago. One pony with some sort of axe casually trotted up to the tent and came out with their papers saying they joined. After that ponies have slowly been joining,” Tilde explains as he walks up.
“Did you already sign up?” I ask them. Tilde, being Tilde, nods, and Sunny seems hesitant but eventually nods. “Hmm… I see…” I trail off. Of course… why wait on the unconscious pony who hasn’t even figured out if they will join? I move my hooves but they don’t want to move correctly.
“What are you doing?” Tilde asks with the sound of boredom in his voice.
“Trying to get up,” I tell him flatly. Sunny’s horrified expression makes me talk more. “I’m going to go to the signing tent.”
“What!? Why would you do that? You can’t even walk straight,” Sunny testifies.
I somehow struggle to my hooves. My legs tremble below me. I take one step, then another. I fall to the bends of my legs. My breathing runs fast. I push myself up once again, sweat falling down and running to my hooves. I can tell that I am covered in sweat.
With a realized sense of vigor I take several steps. My hoof lands on the ground, and it gives way. The world turns sideways as the floor comes to give me a hug. My side grows in pain as we embrace. Salty tears well up in my eyes, and I try to hold them back to little success.
“Are you okay?!” Sunny asks worriedly.
“Yup…” I barely breath out.
“You just fell,” she informs me. I shake my head the best I can, while still in the loose embrace of the floor. “You look like you are about to cry…”
“It’s a very emotional time for the floor and I. We just got back together,” I tell her. I hear Tilde snicker a little, but Sunny isn’t as amused.
“Let’s get you someplace soft so you can rest.”
She trots over to me and attempts to lift me onto her back with little success. Tilde leaves the room before Sunny can ask him anything.
“Great… I’ll just carry you myself,” she huffs.
I try to stand one more time, but Sunny prevents me from doing so. No matter how much I resist, she blocks me from getting up by sitting on me. She doesn’t press her weight down, but it is enough to stop me from moving about.
“Just let me go,” I cry out.
“No, you’ll try running off and then you will get hurt. And I’ll be worrying about you the entire time.” She presses down more on me.
“Oww, that hurts! If you want to sit on me, fine. But at least do it softer,” I tell her as I feel even more weight coming down on me. It is like being a rock in a crusher. “Hey!”
She finally notices and shifts most of her weight off. I gasp for some air I didn’t know I needed. “Sorry, but my decision stands. You shouldn’t go out, not until you are better.”
“But I am better. Walking and talking will only increase the greatness and the feeling that I’ll become super-Zone,” I attempt to convince her with a pained smile.
She doesn’t buy into it though. She looks at me for half a minute before she gets off me. “Fine, but you don’t get help walking. The next time you fall you have to come back. Promise?”
I gulp. “Promise,” I say still on the ground. I begin to stand. It is a struggle, but I somehow manage to once again become standing.
“No, pinkie promise me,” I look to see her have the saddest face I’ve ever seen.
“Cross my heart, and hope to fly… um… stick a cupcake in my eye?” I try.
It is harder than it looks… or sounds I mean. Having to remember something like that. “Hey.” and not being able to know it perfectly. “Hey.” Sure. I could pretend that I knew it, but I really— “Hey!”
“What?!”
“Knew it. You weren’t paying attention,” she remarks.
I groan. “Fine! Yes, I wasn’t. I was thinking about how hard it is to remember a pinkie promise.” She stares at me with what I can only call speculation. “What?! I was!”
“Right,” Sunny sighs, her care leaving.
“I mean it!”
She doesn’t seem to care about it all that much, but she does look a little happier about my persistance. Or she is plotting against me and plans to use me as some sort of leverage against Tirek and Sombra somehow.
“I’m going to go now, and I’ll remember our promise,” she instantly becoming that of relief.
I check around me to find that I am still in the storage building's upper room. I start my trudge to the catwalk. I remember several months ago I was working with some construction business, and I kept calling it a “walk of crates.” The boss yelled at me so many times that it became drilled into my head to call it by the proper name.
I stumble, to the best of my hazy abilities, down the catwalk and I manage to make it to the stairs in record time (f record time is two minutes more than when I crossed it earlier). I half-tumble, half-stumble, and half-trudge down the metal steps.
The floor is cool on my fetlocks, and I can feel an unnecessary dampness soaking my hooves. Something that could only happen if it rained recently, leaked inside, froze, thawed out, and evaporated within the course of a day or two.
Across the huge room I can see Tilde poking something with a stick, or maybe he is just drawing something on the floor with the stick. What he might be using the thing to do is rather bizarre, but I know where I should be heading. So I try not to contemplate it any further.
I trot the few steps to the broken sliding door and slide it open. With a bustling movement it comes out of place and with a thump it falls to the hard stone lining the ground outside. I step through the doorway out into the cold rain.