//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: The Nyxing Hour // by Nagel Navari //------------------------------// Nightfall watched the case suspiciously at first—but when she saw what was inside, that suspicion turned to excitement. Sapphire Breeze’s gifts proved to be some enchanted clothing from the royal wizards. The bright fabric of a scarf to wear in her mane, just around her ears. It wasn’t much—though as she lifted it closer to her with a little levitation she could see the runic patterns sewn into the fabric on the underside. It was stitched in the same color thread as the scarf, but that couldn’t stop her from feeling the slight buzz of magic. “Just tie it off, Nightfall. Yes, just like that,” Sapphire said. Nightfall did so, using a tall mirror on the wall to see what she was doing. No sooner had she wrapped the cloth around her head then she felt the buzz of magic pass over her coat. She jolted back from the table, preparing for a trap—but of course, it wasn’t a trap. “Woah,” Midnight muttered, amazed. “That’s some illusion.” The feeling of an active spell quickly passed as the magic settled into place, leaving Nightfall confused. But she knew what an illusion was, so she looked back to the mirror, not expecting much. What she saw looked like the face of a completely different pony. Her eyes were the same blue, but they didn’t contract into predatory slits anymore. Stranger, and much more alarming, her horn appeared to be gone completely. Nightfall squeaked in horror and surprise, ripping the scarf out of her mane with a quick burst of magic and throwing it away. She glared down at it, panting with fear. “Celestia doesn’t want me to be an Alicorn anymore?” She glanced back up at Midnight, not trying to hide the betrayal on her face. Midnight chuckled. “Sweetie, you just took it off with magic. I don’t think Celestia was trying to do anything.” “Oh.” Nightfall reached up, confirming with one hoof what she saw in her reflection. Sure enough, she could still feel the horn there, without any sign of damage. Exactly how she would’ve expected. “Then why?” She levitated the scarf back up, moving it towards her head. Funny how easy it was to levitate like this, so long as she didn’t think about it. Almost the instant she thought that, her horn sparked like a candle dunked in rain, and she dropped the scarf. “I’ll help you,” Midnight said, scooping it off the floor and moving over to her. She worked quickly, and soon it was tied in Nightfall’s mane exactly like before. “There, how’s that?” Nightfall looked back to the mirror, back at that stranger’s face. “Why?” “Because Celestia wants you to know what it’s like to be a regular pony,” Sapphire Breeze said. “I don’t know her reasons. But I know that the ponies of Ponyville would have a really hard time pretending you were ordinary if you were an Alicorn.” “I wish they could’ve made something like that for me when I was a filly,” Midnight muttered. “A little late for it now.” “Just remember,” Sapphire began, looking right at Nightfall. “That’s just an illusion. Your horn is still there. You can still smack it into something, and you can still use magic. If you do, there will be a glowing patch of nothing right over your head. Ponies will… probably realize what’s going on. Princess Celestia is insistent on this. If Ponyville figures out what you are, she’ll move us someplace else. Which is no fun for anypony, since she’ll probably move me and the other agents right along with you.” Midnight looked like she was about to object, but for once Nightfall cut her off. “That’s okay. After the way the guards were always looking at me… I think it’s better if nopony knows I’m different.” She sighed, ears flattening. “I’ll be careful.” Not using magic in front of others wouldn’t be that hard—she could barely use it anyway. “It won’t stop the rumors,” Midnight said. “Nightfall was hiding most of the way in, but a few ponies must have seen her with me. I move in a day later with a mysterious pegasus, somepony is bound to connect the dots.” Sapphire shrugged. “Maybe they will, maybe not. I think you’ll probably be surprised though, Midnight Storm. Most ponies don’t care to ask uncomfortable questions if it means they can pretend they’re safe and the world is the way they expect. You’ll see much of that in Ponyville—so long as you and Nightfall here act friendly and don’t cause trouble, ponies will look the other way.” Midnight looked like she was about to argue, but she didn’t. “Are we going to head back today?” “Yeah,” Sapphire said. “As soon as we come up with a cover story. For… why we’re living together, I mean. The house should be waiting for us when we arrive, so we should think about what we’re going to tell our new neighbors. And… maybe it should include an occupation too. One that doesn’t require either of us to be working at any of the local businesses.” Nightfall tuned them both out as they started talking about boring things. Midnight would take care of all that, the same way she’d taken care of her so far. Nightfall looked back up at the mirror one last time—what would it be like to have a normal life? Midnight Storm sat on an uncomfortable chair in the mayor’s office, staring out the open window. As she thought back, she couldn’t quite suppress her amazement with the whole affair. Though many had stared during her trip through town, not one pony had fled in terror, not one mother had hidden her foal away, and not one angry mob had formed. Quite the opposite, she hardly even opened her mouth before ponies mentioned the guards earlier, and fed her a cover story even better than the one she’d come up with. She was with the guard, obviously, here to keep an eye on Ponyville and make sure the cult didn’t kidnap anypony else. She hadn’t even considered agreeing to it at first. Though in some ways she had “lied” to ponies in every city she lived in, pretending to be something she wasn’t, she’d never done so that explicitly before. But Sapphire Breeze hadn’t given her the chance to deny the story, accepting it readily and even supplying a few fictitious details of her assignment. “I don’t like it,” Midnight muttered. “Lying to a whole town?” “It’s not a lie,” Sapphire Breeze answered, without a hint of shame. “That’s one of the reasons I’m here, and in a way it’s what you’re doing too. Princess Celestia did warn you the cult might want Nightfall, didn’t she? And she is one of the residents of Ponyville, or she will be.” Midnight groaned, though she was more worried the filly might’ve caught some of that. Lucky for her, she had gotten distracted by the bookshelves in one corner of Mayor Mare’s office. What could be so interesting about them Midnight couldn’t guess. It wouldn’t be the first thing that had amazed Nightfall that anypony else would’ve dismissed without a second glance. Probably has something to do with all those old memories. Nightmare Moon was so long ago… The mayor returned, and a few minutes later they were standing in the empty ground floor of their new home. Well… the house belonged to the Crown, but it was the first one Midnight had lived in for a long time. She’d spent so long renting the smallest, cheapest places she could possibly find, surviving on scraps, that she’d never dreamed of owning a home. It’s not mine. I’m sure Celestia will want it back as soon as Nightfall gets old and moves out. She didn’t even want to think about how much it must cost. It was located a short distance from main street, with enough space on the lower floor to turn the whole thing into a shop if she really wanted to. It didn’t have much furniture, though. Only an old kitchen table and a couch that looked like something had crawled inside it and died. “Do you think it has running water too? Like the castle?” Nightfall asked, her voice timid. “Probably,” Midnight said, shrugging one wing. “We’re right in the center of town. No reason we’d have to pump it ourselves.” The luxury would be amazing to her too, for an entirely separate reason. The sorts of places Midnight had lived often had a shared bathroom downstairs with a cold shower and a communal pump for water. The filly darted off to investigate, while Sapphire Breeze inspected the interior with a critical eye. “From the paperwork I saw, this used to be a garment shop, until a better shop opened up and drove this one out of business. City took possession after that, converted it into a residence… but we could change it back if you wanted to. Assuming you had anything to sell.” Midnight watched the filly vanish into the open kitchen, following slowly behind. She nearly gasped as she saw a platter already waiting for them—more fish, apparently. Though judging by how hot it still was, somepony had been in here only minutes before they arrived. Celestia really doesn’t care about the money. Then again, if Midnight failed and Nightfall turned back into herself, she supposed the damages an Alicorn might cause taking over the country would be worse than the cost of a few meals. “I, uh…” She blinked, looking back at the pegasus. The bright blue mare was a little distracting, in ways she wasn’t entirely prepared to admit. Certainly not to somepony she had just met. “When I was talking to Zecora about moving in here, she suggested selling firewood.” She lifted her tail to catch the light, grinning weakly. “I wouldn’t need tools. But… that doesn’t sound like much of a fit for a fancy shop like this.” She turned, glancing back towards the front of the living room. The massive front window was still there, though whoever converted the house had hung dark curtains to give them privacy from the street outside. “I don’t think the princess expects you to do much work beyond keeping the kid safe, at least until they bring in the rest of the cult.” “How long will that take?” Midnight asked. An excited squeal from the other room interrupted her, along with the sound of water. “It’s as fancy as the castle!” Midnight couldn’t hide her grin. “What about… the other agents. The princess mentioned there would be more…” “Several plainclothes guards,” Sapphire said. “It’s probably best if you don’t know who they are. The fewer ponies know, the less likely they are to get caught. A few of them have relatives here in Ponyville, so it won’t look like a whole bunch of us are moving in at once. Hopefully our story will keep them from looking too closely at Nightfall.” “Yeah,” Midnight repeated, frowning to herself. “I’m… probably going to go out to my old place tomorrow, get my stuff together. Do you think you could keep an eye on Nightfall after breakfast tomorrow? Assuming it’s alright with her. We haven’t been separated since I found her, but… I think asking her to go back into the Everfree would be worse than leaving her with somepony else for a while.” “Sure.” Sapphire smiled. “That’s why I’m here. Besides, I’m sure you’ll want to start her in school before too long. We can go pick out some supplies while you’re gone.” She tapped the side of her saddlebags, which jingled merrily. “The princess’s bits won’t spend themselves.” As though she had sensed them talking about her, Nightfall appeared in the open doorway. She’d left the water running, though she seemed to have completely forgotten about that. Now she kept looking back at the stairs. “Is the upstairs ours too?” “Yeah.” Midnight turned. “Come on, let’s check it out. There’s enough bedrooms for you to have your own, if you want. Why don’t you pick one out?” The filly squealed with excitement again, charging past Midnight up the stairs. She stumbled a few times on her way up, though she didn’t slow down. There can’t be much of Nightmare Moon in there, can there? With Nightfall concealed in her protective camouflage, it was easy to forget there was really an Alicorn under there. An Alicorn who had tried to conquer all Equestria twice. It’s probably just a few memories. A few weeks with someone who cares about her, and she’ll forget all about it. “I’ve got a furniture catalogue for you to look through when you’re done!” Sapphire called after them. “I don’t want to sleep on the floor!”