Nightmares Yet to Come

by Detectivefish

Interlude: Of Falling Star

“-no sound at all, we hardly make a word…”

“Sunset, you’re singing again.”

The yellow unicorn shrugged, as much as she was able to.

“Sorry, Lightning. Don’t know what came over me.”

“Yeah, sure.” The pegasus muttered.

“Besides, it helps me focus.”

“I get that…” Lightning said, “but it kinda defeats the point of, y’know, sneaking into somewhere when you’re singing.”

Sunset Shimmer sighed. “Sorry, Dust, but this is the first time I’ve ever had to break into a museum. If I don’t disable these wards properly, do you know what’ll happen to us?”

There was a pregnant pause as Lightning Dust considered her partner’s words, which Sunset took as an opportunity to get back to what she’d been doing.

“How’s it going, you two?”

Sunset rolled her eyes, as Lightning placed a hoof to her ear, and more specifically the enchanted earing she was wearing. “Oh, it’s going fine out here. It’s dark and cold and if we screw this up it’ll be your fault, but apart from that? Going fine. How’s everything in your hotel room? Still warm and cosy?”

“So, no progress?” It was hard not to notice the concern in Falling Star’s voice, even with the distortion of the device.

“Not yet.” Sunset Shimmer chimed in. “That’s the thing with a major metropolitan museum. They can afford good security. We’ll keep you posted.”

In the quiet of her dingy hotel apartment, Falling Star sighed heavily, and looked out of the window in the general direction of the Manehatten Museum of Natural History.

Dream Catcher was sitting next to it, looking out onto the street, lit up by the streetlights below. He noticed the mare looking at him, and smiled a tiny smile.

“Not going well?”

She tried not to smile back. She knew, and he knew, the plan (if it could even be called that, and she wasn’t sure it could) had been a longshot. What little she knew of breaking into places, and that wasn’t very much at all, told her that such endeavours took months of planning, working out every possible contingency, with a crew of experts, and even then there was no guarantee that it had any chance of succeeding. Something could always go wrong.

And they were relying on what Dream had seen of the museum, some blueprints, and two ponies who were, frankly, a pair of demented screw ups. And she liked Sunset.

There was a greater likelihood of the Statue of Harmony coming to life and marching down Broadneigh than everything going well.

“They’ll manage.” Star said, “they’ll manage. Sunset Shimmer knows what she’s doing.”

The larger pony’s smile flickered. Falling Star found herself staring at the carpet.

“They’ll manage.” She repeated.

Seconds ticked past, then minutes, at a hideous crawl, the two ponies not saying anything further.

Falling tried not to fidget, but as the clock in the room (which wasn’t even set to the correct time) clicked past, she found her mind wandering back.

There was a lot that could’ve been said about A.K. Yearling, Professor at Princess Luna’s Academy of Advanced Magic and Higher Learning (Archaeology department) - The depth of her knowledge, her popularity with her students, the range of her lectures, of subjects both surprising and alarming.

What tended to be said most was “where the flying feather is she?”

For all she was incredibly popular with students, Yearling also had a habit of being gone for surprisingly long periods, sometimes even weeks at a time, with no explanation or note. Students being as they were, this had led to a variety of theories as to just what she was up to (she was a secret agent, she was a were-wolf, she was a time-traveller with no ability to keep time, she was Princess Luna, or Princess Cadenza, she was Cadenza’s secret daughter…).

None of this changed the fact that she wasn’t around to mark essays (which led to another theory that she was just hiding to get away from spending the rest of her life doing her backlog of work), and as a result some of the other teachers had a tendency to go a little funny whenever the subject of Yearling and tenure came up.

Some students, however, were more stubborn about getting their work marked than others. Students such as Falling Star.

She was a pale blue colour, with a dark blue mane, yellow eyes, and a disposition she would’ve generally described as “easy going”. And on an otherwise normal Wednesday afternoon, she was practicing something new – lockpicking her way into Professor Yearling’s office (Yearling had a secretary, but the mare had obviously decided it wasn’t worth sitting around all afternoon when Yearling was Luna-Knew-Where, and bunked off).

It was slow work, not helped by Falling Star being utterly inexperienced with them, and the fact she kept turning around in case anypony stumbled upon her in the act.

She was reasonably confident that the dean would show lenience, given it was Yearling’s office she was breaking into, and for totally justified reasons.

Maybe. Probably.

Her mom and dad would definitely kill her, though.

There was a triumphant sounding click, and she tentatively nudged the door open.

Star waited for a few seconds, to see if anything happened.

Once nothing proceeded to happen, she crept inside.

She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting from an office belonging to somepony like the professor, but she imagined it would’ve looked like a fancier version of her mother’s study back home.

And this seemed to be rewarded by the sights around her. Pictures, maps of places she didn’t recognise, the odd painting, a well-stocked bookcase on one wall, a desk with a bulging in-tray, which even from the door was clearly covered in little notes (which on closer examination had statements such as “please, please, please examine as soon as possible!!!”)

But there was no sign of Yearling. Not that she’d been expecting the pony to be there, really. Sighing, Star shook her head, removed her essay from the saddlebag around her waist, and gently placed it on top of the pile, taking great care not to disrupt it or the small layer of dust lying on it.

Then she heard the noise. It was a hard one to identify, because it didn’t sound of anything in particular.
In fact, it sounded an awful lot like something trying very hard not to make a noise.
In defiance of all logic, she found herself calling out.

“Hello?” the words sounded louder after several minutes of silence.

Then she heard the next noise. It was a disappointed noise.

“I see I’m not the only one looking for Yearling.”

Star managed to keep herself from shrieking in surprising, but it didn’t stop the rest of her from trying to make a valiant escape from her skin. She whirled around, until she saw the source of the voice.

It was a dark blue unicorn, with a dark blue mane and orange eyes, standing near the back of the room, staring at her with a vague curiosity.

“Who the heck are you?” Star asked, once she started breathing again, “no, wait. Scratch that, first question, how did you get in here? The door was locked.”

“Perhaps I climbed the wall outside, and gained entrance via the windows.” The mare said. Star stared sceptically. This was an unlikely process, given the building’s design, and height. “Or perhaps I simply teleported.”

Star shook her head. “And what, you hid when you heard me enter?”

The mare nodded. There was something off about her, something that tickled the back of Star’s brain. She ignored it, given she’d just broken into a professor’s office just for the sake of getting her paper marked. She was in no condition to be judging anypony on anything.

“So, why were you after Yearling?”

“There was…” at this the mare seemed to think, “a matter I wished to discuss with her. On seeing her absence, I thought maybe examining her office might give a clue as to her location. Regrettably, no such luck."

“Well,” Star said, “it’s been… slightly terrifying meeting you, mystery pony, but I’ve had enough excitement for one day, so I’m going to go, before I get caught.”

“That seems wise.” The dark blue mare remarked.

Star trotted out of the room, noticing the dark blue mare following behind her. Once they were safely out of Yearling’s office, she turned to look at her, and held out a hoof.

“I’m Falling Star, by the way,” she smiled. The dark blue mare looked down at it, then back to her.

“Midnight,” she said, tentatively, taking the hoof carefully. It was some seconds before she released it.

“Something the matter?” Star asked.

“I…” the unicorn began, “you remind me of somepony, but I cannot recall who.”

Star smiled awkwardly. “Can’t help you there. I’m not famous. But…” the thought occurred to her, “you might be thinking of my dad, maybe? Colonel Morning Star?”

The mare paused in consideration. Star decided to help her.

“Trust me, you’d know if you’d met him. He’s…” she stopped to think of the right words, as a dozen embarrassing memories from her youth reared their heads, “very memorable.”

“I do know of a Morning Star.” Midnight said. “Is he not-”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t let me finish.”

Star shook her head. “Knowing my dad, I’m pretty sure I don’t have to.”

She looked about the corridor, which was amazingly void of students for that time of day. “Y’know, I’m going to go find something to eat, maybe something to drink. You wanna tag along?”

The dark mare stared thoughtfully (or at least, she assumed that was thoughtfully. It was rapidly coming to Star’s attention that the pony she was dealing with was not one for expression).

“I am otherwise unengaged.” The mare remarked, “at least in no matter of great urgency.”

After a short while of aimless wandering, the two managed to find a small pizzeria to sit down in.

“So,” Star asked, as the two looked over the menu, “Midnight… tell me something about yourself.”

The mare’s mouth quirked ever so slightly. “I beg your pardon?”

“Well, we’ve just met. Seems kinda odd to sit down for a meal with somepony without knowing anything about her. Especially when that pony was just, y’know, breaking and entering.”

“What do you want to know?” Midnight asked.

“I don’t know.” Star shrugged. “Anything. Do you have a job? What do you like doing? Have you got any friends? Did you give your parents trouble for calling you “Midnight”?”

“You ask a lot of questions.” The mare returned, as she glanced toward the menu.

“Just trying to get a conversation going.” Star smiled. “Also, I’m still a little terrified somepony’s going to tell me they knew what I just did and I’m expelled…”

“So you want something to take your mind off your irrational fear?” The mare asked. Star nodded, as a waiter came along looking expectantly.

“I could start us off, if you like.” She said. “I’m Falling Star. My dad’s in the military and my mom’s a teacher. I’m currently studying, or trying to study, history at the Academy of Advanced Magic and Higher Learning.”

“Why?” Midnight asked.

“My parents suggested I give it a try. Well,” she said, “I say “suggested”. So, anyway, what about you?”

“I work for Her Majesty, Princess Luna, as part of the Equestrian government.”

Star made a small murmur of appreciation. “Have you ever met Princess Luna?”

“Infrequently.” The mare admitted, apparently not noticing the wince Star made at her question's obviousness.

“That must be something.” Star said, in awe. She could hardly imagine it, actually seeing the Princess in the flesh, the dark and shadowy ruler of the Night and the Day, of Equestria and its exarchies. “What’s she like?”

“I am not at liberty to say.” Midnight stated. “Because I would likely say the truth. We disagree on several subjects. Sometimes vehemently.”

“Oh.” Star murmured.

“And then there is my association with Lulamoon.”

Star blinked at this. “Who she?”

At this, Midnight gave her a look (or she assumed it was a look, what with the whole lack-of-expression thing she had going on). “Trixie Lulamoon,” she stated, as if the name alone somehow explained absolutely everything about the pony. Star continued to stare blankly.
“Of course,” the mare murmured. “She’s Princess Luna’s student. Her current student, at any rate. She is…” at this, Midnight stopped, and seemed to pause in contemplation.

“She is young,” seemed to be the choice of words eventually settled on.

“Young?” Star repeated.
“Indeed. Much of the Night Court are convinced her getting into politics would spell disaster for them all, while the castle’s staff are merely convinced she will go the way of Red Magician.”

“Ouch.” Star declared. Red Magician was a name she knew, a byword for hubris. Some centuries prior, he had been a hero, of sorts, until he tried playing the infamous “Symphony for the Moon and Sun”, and promptly destroyed his reputation. Invoking his name was a good way to get a chortle out of a musician, and that was if they were feeling benevolent. Then she noted the way Midnight had phrased her statement.

“I take it you don’t agree?”

Midnight shook her head. “Lulamoon is… at present, she’s developing a healthy sense of self. In a few years she will have a well-developed set of personality flaws that will make her unbearable to near all and sundry, but… she is no Red Magician.”

“So, are you friends?”

The dark blue mare paused again.

“I suppose Lulamoon is one of the closest things I have to a friend.” Midnight stated, though Star could've sworn she didn't sound a hundred percent on that. “Even if she is very difficult to tolerate, even at the best of times.”

“Y’know,” Star said, trying not to smirk, “all this talk about her, I kind of want to meet this Trixie now, see what she’s like, if she really is like you describe her.”

“You would either get along famously with her, or the opposite.” Midnight said.

Star could only shake her head. “Kind of binary arrangement there, isn’t it?” she grinned.

"This is the way, with Lulamoon."

Minutes passed, as waiters came, took their orders, left. All the while, Star found herself looking intently at the dark blue pony she was sat with. As she did, she noticed one or two things. The first was that, all things considered, Midnight was not an unattractive pony, at least by her reckoning. Were it not for her expression of nigh-existential disappointment, she might even have gone as far as saying the mare was good looking, in the right light. But then came the second point, as she sat there, alternating between the complimentary bread and olives. There was something about the pony, who was doing nothing more offensive at that moment than eat, which made the back of Star’s brain itch. A sensation of something off about her, something beyond the speech patterns that suggested she had not only eaten a dictionary, but had decided to sample the entire library while she was at it.

Star decided this was almost certainly unfair, and more to the point likely irrational, if she had met Princess Luna, surely her highness (or majesty, or whichever one it was) would’ve made sure she wasn’t some sort of salivating monster.

At best, judging by the scant few minutes of interaction with her, Star was working on the theory that she was simply just one of nature’s jerks.

She had evidently been staring, as Midnight looked up at her. “Is something amiss?” she asked.

“Oh,” Star jolted, “no. I was just…”

“Yes?”

“Trying to figure you out.”

“I see.” Midnight said, the same way some ponies said “it’s raining”, or “you’re standing upright”. Not offended, or even curious. She took that as a good sign.

“Have you discovered anything?”

All cards on the table, Star thought. “Well…” she began, “you sound like a Canterlot native, I think, though you speak kind of strange. I’m guessing the accent you’ve got is an affectation.”

No reaction from the mare. “Anything else?”

Star paused, carefully. “You didn’t react when I made the crack about your parents. My first thought might’ve been to go with orphaned, but I’m not absolutely certain on that. Estranged, perhaps? Distant?”

For an instant, the look on Midnight’s face changed. The corners of her mouth tilted downward just ever so slightly. “Something like that.” She said.

Star winced. “Sorry, I-”

“No,” the mare replied instantly, “it’s nothing. I did have family, but… not now. Not for some time.”

Star wanted to say something, wanted to say anything, but she had no idea on what she was supposed to say. “I’m… sorry?” she finally ventured.

“As I said,” Midnight waved a hoof dismissively, “it’s nothing.”

“Well…” Star said, “that’s spoiled the mood, hasn’t it?”

“Only slightly.” Midnight replied.

An awkward silence asserted itself, until the waiters came with their meals. Star watched as the pony opposite her examined her pizza, before carefully, slowly, and very deliberately depositing a tremendous amount of pepper on it.

As she watched the pony opposite her eating an unhealthy amount of peppered cheese, a question that had been percolating in the back of Star’s mind rose to the surface.

“What was it you wanted to talk to Professor Yearling about, anyway?”

“There was a matter I was trying to investigate, but I had not the time or resources to do so. I was hoping to talk to the professor, and ask her if she would be willing to assist.”

Star chewed on a stray slice of pizza, staring thoughtfully at Midnight.

“I could do it.” She ventured.

Midnight remained silent.

“Hear me out,” Star continued, “you’ve no idea where Yearling is, or when she’ll be back. Let me give it a shot.”

Midnight took another bite from her meal, now staring straight at Falling. The disappointed look in her eyes had changed. Now, there was something else.

“If it works, great. If not… well, I only lose some of my own time.”

Midnight set down her pizza. She looked vaguely intrigued.

“What do I have to lose?”

Midnight sat very still, staring at the table for several seconds. Occasionally, her gaze moved back to Star for a few seconds, then back.

Eventually, she spoke. “Alright.”

After several seconds more, she spoke again. “Thank you.”

Falling found herself beginning to smile. “It’s no problem. Just out of curiosity, what is it I’m getting myself into?”

Midnight’s mouth curved, ever so slightly. “Have you ever heard of Tirek?”

Falling Star frowned, as she looked over at the clock on her desk and saw just how late it was.

Which probably explained why she was so tired, come to think of it. Though that might also have had something to do with the fact she not only had been doing her own homework, but somepony else’s.

It had been two months since she’d agreed to look in to Tirek for Midnight, after knowing her for less than an hour. Two long months, and what had she found, in the brief time she’d been able to get away from assignments and essays and revision? Well, she’d found plenty, none of it cheerful: the story of Tirek, and the legates and the Cabal, how Luna and her sister had overthrown him and sealed him away. The words “darkness” came up far too much for comfort, as did several stories of what Tirek did, to say nothing of the long list of unfriendly sounding titles that he seemed to have collected. The only thing approaching a bright spot was during the bit about the two Princesses ending his tyranny, when she noticed the name of the Lord of All Sorrow’s bastion, which just happened to match that of her new friend. Somehow, she doubted Midnight would’ve seen any funny side to that.

She looked back to the clock. The time had barely changed since she’d last looked at it. Her mind was turning to clay. That, she figured, meant it was probably time to get some shut eye.

Yawning, she dragged herself over toward her bed, making a note to try and present what she had learned to Midnight at the first chance she got.

To Star’s great surprise, Midnight stared when she saw the large mass of notes removed from the mare’s saddlebags. Not with surprise, but more of the same.

“I was not expecting so much.” She eventually managed to declare, her voice sounding irritatingly level.

Star just shrugged helplessly. “Sorry. You were pretty vague, so I figured…”

“Do not apologise.” Midnight stated, as she picked up one of the notebooks and began looking through it. “This looks thorough. The product of dedication.”

“Dedication and maybe not enough sleep.” Star murmured. “I just wrote down what I could find out.”

Midnight looked through another notebook. “Yes… perhaps my wording was unclear. This is… laudable.”

“Thanks,” Star smirked, “that makes losing all that sleep worth it.”

“If the ponies I worked with showed such dedication…” Midnight declared, before looking around the small café. “Regardless…”
She set the notebook down, and looked straight at Star. “This is a tremendous first step, but I should be honest, it was… not what I wished for.”

She held up a hoof before Star could object, “do no misunderstand me, this is appreciated, it truly is, but at this stage I cannot say any of the information contained within might be useful. That would take a deeper reading.”

“So,” Star scowled at the mare, “what was it all for?”

“A demonstration of your skills. Which you have shown to possess in abundance.”

Falling’s expression didn’t change one iota. She understood the logic, she wasn’t foolish enough to think she was going to be on the level of a professor (even if that professor had awful timekeeping), but it annoyed her all the same.

And something else was occurring to her. This was not the words of a casual hobbyist wanting to bother a professor about something. This was… something else entirely. She’d heard stories, as had everypony else in Equestria, of Canterlot and how every shadow seemed to hide some conspiracy, some dark plot to accomplish Luna knew what, with the Princess herself watching over them all, moving to some grand plan only she understood.

Up until that moment, she’d believed such stories were just nonsense. Either made up or exaggerated beyond belief. And in fact, she still did. If this was some conspiracy, surely then the two of them would not be talking about it in a little café in the middle of the capitol, where anyone and everyone could overhear them.

“And now that I have, do we get to the actual point of all this?”

Midnight held her forehooves together in front of her chin. “The matter I wished to discuss with Professor Yearling. It is a known fact among students of Equestrian history that there are many instances of strange, unusual or disturbing magical artefacts that have been found under unusual circumstances. The intent was to ask Professor Yearling if she was willing to examine stories of these items and, if at all possible, recover any she might find. Since she is out of reach, this obviously cannot occur.”

“Hope you’re not about to ask me if I want to go adventuring.” Star said, smiling half-heartedly. “I’ve got courses that need finished.”

Midnight’s expression didn’t change. “Obviously not. Regardless of any other aspect of her life, Professor Yearling is accredited as an expert explorer. And, unless you have been extremely busy, you are not.”

“Nope.” Star said. “I’ve never even been out of Equestria. Though I always wanted to visit Cavallia.”

“Then the proposed arrangement is this: You research the items, determining whether there is any grain of truth to be found. If there is, you would be repaid.”

Star had to restrain the urge to comment on how that sounded more sinister than had probably been intended.

“You do mean paid with money, right?”

“If that is your wish.” Midnight replied. Star tried not to roll her eyes. It was probably just a side-effect of the conversation, getting all caught up in the conspiracy flavour.

“Though, if it was your desire, it could be used for extra credit.”

Falling raised an eyebrow at that. “Really? Isn’t that kind of… y’know?

“I could talk with Dean Nexus about the matter.”

Falling blinked. “You know the dean?”

“We’ve met.” Midnight stated.

“And what do you get out of all this?” Falling asked.

“Personally? Very little.” Midnight stated, “other than the potential assurance that comes of knowing which dangerous magical items exist and which do not.”

Star tapped a hoof against the table, as she considered the options available. As she did, Midnight began examining another notebook.
The mare was obviously speaking for someone else - that much was obvious, even to her. Who that was, she couldn’t guess. Some government body or group that wanted things kept quiet seemed a good guess. Or a group of maniacs looking for a chance at power and glory.

“Okay,” she said, quietly. “Suppose, just for the sake of argument, I say no?”

“That is entirely within your rights.” Midnight said, levelly. Seconds passed in silence, as she did not add any sort of vague hinting onto that statement about what might happen otherwise.

“And if I take this offer, can I back out of it whenever I like?”

“If you so desire.”

Star tapped her hoof again, frowning furiously at the table. Part of her was definitely intrigued. The investigation on Tirek had been disturbing in several places, yes, but at the same time… at the same time there had been something about it that had also been fascinating, in a way her actual studies hadn’t been. Maybe because it focused on ponies like Star-Swirl the Bearded, or the Princesses, and epic tales of heroes versus villains rather than politics and gambits and trade agreements and wars, the sort of larger than life things that parents and teachers insisted just didn’t happen anymore.

She was concerned. She was uncertain, she wanted to take the offer and she didn’t.

“Alright.” She declared. “I’m in.”

“And we’re in.” Sunset Shimmer declared, into the enchanted earing. “Careful,” she said to Lightning Dust, earning the back of her head a glower.

“Easy for you to say.” Lightning muttered fiercely, “you’re not the one doing the heavy lifting.”

“Heavy?” Sunset hissed.

“You heard me.” Lightning stated. Sunset felt the urge to hit the pegasus upside the head. Only the fact that she was a good distance above the floor of the museum was stopping her, so instead she just scowled, making a vow to get back at Lightning at some later point.

The two hovered in the dark, Lightning’s wings beating silently, thanks to a few sound suppression spells Sunset had managed to cast.

“Now what?” the cyan mare asked.

Sunset held a hoof up to her mouth, as down below a guard walked past, a lamp hanging from one hoof as he walked through the gallery. Once he was far enough from them, Sunset gestured for Lightning to lower her down to the ground. On landing, she looked about, uncertainly. Lightning gave her a look.

“You do know where it is, right?” she didn’t say.

“Yes, I know where it is,” Sunset didn’t say in response, before not saying, “but it’s dark, and I need a moment to get my bearings.”

She waved her hoof dismissively. “Get back up in the air. No sense both of us getting caught if this goes wrong.”

“"If"?” Lightning asked. “And when it does go wrong, I’m leaving you here, for the record.”

“I kinda figured that.” Sunset said, grinning as she did, though even Lightning could see the nervous edge to it.

Sunset looked about, and quickly cast the invisibility spell.

It wasn’t much of an invisibility spell, all things considered, but she figured she had enough magic for it to last long enough to find what she was looking for, grab it, and get out. The greater problem was that it didn’t exactly render her entirely invisible, just blurring her appearance instead. Her hope was that the dark would at least make sure the guards not notice her.

She looked up toward the ceiling, where Lightning was still hovering over where she’d been, then carefully, and very quietly, began trotting along the corridor.

“-which was when I discovered that… hey, are you even listening?” Falling scowled across the table at Midnight, who was holding a hoof to one side of her head.

“Yes, I’m listening.” The mare replied.

“It doesn’t look like you’re listening.”

“Sorry,” Midnight said, “I just have a headache which at the moment could best be described as “pounding”.”

Falling tsked at her. “Too many late mornings doing all that paperwork. Try taking some laudanum, see if that helps.”

Midnight shook her head. “I’m allergic to laudanum.”

“Oh, well.” Falling sighed, “You’ll just have to suffer, then.”

In the two months since she’d taken on the assignment, the dark blue mare had… changed, for want of a better term. Oh, she was still a dour, serious sort who so far had never cracked even the barest hint of a smile, no matter how awful Falling’s jokes had been, but she had definitely loosened up.

Well, she’d started talking slightly more like an actual pony, rather than a thesaurus come to life, which Falling regarded as progress.

“By the way,” she asked, “how’d things go with those notes of mine?”

“The notes are useful,” Midnight said, “though much of what they led too proved disappointing.”

Falling murmured. “Sorry to hear it.”

“No need to apologise.” Midnight replied. “Looking for items like these was always a gamble of long odds, even without the possibility something happened to them over the ages.”

“Or someone.” Star pointed out.

“Indeed.”

Falling took another sip from her apple juice. “You know, if you’re bothered by headaches, you could try taking some time off, see if relaxing helps. When’s the last time you went on vacation?”

Midnight stared into the middle distance. After several seconds of staring, Falling started to get a sinking feeling.

“It’s… been some time.”

Falling stared at her, hoping Midnight recognised the look on her face as that of astonishment. “Okay,” she finally managed to say, “Saturday night, you’re taking a night off, and if I have to go to Princess Luna herself to make sure that happens, I will.”

Midnight’s mouth very gradually curled upward, if only for the tiniest of seconds. “That’s not necessary.” She said.

“So you’ll do it?”

Midnight sighed, resuming rubbing a hoof against the side of her head. “I have this feeling you won’t accept no for an answer.”

Falling was pacing. She hadn’t really tried it before, and she wasn’t sure she was doing it right. Not that there was much room to pace in her room. She looked at the clock again. Only a few minutes before Midnight said she’d show up, just before six o’clock in the evening.

She had no idea why she was feeling so energetic. It wasn’t like she hadn’t gone out on the town before.

“Back home…” she murmured to herself, hanging her head. And even then, home hadn’t exactly been the same as the very capitol of Equestria itself, where the city continued bustling in one form or another way into the night and straight through ‘till morning.
Maybe she was just expecting something to go wrong. Yes, that was probably it. She found herself thinking of something her dad had mentioned, once or twice, an old piece of military parlance – “no plan survives contact with the enemy”.

She tried not to grin at that. This was hardly armed conflict, just two ponies, seeing the sights of Canterlot on the weekend, daring strange foods and cramped conditions as everypony else did the exact same thing.

It was probably just excitement. Yes. That had to be it. Nothing more.

There was a knocking at her dormitory door. Once Falling confirmed her skin was still there, she trotted over to the door and opened it.
Seeing Midnight’s expression once she opened it was hardly a surprise, more so given it was her usual detached look. The faintly pink mare standing behind her, on the other hoof, was a surprise. Especially since that mare - and at this Falling had to do a momentary burst of adjustment, because she was gorgeous. Beautiful, even. Tall, elegant, and practically oozing class - This mare was smiling.
It should have been a nice smile. Certainly, the warmth and enthusiasm behind it seemed genuine, but there was just something about it that looked a little bit too much like it had been practiced for far too long, and gave the unsettling suggestion its owner was about to go for her throat.

“Uh,” Falling looked to Midnight for some explanation, “hi?”

“Falling Star,” Midnight said, with what sounded almost like the undertones of a pony hoping the ground would open up and swallow her, “Fleur De Lis.”

“Hi!” The taller mare said quickly, grabbing Falling’s hoof and shaking it enthusiastically. “Nice to meet you.”

Falling looked at the slightly too-eager grin on Fleur’s face, then to Midnight’s almost reassuringly stoic expression.

“Friend of yours?”

“Oh,” Fleur said, “I’ve known Nighty here for years. I just had to see the pony who managed to convince her to take a night off.”

“This is true.” Midnight said. Fleur leaned in toward Falling.

“I’ll be honest,” she said, in what she apparently thought was a whisper, “I didn’t think you were actually real.”

“I’m guessing you’re joining us for the evening?” Falling asked, despite having a very good guess as to what the answer would be.

Fleur giggled. “Of course. A night out on the town? So much more interesting that what I had in mind.” For an instant, a look that could’ve been deviousness flashed across her face, “maybe I’ll even get some late shopping in.”

And with that, the inexplicably cheerful mare turned and began trotting off down the corridor, leaving Falling to stare at Midnight once more, hoping the mare would give some manner of explanation.

“I apologise.” The dark blue mare stated, “she will likely make the next few hours a living nightmare.”

“Oh, come on.” Falling said, “I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”

As a matter of fact, and in defiance of all the laws of irony, the evening itself proved to not be that bad, after all. Aside from a major millstone, and that millstone happened to be Midnight herself.

Falling had been expecting an uphill struggle, but the unicorn seemed outright determined to not only stop any fun before it could happen, but then bury it in a shallow grave. She refused to drink, she refused to dance. The look she gave when Fleur suggested looking at some interesting clothes by all rights should’ve taken out half the city (Falling had been a little too distracted by the fact that the dresses looking impressive, and more importantly cost more money than she’d ever seen in one place).
This didn’t exactly leave many options open, even with their third wheel flitting about them, only occasionally disappearing for a few minutes at a time.

“Can’t leave you two alone,” she'd giggled, “who knows what might happen?”

That said, she was at least having a good time, which was more than could be said for Midnight. She’d spent most of their time at the bar they’d eventually wound up at just staring at her soda (no booze, since apparently she didn’t do it, and no caffeine. It was almost impressive how she managed to conveniently choose each option to further diminish any possible fun that could be had).
Fleur had disappeared somewhere again, flitting away between the crowds of ponies around, leaving the two sitting on their own at the table.

Falling felt she had fallen a little short of her intended goal of getting Midnight to relax, what with her intense staring.

“No plan survives contact with the enemy” returned to her thoughts, as she tried smiling at Midnight. The mare’s expression turned mildly curious.

“Interesting evening,” she tried, hoping it would get some sort of reaction.

“Definitely different.” Midnight responded. Falling drummed her forehooves against the table.

“Hey, you talked! We’re getting somewhere.” Midnight’s mouth twitched slightly, and she took her first drink from her soda.

“I’m guessing you don’t want to dance?” she ventured. Midnight looked about the bar.

“There’s nowhere in here to dance,” she replied, and Falling could’ve sworn there was a subtle strain of relief in her voice. She grinned.

“You can dance, can’t you? Or is it controlled flailing?”

Midnight’s expression turned funny. “I can dance.” She stressed, “I just… don’t.”

Falling could only shake her head. “You don’t drink. You don’t dance. You don’t laugh, you don’t cry, and I’m guessing you don’t make love. What do you do?”

Midnight shoot her cool stare. “I work.”

Despite the fact they were in a full bar, bustling with ponies generally having a great time of their own, there managed to be a small yet powerful silence all around the table, as Falling stared at Midnight in mute alarm. This was only broken when Fleur reappeared, over-eager grin still on her face, which faltered momentarily at the sight of the two.

“Excuse me.” Midnight said, before Fleur could say anything. “I’ll be back.” She said, to the tall mare, before she headed off in the general direction of the washroom.

Falling bit at her lip, as she watched the mare disappear into the crowd. She turned back to look at Fleur.

“Has she… always been like that?”

There was a long pause as Fleur looked contemplatively at her own drink.

“Well…” she finally said, “She’s always been pretty serious, ever since I first met her, which was…” her face strained with concentration, “that would be… four years ago? Five years? But lately, she’s been… kind of different since she met you.”

“Different?”

“I think…” Fleur said, carefully, before she stopped, taking another sip of her drink. And then a much larger sip. “It’s not like her. I’m probably the closest thing she has to a friend, with the exception of Trixie, and I’ve never managed to get her to go out for drinks.”

The smile changed, no longer desperately cheerful. Somehow it looked more genuine, but at the same time there was something about it that didn’t sit right with Falling.

“She must like you.” Fleur said, before finishing what was left of her drink.

Midnight soon returned, not saying a word as Fleur shuffled down the couch to let her in.

“So, want to try dancing?” Falling asked. Midnight gave her a look.

“Let’s just keep at relaxing, for the moment.” The dark blue mare said, “baby steps.”

“Not sure I’ve ever seen you dance.” Fleur noted. She began grinning slyly. “Not even at the Grand Galloping Gala.”

Falling had been raising her own drink to her mouth, only to stop as she heard what Fleur had said. To avoid any calamity, she set it down on the table. “You went to the Gala?”

There was a very long time before Midnight responded. “Yes.”

“Is that all I’m going to get? “Yes”?”

Yet another long pause followed. “Yes.”

Falling smiled a thin smile. “Getting the feeling you almost enjoy being vague.”

“Not at all.” Midnight replied. “It just isn’t of much interest.”

The mind boggled. One of the biggest events in Equestria, attended by everypony who was everypony, and everypony who wanted to be somepony, held by the Princess herself no less, wasn’t “of much interest”. She wondered what something had to do to actually be interesting to the mare.

“First time, she went with that Shining Armor.”

“I was…” Midnight actually faltered, her expression darkening tremendously, but if Fleur noticed it (and what Falling could’ve sworn was a drop in temperature), she wasn’t letting it show in the slightest. “I was not with him. I was merely guarding his body.”

Fleur nodded and grinned even more audaciously.

“Shining Armor?” Falling asked.

“He’s a pony in the Royal Guard.” Fleur said, “Extremely good-looking. So I’ve heard.”

“And incapable of talking to a mare without embarrassing himself.” Midnight supplied, with something in her voice suggesting she knew this from past experience. “Not a good attribute to have when at an event attended by many young mares with an interest in an attractive, intelligent-”

“Rich.” Fleur supplied.

“That too,” Midnight said without missing a beat, “-pony.”

“So,” Falling said, “you were protecting him for all these terrible ponies trying to hit on him.” She hummed and took another drink.

“As well as protecting him from a potentially fatal case of embarrassment.” Midnight replied. “In as much as is possible.” She added.

“A Hurricanean task.” Fleur murmured into her now-empty drink glass.

“So, not much time spent enjoying the party itself?” Falling asked.

“No. Especially since Armor spent as much of it on duty as he could. Princess Luna had to order him to relax in the end.”

“I can sympathise.” Falling grinned. Across from her, Fleur grinned back, while Midnight’s expression was one of complete stoicism.

“Anypony want more drinks?” Fleur asked, before Falling could inquire further.

“I’ll go get them,” Falling said. “Same for everyone, right?”

It was only a short walk over to the bar, but between getting through the throng of ponies, getting the barpony’s attention, and the drinks showing up, it still took a few minutes.

As she waited, she saw Midnight and Fleur were having some kind of conversation. Instead of her usual, innocently happy look, Fleur was looking concerned by something.

As she returned with her drinks, Falling could just barely make out some of what they were saying over the crowd.

“-why don’t you talk to the Professor about it?” Fleur asked. “I thought the spell was supposed to fix it.”

“Evidently not.” Midnight replied, “but it’s stopped for the moment.”

“Problem?” Falling asked, as she sat down.

The two mares sitting opposite remained silent for a moment.

“Just talking about Nighty’s headache problem.” Fleur smiled.

“Oh, that.” Falling said, as she passed over their drinks.

“There’s a specialist spell she has cast on her, that usually deals with the problem. Or at least keeps it under control.” Fleur shrugged, “Or something like that. I don’t really get it. They start talking about dweomers and arses and I just start falling asleep.”

“How long have you had these headaches?” Falling asked, frowning.

“As long as I can recall.” Midnight replied. “They come and go, ebb and flow.”

“I don’t think headaches ebb.” Fleur said. “Or flow for that matter. They’re more “throb” or “pound”.”

She smiled genially, as if she were supplying some monumental piece of advice.

“That’s not normal.” Falling said, hoping to get the conversation back on track before it derailed any further, and took anyone with it.

“I think it’s because somepony works too much.” Fleur grinned.

“Is there any way this conversation can stop?” Midnight asked. “I do not have a headache at the moment, and while I am feeling cautious about that, I would at least like to go five minutes without getting another.”

“It might be dehydration…” Falling mused. “That’s what my mom always said when I had a headache.”

“So, more drinks?” Fleur suggested, with a malicious level of hopefulness in her voice.

“Might be worth a try.” Falling grinned.

Eventually, there had turned out to be a limit on how many drinks either of them could drink. Midnight had remained adamant on having no fun at all, which had led to the other two unicorns feeling the need to have more fun to make up for lost time.
It was getting to be late night in Canterlot, when all the ponies who were still awake or just working went looking for somewhere that sold more coffee, and plenty of it, of which there was no short supply.

Fleur was walking along ahead of Falling Star and Midnight, a slight sway to her walk the only betrayal that she’d been drinking.

Falling was going over her opinion of the mare, which was that she definitely was obfuscating, though whether it was because of laziness, for fun, or some other reason she couldn’t tell. But she seemed harmless enough, at any rate.

Midnight was walking behind her, and there was an odd look on the mare’s eyes. If Falling considered herself any sort of expert on her odd friend’s behaviour, she would have wagered the mare was thinking about something. She still wasn’t smiling, though. But there was something most definitely different about her, something Falling hadn’t noticed previously. On careful consideration, Falling decided this was probably a good thing.

“Oh!” she heard Fleur call out. Falling turned to look. The taller mare had noticed something, and was staring at it.

“Look!” Fleur exclaimed, pointing through the crowd. Falling followed her gaze to a shop with mannequins in the window, and the lights still on.

“They’re still open!” Fleur declared, and began grinning. Falling had stopped in her tracks, allowing Midnight to catch up to her.

“C’mon!” Fleur said, hurrying over toward the door. Falling looked askance at her companion.

“Get the feeling if we say no, she’ll find a way to get us in there, right?”

“Assuming she does not physically dr-” Midnight had started to say, only for Fleur to reappear, a maniacal grin on her face, and shove the two toward the door without ever appearing to notice their reluctance.

As it turned out, at least from what Falling could garner, the store had been just on the verge of closing until Fleur had appeared, and with but a few whispered words the ponies working there had been very eager to stay open for a little while longer.
None of Falling’s protestations, such as not having any wardrobe big enough to keep any of the outfits Fleur wanted to buy (or indeed, a wardrobe of any kind), money to purchase anything the shop had for sale, or any social life to merit wearing the outfits in the first place, had succeeded, each met with an easy counterargument, usually along the lines of Fleur having more than enough closet space at home to keep them in reserve for her.

Eventually, after at least a dozen outfits, Falling had given in and pointed to one of the earliest ones Fleur had forced her into, a relatively modest thing of blue and black that looked like it wouldn’t take an hour to get in or out of. The pink mare’s mouth had split into a grin at that, and she and the cashier had hurried off to the nearest register.

“Well handled.” Midnight had said. Fleur murmured. She found herself feeling guilty about somepony else spending their money on a dress for her, especially since the chances were she’d never actually use it for anything.

“De Lis has been trying to get me to wear something for as long as I have known her.” The dark blue unicorn said.
“Has she succeeded yet?”

“As of yet, no.” Midnight paused, “due to a variety of reasons.”

“Such as?”

“Utter lack of a social life, compounded by a busy work schedule, and…”

“You’ve always got some excuse.” Fleur cut in, causing Falling to jump a few inches. The taller mare momentarily had a scowl on her face, “Headaches. Work. Even claustrophobia one time!”

Midnight opened her mouth, but Fleur’s outrage refused to stop, as she jabbed the dark blue mare with a hoof, “but one day! One day, I swear I’ll find a dress. And you will wear it!”

“And going by your luck,” Midnight stated, “there will likely be some disaster that will utterly destroy it, like a highly localised flood.”

“That’d be pretty impressive,” Falling grinned, “given Canterlot’s on a mountain.”

“Oh,” Fleur glowered, “I’m sure Nighty would find a way.”

And then the glower vanished back to wherever it had come from, and Fleur’s beatific smile returned. “Anyway, it’s getting late… or early, depending on whom you ask. I should probably get home.”

“Good idea,” Falling admitted.

The walk back towards the academy dorms was relatively quiet, save the distant noise of the city, but all the more quieter without Fleur’s presence, the mare having gone off on her own, with several bags of shopping, singing an odd little ditty to herself.

Occasionally, Falling looked to Midnight, as she went over the success of the night’s activities. And drew a large blank for her troubles. Not that she’d been expecting rousing success, but there didn’t seem to be any difference in the mare’s attitude, besides some slight change to her manner of speaking.

“Did you…” she began, “did you enjoy tonight?”

There was a long silence as Midnight stared up at the sky, and Falling felt her stomach sink.

“It was unusual.” The mare finally said.

“Unusual.” Falling repeated, her voice leaden. Sounded like code for “I didn’t like it, but I don’t want to say as much”.

“I suppose that’s the best I’m going to get.” She said.

“Falling…” Midnight began, “what do you want?”

She sighed. “I had kinda been hoping to get you to lighten up a little. Get you out of your shell.”

“That’s not what I meant. What do you want out of life?”

Falling looked about. They were getting close to the academy, its main building beginning to loom in the dark.

“Really?” she asked. “Honestly? I… well, first I’d like to finish my course, just so that I have it finished, but then… I don’t know. I thought I might walk around Equestria. See the sights, maybe visit Cavallia. Isn’t that what students are supposed to do?”

“I am entirely the wrong one to ask about that.” Midnight said, and Falling couldn’t help but grin.

“But, like I said… I don’t know. I’ve got my Cutie Mark, I know what I’m good at, but I still don’t know what it is I want to do.” She sighed irritably.

“From what I’ve seen, this is perfectly normal for a great deal of ponies.”

Falling snorted irritably. “And what do you want to do, Miss Midnight?”

The dark blue mare stopped in her tracks. “Honestly?” she said, an odd waver to her voice that stood out all the more in the quiet of the night, “I’ve often wanted to fly. To have wings of my own. Failing that…”

Falling turned to look, and saw there was something odd in those orange eyes of Midnight’s. Then, she swished her tail.
“It’s irrelevant. What I want doesn’t matter.”

Falling began to grin. “Has anyone told you that you’re-”

“Almost certainly.” Midnight said.

“You didn’t let me finish.”

“I didn’t have to.” Midnight said. She looked like she was about to say something more, then shook her head again.

After that the conversation stopped, as they walked up to the side-gate leading to the dorm rooms.

“Well,” Falling said, looking at the building nearby, a few lights still on even in the night, “it’s nice to get out and do something different at least, right?”

Midnight’s expression didn’t change.

Desperate not to let the evening end on an even damper ending without some kind of a fight, Falling smiled gently.

“Be seeing you.”

Midnight nodded. “Be seeing you, Falling Star.”

“I’ll try and look in to those artefacts, when I’ve got some free time, see what I can find.”

Midnight nodded again, and turned to leave. Falling opened the gate, and walked through.

“Oh, and Falling?” She turned to look at the dark blue mare. She wasn’t smiling, but there was something about her expression that suggested she should have been. Or possibly even that she was actually trying, and just had no idea how to.

“About tonight… I… appreciate the gesture.”

Falling’s smile changed, ever so slightly.

“Good night.” She said, quietly.

It had been long, slow, gruelling work, making it the short distance through the museum’s corridors. Every step, every foot, every vague noise and shadow double-checked, just in case something went wrong.

Of course, Sunset was good at sneaking, and very good at not being seen when she wanted, a valuable skill when your entire body was designed to be antithetical to stealth in any form.

But finally, Sunset had reached her target, the one Star and her annoyingly good-looking whatever-he-was had insisted on getting.
It was a small, round and golden looking thing (which was not strange in itself. Gold in general was not something Equestria as a whole was wild on, thanks to long-standing association with Corona, but museums operated under different rules). Utterly unremarkable, in the vast collection of curios, artefacts and oddities that the museum boasted. Suspiciously unremarkable, in fact. Not even the museum’s workers seemed to know what it was.

Neither, for that matter, did Sunset. But Star had been insistent they get it, whatever it was. Hopefully, she would explain what it was afterward.

Assuming there was an afterward to be had.

Sunset approached the cabinet the thing was being kept in. Slowly, looking back and forth to make absolutely sure there was nopony coming from either end of the corridor she was in.

She reached out with her magic, making sure there were no hidden surprises, no wards or spells she wouldn’t be able to get past, within the time allotted.

There weren’t any specifically for the item. Whoever had put it there obviously didn’t rank it worth protecting any further than anything else.

Maybe, Sunset thought darkly, they were hopeful somepony would steal it, and figure out what it was for.

Not that there was much chance of that happening, in a country like Equestria, where anything even remotely suspected of associating with Corona, and was therefore automatically bad.

Several more dark thoughts welled up in Sunset’s mind, and she shoved them back into the dark they’d crawled out of.

Focus, she told herself. Just grab the damn thing and focus on getting out of here.
She wrapped her magic around the item, lifting gently… carefully. Making sure not to touch against the wards. The item bobbed in the air.

Sunset tried ignoring the loud thumping noise in her ears, as her heart beat out of control. Time slowed to a standstill, as the thing moved toward her. Closer, and closer, so close she could reach out and touch it.

Then, it was right next to her. She looked about. She’d done it. She’d actually managed t-

“HEY!”

Sunset looked about. Down at one end of the corridor, she could just vaguely make out a pony, whose horn was not illuminated, looking in her direction.

Inwardly, Sunset cursed to herself, as the guard blew into a whistle.

The guard ran toward her, as Sunset drew magic to her horn.

“ALL GLORY TO THE SUN!” She bellowed, letting out a massive flash of light, just as the guard got close. Then, she began running.

In the corridor she’d been left behind in, Lightning Dust heard the whistle. And then the other, and the other. She winced, as the glow-gems began winking on as brightly as possible.
“Perfect.” She muttered, as the halls echoed with footsteps.

Falling blinked, in the light of early morning, and yawned. Somewhere nearby, someone was knocking on a door. It took a moment to realise what was going on. There was an incoherent but definitely angry noise from her roommate, to which Falling waved a hoof absently (to no avail, since neither of them were in any condition to look at anything).

“’s door.” She mumbled, “’ll take care of it.”

There was a noise from her roommate that could’ve been a response, followed by pointed, angry shuffling of bedsheets. Falling got up, and staggered across to the door.

Somehow, she wasn’t surprised to see Midnight standing there. She was a little annoyed that despite the early hour, not a single hair on the mare’s head was out of place, nor did she even look remotely tired.

“What is it?” Falling asked.

“I…” Midnight began, “I require a moment of your time.”

Falling blinked heavily. It was the most she was able to do at that moment. “I’m kinda busy today. Can’t this wait?”

“No.” Midnight said, her voice like cast iron (and, thought it could have been Falling’s imagination, far louder than it needed to be). Then her expression softened.

“Falling… I wouldn’t ask if this was not important.”

“Alright, alright…” Falling mumbled. “Gimme… a couple of minutes.”

Actually rousing herself to full consciousness took Falling several minutes, but mercifully Midnight did not reappear to press herself, thus sparing both of them the wrath of a roused roommate.

“So,” Falling asked, once she felt more like a pony again, “what’s so big it can’t wait?”

“It’s to do with that project.” Midnight stated.

“Wow.” Falling replied. “Something good, then?”

“Potentially.” Midnight said, “I wanted to show you something.”

“Couldn’t you just tell me?” Falling asked. Midnight shook her head. Falling sighed.

“Thought not.” Without a word, she gathered up her saddlebags, and a few bits she’d left lying around.

“This won’t take long.” Midnight said. Falling, who wasn’t feeling particularly good natured without breakfast, just gave her a momentary stare.

“I hope not. I do have some things I really need to do today. Like revision.”

She made a motion with a forehoof. “Lead on.”

Midnight nodded, and turned, striding off along the dorm corridor. Falling trotted after her.

Midnight’s route took them out of the dorm, and to the main building of the academy. Then, she led Falling toward a flight of stairs, going down.

Falling considered if there was something wrong, and decided it was probably just due to the cryptic nature of the whole project. Obviously they’d meet in a basement. They wouldn’t meet somewhere that at the very least would let her grab a slice of toast. It was probably against the rules or something. Midnight said nothing as the two made their way down at least two flights, heading along rows of starkly-lit corridors.

Falling tried grinning. The whole situation seemed very ridiculous at that point. Secret summons so early in the morning, vague statements. Midnight reached one particular door, and opened it, gesturing for Falling to step in.

She did.

Inside was a surprisingly large room, especially for somewhere underground, in Canterlot no less. It was also amazingly stark, save for one thing at the far end of the room, a small purple ball of some kind, sitting on a pedestal, giving off a faint glow.
Even through the haze of not having had enough sleep, Falling could tell something was up. No, more than that, something was definitely wrong. Alarm bells were ringing out in her head.

She was sure Midnight would probably understand if she decided it was a better idea for her to go get some breakfast, or possibly join her. Somewhere brightly lit, with lots of ponies about.

She tried to turn around to look at her, and found her hooves wouldn’t move. She looked down. On the floor, something was glowing an eerie purple colour, which she couldn’t make out due to her legs being in the way.

There was a noise. She looked up again, and gasped in surprise.

Standing there, just a few feet away from her, was Professor Spell Nexus. She knew him, or rather she knew of him, in a sort of vague sense, in the same way she knew the Night Court existed. She hadn’t seen him teaching before, but then most of her classes were with fill-in teachers, but what she had heard was that he was a genial, if slightly distant, sort.

He didn’t look genial. He was looking straight at her, and if her hooves weren’t stuck to the floor, Falling would’ve run at the look alone, even before the fact his eyes looked like those of a dragon.

He was looking at her, looking through her, like she was something to be scraped off a shoe.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked, looking behind Falling at someone. She didn’t hear anypony say anything, but she had a very good guess as to who he was talking to.

Then she heard several more noises. Several more ponies appeared, some in black hoods, under which she could see ponies with black coats. One particularly tall one was looking at her. Thanks to the pony’s height, and the long horn poking out from under her hood, Falling could see who it was.

Her coat was black, and her eyes were orange, and she had dragon-eyes too, and she wasn’t smiling at all, but there was no chance of her mistaking Fleur De Lis.

And there was no mistaking what she was surrounded by: A cult. And whatever it was they wanted, she was part of it.

“Let’s begin.” Professor Nexus said.

“Begin?” Falling asked the room. “Begin what? Would somepony like to tell me what the hay is going on?”

A shadow fell across her. Falling found herself looking straight into Midnight’s eyes. Only instead of their usual orange, they were glowing, slit vertically, and focused entirely on her.

There was something horrific in the way those eyes were looking at her.

“M-midnight?” Falling found herself asking.

The pony she had considered a friend said nothing. Her horn glowed, and then everything slipped sideways.

Sounds and sights and sensations roared past her head, but Falling was certain she could hear screaming somewhere, coming from someone.
She was a little girl, listening to her mom singing as she tried cooking Saturday lunch.
She was in a park, with her dad. She was on a beach, building a miniature fort with him out of pebbles.
She was eight, she’d just got her Cutie Mark and her mom and dad were beaming, even beginning to cry.
She was a teenager, and her best friend had just blurted out how her dad was hot, and Falling had to bop her over the head with a hoof.
She was preparing to leave home, and they were beaming with pride, and love. Her mother had tears beginning to form in her eyes, even as they hugged.
Then she felt it, the horrible cold. Like something was there with her, watching everything, searching everything. Rummaging through her mind, her thoughts, her very being.
Suddenly, she had a pretty good idea what was causing the screaming.
There was a sensation she couldn’t describe, or didn’t want to describe, like something was forcing its way into her mind. She tried pushing it out, or pictured pushing it out, but whatever it was refused to stop.
She pushed again. Her mind exploded with images she didn’t recognise. A rush of sights and sounds and faces she didn’t know, too fast to make sense of, but she knew with certainty whatever she was seeing, it wasn’t anything from her mind.
And there was one word that seemed to stand out through everything else. A name: Tirek.
Then she heard it. The voice. Barely a voice, even. More a word, at the very edge of hearing.
“No!”
And there was a sound like glass shattering.

The world shot back into focus, and Falling realised her eyes had been open the whole time. Dark blobs danced in front of her eyes. There was an oddness to the air, a stillness.

She blinked. Midnight was still in front of her, but her eyes were closed and she was holding a hoof against her head.

Then her eyes shot open. They looked normal again, the orange they’d been before, only…

There was something new in them. Fear. Terror. And then they locked onto Falling, and there was something else.

“Run.” Somepony said, and it took Falling a moment to realise Midnight was saying it, to her. Her voice sounded entirely different, and not because of the emotion in it.

“Stop her!” She heard Nexus, and it must have been Nexus, call out, “quick!”

“RUN!” Midnight repeated, grabbing Falling, who would’ve tried telling her about whatever it was keeping her to the floor, if there had been the time. Strangely, she found herself coming away freely, but instead of heading to the door, she was directed to the glowing object at the back of the room.

She turned to look at her friend, only to see Midnight grimace in pain.

Falling wanted to ask what was going on. The world had stopped making any kind of sense at all, but she had a feeling whatever was happening wasn’t according to her hosts’ plans, and there wasn’t time to play twenty questions.

Midnight pressed a hoof against the sphere, and her horn glowed. She opened her mouth to say something at Falling, but then something black slammed into her. The mare grit her teeth, and her horn glowed brilliantly.

That was the last Falling saw, before the entire world vanished in a brilliant explosion of light.

She felt like she was being thrown, and that she was falling, and being pulled this way and that, all at once. Brilliant lights danced around her every way she went, and she would’ve sworn she was going to black out.

There was a sound she didn’t recognise, and she felt herself hitting something very hard indeed.

For several seconds, the world around her spun. She felt content to lay still for a moment, hoping it would all turn out to be some horrible dream.

As the seconds ticked past, it became plainly evident that she was not about to wake up in her dorm room. Dreams didn’t hurt as much as her head did at that moment.

Slowly, Falling unfurled herself from the crumpled heap she’d been in, and took stock of where she was.

She was in a cave. Not a very deep one, since she could see a dim light in one direction. What she couldn’t see any mysterious item nearby like the one Midnight had thrown her on to.

“Midnight…” she whispered.

She still couldn’t figure out what had just happened. Why had a cult wanted her? Why had Midnight been a part of it? Had she been a part of it since they’d first met? What about Fleur? Had that been why the pink mare had been present that night… last night, she reminded herself.

Her head was swimming. She wanted to be sick. She wanted to scream. Nothing was making any sense.

A cult, which apparently had a senior faculty member of the Academy, and someone with access to Canterlot Castle, and goodness knew who else, had tried seizing her for something, and her friend had… what, saved her? Sacrificed herself? But had she been the one to choose Falling for whatever it was? And how many more of them were there? That room hadn’t been big enough to fit very many. Were they just the head honchos? The inner circle? How many more were out there?

And then there was Falling herself. Were they coming after her? And if they were, how was she supposed to fight them all off? She was a student. The most she knew about fighting was a few self-defence moves her dad had taught her when she was slightly younger. She wasn’t some arch-mage hero type. She wasn’t even very athletic, beyond the amount needed to walk around Canterlot on a daily basis.

Her brain felt like it was on fire. What was she supposed to do?

It took several minutes before she stood up. Sitting around in a cave wasn’t going to do anything, that much she did know.
One hoof in front of the other, she headed toward the mouth of the cave. Outside she saw light, bright and warm and welcoming.
Stepping outside, she frowned at the sight.

Around her were huge, towering buttes, if that was the word she was thinking of. It had been a long time since she’d done much relating to geography, but she still knew enough to know there weren’t many buttes near Canterlot, but there were out in the western reaches.

If she was very lucky, and she had a strong sense she wasn’t, she was on the Equestrian side of the border of Caballeria. If she wasn’t…
Suddenly, realising just how far she had to be from home, Falling felt unbelievably small.

Sunset and Lightning had been of one mind on the subject of what they would do if something went wrong: No heroics. Lightning was to leave Sunset behind and save herself.

“No sense both of us getting caught if this goes wrong.” Sunset’s words echoed in Lightning’s mind.

Which didn’t explain to Lightning why she hadn’t already left, even as the guard’s whistles were going off, as they closed in on Sunset, who was likely using every trick up her sleeves to stay ahead of them.

Lightning couldn’t figure it out. Okay, she’d known Sunset for a while, and she knew all kinds of egghead stuff, but she was just… just Sunset. She wasn’t worth Lighting’s rump getting in jail.

Even if some of her ideas had, maybe, on occasion, wound up being pretty fun, in the end. Sometimes. Even if it was usually Sunset who paid the bills. And, if anypony asked, Lightning would’ve admitted that she was okay to look at.

And funny, when she wasn’t being a raging she-demon, or getting on Lightning’s case for stupid stuff… and, okay, she had a pretty good singing voice…

And there was that smile she had when things were going well. Lightning wasn't a poet, but she thought a smile like that was like the sun rising.

Lightning looked at the window. She only had to fly away. Sunset wouldn’t mind. She’d… she’d…

Lightning tallied the options of a life without Sunset against a life with more Sunset, or tried as much as she could with all the noise going on.

There was nothing for it. Sighing irritably, Lightning turned away from the window.

Had anypony else been around to listen, they would’ve heard someone muttering “stupid sexy Sunset”.

Sunset winced. She’d gone over the layout of the museum, several times, never mind that she’d already made her way around more than once in her free time (occasionally trying to get some culture into Lightning’s brain, sometimes just because). But having several guards coming after a pony had a way of making them forget things.

If she ever had to justify herself to Falling Star, she was going to point out it was dark. It was hard to make your way in the dark.
Then, she’d probably sock her in the jaw. Let the kid steal her own magical doodads next time.

She could hear hoofsteps coming up behind her. She turned, trying to get her best confident smirk on. Perhaps if she did, she’d feel better about her chances.

There was only one guard approaching. Good, one. She could deal with one guard.

“Got you now,” the pony said, as he approached.

Sunset tried not to sigh, wondering if he was going to say something about there being nowhere to run, or whatever it was guards said.

The guard removed a set of manacles.

This, Sunset thought to herself, was definitely the last time she was going to help anypony.

Still, she added, it was working out better than things with the Academy had…

The guard was glowering furiously at her, probably focused on finding something to say afterward, so much so that he wasn’t paying attention to anything else, like the shadow moving above his head.

“Nothing to say, huh?” The guard grinned. Sunset tensed herself.

Then something Pegasus-shaped fell onto him like an avalanche.

“Look out below.” Lightning Dust smiled at the prone form, before turning her grin on Sunset. “Yeah, I know. I came to save your butt. No need to thank me.”

“You…” Sunset began, “complete idiot!”

Lightning’s smile evaporated. “What?”

The sun was beating down against vast pillars of orange-brown rock, with nary a cloud in the sky. Not that there would have been any, not so far from a town. Why manage weather when there was nopony to manage it for?

She would’ve killed for a town. Or a village. Or a settlement.

Or failing that, a drink. Of all the things she’d packed into her saddlebag that morning (which, for reasons that she was sure had made sense at the time, included a towel), she hadn’t had forethought enough to include a drink of any kind.

Somewhere, a bird she couldn’t see cawed loudly.

She couldn’t have been walking, or climbing, more than twenty minutes. But one impossibly large rock looked like another impossibly large rock, so she had no way of knowing how far she’d walked.

As she rounded one corner, she looked off into the distance. And just close enough to see, she could make out what looked tantalisingly like a settlement.

Suddenly feeling a new burst of energy, she began trotting off toward it.

As it turned out, the settlement was a lot further off than it had looked, though that may have had something to do with the sheer distance. More than once, Falling wondered if it was going to disappear when she got close to it.

But the settlement remained where it was, which Falling was immensely grateful for, especially since by the time she got there she’d sworn the temperature had somehow managed to increase, and she was unbelievably thirsty.

Fortunately, finding a saloon wasn’t difficult in the slightest. The large sign proclaiming “saloon” was a giveaway. Falling dragged herself through the swing doors, across the floor (which, though she was sure she was seeing things, from the looks of things, had painted on dirt, rather than actual dirt) and toward the bar, where a dull brown coated pony was obsessively polishing a beer glass, until he saw the bright blue pony pull herself up to the counter.

“Can I…” Falling croaked. In an instant, the barpony placed a glass of water (well, it looked like water) in front of her.

“Thanks.” She said, before taking it and finishing the drink in one go. “I needed that.”

“I gathered.” The barpony said.

“This is going to sound weird, but… just go with me,” Falling said.

“Where are ya?” The barpony smiled a smile that suggested he’d heard this question more times than was probably necessary. Falling nodded.
“Yer in Rump.”

Falling blinked, and tried dislodging some non-existent sand from her ears. “Sorry?”

“We’re tryin’ to get the name changed.” He muttered.

Falling nodded, and then looked at the glass. The barpony took it away, and soon came back.

“Please tell me we’re in Equestria.”

The barpony nodded. “Sure are. Not far from the Caballeria border. But if you’re wondering where the next biggest city is, I got some bad news for ya…”

Falling finished her water before she allowed her expression to sink.

“The stagecoach only comes through once a week, and it’s not fer a coupl’a days.”

Falling stared at the empty glass. Finding a town on the train routes on the first go was probably too much to hope for, in hindsight. Not that she was actually sure she had enough bits to afford a train to anywhere. All she had was enough in her saddlebags for sandwiches.

Still, it wasn’t the time to give in to all-consuming despair of ever seeing home again.

“Okay…” she began, “so… do you have a post office around here?”

The barpony looked awkwardly down at the counter. “No.”

Damn, Falling thought. “A library?” she hazarded.

“Nope.”

“Somewhere a pony can stay for a few nights?”

“Now that, we do have.”

She smiled for a moment, “and incidentally, there wouldn’t be anypony in town who be like a police officer or something?”

The barpony’s amused look flickered. “Not police, no. Far too small to have them. We got a sheriff around. Can’t miss him.”
He returned to rubbing the dishrag against the counter, “or failing that, there’s him over in the corner.”

Falling looked to where the pony was gesturing. In the nearest corner was a pony sitting in a small booth by himself. Under normal circumstances, he probably would’ve been covered in shadows, probably covering most of his face while he glowered in a brooding fashion at everyone else. Unfortunately it was the middle of the day, and the bar was actually pretty well lit, so he was completely unobscured, as was the large sword he was sitting next to.

Also, he wasn’t glowering or brooding in any fashion. In fact, he just looked sort of vaguely annoyed, at most.

“He’s from out of town, been here the last coupl’a days. Think he’s a knight or something. Quiet fella.”

“Thanks.” Falling said, producing some silver bits from her bag and pushing them across the counter. She trotted over toward the table the strange pony was at. His eyes turned toward her. His green eyes. His very deep green eyes.

“Something I can help you with?” he asked, as Falling sat on the chair across from him.

She stared at his eyes for a moment longer, before she caught herself. “Are you a knight?”

He nodded. “Sure am. Dream Catcher, Knight Errant.”

“Shouldn’t there be a “sir” in there?” she asked. He shifted in his seat, and stared dryly at her.

“Do you know what a knight usually does these days?” Falling shook her head. “Mostly, we get invited to parties by old ladies. Not much point calling me “sir”. Plus, it makes me feel like I should be twenty years older.”

If it hadn’t been for the events of that morning, Falling might have asked him about that train of thought. As it was, she just nodded.

“So, what are you doing here?” she asked. Dream Catcher leaned back.

“Someone sent me a letter asking to meet me here. By name.” At this, he looked confused, “then I get here, and whoever it was sent that letter isn’t here, and there’s no problem going on, so nopony knows why I’m here. Of course, by the time I learn this, the stagecoach has already left again, and I’m stuck here.”

“That’s… actually kind of lucky.” Falling said. He looked sharply at her, causing her to flinch. “I…”

She trailed off. The very idea of what had happened to her seemed almost too ridiculous to say out loud, but at the same time… he was in the very first town she’d stumbled on to. Had Professor Nexus or whoever was pulling Midnight’s strings sent him? And suppose he wasn’t, but just didn’t believe her?

“Yeah?” Dream Catcher’s voice shook her out of her thoughts.

She sighed. Either way, she wasn’t risking very much. So, carefully, she told him about the events that had led to her winding up in a town named Rump at eleven o’clock in the morning with nothing but the saddlebags on her back. He remained quiet as she explained, nodding occasionally, murmuring occasionally, and frowning increasingly further as she got to the day’s events.

“That’s… quite the tale.” He finally said, chin resting on one hoof.

“I know how it sounds.” Falling said, “it sounds insane, but…”

Catcher held up a hoof. “Don’t worry, I believe you.” He said, before going quiet again.

“You do?” Falling asked. He nodded.
“… why?”

He paused carefully. “Your story sounds way too detailed to be made up, and you don’t exactly look crazy. At the least, I believe you’re somepony who’s gotten into serious trouble.”

“Please,” Falling said, quietly, “I just need somepony to… to…”

Something in her chest was hurting. And perhaps it was because of having to actually go over what had happened that she found herself starting to cry.

After a few seconds, she felt a hoof touch on her shoulder. Almost instantly, she leapt back in unthinking terror.

“Hey,” Catcher said, calmly, “it’s okay. I’m not… y’know.”

“I know.” She tried desperately to stop herself shedding tears, and to get the thumping in her chest to stop. “So, I need you to kind of… be my bodyguard. Please.”

He sat there, staring down at the table for a long time, one forehoof tapping absently against it. “I think,” he eventually said, “this is beyond me. I’m a knight. But I usually only deal with bandits, or angry creatures. Not even particularly dangerous ones, if I’m honest. This sounds like something for a Princess.”

“Can’t go to them.” Falling murmured. “They’ve got ponies working for Princess Luna. They’d have to expect me to try and get to her.”

Catcher frowned. “I don’t know. Surely Princess Luna would have noticed if her castle had some dark cultist scurrying around it. I mean, she’s the Princess!”

Falling found herself frowning as well. All she knew of the Princess of the Night were the same stories everyone heard from childhood, of the mysterious alicorn keeping watch over all ponykind from the shadows, overseeing all, along with the occasional vague remark Midnight had made over the last few months. But she’d never believed Luna was omniscient. There were far too many examples from the history books of the last century alone to discount that. Luna may have been an alicorn, but she was still capable of making mistakes. In fact, it seemed more likely that due to her greater age and experience, her mistakes were larger than those of an ordinary pony.

“If I were trying to hide right under the nose of someone like Princess Luna, the first thing I’d do is make damn sure the disguise fooled her.”

She found herself thinking about that. The amount of power, or knowledge, or skill, not to mention the sheer amount of pure luck that would’ve been needed just to pull off such a deception, for however long it had been running.

She thought of Professor Nexus. And what she’d seen while looking through the history books on Tirek. If anyone could pull that off, she supposed it would be somepony like that.

“So, what is your plan, then?” Catcher asked.

Falling looked at the table again. And then, somewhere, like a glowgem coming on, an idea formed in her mind.

“Find a way to stop them. Whatever they’re doing.”

Catcher looked at her with bemusement. “That’s… okay, that’s a plan, I guess. You don’t mean with your hooves, right?”

Falling looked down, then back up again. “No. I haven’t tried kicking anyone in years.”

Catcher raised an eyebrow. “You do know how to kick somepony, right?”

“More or less.” Falling said, before she could stop herself. “Look, my point is…” she fished a book out of her saddlebag. Unfortunately for the moment, it was her history book on the Crystal Empire, and not the one on magical artefacts, which ruined the effect she’d been intended to make. She fished around in her bags, and brought the correct one out.

“History is filled with examples of strange magical items, right? All I need to do is find one, and use that.”

“Why not just go all the way to Canterlot and steal the Elements of Harmony?” Catcher asked, “I’m sure Princess Luna would let us have them if we explained quickly enough.”

Falling gave him a cool, level stare. “I’m going to assume you’re being facetious.”

He shrugged. “Probably. Because this sounds… if I’m honest, it sounds dumb. Why not just go find some help? Even if the Princess isn’t an option-”

“And do what?” she asked. “I’ve no idea how many of them there are, or where they are, or what they can do, but I do know there’s several of them, at the very least. Anyone I could go to might be one of them. And I’ve got no way of fighting them all on my own.”

She shook her head. “First, we get out of this town-”

“When the stagecoach comes back in a few days.”

“Then I’ll find a library, and look through what I can, try and find something that can maybe help stop these ponies.”

And, she added to herself, if it was at all possible, save Midnight. It was the least she could do.

Catcher was silent for a moment. “Just you?”

“What?” Falling asked.

“Or did you assume I wouldn’t help?”

She said nothing, pawing absently at her history book. “Maybe…”

Catcher didn’t look offended, or even hurt. “I don’t know a lot of evil overlords or weird cults, but I do know some things about magic. I can help.” He smiled, ever so slightly. “Or I can try, at any rate. I’m a knight. Protecting Equestria is kind of my job.”

“I…” Falling smiled haltingly. “Thank you.”

“Though before we get started, can I ask whether you have any money?” Falling felt a cold chill run down her spine, as Catcher awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “It’s just… being a knight doesn’t exactly pay that great.”

It took several seconds for Falling to realise her jaw was hanging open. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I had a plan!” Sunset hissed, although in the interest of fairness, what she was saying was barely accurate. But at that moment, she didn’t really care, “I was waiting for him to get close, and then I’d say something about Corona and teleport away! Without harming anypony! And you went and screwed that up!”

“I thought I was helping you!” Lightning Dust scowled back.

“Well, now we look like criminals!” Sunset yelled.

“How was I supposed to k-”

“Incompetent criminals!”

“I’m sorry, okay?!” Lightning yelled back. “Sorry for trying to save your ungrateful fla-”

“FREEZE!”

So busy had the two ponies been with their argument that they hadn’t noticed the second security guard come along. They hadn’t seen him notice his associate lying prone on the floor, or as he’d approached them cautiously.

The two ponies turned to look at him, their own argument temporarily forgotten in favour of a new target.

“SHUT UP!” was the last thing he heard before being knocked unconscious.

“Now what?” Lightning Dust asked, once that matter was taken care of.

“I don’t know!” Sunset snapped. “I thought you were going to leave me here.”

“Yeah.” Lightning snorted, “I wish I had now.”

Sunset stopped to look at her. “Why did you stay?”

Lightning shrugged irritably. “I already told you, I was trying to help you.”

“I had this handled.” Sunset shot back. “Great job of helping. I’d ask what were you thinking, but I know you only think about the Wonderbolts, and showing off.”

“I was trying to help,” Lightning repeated, this time through grit teeth, “Because… I guess… I kinda like you.”

Sunset stared at her, the slightly more pressing problem of the guards forgotten at that moment. “You kinda like me?” she repeated, “well, it’s good to know that, after several years of putting up with you.”

“Who volunteered us for this crap?” Lightning glowered. Sunset growled at that, and looked about.

“Let’s just focus on getting out of here. Then, we’re going to have a long talk.”

“I got an idea.” Lightning said, as she looked up at the ceiling. Sunset began to ask what she had in mind. Before Sunset could finish, Lightning had wrapped her forelimbs around Sunset’s midsection, and with a burst of energy taken off toward the roof.

Realising, at least slightly, what her plan was, Sunset’s horn lit up a bright red. The two disappeared just before hitting the ceiling. They reappeared outside, in the cold air of a Manehatten night in the middle of winter.

Before either of them could take a breath, they noticed several dozen ponies, both on the roof and hovering about it, all holding torches pointed at them, at which point Lightning Dust muttered something unrepeatable.

Without a second’s hesitation, she barrelled between them, heading in no fixed direction. Almost immediately, there were shouts from behind them.

The wind whipped at Sunset, as Lightning hurtled through the sky. Her eyes stung from the speeds, and Lightning really wished she’d had time to put on goggles of some kind.

“They’re following us.” She yelled, possibly more loudly than was needed.

“I know.” Lightning bellowed back.

“If they catch us-”

“They won’t.” Despite the wind, and the noise from behind them, Sunset heard Lightning’s voice clearly, and calmly. It was a voice like iron. Lightning Dust was in her element.

In Sunset’s saddlebag, the object Falling Star had sent them to get briefly glowed a very pale red.

Things had gone wrong. Sunset was mad at her, even though she’d helped. Guards were chasing them through the sky. Things were not looking great.

And Lightning Dust wasn’t worried. Flying was what she did best.

Even if she was carrying Sunset Shimmer and a set of saddlebags, which was slowing down her top speed considerably.

They weren’t going to catch her. Lightning knew this. She was the fastest flyer in all of Equestria. If there was anypony else faster, she hadn’t met them and beat ‘em yet.

Sunset was slowing her down, yes, but she wasn’t going to drop her. Not even if it was just on a rooftop while she led the cops away.

Something new had woken up inside Lightning Dust. She didn’t care about speed records, or the Wonderbolts, or any of that.

… well, okay, she did also care about those things, just… not as much as she had ten minutes ago. It was probably a passing thing. She really hoped it was a passing thing. Or that it wouldn’t get worse. What loomed most in her mind at that moment was keeping Sunset safe.

But the ponies behind her were getting close enough.

She focused everything on going faster.

When Lightning Dust had been young, there had been a story that had gone around the flight camps. How in Cloudsdale there had been some sort of rainboom. A dozen and one different versions had gone around, none of which had shared any real details beyond the rainboom itself. Some nuts had even claimed an alicorn had caused it. And Lightning Dust hadn’t really cared about anything but the rainboom itself.

Somepony, she knew, had caused it. There had definitely been a rainboom. She knew deep down in her bones it was possible.
In all her years flying, even after she’d gotten her cutie mark, she’d never managed to perform one herself. She’d never met anypony who’d even seen one (not that she’d actually been looking. Being the best flyer in Equestria ate up a lot of time. Being stuck with Sunset Shimmer ate up even more).

And technically speaking she wasn’t about to see one any time soon.

Everything was pushing against her. Lighting was pushing herself to her limits. In fact, a part of her brain absently filed, in that way the mind did, that if she wasn’t carrying Sunset Shimmer she’d probably have beaten her previous speed records.

The wind was stinging at her. Manehatten was soaring past, and she was reasonably certain that if she was going any faster, she would soon be on the other side of Neigh Jersery (presumably. She couldn’t see where she was going beyond not toward any high rises).

She pushed further. And further. Her forelimbs were clenched tightly around Sunset Shimmer, holding on with a death grip that would’ve made a vice envious.

Everything was starting to blur.

Just one more inch…

Not many ponies in Manehatten saw what happened, but a good amount of them definitely heard the noise, as Lightning Dust, carrying an increasingly terrified unicorn, pushed through the sound barrier.

There was a colossal explosion, and a massive electrical pulse, and a lot of ponies in one part of Manehatten found themselves with unmanageable manes for several hours.

And, had anyone been listening, the sound of one pegasus screaming with triumphant joy, and a unicorn with utter terror.

Falling Star was quite glad to leave the unfortunately named town of Rump behind, with her new “bodyguard”, once the stagecoach arrived, after several days.

The first night, she had hired a room out of the town hotel, with some help from “Sir” Catcher. That had not been a good night. She’d been completely unable to sleep until only Luna-knew-when. Lying there, on her cheap bed in that grey room, with the window open because even in the night it was astoundingly hot, she’d found herself thinking about home, and the academy, and her mom and dad. How long it would be before anyone realized she was missing, if they even learned at all, or whether Professor Nexus or somepony else just claimed she was off doing something for them, or she just became another random missing pony. And then she thought of what would happen with her mom and dad, how they’d react, and whether they were being watched by Nexus, to see if she’d show up, and a horrible cold had gripped her at the thought of that, and she’d started sobbing, but quietly to not wake up Catcher, or anypony else. She’d kept on sobbing until she fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next several days had been spent in a sort of haze. There was precious little to actually do in Rump, and she found she had no desire to join in with what little there was. She’d just read through her borrowed books. Or tried to, at any rate. Her eyes had just slid off the pages half the time, and the other she found her attention wandering to some new horrible thought, which was then joined by a dozen others, all vying for her attention.

After nearly a week of that, she was feeling tired and more miserable than she’d thought it possible to feel.

The stagecoach ponies had been friendly enough, and raised relatively few concerns about the sword, which had seemed odd, but she assumed they probably found it reassuring. Any bandits jumping out to attack the stagecoach would probably see it, and start murmuring about how they’d gotten a case of mistaken identity).

From there, it was some hours to the nearest town with a train station, which had proven to have no library of any kind. Star had spent some time, while waiting for the next train inward to Equestria, trying not to rant angrily at Dream Catcher about that.

He, meanwhile, had asked whether she wanted to head to Equestria, which had an evil cult in it that was almost certainly looking for her, or out to Caballeria, which probably did not.

“As I recall, relationships between Equestria and Caballeria are… not so great right now.”

Dream had paused thoughtfully at this. “They’re better than they were before that war,” he’d said, “but… there’s rumblings. I think the Caballerians, or some of them, are suspicious about Equestria’s involvement.”

Falling had considered this, and decided the best choice, or the better choice at any rate, was to go back into Equestria, and hope very hard that Nexus did not really have ponies everywhere.

To this effort, they got off at the first town their train came to, and checked for a library. Much to Falling’s relief, it had one.
Not, admittedly, a large library, such as the one in Canterlot, or the Manehatten Public Library, but all things considered she didn’t need a large library, just somewhere she could search, and quietly.

So far, all she’d gotten was a large pile of books next to her, and the occasional disapproving stare from the local librarian, who’d gone a peculiar colour when Dream Catcher had tried entering the library with his sword (not that Falling could really blame her for that).
With what very little bits she’d managed to find hiding in the bottom of her saddlebags, she’d managed to buy a notebook, and had started copying down any scrap of information that looked remotely useful. Which, frankly, had not been in great supply.
Equestria, and indeed the continent as a whole, had no shortage of magical artefacts. It was just that many were either destroyed, locked up in a vault somewhere, depowered, or utterly useless for what she wanted to do. Or any combination thereof.

Not that she had been expecting it to be easy, but… crazy ponies always seemed to be stumbling across some ancient sorceror’s enchanted doodad which allowed them to gain access to arcane knowledge and etcetera etcetera, with an ease that seemed trivial. So why was she having difficulty finding something to try and do good?

A snide part of Falling informed her that it was usually because ponies going around making items of unlimited power were not, as a rule, civic minded sorts, and were in fact crazed nutjobs looking for more power.

Rare was the story of a powerful pony making a magic artefact to make things better for everypony else.

She sighed wearily, earning a harsh shushing from the librarian, and began returning the latest disappointing book back to the shelves. Then she looked back at the precarious stack of books. There was one she could’ve sworn she hadn’t seen before, sitting right on top.

It stood out tremendously, looking far less like a book than… well, a notebook. For a moment, she wondered if it was her own, only it was the wrong colour. Her notebook was bright red, this one was sky blue. Hers still looked like it was new, without even so much as a bent corner anywhere. The one she was looking at looked… not old, as such, but definitely much used.

She scanned around the library, seeing if there was anypony nearby who might have put it there absently. Aside from the librarian, who was busy reading a book of her own, there wasn’t anypony else present. She looked down at the book, and after a moment’s consideration, flipped it open.

Some of what she saw was garbled, and incomprehensible even after a good stare at the words. And even the comprehensible parts didn’t make a lot of sense. Occasionally, there were pictures of items, including at one point a particularly sinister looking necklace, which the artist had helpfully drawn in colour, with black and red a major point. It was called the Alicorn Amulet, according to a caption. Star’s interest in it was piqued by the mention of it boosting the wielder’s power exponentially, right up until she saw the part about madness and evil. It vanished completely when she saw the label “destroyed”, complete with no less than three underlines.

Despite everything, there was something about that which made her smile slightly. Someone was apparently very upset.

As an idle thought, she flipped through the rest of the notebook, stopping halfway through, on account of there being no more writing. She flipped back, and found that it stopped mid-paragraph. There was no sign of damage, or the writing trailing off into a terrified scrawl. It just stopped, in a sentence about the book’s owner being hopeful about… something. She flipped back further, and found an odd sight. A drawing of five spheres, circling a sixth.

A memory stirred. There were six Elements of Harmony, she recalled. Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness and the Sixth.
She’d never taken the time to visit the ones on display in Canterlot, but she’d still heard about them all the same, the same as any other pony.

Intrigued, she flipped through several more pages, seeing several more items, until the book came to notes on other kinds of magic. The three tribes, then the Crystal Ponies, and mention of others, like the Shouma, and the Elks. And then mentions of things like Seaponies and Merponies and Plesioponies, and Changelings. Creatures of legends and fairy tales, all noted and written down.

Suddenly, she slammed the book shut, and set it down, eyeing it carefully, just in case it did something peculiar. Or indeed, anything.

“What are you?” she asked. If the book had anything to say on that, it didn’t answer.

Part of her was greatly tempted to put the book away, never look at it again. Or possibly to just run from it, very quickly. Something about it greatly unnerved her. There was knowledge in the book that probably didn’t belong anywhere outside of hooves like the Princesses.

Knowledge that could help. Help her. Help Midnight.

Carefully, making sure the librarian wasn’t looking (and she wasn’t), Star slipped the notebook into her bag.
And then, with the sort of calmness that usually drew attention, she went back to reading the other books.

“Hey.” Falling jolted, glowering up at Dream as he stood nearby (his sword noticeably absent, which was probably how he'd got past the librarian).

“Don’t sneak up on me.” She said, ignoring the hammering in her chest.

“I didn’t.” The knight replied. “I thought you’d noticed me.”

He leaned over to look at the book she was reading. “You’ve been in here for hours. Found anything yet?”

Falling looked at the book she was reading, and at her notebook.

“I think…” she began to grin, “I think I’ve found something.”

Falling had heard the noise, followed by several neighbourhoods of dogs barking madly at the sound, and somehow, instinctively, she’d known it was the work of Sunset and Lightning.

Which meant all there was to do was wait for them to return.

Minutes ticked past. She looked over to Dream, who was still standing by the window, looking outward.

An hour passed before there was a knocking at the door. Dream walked over to it, and opened it, as Star ducked out of sight.

Which meant she missed seeing the look on Dream Catcher’s face when he saw Sunset Shimmer standing in the doorway, her mane fluffed up to ludicrous extremes.

“Don’t you say a word.” She growled, in a way suggesting that all the monsters of Tartarus would be as nothing to what she could unleash if pushed one inch further.

“Hey.” Lightning Dust said from behind her. “We got your stupid thing, by the way.”

Star poked her head out into the main room as the two walked in. “I’m guessing things got… complicated?”

Sunset looked at Lightning Dust, who seemed to be unable to look at her partner (though given what she knew of Lightning Dust, Star had to assume that was probably because she didn’t want to laugh at the state of Sunset’s mane).

“Yeah. But we managed.” Lightning said. “Because we’re awesome.”

Sunset removed her saddlebags, and fished into them. She quickly stopped.

“Huh.” She declared, causing Lightning, Falling and Dream to become very still. “It wasn’t doing that earlier.”

From the saddlebag, Sunset removed a small golden sphere, almost completely smooth, save for a rune, which was glowing red.
In the last four and a bit years, Star had learned there was one definite fact with magic items: Anything that glowed was deeply suspicious.

“Sunset.” She stated, “put it down, carefully.”

Sunset Shimmer looked to her, then to the sphere. “Yeah.” She replied, “good idea.”

“What’s everypony worried about?” Lightning spoke up. “If it was going to do something, wouldn’t it have done it by now?”

“Not necessarily.” Star said, staring intently at the sphere. “And besides, this is new.”

There was a horrific pause before anyone else spoke. “New.” Sunset repeated, in leaden tones.

“You’ve seen one of these before?” Lightning asked.

“Two, actually.” Dream Catcher said. “They didn’t glow.”

“So, ah…” Lightning was now staring warily at the sphere as well, “just out of curiosity, this isn’t going to explode or turn somepony, like Sunset, into some kind of raging she-demon, is it?”

There was another pause. “No.” Star eventually managed. Lightning sighed in relief.

“Good to know, because, really, I don’t think we’d notice before it was t- Ow!” she exclaimed, as Sunset withdrew the hoof she’d just kicked with.

“She’s got a point, though.” Dream Catcher said. “If it was going to do something, it probably would’ve by now.” He looked at Sunset’s mane, “just out of curiosity-”

“Don’t ask.” Sunset cut in. Lightning Dust, meanwhile, was grinning madly.

“That was me.”

Dream Catcher looked to Falling, who just shook her head. “I didn’t need that image in my brain.”

Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. “Not like that. It was this whole thing.”

Star gingerly approached the sphere, and after several hesitant seconds, touched a hoof against it.

Nothing happened.

After several tense seconds, nothing continued to happen.

Everypony in the room let out relieved sighs, as Star lifted it up in her magic and looked to Dream.

“How many is that, now?”

“Four down, two to go.” He frowned, “but one of the next ones is going to be really difficult to get.”

“More difficult than that one?” Lightning Dust asked incredulously. “The hay is it? Up a dragon’s cloaca?”

Sunset glanced at her partner for a moment at that.

“Worse.” Falling Star said, solemnly. “Surrounded by lawyers. Expensive ones. One of these is in the estate of a Vicereine, and no-one’s getting past her lawyers until they’re done fighting her family’s lawyers.”

Sunset and Lightning Dust looked at one another, and said not a word before they turned to look back at Falling Star.

“You’re on your own for that one.” Lightning declared.

“Figured as much.”

Sunset, meanwhile, was still looking cautiously at the sphere. “So what are these things anyway? And why are you after them?”
Falling looked to Dream, then back to Sunset. “Well, you two did risk your life getting these, so you deserve to know…”

She took a deep breath. “Have you ever heard of Tirek?”