To say my day was surreal would be an understatement.
Dusky continued to sleep deeply, catching up on desperately needed rest. Other than a few checks to be sure she was still resting peacefully, I left her alone. The last thing I wanted to do was wake her now, though I’m not sure I could have if I’d tried. It was as if some other force were helping her rest, but not in the same way that dark entity had. There was something reassuring to me about it all, though I couldn’t say why.
I woke up twice more after my first talk with Ivory. The first was brief, willing to let me fall back to sleep after settling nature’s call. During that interruption, Ivory had taken little notice of me, still sitting in the same position she’d been hours earlier, the only difference was in the quantity of books surrounding her.
When I woke the last time, I felt fairly certain there’d be no going back to sleep for that day. Years of working the night shift had taught me how hard it was to break sleep cycle patterns without a lot of training.
With that in mind, I rose up and stretched, considering what I could do in Ivory’s home to pass the time until Dusky awoke. Ivory remained in the same position, though it looked like at one point she reshelved the entire book pile, only to start again, as she was now surrounded by new, shorter piles, with one set close at hoof, perhaps books which offered something she needed.
I walked up behind her and cleared my throat. “You, um… need anything, Ivory? Anything I can do to help out?”
“No.”
I blinked at the short response. Her face was still buried in a book, making more marks on the parchment as her eyes scanned rapidly. “Um… alright. Want me to make you something? Tea? I’m not a great cook, but I get by if you need something to eat.”
She sighed. It wasn’t a terribly patient sigh, but it didn’t feel outright dismissive to me. “Night Flurry, please stop. I appreciate your efforts, but I need time to study. Uninterrupted time. This is for Dusky’s sake, after all.”
I shifted away, ears dropping back. “Right… I know. I just… maybe a quick walk will clear my head a bit.”
She turned from her books, raising an eyebrow. “Just don’t stray too far. My sentries don’t know you like they know Dusky. I’ll eventually have to train them to recognize you.”
That gave me pause, and a lot of things to think over… if I really wanted to. I’m not sure I wanted to think about it too much, honestly. “I just… want some fresh air is all. I don’t plan to go into the forest beyond this clearing, Ivory.”
“For the best if you didn’t.” She replied matter-of-factly as she turned back to her books.
---
Not quite an hour later I came back inside. There was little outside Ivory’s cabin other than trees and the ominous feeling that I was being watched. I could almost feel the eyes on me. Undead eyes, staring. Never blinking. Still not trained to see me as a friend, and waiting for me to make one wrong move. I couldn’t be sure if was real, or just my imagination working overtime. Ivory didn’t look up as I stepped back inside.
I moved towards the table again and, this time without talking to Ivory, I set about making tea, just as she’d done the night before. It was a little trickier to set the kettle over the fire without the use of magic, but I managed all the same. Just as Ivory had done, I watched it carefully, only pulling it out of the fire just before it would begin to whistle, and prepared my drink.
As I poured the water, Ivory rose up from her work, levitating the scroll she’d been working on and rolling it up, binding and sealing it.
She let out a long sigh. “It’s done.”
“Your research?” I glanced towards her counter and retrieved a second cup for Ivory.
She smiled as I moved the tea cup towards her, taking it with her magic. “My research. I feel that I’ve found what you’ll need. At least, as much as I can on such short notice. Given more time...”
I nodded. “You’ve worked too hard as it is. You’re going to need sleep as badly as we did.”
“I doubt I’ll get much sleep until I hear this whole situation is resolved.” She glanced towards Dusky, then lowered her gaze to stare into her cup.
We fell silent as we sipped at the tea. It wasn’t as awkward as the first time, but close. As the minutes dragged by, I tried to think up something else to ask her about that wouldn’t sound forced, anything at all. Ivory seemed to be avoiding eye contact, and maybe she was struggling to find something to talk about too. We were both saved from it when our attention was drawn towards the cots.
Dusky wearily rolled over, extending a hoof out to grab hold of something next to her. Failing that, she rolled over and lifted her head up. When she finally looked over at us, she stared in a moment of confusion.
Ivory spoke up first, cutting straight to the point. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. If a bit groggy.” She wobbled a bit as she dragged her legs out of bed and stood upon solid ground, then began to stretch out her limbs carefully. “I feel like I slept for a week.”
I glanced at Ivory and the unicorn nodded.
“Twenty-six hours,” She replied.
“What?” Dusky blinked, then slumped in place, though not from exhaustion this time, at least. “And you’ve been awake this whole time?”
“You were awake longer.” Ivory smiled and raised her cup to her lips.
“Yeah, but not by choice. Sorry, Ivory, I—”
Waving Dusky’s concerns away, Ivory shook her head. “Don’t be. It’s an emergency. Time is of the essence.”
I nodded, frowning at Dusky. Ivory hadn’t explained it all to me, insisting she wait for Dusky to wake up, but what I had pieced together was more than enough to keep me worried. “Ivory’s been working hard to get ready to fight this dark presence when it returns. H-hopefully it’s not returning too soon, though.”
“No. No yet, anyway. It will not approach me.” Ivory’s voice was level, her tone undeniably certain. She had not been lying when she said Dusky was safe here.
“Then it’s undead.” With a better understanding of what was going on than I had grasped thus far, Dusky immediately grabbed onto some subtext of Ivory’s words. She shuddered. “In my dreams, Summer Leaf said the attempt on her life only made her stronger. If what she says is true and something strange happened with the explosion, add in her having some kind of magical hold over me and the Cartel thugs… Does that make her a lich?”
Ivory shook her head. “No. Definitely not a lich. Were it such a being, it would be far beyond my power to control. No, this is more like a ghost or banshee.”
She was a necromancer, after all. I still had some trouble accepting that, or at least, really coming to terms with what that meant. I shuddered at the thought of the zombies in the forest. It was worth remembering, Ivory was very, very powerful, and had a very unique talent.
“Control?” Dusky sounded more than a little shocked. I suppose even she didn’t know everything Ivory was capable of. “You can control it?”
“Could, if it would approach me.” Ivory sighed, shaking her head at Dusky. “When you first entered the forest, it pursued you. I could sense it, of course. So I reached out, touched it. For a brief moment, it was within my grasp and I felt something: fear. That was when it fled.”
Dusky only smiled, despite the sudden weight in the room. “Even if it got away, you gave me time to rest and recover.”
With a frown, Ivory shook her head. “I’m afraid that will be short lived. Once you leave my protection, it will return.”
“Then what can we do?” It almost wasn’t a question, as she seemed so sure that Ivory would have a solution. Still, I couldn’t quite tell if she smirked when she added, “ I’m pretty sure I can’t stab a banshee.”
“This.” On queue, Ivory produced the scroll she’d been working on over the past twenty-six hours. “This is a list of spells and details on how to combine them to trap the banshee on the same plane as you.”
Dusky lifted a hoof to her chin, glancing down as she thought it through. “I see. Then my blade will work once it is trapped with me?”
“In theory, yes. This is not something the nature of which I can readily test. But if the spells come together correctly, then you should be able to strike at it. Just be aware that it will not be easy prey.”
“Of course. Nothing is ever easy.” Studying the bound scroll a moment, Dusky tilted her head. “But why are you giving this to me? I’m no mage.”
“Then you shall have to find one,” Ivory bowed her head low. “Perhaps several.”
“Wait, what about you?” I stood from the table, setting down my tea. “I thought all of this study was so you could help her? I mean, n-not that this isn’t helping, I just mean… well, not to sound insensitive, but you’re a necromancer. Who could be better for this than the one who wrote the spells?”
Dusky a raised a hoof towards me and shook her head. “It’s fine, Night. If she could, she would. She must have a good reason. Ivory?”
“I am embarrassed to say, but my powers are a bit of a double-edged sword. I am as much a beacon to the undead as they are to me. I had but a single chance and now it knows to stay clear of me. The very thing protecting you is preventing me from giving you direct aid.” Her posture shrank, slumping into something between apologetic and ashamed.
With a simple shake of her head, Dusky smiled. “Ivory… this is already more than I could hope to accomplish. Even if I need someone else to cast it, this is your work saving me. So, thanks.”
I nodded. “Thanks to you, we know what this thing is… and, even if you aren’t there with us, we have a way to fight it.”
“Don’t thank me just yet.” Ivory lifted her eyes, her voice ominous “There is much ahead of you.”
Dusky perked up. I could almost see the pieces falling into place for her. “Right. I know just who to ask, but we will need to make it back to Ponyville.”
“Not just that. Once your journey is complete, you will have to muster the strength to defeat the banshee. You should rest as much as you can before setting out.”
“Agreed. But first, we need a plan.” Dusky crinkled her nose a moment, thinking things through. “The Cartel couldn’t be here just for me. Pasture is too far out of the way for them to intercept me so readily—especially when there was so much dissonance within the group. They must have already been operating out here to begin with.”
Tensing, Ivory’s voice went flat. “They’ve been in contact with the mayor, yes.”
I couldn’t fight the bile rising in my throat, thinking of everything I knew about the Cartel and the way they operate. “What kind of mayor deals with monsters like the Cartel?”
“The kind of mayor that Prideful Policy is.” Dusky’s frown deepened. “He’s been corrupt since well before Ivory and I even met. But I can’t see how he’d get them to work with him. The metals within the mountain have always been an ill-fated bargaining chip. The Cartel simply makes too much off Ghost Leaf to care. And there’s no way starting an op would be worth it. Pasture is so far from any major cities that shipments would be extremely vulnerable. Not to mention that a small town moving such a volume of product through Iron Shoe would quickly draw the attention of the Guard.”
Ivory shifted, and began to nod to confirm Dusky’s suspicions. “It didn’t quite feel right to me, either. Nothing really fit. Not until you showed up.”
“Until I showed up?” Dusky started to tilt her head, then her ears sprung up. “Wait, you think this has to do with the banshee’s powers?”
“Given the nature of the magic, yes.”
Losing the trail, I interrupted the two to make sure I was staying on the right track. “What magic? What else is going on here?”
Ivory hesitated. “There was an incident. Back when Dusky and I first met, we needed to band together to defeat a Shadow Walker, a griffon who sold herself for power.”
Shadow Walker. My blood froze. It was a term I’d heard only once, from Dusky. A pony who’d sold part of themselves for power. For magic. I saw the burning eyes of Broken Tooth, and the meglomaniacal ravings of Fire Tail as the Earth pony spilt blood to cast magic he knew nothing about.
Dusky’s wing gently wrapping across my back and around my withers brought me out of that particularly unpleasant memory. Then came the realization that Dusky had known what a Shadow Walker was because she’d previously encountered one. Here. She’d fought it, with Ivory’s help, presumably. That thought didn’t exactly comfort me either.
Dusky pressed in closer, making sure I was okay before she continued. “She openly used her powers in front of the town as we fought. I imagine word of this eventually reached Summer Leaf and she sent her thugs to investigate, seeking to claim this power as her own.”
Summer Leaf, the pony who so hated Dusky, enough to sic an entire criminal organization after her, now possessing the power of a pony like Firetail. I couldn’t hold back my shudder. “And she got it, didn’t she?”
“I suspect it didn’t quite turn out how she planned.” Ivory glanced over towards the research books. “At least, the rumours I’ve heard never involved the Shadow Walker dying. However, she did achieve something that is proving to be nearly as problematic.”
With a hoof to her chin, Dusky’s eyes worked through some invisible calculations. “Well, this probably won’t be much different than those bandits. Maybe even easier, since there’s a marked disconnect between these thugs and their mistress. If we bring down their base, they should scatter and even if Summer Leaf coerces them into returning, the remoteness without a base will greatly hamper them.”
“There is no need for something so complicated.” Ivory set down her tea and pushed herself up from the table. “My zombies will cover your escape. Then you can return to Ponyville.”
Dusky blinked, quickly responding.. “But what about you?”
Ivory sighed, sounding far older than she looked at she smiled sadly. “These thugs are nothing. I’ve been dealing with bandits all my life.”
Quickly narrowing her eyes, Dusky shook her. “Ivory, I can’t just leave you. This is a real—”
“Problem. Yes, I know, Dusky. They can’t be allowed to remain as they are forever and they won’t. But right now is not the time to look out for others. You need to look out for yourself. Deal with the banshee first, then you’ll be free to do as you wish.” Ivory clenched her jaw, her eyes giving Dusky a look that that sent a shiver down my spine, because I could relate all too well.
She didn’t want to be alone again. She didn’t want Dusky to die. She’d only just been coming to terms with having a friend, truly learning how much Dusky meant to her, finally feeling like she mattered to somepony, only to see them in terrible danger, feeling unable to help, unable to do anything but sit back and wait.
I’d been there. I’d been there when Dusky had been attacked in Ponyville, and as we’d fled to Myrtail Beach. I’d been there before Filllydelphia too, feeling like she’d gone beyond my reach. I glanced at Dusky. Ivory and I both needed her.
Dusky knew it too. She stiffened, trying to control herself, but her eyes began to water. She let the tears run down her face, then took a deep breath. In, and then out. “Okay, Ivory. You’re right. But the moment we win, I’m coming back. I swear it.”
I narrowed my eyes, knowing I could only agree, because it was right, and because she’d come back for me. In fact, I was almost sure Ivory would too, if it came to that. Maybe that was what Dusky and Ivory shared. Maybe what I shared as well. That burning loyalty to my friends, no matter what.
We brave few. A very special group, I’d told Ivory, who Dusky trusted with her life. Maybe that was because we trusted her with ours just as much. If we survived the banshee… we would return. Because Ivory was trusting in us to return.
I had no response to that moment, as Dusky bravely stared through her tears with a passion to do the right thing, and Ivory lowered her head, anxious and alone, but trusting in her best friend. I could only nod, knowing that when the time came, I’d do whatever it took to be right there with each of them.