CHAPTER 12
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... AND NIGHTSHADE'S CONTRIBUTION
Firefly and Nightshade watched hidden behind the windowpanes on the upper floor as Silver Blaze was (more or less successfully) seized by armed pegasus guards in the yard. Even from this safe distance, the sight of those sharp blades at their wings frightened Firefly. How could Silver Blaze remain so calm? Did that stallion know no fear?
“Not knowing fear is usually not very wise.”, Nightshade objected mysteriously. "Fear is the greatest obstacle, but fear is also your best friend. Fear is like fire. If you learn to control it, you let it work for you. If you cannot control it, it will destroy you and everything around you. This is a mere sabre-rattling, and Silver is not going to lose.”
She took his word for it. It looked like Silver was more than a match for these guards. From their hiding place they observed the further course of the conflict. Silver Blaze had promised to keep the guards off their backs and had urged Nigthshade and Firefly to hurry, but the sorcerer held her back for quite a while until he was sure that Silver would indeed master the situation. When truly nopony came to search for them he said:
“Come on! Look lively! Enough time wasted! Silver is playing his part and now we must play ours!”
Firefly was wondering whether he was talking to her or rather to himself, because she for her part was fired up to spring into action. It didn't like having to leave Dawn and Sliderule to the count's guards, even if Silver Blaze stayed with them. She really wanted to trust him, after all he was her hero, and life saver nonetheless. But he had also been Calm Mind's confidant and apparently Nightshade's disciple, and this alone made him just as opaque as those two. She also accounted the swordstallion for a thousand times more suitable to accompany the sorcerer on this dangerous hunt for Discord than herself.
Nightshade would have been overfond to go off alone anyway, but there was a natural reason why Silver Blaze had insisted upon her accompanying him. And this was a point she could not deny: In case the unexpected happened, and, ironically, that had almost to be expected, she could carry message from Nightshade to the others. With her ability to fly, she was able to cover great distances in almost no time.
Indeed, Firefly really prided herself upon her flying skill, and with some right. To overcome the wall behind the former abbey costed her only two wing beats: With the first one she spiralled high up into the air, then, at the peak of her trajectory, she folded her wings, spun over, and darted towards the timberline like a hawk in swoop dive. Once she was beneath the trees and just before she could get caught in the undergrowth, she flared out her downfall with a second powerful beat of her wings. Almost cautiously, she alighted on the carpet of needles. Two sharp cracks and a rushing of wind, her flight hadn’t lasted longer than a few heartbeats, too short to draw attention.
Nightshade solved this task not so sportily, but in an equal impressive way. As Firefly was waiting for him under the trees and was wondering how he wanted to get over the wall, there was a sudden flash and Nightshade just appeared at her side.
“Have you never seen teleportation?” he wanted to know when he saw her shocked face.
No, Firefly had never seen a teleportation and neither had she heard from something like that. But just to disappear and reappear somewhere else, to her it seemed like cheating. Good thing Silderule hadn't seen that, he would have turned downright green with envy. But Firefly was a bit annoyed, too; she felt really useless now. Did Silver Blaze know that the unicorn was able to teleport? What was the point of taking a messenger with you when you yourself could just pop up at the destination instead?
“I cannot just ‘pop up’, as you say”, Nightshade tried to appease her. “This is complex and difficult magic. It costs strength and concentration and requires line of sight or at least knowledge of the target point. If you are careless when flying, you will fly against a tree or crash. Bad enough! But if I do not pay attention during a teleportation, I might appear right in the middle of a rock or a brick wall! That would be my death or at least cost me a limb or two. Besides, this spell costs me so much power that I cannot bridge long distances with it. Ten to fifteen yards, in the highest, but I could never teleport across the lake.”
Firefly was asking herself how many jumps of fifteen yards it would take from here to reach the beacon and how much of that ‘power’ it would cost Nightshade compared to how much a fast flight at full speed over Cauldron Lake would wear her out. She might not have been able to read, but she could count, at least the coins of her payment. For this calculation, however, she considerably lacked knowledge and understanding of the matter, and so she decided that it was better to just let it be for the moment.
The air was cold and damp beneath the trees and it was very difficult to find a walkable path. Apart from the logging trails, which they avoided as far as possible to stay out of the way of any pursuer, a carpet of dry needles covered the ground almost ankle-high, and the few leaf trees were bare and small, and they looked stunted. On occasions, Firefly and Nightshade had to climb over the mossy, rotten remains of fallen trees or walked into groups of leaning firs which had grown so close together that their slender trunks formed impassable barriers, and they had to find their way around them. Where the trees were somewhat thinned out, tough, undemanding shrubs grew, all of which seemed to have thorns, in which Firefly got caught over and over with scarf and cloak, and painfully also with the feathers of her wings. She had borrowed clothing from Doctor Ragstitch’s house but if things went on that way, she wouldn’t be able to return them in one piece.
“We have moved far from our origins”, Nightshade remarked as Firefly once again furiously tugged at her scarf with her teeth to free it from an especially tenacious bush of brambles. He wasn’t wearing any hindering clothing, and apparently for some reason. But even he was having a hard time to bore his way through the undergrowth.
“We have moved far from our origins”, he repeated a few minutes later, when they finally reached a dip where they could walk almost comfortably. “Our ancestors used to live in forests like these, and yet our instincts fail us so miserably. Look”, he said and pointed upwards to the sky. “We have strayed to the east, it appears. We should take a more north-western direction from hereon.”
“My family has never lived in a forest”, Firefly mumbled, and she doubted that any pegasus could ever take pleasure in those dank, tree-infested woods. But she wasn’t sure if this really was what he had wanted to express. The sorcerer seemed fond of speaking in riddles just as Silver Blaze. Maybe everypony connected to royalty and the High Council got a little convoluted in the head over time. The best proof was certainly the officer who had transferred Firefly here.
Speaking of convoluted in the head…
“Does Sliderule have any problem with you, um, sir?” She hadn’t forgotten Sliderule’s strange reaction towards Nightshade the night before.
When asked, the unicorn chuckled to himself quietly. “Maybe he thinks that it is not fitting for me to be still alive”, he said, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
“What?” Not very eloquent, but that was the only reaction Firefly was capable of.
Nightshade was still smiling. “The name ‘Starswirl’ probably means nothing to you, does it? Well, then how about this: What would you say if I told you I was seven hundred and fifty years old?”
She would have replied that this wasn’t even the strangest thing she had heard from him today, Firefly thought. Incredible it was, nevertheless. She knew that some unicorns had lived very long, but this long? “Seven hundred …” Firefly repeated slowly as she tried to realise the time-span.
“… And fifty, yes”, Nightshade confirmed. “Some years more, actually. But I like a round number better. The unicorns worship Starswirl almost as a saint, and so they keep forgetting that he by far has not uncovered all secrets of magic; nor has his famous pupil Clover the Clever, by the way. Immortality, for example, was not something they can pride themselves upon discovering.”
“You are immortal?” Firefly asked bluntly and completely forgot to address him respectfully. He skipped it. Nightshade was in a peculiar mood, anyway. Since he had said his goodbye to Silver Blaze, the grim determination he had shown earlier had apparently turned into a softer and more sentimental mood, at least that was the impression Firefly got, and it was getting stronger the closer they got to their destination.
“Yes, I am immortal, so to say. For five centuries Nightshade has now been secretly making his contribution to protect these lands. But it has not always been this way, there are memories in my head of a time before the Princesses ruled, before Equestria was even founded. In those days of yore, a rivalry had been between Starswirl and Nightshade that reached up to open hostility. They were like siblings and loved each other, but they also fought about what was right or wrong. Their opinions began to diverge as to how far a magician may go in his quest for knowledge and power, and eventually their ways parted. Nightshade turned to darker arts, and the brighter Starswirl's star shone, the darker were the shadows it casted upon his former friend. Friendship turned into hatred and fierce battles between light and darkness followed. When Nightshade finally understood that indeed he was in the wrong, it was too late… It was Clover the Clever who brought the news that Starswirl had gone missing. Now I can only make amends for the injustice committed by protecting Equestria in his place and aiding the Princess were I can.”
Firefly looked at him with big, round eyes. What he had so frankly told her was nothing to just shrug off. And why the hay was he starting to speak of himself in third person? She opened her mouth to reply something, but Nightshade leapfrogged her:
“You want to know why I tell you this, do you not? It is quite simple, actually: Although I would not admit it to him, Silver Blaze was not entirely wrong about me losing control earlier.”
He stopped his pace and doubtfully fiddled with the amulet resting on his chest. His upright posture slackened and his straight back curved, as if a heavy load was pressing him down. Then he shook his head and said:
“The Alicorn Amulet amplifies the magic of its bearer many times over, but it is cursed. You must know, this necklace was forged by Sombra, the tyrant of the Crystal Empire and it corrupts the heart of whoever wears it. Silver Blaze knows that, of course, after all it was his family who guarded the amulet until Stonehaven was destroyed. When still a colt, he has experienced its curse at first hoof, and it costed him his right eye and almost his life. But I thought that I, Nightshade the Dark, most powerful warlock of past and presence, would be able to use it without danger, and I shall have much need of it. Great peril lies before me. In younger days I had dealt with this without any doubt. But now I am old and tire more easily. Until now, my will prevails, but I fear that, when the Alicorn Amulet finally gains the upper hoof, it will gain over me a power still greater and deadlier…” He sighed once more, and now had visible difficulties to continue. “I can only hope that I will last… That I can keep my senses together… At least, until this is over…”
Firefly had the feeling that she was expected to say something now, but she couldn’t think of anything fitting for this situation. The immense time span that Nightshade was so casually bridging with just a few words left her speechless. He made her feel all the more terribly small and unimportant. Starswirl had a meaning to her insofar that she knew unicorns often mentioned his name, mostly in a manner of exclamations like “By Starswirl’s beard!” or “In the name of Starswirl”. She didn’t know much about unicorn history, but she could work out for herself that he was like a patron saint for the magic users. But the black unicorn at her side had been Starswirl’s counterpart, the villain of that unknown story; a villain head to head with the great hero, maybe even more than that. Reformed or not, he possessed tremendous power. And yet she was moved by a sudden compassion for the old warlock. Nightshade’s strange communicativeness was touching. It seemed like the life confession of a very old pony who knew that their end was near. Could it be that Nightshade was afraid, that he was fearing for his life? And if he was, what could cause such fear? Not his age, that was for sure, because despite his seven-hundred-something years he was looking very fit… No, what made him fear for his life had to do with this amulet that he wore around his neck. And this necklace he wore only because of Discord, whom they had taken off to fight, and about whom Nightshade did not want to tell anything, even now.
Right on cue, a sharp fall wind started to blow. It was not the moist, damp wind of autumn, no, it was dry, cold and knifing, like wind otherwise only was high up in the mountains and in deep winter. The pine trees cracked and creaked as the gust rushed over them, and at once Firefly began to shiver despite her borrowed winter clothing, although she didn’t know whether it was the sudden decline in temperature or rather the conclusion of her thoughts that was giving her the chills …
The sorcerer, however, underwent another change, or more fittingly, he went back to normal. Once the cold gust hit him, his back straightened, and his face adopted again an expression of grim determination. Buttoned up like before his confession, like nothing had happened at all, he quietly implied Firefly to follow him. Even if she could muster the courage to ask him one of the questions that plagued her, she probably wouldn't have gotten an answer anymore.
Firefly nodded, and so they continued their way, this time heading north-west, just as Nightshade had wanted. So they fought their way through the forest until finally, when Celestia was already setting the sun, they reached open ground again. Over there, not a mile in the distance, black in the shadow of the mountains, stood the old beacon tower, its light now extinct forever. Their journey was almost over.
****
It didn’t take them long to get to the light tower, even on hoof, but it was very uncomfortable for Firefly. She felt like on the plate, and almost wished herself back into the woods. The air was cold and clear, there was no trace of last night’s fog anymore, but high above the mountains, thick and greasy clouds scudded through the sky. To her left, the lake lay stretched out, an almost perfectly round, its waters troubled and steel-grey. On the distant shore, a castle towered forebodingly over the waters, sharply outlined in the winter air. Had the pegasi brought Dawn, Silver Blaze, Ragstitch and Sliderule there? Certainly, they had… Heaven only knew what was going on there, what was happening to Dawn and the others right now!
Even more unpleasant, however, seemed to be their own goal: The lighthouse was looking like a black thorn, and Firefly abruptly recalled Herbal Green’s painting. She could almost see the horrendous serpentine creature looming above the tower, like it had in the madpony’s imagination. She shivered. But this was stupid! The rest of the landscape wasn’t dark. Shadowy, yes, shadowed by the mountains, but not unnaturally dark, and the waters of the lake weren’t blood-red either!
“That is”, Nightshade said, as if he had read her mind. “That is Discord’s peculiar fondness. He was always good in warping a pony’s thoughts, in warping their senses. As powerless as he may be at the moment, his mere presence has always been enough to cause delusion, strife and chaos, and he affects you, even long after you deem yourself to be free of them. That is his very nature. Never forget that! You must keep holding onto what is good and true in the world to withstand his influence.”
His words had surely be meant to be encouraging, but this was easier said than done, Firefly thought. The afterimage of the hellish painting was strangely persistent, like a picture on a piece of translucent cloth through which she could see the actual background. And as she closed her eyes to get rid of it, she thought to see another pair of eyes, burning red with hatred, and glaring at her from the dark abyss beneath black waters…
With a jerk, Firefly opened her eyes again. No! Dawn was trusting in her, and Silver Blaze was trusting in her, and with her was the most powerful warlock of all Equestria! Ignoring her worries, Firefly kept adamantly marching on, and she would have used her wings, had she not still feared that somepony could notice her from the castle. The tower grew in size as she came closer and closer, thereby circumventing the large boulders that lay scattered across the bleak lowlands between the lake and the mountains. Its surface looked smooth and un-weathered, and the stones were placed together almost seamlessly. It was built upon a sharp-edged rock formation in which a rough staircase was carved that lead to a door at the bottom of the tower. The doorframe was black and empty, and didn’t look very inviting.
Suddenly, Firefly hesitated. For a moment, she had seen something between the rocks: A sudden flash of white, that had quickly hid again, once it had caught her eye. Firefly turned around to Nightshade. He hadn’t been able to keep up with defiant trot and had fallen back a little.
“I have seen it too.”, he said, and he used this short break to close up to her. “That was a pony, or my eyes are deceiving me.”
Nightshade’s eyes weren’t deceiving him, Firefly was sure. She had seen it only for the shortest amount of time, but she had clearly recognized a messy white mane. “You think they found us?”, Firefly whispered. Her look scurried over the boulders, but she found no traces of any other ponies. If the pegasus guards had set up a trap for them they were hiding quite well.
“Hmm”, Nightshade uttered in an equally low voice. “Somepony found us, that is for sure. Not our friends from the castle, I think. Recall that little rhyme, Discord gave us; I would say we are on the verge of solving this mystery.”
They strained their ears and listened for a sign of this other pony. At first, they could hear only the wind, but then: “There!” Nightshade pointed to a rock, maybe three yards to their right. The sound of hooves treading gravel was coming from behind it. “Onwards, onwards”, Nightshade urgently whispered. “Let our shy ghost not get way!”
Firefly gave a short nod to tell him that she had understood, then she darted forward. The fastest wings in Equestria and the magic of a powerful sorcerer, their opposite didn't stand a chance to get away. Firefly bridged the distance to the boulder within just a heartbeat, and Nightshade wasn’t any slower. He teleported right next to her just as she landed on top of the rock.
The figure that had been hiding there fell backwards in shock and Firefly at once regretted that they had burst upon that pony like a natural disaster. Her look fell on a young mare, still half a filly, actually. She was a pegasus, a two or three years younger than Firefly herself and the most neglected pony she had ever seen: Compared to her appearance, the ordeal Dawn had gone through appeared like a cakewalk. Her mane was unkempt, and standing of in all directions, and it took a lot of imagination to make out that it once could have been white. Her coat was matted, and even her feathery wings, which now were fanned out on the ground because she was lying on her back, appeared ragged and fuzzy. She looked like a bird in moult and Firefly couldn't even begin to imagine the years of misery it took to turn a majestic pegasus into such a pitiful ball of shaggy fur.
The miserable being stared at them from the ground with large eyes, or at least she looked roughly in their direction. Something was really off with her, Firefly realised, and that had nothing to do with the fact that she had apparently not taken a proper bath in eternity. It was the blank expression on her face, that simply wouldn’t fit a shock, the peculiar slow and tardy reaction with which she now tried to crawl to safety, and most of all the strangely unseeing way she looked, not at but past Firefly with her clouded eyes, as if she were seeing her surrounding, but weren’t able to perceive it consciously. Firefly shuddered.
“Who are they, I am wondering.” At first Firefly didn’t know who had spoken or rather mumbled this question but then she realised that it had been the desolate furball below her. Her voice was so thin and brittle and hopeless, like a draught of wind passing through the gaps of a run-down wooden shack. The question hadn’t been directed towards her or Nightshade anyways, more like the young mare was talking to herself.
Nevertheless, it was Nightshade who replied, stepping slowly down from the rock and making a step towards the mare on the ground. “I could ask you the same question”, he said, albeit in a very careful tone. “Who are you?”
“He wants to know who I am, does he not?" the young mare muttered, and still she did not look at them straight. "But I cannot tell him, who I am. I am nopony. I am just a ghost… And only ghosts visit me here… Only, ghosts and the cruel creatures from the black water…”
Firefly’s heart almost broke. This was a whole new kind of insanity she was now whitnessing, and perhaps the most frightening That mare had lost her mind, alright, but her kind of madness was far worse than Herbal Green’s fits of bloodlust. What were his occasional outbursts of rage against delusions that condemned one to vegetate in never-ending hopelessness?!
She gave Nightshade a look, but the unicorn just silently opened and closed his mouth, like he was struggling for the right words. He was at a loss what to, as well.
“We are no ghosts!” The words downright blurted out of Firefly. That was all she could think of to reply.
For a moment, Firefly thought Nightshade would reprove her, but to her great surprise he beamed. “Yes, yes, Firefly, of course! Good thinking. Sticking to what is good and true in the world, yes… The touch of a living pony might help her.” He waved at Firefly. “Come on, honour to whom honour is due, Firefly, go ahead and lend her a hoof, please.”
She wanted to object, that she had thought nothing like that, and she wondered, why he couldn’t do this by himself, but obediently she flew down from the rock. Hesitantly, she reached out for the pegasus on the ground, because suddenly she felt an unfathomable fear. Although she was caked with dirt, her instinctive reaction would have been to hug that poor thing, and not let go until everything was alright again. And yet she didn’t even dare to touch her. It was like with the whole light tower, Firefly had to admit to herself that she feared this pegasus, although for no logical reason. Yes, she feared her, and she was ashamed of it!
That tipped the balance. For the second time in just a few minutes she chided herself a fool, and, although she didn’t know it, for the second time she willingly resisted Discord’s influence.
Nightshade probably hadn't noticed her renewed inner struggle, at least he still looked at her expectantly. And certainly, the young mare hadn't noticed anything at all, she was still blinking around with a gaze devoid of any recognition. But that Firefly now made attempts to reach out for her, that she realised. She tried to back off, but her dreamily slow reflexes couldn’t prevent Firefly from softly touching her cheek with hoof and wrist of her foreleg.
The mare’s body at once stiffened, as the foreign fur touched her and Firefly, who feared to have done something terribly wrong, didn’t dare to move a muscle. Then, almost in slow-motion, the mare’s hoof rose to Firefly’s foreleg and with gentle force she pressed it against her cheek.
“Warm”, she simply said and closed her eyes. For the first time her expression wasn’t blank anymore. It now showed a touch of relief.
“Yes, I’m warm, see”, Firefly continued her line, very fast and almost babbling. “I’m no ghost, alright? And you’re no ghost either…” She paused because she was running out of ideas. “Sir?” she now turned to Nightshade, seeking help. “Can you say something, please?”
“I can and I will”, the unicorn replied. “Because I see clear now.” He kneeled down next to the dirty pegasus mare. “You have lost yourself, have you not?”, he said and deep compassion resounded in his voice. “You have lost yourself in the dark, but I can show you the way out… Miss White Nimbus!”
Two pairs of eyes now stared at him, that of Firefly who confusedly had turned towards him, but also the other mare, who had opened her eyes again at the sound of this name.
“White Nimbus”, she said in a rough voice. Her eyes were so glued to Nightshade that there was no doubt that she was now seeing him perfectly clear. “That… That is my name, is it not? Yes, I am White Nimbus… But I… I mean, I cannot… How did I get here? And who are you two?”
She still sounded confused but showed no more sign of mental derangement. Nightshade and Firefly introduced themselves properly, whereby Firefly noticed a little embarrassedly that White Nimbus was still pressing her hoof against her cheek. But only until she realised it herself, then she at once let go of Firefly and bashfully lowered her eyes. She admitted, that her memory was blurry; she could hardly remember anything that had happened after her admission Calm Mind’s hospital. She was missing three years of her life, a quick explanation from Nightshade and Firefly confirmed that. It was understandable that she would be concerned!
“It all was like a bad dream”, White Nimbus pondered. “I recall the lake. I think… I think I was drawn under by something, and…” The painful memory flooding back into her head distorted her face when she realised the truth. “Oh, Celestia… He is dead, right? Cloud Dash is dead… I had forgotten about that...”
Firefly casted a doubtful look at Nightshade, but the sorcerer signalled her that telling her about Dawn's imaginary friend didn't seem advisable to him.
“I fear so, Miss White”, Nightshade carefully said.
“I understand”, White Nimbus replied, and Firefly had to admire how calm her voice sounded. She was such a brave pony. Firefly hadn’t known that the count’s ward was from Rainbow Falls, but it was fitting. Rainbow Falls was home to the pegasus high nobility, and as shabby as she was looking, White Nimbus posture and behaviour was polite and noble, since she was herself again.
“But what has happened to me?” White Nimbus urged. “Master Nightshade, Private Firefly, do you know anything about how I got here?”
Nightshade indeed had an explanation. From the moment White Nimbus had been rescued from the lake, he explained, she had fallen under the influence of Discord. Without going into Miss Nimbus’s question of what a “Discord” was, he continued. It was never Discord’s manner, he said, to simply kill a pony. To sow disharmony, yes; to make ponies go insane, yes; to drive them into horrible deeds, absolutely; but blunt murder was simply not extraordinary enough to bother with. Instead Discord had whispered into her ear, had twisted her mind, and had eventually taken control over her. The lines of his poem were proof enough!
However, Discord’s reasons for all this, why he had kept White Nimbus alive for three years, and all the efforts he had put up, Nightshade didn’t know.
White Nimbus opened her mouth, probably to ask further questions. But suddenly, her expression went blank again and her eyes rolled back in their sockets. A violent jolt flashed through her body and when her eyes opened again, they sparkled so viciously that Firefly unconsciously took a step back.
“If you want to know the plan, why don’t you ask the planner himself?” The voice came from White Nimbus’s mouth, but it was deep and buttery and was dripping with mockery. It didn’t sound like her at all.
“Discord!”, hissed Nightshade, and lowered his horn. Firefly feared he would attack White Nimbus like he had earlier attacked Herbal Green. She overcame her shock and stepped between him and the other pegasus.
“Let go of her!” she demanded, atlhough her voice didn't sound as commanding as she would have wished. Not at all!
A broad, and completely insane smile curled White Nimbus’s lips. “No can do, snookums”, Discord purred through the mare’s mouth. “She’s such a useful little puppet, my eyes and ears out there. And my voice, occasionally. I can’t just let her go, Firefly, darling. But since I’ve gone through all this trouble to make you both come over for a little chat, why don’t you quit trying to seduce my little toy away from me and come in. We haven’t got all day, you know?”
****