//------------------------------// // Nightwatch: Nightmare as a Child // Story: Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories // by Piccolo Sky //------------------------------// The sound pouring from Celestia’s teapot into the porcelain cup usually had such a ring to it that Sunset would smile. Today, the girl barely managed a more upbeat look as she accepted it and sank into the easy chair across from the headmistress. This wasn’t lost on the woman as she finished filling her own cup, but she didn’t call it to mind right away. Bringing the cup to her mouth, she blew on it a bit before taking a sip. “Are you alright, Sunset? Usually you seem so much happier during our teas.” “It’s nothing,” she answered, although she kept staring at her cup without drinking. “Do you not want to do this anymore? If you’re feeling embarrassed, then-” “No, no, it’s not that,” she quickly cut off, looking up again. “I’ve actually missed them ever since I joined the regular class. It’s just…” “Just what?” She frowned; her eyes drifting to her armrest. “Moondancer got a better score than me on the levitation exam.” “Well, she has been doing it a lot longer than you, Sunset.” She took another sip. “You’ve only been in the class a month. The fact you got second-highest is nothing to be ashamed of.” “It’s been a while since I was competing with other students…” she half-muttered. Celestia lowered her cup. “Don’t look at it as a competition. These are other girls your age studying magic just like you, and with a Promethian Sigil just like you. You should learn from them so that you both can get better together.” “They don’t have the destiny I do though,” Sunset muttered again before finally sipping her tea, causing Celestia to grimace ever so slightly. She glanced back to her hopefully. “Can we go back to one-on-one lessons? I was learning so much faster that way…” “Sunset,” she answered more “teacher-ly” as she set down her cup, “there’s more to your education than just learning spells. Part of this is interaction with others. Taking classes with other students will bring out things inside of you that you never knew you had.” The girl sighed, sinking back into her chair. She set her tea down and took up a cucumber sandwich instead, munching it idly. “Please give it just a little longer. I’ll tell you more if you do. You’re about ready to learn about the Anima Viri.” Sunset raised her head; her gloom vanishing at the thought of learning something new. “What’s an-” Celestia cut her off with a smirk and one finger. “Two more months. Then you’ll learn all about them.” Sunset frowned with a mixture of anxiety and pouting, but sighed in defeat. “Alright…” She crammed the rest of the cucumber sandwich into her mouth and went for the chicken salad croissant next. “And, as a matter of fact, I do have a new assignment for you.” Forgetting the food, Sunset leaned up in her chair excitedly. “Really?” “It’s an essay.” She slumped back into it just as quickly. “Ugh…” Celestia couldn’t help but smile wider. “This one’s going to be a bit different from your usual writing assignments. I want you to answer a question for me in essay form.” She reached for her desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a slip of typewritten paper. As she passed it over to Sunset she recited its contents aloud. “You and several other passengers are on a cruise ship that sinks in the middle of the ocean, hundreds of miles from any other land or boat. You end up being in charge of a single lifeboat that contains yourself and seven other passengers. There is only room for two more on board the boat, but two of the passengers are so large that they are taking up two additional seats. Ten other passengers are in the ocean and are in danger of drowning. There are no other means available to you to save any of these passengers other than entry onto the lifeboat. What do you do and why?” Sunset sat there silently, staring at Celestia, for several moments. She glanced down at the sheet she had passed her. Finally she rubbed her chin. “I…guess I could try using a levitation charm, but on so many-” “You can’t do that, Sunset,” she answered, causing her to look up again. “It says there’s no other means available. Including magic.” “Then…breaking up the boat into a raft?” “No other means, Sunset. Just letting them into the lifeboat.” She glanced back at the paper, more confused than before. She read it and re-read it several times. Finally, she lit up. “Oh, I get it! It doesn’t say that there aren’t any other lifeboats but mine. So I take two on board and-” “Sunset, it may not say that, but the implication is that there is only one lifeboat out there. There are no other boats.” She looked confused again and stared at the sheet of paper longer. “I don’t get it… Can I get a hint?” Now Celestia looked puzzled. “Hint?” “There’s got to be information missing here. Are some of the passengers mages? Do they have rafts or floatation devices? Do they know how to swim and can dangle on the side?” “Sunset, do you think this is a riddle?” She looked up. “Well, I can’t figure out any other way to solve this problem.” “Sunset, this isn’t a math problem or a new spell. It’s an essay.” “But…but I don’t see any way to save all the passengers.” She shrugged. “Then you can’t save all the passengers.” The girl looked surprised. “You mean…that’s the right answer?” “Sunset, there isn’t a right answer. This isn’t that kind of question. This is an essay about character and ethics. It’s not important that you find the right answer. What’s important is the answer you choose and why you chose it. It shows what’s important to you and what you value.” The girl hesitated; looking over the assignment again. She winced uncomfortably. “What’s wrong?” “You…I mean, it’s nothing.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah.” Celestia stared at her a little longer, clearly not quite believing, but finally eased up and took her teacup up again. “Alright then. You have a few days, so don’t stress about it right now. Let’s just spend the rest of the time catching up, alright?” “Alright,” she finally said, although it was some time before she was able to take her own teacup again. As midnight came, Sunset found herself still seated at the desk in her room, although she had let the lamp burn out. There was more than enough moonlight pouring through the nearby window for her to see the progress on her essay, or lack thereof. Namely, that it had just the following sentence fragment: “When faced with this choice, I would choose”. Her pen tapped at the part where the rest of the sentence should have ended, but with no change other than what she had done for hours: frowned at it. In Sunset’s mind, the headmistress never gave an assignment with the intent of getting an ambiguous answer. There was always an answer that would be the best. One that would garner praise. One that would lead to more advanced magic and more explanations. She puzzled over that now, but as she read over the assignment again for the 400th time, she still couldn’t find out what exactly it was. She would have given up and hit the sack two hours ago if she wasn’t to the point in her education where she prided herself on getting assignments done the next day. She had to crack this. Letting out a sigh, she wiped at her face. The room was getting rather warm and she felt like some air. With that in mind, she stood up and reached over to the window to unfasten it, but on seeing outside she paused. Sunset’s room just happened to have a splendid window view (aside from a large tree from the surrounding gardens encroaching on the main quad) of the Northern Keep. She had seen it many times before. In fact, she found her eyes often drifting to it after the first incident that had made it catch her attention a year and a half prior, although it wasn’t the building itself that had done that. In the entire year and a half, the building had never changed. It was never decorated for special dates. It was never lit up no matter the time of day. In fact, try as she might, she had never seen anything but darkness in whatever windows on it that weren’t shuttered. And yet, almost every single night, around this very time, she saw the same thing. The headmistress, her hair seeming to shimmer even in the night, her grace and poise seeming to let her attire drift in a floating motion behind her, crossed over to the building, paused at the gate for a moment, and then passed inside. Sunset wasn’t sure what it was about that night. Ever since the first time she had seen it, her curiosity had done nothing but grow as she knew there were many things that Celestia had yet to tell her. Perhaps it was the essay combined with the timing of the change in classes turning her demeanor, but for whatever reason she decided tonight was the night. Almost on a whim, she elected at that moment to get up and go. Celestia was the kindest and most understanding of headmistresses, but she was as immobile as a mountain when it came to the rules she se--which included that no students were allowed to leave the dormitories at night. To that end, she had set up multiple safeguards to ensure no student ever did anything other than go to the restroom. Sunset, however, had been testing the safeguards for a while. By now, she knew when the night watchmen would make their normal rounds, and how lazy they had gotten about checking which corners. It was a small matter of ducking out, waiting down the right corner in the right shadow, inching past when he walked by on her stocking feet, hiding again in a new corner until he came back the other way, and then slipping to the end of the hall. From there, one of Celestia’s own trained birds sat in a cage, ready to squawk the moment a student tried to pass through loud enough to wake the dead. Sunset, however, had acclimated herself to the bird some time ago with bits of birdseed she purloined on her visits to Celestia’s office, until the animal expectantly waited for a bit of feeding whenever it saw her. On satiating it, she moved on to the stairwell. The stairs themselves were another trap. Celestia had fitted each one with a magic rune to set off a colored flare above the dormitory alerting all the faculty and castle staff. It would take all night to undo them, or longer given that they came from Celestia, but Sunset bothered with none. Instead, she opened the window at the top of the staircase, let herself out, and began to shinny down the side of the brick wall. It was sheer enough to be quite frightening and impossible to most, but Sunset had practiced and broken it down into the short small drops to each protruding bit of masonry and window ledge, and even without a rope she had managed it. Once on the ground floor, she slipped back into the window; knowing from one mistake (that she had to rapidly blame on a misfired teleportation attempt) that touching the grass would set off another flare. From here she went to the commons area, the farthest she had ever gone. She had to take some time to examine her surroundings, but her scrying practice apparently had paid off as she was able to not only detect the magical lock on the front door and two more alarms, but also the fact that the watchdogs out front had had charms placed on their barks to alert higher authorities even if they were muted. Realizing unlocking the front door would likely trigger them, she used a different approach. While she had only managed to combine spells once or twice before then, by combining the mute spell with the unlocking incantation she was able to spring the door silently, and before opening it muted herself. Sure enough, both dogs had laid down and nodded off some time ago, and while normally the slightest sound would have been enough to awaken them, with everything silenced she was able to slip right by. She had a grin on her face at her first completely successful attempt to escape the dorm that lasted her all the way to the front gate of the Northern Keep. Evading any groundskeeper guards was far easier than leaving the building considering the shadows and close-packed structures keeping many areas out of the realm of visibility, and as soon as she was in front of the building she was halted by the lock. Another scry revealed that it was not only a very powerful charm, it was likely one that would trigger and alert if she tried to force it with her more basic level of magic. However, Sunset knew now from experience that the headmistress rarely relied on her own magic to undo these; else she would have to constantly replace the charms. Rather, the incantation would usually break with the proper password. She leaned into the lock and whispered. “Crystal imperium.” Nothing. Sunset frowned. She knew she had overheard Celestia use that word before on a special chest in her office when she was waiting outside to come in. (The headmistress likely would have disapproved if she knew, but Sunset certainly didn’t let on to that.) She had hoped she would use the same password for all of her charms, but apparently not. “Philomena?” she tried next. Nothing. “Promethian Sigil. Anima Viri.” Nothing and nothing. Sunset suppressed a groan for fear of the watchdogs. Celestia had to know hundreds of terms that she had never brought up to her before. Any one of them, or none of them, could be the incantation. What could she do? Sunset thought for a few moments, closing her eyes and trying to remember what she had heard Celestia say before. She came up with nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary. Yet as her hand traced down over her body and her fingers ran across the scar in her side, feeling it through her thin nightclothes, a few sparks of memory stirred. There was that one phrase…the one she thought she heard…or perhaps only dreamed she heard…without ever knowing what it was. Before she even knew what she was saying, it spilled out of her lips. A heavy thunk rang out as the lock undid. Sunset stood surprised, honestly stunned that had actually worked. She had no idea what the meaning of that phrase she dreamed had been, only that she swore she heard Celestia say it once. It didn’t matter, though. Her way was open, and taking one last look around she slipped inside and shut the door behind her. It was dark, which only figured. Sunset risked a small fireball spell and, holding it in her palm, used it as a candle to illuminate the interior as she walked in. It had all the trimmings of the architecture and design of the rest of the castle, but unlike the other structures this one was quite abandoned. The furnishings were old and worn, making it look like the keep was being used for a storage chamber. They were also covered with dust and old cobwebs. The entire place smelled musty and unused, and with the shutters in place and only moonlight for illumination, everywhere was cloaked in shadows. The ceiling was high, like most of the castle, but that only gave it a darker, emptier feeling. The silence of the chamber around her along with the coolness and staleness were a stark contrast to the rest of the castle, and it made her visibly unnerved. The girl began to walk inside, looking around but seeing nothing but junk and old furnishings. She worked her way into the foyer and around furniture, a bit nervous about traveling through the dark and quiet place but also wary of alerting Celestia, before she reached the back. The rooms in the keep were smaller than in most of the rest of the castle, and combined with the storage they were a tight squeeze. She ended up making circuit about the entire first floor, ignoring the stairs for she had seen no movement in the upper floors from outside, but on passing through all of them she saw nothing save clutter and age; not to mention done a fair share of jumping at shadows. She didn’t give up though. On returning to the foyer, she looked at the ground and held the light lower. It took a bit of time, but at last she spotted parts of the old carpeting and hard floor where the dust had shifted. Her own path had muddled it a bit, but she was still able to track it to a room in the back that looked like a rather inconspicuous storage area built toward the keep’s interior. Once there, she looked about until, after eight minutes of relentless searching, she noticed a stone against the wall that looked unusually smooth. Thinking it to be from finger oil, she risked touching and pushing it. As she hoped, it depressed beneath her and, with an unlatching sound, the seemingly solid stone wall in front of her swung open. The air, however, was colder and a bit fouler coming from that way. It led to a spiral staircase that went down under the ground, where no natural light at all was available anymore. It gave Sunset pause, but she had come this far and so she swallowed and pressed on down the shaft. Thirty minutes later and Sunset had made her way though at least seventeen different barriers, a combination of both magical and physical. By now, she was descending to a fourth sublevel. Whatever the headmistress was hiding here was something she definitely didn’t want anyone to find. As Sunset went deeper, however, she began to think less of Celestia doubling back and thought more that there might be a good reason for that. Each level she descended was as cluttered as the first floor, but was also damper, danker, colder, and dirtier. She eventually started seeing rather ugly bugs living in moist spots and carcasses or skeletons of mice and rats, and always it grew stiller and quieter. The air was more stagnant than ever now, but with a coldness that brought a chill right down to the bones. Some of the masonry looked hand cut and, in spite of how dark it was, moss or perhaps mold was growing over much of it. Eventually her path was barred not by doors but by iron gates, all of them rusty and making rather loud noises when she swung past them. This wasn’t a place Sunset would have normally ever wanted to go, and in truth she was growing more frightened the farther along she went. The look on her face gradually changed from bold and curious to hesitant. Had the keep descended one more level, she might have turned back. That was when she finally saw light up ahead. By now, the keep architecture was so basic that it seemed to be nothing but a collection of crudely mortared stones; far more ancient than the upper levels. Right at the end of the current hall she saw a simple entryway, just big enough for one adult at full height, opening into what looked like nothing but more masonry. Venturing a bit nearer, she could see that the bottom dropped out. She doused her own flame and stepped closer yet, until she was right at the edge and looked down. The opening descended into a long stone staircase, just old and crude enough to look slightly twisted. The stone masonry on either side was just rough enough to have a jagged feel. Far at the bottom she saw a light flickering—a torch or a lantern. It was coming from within some sort of barred window that she assumed was on a door to a chamber at the bottom of the stairs. That wasn’t all though. A new foulness on the air. It was neither cold nor dank. Truly, Sunset couldn’t tell what it was. All she knew was it wasn’t pleasant. It reminded her of the feeling she got when she was younger when she thought she heard a noise in the house during a thunderstorm, or dreaded the shadows of forests or the stern words of a disciplinary parent. It was wrong to call it dread though. It felt more like the rush one got from fear; the final surge of adrenaline one had when faced with the object of their terror. Right before… It took all of Sunset’s courage to finally begin to step down the stairs. Even the first step made her heart race. In the darkness and silence, she could almost hear her blood coursing through it. On forcing herself to take a second, the feelings began to rise around and wrap about her; stifling all other emotions. The third step down she paused and held her breath, listening for anything. The flickering of the lights far below seemed much closer than her few steps should have taken her, but still silence. She hesitated at the thought that Celestia wasn’t there. Even if she wasn’t, maybe nothing was down there. Just a private study. A secret book or talisman. She swallowed as one of her legs began to lift, almost inching backward. “Let me out of here! Let me out you filthy, rotten bitch! LET ME OUT!” Sunset froze in midstep. She went totally white. The voice that came from below defied description. She couldn’t tell if it was male or female. She couldn’t even tell if it was human. It sounded like it was wrapped in a mixture of unholy rage and unmeasureable madness. It was both high pitched and twisted as well as warped hideously. The girl didn’t know anything that lived was capable of making that noise. The only thing that shocked her more than the hideous voice and the rattling of what sounded like no less than two dozen heavy chains, many of them snapping taut, was the viciousness of what she heard bellow from its mouth. It let out a stream of obscenities and foulness so vile and disgusting that it used every profanity that Sunset had ever heard in her young life as well as all others she had yet to hear; mixed together in the most murderous, disgusting, and hideous threats imaginable. She actually felt sickened as she heard the ghastly thing scream at the top of its lungs about how it was going to kill its captor in ways so horrifying that those vivid descriptions alone would have filled Sunset’s mind with nightmares for a month. It didn’t tire as it went on. On the contrary, its voice grew louder and more booming. Enough to where Sunset swore she saw the very masonry begin to tremble. She could almost hear the chains snapping a bit looser with each rapid tug and the glow of the flames grow more unstable from what had to be the thing fuming a bit closer to them each time. Yet her body stayed petrified, unable to move. Trapped in a dark hole with it. Through a mixture of panic and desperation, she finally forced her foot up and back to the step above, only for it to miss and scrape against the masonry. Her heart froze as she heard the single loud scoff resound more audibly than she ever thought possible, and right when the thing was in between threats. The chains instantly went silent. The horrible screaming stopped. Sunset stopped breathing. She almost thought she willed her heart to stop beating. Icy terror clutched her chest. It had heard her. Her mind dared to think, somehow, that it would just ignore her and resume its tirade. That hope was swiftly crushed. “Who is it?” The voice wasn’t nearly as full of anger this time. Rather, it had mixed in its madness with a hint of saccharine sweetness. The fact it had said “who is it” as opposed to “who’s there” only made Sunset more terrified. “Who iiiiiis it?” It spoke even more high-pitched that time; a grotesque parody of a cheerful mother asking who was at the door. Sunset began to shake like a leaf in a storm. She didn’t even notice a new set of footsteps suddenly moving. “Ans-wer me pleeeeeease… Pretty, pretty pleeeeeease…” it sang. “I…can…hear…your…breath… You’re just an itty…bitty…girl…aren’t you?” The girl tried to scream at herself to run, but she was too terrified to make any more noise. “Say something…” She finally covered her mouth, trying to stifle her breathing. “Saaaaaay something…” A noise was at the door fumbling with it, but Sunset could only hear the voice of the thing. “If you do-on’t…” Every last chain snapped taut so loud it was like a thunderclap. “I’LL TEAR YOU INTO ITTY BITTY PIECES!” Sunset’s mouth snapped open, but she was too horrified to scream. The door flew open, and in her terror she imagined seeing nothing but a black shadow coming out. She imagined it coming up the stairs and engulfing her in blackness and teeth. Yet she couldn’t scream. Try as she might, she was too scared to make a sound… The fantasy faded from her mind’s eye readily in an instant, but a shape still came up the stairs. One with flowing, iridescent hair, a headmistress robe, and a kind, known face. Only it wasn’t calm or composed this time. It wasn’t motherly or caring. It was filled with shock and terror on seeing Sunset there. Sunset hardly had time to know what was going on before she swept her arms around her, and instantly began to force her up the stairwell again. “Get out!” was all she heard Celestia nearly whisper. “Get out now! Hurry!” Sunset didn’t hear if she said any more, for the thing was screaming again as it rattled the chains. “I’LL GET OUT ONE DAY, ITTY-BITTY! AND WHEN I DO I’LL FIND YOU AND GOBBLE YOU UP IN BIG, BLOODY, GOOEY BITES!! WAIT FOR ME-EEEE!!” In spite of how old Sunset was now, the headmistress scooped her up and moved back through the secret doors and charms so fast that she had to be running the whole time. The sound of the hideous thing finally vanished as soon as they entered the second sublevel, but Sunset’s eyes stayed wide open and fixed behind them; gazing into the darkness. She stared without blinking. She didn’t dare close her eyes even once. She feared if she did she would open them again and see the thing right behind them, mouth open wide, tongue wagging, and eyes on her. It wasn’t until the first sublevel when, still running, Celestia hugged her tightly to her chest and put her head next to her ear. “It can’t get out, Sunset. It can’t get out. It can’t get out…” She kept soothing her with that that all through the final sublevel, only going quiet once they reached the main floor. At the foyer, Celestia dropped into a walk, so that when they exited she had calmed her breath just enough to look perfectly normal as she stepped onto the ground still carrying Sunset. Even when the heavy double doors and gate locked behind them, Sunset kept staring at them. Gradually, the light of the moon and the wall torches, as well as the warm, fresh, familiar surroundings, eased away a small measure of her fear. Enough to where she was at least able to think again. Celestia didn’t stop until they were in her room. Sunset hadn’t been in there in three years, when she got “too big” for the headmistress to offer her comfort for nightmares. She had never felt so good to be sat in her easy chair and covered up with one of her soft blankets. Celestia said no more the entire time. It wasn’t until she had almost finished brewing a fresh cup of tea for both of them that Sunset finally began to cry. She couldn’t help it. And she kept doing so when Celestia brought her the tea and put her arm around her and began to comfort her. She said nothing about the keep or what was in it, only reassuring words as she let her cry and hugged her tight. It took another hour before she had calmed enough to stop. Even then, the words still rang in her head and the fear was still in her heart. At long last, the headmistress guided her over to her own bed, pulled aside the covers, and helped her in. As she did, she took her hand and grasped it warmly and tightly. “It’s ok, Sunset. You’re safe.” The authority and power in her voice had returned. Only now did Sunset realize it had fully come back somewhere on the run between the fourth sublevel and now. And just as always, it was enough to ease her just a little bit as she sank into the bed. Celestia covered her up and gave her a brief comforting smile. However, for once, it faded soon after. “I’ll be right here, Sunset. But before you go to sleep, there’s something you have to promise me.” The girl was still getting over her fear, but what she heard commanded her full attention. The headmistress almost always trusted Sunset at her word or said something expecting she would do it. Including keeping secrets about what she had shown her. This was the first time she had heard her ask her to promise her something in ages. “Sunset…” she leaned in closer, and her face grew more serious than during the sternest lecture she had ever received. “This is very, very important. You need to promise me that you will forget tonight ever happened.” The girl looked puzzled. The sound of her own voice sounded almost odd to her after being quiet so long. She never realized it was probably the first time she ever truly questioned her. “What…?” “Tonight did not happen. Do you understand? Tonight never happened.” Sunset’s hands on the top of the covers began to ball. “But what was that thing-” At once, two of Celestia’s fingers came out and pressed themselves against her lips. “There was no thing. There was no basement to the keep. You never went in the keep. Nothing is in the Northern Keep besides old furniture. You had a bad dream and you came to spend the night with me. Promise me that’s what happened. Do you understand?” Sunset began to look a little uneasy again, especially since Celestia’s fingers remained pressed against her lips. When she hesitated, Celestia grew more serious yet. “Sunset…what you dreamed of tonight…and only dreamed of…is something that you must never, ever see, hear, or touch. It’s something no one should ever know exists. People must not speak of it. People must not even imagine it could be real. People must not even talk about it as a fantasy. So long as that happens…it will only ever be a bad dream. So long as you promise me what I said, it will only ever be a bad dream. The only way it will ever be more than that is if you break your promise. Now…” Her fingers removed from Sunset’s lips, but at that point Celestia wasn’t the kindly, motherly teacher that had brought her to the castle. All of her power and royal authority radiated through her as she looked down into Sunset’s eyes. “What do you have to say to me?” Sunset lay there silent for ten full seconds. She swallowed and took a deep breath. “There was no thing. There was no basement to the keep. I never went in the keep. Nothing is in the Northern Keep besides old furniture. I had a bad dream and I came to spend the night with you.” “And you promise me that is exactly what happened?” A pause, then a nod. “I promise.” A moment passed before some of Celestia’s kinder appearance came back. She reached out and brushed some loose hairs from Sunset’s face before smiling. “Now go to sleep. You have another busy day in class tomorrow.” The girl closed her eyes soon after. She nestled into the pillow a little, but it wasn’t quite as comfortable as she was used to. Neither were the blankets spread over her. And in spite of knowing the headmistress was right at her side, on that night she felt not quite as safe or secure as she was used to… “Sunset? One last thing.” The girl opened her eyes. She gaped in horror on seeing a ghastly, twisted face hovering inches from her own with saber-like teeth and flaming eyes. “DIDN’T I TELL YOU I’D GET OUT?!” At last, Sunset was able to scream. “Nnnyah!” Sunset sat up like a bolt in the command chair of the Rising Sun before looking around in a panic. All she saw, other than the bridge, were the members of the crew looking back at her with surprised glances. She stared at them all for a few moments before she finally eased. Once she did, however, she grit her teeth angrily. She rubbed her eyes as she realized she had not only nodded off but nearly screamed in her sleep, and it made her angrier to feel a healthy amount of cold sweat on her brow. Apparently, this was what happened when she refused to rest until they found her target. As it was, it took her a full minute of calming herself down to make sure she wouldn’t be seen shaking before she was bold enough to look up and call out. “Status.” Her question was directed mostly in front of her, to one area in the center of the airship that had been custom-designed to her own specifications. It consisted of a strange podium of iron, gears, and some crystalline material which was poised and presented in the center. However, right now it had an additional usage. The royal guard stood there with his spear driven right into the center of it, and his hands were both clasping it as small bolts of electricity formed a moving arc with the shaft and the podium surrounding it. He was already looking at her before she spoke. “My lady, are you alright?” The voice had an uncharacteristic level of tension. Sunset frowned again. “I don’t recall asking you how I looked. I said status.” After a pause, the guard slowly turned his head back. “The trail was growing dim for a while,” he answered far more smoothly, “but we’ve gotten close enough to pick up on it again. They’ve ended up going under the Hyperborean Mountains.” Sunset nodded. “So they went with the Griffonstone smugglers after all. Fantastic. We know exactly where they’ll emerge.” The guard turned his head over his shoulder again. “By now, Grifftham City has to at least gotten word of us, to say nothing of the Nighttouched. They may have an agreement with Trottingham but there’s no telling what they’ll do once we cross their borders, or how ready they’ll be for a fight.” “Griffonstone doesn’t have a cannon in service that shouldn’t have been retired six years ago. I think we have enough power to launch one raid on Grifftham City, if need be. What do the others report?” “The Endeavor checked in an hour ago,” the Rising Sun’s first mate joined in. “They say their sweep is clear so they’re flanking us. The Prodigy checked in thirty minutes afterward. They’re following the river south. Ma’am, I…” Sunset smirked. “Trying to save face by bagging at least one Promethian Sigil bearer, huh? Whatever. Just so long as they cover the river route.” “Ma’am,” the first mate continued, “I think you need to take a look at this.” The woman rose from her seat and began to stretch a little. “What is it? Are the Appleloosans changing targets?” “No, ma’am. It’s…well…” “Spit it out, already. If things are going well, I might try to catch some sleep while I can.” “I think you should see for yourself.” Sunset frowned a bit more, but turned to the first mate. This late at night, there wasn’t much in the way of lighting on the bridge save for the royal guard’s arclight and a few candle-like flames mounted in glass at key consoles, but she saw enough to notice she was posted at the ventral periscope station. Stepping around the various stations and railings, she made her way over to it. Taking a moment to push her hair back, she leaned forward and placed her eyes on the goggles. “And what is it that I’m supposed to see?” “The edge of the Equestrian border where it meets the Hyperboreans. We pulled in for a hover here after you…” She swallowed. “…about an hour ago.” Sunset’s lip curled at the reminder of how she fell asleep but kept looking. The view was scaled back for the highest panorama; designed to capture the most amount of land. From their position, Sunset could easily make out the northern edge of the mountains themselves, before they gave way into the inky black forest of Equestria. She saw nothing at first and nearly asked what the issue was, when she caught something odd. An entire section of the forest suddenly shifted one way. Seeing that the rest of the forest stayed solid it couldn’t be wind. Before she could conclude it was a rockslide, however, she realized that the part of the “forest”, almost an entire hill on its own, was not only still moving but moving forward. She looked closer and soon made out more than that. There were teeny, tiny lights, thousands of them, trailing behind the moving hill. And the hill itself wasn’t entirely black but had little specks inside it. Almost like looking at…stars. Spotting that, she realized just what it had to be. “What in the world…?” “It’s staying away from us just like the smaller ones, but…but…” Sunset leaned up from the periscope and looked around the bridge. The crew had been startled when she first woke up, but now she saw they were all looking on edge. Including the first mate. “My lady, we’ve never seen a Light Eater that big even when we flew over the interior of Equestria. There’s Nighttouched and smaller Light Eaters right behind it too. Thousands…tens of thousands.” Sunset looked into the periscope again. She stared at it for several more seconds. “Should we notify the Regent?” “At this point, we abandon this mission for nothing,” Sunset flatly responded, still staring at the periscope. “We’ve come too far.” “Then…what should we do?” Sunset pulled herself away from the station, turned, and glanced at her; raising an eyebrow. “‘Do’?” The first mate, put on the spot, began to look uneasy. “It’s…it’s just that we’ve never seen anything like this before. Not even in the initial surges. It could…they could…they could be trying something.” “And you think it’s our responsibility to stop it? Is that what you’re asking me, officer?” She began to sweat. “N-no, ma’am…yes, ma’am…I mean, no ma’am, but I thought…well, I just…” Sunset snorted with a smile. “You just thought that all of humanity should ‘drop everything and work together when Light Eaters are involved’, huh?” She scoffed and shook her head as she turned back to the royal guard. “Really, commander. If you still think chivalry is a thing, you need to take a good look around Greater Everfree. Flash?” The royal guard, in spite of focusing on his staff, faced Sunset as best as he could. “Milady?” “Get your chariot ready to go and head off the ones going under the Hyperboreans. We’ll use the Grover Peak entrance. Deal with them now. It won’t do me any good to lose the one I need to the Light Eaters and Nighttouched, and from the looks of it every cavern in those mountains is going to be flooded with them soon.” Without the slightest expression of fear or hesitation, the royal guard bowed to her; even though many of the rest of the crew gave Sunset a surprised, and uneasy, glance. She, on her part, simply kept her smirk as she headed back to the captain’s chair. “I suggest you hurry. The big one is moving pretty fast. It won’t be long before your neck will be in as much trouble as theirs.”