//------------------------------// // Nightwatch: Runaway Train // Story: Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories // by Piccolo Sky //------------------------------// “I haven’t been to Grifftham City in a long time, so look around down there! See if you can find anywhere that’s got a whole bunch of Steel Lions!” “What’s…” Rarity shouted back between pants. “A steel…lion…?” “Ugh…trackless engines! I thought the yard for them was on the edge of town! They don’t want anyone stealing them!” “I see ‘em! I see ‘em!” Pinkie shouted again. She pointed down the mountainside once again. The three looked as they ran down the trail. Rarity had a hard time making it out in the dimming light, but she saw what looked like a large number of oddly smooth train engines haphazardly arranged in a square-shaped yard. However, her companions had better eyesight, and soon Dash grinned. “Great, we’re in luck! They must have set up the yard right here from when the tunnel was still under construction! Here’s the deal! We’re gonna grab one of ‘em and use it as a tank to smash through this city to the bridge!” “Er…smash…?” Rarity nervously answered. “Yippee! I always wanted to go for a tank ride!” Pinkie cheered. “But, uh, you think they’ll mind?” Looking again at the yard below them, the three noticed that there were several dark shadows looming over them already. A good eight Nighttouched were already flocking around the yard. One or two of them looked rather big. Dash kept grinning as she cracked her neck. “Nothing to it! I feel way tougher now! Just get them in front of my fists and I’ll take care of it!” She continued to lead the way to the final hairpin turn and beyond. As they ran back one last time, this time headed straight for the yard, they finally left the gravel trail and descended onto the dingy, cracked streets of Grifftham City itself. By now, it was practically pitch black out, but that only spurred Rarity to run on faster. She could hear the sounds of Nighttouched darting to and fro everywhere, but none of them tried to set upon the three of them right away and she wanted to make use of that as long as she could. At any rate, they were still in isolated numbers for the time being. Most of them had to be charging across the rest of the city. There was just enough light left to see the gateway to the yard up ahead. Dash apparently was right about the vehicles being used for tunnel construction, for large amounts of long abandoned materials and tools were piled up haphazardly just outside of the gate. She halted for a moment on seeing the first set of yellow eyes moving about in it, and ducked behind the materials for cover. As the two fell in behind her, she turned to them. “Alright, here’s what’s gonna happen. Me and Pinkie are going to go right in there and bust some heads. Rarity, since your, uh…um…‘glowing gal’ isn’t working as good, you find a working Steel Lion while we’re covering you and start it up.” “Wh-wh…me?” she retorted. “I haven’t the slightest idea how to run one of those engines!” Dash shrugged. “Well, neither do I. Pinkie?” “Nope!” she answered, happily shaking her head. “So we’re all gonna have to do this on the fly. How hard could it be? Folks in Griffonstone use ‘em all the time and most of them never even went to school.” “Oh dear…” Rarity sighed, before quickly looking about herself. After a moment, she spotted an old barrel with several old tool handles protruding from it. She walked over and winced as she looked at them, nervously withholding her hand all the while. After a moment, she grit her teeth and drew one out delicately. Dash gave her a look. “Uh…what are you doing?” “If I’m going to be charging into the jaws of death, I might as well be armed. I only enrolled in one quarter of fencing as an elective, and I found it far too sweat-inducing for my tastes, but hopefully I can remember some of it.” She hoisted what looked like the remains of an old fire poker that had been discarded in the trash, grimacing all the while. “Ugh…must everything in this town be caked in rust and soot?” “Alright, alright,” Dash called out, whirling back around, “let’s not make ourselves a Nighttouched target any longer… Time to be awesome!” Without another word, she barreled straight for the main gate. Pinkie let out a cheer before skipping after her. That left Rarity, who reluctantly grasped her poker with both hands and ran after them. There were two Nighttouched visible as soon as they neared the gate, both appearing to be twisted, oversized versions of groundhogs. They whirled to Dash as she approached, let out a violent chittering noise, and ran toward her. Fighting any wild animal with nothing but skin and fists was normally ill advisable no matter how strong you were, but she didn’t balk in the least. She ran right up to one and, barely even pausing, brought her foot up and dropped the heel down in an axe kick. The skull was split right open in her wake. “That’s one!” The other reared up and gnashed it teeth as she approached, but she nimbly stepped and pivoted before swinging her foot out and smashing it across the face. The creature was snapped up and flung across the yard, before smashing into the side of a half-dismantled trackless engine with a bone-crunching noise. “That’s two!” A screech went out over her head. Dash looked up and saw a bat the size of a large stingray swooping down on her. Its claws were oversized along with its teeth, and it spat out foam as it dove on the unarmed woman. However, her only reaction was a smile. Crouching a bit to store power, she waited for it to get closer then sprung up. As she leapt to meet the bat, she drove her fist skyward in an uppercut. The blow connected in its middle and another crunch went out. The broken creature collapsed to the ground before Dash landed a moment later. “Three down, five to go!” By now, Pinkie had bounced up to Dash’s side and braced for anything else, while Rarity, huffing and bringing up the rear, finally passed the gate and began to look around. After a moment, she staggered toward the first engine that looked intact, while Dash bellowed a war cry. “Come on, you creepy crawlies! I know you’re out there! Come get me!” No sooner had Dash finished shouting that challenge when a deep, thundering roar erupted from around one of the ruined engines so loudly that her ears hurt. Dash’s smug confidence quickly began to wane as deep, rhythmic tramping echoed through the yard. A shape about half the size of one of the engines slowly walked around it. The yellow eyes alone that zeroed in on her and Pinkie were as big as a human head, but the shape of the monstrosity drew far more of their attention as it was the figure of a gigantic male lion. It drooled so much from its massive jaws she could actually hear each small splash hit the ground along with the sounds of its claws raking the dirt. Worst of all, however, was as it came around it swished its tail behind it, only it wasn’t a normal tail. It was segmented and long like a scorpion’s—complete with a large barb. As it turned its head to Dash, the tail curled around once before casually flicking to one side and into the engine behind it. With a massive clang, the entire engine block shifted slightly from the force. “Uh…” she muttered, taking a step backward. “On second thought, stay there. I’ll come to you.” The thing let out another roar so booming that Dash’s hair actually blew back, and then took off in a charge right for her. Quickly tightening up, she dove to one side just as it reached her; sailing right past and smashing into the side of another engine. The headfirst impact was enough to dent in its side, and for a moment its legs faltered beneath it as it stalled. Dash nearly tried to seize advantage of the moment, but before she could she heard a smaller yet still-fearsome roar, like that of a jaguar, behind her. She turned about, and yelled in surprise as a much smaller cat-like monster, this one seeming to be the distorted and engorged remains of a real cat, leapt at her with claws outstretched. Worse than that, two more were right behind it wanting to join in. She managed to sidestep the first, but the two others quickly leapt and swiped out for her neck, forcing her to duck and go into a forward roll to evade them. By that point, even she was blanching at having to fight four Nighttouched at a time. Especially as the biggest one pulled itself up at last, spun around, and charged at her again. Scarcely out of her dodge roll, she rose up only to see it nearly on her. Wincing, she relied on a more unconventional move and turned herself to the side before diving back at the giant monster. Just barely, she managed to slip in between its outstretched claws and under its massive jaw, letting it continue to charge by. As for her, her sideways dive landed her on the ground for a moment. The other three monsters spun about to take advantage of it by pouncing on her together. Yet just as they were about to spring, Pinkie Pie, singing a little to herself again, performed a spinning cartwheel right in front of them. The sudden shift of something in front of their target caused them all to miscalculate their leaps, and they ended up aborting them early and touching down at the wrong spot. This allowed Dash to quickly get to her feet again and caused the three monsters to hesitate on landing. A second later, two went for Pinkie while the third went for Dash’s throat. Unfortunately for the beast, Dash had already shifted targets to it and quickly ran forward to meet it; leaping into the air at the same time it did. Yet as it extended its claws to her, she snapped her body around in a twirl and brought both feet down on its head. The first slammed the skull into its own lower jaw, and the second resulted in a snap from its neck. The monster went limp and crashed into the ground. “Tag, you’re it!” Pinkie cheered as she blew a raspberry at the two headed for her. “Nyah-nyah!” The twisted cats hissed and lashed out for her, one of them pouncing and the other running forward and swiping at her. She whistled and dodged the claws from both before springing backward, flipping in midair to land on her hands, and then flipping off of those as the first monster tried to slash at her again. She giggled again before she took off her own bandanna and brandished it like a bullfighter’s cape, taunting both monsters further. One growled and lashed out at her, but she merely let it flow underneath the cape. She swished it around for the next and it dove at her as well, only for her to snicker as, instead of passing through the cloth to the other side, it ran headfirst into a metal panel of a nearby engine. The impact was so hard that it ended up knocking itself senseless. She put her bandanna back and got ready to brace herself against the remaining one, but stopped on seeing that the much larger Nighttouched had whirled on her as she was the closer target. Nevertheless, she giggled again when it reared up a paw and slammed it down for where she was, simply hopping back to evade it. It did so again a second later, but she not only nimbly leapt back from this one as well, but swiveled her body backward to let the second feline Nighttouched shoot by in front of her in a failed pounce. This made the big one growl. Its segmented tail curled once before it snapped out like a gunshot. Even Pinkie wasn’t able to do more than shift weight before it came about and smashed into her with an audible noise. Dash halted in midstep trying to attack the monster from behind on seeing her turned into a pink blur before she was driven deep into the side of another Steel Lion; enough to leave an impression with her body. While she gasped at that, what was even more shocking was that rather than being turned into a smear Pinkie merely looked a bit dizzy and dazzled. “Ok…” she half-moaned. “I’m it…” Rarity, at the same time, was quickly abandoning one engine after another trying to find a working one. It wasn’t helping that every so often the big monster’s gestures would ruin another engine through a missed strike. Finally, she spotted one that looked mostly intact and wasn’t in immediate danger of being struck, and quickly ran across the battlefield as the remaining monsters turned their full attention on Dash. She reached the side, undid the bulkhead, and quickly entered. Fortunately, the engine room was right in front and not sectioned off at all. She ran into it and looked about, and saw that the controls didn’t look that old either. Unfortunately, beyond that, she didn’t know what to think. The various valves, levers, doors, and the like made about as much sense to her as a book written in Olde Ponish. Scratching her head a few times, she finally recognized a door at the front. She opened it and saw an assortment of half-burned black rocks inside it. “Alright, that’s coal…and I’m pretty sure it needs to be aflame…” She looked around a bit more, before she spotted a canister a bit like a watering can hanging up near the front. She took it down and removed the lid, grimacing at the contents. They seemed like some sort of oil or tar. She looked around a bit more and found a strange device hanging near it. It was a lever holding two pieces of metal together like a set of tweezers. She took it up and gave it a squeeze, and saw it made a small flurry of sparks. Realizing this was some sort of starter, she looked back to the door to the coal and opened it wider before nervously getting to work. Dash wasn’t nearly as nimble as Pinkie was, and found herself forced to backpedal further as the remaining feline Nighttouched and the lion-like one continued to attack her together. The smaller one continuously leapt and pounced at her, while the bigger one alternated between smashing its paws at her, snapping its jaws, or, worst of all, using the scorpion-like tail. Every time it whizzed by Dash felt it cut the air so strongly it almost yanked her off her feet even with enhanced strength, and each time it missed it punctured steel or ripped against the ground. The assault was forcing her back to where she didn’t want to go: a small cul-de-sac made from several ruined engines. Once she was there, she knew she’d be pinned with no out from their attacks. Yet as she neared it, she glanced behind her once and got an idea. Moistening her lips, she continued to let them drive her into it rather than escape. The big one snapped its jaws at her again, and she used the moment to backstep twice, putting herself at a distance from it but well in the surroundings of the wreckage. The smaller one quickly dashed forward and yelled before pouncing again. She sidestepped, but the monster was all too ready to shoot by her. As soon as it had, it landed on the side of the wreckage that now surrounded her and used that as a springboard to pounce and try and get her from behind. Unfortunately for it, that was what Dash was hoping for and quickly dropped into a duck where she was as the larger monster stomped forward. The feline shot over her head and ended up landing in front of her as the giant Nighttouched brought its paw down. With a bone-crunching noise, the smaller Nighttouched was flattened. Dash grinned. “Heh! Missed me!” The beast roared on seeing its failure and immediately snapped its tail out again. However, Dash was waiting for this as well and moved as soon as she saw it begin to coil its appendage. It lashed out a moment later right past her and into the metal barrier with a resounding crunch. The barb blasted out some of the metal wreckage while embedding itself in the rest. The Huntsman hoped that the monster would have destroyed the blockade for her, but much to her pleasure when the Nighttouched tried to bring its tail back, it shifted the metal a bit but remained stuck. It snarled and pulled harder, but it stayed anchored. After a moment, she grinned again on seeing it immobilized. She quickly whipped back her fist and started to advance, meaning to inflict a final blow… A loud screech interrupted her. She looked skyward only to cry out as a second bat dove on her with claws outstretched. She had to bring her arms up to deflect them before it could scrape for her eyes or face. However, the flying Nighttouched didn’t stop at one attack. It continued to swipe and slash out for her, screeching all the way. And as she struggled with it, the larger Nighttouched slowly began to yank its tail loose. Rarity, meanwhile, to the tune of a rather pungent odor, had managed to get a fire going inside the engine. Quickly shutting the door before it got too hot, she began to look around more frantically than before now that there was a light source to attract more Nighttouched. Unfortunately, most of the controls and levers were still a mystery to her. She tried to trace a few of them with her eyes, before she finally shrugged and reached for one. After hesitating a moment more she gave it a pull. The sound of a sharp clang, like something had just fallen off, came from the back of the engine. She went a little wide eyed, before backing away from the lever as if it had just bitten her. “Come on, Rarity… It can’t be harder than a steam taxi, and you take those all the time…although you try not to stare too long at the drivers…” Dash kept trying to form a fist long enough to drive a blow into the bat, but not only was its angle making it impossible to aim a killing stroke but it was battering away at her too hard to get ready. She had to constantly smack its talons aside as she couldn’t simply block it, or it would cut up her hands while she was trying. And, much to her displeasure, she was still struggling to deflect it when the monster finally yanked its tail free of the metal debris. She struggled to face it, but the bat chose that moment to reach out and seize her wrists in its surprisingly strong grip. It leaned over and attempted to bite for her face, forcing her to reach up and seize it by the jaws. She managed to hold it back, but couldn’t get free, and soon she began to panic on seeing that lion-like Nighttouched open its mouth wide enough to engulf half of her and ran forward. “I’m coming, Dashie! Wheee!” While the big monster kept bounding toward her, Dash turned on hearing Pinkie’s voice. To her surprise, she had straddled the stunned feline Nighttouched from earlier. While it had recovered from its blow, she was now yanking it by the ears and directing it toward the Huntsman as it struggled to dislodge her. On spotting her, the smaller monster seemed ready to pounce again on her if it couldn’t get Pinkie off its back. Dash spotted it, then glanced to her other side and saw the big Nighttouched still coming. An idea came to mind. Smirking, she let both keep getting closer as she held back the monstrous bat, and finally at the last moment she let her feet go out from underneath her while forcing the bat upward. The feline Nighttouched leapt at the same time and Pinkie, seeming to know what she was going to do, leapt off as well. As a result, the cat sailed through the air, missed Dash entirely, and clamped its jaws around the neck of the bat instead. The thing screeched and let Dash go as it was carried through the air and right into the waiting jaws of the lion-like Nighttouched. Better yet, the two didn’t merely land in its mouth but continued to sail in until they plugged the thing’s throat. Dash quickly backward rolled to avoid the charge of the monster, but it planted its own paws a second later to grind to a halt and retched. Soon it began to spasm and twist while holding its mouth open; choking on its own companions. Its deadly tail flicked about behind it randomly, but offered no more threat. The Huntsman got to her feet and, seeing the thing temporarily stunned, grinned again and tightened her fists. “My turn!” Breaking into a short charge, she leapt into the air, enough to go over the monster’s head, and then came down. The thing looked up to her, but was helpless to do anything but see her fist smash into the space above one of its eye sockets. There was no bone there, and as a result one of its eyes was partially dislodged from her punch. Its head snapped downward, and Dash quickly landed and unloaded. Her fists went off like thunderclaps, first driving into its lower jaw and splitting it along its mandibular symphysis, then smashing its entire head to the side in spite of its size and power, before driving her hand in and smashing it in a pressure point at the neck joint. In spite of its colossal size, the Nighttouched was left stunned and partially immobilized, allowing Dash to advance on it and pound her next blows as hard as she could right into its snout. More bones breaking echoed and two teeth fell out as it actually staggered back. Finally, it bellowed again and reared up, bringing its broken and bloodied face away from Dash, flashing its claws, and ready to slam down on top of her. However, she kept on smiling as she put her arms at her sides. As the beast came down, she let herself fall onto her back. In spite of its efforts to slash and crush her, the monster missed her entirely and positioned is chest right over her body. Immediately she swung both of her legs up together and drove them hard and deep into its sternum. Multiple cracks went out as the bone was dislodged from the rest of the rib cage and went inward, crushing the heart and lungs. The already-choking monster heaved out the remains of the other two Nighttouched, but it only gave a wet gurgle afterward. As it staggered, Dash quickly rolled free, before it sank to the ground a moment later. As it went still, the black material began to slough off of it…signifying its death at last. Dash quickly sprung to her feet as Pinkie came over, pumping her fist. “Yeah! And that makes eight!” Pinkie made an excited squeal and nearly answered, before her face fell. Dash turned and saw that she was looking past her and actually looked a bit frightened. “Um…you don’t suppose we did enough to scare that Light Eater over there into not attacking, do you?” Dash’s own smile disappeared. “What?” She wheeled around and saw it. Sliding and gliding over the top of one of the wrecked engines was a glistening gleaming entity of blackness, shining all over like a starry night. As vague as it was it was hard to tell if it was imitating a snake or slug, but it hardly mattered. All that did matter was its dim moonspot eyes were focused on the two of them and the auras they were emanating. And now that it had them, it quickly began to pick up its pace. “Uh, Rarity?” Dash called out; her own voice breaking in fear. “I think we need to get out of here!” Misinterpreting that as a need to hurry up, the designer made a tiny fist and smashed it against one of the consoles, only to cry out and hold it back on hurting it on the rough metal. Nevertheless, she scowled at it. “This is ridiculous! I’ve had to take apart and put back together a Harpist-brand sewing machine to finish an overnight deadline and I can’t figure out this outdated contraption?” She groaned. “Oh, let’s face facts… I’m no sort of engineer.” She stood a moment, but then drew herself up indignantly. “But pish-posh to that! I just have to dig deep to that time we learned about steam engines. Ms. Cheerilee even brought that one in she cobbled together from…” Rarity suddenly looked up. Her memory triggered. In her mind’s eye, she saw back to when she was a little girl at a desk. She watched Ms. Cheerilee walk in one day; holding in her arms a rather clunky and odd-looking contraption. She explained how she would be talking about steam power that day and set it on her desk for all the students to see. And when she had, she knocked the embroidered frame over that she said one of her first students made for her. It had been so flattering that she kept it there not so much as a title but a personal motivation to give her best every class session. Day after day, Rarity had seen that walking in and coming out of the school. All of her students had for years. She could see her setting it back up, and she could see the stitched lettering on it. Ms. Daisy Cheerilee—a guide to a child’s inspiration. She thought about that a moment longer before she raised her hand to the sky. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Inspiration’s Guide—Daisy Cheerilee!” Rarity cried out as her aura immediately flared to full life. Just like with Pinkie and Dash, the light came forth, although this time hers was a purple or lavender. It traced out a visage over her head, and for a moment she found herself looking up and seeing Ms. Cheerilee smiling down on her; the perfect picture of her health in the prime of her life. Just how she remembered her as a child. She would have tried to touch her if she hadn’t still been crying in shock, but before she could the image shattered and fell over her. Rarity actually shut her eyes for the next part, as she could feel power and vitality seeping into her. She could also feel the fabric of her clothes lengthening, altering, and changing form into something new. She continued to hold until she stopped feeling it, then opened her eyes and looked herself over. She was quite surprised. Her attire had not only fully mended, but had improved dramatically. She was now clad in a splendid coat with great showy buttons and an intricate trim. Her dress had been replaced for looser pants with tall, freshly polished boots, and her hands were covered with long black gloves. Over the ensemble she wore a high collared cape with a white scarf, likewise trimmed gold. Finally, her hair had been cleaned, combed, and restyled before being topped off with a feathered chapeau tilted ever so alluringly over her brow. Rarity took a moment to inspect herself. “Hmm…” she muttered as she looked over her shoulder. “A bit outdated, but also quite stylish and charming. I dare say I feel like the lead in one of those new age operas.” She held out her hand and turned it over, admiring herself a bit more before smiling. “Although I could get quite used to it.” “Rarity!” Hearing the cry, she quickly snapped out of it. “Oh, right, right…” She reached for her poker, only to grimace again. She looked at her glove regretfully. “It’s such lovely new suede… It seems such a pity to stain it already. Well, such is life…” Sighing, she plucked up the tool. She nearly dropped it again as not only was it far easier to lift, but her aura quickly spread down over it next. In moments, it transformed too. No longer was it a rusty poker but an elegant rapier with a blade and hilt that gleamed like silver, complete with inlaid gemstones. “Oh-ho! Much better!” she smiled before turning and running for the hatch. It took her only moments to reach it and charge out. “Rainbow Dash! Pinkie Pie! Take a look at...AAAH!” Her momentary joy at “using her symbol properly” was smothered on seeing the long, snake-like Light Eater coming their way. Dash and Pinkie were already backing up. Neither of them risked getting anywhere near without even having a weapon to their name. However, it was so long it was spreading its body out widely from side to side as it kept closing. Dash looked behind her for more room to back up, only to glimpse Rarity. “There you are! Why didn’t you come out when I shouted the first time?” She paused, looking her over. “Don’t tell me you were changing your clothes this whole time!” Pinkie looked around at her next and smiled again. “Ooo! Rarity’s using her symbol the right way too!” The Light Eater, on its part, picked up its speed now that it had three light sources in front of it. Rarity stiffened a moment, but then swallowed and steeled herself. “Well…if everything else about you two is stronger, maybe I can manage something better.” She held her free hand out and aimed for it. “Don’t try and fight it!” Dash yelled. “Just run this way before it cuts us off! You can’t hurt-” “Fireballfireballfireballfireball!” Just as she hoped, the power she had used before not only came to her but came to her faster and stronger than before. Her entire hand lit up like an ember before a fireball the size of a cantaloupe snapped out for the Light Eater. Dash groaned as she ran over to grab Rarity by the extended arm, meaning to drag her on. Before she could pull her, the fireball struck part of the Light Eater’s lengthy body and burst into a campfire-sized flame on it. At once, the Light Eater stopped slithering forward and began to writhe over itself like a worm that had been pierced by a hook. Dash froze where she stood. Rarity, who only now had enough presence of mind to realize what she had just done and how it should have failed, stared in open-mouthed surprise. “Did…did that…?” “Did that just…?” Pinkie herself looked amazed, watching as the Light Eater kept squirming until it pulled itself off the rapidly dying flames, but even then it seemed to need a moment to recover. During that time, she began to look curious and calmly started to walk toward it. Both Dash and Rarity spotted her, becoming even more surprised. “Pinkie, what are you doing?! Stay away from that thing!” “You can’t let one of those beasts touch you!” She ignored them and kept walking until she stood only a foot away from it. The thing continued to calm, and finally smoothed itself out and began to turn to her. Before it fully did, however, she simply pulled back her foot, stayed standing on one leg for a moment, and then swung it forward and kicked the side of the creature. The foot connected, and it winced and recoiled. A moment later, it reared up before its amorphous head split open and revealed a face full of long fangs. Before it could strike, however, Pinkie let out a loud and exaggerated gasp. She turned around and ran back to the others just as the thing snapped for where she was. “Dash, Rarity, you won’t believe this! But I think this magic shiny glowy stuff around us actually lets us hit Light Eaters without getting hurt!” Both stood there dumbfounded. After eight years of living in terror of things that were considered anywhere from demons to living nightmares, it was hard to just accept that. However, they did part from one another. As for the Light Eater, it reared back up and drew itself even higher. A moment later, it spun to all three of them and cracked its mouth open wider. Both Dash and Rarity looked up to it, prompting Pinkie to turn as well, before it hissed and struck for them. Out of a mixture of instinct and risk-taking, Dash winced, closed her eyes, and swung out her fist for it as the head came down. A smack rang out as its head was snapped to one side and its jaws clamped on nothing. Dash opened one eye, looking nervously back, but then opened the other on seeing nothing happened. She pulled her hand back, looked it over, but it was unmarked. No stains or defilement. “It…it worked… Pinkie’s right! I just punched that thing and I feel fine!” The Light Eater shook its amorphous head, before opening its jaws again with even more teeth. It drew more of its body around and reared up yet again. Before it could go any further, Rarity, also acting mostly on panic, advanced and drove her newly-made rapier forward. Remembering her one quarter course, she found herself instinctively yelling: “Thrust!” The blade pierced right into and through the middle of the creature, causing droplets of its material to shed and deteriorate into black mist. Once again, it went into a violent fit, causing Rarity to rip her sword out and back up with the others for a moment. Yet as it continued to spasm, she realized she had indeed hurt it. And on that note, she winced, cringed, and finally dove forward to swipe out again. This time, her rapier sliced right through the middle of its body. The Light Eater’s two halves toppled to the ground. They flipped and flopped on the ground a moment, but then went still. Soon after, its starry material bubbled and dissolved into black mist before their eyes. The three were left staring in dumbfounded shock; slowly realizing what they had just done. The lot was silent for a few moments. Finally, Dash burst into a smile. “We are…sooooo awesome!” She yelled, suddenly reaching out and wrapping her arms around the two of them. Pinkie grinned back enthusiastically while Rarity was still left stunned. “Did you just see that? We just killed an actual Light Eater! Get that? An actual Light Eater! We’re, like, the only people in the world who can do that! Do you know what this means?” “Oh, oh, I know!” Pinkie shouted enthusiastically. “It means we’re going to get to kill a lot more of them in a couple minutes when every last one of them is attracted to all the light we’re giving off so they all come running at us together!” Rarity’s look reverted to dread. Dash’s own face became far more uncomfortable. “Uh…good point. Let’s celebrate how great we are later.” She spun fully to Rarity. “Did you get the engine running?” She hesitated. “Well…in a manner of speaking.” The three were soon back inside the engine’s main compartment, much to Rarity’s relief. The light they were giving off did indeed start attracting more Nighttouched, and she knew now Light Eaters wouldn’t be far behind. Even if they could touch them safely, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t fight back. And the three of them couldn’t kill every last one of the monsters in Grifftham City. She gestured to the controls. “I started a fire in that coal compartment, but I haven’t the foggiest idea what to do next.” Dash looked around for a moment before looking at a gauge. An indicator was on it, and it was slowly building up. At the moment it was moving out of a zone marked in yellow and black, but beyond that was a long green zone before a yellow and finally a red one at the far end. She gestured to it. “I think this is for the boiler. It’s building up steam. We should be able to go in just a bit. Good thing they built these things after they made the quick-starting engines…” “Thank goodness,” Rarity sighed. “Greater power or not, I don’t want to risk getting bitten or clawed by one of those monstrosities again… Now we might be able to find a way to stop that flood before it reaches that bridge, though.” Dash looked up to the can and lighter that Rarity had used to start up the boiler. She still saw some gunky tar caked around the nozzle. She smirked as a thought came to her. “I think I might help with that…” She turned back around and started to head for the hatch. “Come on.” Pinkie bounded after her, but Rarity was aghast. “Are you mad? We’ve been lucky so far, but we don’t want to attract any more of those things!” “We’ll only be out long enough for the boiler to finish building! Remember all that equipment they had for tunnel building we ran past?” “Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?” “Heh, I got an idea…” Three minutes later, the fence to the engine yard was knocked down as the trackless engine burst through like a living battering ram made of metal. It immediately began to fishtail one way and another as it wavered and skid toward one of the roads. Within the control area, Rarity shrieked at Dash’s steering as she seemed to randomly turn the control wheels. She clung to Pinkie in fright, who, in turn, took it all as a game. “Tee-hee! I like screaming on a fun ride too, Rarity!” She put her arms back around her and cried out too. “Wheeeeee!” “Would both of you cool it?!” She shouted behind her. “I’m just getting a feel for her!” “You’re about to run us into that building!” Rarity shouted back. “Oh…whoops!” She quickly snapped the wheel around again, making the engine lurch so hard one way that it nearly spilled over completely. However, just barely, they scraped by the building before it swiveled back onto the road. While it took out a pair of street lamps along the way, it slowly got back onto the main drag. After that, Dash smirked as she pushed it up to as high as the throttle would allow given their steam buildup. “Alright, we’re off! Full speed ahead! We got a lot of ground to cover!” The truth was even the three minute delay was too much for both them as well as the people running across the bridge to the east. Rarity’s worst fears had been justified as more Nighttouched began to arrive. With their new enhanced abilities, they were able to take out the first few with ease, but larger and deadlier ones soon followed, and this time they brought much bigger and deadlier Light Eaters with them. To be honest, none of them wanted to risk attacking one again for fear the first one had somehow been a cosmic fluke. However, Dash insisted on grabbing one particular wagon and attaching it to the back before taking off. Now they were driving a tankard full of tar used for railroad track paving behind them, plowing down the streets of Grifftham City. Most of the crowd that had been gathering behind them had been left in the dust, but ones that could fly or run particularly fast were still coming after them. None of them could catch up or stop the engine, however. And whenever they came across an abandoned bit of debris or wagon ahead of them, their engine just smashed right through it or rolled over it barely losing speed. “Alright, so which way to the canal?” Rarity swallowed, fanning herself a little. “This garment may be fashionable, but it’s definitely a little on the warm side…” Once composed, she looked out the side window, and gestured. “Hang a left at this next intersection.” “You sure?” “Yes, I’m sure! This will run us alongside the canal perfectly! I saw it from the mountainside!” “You only got a glimpse of it, though!” “Darling, if there is one thing I possess, it’s an eye for patterns. Trust me.” Dash exhaled. “Alright. Hang on then!” She swung the steering wheel sharply once again, this time flinging both Pinkie and Rarity to one side. Pinkie giggled the whole time while Rarity muttered a silent prayer, but although the engine scraped up part of the curb they managed to straighten out again and keep going. On steadying it, while Rarity was still getting her bearings, Dash looked out the window to the right. “Hey, whatd’ya know? You’re right!” Rarity clutched her chest as she inched over to the window and looked. There was a row of buildings still blocking their view, but in between the gaps she could look out and see the canal. More importantly, she could see the thousand of eyes scurrying around inside it all moving their way along. “My word…” she nearly gasped. “I’ve never seen so many of them moving together…” “Oh, I have!” Pinkie chirped. “Right over here!” Rarity looked up and saw her pointing at the other window. She glanced outside. It took her a second or two, but eventually enough wide alleys went by where she managed to look past to the adjoining street. Much to her surprise, she saw not only collections of yellow eyes over there as well, but several of the shapes in the lead looked like the massive lion creature they had fought before. This time, however, there was a whole “herd” of them. “Oh dear…” She looked up. “Rainbow Dash, I think we have a bit of a problem.” “You’re telling me!” she shouted back. “We’re starting to get right into them!” Rarity puzzled about what that meant, until she suddenly heard a knock against the metal chassis of the engine. She looked up, only to hear another soon after. A third came not long after that followed by a fourth. She glanced again to the window, but this time looked forward. She winced at what she saw. The Nighttouched from either mass were starting to spill out into the adjoining streets, including theirs. Every so often one would crawl out of an alley, a doorway, or a gutter and rush toward the engine. They ground each one that tried to bits, but she knew right away that if too many of them massed even they couldn’t smash through them. Nevertheless, that was only part of the problem. She looked back to Dash. “I meant to say that there’s another stream of those monsters to our left!” “What? You’re kidding me!” she shouted back angrily, before groaning. “Forget them for now! Let’s deal with the original problem! Both of you get to the back!” Pinkie immediately began to move that way, but Rarity paused. “Wait, why?” “I need you to open up the rear hatch, then Rarity…you use your little magic trick to light that tar tank on fire!” “Wh-wh-what?! Are you trying to set us on fire?!” “Trust me! Pinkie, as soon as I yell back, you cut it loose from the back!” “Okie-dokie-lokie!” she cheerfully answered, not questioning in the least. Rarity was left aghast and staring between the two a moment, but realized they didn’t have the luxury of questions. Groaning, she turned and headed for the back of the trackless engine herself. They soon reached it, where another bulkhead for another hatch was waiting for them. Rarity grimaced a little at the thought of hearing those periodic knocking sounds on the Steel Lion, making her think that it had to be more of those monsters trying to force their way in, but nevertheless she simply held up her sword and braced herself as Pinkie grasped the handle and gave it a spin. With a hiss of hydraulics, the hatch slowly opened up, and the two of them were confronted with the bleak Griffonstone air and the sound of a dirty engine chugging as they watched the city fly by. Much to Rarity’s displeasure, she could see at least five sets of eyes behind them still following them. Nevertheless, she swallowed one more time before raising her free hand. She had to force herself to say it, but finally she chanted. “Littlefireballlittlefireballlittlefireballlittlefireball…” On the fourth repetition, a tiny ball of flame no bigger than her thumb popped off of her outstretched hand and sailed onto the tankard. It was hardly enough to burst it open, but the small flame was enough to set much of the gunk residue around the opening on fire. It quickly ignited into a decent sized flame and began to spread over it. Rarity immediately grew uncomfortable, realizing it wouldn’t take long for the fires to penetrate it and risk an eruption. However, she soon had something far more immediate to worry about, for the new light soon diverted the attacking Nighttouched. The sounds of them striking the sides of the engine cut off, only for them to fly to the rear and begin hovering over the trailing tankard. Rarity cried out on seeing several more of the giant bats along with giant birds beginning to descend, especially when some of them spotted the two women. Screeching, they readjusted their pattern and moved in. Rarity nervously brandished her rapier. “Pinkie, if you have any manner of weapon on you, I suggest you produce it!” “Weapon?” Pinkie echoed, before giggling. “Rarity, that’s just silly! Gaitians are pacifists! We only fight when something’s about to attack us! I don’t have any weapons on me!” “Wait, what?” However, she had no time to follow up that comment, because one of the birds pitched into a dive and shot for the hatch opening. She shrieked before quickly swiping her blade out at it, managing to tag it and take off a wing. Unfortunately, the rest immediately moved in and mobbed her together. Some dove while others flapped in and clawed, but soon she was swamped. Rarity managed to drive her rapier point into the next one that came, but as it fell it weighed her sword down. That enabled the others to quickly move in on her while unprotected. Two large bats reached out and clawed and tore at her immobilized arm. She tried to wrench it free, but they held fast and started to tear into her coat sleeve. Her eyes widened, then creased in anger. “I just got this brand new coat!” she fumed, and pointed her free hand in their faces. “Icicleicicleicicleicicle!” Not one but three razor sharp darts erupted from her fingers, much sharper and stronger than before, and pierced the bats like deadly knives. Neither was killed but both screeched and fell back. That only allowed more to flow in behind them, though. They extended their beaks and claws as they tried to sweep into the hatch opening, and she responded by quickly raising her sword and slashing at the air in front of her. Two of them reached for her only to get lacerations across their digits, causing them to abort and flap back, but they continued to swarm—trying to hook around her swiping blade or get a peck in edgewise. Just as Rarity was beginning to feel her arms tiring, a flurry of white granules suddenly flew over the entire flock. The bats hissed and spat as it fell into their large eyes and nostrils, forcing their flights to abort and to fall back. The birds, on the other hand, had the granules slip in between their wing feathers, and as a result they began to falter and fall out of the sky all together. Rarity was suddenly in the clear, and, puzzled at what had just happened, turned and looked behind her. Pinkie, who had seemingly produced a small bag of salt out of her poofy hair, was now shaking it out and letting the wind around them blast the creatures with the material. She snickered as she closed up the bag and stuffed it back inside. “I knew bringing ma’s special seasoned salt was a good idea!” Rarity was a bit dumbfounded, but could hardly argue. She looked back outside, raising her sword and waiting for more attacks. However, although Nighttouched were still in pursuit, her main concern was the fact that the fire had spread across the entire tar tankard. It could burst at any moment, and when it did both she and Pinkie would be covered with the flaming gunk. Before she could worry any longer, however, the homes on one side of them broke, and she saw nothing but the canal, as well as the flood of Nighttouched coming down it, just as their own vehicle managed to inch in front of the leading edge. At that moment she heard Dash yell. “Cut it loose!” “You got it!” Pinkie answered, heedlessly going right to the edge of the engine and actually stepping out of the hatch. A moment later, she reached over, grabbed the bolt securing the trailer to the rear of the engine and simply pulled it out. At the exact same time, Rarity was flung to the ground as the engine took yet another sharp turn. She heard the gears whine and the wheels squeal as they dug into the road enough to rip off some of the pavement. She cried out in alarm again as she saw the world swing around behind them, and their engine go one way while the flaming tar tankard was left to go the other. She was still being flung for a loop as it rolled to the edge of the canal and over the side… A loud, gooey pop went off a moment later, sending out an eruption of flaming tar bits everywhere. She quickly yanked herself inside as many of the enflamed fragments came their way, and she saw several smack on top of their trackless engine before Pinkie Pie, ignoring this entire calamity, simply hopped inside and pulled the hatch down again before shutting it. Swallowing, Rarity forced herself back up again and pressed her face against the rear window. The flood of Nighttouched were blocked. She was just in time to see them all begin to halt on finding the canal filled with flames. Using it as a barrier was perfect. If stopped any other way the monsters might have fled or tried to get out of the canal, but faced with a light source all they could do was encircle it. Rarity risked a shaky smile before she pulled away from the window. Both she and Pinkie ran back up to the front and moved on either side of Dash. “It worked! We stopped them!” “Alright! Now let’s see if we can stop that other group. Look out and tell me what you see!” Rarity and Pinkie moved to either window, with the former of the two taking the one closest to the Nighttouched gathering. She grimaced again on seeing how many of them there were and how ferocious, but she also managed to look ahead further along the road. She blinked a few times before leaning in her head closer. Her eyes widened. “My word…” “What is it?” “I think there’s been a gas fire! There’s a pillar of flames right down the middle of that street on our side of the canal!” Dash scowled. “Fantastic! What idiot did that? It’s going to attract every Nighttouched and Light Eater in this town that gets close enough to see it through the smog! And it’s right along the main road to the bridge! It’s practically lining everyone up for an execution block!” “Hey, I got it!” Pinkie chirped. “Let’s set another big fire and get them to go running away from everyone!” “We can’t do that now! We only had the one tar tankard! We’ll never be able to make a fire big enough!” “Not to mention what fire we are making probably isn’t what’s preferable,” Rarity moaned. “Rainbow Dash, I don’t know how to tell you this, but that last explosion ended up being a bit too severe. I’m pretty sure several pieces of flaming tar landed on top of the engine.” Dash straightened. “Wait…” she spoke much more quietly. “Did you just say we’re on fire?” “Yes!” A pause. “Why are you sounding like that’s somehow a good thing?” She didn’t answer, only smirked wider. “Both you and Pinkie better hold on tight. I got another idea!” “Wha-aaaaat!” Rarity’s question was cut off as the engine suddenly made another sharp turn, courtesy of Dash swinging the wheel wildly again to the side. In response, the trackless engine made a sharp lurch over to the left, moving it closer to the stampede of Nighttouched. However, she stopped short of turning it completely around. Instead, she looked out to the controls, and finally reached and grasped one they identified as the steam boiler release. She quickly cranked it up all the way, and Rarity and Pinkie were both thrown to the floor as it accelerated even faster. “What are you doing? We’ll run out of steam like that!” “Just need to crank it for a bit farther! Long enough to get ahead!” Rarity didn’t argue. Instead, she reached out and grasped for whatever she could find that was solid enough to hold her steady. Pinkie, on the other hand, leapt up and cheered at the acceleration. The engine itself sped up to 55 km per hour and then blasted past that to 65 and finally 75. The streets began to fly by far more rapidly, but still they could see the Nighttouched running alongside them and so Dash kept pushing it. The train tore through any other creatures that tried to attack it, going so far as to smash one deer Nighttouched that ran in front of it into ground beef. Going as fast as they were, they lost some speed each time but still managed to go faster than the stampede. Finally, as the burning gas line up ahead got much closer than any of them wanted, they finally reached the head of the column. Dash kept letting them chug onward beyond that, even as the boiler began to hiss and whine. She looked out the side window as she kept driving the engine, glancing at the passing buildings while they kept plowing forward. A large metallic snap went off from one side of the engine, and a fierce rattling went out soon later. Rarity stiffened on realizing the engine finally pushed itself too far and she feared in moments they’d lose more than whatever broke loose. Yet that fear was soon compounded as Dash swung the wheel about in the sharpest manner yet. This time, the engine kicked up enough to go onto half of its wheels, and Rarity screamed while Pinkie laughed as the whole compartment lurched enough for her to slide against and onto one of the walls. She thought for sure they would tip over, until the entire engine smashed hard into a building side. Rattling pounded against the engine as it gouged a rift into the brickwork, and it lost so much speed that it seemed if they didn’t fall they would still smash the engine completely. Again, however, by some miracle, the smash into the building instead acted to shove the engine back and right it; leaving it free to keep chugging forward again. That last move had taken something out of the Steel Lion. A high pitched whine came from the main engine. The steam boiler had to have cracked. Another whistle like a loud kettle joined it soon after, indicating more damage. The rattling on the wheels below them increased as well. Yet none of that was nearly as intensive as the sounds of scraping that burst out on either side of the engine soon after. “What in heaven’s name are you doing?!” “Driving this hunk of iron right down an alleyway!” “Have you completely lost your mind?!” “Just get ready, because we’re gonna smash this thing up in a few seconds!” Rarity didn’t even bother crying out this time as the engine around them continued to whine and deteriorate. She only moaned before cringing into a ball and putting her hands behind her head and neck and shutting her eyes. “Hey, keep ‘em open!” Pinkie shouted to her. “That’s the most fun part of a ride!” Dash grit her own teeth and braced herself as the engine kept going. It lost more speed as more parts of it snapped and broke loose, but for the most part continued to chug forward far faster than any of them could run. Excess heat began to pour off of the controls, and a smell of burning wafted through the air. She risked looking out the window, but for several more seconds all she saw were buildings flying by; most of them getting damaged by the engine as it struggled to squeeze through the narrow space. Finally, it broke as the engine burst out into a street…just as a pair of the lion-like Nighttouched rushed into the engine’s path. The vehicle slammed into both of them with its remaining momentum. It was hard enough to break bones on its initial impact, but assuming they both survived they would find themselves swept up in front of the train and brought along with it. Moments later, the trackless engine smashed them along with itself into the side of the building across the street so hard that half of the side of it collapsed on top of it. The three occupants of the engine were rattled about like beans in a can, tossed to and fro and into controls, seating, panels, and assorted other irregular metal objects. Even at the low speed of around 55 km per hour at that point, if they hadn’t all been enhanced by their mysterious symbols they would have been suffering far more serious injuries and broken bones themselves. As it was, all three were left sore and in a disheveled pile on the ground when they finally settled, including Pinkie. They lay there for several moments as the machine around them hissed, sputtered, and slowly let out the rest of its steam. The sound of fire burning on top of it slowly became more audible. At last, Pinkie raised a hand. “And that’s…step three.” “Yay…we’re awesome…” Dash half-muttered. Rarity groaned and finally started to move. “Let’s just get out of here. Between this engine burning and that fire up ahead, they’re going to be on us in…” She trailed off, and the other two went still as well. As they lay there, they realized they felt a light tremor. After a moment they felt another one. And then another after that, a bit stronger, soon afterward. All three began to look fearful. “Uh-oh…I remember those giant footsteps…” The three scrambled to their feet, fueled by fresh anxiety. Soon all three were rushing to the intact side hatch. Rarity reached it first and quickly grasped it and gave it a sharp rotation, undoing the hydraulics and popping it open. She filed out with Dash right behind her and Pinkie bringing up the rear. Fortunately, their engine was now forming an effective, burning roadblock against the Nighttouched that would have otherwise flooded the street; leaving them with an open road ahead leading into a square at a junction between two roads. It took them only moments to realize this square was the very same source of the fire they had seen. The broken gas main was just up ahead belching a pillar of flame into the sky. In fact, the sky looked like it had actually cleared up enough to where the same fire could be seen over half the city. However, that only held their attention for a few moments. What truly caught them was the fact that three individuals were standing their ground and facing them now. A woman clad in a white robe with red trim cupping her hands to her mouth, a more dangerous-looking woman hefting a warhammer in light armor, and a woman in a black cloak and wide-brimmed hat brandishing what looked like a wand in their midst. All three of them were emanating the same soft glow as Rarity, Dash, and Pinkie. They seemed to recognize the same thing as they stared right back at them. Rarity and the wand-bearer spoke at the same time. “Who in Greater Everfree are those people?”