As high as the flames had burned from the initial explosions, they had largely subsided by the time the Rising Sun lifted off with its captain, crew, and new prisoner. The area around where they had fired was mostly smoldering with the surrounding vegetation burning enough to give off a fiery dim light, but other than upturned dirt, rocks, and wood there wasn’t much sign of any other form of life. Until, that was, a portion of the overturned, ash-covered ground began to shift and heave.
After a moment, it lifted up enough to reveal the sizeable burnt remains of a tree trunk that had been embedded in the ground. It revealed Applejack, gleaming with the power of her Anima Viri, grunting and straining to shove it aside. No sooner did she push it away enough to lean up than a loud gasp came from beneath her. Ripping herself out of the dust, dirt, and ash, Rarity sat upright with a frazzled and panicked look.
She gasped for several moments before she gained enough of her breath to screech. “They almost blew us up!”
“Ya’ think?” Applejack hissed through clenched teeth as she managed to shove the log enough to one side to roll off. As soon as she did, she hissed and leaned back, looking over her body. She had only called the Anima Viri after the blast, and as a result her body was covered with bruises and burns as well as soot and her side was bleeding from a rather deep gash. She put her hand on it, pulling back still-fresh blood, before she winced even more as she felt something on the edge of her wound. She grasped it and forcefully yanked it out, crying out when she did and revealing it to be a piece of metal shrapnel.
She tossed it aside and clenched the gash. “Yer lucky that tree got between us and the blast when I grabbed you and ran fer cover! Otherwise we’d have been chopped to pieces!”
Rarity continued to moan as she picked herself up, although she grimaced uncomfortably on seeing Applejack’s sorry state. A moment later, however, her look grew more worried. “You…don’t suppose the others managed to make it to the surrounding foliage before the blasts hit, do you?”
Applejack paused; her look quickly turning from pain to fear. She looked up and began to glance around along with Rarity, but nothing was readily apparent except smoke, flames, and the remains of the clearing.
“Rainbow Dash?”
“Fluttershy? Pinkie Pie?”
“Anyone? Someone say something!”
In spite of her state, Applejack forced herself to her feet as she kept looking around. Rarity began to move about the area, glancing in one shadow after another, before she gave out a gasp. Applejack turned to it and quickly did the same.
There was a soot-covered body on the ground a short distance away, but unlike the two of them it had not been shielded. It was covered with no less than eight different pieces of shrapnel embedded in it along with three long splinters of fractured wood. That much debris must have been fatal.
Nevertheless, it shifted after a moment. Rarity nearly ran forward and called out to tell whoever it was not to move, but instead, much to her surprise and Applejack’s, the body stiffly picked itself up and off the ground. As it did, the “clean” part was revealed, showing that it was pressed around Fluttershy like a human shield. She herself was practically petrified at what had happened to her but looked intact. The one on her slowly let her go and got her feet underneath her before slowly standing up.
In spite of the soot, at this point the two women could see the hair was poofy and curly if not a bit slumped, which meant it could be only one person. She remained hunched over with her hair over her face for a moment, not looking up or moving, before her hands went to the nearest piece of shrapnel in her back she could manage. It was hard, as she had to work over the other pieces embedded in her, but in the end she grasped it.
With a simple twist, she pulled it out and tossed it to the ground. Not a drop of blood was on it.
Applejack’s jaw began to slacken as she watched Pinkie slowly pull out one object after another embedded in her body. She and Rarity could barely make out a popping and squishing noise, but none of them left a mark or had any blood on them. Soon she was down to the wood and yanked them out too, pulling out several inches with each one. By the time she pulled out the last, Fluttershy had recovered enough to at least look up to her; only to go even more slack-jawed than the others.
As the last finally fell to the ground, Pinkie gave a sudden arch and stood to full height.
“Phew-weee!” she called. “Wow, I really got hit good by that, didn’t I? Normally I like having a blast, but I think I’ll skip that one next time.” Looking down, she extended her hand out. “Need help getting up, Fluttershy?”
She didn’t move. She only stared back at her with an uncertain expression. Rarity and Applejack were much the same.
“Ap…applejack…darling…” Rarity nearly exhaled. “There’s…no way she could have avoided all of those pieces of debris…”
“Avoid? It looked like she was pullin’ ‘em outta herself…”
Pinkie noticed Fluttershy’s pause, then looked up and around and saw Rarity and Applejack as well. However, she only looked confused in response.
“Is something wrong?”
“Uh…” Applejack began to stammer.
“Um…” Rarity muttered.
Fluttershy said nothing, just kept looking.
Pinkie was even more confused. “Are…we playing the quiet game or something? Shouldn’t we wait until we find Dash and Twilight before that?”
In response, a grunt came from a distance away. “Over…here…”
This was enough to finally break them out of it. Applejack and Rarity both looked up to the sound and moved toward it, while Pinkie looked back down at Fluttershy. After staring a moment longer, she finally reached out and tentatively took her hand. Pinkie quickly pulled her to her feet before bounding after the other two women, and after a moment Fluttershy followed.
Applejack and Rarity came across Rainbow Dash first, and it was another horrible sight. She was sprawled out on the ground, apparently propelled by an explosion. The top part of her was burned and sore enough, but what truly looked terrible were her legs. They both were bloodied and twisted. It was a wonder that she managed the weak grin on her face when they arrived.
“Merciful heavens… Are you alright, Dash?”
“Heh…what…this?” she weakly laughed back. “Please…this is nothing like…” A wince. “Cloudsdale was…”
Pinkie and Fluttershy ran up behind just as Applejack and Rarity reached her side. Fluttershy, on her part, immediately cupped her mouth on seeing her. “Oh my! Rainbow Dash, you look awful!”
She stiffened again, trying to pull herself up. “Eh…no problem… Except for the legs…”
“Well, don’t try an’ move!” Applejack scolded as she put her hand down on them. “Don’t want to throw them all outta joint if they ain’t already!”
“Rainbow Dash,” Rarity quickly interjected, “is there anything at all we can do to help?”
The Hunstman gave her a dull look before eye rolling. “Well, if it’s not too much trouble…you and Fluttershy could use some of those healing spells you learned from Twilight…”
Both women stared dumbfounded a moment before it clicked. “Oh…oh yes, of course.”
“Oh…sorry…how silly of me…”
Fluttershy quickly moved down to Rarity’s side. Having never done this in a real situation before, they both hesitated before they began to try the spells out. At first, they were unable to focus enough, but then both brought out their respective Anima Viris and tried. That served to give them enough control to start casting the spells. And as the greenish, vivid auras spread from their hands over Dash’s legs, she winced and stiffened as the lesions, burns, and even twisted bones slowly began to regenerate.
Applejack couldn’t help but be amazed. “I’ll be… Save some of that fer me, would ya’? And Twilight too, if we can find her…” She began to look around again. “Anyone see hide or tail of her? I didn’t see where she was when those cannons went off…”
In response, a dog barking began to sound. Both she and Pinkie looked back to the edge of the clearing where Twilight had run inside, just in time to see Spike, a little roughed up but no worse for wear, running out barking his head off frantically at them. On reaching the two women he kept barking; only pausing to give a whine.
“Well, there’s Spike… But what happened to Twilight?” The cowgirl turned to the dog. “You know where she is, boy?”
The dog, however, didn’t try to lead her anywhere or grab her to pull her along. He only continued to bark and whine.
“Maybe she’s on that light spot on the sky that’s moving further and further away?” Pinkie suggested as she pointed to the heavens.
Both Applejack as well as Rarity glanced up. Sure enough, while many of the stars were coming out, one was larger and flickering and moving away.
“That had to be Sunset Shimmer!”
Applejack spun to Rarity when she yelled. “What?”
“I mean, of course it had to be! Who else would have been shooting at us with an airship of all things, for goodness sakes!”
Spike barked more rapidly, as if trying to confirm her conclusion.
“She was wanting her back at Grifftham City…” Dash threw in as her legs finally got inact enough to start moving. “But how would she know we were going to be here?”
Pinkie Pie gasped. “Maybe she had secretly trained an army of flying squirrels that waited for us to leave Rarity’s factory in Manehattan and glided along until they could hitch a ride on the top of our train and waited until we got to Falcon Point and then they took off into the sky and formed a relay team to pass the message along to her so she could fly low and come in and wait to ambush us at the end of the road!” Another deep breath, followed by a shrug. “Or…you know…somehow she found out that Twilight got a key from Shining Armor and then just waited at the train station, ‘cause she’d know about it if they went to the same school.”
“Well then,” Dash grunted. Even as Fluttershy kept working, she nevertheless forced her legs under her. “We gotta get after her!”
“And…how exactly we gonna do that?” Applejack asked. “They’re in the sky! None of us can fly after ‘em!”
Fluttershy gulped, cutting off her own healing and nervously pointing around them. “I think we might have something else to worry about first…”
The group looked and saw the dark forest around them was beginning to fill with glowing eyes. The fires that the airship had caused had finally served to attract the Nighttouched just across the border, and now they were rapidly closing in.
Spotting them, Applejack quickly clamped one hand on her side and ran back to Dash. She wrapped her arm around her and pulled her to her feet. “Come on! We gotta get outta here before any more get our scent! We ain’t in no state to tangle with ‘em!”
“But what about Twilight?” Rarity protested.
“We ain’t gonna be no good to her fightin’ off every Nighttouched in the county! Come on!”
The group hesitated; realizing every second spent wasted was more of a chance to lose sight of Twilight. However, there was nothing for it. Some of the monsters were already getting close enough to the flames to make out, and were moments from lunging. Finally, Rarity and Pinkie both turned to head after Applejack as she began to drag Dash along. Fluttershy quickly patted her shins for Spike. It took him a moment, but he finally whined before running after her.
“Keep patching us up as we go!” Dash shouted as she struggled to hobble along with Applejack. “As soon as we’re clear, we all have to be able to move before we get any more behind!”
Twilight moaned lightly as her senses returned to her. Not really remembering what happened, she kept her eyes closed as she faintly became aware of a groggy feeling about her; to say nothing of being wrenched in a pained position.
“Aw, look who’s up? Enjoying your personal cabin?”
In spite of her addled state, Twilight recognized Sunset’s voice. Although she still felt sluggish, like she was hung over, she opened her eyes. What she saw quickly made her fully alert.
She was no longer in the clearing or anywhere on the ground. Rather she found the source of her discomfort: she was shackled by the neck, ankles, and wrists to a cold iron wall. If that wasn’t enough, she was in an unlit, dirty, partially-rusted metal room slumped on a bench. She tried to get up, but she didn’t get far before her neck pulled taut, and she turned to see herself bolted to the wall by the shackles with chains.
Looking forward again, she saw the only light in the room was coming from a barred window. A fiery-haired woman was looking in and grinning with a lit cigarette smoldering in one hand.
“I haven’t taken a prisoner in a long time, so I apologize for how dirty the place is,” she smirked before taking a puff. “You may be wondering why I was so lax on security. Sure, I’ve chained you to the wall, but I’m sure that’s no problem for a woman of your abilities. I’m guessing even you won’t risk casting a spell around your neck. And if you’re thinking of teleporting, I wouldn’t bother.” She cupped a hand to her ear. “Can you hear that lovely sound? That’s the engines of the Rising Sun. We’re already airborne. I know for a fact you can’t teleport unless you have a good sense of your current position. Besides…I’m all the security you need right here.”
Now fully alert again, Twilight frowned at her. She yanked at her chains but they held firm. They wouldn’t break without a spell or Anima Viri, and Sunset was staring right at her if she tried either. “Where are my friends?”
“Well, assuming any of them lived through my volley, I didn’t really have a need to bring any of them along. I only wanted you. Specifically that part of you embedded in your hand.”
“Why?”
“I already made that quite clear last time. I want what’s mine. What I earned. What was wrongfully held from me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Her smile faded. “I don’t suppose you would,” she snorted as she crossed her arms. “So long as we’re on the same ‘boat’, tell me something. Who was Headmistress Celestia to you?”
Twilight hesitated at the question but kept frowning. “She was my teacher and my friend.”
Sunset scoffed at the second term before taking another drag. “Really. And I’m guessing you were a pretty good student too, weren’t you? Then again, maybe not. I never heard of you.”
“Well, I didn’t hear about you either!” she retorted; her temper flaring a little at the blow to her own pride. “And yes, I was a good student! I was her star pupil!”
Sunset bristled but kept her straight face. “Star pupil, huh? And what kind of ‘special treatment’ did her precious star pupil get, hmm?”
Twilight hesitated again, clearly wondering why she was asking this, but pressed on. “I got private lessons with her, I got to access magic spells that the other students weren’t allowed to see, I got to learn about the Anima Viri and the Promethian Sigils, and…and…”
When she hesitated, Sunset interjected. “And you got to have special one-on-one meetings at tea time, didn’t you?”
Twilight froze.
“Let me guess…cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon, and chicken salad? With big oversized scones? And you each had your own little jam container?”
The mage’s eyes widened. Her jaw began to hang. Sunset’s smirk reformed.
“Did she comfort you when you were younger and had nightmares? Would she sit awake with you when you were sick? Oh no, I know what she did…”
She took a step closer, causing Twilight to step back as she looked more shaken with every word.
“The day you met her, she told you this, didn’t she? ‘You’re special, Twilight. You have an amazing gift. One that could even save the world one day.’”
Twilight let out a hint of a gasp, cupping her hands to her chest. She stared at Sunset in a mixture of shock and disbelief.
“Oh, I know what kind of special, unique relationship you had with Celestia, Twilight. You know how I know? Because I had the exact same ‘special, unique relationship’. Only unlike some people who blundered along blissfully thinking they were somehow an exception from every other student who walked through those doors, I found out about it.”
Twilight couldn’t answer. She only stood there immobile at what she was hearing. Sunset seemed to enjoy it as she leaned against the door.
“I hope I didn’t look quite as pathetic as you when I learned about it. Probably not. I found out after I learned that everything she told me was a lie and she banished me from Canterlot Castle, so I was rather angry with her by then. You see, we had a bit of a falling out. I was getting stronger by the day and she couldn’t take it anymore, so she tried to cut me off. And when I did some independent study to find out the truth about why I was there, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
She smiled wider.
“Here’s the really fun part, Twilight. The truth is I was the exception to the rule. I was the stand-out student. She just couldn’t handle it. And once I was gone, she needed some other kid to fill the role. I guess she decided to settle on the meekest nerd she could rope in. Congratulations.”
Twilight grit her teeth, shut her eyes, and shook her head. “No…you’re wrong!” She opened them again and glared at her. “That’s not how it was! I was her most faithful student! She trusted me with everything!”
“Everything except telling you about your predescesor, huh?”
Twilight stiffened. She couldn’t retort to that.
She snickered. “What’s that they say about suckers being born every minute? Feeling angry, Twilight? Hurt? Betrayed? Well good. Now we have even more in common than before.”
Twilight continued to look shaken for a bit longer, before a new realization came over her. One that filled her expression with dread.
“Were…were you the one who killed her?”
“Oh, I wanted to. Especially after she cheated me out of my final Anima Viri. Someone else deserves that honor, though. Although…” She looked at the ceiling before smirking. “I suppose I can take some credit.”
“What are you talking about?” She began to pull the chains tight again as she tried to get closer.
“Just that not long after I got banished from Canterlot, at least someone managed to figure out I had been in there. Obviously someone who had been watching it for a while. She seemed to know more about Celestia than the average citizen. She asked me if I had any way of knowing when she would be leaving the hidden castle next,” She casually shrugged. “And me, wanting a touch of payback, how could I not let her know that Celestia would be making her annual summer break tour? Of course, I had no idea where she would be and when, but it seems some people do their research better than me.”
Twilight pupils shrank. She stared for a moment before her own face flushed with anger. “You as good as killed her doing that!”
“You say that like I care,” Sunset snorted.
Her teeth grit. “You may have not done it yourself, but Celestia’s dead because of you!”
“I kill people I don’t know all the time. I’m supposed to care about one I hate?”
“You killed all of my classmates along with her and they never did anything to you! Nothing except get in your way! Even if you hated her, she was the only one who could have stopped all of this! The Light Eaters! The Nighttouched! That Tantabus! This endless night! Do you know how much this world has suffered because of your grudge?”
Sunset stared at Twilight through the bars for a moment before snorting again. “Well, Ms. ‘Star Pupil’, it looks as if Celestia really didn’t tell you everything. Go figure. I mean…”
She put her hands on her hips and grinned.
“You only think you were special. I know I was. I found the proof along with the rest of the facts that Celestia kept from me.”
Twilight was still bristling with anger, but she broke for a moment to sigh. “What are you talking about?”
“You seem so well-read so answer me this. Have you ever heard of an Angra Mainyu?”
The mage hesitated, easing up slightly. “I…just saw it in a book once in Celestia’s office. It was open to that page so I only read a little… It…”
Suddenly her anger broke. She began to tense up and lowered her arms.
“Go on.”
“No…no, I-I-I can’t… I shouldn’t…”
Sunset smirked. “Still scared of superstitions, huh? Well, I live to disobey everything Celestia ever told me to do, so I’ll spill it. It said it was a vessel or box designed to hold all of the evil of the world, didn’t it?”
At once, Twilight looked up; her face full of fear. “Don’t!”
Sunset hesitated, actually a bit surprised at her reaction, before she simply burst into a giggle. “You really do believe that superstitious stuff, don’t you? Looks like you’re pretty scared of it…”
“She warned me never to talk about it! Not to tell it to anyone! She said it would make it real!”
For a brief moment, Sunset’s own amused look vanished. There were a few brief seconds where she not only seemed to heed Twilight’s warning but just slightly, in her own eyes, there was a glimmer of the same fear that Twilight was now radiating out freely.
Yet it was crushed a moment later by her anger. “I’m not a little girl that I’m going to be scared by ghost stories, even ones that have a nugget of truth in them. I’m not afraid of anyone or anything anymore. And I won’t have to be pretty soon. I’m guessing by the panic in your voice and that frightened, puppy-dog look on your face, though, that for some reason she decided to let you in on the little secret she was keeping at the bottom of the Northern Keep, didn’t she?”
Twilight said nothing. However, she was sweating now, staring at Sunset in growing fear and wishing she’d be quiet.
Sunset smiled again. “Then you’ve put two and two together, haven’t you? Somehow you figured out that all of this eternal night is coming from a person. And you’re also suspecting the same thing I am. She’s the Angra Mainyu.”
Twilight nearly opened her mouth to tell her to be silent again, but paused. “W…wait… You mean…you mean you knew that all of this was being caused by that person in the Castle of the Two Sisters? By…by Nightmare Moon?”
“Not at first, but it became fairly obvious when one of the prototype airships I made for Trottingham got shot down on its maiden voyage. I only watched on deck of a different ship from afar, but while Trottingham might want to bury its head in the sand and pretend it was a malfunction, I knew it was a spell.”
Twilight began to grow incensed all over again. “If you knew about her, why didn’t you do anything to stop her? Send a fleet of these airships after her! Tell the world about it! Maybe if humanity was united knowing they had one enemy they wouldn’t have gotten as bad as they are now!”
“Why should I care? Doesn’t impact me,” Sunset shrugged. “If Trottingham becomes a Nighttouched playground, I’ve still got all the power I need to keep going on to the next country. But for what it’s worth, I fully intend to get rid of her. All I need is one little thing.”
Twilight grit her teeth. “You already have five Anima Viris! Why do you need more? And even if you do, why me?”
“Heh, seems Celestia never had the chance to explain how these work.” She held up her hand and twisted the butt of her cigarette around to tap against it. “For dead people, they can be very particular. An Anima Viri that works well with one person and one set of other Anima Viris doesn’t necessarily work well if the person or the constituents change. Celestia had those particular six, and those six for a very good reason. You see…”
She smiled again.
“You never knew it, but our old headmistress was, for all intensive purposes to mortal women like us, a god.”
Twilight recoiled. “Wh-what?”
“You heard me. Specifically, the god of this world.”
The mage stammered, blinking and staring incredulously. “But…but that’s not possible! Gods aren’t real! They’re just fairy tales!”
“Oh? And eternal night and nightmares coming to life are nothing but campfire yarns either, huh? She might not be the genuine article but, compared to little mites like us scrounging around for coal to make water boilers do everything, she was far beyond us. Come on, Twilight. You had to suspect something was up with her before, didn’t you? That she had a lot more power than she was letting on?”
She hesitated. Her eyes looked to the floor. “I thought…I thought something was off about her, yes. I knew she had to be more than just a normal person. But I always just assumed it was because she had six Anima Viris.”
“Well, you guessed right.” She grinned. “Because that’s exactly what made her a god. It’s almost impossible to get the right combination down. In fact, she told me trying to go with a wrong combination can lead to some pretty ugly side-effects. Even if I don’t believe a word she said nowadays I wasn’t willing to risk testing that one. However, getting just the right combination makes you a true god. That’s why Nightmare Moon is able to pull all of this off. She must have six symbols just like her.”
She smirked and took another drag. “But in the end, she’s nothing but a false goddess. That means the true god of this world can destroy her.”
“That doesn’t make sense! If the headmistress had that kind of power and was really as important as all that, why did she want to just live quietly running a school?”
“I have no idea why she would pick that, but it seems for whatever reason she had a time span on her power. I found out she was looking for someone to pass the Anima Viris along to.”
The gleam returned to her eyes as her smile faded. She jabbed her thumb at her own chest.
“That’s the real reason she brought me to that school. I was supposed to be the next in line. I was going to become god myself. Instead, she cheated me out of my inheiritance. What I had worked for and earned.” Her voice grew angry and resentful. “She sold me on that lie that one day I’d be the one to save this world, but when the time came she just threw it on the next bookworm to come along.”
She burned for a moment—her hands tightening into fists. Twilight noticed; seeing they clenched so tight she crushed what was left of her cigarette in her knuckles. She didn’t even care the hot ashes landed on her fingers.
Finally, she broke and smiled. “But all of that’s over now. I have the last Anima Viri I need. And once I’ve become god, I’ll destroy Nightmare Moon and take her place running the restored Greater Everfree the way I see fit.”
Twilight frowned. “And how would that be? Heartless? Uncaring?”
She flashed her teeth. “Might makes right, so whatever I say is right. If people have a problem with that, well…” She looked at her hand and whispered a few words. What was left of her cigarette was incinerated in a plume of fire. “Blasphemy is punishable by death.”
“You could never rule this world! You don’t care about anyone but yourself!”
Her smile disappeared again. “Oh yeah? And how exactly has caring about other people faired for you? You were living on the street from town to town, eating when you could, running and hiding from whoever whacked the rest of your classmates… Heh, right now you saved thousands of people and yet you’re in hiding like you’re a criminal. And as for me? The infamous and hated ‘Fire Witch’?”
She stood back and displayed her hands with a smile.
“I’ve got money, lands, prestige, authority, and power. What more, I got that all while I’m running a boatload of Trottinghamites who would love nothing more than to shove a knife between my ribs yet still have to do everything I tell them. Want to know why?”
She walked back up to the cell and raised her face into the window to meet Twilight’s.
“Because the only way in this world you can ever be sure you can trust someone is if they’re too scared to disobey you. Once Celestia started to fear me and I stopped fearing her, she began to distrust and hate me. You have the power to kill Light Eaters and save thousands of people, and you’re still crawling into holes everywhere you can. At least one of us knows how power is supposed to work, in spite of our teacher’s best efforts.”
Twilight squared her jaw. “I don’t care what you do to me. I am never giving you this Anima Viri. I’m not going to swap out one madwoman for another.”
Sunset flashed her teeth and chuckled. “Really now? You think I care? You didn’t honestly think that Celestia gave me the other five out of her own free will, did you?”
This stunned the mage. “What?”
“No matter how powerful a bearer of a Promethian Sigil is, they can be bound by adamantine chains. More importantly, Celestia seemed to have a rather lovely relic in her possession. A dagger made out of orichalcum.”
Twilight let out a mild gasp.
“Oh? Looks like Celestia had enough time to tell you that much. Then you also know that if you craft one just right, that all I need to do is grip it nice and tight in my own hand and drive it into your Promethian Sigil. A couple seconds later, I’ll be a god, and you can run off and do your little magic shows from now until eternity.” A chuckle. “It won’t be like you’ll be good for anything after that.”
She leaned in a bit closer.
“Just be happy that I didn’t trust any of these idiots under my command not to do something to misplace that relic. I left it right in the best spot where no one would ever find it: the same clearing where I used it to get the first five from Celestia, surrounded by Nighttouched and Light Eaters to act as cheap security and miles from anyone who could interrupt me or help you. Once we get there, my airships use their Morning Glories to drive off the local wildlife, and then we drop down for our quick transaction. Until then, though, you actually get to enjoy your power a little longer.”
Twilight didn’t answer. She started to sweat again on realizing everything Sunset was telling her. She slowly let her hands fall again.
Sunset began to reach for a new cigarette. “Chin up, Twilight. After all, you’re going to see the end of this eternal night. Just not the way you wanted.”
At long last, they reached the road. They couldn’t really see much anymore save for the emerging moonlight shining down through the clearing trees, but their feet touching down on hard pavement made it clear they had finally gotten off the dirt path. As soon as they stumbled onto it, the five slowed to a halt and caught their breath. Their Anima Viris had cut out about a half mile ago, so all six were just as dull and winded as each other when they paused and gasped.
As soon as she had her wind back, Dash wiped her brow and looked behind her. “I think…we lost ‘em… At least for now…”
Fluttershy nodded. “Yes…and we even managed to finish getting everyone fixed up along the way…”
“Too bad that don’t really help us anymore…” Applejack groaned, looking back up to the sky. “Twilight’s long gone now, along with Sunset.”
“Then we’ll just have to get after her,” Rarity responded. “Rainbow Dash, did you happen to see the direction they were going?”
She gave her a look. “Seriously? That was an airship. You think those things only go straight as the crow flies? It could have changed direction two dozen times by now.”
“It looked like it was going northeast…” Fluttershy murmured. “Or north by northeast… Into Equestria…”
Applejack let out a curse as she stood up. “Dagnabbit, you don’t s’pose she’s takin’ her back to Trottingham, do ya’?”
“Whether she is or she isn’t doesn’t really matter now,” Dash groaned. “They have a Trottingham airship, which means they can fly over Equestria. Even if we had the best ship that Manehattan could give us and we were already gone and chasing them it wouldn’t matter. As soon as you fly a ship over Equestria that’s not Trottingham, it gets torn up by every last bird that got turned into a Nighttouched over the past eight years. We should have gone after them back in the clearing!”
“And chasin’ ‘em on foot right into Equestria would’ve been so much safer?”
Dash paused. “Well, now that you mention it…”
“Ugh! This is horrible!” Rarity shouted. “Even if Twilight didn’t have the key on her, which she did, I know I don’t want to risk combating that horrendous woman without her!”
“M-M-Me neither…” Fluttershy quietly muttered.
“Ain’t this a fine mess. Almost don’t matter that Sunset didn’t blow us ta’ kingdom come…” Applejack groaned. “Twilight’s captured, we got no idea where they’re going, no way to get there if we did, and no way to get to that blasted Castle of the Two Sisters without her! Now what’da we do?”
“Well, we can’t just give up!” Dash retorted as she rose up to full height. “We got to find some way to find Sunset and get to her!”
“But…we don’t even know how to start,” Fluttershy meekly added. “Even if we did, by the time we find out where she went, what if she’s already gotten Twilight’s Anima Viri?”
“Dash is right! We can’t just sit here and do nothing!”
“Oh dear… If we go into the country we’ll just run afoul of whatever highwayman or monster is secluding themselves, assuming we don’t run straight into Equestria by mistake, and heaven knows when the train will come back again! Even if it does, we could be arrested on the spot by Mount Aris at any time!”
“Hey everyone?” Pinkie suddenly spoke up. “Was that wagon over there when we walked by the first time?”
Everyone looked up at this peculiar sentence, but as soon as they did their eyes spotted the same thing Pinkie saw.
There had been no question on the walk toward the clearing that the city along the way had been fully abandoned and the road left in disrepair. There hadn’t been the slightest sign of life. Now, however, there was a wagon parked near an old, half-collapsed well. A pair of lanterns had been hung up alongside it, casting a fairly powerful glow.
As a result, they could make out the wagon was fairly large and elaborate; one that could be converted into a mobile platform if necessary. However, it was shut up at the moment while its driver was watering the creatures pulling it. It was appropriate to say “creatures”, because it wasn’t a team of horses. Rather, what looked like a large goat, a buck, a boar, and an ox were all hitched together in the oddest team any of the girls had ever seen.
The driver himself was hard to see as he had his back to them, but he was very tall and lanky. He was in a full brown suit with long coattails, although it didn’t really matter with his height. A stove-top hat was perched on his head as he finished filling the bowl of the last mount, before calming returning the bucket to the well as he hummed to himself.
“Goodness me,” Fluttershy remarked. “I’ve never seen a buck and a goat like that before! They must be so strong…”
“Who in Greater Everfree is that?” Rarity asked quietly.
“Beats me. Sure weren’t here when we got here…” Applejack muttered.
“Were…those lanterns lit a moment ago?” Dash asked. “I don’t remember seeing them when we came out…”
“Oh, oh!” Pinkie chirped. “Maybe he saw which way the airship went?”
“We were closer,” Fluttershy answered, “and even if he did, do you think it would help?”
Spike, on his part, stared at the tall man. He didn’t move and his body language didn’t change for better or for worse. After a short while, however, a soft growl began to come from his throat.
“It seems little Spikey-Wikey here doesn’t care for him…” Rarity mused.
“But who else do we have to ask?” Pinkie shrugged. “Come on! It couldn’t hurt!” With that, she began to bound over to him.
“Pinkie…!” Applejack started to shout, raising her hand up, before catching herself.
Dash walked to her side and elbowed her in the ribs. “Come on…you aren’t scared of some random traveler, are you? It’s not like we can’t take him if he tries anything. Trust me, no highwayman looking for an ambush is going to be going down abandoned roads like this. He’s probably peddling scrounged goods.”
Applejack hesitated, but finally frowned before walking after Pinkie. Dash fell in alongside. “I dunno…just…just…”
“Just what?”
“Nevermind. I ain’t scared of no one, but…something didn’t seem right for a moment…”
Seeing them move along, Fluttershy gulped before quickly running up behind them, although she made sure the two were between her and him. Rarity, seeing herself left behind, looked down to the dog. “Come along, Spike. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
His only answer was to growl a bit more.
She began to walk forward. “I said come along now.”
Spike looked up, seeing the others moving. When that happened his growling stopped. Instead, his ears slicked back and his tail went a bit under his legs. A small whine went out before he followed after Rarity.
“There’s no need for a strong canine like you to be afraid of a regular old man,” Rarity reassured him. “Not after what I’ve seen you do to some Nighttouched. This would be nothing.”
Spike, naturally, didn’t answer. Only continued to follow along slowly and warily.
Pinkie reached the side of the cart first, but it wasn’t long before Applejack, Dash, and the others fell in behind. His back was still turned as he looked at the harnesses of his unusual troupe, but Pinkie smiled and waved at him. “Hi there!”
The man looked up at that and, for the first time, the girls got a good sense of just how tall he was. When he stretched up, even without the hat he seemed to rise a good seven feet into the air. Tall enough to look down on all of them as he turned around.
The way the lamps cast their light, and with his hat brim pulled down low over his head, it was almost impossible to make anything out on his features. Nothing save a long gray beard that protruded from his chin like a tuft of grass.
Nevertheless, they could make out his face spreading into a smile. “Why, hello there young ladies!” His voice had a rather charming quality to it. Smooth with a hint of a carnival barker in it. “Goodness me oh my, whatever are you doing this far off the main road?” He looked up and over the group. “And all by yourselves and without arms or transportation? Don’t you know how dangerous it is in this part of the country?”
“We can manage,” Applejack flatly answered. “’Sides, we might say the same ‘bout you and your freaky wagon team. Who goes ‘round this far off the road without horses?”
“What, this?” He gestured to the unusual team. “Oh, I did think about using horses, but horses are oh so…what’s a good word…boring. I prefer to mix things up to have a little fun. It’s my line of business, after all, being a dealer in the chance knick-knack and oddity.”
Dash raised an eyebrow. “It…doesn’t seem like there’s many people out here to sell to who aren’t thugs.”
“Oh, what nonsense,” the tall man answered. “I ran into the six of you and none of you are out to commit robberies, are you? And you never know what someone might need. I deal in all sorts. For example…”
He opened one end of his coat and reached inside.
“You never know when someone might need a hooded lantern.”
He pulled out an item soon after, only on looking at it the women got a surprise. Rather than a regular lantern, it was actually wearing a small cloth cape with a hood drawn over it. At any rate, he only showed it long enough to put it back in and rummage around.
“And washerwomen are always in need of more clothespins.”
He pulled out another handful, this time a bunch of cloves. The end of each one was sharpened and tapered into a metal pin.
“Or maybe some doorjams?”
He reached back in and pulled out once more, this time showing off a set of three different jars of preserves, but each one marked with a picture of a thick, heavy, oaken door.
By now, Pinkie was giggling at the whole thing, while Applejack and Rarity were both puzzled as to how he was able to keep these things in his coat and get them out so fast. Fluttershy herself was preoccupied with the team, actually walking up to them and giving them friendly smiles before petting them. Dash, on her part, crossed her arms. “Ok, so you’re some kind of traveling comedian or magician?”
“Magician? Oh, goodness no. Like I said, I’m a simple salesman. Even if I do have the occasional oddity in my wagon. Although, I will say, I do occasionally try to sell my customers some genuine delight…”
He reached in again and pulled out a small deskside lamp, this one perfectly crafted into the shape of a “D”.
“Especially when I wish to share my abundance.”
He somehow shoved the lamp back inside, only to pull out what looked like a street vendor’s hot cross bun. Only this time it caught everyone’s attention. That was because it had a set of tiny legs protruding from the bottom of it and, as it perched in the man’s hand, it seemed to actually be doing a little jig in the dim lamplight.
He put it away soon enough, but by this point everyone but Pinkie was staring at where it had been. She, on her part, was laughing almost to the point of snorting. “I get it! A…bun…dance! Ha-ha!”
“How…how did he…?” Rarity stammered.
“Uh, it’s…a clockwork windup…right?” Dash hesitantly suggested.
Spike let out another whine.
“Oh,” the tall man went on, still smiling as he buttoned his coat, “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation while I was watering Flicker and Teabiscuit over here. It sounded as if you’re looking for airships from Trottingham or something along those lines?”
“Oh!” Fluttershy spoke up. “Oh yes, we certainly are!”
He reached up and stroked his beard for a moment. “Hmm.” After a second or two, he started to move, walking back to the seat on his wagon. “You know, it’s ever so funny you should mention that. You see, just a little ways over there,”
He gestured to one side, particularly an alleyway that ran between two of the abandoned buildings. However, when the girls looked that way, they noticed that it didn’t terminate in the surrounding woods. Rather, a tunnel had been cut through them and the path kept going.
“Is a road that leads about six miles out to an abandoned Mount Aris outpost. I was coming from that way when, lo and behold, I happened to see a Trottingham airship sitting there. Now, of course, I was rather amazed at the entire thing, especially since the Mount Aris authorities, last I checked, aren’t exactly partial to having Trottinghamites squat on their land, but…”
Reaching the side of his wagon, he bopped it with one of his fists. In response, one of the collapsed panels opened up and revealed what was inside. Three racks worth of loaves of bread, only each one was smashed so tiny that they weren’t even as long as they were high.
“I couldn’t resist a chance to unload my surplus of shortbread.”
Pinkie giggled again as he reached down and collapsed the panel once more. The others, however, were now focusing intently on what he was saying as he began to climb up into the wagon.
“So there I went, trying to peddle my wares, and they promptly chased me off at gunpoint. Naturally, I ran for the hills with my wagon troupe, but as I was fleeing I heard one of the soldiers get a tongue lashing from their superior. Apparently, trying to shoot at me was a big no-no as they were only lying low to try and avoid detection by the Mount Aris aerial navy. I didn’t catch the whole argument as my concern was saving this two-hundred dollar hat from being damaged along with the rest of me, but apparently they were irate about something to do with missing the chance to take off after their superior officer due to some misstep, and now they were being forced to lie low to wait them out.”
The five women’s eyes widened at that news.
The tall man finished sitting down in the wagon as he took up the reins. “I suppose so long as they feel it’s unsafe to take off, which might be a few hours or might be five minutes from now as far as I know, if one was to hurry they might be able to catch that airship before it departs.” He looked down. “I don’t suppose that little tidbit was of any use to you?”
“Uh,” Applejack spoke up again, “which way did you say that road was again?”
“Oh, that one. Right over there. Straightest shot to the abandoned outpost you’ll find.”
“Right. In that case,” She tipped her hat to him. “Much obliged.” A second later, she took off in a run for it.
“Wait for me!” Dash shouted as she ran after her.
Rarity grit her teeth. “Just once I wish there was truth in advertising in these Manehattan hiking boots…” she grimaced before she ran after them, with Spike falling in behind.
“Thanks Mr. Magic Peddler person!” Pinkie half-yelled before bounding after the others.
Fluttershy nearly went after them too, but before she did she stopped all together and looked back to the tall man. She clasped her hands together and gave him a short curtsey. “I’ll never forget your kindness, sir. Or your adorable team. This is very, very important to us and to our friend. Thank you ever so much.”
“Oh, my dear,” he calmly responded, reaching up and removing his hat just long enough to nod to her. His voice slowed as his pitch dropped ever so slightly.
“Rest assured beyond all doubt—the pleasure is all mine.”
Fluttershy stared back at him a moment, her own smile ebbing. It lasted until he put the hat back on. At that point, she forced her smile, waved one last time, and then turned and ran after the others. As she did, she heard the reins crack behind her as the wagon began to move again.
She didn’t look behind as he left, even to see the strange sight of the team in action. She was thinking too much of what she had seen under that hat.
“Was…one of his teeth…longer and sharper than the other…?”