//------------------------------//
// CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT 
// Story: Dear Faithful Student 
// by Muramasa 
//------------------------------//


CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT:
LATCH
STARLIGHT GLIMMER / COBALT AEGIS




On a hill in the back orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, the world stopped turning.

It wasn't just because Princess Twilight Sparkle discovered a dead body on the farm. It wasn't just because she and Applejack dug it up, because we just had to know. It wasn't just because, as the light had died down completely and the only illumination came from the horns of the many unicorns here, that he could all stare at the corpse's shocked face as it harrowingly stared back at us.

It was because of who it was.

Zephyr seemed invincible. Twice had he audaciously invaded two of the continent's most fortified castles, and twice had he turned their garrisons to husks. Twice had he bested two very powerful mages -- Twilight and Sunset -- and twice had he simply vanished on his own accord, seemingly growing stronger and stronger with every second. He was the stallion back from the grave, the dark occultist washed with a vision of power, and force of pure energy longing for a mare that he'd ruined years and years ago.

Now, Zephyr was lying on the ground in Sweet Apple Acres, his mouth still open and his eyes still wide, his joints long stiffened from expiry.

Dead.

Our eyes were wider than his, our jaws far more unhinged. Twilight held a hoof to her mouth in pure and utter shock, and Applejack stared right into his eyes in a sort of haze. We simply didn't know what to think, as this was the last thing we could have possibly imagined to develop along the course of this mystery over the past few months.

Zephyr was dead, and someone else had killed him.

Perhaps we may have wondered how this could have happened, how such a powerful pony had succumbed to death, but we were spared the endless theories. In the center of Zephyr's chest was a wickedly large knife plunged deep inside of him, even visible in the dimly lit darkness, simply left there by his killer as they buried him beneath the earth. I wasn't a medical expert, but I knew it had been perfectly placed to hit his heart with an almost sickening efficiency.

This wasn't even magic. No, someone had plunged a dagger into Zephyr's heart and disposed of him, as if he were some common pony or foot soldier. A slew of thoughts had come to my head -- especially considering that I'd seen who I believed was Zephyr only days ago at Ponyville Station -- but there was one that was louder than all the rest of them, making its presence known as I stared at the wicked knife in our fearsome adversary. 

So when Silver Jubilee was the first to speak among us, her voice ringing hollow as it posed a question through the still of the night, it didn't take me long to give me her answer.

"Who... who could have done this?" she asked, a creeping sense of dread in her inflection. I looked up to her, and though I don't remember the face I gave her, I certainly remember knowing firmness in my voice when I replied.

"Who else?"

I don't remember the walk home, but I didn't need to. I knew how it was, the silence hanging over like a shroud, each of us lost within our own minds trying to make sense of what we'd seen. We'd given Applejack a goodbye, but I think all of us simply wanted to leave the place as soon as we could. I don't know what it was that Applejack planned to do with the dead body on her property, but I didn't plan on staying to find out. 

I wasn't a very good student in school. My little town of Sire's Hollow didn't have a lot of students, but even so, I was the only one that ever ended up in the principal's office during those days. I may have tried to act tough -- Tartarus, I still do -- but I hated those visits. Sitting in a chair and waiting for the principal to inevitably chew me out was the worst feeling in the world, and the silence that swarmed me as I fiddled with anything I could to stave off the awkwardness and shame still makes me shudder at random times during the day.

When we walked through the double doors of the Castle of Friendship, it felt just like that.

There wasn't any aloof joy from Violet or swagger from Cobalt. There wasn't any sense of curiosity from Twilight. There were no boisterous proclamations from Trixie.

That silence swarmed me again. We should have been relieved that Zephyr was no longer a threat to us, but instead, it had petrified everypony here. We had been prepared to face him in some sort of ultimate battle, but the other ponies here were shellshocked to discover that the real enemy was somepony -- some changeling, rather -- that they'd only been generally aware of for so little time.

They were shellshocked. I wasn't.

And so I didn't try to make small talk. I didn't try and pretend that everything was okay when it wasn't, and I certainly wasn't going to let myself relax. Melody Waltz was going to be here within the next few days -- probably sooner -- and I had to be ready, because she wasn't going to catch me off guard a second time.

So as the night had only just begun and the ponies that lived here had just arrived home, I'd gone up to the library to grab a book on changeling anatomy. I wanted to know the very ins and outs of Melody Waltz, and I'd retreated to my room to sit down and absorb everything I could before I tried and failed to fall asleep that night.

Instead, I found myself in my bathroom doing what I'd been doing ever since I got out of that cocoon: Staring in the mirror.

The scars, cuts, and bruises that still littered my body would disappear in time. Weeks from now, I would look in this mirror and look as if none of this had ever happened, perhaps until the next supervillain tried their hoof or hand at world domination a few months from now.

Once this was all said and done, Twilight Sparkle would not look the same. The scar that ran down her face may be barely noticeable, but she would have to wake up in the morning and look at it in her mirror for the rest of what I knew would be a very long life. I'd endured some horrible, horrible things during my time in captivity, but one this apprentice debacle was all said and done, it would be Twilight who would bare a visible reminder of it for the rest of her days.

That was simply one of the things I would think of when I'd stare in the mirror. Sometimes I'd think of the weariness in my eyes, and sometimes I'd simply replay the day's events in my head as I turned it from side to side. Sometimes, I saw another pony in the mirror staring back at me, and I'd dream of the moment we would meet again.

I couldn't remember what it was I was thinking about, though, when I heard a voice call out from behind me.

"Sprucing yourself up for a nice mare, are we, darling?" 

There were very few ponies who I would let walk into my room without permission, but Rarity was certainly one of them. I wasn't sure why she was here or when she'd arrived, but I couldn't help but smile as she entered the (thankfully rather large) bathroom and made her way beside me.

"I'm not into nice mares," I told her, keeping my gaze on the mirror.

"Is that why you're always hitting on me?" she asked slyly. I could spot her sly grin in the reflection, so I returned it in spades.

"It's why I never hit on you," I teased back. "What brings you here, Rares? I figured you'd be taking some time to relax after your first shift at the boutique in a while." Rarity nodded, but she was done talking through the mirror. She turned to me with a warm smile and she gestured towards my room beyond the doorway.

"I'll be fine, dear, but I... heard what happened today, and I thought I would stop by, especially since Twilight told me that Rainbow, Fluttershy and Pinkie weren't home. I wanted a short heart-to-heart, but would you mind if we went to your room? This is no place for such conversations, I would think." That drew a short chuckle from me, and I quickly exited the bathroom and sat down at the bedside that was only a few steps away as Rarity plopped down next to me. 

"What's on your mind, Rarity?" I asked her. She kept her smile, but it seemed far more solemn as she looked me in the eyes.

"I was just thinking about you today. I'd heard of the dreadful discovery that you'd all found Zephyr at Sweet Apple Acres, but it had occurred to me that, well... you've been tortured, captured, and seen a dead body all within a very short amount of time. Twilight tells me you're doing well, though?" 

I found myself nodding my head. I was touched that Rarity had come to see me, but I figured that there was a bit more to her visit than she was letting on. 

"There's something else eating at you, Rares. I've known you for far too long." Rarity knew when she was defeated, but she didn't seem to feel too bad about it: Instead, she smiled weekly and rolled her eyes before glancing away from me as she spoke.

"I've been talking to Sunset lately. She's a dear, but she's told me that her incident at Canterlot High still affects her. She tells me she still gets nightmares about it, and that fighting Zephyr only reminded her of the mare she once was." I figured I knew where this one was going, but I let her continue to talk as she finally turned to me.

"I have a question, darling, if you wouldn't mind. I'm hesitant to bring up everything that's happened to you recently, but--"

"--you want to know why I seem fine." Slowly, Rarity nodded, and I found my smile quickly fading as a sigh escaped my lips.

"You know, I got a pretty stern talking to by Twilight after that bottled anger incident, especially after Trixie and I may or may not have wiped the spa twins' memories." I'd told very few ponies about that, and so I couldn't help but flash a smile as Rarity's visage turned to horror.

"I'm, uh, quick to anger. I'm getting better and better about it, but it's still something I'm trying to work on. And when Melody jumped me that day, and she tortured me, and she put me in her cocoon, there was a while where I'd just given up. I almost stopped trying to escape. But among a slew of emotions I was feeling in that lost month, Rarity, there was one that kept eating away me. It still is, even now." 

"Anger," she said simply. "You're angry." I didn't acknowledge her confirmation. Instead, I opted stared at the ceiling, trying to find my next words.

"...It's an obsession. Maybe it's a way to cope, or to keep my mind off of what happened, but I'm angry. I'm angry that she hurt me, and I'm angry that she wore my skin and got my closest friends to trust her. I'm angry that she ever tried to ruin Celestia, and that she killed Zephyr. She's the last thing I think of at night, and she's the first thing I think of in the morning." Rarity sat in silence for a few seconds, seemingly thinking over what I'd told her, but she quickly fired back with a question.

"Do you want revenge, Starlight?" she asked me. It was a natural conclusion, but I found myself shaking my head after a short pause.

"...No," I began. "It's something more than that. I want everypony here to be safe, and I just know she's coming, Rares. She's coming soon. I can feel it." I didn't mean to scare her, of course, but her eyes widened if only for a second before she composed herself. Rarity was often overdramatic for the silly things, but when it came to business like this, she was as resolved as they came.

Slowly, she rose from the bed and looked around the room, trying to find her words before they finally came out.

"You're likely right, darling," she told me. "And when she does, we'll hit her with the Elements and put a stop to it. Like we always do. There isn't a ruffian in Equestria who has gotten past us, dear." 

I'd been thinking about that lately. It was something that Twilight and Sunset had always told me: That whenever the next villain up came to down, they always found a way to deal with it. They were right, of course -- they both had a very convincing track record -- but when I started to the floor and gave her an answer, I found more and more doubt seeping in with every second. 

"Yeah," I told her, a part of my voice ringing hollow. "Like we always do." 



Soundproof spells were a miracle.

I never knew just how long I was working on a project, but I always knew that it would go well into the night. I'd entered the workroom Celestia had set aside for me quite a few hours ago, but once I set to fixing the drone that Starlight had accidentally-on-purpose destroyed, the time flew by me. Thankfully, with a simple soundproofing spell on the room, I could make all the tool (and magic) induced noise I could muster without waking a soul in Ponyville.

So it was not until I had put the last bolt where it needed to go and fired up the drone to make sure all was well that I turned to the little clock hanging in the corner of the room. It was one of those stupid ones that only had the two hands and no other markers, but after squinting a bit and running some estimations, I was able to get the gist.

3 a.m.

I couldn't help but crack a smile at that. Violet would likely be cross with me once I climbed into our bed so late, but I really couldn't retire before giving the new drone a whirl. The glasses were already on, so all I had to do was will the drone to come close to me, and it did so with a gentle hum as it began to float by my side.

I'd been deterred from enchanting it with a shield spell after Zephyr blew right through the bastard, so I'd opted to go for a grabbing spell instead for the second version in an attempt to lock down any powerful mage I -- or whoever was piloting the drone -- was fighting. I never used it too much against Starlight when we sparred, though, and whenever I did, she quickly broke the grasp. After she blew the bugger to oblivion, I decided it could probably use the shielding spell after all, and so I switched the two out once more.

The rest of the modifications were quite simple. I tried to get the alloy as sturdy as I could, and I made some internal modifications and rewired a few things to protect it from magical blasts to the best of my ability. It might have been a pain in the arse, but in the end, I was certain it would be worth the trouble. 

Now that I knew it could move, I left it right where it was. As I walked over to the edge of the room, I looked down at my prosthetic leg to admire the way it moved so naturally: Twilight was already beginning a research paper on the charm she'd come up within the span of just a few days, and after applying it to the drone to let my thoughts command its movement, I'd lay awake in bed for hours thinking of what else it could be used for.

That mare is a cut above the rest, I mused to myself as I planted my feet. I looked back toward the drone, which was hovering neatly in the air with the addicting hum I'd come to love, and without hesitation, I mustered up a raw bolt of magic and launched it straight at the drone. 

Being that I was also in control of it, I made sure to pop a shield up in time for it to guard itself, and thankfully, the bolt dissipated once it collided with the shield the drone had created. I hadn't let anypony else pilot it yet (Violet was still a bit too afraid of technology to do so), but the magic from the drone matched the bright-orange aura that shimmered from my horn, and I had hypothesized that it would change for whatever unicorn had the glasses on at the moment.

I spun it around a few times for my own sake, watching it twirl and spin with ease before I was finally satisfied. Slowly, I led it to the corner of the room and set it down before powering it off. With a sly grin I could feel on my own face, I rested the glasses on the workbench next to where I'd placed the drone, and I made mental notes for a few tests I intended to run once I finally woke up sometime during afternoon hours.

Just as I was about to head to the door, though, I heard a knock at it.

Rap rap rap.

Stunned, I waited for a voice to reveal the pony's identity, but none came. Nopony knew I was in here, as they definitely could not hear me, and they would have had to have noticed I was gone from the room Violet was currently sleeping in to think I was anywhere else. Something was certainly awry, and so I lit my horn up to quickly remove the soundproofing as I called out to the mystery pony.

"Hello?" I asked, a slow feeling of trepidation crawling up my spine. 

Rap rap rap.

Not a word from the other side. I furrowed my brow, and I found a growl make its way to my tone as I called out once again.

"I'm not opening that door until you tell me who you are!" I shouted. Once more, there was nothing but silence, and I couldn't hear so much as a scuffle from beyond the door. This was absolutely not anypony I knew, and I felt a grit in my teeth as a slew of thoughts collided in my head.

The moment I turned to get the drone glasses from the workbench, I heard the latch click.