Luster Dawn was the personal student of Princess Twilight Sparkle, and she was sure of exactly three things. First, that her mentor was the greatest hero who had ever lived. Second, that Prench was just Neightalian with extra vowels sprinkled onto it to make it fancy. Third, that today was the day she was going to go on her own adventure.
“Today’s the day!” she said, to nopony in particular.
“The day you finally learn your place?” asked the most worst pony in the whole world, or at least that’s how Dawn would describe the pony who had snuck up behind her. Luster groaned and turned to look at her.
Azure Fire smirked down at Dawn. She had the same white coat and blonde mane as her father, and used his title as a way to bludgeon other ponies into submission.
“I didn’t see you there,” Dawn said. “I didn’t know you ate lunch in the garden.”
Actually, Dawn knew the opposite. Azure Fire liked to take her lunch in the palace, where important ponies could see her and unimportant ones could envy her. It was why Dawn ate in the garden. Alone. Where she didn’t have to deal with her.
“Why would I do that?” Azure Fire scoffed. She trotted over, with two of her lackeys trailing her. They were barely even ponies, somewhere between attendants trying to ride her coattails to fame and accessories for her outfit. “Let me guess, you’re eating weird Saddle Arabian food again.”
She yanked Dawn’s lunch away from her, unwrapping the parcel and rolling her eyes.
“Really? I don't know how you can stomach garbage like this.”
“Please give me back my sandwich,” Luster Dawn groaned.
“It’s hardly a real meal. I suppose if you grew up with unrefined taste like a peasant, you’d just eat anything.” Azure dropped it without warning, and Dawn couldn’t save it. The sandwich split open on the ground, mango chutney spilling like blood over the grass, tomato and onion rolling into the dirt, dandelion greens lost among the lawn.
“My lunch!” Dawn yelled.
Azure laughed, making sure to step on the fallen sandwich as she trotted away. Her lackeys copied her in leaving hoofprints and snobby looks as they left.
“And Princess Twilight wonders why I have trouble making friends with ponies like her around,” Dawn groaned. She picked up what was left of her meal and tossed it in the garbage. “I mean I get that friends are important to have! We did a whole song and there were some very nice creatures in Ponyville, but I just don’t think it’s possible to make friends with ponies like Azure and now I’m talking to myself again!”
Dawn took a deep breath. If she ran back to the deli, maybe there was time to get something before lunch was over.
The belltower tolled before she’d even finished the thought, and she lowered her head and started toward the palace and her afternoon lesson with an empty stomach.
“I mean, you agree she’s the best, right?” Luster Dawn asked Lieutenant Gallus as they walked through the corridor. “There’s a reason practically every single one of these windows shows her saving Equestria!”
Gallus glanced up at the stained glass.
“The main reason is that when they rebuilt the palace they wanted it to fit the pony who would use it,” he said. When Dawn faltered, he grinned and continued. “But she is pretty great. I don’t really know the other Princesses very well, but I did get to see Princess Twilight in action.”
“And she inspired you to become a guard and protect other ponies?” Dawn guessed.
Gallus laughed. “No, three square meals a day and not having to go back to Griffonstone inspired me to be a guard.”
That made Dawn’s stomach growl. “I can see why that would be motivating.”
“She should be inside,” Gallus said, leading Dawn to the door. “Do you need anything else?”
“No, thank you,” Dawn said. She knocked.
“Come in!”
Dawn pulled the door open and stopped. Princess Twilight was inside, and not alone. She was sitting with Rarity, chatting over tea in hushed voices.
“Oh, um, am I early?” Dawn asked. “I’m so sorry for intruding!”
“Don’t be silly, darling,” Rarity said. “I was just filling Twilight in on the latest gossip. If anything, I’m sorry for keeping her so late.”
“Rarity, you know you don’t have to be sorry about that,” Twilight said. “I love spending time with you!”
Rarity smiled. “Yes, and I’m just greedy enough to steal every second I can, but I wouldn’t want to take them from your student.” She stood up and walked over to Luster Dawn. “You know, we never did get a chance to speak alone. One of these days you should come to the boutique. I know all sorts of stories about your teacher that she wouldn’t teach you…”
“Rarity!” Princess Twilight’s cheeks turned pink. “Don’t you dare! I don’t want her thinking I’m some kind of… of…”
“Hm?” Rarity raised her eyebrows. “I’m curious what word you’d use there, darling. Because no matter what you say it’s going to imply to your student that you’re exactly that.”
“That’s the problem!” Twilight groaned. “If I concede that you win this round, will you have mercy?”
“I suppose a concession will do for now,” Rarity said. She smiled. There were teeth in that smile. “Tickets to this year’s Gala, and a promise that you’ll actually spend time with me there instead of trying to make everything perfect for everypony?”
“You could have just asked for that,” Princess Twilight said.
“Yes, but winning the tickets is better than just asking for them,” Rarity said. “Now, I’ll leave you alone with your student while I start planning dresses.” She strutted out with the kind of real poise and dignity that Azure Fire would never manage.
“She’s kidding,” Twilight said, once she’d left. “She’s probably had the dresses sketched out for weeks now and just wanted an excuse to make them.”
“Are your friends coming by more often?” Luster Dawn asked.
“I think when I told them about my student thinking we’d grown apart, they got determined to prove me wrong.” Twilight smiled. “It’s made things a little more lively around here, so I’m not going to complain.”
Luster smiled. “You seem happier than usual, Princess.”
“Of course I am,” Twilight said. “Rarity always brightens my day. So, shall we begin your lesson? I was thinking we could go over some of the recent discoveries about the history of Yakyakistan during the time of the Crystal Empire. Now that they’ve started allowing our archaeologists and historians to visit their sacred sites, we’re getting a more complete picture of their ancient history!”
She held up a folder full of pictures and field reports.
“Actually, Princess, there was something I was wondering about,” Luster said. She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a slim book. “Have you seen this?”
Twilight glanced at the title and sighed. “The Ninth Stable.” She took the book from Luster and flipped through it. “I’m surprised to see this here.”
“Is it true it’s a banned book?” Luster Dawn asked, excited. “The pony who sold it to me said that you’d ordered it to be destroyed, and I was thinking, why would Princess Twilight do that, unless of course there really was something to it!”
“He’s half right,” Twilight said. “It’s not really banned, but when this came out a few years ago I made a rather public statement about how much I disliked it. Do you know what this book is about?”
“It’s sort of a manifesto or a call to action,” Luster said. “There’s a bunch of stuff about you overthrowing Celestia, implications that she was exiled, that kind of thing.”
“It’s a book written by ponies afraid of change,” Twilight said. “One of the first things ponies do when things change is they look for others to blame. They’re just scared, and when ponies are afraid they can sometimes lash out at others. I’m just a convenient pony for them to attack.”
“But shouldn’t you do something?” Luster asked. “It sounds like they’re some kind of cult!”
“Like what?” Princess Twilight asked. “Order them not to be afraid? No, the best thing I can do is just keep being the best leader I can be, just like you need to be the best student you can be.” She smiled. “Speaking of which, have you made any friends lately?”
“Well, I was looking into the cult, and it’s been really hard to actually connect with anypony…” Luster trailed off. She didn’t want to tell Twilight that she spent most of her days at school either alone or wishing Azure Fire would leave her alone. She had a feeling she’d be told she needed to try harder to be the unicorn’s friend. Or worse, Twilight would send a politely worded letter and things would get worse.
“It can be hard,” Princess Twilight agreed. “I always had trouble making friends. I had a long road to really understanding the magic of friendship. Princess Celestia had to really shove me onto the right path.”
“I’ll just try… extra hard,” Luster Dawn said. “So how about Yakyakistan? I bet they’ve got all sorts of interesting legends!”
“They do,” Princess Twilight hesitated. She looked at her Yakyakistan folder. “You know what? History isn’t going anywhere. Maybe this is a sign…” She cleared her throat. “You simply must stop reading those dusty old books!” she said, trying to sound like Princess Celestia.
“This book isn’t dusty or old,” Dawn said, confused.
“It’s an expression,” Twilight said. “You know, I’ve had a feeling for a while now that what you really want is to go on an adventure. The kind I used to go on with my friends. It can really help to get out there in the real world and deal with practical problems instead of academic ones, and the change of scenery helps a lot too.”
Luster perked up. “Does that mean you’re going to send me on a monster-hunting trip? Or tomb raiding? Oh! I get it! You probably found some forbidden frozen tomb in Yakyakistan with puzzle doors and undead guardians and you need to send your best pony out to deal with the problem before any of the locals can get hurt!”
“I was thinking of something a little more local, but I’ll keep you in mind if we do find a forbidden tomb anywhere,” Princess Twilight joked. “I’m sure you’re aware of what’s going to happen a month from now?”
“A month from today?” Dawn thought for a moment. “That would be… the Summer Sun Celebration?”
“Exactly!” Twilight said. “Or one of several other holidays depending on who your favorite Princess is. I was going to have my personal visitation be to Ponyville this year. After that little trip we took I’m feeling a little homesick for it.”
“I’m sure that’ll be nice,” Luster Dawn said. “What can I do to help?”
“I’m glad you asked!” Twilight said. She grabbed a scroll and parchment and started writing. “I want you to go to Ponyville and take charge of the preparations. I’ll write ahead to Starlight to let her know you’re coming.”
“Sure,” Dawn said. “I’ll spend some time after classes researching what I’ll need, and when I go there--”
“You’ll leave later today,” Twilight said.
“Today?! But I’ve got…” Dawn paused. “A test coming up?”
“The good thing is, the curriculum at the School of Friendship is excellent!” Princess Twilight grinned. “I’ll talk to your teachers. They’ll send along any homework they need you to do, and you can take classes there in the meantime.”
“But I can’t just go into it without doing the proper research!”
“Luster Dawn, you’re a smart pony. I know you can handle it. More than that, I want you to get experience dealing with problems without spending a week in the library working your way up to it.” She smiled and lowered her voice. “And it’s probably better to start you off with a nice, friendly party than throwing you right into an evil tomb.”
Dawn looked around the dorm room one last time. She’d grabbed only the essentials, but she’d realized pretty quickly that all she really owned were essentials. No pictures on the walls, only a few outfits since she’d never really been invited to anything, and her most prized possession - the most comfortable pillow in the world.
“What’s this? Has the favorite finally failed and been kicked out?” Azure Fire asked.
Dawn groaned and looked down the hallway. Her accessories today were stallions. It was obvious exactly why they were following her around since they spent more time looking at her flank than listening to what she was saying.
“I’m not being kicked out,” Dawn said, growing just enough of a spine to say something.
“That’s not what it looks like to me. You know what I see?” Azure asked. “I see a commoner who’s finally going where they belong. Even Princess Twilight didn’t stick around in Ponyville once she became important. She’s just shipping you off to make room for somepony with real talent.”
She smirked and held a hoof to her chest.
“I mean me, in case you needed help figuring out what I was implying,” Azure continued.
“Thanks, I wouldn’t have gotten that on my own,” Luster muttered.
“I know. That’s why you’re getting shoved off to Nowheretown.”
“It’s one of the most important places in Equestria!”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Azure Dawn said, laughing and walking past Luster, bumping into her and shoving her into a wall as she passed.
“If there’s one thing I won’t miss it’s her,” Luster muttered, trying not to admit that somewhere deep inside, she felt like she was being abandoned, too.
“And I had to leave so quickly I didn’t even get a chance to get lunch, can you believe it?” Dawn asked. “It really felt like I was getting shoved out of there. Do you think she was right? Princess Twilight wouldn’t just kick me out without saying anything, right?”
“Ma’am, this is a Hayburger Princess,” the pony behind the counter said. She sounded like she’d spent a thousand years in purgatory. Or about eight hours in retail, which amounted to roughly the same quantity of suffering.
“Okay, yeah, but do you think this is because I was talking about a that cult? Maybe Princess Twilight is really sensitive about it and she got mad because I brought it up and she thinks I’m a member and she’s kicking me out because she thinks I’m going to try and subvert her rule and put Celestia back on the throne but I wouldn’t do that because I really like Princess Twilight!” Luster said, quickly. “But not in like, a weird way.”
“If you’re not going to order, I’m going to have to ask you to step out of line for the next pony,” the worker said.
Luster glanced back at the line. It went all the way to the door and the pony right behind her looked pretty annoyed.
“Oh, um…” Luster looked at the menu. “Can I get a number six with extra dip?”
The tray was slid into her waiting hooves and she started looking for somewhere to sit. The Ponyville Hayburger Princess was in the middle of the lunch rush, and more or less every table was occupied.
Luster’s stomach growled. There had to be somewhere open, right? The world wouldn’t be so unfair that it would keep her from eating lunch twice in a row. Then she spotted it - a table in the corner, hidden by shadows.
She put her tray down on the table before anypony else could take it. And before getting a better look at it.
The shape she’d thought was just a shadow flinched and looked up at the sound.
“Oh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t know anypony else was sitting here!” Dawn said. “I didn’t see you there and--” her stomach growled as if on cue.
The shadow moved and resolved itself as a mare, a slim, tall unicorn whose black mane hung down like a shroud over their face. She brushed it aside to look at Dawn and smiled.
“It’s okay,” they said. “I don’t mind sharing.” She sounded more hopeful than annoyed. “You can sit here if you want.”
“Really?” Luster smiled and sat across from her. “Thank you! You’re a real life saver.”
“Usually I just eat alone,” the mare said. She brushed her mane back more, trying to keep it from falling across her slim features. “I haven’t seen you before. Are you new in town?”
“More or less,” Dawn said. A few hours spent in Ponyville hardly counted as really understanding the place.
“That’s great!” The pony smiled. “I’m Phantasma Gloom. I’m a student at the school of friendship, but, um, I’m actually not very good at making friends. It’s why I end up eating alone…”
“I know what that’s like,” Dawn sighed. “Let me guess, the ponies at school are mostly jerks.”
“No, no, they’re really great!” Phantasma assured her. “Actually I’m pretty new at the school, and it’s just hard figuring out how to talk to ponies. This is the most I’ve talked to a pony in… in… practically forever!” She laughed nervously. “Sorry. I’m probably being weird or creepy…”
Dawn swallowed a big bite of her Prench Dip. “Huh? You’re not weird.”
“I guess I just worry about it,” Phantasma said. “I haven’t been sleeping very well. It’s why I came out here to get a midday snack.” She prodded her stack of hayfries and sauce. “I think I ordered too much. Do you want some?”
“Sure!” Dawn said, taking a few. “I haven’t eaten all day. There was this jerk and-- well, it’s not important.” She wasn’t quite up to telling a random pony that she got bullied regularly. The last thing she wanted to do was make herself seem like a loser.
“Are you going to the school too?” Phantasma asked.
“Sort of. I’ll be attending for a couple of weeks, but I’m just auditing classes while I help out with a project. I’m actually Princess Twilight Sparkle’s personal student!”
Phantasma gasped. “Does that mean I need to bow? Do you have a special title?”
“Unfortunately I’m about as much nobility as you are,” Dawn joked.
Phantasma’s expression soured.
“What’s wrong?” Dawn asked.
“It’s… complicated,” Phantasma sighed. She took a deep breath and smiled. “If you want, um, I could show you the way to the school!”
Dawn looked out the window. The school was one of the largest buildings in town and was visible even from here. The only way a pony wouldn’t be able to find their way to it would be if they were deliberately going the other direction.
“Um…” she was about to refuse, but something in Phantasma’s smile was strangely sad and longing, like somepony who’d been told ‘no’ so many times they didn’t really expect a yes but really, really needed to hear it just once in their life. “Sure,” Dawn said. “Why not?”
After all, Twilight had sent her here to learn about friendship. She wasn’t going to prove Azure Fire right by messing up the first chance she got.
Luster Dawn walked next to Phantasma, but she seemed like the only pony willing to do it. Other ponies avoided looking at her, and once or twice she was sure a pony crossed the street or closed a door just to avoid them.
“I thought this was supposed to be the friendliest town in Equestria,” Dawn muttered. “Why are they acting like this?”
“Oh, they’re not bad, really,” Phantasma Gloom said. Now that they were walking together, the dark unicorn was a full head taller than Dawn, and moved almost completely silently, like her hooves barely touched the cobblestones. “It was much worse in the Empire.”
“You’re from the Crystal Empire?” Dawn asked.
“Yes but… I didn’t really fit in there,” Phantasma said. “This is much better.”
Dawn watched another pony cross the street to avoid them.
“Trust me, this still counts as better,” Phantasma sighed.
“Is there something I should know?” Luster asked, looking at Phantasma out of the corner of her eye. “You’re not like, haunted or anything are you?”
“...Can a pony even be haunted?” Phantasma asked, confused. “I thought ghosts had to stay in haunted houses. Or graveyards. Actually, how do they even know where to haunt? If it’s where ponies died, wouldn’t that mostly be in hospitals? Shouldn’t hospitals be extremely haunted?”
“I did a term paper on spooks, spectres, and ghosts,” Luster said. “There are actually a lot of different kinds! Residual hauntings are the ones in haunted houses. They’re kind of like the ghost replaying the events of its life. According to Toblerone’s Spirit Guide, it’s very rare for a pony to actually be haunted, and it would have to be by someone important to them trying to finish some kind of important business.”
“I must not be haunted then,” Phantasma said, a little sadly. “I’m not important to anypony.”
“Well, your family--”
“I’m an orphan, actually,” Phantasma corrected.
“Oh! Well, if your parents are deceased--”
“Abandoned me. They’re probably alive.”
Luster swallowed. “Um…”
Phantasma smiled. “It’s okay. It’s why I’m here in Ponyville. I’m really very lucky! I got a scholarship, I came to a new place, and now I’m learning all about friendship. The important thing is to always believe that tomorrow will be a better day. Even if today is the worst day of your life, it means things can only improve!”
“That’s a pretty good attitude,” Luster said.
The town started to thin out around them, And the road changed from the well-worn cobblestones of the town streets to newer slab pavement.
“Here we are!” Phantasma said. She stopped halfway across the bridge to the front door and looked down into the water.
“What are you doing?” Luster asked.
“One second. I just have to… there they are.” She waved to a clump of weeds floating in the moat. “Remember not to be late for class!” Phantasma yelled to the plants. “Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean you can sleep through our first period!”
Luster looked at the inanimate kelp, then at Phantasma.
“Okay… you know what, I’m gonna go check in with Principal Starlight,” Dawn said. “I’ll see you later and uh, good luck yelling at the plants!”
“Thank you!” Phantasma said, with a smile.
Luster got inside before she shook her head and let out the breath she was holding. “Maybe she gets all those looks in town because she’s crazy,” Dawn whispered to herself. “I don’t even think earth ponies yell at plants to wake up.”
“You’d be surprised,” Starlight said. “Sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear.”
“Hello again Principal,” Luster said, shaking her offered hoof. She cleared her throat. “I apologize for the inconvenience. As the personal student of Princess Twilight Sparkle, it is my honor to attend your school.”
“I still think of it as Twilight’s school,” Starlight said. “I’m just taking care of it for her. And now I’ll be taking care of you for a little while.”
“Did my luggage get here?” Dawn asked. “I had to make a stop in town before I came here, and it didn’t make sense to carry my bag the whole way.”
“All taken care of,” Starlight assured her. “But, um, there was one thing I wanted to discuss. The school year already started, so there really weren’t a lot of openings on the schedule.” She held up a hoof to forestall the coming comment. “Not a lot isn’t zero, but between that and a dorm assignment, I had to make a little bit of an arrangement.”
“I’m not kicking a student out of their place, am I?” Luster asked, worried. “I’m just here for a month. I don’t want to put somepony out just because Princess Twilight asked you to fit me in!”
“Nah, nothing like that,” Starlight said. “Besides, with your grades and prior education, you’d be able to earn a spot here or anywhere else even without Princess Twilight’s name on the forms.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Well, we’ve got a lot of students, and there are all sorts of creatures with different needs. We have flying classes for griffons and pegasus ponies, magic classes for unicorns, shapechanging for changelings, that kind of thing. The most important thing has been making sure students have a good, healthy environment.”
“Okay?” Luster still couldn’t quite follow the reasoning.
“I didn’t even think of it as a problem until Fluttershy pointed out that some of her students were falling asleep in the middle of class and gave me the answer,” Starlight continued. “Some creatures are naturally nocturnal, and we’d only been offering classes during the day, which meant it was as tough on them as asking a pony to stay up past midnight so they could take an algebra test.”
“So you started offering night classes,” Dawn surmised.
“Exactly!” Starlight said. “It actually solved a bunch of problems. More classes offered means more students can take them. It let us admit more students, the creatures in the night classes were happier and more alert, and everypony wins. The only problem is…”
Dawn groaned. “That the only opening you have right now is for those classes. Is that it?”
“I know it’s asking a lot, and if it was for a full semester I’d never do it, but we’ve got an opening in the class, there’s plenty of space in that dorm…”
“It’s fine,” Dawn sighed. “I’ve pulled plenty of all-nighters. One month isn’t so bad.”
“Great! Because I already had your luggage put down there.”
“Down there?”
“Well they don’t like sunlight, and you wouldn’t believe how many caverns there are under the school.” Starlight saw the look on Dawn’s face. “Really nice caverns,” she assured her. “Just as good as the dorms on any other floor! Except for the lack of windows.”
“Great,” Dawn sighed.
“I’ll just have somepony show you down there. There aren’t really signs and--” Starlight looked past Dawn. “Phantasma! Could you show this student down to the undercroft? This is Luster Dawn, she’s--”
“It’s okay, we met already,” Dawn said.
“Does this mean she’s staying in the undercroft with us?” Phantasma gasped. She practically danced in place when Starlight nodded. “That’s amazing! Us meeting must have been fate!”
“Yeah, fate,” Dawn said, a little weakly. “You are a very easy pony to excite.”
“You’re going to love it! Come on and I’ll show you around!”
Phantasma grabbed Dawn’s hoof and pulled.
Starlight waved and watched them go.
“She’s doomed,” Starlight said.
Maybe it was traditional for schools to have secret passages and hints of vast, mysterious areas. Luster Dawn had never quite known what some of the buildings at the School for Gifted Unicorns had been for, though there had been rumors of strange lights, back-room high-energy spell-colliders, and that somepony had set up a still in an unused stairwell.
This had those rumors beaten by a landslide.
“They had all this space under the school?” Luster asked quietly. She could still see the rough edges where the smoothed-out stone met the natural cave surfaces. She caught glimpses of huge spaces through doorways, underground pools and crystals bigger than she was.
“It’s really lucky,” Phantasma said. “Some of the creatures down here don’t do well in sunlight.”
Luster hesitated, trying to figure out how to ask an awkward question. “Yeah. I can imagine. So, um, I couldn’t help but notice that you seem like a normal pony. But you’re taking night classes?”
“Mmhmm.” Phantasma nodded.
“Don’t take this the wrong way but are you… hypothetically, just asking and not judging, you know… a vampony?” Luster Dawn asked.
“I walked here with you in the sunlight,” Phantasma noted. “After having a snack at Hayburger Princess.”
“Well it’s just… why would you take night classes if you’re a normal pony? And you’re definitely not a zombie or anything, so I thought…”
Phantasma sighed. “I’m not a vampony.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s not the worst thing I’ve been accused of,” Phantasma said. Her head dipped, and she looked at her hooves while they walked.
Luster hesitated and put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Hey, wait,” Luster said. She pulled Phantasma into a quick hug. “I meant it when I said sorry. You’ve been nothing but nice to me.”
Phantasma smiled. “Thanks. But if it helps, none of the creatures here will try to eat you.” She paused for half a second. “Probably.”
“That’s good-- wait, probably?”
“I’m joking! Except about Larrikin. And maybe Ibis. You’re good at riddles, right?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You’ll see,” Phantasma said. “Anyway, here we are!”
She opened the door set into the wall, and revealed an irregular kidney-shaped space, the natural shape of the cave used to guide the shape of the common room. A few tables and chairs were spread across the open area, along with several ornate carpets. A boulder had been left in place right in the center like the king of some massive rock garden. Glowing crystals set into the walls and ceiling provided enough light to read by.
“This is nicer than I expected,” Luster said.
The shadows moved in the corner of her vision. When she looked, there was nothing there.
“Huh. Guess it was just my imagination…” Luster said.
“What was?” Asked a voice right next to her.
Dawn almost jumped out of her skin, stumbling and tripping over her hooves.
“Woah, have a shockin’ crack at care there, hot stuff!” A hoof grabbed hers, steadying her. Dawn looked at the pony it was attached to. She shouldn’t have been surprised, not after hearing that the creatures here were nocturnal, but she was still shocked to see it.
“You’re a thestral!” She gasped.
The mare holding her hoof wiggled her eyebrows. “Glad to see the surprise hasn’t quite rendered you senseless, though for a beauty like yerself I’d be glad to help wean you back to health.”
“I’ve never met a thestral before!” Dawn said. “This is amazing!” She paused. “Why are you wearing sunglasses? Oh no, I’m being insensitive or something, aren’t I?” She looked at Phantasma for help .”Is she blind?” Dawn whispered.
“You know mate, blind ponies can still hear,” the thestral noted. “But I’m not that either.” She smirked. “I just wear sunglasses at night because I can. They always look cool. I’m Arteria. Arteria Carpals. Shockin’ great to meet you! I was hopin’ we’d get a stallion to boss around, get some real ear-candy, right enough, but another mare’s grand too.”
“...I understood some of those words,” Luster said, shaking her hoof before letting go. “Where are you from? Are there a lot of thestrals in Ponyville?”
“Nah, mate, I’m from Thestralia, the land down under! Literally down under, about two miles gravy-ward.”
“...gravy-ward?” Luster looked at Phantasma for help.
“She means down,” Phantasma supplied. “Let’s find your room!” She led Luster away, glancing back at Arteria.
“I barely understood what she was saying,” Luster whispered.
“I’m pretty sure she just makes up some of the words,” Phantasma said, keeping her voice low. “She says it’s normal in Thestralia, but how would we know?”
They stepped around the boulder and almost ran right into a tall, dark form. More than almost in Luster Dawn’s case, who smacked her snout right into someone. She started apologizing and looked up, and then up more because they were standing on two legs instead of four and it made them a lot taller than the average pony.
“Mm,” they said. The they in question was a diamond dog, albeit one that was oddly well-groomed and clean.
“Good evening, Berlioz!” Phantasma said, brightly.
“New pony?” the diamond dog asked.
“She’ll be staying with us for a few weeks,” Phantasma said. “Do you know where they put her luggage?”
Berlioz turned and pointed. “Room three. I carried it.”
“Thank you! It should be just this way,” Phantasma said.
“I’ll, uh, see you later,” Dawn said. The diamond dog nodded and walked away. Phantasma led her to a door and opened it.
“This should be the right one… oh! I’m sorry!”
Inside, a winged cat twice as tall as Dawn was flipping through a book. They looked up in surprise.
“...Ah,” the sphinx said. “I seem to have lost track of time. Berlioz moved some things in here and I was investigating and found this book.” She held up The Ninth Stable. “Some of the illustrations are very interesting.”
“Wait, that’s my book!” Dawn said. “And those are my things!”
“And you must be a new student,” the sphinx said. “From Canterlot, I presume. Given what you brought with you, you don’t intend to be here long, so you aren’t a permanent transfer. However, doing it several weeks into the school year means it isn’t something planned far in advance. While it’s possible that your family moved to town at an inopportune time, you would then be more likely to live at home rather than the dorm, especially as a pillow is one of the few things you packed, indicating that you value small comforts and touches of the familiar.”
“Ibis, please give her back her book,” Phantasma said, sighing. She muttered something under her breath. “Maybe without playing a game this time.”
“Of course I’ll give it back but I wonder if our new arrival can solve a small puzzle, a riddle if it were,” Ibis said, putting the book down and looking pleased with herself, like a cat watching a particularly juicy mouse. “A red house is made of red bricks. A yellow house is made of yellow bricks. What is a green house made of?”
“Glass,” Luster said, without hesitation. “All greenhouses are made of glass.”
“Oh! A clever pony!” Ibis grinned, showing fangs. “I like you. Here is your book back. I promise I have not damaged it. I hope we can become good friends. I do like getting to know ponies in high places, especially when they know the Princess.”
“Wait, how did you know I know--”
“It was easy enough to deduce,” Ibis said, interrupting her as she stepped past them, the ponies moving aside to let the larger creature pass by. “You’re from Canterlot, but not nobility, you were attending school there, and you were important enough to somepony there that they were able to secure a place for you here even with classes nearly full. Ergo you must know Princess Sparkle in some capacity.”
“I’m her personal student,” Dawn confirmed.
“Excellent. You’ll be a welcome challenge.”
Dawn watched her leave and took a deep breath before checking her luggage.”At least she didn’t break anything…” She pulled out her pillow and carefully put it on the bed.
“I think she likes you,” Phantasma said. “Which, um, well, she’d just ignore you if she didn’t like you. You seem good at riddles, though. I’m sure you’ll get along. I’m terrible at them so she doesn’t even like looking at me.”
“Phantaaaasmaaaaa...” somepony groaned outside. A dappled pony was standing in the doorway, their coat tan and dusky brown like they’d walked through mud and then decided to roll around in it before trotting inside. A puddle formed under them from the water dripping off their coat, and weeds were so tangled in their mane that Dawn couldn’t tell where the plants ended and the mane began.
“Oh! You’re finally up!” Phantasma smiled. “Dawn, this is Larrikin. They’re also staying here, but they sleep outside during the summer.”
“Thanks for waking me up,” they groaned. “With all that sunlight I just…” they yawned. Surprisingly, no fangs. “...I feel like I could nap all daaaay…” Larrikin stumbled in and collapsed on the bed, immediately soaking it through.
“My bed!” Dawn yelled.
“This is a really good pillow,” the dripping pony noted.
“Out!” Dawn snapped, picking the pony up and tossing them outside with slightly more force than was needed. “Ugh. It’s a good thing I know some drying charms… Maybe I should use them on him. Or her?” She looked at Phantasma for help.
“You’d have to ask Larrikin how they’re feeling today,” Phantasma shrugged, helping Dawn straighten things out while they talked and adjusting the now-wrinkled blanket. “After a while you start to get a feel for it.”
“No offense but it’s no wonder you were glad to see me,” Dawn said. “Half the creatures in this dorm are crazy!”
“They’re just excited,” Phantasma assured her. “I’ve only known them for a little while, but I really hope we can be friends. It’s just taking longer than I expected.”
“If you say so,” Dawn said. She threw a quick drying charm at the bed. It wasn’t her first rodeo with having to dry out a mattress with magic, though in the past it had usually been because somepony had decided to dump a bucket of ice water on her at midnight. She checked the rest of her things, which didn’t take long, and after a moment of consideration just shoved the suitcase in the corner.
“You’re not going to unpack?” Phantasma asked.
“I’m only gonna be here for a few weeks. I don’t want to spend the whole time taking things in and out of drawers. If I leave it packed up I won’t forget anything when I leave.”
“The first thing I did when I got here was unpack. I wanted to make it feel like it was my own space.”
“My own space is back in Canterlot. This is just a long hotel stay. Probably nicer than some of the places out in Las Pegasus,” Luster Dawn said. She walked out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind her.
“Are you going to go to classes with us today?” Phantasma asked.
“Well, I’m not sure. I was thinking…”
“She’s probably going to run off to the Castle of the Twin Sisters,” Ibis said, from above. She was perched on the boulder, stretching on the rock in a very dignified, catlike way. Larrikin was collapsed against the rock’s base in a very undignified pile of garbage way. They waved.
“The Castle of the Twin Sisters?” Dawn asked.
“Oy! It’s only the most amazin’ly ‘aunted place this side of the other side!” Arteria squeaked from the ceiling. “In the middle of th’ dreaded Everfree forest, where there ain’t any walls and the roof is all made of them bits of trees that stick out the side!”
“...branches?” Dawn guessed.
“Yeah! Them! Deep inside it, the most sinister, shockin’ blammoed castle is overrun by spirits of the dead and what else.” Arteria shook her head. “I swear on me ears that the place is supposed to even have a portal right t’ Tartarus!”
“No, the portal to Tartarus is in a completely different place,” Dawn said. “I’ve been there a few times. Princess Twilight likes to check on the prisoners.”
“To see if they’ve reformed?” Phantasma guessed.
“To make sure they haven’t escaped,” Dawn corrected. “She’s had too many close calls to not at least check.”
“Smart,” Berlioz growled in passing. “You all. Don’t be late for class. Especially the wet one.”
“It is getting to that time again,” Ibis sighed, standing up and picking up Larrikin with one paw. “I hope Professor Scootaloo does a little better with my questions in class today…”
“Wait, why did you think I’d go to the Castle?” Dawn asked, running after her. “Is there something there?”
“Hm? You had that book. Didn’t you notice the cipher hidden in the wood cuttings about the secret door in the Castle of the Twin Sisters?”
“...What?!”
Ibis smirked and leaned down to look at Dawn. “Maybe you’re not as clever as I thought.” She flicked Dawn’s nose lightly with a paw and padded off. Larrikin waved while they were carried away like a mouse being dragged by a cat.
“Are you okay?” Phantasma asked.
“She’s bazinga,” Arteria said.
“That-- that’s not even a word, Arteria.”
“It’s about the feelin’ the word makes you get down in your knackers,” Arteria said. “This mare here? She just got bazinga’d. I can tell on account of my keen senses and bat-like reflexes.”
“If you see Principal Starlight, tell her I’m just taking a little trip,” Dawn said.
“Are you going out to the castle?” Phantasma asked, worried.
“I just want to check something out. It’ll be perfectly safe.”
Dawn trotted along the path quietly, shooting glances at the trees around her. She was sure the sun had still been hanging in the sky when she walked into the forest, but it had vanished without a trace at about the same time the treeline had surrounded her on all sides. Sure, the sun did tend to set at night, but being alone in the dark made it all more real.
The Everfree was so much more quiet than the city, so much darker. She’d be able to see twice as many stars if she could see the sky at all.
“This isn’t so bad,” she whispered to herself, afraid to make too much noise. “It’s not like ponies don’t do this all the time. And almost none of them get dragged off by monsters!”
From somewhere far away, but not far enough, a timberwolf howled.
“Almost isn’t zero!” Dawn squeaked, having instinctively realized the truth about conditional probability. Not a lot of ponies got dragged off by monsters because they didn’t go alone at night without any real preparations. The ones that did get eaten tended to be a lot like Luster Dawn - in a hurry and not thinking clearly.
She bolted down the path, staying on it almost purely by blind luck. Thankfully for her, it wasn’t entirely blind, because she spotted the edge of the ravine with enough time to skid to a halt.
“When I get back, I’m going to send a letter to Princess Twilight about building a real road here,” she said to herself. “With how many stories she has about coming out to the Castle of the Twin Sisters I thought this would just be a light walk in the woods!”
Dawn trotted along the edge of the ravine until she spotted the bridge hanging over it, as delicate as a cobweb and just as well maintained.
She spotted somepony standing there. From the distance, she couldn’t make out much more than a blue light and a red robe.
“Oh thank Celestia,” Dawn groaned. “Excuse me! Sir! Or Ma’am! I’m sorry if I got it wrong, but I’m freaking out a little and I’m really glad to see anypony at all!”
Dawn waved to them, then lost sight of the figure as she had to duck around some particularly thick brush.
“Do you maintain the castle?” Dawn asked. “Because I didn’t even know… anypony… was…” she trailed off. The pony, whoever it was, was gone without a trace. They weren’t on the bridge, which creaked and groaned in the wind like a particularly elderly living thing.
Dawn swallowed and tried not to think about everything she’d read in Toblerone’s Spirit Guide.
“Maybe I was just seeing things,” she lied to herself, trying to feel better about it. “Yeah. Just seeing a perfectly formed pony, with a light, right here where I’m standing.”
She looked across the span of the bridge just to make sure she hadn’t somehow missed them along the only path forward. There wasn’t even a hoofprint to show they’d been standing there.
“I’ll solve that mystery later,” Dawn decided. “Or as the old ponies say, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it! Because I’m at this bridge, which I have to cross now, and I am not delaying and stretching out this phrase because it looks like it’s not even in good enough condition to collapse properly!”
She tried to take a step onto it, and couldn’t quite manage. It was impossible to tell where rot ended and wood began, and Dawn started to suspect that the rot was stronger than whatever was actually left of the planks.
“Second note to self, try to actually learn teleportation again. It would be really useful even if the math parts look boring.”
The wolf howl was closer now. Much closer. Dawn bolted again, her fear of what might be behind her eclipsing the fear of what she could see right in front of her. All those missed lunches did her some good for once, because she didn’t immediately fall through the rotten bridge and to her death.
Actually, though she didn’t really appreciate it at the time, it was surprisingly sturdy, the boards looking much worse than they actually were, and the ropes holding strong despite seeming frayed.
She was chased by her own fears all the way to the Castle, where the ruined walls and cracked tiles comforted her with something very close to home, if centuries out of style. The stone made the forest seem further way, and howls weren’t as threatening with doors to close.
Dawn sat down to catch her breath, and pulled out The Ninth Stable.
“A code hidden in the pictures,” Dawn muttered. She flipped to the first woodcutting and found herself looking at Canterlot, seen from a great distance, but with the castle missing from the skyline. Then a pony standing before a closed door, dignified but locked out. The third showed a bridge with guards, though all of them were blindfolded.
Dawn rubbed her chin, trying to get into the head of the pony who’d made the engravings. They were full of symbolism, and if she’d taken even one class on poetry instead of competitive speed archaeology she might have been able to suss out a little more than the obvious meanings. The fourth engraving, for example, showed a pony walking into a maze. There was plenty of meaning that one could extract from that, from ancient minotaur legends to the simple idea that the path ahead would be difficult and twisted.
Dawn looked at the entrance to the maze, noticed it had the same symbol carved into the keystone as an archway in the castle’s foyer, and decided it was a map, though not one to scale. She followed it through the decaying castle, which was very well preserved for something that nopony lived in.
She looked up at the maze’s end, and found herself looking right where she should have expected she’d end up.
“The library,” she said. “Well of course it’s the library. Somepony wrote a whole book about this! They probably spend tons of time in libraries!”
She flipped to the next engraving. A pony was counting bits, but as they left his hooves they turned to dust. In the background, the sun was setting.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she wondered. The next one was almost as mysterious. It showed a pony with wings and a horn, not quite matching any of the Princesses, hanging upside-down, bound but looking calm and even happy.
She tapped the page and stepped into the library, looking around.
“Okay. I think I’m starting to get it. The first one is about the Princesses losing their place in Canterlot. Then it shows ponies cut off from something. The third one has a bridge, and I had to cross a bridge to get here. Then a maze of corridors, so that fits. Maybe the fifth one means not to get distracted by all the treasure?” She glanced around. Technically books were treasure. Princess Twilight said so. “Right. So this library is full of answers, but not to the questions you have! Like your money isn’t any good here!”
Dawn nodded, satisfied that she was very clever.
“Then the alicorn hung upside-down represents the fact that all ponies are in danger regardless of their tribe, and they don’t even know it. This riddle stuff is easy!”
She turned the page.
“Engraving seven…” Two ponies playing chess, an older pony and a foal. The foal had a tiny crown, and the elder was motioning for him to take his turn. Dawn narrowed her eyes, then looked down at the floor. Most of it was plain tile, but in an open section she spotted alternating white and black.
She ran over, then glanced between the tiles and the engraving.
“The foal barely has any pieces left, but he can checkmate in one move,” she muttered. “And to do it, he’d need to move the piece on… this square.”
Dawn tapped the square on the floor. Nothing happened. She frowned and tapped harder.
“Come on, you stupid thing, all you have to do is…” Dawn stepped back to get another look at it, and a completely different tile sank a fraction of an inch with a soft click. A bookcase slid aside, revealing a doorway.
She hesitated, looked at it, then at the engraving.
“Okay, so maybe we were supposed to get mate as the other side. Whatever.” She shrugged. “As long as it works the details don’t matter!”
Dawn stopped at the doorway and looked at the next engraving. It showed a pony on their knees, with death looming over them in the form of a faceless monster holding an axe. Dawn considered her options. She didn’t want to fight a faceless monster. Really, who did? Faceless monsters were universally awful.
“What does it mean? Being on my knees will get me killed?”
She frowned.
“Maybe the last one will have a better clue…”
The last engraving showed Canterlot again, but this time it was whole, with the castle standing proud and framed inside the sun. On the road below it, a crowd of ponies in robes walked towards the city, led by a single masked unicorn.
“They seem big on following,” Dawn said to herself. “This book wasn’t written for leaders. It was written to get ponies following them.”
She got down on her knees and scooted through the door. Once she was on the other side, she looked back. A thin wire was stretched across the door at her eye level, the dark line almost invisible from the library but standing out against the light from this angle.
“Princess Twilight is going to feel really silly when I tell her the cult is definitely real.” Dawn shook her head and walked down the hidden corridor, keeping an eye out for more traps. The corridor stretched behind the wall of the library, with pinpoints of light shining into the gloom like tiny spotlights.
Dawn looked into the light and realized she was looking out into the library through the eyes of one of the paintings.
“Oh wow. This has to be original to the castle, right?” she whispered. “How did anypony ever find this?”
She stopped at the next set of eyes, glanced through, spotted a pony in a red robe, and recoiled away in shock. When she looked again, there was nothing there.
“You know what? It’s okay,” Dawn said. “This castle can be haunted! That’s fine! Ghosts are more afraid of you than you are of them.”
That was probably true, as long as they were the ghosts of bears. Dawn wasn’t going to stick around to find out and walked with what she would have called dignified haste and other ponies would have called fleeing in terror.
She spotted the outline of a door in the darkness with light spilling out around the edges. Dawn yanked it open and ran inside, slamming it shut behind her.
“So far, so good,” she lied to herself, and part of her really did think it was a lie until she turned around. “Oh wow. It really is good.”
There were diagrams all over the walls, blueprints and paper and twine strung between points on the map. Books, some of them clearly ancient and from the castle library, some of them new enough they still had the price stickers from the bookstore, were piled up like a half-dozen college students had been pulling all-nighters. Candles and torches provided flickering light just barely enough to read by.
Dawn picked one of the tomes up and opened it to where a receipt was being used as a bookmark.
“That’s a Canterlot bookstore,” she muttered. “Why would they want a book by Starswirl and Stygian?” The page they’d saved had been about the Pony of Shadows, with theories about what the creature had actually been.
Dawn looked up and walked over to the wall.
“And this is even stranger. This is teleportation magic! What does that have to do with all the cult stuff about putting Celestia back on the throne?” She huffed. “This is why I need Princess Twilight to teach me about teleportation! I don’t know what this is supposed to do, if it’s even finished!”
The candles flared up around her, the flames turning from orange to a spooky blue.
The masked pony was standing in the doorway.
“You!” Dawn gasped. “...Actually I don’t know who you are. But I saw you on the bridge, and in the library! What is all this? Are you in charge?”
The masked unicorn looked to the side, and their horn lit up with sky-blue magic. The papers and books along the wall burst into flame like oil had been poured over them.
“What are you doing?!” Dawn screamed, running over and trying to put out the flames. “This is all-- you’re destroying the evidence?!”
The pony silently set the rest of the parchment on fire. Dawn ran for her, but a wall of fire cut her off from the door. The masked pony looked at her for a few moments, then just stepped back and slammed the door closed.
“Hey!” Dawn grabbed the door with her magic and pulled, trying to get it open. It managed half an inch and stopped, slamming into something pushed against it. “You’re kidding me! Let me out!”
The room was already like an oven. Dawn was sweating, looking for any way out. There was only one door, and the masked pony had shoved something in front of it and everything else was burning. Dawn yelped as an ember landed on her flank.
“I’ll admit this was a bad idea if somepony saves me!” Dawn squeaked. “I shouldn’t have come here alone! Friends are important because the buddy system is critical if you get into trouble!”
There was a sharp bang on the other side of the door.
“Pony?” growled a newly-familiar voice.
“I told you, I heard her wailin’ like a hookbird all th’ way from the front door!” yelled a second voice.
A third joined them. “You were the one wailing. How can you be afraid of the sky?”
“It’s so shockin’ far away! You spinners are shockin’ mad for not bein’ worried you’ll fall up an’ never stop fallin!”
“You can’t fall up. The whole point of falling is that it is down,” weighed in a fourth voice.
“Berlioz? Ibis? Um, Bat-pony?” Luster yelled. “I’m sorry, I’m really bad with names! If that’s you, get me out of here! The place is on fire!”
“Fire?!” Phantasma gasped. “Berlioz, help me with this. You lift, and I’ll use magic to steady it so you can get the door!”
The air started to get thick with smoke. Luster coughed, her eyes watering. Something crashed on the other side of the door, and it opened a crack, fresh air rushing in and making the flames flare up.
Luster cried out, and red magic grabbed her hooves, pulling her towards the doorway.
“I got you!” Phantasma yelled.
“I’m burning up!” Luster cried out. “I’m--”
About twenty gallons of water splashed over her face. She sputtered and gasped.
“Is that better?” Larrikin asked.
“Thank you,” Luster said, feeling weak. Phantasma helped her up, and she looked back into the room. Everything was on fire. “All the clues! The evidence!”
“Your life is more important,” Phantasma said. “Nothing in that room matters more than you do.”
“But I could have used it to prove everything to the Princess!” she groaned and stepped back, tripping over something on the floor. “And now I’m falling all over myself!”
“You caught a fair call of bad wind there, mate,” Arteria said. She adjusted her sunglasses. “You should be right after some rest.”
Ibis leaned down to look at Luster, grabbing her face and looking at each eye. “I agree. I concede that you were right to worry about her, Phantasma. I expected she would find nothing, not that she would somehow set a hidden room on fire. Berlioz, could you carry her back? She may be in shock.”
“I’m not in shock, and I wasn’t alone,” Luster said. The diamond dog gently picked her up, carrying her like a foal. “Somepony locked me in there and set fire to the evidence I found! The cult is real!”
“Who was it?” Larrikin asked. “I bet it was one of the ponies that works in Sugarcube Corner. I’ve never trusted the way they wouldn’t let me get free cupcakes.”
“They asked you to stop eating out of the dumpster,” Ibis corrected.
“I don’t know who it was,” Dawn said. “They were wearing a mask.”
“Like this one?” Arteria asked, picking something off the ground and holding it up. “You tripped over it.”
Dawn took it from her. It was the blank, golden visage she’d seen. Whoever it had been, they’d made one fatal mistake. They left proof they really existed.
“Who were you?” Dawn asked.
Dear Princess Twilight,
I wanted to send you a letter to let you know that things are going well. I haven’t found anything conclusive about The Ninth Stable, or at least nothing I am prepared to present as hard evidence. I can tell you there is something behind it, but the tracks left behind have been covered.
Preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration are coming along. I’ve been advised by Principal Starlight not to tell you everything we have planned, so expect a few surprises.
In more personal news, I have been getting along well with my new dormmates. At first I was worried about them and how different they are to the other creatures I’ve met, but maybe those differences are good things. You were right that friends are important. Maybe the most important thing we can have is the connections between us.
I will send another report when I’ve learned more.
Your faithful student,
Luster Dawn