Phantasma Gloom didn’t like Tuesdays. It wasn’t the strangest day of the week to hate, but most ponies would wonder why she didn’t hate Mondays more, or even Wednesdays. Mondays were the first day of the school week, Wednesdays left you stuck in the middle. Tuesdays were just there. They weren’t notable enough to be hated.
The thing was, the Night Class had different teachers every day of the week. It gave the teachers a break since they were covering two shifts, but also meant that Phantasma faced a different subject and a different style of teaching every day.
Tuesdays were left to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“So today we’re going to talk about everyone’s special talents!” Sweetie Belle said. Phantasma sighed. It was basically the same lesson every time, just with different flavors. “Last week we discussed some of the ways anycreature can use to explore what they’re good at. For your homework, we asked you to tell us something that you’re good at or just really enjoy. Who wants to go first?”
Phantasma tried to stay perfectly still. If she didn’t look at Sweetie, if she didn’t move or even blink, she’d pick somepony else. Luster Dawn was already waving her hoof in the air trying to get the teacher’s attention. They’d definitely call on her and--
“Phantasma Gloom, why don’t you go first?”
She groaned and stood up at her desk. “Well, um, I really don’t like to talk about myself, and I’m not all that special,” the red and black unicorn said. “I’m just trying to learn how to fit in.”
“Everypony is special,” Sweetie said. “Even if you haven’t found it yet, sometimes talents run in a family. What do your parents do?”
“I don’t have parents,” Phantasma said quietly.
“Aaaawkward,” Larrikin crowed from their desk.
“I’m so sorry,” Sweetie said quickly. “I didn’t know. One of my best friends lost her parents, too.”
“My parents abandoned me,” Phantasma continued.
“I walked into this same conversation,” Luster Dawn said. “Ma’am I advise changing the subject and calling on somepony else. The only winning move is not to play.”
Sweetie shook her head. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders never give up! Not even when we’re covered in tree sap and bee stings! We can figure something out! What if we start with your cutie mark? If we figure out what you were doing when you got it…”
Phantasma turned slightly so Sweetie could see her blank black flank.
“Oh come on!” Sweetie groaned.
“You know what, I’m just going to take my turn,” Luster said, standing up.
Phantasma breathed deeply and gave Luster a big smile, mouthing the words ‘thank you’.
“So,” Luster said. “My special talent is magic, naturally, since that’s what everypony in the School for Gifted Unicorns has. Of course, it’s not just magic in general. Actually, it has to do with uncovering things that nopony else has noticed.”
Dawn got up to the board and took the chalk from Sweetie.
“For example, if we draw a map of Ponyville, and this isn’t exactly to scale…”
Phantasma’s attention drifted away as Luster started talking about strange lights seen in the sky and unusual smells and an unexplained fire and how she was sure they were connected.
As much as Sweetie Belle’s questions had hurt, in a way it felt good that they’d been asked at all. Back in the Crystal Empire, it had hurt worse that nopony had to ask. They’d look at her and they’d just know - this wasn’t a pony that came from a loving household. This wasn’t a filly that was part of a family. They looked at her and they saw him and they just wanted to run away.
“...and that’s why I want one of you to come with me to hunt it down,” Luster Dawn finished. “It could mean life or death!”
“Luster Dawn, you can’t use my classroom to recruit monster hunters,” Sweetie Belle said.
“I’m just explaining how my special talent helped me put things together faster than anypony else,” Dawn explained. “And also asking if anyone else wants to help. It’s sort of, um, a friendship building exercise!”
“I think your reasoning is flawed,” Ibis said. “I’ll leave it to you to think on why it is. I won’t participate.”
“MMmm…” Larrikin flopped on their desk. “I’m out, too. Sorry. It sounds like a ton of fun but I have to wash my mane,” they said with weeds tangled through their mane and dripping water all over the floor.
“...No.” Berlioz grumbled, looking away.
“You know I’d be right scraggled t’ help ya, but the truth is I just really don’t wanna,” Arteria added. “Tell you what, stick a stalagmite through this one and I’ll help ya double with th’ next one that ain’t so, you know, shockin’ awful.”
Luster looked at Phantasma hopefully.
“Miss Dawn,” Sweetie warned. “Please go back to your seat. Now, I have a wonderful idea! Since Phantasma doesn’t have her cutie mark, maybe we can help her find it, and you can all see a practical demonstration of how to discover your special talents!”
“I, um,” Phantasma coughed. “I promised Luster that I’d help her with, her, um, her thing.”
“You did?” Luster whispered.
“I definitely did,” Phantasma said. “And maybe I’ll find out what my special talent is with whatever she’s doing!”
“I sure hope not,” Larrikin said. “That’d stink.” They started laughing like they’d told a joke.
“Don’t listen to her,” Dawn said. “We’re gonna have a great time after class.”
Phantasma was not having a great time. She was struggling to get hip-length rubber boots on all four hooves with the determination of somepony who was absolutely sure that it was going to be necessary to be as covered up as possible.
“So how much do you know about Otyughs?” Luster asked. “And make sure you tie up your mane and tail. You really don’t want them dragging in anything.” She already had both in tight buns, and started helping Phantasma with hers, stopping when she came to the mare’s horn, curved and sharp and untwisted so it looked more like a thorn tipped with blood than the usual unicorn spire. “Huh. You should show that off more. It looks good.”
“Please don’t talk about my horn when I’m right here,” Phantasma said, her cheeks turning as red as the streak in her mane. “And I’ve never heard of an otyugh. It sounds like the kind of word Arteria would use and never explain.”
“Close, but actually completely wrong. They’re a type of scavenger that normally live in swamps and garbage dumps and stuff. They absolutely love sewers, though, and when I heard about all the weird stuff going on, I put it together in a flash.”
“...What weird stuff?”
“All the stuff I explained in class!” Luster sighed. “The strange sights. The lights floating above town. Pets going missing! Ponies losing time! All that stuff!”
Phantasma hesitated. She hadn’t actually been listening in class so this was all new to her and it was starting to sound like she might be about to go on a trip with a crazy pony. “...Are you saying it’s aliens?”
“What?” Luster blinked. “Aliens?”
“Lights in the sky, missing time…”
“No! It’s swamp gas.” Luster rolled her eyes. “I swear, that’s the same reaction I got from Starlight. Why do ponies go right to aliens? Aliens don’t exist.”
“But why would there be swamp gas in town?” Phantasma asked, trying to mentally stay on track. “Shouldn’t it be in a swamp?”
“I really should have brought slides to class instead of using the chalkboard,” Luster mumbled. “Okay, so, good question! Why swamp gas? The answer is that there’s something wrong with the sewer system. And before you ask, no, that normally wouldn’t be a job for me, that would be a job for… for whoever actually manages the sewers. Plumbers or something.”
“Okay…”
“And I wouldn’t have bothered looking into it, but as I’m in charge of preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in a few weeks, it’s important this town isn’t in the middle of a tidal wave of backed-up black water!”
“Dawn, this really still sounds like a problem for plumbers.”
“Plumbers can’t deal with monsters! Specifically with an otyugh. They’re a type of abomination. They live in swamps and sewers and other places with a lot of rotting vegetation and… detritus. Rare creatures, but I found tracks when I was investigating the reports of lights and smells.”
“And you want to hunt it down?” Phantasma asked. “Just for being a monster?”
“Actually, I’d like to capture it and put it back where it belongs,” Dawn said. “They’re harmless. Mostly harmless. They don’t even eat living prey, and they’re about as smart as dogs.”
“And we have to go into the sewer to do it,” Phantasma muttered.
“You go where the job takes you,” Dawn shrugged. “Besides, I got you rubber boots, didn’t I? Honestly, you’re probably the best pony for this anyway. When you’re working in a sewer, being able to use magic so you don’t have to touch anything is pretty much a necessity.”
Dawn grabbed a crowbar with her magic and slammed it into the sewer grate.
“You’re ready to go, right?” She asked, not even slowing down as she popped the grate off. “Watch your head when you go in.”
“Are all of your adventures like this?” Phantasma asked, following her into the dark. Dawn cast a quick light spell so they weren’t stumbling in the shadows and that almost made it worse. Things that were better left unseen were cast in buzzing magical light, and every step was accompanied by a squelch and slurping sound.
“Usually my adventures are more about library work and research,” Dawn said. “My special talent is sort of like solving mysteries but it’s more like I can dig up leads that other ponies miss. A lot of ponies just dismiss it as luck, but…”
“It’s not luck,” Phantasma said. “I’ve only known you for a few days but I can already tell. You find leads because you keep digging. How many ponies would willingly come down here just to see if they’re right about a harmless monster in the sewers?”
“You came with me even though you didn’t know what we were doing, and you didn’t run away,” Dawn said, looking back with a smile. “Maybe your special talent is going to turn out to be helping other ponies.”
“It… probably isn’t that,” Phantasma said. “It’s always so awkward when ponies find out I don’t have a cutie mark. I mean, the foals at the orphanage made sure I couldn’t forget, but that’s just foals teasing each other.”
“You’re just a late bloomer,” Dawn shrugged. “I got my cutie mark pretty late too. Besides, look at all the creatures that can’t get cutie marks at all - Ibis and Berlioz sure won’t get marks on their flanks. I’m not sure about Larrikin.”
“I’m not sure kelpies can get cutie marks,” Phantasma said.
“Kelpie! That’s what she is!”
“Sometimes he,” Phantasma corrected. “Technically Larrikin is a plant, and very sensitive to changes in the water. That’s probably the real reason they didn’t want to come down here.”
“Well whatever they are, they’ll thank me later when I’m the one making sure monsters don’t get sewage backed up into the bathtubs when the Princess is coming to town! They’ll thank you too, since you’re helping.”
“And that will make it all worth it in the end,” Phantasma said. And then the smell hit her, and the good thing was that when she threw up she was already in a sewer so it didn’t matter that she made a mess. “Oh stars I hope it’s worth it,” she mumbled.
“We’re lucky there isn’t a storm scheduled until tomorrow,” Dawn said.
“Wouldn’t a storm… clean all of this out?” Phantasma asked, doing her best not to breathe through her snout. “Wouldn’t that make it better.”
“Normally, it would, yeah, but there are two problems.” Dawn pointed at a slick trail of slime lying on top of… on top of the rest. “First, if this got washed away it would be a lot harder to find the monster’s tracks. And second, the whole reason I even noticed this in the first place is that it was getting backed up enough that methane was being trapped. It’s likely a storm would just flood this neck-deep and get stuck there. You’d have this stuff in basements all over town and somepony would still have to go in and deal with it.”
“Somepony other than us,” Phantasma sighed.
Dawn sighed. “Yeah. Look, I know this isn’t exactly glamorous work, but I just… you know all the stories about Twilight Sparkle, right? All the adventures she went on and the monsters she fought even before she became an alicorn?”
“I think everypony has heard stories. There’s even that book series!”
“Ugh, don’t trust anything in that,” Dawn groaned. “It turns out those take a lot of liberties with the truth. It turns out she never had a romantic fling with Queen Chrysalis at all! And the entire subplot where Eventide Flare is revealed as the seventh secret element of harmony? Completely made up. Whoever Bixie Bulamoon is, she made a lot of money off of Princess Twilight’s name and didn’t do any research.”
“Really?” Phantasma asked. “That’s too bad. I should have known that it was unrealistic when they did a time travel arc, I guess.”
“Oh no, the time travel part happened,” Luster Dawn said. “Hey, do you think we can ask Principal Starlight to send us back in time? Oh! Maybe the stories are all true, but from another universe where things played out differently! And somepony has to go back and be Eventide Flare and get Twilight to marry Queen Chrysalis in place of her brother!”
“I, um…” Phantasma hesitated. “I’m pretty sure time travel is illegal now.”
“Is it? Darn.” Dawn sighed. “Well, that’s probably for the best. I’d just end up erasing myself from the timeline or causing a loop or something.”
Phantasma was briefly glad they were hunting a monster in the sewers after that brief glimpse into what else Dawn might be doing with her time.
“You said the otyugh is harmless, right?” Phantasma asked.
“Absolutely,” Dawn assured her. “They’re usually really friendly. Which isn’t always super great since they live in slime and muck. It’s kind of like, um… have you ever met an animal from a place where they don’t really have natural predators? Like, penguins don’t have land predators, so they’ve got absolutely no fear of ponies. They’ll just walk right up to you to see what you are and what you’re doing. Otyughs are like that. Nothing eats them, and they don’t hunt prey, so they’re just sort of curious and friendly.”
“That’s good,” Phantasma sighed.
“If it wasn’t for the smell they’d be great pets!” Dawn continued. “But, um, the smell is really bad. Like really, really bad. Even carrion-eating animals won’t touch them. And they like to hug and nuzzle.”
“Oh. Oh, that’s not good at all.”
“You have to use a special shampoo or about a gallon of tomato juice to get the smell out,” Dawn said.
“You sure know a lot about them.”
“I always do my research,” Dawn said. “Princess Twilight taught me that. There’s no reason not to read up on them when I’m going to go looking, right? I know practically every fact about the sewage-eating abominations.”
“Sewage-eating?” Phantasma asked, hesitating.
“Well, yeah. When I spotted the tracks, I compared them to ones in a field guide to confirm what they are, then I read up on their ecology and habitats in the Monstrous Manual. They eat sewage. Gross, but they’re hardly the only monster to do it. Most of them are just more… ooze-like.”
“Do you remember what Ibis said?” Phantasma said, starting to get a bad feeling.
“Yeah, she said that there was some big obvious flaw in my reasoning,” Dawn scoffed. “Which is stupid. These are clearly otyugh tracks! And from the looks of it, there’s just one of them. I don’t know what she was talking about. Maybe she thought she wouldn’t fit down here? It would be sort of a tight squeeze.”
“It’s just… if they eat sewage, why would there be a blockage?” Phantasma asked. “Wouldn’t they actually help keep the sewer running smoothly?”
“Well, obviously, they… they…” Dawn slowed to a halt. “...buck. I didn’t put that together until now.”
“What should we do? Maybe we should go back?” Phantasma suggested, hoping that if she said it maybe Dawn would pounce on it. “We could go… do research. Out of the sewers. And get a hot shower.”
Dawn thought for a minute, very nearly rubbed her chin, and avoided disaster at the last moment.
“No, we’ll keep looking,” she decided. “There’s that storm coming, and that’ll just make things worse. Besides, we’re already this deep. I’d hate to let it go when the answer could be right around the corner.”
She walked to the next intersection and looked around.
“Well, not this corner, but still. It’s a good metaphor.” She sighed. “So, I’m aware of how awful and gross this is. If you want to go back, you can and I won’t hold it against you. You didn’t even have to come this far.”
“I’m not just going to leave you,” Phantasma said. “Your special talent is getting to the bottom of things, right? So if you think there’s more to find out we should keep looking.”
Dawn grinned. “Yeah! I can almost feel it, like we’re really close to--”
A terrible howl rattled through the tunnels, making the water around their hooves ripple.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting that, but I think it proves we’re onto something.”
“And now we’re going to run towards the danger?” Phantasma asked.
“No, we’re going to walk carefully,” Dawn corrected. “We’ll make sure we’re not endangering ourselves, and, um, also move slowly enough to avoid splashing any of… this… all over ourselves.”
“That is a better idea.”
They tried to be quiet while they slowly padded towards the terrible roar, though it was, of course, all but impossible to be silent given the water halfway up their legs and the occasional scare of something more solid bumping into them.
The unseen monster roared again, closer this time.
“There’s a cistern up ahead,” Dawn whispered.
“How do you know your way around?” Phantasma asked, keeping her voice low.
“Did the research. I grabbed a map from town hall and memorized it. They wouldn’t let me take it with me down here, for some reason.”
“For some reason,” Phantasma repeated.
“I wouldn’t want it back after it had spent a few hours down here either,” Dawn giggled. “Come on. I bet it’s got a nest in there!”
The cistern was only the size of a fairly large room, but it was still a welcome change from the tight sewer tunnels.
“We’re on the edge of town, near the reservoir,” Dawn said. “From the plans I read, there should be a huge valve that they can use to flush the whole system.”
“While we’re in it?”
“No, no, the only thing down here is an emergency cutoff. And unless I miss my guess, that right there is what we’re looking for.” She pointed to the far wall, where something very much like paper mache was plastered thickly against the bricks.
“A nest? It looks like a wasp’s nest except a thousand times bigger.”
“They build their nests out of the things they won’t eat. I’m probably making that sound a lot grosser than it is. It’s like, small stones and shells and stuff all glued together.”
“Is it inside?”
“From the noise we heard before it has to be around here,” Dawn said. She carefully poked at the mass until part of it moved, like a curtain made of mucus and old newspaper. Something inside made a keening, scared sound.
“I think you’re frightening it,” Phantasma said.
“If you want to try, be my guest,” Dawn said.
Phantasma nodded. “Miss Fluttershy has given us lessons on how to handle creatures when they’re scared. The most important thing is to make them feel safe.”
“It’s strange, though. Usually an otyugh doesn’t get scared, and down here the biggest thing should be rats, which are, um, usually a snack for them instead of a danger.” She made soft sounds, trying to put the monster at ease. “Um, let’s see… who’s a good little otyugh? We just want to make sure you’re safe. Why don’t you come out and let us see you?”
The sounds from inside became slightly less distressed.
“You must be scared to be in a new place. We just want to take you back… home.” Phantasma looked at the nest. “Dawn, how long would it take to make a nest this size?”
“I donno. Months, at least. Maybe years. And that’s not even counting if it got flushed away or damaged.”
“And the lights and sounds are recent?”
“...Too recent,” Dawn muttered. “Phantasma, what if I’ve been wrong this whole time? It has to have been down here a long time, and I bet it’s been helping keep the sewer clean. There were practically no reports on sewer maintenance or blockages, and both of us know that the town is three times the size it was before Princess Twilight ascended.”
Phantasma coaxed the otyugh into the light. It was a horribly ugly creature. It was shaped like a half-deflated ball standing on three stubby, elephantine legs and topped with three tentacles. One was studded with large, pony-like eyes and the other two were like an octopus’ limbs. If it hadn’t been the size of a dog, it would have been terrifying, but even with the eyestalk extended it had to look up at the two ponies.
“I think it’s hurt,” Phantasma said. “Look. It’s dragging one of its tentacles like its broken.”
“I don’t really know how to do first aid for a creature like this,” Dawn said, quietly. She didn’t want to scare it. The thing’s front end was all mouth, ringed with jagged teeth. Even if it didn’t want to hurt her, it could still do a lot of harm just being frightened.
“I think those are burns. What would do that to a creature like this? It looks so helpless…”
“Maybe it can tell us?” Dawn asked.
“Can you?” Phantasma looked at the creature. I blinked up at her with those strange, big eyes and made a burbling sound somewhere between birdsong and a flushing toilet. “We just want to help you, I promise.”
“They’re supposed to be pretty smart,” Dawn said. “I hope it understands what we’re doing…”
The otyugh waded through the sewage, in the deepest spots only visible by its eyestalk above the surface. It wasn’t very fast on its three legs, but it wasn’t slowed down by anything. It took Phantasma and Dawn down a tunnel they hadn’t explored, and the water flowing around their hooves slowed and stopped.
“We must be near the blockage,” Dawn said. “Check it out. There’s rubble in the tunnel up ahead.”
“I wonder if he got caught in the cave-in?” Phantasma said.
“It wouldn’t explain a burn, unless… maybe there was a fire and that caused the ceiling to collapse?” Dawn hesitated. “Look. There are some burn marks, but not like any fire pattern I’ve ever seen. If it was a sewer gas fire, they should be in big sheets, right? But these are tight, concentrated lines.”
“Look, he’s scared,” Phantasma said. “He doesn’t want to get any closer.”
“Let’s find out what spooked him so badly,” Dawn said.
“Well, there’s your problem,” Dawn said, shaking her head in awe.
It had taken a while to move the rubble, but it was pretty clear what had caused the cave-in. A huge hole had been blasted in the wall, revealing a dark cavern beyond.
“Do you think this is connected to the caves at the school?” Phantasma asked.
“No, it couldn’t be. We’d be able to smell it,” Dawn said. “I just wonder what did this. It definitely wasn’t the otyugh.” She looked up at the edge. “Look at this.”
The bricks were burned, the edges fused.
“This wasn’t storm damage,” Dawn said.
“What would cause it?” Phantasma asked. “A dragon?”
“There are plenty of dragons in town, but what would they be doing down here?” Dawn asked. “Besides, this is too focused. This was a tight, collimated beam of heat. There’s not a lot of damage across the brick. Like if you grab a potato and roast it over a campfire, the whole thing gets warm all over, and if the fire was hot enough to burn it, you’d burn the whole outside way before you burned holes in it. But if you took a blowtorch to it, you could burn the middle away and leave the ends raw.”
“So this was done by a blowtorch?”
“Well… not literally, but it’s probably the same thing that caused the lines of fire damage in the tunnel. It has to be some kind of spell. Unicorn magic can definitely make a beam hot enough for this, especially if they’ve got a cutie mark for pyromancy or something.”
“Maybe somepony’s toilet got clogged and they really got frustrated.”
Dawn snorted. “I doubt it. All the rubble is in here, so I think this was an accident. They must have broken through from the other side.” She shone her light through the hole. “Look at this. All the walls look like the rock was melted away.”
“It’s not a volcano, is it?”
“Pretty sure this isn’t a magma tube,” Dawn said. She tapped her hoof. “I think somepony or something was carving out a lair. This could even be related to the cult! What if they got scared off and decided they had to go underground? Literally. They might be building a headquarters right under Ponyville!”
Phantasma wasn’t entirely sure there was a cult, but she was entirely sure about one thing - the other tunnel was clean, the floor was bare rock without layers of anything gross, and it would be literally impossible for it to smell worse than the sewer.
“Let’s take a look,” she suggested, willing to even investigate a cult if it meant a break from the sewer. “Maybe you can find some tracks or something, then we can go back to the school and figure out what did this.”
“Good idea,” Dawn said, nodding. She started walking down the slightly curving tunnel. “These are more than big enough for a pony, but it would take an awful lot of magical power to do this.”
“What kind of monsters would make a tunnel like this?”
“Well, maybe a thoqqua. They’re a type of worm made out of superheated rock. Really mean, too, but I’ve never heard of one this close to the surface.” Dawn looked around. “And I don’t think this is the right kind of rock. I’d have to check the library, but I think they mostly like volcanic rock.”
“What about a tatzelwurm?” Phantasma suggested.
“I actually saw one of those once!” Dawn said. “The tunnel is definitely big enough, but they hunt on the surface. We’d have ponies getting grabbed and eaten in town if it was one of those. Good thought, but it doesn’t explain the fire beams.”
The tunnel opened up into a natural cavern, though some of it had obviously been carved out and expanded.
“This is so weird,” Dawn said. “Nopony would build like this. The floor is uneven, but they’ve carved out plenty of space everywhere else. Who would care more about making sure the ceiling is clear than being able to walk around?”
“I don’t see any tracks,” Phantasma said.
“Maybe they abandoned this whole section because it was too close to the sewers…” Dawn mumbled. She started looking for some kind of clue in the dust and debris on the floor, and because she was keeping her head down, Phantasma was the one who spotted it.
Above them, floating silently, was an orb with a diameter larger than Phantasma was tall, made of something like rock combined with leather.
“Dawn?” Phantasma whispered. “What is that?”
Dawn looked up, and Phantasma saw her eyes widen in terror. She backed up, terrified, and knocked over a pile of pebbles.
The clattering of stone on stone echoed through the cave.
A huge eye opened up on the orb’s surface and swiveled down to look at them. Ten long eyestalks uncurled like a wiggling crown around the creature’s top, the nearest few turning to look at the two ponies.
“Oh no,” Dawn whispered.
“What is it?” Phantasma asked.
“Well, um, unless I’m mistaken, that’s one of the most dangerous and deadly monsters in the world,” Dawn said. “And we should be backing away, Phantasma, we should not be standing here.”
“D-deadly?” Phantasma hissed. “Can we talk to it? Maybe if we apologize it’ll let us go back into the sewer and run away!”
“Most ponies who have seen one and lived call them beholders, but most of the time they just get called ‘oh no what’s that’ and then there’s a lot of--”
The creature’s gaze narrowed with obvious malevolence.
“--screaming,” Dawn squeaked. The monster closed its huge central eye and the eyestalks swiveled to focus on the ponies. “Run!”
Phantasma screamed and bolted. Beams of fire and magic streaked from the monster’s eyes, hitting all around them, hot enough to burn into the rock and leave glowing trails.
Dawn’s horn lit up with hard light, and a shield sprang up between them and the monster, two of the heat rays deflecting away from it.
“Get out of here!” Dawn yelled. “Maybe I can hold it off!”
“I’m not going to leave you!” Phantasma shouted. She raised her own shield, the magic flickering into place and reinforcing Dawn’s. “Look! We’re doing it!”
The floating eyeball’s barrage stopped, and its huge central eye opened up again, the iris glowing with shifting light. Phantasma felt her shield dissolve, the magic being scattered like dust in a strong wind.
“What-- what’s it doing?!”
“They can dispel magic!” Dawn shouted. “Run!”
Phantasma squeaked in alarm and they ran for the tunnel back to the sewer, hooves slipping on the rough gravel of the cave floor. The creature snapped its central eye shut and beams of heat scythed through the air, a wall of fire cutting them off from their escape.
“There’s another tunnel in the other direction!” Dawn yelled. “Come on!”
She grabbed Phantasma’s hoof and they bolted the other way.
“But the sewer is the other direction!” Phantasma screamed.
“There has to be another exit!” Dawn said. “It didn’t come from the sewers, it went into them! We just have to go out the front door!”
“Dawn, I really hate this adventure! Next time can we go on an adventure to pet bunnies or something?!”
“If we get out of this alive, I’ll buy you a pet bunny! Don’t stop running!”
Turning the corner gave them a moment of reprieve, but only a moment. The last room had been some kind of unfinished space, but the monster had clearly been at work here for a while.
“The walls are all like mirrors,” Phantasma whispered.
“It’s obsidian. Volcanic glass. It must melt the rock with its rays and then polish it somehow.” She looked around. “This is like a funhouse maze…”
“Why would it make mirrors?” Phantasma asked.
“It’s a floating eyeball that shoots death rays, Phanty! Who knows what it’s thinking?! Maybe it just likes to stare at itself all day and think about how pretty it is!”
“I don’t think that’s what they mean when they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Dawn goaned. “Let’s just get out of here!” She ran for what she thought was the door and slammed snout-first into a mirror. “Buck!”
Phantasma caught her when she fell down.
Dawn touched her nose, making sure she wasn’t bleeding. “Not this way.”
Phantasma felt along the wall, and found a gap. “Here!” She helped Dawn up and they kept moving, slightly more cautiously this time, feeling ahead of them. There was movement in the mirrors that wasn’t theirs. Dawn looked back, even though she could have seen it in the mirror ahead.
The thing with its terrible gaze was looking right at them, from every direction.
“Which way is out?!” Phantasma whispered, quivering in her hooves.
“Um…” Dawn looked around for a clue. The floating eyeball fired a beam of heat, even though it had to be around several corners. The ray struck the mirrored wall and rebounded, bouncing at angles along the walls and going right through the maze.
“Duck!” Phantasma shoved Dawn out of the way, and the beam went past them, shooting around the next corner.
“That way!” Dawn said, pointing in the direction the beam had gone. “Also, I think I figured out why it turned all the walls into mirrors!”
“I think I know too, thank you!” Phantasma yelled. Another beam followed the first, the crazy angles making it almost impossible to predict where it was going, the fiery ray going right between them. Dawn cried out, the death beam grazing her leg. She collapsed to the ground, sucking in air between her teeth.
“That hurts…” she groaned. There was a discolored line of burned fur along her flank from the near-miss.
Phantasma tried to help her stand again. “You need to stop falling over when we’re trying to run!”
“You’ve got a few weeks more experience than I do in living in caves,” Dawn joked. She got up and almost collapsed again, wincing. “I can’t put weight on that. You need to go.”
“I won’t,” Phantasma said, pulling Dawn to her side and helping her limp along.
“We’re too slow like this!” Dawn said.
“I said I’m not leaving! I’m not going to abandon one of the first friends I ever made!” Phantasma snapped. She fired a bolt of dark energy, the spell bouncing off the mirrors like a ball towards the beholder. The heat beams cut off, and it snapped its big central eye open, trying to dispel the magic. The ball of black smoke smacked into the monster, one of its eyestalks going limp.
“What was that?” Dawn asked.
“I… you never really asked a lot of details about why I was taking night classes,” Phantasma said, quietly. “They’re not for normal ponies.”
“Are you going to reveal you’re the reincarnated form of a being from the far realm beyond sanity and space?” Dawn gasped.
“What? No.” Phantasma gave her a look. “What even is that?”
“I’ve seen a lot of tentacles so far today so I thought it would be on-theme,” Dawn shrugged. “Whatever it is, I already know who you are. You’re Phantasma Gloom. That’s the only important thing.”
Phantasma smiled weakly. “Close your eyes. I don’t want to scare you.”
“I don’t see how you could possibly-- oh wow.”
Phantasma’s mane and tail started moving, trailing off into wisps of smoke. She let Dawn go and stepped toward the beholder as it came around the corner, her hoofsteps kicking up smoke and becoming silent. Her whole body disappeared into a growing cloud of smoke and mist, and the monster looked confused.
“I won’t let you hurt my friend!” Phantasma roared. She reared up, a massive shape three times the size of a normal pony, the smoke forming into her face and mane, the rest of the smog like a shroud over a shapeless form..
The beholder fired several beams of heat, and they lanced right through her with no more effect than if it had been truly punching smoke.
The floating eye floated back, the barrage slowing and stopping as it failed to find purchase. It opened its central eye, and the cone of disruption shone like a spotlight on Phantasma.
“It’s not a spell?” Dawn asked, mesmerized by the swirling black smoke.
Phantasma’s curved horn didn’t light up, not exactly. Shadows gathered around it like black light, casting rays of darkness across the cavern. The beholder looked around in alarm, and so did Dawn. She saw her own shadow stretch towards Phantasma, twisting up into the storm.
A bolt of black lightning struck the beholder’s exposed central eye, and the creature flew back, howling, the iris of its eye turning black like its tears had turned to ink. The monster’s eyestalks flailed in blind alarm, the eyeballs on the tips of the tendrils becoming that same opaque black.
“I can’t do much,” Phantasma said, her voice an octave deeper. “But I can blind you and keep you from hurting Dawn again.”
The beholder charged at her voice, flying through her face and slamming into the wall behind Phantasma with the exact same sound of a rubber ball hitting a concrete wall. It fell down, stunned, and wrapped its eyestalks around its body protectively.
Phantasma sighed.
“And now you know I’m just a monster too,” Phantasma said, not looking at Dawn. “You should get out of here. You can go and get Principal Starlight and tell her about this, and I’ll stay down here where I belong…”
“This is amazing!” Dawn gasped, running over to look at Phantasma and completely ignoring her pity party, not even listening to what she was saying. “Are you a gas, or is this some kind of magical matrix? Oh! I bet it’s sort of like the in-between state of a teleportation effect before the pony or item has reformed! Like matter that’s been turned into magical energy, but keeping the same strongly-interacting nature of normal matter!”
“Are you even listening?” Phantasma asked. She was having a hard time feeling sorry for herself with Dawn so excited, especially when the unicorn hopped inside her. “W-wait! Don’t! I’m ticklish!”
She started giggling uncontrollably at the feeling of the pony poking around at her insides. Dawn hopped out after a few moments, still grinning.
“This is so cool! Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Dawn pranced in place.
“Isn’t your leg hurt?” Phantasma asked.
“Yes, but this is much more important! I can be hurt later! You have to tell me what happened! Some kind of transformation spell?”
“No, this is… this is the real me,” she said. “I’m not even really a unicorn. I’m a monster, a terrible thing that-- what are you doing?”
“Huh?” Dawn looked up. “I was seeing if you had a flavor.”
“You’re trying to lick me?!” Phantasma asked, recoiling like a snake in alarm. “Why?!”
“Well, geologists lick rocks,” Dawn said. “So it’s a recognized scientific method. Probably not in biology. Well, sometimes you get licked in biology. Will you please just tell me what this is? What you are?”
Phantasma sighed. “I’m an umbra pony.”
“An umbra pony. Okay. And that is…?”
“Like King Sombra,” she said. “That’s… why it was really hard for me. He was probably my grandfather, and when I was born and I looked like him, my mother got scared and abandoned me at an orphanage. Even the ponies there were terrified of me. They thought I might turn evil at any moment and try to enslave them. And that’s not even the worst thing…”
“What was the worst thing?”
“Every year, they celebrate the Crystal Faire, everypony in the Empire coming together in love and harmony. It empowers the Crystal Heart and protects the Crystal Empire and every single year I spent the Faire in bed with a fever so high they thought I might die. And you know why? Because the Crystal Heart repels evil, and somewhere deep inside, that means me!”
She sniffled, the cloud of smoke and shadow that formed her body slowly lowering to the ground until her massive chin was on the floor.
“I don’t think you’re evil,” Dawn said. “I do think your shadow magic is really cool, though.”
“I’m not very good at it,” Phantasma mumbled.
“You defeated one of the most dangerous monsters I know!” Dawn said. “And you did it because you wanted to save me, even when you thought it meant I might stop being your friend.” She tried to rub Phantasma’s back, but her hoof went right through it.
“You really mean it?” Phantasma asked.
“I do. And if you change back, I’ll hug you. I can’t really do it when you’re incorporeal.” She waved a hoof through Phantasma to demonstrate.
Phantasma’s face dissolved into black mist, and the mass swirled inwards and became darker and more solid until it finally coalesced back into her normal form, the last thing to appear the red streak through her black mane.
“I’m not sure where my boots went,” Phantasma said. Her voice had gone back to normal. “Sorry about--” Her apology was cut off by a big hug, Luster nuzzling into her neck and pulling her close.
“Thank you for saving me,” Dawn said. “I think that officially makes you my best friend.”
“I’d love to be your best friend,” Phantasma said, her smile restored.
“Now, let’s find the exit,” Dawn said, letting go and stepping back. “We can’t go back through the sewer when you don’t have boots, but I bet we can still find the exit at the other end of the mirror maze.”
“It might take a while,” Phantasma said.
“I have an idea on how to speed it up a little,” Dawn said. She limped over to the fallen, unconscious beholder and charged up her horn.
“What are you doing?”
“All those beams bouncing off the walls gave me an idea,” Dawn explained.
“Oh! You’re going to fire a magic beam of your own to--”
Dawn used a burst of force to launch the beholder like a pinball, letting it careen off the walls. “Follow that monster!”
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
Attached is a detailed report of what we found under the town. In summary, the beholder seems to be an escapee from Tartarus, though no escapes have been reported and so it remains unknown how it managed to leave its prison. As you know, the beholder itself has been remanded to the Royal Guard, who have safely placed it back in Tartarus under doubled guard to ensure it doesn't escape again.
The lights seen in the sky have been confirmed as swamp gas escaping from blocked sections of the sewer system, and have already stopped now that the damage has been repaired. The strange smells were almost certainly from a very earthly source, and any strange sounds can be attributed to the beholder carving out its lair.
As for the reports of missing time, an investigation after returning to the surface revealed that the town’s clock tower runs slightly slow, and that maintenance workers simply adjust it manually from time to time, setting it several minutes ahead. Ponies didn’t even notice until they began looking for supernatural explanations to the events going on around them.
As part of my report I have included an article from a former classmate of yours that you might find amusing. Miss Lyra Heartstrings seems sure that everything was a result of aliens called ‘humans’ from some alternate universe.
On a more personal note, I have made a real friend. Phantasma Gloom is an amazing pony who has had to deal with terrible prejudice in her life that I’ve never experienced myself. Despite this, she still believes in the importance of friendship. I hope that I’ve never judged a pony on their appearance, and Phantasma is a perfect example of why.
I am doing well, and starting to enjoy my time here. Fieldwork is very exciting compared to pure research, and even facing dangers like the beholder or smelly, dirty work like the sewer can be fun as long as you have the right ponies to share the experience with.
Your Faithful Student,
Luster Dawn
Phantasma carefully splashed through the sewer, alone this time. The flow of filthy water was lower now, only up to the ankles of her boots instead of the knee. It was less stagnant, and even the smell wasn’t as bad as it had been.
“Or maybe my nose just burned out after last time,” Phantasma said to herself. She stopped to look at the new wall that had been put in to cover the hole the beholder had made. All the rubble was long gone, and the blockages were cleared away.
She wasn’t just down here to do plumbing, though.
“It was this way,” she said to herself, trying to keep the map in mind. She hadn’t memorized it the way Dawn was able to effortlessly absorb documents, but she had gone over it a half dozen times in her head. Phantasma had already made one wrong turn and realized her mistake before it was too late, and if there was any greater sign of mastery than knowing when you were wrong, she wasn’t sure what was.
The tight sewer tunnel opened up to the cistern, with that same nest that they’d found before. They’d begged the maintenance ponies to leave it untouched.
“Hello?” Phantasma called out. “Are you here?”
She stood in the doorway feeling like she was standing on somepony’s front porch.
An eyestalk peeked around the corner of the nest’s hidden entrance, then the otyugh stumbled out, making excited toilet-flushing sounds and waving both of its tentacles happily.
“You seem to be healing up very nicely,” Phantasma said.
The otyugh burbled up at her and run towards her for a hug, going right through her as she turned incorporeal at the last moment.
“You know its rude to hug without permission,” Phantasma scolded. “Now, do you want a treat?”
The otyugh wiggled its eye-studded tendril with what was probably a nod and approached more slowly, holding out its tentacles.
“I asked Dawn what kind of treats would be appropriate for a growing little guy like you, and she said what you’d like more than anything else would be kitchen scraps.” She lifted up the bag she’d brought. “It’s not exactly fresh, but she said you’d have stomach problems if we fed you fresh food. Something about a short digestive system.”
Phantasma gave the otyugh the paper bag, and it opened its jagged-toothed maw and tore into it.
Phantasma cleared her throat.
The otyugh paused, then started nibbling more slowly.
“There’s also a cupcake in there from the bakery,” Phantasma said. “That’s for being a good little monster and being brave enough to show us where that mean beholder was. If it wasn’t for you, we never would have known and a lot of ponies could have gotten hurt.”
It hopped a little, turning in a circle.
Phantasma smiled. “I’m going to try and visit you every week, okay?” she said. “But that means you’ve got to work hard and help ponies by keeping the sewer clean. Dawn offered to get me a pet, but I think something that can take care of themselves is even better.”
She carefully patted the little creature on its top side, since it didn’t exactly have a head.
“Now, you enjoy your treat. I’m going to go get a shower before lunch. Dawn wanted me to help her with her next adventure! She says it’s some kind of conspiracy involving bees, but I think she just wants to get lunch and look at some flowers.” Phantasma grinned. “Either way, It’s going to be a lot of fun spending time with my best friend!”