//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Daybreak // by Leafdoggy //------------------------------// “I ain’t havin no part in this,” Royal Gala grumbled. She took a seat in the sandy alleyway and crossed her legs in front of her chest with a sour look on her face. “Y’all are playin with fire.” “Oh, quit being such a baby,” Daybreak replied. “It’s not like we’re gonna hurt anypony.” Royal Gala groaned. “Angel? You’ve gotta see how bad this idea is, don’t you?” “Sure,” Angel said. “Then why the heck are you doin it?” “Cuz it’s funny.” “Ugh. Whatever.” “Whatever yourself,” Daybreak said. “We don’t need you for this.” “And you won’t get me for it.” Daybreak rolled her eyes. “You ready, Angel?” “Sure.” “Alright,” Daybreak said with a grin, “start it up, then.” There was a low, distant rumble as shadows started to creep across the plaza. At first, they went unnoticed, ignored like any clouds would be, but they didn’t stop. The ponies at the end of the line saw the shadows pass overhead, but instead of letting the sun back in as they moved over more and more of the ponies, the world only seemed to be getting darker. The shadows got deeper and deeper, spreading across everything, and showed no sign of stopping. Eventually, somepony noticed the strangeness of it and looked up at the sky. They let out a worried yelp, and the fun began. As ponies had sat there, oblivious to what was happening overhead, massive swaths of inky blackness had been filling the sky above. The shadows nearly blocked out all of the sun’s light, and they were getting denser by the second.  By the time the first frightened pony caught the attention of others, the darkness had already spread across half of the plaza. The first pony pointed more towards the sky, and they told others, passing their fear down the line in a roiling wave of panic. Terrified murmurs filled the air as ponies tried to figure out what to do about the encroaching darkness, and every few moments a scream would ring out as another pony looked up and saw the sun being smothered. As the news reached the end of the plaza, so too did the darkness, and the world grew dim. No light trickled in from the alleyways, and the sun seemed hardly able to pierce the void. The darkness wasn’t satisfied, though. There was still light, still vision, and so it grew. It grew in on itself, filling the space with yet more black, eating away at every last crack that the sun was still able to seep through. As the last rays of sunlight blinked out of existence, unicorns around the plaza started to light up their horns in an attempt to beat back the all-encompassing shadows. The shadows fought back. One by one, tendrils of darkness stretched through the empty air and wound their way around the unicorns’ horns, and every tiny beacon was snuffed out. The shadows would allow for no glimmer of light, no spark of flame, no hope of an end to the terror. When there was nothing left, fear truly took hold over the crowd. None of them could see, and they dared not run, lest they hurt each other in the dark. There were screams, there were whimpers, there were quiet, fearful whispers. They were frozen, trapped, and quickly running out of hope. They’d already lost to this unknown terror. Minutes passed with no change. The screams died down, the whimpers weakened, and the panic slowly burned away into a deep, lasting despair. Then the sky lit up. Cold blue flames streaked through the darkness, so bright that ponies had to shield their eyes, and gathered together into an icy inferno. The fear and panic returned tenfold as the assailing darkness was replaced by a terror they knew all too well. In the sky, glowing as bright as the moon itself, was Nightmare Moon. The light from the flames that still spun around her in wisps reflected off of her dark, sinister armor. Sparks glinted in her wide, crazed eyes. She licked her lips as she looked down on them. Fear was no delicacy compared to the raw, pulsing energy of anger, but all she could see as she looked over the sea of terrified ponies were the makings of a feast. She caught herself and gritted her teeth. She knew better. That wouldn’t be right. Besides, it was hardly the time. She had things to do. Putting on her wickedest grin, she flapped her wings and shot down towards the crowd of ponies. They screamed as she nearly collided with them, but at the last moment, she flapped her wings again and stopped herself short. Still, the gust of wind from her wings was strong enough to send some of the terrified ponies toppling over. Spinning in place, she addressed the ponies. “Greetings, mortals,” she said. “Worry not; I’m not here to kill you. Not today. No, consider this a… Test, of sorts.” She let out a sinister laugh. “Yes, a simple test. One choice to make.” She spun in place for a moment, letting it all sink in before continuing. “So, Somnambula… Fight or flight?” At first, there was no response. She glared down at them with hungry eyes, but they were too afraid, too shellshocked to act. Finally, she decided she’d done enough waiting. In one swift motion, she put out all the lights around her and cast them back into pure darkness. Then, she flew high into the air and yelled down to them as loudly as she could. “RUN!” There was a sudden stampede of hooves as the crowd panicked. They ran through the darkness in whatever direction they thought would lead out, shoving each other aside and running into the sides of buildings as they scrambled for the alleyways. Terrified yells rang out as ponies tripped and fell in the crowds and were lost amongst the commotion. The fervor lasted only a few moments. The square emptied fast. Once she was confident the coast was clear, she lit her horn up for light and floated down into the empty plaza. “What cowards!” She cackled as she talked to herself. “That was so simple! Oh, I wish I could’ve seen the looks on their faces, they must’ve been—” “Nightmare Moon!” Suddenly, a small, pink-ish pony stepped out of the tent in the middle of the plaza and glared in the Princess’ direction. “I choose fight.” Nightmare Moon gasped and looked like she was about to say something, but Somnambula didn’t give her a chance. She pounced forward, knocking her off of her hooves and onto the ground. Pinning Nightmare Moon down, Somnambula snarled at her. “Explain yourself.” “W-Wait, I—” She gulped. Unsure of what she could say, Daybreaker gave herself up, changing back from Nightmare Moon into her normal self. Somnambula raised an eyebrow as she looked down at the tiny green creature she was standing over. “What in the world?” “I-I can explain!” Daybreaker frowned and struggled against Somnambula’s grasp. “Angel, cut the act! C’mon, it’s over!” Much more quickly than they had rolled in, the shadows over the plaza fizzled away, and the sun poured down on them again. Somnambula looked up at the sky for a moment, then back down to Daybreaker. “Who are you?” As Daybreaker struggled to find words, Angel walked up to the two of them casually. “I’m sorry, Miss Somnambula,” she said quietly. “We needed to speak to you.” Somnambula looked hard at Angel for a moment, then her eyes went wide. “Angel Trifle?” With a grin, she hopped away from Daybreaker and pulled Angel into a tight hug. “Wow, I haven’t seen you since you were a baby!” Daybreaker scrambled up off the ground and hid behind Angel. “Y-You know her?” “Well, of course I know her!” Somnambula ruffled Angel’s mane and stopped hugging her. “I’m Pinkie’s favorite honorary great-great-great-great-grandma, how could she not show me Angel the day she was born?” She laughed to herself, then suddenly looked at Angel with an incredibly stern expression. “Now. What was this stunt? You could have seriously hurt somepony!” “I was keeping them safe,” Angel said. “I was moving anypony who fell or anything to another plaza.” Somnambula sighed. “Well… At least you thought of that.” Shaking her head, she waved them into her tent. “Come, let’s talk.” Before they went in, Angel pulled Royal Gala out of her hiding place and over to them. “Come on. Prank’s over.” Royal Gala scoffed and walked into the tent. “Prank. Yeah, right.” The tent was small and well-decorated, despite clearly not being where Somnambula actually lived. The majority of it was taken up by the large square table that sat in the center of it, which Somnambula was already sitting at the far end of. Tucked away into the three sides of the tent that weren’t taken up by the entrance were little shelves, tightly packed with all sorts of things. She had antiques, magical artifacts, crystal balls, tarot cards, and several lifetimes’ worth of other knick-knacks and baubles. The fillies sat around the table with Somnambula. Daybreak had a guilty look on her face, and Royal Gala was still pouting. “Okay,” Somnambula said, “why did you need so badly to reach me?” “We’re looking for Starswirl because Daybreak broke an Element of Harmony,” Royal Gala said curtly. She met Daybreak’s surprised glance with a spiteful glare. “Oh. Oh my.” Somnambula nodded slowly and quietly. “Yes, that is quite the pickle. So, you were hoping I know where Starswirl is?” The three of them all nodded. “Do you?” Angel asked. “Of course I do,” Somnambula said. “We’re friends, after all.” “Um…” Daybreak looked around at the others for a moment, and they pressed her on. “Will you… Tell us?” “Hm…” Somnambula put a hoof to her chin and made an exaggerated show of thinking hard. “I don’t know, that stunt you pulled was pretty bad.” Daybreak groaned in disappointment.  “Told you,” Royal Gala told her. “Please, Miss Somnambula,” Angel said. “I know we messed up, but we want to fix our own mistakes.” “I suppose that’s admirable,” Somnambula told her. “Do you truly believe you can fix them, though?” “I don’t know,” Angel said. “We’ve gotta try, though,” Daybreak added. “We don’t know if we can, but that means we don’t know that we can’t, either.” Somnambula laughed. “Now that’s my kind of attitude. Here, I have an idea. Why don’t I give you a riddle?” “A… Riddle?” Daybreak looked at her with confusion. “Yeah, I love riddles!” Somnambula clapped her hooves together and dug out a notebook. “Just, um, give me a minute to make one up.” “Um… Okay, I guess,” Daybreak said. “If that’s our only option.” “Yup,” Somnambula said. “I already started writing it, it’s too late to stop now.” They waited in silence awkwardly for a few minutes as Somnambula scribbled away in her notepad. She’d write some lines, then scratch some out, flip to a different page, and write some more. It was an esoteric process, devised over years of trial and error, but it worked. “Oh,” Angel spoke up after a bit, “Miss Meadowbrook wanted us to say hello for her.” “Oh, how lovely! I really should catch up with her,” Somnambula said. She didn’t look up from her notes as she talked. “How was your visit with her? Did she make you take some rocks or something with you?” “A jar of sand, actually,” Angel said. Somnambula laughed. “Mm, the rainbow sand. That one’s been stuck in her craw for decades.” Suddenly, she slapped her pencil down and looked up with a wide smile. “Done!” “Already?” Royal Gala asked. “That was quick.” “Mm-hm!” Somnambula cleared her throat and held up her notebook to read from it, putting on an official-sounding voice as she did. “Okay, girls. ‘Despite the heat of sand and swamp, your trials brought you visions naught. To find the place you seek and triumph, you must look back upon your lot. If, through these tests, you do not falter, two halfs and a whole shall you alter. Starswirl the Bearded knows the path, so seek him out past all the palter.’” After she was done, Somnambula cleared her throat again and smiled at the group. “So? What do you think?” “I… Have no idea what that means,” Daybreak said. “Goodie!” Somnambula clapped her hooves together proudly. “Sleep on it, you can figure it out!” “Can we get a hint?” Royal Gala asked. “Nope!” With a grin, Somnambula stood up and trotted over to the front of the tent. “Good luck!” Then, without another word, she walked out and left them.