//------------------------------// // Ch. 7: Hotspot // Story: Nightingale, Neither Snow Nor Hail // by TundraStanza //------------------------------// ??? Trapped. She could not move, hear, or see. The only upside was that she could not discern any restroom urges. Any attempts to voice her feelings died before they could leave her mouth. She was... trapped. Lost. His ears, eyes, and nerves refused to respond. All that surrounded him was darkness. His limbs felt weighed down by the void itself. All he could do was wait in an unobserved space. He was... lost. Unbeknownst to either, two windigoes swirled around the prisoners at all times. It was the new master's will. --- July 1st, 20X5, Somewhere in Arizona... A dragon that looked identical to Smolder exhaled loudly. The real Smolder was trying to contain her laughter. Somehow, Krusty managed to keep a straight face while watching. The lookalike managed to make steam out of her ears, but that wasn't intentional. She tried pressing her claws against her chest, spitting, and massaging her neck. With each failed attempt, she was getting more frustrated. The original Smolder managed to slip a few words between laughs. "You... ha ha... can't... heh... breathe fire. Ha ha ha!" "I can see that. Why?!" Her lookalike held out her arms in exasperation. "Because shape-shifting involves changing the physical outlook, not the abilities of the user." Krusty held up a hoof. An identical yellow changeling zipped up behind him and lip-synced to his explanation. "Changelings have the power to copy appearance, speak, and act like their chosen targets. But we can't run as fast as a peak performance athlete or use magic as strong as the oldest wizard. We're best suited for illusions and subterfuge." "Ugh, now you tell me." Green fire replaced the dragon lookalike with Crystal the unicorn-changeling. Krusty turned around to see a giggling mirror of himself. "Heh, a perfect example." Nightingale shifted back to herself. "Hee hee, I couldn't resist." "I'm not mad, young lady." Krusty smiled. "I'm impressed." Smolder nodded. "You two looked so hesitant yesterday. Now it's like you're shape-shifting pros." "It's kind of fun," Crystal admitted. Krusty thought for a second, then shuffled his hoof around. "How would you like to put your powers to a field test?" "Huh?" Nightingale tilted her head. "What do you mean?" Smolder looked at her other half like he was crazy. "Crust, no. They're not ready for a rescue ops." "No, not a full on breakout mission." Krusty shook his head. "I was thinking of something smaller scale." --- 10:37 AM... The sun beat down heavily on the land. Many distant objects looked like they were wiggling. There was a dirt road out this way. Hardly any cars used it. Several feet in the sky, three vultures flew along the road's length. After another mile, the road went through a few old buildings. A wooden board collapsed. Some tumbleweed rolled along the dirt. There were remnants of names painted over the doorways, but the sun had long-since made the colors fade. The vultures perched on one building that was more stone and clay than wood. "Take a look around, kids," said Vulture 1. "What can you discern about our surroundings?" Vulture 2 craned their head. "This town was abandoned several years ago." Vulture 3 nodded. "Maybe it was disease or maybe the water ran out." Vulture 1 did a double-take. "Are you asking me or telling me?" Vulture 3 flapped their wings a couple times. "I don't know. I wasn't here that long ago." While their argument devolved into an exchange of squawks, Vulture 2 stared off into space. They weren't sure, but they thought they heard... singing? Yet, it wasn't a person's voice. They waved their wings around to hover beyond roof level. "Huh? Hey, wait!" Vulture 3 hopped off the roof and followed. "Where are you going?" Vulture 1 called after them before taking off too. After following the sound of a song into a broken store, Nightingale shed the vulture disguise for her own pony self. One of the front windows was already shattered, and had left shards of glass in the frame. Wood creaked underneath each step she took. Grime and dust covered what little was left in the store, all except for one item. Next to a mirror with several cobwebs at the top, a curved sword rested. It was pale and glistened like freshly fallen snow. Nightingale picked it up by the handle, holding it with one hoof. She thought she recalled that the last time she had seen this sword, she had needed both of her front hooves to even lift it. With her free hoof, she held her head as a dizzy spell hit her. --- "If you think you can possibly put up a challenge, then you're having a really bad dream." Fire surrounded her, leaving the filly hot and anxious. Two red pupils in yellow eyes pierced her with their gaze. "And you're never waking up. Mwa ha ha ha ha!" --- "Nightingale!" She gasped as reality solidified in her vision. She turned around. Crystal was galloping toward her, but he screeched to a halt. He narrowly missed the point of the blade. "Whoa!" Krusty called out. "Careful with the sharp objects, young lady." Crystal immediately ducked down to look up. "Is that... Mom's sword?" Krusty blinked twice. "Who the what now?" Nightingale turned it sideways and stared at it intensely. "Yeah... it is." Krusty shook his hoof about. "Back the chitin up. Your mother's a samurai? Wait, before that, how did a Japanese sword end up in an Old Western pawn shop?" "It isn't from Japan." Crystal stood up slowly. Nightingale nodded. "It's from Equestria." Krusty sputtered and sarcastically replied, "Well, that explains everything!" He shook his head. "That still doesn't explain why it's here." Crystal looked around and spotted something else that was in like-new condition. He trotted over behind the mirror stand. Moving backwards, he pulled out a sheath and a rope belt. Working together, Nightingale and Crystal put the sword safely away and tied it to the pegasus pony's waist. Krusty looked between the two siblings, still visibly confused. Nightingale looked at herself in the mirror and her ears flattened. "This looks better on Mama." She idly held up a hoof to her reflection. When it didn't stop at the glass and kept going down, she gasped. She quickly pulled her hoof away and stepped back. The mirror rippled, as if it were water instead of glass. "What the hay was that?" Crystal's eyes were wide open now. Nightingale shook her head, also staring in shock. "I don't know. It just... went through." Krusty let his wings flutter and hovered to look around the back of the mirror. He tried tapping the back, but was met with solid frame. Crystal tapped his chin and tried stepping closer. "Careful, Brother. We don't know what it'll do." Nightingale pointed with her wing. "Your hoof's not hurt, right?" Crystal glanced back. "How about if I do this?" He lowered his horn to touch the mirror. It caused a similar ripple effect as before. Krusty flew around and watched as Crystal's horn glowed green. Crystal felt something rush into his head and took a step back. The ripples in the mirror sort of hummed a low note. "I heard... Dad's voice." Crystal's horn dimmed. "What do you mean?" Nightingale looked at him. "Well, maybe it wasn't his throat voice." He scratched his head. "It was more like a...a hive mind. I heard him thinking about his hope that you and I were safe." Nightingale looked at the mirror more intently. "Then, that means our mom and dad are inside of there?" Krusty waved his front hooves about. "Whoa, whoa, hey! Let's take a step back here for a second. We know nothing about this mirror! For all we know, Crystal's just hearing random voices in his head." Crystal sighed. "Maybe you're right. It could be a trap. In that case, you should wait out here. I don't want to face Smolder's wrath if anything happens to you." "You are not going in there alone!" Nightingale stepped up beside him. "I'm still not convinced you should go in there at all!" Krusty looked at each of them in turn. He sighed. "But I can smell your stubborn determination. Tell you what? Wait here while I rush back and let Smolder know what's going on. We'll bring supplies you might be able to use in this mirror dimension." The yellow changeling trotted outside the store proper. He then shifted into the shape of Vulture 1 before flying away. --- 11:45 AM... The siblings had gone through a cycle of sitting down, getting back up, and pacing. Occasionally, they gathered so much dust from the inside of the store that they had to shake it off. Nightingale waved her wings at her face. She asked, "Is it just me, or is it getting warmer in here?" "It is kind of hot," admitted Crystal while patting some dust out of his hoof's holes. "Hope you didn't have too much fun without me!" Smolder's voice called out. Both of the siblings looked. Smolder and Krusty briskly walked inside with a duffel bag. Smolder was wearing her belt-sash from her previous mission. Krusty put his bag down and pulled out some bars and water bottles. "We don't know how long we'll have before our next meal." He smiled lightly. "Better stock up on energy now." "Thank you." Nightingale took a bar and a bottle. "It's appreciated." Crystal did the same. While they all took a moment to eat, Smolder glanced at Nightingale. "Nice sword you got there." "It belongs to my mom." Nightingale looked over her shoulder at the sheath. "May I take a closer look?" Smolder pointed at it with her claw. Nightingale considered that for a moment. "Hmm... okay, just be careful with it." The dragon walked over and pulled out the katana. She walked over to one end of the store and gave it a couple practice swings. On a third swing, she tried to hit a wooden shelf. To her surprise, it bounced off the wood, barely leaving more than a scratch. "Might want to get this thing to a whetstone as soon as possible." Smolder handed the sword back. Nightingale shook her head as she sheathed the weapon. "Its physical sharpness doesn't matter. Mama's the only one who can bring out its potential." "There is a magic tied to its true wielder," added Crystal. Krusty tilted his head. "That's weird." --- Noon, Forgotten Castle... Stone bricks still managed to hold up, despite the years. Dragonic gargoyles lined the outer walls. Torn banners flapped on uncontrolled winds. Crows sometimes flew around while spiders and snakes crawled through crevices. Inside the castle, down in a room with barely any light, a reflective surface glowed and rippled. A pony, two changelings, and a dragon stepped out. All four of the newcomers held their heads. Images that felt familiar passed through their minds. But the mental pictures rushed faster than one or two recollections. The creatures weren't whole yet, but they felt... almost there. "Whoa... any-creature have a severe case of deja flashbacks?" Smolder grunted. "That's not what it's called, but yes." Crystal nodded. "Oh, boy... that's just... wow." Krusty slowly shook his head. "It is weird to get all of that old memory for the first time." "Hold on, if this is Equestria, which part of the world is this?" Nightingale tried to look around. Every time she blinked, she could identify the room and its interior decorations. But every other time she blinked, the colors faded to shadowy shapes. "Maybe we should try to get outside first." Crystal lit up his horn and trotted toward the room's door. "Then, we can get our bearings." "Yeah, good idea." Nightingale carefully stepped around some rusty inkwells and followed her brother. Smolder breathed a fireball into her right claw and held it out. She and her special some-changeling walked side-by-side. Crystal pushed open the door and it creaked. As the party of four stepped out into a hallway, they could see old portraits on the walls and some ripped up banners. One of them looked like it was meant to have half a sun and half a moon stitched together. "This isn't Canterlot, is it?" Krusty whipped around on his hind legs. "I don't think so." Smolder shook her head while holding her fireball up. "Not enough gold metals lining the ceiling for that." As they looked around, the equines' ears perked up. A hissing noise echoed in the hallway that didn't belong to any of them. After a bit of carefully scanning, the group spotted the source crawling ever closer. It was a forest serpent, taking up the middle of the floor to the left of the room they had just exited. "I guess we're not going that way," muttered Crystal. "I got it!" Smolder pulled back her arm and her fireball. "Wait!" Nightingale held up a hoof. "Save your light source. I'll handle this." She trotted toward the snake. "Sis, wait!" Crystal held up a hoof with a bit of trepidation. Nightingale's eyes switched to solid blue. She bared her fangs and made a few different hissing noises. There was almost a rhythm to how often she changed her tone. After a few seconds where the other three watched with confusion, the snake bobbed its head up and down. It turned around and slithered up the hallway. "What in Torch's name was that?" Smolder held both of her hands, palm-side up. Nightingale blinked her eyes back to a pony's green. "She said she'll lead us to the castle entrance." Krusty tilted his head. "Wait, you can speak Parseltongue?" "Well, kind of. Snake whispering is one of my cutie mark talents." Nightingale lifted her wings, showing them the image of a white snake coiled under a black dove. "I figured I'd oil the rust off that knowledge." "That's incredible." Crystal chuckled. "I only caught like two words of what you said in the snake's language." Nightingale smiled and folded her wings. "We should probably follow her while we can still see her tail." Twelve hooves and two feet briskly walked along the floor. The sounds of their steps echoed. The walls they passed were painted in Crystal's green light and Smolder's reddish light, before returning to their dark selves. The leading serpent occasionally stopped in place to coil back up. Then, it uncoiled to slither further along the hall or around a corner. After a while, the serpent lead them to a wide open room. There was a large set of double doors just beyond the entrance lobby. At the back of the room were a couple thrones. Krusty briefly looked at the thrones. "Hmm, they kind of look like some-creature was trying to restore them before they were abandoned again. See? The metal on one throne has more rust than the other." Meanwhile, the serpent crawled under an impossibly small opening at the bottom of the front doors. Perhaps it left because it had finished the request that Nightingale asked. In any case, the entrance was right there. The four visitors could just walk up to it. After crushing her fireball out between her claws, Smolder got to pushing the door. Upon walking out, they looked around at the castle and the surrounding land in full. Crystal canceled his light spell. "This is... the original Castle of the Two Sisters." "Meaning, we're in the middle of the Everfree forest." Nightingale's wings tensed up at her sides. "There should be a direct route to Ponyville from here." Krusty held his hoof above his eyes before looking away from the castle. "Uh, is there some special occasion when Equestria's sun and moon are up at the same time?" Smolder pointed a claw upward. The other three turned their gazes and followed her indication. Nightingale gasped. The sky looked at odds with itself, unable to decide if it was bright blue around the sun or dark blue surrounding the moon. The celestial bodies looked like they were bobbing slightly up and down. "Well, that's flipping ominous," Crystal commented. "A side effect of Discord's betrayal, no doubt." Nightingale exhaled. "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are probably still stuck on Earth somewhere." "Does that mean we need to go back and find them?" Krusty motioned back toward the castle. Nightingale shook her head. "If recent history taught us anything, it's that the Element Bearers can usually find a way to overcome world conquerors and threats. Destiny will undoubtedly guide them to face Discord one more time. But I just want to find my parents." She looked at the others. "What are you going to do?" "They're also my parents, so I'm coming with you." Crystal gestured with his hoof. Krusty looked down and thought. "Hmm, Simon drove me back to the desert town when I told him we were off on a mission. He's used to waiting several hours." He chuckled. "And I can't exactly in good conscience leave you kids alone." "Still calling us kids?" Nightingale raised her brow. "I'm technically thirty-seven if we count the years of both of my lives." "Oh, sorry." Krusty cleared his throat. "I meant I can't leave you teens alone." Nightingale rolled her eyes. Smolder laughed. "And I won't go back with my tail between my legs when Krusty's out in no man's land." Crystal tilted his head. "Is it really no man's land if this world isn't dominated by humans?" Smolder put her claw against her hip. "Well, yeah. There is 'no man' here, right?" Crystal face-hoofed. "Fair point." Nightingale smiled and nodded. "Thanks, every-creature. Let's start looking for leads in Ponyville." The party of four walked along the path. But before they got far, a singular figure stood in their way. It almost seemed transparent, but it was shaped like an equine. Its mouth was holding a large object by a handle. Nightingale and Crystal had to double-take to be sure. This shade was holding their father's broadsword. ---