“I don’t have a bucking clue why he trusts you,” Goldleaf muttered, as they left the Tower behind. There were sets of air-armor available for both of them, but they’d both decided against bringing any. Neither of them really needed the protection, but plenty of creatures in the Constabulary might.
That meant they trudged across the moon’s surface with nothing but Goldleaf’s bubble, lit with the steady glow of his magic. It was enough to keep any bats from shadow-stepping within sword’s reach, but the rubble and craters all around them meant they couldn’t look away from their surroundings even for a moment.
“I don’t know why you’re determined not to,” she countered. “Goldleaf, I’ve been working with your family for two centuries. You’re my kid, a few more degrees removed. The only real thing you might have to be upset about is that I’m not as good an investigator as some of you. If I’d realized how much danger Tranquility was in, maybe I could’ve warned you sooner. But it’s not really my responsibility, is it? I’m just helping. They’re your beats.”
Goldleaf tensed visibly, even though the riot gear and weapons slung to his back. So she’d touched a nerve. Maybe inadequacy was the whole reason he resented her. There was a whole castle full of constables who should’ve seen this coming, and the warning came from a crystal relic from centuries ago.
“Even if everything you told us is true, you’re linked to the attackers somehow. If you aren’t working with them, then at the very least you’re compromised.”
She shrugged. “My bad for bringing it up. Just keep that stupid opinion to yourself for a bit. When I save your life, and maybe all of Tranquility too, I expect roses in my apology basket. And at least one but no more than three mangos. Silver and I can’t eat any more before they go bad.”
Goldleaf groaned, levitating the rifle up off his shoulder. But he didn’t point it in her direction, just held it ready as they approached a surface airlock hatch. This wasn’t the trolley station—rather, it was one of many emergency accesses, marked with bright yellow and red paint to stand out among the gray regolith.
While he kept the gun ready at her back, Magpie worked the hatch, gripping it with her teeth and groaning briefly at the painful sensation.
After a few groans of effort she finally got it open, shoving hard enough to trip the valve and evacuate the pressure in the intermediate chamber.
They squeezed through the narrow outer door, past a multi-sectioned steel door thicker than either of their bodies. These emergency hatches were designed not to need guards, but still not be vulnerable to an attack like the one they’d used. That meant careful engineering to make sure they couldn’t be held open.
“Have you ever dealt with a riot before, Goldleaf?” Magpie asked, resting one hoof up against the controls as he followed her in.
He shook his head curtly. “Riots only occur when the enforcement of law fails so spectacularly that ponies act completely out of control. That hasn’t happened in my lifetime, thanks to the hard work of the constables of Moonrise.”
“Mostly because of the ones above you,” Magpie muttered wistfully. “You can help keep the peace, but ultimately ponies cooperate because Tranquility has laws they want to follow. You can’t keep creatures down in the ditches forever.”
The door shut behind them with a loud bang, locks grinding one after another. There were plenty of horror stories about these doors just not opening after some maintenance team came in from the surface, leaving them trapped inside until their air ran out.
None of those old stories came true now. Air hissed for a second, then the front door banged open with the same force as the outer section. They were on the same mechanism, and physically impossible to open at the same time. It would be easier to just blast through a wall.
Magpie’s ears took a second to adjust to conditions back inside Moonrise. She wasn’t exactly surprised to hear distant violence. Even so, she was momentarily frozen as the sound of conflict echoed from down the hall.
They were in the upper story of a skytower, where it met the ceiling of natural stone. The shouts were very distant, probably happening within one of the central promenades.
Magpie’s suspicions were confirmed as they hurried out the maintenance access and into a wide tunnel, and found creatures running and flying as fast as they could in the opposite direction.
Without a word exchanged, Magpie and Goldleaf took off galloping towards the violence.
“Remember kid, we’re not trying to save Moonrise by ourselves!” she yelled. “It doesn’t matter how terrible this is! If the princess dies, then everything we do is for nothing. Getting to her is the only thing that matters!”
“Is this the way to reach her?” Goldleaf countered. “You think she’d be part of the brawl when she’s trying to hide from assassins?”
That shut her up—Goldleaf was right about something. But she didn’t turn around. She wasn’t running to help with the fight, she couldn’t really do anything against the monsters that were attacking Moonrise.
“We’re just going to look,” she finally said, as they shoved past the edge of a line of watching creatures. These brave souls had apparently come to gawk, because they lingered near the outskirts of the promenade without retreating. Yet.
The tunnel opened into a bridge that linked with several other skytowers, and in their junction the promenade would normally serve as the public meeting place. Some of the oldest and most prestigious shops were built here.
It didn’t seem like the market’s usual activities were in session today, though. A voice echoed over the cries and confused shouts, the same one that had come during the ride over. Haybale.
“—this fate need not come to all of you! Nightmare has room enough in its embrace for many creatures. Though the actions of your leaders have deprived you of your birthright, now you have your chance to join in its service.”
Haybale perched atop a toppled statue, one that had once occupied the center of the promenade. A monument of her husband, left to watch over the merchants and remind them of the reckoning that might come if they forgot the ponies living below.
Magpie didn’t hover in the air to get a good view, but waited until she could climb up and watch from the back. More than anything else, she couldn’t let them see her. If it’s just Haybale, I might be able to fight him. He’s probably weakened from all those centuries out on the surface without a doctor. I’m healthy.
And made of glass, and not really a fighter. It would be close, even if she managed it.
The marketplace was in ruins. A pair of dead constables lay sprawled on the floor, surrounded by a slowly spreading pool of their own blood. From the weapons abandoned around them, they’d died during their duty.
“You don’t have long to decide, any of you! So choose carefully. When the day ends, Nightmare will select from among the faithful. Any who refuse will be left to face the wrath of the moon!”
He stepped to one side, vanishing into the shadow of the fallen statue. She didn’t have to get any closer to know he’d shadowstepped away.
Magpie hopped down off a pile of cargo boxes, just in time for creatures to go back to screaming in terror. Some fled, some seemed like they’d been waiting for just this excuse to start looting the shops.
“Put the gun down,” she said, glaring at Goldleaf. “What did you think you were going to do, shoot him?”
“Yes,” he said, glaring at her. “Do you not want our enemies dead?”
She yanked him aside as the stampede passed, beside the pile of shipping crates. “Even if there wasn’t a crowd, he’s a Voidseeker. His organs don’t work, shooting him will only enrage him. With a pain that will follow him until he can find a doctor to repair the superficial wounds you cause.”
“If they’re invincible, what’s the point of even trying to fight back?” he spat. “Not that I believe you. Immune to bullets, absurd.” He wasn’t even looking at her, not really. His eyes were only for the fallen constables. You probably knew them, didn’t you?
But now wasn’t the time for that argument, and she didn’t press him. Figuring that out could wait until they actually had to confront the Voidseekers.
“Fight them with a blade,” she said. “Organ damage won’t hurt them, you need to sever limbs. Decapitating one of them should be enough for a kill.”
Goldleaf didn’t reply, not for several silent moments. He moved through the chaos on the promenade, stopping beside the fallen constables. He glared down at their uniformed bodies, glowering at the looters. But he did nothing to stop them either.
Finally he hurried back. “We need to reach the princess, you said? Shouldn’t we be traveling to her palace, not deeper into the city?”
“She doesn’t live there anymore,” Magpie muttered, trotting through the crowd towards a ramp on the far side. The trolley to Starseed would be much faster than walking, but after the last one she didn’t much trust them. They might not even be running anymore, after the network had suffered such serious damage.
The passage to Starseed was packed with creatures, mostly retreating the other way. The dome was newer, and apparently in a time of danger that meant they were more afraid of it. It didn’t have any emergency shelters installed yet, so that probably wouldn’t inspire confidence. If she’d been afraid of the Voidseekers, Magpie probably would’ve gone the other way. Best to flee as far as possible from the largest groups of people, where she’d be less likely to attract notice.
The hoof way was slow going, turning what should’ve been a ten-minute trot into an hour of squeezing and shoving past workers and engineers.
Eventually she reached the apartment tower, slowing to a nervous walk as she nudged the front doors open.
The steady orange glow overhead was completely gone, replaced only with the occasional red flash of the exit signs, pointing the way to the stairs.
“They cut the electricity?” Goldleaf glanced up towards the roof of the dome, where the “day” cycle lights still seemed perfectly intact. The dome itself wasn’t transparent, but while they sat in direct sunlight, the glow through its sides was more than enough to make the insides feel like day.
I bet when night comes, those won’t activate like they should. Magpie shook her head nervously, glancing back to the street. “It makes sense. More shadow means more ways to move around. How bright can you make your horn?”
Magpie raised a hoof to guard her eyes, just in time. Goldleaf’s horn lit up like a magnesium flare, shining right through Magpie’s leg and nearly blinding her anyway. At least it was a little scattered by her own body, and didn’t just burn her eyes. “Okay, not that bright. Just give us enough light that there aren’t any shadows too close. Can you do that?”
He nodded, dimming his horn to something far less eye-searing. Magpie’s bat self probably still would’ve been uncomfortable so close to the yellow glow, but now her resemblance to a bat was only habit. They couldn’t take the elevator, just like she couldn’t fly right up to the balcony. They took the emergency stairs instead, circling around and around and conscious of the echoing metallic hoofsteps as they climbed.
“Why would the princess live in an apartment block?” Goldleaf whispered. “She could have anywhere in the city.”
“She doesn’t live here,” Magpie answered. “I do. But she was with Penumbra and my husband in the apartment. Hopefully the darkness doesn’t mean they already found us.”
A body lay in the stairwell as they reached the top, one dressed all in black. She didn’t recognize the face—a bat, with half a dozen bloody wounds. Shotgun.
“Stay down,” Magpie muttered, dropping to the floor and peeking out into the hallway. They had the entire top floor to themselves, and the emergency stairwell let them out into the guestroom.
Where Luna would’ve been staying.
The walls were scarred with plastic bullets, and the desk had been completely crushed. There was another body near the door, face nearly destroyed by a shotgun blast.
“I know this creature,” Goldleaf whispered, exposing a severed stump of a wing on the dead bat’s back. “He’s been in and out of jail for the last decade. His sentence isn’t over, what is he doing here?”
“Recruited,” Magpie whispered back. “That’s always the way the Voidseekers made new recruits. Creatures who didn’t know any better, or who didn’t have another choice. Some of us were both. Apparently Silent Prayer is recruiting mortal servants.”
“You heard the speech. Join them or die, right? Guess these two died anyway.”
Magpie nudged the door open gently with one hoof, as quietly as she could.
BANG! The front of the door exploded into a shower of crumbled wood and bits of metal. “Stay the buck away! You tell those bastards they can come kill me themselves!”
Magpie slumped against the wall, pulling her leg back before Silver could shatter it. “It’s me!” she yelled. “Please don’t shoot again! I’d rather not die today!”
There was a brief pause, Silver’s voice swearing from down the hall. Finally he yelled, “Magpie, is that you?”
“Yeah!” she yelled again, more confidently. “Can I come out now?”
“I won’t shoot,” he said. “Buck, Magpie, warn me first. I could’ve shot you!”
She stepped out into the open hallway, ready to jump back in case she’d somehow been tricked. But no, there was just Silver near the kitchen door. He’d knocked over a shelf to use as cover, and the walls all around him were peppered with dents from plastic bullets.
The room behind him was brightly lit, so bright that it was blinding to look in his direction for too long. Still, at least he’d made the same connection about the dangers of the Voidseekers that she had. His shotgun rested on the edge of the barricade, barrel steaming from the last shot. “Who’s your friend?” he asked, eyes settling briefly on Goldleaf. “You found someone with more guns than I have?”
“Out of the way, Silver,” called another voice. A tiny squeaking thing, yet her demand was spoken with confidence. “Let them in, maybe they can tell us what’s going on out there.”
Luna’s face appeared behind him, though she was short enough that only the upper half rose over the barricade.
They clambered in, with Goldleaf following just behind her.
There were more signs of a struggle here in the kitchen—a broken chair, and the balcony door blocked off with bookshelves and several thick metal rods.
Goldleaf stopped on the other side of the barricade, staring down at the princess. “You’re Nightmare Moon?” he asked, voice doubtful. “Shouldn’t you be… taller?”
The princess groaned, hovering in the air above Magpie’s eye level. “I expect an explanation for bringing a stranger, Magpie. Right now.”