“How’s the boiler pressure holding out, Double Diamond?”
The man at the helm took a moment to look away from his driving for the nearest pressure gauges. After staring for a few seconds, he reached out to tap them and stared again. After a few more seconds, he smacked the side of the gauge with his hand before he sighed and shook his head.
“No good. We must have gotten a leak going through all of those things back there because we’re just not getting good pressure for as much coal as we’re putting in. I don’t think we can make it to Mount Aris without a fresh supply.”
Starlight Glimmer, covered with fresh coal dust and huffing and puffing a bit, finished shutting the panel to the furnace with the end of the scullery shovel before hanging it up. She turned around and picked her way back out of the boiler chamber and shut it again, entering the main compartment of the steam engine. She took a moment to glance to the back of the area.
Fluttershy had awakened, but she had her head bowed and was staring at a spot on the floor with a broken, empty look on her face. There were still tear stains on her cheeks from not too long ago, even though it had been hours since she learned the truth. Rarity was seated to one side of her while Angel was seated to another, but aside from trying to be there for support and generally looking sad they couldn’t do very much to alleviate the situation.
Starlight looked uneasy as well before she picked her way past them and walked up to the cockpit area. Once there, she leaned in and looked at the gauges for both the temperature and the boiler. She frowned a little at the sight before turning to Double. “Just let me know when we get to the contact point, alright?”
He nodded back. “Sure thing, Starlight.”
After clapping her hand on his shoulder, she pulled back and looked into the main steam engine compartment.
“Darling…there really wasn’t anything we could have done,” Rarity spoke quietly at last. “If Starlight hadn’t come along when she had, we wouldn’t have made it out of there ourselves.” She paused, and then bowed her own head a little lower. “If you truly want to blame someone for what happened, you should blame-”
Fluttershy closed her eyes and shook her head. “No…no, Rarity,” she answered quietly. “You’re…you’re right. We couldn’t stay there. You…did the right thing. It’s just…”
Her eyes shut a bit more tightly as her voice began to tighten.
“I promised them…” she barely managed to choke out over the sound of the engine. “I promised them…if they’d stay with me…I’d take care of them. I’d find a way to cure them. That I’d help them in the end. But I didn’t…”
Angel began to nuzzle up against Fluttershy’s leg more intently. Rarity reached out and clasped one of her hands, but it wasn’t enough. She bowed her head further and soon the crying began again. Starlight was left helplessly staring, unable to say anything or offer anything else. She stared back quietly for some time, letting Fluttershy get more of her emotions out.
Finally, she spoke up quietly. “I…I really hoped to get all of you together, but if you and Fluttershy need me to drop you off somewhere, we might be able to make a side-”
Rarity looked up. “Oh…oh no, dear. We couldn’t possibly… That is, I couldn’t possibly. I mean…” She began to bow her own head. “Good heavens, all of this has gotten terribly complicated in such a short period of time… At any rate, I can’t abandon Fluttershy now. If she’s getting off, then I’m sorry, Starlight, but that means I’m getting off as well.”
However, this prompted the woman to sniffle once before beginning to wipe for her eyes. “No…no, it’s alright…”
Rarity turned to her. “Fluttershy, dear, I can’t ask you to come along after everything that’s happened.”
Fluttershy sniffed again, but then forced her head up as she finished wiping. “No…it’s alright. Some of my friends may be gone, but I still have other friends that I can help. If it means finding the others then I need to focus on that.” She paused after saying this, then turned back to Rarity; her face filling with concern again. “But Rarity…what about…um…you know what? Following that lead?”
Rarity winced slightly and looked down to one side. Yet she held only for a moment, before she looked up and waved it off. “Oh, nevermind that for right now, darling. There’s plenty of time before the 7th of next month. It can wait for right now. Finding Twilight and the rest of our friends and letting them know about everything Starlight found is more important.” She turned to her. “I dare say I hope you have better luck than us in doing so. Fluttershy was making that tour in Manehattan and Fillydelphia and yet it was only by accident that we ran into each other. I don’t know where on earth the others could be.”
Starlight looked uncomfortable on hearing that phrase. “That…might be more accurate than any of us like. Considering how far the Castle of the Two Sisters is from where both of you said you showed up? It’s not out of the realm of possibility to say that the others could be anywhere in Greater Everfree.”
Both Rarity and Fluttershy began to look downcast again.
“But don’t panic!” Starlight quickly interjected. “Like I told you before, enrollment in the Lunar Discovery Society has gone way up since the night over Equestria broke! In fact, we should have more intel really soon! We’re heading right for our Fillydelphian contact point right now!”
Rarity blinked. “I beg your pardon, but I’m not familiar with that term.”
“Well, we’re hardly ‘continental’ yet, but we’ve got enough members to have people posted in Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Appleloosa at this point. They send all the information they can get from the news, local authorities, or whatever job they manage to get placed in, and they send it via mail or telegram to our contact points. It’s a way we agreed on to pool all of our information together regularly. It was because we hit the Manehattan contact point that we knew where to find you two. With any luck, once we hit this next spot, we’ll have a lead on the others.”
“Goodness me, do you really think so?”
Starlight shrugged. “Eh, it’s a better shot than in the dark.”
Both Rarity and Fluttershy started to frown.
“I-I-I mean sure!” Starlight quickly answered, smiling as fast as she could. “Right! Now you two just sit tight and get some rest! We’ll be there before you know it!”
By the time the steam engine managed to bring the group to the contact point, it was after dark. However, that seemed to be the way they preferred it. Even if Rarity had been in the cockpit she wouldn’t have been able to see much of whatever town they rolled up to, but they didn’t enter through the main thoroughfare. They instead diverted themselves to one of the side roads leading around the town that led, much to her displeasure, into another heavily wooded area. For seven years, it was unsafe business to ever be going through a forest in the dark, but following that Nighttouched horde that had attacked earlier it was even more nerve-wracking.
Nevertheless, both Starlight and Double seemed to know what they were doing. He dropped speed and only slowly made his way through the winding road through the woods. After traveling far enough, however, they finally came upon a single room shack perched a short distance from the road. The steam engine pulled up to it before drawing to a halt.
At that point, Starlight herself opened the side hatch. Rarity looked out, but only caught a glimpse of some trees in the darkness before a young man came forward. He didn’t look to be in the most confident of shape. His eyes darted around several directions, as if making sure no one else was there, and he had to confirm Starlight’s face before he finally held up a wad of envelopes and papers. He passed them off to her without a word, gave only a small head nod in greeting (which Starlight returned), and then he pulled back. The steam engine began to move again before Starlight even finished closing the hatch.
“I must say…” Rarity mused aloud. “That seemed to be a tad over-discreet…”
“Oh, well…you know,” Starlight shrugged as she began to sort the wad of papers while moving to a place to sit, “can’t be too careful nowadays. Not with how jumpy everyone is at the thought of eidolons. Fillydelphia isn’t exactly as friendly as it used to be either. Now let’s see…”
Easing onto one of the benches, she began to go over the various messages starting with the telegrams and shifting the letters off to one side. It wasn’t long before her face grimaced.
“Nothing… Nothing… Nothing… That one is a bit interesting… Oh, that one is very interesting…but sadly doesn’t have anything to do with the others… Nothing… Nothing…” She pulled the next one and put it in her jacket. “That one I need to look at after this trip is done…oh!” She suddenly let the rest fall out of her hands as she gripped the one telegram. “This one looks promising!”
“What does it say?”
“Well, Appleloosa is abuzz with activity nowadays, what with the incoming Trottingham invasion…”
Now both Fluttershy and Rarity looked up in surprise. “Wh-what? Trottingham invasion?”
Starlight winced a little. “Looks like news didn’t travel that fast on your tour… I may have to catch you both up. Anyway, the means there’s a lot of telegrams and mail going around. Bottom line…Appleloosa isn’t doing well. They’ve been going to a lot of the militias to try and bolster their forces against Trottingham’s new weapons and soldiers. Well…” She held up the telegram to both of them. “According to this, there’s one unit in their Civilian Corps that’s been doing really well…one that supposedly has someone in it with a strange symbol on their hand and who tears through enemy troops with a big hammer. Sound familiar?”
Rarity lit up. “Applejack!”
Fluttershy looked a bit more worried. “But…but you just said in the militia… How are we going to find her in the entire country of Appleloosa when a…a war is going on?”
Starlight seemed to acquiesce to that. She looked back down at the telegram again before putting it aside and looking at the ones she dropped on the floor. She began to pick them up again, looking over them one by one. She began to wince on spotting one. “Well, that, uh…may be a bit ‘easier’ in a sense than you’d think. It seems like Appleloosa did not do too well on their last counter-offensive. Pretty much their entire front line is collapsing. According to this, everyone who’s left is trying to regroup at Fort Appleloosa.” She lowered the telegram. “If she’s anywhere, it going to be there.”
Now it was Rarity’s turn to look dismayed. “Um…pardon me, but isn’t Fort Appleloosa halfway across the country? And we’re currently in Fillydelphia? We’d have to go around the Hyperborean Mountains.”
Starlight grimaced again. Slowly she lowered the mail. “Well…there is one other way we can get there a lot faster.”
This made both women puzzled; failing to notice Double Diamond, overhearing the conversation, suddenly give an uneasy shudder. “There is? What?”
She reached up and scratched the side of her head. “Oh…we could always make better time by…going through the one country that connects most of the others…and happens to give us an easier way around the Hyperboreans.” She paused. “By going north rather than south…”
Fluttershy went white. “You mean…through…through Equestria?”
Rarity let out a small gasp.
“N-N-Now don’t react like that!” she quickly exclaimed as she held up her hands. “It’s not like in the old days! The sun’s out half the time now! I mean…” Her eyes drifted to the ceiling. “Sure, the sun was out earlier today, but for the most part it’s been safe! Well…safer! And we’re in a big steam engine! It’s just like rolling through in a tank!”
Both Rarity and Fluttershy looked to one another at that, their unease still clearly showing.
“Trust me. We won’t even be there until tomorrow morning, and it’ll be daylight then. We’ll blaze right through and we’ll be in and out of Equestria before you know it.” With that, she turned her head to the cockpit. “Double Diamond, did you hear that? We’re heading north at the next junction. We’ll cut across to Appleloosa, no problem.”
“How can we be sure they’ve been clearing the roads like in Manehattan?”
Starlight grimaced again, but on seeing Rarity and Fluttershy staring at her quickly forced it up into an awkward smile. “Heh…heh-heh…I’m sure it’ll be fine. Besides, with this pressure leak, we wouldn’t be able to make it to Mount Aris if we went south anyway.”
Rarity blinked. “Excuse me. What was th-”
“Northward bound it is!”
The trip wasn’t exactly the most stimulating in the world for Rarity, Fluttershy, and Angel, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t constantly on edge throughout it. While Starlight and Double Diamond handled the navigational work and keeping the steam engine running, the three of them were left only to get themselves situated, perhaps help themselves to a bit of the food that Starlight had brought with her, and otherwise wait for the inevitable.
The night, fortunately, passed without much incident. Double Diamond couldn’t drive forever and Starlight eventually had to take over for him to allow him some rest, but making their way through Fillydelphia didn’t present many other obstacles on the main roads they were taking. By the time morning broke, the roads themselves began to thin out considerably and the surrounding homes and towns became abandoned, indicating that they were crossing into the area that had previously been under the eternal night. Soon after that, civilization faded out all together, giving way to nothing but wilderness and the abandoned road.
“Well…good news!” Starlight exclaimed after about twenty minutes from the last house. “Looks like these roads were being kept clear until recently after all! We should be able to push through so long as, you know, there’s nothing like a tree across the road or anything.”
“And…” Fluttershy spoke up nervously, “what if there is?”
“Let’s not start jinxing it, shall we?”
Fluttershy let out a small whimper as Starlight turned back to driving.
Rarity wasn’t doing much better a few hours later. It didn’t help that the day was already overcast while they drove along, but even if it hadn’t been she constantly kept her eyes forward toward the interior cockpit area and out the window as best as she could. She drummed her fingers against her dress as she constantly waited for a sign of any other Nighttouched making a move against the vehicle, and jumping at more than her share of shadows.
As the hours kept passing, Double Diamond continued to snooze away in the back; looking rather worn out from his own turn at the wheel. Fluttershy, at length, laid down with Angel as well, as she was still rather exhausted emotionally from everything. That left Rarity who, in spite of having been awake nearly 24 hours by now, didn’t feel the least bit like resting after everything they had been through. It was soon only her and Starlight.
After another hour, however, she began to Starlight started to yawn and kept yawning. A few times she shook her head and blinked her eyes in an attempt to keep herself alert, and once or twice she began to lean on the wheel only to snap up and straighten it again.
Seeing all of this, Rarity’s look began to grow uncomfortable. Moistening her lips, she pushed up from her own seat and walked up to the cockpit. She ducked her head inside. “Um, Starlight?”
She caught the woman at a bad time, for she immediately snapped up in surprise and turned to her. “Hmm…what? Oh! Oh, hello Rarity. Uh…what can I do for you?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing…” she answered, waving it off as she inched herself a bit forward more. “It’s just that I couldn’t help but noticed that you seemed a little out-of-sorts.”
“Oh… Well…” she winced a bit. “To tell the truth, I have been up for a while. If I had any sense I probably should have taken a nap while Double Diamond was still at the helm… Too late now, though. The last thing we want to do is stop the engine here.” A pause. “Um, that is, right here is probably not the best place to stop, you know? In case we have a breakdown or something? Heh-heh…”
Rarity blanched. “I could hardly disagree… However, I’m feeling quite bright-eyed and bushy-tailed myself at the moment. Perhaps I could take over for you?”
Starlight blinked. “You mean…driving the engine?”
“Well, you’d have to show me how, of course. It doesn’t look too terribly complicated. Of course, appearances can be deceiving and all. There’s so many different indicators up there…”
“Oh no, no!” Starlight quickly responded. “Come on up! It’s easy as pie! Nothing to it, really. Just have to keep an eye on the boiler temperature is all.” She paused. “Well, and the main pressure gauge. And the oil levels. And maybe the secondary pressure gauge. And the auxiliary water tank. Er, it probably wouldn’t be such a bad idea to pay attention to this one too as the controller isn’t what it used to be. Maybe keep an eye on the RPMs as well as it gets pretty bad when it gets up to 200. Then of course there’s the rear whistle which starts blowing when you let the rear lines get too hot…”
She trailed off. Rarity had been beginning to push her way into the second seat of the cockpit, but by this point she had slowed to a halt as she stared at Starlight with increasing unease and uncertainty.
“Uh, heh-heh… Pretty much just make sure none of these gauges ever go into the part that’s red and you’re fine,” she quickly summed up. “Really now, it isn’t that hard. All there is to it is holding down the pedal for the engine drive,” She reached over and grasped one large lever. “Remember to ease this down to a lower gear if you’re going to be stopping,” She reached back over and grasped the large steering column. “Keep yourself on the road with this,” She shrugged. “And other than that, you just need to keep your eyes on the road and make sure not to hit anything.”
“Oh,” Rarity finally answered as she began to ease forward a little more. She looked out the cockpit window as she did. “You mean like…” Suddenly, her face registered surprise. “That?!”
“Huh?” Starlight answered as she looked forward. A moment later, her face tightened up as she released the engine drive and slammed on the brake as fast as she could. Rarity was flung the rest of the way into the cockpit and Fluttershy and Double Diamond were unceremoniously dumped off of their benches in the back, and the entire engine gave a mighty squeal and a shower of sparks from the wheels as the brakes connected. The engine proceeded to fishtail for a few moments due to the uneven distribution of the braking mechanisms, but after sliding forward another twenty or so yards it squealed to a halt at last.
Starlight, by that point, was hunched over the wheel and panting. Rarity was face-first on the floor and let out a muffled complaint as she began to push herself up. By the time she had grasped the front of the cockpit and used it to push herself upward enough, Starlight herself turned her head up and both looked out the window to what was ahead.
Sprawled across half the road, half-wrecked on the remains of a particularly large tree, was an earth-moving steam engine. Spread all around, looking dirty, tired, hungry, and scared, were somewhere between 30 and 40 people. Some were in uniforms indicating some sort of military experience. Others were civilians. A few were children or the elderly.
One person stood in front of all of them, spreading his arms out like a human shield. He looked no less dirty than the others, but what immediately made him stand apart was the fact that his body was enveloped in a faint aura. His attire was different from the others. He was wearing a white robe with a drawn back hood…one that looked very much like Fluttershy’s own Healer form.
Starlight stared silently for several moments, but Rarity soon looked a bit closer.
“Is that…that young man Rainbow Dash and I met at the train station?”
“I really didn’t think we’d run into anyone out here…let alone a familiar face.”
Rarity did her best to smile back, even if she was still rather overwhelmed over all that had happened in the past few minutes. By now, what little space was available on Double Diamond’s steam engine was well past filled. It was jam-packed with an additional 33 people, with all who needed to lie down doing so and all others standing in whatever room was left. All question of Rarity taking over for Starlight was over, but she seemed to be wide-awake all over again now that she had three other people shoved into the cockpit with her. Double Diamond’s own rest period had been cut short with Fluttershy’s and Angel’s (the latter considerably sore about it), as all had to make room for more of the people.
At the moment, however, most attention was focused on their apparent leader. By now his glow had diminished and his clothes had returned into a similar tattered uniform as that of many of those with him, but both Rarity and Fluttershy had a hard time not continuously glancing to one of his hands. Sure enough, not only was there a Promethian Sigil there but an emblem on one of the points.
“Likewise. Well, just thank heavens that we happened to be in the area, Mister…?” Rarity answered, clearly fishing for a name with the final part of that question.
“Oh, sorry,” the man answered, rubbing his forehead before putting his hand out. “Shining Armor.”
Rarity nearly reached out to take it, but froze in extension. Fluttershy looked up in surprise. “Pardon me…did you say ‘Shining Armor’?”
The man looked a bit confused, but nodded back. “Yes. Is that a problem?”
“I don’t suppose…you have a, ahem, or at least you have someone who claims to be your sister named Twilight Sparkle, do you?”
Now it was the man’s turn to go wide-eyed. “You know Twilight?!” he nearly shouted, his tone suddenly turning more desperate. “Where is she? Is she alright?”
Both Rarity and Fluttershy looked uncomfortable. They exchanged a glance before looking back at him. “I’m…terribly sorry,” Rarity answered quietly. “We don’t know where she is. We’re searching for her ourselves.”
He paused again at that, eyeing the two for a moment. His look became somewhat suspicious. “And…you are?”
“Oh no, we’re not chasing after her or anything,” Rarity quickly interjected. “We’re friends of hers. You see… Well, let’s just say that we got separated for now. We’ve been trying to find her along with our friends Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie.”
Shining Armor continued to look apprehensive at first, but when he heard the names of the rest of their friends he eased up somewhat. He was quiet for a moment before he seemed to relent. “Well, if you’re really friends of hers, then we need to find her as soon as possible. There’s someone from Trottingham looking for her. Someone powerful like her.”
Fluttershy held her hand to her chin. “Um…sorry to interrupt, but I don’t suppose the name of that person is Sunset Shimmer, is it?”
Shining Armor found himself surprised a second time, and stood there struck dumb for a few moments. He glanced between Rarity and Fluttershy. This time, however, his eyes drifted down and looked to their own hands. He spotted the Promethian Sigils on both of them.
Finally, he looked back up to Rarity. “This is probably a rather rude question to ask someone’s savior…but who are you two?”
Rarity let out a sigh as she ran a hand through her curl of hair, especially since their conversation was beginning to attract the attention of more of their new passengers. “Oh dear…” She took a few more seconds to steady herself before she looked to him again. “Mr. Armor, I’m afraid that this is all going to be a terrible lot to explain. I don’t know if you’d believe the half of it and I’m afraid I don’t fully understand the other half.”
He opened his mouth to protest.
“However,” she quickly interjected, “I can tell you that what we went to do in Equestria was successful. And wherever Twilight is right now, Sunset Shimmer isn’t a threat to her any longer. We’re interested in finding her for her own well being, the same as you.”
Shining Armor paused, staring back quietly at Rarity. However, it was more than clear that he wanted to ask more than that. Before he could formulate another question, however, Starlight cleared her throat from the cockpit area.
“I hate to interrupt, but so long as we’re the ones who own the vehicle you all are riding in, I think we deserve the rights of asking the first questions around here. Now I’m not sure what all of you were doing here in the forest of Equestria in a broken down earthmover or why, but you should probably know that this steam engine is probably not bound for anywhere you all want to go.”
Shining Armor frowned, letting his head lower. His demeanor turned grim. “So long as you aren’t going anywhere further north, it can’t be that bad.”
Rarity and Fluttershy as well as Starlight took note of how he said that. They also noticed a distinct change among the others in the steam engine. Most of them turned a little pale. Quite a few shuddered or looked uneasily at the floor. One of the children began to sniffle and tear. The entire engine compartment seemed to cool by several degrees.
Fluttershy, seeing the growing discomfort, began to look a bit afraid herself. Although she trembled a bit to ask it, she looked back to Shining Armor. “What…what happened?”
“Yes, whatever left you in such a sorry state?” Rarity chimed in. “And what are you all doing in Equestria? Shining Armor, I thought you lived in Hoofheim?”
Shining Armor closed his eyes. He took in a deep breath.
Rarity grimaced. “I understand you might not feel like you want to be very forward with us, considering the fact that we’re keeping you in the dark, but…”
“No…no, that’s not it.”
Rarity went quiet, a bit surprised by the response. As for Shining Armor, he shook his head and looked back up to her.
“Really, we need to tell as many people as possible what happened up there,” he spoke a bit more readily. “It’s just it’s not the most pleasant memory. For any of us…” He took a moment to find a bare place against the walls of the steam engine and moved over to it to lean against it. Seeing the reactions from everyone, Fluttershy began to let out a shiver. Rarity herself didn’t feel much better as he situated himself and took a deep breath.
“I don’t know everyone’s story, so I guess I’ll start with mine. That person I mentioned…Sunset Shimmer? She decided to pay my family a personal visit looking for Twilight. It wasn’t the friendliest of them either. After she left, I tried to find any trace of where she went or where she was going, but she didn’t leave anything behind for me to follow. The only clue I had was that I knew Twilight was going into Equestria and I knew if she was going to take that train there was only one place where she could. I tried to get a ticket on an express there but before the train arrived the night over Equestria broke. The next day, they froze all the trains leaving Hoofheim and my own military ordered all troops on standby, including me.”
He grimaced a little.
“I tried to sneak out, but…before I could pull that off…” He held up his hand, showing off the Promethian Sigil with the emblem. “This just popped up on my hand. Looks almost just like Twilight’s…well…it does now, at least. It didn’t look like this when it first showed up.” He reached out with his other hand and pointed to the emblem. “This wasn’t there at first. I guess it doesn’t really matter now… All that matters is that once it showed up, command wouldn’t let me out of their sight. They put me under house arrest at a home in town they were using as a temporary barracks along with some others who had the same thing. They kept wanting to understand why this was happening and how.”
He took a deep breath, reaching up and rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“A couple weeks went by. While I was stuck there though, I heard reports. They started sending expeditionary forces into Equestria. Most of them were coming back but one group that headed north didn’t. They sent another group after them and…they vanished too. After that, they put together a more offensive expedition. This time with a tank.” He frowned. “Same story. Command tried to figure out what to do next for a couple days. During that time, dogs, cats, horses, and anything else that was left outside overnight began to go missing. Nighttouched started moving around more at night. Not attacking…just running around and circling the place.”
He lowered his hand and stared at a spot on the floor. His voice grew darker yet.
“Finally, one of the outposts went silent. It was only ten miles north of town. They didn’t send anyone else, just called to the capitol for help. That’s when they let me out. They needed every man and woman they could get. I had just rearmed and gotten into a new unit when it all happened.”
“What happened?” Starlight asked from the front, as invested as the others at this point.
Shining Armor paused again. Now it was his turn to swallow and compose himself while the rest of the people in the steam engine quivered.
“We saw a new shadow. This one wasn’t night. At least…not like any night I’ve ever seen. It was more like smoke or a cloud coming up from the horizon. But it wasn’t natural…” He swallowed. “It had…eyes. Red and green ones. They seemed like they were smoldering purple smoke…”
Fluttershy’s pupils shrank a little at that. Rarity’s mouth began to hang. Starlight herself listened with more interest.
“It wasn’t the shadow, though. It was what was in it. Nighttouched…or…I don’t know…things like Nighttouched. Their eyes were all just like the ones in the smoke. I’ve seen them swarm before but never like this. They never looked like this before either. They were bigger…fiercer…stronger… They came down on the town and started tearing up the buildings and vehicles. They didn’t attack the people though. They just drove them out of everywhere they were hiding. Forced them all to the middle of the town. And then…”
He rubbed for his mouth. His head shook twice as he stared on at the floor.
“Then we saw something else in the shadow. Something that wasn’t Nighttouched. People.” He swallowed. “I don’t know what happened to them. They didn’t look like Nighttouched themselves, but…but I guess I can’t say for sure because I’ve never seen any human ones before… They just had the same eyes as the rest. They all came right at us like a bunch of zombies. I recognized a couple from the outpost. I tried to shout out to them but they didn’t hear…or maybe they couldn’t listen. That cloud…it had them or something. Whatever had those eyes in the cloud did, at any rate. I’m sure of it. They walked right up to us and…and then they started grabbing more people and dragging them into the shadow, one after another. And once they went in…they got same eyes…started acting the same way…”
His hands wrung together.
“Somebody got jumpy. They must have thought there was no other way out. They got desperate and they started shooting. That’s when all hell broke loose. The Nighttouched swarmed over us along with them. The shadow spread everywhere. It came over me and…and…and oh god…” He closed his eyes, wincing as if he was in physical pain, and placed his hands on either side of his head and grasped.
“All I could see were people dying. My parents…my friends…Twilight… All dead and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. And I felt so terrible…like I’d forgotten what it meant to be happy…”
He swallowed a lump in his throat and was forced to stop again. However, as he paused, Rarity and Fluttershy saw similar reactions from everyone else. A few more individuals began to cry, and not all of them were children this time. Others wrung their hands or grasped their foreheads.
Finally, Shining Armor looked up again. “Somehow I saw through it enough to see one of the others who had been stuck under house arrest with me. We had gotten to know each other over those weeks, and we helped each other get out from under that shadow. When we did, we saw it moving everywhere. Covering everything and everyone. I made him come with me to my house. I wanted to get to my parents so I could get them out, but…but…”
He swallowed again.
“But it was too late by the time we got there. Honestly, it was already too late for most of the town, but I didn’t listen. I ran out to them. I yelled to them. I told them it was me and tried to get them to listen. And for a moment, I thought my mom recognized me. Before I could reach her, a flock of those Nighttouched birds came down on us. He pushed me back…threw me his gun and told me to run…and then…”
Once more, he was forced to stop. His eyes closed and his head bowed. He held there for a moment of silence.
“He didn’t make it,” he finally finished quietly. “All I could do was run from there. I didn’t get very far before I started running into these people. Everyone who managed to get away. We started getting together, but as we gathered the Nighttouched started to come after us. There were only a few of us who could fight and we didn’t have many weapons. I used what bullets were in that gun, but as soon as I ran out...” He again held up his hand, pointing to the emblem. “I noticed this. I remember that Twilight had one too. I remembered what she said when she would bring it out. I tried doing the same thing. It took me a couple tries before I got his…his…I don’t know…‘title’ right…but when he did I changed just like her. Well…maybe not just like her. I can’t do any of those spells that she can do. Or any magic, for that matter. But people who were hurt got better when I hung onto them or tried to encourage them, and I felt strong enough to keep running too. Most of all, I don’t think that shadow was able to make me scared again while I was in that form. So I managed to get the rest of these people here together and pushed them on.
“They were coming at us from all sides. They picked off some of us…and there was no way for the rest of us to get away on foot. We manage to get to the train station. There was one engine on the tracks that was warmed up that they hadn’t finished tearing apart yet. We got on board and managed to run it about 30 miles before it broke down. After that, we kept running on foot, but soon we had to leave the tracks behind and head into Equestria when the Nighttouched caught up with us. Finally, we found a building site that was being prepped. It had a couple earthmovers on it so we took those and went as far away as we could from the Nighttouched. We ended up driven into Equestria and…pretty much ever since then we’ve been struggling to make our way south.”
He looked up at last here, gesturing to the people in the engine. “We’re all that made it out. At least…I think we are. There were more of us a few days ago. Some of us managed to tie up a few children whose eyes had turned and we took them with us. When we got far enough away, they stopped moving. Just lay there. But…”
A few more people began to cry. Shining Armor himself shook his head.
“They wouldn’t eat. They wouldn’t drink. They wouldn’t talk no matter what we tried to say to them. And even in that form I couldn’t do anything. Then after a few days, they…they…” He looked up briefly to the others, as if wondering about their feelings about him saying this next part, but finally he spat it out. “They just…withered away. Like there was nothing left of them on the inside…or like something sucked out-”
He cut himself off, on seeing several of the people looking at him making it clear they didn’t want to remember that. He stiffened and bowed his head a moment before looking up again and speaking more normally.
“The last of the earthmovers gave out this morning, just after dawn. We thought it might have been the end of it. That’s when you came along and…well, you know the rest.”
Rarity, Fluttershy, and Starlight were silent for several moments at the conclusion of Shining Armor’s tale, taking everything in. Fluttershy eventually let out a gulp and clutched Angel a bit tighter. “Those…those sound like the Nighttouched that…that attacked where we were staying…”
“I will admit the description of those eyes is too great to be a coincidence…” Rarity muttered.
“Wait a second…” Starlight suddenly interjected, turning her head over her shoulder to glance in back. “I thought you two told me that Nightmare Moon was dead? What in the world was he seeing then?”
Fluttershy cupped a hand to her mouth. “You…you don’t think she’s still alive, do you?” She shuddered again. “Or…or is this something worse?”
This caused not only Shining Armor but several others to look at the women curiously. “…Nightmare Moon? Who, or what, is Nightmare Moon?”
Rarity let out another long sigh. She glanced between Starlight and Fluttershy, before she finally turned around and looked at one of the benches. Several people were seated on it and looking back at her, but she began to move toward it none the less.
“I’ll have to ask you all to make some room. This is a rather long story, after all. I know Twilight might scold me rather harshly for this, but considering what all of you have been through I think you deserve the truth. And maybe after that, Mr. Shining Armor, Ms. Fluttershy can help you with your…new abilities.”