//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Masked Pony: Agent of SECT // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// “Do you think it’s okay to leave him in the dumpster?” Lyra asked. We were already a few blocks away, and from her tone, I could tell the adrenaline of the fight was wearing off and she was starting to think about the consequences. It was when most civilians started to fall apart. We’d taken the G4 armor off so we wouldn’t have to answer questions if we ran into somepony we knew. “It’s fine. They only take those away on Thursdays,” I said, trying to reassure her. “Isn’t it Wednesday?” “We’ve got bigger things to worry about,” I said. It’d serve him right to wake up in the town dump. “Somepony at the concert must be their target. We need to figure out who. If we can stop it before they get turned into a Phobia, we won’t have to fight anypony at all!” “That would be nice,” Lyra agreed. “And probably less traumatizing for everypony involved. But what are we supposed to do? We’ve walked basically the whole way around the venue!” “And we haven’t seen much,” I admitted. “Any ideas?” Lyra stopped and sat down, thinking. She grabbed a stick and started drawing in the dirt. “Okay so, let’s think about this logically,” she said. “Maybe we can work out their plan from what we know.” “We know they’ve herded everypony into one place,” I said. Lyra nodded. She drew a few stick ponies and a circle around them. “Almost the whole town. So that means either they want everypony involved, or they want everypony distracted.” “You know, these last few monster attacks…” I muttered. “They want the Nightmare Shards, but they were nowhere near the Phobias. They got lucky with the Lightning Phobia, but it was hard to miss the magical storm hovering over time.” “The Needle Phobia never even left the hospital,” Lyra pointed out. “And you caught the Snake one before Rainbow Dash arrived, so no way could anypony else get there in time.” I blinked, realizing what was going on. “The GOC doesn’t know where the Phobias are going to appear!” “That’s why they want all the ponies in one place!” Lyra said. “They either have a way to force a Phobia to appear, or they know one is going to appear tonight, so if everypony is packed into one walled-off spot, they can be sure they’ll be able to grab it!” “That doesn’t help us much, though.” “Sure it does.” Lyra smiled. “It seems like Phobias are triggered when a pony is confronted with something they’re afraid of. There are only a few ponies feeling nervous right now, and they’re even more tightly corralled than the rest of the town.” “The musicians,” I whispered. “Want to bet somepony’s going to get stage fright?” Lyra asked. “We’ve got to get backstage,” I said. “You’re brilliant, Lyra!” “You’re an idiot, Lyra!” I hissed. “We got in, didn’t we?” she asked, giving me a smug look. I glared at her and put the cello case down next to the door. Thankfully, nopony had bothered checking it. The fake guards were lousy at their jobs. Unfortunately, the scheduler was excellent at hers. “You told them we were performing!” “And? I used to busk during college for spending money. I can improvise for a few minutes. It’s no problem.” “If the problem was you being on stage, it wouldn’t be a big deal,” I said. “The problem is you told them we were doing a duet!” “I needed to say that so they’d let you come backstage with me!” Lyra protested. “Lyra, I can’t play any instruments! The last time I tried playing a kazoo, it made the saddest note anypony has ever heard!” “We don’t have to be any good,” Lyra said. “And we might not even go on stage. We’re just backup in case somepony runs under time or there’s a delay or something.” “You better hope we don’t end up on stage, or else I’m going to embarrass myself in front of the entire town,” I grumbled. “I know, I know. And then I’ll have to sleep on the couch.” “You won’t be laughing when you find out where I put the couch.” “What does that mean?” Lyra asked. I gave her a look. Lyra made a noise very similar to the kazoo I’d traumatized. “You’re scarier than the monsters, Bon-Bon.” The door popped open, and I instinctively reached for the first thing on hoof that might serve as a weapon. “Is there anything special you two need to set up?” Mayor Mare asked, poking her head into the room. She glanced at my hoof. “Is that… talcum powder?” “...I chafe?” I offered, putting down the ‘weapon’. “Oh! They make creams for that, you know. It’s much more effective than talcum powder.” “I’ll ask Nurse Redheart about that next time I see her,” I mumbled, my cheeks starting to burn red. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anypony,” Mayor Mare winked. “But about your set--” “We don’t need anything special,” Lyra assured her. “We’re just on standby to fill in, right? It’d be a problem if we needed speakers or something.” “Oh, nopony told you?” Mayor Mare asked. “You’re on in ten! The Ponytones need a few extra minutes to finish preparations for their set, so you’ll be going on as soon as DJ Pon-3 is done!” “That’s… great!” Lyra said, forcing herself to smile. The lights flickered above us. I glanced up on instinct. “She must be pulling out all the stops,” I said. “That’s odd,” Mayor Mare said. “I’m sure it’s just--” She didn’t get a chance to finish. The lights went out entirely, blanketing us in total darkness. The distant beat of the music was suddenly silenced. That lasted just long enough for somepony to draw breath and start screaming. Lyra’s horn lit up, giving our small dressing room a golden glow. “I need to go,” Mayor Mare said. “I’m sorry about leaving you here, but I’m sure it’s just a minor technical glitch! Please stay here until we can get this fixed.” “Sure,” I said. “Stay safe.” Mayor Mare nodded and left, closing the door. I waited a few moments. I heard her stumble into something and swear before walking away. “We’re not really staying here, are we?” Lyra asked. “Of course not,” I said, opening the cello case and strapping on my belt. I tossed Lyra hers. “If this is a coincidence I’ll eat my helmet.” “It’s not going to be easy finding a monster in the dark,” Lyra pointed out. I held up a hoof for her to be quiet. Somewhere, not far from here, somepony screamed. “Not as hard as you think.” “Well, you’re the professional,” Lyra admitted. “And you’ve got the light, so you lead the way.” Lyra nodded and grabbed the Oboelaster on her way out, and I followed close at hoof. With the lights out, the backstage was a cluttered mess. The stage had only been built a day ago and it already felt like a disused basement full of generations worth of antiques. “So what would a stage fright Phobia even look like?” I asked. “I’ve never been on stage. It’s sort of a liability for a secret agent.” “I donno,” Lyra said. “The pony couldn’t transform into a stage, could they? That would be weird. Maybe they’d be covered in eyes because they’re afraid of everypony staring at them!” I nodded. That made sense. “I bet it’s Fluttershy,” Lyra continued. “She’s terrified of everything, and she was supposed to be performing with the Ponytones tonight!” “I hope it’s not one of the Elements. I’m no magical expert like you, but mixing whatever Harmony magic is inside them with the Nightmare Shards seems like a recipe for disaster.” “Would she explode?” “If we see blast marks and a lot of yellow feathers everywhere, we’ll figure that out really quickly.” The light from Lyra’s horn flickered. “That’s weird…” she muttered. She stopped walking and her horn flared brighter, but the cone of light she was projecting shrunk moment by moment. “Something’s wrong.” “It shouldn’t be this dark,” I said. “Even if somepony cut the power.” “It’s worse than that,” Lyra said. “Look.” She pointed. There was an open doorway leading to a loading dock. We walked to the doorframe and looked out. It was pitch black. “No lights from the town…” I muttered. “No lights from anything,” Lyra said, looking up. “I can’t see the stars!” “I don’t think this is a stage fright Phobia. I think it’s a Darkness Phobia!” I put my helmet on, and my view instantly improved. “At least the darkvision enchantment seems to be working.” “Darkvision?” Lyra put her helmet on, the light dropping for a moment until her horn popped out of the appropriate hole in the helmet. “Oh neat! That’s way better!” “Suit up,” I said. “No point in doing it halfway.” Lyra struck a pose. “You don’t need to do that, Lyra. They’re just voice-activated.” “Yeah, but it’s really cool! Woosh! Swoosh!” She did something that she probably thought looked like martial arts but was a lot more like ballet. “Henshin!” She transformed in a burst of crimson light, still holding that dumb pose. “It makes me look heroic!” she said, excited. “Whatever makes you happy. Henshin.” I very deliberately didn’t strike a pose. “Now let’s split up and--” “Shhh.” I put a hoof to her lips. Well, you know, to her mask where her lips would have been. “We are not going to split up. That’s how ponies get into trouble. We’re going to stick together.” “But then how are we going to find the monster?” “It has to be creating this darkness. The darker it is, the closer we are. The light you made was brighter in our changing room than it is here, so we must be closer than we were before!” “Let’s follow the bouncing ball,” Lyra said. The glow from her horn focused into a sphere the size of my hoof, then dropped to the ground, leaving only a dim aura that showed she was still controlling it. The ball rolled out the door, and as we followed it, it got dimmer and dimmer until we were chasing after little more than an ember. Lyra stopped, holding up a hoof. “Bonnie, the stage is up ahead. Whatever we’re after, it’s out there.” “Not ideal, but--” “But if ponies hear us using our real names, the whole town will know we’re the ones doing this. It’s bad enough Twilight already thinks I’m involved! I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised, she’s super smart, but she also gets distracted.” “We’ll use code names,” I said. “You can be Candybutt, and--” “Just Candy is fine.” “But I like your butt!” “I know. Now let’s find us a monster, Harp.” Lyra nodded and stepped forward, pushing a curtain aside. I heard them, even if I couldn’t see them. Screams in the dark, ponies out there that needed help, and Lyra and I were the only ones who might be in a position to do anything about it. We couldn’t see them, just barely to the edge of the stage even with the night vision in the helmets, but I could feel it. There was a different atmosphere out here. “This feeling…” I muttered. “Even if we can’t see them, it’s different being out in front of ponies, isn’t it?” Lyra whispered. “Remember, this isn’t just our chance to get the monster, we have to make a good impression, too. We’re playing to an audience, and we want them to know we’re heroes!” “You’re going to do more poses, aren’t you?” I groaned. “So are you, if you know what’s good for you,” Lyra countered. “If we sell Twilight on the idea we’re the good guys, we might not have to explain why we beat up somepony she thinks is a Royal Guard Captain.” “Good point,” I admitted. “I’ll do the stupid poses.” Lyra gave me a quick pat on the back. I carefully walked over to the one thing I could see on the stage. A fallen pony. She was clutching her head and shivering. I touched her, and she screamed and kicked me in the gut. “Oof!” I grunted, holding her still and recognizing her as, unsurprisingly, one of the town’s musicians. “Calm down, Miss!” “Who are you?!” Octavia demanded, looking into the darkness and trying to make me out. She didn’t have the benefit of a light-enhancing spell, so I doubt she could even see as far as her snout. “I’m just a masked pony that happened to be passing through,” I said. “Call me Candy. Do you know what happened?” “Yes, but you have to be quiet!” Octavia hissed. “It can hear us! It’s busy with the ones out there, but it’s going to come back!” I nodded, realized she couldn’t possibly see it, and squeezed her hoof to let her know I understood. “I was performing with Vinyl,” Octavia said. “We did a trade, earlier she was my backup while I was leading, this time, I was letting her sample me live-- the important thing is halfway through the set, she had some kind of panic attack and when I went to check on her, there was something wrong with her eyes and-- and--” “We’ll save her,” I promised. Octavia returned the squeeze, and I helped her over to the side of the stage so she’d be out of the way, keeping my eyes open and searching the blackness around us. I couldn’t see much further than hoof’s reach. I turned to look at Lyra, who was facing out towards the crowd, searching the darkness. “Harp, do you see anything?” Lyra shook her head. “Is that supposed to be a rhetorical question?” I was still holding Octavia’s hoof when she screamed. A shadow had fallen over her, and it took me an instant too long to realize it was one that couldn’t possibly have a source. There was no real light, the only reason I could see anything was the enchantment on my helmet. The shadow wrapped around her neck, and her screaming stopped. She let go of me to grab at her ears. “I can’t--” she said, deeper panic setting in. “I can’t hear! I can’t hear anything!” I reached for the shadow itself and it was like touching ice. It peeled away from Octavia and curled around my hoof, more like a black ribbon than a shadow. “Oh buck!” I swore, yanking my hoof back and stumbling into Lyra, ripping the shadow right off the ground as I did. It stood up on wobbly legs, even blacker than the darkness around us, just a flat silhouette almost shaped like a pony. “Is that the Phobia?” Lyra asked. “Maybe!” I said. “Get ready!” I whipped myself around, the weightless monster coming with me. Lyra braced herself and kicked as it came around. Sparks flew from her hoof when it connected, bright enough to light up the stage. The shadow screeched and ripped apart like cheap fabric, fading into nothing. “I got it!” Lyra cheered. “Good work, Harp,” I said. I lowered my hoof and stumbled. “Oof!” “What’s wrong, Candy?” “I can’t feel my leg,” I said. “It’s all pins and needles…” I looked at Octavia. She was trying to say something, but nothing was coming out of her mouth. “And she can’t hear anything!” “Wonderful. So the ponies screaming out there can’t even hear themselves?” “If we beat the Phobia, it should have made this magical darkness vanish,” I said. “This doesn’t make sense… it can’t be a fear of Darkness. How does being numb or deaf fit with that?” “I don’t know, but I don’t think that was the only one.” She pointed, and at the edge of my vision I could see them. They were waiting, wavering shadows cast by nothing and standing up on their own. “They must be some kind of construct, like the cloud-ponies in the storm,” I said. “But there were only a couple of those!” Lyra shouted. One of them lunged at her, reaching with a hideously extended leg that rippled like a flag in a strong wind. She jumped back, right into another one of them, and I saw her stumble and start to fall, her back right leg collapsing under her. I swung the gyrspike, wrapping the chain around my fetlock to swing the blade through the shadow, the black shape shredding into ribbons. “Bo-- Candy, I can’t feel my leg!” Lyra yelled. “My foreleg is the same way! I think it’s just the feeling - I can still move it okay!” “That’s not normal for fighting monsters, is it?” I shrugged, using the motion to duck away from a swipe from another shadow. “There’s no real normal for this, Harp. It’s always a learning experience!” “That’s totally unfair!” Lyra jumped, her horn glowing dimly. I saw a bubble form under her, popping her higher into the air and out of the reach of another monster. The golden light of her spell sent it stumbling back, hissing. “That’s it!” I gasped. And sufficiently distracted by my great idea, one of the monsters grabbed my helmet, trying to pull it off. I cut myself free, but not without everything turning grey. “Wonderful, there goes my color vision.” “Do you have an actual idea?” Lyra asked. “Because I think I just lost my sense of smell! This helmet stank like Ace’s cologne and now I can’t smell anything!” “They don’t like light! You need to make the strongest light you can!” “We’re literally in a patch of magical, infinite darkness that swallows light,” Lyra pointed out. “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought I was speaking to a graduate of the greatest magic school in the world, not some random unicorn off the street who only knows enough spellcraft to make my card appear out of a rigged deck!” “How dare you compare me to Trixie!” Lyra’s horn blazed with light, and a ball as big as her head appeared between us, shining bright enough to push back the dark ten paces in every direction. The nearest shadows evaporated into nothing, and the rest hissed, flaking away at the edge like leaves burning in a pyre. “That’s perfect!” I shouted. “Great work!” “What? My ears are ringing!” Lyra shouted. “Sight, feeling, hearing, smell…” I counted off the symptoms. “It’s not stage fright. It’s not darkness. It’s sensory deprivation!” “Is that better or worse?” Lyra asked. “I have no idea! Can you move the light? We need to find it, and it’s out there somewhere.” The shadow-creatures were keeping to the edge of the light, unable to approach. “No. And before you ask, I don’t think I can make another one. That really took it out of me.” “Okay, then we need to make it come to us. Octavia said it was hunting by sound, so we need to make a lot of noise! Look around for drums or, or cymbals or--” Lyra cleared her throat and held up her weapon. “How about a magical oboe cannon?” “That’ll do.” “Let’s see, lots of noise but not a lot of force…” Lyra muttered. “Let’s try a B-flat!” She pointed the oboelaster straight up into the air and pulled the trigger. The sound it made was like every instrument in an orchestra playing the same note at once. It echoed through the blackness, and for a moment there was silence, and then the howling started. “I think that got somepony’s attention,” I said, peering out into the dark. From the sound of that howl, I could guess which direction it would come from. Lyra stepped up next to me and pointed her blaster into the blackness at eye-level. “I’ll stun it, then you finish it off,” she said. I nodded tersely. I’d be happy with any plan that meant she wouldn’t accidentally shoot me in the back. The first thing I saw were fangs as long as my foreleg in a mouth big enough to swallow me whole. I’d been expecting something the size of a pony, not something the size of a dragon! Lyra fired, and the impact made it flinch to the side. That’s the only reason the jaws didn’t snap shut on me. I got a good look at it as it ran back off into the dark. It was like a huge hunchbacked wolf, its eyeless face sprouting tendrils like a catfish’s whiskers, as pale as some hideous cave beast that had evolved away from the light of the sun. “Oh buck,” I whispered. “She’s big.” “I’m gonna need a bigger wind instrument,” Lyra said. “So how do we fight a monster that size?” “There’s not exactly a manual,” I said. “This is real life, not O&O. Keep your eyes peeled. She could come from any direction.” “I mean, not any direction,” Lyra said. “We’re up against the stage curtain.” I glanced up at the curtain because I half-expected the Phobia to be hanging from the fabric. Thankfully, just this one time the universe didn’t do the obvious ironic thing. “Don’t tempt fate,” I warned her, just in case. “I swear there’s just enough chaos magic around this town to make us regret saying anything Discord might laugh at later.” “Ugh. I don’t know how Fluttershy can stand him.” “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t mind if he showed up right now as long as he was here to help,” I said. “Get ready to blast that monster again. I’ll be ready for it this time.” This time I had almost a full half-second of warning. I heard stage equipment crash to the ground and turned before the Phobia reached us. I don’t know if it was smart or lucky, but I was right between it and Lyra. I ducked and kicked up into its jaw. The massive fang-filled maw snapped shut, and Lyra’s blast of sound and fury went wide. The Phobia rolled with the hit, shaking it off and tackling Lyra, knocking her to the ground before galloping off into the dark. “Are you okay?” I asked, helping her up. “Yeah, but it knocked my oboe into the shadows,” Lyra said. “Sorry.” “We need to keep it from getting away,” I said. “We can’t chase after it with all these shadow-creatures.” “I forgot to bring my monster-fishing net,” Lyra said. “Maybe we have one right here. Do you have those knives Ace was using?” “Yeah, they’re part of the armor,” Lyra said, pulling one out. “I don’t want to use it on the monster, though. It might hurt the pony inside. Transformation magic is tricky with injuries. Sometimes they carry over, sometimes they don’t.” I nodded. She knew more about it than I did. “Don’t worry. I don’t want you to use it on her. Not exactly.” I explained my plan to her. “That’s like, two-thirds of a good idea,” Lyra said. “But on the other hoof it’s sixty percent more of a plan than I had. I don’t even know where I’d get that much olive oil…” The howling picked up, getting closer by the second. “Great, because we’re about to put it into action!” I said. The Phobia burst into the light, pale to the point of almost being translucent, the shadows scattering away from its paws. “Now!” I shouted. Lyra’s hovering blades slashed at the stage curtain, cutting the ropes holding it up. It weighed too much for her to carry by herself, but it only took a tug for her to make it fall the right way. The stage curtain dropped down over the Phobia, the heavy fabric nearly knocking it over just from the mass alone. “Nail it down!” I shouted. Lyra drove the crescent blades down through the fabric and into the stage, sinking them into the wood and holding the curtain down taut over the struggling monster. “That’s not gonna hold it for long!” Lyra warned. “It only needs to hold for a second! Remember what I told you about using the magic in the armor?” “Basically?” Lyra said, which sounded a lot more like a question than the kind of firm, confident statement that would have been comforting what with the wolf monster starting to tear through the velvet curtain. “I’m a quick study!” “You better be!” I yelled, charging at the monster. Lyra came at it from the other side. I jumped and twisted in midair, and she popped herself into the air with a magic bubble, her forehoof glowing. “Jawbreaker kick!” “Orchestra hit!” Lyra shouted. We connected at the same time, the golden sparks when our hooves connected exploding into light as the darkness evaporated around us in an instant. My vision cleared up in the same instant. I landed next to Lyra, the feeling coming back to my legs. “Orchestra hit?” I asked. “Hey, if you get to have a cool attack name, I do, too.” “It needs some work.” “Everypony’s a critic. Quick,” Lyra whispered. “Strike a pose!” “Huh?” I blinked and followed her gaze out to the crowd of ponies watching us. Most of the town was still here, staring at the stage. At me. Lyra nudged me again, and I followed her lead, trying to take something like a heroic pose. I felt like an idiot. An Agent should never even be seen, much less be seen on stage posing like a comic book hero! “Vinyl!” Octavia yelled, running over and tearing at the stage curtain, pulling the unicorn free of the torn velvet. Vinyl wordlessly looked up at her and gave her a small smile. Octavia held her hoof. “Thank you,” Octavia whispered, not taking her gaze off her duet partner. I nodded, dropping the pose. “I’m just glad we were able to save her.” “Hey!” somepony yelled. Lyra and I both looked up to see Princess Twilight trying to push her way through the crowd towards us. Thankfully she seemed to have forgotten she could fly above it. “Candy, I think it’s time to book it!” Lyra said, grabbing the weapon she’d dropped. “I need to ask you some questions!” Twilight shouted. “Sorry, Princess, I can’t chat right now,” I yelled back, the helmet disguising my voice a little. “I was just passing through.” I saluted and ran towards the back stage, pushing Lyra to make sure she kept up with me. I bolted towards the exit, but she grabbed my hoof and pulled, taking me the other direction. “If we just run outside, ponies are bound to see us,” Lyra whispered. “I have an idea. Follow my lead!” We got to the changing room a few seconds ahead of Twilight. Lyra threw all our gear into the cello case and slammed it shut at the same time the door popped open, the Princess of Friendship looking sweaty and annoyed. “Where are they?!” Twilight demanded. “Princess!” Lyra gasped in mock surprise, bowing. I followed her lead, just like she asked, and bowed alongside her. “What? NO, no nono,” Twilight sputtered, her anger immediately diffused by awkwardness. “I don’t-- Lyra, we went to school together! You don’t-- please don’t bow!” “What happened, Princess?” Lyra asked. “We were getting ready to go on stage, and then everything went black and there was this howling… was it some kind of monster attack?” “Everything is fine,” Twilight assured her. “Everypony is okay. Did you see--” “It wasn’t Princess Luna, was it?” Lyra asked, cutting Twilight off before she could start asking questions. “She’s one of my favorite princesses, no offense, and I can’t imagine she’d turn evil! Again.” “No, it wasn’t Princess Luna,” Twilight sighed. “You girls really didn’t see anything?” She looked at me. “It was really dark,” I said, lamely. Twilight made a frustrated sound somewhere between a growl and moan of pain. “Where are all the guards?” she muttered. “They should have seen something but I can’t find any of them!” “Does this mean our set is canceled?” Lyra asked. “Yes, your set is canceled,” Twilight groaned. “Just… as long as you’re not hurt, just go home. I’m sorry for bothering you.” “It’s no problem, Princess,” Lyra assured her. Twilight grumbled and trotted out the door, yelling for her friends to keep looking. Lyra gently closed it behind her. “I can’t believe that worked,” I said quietly, in case somepony was listening at the door. “I was sure she’d try to search the room.” “She gets distracted easily,” Lyra said. “As soon as we bowed she was worried more about that than finding any mysterious ponies. She hates being treated like an authority.” “Let’s get out of here,” I said. “She gave us permission to go, after all.” “Yeah, it’ll be good to drop this off at home,” Lyra said, picking up the cello case. “Before we do that we have to find the Nightmare Shard,” I said. “The Phobia would have dropped one, but I couldn’t spot it before we had to run back here.” Lyra nodded, and we carefully avoided Twilight and her friends on our way out to the stage. “Just two mares, walking casually,” Lyra said. Then she started whistling. “I can’t imagine why you were never recruited as an Agent,” I told her. “I know, right? I’m really good at this secret stuff. I’ve even got connections with royalty!” “It made you much better at lying to your old friend,” I agreed. “That’s not what I meant and you know it!” I smiled at her. “I’m just teasing you. I just want to finish this up and go home before anything else happens.” We trotted out on stage. “If anypony asks, we came out to get set up for our set,” I whispered. “Everypony else is confused, so if we act like we don’t know what’s going on, we should fit right in.” I didn’t expect anypony to even bother with us. They were all too busy -- most of the town was trying to get out through the few exits through the barricades. A few ponies here and there were taking care of others that had gotten hurt. I wondered if it had been the Phobia or blind and scared ponies trampling each other. “Do you see it anywhere?” I asked. “No,” Lyra said. “It should be around here, right?” She lifted the edge of the fallen curtain, checking under it. “It should be,” I agreed. “I’ll check the DJ table. Maybe it ended up on that side of the stage.” “It’s called a turntable, not a DJ table-- hey, it’s that guy!” Lyra looked past me and pointed off the edge of the stage. I turned to see a familiar, smirking stallion with a black eye, right at the front of the crowd. The ponies around him hadn’t really noticed him. “Looking for this?” Ace asked, holding up the Nightmare Shard. “Give it to me,” I said. “Sorry, somebody else is paying a lot more. But you can keep the G4 armor. It’s outdated anyway.” He winked, though with one eye swollen almost shut the effect was a little spoiled. “I’d say it was nice seeing you again, but you’re a real bitch.” I jumped down after him, but he just stepped back before I even reached the edge of the stage, disappearing into the press of bodies leaving the grounds. I shoved past the pony in front of me, trying to spot Ace again, but he was gone. “Dangit,” I muttered. “Sorry, Berry Punch. I was just-- never mind.” I didn’t even feel like coming up with a lie. “Lyra?” She shook her head. “I can’t see him either,” she said. I gave the crowd one last look. “Let’s get out of here.”