//------------------------------//
// Ch.10 In the Shadows of Fear 
// Story: The First Star of Twilight 
// by Arcanum -Phantasy 
//------------------------------//

Twilight slept soundly, lips pulled into a small smile as she held her pendant to her chest. For the first time in a long time, all seemed to be at peace with the young girl as she dreamed sweet dreams in the calm silence of her room. The same could not be said for her friend and her "room". Laughter and the clinking of glasses echoed throughout Petal's nest, the Wraith, back in her normal form and clothes, regaled her reflection with stories of her exploits from earlier in the day from her seat at her table. 
"And how exactly do these "Arcade Games" work?" Lily asked, the reflection sitting in an ornate throne.
"Hell if I know," she shrugged, drinking a glowing black liquid from a goblet. "I just know that humans made them and they're a ton of fun!"
"A rather interesting assessment, seeing as you didn't get to play any of them," Lily deadpanned.
"That was Sugar Coat's fault," she sighed staring into her goblet and rolling its contents around in thought. "I don't get it. Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap like me, but Sugar Coat takes one look at me and instantly hates my guts! What the fuck?!"
"Perhaps it was how you chose to present yourself," Lily flatly stated. "That outfit did not seem like what one of hight moral character would don."
"So then what, I should've shown up wearing a pretty dress or some shit?" she snorted. "Fuck that. That ain't who I am and I sure as hell ain't gonna change that."
"Not even for Twilight?" the Phantom smirked.
Petal paused, then smirked as she said, "Not even for her," before taking a swig from her goblet.
"That's rather selfish of you, don't you think?" Lily frowned.
"I never said I was a saint," Petal snorted. "This is how I am. I'm not some prissy princess or a bitch without a reason. If Sugar wants to have a stick up her ass over how I look or whatever, than fine. I'll still protect her if things get bad or help her out if she needs it, though."
"Oh? And why is that?" Lily asked, tilting her head.
Petal flashed her a roguish grin and said, "Because I want to."
Lily blinked, then let out a disappointed sigh.
"For a moment, I thought you were going to say something profound."
"Sorry, not my style," Petal laughed.
"Indeed," the reflection flatly intoned, rolling her eyes. "That reminds me. How did the human react to you returning to your nest? I would think that the event would be quite distressing for her."
"Yeah," she sighed, presenting her goblet to the phantom. "She gave off so much stress that I could fill this thing fifty times over."
"I see," Lily mused. "Is that how you managed to calm her?"
"Not...exactly," Petal sheepishly chuckled, scratching the back of her head.


***


"What do you mean you need to go back?" Twilight demanded, her voice echoing off of the alley walls.
"Just that," Petal insisted, hands up in an attempt to placate her friend's fears. "That's the closest thing to a home I have and it's not like I can just move in with you."
The day at the mall had come to an end not too long ago and with it, Twilight's time with her friends. Hugs were traded, quick ribbings passed, and plans for the next weekend were set. Granted, most of these were done between the humans of the group, but Petal didn't mind all that much. She did appreciate the fact that the hate she felt from Sugar was a bit weaker thought. As soon as the group had broken up, Petal guided Twilight to an alley far enough away from the mall to give them some privacy, but close enough to not put her friend in danger.
"You could move into the lab at school," Twilight pressed, tone turning more frantic by the second. "I-I-I can make room for you to live there and everything!"
"My nest has all of my food," Petal deadpanned.
"I can feed you!" she cried.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, the Wraith groaned, "Where do you think my food comes from?"
"B-But-"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!!!" Petal thundered, her voice shaking the walls around them.
Twilight stared at her, stunned into silence, but still visibly worried for her friend. Reeling back her temper, Petal took a deep breath and with a smile, pointed at Twilight's pendant.
"You know how durable this thing is, right?"
Staring down at the pendant, she nodded, wondering where Petal was going with this.
"That's because it's made of pure crystalized Miasma. My Miasma. I made this thing to be an anchor for my nest to keep me safe. The only reason I was stuck in there was because I was too much of a pussy to put a fucking door on it."
"And now....?" Twilight cautiously asked.
Nodding, she shifted her hand off of the pendant and onto her friend's shoulder.
"As long as I see my nest as a home, I can leave it whenever I want. So no freaking out over that, okay?"
Fighting back tears, Twilight nodded and brought her hands up to her pendant, staring down at it with a small smile.
"You have no idea how happy I am to hear that," she sniffed. "I don't want you to get trapped again."
"I won't," Petal smirked. "And if you're that worried about me, then you better keep an eye on that pendant."
"Huh?" Twilight blinked.
"When a Wraith anchors their nest to an object, it become's tied to our health. If we get sick or seriously injured, it'll show up in some way on our anchor."
"Really?" Twilight gawked, studying her pendant with new found wonder.
"Yeah," Petal chuckled. "So if you get worried about me, just give that a quick look over, alright?"
"Right," she sighed, all of her worry melting off of her like snow in the middle of summer as she met her friend's gaze. "Will you come out tomorrow?"
"Sure," she smiled. "Hows about after school we stop by your lab, I pop out of my nest, and you take me to the library to teach me how to play that game you're crazy about."
"Really?!" Twilight gushed, hands clenched into fists at her chest and stars shining in her eyes.
"Really," Petal smirked, then sheepishly added, "Just, uh, don't be afraid to help me make a character, okay?."
Twilight let out a small giggle at that.
"Sure. No problem."


***


"How sweet," Lily giggled. "Shall I make arrangements for your wedding?"
"Wha- IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!!!" the Wraith sputtered, a gray blush spreading across her face and neck.
"So you say," Lily smirked. "Are you sure she won't change you?"
"Of course not," she huffed, taking a swig of her drink. "Like I said, I like who I am and nothings gonna change that."
"If you say so," the phantom giggled, only to don a more serous expression a moment later as she said, "Though I fear that a new problem may have presented itself to us as well."
"What do you mean?" she asked, a pit of worry settling in her stomach.
Lily paused, seemingly mulling her words over in her head. Letting out a sigh, she sat up straight in her seat and voiced her thoughts.
"You said earlier that you saw something when you locked eyes with one of the human's harassers, correct?"
"Yeah, why?" she asked, unknowingly mirroring her reflection's posture in her own seat. "What the hell  was that anyway?"
"A glimpse into her mindscape," Lily intoned. "All Wraiths have the ability to look into the minds of humans. It is how we know what to say to push them into the right mental state for direct feeding. While the approach may very from Wraith to Wraith, the end result is always the same. In your case, it would appear that direct physical and eye contact is required."
"So, what I saw was the inside of Sour's head?" Petal blinked.
Lily nodded, then with a somber sigh said, "Though, I fear that is not all that you saw."
"What do you mean?" she cautiously asked.
"The mass in the pit," Lily frowned, her tone taking on a slight edge. "I may be wrong, but from what you have described to me, it sounds as though this "Sour Sweet" human is hosting a Wraith Seed."
Petal gaped at that, setting her drink down on her table as she leaned forward to give her reflection her full attention.
"Are you saying there's another Wraith nearby?"
"It is a possibility," Lily nodded. "If Crystal Prep is truly as horrible a place as your human claims it is, then it would be the perfect place for a Wraith to anchor their nest to."
Petal tried to deny the phantom's logic, but in a lot of ways it was a pretty big no-brainer. Even from her window, she could see that the school was a powder keg of negativity. Everyone was out to get someone in one way or another and it was rare for her to see two people interacting in some way that didn't look forced. Twilight's friends seemed to be one of the few exceptions and while she hated to admit it, the same could be said for how Sour and Sunny seemed to get along.
Taking a deep breath, she leveled a determined frown at her reflection.
"Okay, so what do we do about it?"
"It would be unwise to move forward at the moment," Lily mused, massaging her chin in thought. "For now, I suggest we lay low, keep Twilight safe, and wait for our opponent to make a move. Once we know what we are dealing with, it should be easier to plan how we can advance."
"Right," Petal sighed, leaning back in her chair and pinching the bridge of her nose. "If it isn't one thing, right?"
"That I believe is what life is, correct?" Lily sighed, giving the Wraith a sympathetic smile.
"Yep," she grumbled, throwing her head back in her seat and closing her eyes. "Fuck it up the ass."


***


The late evening sky loomed peacefully above all of Canterlot City, many having long since turned in for the night in preparation for the dread that only a monday morning could bring. In the city's more affluent district, a lone building stood out among its peers. While not as ornate as the manner houses or as industrial as the more modern four story mansions, its five stories, massive front lawn, gilded fencing, and victorian structure was more than enough to showcase the status of its inhabitants. On the white painted building's roof laid Sunny Flare, her face a mix of calm and weary as she stared up into the night sky. A simple pair of black sweats and a dark blue hoody protected her from the cold, both of her hands tucked away in said hoody's pockets. Sticking out of the corner of her mouth was a black two inch long plastic cylinder, a few gentle puffs filling her mouth with floral flavored vapor. An empty sigh slid past her lips along with the mist from her vape pen, her troubles rushing to the front of her mind against her will.
While her Crystal Prep positions gave her a lot of power, that power came with an unimaginable amount of headaches. Club budgets needed to be sorted. Class supplies needed to be updated. Hall monitors needed to be replaced by ones that couldn't be easily bribed or blackmailed by the richer students. Most days, it felt as if she was the only thing keeping the school together. She could only imagine the kind of horrors her mother had to contend with on a daily basis. It made her daily counseling sessions with Dean Cadence all the more pleasant, ending each with her thanking the woman for everything she does for her mother.
"She is truly a saint," she said, letting a small smile grace her lips. "That sister-in-law of hers could learn a thing or two from her."
Her smile fell away a second later at the mention of another stressor in her life and one of the main reasons she sought out Dean Cadence's help in the first place.
While others may see it differently, Sunny didn't get her positions because her mother was the Principal. She fought long and hard for her titles, dedicating everything she had to earning them and making her mother proud. She never scored anything less than an A on an assignment. If it meant acing a test or beating her records in PE, she would work herself to fitful sleep. She started at the bottom, just like each of her peers and clawed her way over them one rank at a time in her mission to succeed. To earn her mother's love.Then, she eventually hit a wall that she just couldn't pass no matter how hard she tried. 
Crystal Prep's number one student and prodigy, Twilight Sparkle.
With the sole exception of PE, the girl excelled at everything put in front of her. She was never late to class, never took sick days, and did every assignment in class. More infuriating was the fact that she seemingly accomplished this without any sign of tiring. Her hands clenched into tight fists in her pockets as she thought back to all of the tests they faced in their advanced physics class and how she completed them all in minutes without breaking a sweat while she felt mentally exhausted after needing to take three times longer to do the same. Had that been all, she would've written the girl off as a rival and called it a day, but that was only a singer ember in the wildfire of rage she felt towards the girl.
Every day, she was forced to hear her mother go on for what felt like hours at the dinner table about how impressed she was with Twilight's abilities. How lucky her mother was to have such a brilliant student grace her school with her presence. How much of a boon she would be in the coming Friendship Games if she could convince her to lead Crystal Prep to victory. It was almost enough to make her bite through the prongs of her fork at times.
In addition, the girl wasn't afraid of lording her title and privileges over her and the other Elites. Not once had she attempted to interact with her fellow high achievers. Instead, she seemed more inclined to pretend that they didn't exist, that she was the Queen and the rest of them were beneath her. This was all too apparent when she obtained her own lab on campus and cut herself off from the presumed rabble she had to share air with.
"Egotistical bitch," she frowned, pulling a hand out of her hoody pocket to pluck her vape pen out of her mouth. 
She was about to take a full drag from it when her phone vibrated in her pocket. Raising a brow, she pulled the device out of her pocket with her free hand and glared at the screen. Her expression softened, concern mixing into it as she accepted the call and put the phone up to her ear.
"Sour? What's wrong?"
"We...We...I did it again," Sour said, tone warbling with barely contained tears. "W-...I tried to stop it, but I just couldn't!"
"Sour, please, calm down," Sunny pleaded, sitting upright, shoulders tense with worry. "Remember what the doctor said. Deep breaths.Deep breaths.
"R-Right," she shuddered. "B-Breaths."
Shaky breaths could be heard, each becoming less rattled than the last as time crept by. One minute turned into two, then three, and then four. Sunny sat patiently on the line, worry pumping through her veins faster than blood as she waited for her friend to find her voice. When she finally did, five minutes had elapsed and the girl sounded a lot more like her usual self, though it was still with an undercurrent of fear so common in these events.
"Th-Thanks," Sour sighed, her voice carrying a faint echo along with a smile.
"Any time Sour," she softly smiled. "Now, what triggered this episode? Do you need to change your medication again?"
"No, not this time," Sour bitterly chuckled, voice still holding a faint echo. "W- I ran into Sparkle at the mall today."
"I see," Sunny frowned. "Rather rare of "her Highness" to step out of her castle."
"She wasn't alone," Sour chirped, then bitterly added, "For once."
"Stay together Sour," Sunny intoned. "Remember, one is the bow-"
"And the other is the arrow," Sour finished, her voice regaining its echo.
"Exactly," Sunny smiled, taking a puff from her vape. "Now please, continue."
"Right," Sour sighed. "So anyway, Princess Twilight was apparently buying a new swimsuit with numbers ten, nine, and five."
Sunny paused, her brain briefly struggling to come to terms with that revelation.
"Sunny? You still there?" Sour asked, a bit of worry mixing with her echo.
"Y-Yes, I'm still here," Sunny stammered, shaking away her shock and taking another hit from her pen. "Please proceed with your story."
"Right," Sour snorted. "So anyway, the second I saw her, I had an episode and Bitter Sour started some shit."
"Couldn't Honey Sour real her in?" Sunny asked.
"Not if Twilight or Indigo's involved," Sour sighed.
"Did you get physical with her?" she asked worriedly.
"Nah, some other girl stopped us, er, me before things went that far. I think she's a friend of Twilight's."
"Anyone from school?" Sunny asked.
"I sure as hell hope not," Sour shivered. "She's freaking scary!"
"Really?" Sunny blinked. "What did she look like?"
"She was about our age, had yellow skin, short light and dark green hair, and teal eyes. She was dressed like some kind of biker or something."
"Are you sure?" Sunny pressed.
"Definitely," Sour gulped. "I don't think I could forget her, even if I tried."
"I see," Sunny nodded. "I'll check the school records later for anyone that matches that description and we can take things from there."
"Be careful Sunny," Sour cautioned. "There was something really off about this girl. I swear when our eyes met, it felt like she was staring into my freaking soul."
"I will," Sunny smiled. "And please, do not hesitate to call me if Bitter causes problems again."
"I promise," Sour said with a relieved sigh, the echo in it putting Sunny at ease. "Goodnight Sunny, see you at school."
"Goodnight Sour. Please sleep well."
With a soft click, the call ended.
Sunny tucked her phone back into her pocket and stared out at the sparkling lights of the city before her. The faint sounds of industrial life playing a calming melody to her as her thoughts wandered through what her friend had just said. It would seem that the school's alpha was starting to make moves among the other Elites and even managed to find a bodyguard strong enough to put Sour on edge. To what aims, it was far too soon to say, but Sunny was more than willing to get to the bottom of this.
"Things are starting to get.... interesting," she mused, taking a puff from her pen. "Just what are you planning, Sparkle?"


***


Dead silence filled Cinch's office, a single desk lamp the only source of light in the grim void the opal gray woman occupied. Like always, she was the living definition of prim and proper, her three-toned magenta hair was styled in a way that kept the wavy curtain out of her eyes and added to what few charms her stern demeanor allowed and her navy blue business suit and faded blue turtleneck were free of any wrinkles. Her fuchsia eyes scanned a collection of files laid out on her polished oak desk, her worry hidden well behind a perfect pokerface. It eventually broke as she let out a sigh and leaned back in her expensive black leather seat.
"Oh Sunny," she frowned, rubbing the exhaustion out of her eyes. 
When she let her hands fall bonelessly to her lap, her heart ached the second her eyes landed on the framed picture sitting on the righthand corner of her desk. Smiling back at her from it was a younger version of herself, her late husband, and a much younger and happier Sunny Flair. She reached out towards it, but guilt stopped her hand half way there. 
Like any caring mother, she was happy to see her daughter succeed. At every achievement, she wanted to hold her sweet Sunny close, to tell her how proud she was of her. To see those very same achievements tear her apart was too much for her to bear. She would need to give Dean Cadence a raise, the closest thing to a thank you for everything she had done to help her dear daughter in her stead. She wished she could do more. She wanted to do more, but there was only so much she could do.
A deal was made and this was, but one price she had to pay.
"Ooooooh Cinnnnnch~" a young male voice sang from the shadows.
Cinch froze, arctic dread filling her veins as she slowly looked around. 
In the dark, she could see something moving about, its form constantly shifting and shrinking as it moved back and forth in front of her desk, but outside of the light's reach. The curtains from the tall window right behind her ruffled as a cold breeze washed over her from where the shadow lurked. Swallowing her fear, she forced in a shuddering breath and addressed the monster.
"Belfry, to what do I owe the pleasure?" she asked, voice brittle in spite of her attempt at courage.
The monster stopped pacing, bringing a cold chill down the woman's spine when a pair of golden eyes glowed at her from the dark. The eyes grew closer as the creature they belonged to approached, slowly lowering towards the ground with each "step". At the same time, the monster started to settle on a form, the inky blackness of its body becoming more solid by the second. Eventually, the eyes sank below the top of the desk, then seconds later, a black fox hopped onto the front of the desk. Its golden eyes bore into like spears as it took a seat just inches away from where she sat. Cinch didn't dare make a move, more than aware of what her guest was capable of if given a reason.
"You haven't been holding up your end of the deal." the fox smirked. "Is this a sign that I should resume my hunts?"
"Wh-What are you talking about?" Cinch demanded, a pit of sweat beading her brow. "I have done exactly as requested!"
"Really?" Belfry pressed. "Then why is it that I can't feed off of your offering anymore?"
"I...I don't understand," Cinch stammered.
Belfry's eyes glowed as he growled, "Why isn't Twilight Sparkle afraid?
"I...I don't know," Cinch gulped, her breath coming out as terrified pants.
"Find. Out," the fox coldly growled. "I grow hungry Cinch and if you can't provide me with food then I will just pick some prey myself!"
A sinister smile spread across his joules as he added, "Such as that sweet daughter of yours. I'm sure the terror she houses would taste divine. Shall I give Lolith the signal?"
"NO! PLEASE DON'T!" Cinch begged, face twisted in abject horror as tears ran down her face. "I-I-I'll do what you want, just don't hurt my daughter!"
Belfry stared at her, the fox literally drinking in the mother's desperation and fear. He sat there, savoring it like a fine wine while Cinch struggled to find the strength to run. Her body refused her, imprisoning her in her seat while she waited for Belfry's response.
"Very well," he smiled. "I suppose I have enough food set aside to last me a few weeks."
Slowly, the fox started to fade into a dark mist and return to the darkness, the creature's eyes never leaving Cinch's as it left some parting words behind.
"Don't keep me waiting Cinch. We made a deal and you will hold up your end of it. Farewell for now."
With that, the rest of the fox desolved into mist and joined the rest of itself in the shadows, taking Belfry's chilling aura along with it as well. Cinch sat at her desk, raw panic replacing her blood and running through her pounding heart. A raw spike of guilt joined it when she saw the picture on her desk. She reached out a shaky hand towards it, but couldn't bring herself to touch the photo. With a shuddering breath, she let her hand fall onto her desk and leaned back in her seat, frustrated tears sliding down her face as a single thought echoed through her head.
I made a deal. I have no choice. I must hold up my end of it...
"Oh, Sunny," she sniffled. "Please forgive me..."