//------------------------------// // Chapter seven, in which Piercing Strike is actively discouraged but still goes where she wants to // Story: Off-season // by Cloud Ring //------------------------------// Piercing Strike could observe these teenagers only rarely through somepony else's eyes. Baltimare was not her domain, and she had no true control over the city— *** “That is, your mighty sight is not all over Equestria,” Trixie remarked in a business manner, not unlike Starlight’s own, and immediately shot a glance at Starlight and raised her head proudly; Silent laughed softly. *** —that was why she never knew their names. The four neither called each other by name nor introduced themselves to other ponies, behaving like they had no names at all! They were a collective disaster like edgers at least in spirit, if not to the letter. While they did not confuse other ponies’ ways, never made ponies follow them to disasters, and not a single shop fell a victim of their exchange-slash-robbery — the three most exemplary cases of edgers’ behaviour — they meddled with the reality of the city. Statues at squares and reliefs on buildings looked in a new way — surprised, enthusiastic, frightened. New shops appeared from nowhere in place of a wall that had been there yesterday, and closed after a couple of days, leaving accidental buyers with weird artifacts on their hooves. On the south side of the city, the slightly pale grass formed an image of the giant face, and it stuck out the tongue for the pegasi. And the bustle was affecting the spirits too: a polyamory fad ran over the city, families formed and disintegrated, long-standing rivals made peace out of the blue, and it rained for a whole hour less than the scheduled time. It was a challenge. It was fresh air in her reclusive chamber. It was lively and provoking. At first, Piercing tried to learn how to align herself by eyesight without calling a name. In that case it would be possible to search for them by chaining her presence. The talent was annoyingly slowly tumbling in her soul; she swayed on the edge, as if trying to fall from the roof — and yet she could not drop along a thread into somepony else's gaze. The ability was there, she could feel it, and just… could not. After that she turned to the family, and was discouraged, realizing that all of them — every single one of adults, with two exceptions — could guess about her ancestry if not outright knew it, and assume that they are inherently better than Piercing. Untainted, so to say. So they were politely refusing to help her in anything at all that would matter for herself only. To put it bluntly, they were waiting for this page of family history to be finally turned over and forgotten, along with a dirty splotch on it; after all, they knew about Piercing’s disease too. Only her father — one of these aforementioned exceptions — never gave her the certainty that he knows, although, of course, he should have. Through him, she contacted a weatherpony out of famiers, a distant Rainbow Dash’s relative, cozy and plumpish all around, who over a cup of hot coffee was not even amazed that much when being confided in Piercing's talent, just remarked with good-natured mockery "Unicorns go unicorny, eh?" There was not a trace of arrogance in her, even as nopony would be surprised at Cloudy Dessert trying to get into the limelight since Rainbow’s Ascension. *** “Did you know why you were looking for them?” Starlight asked. “For an adventure... I don't know!” The bat twitched her tail, and explained herself in a sharp tone, “When Lunar and I decided to split up in our mind… before we even knew that we will manage to stay apart in body too... we learned not to spy on each other if we want to hide something. We would not risk merging again; we should be as distant as possible, you see. So Discord knows why she really needed that gang…” Starlight shook her head, but did not object. *** Now Piercing had a high-altitude observation post — curious and sociable one. Once again Piercing felt that there was more than just observing — that she could, after all, talk to Cloudy Dessert, speak to her so that she could hear— she had so much more potential, tasted it, inhaled it— —and it remained an illusion of grandeur. Nothing but a mute spectator in the other pony’s head, she listened, smiling, to the endless Cloudy’s chatter in a great wide sky, as the pegasus knew about the presence. She replenished the stock of gossip, stories and legends, and tried to learn from Cloudy who in the city should be trusted immediately, or, on the other hoof, no earlier than getting to know them better. Starlight Glimmer, always paying her debts and triply providing Cloudy with generous subcontracts, was one of the former. *** Starlight chuckled at that; Trixie and Silent asked how they would be estimated; the bat looked at them and did not answer. “By the way, why didn't I hear about you myself before? We were in the same city for years,” Starlight asked, and the bat drooped her ears for a second. *** Cloudy had tracked down the gang's daily routes, but Piercing couldn't even think about chasing them under the sun. Still, the area was known now, and from Cloudy the issue was forwarded, thanks to the pegasus herself, to ‘migrants’ — fruit bats from the Primordial North. They, in turn, spotted an abandoned house, to where the four sometimes were going to for the night. The road itself took longer than it seemed to her before leaving the house — Baltimare clearly did not want to show her neither the area nor the stories associated with it, and as she approached the destination everything was more and more looking as if it had been abandoned half a century ago; not all of Piercing Strike’s maps even showed the block, and those that did help were sometimes insisting on taking eight steps backwards with her eyes closed. Nevertheless, her father accompanied her to the very point, occasionally trying to dissuade her.  She was unlucky at first; the first three days had to be spent in the company of a thermos, a box of tea bags, a kettle, canned mushrooms, an inhaler, a few pockets of chips, a large pack of biscuits, a compendium of rules and fields for single and group board games, and a plushy timberwolf. A spring for the teapot was found nearby, while the fire was with her all along — at the tip of her horn.  *** “The first night I had no sleep, you better believe me! Jumping at every rustle, scared of my own shadow, if not a tail!” the bat giggled. “And the second night?” Trixie asked seriously. “The second night too.” *** When the four entered, jostling and joking around, Piercing Strike fainted in an instant. They were changelings, and one of them was like Chrysalis, but not Chrysalis. *** Larger than usual, more slim, with a crownlike crest, Silent substituted for her, then turned to Trixie, “The Queen is here with a purpose, isn’t she? She lost something on the other side. Something very important. To secretly penetrate Littlehorn without touching Littlehorn itself means going for the portal.” Trixie pouted and nodded slightly, “These are your assumptions. Si. I don’t admit a thing!” “Do you know something about them?” the bat asked. “There are two options, and one is no better than the other. I have to speak in a roundabout way, I'm sorry. Either we do know who exactly you met then, which means this is a family affair of the ponies present here as well as Queen Chrysalis. Also, we have a royal scandal and contract violation at our hooves," Starlight glanced at Trixie, “Or you have made contact with slenders then, and I honestly do not know what to expect. Slenders should not have any interest in our world in the first place.” “Maybe it’s both,” Silent chuckled. “Who or what are slenders?” the bat blinked slowly. “Later on. Tell us more, we are listening.” *** Piercing Strike woke up from loud rustles and clicks right above the ear. The four stood over her, and now looked like ordinary ponies, about her age or older. Pegasus filly, maybe even mare, too well-groomed and sleek for these not-yet-ruins, an earth pony colt, who has already managed to get close to her book — Piercing tried to summon a bucket of pine cones above him, but her head was spinning and the spell pattern did not work out — then a purple batpony filly, seemingly the youngest of them, and a unicorn colt in a tracksuit. Seeing that she woke up, they stopped speaking in changelings' tongue, and, one over another, began asking, "Honey, who are you?" The high, sing-song voice of the pegasus was a bit above the choir— —"Hey, you okay?", batpony said— —"Don't you see, you fool, that we need to move the base because of you?" the unicorn all but shouted— —though this voice of the unicorn was overridden by the pegasus mare, "Never mind, he's a little jumpy"— —"C'n I ha'e yo'r buk? Pliz", earth pony added, chewing the better half of the sounds. "Let's take turns?" Piercing suggested with a quiet whine, rubbing her forehead. *** Silent and Starlight looked at each other and facehoofed, then turned to Trixie, who said not too convincingly, "I have nothing to do with it!" and looked away, huffing. Starlight sighed and said slowly, "Now I know. It's the former of the options. Likely not slenders but family problems for sure. Piercing Strike, my dear, from now on, if you want us to help you, you need a Cosmic-Majestic access level. Those who you have met are themselves the secrets, the very existence of which is strictly not the public matter and knowledge." Trixie tried to intervene, “Do you need to involve her? She is a foal!" "It is necessary. When we justify the suffering brought to a pony by the benefit of the state, we lose the benefit in the end, and the pony still suffers. Also, we do trust those who did not betray the trust yet. I believe that I don't need to number out lectures and lessons on these principles for you, Trix.” The bat drooped her ears, glanced at Starlight, then Trixie, then Silent, “What do you all mean?” Starlight sighed, “I really can’t explain, until Princess Twilight elevates you to Cosmic-Majestic. How about tea, for now? I will tell the Princess that you have passed my and Silent’s background check, and that I vote for you.” Solar Piercing Strike nodded.