Phillip Finder contemplatively took in a long draw of his cigarette and slowly exhaled it, watching as the smoke curled up into the air, dissipating into the blue sky. He stared towards the setting sun in silence, watching as the distant sphere gradually fell behind the rolling hills.
“You don’t believe me?” Daring Do asked, standing next to him in the shade of the Watering Hole.
“It’s not that,” Phillip replied, shaking his head with a long sigh. “It’s...bloody lot to take in.”
“I know,” Daring nodded, shrugging up her jacket. “Apparently, Sombra is actually centuries old and is still alive. What do you say to that?”
“I say, we find the guy and lock him up!” Rainbow declared, slapping her front hooves together with a vicious grin.
“Kid, it took three alicorns to take him down last time,” Daring deadpanned. “I don’t think you’re gonna do much against that.”
“It can’t be that much worse than that Zugzwang freak,” Rainbow protested.
Both of her companions flinched at the mention of that name. "Oh...sorry," Rainbow winced.
"It's fine," Daring mumbled.
“Worry about finding him first,” Phillip said, taking another puff on his cigarette. “And before that, worry about finding the spy.”
“So what did you do all morning while I was tripping balls?” Daring said.
“Took some soil samples from around town,” Phillip said. “Might be useful later.”
“Nice,” Daring nodded. “You get anywhere on finding the spy?”
“No,” Phillip grunted, taking another puff through a scowl. “Spoke to a few of the suspects’ neighbors, but didn’t get anything helpful.” He exhaled smoke through his nostrils and sighed.
“Dinky-di is...I’m not sure what to do,” he admitted. “There’s not enough evidence to point to any one of them.”
“There’s gotta be some clue that they left behind!” Rainbow said, pacing around behind them. “What about that radio transmission? If they send another message, then we can track them down and take them down!”
“Sheriff’s already on top of that,” Phillip said. “But I doubt that the spy will be stupid enough to try that again.”
“Hey! Hey, detectives!”
Everypony turned to see Deputy Braeburn running up, holding his hat to his head with one hoof. He paused in front of them, huffing and panting.
“You’re gonna wanna come to the train depot,” he gasped out. “We got something!”
The sentence was barely out of his mouth before the ground was torn away from him by a rainbow blur; he yelped as he was pulled into the air, barely managing to hang onto his hat.
“Hang on tight, cowpony!” Rainbow laughed as she carried him to the east, following the train tracks to the edge of town. A shout of protest announced that Daring and Phillip had entered the race as well.
“If I’d been meant to fly, the Holy Mother would’ve given me wings!” Braeburn cried, cringing as he watched the train tracks rushing past beneath him.
“You’ll get used to it,” Phillip groused from his left, holding his trilby to his head with one hoof.
They reached the train depot within minutes, a great web of tracks set well outside the limits of Appleloosa. Trains and train cars were parked everywhere, ready to be refueled, resupplied, and reconnected.
Braeburn pointed to a large shed next to a turntable where a few locomotives were parked. Sheriff Silverstar was standing in front of one of the locomotives with one of the engineers, a stocky dark red earth pony with a cutie mark of a locomotive’s smokestack, who was mopping his forehead with his dirty red bandana.
The sheriff looked up as the pegasi descended, raising an eyebrow at Braeburn.
“Well, they got us over here right quick, Sheriff,” Braeburn said with a nervous shrug. “Hey, hon.”
“Howdy, Braeburn,” the engineer smiled back, rubbing the back of his brown mane and smiling through his bushy mustache.
“Nice to see you out of a hospital bed, Smokey,” Phillip nodded.
“Good to be back to work,” Smokey Jones replied.
Sheriff Silverstar cleared his throat. “Okay, detectives, come take a look at this,” he said, beckoning them over to the coal tender of one of the locomotives.
Phillip climbed up into the cab and peered into the coal tender. He saw the item in question immediately: half-buried in the coal was a battered suitcase, laying open in the tender. Inside the suitcase was a radio, set into the side of the case itself. A broken set of headphones and a small telegraph key were inside the case as well.
“I was getting this engine ready to go for later tonight and was doing a maintenance check,” Smokey explained. “I was checking the tender and saw the handle sticking out of it. When I pulled it out, I saw the radio inside. Braeburn told me about the spy you were looking for, so I went and got the sheriff.”
“Who was the last pony to use this locomotive?” Phillip asked.
Smokey hesitated for a long moment. “Well…” He sighed. “It was Coal Tender.”
“Aha! I knew he was faking it!” Rainbow declared.
“Hold your horses, Rainbow,” Daring said. “So where can we find him?”
“He’ll probably be in the break room in the office,” Smokey said, nodding to a hut next to one of the tracks.
“Thanks,” Silverstar nodded, his mustache bristling. “Braeburn, keep an eye on that radio.”
“Yes, sir,” Braeburn nodded as Silverstar headed for the hut with Phil, Daring, and Rainbow behind him.
As they approached the hut, a familiar coal-black stallion with a white mane exited out of a side door, glancing around.
“Coal!” Silverstar barked.
Coal Tender whirled around at the voice, his eyes widening at the sheriff. “What’s up, Sheriff?” he asked, shifting in place nervously.
“We’ve got a few more questions for you,” the sheriff said. “You’d best come with us.”
Coal Tender’s wide blue eyes glanced around at the four ponies, then he turned around and sprinted for the tracks.
He barely made it three steps before a rainbow pounced on his back, smashing him into the ground with a heavy woof.
“No, no!” Coal Tender cried, trying to scrabble back to his hooves as the others ran up.
“All right, settle down,” Silverstar sighed, reaching for a pair of hoofcuffs.
“The parasprites are controlling you!” Coal Tender protested as his front hooves were cuffed. “Don’t listen to them! You have to wash your ears out now! Before they bring down the entire city!”
“Whatever you say,” Phillip said, rolling his eyes as he helped Silverstar haul the engineer to his hooves and escort him to Silverstar’s cruiser.
“Give it up, you’re not fooling anypony!” Rainbow declared, following.
Daring glanced over her shoulder at Braeburn and Smokey, who were staring after the still raving Coal Tender--Smokey with wide eyes, Braeburn with a concerned frown. With a frown of her own, she followed after the others.
As the sun set over Appleloosa, slowly dipping behind the rolling hills to the west and swallowing the pastures in long shadows, a strange silence fell over the buffalo village. Most of the buffalo were quick to hurry back into their teepees, glancing into the encroaching darkness with nervous eyes. Armed sentries began taking up post around campfires or snatching up torches of their own; the flames reflected off the burnished metal of their firearms as they glared into the perimeter.
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer, Chief Thunderhooves,” Starlight said as she patrolled the perimeter of the camp, carving a circle into the ground with a magical beam. “But I don’t like staying here. I could be putting everyone in the village at risk.”
“You are one of us, Starlight,” Chief Thunderhooves replied simply, shouldering his lever-action Whinnychester as he followed Starlight around. “And we take care of our own. And as Tempest pointed out, there is strength in numbers. You would be at greater risk traveling on your own.”
Starlight sighed as she completed her circuit, but a small smile flickered at her lips as she closed the circle with a soft snap like a lightbulb breaking. “Thank you, Chief,” she said with a grateful nod.
“You are welcome,” the buffalo chief replied, lowering his head humbly.
Starlight’s horn flickered as she whispered an incantation. A turquoise dome briefly flickered over the village, the orange hues of the darkening sky momentarily distorted by the magical prism before the dome faded away into invisibility.
“There,” Starlight said with a note of pride. “A noisemaker spell. If anything larger than a bird or a raccoon crosses that line, we’ll know about it.”
“Can you not produce a solid shield?” Thunderhooves asked as they started to head back towards the camp.
“It would take too much energy, and I’d have to be awake all night to maintain it,” Starlight explained as they reached the central campfire. The sentries gathered about the campfire all nodded curtly as they approached. “This is more efficient.”
Tempest Shadow was standing outside her and Starlight’s shared teepee, sharpening a pair of tomahawks with a stone. A bandolier over her jacket carried a collection of knives, and a holster at her hip carried a Neighretta Modello 1935 and a trio of charging crystals; their bright aquamarine glow clearly indicated that they were freshly charged.
As the Chief and Starlight approached, Tempest unscrewed a canteen and took a long sip from it; the scent of black coffee filled the air.
“Tempest, did you get any sleep earlier?” Starlight asked, noting the dark shadows stubbornly clinging to the undersides of Tempest’s eyes.
Tempest Shadow had to obviously stifle a yawn before replying. “Enough,” she said, stoppering the canteen and placing it back down on the ground next to her.
“Tempest, please,” Starlight pleaded. “Get some sleep.”
“If the Plague Doctor is here, he’ll come in the dead of night,” she continued, looking around the village. “I’ll be up all night. I have to.”
“You’re no good to Starlight if you’re too tired,” Chief Thunderhooves pointed out.
“I’m no good to her asleep, either,” Tempest grunted, giving him a brief glare. “I’m fine.”
Starlight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. But you’re getting at least six hours of sleep tomorrow.”
Tempest made a grunt of acquiescence as she checked the edge of the tomahawk blades. Satisfied, she placed them both in her belt.
“Starlight is right,” Thunderhooves said. “I will take over at one tonight. And you will get some sleep.”
“If you can help with Starlight snoring, agreed,” Tempest replied with a small smirk. Starlight stuck her tongue out at her as Thunderhooves chuckled heartily.
The laughter was quickly stolen away as the sun finally fell below the horizon. Darkness swallowed up the sky, the flickering stars seeming distant and disinterested; all sound seemed to vanish as well, leaving only the crackling of the fires and the distant hoots and chirps of the nocturnal animals.
“Starlight, get inside,” Tempest ordered, rising to her hooves.
Starlight glanced up at the distant sky with a shudder, then ducked into the teepee.
“Deputy Braeburn was by earlier,” Chief Thunderhooves said. “He said that they arrested a suspect.”
Tempest only grunted in acknowledgment, her eyes scanning the shaded horizon for any sign of movement.
Thunderhooves placed a hoof on her shoulder momentarily, drawing a grunt despite his gentleness, then headed for his own teepee, his rifle held tight to his side.
“Keep your eyes open,” he instructed a group of his brothers around the campfire. All of them nodded in response, their grim faces cast in shadows by the firelight.
Thunderhooves paused at the entry to his teepee, looking over his camp. Normally at this time of night, he could hear the sounds of his tribe: quiet snores, whispered conversations, and soft laughter as his brothers and sisters prepared for sleep.
Not tonight. Tonight, his camp was silent, like every buffalo within was holding their breath, straining their ears for the slightest sound out of place.
Perhaps it would be wiser to send Tempest and Starlight away. If this Plague Doctor was truly after them, then it was unlikely he would stop at murdering any buffalo in his way…
No. While they’d first come to them as travelers in need of food and shelter, their help had made them sisters now. And the buffalo took care of family above all else.
“Sleep well, Starlight,” he whispered as he entered his teepee. “We will keep you safe.”
But as he stepped inside, he heard a faint noise from the distance. On any other night, he wouldn’t have paid it any mind, but for some reason tonight that sound sent a chill up his spine.
The distant, raspy screech of a raven.
Tempest shook her canteen with a frown. Judging by the sloshing, she had only a few gulps left.
It should still be enough to get her through the rest of the night. Despite Thunderhooves’ offer, she had no intention of going to sleep until the sun was long up.
Besides, between the caffeine buzzing through her veins and the loud basso profundo snores coming from the teepee, she wouldn’t have been able to sleep if she wanted to.
Tempest sighed, glancing over at one of the roving sentries, a tall buffalo named Howling Wolf. The sentry nodded back to her, the twin eagle feathers behind his left ear waving slightly in the wind. “At least she’s sleeping,” Tempest muttered.
Wolf chuckled quietly as he resumed his round. The glow from the crackling fire cast his face into a strange, swirling mixture of shadows and light. Two other buffalo sat next to the fire, brooding over their pipes, the smoke from their bowls mixing with smoke from the fire. Their reverie was occasionally broken by a soulless, token comment on the day-to-day of the village and plans for tomorrow, but not once did their hooves stray too far from their rifles.
Tempest unscrewed the canteen and took in another sip of the lukewarm coffee, savoring the taste of the black-as-pitch liquid crawling down her throat. But as she screwed the cap back on, she heard something that made her heart leap to her throat.
Silence. Starlight’s snores had stopped.
Tempest was about to yank the teepee’s door open when she heard Starlight mumbling quietly. Tempest let out a relieved sigh as her heart slowed to a normal beat.
Inside, Starlight’s mumbling turned fearful, murmuring a phrase in a soft, rapid cycle. Tempest strained to listen.
“Sleeping beneath all flesh,” Starlight mumbled. “Sleeping beneath all flesh...sleeping beneath all flesh…”
Lifting up the lantern next to her, Tempest frowned and entered the teepee. The faint light revealed that Starlight was tossing and turning on her cot, clutching at her heavy blankets while continuing to mumble the strange phrase. Sweat was shining on her forehead.
“Starlight,” Tempest whispered, shaking her companion’s shoulder. “Starlight. You’re dreaming.”
Starlight jolted upright with a gasp, her wide eyes darting into every corner before settling on Tempest.
“Easy,” Tempest soothed, squeezing Starlight’s shoulder. “It was just a dream.”
Starlight swallowed and nodded, brushing her mane out of her face. “Right,” she mumbled, climbing out from beneath the blankets.
“Where are you going?” Tempest asked as Starlight pulled on a scarf.
“I need some water,” Starlight mumbled, shivering as she opened the entrance to the teepee and stepped out into the night. Her horn lit up aquamarine, providing her some illumination to guide her way.
Tempest followed Starlight from a few feet away as she groggily made her way over to a large water tank near the edge of the camp. Starlight leaned over the edge of the tank and splashed some water on her face. She gripped the edge of the tank, taking deep breaths and shivering.
“Are you okay?” Tempest asked, stepping forward.
“I’m fine,” Starlight replied, rubbing her forehead, which was still shiny with sweat. “Just…that was a weird dream.”
“Didn’t sound like it was about Sunburst,” Tempest commented.
“No,” Starlight admitted. “It was…some kind of monster. In a forest somewhere. It was…waking up.” She paused for a few moments, then shook her head. “Ugh. Just a dream.” She leaned down and took a few sips from the tank.
A flutter of wings made Tempest Shadow look up. She saw a small brown and white bird landing on a bare tree branch overhead, turning to stare down at her with wide yellow eyes. The pygmy owl let out a quiet hoot, clicking its beak as it examined the ponies below.
Starlight finished her drink and shook her head. “I’m going back to bed. G’night,” she declared, already heading back to the teepee.
Tempest followed behind her until they got back to their teepee. “G’night,” Tempest nodded to the other mare through a heavy yawn. She took her post back at the entrance, blinking back the specter of sleep as it started to fall upon her eyes.
A shadow passed briefly over her head. She looked up to see the pygmy owl from before flying over the campfire and swooping into the distance.
Tempest stared into the shadows dancing around the teepees, observing the smoke from the campfire and the two pipes laying nearby spiraling up into the starry sky. The complete quiet of the night was weighing down on Tempest’s heavy head. Her eyelids were feeling like something was pulling them down over her eyes.
She shook her head, banishing fatigue. No rest. No lowering her guard. Not until it was--
Wait a minute.
Every thought of sleep fled Tempest Shadow’s mind as her eyes focused on the two abandoned pipes laying next to the fire. Where were the other guards?
And that’s when Tempest heard it. Something that chilled her blood even more than before.
Complete, absolute silence. No snoring from Starlight. No crackling of the fire. No whisper of wind. She stamped her hoof against the ground and felt a tremor of alarm when she did not hear the thump.
Starlight!
Tempest whirled about, yanking her Neighretta from her holster as she charged into the teepee. She clicked the flashlight underbarrel attachment on, a thin beam of light piercing the darkness.
A pair of red eyes stared back at her balefully, devoid of surprise.
Tempest fired, sending three streaks of aqua-colored light soundlessly through the air, each one illuminating the entire tent. The Plague Doctor rolled to avoid the attack, but Tempest’s attention was arrested by an object on the floor.
An unconscious Starlight Glimmer lay on the ground, bound, gagged, blindfolded, and with a rune-inscribed ring around her horn. A raven with a red mark on her breast was perched on her neck; the blade on the bird’s talon sat dangerously close to Starlight’s carotid artery.
Tempest whirled to glare at the Plague Doctor, fixing her sidearm on his face. The masked pegasus only stared back at her, silently warning her. The sickle-shaped blade in his hoof flashed dangerously in the thin light of her flashlight.
Tempest glared at the monster over the sights of her weapon, fighting the urge to pull the trigger. She glanced over her shoulder at Starlight. The raven seemed to glare defiantly back at her, almost daring her to fire and end her friend’s life.
With an inaudible growl, Tempest clicked the safety on the weapon and slowly lowered it to the ground. The Doctor continued to glare at her, nodding towards the bandolier of knives. Glaring back at him, Tempest slowly reached up towards the clasp of her belt.
Her hoof blurred and a knife sailed through the air. The raven had to leap off of Starlight to avoid the attack, the knife thumping into the ground behind her.
Tempest’s other hoof snapped at the Plague Doctor, sending a salvo of knives at him and forcing him to dodge again. In a blur of motion, Tempest dived at Starlight, wrapping her forelegs about her form and rolling for the door.
She burst through the flap and out into the chill night air, panting as she popped back for her hooves. She rested a hoof on Starlight’s neck and felt a momentary thrill of relief when she detected a slow, steady throbbing.
Hoisting Starlight over her shoulders, Tempest ran for the edge of the camp, racing towards the town of Appleloosa. If she could get help--
Her hooves slammed into something on the ground and she stumbled with an inaudible grunt, her principal tumbling from her grasp. She turned around and gaped at the unexpected obstacle beneath the starlight.
Howling Wolf was sprawled across the ground, staring wide-eyed at the stars, mouth open in a silent scream. The blood from his slit throat lay in a pool about his head, already drying into the ground.
A shifting of shadows made Tempest scramble back to her hooves. The masked pony was stalking up towards her, every step as muted as the rest of the world, his movement unhurried.
The only thing that Tempest could hear was the pounding of her heart in her skull as she rose onto her hind legs. Her hooves tugged the pair of tomahawks from her belt and she settled into a fighting stance.
The Plague Doctor paused, staring at her through his beaked mask. Tempest’s dry throat burned and she tried to ignore how the sweat on her hooves was making her weapons shift in her grasp.
Tempest growled and forced the panic down. He was just one pony. She had killed dozens.
Her foe continued to simply stand there, staring at her over the corpse of his victim. The chain of his weapon, gripped between a hoof and his wing, swung slightly in the biting wind.
Gritting her teeth, Tempest Shadow sucked in a breath and launched herself, springing over Howling Wolf’s body and bringing an ax blade at her target’s head.
A blade slashed through her leg and she hit the ground with a silent bellow, her wounded leg tumbling out from beneath her like a broken branch. She caught a glimpse of the red-breasted raven flying off into the distance.
A chain wrapped around her throat, stealing her breath from her. Tempest was pulled inexorably forward like a trout on a fishing line, gagging inaudibly, but turned the tug into a forward somersault. She tumbled towards her foe as he was forced to leap aside, narrowly avoiding a tomahawk slashing at his legs.
Regaining her hooves, Tempest pressed her advantage on the Doctor, her arms whirling in attack after attack; she gasped and panted as pain shot up her wounded leg like liquid fire, but forced the pain and the fear into the back of her mind, snarling as she scissored the blades at the Doctor’s head and legs.
The red eyes flashed furiously as he leaped away, the chain swinging towards Tempest’s head. She ducked beneath the attack, then leaped aside as the weight cracked down towards her. With a barked laugh, she seized the chain as it came down and tugged, sneering as she saw the Doctor’s eyes widen as he was reeled in.
The raven!
Tempest whirled to see the bird diving towards her again, bladed talons aimed for her other leg. She whirled out of the way, slashing at the raven with her tomahawk but missing as it flew out of reach.
A sickle swung for her neck and Tempest grimaced as she barely dodged, the curved blade carving into her cheek as the Plague Doctor dashed past her. Keeping her grip on the chain, she tried to pull her foe back into range.
His hoof reached for his bandolier, tugging at one of the vials. Tempest turned away and closed her mouth as a cloud of foul yellow gas billowed out, the sulfurous vapors stinging her face.
The sickle slashed for her throat. Tempest threw herself back and rolled out of reach, tumbling across the cold ground. She returned to her hooves, panting as she glared up at the assassin's shadow through the yellow cloud.
Something grabbed Tempest’s leg. She looked down and gasped in horror.
A bone was jutting from the ground, seizing her foreleg in an iron grasp. A skull pulled itself out of the ground, then another, then another, scorched skeletons rising from their graves, staring at her with their empty sockets. Their jaws flapped open and they spoke in unison, their raspy voices drilling into her ears in time to the pounding of her heart:
“It’s your fault. It’s your fault. It’s your fault. It’s your fault…”
Shivering, wrangling her breath back into control, Tempest squinted through the illusion to see that the Plague Doctor had flapped over to Starlight. He held her up in front of him like a shield with his sickle to her neck.
“No!” Tempest cried, the sound smothered by the pressing silence: all she could hear was the accusatory snarls and screams of her victims as they continued to dance around her, illusory dead hooves tugging and clawing at her. Starlight had regained consciousness and started struggling and squirming in her bonds, head turning from side to side in panic.
The raven landed on the Doctor’s shoulder. Tempest saw that it was holding something in its beak; it looked like a small crystal bell, with intricate carvings of open mouths encircling the body. The raven shook its head as if ringing the bell, but no chime came out of it: instead, the mouths all glowed a pale white color for a moment and Tempest felt a cold wind rush over her. The skeletons assailing her all wailed in response, their howls of hatred and pain like knives in Tempest’s ears.
The Plague Doctor tugged something out of his pocket and tossed it up into the air. The teleportation crystal floated over his body, red lightning dancing from it towards the ground.
Panic raced through Tempest’s veins. And with panic came action. For a brief moment, the illusions faded away as she drew her right foreleg back. The tomahawk spun through the air, striking the crystal. It tumbled uselessly to the ground, its magic fading away. The Plague Doctor glared at the crystal, then at her.
A skeleton lunged at Tempest’s face and screamed; she could feel its hot, reeking breath on her face and instinctively flinched with a shudder. Shoving the hallucination aside, Tempest cocked the other tomahawk back, growling silently. Starlight had gone completely still as she felt the blade at her throat, her chest heaving in a panicked rhythm.
Sweat ran down Tempest’s forehead and she had to adjust the grip on her weapon, visions of the ax splitting Starlight’s head open like a cantaloupe dancing through her mind. She took a small step forward and the Plague Doctor retreated, his wings extending. The skeletons around Tempest continued to pull at her; her foreleg shook with the effort of keeping the imaginary limbs from yanking her weapon away.
A flicker of light danced in the corner of Tempest’s eye. She turned and gasped.
The pygmy owl from before was carrying a burning ember from the campfire, hovering over one of the tents. It made eye contact with her, yellow eyes flashing as if in malicious joy as it dropped the ember. The fire caught in moments, flames rushing up the animal skins, leaping to the neighboring tents in complete, horrible silence.
She turned back just in time to see the Plague Doctor flying into the darkness, clutching Starlight to his chest.
Sound returned in his absence, becoming louder like somepony was turning up the volume on the world: the crackling of the flames, then the shouts and screams of the buffalo as they emerged from their tents to find the camp in blazes.
A terrible howl cut through the night as a buffalo leaped from his burning teepee, flailing in crazed pain before collapsing in a heap. His screams mixed with the continuing screeches of Tempest’s tormenters.
Her heart fell into her stomach and tears formed in her eyes from both smoke and pain. Tempest Shadow dropped her other tomahawk and hobbled over to the water tank to join the battle against the fire, the skeletons continuing to dance around her.
“It’s your fault. It’s your fault. It’s your fault.”