We all sat in the main throne room in Twilight’s castle. I felt myself shaking really badly, my breath shallow. My body twitched every few seconds. I had no control over my own body.
Discord sat next to me in an attempt to comfort me. I wasn’t sure what he was saying to me but I could figure it was something simple such as “You’re okay?” To which I only nodded, not even sure if that was what he asked me.
Spike was talking to the students who also were all shaken by what happened. Capper was lending against the wall closest to the entrance. Cozy Glow sat alone in a similar position as I was. I could guess what she saw though I had a few ideas. Savannah’s words stuck to me. What was she trying to tell me? I could feel her anger, sadness, and regret. But for the moment, I felt the same pain she was in when she was killed; her final breath. I thought Timber Hall’s death was painful yet somehow Savannah seemed to affect me worse than him.
I couldn’t help but feel angry for what they did to her. Even if they were right about her using dark magic, it wasn’t right. Hell, even if she was a killer, it still wouldn’t be right. However, that left a couple of questions. Did she kill the son? Did she kill Timer Hall and his friends? Or was this one big misunderstanding? And if it was a misunderstanding then who did kill them?
“Luna! Luna!”
I jumped as my mind finally came back to reality. “Huh?”
Discord’s face said it all. “What did you see?”
I thought back to the vision. Hearing Savannah’s scream was something I would never forget. “I’ll...I’ll tell you later.”
Thankfully, Discord didn’t press on. “Okay.”
Our attention was brought to Twilight when she trotted into the room.
“Well, we checked around school and spoke to a few of the students, no one heard or saw anything,” she explained. Discord only smirked at Twilight’s statement.
“We know what we saw,” Smolder snapped.
“I’m not saying you didn’t. I’m saying nopony else did,” Twilight reword herself. Twilight then examined Ocellus’s arm. “How is it?”
“I’ll be fine,” she assured Twilight.
“You sure,” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“She should get it checked out,” Spike suggested.
“I’m fine!” Ocellus raised her voice a little. Spike took that as a hint not to say any more on the matter.
Twilight observed the room. It was clear as day that every creature was shaken up. “Well then, can somebody tell me what happened?” She then flew up to Discord’s face. “Discord I swear if you are behind this-”
“Oh sure blame me for it!” Discord snapped unamusedly. He turned away from her with his arms crossed.
“Discord, this is something you would do!” Twilight countered back at him.
Discord sighed as he couldn’t deny that. “Look, I’m all for giving a little spook once in a while but this is a bit too dark for my taste,” Discord pointed at Ocellus who was still holding onto her bandaged arm.
“We were all there with him. He didn’t do this,” Capper finally spoke up from his spot.
Twilight let out a scoff. “You don’t know him as I do.” Her voice was sharp at Capper.
“Clearly not since even I know he wouldn’t do this.” Capper didn’t even look away from the spot he was staring at. “Aren’t we supposed to trust our friends? That is what you teach these kids, right?”
Spike flew to Twilight’s side and placed his claw on her back. “Twilight, I know Discord can go too far with pranks and all but he wouldn’t intentionally hurt someone. Not like this and most definitely not a child.” Discord uncrossed his arms and stared up at the ceiling. For some reason at that moment, I knew he was thinking about Silver Blitz.
The students stared at Twilight waiting for a response from her. I noticed Capper smirked when Twilight groaned. He then stepped out into the hallway, out of sight. I figured he either didn’t want to deal with any more of what happened or he was going to head back to the hospital to see Trixie. Maybe it was both. I surely didn’t want to be stuck in this.
She didn’t say any more to Discord and flew back to the table and landed behind me. I could feel her eyes staring at me. “Princess?”
My eyes were locked on the floor. I was holding onto the edge of the chair I was sitting on to help control my shaking. “Honestly...I’m not sure. We heard screaming-”
“We-meaning you, Capper, Spike, and Discord?” Twilight wanted to clarify.
“Um yes,” I answered. “We heard screaming and we were trying to find out what happened. Next thing I know, I’m in the hallway and I heard Cozy Glow screaming.”
“And did you see anything?”
Even now I wasn’t sure what I saw. I looked at Cozy Glow who shared a similar look as I had. “I saw a figure but that could be anything. I didn’t actually “see” it.” That technically wasn’t a lie.
“Didn’t actually see it?! It flung you across the room!” Cozy Glow screamed.
“Cozy Glow, that is no way to talk to Princess Luna!” Twilight jumped in on her.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.” I shrugged and stood up from the chair.
“How about the truth?” Cozy got on the table and trotted in front of me. “Those missing ponies you told me about, what do they have to do with Savannah?!”
“I already told you-”
“No!” She interrupted me. “How are they really involved with this? Did she kill them? Is that why you’re here?”
I leaned in closer to her face. I was not going to be talked down to by a child of all things. Especially now since I knew she did something to cause this. “Where did you get that book? These symbols were in the house. Why is that? What did you do that you’re not telling your friends?”
Cozy Glow stepped back in shock. She lowered her ears and put her head down. “It wasn’t meant to turn out like this…”
“I can’t help you if you don’t help me,” I whispered to her. My voice was calmer this time.
“Okay enough!” Twilight stepped in. “Can somepony explain to me what you two are on about? Who’s Savannah?”
Cozy stayed still before trotting off the table and back to her group of friends. I stood my head and trotted away from the table.
“It’s just an old tale about a pony who was killed a long time ago,” I sighed heavily.
“It’s not though,” Silver Stream cried out. “We saw her! She’s real!”
“Silver Stream!” Smolder and Gallus looked at her with eyes saying “Don’t say that.”
“What?! Are we really not going to say anything?! We were all there, we all saw it.”
Twilight blinked confusingly at them. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You see Twilight, it’s why they went to the house,” Spike said. He began to explain to Twilight about Timber Halls and his friend and a little bit about us trying to see if it had any connection to the attacks on Trixie and Sandbars. He left out the supernatural parts, of course.
As Spike was talking, I started feeling cold as if I felt a sudden breeze hit me. But I wasn’t near any windows. I looked at everyone else. No one seemed to have felt it but me. I felt something...I felt someone. I turned back to Twilight and standing behind her was Savannah. She wandered around the room, singing quietly to herself.
I had to be careful to not make it noticeable that I was staring at her. She glanced around the students and went by Spike. She trotted by the box filled with the books and papers Spike had gathered. She bent down, staring into the box.
She’s looking for something? I thought. This time I heard a gush of wind fly past me. I didn’t even need to look. I knew she was standing behind me.
“You can see me,” I heard her chuckle. “Good.”
Another gush of wind. She was gone.
“Why are you looking at me as if I’m crazy?!’ Silver Stream was close to tears.
“Silver Stream.” Twilight went up to her and hugged her. “No one is saying that. I’m just a bit confused and overwhelmed is all.”
“You’re not,” She asked hopefully.
“Of course. I’m going to get to the bottom of this, okay?” Twilight comforted her.
She was doubtful, I could tell but she nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
“Okay then. You all can sleep here at the castle tonight.”
“Great,” I spoke up. “I must be heading back to the castle before my sister worries about me.”
“Wait, is there anything else you can tell me about what happened?” Twilight stepped in front of me as I was making my way to the exit.
“Nope. You can take it from here,” I trotted around her and kept trotting until I was outside of the castle. I saw Capper sitting on the steps and looking up at the star-covered night sky.
It reminded me of that one night back when dealing with the fallen. How I and he were staring at the night sky and hearing him tell me how The way I saw the moon was how he viewed his father’s sword. I wondered if he was thinking about that night too. I sat right next to him with a small smile. He gave a smile back before looking back up at the sky.
“You escaped?” He laughed.
“For now,” I joked.
“Yeah, I didn’t want to deal with it,” Capper shook his head.
“She didn’t mean anything bad by it.”
“Still didn’t want to deal with it,” Capper said more harshly.
“You two don’t like each other do you?’ I wasn’t surprised or anything but I just never thought of it till now.
Capper smirked and chuckled quietly to himself. “Bold of you to assume that Twilight would even consider being friends with someone like me.”
“You did try to sell her,” I flatly defended.
“And?” His voice was sharped. “You tried to kill Twilight and her friends. Trixie banished her from here and trapped everypony inside and Tempest captured her and helped a dictator steal her, yours, and your sister’s powers all because she became disabled.” He paused and stared coldly at me. “What is your fucking point?”
“It’s not like she’s friends with Trixie.” I knew what he was trying to say.
“And why is that?” He then asked. “Why can she be friends with you and Tempest but can’t stand me and Trixie and Discord for that matter?”
“Well for starters, Discord isn’t easy to deal with,” I said.
“You can.” I couldn't tell if he was asking me or telling me.
“Capper, you won’t be friends with everypony.”
“You can at least respect them,” Capper rolled his eyes.
“She does,” I blurted without a second thought.
“You really think that?” It was then I realized that I never saw how Twilight treated Discord and Trixie. “Let me ask you this, princess. How do you think Twilight would have been if you weren’t Princess Celestia’s sister?”
I knew she treated me and Celestia differently. I just didn’t think too much about that because I knew that Twilight was much closer to Celestia. But now that Capper pointed it out, I did see where he was coming from. I didn’t want to think Twilight would have treated me differently. But the doubt was there. What would she have done?
I thought back to that day when I came back from the moon. Celestia trotted towards me slowly as I stayed still shaking. My mind racing and wanting to run. I thought she was going to kill me. And yet...
“Twilight...Twilight trusted me because Celestia did. Twilight trusted her so she believed that there had to be some good left in me. So to answer your question, it would have depended on what Celestia did.”
Capper said nothing.
“Twilight was the only one who wasn’t afraid of me. She gave me a chance when nopony else would. She’s not a bad pony, Capper.”
“I’m not saying she’s a bad pony,” Capper said.
“I know what you’re trying to say,” I snapped.
“If you trust her, why not tell her about your powers?”
That I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know why I didn’t want to tell her. Was I afraid that she would tell Celestia? If I told her the full story, would she understand?
“I don’t know,” I shamefully admitted. “It's nothing against her, though. She hasn't done anything wrong to me. She has done so much for me and Equestria.”
“I get it, Luna--”
“No, you don’t. You don’t know Twilight at all.”
“What do you know about Twilight?” Capper shot back at me. “Tell me one thing about her that isn't obvious.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Favorite color, music, food, drink, song, flavor of ice cream. Things like that,” he listed.
I tried to think up an answer. It was not that I was upset by that. But I didn’t want to say Capper was right. Mostly since I didn’t agree with what he was saying. “You don’t know any of that about me?”
“Of course, I don’t. I have only seen you very few times. That’s why you don’t really know Twilight.” Capper then added, “That’s what I’m trying to do now.”
“Huh?” I blinked.
“I’m trying to get to know you.” Capper moved in front of me, putting one knee on the step. From the outside, it looked like some weird proposal. “I want to actually know you. I don’t want us to only see each other when Equestria is in some kind of danger. I would like us to be friends for real.”
I opened my mouth to say something but anything I tried to come up with, I instantly doubted it and closed my mouth. It was strange seeing him wanting us to be friends. It wasn't that I never thought of him as a friend before but it was different since he called out that a lot of the time I would only see Twilight and her friends when something bad was happening. None of us ever took the time to actually get to know one another. Maybe things would have been different if we did or at least tried.
“I get that we met under unusual circumstances but I would like to get to know you if you want.” He sat back on the step next to me.
It was silly but there was only one thing I could come up with to say. “What’s your favorite color?”
He laughed. “Green.”
“Green?” I asked shockingly. Not the color I thought he would choose.
“I like the forest and nature. We don't have a lot of that back in my hometown but Equestria is filled with them. It's beautiful,” he smiled brightly as he turned his attention back up to the sky. “Although the night sky is also very beautiful, I know many don't count it as a color. What’s your favorite?”
“I like black but as you just stated not many count that so whenever I’m asked I just say blue or purple.”
“Great. Now we know one thing about each other.”
We both shared a small laugh.
His face then turned serious. “So what did you see? Was it Savannah?” His eyes were still up in the sky.
“I didn’t see her.” My body was shaking again as the thoughts and memories started coming back to me. “But she showed me something...I saw what they did to her. I can’t explain it but I was standing there when it all happened but I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
Capper broke his gaze with the sky as he was now concerned.
“They tortured her. She was beyond scared.” I heard her screaming echoing in my head. “She’s angry, Capper and I don’t blame her.”
“Luna, you realize she has been tormenting these kids, right?”
“Now I do but does she? All that’s left in her is hate and anger. She might not see it like that.” I sat up from the step. This time I was admiring the night sky. “I need to go talk to her.”
“You really think she will talk to you?” Capper scoffed.
“I have to try. That's all I can do at this point,” I said.
“Princess?” That wasn’t Capper’s voice.
We both turned and saw Cozy Glow standing behind us. The poor things looked defeated and tired. “Tomorrow,” she paused. “At the table where you first saw me, I will be there after class and I will tell you everything but I also need to know what is going on. What you know, I want to know.” Before I could say anything or even give her an answer, she quickly trotted back inside the castle.
Capper must have had the same blank stare on his face as I did. “Well, Princess Luna it appears that Savannah isn’t the only one you get to talk to.”
“No...I guess not.”
The next morning Discord and I met up in my room. I had informed him about what Cozy Glow had said to me as well as what I saw about Savannah’s past. I also told him my plan on wanting to speak to Savannah. Of course, not to my surprise, Discord was against me going near Savannah’s house.
“Luna, we don’t know how dangerous she is.” Discord flew around the room. This was his way of pacing.
“I get that,” I agreed. “But that’s the point. We just don’t know. But she showed me that for a reason. Maybe that’s her way of saying she wants to talk.”
“Oooor,” Discord dragged out. “That’s her way of luring you in.”
“Didn’t Spike say the same thing about Silver Blitz?” I was laying on the bed staring up at Discord as he kept flying.
Discord froze midair. “That-that’s different.”
“Why?” I snapped. “Cause she was a child? Discord, Savannah wasn’t that old either.”
Discord flew down and landed next to the bed. “We knew Silver Blitz wasn’t a killer. We don’t know what she did or didn’t do.”
I smirked and stood up. “That’s what you are going to find out.”
“Huh?”
“You and Spike found out about Rosetta’s past. I’m sure you can do the same here.”
Discord gave a cautious stare at me and crossed his arms. “It doesn’t work like that. My dreams don’t just give me the answers. If they did, that would save me a lot of time and I probably wouldn’t be on the edge of going mad.”
“Yes, true but if Savannah is a killer then you will see that.” I got off the bed and headed to my dresser. Discord watched as I grabbed my saddlebag.
“So you want me and Spike to find out if she really did kill that guy’s son?” Discord asked.
“And while you do that, I will be talking to Cozy Glow and see if I can talk to Savannah.” I grabbed some of the papers and news clipping from the box that Spike gave me. I got the ones I felt were important and placed them in the bag.
“If you are able to talk to Savannah, what’s the point if Spike and I are going to find out anyway?”
“The point is--” I placed the last thing I wanted in the bag. The old pocket watch that Timber Hall gave to me. ”To see if she is telling the truth. That way if she said anything that you don’t get to see, we’ll know that we can trust her.”
I trotted past Discord and opened the balcony door. The moon would need to be lowered soon. “I guess that makes sense. And the students?”
“Twilight is watching them now. They will be fine.”
“Okay then,” Discord said. “Just tell me when you’re done with the filly and Savannah and we’ll meet up at my place. Spike thinks we shouldn’t speak about this at the school or Twilight’s castle.”
“Sounds good.” I knew why Spike thought that and I somewhat agreed with him.
“Ponyville I presume then?”
I nodded and groaned as I suddenly felt a sharp pain on my side.
Discord noticed this. “Your wing’s hurting?”
“I’ll live,” I groaned again.
“Not unless Savannah kills you,” Discord joked to which I laughed.
“Yeah unless that happens.”
Discord then snapped his fingers and we headed off to Ponyville. We were over the plan one last time and went our separate ways. I hoped that Discord would be able to find out the truth. I then trotted towards the direction of Savannah’s house.
The walk to the entrance of the Everfree Forest wasn’t long at all. I got there in just a couple of minutes. Twilight and her friends were always scared of the Everfree Forest and though I never blamed them or anything, I admired them.
It was different from the rest of Equestria. It made no sense why it was like that or how it got like that to begin with. That was most likely why it scared ponies because it didn’t make sense. But that was what always drew me to it when I first became a princess.
I took another step towards the Forest. That was when I felt it; that same looming presence.
“Savannah?” I looked behind me. Nothing was there.
“Close, but I’ll let you guess again.” I yelped and jumped back, facing back towards the Everfree Forest. Now standing in front of me was Timber Halls wearing the same old worn clothes from the first night I saw him. “You shouldn’t be going to her house. Not alone at least.”
“Where have you been? You came to me asking for help then just disappeared,” I said.
He circled around me as he spoke. “I was busy.”
“Busy tormenting that poor child.” Silver Stream’s vision struck me as I very well understood her pain.
He stopped trotting and signed. “I wasn’t trying to hurt her. I just needed her to--find my body.”
That didn’t make any sense to me. “Find your body? Isn’t that what you wanted me to do?!”
“I--I did…?” he said nothing and bit his lip. “Savannah has been watching you. She knows that you can see us. So I couldn’t risk her finding out. It would only make things worse. It’s why she is after them. I told the child that Savannah would try to use one of them to release her.”
His body movements were stiff and his voice was cold. “She’s dangerous. You can’t trust her.”
“I know you’re scared,” I first said to him.”But I need to at least hear her side.”
“Why do you need to?! I can tell you everything you want to know?!” he yelled at me. I was getting nowhere with him. It was best to leave now and go to Savannah’s house.
“She’s a killer!” He blocked me when he saw me trot away from him.
“You don’t know that!” I trotted around him.
“She killed me!!”
My mind froze as if I was strangled by just the air around me. I knew that was a possibility but to hear him say it, made it all the more real. It couldn’t be true. “I...I...why would she kill a group of randoms ponies that had nothing to do with her?”
He didn’t even waste a breath with his answer. “Because the man that got her killed was my grandfather.”
“Ummm….what?” I was left speechless. A million questions came to mind yet I couldn’t muster the words to ask any of them.
“I was shocked to find that out myself. None of my family ever told me.”
Well, at least that gave me a question to ask. “Then how did you find out?”
“My family told me he was a crazy man.” I agreed with him on that one. “He was sick, locked up in a mental hospital. He was convinced that Savannah was after him and was planning on killing him.”
I simply scoffed at that though I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to upset Timber Hall. So I kept listening.
“I had gotten a letter from him not too long before he died. He wanted me to protect something he had since I was the “lucky one” of the family.” He pulled out an old rusty chain from his pocket. “A pocket watch.”
He saw the shock register on my face before I could hide it. A smile reached his lips. “He said it would protect me from her. I didn’t believe a word.” He stared down at his body. “I wish I did. Listen, she will do to you as she has done to me. Don’t believe a word she said but most importantly don’t let her hooves get on the watch.”
“What’s so important about it?”
“It keeps her trapped in the house,” he answered. “Once you get her away from the kids, she won’t be a problem anymore. If she gets free, I fear what she will try to do.”
I felt a strong breeze hit my face. He was gone. My mind was spinning and I felt lightheaded trying to wrap my head at everything I was just told. If Savannah did kill Timber Halls then did she kill Timber Wing’s son? What if she was a killer?
It was time to hear it from her.
“It was tense at the school. Every creature had gotten word about what had happened the night before so all eyes were on us. Twilight told us we didn’t have to go to class today. So we stayed in the throne room for a while. We didn’t say much.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “So we’re now up to this morning?” I knew we were finally drawing near the end.
Cozy cleared her throat. “Yeah.”
“So is that all or is there more?” I wasn’t sure what more could have happened in the span of a couple of hours but from my own experience, I knew that a lot could happen in a short amount of time.
Cozy’s eyes drifted away from me. “Something happened.”
I leaned in closer to her. “Tell me.” I meant to ask her but it came out more like an order.
“We asked Twilight if we could see Sandbar. For one, I wanted to say sorry to him for what happened and I also thought it would help us feel better I guess.” Cozy opened the book, flipping through the pages.
“Then I saw him. I left the hospital soon after.”
“Where did you go?”
“First, I went to get the book.” She held up the book as she said that. “Then I was heading towards the house.”
“For what?” I asked.
“I was trying to see if the symbols In the book we're also the ones in the house.”
I knew what the symbols meant now but there was one thing I needed to know to confirm what I was starting to figure out. “Cozy Glow, where did you get the book from?”
She covered her face. “From the house…We found a dumbwaiter that led to a basement. There were a lot of symbols on the wall and shelves filled with books and I took one. Smolder told me to find something that could help us with the prank I guess. Honestly, it made sense at the time.” She seemed to scoff at her own logic
“I see.” It was starting to all make sense to me now. “You went to the house then?”
“No. I never got the chance to.” She pulled the camera to her and held it up. “I was on my way when I was given this.”