//------------------------------// // 23. Imperator // Story: A Ghost of a Chance // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// But they had to wait around for a good, long while after that. Though the smell of predeads got too much for them to take, so they went off to wait in one of the random buildings nearby. Injured as she was, the urge to freeze one of them was too much for Zest to bear. It was only exhaustion that kept her from actually attacking anypony. She could barely walk around for the hour or two following the fight. Nailbat alone was brave enough to occasionally come down in a hazmat suit and give them updates. Sour Sweet was rushed to a hospital shortly after the fight. It sounded likely she would live, at the least. Nailbat insisted on destroying the vast majority of the drones but did allow Zest to keep the robot she was currently possessing on Sugarcoat’s urging that it was medically necessary. He came over one final time with Wallflower in tow. Wallflower’s defeat was absolute. She followed Nailbat like a condemned mare headed to the gallows. “I finished interrogating her. We don’t have any facilities for locking up ghosts,” said Nailbat. “My only option for dealing with this one would be execution. That said, I’m fine with you taking her instead. No one will double-guess me if I just say I killed her.” Sugarcoat rubbed her glasses, not wanting to take responsibility for Wallflower but not having much of a choice. She gestured for Wallflower to come over to them. Wallflower meekly flew over to their side, only for Sugarcoat to stop her by jabbing a hoof on her chest. She instead pointed to a corner where Wallflower went instead. Then Sugarcoat turned back to Nailbat. “How much of this did you plan to happen, exactly?” Sugarcoat asked him. “The robots, Wallflower… I’m assuming you knew all of this?” “I just got here a few hours ago,” said Nailbat, his expression hard to read through the helmet. “I was chasing after a lich named Ostracon, which is why I’m even here. Though sadly he got away because of all this. Maybe you’ll see him at some point. He did escape through Old Manehattan.” Sugarcoat watched him through narrow eyes, taking note of that name he suddenly decided to drop out of nowhere. This guy was way too shifty. “That’s all for now. I’d appreciate it if you talked to Sour Sweet before you leave for wherever you’re going, though.” Nailbat turned his back and waved his hoof once before heading off. They gave him a minute to get away before talking amongst themselves. “I don’t like that guy,” said Indigo. “He’s up to something.” “He seems like he’s on our side, though.” Zest looked over at the cloth covering the folder they just stole. Sugarcoat kept telling her ‘no’. Zest was starting to feel like she was waiting to open her birthday presents. “Are we supposed to ask somepony about Ostracon now?” “I’m impressed you picked up on that one.” Indigo chuckled. “Hey!” “We need to deal with her first.” Sugarcoat shot a look at Wallflower. “No folder until then. Is there anything you want to say for yourself?” “If I knew they’d…” Wallflower choked on her own words. “Oh fuck… I… won’t defend myself. I’ll accept whatever punishment you want. Even…” “Come on, she was clearly tricked.” Zest chugged her way over to Wallflower’s side. “I’d really rather not take her back with us.” Sugarcoat’s expression didn’t soften one bit as she considered a punishment. “It’d be a serious risk.” “We’re not really going to kill her are we?” Zest asked. “If we banish her, she’ll just get kidnapped and brainwashed into helping Crater Cemetery more. We can’t do that!” “Meltdown is going to kill her if we turn her over to him,” Indigo agreed. “The only way she lives is if we take her.” “Maybe, but frankly she’s proven herself untrustworthy to a great extent,” said Sugarcoat. “She put herself in danger by siding with someone so obviously evil. I never took responsibility for her and I’m not sure I trust her enough to do that going forward. Even deciding on a punishment for her isn’t really my responsibility.” Zest really wanted to spare Wallflower, but didn’t have much of an argument against that… nothing but appeals to emotion. “Hey, and speaking of trust.” Indigo’s eyes sharpened. “Are you feeling okay, by the way? You seemed a little out of it… before.” Zest didn’t know exactly what this trump card implied, but it worked. Sugarcoat relented immediately. “I should apologize for that,” Sugarcoat admitted. She bowed her head to Indigo, then to Wallflower so Zest had no idea which one she was sorry to. “I suppose if both of you feel I should give her another chance…” Wallflower looked up, slightly more hopeful after that. “But listen. If I take you with us, you’re going to be under house arrest indefinitely,” Sugarcoat warned. “You won’t be allowed to leave our base unescorted. You won’t be allowed to leave the basement during the day. And that’s after an even more strict period of probation. If I decide you’re up to something again, I’ll have no other option but execution at that point. And it will be my responsibility to do it. Do you understand?” “I understand.” Wallflower kept her head down. “Thank you.” “And I know this is old fashion. I don’t normally require it but given the circumstances.” Sugarcoat held up a hoof imperiously. “I want you to kiss my hoof. Bow down and swear your allegiance is to me and me alone for the rest of your life. You owe me a blood debt for sparing you from execution.” Zest looked between the two of them. That was something from the really old days. You usually only saw stuff like that in movies about knights and stuff. Wallflower was taken aback by the request, breathing some life back into her. But her determination to submit to punishment came back a moment later. She moved over and bowed down low to Sugarcoat. “I acknowledge my blood debt and pledge my life to your service,” Wallflower said more or less what a pony in a movie would have said… then kissed Sugarcoat’s hoof. Wallflower winced briefly, knowing what came next in this long-abandoned ritual. Sugarcoat slapped her across the face, though not too hard. Then, rubbing her cheek, Wallflower was allowed to rise. “What? Is she like your knight now?” Indigo laughed. “I kinda want to be a knight, too!” “And if anything happens to me,” said Sugarcoat. “Then your loyalty falls to Zest. Understand?” “Eh?!” Zest craned her neck in surprise. “Why not me?” Indigo pointed to herself absently. “Yes. Um. Mistress?” Wallflower looked up at Sugarcoat unsure. Sugarcoat didn’t correct her. “Ah-ha! Another ghost get!” Zest’s voice boomed way too loudly. She lowered her head in embarrassment. “Well, I guess that means we’re up to five Shadowbolts. Oh, wait, six if you count Sunny Flare!” “Not yet,” Sugarcoat shot down the idea. “Maybe if I’m convinced she really is loyal in a year or so…” “I thought you were against the whole Shadowbolt label in the first place,” Zest teased. Zest could have sworn she saw Sugarcoat blush slightly! But then again… not really. “Speaking of that. I don’t want her seeing this just yet.” Sugarcoat gestured to Wallflower. “Juniper, keep an eye on her.” “Taking orders from you now?” Juniper shook her head. “So this means I am officially a Shadowbolt?” “Yes. We’ll tell you what we found later.” That got a small smile out of her. “You heard what the boss said.” Juniper prodded Wallflower away. “Let’s go.” The two of them floated through a wall. The remaining Shadowbolts watched the spot they left through for a minute before deciding it was safe. Sugarcoat took out the folder and opened it. “Let’s see what’s in this.” It had better be good. Though… surprisingly, the first pages contained information about the banshees they had just fought? It was a picture of a much younger Aria, dressed in the fanciest robe Zest had ever seen on a pony save Prince Crystallium, complete with a little tiara and scepter… only now Zest got to see her full name. Imperator Aria Ardere Noctilucent III. And two more ponies Sonata and… ‘Adagio’ apparently. Regina Sonata Vespera Noctilucent. Regina Adagio Fulgore Noctilucent. “Ardere?” Zest squinted at the name. “I thought her name was Aria Blaze, not Aria Ardere. That is the same pony, right? What does ‘aredere’ even mean?” “It’s Middle Equestrian for… I suppose you could translate it as a blaze. Her name is in Middle Equestrian,” Sugarcoat explained. “Then why isn’t the Aria part in Middle Equestrian?” “Aria is a Middle Equestrian word,” said Sugarcoat. “Half our language is Middle Equestrian words.” “Oh… right.” Zest nodded. “But why’s her name in Middle Equestrian at all?” “What’s the full name of the prince of North Equestria?” “Regium Nova Crystallium LXIV,” Zest recited. Then it all clicked. “Wait!” “Yes. Nobles continued to use Middle Equestrian names long after the language had shifted.” “So then… they’re nobles? I thought our prince was the only noble who didn’t get the uh.” Zest ran a hoof over her neck. “Who survived the revolution.” “Well this implies he wasn’t,” said Sugarcoat. Zest realized she’d been reading this the whole time! “Though the name, Imperator, implies a rank higher than even prince or princess, Regium.” “What outranks a princess?” Zest asked. “Queen is higher than princess.” Indigo reminded her. “The Queen of Equestria is Golden Feather, remember?” “Imperator might more directly translate to empress,” said Sugarcoat. “But it’s the title Golden Feather would have used.” ‘Queen’ wasn’t a term ponies used very often. The term was specifically and only used for the legendary founder of Equestria, the oldest pony and the common ancestor of all pegasi, Golden Feather. And she didn’t come up too often in conversation so sometimes Zest forgot about her. “So she’s calling herself a queen? On the same level as Golden Feather?” Zest asked. “You can’t be on the same level as her! Isn’t that a little arrogant?” “Probably,” said Indigo. “But the royal family of Equestria proper used to use the title ‘Imperator’ back in the day, fancying themselves truer descendants of Golden Feather than the rest of us. And your guy uses ‘Regium’ because he was their vassal regent of the north. Even I know that. Come on.” Zest put her hooves over her headphones and backed up in shame. This is what she got for dropping out of middle school. If she was a proper high school dropout, she’d be doing a lot better right now! “So they’re claiming to be part of the Solaris imperial family,” Indigo concluded. “Though… wait no. They would have used the Solaris name if that was the case. What the hell is Noctilucent?” “No, they claim to be descended from another pony of equal rank to Golden Feather,” said Sugarcoat. “The only pony not descended from Golden Feather… her sister Star Feather.” Zest rushed back to Sugarcoat’s shoulder to try and read alongside her. There was no catching up now, so Zest only pretended to read, assuming Sugarcoat would just keep explaining it. “From the looks of things, the Equestrian government has known about them for a long time,” said Sugarcoat. “The SA made a deal with them during the revolution. It seems…” Sugarcoat’s eyes lingered on a picture, drawing Zest’s gaze straight to it. The crater that Crater Cemetery was named for. “They had a spell to summon an asteroid like this.” Sugarcoat nudged the picture of the crater. “I suppose they threatened to drop one on Canterlot if the SA came for them like they did the Solaris family… and the deal was that their family and clan would remain exiled in their secluded forest, allowed to do their own thing.” They were the ones who summoned that asteroid?! That had to be one of the most devastating natural disasters in Equestrian history and it happened far from any populated area… or maybe it wasn’t a natural disaster after all. If they seriously had that kind of power… and they still lost… “Then– hold on.” Indigo shook her head. “You’re saying those two doofuses can summon asteroids like this?!” “From the looks of things, Aria was maybe seven or eight when it happened,” said Sugarcoat. “So probably not them… some other pony in their family.” Zest looked over the pictures herself. It was easy to see the birth order. ‘Adagio’ the oldest sister and Sonata is the youngest. Which was weird. Why did Aria get the title of queen if she was the second oldest? Didn’t the firstborn normally become the heir apparent? “Yes,” said Sugarcoat. “It confirmed my suspicion. Their grandfather was the one who summoned the meteor. But enough of their family died on that day that Aria was promoted to Imperator Aria. So she was the one who talked to the Equestrian government afterward.” “About what?” “Crater Cemetery.” Sugarcoat flipped the page again. There was only one more after this. “The asteroid was intended to kill our enemy… but it didn’t work.” Zest shuddered to think of what else they could possibly throw at it if an asteroid wasn’t enough! “They were asking for help, but the SA decided there was nothing they could do at the time. Still… they got some information out of the Noctilucent family.” As Sugarcoat kept reading, she pulled out a photograph and her eyes widened. Zest did as well when she read the caption. This was it! A photograph of… of the depths of Crater Cemetery! It must have been shortly after the meteor impacted. The ground was still molten and a heavy mist of ash covered the area. The overall quality was poor… but they could make out a figure just shortly before the camera. It was a pony, but elongated and warped. It was a winged unicorn… an alicorn. Though which one, if that was true, Zest couldn’t possibly tell. There was supposed to be The Queen of Light and her seven sons. This one was female and it wasn’t The Queen of Light so… who or what? Even still, Zest could also tell it was a ghost. Those same fibers she’d seen plenty of during the battle came streaming out of her edges. It made it look as though the form was burning away at the edges, extending into an infinite web of fibers that wrapped around the heavy chains arced around her back and legs. Oddly it almost seemed like it was posing for the camera, wings flared out and looking straight at whoever took the photograph as though making sure they got all this. “Did they seriously have this the whole time?” Indigo’s eyes nearly bugged out as she scanned the photograph over and over. “That’s it… that’s the bastard, isn’t it?!” “It does seem strange they wouldn’t have released this more widely.” Sugarcoat studied the photograph through narrow eyes. “They usually like putting up pictures of their marks. Either they know something we don’t or…” “What even is this, though?” Zest asked. “It can’t be an alicorn, can it? There’s only like eight of those and this isn’t one of them. So… it’s just a thing that looks like an alicorn?” “A creature from outer space,” said Sugarcoat. “That’s what they claim she is. It appeared and demanded they worship her. They deemed it dangerous enough to summon the asteroid in an attempt to kill it. When that failed, they managed to seal it away. But the cost was most of their clan. Though the report sound skeptical.” “So those bozos were really that powerful this whole time?” Indigo lifted her head in disbelief. “Hey!” Zest remembered an important point. “Didn’t you say you already knew the family those two were from? So… you already knew about this ‘Imperitor’ stuff?” “Not all of this is entirely new,” said Sugarcoat. “We’ve known about their family… the Hallow clan that lived in Hollow Shades for a long time. They were an extremely isolationist village that knew many dark secrets and believed in the absolute superiority of ghosts... and pegasi for that matter. But I certainly never knew their head family claimed to be high-royalty or anything like that.” Zest still wasn’t sure what to make of all this… there was one page left, but Sugarcoat suddenly became too lost in thought to turn to it. “Isn’t it weird that guy asked us for a name?” Indigo asked. “Huh?” Zest blinked. “The dollmaker,” Indigo reminded her. “If it’s just some random space monster and they have no idea where it came from… then why would it even have a name?” “That’s a good question, actually.” Sugarcoat finally turned to the last page. On this final page was a photograph of a shrine, one dominated by a massive statue… a statue of a female alicorn. And if it wasn’t the queen of light… it was the ghost of Crater Cemetery! A shrine to their enemy. Only it didn’t look exactly like her… but similar enough that Zest assumed they were supposed to be the same. Luna. Yeah, it was the same pony alright! Her form wasn’t so warped and twisted. It was solid and clear, but there were just enough similarities that Zest guessed it was either the same pony or her twin sister or something. So that was it… it must have been named ‘Luna’. But what did this shrine mean, exactly? “Since when is there an alicorn named Luna?” Zest asked while Sugarcoat kept skimming much faster than Zest could have read. “Who knows… but they worshipped her. The Noctilucent family, I mean. It says the SA did some spying afterwards and found the Noctilucent worshipped… whoever this is. And they concluded that the Ghost of Crater Cemetery was actually from a failed attempt to summon this… creature. Luna.” “They tried to summon something from the outer realm?!” Indigo winced at the very idea. Everypony knew something like that was literal suicide. “So that crap about being from outer space was bullshit and it was really the Noctilucent family’s fault. It was those Hollow Shades assholes doing the most stupid religious ceremony in history! Those ponies were never any good! We should have slaughtered them all a hundred, no, two thousand years ago! This is why they killed the Solaris family!” “We can’t be sure if it was really their fault,” said Sugarcoat. “That’s what the SA concluded!” Indigo gestured to the last page. “And they didn’t even have the decency to pass that on to the rest of us?! Bah! Screw them too.” Did the Noctilucent family really leave that part of it out to try and avoid blame? It seemed the most likely answer but… “Something about this seems off,” said Sugarcoat. “If they had all this information, why hasn’t any of it leaked… and if the ponies of Hollow Shades had such intimate knowledge of how the shadow realm’s chains worked, enough to seal away this monstrosity in the first place, how could they have fallen victim to it so easily?” “I think you’re right, actually.” Indigo glanced to the side, forgetting her anger a moment. “There’s no way they could have been that powerful but still get so horrible crushed afterwards. But… wait! I just had an idea!” Indigo flew up higher than the others for a minute to propose her idea. “What if they didn’t summon their god and it turned out to be evil… but they summoned it to fight this thing! And because the summoning ritual failed, this Luna alicorn was only able to hit it with a few chains before fucking off to the out realm.” “But then why do they look like the same pony?” Zest asked. “Uh.” Indigo floated down, unsure how to respond. “I dunno?” “Well, we know the name Phantom Troupe likely wants to hear,” said Sugarcoat. “Maybe he can give us more information?” “Hehehe! We’re so close!” Zest stomped a hoof. “This mission was a massive success! It’s all up from here, baby!” “I wouldn’t get too excited,” said Sugarcoat. “This was a minor victory at best.” “Minor victory? We saved the last bastion of ghost civilization. I can’t wait to see the look on Meltdown’s face when he hears that we saved the–” “You’re all banished forever.” Meltdown flicked his hoof. Indigo merely shrugged like it couldn’t be helped while Sugarcoat had almost zero reaction. “W-what?!” Zest demanded. Her gravely voice made her sound vicious rather than stunned. “But we just saved your city!” “I understand that, and you do have my thanks,” said Meltdown. “Which is why I’ll afford you all the time you need to leave and whatever assistance I can give you on the way out. But once you leave, you may not return… and I would appreciate you not linger here much longer.” “But why?!” “You defied Crater Cemetery too directly and your victory was too humiliating toward them,” said Meltdown. “I don’t know what will happen if you remain here too long.” “What are you even worried about?” Zest asked. “That they’re going to kill you?! They’re already trying to do that! They tried just yesterday!” “He’s probably right,” said Sugarcoat. “For our safety, even, I don’t think it’s a good idea if we return here again.” “Okay…” Zest hung her head, not about to argue with her beloved boss. “But I still feel like this is unfair.” “You bought me a little more time,” Meltdown corrected her. “This fight is still hopeless and my strategy is only to drag on the inevitable for as long as possible. To that end, I have to ask you to leave.” “But what about all the information we gathered?” Zest asked. “Isn’t that… exciting or something?” “And what are you going to do with it, exactly?” Meltdown asked. “That information doesn’t seem very useful to me at all. If anything, the lot of you are in a worse position than before as you’ve earned the attention of Crater Cemetery. Was it really worth it?” Was it worth it to do something? Yes! Always! But apparently, this guy didn’t think that way. To be fair, they didn’t reveal much to him outside of the fact that they did get the intel. He was just kind of assuming it was useless because it didn’t give them a clear way to destroy their enemy. “Of course, if there are any favors you want to ask me before you leave,” he said. “I may grant it.” “Oh!” Zest’s hoof shot up. “The demographic information about the ghosts here! I want that!” “There is something I want to ask you about later,” said Sugarcoat, eyeing the crowd of ponies that had gathered behind them. “In private.” Zest really wanted to suck a favor out of this guy if that was really all she’d get out of this! She thought and thought and– She almost forgot about her side mission from Sunny Flare to collect information. Meltdown nodded, giving her that much. So that was two missions complete! Better than nothing. But it didn’t make Zest feel any better as she left their main headquarters. A crowd had gathered to watch all of this and one of the ghosts, some random stallion, broke from the herd to fly out in front of them. “Excuse me. Did your fraid really get rid of those two banshees?” Was this random doofus going to give them trouble, too? “Yes,” said Sugarcoat. “Why?” “You were talking about recruiting more ghosts before, right?” Zest blinked. After days of zero interest, suddenly there were five more ghosts who wanted to come back with them! Sugarcoat still wanted to talk to each of them one-on-one and maybe they wouldn’t all make the cut, but more were sure to ask. Zest assumed that meant five more joining. So that was the three original members… plus Wallflower and Juniper… Sunny Flare probably counted and then five more… They were up to double digits now! More than double what they had started with! The Shadowbolts were becoming a pretty serious organization! Packing up their things to depart made Zest realize just how much stuff they had acquired too. Between her new body and that battle doll, that was like two combat mechs right there. Plus piles of books, weak magical artifacts, and Juniper’s recording stuff. They were going back with a whole caravan this time! It was always nice to return in a more glorious fashion than you left. “You can come out now,” said Sugarcoat, looking over Zest’s robot form. “I want to see how badly damaged you are.” Zest nodded and flew out of the body. Zest looked over herself. She still had some big holes along her body, any one of which would mean certain death on a predead. But more than half of them were gone and those that weren’t were half the size. Still, blue threads danced around her. “You’re lucky you’re so young,” Sugarcoat sighed. “I don’t think I would have survived that much damage.” “Hey, you got damaged the least but you’re still not better.” Zest poked the gash in Sugarcoat’s withers. Indigo had rematerialized most of her entire leg at this point but Sugarcoat hadn’t managed this? “Is that a specter thing?” “Don’t you wonder why you haven’t seen any ghosts from a thousand years ago? Ghosts don’t live forever,” Sugarcoat explained. “We may appear to have eternal youth but that’s not entirely true. The older you are, the harder it is to maintain your form. You’re the youngest, so you rematerialize the quickest. With age, it takes longer to recover and less damage to make you unravel. Eventually, even small wounds become lethal.” “What?! No!” Zest grabbed onto Sugarcoat, hugging her for dear life. “I don’t want you to die, Boss!” “Zest, ghosts typically live somewhere between two hundred fifty and three hundred years,” said Sugarcoat. “I have another century and a half before this becomes a serious problem. In pony years, I’m maybe in my mid to late thirties.” “Oh.” Zest sniffled, still crying a little. “Well I still don’t want you to die in a hundred years, either.” Sugarcoat gave Zest one of her rarer sort of smiles and patted her subordinate on the back. She rustled Zest’s mane a little, then her smile and hoof were gone. “Anyway.” Sugarcoat turned away. “I’ve decided that you’re officially no longer a worm friend. When we get back home, you can finally try some of that agarwood.” “Really?” Zest looked up at Sugarcoat, her tears slowly shifting meaning. “So I’ve graduated to ‘actual ghost’ tier?” Sugarcoat nodded. “Heck yeah! It’s all straight up from here on out!” Zest pumped her hoof, flying up a little as she did. “I can’t wait to get back home! Let’s go!” Zest pointed to the north. “Don’t get carried away.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “There’s one or two more things we need to do before leaving this place. I want to talk to Sour Sweet when she wakes up. And we need to talk to the dollmaker again. We should take care of that second one presently.” That was right! He offered them information if they could guess the name of the head of Crater Cemetery. And… well they were pretty sure they had the answer now. It wasn’t long afterward that Zest stood before the beached battleship that he made into his dwelling, and then inside the hall of dolls deeper inside. Zest hoped this would be the last time she found herself surrounded by preserved bodies like this… This time she was ready. When one of the dolls suddenly came to life and stepped off its pedestal, Zest pointed an accusing hoof at him. “Alright! Guess what, buddy! We solved the mystery!” “Oh did you?” Troupe chuckled. “Well, you made quite the commotion… I hope whatever pittance you learned was worth it.” Zest looked at Sugarcoat for permission to do the reveal. Sugarcoat sighed, but nodded. “The name of the ghost of Crater Cemetery…” Zest flew up higher to let the moment linger. “Is Luna!” Zest pointed her hoof out at Phantom Troupe like she was a lawyer making a dramatic reveal. “The goddess of the Noctilucent family. They tried to summon her from the outer realm but it went bad and they dropped an asteroid and uh…” His confidence gone. Troupe stopped to stare at Zest with the most dumbfounded look. “Luna? Wherever did you hear this name?” Troupe came closer. “It was in the report we stole,” said Zest. “That can’t be possible.” Troupe shook his head. “We did not mention her name to them!” “We?” Sugarcoat asked. “How could they have…?!” He trotted around in a small circle, at a loss. “Did we really underestimate them that much?” “That’s what the report says, so I guess.” Zest shrugged. “I need to see this report!” Troupe held out his hoof with the desperation of a starving pony reaching for bread. “Yeah, alright.” Zest took it out and offered it to him. “Go ahead.” Sugarcoat tore the folder away from Zest. “Not for free,” Sugarcoat sternly warned him. Troupe retracted his hoof, considering what he would surrender for it. The pained expression on his face betrayed that the price he’d pay was steep indeed. “I’ll give you one of my dolls in exchange.” Troupe gestured to the line of dolls. “Ten of them! And I’ll preserve anybody you bring to me free of charge from now on.” “No,” said Sugarcoat. “Tell us something we don’t know. I’ll let you see the report if I feel it’s at all substantial.” Sugarcoat waved the report while an injured Troupe glowered and strained to think of the bare minimum he could get away with. “Well.” His look darkened. Troupe began pacing the ground in a small circle, considering the situation. He shook his head, his pacing coming to a stop. “Not Luna. That wasn’t the name I was looking for. No… so technically you didn’t pass the test.” “Well then you technically aren’t going to see this folder.” Sugarcoat pulled the file back even further. He made a low, grumbling sound, staring at the ground. “Alright…” Troupe relented, switching to a smile awfully fast. “What about this exchange? I will tell you the answer to my question if you let me see this report. Give me the folder… and I will tell you the true name of our enemy.” Now it was Sugarcoat’s turn to consider her options. Zest felt the fur on her back standing up. Was this really it? “Fine.” Sugarcoat nodded. Sugarcoat held the folder out to him. Troupe took it immediately. “The name I was looking for…” He paused for a moment to flip through the files, confirming they weren’t trying to trick him with a fake report. He smiled at whatever he saw, raising his head to look at them with a bit of a smirk. “Is Nightmare Moon.”