Phantom Troupe snatched the folder away and began pouring over the material with increasing concern.
“Um!” Zest raised her hoof. “So how exactly do you know this? You’re so surprised the SA found out about Luna but… then how does some random taxidermist know?”
“I have a good guess,” said Sugarcoat. “You’re part of their family, aren’t you? You’re from Hollow Shades… you were probably there.”
“I suppose there’s no hiding it now…” Phantom Troupe trotted to the far side of his battleship, muzzle deep in his reading. “Yes. I am from the same clan as Empress Aria Ardere. I am her third cousin once removed.”
Zest had no idea what that meant.
“The preservation of bodies.” Phantom Troupe turned his head left and right, at either row of dolls. “It is not a technique I developed myself, but something passed down for generations through our clan. So much knowledge has already been lost and so much more can vanish with us, the last remaining members of our bloodline.”
He lowered the paper and shook his head.
“You can’t possibly imagine the pain I feel seeing the rightful ruler of Equestria degraded like this! It was already humiliating enough watching you all put on this degenerate display of ‘democracy’ under the SA. Aria should be the one ruling over all of you, but now… now the Noctilucent clan is doomed. No members of our clan survive that are not ghosts already.”
“Your angst aside,” said Sugarcoat. Her frown suggested little sympathy. “If you knew all of this from the very beginning, why haven’t you told anyone until now? This could have been very useful a few years ago, for example.”
“I seriously doubt that. Equestria doesn’t know the truth… or at least I assumed they didn’t.” Phantom Troupe looked over the folder. “I didn’t want them to know the truth. Nightmare Moon. Star Feather. Our goddess Luna. It may be difficult to tell the difference between them. And that’s a good thing.”
Phantom Troupe scrutinized the photograph of that shrine to Luna. His shrine, apparently.
He was right about one thing, though. The three names he just mentioned were all a slurry to Lemon Zest. Were they all the same pony or what?
“Yes. Yes, I’m certain they can’t tell where one begins and the other ends…” He smiled again. “I suppose hope isn’t lost just yet.”
“How is that good for you?” Sugarcoat asked. “Surely, information about our enemy leaking as widely as possible would be an advantage.”
“This world will soon end regardless.” Phantom Troupe closed the folder. “If there was any chance of stopping that, it was lost in the battle that created the crater. But there are people like you who will carry on the fight long after this becomes evident. I don’t want such people tempted by the existence of certain avenues. False hopes.”
“If every path leads to destruction,” said Sugarcoat, “what difference is it to you which I take?”
“There is likely a way to kill Luna… but that won’t mean the end of Nightmare Moon. Even knowing that, when things truly begin to unwind in about five years, I think many will be tempted to seize this low-hanging fruit if only for the chance to feel like they’re doing something. But this will not work. All you will accomplish is spiting those of us who would escape… and potentially yourselves.”
“Escape? You’re talking in terms of the destruction of the entire world.”
“This world will end in total darkness… but not all things. How would you like to escape? Just leave this world to its fate and go somewhere we’ll be safe?” Phantom Troupe held a foreleg at length and looked to each of them in turn. “There’s no shame in retreating to safety, is there?”
Sugarcoat stood in silent contemplation of that dilemma. At face value, that sounded better than dying in glorious combat which increasingly seemed to be their current endgame. But in books and movies, there was almost always a catch to taking a deal like that. Usually, because the main character didn’t ask enough questions.
“Okay,” said Zest. “But if we’re leaving ‘the world’, where are we going, exactly? To outer space?”
“No, no. There are other planes of existence,” said Phantom Troupe. “The outer realm… the shadow realm.”
Zest hoped he was talking about the second one. The outer realm was a place of unimaginable chaos that broke the minds of those who gazed upon it within seconds.
But the shadow realm… well she was already looking at that!
If Zest remembered the explanations of the others correctly, ghosts saw the shadow world that was closely intertwined with the physical realm they inhabited. That was how ghosts were able to ‘see’ darkness.
Zest knew there were various entities imprisoned there, but she hadn’t seen any just yet. The shadow realm didn’t look terrifying. It looked completely normal at this point. Tranquil, almost.
“If you’re interested in escaping with me… then perhaps we can make another deal. I can only save so many, but you’ve met the threshold for me. You can take perhaps fifty or so with you. They don’t have to be ghosts. If you agree to keep everything, even the name of our enemy, to yourselves I can give you a ticket to leave with us.”
“There isn’t any authority that can enforce that agreement,” Sugarcoat warned.
“No. Just this. If you do leak the information I’m telling you now, I will make sure the escape route is closed off to you.”
Sugarcoat nodded.
“Then I can choose my course of action after hearing your offer. That’s acceptable,” said Sugarcoat. “But I need to know exactly what you mean before I can make that decision.”
“The history of the universe, as my clan understands it is as follows. From nothingness, or true void, as we call it, emerged absolute chaos. But the true chaos created its undoing eventually, The Queen of Light, the living embodiment and god of order.”
Zest had at least heard of The Queen of Light before, the oldest and most powerful alicorn. Though her origins were more contentious than this guy made it sound.
“The Queen of Light created seven sons, the other alicorns… and two of them created Golden Feather and Star Feather, the first two ponies to ever exist. Do you follow?”
“I’ve heard this story before,” said Sugarcoat.
“Good. Then perhaps you also know that the father of Star Feather, of my ancestor, is the alicorn known as The Darklord,” said Phantom Troupe. “He may be portrayed as merciless, but he has some sympathy for his daughter. By extension for myself… and for you as well.”
“Why us?”
“For ghosts and for other creatures that Star Feather had some responsibility for the creation of. You are blessed by her, by our Goddess Luna. The Darklord would take you in as his children.”
“Blessed? What does that mean, exactly?”
“That isn’t important to my story, nor do I intend to tell you everything. Perhaps once we’ve escaped I can give you a proper education? What you need to know is this: The Darklord has some means of decoupling the shadow realm from the physical realm. Of all the alicorns, he alone lingers in our world to some extent… though imprisoned deep in the shadow realm. If he were to escape his confinement…”
“Then he’d be able to beat up Nightmare Moon?” Zest’s ears perked up.
An alicorn! Those were like… the highest gods, the top in terms of power. Only the incomprehensible gods of chaos could compare to them. Their power was reality-shattering! Cataclysmic on a cosmic level! They used to spin the freaking sun around the planet every day as casually as a normal pony would drink a cup of coffee.
And… actually, thinking about it maybe somepony like that showing up could also go wrong.
“Even if that were the case, it wouldn’t be without a steep cost,” Sugarcoat warned, nearly scolding Zest, who put her hooves on her headphones and retreated. “The power of an alicorn is too extreme. They warp the very nature of reality with their mere existence. Releasing an entity like that probably isn’t a good idea. You’ve nearly lost me, I have to warn you.”
“Him being free for even one second would irreversibly alter the very laws of physics of this world, yes.” Phantom stroked his chin. “He’d win but what would be left of this planet would be unrecognizable. But it will be doomed anyway and we’ve no intention of doing so until the very last second. It doesn’t matter either way. But we can escape before then. We can live freely in the shadow realm, start a new world, one better, free of all the chaos and horror of this one under his protection.”
“Hold up! I want to make sure I got this,” Zest interrupted him. “So The Darklord is the baby daddy of your god – Luna or Star Feather or whoever… and he created a bunch of spooky stuff like ghosts but he’s sealed away.”
Phantom Troupe listened to her recap with a look of disgust. His eye twitched but he didn’t say no.
“And if we unseal him, he can just blow up the entire planet, killing Nightmare Moon… and that’s okay cause we’ll just go, uh, live in the Shadow Realm with him forever?”
He didn’t dignify that with a response beyond an unamused scowl. But the answer was clearly yes.
“You’d have us trade one tyrant for another?” Sugarcoat asked. “We’d be completely at his mercy.”
“Hardly! The Darklord and my ancestor believe strongly in free will and self-determination. That is why Nightmare Moon is such an affront to their own existence. And you won’t have to make this decision blindly either. There will be a meeting of certain interested parties in the spring of next year. You’ll have a chance to speak to The Darklord… if you’re interested in coming.”
Sugarcoat grew quiet. It was hard to refuse an offer like that. Zest wondered what it would be like to talk to such a pony. If she was going to die… meeting this Darklord pony should certainly go on her bucket list. If nothing else, it’d be something interesting to see on the way out.
“Here. I’ll give you a present even.”
Phantom Troupe turned to one of his dolls, the cute pegasus mare with pink and white hair Zest had initially admired. It sprang to life and trotted over to him. He crumpled up a piece of paper and had the doll swallow it.
“That paper contains the exact time and location of the meeting place.”
The doll fell to the floor, lifeless again. They probably weren’t supposed to ‘open’ it until leaving Old Manehattan.
“There’s still a lot of questions I’d like to ask if you’re willing to answer them. About this Luna pony…”
“I think I’ve told you enough.” Phantom tossed the folder back at Sugarcoat’s feat. “I’ll be leaving now. I can’t stay here much longer.”
The rest of the dolls sprang to life and began moving about on their own accord. They rummaged through the abandoned battleship, swiftly packing away Phantom Troupe's possessions into saddlebags.
Zest craned her neck all about, watching the commotion. She had no idea you could do something like this! Maybe it was one of his other secret techniques…
Sugarcoat’s gaze was a bit more skeptical and calculating.
“Are Luna and Star Feather the same pony?” Sugarcoat guessed something Zest also suspected. “Does she merely have two names for some reason?”
Phantom Troupe ignored the question.
“Well, I assume Luna is ultimately the one responsible for all of this at any rate,” Sugarcoat tried a different approach. “You might not want to admit it, but–”
Phantom Troupe shuddered and lowered his head the moment Luna was accused of any wrongdoing. Sugarcoat’s accusation quickly became too uncomfortable for him to ignore.
“Luna is the only reason any of you are alive right now.” He suddenly snapped, turning back to them. “She is the one who chained Nightmare Moon to Crater Cemetery, who prevents that monster from moving and seals away the majority of its power. She holds Nightmare Moon back even now… but only for so long. She alone bought us this time!”
“I see. And are she and Star Feather… the same pony?”
Phantom Troupe stood before Sugarcoat, watching her with cautious indignation. Then he gave her a small smile and flicked his hoof.
“I need to leave this place.”
He watched his small army of dolls march out of the hatch carrying his possessions with them. There wasn’t much time left.
“I’d be willing to grant you sanctuary if you don’t want to stay here,” Sugarcoat offered. “You’d be safer with us.”
“Oh, no. Having both of us in the same place would move you too far up the list of priorities. Separate, each of us may avoid being targets for longer.”
“Are you going to be able to survive on your own for a whole year?” Sugarcoat asked.
“I’ve avoided them this long. I have my ways.” Phantom Troupe put his hoof on the porthole to leave.
But he did stop to consider his own words for a moment.
“Let me give you one more bit of information before I leave though.” He turned back. “There is a chance I might not live until next spring… so these are the names you need to pay attention to. The following ponies know about as much as I do. Pay attention.”
Zest got ready to commit them to memory, though Sugarcoat would do a better job.
“There is the witch Virgo Aurora who wields the fifth volume of The Book of Shadows and her student Sunset Shimmer. There is the lich Ostracon, likely somewhere in the far reaches for now. And there is the Apple family led by Bright Mac or perhaps Granny Smith. If I disappear, seek one of them out instead.”
“Ostracon?”
Phantom Troupe ceased his exit once more, taking a step back inside.
“You’ve met him already?” Phantom asked.
“No. But a pony named Nailbat made it sound important I should ask around about him.”
“I see. Well, you’ll meet him if you make it to next year. But I suppose this much is common knowledge… he’s been obsessed with perfecting a certain spell for some two hundred years now. He appeared in Old Manhattan not long ago to speak with Meltdown and me about just that.”
“And what was this spell?”
“A spell for erasing objects from existence completely, decomposing them into true void. The Azoth spell, he called it. He was under the impression this spell could destroy Nightmare Moon.”
“Hold on!” Zest threw herself between the two of them. “Is this an option now?!”
“Hardly,” said Phantom. “I don’t know if you’ve ever met someone like him before but… well let me just skip to the ending here. The spell would require seven hundred and twenty-eight billion ponies acting simultaneously to cast it.”
“Billion?” Zest put a hoof on her headphones.
“Billion, yes. Though I suppose he has a few fantastical ways he proposes to cast it anyway.”
“I don’t suppose you’ll tell us?” Zest asked.
“No. Go find him yourself if you’re interested in such a fool’s errand. I’ve said enough. Farewell.”
And he charged out before another question could be asked.
“The Far Reaches,” Sugarcoat repeated his location to herself. “That’s where Sunny Flare lives…”
They returned to the hotel they’d been staying at afterward.
Indigo was there, forelegs folded as she inspected the lineup of new recruits. She had them standing at attention as though they were cadets. Given Indigo’s background, maybe she’d been playing drill sergeant.
It looked like she’d worked the number down to these five. Juniper stood close behind her and Wallflower floated halfway above ground some distance away, detached but on Indigo’s side.
“Hey!” Indigo called out to Sugarcoat as she approached. “We finished grilling the ponies who wanted in. These are the five I picked.”
Indigo pointed and called to each
“Alizarin Bubblegum.”
What the heck was an alizarin?! She was very pink, though! And grafted with glasses like Sugarcoat. Didn’t look much older than Zest, either.
“Jet Set.”
Also glasses! The grey stallion looked pretty serious and sophisticated. Also, he was tied for the first boy in the Shadowbolts.
“Melon Mint.”
She was green and… not grafted?!
“Citrus Drops.”
He was orange and way too normal looking.
“And Crystal Lullaby.”
The last one was purple and pretty enough for Zest to feel just a little intimidated.
“But I told Suri Polomare to get out. She was a bitch, right?”
Indigo looked at the new blood, now seven, all of whom made some noise of agreement.
Sugarcoat acknowledged her new minions with a curt nod.
“We’ll be leaving in two days and won’t be back,” said Sugarcoat. “If there’s anything you need to do before then this will be your last chance.”
Only one task remained before they left… debriefing with Sour Sweet.
Sour Sweet came to them in the same abandoned building they’d met Nailbat at, wearing her hazmat suit. She came alone and off the books. The pony was still recovering from her injuries, her movements more sluggish.
But it was difficult to tell the extent of her injuries through the thick outfit that hid all but her eyes.
Sour Sweet confirmed that Nailbat orchestrated all of this from the beginning. He’d even been leading her around by the nose.
It was a bit of a risk… but they decided to tell Sour Sweet everything they’d learned. They wanted at least one pony outside their group to know just in case. And they did have a bit of a backup plan if Phantom Troupe did catch wind of this…
“Something they were saying,” said Sugarcoat. “It appears Aria can tell if someone will become a ghost when they die… and I suspect Nailbat can as well.”
“That guy only gets more suspicious,” said Sour Sweet. “He knew even more than he let on with me. I trust you all more than I trust him right now… though I suppose we did get results. The traitors have all been caught on our side. Those were the most anti-ghost assholes too. They were willing to risk everything just to get rid of Old Manehattan.
“But now that they’re gone… I might be able to push the reforms I want more easily. I got promoted to captain for one.”
Sugarcoat nodded. That was nice, but wouldn’t be nearly enough in the face of what they were up against.
“One thing he did say though, or implied,” Sugarcoat continued. “Is that if you die, you’re likely to become a ghost.”
Sour Sweet grew silent.
“If that happens… well, to get around Phantom Troupe’s complaint about me giving this name out, I want you to promise something. If you do die, then you’re mine. You’ll seek me out. In that sense, you will be a Shadowbolt and part of our group.”
Sour Sweet considered it a moment.
“I’m not sure how to feel about that. I suppose it does mean I’m harder to kill if nothing else.” She shook her head. “Alright. I suppose if I do end up as a ghost, I don’t have anywhere better to go. I accept your offer.”
“Good.”
“Though I am surprised the SA knows so much.” Sour Sweet grew contemplative again. “If that’s the case… a lot of their actions don’t make sense.”
That had been weighing on Zest’s mind as well. Something was off here. The answer was just at the back of her mind until–
“Oh my gosh!” Zest flailed her forelegs. “Nailbat picked up the folder!”
Everypony turned to her without comprehension.
“Don’t you get it?! That’s why Phantom Troupe was so surprised about Equestria knowing stuff.. because they don’t! It’s just Nailbat and – and he switched out the folder!” Zest crisscrossed her forelegs.
“You’re saying you think Nailbat added information not originally in the folder?” Sugarcoat asked.
“He could have done it,” said Zest.
“And he would have done it,” added Sour Sweet. “That pony is up to something… I’m going to find him again. And I’ll pass on any information I can to you.”
“It would be dangerous to give you a way to contact us,” Sugarcoat warned. “We suspect you’ll become a ghost if killed… and our enemy could take control of you.”
“Please.” Sour Sweet bowed her head. “I want to help you! I want to fight against Crater Cemetery too! I don’t think Meltdown will ever help me but… maybe you.”
Indigo scratched her ear and looked off into space while Sugarcoat studied her quietly. Zest remembered that the older a ghost was, the less they seemed to trust predeads.
“My whole life I’ve been risking my reputation to fight for you,” said Sour Sweet. “And this is the greatest threat to you and to everyone else. I can’t just sit idly by while this is going on. Don’t you understand that?”
Indigo was the one to lighten up and approach Sour Sweet at her decleartion.
“You know, I’ll admit I didn’t like you at first.” Indigo came closer to Sour Sweet. “But you’re really willing to put yourself out to help us! I can’t be mad at you. You’re alright, Sour Sweet.”
Something about that sounded familiar…
“Really?” Sour Sweet’s smile was nearly visible through her helmet. “That’s the first time a ghost has said something like that.”
“You know what? I’m even giving you permission to say ‘spook’,” said Indigo.
“Um. Thank you for the gesture, but I’m not comfortable saying slurs either way.”
“So will we do it?” Indigo asked. “Also how?”
“Once Zest can move through wires,” said Sugarcoat. “She’s getting close. I’ll… have her contact you later. We’ll agree on a spot somewhere outside the city.”
“Thank you!” Sour Sweet bowed her head again. “I promise, I won’t stop pushing! I’ll make sure I’m worth the risk.”
Sugarcoat nodded.
“One last thing. I wanted to make Wallflower apologize to you for her actions.”
Sugarcoat motioned for Juniper to come out with Wallflower in tow.
“She wasn’t entirely aware of the truth,” said Sugarcoat. “But that doesn’t excuse her.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Wallflower bowed her head in apology to Sour Sweet. “I’m sorry. I’m going to spend the rest of my life in service of Sugarcoat trying to help in this fight. I won’t ask you to forgive me.”
Sour Sweet merely watched her with a stern expression.
“You can cut her a little slack.” Indigo put a foreleg around Wallflower. “I can tell when a pony is ready to change. I admit, I didn’t like Wallflower very much at first, either but–”
There it was again. This time Zest knew what it was!
“You said the same thing about me,” said Zest. “Wait. Is it because Wallflower punched you, too?”
“She said the same thing to me.” Juniper glanced at Zest, then back to Indigo. “You said I was ‘artsy fartsy’ when we first met, right?”
“Well–”
“And then I punched you and suddenly we’re best friends,” said Juniper.
“But–”
“And the same thing happened with Ziggy.”
“Oh, come on!” Indigo looked around for the least bit of sympathy and got none. “That stereotype is not true! Juniper, you’re a pegasus too!”
“Yes, but I’m not a stereotypical pegasus.” She gestured to her forehead. “With flight goggles grafted to me.”
“What?! But–” She turned to Sour Sweet in desperation. “Well, what about Sour Sweet?”
“We just established you said the same thing about me,” said Sour Sweet.
“Okay! But my point is she never punched me.”
“Actually.” Wallflower raised her hoof. “I punched you while I was in her body. So it kind of counts as both of us punching you.”
“Oh, that explains it!” Zest smacked her forehooves together.
“No, it doesn’t!”
“The second we get home, I’m going to have Sunny Flare punch you right in the face,” Zest said. “Then you’ll stop being so mean to her.”
“It’s the only way to be sure.” Juniper agreed.
“Gah!” Indigo put her hooves over her head, turned invisible, and flew underground.
The day to leave came. The entire previous day had been spent packing and getting everything ready to leave.
They were bringing a collection of less common orbs with them too. Zest wondered what happened to all the orbs back home. She knew she programmed Sparky to just sleep until they came back, but would their orbs all float away or was a lesser ghost enough to anchor them?
Zest approached Sugarcoat to ask, but found her leader looking up at the opposing battle doll. That thing made Zest’s robotic body look puny and non-threatening in comparison.
A purple pony-esque suit of armor with massive retractable claws and two channeling staves mounted onto its back stood before Zest. They’d strapped all of their junk, both the legacy and new members. It was loaded up with crates containing everything from film equipment to jewelry and musical instruments.
Suddenly, a more important question came to mind.
“How do we, uh, move this thing?” Zest asked. “Without drawing attention, I mean.”
“Bubblegum is a poltergeist. She should have no trouble animating it.” Sugarcoat motioned to Bubblegum, the other glasses-mare, who flew into the battle doll.
The massive thing sprang to life, giving a little shake to test its hold on the cargo. Bubblegum nodded the doll’s head in affirmation.
“There are some pros in traveling in a more intimidating group. Nearly everypony we encounter will run away,” said Sugarcoat. “No one is going to risk shining violet lights at us this time. Only a very dangerous opponent would attack. That said… we will need to move a bit slower and scout ahead more. Make sure we don’t encounter any such threat.”
Sugarcoat floated to address the rest of them.
“Zest, you take the robot. Lullaby, the doll we got from Phantom Troupe. Jet set, you watch Wallflower. Indigo is our forward scout. Juniper watches the rear. Mint and Citrus, you’ll handle our orbs. We can’t let any drift off this time. We’re heading out.”
The Shadowbolts hailed their leader and took their positions.
Zest and Lullaby were able to carry a bit more with the black knight and the taxidermized body respectively. It wasn’t long before they were over the wall, back into the withered forest, and then into the actual forest.
The leaves had long since bloomed, giving Zest her first look at a non-pine forest in person. They covered the sky so much more completely than the pines did, protecting what little sunlight they encountered on the return trip. Everything here was just so much more alive than when Zest had come down.
The white void of the night sky slowly returned to its rich ocean of blue as the Shadowbolts left the light pollution of Manehattan behind. Zest dearly missed the richness of that sky. The city had its conveniences, but the stars were a lot to give up.
And with triple the number of ghosts and way more resources, they were that much closer to matching the activity of the city. Zest would be returning to a far less lonely academy.
Though she did gaze on them with renewed wonder with her new knowledge. Were there stars in the shadow realm? Or was this sky merely an optical illusion? Perhaps The Darklord would tell her…
Zest hoped he’d turn out to be a nice pony. Though probably not.
The return trip was slower going as Sugarcoat promised. They had to frequently stop and wait for Indigo to return and give the go-ahead before proceeding.
With Indigo and Juniper away from the group so often, Zest found herself talking to Lullaby, her fellow embodied ghost, the most during the trip. She was the one who brought all the musical instruments. It’d be nice having somepony musically inclined and with a great singing voice around.
Lullaby started singing a song by Zounds at one point, only for Zest to scream at her to stop. Lullaby revealed her own unfinished business was never being able to become a professional musician. That meant no paying her for her talents and earning her keep in other ways.
As promised, nothing dared approach their new, improved fraid. There were even fewer instances than on the trip there, though it did take a few more days.
They proceeded through Sugarloaf, then across the river and back into the familiar pine forests.
At last, just two hours until dawn, they once again found Shadowbolt Academy sitting beneath those brilliant stars.
It did look like a good third of the orbs wandered off somewhere, far fewer than usual dancing about the school grounds. But they had fancier orbs to replace them with now.
“We made it!” Zest went bounding off ahead of the others, signaling for them to follow. “Wait until you see all of our stuff!”
She stopped not too far ahead of the school, when she called out for her beloved pet to awaken. Sparky rushed out from underground tackling Zest out of her robotic body.
Zest grabbed Sparky in a hug as another familiar face came trotting through the door of the school. Sunny Flare followed behind at a much slower pace.
“This is my pet wraith Sparky!” Zest hugged him. She broke one hoof free and pointed at Sunny Flare. “And that’s our personal mad scientist, Sunny Flare!”
“Your… what?” Wallflower backed up slightly.
“I take it your trip went well?” Sunny Flare looked over their much-improved party size. “Is that… a robot?”
Flare frowned at it. Zest knew those had a bad name up in MSI.
“It’s a dead robot! I learned how to possess it’s body!” Zest explained. “And uh… the big one isn’t a robot, just a doll! Don’t ask about that pink doll, though! Oh! And I got that demographic stuff you wanted!”
Zest rushed over to the saddlebag and pulled out the notes Meltdown had handed over.
“The entire city since its inception! Over a thousand entries!”
“My, this is even better than I hoped for.” Flare flipped through the book. “Thank you, greatly. I’m certain this will be useful.”
“I can’t wait to tell you about all the cool stuff we did! I got so much to talk about with everypony!”
Sugarcoat came out from behind to approach Flare.
“Sunny Flare,” said Sugarcoat. “We’ve become interested in a lich named Ostracon, who supposedly disappeared into the far reaches. Have you heard that name before?”
“I haven’t. But the Mad Science Institute effectively rules over what little there is in the far reaches,” said Sunny Flare. “Every tribe of snow ponies has some alliance with us. I’ll send a letter asking about him.”
Zest turned back to see her new friends all huddled together with Indigo out in front, like a bunch of fillies watching a diseased mouse. Even Wallflower had backed up behind the others.
“Hold on.” Juniper hung back with the others, talking to Indigo like Sunny Flare wasn’t even there. “Is that pony undead? Or what? I can’t smell her.”
“That’s Sunny Flare.” Indigo didn’t look at her directly. “Predead. She’s like… paying us to do experiments and stuff.”
Zest huffed, moving to Flare’s defense.
“She’s still alive.” Zest moved in front of Sunny Flare. “She's from MSI. She modified her body to survive the cold just so she could learn about ghosts.”
But that only put the rest of the Shadowbolts on edge.
“And she’s our friend! Sunny Flare is the one living member of the Shadowbolts!”
Zest looked them over, still failing to rectify the tension.
“Okay!” Zest pointed to Indigo. “We’re going with the plan. Sunny Flare, I need you to punch Indigo.”
Both Indigo and Flare turned to Zest with a ‘what’.
“It’s the only way to make her get over this!” Zest jabbed her hoof repeatedly at Indigo. “Trust me! It works!”
“She can’t even punch me!” Indigo moved her hoof through Sunny Flare. “We go straight through each other.”
“Actually.” Sunny Flare looked up at the stars.
Indigo blinked.
“I can survive being frozen alive,” said Sunny Flare. “If one of you were to freeze my foreleg solid, I’d be able to grab onto you with the enchanted ice.”
“That wouldn’t hurt?” Zest asked.
“I do feel sick after thawing, but mostly I just feel numb when frozen,” said Flare. “It wouldn’t kill any of my cells. I’ve honestly never frozen only one limb before… I’m curious if it’ll have the same effect.”
Sunny Flare held out a hoof to Zest.
“Yeah! We can do that, then!” Zest nodded.
“Hold on a second,” said Indigo.
Zest froze the hoof solid, encasing it in enchanted, blue ice. The flavor… like chewing on cardboard.
“I do feel a bit of a throbbing sensation.” Sunny Flare looked over her frozen limb.
“Great. So–” Indigo was caught off as Zest grabbed her from behind.
“Now punch her!”
“If you think it’s okay,” said Sunny Flare.
“It’s not okay!”
But it was too late. Sunny Flare jabbed Indigo in the belly. Zest let her go as Indigo sputtered and doubled over.
“It worked.” Flare nodded to herself.
“Geeze! You punch hard for a nerd!” Indigo clutched her stomach, quickly recovering. “Zest, how is this supposed to make me like her more? I already don’t trust her before she randomly punched me!”
“Well…” Zest was really sure that would have worked.
“I don’t understand why you can’t trust me yet,” said Sunny Flare. “I haven’t done anything. I even keep my quiet about your violations of safety.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The safe distance for ghosts to be from a settlement is seven miles. You’re much closer than that so–”
“Hardly! You hang around us for months and you don’t even know basic politics, huh?” Indigo smirked at her.
“You barely spoke to me at all!” Flare retorted. “I’m willing enough to learn that I modified my body for this. But I have no choice but to be ignorant if I can’t get you all to speak to me.”
She had a point. Indigo had been extremely cold towards Flare all this time. Indigo watched her with one eye before deciding Sunny Flare was the reasonable one after all.
“Oh, alright. I’ll try to teach you about what’s up.” Indigo nodded. “See, the actual safe distance for us is about three miles from a predead settlement, yeah? And that was the original distance we were allowed to live. But all kinds of lawmakers wanted to appear ‘tough on monsters’ so they just keep making the laws harsher and harsher. The current seven-mile rule is way more than it needs to be and causes all kinds of problems!”
“I see. So it’s an endless escalation of harsher laws,” said Sunny Flare. “Mad science suffers from a similar cycle, I’m afraid. But what are these other problems?”
“Well.” Indigo started to relax a little. “Like putting such harsh restrictions on us forces us to move around more often. Fraids of ghosts really shouldn’t be roaming around, that’s dangerous. But they force us to make stupid decisions like that and then act like we’re the bad guys when somepony gets hurt.”
“That really isn’t fair to you.” Sunny Flare shook her head. “I confess my ignorance to this. They really are creating more problems, then.”
“Yeah!” Indigo smiled and nodded. “You’re actually getting it. But you still don’t know the half of it! Another thing…”
The two of them started talking for a long time, Indigo eventually going off with Flare somewhere.
Zest crossed her forelegs and nodded as she smiled, smug as could be.
Everything was going to be just fine!