Morning sunlit hit the hooded unicorn’s face as he stepped out of the forest, but his features remained cloaked under darkness. He looked up at what was before him. An enormous house sat atop a puffy cloud, with a flowing rainbow river that disappeared into oblivion as it ran off. Since he hadn't regained enough power to cast a locate and teleport spell, he has to settle with the next best thing; an aura detection spell. From the spot of his first encounter, he had been able to trace the path Rainbow Dash had traveled, her aura growing stronger as he progressed closer to her current location. Judging by the large build-up of aura surrounding the house, the unicorn decided it had to be Rainbow Dash’s residence.
The unicorn sensed Rainbow had spent the night here, then had hastily left…and came back for a short time. After that, she had left again, stopped on a path not far away, and began following that path strait toward… The unicorn’s eyes shot open. ‘Not yet…she is not ready yet!’ he thought frantically as he sped down the aura path he was still tracing with his horn.
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Rainbow Dash watched Twilight and her other friends from above as they steadily galloped down the path, which had grown much narrower and curvier the farther they got from Ponyville. Twilight was observing the map Princess Celestia had given her and guiding her friends down the twisting path. They had made remarkable progress in a day, but at the cost of sleep. Twilight insisted that they should at least travel though the first night before they even thinking about sleep. Nopony had thought to highly of the idea, but the current situation stopped them from rejecting it.
“By this time tomorrow, we should be standing at the edge of Hayton” Twilight observed as she calculated their current position in relevance to the map.
“Please tell me we can at least get a few hours of sleep tonight,” whined Rarity, trying to keep her mane in its perfect condition with her horn.
Twilight considered for a second, then responded with an uncertain, “Perhaps.”
“Good, I was afraid I was going to have to throw you an ‘It’s time to sleep’ party. I don’t think any of us could go another night.” Pinkie Pie gasped, which was a complete contradictory to her usual upbeat tone.
Twilight stopped and spun to face the group behind her, glowering. “That’s what you think, isn’t it? That I’m going to push us all to the point of exhaustion!” Twilight threw the map down in anger. “Don’t you all see how serious this is? We’re facing what could be a new and very dangerous enemy and you’re more concerned with sleep…or your mane!” Twilight glared at Rarity at the last part, causing her to stop fiddling with her mane and cower under Twilight’s stare.
Twilight slumped to the ground and buried her face in her hooves, her elemental crown sagging to the side of her head. “I just don’t want to fail the Princesses.” Her voice was little more than a whisper now. “How can I be sure we won’t when we’re facing something so indefinite and unknown?”
The ponies looked down at their disconsolate friend, unsure of what to say. Finally Applejack spoke up. “Twi, you get up now,” she insisted. When Twilight didn’t budge, Applejack took her by her shoulders and raised her gently to her hooves. “Listen sugarcube, none of us think yar’ crazy. Wer’ all nervous, any wer’ just showing it in different ways.” Applejack looked back to others for support.
“That’s why I was messing with my mane,” Rarity confessed. “It’s my way of holding back the apprehension inside me.”
“I’m sorry Twilight, I didn’t mean to make you sad” Pinkie chided innocently. “I might I have seen myself do it, but my Pinkie Sense doesn’t work as well when I’m so jumpy.”
“See Twilight,” Applejack concluded. “Everypony is just as scarred as you, including me. They just don’… show it as much.” The others nodded in agreement.
Twilight looked around at all her friends gathered around her. Suddenly feeling foolish, she sighed. “I’m sorry I snapped at you, girls. I can’t control my nerves as well as you can. Especially you, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said as she looked up at the cyan pegasus. “You’ve hardly said anything this whole expedition. Or are you just that confident in us?”
Rainbow swallowed hard, hoping her friends wouldn’t notice her uneasiness. “You kidding…of course I’m confident. You think I’m scared of something that won’t even declare who they are? It’s too scarred of us, obviously. I almost hope talking with it doesn’t work, so I can get a little payback for Luna.” Rainbow held out her hooves and lashed out at an imaginary target. “There’s no reason to worry, Twilight. There isn’t anything we can’t handle.” She boasted and extended her hoof out to the group. “Together.”
Twilight grinned and put her hoof with Rainbow’s, as did the others. “Together!” They shouted in unison.
After levitating the map off the ground, Twilight centered her focus on the path in front of them. “Let go,” she said with new found coolness. The group continued down the path as it drew closer to Hayton. Rainbow Dash silently released the breath she was holding; thankfully her friends hadn’t seen though her bluff.
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Princess Celestia watched from a balcony as the recently-promoted Commander Maverick organized the hundreds of guards filling the courtyard into orderly groups. Normally, there wouldn’t be such a large number of guards in one place. This, however, was definitely not an ordinary occasion. Princess Luna, who had just woken up from her usual daytime nap, quietly joined her. They both surveyed the cavalcade of guards march before them; the setting sun casting a gloomy shadow on the courtyard.
“Are you sure you didn’t feel another mental attack?” Princess Celestia asked her sister, still concerned she just trying to hide it.
“Twas calm as the night before last.” Princess Luna guaranteed
“What of Twilight and her friends?”
“They were unharmed, but they traveled though my night without any slumber.”
Celestia nodded, expecting her star pupil to insist on such a quick pace. She was glad Luna could sense the individual feelings of a pony under her moon, just as Celestia could feel groups of conciseness under her sun. “At this rate, they will be at Hayton by tomorrow morning, supposing they at least rest tonight.” There was an evident pang of guilt in her tone.
“Is there something wrong?” Luna asked, knowing from the start that Celestia was distraught.
“Yes” Celestia admitted as she trotted inside the castle. “If you have no objections, I need you to accompany Commander Maverick and the Royal Guard under his command to Manehattan.”
Luna took in Celestia’s request with uncertainty. “But Sister, what has caused such sudden restlessness in you? Is Manehattan under attack?”
“Not yet…” the sun princess replied morbidly. “ However, I don’t think that will stay true for long.”
“Twas a threat made?”
“No, but there doesn't need to be one. You know that Manehattan is the closest city to Hayton.” When she received a confirmatory nod from Luna, she continued. “That’s why I wanted to meet with Mayor Smooth Horn and his personal consul in the first place. He said he would send a recon team to Hayton as soon as he returned to see if they could find out anything about what is going on. I was probing the area to track their progress. I could feel them all the way until they got to the town. Then they…disappeared, just like the town itself.”
Celestia paused for a moment, and the sound of marching hooves drifted into the room from outside. “In that moment before I lost them, I could feel something else. It was a very large group of beings, seeping from the blind spot that is Hayton; beings that…serve no loyalty to us."
Luna’s eyes widened as she understood what her sister was getting at. “Thou mean that…”
“It was an army…a massive army. None of the likes that I have ever felt. Something that makes the Changeling invaders look like a small gathering of school fillies. I had already instructed Smooth Horn to barricade the city with his guard force, but after what I felt today I see it has no chance to stand up against this new threat without the help of the Royal Guard.
The moon princess was now frantically pacing about the room.“But…Twilight and the others…they don't know. We have to warn them! We have to stop them before they get there!”
“She did not bring Spike along, so I cannot contact her. Smooth Horn’s messenger must have been with the recon team, as I have not gotten any responses from him. They are already too far away for even my fastest pegasus messengers to reach them in time. I have sent one to Manehattan but he won’t get there until this time tomorrow.”
Refusing to accept the truth, Luna pondered their options. When she failed to find any, she glanced up at Celestia in desperation. “But there must be something we can do.”
“No Luna, there isn’t.” Celestia voiced, riddled with remorse. “I can’t leave Canterlot unprotected… and you need to help Commander Maverick with Manehattan. As of right now, they are alone. It’s entirely my fault, too. I should have never sent them on such a perilous journey alone. I have too much confidence in them sometimes. They have done so much for us, that I sometimes forget their still just young mares. I was out of place to even think it was a good idea to send them.” Celestia eyes were now tear-stricken now. “Oh Luna…what am I to do?”
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Darkness was begging to crawl across the sky by the time Twilight finally decided it was time to rest for the night. They were now only about two hours gallop away from Hayton. Despite Twilight’s urge to finish the trip right away, her body couldn’t keep up with her spirit. The sighs of relief were evident as all six mares laid down on a grassy region directly off the path. Removing what food was left in their packs, they ate with little discussion. Everypony was too preoccupied with the thoughts of what they might face the next morning. Not even Pinkie Pie could find anything to say that would brighten up the disheartened atmosphere. When they finished their meal, they removed the bedrolls that had previously been vacant the entire voyage.
“Well I don’t know about you girls, I feel like I could sleep for a thousand years.” Rarity sighed as she gently laid her head down on the makeshift bed. She was asleep before anypony could even respond.
With a bittersweet glance at Rarity, Twilight herself yawned and laid down on the bedroll. “Well we should all follow her example. We need all our strength for tomorrow.”
One after another, the ponies fell into slumber; all, but one. That pony watched as her friends peacefully closed their eyes before slowly rising out of her bed and flying over to a wide rock that rose over their encampment.
“Sleep tight,” Rainbow Dash whispered to her friends before looking out into the forest around the site. They were too close to the danger zone to allow Rainbow to be comfortable enough to sleep. For her and her friends sake; nothing was going to hurt her friends, if she had anything to do with it. The lone pegasus silhouette watched over the fellowship as the full moon appeared in the western sky.
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In the same lunar light, Mayor Smooth Horn looked out over the city of Manehattan from his penthouse balcony. Even at such a late hour, the streets were still alive with ponies going to and fro. “Manehattan, the city that never slumbers…they sure weren't kidding,” he humorlessly chuckled. Sometimes he looked back on his life, and wandered if this is really what he wanted. Being in charge of a city that rivaled Canterlot in size certainly was not any easier then it sounded. But now wasn't the time to have second thoughts. Manehattan needed a strong leader to get them though the next few days. Even the best case scenario included panic from the public, as the town was going into complete lock-down the next morning. Strict curfews, no leaving, and no entering unless under extremely important conditions. Not only that, but the whole perimeter of Manehattan was to be barricaded and guarded. All this was to be in place by the rising of Celestia’s sun. Hopefully any objection to this creed would be resolved by the fact that it Celestia herself that decreed it. Celestia hadn't elaborated to much on why the city needed such a severe protection in his meeting with her the previous night, but he caught on that it was important.
The mayor’s thoughts were interrupted when he heard a knock at his door. “You may enter.” Smooth Horn called out as he returned to his desk. The door swung open and a silver unicorn with a long auburn mane entered. “Chief Dazzling Chainmail,” he nodded as the pony in charge of the general security of Manehattan trotted up to him, “I was hoping I’d hear from you soon. What could you find of the recon team?”
Dazzling’s breathing stopped; her gaze went down in uncertainty. After a few seconds, she let out the air she was holding and responded in a disappointed but professional voice. “I got as close to the site as I dared, but I didn’t sense anything; of the recon team or any other pony.”
Smooth Horn sighed and shifted his weight in the velvet chair. “You understand what this means, then. My messenger was with them. Without him, I have no contact with Celestia.”
“Yes, and it was my idea to send him with the team too.” Dazzling muttered. “I thought relaying the messages strait to Celestia would keep her up to date, instead of having to wait for the squad to return. I didn't take into account we would…lose the team. I’m sorry, I have failed you.” She bowed her head.
The mayor got up and slowly went over to the troubled mare. A mare he happened to have known almost all his life. “Daze, don’t be so hard on yourself.” Smooth Horn consoled, using the nickname he had made up when they were still filly school friends. “I agreed with you on the decision. We’re both equally responsible.”
“Yes, but I’m Chief of Security, it’s my job to think of everything before making those kind of decisions.”
Smooth Horn put a firm but confronting hoof on Dazzling Chainmail’s shoulder. “Never in past millennia has something like this happened. It would be unthinkable for me to expect you to know the team would vanish. I only fear what could have happened to them and what I should tell their families…but you let me worry about that. For now, I want you to return home and get some sleep. Tomorrow, we unveil the new orders from Princess Celestia. I want…no, I need everypony to be in their best condition for any problems the might arise.
Dazzling perked up a bit. “Your right,” she declared. “I’ll be back here by pre-dawn to receive plans for the launch of the new orders.” She began to exit, but hesitated at the door. Giving a shy grin, she added, “If anypony can get this city though this, it’s you.” With that she was gone.
The mayor trotted back out onto balcony and continued to observe the activity below. “I sure as Tartarus hope your right, Daze.” He thought out loud.
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“HAYTON: STRAIT AHEAD” An overgrown mahogany sign read as Twilight and her friends headed into the dense grouping of trees in front of them. Despite the sign, there was no indication that any town was in their vicinity. The path, which had transitioned into a brick road, was void of any pony, and the morning was as silent as a graveyard.
“We made it.” Rarity smiled as her eyes caught sight of the sign.
“We aren't there yet.” Twilight cautiously replied as she eyed the forbidding trees surrounding the path. The deeper the group ventured into the forest, the less sunlight that peaked though the trees. The trees themselves seem to be losing their natural green shade, despite the fact is was still the middle of spring. Except for an ad for the Hayton Flyers that blew across their path, it was eerily still.
“Something don’ seem right ‘bout these trees.” Applejack frowned as the path grew almost entirely absent of sunlight.
Rainbow Dash didn't like it either. Unable to take the anxiety any longer, she broke away from the group. “I’m flying ahead to find where these trees end.”
“Rainbow Dash, wait!” Twilight called out, but Rainbow was already speeding down the path.
Ready to end the mystery, Rainbow Dash continued accelerating. If there was an ambush ahead, she wasn't going to let her friends fall into it. She was too busy looking around for any possible danger to notice the thick, black vines completely blocking the path until she went crashing through them. The impact left her sprawling into the ground. Despite feeling slightly woozy, she didn't feel anything broken. She slowly dug her head out of the ground to look up at what was before. Her jaw dropped down in complete awe. What lay before Rainbow Dash was like nothing she had ever seen before. “What in Equestria is that!?” she gasped.