//------------------------------//
// 06 Omnipresence 
// Story: My Little Exalt 
// by Lithl 
//------------------------------//


My Little Exalt
OMNIPRESENCE

by:    Lithl

special thanks:
Rhanite
Saekwaka


"So, these gems are the result of geomancy?"

"That is one way of describing their nature, yes."

"And every manse makes different hearthstones! Who knows what these might do, Twilight?" Pinkie was the only pony excited about the magic stones in the center of Servant's chamber. Twilight was curious about the new form of magic, of course, but she was cautious about possible dangers. She had had spells blow up in her face one too many times to rush headlong into an entire new branch of the arcane.

Applejack was a 'normal' earth pony compared to Pinkie (of course, your average pegasus was a normal earth pony compared to Pinkie), and she was dubious about the use of any external magic. Even after her exaltation and several explanations about her new nature, Applejack didn't quite accept that she had a new form of magic at her hooftips.

Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy all expressed varying levels of interest, but Servant and Pinkie had made it clear that without 'awakened essence', none of them could make use of the hearthstones anyway. The trio was present in Servant's chamber mostly to support their friends.

"Pinkie, Ah suspect Servant here may know what the hearthstone thingies do."

"Fire pony is correct—"

"Mah name's Applejack."

"The Spark can exist in many locations throughout Creation. From within The Spark, pony master can shift The Spark's location daily. The hearthstones can collectively shift The Spark every five hours, from anywhere in the world. Anyone resonating with a hearthstone can also divine the location of The Spark relative to their own location with a moment's concentration."

"That's awesome!" Rainbow Dash cried from behind her exalted friends. "How do you resonate with one of these babies?"

"That's easy, Dashie!" Pinkie Pie lifted her hoof cannon and pointed to a similar gem resting in the weapon's casing.

You...
Put the hearthstone in a socket 
(Not a pocket, not at port), 
Then attune it to connect it 
(With your magic for support).

That's how you use a hearthstone
Of any kind and any sort.
With The Spark's special power you will never be alone; 
Twist your hearthstone clockwise and the manse will transport!

Now...
If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash, 
And the double-clicking icon puts...

"Wait, that's not right." Pinkie's face screwed up in concentration for a few moments before springing back to a smile. "Anyway, you girls need something to put the hearthstones in if you want to resonate with them."

"That problem is easily remedied, pony Vizier."

The stone pedestal the hearthstones rested on shifted. The surface seemed to become almost liquid, flowing away from the gems themselves to reveal seven necklaces already set with the hearthstones. The grooves in the pedestal tracing the heptagram shape became ridges, maintaining the design in relief.

"So... I just put on the necklace?" Twilight fiddled with the largest of the gems on the pedestal.

"Attunement requires approximately thirty minutes of handling the artifact."

Applejack and Pinkie each grabbed a necklace of their own, and Twilight set hers around her neck. The group walked out of Servant's chamber and Twilight turned back to the curtain separating Servant's room from the stairwell.

"Hey Pinkie, do you know how to read that language?"

"Sure!" Pinkie stifled a giggle behind a hoof.

The heat in Twilight's cheeks rose. "Um, could you maybe help me learn it?"

"I can try! Lemme go check the library!" As the rest of the girls slowly ascended the narrow stairs, Pinkie Pie practically vanished into thin air.

When Twilight reached the top of the stairs, she saw Pinkie trotting back from the front of the manse, book in her mouth.

"Wow Pinkie, that was... fast."

"It was under !" Pinkie cried as she spat the book out in front of Twilight. The binding was failing, the pages were yellow with age, and the script on the cover was fading.

Twilight squinted at the cover in an attempt to make out what it said:




After a pause, she gave up and looked to her pink friend. "Nope, not getting it."

"It's Erymanthoi, Erymanthoi, What Do You See? It was written to help children learn to read. Look, it's got pictures!" Pinkie flipped the book open to one of the earlier pages, with a block print illustration of a gorilla sporting many bony protrusions in the center of some sort of magic circle. Outside the circle stood a small human child alongside a man with the same kind of caste mark as Twilight.

"It doubles as an introductory primer on demon summoning!"

Twilight stared at Pinkie with half-lidded eyes. "It's a foal's reading book... and a tome on demon summoning?! Who would write something like that?!"

"It does seem a mite bit strange, Pinkie."

Pinkie shrugged off the complaints. "What can I say? You Solars got weird near the end of the High First Age." She stuck out her tongue playfully to try and diffuse the tension. "Demon summoning or no, this should help get the basics of reading Old Realm."

The girls began walking towards the entrance to the manse, and Twilight picked up the book in her telekinesis to begin reading as she walked.


"Girls, Ah think this necklace thingy is attuned!"

Twilight nodded, "Yes, it's almost like... I can breathe easier. Or perhaps each breath fulfills me more than it did without the hearthstone."

The Bearers sat together in the manse's dining hall for dinner, and the attunement to their new hearthstone amulets completed halfway through their meal.

Despite being one of the Bearers without the power of an exaltation – and therefore without a hearthstone – Rainbow was the most excited at the news. "Awesome! Servant said they'll let us move the manse around, right? Where do we wanna go first?"

Rarity dabbed her mouth with a napkin before speaking up. "Rainbow dear, the sun's almost gone down. Why don't we wait until tomorrow to think about what we can do with these things?"

Rainbow Dash wasn't listening. Instead, she was invading Twilight's personal space. Before Twilight could voice protest, Rainbow reached towards the gem hanging from Twilight's neck and twisted it as though it were on a pivot joint. Twilight batted Rainbow's hoof away, but one of the vertices on the gem had already reached the ninety degree position. When Rainbow's hoof released it, the gem fell back to its natural orientation, with the semicircle on the top.

A barely audible click sounded from each of the three amulets, and everypony felt their stomachs fall out from beneath them. The falling sensation ended in moments and nothing seemed to have changed, but some of the Ponyville residents around the dining hall were murmuring in confusion.

"Not to worry everypony! Rainbow is just messing around with things she shouldn't! Everything's okay!" Twilight shot a glare at the offender.

Rainbow gave Twilight a guilty smile right back. "Hey, c'mon Twilight! Did you really expect me to resist something like that?"

"Yes, Rainbow! I did!"

Rainbow rubbed the back of her head as she tried to think of a way out of the hole she'd dug herself into. "Uh... how about we go exploring!"

"Ah'd love to, sugarcube, but it's sunset in sixty eight minutes."

Rainbow blinked a few times. "That's awfully specific. How do you know that?"

In tandem, Applejack and Twilight pointed to their foreheads and set their caste marks aglow.

"Oh, right. 'Chosen of the god of the sun' and all that. Heh. Well, we could still go out for an evening walk, right? Back me up, Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy poked her head out from underneath the table where she'd hidden during the shift. "Um... I suppose seeing the stars would be... nice."

"Woo-hoo! Stargazing party!" Pinkie whooped as she threw her forelegs into the air.


As the ponies walked out of the compound (making sure to assuage the Ponyville citizens' fears about the falling sensation they had experienced during the shift), Twilight turned back to the arch at the entrance.

"What's up, Twilight?" Pinkie asked.

"I'm trying to figure out the name of this place. Servant keeps calling it 'The Spark,' but there's way more text here than that."

"Oh that's all? It's called The Sp—"

Twilight shoved a hoof in Pinkie's mouth to interrupt her. "If it's all the same to you, Pinkie, I think it would be better if I figure out the whole thing by myself." Pinkie nodded her understanding and Twilight removed her hoof.

"Let's see. That symbol is 'Da,' which usually means 'The' on its own, right?" Pinkie nodded. "The next word... Sa... Ra... Pa... Ka?" Twilight looked to Pinkie for confirmation.

"You ordered the middle two symbols backwards. Sa, Pa, Ra, Ka."

"Spark! The Spark, like Servant keeps saying." Twilight nodded to herself.

"Don't forget, Servant is actually 'Servant of The Spark.'"

"Right, right. Now, those two symbols together are 'Of;' they show up a lot in the book you gave me."

Pinkie nodded. "Demons tend to like elaborate titles rather than names."

"So... what's that symbol?" Twilight pointed to the beginning of the next word on the archway.

"That's an 'O.'"

"It looks nothing like the 'O' in the 'Of!'"

"Most syllables have a few alternate symbols. I guess it's to help make words look better?"

Twilight sighed, but she had to acknowledge that the shape of the word would be awkward otherwise. The way that syllables combined to form words in Old Realm was exceptionally annoying. "So..." Twilight checked back to the reference section of the book (convenient, but odd for a foal's book), "O, Mo, Ni, Pi, Re, Se, Ne, Te... is that even a word?" Twilight's brow furrowed in thought before she slapped herself. "Of course! It's an endocentric compound! Look, the head and the modifier are even slightly separated – 'Omni' and 'Present'."

Pinkie Pie grinned widely at Twilight. "Wow! You've barely had that book for an hour, and you're already pulling apart big words in Old Realm like it's nothing! I'm impressed, Twilight. And I don't even know what an endycenwhatsit is!"

Twilight flushed in the waning light at the praise. "So, the last word... Ha, Ra, Mo, No, Yo." Twilight's eyes shrunk to pinpricks as the reality of the manse's title sunk in. She slowly turned to gape at Pinkie Pie, who simply grinned back like a maniac.

"I... You... What? Isn't this arch thousands of years old?"

"Yup!"

"Why didn't you say anything about it earlier?!"

Pinkie frowned a bit. "You said you wanted to figure it out for yourself..."

"I mean when we first got here! Why didn't you say anything then?!"

Pinkie reached into her mane and pulled out a small stack of papers, and began leafing through it. Twilight raised an eyebrow at the behavior, but remained silent. Pinkie coughed, "When we first showed up I said – and I quote – 'Ooh! That's suspiciously appropriate!'" She stowed the papers back in her mane before continuing, "I mean, a pony named Twilight exalting as a Twilight caste and finding her manse at twilight is cool and all, but that's not what I was talking about."

Rainbow Dash trotted up behind the pair. "Hey, what are you two doing? I thought we were all going on a walk together?"

"Rainbow! Do you know what this manse is called?" Twilight was beginning to become unhinged.

Rainbow cocked her head sideways. "Er, isn't it called 'The Spark?' That's what Servant keeps calling it..."

Twilight shook her head, simultaneously denying Rainbow's answer and composing herself once again. "That's just the short version of the name, like saying 'Pinkie' instead of 'Pinkamena Diane Pie.'" Twilight drew a deep breath and turned back to the archway. She pointed to each word in succession as she spoke the name to Rainbow Dash, "The Spark of Omnipresent Harmony!" Twilight punctuated the name by stomping her hoof.

Rainbow looked up at the archway for a moment, and then she shrugged. "I guess it's a cool name. So what?"

Twilight sighed. Just take it slowly, help her figure it out. Try Sorraian questioning with her, Twilight. "Okay, what did we just learn about the manse today?"

"You guys can make it teleport. Which is awesome, by the way!"

Twilight nodded. "Good, good. Now, who owns the manse?"

Rainbow lifted a hoof to her chin, "Well Pinkie says it's you, and Servant calls you master..."

"So we can assume I'm the owner?" Rainbow nodded emphatically. "Okay, now let's switch gears for a moment. What did we use to defeat Nightmare Moon?"

"Twilight, I'm lazy, not stupid."

"Just answer the question, please."

"Fine... We used the Elements of Harmony."

"Good. Two more questions. First, what's my Element?"

"Magic, duh."

Twilight nodded. "Okay, now: how did we find the Element of Magic? Please be specific."

"Um..." Rainbow closed her eyes to try and remember the specific details. "'When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed,' right?"

Twilight leaned in towards Rainbow. "And...?"

"What?"

"A spark found the Element of Magic – my Element of Harmony. The manse belongs to me. The manse goes everywhere. It's named The Spark of Omnipresent Harmony. You're telling me you're not drawing any conclusions here?"

Rainbow Dash put on her best Big Mac imitation: "Enope." She couldn't keep the straight face afterwards, though, and broke into giggles. Rainbow's giggles threw Pinkie into a giggle fit of her own.

"Ugh!" Twilight shouted in frustration. "Listen to me! There's some kind of connection here!"

"Whatever, Twi. C'mon, the others are waiting for us." With a flick of her wings, Rainbow trotted away.

Twilight turned to Pinkie, who finally calmed down. "You believe me, right? There's some sort of connection between this place and Equestria?"

"Of course I do, silly! I mean, I lived in Yu-Shan for nearly half of my life."

"That's not quite what I meant, but at this point I'll take it. Let's go catch up with the others."


The land surrounding The Spark now was much colder than it had been before, and it grew worse the further from the manse's grounds the ponies walked. In fact, the land immediately surrounding the manse's compound looked identical in both places. Less than a mile from the compound, though, the land quickly turned to farmland. Applejack was certain she could see an apple orchard in the distance, and the group was currently walking along the edge of an alfalfa field.

"Ah'm sure we could find a way to trade with these farmers tomorrow or somethin', but we should really be gettin' back home."

"Naw, AJ! Look, there's a campfire up ahead!" Rainbow Dash was still excited about exploring the area around the manse.

Applejack gave a deep sigh.

"It's all right, Applejack. Even if it's dark when we go back, you, Pinkie, and I can supply light for everypony. We're going to have to interact with humans at some point, you know."

"Fine, fine... Let's go meet the neighbors."

As they approached, the glow of a distant campfire resolved to three tents surrounding three humans hunched over a small fire.

"Hey guys! Free salt lick!" Rainbow bent down to a line of loose salt on the ground and began lapping some of it up.

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Taking loose salt from the ground is positively barbaric, Rainbow. You have got no idea where that salt's been!"

"Hey, a little dirt never hurt anypony!" Rainbow discreetly scooped up a small hoofful of loose dirt and tossed it towards the fashionista, letting it land harmlessly just shy of her hooves. Rarity's panicked reaction to the flying filth was what Rainbow really wanted, and it was predictably priceless.

"Why...! Rainbow, I'll get you for that!" Rarity retaliated, levitating an earthen clump and tossing it back at the cyan pegasus, where it impacted her shoulder and broke up.

The other girls stayed out of Rainbow and Rarity's impromptu dirt clod fight. Pinkie cast her gaze along the line of salt on the ground, noticing that it seemed to encircle the human camp up ahead. Line of salt... Surrounding a campsite... Nighttime... Oh. Oh dear.

"Girls, stop!" Rarity and Rainbow turned to see Pinkie with a panicked expression to rival Rarity's initial reaction to the dirt. "Rainbow, that wasn't a salt lick," Pinkie pointed to the churned earth that was the casualty of the fight. "That was a salt line."

Rainbow looked to Rarity, then back to Pinkie. "What's the difference?"

"Salt lines act as a simple barrier to ghosts. If those campers made a salt line around their camp, that means they expect hungry ghosts in the area. Hungry ghosts... Or worse."

"What's a ghost gonna do to us? It'll just pass through. Right...?" Rainbow began to get nervous in the face of Pinkie's serious tone.

"They're not called 'hungry ghosts' because they want to eat my cupcakes, Rainbow! And there are worse creatures of the night than just hungry ghosts! War ghosts! Nemissaries! Nephwracks! And those are just the ones that will be stopped by the salt lines!"

"Ahem," Rarity cleared her throat, "Perhaps, then, we should go apologize to the humans for our mistake, and help them fix the salt line if they have any salt left."

The group moved forward at a brisk pace (although Applejack had to drag Fluttershy, who had frozen stiff at the talk of malevolent spirits roaming the night). Hopefully no ghost would find the broken salt line before it could be repaired.

One of the humans noticed the ponies' bold approach in the night and pointed them out to his fellows.

The group consisted of three males: a child, an adult, and an elder. Possibly related, the three shared similar facial structure. Each wore little more than rags for clothing, though the elder was decorated with many beads, talismans, and other small trinkets. The adult stood next to a fine-looking straight sword sticking up from the ground, and his posture suggested he was ready to fight. Based purely on smell, either the child had no idea how to create a toilet in the wild, or he was scared out of his mind.

When he ponies drew close, the elder calmly spoke, "{You're obviously not barbarians or icewalkers, but you're not humans either.} ⟨If you passed the salt lines, you're obviously no ghosts, and you do not shamble like zombies.⟩ I've also never seen a winterfolk that looked like you, though. What are you?"

Rarity stepped up. "My dear, we're simply ponies. More importantly, I want to apologize to you for my friend here," Rarity gave Rainbow a light jab in the side right on her injury. "She decided that your salt line was a salt lick. This and that happened and long story short the line is broken."

"Talk about revisionist history," grumbled Rainbow under her breath.

"{Grandfather, are they going to eat us?}" The child wailed.

"{I don't think so. But according to the white one, they have put us in danger.} Why would you be so foolish to break a line of salt at night so close to Marma's Fell?"

"I'm sorry dear; we're new to the area. We have never heard of Marma's Fell before." Rarity raised an eyebrow inquisitively, hoping the man would elaborate.

The adult lifted his sword and glowered at the ponies. "{What do you mean they've put us in danger, father?}"

The elder raised a hand to steady his son. "{They say the salt line was broken because of a misunderstanding. You have no reason to antagonize them.}"

Pinkie was muttering to herself, "Marma's Fell... Marma's Fell..." she jerked her head up, eyes wide and starting intensely at the elderly man. "If we're so close to Marma's Fell, aren't we close to the Traveler's Road?" He nodded. "Why would you set up camp so far from the road? That thing's got all kinds of enchantments to protect the travelers!"

The old man sighed. "My son is not permitted on the road. He was sentenced to summer exile. {All because he is a fool!}" The old man smacked his son in the back of the head. "I promised my daughter-in-law to see him safely to another city. My grandson snuck out and followed us. {He will be going home to his mother after this is over, right?}"

The child shrank into himself and did an impressive Fluttershy impression for someone who had never met her.

The old man sighed as though the weight of the whole world rest on his shoulders, and he was tired of dealing with it. "We had better fix the salt line before anything gets through. {Ember, go fetch the salt bag.}" The child hurried off to the pile of supplies next to one of the tents.

Groan.

Pinkie turned to Twilight, "Hey, we just had dinner. Surely you can't still be hungry?"

"It wasn't me, Pinkie. Rarity?"

"No lady would ever make such a noise!"

Rainbow shook her head, "Hey, don't look at me!"

"Nope, Ah'm stuffed!"

Fluttershy shook her head quietly.

Groan.

"Uh..." Pinkie pointed past the adult with a hoof, "maybe it was... him!" Everypony turned to see a desiccated face lurching up behind the human.

"EEEAAAAAhhh!" Rarity screamed, and tried to hide behind Fluttershy. It was a difficult feat, since Fluttershy was simultaneously trying to hide behind Rarity. Her scream launched the human into action, though. He turned and with one stroke he separated the creature's head from its shoulders.

"{Zombies...}"

The elder nodded. He turned towards the ponies and said, "I hope you ponies can fight. Where there's one zombie, there are more. With zombies assailing us, we won't have time to repair the salt line. Which means ghosts may find their way in as well. We may be in for a long night."

Even as the child returned, he dropped a bag of salt near the fire and shakily drew a dagger before standing next to his father.

Everyone heard the moans before they saw the walking corpses. Five. Ten. Two dozen. The group had been surrounded by ravenous zombies, and they were closing in.

"Pinkie, I thought the salt was supposed to stop them!"

"Do those look like ghosts to you? I said the salt stopped ghosts!"

Six ponies and three humans faced out from the campfire at the approaching undead. The two unicorns each levitated a blazing brand from the fire.

"Do not let them bite you, little ponies!" The elder called out.

"Why, will they turn us into more zombies?" Rainbow asked.

"What? No! You'll probably contract leprosy if they get in a good bite. I've seen it happen."

The conversation was cut off as the first zombie came close enough to reach out for Applejack. The zombie was greeted with Kicks McGee, and he was launched over the heads of his fellows.

The other members of the defense team quickly engaged the enemy. The elder human wielded a knobbed staff, and caved in the heads of his enemies with cold precision. While his grandson stood by with a dagger and a brave face, the elder's actions protected the child from any real combat.

The adult human seemed to have little in common with his father beyond looks. Where the elder used no extraneous movements and dispatched zombies with a minimum necessary effort, the son swung his sword wildly and passionately. His eyes were filled with rage and though he cut through the enemy as quickly as his father did, he spent much more effort doing so.

Twilight and Rarity swung their firebrands with enough force to stagger the zombies, though they did not cave heads in like the elder. On the other hoof, the dried corpses burned easily. By the time a zombie had recovered from the stagger, the flames had spread far enough and done enough damage to the dried-out joints that standing was nearly impossible.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood side by side lashing out with their hooves at the oncoming horde. Predictably, the pair had turned the fight into a competition.

"Hah! That one must'a flown fifteen spans!"

"Please, accuracy over distance, AJ! Watch this!" Rainbow bucked the nearest zombie in the chest, leaving a pair of deep hoofprints and knocking it back into one of its fellows. Both zombies fell to the ground, and the one on the bottom began struggling to remove its burden. The zombie Rainbow kicked did not move.

"That only counts as one!"

Fluttershy backed herself into the center of the circle, and bumped into the child human who had finally realized he wasn't going to contribute to the fight. Both human and pony jumped in surprise. When she'd recovered, Fluttershy gave the human the most comforting smile she could. Neither of the noncombatants could understand the other's spoken language, but body language was universal.

The child reached out with one hand towards Fluttershy, and guessing his intent she leaned in. The boy ran his fingers through her mane, and actually giggled at how soft it was. Fluttershy, for her part, was surprised at how nice the fingers felt rubbing against her neck and scalp. Oh, I hope Miss Aloe and Miss Lotus don't get too sad when ponies learn how this feels. I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings.

With their immediate zombies dispatched, the two fighting humans turned to assist the ponies. While the ponies had made progress, they did not have experience in killing; most of the zombies on the pony side of the circle had been disabled or delayed, rather than destroyed. With sword and staff, they dove into the fray.

Fluttershy released the boy from the hug they'd both desperately needed. Between the petting and the hug, Fluttershy had calmed down considerably; it seemed the boy had calmed as well. Despite the fighting taking place only a few spans away from the pair, they were both serene. Fluttershy closed her eyes and smiled, bright warmth filling her heart. Why can't this whole world be more like this colt?

Fluttershy opened her eyes to look at the boy again, noticing a faint blue aura surrounding him. A similar blue glow shone from his chest below his shirt. The boy's eyes were wide with shock, staring past Fluttershy's back. She turned to see what he was looking at, but only saw the same battle as before. She heard a faint thump from the boy and turned back to see the boy face down in the dirt... with a bloody hole in the center of his back. Standing above the boy was a softly glowing apparition; the crazed eyes and wild hair did nothing for its appearance, but the biggest clue to its intent was the still-warm human heart in its hand.

In the history of the world there have been many screams described as 'blood-curdling' without even being backed by magic. Only five such screams have even approached the ability to affect a listener's blood flow, and none have actually achieved that lofty goal. The sound that Fluttershy released at that moment left all of those screams in the dust, and even the near-mindless zombies were distracted from the fight. Although no one would ever make the connection, her scream of terror actually managed to cause a blood clot near the elderly man's heart which would ultimately lead to his death several months later.

The pony and human combatants scrambled to protect the group against the new threat; most of the zombies were destroyed, but more hungry ghosts were slowly joining the battle. Fluttershy's mind was frozen. The sound of fighting was miles away. The entire universe was herself, the campfire, and the young boy's fresh corpse. Fluttershy slowly turned the body over onto its back, and the boy's cooling eyes stared up into hers. 'Why didn't you save me?' his eyes said to her. 'Why didn't you help everyone?'

Fluttershy screwed her eyes closed in an attempt to shut out the image of the dead. The image inside her head just made matters worse; rather than a body staring silently into the sky she saw a scared human colt walking towards her, with a bloody dripping hole straight through his chest. "Save me!" the vision cried.

Knocked back towards the fire by one of the ghosts, Rainbow Dash looked up to see the tears welling up in Fluttershy's eyes. A single drop escaped and rolled down her check. The tear fell from Fluttershy's chin towards the child. Halfway to the body, the teardrop began to glow with a golden light. When the golden tear hit, the body erupted into golden flames; the smoke rose high into the sky, and Rainbow later swore she could make out the colt's face in the smoke.

Fluttershy glowed brightly in the night, far outshining the modest fire built for the camp. Her eyes remained closed, but beams of light launched towards the ghosts and the remaining zombies from the solid disk that had appeared on her forehead. Each zombie erupted into holy flames much like the boy, although no smoke escaped the animated corpses. The effect on the hungry ghosts proved to be much more dramatic: the light sunk deep into the ghost's corpus, and then the ghost's eyes and mouth began glowing with the same golden light. Glowing cracks spread like spider webs from the point of impact until the ghost could no longer maintain its own shape. Finally, each ghost erupted with pieces of corpus passing through the living combatants harmlessly.

Silence descended upon the awestruck group. The younger of the two remaining humans finally broke the peace, "{Father... is that creature a Lawgiver?}"

"{I don't know how, but I don't see any other conclusion.} You there, yellow pony."

Fluttershy shrank away from the elder before replying at her standard mouse-like volume, "... yes?"

"How is it possible that you are a Lawgiver?"

"Um... Well, I saw this man with four arms... And we had a... Nice... Chat. He said I needed to protect people, and I talked about all my animals, and he talked about the sun. I talked about Celestia, and he talked about his siblings. But then he said he uh... Had to go because it was his turn... Or something. Um..." Fluttershy looked up to the elder with a toothy grin.

Pinkie Pie grabbed Fluttershy around the neck. "Now after our stargazing party we can have another exaltation party!"

"We haven't had an exaltation party, Pinkie. We can't have another one without having the first one." Twilight deadpanned.

"Oh. Then we can have three exaltation parties at once!"

The elder stared back and forth between the ponies. "The three of you are all Lawgivers?"

Pinkie giggled, "No, silly! I'm not a Lawgiver, Applejack is!" Pinkie pointed to the cowpony. Applejack and Twilight both lit their caste marks to reveal their nature to the old man.

"{Father, do you think...?}"

"{No, your crimes would not be excused for bringing Lawgivers to the Syndics.}" The younger man looked surprised. "{I know what you were thinking, boy! Still, the Syndics would appreciate a circle of Lawgivers in the city.}" The elder bowed low before the ponies. "You three have done much for my son and me; from defending against the dead at our sides to saving my grandson's soul, I owe a debt I cannot repay." Rarity opened her mouth to speak, but reconsidered when she realized she was not being included in the man's display of gratitude. The elder turned to Pinkie and said, "You are familiar with the Traveler's Road? It would please me greatly if you showed these Lawgivers the way to Whitewall. I am certain the Syndics would be willing to grant an audience.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I must repair the salt lines."

The younger man sat down heavily and stared at the ground where his son had fallen. Fluttershy moved to try and comfort him, but he shook his head and waved her off. "{Go. You can do more good in the city than with me.}"

Applejack spoke, "C'mon girls, we should go back to the manse and rest. We can go see those Syndic folk tomorrow."

As the ponies walked back in the direction they had come, Pinkie lagged behind the group, lost deep in thought. Syndics in Whitewall? Where have I heard that name before?