The piercing scream of the train horn broke Twilight from a deep sleep. She pried her face out of the book, looking around with sleep-crusted eyes. AJ and Rainbow Dash were blinking their bleary eyes, slowly waking up as well. It was dark outside, and Twilight realised: We’re here in Bastion.
“I think we’ve arrived, girls,” Twilight observed, slipping the book back in her purse. “We should hurry. Our contact is meeting us here.”
Rainbow peeked out the window, her prismatic mane ruffling in the slight breeze. “In this dump? It’s like the flank-end of Ponyville times a thousand! Lame.”
AJ thumped Rainbow on the head. “Watch yer tongue there, missy. Some’a mah best friends are from ‘the flank end’a Ponyville’.”
“I don’t live in Ponyville,” the cyan pegasus retorted with a wink.
Twilight slung her saddlebags on her back and shot a slightly irritated glance towards the two. “Come on you two, let’s move.”
The other two mares gathered up their saddlebags and followed the purple unicorn down the long train, and out the door. It was eerily quiet in the train. Only a few other ponies were aboard, and those few were going about the business of gathering their things and preparing to leave the train like the trio. A few of the fellow passengers looked up at Rainbow and AJ, eyeing the mares with an impassive stare.
When AJ stepped out of the train, she was struck by how cool it was outside compared to the train. The train had felt stuffy despite the open window. Out here, it was nice and cool, like early spring or fall. She took a deep breath in, her first official breath of Hinterlands air. It smelled faintly of cinnamon and the wet, heavy promise of rain in the near future.
She looked down, searching for Twilight. The unicorn was standing in the midst of the station, head turning one way and then another.
“He’s not here,” she said.
“Who’s not here, sugarplum?”
“Our contact, who else? Doctor Trotson said he’d meet us here when the train arrived. There’s nopony here who’s looking for us!” Twilight was getting more and more agitated as time passed and the contact failed to show. AJ shot Rainbow a worried glance.
“Maybe they got th’ pony pox, Twi. Let’s not worry about it too much right now. What we need is a soft warm bed. Pref’rably three of ’em. We’ll worry ’bout that rascal tomorrow when we’re all rested up and in a better mood.” She thrust her hoof at Twilight. “Deal?”
Twilight cocked her head and stared at the hoof for a while, like a scientist observing a particularly unusual rodent. Then she nodded and shook AJ’s hoof. “Deal. Let’s find a hotel to stay in.”
Bastion may have been the crown jewel of the Hinterlands, but it still lacked some basic necessities that the ponies had taken for granted. Namely, there was only one inn in the town, and it was a rather small one. Its name was Stable Abel’s and it was run by an old pony named Abel. It was quaint to the point of being sickening.
“Three lovely mares from out-of-town, ohoh?” Abel had asked, digging in his desk for a set of room keys. “What mischief could you be up to, eheh?”
Twilight froze, unsure what to say. AJ leapt to the rescue once again, “We’re botanists an’ geologists from Canterlot. We’re investigatin’ the soil an’ rocks ’round here. Minister of, uh, Growy Things thinks th’ soil here might be just a fur more fertile, know what I’m sayin’?”
“Ayuh, I hear ya,” the old pony said, still digging. “You folks gonna watch the Gypsy in the Square tomorrow?” Tomorrow sounded more like tomorruh to the mares.
“Gypsy?” Twilight had inquired.
“Ayuh, gypsy. Pretty thing, she is. Came into town few months back, been peddlin’ ever since. I think she’s involved with them… Ah, forget about me. Not a lick of sense in me,” he finished with a laugh, withdrawing a keyring in triumph. He flicked the keys back, searching for one key in particular with a look of determination. “What I’m gettin’ at here is Mayor Bronze Mane don’t like her, not one bit.” He popped a key off and produced it with a proud sweep of his foreleg. “Here ya go. Room 113. There’s naught but two beds and a couch, so either a couple of you ladies’ll have to bunk together or somepony gets the short straw on the couch.”
As the unicorn lifted the key in the air, AJ said, “I’ll sleep on the couch. Y’all can have the beds. I’m fine with sleepin’ on hard stuff.”
The mares trotted down the hall towards room 113, chatting amicably as they did so. Abel watched them, pale eyes glittering. His ear twitched and he sniffed. As they turned out of sight, the pony looked down and shook his head.
The trees in the Grove swayed in the breeze, leaves whispering indistinctly. Augur paused at the wrought-iron gates, staring at the leaf-covered path flanked by the many trees. The long, winding path led to the centre of the Grove, the monolithic stones throwing up their protective shadow around the Council that would meet there. The leaves crunched beneath his feet and the chill of the autumn wind raised gooseflesh under his warm coat. He continued on, in the knowledge that it would be warmer in the centre, with the columns blocking the wind.
As he trotted up to the centre, he found that the moot had begun without him. In recent days, their meetings had started before he arrived. Were Augur a more paranoid stallion, he would have assumed that they were starting without him.
“It was thus,” Moon’s Omen was saying, “that while I slept, I had a vision. A vision of a beast who was not a beast. He spake unto me, and told me that he knew of our plans. Our plans to spread our gift of magic.
“He said he could aid us in our quest. He knew of magics to spread our gift. He said his greatest desire would be to share our love with the world. And so it shall be,” the elder pony finished, bowing his head.
“No offence meant, sir,” Augur found himself saying. “But how are we to know that this was truly a vision and not simply a dream?”
“I can only tell you what I experienced. It is up to you to decide what you believe. But you will not have to take my word for it.” Behind him, a great shadow rose from the depths. It was formless, a bundle of lumps with two glittering blue darts of light that must have been eyes.
Thine desires touch my heart, came the rumbling voice of the Thing behind Moon’s Omen. It was deep, reverberating. It reminded Augur of how the radio he sometimes listened to in the social hall sounded, when it was a particularly cloudy night. I will grant thy wishes to the best of mine ability. I am called Barsabas. My people were an ancient one, long since passed. Thy dreams are similar to the dreams mine people had, a world of magick.
Augur felt his breath catch. The Thing, Barsabas was taller and wider than any pony he had ever seen. There was a sense of heavy, oppressiveness emanating from the Thing, so thick it was almost suffocating. He caught Daydancer’s eye, gold meeting pink. He could not see her face, only the glitter of her eyes in the flickering firelight, but they were eyes full of fear.
“What are you planning?” Augur found himself asking.
The Tooth of Giants, Barsabas’ stormy voice reverberated. Thou call it ‘the Obelisk’ I believe. Built it we did for that great cascade of magicks, the snow of mana. If thou were to operate the Tooth in the manner we designed, thine gift shalt be the gift of the world.
That black oppressiveness was too much for Augur. His breath was catching in his throat, and he felt pressure on his chest. He backed slowly out of the moot hall, trying to catch Daydancer’s eyes again. She glanced at him and began to follow suit. The other ponies and that horrible Thing of darkness did not notice, enveloped as they were in their plans for the future.
“What’s going on?” Daydancer asked, voice low and out of breath. “What is that thing?”
“Something not at all good,” Augur replied. He glanced around the garden, searching for anypony spying on them. Good, they were all still in the moot. “We were to be a band of brothers and sisters embracing an alternative lifestyle, not forcing magic on everypony.”
“Can they really use the Obelisk?”
“Doubtful. You couldn’t get inside it, even if it was hollow. It’s a fool’s errand, and it can only end in disaster.” He paused and looked up at the sliver of moon that was beginning to be born from the inky womb of night. “But regardless, I don’t want to be here when it does end.”
Daydancer shivered, her robe quivering. “I don’t want to be here either. Wherever you go… take me with you.”
Augur paused a long moment. Then he nodded. “There’s no train for quite a while. I think I know a way to leave, though.”
“Cinnamon swirl muffins,” Rainbow Dash sighed. “Is there anything better?”
“Apple cobbler, apple pie, apple tarts, apple strudel…”
“You have really bad opinions, AJ.” The pegasus’s voice was muffled by another mouthful of cinnamon delight.
Twilight wiped her mouth with a floating napkin. The inn they were staying at was located right next to a bakery, and her two friends had cajoled her into testing their wares. She was delighted to find that the bakery was almost – almost – on the same level as the Cakes’ prowess.
“Now, girls, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us today,” Twilight said, dropping the napkin neatly on her plate.
“Yeah all that studying,” Rainbow bit into another cinnamon muffin. “Ohhh. What do they put in these to make them so good?”
“Cinnamon, butter, flour, brown sugar,” Applejack began to list.
“Stop listing things. You’re a real list machine today.”
“We need to find that contact,” the unicorn continued, ignoring the banter. “It’s vital to our mission. You know the one Princess Celestia gave me.”
“Right, yeah,” Rainbow said, finishing her muffin. “Can we get a bag of these to go?”
All roads in Bastion lead to the town square. It’s an old-fashioned concept, dating back to colonial times. As of right now, the town square was occupied, which in itself was not unusual. But such an occupant as it now held was indeed unusual and worthy of the attention it was receiving.
The occupant was thus: One gypsy wagon, painted an eye-catching but not displeasing shade of purple. There were gold trimmings round the roof and door, and a hoof-painted sign reading “ARCANE AND AMAZING MAGICKS, FORTUNE-TELLING, SEANCES AND EXORCISMS PERFORMED FOR YOUR PLEASURE” hung from the side.
A crowd had gathered around it, curious first about the oddity of a gypsy wagon, and then curious about the sign and what it meant. When Twilight and her friends stumbled into the crowd, they first thought that there was some sort of public gathering, a speech to be held.
So what happened next surprised them completely.
The wagon’s sides opened, and they seemed to undergo a transformation into a small wooden stage, worthy of any travelling entertainer. A voice, amplified through some magic or device echoed through the streets.
“Come one! Come all! Come and marvel at –
–the Gr-r-eat and Powerful Tr-r-rixe!”
There was only one thing Twilight could think. There was only one thing she could say.
“What.”