//------------------------------// // Chapter 19, Calm // Story: Darkness Rising // by SkyHighFlyer //------------------------------// After a week, the repercussions of the incident with Rainbow Dash were still making themselves apparent. They were now referring to the event as impact, in light of Silver Wing's letter using that very term to describe the events that followed because of it, and because it was a suitable word to describe the beginning of things falling apart. Everypony was surprised by how well Twilight managed the situation so far, and how she was keeping it contained for the time being, Fluttershy included. Unfortunately they could see very clearly that it wasn't going to last, already Twilight was having trouble, and when the others realized that Rainbow was nowhere to be found things would start piling on top of the existing problems, and everypony, Twilight included, knew that when it did, their hold on things might collapse. So far though, Twilight was being more reasonable than before. Still she wasn't willing to kill her friends, or turn them unless she absolutely had to, like she did with Rainbow, and that was one thing Fluttershy agreed with completely. She was however accepting more advice from Silver Wing, and had allowed Shadowfall to move into Ponyville for the time being. For now she didn't have any long term plans for where to stay, and tended to jump between staying with Twilight and Fluttershy, her slight paranoia and complete distrust of non-vampires limiting her options as she refused to stay anywhere else, including the town's small and often unnoticed inn. Twilight was trying to work out something more permanent, but she wasn't making it easy. Rainbow Dash was less trouble to deal with though. After consulting with Fluttershy and Silver Wing they moved her back to her own home. Since it was the one cloud house in Ponyville they could already be sure that only Ponyville's pegasus population could find her, and nopony else ever stopped by except to deliver mail. Her job with the weather team wasn't hard to take care of. After a bit of practice in the most advanced parts of changing appearances, Fluttershy managed to take on Rainbow's look and voice completely. Using cleverly placed saddlebags to cover her cutie mark, she went in to the weather office and requested time off, about a month. She kept it specifically vague, as they didn't know how long it would take her to wake. The time it would take for Rainbow to complete the changes was the hardest factor to plan around, because for each pony it would be different. Turning somepony was a complex process, starting with vampiric essence spreading though their body like an infection, then beginning the process of changing the pony's soul. The changes to the soul were the longest part, with the changes to the physical body coming afterward, and in only a few hours. The soul was the most sacred and critical part of a pony, and no magic was known that could affect it. That was what made vampirism incurable, it was one of only known two processes, along with alicorn ascension, that were capable of affecting a ponies soul on such a fundamental level. How vampiric essence could do this was a mystery, and likely one that would never be solved, but the process was much more well understood than the mechanics. After spreading throughout the body, it moved on to target the victims soul directly, dragging them into a coma as they began trying to fight it off. Nopony, apart from an alicorn however, would be capable of driving it back, and it would gradually take hold. The time spent fighting would vary from pony depending on their individual strength. Fluttershy took only a week, but for Rainbow it would be much longer. For the entire time the process was going on, the pony would experience nightmares that were representative of the ponies soul resisting the effects. They usually weren't remembered, nor were the first few days after finally waking, but as Twilight had seen with Fluttershy it was unpleasant to experiance. Since impact, she hadn’t seen much of Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Whether or not they had caught on to the fact that Rainbow was missing yet was unknown, but the longer they took to figure it out the better. So that left Rarity, just over a week after impact. She needed a book on the style of formal dresses used by royalty and nobility four hundred years ago. When she pushed open the door to the library though, she found herself receiving two glares. One was from Twilight, and the other was from Silver Wing. “Oh dear, I'm not interrupting anything am I?” Rarity asked. She genuinely hadn't intended to arrive in the middle of something, but seeing who she ran into she had no regrets about it. Twilight gave her a forced friendly smile, not hiding her annoyance very well. “Not at all, we were just finishing up.” She turned back to Silver wing and said cryptically, “To finish this up, impact was an isolated incident that only happened because of unforeseeable circumstances. I've take even more precautions now than before, this will not be repeated.” “But the problem is that it happened in the first place,” Silver Wing replied, “and it happened because you didn't take our advice before and you didn't listen when we said, on more than one occasion, that something exactly like this would happen.” Twilight gave her a slight glare. “I know, that was a mistake that I won't make again. I may not listen to your advice, but I wont dismiss your concerns outright anymore.” Silver sighed. She gave Twilight a tired, stressed look and said, “That's good, but it wont fix the problems we already have.” “The best we can do is smooth things over,” Twilight responded. “I know it won't undo the damage that's already been done, but I think it's time to implement the new system. If Fluttershy needs anything I can tell her myself.” “It's better than nothing, but it isn't a perfect solution,” Silver Wing said, making her way past Rarity. “Just hold everything together, that's all you can be asked to do at this point.” As Silver made her way out and closed the door forcefully behind her, Rarity asked, “Anything you'd like to tell me?” “No Rarity, there's nothing you need to know,” Twilight replied, “Now, was there something you needed?” Rarity scowled at Twilight, not prepared to give up on this just yet. “Don't try to change the subject Twilight, why won't you just trust us? We're supposed to be friends, and friends don't keep secrets from each other like this.” “I’m keeping this from you because you're my friend!” Twilight said in anger, “I trust you completely Rarity, I trust all of you more than anypony else, but I don't want this to ruin our friendship. I want to be open, and I trust that you would make the right decision, but I'm not ready to take the risk that you wouldn't understand, and I'm not willing to risk our friendship because of it!” “Twilight, we would never abandon you, and whatever it is we wouldn't rest until we understood what you wanted us to.” “I know... I know but I just can't. If you knew you would see why,” Twilight said, losing control of her emotions and struggling to fight back tears. “Twilight, please,” Rarity said, apparently oblivious to Twilight's discomfort, “whatever it is, we'll be on you side.” “I'm done talking about this Rarity,” Twilight said. “Now, what did you want?” “Just a book on high class dresses from around four hundred years ago,” Rarity said, seeing that trying to go on would be pointless. Twilight pulled on off of the shelf without even looking. “This should cover a period of about three hundred to five hundred years ago. Is there anything else you need.” Rarity shook her head and accepted the book. On her way out she said in parting, “We're worried about you Twilight, please be safe.” As Rarity left her alone again, Twilight truly wished things could go back to the way they were.