Yaerfaerda

by Imploding Colon


Night Eventually Brings a New Dawn

Rainbow Dash stuck her head around the edge of the gate to the outer courtyard of Plaza Topaz. She looked left and right. Several servants and riders sat at campfires situated alongside their masters' carriages and stagecoaches. But there were no signs of guards or Soul Sentries.

"Seems like all of the hardcore security's elsewhere right now," Rainbow Dash muttered.

Floydien trotted up, squinting over her petite figure. "Floydien thinks he heard the stabby stabs heading north."

"To the Palace?" Rainbow's face scrunched in thought. "Well, I suppose they'd be wanting to buffer the Royal Quarters with the Coronation happening tomorrow and all. But... we both know that the real chaos is happening south at Saikano's base."

"Perhaps there is more foul foul than could be smelled before."

Rainbow took a shuddering breath. "Think you can blend in here?"

"Floydien is one with the haze malaise." He squinted down at her. "What of color wheel?"

"I don't think Jet would have signaled us unless she was somewhere safe." Rainbow tilted her head up. "I'm flying up to the room's balcony. Stay here. I'll let you know what she tells me in person."

"Yes yes yes."

Rainbow was thirty feet in the air when she paused to look down. "And Floydien?"

He looked up at her.

"We're going to find a way to get everypony out of this mess. I promise."

"Floydien understands."

Rainbow sighed. "Swear to Celestia, I dunno how to read you at times."

"Floydien is a book that doesn't glow."

"No. I guess not," Rainbow muttered, soaring the rest of the way towards the summit of the Plaza Topaz building above.


Inside the luxurious suite, the windows shook and rattled.

At last, one unlatched, then opened. A petite blue pegasus slid through, closing the pane behind her. She froze in place atop the velvety carpet, her eyes darting around. The interior was very dark, full of haunting shadows and stillness.

"Jet...?"

No response.

Rainbow Dash crept forward, tilting her head left and right as she peered behind every piece of furniture.

"Jet... ... ...?" Her ears perked up as she shuffled across the room in a slow gait. "It's Rainbow Dash. I know things are super bleak right now, but you gotta trust me when I say that I've been through worse straits. One way or another, we're gonna get this to work out. But I need you to work with me. Please, stop hiding. Tell me where you are. It's okay, girl."

She heard a shuffling of limbs.

Rainbow looked over.

A familiar brown earth pony sat, scrunched up in a fuzzy ball beneath a polished white table against the wall.

Rainbow trotted up. "Jet!" She smiled warmly. "It's okay! You don't have to..."

Jet gnashed her teeth, eyes flaring.

Rainbow froze in place.

Jet's eyes calmed. Gulping, she shivered slightly and motioned her head towards the front door of the hotel suite. Within seconds, there was a large knocking at the frame.

Rainbow's brow furrowed. Squatting low, she crawled over to Jet's side.

In a whispery tone, Jet whimpered, "They've been knocking constantly for the past forty-minutes." She gulped. "They won't go away."

"How many...?" Rainbow murmured.

Jet shook her head with a distressed expression. "I... I don't know." She sniffled, eyes tearing up. "But they won't go away."

Rainbow's nostrils flared. "Go into the washroom."

"Rainbow...?"

"I promise." She turned to gaze firmly at her. "Whatever happens, I won't let them get that far into the suite. So long as you stay there, you will be safe."

Jet bit her lip.

"Go!" Rainbow hissed, then approached the door like a stalking panther.

Stifling a cry, Jet got up on stiff legs and stumbled into the adjacent room. There, she cracked the door slightly ajar and peered out, eyes wide.

Rainbow slinked her way towards the door. She heard the knocking two times at regular intervals. Tightening her muscles, she held her breath, eyes glued to the doorknob.

Seconds passed.

Rainbow's muscles unclenched.

Just as she mentally timed it, the stranger on the far side knocked again.

Fwooosh! Rainbow dove, opened the door, grabbed the figure beyond all in one fell swoop. Grunting, she flung the figure's weight into the hotel room and bucked the door shut behind them.

"Unngh!" a gazelle grunted daintily as she collapsed against a table.

Wham! Rainbow was suddenly shoving her weight down against the creature, snarling into her face. "What do you want?!"

"Oh God!" Nilla whimpered, crossing her forelimbs as she flinched from the pegasus' snarling voice. "The Duchess! I came to see the Duchess! That's all!"

"Is that so...?"

"Whoever you are, I have wealthy pearls on me! You can have them!" Nilla squinted at the pegasus' outstretched wings. "Wait... you... your voice...!" Her eyes blinked in the darkness. "I know you!"

"Who sent you here?!" Rainbow hollered.

"Nodeer sent me!"

"But you said you wanted to see the Duchess!" Rainbow gnashed her teeth. "Haven't you heard?! Arcanista's been arrested! Fishberry thinks she's an enemy of the state!"

"And I didn't want to believe it myself! But today's been chock full of horrible, unbelievable things! I was hoping that someone... somebody was still around who could make sense of it!" Nilla gulped. "Who could help me make sense of it!"

"Of what exactly?!" Rainbow snarled. "What exactly does anyone or anything in Val Roa owe you?!"

"Just tell me..." Nilla bit her lip, shaking. "Are... are you her? The blue coated maidservant?"

"What of it...?"

Nilla glanced at Rainbow's wings, then at her angry face again. "Because... because if Arcanista trusted you, then I do too." She shuddered. "There's so much going wrong right now. I-I don't know who to trust!" Her eyes widened. "Oh God... could this be all about that shape-shifting monster that the Princess talked about?!"

"... ... ..." Rainbow Dash hovered back, letting Nilla go with a slumped gasp. "There's more going on in this city than I had anticipated. I fear now that I may be too late."

"To... to stop something horrible, r-right?" Nilla stood up slowly. "Because... b-because I think it's already happening!"

"How so?"

"You... you mean you haven't heard?" Nilla gaped. "The whole City is a'buzz with it! I'm surprised any of us were allowed to leave the Palace! But I'm guessing we were only distractions at this point. I mean, they did search and interrogate each and every one of us on the Palace Grounds over five times."

"What do you mean...?" Rainbow flashed a look out the window, towards the northern lights of the Royal Quarter. She gawked at Nilla once again. "What's happening at the Palace?"

Nilla grimaced. "It's... it's the Princess. Princess Kera Tin Mehjj of Xona." She gulped. "She and the Prince are missing."

"Missing?"

"According to Sharp Quill, she... sh-she..."

"What?!"

"... ... ...she kidnapped Prince Eine... soon to be King of Val Roa." Nilla's eyes watered. "Attacked Sharp Quill and a legion of guards in the throne room and everything. They... they're unaccounted for as we speak. Xona's Princess... Val Roa's King... Val Roa's future..."

The door at the back of the room creaked as Jet shuffled through, jaw agape.

Nilla hung her head, fighting sobs. "It... it just doesn't make any sense! Why would Kera do this? What would she have to gain? I tried cooperating with Sharp Quill's Soul Sentries, but none of the guards would answer my questions. Nodeer has seen much of the Secretary himself. And now Fishberry's arresting the Duchess and... and there're rumors of an attack in the military district..." Nilla slumped onto her haunches. "Please, God, help us. Help us all. What's going on around here?"

Jet trotted over, resting a hoof on the gazelle's shoulder. She turned and gaped at Rainbow Dash. "The Duchess is gone... and now the Prince?" She sniffled. "And without the Constable or Midnite Bastion? Your Jurists are so far away..." She hung her head. "There really is no hope left..."

Rainbow Dash held a hoof over her pendant, her face awash in silence.


"... ... ...!!!" Ebon Mane tossed his head back, gasping. "Aaaugh!" His eyes burned hot green.

The Soul Sentry in front of him grimaced, stumbling back. With the spell broken over his mind, he collapsed into a fit of shivers, murmuring indecipherable words.

Ebon fell back against the wall of the claustrophobic chamber. He hugged himself, wincing as his coat took on ten different colors all at once before finally falling back onto a glossy black carapace. The changeling seethed and seethed, his body steaming all over from discharged of metamorphic energy.

"Mother..." He twitched, spasmed, and exhaled. "At last..." He stood up straight, glaring into the shadows as his emerald eyes narrowed, billowing with righteous flame. "...I know where you are."