//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 - Layers of the Wind 
// Story: Night Reigns 
// by tursi 
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The first thing that Corporal Stratosphere noticed when he regained consciousness was that his muzzle was full of dirt. It was old and rather unpleasant tasting; he spit it out as best he could. He sat up, slowly, and sneezed before trying to brush his muzzle clean. His head felt fuzzy and for a moment he couldn't remember why it was so dark.

Gradually his senses returned to him. He noted the forest around him and the entrance only a few hundred feet down the path. He began to remember where he was and why. He was in the Everfree forest. He had run in here after a suspiciously beautiful crimson-maned mare, whom he had intended to interrogate over dinner (assuming she wasn't actually a criminal, of course). He had charged in on hoof to catch up to her… and then he didn't remember what happened.

His hoof ran down over his face as he tried to remember, dragging across it and then down his own chest, where it rustled a piece of paper. Somewhat surprised, he looked down and removed a pinned note from his flight suit.

"Hi!" began the note. He smiled at the clean cursive writing. Already he was envisioning his suspect writing the note with extravagant flourishes, and maybe a toss or two of that beautiful long mane. He hadn't seen enough to know how long it really was, but it suited his imagination to visualize it as extremely long and flowing on an eternal breeze.

"Found you stoned by cockatrice. Cast antidote. Be more careful. A friend."

He grinned further. A friend - that was definitely wonderful news. She already considered him a friend. But he began to think about the rest of the note.

"A cockatrice?" he wondered, looking around slowly. He patted his own body down carefully, checking for remnants of stone. "No… I seem to be okay. Dude… lucky for me she was a unicorn, though."

He looked into the woods again, and sighed to himself. "I'll never find her now," he noted. "I don't even know which way to start." He cast his eyes skyward but could see no trace of the sky through the thick canopy of the trees. "I don't have much hope of seeing anything through that. Still… I suppose it's worth a quick try. Then I'll head over to Hoofington and continue my search."

He walked back towards the entrance to the forest. "This is silly," he told himself. "Why am I even looking for her? I have a mission."

But his mind drifted back to that carefree mane toss from under the hood, now embellished with the flowing mane and continuous breeze of his fantasies, and he chuckled softly. "Oh yeah. Well, never let it be said I didn't try!"

He reached the edge of the canopy and launched into the air immediately, cutting a sharp bank back over the treetops before angling upwards to gain altitude. It felt wonderful to be back in the sky again and his blood flowed warm and free into his wings, revitalizing them and releasing any cramps that the forest had induced.

Once he was satisfied with his altitude he leveled off and began a slow circle. The Everfree Forest was relatively large, larger by far than Ponyville itself, and he had to focus to keep from losing his place while scanning the dense tree cover.

His attention was caught by a narrow crease in the ocean of leaves and he banked over for a better look. It was barely the width of two ponies but nearly a hundred feet long, showing broken branches and missing leaves. The forest had nearly covered it up, but something had come through from above and he started to dip lower to investigate.

Without warning there was suddenly a brilliant glow from beneath the leaves, coming from right below himself. He had to squint to see at all and immediately pulled up to ensure that he was safely away from the treetops. Although the light was heavily filtered by the thick branches, it still cast a brilliant glow into the sky and his night-adjusted eyes hurt to look at it. He climbed further and then turned away from the gash in the leaves to get a fix on the light - at least to get an idea what it was.

As abruptly as it began, the light vanished, and again Stratosphere was blinded - this time by lack of night vision. He circled in a tight loop until his eyes readjusted to the night, and then he looked back down again. There was no sign of anything unusual, but he'd made a fix on the source of the light.

All thoughts of his mysterious target were far from mind now, his mind was set on his mission. The glow hadn't been a fire or an explosion - thus it had to have been magic. No pony would dare cast a spell like that so close to Canterlot, where Nightmare Moon might see it. His mind raced - could this be the Queen herself? Was she signaling? Was she in trouble? Or was something else going on?

Either way, he knew that he had to investigate. He dove down, and began to pick a path for himself through the treetops. He had to slow down substantially, but he was agile and his keen vision served him well. It took him less than a minute to force his way through, and he was able to light onto the ground.

He had come down at the edge of a very small clearing. Again he surveyed the area… nothing moved. But his ability to pick things out of the ordinary did not fail him - there had been a struggle here, very recently. The detritus of the ground was disturbed in several places, and the tracks of some large, heavy beasts retreated into the woods.

Looking further across, his breath caught. On the far edge of the clearing, nearly swallowed by the heavy woods, were a set of tumbled carved stones - the remains of a structure. He took a single step towards it, then stepped back again.

"Dude…" he muttered to himself. "It's been my week for legends. That's the Castle of the Two Sisters. It's been lost for centuries…"

He looked around again, looking for any trace of the source of the strange light. Unwittingly, his mind drifted back to his red maned quarry. He wondered whether she had made it this far, only to run into trouble and be carried off? His wings opened involuntarily as he glanced around, nervously wondering if the creatures might be back for seconds. But the pony was a unicorn, he wondered whether what he had seen was a defensive spell.

There was a sudden swirl of dust and smoke in front of him, and he stepped back, startled. To his surprise, the dust came tightly together and formed into a solid figure. He uttered a yelp of surprise, but when he recognized that Nightmare Moon herself was now standing before him, it was all he could do to bite back a scream. He jumped backwards and landed on his face, burying his muzzle in the dirt for a second time, procuring the deepest bow he could imagine.

"Y... your Majesty!" he exclaimed.

"Enough of the pleasantries," snapped Nightmare Moon. "Report, immediately!"

Stratosphere took a deep breath, slowly regaining his composure. "Uh, y... yes ma'am! Corporal Stratosphere reporting on reconnaissance over the Everfree Forest near Ponyville. Um, well... I don't know very much yet. I was circling the forest when I saw this wicked bright light..."

Nightmare Moon smirked knowingly. Despite having sensed magic, she couldn't resist teasing a little. "And what were you doing circling the forest, hmm?"

Corporal Stratosphere got a look of disbelief, and dared to lift his head. "Dude, ma'am! I got stoned in the forest! I was worried my friend got stoned too."

Nightmare Moon looked shocked. "You... what?!"

"A cockatrice must have got me! I ran in, and something hit me, and next thing I knew I woke up all sore, and it was like almost an hour later."

Nightmare Moon recovered some, and nodded knowingly. "Oh, a cockatrice. Of course. And then what?"

"Well, I flew up above the forest, ma'am. Then I was like circling to see if I could see... um... well, a friend of mine was in there, and I wanted to make sure she was okay. Then, like I said, I saw this wicked bright light, but no fire and it wasn't an explosion! It had to be magic… ma'am. I dove down and found a path through the treetops, and I came to where I think I saw it."

He continued after a brief pause. "I don't know what happened here, du.. ma'am. But there was a struggle. I think maybe something got her. Then I saw that..." he pointed at the ruins.

Nightmare Moon hummed, and nodded again. "I detected the spell as well," she commented at last. She looked towards the ruins, speaking absently. "It was no cockatrice," she added. "Your lover cast the spell that enchanted you. But this magic... was not hers."

"Then… what was it?"

Nightmare moon did not seem to be paying attention to him. Her eyes were scanning around the clearing, and going back to the ruins frequently. Stratosphere didn't like the way her eyes darted quicker and quicker this way and that, or the way her pupils were slowly shrinking.

"It's hers," she whispered, though he barely heard it, and he wasn't certain that he was even meant to.

He spoke again, his voice more strained. "Dude… er, ma'am. Who do you mean…?"

Nightmare Moon looked right at him, but her eyes were a million miles away. He wasn't even certain she saw him. "She's in there," she whispered, her voice shaking. "She must be. She might even be watching now."

Stratosphere was shaken by Nightmare Moon's voice, but he looked towards the ruins. He dared one last attempt to understand. "Your majesty? Should we investigate the ruins?"

Nightmare Moon snapped out of her trance. "No!" she responded too quickly, but then she caught herself. "Yes," she added, "but not alone. This may be more dangerous than we anticipated."

"Return to Canterlot immediately," she ordered. Her voice was low but clear and once again full of strength. "Tell no pony but Captain Sterling Honor what I am telling you now. He will assemble a small team of his strongest unicorns and earth ponies. We will be marching on the ruins. The team will work cooperatively to implode these ruins without anything, magic or otherwise, escaping."

"Aw, dude, no pegasi?"

"Pegasi will be at a disadvantage in these trees. You will lead a team of pegasi to close the skies over Canterlot - no pony is to take flight without my personal authorization. Anything flying towards the castle is to be treated as hostile. Now go. Tell the Captain I will join him shortly."

Stratosphere nodded and gave a sharp salute, then started a winding path upwards through the canopy. As the thick leaves began to obscure the ground he took one last look downward, seeing Nightmare Moon staring at the ruins. As he watched, she dissolved into a thick smoke and slipped away along the ground, heading towards the edge of the woods.

Once he finally broke free of the canopy and launched himself into the sky, he considered what had happened.

"On one hoof," he mused. "Mission accomplished! I found the Queen, and she's coming back!"

He flew on silently, his wings beating the currents and the wind in his ears, until a depressing thought crossed his mind. "Nightmare Moon said the red-maned mare was the one who stoned me… but that can't be, can it? She must have been confused."

He abruptly got a whole new silly grin as he remembered the conversation. "She called her my lover. Dude, if only! Now I'll never get to meet her."

The spires of Canterlot Castle began to rise beneath him, and he started to spiral downwards. "All right… back to business. I need to find the Captain."

His thoughts turned darker. "But what could be in those ruins that would scare the Queen of Eternal Night?"