//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Filly Without a Name // by Scribble Script //------------------------------// Chapter 1 - THE NEW PONY IN TOWN The town of Hollow Shades was lit by autumn's golden morning light and ever so slightly veiled by shrouds of mist, arising from the already harvested fields and the surrounding woods, mainly consisting of a variety of conifers, but intermitted by some colourful broad-leaf trees like a patchwork rug. Hollow Shades itself was a small town, just barely big enough to be circumvent by a town wall, next to the shores of cold, clear lake, in the background the sky-high Veiled Mountains. Half-way around this lake a defiant castle rose above the waters. Truly picturesque indeed… And the last place in Equestria where Firefly wanted to be right now! Once again and as she had done repeatedly for the last days, the young pegasus mare lamented her fate. Why, of all ponies, did those things always seem to happen just to HER? It had been such a perfectly normal evening; and all she had wanted was to have a drink at the inn after a hard day in the casern. But then a half-drunk soldier had begun to mock her. He had made fun of her rose-coloured coat and how a mare could honestly believe to ever make the grade of a cadet’s surcoat. Firefly had replied as she replied answered to mockery and offence: She had bucked the stallion in the stomach… As hard as she could… In no time, the prettiest punch-up had been under way! The end of the story were several broken tables, shattered bottles and glasses and a few black eyes and bruised rips, also on the part of Firefly herself and a unicorn stallion who had actually only wanted to hold her back. But due to her indescribable misfortune this stallion had to be a captain of the royal guard and thus in the proper meaning of the word… Her commanding officer… Her instructor had been able to convince the captain to not have Firefly expelled from the guard. But she was commandeered to leave Canterlot and to continue her drill elsewhere. Namely at the back and beyond end of Equestria! And by all means, that could be taken literally. Hollow Shades was located at the very north-eastern border of Equestria. Firefly was a pegasus and quite a good flyer, but even the fastest pegasus would need almost three days to get there. Firefly had needed five, because of a bad weather front over the Foal Mountains. The Weather Brigade was still trying hard to get the weather there under control… In any case, this journey was not at all worth the effort, but Firefly wasn’t ready to give in; she knew that captain was counting on exactly that. He expected that she would never undertake the way to Hollow Shades and just leave the guard for good instead. Goodbye forever, problem solved. But she would rather have her wings clipped than to accept a defeat. That commanded her pride! She had no choice but to put up a brave front. And so, after Firefly had went for another spin to get a better overview, she landed and folded her wings. Then she walked down the old trading route to the western gate of the town as it was proper manner. The two bored earth pony guards at the gate had already noticed the pegasus who had been circling above them, but not paid further attention. But now as the pony in question was walking straight towards them, they had no choice but to pick up their halberds and do their work. “Steady on! Who goes there and what business takes you this far out here?” Firefly was unkindly stopped by the crossed lances of the two guards. They examined her with a saturnine expression. Firefly grimaced though she didn’t really know what was upsetting her about those guards. Maybe it was their attitude… The earth ponies were wearing scuffed and ill-fitting armor plates. They were not a patch on the royal guards in Canterlot! But after the arduous journey to Hollow Shades she was all but keen to pick a quarrel with the town guards and so she swallowed her anger and courteously hooved over her transfer papers. “My name’s Firefly”, she added as a precaution. “Cadet of the royal guard. I am supposed to report to the guard house for duty.” The guards took a quick glance at the seal on the papers and then stepped aside. “No offence meant”, one of them said. “It’s our business to ask every trespasser questions. There’s queer folk about. But if you’re here to join the guard, alright! The guard house is just down here, next to the town square and the archives. You can’t miss it.” The guard gave the papers back to Firefly and pointed down the street. She was not too sure if she still wanted to join the town’s guard. Being a guard in this town seemed neither glamourous nor adventurous, but anyway, life was never easy at the bottom. There had to come much more for Firefly to cut and run! And so she trotted down the paved lane; it was time to examine her new home. **** It seemed to be market day in town and so there was quite some folk on the streets, earth ponies and some unicorns, most of them in sober colours and earthy tones, like brown, green and grey. Firefly stood out even twice, she wasn’t just the only pastel coloured pony in sight, but also the only pegasus. She attracted some prying glances, but nopony seemed really bothered about her. The town itself mainly consisted of low buildings with thatched roofs. Shutters and doorframes were green, and Firefly noticed another detail that caught her curiosity: On some of the doors an uncommon symbol was carved in. It was the outline of a crescent moon. Interesting, this seemed to be some kind of crest, but Firefly couldn’t recall to have seen this kind of heraldry before. Above the guard house’s entrance however, the well-known sun crest of the Princess was mounted to mark it as a formal building. But Firefly probably wouldn’t have missed it anyway: The house was one of only few with more than one floor. The other ones were primarly other offical buildings like the town hall and of course the belfry. The sign spelling ‘Town Ward’ itself was admittedly a bit mingy and simple, but Firefly guessed it was fitting for a small town like Hollow Shades. She took a deep breath and entered through the heavy iron-bound door. **** The scent of dust, old paper and lamp black greeted her as she stepped into the room. Had she maybe somehow taken the wrong door? This didn’t look like a watch room at all, the six rickety tables were overburdened with towers of books, piles of papers and scrolls. All way in the back of the room sat a unicorn, lost in an especially old and heavy tome. He was using a round, cut crystal as a magnifying glass and keenly levitated his quill, making notes. The stallion seemed about Firefly’s age and he had slender features. His coat was sand-coloured but his unkempt and most importantly salient red mane revealed that his family probably wasn't native to Hollow Shades. He hadn’t noticed Firefly’s entrance yet. “Excuse me?” Firefly addressed the young stallion. Maybe she hadn’t spoken loud enough, in any case he didn’t show a sign of having heard her at all. “Excuse me?” She repeated, a little louder this time. The unicorn’s head rose, he blinked confusedly as he saw the pegasus mare standing across the room. “Yes”, he simply said. And then turned back to his book! Firefly gnashed her teeth. “Excuse! Me!” It wouldn’t have taken much for her to yell at him. The stallion’s gaze met her eyes again. “Yes”, he repeated. “Yes, I excuse you.” And with that he wanted to turn back to his work once more, but Firefly made a jump forward through the whole room to keep his attention. “Wait a moment! Y’know I was looking for the guard house, but…” The stallion rapidly jolted up, knocking the tome off the table and the table itself almost over. Firefly could be mistaking, because he looked so startled, but it seemed like he was trying to brace. “No, nonono! You’re right here”, he said. “This IS the guard house.” “So, you’re a guard, too?” The unicorn nodded. “Uh-huh. My name is Sliderule. I’m the paymaster here. Can I… Um… help you?” Firefly was dumbfounded. This younker not only was a full-fletched guard; he was an OFFICER! “You… You’re…” She stuttered, but then she remembered the reason why she was here in the first place: ALWAYS show your superior respect! She saluted snappishly. “Cadet Firefly, reporting for duty, sir!” If this was possible, Sliderule looked even more confused than before. Or awkward, maybe. “Yes…” he drawled. “That… Um… can we, like, just drop this whole military procedure for the moment? I’m not very fond of it, you know? I’m in this position only because numbers are my special talent…” That stood out a mile, the counting frame he had for a Cutie Mark spoke volumes. He took the transfer papers from Firefly and carefully read over them. “Let’s see… Firefly... Cutie Mark: Three lightning sparks... Oh, strange reference... It says here you would lack discipline…” “What? That’s not true!” the pegasus mare exclaimed. Why had they written that down in the papers? A last tit-for-tat response of that captain, no doubt. What an infamy! Sliderule however didn’t pay much attention to it. “We haven’t had a new recruit since… um, myself, I think”, he informed her, hectically scribbling calculation on his sheets of paper. “Actually, I am not even sure if we can afford a new recruit at the moment. Give me a moment, I have to quickly recalculate the allocation for the next months...” Firefly cringed internally. If not even the guards in this village at world’s end wanted her, then she really had no place left she could turn to… “Sliderule, please… The guard’s everything I have…” Maybe Sliderule had caught her desperate look. He carefully laid the quill on the table and scratched his chin. “But on the other hoof”, he said slowly. “There… There actually may be a case that could need a different point of view…” He went to another table and started to rummage through a tower of papers. If the unicorn had any system of order in his documents, then Firefly couldn’t make it out. Eventually he dug out a paper that had been buried under what looked like to be the billings of a whole decade. “Ah, here it is, I knew it had to be in here somewhere… Take a look at this, Firefly!” She saw the likeness of a unicorn filly drawn on the paper, a quite good portrait actually, but drawn without colour. Large eyes and a messy mane made the filly look very young, ten years at tops. The picture had the caption ‘Do you know this filly?’ and a note to report any hints for a reward to the guards or to a pony called Calm Mind. “What’s that?” the mare wondered as he hooved her over the sheet of laid paper. “A wanted poster?” “More like a missing pony report.” Sliderule confidentially lowered his voice: “We’ve been looking for her for one, two… What is the date today? Anyway, that doesn't matter right now, I guess... The guard hasn’t been able to retrieve the filly until now. So maybe you could go over to Doctor Calm Mind and offer your help?” Well, what kind of pony would not offer help at once when a foal was missing? Besides, helping to find that poor little things could be exactly the chance Firefly needed: A chance to make her mark, to make herself indispensable for the Royal Guard. Maybe it would even buy her a return to Canterlot. That certainly sounded like a plan. **** Doctor Mind, as Sliderule had explained, was a physician and said to be an ingenious master healer. The Doctor saw heself as a herald of progress, she consistently strived to improve her knowledge, and to create new cures and treatments. And she was the first pony so far who devoted herself to the mental illnesses as well as the physical ones. Without any writings she could rely on to begin with, she had already proven that mental aberrations could not only be treated, but also cured in some cases. But soon, Calm Mind had to realize there was a startling limited overall knowledge in Equestria about body and mind, but also about the modus operandi of magic (that was how Sliderule had called it). She had tried to expedite the progress of science with tooth and hooves, but it was far too wide a subject for one pony alone to collect all the bits and pieces and put them together. There had also been very little support on part of the Crown and so Calm Mind had spent her own fortune to build a place where she could fully dedicate herself to science. Then she had invited all kindred spirits join in. Alas, thus far only one pony had followed her call, a former barber surgeon named Ragstitch. The building Calm Mind had chosen was located in the northeast of the town, next to a small holt. The House of Healing apparently once upon a time had been a convent for some kind of brotherhood who had dedicated themselves to a similar goal as Calm Mind; Firefly wondered what had happened to them… She struck up a quick pace over the cobblestone pavement, her curiosity was already getting the better of her. But as soon as she was able to take a closer look at the plain, grey, stone veneer of the bow-shaped building, she felt something else: A shiver went down her spine and she started to feel uneasy. She was getting an indistinct bad feeling about that building, no, actually it was more like a dark foreshadowing. Her senses told her to turn around and leave immediately, but she just shrugged it off unwillingly. She had no time for that! Maybe she should have heeded her premonition… Firefly entered the House of Healing’s courtyard. During spring and summer, certainly the inpatients certainly reclined on the benches overshadowed by the three oak trees or went for a walk in the near grove, but today was rather chilly and the sky seemed to cloud over as well and so they probably rather stood on their rooms. Just a single and remarkably bony creature that could only be named a goat with a lot of goodwill was sweeping together colourful leaves with a birch broom. The old billy-goat seemed to be some kind of gardener or maybe janitor here. “Good day”, Firefly greeted the old timer. “Excuse me, could you possibly show me the way to Doctor Calm Mind?” “Why ye buggin’ auld Rover?” he bawled her out with his brittle, nagging voice. “I am looking for Doctor Calm Mind”, Firefly stressed, trying to keep calm. She didn’t want to waste time with old goats. Especially when they were as unfriendly as Rover. The billy-goat sighed and put down his broom. “Gran’ so… Folly Rover!” Rover led Firefly through the main gate and along the hallways of the hospital. The walls had been whitewashed, probably to make them less depressing. Then they had to climb up a creaking old staircase. Then a little further down the corridor and finally they stood in front of a door. The name tag expelling the room as Doctor Calm Mind’s working room was so well-nigh flashy and craving for attention, that at once the prejudice imposed on Firefly the Doctor would be utterly fond of herself. The billy-goat carefully knocked on the door with his hoof. A few moments went past, then an energetic voice, accustomed to give orders, resounded from inside the room. “Come in!” Rover opened the door and quite vainly tried to straighten his back. “Excuse me, m’lady, this young mare ‘ere wants ter see yer.” Calm Mind was a unicorn just past the peak of her life. Her features were as energetic as her voice, her coat was white and she was wearing her grizzled mane tied up in a stern bun. “Thank you, Rover. You may go now.” The old goat absent himself without any further word, leaving Firefly and the Doctor alone. Calm Mind took some time to organize the paperwork on her desk, then her ice-grey eyes met Firefly’s own purple ones. “How can I help you, Miss?” Calm Mind said, though it sounded more like ‘What do you want?’ The blue pegasus saluted. “Firefly, member of the Royal Guard”, she introduced herself. It couldn’t hurt to overegg the pudding just a little. “I’m here to offer my service, Doctor. Y’know, in this case of the missing filly.” Calm Mind examined her carefully, like a jeweller trying to check the genuineness of a gemstone. Firefly felt really uncomfortable under the unicorn’s perusing glance, and she started to sweat. “I understand pegasi have the sharpest eyes of all ponies. That true?” Firefly nodded; that indeed was a common belief. “Any further qualifications?” Doctor Mind wanted to know. “I’ve… I’ve been trained in Canterlot, if that counts…” “It does.” The unicorn physician gave her and inexplicable look. She put her hooves together and said: “Alright, I am a very busy mare, besides I have a reputation to loose on my part. So let’s stop wasting time with formalities and get down to the basics.” I’ll second that, Firefly thought but she kept silent. Calm Mind was emitting such an authority that not even Firefly had any problems to watch her mouth. “You already know about the case?” The doctor wanted to know, but didn’t wait for an answer anyway. She fetched a sheet of paper and pushed it across the desk with her hoof; it was the missing report Firefly already had seen. “We need to find this filly. She was inpatient in our ward for mental deficiencies, was suffering from an especially severe case of memory loss.” Firefly had the indistinct feeling she was supposed to say something now to display her professionality. “And she just disappeared?” she thus asked a little stupidly. For the first time Doctor Calm’s voice revealed a slight uncertainty: “Yes… Yes, disappeared. About two weeks ago. She was badly confused and had lost her memory. Sad case. Never thought she’d run away, though.” Not one or two days, one or two weeks! That was bad news. “We already had this sketches of her made because we wanted to find out who she was. To find her family. My employees have showed them around in town once more, of course with the necessary discretion. Doesn’t bear contemplating what it would do to our reputation if that would be announced publicly! Unfortunately wasn’t in town that day so I can’t tell you more…” On the second thought Firefly had to amend her estimation. That wasn’t bad, that was a catastrophe! A moonstruck filly, alone, wandering about a town, even if it was as small as Hollow Shades? For two weeks? Either she had escaped all by herself and now somepony was hiding her, or somepony had abducted her, or she was dead. True, there was also the possibility the filly had managed to leave Hollow Shades. But with a look at the untamed wilderness surrounding the town, then… She was probably dead by now as well. Firefly was looking at the pitch black side in this case, and she didn’t really want her first case as a guard to be the one to break her already… “We’re not hoping for a wonder”, Calm Mind continued, she was all self-possessed again. Firefly on the other hoof wasn’t good at all in overacting her feelings, of course the Doctor had noticed her shocked expression… “But we must leave nothing untried. Would be against my conscience if we wouldn’t try everything within pony power for the poor filly. ” The physician locked Firefly’s eyes with her own look again. Then she said: “Not exactly the case to make your mark, or is it?” Bullseye! She was unmasked. Calm Mind had seen through Firefly, and probably right from the beginning. The pegasus blushed beneath her coat. The last she wanted was to look like an overeager youngster, but the damage was already done. What had she thought anyway to just waltz into Calm Mind’s office and try to trick a genius like her? Firefly could be mistaking, but she thought to see a smile full of grim satisfaction flashing over Calm Mind’s lips for a moment. But then, much to Firefly’s surprise, the doctor asked her, almost friendly: “Still want to offer your help?” Was that an olive branch she was offering her? Or just another test? It didn’t matter to Firefly. Doctor Mind hadn’t sent her away and that meant not everything was lost yet. At this point, compassion for the lost filly (but sadly also her own pride) dictated her decision: “Yes, I still offer my help”, she firmly answered. “All the more, actually.” Doctor Calm Mind actually looked surprised. That was an answer she scarcely had expected. Then she gave her opposite an almost unnoticeable nod of approval. “Alright. Look around! Investigate! Gather evidences! Maybe an pegasus’ eye can see what ours’ couldn’t. All convenient hints will be rewarded liberally.” Finally, Calm Mind got up from her seat. She put out her hoof across the desk. “Deal?” she asked. “Deal”, Firefly replied and shook her hoof on it. Firefly never accepted a defeat. Oh yes, she would face this out to the very end, come what may! ****