Poison.
The North was going to use poison to take back the South.
Starlight sat in silence surrounded by her old equipment. Her hearing went dull as only the faintest buzzing from within her head was audible.
A wave of tranquility began to wash over her, the pieces immediately came together and Starlight finally knew what the North had been hiding all along. They must’ve felt entitled to the southern side. It was built using the old methods which were now being thrown away by ponies in the South.
But she never thought they could stoop to such a heinous measure to take back what they saw as theirs. She had heard it with her own ears and it was clear as day. Not only were they planning an attack on the South, but they were doing it tonight.
Starlight wasn’t sure what she could do. For a moment she sat in a near hypnotic state, staring off at nothing in particular and believing that perhaps all of this was a bad dream. It must be. She looked around the room for a sign but saw nothing out of the ordinary. She knew what she’d heard, and she knew what she’d seen.
While still stuck in a daze, she slowly reached out and flipped the red switch on her system and everything began to power down as Starlight broke free from trance.
She had to warn the others. She got up from her seat and rushed out of the cramped room, lifting the lantern with her. She ran back up the stairs in a feverish flurry of hoof steps, ignoring the secret room which she left open. She ran back through her room and through her former home, arriving at the back door.
She bolted out of the cottage and toward the South. She still couldn’t believe what was happening, Double Diamond and Ember Shine had once been so loyal to her. In fact, in her drunken state of power, she even considered them her friends. How could they do such a thing?
And for that matter, what of the other ponies in the North, were they all in on it as well? They had to be, Double Diamond and Ember weren’t just going to present them with the southern town with no explanation. The whole North must know what is being planned.
Suddenly, Starlight turned her thoughts to Flame Heart. Had they kidnapped her in order to test their poison? It was a grim thought, but Starlight wouldn’t put it past them. She would mourn for her later, but now it was about protecting the South, by any means necessary.
At Starlight’s fast pace she reached the Southern cottages in moments. She galloped through the dirt path and looked for the baker’s corner.
She burst through the door and trotted to the back.
Empty.
“Hello! Sugar Belle!…Night Glider!… Rarity!…Any pony!” she announced in the empty bakery, only her own echo responding.
She sat on her haunches for just a moment to catch her breath, or perhaps to clear her mind. She began to wonder how much of what was happening was her own fault. She was the one who brainwashed everyone in the first place.
After only a few seconds, the front door opened and the four ponies began to step inside.
“Starlight, is everything okay? We heard you shouting from next door,” Sugar Belle asked.
Starlight got up from the floor and regained her composure. “No, everything’s not okay.” she said, shaking her head.
“Why, did you find out something new from Double Diamond?” asked Party Favor.
“No…no.” Starlight continued to shake her head. “We… we need to gather everyone in town and leave right now,” Starlight said trotting towards the four and the entrance of the bakery.
“Woah, wait a second,” Night Glider put a hoof up and stopped her, the rest looked on in panic. “Why don’t you slow down and tell us what’s going on?”
“The North are… Well, at least Double Diamond and Ember Shine and planning an attack on all of us tonight.”
“An attack?” Rarity questioned.
“Yes, with poison,” Starlight clarified.
“No way, I know they don’t like us all that much, but they would never plan to poison us,” Night Glider said clearly upset. “What is this, some sort of plan to get back in control?”
“Night Glider!” Sugar Belle shouted.
“You really think Double Diamond would try and poison us?!” Night Glider shot back.
Starlight knew Night Glider couldn't accept what she was saying. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t heard with my own ears.”
“So what, they just told you their plan than?”
“Not exactly.” Starlight sighed. “I went over to Double Diamond’s and Ember was there. He met with me reluctantly, but he didn’t tell me anything new. So…” Starlight paused.
“So….?” Night Glider mimicked.
Starlight didn’t want to admit her deplorable spying. “So I left, but I went around back and listened to their conversation… They were mixing potions and I listened to them. Night Glider, they were making poison, and they said they were using it tonight.”
Night Glider just shook her head, the others looked on in horror.
After a moment Night Glider picked back up. “Fine…but I’m not leaving. I won’t run away.”
“Night Glider no, you can’t stay here, they’ll…”
“I’m staying too,” Sugar Belle interrupted. “This is our home, and we won’t be forced out.”
“Me three, we can hold of the likes of them,” Party Favor added.
Rarity joined in them as well. “I’ll stay too.”
Starlight wanted to protest but she knew it was no use, they were staying. After all, this was their home now and they were going to anything it took to protect it.
——————————
After only a short time, the South prepared themselves to defend their town.
Most of the ponies were brought to Sugar Belle’s Bakery which was decided to be the safest spot as it sat safely in the middle of the town. They would stay there together until the attack was over.
Sugar Belle, Party Favor and Rarity would stay behind in order to protect the bakery. Night Glider and Starlight, along with two other pegasi, would keep watch over the town for signs of the attack, protecting the others as the first line of defense.
Many of the southern ponies they told of the impending attack were horrified, but Starlight was surprised when most gave the same reaction as Night Glider did, refusing to believe the North, with all their faults, would actually plan such a vicious attack.
Starlight could only imagine the misery of their scene. The North wasn’t just random ponies, they were neighbors, friends, and now they were going to launch an attack in order to take back what they saw as theirs.
Starlight couldn’t help but think of the situation as she and Night Glider stood on top of one of the cottages while Silver Storms and Blossom Wind were flying around the town in shifts.
Starlight walked to one side of the cottage roof while Night Glider remained on the opposite side. She could see how anxious the pegasus was and decided to leave her alone with her thoughts as Starlight looked over the landscape.
She found herself embarrassingly enjoying the view as the sun just began it’s descent towards the horizon, which bathed the sky in the most beautiful shade of amber.
The wind had begun to pulsate and almost breathe cool wind towards the purple unicorn which soothed and relaxed her. Her thoughts were able to catch up to her mind and she found that for the first time all day she was able to just unwind, even if just for a moment. She wasn’t running around or trying to solve a mystery, she was able to just catch her breath, however imminent the northern attack felt.
She stood watch for a while as Night Glider, Silver Storms and Blossom Wind switched turns flying around. Night Glider hadn’t said anything to Starlight all night, so it certainly didn’t help that as a unicorn she felt ineffective in keeping a watchful eye over the town.
“Nothing yet, huh?”
Starlight’s endless stare outwardly to the mountain range was shattered and she turned around to find Silver Storms standing there. He must’ve just switched out with Blossom and she hadn’t noticed.
“Nothing…” Starlight said, almost in humiliation.
“Yea, it’s the waiting…” Silver said walking towards her. “The waiting’s the worst part.”
Starlight agreed, but only silently.
“When I’m up there all I can think about is what went wrong….It’s like maybe we should've listened to them more. I don’t know why we put up that stupid wall in the first place, of course it was only going to make us hate each other more.”
Starlight turned to the pegasus in surprise. “You… you don’t blame them, do you?”
He let out a large sigh before responding.“I don't know. If they truly do attack us, then yeah I’ll be mad, but I can’t help but think we could’ve done things differently.”
“Tell me about it,” Starlight said flatly, getting an honest laugh from the pegasus.
Suddenly, Starlight let out a large almost exaggerated yawn. She turned to him, her face slightly red. “Sorry, it’s been a long day.”
“Yeah, and it’s only gonna get worse too.” He shrugged. “Hopefully we won’t be out to much longer. If we can deal with the north, of course.”
Silver Storms was about to return to his side of the roof to resume his watch when Starlight stopped him. “Hey wait, can I ask you a question?”
He stopped and spun around. “Sure.”
“Does Night Glider hate me?”
Silver began to walk back to Starlight. “No no, she doesn’t hate you. I think she’s just really upset at everything that's been happening, not just today, but over the last few weeks, especially that business with Flame Heart. I kinda feel like she’s wants to protect everyone, and losing her has made her feel…” He paused looking for the word. “Vulnerable. But she’ll come around, especially if we can stop the attack tonight.”
Starlight gave a faint smile. She hadn’t considered Night Glider would feel that way, but it made sense. As the most powerful flyer and best fighter, she clearly felt an obligation to the other ponies. And while the others could let their guards down and accept that Starlight had changed. Night Glider simply couldn’t take the risk. After all, she already lost one friend from her side, and who would protect everypony if Starlight really had come back just to seek some revenge or take back the town?
She came here for forgiveness, but while it was clear that Double Diamond was too far gone, she just hoped that she could make regain Night Glider’s trust.
————————
The night sky was blackened as dusk had come and gone hours earlier. Still no sign of any attack. It didn’t make any sense. Starlight was sure she had heard the plan was for tonight, but after several hours there was no certainly no sign of any attack. In fact, there were no signs of any ponies from the North.
The only thought that crossed Starlight’s mind was that they were waiting until midnight when everypony had went to sleep before they would attack, it was the only option that made any sense now.
Starlight revealed her concern to the three pegasi who reluctantly agreed that she was probably right, which meant they would be out all night just waiting.
While Starlight believed the North’s plan was still on, she desperately wanted a confirmation of the plan, and she knew just where to get it.
One simple lie later, and Starlight was back in her surveillance room once more. She held the lantern and placed it on the desk before she blew off some of the cobwebs she had missed earlier and wiped of some the grey dust which sat on her recording equipment.
She flipped the switch once more and the machine choked on reluctantly.
She raised the volume on the speakers and with the channel still set to Double Diamond’s, she waited for some revelation of unrestrained tongues.
She waited for a minute, then for another minute, then she began to wonder if they had moved to another cottage. She clicked the old stubborn dial around looking a hint of life.
Channel three, nothing.
Channel two, nothing.
Channel one, nothing.
She continued turning the dial, clicking it backwards.
Channel five, nothing.
Channel six, nothing.
Where was everypony? It didn’t make sense that they could all be asleep, Starlight spied on ponies all the time in the middle of the night and could always hear at least half of them snoring as though their airways were trying to kill them.
Starlight began frantically clicking the dial back around, she must’ve missed something. She raised the volume on the speakers, hearing the buzz of speakers being pushed to their limit, at which point she was able to make out crickets chirping outside the homes in which the speaker boxes resided.
She realized they weren’t there, the entire northern town had picked up and left. She sat dazed for a minute, perhaps they were attacking just at that very moment, but Starlight simply didn’t believe it.
She had gotten something wrong, she just knew it. Something in what she had heard, but she knew what they’d said and there was no way she’d forget anytime soon.
‘After tonight we won’t have worry about any pony in the south ever again.’ The phrase uttered just earlier in the day, began to ring out in Starlight’s ears once more.
She turned off the recording equipment and headed back out her former cottage, careful not to be seen by any of the pegasi. She was grateful to find that during her outing the North had not attacked the South, but she still wasn’t sure what was going on.
She began to tell herself that perhaps the North wasn’t planning some grandiose attack to take back the South after all, maybe she was wrong about that all along.
She tried to come up with any alternate answer. She contemplated whether Night Glider was right and they were just planning to move, but like most of the answers she came up with, it failed to explain the poison they were making and had planned to use that very night.
She found herself looking up towards the old cave as if searching for an answer. All of a sudden, she stopped in tracks and stared at the cave she had not seen in months, a cave where she’d removed many cutie marks, a flash of revelation suddenly burst through her mind in an instant.
It wasn’t poison at all, and it certainly wasn’t meant for the south.