Chapter 2
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SURVEY IN THE MADHOUSE
Firefly had no clear notion what to do now. Too much time had passed since filly’s disappearance, there was no changing that. To find any hot scents was very unlikely; but if Firefly was anything, then persistent: The dare she’d shy away from had yet to be invented. And yet...
Sticking to the truth, this kind of work wasn’t really Firefly’s strength. Patience was her strong point not, and carefulness neither. There was a reason she was never assigned to kitchen duty anymore…
So Firefly wandered the hallways of the House of Healing a little aimlessly, looking for anything that appeared suspicious. She was wondering what questions she should ask herself in a situation like this. Surely, how the filly had been hosted…
So far, so good, and what else had she to think about?
Foremost apparently, that even a pegasus needed to watch where she was putting her hooves. On her way out, and as she was keeping her eyes and mind on everything else but where she was going, she at once tripped over the joist to the entrance hall and bumped into an earth pony who was just walking the other direction. It was only due to presence of mind of the light grey stallion that she didn’t fall. His put out foreleg halted her.
“Typically pegasus”, the stallion said. He sounded neither indignant nor very surprised; of course he had seen her coming. “The head always in the clouds.”
“I’m sorry”, Firefly apologized. That had really been exceptionally clumsy of her. Now she tried to search for some way to change the subject as quick as possible.
“Never mind”, the stallion said with only the hint of a sigh. He was wearing a patchy neckcloth in different grey and brown tones, beneath this scarf Firefly recognized the already known moon symbol, this time in shape of a silver pendant with metallic-black inlay, next to another pendant that seemed to be the fang of some animal of prey. The stallion’s mane was dark, he wouldn’t have stood out from the other earth ponies in town, hadn’t a white bandage covered his left eye.
“So, um, are you a patient here?” Firefly found a way to divert. She nodded towards his hoodwink. The stallion seemed a little confused by her question.
“What gives ye that idea?” he wondered, but then he realized, what Firefly was referring to: “Oh, ye mean…”
He rose his hoof to the bandage covering his eye. “That, yes. That is a rather old condition, actually. But well, I think ye could say I am a patient of Doctor Calm Mind. At least sort of.”
Firefly decided that ‘at least sort of’ would suffice. Maybe he was able to tell her more about what was going on in this sanatorium.
“So, I take from your uniform that ye are some kind of… soldier”, the stallion tried to start a converstaion.
It took Firefly a while to realize what exactly seemed odd about him. In the younger generation, during the last twenty years or so, the old fashioned forms of address ‘ye’ and ‘thou’ had eventually been ousted in favour for a generic ‘you’. Strange, the stallion didn’t seem that old, maybe in the mid of his twenties …
“Not a soldier!” she however was glad to go into the subject and at once proudly corrected him. “I’m a member of the Royal Guard.”
She actually meant no harm with that, but she had been taught that the Royal Guard was something elite, so she simply had to put that misunderstanding right.
A smile appeared on the stallion’s lips. He slightly tilted his head to hint a bow.
“Of course, my apologies, Royal Guard.”
That actually went pretty well, Firefly thought. He didn’t seem to take it the wrong way, which was perfect because maybe Firefly could try to sound him out a little, now.
“Sooo”, she drawled, trying to sound as casually as possible. "Did anything strange happen recently?”
“Anything strange?” The stallion wound up his brow. “Ye do realize that Doctor Mind treats mental diseases here as well, do ye not? I fear ye need to be a bit more precise.”
“Alright, if you absolutely want to know... I’m kind of conducting an investigation here…”
“An investigation, I see. So that is the way the wind is blowing…”
The smile didn’t fade, but it suddenly seemed more cunning, vulpine even.
“Well”, he then said. “I am afraid I myself cannot help ye.” He shook his head. “Anyway, if I were determined to stick my nose in other ponies’ business, in your place I would ask myself two questions.”
“Namely?”
“First: Did Calm Mind tell you the full truth?
And second: Why is this filly so important?
Now, please excuse me, I must hurry…”
But Firefly wouldn’t let him leave just like that. He knew about the filly! Was everypony in the House of Healing in the know? Of course, she might have guessed that had been inevitable, no matter how much Calm Mind was trying to sweep it under the rug – But these hints the stallion had given her followed a completely different track than everything Firefly had figured out so far. Did he have any inside knowledge on this case?
“No, please wait!” Firefly called out and tried to stop the earth pony. “What else do you know? What are the answers to these questions?”
Already on the leave, he turned his head back towards Firefly once more. Contrary to his previous smile, his expression was absolutely stern, as he said:
“I fear I have no answers. But as for what else I know: I know Calm Mind is a mare of science through and through. And whatever ye plan to do, ye should consider that.
Now fare well, Royal Guard, good luck and the Twelve grant that ye find the filly soon!”
Once again, he tilted his head for a bow, and then he walked away, just like that, leaving behind a Firefly who was even slightly more confused than before. All these overtones and presumptions were rather repulsive to her, but they managed fired up her curiosity as well. True, she didn’t climb through at all, but she couldn’t just let it rest either…
She grimaced. What had she gotten herself into?
****
Doctor Calm Mind was having her usual afternoon cup of tea. She had already poured hot water over the leafs, the tea had brewed, and now was about to add sugar to her cup, five spoonfull, as always, when for the second time today, somepony was knocking on her door. To her annoyance, her visitor didn’t wait for her to invite him in, but instead opened the door right away. She casted a sombre glance at the newcomer.
“Ah, there you are”, she said and her expression lightened up a little. “Took you long enough, Silver Blaze!”
“Ye have sent me on quite an errant after all”, Silver Blaze stated and calmly closed the door. “That reminds me”, he stated. “I have bumped into a young pegasus on the way hither. She is asking questions, tried to sound me out about the missing filly…”
“Of course. Know that”, Calm Mind replied. “Have given her that permission personally.”
Silver Blaze wrinkled his muzzle and dared to oppose: “Ye have strived after utmost secrecy, and now ye allow this younker to nose around? Is that wise, Doctor?”
Doctor Calm Mind took a long sip of her cup, before she answered. “Your vaunted sharp-sightedness seems to have ceased lately. Thought maybe I should create an incentive for you to try harder.”
“Is it my fault ye called for my aid over a week too late?” Silver Blaze went into a fret. “The scent is long since cold! Sharp-sightedness or not, even if I were able to smell tracks like a hound, the result would scarcely be different! I am still doing my best to nevertheless help ye, but if ye prefer that fledgling’s help over mine, go on ahead, I have been in one place for too long anyway…”
“Calm down!” Doctor Mind admonished. “Glad to see though, that one can still pack you - if no longer in your honour- but at least in your ambitions.”
Silver Blaze snorted unwillingly, but he said nothing and so Calm Mind continued:
“We can’t hope to find any hot scents now, know that of course. However, I refuse to belief that anypony can vanish without a trace, somepony must have noticed something…”
“If so", Blaze harrumphed. "They are not willing to talk. Not to me at least. Ragstitch trusts me no more and the Guard’s captain was even so kind to order that none of his soldiers shall talk to me at all!”
“Troublesome indeed”, Doctor Calm Mind admitted. “But that’s a general problem with these ponies here. Considering the belief most of us share, I thought they’d support us at least a little more.” She sounded very dissatisfied. “They figure our work for witchcraft and become scared… Pshaw! If only they knew what I’m really planning…
Alack, forget it!”
She now adopted a more business-like tone: “Don’t cudgel your brain, leave the planning to me.”
“What is your plan then?”
“That young pegasus suits us just fine. She’s not one of us, no, she’s a Royal Guard and that carries weight even this far away from Canterlot. And what’s more important: She’s inexperienced and looks it, too. Ponies will underestimate her. They will talk to her more carelessly than to us. And eventually they will tip their hooves.
Oh, a light’s dawning to you, isn’t it? Experienced that yourself, didn’t you?”
“Maybe”, Blaze hesitatingly conceded. “But even if so, will she be able to make use of what she may learn?”
“That doesn’t matter. You will be. Follow her, watch her, gain her trust, do whatever is necessary to learn what she has learned! Am sure you’ll be able to uncover the truth eventually.”
That was a quite long explanation, especially for Calm Mind. Silver Blaze seemed fittingly impressed: “As cunning as always, Doctor!”
“They surely don’t call me Calm Mind for no reason, Silver.” Doctor Calm smiled a chilly, self-complacent smile and indulged another sip of tea.
“And yet…”
Doctor Calm Mind slowly put the cup back on its saucer again. On the second glance Silver Blaze didn’t seem all so convinced. She could hear it in his words that he was sceptical. And she knew the look he was giving her, it was the same critical look she used to value her opposite, the same appraising glance she had acknowledged Firefly with earlier.
“What’s wrong?” she wanted to know. Calm Mind wasn’t used to criticism, but on the other hoof, Silver Blaze surely was none of her dull nurses. She appreciated him precisely because he -unlike most other ponies- was trying to use his mind, to think logical before acting. Even if she wished he wouldn’t exercise himself in logic right now...
“If we suppose”, Silver Blaze began. “That the filly is still alive – and only heaven knows, how ye can be so sure about that! However, if ye say, she is alive, I am going to trust ye insofar.”
Calm Mind was expecting a big ‘but’ now, and she shouldn't be disappointed: “But even if so, why do we pull off all this effort in the first place?” Blaze started to pace up and down the room. “All this planning and scheming… Please, get me not wrong... That seems to me a lot like exactly the kind of obsession ye try to cure here…”
“Since when am I accountable to you?” Calm mind retorted icily. “Are you questioning my methods, Silver Blaze?”
“All I want to say”, Blaze relented calmingly. “Is that I am failing to see the bigger picture here… What is your plan?”
“I’ve told you all you needed to know”, Calm Mind staved off. But then she changed her mind and went over to Silver Blaze. She placed her hoof on his shoulder. Well-wrought surely, but also a gesture of dowright outrageous familiarity for the unicorn doctor. This probably made a bigger impression than any chosen word the doctor could say to Silver Blaze. Nevertheless, she told him urgently:
“Trust me just this one more time, my friend! This is far beyond both of us. There’s one lesson we should learn from all we’ve been through the last years: The whole future of Equestria is on the scale, Silver, and maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to get the key to this future in capable hooves where it belonged all the time. Now, don’t tell me, you of all ponies wouldn’t move sun and moon for this!”
Silver Blaze nodded with grim determination. After the fall of the Black Dragon, the Princess had promised Equestria a golden future. Silver Blaze and Calm Mind knew better. For too long, the two of them -No! They all- had wandered dark paths; sanguinity alone was never enough...
“The Princess of the Night be with us", he declared. "It shall be done as ye wish."
****