//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Victor's Cliff // Story: The Underwatch // by thatguyvex //------------------------------// Chapter 3: Victor’s Cliff “Okay, I think I’ve got it. Do you have any fours?” Blossomforth asked, pointing at the other pegasus mare at the table. Quickaim just cracked a thin grin. "Another miss, rookie. Now toss me your highest card.” “Dang it!” Blossomforth said, pulling out the queen of spades from her hoof of cards and tossing it Quickaim’s way, who caught it deftly with a wing and tucked it among her own cards. To the left of her, Snakebite rattled a rich laugh, “I keep telling you, pay more attention to who's taking what from whom, darling.” “Trixie does not... I mean, I still do not grasp the point of this game,” Trixie said, peering at the piles of cards both on the table and floating before her in a aura of magic. “These rules are utterly baffling. It's like you’ve stitched together the worst parts of Go Fish and Old Mares together then decided to use every esoteric rule from Bridge to form an unholy amalgam of a card game designed purely for the purpose of torturing souls into madness.” “Welcome to Southern Barrier Lands logic,” said Coldiron, frowning at both her hoof of cards, very pointedly not being levitated by her magic but instead held in her hooves, “I prefer good, old fashioned poker.” Snakebite scoffed, “Poker? Foals play. Scales is a sophisticated game for intelligent minds to hone their skills of observation, memorization, risk assessment, and-” “And wasting time,” muttered Blackwall, “Is somepony going to take their turn or are we going to bellyache all night?” “Of course my dear,” said Snakebite, flipping over a card on the set in front of him on the table, “Blackwall, you don’t happen to have any tens?” Blackwall grunted, snatching a pair of tens from her hand and tossing them at Snakebite, who grinned toothily. Chuckling, another pony at the table, a unicorn stallion with ginger fur and a short cut black mane said with a yawn, “Assuming we’re on time, does anypony even know what we expect to find in Victor’s Cliff?” “Weren’t there stories of Lurkers there? I thought the Captain said that,” said Allie Way, frowning at her own cards, turning them this way and that as if unsure of just how to hold them. “Not exactly a lot to go on, is it?” said the ginger unicorn, leaning one elbow on the table and plopping his chin in his hoof, tail swishing behind him in an irritable twitch, “Lack of intel makes me nervous. “You’re always nervous, Coalburn.” said Blackwall. “You two know each other?” asked Trixie. Before Blackwall could answer, Coalburn spoke up, making a sour look with his face. “Blackwall and me were both stationed at the same fort in the North. Been on a few patrols together, but we were separate platoons, technically.” “And on each patrol you never failed to say something along the lines of, ‘I got a bad feeling about this’ or ‘ we don’t have enough intel,” said Blackwall, “I assumed you did that just to make sure that when things did inevitably go wrong, you could claim to have predicted it.” “Nothing quite like being able to say ‘I told you so’,” said Coalburn, licking his lips as he peered at his cards, “But seriously, I do have a bad feeling about this. We are entirely too blind to be rushing into deployment this fast.” “What would you have us do?” asked Coldiron, “Wait until the Lurkers do to another town what they did to Arrow Vale? We can’t sit on our tails and just let the spiders do as they please.” “Probably could have waited until we had more muscle to throw at the problem than just us,” said Coalburn, “I mean, seriously, even if we do dig up some Lurkers, which is a big if at this point, what’s one platoon going to accomplish?” “We were but one squad and we were able to face the Lurkers readily enough,” said Trixie, rather avoiding mentioning that during that initial encounter beneath Arrow Vale that she and her friends had also had help from the local villagers, and had actually had to flee from just one of the larger Lurkers. “We’ll deal with whatever requires dealing with,” said Coldiron firmly, “And we won’t know anything until we reach Victor’s Cliff.” “How long until we get there?” asked Blossomforth, “Nice as it is to be in the air again, its weirdly uncomfortable now that... well...” she wiggled her wing stumps, “If the ship decides to crash I’m suddenly a lot less able to survive it.” “How do you think I feel? I never could fly, and here I am in a contraption coasting along hundreds of feet in the air,” said Snakebite, “Far as I’m concerned we can’t get back to solid ground fast enough. As to the question, depends on the winds, but I’d guess at least another day.” “Are you all still playing this?” asked a tired looking Seeker as he poked his head through the hatch to their sleeping quarters,. “Haven’t at least one of you lost enough bits to quit?” “We’re not playing for bits, sadly,” said Snakebite, “Wouldn’t be fair to the rookies, would it?” Seeker perked up and eyebrow, “What’s the point then?” Blossomforth waved back at him, smiling, “Getting to know each other, of course! Why don’t you join us?” Seeker tilted his head, regarding Blossomforth for a moment before saying, “Thanks for the offer, but I’d rather not. I was just going to get some fresh air up on the deck.” With that he trotted off, Trixie quirking an eyebrow at his departure. “Do you think we woke him up?” Blossomforth shrugged, “Eh, we were getting kinda loud. And it is getting pretty late. Maybe we ought to call it and all get some shut eye? Not that I wasn’t really enjoying this and all.” “You were losing spectacularly,” said Blackwall bluntly. “Hey, you can have fun and lose at the same time,” said Blossomforth, and the look on Blackwall’s face could not have further communicated the extent to which she didn’t grasp what Blossomforth meant. Coldiron coughed, setting her cards down. “I’ll second the notion of sleep. We’ll need all the rest we can get.” “A shame to close things down with the night so young, but perhaps that’s coming from my nocturnal persuasion,” said Snakebite, yawning, “Regardless, it's been a pleasure ladies.” Coalburn gave him a short glare, to which Snakebite chuckled and added, “Ladies and Coalburn.” As cards were put away and ponies started shuffling off to their pallets, Blossomforth stretched and glanced towards the door to the hallway running the length of the ship. Allie Way paused beside her, looking at Blossomforth curiously. “Not going to bed?” “Eh, I know I suggested it, but I’m not quite tired enough yet to do more than toss about,” she said, “Might go up on deck and get some fresh air too” Allie Way looked at her oddly for a moment, perhaps worried, but just nodded, “Okay, well, goodnight then.” Blossomforth trotted out, following the hallway back to a wider area with stairs that led up to the hatch to the top deck. The air up there was sharply chilly, and caused her wing stumps to reflexively move as if to shroud her body with her wings to keep warm. Instead all Blossomforth could do was shiver. While it was already more than an hour since sundown and the sky was dark, there was still plenty of light from both the stairs in a largely cloudless sky and the bright expanse of Luna’s moon. It made getting around the deck without tripping over anything easy enough. There were several Legion crewponies on deck, either performing watch duties or keeping the ship properly steered through the night, but none of them bothered the Underwatch members, either Blossomforth or Seeker. She spotted the earth pony pacing around the starboard side of the ship. He turned a questioning look her way as she approached. “I’m not interested in joining the game, if that’s what you came up here for,” he said. “Huh? Oh, no, we decided to call it. Get some sleep and all that.” “I don’t see you sleeping,” Seeker pointed out. “I’m, uh, having trouble sleeping these days,” Blossomforth said, “Just too much excitement, you know?” He stared at her for a moment, then turned away to look out over the nighttime landscape passing slowly beneath them. His nose twitched, “We’re heading into some foul weather.” She came up beside him, glancing at the horizon. She didn’t see a trace of clouds, but she sniffed at the air anyway. Plenty of humidity, bit of a hint of something acrid. “Hmm, might be right. Used to be on my hometown’s weather patrol, and sometimes the Everfree got a scent like this. Means rain, thunder.” “Weather patrol?” Seeker face grew more relaxed, and curiosity painted his thin features. “Yeah, you know, busting clouds, moving clouds, uh... shaping clouds? Pretty much anything involving clouds you can think of. We’re responsible for the ruination of sunny days and creating picture perfect picnic weather alike!” “To what purpose?” he asked, “Who decides if a day deserves bad weather or not?” To that Blossomforth opened her mouth... closed it. Tilted her head in thought, then said, “You know, I never did ask where we got our instructions from. The weather administration department? I don’t even know if that’s a thing, but I think I saw that on one of the reports at the weather patrol station, once. Huh, weird, I never actually questioned why we regulated the weather the way we did. So, not like that out here?” “The weather is beyond our control,” Seeker said, a rough note entering his tone, “If we could, it’d make the Legion’s battles a hundred times easier. Imagine what we could do if we could make it snow or rain at will?” He frowned in puzzlement, “Just how do you do it in the Heartland?” Blossomforth shrugged, “I don’t know, we just... do. I guess all of your weather out here is like the Everfree back home. That forest has always had weather with a will of its own. Guess our control of the weather was just another gift Princess Celestia tossed our way.” Seeker abruptly snorted a laugh, and Blossomforth gave him a sidelong look, “What? What’s so funny?” “Nothing. It’s just, I have a hard time imagining what your ‘Princesses’ are like, and all I could try to conjure in my head to match was a female version of Prince Terrato,” He gave another snort, as if he didn’t actually know what a laugh was supposed to sound like, “It was not a pleasant mental picture.” “So, you’ve seen this Prince Terry?” To that question Seeker made more a choking sound, “Prince Terry?” “Err, Terrato, sorry. So, um, have you ever seen him? I kind of try to wonder what he looks like too, same as you wonder about Princess Celestia, and all I can think of is a male Celestia... huh... which now that i’m thinking about it is kinda hot.” Seeker rubbed his head as if trying to expunge a headache, “Strange. You are beyond strange. At any rate, yes I’ve seen the Prince. Not met him in any capacity, but seen him when he visited Bastion City.” “What’s he like?” “...Why do you ask?” “I dunno, I guess I’ve just been thinking a lot lately about the Princesses, and why they decided to separate us all in the first place,” Blossomforth said, gazing at the land. Despite the dark expanse, she could make out the silvery ribbons of rivers passing through thickening hills, and the orange flickers from a few villages that still had ponies awake. She thought they were still in the Heartland, but approaching the southwest edge of what was once commonly thought of as ‘Equestria’, before reaching the Barrier Lands. She sighed, “I wonder what things would be like if that never happened. If we had all stayed together, you know? One herd.” Seeker’s expression softened to one of reserved contemplation, also looking out over the land. Eventually he shook his head, heaving out a sigh. “There’s no point thinking about that. There’s no changing the past, and you can barely change the future.” “That’s pretty bleak.” “Yeah, but it’s honest,” he said, rubbing at his eyes, and turning away from the edge of the deck, "Anyway, to answer your question... Prince Terrato isn't really an easy one to describe. He's the foundation the Legion has built itself upon. Everything we are, we owe to him. Makes it hard to think about him as anything other than a figure larger than life, you know? Is it the same for you with your Princesses?" Blossomforth thought about it for a moment, then found herself saying, "I think so. Princess Luna didn't return to us until recently, but for a thousand years Princess Celestia has been this beacon we've all looked towards to guide us. A foundation, like you said with your Prince. I don't know, she always seemed to try to be... accessible, though? I met her when she came to Ponyville a few times, and while everypony was making a big deal of it, and she had those Royal Guards of hers around, I just got the feeling she was trying to connect with us. Did you ever feel the same with Prince Terrato?" Seeker gave a sardonic, wry smile, "I don't know if I'd use the word 'connect', exactly, but the Prince has always shown the Legion respect for the tasks we do." "Hmm... I hope with the reunification, with him being with his sisters again, that things will get better." Blossomforth said, leaning on the railing and twitching her wing stumps with an unconscious want to feel some of the breeze on her now nonexistent feathers. Seeker watched her a few seconds, then said, “You usually sleep on your back?” “Huh?” she blinked at him, “What brought that up?” He nodded at her back with a grim look, “Your wings. That’s why you’re having trouble sleeping, right? Used to having them there to balance you while you lay on your back?” “I... yes. That’s how I used to sleep. Now all I feel are these stumps. It makes it really hard to relax,” she said with a small gulp. “Try your stomach then. Even the sides, you’ll feel the stumps,” he said, looking away from her, “My sister lost a wing in the line of duty a few years back. Had the same problem. Had to switch to sleeping on her stomach to be able to get a decent night’s sleep again.” Blossomforth just watched him in the dark for a few moments, a bit taken aback, but then she managed a warm smile, “Thanks. I’ll try that. Umm... I guess I’ll leave you be. I know I can chatter at ponies a lot.” He just shrugged at that, “I’m usually not this talkative either. Good night, Blossomforth.” “Night, Seeker.” She wasn’t really sure if he cracked a smile or not as she left, but she decided to imagine one on him anyway as she went back down to the bunk area and crawled into her pallet, wiggling onto her stomach. It felt odd, perhaps a bit uncomfortable at first, but at least she didn’t have to feel the stumps on her back, and before long she was pulling away to a drifting, dreamless sleep. ---------- Coco’s first view of Victor’s Cliff was of an old, partially crumbled stone watchtower built upon the top of the cliff that gave the town its name. The sky was overcast and dusted with heavier, gray clouds, some of which looked ready to burst with rain, and the air was filled with a mild chill that just managed to edge out into being uncomfortable, especially with the breeze of the moving airship. Beyond the cliff was a wide, steep valley leading to a wide, swift flowing river less than half a mile to the west. To the south and covering much of the rough, rolling landscape, was an exceedingly thick and dark looking forest of towering pines. A road twisted through the hills to the north and passed through the town itself, bending around the edge of the cliff to move back eastward. A map Coco had seen of the region told her that road edged around the southern forest until it bent back around westward to continue on towards further towns and Legion forts in that direction. Victor’s Cliff itself was a fair sized town, a bit larger than Ponyville by Coco’s estimate in terms of area covered, and much larger in terms of buildings as the tall wood structures of Victor’s Cliff were far more tightly packed than the Equestrian town Coco was comparing it to. There were a few smaller, one story buildings, made of thick logs, but most of the town’s buildings were at least two or three stories tall, if somewhat thin and compact looking. The town was walled, which didn’t surprise Coco by this point as she knew this was the norm for settlements in the Barrier Lands. From what she’d understood from the briefing Windstriker had given them earlier that morning, the town didn’t normally have a Legion presence, but did have its own militia, and there was a Legion fort about twenty miles to the south in case the Underwatch needed to call for aid. Coco could see ponies trotting around the packed dirt streets of the town, many of them looking up as the shadow of the airship passed by overhead. Beside her Trixie put her hooves up on the railing and looked over, her one good eye keenly observing the town. “Well, Trixie sees ponies walking around in the open and no signs of horrific spiders overrunning the streets, so perhaps this will go better than our last visit to a Barrier Lands town.” Coco managed a small half smile, “It would be nice if we didn’t have to deal with any violence this time around.” “You don’t sound hopeful,” Trixie said, glancing at Coco sidelong. Coco didn’t know what Trixie was talking about. She was entirely hopeful of avoiding any unneeded violence. Technically their job was just to investigate for now, so it was entirely possible there wouldn’t be any fighting, which Coco would infinitely prefer over the alternative. “I don’t know what you mean, Trixie. I was being serious,” she said, a bit defensively. “Trixie may have imagined it, it just seemed that you had this look on your face that said you didn’t believe our mission would be a milk run,” Trixie said with a shrug, “Perhaps Trixie was mistaken.” “At any rate, didn’t Coldiron say you should work on not doing the whole third-person thing?” Coco said, wanting to change the subject. Trixie gave a quick snort, flipping her mane. “Trixie will do so when needed, but among friends she can still talk as herself, yes?” Coco thought about that for a second, then nodded, “I suppose so, yeah. Anyway, we should be landing soon. We’d best find the others.” The Underwatch was currently platoon sized, just totaling just over twenty ponies, with Captain Windstriker making the total twenty one. Normally such a unit would break up into squads, but in this case Windstriker was running things more loosely. There was no official squad assignments, and instead Windstriker had appointed three ponies to be her right hooves; Seeker, Quickaim, and Snakebite. Coco noticed the fact that each of these three seemed to represent one of the Barrier Lands; west, north, and south. In the field these right hoof ‘field lieutenants’, which was more title than rank, would be able to command the rest of them, snatching anypony up on the fly to form a squad in case the platoon needed to split up to tackle different tasks. The entire platoon was up on deck by this point, some doing double checks on their gear while others, like Coco and Trixie, had been observing the airship’s approach to Victor’s Cliff. Coco found Coldiron speaking in low tones to a tall unicorn stallion with a prominent chin, and a tangled mop of red mane that contrasted sharply with a plain beige coat of fur. At Coco and Trixie’s approach the stallion cut off what he was saying and stepped back, watching the two with guarded eyes. Coco noted that he wasn’t wearing the normal battlemage leather coat most unicorns of the Legion bore, but instead was largely unarmored save for a pair of metal backed leather gauntlets and shoulder guards. The rest of his outfit looked like a simple, white cloth overcoat, with multiple sewed in pockets that bulged with contents. “Ah, Private Pommel, Private Lulamoon,” Coldiron said with a formal tone, “I don’t know if you two have met Corporal Heimlich. He’s our medical specialist.” “I thought that Snakebite fellow was the local medic?” asked Trixie, to which Heimlich himself responded, with a faint accent that Coco couldn’t place. “Corporal Snakebite ist a skilled field medic. I am not field medic, but surgeon. Snakebite can treat minor wounds, but if you take spear to belly, fraulein, it is I who must open you up and stitch your innards closed.” He inclined his head to both mares, “Try not to make too much work for me, da?” “We’ll certainly try not to, Corporal,” said Coco, returning his nod, “Um, pardon my asking, but you sound like you’re from Germaneigh, but that’s a Heartland territory, right?” Heimlich shrugged his shoulders, “I hail from easternmost region of North Barrier Lands, and this ist how ponies talk there, at least most common among noble families.” “You’re a noble?” Trixie sounded odd to Coco’s ears, like something was troubling her. Coco glanced at Trixie, and the mare seemed normal enough, just with a slight nervous twitch to one of her ears. Heimlich didn’t notice, and just looked at Trixie flatly. “Fourth son, not close to being heir, but medical work considered... unworthy of family name. So I join Legion, since they know value of medical profession. I do what I feel I am best at, and family doesn’t need to think of me any longer. Win for all concerned.” “Yes, well, Corporal Heimlich was just giving me some advice on my horn’s condition,” said Coldiron, one hoof rubbing at the cracked appendage on her forehead, “Apparently he’s rather worried about it.” Heimlich’s eyes flashed with something resembling professional outrage, “For good reason. Cracked horn ist no laughing matter. You can still cast spells, but far too easy to forget limits now, to overstrain and make cracks worse. Too much magic and...” he held up a hoof to his own horn and then made a sharp gesture, “Boom! No more horn, no more you. Very messy. Even i could not stitch up mess after that. So you listen to my good advice and limit spells to bare necessity.” “I’ll be careful, rest assured of that,” said Coldiron, “I have no intention of burning myself out. I’m no good to the Legion dead.” Heimlich nodded, “Just so.” “How is she even supposed to know how much is too much?” said Trixie, frowning, and sounding genuinely worried. “Because it shall hurt like sonuvabitch,” stated Heimlich bluntly. “Yeah, all I have to do is pay attention when it feels like my heads about to explode, because that’s pretty much exactly what will happen,” said Coldiron. At the heel of her words there was a noticeable shift in the ship, the deck shifting beneath their hooves as the vessel started to tilt slightly downward as it began its landing descent. Crewponies scrambled about, preparing the ship for landing, and the Underwatch ponies mostly tried to stay out of the way at that point. Coco spotted Blossomforth and Allie Way and waved the two over, and the all watched as a group as the airship made landfall at Victor’s Cliff. The space the crew chose to land at was a relatively open area of grassy field to the north and east of the town, directly between the town and the nearby river. Anchoring ropes with heavy weights attached to them were tossed overboard to ground the craft, while ponies hauled on the ropes to help the ship adjust the last few meters of landing so that the keel of the ship’s hull could lightly rest on several large wooden struts on the grassy ground. Multiple boarding ramps were extended from opening hatches, one on either flank of the hull and one from the rear cargo area. Windstriker, flying aloft with quick wing flaps, quickly got the platoon organized and disembarking. Each Underwatch pony carried a set of saddlebags laden with gear, not only their own personal kit but extra equipment for the platoon as a whole, mostly extra rations. The airship was to remained docked for the day, as the crew was also going to unload cargo for the town, and perhaps more importantly, deliver news and take some time to mingle with the townsponies, who’d be eager to hear tales from the rest of the realm. Coco found herself lined up with the rest of platoon with Windstriker at the head, leading them on a swift march to the town gates. A distant peal of thunder promised the soon to be coming rain and she shivered. Beside her Trixie was staring at the massive woods outside the town, and Coco found her own gaze following the other mare’s. From a distance the woods had looked normal enough, if perhaps far more thick than what Coco was used to seeing... now that she was on land and looking at the woods more closely they had a distinctly bleak and foreboding aura to them. Each pine tree looked like a dark sentinel, towering into the sky with wide branches that made Coco think of claws. She noticed light didn’t seem to reach far under those ominous boughs. “Oh, we’re going to have to go in there at some point, aren’t we?” she found herself asking. “Trixie lays it at good odds, yes, considering most the stories possibly relating to Lurkers in this town are about that forest,” said Trixie, face set with grim determination, “Trixie, however, has no intention of allowing that to daunt her.” “Our goal for now is the town, focus on that, Chosen,” said Blackwall, who was marching behind them alongside another pony Coco hadn’t really met formally yet, a stout, compact little pegasus mare who looked oddly chubby for a Legion soldier, until Coco looked more closely and realized none of that rotundness was fat, but was all muscle rippling under thin studded leather. Where Blackwall was a giant of an earth pony, it seemed like this tiny pegasus compacted all that same muscle into a tight little ball a full head shorter than Coco was. She had a dark wine red coat coloring, and a short cut set of curly sandy blond mane and tail. The pegasus mare literally bumped into Blackwall’s leg with a shoulder and said, “Same to you, Blackwall. We all got names here. Might as well remember to use them before the shit starts flying.” Blackwall sighed, a sound not unlike the thunder echoing near the horizon, “So be it, Stormfront.” She looked at Trixie and Coco, her tone not unlike what a pony might sound like trying to chew iron. “Focus on the task ahead of us, Private Lulamoon, Private Pommel.” She glanced at Stormfront. “Better?” Stormfront nodded, “Still stiff, but meh, gets the job done.” Blackwall grunted, still having an expression like chiseled obsidian. “Getting the job done is the idea.” “And that will be easier to do if Trixie... I can avoid tripping over your abused sense of duty every five minutes,” muttered Trixie, to which Blackwall set her jaw tightly and glared ahead, saying nothing as they continued their march. Coco worriedly glanced back once or twice, only to find Stormfront shaking her small head at Coco and mouthing, ‘Don’t push it’. Coco just sighed and hung her head, wondering if she and her friends were going to be dealing with salty Legionnaires for their entire four year draft stint. Well, if they’d gotten the ponies at Beartrap Fortress to come around in a short amount of time, they’d probably get the doubters among their present comrades to do the same. Blackwall seemed the most set against them, and Coco had to admit most the others seemed fairly accepting of the Heartlanders among them. Perhaps she didn’t need to worry about it. For the moment she put the thought aside and actually followed Blackwall’s advice, turning her attention to the town. They were fast approaching Victor’s Cliff, and the town was responding to the arriving Legion platoon. Ponies on the wall were watching, pointing, and leaning towards each other to chat excitedly as the Legion platoon marched up to the gates. The gates themselves were made from thick wood planks bound by strips of iron, mounted in a small gatehouse, the top of which had several armed ponies with spears. One of these ponies, a nervous looking brown earth pony stallion with a gray streaked black mane pulled back in a tail by a leather band stepped to the edge of the top of the gatehouse and called down to the approaching platoon, “You the crazy spider hunting troops?” At the head of the platoon column Windstriker flew up into the air until she was eye level with the stallion, face unamused, “I’m Captain Windstriker, commanding officer of the Underwatch. We’ve arrived to conduct an investigation of the area and expect the full cooperation of the township of Victor’s Cliff in that endeavor. Open the gates.” Coco shared a look with Trixie. Not the most polite way to ask for entry, but then again it seemed like the Legion wasn’t really in the habit of making polite requests when it came to dealing with anypony. This was the Barrier Lands, and ponies were expected to give Legionnaires full cooperation, period. That said there was a tension in the air as the brown stallion met Windstriker’s gaze with a level one of his own, then said, “We’re letting you through, don’t you doubt Captain, but I want to talk at you at your earliest convenience. Now come on in and we’ll get you and your ponies settled.” He gave a few barked commands and other ponies on the wall scrambled to work a wheel that got the gate doors swinging open slowly and silently. Windstriker landed and led the platoon through the gates, Coco glancing around curiously at her surroundings, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of Victor’s Cliff. Mostly drab, quiet, and mossy, in that order. Not that the town didn’t have a certain rustic charm to it, with many curious ponies poking heads garbed in woolen caps out of doors or windows to peer at the Legion ponies, and more than a few foals running about to watch them with wide, awed eyes. There was a palpable sense of unease, however, that seemed to run through all the townsponies like a hidden current beneath an otherwise calm looking river. “Trixie is not feeling the warm welcome washing over her,” Trixie said under her breath, “This is reminding her of receptions she received after her reputation went down the drain.” “They’re scared,” said Blackwall simply, though her own expression showed a small frown of confusion, “Not of us, but something has them spooked.” The browns stallion from the wall was trotting down a ramp on the inside of the wall. He was joined by a half dozen other villagers with spears, all halting a respectful distance from the platoon. Windstriker inclined her head at the stallion, and he cleared his throat, “Welcome to Victor’s Cliff, Captain. I’m Sterngaze, and I represent the town council when dealing with outsiders. We were informed of your coming just yesterday, and even then we weren’t told much other than you’re looking into old mare’s tales about the Lurkers.” “Not such old tales, as it turns out,” said Windstriker, causing a bit of a stir among some of the townponies who were gathering around. Windstriker gazed around, eyeing the ponies of Victor’s Cliff with a critical eye before returning her focus to Sterngaze. “My troops will need quarters, but while they’re getting settled in I want you to assemble this town council. We’ll need as much information about the surrounding area as possible, and on top of that we had information that said one of your own has succumbed to some kind of mental condition. We’ll need the details on that, as well.” A pained look crossed Sterngaze’s face, “Yes, Autumn Leaf. My daughter. She’s... in a bad way, and we don’t know what’s wrong with her. I’ll have the council convene immediately, and make sure you all have a place to stay. We already started clearing room at the inn and there should be enough space for all of you.” “You have my thanks for that, and there is a medical specialist in my troop, so with your permission I’ll have him give your daughter a look,” Windstriker said, to which Sterngaze gave a grim nod. “If anything can be done, I’d be in your debt. Our own town herbalist has tried every remedy she knows to no avail.” “Heimlich, Snakebite, why don’t the two of you go have a look at this Autum Leaf while the rest of us get situated,” said Windstriker, and the two platoon medics trotted out of formation and followed Sterngaze down the street while another of the local militia led the rest of the platoon down another street towards the east end of town. As they marched Coco noticed there didn’t seem to be any kind of local town hall, but the town’s only inn looked like a major gathering place. The inn was easily three times the size of any other building in town, with a loud common room that looked like it pulled double duty as a tavern. The other two floors of the inn contained various rooms for travelers, and the entire top floor had been given over to the Underwatch’s use. Fortunately there wasn’t much traffic moving through town, so near as Coco could tell they weren’t kicking anypony out of a already paid for room. She did wonder if the inn was being compensated in any way for quartering them, and though she was a bit intimidated by the dour seeming mare, she asked Blackwall about it. “The compensation you speak of is that this town is protected by Legion lives every day of its existence. Our mere presence here, doing our duty, is payment,” Blackwall explained, sounding impatient, then muttering, “Though it is only a matter of time before Heartlander ideas seep into our own lands and make these folk forget that.” “Enough chatter,” said Windstriker, “Get yourselves settled into your rooms quickly. I want all pegasi to report to Corporal Quickaim for aerial recon. I want a sweep of a five mile radius around the town before nightfall. Seeker, pick some ponies for night watch duty. We got rain coming in, we’ll see how the weather pans out before making further plans than that. I still need to talk with the town council and get what information we can from them. Privates Lulamoon, Pommel, Blossomforth, and Corporal Coldiron, I want you four with me at the town council meeting. You all have fought Lurkers already and can maybe be of use listening to whatever stories they townponies got to tell.” ---------- Sterngaze led Heimlich and Snakebite swiftly down the streets just as the first drops of rain began to fall. Snakebite chuckled dryly, licking his lips as he looked up at the sky. “Oh here it comes. This’ll be a lovely night for a storm.” “Ach, this drizzle is no storm,” said Heimlich with a snort, “Needs wind that howls loud enough to shred eardrums and rattle window bars off hinges.” “Give it time,” said Snakebite, as Sterngaze’s trotting form approached a two story house near the center of town, with a soft glow of candle and firelight pouring from its shuttered windows. “What are daughter’s symptoms?” asked Heimlich, Sterngaze opening the thick wood door and leading them inside. “She’s been delirious and feverish for over a week now,” the old stallion said, propping his spear up against the wall next to the door once they were inside, which was a large living area with a thick ursan fur rug covering part of the wood planked floor by a huge stone fireplace, an old mare with filmy white eyes and a grayed mane pulled into a tight bun rocking back and forth in a chair with her hooves working some knitting. “Eh, you home Stern? Who’s that with you?” the old mare croaked. “Legionnaires, mother. Two medics. I brought them to look at Autumn Leaf,” Sterngaze said. The old mare’s eyes flicked towards them, her knitting stopping, and her voice turning chillingly still, “Ain’t no helping that poor filly. I told you Stern, love her all you want, but you ought to put her out of her misery. No medicine is fixing what’s wrong with her soul.” Heimlich and Snakebite exchanged looks, Heimlich taking a step forward towards the mare, “Pardons old one, but what do you know that makes you say so?” “Don’t mind her,” said Sterngaze, “Mother’s always been the pessimist of the family.” “Ain’t no pessimism, boy!” said the old mare sharply, a bit of spittle flying from her mouth, “Its the forest curse I tell you! Damn fool filly didn’t listen to her elder’s good wisdom and wandered where she shouldn’t, and has paid the price. Her soul is sick with the curse of the forest, and she won’t be getting better. No, she’ll get worse, you mark my words. Worse until she’s a danger to all of us. But you won’t listen boy. Sentimental. You’ll keep her cooped up in there until she goes mad enough to eat your throat out... heh, but that’s how these things go. Last time was your great uncle Timberbrook. Went into the forest and came out wrong; cursed. Your great grandpa kept him around too, trying to help, until Timberbrook went crazed enough to stab him with a kitchen knife right in the eye! Went cackling off into the night screaming about the forest and the shard...pfft. You won’t listen, but I’m telling you, poor little Autumn is gone already and what you got upstairs is just a cursed thing waiting to get strong enough to kill somepony.” “That’s quite the story, my good mare,” said Snakebite, eyes gleaming, “I take it there’s a lot of stories like that concerning that rather impressive forest beyond the town walls?” The old mare gave a small, bitter laugh, “A few, youngin’, a few.” “I’d be most interested in hearing them, as soon as we’re done giving your granddaughter an examination,” Snakebite said, “Rest assured that one way or another, we’ll get to the bottom of what’s going on here, and if there’s any violence to be done, the Legion is well equipped to deal with it.” Sterngaze gave him a sidelong, grave look, eyes pinched narrow, “She’s upstairs. Come, you can listen to my mother’s rambling later.” He led them up a set of creaking stairs to the second floor, where a short hallway led past several doors until they reached one at the end of the hall that opened up into a small, tidy bedroom. A middle aged mare with a heavily braided black mane partially covered by a plain white scarf sat with worried blue eyes at the side of the bed, where a young mare, just barely old enough to be out of fillyhood, lay sweat soaked and panting. The young filly shared the older mare’s reddish copper coat. The mare turned to look to Sterngaze as he entered. “She’s getting warmer Stern! I don’t know what to do, she keeps saying things I don’t understand.” “It will be alright, Hearthtender, I’ve brought someponies to help,” he said, quickly introducing Snakebite and Heimlich, who both bowed their heads to the mare of the house. “With your permission we would like some space to examine your daughter,” said Snakebite, “You have my word we’ll do all we can for her.” Heimlich had already approached the bed, trotting around to the side opposite of Hearthtender and was looking over the filly under the sheets. His eyes were steely and focused, as if the rest of the room had stopped mattering the moment he saw a patient to work upon. Autumn Leaf herself was breathing hard, her brow bleeding sweat and her eyes unfocused as the flicked about, as if seeing phantoms. Her mouth was moving, soft mutterings under her breath that Snakebite couldn’t make out. He turned to Sterngaze. “We’ll work best if you allow us to be alone with her for a time, but I do have a few questions first.” “Of course,” said Sterngaze, gesturing for his wife to join him, which she did so with a reluctant glance at her daughter. Heimlich removed a few medical tools from his saddlebag and began to carefully do a starting examination of Autumn Leaf while Snakebite turned his attention to the parents. “First of all, exactly what do you know about how she came to be like this?” he asked. “It was just about eight days ago,” said Sterngaze, “It was still early afternoon and Autumn Leaf had finished her chores for the day. She said she was going out to play with her friends by the river. Only none of her friends saw her there, and it wasn’t until some time later that she wandered back into town. We usually keep the gate open most days, and the guards at the gate saw her wander in, and since they knew her they didn’t challenge her or anything... it wasn’t until she met one of her friends, the blacksmiths’ colt, Metalwork, that she... she let out this unearthly howl. She screamed and screamed and it took me and to other full grown stallions to haul her home. She was thrashing something fierce, and just kept screaming like the ursans were at our gates.” Hearthtender sniffed, shaking her head, “I managed to get her into bed, where she started to calm down, but she started to go feverish within the hour and... and she’s been like this since then. She keeps muttering things under her breath.” “What kind of things?” asked Snakebite, trying to keep his tone sympathetic even as he mind started to work on theories. He wasn’t the doctor Heimlich was, but he’d spent his whole life dealing with the toxins, poisons, and diseases of the Southern Barrier Lands’ jungles. He knew just what the right kind of poisons could do to a pony’s mind, and there were certain diseases that could have the same effect. Strong fevers could induce hallucinations, and all sorts of drugs could have the same kind of results. While he didn’t doubt certain local herbal remedies could be effective, those probably had nothing on some of the more tried and true antivenoms he could brew up. “Does anypony knew where she was before returning to town?” he inquired. “Nopony knows for certain, but much as I hate to admit it, mother may be right about the forest,” said Sterngaze with a tired voice, “Not about any crazy curses, but Autumn might’ve gone into the forest. She’s a curious sort, and sometimes talked about wondering what was in there and why we always warn our foals away from it.” “Why do you have such warnings?” “The forest isn’t safe,” said Hearthtender, “Cursed or not, whether you believe in such things, the forest is still not a safe place. Everypony in town knows that! Autumn Leaf should have known it too!” “Yes, but why is it considered unsafe?” Snakebite pressed, and the two parents looked at each other helplessly for a moment. “It just is,” said Sterngaze, “It's easy to get lost, and the underbrush is thick. There are old stories about... well... the Lurkers. Just old stories, you see, about how if you wander too deep the Lurkers will snatch you up. It’s all just dumb old tales, but we tell our foals anyway because who wants their little one getting lost in there?” He gulped, “You don’t think the Lurkers are actually real?” “The Underwatch exists now because its been proven they are,” said Snakebite simply, to which both ponies before him shuddered and gave him fearful, incredulous looks, “However we don’t yet have any proof this issue with your daughter is related to that. From what we’ve learned of the Lurkers, if they were involved then your daughter would have been abducted. However, it is possible that if she escaped an encounter with a Lurker, then her condition may be the result of their venom. Now, is she injured in any way?” “No,” answered Heimlich, who’d withdrawn the sheets from Autumn Leaf and was carefully examining the filly, who writhed but didn’t move away from the doctor’s touch, still seemingly unaware of her surroundings. Snakebite had to admit it wasn’t a pleasant sight, watching the young pony shake and toss in such a feverish state. He considered himself fairly hardened, but he hated seeing ponies under the effects of sickness. Part of why he’d become a medic in the first place. The ophidian snakes came up with plenty of insidious poisons, and he prided himself on finding ways to counter them. Hopefully one of his remedies might help this poor filly. “If she’s not injured, that rules out Lurker venom,” Snakebite said, then paused, stroking his chin, “Unless they have alternate ways to use their poisons, like gas or spit. Ugh, spitting spiders, not a pleasant thought.” “You’re serious,” whispered Sterngaze, blinking at him, “You Legion troops really are here because the Lurkers are real, and you think my daughter ran afoul of them?” “Its just one possibility, but clearly something did this to her, and Lurkers or not, it’s going to be the Underwatch’s job to investigate what,” Snakebite said, “That’s all the questions I have for now. You and your wife should go downstairs and let me and my comrade work.” “I... don’t want to leave her,” said Hearthtender, looking at her daughter with wetness shimmering in her eyes. Snakebite took a deep breath and managed to scrounge up a reassuring smile. “We’ll work better without eyes over our shoulder, ma’am. Please, for your daughter’s sake, let us do our job.” “Come, wife, the Legion knows its business,” said Sterngaze, taking his spouse by the shoulder and steering her towards the door. She went only with clear hesitation, moving with slow, trudging steps as she let Sterngaze lead her out of the room. Once they were gone Snakebite let out a heavy sigh and went to the side of the bed. “Well Heimlich, what do you think?” The older stallion frowned, his hoof moving over the young mare’s chest. She moaned and muttered softly, but didn’t respond much, eyes distant and glazed. Snakebite sniffed, seeing if there were any hints in the filly’s scent concerning whatever had infected her. Some toxins left distinct odors in the sweat of their victims. However in this case he didn’t pick up anything, just the sourness of pure sweat. “Her heart ist strong und steady. High fever but no sign of infection.” His horn lit up with a stark white glow that he ran over the filly’s body for several seconds. “No sign of disease or poisons, but spells only calibrated to pick up known strains. Need blood sample to analyze in more detail.” “Okay, but do you got at least a preliminary guess as to what’s causing this? I’ve seen the ophidians use some nasty stuff, but at least its usually got the decency to kill its victims quick enough.” Heimlich gave a dour shake of his head, “Best guess ist still, how you say... a crap shoot? If no infected wound or clear mark of poison, and disease not a known factor, then I would say the young fraulein's mind is the cause.” “Her mind? Like some kind of dementia?” Snakebite looked at the filly quizzically, watching her mouth move in quiet mutterings. “Can you tell what she’s saying?” “I was not putting ear close enough to check. Feel free,” said Heimlich as he pulled out a syringe in preparation to take a blood sample. Snakebite rolled his eyes at the unicorn and started to lean over Autumn Leaf. He paused, looking up at Heimlich. “If she tries to bite my ear off, hit her with a stun spell, will you?” “Da, I’ll be watchful,” Heimlich said, not taking his eye off of his syringe. Snakebite sighed and perked his ear close to the filly’s muttering mouth. Her voice was hoarse, as if raw from constant use, and barely more than the memory of the tiniest whisper. ”...return...-ome...the shards...unite inside-...cold and deep...” He listened long enough to get the impression she was repeating the same words, just in random order. It was difficult to clearly hear any of it, but one word stuck out in his mind. Shards. Hadn’t the old mare said something about shards as well? Snakebite was not a stallion to believe in pure coincidences. Pulling back from the filly, he watched as Heimlich took his blood sample, filling a syringe with Autumn Leaf’s precious lifeblood. He watched the young mare as she writhed, limbs seeming to slowly battle with phantom images, her feverish eyes staring at things only she could see. A memory of another bubbled up to the surface of his thoughts. He hadn’t thought of his wife in a long time, but remembered her last breaths, delirious from ophidian poison. He clenched his jaw and looked at Heimlich. “While you’re studying that sample I’ll whip up some of my own remedies. Even if we don’t know what we’re dealing with, one of them might reduce her fever enough for her to become lucid, or at least ease her pain.” Heimlich glanced at him, “Good notion. I work fast to find what I can.” That said, Snakebite pulled the bed covers over Autumn Leaf and patted her sweat slicked mane, “Stay strong, little lady. We’ll do what we can.” The thing he hated most about saying those words, necessary as they were to him, was that he was painfully aware that doing ‘all one can’ was oftentimes just not enough. ---------- “Allie Way, you’ll take the east side patrol with Blackwall. Wildspell, you take the north end with Halberd. I’ll take the west side with Coalburn, and that leaves Trixie and Coco to handle the south end,” Seeker said, giving out the assignments for the night patrol to the ponies gathered up in the inn’s common room, seated along one of the far walls and enjoying some of the establishment’s fresh cooked fare. Quickaim and the pegasi of the platoon had flown off to do their perimeter sweep, and the rest of the platoon was either settling down in their new quarters or grabbing some food as well. The tavern keeper, a wiry earth pony mare whose mane looked to Allie Way like a beehive colored like honey, was giving the Legion troops sour looks while having her tavern mares work overtime to get food and drinks served out to crowded room. The town council had had just finished its meeting with Captain Windstriker, and while Allie Way hadn’t been able to listen in to much of it, she’d gotten the impression it hadn’t gone well. “Did they have anything to say about the Lurkers?” Allie Way had asked Trixie after she and the other mares called to the meeting had shuffled over from the side of the tavern the council had met in. “Little next to nothing,” had been Trixie’s reply. Coldiron had elaborated a bit more, adding, “Their stories are much the same as you’d find anywhere in the Western Barrier Lands, there’s simply more of them.” “Still, they all pretty much got one thing in common; they’re all about that forest,” Blossomforth had said, and that seemed to cinch the notion among most the mares that the Underwatch’s next move was likely going to be a search of the thickly wooded forest outside Victor’s Cliff. However Windstriker hadn’t confirmed that yet, and if they were going to go into the forest it certainly wasn’t going to be at night, or during the rainstorm that had no gotten moving in full swing outside. Allie Way flinched a bit at every peal of thunder, and wasn’t looking forward to having to be out in the thick downpour she could see outside the tavern windows. She shoved steamed carrots into her mouth and tried to let the warmth of them seep through her and fortify her for what was going to be a very wet and cold night, even with the heavy duty rain cloaks the Legion ponies carried for foul weather. On top of that, her assigned patrol partner was Blackwall. Allie Way hadn’t spoken much at all to the imposing earth pony, but had caught enough of Trixie’s mutterings on the matter to know that Blackwall didn’t seem very fond of ponies from the Heartland. When she was done eating and it was time to begin patrolling she met with the other assigned night patrol under the wooden awning at the front of the tavern. “Alright, each of us has a unicorn to pair with,” said Seeker, “So if you run into any actual trouble or spot something strange, we can signal with the appropriate magic flare. We’ve got six hours until our relief shift, so everypony stay sharp, try to stay dry, and stay in sight of your partner.” With that the patrol ponies all heading off to their assigned areas, Blackwall giving Allie Way the barest of nods before saying, “Let me take the lead, but keep your horn lit bright. This is going to be a dark night.” Well, that’s not ominous at all, Allie Way thought as she followed the mountainous mare into the rainy, gloomy evening. ---------- Heimlich had separated the blood sample he’d taken from Autumn Leaf into several different small vials, set in a small wooden mount he had set upon a small table he’d pulled into the room with the sick young mare. Snakebite was in another room, brewing up some potential remedies to reduce the mare’s fever. Heimlich wasn’t so certain any of it would work but he wasn’t going to tell Snakebite not to try. In the meantime he was determined to get to the bottom of Autumn Leaf’s malady. Each vial would be subjected to a more specific detecting spell, most of which are ones he’d developed himself to seek out particular inconsistencies or unusual attributes in blood. Including magical influence. He hadn’t discounted the old mare’s warnings, that her granddaughter was being afflicted by a curse. As many mundane things existed to put ponies in such dire straights, there were just as many magical sources of affliction, and Heimlich had encountered his fair share of those as well. The blood curse of a necromancer, or the toxic magic of a poison spell, and even one instance where a insane magically attuned bandit had learned to afflict mental illness on others with a simple spell. Once he had the six vials set up he began to layer detecting spells upon them, one at a time, eyes closed and focused on the return senses he received from each spell. One by one they returned nothing of value. He confirmed there were no foreign agents in her blood, no viruses or toxins that his earlier scans couldn’t find. It wasn’t until he reached the last vial, with his last spell seeking magical influences that he received an unusual return on his detecting spell. Frowning he focused upon the blood sample and increased the intensity of his spell. There. An echo of... something. It was magic, certainly, and a strain of magic foreign to the filly’s own natural magic aura. The echo resonated with Heimlich’s spell, getting louder, like a voice from another room, muffled to a whisper, suddenly rising to distinct shout. ”Return the shards to their home.” Heimlich instantly cut off his spell, backing away from the blood sample and shaking his head in disorientation. “Ack, what ist this?” he muttered, rubbing at his head. He’d heard a defined voice, almost feminine, somehow cold and metallic. He stared at the blood sample, heart beating hard in his chest. The voice was gone the instant he’d cut off his spell. There was no doubting, however, that something, some kind of magically induced voice, was attached to Autumn Leaf. But what was it trying to make her do and how had it gotten into her in the first place? His mind whirled with ideas, not the least of which was whether there was any kind of dispelling enchantment that might counter the magical echo’s influence, but before his ideas got much future he heard a creak of the floorboards behind him. He turned around, just in time to catch the sight of Autumn Leaf, sweating, mane a tangled mess, but her eyes oddly and madly focused, as she smashed a candlestick across his face.