Mending Light

by Kiromancer

86 - Night In

As soon as Mayor Prideful had finished his last sentence, Merri cut off her spell. In a swift motion, she snatched the cup up from the ground and made it disappear behind her like a street magician practicing sleight of hoof. “Crap.”

“Raze the mansion? Do they know we’re—”

Merri quickly quieted me with a glare as her whole body tensed. Slowly, she relaxed, her voice a whisper “No, or he’d be saying to burn it down tonight, or have already given the order to bring us in. The problem is your run-in this morning. The second he hears back from Crimson Haze about that, he’s likely to step things up.”

I nodded, and whispered back. “Our tight timeline just got tighter. D-damn it, I wish Dusky were here.”

“If we’re lucky, and face it—so far we’ve been pretty dang lucky, Dusky is in a Las Pegasus hotel room with Ivory now.” She tilted her head towards the town hall window she’d been eavesdropping upon and waited a moment. “We need to get out of here. Fast.”

I glanced around our position, trying to look casual. The wall surrounding the town was solid. There was that watchtower over the south end of town and otherwise the only way out would be the front gate, or over the wall. The latter would be easy for me, but not so easy for Merri, and if we were seen doing it, it’d just cause further problems.

Frowning, I tried to think of something, speaking more to myself than to Merri. “Okay, we… we can’t panic. We can’t run. We can’t stay.”

Merri closed her eyes, hoof tapping against the ground. She looked more like her sister for a moment, focusing intently on a problem instead of her typical easygoing demeanor. Then, a smile slowly crossed her face. “Yep. Just means we’ve gotta stay cool. Be sneaky. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that we’ve got some time. Just not a lot. So, we’re gonna have to be careful, and put on a show, hm?”

“A… show?” I raised an eyebrow, trying to read her expression.

“We sorta knew, didn’t we? We weren’t gonna just be in and out. The problem is this info is a bit more urgent than we thought. Still though, we gotta just do what we said. So we’re gonna finish off our apples, head over to the local inn, get a room, and stay the night. Then, we leave as quietly as possible first thing in the morning.”

I sighed. “So we’ve just got to wait this out to avoid suspicion, then?”

She grinned. “Yep. If we knew they were marching out tonight, then sure, I’d say let’s go out and do something stupid and reckless. But for tonight, I’ll follow Sis’s advice and use my head, and not, well, I’d say it but you’d blush again.”

I blushed anyways, though I suspected that was Merri’s intent. She knew what she was doing far better than I did, so for now, I’d just have to keep playing along.

We took a moment to finish up our impromptu picnic, then walked back towards the main street, past the market. The townsfolk gave us a mix of expressions, from doubt to fear to outright anger. It wasn’t hard to understand, considering the occupying force keeping them under what was essentially martial law. It seemed like they could still roam about as they pleased, but I had doubts just how far that extended. I’m sure they did too. They had a lot of reasons to distrust outsiders right now.

The inn was easy to find at least. It was one of the only structures bigger than one story tall, and it was easily seen over the other buildings in the market. From the side hung a painted sign featuring a faded yellow sun set on a sky blue background. The text read ‘Sunny Skies Inn’.

Once inside, we found a cozy enough looking inn that wore its age like a badge of honor. The blue paint was cracked and faded, and the wooden floor creaked with every hoofstep. A fireplace sat in the back yet unlit, but in a way it reminded me of the Seapony back home.

This was the point where Merri proved that ‘playing along’ mostly meant letting her embarrass me. Much like at the gate, Merri’s unsubtle hints and advances towards me left both the innkeeper, an earth pony stallion named Still Repose, and I blushing. She made sure to say that we only needed a single bed at least four times in getting us a room.

We settled into the common room of the inn, ordering a quick meal. It was nerve wracking, with the afternoon wearing thin, the likelihood of the mercenaries returning was increasing. Any moment now, a pony could walk through the door who’d just been warned to keep an eye out for a blue pegasus matching my description. When the innkeeper brought out the food, I barely tasted it, overthinking all the ways this could end in disaster.

A few other ponies sat in the commons eating or reading at their tables, they appeared to be regulars who the innkeeper spent some time gossiping with as he served their food. Overall they seemed to pay us no mind. Once our meals were finished, we stayed just long enough to not raise any questions. With a wink and a sultry tone that left implications no pony would want to follow up on, Merri led us up to our room.

The room was nice, if plain. It wasn’t large, but that was fine with me. It reminded me of a few of the hotels Dusky and I had stopped at on our trip. It was laid out in a very simple, utilitarian style, with a small table, a couple nightstands, a desk… and the single bed, just as Merri wanted.

I sighed.

“What? It fit our alibi!” Merri wrapped a hoof around me. “If anypony comes knocking, we don’t want them to find us in separate beds, what would that look like?”

“I get that… only… you know how I feel about this. You know I’m with Dusky, and now you’re with Icicle. So… why do you do this?”

The smile slipped off her face, “Whoa now, it’s not like I’m actually making advances on ya or anything. Trust me, if I were here with Dusky, I’d be making all the same moves. Wouldn’t even have to lie about finding her attractive. Not that I was lying about you either.”

My face grew hot, but I did my best to glare at Merri. “That's surprisingly not very comforting. Do you just find everypony attractive?”

She just shrugged apologetically, giving me a grin. “Maybe it’s just pegasi. You’ve got those fluffy wings~.”

I glanced back, stretching my wings out slightly. “Is that why you’ve gotten Icicle mixed up in all of this?”

Merri moved over towards the bed, climbing up and rolling onto her back. “It’s… different with Icicle. I mean, sure, I sorta pulled him into the bar because I was a bit jealous of you, and Dusky, and Terra. Maybe I just wanted a one-night stand, you know? But he’s different…”

Tilting my head, I decided to push this, feeling like, this was something she needed to talk about, and I was guessing she hadn’t felt like confiding in her sister just yet. “Different, how?”

She didn’t sound like her usual self as she spoke, but it strangely was as if she was acting more herself than usual. “He was just… so honest with me. He wasn’t put off by me being me like a lot of ponies are. He didn’t care if I was from Ostfriesen, he just… liked me, ya know? He made me feel like I belong here.”

I blinked at the response, staring at Merri a bit slack-jawed. “Err… well…”

She chuckled, “What, you expected me to say something lewd, huh~?”

“No just… you really love him then?” The answer was already obvious, just from hearing how she talked.

Sitting up slightly, Merri looked me in the eyes, then laid back down on the bed. “Maybe. I mean, we only just started dating. But yeah. There’s something there I don’t want to let go.”

I swallowed slightly, knowing my next question would be hard, specifically because it would be hard for me if I were asked. “You’re worried about him right now, aren’t you?”

“Of course not! He’s with Sis, and with your sister too, they’re both competent! He knows what he’s doing, well enough to stay alive at least…” The initial enthusiasm in her voice slowly faded.

“Doesn’t mean you’re not worried, no matter how much you know they can handle it.”

She lay silent for a moment, staring up at the ceiling. “Well… yeah. Then I guess I’m worried about him. I probably shouldn’t have dragged him along, but I feel like, if he’s going to get involved with me, he’s going to need to be ready for this kind of thing. Sis and I don’t exactly lend ourselves to ‘normal’ lives. You know what that’s like, though. Do you regret Dusky pulling you into this?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, as weak as it was. “Alright, fair point. I’d say I forced myself along more than Dusky pulling me into it, though.”

“Heh. You know what I said to him when this all started? When you came to find me to help fight the banshee? I told him I had to go help a friend, and he asked ‘What can I do?’. I told him not to worry, and I’d make it up to him later, and he just frowned at me. ‘Are you sure?’” She sighed.

I frowned, definitely feeling a bit of deja vu. “There… there wasn’t much he’d have been able to do against the Banshee.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Merri rolled onto her side. “When I went to his home and told him I had to go to help a friend again, he gave me the same look. ‘What can I do?’. I’ll be damned if I was going to tell him to stay behind again.”

“That’s… no, you’re right. I keep thinking it’s the wrong choice, but I can’t hold it against you when… well, were it me, I’d want Dusky to trust me enough to help her. I mean, that’s why we’re here now.”

Merri smiled at me, nodding. “Thanks, Night. They’re both going to be fine, alright? So, let’s get some rest while we can, eh? We’ll need to be off as early as we can manage tomorrow.”

I managed to smile back, as awkward as it would be sharing a bed, the sooner we could get out of Pasture, the better. A bit nervously, I slipped into bed alongside Merri. “Alright… just... “

She giggled, “Hey now. It’s me. I’ll be a perfectly classy mare.”

“Right… of course.” I took a deep breath and settled into the bed, eager for the morning to come.

---

We woke up rather early, and Merri went down to the commons to scout things out. She reported back that the common room was empty, meaning the mercenaries either weren’t staying here, or hadn’t woken up yet. Either option was fine, as we either had to move early, or wait for them to head back out into the forest to resume their searching. Neither of us really wanted to wait any longer, and if Crimson Haze’s troops were going to march straight on the manor, it was best we beat them there, not follow in their wake.

Luckily, we didn’t have anything to bulky to pack up, and with Merri giving a genuinely friendly wave goodbye to the innkeeper, we set out to leave Pasture. The sun was sitting just below the horizon, Celestia not yet ready to raise it for the new day, and a low mist hung over the town, filling the whole scene with a strange sense of dread. In a horror movie, this was when the zombies would wade out of the fog. The irony was, in this case the zombies would be on our side.

The gate was still guarded, with two of the mercenaries standing just outside the town, passing a thermos of coffee between them. This would be the hard part. If Crimson Haze came back, if he’d issued orders to be on the lookout for Mint, Icicle, and I, then this could be trouble.

Merri approached it with the same demeanor that had got us in, a wide smile and a distracting caress of her hoof had one guard blushing, and the other rolling his eyes, and before I could blink, we were out of the town. I wanted to glance back at the guards, fearing it was all just a ruse to catch us from behind, but also didn’t want to seem suspicious or give them a chance to get a second look at me. Despite my fears, no sounds of pursuit or sign of a secret ambush came.

Still, better safe than sorry. We took the south road towards Las Pegasus. If they or anypony else was bothering to watch, they’d have no reason to suspect anything more than Merri had told them.

Once we were out of sight of town, we looped back around, cutting through the forest’s edge to skirt around Pasture and back towards our base in the manor. Merri made the proper signals to let her sister know we were coming in, waiting to hear Star’s response from somewhere up above before we quickly slipped through the front and entered the observatory.

Merri very quickly maneuvered herself to Icicle’s side, relieved and happy to see him again. It honestly made my heart ache, the doubt and fear of where Dusky was right now.

Mint’s leg had been bandaged better, and she seemed in good spirits, if eager to hear what we’d learned. As Merri moved past her, she came to me with a concerned look. “What’s up? What’d you learn?”

I swallowed. “This place isn’t safe. We need to move out of here, and fast. They definitely hasn’t found Ivory yet, but it’s making the Mayor impatient. He made it pretty clear he wanted the forest, the mansion, everything burnt to the ground to ensure they find her.”

My sister frowned. “Wonderful. I’m guessing he’s going to make this move soon?”

I nodded. “Within the week. Probably ordered the camel to do it when he got back into town, and they’ll start whatever their final preparations are today. I… I don’t know where we’ll go to hide from here. There’s been no sign from Dusky since we found the note here.”

From behind Mint, Icicle chimed in, “No word here either, it’s been quiet all night. Star’s been keeping watch waiting for you two to return. She figured you might have to stay the night in the town.”

Merri chuckled, “Sis knows how I operate. They never even gave us a second glance.”

“So you say.” Starshadow’s voice echoed into the room as she opened the door. “But we may already be too late. Another group is approaching the manor. They are moving quietly, and I could not get an exact location or head count. Not without giving away my own position, at least.”

I turned to Mint, fairly certain the panic on my face was visible. “Th-then we have to go now!”

She shook her head, “But where, Night? We can’t do this blindly.”

Starshadow took a deep breath.. “We have two options. We go, or we stay. We are in the likely scenario of being outnumbered and under-prepared. As we have seen, these are seasoned mercenaries.”

“Assuming they’re on par with your average Equestrian Guard, we can handle them.” Merri confidently grinned, “Now, if that camel is with them, then we might have bigger problems.”

Mint turned to take us all in. “We have three experienced fighters, and two, no offense you two, rookies. We can’t afford to get into fights where we’re not picking the battlefield.”

Star considered for only a moment, then nodded. “Agreed.”

“I… yeah. Agreed.” Giving up this position meant giving up the one place Dusky knew she’d directed us towards, but it wouldn’t help her at all if she only found us as captives… or worse. “Let’s go.”

Mint quickly began directing the evacuation, leaving what little supplies we had behind in favor of getting us all gathered and out of the observatory.

We’d only just begun our escape when Merri stopped us, “We might be too late. Stay hidden, everypony. They’re already here.”

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

Who knows, maybe there are friendlies approaching....

It’s neat to see this fleshing out of a different- and platonic- relationship within the team.