Mending Light

by Kiromancer

88 - Dead and Tired

Working through the list of preparations was no small task, and everypony had at least one job. While Ivory was busy preparing her double, the rest of us were preparing defenses and keeping watch. I’d fallen into the role of messenger between everypony, rushing back and forth between them and Dusky to keep us all up to date, passing along orders, and generally making sure everypony had what they needed.

Right now, that meant walking with Icicle to meet up with Blaze. She had been watching over the hidden entrance through the hazardous rocky side of the wilderness, a secret path into the mansion where Ivory had been bringing in her reinforcements. I suppressed a shudder. Despite knowing Ivory, the zombies were still an uncomfortable presence.

Once Icicle and I were through Ivory’s barrier, I came to a halt a short distance behind Blaze. I cleared my throat to get her attention. “Um, heya Blaze. Sergeant Reed wants to talk with you and Mint about some kinda tactics thing. Asked me to fetch you. Dusky said it’ll be fine so long as someone is keeping watch.”

She turned and grinned, “Night? Got to warn you, this is a boring post.”

I shook my head, pointing a hoof to Icicle as he stepped besides me. “Won't be me. After this, I need to make sure Starshadow has finished fortifying the front door. That's why I fetched Icicle.”

He stepped forward and gave a salute. “Icicle Gleam, I don’t think we’ve formally met.”

“Trail Blazer. But my friends call me Blaze.”

He shrugged. “Sounds good to me. You can call me Icicle, or just Gleam. Whichever.”

“Well, let me tell you what to expect here. Nothing. But if you do hear something, hide out by that—” she broke off as we all began to hear hoof steps upon the dirt.

With a nod, she pointed towards the side alcove that several large rocks nearly completely blocked from view. The shadow cast by it made the whole thing appear solid, but there was enough room to allow a few ponies to hide out of sight of the path. We quietly hid and waited.

I tensed, but before I knew it, the culprit passed by Blaze's post. A wretched thing, clearly undead, empty eyes staring straight ahead, unblinking, and its skin torn away at the shoulder to reveal rotted muscle and broken bone. It seemed more rot than flesh, yet still it walked forward. Honestly, the speed it moved was unsettling, nothing so broken should move so quickly.

As it passed, Blaze paused, listening for anyone or anything that might have followed it, then slowly relaxed and stepped back out. ”As I was saying, hide in there until they pass. I uh, never know if I should try to talk to them or what. I guess Ivory can hear through them? So it's just like taking to her. I tried a few times but got nothing. Now I just let them pass and make sure they weren't followed.”

Blaze's words echoed quietly in the silence.

At long last, I heard Icicle swear to himself as he pulled his gaze away from the receding zombie.

Blaze nodded slowly. “Yeeeah, the first time you see them, it’s rough. That first instinct is to run, or scream… or stab at them, as hard and as fast as you can, before they have a chance to get you. That… that’s how it was for me anyways.”

Icicle sighed, “It’s not that… it’s… nothing, sorry.”

Watching his face, it was clearly much more than nothing. “No need to be sorry, Icicle. Even with Dusky telling me they were our allies, I nearly panicked the first time I saw them, coming out of the forest. Just the noises they make… I... I can understand why some ponies might think the way they do, if they only ever met these and not Ivory herself.”

“Exactly!” Blaze tapped my shoulder with a hoof. “I was just exploring the woods when one of these things practically jumped me. Then I went all fight or flight, and next thing I know… well, I attacked it, of course. It took everything in me to stop it, too. Now I sorta wonder if I asked Ivory about it today, if it was even trying to attack me at all.”

I tilted my head at her. “You just… killed it? Well, rekilled? Is that a thing?”

“I was just a teen, but it scared the sun and stars out of me. That’s when I realized that if there was an army of these things, Pasture was doomed. So… I sorta started asking travelers who looked sturdy enough if they’d help save our town.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Is that how you met Dusky?”

Blaze blushed, embarrassment making the answer obvious. “Uh… maybe?”

“I thought they'd be more… whole.” Icicle whispered, almost to himself. He seemed to be more disappointed than disturbed.

I tilted my head, “Would… would it be better if they looked more… alive? I guess they'd be less disturbing in some ways… I think it'd scare me in another way, though.”

With a sigh, Icicle sat back on his haunches, “No, no… it's just… part of me sort of hoped they'd be more… who they used to be. More the pony and less just the corpse.”

“That sounds kinda creepy.” Blaze pointed a hoof at Icicle, a weird look on her face. “You know that, right?”

“It's just something I used to think about a lot.” He shook his head. “Yeah, it definitely sounds creepy now, but… I made a promise once, a long time ago.”

The pause was pregnant. Neither Blaze nor I speaking, she was likely as unsure as I was if we should ask, or just let it drop.

Blaze broke before I did. “What promise? What happened?”

Icicle shivered, though there wasn’t a draft or a chill to be found, his voice faltering for just a moment before he cleared his throat to continue. “This was… six? No, seven now. Seven years ago. She was newly assigned, had just graduated out of the academy, and I… she… d-damn it.”

I blinked, “Icicle? You don’t have to—”

He cut me off with a shake of his head. “No. No… she should be remembered, if nothing else. Her name was Sun Shield. She was the best pony I’d ever met. Kind, and generous, and loyal to a fault. All she wanted to do was make Equestria better for everypony. She… she got an assignment to go up north. Out beyond the border, back before they found the Crystal Empire again. She... never came back.”

I felt my heart ache for Icicle. “I’m… sorry.”

Blaze nodded, “I, uh… yeah, wow. Sorry for your loss.”

“It’s… I’m better now. By the time I’d moved to Ponyville, I think I’d gotten over it. Then I found Merri, and she’s so much like Sunny was… but still so different. But back then, I was a broken pony. I wanted so bad to bring her back, I said I’d do anything to restore her.” He glanced back down to where the zombie had been only moments before. “A little part of me still wondered if this could bring her back. If I’d known about the Necromancer of Pasture after she… died. What would I have done? I wanted her back, but… like this?”

With a dark frown, Blaze shook her head. “Not like this, Icicle. Trust me.”

“Yeah, definitely not like this.” Icicle turned to look at me, and his question nearly broke my heart. “Night, if Dusky died… would you…?”

I felt myself tearing up, but the answer was clear as day. “No… no I couldn’t. I think… I think Dusky would hate me if I asked Ivory to do that. Especially since… I think Ivory would do it. I don’t even know if it would still be Dusky anymore, and if it was… th-that’s not living. It would rip my heart out… but I just couldn’t.”

Blaze sighed, “I’m with you on this one Night. It’s, well… maybe I just don’t have a special somepony to compare it with. But if it were me… death seems better.”

I shuddered at those final words.

Icicle didn’t seem to be faring much better with his own thoughts. “I don’t want to let Merri go, not when I’ve only just met her. I already had to let Sun go too early. But I understand that this just isn’t the way. She deserves to rest in peace now.”

I couldn’t imagine having to let go of Dusky now, let alone having already lost somepony just as special. Icicle had done that, and found somepony else that was just as special. This had to be why Merri had insisted he come too. Far from just ‘Merri being Merri’, she knew it would eat him away inside if she was in danger like Sun Shield had been, and so she had ensured he came along. This was painfully sincere, and I didn’t ask so much as state the fact. “Merri knows.”

He nodded. “She knew most of it already, but I told her the rest after she helped you fight the Banshee. She told me all about that too. When she said she had to go again, I told her everything about Sun, and why I had to go with her. To be here for her.”

Blaze blinked, “Because you weren’t there for her? Do you even know if you’d have made a difference?”

“All I said to her was ‘I’ll write’. Those were my last words, Blaze, to the mare who told me she loved me.” He slumped. “I don’t know if I would have made a difference. I don’t know if I’ll make a difference here. But I think I’ve trained enough not to be a liability.”

Shaking her head, Blaze sighed. “You’re both nuts, honestly. Perfectly nice colts getting mixed up in all this. But I guess I’m one to talk.”

I managed a somewhat forced laugh, “Yeah, probably all three of us… for what it’s worth, I’m glad you came, Icicle. I… I more than anypony can’t fault someone for doing whatever it takes to be with the pony they love. We’ll make it through this.”

He nodded. “Yeah…”

Blaze grinned. “We definitely will.”

---

Honestly, after everything was said and done, all the preparations done for the day and all the worrisome thoughts sloughing off from sheer exhaustion, there was nothing I wanted more in that moment than to hold Dusky tight.

I wearily made my way out of the main hall and back up to the rooms we’d decided would serve as our makeshift resting quarters. There, we‘d managed to set-up bedrolls amidst the long forgotten furniture and dust. We didn’t have a lot of room in the safe rooms hidden inside the mansion. Some of it was dilapidated from age, but the rest was just cluttered and long forgotten. These three rooms were the best place we could find for the tired group of ponies we’d collected together to fight this war.

I lit the candle on the old dresser before I settled in to lay down, and almost as soon as my head hit the ground, the door began to creak open. The light reflecting off the dark charcoal coat was all I needed to reinvigorate my mind, even if my body protested. My sore muscles could protest all they wanted, though—nothing was going to stop me from hugging my fiance.

She met me halfway across the room, pressing against me to nuzzle gently. “Sorry I kept you waiting.”

I pressed my snout against her, rubbing gently before I pulled back to smile. “It was worth it.”

“How are you holding up?” Her eyes traced up my body as she did a typical quick assessment, but her eyelids were sagging a bit, exhaustion clearly pressing upon her.

I tilted my head at her. “How am I holding up?”

She shook her head, the tired smile creeping upwards. “‘So tired that we’re worrying each other’, for both of us, then.”

I nodded, sighing, “Better than worrying because you’re in danger.”

“I know the feeling.” She reached forward to press herself close, “Which makes it even more important that we take advantage of this now. Once the battle begins, we won’t be able to rest until we’re well clear of the fighting—maybe not even until we reach Iron Shoe.”

I knew that tone in her voice. “You don’t think the fake Ivory is going to work?”

“I don’t know.” She sighed as she dipped her head, staring downward. “This whole plan stands on a razor’s edge. I can only guess at how the mercenaries will approach, but if they do too much that’s unexpected, we’ll have to adapt, likely retreat. If we’re lucky, the double won’t be compromised and we can try again within the forest. Otherwise… I don’t know.”

This was always the hardest for me. Because I didn’t know either, and it pained me to see Dusky so wracked with doubt and worry. I pulled her closer for the best hug I could offer. “I wish I could do more. I wish you didn’t have to do this all the time. But all I can do is be here for you.”

She hummed quietly, her wing curling around me to squeeze gently. “I know. And I appreciate it.”

There was a quiet knock at the room door, and Dusky and I both turned to look towards the interruption.

Dusky pursed her lips, steeling herself against what was likely to be bad news. “Who is it?”

Without another word, the door cracked open, and Merri stuck her head in. “Just us—oh, hey, Sis’, it’s bad timing. They’re about to get jiggy together~.”

Feeling Dusky pressed against me, the implication made my cheeks burn. “Th-that’s, um…”

“Only in your head.” Starshadow pushed the door open the rest of the way, pushing Merri aside as she slid into the room. “I do not believe Dusky would be so irresponsible as to ‘get jiggy’ when the enemy could attack any time now.”

Merri recovered without effort, quickly turning to point a hoof at us. “No, see, they’re getting all cuddly and romantic and stuff. I bet they were just seconds away from the good stuff. Until you ruined the mood, anyway~.”

“If anypony ruined the mood, it is you,” Star tsked and shook her head, then glanced at us. She seemed to hesitate, as if she only just noticed our embrace as well. “Is this a bad time?”

“Maybe a little,” Dusky, somehow, calmly stated.

Merri’s glee was terrifying, as she tossed up into a triumphant pose. “I knew it~!”

“No, we were just talking.” Dusky sighed, shaking her head. She turned her head to look at me and smile. “About our journeys—and this whole situation. Is something wrong?”

Star quickly raised a hoof. “Nothing urgent. During one of my sister’s rare bouts of maturity, we have been discussing the situation as well, and came to a conclusion.”

“We brought you a gift!” Merri turned towards the door with a rehearsed pose, her horn glowing as she levitated a set of heavy scale mail into the room, each scale seeming to catch the light of Merri’s magic and reflect it back in a dazzling array of colors.

Star’s horn lit up, and her own magic aura enveloped the armor and yanked it away, breaking Merri’s crimson aura. “This was supposed to be for your wedding, but this is clearly a more pertinent time.”

I immediately frowned, the memory of Bellerophon and the bracer Merri and Star had gifted me all too fresh, and still painful to dwell on.

Dusky’s expression seemed to mirror mine, her thoughts probably going to exactly the same place. She circled around the armor slowly, assessing it as one would assess a venomous snake. “I’m… grateful, but I don’t think I’m ready to deal with any more Ostfriesen artifacts.”

“What?” Merri seemed to have a moment of genuine confusion, before her eyes went wide. “Oh, no, no, no. This isn’t an Ostfriesen artifact. It’s honest-to-Tapioca vengeful-ghost-free.”

Stopping her circle mid-examination, Dusky raised an eyebrow at Merri. “You sure? Where did this come from? Do you even know?”

Starshadow cleared her throat quietly and raised her forehoof. “I can vouch for it. This was made by an Equestrian smith, one Platinum Anvil of Canterlot. Though the enchantment is Ostfriesen, it is my own magic. There will be no undesired effects.”

Dusky nodded slowly as she took in the information, eyeing the armor once more before smiling sheepishly at Star. “Sorry, just being careful.”

“Do not apologize for prudence.”

Turning her attention back on the armor, Dusky lifted a hoof to her head and pondered. “So, what are the desired effects?”

Starshadow straightened. “There is just one for now. Time was running short and careless enchantment risks destroying the armor. We settled on weight reduction, since we know you like to stay light on your hooves. It should feel about half as heavy as normal. Try it.”

Starshadow levitated the armor into place over Dusky’s back, and she nodded. Ducking her head down to slip through the neckpiece, she let Star lower it down and secure it into place. She slumped down slightly as Star’s magic faded, then stood up straight and began to spin in place.

“Snazzy!” Merri sat back to clap her hooves. “How’s it feel? Like a sexy new mare~?”

Dusky finished her test motions and stopped to think a moment. “I’m really not used to this, but I think it’s light enough that, all in all, if I can find a couple hours to practice, I’ll be comfortable enough to wear it in battle.”

“Excellent. If you are to be at the forefront of the battle, you should be suitably protected. These foes are not to be taken lightly.” Starshadow smiled, a rather cold smile, but this was a rather cold subject.

It struck me then. Armored barding for a wedding present, and just how quickly it had become relevant, before we’d even gotten married. It struck me just how sad it was that Dusky needed such a consideration when most mares would have preferred something more frivolous or fun or… practical. In a more mundane way, at least, as this barding was perhaps the most practical thing Merri and Star could have given her.

I slowly nodded, giving Dusky a sad smile. “I prefer you without the barding, but if it has to be this way, I’d rather you be alive.”

My sober statement was undercut by Merri snickering.

“Don’t even say it.” Star muttered under her breath.

Even saying that was very clearly Starshadow kicking the cloud after the rain had fallen.

“Oh, fine, I’ll refrain from saying that Lover Boy here prefers naked Dusky butt.” Merri feigned a moment of surprise, then smirked. “Oh, wait. Oops~.”

My face flushed once again, both from the triggering words from Merri, and because of Dusky herself. She still stood in front of me in her sleek metal barding. I would never admit it to Merri, but I definitely had to admit to myself, Dusky had a pretty great butt.

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

The chapter title almost sounds like it’s for a horror comedy.

Cool, some backstory for the newbie!