Night Owls

by Rambling Writer

11 - A Long Way Back

Amber Waves couldn’t sleep.

This was her fault. This was all her fault. If she hadn’t freaked out on the train, they’d be in Ponyville by now. Actually, they’d probably be in Canterlot already. And she’d’ve talked about what she’d seen in more detail and she’d be safe and secure in some tower and she wouldn’t be involved in this anymore. Instead, they were out in the middle of nowhere and would have to walk for over a day just to get back to Ponyville, probably with all sorts of hazards along the way. Not to mention Phalanx’s injury that would take, what, a week to heal completely.

Just because she was scared on the train.

The unfamiliar environment wasn’t helping things. When Amber couldn’t sleep in the Crystal Empire or Ponyville or someplace else she knew, she could walk around the place, clear her head, and not get lost. Here, she’d tried doing that, then she’d gotten stuck around the rec area for probably an hour, trying to find her way back to the bunks through the maze of hallways. But once she had, she was restless in addition to just sleepless and couldn’t just sit and wait for day to come. But she had to, because if she went out, she’d just get lost again. She didn’t even have any books to read. Why had she forgotten books?

But once the sky started losing its stars and slowly turning from purple to orange, Amber couldn’t take it anymore, and she was up and about again. She tried to follow the maps on the walls more closely, but she couldn’t always find them. There hadn’t been anypony up earlier, but now a few ponies were getting this and that ready for the day. They paid her no mind and she paid them no mind.

When the sky was a bit oranger, Amber was meandering somewhere around the kitchens, trying to distract herself with thoughts of food, when she noticed a familiar pony tiredly ambling through the hall. Amber took a few steps closer to be sure. Yeah, it was definitely her. “Hey, Ida,” said Amber, walking towards her.

Ida stopped walking, turned somewhere in Amber’s direction, and blinked blearily. “Amber,” she mumbled, then yawned widely. “Up already?”

“Not already. Still.” Amber giggled. “Insomnia.”

Ida blinked again. “Geez, Amber,” she said, more alert now. “I’m sorry. How you feelin’?”

Amber giggled again. “Nervous. It’s… I’m tired, but it just keeps me up. The bed doesn’t matter, it’s just, I can’t get to sleep, no matter what I do.”

“Dang,” muttered Ida. “I’ve been up sometimes, but I ain’t never had it this bad.”

“Me neither,” said Amber. “It didn’t start tonight. I, I haven’t really slept in several days.”

Ida’s eyes went wide. “Several days? Amber, are you feelin’ alright?”

Amber stared at the ground. “N-no,” she mumbled. “I’m tired and I…” She began blinking tears out her eyes. “I-I, I’m scared, Ida. I’ve n-never been so scared in all my l-life.”

Ida grabbed Amber and pulled her into a hug. “Whoa, hey now,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”

Amber’s sobs grew louder. “I-it’s not! Ida, I almost d-died twice yesterday. It’s not okay! It’s m-my fault we’re out here, it’s-”

“No, it ain’t,” said Ida. She squeezed a little harder. “Amber, listen here, it ain’t your fault.”

“B-but-”

“No, shh, listen.” Ida pushed them apart, holding Amber’s head in her hooves and looking her in the eye. “Yes, Amber, it may have been your idea to jump off the train. But there wasn’t really any other option. Those ponies may have been after you. But that ain’t your fault. You ain’t responsible for anythin’, they are. All you did was see them steal somethin’. They’re the ones goin’ and makin’ it worse, and there’s nothin’ you got to do with it.”

Ida hugged Amber again. “Maybe you’re right, maybe it ain’t okay. But it ain’t your fault. Y’don’t need to feel guilty.”

Amber sniffled, but less than before. Her tears came more slowly, and soon she was just breathing heavily with watery eyes. Her mind began to clear. Ida was right. This wasn’t her fault, or at least, not completely. It wasn’t like she wanted them to be out here. And, well, nopony seemed to be holding it against her, right? Definitely not Ida, but nopony had said anything about it last night, either. If they didn’t mind, why should she? The idea didn’t fix everything, but it helped.

As everything being or not being okay… Considering the thieves had actually found her, she was doing alright.

Amber squeezed Ida back. “Thanks.”

“I came out here ‘cause I wanted to, y’know,” said Ida. “I just wanted t’see how you were doin’. And, well, maybe it ain’t the greatest visit ever, with the attempted murder and all-” Amber smiled at that. “-but I’m glad to see you’re doin’ alright. Relatively speakin’.”

They squeezed one last time, then broke the hug. Amber wiped her eyes. “So, what’re you doing up?”

“Cookin’,” said Ida. “I figured, so long as we’re here, I can help them at least a little. Asked ‘em yesterday, and they said sure, but the cooks gotta get up early to make breakfast for the early birds.” She shrugged. “So here I am. You hungry?”

“Maybe a little, but I don’t want breakfast just yet.”

“I can make you somethin’ small if you want. An apple turnover or somethin’ like that.”

“You know what, yeah. That sounds good.”

---

Maybe it was the urgency of their mission, maybe they were just restless, but Phalanx thought everyone got up more quickly today than they had yesterday. Where some ponies had previously taken a while to just roll out of bed, here they were up and moving and even done with breakfast in about fifteen minutes.

He’d spurred them on as much as he could, and they were on the road before the sun was completely up. For a certain definition of “road”; Galeblazer’s route didn’t always take them on roads or paths. But it wasn’t too difficult, so they just kept moving.

His hoof was doing better. It wasn’t the greatest yet, and still throbbed a little, but Phalanx could almost keep up with the group with his three-legged limp. When they were getting a bit far ahead, he’d just take to the air to catch up with them. Sometimes he’d fly even when he didn’t have to, just to keep weight off his hoof.

They collectively decided to take a rest and have some food just after noon. Galeblazer found them a ledge over a bend in a river, where they divided up the food they had.

Phalanx looked at the others as he munched on his apple, trying to see how they were holding up without actually asking them. Amber seemed to be passed out, Galeblazer and Ida were talking about something, and Chandra was sampling some of the food they had left. All in all, not too bad.

And then there was Kalahari.

She was sitting right at the edge of cliff, staring down into the water below and frowning slightly. It wasn’t hard to guess that she was thinking. But about what? Whatever it was, it was pretty deep; she barely seemed aware of anything else around her.

Phalanx scooted up next to her. “You look contemplative,” he said. “What’s up?”

“Well, it’s… I’ve been reading that Elements of Harmony book a lot,” said Kalahari, “and I, I think that… Do you think maybe we’re supposed to be the Bearers?”

Phalanx blinked and cocked his head at her. “‘Supposed’ to be?”

Kalahari waved her hooves. “Destined. Fated. Whatever. It’s, one of the things Princess Twilight goes on a lot about in there is how friends can share a special connection before they even meet. And do you really think it’s a coincidence that everypony here was at least vaguely acquainted with at least one other pony here before this whole thing started? The odds are just too big.”

She began listing them off. “Amber knew Ida through business. Ida knew you through family and friendship. You and Chandra both worked at the same place and could probably identify each other by sight, if not by name. Chandra knew me through school. And I knew Galeblazer through school. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Amber and Galeblazer know each other through some weird thing and have just forgotten about it. It’s one thing to know about the six degrees of separation, it’s quite another to actually see it in action.”

Phalanx was about to say that that was a silly idea, but the moment he actually thought about it, it made some tiny degree of sense. And there were six of them. It was a nice thought, being the owner of one of Equestria’s most valuable artifacts. Then there were the ways that, just when all hope seemed lost, a new pony would just happen to pop out of the woodwork, have exactly the solution they needed, and join the group. Not to mention Luna’s hunch.

But at the same time… “I don’t know,” he said. “Why now? If we are meant to carry them, why weren’t we brought together sooner, before they were stolen?”

“I dunno.”

“And, yeah, this is pretty coincidental, but coincidences do happen.” Phalanx rubbed the back of his neck. “Of course, this ranks pretty high on the convenient-coincidence scale, but that doesn’t mean we’re automatically the Bearers.”

“Well, yeah, but…” said Kalahari. “I don’t know, it just… feels right to me, you know? Like it clicked.”

Phalanx knew the feeling. But it was a feeling he wasn’t getting. Not completely, anyway. “Maybe you’re right,” he said, “but we can’t assume that. For now, we just have to get Amber back to Canterlot and see if there’s anything more that we can get from her.”

“If you say so.” But Kalahari didn’t look very convinced, and she spent the rest of their break staring out at the river.

---

Somehow, the entire day passed without incident. They followed paths, streams, and whatever with pretty much nothing happening aside from that one time when Chandra almost choked on an elderberry and Kalahari had to Heimlich her. They made good time; even Amber managed to keep up with them in spite of her fatigue. The sky darkened at about the same rate they tired but Galeblazer kept reassuring them that they were getting closer and closer to her stop, so they kept going.

But when the sun was completely down and they actually reached Galeblazer’s stopover, Phalanx wasn’t happy.

“This… is the Princesses’ old castle.”

Galeblazer grinned. “Yep!”

“It’s a tourist attraction. You want us to break into it?”

“It’s not a tourist attraction now,” said Galeblazer, rolling her eyes. “It closed for the season a month ago. We’re just going to take shelter in there for the night, nopony will mind.”

“This is only an hour’s walk from Ponyville,” said Chandra. “Or something like that. Can’t we just get there now and get an inn or something and not break the law?”

Ida pointed to one side. Somehow, the trees over there looked darker than the others. “Sure. It’s right that way. Through the Everfree Forest. For an hour. In the middle of the night.”

“Law-breaking it is!” whispered Chandra. She leaned over the edge of the ravine that formed the castle’s dry moat. With tourist season done, the rope bridge that normally spanned it had been taken down. “So how’re we gonna get to it?”

Galeblazer began fluttering her wings and sidling across the moat. “Gee, I don’t know. It’s not like we have a pair of pegasi who can fly the rest of you all acroh wait.” She gave a big flap and backflipped across the moat. “Seriously. Phalanx and I, we can fly. It’s not that hard.”

It was a bit awkward, but everyone was across in a few minutes. Galeblazer told the group something about secret passages, told them to wait at the front door, and took off towards the castle. Phalanx, wanting a few words with her, followed.

“You could’ve told me about this, you know,” he said as they climbed. The look he was giving her wasn’t quite a glare, but it was getting up there.

Galeblazer grinned. “Oh, come on, it’s not that bad. We won’t even break anything, I know ho-”

“Isn’t there any better place than this? Any at all? It’s not that we’re trespassing, it’s… well, look at that.” Phalanx pointed at a sign over the entrance: Celestial Sisters Memorial Castle. “This isn’t a place where ponies sleep.”

“It’s strong, it’s sheltered, and they still keep the beds made,” said Galeblazer. “They’ve got these real old four-poster beds, you know, those giant ones, and tourists who come here can lie in them. For them, it’s just for a little while, but they’ll do fine for a night for us. There’s enough for all of us, and the sheets are even clean. We’ll be fine. Plus, no, there really isn’t any better place. You might be too much of a city colt to get it-” (Probably, Phalanx admitted to himself; he’d lived in Canterlot his whole life.) “-but there are plenty of places in Equestria where there’s just nothing. Except, say, weather distribution centers. Take a look at a map, and you won’t find a lot of stuff out here. You didn’t see any towns on the way down, did you?”

“No.”

“The defense rests.”

They alighted on a large ledge near the top of the castle, right next to a large statue of a gargoyle. There wasn’t any way in that Phalanx could see, but Galeblazer began poking around near the join between ledge and wall.

Phalanx looked up at the gargoyle. “Secret passages? Really?”

“Really really,” said Galeblazer, still rooting. “Celestia and Luna weren’t always so formal, and this place was kind of- a-ha!”

She pushed in an inconspicuous tile. With a loud grinding, the gargoyle suddenly flipped around, taking Phalanx and Galeblazer with it. Phalanx jumped and looked around; they were inside a skinny hallway in the castle, barely one pony wide.

“-kind of a funhouse for them,” said Galeblazer as if nothing had happened. “So they stuck in a bunch of secret passages and stuff just because they could.” She began worming down one of the halls. “They tell you all about it in the tours, even let you go through some.”

Phalanx followed her. The hall was narrow enough that, even with his wings closed, they both scraped opposite walls, and his injured leg was a bit clumsier than usual. “And you know about this one? Why isn’t it closed up for the season?”

Galeblazer laughed. “Well, when you hear about secret passages everywhere, you just kind of have to go looking for them on your own, don’tcha? They do seal off the passages in the off season, but this one, I don’t think they know about.”

Phalanx decided not to ask how she knew this one would be fine and just kept following her.

They popped out of a closet with a false back in one of the bedchambers. Galeblazer led the way to the front door, their hoofsteps echoing ominously in the empty rooms. Phalanx didn’t like to admit it to himself, but he’d always found buildings this large creepy when they were empty. It wasn’t that he thought there was something waiting in the shadows, it was just that things this big weren’t supposed to be empty. It just felt wrong, and the echoes weren’t helping things.

They unlocked the door and the rest of the group filed in. “And here we are,” said Galeblazer, grinning broadly. “Tourist trap sweet tourist trap. It’s got everything we need for the night, and there’re even maps showing you where to go.”

“Could’ve used those last night,” muttered Amber. She yawned.

“Don’t try to use the bathrooms, though, the water’s turned off. But if you want to stick sheets on your bed, the linen closet’s unlocked -- that’s on the map, too -- and they wash the sheets anyway at the start of each new season, so don’t worry about getting them dirty. To be honest, we could probably coat them in mud and they wouldn’t care so long as they could clean it out.” Galeblazer pointed down a hallway. “Go that way, second door on your left. Can’t miss ‘em.”

Amber rubbed her eyes and yawned again. “Good. I feel ready to fall asleep on my hooves.”

“Need any help?” Chandra asked. “Or sheets? I can make your bed for you.”

“Sheets’re fine,” said Amber. “But other than that, no.” She began walking, slightly unsteadily, towards the door Galeblazer had pointed out.

“You sure?” It was hard to miss the apprehension in Chandra’s voice.

“Pretty sure.”

Chandra glanced at Ida. “You get her the sheets,” Ida whispered. “I’ll follow her, make sure she don’t fall asleep while walkin’.”

“Sounds good,” Chandra whispered back. They followed Amber through the door.

Once they were gone, Phalanx turned to Galeblazer. “You sure know an awful lot about this place,” he said, squinting suspiciously.

Galeblazer laughed. “Oh, come on. Can’t I just know really really specific stuff for the sake of knowing really really specific stuff?”

“Community service,” Kalahari piped up.

Galeblazer’s grin never wavered. “Shut up.”

“She detonated a paint bomb in her school’s gym as her senior prank,” continued Kalahari, “and-”

“Shut up.”

“-had to perform community service as punishment-”

“Shut up.” In spite of Galeblazer’s words, there wasn’t a whole lot of force in them.

“-and she did it here over that summer.”

“Oh, come on,” said Galeblazer, “who told you that?” Her tone of voice wasn’t remotely serious. “They can’t prove it was me that did that.”

“You told me that. First day of meterogenics class. That get-to-know-you game.”

“I can’t prove it was me that did that.”

“You showed us newspaper clippings of it.”

“Circumstantial evidence, that’s all you’ve got!”

Phalanx snorted and headed off to begin scoping out the beds.