The Filly Without a Name

by Scribble Script

Chapter 8

Chapter 8
-
NIGHTSHADE AND SILVER BLAZE

Up, down, left and right, everything seemed to have dissolved in the white haze. From far away Firefly thought to hear Sliderule repeatedly screaming her name, but his calls soon became silent, without Firefly being able to recognise from which direction he had called. She was alone, lost within this placeless white nothing. Within a blink she had lost all perception for what was around her. She didn’t know in which direction their fire, not where the forest or the water was. The fog had laid down on her ears, her eyes and her muzzle like wet cotton, her uniform was drenched and her fur wetly stuck to her body. She was freezing. The hollow scraping sound of her hooves on the gravel was the only sign that there was still a ground below her as she stumbled around, confused and disoriented. The effect the fog had on Firefly’s already tensed mind was devastating. It is tue to the pegasi's way of living, because they are used to the endless vastness of the sky, that they can get claustrophobic quite quickly. And Firefly hadn’t felt any more cramped in her whole life! Everything started to spin around her, an annoying, buzzing sound filled her head. Firefly tried to call out for help, but she couldn’t make a sound. She couldn’t breathe, had a feeling like the fog would lay a heavy weight on her chest and constrict her throat.

Then, as if all that hadn’t been bad enough, something touched her. Krrsh. Krrsh. It felt dry and was rustling. And with each stumbling step she took there were more and more of those things!

Krrsh. Krrsh. Krrsh. Krrsh. The feeling of oppression turned to a moment of utter horror and her mind went blank. It was the most stupid thing to do but in a kneerjerk reaction Firefly instinctively made one big jump foreward. Firefly fiercely burst through the reed, and then happened what had to happen: She slipped, sprawled lengthwise and with a mighty splash the lake’s masses of water took hold of her. The water wasn’t just cold, it was freezing and hurt like pin-pricks. But the cold at once brought Firefly back to her right senses. Reed, she thought. It had been nothing but reed that had touched her. How stupid! Her fur and feathers now of course were soaked, her wings felt heavy as lead, and anyway she was as poor in swimming as she was in reading, but somehow she managed to hold her breath and to not inhale any water. But there wasn’t much air left in her lungs anyway.

Drowing because she had been scared by reed grass, what a dumb and unnecessary death! Firefly simply refused to die in such a dumb way! She started to struggle and to beat her wings, trying anything to get her head above the water again. But the lake had to be already quite deep here for she couldn’t feel any ground below her hooves let alone she would have been able to see it. There was only blackness. She had traded the white void for a black one, even colder, even more threatening. And even more terrifying, as Firefly was about to experience…

Something came, as though it had been decoyed by Firefly’s desperate fidgetiness. She sensed it like a shift in the water, like if a big fish that was swimming by. She didn’t know whether it was that creature from the fog, but at the moment she couldn't think of anything else. In the impenetrable darkness, deep down in the lake Firefly noticed a sudden glow. She had the impossible sensation of a fire in the distance, a great fire, burning underwater! More and more the fiery glow spread, lighted up the lightless depths, until a cavern became visible, like if one was looking through a porthole. The cave was spacious and with rugged walls, unsteadily illuminated by the flames flickering up from a giant pit. A colossal shadow was outlined against the flames, a hideous creature emitting an aura of sheer horror.

Firefly felt a scream coming up in her throat and the last bit of air spluttered out of wide open mouth in a stream of bubbles as it finally burst out. As if it would only just now notice her presence, the shadow turned slowly its head around; and when his gaze fell upon her, a riptide of emotions that weren’t her own engulfed her. She felt loneliness, wrath, and all-consuming hatred!

Firefly’s lungs painfully filled with cold water and her senses faded…

And then she felt a sudden jolt, something grabbed her around her chest and pulled her away. She heard, or thought to hear a distant, inarticulate roar. The next thing she felt was an ice-cold gust in her face and then the pressure of gravel in her back as she was laid down on the pebble beach.

“Dare not dying on me, Royal Guard!” she heard a familiar voice scolding, more worried than angry. Then she felt air getting forced back into her water-filled lungs. Once, twice, three times. Her body cramped up and the whole water came out again, and by the gallon, judging by the awful pain. Firefly was coughing her heart out.

She was feeling lousy, shivering with cold, her lungs were burning and she was mortally scared. “The eyes… Where have they gone?”, she gasped. Anxiously she looked around.

“Easy now, Royal Guard! It is a horrible night to go for a swim!” The voice indeed was familiar, and now Firefly recognised him, though he was wet to the bones and with his soaked, grey fur looked like a drowned rat. The voice belonged to Silver Blaze.

It was wondrous enough anypony had come at all, but could it really be a coincidence that of all ponies he would be the one to come to her rescue? But Firefly was too distraught to wonder, her eyes still darted around, and she had only barely recovered her breath but she was already on the hop again and ready to bolt away.

“The eyes…” she repeatedly panted, her chest lifting heavily. “Those blood-red eyes… Where have the eyes gone?”

“There are no eyes”, Silver Blaze tried to calm her down. Gently yet firmly, he restrained her as she tried to rear up and held her head with his hooves. “Do not run away!” he soothingly told her. “Look at me.”

And Firefly did. The stallion was incredibly calm, although he had to be freezing as well, soaked like he was. He wasn't wearing his bandage anymore, over his shut, left eyelid ran a thin, pale scar. But his right eye glimmered green and attentively in the fiery glow, and in his look she could see nothing but calmness and serenity. He was a true bastion of calm, and though he wasn’t wearing any uniform, he for a moment was the hero again that Firefly had seen in Canterlot, all the years ago. His unshakeableness was reassuring, slowly her horror started to cease.

Firefly closed her eyes and muttered: “It was horrible! There was something down in the lake. And those eyes, oh sir, those eyes were horrible! I thought I was going to die for sure…”

“It is alright, cadet”, the stallion soothed, adopting the military form of adress. “It is over now. Open thine eyes and see where thou art!”

She did as she was told: Their small campfire wasn’t far away, although it wasn’t so small anymore. It was blazing up high, shining through the night like a beacon. Firefly saw that Silver Blaze hadn’t come alone. There was a unicorn stallion she didn’t know, a mighty appearance. His coat was dark and silky, his mane was black. With head held high he stood next to the fire, a flare was radiating from his horn and a red gemstone was shining from his necklace. Even the ominous fog seemed to have succumbed to the unicorn’s might, the night was still foggy, alright, but it had withdrawn and there was no trace of that evil will that had haunted them.

Silver Blaze beckoned Sliderule to sustain Firefly while he shook out the water from hos coat. Then he picked up a sword belt with a lean blade from the ground ans strapped himself with that belt. He then fetched a cloak from the ground and enveloped Firefly with it. It was a hooded cloak made of thick wool, heavy and warm. And it was dyed red, Firefly noticed, what a particular colour… So, was Silver Blaze hero or villain, shining star of the Royal Guard or just Calm Mind’s henchstallion? She really couldn’t figure him out…

The other stallion was meanwhile focussing his attention on Dawn who was still lying curled up on the ground. The glow from his horn and also the light from his necklace died of as he bowed down to the filly. She squirmed a little, so thank Celestia, she was still alive, but she still wasn’t responsive. “She is cold as death itself”, he said as he felt her pulse. “Silver, we need to get her away from here.”

“Agreed, Master Nightshade”, Silver Blaze concurred. He still had his scarf, but it couldn’t be much of a remedy against the cold. “That goes for us all.”

“It really is him”, Sliderule muttered at Firefly’s side. “His Cutie Mark, that’s the felonwood bloom. He really is Nightshade! But that’s impossible!”

Indeed, the mark on the stallion’s flanks showed a blossom like a five pointed star in purple and yellow. “Yes, I am Nightshade”, he said before Firefly could ask her companion why that was impossible. He must’ve heard Sliderule. “But we have no time for conversation. This trial of strength I have won, but he would not stand for this defeat just like that. I fear he will return all too soon!”

“I will carry the filly then”, Silver Blaze said. He turned towards Firefly: “What about thee? Wilt thou get by?”

Firefly nodded. “I’m not hurt. Just wet… and cold.” And frightened, she added in her mind, but she would’ve never spelled it.

“Very well”, Blaze said. He bowed down and humped the unconscious filly onto his back. “Then, let us all head back to town now. Nightshade, would ye lead the way?”

“But the town gates are closed”, Sliderule objected worriedly. “I know the watchword, but still we won’t get back in that easily, sir!”

“Easily or not, we will get back in there!” Silver Blaze growled in return. “And if I need to shout the whole town down! I want to see that pony who tries to hinder me! Come now, before we all freeze on here!”

****

Following Nightshade who was leading the way with his light spell, Firefly scurried and stumbled over hedge and ditch. The unicorn set up a brisk pace. Next to her was Silver Blaze who kept pace with them quite well, despite his burden. He had his sword clenched between his teeth and the blade shimmered coldly in the moonlight. Blaze didn’t really look like anypony would want to mess with him right now. Resolutely he forged ahead and Firefly and Sliderule, who came in last, struggled to keep up with him and Nightshade.Cutting cross country it didn’t take them long to reach the town’s gate. There Silver Blaze seemingly made move to put his plan into action and indeed shout down the whole town. Or at least the guard detail from their sentry box. Accordingly distraught, the two guards appeared at the vision panel, flushed by his hammering at the gate. They were too surprised to even make a move to deny him the entry as he ordered them ‘in the name of Canterlot’ to open the gate. Playing the authority card now had admittedly nothing to do with secrecy anymore but at least it saved them some precious time.

****

The small house Silver Blaze now led them to stood on the verge of the small grove that separated the hospital from town. A tired looking Doctor Ragstitch without his glasses appeared in the doorway. But naturally, he didn’t appear very surprised to find them on his doorstep.

“Good gracious!”, the physician exclaimed as he squinted his eyes to compensate for his short-sightedness. “You look like chewed and spit out again! What have you done?”

“Not now, Ragstitch”, Blaze growled. “This is a matter of life or death!”

He squeezed himself past the unicorn, just as good as it was possible with an unconscious foal on his back. While Firefly, Sliderule and Nightshade followed the two of them, Ragstitch helped Silver Blaze to lay Dawn down on an upholstered couch next to the masonry heater. The house the doctor was occupying surely was big for one pony to live there all alone, and the living room was furnished for more than just one pony, Firefly noticed. Maybe the unicorn had wanted to raise a family in Hollow Shades.

The three of them, Silver Blaze, Ragstitch and Nightshade, looked after Dawn’s care together. The physician repeatedly checked the poor thing's pulse, and every time he shook his head in bewilderment. The two unicorns then talked to each other in a low and tense voice while Silver Blaze was looking over their shoulders. But because none of them could ascertain that she was hurt in any way, and because her breathing was becoming more even again, they confined themselves on tucking her in properly. Her unconsciousness had seamlessly passed over to a sleep of complete exhaustion.

Firefly and Sliderule could do nothing but stand by anxiously until a few minutes later, Nightshade turned back to them.

“She is asleep now”, he told them in relief. “And, bless the stars, she is warm again. It is over for now… She indeed has more luck than judgement…”

To hear that took a heavy weight off Firefly’s mind. She had already feared that this malicious fog had rendered all the efforts of the last days void. Her subtle elation was however dampened by Silver Blaze pretty well.

“But same goes for you two”, he barged in in a low voice. He meant Firefly and Sliderule. “That was one dangerous solo action for you fledglings! You have been lucky enough to have coincidence all on your side tonight. Had I not badgered Ragstitch so much and had he not told me the full truth eventually, I would have never known where to find you. Although I do admit I was trying to keep an eye on you…”

“And had I not per chance found you nosing around in the woods, Silver Blaze, tell me: How would you have fought against this unearthly mist? You may wield the finest blade in Equestria, but even Wintermoon cannot cut through mist and illusions.”

Silver Blaze took this reprimand from Master Nightshade with an unwilling snort but didn’t reply anything. Whatever his plans had been, control of the situation wasn’t in his hooves anymore. Firefly seized the moment and asked a question that had bothered her for quite some time now:

“Master… Nightshade, right? Master Nightshade, sir, please tell me: What was this… this thing in out there? It was… It had…” She stopped. Just thinking back to those cruel, red eyes made her fur stand on end.

“No, Master, please”, Silver Blaze suddenly objected. “I am curious for answers as well, but not now!”

“I must agree with Silver for once”, Doctor Ragstitch joined in the conversation. “For my part, be my guests if you must, but I prescribe all of you a snatch of sleep. Immediately!”

He had brought a whole pile of towels for Firefly and Silver Blaze so they could dry themselves properly. Nightshade nodded, but he said nothing. Swiftly he left to open the front door and to look outside. Then he closed the door again and turned the key in the lock twice.

“Yes indeed, some things are ill to hear while the world lies in shadows. This all is far from over, but for now there is nothing left for us to do. You should all get some rest now. Tomorrow we will need our strength”, he eventually proclaimed.

“Or at least all our nerves”, Doctor Ragstitch added as he returned, this time with woolen blankets for all of them. “I fear your nocturnal actions won’t go unnoticed. Calm Mind will learn about this and she will definite be happy that we all decided to take party against her; if Silver’s really on our side and his plan isn’t actually to give us away to her in the first place, that is!”

The mentioned made move to take offense to that last statement but Nightshade again cut him short: “The confrontation is indeed inevitable but there is no such thing as ‘our side’, Doctor. You and Silver and Calm Mind, and also these two brave guard ponies have been all enmeshed in own ambitions… As well as -I admit it!- I have been enmeshed in mine. But we need to put an end to this dispute. And to achieve this will be your task for tomorrow.”

With these words Nightshade retired from the living room. Firefly was wondering if this talk was over. Because there were surely some details left to go over. What Nightshade’s plan exactly was, for example, and why he had said ‘your task’ instead of ‘our task’! And as they all were just standing there, Nightshade suddenly poked his head back into the room again.

“Go to sleep, for heaven’s sake!” he exclaimed like he couldn’t believe that they were still awake; then he shook his head and disappeared again. Yes, this talk really seemed to be over…

Maybe if she could just sit down for a moment, Firefly thought… After their involuntary adventure was finally overcome, Firefly had to realise how totally at the end of her tether she actually was. She could only barely keep herself on the legs. Ragstich’s upholstery was quite comfortable actually, also the living room wasn’t smelling like embalming fluid (which was actually a big relief knowing the physician’s preferences). To boot their host had put some more wood on the fire and so the tiled stove at least drove away the cold of the night. But as for the fear: Firefly thought she would never be able to sleep again, she felt like just closing her eyes for more than a blink would conjure that vicious being from beneath the lake; that its burning, spiteful glare would haunt her from the darkness of her own mind. She had the nonrational notion that she would stay awake forever rather than meeting this blood red eyes again.

But lying down just for one moment couldn’t hurt, just a moment to relax her tired legs... This moment however turned into a minute, then two, and then five. Firefly still didn’t feel like she was ready to get up again. Outside of the window she could hear a sound, like branches fretting in the wind, twig fingers of trees scratching walls and shutters; she wondered if the fog from the lake would also creep into town and fill the streets with its white madness. But this worries went by, warmth and a leaden tiredness allayed her. She simply was too deadbeat to worry anymore. With a sorcerer like Nightshade and an elite soldier like Silver Blaze (and it didn’t matter whose payroll he now was on, as long as he was fighting against what was out there in the fog) guarding their sleep, what was left to worry about anyway?

A soothing melody filling the air was what clinched it to her. It was Silver Blaze who was singing, a calm, melancholic song with words in a language she didn’t understand. Resting her weary head on the pillows her eyelids dropped against her will, and then sleep embraced her.

****

You all sleep well, Silver Blaze thought. Her deep and even breathing told him that at least the filly already was. In the end, she seemed to recover quite well, given the circumstances. And the two guards, Firefly and Sliderule, if he had gotten their names right, didn’t look like they’d stay awake any minute longer either. Who could possibly blame them? After all he had wormed out of Ragstitch the filly must’ve gone through a living nightmare. And he was wondering if the two guards had experienced something similar. After all, Firefly had almost drowned herself in aberration, for heaven’s sake!

He had prevented all questions about that topic so the others could stop worrying for now, but that didn't mean he wouldn't worry himself. Sliderule himself had seen nothing unnatural tonight, the attacks on Firefly, Sliderule and the filly had entirely targeted their minds. But what kind of dark power could let two mental healthy ponies (plus one possibly not so mental healthy filly) go completely mad?

His inconvenient deliberations made Silver Blaze fall into an old campfire habit. He started to hum to himself. All travellers in the wild know this uncertain feeling of anxiety when the world is dark, when the shadows draw near, and all existence seems to shrink. A soothing song can work miracles at these times. What Silver Blaze sang was the refrain of a song that his mother had once taught him, written in the old tongue of the Crystal Empire. But the Empire had fallen an eternity ago, and today there was nopony left who was still able to understand more than a few words in the crystal ponies' native language. That knowledge was lost and gone forever, like a lot of things that had yet seemed good and firm. A lot of things had changed since back then, and were still changing, even this very day if one was to believe Calm Mind.

And Silver believed Calm Mind; that was part of the problem. There was no question that she had fairly earned more than a bit of trust in advance. She had saved his life, twenty years ago. For one she had fought for his life, even after all other healers had already forsaken him. The High Council had often questioned the doctor's methods, and indeed they sometimes seemed quite radical, shocking even. But although the doctor often acted hard against her patients -and even herself- the end always justified her means: Even apparently terminal cases had recovered, and only thanks to her treatment.

But this time was different. Calm Mind’s actions, as cool and calculated -not to say cold-hearted- they ever seemed, they had always been reasonable (at least from a rational and more distant point of view). Her decisions in this case, however, were not at all reasonable, not for him and not for Doctor Ragstitch. And they both weren’t exactly unknown quantities with regards to questionable decisions…

Speaking of decisions: His own decision, the one he had to make in any case, Silver Blaze had stalled for far too long now. Somehow he had succumbed to the devious notion it would get easier to decide if he had enough time to think things through. That it would get easier if he just waited this one more day. But it didn’t get easier, not at all!

‘It is all water under the bridge’ went the proverb, but as Silver Blaze’s father had used to say, in Hollow Shades so many secrets had been dumped under the bridge that these waters could be dangerous for swimming.

Funny, Silver Blaze had evaded any thought about his parents for years. His memory of them was sad, but now it was strangely comforting. His father had been a wise pony... There probably wasn’t enough wood in whole forest around Hollow Shades to timber the closets for all the skeletons this town needed to hide!

The idea how the ponies of Hollow Shades would cut down their forest to build hundreds upon hundreds of closets and then ritually would stow a rattling carcass neatly in every single one of them, anxious that the doors still closed, was so silly that Silver Blaze had to smirk. It wouldn’t have taken much for him to laugh out loud. But even though he liked those snatches into the drawer of black humour, they weren’t really helping.

Joking apart, the townsfolk of Hollow Shades, and especially the Children of the Night had always gone their own way out here. But they had made no bones about it, to stay with the ‘bony’ metaphors, meaning to say that the Children generally meant no harm to the rest of Equestria. But of all the strange stories told about the town and this stretch of land in general, why did just this one have to be real? This was indeed a skeleton too big to fit into any closet: There was a rumour that had been told in times past, a rumour about a powerful curse, a shadow looming over Cauldron Lake. A bugaboo, as it seemed, a scary tale to make misbehaving foals see reason. ‘Be good and eat your soup, or the curse from the lake will come after you’, laughable at bottom, and yet eerily real. The utter horror in Firefly’s eyes had spoken volumes…

But all right! None of this would have mattered to Silver Blaze right now. It wouldn’t have matter to him that Calm Mind had lied to him, it wouldn’t have matter that Nightshade appeared to know far more than he was willing to let them know. It wouldn’t even have mattered that he, with all the keen wit he was boasting with, simply failed to see the bigger picture.

He could have condoned all of that, trust in Doctor Calm Mind, do his duty and leave this whole quarrel to the bigheads and magicians.

Yes, he could have, hadn’t there been this one, teensy detail:

This blasted cloak, he thought while he carefully tucked the filly in again because she had kicked away her pillow. Oh, why of all ponies does it have to be this blasted cloak?

****