Fleeting Shadows

by SkyHighFlyer

Chapter 4, Answers and Questions

Twilight Sparkle shot up the moment she awoke, momentarily forgetting that she was sleeping on a small couch in a distant village rather than her bed in Canterlot. As such, she promptly rolled off of her makeshift bed in a tangled heap of blankets.

It took a few moments of panicked scrambling for her mind to catch up with her body. When it finally did, she took a few deep breaths and thought back to her nightmare. The unusually vivid dream wasn't anything that stood out as particularly frightening, being more abstract and ominous than anything else. She tried to think back to whatever had caused her to wake up at the end, but whatever terrifying experience launched her into a blind panic was eluding her.

“Are you alright,” said an unfamiliar voice, drawing Twilight out of her thoughts. For the first time that morning Twilight realized that she wasn't alone.

Twilight glanced up to see the pegasus mare from the previous night standing over her. In proper lighting, Twilight could make out her sky blue coat, silver mane, and paw print cutie mark. She looked down, trying desperately to look concerned but failing miserably to hide her amusement.

“I'm fine, just a nightmare,” Twilight replied, untangling herself from the mess of blankets that surrounded her.

“We've had a lot of those lately.”

Twilight finished pulling herself free of her bedding and stood up. “That understandable, you've been under a lot of stress over the past few weeks. It's not that unusual.”

“What about you?” she asked. It was an honest question, but it took a lot of effort on Twilight's part not to take it as an accusation.

“I’ve never been outside of Canterlot before. I'm not taking it very well,” Twilight replied. It wasn't a complete lie, but she knew that it most likely wasn't a complete truth either.

Either way, it took a lot of effort to convince herself that the mare's sympathetic smile didn't hide an accusatory glare. Twilight picked up that blankets off the floor with her magic in an effort to distract herself from the look she was being given. It wasn't a very good distraction.

“So you're the help that Canterlot sent, huh?” she asked. Twilight relaxed at the much appreciated change of subject, only to realized that the look of suspicion and accusation was most certainly not imagined this time. At least this time there was a decent explanation. After all, Misty had voice her own concerns the day before.

“I know I’m kind of young for this,” Twilight said, “but I'm not incompetent. I know what I'm doing, and I can take care of myself.”

The mare stared at Twilight for a few more seconds, then shrugged. “Fair enough. It's better than nothing at all, which all we've gotten so far. Storm Breeze, local ranger.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight replied. She offered a nervous smile, one that Storm returned with confidence.

“So, what exactly are you here to do?” Storm asked. The question felt like an accusation again, but Storm's relaxed smile was reassuring.

“Figure out what the problem is, and then solve it,” Twilight replied.

Storm looked at her for a moment. Just before the moment could get awkward she shrugged. “That's a better plan than what we've got at the moment, so I'm not going to criticize.”

The tension in the room dropped as Storm voiced her approval for Twilight, as shallow as that approval may have been.

They stood there for a moment in silence. Twilight took the moment to look around the room. With morning sunlight streaming through the windows, it far easier to make out the contents of the room. Off to the side of the table next to her, Misty slept under a pile of blankets, no doubt having taken the first shift of the night.

“So, uh,” Storm said, “I have some things to do in town today. If you don't mind tagging along, we can talk a bit more. There isn't much to do around here, and honestly I wouldn't mind having somepony to talk to.”

She glanced at Misty as she said this, and Twilight got the impression that taking shifts every night left them little time with each other. Twilight nodded. “Sure.”

“Great,” Storm replied. Without saying anything else, she practically bounded towards the door, forcing Twilight to run to keep up with her.

She stopped outside to wait for Twilight before setting off at a brisk yet reasonable pace toward the center of town.

“So what's your opinion of everything that's going on?” Twilight asked as the two set out.

Storm shrugged. “Honestly, I don't really know. Misty's the one holding the town together, and so far she's done a pretty good job of it. Most of her ideas have worked out so far, so if you want a better picture you should probably ask her.”

“I've already asked Misty,” Twilight replied. “I'm asking for your opinion.”

Storm stopped and turned to look at Twilight. She looked surprised, and Twilight got the feeling that she wasn't used to ponies asking her questions like that. She shook off her surprise and started walking again, this time a little slower.

“Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. My special talent is tracking, and out here that usually means ponies. I'm an expert at tracking thing down in the wilderness, but whatever is happening leaves absolutely no trace. No hoofprints, no signs of a struggle, no bodies, not even a single strand of hair. Normally if somepony goes missing the town expects me to be the one to find them.”

Storm went silent, trying to find a way to say what she wanted to.

“They blame you for not being able to find them,” Twilight stated. It was a blind guess, but it felt like the right direction.

“I didn't want to come out and say it like that, but you're right,” Storm replied. “It's never taken me more than a few hours to find a missing pony before, but after two weeks of sending out search parties and finding nothing everypony is convinced that there's nothing that I can do. I was already unpopular before this started, and now the one time I fail at my job is the time when it matters more than ever before.”

“Why are you unpopular?” Twilight asked. She was starting to feel as if she had some idea of how bad the situation in the town was. There was definitely an air of tension around Storm that she had never noticed before.

“Ponies feel that I'm lazy,” Storm replied simply. “Being the town's ranger isn't exactly an intense job. I help out with weather work whenever I can, but I still spend a lot of time sitting around doing nothing.”

Twilight followed along in silence, pondering what she had been told. She could easily understand Storm's situation, but that didn't make it any easier to accept. Storm was a pony who had done everything she could to help the town and make sure the missing ponies returned safely. If there was nothing that she could do, then that was not her fault.

Twilight shook herself out of her thoughts, remembering what she had originally been asking. “So, what do you think about the situation? It sounds like Misty has been handling the situation pretty well.”

“Personally,” Storm said, “I like Misty. She's probably my only real friend, so I tend to trust her with pretty much everything. I know that it looks as though she has the situation under control so far, but she's struggling. She doesn't handle pressure well, and every time something goes wrong she gets closer to breaking down and giving up entirely.”

“So you're worried about her?” Twilight asked. She picked up her pace and tried to get ahead of Storm, just so that she could see her face as she answered. It felt like something that was important to do.

Storm stopped and looked at her, more serious than she had been all morning. “Misty is not a strong pony. She's an amazing leader and probably the smartest pony in the whole town, but she is not a strong pony. These ponies need her more than anything right now, and knowing that has her on the verge of breaking down every second.”

Storm looked back over her shoulder in the direction they came from, and without a word started walking again, leaving Twilight wondering if she had said something she shouldn't have. She curse her lack of meaningful social interaction, but carried on following.

They walked through the center of town and kept going, past the curious stares of the town's ponies and onwards towards the lake in silence. Twilight used the time to think over what she knew, everything she had learned about the towns situation so far, only to realize that she still hadn't learned anything from talking to Storm. Twilight couldn't see her face, but the way she walked was a good clue that she was more upset than Twilight realized. Once again cursing her absent social skills, Twilight thought of how to start the conversation again.

“You've been kind of quiet,” Storm said, startling Twilight out of her thoughts, “are you alright?”

“I didn't want to bother you, you looked kind of upset,” Twilight replied.

Storm looked back at her with a smile, “Thank you, really. I don't meet a lot of ponies that act as considerate as you, so thank you.”

Storm stopped. They stood in front of an entrance to the forest marked by a rough and overgrown path, obviously not used very frequently.

“This isn't about me though. You came here to help, so ask whatever questions you need to.”

Twilight looked at her for a moment. Storm was right, she had done everything she could to help without success, and now it was Twilight's turn.

She took a deep breath. “What do you know about the disappearances?”

It was a fairly simple question. Twilight didn't expect a useful answer to come from it, but as far as questions go it was a good way to get some extra details.

Storm sat down on the rough grass and motions for Twilight to do the same. “Nopony knows much. It started suddenly and like any missing pony case I was the first one to try to find them. I didn't get very far before it happened again. At that point I started organizing search parties, but they didn't find anything either. A few ponies from the search parties ended up missing as well, and at that point everypony decided to drop the search and wait for the royal guard to send ponies to help.

“The disappearances kept happening. We would wake up and find that somepony else had gone missing. We kept sending requests to Canterlot but never heard anything back. It was Misty who eventually figured out the pattern and came up with a solution.”

Twilight sat down next to Storm, gazing out over the lake. “What was the pattern she found?”

“One pony at a time, only at night,” Storm replied, “Her idea was to put ponies together in small groups to keep track of one another, and hopefully figure out what was responsible for the disappearances. She worked out pretty quickly that ponies who were together stayed safe, and ponies who were alone or had nopony on watch kept going missing.”

“So she found that the solution was to take shifts keeping watch?” Twilight asked.

Storm nodded. “Keeping ponies together in pairs worked, as long as one pony was on watch at all times. She wanted to have groups of three or more, with two ponies on watch at a time, but I manged to convince her to start at pairs and see if that worked first. She's not happy about it, especially after the last disappearance was the pony who was supposed to be on watch, but for what it's worth she was right about her idea.”

Twilight didn't say anything for a moment. Her question had revealed a lot more than she had expected, but she still knew little more than she started with. Most of what she had learned was about Misty and the measures she had taken to protect the town, but it all led to a single conclusion. The solution they had in place was temporary at best.

That led Twilight to her next question. “What do you know about the cause? Misty seemed to think that ponies were being lured out somehow.”

Storm sighed, and Twilight got the distinct feeling this had been brought up before.

“Misty is convinced that somehow ponies are wandering off, but nopony else thinks that's the case. Most likely whatever it is causing the disappearances comes out at night and doesn't like drawing attention to itself.”

“Anything else?” Twilight asked. Storm shook her head.

Twilight had learned pretty much noting about the problem from that conversation, but it was more than she had before. She wanted to at least narrow down the possible causes before trying to come up with a list of ideas, but she still had almost nothing to go on. She decided that it would be best if she took some time to think over what she knew before asking any further questions.

“That all I can really think to ask at the moment,” Twilight said, “I'll let you know if I think of anything else, but there isn't much to go on right now.”

They waited in silence for a few minutes, neither of them having anything else to contribute. Finally Twilight said, “Didn't you say you had things to do in town today?”

Storm sighed and stood up. “I was going to go out into the forest and look for more clues actually, but I don't expect anything to come of it. Do you want to come with me? Maybe you'll have better luck.”

“Sure,” Twilight replied, standing up and following Storm once again. She could have gone back to town and waited for Misty to wake up, but she wanted to help.

-----

Twilight and Storm made their way back to town about an hour before sunset. The two of them hadn't found anything after an entire day of searching, but they had made every effort. Twilight's magical talent had proven to Storm that she was more than capable of helping, despite not actually finding anything.

After a quick stop at the lake to clean themselves before heading back, the pair walked through town. They were both tired, but they agreed that it was better than having made no effort at all.

On the way back Twilight decided to bring up an idea that she had been thinking about for most of the day.

“Hey Storm,” she said, “Would you mind if I took the first shift on watch tonight?”

Storm smiled at her, “You don't have to take a shift if you don't want to, Twilight.”

“It's not that,” Twilight replied, “I wanted to take some time to work on some ideas. Besides, I want to contribute. It's not fair if I just sleep all night while you two do all the work.”

Storm shrugged. “Misty usually takes the first shift, but if you want to help she can probably take second. Just make sure that if you feel like you're about to doze off you wake her up, alright.”

-----

As it turned out, Misty had actually had the same idea as Twilight. Like Storm, she gave Twilight the option to refuse if she wanted to, but Twilight insisted.

About an hour after sunset, Misty and Storm were soundly sleeping on the floor, having opted after an argument over who got to sleep on the couch to share the floor and leave the couch for Twilight at the end of her shift. Twilight spent the time reading through a book on scrying and tracking spells in hopes of coming up with some way of tracking the location of the missing ponies.

Most of the book was unhelpful, with the spells requiring components she lacked or familiarity with the spell's target that she couldn't provide. A few of the spells were usable, but the only one that would work would require some mane or tail hair from the target for the spell to track them. It wouldn't help them find the ponies who had already gone missing, as even if they found hairs they would be useless if they were more than a little over a week old. Twilight made a note to collect hairs from the remaining ponies and look into the last pony who disappeared, who Misty said had vanished less than a week ago.

Twilight set down her notes and sighed. She desperately wanted to help these ponies, but didn't have any idea of where to start. She had hoped that she would have at least a few ideas by morning as to what was causing the disappearances, if only so she didn't have to tell the ponies of the town that she was as clueless as they were. The only idea she had so far was to evacuate the town, and even then she couldn't be certain that would solve the problem.

Deciding she needed a break from her notes Twilight stood up and stretched. Deciding that more coffee wouldn't hurt, she made her way out to Misty's kitchen.

Five minutes later she sat staring out the window, her coffee sitting on the kitchen table as she considered what she could do. She stared out of the moonlit streets of the town of Spring Shades, not quite knowing what to do.

Then she saw something moving towards the lake. Surprised, Twilight squinted, trying to make out what she was looking at in the dim moonlight. It was far to large to be an animal. It was the right size to be a pony, but it looked wrong. Twilight leaned closer to the window.

Then whatever it was stopped moving. It's head turned toward Twilight, and it's glowing red eyes met her own.

Startled, Twilight held her breath, staring at the creature as the creature stared back.

Then she blinked, and it was gone. Twilight let out the breath she had been holding. Breathing heavily, she stared at the spot the mysterious creature had occupied seconds ago.

Then she blinked again, and when her eyes opened again, she saw the creature's glowing red eyes directly in front of her.

With a scream, Twilight Sparkle threw herself away from the kitchen window.