Modulation

by ProBrony

Chapter 14 — Exhume

— Chapter 14 : Exhume —

As Rainbow Dash descended on quiet wings, she got a full view of the glamorous Las Pegasus. Downtown— or was it uptown?— floated on clouds beneath her. She flew in a wide curve, circling the city and making it spin as if in a display case. Lights shined up to her, annoying her eyes with the high contrast to the otherwise dark Equestrian countryside. Dash leaned away from the city, turning her descent into a wide spiral circling the main thoroughfare.

The floating city was grandiose, where Dash had to acknowledge it. It wasn’t as large as Cloudsdale, but it didn’t need to be. Cloudsdale was a community for families; this was a haven for those ponies who wanted just a bit more fun in their lives just a bit further from the eyes of Canterlot.

In the center of downtown there was one center golden walkway connection the four main floating islands, each cluttered with garish, flashy glass buildings. One even held a mini fairground, complete with a roller coaster circling a ferris wheel. The top of each floating island supported a solid platform around the base meant for the flightless ponies visiting. Dash could see from this height many ponies traversing the pathway despite the late hour. The sun wouldn’t be up for a few more hours, but it was long past Luna’s hour.

Eventually, Dash passed the threshold of the platforms and was under the city, it spiraling away above her. She noticed spotlights dancing on the undercloud, lighting up the perpetual party from below.

She tilted forward, increasing her rate of descent and sweeping her eyes along the undercity. It spread out underneath her, a wide, flat, almost eternal subdivision where all of the ponies who made Las Pegasus run like clockwork twenty-four hours a day rested. Lights glowed softly in neat rows for miles. There was a small splattering of high rises in the middle of the city, directly under the floating uptown, where Rainbow Dash could see the source of the searchlights; a large waterpark resort nestled in the middle of downtown. Dash glanced around at the desert that surrounded the town in utter darkness. In the distance she could spot lights, presumably taxis bringing earth ponies and unicorns to the floating tourist part of the city.

She dived low to find some nocturnal pony to ask for directions.

***

Looking back to the street, Dash saw iron fences lined both sides, periodically broken by brick pillars containing mailboxes. At least Dash thought they were mailboxes, but the doors could easily be confused for a garbage receptacle if they weren’t higher off the ground and numbered. She wondered how a pony indicated they had mail to be picked up. Beyond the fences was greenery obscuring the dwellings further back in the lot, along with the cover night. She walked the street, looking for the number she needed. It wasn’t long before she found the lot that belonged to her author. It was a two story building that looked like a mansion in all but size. The house was smaller than what the lot implied, about as wide as Fluttershy’s cottage but longer. She briefly contemplated the buzzer on the outer wall before leaping into the air and over the gate.

She flew to the front door. She rapped it twice, and waited in the dark. Soon enough, a light turned on upstairs, and footsteps approached the door. She could hear the locks of the door turn too quick for Dash to ready herself and suddenly the door was open.

The pony that opened the door simply glared at her. He was old, much older than what Rainbow Dash was expecting. His mane was a fading dirt red, his beard white and neatly trimmed. Under his plush-looking house coat his actual coat was a lightly tan brown.

“Well?”, he snapped, his voice gravelly. “Are you going to explain why you’re ringing my doorbell at this Celestia-forsaken hour?”

Dash took a firm step forward. “Are you Spinner, the author?”, she demanded. Her voice was hushed, but terse. She had traveled so far, and this was all she had left.

“Did you miss the sign out front? Who else would answer the door? Look here sweetie, I don’t like my sleep to be disturbed so get on with what you want or get off my porch.”

Dash was taken aback. The pony’s voice was fragile, yet stern. Dash took a step back, but straightened up. “If you’re Spinner, I need your help. My friend is in danger and she’s following your work, and I need your help cutting her off.”

The pony looked her up and down, and Dash did the same. He was elderly, probably not as old as Granny Smith but certainly up there. His eyes were sharp however, and remained critical.

“If you’re gonna help, can you do it now?” Dash said as she glanced over her shoulder. “There’s ponies who don’t exactly want me to find her- my friend- at least, not as soon as she should be found.”

Finally, the pony stepped aside. “I am Spinner. You’re welcome inside, for now. You better have a good reason to bother me this late.”

Dash stepped in the entryway and Spinner closed the door behind her. To her immediate left and right were doorways into rooms too dark to see. She was in a wide hall, and ahead stairs went up on the right while the hall continued on the left. Spinner walked past the stairs, further into the house. Dash followed.

Spinner’s house was like a time capsule. The walls were lined with knick knacks the way restaurants were, but Rainbow Dash suspected they were authentic. They stepped into the a dim room, decorated with dark shapes she couldn’t make out, until Spinner lit a candle, illuminating the room. They were in a kitchen. Dash’s stomach made its presence known.

A low grunt came from Spinner, something Dash wasn’t sure was a laugh or not. “I figured you’d be hungry. I’ll make you a sandwich, but in the meantime, I want a more complete reason as to why you’re here.”

As Spinner began to rummage for ingredients, Dash began to speak. “First off, not many ponies know where I am and what I’m doing, so keep quiet about me being here, ok? Don’t tell anyone I was here. Anyone at all.’

She continued, “as I said, I’m looking for my friend. I’m at the end of my rope for clues, and it seems like you’re my last chance at finding her. So far, every clue I found was either written by you or was connected to your work.”

“Clues?” asked Spinner as he set the ingredients down.

“Clues. Books. Your name in the index, author of a story, another story being similar to yours. Stuff I keep finding keeps pointing to you.”

He set out four slices of bread. “I am a scholar, these things tend to happen. Continue. Who is this friend? Why do you have to find her?”

“My friend she, she caused an accident. A bad one, and it has people looking for her. And she’s scared. I haven’t seen her in weeks, but I remember her face when I last saw her. She was really afraid, she knew this was a bad mistake. I wanted to ask her questions, but I lost track of her.”

“Really? A pegasus lost track of someone?”

“She teleported away.”

“Mhmm. That would explain it.”

“Something wasn’t right. I had to follow her, to find out why was she so afraid. At first the trail was cold, not even her mentor had heard what happened, but if I know my friend, she loves books, and going to the largest library in Equestria proved to be worth my while. She had been there. I found a silly book, about fact or fiction, and the writing in it was of a unicorn’s. Pages were ripped out, and your name was circled. From there I flew to another library that had the book that was referenced, and there were more pages ripped out.”

“If your friend is who I think she is, I already dislike her. Ripping out pages of books? Out of my books?” Dash cringed at his look. Of course a scholar wouldn’t appreciate a copy of his work being defaced.

“But that’s the thing, she would never do that to a book, but now all of a sudden she’s ripping out pages? I know something has really gotten to her, she’s really afraid.”

“If she is so afraid, if this mistake is so large, why do you have to be the one to find her? Aren’t there more… authoritative ponies who could handle this?”

It was Dash’s turn to study Spinner. “The same reason why I’m here. It seems like she found a way to fix her mistake. Actually, to at least help her fix it. And that’s where this trail gets dangerous. That’s where you come in. She’s looking for power, I guess she can’t cast the spell she’d need without it. Why else would she be looking for that jewel?”

Spinner froze. “Child I know of what you speak of. The Dragon’s Jewel. That piece of stone has shaped so much of my life. If your friend seeks it, you’re right to be worried.”

“So you can help me find it?”

“I don’t know where it is.”

Rainbow Dash sunk back to her stool. “So you researched it but never found it?”

Spinner stood. “I didn’t say that,” he grunted. “Eat this. We’ll talk in the morning.”

Dash stood too. “So you’ll help me?”

“You’re the second pony to ask me about my work so recently. I’m curious to see what’s got people interested again.”

Dash’s head snapped to Spinner. “Second? Who was the first?”

“It was… Uh...” Spinner scrunched up his face and tapped his chin with a hoof. “I don’t remember.”

Dash leaned forward. “Was it Tw—” Her words caught in her mouth. She dared not finish the name. She searched Spinner’s face for an emotion, something to tip he understood anyways. Spinner’s face was blank.

“That does sound familiar,” he finally replied. “She was cloaked, but I believe she mentioned her name began with a ‘T’.”

Dash stared intently. She began another question and swallowed it. How much does he know? Finally, she asked “Can you tell me if she a unicorn?”

Spinner nodded and set down the simple sandwiches in front of Dash. “Yes, I was sure of that. And if helps, her coat was of a cool color, as opposed to warm” He disappeared down into the main hallways, leaving dash to chew over the information. Dash saw a light come to life from one of the side rooms near the entrances. She took that time wolfed down the sandwiches, grateful to eat something aside from grass, before Spiner shortly returned.

“Then what’s next?” she asked. “What do we have to do?”

“We need to go to the local university library. My partner and I operated out of there, and his report has been resting there for some time now.”

Dash crouched, ready spring. “Great, let’s go!”

“Slow down flygirl, we’ll do it in the morning.”

“We don’t have until the morning!”

Spinner raised an eyebrow. “The library isn’t open for hours.”

Dash floated back to the ground and chuckled. “Oh yeah. Well, it wouldn’t be the first building I’ve broken into.” Spinner didn’t return her humor. She stood, clearly unsure of what to do with herself. Spinner, deciding he made her suffer enough, said, “you can sleep in my spare bedroom.”

“Yes!” said Dash. She was ready to go back and sleep on a cloud, but it would’ve left her exposed to whatever Luna or Shining Armor had in store for her. She followed Spinner up the stairs, and into an empty guest room. It was incredibly barren compared to the rest of the knickknack-laden house, and a regular bed would never compare to a cloud bed, but Rainbow Dash was please she was sleeping inside for once. She would remain concealed with no one knowing she was here.

“We’ll take off in the morning. Until then.” Spinner nodded at Dash as he stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him. Dash walked over, her paranoia flaring. She tried the handle, and found the door unlocked. She sighed, sitting back on the bed. Despite her nerves, it wasn’t long until she was also under the covers.

The smell of breakfast helped rouse Rainbow Dash from her sleep. She stopped by the bathroom before heading downstairs. Her host was infinitely more welcoming in the daylight, and the shapes hiding in the shadows turned into objects of great interest. They were likely trophies from Spinner’s youth. Most of them were photographs inlaid into some of the most obtuse picture frames.

She arrived at the bottom of the stairs and turned down the hallway to the kitchen. She spotted Spinner slowly heaping more and more food onto a plate. When she stepped into the kitchen, the smell became overwhelming.

“Please tell me that’s for us.”

Spinner, despite his obvious joy from cooking, still replied flatly. “I’m not about to toss it in the trash.”

Rainbow Dash pulled up to the counter and began eating. Spinner kept himself busy cleaning up. Before Spinner was finished, Dash set her dish on the counter next to him. He gave her a stern look, but Dash didn’t notice; she was pacing.

Spinner sat down to eat. Dash huffed,and it wasn’t long until her pacing took her out of the room. Spinner watched her leave, but remained silent, chewing his food.

Dash walked down the long hall to the entrance. She didn’t realize just how densely packed Spinner’s house was when she got there in the night. She passed dressers stacked with books, tools, and memorabilia. She got to the entrance and looked back. Spinner was looking at her, but didn’t say anything. Dash dipped into a side room. It was full of pictures. Dash was looking over all of them, and Spinner was in most, if not all of them. There was something she noticed, though, Spinner was young in all of them. One of them caught her eye. She plucked it off the wall and tucked it under her wing.

Back in the kitchen, she set it down on the counter as Spinner was rising to wash his plate.

“Hey, how do you know this guy?”

Spinner glanced over. He froze, the dish half in the sink, and his pupils shrunk.

Dash wasn’t looking at him. “I swear I’ve seen him around Ponyville— that’s where I’m from.”

The picture was four ponies, two stallions and two mares. The mares, an earth pony and a pegasus, didn’t look familiar at all. The stallions on the other hand, were what caught Dash’s attention. One was obviously a young Spinner. He looked about as old as Cheerilee. The pony next to him though was familiar. A grayish amber coat, a dark brown mane. The only thing that felt missing was his tie.

“T-That’s… That’s…”Spinner’s voice was straight. He coughed, composing himself. “Time Turner, my old partner.” Spinner wasn’t a very emotive guy, but the coldness in his voice was obvious even to Dash.

“I… Think that was his name?” She scanned the picture again and frowned. “Hey, what’s his cutie mark?”

“If I remember correctly, it was a trowel.” Spinner grabbed another photo, this time with just the two of them, and they looked even younger, Just barely older than Rainbow and her friends.

“The guy I know has an hourglass.”

“Well, a light brown coat and a dark brown mane isn’t uncommon.”

“I guess. Who are the rest of the ponies in the picture”.

Spinner finally resumed the dishes. “They’re nobodies, hired help for the expedition.”

Dash looked at the two mares harder. The pegasus had a sun obscured by a cloud as her cutie mark. The earth pony, surprisingly, had a cloud as well, with drops of rain under it. Dash didn’t know many earth ponies with weather related marks. “Wow, an expedition, just like Daring Doo. Why did you get this photo anyways?”

Spinner grumped. “No, not just like Daring Doo. This was real life, and we were professionals. Anyways, funny you grabbed this picture. This is of what we need. Your friend is looking for the Dragon’s Jewel? These are the ponies who went looking for it. Time Turner was my best friend. This journey is why I wrote those books. I always wanted to be a writer, but I was good at archeology, which was also fun.”

“Wait, if you found it, did you tell Twilight? Why can’t we just go there?”

“The answer to those questions,” said Spinner, not missing a beat, “are that I don’t know where it is.”

“What? You were there! Don’t give me that!”

“I quit the expedition. I didn’t see it through to the end.”

“You abandoned your friends?”

“They abandoned me. The ponies I left on that trip weren’t the ponies I started with. I feel things started to change as we went along. The Jewel was affecting them, I think, just like in the stories.”

“Well, what happened? Did they find the Jewel or not?”

“They did, but I left shortly afterword. I haven’t heard from them since.”

Dash looked back to the picture. “Spinner, this picture is from when you were my age. How have you not heard from your friend since?”

“You don’t know how changed they were. How changed he was. It was disgusting, I could only see a sliver of my friend, and only the worst parts.”

Dash wasn’t happy. “So you don’t know where the Jewel is, then? I doubt he let you take it.”

“He wouldn’t have let me take it, assuming I would even try. It’s something nopony should own. I don’t know where it is, but I have a hunch where I can find it. The day I left that expedition was the day I left archeology, or at least fieldwork. I retired, came here, the town of my college, University of Las Pegasus. I tried to ignore what happened, but I was angry. I knew Time Turner would publish my work that I did for him even though I left, so I kept my connection open, my line to the school to send word if anything was published by him. He finally did it, all this time later.”

The silence hung in the air. Spinner looked over the bridge of his glasses at Rainbow Dash, watching her work it out.

“What took so long?”

“I don’t know. It came as a surprise, actually. I’d mostly forgotten about them, him, until I got the letter from the college alerting me the work had been submitted. The findings weren’t a big splash, the journal it was published in didn’t regularly carry this kind of work, and it was unknown even to me at the time. I don’t know what took so long, because I never read it.”

“How could you not read it? That was your whole life once! You’re now a bitter old man and you haven’t ever read it?”

“If you please, can we leave how I live my life out of this? You have a friend to save, don’t you?”

Dash landed on the ground. Her face was stern, but she didn’t reply.

“The plan is simple. We go to the library—”

“—a Library?” Dash’s disinterest was apparent. “Real archeology is boring.”

“Boring? Boring! I—” but Spinner caught himself, and shook his head. “As I said, we go the library, we read what happened, and we go from there. I never told your friend where the Jewel was because I couldn’t, only that it was in the desert, but I doubt Time Turner has parted with that jewel in all these years. But the report should give us a starting point on figuring out what happened, and where the Jewel rests today. Or maybe it won’t, but that’s our first step and all I have right now.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

“For me to grab my coat.”

***

Rainbow Dash and Spinner stepped onto the desolate street. Spinner shut the gate behind them. In the light, Dash could easily see that Spinner’s grand house was incredibly modest among the others in his cul-de-sac.

“Where is your university?”

Spinner nodded generally West. “It’s on the other side of town—”

Dash rocketed into the sky, leaving the sentence unfinished. She quickly rose through the air, high enough to see to the other edge before she caught herself. When she returned to street level, Spinner was giving her a disappointed look.

“I’m glad you remembered me. You may not need to be a student or faculty to read books at the library, but the journals there will be much more difficult to locate and I doubt you’d be allowed into their section alone off the street.”

Dash paced. “Well then are you coming or not? Can you call a cab?”

“Out here? We’ve got to get much closer to do that.”

“Ugh. How about I go get a cab, and bring it back to you?

“I don’t know if that—”

Dash was in the air, and didn’t hear his sentence. Spinner huffed, glancing at the sun’s position in the sky and wondering how long this was going to take. However, it wasn’t long until Dash was back, and with an airborne cab flying close behind.

“Hey, he’ll take us to the Library. Hop in, let’s go.”

Spinner looked from Dash to the cabbie and back. He grunted, and slid into the cab. The cabbie rose into the air, and Dash followed.

Spinner spent the trip keeping his eyes on Dash, as if studying her. Dash could tell, but she didn’t care. She was sure she was exciting enough to warrant study. Instead, her eyes remained on the ground, scanning for any sign of Shining and Anchor. She wasn’t afraid of them; far from it, but but no need to land if they were anywhere nearby.

The university was on the other side of the town. The flight took long, and every second Dash was burning to know what the report held and what would it tell her. She tried not to think what would happen if she got to Twilight after The Dragon’s Jewel wrapped her in its apparent curse.

Dash flew over the library several times before joining Spinner on the ground. He had since paid the cab fare and they had left.

“So what’s the plan?”

Spinner chortled. “Plan? This isn’t one of your Daring Do books, girl. We walk in, ask if the report is here or out on loan, and we go have a look. We read, we learn, we walk out. This is the boring part of archeology, the research part, the real part.”

Dash was listening, but she was also looking around the front of the Library. It was vast. Unlike the Weaving Library at the University of Vanhoover, this one was several times its size and, at least by the time she got down there, ponies were attending class. The alien feeling returned, and she stuffed it away. What replaced it instead was unease.

The college campus was packed with ponies coming and going everywhere. In the middle of the day, there were easily hundreds of students wandering the plaza. Dash couldn’t keep an eye on them. She glanced back to the Library. Her flyover revealed a lot of windows, but not a lot of exits. She doubted she’d have the time to open one and fly away. She also doubted she could just fly through one. She knew the window she broke in Ponyville was a fluke, and she could’ve gotten hurt.

She also remembered she owed that store another window, but it would have to wait.

“Spinner, I need you to go in and find it alone. I’ll… watch from outside.”

Spinner considered for a few seconds, but agreed without resistance.

“Good. I’ll be hovering outside, waiting to see if you worked out anything.”

“You know, I won’t be able to bring the material to you to see. If it’s where I remember it is, it’s in storage room with all the out-of-date journals.”

“That’s fine. Look, tell me the info you need, and that should be all I need.”

Spinner nodded, and turned to walk up the steps to the entrance. Dash leapt up, fling to one of the broad windows. Ponies stared, but she didn’t care. Inside she saw Spinner head to the main desk. She couldn’t get the best angle, but the conversation was short and he was on his way. Spinner glanced out the window, locking eyes with Dash briefly. He began to walk.

Dash followed him as Spinner walked the halls. It wasn’t long before Dash realized he was taking a long route, but one that kept him visible. Finally, he came to a door along a hallway. The actual entrance was directly behind a bookshelf, and Dash could see down the rows but couldn’t see him. He looked at her once more before disappearing inside.

Dash waited. Dash hated waiting. Ponies passed through the room, walking about their day. This was the longest she had to sit around, and it ate her up. She liked to be moving, and preferably towards her goal.

Her string tugged gently.

Finally, Spinner came to the window, forcing it after a few shoves. “Dash, there’s a rough map. It looks good enough to help but…”

Rainbow Dash noticed Spinner was despondent. “What’s wrong, Spinner?”

He was looking past her. He swallowed, and slid his glasses to his hoof to wipe his face. “I… you should read this. You friend is in incredible danger.”

Danger?” Dash asked as she floated in. Spinner closed the window behind her with a heavy click.

Dash followed Spinner down the long bookcase, across the hall, and into the record room. The journal was laid out, looking pristine and untouched for being 50 years old. Dash had seen brand new Daring Do books in worse shape after only a week at a Twilight’s library. Spinner continued to be silent, staring at the paper. Dash began to read the page laid before her.

...the desert trek wasn’t worth it. As per our study, we sought the desert jewel to determine its existence, and to see if it held any magical properties. While we can confirm the jewel exists, it held no properties but ill fortune. Raindrops and Sunshower were studying the jewel in its resting place when the dig site collapsed. Neither made it. I was unable to save them, and the experiments of the stone were showing no signs of any remotely magical properties. The experiment was a failure, and I returned, following my partner back to our respective colleges. The site is marked by raised hill of shallow sand with hard rock underneath, approximately at the coordinates ...

“Those names...” Dash began as looked back to the author It wasn’t hard to put together. The mares in the photo. “Oh geez, Spinner—”

Spinner raised a hoof and hook his hand. “I’ll tell you this, Dash. The coordinates are right, or at least close enough. But there are some things I don’t understand. We had extracted the stone, and were studying it. We had begun experimenting with it. Here’s what the report doesn’t tell you. Here’s why your friend should be careful.’

“Time Turner was a determined pony. He was driven by science, by going to places no one had been before. This wasn’t the first expedition we did for a magical stone, but this one was a legitimate power stone. We both were driven to find its secrets. It proved difficult to get any information from the stone, true; we were shooting in the dark. But over time, Time Turner became more ruthless, suggesting more and more to accelerate our experiments, to involve living ponies in our experiment already. I pushed back, but he struck me down, literally. That’s when I gave him my final warning, and left him with our two other members.”

“If you knew it was affecting him, why did you leave? Why didn’t you stay and make them leave with you?”

“That’s not how we worked.”

“That’s a load of horse feathers and you know it!”

“No, he lead. He was the brains. He was the charismatic one, the tenacious one, which is why this truly disturbs me. Why lie about how far we got the stone? Did he figure something out? Did they… Sunshower… Raindrops… Did they really, are they really…?”

Dash watched Spinner. He set a hoof on the table, and shut his eyes, his frown deepening.

“He didn’t publish for years, and hasn’t since. Why did it take him so long? It says it was guilt to our teammates, respect for informing their families first. Hold on—”

Spinner lumbered out of the room. Dash watched him go. She went to the journal, flipping through the report, looking for anything useful. Spinner’s story about Time Turner’s change alarmed her. Twilight was desperate, the last thing she needed was to be changed by jewel for the worse. The coordinates meant nothing to her, but reading directions from a map is a basic skill of any pegasi looking to travel any sort of distance. It wasn’t long before she calculated the miles it would take to reach the estimated dig site. It was close, a fast pace for a few hours would bring her to the rough square couple of miles of where the site could be.

Spinner opened, the door, looking fully distraught. “Hey, are you okay?” Asked Dash.

Spinner walked over to the report, and fell into himself. He slouched, looking dumbfounded at the paper. “Rainbow Dash, they’re all dead. Even Time Turner. He passed away decades ago, his estate sold off, according to his obituary. The two mares were reported technically missing but assumed dead, after this report was made.”

“I’m so sorry Sp—”

“—I was a fool, Dash! I let my best friend get lost, lose himself to that stone, and wrote him off. I can never forgive myself for that. He was with me from the start of my career, one year ahead, always leading us to great studies, worthwhile adventures, and now he’s lost, along with the rest of our crew. We were like a family before it fell apart. I never told Sunshower how I felt.” He turned to Dash, his old eyes lit, his face grim. “Dash, you have time to avoid this fate.’

“Look, you pegasi are good with directions right?” He pointed at the map. “In the desert you will come to a solitary hill around this part, map to scale. Make a heading of South West West from Las Pegasus, and when the tallest mountain peak is directly east of you you’re in the right place. If it’s how I expect it, the dig site will be underground.’

“If you have any shot in catching your friend, this is it. I don’t know if she knew where to find the jewel. She could be lost in the desert and you know exactly where to go. Go, now! Hurry!”

Dash took a step back. Spinner rounded her and pushed her towards the door. Dash stumbled. “Hey you watch it!”

“Go now, Rainbow Dash, before they show up.”

Dash looked back as she was shoved at the door. Before she could utter a response, she met resistance and fell to the floor. She looked up. Anchor looked down.

Anchor stretched his neck, working out the kinks and cracking it. “Hello.”

Dash shot off, her lightning trot carrying her to the window furthest away from Anchor in a straight line. She built up speed, flapping her wings and preparing for the impact that was surely going to hurt even if she made it clean through the window. At the last moment she brought her wings in, gave one last kicked, tucked her legs in and shut her eyes to the breaking glass.

She slammed into the window and fell back. She shouted, half in surprise, and half from the pain of the collision. She rolled, and skidded to a stop. She picked herself of the floor, pain shooting down her spine. She gingerly flexed as she rose, relieved to find that despite her headache and the pain racing up and down her limbs, nothing was noticeably broken. She looked back the window to find it a wall of translucence pink before it, swirling with wisps of wind.

“Rainbow Dash, we’re here to take you in.”

Dash turned, and instinctively recoiled. Anchor sauntered down the down the hall of the wing, military march forgotten in the thrill of the hunt. Dash could tell he was sure he had her. Behind him, she saw Shining Armor rounding the corner. He glanced at Spinner, and the look they exchanged was all she needed to know.

“You told them, Spinner? You told them I was coming?”

Anchor was the one to reply. “Wrong, lass. We knew you’d be here, we just wanted a guarantee.” Anchor tugged at a strap at his chest with a teeth. After a great tug, it loosened, and his body armor fell off. It thudded to the ground, loud enough for Dash to feel it. “We needed to make sure you made your appointment.”

Dash didn’t wait for Anchor to get any closer. She dashed around the corner to immediately stopped. She saw the translucent pink wall continue around the corner. She was locked in Shining’s bubble shield.

Anchor rounded the corner. “Yeah, you’re not going anywhere, Rainbow Dash.” He paused, placing a forehoof on his helmet. A strong heave later, and it rose and landed on the floor. It didn’t clatter, just a rough crunch as the wood splintered beneath it. “You’ve got nowhere to run, and I’ve been itchin’ for a jog. The journey here left me a bit stiff. I hope you run, y’know? I need the exercise.”

“I’d like to see you catch me.”

“I’d like to see you escape this shield.”

Dash turned to run, but already Anchor was moving towards her. His speed caught her off guard, and she stumbled trying to catch herself. With unreal speed, Anchor was upon her. She could see his mad grin, could see him lowering his shoulder, and could see his rear hooves launch him. Dash regained all of her footing just in time to feel the force of a a sonic rainbow crash into her side. She was airborne, revolving through the air, and crashed against a shield. When coughed, struggling for breath.

“Anchor!” Shining called out. He slowly walked around the corner, following after Anchor who stopped mid charge. He looked back, and shrugged.

“She’s wanted by the Princess.”

“And if you deliver her broken? Watch yourself, Anchor. This is a friend of the kingdom, not an enemy of Equestria! We will not stand to see her delivered broken to our Princess.”

“Understood, Sir. I’ll dial it back.”

Dash’s head was spinning, but she forced herself to stand. She stumbled again, but was able to catch herself. Her sense of down spun with her vision. She could see the glow of Shining’s horn disappear, then reappear. Suddenly the wall was much closer behind her, and Anchor was much closer. The shield was recast. The walls had closed in.

Dash was up again, but Anchor was already running. She leap, but the ceilings weren’t high and she quickly had to stop ascending. Anchor leapt and wrapped his forelegs around her. He rotated, slamming his back into the ceiling. The impact shook Dash mane to tail. He pushed off and spun on the way down, slamming his back into the ground as well,using his body to break the fall but the thud hurt even worse than the first. Dash coughed, but refused to scream. Balancing on his rear hooves, Anchor shoved Dash towards Shining Armor, who was still quite a few bookcase isles away. She rolled to a stop between the ponies.

Shining continued to walk as if his spell was a dinner plate balancing on his horn. “Rainbow Dash, please agree to come with us.”

Dash rose to her hooves, unsteady. Her head was spinning, both from the double slam, and from confusion. While she was aware earth ponies could run, with her own friend keeping pace with her, she’d never met one able to intercept her once airborne. She swore under her breath, and realized what was happening.

Spinner had lured her into the library. Spinner had told Shining, somehow, she’d be there. The library had tall ceilings, but Dash couldn’t fly away. She was trapped, but they should know better. Dash doesn’t give up on her friends.

“You’ll have catch me first.”

Before Dash lifted her wings, she felt the first thud behind her. By the time they were lifted, she felt the second. She smirked at Shining, and instead of pushing off she used her wings to force her body low. Her view darkened as the shadow of her opponent passed over her. She reversed her thrust, and wiped her hind legs out. She was off the mark, catching Anchor in the stomach. He’s fast, she thought, surprised, but she still connected.

Anchor’s leap was extended, and he flew towards Shining. Dash intended to stare him down, smug at the play, but instead Anchor looked at her as he flew through the air, propelled by her kick. His face was cruel yet stern, accepting of Dash’s play. The lack of ire made Dash worried for some reason. She turned away, raising her wings and beginning her lightning step away from the pair of guards.

That face quickly went away when he crashed into Shining. Dash had already accelerated to full speed towards the edge of Shining’s shield. She quickly neared it, and for a second she thought she had miscalculated. As she was running full speed, it fell, and Dash was free.

She followed the path Spinner took to get in. She was sure there were faster ways out, but she didn’t want to take the chance of running into a blind corner. Books flew off the shelves in her wake, and ponies exclaimed their annoyance, but this wasn’t like last time. Last time, she ran due to impatience. This time, she ran for Twilight.

She made it to the lobby in no time. Ponies were entering and exiting the front doors. Dash tucked in her wings, and hoped if she collided with a pony they wouldn’t be too angry.

She slipped through, however, and was above the courtyard. She flared her wings and began a parabolic arc upwards. She didn’t need just distance, but she also needed height. Anchor was disturbingly quick for an earth pony, and Dash was willing to believe he could jump much higher. She pumped her wings hard. She dared look over her shoulder.

A brilliant pink flash flashed briefly below her, and just as she expected, the library and the surrounding city blocks were covered in Shining’s shield. Dash laughed, leveling off her flight to bask in her glory. Far below, a lumbering mass of pony exited the library. Dash couldn’t hear what he was saying from the distance and the bubble, but she could tell he was far from a happy pony. Dash stuck her tongue out, not caring if he could see, and flew higher, to Uptown Las Pegasus was floating above.

The lack of sleep and unexpected exertion was weighing on her. She would never hate flying, but Dash was distinctly aware her body was begging her for rest by this point. However she continued to ascend, pushing for the Strip, hoping to use the cloud cover keeping it afloat will to hide her from Shining’s eyes, allowing her to find a place to relax.

A shadow slammed into Rainbow Dash. Her world turned upside down and her lungs emptied in a choked cry. Immediately she was in a spin out, losing altitude. The wind whipped her mane, and her wings struggled to gain purchase through the whipping air all while she fought for breath, having the wind knocked out of her. Her cough was raspy, trying to capture some of the fleeting air and push it into her lungs. Below, Shining’s shield was rising to meet her.

She cursed herself for not training for spin outs, always brushing it off as for a pony who couldn’t fly as well as she could. She stuck her wings out as straight as she could, and willed her tail to the side to provide some sort of counterspin. Eventually, Dash was able to tap in the the latent pegasi magic she had and stopped spinning enough to roll out into a stable dive form. Her magic righted her, and she pulled up hard, halting her plumet halfway between the shield and the city above. She scanned the horizon, looking for whoever hit her, yet all she could see were the regular carriages transporting earth and pegasus ponies to and from the flying city.

“Hello Rainbow Crash!” a voice called. On instinct Dash slammed her wings down, ushing with her magic to flip forward. Looking behind her, the world upside, she saw a black streak cross where she was moments before. It was fast, but Dash was able to catch its wild grin.

The dark splot flew down towards the ground, a gleeful laugh fading in and out as it passed, lost among the features of the lower city. Then in the distance, impossibly far, she saw a flash in the sky. Rainbow Dash didn’t wait a second longer and rose to the city, accelerating into a vertical sprint. She pushed hard, willing herself to ascend. Her muscles continued to protest, but the cloud cover high above was to her salvation. She had never had a dogfight against another creature of flight— she wasn’t sure pursuer was a pony— but she knew if she landed on the ground she wouldn’t be able to hide. She had to hope that with being the best flyer in Equestria, even an off day like today would prove her the best.

Ten seconds into her climb and she noticed the black dot behind her gaining. She looked up, doubling down on her efforts as the upper city rushed to meet her. She aimed for the narrowest sliver between buildings, gunning for it, and slipped through the clouds.

The moisture gave her a slight reprieve from the physical exertion. Her muscles, pumping fire, enjoyed every moment of the cool cair enveloping her before she exploded out onto the other side.

She had picked well, rising between two skyscrapers. A few yards either way and, at her speed, she would’ve became a pancake. With a few flaps she leveled out, flying horizontally from between the buildings to the center of the rotating uptown strip she flew past the night before. Behind her the black figure erupted from the clouds, but continued to climb upwards, as if it didn’t see her.

When she exited the alley, Dash had to immediately pivot her wings. She rolled and missed an air cab transporting a family of tourists. Familiar angry horns shouted after her, but Dash could barely hear them.

She was on a path straight to the central walkway of the Strip, where several ponies stood admiring the admittedly grandiose view. Dash shouted commanding them to make way. She glanced back, and saw the dark creature change its course in one sudden, angular motion, losing none of its momentum. Her eyes widened. There’s no way any pegasus can move like that.

Dash looked forward with just enough time to command the sight seeing ponies to make way. They moved and she slammed hooves first onto the ground and rebounded in the air in one smooth motion.

Dash aimed for the the ferris wheel behind a resort building. The pegasus may have moves, and she may be running for her freedom, but she couldn’t escape what she felt. The early laughs. The incredible agility. The competitor in Rainbow Dash was watching closely.

They both reached the ferris wheel within seconds of each other despite Dash’s lead. That fact spurred Dash onward, and she threw herself into the amusement park attraction.

Immediately, gravity began to grab at her. As she wove through the metal struts, her mane twisted and flapped all around her as she spun this way and that, moving counterclockwise through the structure. Whistling filled her ears as the bars of the ferris wheel whizzed dangerously past her. Every so often a rotation would have her briefly look back, and to her annoyance the pegasus followed with little effort, his eyes never leaving Dash. She couldn’t get a good look at him, but could see he was clearly smiling.

Dash heard a yelp, and glanced back to find her pursuer missing. In that moment she hit one of the struts herself and cried out. The force of the bar vibrated her entire body. She spun out and landed on one of the gondolas. The metal dented under her speed, and her head swam as it teetered from her impact. She laid there, feeling her whole body sting, her eyes shut to the stinging pain.

“Rainbow Dash, right?”

She seized up. That was the voice from earlier. The voice from before. She wedged an eye open, and caught a shadow zooming past. It continued to speak.

“My dear Luna, it is you,” the voice said as it passed. It flew over once more. “Well, I knew it was you, but here you are.”

Dash was angry, it spoke as if he had won, as if they both hadn’t crashed. She managed to stand up. Her breath was ragged, which surprised her. It annoyed her this thing had caused it.

The gondola rocked violently as the shadow landed, causing Rainbow Dash stagger. She tried to finally get a good look at her pursuer, but then the ferris wheel crested and the unfiltered light of the sun blinded her.

“This is amazing! I’ve always enjoyed your flying. I never expected that I’d be allowed to hunt you down, you’re an Elemental! But when they asked me if I wanted to chase the fastest pony alive, I was filled with joy! I hope we’re not done. C’mon, keep flying! Go faster!”

The Ferris wheel dipped back into the shade of itself. She turn around, and instantly took a step back. Before her stood a bat pony in their signature dark lavender armor. His eyes were smiling under the helmet, underneath, he was grinning.

“Are you impressed, Rainbow Dash?” he called out to her. He looked younger than Dash. That pissed her off.

“Who are you? Are you with Shining Armor?” Dash demanded.

He mocked her, pretending to think about it for a moment. “Would it make you fly faster if I said yes?”

There was a hesitation. Again Dash thought about her experience in fighting airborne. It seemed without a doubt this was one of Shining’s lackeys; why else would a Knight be chasing her all the way in Los Pegasus? But what would he do? Taking down another pegasus in flight and catching her on the free fall would be his only move. Instead of answering, Dash launched herself into the air again. The knight beneath her laughed, and took his time following. “C’mon,” he called. “Keep flying! Go faster!”

Dash breathed deeply. She’d never flown against a Lunar Knight before, but she knew she could beat a Wonderbolt in a race. The thought brought her the slightest big of calm. They were the best flyers in Equestria, and technically an arm of the military; what chance did this Lunar Knight have?

She smirked, and shot into the second floor of the open building. Instantly a focus came over her, and as the pillars of the unfinished building whizzed by she wove through them with determination. The obstacles weren’t difficult in and of themselves, but the speed in which she was flying gave every exposed metal beam and piece of rebar more danger than any hoop from Wonderbolts practice. She zigzagged her way through the floor, attempting a diagonal path through the construction. She cut the corners hard, close enough to feel the feathers on her wings brushing surfaces she skimmed over.

Rainbow flew through the unfinished corridors of the building, soaring past bare rebar and exposed steel beams. At this point she was running beyond her lightning strut. It was all she could do to round the corners without colliding; still, her feathers brushed the surfaces. The scatterbrained path fell away momentarily as Dash entered the elevator shaft.

Her wings found purchase and she ascended, the floors of the building falling beneath her in a blur. Moments later the sun greeted her as she flew up and out of the shaft, above where the building’s unfinished roof would eventually be added. Dash snatched herself backwards, flying back to the top floor. A stairwell resided in a corner of the roof. Dash flipped herself, and made a beeline right for it. She never made it.

The Lunar Knight, seeing Dash in the open air, took his chance. In the middle of her loop, he flew directly at her and rammed a shoulder into her side. The blow threw Dash off her flight path. She fought against the spin, gravity, and the pain to keep herself awake as she crested over the side of uptown Las Pegasus and into the open air, nothing between her and Downtown far below.

For the first time since she was a small filly, Rainbow Dash was airborne and scared. The blow had given her a dead wing, completely numbed out, and there was nothing between her and the ground. She was spinning so fast she couldn’t tell which was was down. She couldn’t hear anything but her panicked gasps for air, trying to catch the fleeting air and put it in her lungs.

Dash cried out as she forced her wing out. It wasn’t broken, but it felt like her whole side had fallen asleep, and instead of the swirling sand sensation one gets when leaning on a limb too long, it was swirling pain. Keeping her wings straight, her legs tucked, her tumbling turned into spinning, and she was falling headfirst down.

Look up, she could see the Lunar Knight following behind her. She was confused. She was almost too sore to fly, and he could grab her at any moment, but instead he watched, his face a slight frown. Then, a purple light flashed in the corner of Dash’s eye. The Lunar knight looked towards it, back to Dash, then pulled away.

Dash, still spinning, was unable to follow his movement once he left from directly behind her. She straightened her wings with much difficulty and straightened her tail out, turning it against the spin to counterspin, with time, she stopped her tumble and eased into a controlled dive. Or, as controlled as a free fall could be.

The knight was flying towards a rising airship. It was smaller than Dash thought they came in. The balloon supporting the craft held Celestia’s cutie mark. Her stomach sank.

Come on, pull up! she screamed to herself. As her wings began to catch air to level herself out, the pain came back, a tight and exacting sting in her wing muscles. She fought against it, until she finally evened out, not far above the tallest buildings along Los Pegasus’ suburbs. Looking back, there was no doubt where the airship was headed. High above, it turned towards the desert, towards where Stinger had shown her on the map.

Did Spinner talk? It didn’t matter, Dash needed to get there before Shining and his posse did. She flapped after them, keeping low, willing herself to go as fast as she could. The true speed she needed was beyond her now, there was no way the bruises and tiredness she felt would allow her to pull a Sonic rainboom, but even the fastest airship would have difficulty matching the speed of a trained pegasus.

She was catching up with the airship high above, until the Lunar Knight met it in the air. The airship accelerated. He must’ve donned a harness.. Dash groaned, but even with the Knight’s help, the airship was still slower than her. It just meant she’d have less time to track down the Jewel or search for any clues once she landed, and she didn’t want to be arrested midway through searching for the dig site.

What Twilight had already stopped by, grabbed the jewel, and was long gone? Am I too far behind? Ultimate, it didn’t matter; the trail for Twilight was running cold, and this was all she had. She couldn’t imagine how else to find her if there wasn’t any clues at the site, so she forced it out of her mind.

The airship had several miles on Dash, but after an hour of flying she was able to meet and pass it. Flying underneath the ship, despite being so far beneath it, had been a tense moment. She expected the Lunar Knight to disengage from the airship and knock her out of the sky, but it never happened— its course remained steady. With enough time, she was far ahead of them. Even in her weakened state, she wasn’t dragging along a multi-ton ship.

The edge of Los Pegasus was odd indeed, and they passed it shortly into their long race. It was a rather lush and well-to-do suburb filled with more houses than Dash thought possible. Suddenly at the edge, it fell away. In the backyard of the last house, there was a fence, and then sand. And it went for miles. Her flight took her so far that Los Pegasus becoming a shimmering pair of dots on the horizon, getting harder and harder to see as the Sun began to set behind it.

She spotted the telltale silhouette of a mountain some miles away. With her best guess, she flew to where the ground and began stumbling around. Her shadow was long when she landed. Dashe swept at the sand, looking for anything that would tip off that she found the right place. She glanced back. Los Pegasus was too far to see, and she also couldn’t see the airship despite the clear skies. However, that brought her no comfort, and assumed the fading light was what hid them.

She walked to the place Spinner told her to go. The soft sand beneath her hooves grew firm as she ascended what she hoped the telltale hill. Near the top sand Dash’s footsteps began to ring out. A hoof caught in something and caused her trip. Looking down, she saw it was an antiquated shovel. Her heart beat faster as she rose and continued scrambling.

She stood atop the hollow ground. She looked up once, and saw the airship descending from high above. Gritting her teeth, she jumped up for some breathing room, then slammed her hooves at the top of the center of the hill, breaking through the fragile ceiling.

She fell into darkness, sand falling in behind her. It ebbed away as her eyes adjusted, and she could see she was in a small room. It was smaller than the bedroom in Spinner’s house. In the middle was a pedestal, wide and short. There was an indentation in the center, but the pedestal was empty. Whatever had rested there was gone.

“No!” Dash stamped her hoof. She should have expected she’d be late, but it still stung. As she rose to the hole, she could hear the deep thus of the airship landing. She panicked. To leave now would definitely show that the jewel nor Twilight was there, and they’d swiftly capture her. She flew into the center of the room, scanning for sometime place to hide. However, it was a barren room. Just the raised the steps to the pedestal, the rocks, and…

Dash landed, walking to the rubble. Some of the sand that fell in behind her was sinking under a rock. She pushed it aside, and it revealed a hole with smooth round edges behind it. Behind it was utter darkness. It would be nighttime soon enough, and what little light the room had would soon be gone.

“Here she is Captain, just as he said she’d be!”

Anchor shouted from above. Dash didn’t look up, she didn’t think twice. Tucking her wings in, dash Dove headfirst into the hole. It was tight, and continued long… too long. Dash tried to open her wings but they brushed along the side of the hole, too narrow to catch any air. She dug her wings into the wall in a primal desire to fly, to stop. Feathers ripped out from the friction. She couldn’t stop herself from screaming she fell, unable to control her descent. Her wings continued to scrape until suddenly the walls fell away.

Her screams, rebounding up and down the tight hole, dissipated into the vast blackness that now surrounded around her. Dash’s now fully extended wings caught air and she jerked back into control again, leveling out and gliding the rest of the way. Long after she had stopped screaming, she could still hear her voice echoing distantly in the chamber. She decided not to change running into the edge of the chamber and flew dow0n a quickly as she could without slamming into the floor. She glided silently, refusing to flap once and create the sound of ruffling feathers.

She was slowly gliding down in a room of complete darkness, with the hole above her the only source of light. By the time her hooves met the floor, her eyes were better adjusted. She could make out the outline of a nearby pillar. Above her flowed the only light into the room, the hole from whence she came. From the light behind it, she could see shadows moving. She ran behind the pillar.

“I didn’t hear her body slam on the floor.” The familiar voice of the young Lunar Knight also felt like a drop in a bucket. His eagerness continued to annoy her. “I’ll go down first! I doubt she died. It’s probably enough room to break a fall.”

The sound of metal scraped against stone bounced all around the room. He did not scream like Dash.

The knight slammed hooves first into the ground. The echo from their armor was incredibly loud. Again, the trail of the echoing reverb gave her the sense the underground hall she found herself in was massive. She picked a direction away from the noise and walked, holding her wings in front of her. She stumbled for a moment; the floor still had piles of sand, which she walked over periodically. Her eyes should’ve completely adjusted by now, but she could only see phantoms of her wings in front of her, barely outlined by the light from the above hole. The air was stale, as if no one had breathed it in ages.

“So Moon Shadow,” called Anchor. Dash involuntarily shuddered at his voice. “Just how deep is it? Can’t you see her?”. His voice was extremely deep in the reverberating space. Dash shuddered.

“No, my eyes are still adjusting. Give them time.”

“I forgot you freaks can see better than usual in the dark.” Dash could hear the sneer in Anchor’s voice. I wonder if he ever said anything with a straight face.

“I forgot a ground-bounded lughead such as yourself could remember facts for more than five minutes.” Moon Chaser’s voice was ever cheerful but held no love for his party member. A swish of armor sounded, and the knight kicked off.

Dash couldn’t help but quicken her step. She bumped into a wall and stifled a grunt. Or, as her wings went wide, a column. She walked around to the other side. She crouched down, wings flared, peeking at where she came from. She could see the black form of the Lunar Knight called Moon Shadow hovering right under the hole, scanning the room. She turned and kept walking.

A rush of feathers sounded. “Come on, Rainbow Dash. We don’t have all day.”

The voice was suddenly closer. Dash backed up until she bumped into the wall and froze. She slid around it until she found a cranny in the wall, and she slunk in. It felt like he was right on top of her. The sound of hooves landing nearby all but confirmed it.

A sudden bark from Anchor saved her. “Moon Shadow, get up here! The Captain says the plans have changed.”

Dash heard the footsteps stop near her hiding place. They stood still. Dash was holding her breath. A hoofstep fell just that much closer.

“I said get up here, bat. Help get the doctor down.”

“I said never call me that!” Shouted Moon Shadow. For the first time, Dash could hear something in his voice that wasn’t pure amusement.

She heard a rustle of wings, and then silence, assuming Moon Shadow had taken flight. Still, Dash didn’t move. She could hear muffled speaking, but despite how still the cavern was she was still too far from the entrance to hear anything. A light illuminated the hole, but it moved around from the inside. She assumed it was Shining.

There was arguing. Shouting. The pony called Anchor was clearly upset about something. Dash could only make out one word in the tirade, “again, again?” Finally she heard Shining’s unmistakable voice cut him off. There was silence.

“Dash!”

At the bottom of this hall in the corner she found herself, it felt to Dash like all the warm had left from Shining Armor’s voice.

“We’re done here. The archaeologist says the gem hasn’t been here in ages, judging by the way the dust had been disturbed. Our trail trail is cold1 just like yours. We know Spinner was your only hope. We’re going back to Canterlot to report. My job was ultimate to find Twilight, if you were to have cooperated. Now that we can’t, we hope you come back to Canterlot with haste. I won’t force you, not today. I’ll personally tell Celestia you have nothing to add to our search and, Dash, I hope to hear that that’s true. Goodbye.”

The light moved to the hole, and intensified, creating a narrow shaft of light in the center of the room. The surrounding area was still cast in shadow but Dash took note of just how far she was away from the hole in the roof. The room was vast, and she still wasn’t sure if she was at the end or just a cutaway. Finally, the light dimmed, fading back from magical illumination into the failing natural light. With the way the holes were aligned, the room would only stay the most bright at high noon.

Time slowed. The faint light the hole provided grew more and more dim, to the point where dash could no longer make out anything aside from the hole. As she remained underground, her sense of space grew warped. The walls fell away, and soon she felt like she was in a mass ocean of darkness, sitting beneath the surface. Her unease was palpable.

But was it a trap? Was Shining and company sitting atop the hole, waiting for her to be caught the moment she showed one feather aboveground? Or, maybe, they had long left.

Dash wonder this as Celestia’s sun was laid to rest for the night, and the only way out disappeared, leaving her in the darkest knight she’d ever face.

Author's Note:

Thank you again for your patience. I had a plan to drop 6 chapters last year, and we all know how that went. My life got flipped, turned upside down. The next chapter is kind of far along, so it shouldn't take me 11 months like this one did. It already has 11k words, and I've developed better editing processes.

Shout out to Sqarish Octagon being my ride or die again. Hit me up if you'd like to be a pre-reader.

Comments

[Zeprto678]

You misspelled night. I guess Twilight must've disguised herself in case anyone would recognize her. Also, I guess Time Turner is still alive and must be a Time Lord in your story?

[ProBrony]

8657994
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this new chapter.

Where did I botch my spelling? I'll change it asap.

No Time Lords, I don't watch Doctor Who, but you're sharp.

[Zeprto678]

8662512
Chapter 14. I think it was near the end. You misspelled night.