Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Nightwatch: Campfire Tale

The grove was empty, quiet, and deserted. The half-full moon provided some illumination through the thinner branches, but it was still largely dark and covered with shadows. Crickets chirping filled the air. An owl hooted.

Celestia stood just within the tree line, concealed by branches and underbrush, and took a deep breath. She looked down to her hand, ignoring the hexagonal symbol and instead focusing on a gold bracelet with a single sapphire mounted into it. She looked up again, steeled herself, and began to walk out.

Nothing immediately responded as she emerged, but she continued to look one way and another. None of the shadows or the shapes within them moved. She heard nothing, but knew full well this was the spot and this was the time.

“I’m here, Sunset,” she called, breaking the silence at last.

No answer. Celestia’s face grew uncomfortable, and she looked around a bit more as she continued to walk to the center. Her step gradually did begin to slow at the continued lack of response, and her hand bearing her symbol and her bracelet began to raise in anticipation.

The sound, familiar to her, of magical runes being activated rang out around her. She saw light rise up nearby and quickly wheeled to it. However, she saw nothing ahead of her. For a fraction of a second she hesitated before she looked at her feet. A series of circular symbols were lighting up right beneath her. Gasping at the realization of her mistake, she quickly brought her other hand around to grasp her bracelet…

Too late. The runes completed and burst into full golden light, and in response the sound of chains whipping through the air erupted. A pair of shackles burst from the edges and tagged her wrists right before she could touch the bracelet, and with a sharp tug that made her cry out yanked both of her arms back. Two more quickly lashed against her ankles while another large shackle shot up beneath her and tethered to her waist. Those along with the wrist shackles began to both stretch her and yank her down to her knees.

She opened her mouth and got out three arcane syllables before another shackle clamped around her neck; yanking her down like a dog on a leash. She gagged, but when she recovered enough to speak again all chains and shackles binding her began to burn, forcing her to call off her spell before she could speak it. Soon she was stretched, bent, and barely able to keep herself from being ground into the dirt by the golden chains.

Celestia struggled against them, but all in vain. Her bonds only grew tighter and more painful for her attempts to break free. She was allowed to struggle for a full minute, in particularly to use the shackle on her wrist to push her bracelet off her hand, but to no avail. It was too tight to squeeze over her thumb.

A smug sounding voice came from the shadows. “So it’s true what your book said…”

Celestia paused in her struggles, looking up into the shadows to her right. They parted enough to reveal Sunset Shimmer. In spite of her homeless status, the teenager seemed to have done very well for herself since she had last seen her. Her face and hair were clean, her clothes were new, and she looked twice as arrogant.

“Chains made of adamantine can bind even a god.”

Celestia’s eyes widened. “Adamantine?! That’s impossible! There’s none to be found outside of Canterlot!”

That only made Sunset smirk more. “Let’s just say I borrowed a little more than what you had in your private library before I ‘dropped out’. Getting enough brass to make a look-alike chain wasn’t easy, but obviously you never bothered checking to make sure.” She took a few more steps forward. “I take it by now you’ve realized I didn’t have any interest in ‘talking’, although I thank you for being stupid enough to come just the same.”

Celestia’s surprise dimmed as her eyes narrowed. “What do you want, Sunset?”

She frowned. “You know exactly what I want, princess. What you promised me. What I earned. What I deserved. What I was born to be.”

“And did you think chaining me would change the answer I gave you last time?”

“No,” she smiled again, “but fun fact: the Adamantine Chain wasn’t the only thing I swiped from your relics.”

She reached behind herself and emerged with a bizarre, eighteen-inch-long dagger. It took seemed to be made out of stone, but it gleamed like bronze with a long, tapered, and spiraling tip. The quillon guard splayed out and fit over the top of the wielder’s hand.

On seeing it, Celestia’s pallor turned pale.

“Oh? You recognize it? I thought you might,” Sunset grinned as she quickly walked up to her side. Celestia actually struggled a little more, but the teenager took her time as she knew by now it was futile. “Rare as adamantine is, I doubt there’s any orichalum anywhere else in Greater Everfree or under it. I can see why you had this locked up. It’s such a nifty little relic. Now then…”

She reached Celestia’s side and quickly lashed out and seized the hand with the hexagon. She tried to wring it free, but even for a teenager Sunset’s grip was strong--driven with the passion of a madwoman. She looked Celestia right in the eye and seemed to relish her anxiety, for she simple stared at her for a moment.

“What’s the matter? No lectures? No morals? No ‘Sunset, please stop’? ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’? I’m actually disappointed. I’ve gotten so used to hearing your nagging I actually miss it. But I’ve already waited two years too long for this, so let’s just get on with it.” She reared up the knife.

“Stop!” Celestia finally shouted.

Without hesitation, Sunset drove the tip of the dagger halfway through Celestia’s palm right at the edge of one of the hexagons. Immediately, it gleamed like it was an iron, starting at the tip, and Celestia yelled in agony as a light within her hand erupted. Sunset nearly recoiled at the sight, but forced her grip to stay steady and kept the tip in even as the light traveled down the blade, over the quillons, and into her own hand. Her own eyes widened in pain and she had to grit her teeth to keep holding on, but hold she did.

A ball of light gleaming more radiant than the rest of the dagger separated itself from Celestia’s hand. The mere act of it manifesting itself caused a small tempest to whip around them within the grove. Slowly, it passed over the blade and the hilt and finally into Sunset’s own hand.

Finally crying out herself, she snapped back and let Celestia’s hand go. Blood was pouring out over her palm from where she had been stabbed, but Sunset herself winced and gasped at her own hand which was now smoking. Nevertheless, she held it up and looked at the back of her palm.

Until a few moments ago, it had a hexagon of its own that was empty. Yet now, she saw a single larger rune etched over one of the corners.

Her eyes lit up with an almost mad gleam. She gasped in delight before she began to laugh out loud. “Yes, yes, yes! Finally! One of my own! Ugh…it sure hurt like Hell, but it was worth it! I feel stronger already! This is what I’ve been missing? It’s incredible! I can’t wait to try it out!”

After gushing over it for several moments and letting the pain subside a little, she turned back to Celestia. Her own teeth were grit, both from agony as well as horror and regret at what had just happened. Sunset smirked at her.

“I’m really tempted to just keep this one and get used to it, especially with how much that hurt, but…I came here to ‘finish my education’ tonight. I think I can bite through five more. Let’s keep it going, shall we?”

“Sunset, don’t-”

Celestia was cut off with a scream as Sunset nearly dove on her hand this time, seized it, and drove the dagger into the second corner. The same scene repeated. Sunset screamed as well this time, but it was one of wild, resounding, masochistic joy rather than anguish.

She nearly staggered back as the second spot was etched into her hand, out of breath with gasping and nearly dropping the knife. Yet she held her hand up and marveled at this one too, more ecstatic than ever. “Now this is power! I didn’t think I’d get such a rush from just two of them!”

Celestia, on her part, was now bleeding freely from two places with her fist tightened in pain.

“Don’t worry, princess. This is hurting me too, after all. Just think of it as needing four more of your teeth pulled…” With that, she drove the dagger in again.

Three more times the scene repeated, and each time Sunset couldn’t help but laugh and practically dance with each new emblem etched into her hand. Celestia, on the other hand, was being tortured both by the strain of her chains and the bloody wounds being left in her hand. It was dripping into a puddle on the ground at this point and slathered all over the back of her hand. Through her pain, however, she began to hold her palm upright; letting the blood slide back over her bracelet…

As soon as Sunset finished marveling over the fifth emblem on her hand, she looked back to Celestia yet again. “You’ve been oddly quiet, princess. I honestly thought you’d have more to say.”

The woman didn’t answer. By now, she was having to breathe rather hard to stymie her own pain.

“Come on now. Anything to say to me before I leave this mortal body behind?”

It took Celestia a moment, but she finally managed to raise her head and look into Sunset’s eyes. Her gaze wasn’t angry, anxious, or fearful.

It was, of all things, sad.

“I’m sorry I let you down, Sunset.”

For the briefest instant, Sunset’s smile ebbed and her wild glare softened slightly. However, it just as quickly reverted as she snorted. “Thought you’d be above begging and appealing to pity, Celestia, but apparently I was wrong. Oh well…” She walked up to her again and once more seized her hand with a smile. “I’m feeling particularly happy today, so I just might let you live after this is done. It’d do you some good to live like the rest of the non-magic mortals. Here we go.”

Taking the tip of the bloody dagger, she drove it into the sixth and final corner of the hexagon.

Nothing.

Sunset’ s smile faded, replaced with confusion. She drove the tip in again, making Celestia wince, but no good. Beginning to look cross, she drove it in again, this time making Celestia cry out as it went all the way through to the other side. Still nothing. Half-scowling, she ripped the dagger out and rose from her side, walking away and holding up her hand again. There were only five larger runes on it. The sixth corner remained empty.

“What’s going on? Why am I not getting the last soul?”

Celestia, in the middle of her fresh agony, held her hand up. She began to let the blood flow down over her wrist again; this time enough to pool on it. As soon as she had what she felt was enough, she held it down and began to furiously move her fingers.

“Is it this knife? Does it ‘run out’? Damnit, I’m this close to being complete! Don’t run out on me now you damn…”

She paused. Celestia, noticing this, worked even harder. It took some effort, but as she held her hand down and the blood slid back over it, the bracelet slowly began to inch over her thumb muscles.

“Wait…” she wheeled around on Celestia, who immediately paused in her work. The bracelet remained half slid over her hand. “I don’t even sense it anymore in you. And you didn’t have this knife. That means…”

Her eyes widened in realization.

“You passed it on. You gave it to one of your brats before you came out here. You probably gave it to that one...”

She stood there silently a moment, before her hands tightened. Her teeth clenched. New fury came over her.

“You gave what was mine to someone else!”

In an instant, Sunset stormed over to Celestia and bent down. She seized her by her iridescent hair and yanked it back, nearly pulling some out. The knife went up and pressed against her chest enough to start drawing more blood. Sunset was so focused on her she didn’t see Celestia hold the hand with the bracelet down and the accessory continue to slide over it.

“Tell me who! Tell me who you replaced me with! Who has it?” The tip pressed in a bit more. “Or will I just end up taking yours instead?!”

Celestia winced and moaned in pain, but her hand kept working, and slowly the bracelet finished sliding over the fattest part of her thumb. She shook her hand sharply, finally getting Sunset’s attention. She looked over and, as she did, the bracelet fell totally off of her hand and began to fall to the ground.

Before it could, Celestia’s hand reached out and seized it and quickly moved her thumb over the jewel. Sunset’s eyes widened, realizing what it was, and tried to shout a protest. Celestia's thumb pushed the jewel off, and immediately it burst in a flash of diamond light.

Celestia’s agonized body seemed to be swallowed in that same light, until it became an outline of the same diamond dust in midair before, like the sapphire itself, it was blown away into the night. Sunset stumbled forward as her grip on Celestia’s hair and the resistance of her chest to the knife vanished. The chains slumped to the ground, no longer holding anything, and soon after the golden sigil disappeared along with them. In just a matter of moments, all that was left was Sunset, the knife, the grove, and a small pool of Celestia’s blood.

Sunset slowly picked herself up and looked around but saw nothing. As angry as she had been before, her anger soon tripled as she screamed obscenities into the night. Her hands made fists and tore furiously at the ground, wrecking her runes as she fumed and ranted. In between her endless curses toward Celestia, only two coherent phrases were screamed out.

“It was mine! All of it!”

She continued to rage and rant for a full minute, before she finally relaxed. She sat there on the ground, knees bent, catching her breath. She stared forward expressionlessly save for lingering hate and anger.

It didn’t last much longer, though. She finally let out a weak chuckle before smiling.

“Alright Celestia…that’s how you want it?” She shrugged to no one in particular. “Ok. That’s how it’ll be.”

She slowly began to pick herself off of the ground. Once standing, she looked to her hand and smirked again.

“I got a decent consolation prize, and I need the practice anyway. I’ll go do that now.”

She turned and began to walk the way she came.

“And after I’m done, I’m going to hunt down and kill each and every one of your students until I find the one who has my final spirit.”

---

Sunset stared at the back of her ungloved hand as she reclined in her seat. After eight years, it still bore a hexagon with five sigil points, and always her eyes focused on the one empty spot that still remained. On this particular voyage on the Rising Sun, she almost did nothing but stare at it, although her face didn’t turn cross or irritable as it usually did. She only smirked every now and then.

“Lady Sunset?”

She looked up at the bridge. The navigator had spoken.

“We will be crossing into Fillydelphian territory within the next ten minutes.”

Sunset looked at the windows. Even if they weren’t flying over Equestria it would have been night at this hour, and they were shrouded with nothing but darkness all around. The only lights came from the sky in the form of the stars and moon, in spite of the fact they were nearing inhabited territory. That made sense. Following the last attack, Fillydelphia doused its lights up to a hundred miles from the border every evening. However, that’s what navigators were for.

She straightened up in her chair. “Put us down in the outskirts, just outside their barrier. We’ll go on foot from there.”

Several members of the crew looked a bit uneasy at that, but none of them defied her. As for Sunset, she rose completely and began to replace her glove.

---

As Sunset and her accompaniment made their way across the Fillydelphia border, the signs of the last movement of the Nighttouched were all too clear. In the darkness, they had to somewhat carefully make their way around large divots in the ground from cannon fire along with the occasional split tree trunk, and on passing that made their way through several torn, shattered, or simply abandoned barricades. The stench of both gunpowder and ash was still thick in the air, the former from the fighting and the latter from the pyres that cleaned up the remains. Blood still stained the ground, much of it not from Nighttouched, although it was impossible to see clearly at that hour.

They reached the boundary wall not long after. It had been breached but had since been temporarily patched with palisade stakes until a more formal solution could be made. It offered only a momentary barrier, as there was an iron gate being used as a temporary opening while work continued outside the wall during daylight hours. Nighttouched, after all, weren’t quite smart enough to deal with something like that.

On passing through, Sunset took note of the abandoned cannon batteries, one having been completely destroyed and torn apart, as well as the lingering signs of damage. The fighting had been the heaviest here. Large piles of rubble waiting to be drawn away had been organized everywhere, and the entire first line of homes beyond it were either ruined from the attack or abandoned.

She also noticed a number of armed Fillydelphian troops were waiting for them. Not surprising. On a dark night like this, they had to have seen their airships coming. Considering how dark it was, it was impossible to make out the full number, but at least three times the number she had in her own group.

She only advanced until everyone was within the wall before she held up her hand to signal the others to stop. They did so, with the royal guard stepping up to her side and tightening his grip on his spear. She, on the other hand, was far more casual. She crossed her arms and smiled.

“Hi.” Her voice was almost overly friendly. “It seems you had a bit of a rough time lately, haven’t you?”

“You are currently in violation of the Standing Cessation, Trottinghamites,” a rather cold, sharp, and much-less-friendly voice retorted. “Throw down your weapons and get down on the ground.”

Sunset made no move whatsoever to do so, although when her own group began to raise their own weapons she uncrossed her arms and once again held out a hand to stop them.

“No need for all of that. I’m just passing by. Looking in on the situation. After all, Nighttouched surges are everyone’s concern, not just who gets hit by them. I’ll be out of your hair before you know it. I just wanted a handful of questions answered.”

In the shadows, she saw numerous shifts of shoulders as firearms were aimed at them.

“I ordered you to throw down your weapons and get on the ground. Everyone here is on edge. We aren’t going to waste bullets with warning shots. This is your last chance.”

Sunset smirked on hearing this. It was good that the soldiers couldn’t see her face clearly or they may have noticed a rather cruel grin forming. She shrugged casually.

“You know…I like a good evening outing as much as the next person. Especially this close to a nice, big, spacious forest. But if I’m going to be having a conversation at night, you know what I like more than anything?”

One of her hands performed a few gestures with its fingers as she whispered out some arcane words. In response, like kerosene lit up with a spark, a ball of fire materialized over her open palm in midair.

The Fillydelphian soldiers were illuminated only to show expressions of shock and alarm at what she had done and they recoiled in surprise. That was exactly the delay she needed. She snapped her hand out to a rubble pile between her group and the soldiers the fling the fireball into it. On striking it, it instantly ignited in a burst of flames.

“A campfire.”

The group of Fillydelphian soldiers, now well illuminated, didn’t remain shocked by the fact that Sunset had made fire out of thin air for very long. They focused instead on the fire itself, as if a wild bear had suddenly popped in front of them. They rapidly began to look nervous. Several of them looked away from the intruders and to the forest; seeing if anything was reacting.

Sunset kept smirking at all of it. “There we go. A nice big fire so we can call get a good look at each other and see all around us. A little fire sure does go a long way. Did you know that the threshold for human sight is so potent that in totally dark conditions one can actually see a single candle flame from ten miles away? Of course, most of the creatures that are out at night can see much better than that. They have to.”

By now, at least half of the soldiers were looking past the group to the forest, and their lead officer was sweating. Some were beginning to back away and lower their weapons.

“You heard about how Whinnyapolis got turned into a graveyard six days after the Lunar Fall, right? The whole thing was caused because one little old lady insisted on lighting up an itty-bitty oil lamp to read by. Flames weren’t much bigger than a candle. But this? Much nicer.”

The confidence and decorum of the lead officer began to crack. The others around him were breaking far faster. The fire flashed in Sunset’s eyes and traced her wicked grin as she took a step closer.

“You know what’s even nicer than a small campfire, though?”

She held her hand out, fingers extended and palm upward. She slowly began to move it upward. As she did, the soldiers gasped on seeing her small fire quickly build in intensity and raise higher, going from a few feet high to six feet to ten feet to fifteen…

“A bonfire. A nice, big bonfire that the whole forest…heh, I mean town can see and enjoy. How’d you like me to leave you with one of those so you can see just how exposed and vulnerable your broken wall is at the moment?”

One of the soldiers suddenly dropped his gun, turned, and bolted for it. Three more looked moments from doing the same, while others were growing fearful and starting to murmur among each other. All looked quite panic stricken by now.

Sunset let it linger a moment before turning her hand over. “Or…” She slowly began to push down. In response, the bonfire began to diminish again. It shrank past the flames it was before and lowered to only a foot high, with the edges diminishing all the way into embers. “If I don’t have reason to stick around, I could extinguish this little blaze and be on my way.”

She stopped her hand, letting the fire keep burning but softly. The nervous soldiers kept gazing at the flames fearfully. Like she said, even a candle flame was a serious danger.

“But I came here for information, and I won’t leave until I get it.” She fixed her eyes solely on the lead officer. “There’s a rumor going about. A rumor that there was a woman in your town who killed a Light Eater. Perhaps even a rumor that she could do something like this.” She gestured to her own hand. “That rumor wouldn’t have made it all the way to Trottingham unless there was some truth behind it. What happened?”

“Look, I don’t know!” the officer nearly sputtered, not able to contain his anxiety. “I don’t know anything about it beyond what the other lieutenants pass around!”

“Really? And what are they passing around? Talk fast. I’m feeling a little chilly.”

“A dozen or so people say they saw some street magician actually use some new weapon or something to fight the Nighttouched!” he shouted back. “One person said she even killed one of the little Light Eaters!”

“She?” Sunset echoed back. “And a street magician? Good. We’re getting somewhere. Where is she now?”

“I have no idea!”

“Hmm…let me get a bit more light so I can have you look me in the eye and tell me that…”

“I swear I don’t know! I wasn’t involved in the search!”

Sunset’s eyes raised. “Search?”

“When enough people started passing around the rumor they notified the road patrols and gatekeepers to be on the lookout for street magicians!”

“And have they turned up anything?”

“I said I don’t know!”

Sunset sighed, looking around to the rest of the fearful soldiers. “Does anyone else know? Think hard before you answer. When people make me mad, I tend to do things out of spite…”

“I had a buddy who was a guardsman on the Eastern Road!” one of the soldiers immediately yelled back. “He knew a guy who knew a guy who said they spotted a street magician and a dog traveling eastbound! They tried to stop her and she bolted for it! They almost got her but then he says there was this big flash of light and she got away! Now put out that damn fire! Please!”

The woman stood quietly. She looked thoughtful for a few moments. Her free hand tapped its finger against her hip a few times. Finally, she shrugged and lowered her hand the rest of the way.

The fire dimmed all the way down, but some glowing embers were left behind from the flames. However, that was enough to make the soldiers immediately spill forward. They ignored Sunset and her group all together and instead frantically began to do anything they could to snuff out the rest. Kicking dirt, dumping their canteens, or even stomping on the still-hot coals with their boots.

Sunset on her part turned around and motioned to the others that they were leaving. She took two steps before she paused and looked back over her shoulder.

“By the way…if I so much as imagine I hear a cartridge being loaded, I’ll set the entire edge of your town on fire and watch as every Light Eater for five hundred furlongs eats you alive.”

Turning away, she resumed walking back the way she had come.

---

It wasn’t until they were back at the Rising Sun that the guard addressed her. “Are you sure that was enough information to go on?”

“We haven’t the time to go around the town trying to shake a physical description out of them. We have everything we need for right now anyway,” Sunset replied as she headed for the open loading ramp. “We’re looking for a female street magic performer who has one of these,” She pulled off her glove and showed the back of her hand to the group around her, now that they were in a more well-lit area. “On her hand, except where I’m missing a sigil she’ll have one and only one. I know you all have seen this emblem enough times to recognize it. You may find other people who have emblems on their hands without the sigils. So much the better. I was planning on getting rid of them eventually anyway, so go right ahead and handle them when you see them.”

The stout soldier looked uncomfortable. “But…Lady Sunset…this one sounds like she has your kind of powers…”

“She even killed a Light Eater…” The lanky one added nervously.

Sunset froze and snapped around, shooting both of the soldiers a glare. Instantly, they and everyone else around them halted, although the two of them shrank back a little.

“Would you rather deal with someone who only has one sigil, or would you rather deal with me and my five?”

They instantly withered and gulped. “Um…one, ma’am.”

“I gave you all magical weapons. Use them. Just remember: she gets taken alive. Kill any others.”

“We still don’t know exactly where she went,” the royal guard pointed out.

“She’s gotten too much unwanted attention, apparently. She wanted to go east, and there’s only two ways she can go further east without crossing country: the river or the trains. I’ll take the Rising Sun and follow the tracks. You lead the other two ships up the river. We’ll work our way along both routes until we converge in Appleloosa. If we haven’t found her by then, we’ll move to the central highland bluffs to regroup and then formulate a new strategy from there.”

“The whole country is going on military alert. They’ll be mobilizing-”

“I want that woman; not complaining or whining. Just get it done.” Spinning away again, she began to make her way up the ramp. “I’ve already waited more than long enough to get the last part of my inheritance. I’m not letting it get away this time over something so trivial as starting a war.”

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why isn't there a dark tag?

[Piccolo Sky]

9539417
Hmm, you think it needs one? I have to admit, now that I think on it there's a lot of bad stuff happening in the background...

[Crack-Fic Casey]

9539417
I mean, it had Gore, violence, and death tagged.

[dvdspires]

Hmm. So this is basically an EQG version of FiM with its own hard magic system. Originally I thought that only those from Equestria or students of Celestia would have magic. However, with Rainbows recent showing of Captain Caveman Spitfire, it seems that natural magic talent exists also.