Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Nightwatch: Phoenix Familiar

Twilight winced once more before she pulled herself together. She glanced to Fluttershy for a fraction of a second before she sighed apologetically.

“Sorry, but there’s no way around it now.”

She glanced around at the deck before she found a loose stick one of the ranchers had been using to shoo the cattle on the boat. She quickly snatched it up and held her other hand skyward. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Master of Sorcery—Starswirl the Bearded!”

Fluttershy yelped as Twilight’s aura began to surround her, but jumped again soon after as Applejack yanked her own hammer out. “’Bout time! Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Bastion of the Fields—Bright Macintosh!”

Both of their respective auras flared about them a moment before both had transformed into their respective “battle attires”—Twilight clad in her wide-brimmed hat and cloak and Applejack in her armor and warhammer. Both couldn’t afford to waste much time. The first of the new Nighttouched reached the back of the boat a moment later.

With a tremendous splash, a fish three feet long, meaty, and with glowing yellow eyes and a monstrous jaw filled with jagged teeth burst from the water. It curled around in midair and seized the edge of the boat. Wood ripping and wrenching noises came from its jaws as it began to savagely tear into it. Two other fish soon leapt out and began to do the same, before a fourth leapt out on the deck itself, snapping viciously for Spike. The dog quickly recoiled to let it fall to the deck, snarled, and then leapt at it. It tried to rear up and bite him only for Spike to bound over it, spin around, and seize it by the neck before digging in.

Applejack, brandishing her hammer, dashed forward and swung out. The first swing snapped one of the attached fish almost in two. The second got a lighter blow but was still sent flying back into the water. Before she could get the third, however, three new fish lashed out. Two of them reattached while the third sailed straight for Applejack’s face with mouth opened wide. Shocked, she quickly dashed to one side and let its shoot by, its teeth scraping against her shoulder armor, before it flopped to the deck. Vigorously, it twisted itself around to try and angle itself at her for another snap, but she buried her hammer into its head as soon as it did.

Twilight quickly made a more direct move. Snapping her newly-made wand out, she began to chant and manipulate a symbol in the air before pointing to the sky. The night turned darker yet as clouds rapidly formed and coalesced right over the back of the boat. Thunder rumbled as lights flashed from within it, and as soon as it did she snapped her wand downward. A large thunderbolt snaked out and struck the water with a sizzling crackle.

Moments later, at least a dozen of the yellow-eyed fish went flaccid and began to bob to the surface. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the completely desired effect. Not only did many of them survive the blast, but upstream the fish that had been turned from the other two starry blobs were now rushing down river. Many of them were leaping out of the water and snapping viciously and hungrily as they came.

She took aim at them for another blast, only to hear a shout from Applejack. “Look out!”

Twilight looked skyward, before crying out and ducking to avoid another jet stream of fire from the airborne Nighttouched. While the flames missed her, it kept strafing the boat and firing as it did. As a result it ignited a blaze along the side of the boat stretching almost all the way to the animals. The livestock rose and began to panic, but they didn’t have time to worry about them. On looking back at the river, they saw a large portion of the Nighttouched fish divert course and start swimming to the edge of the ship—drawn to the newer, stronger fires.

“Damnit! One of us has gotta take out the one in the air!”

Twilight turned to her nervously. “Can you handle all of these fish by yourself?”

Applejack hefted her hammer as she smacked the last of the currently-attached fish off the back of the boat, although it took a bit of boat in its jaws with it. “Just don’t take too long!”

Twilight nodded back and turned to the third person with them. However, Fluttershy was almost paralyzed right now. Her eyes were open in horror at the river, especially how many fish had been killed already, and she was practically hyperventilating.

“Fluttershy!”

“Those…those fish…those poor-”

“Fluttershy!”

The yelling was enough to jar her away and look to Twilight.

“Get to the cabin! Tell anyone who can to get out here and try and snuff these fires and everyone else take cover! Can you do that?”

The pink-haired woman hesitated. She glanced to the dead fish again and back to the cabin. “Y…yes…”

“Alright, then go!” Twilight swept around and began to make for the front of the boat. “Spike, help Applejack!”

The dog, which had been rising to follow after her, quickly snapped back, planted its feet, and growled at the incoming hoard. Fluttershy continued to glance at the Nighttouched and the fires, but finally forced herself to start walking to the cabin. Applejack readied her hammer and seconds later the next assault began.

The fish didn’t bother chomping against the ship this time. Like deadly, living missiles, they shot out of the water one after another with their jaws snapping for both the farmer and the dog. Gritting her teeth, Applejack shifted her grip down on her weapon and advanced to meet them, smacking them away and back into the water as fast as they flew at her. One was knocked in horizontally while another had its jaw broken off as it was hurled into the air. One managed to land on the deck, but Spike quickly dove on it and ripped its gills out. As soon as he killed it, he looked up and saw another land on deck and try and drag itself up to Applejack’s exposed leg. Quickly, he barked an alarm. She snapped down, spotted it, and leapt back to avoid a snap before the dog lashed out and tore into it.

Twilight dashed out onto the front deck as the sound of terrified moos as well as other animal noises burst from Fluttershy’s group. She looked to the sky, confirming the bird was still flying away, before she angled her wand down and performed another gesture at the nearest fires. A sharp, biting wind came forth around her before a hail of tiny ice crystals were carried along with it and deposited on the blaze. Unfortunately, she only had a chance to snuff part of it before she saw the Nighttouched arc back around and begin another approach. Immediately, she shifted her wand to the air, drew out a more advanced symbol, and then pointed at it. The tiny ice crystals still in the air halted right where they were and gathered together; growing into much larger, sharper, and deadlier shards. They resumed their movement and sailed right for the bird just as it exhaled another blast. It managed to tag part of the boat with its flames, but it quickly aborted and changed its flight path as the ice crystals ripped past it.

As Applejack and Spike continued to fight off the swarm, the door to the cabin snapped open again as four of the more able-bodied and braver ranchers came out. As best as they could, they started to whip at the fires with their tougher leather clothes or stomp on them with their boots, as going to the side for water was impossible at this point. Twilight, however, kept her eyes on the bird. It swung around in another attempt to make a dive to compensate for its aborted one, and she quickly generated another ice hailstorm to try and pierce it. Unfortunately, not only did it also fly over this one, it adjusted and got off another jet of fire this time. Twilight yelped as she realized it was aimed for her, and quickly she changed the spell to its lesser variant to snuff out the flames before they could singe her. Unfortunately, the bird kept on flying past, and her target was lost again.

Applejack began to work up a sweat as she kept battering away the fish. Through the vigor and swinging, she began to realize after a short while that some of the fish she was smashing had bloody bruises and welts alongside their bodies. That was all the indication she needed to see that, strong as she was swinging the hammer, their solid muscles were absorbing most of the blows in most cases. Some of the fish she knocked away were recovering and coming right back for her.

Suddenly, two fish leapt out at once for her. Applejack quickly smacked away one, but there was no way to stop the other before it latched onto her arm and clamped it jaw down like a steel trap. In spite of the fact her body was more durable and the vambrace absorbed some of it, it still hurt enough to make her yell. Clenching her teeth angrily, she quickly brought the pommel down on its head. Not only did it hang on in spite of the bludgeoning, another fish leapt out for her face again. She quickly dodged to one side, but this time it dove in so hard that it sailed past her and broke partially through the wooden wall of the cabin. Another landed on the deck to her side and quickly began to snap for her legs.

Cursing, Applejack swung her pommel down two more times, this time splitting off half of the jaw of the thing attached to her. As it fell to the deck, she brought the hammer down to crush it. She nearly turned to the one going for her legs when she heard Spike barking again. She looked and saw him running to the side of the ship, where a dozen monstrous fish were attached. To her shock, they were already ripping away one of the planks off the side of the boat and going for more. Sighing in exasperation, she quickly dashed over there to join him in defending it even as more fish flew on deck.

As Twilight’s third attempt to pierce the Nighttouched bird failed, this time the monster was able to fire enough to ignite a third line of flame on the deck. She nearly groaned as it passed again, and paused to try and think of a new strategy. It took her a few moments of looking around before she zeroed in on the water about the boat. She made a note of the Nighttouched’s current flight path before aiming her wand at the river. With a few gestures, the surface of it broke off and began to rise into a fine mist; nearly invisible in the darkness. She kept gesturing with her wand, rising it up until it hovered right in the bird’s way. Once that was done, she quickly began to form her ice spell again.

The Nighttouched once more went into a dive, and once again Twilight sent her ice crystals flying at it. This time, however, one of them lingered behind hovering right over her left shoulder. As on the previous occasion, the Nighttouched evaded the strikes and opened it jaw wide. Fire burned in its gullet and blazed forth.

Yet before it could project it, it suddenly aborted and clamped its jaw shut—for on opening its mouth to fire again it immediately saw a second Nighttouched identical to it, also readying flame, flying right at it. The instant it was distracted, Twilight snapped her wand down. The final ice crystal left her shoulder and sailed at the monster, and moments later embedded itself right in the Nighttouched’s breast.

As the creature gave a yell and curled up on itself in midair, Twilight grinned and pumped her fist in excitement. Her water reflection spell had worked perfectly in making a mirror image of the Nighttouched, distracting it long enough to land the fatal strike. Now it dropped from the air like a stone, looking to plunge right into the river.

Only it never made impact. Suddenly the entire bird burst into flame as if it was soaked in oil. Twilight let out an alarmed gasp as fire rapidly spread all over it. Moments before its body could touch the water, it suddenly split apart and broke away into molten fragments…allowing an identical bird, untouched, to burst from the remains and soar back into the sky. Quickly snapping down and around, it dove right at the raft without missing a beat and exhaled another burst of fire along the opposite side of the boat.

Twilight stood there stunned, but not just from what she saw. For a moment a faint light of recognition came over her.

“Twilight!”

Applejack’s shout was enough to get her attention away from the bird, and she turned and saw both the farmer and Spike fighting a losing battle against the Nighttouched on the side of the ship. They had nearly torn away enough of the edge to bring it down to the water level, and for all the hammer swinging and tearing the two were doing it wasn’t enough. More fish were coming up to replace and surpass the previous ones, not to mention they were now jumping at the two of them again and forcing them to defend themselves. Ten new fish were attaching themselves to the back of the boat and digging into it fiercely as well, now beginning to rip off that portion too.

Suddenly the door to the cabin opened once again. A panicked-looking Fluttershy stumbled out and looked at Twilight fearfully.

“Th-they’re…th-they’re coming through the bottom of the boat!”

As if perfectly on cue, a section of the deck snapped upward as if struck from beneath right next to her. She yelped and recoiled onto the deck. On spotting it, Applejack abandoned the side and ran up to it. Just as the fish below pushed its head up enough to snap, she swung the hammer down and knocked it back beneath the boat.

Cries began to go out from around the ship, and not just animal ones. Twilight looked around and saw the ranchers who had come topside were now recoiling, for enough fish had jumped on deck to start targeting them too. And there were still more in the water attacking. Three sides of the boat were now aflame, and the Nighttouched bird was rising for another dive as more fish rose to try and cling to the latest side.

“Twilight!” Applejack shouted as she bludgeoned another. “We’re in trouble!”

She nervously looked around before finally turning toward the helm. Even in the darkness she managed to spot the rancher driving the boat. “We’ve got to dock!”

“We don’t have time for that!” she yelled back. “I’ll have to run her aground but I got to wait at least for a good shore!”

Twilight winced again. She saw the Nighttouched bird was beginning to come around, but they were being swarmed by fish at this point and she couldn’t help defend against both. Leaving either one would only get the ship sunk faster, which became clear already wouldn’t take much longer as two more holes were knocked through the bottom near where Applejack had hammered out the first.

Yet through this all, Fluttershy put her hands on her head and cringed in terror. She ran toward the back of the ship to hide, but it offered no relief. No sooner had she gotten there when she gasped and saw a dozen fish attached to it and ten flopping on deck, who quickly fixated their beady eyes on her and began to snap toward her. The Nighttouched bird fully turned and began to go into a dive as more threw themselves on the boat or grasped the sides.

She looked at them for a moment, gripped with terror. As she kept staring, however, she saw that many of them were bloodied from Applejack’s blows. Some had broken bones but were still forcing themselves onward. Their faces were horribly twisted and swollen by whatever force had enlarged their jaws. Although their glowing yellow eyes showed no emotion, from this close she could look at them and see if they had their minds they would be in agony from how warped their bodies had become. Even the ones that were chewing away pieces of the boat were piercing themselves with splinters to do so. Yet whatever force had them mindlessly pushed them to keep biting…

When that happened, Fluttershy’s fear lessened. Her hands lowered as she looked at the closing creatures.

“Stop…”

The fish kept snapping viciously for her. One threw itself out of the water onto the deck right in front of her. Snapping like steel blades, it wriggled closer.

“Stop…”

Behind her, the Nighttouched bird opened its jaws. Twilight braced herself to defend. Applejack cried out as a fish latched onto her leg, but she quickly smacked it off with her hammer. She quickly went for her rope at her waist.

Seeing that they wouldn’t stop, no matter how much pain they were in or misery, no matter how broken their bodies became, Fluttershy’s last bit of fear momentarily faded as she fixed as many of the fish with her gaze as possible. Her fists tightened.

“I said…”

Yelling loud enough for everyone on the boat to hear, her voice resounded.

“Stop!”

Every one of the boat defenders suddenly felt as if they had momentarily been rooted to the spot by the sheer power of Fluttershy’s yell. Twilight aborted her casting while Applejack froze just as she brought her hammer to her rope, and all of the ranchers likewise paused where they were.

That, however, was just the beginning.

For a brief moment, all of the jaws of the fish went flaccid as the light in their eyes dimmed just a little. Those attempting to bite into the boat or tear it apart slipped loose and fell into the water, and those on deck became limp and simply tried to breathe through their gills. The Nighttouched bird suddenly went rigid. Its jaw closed again as it glided for a moment without trying to force itself along. It ended up sailing right over the boat before it spasmed once and began to flap again.

The moment passed soon after. The fish on the deck began to flop around again angrily, but not before Applejack and Spike realized that they had an opening. The dog quickly tore into another one while the farmer quickly finished tying her rope around the end of her hammer and converted it once more into an impromptu “hammer and chain”. Snapping it out, she began to rapidly smack and slap as many of the fish as she could out of the way and fight her way to Fluttershy. The ranchers quickly went back to work snuffing the fires where they could and actually shoving a few of the fish that were slow to recover back off the boat.

Twilight alone stood there stunned for a moment, realizing who had just shouted and what the end result had been. She did finally snap out of it and joined in with the others after a few seconds. Taking out her wand she quickly aimed it at the fires closest to the animals, which looked about ready to break into a stampede on deck or charge into the water, and quickly began to douse them.

She was still working on it when Applejack finally came back around the cabin, holding Fluttershy by one arm (who was looking fearful all over again) and nearly gesturing for her to go inside again. Before she could, however, the Nighttouched bird, fully recovered and flying again now, had come about from the rear and was opening its mouth again.

Gritting her teeth at it, Applejack quickly snapped her hammer out twirled it around like the end of a lasso several times, then flung the end at the approaching creature. It tried to lift itself up, but the farmer’s aim was true. It smashed it right into the head with a sickening crack, and as its beak snapped skyward the rest of its body sank and crashed with a heavy thud right on top of the cabin.

“Yee-haw!” she shouted as Fluttershy cupped her hands to her mouth in horror. “Nailed that sonnuvabitch!”

Her joy quickly evaporated as a pillar of fire suddenly ignited on top of the cabin. The monster, which had sprawled out limply on impact, burned away into ashes and revealed a new Nighttouched bird monster beneath. It quickly took to the sky again, but it left its flaming remains behind. Now the cabin itself was on fire.

Applejack revelry turned to stunned astonishment before she let out an angry curse. “What in blazes is up with the Nighttouched ‘round these parts?! None of these damn critters do this back home!”

“Applejack! Fluttershy!”

Both women looked and saw Twilight beckoning them.

“Over here! Quick!”

Applejack quickly began to lead Fluttershy over. Hearing her call out like that, Spike likewise turned and ran up. Some of the fish were leaping back onto the boat at this point, which clearly made Applejack nervous, but she let it slide for the moment as she ran up to the magic-user. Twilight herself looked back to the cabin again.

“Can we get this boat off the river?”

Just barely through the glass, she saw the person at the helm point. “Right there!”

Twilight looked back around as the girls approached. About a mile down the river she saw a large, wide, sandy shore. Not only that, but the night seemed just a tiny bit brighter in that direction, indicating that they were near the limit (at least for the moment) of what the Tantabus had brought. Unfortunately, the fires by now were spreading too fast even for Twilight to put out if she could focus all of her attention on them, and even if she could the ship was slowing…no doubt from taking on water.

Taking all this into account, she looked to Applejack and Fluttershy. “Alright, both of you. The boat’s going to run aground and we’re all going to get off, but it’s not going to make it if it takes much more damage and we’ll be sitting ducks for the flying one. We have to kill it.”

“Yeah, how the heck we gonna do that?” Applejack retorted. “We both hit it and it just burned up and came back to life!”

Twilight visibly stiffened on hearing that, looking uneasy for just a moment before pushing it aside. “We can stop it if we can kill it before it has a chance to use its fire to be reborn.”

Applejack gave Twilight a puzzled look, while Fluttershy herself looked at her strangely. “What’dya mean ‘’fore it has a chance to use its fire to be reborn’? Ya’ mean ya’ actually know what that thing is?”

Again, she grimaced, but swallowed it back and spoke more sharply. “I think I might, but that’s not important right now. What is important is stopping it. It takes it a moment after you kill it for it to fully ‘die’ and then ignite. If it drops into the river before it has a chance, it won’t be able to catch on fire. That will kill it for good.”

Applejack was still fixated a bit on what Twilight said, but she likewise pushed it away and rubbed her chin. “Might work, but there’s only one problem. Only takes that critter a second or two to light up again, and it’s always in the air ‘cept when it’s flyin’ over the boat. It’ll always burn up ‘fore it can land in the water.”

“Not if we hold it in one spot close to the river.”

“Oh yeah? How we gonna do that?”

“We aren’t.” Twilight turned to Fluttershy and pointed. “She is.”

The pink-haired woman paled again. “Wh-wh-what…me?”

“We saw what you did a moment ago. You managed to stop all the Nighttouched for a second by just shouting.”

“But…but…I don’t know how I did that! I’ve never done that before!”

“What about your staring? You said that you heal your animals when you look into their eyes and concentrate on them, right?”

Fluttershy winced. She looked uncertainly to the side. “Well, yes, but…but it’s too late for…”

“I know, I know. But have you ever tried looking into the eyes of a Nighttouched that’s turned before? Did you at least make it stay still?”

Fluttershy kept cringing, but rubbed her hands together uneasily. “Well…um…yes, but…but those were all things like little squirrels and songbirds…and this is a big…scary…fire-breathing bird…”

A rush of flame lapped over the heads of the women. Fluttershy yelped and cringed as Twilight dove over her, just as fire lashed out and singed the top of the deck. Before it could enflame it, however, Applejack cursed and swung her hammer and rope at the Nighttouched again. It was enough to abort its strike and send it to the heavens again, but as it flew away she gnashed her teeth. “Damnit, this boat’s ‘bout to burn up with or without that bird hittin’ it again, so we gotta do something soon!”

Twilight, sweating a bit herself now, leaned back up and looked at Fluttershy as she kept cringing against the deck. “Fluttershy, right now you’re the only one who might make it stand close to the water.”

She kept trembling. “But…if I want it to look me in the eye…I have to stand out in the open and…and…let it look at me first…when it could shoot more fire…”

“Please.” Her voice began to grow more desperate. “If you don’t help now, I don’t know how many of us are going to make it out of this…whether it be us or your animals.”

The pink-haired woman was caught by that last part. She winced a bit longer, still looking uncomfortable, but when she glanced to the panicking animals and the spreading flames she finally swallowed. “Al…alright… I’ll do it.”

Twilight nodded back. “Alright. I’m going to try and help get the ship to shore. Applejack, you have to hit it when it gets close enough. Remember, it has to be over water.”

“Well hurry up and get to it!” she shouted as she swung her hammer out to knock another fish that had just latched on. “It ain’t gonna be but a few more seconds ‘til this boat is swarmin’ with ‘em all over again!”

As she and Spike went off to fight again, Twilight rose from near Fluttershy and extended her wand to the ocean. She concentrated a moment, remembering an older spell, and then began to wave the stick around at the river. In response, the current picked up around the edges of the boat, but rather than propel it the water it radiated away from the sides. As she kept concentrating, it grew in size and power until small waves were cascading off of it. While some of the water lapped into the boat and doused a bit of the fires, she didn’t dare get any more in it while there were holes in the ship. Instead, she forced a water wedge at the prow of the ship, not only forcing as many of the Nighttouched fish back as possible but creating a potent force in front of it. The rancher at the helm didn’t question the move. She turned the wheel about as the shore came closer and aimed it straight for it.

Fluttershy was left alone in the center of the deck. Nervously, she slowly stood up and saw the Nighttouched bird spin about. Soon it was aiming at her, standing on the only intact portion of the ship, and began to fly in.

While it was still far off, Angel suddenly hopped out from the midst of the animals. Making deep whining noises, he began to approach her.

“No, Angel!” she called out, holding her hand to him. “Stay with the others! Make sure they get out safe!”

The rabbit hesitated, whining again and stamping a foot.

“You have to! I’ll be fine, but you need to stay back!”

The rabbit whined a third time, but, while still looking at Fluttershy, slowly turned around. After a moment, it hopped back to the others.

Fluttershy herself swallowed and looked up to the sky. Her eyes sought out and met those of the bird Nighttouched, but it was too far away to clearly see into her own; assuming it was even looking at them. Nevertheless, she tried to concentrate and open her eyes wider…

She was interrupted as the thing gave out a shrill screech before exhaling a smaller jet of fire. Fluttershy yelped in alarm and jumped to the side, just missing a blaze igniting where she was standing.

The ship continued to near shore, but began to groan. Two more holes were punched in the deck. The roof of the cabin creaked, and, while still burning, suddenly collapsed in partially. Applejack tensed up when she heard it; quickly ignoring the attacking fish and running to the door of the structure. Twilight began to sweat profusely as she tried to increase the power of the spell. “Fluttershy! Hurry!”

She wasn’t nearly as durable as Twilight or Applejack, and was now scared all over again on top of everything else. Even falling down had caused her a rough landing. Nevertheless, she swallowed and put her hands down and slowly forced herself to her feet. By then, the Nighttouched bird had already begun to sweep around. This time, it wasn’t going for the boat.

At the rear of the ship, Applejack smashed the door to the cabin with one powerful strike of her hammer. She quickly beckoned everyone out as fast as they could, and soon people began to file out from the burning structure. They ran toward the front of the ship—the part still staying the most above water and where the animals were. But they could only get out so fast with some injured, and now the Nighttouched bird aimed at them. Soon it came above and dove for the group.

Applejack noticed it coming, just as the couple with the boy with a broken leg began to try and help him out. She looked up at it just as it opened its jaws wide. Sweating, Applejack quickly extended her rope to try and swing it around to nail it, but with how it had dodged she had no idea if she could before it struck. It flew in closer as the flame in its throat gleamed…

“Wait!”

But before it could unleash a new blaze, Fluttershy ran in between the two of them, stopping right at the edge of the boat, and held her hands up.

“Wait!”

The Nighttouched bird instantly changed its focus to her, but when it did its own yellow eyes met hers. It snapped its jaws shut but kept diving until it was nearly in striking range of her, then quickly went into flapping hover. It snarled and snapped, flashing out with its talons, but also staying well in the air above the water. As the family got free, Applejack turned to it and nearly made her move only to realize it was too high to guarantee a kill.

“Stop this! Please!” Fluttershy cried as she kept staring into its eyes.

The Nighttouched screeched back so loudly it made Applejack, Fluttershy, and everyone else wince in agony. Yet as soon as Fluttershy was done cringing, she stared into its eyes again. Her voice remained pleading but also grew more composed.

“I know it has to hurt! It has to be nothing but pain and misery!”

The thing screeched again, but was a bit quieter this time.

“But I know you can’t want to do this! You can’t want to hurt these people and animals! You just don’t know what else to do, do you?”

The creature let out another screech, but this time it was little more than a loud caw. Fluttershy continued to grow calmer. Her face became softer. Her eyes seemed to grow larger, deeper, and more beautiful as she kept staring. Her hands went from reaching out and straining to more relaxed and gentle. Rather than straining for the bird, they turned to kindly offering themselves to it.

“Show me. I’m right here with you. Just keep looking at me.”

The Nighttouched clicked its beak once more, but the light in its eyes began to dim. Soon after, its flaps lessened more and it began to slowly lower toward Fluttershy. Applejack nearly swung right then and there, but now she found herself staring at this display. The monster had been vicious and bloodthirsty moments earlier. Now it was so calm…

The ship reached the shore at last. The water, growing too shallow to allow the Nighttouched fish to jump in, finally grew calm as they searched for other prey. Not a moment too soon as water began to bubble out onto the deck. Twilight kept the water wedge going as the ship rolled in, and she used it to plow a wedge-shaped earth “dock” into the sand of the shore; gradual enough to grab the ship and slow it down. It still caused a mighty lurch that nearly knocked everyone over, and part of the ship’s hull could be heard cracking, but it managed to slide to a stop in spite of the boiler chugging away. As soon as it was somewhat anchored in, the ranchers ran forth and quickly started to get the cattle and their families off the prow.

Twilight lowered her hands, and turned back. “Ok, that’s done. What about…”

She went quiet. Soon she too was staring, although for a much different reason.

The Nighttouched bird was almost in front of Fluttershy now, yet still hovering over the water lapping at the rear end of the boat. Nevertheless, it had grown so docile that the instinct to strike had left Applejack. The lights in its eyes were so dim now that they were barely faint glows, and yet they grew dimmer than that. Slowly, as the two women watched, they faded all together.

When that happened, the blackness in the feathers seemed to recede a little, like ink drawn through a cloth. It didn’t leave it all together, but it did peel away from the bird’s head. When it did, many of the black pinions that were not affected fell off all together and faded away. As they kept falling the head of the creature began to shrink. On reaching the deck, it didn’t keep flapping but reached out and perched on the remainder of the back of the boat.

The feathers kept falling, until, like layers of an onion, the monstrous, black, twisted body was topped with a much smaller head of a beautiful bird with feathers like a warm, fiery flame—the first look at the creature’s original form and size.

Twilight let out a gasp on seeing it. The bird, however, continued to look in Fluttershy’s eyes as it gave a cry. It was far closer to a normal bird cry now, but far more mournful. Sadder than any creature any of them had ever heard.

It caused Fluttershy’s own face to clench, as tears began to well in her own eyes. “You lost everything…just like so many others, didn’t you? She was so special to you, wasn’t she?”

The bird gave another pitiful cry.

The tears began to roll down Fluttershy’s cheeks. Her throat tightened.

“And…you don’t want to hurt anyone anymore either, do you? You just… You just…want to go see her. You want it to be over…”

The bird’s head began to lower, but even that small gesture caused some of the “ink” to sink back into its feathers and new plumage start to regrow. Before it got too far, it looked back up and into Fluttershy’s eyes again; stopping it.

Fluttershy sniffled, before her voice began to break up. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… I can’t stop it… I wish I could…”

The bird cried out again.

She shook her head. “N-n-no…no…I…I can’t…”

The bird cried more softly. Its own eyes enlarged. To Applejack, who had lowered her hammer by now, it was something she had never seen before. The bird seemed to be pleading.

Fluttershy let out another sob. She sniffled again.

Finally, she nodded.

“Ok…ok…”

She reached out and touched the side of the bird’s head. For a moment, its eyes squinted as it felt fingers against its uncorrupted plumage for the first time in eight years.

“You won’t hurt anymore… You won’t hurt ever again.”

The bird looked back into Fluttershy’s eyes. Applejack stood almost immobile for a moment, but then she clenched her own jaw. Taking up the hammer, she undid the rope from the end and hefted it. For a moment, the way she stared at the bird as she moved up to its side looked like she too would falter, but in the end she readied her weapon with both hands. It raised into the sky.

Fluttershy, through her tears, forced herself to smile.

“Go fly with her now.”

Applejack, for the first time since she was seven years old, closed her eyes on bringing the hammer down.

The talons instantly loosened and the Nighttouched spilled backward into the water. For a moment, the edges of its feathers began to smolder, but it was doused as soon as it sank into the deep. The last Fluttershy saw of it was its feathers turning back into their fiery golden color as it sank into the deep river, before it vanished from sight.

Fluttershy cupped her hands to her mouth and began to cry freely. Applejack, her eyes open again, stared at the water to make sure it was gone, before she looked up to the pink-haired woman. Seeing her continuing to cry, she winced herself a moment before she put her hammer in one hand and reached out to grasp her by the shoulder in an attempt to be encouraging. She looked up and out to Twilight as Fluttershy started to lean on her for support.

On looking up, however, she noticed Twilight was still blankly staring where the bird had fallen.

“Twilight? You alright?”

She blinked, then turned to the farmer.

“Come on, we gotta get off this boat. It’s still sinkin’.”

“I knew her.”

Fluttershy sniffled again, but looked up and back to her on hearing that. Applejack was confused. “What?”

Twilight was now looking not only still stunned but with a growing somber expression.

“I knew that bird. Her name was Philomena. She was Headmistress Celestia’s bird.”

“What in tarnation you-”

Applejack was drowned out by a roaring sound overhead, only this time it wasn’t of any monster or Light Eater. It was the sound of a massive steam engine. Moments later, she was bathed in light along with most of the rest of the boat. She, Fluttershy, and Twilight all looked up to the heavens for the source.

For a split second, they saw the frame of a Trottingham airship hovering there.

A heartbeat later, and its cannon fire ripped what was left of the boat in half.

---

About fifteen minutes later, the remains of the boat, its passengers, the cattle, and Fluttershy’s animals were a good mile upstream, but the nearest civilization was still miles away. The night had continued to lessen, but natural night was replacing it and so one could still scarcely make out the shore or the surrounding countryside. The water had gotten more violent and rapid not far from where the boat had beached itself, but here on the river it was finally calming again.

And at that moment, a large splash burst from the surface as Applejack surged out of the water and flung herself onto the muddy bank. She was coughing, choking, and trying desperately to hold onto her hat with one hand while clutching Fluttershy, who was coughing and choking twice as much, to her with one arm. Her power had faded and now she was covered with bruises from having been washed down the river, but she managed through undulating her whole body to wriggle herself and the woman with her onto shore. As soon as her head was well above water, she finally freed the hand to cling to the silt and mud and drag herself, and finally the two plopped out completely on dry land. They sprawled out and began to pant for air.

They were so out of breath that Applejack never thought to look at the sigil on Fluttershy’s hand once; especially the new point on it that had formed while they were being washed downstream.

However, while the pink-haired woman was still trying to catch her breath, the farmer forced herself to lean up. “Where’s…Twilight?”

Fluttershy was still too busy gasping, but weakly looked up after a moment. Between the fading light and rough country, it wasn’t possible to see much. However, after a moment they spotted something in the river splashing around and angling itself to the shore. Pushing past her pain and soreness, Applejack forced herself to stand for a better look, and realized it was Spike. His jaws were clenched around Twilight’s shirt, and she, also reverted back, was still in it although she had clearly gotten too worn out to keep swimming.

In spite of her own exhaustion, Applejack forced herself to move back out until the water was nearly to her pelvis to grab on to both of them. With some hauling, she managed to finally drag her to shore.

Once they were there, Applejack went back into the sand, sprawled out, and panted again. Twilight herself spread out on the ground and struggled to catch her breath, and Spike laid down nearby and let his tongue wag.

As soon as she could speak, though, Twilight looked up again. “Is…is everyone…alright…?” she panted.

“Aside from really hatin’ Trottingham’s rotten guts…sure…” Applejack groaned. A moment later, she snapped her head up. “Wait…them folks were still gettin’ off the boat! So were the animals!”

“They were almost all off…” Twilight gasped back. “At least…I think they were. I’m sure they would have run as soon as they saw the ship fly low…”

She didn’t sound entirely convinced herself, and she soon turned and looked to their third companion anxiously. “Fluttershy, I…”

However, she shook her head as she finally pushed it off of the ground. “Oh…don’t worry. I told Angel to look after the others. I’m sure they’ll be alright. He knows to meet us in Griffonstone.”

“Really? You think so?”

“Sure! I mean, it’s probably likely…” Her optimistic look began to fade as she thought about it. However, she shook her head before she could get too down. “No…I am sure. I bet we’ll run into them in no time on the way there. No…no need to worry.”

Twilight stared on at Fluttershy, watching her look grow more uncomfortable the more she brooded on it. She was beginning to stare at the ground and cringe once again. Before it could go much farther, Twilight smiled and nodded. “You’re right. Angel’s really smart and so are the rest of your animals. I know they’ll find their way back to us.”

Speaking like that got Fluttershy to look up again, seeming just a bit more optimistic, but Twilight didn’t have time to dwell on that. She looked up to the sky and around. There was no sign of the airship and no sound of engines, but considering what had happened it was quite likely they thought that shot had killed them.

“How in Greater Everfree did they find us?” she finally remarked aloud. “We haven’t seen head or tails of them all day... They couldn’t have been tailing us from the ground…”

“Beats me,” Applejack groaned as she felt around in her belt loops. Fortunately, her hammer was still tethered there from when she had shoved it in after going into the river. “Seems they manage ta’ pop up every time that we bring out these Promethewhatsits…”

As soon as she said that, she paused.

“Y’know, that is somethin’. Fort Chestnut was full o’ all types of people, but they knew ta’ take aim at us once we turned in order ta’ take down that crazy photographer. Even if they got a real dead eye on that thing that couldn’t be easy to spot. And they didn’t show up again until we had to defend the boat and used it again…”

She turned to Twilight, who by now was looking up and staring right back at her.

“Ya’ suppose…they’re somehow findin’ where we are every time we bring out the sigils?”

Twilight looked uneasy, but shook her head. “No…no, that’s impossible. I mean, obviously our sigils give out some energy, but it’s not like you’d know it unless you were standing right there and watching when our auras flare. And it’s not like I go around advertising it. No one would even know to look for it-”

Abruptly, her pupils shrank into pinpricks. Her mouth hung open silently.

Both Applejack and Fluttershy saw the change come over her. Their own looks grew concerned.

“Uh, Twilight?”

She kept staring a moment more before she placed a hand to her own head and slowly pushed back her own wet hair. “I don’t believe it… I never thought of it. Not in eight years. But…it makes sense…” She looked back to the two. “I think you’re right, Applejack. I think whoever it was did track us based on our powers. Which means they had to know about the Promethian Sigils. That can only mean one thing. Whoever is leading those Trottinghamites…whoever is trying to kill us…went to the same academy that Princess Celestia ran.”

Fluttershy looked perplexed at all of this. Applejack wasn’t much better. “What’re ya’ sayin’, Twilight?”

She lay there a moment longer, before her face tightened and she started to push herself up. “We have to go. Right now. We have to get to the southernmost point of the Hyperborean Mountains.”

Applejack frowned as she began to force herself up. “Well, we’re in luck, ‘cause that’s where we were headed anyway…Grifftham City. Why we suddenly in such a hurry, though?”

“Because after what I saw on the river, I’m convinced that’s exactly where the Tantabus is headed. And when it gets there, if my theory’s correct, everyone in Greater Everfree could die.”

Comments

[Djmill]

Great story! I love your world building, plotting, and characterization. Your grammar and spelling is generally pretty good too, but you keep using one wrong word - a hoard is a big pile of money, or more generally a large collection of valuable things. When you're talking about a large group of creatures, the right word is "horde".

And now, a random mix of questions, predictions, and theorizing:

Why is everyone calling it the Lunar Fall? There's the obvious connection to Luna/Nightmare Moon's name, of course, but if anyone knew about her I'd expect rumors of it to be as widespread as the event name derived from it, and we haven't seen even a hint of that. In fact, I think it's mentioned somewhere that no one knows what caused the Lunar Fall. She did introduce herself by name in the prologue, but everyone who witnessed that died moments later.

Sunset now knows of four different people that each have an Anima Viri, but she's still focused on getting Twilight's specifically. What's so special about that particular one? Is it just that it's the one Sunset thinks she deserves to have because Celestia was supposed to give it to her, and she's letting her pride get in the way of getting the power she wants, or is there more to it? Maybe there are six types and she needs one of each, but if that's true why was Twilight being a Caster news to her?

Getting six Anima Viri apparently grants godlike power, and I'm guessing that's a special bonus for filling out the entire Sigil, not a natural extension of the increases for two through five. If each additional one were another multiplier over the previous one, like the first is over the base, Twilight and Applejack together would be like ants to Sunset, not a challenge that might make her break a sweat. Further, I'm guessing that the number of Roles matches the number of sides in the Sigil, each Anima Viri has its own Role, and one person can't have more than one Anima Viri of each Role. This would go a long way toward explaining how few people ever got all six, while getting just one is popping up all over the place.

The number of Anima Viris seen so far seems strongly at odds with how rare Twilight said they are. There's always the "it's the plot and they're main characters" excuse, but that doesn't explain Gilda and tends to go with poor writing. Let's see, of the 12 we know about (assuming Pinkie has hers already and used it to deal with the rabid Nighttouched dog):

• 6 came from ancient times through Celestia, so we don't know their origins.
• 2 (Pinkie and Gilda) have not had their origins revealed.
• 1 (Applejack) came by way of an object connected to its source.
• 3 (Rainbow, Rarity, and Fluttershy) came from people who died physically in the presence of those who received them, or at least nearby, and were doing something strongly connected to them at the time.

My guess is that getting an Anima Viri the way Twilight described it - coming across one that's imprinted on an object, location, etc. - really is that rare, but if there's an active and close connection at the time of death then it's much more common for an Anima Viri to arise and go directly to the person with the Sigil.

Of all the canon events in Equestria Girls, the single thing most core to Sunset's character is her defeat by Twilight and subsequent redemption. I'm expecting some version of that to play out here too, it's a highly impactful story element and I'd enjoy seeing it. A bit more speculatively, my guess for how it goes is that Sunset successfully captures Twilight and takes Starswirl from her, maybe takes out the Tantabus just to prove that she can, and then tries to kill Twilight and is shocked when her stolen Anima Viris turn on her. Starswirl goes back to Twilight, and maybe even the other five go with him. So far, that's a pretty straight reflection of canon.

What I'm guessing will follow, and eventually lead to her gradual redemption, is that Sunset gets obsessed with finding out how and why that happened (so that next time she can prevent it, of course). Celestia kept saying that Sunset was missing the point of her later lessons, maybe she'd been trying to teach something - Sunset has no idea what - that would have prevented it. Celestia's not available to ask, but Twilight apparently learned whatever it was, so Sunset just has to get the information from her instead. Sunset's first instinct is to capture and interrogate her, but the sudden dramatic shift in relative magical power makes that infeasible. So, Sunset sets out to manipulate Twilight into teaching her, pretending to go along with all this bs about "friendship" and "ethics" as part of trying to convince her to tell the real secret, until one day Sunset realizes she's started to genuinely care about them.

[Piccolo Sky]

9748657
Thanks for the feedback, and the note about "horde". In general, I'm purposely not going into detail about a lot of background because I don't want to degenerate into exposition dumps. Suffice to say part of this story is a writing exercise for me in my ability to tell a story that's heavy on lore without just simply spoon-feeding the audience everything. But to answer a few questions...

The Lunar Fall is something of a nickname that eventually stuck rather than was anything proclaimed on high or officially, but it got its name from the fact that the Light Eaters first appeared on the night of a full moon and that the moon seems to be unaffected by their power (i.e. The moon is clearly visible when it comes out even when the Light Eaters are influencing the area. This led many people into thinking the moon somehow had something to do with their appearance and/or nature.).

I don't want to get into too much detail about the specifics about an Anima Viri until the details come out later in the plot, but there is a great deal involved and the usage of one to its maximum capability is far more complex than what I've shown so far. I will say, at minimum, that what both Sunset and Twilight think of as Anima Viris at this point is more simplistic than either of them realize, but Sunset knows something very important about them that she hasn't revealed yet.

It's a fair point about the "ease" of getting Anima Viris, and I won't lie that part of this is for the sake of getting the main characters their own. That being said, there's a very good reason why there are suddenly so many more Anima Viris available and part of it has to do with the same reason why so many individuals with Promethian Sigils are showing up.