Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Nightwatch: Smog of War

Author's Note:

Oh boy...not only is this one gigantic, it should have been even bigger. All my chapters with Twilight seem to need to be split, so I had to cut this one in two. It's one of the biggest action sequences so far.

Big milestone is coming soon, though, so I wanted to get it all out.

“Durnit, can’t you two go any faster?”

Twilight didn’t dignify Applejack’s shout with a response. At the moment, she was pressed so hard onto the back of the horse she was on that she looked as if she was trying to bond herself to it. Fluttershy, riding a bit behind her and falling further back, was a different story. While her own horse was taking his time, she seemed to be pleasantly enjoying her more leisurely canter.

Nevertheless, when she heard Applejack shouting from the back of her own horse, she leaned over to her mount’s head. “I’m sorry, Clark. I know you’re doing your best to make this a comfortable ride, and you’re doing a wonderful job of it, but we kind of need to be at Grifftham City soon. Would it be too much trouble to go a bit faster?”

The horse let out a bit of a whinny before increasing his speed. Seeming to pick up on Fluttershy’s talking, the horse bearing Twilight quickly sped up as well—much to her chagrin. She clutched her even tighter than before as she went into a faster gallop.

“Thank you so much!”

Applejack rolled her eyes but didn’t question it. As much as she wanted to show herself the superior rider, the horses they had “borrowed” were being far more accommodating for Fluttershy than her. As soon as they had learned the news from Twilight it became clear they didn’t have time to walk the rest of the way to Griffonstone. Fortunately, as they went down the road they spotted what Applejack hoped was an abandoned corral and Fluttershy, who admitted she could manage animals better than had been affected by Nighttouched rather than “normal” animals, nevertheless managed to tame a trio of horses and, according to her, got their consent to help them. The only problem was they had to leave Spike behind as he couldn’t match pace with the horses, but Twilight assured them that he would catch up as soon as they stopped.

Most of the country they had run through was either abandoned or uncultivated. Yet as the sun began to rise (something they were all grateful to see), they saw the land gradually cleared and turned to sparse grass and scrubland. The sky rapidly filled with a thick haze that had to be industrial smog from a major city. The road they were on gradually widened and switched to wagon tracks.

Finally, as the country flattened out, they saw it. Sprawled along the horizon in the distance was what had to be Grifftham City. Most cities in the world had long since been turned into grimy, metal eyesores by modern industry, but even among the worst offenders it stood apart. It seemed to be wreathed in fog even this early in the morning, although all three of them knew full well it was the various factories and businesses pumping out coal vapors. The engines and machines that filled the city had to all be a good ten years out of date, but none of them had been replaced or even well-serviced. What buildings they could make out in the haze were stained black wherever they hadn’t turned red or green with rust and oxidation. Applejack and Fluttershy, both used to much cleaner country living, began to cough even on the approach.

“That city stinks…” the farmer grumbled.

Twilight, who by now was forcing herself to push up from her mount this close to their destination, wrinkled her own nose. “It definitely is worse than anywhere in Fillydelphia or Manehattan, but that’s not important right now. It’s going to be much worse than this pretty soon.”

Drawing closer along the road, they soon spotted the actual boundary between Mount Aris and Griffonstone. It wasn’t hard to miss. Unlike with Appleloosa, both sides had built up their respective defenses on a strip of land that acted as a boundary. However, while Mount Aris continued to rely on their simple palisades, Griffonstone had made use of the rubble it had accumulated over eight years of periodic wars to construct a more formidable stone wall topped with jagged rocks stretching all along the border in both directions.

A small watch tower was posted at a wide iron gate, long enough to block the entire road. As soon as they came around, they saw several Griffonstone soldiers materialize both in front of the gate and from the tower. Mount Aris soldiers, on the other hand, were nowhere to be seen, but that only made sense as most of them had to be to the northwest expecting the next Nighttouched surge.

The three didn’t even manage to make it all the way to the gate before they saw the soldiers, six in all, begin to ready their weapons and take aim. One picked up a megaphone and shouted. “Halt!”

Applejack yanked her reins to bring her horse to a halt. Fluttershy, on her part, managed to simply tell her own horse to stop. Twilight was a different matter entirely. She was soon screaming in panic as the horse kept going right past Applejack and straight for the gate; only getting wilder when the border guards answered by leveling their guns at her.

“Oh dear…” Fluttershy muttered, before putting a hand to her mouth. “Tony! Could you please stop? I think we’ve arrived!”

The horse instantly planted its feet to halt, nearly throwing Twilight out of the saddle. Fortunately, she was grasping the pommel so tightly that she merely did a brief hop out of it before settling back in. Nevertheless, for a moment she could only stare forward blankly and struggle to regain her wits.

The guards didn’t wait long. “This crossing is closed to all foreigners!” the one on the megaphone shouted. “Clear out now!”

“Wait…wait!” Twilight managed to yell back, finally composing herself enough to raise her hand. “You have to let us in! We have to see your mayor…council…governor…whoever is in charge in Grifftham City! It’s extremely important and there isn’t much time!”

“I said the crossing is closed! All Arisians are barred from entry! Get out of here now!”

“Listen to us!” Her voice began to firm up as she regained more of her composure. “This city is going to be torn apart in just a few hours! Maybe less! There’s over ten thousand Nighttouched headed right this way!”

A few of the border guards lowered their weapons at that, but only to scoff at the three of them. The one with the megaphone actually snorted, lowering it long enough to turn to the others and mutter something before holding it up again. “What kind of prank are you trying to pull? The shadow of Equestria is over a hundred and fifty miles from here and every wire in Greater Everfree is saying the next hit is gonna happen in Appleloosa! Think up a better story than that if you’re trying to smuggle your way across!”

“Ya’ thick-headed sons of bitches!” Applejack shouted, spurring her horse to draw closer to Twilight’s side so she could be heard better. “Unless ya’ve been up north, don’t tell us ‘bout where the next surge is comin’! We just saw it ourselves and we almost got burnt ta’ a crisp ‘cause of it!”

Fluttershy winced a little at the exchange, but slowly pulled her own horse forward. “Um, ex-excuse me…but my companions really are telling the truth. I saw it last night too, so…um…I’m wondering if you might…make a little exception.”

Even if the border guards had heard Fluttershy, which was severely unlikely considering even Twilight and Applejack hadn’t heard her from a few yards away, they didn’t look ready to change. “Are you three deaf or stupid?” the one with the megaphone snapped. “I said the border was closed to foreigners! Now you can either turn your horses right around now or-”

“Hey! Marshal!”

The sound of her companion calling her made the border guard growl as she lowered her megaphone. “What is it now?”

The guard pointed. “Check out their hands!”

Not only the marshal but the other guards took a look. Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy all flashed a shade pale. They had been so busy dragging themselves from the river and worried about having a good grasp on the reins of the horses they “borrowed” that they had all, at one point or another, left their hands uncovered. Their Promethian Sigils were all clearly displayed, and while they may have been far enough where they weren’t noticeable at first, now attention had been drawn to them.

Applejack quickly crossed her opposite hand on top of her first and Fluttershy flat out crossed her arm behind her. The fact they tried to hide it only made it more obvious.

“They’ve got those things on their hands the Appleloosans are squawking about!”

“They’re trying to break into Griffonstone!”

Twilight began to wince. “Uh, you know what?” She began to grin nervously. “You’re right. We shouldn’t be here. We’ll be on our way-”

All six guns aimed at her the moment her hand moved to the reins.

“Get off the horses! You three are coming with us!”

“Don’t try anything funny!”

Twilight cringed. She turned and looked at Applejack and Fluttershy, but they were no better. They were caught now. If they tried to use their respective sigils, they’d be shot before they could finish the incantations. Applejack could only wince and sit there at a loss of what to do. Fluttershy began to sink lower on the back of her horse and whimper.

“I said get off! Now!”

Twilight started to sweat. She looked back, trying to think of what to say or do. Applejack swished her mouth, one of her hands itching to go for her hammer. Fluttershy almost began to cover her eyes.

Before she could, however, she looked up and to the side. A bird was tweeting loudly, and a moment later it flew out of the smog and gloom and swept past her. At once, her face lightened up again.

“Oh, it’s Meadowlark! She made it!” she called happily. “That must mean Angel and the others made it here too!”

Distracted, Applejack turned to her. “Huh?”

Suddenly, a swarm of mice, squirrels, and other large rodents popped right out of inconspicuous holes in the ground near one of the guards and attacked. He cried out as they immediately bowled him over and crawled on top of him clawing and snapping. A flock of birds, angrily chirping all the way, quickly fell upon another at the same time; surprising her and sending her stumbling over herself in a panic.

A third guard turned to her partner being assaulted, only to find a hissing, spitting trio of raccoons jumping on top of him and biting and scratching at his face. The fourth, the marshal herself on the small tower, heard her comrades crying out and tried to run to the edge to see what was going on, only to have a pair of foxes dart out from around the edge of the upper platform and cross in front of her feet. The end result was her crying out and tripping, falling right over the railing and nearly going off the tower all together. It was only by releasing her gun and megaphone that she was able to seize the railing at the last moment, but she still ended up dangling in midair over the side.

The last two border guards turned their weapons to counterattack, but they didn’t get farther than lifting them up. One found a bear on its hind legs standing one foot in front of him. It stared him down for a moment, immobilizing him in fear and rendering him unable to move let alone fire, before it casually swung out and smacked his gun out of his hands so hard that it bent in half. The last one found the end of her gun barrel slapped away from its target by a white rabbit jumping up and batting it with its feet. A second later, the same ball of fluff leapt up again and drove its legs right into the guard’s throat, hitting hard and gagging her. Shocked and in pain, she spilled over; leaving her at the perfect angle for the bunny to leap and drive its feet repeatedly against her head with the force of a small power tool. One last kick actually sent her sprawling back onto her rear end.

Twilight and Applejack were left stunned at the pained, shocked, and struggling guards in the wake of the animal assault. Fluttershy, meanwhile, smiled and clasped her hands in delight. “Oh, you’re all ok! I’m so happy!”

The guard who had been faced by the bear, now finding himself unarmed, quickly turned and ran for it. The bear didn’t give chase, but instead moved over to the edge of the iron gate. His huge jaws clamped down on the lock and disengaged it, before he began to yank it open. At the same time, the marshal grunted as she began to pull herself back up on the tower platform. She soon had her upper body over the edge, and Twilight spotted she was trying to pull herself closer to a switch. Judging by the fact that cables strung from it to the top of the tower, where a pair of loudspeakers were perched, she guessed it was some sort of alarm system.

Applejack spotted that as well and spun to Twilight. “What d’we do?”

She exhaled tiredly. “I guess we don’t look a gift rabbit in the mouth… Go in!”

Applejack shrugged hopelessly and spurred her horse on. Fluttershy seemed a bit standoffish, but realizing there was no choice quickly had her own horse follow. As for Twilight, she brought up the rear as she had to spur her own horse several times, and by the time she was riding through the gate the marshal had reached the alarm. A bell was soon ringing loudly over the city skyline as they rode straight into Griffonstone.

The moment had been in panic, and so for a few moments the group simply charged right down the streets. At first, all it afforded was another dingy look of its factories and workshops. Each one was so run down and outdated it was impossible to tell which ones were the ones in use, which ones hadn’t been fired up, and which ones were outright abandoned. The horses were soon in more danger of tripping and breaking their ankles on the broken, fragmented, and ground down roads than they were on the dirt paths leading through Mount Aris. The smog became so thick that even the street lamps, still lit although it was morning, barely helped. The three could barely see fifty feet in front of them.

Unfortunately, it was just their luck that the one thing that seemed to be working in the city was the local law enforcement. The bells of the siren resonated down the streets they were running down, alerting more authorities, and soon they heard shouting and yelling around them as either the local magistrates or border soldiers, either of which was equally likely, charged out of the surrounding roads and ran after them. It didn’t help that they were impossible to avoid, for between their dull, shabby clothing and the dingy surroundings none could tell who was a shocked local and who was an officer until they were nearly on them.

Things only got worse when they hit the main roads. It was then that they were forced to halt in their tracks as they were nearly run down by one of the massive, loud, noisy, and inefficient “trackless engines” Griffonstone was famous for: a tank-like, steam-chugging bus that shot right in front of their path. As soon as it pulled away, they were faced with a squad of six new soldiers running at them shouting and hefting firearms.

“Aw shoot!” Applejack shouted. “Follow me!”

Quickly, she turned her horse to one side and barreled off on it. Twilight grimaced as she couldn’t even get her own mount to run forward when she wanted, but fortunately Fluttershy called out to both her own horse and hers to follow Applejack, and she took off in pursuit whether she liked it or not.

Things only got worse from there. Another one of the “trackless engines” soon came the other way, seeming to form right out of the smoky gloom, and forced them to barrel off in another direction. This, in turn, almost led them right into a whole gathering of rather irate and poverty-stricken Griffonstone vendors who not only shouted at them but began to try and drive them away with rocks and bits of bottles. Applejack ducked in an alley to try and evade them, only to find another group of soldiers coming up that way. These ones actually fired a warning shot before they turned about and barreled back into the street. They tried to run across, only to nearly get flattened by three more engines going in either direction.

By the time they crossed the road, they heard additional hoofbeats coming out of the gloom along will alarm bells ringing. Applejack halted them just long enough to see twelve more magistrates manning what had to be a law enforcement wagon running down the street shouting at them.

Gritting her teeth in frustration, Applejack whipped her horse around and led them in another gallop. “This blasted city! Ain’t a fit place for anyone to be livin’ in, let alone ridin’ a horse around in! Can’t even see the signs on buildings!” She looked over her shoulder to Twilight. “We’re either gonna get caught or run the horses out long ‘fore we find anyone ta’ tell ‘bout what’s gonna happen! And that’s if they even listen ta’ us! Now what?”

Twilight didn’t answer. She looked around as she struggled to think of any options. Thanks to the cluttered road ahead of them, the magistrates were able to stay hot on their heels. Most of the soldiers they had passed were trying to run in from the sides too. On looking ahead, she saw more shapes coming out of the fog. They were going to try and cut them off again.

Before Applejack could try and lead them away, she shouted out. “Stop the horses!”

“Wh-what?” she cried. “You’re crazy!”

“It’s the only way we’ll get to talk to anyone in authority! We have to give up!”

Applejack let out another swear and grit her teeth. She held out until the soldiers began to emerge from the fog, shouting all over again, but before any of them could try firing another shot she reluctantly pulled on her reins and brought the horse to a stop. Still following suit, Twilight and Fluttershy’s mounts quickly did the same.

It took only moments for them to be surrounded on all sides. The soldiers in front quickly moved in; shouting not to move and keeping their firearms aimed at them. Their left and right were filled in with the other magistrates they had managed to evade before the wagon pulled in behind them and blocked a rear escape.

As the Griffonstone authorities continued to bark at them angrily, the three reluctantly began to raise their hands in surrender.

---

With a resounding clang, the iron bars to the cell slammed shut. Twilight reacted with slight unease, Applejack reacted with a sour frown, and Fluttershy yipped and leapt a little.

The jailhouse for Grifftham City wasn’t any better than the rest of the city and was, honestly, worse in most ways. The main reason the three stood in front of the bars wasn’t to plead their case but to stay as far away as possible from the clogged toilet and the bedbug-infested mattress, to say nothing of the oily stains on the floor. The rest of the building outside the cell was slanted, with cracked plaster, chipping paint, and only three functional gaslights out of six. Normally that wouldn’t matter for the sunlight, but sun was hardly a factor in the dingy town.

Four rather angry-looking Griffonstone magistrates were glaring at the three of them. Fortunately, none in Griffonstone knew the full scope of the Promethian Sigil’s powers, and so the main concern at the moment was how much of a chase they had led them on. They continued to do so for a good fifteen minutes before the front door of the jailhouse could be heard opening, followed by a loud, hoarse coughing and angry grumbling.

One lone magistrate, a teenager by the looks of him but also seeming irritated to be there, led in a much older man. Definitely a product of the Griffonstone times. In addition to coughing and hacking on what had to be half a lifetime of inhaling the fumes of the city, his uniform, or at least the jacket (which seemed to be the only piece he wore) was stained five shades darker than everyone else’s and even had an old patch on one elbow. A long scar across one eye left only a dead, pale orb in its wake, and he seemed so casual about his position he didn’t mind wearing a fez instead of the normal hat of a head magistrate.

“Alright, alright…” he grumbled as he stepped into the room. “Let’s see what was so much of a bother it had to drag me out of bed this early…”

He glanced up, but didn’t get another step. He saw the three women in the cell and stared at them a moment; then turned to one of the officers nearby.

“What…this is the big deal? You couldn’t just handle this yourselves? What’s with you young people nowadays…”

“Constable, look at their hands!” one of the magistrates shouted while pointing. “They got those marks on them! Just like Appleloosa’s going all nuts about!”

“Eh?” He looked again and took a few steps closer. Enough to where he could spot at the symbols with what was left of his good eye.

Twilight didn’t try to hide it, but she did begin to raise her other hand. “Um, excuse me, sir? Er, constable? May I-”

“Oh yeah, sure as hell do, don’t they?” the old magistrate interjected, sounding like he hadn’t even heard her. “Three of them in one go, eh? All trying to sneak across together, huh?”

“Sneak nothing,” another magistrate snorted. “They ran right across on horseback after they sicced a bunch of trained animals on the border guards. I think they were trying to storm the city. Break in just like I hear they did in Appleloosa.”

Applejack actually looked angry at that, but Twilight quickly spoke up. “That…that’s a bit of a stretch, but that’s not important right now. I’ve-”

“That so?” the constable snorted, before he finally looked up and squared Twilight in the eye. “So, you three of some of them troublemakers from over the border, eh? Alright then, come clean. What’s your angle? More Trottinghamites working under the table? Spies? Terrorists? Some secret society? One of those damn fool cults or something?”

Twilight sighed. “Mister…I mean, um…uh…”

He finally seemed to hear this part. “Constable Gruff. The folks here call me ‘Grandpa’. Now spit it out.”

“Constable Gruff, you need to immediately get a message to the mayor to start evacuating the city and then get everyone from the Griffonstone military ready to fight, because there’s a Light Eater the size of a small mountain headed right this way.”

The room was silent for a moment as the other magistrates quirked their eyebrows. Gruff himself stared back incredulously for a second or two before he could answer. “Hold on, did I just hear you right? Did you just say there’s a Light Eater the size of a small mountain headed here? To Grifftham City?”

“Yes! We saw it on the way here! That’s why we had to break across your borders! We were trying to warn people!”

Unfortunately, at this point the magistrates began to frown again. Gruff was no exception as he crossed his arms. “Oh really? You might want to try thinking up a better story than that, young lady. You think I’m a fool? The nearest place the Light Eaters are lurking is over a hundred and fifty miles north of here, and the farthest any of them ever went after the Lunar Fall was ten miles in one night. And if there was a Light Eater that big, you really expect me to believe it’d go this far south and we wouldn’t have heard a peep from anybody in Griffonstone, Mount Aris, or anywhere else?”

“You wouldn’t if they were all distracted by that surge over in Appleloosa. Or if all the armed forces had their eyes on the border waiting for them to cross. If it came right down the middle of the chain, no one would ever spot it unless they were watching for it.”

Gruff stared back incredulously. “Are you actually trying to tell me that all those things up north that act like oversized rabid moths somehow got smart enough after eight years to actually plan this?”

“Well, they were smart enough to hit Appleloosa at the point where they were spread the thinnest, weren’t they?”

He snorted. “Bah…just bad luck. I’ve seen five Nighttouched surges into Griffonstone. They don’t know their own bippies from a gopher hole. Just go wherever they see any light.”

Applejack, looking incensed at Gruff’s casual dismissal, suddenly stepped forward. “Listen here, you! I’ve seen more’n my share of Nighttouched too, and over the past couple days I’ve killed more’n them than I care ta’ count! Last night I saw this Light Eater with my own two eyes and ‘fore it was done I nearly got drowned, burned, blown up, and had my face bit off by demon trout! Not ta’ mention I’ve seen my family, my friends, and lots of folks just unlucky enough to be in the way nearly get torn up on account of all that! I don’t appreciate after ridin’ all night ta’ get here to warn folks bein’ accused of bein’ a liar!”

Gruff paused again, easing a little, but his sour look didn’t change. “Alright, missy. Let’s say there is a Light Eater that big out there. That doesn’t explain why you’re so sure it’s gonna come all this way. Grifftham City’s so dark most of the time you can’t see a block away even with every light in the city on. Why would it go all that way just to stomp on this town?”

“Because it’s not going to attack Grifftham City,” Twilight answered. “It’s only going to destroy the part it has to walk through on the way to the seashore.”

Now he looked confused. “Come again?”

“When we saw it walking across the mountains, pieces of it were coming off. Anything one of its pieces touched got…I don’t know…corrupted or something. But when it landed in the water of the river we were coming down, it turned a whole mass of fish into Nighttouched at once. Do you know what that means will happen if that entire thing gets in the ocean?”

“Uh…”

“It’ll turn the entire bay into Nighttouched! It might do worse than that! It could spread the shadow over Equestria along the entire shore of Greater Everfree! If it does that, there’s not even a chance of escaping! They’ll sink every boat and leave no survivors! Everyone will be trapped on the continent until the Light Eaters take it over completely!”

In spite of the clear air of skepticism, several of the magistrates at least hesitated on hearing that. Twilight grasped the bars and pressed her face against them.

“It was right behind us when we got off the river! I’m not sure how much time you have before it reaches Griffonstone but it’s going to be today! You may have hours…you may have minutes!”

“None of that makes any sense!” Gruff finally retorted. “Why now? They’ve been coming at random for years! Why all of a sudden would they do something clever like this?”

“I dunno, but right now that’s not important!” Applejack interjected. “Ya’ got ta’ tell your mayor to get people the hell outta here! Hunkerin’ down ain’t gonna help! They got a whole swarm o’ little ones followin’ after the big one! Real nasty ones! All them towns that got razed in Appleloosa was on account of them having ones that eat through wood like nobody’s business!”

“And…um…I hate to interject,” Fluttershy spoke up humbly. “But…there was one last night that could breathe fire…”

“And once everyone’s out, you need everyone who can fight to try and stop it!” Twilight added. “Call in Trottingham or even Fillydelphia or Appleloosa if you need to, but no matter what happens that Light Eater can’t hit the ocean! Everyone depends on it!”

Unfortunately, the magistrates were frowning again after this. Constable Gruff himself crossed his arms and looked at the three sourly.

“Alright, you three…I ain’t heard a peep about what any of that has to do with those funny tattoos you got, what’s been going on with you in Appleloosa, or how, if that big cockamamy story you just told me is true, the three of you somehow managed to survive this long when I’ve never met a person in all my life who ever even saw a Light Eater face to face and then lived to tell about it… But let’s say that you are tellin’ the truth about all of this and there really is a Light Eater on its way here as big as life and twice as ornery that’s gonna trample most of Grifftham to bits getting into the ocean and leaving us surrounded by Nighttouched sharks and whales. My last question to you is what the hell do you expect us to do about it?”

Twilight was caught off guard by that question. Applejack and Fluttershy were likewise dumbstruck.

“So we get Trottingham, Appleloosa, and Fillydelphia along. Heck, throw in the Dragonlands, Mt. Aris, and everyone else. Then what? Everyone knows every last bullet and bomb in Greater Everfree can’t kill one Light Eater. What are we supposed to do about a giant one?”

“Uh…well…” However, nothing else came out. Twilight didn’t have an answer for that.

Gruff frowned again. “Now I don’t know about any of all that stuff you just said, but I do know everyone on the borders is getting ready for another war to break out if Appleloosa ends up ceding a ton of farmland to that shadow of Equestria, and I further know that they’re going wild over folks with those weird tattoos on their hands and everywhere one of them pops up things go to Hell. Well, that ain’t gonna be happening in Griffonstone, and it definitely ain’t gonna happen in Grifftham City. So you three are gonna sit tight right here while I relay my message to the mayor—namely that we got a trio of troublemakers in town and we’re gonna get to the bottom of what they’ve been doing in Appleloosa and what they plan to do here one way or another.” He pointed a finger so sharply at Twilight she recoiled. “I suggest you start coming up with the truth while I’m gone.”

“But…but that was the truth! Could you at least have someone keep watch on the mountains?”

He grunted. “Keep watch? You’ve looked outside lately? I haven’t even seen a sunrise in twelve years!” Grumbling, he began to turn around. “‘Keep watch’… Of all the tourist things to say…”

“Y’all are crazy!” Applejack snapped. “Yer gonna wish you listened ta’ us in just a little while! Yer gonna get half the people in this city killed! Even if that big Light Eater doesn’t squish ya’ inta’ jam, this whole town is gonna get eaten alive by all the Nighttouched runnin’ along with it!”

“Yeah, yeah, just keep it down,” one of the magistrates retorted. Gruff, on his part, was already almost to the exit. The others turned to follow him out. “You don’t want me to move you to the bad cell.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “There’s…one worse than this…?”

“Please! You have to listen to us!” Twilight kept insisting. “You’re all in danger! Everyone’s in danger!”

The magistrates ignored her. The rest filed out and the outer door was shut. Two of them remained posted, but soon they heard the front door open and close again. Realizing it was futile, Twilight slumped against the bars.

Applejack crossed her arms and frowned. “Well, so much fer lettin’ ourselves get captured… Now all we got is stuck right here in Grifftham City ‘til the manure comes runnin’ down those mountains…” She looked up to the window. “Uh, speakin’ o’ which, anyone tell which direction that’s in?”

Fluttershy moved a bit closer and patted Twilight on the back. “There, there…it’s ok. You tried your best, Twilight.”

She groaned and leaned up. “My ‘best’ isn’t good enough! Not only is Grifftham City going to be destroyed, but the rest of Greater Everfree could be doomed along with it!”

“I hate ta’ say it, but he had a point back there,” Applejack spoke up again. “The best we could hope for was warnin’ the people. Ain’t nothin’ we can do to stop that thing once it gets here, or anyone else fer that matter.”

“We can try!” Twilight shot back. “Even if no one’s ever been able to stop one before now, if they don’t try this time there’s nothing left! There won’t be any place left to run!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow.

“Huh…that don’t sound like the Twilight I met a couple days back.”

The spellcaster looked confused. “What?”

“Back when I first met ya’ and ya’ started talkin’ ‘bout all this mumbo and jumbo, you seemed dead set on just about throwin’ in the towel on the whole thing. Just wanderin’ ‘round doin’ yer magic act. Told me ta’ keep all this stuff a secret and pretty much put my head down. Now ya’ sound like yer ready to go down swingin’.”

Twilight paused. She stood there silently for a moment. Both Applejack and Fluttershy looked at her, until she finally straightened and wrung her hands.

“Well…it’s just…just…” She closed her eyes and exhaled. “Alight, I admit…over the past eight years, ever since what happened in Trotheim, I haven’t exactly had a lot of hope in anything… Especially when I saw what we were up against. I thought any chance of saving the world died with Headmistress Celestia.”

She opened her eyes again. They were much grimmer now. Sadder.

“I remembered what she told me to do, but…I didn’t honestly think there was any way to pull it off. I figured everyone else was gone, so I might as well just fade out too and wait for the end. I still had some interest, but there was nothing else I could do.”

“And…what about now?” Fluttershy asked.

She looked up. “It’s just been me and Spike for the longest time… But hanging around with both of you, seeing what’s been going on with other people, and…and actually doing something about it, really doing something, taking a stand and saving people…I’m starting to wonder. Celestia warned me that most people with Promethian Sigils would be a danger to others, but…” She looked between the two of them. “Here we are. A Caster, a Warrior, and a Healer. Even at school I never worked alongside any of the other students. And I’m starting to realize even just three of us can do a lot more than one of us can, or what we could do separately.”

Applejack uncrossed her arms. “Twilight…are ya’ absolutely, positively, 100 percent sure ya’ don’t know a spell that might actually kill that Tantawhatzit?”

She sighed and slumped. “I’m sorry… Like I said, my spells can kill the small ones, but the bigger ones are-”

She stopped as a noise from the window began to peel out: a siren. Unlike the bells from earlier, this was a much louder continuous note. Both Applejack and Fluttershy looked outside, for it was loud enough to echo through much of the city. And soon other sirens began to join with it to pass it along to other areas.

“Oh…that doesn’t sound like the one the magistrates made when they were chasing us.”

Applejack began to look uneasy. “That’s ‘cause I reckon it ain’t…”

A loud clamor arose from the front of the jailhouse. The three looked and saw that the two remaining magistrates were both scrambling to their feet.

“What the heck…?”

“You got to be kidding me! This far south?!”

“Um, excuse me?” Twilight called. “What does that siren mean?”

The two magistrates glanced back at her, but their expressions were now rather fearful. Neither one of them moved for a moment, then looked back to each other.

“You don’t think…”

“They weren’t actually…?”

“Telling the truth…were they?”

Applejack winced as she realized what they meant. “Uh, Twilight? I think that’s the siren fer when the Nighttouched are attackin’…”

Twilight’s eyes widened. Fluttershy whimpered again. As for the magistrates, they looked at the two a bit longer. Then, without a word, they both turned and abandoned their posts as fast as they could. In moments they had left the jailhouse door swinging open to the foggy streets and were gone.

“At least let us outta this cell, ya’ durn yellow-bellied chickens!” Applejack shouted angrily. “How ya’ like that?! First they roll their eyes at our warnin’, then they leave us fer dead! Nevermind them!” She began to look around. “We gotta get ourselves outta this cell! Damn it all, they took my hammer and Twilight’s wand!”

Twilight blinked and snapped out of it, shaking her head. “Those don’t matter. Anything will work.”

“Huh?” Applejack turned to her. “Come again?”

“It’s not the tool in your hand. It’s the power of the spirit in your Promethian Sigil that makes a weapon or stave. That doesn’t matter though…” She looked around the cell. “Unless we can make a weapon out of a bar of soap…”

“Um, Twilight?”

Applejack cursed and nearly threw down her hat, only to shy away from putting it on the filthy floor. “Forget a weapon! I’ll just call out my pa and then I’ll tear these bars ta’ ribbons!”

“Er, Applejack?”

Twilight winced. “I wouldn’t do that… Griffonstone isn’t exactly the best at construction. There’s a good chance this gate is load bearing. We might bring the whole cell block down on us.”

“Um, you two?”

“Well I ain’t gonna stand ‘round this cell waitin’ for a Griffonstone rat the size of a bulldog ta’ come in and gnaw my face off! Just get behind me and I’ll bust through-”

“Hey!”

Fluttershy’s abrupt yell was enough to cause both to be quiet, and they turned to her. Immediately, she winced and covered her mouth at her own volume.

“Oh…oh my…I didn’t mean to yell so loudly. I just wanted to let you both know…” she pointed outside the cell. “Spike caught up with us.”

The two looked through the bars. Sure enough, Spike had walked right in as soon as the jailhouse door was left open.

Better yet, a ring of keys was in his teeth.

---

By the time the three got out of the jailhouse themselves, panic had already settled on Grifftham City. Most of the residents were screaming and fleeing into the streets. Unfortunately, with the sirens blaring everywhere, and the smog hanging low over the town, it was impossible to tell which way the Nighttouched were coming from. Even knowing that they were coming from the mountains was of little avail to the three of them, as it was impossible to see the mountains or the seashore. Worse yet, half of the law enforcement and civil authorities had fled in self-preservation. Whoever was left was getting trampled and shoved aside as they struggled to try and knock out the lights.

Applejack herself nearly got tackled by a hysterical man and quickly pressed herself back against the door. Fluttershy cringed behind Twilight as a shield. “Well, don’t this just beat all! Like a bunch o’ mice in a corncrib! And we don’t even know which way it’s comin’ from!”

“Um…maybe we could ask someone?” Fluttershy suggested.

Everyone, even Spike, gave her a deadpan stare as the most rational person on the road at the moment was running like they were being chased by a wasp swarm.

“Or not…”

Twilight frowned and nearly looked back, only to pause. Her eyes fell on Fluttershy’s hand grasping her shoulders, and in particular on a spot on it. Her eyes widened as she pointed at it. “Fluttershy! When did that appear?”

“Hmm?” She looked at her hand and spotted the rune on her sigil. “Oh… I didn’t notice that before. I don’t know when that showed up. Although…” She paused looking up for a moment. “Now that you mention it, I know I didn’t have it back on the barge. I wonder if it appeared after we got knocked into the river… Or after I talked to Philomena…”

Twilight hesitated, taking that new info in, but shook it off a second later. She turned back to the busy road and glanced about, trying to find a direction but spotting nothing.

“We’ll just have to look for a signpost!” She shouted over the din, before wincing. “But how are we going to move through this crowd without getting trampled to death?”

“I got it…” Applejack answered, hefting her reclaimed hammer and her symbol. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Bastion of the Fields—Bright Macintosh!”

The crowd was too panicked to really even glance in Applejack’s direction as she fully donned her armor and warhammer, but that just served them better as there was no way to avoid making a scene now. As soon as she was turned, she braced the weapon in front of her and looked to the others. “Both y’all get behind me and stay close!”

Charging forward, Applejack plunged right into the mob. Twilight quickly seized the back of her armor and Fluttershy seized the back of her shirt as they went after her. Spike, unable to follow, could only bark a few times before he went off to find his way around.

The crowd was violently pulling one way and another, and both soon had to cling to their partner’s waists in order to keep from being torn apart. Applejack, however, stood as immobile as a rock. If anyone ran into her, she merely brushed them aside and kept walking without losing her footing once. Keeping her hammer in front of her, she used the top of it to weave her way through the crowd slowly but surely. She gradually pushed her way to a direction where everyone was flowing one way, and the three followed it.

At last, they managed to push themselves to a junction in the road. It had the normal street sign, but it also had a signpost mounted a bit higher. The three worked their way near and Twilight read off the top.

“Grover’s Cape! It’s to the left! That way is the ocean!”

“Awright, so which way’s the mountains?”

Twilight began to look around, only to hear a blood-curdling scream. The three looked up the street to their right. The crowds were still running down it, but at this point they were all unifying in one direction…which could only mean one thing.

Sure enough, it was only a few seconds before other screams joined the first, and, in spite of the fog already rendering things quite dim, they noticed the day growing darker yet.

“I t-t-think it’s that way…” Fluttershy muttered.

“I don’t feel any big footsteps yet…” Applejack answered as she hefted her hammer. “’Course I can’t hear much over all this racket… But I’m guessing that means it’s the rest of its friends…”

Another scream, and this time all three stiffened on seeing the shadow of what looked like a body being thrown up into the air. After that, the crowd rapidly began to thin out around them; with most of who was left quickly splitting and running for whatever buildings or cover they could manage. Soon after, a new shadow with gleaming yellow eyes began to come out of the fog.

On spotting it, Twilight quickly stepped out from behind Applejack while Fluttershy ran to the side of the street. The former quickly tried to look around for an object to use but, on not finding one right away, instead held her hand skyward. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Master of Sorcery—Starswirl the Bearded!”

As soon as her own transformation finished garbing her as a wizard, the street grew clear enough that there was nothing between the two of them and the shadow. It walked forward a bit more, clearly showing itself to be bear-sized, and a low growl came from its head region. Applejack readied her weapon to attack.

However, as it drew a bit nearer, she lowered it again. “What in blazes…?”

The thing was not only unlike any animal any of them had ever seen, it didn’t even look like an animal to begin with. Rather, it was bits and pieces of things. Sticks, bones, twigs, and lake pebbles mixed together like it was a sculpture of a creature rather than a real thing. It was moving just like a real monster, however. And the shape it happened to have been made into was that of a wolf—only far larger than any flesh and blood lupine.

As soon as it emerged it zeroed in on Applejack. It cracked open its jaws, and in the yellow of its eyes she saw a wisp of what looked like green vapor. It snarled as if it truly did have lungs, although it made a bony rattling noise when it did, and then took off. Its jaw, lined with teeth made out of sharpened rocks, snapped and hissed as it barreled at her. Tensing up at the sight, Applejack quickly readied her hammer and braced herself. Moments later, it took off in a lunge and lashed out for her throat.

In an instant, she swung out her hammer and smashed into the side of its shoulder as it came. The power was enough to knock it clean out of the air and send it careening into the nearest building. On impact, it instantly shattered into a pile of its constituent pieces.

Applejack whirled on it, expecting more, but saw it broken down into bits. She looked a bit puzzled. “That wasn’t too hard…”

As if in response, the sticks, rocks, and bones of the thing began to click and clatter together. A moment afterward, she got a surprise when she saw them actually moving of their own accord to arrange themselves and stick together. It didn’t take long for them to join enough to start making more complicated moves and piecing themselves against one another, such that within ten seconds the thing had fully reformed. It instantly snarled at her.

“Aw great!” she yelled. “Another one that don’t die!”

The thing charged forward and readied itself to leap at her again, but she didn’t give it the chance. She took off to meet it early. The move seemed to surprise the Nighttouched, and she used that to swing her hammer around and smash it down on the top of its head.

Instantly, it was driven into the pavement and obliterated. The yellow eyes were snuffed out, and Applejack peeled back in disgust a moment later as the same foul green odor was released all at once. However, the rest of its body immediately broke apart as well. This time it remained in a pile on the ground.

She whistled as she peeled back. “Phew-ee! Worse than a rotten skunk!”

“Don’t get too comfy!” Twilight shouted as she quickly ran up to the side of its remains, taking up a stick as it did. She pointed back down the street. “Look!”

Applejack turned, realizing at that moment that the latest scream she was hearing was from just up ahead. Four people were tearing down the alley as quickly as they could. Two more of the monstrous “timber wolves” were right on their heels snapping and snarling.

She quickly readied her hammer, but Twilight had beat her to the punch that time. Wielding the stick, her aura morphed it into a fresh wand and she quickly gestured at the two monsters. In response, some of the brickwork masonry on the road abruptly erupted right beneath either one. It connected with their middles and shattered both; causing their bodies to explode violently.

The four Griffonstone citizens caught a glimpse of what had just happened, but were too panicked to stick around. They quickly tore past the three of them. Twilight and Applejack readied themselves for more combat, especially as the screaming was getting louder and was spreading around them as it kept getting darker.

Suddenly, the gaslights in the street went out; one after the other. The two of them were all but dropped into darkness save for their auras.

“Huh? What gives?”

“They must be cutting the gas lines to the lamps! They’re trying to kill the lights!”

“Yeah, but we’re in a crowded city and now I can’t see nothi-”

An eruption of multiple sources of gunfire from the next block over cut Applejack off. Fluttershy yelped as the farmer and spellcaster looked over to the side, and over the rooftops and down the alleys they saw bursts of light from the fog.

“Sounds like some of the Griffonstone armed forces are fighting back!”

Applejack winced. “Then hold onta’ yer hats…”

She turned to her puzzled. “What? Why?”

“If they’re cuttin’ inta’ them, that means they’re gonna drive ‘em this-”

Suddenly, the window of one of the buildings adjacent to them exploded. The sound of crashing glass was pierced also by a monstrous growl and a man screaming in pain. Both Twilight and Applejack turned to it just in time to see a man being taken to the ground, one of the giant wolf constructs having its jaws clamped around his arm and looking to try and tear his limb off.

It gave a violent wrench, and a snapping sound was heard. The man screamed even louder.

“Hang on!” Applejack cried even as she ran toward it. Bellowing in fury, she swung her hammer down around right on its “spine”, snapping the creature in half. The lower portion immediately broke away while its jaws loosened around the man’s arm. In the dim light, she just barely made out a copious amount of blood around its teeth, before it whirled on her and opened its jaws wide. Gritting her own teeth, she swung her hammer again to send its shattered remains flying down the alleyway.

She didn’t even have time to check on the man when she heard a chorus of growls and snapping. She looked back into the building and saw at least five new sets of yellow eyes all staring at her. A moment later, they barreled at her, and she gasped as she realized all five were going to attack at once.

Just as the nearest was able to leap at her, however, a sharp crackling went through the air. In an instant, thick ice grew up in the window frame and rapidly congealed; catching the first leaping wolf construct and instantly immobilizing it. The others smashed themselves into the icy barrier, but merely crumpled against it. Applejack risked a look behind her, just in time to see Twilight lowering her wand.

The creatures didn’t stay long. Snarling, they all turned and scattered, looking for another way around. More snapping and snarling came from the front of the alley, as well as more screams and gunfire. Tensing up again, she looked down at her feet and saw the man still moaning as he clutched his bleeding limb. She couldn’t see how good it was, but considering the monster it could have easily compound fractured it.

Luckily, Twilight seemed to read her mind. She quickly moved forward and took the man by his good arm, then began to drag him back. “Sorry about that…” she apologized to the semi-conscious citizen, before looking back to Applejack. “I’ll take care of him. Can you buy some time?”

Applejack looked back up the road, just as new pairs of yellow eyes emerged from it. She whistled and hefted her hammer. “You bet.”

“Thanks.” Quickly, she continued to drag him backward. Applejack, not waiting for her to get away, ran forward to meet the latest incoming wolf constructs. Seconds later, her hammer was coming down and scattering them again.

Twilight, on her part, kept yanking the man back; all the way to where Fluttershy was currently cringing behind a public garbage can. She looked back to her as she came. The woman peeked her head out for a moment, but then quickly poked it back inside again.

“Fluttershy!”

A pause before she tentatively put her head out again. “Oh, um…yes?”

“Come over here! I need you to heal him!”

The pink-haired woman stared back in shock. “W-W-What?”

“Come on!” she shouted as she finished dragging him to her side, causing her to recoil a little. “Heal him up! At least enough to stabilize him!”

“W-Who…me? But…but…but-but…”

“You healed those animals back on the boat, didn’t you?”

Fluttershy paled; looking even more nervous than before. “Oh…well…I…yes, that is, but that wasn’t much. I was just talking to them and trying to keep them calm… I’m sure they weren’t really that sick if that was all it took…”

“No, they were sick, and you made them better. I told you already…you’re the Healer role. If you knew how to do it better you could use healing magic, but even without using spells your role lets you heal people faster.”

“Oh…oh dear…” Fluttershy began to cringe again, once more letting her hair fall over her face. “I…I really don’t know… Animals are one thing, but…but people? And I…I…I don’t really feel that powerful…”

A crash of glass sounded out in front of them. Twilight and Fluttershy both looked up, and saw Applejack, in the midst of fighting the wolf creatures, suddenly get tackled from overhead as one of the trapped beasts leapt out of an open window for her. The others snarled and snapped and quickly rushed in to try and join on her as she went down.

“Applejack!”

Twilight nearly got up after her, but before she could Applejack flung the one that attacked her into its companion, shattering them both. She quickly snapped up and swung her hammer around to shatter a third before making the others back away.

Twilight winced and looked back to Fluttershy. “What about back on the boat? You made Philomena stop and you also made the fish stop biting! It’s your power, Fluttershy! You have an influence over the Nighttouched!”

If anything, Fluttershy seemed to go whiter yet. She cringed so much at that she looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. “Oh my…”

She winced on seeing Fluttershy grow even more withdrawn at that, realizing that was the wrong thing to say, and so she tried to speak more calmly. “Look…could you just try at least? There shouldn’t be much to it. All you have to do is talk to him like one of your animals, and you should naturally start healing him.”

“I…I don’t…”

“Please! I have to help Applejack, and even if I didn’t I can’t heal like you! He could bleed to death if you don’t help!”

She continued to shake all over like a leaf, but slowly raised her head up again. She swallowed but finally looked to the road. “I…I guess…it wouldn’t hurt…to t-t-try…”

Very slowly, she began to move over to the man. After a moment of hesitation, like she was shying away from a burning stove, she reluctantly extended her hands and placed them on top of him, taking care not to be anywhere around the wound.

“Um…er…uh…there, there. It’s alright. Who’s a good boy? I mean…who’s a good man? I mean…just take some nice deep breaths and it’ll feel better soon.”

Twilight didn’t have any time to see if it would take any longer. Quickly, she sprung back up and began to run out to Applejack again.

Two more of the wolf monsters jumped from two new windows, but this time Applejack darted back and evaded them as they sailed to the ground. By now, however, two of the wolves she had already shattered were back together again and running at her to try and bite her from behind. She snapped around and quickly swung out her hammer to shatter them; this time making sure to crush the head of one, but that allowed three more to try and rush her from her previous front.

Before the nearest could bite, lightning streaked from the heavens and struck it. It shattered in an instant, and the thunderclap made both of its companions recoil in pain. Applejack looked up alarmed and wondering what had caused that, only to see Twilight rushing out into the street. Two more of the monsters ignored Applejack and turned to her instead in a full sprint. She answered by quickly performing a new symbol on the air to generate a small whirlwind right in front of her.

She swept her wand around it, and the cone shape broke off and reformed into a sphere, which launched itself at one of the constructs. On impact, it blasted it apart and sent its bits and pieces flying up and down the street. She quickly generated another to slap aside the other, before following up with one more lightning spell.

Right in the middle of smashing apart a new wolf, Applejack looked up and saw three of the rebuilt constructs were trying to rush her from the front. This time, she braced to intercept them, but it turned out it was unnecessary. Once Twilight finished her spell, a bolt of lightning streaked from the heavens. A moment before impact, it split apart into three prongs and struck all three wolf constructs at once—shattering them like porcelain dishes.

Applejack was surprised not only at the spell but the finesse. She turned to Twilight as she ran up to her side, grinning smarmily. “Heh, Headmistress Celestia was pretty impressed when I pulled off that move a whole half a year before she was supposed to teach it to me.”

“Well, so long as it helps turn these sons of bitches into kindlin’ faster, I’m for it,” Applejack grinned back, bracing herself for more.

However, the remaining wolf constructs, surprisingly enough for a Nighttouched, were holding back. They continued to brace themselves and snarl but made no forward move. As for the freshly shattered remains, any that didn’t have their skulls cracked were beginning to shift.

“Heh, we actually got ‘em runnin’ scared?” Applejack grinned.

“That’s weird… I didn’t think Nighttouched could get scared…” Twilight muttered.

The sticks and bones began to rejoin again. Soon they slid over and united into their normal limbs before inching to one another to link up. However, they continued to do so for longer than ten seconds this time. After twenty, they were still aligning. At thirty, Applejack began to look uneasy.

“Uh, they don’t normally take this long…”

Twilight looked even more uncomfortable. “ Is it just me, or do those limbs look a bit bigger than what they came from?”

The two looked a bit longer before they finally realized it. While there had been the remains of several of the monsters, they were now forming one body. One big body. The limbs, each one now taller than the two of them, finally began to connect and come together to make something different. A much larger wolf monster than before slowly began to tower over them. Its yellow eyes were like a pair of floodlights now. Its teeth and claws were big enough to slide off a head. The stench and putrid odor coming from its mouth was so vile it actually dripped from its jaws.

As the colossal monster finished forming, it began to move as a real wolf again. It looked down on both of them, snarled for a moment, and then roared angrily. An instant later, it snapped up its paw and swung for them.

To be continued...