Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Nightwatch: Reaching the Summit

Author's Note:

Ugh...another chapter that ended up running so long I decided to split it in two, but it makes sense as, like the last one, this kind of covers two separate incidents. I probably could have gotten another formula entry out of it...

I'm worried that now that I have Pinkie Pie in things, my tone is becoming uneven. I'm trying to keep everyone in character while in a grittier, darker environment, and it's kind of hard with who's personality is that of a cheerful pony.

“Oh look! The track goes downhill again!” Grinning, Pinkie took her hands off the pump to hold them in the air. “Wheeeeeee!”

Rarity grimaced and tried not to retch as the cart once again went down a vertical slope of track at three times its normal speed, hurtling down the tunnel fast enough to derail at a sharp enough curve. This hadn’t been the first time it happened, but so long as they continued to get farther from the monstrous footsteps, the Nighttouched, and the Light Eaters, she couldn’t complain. She simply had to hold on for dear life for several moments until it leveled out again. As soon as Pinkie laughed and began to pump again, she held her hands back on Rainbow Dash and repeated a tired mantra. “All better… All better… All better…”

It had to have been hours since they escaped. Not all of it went as fast as the downhill runs or even their initial pumping. A lot of times they had to pump uphill, which was enough to slow even Pinkie down. That in itself was surprising. She didn’t seem to tire for a minute during the entire trek. During that time, whenever Rarity hadn’t been nervously checking for monsters behind them or clinging to the cart, she had been keeping her hands on her trying the same trick as before. There was no telling how effective it was being, however. Dash didn’t move once.

“Oh, look!”

Rarity paused in her healing at Pinkie calling. She pointed to the ceiling as she easily pumped with one hand. There was another break in it just like earlier, but now it was letting in faint gray light.

“The sun’s come up. Thank goodness…”

“Oh, and look at that!”

Rarity looked at the tracks as Pinkie pointed ahead. A sign was coming up fast. It was hard to make it out due to lack of lighting, but there was just enough of a glow to make out a warning that the track aborted in one mile.

She sighed in relief. “Let’s hope it comes out close to a city.” She looked back down at Dash, who still wasn’t moving. However, she didn’t seem to be sore or in pain like earlier. With that in mind, she tentatively reached out and put her hand on her shoulder.

“Dash…are you awake?”

“Yeah.”

Rarity was a bit surprised at the ready response. It didn’t sound groggy or slow at all, meaning she had been awake for some time. However, it was also rather monotone and unenthused.

“Oh, that’s…that’s good. How are you feeling?”

“Like crud.”

Rarity grimaced again. The way she said it, she didn’t think she was referring to her physical condition. “Well, we’re less than a mile from the end of the track. We made it. After everything that happened, we’re nearly at the end.”

She didn’t answer. Rarity kept looking uneasy but turned her head forward again.

It didn’t take much longer before the same gray light appeared at the end of the tracks around a bend. It was the mine exit. At last, they passed out of it. Rarity expected a welcome feeling of fresh air and light. Instead, she got a gray haze as they ran right into a foul-smelling fog, and in moments she was wrinkling her nose before coughing and hacking.

“Ugh,” she nearly retched again as she nearly covered her mouth, “what is this ghastly stench? I’ve seen less fumes from the pipe of a coal stove!”

“Oh, look Rarity!” Pinkie cheered again. “They’re congratulating us for making it out of the mines by putting a big sign on the track!” She looked closer. “Huh…kind of looks like a big red X and a lot of logs.”

“Wh-what?!” Alarmed, she looked ahead. Coming out of the gloom was a large reinforced palisade barrier. One they were running into at full speed.

Quickly she reached out, eschewing her lady-like traits for a change, and seized the brake; pulling it back with all of her might. A loud squeal followed by a shower of iron sparks erupted from the front of the cart; so powerfully even Dash looked up idly. Pinkie, seeming to take this for another joke, stopped pumping, giggled, and tried to scream out loudly along with the brake squeal. It was rather tight, but the car’s natural inertia plus the brake slowed it down quickly, and they managed to grind to a halt a mere eight feet from collision.

Rarity nervously exhaled before slumping on the cart. It took her a moment to recover. As for Pinkie Pie, she hopped right off. “Whee! That was fun! I hope there’s another dangerous, rickety, old push cart between here and Manehattan!”

The designer glanced to her and, to her surprise, noticed something. In spite of the fact that she had operated the push cart all by herself for hours, she was back to her former clothing. She puzzled for a moment over how that had happened before letting it slide and slowly inching herself off the cart as well. She grasped her lower back at how stiff it was, before she took a look at their surroundings.

It seemed they were up high on a mountainside, right on a level patch where a tunnel terminated. Perhaps it had been intended to eventually connect all the way down the mountain but construction had halted with the Lunar Fall. At any rate, the old switchback trail that would have led workers up to it was still there, although it didn’t go too far down the mountain before it vanished into a large amount of industrial smog. Far below them, like the surface of a foggy lake, Rarity could just make out the layout of a large, dirty city. Old smokestacks were everywhere pumping coal fumes, and the distant sound of large engines churning echoed up from it. Perhaps not the best-looking city in the world, but a city none the less.

“Alright…first things first. We need to get out of Griffonstone and into Fillydelphia. Then we immediately find a telegram and wire to Manehattan about the contract, and then we get there as fast as we can.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she heard Dash begin to laugh. Both she and Pinkie looked back to her, but she was still lying on top of the mine cart. Worse than that, the laugh was far from jovial or excited. It was empty and hollow with a wistful grin on her face.

“Um…Dash?”

Leaning her head back, she idly raised her hand and pointed. “Look.”

Rarity followed where she was pointing and noticed a sign mostly obscured by the surrounding fog. She hadn’t noticed it at first, but on taking a step closer she was able to make out the lettering on it.

It was mostly covered with graffiti insulting the town below, but she could just make out in bold lettering its actual name: Grifftham City.

Rarity’s pupils began to shrink. “Griff…Griff…Grifftham…”

“Yup, that’s right,” Dash said with completely mock enthusiasm. “We took the wrong track. Even straight as the crow flies, we’re a good 120 kilometers out of the way. Even if we could pump that cart back the way we came and didn’t run into a mountain worth of Nighttouched, it’d take a whole day to get to the city we needed to be in. And guess what? There’s no telegrams to Manehattan from here.”

Rarity stood as if she had just had a stroke. She stared blankly at that sign like it was a criminal sentence. A very cold feeling sank into her stomach. For several moments, she was silent as a corpse. Dash alone rolled over onto her stomach but did no more. Their somber moods were enough to even get Pinkie to stop bouncing. Her happiness turned to concern.

“Um…are you two ok?”

Rarity’s head fell to her chest, staring at the remains of her borrowed shoes and the dirt. “We…we can’t make it. After everything…everything we’ve been through…everything that tried to kill us…we can’t make it. This…this was all…all for…”

In spite of her exhaustion, she felt her eyes beginning to mist up. It wasn’t one of her more dramatic moments either. She no longer had the strength for that. Thinking of everything that had happened to get that far, only for it all to fail, only left her with the bitterest of tears.

Dash let out a tired humph. “Yup…” she muttered. “Now you see why the great ‘Sonic Rainboom’ isn’t good for anything except littering bars…”

In spite of her own state, Rarity looked up to Dash along with Pinkie.

“The big Wonderbolt…letting someone down again. Seems to be all she’s good for ever since Cloudsdale. Gets by on her glory days of when she was a somebody instead of a lazy has-been. Talks big about how she’s going to bail out all the people who gave her booze and a roof over her head when she never has two bits to rub together. Sells herself as the best of the best and this is what happens.”

She slumped.

“Not only did I not get you back to Manehattan, I didn’t get you back with that contract. Now you’re broke, your business is sunk, and your employees are going to be livin’ out of trash cans and old cider just like me pretty soon. I’m supposed to be protecting you and your teacher ends up biting the big one bailing me out. And now? Now one of the last friends I had in Cloudsdale is probably having her skull gnawed on by an oversized rat and I couldn’t do anything about it except get smacked down by a guy wearing an antique. If that wasn’t enough…”

She jabbed a thumb behind her at the tunnel.

“Any minute now we’re going to start hearing those things we got away from either tramping over this mountain or rolling down that tunnel, so I couldn’t even keep you safe, let alone anyone else.” She let her hand fall. “Some hero, huh? At least you don’t have to pay me my fee now. That means you got your money’s worth…”

Rarity didn’t answer. She didn’t like the sound of what Dash was saying, but she had no encouragement to give. She was too mired in her own failure to lift the rainbow-haired woman out of hers. She turned back to the dark city. Nothing but grayness, bleakness, and disuse. Not a single light or shining spot visible in any of it. After everything they had gone through and who had helped them get this far, this was the end of it.

She reached into her pocket and slowly pulled out the wrinkled, sweat-stained, dirty, near rag that was the contract. They had given everything they had to get it back to Manehattan, and now it was worthless. In another moment, she would have crumpled it up and flung it over the side of the mountain.

“Aw…”

Pinkie’s voice caused her to look away. Dash didn’t glance up, but it was impossible for her not to hear her. The pink-haired woman was bouncing again around before both of them, looking energetic again.

“Cheer up, you two! Things aren’t as bad as they seem!”

Dash let out a bitter snort.

“I’m afraid I share Ms. Dash’s sentiments…” Rarity dully responded. “This is it. Things couldn’t possibly be any worse.”

“Oh, sure they could!” she happily answered, immediately zooming to her side. “You’re both still here, aren’t you? You’re both still walking and talking! And this wasn’t all for nothing, silly! You got two big somethings out of it! You both got two new friends!”

This was puzzling enough for Dash to turn her head to Pinkie, although Rarity looked quite confused as well. “Ex…excuse me? Who are you talking about?”

She giggled. “You and Rainbow Dash are friends now, aren’t you?”

The two glanced to one another, blinked a few times, then looked back. “Well, I’m not sure I would go so far as to say that…”

“Yeah…” Dash added uneasily. “I mean, look at her… She’s all prissy and proper… Although I admit she comes in handy in a fight every now and then.”

“And she’s completely rough around the edges, but…” She shrugged. “I do find a sort of charm to her energy and bravery, I will admit. And I’m grateful that if I was paired with a Huntsman that it would be one who knew firsthand about…well, this.” She held up her symbol.

Dash smirked. “And if I was going to stuck with some sheltered Manehattanite, it’s nice to be one who thinks about someone else over her own pocket. You must be someone special if a woman who hadn’t seen you in years was willing to do that for you in Flaxonville.”

“Oh ho…I wouldn’t say that. Not in the least…” Rarity answered with a bit of a nervous exhale, before looking back. “Yet after seeing how much of a scoundrel a mercenary from Griffonstone can be firsthand, you can’t be that much of a disappointment if Gilda did that for you in the mines.”

Now it was Dash’s turn to hold her head down nervously, but she raised it again soon after. “Wait…who’s the other friend?”

Pinkie giggled. “Why me, silly!”

“Uh…we just met you yesterday.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t be friends right away! Maud always told me that the way of a Gaitian is to be kind to everybody, and to me that means make friends with everyone I can! And seeing how much you two help each other out makes me want to be your friend too! It’d be great to have two people who care so much about their own friends being my friends!”

Rarity and Dash were speechless, and both failed to realize their moods had brightened up considerably.

“And you kno-ow…” Pinkie half sang, folding her hands behind her and leaning in close. “If you really, reeeally, reeeeeeeally want to help a bunch of people,” She pointed down at the city below. “I’m sure there’s tons of people down there who could really use someone telling them that there’s a whole mountain full of monsters coming this way. ‘Cause seriously? I don’t think they can see anything in this smog.”

Both realized that for the first time. They glanced back to the mine entrance. It was still quiet for now, but neither of them doubted what Dash had said. Any moment they’d start hearing the echo of the Nighttouched. And in the foggy surroundings it didn’t matter that day had broken. They looked back to one another afterward. For a few moments, they stared quietly.

“I will admit, I’ve never really pictured myself as being big on heroics.”

“Same here…uh, unless there’s a paycheck involved.”

Rarity paused. She looked at her symbol.

“Just the same…these things are quite powerful.”

“Yeah…”

“And this way, the trip wouldn’t have been in vain after all.”

“I’ll admit…it’d feel nice to save the day again for once.”

Another pause, but both looked up a bit more. Their faces were more energized and even optimistic.

Dash smirked. “Y’know, you do this, you’re gonna get awful dirty.”

“Oh, pish-posh,” she smiled back with a hand wave. “I’m already quite dirty. Besides, knowing that I made sure Ms. Cheerilee’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain, doing something for Gilda’s home country, and even not letting that generous man’s tickets go to waste is worth a little soot.”

Pinkie grinned from ear-to-ear. “Does this mean we’re gonna make our first official friendship get-together be the 1^st Annual Friendship Saving of a Major Metropolitan Area from an Army of Darkness, hmm?”

Dash and Rarity looked at each other and smiled a little wider. Dash sat up, hopped off the cart, and began to rotate her cuffs. Rarity smiled back at Pinkie. “I suppose it does.”

“Yay! Aw…I should’ve brought a batch of my special surprise Annual Friendship Saving of a Major Metropolitan Area from an Army of Darkness cookies!” She snickered before lowering her voice. “The surprise is I haven’t invented them yet!”

Dash snickered once, then motioned her head along to the trail. “Alright, we aren’t going to save this city sitting around here. Come on. We gotta move.”

She immediately took the lead. Rarity took off after her, picking up the pace as Dash went into a jog. Pinkie Pie cheered and began to skip happily after them. In moments all three were running down the dirt and gravel trail to begin the long descent down the mountain.

“Alright then. Now that we’ve decided we’re going to save Grifftham City, I would love to know how we plan to do that.”

Dash turned her head over her shoulder to face Rarity. “First things first. We got to let everyone know trouble’s coming. Then the people can start getting out and the army can get ready to fight back.”

“Smashing, but…how do we do that?”

“Heh, that’s the easy part. Look.”

They rounded the first hairpin turn at that moment, and Dash pointed ahead through the fog and gloom while still looking behind her. Rarity had to look for a moment, but as they got nearer she gradually began to see a metal spire emerging from the smog. It looked as if it had some sort of megaphones mounted on top of it.

“Bingo. Maybe coming out this far from the city wasn’t such a bad thing. That there’s an alarm station. It’s supposed to sound whenever there’s a Nighttouched threat, and all the other stations around the city will sound out too and spread it everywhere. We’ll set it off for starters.”

Rarity thought for a moment. “That’s all well and good, but wouldn’t there be someone from their military already stationed there?”

Dash snickered. “You don’t know how things work in Griffonstone, do you? They never do anything they think they don’t need. Since all the Nighttouched attacks are north of here, there won’t be a soul at this station. Good thing we’re here though, right?”

“I suppose so, but if no one is monitoring this station, who in the world are they?”

“Huh?”

Dash looked back and, sure enough, at this point there were multiple man-sized shadows all up and down the road up ahead. Rarity could only make out the silhouettes herself. The Huntsman, on the other hand, could see more clearly.

As a result, she halted in her tracks. “Get off the road! Now!”

“What did-”

An eruption of gunfire went off, only it wasn’t conventional bullets. To Rarity’s shock and horror, she saw jets of fire, ice, and lightning crack through the fog and stream toward them. It was only because Dash snapped around, seized her by the wrist, and dragged her aside that she wasn’t hit by it. Even so, they were stuck on a mountain switchback path with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. To their left was only a cliff drop off to the next tier, while to their right was the rock wall. Opting for the latter, Dash yanked Rarity over to it as the magical gunfire continued to shoot at them. Part of the cliff bulged out just enough for an outcropping, and she quickly shoved Rarity behind it before she followed. Pinkie bounced after them, and all three inched away from the edge as several other lightning blasts ripped pieces of rock away from it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen bullets like those…” she mused.

“Those Trottingham creeps who shot up Flaxonville!” Dash sneered.

“How in Greater Everfree are they here, though?” Rarity cried.

“That jerk in the armor must have tipped them off that we were heading into the mountains! They just waited for us at the exits! Or maybe he even led them here! He said he could track you though that thing on your leg, right?”

Rarity groaned. “This is why I think tattoos are horrid…”

The gunfire cut off. The three were silent and still. They heard the sounds of movement and reloading, but no footsteps. Dash moistened her lips and pressed herself to the side of the cliff, inching toward the edge as near as she dared, before turning back to Rarity. “Got a mirror?”

“More or less,” she sighed as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a shard from a former compact.

“It’ll do,” she answered, plucking it from her hand and holding it up angled around the path.

“What do you see?”

“A dozen of them at least… I think two of them are the big guys from before.”

“What the-?!” a voice suddenly yelled from the unseen crowd. “You all didn’t hit one of them?!”

“Uh, but Snips, you said to shoot as soon as they saw somethin’, so they didn’t have time to aim.”

“Ugh! Snails, why didn’t you shoot?”

“I did. Mine doesn’t go that far.”

Dash frowned. “Ok, now I know the guys from Flaxonville are there. I can just make out the shack for the alarm behind ‘em.” She lowered the mirror and frowned. “They got a bead on us, so I don’t know how I can get out to beat ‘em all up.”

“I’m not sure we have time for that even if we can,” Rarity nervously answered. “At the moment, if the Nighttouched come they’ll either attack us here or cut us off. We need to get past them and trip that alarm then get away.”

“Alright. But that still leaves the question of how we’ll do that when they can shoot me as soon as I pop out. I’m still sore from buckethead in the mines. I don’t think even my symbol will let me do it.”

“Oh, oh! Pick me! I can do it!” Pinkie cheered.

Both women turned to her, looking a bit dubious. “I appreciate the volunteer, dear, but I don’t think you can outrun these kind of, um, bullets.”

She snickered. “Who need to outrun bullets when you only need to outrun trigger fingers?”

Both Rarity and Dash were perplexed by that, but Pinkie didn’t stick around any longer. She stuck her hand with her symbol into the air. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Sage Geologist—Maudileena Daisy Pie!”

Rarity and Dash both pressed themselves back in alarm at the eruption of the white aura, nervous about what it would mean to touch it. Again, the same visage of the woman formed before it spilled over Pinkie and turned her into the same roguish character as before. She giggled once, then darted right out from behind the rock wall into the open.

The guns began to fire off again almost immediately, causing Dash to snap back just as she was reaching out to try and stop her. Pinkie, however, went into a graceful cartwheel and easily slipped past it completely. She giggled again as they changed their aim and fired once more, but easily spun around the first few shots before somersaulting forward to avoid the others. She actually sang a little song as she got up and gracefully began to “serpentine hop” toward the crowd.

With her drawing their fire, Rarity and Dash looked out in astonishment to see her easily weaving around the deadly attacks blasting holes and craters all along the mountain path, but not so much as putting a speck of dirt on her.

“Sheesh, how is she even doing that?”

Rarity was about to stammer that she didn’t know, when she paused and cupped her hand to her chin. She remembered what Pinkie had said back in the cavern…

Before she could voice it, Pinkie, still giggling and laughing, nearly reached the front line and was still dodging even at point blank range. At last, the attackers ran out of ammunition and, to their visible frustration, they frantically tried to reload while they could. She kept bouncing a bit closer, before a loud squish went out. At once, her nimble flipping and hopping slowed to a crawl.

Dash was puzzled before she looked down to the ground. It was hard to make it out from here, but a trail of whitish goop was streamed along it. At once, she remembered the one called Snails saying he had fired, but that it hadn’t gone far. “Oh no…”

“Aw…!” Pinkie frowned, almost pouting at how her body was now moving in slow motion. She tried to begin another move, but it was like her body was passing through molasses. The agility she had before was gone. Seconds later, the soldiers had reloaded. They took aim and Rarity cupped her hands to her mouth on the thought it was over.

Before any could shoot, a squat shadow among them yelled. “Stop!”

The soldiers held their fire, although their guns remained aimed. A pair of swishing sounds rang out as the shadow deployed his blades from either hand, confirming him to be Snips. He advanced on Pinkie, still in a mid-air skip, and held his weapons to either side of her neck.

“Alright you two!” he shouted. “Get out here right now or I’m taking her head off her shoulders!”

“You idiot!” Dash yelled back. “You’re going to kill us all anyway!”

“She’s got a point, Snips.”

“Shut up, Snails!” His voice got an edge on it. “Alright, have it your way if you want. You can either try to go out like a hero and save your friend, or you can just stay back there like a big chicken and let her croak without a fight. You got thirty seconds to pick. Start countin’, Snails!”

“Uh, hang on. It’s hard to get my pocketwatch out in this.”

“Just count!”

“Ok. 1, 2, 3…”

“I meant count down from 30!”

“Oh, ok. 30, 31, 32…”

“I said down!”

“Oh, ok. 30…” A pause. “Uh, what comes next?”

“Gah! Someone else count!”

A sigh from a soldier. “30, 29, 28…”

Rarity and Dash both pulled back in and looked at each other nervously. “We can’t just sit here and let her be decapitated!”

“Yeah, but those soldiers will be waiting for us! And even I can’t go fast enough to dodge them all!”

“And I certainly can’t do anything.” She began to fish around in her pockets. “I’m not sure I even have a reasonably pointy object to throw at them at this point…” A moment later, she yanked her hands back out, revealing only a clothing pin in between two fingers. She slumped. “I don’t think hemming their trousers is going to help very much.”

“20, 19, 28…”

“Great…” Dash groaned as she rubbed her nasal bridge. “Normally I can’t stand using this power, and the one time I need it it’s not enough…”

“Wait… That’s just what I was thinking about. Remember what Pinkie Pie said?”

“Huh?”

“She said we weren’t using our symbols correctly…or something to that effect. I think you have to say something like what she was saying.”

Dash crooked her eyebrow. “You kidding? You actually want to take her advice on something?”

“It’s not like we have many other options, right?”

“12, 11, 10…”

Hearing the count getting dangerously close, Dash winced, and finally sighed. “Alright, alright… Couldn’t hurt. I’m going to have to make a run for it either way.”

Rarity looked a bit concerned. “Um…I don’t suppose you know what title she had, do you?”

Dash wistfully smirked. “Sure do. There was only one title for her.” She took a deep breath as she held up her symbol. “Here it goes.”

Steeling herself, she turned her head skyward as the count reached six.

“Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Leader of the Wonderbolts—Captain Spitfire!”

Dash’s own eyes bulged in shock along with Rarity’s as the symbol resonated, and her body began to emanate light just as Pinkie’s had. It wasn’t the white color, however, but blue this time. And as the light streaked forth to create a visage over her head, it wasn’t of the woman from before either.

Instead, both Rarity and Dash saw a woman who had a more youthful energy in her eye, but also a ferocity and boldness to her features. A wry smirk was on her face, as if she was inviting or even daring danger to come for her. Her wild hair was cut in such a way that even swept back it looked like a flame trailing.

And for a moment, Dash’s mouth hung open at seeing her.

“Spitfire…”

The visage and light broke and swept over her. Her already loose clothing mostly vanished, leaving her only with a light vest, a collared necklace of beads, and loose pants with a sash. Her socks and boots were gone, leaving her only with bare feet, and only a few bands of cloth acting as bracers along her arms were left behind. Her own wild rainbow-colored hair was tied back by a much simpler bandanna than Pinkie’s, being only a strip of cloth. Her muscles, however, which had already been powerful enough, instantly tightened, toned, and solidified even more strongly. While her overall frame remained the same, in moments she looked like she was made practically of marble.

The glow dimmed to a faint aura and Dash looked over herself in amazement. Rarity was likewise awed; definitely not expecting that.

“Good heavens…” she breathed. “I don’t suppose…you feel strong enough to possibly make the run, do you?”

In a snap, Dash looked up at Rarity with a smug grin.

“Just watch.”

“3, 2-”

Dash spun around, and Rarity let out a gasp for she was instantly gone. She saw only the faint sign of a blur before she was left staring at open air. A second later, the one counting stopped doing so to the tune of the sound of air rushing out of their lungs. Alarmed, Rarity went back to the side and looked.

She was awed on seeing how fast Dash had moved; having already stopped and poised right in front of the soldier who had been counting. The soldier herself was completely bent around her fist, her tongue hanging out and nearly looking as if the Huntsman not only knocked the wind out of her but almost everything else with it. And that was with the same protection measures they had been using back in Flaxonville.

Her speed had left the group too stunned to even fire. As for Dash, she had never grinned so wide before.

“Now this is awesome!”

With a move so fast it cut the air, she swung her foot up behind her. The end of another soldier’s gun barrel was hit hard enough to spin skyward, and she followed up by snapping around and driving her foot into her head. Her helmet was shattered from the impact and, once again, the device she was using for protection was no help as she snapped backward and dropped to the ground.

With Dash in their midst, their larger and more errant weapons were no use, and so the nearest soldiers fumed as they dropped their guns to the ground and snapped their knives free as they had in Flaxonville. They advanced on her as soon as they were able, starting off with two from either side swinging for her head and her middle respectively. Still smirking, Dash planted her feet and snapped both of her arms out, one going high and the other going low. They ended up smacking against the flat of the swinging blades and blocking both.

The soldiers quickly repositioned as another one leapt at her with a stabbing motion from behind, but moving just as quickly she changed her posture and, while blocking the two of them again, bent forward and let the third knife sail over her head. A fourth one jumped in for the next slice, leaving her fully surrounded, but she merely twisted her body around, balanced up on one leg, and dodged one before letting her three limbs deflect all the others.

“Heh, here! Have a free hit on me!” she called. As the soldiers leaned back to rush forward and stab again, she lowered her leg and planted her feet, flexed her arms, and stayed right in that position. The knives all darted inward for her exposed skin and muscles…

Only to glance off of her body as if she herself was iron.

The Trottingham soldiers recoiled in shock. Other than leave a few scratches on her skin, she had taken the blows. Glancing back to their knives, they were surprised to see two of them had actually dulled.

Dash herself snickered once more before she dove for one and drove two of her fingers into an underarm pressure point. The soldier cried out, spasmed, and let her knife fall uselessly to the ground as her arm went limp. She snapped around and jabbed another in the face, then used the moment he was stunned to wrap her arm around his neck, bend him over, and bring her foot up and around from behind to smash into the top of his head. He dropped to the ground uselessly a moment after. The third tried to stab for her eyes, but he barely made it half way before her arms reached out, clapped along his arm and wrist to snap the knife free, then drove in for another hit to his own underarm to immobilize him from a pressure point strike. She followed up with a more solid blow to his head to drop him. The final one tried to drive her knife into her side from the back, only for Dash to whip out her arm, snare her, and then drop and sweep kick her legs while simultaneously twisting her arm behind her back. With a sharp cry, she not only fell to the ground but was left lying on it face first with the Hunstman pinning her. One more sharp blow to the neck put her down as well.

“Hey Rarity!” Dash yelled as she stood up, seeing Snips, now furious, advancing on her with his humming blades. “Hurry up and get Pinkie and then sound the alarm!”

Rarity had been so in awe of Dash’s enhanced ability she had almost forgotten about that. “Oh…oh yes, of course!” She nearly stepped out right then and there.

However, she paused before going too far. She looked back at herself, thought a moment, and then shrugged as she held up her own hand.

“Member of my house, I command you to come to me!”

She paused, and her face began to look uncertain.

“Um…Wonderful Teacher—Daisy Cheerilee!”

While the aura did light up around her again, Rarity was dismayed to see it was the same as last time. She winced.

“Er…uh… Member of my house, I command you to come to me!” She swished her mouth. “Let’s see… Great Instructor—Daisy Cheerilee!”

This time, no change at all. Her faint aura remained the same.

“Leader of the Classroom—Daisy Cheerilee!”

Still nothing.

“Mistress of the Chalkboard—Daisy Cheerilee!”

Again nothing. She opened her mouth to try again.

“Rarity!” Dash’s voice yelled. “Quit wasting time and get over here!”

She groaned and sighed. “Coming, coming…” she muttered as she ran around the edge.

At this point, Snips gave his own war cry and advanced on Dash. Much as he had last time, his squat appearance and seemingly limited intelligence belayed a competent blade user. However, Dash looked sharper and stronger than before too. She easily evaded the first two swipes, and it wasn’t until he advanced and cut for her middle that she was forced to step back. She raised her arms to block the next blows but, on seeing how the blades were humming, ended up lowering them and backpedaling for the next strike.

“Ha!” he mocked. “You may got fancy feet and tough skin, but not only do my blades cut anything, you ain’t gonna get anywhere near me when I got a long reach and you just got your-OW!”

The armored soldier suddenly snapped back and hopped up and down on one foot painfully; the end result of Dash darting in and dropping her heel on his boot. Despite being armored, his sabaton was now dented where she landed.

“Heh, don’t need to when you keep leaving yourself open like that.”

Snips fumed, before furiously swiping his blades again. Dash backstepped to avoid the first swipe, then backstepped for the second, but by now her opponent was attacking out of anger. He overextended himself, and she used the moment to dart in and give him a blow to the side and to the helmet. In spite of his armored protection and how light the hits were, he still spasmed in visible pain from both. He yelled again and swung back out for her, but by then she was snapping back already. Angrily, he swiped out vertical slices next, but she merely sidestepped while pivoting backward for each one. As soon as he got into a rhythm, she waited for a key moment then stepped forward and gave him a smack in the nose.

His head snapped, forcing him to take a step back that time, before lowering it again with a fresh yell. However, he hesitated at that point. A second later, he advanced in a stabbing motion, and Dash quickly backstepped to evade it.

Yet she didn’t stop there. She had noticed the hesitation even with his face covered, and responded. She kept backing up even more, before she snapped around and drove her fist straight out…and into the face of Snails.

“Eh?” he managed to get out, right before her palm knocked his helmet partially off of his head. Both of his arms had been aimed to fire his paste again, but now he not only found himself jarred backward but blinded by the mid part of his helmet going over his eyes. He staggered and reached for it blindly. “Darnit, this helmet’s still a size too big, Snips!”

Snips fumed yet again, but this time he wasn’t alone on his attack. The remaining four soldiers had discarded their weapons and were advancing with their own knives.

At the same time, Rarity continued to puzzle over the right name, muttering to herself, as she dashed over to Pinkie. She had landed on the ground again, but had immediately begun to hop once more and was currently still stuck in midair. As she approached, she grinned at her. “Hey Rarity! Check this stuff out! It makes everything super slow! Any way we can save some for later? This would be really great for picking fruit from really tall trees or washing windows, or making sure you don’t hurt yourself if you fall off a really tall building…”

The designer merely sighed on reaching her, looking dismally at her own dress. “I suppose I was going to cut this into rags anyway…” she moaned as she tore off a strip. She went up to Pinkie’s foot and used it to wipe the material clear. As soon as it was gone, Pinkie immediately descended to the ground at normal speed, landing a bit awkwardly and wobbling.

“Wh-whoa!” she quickly waved her arms out and stopped herself. She turned to Rarity with a smile. “Tee-hee! Watch that first step! It’s a doozy!”

“Um, yes…quite. Now let’s get go…”

She trailed off. Two of the soldiers hadn’t pressed their attack on Rainbow Dash. Instead, they were now advancing on the two of them with their knives at the ready.

As Pinkie looked to them as well, Rarity swallowed. “Um…er…Masterful Scholar? Elementary Professor? Teacher of Children?” She frowned. “That last one wasn’t even that clever…”

The nearest one went for Pinkie, stabbing out for her middle. She didn’t look too worried. Still smiling, she promptly began to dodge and sidestep the knife without even needing to step backward. The other one, however, dove at Rarity soon afterward.

Cringing and shrieking, she did the only thing she could do and backed up. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, her heel caught when she did, causing her to spill backward onto the ground but also letting the thrust of the knife sail over her head. Now on her back with the soldier looming over her, she did the only thing she could think of and frantically kicked out for him for all she was worth to try and keep him at bay.

The blows struck at his limbs, but with whatever device he was using protecting him all they really served to do was tangle him up momentarily. He struggled to bat her legs down long enough to get in a stab.

As for Pinkie, she dodged the latest knife swipe from the soldier only to shoot forward and move past him. He spun around to her, but when he did he saw her holding up a belt and giggling as she waved it to and fro. “Look what I found!”

The soldier was surprised a moment, before the weight of his utilities suddenly yanked his pants down. He looked at it in alarm and struggled to move, but his legs got caught and he ended up stumbling and staggering. Just as Rarity’s soldier finally managed to get her legs down and readied to stab, Pinkie’s lost his balance and fell right into him. He cried out as both were bowled over.

Rarity quickly swallowed and began to step to her feet. Pinkie went ahead and bounded forward, before looking back and beckoning her on. “Come on, Rarity! The way’s clear now!”

The designer finished getting to her feet, huffing once, before quickly running past the two soldiers as they struggled to untangle themselves. She cast a glance at them quickly to make sure that neither of them were going to be following soon, then turned back to Pinkie as she turned about and began to skip to the shack.

She was just in time to see one of the soldiers Rainbow Dash had knocked to the ground but not fully out suddenly spring up, brandish her own firearm with her knife attached to the nozzle like a bayonet, and drive it right into Pinkie’s midsection.

Rarity froze on the spot and gasped in horror. From the angle she was standing, Pinkie’s back was to her and obscured her view of the attacking soldier. Yet there was no way she could have avoided it. She saw the knife flash on the end of the weapon, she saw it thrust true, and she even saw Pinkie halt and back up a little. It had to have hit.

And yet, Pinkie didn’t move after halting. She simply stood there silently and motionlessly. For a moment, Rarity thought the realization of what just happened was settling in on her.

Then, most suddenly, she looked up to the soldier still driving her weapon forward and giggled.

“Excuse me? I think you forgot this!”

She held up one hand. To Rarity’s shock as well as the soldier’s, she was holding the knife-turned-bayonet. She let it fall to the ground casually soon after before raising her other hand. That one held an ammunition cell for one of their weapons.

“And this!”

She let it fall as she reached down and popped back up with a trigger mechanism.

“And this!”

She let that fall as her other hand went back and came out with bolts for fastening a barrel down.

“And this!”

She soon was popping her hands down and pulling out more gun pieces, as well as straps, buttons, fasteners, and ammunition of all kinds. “And this! And this! And this! And this! And this! And this! And this! And this! And this!”

The soldier was still stunned at her initial recovery, but now looked around in utter bafflement as her gun suddenly fell apart in her hands before her armor, metal harness, and even uniform fell off afterward…leaving her crouched on the ground in nothing but her underwear. She could only gape, clearly not knowing whether to be aghast or embarrassed, and clutch for her own military brassiere as Pinkie giggled and skipped right by.

Rarity kept staring in bafflement, knowing what she saw just then. Even with her angle, she found it almost impossible to believe that knife hadn’t gone in… However, the fact the other soldiers behind her were still rising snapped her out of it as she rushed after Pinkie. They both reached the shack together, Pinkie opened the door, and Rarity ran inside.

It was completely dark and there wasn’t even a window for visibility. The only light came from the glow of the open doorway, but old, rusted machinery arranged around the tower’s central pole was within along with an old chair and some rotten food tins. She frantically began to look around. “Switch, switch…there has to be a switch in here somewhere…”

She kept looking until she saw what looked like a box with cables on it that had a conspicuously large lever. Assuming that was it, she reached over and grasped it. She frowned on realizing that it was rusted tight, even with her added power. Nevertheless, she clutched it more tightly and struggled to bring it down.

A small jingle went through the shack as she started to pull; the sound of machinery shaking. She stopped where she was, not moving an inch. A moment passed where the only sound was the ongoing fighting outside. Then she heard another jingle, a bit stronger this time. She also felt a small tremor on the ground.

Her face paled. “Oh no…”

Dash continued to back away from Snips as he and his companions swung again at him, while only half of those Dash had knocked down were even moving, let alone trying to get up again. Yet just as Snails finished putting his helmet back by banging his own head against the rock cliff, the ground shook enough to dislodge a few pebbles. That caused both sides to slow. Another impact went off that dislodged a bit more.

Everyone stopped at that point. They looked to the sky.

Dim as it already was, it was growing darker.

Dash’s smile finally disappeared. “Oh crap…”

“Wh-what was that…?” Snips spoke up nervously.

“Uh, Snips?” Snails called out. “Ya’ think it might be that big Light Eater we saw on the way here?”

He didn’t answer. Another tremor went out, and this time they heard a creaking with it just on the mountaintop above them. It sounded like a tree being broken by twisting in half. At that point, they began to hear other things. Wings flapping. Scurrying. Claws and scratching echoing down the tunnel over their heads. Another tremor, this one much closer. The sky darkened further and one of the soldiers pointed.

“Look!”

Everyone who could see up the mountain did so. Through the smog and closing darkness, a very large shape was slowly rising. It got a bit closer with every tremor.

Rarity, not seeing any of this but hearing the group outside, snapped back to the handle. She clutched and pulled at it, but it still wouldn’t give. Gritting her teeth, she grasped it desperately with both hands and strained herself. The rust began to grind but still it held.

Another tremor went off as the shadow loomed larger. This time, smaller shadows became visible around it, and they quickly grew bigger. Soon after, they parted through the smog and revealed themselves to be massive droplets of inky blackness that gleamed like stars; scattering from the footsteps of the big one on impact. Most of them flew everywhere along the mountainside with the ever-growing noises of things around them. One of them, however, splattered on rock cliffs right next to them. It gave a horrible wet, squelching sound, and as it spread out it left that area of space as dark as night.

The rush of wings suddenly changed pitch, and on the tier above them a cloud of darkness erupted from the train tunnel—darkness with hundreds of yellow glowing eyes in it.

Dash whirled to the shack. “Rarity, we got to get out of here now!”

Snips and Snails alike seemed to forget about their quarry as they nervously started to backpedal. Most of the soldiers still standing with them turned and began to run. Only one or two brave ones held back to try and get their comrades to rise up. The light dimmed further as the massive shape lumbered closer and stepped again, not only making things darker but casting its own shadow over them.

Crying out, Rarity lifted herself up and put her whole weight on the switch. With one final groan, it snapped downward. Gears and springs went off within the machinery, and in moments the tower over her head rattled a few times before a siren slowly began to blare over her head in a single long note. Rarity gave it a brief smile of relief before turning and bolting.

As soon as she stepped outside, she was nearly knocked off of her feet as another tremor went out. The strongest yet. Nevertheless, as the Trottinghamites began to scatter, with those who were down but conscious trying to drag themselves for it, the two trying to drag two of the unconscious ones away, some of them running, and others panicking and freezing in the wake of the oncoming Nighttouched and giant monster, Dash rushed over to both her and Pinkie. Although both of them ran to meet her, she quickly reached out and seized them both by the hand and pulled them away from the shack. She glanced up several times as she yanked them toward the next switchback.

“We got to get off this mountain! Start running!”

Another tremor went off as the sounds of two more trees being snapped loose echoed. Dash looked skyward again and only paled even more. “Go! Move!”

She tugged both her and Pinkie along to get them started, and Rarity quickly increased her speed into a run, but as she did she looked up and back too. She gasped on seeing the starry droplets for the first time, once more being shed off of the monstrous shadow looming over them. One of them landed only a short distance ahead of them with a massive splatter, causing Dash to quickly force them to one side to get around it. The others, however, splattered all around the mountain, both up and down on the side.

All save one.

In the midst of the soldiers either frozen or scattering, Rarity spotted one of them suddenly snapping around and going into a full run. He wasn’t fast enough. With a whistling sound like a falling cannon shell, the droplet came down and struck him, splattering him and engulfing him.

He was immediately forced to the ground as the black tar-like material covered him from head to toe. Yet he didn’t stay there. Almost immediately, he snapped his body back up and began to scream. Rarity had never heard such a horrible scream in her life. Before Dash could yank her away, she caught one final glimpse of him.

In spite of the fog and darkness, she could have sworn she was seeing not only his armor and clothes melting off of him…but his skeleton seeming to push its way out of his skin…

As Dash forced heron and dragged her down and around the hairpin, even in the midst of the Nighttouched and the massive shadow, she heard one of the Trottingham soldiers call to her comrades.

“Kill him! Hurry!”

Rarity’s heart caught in her throat as the weapons thundered behind her. She nearly gagged, and if it wasn’t for Dash dragging her down the next tier of the mountain she would have frozen where she stood. Only when they were another hundred feet down, she looked back at her. “What…what happened to…to that…man?”

“Forget him,” Dash stated quickly as she kept yanking her on. “Nobody can help him now. I just hope they did kill him before he got too far for his sake and ours.”

Rarity had far too much on her mind already, and couldn’t afford anything else distracting her. She left it at that and forced herself not to give what happened back there another thought.

For the next several minutes, all the three did was run down the mountainside hoping that they were actually gaining distance on the monsters pouring down it. Rarity had the worst time of it, as both Dash and Pinkie seemed to now be able to at least ignore their hunger and exhaustion. Her own was barely dulled and Dash had to pull her along. It gave her the opportunity to look around though as they headed down the switchbacks. Looking up the mountain, she saw Nighttouched continuing to flow out of the tunnel until they finally went too low to see it any longer, but she kept seeing them popping out in patches of one, a few, or a couple dozen from other parts of the mountain.

The bulk of them, however, seemed to be heading down the slope directly across from the tunnel. That included the massive Light Eater. In doing so, it looked like they were going to miss going right through the center of the city along with the three of them, but they were still going to trample through most of it. At one point, she thought she heard the sound of an airship engine and assumed it was the Trottinghamites, but she didn’t really care so long as it meant they were staying away from them.

Suddenly, a long-legged shadowy creature, like a horrendous goat, trampled across the trail in front of them. Dash halted and stopped the other two as Rarity gasped. Two more soon joined it, but all three of them just kept going right across and down the mountain on the other side. As soon as they had left, Dash looked up to make sure the way was clear. As for Rarity, she looked around, and shrieked again on seeing a group of what looked like tailless rodents with incisors the size of her finger run behind them in much the same way.

“Relax, relax!” Dash quickly shouted, before pulling Rarity on again and getting Pinkie to skip after them.

“R-Relax?! We’re surrounded by Nighttouched!”

“Only a few of them! And it looks like they don’t even want us! They must see the lights down the mountain from the city!”

Rarity seriously had her doubts, especially with the smog, but as the three of them ran along and continued to see periodic Nighttouched rush past them, she couldn’t argue with it. Even as the sky grew darker they continued to only come sporadically as they ran down two more tiers, eventually seeming to stop all together. By now, the giant Light Eater was reaching the foot of the mountain, but was still heading slightly away from them. The shadow it left in its wake, however, didn’t move; making them all realizing this was a true surge. All the way down to the end of Griffonstone.

Finally, as they reached one of the last hairpin turns, Dash stopped for a moment and looked over the edge. Although she was completely out of breath and rather dizzy, Rarity couldn’t help but call out as Pinkie bounced next to her. “Why…are we…stopping?”

“Trying to see what we’re getting into. Look down there.”

Rarity glanced that way. In spite of the closing darkness of the giant Light Eater, they were now close enough to the foot of the mountain themselves to get a much better look at Grifftham City extending beneath them. They could see tiny shadows running off the mountain and flowing into it on the edges and scattering through the streets. Just faintly, Rarity could hear the sounds of screams below, before they were answered with sounds of gunfire. For a few moments, she could make out the nice, ordered lines of gaslights up and down the streets. However, they rapidly began to get snuffed out, leaving the city behind in darkness.

“Merciful heavens. Are those monsters doing that?”

Dash shook her head. “They aren’t moving that fast. They must be shutting off the gas lines. Leaving the place dark so nothing attracts them. Now their own army is moving in. They gotta keep these things back until the people get out.”

Rarity looked to her nervously. “And…can they?”

Dash winced. “I…think so… They’re all going to run for the gunfire if it’s the only light out there. So long as they can draw them in one big bottleneck, they can keep them pinned in one spot…at least until that big thing or any smaller Light Eaters get there. Just need to lead them to a wide street or something…”

“Oh, oh!” Pinkie piped up, pointing out to the cityscape. “Will that big bridge do?”

“Huh?” Dash looked that way. Far along on the edge of the city, where lights were still it, they could make out a canal that went from one end to the other; nearly splitting the city in half. Only one large bridge served as a crossing point from what they could see. She shook her head. “Nah, not that one. They got to keep that open if they’re going to evacuate this half of the city.”

“Aw, that’s too bad,” Pinkie frowned, before gesturing below. “‘Cause a bunch of Nighttouched are already headed that way.”

“Wait, what?”

Both Dash and Rarity looked. About a quarter of a mile to the right of them, there was a cavern in the side of the mountain that looked like a natural spillway. It drained down a broken-down passage into the canal itself. At the moment, a flood of Nighttouched of all shapes and sizes were running out of it like they were living water. As a mass of them gathered, they began to rush down the canal and inevitably in the direction of the bridge.

Rarity cupped a hand to her chin. “Oh dear…”

“Great… Without any light to distract them, they’re just going to go blindly in the path of least resistance. It’s going to take them right to that bridge and into everyone going across it!”

“Really?” Pinkie chimed in, looking over their shoulders for a moment, before looking back at them and grinning. “Ok then! We know what step two of saving Grifftham City is now! Stop them from reaching that bridge!”

Dash and Rarity looked back at Pinkie, then back to each other.

“I…don’t suppose you have any ideas?”

“Maybe… Come on!”

She took off into a run again. Rarity had scarcely finished catching her breath, but sighed and began to run after her. Pinkie cheered before bouncing along after them.

To be continued...