Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Nightwatch: A Controlled Flame

Sunset swallowed a little when the door closed, especially when the seam that represented the frame vanished along with it. She and the headmistress were now shut up in the circular room. Although it had windows all around (which was puzzling enough considering the fact she knew one side of it opened up into a hallway a moment earlier) and the sun was shining brightly, and the room was mostly just open space, she continued to look nervous and even a bit fearful.

Celestia walked away from the door and to her side, still smiling kindly. “Alright Sunset. Are you ready for your first magic lesson?”

Sunset wasn’t sure whether to nod or shake her head. She felt a mixture of both sensations right now.

“Don’t be scared. We won’t be doing anything dangerous, even if it might look just that way. Now, normally I would start beginner students with something simple like shaping clay or making some wind, but I’m wanting to jump ahead to something a bit more advanced with you.”

That alone made Sunset swallow.

“Just to measure your potential. Don’t worry. This is mostly for assessment, and I’m accounting for the fact that this is your first time. Just the same, you should remember the rules that you can’t perform magic outside of classrooms. No exceptions to that rule for beginner students. Do you understand?”

She nodded back.

“Alright. Today I’m going to teach you how to make a small fireball.”

“F-F-Fire…?” The nervousness on her voice had doubled. “I…I don’t do too well with fire…”

“And that’s why I want you to learn that spell first. So you can learn not to be afraid of it.”

“But…but can’t I already make fire?”

Celestia knelt down, putting herself at eye level with the child. “Yes, you can. That’s the side effect of your abilities. For people like you and me, we both have a large amount of a special power moving through us that we call ‘mana’.”

Her nervousness easing in light of curiosity, the girl turned her head. “What’s mana?”

“Hmm, it’s a bit hard to explain. The best way to think about it is air.”

“Air?”

Celestia nodded. She gestured around herself. “All around us is air. Air is full of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen…but for simplicity’s sake, we can think of it all as air. Now look up and around you. Feel it for a moment.”

Sunset was puzzled, but she looked up and began to glance around. After a few moments, she looked confused at what she was supposed to be feeling.

“Feel anything?”

She shook her head. “No… Am I supposed to?”

Celestia shook her head back. “No. Now, I’m going to wave my hand alongside your head while humming. Listen carefully.”

At that, the headmistress began to hum. She reached up and waved her hand right next to Sunset’s left ear as she did. She waved several times before lowering it again.

“Now, what can you tell me?”

Sunset thought for a moment. She nearly opened her mouth to say “nothing”, but on pondering a little longer she answered differently. “The sound of your voice…it changed a bit when your hand passed by my ear.”

“Right. Think of it that way. If all of the air in this room is mana, then what I just did could be the same as your small fires. Normally, your mana just acts like air. It doesn’t do anything and doesn’t change anything. Occasionally, however, just by doing something small yourself, like a certain gesture, feeling, or even a really strong thought or memory, you can make it do just a small thing. On the other hand…”

She took a deep breath, leaned in close, and made a “pst-pst” sound in Sunset’s ear. Giggling at how it tickled, she smiled even as she covered her ear up.

“A spell does several things. First, it allows you to channel your mana more effectively. That would be me taking in a deep breath. Second, it allows you to release it in a controlled, concrete manner. That would be when I blew it out. Third, it accomplishes a purpose that you have for it.” She smirked again. “In this case, giving you a bit of a tickle.”

Shifting herself, she began to go over to Sunset’s side. Realizing it was time for the lesson, she quickly straightened again. Soon both of them were looking forward across the empty room. “Now, for a spell, just like there are three purposes to magic there are three components. One is you have to be able to concentrate your mana, which is what we’ve been working on until today. Only while we’ve been working on making sure it doesn’t ‘leak’ until now, now we want to force it out but in the right way. The second is your hands.”

She turned to Celestia. “My hands?”

“You need a focal point to trace an emblem in the air. For really focused spells, you need something to focus your attention on like a wand or stave, but today…” She extended a single finger. “This will work. Go on.”

Sunset hesitated, but then slowly held up her index finger.

“We’ll start with just the pattern. For your first spell, it’s going to be a bit hard and we’ll have to practice. But you always start by drawing a circle. Like this. Start at the bottom, and work around to the top, then back to the bottom.”

She demonstrated slowly and carefully.

“You try.”

Sunset swished her mouth, then tried it out.

“Not so fast,” Celestia corrected. “Slowly. Neatly. Like you’re actually tracing a circle that’s already there.”

She concentrated and tried again.

“Good! You got it on the second try! Ok, that’s the first part, now for the next. Once you hit the bottom, you bring it back up like this…”

A good thirty minutes was devoted simply to learning the pattern, and thirty minutes after that was devoted to practicing it until Sunset started building some muscle memory. She had a few flubs as Celestia kept adding more steps to it, and before she was done she was marveling at how eight steps were supposed to be a “simple” spell, to say nothing of how she could get it out in less than fifteen seconds. At last, however, she seemed satisfied.

“Now the final piece. While you’re pushing your mana out and drawing the symbols, you also have to say the proper incantation. There’s one word for every one of the eight steps I’ve told you, and you have to say it before you finish doing that part of the sigil.”

Sunset looked a little overwhelmed, which only made Celestia laugh a little.

“Yes, I know. I was almost dizzy the first time I learned it, but you’ll be amazed at how easy it is. Let’s just work on saying the words at the same time as the symbols first. The first word is excatint. Say it as slow as you need to finish the circle.”

This part took much longer, as Sunset not only had to remember the symbols but now had to memorize eight bizarre words along with them and say them while simultaneously doing the symbols perfectly. Yet even though she thought taking another forty minutes to do it was a long time, Celestia was more than pleased with her progress.

“Very good!” she said at the end. “You’re catching on very quickly, Sunset! Alright, it’s time to tie it all together. Do everything you just did, but this time force out mana with it. Again, you’d normally use a wand for more advanced spells to focus it, but just concentrate on the end of your fingertip.”

Sunset looked forward again. By now, most of her initial anxiety was gone. After all that practice, all she did was take a deep breath, swallow, and hold up her finger. After taking a moment to remember everything, she concentrated and began.

She gave only a small start when she first saw the fiery, red light begin to come out of her hand. She botched just the edge of the first symbol on that. However, she quickly stabilized her focus, stared harder at her work, and kept going. Celestia had actually nearly told her to relax when she kept going.

After several seconds, she had the first seven parts of the sigil drawn. She finished the last part of it, saying the final word, and ended it just as she touched the final point.

The sigil immediately began to glow more brightly, causing Sunset to pull her hand back in alarm. Soon after it broke and a large, concentrated fireball erupted from it. She actually let out a bit of a gasp as she saw it sail across the room and strike the wall. The flames erupted into a bonfire-level pillar. Both she and Celestia actually felt the heat ripple over them for a moment.

Sunset was struck silent. She only gaped as the fire she made slowly died down. She kept blinking until it diminished to only a few small flames on the floor. Only then did she turn to Celestia. “Headmis…”

She trailed off. She saw something she definitely hadn’t expected. Celestia looked as astonished as she had been, still staring where the fire had been.

It lasted only a moment, though. She turned to her soon after.

“Sunset…” she immediately smiled. “That was amazing!”

The girl was taken aback, more shocked now than after the spell. “R-Really?”

“I’ve never seen a student able to perform that spell so powerfully so quickly! You did wonderfully!”

A light began to gleam in her eyes. “I…I did?”

“You got it so well on the first try too! Can you do it again?”

Sunset was still a bit taken aback from the praise, but she managed a nod. Holding her hand up again, feeling just a slight bit bolder and more confident, she performed the spell again. This time, she not only drew the sigil perfectly but was two seconds faster. As a result, an even larger fireball was produced that made a blaze that reached all the way to the ceiling.

“Very good, Sunset!” Celestia congratulated, even more delighted the second time.

“Oh, well…” she answered, beginning to turn a bit red. “It’s not so hard once you get the hang of it…”

“You just pulled off a spell that would take most beginners the first year to perform successfully.”

Sunset’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?”

Celestia nodded back. “Now, keep practicing with this one. Let’s see how short we can get your casting time. If you do well enough, I’ll start you on your next spell tomorrow. Maybe even two.”

Sunset grinned excitedly. Almost immediately she turned around and began to cast again. Soon she sent off another fireball. After that, she sent out a fourth.

As she was working on the fifth, Celestia reached out and placed a hand on hers.

“Pace yourself, Sunset. You’ll run out of mana at this rate.”

“Oh…oh right,” she answered more meekly, lowering her hand. “Sorry.”

It was good that Celestia stopped her, for magical fatigue set in soon after. She winced as she felt a sharp headache, and held for her stomach as a bit of a queasy sensation went through her. She managed to weather both and keep standing however. As for Celestia, she moved to one side to observe.

After a few moments of recovery, she spoke up again. “Are there many spells to learn?”

“As many as you can think of, Sunset. Many of them are written down, but many others are lost to the ages or known only by the best mages. Know this, however. With the right command and a strong enough spirit, anything is possible.”

Sunset thought of that as she held her hand up to cast once more.

“Anything…” she whispered before beginning the incantation.

“…is possible.”

A metallic knock nearby distracted Sunset from her thoughts. She stopped looking at her re-gloved hand and looked up to the bulkhead.

“Come in.”

The hatch turned and the door swung open. Doing her best to look like her normal, attentive self was the first officer. She walked in struggling to keep her head held high. However, Sunset could tell her fear already by the easy omission she made.

She gestured behind her as she walked closer. “Shut the bulkhead behind you, please.”

The first officer hesitated. After a moment, she nodded, then turned back to do what she was told.

The hallway of the airship was a bit of an unusual choice for a meeting place. The conference room would be more appropriate. However, Sunset had elected on the current locale for a private conversation. Part of the reason was it provided an excellent position to monitor the situation outside. This was, after all, one of the only places on the ship with portholes as it was a rather non-essential corridor.

Outside, it was pitch black with a beautiful moon shining, in spite of the fact that according to Sunset’s watch it was precisely 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The moon and stars weren’t the only lights out there. There had to be at least three hundred sets of yellow eyes and the occasional set of moonspot eyes mingling in a tight-knit oval around her ship and the Prodigy. The Endeavor itself was still landing, using its own signal to gradually clear away Nighttouched and Light Eaters from its spot.

The nice thing about having the ability to repel the monsters in Equestria wasn’t just that it offered an easy corridor to get anywhere they liked. They could take whatever they wanted that was abandoned and left behind. And although many of the towns and stockpiles were destroyed in the early Lunar Fall, their main airship landing hub was still mostly operational. It had been under construction at the time but near completion, and Trottingham had found the effort to repair it was well worthwhile as it had plenty of tools and facilities for airship repair…provided whoever was manning the airships could stomach being surrounded by bloodthirsty entities during their entire docking period.

Several crewmen were nervously milling about in the darkness, bumbling and tripping over each other. In spite of the fact Sunset had assured them that the Morning Glories were keeping them safe, they refused to light up so much as a candle to help them see. Hence, resupplying was taking quite some time.

That wasn’t her concern right now, however. As soon as the first officer finished shutting the hatch, she turned and faced Sunset. Again drawing herself up, she crossed her hands behind her and swallowed. “You wished to see me, captain?”

Sunset smirked back. She notd her unusually tight pose, her stiff talking, and most of all the sweat on her brow.

“Relax,” she calmly cooed, in a voice that wasn’t too terribly reassuring. “I just called you in here for some quick business. Something that doesn’t need to involve the rest of the crew. Something involving your actions as of late.”

The woman swallowed, but kept her eyes forward.

Sunset began to walk closer. “As you know, Commander…” she paused. “Commander… What was your name again?”

She opened her mouth to respond.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sunset idly dismissed. “As you know, I hand-picked each and every member of the crew for this operation. Each one of you was selected by me individual by individual, and, I dare say, only the people on board this ship have any true inkling of what I intend for the future of Trottingham. To that end,”

She stepped in closer.

“Loyalty is paramount. After all, what I’m doing might be considered insurrection. Treason, even. We all know what the penalty is for treason in Trottingham, don’t we? Especially now that we’re in the middle of a war?”

A pause of silence.

“Commander, I believe I just asked you a question.”

She nodded. “Yes, captain. I am fully aware.”

“Really.” She crossed her arms, raising one to lean her head on it. “What is the penalty of treason?”

She stiffened once, her posture shifting a little, before she spoke the word quietly. “Death.”

“Pardon me?”

“Death, captain. Death is the penalty of treason,” she forced herself to say more loudly.

“And in a time of war, if someone is accused of treason, do I even need to bother returning to home port, commander?”

Another moment of silence, but she responded this time. “No, captain.”

Sunset smirked as she turned away and walked to the porthole. “I love the air, commander. So much freedom. So much authority. All you need is a ship and a crew and it’s like you’re an island nation all to yourself. Even without any Trottingham laws, the fact remains I could pretty much do anything I’d want to do to you out here. Why…”

She turned back to her.

“I could throw you out to the Nighttouched right now if I wanted. It’d really save bullets.” She chuckled. “But why be so grandiose? Hangings have worked for years. Then again, that wastes rope and makes a body to clean up. I say…” She grinned. “Just take a long walk off a short plank as soon as we’re airborne. Problem solved.”

By now, the first officer was struggling not to squirm. Sunset relished it, but simply turned back to her.

“Relax, commander. You didn’t really think I brought you in here just to tell you I was going to execute you for mutiny, did you? Over something so small as a dissenting opinion?” She snickered. “Please…that’s why you’re first officer to begin with. To call me out at the proper time. And you’re right. Going after Twilight Sparkle at that point would have been too costly. You made a good call back there.”

The first officer still looked rather tense, but calmed a little at this. Sunset took a moment to moisten her lips before beginning to approach the first officer again.

“That being said, I can’t say the same for your subordinates.”

She looked puzzled. “My subordinates?”

“When I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed. Getting an alternative proposed by you is one thing, commander.” She frowned. “Telling my crew to follow an order only for them to just sit there staring at me, as if waiting for you to say something to contradict me, is something else. If you had yelled to belay the order before explaining the situation, that would have been one thing. They didn’t even try to respond, though. A good eight heads in all. I counted.”

The first officer began to look uncomfortable again. Sunset shook her head in an exaggerated act of sadness as she reached for her cigarette case and began to tap the tobacco down.

“Oh, that’s a real shame. It’s a real problem we have on our hands, commander. I already told you how important loyalty is right now. Probably the most important thing we have.”

Realizing where this was going, the first officer swallowed. “Captain, may I speak freely?”

She nodded as she kept tapping.

“The crew was just a little shocked is all. They didn’t know what move to make in the face of such a situation. We had just taken off from an actual invasion of Nighttouched. We saw things that were impossible, we were flying through all that smoke and fire…”

Sunset snickered, causing the first officer to trail off. She opened her cigarette case, pulled one out, and then offered it to her. “Care for a cigarette, commander?”

She stared at the case a moment silently. “I…don’t smoke.”

“What is it you do do when you’re not manning an airship?”

“I, uh…garden. It’s kind of my hobby. I was going to do it as a profession but then…then the, uh…”

Sunset nodded. “Then the Lunar Fall happened, the attacks of the Nighttouched, the ensuing wars, the draft, and all that fun stuff. I get it.” She jammed the cigarette in her lips. She reached for her lighter next. “But you’re pretty good at it, aren’t you?”

“I…” She bowed her head a bit. “I, uh…suppose I am.”

“Level Seven pay grade, last I checked. And due for a bonus in a few months. It’ll be six years then.”

“Um…yes.”

She smiled and nodded as she lit her cigarette up. She took a moment to take a drag and flick off the first few ashes. “Ok then, commander, I’ll get to it. We know full well that Regent Cinch wouldn’t tolerate excuses. Neither would the Admiral and neither will I. We have some dark and gritty business about us. First and foremost, thinking which of those lovely options I gave you a moment ago would be best to deal with eight deck officers convicted of mutiny.”

“Captain, ple-”

“Or…” Sunset cut off, jabbing her cigarette out to make a point. “Or…we could avoid throwing around that dirty little black word. Everyone hates it. Even if it’s not directed at them. Drives everyone wild.” She stuck her cigarette in her mouth as she reached into her jacket. “We both know some evils are better than others, commander. We also know full well that money talks. Trottingham, Manehattan, Fillydelphia, the Dragonlands…they all abide by the golden rule.”

She produced a piece of paper and handed it over to the first officer. She looked a bit confused but slowly reached out and took it.

“He who has the gold makes the rules.” She pulled out her cigarette after another drag. “Officials tend to get awfully sloppy and forgetful when they hear the sound of precious metals jingling in their pockets. And since no one likes that dirty word I mentioned, they might be apt to hearing a much nicer one. Insubordination.” She smiled and gestured with her cigarette again. “A little slap on the wrist and you’re good there. Take away your rum and meat rations for a month and then we forget the whole thing ever happened. But…”

The first officer opened the paper and began to read what was inside.

“They do need a decent amount of jingling. A little just won’t do. And they’ll expect a separate jingle for all eight.”

The commander read the contents of the paper for a few moments, before her jaw dropped on the final line. Especially the figures in the amount written there. “That…that much…?”

“They’ll never afford it on their salary. You could, though.”

She looked up alarmed. “M…me?!”

She shrugged. “If it was your neck on the line. I’m just stating a fact you’d be able to scrape it out of that sizeable salary of yours. Of course…I’m just supposing…”

She began to turn away as she put a hand on her hip, but then suddenly looked up. “Oh, hello? What’s that we have here?”

She turned back around and produced what was in her pocket, much to the commander’s unease. A ball-point pen.

“How did this get here? Heh, I don’t need this. I have plenty of pens. Here…”

She leaned over and practically placed it in between two of the commander’s knuckles holding the paper.

“You hang onto it.” She took another puff from her cigarette. By now, the first officer was shaking again and staring at her nervously without blinking. However, deep in her eyes, there was the spark of a small fire of helpless anger.

“Now then, commander, should we postpone what we intend to do about the problems with our crew? Give ourselves some time to think about whether or not this was just a minor insubordination after all? Or shall we throw that scrap of paper in the nearest trash bin and think about what would make a better example: falling or being flayed alive?”

The first officer stared back silently. The anger grew a bit more, but she also knew she was in over her head. She glanced down at the paper again. She stared at it and the figure for a long time.

Finally, clenching her hand into a fist, she quietly took the paper over to the wall and quickly filled out her own signature on the line on the bottom. When she was done, she hurriedly came over and passed it to Sunset.

She nodded as she accepted it from her. She took a moment to unfold it, look it over, and then nod as she put it away. “Never a good thing to make a rash decision. You taught me that, didn’t you, commander?”

The first officer stiffened again. Before she could say anything else, another knock went out on the bulkhead. Sunset immediately looked up to it, losing a bit of her cool in place of eagerness. “Come in.”

The hatch once again turned. On opening, the first officer looked a bit surprised to see the royal guard walk inside. His armor had seen better days and appeared to actually be missing pieces, and he himself walked with just a hint of exhaustion in his step. Nevertheless, he approached Sunset at once and saluted readily. “My lady.”

Sunset at first had looked to receive him earnestly, but on seeing his haggard appearance her enthusiasm dimmed somewhat, and it sank like a stone on noticing he was carrying something in his hand: an envelope much cleaner than him and sealed with a familiar-looking insignia. One for the office of Regent of Trottingham.

“You’re dismissed, commander,” Sunset said quietly, never looking at the first officer. She needed no further prompting. She readily turned and left. She didn’t salute when she did, but Sunset hardly seemed to notice. Her eyes were fully on the royal guard as the hatch shut again.

She crossed her arms and frowned at him. “I was afraid you might not have any good news to report.” She gestured to him. “I take it this sad state I see in front of me is confirmation.”

“Forgive me, my lady.”

“Oh…I can’t wait to hear why I should do that.”

“I tracked down three of them, but one of them, one with pink hair, was able to fully wield her Anima Viri. That wasn’t all, though. She had power beyond that. Durability and strength far greater than that of a normal wielder.”

“Please,” Sunset snorted. “I saw her myself, and she was unconscious the entire time. So the three managed to defeat you, huh?”

“No. A swarm of Nighttouched came. A true surge. I hadn’t seen anything like it in eight years. It was all I could do to make it back to the chariot and take off.”

“Yet it seemed to take you a couple days to find your way back to us.”

“I tried to rendezvous, but some of them came after me even while I was in the air. In the time it took me to get rid of them, the chariot took too many hits. I did what small repairs I could but I couldn’t get it to full flight capability, and as a result the envoy from Trottingham found me. Rather than risk any more time spent within the Equestrian borders than necessary, they ordered me to pass along this message.”

He held up the sealed envelope to Sunset. She frowned at it, but eventually snatched it from the guard’s hands. She quickly split the seal, snapped it open, and began to look over it.

Her frown deepened after a moment before she simply sighed. “Well, Trottingham is in an uproar. Appleloosa and Griffonstone are both demanding answers from the Regent, and not only about me but about what I’m doing has to do with the people with the Promethian Sigils. Apparently Fillydelphia is citing the country for breach of treaty, which means Manehattan will be in on it soon. And, of course, the Regent herself is demanding an explanation and isn’t going to wait for me to decide to come back of my own accord.” She crumpled the message into a ball before extinguishing her cigarette in it.

“My lady, if she gets the Admiral to come after us…”

“The Admiral doesn’t care to do what Regent Cinch says any more than I do, and I wouldn’t have picked now as the perfect time if I didn’t take into account that he has his hands full with the Dragonlands. He hasn’t even sent a report in four months. Besides, I’m not going to cause any trouble.” She shrugged. “Not yet, at any rate. The message said her representative will meet me here, and here I am. We’re already stuck in dock long enough to get the ships ready to go again anyway. This would almost be a nice little vacation if it wasn’t for the fact that every second we waste here Twilight Sparkle gets a bit farther away from us.”

“Twilight Sparkle?”

“I happened to catch her name in Griffonstone.” She frowned. “And yes…before you state the obvious, I did try to get her myself. And I might have succeeded if someone driving a Steel Lion hadn’t butted in and Fillydelphia hadn’t decided to follow suit.” Her teeth grit as she turned back to the portholes. “The first thing I’m doing once I get the sixth Anima Viri is finding who did that and sending them into a gravity well…”

“Even so, you’re asking the Regent to overlook quite a bit. We’ve caused an international incident. One that might cause another war.”

“I’m more concerned with how this is going to start tipping off every country to what we’re doing, especially if it comes back around to Regent Cinch that magic was involved. If we play it right, though, we should be able to let her give us a break. At least enough to stay out a bit longer.”

Sunset turned away, smirking all over again.

“We just need the right excuse.”

Author's Note:

Another short one. Even Sunset's latest flashback didn't have much, but this keeps future chapters from being oversized.