Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Nightwatch: Worth a Thousand Words

The bell at Rarity’s bedside gained no response at first, but after waiting only sixty seconds it rang again. After another thirty second pause, it went on continuously.

A light moan came from underneath the covers. A shape shifted underneath it, causing a curled up cat nearby to meow angrily before getting up and running off. Soon after, a hand came out and fumbled for the bell a few times before pulling the covers down. Rarity’s face and upper torso were revealed, although with the curtains drawn and a face mask over her eyes it was likely still quite dark for her.

The bell stopped of its own accord before she was fully awake and as a result, after a few moments, the doors to the room cracked open. A young woman took only a second to peak inside before she pushed it open the rest of the way and ran in with her arms full of papers.

“Sorry to barge in like this, Miss Rarity, but you told me if it was an emergency, past nine, and you didn’t answer the bell for five minutes to invite myself in.”

Rarity let out a bit of a mumble as she slowly became alert. “Wh…what?” she half-muttered. “Miss Pommel? Is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me, and we’ve got a lot of tall orders to fill today,” she spoke hurriedly as she quickly went to her bedside. She reached out to her work desk, pulled the rolling chair over, and sat herself down in it. “We’re already coming up short in staffing for that new contract, half the brass buttons are three days late, the designer stitching on the cuffs will take twice as long as we planned, and Boiler #2 is still out. The maintenance man is saying the part is custom.”

Rarity suddenly froze. A moment later, she pulled her eye mask off hurriedly. Her eyes glanced about the room. First to Coco sitting next to her. Then to her bed. Then to the ceiling, the walls, the design table, the mannequins, the fabrics, the hallway out into the rest of the residential area of the factory, the bed that her cat, Opalesence, was unhappily settling in, and the Manehattan sun shining through the window.

She looked back to Coco again, seeing her still eagerly looking to start discussing business as she clutched the papers on her lap. Finally, she sighed and leaned back.

“A dream… It was all just a horrible dream…”

“Um, Miss Rarity…”

“Oh, Miss Pommel!” she suddenly cried, turning to her. “It was absolutely ghastly! I was on this horrid road trip over half of Greater Everfree desperately trying to get a contract signed to keep Carousel Couture in business, and everything went wrong! First I had to hire a Huntsman to take me across country when the train was stopped, then we were ambushed by other Huntsmen, and then we almost got shot and blown up by Trottinghamites, and then this man in gaudy, tacky, outdated armor tried to skewer me before I found this brash woman from Griffonstone to take us under a mountain, only it was filled with all manner of horrendous Light Eaters and Nighttouched, before finally I found I had magic powers and I had to help these other women kill this gigantic celestial horse… The worst part was I still failed to save the business and I couldn’t get a single conditioning the entire time!”

She leaned back in relief. “But it was all just a terrible nightmare… I’m back here in Manehattan with you and the business and my dress-making and lovely, comfortable, designer imported bedsheets and…”

“Yo, Rarity.”

The designer looked like someone had just dropped ice down her back at the sound of that voice. Stiffly and mechanically, harboring dread in her eyes, she slowly leaned up from her pillow.

Standing in the open doorway in nothing but her underwear and her cowboy hat was Applejack, gesturing down the hall. “That fancy, schmancy porcelain crapper of yours clogged up again after it ran outta paper.” Without another word, she turned and kept walking.

Rarity looked at where she had been standing, twitched a few times, and then glanced to the back of her hand. A sigil was there with a rune on one point.

She let out a wail as she threw herself back on her pillow and began to sob.

Coco let out a sigh of her own. “Do we have to go through this every morning…?”

---

“Um…hello? Rarity?”

Fluttershy quietly and timidly moved outside of the designer’s normally under-utilized kitchen and into the hall beyond. She was still acting the same way she had ever since she arrived: timid about everything. The entire fancy look of the dwelling and everything in it, including the furniture, drapes, artworks, and wallpaper, seemed to overwhelm her. She struggled not to touch anything for fear of leaving a spot or a stain (especially since Pinkie Pie’s first mishap with chocolate on arrival had earned quite a healthy amount of ire).

She gradually made her way to the living room, but saw there was no one there save Rainbow Dash. The Huntsman’s clothing had been fully mended and repaired as well as cleaned, and she herself had fully recovered and was now lounging on Rarity’s fainting couch; crossing her arms behind her head and crossing her legs over each other as she napped. Nearby, the window curtains were drawn back and allowed the morning sun to shine in.

Fluttershy slowly walked up to her, cringing a bit more as she did. She seemed intent on speaking with her but also didn’t want to wake her up. As a result, on reaching her side, she stared silently and confused for several moments. At last, she motivated herself to reach out and touch her shoulder. “Um…Ms. Dash?”

Seeing as it was hardly more than a whisper, all she got was a snore for her trouble.

“Ms….Ms. Dash?”

Another snore.

She leaned in closer to her ear, but that only made her drop her voice into a smaller whisper. “Ms. Dash?”

Naturally, she didn’t hear that either. Yet while she was doing this, a small white rabbit hopped up into the entryway into the living room. On seeing Fluttershy’s rather meager attempt to wake the Huntsman up, the rabbit seemed to give her an irritated stare. Soon after, it hopped inside right next to her, leapt up onto the fainting couch, and batted Dash’s head with one of his big feet.

“Hmm…wha?” she muttered, opening her eyes. She turned and saw the woman staring at her. “Oh…it’s you, Fluttershy… Whatd’ya need?”

“Oh…um, have you seen Rarity around? Twilight wants to give me another lesson in fifteen minutes, but before that I want to finish feeding the animals and Angel’s fresh out of carrots. I tried offering him some cabbage and radishes but he tends to be just a tiny bit picky, so I wanted to make sure she didn’t have any more at the ready.”

Dash grimaced and looked up to the ceiling. “Based on that shriek I heard about a half hour ago? I’m guessing she’s in her bedroom and just finished throwing another fit over waking up and realizing she’s got a soul stuck in her hand. You figure she’d be used to it after a week of being home…” She closed her eyes and leaned back for another nap. “If being stuck on ‘house arrest’ means living in a posh joint like this? I’ll plead guilty any day…”

“Oh…thank you.” She began to lean up, but then stopped on seeing her lying right next to the open window. “Um, I don’t want to disturb your nap, but shouldn’t we be keeping the curtains shut? I mean, if you like, that is. Just, you know, it might let…um…people know where we’re hiding.”

“Eh, relax,” Dash waved off. “We’re on the second floor. ‘Sides, I’m not napping. I’m doing surveillance.”

“Um…surveillance?”

Without opening her eyes, she raised a hand and pointed to the ceiling. Fluttershy looked and saw that one of the polished silver ornamental plates that Rarity had nestled in a corner was repositioned just enough to be angled toward the view at the open window, such that Dash could recline on the couch and still easily see outside on the street below.

“You’re…watching the road?”

“Come a bit closer. See it from where I’m looking.”

Fluttershy puzzled as to how Dash was looking at anything, but did as she was told. From her angle, she realized she could not only see the street but could actually see people standing on the side of it across the road. Manehattan was a busy town morning, noon, and night, so there were plenty of people on the sidewalk. She watched as several people went up and down the street while steam taxis and wagons rolled by periodically.

“I don’t understand…”

“See those three guys?”

Fluttershy looked again and, now that Dash called it out, she did notice three men in particular. While most people either walked by or only milled about for a few seconds before walking again, those three seemed to just be standing around and looking across the road at Carousel Couture.

“They’ve been there almost two hours now. They were there yesterday too.”

Fluttershy realized that none of the three looked particularly friendly, clean, or interested in clothing. It made her shrink a little. “Who…who are they?”

“No idea,” Dash answered, finally cracking her eyes open again. She stretched out her arm underneath the fainting couch, and after feeling around grasped a discarded newspaper lying there. “But you know how Rarity said she had to get back with that contract in order to keep her business going? Turns out this other designer was trying to make a deal that would’ve pulled the rug out from under her, which is why she was headed out east to begin with. Once she got there, she told me the same designer was trying to buy up the guys making materials too, but she managed to get the contract with him before he could sign with her…just so long as she got back in Manehattan to get her own contract with the government’s order set in stone.”

Fluttershy looked puzzled. “Wait…I thought Rarity kept saying on the way here that she didn’t get back in time.”

“That’s what I thought. But check this out.”

She nearly tossed the paper into Fluttershy’s arms, making her jump in alarm. On calming down, however, she took it and opened it up.

“They finally got the telegram lines open again, so news is coming in from out in Appleloosa. Just skip on past all the same-old, same-old about mysterious weapons, military maneuvers, witch-hunting, and the ninetieth story about what happened in Griffonstone…”

Fluttershy looked down to the bottom, not exactly sure what she was supposed to see, until she finally spotted a column with a headline that grabbed her attention.

Local Manehattan Designer Investigated for Involvement of Suicide-Turned-Homicide of Appleloosan Textile Producer.

She let out a shocked squeak. “Oh my…”

“Read it.”

Fluttershy composed herself a moment before beginning to read aloud. She grew more nervous with each new sentence.

“The controversy surrounding the untimely death of Colonel Cotton Gin, owner and president of Fabrichique, continues to escalate. Earlier this week, his accidental death in his farmland’s pond was declared first a suicide but then changed to homicide. As a result of police investigation, an ever-growing cloud of suspicion is being cast over a rising clothing manufacturer in Manehattan: Polomare’s. The investigation reveals the company was involved in contracting out several Appleloosan textile producers in a move that shows inclinations of cornering the market. Combined with a series of aggressive power plays to win new business in Manehattan proper, as well as the discovery that Fabrichque passed over Polomare’s for a contract with a smaller company, has led some to suspect that this might have been an attempt to send a message to more rural producers: contract with Polomare’s or else.”

Fluttershy let the paper fall and cupped her hands to her mouth. “Oh dear…”

“And I thought smugglers were cutthroat… They got nothing on these Manehattan businesspeople,” Dash whistled. “Rarity told me on the way back that Cotton Gin wasn’t going to honor the contract unless she sealed the deal back home, but no one ever saw the contract itself except Rarity and Gin. All anyone would have known is he contracted with her company over Polomare’s. Whoever was next in line would have probably stuck with Gin’s thinking, but looks like whoever they hired got sloppy. They found it out and now that they got this shadow hanging over them both Fabrichique and the Manehattan government canceled their deal. They ended up going with Rarity’s company instead.”

She leaned back a bit more. “Wish I could say this was a happy ending and justice was served, but all this really means is Rarity’s business broke Polomare’s little monopoly up. These three guys out there might be looking for a way to cause another accident.”

The woman whimpered, but Dash simply rolled her eyes at that.

“Relax. I’m here, and with these things in our hands we can’t lose. Just keeps me on edge is all. And we gotta hope they don’t try to break in and recognize anyone.” She off-hand gestured to the top article on the paper, which read that another country had agreed to extradition if the six individuals who were reported fighting the Tantabus in Griffonstone were located in their borders. “Looks like we got enough people trying to find us as-is.”

“I, um, think I’ll go ask Rarity about those carrots now…” Fluttershy finally said before slinking off. Her rabbit followed her, almost seeming to give a look that said “it’s about time”.

“Hey, ask if she has anymore cider while you’re gone, would ya’?” Dash shouted back before resuming napping.

---

Twilight tapped the pen on the table a few times, concentrating on the piece of paper a little longer. She absent-mindedly reached out and pet Spike, seated nearby, before reaching for her tea and taking a sip. Moistening her lip, she reached over and wrote a bit more on the paper, but a second later, she scratched it out, shaking her head, and wrote a correction. Yet after a moment more, she frowned and did it again; reverting it to the way it was. She nearly wrote the next part, but paused to think about it first. Finally, she reached down to finish…

“Hi Twilight!”

She nearly jumped up from the dining room table, and Spike himself bolted upright so quickly he banged his head on the bottom of it; earning a whine and a growl. Twilight herself looked up and nearly jumped again on seeing Pinkie’s face was now hovering right next to hers. She took a moment to stabilize herself before sighing in relief. “Oh…hi there… You startled me a bit…”

“Sorry, but I was just so super-duper excited to get to the kitchen this morning! Rarity has so many ingredients that are hard to get in Trottingham! I haven’t been able to bake with chocolate, in, like, forever!” She looked over the paper she was writing. “What’cha doin’?”

“Oh, this? I’m trying to remember as many of Celestia’s spells as I can.”

Pinkie let out an exaggerated gasp. “Oh no! Don’t tell me you forgot all your spells!”

“No, no! It’s not that. The thing is Celestia only taught me chaotic magic because that was the only kind I could cast. Celestia herself, though, could cast both chaotic and harmonious. I’m trying to remember which spells of the latter she did so I can try and widen Fluttershy and Rarity’s repertoire.” She sighed as she looked the paper over. “Right now I’ve only been able to show them a couple spells for basic healing. There’s a lot more than that which would be a big help.”

“Neat! Here’s a snack to help you think!”

Twilight leapt back again as Pinkie pushed an entire tray full of cupcakes in front of her.

“Try one of my chocolate-frosted, chocolate, chocolate-chip cupcakes!”

She sat there silently for a moment before she smiled apologetically. “Um, thank you, Pinkie but…I think it’s a bit early for cupcakes.”

Pinkie thought about that for a moment. “Oh…ok then!” She removed the tray and turned away. “Give me a couple minutes and you can try one of my chocolate, chocolate-chip muffins!”

With that, she happily skipped out of Rarity’s dining room and back for the kitchen. Twilight watched her go, before turning back to her paper. Even then, however, her thoughts were now distracted. She glanced back up to the kitchen, then back to her paper. She tapped the pen as something other than the spell she had been trying to remember dwelt on her mind.

She looked up a moment later on hearing the sound of the back door opening. She grimaced a little, as since they had holed up in Rarity’s house there had been very careful rules about what to do to keep a low profile and out of anyone’s sight; especially now that physical descriptions of them were being leaked to the papers. Nevertheless, after a moment she looked back down to her paper. She began to write a bit more.

A much louder sound, this one resembling an Anima Viri emerging, soon echoed down the hall. This caused her to look up again far more readily. Soon after, noises of a scuffle mixed in with it. This caused Spike to perk up. She rose from her chair, intending to see what was wrong.

Before she could, Pinkie, fully in her Rogue role and gleaming, popped her head out.

“Um, Twilight? We have just a teensy-weensy little problem in the kitchen.”

Quickly, the mage left her paper and pen behind. Spike fell in next to her as she rushed out and followed Pinkie back out of the dining room, down the hall, and into the kitchen.

Remarkably, there wasn’t much of a mess. Not one of Pinkie’s cupcakes had fallen off of the tray, and the kitchen was mostly intact save for the aftermath of her baking. However, there was one noticeable change.

A woman was wriggling furiously on the floor, bound and gagged with Rarity’s napkins and tablecloths hastily twirled into ropes. Her eyes had a mad, soulless look in them. One of her hands bore a symbol that blazed like a hot coal. Nearby was the remains of a broken glass bottle she had obviously been wielding as a weapon.

Pinkie stood to one side as she struggled to wiggle her way to the two of them even now. “Could you do your, um, bindy-seal thing?”

Twilight sighed tiredly. She stepped forward and squatted next to the woman, who struggled to loosen her gag in order to bite her. However, this was getting to be routine for her by now. In no time at all, she drew the symbol before slapping her palm against the woman’s forehead.

Her eyes glazed over as she stopped struggling. The symbol on her hand dimmed before she slumped to the ground unconscious.

Pinkie cheered before quickly dropping her Anima Viri and moving back to her cupcakes. Twilight didn’t look terribly relieved as she kept squatting next to the woman. “That’s the fourth one in three days… I was afraid having six of us together would act like a flame attracting moths.” She sighed. “I have no idea how we’re going to be able to get this one out of here either… It’s not like we can leave her for the milkman. Now I’m wishing I could remember Celestia’s post-hypnotic suggestions.”

“Aw, cheer up, Twilight! You know what makes me happy?”

Twilight leapt up again as she saw a cupcake-turned-muffin (courtesy of its frosting having been removed) offered to her.

“Chocolate, chocolate-chip muffins!”

Sighing, she finally shrugged and accepted it. As Pinkie bounced back to work on the others, however, she didn’t eat it. Instead she continued to look at her.

“Um, Pinkie?”

“Yeah, Twilight?”

“Good job on…disabling her so quickly.”

“Oh, tee-hee! It’s no problem! We used to have Nighttouched back home too. Big sister Maud showed me how to deal with them, so people who’ve gone all Burning-Hand-Crazy are no biggie!”

She went back to her work, but Twilight kept staring.

“Pinkie, um…this…might seem like a bit of an odd question, but…when’s the last time you’ve ever had a scrape?”

“Nine minutes ago!” she cheerfully answered. “You wouldn’t believe how hard I had to scrape to get a bit of the burnt chocolate off of Rarity’s pan. Why do you ask?”

She opened her mouth, but closed it again soon after. She turned back to the woman on the floor. “Uh…no reason. Forget I asked.”

---

“Ok…go!”

Rarity and Fluttershy both went to work at the same time. Either one had donned their respective Anima Viri and both raised their arms. Rarity had transmuted a common parasol back into her rapier, while Fluttershy, after much coaxing, had taken up an old bedpost to turn into a staff. Both of them proceeded to draw similar symbols on the air with the ends of their respective tools. While Rarity seemed to have a bit more confidence, both of them took a bit of time to do it to make sure it was right; especially when they tried to speak the words at the same time. It took Rarity about twenty seconds to finish hers while it took Fluttershy twenty-seven seconds for her own.

Nevertheless, both seemed to do the trick. Across the room in a pair of pots were some of Rarity’s flowers. Either one had a branch set on fire a few moments earlier that was still smoldering. However, on completing their respective symbols and speaking the word of command, a fair, whitish-green light illuminated either one. The branches began to regenerate soon after that.

Twilight, watching from one side, looked at their execution carefully until she saw the lights of either one dim. Following that she walked forward and inspected the results.

Not exactly what she had hoped for. Either branch had five leaves and a flower consumed in the fire. Rarity had managed to bring back three of the leaves, but Fluttershy had only managed a single one.

“Fluttershy, you need to be a bit more commanding in your incantations. As a Healer, you should have been able to regenerate the whole branch.”

“Oh…sorry,” she answered shyly. “I thought that I was speaking louder that time…”

Twilight grimaced, but didn’t bother arguing the point she had already made days ago. She simply backed away. “Just try again. See if you can get more back on the second go.”

Dash groaned from the wall she was leaning against nearby. “We’ve been watching you three practice these boring spells for days. How about letting the rest of us practice a bit?”

“Oh, I know why!” Pinkie chirped up from nearby. She pointed to one of the walls…or, rather, the lack thereof. Only a jagged outline where the plaster and wood had been remained. “It’s because after you threw a punch Rarity yelled something about saying she didn’t want these two spare rooms made into one!”

“Oh yeah…” Dash nervously recanted.

A knock went off on the door to the room. However, it wasn’t a “standard” knock, but rather to a beat and tune of a local musical. As a result, everyone remained at ease as the doorknob turned and swung open. A rather unhappy-looking Applejack entered, followed closely by an uncomfortable-looking Coco Pommel, bearing a folded newspaper under her arm, and Sassy Saddles.

“How’d it go?” Twilight asked.

“Well, we took care o’ the one who busted inta’ the kitchen this mornin’,” she half-sighed. “Turns out you fancy folks ship out your bulk laundry. We bundled her up with some work aprons, stuffed her in an unmarked sack, and threw her in with the rest of your tagged laundry. She’ll either come to or they’ll find her when she’s mixed in with the rest.”

“You don’t think anyone noticed?”

Applejack grimaced. “Sure hope not… Unless someone’s lookin’ fer her…”

“Like the last one we had to deal with…” Coco spoke up uncomfortably. “She actually had a picture that made it into the missing person’s part of the paper before she turned up…”

“And not to be the one to compound bad news, Rarity,” Sassy spoke up, “but tomorrow morning is when the new shift comes in for the first day of major production on the Manehattan uniforms. I’m afraid this room won’t be usable for your…shall we say…unusual exercises during daylight hours. We might be able to continue to keep everyone hidden away in your parent’s home, but I’m not sure how we’ll be able to explain any other mad people coming here.”

Rarity looked regretful, but nodded. “It’s quite alright. Both of you have already been an absolute godsend ever since I’ve returned. Not to mention I’m terribly grateful for everything you’ve done to adjust not only to…my unconventional ‘scarring’, but also to help the rest of these ladies.”

“And I’m very thankful to you too, Rarity,” Twilight spoke up. “This is the closest I’ve come to living in a real home in eight years. But that being said…” She sighed. “I don’t think we can stay here much longer.”

“Aw, really?” Pinkie spoke up unhappily. “And it was so nice having so much stuff to bake with…”

“I think we may have already overstayed, to be honest. The first three people might have been one thing, but by now all of the governments have to know at least something about people with Promethian Sigils. And now they’ve got a rash of people disappearing only to reappear a couple days later. They’re going to examine them and see that all of them have sigils of their own, and then they’ll try to find what they all have in common. They could find it’s all right here.” She turned to Rarity. “That doesn’t only ruin us; it could ruin your company too.”

“I’m afraid you have a good point with that, dear,” Rarity sighed, before turning back to her staff. “Ms. Saddles, I’m terribly afraid of overburdening you on this, but it looks as if I’ll have to leave the factory floor and expanding our clientele to you and Ms. Pommel of you for a while. I suppose I can try and spend the last bit of time here setting up our next line at least…”

Applejack frowned at the whole thing. “Any of y’all think maybe we’re goin’ ‘bout this the wrong way? Maybe instead of runnin’ and hidin’, we should be goin’ right up to your mayor or governor or whatever and let them know we were the ones who licked that Tantabus? Maybe we’d get some support.”

“Maybe even some medals on top of that,” Dash threw in. “I mean, we did save thousands of people’s lives and stopped the Light Eaters cold.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “If by ‘cold’ you mean we barely managed to stop it from reaching the ocean and almost got killed doing that…”

“My point is,” Applejack broke back in, “I’ll bet everyone in the world wants us to be fightin’ the Nighttouched and Light Eaters right now, and they’d be more than happy to lend a hand. I know the Apples would.”

Twilight didn’t answer immediately. She gave Applejack a long glare. “Have you been keeping up on the newspapers since we got here?”

The farmer hesitated, then blanched. “Uh, usually in Appleloosa we got things by word o’ mouth… Couldn’t afford any of those fancy subscriptions, and they didn’t deliver out there anyway…”

Without looking away from her, Twilight spoke up. “Ms. Pommel?”

“Oh, um,” she sputtered, not expecting being addressed, “Yes, um, Ms. Sparkle?”

“You brought the evening edition, didn’t you?”

She glanced down to her side, remembering the newspaper tucked under her arm. “Oh…oh yes.”

“Would you mind reading just the headlines to everyone?”

Swallowing, she reluctantly pulled the paper up and unfolded it. She looked over the top for a moment then cleared her throat. “‘Manehattan Officials Encourage Local Citizens to Be On Lookout for Six Involved in Griffonstone Attack’.” She stopped afterward.

“Keep reading.”

“‘Trottingham Continues to Deny Involvement, Weapon Testing Rumors in Strikes on Appleloosa, Mount Aris’.” She looked uncomfortable at the next headline.

“Don’t stop.”

She took a deep breath. “‘Appleloosa Confirms Nine Violent Attacks Involving ‘Marked’ Individuals, Resulting in 13 Fatalities’. ‘Griffonstone and Appleloosa Pass Emergency Provision Calling for All ‘Marked’ Individuals to Be Temporarily Detained’. ‘Fillydelphia and Mount Aris Close Borders and Restrict All Travel’. ‘Dragonlord Ember Vows ‘Fiery Retribution’ on Trottingham in Wake of Accusations of Weapon Testing’. ‘Griffonstone Reports Shadow Over Grifftham City Not Leaving, Orders Evacuation in Wake of Follow-Up Nighttouched Attacks’.” She looked up. “Want me to go to the next page?”

“That’s fine.” It was clear her point had been made. Not only were Applejack and Rainbow Dash both looking increasingly uncomfortable at all of that, but the others in the room were too. “The reporters and news aren’t even mentioning the fact we killed the Tantabus anymore. Everyone’s too whipped up in a frenzy that people with Promethian Sigils even exist. Maybe some of them like the fact that we can kill Light Eaters, but a lot more of them are going to be worried that anyone with these sigils can go crazy and start attacking people in a heartbeat. And you can bet Sunset shooting up any place she could find people with Promethian Sigils wasn’t exactly doing us any favors.”

“It’s true, I’m afraid,” Sassy added with a regretful nod. “Over at the local newsstands and tea rooms, most people are focused on Trottingham and what they know. There’s even a few rumors that the whole thing was staged by Trottingham to show off their new weapons. Griffonstone is their tentative ally, after all…”

“Ooooh…so that’s why they let Sunset fly right in and fly right out, huh?” Pinkie suggested.

No one else was nearly as enthused. Applejack frowned, snatching her hat off and slamming on the ground. “Don’t that just beat all… Appleloosa on top of all that? And after Burnt Oak was on our side, too!”

Twilight slumped and sighed. “Don’t blame him. He’s one person. Who knows how many people Sunset attacked?”

Dash scowled and crossed her arms. “I’d like to say I’m surprised at all this, but seeing how everyone’s been at each other’s throats and I got to see it firsthand? It’s just business as usual…”

“What’s that old saying?” Rarity muttered. “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know? I’d almost swear they think we’re the bigger threat than the Tantabus…”

“Maybe I should have stayed in my basement…” Fluttershy muttered.

This, however, got Applejack to look up and pound her fist against the wall hard enough to cause everyone to look at her. “Damn it all, quit talkin’ like that! I don’t care if the government thinks we’re a bunch o’ Trottingham varmints! We still got this power and we still gotta use it!”

Rarity stared back a moment, but then took a deep breath and straightened further; dropping her Anima Viri at the same time. “Applejack is absolutely right. This may make things a bit more problematic, but it doesn’t change what we need to do. Greater Everfree is counting on us.”

“That’s right!” Pinkie excited chirped. “So let’s get out there and get to work! What’s our next move, Twilight?”

Twilight’s demeanor hadn’t improved. “That’s just it…I have no idea.”

Everyone turned to her; somewhat incredulous. “What?”

“What do you mean ‘no idea’?”

“Well, while we might be stronger fighting together, there’s still just six of us. And like that news report said, simply stopping the Light Eaters isn’t going to restore any of the areas they corrupted. And that’s assuming we could even kill all of them, which I’m not sure we can. Even assuming the Light Eaters are finite, that could take years. And as of right now, we’ve only seen some of the ‘worst’ Nighttouched. Those ‘parasprites’ and ‘timber wolves’…maybe those lion monsters too. If there’s things even worse than that in Greater Everfree, we’ll be torn apart before we can ever get to killing all the Light Eaters. Frankly, I don’t know where to go or what to do.” She frowned. “And I don’t really relish the idea of asking the six of you to start wandering around with me and Spike…”

The room was silent. Everyone looked around, from one person to another, but no one proposed anything else themselves, and none of them had any genuinely good ideas to risk trying.

Finally, Rarity exhaled. “Well, standing around here won’t do much… At the bare minimum, we should be making ready to leave for whenever we do decide on something.”

Applejack nodded. “I’m with her. If the authorities do end up breakin’ the door down ‘round here, we gotta be ready to leave on a moment’s notice.”

“And…I don’t think I want to be taking everyone with me if we’re going to be going into any more danger…” Fluttershy nervously added. “I think I’ll need to have them stay someplace while we go out and…you know, do what we need to. And I still have to make sure to come back to them from time to time.” She turned hopefully to Rarity. “I don’t suppose they could stay here a little longer, could they?”

“You mean, all of those birds…and rodents…and that bear and…?”

She cut herself off on seeing Fluttershy begin to look both disappointed and worried.

“I…I mean certainly! Of course! We’re all helping each other out, and…and…what are new friends for?”

Fluttershy smiled happily at that while Rarity looked away and wiped for her forehead.

Twilight sighed and began to stand. “I guess I better start trying to plan something out… In the meantime, I need to make sure there’s no trace of us ever being here.”

---

On hearing the door open up into the foyer, Applejack raised the brim on her hat. She spotted Dash wandering in, a wine bottle in her hand. She looked around a moment, spotting the farmer in her chair while Pinkie was peeking as closely as she dared at the windows. Shortly after the group had arrived, they had been closed in with the heavy curtains, but there were enough cracks in them that, late in the day as it was now with crowds thinning out, it was enough to risk looking in them and out.

She yanked the cork out of it and took a swig as she walked inside, glancing between the two of them. “So…” she spoke on lowering it, “where’s everyone else?”

Applejack frowned just a bit. “Twilight’s still frettin’ ‘bout where we should head next. She might be holdin’ on fer that Starlight gal, though. Hate ta’ say it, but she seems ta’ know ‘bout as much about what to do next as we do. Rarity’s gettin’ her things together and Fluttershy’s tryin’ to tend to her critters.”

“How ‘bout you?”

She looked into her lap and frowned more. “Sore ‘bout how I still can’t get ahold of my family…and how all they know ‘bout me is what’s in those damn papers…” She looked up and raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you be gettin’ yer things together ‘stead of gettin’ sauced on Rarity’s dime?”

Dash snickered as she took another swig. “Technically, she owes me twenty thousand. I’m really cutting her a break just helping myself to her glorified grape juice. And I got all I need on my back. Besides, what about you two?”

Applejack hoisted up her hammer. “Got what I need right here.”

“The hammer again? Really?”

“And just what’s wrong with a hammer?”

Dash shrugged as she plopped into one of the foyer chairs nearby. “I dunno… It’s just you can make up any melee weapon you can think of with your Animal Very or whatever these things are. Why not a sword or something?”

“I’m perfectly happy with a hammer, thank you. You make a sword if ya’ want it so bad.”

Dash snorted. “Even if I wanted more than my fists, I don’t think I can. That ‘Disciple’ role Twilight talked about is for people who are purely physical. Suits me ok, but…”

Seeing her trail off, Applejack looked up a bit. “But what?”

“Nothing. Just for a moment, I thought it’d be nice to have a little something from back in the Wonderbolts. But then?” She smirked as she took another long swig. It took her twice as long to drink this time, and twice as long to swallow. She exhaled as she leaned back.

“Then I remembered I wouldn’t be able to stand the sight of myself in one.”

The farmer’s formerly scolding look became uneasy. She glanced away. “Got somethin’ yer not too proud of?”

“I think they call it ‘survivor guilt’… Whatever… Sucks either way…”

Applejack didn’t look up. “Reckon we all got somethin’ we ain’t too proud of…”

Dash turned to her when she said that, but before she could ask more Applejack looked up. “What ‘bout you, Pinkie Pie? Ain’t ya’ got anything ta’ get ready?”

“Nope!” she cheerfully called back. “I was just wondering if there were any Gaiatian Temples around here I could say a prayer at before we left!”

Dash didn’t notice Applejack give a start when she heard that. She was too busy chuckling. “You want a Gaiatian Temple? Heh…try about four hundred miles east. You might find one that hasn’t been burned down.”

“Yer a Gaiatian, Pinkie?” Applejack asked, genuinely sounding surprised.

“Yup! The whole Pie family is! I was hoping that big temple-like building over there was one.”

“Oh, you mean the old Harmonium Abbey?”

Hearing the sound of Rarity’s voice caused all three to look up. At the top of the stairs, Rarity was standing; arms still full of clothes but looking down on the three. She motioned her head outward.

“I’m pretty sure there’s nothing in there that a Gaiatian would find aesthetically pleasing even if it were still open, but that abbey shut down years ago. Seven, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Wait…shut down?” Applejack spoke up, even as Rarity turned to go to an adjoining room and keep packing. “Why would it’ve shut down?”

Dash snickered a bit as she finished taking her latest swig. “Don’t know how things are in your neck of Appleloosa, Applejack, but ‘round here faith is a little hard to come by. People tend to lose their religion after they get invaded by a bunch of living nightmares and bloodthirsty, possessed animals that don’t seem to care how often you say your prayers before bedtime, y’know.”

Applejack frowned again. “Well…I’ll be the first ta’ admit I haven’t been in quite a while, but granny and her brothers and sisters always head out sharp at dawn at the end of the week. So do a lot of folks ‘round where I live. You’d think right now people would knuckle down on hope for help from up above more than ever.”

Dash snickered again, more bitterly, as she took another swig. “Yeah…seeing someone get shot to death while they’re still praying for protection kind of makes an atheist out of a lot of us folks who didn’t go to Weekstart School…”

Hearing that actually made Applejack stiffen and rise in her seat. She might have said something more, except a knock on the door interrupted her.

The three went rigid. The knock was totally normal…not the designated knock they had agreed on.

None of the three made a sound. Even Pinkie covered her mouth. Dash and Applejack looked at each other and nodded. Soon after, both of them sprang up and crept over to the door. Applejack took the side with the hinges while leaving Dash to take the side with the opening. Pinkie pulled back and put herself against the wall while Dash readied herself and nodded.

Applejack leaned over and grasped the handle. She turned and swung it open just enough for a person to pass through. Immediately, Dash snapped out, seized whoever it was by their lapels, and yanked them in. Applejack quickly slammed the door shut again as Dash threw the individual to the floor.

Papers, books, and photos flew everywhere as the person in question cried in a mixture of shock and pain. Dash quickly went over her and readied a fist while Applejack moved in behind and barricaded the door with her body. Pinkie herself popped off the wall and moved forward, only to see who it was.

“Oh… Hi, Starlight Glimmer!”

Dash nearly slugged her when she stopped herself. Stunned, baffled, and eyes spinning, Starlight lay there utterly dumbfounded. She got her wits back only to cringe. “It’s me! It’s me!”

The Huntsman groaned and pulled her arm back. “Ugh… Why didn’t you do the special knock?”

Starlight’s face slumped. “Maybe I would have if I had known you came up with a special knock… But forget that right now. Is everyone here?”

“Well, yeah,” Dash answered as she got off of her. As she stood to one side, Applejack grimaced before pulling off the door and reaching down to offer Starlight a hand. “Since we’re wanted, it’s not like we can just go off to any local cafes…”

“Although we were plannin’ on headin’ out as soon as we could figure out where to go next,” Applejack threw in. “Problem is, none of us got a clue to where.”

“I do,” she readily answered. “Get everyone together. I’ve got loads to tell you.”

---

In less than ten minutes, everyone was gathered in Rarity’s dining room. Not only because it offered a nice spot away from any windows but because it had a large table that everyone could sit at. All six women were there, along with Spike at Twilight’s side and Angel in Fluttershy’s lap. Sassy and Coco had already gone home for the evening, but rather than call them back Rarity elected to relay them the condensed version. Starlight herself was still finishing turning on all the gaslights when she began.

“You all remember how I told you that we only found a few scraps here and there, right? Well, most of those scraps seemed like they weren’t any use to us because our thinking about them was all wrong. Tell me, where do most people think the Light Eaters came from?”

Twilight shrugged. “Ghosts and spirits?”

“Natural cosmic phenomena?” Rarity suggested.

“Outer space?” Dash suggested, earning a look from Fluttershy. “What? Some novelist over in Fillydelphia wrote a book about it.”

“Beneath the bed! Ooooo!” Pinkie chanted in an exaggerated voice, like she was telling a scary story.

Starlight winced a little. “Uh…well, yes. The official scientific consensus was that this was some sort of astral phenomena or effect, but the most widespread opinion was that these things were somehow some sort of supernatural creatures or even from the underworld here to enact the apocalypse. And to be honest? For lack of any evidence, I was forced to think the same way for the longest time.”

She approached the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. The materials she brought were collected and arranged in front of her, and she immediately looked to the nearest one of the six: Twilight.

“That all changed when I met you. I saw what you could do with those symbols…those…what did you call them again?”

“Promethian Sigils.”

“Promethian Sigils! Whatever power they give you, they let you kill Light Eaters. Not just with that magic you’re using. You’re immune to corruption when you use those spirits you have in there, and you can physically interact with them. And all of that got me to think one thing…”

She leaned in a bit closer; her voice lowering.

“What if…what was causing all of this…the night, the shadow, the Light Eaters, the corruption, and even all the Nighttouched…wasn’t a demon or god or phenomenon but an actual person? Specifically, a person who has the same power as all of you?”

The six were silent, but gave Starlight a puzzled look. They glanced between each other while Twilight herself stared back at her. Before she could venture a word, Starlight shifted weight and resumed.

“Do you know what really got me interested in all of this?” Her voice was quieter now, even somber. “I had a friend named Sunburst who worked in Equestria. Right in the Royal Palace of Canterlot itself. He did clerical work…scholarly stuff. Always spent his time organizing the books and helping keep the materials categorized. He’d be gone for two weeks at a time, come back and stay at the house we were renting for a few days, then head back. He loved his job. He always was excited to get out there, especially when he could bring something home. He’d never say a word of what was inside any of the books though. Not a thing. He always said he wasn’t allowed and that other people couldn’t know.”

Twilight looked a bit more uncomfortable on hearing that. Starlight took a deep breath.

“Our house was in one of the surrounding smaller countries that got eaten up by the Light Eaters in the first week. The night of the Lunar Fall…the exact night…we get the message that something’s happening in the interior. The international conference has been attacked. There’s a big shadow falling over it and monsters are coming out of it and killing everyone. Immediately he packs up a few things, gets dressed, and heads out. I tried to stop him but he said he had to go. Like it was the most important thing in the world. He heads in with the first military unit Griffonstone sends in and…”

She hesitated a moment, clearly uncomfortable.

“…and that’s the last time I ever see him. In two days time the first of the Nighttouched arrived. My mom…she doesn’t make it past the first attack, and me and the rest of the family move out to Griffonstone before the Light Eaters arrive and finish the job. Three days later, the Nighttouched are finally thinned out enough to where what’s left of people are being pulled out along with some survivors. In the tent dad and I are staying in, I hear someone shouting for Starlight Glimmer. I go out, and there’s a field nurse next to a man who’s almost been bitten in half. She tells me before he lost consciousness that there was a scholar from Canterlot who didn’t survive the last attack…”

She again stopped; this time needing a moment to take a few breaths to steady herself. She wiped at both of her eyes before she could continue.

“Sorry… He said that before…before…before you-know-what, he threw this book in his hands and told him to get it to Starlight Glimmer. She gives it to me and, well…here it is.”

She put her hand on top of the book she had placed on the table. Everyone looked at it. The lettering on top was in not only a vastly different language than the newspaper but in a different script as well. However, the image on the front of it was of a rather fanciful, medieval scene full of laughing children, animals, and a minstrel leading them on a parade.

“I couldn’t read a single word from it. I tried flipping through it but…it looked like it was a nursery book. All it had were big fanciful cartoonish characters and what I guessed were little stories next to them. I figured Sunburst had grabbed the wrong book and that this was nothing. I tried to look for any notes he might have given me for clues just in case, and all I ever found was a scrap of paper on the inside cover with his handwriting.”

She opened up the cover at that point, showing the scrap of paper was still there. Twilight leaned in and looked over it. As she saw the two words, she said them aloud to the room.

“‘Nightmare Moon’.”

It was odd. Even saying those words seemed to make the room a little darker and cooler. Everyone thought they imagined it, but Fluttershy clearly trembled.

Starlight shut the cover again. “I figured that was what the people there called the Lunar Fall before it happened, and I didn’t think anything else of it. Everyone I took the book to couldn’t read it. It looked like no one who was able to read this script survived the Lunar Fall, but to be honest I didn’t really bother looking. What good would some nursery rhymes do?

“Ever since then, I tried looking for other clues. Like I said, most of what I found was nothing. Nothing of any use to anyone, at any rate. There was, however, one ‘gem’ I happened to be lucky enough to come across. A couple years back I was touring secondhand stores in Fillydelphia. Specifically, I was looking for cameras.”

“Cameras?” Twilight echoed back.

“There’s never been a recorded picture of the Lunar Fall from within Equestria. It all happened so fast they assumed anyone who got any pictures or evidence died there and now the footage was lost. But I held onto the hope that maybe, just maybe, this happened at the site of the Continental Summit. Because if it did, there had to be photographers both professional and amateur around there. And if there was, there was the slim chance that they not only got a picture but tried to flee with their cameras. They might not have made it out themselves, but what if a looter came across them when they died in a field hospital and grabbed their camera and pawned it off? There had to be thousands of those running around out there, right? And what if those cameras still had undeveloped film?”

She smiled a bit.

“Turns out, after four years and a lot of patience, I was right.”

She drew out a picture from a stack and pushed it to the center of the table. Everyone looked to it, and this time everyone felt a cold chill run down their backs.

Based on the edges of the picture, it had to be from a mountainside or even mountaintop. The surrounding hills and valleys were accentuated in it. However, what truly caught their attention was a towering spire of raw darkness forming a black streak just off center of the photograph. It was like a fire that was made of ebony blackness; rising up and staining everything around it.

“This picture, near as I can figure, was taken right at the Castle of the Two Sisters. That black stuff is rising right out from where it once stood. However, I want to direct your attention to this…”

She reached over and tapped near the top of the rising black flames. Twilight looked closer, but didn’t see anything. After leaning in a bit closer, however, she noticed one thing. A speck of some sort was on the photograph. It could easily have simply been shoddy or dirty film, but Starlight was indicating to it.

“I took a chance after meeting you and blew it up,” she explained as she reached for another picture. “The resolution got pretty bad. This was the best I could get.”

She shifted another photo and put it on top of the first.

Sure enough, it was mostly a blur, and the speck still looked like mostly a speck…but a very large and detailed one compared to most shoddy film. On staring long enough, it actually began to look like something.

Something that might be vaguely human shaped…only…

Twilight’s hand went out and ran along it. “Wings…” she indicated on one part of it, then moved it over. “And a horn…a spired horn… Just like the Tantabus…”

“Now I don’t want to turn this into some sort of ‘ink blot test’,” Starlight went on as she reached for another set of photos, “but there’s more. You remember the scope and camera I had on top of the Steel Lion, right? As we were headed into the city, I snapped as many pictures as I could of the Tantabus and the attack.”

She began to set them on the table. While the shots were more than a little distant, they managed to get a view of the part of the city descending to the ocean while the smog had been lifting. As a result, although the quality on some of them was poor, they could make out the two-limbed body of the Tantabus struggling to push itself back into its darkness. One shot showed the gash that Rainbow Dash and Applejack opened in the side of it. Another showed it pulling back when Rarity aimed sunlight onto it, and still another showed the sunbeams coming down.

“Again, I got really lucky. Remember when it compressed on itself right before it burst?”

She passed out one last picture.

“This picture is the closest I could get to right before it exploded. I went ahead and enlarged that one too.”

She slid the picture over and Twilight’s eyes widened a little.

She had assumed, along with the rest of them, that the Tantabus had just crumpled into a ball before erupting. Yet even when it shrank there was a form on it. It was a bit vague, but it still distinctly had wings and a head region with a spired horn. Only what was below it was twisted and misshapen. Almost like it was humanoid instead of equine…

And glancing at the enlarged speck on the other picture, there was no mistaking the similarity.

Starlight let it sink in for a moment before she reached out and tapped the cover of her book. “I was thinking, if you were from Equestria or at least having lived there, that maybe you could read this. I flipped through it again, really looking at the pictures this time, and I hoped that maybe you could tell me what one page in particular says.”

She dipped her fingers into the cover and opened it up; this time to a marked page. She flipped it around and showed the group.

The picture alone was enough to cause a few small noises. While it was old and drawn in a somewhat exaggerated and child-appropriate manner, there was no mistake as to its nature. It was of a fearsome, dark, and even evil-looking armored woman surrounded by stars and night with pale green serpentine eyes and long sharp teeth. She had two large wings and a helmet with a spired horn.

Everyone looked to Twilight at that. She slowly reached out to bring the book over to where she sat. She let it sit in front of her as she stared at the image and the text. After a time, she moistened her lips.

“Can you read it?”

“…Yes. Celestia showed me how to interpret these.”

“What’s it say?” Dash asked.

She swallowed.

“‘Nightmare Moon, the Harbinger of Death. A bearer of night, fear, terror, murder, and doom, she is the god of darkness and mystery. Her coming…’”

She trailed a moment, stiffening.

“‘…her coming is meant to signal the end of the world.’”

The room was silent. Even Starlight was stunned. She looked at the picture in the book with mouth hung open.

“Does that mean…Sunburst was trying to tell me who was responsible for this? This…Nightmare Moon?”

Rarity suddenly let out a laugh, or at least attempted to. It was laced with anxiety. “Oh, heh-heh… Certainly not. That…that book is just a bunch of fairy tales, correct?”

Twilight didn’t answer. She reached out and turned a few pages. She paused on one, and then turned the tome out to the others. While it was in color, it looked like the insect-like Nighttouched that had attacked Fort Chestnut.

“There’s a parasprite.”

Applejack swallowed. Twilight pulled back and flipped through a few more pages before she held it out again. This time, it was a wolf made of sticks and logs. “There’s one of those timberwolves.”

Fluttershy began to whine as well. Twilight pulled back one more time before she finally frowned on another page. She held it out, showing a picture of the lion with the scorpion tail.

“And there’s those big cat monsters. It calls them ‘manticores’.”

“This…this is a joke, right?” Dash suddenly spoke up, nervously chuckling. “I mean…this is crazy. It’s something out of a storybook, for crying out loud. There’s no such thing as god or gods…” She hesitated, looking around the table. “I mean…right? Not in this day and age.”

Starlight winced. “Some of what you six did back in Griffonstone? Most people probably would have said that was impossible too. I’m one of them. And that Sunset person did even more with two of those sigils. Looking at your hands, I’d say you’d have room for six.” She turned to Twilight. “I don’t suppose you know what someone could do if they had all six, do you?”

Again, all eyes went to Twilight. She turned her eyes back down to the book. She flipped the pages over, going back to the one with Nightmare Moon. Even the eyes of that one seemed to stand out.

“Celestia never used all of hers at once, although…” she took a deep breath, “I honestly thought she would be like a god if she did. And she taught me that advanced Casters with enough mana and power can perform extremely powerful spells well beyond what she could teach me. Some can create familiars by putting a bit of their own spirits into other animals. Some of them can even take part of themselves and split it off into something else…an independent entity. She told me they refer to those pieces of themselves as…their ‘shadow’.”

The group exchanged glances; their own looks growing more fearful in the wake of this news.

“I just…never saw any of it demonstrated,” Twilight went on, “and I never imagined it would be something this big. But if someone could pull off those spells…and they had so much power that the truly could act like they were a god…then…then it might just be possible.”

“Wait, wait…” Pinkie spoke up. “so this means there’s either a big scary dark god out there who’s making all this…or there’s someone out there even stronger than Sunset Shimmer who’s gone crazy and is pretending to be her and doing all this?” She thought for a moment. “Um…now that I think about it, is either one really better than the other?”

“I highly doubt it…” Rarity muttered uneasily. “And to think I was so fearful at the prospect of that woman from Trottingham…”

“And I thought yer magic was the bee’s knees,” Applejack added worriedly. She stared at the table. “Maybe a real god comin’ ta’ end the world…”

“Oh, cheer up, Applejack!” Pinkie immediately reassured. “There’s no god but Gaia!”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Great…it’s just a homicidal maniac with enough power to destroy the world. At least we know why the Nighttouched and Light Eaters started ‘acting smart’…”

“Whoever or whatever it is, there’s a good chance it’s still at the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters,” Starlight threw in. “Everything seems to have radiated from there. Most of the world’s scientists agree on that. And it would make sense if an actual conscious entity was behind this…”

“What…what do we do?” Fluttershy timidly asked.

She looked around, but no one answered. Everyone had their resolve a little shaken now. The truth was none of them could conclusively say what the nature of this entity was; only that it existed now. Twilight herself stared at the image in the book without speaking for a full minute.

When she looked up, her face was firmer, and that was enough to get everyone to look at her.

“We find a way into Equestria, we get to the Castle of the Two Sisters, we defeat Nightmare Moon, and we save Greater Everfree.”

Author's Note:

Kind of picking up the pacing of the plot in this one. I hope I'm not moving too fast or that everyone finds it too abrupt or jarring, but now that the six are together I'm trying to move the story into a higher gear. Unfortunately, it might be a while before I get out the next chapter.

Comments

[YPSE]

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[Djmill]

Well, Rarity's business got dealt with a lot faster than I expected. Might be a good thing, though, there's a lot of other things for the story to go through and it hasn't shown any connection to the main plot besides driving a lot of Rarity's personal motivation.

That's one hell of a spin job on the news, but plausible I suppose. They could really use a good publicist now. Publish some of the real details about what's going on with the Sigils and refocus public attention on the slaying of the Tantabus, and they could still get the hero status they deserve.

Seems Twilight's getting a bit ahead of herself, here. Defeating Nightmare Moon is a great ultimate goal, but first she needs a plan for how to pull it off. They've accepted the premise of a single person having the power to cause the Lunar Fall, and it should be obvious to all of them that anyone with that much power will crush all six of them like insects with their current abilities. Step 1: Ask Pinkie, clearly and specifically, why her Anima Viri seems to be so much more effective than the other five.