Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Daybreak: For Whom the Bell Tolls

“Alright, we’ll need each of the indentations for the individual pieces to fit it snugly. It’s got to be seamless along the inside of the bell and tight once they’re inside. Contact is key. So as soon as each piece is fitted, we’ll need to fill it with solder. Not too much, though, or it’ll ruin the charm.”

“Ok. Are we ready for the larger pieces yet?”

“Yes. We should try to cast them all at the same time.”

“We’ll have to file those down once we’re done.”

“Do we have the tools?”

“Er…we’ve got one or two fine files. The others are rusted.”

“Alright then, let’s focus on-”

The sound of the door flying open interrupted Sunset and Twilight’s discussion with the metalworkers over the large, partially-completed Morning Glory in the middle of the shop floor. Both of them looked up and spotted Luna in the door frame. She was glaring at both of them rather sternly.

“You two. Over here. Now.”

Without another word, she turned and walked out of the door. Sunset and Twilight looked to each other, both of them exchanging an uneasy glance. They took deep breaths at the same time as they rose from their position. Sunset proceeded but Twilight paused long enough to look back at everyone else. “Keep finishing the current pieces while we’re gone. It’s important that we get this running as soon as possible.”

With that, she turned and followed after Sunset. Both of them arrived in the hall just in time to see Luna duck into the nearby adjoining room. They both walked over to it and inside. Once in there, they saw Luna was acting hurriedly, and quickly shut the door after them. She wheeled on both angrily, enough to make them recoil.

“You were in the Northern Keep last night, weren’t you?”

Silence hung in the room, and both were frozen for a moment on realizing they had been caught. In the end, Twilight grimaced but nodded. “We were.”

She stared at them crossly in silence. She remained that way for several seconds before her eyes narrowed.

“You already knew what was in there, didn’t you?” She looked between the two of them. “Both of you did.”

Sunset winced, but shrugged. “Well, not exactly…”

“It was that thing, wasn’t it? The thing that you said was going to bring the end of the world?” Twilight mentioned.

Luna was quiet, but sneered and looked to one side, putting her hand on her forehead. “If Celestia was still alive, I’d kill her… She let not one but two people know about that…”

“So it was that thing,” Sunset answered.

Luna looked back at them. “Very well, here’s another question. Why did you go there, knowing it was there?”

“Did anyone else besides you, Sunset, me, and Celestia know about it being down there?” Twilight asked.

Luna paused, but then shook her head.

“That’s what I thought. We had to check to see if it was still down there. With Celestia gone, we were afraid it might have somehow gotten out. Especially after what you told us. And it looks like we were right…”

“That…thing is not your responsibility,” Luna retorted. “I already told you that you can’t stop it. Leave well enough alone.”

“I can’t do that,” Twilight answered. “Celestia is gone, your powers are sealed, and Sunset can’t use Anima Viris anymore. My friends and I are the only ones who can do something about it now. Celestia managed to lock it in the Northern Keep for years.”

“Only because she got the better of it. Only because it didn’t have any of its Anima Viris.”

“Be that as it may, she trapped it once. That means it can be trapped. We have to at least try. We can work on a new prison. One even it can’t get out of.”

Luna let out a sigh. “Celestia-”

She suddenly caught herself. For a brief moment, both Twilight and Sunset saw her blanch, actually looking tense, before she eased again.

“As I told you, it’s a wasted effort. You won’t be able to stop it.”

“She might,” Sunset spoke up. “Her and her friends work pretty well as a team together. If they train with their Anima Viris, they’ll be even stronger. Maybe they can’t win outright, but they don’t plan on doing it that way. Twilight already has one of the Anima Viris it needs. If they can find the others and get them, then they’ll be able to keep it in a weakened state.”

“We have to at least try, Luna,” Twilight stated more imploringly. “We can’t just sit back and let this world end. And I know, deep down, you agree with me.”

Luna softened a little. She still seemed cross, but what she heard seemed to get to her. Enough to at least make her sigh tiredly. She looked up at them again, this time gazing straight in their eyes.

“This isn’t going to go the way you two want. I’m telling you…this will end in a disaster for both of you. I appreciate how you want to honor my sister’s final act…but my sister was foolish for ever even keeping it down here to begin with. I told her on multiple occasions to destroy it. That it would be easier for her to use her power to track it down and destroy it each time it reincarnated if she truly wanted to stop it. She wouldn’t listen…any more than you two are doing right now. Do you really wish to share her fate?”

The coldness with which she said that last portion made both women pause. Sunset herself shook uneasily and bowed her head. Twilight, though, would not be deterred. “I’ve got to risk it. Please, Luna…if there’s anything you can let us know to help us…anything at all…please tell us. We’re going to try either way, but if you would help us we’d have a greater chance…”

Luna looked back at her. In spite of her earlier demeanor and disgust for their intentions, she did hesitate for several seconds. However, she never broke. She finally turned away and began to walk to the door.

“Abandon this. I’m warning you.” She grasped the handle, turned it, and began to step outside. “And if I learn of the two of you going where you don’t belong again, I’ll banish you from Canterlot.”

She entered the hall, turned, and walked down…just in time to push right past Starlight Glimmer rather brusquely as she came the other way. She actually let out a yelp and went to one side, watched her storm past, and then uneasily stepped forward. She looked into the room and spotted both women.

“Um…hello. We got to the roundabout station. Is this a bad time?”

---

“She said the station was in good shape. A little out of order, but nothing that we can’t get working again. This afternoon she’ll move the train down there, and then we’ll set it on the right track for Manehattan.”

Rarity, in her full form of the Magician, darted in with a few more rapid thrusts in the air, before practicing her footwork a little. “I had no idea that Ms. Cheerilee had taken more advancing fencing back in her higher education…” she mused aloud, before turning to Twilight. “Oh, you should see if she can route through Ponyville, darling. That’s reasonably northeast in through Manehattan, and I’m sure they’ll be happy to take in the refugees.”

“Yeah…like Mount Aris took them in…” Applejack grumbled from nearby as she practiced some of the drills that she had learned from Bright Macintosh. After taking a few more swings, she looked to one side. “Hey Pinkie Pie? How long have I been in so far?”

“Two hours, Applejack!”

“Two…fer the love of… I swear time don’t move as fast in here!”

Pinkie Pie, however, was already lighting up to Twilight. “You know, I was kind of thinking that everyone could stay here! There’s plenty of nice buildings no one’s using, farms, and kitchens loaded with baking goods! Since no one lives in Equestria, why don’t we make a new home right here? I’m sure they even have nice rocks around here for Maud and the family to dig for! Even Limestone almost smiled at the cathedral’s stone!”

“Been kind of nice sleeping in a bed under a roof again,” Dash shrugged before resuming her own fighting drills.

Sunset frowned. “Don’t forget that we’re still in the heart of Nighttouched country. We were ok last night, but for all we know as soon as one spots us we’ll have thousands attacking. We don’t even have enough manpower and weapons to defend this courtyard.”

Twilight nodded. “So long as we’re still without a Morning Glory, we need to keep to the plan of getting in and getting out as soon as possible. Until then, we’ve got to be ready for action. We have to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.”

“And keep training,” Sunset threw in.

“I have to say, Luna’s pointers were much appreciated,” Rarity said as she paused to wipe some sweat from her brow, before dismissing her Anima Viri. As her rapier turned back into an umbrella, she balanced on it while fanning herself with one hand. “I feel much more at ease now about combat, ghastly as it is. I only wish we had a few more of those Anima Viris between us.” She turned her head to one side. “Rainbow Dash, I don’t suppose you might give it a try, would you? I must say, as avante garde as it will be, I’m a bit curious to see what new Role you’ll end up with.”

Dash merely frowned as she threw a few more punches. “I’ll do it when I have to,” she practically muttered. “Stop bugging me about it…”

Rarity sighed before turning to Pinkie Pie. “How long was I that time, Pinkie?”

“A new record, Rarity! Thirty-three minutes!”

The designer looked rather pleased with herself. Sunset struggled not to palm herself in the face. Twilight took a deep breath, and turned over to the other member of the group.

There Fluttershy stood in her Rogue role. In spite of Luna’s advice, she had barely seemed to get any better at combat…likely due to her timid nature. Now, underneath Twilight’s gaze, she swallowed a lump and trembled slightly. Shaking in both of her hands was her dagger.

“Fluttershy…you ready?”

“I…I g-g-guess so…”

“Let’s give it a try. See if you can do it for a whole song.”

“Ok…”

Fluttershy took in a deep breath, before holding her hand up and calling forth her second Anima Viri. Soon after, her aura doubled, and those in the room turned their attention to her as the wind and glow picked up. Once more, she was in the form of the Minstrel, with one difference from her first transformation. Her dagger had turned into an elegantly-crafted lute made of heartwood.

Once in this form, she took a deep breath, and then put it up to her side. “Well…here it goes…”

She closed her eyes, steadied herself, and then moved her fingers over the strings. At once, a very beautiful, soft melody came forth. One far more lovely, potent, and flowing than any other tune that they had ever heard before. It immediately attracted their attention with how it sounded, and soon they found themselves not only focusing their hearing on it but even feeling their minds dwelling on nothing but the song.

As she continued playing, she began to sing.

“Hush now, quiet now,

It’s time to lay your sleepy head…

Hush now, quiet now,

It’s time to go to bed…”

As Fluttershy kept singing, the ladies were only drawn more to her voice and song. And as they kept listening to it, and devoting more attention to it, they began to relax and become more at ease. They either sat more comfortably or leaned against the walls to listen just to her…

“Drifting off to sleep,

Exciting day behind you…

Drifting off to sleep,

Let the joy of dreamland find you…”

The ladies kept listening to her. As they did, Applejack let out a yawn as her head started to nod. Rainbow Dash stretched a bit before crossing her arms. Rarity did a much more “lady-like” hand cover over her mouth to mask her own yawn, and Twilight’s eyelids began to flutter. Sunset’s head nodded a bit, and Pinkie herself actually leaned back on the floor and put her hands behind her head.

“Hush now, quiet now,

It’s time to lay your sleepy head…”

Fluttershy let out an exhale, as if getting a bit winded.

“Hush now…quiet now…”

Her own eyes began to blink as she looked rather weary.

“It’s time to…go to…b…b…”

Finally, she let out a tired sigh, and her Anima Viris were dismissed. Once again, she was in her regular clothes, and her lute transformed back into the hairbrush she had brought with her earlier. She wobbled a bit and had to steady herself, but managed to keep her balance this time.

The others remained in a daze a moment longer before they realized the song was over, and all of them began to grow alert again as if just waking up. Twilight blinked a few times as she realized what happened, then finally turned to Fluttershy. “That was great for only two days! You almost made it through the whole song!”

“Heh…yay…” she weakly muttered.

“I must say, these doubled Anima Viris are quite fantastic,” Rarity added. “These current Roles are good and all, but with an ability like that to influence everyone around her?”

“I thought that myself,” Sunset spoke up. “The Archer was nice for a combat role, but the Minstrel might be more beneficial to dealing with swarms of creatures like the Nighttouched. Fluttershy might be able to be a mobile ‘Morning Glory’ if she can master it.”

“Doesn’t that sound great, Fluttershy?” Dash called out.

“Um…yay…” she weakly muttered again.

Twilight exhaled as she began to get up. “Well, I’m pretty glad with the progress we’ve made so far, but we’ve got a long way to go. Let’s break for lunch.”

“Yay!” Pinkie cheered as she leapt up. “That’s another good thing about living in Canterlot! Three meals a day!”

The rest of the ladies began to rise and get their things together, although Pinkie bounded over to Fluttershy and offered an arm to lean on as she made her way out. Dash readily dismissed her own Anima Viri as she turned to leave, but Applejack called out to her. “Don’t ya’ even wanna try it to start buildin’ your endurance?”

“Relax,” Dash retorted as she walked out. “I’ll do it when I have to.”

Twilight and Sunset soon followed behind, but Applejack frowned as she dismissed her own Anima Viri and tucked her hammer in her side. When it was just her and Rarity left she started to mutter aloud. “She’s the toughest one of us next to me. She’d probably turn out somethin’ real strong. With all her boastin’ and braggin’ all the time, you’d think she’d be head over heels trying out two Anima Viris.”

“Dash has been like that since I met her,” Rarity sighed, leaning on her parasol a little. “I suppose I can’t blame her. She must have had terrible ‘survivor guilt’ over what happened to her old captain. Having another member of her old team on her hand only made it worse.”

“Well shucks…I’d think she’d be happy that her old crew was ‘fightin’ alongside’ her…” Applejack frowned as she looked at her hand. “Goodness knows I feel good knowin’ my old man’s right here…”

Rarity’s face fell a little. She looked down to her own hand, her eyes going to the emblem there. Remembering how she obtained it. She stared at it for a moment, before she reached into her pocket. Applejack noticed her doing this and turned to look, just in time to see her pull out a wilted, dead flower. Nevertheless, she stared at it intently enough.

“What’s that?”

“Just a reminder…” Rarity said soberly. “A reminder of just how much we’ve all lost. I plucked this flower the very same day I watched Ms. Cheerilee die. It was from my first major client. She passed away and I was so wrapped up in my work I never even knew. Sometimes I wonder if I would have known if I had paid a bit more attention…or if I just wanted to wrap myself so much in my work that I wouldn’t stop to think about it.” She sighed as she put it away. “Many things about me had to change when my parents died. And many other things changed once my sister was gone.”

Applejack frowned, lowering her own hat. “I can imagine that. I’ve lost more’n I care to count. My whole family has. Taught me to cling as hard as I could to keep what I could. To make sure I didn’t lose that too.” She grimaced a little. “Toughened me up in more ways than one…” she nearly muttered. She dug her boot into the ground and exhaled. She moistened her lips and stayed there a moment, before she finally said a little more. “I’ve…kinda done my share of things I ain’t to proud of either…”

Rarity looked back up and at her for a moment, nearly asking more, but stopping herself. After a second, she smiled a bit. “Well…don’t dwell on it, darling. We all had to make rough decisions when the Light Eaters came. The important thing is you did it for the right reasons. For your family…your homestead. Things far less selfish and desperate than many of us.”

Applejack still looked down, but she finally let out a small exhale. “I s’pose you’re right… Although you’re in the same boat too. Helpin’ out your hometown and all that?”

Rarity hesitated, but shrugged. “I suppose so…”

“Probably why you’re so eager to get back and see how it’s doin’, right?”

“Well…well yes. I haven’t been back in a long time, and I would like to see how it’s doing. Knowing my business helped it…”

Applejack forced a smile. “Then I reckon we ain’t got much reason for mopin’. ‘Specially not now when we still got a job to do.” She smirked. “So let’s quit all this lollygaggin’ and enjoy some of them three meals a day while we still can, a’right?”

Rarity looked up after a moment, and her own smile became more genuine. “I think that sounds like a wonderful idea.”

Applejack turned to leave. Rarity paused, looking back at the dead flower in her hands. She thought about it silently for a few moments before following the farmer.

---

“Lower it…lower it…nice and easy…there.”

Igneous and Apple Split, with a bit of grit and elbow grease, finished lowering the chains and pullies to put the top half of the emerging Morning Glory onto its bottom half—joining them into one piece with a clang. Sunset exhaled and looked over it a moment, studying it to make sure that all was well and intact. After giving it an inspection, she nodded her head.

“Alright, looks pretty good. We’re making better progress than I hoped. On to the next piece…” She paused momentarily, looking around the workshop. Aside from Igneous and Apple Split, there were a few other people working on some of the cruder bits, but they would be done soon and everything left would be the fine metalwork. However, she noticed that they were all that was there.

“Where’s Twilight? I need her for the next part.”

“Verily, she hath been summoned posthaste by our ghostly host,” Igneous replied.

“Excuse me?”

“That dark-lookin’ woman who had the funny key to get in here pulled her aside while you were in the back,” Apple Split ‘translated’. “Said she wanted to talk to her ‘bout a few things in private.”

Sunset paused. She failed to notice or appreciate the fact that she had been left on her own with other individuals for once and hadn’t felt the slightest bit of anxiety and fear. Instead, she focused on the fact that Luna had pulled her aside without bringing her along too. She frowned a little in response.

“Did you see where they went?”

“Reckon they headed down the hall a ways, is all.”

She nodded. “Thank you. You two can take five.” With that, she turned and went out the door to the classroom.

As spacious as the academy was, it wasn’t terribly hard to find someone that was missing considering how empty it was. Most of it along with the courtyard was so quiet and still that it was impossible to miss anyone making any sort of noise. As a result, Sunset didn’t have to walk down the halls that far before she heard the sounds of a bit of talking far on the other end. She picked up her pace to get down there faster, but as it turned out it was unnecessary.

Halfway to the room, Twilight stepped out and turned to face her, a bit surprised at her coming. Luna emerged soon after, but she was walking rapidly and paid neither woman either mind as she went the opposite way. She soon hit the stairwell and went right up.

Sunset glanced after her a moment before looking at Twilight. “What was that?”

Twilight sighed a little as she approached. “Luna was just asking me more about what all I had seen in the Northern Keep. Is the next phase of the Morning Glory ready? I can get to work on it now.”

Sunset, however, didn’t let it slide so easily and planted her feet. “Well why didn’t you tell me you were stepping out? You just snuck away without saying anything.”

Twilight stopped. She hesitated a moment before she grimaced. “Well…er…the reason is Luna told me she wanted to hear in private, without you around.”

Sunset, in spite of everything she had been through and how her demeanor had changed, actually looked a little disgusted. “And…why is that?”

“I don’t know. But what does it matter?”

“Why am I being left out of the loop all of the sudden? It’s bad enough that she clearly has secrets she’s keeping from all of us. We’re already keeping some of this behind the backs of the others. Now we’ve got to keep things behind each other’s backs?”

“I think she was just trying to make sure we weren’t making up a story…” She paused, frowning a little. “And please don’t take this the wrong way, Sunset…but after everything you kept behind our backs and everything you did, I don’t think you’re really in a position to criticize.”

Sunset’s eyes widened, and for a moment a flash of anger went over her face. “I’m not? After everything she-” However, she cut herself off soon after. She took a moment to close her eyes and take a deep breath, and slowly let it out. After that, her expression slumped again and she sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’m hardly one to call out anyone on anything… I suppose I should get used to that from now on...”

Twilight looked a bit uneasy herself at Sunset’s response, a bit in spite of herself and their past. She exhaled again as she looked to one side. “At any rate, it wasn’t anything big. She just wanted to know why I went to the Northern Keep the second time.”

Sunset frowned a bit. “She knows that full well. We told her yesterday.”

This made Twilight nervously cringe. “Er…that’s…not what I was talking about.”

Sunset was quiet for a moment, staring at Twilight, until what she said clicked. Her eyes widened. “You snuck out to the Northern Keep a second time when you were still a student?”

She blushed in embarrassment.

“Sheesh, and I thought I was disobedient… So why did you?”

Twilight sighed and bowed her head. “To tell the truth, I don’t really know. It had been…well, a stressful day. Things went a bit wrong in class and I ended up getting a talking-to by Celestia. I almost got in trouble with Professor Inkwell, and…well…when I was in my room thinking about everything, I thought back to the Northern Keep. And I got curious about what was down there, and wondering if the reason Celestia was so stressed out when I spoke to her was because of what was down there. So…so I went back.” She exhaled nervously. “But when I got there, it was laughing horribly. Hideously even. And when I got close enough…I only had to hear it once to go back to my room. I never had the courage to go down there again.”

Sunset stared back silently. She didn’t move or show anything.

Twilight noticed her silence. “Is something wrong?”

Sunset’s look grew somewhat puzzled. “Twilight…why exactly went wrong in your class?”

She turned red again. “Oh…um… I…er…sort of broke the rules. Celestia told me she wanted me to be in the lower level classes even though I was mastering the more advanced magic. One of my classmates was reading ahead along with me, so I…um…kinda, sorta thought it was ok to try out a Level VI Gradual Petrification curse on her. I got a bit carried away and…well…the professor had to step in. But she was pretty mad at me for that. Celestia had to talk her in to letting me back into her class after that.”

Sunset stared back at Twilight with wide-eyes. “Did…you say a Level VI Gradual Petrification curse?” Her voice had lowered.

Twilight looked confused, but also a bit unnerved at Sunset’s change. “Yes…why?”

Sunset stared on at her a little longer. She looked at the ground, her surprise turning to disbelief, confusion, and even uncertainty.

“Sunset?”

She blinked twice and exhaled. “Nothing…nothing, I guess. Probably nothing.”

Twilight didn’t look entirely convinced by that, but then began to walk again. “Come on. I think if we push it, we might have that Morning Glory finished before dusk.” She walked past the woman and began to make her way toward the workshop.

“Twilight.”

She stopped and looked back. Sunset looked up at her uncertainly.

“Do you…remember the name of the student you performed that curse on?”

“Oh…” She winced a moment in further embarrassment. “I used to be so buried in books that I was terrible with names… Hers was…um… Moon…Moonprancer, no…Moondancer! I’m almost certain that was it, Moondancer!”

She turned about and kept going down the hall.

Sunset, however, was left staring silently after her. It was some time before she was able to only slowly and silently follow after her. And for the rest of the day, her mind was ablaze with so many new thoughts that she could barely say a word to anyone.

---

Starlight let out a bit of an uneasy sigh as she drew back her sheets. “One more night… Just one more night of having to sleep on edge…”

Sunset looked up a bit from her own bed. While she had eased down from earlier, she still looked rather uncertain and had been quiet for the rest of the day. However, Twilight spoke up for her as she arranged her own bed neatly before getting in. “It might be sooner than that. We’re just letting some of the components cool right now. But after that, we just need to fix the reinforcement rods into place and mount it, and we should be able to test it out. Right, Sunset?”

“Huh?” she spoke up, distracted from her thoughts. “Oh yeah…right…”

“Of course…” Twilight admitted as she leaned down to pet Spike, causing him to curl up on a rug on the floor. “We don’t necessarily know if it will work just yet… On that note, how is the train coming?”

“I’d feel better if we had someone who was a true engineer of these things, but it’s looking pretty good. Train’s all in working order. We finally managed to get the roundabout station to run, but we haven’t figured out how to start up the steam engines at the station yet. So we had to hand crank the tracks to get everything moved. It took most of the day but we finally got it on the right track. We should be ready to go tomorrow. We just have to hope the tracks are clear all the way back to Manehattan… It’s almost a shame. We just figured out how to get the lights in the lower floors of the school to work.”

“Well, the sooner we get out of here the better, so long as we don’t know for sure we can defend this place,” Twilight sighed as she went to her own bed. “None of the Nighttouched have spotted us yet, but they’re still running around in the city, and there’s been more of them. I don’t know if they smell something or what but I don’t want to find out. We’ll all be gone soon.”

As Starlight settled into her own bed, she paused and glanced back at Twilight. “Are you sure you want to do that so soon?”

Twilight just began to pull back her own sheets before she looked at her in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Well…we’ve got a mixture of refugees, fugitives, escapees, and AWOL soldiers. Not to mention a number of people with Anima Viris in a world that’s increasingly militarizing them… And I’m still wanting to get you out to that hidden facility I found, and, at the moment, the Manehattan government still thinks that I’m just a reclaimer for roadways. So…maybe we should think a bit hard about how we want to go there?”

Twilight paused, thinking about that halfway into her own bed. She grimaced a bit at the thought. “You might have a point… Maybe we should-”

She cut herself off. At that moment, she had gone rigid, along with Starlight and Sunset. Spike had just been starting to lay down when he held his head up, letting out a whine. As they went silent, they heard the sound more clearly from outside, and it was unmistakable.

One of the warning bells.

Twilight hesitated only a moment longer, then called out. “Let’s go!”

At once, all three shot back out of bed and raced for their clothes, throwing them on as fast as they could. By the time they were dressed and bursting out of their room, some of the older refugees were already escorting the children down into the basement while everyone else was still clambering into their clothes and taking up their weapons. The three of them, on the other hand, rushed straight for the stairwell, all while the bell continued to ring. Along the way, Twilight’s group ran alongside Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

“Hey Twilight! You heard the bell too?” Pinkie smiled, seeming oblivious to the danger.

“What’s going on?” Starlight shot back to both of them.

“I don’t know!” Fluttershy remarked fearfully, driving herself forward out of panic more than boldness. “I just heard the bell start to ring! We didn’t see or hear anything else! I told Angel Bunny to stay put and came running!”

“Do you have something you can use for a weapon?”

“You got it!” Pinkie cheered, holding up a spatual from the kitchen. Fluttershy meekly held up her hairbrush.

“Hold on tight! Be ready for anything!”

The group finished descending the stairs and ran to the entrance, bursting out into the courtyard. Once there, Starlight looked around for a moment, her eyes darting to the various walls. At the moment, things still looked calm. Most of the area was dark and there were no signs of any Nighttouched or other foes. Aside from the clanging bell, the courtyard was still safe.

Starlight finally pointed. “There! On the northwest side!”

The group turned and looked. Sure enough, they could barely make out the shadow of one of the guards ringing the bell, and the other people assigned to the watch were rapidly running over along the wall. Soon after, Twilight led the way as their own gathering ran across the courtyard to the nearest embedded tower. They quickly shot up the stairs, taking them two at a time, as the bell kept ringing, and although the whole excursion left them rather winded they made it to the top.

Almost immediately, they ran into Applejack and Rainbow Dash standing there waiting for them. “Glad you came runnin’ so quick!” The former shouted to them as they hit the top.

Twilight, panting a bit, steadied herself a moment. “Where’s Shining Armor?”

“Over yonder! He’s the one ringin’ the bell!”

“Where’s Rarity?” Dash immediately asked.

“We’re the first ones up here!” Sunset shouted back. “Everyone else is right behind!”

“Normally I’d say I could take this all by myself…but I think we’re going to need everyone we got for this!”

None of the women liked the sound of that very much. “What do you mean?”

She pointed out beyond the wall. “See for yourself!”

Twilight, Starlight, and Sunset looked.

It may have been night already, but in spite of that they could make out the shape of a very large, very dark, and ominous shadow looming over part of the city. It wasn’t like fog or even a storm cloud. More like nothing but pure darkness, somehow given a tangible, voluminous form. It was slowly moving through the main road of the town, up the hill, right for the citadel.

And it wasn’t alone.

As it drew closer, they could see something within the shadow…advancing underneath its darkness and shade. Lights. Dozens of them. Hundreds of them. It was hard to make out what they were at first. They weren’t the normal lights of Nighttouched swarms, although they were gathered together strongly enough and moving in synchronization enough to be mistaken for them on pattern alone.

Yet looking a bit closer, it was possible at last to make out what they were. Green lights coming from what looked like masks or helmets. A vivid and yet putrid hue, like rot or decay. And positioned right over the position of where the eyes should be. And since they were masks and helmets, they testified to the hundreds of individuals walking in unison under them. Individuals dressed in twisted, noxious costumes studded with spikes and tufts of hair. All in dark colors and composed of metal and leather. Like they were barbarians or savages. Indeed, most of them were wielding crude battle axes, hammers, cleavers, and other handmade weapons.

Beyond them, however, were another set of glowing lights. These ones were far more widespread, spilling out beyond and behind the shadow to flood out into the surrounding streets and homes and moving through and around them as they advanced. These ones were Nighttouched. Thousands of them. Only their eyes weren’t the same as normal Nighttouched. They were the same sickly green with red pupils now, and seemed to be giving off a purplish haze.

Finally, as the shadow cleared the last row of houses and was left with nothing but the road to the citadel, from within the darkness, lights began to emerge. A pair of dark, burning, malevolent eyes…the same sickly green with blood red pupils and issuing forth purple smoke…emerged from within.

Twilight turned pale.

“It’s here. That thing that conquered my home and drove out Shining Armor…it’s here.”

Author's Note:

It's been a while, so if people are wondering why Sunset reacted the way she did, take a look at this chapter.

This is another one I split in two. I decided to devote all of the next chapter to the coming battle...