Chapter 58: Foul Wind
Firefly should’ve flown directly home, cutting across Willowbrook with all the speed her body could muster. She knew thanks to her time with Rainbow that she could move with speed that other ponies could scarcely even see, avoiding terrible conditions in the air.
Instead, she went all the way to the clouds, and drifted along barely faster than the breeze. The air on her feathers spoke to her of worsening conditions—of a growing storm in the distance. By this time tomorrow, there might be flash flooding in the city below, or maybe even hail. Willowbrook didn't have the weather crews to head off difficult conditions—all they could do was brace for the storm.
Firefly had a hard time caring about that. She still felt dazed from what she'd seen—an explosion of plant life, a bloody corpse wrapped in vines. The bathroom closet hadn't given her the best view, or much chance of overhearing what was said. At least it wouldn't have, if Amaranth hadn't spent most of his final moments screaming.
She knew little about Equestrian politics, even less than Lilac. But even Firefly knew that the confrontation would have terrible fallout for all of Willowbrook. Amaranth Vale was a member of Celestia's own court. Manipulating him was key to keeping the crown from coming down on her town, somehow.
I should've told Twilight more about the cult. I should've told her who I really am. The Lightless Star had been wrong about how Equestrians treated her. They didn't discover the truth about her, and they didn't murder her. She had a hard time believing any of the visiting investigators were even capable of murder.
But Iris Vale was. She saw the bloody knife herself, before saying goodbye to Lilac.
“You both need to keep your heads down for the next few days,” Iris had said, before sending her off. “Equestria will react, I don't know how. Don't give them any reason to notice you.”
She didn't even get to hug her friend before she was out the window, and flying home. What would Dusty think about all this? Would he think this was her choice somehow, like when she'd helped Lilac with the scrying spell? Her adoptive father was patient and forgiving, but his tolerance would eventually run out.
She lingered near the cliffs, as she passed River Breeze's cloud house. She could fly in and ask to stay the night. River's parents liked her for being such a good flying tutor to their daughter, they wouldn't mind at all. But she couldn't just vanish on her dad, not with news of the chaos in House Vale bound to spread across town.
She flew slow enough that she almost missed another set of wings trailing near her. The pony keeping pace wasn't a pegasus, and didn't make half as much noise. But Firefly felt the disruption in the air, and turned anyway.
Velvet waved, meeting her in the air for a brief hug. “Firefly! What are you doing moping around up here?”
Firefly pushed her away, glaring. “I'm not moping, I'm just—” She stopped herself abruptly. She couldn't tell anyone where she'd been, or what she saw. Amaranth had attacked Lilac, and died for it. Sharing what she knew would only put her best friend at greater risk.
She turned her back on Velvet Moon, arcing over the wispy strands of cloud and gathering them in front of her, until she had a little island under her hooves. She settled onto her haunches there, overlooking the town. “I just don't feel good.”
“Oh.” The cloud shifted a few moments later, as Velvet joined her there. She sat close, the way ponies always did. Human standards of personal space were a nearly-forgotten relic for her by now. “Me too.”
She shrugged. Charlie scanned the town below, until she found her home. Even at this distance, her eyes were sharp enough to pick out the lights on the top floor. All on, which meant Dusty was home. Firefly's absence wouldn't be that strange right now—but as the sun set and nightfall descended, he would start to worry.
Firefly was so consumed in her own moping that she hadn't even looked at her friend. But now she did. The batpony's wings sagged, and her huge ears folded back almost completely. What could be bothering her?
She wrapped one wing around her. “Sorry I haven't got to spend time with you lately. I... ever since I got really into weather and flying, it feels like we spend less and less time together. That's not fair. I'm sure you'd do weather stuff with the rest of us if you could.”
The bat nodded. “It seems like fun! But thestral wings don't work the same as yours. Bats can't even do the fancy acrobatics you do in the air.” She opened one wing. “The membrane isn't strong enough.”
Firefly shouldn't be up here chatting with a childhood friend, not now. She fidgeted in place, eyes still fixed on the lights of her distant apartment. The usual clear smells of upper air were soon joined by something else—smoke.
“We'll have to do something together soon,” she said. “With River and Sunbeam too. Maybe when this next storm is over.”
“You mean Vale?” Velvet asked.
“No, there's another storm coming. Like a few weeks—” She turned, and finally looked at her friend. “What storm did you hear about Vale?”
“It's, uh—look!” She pointed with her wing, off into the country behind them. Flickers of orange rose from the building, along with a line of black smoke.
Accelerant, she thought. They lit their own house on fire. “Celestia, it's on fire!” Was she a better actress than Velvet? Probably not. “Somepony should tell the weather ponies! They might be able to get some rain together to put that out.”
Velvet shook her head once. “With a sky of altocumulus? The water won't reach the ground.”
Firefly nodded absently. Velvet was right, the puffs of higher cloudlets would take time to gather, and even longer to bring low enough to make rain. The bat was selling her weather knowledge short.
“Should we tell someone else?” Firefly asked, a little more hesitantly. “The fire brigade can get a carriage out there.”
The bat shook her head. “If we see it, half of Willowbrook is watching too. You already got foalnaped by Equestria once, do you want them to interrogate you again?”
Another good point, even if it came buried in a lie. Anything connecting her to the fire growing in House Vale would give any investigation that came after reasons to look into her, and her friends, and the truth of her origin.
Unless the Lightless Star were all lying, and Equestria wouldn't hurt her. Shame the stakes of that truth were so high.
“I guess I should go home then, keep my head down,” Firefly said. She spread both her wings, then kicked at the cloud she'd made. It dissolved in an instant, plunging her into the air. Her friend struggled for a second to catch herself, but Firefly barely noticed.
“Are you ever gonna tell me about what happened in that mine?” Velvet asked. “Risk said you were gonna invite me, but you must've asked somepony else.”
Firefly's face warmed. She hadn't made a terribly practical choice during that adventure, choosing to bring another young mare based on her looks, instead of the friend whose natural talents would actually help in dark, enclosed spaces.
“You dodged a bullet there, Velvet. That trip was an absolute nightmare. I wish I hadn't gone either.”
The bat watched her, confusion growing on her face. “What's a bullet?”
“Nevermind.” Firefly was just surprised she'd got away with that one. Trying to think of her name still made her face scrunch with pain, so it wasn't like the spell was gone for her. Not like Lilac. “It was awful, okay? Like really, really awful. Lilac's magic went so haywire that Risk and River's brains got fried. They don't even remember it.” She turned back towards the clouds again, and River's house.
She still needed to do something to make it up to the young mare. So much for a romantic adventure into ancient magic and amazing places.
“But not yours, right? What happened?”
On any other day, Firefly would've just brushed her off. But she was already stretched to the edge of her restraint. “Lilac tried some really dangerous magic and it backfired. It summoned something, and we blew it up with dynamite to stop it from getting out.”
Even speaking about the Derek Ashsen made her stomach turn. Every sensation she remembered from that creature felt wrong. Much worse than someone's hoof moving against the grain of her fur, or metal on a chalkboard. It was every missed note and bad smell and ungroomed feather all in one.
“I think you made them angry—” Velvet said. “Or she did. Do you have anywhere—you could hide? If you had to. Next time something bad happens?”
Since when was her friend so insightful? Firefly shook her head. “Lilac does, but I don't have anywhere specific. I guess I could go up into the Cumulus Maze... there are sometimes some cloud buildings so big they just pass right over the Gyre, then continue back into Equestria. It happens so often that no one would bother investigating them. They'd have to search hundreds of different clouds to find the one that still had a building on it.”
“That's a good idea,” Velvet said. She glanced back at the fire, then at Firefly again. “If you think anypony would be mad at you, you should probably hide for a while, until the smoke clears. I'm sure your dad would understand.”
Until the smoke cleared. That had painful meaning just now, while the largest and grandest manor in all of Willowbrook burned to ash. How many afternoons she'd spent playing there with Lilac, and now it would be ashes.
“Maybe. But I shouldn't just hide in the clouds. And I can't run away from Willowbrook—this is my home! Lilac is here, and River, and all my other friends! I know you—” She lowered her voice, hoping she didn't sound too harsh. “I know you don't have any parents, Velvet. I'm sorry about that, really! But I couldn't leave mine behind. Dusty took me in when I had nowhere, and he's stuck by me no matter how much trouble I caused. I'm not just gonna run away because I got myself in some trouble.”
Firefly could understand plainly how a pony like Velvet Moon could recommend hiding—without a family of her own, why shouldn't she run and hide for a few weeks if something spooked her? Equestria was a safer place than the old world had been, but not that much safer. There were plenty of dark forces in Willowbrook that would take advantage of a young filly on her own, if they could.
“Just think about it, okay?” Velvet asked, floating over to her for another quick hug. Firefly felt moisture on her coat as she did so. Even a gentle reminder of her situation was too much for the young mare. “I don't want anything to happen to you! And Willowbrook is so dangerous right now, hiding just feels like the best option.”
Then she dropped, so fast that Firefly struggled to find her against the darkness. “Velvet Moon?!” she yelled, standing tall. “Don't go!” But she didn't reappear. Willowbrook was a blur of activity beneath her, with ponies emerging to look towards Vale. From the ground they wouldn't see the flames, only the thickening band of smoke against the sunset sky.
Her friend was gone too soon to interrogate. What had her so worried for Firefly that she begged her to run away? Not badly enough that she wanted to go with me. If River asked something like that, saying no would be much harder.
Guess I should go home, she thought. She didn't fly straight there across town, not when that might still suggest her origin to a clever pony who happened to see her. Instead she continued at altitude, until she was directly over the apartment. She waited a little longer, until darkness had fully set in.
Even the lights of her top-floor suite went out, leaving only a faint glow emerging from the windows.
Firefly had to fly especially slow in the dark. There was little moonlight, and even less than there should be thanks to the smoke. She bumped a wing on the railing in the gloom, but still managed to land securely. She brushed her mane with a hoof, or what little had grown back so far. Hopefully there wasn't much ash stuck in there.
Then she opened the sliding door and stepped into the darkness. Her eyes did even worse inside than out, and she fumbled against the wall until she reached the switch. She twisted, and the gas-lamp grew into a steady warmth.
Four ponies waited inside, spread around her room. Three were strangers, wearing the white masks and dark robes of the Lightless Star. The forth was familiar—her father, wearing the same outfit, right down to the mask. He pushed the balcony door gently closed, and latched the lock across.
“Welcome back, Firefly,” he said.
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Oh, that seems ominous.
Ooooohhh man. I don't think this is gonna end well. For anybody.
Oh, if I may:
FoUrth
This must be the first time the cult gave any real attention to Firefly. Given her doubts about them and recent events, this isn't good.
They might do it anyway.
Well, Velvet knows the truth now.
Other than her possibly being a changeling, she should be someone to watch. She seems to know a storm is coming. The question is, why?
Whether Lilac was the primary focus of the cult's plans or not, there's no doubt Firefly enjoyed the relative freedom the cult gave her up until this point. It seems that time is now ending. Perhaps it would've been better for Firefly to act on Velvet's advice. Throw another wrench into the cult's plans. Even if Equestria is still an unknown factor, the cult isn't.
The presence of cult members can't mean anything good. I wonder what Velver Moon knows that has her so spooked. I think that Firefly's best option is to simply tell Equestria the truth since right know the cult seems the biggest threat.
Ahh and my binge catches up to a very well timed upload. I'd say it was on quite the momentous chapter, but the last couple have all been pretty momentous.
I wonder what the cult has for Firefly. I doubt anything TOO bad, and I wonder if news about lord Vale's death got ahead of her enough for them to do something related.
I'm starting to wonder if the cult would be willing to throw Firefly under the bus to keep Equestrian suspicions off of Lilac.
https://images.app.goo.gl/ghscyU8YG9T1xMyB8
Ooof, I hope Firefly knows how to make it to the Breezie's place...actually, even if she did, it might not end up going so well.
Uh...come on back, mane 6. Please investigate this murder. Please remember Firefly and try to find her...
Well that's ominous
Oooh, I do not like the thought of that latch being locked. Admittedly, it'll let them act in secret... Then again, with them actively waiting for her, and being all robed up... If anyone arrived before her, there would be no deniability. Something is very, very wrong here...
You forgot your dad is a crazy cultist! Now you done messed up!
No surprise that a Rainbow Dash fanfilly will feel a strong sense of loyalty.
Unfortunately, the ties that bind can also strangle. Firefly may be in for a very rough night. We'll have to see what happens from here.
11303255
I have a feeling we're going to get answers on her dad's true nature soon. I'm still fairly sure he's a changeling.
why no one wrote "cliffhenter"
Velvet knows more than she let's on...