What Followed The Dawn

by Anemptyshell

From the Dark

It was a blur, a rapid series of still frames. That of a slideshow, one instance played frozen, then the next. I felt sick, and my insides boiled. The orbs were disposed of, Polly was left shaking against the ship's railing, and I was pulled away from the frightened parrot. I could feel myself walking but had little in the way of guiding it. I was a prisoner in my mind. I stood beside Nightmare, who was shaking in her chains. She felt as rancid as I did if the pool of bile that sat between her forelegs was any consideration. The fact she could vomit in my mind was a thought I'd rather not dwell on.

"What have you done?" Nightmare asked. She didn't meet my eye, or perhaps I couldn't meet hers. It didn't matter; the question hung in the air. A physical force that drove me deeper into myself.

"What have I done?" I asked in return.

We'd spent the better half of the time I was brought away from Polly asking the questions on repeat. It was clear that neither of us was genuinely privy to the actions that took place. One of us wrought with rage, the other desperation. To whom each belonged was indiscernible. We were one and the same in the here and now. There was no Stargazer, no Nightmare Moon. The shadows were all that remained. Two echoes, neither truly who they were before The Elements had consumed us both.

On some level, I'd known, she'd known. We'd been bound; yes, Discord had tied the loose strands of fate. But such acts, even for him, had a cost. Two souls stitched together. I hadn't lied to my friends. The same friends who were outside were trying to coax me back into reality. They had no need. Nothing was holding us here. There never was.

"I'm sorry," I said.

Nightmare let out a bedraggled sigh. She otherwise made no move. The chains that shackled her led to nowhere. I had never noticed, never thought about it, in any concrete fashion. The chains simply vanished into the dark. I shook my head and waved at the restraints. Then they were gone. Nightmare made no sign of relief, no motion to vanish into the dark.

"To what ends does it even matter? This paltry farce of ours. It disgusts me," Nightmare muttered.

"Agreed."

"They're are waiting for you," Nightmare said, looking up from her own metaphysical sick to the frantic scene in the real world.

"Yeah, but I don't know what to tell them, where to start. If anything, I proved Sabre right. The dark inside, the power you have. I used it, stole it. I could have hurt someone, I could have died, we could have died."

"Pathetic. Nightmare Moon is beyond death. My power beyond your puny grasp. You gazed into the abyss, and it gazed back. You should feel lucky; I deigned to look upon you at all."

Nightmare struck a pose, though it lacked any dramatic flair. It was instinct, habit. She did so because it was what Nightmare Moon would do. It was what one would expect. I shook my head. Without the chains, armor, and majesty, it was all an act, all the right parts in the wrong places.

"Of course, my apologies. I mistook your alarmed yelling earlier as one of hurt. I should have known better."

I offered a dry laugh. One Nightmare returned. "Do not mistake your place, little pony. It was a moment of surprise, nothing more."

"Right."

We fell back into silence. The others were talking outside, though the words were muffled and distant. Ambient background noise and nothing more. I stood slowly. I looked over to Nightmare, who looked back.

"I should go. They'll have a heart attack at this rate."

"Go. I need no attention from the likes of you," Nightmare said. She shooed me away. I gave a humorless smile and a slow nod. I walked towards the world outside, to the light, away from the dark. As the two mixed, I could almost hear a voice, though on what end it originated was beyond my senses. A distant small voice, hoarse and weak. A gentle thanks, guided to none, under the breath of the mind and reality.

I blinked. Above me, the sky sat, clouds lazily floating through the pale blues of the world above. I shook and shifted upright. No sooner than I reached a sitting position, something struck the back of my head. I yelped a dragged my forehooves in defense.

"Idiot." I turned about to see Spade standing, shovel over his shoulder. "You know what you did."

I huffed. "Rude."

"He's up, he's up. Huzzah," Bright Pitch sang as he circled Spade and me, gliding around the deck with a giddy laugh.

"Yes, yes, he is. Now, Spade, if it wouldn't be too much to ask. Please hit him again."

"Kay," Spade said, raising his shovel overhead.

"Blue," I said, managing to stumble out of Spade's spades immediate reach. Blueblood joined Spade and Bright Lande beside him.

"Far be it from me to be cautious when one of my closest friends exhibits dark magical fits that could issue the rise of Equestira's darkest hour. Literally, at that."

I offered a chaste wave. "That's a fair point. But blunt force trauma is hardly liable to solve that issue, now is it?" I asked.

"Maybe not, but it made me feel better," Spade said.

"So, care to explain."

A cold shiver crawled up my spine. The voice had come from behind me. I tried hard to ignore the hole being burned into the back of my head. I swallowed hard and tried my best to slow my breathing. I slowly looked behind me to a very unhappy stallion. Sabre stood looming over me. The muscles across his legs flexed. His tail swayed, and his look was straight out of the book of Nightmare Moon herself or Chrysalis on a bad day. Though she at least had the excuse of being pregnant. Sabre was fighting and losing to his desire to suplex me overboard.

"Sabre, hey."

I threw my hooves over my throbbing head for the second time in as many minutes. Sabre leered down, his hoof extending back for a second swing. I gulped.

"Hey, that's all you have to say to me, not a day after I predicted this event. I told you, told all of you, that Nightmare Moon could not be trusted. That she would pull something. I warned you."

Sabre was shaking in place. A hoof was still raised and primed for delivering pain. His breathing was ragged as he yelled down at me.

"It wasn't—" I said.

"Wasn't that enough in self-defense? It wasn't her magic, her tainted evil magic? Because, Star, that looked exactly like when you told me, told all of us, she saved me. So, Star, it wasn't what?"

Sabre was gasping, snorting, his eyes narrowed to the point of closing entirely. He'd leaned in and tabbed a hoof into my chest. I couldn't meet his gaze. My ears were glued to the side of my head. The others were whispering amongst themselves. I managed a slow shake of my head.

"Nightmare didn't do anything. She tried to stop me. She's not very happy with me, either."

Sabre's breath caught. He stepped back as if struck. His hoof was still pointed to my chest, where it had just rested. The look on his face was unreadable. A plethora of emotions played out in a rapid incoherent cycle.

"What?" he asked.

"I didn't really mean to. Neither of us was prepared for it. I got mad, I thought back to Canterlot, and it just sort of happened. It reminded me of when Discord took over when the shadows took hold back then. It was like it was me and not me at the same time. But it wasn't Nightmare. That I am sure of, we're both sure of."

I took a deep breath. My heart was pounding. I felt bile building in the back of my throat. Sabre had fallen to his haunches. The whispering behind me had gone entirely silent.

"By Faust's teats. Why do you have to make everything so complicated?" Sabre asked. It was a fair question.

"Because Star likes to stir the pot. Duh," Bright added, wrapping a foreleg around me and pulling me into a tight hug.

"It does seem to be his calling card," Blue said.

I gave a wry smile. Sabre limply pulled his head into his hooves and groaned. This earned a laugh from Bright and a chuckle from Blue. Blue hadn't been wrong. I did seem to get into these situations too much for it to be expected. Past Nightmare Moon, Tirek certainly didn't help matters, nor did The Storm King and his lackeys.

"What happened to the pirates, by the way?" I asked.

"Tempest," Blueblood said.

"Tempest, Spade agreed.

Tempest, Bright whooped, tightening his already vice grip around my neck.

"Oh?" I asked. I struggled vainly in Bright's grip, who seemed happy to keep me there for the foreseeable future.

"While you hunted the fat one, your new bodyguard beat the rest of 'em' into the ground and then used those she beat as digging implements to bury the rest. It was a civil service as any," Spade said. He saluted and straightened his shovel in reverie.

"You were only gone like five minutes, and then you were out for a couple more. You really missed a good show. I can't wait to write about it when we get home. It's gonna be amazing."

Bright finally released me, only for me to lurch forward and cough as fresh air filled my lungs. At the very least, we weren't held up too long. We may still beat Starlight and her crew. All we needed now was?

"Hippogriffs."

I nodded; exactly, all we needed was a hippogriff. "Wait, what?"

Thorax came sprinting in, nearly running Bright and me as he slid to a stop. "Hippogriffs, to in the brig, that's what its called right, a brig?" Thorax looked to Blueblood, who nodded in response. "Two in the brig."

"Why?" I asked.

"The Captain would know, now wouldn't she?" Sabre asked. He'd recollected himself for the moment and looked past me to the crew's quarters door across the deck.

"Tempest," Thorax said. He held a hoof to his heart and whispered a simple prayer. That certainly didn't help matters.

So, off we were. A short jaunt later and the sound of several whimpers and bird trills had us join the rest of our companions in the bowels of the harpy's ship. Where Tempest Shadow was hard at work. Sombra stood in the doorway, watching the affair with mild amusement. He even managed a smug smile. It was nice to see Sombra branching out and making new friends.

"How is it going?" Sabre asked.

"Yes," Sombra answered, never taking his eyes off the spectacle.

Tempest had a lot of the birds tied up and thrown into one corner. Their captain was, however, in the center of the room, tied to a ship's support beam. Grubber stood off to the side, smiling away as Tempest tried her own brand of investigation. By which, she was taking the ever-loving Tartarus out of Celaeno. She really was eager to test out that new horn of hers.

"Talk, now," Tempest said. Her voice was low, the dim lantern light of the chamber dancing off her eyes in a sadistic recital. Celaeno huffed and puffed, coughing out a wisp of smoke as she struggled, weakling in her restraints.

Celaeno held Tempest's stare for a few seconds before trilling in defeat. "I just do what I'm told. Saw the bird ponies and caught the bird ponies. We don't get on Storm King's bad side as long as we do what we are told. You know better than most," Celaeno responded hoarsely.

"Never assigned to catch strays. So, where are the rest?" Tempest asked.

"What, need something else to torture?" Celaeno asked.

The wood beneath Tempest's hooves cracked. The glow of her horn cast Celaeno in an electric blue accent. The harpy spat onto the ground beside her. Her spit was flecked with blood.

"Go ask them yourself. They wouldn't say a thing."

Tempest hissed, horn crackling. Celaeno winced but otherwise sat slumped, feathers ruffled, flecked with burn marks and ash. Then as suddenly as it began, Tempest stepped away from the pirate captain and turned to her audience. Sombra offered a polite clap.

"Good show. You're quite the performer Commander."

Tempest smirked. "Thank you, I aim to please."

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet. She was going easy on the cooked goose," Grubbed said, parading behind Tempes,t all smiles and rainbows.

"Technically, she's a harpy, even more so a parrot harpy," Blue said.

"That aside, we have a pair of hippogriffs to see, yeah?" I asked.

"Were they harmed, Blue asked?"

Thorax shook his head. "No, a few bruises, maybe. They did seem pretty spooked. When we found them, the poor things were ready to jump out of their feathers. Though they did calm down when they saw I wasn't a harpy, yeti, or any other unthinkable monster they conjured up in their minds as they waited for the uncertain doom that would soon befall them."

"Is that all?"" Spade asked. The grave keeper rolled his eyes and rested a hoof on Thorax's shoulder.

"No, but I thought it best to ask them yourselves. I could go over all of it if you wanted, but that'd be a lot of wasted time," Thorax offered.

"No, that will be all."

Sombra turned on end and was down the narrow passages of the airship. On a one-way course straight for the brig. The rest of us fell in behind him. Tempest and Grubber taking up the rear.

"Something tells me this isn't gonna be a fun talk," Bright whispered back from ahead of me. The aged wood of the ship creaked with each step. The musty air is enough to choke on. Then there were the whispers. The unheard stories of fortune and failure. The shadows played actress the walls and devoured everything they touched.

"No, no, I don't think it will."

"Fun or not, we have a duty to protect them, stop the Storm King, and free the princesses."

Sabre leaned over and peered past me to Bright, who smiled back in return. Which earned an eye roll from Sabre.

"True enough. Besides, Luna still owes me from the last poker night," Spade said from ahead of Bright.

"Yeah, it is surprising just how bad Luna is at cards," I agreed.

"Dead ahead."

Sombra's words silenced the precession. Ahead indeed. Draw in shadows and lamps consisting of wick and little else. A single iron-barred cell. It looked big enough for four or five. Its actual limits have been tested once or twice. If Tempest's talk about mines on Mt. Aris were anything to go on. Two prisoners sat back to the wall, huddled together. I felt sick, even from my place in the middle of the pack. I could see it, the look. The same look I'd seen when Nightmare Moon was discussed in hushed whispers back in the Everfree. Looks seen even after the sun rose. When they thought Luna didn't notice. A fear that would fade but never disappear. Those scars in their minds and souls would never truly heal.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder. Sabre pulled ahead of me, placing himself between me and the cage. I couldn't help a small smile as we drew up to the brig and those locked within