Shadows Watching

by SaltyJustice

Chapter 10

The summer days passed as lazily as they could, given my circumstances. Paranoia is a subtle ingredient, it flavors everything you eat after your first taste, it cannot be washed down or drowned out.

I watched Twilight four days a week, but it was a full time job. I was always on alert for that distinctly uncertain feeling, the overwhelming stillness and silence that overcame the world when an attack was about to occur. We always spent our time in place with clear retreat routes, I would always map out the longest, straightest, and clearest path as soon as we entered any new area. I did this all subconsciously, but it flavored my thoughts and decisions. Always ready for something that never comes, and I didn't even know what it was. I was still in the dark as to what these creatures were or where they were coming from, why they attacked us, what they wanted. No answers were forthcoming, the memories had grudgingly stayed in their corner of my mind and I could not summon them up now, even had I wanted to.

I had heard of this from my Mom when she was dealing with suspects and witnesses who were mentally ill. They would have bizarre ideas and think the strangest things were perfectly normal, but they weren't stupid. We always think of ponies who are crazy as being the kind who sit in straight jackets all day and mutter to themselves, but the truth is they're just like everypony else. They can't tell reality from the fictions in their heads, they make decisions based on what they think is real just like I did.

The only difference between them and I was that they never once questioned it. Mom would tell us stories over dinner about suspects who were dead certain that the voices telling them to kill their foals were real, and who became offended when she'd tell them they weren't. It was plain as day to them, the psychologists told her, you might as well be denying the sun was warm.

Twilight and I had made sort of an arrangement. She would get to spend a certain amount of time reading each day, and after that time was up, we would go outside to get some fresh air. We played in Canterlot's many finely appointed public parks and playgrounds, I tried to teach her how to play Tennis and Hoofball, I even tried to teach her a little more magic despite my obvious handicap.

My friends would sometimes stop by, after I had told them about Twilight. Gabby, as it turned out, had clients who lived a few blocks away, and would sometimes hang out with us after their recording sessions were over. She got along with Twilight fairly well, in that they ignored one another unless it was absolutely necessary. I don't think Gabby was good with fillies.

Minty and Squeaky fared a little better, in exchange for terrifying me beyond belief. Twilight absolutely loved soaring through the air, and the twins would take her on short flights over my head while I tried desperately to keep my heart from exploding. Unicorns were not meant to fly, even if I knew it was completely safe, the creeping fear of a fall lingered in my mind. She'd splat like a pancake. I wondered if fillies ever fell during flight school. The thought made me shudder.

My homework essays had been receiving good marks back, it looked like I'd really be able to pull this off and not bring shame to my family. They weren't my very best work, but I could do lots of extra research when Twilight was busy reading up on magic. A few times, I had even taken the opportunity to teach her about what I was reading about. She gobbled up the knowledge hungrily, not just being fascinated with magic but science in general, always tossing out questions after each lesson I had not even thought of. I'm not ashamed to say my grades were getting better because of her influence, slowly working their way up from the B I had gotten on my first essay to an A- on the most recent one.

"I'm sorry Twilight, but we have to go," I said, packing up a scroll into my saddlebags.

"Aww, but I want to finish this chapter," she protested, holding up a few hundred pages of a giant tome she had started. A Concise History of Renaissance Magical Engineering, clocking in at only 5000 pages. The book was heavier than she was, I had to use a jack just to get it off the desk and we stored it on the ground since it'd collapse the bookshelves. I wondered how the librarian believed she could read, much less lift, the gargantuan thing. Maybe they were glad to be rid of it.

"Sorry Twilight, but I have to go turn in this essay, and it's due today before sun down. You can finish it when we get back," I said. I found that it was much easier to explain myself to her than simply order her, she was too smart to try to boss around.

"Where do we have to go? To your school?" she asked. I gave a nod back.

"Wow, grown-up school! Can Smarty-Pants come? Please, she's always wanted to go to a grown-up school, pleeeease?" This was the first pony I had met who was enthusiastic to go to school, even during the summer. She even had a toy doll who she'd pretend to form study groups with and do imaginary homework.

What was I saying about crazy ponies before?

We set off with her Smarty-Pants doll in a little green saddlebag strapped to her. Its head was sticking out the unbuckled top, "so she can take in the sights". I had also given her the great honor of carrying the three scrolls my essay was written on, homework being a nigh-holy artifact in her mind. It needed to be given on time, tardiness was tantamount to sedition, treachery, sin.

While I had usually been able to simply mail my essays to Ms. Burner's home address, I had left it too late this time. In that case, my instructions were to go to her office and turn it in myself, no harm done, as long as I got it there before the school closed at 5:00. Teachers kept regular-ish business hours just like any other pony, though it had never occurred to me before this summer. I had always figured, I dunno, they slept in tombs and attacked archaeologists. Gotta fill your time with something.

When we got to the school, we headed upstairs to the second floor, where all the teachers had their offices in long rows. It was one big, dreary hallway, darkened by the setting sun. The windows were all on the east side of this hallway, presumably to make it easier to get work done in the mornings, and only dim, reflected orange light lit the doors as we passed looking for Ms. Burner's office.

There was a note written on the door when we found it, saying "meet me in 107". Seemed kind of odd for her to leave a note just for me, I considered slipping the scroll under the locked door before thinking better of it. Maybe she had something important to tell me.

We made our way back downstairs to my old physics classroom, where the door had been left open. Inside were Ms. Bunsen and Mr. Prescott, they looked up, startled, as I entered.

"Oh, uh, Cadence!", Ms. Bunsen blushed fire-red as I walked towards them, Twilight in tow.

"I got your note," I said, and Twilight dutifully took out the scrolls and presented them as best she could. She was too short to drop them on the nearby desk with her mouth, so I had to levitate her up high enough to do so. She bowed afterwards. Smarty-Pants remained respectfully silent.

"Oh, the note. Yes the note," Ms. Bunsen said, stumbling over her words.

"Just wanted to say," Mr. Prescott started, "you're doing a great job. Keep it up Cadence. Just one more to go."

"Really, just one more?" I asked. These assignments had just flew by.

"Unless you want more to do..." he started to say.

"No! I mean, no, that's okay, really. Heh, hah!" I tried to laugh, but he understood my meaning. Ms. Bunsen wasn't too happy about it.

"Are you sure, we can always give you another dozen essays..." she said, trailing off as she turned to Mr. Prescott. Her eyes seemed to glaze over.

Oh my.

Now I realized just what was going on here.

Now I felt offended by what was going on here.

Now I felt sad for what was going on here. Ms. Bunsen liked Mr. Prescott, and she didn't know how to tell him. What's more, I could tell he liked her back, but he wouldn't come out and say that. Call it my intuition, call it a wild guess, call it an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach, but that wasn't right.

Not in the sense that teachers aren't allowed to love each other, I recalled my Mom talking about a movie called "Bride of Frankenstein" once that must be based on this sort of thing. No, it was wrong because they couldn't tell each other. Literally couldn't. There was a block in the way, preventing them from saying it.

"It's okay, really. I just want to pass and I can get on with my life," I said, backing up and boxing Twilight towards the door. If I was going to do this, I had to have some privacy.

We stood in the hallway after I had softly closed the door. Twilight looked at me with a quizzical expression on her face, I wouldn't be able to hide it from her. I had never told anypony about my special skill, they always let it slide or were polite enough not to ask. I had never shown another what I had done, I didn't even know if I could do it again. No time for arguing or a complex explanation. This was my mission, it was what I was put here to do.

"Twilight, please don't be alarmed," I heard myself explaining, my thoughts were distant. "You can't tell anypony about this, okay?" She nodded.

I concentrated, summoning up once again the realm beyond sight. I closed my eyes and opened them to see the black, empty void. There were no wisps of light here this time, the mood was hushed, quiet. I looked through the wall near the doorway, it did not block me in this other realm, to see the two glowing spheres of light that represented my two teachers.

Right away I could see something very wrong, very different about these two. The strands of light were there, running between them just as they had between my parents. The connection was strong, not frayed or damaged like before. Instead, I could see dark rivulets of some liquid running over the strands.

I needed to get closer, but would not risk entering the room to do so. Instead, I focused on bringing one of the strands over to me. After a little coaxing, the strand agreed to stretch itself, expanding and lengthening towards me. Thank you, I thought to it. It tensed as it presented itself in front of me, I could see the dark liquid much more clearly. They were flowing over and over, reshaping and reforming themselves. I wondered just what the substance could be, reaching out my hoof to touch it -

It snapped back suddenly, the strand letting out a cry that echoed in my head, like a high-pitched squeak from a mouse. It was not me who had hurt it, my body could scarcely interact with it, no, it was the fluid. It tensed and squeezed the strand. As it did, I saw a distinctly green flash run in veins through the fluid, like crystals embedded into it.

This was no bandaging maneuver, this was a full-scale operation. The strand was infected with this awful tar, I would need to cut it open and pull it out, no other way to do it. I knew that if I could clean out this strand it would be strong enough to clean out the others and purify the connection, but it could not do so without my help getting started.

I focused on the strand, bringing it closer and binding it in place. The fluid began to fight back, trying to squeeze the strand into retreating, but I held it firm. It began to cry in my mind, and I could hear sobbing in the other room, there would be no going back now.

First I had to disconnect the strand temporarily, slicing it clean through on one side. It was a temporary cut, simply reattaching it later would fix it, but it also prevented the fluid from escaping. The liquid tried to head me off and ran itself towards the cut line, which was exactly my plan. The liquid had spread itself as wide as it could, and thus was disconnected from itself. Halving the strand thus halved the fluid's power.

I began to carve off the skin of the strand where the liquid sat over it, much like peeling a potato. As the strand became split off, the liquid would lose cohesion and slide off, vanishing into nothingness, and allowing me to reattach the sliced strand to the body. It reattached quickly and cleanly, and I was methodical, starting from one end and purging the dark tar while preventing it from re-affecting the areas I had already cleaned. I almost lost my concentration and made a bad cut a few times, the fluid trying its best to fake me out as I surely worked it over. In the end, I managed to clean the infection off the strand, and left it suspended in space while I went to clean the other side.

It took nearly twenty minutes to get both sides cleared off. Now would come the reattachment. I shaved off a little of the strand again to act as a bandage, then reattached the dangling ends and pasted the shaved parts over the wound. As I did so, the pasted parts assimilated into the light and I felt a surge as it reactivated itself.

The surge wracked my brain, a dull roar that traveled along the strands back towards its owners. Everywhere the surge went, the dark fluid that remained shuddered and evaporated as the strand reasserted itself, now firmly in control, healthy and happy. My job was done, the damage repaired, and I prepared to leave the other realm. I could hear something coming from far away, miles, someplace distant, but where, I could not be sure. It rumbled closer and closer, until the wave passed over and through me. My whole body tingled, the wave was made of pure happiness and excitement, like getting your cutie mark or finding out your special somepony liked you back. There was a voice carried on the wave.

WELL DONE.

The feeling subsided and cold, sterile reality returned. I could see the two lights in the other room were making up for lost time, the bonds moving and shifting. None of my business, actually, it seemed vulgar to watch even if they were just light. I turned my head to the side to look away, and saw Twilight standing next to me, looking up at me.

It was not a being made of light like all the others had been. I could not see myself, so I didn't know what I looked like, though I could guess all ponies and other creatures would be represented as such. Except Twilight. She stood for all the world looking like a normal pony, her purple frame against the black, empty background of the other world. Awe was painted on her face, her eyes widened all the way open to take in every detail.

The appearance of Twilight finally broke my waning concentration, and the world went dark again. I was looking at my own eyelids, and opened them to see Twilight in the same position with the same expression as before. I quickly raised a hoof to shush her and checked the crack in the door to make sure we had not been detected by those inside.

The scene was heartwarming, the two embraced, locked in a kiss. Yes, it was my teachers for pony's sake, yes, I should be retching at such a display. My heart didn't care, it gave me a warm feeling of accomplishment to see them like that. I motioned to Twilight that we should get going and we made it almost to the outside before she lost control and started gushing.

"Oh wow that was so cool! How did you do that with your eyes, can you teach me? I want to do that! Please? Pleasepleaseplease show me!" she rambled, hopping up and down in front of me.

"Do what with my eyes?" I asked her. Obviously I couldn't look in a mirror, I had thought I just had my eyes closed. That's how it felt to me.

"You had like, all white! The, uh, the middle things were missing. Pupils!" she labored to find the words, too excited to think.

"Wow, calm down." I said. I didn't think I could teach Twilight how to do that, I didn't even know how to myself.

"Maybe I'll show you when you're older, it's my special gift you know. Not just anypony can do it." I said, pointing at my flank. She understood, but was no less awestruck by the experience.

We made our way back to Twilight's house, where her Mom awaited, as usual, to see me off. I had wondered if she was going to talk about this to her parents, or maybe her brother, even though it'd made her sound crazy. Then again, she had all kinds of crazy ideas, they'd just blame it on all the stories she'd read. True stories, about magicians and scientists and engineers, but stories nonetheless. The truth is never quite captured in the histories.

Comments

[Luckyfanisaac]

even though it'd make her sound crazy.