> Fairlight Book Two
>  by Bluespectre
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


FAIRLIGHT

THE EMPTINESS WITHIN

CHAPTER ONE


They’d lied to me, all of them, every last stinking one. I’d been shot, beaten, tortured and mutilated then left for dead, left to burn alive next to the body of my beloved wife. Meadow, the mother of my unborn foal, tortured and raped before my very eyes. They’d killed us both, my beloved literally, myself…well…they should have finished what they started. For better or worse, I was back.

Water dripped constantly from the leaking, rusted pipes overhead providing a background note that beat in time to my heart. The heart I had prayed so hard would stop some day, but the damned thing went on. Thump, thump, thump….inexorable, unerring. It beat in time with the ticking of the old railway clock on the wall. I’d found it, thrown away in a pile of rubbish outside the new Manehatten railway station. Dumped, because it had a cracked glass cover. The clock still worked though, with a little care and attention I’d repaired it, even with my limited skills. It was like a metaphor for my life, thrown away, discarded because of a flaw. A flaw that no pony had made the effort to help repair, or even to see past. Like the clock, it was all so much easier just to throw it away and get a new one.

The second hand clicked away the time, each a moment nearer the time death would claim me, nearer the time I would claim them. They would all pay for what they had done. They were up there, walking…talking…doing all the things that ponies do, or more accurately, what sick fucks like they do. Not for much longer though, they were already dead and just didn’t realise it yet, but they would. Soon, oh so soon…they would.

Shadows played along the damp brick walls, flickering in the lanterns warm light. I had given up on trying to keep warm, the sewers were perpetually dank, wet and mouldering. I’d been down here that long the damp and cold didn’t bother me, I didn’t even notice the smell any more. It was difficult, but not impossible to keep a fire going, but I only used one now for practical applications. I couldn’t feel warmth any more, only….cold…a chill as bitter as the wind on a mountain side. I’d felt its touch in the Withers, but now, the cold was everything, encompassed everything.

I had tried so hard, tried to control it, to gain mastery over its grip on my soul. But here in Equestria, the mortal world, the power hungered, lusting for nourishment. Regular food kept my physical body working, however the cold demanded sustenance of another sort, Goddesses help me…the very life energy of ponies. ‘Goddesses’?…ha ! 

Yeah, they’d helped me all right, tried to help me by ridding themselves of their ‘problem’. I would show them just how wrong they were, they would regret their deceit and lies. 

My stone hissed as it passed along the edge, a little oil to help smooth the flow, a few different grades, it made all the difference. I finished with a dry cloth and admired the finished result, I was satisfied…tonight would be the first of many.

It was an interesting piece, the wood dark and well seasoned, I’d found it almost by chance, propped in the corner of a collapsing barn on the edge of an apple orchard. The blade had been rusted to nothing, crumbling away at my touch, but I was skilled enough to make a new one for myself. With the magic from my…’other’ self, I had little need for a forge, although I’d still found it easier to make use of the one on the disused farm. Initially I’d been concerned about being discovered there, however the farm was so far from anywhere, there was little chance of that happening. Still, it didn’t hurt to be cautious, and so I had only worked at night after repairing the doors and windows to block light and reduce sound.

The wickedly long curved blade was not quite a mirror finish, for that I would have needed much finer stones than I had managed to find, but for this work, it was more than enough. The one I had in the Withers was designed for combat, yet its maker had still taken the time to engrave designs onto the haft. I’d tried to replicate some of this with varying degrees of success, and I had to admit, I was quite pleased with the result. The mechanism which flicked the blade out and locked it into place was particularly impressive and I nodded in approval as it did so now. The swish and click were a harbinger of what was to come. I gave the scythe a test swing, listening to the way it cut the air. I twirled round, my cloak billowing out behind me and swung again, the curved blade snarling through the air. It was time to go.

As I walked off down the tunnel, I locked the blade back into place and strapped it to my pack, the magic glowing from my horn lighting the darkness. Behind me, the faint sound of a candle falling on the ground made me smile to myself. I’d done my job well.


**********


Traffic in this quarter was quieter at this time of the morning, but the city, as they say, never sleeps. Nothing had changed, the hustle and bustle, the noise, the smells. Once, they’d bothered me, coming from a small country town, but now I barely noticed them. They were just….there. An advantage was that no pony noticed yet another stallion wrapped up against the heavy rain, walking the darkened streets and alleys. Here, the city of individuals, each wrapped up in their own little self centred world, was as lonely as it had ever been.

I’d passed 121st street and headed for the park, the lights visible even in this weather, my destination near at hoof. A young filly rushed past me, water splashing from her hooves as she dashed up the street to escape the rain. She would have been around the age my daughter would have been now, but that was a thought for another day. Today, I had to focus my mind, my will, in another direction.

Water poured off my rain cloak in rivulets, its cold touch not even registering in my consciousness any more. When your insides were colder than ice, temperature ceased to be a concern. My heart had died along with my hopes and dreams, buried with my wife and child. I no longer knew if I would ever see them again, maybe even in the next world. The herd would not take me and I had no idea how, or even if, I could rid myself of this monstrous spirit within me. Goddesses knew….but that, I doubted.

In the darkness, between the street lamps I waited. I closed my eyes and listened for the tell tale rattle of a carriage as it turned the corner on its way to drop off its cargo. The cabby pulled up several yards away and waited for his passenger to alight.

“Thanks friend”

“No, thank you sir !” the cabby replied happily. His fare must have been a big tipper, funny how times change around here. The more they stay the same….

He stopped several feet away but hadn’t seen me in the still heavy rain. Taking a cigarette from his pocket, he rummaged in his pockets for a light. I obliged. The small flame flickered in front of his surprised face as I stepped from the shadows, “Here, let me get that for you…friend”.

Jumping Jack’s eyes widened in shock but he didn’t back up, he was still as cool as ever. “Yeah…thanks buddy.”, he replied, drawing on the cigarette. His eyes never left mine.

He cautiously reached a hoof toward a pocket and I put mine out to stop him, “That wont be necessary J.J. I’m just after some info, that’s all”.

“Celestia all mighty !”, He said in a loud hiss, “I thought you were supposed to be…that is…everypony says you’re.” He cleared his throat and tried to regain some composure. “Goddesses Fairlight, how are you still alive ? The watch said you were dead, burnt to death in a fire along with your…..hey, I’m sorry buddy. I really am.”

I nodded, “Yeah, deaths not all its cracked up to be J.J. Bunch of arseholes in fancy armour and sand. Lots and lots of sand.”

Jumping Jacks face was a picture, I almost wished I could have taken one of him right then.

“Waddaya want then Cap’ ? You like, undercover now or something ?” He asked blowing smoke into the night air.

“Yeah, something like that”, I said calmly, “I need to know where I can meet a couple of people. With your connections, I think you’re just the pony to make it happen.”

Jack scratched his ear, adjusting his hat, “Sure thing Fairlight, anything for an old pal.”

I moved closer to him, “Old pal eh ? Okay. I want to know where I can find two ponies. A big red stallion called Melon Patch and a piss yellow one called Gates.”

J.J spat out his cigarette in alarm, “Are you fucking kidding me ? Do you know who those two are ?”

“Yeah, I know who they are, only too well.”

Jack baulked, “No way Cap, there’s no way ! If those two, either of them, found out I’d told you…I’d…”

“End up like Meadow ?” I asked cocking my head to one side.

“Goddesses Fairlight….Meadow ? Those two ? Oh no….” 

I nodded, “Meadow was pregnant J.J, they killed my wife and my unborn foal. They tortured her, raped her. Do you know what that was like for her ? Do you know what it was like to see….”. I hadn’t realised I’d grabbed J.J’s coat until I was almost nose to nose with him, his eyes went wide as dinner plates.

“By Luna’s tit’s ! What the fuck happened to your eyes !?”

Letting him go, I stepped back pulling the hood back down over my face. I’d forgotten how frightening my appearance now was to some ponies, I’d have to do something about it, or I’d stand out a mile in the crowd.

“Where are they Jack ?”.

The informant took out another cigarette and once more, I magicked up a flame for him. After a few seconds, he produced a hip flask and down its contents in one pull. The frightened pony shook with the cold and, probably, nerves. I needed to be aware that most still felt the cold, I almost wished I could. Jack watched me for a moment and seemed to gather himself, rebuilding the wall of confidence that defined him. 

“Come on Cap, there’s a covered street vendor down near the park who’s a pal of mine. Hot food, drinks and its out of this goddamned rain.”

The street vendor was an oriental buck with a black spotted white coat, unusual colouring I hadn’t seen before. He was, as J.J stated, a friendly sort who quickly dished up some wheat noodles and spiced soup. Under the canopy, out of ear shot from the vendor, J.J slurped his noodles, steam rising from them while the rain hammered down around us.

“Melon Patch, ‘Mel’, as he’s known, is an enforcer for the Harpy’s”, he explained.

“Velvet Cream’s gang ?”, I asked.

“The very same. Gates, the other one you mentioned? He works for them too.”

“What are they into ?”

“Usual. Racketeering, prostitution, smuggling.”

“Let me guess, Ryetalin ?”

“Yeah, new one too, pushers call it ‘breeze’, users call it ‘shooting the breeze’. Nasty stuff Cap, nasty stuff.”

This ‘Breeze’ was new on me, I’d have to look into that, but it was of secondary concern.

“What are they smuggling ?”

Jack paused and scratched his nose, giving me a sidelong look. “Look Cap, theres some things I cant…”

“Guns”, I cut in, “They’re bringing in guns J.J, I know. I’ve seen them in action, you may have heard?”.

“Yeah”, Jack replied quietly, “I heard. Sorry Cap, its just…I’m frightened of these guys, I don’t mind admitting it, they scare the shit out of me !”. He shook his mane and breathed in heavily, “Okay, okay, right. This is for Meadow, okay ? Right, the red one, Mel, works the doors at the Strawberry Cream nightclub on 22nd. That is of course, when he’s not doing, ‘extra curricular activities’, if you get my drift.”

I nodded, taking one of Jack cigarettes, “And Gates ?”

“He works down at the tourist office on Liberty Island.”

I nearly choked, “You got to be kidding me.” Jack shook his head, “Nah, its all a front. They bring in barges there at night to load or unload their shit.”

“Do the watch know about this ?” I asked him directly. 

“Some, yeah”, he spat on the ground, “the commissioners been concentrating the watch’s activities in, er…’other directions.’”.

It was all becoming clearer now. “J.J”, I turned to look him in the eye, “Whats the commissioners angle in all this ?”.

He winced but carried on, “She’s up to her fetlocks in it. Word is that she’s behind the smuggling, but some think she’s just getting back hoofers from some pony higher up. Couldn’t say for sure, y’know ? Whatever’s going on, she sure has taken a liking to the high life.”

I grimaced, “And all the while Manehattan’s going to hell in a hoof basket.”

“Yeah”, Jack spoke quietly, “it aint good for no pony Cap and that’s for sure”.

I turned to go, “J.J, I cant pay you, you know. You’ll have to put it on the slate.”

He chuckled, “Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about it. Hey, Cap, you know, your boys and girls will want to know you’re still kicking. You, um…want to stay, y’know, a shadow ?”

I cringed, images of burning red eyes flashing through my mind, my heart leaping into my throat. I took a deep breath and tried to calm my flaring nerves, “Yes. So far as any pony is concerned, you included, I’m just a….shadow. A nopony. You didn’t see me, you didn’t speak to me. J.J, Captain Fairlight died in that fire with his wife.”

“Dude, I don’t know what shit you went through, but there’s a lot of love out there for you. Don’t forget that, ponies shouldn’t be alone.”

I’d hear that once from some other pony, what seemed like a lifetime ago. I suppose in some ways it was, the other me, that other world. I patted Jumping Jack on the shoulder, “See you J.J, take it easy out there.”

He nodded, drawing on his cigarette and watched me walk off into the rain.










> Chapter Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER TWO


“Captain Fairlight ?”. My eyes felt like they were full of sand, and Goddesses, did they hurt. The bright light was like staring into the sun directly. My mouth and throat were so dry, my tongue had stuck to roof of my mouth. I tried to speak, a croaking noise emanating, “Wa…water….water”. Pretty pathetic, but it was all I could manage.

“Yes, sorry Captain, here, please…”, the voice, male, sounded friendly enough and he reached forward to help me sit up whilst holding a glass to my parched lips. The water hitting my mouth was like liquid life, pure, cool, and I gulped it down greedily. “More…” I gasped. Another glass duly arrived and that too was downed in quick succession. A female voice travelled from across the room, “That’s enough, he’s going to take some time to come round, we can’t rush things.”

Hoof steps announced the arrival at my bedside of the owner of the voice, “I’m going to sit you up now, Captain. Do you understand ?”

I nodded.

“Good. Now, once you’re sat up I’m going to put some drops In your eyes, yes ?”

I nodded again.

The two of them slid their forelegs behind me and helped me up into a more comfortable sitting position. I was quite surprised by how much more alert I was beginning to feel, my nerves seemingly coming back under my control, simple sense, touch, taste, warmth, cold, all coming back. The female tilted my head back and I felt her try to pry my eyes open a little. They were gunged up with something crusty and horribly, I could feel it crumbling while she dribbled some fluid into the corners.

“There you go, that should…”

Light and colour flooded into my eyes, momentarily blinding me, but suddenly, I could see again. The first thing I saw was a brown female nurse, staring at me with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open. She half held the eye dropper in her hoof which I reached out and took from her before she dropped it. My movement broke whatever spell she was under and she let out the most ear-splitting scream I’d heard, even worse than a Thestral shouting in your head. Well, almost.

“My Goddess…” The male in the room was still there, gawping at me with saucer wide eyes like the nurses. At least he didn’t run screaming from the room.

“No…not quite”, I replied dryly, “I’d prefer it if you just called me Fairlight. That is my name after all.”

I took the glass of water from the bedside table and downed the rest of it before plopping some more of the deliciously cool drops into my eyes. The cream coloured male shook his burgundy mane and fought to regain control of his faculties, “I….you….your….”, he stammered. I tutted, swinging my hind legs off the bed. Great Luna they were stiff, I flexed them several times, rubbing them to get some circulation going. Bloody hell, what had happened to me ? I stretched out gingerly but not feeling any pain, other than stiffness, I decided I’d try my luck and get out of bed.

I spotted the mirror, a full length one across the room and walked over to it. There was a loud metallic crash as the cream male backed up into the medical trolley, sending him and its contents spilling into the corner. I glanced at him and rolled my eyes, he was still staring at me with his mouth flapping.

“You keep doing that and you’ll stick like it”, I quipped, dodging past him to look at the mirror. Here goes nothing….

I’d heard of ponies having a ’double take’ but hadn’t really understood what they meant until now. What looked back at me…well…what can I say ? I had to imagine that it actually was me, I mean, its not like someone was on the other side ‘mirroring’ my movements right ? And so, I was lead to the only conclusion I could reach, that the pony looking back at me with…Great Celestia, no wonder they were scared…those eyes ! My eyes !

I still had the trademark grey coat, marked and scarred from various injuries. A few bald patches here and there where fur had burnt away or been cut away, judging by the stitches. My ears were still attached, swivel…swivel…yup, still okay. Muzzle check, all teeth present and in good order. Mane, bit singed but still that nice black and white pattern. Eyes, now there was the sticking point. Hadn’t they been brown before ? Now, for whatever reason, somehow, they were almost glowing a fluorescent ice blue. I’d never seen their like on a pony. Sure, I’d seen blue eyes, but none like this, it was like looking into the void.

In a daze, I looked back at my flank, expecting my cutie mark to still be missing as it had been in the Wither world. What I saw was even more unexpected. There was one! Only…it wasn’t mine, or at least it wasn’t the one I used to have. This was a simple white flash, like lightning or something. What it meant I had no idea, I mean, what was my special talent now? ‘Zapping magic’? Hang on….magic…my horn! I turned back to the mirror and saw…damn, still broken. It sparked slightly when I tried it out. Levitation seemed to work somewhat but hurt like hell when I tried. I’d come back to that later, once I’d found out what had happened, what they’d done to me and….Shadow. Where was she ? Gripped with a sudden desperation, I turned too quickly and skittered on the polished floor, sending the prone medical pony into conniptions. Thankfully, I managed to catch hold of the bed before I broke my neck on the tiled floor, who the hell designed this place?!

Hospital gowns are apparently designed to be a pain to remove and this one was no different. I managed to virtually strangle myself with the bloody thing in my attempts to get if off and run to the door all at the same time. The doctor entering the room as I barrelled into him, was not impressed, “What one earth are you playing at ? Get back into bed !”.

I picked myself up, throwing the gown over the shocked fellow’s head and took off down the corridor, looking into the various rooms for Shadow. They were all empty, one after the other, just empty rooms. This place felt abandoned, deserted, almost like I was intruding into a museum after closing time.

The last room had a large set of double doors of solid wood with heavy iron fittings. I tried pushing…nothing, bucking…nothing, horn…Ow! Damn it, the bloody thing wouldn’t budge and now I felt like someone had stuck a hot poker in the top of my head. I reached down inside, trying to tease out the strength within me, to freeze this door into ice or blast it to matchwood. But there was nothing there…not even a trace. I had one more option, head back and take the second corridor, maybe Shadow was there ! My heart set, I charged off once more before I was picked up off my hooves and sent sliding along the floor to crash unceremoniously into a drinks dispenser.

My horn smacked right into the thing making me see stars, little pinpricks of blue light sparking in my vision while I pulled myself shakily back to my hooves. That’s when I saw the huge orange unicorn in front of me, “I knew you would be trouble”, was all he said. I stood there for a moment dumbfounded, my head was still a mess of emotions and shock. The transition from the Wither world to the mortal world had not been kind to me mentally or, by the looks of things, physically either.

Two ponies in black suits walked out of a side room sporting sunglasses and TED’s, a much neater one than our old watch issued devices. These looked familiar too….

Spoke into the TED, one of them whispered in the ear of the big orange pony who nodded and then addressed me, “The Mistress wishes to see you. Pick yourself up and come with us.” 

I felt I had little choice in the matter and followed warily, the big guy leading and the other two behind, blocking any chance of escape. Not that I had any idea where to go in any case !

We reached the large double doors that had foiled my attempts to open earlier and the orange pony produced a glowing silver rod. He pointed it at the door and a faint beam of white light shone out, causing the door to click and swing open. I marvelled at the device, a magically tuned key, very impressive. Some high end magic was going on here and my panic to find Shadow lessened, replaced in part by curiosity. These characters would know where she was and I would stand more chance of getting to her if I played nice. For now at least.

Beyond the double doors was a spacious office, log fire burning merrily in the large stone hearth. A set of tall bay windows let in the baleful light from the moon and stars, magically powered lanterns adding their yellow glow to the serene, if rather ominous setting. Before the window, standing tall on the thick purple rug, was a black robed pony wearing a veil. All that was visible were the glittering silver shod hooves.

I stood patiently waiting, feeling oddly naked somehow. Not a nice feeling for a creature covered in fur. The ‘Mistress’, whoever she was, spoke in a loud commanding tone, “Thank you Warlock, you may leave us now.”

The orange pony bowed low, “As you command my Mistress”, then back out whispering under his breath, ”I warn you pony, if you try anything, I’ll kill you where you stand. Remember that.” 

I wasn’t intimidated by this character, I’d been threatened by bigger and meaner things than he could ever dream of. I’d play along, play their game, then I’d get the hell out of here. This place just didn’t seem right to me.

“You are well, Watch Captain Fairlight ?”, the voice boomed. Goddesses, it was like being inside a hurricane. What was it with ponies bellowing at me lately ?

“Please, Mistress, forgive me. I am still a little unwell, if it pleases you, would it be possible to speak a little quieter ?” I tried diplomatically.

She tuned and faced me, her veil wafting as she breathed in and out. It was rather disconcerting being looked at from someone behind black cloth, I couldn’t even see their eyes. I didn’t like it at all. She walked around me several times muttering to herself and occasionally prodding me with those hooves. She was a unicorn, that was obvious, but there were also the bulges on her sides beneath the robe that twitched occasionally. The room was a little dark but I caught a glimpse of a delicate midnight coloured leg as she walked back to the window, facing me.

“Captain Fairlight” she said in, thankfully, a more normal volume, “We need your help. Equestria, needs your help. Will you come to her…our aid ?”

This was all very formal sounding and I was floundering like a fish out of water. I decided I had to take a grip of the conversation and try to steer it back to what I wanted to talk about. “Mistress, forgive me, I find it hard to converse with someone who I cannot see, for only in your eyes can I determine the truth of things. I beg you, please remove your veil so that we may have nothing standing between us.”

She snorted, the veil lifting slightly, giving me another glimpse of the midnight pony beneath, “We would not have you know our true identity Captain. Your honeyed words will avail you naught and thy sight must remain averted.”

I grinned, then bowed low, “Very well your majesty, I thank you for your wisdom and assistance in my recovery.”

The mare reared momentarily in shock, stomping a hoof angrily, “How…how did you know it was us ? This is not acceptable at all !”.

“Your majesty”, I began, “When I joined the Equestrian Watch, I gave an oath to protect and serve both the citizens and princesses of our great country. Your majesty has my utmost respect and gratitude, I beg you not to have any fear I would divulge your identity.”

The robed figure laughed quietly, lifting a hoof to her mouth and then, in a glow of magic from her horn, lifted the robe and veil away to reveal the beautiful figure of the princess of the night.

“May we ask Captain”, she chuckled, “how did you know it was us ?”. I smiled, “Forgive me your majesty, it wasn’t hard. The silver shoes, the colouring of your coat and the way you speak. There is only one who I know of that meets such a description.”

Luna smiled and waved me to a chair, “Our coat ?”. I settled into the comfortable settee and nodded to her, “I saw your leg.” 

She smiled cheekily, “Eyeing your princesses leg subject ? An offence that could land you in the dungeon we’d wager !”. 

I laughed, “It would be worth it your majesty, your beauty is worthy of legend.” 

Luna’s eyes opened wide, “Why Captain ! Whatever can you mean !?”, she covered her mouth with her hooves in mock indignation and laughed, her sides shaking. I smiled and waited until she was ready to continue. She levitated a bowl of cherries over to me and a pitcher of water. “Here, you will need these. We believe you are well acquainted with them ?” Luna asked me raising an eyebrow.

The cherries were red with a silvery crystalline structure, the last time I had seen these was when I was with….”Shadow”.

“Pardon ?” She replied.

“Forgive me princess, can you tell me where I can find my partner, the Lady Shadow ?”.

Luna sat there watching me quietly, before taking a mouthful of what I presumed was wine, from the colour. “We know of this…Lady Shadow, Captain. She is a thestral is she not ?”

I nodded, “Yes, your majesty, we travelled together in the Wither world. She was to follow me through the portal from the city. Star Beard was to help her, I thought she would be here. I beg you, I must find her.”

Luna shook out her flowing mane, it was like nothing I had ever seen. The pictures in the books were like nothing compared to the reality. Stars, comets, planets, all glinting and alive, flowing in her mane and tail, like a window into the infinity of the universe. 

“My dear Captain, if we knew where you friend was, we would have her here with you now. We regret that we cannot do more for you in this matter, however we will tell you this. Star Beard, the self styled ‘apprentice’ of Star Swirl the Bearded, is an accomplished thestral mage. If anyone can send your Lady Shadow to you, it would be him. Of that, we are certain. Remember this, time is different between here and the Wither world, even we cannot predict its passing. What seems like a day here may be a year there, or more.

I hung my head as I felt my heart sink, a year ? Goddesses, what had I done…I should have stayed there with her. Luna held a hoof up, “Do not despair Captain, have faith that you will be together again and it shall be. There are powers in the world which even Celestia and us cannot change. Destiny is a powerful force and one that is not so easily changed.”

The world, destiny…great Goddesses, this was a nightmare. I just wanted to find Shadow and try to get some semblance of a normal life back. From what Luna was saying, she didn’t know what had happened to Shadow and I had no way I knew of to contact her. 

Luna seemed to have read my mind and laid a comforting hoof on my shoulder, “Captain, we assure you, we will do our best to try and find your friend. There are….’channels’, we can go through that you could not. We will do our best for you, as your princess, we promise you this.”

I took a mouthful of the water, “Thank you princess Luna, this means more to me than I could say”. She smiled at me and motioned towards the berries. I took one and savoured its sweet taste, a slight background feeling of ‘something’ running down my spine. She nodded as she watched me eat and readjusted herself in the chair.

“Your Majesty, this is…all very confusing for me, I don’t know where to start, I have so many questions I’d like to ask but…”

“We understand Captain, we know what it was like when we…I…came back. So much had changed…”, the princess trailed off, her eyes distant, in another world, another time. She blinked, “Captain, my ponies found you too late to save your wife. We are sorry, there was nothing we could do, she was already with the eternal herd. The cabin was nought but a burnt out ruin when we arrived, you on the other hoof.…”

She paused, taking a drink of her wine and sat down on her haunches, letting out a sigh before continuing. “You were alive, barely. My ponies pulled you out of the wreckage and brought you here before the watch arrived. You have been in our facility ever since, whilst we tried to rejoin your soul to your body.”

“Rejoin my soul ?”, I asked in surprise. I knew Meadow had said that I was still ‘tied’ to the mortal world and Star Beard had said I couldn’t exist in both. Was this what she meant ?

Luna nodded, “Yes, an old friend helped us to find you in the Wither world, and find you we did. We only have limited influence there Captain, it is not as it once was. You understand ?”

I shook my head, this was confusing me to no end, “I’m sorry princess, I’m still a little surprised by what’s happened. I thought I was dead, then it turns out I wasn’t ‘really’ and now, I’m back and…changed somehow. My eyes, my cutie mark, Its all so much so fast.”

Luna smiled kindly to me, those large aquamarine eyes melting my worries away, “The Wither world was a place no pony was ever meant to return from. It has left its mark upon you, Captain, your cutie mark is the mark of that place. I have not seen its like in a long, long time. Now, listen well, this is important…”, Luna’s face was suddenly grave, “…you must never allow any pony to see that mark outside of our facility, it is unlikely any pony alive now will recognise it, but still…”

I looked back at my flank, it didn’t look like much to be honest. Just a simple white lightning bolt, I’m sure many ponies had one similar, perhaps the Wonder Bolts ? Wouldn’t get much flying done without wings though ! Ah, hang on…I did have wings didn’t I ?

Luna’s horn glowed, the wine bottle floating over to refill her glass before she continued, “Your wife, Meadow, is a truly remarkable pony Captain, her spirit is strong. Stronger than many I have met since I came home, and I know she will be overjoyed to know you have returned to us safely.”

“Is there some way I can speak to her ?”, I asked, a lump coming to my throat. “I’d like her to know I’m back safely at least”.

Luna shook her head, “Its not that easy Captain. I fear that contacting the herd is frowned upon and I have stretched things as it is to help you this far. We will try to speak to her for you, however we cannot promise you anything you understand. We are sorry.

“I, I see…”, I didn’t see at all. 

“Captain, forgive us, we are tired from our ‘exertions’, so we will cut to the chase. When we were approached by, lets say a ‘mutual acquaintance’; we discovered that you had some unique abilities which we feel may be able to help us in the coming months. You have investigative experience from your service with the watch do you not ?”  

I nodded, “Yes, your majesty”.

“Good. Now Captain, from your experience in the Wither world, you may understand better than most that Equestria, the Wither world and the land of the Eternal Herd are all parts of a whole. They form the order of things, a type of ‘balance’ if you will. Those who die in our world, pass through the Wither world to the Eternal Herd. The Wither world acts as a ‘sieve’ of sorts, to filter out any damaging emotions, thoughts, feelings and so forth, from the soul of the departed, before they are allowed to enter the herd.”

In ages past, wars and suffering in our world, the mortal plain, created a surge of negative emotions, energy, in the Wither world, giving birth to creatures which had minds and emotions of their own.”

I nodded, “Thestrals”. 

“And others”, she sighed. “Eventually, it lead to war between the mortal world and the Wither world, the Eternal Herd remaining neutral. As usual.”

I noted the emphasis she put on ‘as usual’. I suspected she’d met other members of the eternal herd, like the one I had, Aethel, the pompous clerk.

“The war….it was…terrible, a horror beyond imagining. Towns, even whole cities turned to ash, the skies black with smoke and the stench of the dead. The herd ultimately intervened to ensure the balance between the worlds was restored. To this end, my sister, Celestia, was charged with keeping order and balance

This was over one thousand years ago Captain, and peace has been maintained ever since.”

“Until now”, I interjected. “Until now”, Luna confirmed nodding.

I popped another of the crystal cherries in my mouth, I noted Luna watched me very closely when I did so…it was a bit disconcerting and I felt myself blush a little. Considering I’d been poisoned not so long ago by some pony I trusted, and, it had to be said, with all best intentions, I was still surprisingly trusting to accept food items from any pony.

“Captain”, Luna said rising from the chair and shaking her mane, “You are aware of the smuggling of weapons, the…’drugs’ and…other things. Ponies are dying, killing each other and the balance that has been maintained for so long is being lost. We have tried to combat this but our people are not warriors, they cannot stand against the unbridled greed and hate of those seeking to exploit our world. Before long, the balance could tip, the armies rebuild, the second great war could be upon us and this time, this time I do not know if I could…..”

Luna was breathing hard, her chest heaving.

“Princess ?” I asked in concern. She had a frightened, far away look, an innocence, which made me want to rush to her side to protect her, shelter her from any harm. Being in Luna’s presence was, intoxicating. I checked and...yes, I was just water I was drinking.

She shook herself and lifted a hoof, “Captain. I need you to…fix things. I will give you carte blanch to do what must be done. You will have the best equipment and magics that Equestria can offer, however, there are certain conditions.”

“Very well you majesty”, I nodded.

“No pony must know your mission, other that those you meet here at this facility. Warlock will introduce you to them later. Further, the agency cannot be trusted Captain.”

I sat up in shock, “The agency ? but their ponies are here ! I had two of them walk me here with the orange one”

Luna walked to the large wooden desk and poured herself another drink, “Captain, the agency is run by Celestia. Some of the agency ponies loyalties are, however, to me. We work together mostly, however my sisters values and viewpoints are, how should we say, ‘different’ ? to mine on occasion. She thinks that every pony can be changed by the power of friendship and love. This is true to a degree, but we are seeing more and more non-equestrian ponies entering our land through the transdimensional portals. They look like us, sound like us, but be assured Captain, they are not ponies. They rape, steal and kill without any hesitation. Be assured, Equestria is being invaded, the enemy is amongst us and I need some pony who can match them, we…I need you Captain.”

I was amazed. I knew about these ‘non-equestrian’ ponies, or whatever the hell they were, but I’d no idea that things were this bad. A second war with the Wither world ? Invasions, drugs, guns, great goddesses, surely this was an exaggeration?

When I looked into Luna’s aquamarine eyes, I knew she was telling the truth.

I finished the last of the berries and stood before my princess. I bowed low, taking her hoof and planting a kiss upon it. “Your majesty I pledge to you that I will give my all to protect you, our people and Equestria.”

When I stood…wait, was that a blush ? it was ! Luna took a quick mouthful of wine, “I….I thank you Captain. I wish we had more ponies like you and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours. As I said, in return for your service, I will do all I can to return your ‘friend’ to you.” 

The royal ‘we’ had disappeared, thank goodness ! It was really difficult to keep up with the conversation with Luna as it was without trying to work out who ‘we’ were talking about all the time.

“Thank you your majesty”, I said bowing once more. A thought suddenly popped into my head, “Princess ?”. She looked at me expectantly, “I don’t know if you are aware, but there is a reason why I couldn’t enter the herd and was trapped in the Withers. There is…”

“Yes, Captain.” She said suddenly catching me off guard, “You have the spirit of the wendigo within you. I am aware of this and it is something that you must keep hidden as much as possible, like your cutie mark.” 

Luna’s wings spread out, her voice booming across the room. Eyes glowing as white as the centre of the sun, the room darkened around the princess as she spoke, “The creature within you, must be controlled Captain, its power is terrible, its wrath legendary. Channel its power with your will, dominate its spirit with your own. Once they were a terrible sight to behold on the battlefield, warriors threw down their spears and fled before them, mares made widows, towns turned to frozen blocks of ice. Songs were sung of their deeds ! Bring their ancient might down to crush our enemies ONCE AND FOR ALL !”

Luna’s voice echoed around the room and I felt a tingling up my spine and horn. This was the true princess of the night, exotic, terrifying, beautiful, ruthless, yet so exquisitely feminine. I could imagine warriors joyfully throwing themselves on the spears of their enemies for a mere glimpse of her smile. My heart answered her call, I would protect her, protect Equestria and I would have Shadow returned to me. It was all going to work out the way it should.






> Chapter Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER THREE


Luna and I talked for a while longer, until, with a yawn, she excused herself from the room. I reached over and helped myself to the last of the berries, thinking I maybe should have asked where she got them. I doubted they were from the local grocers, so they must be cultivated nearby. I made a mental note to ask about them later.

The princess had been particularly interested in the interplay between the two tribes I had encountered in the Wither world, the tribe of the Beyond and that of the Purple Sands. I’d asked her about the wendigo spirit and Luna had explained to me that the one within me had most likely been created due to the trauma of the attack on myself and Meadow. Whilst in a state of near death, the ‘spirit of the wendigo’, as she called it, had kept me alive. If she knew why, she wasn’t saying. Suffice to say, she wanted to tap into the wendigo’s power, its ruthlessness, to put out the fire beginning to take hold in Equestria. 

Under Celestia’s rule, ponies had enjoyed a thousand years of peace and prosperity. The downside to this was that as a rule, we were hopelessly susceptible to anything that threatened us. Sure, a lot had magic abilities or physical strength to help them fend off the odd attack by wild predators, but these were normally contained in areas ponies seldom travelled. 

The spirit within me was apparently born of me, a corruption that regular ponies should not have experienced. I viewed the thing as both a blessing and a curse, without it I would have been able to cross with my family to the eternal herd. Without it, I would never have met Shadow and the incredible world of the thestral’s. Nor, of course, would I be stood here speaking to the princess and been given the opportunity to help protect ponies as I had done in the watch. 

‘Honour’, ‘Loyalty’ and ‘Duty’, three words hammered into me by my father, had been part of the motto of the watch. I missed my old career, and my friends. Meadow was right, a pony was not meant to be alone any yet here I was…again. But not for long I hoped.

The door behind me opened and the cheerful orange stallion stalked in, “Follow me”. 

He walked out and like a well behaved little terrier, I followed close behind. He was a big fellow, scarred and weather beaten. Warlock was not a unicorn I’d like to meet on a dark night…unarmed. We headed back to the medical room where the doctor was waiting with an exasperated look on his face, “Ah ! The wanderer returns ! Going to let me examine you, or are you going to run out of the room after trashing the place again ?”

I stood there with my mouth hanging open like an idiot, before giving the doctor a sidelong glance and hopping up onto the bed for him to check my chest. Sarcastic sod that he was, I don’t suppose he considered that it was his staff running, screaming in terror because I had ‘frightening’ blue eyes that caused all the commotion in the first place. Still, I wasn’t going to argue with the guy, he had a lot of sharp metal instruments next to him and had most likely saved my life. Don’t be ungrateful now Fairlight !

Warlock stood quietly watching from the doorway while the doctor poked and prodded me without a care for where he was examining. 

“Fascinating”, he muttered checking my pulse and temperature, “Quite remarkable in fact. Hmmmm.” 

Warlock rumbled to the doctor in his deep gravelly voice, “What’s the story with those eyes doc ? anything we can do about them ?”

The medical pony held one of my eye’s open while he peered in with a light, “Well, hmmmm, no. Theres nothing wrong with his eyes, its just the pigmentation that’s changed. Theres a significant magic field running through him which, together with the trauma to his head, appears to have created this unusual effect. The glowing is a particularly fascinating phenomenon. I’d like to run some more tests when I get a chance.” 

The doctor took some pictures with a tripod mounted camera before continuing, “In answer to your question, agent Warlock, I believe the issue glasses will do just fine. If we tried to magically interfere with them, I have honestly no idea what would happen.”

The doctor peered at my broken horn, tapping it with a metal instrument of some kind, “Nasty, could take a long time to heal judging by the direction of the crack line. Possibly never depending upon how deep the damage goes”. 

He measured the broken stump, muttering to himself under his breath. It was a frightening revelation, I may never have my horn back ? I simply couldn’t imagine it, a unicorn without a horn. Great goddesses, what in Equestria was I going to do ?

“What did you specialise in Captain ?”, the Doctor asked while filling in a clipboard, “Levitation, spell casting…what ?”. 

“Basic levitation and manipulation, plus some limited fire making” I replied. 

He fished a box of matches out from his top pocket, “Try and take a match out for me if you would,” he said watching my horn intently. 

Well, here goes. I carefully channelled my senses to release the magic, relieved to see the familiar deep blue glow envelop the small box. The pain was still there, just on the edge of discomfort, making me a little cautious in not allowing too much magic to rush out at once. Carefully, slowly, I felt the box, feeling its shape and dimensions. A slight push and the box opened, another small trickle and gently…oh, so gently…one of the matches floated out to hover before the doctors nodding head. “Good…now, light it”, he said seriously.

Dropping the box, I concentrated on holding the match in place and exciting the air around it, creating heat, friction…”Ow! Damn it…,” I cursed as a bolt of white hot pain lanced down through my horn into my brain. Celestia’s tits that hurt like hell !

“Never mind Captain,” the doctor said making a note on his clipboard, “your magic is still flowing which is an excellent sign. You’ve probably lost some strength in your levitation but that’s only to be expected. Pyrotechnical abilities often suffer as they put the most strain on your horn, but keep practicing though, it will help with the recovery.” Well, at least that was some weight off my mind.  

Warlock didn’t seem impressed as he shook his mane, “What about the cutie mark? He stands out like a sore hoof with that…’thing’”. 

I was really starting to take a dislike to this pony, I certainly didn’t like being talked about when I was only a couple of feet away. The doctor glanced at Warlock, all the while checking my body over, “I’m not performing surgery to remove it, if that’s what you’re thinking”, he said, “I’m sure the agency budget can stretch to a raincoat or cloak. There’s always alteration magic as an option.”

Warlock harrumphed. “The Mistress wants him ready for field assignment as soon as possible, so he’ll have to do, I guess.” Oh lucky me, I wasn’t exactly enamoured about working with this prick either. 

“Hey Lucky, hows our patient doing?” the chirpy voice from the doorway was followed by a piebald stallion who pushed past Warlock to gawp at me, his bright green eyes staring right at me. Fantastic, more testosterone in the room, whatever happened to that nurse ? Oh….yeah, the running from the room thing. I sighed.

“Crikey ! Look at his eyes ! Proper freak you out, them eh ? Some spooky shit you got going on there mate.” The newcomer had a peculiar accent, not one I was familiar with and his colouring too was not that common in Manehattan. At least he seemed…friendly ? Or was that just weird? 

I blinked, “Names Fairlight, former watch captain, former corpse.”

The piebald buck grabbed my hoof and shook it vigorously, “Agent Wist at your service buddy, must say yer looking pretty good for a dead guy. Feeling better then, yeah ?”

I smiled, still a little unsure about this male, there was something off about him I couldn’t quite put my hoof on. “I’m feeling a lot better, thanks agent Wist.”

He patted me on the shoulder, “Just Wist when we’re alone captain, you know, just the two of us. Lights down low…” Wist drew out the last syllable and burst out laughing at the look on my face. “Oh captain my captain ! I’m sorry, new guys have to get a bit of a hazing you know ? Anyways, come on, we’ve gotta get you sorted.”. 

Wist helped pull me off the bed, nodding to the doctor, “You okay if I pinch yer patient doc ?”

The doctor sighed, placing his stethoscope back on the medical trolley and waved us off.  “Good-o !” Wist chirped and pulled me past a silent Warlock. I’ll bet he was just the sort of pony you’d want your daughter to come home with. I swear if Sparrow came home with someone like that, I wouldn’t care how big he was, I’d probably kick him in the nuts and run for all I was worth. Well, maybe not but the thought of bucking the miserable shit right in the bollocks was sheer gold.

Wist sniggered, “Don’t mind old orange boy, bud, miserable sod at the best of time but handy in a scrap…” 

The piebald male chattered away until we came to another room with a suited pony behind a desk. “This the new guy ?”, he asked. 

“Yeah Flail, he’s the Mistresses new pet project. Give him the works will ya ?” Wist replied in his overly excited manner. The grey pony, Flail, walked over and looked me up and down taking measurements, ticking off boxes on a clipboard.

Before long, I was suited in the regulation black; black shoes, black coat, black sunglasses. “Oh yeah !”, Wist said clopping his forehooves together, “Lookin’ sa-wish !”. I wasn’t sure if that was a complement or not, but I had to admit, against my grey coat, it looked pretty damned good, covered the funny cutie mark too. The shades would help me cover the glowing blue eyes up and the white shirt with the black tie looked sharp. Nice, much better than my old watch coat, but…I still kind of missed it.

“Okay…”, said Wist examining me carefully, “Let get you some gear ‘kay?”, I don’t think it was a question. The odd buck took me into a storage room with banks of lockers and shelves. Black was apparently the go-to colour choice for agency ponies and sure enough, everything in here had that shiny beetles wing sheen to it. “Lets see now…”, Wist muttered to himself, “…here you go ! One TED, one shocker, bzzzzt ! and one rewriter. Used these before ?”.

I looked at the TED, it seemed almost identical to the one recovered from the dead pony at the warehouse, the ‘non equestrian’ pony. It fit comfortably into my ear and a thin flexible wire kept it in place with a small mouthpiece attachment. It would take a little getting used to, but not overly much. The other two items were more unusual, the first of which was a small black box with a button that would be too small for hoof manipulation, so I guessed was intended for unicorns.

“Whoa ! careful with that tiger !”, Wist laughed as he took the box from me, “This thing is for dealing with ponies who won’t behave themselves, here…” He levitated it from me with a flourish and pressed the button. An intense blue-white spark of energy jumped across the small metal prongs that projected from the casing. “Jam that into some pony and, fifty thousand volts of fun later, its lights out !”. Yeah, I could imagine the ‘fun’ you could have using one of those things on some poor unsuspecting pony. I suddenly got the previous ‘bzzzzt’ reference.

“Magical ?”, I asked curiously.

“Nah”, Wist replied in a disinterested tone, “A kinda hybrid of human and equestrian tech, you’ll see more of it eventually.”

I nearly dropped the thing as he tossed it back to me, “Human ? Tech ?” I asked intrigued.

“Yeah, never actually seen one myself, they look like us when they arrive. Come through them portals, flogging their shite to the mugs who’ll use it.” Wist scratched behind his ear, “Ah, probably shouldn’t have told you that yet. Here, just a tick…”, he took the black rod, holding it up to my face, removed my sunglasses and there was a brief bright flash of light, 

“OW !” I shouted, “What the fuck was that for !? Goddesses, you nearly blinded me !”

Wist checked his device and stared me in the eye, “What do you remember ?”. 

“Remember what ?”, I asked, my bloody eyes were burning.

“How does the shocker work ?” 

“You jam it into some pony and press the button, you just told me that.”

“What makes it work ?”, he asked closely watching my reaction.

“How the bloody hell should I know ? You said its some hybrid tech, human and…”

I never got to finish as Wist flashed another bright light in my eyes. “For Celestia’s sake Wist, will you pack that it in ? Its like needles in my bloody eyes !”, I swiped the black rod from him and put it in my pocket before he used it again.

He eyed me curiously, like he hadn’t seen me before and shook his head slowly, “Never seen that before, must be those funny eyes of yours. Best keep the shades on chief.”

“What is that thing ?”, I asked him, rubbing my eyes to try and get rid of the blue spots. 

“Memory rewriter, variable settings, minutes, hours. One flash and ponies forget you were there. Cracking bit of kit that, don’t forget that ponies here are mostly still blissfully ignorant of what’s going on just around the corner. We want to keep it that way, the princesses want to keep it that way. You don’t tell any pony about the humans, the portals, the agency, nothing. You do, and you’re next to be sent for re-education…or worse.”

Wists demeanor had changed completely, the flippant, joking young unicorn was replaced with a hard, cold agency pony. “Oh, nearly forgot to give you this”. He held out a leather wallet which I flipped open to reveal a small badge with a silver sunburst, the same as Celestia’s cutie mark if memory served, and a white metal plaque underneath with a name on it.

“Agent Nox”, I read out loud, “Who’s that ?”.

Wist gave me a sardonic smile, “Why, that’s you me old mucker, cant have a dead pony wandering about town can we ? Ponies would piss themselves.” He chuckled and trotted out of the room. In a state of befuddlement, I followed, when had my life become so peculiar ? Surely I’d had a normal life at some point in the past hadnt I ? Goddesses knew what I was in store for next. I sighed and resignedly followed the agency pony.

Down the corridor and a new room, a long one set up with stalls and a caged off area at one end. It was spotlessly clean and the lights reflected brightly from the white floor and walls. Wist trotted up to the cage and spoke to a pony who appeared behind it, a disinterested look on her face, “New guy Wist ?” she asked around a pen she held in her mouth. 

“Yup,”, Wist smiled scratching his ear nonchalantly, “sort him out with a PDW please, Snap”

The violet earth pony behind the cage produced a cold black metal device and a box of orange gemstones. The thing looked…familiar, I couldn’t quite place my hoof on it. “That’s yours now chief, just remember not to shoot the wrong guys, okay ?”

Shoot? I nodded, “You’re going to have to explain this to me Wist, its some kind of weapon isn’t it ?”, now I remembered, that damned tube things the smugglers were using to mow down my ponies at the warehouse. This looked like one of them, vaguely. I felt sick even lifting the device up in my magic.

“Sure thing chief”, the agency pony took the device and placed it on a table between the walls of one of the stalls, flicking a nearby switch with a hoof. A long row of lights hummed and flickered into life, the life size picture of a changeling illuminated at the far end. I’d used similar during basic training with the watch, but nothing nearly as fancy as this and something told me that I wasn’t going to be using a crossbow here.

Wist pulled a catch on the device, the ‘PDW’ I think he called it, and popped in one of the orange crystals. With a flick of his foreleg, the thing snapped shut and he floated it over to me grinning, “Used to something a little more agricultural I bet”. 

I took the PDW and pointed it towards the target. “Line up the two posts and pull the lever, with your levitation skills, it should be straight forward”. It was kindergarten level object manipulation. Despite odd twinges of pain from my broken horn, I could still manage it.

I squeezed the lever and a brilliant green streak of magical energy lanced out of the end of the weapon and blew a glowing hole through the target. I marvelled at the thing, the power, the weight, lethal burning death in such a small device. Terrifying.

Wist laughed out loud, clopping his fore hooves together, “Top job buddy ! Well impressive that, lets see if it was luck or skill eh ? You’ve got another four shots before you need to change the crystals too. Keep going !”.

I kept shooting at the target, and each blast found its mark with lethal accuracy. It was insanely simple to use and quite, quite deadly. My surprise and excitement was short lived when the reality of these things getting into the wrong hooves hit me. “Wist, what the hell are we doing with these things ? The Mistress wants us to stop weapons coming into Equestria and we’re developing our own ? What if these get into the hooves of the very ponies, or ‘humans’ were trying to stop ?”

Wist shook his head, a dark look crossing his face, “These are magically coded for only ponies to use, humans couldn’t operate them, even if they look like us. They’re also limited issue, one per agency member. The crystals are specially grown here for agency members too. If some pony happened to get hold of one, they’d need the crystals and each one has a magical trace on each of them so we can find it if it’s ‘lost’”.

Clever, but even so, “I don’t like it Wist,”, I said, “we would have to use these on another living thing. Great Goddesses, are we starting a war here or something ?”

He looked away shaking his mane, “You may not have noticed it yet, agent Nox, but yes, we are.”

> Chapter Four
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER FOUR


I spent another week practicing with the PDW’s, which, as I’d later found out actually stood for ‘Pony Defense Weapon’. I would also discover that the agency had a love affair with not only black outfits and black equipment but also bloody acronyms. Everything had one, and it took all my time to decipher the conversations going on around me. Each day was a repeat of the last, tactics, drills, TED protocols and of course, target practice. After a little while, I became quite proficient at handling the deadly little weapon. There were other types too, designed for pegasi and earth ponies, utilising a mouth operated firing mechanism. Despite my misgivings, and I had to admit my own hypocrisy in this, I had previously used crossbows to shoot ponies in the watch. But, at least here in the agency, we had the ‘shocker’ which was non-lethal. Not that being hit with all that magical energy wouldn’t hurt like hell, but a lot better than a hole burnt through you. 

What I missed the most in the agency though, was the camaraderie of the watch, my friends and colleagues. The agency was a group of ponies who all seemed to have, I don’t know….’issues’ ? No pony seemed to want to get along with the others except on missions and there was always a sense of distance between them, and me. Wist was a bit wacky but there was something beneath that outgoing façade which didn’t sit right with me. It was the same with gruff old Warlock, one day I would have to find out what was going on here before it drove me crazy. The sooner we put a stop to these smugglers the better, I would have Shadow back and get out of this loony bin.

The ‘facility’ we were in, was not much more than an agency version of the watch house. A lot more up-market and clean than my old work place in Manehattan but lacked a lot of its character, unless clinically clean and bland was to your taste of course. Wist had explained that the agency ponies stationed in various locations around Equestria, operated remotely to the main hub, which I guessed, would be the mountain facility I had been taken to that time. ‘That time’, when I had been forced to hand over my badge. Goddesses, I could never forget that, regardless of the reasons behind it. The memory was still like a dagger through my heart.

One morning at breakfast, I decided to broach the subject with Wist. He sat opposite me, yawning while stirring his warm oat porridge. “Late night ?”, I asked pleasantly. 

Wist nodded, stretching his fore legs out for emphasis, “Yeah, card game with Snap and the gang, Goddess knows what time that went on ‘till”, he took a swig of apple juice, “…bit of advice buddy, don’t play against Snap. She’ll wipe the friggin’ floor with yer.”

The breakfast choice in the agency was like its working practices, bland, mechanical, efficient and necessary. Porridge and apple juice or apple juice and porridge, delicious… I looked across the table at Wist, he had dark circles under his eyes poor bugger, I imagined his pockets were pretty light right about now.

“Hey Wist, I never asked, how did you end up in the agency then ?” I asked.

He looked at me with a disinterested expression, “Same way you did chief”.

“What ?”

“Woke up here. You know, doctors, nurses. Same as everypony else”.

“You’re kidding me!” I putting my spoon down, “What, you’re just walking along one day and ‘poof!’ you’re here in the agency ?”

Wist stared down at his porridge, “Pretty much. Thing is, none of us can remember what happened before then, or at least if they do, they’re not saying.” 

“Can you remember ?”, I asked him curiously. 

Wist’s eyes narrowed and a dark look passed across his face, “No. No I don’t, and Nox ?”, his eyes bored into me, “Don’t ask me again, alright ?”.

I paused looking into those deep eyes. There it was again, the fathomless black hole which appeared from time to time in his gaze. “Sure Wist, didn’t mean to upset you my friend, I’m sorry.”

With a blink, the chirpy piebald stallion re-appeared, “Its cool chief, just y’know, what we don’t know cant hurt us, right ?”, he laughed.

“Right”, I said, not believing my own reply. It wasn’t right, not at all. I had the impression that the agency was full of damaged goods that they’d ‘patched up’ by applying a plaster rather than attempting a proper repair. I hoped I wasn’t working with a bunch of ticking time bombs, ones who were armed with magical energy weapons.

“Team Epsilon to briefing room in five minutes.”

The voice over the tannoy caught our attention, “Come on chief, lets shift flank. Don’t wanna be late for yer first outing do yer ?” Wist smiled ruefully and finished off his porridge with a final spoonful. I followed suit, downing the last mouthful quickly and headed for the door. Warlock was already there watching us...waiting. 

“Nox, Wist, you’re with me” The dour orange pony informed us turning away to walk down the brightly lit corridor. We sat in on the morning briefing together and watched the surveillance images projected onto a screen, it all seemed straight forward enough. Nice and simple, an easy routine job for my first outing.

The target was a coffee shop on the junction of 39th street near the projection house. Meadow and I had been there once and I still had a vague recollection of the layout of the area. It was in a typical Manehattan setting, busy streets, equally busy pavements and the overhead railway which so fascinated me the first time I saw it. The sparks from the smoke stack in the early morning light as the locomotives thundered by was magical to behold, and like a foal, I’d stood there staring up at them wide eyed. Meadow thought my reaction endearing at first, but after the second locomotive has passed and I didn’t show any signs of moving, she’d pulled me into the shop, rolling her eyes at my behaviour.

The inside of the shop was wood panelled, with wooden tables and neat checked table covers, all quite quaint. We’d been the only couple in there at that time in the morning and the waitress, a cute cream filly with a yellow and blue striped mane, had cheerily taken our order. The manager had turned out to be her father, who’s expertise in brewing was the reason why Meadow had wanted to visit this part of the city. I still thought the place a touch run down for my liking and it was an area I’d made several arrests for drunkenness and damage to property when stationed here. Needless to say, I was rather wary about taking Meadow to areas like this, but she had told me off for being ‘overprotective’ and said I needed to ‘relax and loosen up’. She was right of course, I did tend to be a bit stiff when it came to her safety, not that I had been able to protect her when I needed to. When it really mattered…

“Hey, chief !”, Wist nudged me, “you get all that ?”. 

I nodded, “Yeah, we go in, secure the place when they close. Team Alpha secure the perimeter, Beta search the place for contraband. When finished, we take the family in for interrogation and memory alteration. Clean and simple, right ?”

Wist smiled, nodding, “Clean and simple”.

I checked my sidearm and shocker, I’d leave the crystal out of the thing, there was no way I was blowing holes in ponies with that, not after the warehouse, not when I had a non lethal means of disabling a target. Maybe I was growing soft in my old age, but, well…perhaps I’d seen too much death. I put it out of my mind and we headed for the sky carriages compound and boarded. We were quickly airborne, messages flying back and force over the TED’s, none meant for me though, just background chatter about weather conditions and estimated times for arrival at the target area. Out of habit, I didn’t look out the window but noticed, with some relief that my vertigo had simply…vanished. I silently thanked the wendigo part of me for that, maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

Wist noticed me deep in thought and tapped me on the leg, “You okay there chief ? you seem a bit distant.” 

I smiled at him, “Sorry Wist, haven’t been on a mission for a while and it brings back memories, not all pleasant ones, you know ?”. Wist blinked, “No, not really. We have a job to do and thats the way I keep myself going. Keep telling myself…its just a job”.

I don’t know about Wist being worried about me, I was more than a bit worried about the way the piebald buck would slip between being cold one minute and perky the next. I hate to say it but I simply didn’t have the faith in my new colleagues that I used to in the watch. Still, all things come in time, I was probably just as nervous back when I first joined up, but It seemed so long ago now I couldn’t remember. Oh bollocks, I was becoming forgetful now too ! 

The carriage began to lose height, gradually dropping to ground level with a clatter of wheels on cobbles. The communication hatch opened, “We’re here people”.

I sat and waited, listening intently to the TED. Surveillance teams were already on scene, the voices chattering back and forth, “One female customer inside. She’s paying for her drinks now. Stand by one.”

Wist stared out the window of the chariot. I’m not sure what he thought he could see, we were parked one street over and had no view of the coffee shop from where we were. The radio voice came back, “Female has left the shop. Target male heading for the door now, all teams move in.”

“That’s our cue !” Wist shouted enthusiastically and threw the carriage door open, trotting towards the front of the shop with myself in hot pursuit. I re-adjusted my sunglasses and patted my pockets to make sure my badge was handy. 

The air today was warm and dry, the sun dipping below the tops of the buildings, casting shadows across the road surface. I remembered there had been little wind in this part of the city, probably due to the density of the buildings.

My piebald agent colleague reached the door of the shop just as the male I recognised as the owner was reaching for the ‘closed’ sign. Wist pushed the door open and was stepping through, a grin on his face just as the shocked cyan male backed up, still keeping hold of the handle, “I’m afraid were closed now gentlemen, we’ll be open again tomorrow at eight.”, he said politely.

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll be able to manage a couple more coffee’s for my friends and I wont you? There’s a good fellow” He produced his warrant card and the males eyes went wide, looking to me as if for help. 

I nodded at him and produced my card holding it up for me to see, “Agent Nox, Celestian Bureau of Investigation. No need for alarm sir, we’re here on official business.” 

There was a thump, followed by a small crashing noise from the back of the shop as Warlock and Beta team, moved in to begin the search for any smuggled items. The agency briefing officer hadn’t deemed it necessary to give us poor grunts any background on why they thought there was smuggling going on here, but as the ‘new foal’ on the team, I guessed I was on a ‘need to know’ basis. Apparently, I didn’t need to know. I sighed inwardly, this was a completely different set up to what I was used to. 

The coffee shop owner walked behind the counter and began preparing a couple of cups of coffee while I locked the front door and closed the blinds. Wist followed the poor fellow, smiling that knowing smile of his. You couldn’t help but feel sorrow for the owner, he was visibly shaking in fright and managed to drop one of the cups which, fortunately, I was able to catch with my magic before we had a damages claim. 

I had to throw the owner a lifeline if for no other reason than to distract him from Wists attention, “Whats your name sir ?”, I asked politely. 

“G…Green…Green Gauge” he stammered, nervousness showing in his dilated pupils. He poured out two cups and leaned down to pull something from under the counter. 

Wist clicked his tongue at him, reaching down himself and taking out a jar of sugar lumps. Eyes never leaving the owner, he called over, “Agent Nox, how many sugars do you take ?”. 

“One”, I answered, peering between the blinds. The street was clear in both directions. I needn’t have bothered, I could see Alpha members stationed up the street and on the roof top opposite keeping an eye out. There weren’t any passers by, or traffic for that matter, they probably had the road blocked off too.

“None for me,” Wist spoke in a cheeky tone, hooking a foreleg around the beleaguered males neck. He leaned close and whispered loudly into his ear, eyes flicking to me, “I’m sweet enough already”. Green Gauge quailed and pulled away from him, his antagonist laughing, “He’s good ! I like him. Hope yer coffee’s good too, squire…”

Wist leaned against the counter and sipped his freshly brewed beverage, “Hey ! This really is good ! Nox, come and get yours buddy.” I trotted over and tried some of mine. It really was quite excellent, rich and smooth. The aroma brought back memories of the visit I’d had here with Meadow. Why in Equestria hadn’t we been back here ? It was a rare treat to find a place that could produce such a flavoursome cup as this.

“Thank you Mister Gauge, this is excellent.” I said smiling to him.

“You…you’re welcome”.

He tried to smile but it never reached his eyes, the poor guy looked like he was going to piss himself. A loud crash from upstairs and a scream caught all of our attention as Warlock’s voice crackled over the TED, “Female heading your way Epsilon, head’s up”.

A yellow mare with a red mane rushed at us from a back room, tears flying from her eyes as she rushed to embrace Green Gauge. Wist stepped back and chuckled, pressing his hoof to his TED, “Male and Female secure, anything to report ?”

“Negative, nothing up here, we’ll continue to…wait…stand by one,” There was a brief pause, “contact…hold it, its a female foal, come here, its okay…Ow! Dammit the little fucker bit me! Look out Epsilon team she’s heading your way!”

There was rumble of hoof steps and a grass green foal burst into the room running headlong into Wist. He stumbled back winded, while I picked up the foal and pushed her back to her parents, “Here you go, its alright little one, we’re not going to hurt you”. 

She glared at us, “Get out ! You’re bad ponies, you’re frightening nanna and granddad”. Okay, so…grandparents, not parents. So much for my detective skills! That was when I noticed the small toy pony lying on the floor, a plush model of Celestia. I went to pick it up but Wist beat me to it, levitating it up before the frightened foal. 

“Looks just her doesn’t it ?” he shouted over to me, “bet she’s a right goer, eh?”

I gave him a hard look, “Give her it back Wist, she’s just a child.”

“Give me that back !” the foal screamed stamping a hoof.

Wist ignored her laughing, “Let’s see how well she can fly shall we?” He threw the toy up into the air narrowly missing the ceiling fan. The little green foal cried out and rushed forward to tackle Wist, flailing her forelegs and bucking him with surprising accuracy, right between the legs. It may have been funny except the piebald male snatched her up in his magic and slammed her tiny body against the wall, snarling, “You little BITCH!”.

I rushed over to put a hoof on Wist’s shoulder, “For Celestia’s sake Wist, chill the fuck out, she’s just a foal, put her down.” The agent’s eyes narrowed as he lowered the foal and turned to me, breathing hard. 

Wist pulled off his sunglasses and stalked up to me until we were nose to nose, his bright green eyes boring into mine, “Don’t you ever…EVER…tell ME what to DO!” he yelled, foam spraying from his mouth. 

I picked up the toy Celestia and stepped back from Wist, “Easy Wist, no ponies telling you what to do. Let me give the foal her toy back and we can get this job over with”.

He glared at me, hatred and rage burning in his eyes. I’d never seen him like this and it was worrying that this guy was in a position of authority. I would have to report this when I returned, he was obviously…unstable. That look in his eyes, where had I seen it before? 

A bolt of green light made my vision flare and I ducked back instinctively, Wist doing the same, “What the fuck !”. 

I looked up to see the grandparents cowering behind the counter and the foal standing on her hind legs holding a PDW. Both Wist and I patted our pockets, it was obvious from his face what had happened, the little foal had grabbed his pistol in the scuffle and it was now pointing right at him.

“Come on darling…” he said to the foal, insincerity thick in his voice, “put that down now, its not a toy. Here, look, my friends got your doll. Nox, give her the toy for fucks sake.”

I levitated the Celestia toy to her and she started to cry, “You’re a bad pony !” she bawled at him, “You’re bad, bad, bad !”. 

A voice crackled over the TED, it was Warlock, “Whats going on down there Wist? Nox, report !”

“Chief, we’ve got a situation, the foals got Wist’s PDW, keep position until we get the situation back under control”.

Warlocks voice was heavy with condemnation, “Received, holding positions”. 

Shit, this was going to take some explaining. Some first job this was turning out to be, a standoff with an armed child. I had to get the weapon away from the foal before some pony was hurt, and somehow keep Wist away from the family.

Before I had a chance to react, Wist stepped forward towards the foal, “Come on now, give uncle Wist the gun…” 

The foal shrieked and a bolt of green light shot out again narrowly missing his ear and punching a hole in the wall behind him. Wists eyes narrowed and I saw him reaching behind his back as a cream filly with a yellow and blue striped mane walked into the room from the restroom, “Mum, Dad, whats all the noise ?”. 

Quickly taking in the situation before her, she screamed. Celestia! What happened to our bloody surveillance teams ? Weren’t they supposed to have checked this place before we went in ? It was all too clear now how horribly unprepared we’d been. 

I remembered during watch training, planning was drummed into us. “Piss poor planning, promotes piss poor performance”, my trainer had told us. By the Goddesses, he was right. In my excitement at being new recruits, we’d been all too willing to listen to some of the stories the veterans regaled us with. One had told us that when the ‘shit was about to hit the fan’, everything happened in slow motion. It may have been that way for him, but not for me, not now. Now, everything happened in a terrifying blur.

The foal, distracted by her mothers scream whirled away from Wist who made a lunge for the child, whilst reaching out with his magic to grab the PDW. The child tried to hold onto it with her hooves and in the ensuing tug of war, her tiny hoof hit the trigger and it fired, sending a green lance of energy at Wists head. With suprising agility, he dodged just but not fast enough, the magical energy beam clipping his ear and sending blood and burning flesh into the air. 

Before the glow from the beam died away, Wists hoof produced another PDW from a hidden holster beneath his overcoat and aimed it at the foal. I shouted, rushing forward to try and wrest the gun from him but I was too slow. Too damned slow. The beam from Wists gun lanced out and the foals head exploded into flying chunks of meat; bits of red mane and yellow fur spattering across the counter and her grandparents. The mothers agonised screams echoed throughout the coffee shop.

Warlock and the other agency ponies charged into the room a heartbeat later. While we were distracted by the latest entrants, the grandfather clumsily reached under the counter and pulled out a tubular weapon, similar to the type I’d seen in the warehouse. It didn’t do him any good, another green flash from Wist burned a hole through him from chest to tail, he was dead before he even hit the ground. 

The now hysterical mother ran for her foal crying out in anguish, and I managed to tackle her to the ground, “Stay down!” I shouted at her, but all she wanted to do was reach her foal. The same foal who’s broken body lay strewn across the floor near her grandfathers corpse.

In a sudden rush, the grandmother, picked up her husbands fallen weapon and shot it wildly at Wist, who ducked behind the counter. The bang made my ears ring and pieces of splintered wood fell on my muzzle. Warlock reached around the corner of the counter and placed a shot right between the older mares eyes. Silence fell, the smell of blood and burning flesh mingling with smoke from singed hair that was hanging in the air around us. I looked down at the mare below me whose eyes had narrowed to pinpricks, she was going into shock and began shaking uncontrollably. I shouted over my TED, “I need a medic in here now. We have ponies down, repeat, we need a medic in here now!”

Warlock trotted over and pulled me off the mare, holstering his PDW, “Leave her newbie,” he said in his gravelly monotone voice, “the medics will take care of her”. 

I stood up, wiping spatters of blood and splinters from my muzzle, “You bastard Warlock, you lousy miserable fucking bastard ! Is this how you do things in the agency? Is it !? You just gun down ponies, just like that?” I pointed to Wist, “he just shot a foal, a bloody foal for Celestia’s fucking sake! What the fuck is wrong with you ponies?” I was starting to lose it and I could feel a hint of rage spark down inside me, who were we supposed to be here? Who was I? Who were the good guys?

Wist picked up his PDW and slipped it back into its holster along with its twin and walked past me without another word. I couldn’t bear to look at him. Warlock paused as a voice came over the TED, “Agent Warlock, we’ve found something”, he pressed his hoof to the device, “On our way.” 

Turning to me, Warlock hooked a foreleg under mine and hoisted me to my hooves, it was the first vaguely friendly gesture I’d ever had from the stallion, one I barely noticed. “Come on Nox,”, he said, “theres something you may want to see here.” 

I fought back the rising bile in my throat, following the orange buck through the back of the shop. Radio chatter continued across my ear piece, but in my current state none of it registered. I could still hear the mares scream, her pain and grief like a red hot lance through my heart. ’I’m sorry little one’, I silently prayed, ‘Goddess guide you to the eternal herd’. 

At the back of the shop, a black coated agency pony from Beta team stood by an open hatch in the corridor floor, the rug which had been covering it, pulled back to one side.

Without another word, Warlock headed down into the cellar beneath. The smell of damp hitting my nostrils, damp and…something else, the smell of...

The big stallion halted at the bottom of the stairs, in the dim lamplight, a row of rusty cages sat haphazardly along the side of one wall, boxes, jars and other detritus piled up nearby. Agency ponies were busy breaking open crates with crowbars, their packaging material spilling onto the dank floor. One of them magicked out a long tubed device, the same as the one upstairs, “Sir”, the pony nodded passing the weapon to Warlock.

He took the thing and he passed it to me, his eyes watching my reaction. “Equestrian made”, Warlock said levelly, “These get on the streets, Nox and we’ll have more blood on our hooves than what you’ve seen upstairs today”. I propped the weapon against the wall and turned to meet his gaze, “Is that an excuse for what happened up there ? Warlock, we just killed three ponies, a little girl and her grandparents. Was that part of the plan ?”.

He spat on the floor, “Of course not, we don’t liquidate ponies unless absolutely necessary”. 

I looked at the cages, “But Wist…Celestia, the guys not right in the head, we could have…” 

Warlock interrupted, “...We will deal with Wist, this is not the time for that.”

I sighed removing my glasses and rubbing my eyes, Goddesses what a fucking mess. 
A quiet sound of…something, caught my attention, Warlock had heard it too, “Over here !” he called pulling one of the crates aside. One of the agency ponies lifted up her lantern, casting light into the recesses of the cellar. There, behind the crate was another cage, rusty black metal glinting in the half life. Disturbing the crate sent the stench I’d noticed earlier to new heights, the foul reek of manure and urine catching the breath in my throat. I took the lantern from the pony and squeezed into the gap towards the cage, inside, two little foals looked up at me with shining eyes wet with tears. 

The two, one a sand colour and one black, hugged each other in terror, their pupils wide, reflecting the light. They didn’t make a sound. I closed my eyes and looked back to the agency pony, levitating his crow-bar over to me to push into the padlock securing the cage. In the half light, I paused, in the corner, near the foals, lay another little body…unmoving. With a crack, the lock gave way and pulled the rusted door open, “Warlock, get some medics down here…please…” I whispered. He nodded and turned back to the other ponies in the room. I took off my TED, my hoof half way to removing my glasses before thinking better of it. These three had been through enough.

“Hey, whats your names ?” I asked gently. The black one tried to speak but her dry lips could barely offer any words. The other one spoke up, her voice cracking, “Palm…I’m, Palm. This is…Twinkle Sky”. Neither of them moved, “Are you…going to hurt us mister?” she asked shyly, her voice quavering. The black foals blue eyes watched me, twitching when I sat down on my haunches. 

“No,” I said smiling to them, “I’m here to take you home, its okay now, we’re friends”. I motioned to the watching agency mare to come over, she took off her glasses and TED sidling up next to me, “Come on now my little ponies, its time to go home, we’ve got some hot drinks and some food for you too. You’d like that wouldn’t you ? Of course you would !”, she told them gently.

Slowly, carefully, the two moved towards her, the black one catching Palm’s tail in her mouth as she led her out of the cage. The same way Shadow had followed me from the village. Had that really happened ? It felt like a dream now…so long ago. I could feel tears stinging my eyes, was this what Equestria was coming too ? The mare patted me on the back with a hoof before leading the two foals away. 

The ribs showing through their coats bore witness to cruelty I could never imagine an Equestrian inflicting on any creature, let along a helpless foal. 

My eyes caught on the tiny figure of the unmoving green foal. I carefully reached out, feeling for a pulse…her body was stone cold. Cradling her in the blue glow of my magic, I gently lifted her out and took her in my forelegs, the foals eyes were closed just like she was sleeping. Tears poured down my cheeks, mingling with the filth she had been lying in during her final moments in the stinking dark cellar. I held her close and cried, my whole body racked with grief. I was lost, lost in a flood of emotions that threatened to overwhelm me, but I didn’t care. What the hell had she done to deserve this ? Where are you Celestia ? Luna ? Where were you when this young life, this precious spark of magic in the world, waned and died in the land of sunshine and rainbows. 

No pony spoke. Rising to my hooves, I placed her on my back and walked past the others, some turning away unable to watch. I headed back up the steps and out the back of the shop where several of the sky carriages were parked up, the medics tending to the mother of the foal from the shop. Warlock shouted something up from behind me, but I didn’t listen. The mare in front of me sat with a blanket around her, shaking, her eyes tight shut against the tears. My magic glowed as I brought the lifeless body of the green foal before her, “Did you know”, my voice barely a whisper.

The mare looked up at me, her eyes bloodshot from crying as she took in the image before her. She said nothing. I advanced on her, pain and anger growing palpable, “I said, DID YOU KNOW ?” I all but screamed at her, but the mare remained silent, her eyes filled with nothing but the grief of her own loss. She had nothing to say for the green foal, no words of regret, no remorse, she was simply a commodity, a tool. She had to have known, she must have !

“Agent Nox!”, Warlock bellowed at me, “Come on now, give me the foal, she shouldn’t see this.” 

I looked back at Warlock, my anger soaring, cold rage building within me, rising on a tide of pain, of vengeance. Some bastard was going to pay for this, I would find out who there were, where they were, and Celestia herself would not stop me from exacting retribution for the life of this child. Goddesses, they would all pay.

Warlock took the foal from me and passed her to the female agent who had taken the foals earlier. He took my head in his hooves and looked me in my eyes, “Get a grip Agent Nox, I cant afford to have you going nuts on me too. The Mistress trusts you, she believes in you.” 

He slapped me across the face with a hoof, “Get a fucking grip Captain !”, he shouted. 

I lifted my head and faced him, my thoughts re-arranging themselves, “You knew they were here didn’t you ?” I asked. 

“Yes, or rather, we suspected,” he lead me out of earshot of the mare who was bundled into one of the sky chariots, “the smugglers have been trading in foals. Foals and gems, traded for guns, drug components.”

I drew a ragged breath, watching the sky carriage take to the air, “Celestia’s mercy…”, I breathed. 

The orange agent stood next to me, “Do you see now Agent Nox, do you see now why we must do what we do ? Who’s foal will it be next ? If we don’t stop these scum, it wont stop. It will never stop.” 

I rubbed the tears from my eyes and readjusted my sunglasses. He shook his mane and called a sky carriage driver over to us, “I blame myself Nox, I should have shown you the truth from the beginning. The Mistress wanted me to, but I was worried you might…”, he sighed, “…end up like Wist”. 

I looked about me; the piebald stallion was nowhere to be seen. “Here, get in” Warlock said pushing me in through the open door of the carriage.

I felt numb, emotionless…empty. I took a seat in the sky carriage and barely registered it taking to the air, Warlock sat opposite me listening to his TED. Robotically, I put mine in, the radio chatter clear and clinical.

‘Disposal Teams clear to move to target area’
‘Received, moving in now’
‘Sanitation Team to target area, clean up procedure to be implemented immediately.’

I knew what ‘sanitation’ meant, they’d remove any evidence of the terrible events that had unfolded there. A cold thought hit me, had the horrors in the cellar been going on when Meadow and I had been enjoying a coffee and slice of cake there that time? Had there been foals, locked in the darkness in those rusting cages below our very hooves? Crying in the darkness, calling for their mothers, for help that would never come. 

I pushed the thought away, I couldn’t give in to this feeling, I had to drive it down, keep myself together. There was work to do, work to help Equestria and stop this…this evil from spreading. I couldn’t do that if my head and heart gave in to hate and anger. Warlock was looking down at something next to me, it was my hoof. I’d been pressing it into the seat so hard, I’d left a deep indentation in the material. I rubbed my sore hoof on my hind leg and looked him in the eye, “What will happen to them?”, I asked.

Warlock looked out the window, “They’ll be taken to the hub, memories wiped, families found.”

“And the mare?” I asked him readjusting my TED, “what about her?”

“Interrogated then memory wiped. If its too deep, she’ll be sent for re-education”

“Re-education?”

“Total memory reset, false memories implanted, a new I.D. A new start.”

“Do some end up in the Agency?”

“Some, depending upon temperament”

I took my glasses off and fixed my gaze on Warlock, “Is that what happened to Wist?”. 

He glanced at me then back out the window, “We’re here”, he said quietly but of Wist, he said no more.

Outside, the biting cold wind was the first thing to hit me, we were high up in the mountains and I quickly recognised the landing area from my first visit here. This was the Agencies central hub, and I’ll say this for our driver, he was fast. Warlock and I walked across the wide flat expanse and showed our cards to the guards before climbing into one of the magically powered buggies. The thing was a marvel of magical innovation, smooth and quiet with barely a hum from its rubber rimmed tyres. Why we didn’t have more of these in Equestria, I couldn’t say, pony power was still very much the staple everywhere.

We glided down corridor after corridor, a white line delineating the road traffic from the walking areas. Agency ponies walked or drove everywhere I looked, some carrying files, some standing to chat. One thing I noticed though, was that they all wore the same dour expression, like Warlock, like the joy inside them had been sucked clean away. Goddesses knew, if they’d seen what I had today, I probably was the last one to criticise. 

The buggy rolled to a halt near a set of double doors with a guard posted outside, not that he looked any different to all the other agency ponies, other than a larger version of the PDW in his hooves. We flashed our cards and he let us through to a small chamber beyond. A voice crackled over an intercom, “Wait a moment please gentlecolts, scan in progress”. A red light from the ceiling swept over me from nose to tail, then the same with Warlock. The voice returned, “Thank you, you may proceed”. 

I watched Warlock, his expression never faltered. “What was the scan for?” I asked him. 

He regarded me quietly, “Making sure we’re Equestrian”. 

From what Mitre had told me, these ‘humans’ as Wist had called them, had been able to shape shift to look like us, but obviously there was something detectable in their physiology that made them different. I doubted it was little aerials sticking out of their heads somehow, but it would be something…’technical’. Damn it all, I wished I’d spent more time studying as school rather than arsing around.

We hoofed our weapons in at a desk and were patted down before being scanned once more for anything concealed. Cleared, we entered a long corridor through a sliding door, again guarded by a heavily armed agency pony. A row of rooms that could only be described as cells, lined both walls. 

The first one we came to held a lime coloured pony, cowering in the corner, shaking and talking to himself. I moved closer to the hatch, trying to hear what he was saying, “Inside you, taking you, listening, watching…always there, never listening, oh no! Inside…inside…yes, yes”. 

Warlock closed the hatch, “Seen enough?”, he asked, I nodded. Cell after cell, we passed, each with shaking ponies, foaming at the mouth, chattering insanely, rocking back and forth…madness.

The last cell on the left wall held a purple filly with deep bite marks on all four legs, she’d been muzzled. Her bloodshot eyes regarded us with insane hatred and she charged the door screaming, “YOU! My fathers, brothers, sisters bastard WHORE! Drowning in your own blood, I’ll eat your heart and piss in your eyes…” 

She growled and hissed, biting at the glass covering the hatch before, with a snap, Warlock closed it firmly.

He crossed the room and opened another panel, motioning me to look inside. In the corner sat a filly, not much more than a foal. She was sat on her haunches, rocking on her haunches singing a tuneless melody. The walls were covered in formless drawings in crayon. Warlock called to her, “Lilly? Lilly, its uncle. Lilly…?” 

The young filly, orange coated like ‘Uncle’, slowly dragged her hind legs towards the door, her pale white eyes staring up, sightlessly. “Uncle Warlock?”, she spoke in a distant manner, as if her voice was already beyond the mortal realm, “Is it time to go home Uncle? I’ve been here so long…so…so long”. 

The big orange stallion smiled at her, “It wont be long now Lilly, you’ll be going home to be with you mummy and daddy.”

Lilly smiled, “I’d like that Uncle…I’d like that”. The macabre sight made my hackles go up, there was something frightening about this child, I felt a chill just looking at her. Her face and her manner was like looking into the face of death itself, her eyes reminding me of the lake serpent in the Withers, cold, lifeless. Warlock closed the hatch and we walked back out the way we came in.

We climbed back into the buggy and were rolling quietly down the passageways before he spoke, “Lilly is blind. Her hind legs are withered…useless. Her mother, my sister, the purple filly in the room opposite hers ?”, I nodded, “-she was a user…shot the breeze, one too many times…”. He shook his mane and snorted loudly, “Lilly was born addicted, her mother was too far gone to look after her and the doctors can’t do anything either. The Mistress herself had a look at her and she…she said that Lilly is…” the big stallion slammed the brakes on the buggy before closing his eyes against the tears, “…she’s passing over, the herd are calling her. Its only a matter of days now…”

I went to put a hoof on Warlocks shoulder but, I couldn’t, what could I say to ease his pain? “Warlock…”, I began, but he interrupted me, “Forget it. There’s nothing you or I can do here Nox, I just wanted you to see what I’ve seen, to see for yourself why we sometimes take what you think are ‘extreme measures’ to stop this from spreading.” 

Wist had said we were at war, Lilly and her mother were but two of its victims, two of Goddesses knew how many. Even Warlock’s own family had been touched with its deadly poison. It was no wonder he was so…detached.

“What will happen to Lilly’s mother?” I asked him, dreading the answer. 

Warlock started the buggy up again, “She’ll be retired, Nox.” 

“What ?”, I said incredulously. 

“I said she’ll be retired, put to sleep, euthanized, do you want me to spell it out for you?”, Warlock said levelly. 

“Goddesses”, I said quietly half to myself, “they’re going to kill her…” 

The big orange buck briefly glanced at me before facing back to the road, “And what’s the alternative then? That’s not life Nox, it’s not even death. Breeze destroys you, by inches, rotting your mind and body until theres nothing left. It destroys ponies, families, even whole villages. It’s a disease and we have to do whatever it takes” He closed his eyes briefly, “Whatever it takes…”

> Chapter Five
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER FIVE


We parked up the buggy near the entrance to the hub and headed for the chariot park. My mind was reeling with the information Warlock had given me, I couldn’t believe it. We were killing ponies, ‘putting them to sleep’, for Celestia’s sake. Whatever you called it though, it was still killing repackaged with a different name. It may have been necessary in Warlocks eyes but surely there was some hope for these ponies, we had medicine, magic users who could…”Oh! Sorry!”, I’d bumped into another agency pony walking in the opposite direction, knocking her files onto the floor.

She clicked her tongue and took the files from me as I magicked them up to her. The mare shook her short red and white mane irritably, ”Keep daydreaming like that agent…”. 



Oh crap!, I knew this mare, and she knew me, or at least who I had been. Agent Sweetie held out her hoof, “I.D, if you would be so kind”, it wasn’t a request. I took out my warrant and she inspected it closely, “Agent Nox? A new recruit are you?”

Warlock stood forward, “Showing him the ropes ma’am”, he said politely.

Sweetie looked me up and down then reached forward, snatching my sunglasses from my face and looked into my eyes. “No…no, I wondered.” She tossed them back to me dismissively and I caught them in my magic. “Nasty horn damage there agent, had that looked at yet?” she asked me. 

“Yes Ma’am”

Sweetie made to walk away then whirled, grabbing the hem of my overcoat and pulling it over my flank to reveal my cutie mark. She gasped, turning back to me with a strange look on her face, her tail swishing side to side, “You…no…no you’re not him. Excuse me Agent Nox, Agent Warlock, its been a long day.” Warlock and I watched her go as she hurried on up the corridor. 

Climbing into the sky chariot Warlock scratched his muzzle with his hoof, “Met her before ?”

I closed the door behind me, “Yeah, right after I was kicked out of the watch. She had her goons, no offence, bring me here and gave me the third degree.” 

He smiled, the first time I’d ever actually seen the big lug do that, “I’m surprised you remember, the agency normally blank any memories of interaction with them.”

I nodded, “She flashed me with a rewriter, but all it did was make me see blue spots for an hour, Wist tried one on me too, thinks I must be immune to its effects because of my ‘freaky eyes’”. 

Warlock watched me like a bear looking at salmon for dinner, “Interesting”, he said. I felt like I should be nervous sharing a carriage with Warlock, but deep down I was sure he was just a big softy…Not.

The sunset from this height was truly something to behold and a balm to the weary soul. All these years, my vertigo had prevented me from travelling by sky carriage except out of necessity, and generally resulted in my stomach trying to empty itself of it own accord. I would have endured all of that, and more, just to be able to see the wondrous beauty of the Equestrian sun as Celestia lowered it below the horizon. The red-orange of this heavenly body illuminated the clouds and sky, bathing the world in its waning light before the slow rise of Luna’s pale moon. Just for that time, I was a foal again, wondering in awe at its splendour, the elation and joy of simply…being alive. I felt a tear trickle down my cheek, it so…beautiful.





“Nox?” Warlock asked looking concerned. I didn’t acknowledge him, how could I turn away from such majesty, the warmth of the light the princesses brought to our world.

“Beautiful…”, I muttered.

“The sunset?”

“Yeah…never seen it from so high up, its breathtaking…”

Warlock leaned forward to look, “It is, I never tire of it. The promise of a new tomorrow, one I hope we can share with every pony. Free of fear.”

I nodded, “Free of fear”. Goddesses let it be so, for the sake of our foals and grandfoals, we had to do succeed.

We began to descend, the carriage taking longer to take us back than it did to reach the hub. The driver probably wanted to take his time and enjoy the flight back as well, I mean, who wouldn’t? We swept in for a smooth landing with barely a jolt, I’d have to thank the driver, he was good…or she, naturally.

Warlock stepped out onto the landing strip near the compound, stretching his legs. His attention was caught by a charcoal grey mare running up to him, panting, “Sir! Message from the Mistress, we’ve got a situation.” 

The orange stallion looked at me, the serious look on his face was back, “Get yourself inside and cleaned up Nox, I’ll see you at the debriefing”. With that the two galloped away. 

I could see the river from here, the way the sun caught the ripples on its surface was quite mesmerising. Letting out a long sigh, I decided I’d grab a quick shower, the stink of that damned cellar was still clinging to me. I couldn’t decide if I was becoming desensitized to the horrors I’d seen, or if I was cracking up but just didn’t know it yet. It was a worrying thought, but hopefully when the princess found Shadow, everything would be able to settle down and I could get back to my old life.

Inside the main building, I was the only one in the showers. I guess it was a bit early for a shower unless you needed one, and great Luna, I really needed one. The hot water felt amazing against my fur, the blood, stench and who knew what else, washing away down the drain. 

Steam rose and covered the windows with condensation, bringing to mind the wisps of smoke and fog that billowed around us that evening in the cell, Shadows eyes blazing with red fire. Goddesses, I missed her so much. Meadow, Sparrow, sometimes I wished I could erase part of my memory to stop these waves of emotion washing across me, but they were part of me, part of who I was. I could never stop loving them all, and one day…



Shit, I had to try and lock these feelings away, in the little drawer in my mind, one that couldn’t be tainted by the likes of what I saw today. I sat on my haunches in the stream of water, closing my eyes and feeling its warmth crossing over me. 

Concentrating, I imagined the wooden bureau Meadow and I had in our old home, the elegant oak furniture, time worn but serviceable. I pictured the drawer inside, the lock turning, opening. My hoof stretched out, holding a tiny golden butterfly, delicate and precious. It flew into the drawer and it closed, the lock turning. I would return here when the time was right, when it would be safe to feel once again.

The stall next to me opened and another pony trotted in, their hooves clattering on the tiled floor. They sighed loudly then sneezed, swearing under their breath, I couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at the sneezed swear words. After a short while I was reaching for the tap as a voice wafted over the dividing wall, “Hey!…hey, there. Got any spare soap? There’s none in here.” The voice was feminine and sounded tired, she swore again, “Ah, blast it all, there’s no flamin’ feather conditioner either. Who’s meant to maintain these things?”

I reached for the soap and was about to pass it over when a tangerine coloured Mare’s head appeared over the divider, “Hey! You got any soap?” 

I stood on my hind legs to pass the soap up to her, “Yeah, sure here you go”. My voice was muffled by the rope, which made keeping hold of the slippery thing a lot more manageable. 

She stood there staring at me, her mouth hanging open. Shit, it was these bloody eyes again. I’d have to see about getting something done about them, I was sick of this reaction from ponies. I turned tossed her the soap and looked away, “Sorry, the eyes freaking you out?” I turned off the water and opened the stall door. 

A clatter of hooves later, the mare stepped out of her stall and stood before me hoofing me a towel, “No, its not the eyes, its just…you remind me of someone.”

“Do I?”, I remarked not paying much attention, I just wanted to get out of there and away from the inquisitive mare.

“You do, aye. I wasn’t sure at first, but the coat, the mane. Your cuties marks different, the eyes, the scar, but the voice…its still the same.”

She stepped closer, looking me up and down nodding, “My Goddesses! Its you, isn’t it! Captain Fairlight! We…we hoped that..” She trailed off. 

I dried off my coat and dumped my things in the cleaning basket, “I’m sorry miss, you have me mistaken for someone else, the names Nox, agent Nox.” Her hoof shot out and stopped me short of the door, “Horse shit ! I know my old C.O and you know me too, don’t fuck me about ‘Nox’ or whatever you call yourself now, I’d know your arse anywhere.” 



I jumped in surprise, “My…what!?” 

She smiled, “Don’t worry Cap, sorry, ‘Agent Nox’, I won’t let on. Pony feathers, what happened to your horn?”

I shook my mane, looking for a drier, “It’s a long story, Tingles, but you mustn’t tell anyone who I really am. Some know, but so far as the rest of Equestria is aware, Captain Fairlight died in that fire.”

Tingles stretched out her wings and took a spare bottle of feather condition from the shelf, “Cap, I think we need to talk, privately. You got a bit of time after the briefing tonight?” I did, I wasn’t restricted to the facility but I was normally so busy with drills, briefings and avoiding other ponies, the first outing I’d had since arriving was to the coffee shop. 

The foals head exploded in my minds eye and I closed my eyes tight shut against the image, fuck I needed a drink…”Sure Tingles, I’m free, what do you want to do?”

She smiled broadly, clopping me on the shoulder, “Sweet! I’ll meet you by the landing strip at nine, we’ll go to this little place I know.” And with that, she pushed back into the stall and started the shower.

> Chapter Six
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER SIX


The debriefing was as tedious as it sounded, the officer at the front of the hall had no real interest in hearing anyone’s opinion but his own. I’d sat in on countless debriefs and this wasn’t any different apart from the complete lack of interaction between the officer and everypony else. We may as well not have even bothered turning up. Let the bloody idiot stand there blabbering away to an empty room, I doubt he’d even notice.

It was still head-achingly difficult to work out what, if any, my particular role here was. I’d understood that we were part of the agency, but that our loyalties were ‘slanted’ if you like, more towards Luna and dealing with things in a more ‘pro-active’ manner. Exactly why the ‘Mistress’ had singled me out, would probably become clear at some point, but I hoped she would bloody well hurry up. I was getting itchy hooves and wanted to get back to my old life, or at least try and see what there was left of it. But if I left, what use would I be to my home, to the princesses? I had a duty to perform and my own honour wouldn’t allow me to simply walk away. If it wasn’t for having to work with such bloody miserable goons like these, it probably wouldn’t be so bad. Oh well, I’d leave matters another few days and then I would speak to Luna and see if she had any progress, after what I saw at the coffee shop, I figured I was owed some glimmer of hope. Goddesses, I hoped Shadow was safe.

Everypony stood to file out of the briefing and I headed back to my room to pick up a few things. Inside, the wall mirror taunted me with the now all too familiar blue eyed, scarred visage. With a sigh, I leaned a hoof on the mirror and looked closely at the vivid white scar. It was horribly noticeable, running from my cheek and into my mane. I supposed that if I didn’t have a black and white mane already, I’d more than likely have one by now. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not… Anyway, no sense worrying about it now, what was done was done. Grabbing my TED, I was about to put it on but paused, did I really want that thing droning away when I was off duty? The thing folded up quite well anyway, so I pushed it into the depths of my coat pocket. 

Checking myself over one last time, I popped on my sunglasses and left the room. Walking down the corridor on my way to meet Tingles, I passed Wist’s quarters, the door was shut. I knocked tentatively…no reply. Slowly, I reached out a hoof and opened the door. It swung open quietly revealing the clinically clean room beyond, fresh bedding and clean floor, but no signs of life. No signs of occupation either, it was like Wist had never even been there. I suppose it wasn’t that much of a surprise considering what happened at the coffee shop, but it was Warlock who’d fired the last shot. Had it really been necessary to shoot the grandmother? I closed the door and made my way towards the sky carriage park by the landing strip, I hadn’t been bothered about a drink earlier with Tingles, but now…yeah, I needed this.

“Evening Agent Nox”, Tingles called sarcastically from her perch on top of a sleek sky chariot. She was dressed in a casual top and slim saddle bags, by comparison I looked like…well, Agent Nox-ish, I suppose. 

“You do know, you’re supposed to be off duty don’t you?” she asked smirking. 

I grimaced, “I know Tingles, but all my clothes come in one colour at the moment and I think we all know what that is. Come on, lets get out of here, I need a drink.” With a sarcastic bow, she waved me into the open topped chariot and hopped into the drivers compartment. 

Moments later we were soaring over Manehattan, “Little Place I know Cap, you’ll like it”, she nodded down to the city below. It could have been any one of the myriad bars along the waterfront, their twinkling lights shining yellow sparks, contrasting with the white stars in the sky above. 

The night air was fresh and clean, despite being over a city. I breathed it in deeply, savouring the aromas of cooking, the salt air from the sea. There was no doubt there were other things in there too, but its best not to ruin the atmosphere thinking too much! 

Tingles shouted something I couldn’t hear over the wind noise and began her descent. We landed with barely a noticeable bump, something I now associated with Tingles flying skills. I stepped down from the chariot, we were in a small parking lot with several others, a street vendor on the corner and a number of outdoor tables and chairs set about.

“Here we are!”, Tingles smiled and led me to a weather beaten door in the side of a building bordering the lot, “Cap, didn’t you hear what I said earlier?”

I shook my head, “Sorry, no, I didn’t want to shout over the wind noise, what did you want to say anyway?” 

“I was pointing out the fire below us, you must have missed it. Doesn’t matter really, a Pegasus has pretty good eyesight for spotting things you know!” Tingles whinnied and pushed the door open to the bar. 

Inside, the room was dimly lit with mood lighting and individual stalls down one wall. The bar was a long black wood affair, a couple of mares milling around between the more open tables, serving drinks and taking food order. The place had an unusually neutral atmosphere to it, a sort of detachment, probably why Tingles had chosen it.

At the bar, my companion hopped onto a stool and waved a hoof at the bar pony, “Two wheat beers here please”. He nodded and collected two glassed from the rack. 

“How did you know I wanted a…”

“The wake remember?”, Tingles laughed, ”I couldn’t forget that night, could I?”. I could feel myself blushing which only served to make here laugh even harder. Wiping a tear from her eye, she picked up both beers and we took a seat in one of the stalls. 

“Sorry…I’m sorry Cap, I shouldn’t really. Anyway,” she took a sip of her beer, “you’re part of Equus now right?”

“Who?” I asked genuinely intrigued. Tingles leaned in, “We all are, Warlock, me, Wist, every pony at the facility took an oath to the Mistress. You did too didn’t you?”

I scratched my ear before taking a mouthful of the wheat beer, “Look, Tingles, we can’t discuss this outside of the facility, you should know that. Lets change the…”

“This place we’re in”, she interrupted smiling, “is a place only used by Equus ponies, the stalls are magically warded against intrusion. Carmine, the owner, is a senior pony in the organisation. He knows about you, and in fact most of us do, apparently. The mistress nearly died saving your life, so its no surprise that word got out with that carry on…”

I nearly choked, “Nearly died!?” Great goddesses! Luna nearly died to save my life, I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t worth that. 

Tingles smiled and reached over to put a hoof on mine comfortingly, “I know what you’re thinking ‘Nox’ and yes, the Mistress pushed her powers to the limit to save you, but she’s that kind of pony…Alicorn, I suppose. However, you’re necessary to the plans of our organisation to deal with these smugglers.

“Does Warlock know you’re here, talking to me?” I asked her. 

“No”, Tingles shook her head, “The Mistress has asked me to keep an eye out for you. Warlock is…special…to her, but he can be a bit overprotective at times. He may be warming to you, I don’t know, but she feels he may not have the confidence in you that she does.”

I leaned back in my seat, “So what does all this mean Tingles? What was the point of all that stuff about me serving Equestria? All I’ve done so far is shoot targets and go on one operation with a psychopath and watch a foal have her brains blown out. Whats next then?” 

Tingles looked a little taken aback. “I’m…I’m sorry,” I apologised, “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Its not your fault.” 

She shook her head, “I know Cap, I was the same when I joined, sceptical, excited, frightened, quite the rollercoaster.”

“Why did you join? How? You were a great flyer in the watch and a real asset to us”

“I know, and…thanks, that means a lot. But, Blaze…she changed when Dawn died, became ‘harder’, cold and unapproachable. She worked us round the clock on jobs that just didn’t seem to be of any real practical benefit, you know? It was all small time stuff, things that gave us higher clear-up rates, but all that did was give her career ambitions a boost until she took over Mitre’s old job.”

“What? Blaze is Watch Chief now?” I was stunned, I had no idea.

“Yeah, she became a real bitch and I had more than one row with her. I wanted to take on real missions, take on the smugglers. She felt I was being unrealistic and that the army would deal with them. What a load of crap! Those numb fuckers couldn’t…sorry, I’m going off topic a little.”, She paused to take another drink, “ I was becoming more and more disenchanted with the Watch, until eventually I was approached by a pony who asked if I wanted to ‘make a difference’. And, well, here I am”

A red light flared around us briefly and Tingles held up a hoof stopping any further conversation. One of the waitresses approached the stall, “Can I get you anything folks?” she asked politely. 

“Two salt licks please Nell, some fries and a radish bowl for two” Tingles gave me a wink while the filly trotted off to fetch the order. She certainly had a habit of ‘reading’ me which was a bit disconcerting. I’d heard that observation skills were a pegasi trait, which certainly fit the bill with Tingles. Either that or she had some kind of mind reading ability I hadn’t heard about.

I wasn’t that surprised Blaze was now Watch Chief though, after all, she was ambitious, daring, similar in many ways to how Dawn had been. It broke my heart to hear that the loss of her lover had caused her so much pain, if only I could have done more for her. Goddesses knew, I understood loss all too well, but to detach herself from those around her was a very lonely, dangerous path for her to tread. Dangerous for anypony for that matter.

I watched a small bead of moisture trailing down the outside of the glass. It was peaceful somehow, oblivious of the world around it, heading inexorably down to its final destination. With a sigh, I looked back up to Tingles, “How did you end up in Equus though ? I mean, the agencies one thing but…”

“Mitre, he was an Equus agent in the Watch…”, she replied drily.

I nearly balked, “Mitre !? He was an Equus agent? Shit…it all makes sense now, Bingo…’sanitising’… all the things he knew.”

She nodded, “Yeah, he wasn’t an actual agency pony though. He was recruited into Equus years earlier, to act as a sort of ‘eyes and ears’ guy. He recommended me to the Mistress personally, but it wasn’t until he…you know, what happened to Mitre?”

I nodded.

“Well, after that, after Blaze’s behaviour, I just knew it was time to move on. They must have been watching me, ‘coz it wasn’t long until Warlock contacted me and the rest…is history I suppose.”

The light flared around us and the waitress trotted up balancing a tray on her back, “Two saltlicks ?” she chirped. Tingles smiled and nodded, the earth pony waitress deftly depositing a pink slab of the stuff in front of each of us, a small side of daisies and a couple of bowls of fries and radishes. The smell of the salt was heady and I took a taste. It was amazing, the warm richness had a depth I was surprised with and it packed a punch too. This was truly something else.

“Good?”, Tingles asked.

It was rude of me, but I couldn’t help myself…I spoke around the lick, “Oh hell yeah! That’s some good salt right there”. I took another long lick before gulping down a mouthful of my beer, I could happily live here.

“I thought you’d like it!”, She laughed, “the salt here is imported from Saddle Arabia, top draw pink salt. Kicks like a mule, so go easy. You’ve got some on your nose by the way…” She reached across and brushed the salt away from my muzzle. In surprise I jumped back almost reflexively, banging my head against the back of the stall.

“I’m sorry!”, Tingles squeeked reaching out before putting her hooves back down on the table top, “I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to…”

I waved a hoof, smiling, “Its okay, seriously. By Celestia, I’m a bag of nerves, look…Tingles, there’s nothing to apologise for, its just me. Ever since Meadow was…” I stopped, goddesses I didn’t want to talk about this now. I distracted myself with a radish and munched it down with a hoofful of fries. 

Tingles and I sat in silence for a while before an unbidden thought slithered into my mind, “Tingles, do you know what happened after the fire?”

She nodded, taking a mouthful of her ale, “Yeah, yeah I know. Damn it, I knew we’d have to talk about this sooner or later, but…okay, right…”. With a snort and a shake of her mane, she took a deep breath and continued,

“We were sent to the wrong address. Don’t ask me how or why, but the information we got was wrong. Blaze was frantic, eventually, we were diverted to the cabin but we were too late. The whole place had been burnt to the ground, smoke was everywhere, hoof prints from a lot of ponies and sky chariot tracks. It was only afterwards I found out the agency had beaten us to it and you had been taken to the Manehattan facility.”

She paused, scratching her hoof intently, “Meadow…her body was still there, burnt badly from the fire, but somepony still recognised her cutie mark. Mitre wasn’t far away, outside, a bolt through his chest. They’d just left him there…left both of them…”

I suspected the Equus ponies had only been after me and left the others for the Watch to recover. The thought of leaving the bodies of my wife and mentor was something I had to drive down, I couldn’t afford to become unglued in front of Tingles. I couldn’t change the past, what was done was done, and as much as it hurt, I should celebrate the time we had together. In fact, the times we’d had since she’d passed away too, but, how could I explain that to Tingles? That I’d had sex with my dead wife’s spirit? She’d think I’d had too much lick for sure. No, as much as I was terrified that the whole episode in the Withers had been a figment of my damaged mind and that damnable thing inside me, I had to keep faith that Luna had assured me she would find Shadow. She knew about her so surely it was true...wasn’t it?

“Cap?” Tingles asked reaching across and shaking my shoulder, “You okay?”

I nodded and wiped away a rogue tear that had rolled down my cheek, “I am…yeah. Bloody brains decided to torture me again, sorry. Can we…can we talk about something else?”

She smiled, a look of relief passing over her face. Neither of us should be revisiting painful memories, it served no real purpose. I knew what I knew and that was enough for me…for now at least. Anyway, there was something I needed to take care of and Tingles could help me with it, just…not tonight.

The rest of the evening passed without incident, the beer flowing and the lick disappearing along with the hours. I felt buoyed up by my time with Tingles, our night out together reminding me that I could smile and that there still was a chance for happiness in this horrible mess.

It was well after midnight when, with a huge yawn, Tingles sat up and stretched her legs. She smacked her lips in quite a comical manner and left a tip under the radish bowl for the waitress, “Come on you, I’m knackered…time for home”. 

Smiling happily, not that much worse for drink I have to say, I pulled myself from the stall and followed my companion to the door. As we crossed the room, from the corner of my eye I thought I saw a pony watching me. Quickly I turned to look more closely, but the occupants of the table were heavily engaged in conversation to one another and not paying any attention to little old me. Celestia’s grace! Was I becoming paranoid now? Shrugging the thought off, I buttoned up my coat and walked out into the night air.

Luna’s stars were beautiful tonight, which wasn’t saying much as they were beautiful every night. You just couldn’t always see them for the cloud layer. Tonight however, the moon shone brightly, bathing the cityscape of Manehattan in its otherworldly glow. The stars twinkling like diamonds in the clear black sky, how I’d missed such simple sights as these in the Wither world. To think Shadow was trapped there still…In the morning, I would seek out the Mistress and ask whether there was any news, something, anything that would give me hope.

Under Tingles’ careful, if rather drink fuelled flying skills, we were soon soaring over Manehattan. The tangerine Pegasus called back over her shoulder, “Hey Cap’, I want to go past that place we saw earlier and see if the fire’s out, you okay with having a look see?”

I leaned forward and shouted in reply, “Sure! Why not?”

We didn’t have to try hard to find the place, the stink of burnt wood was heavy in the air and fire crews were still damping it down even now. The blackened shell of the building was visible in the floodlights set up to help the crew’s see, but I didn’t need to look any closer. I knew where we were…there passing below us on the overhead line was a steam locomotive, below it the place where I had stood and watched as it rumbled past, steam and sparks flying into the air like some underworld demon.

Now there was more smoke, the smoke from lives consumed by the flames of greed and misery. The agency had decided to ‘sanitise’ this place thoroughly, there would be no more foals in cages here, no more pain and suffering. Until the bastards found somewhere else to set up shop. 

Tingles called back to me, “Looks like they’ve done a number on that place. Unusual to go to those lengths though…you seen enough?”

I nodded. With a gentle sway, the sky chariot altered course back to the facility. 

> Chapter Seven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER SEVEN


The sun was already up when I knocked on the large doors to the Mistresses chambers, but despite my hopes, there was no reply. The door was magically sealed as it had been the first time I’d tried to gain access and no amount of banging on it was going to change that. I’d try again later, besides, as the princess of the night, she was probably asleep anyway. 

Most of the agents had finished their breakfast, if you could even call it that, and gone off to their various assignments. I was still a bit of an enigma here though, with no specific orders or routine, I just sort of ‘hung around’ until given a job. Even so, I had the feeling I’d be called upon before long. What happened next though really was a surprise.

Tingles trotted round the corner and waved to me, “Ah ha! There you are!”, she beamed at me as she approached, “Got a message from the Mistress for you”. Tingles made a exaggerated surprised face, “Aaaand…guess who’s going to be working with you from now on…?”

I couldn’t believe it, “What...you? Good Goddesses Tingles, how did that happen? I didn’t even know you were here until yesterday and then, ‘boom’, you’re my partner?”

She hung he head, pawing the ground, “I…I thought you’d be pleased.”

“I am pleased!” I cried, “Very! I’m just surprised too, I mean…how? What happened to Wist?”

Tingles was suddenly serious, a coldness entering her voice that gave me pause, “I asked Warlock if I could work with you and he agreed. No arguments, no discussions, you know what he’s like. As for Wist…I don’t know, his rooms empty and noponies even mentioned him to me.”

I nodded, “Yeah, I saw. It’s like he never existed, but somepony knows. Honestly, after what happened at the coffee shop, I wouldn’t care if I never saw him again anyway.”

“I heard”, she replied. “Come on, whats the Mistress got to say?” The nosy pony pushed her muzzle towards my letter.

“Hey!” I laughed, “Give over, its addressed to me, not you”. She nickered and stuck her tongue out at me playfully. I opened the letter and read it silently,

Agent Nox,

You are required to make yourself available for mission briefing, two days hence. Until this time, you are free to put in order any affairs you may have had outstanding prior to your recruitment date.

Agent Tingles has been assigned to work with you as your partner and I request that you spend your free time getting to know each other better.

Please note that we have not forgotten your request and that enquiries are still ongoing.

M

“Getting to know each other better…” a female voice said over my shoulder. I moved my eyes to see the tangerine mare’s green ones inches from me.

“Tingles! Bloody hell, I didn’t see you move!”, I squeaked.

“Nah,” she rummaged in her ear with a hoof, “I’m just that good…”

I barely notice the parchment starting to get warm, then hot…burning hot! “Whoa!” I shouted in surprise dropping it as it burst into flames. 

Tingles laughed, her bottle green mane bouncing, “Oh! You may want to watch out for that, the Mistresses letters are a one shot deal, I guess you could say the contents are…‘smoking hot’ ?” She burst out laughing and shoulder barged me playfully. I face hoofed, these ponies were all cracked, maybe not crazed lunatics like Wist, but at the very least a bit potty. Saying that, Tingles and I knew each other reasonably well, and although it wasn’t quite like the old days in the watch, I was still grateful to Warlock and Luna for allowing me to work with an old comrade.

It was sometime around lunch when we arrived at my first planned destination for the day. My companion had decided to wait with the carriage while I went to collect my order. Chips was busy out the back of the studio, I could hear the ringing of hammers and the occasional swear word echoing in its depths. A quick ‘ding’ on the old brass counter bell brought him out a moment later, sweat and grey dust matting his dusky fur.

“Sorry about that !”, he apologised wiping a cloth across his face. It didn’t do much to clear up the mess, and if anything it made the dusty pony look even grimier. His muzzle was encrusted with the dust of his trade and you couldn’t help but wonder what state the fellows lungs were in. Nevertheless, he was damned good at his trade and Chips was a solid pony, rather like the medium he worked with.

“Mister Nox, right?”, he said smiling, I nodded, “Great…here you go. I’ve used the exact materials you asked for and the dimensions are correct. I inlaid the lettering in gold for you too. I hope it matches your expectations sir.”

He opened a cloth wrapped parcel on the bench and stood back allowing me to inspect his work. It was exactly what I’d asked for. Running my hoof along the surface, I could feel the passion he had put into his work, the skill.

“You make the stone sing, Chips. You’ve excelled yourself…”, I marvelled at the precision of the lettering, all hoof made. He charged a fair price and was indeed the very best.

He smiled at me and I passed him the agreed sum, “Thank you mister Nox, my work is something I take a personal pride in. Celestia willing, it will last an eternity.”

“Thanks again” I said, placing the heavy stone into my pack. It was a small thing really, something so…simple. Waving goodbye to Chips, I returned to the waiting sky carriage.

“Get what you wanted Nox?”, Tingles enquired. I nodded. There must have been something in the way I looked at her, as her jovial smile faltered momentarily before she asked, “Where to now?”

The sun was high in the sky and I could feel a light breeze blowing in off the river, this was going to be bloody awkward, but it needed to be done I suppose. “Here’s the address partner, you okay to do this with me?”

Tingles looked down at the note and whinnied, “Does this answer your question?” The carriage rocketed into the air, flinging me back into the seat bodily. Celestia! She was fast…The world flew past in a blur and before I knew it we were out over the river and the mountains beyond. I’d best settle back, this was going to be a decent flight and I was glad I’d brought my saddle blanket to keep me warm. Tingles had her own flight coat on which was designed to keep out the wind and avoid chilling her too much. 

We continued to climb until I could see the tops of the mountains in the distance, their snow covered white tops glistened in the sunlight. Above the clouds, the sky was a pure blue, the sun a bright ball of light. No wonder ponies worshipped Celestia, the one who brought us such beauty. It was times like these I wished I’d be born a Pegasus and been able to see this every day, goddesses, I could never tire of this.

Around two hours or so later, we began a gentle descent, clouds whipping past us like white insubstantial fluff. Hoping my companion didn’t see me, I couldn’t resist sticking my tongue out to see what they tasted like. Sadly…they didn’t taste of anything at all, but still, it was bit of foalish fun. A small chortle from the front of the carriage made me sit back down hurriedly, bugger it! I’d forgotten about Tingles ability to spot things. With any luck, she’d forget what I’d done or else the cheeky tangerine mare would never let me forget it.

Below the cloud layer, I could see in the distance, a small collection of cottages, the smoke from their chimneys climbing lazily up to the sky. The hamlet was well situated for trade to and from the expansive forest, many making their trade from wood and the various plants which were used for homeopathic medicine. Not everypony trusted magic it seemed. Personally however, I’d rather believe the doctors knew best than chew on a mouthful of mushrooms and hope for the best!

We began to descend, and one classic Tingles landing later, we were back on terra firma. I patted my pilot on the shoulder as she raised her flying goggles, “Thanks Tingles, this means a lot to me you know”.

She grinned back, “I know Cap, you want me to come with you? I can stay here If you like”.

I shook my head, “I’d like the company to be honest, we’ll get something to eat while we’re here too. Come on, it’s the next building over.”

The narrow street was cobbled, flanked on both sides by stone cottages. Some thatched in the old style, some with wave style roof tiles. The quirky little village had a small population but despite that, they had always been welcoming to strangers. A jade colt and a lilac filly raced past laughing, daisy chains woven in their manes. Tingles chuckled and gave me a sidelong glance with her big green eyes, “Young love eh, Cap?”

Smiling, we both watched them race off into the tree’s, I remembered when I chased after Meadow like that once. Those memories were something nopony could take from me and I would treasure them always. Right now though, my destination lay ahead. The red door with its highly polished bell sitting next to it had never changed. Sure, the paint had been refreshed and the planters maintained, but it was still the same cottage I remembered from my foalhood. Without warning a tangerine foreleg shot past me and gripped the rope, ringing the bell for all it was worth. 

“For goodness sake! You bloody kids! Pack it in or I’ll be speaking to your parents…” the voice from behind the door was slightly muffled but clearly irritated. I glared at Tingles who shrugged, feigning innocence. The red door burst open.

“What the bloody hell do you want? Go on…fuck off!”

“Aunt Pewter ?”, I smirked, she hadnt changed a bit. A few more grey hairs maybe, but the explosion of unruly mane was the reason the locals thought she was a witch. Well, that, the black cat, broom stick, cauldron and assorted skulls. You get the general idea. 

She looked us both up and down and poked me in the nose, “Ow! Aunty, what was that for?” I squeaked. She lifted my sunglasses and peered into my eyes nodding slowly, and, before I could stop her, she peeked at my cutie mark under my coat. 

“You’d better come in…nephew. Bring you marefriend too, but no shenanigans though! I wont have any of that under my roof. I don’t know…back in my day…” She trailed off into mumbling while we followed her, Tingles grinning like an idiot, into the gloomy interior of aunt Pewters home.

I’d always loved visiting my aunt as a foal, her house was a magical treasure trove of trinkets, potions and other wonders. The same bones and skulls hung from the ceiling on cords and her favourite incense burned in the pot near the recessed fire with its iron cauldron hanging above it. It was like time had stood still here, even the town looked the same.

“Hey…”, Tingles nudged me whispering, “…she’s not planning on eating us is she? I mean, those skulls look like…ponies. Kinda”

“Shut up!”, I hissed back.

Aunt Pewter whirled around to us, he cloak flaring out behind her, grey main striking against her grey coat and yellow eyes. Guess it came from my mothers side then…

“Are you going to stand there all day looking untidy or are you going to sit down? You’re making me feel tired watching you!”, the old unicorn clicked her tongue irritably.

I smiled at my Aunt and sat next to my Pegasus companion, taking the cup of hot tea being offered, “I don’t get many guests these days, customers sure, but not many social calls.”

She walked over and took my head in her hooves, muttering something I couldn’t understand. Pulling me this way and that, she took out a pipe from the black wood rack and proceeded to light it from a taper near the fire. When the pipe was lit, Aunt Pewter pulled over a chair with her magic and wriggled into it, staring at me intently. She nodded to herself and took a deep pull on the pipe, blowing its smoke out in a thick cloud.

The grey cloud swirled and eddied around me in patterns that made my head spin, and not from the smell either. There were…’things’ in the smoke, moving, weaving, speaking. My mind reeled and I pulled back in alarm, I didn’t like what was going on here, even though I’d seen Pewter do this with her customers. Being the subject of it was a different matter all together. 

I kept my mouth shut but noticed Tingles staring at us both in shock, not many could see anything other than the smoke and I surprised that as a Pegasus she could see much of what was going on. From her expression, she’d seen…something.

“I’ve never had a dead pony in my home before. Not one that walks and talks anyway. So…who are you then?”, Pewter asked curiously.

“What ?! Auntie, its me! Fairlight, your sister Tulip’s son. Remember?”

“Of course I bloody well remember, I’m not senile for the Goddesses sake. Discords ball’s nephew, what the hell happened to you?”

“It’s a long story Auntie, I…I’m not sure where to begin.”

“The beginning is always a good place, I’d suggest, but I’m far more interested in what happened to you after you entered the Wither world”.

“Auntie…How do you know about that place?” I asked in surprise.

“Its pretty obvious to somepony with half a brain, Nephew”, she took another pull on her pipe, “Did you never read those books I gave you when you stayed here? You bear the mark of the Wither World on you flank. That...”, she pointed at my cutie mark with her pipe stem, “-is the mark of the Wendigo, the hungry spirit, the spirit of vengeance, revenge, the bringer of winter, ice and death…”

I look at Tingles who’d gone pale. For Celestia’s sake, all this mumbo jumbo was frightening her. I put my hoof on her leg and she nearly shot through the ceiling. Thankfully, a smile from my Aunt helped settle her down and she sat back in her chair. Her eyes however, belied her fear.

“Auntie for Celestia’s sake, please!”, I pleaded.

“Don’t mention that bitches name in my house !” she shouted at me her eyes bulging. I hung my head, I’d forgotten her peculiar hatred of the princess of the sun. Auntie Pewter turned to my alarmed companion, “And what of you my dear? A pretty young mare like you, does this frighten you? Do you fear legends?”

“Yes…yes I do…”

“Good girl, and so you should. For one sits next to you now. But don’t worry, he’s on our side. For now at least…”

Goddesses, I was really starting to wish I hadn’t come here, let alone bring Tingles into my Aunt’s clutches. The old bugger was as mad as a box of frogs. She probably had some in the cauldron right now.

“Does it speak to you Fairlight…the spirit inside you?”, Pewter asked.

I stared at my hooves. It had…whispered to me, in my fear, in my rage, it had answered. Together we had fought and smote my enemies, its power seething through me like a whirlwind.

“Yes. Sometimes.”

“Let me ask you my nephew…who is the master and who the slave?”

“What? I…What do you mean?”

She just sat there taking another draw on her pipe.

I shook my mane in exasperation, “I am Auntie, but please, what did you mean ‘for now?’”

She gave me a pitying look, leaning forward to pat my hind leg with a hoof. “Wendigo’s are powerful Fairlight, there is one within you and it will try to take control of you. They are dangerous, yes, but should you be able to control it, instead of it controlling you, it could be a source of incredible power, the likes of which this world has not seen for over a thousand years.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Tingles jumped in ahead of me, “What, so the Captain…Fairlight…is one of those demons? Those…Wendigo’s? I thought they were an old mares tale, a legend. The freaky eyes and cutie mark are one thing, but…a demon?”

Aunt Pewter gave a dry laugh, slapping her side with a hoof before turning her bemused gaze on me, “A demon? Hardly! I suppose it depends on which side of the fence you belong on my dear. In the great war, some sided with the night, some with the day. Have a guess which side the wendigo’s fought on?”

A cold shudder rippled through my body, I could almost feel Tingles’ stare boring into me. She was terrified of me now, and so she should be. Whatever Aunt Pewter said, I was still ‘possessed’ by this thing, this demon. She hadn’t seen what I’d done in the Wither world, how I’d revelled in blood, sang a song of devastation as I cut down my enemies, merciless and cruel. Goddesses, was I lost completely?

Pewter stared into my eyes, “Has the hunger taken you yet Fairlight?”

“The hunger?” I knew what she meant. That terrible need, the desire for absorbing the life energy of others, “No…I’ve been eating the crystal berries. Some are supplied to my room each morning by the agency.”

Aunt Pewter laughed, “They may stave it off my dear nephew, but when you use your power, and you will, you must replenish you reserves. If you do not, the hunger could overwhelm you and the spirit take you. That…that is the time you must be strongest.”

I watched her eyes intently, “Auntie, please, can you help me?”

She sighed and leaned back for a draw on her pipe. “No. At least, not very much I fear. The berries will help avoid the worst of the hunger, but when you use your power, your energy reserves will fall and you’ll have to recover it by drinking. That is, absorbing the life energy of another. In the war, the wendigo’s would drink the energy of their fallen foe and were feared for it.”

She was right, I had done this very thing. The terrible, dread act of drinking in the life energy of the fallen. The creature in the lake had been the first, but had there probably been more, others that I had been blinded to in my battle rage.

Tingles leaned forward, “Aunt Pewter…”, the old mare turned to watch her, her expression unmoving, “Is it possible to…’gift’ some of one’s own life energy to another?”

Aunt Pewter nodded solemnly, “Yes girl, but it is highly dangerous. When a wendigo feeds, it will usually do so until either sated, or the source of the energy is empty.”

“Dead”, I filled in. Well, that was never going to happen was it? I could imagine all the ponies queuing up to offer me some life energy, ‘just a top up please love!’, for fucks sake…

“I’ll…I will be his…donor.” Tingles said quietly.

I jumped out of my seat, virtually glowing with anger, “Don’t  be so fucking stupid! You haven’t seen that thing, what it does, what its capable of! Goddesses tit’s Tingles, why the hell would you even think of doing that?”

Tears welled in her eyes, “Because…because I…”

I didn’t want to hear it, “NO! And thats final, I’m not bloody well changing my mind either. Its berries or nothing, I don’t have to use the spirits power, I can rely on my own. I always did before…”

Aunt Pewter ignored me to comfort Tingles. I was incandescent with rage, furious with my Aunt for goading me, Tingles for offering her own life…for Luna’s sake, and myself for being such a…monster. Great Goddesses I was wasn’t I? A thing from a foals history book, a spirit of evil and suffering that should have stayed nothing more that a frightening bed time story.

They both watched me as I stood, anger boiling through me in a torrent. I had to get out of there, “Auntie, I’m going for a walk. Look after Tingles please, its been a long flight for her”. She nodded, putting a foreleg out to stop the tangerine mare from following me through the door as I swept out. Goddesses, so much for locking my emotions away…

The slog up the hill was heavy going, I’d been a lot younger the last time I’d followed the now overgrown path behind the cottage. What seemed like five minutes ago, was really years. I was getting older and I could feel it in my bones and muscles. Small aches and pains I’d never had before, maybe as a result of the injuries from the cabin or wear and tear, I didn’t know, came and went. I was middle aged now, I should have been happily married with children of my own…maybe even grandchildren! Well, there was no hope in hell of that ever happening now. 

The image of the piss coloured stallion gloating over the broken body of Meadow haunted my thoughts, laughing at me. He’d won, he knew it too and he’d make sure it was something I’d take to my grave. The red bastard was next, his sickening stench filling my nose with its reek of decay, the crimson eyes, blood drenched orbs glowering at me. Laughter filled my ears and I fell to my knees, Meadows face before me covered in blood, tears running down her cheeks…”Fairlight…help…me…” 

I reached out to her but she was so far away, I had to get to her, had to reach her. The more I tried to reach out, the farther she was, calling out to me in her pain. All the while the laughter of her tormentors echoed around me. I did the only thing I could, I reached out for the calm, the anger, rage and power deep inside me.

Any thoughts of controlling the thing were gone, I needed its unbridled power now. I would smash these creatures who dared to even lay a hoof on my precious Meadow and I would bring her home. Her eyes pleading, I found the calm spot, releasing its anger, little by little…

“ENOUGH!” 

A deafening bellow hit me with enough force to make me lose my grip on the spirit. It shrieked in outrage as its chains covered it once again, my conscious thoughts and senses slamming back to the here and now. The hillside, the thick tree’s, the ice thick around me; goddesses, I’d nearly lost it…

I looked for the source of the shout and looked up into the shining eyes of a silver-grey pony, his long white mane and beard flowing in the breeze. He had an angry yet oddly gentle expression on his face and yet seemed, insubstantial somehow. Like a ghost…in the daylight. I stood, ice and snow showering off my back as I gave myself a quick shake. The old fellow watched me silently with his fathomless golden eyes. Beside him, a green mare stood watching me, her eyes brimming with tears, “Is he…”

“No, he’s still himself…for now at least. I fear there’s nopony left that can help him in this world, and I can only do so much my dear”

I struggled to remain standing, my strength felt like it had been sucked from me. Goddesses I was so tired…

“Darling, please listen, you have to take control, try, please”

The green mare pleaded with me, but it was so hard to focus, “Meadow?” I whispered, my eyesight blurring in and out.

The grey stallion leaned toward me, “You must control yourself boy, your fate is in you own hooves in this and nopony else can help you. Few if any would even remember the stories of what dwells within you, let alone how to control it. But remember this, somepony was always there first. They were able to master it and to pass down their knowledge to others. You will have to rediscover that knowledge for yourself and become the ruler, not the ruled. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

I nodded dumbly.

Meadow came forward, “We cannot stay long my love, but please, don’t give in to this…thing. You have the power to help ponies but its no good if you succumb to hatred and pain.”

I looked up at her helpless, “Meadow…I’m a monster, a demon. The look in their eyes when they see me…all they see if death, fear. How can I…”

She knelt before me, “Hasn’t one pony offered her help to you?”

I clenched my eyes shut. No, I couldn’t, wouldn’t do that.

The grey stallion spoke next, “You only need a little life energy to survive boy. If you focus, you can take just a little from a willing companion to help you recover, they need not die. Life energy is like a well spring, it will replenish over time. It is the hunger you must suppress, control it, bend it to your will.”

I dismissed his words, there was no way in Equestria I was going to take life from another, no matter how ‘willing’ they were.

“The berries?”, I asked, “can they not help me instead?”

“Yes, but they only grow in areas of high magical energy concentrations. This is how we could reach you. Look about you.”

He waved his staff and I followed its travel. Around me were silvery bushes, lush with the crystalline fruits. I nearly bolted forward into the nearest bush but caught myself. Damn it all, I had to stay focussed, the fruit could wait.

“My love, I told you once, ponies are not meant to be alone. Don’t cut yourself off from the love of those around you.”

“Meadow, I am alone. You’re with the herd, Shadow is lost in the Withers, I feel so empty, so afraid…inside. What if I cant control this thing? What if I cant find Shadow and return to you and Sparrow? Oh Goddesses, I don’t know what to do !?”

I shook my mane in frustration. So many times in my life I had had to make decisions, ones that ponies lives had depended upon. Yet now, now I had no idea what to do, which direction in which to turn. Sure, Luna said she would try and help me find Shadow, but it seemed so insubstantial. Was I just a tool, to be used in the battle against the smugglers? Pointed like a crossbow and unleashed? But what about afterwards, say we won and peace was restored, would the princesses really want a demonic spirit wandering about Equestria?    

The grey pony slammed the base of his staff into the ground. Its impact lifted the earth around it. Thunder rolled across the hillside and shook the leaves in the trees, “See! Your heart is so full of fear and confusion that you cannot see the life around you. There is always hope boy, there is always a way to find the path that is hidden.”

I stomped a hoof, “Everypony’s telling me I have to control this thing, over and over and over again! Like I can just wave my hooves and it’ll all be okay. For the Goddesses sake, can’t you give me at least ‘some’ practical advice here?”

The grey ponies eyes narrowed, “No, haven’t you been listening boy? Nopony lives who remembers those times, save the princesses and I would advise against seeking their counsel in this. The wendigo’s kept their lore unto themselves. If there remained anything, it would be in their fortress but even that, as impregnable as it was built to be, was annihilated during the war. No, you must master yourself in this, it is something only you can do.”

He turned to Meadow, “I have said all I can my dear, the rest is up to him. I don’t know about the ponies in this age, they seem weaker than the ones in mine. I fear he may not have the strength to overcome this trial.”

Meadows eyes brimmed with tears, “I wont lose him!” she said firmly. Turning to me she took another step forward, “I won’t lose you now…damn it Fairlight! Fight this thing, please, you have to.”

The grey pony put a foreleg around Meadow and nuzzled her neck kindly before fixing me with a hard stare, “This girl loves you boy, more than I believed was possible. You share that love with her do you not?”

I nodded.

“Then use that strength, take heart in your friends and believe in yourself”

Wiping away an errant tear, Meadow smiled at me, “We have to go now love. I know you’re scared, anypony would be, but please, even if you doubt yourself, never doubt the love we share.”

I watched both of them begin to fade into the air, shimmering like a heat haze. “We will be together again Meadow, kiss Sparrow for me and tell her Daddy misses her”

Meadow smiled, “I will…Farewell my love…”

The old grey stallion nodded to me and slammed his staff into the ground once more, their images vanishing as if they were no more substantial than a breath in the wind.

For a moment I sat there on my haunches staring into the blue sky far overhead, listening to the birds singing and the wind rustling the leaves. Whatever the future held for me, I would face it head on. Meadows love for me, more than I deserved, would help protect me from this spirit. I would need all the help I could get to gain mastery of it and in so doing, would, I hoped gain access to the herd some day. Unless, there were some way to be rid of it? Surely somepony, somewhere, had knowledge of these things. Fortunately, I knew just the old bugger to ask.

> Chapter Eight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER EIGHT


“Where the bloody hell have you been? The cats already eaten your food, so don’t blame me if you get hungry later” The elderly mare was more than a little irritated by my rather late arrival back at the cottage. Behind me were several full baskets of the crystal berries.

“Sorry Auntie, I came back down to borrow you baskets and collect some fruit. Hey! Maybe you could use some to make jam, I used to love your home made preserves.”

Pewter pushed past me in a blur, “Where in Equestria did you find these ?! I know you said you’d been able to find some, but I thought…”, she paused, “…You followed that old path up the hill didn’t you? How many times did I tell you not to go up there !?”

She was livid, her eyes narrowing as she advanced on me grabbing a ladle in her magic. With an almighty swing, she cracked me right on the muzzle, “Ow! Auntie, for Celestia’s sake pack it...Ow!”. Again and again the old mare hit me with the thing, her voice breaking as she shrieked,

“And how many bloody times have I told you not to blaspheme in this house!”

Tingles appeared from the kitchen covered in what looked like flower. My saviour darted forward and grabbed the ladle from the enraged grey mare and stood between us. Aunt Pewters chest heaved and she neighed angrily before trotting off to leave us alone by the bubbling cauldron.

“Are you alright?”, The tangerine mare asked me.

“I am, thanks, she has quite a strong swing for an old timer”

“That’s not what I meant…you’ve been gone for nearly the whole day. We were worried sick.”

I had to admit, I’d lost track of time up there picking berries, in the sunlight after my conversation with the Meadow and, well, whoever it was.

“Sorry”, was all I could manage.

“You may have been ‘worried sick’” came the voice from the kitchen, “but I wasn’t, you bloody young fool”

Tingles and I shared a smile and laughed quietly. Auntie may be a cantankerous old mare but she had a heart of gold, if a little ‘tarnished’, these days. 

My reactions were put to the test when a shiny brass object flew at me from across the room. My horn glowed and I snatched the thing from the air and levitated it to my hoof, it was a small brass pocket watch. My dad’s old one, mine. I thought I’d never see it again…

“Auntie…how?”

“All your things are here, what they could salvage anyway. Not much I’m sorry to say. I cleaned the watch up and kept it for you, together with that tatty old coat and hat you liked so much.

“My coat and hat!”, I cried, pocketing the watch in delight. Aunt Pewter produced a box from a shelf which held a number of items from my home. They showed some evidence of…burning.

Pewter glanced at Tingles, “Nopony told him yet?” 

The agency pony shook her head, “The day you and Meadow were attacked, your home, Mitres and Dawns, were firebombed. The fire crews managed to save your house, but its been cordoned off as a crime scene ever since. Some ponies even think its cursed and wont go near it. I’m sorry Cap, I didn’t want to be the one to tell you about this”

Auntie motioned to the box, “That big Pegasus and this one here,” she pointed at Tingles, “brought you what they could get their hooves on before the house was boarded up. I think you should be thanking her.”

I tried my best to smile, but…my home? For some reason, since I returned to Equestria, it hadn’t registered in my mind. Everything had just happened so fast, like a roller coaster of events, one after the other. I suppose it was all academic now anyway, I mean, how could a dead pony go back to his house? I’d have to have a word with Warlock and see whether there was anything I could do, perhaps sell it? Nopony need know what happened to the money and I could always put it towards a new one elsewhere. 

What saddened me the most, was that was where Meadow and I had lived together, had planned to start a family. Had started a family.

“Thanks Tingles”

She smiled at me and trotted back to the kitchen. Aunt Pewter, watched her go, “I think she likes you nephew, must be the old family charm” she cackled. Sometimes, she really did seem like the local witch.

“Auntie, please. We’re not like that, she’s my partner in the agency”.

Pewter snorted in derision, “Bollocks!”, she poked me in the chest with her hoof, “The sooner you wake up and see what right in front of your face the better. She’s good looking too that one. Looks a bit like an orange, with that coat and mane, might make the foals look a bit off. Never had a Pegasus in the family that I can remember…”

“Auntie for…”, she shot me a glare, “Look, I need to ask you some things, can we speak, please?”

She nodded, magicking down a set of glasses and a bottle of brandy from the shelf, “I want to ask you some things first Fairlight. To begin with, I want to hear everything that happened to you…”

I face hoofed, “Oh goddesses! Not again! I’m going to have to write a book about this…”

Aunt Pewter paused in filling the glasses and smirked, “You want my help don’t you?”

I sighed in resignation and began…

****************

I finally reached the part where I joined the agency, auntie needn’t know about the coffee shop. That terrible scene was one nopony should have staining their memories. Pewter stretched, her joints creaking like the chair she occupied, I had no idea how old she was but she was still quite spry for a mare her age. She called over her shoulder, “You can come in you know, my dear”.

Oh shit, I’d completely forgotten about tingles in the kitchen, and by the look on her face, she now knew everything. Her eyes were wide as she approached, looking at me in a new light. Was it fear I saw? Wonder? I had no idea and to be honest, I didn’t want to know either. Everypony I grew close to became entangled in the disasters which I attracted like some furry lightning rod. She didn’t speak nor, I noticed, did she seem as confident in approaching me as she once had. Sitting on her haunches, the tangerine mare fiddled with her mane while Aunt Pewter continued her interrogation.

“Did you happen to meet anyone up on the hillside while you were there?”

Damn...damn…DAMN! How did the old bag now about that? Oh, but she did, and the look on her face said it all.

“I did, a grey pony from the herd, and…Meadow.”

“And what did they say to you?”

“What everypony else has been telling me, that I have to master control of this spirit.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Did they tell you anything else?”

The image of Meadow and the grey stallion drifted into my minds eye, “The stallion told me that there was nopony alive who knew how the wendigo’s used to control their power, that their fortress was destroyed and the knowledge lost. He said I should take strength from my friends. Something like that anyway.”

Aunt Pewter harrumphed, “Arrogant old fool”. She leaned towards me, “You would do well to follow his advice. There was something else wasn’t there, something Meadow said to you?”

I scratched my head, she had. Her words were still clear as if she had spoken them moments ago, “Ponies aren’t meant to be alone. Don’t cut yourself off from the love of those around you.”

Auntie nodded sagely, “Hmmm, true. But that wasn’t actually what I was getting at. I think you know what I’m talking about don’t you?”

I looked across at Tingles, a single tear fell from her eye to land on the dark wooden floor. It glistened as it fell, a tiny star in the gloomy room, her green eyes shining while she stared at me. She saw the monster within me, the demonic form. I knew what Pewter was trying to do but even if I’d let Tingles offer herself to me, there’s no way she would have done it now, not after hearing my tale. I could only hope it hadn’t ruined my working partnership with her, but I doubted it. Wist, now Tingles. Goddesses, nopony would want to work with me and who could blame them?

I fixed Pewter with a stare of my own, “I know what you’re thinking auntie and the answer is still no. I’ll find another way to deal with this, thanks for your help, but I think I’d better go, its probably dangerous to be around me.”

“And that exactly the sort of bollocks I expected to come out of your mouth!” She slammed her glass down on the table and whirled round to look back at Tingles, “Look at him! He’s a bloody mess, girl. You’re going to have your work cut out helping this one. Honestly, I don’t know what you see in him.”

“Auntie! For the Godddesses sake!” I shouted.

She wasn’t impressed, “Oh shut up! Stallions are thick as bricks, always were, always will be. Now then, lets all enjoy a nice brandy and dinner together. Afterwards, we’ll go for a walk.” She grinned expansively, showing her teeth, “All three of us”. I balked, there was no getting away from her this time.

It was evening by the time we were trudging back up the hillside. Aunt Pewter had packed lanterns and food for us as well as other odds and ends which were duly placed in saddle bags. As the stallion, I had been designated pack mule for this journey. Leading the way, aunt Pewter made good time, and we could still clearly see the hoofprints I had made earlier in the day. Judging by how overgrown the track was, I’d probably been the only pony up here in a good long while.

Tingles walked next to aunt Pewter when the track was wide enough, the two of the chatting away like a couple of hens. I couldn’t hear what they were saying and I suppose in a selfish way, I was glad of it. I was running over what I’d been told earlier, I had to control this being within me. It was so easy to say and in the Wither world, it had been easy to do. Why had it been easier there than here? It didn’t make sense. I still had its power chained up within me but I could also feel its desire to escape, to run free. There was always that background ‘need’ as well, that desire to feed. Berries would placate it, but that wasn’t what it desired.

I could feel it scratching at my subconscious, wanting to be noticed. I took my mind off if by looking fixedly ahead…at Tingles rump. She had a decidedly well formed rear for a Pegasus. For one more used to flying than walking, it was surprisingly well developed. Strong and lean. Her green tail swished from side to side and I could just make out her cutie mark peeking out from under her overcoat, it looked like…”

“Looks like you’ve got an admirer!” auntie cackled, looking back at me. Tingles fixed me with a look, her cheeks flushing a deep red, like mine. 

Thanks auntie, now my partner thought I was a pervert too. 

I took a deep breath and held my head down, goddesses, did it take this long to reach the top when I was collecting the berries earlier ?

Eventually, I noticed we’d broken off from the main track onto what looked like a game trail, with auntie forging on ahead. We continued along the sun dappled trail for a few minutes until we reached the edge of a clearing, white stones dotted about the edges of it like teeth bleached in the sunlight. She motioned me on, “We’re here Fairlight, come on, lets get the fire going and get comfy. This may take a while”.

Following her directions, we set up lanterns around the edges of the clearing and set a fire in an ancient iron brazier that had been covered over with vines. It showed signs of regular use despite its condition, and it was soon crackling away, sparks and heat radiating outwards.

“Why are we here Auntie? This is all a bit surreal if you ask me” I stated, catching my breath. The saddle bags were surprisingly heavy, particularly going uphill. 

She smiled at me distantly, watching the dying rays of the sun as it dipped below the edge of the horizon. With a suddenly chirpy voice she announced, “Why are we here nephew? Why, we’re waiting of course. If we weren’t, we’d be doing something else!”

Tingles chuckled behind me, she was sat on her haunches running her hooves through her mane. I turned back to the old grey mare, she was damnably exasperating at times and I told her as much. She just rolled her eyes and returned to study the horizon.

It was very quiet here, no wind noise, no birds…still. The air felt old too, like it had lingered here for an eternity and had simply never moved on, I felt a little unnerved in the light from the lanterns. The brazier was welcoming, warmth always is I suppose, but once again, I was unsure of what was going on and this time, it was aunt Pewter’s turn to confound me. The old mare had been sat watching the sun disappear behind the horizon, the moon beginning to rise in its place, and at that moment she rose to her hooves and walked over to me. 

“Stand here Fairlight and don’t move, whatever happens, you have to stay here. Do you understand?”

I nodded, if there was one thing Auntie knew, it was magic, “Yes Auntie, I’ll stay here”

She smiled and took out a pair of gourds from the saddle bags, walking around me chanting in a language I didn’t recognise. Her horn glowed with a blue light while she sprinkled silvery sand from the gourds. She passed me on a wide circuit, once, twice, getting nearer and nearer. I was at the centre of a spiral of sand, Tingles standing over by the brazier watching intently. She looked as fascinated as I was.

Auntie was one of a long line of unicorn mares in our family who kept in touch with the older magics. Many these days considered them antiquated, out of touch and even ‘quaint’. But when a mare was having trouble with a pregnancy or crops failed for no apparent reason, many of the villagers would seek her out rather than risk the modern hospitals or officials in the towns and cities. At heart, as much as these ponies pretended to be modern, they were still superstitious and traditionalist at heart. Was this what Luna and Celestia were trying to protect? The old ways of our people, our roots, so to speak?

The grey mare returned to the outside of the spiral, reversing her steps, shaking a dash of the powder out ever few steps and shouting out to the sky above in that weird language. I would have found it slightly comical, only I knew my aunt too well, I trusted her skill more than anyponies. 

I was startled by her clopping her hooves together and crying out into the night air, her horn flaring bright white. But that wasn’t the only thing that had grabbed my attention, it was the sand spiral around me. It was glowing, shining brightly in imitation of the moons light as Luna rose it into the night sky above us. In the ethereal light, it was like I was floating between two seas of stars, one above and one below. Quite beautiful really.

“Fairlight…listen to me”, Pewter called, “call upon your power, reach out to it, gently but firmly. Keep a tight grip on it and keep your mind focussed on me. You are my family, my kin, our blood ties are strong, your mothers blood runs in your veins as her mothers runs in mine. Remember we are family, I am here for you…do you understand  Fairlight?”

I nodded, “Yes auntie”.

“Good boy. Now, open your mind, reach for the power within you…”

Closing my eyes, I controlled my breathing the best I could, letting the world around me fade away until I could hear only the crackle from the fire and my own heartbeat, the breathing of my body, the blood flowing through my veins. My body relaxed, the tension unwinding and seeping away, the aches and pains so noticeable before, faded until they were no more than a memory. And there…there in the corner of my consciousness, cloaked in bitter cold fear and pain, the small sphere of ice blue light waited. 

I followed the chains of my control, traced them to the expectant power and grasped them, pulling them off one by one. The light intensified, I could feel it questing, wondering, asking…’why was I doing this?’ The chains slipped off until finally I reached out and felt the icy touch of the spirit. It backed away, unsure of me, anger and suffering radiating from it…betrayal…

Images of Meadow flashed through my mine, smiling, crying, her face twisted in pain. She cried out for me, the vile images of her tormentors floating around her, laughing at her, goading me, challenging me.

I ignored them all. Meadow was with the herd, these images meant nothing. Gates and Melon Patch would meet their end one day, and it would be me who brought them to it. Vengeance would be served, but I was the one in control, I was the master here.

The ice cold screamed through me in a burning torrent, a tempest of magical anger and hate. I felt me body changing, the pain of the wings bursting from my back, my teeth growing, altering, the power building. It was both exhilarating and terrifying, goddesses, I had missed this feeling.

The spirit wasn’t finished with me though, like a different creature altogether, it threw images at me of Shadow; Maelstrom, the duchess, striking her across the ground, the lake creature tearing into her body and lastly, worst of all, Shadow…alone and crying out my name. I was powerless to help her, the spirit knew this, exploiting my fear, my loneliness.

Wordlessly it offered me power, strength, we would bring Shadow back and take revenge on the bastards who killed my wife…my foal…my little Sparrow Song, her face looking up at me…”Daddy? Are you coming home soon?”

Inside, my resolve quavered, my heart aching. Goddesses, why…

A cry of utter despair, thick with the unyielding cruelty of a winters night erupted from my throat and up into the starry sky. I opened my eyes and saw the snow beginning to fall around me…and so it should, my heart was as empty as the Withers. Everything had been taken from me…everything, there was nothing left, simply…nothing.

“Fairlight!”

A pulse of light and heat caught my attention from across the field of starlight, “FAIRLIGHT!”

I stared, my vision tinged in blue, focussing on the grey mare holding a staff with a prancing bronze pony atop it. Feathers and bones hung down from the figure, red gems shimmering as if ablaze. She was so familiar, “Mum?”, I hissed in the otherworldly voice of the wendigo.

“Fairlight, its me, auntie Pewter. We are family, you and I, remember the bond we share. Meadow is safe, Sparrow is safe. You will find Shadow soon and there are those who love you here. Can you understand my words nephew?”

I nodded, the spirit was calming now and I could feel its rage coming under my control. It was phenomenal, powerful and exciting to know that at any moment, I could unleash its fury. But this was not the time, my Auntie stood across from me, and there, a tangerine Pegasus, watching me with huge saucer like eyes. Despite all she had seen, she had remained brave enough to stay with us…with me.

I stretched me wings and shook out my brilliant blue mane, “Yes Auntie, I can understand you.”

“Good”, she sounded relieved, “Now Fairlight, try to remember the feeling you have now, the control, the sense of being one with your spirit. Listen to it, befriend it, but keep your awareness and focus on remaining yourself. You are strong my Nephew, all our family are strong, we share the bloodline and you must heed its call now. Remember who you are... Remember our history…remember”

I closed my eyes and tried to think back, but to what I wasn’t sure, my mother? My father? I could see them standing there in my minds eye, smiling and congratulating me on joining the watch, mum kissing my fetlock better when I’d fallen playing hoofball, Dad helping me build a tree house. Further back…grandfather holding me as a foal and granny, hugging my mum as she lay in the hospital bed.

Further back…Mum as a teenager, being bullied in the school playground and a young stallion coming to her aid, standing by her. He struck out, bucking one of the bullies to the ground watching the rest run off. She looked up at him with tear filled eyes, those big, love filled eyes.

I fell, faster and faster, images of ponies I didn’t know and somehow on an instinctual level, did, rushed past me in a blur.

The world stopped…then started again.

With a deafening roar of noise I was plunged into what I could only describe as an image from hell. I was on a hillside, ponies, thestrals, minotaurs, thousand upon thousand of them, blanketing the land as far as the eye could see. Black shining armour and weapons glinted in the half light, battles cries and shouts making the air vibrate around me. The air shook as a war dragon swooped low over me and with a massive beat of its leathery wings, climbed steeply upwards to keep station before a large group of armoured pegasi. 

The pegasus in the centre spoke briefly to the great creature and it swept away, back the way it had come. I watched in awe as the huge lizard returned to where a large group of its fellows awaited.

Across the valley before us, lay another mass of creatures. Mostly ponies from what I could make out, banners flying in the breeze, silver and gold armour glinting in the sunlight that bathed their army. They too had dragons, not as many, but there, in the centre of their number, was a large white Pegasus in golden armour. Hard to make out at this distance, but there was no doubting that this one was their leader.

The pegasus…no, alicorn, who had spoken to the dragon, landed nearby. She strode up to the party I was with, her mane and tale flowing with the stars of the night sky, her eyes flaring like supernovas. The silver armour glittered, contrasting with her crescent moon cutie mark. We all went to our knees before her, she was our leader, our princess, we would follow her unto the end of the world and beyond if she commanded.

A blare of trumpets and a great cry went up, the enemy were advancing. The princess nodded to us and we took flight, my wings beating powerfully, sending me up into the sky for a panoramic view of the battlefield. The armies looked to be almost endless, and evenly matched. The rumble of hooves and battle cries blotted out everything except the trumpeted commands of our army.

Beside me, a brilliant white creature appeared, her eyes burning blue like her mane and tail. A delicate silver chain with a golden heart hung from her neck, while her great wings kept her on station. Thick clouds of white fog wreathed her hind quarters and she smiled at me, my beloved wife, Arathea.

“Are you ready my husband?” She called to me, white mist dripping from her maw. 

I laughed, gazing into those beautiful deep blue eyes, “Of course wife! For the enemy, I am as ready as I am for you!”

She laughed heartily and glided up to me, embracing me in her forelegs and pulling me into a deep kiss. Our breath mingled, sampling each others life energy, the sweet taste of love…of life.

Arathea broke the kiss and drew up next to me, “Come my love! Its time to play!”

With a great howl of mixed joy and anger, we swept down upon our foes, unleashing our power into their midst. Great swathes of ice and blue fire lashed through the creatures below sending screams of pain and fear into the air. It was...rapture, the thrill of the hunt, anger unleashed. I inhaled their energies released into the air as I passed above them, breathing another pulse of blue fire into the mass below.

A bellow followed by a yellow-white jet of flame shot past me making me barrel roll to avoid it. The enemy war dragon charged me, claws outstretched and reaching. Beating my wings I pulled up into the thin cloud layer, the giant creature in pursuit. I wove my magic into the vapour trail behind me and circled the dragon which tried to rake my flank with another blast of fire.

We circled and danced around each other in a ballet of blue and yellow light. I blasted blue fire at the war dragon, eliciting a scream of pain when my attack struck its shoulder. In retaliation, its fire caught my wing, sending a shock of pain through me. I cried out in anger and drew in all my power for the final part of my plan. The dragon realised too late what was happening. 

The white cloud was now almost completely covering its scales and starting to freeze. Clawing at itself and trying to crane its neck the thing attempted to burn off the ice. It was all far too late, the flame barely guttered, the great wings stiffening. With barely a cry, the dragon dropped like a lead weight to the ground far below, crushing those unfortunate enough to be in the way of the enormous corpse. I grimaced, how I would have taken joy in feasting on that beings life energy. Still, no time for that, there were many more for me to taste this day.

Although the battle must have lasted for hours, I barely noticed it. I strafed the enemy lines, killing countless and maiming many more. Their numbers were seemingly endless but I felt like their energy, their impetus was being blunted. A great cry of excitement greeted me, “Maroc! We’re doing it! We’re winning!”

Arathea looped around me, her joy palpable.

I laughed with her, “Don’t let up my love, there are many more who need our help to send them to the next world, and I for one will not be happy until I have tasted a dragons energy!”

She laughed, “You haven’t already? How slow you are! I’m already on my third!”

The brilliant white wendigo mare flew off in a trail of cloud to dive down on the enemy forces below. I had no time to watch her go, my own foe were awaiting me, and I hated being late.

Fighting rolled back and forth below me like waves upon a beach, reinforcements being brought up, trumpets blasting orders. And then, up above us, it was as if the world had taken a breath. The princesses faced one another, one white, one black, the sky divided between them…day and night. I couldn’t hear what they said to one another, but what happened next could never be forgotten. Purple and black lightning burst from the princess of the night narrowly missing her sister, who replied with a brilliant flash of intense heat which missed its target but slashed through the ranks below.

Where it hit, troops were instantly turned to ash, smoking furrows in the ground marking where once living beings had been. Within moments, the gaps were filled by more warriors engaging the enemy of our princess, our goddess, Nightmare Moon.

With redoubled efforts, I screamed down like an avenging spirit upon the creatures below, blasting them with my magic, freezing their flesh and rending their bodies. My princess had called and we had answered, I would fight for her and help usher in the eternal night.

Around me light flashed again and again, whole units of ponies, minotaurs, thestrals, annihilated in the crossfire from the battle in the sky above. The fight below was becoming uncertain. Emboldened by Celestia’s attacks, the enemy had gained heart and pushed harder, our troops holding but struggling to stem the tide. 

Our thestrals swooped down to burn then with lightening and fire, our wendigo’s similarly raking their lines. In response, enemy unicorns helped shield a good number of their army but it was not enough to save all of them. 

Many died, on their side and ours. The Celestian armies dragons and griffins devastated our ranks, fighting with the thestrals both in the air and on the ground. 

And then…the end came. A whirling of colour around Celestia coalesced into a great beam of rainbow light, blasting into our beloved Nightmare Moon who simply…vanished. The world held its breath once more, the armies below stopping to stare upward, the night sky disappearing and bathing the warriors of the night in sunlight. They broke.

In fear, many dropped their weapons and ran. They didn’t know where to run to, only wanting to escape the vengeance of Celestia who was even now diving on them like an avenging golden spirit. Her terrible magic lashed out again and again, hundreds, thousands dying in an instant. Those who hadn’t already fled, retreated. Some stayed, trying to rally their comrades around them only to be cut down by the heartened Celestians.

A flash of brilliant light blinded me and I fell, my right wing no longer attached to my body. Agony cut through me like a white hot knife, I’d never felt such searing pain like this in my life. I gathered my magics around me in a thick cloud to arrest my fall, hoping that it would cushion my landing to some degree, then I would find Arathea and we would get away from here.

“Maroc!”, the distressed shout of my beloved grabbed my attention and she swept down to catch me in her forelegs, blue tears leaking from her blazing eyes, “Oh Goddess, no, my love…”

“Its alright Arathea, I can restore my wing later. We must escape quickly, the Celestian’s have the field.”

She nodded and helped me to the ground, with a kiss we turned to run. Our troops rushed past us in a desperate rush for safety, wherever that may lie. I knew where we must go, we had no choice.

In our retreat, Celestia’s vengeance was terrible, her beam lanced out through our ranks, mercilessly. This wasn’t a defeat, it was extermination. A dreadful pulse of white hot energy cut through the ground next to me, turning the world to steam and ash. A minotaur, his leg gone, crashed into me, sending me flying across the ground only to pick himself up and crawl away with a drive borne of desperation.

“Arathea!”, I called. I couldn’t see her, “ARATHEA!” I shouted for her again and again, but of my wife, there was no sign, except…in the steaming, molten furrow of Celestia’s magic, amongst the still falling ash…a small silver chain with a golden heart.

I picked up the chain in my hooves, ash and mud clinging to it, all that remained of my beloved Arathea. I choked back the tears, the pain and outrage filling my soul, “NO! Damn you Celestia, damn you to bowels of hell!” I snarled and turned, blasting blue fire up into the sky at the princess. It was useless, my power was depleted and she was too far away. I would have to escape now, mourn my love later, there was something I had to do before it was too late.

I had managed to slip away into the forest, many others had found refuge here too, but it was only an illusion of safety. The vengeance of the Celestian’s would not so easily be sated, and the sensible ones pushed on, myself with them. Ahead, a minotaur argued with a thestral, an officer judging by his armour.

“We must rally what we can, form a rear guard. Get your warriors together and help me defend this position”, the thestral officer commanded.

The minotaur gave a sarcastic laugh, “You are mad! Our army is defeated, routed, look around you! There is nothing left to defend you fool.”

The officers eyes flared, “Damn you, you coward, stand and fight!”

“Out of my way or I will cut you down where you stand!” 

I tried to get around them but the officer pushed in front of me, “You! A wendigo, we need your kind here, I beg you, stand with me and help the others to escape.”

“Sir”, I tried to reason with him, “The minotaur is right, there’s nothing left to save. We must escape now, the army is gone!”

He pulled out a sword and held it before my eyes, “You’re both cowards! If you will not stand with me, then you will serve as an example to the others.”

With a shout, he swung the sword at the minotaur, cleaving the creatures throat open. The horned beast gasped for breath, clawing at its wound and sank to the ground twitching it life away. I saw my chance and lunged for the thestral, my fangs sinking into his throat. He shrieked, dropping his sword and tried to blast me with his fire, but it was all over. His life energy leeched from his body and filled my maw with its delectable flavour, but it was not enough. Moving to the minotaur, I breathed in the creatures spirit to replenish my own, channelling my magic to heal my wing. 

The pain was simply exquisite, re-growing bone and membrane, muscle and sinew, my new wing formed itself in a swirling mist of white and blue energy. I was tired, most of my recent energy spent now, but I could still fly…and fly I did. With a bound, I took to the air and headed for the fortress, for home.

I followed the river below, the green rolling hills and farmlands, to the edge of the black forest. The river narrowed on its path through the trees and I traced it to the base of the foothills, onward up into the blue mountains beyond.

The white clowds around me gradually grew thicker, denser, becoming a solid wall of swirling white around my beating wings and then, ahead, the great fortress of the wendigo’s. The scale of the fortress was staggering, a mind reeling blend of ice and stone, needle thin spires reached up to the heavens, turrets and sky bridges gave the structure an elegant and otherworldly beauty.

Unlike when I left here with Arathea, the skies were empty save for the occasional bird. The once lively fortress had buzzed with life, song and laughter. The cold barely touched our people and the fear which we struck in the hearts of the local denizens, even in the princesses lands, lead us to construct this place, our sanctuary, for our own. Here we felt the world could not touch us, but now, our princess was gone, our army shattered. The vengeance of the Celestians would reach even here, I knew I didn’t have long.

Diving in through the south turrets open window, my hooves skittered on the stone floor. An old blue stallion, his eyes gleaming blue, rushed in to challenge me, his sword glinting in the light from his horn, “Lord Maroc! You have returned, is there news? What of Lady Arathea?”

I pushed past him roughly, I didn’t have time to explain. “Take your family and flee, Nelian, the army is defeated, save yourself and any you find. Theres no time!”

I rushed down corridors and stairs, past empty chambers, suits of armour and banners. The memories and trophies of past battles, the pointless vanities of my ancestors. We had sided with the night and for that we would be punished, damn those Celestian bastards, damn them all! In the distance I could hear shouting, commands, the fortresses inhabitants grabbing what they could in their rush to escape. But where to? I knew these people, some would fight, some would flee, in my desperation and heartache, I had to save the last vestige of my life that was worth protecting.

The huge door was already open. Within, shouts and the clash of battle, the unmistakable stench of blood thick in air, tantalising my nostrils. The damned Celestian’s were already here? How?! No matter, battle was upon us and I would need to pass through this chamber to my destination beyond.

Inside, the ring of steel and pulse of magic was like walking into an open furnace. Wendigo and pony fought hoof to hoof. Blood, both red and blue, spattered the floor. Bodies spread out around me, some groaning and moving, others gasping their last. I took in a deep breath of the leaking life energy, taking up a sword from a fallen warrior in my magic. Celestia’s elite pegasi shock troops, clad in their magic resistant armour pressed in on the fortresses defenders. The impudence in attacking our fortress has cost them dearly, at least twelve of their number lay slain.

A bolt of blue fire flew past me to gouge a chunk from the wall, a Pegasus howling in pain, its armour failing to protect it from the close range magical energy blast. I screamed in anger, charging the damnable creatures before me. The pegasi were quick on their hooves, but there was little they could do when attacked from two directions. Most of their attention was focussed on attacking, not defending and I cut into them with my sword and fangs, breaking bone, freezing flesh. The sword slashed through the air, opening hides and vein, viscera splashing my coat and wings in their lifes essence.

It was over as almost soon as it had begun. Quickly dispatching the wounded pegasi, I faced my warriors, weary, but alive. “My Lord! What is happening? These bastards came out of nowhere and attacked us!”.

I clopped him on the shoulder, “Herath, take your warriors and help evacuate the fortress. If any refuse, don’t waste time, leave them and get out.”

His eyes flared and he saluted, the others doing the same, “My Lord…will we meet again?”

“I don’t know my old friend”, I said solemnly, “Goddess willing, we will. If not here, then we will meet up in the next world”

We clasped forelegs, I prayed they would escape and find peace in their lives. For now, my focus was on the room beyond. Throwing its heavy oak door open, my eyes swept the great stone room. Light from the fireplace was more for comfort than heat, heavy drapes, tapestries and a deep rug leant a splash of colour to the otherwise austere chamber. A light whimper came from beneath the bed, I trotted over, bending down to catch the bed spread with a forehoof.

“Vela…Vela, its daddy…you can come out now little one.”

A small grey muzzle poked out from beneath the bed and gave a little snort, yellow eyes looking up curiously, “Daddy? Are the bad ponies gone?”.

I smiled down at him, “Yes love, they are. Come on, let me get your things, we need to go now.”

“Wheres mummy?”, the grey unicorn foal said emerging from his hiding place.

I felt a stab of pain in my heart, “She’s going to meet us soon Vela, now come along, I need you to be strong for me. Can you be strong for me?”

He looked unsure, but then stomped a forehoof trying to look fierce, “Yes daddy”. At any other time I would have laughed and swept him up in my arms, but this was not the time for that. We had to escape and get as far away from Equestria as we could, perhaps one of the other countries could take us? A mercenaries life wouldn’t be too bad, I’d probably have to drop the ‘Lord’ title though. It meant nothing now.

Sweeping my foal onto my back, I replaced the sword I’d recovered with my fathers old one, grabbing a few sparse provisions to put into a saddle bag. Satisfied, we rushed from the room just as a huge rumble shook the fortress, “Dragons”, I breathed. 

Vela spoke behind me, “Daddy?”.

“Its alright Vela, we’re going to go fast now, hang on tight okay?”

I felt him dig his hooves into my coat in response. I’d strapped him to my saddle pack as best I could. Damn it, if I’d only had more time…

The fortress was now fully under siege. Fire and blue magic flew back and forth from the Celestian’s and I knew it was only a matter of time before their princess arrived to annihilate us. I had seen the Equestrian’s mercy today, for us, there would be none.

The corridors flew past in a blur, the way to the mountain pass was the only escape now unless I wanted to run the gauntlet of war dragons and pegasi. I couldn’t risk my foal, he was all I had left of Arathea and was my legacy in this world. He was silent as we ran, small fights and larger skirmishes were mere background noise while we rushed past.

Bursting from the high window, my wings snapped open, my heart thundering in my chest and I flew as fast as I could straight for the pass.

Wendigo warriors fought around me, backed up by a number of thestral’s who had sought safety at the fortress. Poor devils, all they had found was another battlefield.

Shouts and cries echoed around me, magical energy and fire sizzled past my speeding form, the pass not far ahead. Plunging down through a bank of mist, I beat my wings hard and flared just before landing in the snow.

Ahead of me, my people, what was left of them, headed up the pass. With luck, the clouds would hide them from the Celestian’s fury that was razing our home behind us. I uttered a prayer for those unknowingly helping secure our escape.

The column moved quickly and silently, even the wounded on the backs of carts barely whimpered. We were a proud people, not many of us left, but strong and true. Some called us monsters, ostracised us and cast us out, but our strength of heart kept us together. Then…the princess came, helped us rebuild, gave us a home to call our own, and when she made the call to arms, we were the first to answer. Now, it was all unravelling around us, blue blood and tears staining the ground. We would return some day and reclaim our home, but for now we must escape. My son, had to survive no matter what.

One of the fortress staff called to me, a filly not quite into marehood, “Lord Maroc, is it true? Has the princess been defeated?”

I smiled to her kindly, “Don’t worry about these matters young one, take heart and help our people through the pass and beyond these cursed lands. The past is past, the future is now and in all our hooves…in yours too. I can see in your eyes, you have it in you to become a great wendigo, embrace your true self and rise to be more than you are.”         

The filly nodded, brushing a tear away with a forehoof before trotting off to rejoin the main column. I trudged on pausing only to look back at Vela who was nestled into my back asleep. He slept so much, it made me feel I wanted to take a long rest myself, I was exhausted after the fighting and the rush to escape the fortress. Fortunately it wouldn’t be long until we reached the end of the pass and the caverns that would take us deep into the earth and away to our ancestral home in the frozen north. At least that had been my plan, hasty as it had been. The Celestian’s however, had a very different plan for us.

Without warning, a rumbling boom from above us shook the pass, echoing along its length, dislodging snow and boulders down onto the ponies below. Cries and shouts of alarm rang out, the mass of refugees picking up speed towards caverns. It was close now, I could hear the wind sound changing and smell the difference in the air. Damn the bitch princess and her bastard army, could they not leave the meagre scraps of our people to flee? 

The answer to my silent question came quickly in a plume of flame which engulfed the leading ponies in the column. Anypony who has ever smelt the stink of burning hair and flesh will never forget it…nor the screams of those dying in its infernal heat.

A war dragon the size of which I had never seen before, let alone in the last battle, flew low, raking our ranks. Ponies and wounded wendigo warriors replied with crossbows and blue fire of their own. In our weakened state, few could take flight and I could not risk attack, nor leave Vela here. Both options could end in death, but I was out of options. I would fight. As if answering an unspoken prayer, Herath arrived through the roiling mist and smoke, pulling up a few feet away.

“My Lord! The Celestian’s have broken through, they are on their way here now. We have to fly for the caverns without delay.”

Screams and cries from ahead and, goddess help us, behind, filled my ears, “Herath, my friend, take Vela, fly for the cavern for all you are worth and don’t stop for anything or anypony. Do you understand me?”

He stood there, eyes wide, “Lord…what do you mean? You can fly with us!”

I shook my head, “Our people are dying Herath, I don’t have time to argue. If I don’t do something, we wont have anypony left to save. Take my son north, get him out of here! NOW!”

Herath bowed and took Vela from my back and between us, we strapped him onto the warriors back.

“Daddy? Whats happening? I’m scared…”

Vela was frightened but I couldn’t do anything to ease his fear now, if I didn’t try to stop the Celestian attack, we would all die, my son would die.

“Vela, you must go now, Herath will look after you. Be strong my little warrior”

He was so young, his heart warring between his distress and wanting to impress his father, “Daddy, I’ll be brave…I’ll…”

His eyes welled with tears. I turned to Herath, “Take him and go Herath, goddess be with you…wherever she is…”

The wendigo clasped forelegs with me and without another word, shot forward like an arrow for the caverns ahead, “Daddy loves you my little one…” I called. Whether he heard me or not, I couldn’t say, all was drowned in blistering fire and cries of pain as the damned war dragon made another pass. Blasts of fire and magical energy were coming from behind now, closer than ever. My target was clear, the dragon had to be removed.

The wintery clouds shot past me, I was like a streak of purest white lightening, arrowing for my target, the black onyx dragon. It was a terrifying beast to behold, true, but one a wendigo could match with his own magical fire and ice. My warriors had faced these creatures and bested them, but we were now few, and most of those wounded. I myself was suffering from fatigue, and my magic was desperately low. If we were to survive we had to take this monster down and my first attack would hopefully divert its attention from the fleeing refugees below.

The bolt of bright blue magical energy hit the dragon slightly below its left shoulder, scoring a line back and across its spines. Splinters of scales were flensed off the beasts back in a plume of magical fire and smoke. The stink of burning hit me again, but it was a good smell, my enemy’s blood would stain the mountain side this day.

Screams of rage and fire erupted from the dragon, the great serpent spiralling in the air searching for its attacker. I’m certain the foul thing believed it could simply incinerate us from above, the possibility of attack was never factored into its plan, the arrogance of the dragon was sickening to me.

An advantage of the cloud in the pass was I could use it to help hide my location. Breathing deeply, I breathed out my own freezing mist, wrapping it round me for concealment and attack. Wendigo’s were no cowards, but foolhardiness would not serve me or my people well. It was time to press my attack. The dragon passed under me and I dove on it, sinking my teeth into its neck and unleashing a full blast of my power into the thing. The white mist cascaded over its back, instantly freezing scales which shattered like thin glass that trailed out behind the beast.

It rolled, lashing out with it claws, finding I was still latched onto its back. I sent another bolt of energy directly into its neck. Roaring, the dragon flew straight for the mountain side, pulling up and angling itself to drive me against the rocks. At the last moment, I let go and just in time. The stupid beast misjudged its approach and ploughed into the rocky mountainside, rocks, flame and blood avalanching down, yet the damned thing refused to die.

The terrible wound in its neck was pouring blood in a torrent, but still it bellowed defiance. I swooped down and up in front of the crippled creature, readying another bolt of magic. The dragon glared hatred at me, its golden reptilian eyes glowing, “Your time is over wendigo, the princess has this day. You and all your filth will be washed away in a river of your own blood.”

I smirked at the creature, he didn’t impress me and I would make sure he knew it, “You know, there’s really no need for drama. Or perhaps, where you are going, there is…”

He looked at me momentarily surprised. Then, I spotted what I knew was coming, the massive inhale before the release of dragon fire. I timed it perfectly, the dragons lungs where full, ready to incinerate his comparatively small adversary. He didn’t expect me to beat him to it with a blast, not of magical blue fire, but of mist, sparkling blue white, filling the creatures maw to bursting.

Unable to release the fire inside the dragon gagged, clawing at its mouth, desperately trying to dislodge the frozen deadly fog. Ice spread around his neck and head, the fire building inside it until the dragon was radiating heat like a furnace. I knew what was coming next and threw up a shield of ice before me a second before, with a cacophonous detonation, the reptile erupted in fire, bone, gore and scale. I was spattered with the remnants of my enemy, shaking my mane to dislodge the worst of it. Next, I had to see how many had reached the caverns.

I never made it. The blinding flash of light and heat seared past me, burning a wide patch of my fur and skin, sending rocks and melted snow into the air. Celestia flew down into the pass, the very image of an avenging spirit, beautiful, terrifying and full of rage. Her eyes shone like suns, matching the golden armour encasing her alicorn body.

Either side of her, pegasi and dragons flew through the rapidly dispersing cloud and mist, her sunlight burning away the last vestiges of cover my people had below.

The bitch herself glanced at me only for a second before sending a solid white hot beam into the mass of bodies below her.

“NO!” I screamed at her, shooting a blast of my own magical energy toward the leader of Equestria. She couldn’t be doing this ! Goddess protect us, why couldn’t she let us leave her damned lands…

Below, dragon fire and bolts rained down on the helpless fleeing mass. Their cries filled the air, pain, terror, despair, my heart resonated with their suffering. I should be down there with them, this wasn’t revenge, this was murder. The bastards wanted us all dead, every last one of us.

I dropped my head and charged the source of my hate, my anger raging. She loomed in my vision, her face set in a determined glare, horn beginning to glow - ready for another attack. A pegasi’s bolt took me in the chest without my ever seeing him. Weakened as I was, I plunged down into the pass below, the deep snow helping to break my fall.

White hot agony ran through me and I cried out, trying desperately to stand, huffing blood from my nostrils. Another bolt took me through my flank, another and then another. Pain, shock and the surprising weight of the impact from the bolts took me to my knees. Panting, trying to take a breath through the blood beginning to flood my lungs, I looked up to the alicorn princess who watched me impassively.

“Why?” I gasped up at her, “…why?”

I thought in some way, that she would smirk, grin, laugh…something, something to make me hate her all the more. She was victorious, she could gloat, goddess knew she could. We’d lost utterly.

Celestia landed a few feet from me, her horn glowing. She needn’t have bothered herself, I was finished and I think she knew it as well. Those beautiful eyes of hers, her brow brought down over them in a frown, bore into mine, “Because Equestria must have peace, we need to have peace. There has been too much war, too much suffering, the land is scarred and its people broken. So long as creatures like you exist, so long as evil exists in this land, ponies will never be able to live their lives as they were meant to. Your time is over wendigo, the time of darkness has ended, the time of sunlight is now.”

I shook my head, “And what about mercy Celestia? Will you not find any in your heart for those you have vanquished? I will not beg you…but I ask, let what few of my people remain escape, you have your victory.”

She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them looking straight up into the blue sky. The princess breathed in deeply, considering her reply, “No. I am sorry wendigo, but my decision has been made. You are too much of a risk to this land and as much as it wounds my heart to do this, you must all be…removed, for the good of all.”

She called to her troops in a voice which echoed through the pass and skies beyond, “Celestians! Now is your time to take revenge upon the forces of the night, those who would plunge your world into darkness. Strike your enemy down without hesitation. No prisoners, no mercy.”

I struggled to stand, how could she? There were old ponies, foals, fillies, colts. Few wendigo warriors remained and most of those half dead already. If this was the cost of bringing sunlight to the land of Equestria, then I would gladly take the eternal night. This evil bitch was the true source of cruelty in the land. 

The death cries of my people rose and fell in the pass, gradually fading away, ebbing into history along with their souls. Somewhere in the distance, I thought I heard a tiny voice, carried faintly on the breeze, “Daddy…”

Oh Goddess, my son…Vela…lost…It was all over, my wife, my son, my people…it was the end of our world. What strength now remained in my broken body was pitiful. The pegasi advanced on me, reloading crossbows or drawing swords. Some looked smug, others determined, all I saw was death coming to claim its next soul. The reaper had taken a full harvest this day.

Whatever these ponies believed, I wouldn’t let the bastards take me without fighting to my last breath. Standing weakly, I challenged the alicorn who had arrogantly turned away from me,

“Princess Celestia…you claim to bring the sun, but all you bring is death. Your hooves are soaked in the blood of foals. Your sister spoke truly, you are the true evil in this land. You took my family from me and have killed my people. I will see you burn in Hades…you BITCH!”

I poured my magic, my very life energy, into my horn and threw the brilliant blue beam at the alicorn princess. She deflected it with a shield spell effortlessly, the blast slamming into the mountainside behind her, sending splintered rocks flying into the pegasi below. I’ll say this for Celestia, her expression never changed, she didn’t smile once. I on the other hoof, even as her beam of white hot energy engulfed me…did.

> Chapter Nine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER NINE


Somepony was wiping my muzzle with a damp cloth by the feel of it, the slightly rough texture and cooling sensation were quite soothing. I ached all over from the tips of my ears to my tail as I opened my heavy eyelids to see the sun edging over the hilltop. The land was still heavy in shadow, awaiting the warming light of day. I could almost sense the anticipation and yet still, a tiny part of me, longed for the night sky, the velvet darkness lit with stars twinkling like diamonds and the wan light of the moon.

It was conflicting and unsettling, a strangers memories conflicting with my own. I could liken it to that of reading a book, or watching a play. You may remember the story, the characters, but normally one would simply reach the end of the telling and return to their normal life. The names, places and general storyline may stay with you for some time, but eventually you would probably forget most of it and the story would simply fade into the background, no more than a pleasant recollection.

This was something similar and yet so alien to me, I had trouble reconciling what was going on. The memories were real, tangible, my wife, my son, my people, the war. It had happened, I felt it with all my senses, yet I knew it happened to somepony else. This Maroc…the ‘Lord of the wendigo’s’, had died a thousand years ago. I had ‘been’ him and somehow, goddess knows how, he and I had merged, if only for a brief time. In actual fact, I suspected I had been more of a passenger in his memories, but regardless of what the reality was behind it all, my experience had felt exactly that…real.

“Cap’ ? You okay? Can you speak?”, Tingles’ voice was full of concern. She was stood next to me, a damp cloth her hooves.

I smiled at her, she was a good friend, “Thanks Tingles’, that was…pretty intense”.

She nodded, continuing to wipe around my muzzle gently, “You’re not kidding, you scared the crap out of me back, I thought you were…” she trailed off.

“I was what?”, I asked curiously.

Tingles closed her eyes, her ears flattening for a moment. She didn’t want to say but I had no idea what had happened whilst I’d been…

“I thought you were going to kill me, us…!”, the tangerine mare blurted suddenly, “Aunt Pewter barely missed being blown to pieces by some magic beam from your horn and I had to dive for cover!”

What could I say? Sorry? I’d nearly killed my auntie and my partner? I hung my head and turned away, I couldn’t look her in the face.

“Tingles…I didn’t know. I wasn’t, quite literally, myself. I’d never want to hurt you, or auntie…great goddesses…I’m a…monster.”

Aunt Pewter held a bowl of cherries under my nose, “You’re not a ‘monster’ you silly young fool, you’re simply untrained thats all, like a foal with no schooling.” 

Yeah right, a foal that could blast a pony to pieces and kill a dragon. I’d hate to go to school with someone like that in the classroom!

I took a mouthful of the berries, feeling the magic seeping into me. It wasn’t much, like a trickle trying to fill a bath, but it was something and quenched a thirst deeper than for water. 

“Tell me…”, she began, “…what did you see?”

I glanced at Tingles who moved in even closer. I could smell her breath, she had been eating something with rosemary in it, my stomach grumbled. She chuckled and fished out a couple of savoury cakes from the saddle pack. Greedily I wolfed them down like a starved pony.

“There was a battle,” I told her between mouthfuls of the cake,”I was in the body of a…a wendigo warrior”

“Yes?” Auntie asked sounding a little impatient.

“His wife was killed. Their leader, an alicorn, was defeated by Celestia and the army routed. They fled, back to the fortress and he tried to save his son. The Celestian’s attacked them in the mountain pass when they tried to escape. The last thing I remember is Celestia incinerating me…or rather, him”.

Tingles gasped in surprise, I suppose that the thought of the benevolent ruler incinerating anypony went against all she knew. Bloody hell, it went against everything I ‘knew’ about her too. Guess I missed that class too then.

“What was his name, Fairlight…the father?”

“Maroc, Lord Maroc.”

She looked away thoughtfully, scratching her muzzle. Without looking back she asked, “Was his wife called Arathea by any chance?”

I nodded, “Yes! How did you…” Pewter cut in, “What was the name of the child?”

“Vela, a small grey unicorn foal. He was given to another to try to get him out, but he was caught in the dragon’s fire before he reached the caverns”.

“You saw this?”

“I heard the child calling for his father just as the pass was deluged in fire, is that not enough auntie? Lord Maroc believed his son dead and attacked Celestia certain she had murdered him. She had given the order to kill all the survivors.”

Tingles rose to her hooves, tears welling in her eyes, “NO! Goddesses Fairlight, the princess would never do such a thing! She loves her subject, her ponies…she loves us! How could you say this…these…these lies!”

“I saw what I saw, Tingles. I don’t know whether it was all a dream or what, but if it was true…Well, perhaps Celestia has a side to her she doesn’t want ponies to see.”

Aunt Pewter spoke up, “Nephew, what you experienced, was the last great war between the princesses, the battle between night and day. The wendigo you experienced, was the Lord of the Fortress of the Four Winds. Histories speak of the battle, how Nightmare Moon was struck down and exiled. The annihilation of her forces is one seldom mentioned and…”, she fixed Tingles with a look, “I would stake my life on the fact that the crap foals are taught in schools now is nothing like the truth of our history.”

She narrowed her eyes, “What you have been told is a lie, a façade, like your precious murdering bitch princess!”

The tangerine mare took on a fighting stance and flattened her ears, “Shut the fuck up you old hag! How would you know anything about the princess? You weren’t there, none of us were!”

Tingles motioned towards me, “Captain, it’s a trick, all of this, this…bullshit! She’s fucking with us, come on, lets get the hell out of here. I won’t hear another word against our princess!”

She stared hatred at the old grey unicorn, “I don’t know what you hope to achieve by filling his mind with this shite, but I’m taking him with me.” Tingles advanced, trying to put herself between my aunt and I.

The elderly grey mare stood her ground, eyes locked with her adversary and addressed me, “Nephew, you are the one who must decide whether to stay or go. I won’t try to influence your decision, but decide you must.”

My vision was immediately filled with the expectant stares of two mares, both wanting me to make a decision. But really, I already had. This creature, spirit…whatever it was, was a part of me whether I liked it or not. My friend and partner would have to understand that.

“Tingles, I have to see this through, I’m no good to Equestria if this thing takes hold of me. I need my aunt’s help, cant you see that?” I tried to reason with her to no avail. I could almost hear her heart breaking.

“You…believe her? These mirages, those conjured memories she put in your head with her magic? Cap’ please…please, just…come with me, please…”

My ears drooped, “I’m sorry Tingles, I wish I could but you have to understand…”

I didn’t get a chance to finish. With a blast of air, the tangerine mare rocketed skyward and vanished into the morning sunlight. Tiny twinkles of light streaming behind her, the tears brought about by my betrayal of my friend. Damn it all to hell, what the fuck was I doing here, stuck in a field on a hillside? Why couldn’t things just work out for once, just for fucking once?!

Straining against the sunlight, there was no chance of following her flight path. I hadn’t realised I’d been holding in my breath either and released it in a rush. 

“I’m sorry Tingles”, I murmured to myself more than anyone.

Aunt Pewter picked up the saddle packs and placed them on my back, “She’ll be back Nephew, never fear. She’s just upset at the moment, Celestia’s children are never encouraged to see reality for what it really is. Goddess knows, in some ways, I wish she’d been right.”

Well that was a surprise, normally the old bugger hated Celestia with a passion. Was she finally warming up to her? No, of course not, auntie was too set in her ways for that, but she was knowledgeable and that was what I needed now.

We set off down the track back to the cabin, Pewter careful of her footing and trying to avoid the low branches. She came alongside me and spoke in a low voice, a tone that struck me as quite different from usual, as if she were addressing an equal.

“I suppose you want to know whether you can get rid of this thing don’t you.”

I nodded, “Yes auntie”

“Maybe at first you could have, but not now. The spirit is a part of you, like a drop of paint mixing into a tin of another colour, the two are inseparable. I can’t give you much help to control the spirit Fairlight, the old goat was right about that at least, but I can tell you what I know.”

I listened as the mare continued to explain, 

“Not all the Lord’s people died that day; in nearly every disaster, there is a survivor. One who ran farther, maybe faster than the others, or who could hide better. Who can say? One such survivor found and rescued some of the books and scrolls in the ruins of the library, before the Celestian’s razed the last of the fortress to the ground.”

She sighed, “When I think of how much knowledge was lost…such an act of sacrilege. Anyway, the books were passed down from generation to generation until myself. I have no further descendants Fairlight, when I die, the books pass to you.”

I shook my mane, it was beginning to make some sense, “But why auntie? Why me? Passed down, I can understand, but are you saying we’re descended from the pony who rescued the books?”

“That’s precisely what I’m saying”, she replied, “The pony who recovered the books was called Herath, he was…”, 

“WAIT!”, I near shouted, stopping aunt Pewter in her tracks, “Say that name again”

“Herath? He was the one who found the books”

“He was the one who took the Lords son to safety! I thought he was dead, Maroc thought he was dead. My goddesses Auntie, don’t you see what this means?”

“Vela survived…”

“Yes!”

Aunt Pewter stayed silent for a while, magicking out her long clay pipe. After expertly loading it, she held it in her teeth and I conjured a flickering flame for her to light the tobacco. We had come to a halt under some trees and I could just make out the cottage some ways below us, it wouldn’t take long to get back at a normal pace, but auntie was no young filly.

Taking a deep mouthful of the smoke, she exhaled luxuriously, “What did you notice of the wendigo’s Fairlight, their people?”

I scratched my head, plopping down on my haunches to get comfy, “Well, the wendigo’s all looked like me when I…change.”

She nodded.

“And, the rest of the ponies, they weren’t wendigo’s at all, they were just normal ponies. The Lord’s son was a pony, and he kind of looked like…”

I looked at Aunt Pewter. Her eyes, slightly dulled with age, were still a rich yellow, her grey coat like mine, a silvery dark grey colour. Her mane was white, but I remembered it had been black when I was young, like mine, a family trait. Like Vela’s, like the warriors, like the butler…”

“Auntie! They were all unicorns and looked alike too; grey coats with yellow eyes, like you. Like me too, except my eyes were brown before this thing latched onto me. What does all this mean, are we all interbred or something?”

The thought was like an ice pick in my head. Was I the product of generations of inbreeding? I did a quick check of my legs, still four, thank Luna. Pewter saw me looking and slapped my foreleg,

“Don’t be disgusting, of course not. Unicorns have always been magical creatures, but some of us strove to attain more, to be able to use the old magics, the creation magic from the beginning of the world. Many believed that it was a fruitless search and simply gave up, others continued but as part of that quest, they only married other unicorns to keep the chance of producing a talented unicorn foal as high as possible.

“At some point, one tribe found a way to commune with spirits from the plane we know as the Wither World.”

I nodded, I knew that place all too well.

Auntie continued, “They welcomed the spirits to them, communed with them, accepted them. They gladly shared their own spirit with those of the Wither world, allowing the wendigo’s to stay in the mortal realm in exchange for the use of their power.

“Over time, the interaction between the spirits and the ponies produced an anomaly, the grey coat and yellow eyes of our ancestors. Why, I don’t know, and the books never mentioned anypony being interested in finding out, only that it became a mark of honour, identifying those who eventually became know as a tribe of warriors.

“The wendigo spirits would only enter those who they deemed worthy. There were many references to rituals and selections that an acolyte would need to pass before being selected. To become a wendigo warrior was a great honour and privilege.

“The families and other members of the tribe, occasionally, brought in those who sought to become one with the spirits if they showed the right character and aptitude. Soon, they too would find themselves changing. Only a few would become truly one with the spirits. These were marked with the blue eyes and lightning flash of the Wither World.”

Auntie paused taking a pull on her pipe and leaning back against a tree.

“I think you can piece together the rest nephew.”

I watched my unusual relative smoking her pipe, blowing the occasional smoke ring into the morning air of the woodland, “You, me, mum, we’re all descendants from that tribe. Are you saying it not just the act of actually entering the Wither world which attracted one of the spirits to me, but that I was descended from this particular tribe of unicorns?”

She nodded, regarding me with her yellow eyes, “I believe so, as we don’t know what the old rituals were or how candidates were selected. Sadly, that text was not recovered. Fairlight, do you see now why you must never divulge your heritage to others, especially to the…‘princess’.”

“But Luna knows and she leads Equus. Even as Celestia’s sister, surely she would be running a risk herself by hiding my identity, regardless of her desire for me to help Equestria.” I reasoned.

“Pah!”, Auntie spat on the ground, “Luna is a child, no longer the great princess of the night she once was. Reduced to nought but a puppet of the puppet master herself, ’Celestia’” 

“I warn you my nephew, do not put too much faith in the protection of the younger princess, if it came to a choice to either surrender you to her sister or defy her, which do you think she would choose?”

She was right, Luna loved her sister, of that there was no doubt. But even so, Celestia had banished her for a thousand years. How would she react to her younger sister protecting a creature she had once used to challenge her rule. A creature whose kind the princess of the sun had attempted the extermination of and, I suspected, believed she had succeeded in.

I sat in silence for a while, listening to the birds and the clicking of insects amongst the trees. Aunt Pewter yawned and tapped out her pipe on a hoof before putting it back in a protective case. Watching her, I could see my own mother, the same grey coat, the mane, the eyes. I missed her so much. Mum never mentioned any of this to me. In some ways I wished she had, but I could also see why she’d kept it a secret. 

Despite all of this, it was still not much more than an interesting lesson in my family’s history and lineage. Revealing it may be important historically, but I was potentially still at risk from this thing if I didn’t learn to control it somehow. My ancestors had managed to do it and as a descendant of them, hopefully I’d inherited some ability to do so. Otherwise…damn it, I didn’t want to start thinking about.

“Auntie…”, I began. She looked up at me, “hmmm?”

It was worth a shot, “Do you think there’s any chance the books, scrolls, whatever they were, may have survived in the fortress after all this time?”

She gave me an odd look, “No. Celestia destroyed it, and before you try and go off on some insane quest to see for yourself, let me tell you now, its gone.”

“Gone?”

“Reduce to rubble, Nephew. I know because I tried looking for it and there’s nothing in the mountains but rocks and boulders, fog, mist and that damned forest which surrounds it.”

“You searched for it? Why?”

“Because I was young and foolish, that’s why. I had some romantic notion of finding more books to help me regain the ‘lost knowledge of the wendigo’”, she gestured dramatically, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “I found nothing.”

“If you found nothing, then…”

“Because there was nothing left! That thrice cursed bitch princess destroyed every last trace, don’t you see? Damn it all Fairlight, let it drop, there’s nothing there and even if there was, do you think a book would last in snow, ice and wet for a millennia? Of course not.”

I still couldn’t get my head around Celestia being this ‘bitch princess’ that Pewter despised so much. She appeared to have developed her hatred of her by reading the books, the histories of the tribe from whom we were apparently descended. 

“Auntie, how did you know about the destruction of the fortress, was there a diary of some kind? Some clue left by Herath maybe?”

She nodded, “Perceptive. Yes, he left a diary, but not like you’re thinking. It was more of a note, explaining what had happened after the battle had ended and the end of the wendigo’s fortress. There was no mention of the child, only that the fortress had fallen, the books had been recovered and that the bearer of the books should protect the memory of the tribe.”

“A bit sad auntie, ‘protecting a memory’. It sounds to me like he’d given up on restoring the wendigo’s, and I’d guess that he didn’t mention Vela in case someone else found the books and note”.

Aunt Pewter sighed, “You can’t blame him for wanting ponies to give up on searching for the power the wendigo spirit can offer you. The princess would have hunted them down and slaughtered them to protect her precious utopia.”

“And Vela?” I queried.

“Dead long ago, whether in the pass or rescued by Herath, who can say. You and I could well be their great, great whatever, grandfoals. It doesn’t really matter.”

“So what does matter auntie?” I asked, “This knowledge is interesting but ultimately worthless, I’m sorry but its true.”

She shook her head, “Knowledge is never pointless Fairlight, you just don’t see the whole picture yet. I know it’s a cliché but you cant build a house without foundations or else the whole structure will be weakened. Know your past, understand who you are.” Pewter clopped me on the shoulder, “The rest is up to you now.”

We reached the bottom of the hill and passed from the shade into full sunshine. The blessed warmth of the sun on my coat was blissful and I felt like having a good roll in the grass. Damn it, I would too!

“Auntie?”, I asked, a foalish grin on my face, “would you have any objection to me…?”

She chuckled and shook her mane, picking up the saddle bags in her magic and trotting to her door. Watching her go, I had a quick look round before flopping down onto the ground and rolling, covering both sides liberally in loose dry grass and goodness knows what else. It felt fantastic. Ponies didn’t like others to see them do this and adults were meant to frown upon it, but how could you turn your nose up at something so…natural? 

Tension and stress, knotted muscles and months of fear and misery, disappeared in the unrestrained act of sheer indulgence. Some small grassy particles got stuck in my nose and I blew them out with a snort, resting on my back, my forelegs facing skyward.

The blue heavens above me, dotted with wispy white clouds made me think back to my time with Meadow, Shadow and Sparrow. In the room that was not a room, a doorway to the land of the eternal herd, golden wheat, laden fruit trees, blue sky and the sun on your back. I had some of that here, except the company of a loving mare. Or ‘mares’ for that matter.

I thought of Sparrow Song, my little foal. Her buzzing wings were not strong enough to hold her weight yet, but I so wanted to see her first flight. With time being different between here, the mortal plane, the eternal herd and the withers, it could be years before she saw me next. Or moments. Goddesses, I didn’t want to think of this, but she would see her father again, I would see my wife again and my Shadow. All of us would be together. I would make it happen somehow, this wendigo thing had to be good for something.

In the midday sunlight, I could feel my heartbeat slowing, my eyes beginning to close. Just a few minutes, it couldn’t hurt and I’d wake up to find Tingles back and Auntie fussing with a few provisions for our trip back. I had to be back at work in two days, so i couldn’t delay too long. I yawned, Luna it was so warm…

> Chapter Ten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER TEN


The crystal trees shone and glittered in the peculiar half life, the grass bowing with that strange breeze which would occasionally grace the Beyond with its presence. I sniffed at the air, my ears swivelling trying to get my bearings, I could hear something on the edge of my hearing. Crying. Straining my senses until I thought they’d snap, I picked up a smell, the faint scent of…cinnamon? A spicy warm smell I had begun to associate with…”Shadow!” I broke into a gallop, something I should never do without warming my limbs up first, but to hell with it, she was near, I knew it!

The crying was louder now, a longing, plaintive sound drawing me nearer, the smell itself dancing around my muzzle. My mind was lost in my desire to find my mate, my thestral, Shadow, but where was she? As near as she sounded, she was still so far away and I wasn’t making any headway. Goddess damn me, where the fuck was she? I ran on and on, up one hill and down another, darting between trees in my onward charge.

There, among the trees I saw her. A brief glimpse of a black coated mare, her long midnight mane and tail flowing out behind her. Her eyes caught mine, flaring red like burning forge fires. She called out to me, “Fairlight!” 

“Shadow!” I called, “I’m coming love, stay there, I’m coming…” But no matter how near I came, she was as far away as ever, still calling to me over and over again.

I was desperate, my heart thundering, lungs bursting, this place was fucking with me and I wouldn’t let it win, I couldn’t! 

Suddenly, the ground below me gave way and I plunged down into a gully, rocks, gravel and soil cascading down with me. Frantically, I called on my watch training and pulled in my legs and head to protect them from breaks. It wouldn’t help much if I slammed into a boulder, but it was the best hope I had. Faster and faster I tumbled until, with a hide grating slide, I came to a halt.

Quickly, I was on my hooves again and thank Luna, I was in one piece. Surprisingly in one piece actually, everything still attached and barely a scuff. Surely, I would have had at least some injury? Not that I was wishing one on myself of course.

A cry from above me grabbed my attention and I looked up to see Shadow, gripped in the talons of some monstrous thing. Oh my fucking Goddesses, it was the black war dragon, the thing from Maroc’s memories, the damned thing was still alive!

It laughed at me with its huge booming voice, directed partly into my mind and ears, it rattled my very soul, “She is mine now, toothless pony. The female will make me a good mate.”

“Fairlight!”, Shadow screamed, trying to escape the massive beast, “Fairlight!”.

“Goddesses no!”, I impotently swore. Reaching for the power, the calm, I clawed for it…my other self. I needed it now, I had to have the power to save her! Taking deep breaths, trying to slow my heat beat, did nothing at all. The power was gone, I didn’t even sense its presence. 

Taking a step towards my beloved Shadow, the dragon simply laughed and with a mighty beat of his wings, took to the air and was a dot on the horizon in seconds. I tried to follow but my legs refused to obey me, what the hell was going on here? “Come on!”, I shouted at myself, was I paralysed with fear? I’d faced worse than that thing, “COME ON! DAMN YOU!”. Somepony answered.

“You want her?”

I span round, my legs suddenly freed, to face...I don’t know what it was. It was like me but white coated, blue maned with a wreath of white mist around its hind quarters. The ponies blue eyes burned with cold fire,

“You want her…this…thestral. She is your mate?”

He, it, whatever it was, knew me and I knew it. I’d never really seen myself as others saw me, but I could see why Tingles’ reaction was initially one of fear. The thing was huge, the air freezing around it as it watched me.

“Yes”, I replied, “You know I do.”

A hissing laugh emanated from the wendigo, white smoke leaking from its maw, “Yes, I know your heart, I know your memories, I know your soul.”

“This is a dream isn’t it?”, I asked.

It cocked its head on one side regarding me before shaking its mane, “A dream, a portal to the Wither world, reality and myth combined”

I wasn’t in the mood for cryptic answers, “What do you want spirit?”

“What do you want pony?” It hissed, baring its teeth.

“I want the power to rescue Shadow from the Wither world. I want the power to help Equestria. That, spirit, is what I want.”

“There is a price pony”

“I know”

“Do you?”, it laughed, “I will share my power with you, for we are already one…If divided”

I cringed a little, what the hell did that mean? “Let me guess, you want to live in the mortal realm.”

“Yes. I want to experience what you feel, light, breath, warmth, love. So…hungry.”

“I’m not killing ponies for you to feed on spirit, do you understand me?”

It laughed, “But you already have pony, have you not? Taking the life energy of one who is dead hurts nopony, their soul has already moved on.”

“But I’d still need to kill in order to gain that energy!” I said exasperated, “the berries give you energy”

“THE BERRIES!”, the wendigo lowered its front hooves and sent a roiling blast of white mist out to swirl around both of our hooves, “You would starve me! Starve us! We are hungry, always so…hungry.”

The thing was right, no matter how many of the berries I ate, there was always that feeling of emptiness, of needing to feed. Was this why the tribe of wendigo warriors were so warlike? To feed their spirit?

Its ears perked up suddenly, the blue eyes burning into mine with a bright intensity, “The orange mare…she offered herself to you. She would help fill us…so young…full of life…” Thick glistening white cloud like steam dripped to the ground between the spirits teeth, the damned thing was salivating. Feeling a dampness on my muzzle I was horrified to find that I was too, I was actually thinking about draining Tingles’ life from her and enjoying the thought of it!

“NO!”, I shouted at it, “No I will fucking not, she’s my friend. You, I, would kill her!”

The wendigo spirit seemed perplexed by my statement, “Are you not hungry brother? Your eyes dim and your coat lacks its sheen, you must feed or you will wither and die. She has offered herself to you, take her, take what she gives freely.”

“I said NO damn you! Let me out of this fucking nightmare now, you can’t make me your damned puppet!”

The spirit chuckled and in a different voice, one I had heard before somewhere, “Like you have a choice my friend”


*****************


Auntie was already packing my saddle bags with a flask and sandwiches for the return journey when I walked through the doorway. She nodded to me and disappeared into the kitchen, returning momentarily with a parcel wrapped in paper and string, “That old hat and coat of yours”, she said, “And something else too”.

She floated the package over and I immediately recognised what else was in there, “Dad’s old truncheon”.

“Found it with your things in the house”, Auntie replied solemnly, “I wouldn’t recommend going back there, but if you do, take this with you.”

She threw me a small bottle of shimmering white liquid. At my puzzled glance the grey mare explained, “A little something I concocted to help your father. Creates a dampening effect around you, lightens your hoof steps and eliminates any odours that may give you away. Ponies have big nosies remember?”

We both laughed, it was a classic from more care free days. When mum was at work, she would leave me with her sister and Pewter would play with me. She’d never had foals of her own, I never knew why nor asked. She would plop me on her knee and hold her forelegs out to each side, with me balanced there. Together we would say, “Ponies have big….” And she would grab my muzzle in her hooves shouting “..nosies!” making me fall about hysterically. I loved auntie, despite her weird ways. After today, I would probably not see her again for a while. I really should make the time.

Aunt Pewter passed me my saddle bags and kissed my muzzle, “You’re going now aren’t you. You could stay you know, you don’t owe these Celestian’s anything, Fairlight. You know that.”

I hung my head, “I know auntie, but as much as I love you, I don’t always agree with you. Equestria is my home and Luna has asked for my help. Without her, I don’t know what would have happened to me. I have my honour to uphold and Shadow to find too. The agency are my best hope of getting her back.”

She just smiled, quietly adjusting my pack, “I pray you get her back Fairlight, I really do. Your mother, my sister, died too young, far too young. You are her legacy, my nephew. For all we know, you could be the last of our tribe. Live your life, enjoy every second, but don’t forget your roots and who you are. You are loved, my little grey foal.”

I smiled at her and headed out the door, “Farewell auntie, I love you.”

With a final hug I headed out the door, closing it behind me. I half expected Tingles to be there, but the sky chariot sat empty. The cargo compartment held my parcel which I removed and placed in my pack. It was heavier than I would have like, but I had a strong back and could just about cope. First order of business though, I had to find a flyer, and the village taxi office was just the place.


******************



Below us Manehattan was beginning to prepare for the evening. Lights across the city were starting to appear even as the sun was barely setting. The deep orange glow bathed the rooftops, sending the streets below into shadow, awaiting the lighting of the street lamps for the safety of its citizens.

The cabby called back over his shoulder, “Hey buddy, you sure ya wanna go there? I mean, its not the place anypony would go late ya know?”

I nodded, shouting back, “Yeah, I’m sure, its not far from my home anyway.”

He shrugged and took us down in a looping descent before the sky taxi bumped to a halt. The thing jarred the bones in my backside and I was reminded of how spoilt I’d been with Tingles’ flying skills. The cabby tipped his cap to me and with a few flaps of his wings, quickly disappeared into the darkening sky.

A series of ‘pinking’ sounds around me indicated the lights of the cemetery coming to life, unlike its residents. The flags had been taken down since the last time I was here, and the graves had already developed a covering of grass rather than bare earth. Here and there, somepony had placed flowers on the graves of the watchponies, including a new one…’Watch Chief Mitre’. I walked over to the marker and ran my hoof over the cold stone before plopping myself back on my haunches.

“I’m sorry Chief, I should have tried harder. It’s my fault you’re here…”, I drew a breath, closing my eyes, “I need you my old friend, I need your wisdom and guidance”. The only sound was the wind sighing through the silent expanse of the dead. 

My trip to the village store had yielded an attractive bunch of marigolds. I knew Mitre liked them from when I’d overheard his conversation in the office with Shelly. It was more of an argument really I suppose, but that was their life, and they were happy in their own way. Personally, I couldn’t stand marigolds, far too bitter for my taste.

I picked myself up and walked up the next few paths until I reached my destination, the grave of Chief Apple Pop. And next to his…

Meadow
Beloved Wife of Watch Captain Fairlight
Rest in Peace

I closed my eyes against the tears, which began to trickle down my cheeks unbidden. Of course…what did I expect? I knew she would be here, with her family, “Meadow”. Next to hers was another marker, I made out the inscription in the failing glow from the setting sun,

Watch Captain Fairlight
Beloved Husband of Meadow
Rest in Peace 

So simple and plain, ‘beloved husband’, ‘beloved wife’. Your name on a bit of stone, your ashes in the ground beneath and that was it, mate. You were gone, a ponies life quite literally reduced to ashes. Thank the goddesses that I knew we had the eternal herd, but even so, seeing it like this. My wife’s grave, my own grave. A dead pony looking at his own death, I was starting to give myself goose bumps.

Anyway, it was time to do what I came here to do. Hauling off my heavy pack, I magicked out the stone I’d collected from Chips. It sparkled slightly in the suns warm light and I smiled to myself while placing the stone marker in front of Meadows. The stone was just right, the dimensions perfect. Chips was indeed a master craftspony, the letters were gentle yet bold, clear and not intrusive. Running my hoof gently over the marker, I read the words out loud, “Sparrow Song, beloved daughter of Meadow and Twilight. Sleep well little one.”

That was it, the tears I had tried to hold back, broke forth and I lay down over the final resting place of my wife and child, my body wracked with grief. I dug my hooves into the ground, willing myself to be with them, to hold them. Goddesses I didn’t want to be in this world too long, but Shadow…Shadow was my anchor here. Meadow knew that too, and I wondered if it was partly why she’d approved of the thestral mare. My conflicting emotions were something I was still grappling with but this, tonight, was a step to accepting my past.

“Well, well, well!”

I looked up to see a dark shadowy figure standing some yards away from me.

“Well,well,well,well,well…well,well!”

Okay, there something seriously wrong with this guy and my guard was up like the hairs along my spine. I recognised the voice, oozing with borderline insanity, if he hadn’t tipped over the edge already.

Removing his sunglasses, Wists’ wide staring eyes shone, reflecting the orange glow of the setting sun, “If it isn’t my old pal, Agent Nox. Or should I say Fairlight, ex-captain of the Manehattan Watch!” He span in place rearing on his hind legs like some bizarre ballet dancer. “Come to bury your little wifey wifey?”, he put a hoof to his mouth in mock surprise, “Oh! That’s right you can’t can you? She’s already there.”

“Fuck off Wist, I don’t give a damn what you have to say”, I growled.

Fast as lightening, he produced a PDW and a pulse of light nicked my ear. I didn’t move, the bastard wasn’t going to frighten me.

“Now that wasn’t very polite now was it Chief? Not very nice at all…no, no, no. We simply MUST have good manner at all times, isn’t that right hmmm?”

I had the distinct feeling Wist wasn’t talking about me or the agency, something else was haunting this pony and it wasn’t something I wanted to find out about. I didn’t want this near my family, Sparrow shouldn’t see this.

“Wist, what do you want?” I asked him levelly.

He cackled madly, “Oh, we’re going to play a little game now Noxie me boy, and when I hear something I don’t like…POW! You lose a body part. How d’ya like that eh?”

For the first time, I wished I’d brought my magical sidearm with me. My bull headedness may have cost me my life here tonight. Well, looking on the bright side, they didn’t have far to take me for burial.

“You’re a big pony with a weapon in your hooves Wist, can’t abide the thought of losing can you? Not to the new guy?” I said levelly.

The agency ponies eyes bulged, “You fucking twat, you fucking, fucking TWAT! Its your fault my careers completely fucked. Everything was okay until YOU showed up and then its all ‘Nox’ this, and ‘Nox’ that. Its not even your real name is it! You’re a lie, a fucking fake!”

“So what it to be Wist?” I said smiling at him, ”Going to show the world just how big of a stallion you are by gunning me down unarmed, real tough pony eh? Bet the girls love you…”

“SHUT UP! You fucker, here…here’s something for you”, he took out his second pistol and unloaded it, placing the weapon on the ground. He placed the charger crystal next to it, all the while making insane giggling noises and talking to himself under his breath.

Wist backed away until the pistol and crystal lay between us, “You like the old westerns Noxie? I’m going to give you a chance, you pick up the pistol, load it and fire it. I’ll even holster mine for you to make it even, how’s that for you eh, new boy?”

“Goddesses, Wist, you call this fair? What the fucks got into you…”, I suddenly realised. The staring eyes, the chattering, “Celestia’s mercy, you’re a breeze addict”.

He screamed at me, foam flying from his muzzle, “What the fuck do you know?! You don’t know what I’ve seen, what I’ve done! Some fucking kid tries to shoot me and you act all self righteous, like I’ve done something wrong!”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, “Wist, you shot a foal, in the face…in the fucking face! What sort of stallion does that?”

He stomped a hoof, holstering his pistol and threw back the corner of his coat, “Enough talk Noxie…its time for you to die…again!” another round of manic giggling and he seemed to settle down. I eyed the pistol and its crystal, there was no chance of me getting to it, loading and firing before Wist turned me into a colander.

His horn glowed, “On three…..One!”

I wrapped the pistol in own magic, at the same time, reaching for the cold energy within me.

“Two!”

The spirit was hungry, aching for release, but even with its power, I was too close. I’d have to try and dodge, buy myself time to embrace the spirit. Wist’s manic grin spread even wider.

“Three!”

I dropped and rolled, his first shot frying a portion of my main and tail. The stink of burning hair which normally made me gag, was the last thing on my mind. Just as I began to feel the wendigo spread through me, a second shot punched through my shoulder, making me cry out in agony. The burning pain scalded through my brain and I reflexively dropped my grip on the wendigo’s spirit. The stink of burning flesh and hair filled the air, there was no missing it this time. The bastard had me.

“You know Noxie,” he said kneeling down next to me, “you should be saying ‘thank you’, after all, you’ll want to be with your wife wont you?” He giggled, throwing his head back and taking a deep breath.

“This ends now…” he levelled the pistol at my head.

“Fuck you, Wist you useless foal murdering shithead”, I spat at him. 

He just smirked at me, the pistol pointing right…between…my eyes.

A scream of anger echoed across the cemetery, momentarily making Wist turn and face his perceived new threat. An orange Pegasus flew in, firing brilliant beams of green light at Wist. He dodged them all. I don’t know if it was the drugs in his system or natural reflexes, but goddesses he was fast. And a good shot too.

His second shot, took the Pegasus in the wing, a third hit the flying pony in the chest. There was a scream and it crashed into the ground heavily. Wist laughed at the sight, nonchalantly blowing a wisp of smoke away from the end of his weapon. Only the smoke wouldn’t go…He blew again, puzzlement etched on his face, he brushed at it with a hoof, finding it too was beginning to be wreathed in the wispy smoke.

I think he knew then, for his movements slowed and he looked back over his shoulder, ears flat and eyes shrinking to pinpoints. He looked up at me, bathed in the blue light from my eyes.

“Good play Chief”, he muttered.

In a rush of adrenalin, he blasted off three more shots from his pistol, each on target, each dissipated by the ethereal white fog surrounding my body. Wist tried to run, finding his hind legs frozen to the ground in a thick blue ice. Crying out, he pulled with a strength born of insanity and, sickeningly, his legs shattered, bursting into minute crystals of frozen bone, blood and sinew. 

Wist crawled away, whimpering, trying to reload his PDW. An outstretched hoof knocked the pony to the ground, pinning him. He struggled madly, the pistols crystals spilling out across the ground, the magic around his horn flickering. He wouldn’t last long.

I looked down at his body below me and my hunger flared, the anger I felt for this…thing, a white hot fury. He had dared…DARED, to attack ME! He was nothing to me, a thing…worthless, a foal killer, murderer. A damned Celestian insect that needed stamping on, but first, he would provide me with what I needed from him. Oh yes, but…the drugs, the fool was full of them. I couldn’t take them directly or else risk contaminating myself. No, there was another way…

Wist lay before me giggling manically, he was going to pay for his arrogance and I could see it in his eyes that he knew it too. My forelegs pinning his to the ground, I tucked my head down and unleashed a beam of blue fire, hotter than the sun, colder than the frozen wastes of Tartarus. Slowly, I brought my head up, Wists eyes going wide as the energy sliced into him.

His shaking and cries thrilled me, the smell of his innards and the steam rising from his spilled entrails so enticing it was all I could do to stop myself plunging head long into them. The beam cut upwards, slowly, his gurgling shrieks an eroticism I felt throughout my entire body, setting my fur on edge.

His heart beat before my eyes, and then, with a final shudder, it stopped. Wist’s last tortured breath escaped into the night air, his life energy beginning to seep out. Gently, I breathed in, my jaws opening ever so slightly, tasting. As hungry as I was, I wouldn’t take in tainted energy, but no…this one had been prepared just right. 

My tongue lolled out, lapping up the dead ponies life essence, pulling it in, sucking it down, a deep satisfying nourishment that made me hunger for more. Still…hungry, starving, the void inside me crying out to be filled.

I saw the orange Pegasus across the cemetery, she was still alive, but barely. She would make a fine second course, my maw salivated at the thought of tasting her essence.

Fog wreathed me and my intended meal, she looked so tender, young, energetic and full of life. My teeth chattered loudly, not from cold, but from anticipation. She had been shot by Wist’s pistol and needed urgent care or she would soon expire from her wounds. Smoke lifted from the entry wound, blood seeping out. Leaning down, my tongue snaked out and took a taste, iron rich and so…good.

Her eyes opened slowly, “Captain?...Fairlight…”

Tingles tried to stand, her legs shaking with the effort, my former watch colleague and partner, dying before my very eyes. I was going to take her life from her, to feed my hunger…”No…”, I breathed, “NO!”

The spirits voice raged through me, furious at being challenged, “Fool! She has offered herself to you and you would refuse her? Take the ponies life energy for your own, fill the need within you, within us. We must feed!”

“To hell with you demon, this pony is my friend, do you have any concept of what that means, other than to take what you want and leave nothing but death?”

“No.”

“Did your fellow spirits steal what they wanted from ponies, or did they join them. Become one with them, following them through their trials in life?”

It remained silent, brooding.

“I will save this young mares spirit and you will help me. In exchange, we will seek sustenance elsewhere. If she is still willing, then perhaps…”

“Perhaps!? This means NOTHING! You will destroy us both with you intransigent pony foolishness!”

“SILENCE! DO NOT DARE CHALLENGE ME” I bellowed at it with surprising force. My anger was rising rapidly, magic coursing through me, fire melding with the ice of the spirit, “I am no puppet of yours spirit! You will obey me in this.”

I felt more than heard, a quiet resignation, indignation and…a feeling of betrayal. This was not over, not yet.

Tingles tried to speak, blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. Quietly, I knelt before her and lifted her head in my hooves, turning her face to mine. Her eyes glistened in a mix of both wonder and fear, taking in my burning blue gaze. She knew about Shadow, during my recollection of my time in the Wither world, I’d explained everything to aunt Pewter. Tingles had been listening at the doorway to the kitchen. The tangerine mare had known about me but she had only fled when I refused her in favour of my aunt. Even so, she had come back, willing to throw her life away to save mine.

“Do you hear me spirit? If there is one thing I despise, it is ingratitude”.

The thing hissed at me from the recesses of my soul, I had won this battle.

Tingles’ voice, little more than a whisper, “Cap’?”

I leaned down to her, opening my maw slightly releasing a syrupy dribble of silver blue light into her mouth. Holding her so she wouldn’t spill any, my eyes surveyed her wound. As with Shadow when the lake serpent had ripped her open, Tingles’ wounds began to smoke and she moaned pitifully.

Her tongue lolled from the side of her mouth, it wasn’t enough, damn it I needed to do more. Pulling her mouth open, I clamped mine over hers, breathing my life into her body. The spirit pined for its lost life energy, but obeyed. I poured my essence, my life into the mare, sensing her life’s flame flicker and burst back into a vibrant light. Her wounds were closing, the light returning to her eyes, those big green eyes that matched her mane so well.

I could feel my body weakening slightly, this was putting a strain on me that would take more than a few berries to put right. Slowing the flow of energy, I pulled away from Tingles, feeling her strength flowing strong once more. As I went to stand, she lunged forward, surprising me with her urgency. Her forelegs locked around my neck and she pulled me into a kiss, long and deep. Her soft, warm tongue tasted mine.

“Mmmmm”, she moaned, the heat emanating from her was intense against my muzzle. I couldn’t withstand her advance. Weakness overtook me and my hind legs dumped my haunches onto the grass. My need for sustenance was being replaced with a desperate desire for this pony, my loins aching. The emptiness inside was not just from the wendigo’s incessant hunger, it was my own…I was so lonely, so horribly alone. This mare was before me, here, now, and I only needed to reach out and…

I broke the kiss. Damn it all, I didn’t want to, it was so hard. I wanted her, but for my own selfish reasons; to sate my desires, to swim in the satiation of my aching heart. Goddesses, this was wrong, but I wanted her so badly.

The green eyes looked up at me through long black lashes, “Fairlight?”

She reached up again for me, but coward that I am, I turned away, “I’m sorry Tingles, its not…please, not now. Forgive me…”

“Forgive you? You save my life and you ask me to forgive you? Captain Fairlight, I should apologise to you. I know how you feel about Meadow, and Shadow. I’d hoped that somehow, maybe…” She laughed, “Stupid me huh?”

I released my power, feeling the cold raw strength returning to another part of my being, becoming me again.

I reached out my foreleg and drew her into a hug, “You’re not stupid Tingles, I’m a fool, I always have been. I don’t deserve a friend like you”

Maybe I shouldn’t have hugged her, goddeses knew I was no good with females. She gave a little squeeze in return then stepped back, her eyes glistening. With a sniff, she motioned to the carriage park, “Come on then, Cap’, let head home before we get in trouble for being late back.”

I gave her the best smile I could, it wasn’t much. My heart felt like lead, just like my hooves as I clambered into the chariot. The tangerine mare put her TED on and spoke into it, “Warlock, you receiving me?”

I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, mine was still stuffed in my jacket pocket.

“Yes sir, he’s here…yes sir, sanitisation is required...Understood sir…Received”

Tingles looked back over her shoulder, motioning towards Wists corpse, “They know he’s here, followed his PDW tracer. Cleanup crew’s on the way now, we’re to get back to base for a wash and brush up.”

I refused to look back at the destroyed body of Wist. Celestia’s tits, what had I done? Did I need to do all that to him, to kill him like that? Did I need to kill him at all? Hell fire, there must be some other way than this. But if there was, I had no idea what it was. Wishful thinking hadn’t saved Meadow and Sparrow. If I was fated to be the bringer of destruction to the enemies of this land, then I would do so to protect others, like Tingles, from harm. Somewhere deep inside, I heard a sarcastic chuckle.

> Chapter Eleven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER ELEVEN


We landed back at the facility and trotted to the showers after dropping off my belongings in my billet, I’d sort through them later.

The smell of soap and warm steam emanating from the shower room was amazingly inviting, and I quickly stripped off my coat, collecting a basket of toiletries in the process. I could almost feel the warm water on my coat now and shivered slightly in anticipation. For a brief moment I paused, Tingles was uncharacteristically quiet behind me. Looking about, she was nowhere to be seen. A twinge of guilt hit me, I was the cause of this wasn’t I? She was hurt because of me, nearly died. Fuck me I’d tried to take her life myself! Some partner I was. 

The attractive tangerine mare, my comrade from the watch, deserved so much more. I couldn’t risk losing another. To hell with ‘ponies shouldn’t be alone’, if anypony was going to be put at risk, it was me. This was a matter for later of course, but one I had to address, if for no other reason than my own sanity.


*************


Warlock was in his office shuffling paperwork, the smell of coffee was delicious but I had no time for one now, I had to deal with this matter head on.

“Agent Nox?” he asked in his usual disinterested manner. 

I took a deep breath, “I want agent Tingles re-assigned”

“No” He didn’t even look up from his paperwork.

“I’m not giving you a choice Warlock, I’m not working with her or any other mare. Do you understand ? No more mares!”

He looked up now, irritation in his expression, “You don’t get a choice here Nox, nopony does. We’re in the agency, you are too whether you like it or not.”

For Luna’s sake, I could have seen this coming a mile away. My frustration at the intransigent unicorn was bubbling up, my emotions talking instead of my head, “Whats to stop me telling you to go fuck yourself and walking out that door right now huh?”

“You can’t Nox, you need us as much as we need you. The mistress needs you, Equestria needs you.”

“Yeah, fucking right. Where is the mistress then Warlock? Answer me that? I’ve tried to see her, I don’t know how many times and she never answers the door. I agreed to help the agency so I could find Shadow, helping Equestria is secondary to that. I’m being played like a fiddle here and you know it.”

“Now you listen to me agent Nox!”, Warlock shouted across the desk, “The mistress risked her life saving your miserable fucking hide and you’d throw that back in her face because you don’t like Tingles? What the fuck is going through your head?!”

I took a calming breath, trying to slow my heartbeat, “How many of your partners have died Warlock? How many died in your hooves? You sit there behind your desk like you’re something bloody special but you haven’t got a fucking clue have you? Do you know how many of my friends and family I’ve buried? Looked into their eyes as the spark of life goes out? I’m not going to lose another one, not one more, for the goddesses sake Warlock, try to understand…”

“NO!”, he bellowed slamming the desk, “We all lose partners Nox, my niece, my daughter, I’ve buried more of them than you damned well know. We’re at war and we need every soldier we can get right now, including you!”

“Then I’ll do your dirty work for you, I’ll do my duty, but re-assign Tingles. That’s all I ask, please Warlock.”

“No Nox. I have my orders too.”

“Then i’ve no other choice, I resign”

He laughed, “Nopony resigns from the agency Nox, nopony”.

I could feel the anger beginning to boil inside me, my eyesight taking on the blue corona, my teeth itching. I headed for the door and looked back at him over my shoulder, “Think you can stop me Warlock?”, I hissed, “Try…”

A bolt of purple magic sent through me across the room into the wall, showering me with posters and other assorted paperwork in the impact. I was straight back on my hooves, magic pulsing through my horn, ready to release at the cloaked attacker in the doorway. The attacker with the…silver shoes, oh fuck me…

She advanced on me, her horn glowing and eyes shining white, “Warlock, you may leave us”

“Mistress!”

She shot him a look which said much more than words, you did not argue with the princess of the night. Warlock scuttled out the office, glowering at me as he did so. The threat of retribution was all too present in those eyes.

The mistress stood staring at me until with a click, the office door closed behind Warlock. He wouldn’t be far away. Luna threw back the hood of her cloak and surveyed me calmly, “Can you release your power fully Fairlight?”

Well, this was a surprise. I expected a reprimand if not an outright attack for my behaviour. But here, the princess of the night wanted me to…change…before her? I nodded, in the presence of her majesty, my resolve to storm out of the place disappeared. I lifted my restraint on the spirits power and felt its strength flow through me, the white fog swirling around my haunches and hind legs, my teeth sharp and long. The muscles in my chest and legs throbbed with the otherworldly energy, I felt strong, invincible…nopony could challenge me…

“Impressive”, Luna said looking me up and down, “We…I, have not seen a wendigo warrior for a long time Captain, a very long time.”

“Your majesty”, I said quietly, “I…”

She held up a hoof to my mouth, smiling, “I know what you’re going to ask me Captain. Come, let us retire to my quarters to talk. Please, would you retain that form for me? I find its nostalgia…pleasing.”

I barely nodded before a pulse of purple energy surrounded us both and with a loud ‘pop’, we appeared in her quarters near the open fireplace. I’d never teleported before, something I’d heard of but never seen or experienced. A higher level of magic that few unicorns had ever achieved. I marvelled at the ease in which the princess has performed such an amazing feat, while Luna glided across the deep rug to ensconce herself in the large velvet chair. With a glow of magic, she removed the cloak from around her shoulders, revealing the princess of the night in all her glory. 

“I have something for you”, she said in her soft tone and fished about in a saddle pack next to her chair. 

“Aha!”, she cried in triumph, levitating a large glass bottle from its depths along with a glass. The liquid inside sparkled and danced in the firelight, I found I couldn’t keep my eyes from it for some reason. Watching my every move, Luna poured out a glass full and levitated it over to me which I took gratefully. Sniffing the contents, I began to salivate, thick mist pouring out from between my fangs. She laughed mischievously, “I thought you’d like that” and snuggled herself deeper into the chair.

I looked back up at her while she poured herself a glass from a different bottle. The princess smiled, eyes shining, “Oh don’t stand on ceremony, please Captain, drink up. Its not poisoned I assure you, it was made with true love”.

That didn’t assure me at all! but the smell, I knew what this was on an instinctual level and with a greedy gulp, downed the contents of the glass. The feeling of being filled was ecstatic, I felt alive, truly alive, my senses keen and razor sharp. I rumbled in satisfaction, watching Luna watch me, those big azure eyes never left my face.

“Life energy, such a rare commodity and yet so abundant…given the right ‘conditions’. I’ve never failed to be impressed by your kind, you are truly a rare item.”

Gathering my resolve, I faced the alicorn mare, “Princess, I’m sorry for my behaviour in Warlock’s office. It’s about Tingles, the agent assigned to me. I can’t work with her anymore. Its not her, goddesses know, it’s just that I cant risk losing another partner, I don’t think I could bare to see another pony die because of me”

Luna looked into the fireplace appearing to be deep in thought, “Do you know why I assigned that pony to be your partner Captain?”

“Yes, she said that she’d asked you specifically as she’d worked with me before”

“Tingles is special, she has a heart which is generous and kind. She joined the agency because she wanted to help Equestria, Captain and I agreed to allow her to work with you in that capacity. You share a bond, one i’m sure you have noticed at least a little? I’m afraid that regardless of your protests, my mind is made up. Agent Tingles is your partner until I say otherwise, is that clear Captain?”

“Yes, my lady”

Luna’s ears perked up, “’My lady…’”, an odd look flashed across her features momentarily, “Yes, well…I hope you will understand Captain that I cannot tell you everything, a lady must have her secrets, no?”

Luna’s eyes bored into me and I could feel goosebumps prickling my hide. She sighed and whispered so quietly I could barely make out the words, “…a secret, never to be told”

The princess stood abruptly, walking over to me and ran a hoof over my neck and back, “So strong, powerful…beautiful in a terrible, terrifying way. Tell me Captain, do you remember your people?”

“Some of it, princess, my aunt helped me to see the past, I’m not sure how she did it or what it truly means.”

“Yes, yes she did didn’t she? I thought she might. Pewter is a clever witch, but has her limits.” Luna grew closer, lifting my tail and…was she sniffing me?

“What do you recall, Fairlight?”, she purred, “Who do you remember?”

My voice quavered for a moment before I took it back under control, “My lady I, I recall the battle, the great war, I was there but not there. In the body of a wendigo, one called Lord Maroc.”

Luna paused, her hoof momentarily stopping in its travel down my flank before continuing, “Lord Maroc? Yes…I remember him, such a powerful warrior. Your ancestor Fairlight, did you know?” Her voice was smooth like honey, alluring.

“No, I…I didn’t know my princess”.

“Call me, ‘My lady’, I like that”, she nuzzled my hind leg and gave it a lick. I nearly jumped from the sensation. I had to regain the initiative and press my questions, goddesses knew when I’d have another chance.

“Pr…My lady, may I ask, have you had any success in finding Shadow?”

She continued to examine me, holding my mane up to her muzzle, “Yes, I have found her.” She barely whispered, “Bringing her to the mortal world though, may prove a little difficult, although I do have faith that I can do this for you.”

She appeared back in front of me, eyes glowing, “Do you have faith in me, my subject?”

“Yes my lady, I do”

“Good…then you are willing to pay me my price for this help?”

“Price? My lady, I thought my help in the agency was…”

“…not enough” she interrupted, “You are unique my wendigo warrior, and it has been a long time…such a long time, my Lord Maroc...”

She leaned forward and brushed her lips softly against mine. I jumped back in shock, what was she doing? I wasn’t this lord Maroc!

“Luna, my lady, I beg you, I think you’ve mistaken me for this lord Maroc, he died a thousand years ago. Besides, I’m married, I cant…I mean, you’re the princess…!”

She laughed girlishly, holding a hoof up before her muzzle, eyes catching the flickering light from the fire. Goddesses, she was so beautiful…

“Oh my!”, she teased, “Quite the shy gentleman aren’t we?”

Luna walked over to pick up her glass, taking another mouthful. Looking into the flames, she spoke, “Lord Maroc did die, my dear Fairlight. Nopony lives forever, not even alicorns like my sister and I. Eternity can be a long time…such a very long time”

She turned to face me, her mane flowing out behind her, the stars twinkling brighter than I remembered the last time I had seen the princess.

“Your dedication to a dead pony is admirable Captain, admirable but foalish. I cannot help but wonder why you refer to being married to Meadow when you were happy enough to ‘mate’ yourself with the thestral. Pray tell me, how can you explain this contradiction?”

I hung my head shamefully, “I was…alone. My wife, as you say, is dead. Shadow and I grew close, I never meant what happened to…it just…it just did” Goddesses I was hopeless.

The midnight mare stepped closer, “You spoke to Meadow afterwards didn’t you, shared your time with her, and the lady Shadow, in the wheat fields of Elysia.”

I balked, “My lady! How can you know that, I didn’t tell you what happened there!”

Luna smiled, “No Captain, you didn’t. I don’t think you know your wife as well as you think you do, or mares generally, be they equestrian ponies, wither world thestrals or wendigo. I have lived for over a thousand years, been to places and seen things you could not even begin to imagine. Do you think the land of the eternal herd is unknown to me?” 

I shook my head silently.

My dear Fairlight…”, she moved her muzzle next to my ear, “…do you know yourself?”

I shut my eyes tight, it was like she was staring into my very being, “I don’t know my lady, my heart is in turmoil, my soul divided. I had hoped to try to accept the spirit and somehow make myself whole again, but it’s so hard to remain…me.”

Luna ran a hoof through my mane and under my chin, her silver filigree shoes cold against my snowy white coat, “There was a way, once. The wendigo’s would initiate selected members of their tribe to become one with the spirits of the Wither world. That knowledge may still exist somewhere, but even I do not know everything Captain. What I do know, is that you are without doubt the descendant of the Lord of the fortress of the four winds, the commander of the wendigo forces which my sister defeated. Seeing you stand before me now…you look so much like him.”

She rubbed her head up against me and breathed deeply, “You even smell like him”.

Luna nuzzled my neck softly, “Ponies shouldn’t be alone Fairlight, don’t deny yourself love, it’s what makes us whole”

I stood drinking in the sensation of the alicorn against my fur, her wings slipping over my flank, her breath on my cheek.

“Tell me Captain…”, her lips brushed mine sending a bolt of electricity through me, “…do you love your princess?”

“Yes…”

“Do you want her?”

“Yes”

Need flooded through me, my mind a blaze of urgent desire. Luna groaned as I grabbed her in my forelegs and pulled her into an embrace, kissing her deeply until the necessity for air parted us. She gasped, pupils dilated, wispy motes of sparkling silver mist edging her mouth, “My lord, you have returned…”

She trailed off, breathing in the mist, moaning in ecstasy before she reached across and kissed me. Her lips were soft, her breath warm and exotic. Luna inhaled a little more of my life energy into her. I could feel it draining from me, only a trickle, but just enough to bring her a pleasure beyond the physical.

The princess pushed me onto the rug before the fire, pushing into me, her breast heaved and her mouth hung open. She was grinding her hips against me wantonly, “My lord, your princess has waited a millennia for you. I have been so alone without anypony to hold me, to be with me.”

She pulled me into an embrace and I could feel tears soaking into my fur, “I don’t want to be alone again, please…never again…”

Luna pulled back, shining tears dropping onto my chest. I gazed into her fathomless azure eyes, feeling like I was falling into them. The shimmering star field of her mane and tail sang a song of her loneliness in the night. 

“My lady…”

I rolled her off me and picked her up, balancing on my hind legs, not something I had ever done before, but now, it seemed right. The world, myself, were gone in this moment. I laid my princess on her back in the large chair, making sure she was comfortable and moved forward.

She watched me, tears still dripping from her eyes in wonderment. With a cry, she covered her mouth with her hooves as I leaned in to taste her. She was as wonderful as a mare could be, a treasure of the heavens and the earth. On my knees I brought the alicorn to a groaning climactic shudder, her hind legs clamping around me until eventually, she released me. The tears had gone, replaced with a smile so gentle, I thought my heart would stop beating from sheer joy.

The princess needed me and goddess help me, I needed her. Even in our different worlds, we were both alone, but not tonight, this night I would fulfil my ladies desires.

She smiled at me, a little unsure, then nodded. I leaned forward to kiss her, trickling a little more essence into her mouth, sending her shaking with bliss. Luna’s wings shivered in anticipation, “Please…”, she whispered.

I obeyed, “Yes, my lady Luna…”

Pushing my hips forward, my princess and I became one in the warmth from the fire. She moaned and cried out, an animalistic howl of passion and pain, loneliness and joy combined. Together we made love, Luna pushing back against me, harder, her gasps and moans rising until she reached up and sank her teeth into my shoulder, all but screaming. Losing myself in the torrent of ecstasy, I too leaned in and gently but still firmly, bit into her immaculate hide eliciting a high pitched cry, her whole body shuddering as she reached her pinnacle of intimacy.

“Gods…Yes!”, she screamed. The room darkened as her magic, unleashed and wild, whirled around us in a hurricane of raw energy. The windows double doors blew open, the cold night air chilling the room. I gasped as I released myself inside the princess, filling her, my knees beginning to lose their strength.

I took my mouth away from Luna’s shoulder, glad I hadn’t bitten too hard. I would never forgive myself if I’d hurt her. The princess, for her part, gave me a hard nip and then pulled me into a crushing hug and kiss. Her tongue pushed into my mouth, wrapping around my tongue and teeth. Gasping, she pulled away, eyes narrowed,

“I hope there’s more left my lord Fairlight, there are a thousand years of desires your princess wishes to address. Would you leave her wanting?”

I smiled, taking a quick draft of the life energy from the glass beside me, “Never my lady Luna”

She pushed me off and twisted to lay on her stomach, tail brushing against my nethers, “The night is still young, and it ends, when the princess of the night has had her fill.”

Inside my soul, a voice answered. In that moment, there with the princess, the Wither world spirit and I both wished that the night could truly last forever…

















> Chapter Twelve
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER TWELVE


The sun was just rising when I awoke, Luna had curled into me on the rug before the hearth. The once crackling fire was now reduced to nothing more than a pile of warm ashes, still radiating some heat onto my back. Princess Luna sighed and snuggled into me before opening an eye to look at to me. 

“Good morning”, she whispered before placing a kiss on my nose, “The moon has already set and my sister’s sun is rising in the sky, as sad as it is for me to say, you have your own duties to perform also my lord”

Pulling myself to my hooves, I stretched and gave an expansive yawn, I really wished she wouldn’t call me that. “My lady, would you please call me Fairlight? I find the title ‘lord’, a little strange.”

Luna shrugged, “Very well…Fairlight, I will grant you this, however wishes do not change what is. What you do is what makes you who you are”

I gave her a light nuzzle, pausing briefly, “Princess, you loved lord Maroc didn’t you? Why didn’t you…”

“Why didn’t I marry him? Mate myself to him?”, she paused, her eyes looking into a past I could never begin to comprehend, “It was a difficult time Captain, not one I wish to recall”

“I’m sorry your majesty, forgive me for being nosy”

“No…no Captain Fairlight, as his descendant, I don’t mind telling you”, she busied herself with tidying the scattered cushions and other objects from last nights activities, “I was in love with him, but at the time, I was not myself…my mind was elsewhere, focussed on matters that had nothing to do with those of the heart.”

Luna shook her mane and hugged me suddenly, “I missed my time, the opportunity had been right before me all the while and when I finally realised how foolish I had been…I had lost it all. Everything…even love”

With a gentle kiss, Luna turned away from me to collect her cloak, “Thank you for last night Captain, it mean a great deal to me. I may…’call’ on you again in the future, if that is agreeable? For now, go back to your duties and do not speak of last night to anypony, they may not ‘understand’.”

I bowed and backed toward the door, “As you wish my lady”. The midnight coloured mare watched me go. I just caught a glimpse of her face before I closed the heavy wooden door, she looked…sad.

Back in my billet, I checked the time. It was still early and I had a good hour to get showered and changed for the days briefing. Hopefully I was actually needed for something other than the mundane bollocks they’d been giving me lately. I had the distinct impression I wasn’t fully trusted, like I was a loose cannon or some such. Mind you, the letter had said to have a couple of days free before attending for a briefing so…yeah, I was being needlessly pessimistic. Time to go to work!

The shower block had been quite busy, ponies going about the business, brushing teeth, cleaning manes, the usual. My uniform had been placed in my room together with a bowl of those crystalline berries and…a bottle, the same glass bottle from the other night with Luna. No note, just a glass and a small flask. It was an ideal size to pop in my saddle bag when I went on missions and opening it revealed a small piece of paper inside. It read, 

Thanks,

M

Well, short and sweet. Good old ‘M’! Just as I put it down, the heat radiating from the note warned me of its impending combustion. ‘Honestly’, I thought to myself as the small message disappeared in a ‘whoof’ of green flame, ‘I’m surprised the whole bloody place hasn’t gone up yet’.

I trotted down to the meeting after pocketing my usual issue agency gear and felt quite buoyant for once. I put it down to Luna’s ministrations. I was probably going to feel like shit later, but who cared. Right now, I felt good…great even! Ah, life, about flaming time.

A good mood though is like a soap bubble, all it takes is a little prick to ruin it and sure enough, he was stood in the doorway to the briefing room glaring at me as I approached. Warlock never said a word, his eyes told me all I need to know; he was seriously pissed off. It wouldn’t take a genius to work out why, he probably figured i’d had a right royal bollocking from the ‘Mistress’ after my display in his office. I didn’t want to cause a fuss, so I hung my head as I passed him. Just to make him feel better, bless him. I couldn’t help but privately smirk, even if it was a bit wrong of me. Just a bit.

The lights dimmed and the briefing officer walked to the podium which was set to the side of a large projection screen. The projector at the rear of the room loudly clattered a slide into place, ‘Operation Postal’, the letters read. Very dramatic, maybe we’d been upgraded to mailponies. Stifling a chuckle at my own joke, I quickly glanced left and right in case anypony heard my snort. Thank Celestia they hadn’t.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts,”, the officer began, “I know you are all already aware of the excellent work our agents here and abroad have done in tackling the scourge of organised crime.”

“You should already be aware that the human constructed weapons we’ve been seeing,” The slide changed to show a variety of weapons, “-smuggled into Equestria recently, have been re-designed when they arrived to fit pony anatomy.”

There was a general murmur of agreement.

“Several of these sites or ‘armouries’, have been targeted and shut down. Their property seized.”

A loud stomping of approval echoed around the room and the officer waved a hoof for quiet.

“These items are known as ‘firearms’ or ‘guns’.There are numerous designs and you should familiarise yourselves with them if you have not done so already.”

Why did I have the feeling he was looking at me ?

“The appendix to the briefing report has a list of the names, types and other details you will need to study.”

Ah, I thought my chair felt funny. I moved experimentally to one side and felt something sticking to an arse cheek. Daaaaamn! I nodded along with the rest like it was all understood and that I already knew exactly what he was talking about. Come to think of it, after what I’d seen at the warehouse, I probably knew more than anypony here. 

The briefing continued, “Intel has been coming in to suggest that the latest batch of weapons have been coming in pre-made, that is custom made and not retro engineered.”

So, the humans were now tooling up to make the ‘guns’ for the Equestrian market. It was all a lot more organised than we’d previously thought. Our operation at the warehouse had probably been a minor setback to them before they started a new route up.

“Our supervision has decided that it is time to take the initiative and be more pro-active rather than re-active to the problems our home has been facing. Operation Postal is the first phase of our initiative. Our target…”

The projector clacked over a new slide. I stared wide eyed…

“…Is Ponyville post office.”

Dear goddesses! I used to work that patch! In fact, I used to chat with that funny little mare that had the really bad stigmatism. She was cute too, once you got used to the way she appeared like she was looking at you and up your nose at the same time.

“Several consignments of Breeze and Ryetalin have been intercepted which we believe have originated from this location. How the drugs have been getting to the office is unknown, however it is believed they may be bringing them in via a portal on site.”

That made sense, the mail could then be distributed across Equestria quite legitimately by unsuspecting mailponies. Interruption of the mail was a crime by royal edict and severely punished. It was handy to have the name ‘Celestia’ in your job title. I wondered if it would get me a little discount next time I went shopping…

“I’d like to introduce our guest speaker, Dr Bunsen of the CBI mountain facility.”

The familiar cerulean blue mare with the massive spectacles, stumbled up the steps to the podium.

“Um…er...yes, thank you agent…er…right!”, she pushed her glasses up her muzzle making her eyes look frighteningly large.

“This device, um…sorry, next slide please…yes, that one…”, a peculiar box like object with a dish on the top appeared in the next slide, “…this is a magical energy detector. You’ll have seen them before, for tracing objects and such like, but this one has many more functions than that old thing!”

She was beginning to sound excited, “It can be set to detect all sort of things, the limit is a ponies ‘imaaaaginaaaation’!”, she stood on her hind legs and waved her forelegs out before her in a semi circle, I half expected to see a rainbow. By the looks on the faces of the ponies in the briefing hall, they did too.

The briefing officer whispered something to the good doctor who tittered to herself, a hoof held to her mouth, “Sorry!…sorry everypony, I get quite excited by new gadgets you see! Anyway, we’ve calibrated this device to help us, that is…you, to detect and locate the particularly unique magical wave signature of a transdimensional portal activation. Quite simple really.”

A few ponies scratched their heads and muttered to one another.

“Thank you Doctor Bunsen.”, the officer announced, quickly helping usher the bespectacled mare from the podium. 

One of the officers in the room held up a hoof, “Sir, how do we conduct the operation? Ponyville may be small but the post office is in the centre of town, there’ll be numerous witnesses and the risk of collateral damage should there be any resistance.”

The briefing officer nodded, “Next slide please”. The following picture was of a bizarre looking contraption, something like a steam engine.

“The operation is set to coincide with cider season in Ponyville. The apple family are notorious for running out of cider every year so we have a little side show planned to keep everypony occupied, and to keep us informed of any suspicious activity. Gentlecolts…”

He held out a hoof and two pale coated ponies in what I can only describe as carnival outfits, complete with boaters, trotted on stage with huge grins.

“Agents Cox and Pippin, will be masquerading as cider sellers to keep ponies away from the town should the apple’s run out of cider early. The machine in the slide, is the brainchild of the scientists at the hub.”

I could see Doctor Bunsen waving her hooves enthusiastically from the corner of the room. Everypony was trying desperately to avoid paying attention to her.

A cyan stallion next to me face hoofed when he saw the two gangly ponies on the stage, “Oh Celestia, not ‘Half Cox’ and…oh goddesses…Pippin”. I was tempted to ask what he was mumbling about, but the two were already leaving and the briefing picked up a notch.

“With the locals distracted, Alpha will provide perimeter security, Beta will provide sniper cover. Gamma team will move in from the front door and Delta from the loading bay doors to the rear. Epsilon, you will be held in reserve in case resistance proves greater than expected. We cant be caught with our pants down here everypony.”

A schematic of the building appeared on the screen.

“A copy of this is in your briefing papers…”, still stuck to my bum,”…take note of the times. There is expected to be minimal resistance as most of the postal workers will be regular ponies. Non lethal please everypony, we don’t need another coffee shop charnel house.”

Well at least they’d recognised that for the fuck up it was. This one had been thought through a bit better. 

The briefing continued for a while longer, details of locations, times and leadership breakdown were discussed and orders relayed. The operation was set for tomorrow morning, early. The Ponyville ponies would likely be queuing for cider from dawn if not earlier according to the briefing, so to maximise our effect, we would need to set off from the Manehattan facility while it was still dark. An early bed was in order, but first, breakfast and facing Tingles.

She wasn’t at breakfast and if she’d been in the briefing, I missed her. Checking her room, she wasn’t there either. Maybe she’d gone for a check up with the Doc. After all, it was only the other day when she’d been shot out of the sky by the psychotic Wist.

I spent the day reading up on the now rather crumpled briefing paper, a little target practice, TED protocol training, and so on. The tannoy reminded everypony to retire early as it would be an early start. They weren’t joking either, we’d have to be up around 2:30am to get our gear and head off to Ponyville before dawn.

I dumped myself on my bed and rolled, rubbing my back into the rough top sheet. Not the same as the fields of auntie’s village by a long shot, but comfy. My saddle bag and pack sat unopened on the bureau, inviting me to investigate the contents.

Levitating my pack over, I undid the clasps and brought out the items she’d put in for me. It was a trip down memory lane alright, my watch, hat and coat I already had, but auntie had found more. My photo album, smelling a bit of smoke, but undamaged. 

Meadow and I had never been one for photo’s, preferring to live in the now and not in the past as we looked at it. I’d always found it a bit unsettling, looking at photographs, and okay, maybe that was a little strange, but I’d rather look forward to what was going to happen rather than what had. Still, some of the pictures would evoke memories of a time before…’that’ happened. I closed my eyes and sighed, a hoof on the top of the album. I’d look at it later.

Out next came several jars of preserve, an almost glowing red goo inside glass containers, each secured with a little paper lid and elastic band. I couldn’t wait to have a taste! I found my knife, fork and spoon set in the saddlebags pocket and after a moment of fiddling with the lid, was soon humming in bliss as the sweet, tangy taste hit my tongue. It was a lot more potent than just eating the berries, I was even a little concerned about becoming ‘high’! So, just to be safe, I locked them in a cupboard for later enjoyment. Maybe with some toast too, if I could sneak into the canteen.

My mum and dad’s photo came next and I put that on the shelf, along with a brooch, she used to wear. A small spray of silver work and gem peacock feathers, one she’d worn nearly every day after dad passed away. I looked at it for a while, wondering what my folks would think of me now, but guessed that I’d probably find out some day. Goddesses, I hoped they’d be proud of me, mum would love me regardless no doubt, but dad, well…he could be cantankerous at the best of times.

A pocket knife, several other odds and ends which would be useful including a compass and water purifier were duly removed and put to one side. The smell of soap suggested that auntie had tried to remove the pervasive smell of burnt wood, but it was still clinging to the more porous items.

The heavier objects had been thoughtfully placed at the bottom, two leather bound tomes, each emblazoned with a white ponies head and inset with a tiny blue gem for the eye. So, not a pony then…a wendigo. I put them to one side, as the histories of the tribe, I suppose it fell to me to protect these for future generations. No pressure then…

Inside the top most volume, a small piece of paper was sticking out. Intrigued, I pulled out the note and read it, or rather tried to. The hoofwriting was so bloody difficult to read, I doubted the writer actually expected anypony to be able to understand it at all! Goddesses, it was like spaghetti, but at long last, I finally began to understand the lettering and could read the message that called out across the ages.

The army is gone, the lord slain, all our hopes are dashed. The princess has vanished and our connection to her severed, the Celestian’s have won.

Our fortress at four winds has been destroyed and our people butchered as they fled. I, along with several survivors, reached the caverns and escaped into the depths and what we believed was safety. Some fled north to the winter lands hoping to escape the fighting. Several of us, the wounded, the sick and the elderly, stayed in the caverns hoping for rescue.

The Celestians found us on the third day. They murdered everypony they found, none were spared except myself and two others who were still fit enough to run.

We hid for several weeks in the caverns until I decided to return to the fortress under the noses of the Equestrians to recover our most treasured of items, the histories of our people. If this is to be the end of the tribe of the four winds, then somepony must remember us.

To you who read this, I beg you to keep them safe, to remember us and who we were.

I warn you, do not seek the fortress of the four winds, it has been seeded with death by the forces of the light. Only death awaits you there. 

Remember us,

Herath

Well, that was cheerful, I mused. It certainly tied in with what I had seem in Marocs ‘memory’ and what auntie told me. A slaughter, the Celestian army cutting down their enemy without mercy. My ancestors, killed by our benevolent ruler Celestia. Goddesses, no wonder auntie felt the way she did, but still, it was a long time ago and different times. I doubted that the vengeance of the Celestian’s was unprovoked and that they just liked killing. There was doubtless more to this war than I knew. 

The adventurer in me was intrigued by the whole ‘fortress of the four winds’ thing, but ‘seeded with death’ kind of put me off a little. Okay, a lot! I much preferred staying alive and keeping my hooves firmly on the earth. Staying alive…not that long ago, all I could think of was death and being with Meadow. Had I really changed that much?

I was about to put the pack away when I found it was still a little heavier than expected. There was something in a side pocket I’d missed. Opening the strap, I magicked out a thick parcel tied with string. Within all the packaging was a framed black and white photograph, one I had taken some time ago…under a tree, in a park. 

Meadow looked back at me, her big eyes unmistakable under the large floppy sun hat she liked to wear. Her long lashes, her smile…I could never forget how much I had loved her, how much I still did. I brought the photo to my muzzle and kissed her image, “I love you honey. Goddesses, I miss you so much…” Tears dropped onto the glass and I hugged the picture to my chest as my heart beat so hard I thought it would burst. 

With a shake of my mane, I stood on my hind legs and placed the photo next to the one of my folks. I wished I had a picture of Shadow and Sparrow too, despite my aversion to photographs, but right now, I wanted to see them all so much it hurt.

I wiped my face with a damp flannel and got ready for bed, pulling back the sheets and wrapping myself in a fuzzy world of warmth. Sleep was just starting to tug me into its embrace when a creak from the door made my ears prick up. Opening one eye, I saw a sliver of light from the corridor spilling into my room and the dark shape of a pony enter, the door closed carefully behind them.

Reaching out quietly, I slipped my magic around the PDW and drew it back beneath the covers. After what had happened to me recently, there was no sense in taking chances. In the dark, the pony shape slipped into the bedroom,

“Fairlight? Are you asleep?”

I clicked the light on, “Celestia, Tingles! I thought you were an assassin!”. Letting out the breath I’d been holding in, I replaced the PDW back into its holster by the bed.

“I can’t sleep…can I…can I stay with you tonight?”

“Tingles, no…its not right, don’t…”

“Please? Please Fairlight, every time I close my eyes I see Wist’s face, that beam of light. Goddesses, I’m so frightened, I’m…”

How could I say no now? She was my partner and the fear in her eyes made my heart cry out to her.

“Come on then, you can have the bed, I’ll sleep on the floor”

She shook her head and smiled, “Mmmm, its your room…I’ll share”. I wasn’t sure what she meant until the tangerine mare leapt onto the bed, nearly sending my flying into the ceiling. I’ll say this for the beds at the agency, they were well sprung. A little too well sprung for my liking right then, why the hell didn’t she use her wings?

I felt her lie down on the top of the cover beside me and snuggle in, “Cap’, I know its presumptuous of me, I’m sorry.”

“Its okay”, I replied, “are you going to be warm enough? There’s another blanket in the airing cupbard.”

“No, I’m fine, I just want to feel close to somepony tonight. It’ll help me sleep.”

“Sure”

I went to turn the light off but my partner leaned across my shoulder stopping me. Looking up, I saw she was looking at the photographs.

“Is that her? Meadow?”

I smiled, “Yeah, that’s her. Taken on the first date we had together”

“She’s beautiful. I’m sorry you lost her Fairlight, I know what its like to lose one you love”

Tingles sighed and snuggled into me sharing my body heat.

“It hurts to be alone…”

I pulled my foreleg out from the sheets and placed it over hers giving it a little squeeze, “You’re not alone Tingles, I promise”

I heard the smallest of whimpers from her, “I…I thought you didn’t want me to work with you any more…”

“I still don’t, I can’t bear even the thought of you being hurt because of me. I keep seeing you lying on the ground, and it was all my fault. You nearly died trying to save me.”

“But, you did save me…”

“Tingles?”

“Cap’?”

“I never got a chance to say something to you that I should have when I had the chance”

“Whats that?”

“Thanks” 

She leaned forward and gave my ear a little nip, “Next time, shoot them before they shoot me eh?”

We both chuckled and my dear friend laid her head across my neck, “Goodnight my Captain”.

“’Night Tingles.”

That had to be one of the best nights sleeps I’d had in a long time, despite being bear hugged by my companion when I tried to get up for the bathroom during the night.

> Chapter Thirteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER THIRTEEN


Morning brought with it a cacophony of noise. There was a constant bustle of ponies rushing to collect equipment, last minute team updates, the list went on. The TED was a constant chatter of information and I switched it to another channel dedicated to our own, Epsilon, the back-up team. It was a little disappointing to be sure, after all, we’d trained ourselves well and were working together better as a team now. At least, I hoped we were a lot better than we had been at the coffee shop debacle. Nutcase ponies not withstanding.

My sleeping buddy had gone off to the showers already and I had packed my gear ready to set off. Warlock knocked on the door, three other agency ponies and Tingles bringing up the rear.

“All set Nox?” he asked gruffly.

“All set sir, ready when you are.”

He nodded, “Ok everypony, lets shift flank. They may not need us, but we’d better be ready in case they do. Agent Tingles, you’re pilot on this jaunt.”

She nodded and we made our way to the landing area. 

Within a few hours we were landing on the outskirts of Ponyville, the sun barely a glimmer on the horizon. An image of Celestia in slippers and sipping cocoa while yawning popped into my head and I sniggered aloud. 

“Something funny Nox?” Warlock asked, a look of disdain on his face.

“No sir, just thinking its been a while since I was here last. Some good memories.”

He didn’t speak, but just sat there watching me. Bloody hell that was creepy, did he know something I didn’t?

The stallion huffed and looked away, definitely not in his good books. Bollocks to him, the bloody arse.

A voice crackled over the TED, it was Tingles, “Ponies we are approaching target location, ETA, three minutes, no sign of activity but stay frosty everypony. No trigger happy incidents here, this is Celestia’s pet’s home remember.”

Celestia’s pet? She had that funny looking bird didn’t she? I’d seen a picture of it in the paper one morning. Ah, never mind, they lived in a different world here. I had always been on the fringe after all, I mean, who needed a watch pony in a place where no crime happened. Literally, no crime! ‘I lost my dictionary’, or ‘someone stole a cupcake’ does NOT qualify as crime! Especially as the ‘thief’ would come back later because they had remembered they’d forgotten to pay. Goddess almighty, I’d been bored senseless here.

The carriage alighted on the ground with a light jolt, probably due to the extra load in the back. ‘Probably Warlocks huge arse weighing us down’, I thought snidely. He lead the way out of course, the five of us following. Fuck me, this reminded me of the warehouse job, the dark sky, the dawn, waiting to arrive, and us, waiting for a signal. In this case, one that probably wouldn’t be needed. 

We stood there on station, weapons loaded and gear ready. The TED chattered constantly,

“Alpha Team, area secured, holding position”
“Beta Team, in position and watching for hostiles”
“Gamma Team, standing by”
“Delta Team, standing by”

Warlock held a hoof up to his TED, “Epsilon Team, standing by. Gamma and Delta Teams move in.”

We could see the post office clearly from where we were stationed. The hay bales were conveniently positioned to afford us cover and have us near to hoof, in case we were needed quickly. So far, so good…

We watched Gamma and Delta storm the post office, shrieks and the occasional muffled shout were all we heard across the TED until a loud bang from the building made us all jump. There was no mistaking that noise.

“Warlock here, what’s going on in there people?”

“Sir, one of the postal workers has barricaded himself in the strong room with a mail mare, he’s threatening to kill her unless we let him walk.”

Warlock spat, “Nopony walks away, agent, I’m on my way. Epsilon, lets move out.”

We trotted across the cobbled street and straight in past two of the agents on guard. Inside, black suited ponies ran detectors across the mail, opening some and tossing suspect packages into a wheeled basket. One of the agents waved us over to the steps to the basement where the strong room was located,

“Down here sir, we don’t know his name, the only other pony in here this morning was a grey mare. He grabbed her and took her into the strong room. He’s armed, be careful.”

“Anypony hurt?”, the orange stallion asked.

“No, Agent Lumier was lucky though, either that or he’s just a bad shot”

We approached the entrance hall to the strong room, it was open slightly with the stallion inside occasionally peeking out. From the back came the occasional muffled whimper. The mail mare I suspected. The smell of fear was all pervasive, I suspected it to be more from the cornered stallion than the mare. I took Warlocks shoulder, “Can you feel it? He’s scared witless. In this state he’s liable to do something crazy, we need to calm him down somehow”

Warlock barely looked at me and I had the impression I’d been dismissed out of hoof.

“Get hold of the manager and find out who he is, get names, family, quickly!”

Delta teams officer had overheard the conversation, “You, agent Nox isn’t it? Do you have any negotiation skills?”

“Some, yes.”

He turned to Warlock, “We don’t have time to fuck about Warlock, send your pony in to deal with this. If there’s no joy in the next thirty minutes, we’re gassing him out.”

I didn’t know who he was but Warlock listened to him and nodded before addressing me,

“Okay Nox, this is you chance to show us what you can do. Fuck up and we’ll be taking you home in a body bag.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence” I replied sarcastically. I had thought Warlock had warmed to me a little but his personality just clashed with mine far too much. Edging to the corner of the hall I shouted to the pony in the room beyond,

“Hey friend, whats your name?”

“Fuck off!”

“My names Nox, Mister Off, or should I just call you Fuck instead? We can use first names here cant we?”

“You smart arse bastard! You want me to blow this pretty little fillies head off? DO YOU!?”

“I’m sure you don’t really want to buddy, after all, you do that and you may as well shoot yourself. These guys will do it too, they’re pretty pissed off with you right now”

“I’ve already told you”, he called out, “get your goons to fuck off or else. I want a sky carriage and I’m taking my hostage with me.”

“Okay, you’ll get the carriage, but let the filly go and you can have me as a hostage instead.”

“Yeah right! What a load of shit, you’ll try to trick me, I’m not that fucking stupid”

“Fine, have it your own way, I’ll give you until five and then I’m coming in there and I’ll gut you like a fish. One”

“You take a step and I’ll kill her!”

“No problem, Two” 

“You bastard! I’ll fucking do it”

“Go ahead, she’s got no family and you’ll die too, Three”

I heard the weapon ‘click’, the voice panicked, “I’m warning you…”

Warlock grabbed my shoulder, “What the fuck are you doing Nox? He’ll kill her!”

I brushed his hoof off me, “Not long now mister off, you want me to send flowers to someone?”

“What…?”

“Four”

“OKAY! For fucks sake, okay, you can come over, but you leave everything there. No weapons, no nothing, understand? And I want a fucking sky carriage!”

“Sure friend, let the filly go and you can have me as a hostage.”

“Okay ‘friend’, come on in and join the party”

I removed my coat and equipment, making a show of placing the pistol on the floor.

“I’m coming over, hold your fire I’m unarmed”

A hoof waved beckoning me in from the door to the strong room. As I reached it, a lime green unicorn slammed me up against the wall, the muzzle of a pistol jammed into my forehead.

“One move, one FUCKING MOVE and I’ll paint the wall with your brains, agency puppet, you get me?”

“Oh yeah, I get you friend. Say, why don’t you tie me up, that’ll make you feel better wont it? Theres some binding there from the post bags”.

He looked quizzically at me, “Why’d you say that?”

I gave him my friendliest smile, “Because you want to leave, I want to leave too. Both of us, unharmed, and if this helps calm you down, I’m happy for you to do it.”

He shoved me into a chair and began to bind my legs to the furniture, the grey mare next to me peering at me with her unusual eyes. I thought I’d seen her before! I’d make her my first priority.

The stallion finished tying my bonds, “There, trussed up like a roast”

“Great!”, I said approvingly, “Now let the mare go and you’ll get your sky carriage!”

“No, I don’t trust you. You’re up to something, I’m changing the game ‘buddy’. I’m taking you both and then I can shoot one of you and use that to lever your friends into letting me go. Two birdies for the price of one!”

He laughed, showing me his pristine white teeth, ones I’d like to kick down his throat. “Good thinking there my friend, you’ve got me beat. The guy you need to talk to is Warlock, he’s the big orange fucker hiding behind the wall. Tell him I sent you.”

The pony laughed, wiping a sweaty foreleg on his mail shirt, “Yeah…yeah I’ll do that, but the slightest glow from that horn of yours and you’ll go first, capeesh?”

I smiled and nodded, winking at the terrified mare next to me.

The stallion walked to the door, pistol raised and shouted over to the assembled agency ponies, “Hey you fuckers! Yeah, you…the big orange bastard, Warlock isn’t it? I’ve got your fuckwit pal and the bitch here, you don’t get me that sky carriage and I’ll kill one of them to show you I mean business”

Warlock shouted something back, but I couldn’t hear it. I was concentrating on other things…

“I’ve fucking had it up to here with you wankers. That’s it!”, he screamed at Warlock, “I’ve warned you, now I’m going to blow this…fuckers…”

He slowed, looking down at the sparkling white mist swirling around his hooves. Without a word he turned to look at me, the frozen remnants of rope, cracking and dropping on the floor.

I shook the last pieces off as his eyes bulged, “What ! Wha…what the fuck !”

Smiling, I stretched my legs, “And there I was thinking you didn’t like first name terms, mister off.”

“Ah ! Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”, he screamed firing off several shots directly at my head. Every round hit a solid wall of crystalline ice, before dropping harmlessly onto the ground. His weapon gave a click and his eyes widened in shock.

“Oh dear, Fuck. Do you mind if I call you Fuck?”, I took off my sunglasses, “You can call me Nox if you like, after all…”, I could feel my teeth growing, their sharp points poking up like mountain peaks above the mist dripping between them, “…we’re such good friends now aren’t we?”

“Celestia! What are you! What the fuck are you!”, he shrieked.

I laughed, “Oh don’t be coy, Fuck, I’ve come a long way to play with you today. But if you want to know ‘what’ I am, don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of time to find out in hell”

“Oh Goddesses! NO!”, the terrified stallion threw his empty firearm at me impotently and charged out the door followed my echoing laughter. Great Luna, it was GOOD to be alive!

Warlock appeared around the door, by which time I had relinquished my hold on the spirit and the ice around the mail mare was disappearing quickly. I shook my mane and helped cut her bonds. With a cry of…something…she ran out the door and was accosted by Tingles, who took her under a wing to another room.

The big orange stallion approached me, “I don’t like your methods Nox.”

“You have your prisoner, don’t you sir? It may have been unorthodox but the result is what mattered, and nopony was hurt”.

“You’re dangerous and reckless Nox, the Mistress may approve of you but I don’t! Get your gear and help clean up the mess upstairs.”

“What about the portal?” I asked.

“Its been secured, you don’t need to worry about that now. Its all in hoof. Go.” He dismissed me with a wave of his hoof. 

By the doorway, the delta team officer clopped me on the shoulder, “Damned good work Nox! Don’t know what you said or did in there, but he shit himself…quite literally. We’ll have to hose him off before he gets in the carriage, but a top job my young friend.”

I blushed and several other ponies congratulated me as I headed up the stairs to the upper floor. Tingles glanced at me with a smile from a side room while she poured a cup of tea for the mail mare and offered her a muffin. That seemed to perk her up a bit.

“You both okay?”, I called in gently from the doorway. She nodded. The grey mare watched me intently with…one of those eyes I suppose, before letting out a ‘sqwee’ and lunging at me. The little grey Pegasus mare hugged me, her wings flapping happily and covering my coat in muffin crumbs. We all laughed, more in relief I think than anything else, until Tingles sat the mare back down and waved me out with a twinkle in her green eyes. 

Upstairs, some of the agents were still sifting parcels. One of the packages caught my eye, in fact several of them. Big parcels at that. Searching around, I found a packing knife and carefully opened one of them. Inside was a fine white powder, like flour almost but with a peculiar tinny smell that made my nose itch furiously. Breeze, and a lot of it. There had to be tens of thousands of bits worth in there. Replacing the string, I hoofed the box to the agent and went back down to the office with Tingles and the bubbly grey mare, “Hey there miss, I was wondering if you could do me a favour?” 

> Chapter Fourteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER FOURTEEN


The house was pitch black, the smell of burnt wood pervading everything. They’d sealed it up pretty well, but not well enough to deter a trained watch pony. And knowing where the spare key was kept is always a bonus I suppose.

The settee was still by the hearth, I ran my hoof over it recalling the scene. The smell of cooking, Meadows singing, the little looks she would give me, the ones reserved only for me. I closed my eyes and listened, there would be no more singing in this home, in fact, it wasn’t even a home now…at least not for the living. The only things here were ghosts and memories. Each turn brought my past back to me, haunting me with images of what was and what could have been, all lost long before the flames engulfed our dreams.

The kitchen was as I remembered it, my wendigo eye’s providing a surprising amount of clarity in the boarded up property. The fridge had been emptied, probably by auntie, she was thoughtful like that. Not that anypony expected me to magically return from the dead for a quick sandwich. My stomach grumbled at the thought of food and I rummaged through the cupboards until I found a tin of biscuits that surprisingly, were still virtually edible. Well, almost! The stale things were at least a change from the boring fare on offer at the facility, and needs must…

Memories continued to assail me from all sides and despite it being my home, I could feel my hackles go up when I entered the bedroom. The floorboards creaked and I caught a glimpse of what I thought was movement from the opposite corner. Quickly, I brushed the spirits power, keeping it ready, at the same time drawing my pistol. Quietly edging past the bed, I strained to make out whether anything was there…nothing. Damn it, I was seeing things even in my own house!

Whilst I was in here, I wondered if it would still be there. The old wardrobe had been built to last and with a handy compartment at the back with a hidden release switch. I’d installed it, not particularly in case of theft, but rather in case Meadow and I had any foals and we didn’t want them getting into things they shouldn’t. Sparrow would have had a time finding this place. Sparrow…Fuck, not the time, emotions can bloody well wait.

I swept my hoof over the inside and felt for the catch, with a click the door opened and I rummaged inside the compartment. Thank Celestia, they were still there. I pulled out the items and laid them on the bed, careful not to use my magic, the light could give away my presence to anypony watching. But here, in the darkness, I could see well enough to make out the shape of my dad’s old short sword and spare truncheon. The baldric was still in good condition and I was able to strap it under my coat as well as slip my truncheon into its pocket on the leather sling.

It was all very nostalgic. My time in the Wither world had been the last time I’d used a sword and in some ways, I’d hoped it would be the last. But now, I’d take all the help I could get and dad’s sword was a reminder of him to boot. 

Fuck! A scratching under the bed made me jump and I clambered on the bed, pistol ready, what the hell was that?

I waited, my heart pounding and sweat breaking out on my brow. Images of ghosts and spirits infiltrated my equine mind making my adrenaline levels peak. I knew I was probably being foalish, but goddesses, I didn’t like this.

The scratching noise came again, and the bedcovers moved slightly. A pitiful whimper emanated from beneath and I moved slowly to the edge, “Whoever, or whatever you are, you’d better come out,” I whispered, “fair warning, I’m armed”

A small gasp, like a foal’s, caught my attention and with a deep breath I climbed off the bed and lifted the covers with a flourish. I don’t know who was more frightened, me or the owner of the bright red eyes glinting in the blackness under the bed. Whoever or whatever they belonged to, backed away from me.

“Come out,” I hissed, “I’m not going to hurt you, but I don’t have time for this. Please.”

A few seconds passed before a quavering voice came out from the owner of the glistening eyes, “Are…are you going to take me away too?”

“What? No…no of course not. I’m with the agency, I protect ponies. Come out, I promise I wont hurt you, okay?”

“I want my mummy!”, the voice said full of fear and sadness. Whoever it was began to sob quietly. It would have been heart wrenching if I hadn’t nearly pissed myself in fright at the surreal experience. Goddesses I wasn’t good with supernatural stuff, well, okay I spoke to dead ponies on an alarmingly regular basis, but that was different. Wasn’t it?

The eyes blinked and moved forward toward me, until the head of a tiny foal appeared peering up at me. The child, barely old enough to be on his own, came out from his hiding place shaking in fear. For Luna’s sake, what was he doing under my bed?!

“Where’s mummy? D’you know where she is?”, he sniffed wiping a tear away from his big eyes. I wasn’t good with kids and I certainly didn’t have time to foal sit now.

“Sorry little one, I don’t, but I’ll help you find her okay?”

He smiled weakly and nodded, “I’m hungry”. My heart ached for the little fellow, and I gave him the rest of the biscuits I’d found and water from my canteen. He was so thin I could see his ribs.

“I’m Nox, what’s your name little guy?”, I asked him trying to sound cheerful.

“Brandy Snap... Are you a watch pony? You’ve got a funny name”

“I used to be in the watch, i’m with the agency now, we work for the princesses. Can you tell my why you’re in my house?”

He gobbled down the last of the biscuits and looked over at me, “The bad ponies came and took mummy and my sister. I ran away. This house has a hole in it and I got in. Is this your house?”

“Yeah”, I nodded to him. I checked the watch, it was nearly 6:00am, the post would be arriving soon.

“Listen Brandy, I have an important job to do and I want you to be a good foal and stay under the bed and keep quiet. Can you do that for me?”

He nodded and without another word, shot back under the bed as I replaced the covers. “Stay there Brandy, okay?”

“Okay mister Nox, are you coming back?” came the muffled reply.

“Yes, and then we’ll find your mummy and sister, deal?”

“Mmmhmmm”

A moment later, the letter box opened and several heavy parcels were pushed through followed by the sound of wings as the mailmare took off to her next delivery. Good old Miss Hooves, I’d have to make sure I supplied the mare with an extra large box of muffins for this one. Now, all I had to do was wait. I just wished I didn’t have to worry about a foal in case things got…interesting.

I didn’t have long to wait, the sound of hoof steps approached the front door. With a click, the door was unlocked and then pushed open. Even with my unnatural eyesight, I had some trouble seeing in this light and I had to make sure to wear the sunglasses to disguise their glow too. Might have been fun to see their reaction none the less…

Whoever it was collected the parcels and walked away into the night. I turned to Brandy under the bed, “Okay Brandy, I’m going to leave you here until a friend of mine comes to get you, she’s called Tingles and she’s got an orange coat and green eyes. Do what she tells you and be a good foal okay?”

“Okay”

I edged to the door and saw the cloaked figure climb into a sky chariot and take flight straight away. I rushed to the door and hit the transmit button, “Tingles, I’m ready, they’ve taken the bait. Listen, there’s a foal in here, you’ll have to pick him up, I’m going after them on hoof.”

“What!? Are you crazy? You cant do that, you don’t know where they’re going, we’ll lose them!”

I ran off into the night, releasing the power, my wings bursting from my back and carrying me up into the dark sky. “You’re not the only one with wings, you know. Please Tingles, we can’t leave him there, he knows something that can help us.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just do, okay? Get him to safety and then catch me up”

“Damn it Cap! Okay…bugger it all…”

She was picking up my habit of swearing lately. Fairlight, the bad influence on any pony. Sighing, I kept my altitude low and swept out above the roof tops keeping an eye on the chariot in the distance. Hopefully, they wouldn’t spot me behind them, but I was a good distance back using full advantage of my ’freaky eyes’. Thanks, Wist for that comment…

The chariot was heading for the docks, right to where I had a hunch it would be, Shire Wharf. Goddesses, I had hoped I’d been wrong, but there it was, the damned place was probably still soaked in the blood of my comrades in the watch. Whoever was behind this was going to regret it, right after I’d fed them their own balls. 

The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon when the chariot landed in the shadows behind the warehouse. Using the clouds as cover, I watched the two of them, the pilot and passenger, climb out and enter the side door of the warehouse. It was the same bloody door I had entered through, but there was no way I was using it this time. If somehow they knew they were being followed, a hole in the head would more than likely await me on the other side.

The entrance at the top of the gangway on the opposite side of the building, led to the office above the main warehouse floor. Thankfully, it was unlocked. With a little push and a nudge I was inside, slightly surprised, yet thankful they obviously weren’t expecting company. Were they getting sloppy? Maybe a different gang? Too many questions and not enough answers, but with any luck, I’d get some shortly. In the items from my house were my spare tactical hoof covers that helped muffle sound and gave better grip. Being a bit of a hoarder, I’d kept a spare pair hanging up In the wardrobe. Thanks be to Luna for that, I’d have to speak to the stores pony at the agency to get these in for our operations in future.

The inner door was unlocked, but I sensed something…a presence nearby. Pausing and listening intently, I could definitely hear breathing from the other side. Somepony was there, possibly a guard, I couldn’t tell. Testing the hinges with a hoof, I found they were still oiled from last time. I could quietly open the door and neutralise the pony on the other side, but it was a risk, maybe too much so. 

There was another way, there had to be. Looking around the room, I saw a small metal nut and picked it up, throwing in behind me onto the metal gantry outside.

My plan worked, at least so far. The inner door opened and the dark shape of a pony walked in. They were cloaked and wearing one of those ‘gun’ things strapped to their back, a ‘firing mechanism’ held in their mouth. Reading the familiarisation document had actually been useful, despite being creased to hell. But knowing the names of the components wouldn’t help me with what I did next, that was all up to me.

I stepped quietly from the shadows and rammed my ‘shocker’ into the unsuspecting creature’s neck and with a thankfully quiet fizzing noise, they collapsed into my waiting hooves. I lowered the pony down to the floor and removed their cloak and gear, no sense in standing out, besides, this guy would be out for a good hour at least.

Wriggling into the harness was awkward but the weight was surprisingly light. The levers were intended for pony use but still a bit cumbersome. The briefing paper had covered this in detail but didn’t allow for the uncomfortable and altogether horrible experience of putting somepony elses bit in your mouth. Ugh! The guy must have had terrible teeth or been eating something off the floor for it to taste this bad! Still, no time to stand on ceremony, I had a job to do. I moved quietly through the now open door.

The warehouse interior was much the same as I remembered it, minus the ‘bullet’ holes. Those funny little bits of metal could have turned me into paste as they had with so many of my friends that night. We’d had no idea what we were up against but now, wiser and, I hoped more prepared, we had something approaching a fighting chance.

I moved to the landing and peered down, a pony waved up at me and I waved back signalling all was well. Down in the darkness, several lanterns had been set up and a group of ponies waited quietly talking between themselves, the boxes from my house sitting on a packing crate next to them. Patience was something needed on jobs like this but fortunately for me, I didn’t have to hang around for more than a few minutes before the side door opened again and two more ponies trotted in. One of them, the largest of the group, was clearly annoyed if their body language was anything to go by.

“What the fuck are you doing dragging me out here at this hour?” The mare, judging by the voice, had a heavy sounding accent, one I vaguely recognised but couldn't quite but my hoof on. 

“Someponies been messing with the merchandise” one of the others said pushing another forward; A slim pony, the one who’d collected the parcels, glared back at his harasser,

“Bullshit! I never had time to do anything, I came straight here!”

Another pony spoke up, “Its true, he went straight to the house and back to the chariot. We came here immediately, as we planned.”

The large mare walked over to the parcel and examined the packaging, “Its been opened. Check his pockets and the chariot, if there’s even a grain missing you’ll be a fucking stain on the floor when I’m finished with you”.

The pony quailed, “I never took any! For Celestia’s sake, I wouldn’t betray you Bl…”

Quick as a flash, her foreleg swung out and smashed the stallion in the jaw, lifting him off his hooves and sending him crashing into a pile of packing crates. She rushed over to him and brought a hoof down on his head, “How many fucking times do I have to tell you not to use my name! Why do I have to work with such fucking cock’s as you!?”

She stomped down on the hapless male again and again, foam flying from her mouth, the sound of hoof hitting bone echoed around the warehouse. The ponies whimpers and cries gradually subsiding to nothing more than a rattling breathing. The other ponies did nothing to intervene, whoever she was, she had them in awe of her…or fear. The male stopped moving and she backed away sweating. Shaking herself, the telltale movement of wings beneath her cloak showed all I needed to know, the last piece of the puzzle was put into place.

“Oh goddesses no…not you, please no…”, I whispered to myself under my breath. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been mourning the loss of her lover. She’d been a comrade in the watch, not necessarily a friend, but a workmate. We were a team, all of us, what the fuck was she doing here, doing…this? How could she…

My train of thought was interrupted by the pony coming back in from inspecting the chariot, “Nothing there ma’am”.

“And the package?”

One of the others had checked the box and nodded his head to her, “Looks like its all here”.

“Damn! Check it for bugs.” She ordered.

One of those assembled produced a device and waved it over the box, shaking his head, “Nothing”.

“Fuck it, something stinks here, we’re being set up, and you dickheads have brought me here too. Shit, lets get the fuck…” She paused, bringing up a small brass device to her ear. I strained to listen but could only hear muffled words from the thing. The big mare waved a hoof and one of them rushed out the side door.

“Come on, its time to go.” She said, her voice sounding suddenly a lot more neutral than I’d expected. The ponies collected the boxes and packed them into their saddle bags. Two of their number collected their fallen comrade, he was still alive but barely.

As they were leaving, the big pony stopped and threw back her hood, “Wont you be joining us Captain?”.

I started, oh fuck! She knew I was here! Backing quickly into the office, I turned in time to see a purple unicorn jam a gun barrel into my face, “Make a move agency pony and I’ll turn you into a fucking sieve.”

Two other pegasi trotted into the room and pointed guns at me. There was no way I could fight my way out of this one. Two others were coming up the steps on the other side. I made a quick calculation of my chances, they were not good. In any case, I’d get a chance to meet the lady herself and, it would seem, she wanted to see me too.

Shoving me roughly down the stairs, the ponies pushed me at gun point to stand before their leader. The mare’s unusual jade eyes looked me over with a slightly indifferent air,

“Take off your sunglasses, nice and easy”

The business end of one of the guns shoved behind my ear, I carefully removed my sunglasses and put them in my pocket. Some of them gasped as they took in the sight of my glowing blue eyes. The pony in front of me however, didn’t so much as flinch, but I still noticed her pupils widen momentarily.

“My Goddesses,” she breathed, “I didn’t want to believe it, but its you. The scar, the broken horn and…and those eyes, but…yes…its you, isn’t it?”

“Hello, Blaze” I smiled, “Looks like grey is this years in colour”.

She laughed, making the ponies around her shift nervously, “Oh Captain! You always were a card! But I’m afraid you’ve blundered into my business activities at a rather bad time, wouldn’t you say?”

“It sure looks that way Blaze. Care to explain? I mean, its been a while and all”

She hung her head, “Yes…yes it has Captain. Last I heard, you were dead, burnt up in that cabin. We tried to help you, to save you, you know that? And all the time…you were alive.” 

Blazes voice took on a dangerous tone, “Bet that gave you a good laugh eh? Had a real good laugh at our expense. Whooping it up while we buried you, shed tears for you?”

I kept my voice neutral, “It wasn’t like that Blaze, I had no say in what happened. The agency do things their own way, you know that. Besides, do you think I staged the murder of my wife and Mitre as well?”

She shook her mane, “I cried for you Captain, you know…like I cried for Dawn, when I buried her too. Something…broke in me that day, the watch, the princesses, all of it. What was it all for?”

“So what, you’re blaming the deaths of ponies to justify,” I waved a hoof around me, “all this? Do you realise the misery, pain and death you’re spreading by dealing in this shit, Blaze? After all we went through, together as a team, you’ll throw it all away for bits? Is that what this is all for? Bits?!”

She stepped forward and glared into my eyes, “What the fuck would you know? This whole rotten place is a façade, a lie. All of it Captain, we’re fighting a war we can’t win and Dawn, my Dawn, was butchered fighting for those cloistered fucking bitches in their ivory tower!”

Blaze spat on the floor, “Do you think they gave a fuck about you, Meadow, Mitre, Dawn, all the others who died that day?”

Her anger peaked, “NO! Not one of those fucking alicorns bothered a feather to come and pay their respects to our brothers and sisters. So fuck them! And fuck Equestria too! I’m going to make as much money as I can from this rotting carcase of lies and get the fuck out of here before the whole stinking place falls in on itself”

“Goddesses Blaze! I cant believe you’re the same pony I worked with, you were a sister to us, a friend. We swore an oath to protect Equestria and its ponies, the princesses too. The watch are there to help those who can’t help themselves and here you are, helping yourself. Blaze, cant you see how wrong this is? For the goddesses sake, stop this before it goes too far!”

She hung her head slightly, a tear glistening in her eye, “I can’t Fairlight, it’s gone too far now. There’s no turning back for me, not for any of us. Celestia doesn’t forgive, you don’t know what happens to ponies who don’t fit into her ideal world…”

“I do Blaze, and its shit like the powder you’re selling that’s causing it. Please, stop this and I’ll do what I can for you. Please Blaze…”

For a moment, I actually thought she would agree with me and all this mess would come to a stop. But, forever the optimist Fairlight, it was all too obvious.

“I’m sorry Captain, but its too late for me now. The things I’ve done, that I’ve seen…” She nodded to a pony beside me, “You should have left things alone, and really, you should have stayed dead.”

A bolt of energy surged through me and sparks flashed in my eyes as I crashed to the ground.

“Put him on the ship and bind his arms and legs. Oh, and put a neutraliser on that horn of his, I wouldn’t want any more…surprises.”

Darkness pushed in on me until one of them decided to make sure of the job and hit me with another pulse of energy, sending me down into sweet unconsciousness. This time, I didn’t think I’d be coming back.
> Chapter Fifteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER FIFTEEN


The sunlight was dappled through the trees foliage and warmed my coat wonderfully. I’d taken my overcoat off and was sat on my haunches to check the time – still early, good. It didn’t do to be late, especially when expecting company, but...what if she didn’t come? I was hopeless with girls and my folks had been worried I’d be single forever, and who could blame them? These days, colt and fillies were getting married let alone stallions and mares. Well, so my dad thought, he was a bit ‘difficult’ these days.

Mum was keen to have grandfoals and kept reminding me that she didn’t have any yet, like it was somehow my fault. I’d felt in some ways like a failure, I’d let her down because I couldn’t produce the offspring she wanted to dote on. There were times when I’d challenged her on this notion, but she was expert at turning any sort of argument to her favour and so I’d given up. 

“You can’t just go into a shop and buy one, mum”, I said to her in irritation one day.

“You’ll never find one if you’re stuck in reading books all day or that endless training. Get out there and meet somepony!” she’d replied.

It was so easy wasn’t it? Just ‘go out’ and ‘meet’ somepony who was likely to just be waiting there for me to arrive and say…

“HI!”

I nearly soiled myself in fright as a green muzzle and bright yellow eyes filled my vision without any warning. 

“Bloody hell! I…Oh! I’m sorry, gosh, I shouldn’t have said that…sorry…” I blurted out hopelessly. It didn’t matter though, the mare wasn’t listening, 

“Come on then! I’ve got plans for you and me, hope you’re hungry!” the green mare chuckled and took my hoof, pulling me out from the shade and into the blazing sunshine. On her back was a picnic hamper tied to her saddle bags.

Meadow ran across the open grassy field to down by the riverside and onto the large rocks on its bank. Sunlight on her back made meadow virtually shine in its light, the big sunhat she wore cast some shade on her face but did nothing to hide the life in those big yellow eyes. 

I couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot until I sat down on the rock, it was red hot. With a shriek, I jumped in the air, trying to blow cold air on my singed backside while my companion fell about laughing,

“Wait until I put the rug out, for goodness sake!”

A few moments later, still chuckling, Meadow bade me sit next to her on the large checked rug. My bum was still sore and part of me wanted to jump in the river to cool it off, but a soggy stallion wasn’t likely to earn any favours with a new marefriend. Or at least, one I hoped would be. Celestia! I was so nervous, I had to get myself under control.

Smiling expansively, she levitated out a delicious looking selection of pies, salads and sandwiches, the aroma from which was making my nose twitch. I was almost drooling and judging by the expression on her face, she must have found my reaction pleasing. Meadow opened a jar of something and floated it over to me,

“Fancy a taste?”

I looked at the jar, its blue contents shiny and inviting, “What is it?”, I asked.

“Just try it, you’ll see”

I dipped a spoon into the stuff and spread a little on a piece of bread next to me. Taking a tentative bite, I felt the rush of sugar and fruit, it was…delicious. I closed my eyes as the tangy yet sweet taste of blueberries danced and played on my taste buds. I’d had jam before but nothing like this, it was heavenly. Opening my eyes to the happy, knowing smile of Meadow was a sight I could never tire of.

“Nice?” she asked me. I think she already knew the answer.

“Wonderful!”, I exclaimed, “How do you do it? That’s absolutely amazing, nothing like what I’ve had in the shops.”

She nodded sagely, “That’s because I add a secret ingredient that they can’t.”

“Secret? Whats that then?”

“It wouldn’t be a secret if I told you would it, silly?”, she reached out and tapped me on the muzzle with a hoof. The feeling was electrifying. Goddesses, I felt so good just being near her, but, to feel her physical touch…it sent me to a whole new level.

The next few hours went by like a ripple on the river bubbling past us. We chatted and laughed, neither saying very much, just small talk about this and that. Meadow told me about her training to be a nurse and asked me about my work in the watch. She seemed surprised by my enthusiasm to help ponies and looked a little sad when I mentioned looking for a more challenging posting. I mentally kicked myself for mentioning it and hoped I hadn’t ruined the mood. 

“Fairlight…”, Meadow began, “Do you like it here, in Ponyville I mean”

I nodded, “I do, its lovely, if a little dull for my career. But, you know, I can live with it.”



She sighed,

“I know its sudden, and I’ve barely known you five minutes, but…but I don’t have very long left and I’ve never been very good with colts”

Meadow shook her head, “Oh! I’ve ruined everything…!”

I reached over and placed a hoof on her leg, “It’s okay Meadow, you haven’t ruined anything, please, tell me whats on your mind?”

The green mare took my hoof in both of her forehooves and looked down shyly, “I’ve been posted to…to Manehattan, the hospital there has offered me a full time job.”

I felt my heart break, a jolt running through me like lightning, but I kept a smile on my face, “That wonderful news Meadow! You must be really happy”

“Must I?” she said sadly, “I’m not sure I want to go, not now”

“Why not? You’d be crazy not to take it up, its what you wanted isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is”, I could see a shimmer of wetness in the corner of her eye, “But the timing of it Fairlight, I…I’ve only just met you and…I wanted to spend more time here…with you.”

I took her head in my hooves and brushed her tear away, “I want to stay with you too…”

Meadow looked up at me and threw herself forward, carrying us both off the rug, the rock and onto the grass. I looked up at her in surprise,

“Meadow?”

“Damn you, Fairlight, you’re going to make me say it aren’t you?” She half sobbed, half chuckled. Her face was wet with tears and grass.

“No. I’ll say it…”, I whispered, slowly moving closer until my mouth was a hairs breadth from hers, “I love you”.

Meadow seemed to melt in my forelegs, wrapping hers around mine and kissing me hungrily. The flavours of the various picnic treats mingled in our mouths until she pulled away and took a deep breath, 

“Come away with me, I have accommodation, you could get a posting to Manehattan”

I hung my head slightly, “Meadow, I don’t know if I can so soon, I’m still in my probationary period. But I’ll try, I promise you I will and I’ll move heaven and earth to be with you if I have to.”

She hugged me tightly, “I know the Chief there, if you want, I can have a word with him…if you like…”

“Of course! It would make me the happiest stallion in Ponyville, no, Equestria, to go with you, to live with you. But Meadow, are you sure you want me, I mean, you’re a beautiful mare with a promising career and I’m just, you know…a drab grey…”

“Stop that right now!”, she said tapping me on the nose, “I happen to like grey and I wont have you putting yourself down mister Fairlight, do you understand me?”

“Yes ma’am”, I chuckled.

She reached up and nipped my ear, “I know I want you my watch pony, the question I have to ask is…do you want me?” Meadow finished in a sultry wisped that sent a shiver down my spine.

“Oh goddesses, yes…Meadow, I do, so much…”

She kissed me again on the lips and moaned softly as she spoke, “Will you…be gentle with me? Please?”

I nuzzled her and stroked her neck with my hoof, “I will love, I promise”

In the late afternoon sun with its rays dancing across the sparkling ripples on the rivers surface, we made love. I don’t know if anypony saw and I don’t think either of us cared. As Meadows groans and cries echoed out over the grassy plain, I knew then that I had found the love I had always been looking for without even realising it.

In a heaving gasp, she collapsed on my chest, panting into my ear, “Oh Celestia, Fairlight…I…oh, I’m so happy!”

She kissed me again and we rolled onto our sides looking into each other eyes. Meadow gave me a special smile, one that melted my heart, “I love you so much my watch pony, so much…”

We didn’t say any more but lay together watching the sun begin to set.


> Chapter Sixteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER SIXTEEN



A loud roaring noise woke me from my heart rending memories. Why did I have to come back to this? Damn it, why?! Fuck this world and everything in it, they’d taken my Meadow from me…those…those bastards, those…

Where was I? Everything was moving and dark, rain, no…salt water, was splashing my face and my legs were bound. I managed to look down and saw that my hind legs were shackled to what looked like a length of chain and a cannonball. Luna fuck me, I knew what they had in store for me now, why couldn’t they have just killed me and had done with it.

“He’s coming to, boss” A black stallion next to me said flatly. Blaze walked over, she was wearing water proofs against the waves that the boat was ploughing through.

“Rough night eh, Captain?” she said grinning ominously.

“Yeah, depends whether you’re dragging a cannonball around with you or not though. Whats the plan Blaze, going to dump me overboard?”

For a moment, she looked unsure, sad, but then the tough expression was back. 

“I’m sorry Captain Fairlight, it has to be like this. We can’t have you wandering around interfering in our business, you know too much”

Shit, this was going to be it then, a terrifying, drowning death in the black depths of the sea. I tried to reach down and find the power, but typically when I needed it the most, the bloody thing was like a scared cat hiding under the bed.

“I need to ask you though Captain, how did you catch on to me?”

I smiled despite myself, despite the cold and the spray hitting me, “It wasn’t too hard Blaze. You left a few breadcrumbs after all”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, the boxes, addressed to a house belonging to a dead pony. The house surrounded in watch pony crime scene tape? Had to be somepony who knew I wouldn’t be coming back. Kinda narrowed it down a touch”

“That could have been anypony in the watch though”

“True, but then who has control of the evidence in a case where a watch pony dies? The Watch Chief. The pony that came to collect the boxes used a key to get into the house.”

“Supposition, and not enough to get you hanged, Captain.”

“No, but someponies working on the inside, both at the watch and the agency. How else did you know it was me on the gantry?”

The big Pegasus mare laughed, “Yeah, that’s true, there’s always someone who’ll sell their soul for bits, or to ‘scratch an itch’. You have an uncanny knack of pissing ponies off Captain, and our client has asked for us to give you…’special treatment’”.

“And this is it?”

“I’m sorry, it’s just business, you understand?”

“Oh, I understand Blaze, you’ve sold out your friends and your soul for money. I thought more of you, I thought you thought more of yourself”

“You self righteous prick! Don’t you fucking dare try to lecture me!”

I could feel the strength inside just starting to free itself, I encouraged it forth, teased it out. 

“Get him over the side and lets get back home”

“Oh Blaze?” I called as the brutish ponies grabbed at each end.

“What?” she said irritably.

“I’ll be seeing you…”

The world tipped upside down and I hit the water with a deafening splash. Gravity sucked on me and down I went, what little light there was vanishing quickly as I plunged into the inky black of the oceans depths. Memories of my near drowning as a foal came back and a surge of panic and fear squeezed my heart and strangely, a peculiar calm, maybe now I could be at peace…

My lungs filled with water, the last of my air bubbling back up to the surface. Struggling was pointless, but I did anyway. My body burned, my lungs were on fire despite the freezing sea water. Pain and panic began to ebb as my life faded away, it wouldn’t be long now, I kept saying to myself, not long.

“Are you just going to sit there and die?” the spirit asked, sitting there watching me with my own blue eyes, “Don’t you want the chance to live, to take revenge for what they’ve done to you?”

“What the point?”, I thought back at the thing, “It’s too much, everypony is pulling at one another, trying to grab what they can at the expense of their fellows. I don’t know who to trust anymore”

“What about the orange mare? You like her, don’t you?”

“No, she’s my friend…she cares for me”

The spirit laughed, its voice echoing and insubstantial, “Fool yourself all you want, I know your heart, pony, and I know you. I can feel the anger within you, hidden in 
plain sight. You want to take revenge on the ponies who killed your wife, and your child” 

“Shut up!”

“What about the thestral? She waits for you. If you are dead, how can you find her? This time, you may not stay in the Wither world, you may cross over completely and then who will save her?”

“Shut up damn you! Shut the fuck UP!”

The spirit chuckled, “I know who you really are pony, who you were, his blood runs in your veins. His strength is within you, if only you had the strength of heart to use it”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“There is another way….”

“What do you want from me?”

“You already know. We must become one, fully, you and I. You want this, as I do. Together, we can be strong and not divided as we are now. When the time is right, we will find a way to merge as we should have.”

“I don’t understand, who are you?”

It laughed, “Me? I am you. Listen! Can you hear them? Your people call out to you, will you ignore their call?”

Somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear voices, calling to me. Sirens singing me to the afterlife. Regardless of what the spirit said, the reality of the situation was at the bottom of the sea. I was dying and there was nothing I could do to save myself.

An unfamiliar voice rang through my tortured, fading self, “I believe I will take care of matters from here on in. You may wish to die, but more depends upon you than you could possibly know and now is not the time for selfish acts like dying.”

The voice was strong, powerful and full of magic, “Give your trust to me, release your self into my hooves. Yes…that’s right, good…now Fairlight, watch and learn my friend.”

My lungs, burning for air, suddenly filled with a new kind of magic…I could breath! Sweet goddesses, I couldn’t believe it…air. The magic of the spirit raged through me, freezing the water down to the chain binding my hind legs and splintered the metal like it was matchwood. Upward the energy coursed making my muscles bulge, straining my bindings until the ropes on my forelegs split apart. 

The horn lock on my head which should have blocked my magic, exploded into fragments that floated away past my head in the swirling water. The voice spoke again, “Now, Fairlight, use your magic to take you up, up to the night sky. Think of the moon and how it glows, the stars sparkling like diamonds on black velvet, you can make it happen. Will it to be so and it will be.”

The will to live screamed though, lending me an ever increasing strength which I focussed like an arrow, concentrating on the surface, willing myself upward to reach it with outstretched hooves. Behind me, the water boiled and froze simultaneously, an impossible mix of magics bending reality and physics, forming a pillar of ice and boiling water which acted like a gigantic spring, rising upwards at a phenomenal rate. Atop that pillar, a pure white wendigo, eyes blazing bluer than the ocean around them. Whatever the voice was, whoever it was, had lit a fire within me, rocketing my body up to the surface like a shooting star. I bared my teeth and goddesses help anypony who got in my way.


************


The night sky was probably the most wonderful sight I had beheld in a very long time. Pure, clear and welcoming, it felt like…home. I stood there, atop a white and blue column of ice, coughing out the fluid in my lungs that had, goddess knows how, kept me alive. I shook out my wings, water sloughing off them and screeched my defiance out into the night. That bitch Blaze would pay for this, oh yes, she would soon find that nopony who dared to challenge the lord of the four winds would live to see another dawn.

Shaking my mane and coat, I took a grip of myself. When the hell had I started thinking of myself as the ‘lord of the four winds’? Was this something the spirit had put within me or was it some stupid idea Luna shoved in my head with all that lord and lady nonsense. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the sound of it, in fact I thought it was, well…quite cool I suppose. But Fairlight, the pony from the Manehattan watch was a far cry from any nobility and who the hell wanted to be the master of a pile of frozen ruins in the middle of nowhere? I sniggered to myself, bollocks to that one!

A few experimental shakes later and my wings were ready for flight. Ready for the big orange Pegasus coming right…at…me…

One bone jarring impact later, Tingles and I picked ourselves up from the home made ice berg. Her eyes brimmed with tears while she hung on to me like her life depended on it. I stood there for a while, feeling her warmth through my coat. I didn’t deserve a friend like her, I was a mess and things were complicated enough without…well, more complicated ‘stuff’. It didn’t mean I didn’t want to though.

Tingles hugged me until I thought something was going to break, “Tingles! For goodness sake, get off! You’re going to suffocate me!” I wheezed. Reluctantly, she let go and stood back, taking me in and glancing around at the solid ice with the waves lapping at its edges,

“Celestia’s grace, Fairlight, I thought you were…oh goddess, no, I didn’t believe you were, I…”

I held out a hoof, “Calm down! Please love, just…talk to me as we get out of here. I want to get to dry land and I don’t know where in Equestria we are.”

She shook herself and looked at me in a very peculiar way, opening her mouth to speak, closing it, then trying again. Finally, she actually said something, “We’re at the mouth of the bay, lands a few miles back that way. Come on, we can talk as we fly”

A light bound and we were flying back towards the lights of Manehattan.

“How did you know where I was?”, I asked, genuinely amazed at how she had located me literally miles from shore.

She laughed and looped effortlessly through the air around me, “When I dropped off the kid, I came looking for you. There was a pile of clothes, a sword and all your gear in a pile on the shoreline. Couple of the agency ponies came with me and thought you’d…you know…”

“Yeah, I get the picture”, I said levelly. They’d actually thought I’d done myself in had they? I couldn’t blame them really, I didn’t exactly inspire confidence with my scary eyes, scar and broken horn. They probably hoped I had gone off and drowned myself so they could have breakfast in peace without the weird pony next to them.

“I didn’t believe it, couldn’t, not you. You’ve too much life in you, so much to live for. So, I flew out and here you are!”, Tingles barrel rolled happily.

“Here I am…” I sighed, I didn’t know what to say. She’d believed in me, trusted me and flew out here in the dark and cold, miles from land and searched for what? Was she expecting to find me floating out here somewhere, having an evening swim? That was when I saw something I’d never really actively noticed before, Tingles’ cutie mark. Three ice cubes on her flank, cute really, maybe she had been destined to work in a cocktail bar, or a huge passenger liner like the Maretania. Whatever it was, fate had decided otherwise and lumbered the poor girl with me.

“Hey! Whatcha looking at back there?”, she jibed.

“Sorry, its your cutie mark, I’ve never really asked what the three ice cubes represented.”

“My special talent, didn’t you know?”

“I know that! Everypony does, I’m not that stupid.”

She giggled, flying upside down and waving her legs like she was walking – how did she do that?

Tingle explained, “Dad thought I was destined to be a cocktail girl”, ‘nailed it’ I thought to myself, “Or an ice sculptor”

“Must be a big call for that then”, I said sarcastically. 

Shit, me and my big mouth. Tingles flew down and bopped me on the head with a hoof, “Don’t be cheeky!” she laughed and flew a loop around me again.

“Dad liked sculpting, he worked with stone and bronze mostly. Mums a teacher in Canterlot at the magic school. Me, well…fate brought me to a different vocation.”

I watched her barrel rolling beside me, she truly was in her element in the sky. I had been jealous of pegasi and here I was, with wings of my own, even if they were kind of ‘loaned’. Flying together was a strange experience, a sort of intimacy which I hadn’t really though of before.

“You like them?” she asked flying closer to me.

“The ice cubes? Your cutie mark? Yeah, its actually, kinda cute. Really goes with your colour, the orange and green.”

She blushed and suddenly shot straight up into the sky, damn it I said too much. Fuck me and my big bloody mouth. I didn’t know where my stuff was, and now Tingles had flown off somewhere, so all I could do was ‘follow my nose’.

I flew on for a few more minutes, the waves far below me, until in the distance I saw torches and lanterns moving this way and that on the shoreline. Something told me that was my reception committee, waiting, more likely, for Tingles. Only…she was already there, smirking at me as I landed. 

“Took you long enough, get lost?”

Oooh! That bloody Pegasus! “Hey thanks for buggering off and leaving me, how do you know I wasn’t going to get lost out there?”

“Friend sense, all pegasi have it. I can home in on you from a mile away, several to be truthful. Works better when you’re not drowning though.”

I walked up to her and fixed her big green eyes with a hard stare before bursting out in laughter. That bloody Pegasus, that annoying, crazy, beautiful tangerine flying nuisance. Goddesses, I…

She bopped me on the forehead with a hoof, “Heads up ‘agent Nox’, the boss is here, act casual.”

I nearly burst out laughing again as the pony I first met in charge of Delta team at the post office approached me. I saluted him and he gave a nod, “Good to see you Nox, and you agent Tingles. Would you excuse us please?”

Tingles nodded and walked away to where the rest of the agents were running magical energy detectors over the foreshore and, by the looks of it, my gear. The slim pony turned to me, “I don’t think we’ve been formerly introduced”, he held out a hoof, which I shook, “Agent Brandy Wine, senior agent with Equus. I know who you are of course, Captain Fairlight, aka Agent Nox.”

I was a little surprised by this announcement but then probably a lot less than I would have been normally. Agent Brandy Wine had the look of a stallion who got things done.

“I suggest returning to your ‘normal’ state as soon as possible”, he said smiling wryly, “you look very ‘alicorny’ like that and its bad enough with all the rumours of alicorns in Manehattan, other than the princesses of course, without more of them appearing.”

Brandy Wine winked at me conspiratorially. I kinda liked this guy, I think he was going to be alright to deal with. I released the power and felt myself returning to normal, normal and cold. Bloody hell it was freezing out here! I shook my coat off and Brandy Wine called one of the agents over with my overcoat and other assorted accoutrements. Within no time, the comfortable and familiar feeling of my old clothes was bringing warmth back to my bones.

“Thanks, sir”, I said gratefully.

“Brandy will do, Nox. But please, remind Tingles not to keep calling you Cap, Captain or goddesses forgive me, ‘Fairlight’. If somepony hears, it could get very messy for all of us.

“I understand sir…Brandy…I’ll speak to her tonight.”

He nodded, “Come on, we’ll get a hot cuppa and have a chat about what happened out here tonight.”

The two of us spoke at length about what had happened that night, Brandy taking it all in and making notes. He was an insightful unicorn, his black and silver dappled coat was quite striking and his maroon eyes were hard to look away from. They had a strange way of looking right into you, like he was assessing your honesty.

Finally, Brandy spoke, “Unlike your last team leader, you’ll find I’m a lot more flexible. The Mistress asked me specifically to give you more free reign and I’m going to do it now, Nox”

I cocked my head to one side quizzically, “Last team leader, you mean Warlock?”

He nodded, “Yes, the mistress has re-assigned him to…other duties. You are with me now, and before you ask, Tingles is too. I have been told that you two come as a package.”

He gave me that wry smile again and I couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated by him for some reason. He knew things, this pony, and I would do well to keep him on side.

He downed a mouthful of the hot tea and stretched, “So then, Nox, whats your next move.”

“I…”, I hadn’t really thought about it, other than smashing my way into the watch house and taking Blaze down, but caution was the order of the day here.

“I want to speak to the foal, sir”

“The foal…the one Tingles brought in earlier?”

“Yes sir”.

“Why? You think he knows something?”

“I do, he mentioned his mother and sister were ‘taken’. I want to know what he knows, there could be more to this business than just a crooked cop.”

Brandy nodded and looked towards the other agents who were sat about chatting in the lamplight, “It is more than just a crooked cop Nox, and you know it too, don’t you?”

I nodded, “The commissioner”.

He grinned humourlessly, “The commissioner. Bent as a rubber bit”. He took out a cigarette and fished for a light before I held up a hoof, stopping him, and lit it with a spark of magic from my horn. He raised his eyebrows and took a draw, “Cigarette?”

“No thanks”, I replied, “they’re bad for your health”.

“So is drowning” He had me there.

“The commissioner is somehow connected to this mess.”, Brandy explained, “The Mistress tells me that she had you suspended from work and that she was implicated somehow with the firebombing of several ponies homes who had been involved in counter-smuggling ops.”

I nodded, I knew all about that and I was damned glad he did too. There was always the chance nopony would believe me and this was like a weight lifting off my shoulders.

“The problem is, she has friends…powerful friends, with links to Celestia herself”.

“Shit”, I spat.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. The bitch is almost untouchable…almost. Why do you think the Mistress wanted your particular skills?”

“I’m not an assassin Brandy, you want to start murdering ponies, you can do it without my help.”

He held up a hoof, shaking his head, “Nopony said you were an assassin Nox, but there may come a time when evil is knocking at your door and hiding under the bed wont make it go away. I pray that time never comes, but if we don’t act soon, there may be no more Equestria worth saving.”

“Are things that bad?” I asked in surprise.

He shook his head slowly, “There’s a problem with ponies, Nox. You know it, I know it, its in all of us. As a race, we’re trusting and open, some would even say gullible. Its been a thousand years of peace and tranquillity that’s lead us to this point, to become a perfect target for those seeking to exploit us. All it takes is one pony to say, ‘hey, wanna try something new?’ and ‘boom’, you’ve got a new Ryetalin or Breeze head running around. We have to stop this at source, take the fight to them and I need you Nox, I need your strength to help us.”

“Then theres one thing I want Brandy” I said quietly. 

He gave a short nod, his eyes focussed on the other agents, “Sure, what is it?”

“Let me deal with Blaze in my own way.”

He turned to me and stared for several seconds, weighing me up. I could sense him considering his options and come to a conclusion, “Okay, sure. But Nox, try to keep the body count under control?”

I grinned, “Yes sir, you know me”.

He gave me a sidelong glance, finishing off his tea, “Yes Nox, I suppose I know enough to know that I trust you. I may not approve of your methods particularly, they’re unorthodox, but I like a pony who gets results. You, get results. Grab your gear, arrange what you need and get to it. Keep me updated is all I ask.”

“One other thing Brandy”, I asked. 

“What?”

“When I go after Blaze, find another task for Tingles that night. I don’t want anypony getting hurt.”

He nodded, “Okay, if that’s what you want. She won’t like it you know”

He was right of course, Tingles would flay me alive for it, but I couldn’t stand the thought of her getting hurt as much as I knew how effective an agent she was. I trusted her, but…I don’t know, I just work better alone sometimes. At least, that’s how I could justify it to myself. I’d get the job done, then the anger of the tangerine Pegasus would be like the wrath of the goddesses. Only worse…a lot worse.





























> Chapter Seventeen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER SEVENTEEN



Tingles sat next to me in the small room, the foal opposite us with a bag of sweets and a colouring book, thoughtfully brought by one of the other agency mares. The little fellow was busy colouring, the crayon held in his mouth, “mffff ithh my mfmummff”. By the goddess, I hated ponies talking with their mouths full. 

My companion must have read my mind, “Is that your mum? She’s very beautiful isn’t she?”

“Mmmfffmm”

“Brandy, can you finish your picture after we’ve finished talking? We need to ask you questions so we can find you mummy, okay?”

He put down the crayon reluctantly, and nodded his head vigorously. I couldn’t help but smile, his caramel coloured coat and cream coloured mane and tail really did echo his name. His red eyes shone like little garnets.

I smiled kindly at the foal, but it was pretty clear who he trusted more, and it wasn’t the scary guy with the scar and blue eyes! 

“Brandy, I want to find your mum and sister, so I need you to tell me what the ponies looked like who took them away. Can you do that?” I asked him.

He nodded and started to draw again, pulling different colours out and making a very interesting attempt at pegasi, earth ponies and unicorns. The legs were straight lines and the horns would put an alicorn to shame. Mind you, his drawing skills still knocked mine into a cocked hat.

We’d already sent agents out looking for anypony who knew Brandy Snap and, importantly, could take him in. I didn’t want the little guy ending up in the orphanage If I could help it. What we had already ascertained though, was that he and his family had been out near the waterfront when a gang of ponies grabbed his mother and his sister while out for a walk in broad daylight. Celestia’s tits, is this what it had come to? Kidnapping in broad daylight? Part of me felt Blaze was responsible for not keeping up regular patrols, in fact I’d hardly seen hide nor tail of a watch pony since coming to in the agency medical bay. 

The foal finished the picture, together with a big sun and lollipop trees. He pushed it to Tingles, not me obviously(!) and tapped the ponies one by one,”

“That’s mummy, Carnation. That’s my sister, Flax and these are the mean ponies.”

“Did you hear what they said Brandy?” Tingles asked in her kindly manner.

“Yeah”

“Yes?”

He picked up a crayon, then put it down, looking from me to her and back again, “Will you tell them I told you? They’ll come and get me, I don’t want to go away!” He started to sniff and a little dribble of snot dropped from his nose onto the table. I was torn between wanting to hug him and give him a hankie. I settled on a hankie.

“I promise you Brandy, on my honour as the lord of the four winds, I will hunt down the ponies who took your family and cut them down like wheat before the scythe. Your mummy and sister will come back with me, safe and sound. Fear not.”

Tingles looked at me, her jaw hanging open and eyes like saucers, “Wha…!”

Brandy clopped his hooves together “WHOA! That’s COOL!” Well, yeah, it was kinda cool. Embarrased, my cheeks flushed and I put a hoof behind my head rubbing my mane,

“Um…so Brandy, what did these bad ponies say. I need to know so I can go get ‘em!”

“Okay!”, he chirped, “I heard them say mummy would ‘fetch top dollar’ and sis would be ‘good bait’. The ponies called each other funny names. One called another one ‘Bates’, I think and another was ‘Jingles’…no….”, he tapped a hoof on his muzzle rolling his eyes, “JINGO! That was her name! I remembered!” he stomped his hooves on the table while I stared at Tingles. We shared a look, my goddess, we both knew who that was. The other fucker, was another story…Bates, the bastard who had raped my wife and ran me through with a poker. I owed him…the bastard was so close now I could smell his stink…

“Cap’?” Tingles nudged me with a wing.

“Sorry Tingles, I was a little lost in thought there, and watch the Cap’ thing okay? Brandy has already told you off for calling me that”

“No I didn’t!”, the little foal shouted at me, “Don’t be mean to the nice lady! You be mean to the nasty ponies instead!”

“Its okay Brandy, Nox was talking about someone else we know called Brandy, he’s called Brandy Wine”.

The little fellow banged his hooves on the desk and kicked his chair, “Pfffff! Ha ha ! what a silly name! My names cool, like lord thingy…”

Tingles had to hold her sides to keep her laughter in. I could feel my cheeks reddening, the cheeky little bugger, ‘lord thingy’. Well, I didn’t mean it to slip out, but it did…I wonder why? Bloody hell I was going senile already, nearly ready for pasture Fairlight…

The third pony in the picture was a purple unicorn I wasn’t familiar with. Brandy didn’t know her name, but said it was a mare. He wasn’t sure of any other details, they’d been wearing cloaks, to cover any cutie marks no doubt, but he’d pointed me in the right direction. I collected the piece of paper and looked at the pictures. The yellow male, Gates and the indigo Pegasus, Jingo, we knew. But it was the unknown purple unicorn, who had me scratching my head.

I was about to fold the paper when I noticed that only Gates and Jingo had cloaks drawn on them and sudden realisation popped into my head, “Brandy, was the purple unicorn wearing a cloak?”

He was busy drawing something else now and his mouth was full of crayon, “Mno”.

“Did you see her cutie mark?”

“Mno, mnidnt af won” he slobbered around the crayon.

Tingles stood up suddenly looking from me to the foal, “Brandy, this is important. Did the purple unicorn mare have a cutie mark?”

He spat out the crayon and shook his head, “She was a big foal! No cutie mark!” he laughed and jumped down and ran around the room shouting “Big blank flank!” and falling about in hysterics.

Tingles and I didn’t need to say any more, we’d both heard enough. We left Brandy Snap playing and left the room, the agency mare on duty outside smiled and went in with a plate of sandwiches for the foal.

In the corridor, my brightly coloured partner leaned against the wall and took a deep breath, her eyes closed. I knew how she felt, goddess damn them, they’d have already been sold into slavery, sex trade most likely, and with the worst of the bunch. Gates, that blight upon pony kind.

Tingles spoke softly, “Gates, he’s one of the one’s who…”

“Yeah, him and Melon Patch.”

“Oh Celestia, Nox, those poor ponies…”

“I know Tingles, believe me, I know all too well”, I fished out a couple of mints from my pocket and hoofed one to her which she took gratefully. When ponies said something ‘left a bad taste in your mouth’, they weren’t kidding.

“You worked with Jingo in the watch didn’t you?” I asked her.

She nodded, “I did, but we weren’t especially friendly, she was always quite distant and a real smart arse with other ponies which drove them away from her. Creeped around Blaze and Dawn a lot, like they were the ‘in gang’ or some such.”

“Know anything about her personal life?”

“Not really, again, she didn’t mix. A bit of a loner in some ways, very family orientated. Even brought her little sister to work one day and doted on her the whole time she was there. Cute I suppose, if she wasn’t such a…oh, I don’t know. I don’t like to say ‘weirdo’, but in her case? Yeah, she was.”

“Where does she live? Anypony with her?”

“Been a while, but so far as I know, she actually lives with her sister downtown on eleventh and mane. Might want to check in on her, you think?”

“I think. We can pay a little visit to…oh…oh, fuck…”

The world lurched like I was on the deck of a ship and I slammed against the wall, damn it! I was so weak, and then I realised something…when was last time I’d taken any life energy? The massive expenditure in the sea had drained me, not to mention the flight. It was now affecting me physically as well as magically, I could barely keep my eyes open.

“Cap! You okay? Whats wrong?”

Tingles sounded panicked and put a foreleg around me, “Come on, lets get you to the medics”

“No! Cant, fuck…Tingles, check my pack, the thermos flask...”

She looked inside, “Its broken! The whole lots leaked out…”

I thought I’d felt something damp against my flank, damn it all, why didn’t I check. I needed to get back to my room and take some of the berries and the life energy in the bottle, if there was any left. I couldn’t remember, my head was a disaster area.

“Tingles, please, help me back to my room, please…”

“Okay, you’re the boss, here, lean on me…that’s right, one leg at a time.”

How we got to my room I don’t know, I remember collapsing on the bed and feeling like I could sleep forever. Tingles rummaged around the room and poured out the last of the bottle and berries, crushing them into an ad-hoc smoothie. 

“Get this down you Cap, come on now…”

Gratefully, hungrily, I downed the mixture, feeling strength drip into me, but it wasn’t much. Not much at all, fuck…wait! Aunties jam! Weakly I staggered over to the cupboard, until Tingles stopped me, realising what I was after and brought out a jar for me.

“Is this what you’re after?”

I nodded and she pulled out a spoon, lifting my head and feeding me the sweet preserve. The stuff tasted amazing but its effects were what I really wanted, and got. Thank Luna, my legs and spine shivered as the life giving force seeped back into me. I’d have to be more careful in future and make sure I had a stock of the preserves. I’d have a word with the kitchen staff and see if they could make some with the berries that appeared each morning. 

“Fairlight, the bottle…its empty…”, Tingles stated quietly.

“Yeah, its okay. It appears here most mornings with the berries, the cleaners bring it in I think.” Never really noticed where it came from, or how…must be…magic. Ah, the answer to all lifes mysteries! Well, at least my sense of humour hadn’t drained away completely.

“I’m going to lie down for a bit love, I’m so tired…can’t hardly…” I yawned so widely, I heard my jaw crack and hauled myself onto the bed with a nudge from Tingles.

“Okay Captain, sleep well…” she mumbled something I couldn’t quite hear as she left the room and flicked off the light. She was such a good…friend…

My dreams were a clouded mess of disjointed and terrifying images. Brandy, the little foal, featured heavily in them, weeping for his lost mother and sister. Their cries for help pulled me deeper into the dream world, helpless and alone. I was desperate to help them, to do what I could, anything, to save the two frightened ponies that were lost in a world totally alien to them. Desperation and anger at my impotence dragged me on past the laughing images of Gates and Melon Patch, their filthy visages, decaying in the depravity they revelled in.

Anger gave way to a steel hard need, a hatred beyond anything I had ever experienced. The voices, the smells, the faces…Gates and Melon Patch, I would find them, and by the time I had finished with them, they would pray for death. 

A grim determination settled through me, I felt…jubilant, excited at the prospect of revelling in their demise. They deserved it, called out for it…death. A pony, cloaked in black, scythe carried over its shoulder as insubstantial as a shadow, walked toward me, its hooves echoing as if we were in some great stone hall. It grew closer, solidifying as it came, there was no face…only a black nothingness.

“Who do you fear?” its hissing voice asked.

I reared and slammed my hooves down hard, “I fear NOPONY”

“Do you fear death?”

“NO”

“Do you fear yourself?”

I hesitated, unsure how to answer. The figure looked up, two bright blue eyes shone out through the dark mass under the cloaks cowl. The pony threw back the hood and there was no mistaking it, it was like a mirror, I was looking at…myself.

The thing wearing my face walked towards me,

“Ponies fear the unknown, they fear death, they fear you.”

In barely a whisper it spoke next to my ear, “You have become death”

Shouting out in panic, my head pulled away from my pillow, sweat dripping off me. I was soaked in it, my bedsheets stuck to my fur and I felt terrible. My head was banging with a terrible headache, my legs felt leaden and…Oh hell, my room. In my nightmare, I must have lashed out with my magic. Around me, the floor, walls and ceiling were solid with ice, even the toilet. That was going to take some explaining, and the worst of it was, I really needed to go.

I slipped on the floor, landing in a heap of sodden bed covers and steaming fur. I was burning up, the ice was even melting beneath me. Fuck me, this wasn’t good! I grabbed the jars of jam and downed as much of it as I could. I felt sick to my stomach eating so much gooey sweetness in one go, but it didn’t matter, I had to try and settle things down. The magic had leaked from me during the night and what precious little I’d had before bed, had probably already gone.

The jam helped, but I was desperately low on reserves, I only hoped that whoever brought the bottle last time, would do so again. I was heartily sick of bloody berries. 

The corridor was quiet at this time, what ever that was. My clock was frozen solid and my pocket watch was somewhere in a huge icicle at the back of the room. I’d have to sort that out later too…what a treat. Fortunately, the toilets weren’t too far and I virtually flung myself on the seat and just in the nick of time too. Fortunately, nopony came in whilst I was in there and after a light freshen up, I nipped out quick.

I decided against going back to my room, there wasn’t much I could do just at the moment and so I decided to hang out in the canteen until I felt a bit better, or had a shower, damn I couldn’t decide, my head was still such a bloody mess. Along the corridor was Tingles’ room, I wonder if she was still awake?

I knocked lightly on the door,

“Tingles? Its Nox, you up?”, there was no answer. I was about to walk away when I thought I head something in the room, like something rolling across the floor. I tried again, slightly louder but still no answer. The door wasn’t locked, which wasn’t that unusual in the agency, but still, it was a mares room after all. No harm in checking she was okay, besides, something was niggling at the back of my mind. Something wasn’t right here, I may be wrong of course, but if I was right and I did nothing. Damn it all! I’d probably get a bollocking from her, but here goes…

I pushed the door open, surprised to find the light still on. The bed was unslept in, where the hell was she? I moved closer in and nearly tripped on a glass bottle on the floor, that must have been what the noise was, but what made it roll? That was when I noticed the green tail poking round the corner of the bed, the rest of Tingles slumped further in and partly hidden behind the cupboard. She was draped over some sort of object that was studded with gems and glowing with a white light. 

“TINGLES!”, I shouted, rushing over to her, slipping on the silvery white fluid that had spilled from the bottle. It was almost invisible against the white tiled flooring but even in my panic to get to her, I knew what it was…and I knew what the damned fool was doing too.

“Oh goddesses, Tingles…No! What the hell have you done?”

She was weak, terribly, terribly weak. Her coat was palid and her eyes sunken, yet despite it, she tried to smile, 

“Hey…Cap’…Sorry, I couldn’t…make as much as…I thought…”

“You bloody fool! Oh fuck, fuck, FUCK!”, I looked around frantically. I didn’t know what the hell I was looking for, but one thing I knew I was going to do, was get her away from that damned…’thing’. I pulled it out from under her and flung the cursed device across the room and went to help Tingles off the floor. I was still weak, painfully so, but she needed me and damn it all, I would save my friend. 

I sounds terrible, horrible I know, but I still did it. I managed to down the remains in the bottle and even licked the fluid off the floor, as much as I could, to build some magic back up. It was barely enough to help me levitate her off the ground and onto my back, but I managed. Held on by the magic from my horn, I bolted out the room and down the corridor for the only place I knew could help her.

“Mistress! Open up, for the love of the all that’s holy! Please!” I hammered on the door with my hoof but no reply came.

“Open the fucking door, I need your help now! LUNA!”

Still no reply.

I felt down inside myself, the spirit was weakened but still there. With a little persuasion and driven by need, I released its power into my body, feeling it freeze and warm me equally. My voice, heavy and filled with ethereal energy, boomed out in the corridor.

“PRINCESS! OPEN THIS DOOR NOW OR BY THE GODS I WILL TURN IT INTO MATCHWOOD!”

With a flicker of purple light, the magic around the door shimmered and died, the locks snapping back and the heavy portal swung open, a voice from within flowed out,

“What is the meaning of this infernal noise? You! What are you doing here?”

I rushed inside, “Its Tingles, she’s…she’s dying…damn it Luna, she’s the one who’s been filling those bottles isn’t she? You gave her that damned device and look whats happened! My friend…this is your bloody fault, so, DO SOMETHING!”

The princess slammed the door shut and locked it, throwing off her cloak and shooting me an angry glance,

“Put her in front of the fire, gently now…that’s right”

She plucked a bottle from the shelf and hoofed it over to me, “Drink, you need energy, I can see it in your eyes.”

“Is this hers? Is it!?”

Luna scowled, “No! and if you are going to keep shouting, I will throw you out of the window and see how fast you learn to fly, so be quiet!”

I was virtually shaking with adrenalin, but followed the Princesses directions and swallowed the contents of the bottle. Almost immediately, I felt a strong wave of energy encompass me, rather like jumping into a hot bath. I was alive, alive and alert at last. But now, Tingles lay before me, I had to help her.

I sat beside the tangerine mare and pulled a cushion off the chair to place gently under her head. Brushing a few wisps of hair from face, I opened myself fully to the spirits power, opening my maw and allowing the mist to begin to form. A midnight coloured foreleg reached over and stopped me,

“No, this is beyond you now I fear. To bring her back from where she is now will likely take all you have and your spirit is already weakened.”

“I feel strong!”, I hissed, “I will save the girl, I will not fail again!”

Luna seemed surprised, her eyes widening  and then leaning forward with a gentle smile, “You always did surprise me, my lord.”

Oh goddesses, this again! 

“Luna, please!”

“Oh, be quiet Captain, I know what I’m doing. You must remain still and, I pray, quiet!”

I nodded and watched her intently. Luna raised her hooves above her head and began a peculiar chant, the room darkening as she continued. A black swirl of non-light, ebbed and flowed around her hooves, gaining speed and emanating a sort of humming wail. Her chanting grew louder, its intensity shaking the walls, the doors and even rattling the windows. My horn itched like crazy from the intense magical build up.

My eyes went wide as I saw a small pinprick of silver light seep out from the princess of the night’s chest and be sucked into the black vortex above her. With a strange shout that made my mane stand on end, Luna sucked the black mass into her mouth and in one fluid movement, leaned forward and clamped her mouth around Tingles’ own.

The princess’s eyes blazed with white light, bleaching the room with their radiance. Alarmingly, Tingles’ own eyes began to glow, brighter and brighter still, until she was filled with the magic of the night princess. Her colour returned before my very eyes, her chest moving with her breathing, and her legs beginning to twitch.

With a shudder, Tingles came back to herself and locked eyes with the princess who pulled her mouth away. She looked utterly exhausted, and Tingles looked like she was in a state of shock.

“What, what was that?…Princess? What am I doing here? Fairlight!” the tangerine mare sat up and nearly knocked me flying, her forelegs pulling me into a crushing embrace.

Luna sat back rubbing her brow, “Are you well my dear young mare?”

Tingles released me and turned to face the princess, “I am you majesty, thank you, I…I don’t know what happened”

“I do!”, I said angrily, ”It was that bloody thing you were using. What were you thinking Tingles? Giving me your life? Do you want to die?!”

She looked abashed and despite my anger, I felt ashamed at my outburst. This mare was sacrificing her life daily, to give me strength to help Equestria. She was truly one of a kind, an example of all that was good in a pony.

“No…” she said solemnly, “I want to…”

“She wants to help you, Captain,” Luna interrupted, “as do I. You have a remarkable talent for influencing mares around you, affecting hearts and souls without having any idea how or even that you are” 

I shook my head in disbelief, “This is all…I don’t know, madness. Sheer madness. I appreciate why you’re doing this, but giving me your life…Goddesses, Tingles please, not you…”

I sank to my haunches and hid my face in my hooves. The tangerine mare scooched over and held me in her forelegs, “Its okay Fairlight, I’m alright. Look, see? I’m okay…don’t cry now love. Come on now…shhhhh, it alright, I’m not going away…”

Her warm embrace held me tight and I cried into her fur like a foal, sobs wracking my whole body. I barely noticed Luna walking up beside me and place a kiss on my forehead, 

“You have many who love you, Captain...my lord of the four winds. Never forget that.”

I felt the heat of the fire on my coat, the warmth of Tingles’ body and the smell of her breath, her fur, her mane…I wanted to go home and hide in her embrace forever, forgetting the world outside. But it was not to be, and probably rightly so. I couldn’t hide from my duties, from life. So many depended upon me, including the princess and my tangerine Pegasus. The sheer relief of having her back with us, with me, was overloading my emotions.

She moved her muzzle and brought my tear sodden face up to hers, “I know, I know I shouldn’t say it, you have Meadow and Shadow…but…”

“Tingles…”, I said quietly, listening to her heart beating beside me.

“I love you Fairlight…I always have”

I snuggled my muzzle into her chest, “I know…Tingles…I…”

“Shhhh, its okay, I understand. I’m quite a selfish pony at heart my Captain, and whether you like it or not, whether you feel anything for me or not, I will still love you…”, she let out a little whimper, “Damn you Fairlight, I love you so much…why do I feel like this? Why…?”

I didn’t understand mares, I probably never would. Right then, like my dream, I didn’t truly understand myself either. Perhaps I was over thinking things again, maybe I should just live for the moment and take tomorrow by the balls…tomorrow. Right now, a mare who loved me was holding me to her breast before a roaring fire on a soft warm rug. If the eternal herd was the heaven of the ponies, they could keep it. Here and now, I had found mine.

> Chapter Eighteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER EIGHTEEN



In the armoury, Snap was looking nervous, “You want what, again?”

“Its all on the list Snap, read it again”

“I don’t need to! I can’t give you all this, what are doing, going to war?”

“Give me the items on the list, or I will come in there and take them myself, if you don’t like it, take it up with Brandy.”

“Brandy? Brandy said you can have this? Fuck off, Nox, you’re taking the piss.”

“’Brandy’ said he could have it Snap”, the armoury mare’s jaws hung open when the dappled silvery coated senior agent walked up to her booth, “I would appreciate you giving agent Nox what he needs to accomplish his mission, is that clear?”

“Yes sir!”, she snapped a salute and disappeared into the bowels of the armoury.

Brandy spoke to me quietly, “Nox, I don’t know what you’ve got planned, but try not to destroy half of Manehattan eh?”

“No sir, I’ll be very selective.”

He cocked an eyebrow at me and laughed quietly, “I like you Nox, I like your style. By the way, what happened to that little foal you brought in here? I never saw him”

“Oh, your namesake? He’s with one of the team in the guest quarters, we’re keeping him here until we get news of the whereabouts of his family. Poor guy.”

Brandy stopped and stared ahead of him, “What? My namesake?”

“Yeah, his names Brandy Snap”

“Brandy Snap? What…whats he look like?”

“like his name, a caramel coloured foal with…”

“With a white mane, like cream…”

“I thought you hadn’t met him sir?”

“Oh, I would say so agent Nox, he’s my son”

“What!”

“My wife and I split up some time ago, Carnation couldn’t handle all the hours I worked in the agency. Work comes first eh?”, he sighed, “Flax, my daughter, was due to start school soon…”

He span round, taking me by surprise and put both of his front hooves on my shoulders, “Fairlight, I beg you, find my family…please. The Mistress trusts you and so I trust you. I can see it in your eyes, you can do this, I know you can. Look, If you need anything, let me know, we’ll be standing by.”

Brandy stepped away, “Are sure though, absolutely sure you don’t need somepony to go with you on this?”

“I am, sir”, I replied, “Tingles is still too weak and when the time comes, I don’t want to be worried about anypony getting caught in the crossfire. I’m going to need all my focus to do what needs to be done.”

“Collateral damage?” he asked winking.

“Collateral damage”

The silver dappled stallion clapped me on the shoulder, “Good luck Nox, goddesses bless you. I’ll have the backup a heartbeat away.”  

“Thank you sir” I replied as he trotted off.

There was a clatter and bang of equipment, followed by heavy breathing emanating from the armoury door. Snap, sweat dripping from her forehead, held up my list, pointing to it.

“Here! Its all ‘bloody’ here! Good luck lugging this lot around with you, are you plumb crazy?”

I gave her my broadest grin, “Oh hell yeah, you better believe it”

On reflection, maybe Snap had a point. Despite all my bravado, the harness and equipment straps, packs and gear, it was damned heavy. Still, I had no intention of using it all in one go. No, I had planned this down to the last detail, factored in contingencies and prepared myself mentally. Luna had also come through for me in spades.

My pilot, ‘Loofa’ as he was known to the agency ponies, hooked himself into the cockpit and stretched his wings. The stallions goggles made him look a bit like some bizarre giant bug, but the guy came well recommended by Brandy so I was confident I’d get there in one piece. My gear loaded, I settle back for the journey, patting the pannier with a full load of thermos flasks. There was well more than I needed, and kindly donated by citizens of Equestria apparently, very thoughtful of them. I wondered if they knew? Probably best to dispense with that chain of thought…

We soared out over the Manehattan skyline, it was 2:00am, we’d be there in around twenty minutes, and then it was showtime. 

Eleventh and Mane was a bog standard street in a bog standard area. The sort of ponies out at this time of night, or morning I suppose, were your typical bog standard piss heads. Too much wheat beer and brandies for these night owls. Fortunately for me, they were three sheets to the wind and didn’t bother me. In truth, I don’t think they even saw me, my special operations gear, black and figure hugging, my rubber shoe covers muffling any sound, it was like the old days.

There were only a few steps up from the street to the front door and my target beyond. There were no identifying marks, no names, no trace. Plausible deniability if this all went to shit, so tonight, it was just me.

Moving like a ghost through the shadows, I glided up to the front door and tried the handle…locked. Sensible. A quick tap with my telekinesis and the lock clicked open, a handle little trick Mitre had taught me years earlier. Goddesses, if he could see me now, he’d think I’d lost the plot completely. 

The door opened with a swish, only the soft sound of the bottom edge brushing against the deep pile carpet and my breathing could be heard in the house. I pushed the door to and slipped around a corner checking each room, all dark, except…Damn, the kitchen light was on. Right…plan ‘B’ it was then.

I sidled up to the edge of the door, the light inside was uncomfortable against my now night time adjusted eyes, but I could make out a chocolate coloured filly stuffing herself with goodies from the fridge. She was probably just starting middle school judging by her age, it was hard to tell from this distance. A little pudgy thing too, and boy, could she eat! Sandwiches and cakes were consumed in short order, the girl almost grunting as she troughed through the fridges contents.

She never heard me enter the room, “Nopony ever tell you, you could end up with diabetes from eating all that?”

The girl choked and sputtered, cake and sandwich components spraying out like a furry firehose. I’d timed the scream perfectly and magicked a piece of tape over her mouth, her forelegs and hind legs. Trussed up like a chicken, smashing. Now for phase two…

I heard the landing light come on and hoofsteps coming closer and closer. My visitor sounded a little flustered too, “Cocoa? Where are you girl? Why aren’t you in bed, goddess dammit, if you’re stuffing your face again, I swear…”

The voice stopped by the kitchen door. “Why’s the light off? Are you sleep eating again?”, she flicked on the switch and took in the sight of her daughter bound up and seated on the kitchen table.

“Oh my feathers! What the…!” She stopped when I pressed the pistol to the back of her head and froze. 

“Good evening citizen, I’d like to have a little word with you if I may” 

She turned to look at me, taking one look at my eyes and shrank back in fear, “D…d…Demon!”, she squeaked.

“Yeah, I get that a lot”, I said taking a bite of the sweet oak cake that I salvaged from the chocolate coated piglet, “Mmmm hmmm! That’s some good eatin’ there, miss?”

She coughed and kept looking between the girl and myself, “Ma…my name?”

“Yeah, you do have one don’t you? I mean, it would be a first to not have one I suppose, but i’m guessing your folks followed convention right? So…”, I examined my pistol, clicking the safety on and off for effect before leaning towards her grinning, “What your fucking name?”.

“Cinder!”, she gasped, “my names Cinder.”

“Thanks Cinder, that’s very good of you to tell me so nicely.”

“What do you want? Please, I don’t have anything, just don’t hurt us…please”

“Now why would I want to hurt you Cinder? I mean, a mare who can make such good pies and all? No, I tell you what, I want you to use this here and call Jingo. Tell her to come here…please…”

I hoofed her the comms device, i’d recovered from the fillies pocket and hoofed it to her. “Here you go Cinder, Cocoa has a hotline to the watch doesn’t she? Isn’t that clever!” I leaned over and mussed the filly’s hair. She started crying in fright and I saw Cinder take an instinctual step forward to console her.

“Ah, ah, ah!”, I admonished waving the pistol, “Lets all keep calm and keep this cool. Mother Cinder, do call Jingo and ask her to come here will you, tell her Cocoa can’t sleep and wants to see her sister, there’s a dear.” I copied the line from a play I’d heard on the radio, the ‘Sinister Butler’, it came across quite well I thought. Cinder certainly thought so.

She picked up the device which Tingles had told me she’d seen Cocoa use. I guessed it wouldn’t be on the same frequency as the one the watch generally operated. Blaze was a stickler for protocol, even if she was a crooked cop now. Her suck up pal would want to keep conversations with her family private and certainly wouldn’t want to piss off the boss.

The big beige mares eyes were staring at me as she spoke into the comm, “Jingo…Jingo its mum, can you hear me?”

A moment later, “Yeah…mum? what are you doing up this early, is something wrong?”

“It…its…” Cinder looked at me with terrified eyes. I finished another sandwich, waving my other hoof at her to continue, “Cocoa can’t sleep, she’s having nightmares, can you come home darling? Please?”

Jingo’s voice sounded resigned, “Ok Mum, look, I’ll be about ten minutes. I’m off duty shortly so I’ll round then, okay?”

I smiled at Cinder, nodding.

Her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head, “Sure baby, don’t be long okay?”

“Okay mum, see you soon.”

Cinder put down the comms device and opened her mouth to speak. I moved over and stuck a piece of tape over her mouth, trussing her up like Cocoa. A few moments later, they were locked in the bathroom and sleeping peacefully courtesy of one of the agencies little knock-out sprays. Wouldn’t want to use that on a windy day!

Bang on time, the front door opened and Jingo trotted in. She noticed the light on in the kitchen and headed straight in,

“Who the fuck are you? Wheres my mum and sister?”

“Oh, Jingo, Jingo, Jingo…you really do have a bad memory don’t you?”, I waved my pistol at her, “pull up a seat and lets have a nice chat. Your mum and sister have already told me soooo much about you!”

“You fucker! Where are they? What have you done with them? If you’ve hurt them…”

“Yeah, yeah, I get the idea…bloody vengeance and all that jazz. No…I want to speak to you Jingo. Cocoa and Cinder are safe and unharmed, don’t worry. Mind you,” I said picking my teeth with a bit of card off the table, “I imagine you want to see them again…sooner rather than later. Don’t you?”

“You fucking cunt! What do you want?”

I leaned across and pushed Jingo into the chair, keeping the pistol trained on her, “I’ll tell you what Jingo, I want answers, answers to questions. I don’t like what I hear and maybe…maybe Cocoa goes away…maybe mummy too eh? How’s that?”

“You don’t scare me! Is this some sort of stupid game to you? I don’t even know who you are!”

I smiled and bowed sarcastically before her, “Allow me to introduce myself my dear. Perhaps you will recall a certain young stallion, looked rather like me I suppose, fit, lean, a budding officer in the Manehattan watch. Imagine his surprise when his wife is raped and murdered before his very eyes, quite the shocker wouldn’t you think? But wait, theres more! Oh yes, his friend and comrade, shot dead, and for added effect, the young hero is shot down too!”

I leaned toward her and snarled, narrowing my blue eyes at her, I was genuinely starting to feel the power bubble within me now.

“Am I ringing any bells now, you bitch?”

Jingo looked like she’s seen a ghost, the colour draining from her indigo face. Her eyes were a lovely shade of violet, hard to equate to the things she’d done somehow.

“Captain…Fairlight? But…you’re dead…we…we buried you!”

“Yeah well, death isn’t what it was anymore, sometimes when things get boring in the afterlife, you have to come back and take care of things here. Speaking of which Jingo, you’ve been a busy girl haven’t you?”

“I…you can’t be him! You’re…he’s dead! You don’t look like him either, so I don’t know what your fucking game is pal but…”

I released a little of the power and felt it sweep through me. The mares fear was tingeing the air with its scent and was tantalising my taste buds, I was so hungry and all I had to do was lean forward and take this mare. She looked…delicious.

Jingo looked like she was going to pass out, my wings broke from my back and stretched out across the kitchen before settling back down on my flanks. My eyes burned blue, my teeth elongating into razor sharp fangs and the white mist began to form around my hooves. I smiled, my tongue running over my teeth as I salivated, staring at her with a hunger I knew she could sense. 

The mare lifted her hooves off the kitchen floor and out of the mist. She opened her mouth, pointing at me, ‘go on’, I thought to myself, ‘say it’…”Demon!”, she shrieked, “Demon from hell!”.

I shrugged and breathed out a fined mist which made her huddle in the chair for warmth, it wasn’t enough though and her teeth began to chatter. I advanced on her.

“Jingo, my dear, dear Jingo. You want to see mummy and sis again don’t you? You want me to go away don’t you?”

“Y…yes…please…don’t hurt me…please…”

“Then tell me Jingo, what did you do with the foal and the mare you kidnapped from the waterfront?”

“I don’t know what you’re…”

I released a blast of cold, just enough to make ice form on her fur. She cried out in fright and tried to jam herself between the table and the wall.

“Don’t lie to me Jingo, if you do, I may bring Cocoa in here for us to…’play’ together. You haven’t seen me when I feed have you my dear girl, it’s not pretty I’m afraid. Your sister is such a small life, so frail…I suspect she’s tender too, succulent…barely a mouthful”

It was probably the thick mist dripping from between my teeth that did it, but whatever it was, the effect was instant. The smell of urine hit my nose full on. Crying silently, Jingo pissed herself in terror.

“I’ll ask again…last chance, Jingo…where are they?”

“Oh Celestia, Luna, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…”

“Jingo? I’m getting hungry now, I won’t ask again.”

“They’re in the statue, the statue in the bay”

I hissed in anger, “You’re lying! Why would they be there?”

She was barely coherent, “Gates takes them there until night time, then they’re taken by barge up river to a warehouse in New Baltimare. There’s a portal there where they send the merchandise through for…for sale.”

“When are they planning to move them?”

Jingo was turning paler by the minute, I’d have to ease off on the magic before there was any lasting damage.

“B…before dawn…they’ll be taking the…them…up river…”

“Jingo, who was the unicorn with you when you kidnapped the ponies?”

“I…I don’t know…she never said her name, she came…through the portal from the other side. She was…probably a…hu…human…”

She was going to black out any second, “One last thing Jingo…Who is behind all this? You know don’t you?”

“Blaze…Blaze is…Bl…Blaze…in charge…she”

That was enough. I pulled the magic back in and used my normal magic to warm her up. I wanted to frighten her, not kill her. She just sat there and shook feebly. Part of me felt sorry for her, but after what she’d done, the other part thought she could freeze to death for all I cared.

Blaze wasn’t in charge however, she was a puppet, and where there was a puppet, there was a puppet master. All I could do for now was cut the strings and follow them to their source.

I pulled on my TED, “Team windfall, mission complete. One to pick up, two for tidy up.”

“Received, moving in, ETA, sixty seconds.”

Good enough. I slipped out the shocker from my pocket and leaned forward, looking Jingo in the eyes, “You wont remember me, but I’ll remember you, you fucking traitor.”

A bolt of blue lightning flashed up and down the mare, making her shake violently before collapsing on the floor. For good measure I taped her mouth and legs together. The agency ponies would be here any moment and I would need to be on my way. Pausing for a quick swig from my flask, I patted the unconscious Jingo on the head, “Nighty night Jingo…don’t have any nightmares.”

Brandy was racing up the steps as I was leaving. “Any news Nox?”, he asked breathlessly. I nodded, “ She’s a gold mine sir, have a chat with her, you’ll find she’s quite compliant. Theres two more in the bath, don’t think they’ll know too much though.”

“My daughter? What about her and Carnation?”

“They’re being kept in the statue on liberty island, I’m on my way there now.”

“I’d ask if you wanted backup Nox, but I already know the answer. Goddess speed to you.”

“Thanks sir, oh, and try the pie. Jingo’s mum makes belting pastry”

Okay, so that may have been a bit thoughtless, Brandy’s family were facing horror’s beyond imagining and here I was making wise cracks. I despaired with myself at times, but I hoped my making light of the seriousness of the situation would help him in some way to feel confident I would have his family, estranged as they may be, back soon. Ah, bollocks to it…

I leapt into the sky carriage and Loofa shot up into the air like a firework on nightmare night. Tonight though, I would be bringing the nightmare to the bastards on the island and, I hoped, light and hope to a little foal called Brandy Snap.

> Chapter Nineteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER NINETEEN


We flew low over the river and hovered just off shore, keeping the moon to our front to avoid being silhouetted. Loofa kept us just above the waves, his wings keeping a steady beat, “You sure about this boss?”, he whispered.

I nodded, “Yeah, I’ll send up a flare or radio in when I need back up. Keep your hooves crossed for me buddy.”

Loofa smiled and I rolled off the side of the carriage into the freezing water.

Thank the goddesses the floatation suit worked as planned. I had practiced the manoeuvre time and time again back in the watch, but reality was a hell of a lot different. Here, it was almost pitch black apart from the pale illumination by the moon and stars. By contrast, the artificial lights of Manehattan across the water, reflected multiple colours on the surface. It was all quite beautiful in its own way. If I had time, I’d have to come back here with Tingles for an evening flight.

My mind refocused on the job at hoof, and paddling for all I was worth, I made headway. The current here was strong, but I knew the right approach and had studied the island some years earlier when I’d planned to bring Meadow here for a trip out. Tonight, ironically, I wasn’t here for pleasure…but if Gates was here, I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I’d smash its fucking teeth in.

Growling with effort, I ploughed on and finally reached the rocky bank of the island, pulling the suit off and checking the rest of my gear. Flying here as a vengeful wendigo may have been tempting but I was all too aware of how I would have stood out for miles around on a night like this and Luna knows what those scum would have done to the ponies they’d kidnapped then.

The bank was slippery and difficult to climb. My shoes thankfully gripped well, but the water and dark still made progress treacherous. The last thing I wanted was a broken leg or fetlock here, I’d be right royally screwed then. And not in a good way.

Jingo had said the ponies were in the statue, but I decided to make a sweep of the area before rushing in there. What I didn’t need, nor the kidnapped ponies, was their prospective rescuer needing to be rescued himself because he’d missed something. 

The only large building on the island was the visitor centre and it was completely in darkness, not even any security lighting on which struck me as unusual. Surely the site had security guards of some description? Everything was deathly quiet here, except for the gentle lapping of the waves on the rocks below. Had Jingo lied to me, sent me on a wild goose chase in the dead of night? No, I’d seen the fear in her eyes and there was no doubting the sincerity in her words.  

I checked through the windows of the visitor centre, finding the place locked from outside…silent. It left one place to check, the statue itself. If there were no guards here, either they were cock sure of themselves that nopony could find them, or they’d already gone.  

Taking a gamble, I released the spirits energy and felt my wings snap out from the slits cut in my suit. I never thought I’d need to wear pegasi clothing, but here I was. Unfortunately, the damn things weren’t really intended for those of a bigger frame, and I’d had to tailor it myself to a degree. 

With a few hard beats of my wings, I ascended up the back of the statue until I was able to land on the back of its head. My eyes scanned the area, but still no sign of any ponies. The lights were on in the huge tiara that the statue wore, it was rather cleverly used as a viewing area for visitors to see Manehattan in all its glory. I could try to smash my way in, flashbug the ponies inside, if there were any, but there was no guarantee I’d be able to break the glass. I remembered the visitors guide proudly proclaiming the magical wards on the statue give it incredible strength against external damage from storms and so forth. There was another way in though, one you could see from miles away.

The torch, held in the gargantuan ponies hoof, was not far away and filled the area around it with the flare from its magical fire. And there, silhouetted against the flickering light, was a pony. He, or she, was walking slowly around the base of the torch, occasionally looking out into the night. There was no doubt now, this was a lookout for the gang working out of here. Not a very effective gang either going by the lack of guards, but that was all to my advantage tonight.

My suit covered most of my wendigo features, but the mist rolling off my haunches was a dead giveaway and It was something I couldn’t do much about. My wings too, would likely be heard or seen at this distance, but in any case, it wasn’t worth the risk. I would do this the old fashioned way.

I drank the peculiar potion auntie had given me. It was supposed to quieten my movements and make me less visible; for the sake of the ponies in the statue I sure hoped she hadn’t been exaggerating. Grasping the edge of the statue’s robe, I edged my way down and landed at the base of its outstretched hoof. Shimmying along, I stopped everytime I thought I saw movement from the guard rail around the torch. Inch by torturous inch, I made my way along and up, my hoof covers giving a welcome grip on the slippery smooth surface. The wind was ferocious up here, and goddesses, it was a long way down too. If I slipped, I may not have a chance to get my wings free before I either smashed into the rocks or the freezing waters below. 

Pushing that thought away, I concentrated on my goal. The figure of the platform moved away and disappeared around the other side, giving me the chance to take the line thrower from my pack and fire it over the railing. With luck, he wouldn’t hear the grapple catch. Keeping my hooves crossed, I watched as the grapple swung around the metal rail and one quick tug later, showed it was fast. Wasting no time, I hooked up the winder and hit the switch. How I remembered this from training and hated it! The thing wrenched at me and I was yanked along and up, to dangle just below the walkway. I had to act fast, the pony would be coming round any moment.

Unbuckling myself from the confines of the harness, I hooked my forelegs over the top rail and hauled myself over, laying flat and motionless until I could make out the silhouette of the pony. He wasn’t far away, having stopped to look out over the water. The view was amazing from up here and the way the wind snatched at you and the magic fire of the statues torch, really added a touch of the dramatic. The pony turned, yawning, then looked up at me his eyes going wide in shock. Any thoughts that he may be an official guard disappeared when he pulled a pistol from his pocket and levelled it at me. 

The magic from his horn flared briefly, the pistol skittering across the platform while his body fell silently down into the black waters below. He’d never seen the knife flying towards his throat, nor had a good look at his killer. Mercy was a luxury I couldn’t afford tonight. The door to the interior was open, lit internally with small lanterns leading down to the viewing gallery, and with any luck, the missing ponies.

Fortunately, for this mission, I’d brought along a contingency plan. The latest magical energy weapon from the sick and perverted mind of Doctor Bunsen, aka, the agencies very own ‘mad scientist’. By Celestia’s randy arse, she’d excelled herself this time. The case it was in clicked open smoothly and the pieces inside, beetle black, slid and snapped into place with a precision I marvelled at. I popped open the top cover and inserted the red crystal. It was a lot larger than the PDW’s; they had to be for this baby.

Easing my way down the stairs I began to pick up voices, indistinct and echoing, but definitely ponies. Several of them too, by the sounds of it. The twisting nature of the stair case meant I had to get a lot near than I would have liked before I was able to deploy a small mirror on a stick to peer round the last bend that led to the inside of the statues head.

It was brilliantly lit, inside the viewing area several stallions and a couple of mares paced back and forth before a huddle of bound and terrified ponies. Not a few looked like they’d been beaten and sported cuts and bruises. Their guards all sported firearms of various types, which was probably not going end well considering a heated argument was being held between two of the meanest looking ones.

“I told you to leave them alone, Nelz, you cunt! They’re worthless if you beat them half to death”, one of the mares shouted.

“They’re useless anyway, look at the state of them!” the male replied angrily, ”They’ll never make the trip, anyhow whats your problem girl? Afraid to watch a stallion letting rip?”

The other males laughed and hoof bumped the big cyan male.

“You ‘let rip’ fat arse and you’ll ‘rip’ her to pieces and Gates will do the same to you”

The stallion paused thinking for a moment and spat on the floor in contempt, “Fuck off Prissy, I’ll bet she can take it. Bet you could too eh? Wanna try me baby?”

“You take a step toward me you bastard and I take your stinking louse ridden head off”

“Ooooh! Look at her boys! The big girl in the room, tell you what…’big girl’, you sit your sweet arse down there and watch how a real stallion can ride a pony”

The mare fell into a fighting stance but backed off when two of the other males levelled their weapons at her laughing and chuckling to themselves.

The cyan earth pony male, ‘Nelz’, walked over and grabbed the hind leg of one of the foals legs in his teeth, pulling her away from the female who shrieked behind her gag and flailed her bound legs.

He flung the foal across the floor and stood over her grinning, “Awww…mummies little girl, eh? Ha! Don’t fret darling, old Nelz will make you a mare tonight. And, maybe…how about my friends here too? I’ll soften her up a bit for them first…”

The foal struggled and cried, the big male, impossibly big for her, held her down on the ground smirking up at the female guard.

“I heard the first inch is always the worst Prissy, you’ll get yours soon enough”

“You fucking cunt Nelz, Gates will gut you for this…”

“Ha, yeah !? That stinking walking corpse? He just wants to fuck her himself before he sells her to those pink ape scum. Don’t give me your high and mighty bullshit, you’re just a fucking street whore and you should be grateful you’ve hit the big time with the Harpies, now shut the fuck up, this little bitch has this coming.”

He straddled the foal and readied himself, his tongue lolling out in anticipation.

“Hello everypony!”, I called, each and every pony turning to face me in surprise, “Is this a private event? I must have missed my invite.”

“Who the fuck are you?”, Nelz shouted getting off the foal and kicking her to one side.

The spirit within me flared and I channelled the anger through my body, the white fog seeping from my haunches and spilling out across the floor. I took off my sunglasses and gave them a good long look at my blue eyes as I swept my gaze across them. With a bow, I smiled up at Nelz, “Allow me to introduce myself…I…am the gate crasher, the party animal, and tonight fillies and gentle colts…”

Standing on my rear legs, I stretched out my forelegs, the flashbugs dropping onto the ground before me. I howled out my defiance and laughter into the room, the ponies watching the flash bug casings split and the angry cries from within rise in pitch.

“…ITS PARTY TIME!”.

The flashbugs exploded. Screams and shouts emanated from the frightened ponies, their guards desperately trying to see their attacker and falling to the hail of energy bolts rattling from my beam gun. One by one, the ponies fell, shrieking, in fountains of blood and fur. The stink of burning pony flesh was sickening yet horribly exciting. I could feel my fangs itching from the anticipation, goddesses this felt good, so alive!

One of the stallions managed to get off a burst of fire that nicked my ear and muzzle before I walked over to him and sent his brain matter spraying out in a fountain of steaming fragments. I moaned in ecstasy, breathing in his escaping life force, healing my wounds and sending strength and determination into my limbs. There must be more for me here!

Nelz was scrabbling away from me, crying. His hind leg had been blown off, and a burning stench from the hole in his chest revealed ribs and seeping blood beneath.

“Oh Please!”, he begged, “Goddesses! You demon, go back to the pit, go back to hell!”

I laughed, breathing the wind of the frozen north across his vile body. He shivered and whimpered.

“Go back to the pit?”, I whispered, “when I can play here with you? Oh Nelz, you disappoint me. A big pony like you, I thought you wanted to play with the little foal?”

“NO! No…I didn’t mean it! I wouldn’t, I swear!”

“Too late Nelz…far, far too late. Time to pay the piper…”

He shrieked as I lunged forward, my fangs biting deep into his neck, pulling, tearing. His dying gasps filled the room along with his spraying viscera. I tasted his blood, the iron in it was tantalising, the life energy swirling out and into my dripping maw.

A shot rang out and clipped my mane, but it didn’t matter. All it meant was there was one more delicious flavour for me to sample tonight. Turning slowly, I looked into the wild eyes of Prissy who’s pistol was shaking so much in her magic, she was lucky not to shoot herself.

“Go away you monster! Don’t hurt them!”

I stopped advancing and regarded her in my blue eyed gaze.

“Don’t hurt them?”, I sighed out, “Weren’t you going to give them to your friend Gates, Prissy? Do you call that a better alternative? Raped by Nelz or raped by Gates? DO YOU?!”

She backed away, crying and dropped her pistol, “NO! Please…Luna, Celestia, forgive me. I never meant to hurt anypony…I thought it was a way off the streets, to get a few bits for a new life. Kill me if you want demon, but please, leave the foals alone I beg you”

I looked down at her and hissed, my mouth opening in a toothy grin. Before I knew it, I had my foreleg around the mare and in an embrace. She was shaking uncontrollably.

“There is a place for you Prissy, not here, but a place you can be more, but its not here”

I released the power and felt myself returning to normal, the cold and anger fading away, warmed by the light in the mares eyes. I took out my shocker and sent her mare to the floor, “Sleep it off Prissy, it’ll be okay in the morning.”

The ponies behind me were shaking in fear, more than one had pissed themselves. I couldn’t blame them, In the reflection from the window, the bloodied, blue eyed stare of a pony I barely recognised anymore looked back at me. What the bloody hell was I becoming?

I took out my knife and they tried to back away until they saw me cutting the binding of the foal Nelz had wanted to rape.

“Its alright little one,” I said kindly, “I’ve come to save you and your mummy. You’re going home soon.”

The foal was nervous but still stepped forward and gave my foreleg a tentative nuzzle, “Thank you mister pony”, she said in a squeaky voice. 

I mussed her mane with a hoof and smiled at her, “You going to help me untie everypony like a big filly?”

“Yeah!” she shouted clopping her hooves.

In a few short minutes, I’d cut the bindings of all the ponies and foals, with ‘help’ from my tiny assistant of course. I looked over the ponies, binding cuts and setting broken limbs. Those bastards had really done a number on them.

I tapped my TED, “Brandy? Nox…I’ve secured the merchandise, area may still have hostiles. The top of the statue is secure. One in custody, we need medics here, theres injured ponies and foals.”

The headset crackled and Brandy’s voice came back, “Received, units on route now.”

One of the mares, sporting a black eye and split lip walked over to me slowly, she was a sleek, ginger, middle aged earth pony with a golden yellow mane, “Sir? Please, did you say…Brandy?”

I nodded, “Whats your name miss?”

“Carnation”

I picked up the little foal by her hooves who squealed in delight when I plopped her on my back, “Is you name Flax, little lady?”

“Yeah!”

I smiled at the mare, “Your son is safe Carnation, don’t worry, he’s at the agency facility. You’ll be reunited soon.”

“Oh thank Celestia! And…thank you, mister…Nox?”

She reached forward and hugged me, I could feel little Flax hugging my neck from behind too, “You’re a good pony mister Nox”, Carnation said, “Celestia bless you”.

I’m not so sure she would somehow. I took Flax off my back and noticed the others staring at the bodies scattered around the room.

“Carnation, can you take care of the others for me? Brandy Wine and the others will be here soon, they’re bringing medical supplies and will take you to your son.”

She nodded.

I turned to the door, “I’m going to see if theres any more of these characters around, and I suggest you tie up Prissy there, just in case. I think she may have save Flax, in her own way. She’s a good mare at heart.”

Carnation didn’t seem so convinced, but nodded anyway. 

Trotting down the stairs, I could see all the way to the bottom. It was like the inside of a light house and had nowhere a pony could hide. The only ponies on the island were the ones in the statue. The others were likely to be…fuck me! How could I have been so stupid?

“Brandy! Whats your ETA?”

“We’re five minutes out, med-evac units are following us in. Situation?”

“They were due to be transported tonight, the barge hasn’t arrived. Has anything come in about that through agency channels or the watch?”

“Stand by one”

A tense minute went by before Brandy came back, “Negative on that, no reports.”

“Understood”, I reloaded my repeating energy weapon, or ‘pulse gun’ as Bunsen had called it. I think I’ll call it something else…I’ll think on it.

I tapped my TED, “Loofa, you nearby?”

“Check that boss, I’m around two minutes flight from your position”

“Received. Can you do a sweep of the northern approach and see if you can spot any river traffic heading our way?”

“Wilco, I’ll give you a shout back if I see anything”

Memories of the carnage at the wharf hurtled through my mind, Dawn had been cut in half by one of those multi barrelled ‘gun’ things.

“Loofa?”

“Yes boss?”

“Keep your distance and do not approach or engage. The barge is probably heavily armed”

“Understood, will maintain distance and call in any activity”

“Received. Out.”

I leaned back against the cold stone of the statue and breathed out a sigh, it was times like this I wish I had my pipe with me. Some of that wonderful tobacco Star Beard had…marvellous.

A shot from up the stairs echoed loudly through the statue, Fuck! I must have missed one…Fairlight you bloody fool…!

Running as fast as my hooves would take me, I charged up the stairs and burst into the viewing area. What I saw was the last thing I expected.

Carnation stood in front of an unconscious Prissy, pistol in her mouth, fending off a vengeful mob of angry mares.

“Get back!”, she shouted around the weapon, ”I won’t warn you again!”

“What are you going to do then Carnation? Shoot us? Have you forgotten what these scum did to us? What they did to you? Its only by Celestia’s grace we’re still alive!”

I walked over and took the pistol from Carnation who sat by Prissy’s prone form with Flax huddled behind her.

“That’s enough please ladies,” I said calmly, “you’ve got foals here, you don’t want them to see any more horror than they have already tonight”.

The black and white mare turned on me, “You! You’re that monster who came in and shot those ponies down, like…like they were nothing! And what you did to that big blue stallion, great Celestia! You’re as bad as them!”

I sighed sitting on my haunches, “Yes, you’re probably right. I’m not the best pony in Manehattan by a long shot, so, if you like miss, I can leave you here until the authorities turn up. I’m not sure if there’s any more of these guys around out there, but I’m certain you’d be able to handle them by yourself. Not sure about the others though”

One of the foals trotted up to her, a lemon coloured unicorn around the same age as Flax, “Mummy, I’m frightened, I want to go home!”

The mare nuzzled her daughter and rounded on me, “You see! This is what you’ve brought us to…the children are scared witless, they’ll never be the same after this.”

“Ringo! Shut up, for Celestia’s sake and sit back with the rest of us” an older chocolate coated mare said with an authoritative tone, “There’s been quite enough out of you tonight already. We’re all dead on our hooves, so stop haranguing our rescuer will you”

Ringo snorted and stomped a hoof in anger but backed down. Her foal, sticking to her like glue, stuck her tongue out at me as she took cover behind the mare. Cheeky little sod. The TED crackled back into life, “Nox? Brandy. We’re at the base of the statue, whats the situation up there, we thought we heard gunfire.”

“Its okay,”, I replied, “one of the mares knocked a weapon and it went off. Noponies hurt”. I gave Ringo a meaningful look and she shook her mane, turning away, “Come on up, theres a couple who want to meet you”

The thunder of hooves up the stairs announced the arrival of a suited Brandy Wine. He rushed forward and scooped up his jubilant daughter who whooped in happiness to see him. The agency pony showered her in kisses and squeezed her until she squeaked, “Daddy! Not so tight!”

He laughed and put her down gently, turning to his ex-wife half lifting a hoof before putting it back down, a sad look crossing his face, “Carnation…are you alright?”

“Yes Brandy, we’re both okay. This pony says that Snap’s with you?”

“He’s safe at the facility, come on Carny, I’ll take us there. Theres a carriage waiting.”

Quietly the three of them filed out as a stream of suited agency ponies and medics poured into the room to collect the others and, no doubt, to clear away the evidence of tonights events. Walking past me with the two females, the stallion clopped me on the shoulder, “Thanks Nox, I mean it…thanks.”

“You’d do the same for me sir”

He nodded, “I would”

“The barge is still out there sir, Loofa’s looking now. With your permission, I’d like to search myself and take any pegasi you can spare.”

Within minutes, myself and four agency pegasi were flying up and across the river, checking for any water traffic. The others had night vision goggles to help them, but I relied on my wendigo eyesight, the goggles made everything a bizarre colour which gave me banging headaches. Up ahead I saw what looked like a pegasi flitting around in the light cloud, dodging a brilliant stream of orange lights that streaked up from the surface of the river.

No…not the surface, from a barge, a black painted barge which was almost invisible in the darkness. A second later, the rattling whine from the barges weapon rolled out across the river.

My PDW crackled, “Glad to see you boss! These guys are NOT happy to see us”

I was momentarily angry with Loofa for putting himself in danger, but I didn’t know the full circumstances and right now, he needed my help. Those on the barge did too, help to the other side. I stared hard into the night and made out several ponies on deck firing up at Loofa, among them, a yellow pony. Hard to make out at this distance, but…yes…YES!

I hit the PDW, “All ponies, we’re taking fire from the barge. Unlikely to be any innocents on this one boys and girls. Weapons free, we’re going in hot.”

I unleashed the spirits power into my being, the excitement it felt echoed my own and its cold rage, its desire for revenge was mine. Gates…the bastard was there…before this night was out, I’d spit the bastard on my fathers sword…fitting somehow, but it could never be enough. Not until I saw Melon Patch’s head severed from his foul neck.

The barge came into range and we swept down like avenging angels upon the vessel. Ponies ran back and forth shooting at Loofa who was unwittingly acting as a decoy. Our weapons screamed out torrents of magical energy across the deck, chewing through wood and flesh alike. Cries rang out across the river, pulling me in closer. I hoped he hadn’t been killed in that pass, not yet.

“Bar Bell, take opposite position from Loofa, the two of you provide ranged cover.”

“Roger”

“The rest of you, with me”

The spinning barrels on the top of the wheel house spat yellow death at us which I answered with a bolt of pure blue energy, turning the damnable contraption into molten slag. Exploding ammunition from the wrecked gun popped and fizzed sending shards of metal across the deck as yet another hazard, at least the damn thing wasn’t sinking.

The deck of the barge was a mess of splintered wood and dead and wounded ponies. Those who were beyond help were despatched without quarter. The others were stunned with shockers for later interrogation. Ducking behind the main superstructure, I reloaded my pulse gun and peered around the corner when a loud bag coincided with chunks of wood smashing out of the corner I was taking cover behind. 

“Gates!”, I shouted, “GAAATES!” My heart was hammering, the spirit singing its howling wind of death through my soul, “I’m coming for you! I’M COMING FOR YOU GATES, I’M COMING TO KILL YOU, YOUR’E GOING TO DIE, YOU BASTARD!”

Heedless of the shots, I rolled out, firing my weapon along the length of the barges deck, a shout of pain from the other end was all the cue I needed. Screaming in mindless hatred, a broiling comet of white fury, I charged at the downed yellow pony. I wanted to watch as he died, look him in the eyes as the light of life went out. I would hound him into the other world if I could, just to see him die again, and again, and again…

The pony before me tried to lift his firearm just as my horn flared and a blast of energy blew his arm off, sending his weapon flying over the side of the barge with a splash. Screaming, he tried to crawl away from me. Breathing heavily, I stood over him, “At last…AT LAST!”, I bellowed in triumph, my prey was before me finally. 

I inhaled expecting the rotting stink of that…Gates?…wait, the smell, it was different. Letting the haze of anger subside, I examined the terrified creature. Yellow coat, black tail and mane…cutie mark of a pear…

“Where’s Gates?” I snarled, “WHERE!?”

The wide eyed stallion whimpered, “He’s not here! Sent us instead, I don’t know where he is…I don’t know!”

The pony watched me, trying to escape by crawling away. I slammed my hoof down on his mangled stump of a leg, eliciting a scream of pain, “Whats your name, scum?”

“Crumble! Pear Crumble!”

I nodded slowly, “Say hello to the afterlife for me Pear Crumble”. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Its rather difficult to speak with no head. 

Behind me, one of the agency ponies let out a gasp, “Celestia, Nox! What the hell did you do that for?”

I shook my mane, “Pony traffickers? Drug pushers and murderers? You know why, agent.” 

I walked away, he didn’t follow me. Below decks, the barge was all but empty. We’d recovered a couple of prisoners and a batch of those ‘gun’ things. Not a bad haul and a successful rescue of the ponies due for transport. With any luck, we’d find out where this barge had come from, where it was heading and where the portal was. A preliminary check showed that none of them knew where Gates was, it seems he’d left them to complete this run on their own. So many questions still needed answers, but right now, I needed a bath.

The PDW came to life in my ear, “Nox? Brandy. You were right about Jingo, she’s spilled everything. I don’t know what you did to her, but it did the trick. Agents are at the watch house now to arrest Blaze. Get yourself back to the facility and clean off, I want you there when we have a little heart to heart with our new guest”.

Damn it, I would have liked to have been there for that, but saving ponies was top priority. Blaze wasn’t going anywhere and I was starting to feel a little fatigued.

Loofa landed next to me, a tired smile on his face, “Sky Carriage isn’t far boss, want a lift back?”

I shook my head, “No thanks my friend, I want to get a shower sooner rather than later. I’ll be quicker flying myself.”

He shrugged, “That’s some trick you’ve got there Nox. You kinda look like an alicorn you know, apart from the dragon wings, blue eyes and white fog thing you got going on. Scared the shit out of me, I can tell you!”

“Alicorn? Goddess forbid! Hey, what happened with that one who was seen in the city a while back?”

“Oh him? He was promoting some god awful film about doughnuts apparently. Glued a plastic horn on his head and ended up in the hospital having to have it removed, the bloody idiot”

I chuckled, “Give me a shout when you’re off duty next Loofa, I owe you a drink and I don’t know about you, but I could murder a salt lick.”

“You got it boss!”

I shook out my wings when a niggling thought struck me, “Loofa?”

“Yes boss?”

“Whats your real name?”

“Soap Dish”, he undid his flight suit and showed me his cutie mark, sure enough, it was a bar of soap, “Mum and Dad didn’t have much imagination. I know, hard to believe isn’t it?”

‘Soap Dish’…Good grief, another poor sod named after things found in the house. These names ran in trends too. One year it had been kitchen utensils, I wondered how many foals were walking around called ‘Fish Slice’ and ‘Colander’. I met twins once called “Salt” and “Pepper”, the parents should have been publicly flogged.

“So why ‘Loofa?’” I asked perplexed.

“Ah…well, you see, I had a marefriend and one day…um, we were in the shower and she thought my…that is, my…”

“Yes?”

“She thought I was a lot…er…bigger than she expected and told her friends that I was the same…um, ‘size’ as the loofa in the shower. Anyway, you know what mares are like…the name stuck. I don’t mind really”

I stood there with my eyes wide and my mouth hanging open. As wrong as it was, I felt a sudden urge to look for myself, oh goddesses! Damn my inquisitive mind, there were some mysteries I would just have to leave as that. Bollocks to it, it was time to go…I was so totally not jealous.

> Chapter Twenty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHAPTER TWENTY



The frigid night air whipped past, my wings sweeping me a long effortlessly. To keep my profile down, I kept to what little cloud there was. I was wearing my black tactical gear, but the white plume still followed me. The mornings papers would probably have something to say about a Pegasus flying overhead, smoke trailing from its nethers. It didn’t matter too much though, Manehattan ponies never looked up. You couldn’t see that much with all the bright lights and there was so much going on, you’d likely trot right into somepony. Quite the lively place really.

In the distance, fireworks popped and banged, someone was enjoying themselves. The smell of sulphur on the air was something I’d always associated with the wonderful displays we used to have in Ponyville when I was stationed there. Some were magical of course, those were amazing, but the more traditional ones still held a magic of their own. Some ponies hated the smell, very much like bad eggs I suppose, but I liked it. 

The flashes and bangs were accompanied by long rattles and…

Damn, they weren’t fireworks!

Right on cue, the TED burst into life, “This is agent Dune, Snatch team Alpha, we’re under fire and pinned down! We need back-up urgently, Manehattan watch house.”

“Nox? Brandy, where are you now?”

“I’m just south of the watch house sir, altering course for it now.”

“I’ve got more agents heading out now, you have command when you get there Nox.”

“Yes sir. Dune? Where are you and whats the situation down there?”

“Not good Nox, we’ve got a confused mess here. The watch house has been turned into a fortress, we’ve got at least four dead and six wounded. The bastards expected us, we’re lucky to have any left at all.”

“Whats your location?”

“We made it back outside and are covering the alley behind the bank. I’ve other ponies covering approaches to the watch house, but we’ve not many here. Once they realise that, we won’t be able to contain them, theres at least twenty in there and they’re all heavily armed. Watch your approach too, theres one on the roof with one of those big multi barrelled guns, its taken out two pegasi already.”

“Roger, I’ll make that my first target. Keep your ponies out of range if you can Dune, I know the buildings layout and I’ll do what I can. Backups on its way.”

“Nox? Brandy, don’t go in there on your own, pony, its suicidal. We’ll be with you any minute now.”

“Sorry sir,” I said into the TED calmly, “This was my home, these were my friends. Nopony fucks with the watch.”

The cloud layer, sparse as it was, would be the best cover I could get. The gunner on the rooftop would be busy firing on the alley where Dune and her ponies were pinned down and hopefully not watching the sky. 

Flying vertically with as much speed as I could muster, the wind caught at my mane and roared around my ears. I rolled and banking into the cloud layer, twisting into a dive that brought me up behind the watch house gunners position. Landing as quietly as I could, I slipped out the shocker device, ready to incapacitate rather than kill, the mare operating the huge weapon. She was good, too bloody good; she whirled around and kicked the ‘shocker’ from my magics grip and then lunged for me, drawing a short sword. Thank Luna I had mine, or I’d have been filleted on that wicked thing. She swung and stabbed, keeping the blade low and close, it was typical watch training and she’d been practicing. The two of us danced around each other until she tripped and in that instant, I was on her, blade to her throat.

“Brindle?”, I suddenly recognised her.

“Fucking agency pony, you’ll get nothing from me!”

“Don’t need to girl, I know all about you and your pals. One chance…where’s Blaze?”

“Fuck off”, she spat at me.

“Wrong answer”

I brought the old truncheon across her head, knocking her out cold. The cables for the roof gun were next. Initially I’d planned to rip them out until I had a better idea. I hoisted the thing up with my magic and dropped into the back yard of the watch house with a flap of my wings. It was deserted, bodies liberally strewn around testified to the intensity of the fighting here earlier. The ramp down to the cells was dark with blood stains and, by the looks of things, thankfully not covered by anypony with a weapon nearby. 

With no key, I tried my telekinesis to force the lock but again and again, the damn thing foiled my attempts. There was only one thing for it, I packed the lock with the explosive paste I’d managed to acquire from the armoury and stuck a length of safety fuse into it. One little flicker from the old Fairlight horn and it was sizzling away nicely. 

It was always a good idea to keep away from explosives and with myself tucked behind the corner of the main building, I was oddly disappointed by the rather small ‘pop’ that announced the end of the lock. Better to keep things as quiet as possible I suppose, though with all the noise of the gunfire, I could probably have screamed my head off and nopony would have heard. Just as well, as the roller door to the cell area was still as squeaky as I remembered it.

Dumping my heavy cargo, I took out my pulse gun and checked it was ready. It was. Kicking the door open, I found the cell block corridor completely deserted. I expected that everypony was out fighting and this area was deemed secure enough. After all, who breaks IN to a cell block? The cells themselves were all empty bar the last one two that held two uniformed ponies. I recognised them straight away, Corn Ball and Verdigris, two of the relief watch and trusted officers from Mitre’s day.

“Hey! You’re not with the others are you? You with the agency?”, one of them called out.

I stepped closer, wary of possible treachery. They could always have been left in here to lure in unsuspecting ponies then shoot them in the back, “I’m with the CBI, yes. What are you doing in here?”

“Its Blaze, the new watch chief, she’s sold out and turned on the one’s who uphold the law and protect ponies. The first we knew was the agency suits arriving to arrest her. A scuffle broke out and then the shooting started. Those of us who tried to stop it are lying in the atrium, but there may be more. The corruption has spread further than we thought.”

Verdigris walked up beside his companion, looking closely at me, “You seem…familiar somehow, do I know you?”

“Sorry sir, I don’t believe i’ve had that honour. Agent Nox at your service.”

Corn Ball spoke up, “Good to meet you Nox. Now, how about getting us out of here? You’ll be needing help I imagine.”

I shook my head, “No, I need you to hold this area and help any I send back down here. Agency ponies will be heading this way any minute and when they do, feel free to help out. Until then…”

“Okay agent Nox, we get the picture.”

“Yeah, Verdigris, you old fart”, Corn Ball sniggered, “You’ll get in the young fellows way”

“What!?”, his companion snapped back, “I’m miles off retirement yet you ancient mangy git.”

I trotted out, leaving the two veterans behind me arguing. I hoped they’d be okay.

I tapped the TED, “Brandy? Nox. The gate to the cell block is open, and theres two ponies in there on our side. Watch your fire when you go in, they’re sergeants Verdigris and Corn Ball.”

“Received Nox, I’ll pass it on to the assault teams. We’re coming in hard and heavy in five.”

“Understood”

The steps up to the atrium were steep and narrow, with a small fire escape up the back that lead onto the second floor and Mitres old office. Gunfire throughout the building was deafening and continuous. I silently thanked Brandy for allowing me access to the reactive ear defenders and light reactive eye lenses taken from the dead pony we’d recovered from the wharf warehouse. They worked amazingly well, it was no surprise the bloody flash bugs hadn’t worked for us as expected that day. 

The rumble of the heavy guns was making the floor vibrate beneath my hooves. When I finally reached the landing, I was able to look down on the ponies below firing from windows and doorways. So far, I’d been undetected but that was going to end now.

I hoisted the huge gun onto the railing and held it fast with my magic. With a deep breath I used a trickle of the spirits power to amplify my voice,

“Ponies of the Equestrian Watch, lay down your arms and surrender. The ponies you are fighting are not your enemy. You have been lied to and used, remember your oaths! Honour, Duty, Loyalty. This is what makes you special, the ponies of Manehattan depend on you, don’t turn on them now.”

“Who the fuck are you?”, one of the ponies shouted up at me. 

“Never mind that, just fucking kill him!”, another shouted and all hell broke loose. Shit! So much for that plan…

Bullets ate into the wood around me, splintering and shattering the ancient beams and tearing a chuck of meat from my shoulder. Looked like that concluded negotiations then…Now it was time to do things the old fashioned way. 

Releasing enough spirit energy to help knit my wound and shield me from the worst of the direct fire, I ducked behind the huge gun and brought it humming to life. There was a hell of a wind up time on the motor, or so it felt, until a green light popped on showing it was ready. Part of me hesitated, these ponies were my colleagues, my friends. A little voice in my head reminded me that these fuckers had killed their own, killed agency ponies and if they were linked with Blaze and the smugglers, they had no qualms about selling foals for drugs and guns. They had forfeited any right to call themselves the Watch, or ‘friends’.

Shouting wordless, I turned the weapon onto the ponies below and pulled the firing lever. The horribly familiar noise of humming and screeching filled the atrium with smoke and death. Those that didn’t run were turned into crimson paste, others tried to take cover finding that desks and chairs would provide no sanctuary from the stream of bullets tracing their way through their midst.

The spirit inside me shouted in joy, revelling in the sight and sound of battle. Torn and bloodied ponies lay strewn across the floor, walls dripping with blood and entrails. A few moments of firing and the gun was empty, I took out my beam weapon and headed for Blazes office. Sporadic fire erupted from farther back in the building, a stray shot clipping my hind leg sending me sprawling. A quick shake and I was off again, the wendigo spirit had a truly remarkable way of handling injury and pain i’d noticed…it ignored it.

Channelling energy into the wound, I could feel its sting ebb away almost as fast as it had come. My beam gun ripping through a watch pony who appeared with a raised weapon from an office to my right. He shrieked and fell back, I didn’t see if I’d dealt him a mortal wound. As much as the spirit enjoyed the experience, this time, I was all too aware I was killing ponies I’d worked with not all that long ago.

Occasionally I saw a pony lay down their weapons and raise their hooves in submission. These I left be, the agency would collect them and I had a destination anyway, the watch chiefs office. Two ponies charged me, swords drawn as I reached the edge of the balcony in front of the office. My first swing gutted the nearest pony, sending flying gore across his fellow who tried to spit me with his own weapon. 

I danced away, bringing my blade down on the hapless stallions neck, severing his spine and nearly decapitating him. The other lay writhing on the floor until I put a shot through his head to end his suffering.

The smell, heat and intensity of the fighting set my soul on fire. Bullets zipped and howled around me, my own answering back, killing and maiming ponies that dared to challenge me. The spirit was in a rage now, screaming nearly out of control. It cried out for satiation, for a source of life energy it knew was near. 

I kicked open the door and stalked in, sword low, beam gun slung. Blaze was shouting into her comms device until, slowly, she lowered it and turned to face me, her face ashen.

“Hello Fairlight, I had a feeling you’d be back. Returning from the dead seems to be a habit of yours.”

“Blaze…”

I could hear ponies outside getting nearer and threw up a wall of ice, effectively locking the two of us inside the office.

“Quite the trick Captain, I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage”, she raised her hooves, “no magic…see?”

“Wanting to surrender Blaze?”, I growled, my teeth itching furiously, “you disappoint me.”

“Oh fuck you, Fairlight. You know that’s not my style, I expect you’re wanting an exclusive interview with me now are you? A big expose on the crime family?”

“Not really, I know what they do and I know what you did, but I’m guessing you don’t hold any love for Gates and Melon Patch though.”

“Of course not, those bastards are the ones who commit all the depravity. I never agreed with that, making drug money sure, but I didn’t involve myself in selling ponies for the sex trade.”

“Not what your little pal, Jingo told me”

Her eyes narrowed for a moment…just a moment which told me all I needed to know.

“Ha! Well, you got me there, no kidding you is there Captain?” she sighed, “I guess you’ll be wanting your showdown here then?”

My resolve was strong but as I looked into her sad eyes, I felt my heart waver.

I lowered my guard, foolishly perhaps, but…”Why Blaze, for the goddesses sake, bits? I know the pays crap, every watchpony knows that, but you were one of the best…how the hell did it turn out like this?”

I saw a single tear roll down the big pegasi’s cheek, “I told you before Captain, Equestria is sinking into a pit of its own filth and all I wanted was to take what I could before it was so far gone, it took me down with it.”

I drew my sword and channelled my energy into my body, strengthening my muscles and joints.

A wave of emotion passed through me, memories of happier times, of Blaze and Dawn laughing and playing cards while we bet on who would win. They were both loved dearly by the ponies on her shift, if not by the whole of the Manehattan watch.

I breathed in deeply, “Is there no other way…Blaze…if there is, please, tell me…”

The big Pegasus mare shook her head with a little smile on her face, “Sorry Fairlight, I’m not surrendering and you wont let me go. I’ve gone too far down this path now…you’ll have to do what you have to do.”

“Please Blaze, don’t do this…”

“Don’t do what?” she laughed, she actually laughed, “All good things come to an end, perhaps all the bad things do too. Tell me, Captain, whats it like, on the other side?”

“Its all sunshine and wheat fields, Blaze. The suns on your back in a crystal blue sky, the trees are heavy with ripe fruit and birdsong lulls you to sleep on a warm afternoon.”

She smiled, tears falling onto the debris strewn floor, “Sounds wonderful…” Blaze took a sword down from the wall rack and gave it an experimental sweep, “Will Dawn be there?”

I nodded, trying to hold back my own tears, “She will be”

“Good”

Blaze suddenly charge me howling and swinging her sword. She was practiced too, a flourish sending me back with a gash across a foreleg. She thrust forward and I blocked, dodging away as her next attack pressed in. Back and forth we clashed until the opening I was hoping for appeared.

Blaze reared, her sword held high and she dived down on me screaming, eyes wild and wings flared. 

It was over in a moment, the tip of my sword plunged through her defenceless breast and into her heart. The Pegasus collapsed on top of me, her sword clattering to the floor. I grabbed her and carried her down, holding her as I did so. Blaze, former Manehattan watch chief, lay dying on the floor of her office. She shuddered and reached out a hoof toward the ceiling like she could see something I couldn’t, “Dawn? Dawn!”, she gasped and went limp as her life escaped her.

I watched silently, as her life energy seeped away. She would be with the herd soon and flying once more with her beloved Blaze. The whole terrible scene was heartrending but oddly, I felt a tinge of jealousy. I was still stuck here in the mortal world, tainted by the spirit and stained with the blood of countless ponies. At least Blaze and Dawn would be with the eternal herd, I wondered if I would ever be with my Meadow and Sparrow again.

Banging on the outside of the room caught my attention and I lay Blazes head gently to the floor, placing a spare overcoat over her face. She didn’t need to see any more.

“Nox! Its agent Dune, we’ve taken the watch house. Are you alright? We can’t get you on your TED.”

Shit, I’d knocked the damned thing off in all the fighting. My horn flared with a magic aura and the ice began to melt around the door. Dune shoved hard and stumbled in as it gave way, “Damn…Nox are you…oh…”

She took in the scene and stood to one side in silence. I picked Blazes body up and placed her on my back. “Put all the dead watch together Dune, Blaze should be with her ponies. I want proper burials for them too, I think the city can spring for that, don’t you?”

She nodded, “I’ve got contacts Nox, leave it to me.”

“Thanks, my friend, I owe you one.”

Brandy was in the Atrium whilst I placed Blaze’s body with those of her comrades. He looked stricken, “Fuck it Nox, I don’t see how we can keep this quiet, the place is a frigging bloodbath. Innocents got caught in the crossfire and we’ve got dead ponies all over the damned place. It going to take more than a few memory wipes to put this right.”

“Yes sir, is there anything I can do?”

“No, I don’t suppose there is”, he looked down at Blazes body, “Wouldn’t give up then, eh?”

I shook my head.

“I’m sorry Nox, I didn’t know her personally, but…I know what its like to…”, he sighed, “you know what I mean”

“I do sir”

“Off you go, grab a shower and see to that orange mare of yours. I suspect you’ll be in for your own interrogation when you get back.”

I smiled and trotted out to where Loofa was waiting with the sky chariot,

“I’m heading back boss, jump in, you look dead on your hooves”.

I paused to look back at the watch house. The walls were pockmarked with bullet and beam weapon holes. Splintered wood and smashed glass covered the ground like a carpet. For Celestia’s sake, what the hell had all this been for? What?

“Boss?”

I climbed into the chariot and lay back, closing my eyes, willing the images away, “I’m tired Loofa, I’m so…so tired, let go home.”

“Right you are boss”.

We lifted off the ground and flew through the still darkened sky back to the facility and the waiting Tingles.

> Chapter Twenty One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



CHAPTER TWENTY ONE


I’ll say one thing for the agencies facility, It came fully loaded. The cafeteria food was truly dreadful, but the other amenities more than made up for that. Well, almost…

This particular amenity was the hot bath which could accommodate around ten ponies at once. There was one for mares and one for stallions, naturally. Not that you could really see much anatomically speaking I suppose, plus the showers were mixed too, but something about a mare stepping out of a steaming tub, was considered taboo by many. 

That evening, I had the place to myself and I couldn’t wait to sink into the hot water, barely resisting the urge to jump in. The water tickled my hooves and soaked through my fur, warming my skin. It felt amazing, the tension and stress seeping out along with the cold from my aching joints. I’d have to be careful not to fall asleep, it just felt so…good.

On the other side of the bathroom divide, I heard the gentle singing of a mare. A lullaby that made me close my eyes, the world beginning to drift away. Her song was one of peace and joy, love and all that good stuff.

The song finished and the voice called out, “Anypony there?”, I recognised it straight away.

“Tingles?”

There was a pause, “Are you on your own?”

“Yeah, theres nopony he-“, I began. 

“Hang on a minute…”, she called back.

Water splashed behind the divider and I heard the clear sound of hoofsteps on tiles. I was still looking up at the ceiling in a half daze, when the sloshing of water against my face made me jump, “Tingles?!”

The mare pushed her way through the water to me and snugged up close, “This is nice…”

I gave her a little nudge, “Hey! This is the stallions bath, you’ve got your own next door”

“Oh put a sock in it Captain Fairlight, noponies here. Anyway, I can soon get out if we’re disturbed”

“’Disturbed’”, I echoed dubiously, hmmmm.

Tingles leaned back and sighed, “Did you do what you set out to do?”

“I did, ponies saved and…”

“What?”

“The watch house, Blaze, it was such a mess. They gunned down the agency ponies sent to take her in for questioning and all hell broke loose.”

“What happened to Blaze?”

I splashed some water on my face and glanced across at Tingles’ big green eyes, “I’m sorry, Tingles…”

“Oh…I see, right then…”

I know they hadn’t been friends, but they were still comrades nonetheless. The tangerine mare looked like she was struggling with some inner emotion I couldn’t feel.

“Cap?”

“Yeah?”

“Would it be okay if I hugged you? Just, you know, for a minute…”

I nodded silently. The mare reached a foreleg around my neck and pulled herself into my chest. Her body shook, her sobbing muffled in the steam and my fur. I stroked Tingles’ mane, 

“I’m sorry love, I wish I could have done more, but she didn’t…”

“Stop calling me that…”

“…want to…wha? Stop calling you what?”

“You know what! Don’t call me something you don’t mean! Its cruel, damn it”

“I don’t know what you’re going on about!”

“You’re so bloody ignorant!”

“Tingles! For Celestia’s sake, please.”

She beat on my chest with her hooves and pushed me away, “I hate you! I bloody well hate you, you…you sodding, damned ignorant…HORSE!”

“Hey! Now hang on a minute!” I protested.

But, it was too late, the tangerine mare had stormed out of the bath in a whirling tempest of water and emotion. Mares! What the hell was going through her mind? I didn’t need this, not now, too much was going on and I just wanted to rest. Ah, damn it! It was too late now, the mood was ruined and all I wanted now was to get out, dry off and get to bed. Bloody Tingles…


***************


Thankfully, the cleaners had sorted my room out whilst I’d been away. The mystery ponies we never met, or saw…weird that. Almost as weird at the fact that Tingles was lying in my bed!

“Hey! Now just a minute madam…”

“Shut up and get in, you’re causing a draft”

With a resigned groan, I hung up the last of my gear and climbed into bed with my back to her. Tingles leaned forward and lay her head across my neck.

“You don’t mind do you Cap? I’ll go if you want me to.”

“No, no its okay. I’d like the company, I feel a bit…you know. I want to…”

“I know Cap’, I can see it in your eye’s. You’ve seen things no pony should ever have to see, I think we both have to some degree.”

Her warmth against my neck and back relaxed me and I felt walls I’d never known were there, melting away, unleashing emotions to ebb and flow around my consciousness. Images, memories of what was, what had been and what I’d dreamed of, flooded me. It was like trying to hold in the pressure from a hose with your hoof, sooner or later…

“Fairlight?”

“Hmmm?”

“Its okay to cry, I won’t tell anypony”

“I don’t want to cry Tingles, I want to sleep, that’s all”

“Big ponies don’t cry eh?”

I felt my chest shudder and tears sting my eyes, but I kept my mouth and eyelids shut tight. The warm foreleg across my chest opened the floodgates and all my pain, my loss, the fear and sorrow, poured out. I cried like I never had, my friend comforting me.

“Its okay love, I’m here…”

I turned over to face her and looked into those big green eyes. I didn’t know what to say, words had left me completely. All I could do was reach out and hold her, hold her like she was my last shred of hope for life in this damnable world. 

Sometime during the night, I got up to wipe my face down and pour a glass of water. Climbing back in afterwards, I must have woken her up. Her half lidded eyes peering at me, a light smile on her lips. 

“Cant sleep?” she murmured.

“Better than I have been, you’re very warm. Its…nice…to sleep next to somepony again.”

“Glad to be of service” Tingles said chuckling.

“You know what I mean”

“Yeah, being psychic is one of my many talents”

“Tingles…please…”

“Sorry, Cap, I’m just teasing. Want to talk for a bit?”

“Yeah, do you mind?”

“No, no of course not”

I took a deep breath and after a quick drink of water, poured out my heart.

“This…spirit, it speaks to me. The two of us, we’re one, but…at the same time we’re not, like a split personality of sorts. I don’t know, but, it says we have to come together, to join properly.”

“You aunt said as much”

“I know, but when Blaze threw me overboard, there was another voice…I haven’t really thought about it since then, but it was there, strong and authoritative.”

I looked into Blazes eyes, she’d propped herself up on one foreleg to watch me. 

“When I fight, sometimes, I cant…I cant control myself. I get lost in the moment, the killing, the blood, the screams! I…oh goddesses, Tingles, I think I’m losing my mind…”

She rubbed my forehead and gave me a small lick, “You’re not, Fairlight. I know you from the watch and you’ve always been one of the most reliable and stable ponies I know. This ‘thing’ you’re going through is something your ancestors went through too, they mastered it and so there must be a way. There has to be an answer, a book, a manual or something, something we haven’t found yet.”

“Maybe…maybe, I don’t know where to start looking, though. Besides, is something like that going to exist after a thousand years?”

“Your tribes books did, maybe theres something in there?”

“I don’t know, its all blasted gobbledygook.”

“What, you haven’t even read them yet?”

“Not in so many words…”

“Fairlight! Good grief!”, she face hoofed, “Right, leave it to me, I’ve got time to have a good look at them for you now. I’ve been grounded for the next week until the doc okays me for flight again. Can you believe it?”

Oh bollocks! In my selfish self pity, I’d completely ignored Tingles’ situation. It hadn’t been that long since she’d been at deaths door after trying to help me.   

“Tingles, I’m so sorry, all I’ve done is moan about my troubles and you’ve got more than your fair share of your own. Are you feeling okay? What did the Doc say?”

“Well, better late than never I suppose, but yes, I’m fine. The doctor said that he’s spoken to the mistress and I’m by and large back to normal, but they want me to take a few more days out to get my life energy levels back to what they should be.”

“Oh Tingles…you scared the bloody life out of me back then. Promise me, you’ll never do that again, okay?”

“You got it Cap, on one condition though.”

“Whats that?”

“You remember that you’ve got friends, ponies who…you know…”

“I know, Tingles…”

I reach forward and kissed her muzzle, “Thanks”. She made a little grunt and squeezed me tight, “Go to sleep now, my Captain, ‘Lord of the four winds’…pffff!”. She started laughing which set me off too, 

“Pack it in! Good night, you tangerine pest”

“Good night to you too…love”

I lay there, my mouth hanging open. Goddesses, was I so stupid, so blind? Oh, shit…I was. 


****************


My hoof reached out to silence the alarm clock, only to knock the thing off the bedside table onto the floor. Swearing under my breath, I tried to move only to find an orange foreleg wrapped around my chest, a hind leg over my flank.

I tried to wriggle out but the more I did, the tighter she held on, murmuring in her sleep. 

“Tingles…Tingles, wake up, I have to go, theres a briefing this morning.”

“MMmmmnnhhh”

Whatever that meant, she relaxed her grip and I was able to escape the furry clutches of the mare. Still, I tucked the covers back around her, wishing I could have had a little more time in the warm bed. Or was it being cuddled that made me so…oh for fucks sake, I had to get moving!

One quick trip to the crapper, a shower and a general tidy up and agent Nox was ready for action. My reflection in the mirror was no different really, except if I angled it just right, I could see a sleeping tangerine mare in my bed looking bedraggled. Hell yeah!

I grinned and allowed myself a brief chuckle of smugness.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be agent Nox?”, she said quietly, one eye half open.

“Morning my dear Pegasus”, I quipped, “A hard days reading awaits! See you when I get back paddling more bad guys”

“Take care Fa…Nox…play nice”

I stuck my tongue out at her and trotted off down the corridor, I hadn’t felt this good in ages! 

The briefing room was packed, agents I’d never seen before were crammed in like sardines. A few faces I recognised turned to wave, Loofa, Brandy, Dune, quite a few in fact. What in Equestria was going on?

The pony at the front of the room tapped a stick on the lecturn,

“Order please everypony…Thank you.”

The officer nodded to the projectionist who switched off the lights and clicked a new slide into the magic lantern. A picture of a portal filled the screen, the silvery light of one in operation was clear. I’d never seen one working for more than a few seconds before the smugglers somehow pulled the plug. We’d never been able to get one working again afterwards and the smugglers we’d captured wouldn’t talk. Had they finally managed to get one working?

The pony on the stage cleared his throat, “Agents, this is a portal to the human world, the world they call ‘earth’. Some of you will already be aware of this, some not. The briefing paper and explanatory notes will give you more detail. Another briefing on familiarisation with this species will take place later today, details of each relief is on the board by the door”.

Briefing paper? Oh fuck, not again! I shifted my weight to check and…yeah it stuck to my bloody arse again. I just nodded.

“The humans are a type of ape, mostly hairless and come in various sizes and colours.”

The slide changed to show a number of hairless, monkey things standing on two legs. They were…naked…totally! Bloody hell fire, they must live in an inferno to develop without fur covering their hides. Some of them were different colours, height, and…hang on, no tail either! And look at how short that mane was! I started chuckling, a couple of others followed suit and the briefing officer banged the lectern irritably.

“May I remind you, that these creatures are responsible for the death and misery afflicting our homes?”

Silence fell, my jovial mood souring quickly.

“These beings are a surprisingly advanced race, using ‘technology’ rather than magical science. Quite the clever little things really, and quite, quite violent. You will all be more than familiar with the ‘earth’ weapons the humans smuggled into Equestria?”

The slide changed to show a number of firearms.

“These are examples of weapons made in the human world, for humans. You will need to familiarise yourself with all of these and their operation. Details are, again, in the briefing paper”. 

Why? Know how to use human weapons?

“Thanks to a recent informant,”, my money was on Jingo, “-we have been able to re-activate a portal to the human world.”

General excitement rippled out from the assembled agents. This was new! We’d never managed to do it and now, now I had the distinct impression that the tide was about to turn.

“We have already sent a recon team through the portal, after extensive tests of course. They were able to recover a deal of intelligence, much of which is already in your packs”

You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife, and not a very sharp one either.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts, for too long we have been fighting the fires and not the cause of them. With what we have learned, supervision are confident that we can strike a significant blow to those who are behind the troubles that Equestria is facing. At long last, its time to take the fight to them”

A huge round of hoof stomping and cheers erupted around the room. So, this was it was it? We were finally going to be able to strike back. It may all be academic with scum like Gates and Mel still operating and of course, whoever their puppet master was, was still about too. However, we had to do something and it looked like this was it, I could almost taste the anticipation. There was no denying the determination in the faces of these ponies.

“The operation will be commence one week from today, meanwhile, you will each be assigned to a team and training leader. Operational requirements for this job are red, everypony. Nopony is to leave the facility until the operation begins. Comms are locked down except for priority channels. This is a major operation with cross border involvement, so its all one big happy family ponies. Team commanders, take charge of your agents. Dismissed”

We all stood and moved to the door, Brandy was waiting for me.

“All set?”

“Yeah, looks like this is the big one then”

“It is, at least for now. The first of many, or, I hope, the last”

He looked past my flank, wrinkling his brow, “You may want to read that”.

“What? Oh!”, I pulled the briefing paper off my backside and slipped it into my bag. 

Brandy rolled his eyes and I smiled, “Sorry about that”.

“Never mind…Come on, we need to get you to the first briefing.”

“Where’s everypony else from our team? Its not just us two is it?”

“No…its actually just you, there is nopony else.”

“What!”

Oh great, a one pony mission, this was going to be interesting. I know I kind of liked working alone, but I was always aware of being part of a team and having backup nearby. This time, I wasn’t sure backup was going to be an option.

The training room was beginning to fill up and before long a unicorn agent stepped up to the stage and placed slides onto an overhead projector. More of the weird furless monkey things appeared…‘humans’. I didn’t like the look of them, there was something off about the way a creature could have no fur, feathers, scales…no anything. They also had short tentacle like protrusions, ‘hands’, on the end of each foreleg. Similar ones at the other end too. The hands allowed them to manipulate objects a lot better than hooves, that was clear, however the trainer explained that magic didn’t exist in their world but that, thankfully, ours would still work. To a ‘degree’, he said. Now that was worrying.

The worst though, was yet to come. When passing through the portal, we would be transformed to resemble the ‘humans’, the same way they resembled us when they entered our world. How the hell this happened was beyond me and was not even touched upon, so I guess it was either a secret or not deemed to be important to what lay ahead. A simulator had been designed courtesy of the hub labs to help us ‘adjust’ to the sensation of walking on half the number of legs.

The trainer for this was none other than Doctor Bunsen, who waved at me enthusiastically from the other side of the room. I just smiled and tried to blend in as much as possible. Brandy sniggered and gave me a sidelong glance, “Friend of yours?”

“Goddess knows…” I replied.

“So glad everypony could make it!”, she exclaimed happily, as if we had much choice in attending in the first place, “This amazing magical gadget will allow your mind, your senses, to see, feel and even move, like almost any creature you can imagine. Just think of the possibilties!”

Doctor Bunsen held the device up and seemed to be expecting something, a round of applause? Somepony actually clopped their hooves together, slowly. I kind of felt sorry for the good doctor, but she soldiered on regardless,

“I need a volunteer…”

I could see everypony cringe away, trying to make themselves as small, and as ‘unpickable’ as possible, until Bunsens electrifying gaze landed on me…bloody typical.

“You sir! Come on now, don’t be shy, don’t be shy…”, she waved a hoof encouragingly. Fuck it, I had no choice, and besides, we’d all have to sooner or later. At least it got it over with.

I think the worst part was all the other ponies eyes looking directly at me, not a few sniggering behind their hooves. Well, this was all fan-bloody-tastic, thanks Bunsen!

The disturbingly cheery doctor produced what I can only describe as a sort of silver helmet, studded with lights which flashed different colours. It looked like a converted mixing bowl and on further inspection, even had the handles! A strap of some kind was dangling either side of it which Bunsen thoughtfully tied up for me.

“Comfy?”

“Yeah!”, I said sarcastically, knowing full well that the doctor wouldn’t likely pick up on it. She didn’t…

“Great! Okay, now we need to plug this in here…put these here, oh…”

“’Oh?’”

“I nearly forgot, can you put these goggles on too, please?”

I complied, pulling the things over my eyes. I was now in complete darkness, the helmet covered my ears too which was suprisingly disorientating.

“And….we’re off!”, shrieked Bunsen as a bizarre world or images appeared around me. It was something I’d never experienced before, like being in a foals game but actually being there…

I looked down at my hooves but, they’d gone! Replaced with those pink sausage things that dangled at the ends of my forelegs. Everything was wrong, my joints, my muscles, even my eyes. Goddesses, I felt sick with the sensation of bodily wrongness. What was even weirder was my spine. I was stood on my hind legs, but rather than balancing on them as I had before, this was as if…as if I was meant to stand like this. 

“Try taking a step, Nox” Bunsen said excitedly, I think she was enjoying this. I wish I was.

The ground rushed up to hit me in the face, although thankfully it didn’t hurt and the impact was, well…weird. A few tentative steps and I was soon getting the feel for this artificial body, my…’hand’ things were proving quite useful too. If I swung them with my forelegs ever so slightly like a pendulum, they helped me keep my balance when moving. They were also really good for carrying, lifting and so on.

This went on for some time until Bunsen finished her demonstration, or rather mine as the resident guinea pig. The helmet powered down with a high pitched whine and the real world came back into focus once again. Thank Luna for that! It was stomach wrenching, jumping from one ‘body’ to another, but if this was going to help us in the human realm, then I was all for it, nausea or no. Probably best to take a sick bag though, because if the simulation was this bad, I was sure the real thing was going to be even worse.

The rest of the week went by with incessant briefings, weapon drills and of course, hours in the simulator. By the end of it all, it was hard to remember whether I was a ‘human’ or a pony. I’d found myself trying to pick up a bottle of water in the canteen with fingers I didn’t have, later I’d tried to run on just my hind legs, much to the amusement of the watching ponies. Thankfully, the rest of were getting the same treatment and, as well as we all know, misery truly loves company. And miserable was what we were, all of us were heartily sick of the drills until the final day came with our last briefing.

Brandy was waiting for me outside my billet when I emerged, still bleary eyed.

“Mornin’…”, I yawned, trying to wipe sleep from my eyes. The dark unicorn leaned forward and picked something off my face.

“Hold your hoof out”

“What?”, I said doing as he asked.

Brandy placed a long green hair in my hoof, “Trying a new hair colour, agent Nox?”

I blushed, making the senior agent laugh quietly, “Come on, we need to go.”

We headed in the opposite direction to the briefing and training rooms, out toward a building I’d never been in before. Security was always tight here but nopony ever mentioned it, or asked about it. Truthfully, the whole place was so security conscious anyway, it hadn’t really registered with me until I was standing at the door presenting my ID card.

The door swished open, the guards waving us through. It was bright inside, which was typical of the agency. Not suprising if you considered walking around in sunglasses even indoors, was standard practice. I kept mine on habitually now, not out of any fashion sense, but more because I was sick to death of the stares my eyes drew. 

I’d managed to hold onto the reactive light eye lenses which we’d recovered from the wharf ‘incident’ and they were great. They’d allowed me to get the drop on the goons at the statue, but they didn’t alter my eye colour in any way, just darkening when subject to bright lights. The reactive ear defenders worked along the same lines with sound, amazing considering these were made by intelligent monkeys.

We entered a large room which was in complete darkness, save for a spill of light from around the door we’d just entered through. Brandy touched his TED,

“Lights please”

A low humming changed into loud clicks and pings as row after row of lights came to life, illuminating the massive object in the middle of the room. The elaborately carved stone, arched and inlaid with silver, was quite beautiful in a strange way. Architecturally, it was most impressive, standing upright on a dais, three steps leading up to it from the front and rear. Various contraptions sat on tables next to it churning out rolls of paper which just seemed to be designed to display zigzag lines. Probably meant something to somepony…

“This it?”, I asked. 

“Aye, it’s a beauty isn’t it?”, Brandy smiled looking up at the arch, ”Picked it up from the warehouse job you were involved in at Shire Wharf. Thing is, we’ve managed to get this one working.”

“How? The watch tried everything to get one of these going and the ponies we picked up wouldn’t say anything. Goddess knows, we tried.”

“Mmmm, you’re right”, Brandy ran a hoof over the edge of the portal, “You know why?”

I shook my head.

“Because there was a suggestion in the brains, a threat, not to disclose anything about the portals. The suggestion was magical and buried, buried deep. It took our specialists only up until recently to discover a way to defeat it, but they did. In actual fact, you know the pony who gave us what we wanted to know.”

“Jingo”

Brandy stomped a hoof for emphasis, “Got in one”.

“So, any particular reason you’re showing this to me now. I mean, we’ll be going in as a team, won’t we?”

The agency stallion hung his head for a moment and turned to face me. I sighed, shaking my mane, “We’re not…” I said quietly.

“No. Fairlight, this is what you were picked by the Mistress to do, this is your time.”

“My time? What about everypony else?”

He nodded, “The others are going in ten minutes before you and through a different portal.”

“I don’t understand and I’m not sure I’m going to like the answer either”

Brandy looked a little sad, “Probably not. You see, the agency are going in to assault a human run complex which we believe is used to store and distribute the weapons coming into Equestria”

“And?”

“Its not the full story. Theres another building, one which our scouts found and isn’t widely know about outside of agency supervision. Its used to manufacture drugs, Breeze and Ryetalin. Theres…theres something else too”

“Slaves”, I said dejectedly. 

“Aye. The place my daughter and ex-wife would have ended up in. According to intel, the humans have been keeping the females there in a brothel. We think its because the risk of allowing non-humans out into the wider population, even as slaves, could tip off their authorities, thus risking their operation.”

“Sounds plausible”, I mused, “not sure you’d want to keep all your eggs in one basket though, one mistake and you lose the whole lot”

“True, but then we believe the sex trade hasn’t been going on that long, initially it was drugs and guns in exchange for gems. When the gems started drying up, we started seeing the first kidnappings. We spoke to some of the local diamond dog leaders who claimed the last of the gems had been stolen from their mines by a single mare. We’re looking into that now, but don’t expect we’ll find many leads, the dogs are as thick as two short planks”.

I chuckled, “You can say that again, but at least they don’t eat them.”

“Eat them!? Oh! That little dragon in Ponyville?”

“Yeah, I saw him quite regularly, works in the library”

“Well at least we don’t have to worry about dragons. This is a sweep and clear mission. Go in, destroy the drug making and weapons construction equipment and, if you can find them, get those ponies back”.

“Priority and secondary targets?”

“Officially? Taking the place out is the primary objective, the ponies second. I say they can stick that up their arses. Fairlight, get them out of there, for the goddesses sake, I don’t want any more of our people to suffer. What those bastards did to my…”, he shook his mane, closing his eyes and took a breath, “…never mind, at least we got to them before they were sent there.”

I reached out a hoof to console Brandy, “I’m sorry my friend, how are Carnation and Flax?”

The agent neighed quietly and looked me in the eye, “A lot better, thanks to you. I don’t think things will ever be as they were with Carny, she blames the agency for what happened to her and Flax.”

“But that’s ridiculous!”

He rounded on me, “Is it? Its not the first time agency ponies families have been targeted. Someponies trying to send a message, Fairlight, and not a pleasant one at that”.

I had a sudden image of a tangerine and green mare. Brandy seemed to be able to read my mind.

“Don’t worry Captain, the doctor has advised Tingles to sit this one out. She was furious, but understood that her weakened condition could put us all in danger.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and yet, I was struck with a feeling that this was wrong, that she should be involved in something as important as this. My desire to protect her shouldn’t interfere with her making her own decisions and doing what she felt was right. My bloody past was clouding my judgement, was I wrong? Didn’t I trust her?

“Fairlight? I know what you’re thinking, I’m not stupid”

“Sir?”

“You know perfectly well what I mean, and no, there’s nothing clandestine behind Tingles not going on this mission. The doctor genuinely feels she needs a while longer to recuperate. Apparently, good bed rest is the best cure, I presume you are ‘allowing’ her to rest Captain?”

He raised his eyebrows and treated me to a wry grin.

“Of course! Bloody hell Brandy, you’ve got a mucky mind”

“Says the pony with the green hair on his face”

I could feel my cheeks burning in embarrassment, “Look, never mind that, tell me more about this mission.”

“That’s about it really. You’re on your own as we don’t expect any resistance following the initial assault.”

“You’re using the others as a decoy?”

“In a word…yes, although you will not repeat that to any of them. Understood Captain?”

“Yes sir”

Brandy trotted over to a locked side room and waved me over as he flicked the lights on inside. The room was full of guns, body armour and weapons of every description and size. He ignored them, his attention focussed on the table in the centre of the room. On it sat a large wooden box, plain except for that it was covered in magical wards. Three large black X’s were painted on the side. 

The stallion held his ID card over the box and the lid clicked. A quick flare of his horn and the lid was floated off and he beckoned me over to look inside.

“You like?”

“Oh…fuck yes…!”

The box held six M.A.D’s. These were banned in Equestria, but we knew that somewhere, some existed still as a deterrent from foreign invasion. I should say, that we…suspected. None had ever turned up, but the description was all too accurate. Small purple and green spotted egg’s, looking very similar to dragon eggs, but each one had a deep green glow. Moving my horn near them, sent it wild with that strong itch I got whenever an intense magic field was nearby. These things were insanely dangerous.

“Brandy, where the hell did you get these? What are they for?”

“For you, of course. The human installation needs neutralising and these will be the best way to achieve that result.”

“Goddesses Brandy, you want to start a war? You set these off and you could wipe out an area the size of a city block!”

“True, but our scouts have taken measurements Captain, if you set these up, according to plan, the blast radius will cover the site and that alone. The humans have set their operation up in a remote area which suits us nicely for this job.”

“Is there no way we can liaise with the human authorities, Brandy? Surely they have something akin to the watch or the agency there? Could be invaluable allies for us.”

“We’ve sent envoys already, Captain. The authorities seemed to have enough problems of their own and dismissed our attempts at communication as fantasy stories. Maybe a different approach is needed, but if this works we could potentially shut them down completely.”

“You believe that?”

“No, but I have to have hope. At least until we can find a way to shut down the portals, and thats something the hub quacks are looking into. Bunsen thinks she may have found a way to interfere with their magical wavelength, but how do you get this countrywide?”

I nodded, it was a quandary and one being addressed by ponies far better qualified than myself. This job was something I was qualified for, one that would involve wading fetlock deep in gore, if not deeper.





Celestia fuck me, ‘Magical Annihilation Device’, M.A.D for short. You’d have to be insane to go near one, let alone use one. I wondered if my magic alone could be enough, but if our magic was reduced over there, it probably wouldn’t be. Would these things even work there?

Brandy clopped me on the forehead, “And here’s your instructions and briefing. Plus, a little something from the Mistress. Oh, and you’ll find these a lot easier to read if you don’t sit on them first.”

He smirked and I frowned back at him before shrugging my shoulders in resignation. The cheeky sod, he must have seen me walking out of the briefing with them stuck to my arse. It was probably all round the canteen too…agh!

Brandy and I spoke for a while longer regarding the specifics of the plan, the timings, gear load outs. It was suprisingly detailed. I really didn’t like using the agency ponies as bait, but they still had a job to do. They would be using engineers to plant their explosives and bail out the way they’d come in. Due to the proximity to the portal, they were using lower yield devices.

A lot seemed to be riding on unknowns too. The number of humans on the other side, likely response to any attack and so on. It was all a risk, but one the planners had genuinely done their best to make as foalproof as possible. 

Brandy and I walked out and shook hooves before I trotted back to my room and a quiet study of the documents and briefing. Tonight, I’d have to say goodbye to Tingles, I prayed I’d see her again. This mission, reading the documents…it was a lot riskier than I’d initially thought. We were unused to the ‘human’ bodies and I hoped to the good goddesses that the simulator was as accurate as we’d been told. The scouts, whoever they were, were not from our facility and as this was a joint op with ponies from across Equestria, command and control was going to be an issue.

I’d asked Brandy about this, “The agency don’t know about what i’m doing, do they? This is an Equus job.”

He’d nodded, “Keep your distance from them Captain, they have their orders and you have yours.”

“And if it all goes to shit?”

“Improvise”

That had ended that conversation, and now I was making equipment lists, checks and ensuring I had enough flasks with me to get me through this, and back. It was getting late and I yawned feeling my body crying out for a nice relaxing sleep. Speaking of which, I thought I’d heard the door open behind me.

Two long equine forelegs draped themselves over my shoulders, the neat little hooves…hang on! Whats this!

“Fairlight, you okay?”

“I’m fine! What have you got on your legs?”

“These? My socks, it’s freezing in my room, the thermostats playing up again”

“Good grief Tingles…”

She looked down at the long black and white striped socks covering her hooves and knees, “What? They’re just socks…”

Oh goddesses, why me…

The day arrived. The teams had a final briefing and, for show, I’d been there too. I even thought I’d seen Warlock across the room from me looking as happy as ever. I still had no idea what had happened to him, although I had a sneaking suspicion why.

We all trotted off to the equipment stores and for our respective assembly areas. Brandy met me in the high security building where my ‘special’ equipment was waiting.

My kit was the usual loadout of black combat gear, webbing and packs. Flashbugs, assorted other toys, the pulse gun, PDW, this list went on and on. The MAD’s fit into a small pack along with a timer and remote detonator, they’d thought of everything. I had too, a good amount of the silver life giving liquid had been delivered to my room in time to top up my flasks. My shortsword, complemented the issue gear and I felt ready for anything. 

Brandy clopped me on the shoulder, “Got everything Nox?”

“Aye, looks like everything but the kitchen sink sir.”

“Fully charged?”

I gave a snort, “To the fill level, including the pulse gun.”

Brandy nodded, “Sorry I can’t come with you my friend, the Mistress has something else planned for me”

“Anything exciting?”

“Don’t know the full details yet, but its important. If I can, I’ll talk to you about it when you get back.”

The doors at the back of the large room banged open, followed by angry shouting and a tangerine mare running full tilt towards me. One of the guards raced after her, grabbing her around the neck and taking her to the ground.

Brandy and I rushed over, “Tingles!”, Brandy shouted at her, “For the goddesses sake, what are you doing in here!?”

She ignored him, trying to buck the guard off her back, “Goddess damn it! Let me up!”

I waved off the guard, “Its ok, she’s with us.”

The guard was not impressed, “She kicked Sunny Days in the face! He’s going to need medical care after this. That mare’s a fucking menace!”

Brandy walked over to console the bedraggled agent, “Its alright agent Race, leave her with me, you call the medics for agent Days and get him looked at. I’ll take care of things here”

She reluctantly nodded and stalked off, saving a final glare for Tingles as she did. The tangerine mare for her part, stood up and brushed herself off.

“YOU!”, she bellowed at me, “You upped and left without a bloody word! Goddesses Fairlight, don’t you think I’d have liked to have had the chance to see you off? I thought I meant more to you than that! We’re partners for Celestia’s sake”

“I didn’t want to worry you, and rightly so! Look at the state you’re in, you should be taking it easy like the doc said to”.

“Oh, fuck the doctor! Don’t be so bloody self righteous Fairlight, you’ve really hurt me by doing this, don’t you realise?”

Tears started to well in her eyes, “I’m not a stupid foal you know, I realise this mission is dangerous and…and what if you don’t come back? What if the last time I saw you was last night and I never got a chance to say…goodbye?”

I went to put a hoof on her shoulder but I didn’t get a chance. Like a streak of orange lightning, he foreleg whipped round and her hoof smacked me across my muzzle.

“Damn you! I hate you Fairlight!”

She lunged forward and grabbed me in a bear hug, squeezing so tightly I thought my eyes would pop out of my head. Tingles sobbed into my mane, her whole body wracked with spasms of grief,

“I hate you, you bloody idiot…”

I nuzzled her neck and put my forelegs around her with a little nip on the ear, “I didn’t want to wake you and say goodbye, because I’ll be home soon. The table at the bar will be waiting for us”

She released her grip and looked at Brandy, “You’d better not have sent him on a suicide mission Brandy, or you’ll be going to the herd to get him back, yes?”

He gulped and took a step back, the tangerine Pegasus meant business. With a quick shake of his mane, he checked the time and trotted to the control panel.

“Its time, Captain.”

A few presses of the buttons and my horn began to itch like crazy. The portals frame glowed with a white light and seemed to implode suddenly, the space inside now swirling with a deep silvery white shimmering energy. I’d seen one of these before, when the beautiful white unicorn walked through and ordered her goons to gun down my friends. The memory stirred a feeling of apprehension and excitement, I wanted to do this, to bring the whole sickening affair to a close. If indeed it could be.

I walked over to the ramp, looking at Brandy on one side of me and Tingles on the other.

“Don’t think of it”, I warned her, “I want you here for when I get back, understood agent Tingles?”

She nodded and our eyes met. The deep green eyes shimmered in the light of the portal, patterns dancing across her coat. By Celestia’s grace, she was so beautiful. My traitorous heart was pounding so hard I thought it was burst, and not from anxiety over the mission either.

Agent Tingles stepped forward and pulled me into a kiss which, although surprising me at first, I melted into. Our lips crushed against each others, her tongue hungering, breath warm and feminine. I hugged her tightly and we finally, heart wrenchingly, had to part.

Tingles nuzzled my neck and I gave her ear a little lick, “One last thing…?”

“Hmmm?”, she sighed.

“Socks” I whispered into her ear with a cheeky grin.

She whinnied and clopped me on the shoulder, “Pervert!”. I laughed, and re-adjusted my gear one last time.

“Come on then hero, you’ve got a job to do. I’ll be waiting…”, she winked and as I climbed the steps gave me a playful slap on the behind.

Brandy shook his head in dismay, “Good luck Nox, Goddesses bless you.”

With a wave of a hoof, I stepped into the light, and into the unknown.


END OF BOOK TWO