"It's cold... It's dark... Where am I? Why am I here? And most important: Who am I?"
It's just like a bad dream: A filly awakes in a cold and dark prison cell. She has no idea how she got there or who imprisoned her, she doesn't even know her own name anymore. All she knows is that she has to get out of there...
Her escape, however, might flare up a struggle of ancient powers, fighting over the very future of Equestria!
A painful tearing pain behind the forehead ripped her out of the merciful gloom of unconsciousness. Slowly, painful slowly, her mind followed up.
Where am I? This question oozed through the red mist in her head. She casted up her eyes. Longer than just for a moment, her vision was blurred and unclear, like if she had forgotten how to see sharp. Forgotten… Hold it, forgotten? Was there not something she had forgotten? Something really important?
“Who am I?” the filly whispered. This new question drilled into her head like a knife and at once ousted the question of the where. She had to press both front hoofs against her temple, else she feared her head would burst.
But her skull didn’t burst, of course. And over time, the pain even ceased a little, just enough so she could turn her attention towards other matters. At first towards herself: In the dim light she could make out that she was wearing some kind of grey gown, more a wrap actually, lashed down at both sides, and beneath the wrap she could feel her ribs poking through her fur and a hollow feeling in the stomach told her she hadn’t eaten for quite a while. Even worse, a damp cold was slowly creeping through the cloth and her fur. She shivered.
Uncertainly the filly got up. Her legs were trembling, but she believed she could around the room if she was careful. It was a small cell – an adult pony could have covered it with just two or three steps. No windows, the diffuse light fell into the room from small openings near the ceiling, where a six-point star in a circle with strange symbols was engraved. There was nothing in this cell, just a hard stone bench with an uncomfortable bed and a bordered hole in the ground one didn’t even want to imagine what it was for. There was nothing in this cell, maybe except for the heavy, locked, wooded door blocking the only way out.
That was enough to drive one into despair! She neither knew where she was nor how she was supposed to get out again. In front of this door, this adamant bulwark, she sank to the floor and left her head hanging low.
There were these questions again: Where am I? What’s going on here? Who am I?
Then suddenly, she heard something. There were hoof beats outside her booth, hoof beats and voices. And if she pressed her ear at the door really tightly she could even understand what they were saying!
A stallion, a bit nervous judging by his tone, said: “Master Nightshade I cannot quite understand why you wanted to implicitly visit the closed ward.”
“Is it not obvious, Doctor Ragstitch?” Master Nightshade replied. His voice was, even muffled by the door, impressing: Deep and mysterious, with a slight, yet uncommon accent.
“Once I have seen what I am here to see, I will no longer keep you from your work.”
“Like I mentioned before, the rerum animae are not really my specialist field. Whereas my collega Calm Mind…”
Doctor Ragstitch fell silent as Nightshade didn’t react to him: “Impressive, these doors.” Somepony knocked against a cell’s door. “Nonetheless, they remind me of a gaol, far more than of a place of healing. Is this what an asylum is? A prison?”
Asylum? the filly wondered. Rerum animae? Prison? What in tarnation are they talking about?
“This patch is for those inpatients who are a danger for themselves or others. Highest security. Five inches thick stone oak doors, with built in security locks, as far as I know, and each one is magically sealed. Absolutely spell-proof, no magic can be cast inside. Some of the cells padded so the inpatients cannot hurt themselves. Thank Celestia, most of the cells are currently empty. I hope her majesty will be content with the arrangements?”
The two stallions now stood right in front of the filly’s door.
“Number Five. Who is in there?” asked Nightshade; he still wasn’t paying the slightest attention to the Doctor’s remarks.
“Master Nightshade, are you even listening?” Ragstitch wanted know, now after all slightly angered.
“Who is in there?” the other just repeated, this time with a little vigour.
“All right, all right… Cell number five, patient A-16. Give me a moment… Strange, there are no files in this folder, I presume they’ll be on the desk in Calm Mind’s work room then.”
"Quite revealing.”
A scratching sound at the door made the filly jump back with shock. Withal, her own legs got in her way; they ravelled and the filly landed rudely on her butt. Stock-still she sat there, with her heart beating in her throat and her eyes glued to the cell’s entrance. Suddenly, a small viewing window opened as a small panel was slid aside in the upper third of the door. Through that porthole, framed by a black mane, peeked a pair of eyes, foreign somehow and of deep violet tone. The eyes were so awe-inspiring and hypnotic at the same time, they were entrancing the filly’s glance; the fur around them was so dark it almost looked black as well. It seemed as if the look of these strange violet eyes was reaching down into the filly’s very soul and for just a moment she thought to see something else behind these eyes. Something even more alien…
Then the eyes widened with surprise. The stallion in front of the window muttered something in a foreign tongue she didn’t understand. But if she was getting the tone right, he was surprised.
He closed the slide again but though the eyes had disappeared the filly could do nothing for a while but stare at the place where they had been before. Then after half a dozen heartbeats, eventually the spell broke. The filly jumped to her feet. Then she ran up against the door, literally. She dashed against it and pounded with her front hooves against the thick wood. “Get me out!” she cried at the two stallions on the other side of the door. “Please, get me out of here!”
As hard as she was at all capable of, she buckled the door with her hind legs, however, nothing happened. The stallions made no move whatsoever to let her out and the blasted door didn’t even have the decency to creak in its hinges…
“Please…” All strength faded from her voice and her calls for help turned into stifled sobbing. “Please… open the door… Please…”
Hot tears of despair were pouring down her cheeks and falling down to the ground, where she cuddled up like a picture of misery.
“I want out of here…” she whimpered, but with little hope left. “Please… Let me out…”
***
The sorcerer Nightshade closed his eyes and took some deep breaths, tried to shut his ears for the desperate cries of the filly in the cell. There was so much else he had to consider. With a last side glance at this particular locked door the unicorn turned away and started back.
“It sure looks like if these doors would be worth their money, does it not?” Doctor Ragstitch remarked uneasily. Meanwhile the cries of the filly had turned into muffled sobs.
Then the physician asked: “Is anything wrong with you?”
Excitedly the young physician, he was a unicorn with pale coat and watery blue eyes, brushed some colourless strands out of his face, then adjusted his eyeglasses that had almost slipped down to the peak of his muzzle again.
“I would be happy to examine you, if you are not feeling well”, the Doctor provided like casually while pacing after Nightshade, following the dark unicorn back to the more pleasant parts of the institution.
Nightshade shot a killing glance at his opposite. I bet on that, he thought. Doctor Rag Ragstitch was an ambitious pioneer on the field of physic, but Nightshade had already heard about Doctor Ragstitch’s dubious fascination for the internal structure of living beings. Scientifically this seemed to called anatomy, and Nightshade had no doubt he was starting to interest in HIS anatomy. Nonetheless, the physician was quaint, quaint but not evil per se…
“Doctor Ragstitch, I do not require your knives, but your help.” Nightshade’s violet eyes were sparkling in the dim evening light. “There is something important I need to discuss with you…”
***
The filly was stunned, locked up in a dark room for no visible reason what so ever, with probably no prospect to see daylight again; cold, hungry and lonely. In one word she couldn’t imagine anything worse right now… In this state she could only weep freely. And after even her tears had run dry, she just lay there halfway leaned against the door, he head completely empty. She didn’t notice at all how time went by and the cell went darker and darker in the cell until it was almost pitch black.
Then impetuously she heard a metallic scratching followed by a hollow ‘thunk’. The filly raised her head. This change of circumstances, be it as tiny as it may, it at once kindled a little spark of will power. Slowly she let her eyes wander over the wood, then she searchingly pressed her shoulder against it.
The door creaked… And moved! Just one inch but clearly sensible.
Bewilderedly, the filly stared at the cell’s door. “It has inched”, she said to herself, like dreaming. “The door really has moved.”
She struggled to get up on her legs again.
I have to get out of here, she thought. Out, out, out.
With both hooves she braced against the door and pressed, inch by inch she pushed the heavy wooden door open until she eventually was squeeze herself through the gap; now suddenly she was glad she was so small and emaciated…
The hallway outside was dim and eerie, stone floor, naked, plain, stone walls and far too little oil lamps, which by far weren’t enough to light up everything. Step by step and incredibly slowly, so her hoofs made as few beats as possible, the filly snuck down the corridor.
***
“Hey, hallo! Anypony there?”
***
The voice came so unexpected the filly screamed out with shock.
“Whoa, relax! No reason to shout the whole house down!
It was a pegasus colt, maybe ten years old. His coat was light blue, but his mane was far too bleached out to divine which colour it once might have been. He was peeking through an open cell door.
“So, what’s going on here?” he then asked.
“You tell me!” the filly demanded instead of an answer.
“I wish I could. Just woke up and then I realize I’m sitting in an empty prison cell.”
She ran her hooves through her shaggy mane. “It’s almost the same for me. Tarnation, I have to get out of here, or else I’ll lose my mind!”
“Haven’t you lost it already?” the pegasus commented carelessly. But as the filly angrily flashed her eyes at him in the half-dark, he at once corrected himself. “Um, I wanted to ask, if everything’s alright with you. Just saying, you’re looking terrible!”
The filly snivelled. “Not really helping either…”
“Blasted, why can’t I ever shut it? My father always told me to watch my mouth… But you’re right. We have to get out of here! Namely, before any jailers or torturers or anything alike get here.”
The pegasus colt now stepped out in the hallway as well and tryingly flapped his wings. A white cloud was visible on his flank, the filly a little jealously noticed. She had no Cutie Mark of her own yet.
“That reminds me: What is your name, by the way?” the colt asked. Whereby he had absolutely hit a sore point.
The filly whose state wasn’t too stable in any case, squinted her eyes, raised her foreleg to her head and stumbled against the wall. Suddenly, her headache hit again, almost as fierce and unbearable than earlier. “I don’t know”, she grinded. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t…”
The blue pegasus carefully nudged her at the shoulder.
“Alright, now you’re scaring me! Is really everything right with you?” He bowed down close to her, but she at once turned her head to hide she was blushing beneath her fur.
“I’m… I’m fine”, she muttered.
“Well then, let’s start over again: My name’s Cloud. Cloud Dash”, the pegasus said and put out his hoof. “Very pleased to make thy acquaintance, maiden without name!” He made a bow in front of her.
Against her will and despite her situation, she had to smile. “Now you’re sounding like a noble of some sort.”
“Is that so?” Cloud chuckled. “Can’t imagine where that comes from. All better now?”
The filly nodded.
“Then let’s get going and finally bolt this dungeon!”
And so they explored the sombre hallway together, by the light of the oil lamps. The cells to the left and the right were all empty and black, like the gaping eye sockets of a skull or toothless jaws. Actually in this quiet part of the building, there was nothing besides the foals but darkness. Unfortunately, all foals are afraid of the dark…
The filly let her thoughts wander, just so she didn’t have to think all too much about those youwning doorways, and also to distract herself from the insidious cold. All this seemed so surreal, and made so little sense, just like a bad dream. To wake up in a dark and desolate place, knowing nothing at all… Horrible! And then how these stallions had talked to each other back then… Then something came to her mind, something she had to tell Cloud Dash.
“You know, earlier”, she thus started in a whisper. “I overheard two stallions talking in front of my cell. One of them called this place an ‘asylum’. Sounds familiar?”
“An asylum?” Cloud cried out, before recalling that in their current situation he should’ve been quieter. “An asylum?” he repeated whispering. “Mayhaps the asylum of Hollow Shades? In the House of Healing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
“I should have known it! Calm Mind, this lousy rat!”
The two of them had meanwhile almost reached the end of the corridor. There had just to pass one more cell to get to a lattice gate. Behind that gate, the corridor was far better lit by brighter oil lamps.
“Say, what is that anyway, an asyslum?” the filly asked.
***
“An asylum is a mad’ouse, lassie!”
***
It wasn’t Cloud Dash who answered. The voice sounded like it came right from a tomb. Again the filly gave a shriek.
“Um, not that I want to complain, but”, Cloud moaned in an undertone. “If you… squeeze me any harder you would be suffocating me…”
It was true, in her shock had clung firmly around Cloud Dash’s neck. She was practically hugging him. A foreign colt. Very tight… Jumpily, she let go Cloud again, her head crimson like a tomato with embarrassment. How awkward…
The colt however now stepped forward to rally her.
“Spit it out, who are you?” he demanded to know. At that he tried to give his voice a firm tone. Unfortunately he still sound a lot like the foal he was…
“Me?” Through the prison bars of window in the door to their right reached a pair of scraggy hooves. “Me name’s Green. Herbal Green.”
“Herbal Green”, Cloud noted, wondering. “You are the healer of Hollow Shades, aren’t you?”
“I used to be. But then that devil Calm Mind ‘as locked me up in ‘ere.”
Due to his excitement, Herbal Green suffered a coughing attack. Both foals retreated a few steps more from the cell’s door.
“Air in ‘ere is poison for me lungs” the captive healer coughed. “And I can’t even use me ‘ealin’ spells. Blasted magic seals. Anyway… Eh, say, you couldn’t ‘aply get the keys for me cell, could you?”
“And why should we?” the filly asked. She was still half-hiding behind Cloud.
“Yeah, why should you?” Herbal Green said with pretended cluelessness. “Why should you? Cause I am familiar with the House of Healing, and you ain’t. Cause I know, where the janitor ‘ides ‘is key for the main gate? That’s why.”
That sounded evident.
“And you’ll help us, if we free you?” Cloud Dash broached the subject again.
“Naturally. One good turn deserves another. I dan know, what this madpony Calm Mind is plannin’. But when we stick together ‘er plans will go up in smoke!”
“All…Right” the pegasus colt drawled. “Then tell us where to find the cell keys…”
“First you need to get through this gate next to me cell. It’s locked with a deadbolt from the other side, but that’s no problem. You’re small, you should be able to reach through the bars and open the lock.
Then you go down the corridor and up the stairs to the second floor until you reach Calm Mind’s working room. You can’t miss it ‘cause ‘er name’s on the door. She keeps the keys in a drawer of ‘er working desk.”
And with that Herbal Green let go of the prison bars and drew back into the shadows of his cell. Cloud and the filly turned to the lattice gate. The space between the entwined bars was indeed too small for the hoof of an adult pony, but the filly had no problems to reach through. Standing upright on her hind legs she tucked her complete fore leg up to her shoulder through the gap and groped for the bar.
Klick. The door swung open with a pitiful creak.
“That was convenient”, Cloud smirked. “But now carefully: I shouldn’t wonder if they had night guards on patrol here…”
They went down the hallway, always on guard. The stone floor was as protection almost as good as a nightingale floor. Even the hooves of a foal caused far more noise with every single step than was good for anypony who had to rely on secrecy. And again, the fillies had to practically crawl down the corridor, and that costed time; more than they could actually afford for even this night wouldn’t last forever.
As they eventually stood in front of the staircase, they had to realize it was a challenge of its own. It was an old, heavy oaken staircase and stairs like these creaked, that was very nearly law of nature. But they could climb up step by step, carefully treading always on the edge of the stairs, never on the middle; Cloud ahead and the filly following. That way it actually went pretty well for a while. Until suddenly, the filly stepped on a loose plank!
The board moaned, an ugly, malicious sound, seeming to echo through the silence of the nocturnal asylum like an ill-tuned signal horn.
The filly stopped dead in her tracks, her heart beating in her throat. But no bloodthirsty night guards came bolting from any rooms and also no care workers. Everything remained silent. Cloud Dash turned around putting one hoof to his lips and portended her to stay silent. Still nothing. The colt waited for another few moments, then he nodded and continued to climb the stairs.
“I don’t get it”, the filly allowed to give vent to her bewilderment once they had reached the upper floor. “Why does nopony come to see what that noise was?”
“Guess ponies here have gotten used to creaking stairs at night, because this house is haunted”, Cloud told her. He wasn’t looking her into the eyes though.
The mere thought of ghosts, furthermore probably the spirits of the madponies who had died a horrid death within these walls, was very well enough to spook her out.
“Haunted?” she had by a whisker screamed. Her went eyes wide with horror.
“Why, of course.” Her friend shrugged his shoulders. “All madhouses are haunted, you know?”
The filly started to shiver; she felt like she was going to faint any minute. But as Cloud Dash turned to her and saw her terrified face he couldn’t stifle a grin.
“Oh dear, I am sorry” he chuckled. “I just wanted to scare you a little. Don’t be afraid, there are no ghosts in here. But you really should’ve seen your face…”
“You’re stupid”, she answered and hit him at the shoulder with her hoof, but not too hard. Then she squeezed past him.
The new hallway looked downright cosy with wood panels on the walls and well furbished lamps in artful holders. But unfortunately… Speaking of nightingale floors: This one was covered with stalls on which hooves clattered almost as loud as on stone and which could creak as bad as old wooden stairs.
But still, nothing happened, as the two foals carefully moved over the moaning planks. The whole house stood silent. They passed a few empty patient’s rooms and some closets and wardrobes, then they saw the door of Calm Mind’s working room. Herbal Green had proven right, the name plate spelling ‘C. Mind, MD, AD, physician in charge’ in large, golden letters stuck out a mile!
“What a bighead…” The filly muttered in disbelief. Cloud Dash however seemed to be far more interested in the closet next to the door. Actually he had already put his head in and was rummaging around inside.
“What are you doing”, the filly hissed. “We don’t have time for that, we still need to look for the keys!”
“I’m checking up if I can find anything useful, whatcha think?” Cloud rejoined as cool as you please. The filly just shook her head and turned back to the door.
Colts, she thought. Then she pushed the door handle for testing purpose.
“Locked”, she said, resigning.
“Naturally”, replied Cloud Dash. “Had to be expected.” Nothing ever seemed to be able to becloud his mood. He proudly held up a small and metallically sparkling something.
“But if the lock’s not all too safe I’ll get it open with this needle in some way or another.”
With that, Cloud took the strong and slightly bent needle between his teeth and put it into the keyhole.
“You know how to pick locks?” the other foal asked, absolutely fascinated.
“Beats me!” Cloud answered her question. “Just kind of have a hunch for that, you know?”
Right now he once again sizeably rose in her esteem. Actually she had to admit she had already grown pretty fond of her newfound fellow in suffering.
“Now here we go” Cloud smirked triumphantly. He pressed the handle again and lo and behold, he could tear the door open. “The lot a needle can be good for, innit?”
They entered the Doctor’s study room. As ostentatious as the name plate had been, as massive was the writing desk dominating the room, heavy and black in the sombre chamber. The only light was cast by the moon shining through a large glass window in the back. Quietly the closed the door behind them.
It was a striking working room and the filly felt very uneasy just being here. Carefully she looked around. Over there on the wall hung a large mirror. Now for the first time, the filly saw herself ghostly illuminated by the moon: She was a unicorn, off white with dust, little and lean, maybe as old as Cloud. Her mane was dishevelled and as her coat of an unfathomable colour though it once might have been blonde. Her eyes still were reddened from all the crying. Cloud was right, she really looked terribly wiped out.
With a breath of horror the filly stumbled back, scared as if the strange, shabby and wild looking pony in the mirror would leap at her any moment.
“Hey, watch out!” Cloud just tried to warn her. But the same second she already tumbled aback against the desk. An empty water glass on the surface was rocked by the impact.
Entranced by horror the foals stared at the crystal glass which was first knocked over and then tantalising slowly rolled over the edge of the tabletop. An endless moment the glass semed to float above the edge, then gravity won. The glass fell to the floor and shattered clashing on the parquet.
“Oh no” the filly whispered aghastly. “No, no, no, no, no….”
In her shock she bowed down and put out one hoof to the shards of glass. She prayed to the heavens nopony had heard the glass crashing. The creaking stair had been much louder, hadn’t it? And nopony had paid even the slightest interest to it, right? Maybe, just maybe there was the chance that…
…Outside the room, the planks started to creak.
Oh, of course, now that the foals were trapped in a room with only one exit, somepony had heard the noise. And of course, whoever it was now came to check. Like a rabbit in front of a snake the filly waited for the inevitable, her head turned and her eyes glued to the door. The steps came closer and closer and the moaning of the paquet got louder and louder. Then they stopped. Through the gab under the door the foals could see that the stranger had to stand right in front of the room. They could even hear his heavy breath!
The filly squinted her eyes.
Please don’t, the begged in her thoughts. Please don’t! Nopony’s in here, just go on! Please!
And then a wonder occurred!
“Blasted mice”, a brittle voice railed. “Alwus makin' such a note at noight so auld Rover canny sleep. Jist wait 'til the-morra, den Rover’s gonna smoke yer al' oyt!”
The steps went off again.
Until Rover was completely out hearing range, the foals remained in their rigour. Then Cloud slumped down to the ground in relief. “Thanks Celestia, that was close”, he sighed. He raised his head and his look fell on the unicorn filly.
“You’re bleeding”, he exclaimed.
The filly stared like thunderstruck at her right front hoof. From a deep cut at the pastern welled the blood.
“Let me see!” demanded Cloud. “Sweet Celestia, You’ve surely reached right into the shards!”
Indeed the twinkling shards now were stained with droplets of dark blood. Doubtlessly the filly had accidentally stepped into the broken glass when she had closed her eyes. She bit her lip and tried to ignore the pain. Bravely she shook her head. “It’s nothing”, she said, her voice trembling.
“It’s not nothing”, Cloud firmly. “We need to bind that!”
“Later, Cloud. First we need to get the key.”
The filly limped around the writing desk, irrespective of her blood trickling down her hoof and dripping on the floor. She was a unicorn, alright, but she wasn’t sure if or how exactly she could use magic. Therefore she pulled out the drawers with her teeth. In the third one she stroke it rich: Keys, big, old copper keys with numbers on the bows. The filly fetched out the key with the number one on it. The key to Herbal Green’s cell.
Just by incident, her gaze fell upon the writing desk, or rather on the inscribed papers that lay on the surface, conveniently illuminated by a ray of moonlight.
Patient A-16, she read, a little surprised by herself. She hadn’t know she was able to read. Then she remembered something else: Patient A-16? That was how Ragstitch had named her towards this other pony. This was HER file. Answers finally seemed within reach!
Her hoof was trembling as she fetched the papers from the desk. What an unbounded cheek, somepony had gone over the header of the file with paint, blacking out her name and the name of her treating physician…
With a growing mixture of excitement and uneasiness, and despite Cloud scrambling, she started to probe her newfound reading ability with the first sheet:
How she had been brought to the House of Healing, because a carriage had bumped into her, How the healers had started the treatment.
How nopony ever had come to visit her.
There it was again, the tearing pain in her head. She had to take a seat.
How the treating physician had excitedly scribbled something about an ‘experiment’.
How her condition was said to have aggravated more and more…
Her vision started to blur again, a high pitched buzzing noise filled her ears and her head felt like it was about to split again.
She didn’t want to, no she couldn’t read anymore! She couldn’t stand reading some disgusting physician describing in factual tone and neat writing how he or she had ruined a poor filly’s life.
Full of fury and despair she wiped the papers of the desk. Tears were burning in her eyes, without really thinking about it she started to paint, with her blood-stained hoof, a single sentence in red on a sheet:
WHO AM I
Her freshly renewed will to live now died out like a candle in the storm, extinguished by an abyssal dismay about such cold, calculating caprice as had happened to her. It wasn’t the rather childish fear of being hungry, cold and lonely she had felt before, no, this was the first time she experienced real and utter despair. How in Equestria was a little filly supposed to stand such a fate? Somepony had absolutely willingly destroyed her life until everything that represented her was torn apart. And that just for some ominous ‘scientific’ purpose, and she didn’t even know what that meant!
No, she did what probably anypony in her situation would have done. She couldn’t even cry anymore, she just sat down trembling like a leaf, willing to just stay here until somepony would come and bring her back to her cell, broken and defeated.
At this point indeed everything appeared lost to the filly, Cloud Dash however was not willing to give his friend up so easily. He kneeled down at her side.
“C’mon! Everything will come alright, huh? You can’t just give up no!” he tried to reason her. “We’re almost out, after all! And when we’re out, were gonna make them pay for what they did to you, right?”
But his persuation was to no avail, the filly just kept on trembling and emptily staring into the void. And so Cloud decided to adopt a rather drastic measure: He hugged her! The filly was boundlessly surprised; a little bit by the fact itself that she was able still to feel anything else besides despair. But clearly she could sense the warmth he gave her. And she could feel kind of embarrassed because he was hugging her, but she was far too confused to fight against his embrace.
And then all built up tension, all confusion and all despair dropped from her. She did the natural thing and started to cry, to weep silently until despair and pain were both gone. Then, when her tears had finally run dry, Cloud would loosen his embrace.
“There we are” Cloud smiled wryly. “Welcome back. When I was little somepony told me sometimes all you needed was a hug. Seems to be true.”
“You’re still stupid”, the filly sniveled. She hesitated for a moment. “Thank you”, she then added.
“Well. That’s what friends are for after all, isn’t it?”
He gave his friend a leg up. “Alright, now we first of all we’ll bind your hoof, then we’ll fetch the healer and get the hay out of here!”
Back in the corridor Cloud searched through the closet once more until he appeared with some muslin bandages. The filly barely wrapped the bandages around her hoof and tied them up with her teeth. It was a makeshift, but for the moment, it’d suffice. Then they made their way back to the dungeon where Herbal Green was already impatiently waiting.
***
He stretched himself and strained his back like he hadn’t just been imprisoned but also chained.
“Free eventually”, he faintly laughed and brushed his grizzled mane out of his unkempt, angular face. Jail clearly hadn’t benefitted him at all. Even his coat had lost all of its eponymous green, all his colour had faded to an empty grey. “You two ‘ave done very well!”
Then he seemed to recall something: “That is, one ‘urdle we still need to overcome. Well, a promise is a promise, let’s get the main key and quit this scene!”
His eye fell on the bandage around the filly’s hoof.
“ ’ave you ‘urt yourself? Once me magic comes back I’ll treat that, alwigh’? Come now, come now, no time to loose!”
The healer now took the lead. His magic was weakened by all the seal in his cell, but after a while he managed to conjure a lighting spell. It was a little unstable and flickered, but it allowed them to cross the asylum’s sombre hallways more swiftly. Herbal Green placed more value on speed than on secrecy, or as he had put it: Temerity wins. However he stroke a pretty fast pace for a pony with a limping hind leg.
“Sackcloth”, Cloud muttered in his friend’s ear with a side glance at Green’s patient gown. “Is this what ponies now wear? But it looks better on you than on him…”
“Shut up, Cloud.”
Suddenly the healer stopped dead in his tracks, so abruptly that the filly bumped into him.
“Shush, you two”, he hissed. “Go and ‘ide!”
The light at the tip of his horn died off and quickly threw himself into cover behind a wardrobe. Cloud and the filly followed his example and ducked behind into the shadow of a chest of drawers with a set of instruments on it.
Despite her fear the filly couldn’t help but peek over the edge of the tallcolt. A few steps ahead a door with the word anatomy written on it was opened and a white unicorn stallion in a medical gown stepped out. The lamplight was mirrored in his glasses and hid the pony’s eyes. He brushed his mane out of his face.
Suddenly the stallions ears strained and he turned his head to the very direction where the three breakaways were hiding.
“Was there something?” the stallion asked nopony in particular. The reflexion from his glasses ghosted through the hallway and over the furniture. The filly ducked in her hiding and held her breath.
“I cannot seem to get my head clear”, the physician muttered. “This does no good. I’m tired…”
And then he turned away and clip-clopping toddled down the hallway until he left through another door at the end of the corridor.
“Doctor Ragstitch”, hissed Herbal Green. He craned his neck and squinted after the other stallion. “This disturbed, bloody, rotten b…” A new coughing attack choked off his swearing. Then he concluded, a little out of breath: “I mean, ‘e belongs in a padded cell, too. But four-eyes has always been too dense to see the bigger picture. Anyway. we need to be careful if Ragstitch ‘as taken the same way out as we will.”
Green was far more tense than before, downright nervous and had to constantly muffle his coughing. And yet he doubled his haste and limped down the hallway as quickly as his stiff leg permitted.
“Alwigh’, I think ‘e’s gone”, he said after checking the door through which Ragstitch had disappeared. “You know, this once was a convent. The friars used to eat here.”
They entered a larger room with a high ceiling, indeed they still could see a brick-built fireplace in the entrance hall with iron hooks on both sides for the cauldron. Since this place had been turned to a place of healing somepony had placed benches and small trees in pots between the four mainstays.
Just as they had entered the hall, Herbal Green suffered the worst coughing bout so far. He frantically tried to stifle it, but to little avail.
Cloud grew impatient.
“So, master healer, where’s the key for the entrance door now?” he urged.
“Master Green, everything alright with you?” his friend instead wanted to know. She was worried because the cranking stallion didn’t look well at all. And so she went over to Herbal Green to see if she could do anything to help.
Oh, had any of the foals only paid closer attention! Then maybe they had noticed everything had went too smoothly until now. And maybe they would’ve grown suspicious…
And quite rightly so, because, yes, fate was already preparing for one last turn for the worse!
But as things stood, a completely unaware filly touched the healer at his shoulder. It was right at this moment, Green spun around on and noosed one foreleg around her leg like a vice. She wanted to scream but she couldn’t get enough air.
“Green, what’s that supposed to mean?” Cloud screamed instead for her.
The healer burst into a hoarse chuckle. “Did you never wonder why Calm Mind ‘ad me locked away in the first place?”
“Let her go, you nut!” the pegasus colt demanded with shrill voice. “Else what?” the haywire Herbal Green asked with a sickening and fiendish grin on his face. “’re you garn to stop me? ‘re you garn to shout the whole house down?” He chuckled again.
The unicorn-filly struggled in Green’s grip. “Cloud… Help”, she gasped panting for breath. Cloud acted promptly and snatched at a fire fork in the hearth.
He pulled and tugged until his head had turned from light blue to crimson red, but he just couldn’t lift the fork any single inch.
“Damn it, what’s with this blasted poker? Help us!” he yelled. “Help us! Murder!”
“Help us! Murder!” the healer parroted. “Don’t you get it? Nopony’s garn help you ‘cause nopony can ‘ear you screaming!” he hissed. “I recognized you right from the start. Cloud Dash from the ‘ouse Rainbow is dead. For two years now. You’re a ghost, no, not even that. You’re just a remembrance, a dream haunting the mind of mad ponies!” he spit against the colt.
Then he tilted his head and seemed to hearken for a moment. “Yes, naturally, yes. Kill her! Destroy the experiment! Kill her and destroy this delusion! You know, lassie, I fear ‘e wants you dead. Oh well, guess that’s it for you then…”
Cloud Dash just stood there like hit between the eyes. He was powerless, he could do nothing, he couldn’t even call for help! His desperate glance met the eyes of the filly and she saw the utter hopelessness in his eyes.
But this time it was her who wasn’t ready to give up. She had gone through hell twice this evening, and now it should end like that? She should just die, and that the worst way she could imagine?
Never, never, never!
With a final act of defiance, she forcefully cocked back her head, maybe to attack Green with her horn. That however went adrift, instead she gave the madpony a vigorous headbutt against his lower jar. Herbal Green at once let go of her.
Alas with that her resistance was already exhausted again. Her throat was burning and the lack of air made her see stars. The filly couldn’t stay on her hooves and dropped to the floor gasping for air.
The headbutt had perfectly wiped the grin off of his face, he was holding his aching chin, checking if the filly hadn’t perhaps broken his jaw. But his eyes sparkled with murderous intent all the more.
“You imbecile! Little! Brat!” he spat, a rill of blood trickling down one corner of his mouth. “I’m goin’ to enjoy this far more than I should! I’m goin’ to…”
He was interrupted by a sudden white flash lighting up the entrance hall as bright as the sun. A thunderclap rolled and Herbal Green tore open his eyes. “Ak”, he managed to bring forth.
Then he collapsed, thin curls of smoke rose from his back, at height of his shoulder blades.
“How unfortunate”, Doctor Ragstitch remarked and stepped out of the shadows. “Gladly I preside over more than just my knives”, he said with sparkling glasses. “Rather drastic but it should sideline him for an hour or two…”
The physician kneeled down next to the unconscious former healer and turned to the filly who was still avidly gasping for air.
“Did he hurt you?” he asked.
“Are you blind or something?” Cloud exclaimed. “Of course he’s hurt her!”
“You are not yet able to talk again, are you? Yes? Well, then let me see…” Ragstitch muttered. He completely ignored Cloud leading him to another outburst.
“Hey!” He tramped onto the physician and built himself up in front of him. “I’m talking to you!”
Doctor Ragstitch rose his head and for a moment he directly looked Cloud in the eyes. Then he blinked irritatedly and turned back to his patient.
“It can’t be…” Cloud whispered aghastly. “He doesn’t see me… He doesn’t hear me…”
Doctor Ragstitch got up again. “All right, my temporary diagnosis: Slight contusion on the voice box, but nothing serious. You will not carry away any lasting damages.” He took of his glasses and put them into the pockets of his gown. Then he turned to leave, still not noticing Cloud Dash…
“Oh yes, that is right…” Ragstitch turned back one more time. “Rover forgot to lock the gate. In about half an hour I will notice that on my inspection walkway and revise his mistake. Until then, my little filly, I believe you want to have made off.”
And with that, Ragstitch just left, leaving the door wide open…
Slowly the filly sat up; she still was a little out of breath and feeble.
“This… this… He wanted to… to kill me”, she stammered huskily. This was so surreal she didn’t even feel relief that it was over yet…
“I know…” Cloud replied, turning his back on her. “And this Ragstitch has saved you…”
He turned around to her fitfully and this time it was his turn to have tears in his eyes.
“I couldn’t do anything!” Clouds voice was barely understandable. “I couldn’t protect you…”
“But thanks to you…” she began.
“No”, Cloud interrupted her, shaking his head. “Ragstitch had been here all the time. He was hiding behind a pillar, just waiting for the right moment… I could do nothing, Herbal Green was right: I could do nothing because I’m dead. I’m not even really here…”
“But that’s not right! You lock-picked the door to Calm Mind’s room and you…”
But on that very moment, pictures came to her mind. She reviewed some of what had happened before; only now she realized the truth: She saw herself fishing out a needle from a drawer in that closet. Then how she had busted around with the needle in the lock of Calm Mind’s door. And finally how she had stained everything with her blood in search for bandages…
“It’s true”, Cloud sadly confirmed and took a seat next to her. “I’ve gotten some of your forgotten abilities from your, what’s it called? – Subconsciousness. I can do nothing you can’t because I’m not real…”
“So… What shall we do now?” the filly hesitantly asked. She tried to look everywhere but at the knocked out pony lying behind her.
“Way’s clear”, Cloud snuffled. “For half an hour, Stitch has said. You’re free, so go where you want, lay low and sing small!”
The filly looked at the dark rectangle of the doorframe for quite a time. Chilly night air was blowing into her face. Unsteadily she tried to get up.
“Freedom”, she eventually said. “Yes. Yes I am free now.”
And she put out her hoof for Cloud who was still sitting there like a drowned rat.
“We both are free now, Cloud.”
The pegasus colt slowly rose his head and looked at her.
“I don’t care whether you’re a ghost, or a memory, or whatever”, she firmly explained. “You’re my friend and we’ll stick together. I won’t just abandon you here!“
She took Cloud’s hoof and gave him a leg-up. Side by side they took the final step into freedom, out into the night. The unicorn filly who didn’t know who she was, and the pegasus colt who didn’t exist anymore…
The town of Hollow Shades was lit by autumn's golden morning light and ever so slightly veiled by shrouds of mist, arising from the already harvested fields and the surrounding woods, mainly consisting of a variety of conifers, but intermitted by some colourful broad-leaf trees like a patchwork rug. Hollow Shades itself was a small town, just barely big enough to be circumvent by a town wall, next to the shores of cold, clear lake, in the background the sky-high Veiled Mountains. Half-way around this lake a defiant castle rose above the waters. Truly picturesque indeed…
And the last place in Equestria where Firefly wanted to be right now! Once again and as she had done repeatedly for the last days, the young pegasus mare lamented her fate. Why, of all ponies, did those things always seem to happen just to HER?
It had been such a perfectly normal evening; and all she had wanted was to have a drink at the inn after a hard day in the casern. But then a half-drunk soldier had begun to mock her. He had made fun of her rose-coloured coat and how a mare could honestly believe to ever make the grade of a cadet’s surcoat. Firefly had replied as she replied answered to mockery and offence: She had bucked the stallion in the stomach… As hard as she could… In no time, the prettiest punch-up had been under way!
The end of the story were several broken tables, shattered bottles and glasses and a few black eyes and bruised rips, also on the part of Firefly herself and a unicorn stallion who had actually only wanted to hold her back. But due to her indescribable misfortune this stallion had to be a captain of the royal guard and thus in the proper meaning of the word… Her commanding officer…
Her instructor had been able to convince the captain to not have Firefly expelled from the guard. But she was commandeered to leave Canterlot and to continue her drill elsewhere. Namely at the back and beyond end of Equestria!
And by all means, that could be taken literally. Hollow Shades was located at the very north-eastern border of Equestria. Firefly was a pegasus and quite a good flyer, but even the fastest pegasus would need almost three days to get there. Firefly had needed five, because of a bad weather front over the Foal Mountains. The Weather Brigade was still trying hard to get the weather there under control…
In any case, this journey was not at all worth the effort, but Firefly wasn’t ready to give in; she knew that captain was counting on exactly that. He expected that she would never undertake the way to Hollow Shades and just leave the guard for good instead. Goodbye forever, problem solved. But she would rather have her wings clipped than to accept a defeat. That commanded her pride! She had no choice but to put up a brave front.
And so, after Firefly had went for another spin to get a better overview, she landed and folded her wings. Then she walked down the old trading route to the western gate of the town as it was proper manner.
The two bored earth pony guards at the gate had already noticed the pegasus who had been circling above them, but not paid further attention. But now as the pony in question was walking straight towards them, they had no choice but to pick up their halberds and do their work.
“Steady on! Who goes there and what business takes you this far out here?”
Firefly was unkindly stopped by the crossed lances of the two guards. They examined her with a saturnine expression. Firefly grimaced though she didn’t really know what was upsetting her about those guards. Maybe it was their attitude… The earth ponies were wearing scuffed and ill-fitting armor plates. They were not a patch on the royal guards in Canterlot! But after the arduous journey to Hollow Shades she was all but keen to pick a quarrel with the town guards and so she swallowed her anger and courteously hooved over her transfer papers.
“My name’s Firefly”, she added as a precaution. “Cadet of the royal guard. I am supposed to report to the guard house for duty.”
The guards took a quick glance at the seal on the papers and then stepped aside.
“No offence meant”, one of them said. “It’s our business to ask every trespasser questions. There’s queer folk about. But if you’re here to join the guard, alright! The guard house is just down here, next to the town square and the archives. You can’t miss it.”
The guard gave the papers back to Firefly and pointed down the street. She was not too sure if she still wanted to join the town’s guard. Being a guard in this town seemed neither glamourous nor adventurous, but anyway, life was never easy at the bottom. There had to come much more for Firefly to cut and run! And so she trotted down the paved lane; it was time to examine her new home.
****
It seemed to be market day in town and so there was quite some folk on the streets, earth ponies and some unicorns, most of them in sober colours and earthy tones, like brown, green and grey. Firefly stood out even twice, she wasn’t just the only pastel coloured pony in sight, but also the only pegasus. She attracted some prying glances, but nopony seemed really bothered about her.
The town itself mainly consisted of low buildings with thatched roofs. Shutters and doorframes were green, and Firefly noticed another detail that caught her curiosity: On some of the doors an uncommon symbol was carved in. It was the outline of a crescent moon. Interesting, this seemed to be some kind of crest, but Firefly couldn’t recall to have seen this kind of heraldry before.
Above the guard house’s entrance however, the well-known sun crest of the Princess was mounted to mark it as a formal building. But Firefly probably wouldn’t have missed it anyway: The house was one of only few with more than one floor. The other ones were primarly other offical buildings like the town hall and of course the belfry. The sign spelling ‘Town Ward’ itself was admittedly a bit mingy and simple, but Firefly guessed it was fitting for a small town like Hollow Shades.
She took a deep breath and entered through the heavy iron-bound door.
****
The scent of dust, old paper and lamp black greeted her as she stepped into the room. Had she maybe somehow taken the wrong door? This didn’t look like a watch room at all, the six rickety tables were overburdened with towers of books, piles of papers and scrolls. All way in the back of the room sat a unicorn, lost in an especially old and heavy tome. He was using a round, cut crystal as a magnifying glass and keenly levitated his quill, making notes. The stallion seemed about Firefly’s age and he had slender features. His coat was sand-coloured but his unkempt and most importantly salient red mane revealed that his family probably wasn't native to Hollow Shades. He hadn’t noticed Firefly’s entrance yet.
“Excuse me?” Firefly addressed the young stallion. Maybe she hadn’t spoken loud enough, in any case he didn’t show a sign of having heard her at all.
“Excuse me?” She repeated, a little louder this time.
The unicorn’s head rose, he blinked confusedly as he saw the pegasus mare standing across the room.
“Yes”, he simply said.
And then turned back to his book! Firefly gnashed her teeth. “Excuse! Me!” It wouldn’t have taken much for her to yell at him.
The stallion’s gaze met her eyes again. “Yes”, he repeated. “Yes, I excuse you.” And with that he wanted to turn back to his work once more, but Firefly made a jump forward through the whole room to keep his attention.
“Wait a moment! Y’know I was looking for the guard house, but…”
The stallion rapidly jolted up, knocking the tome off the table and the table itself almost over. Firefly could be mistaking, because he looked so startled, but it seemed like he was trying to brace.
“No, nonono! You’re right here”, he said. “This IS the guard house.”
“So, you’re a guard, too?”
The unicorn nodded. “Uh-huh. My name is Sliderule. I’m the paymaster here. Can I… Um… help you?”
Firefly was dumbfounded. This younker not only was a full-fletched guard; he was an OFFICER!
“You… You’re…” She stuttered, but then she remembered the reason why she was here in the first place: ALWAYS show your superior respect!
She saluted snappishly. “Cadet Firefly, reporting for duty, sir!”
If this was possible, Sliderule looked even more confused than before. Or awkward, maybe.
“Yes…” he drawled. “That… Um… can we, like, just drop this whole military procedure for the moment? I’m not very fond of it, you know? I’m in this position only because numbers are my special talent…” That stood out a mile, the counting frame he had for a Cutie Mark spoke volumes.
He took the transfer papers from Firefly and carefully read over them. “Let’s see… Firefly... Cutie Mark: Three lightning sparks... Oh, strange reference... It says here you would lack discipline…”
“What? That’s not true!” the pegasus mare exclaimed. Why had they written that down in the papers? A last tit-for-tat response of that captain, no doubt. What an infamy! Sliderule however didn’t pay much attention to it.
“We haven’t had a new recruit since… um, myself, I think”, he informed her, hectically scribbling calculation on his sheets of paper. “Actually, I am not even sure if we can afford a new recruit at the moment. Give me a moment, I have to quickly recalculate the allocation for the next months...”
Firefly cringed internally. If not even the guards in this village at world’s end wanted her, then she really had no place left she could turn to…
“Sliderule, please… The guard’s everything I have…”
Maybe Sliderule had caught her desperate look. He carefully laid the quill on the table and scratched his chin.
“But on the other hoof”, he said slowly. “There… There actually may be a case that could need a different point of view…” He went to another table and started to rummage through a tower of papers. If the unicorn had any system of order in his documents, then Firefly couldn’t make it out. Eventually he dug out a paper that had been buried under what looked like to be the billings of a whole decade.
“Ah, here it is, I knew it had to be in here somewhere… Take a look at this, Firefly!”
She saw the likeness of a unicorn filly drawn on the paper, a quite good portrait actually, but drawn without colour. Large eyes and a messy mane made the filly look very young, ten years at tops. The picture had the caption ‘Do you know this filly?’ and a note to report any hints for a reward to the guards or to a pony called Calm Mind.
“What’s that?” the mare wondered as he hooved her over the sheet of laid paper. “A wanted poster?”
“More like a missing pony report.” Sliderule confidentially lowered his voice: “We’ve been looking for her for one, two… What is the date today? Anyway, that doesn't matter right now, I guess... The guard hasn’t been able to retrieve the filly until now. So maybe you could go over to Doctor Calm Mind and offer your help?”
Well, what kind of pony would not offer help at once when a foal was missing? Besides, helping to find that poor little things could be exactly the chance Firefly needed: A chance to make her mark, to make herself indispensable for the Royal Guard. Maybe it would even buy her a return to Canterlot.
That certainly sounded like a plan.
****
Doctor Mind, as Sliderule had explained, was a physician and said to be an ingenious master healer. The Doctor saw heself as a herald of progress, she consistently strived to improve her knowledge, and to create new cures and treatments. And she was the first pony so far who devoted herself to the mental illnesses as well as the physical ones. Without any writings she could rely on to begin with, she had already proven that mental aberrations could not only be treated, but also cured in some cases.
But soon, Calm Mind had to realize there was a startling limited overall knowledge in Equestria about body and mind, but also about the modus operandi of magic (that was how Sliderule had called it). She had tried to expedite the progress of science with tooth and hooves, but it was far too wide a subject for one pony alone to collect all the bits and pieces and put them together. There had also been very little support on part of the Crown and so Calm Mind had spent her own fortune to build a place where she could fully dedicate herself to science. Then she had invited all kindred spirits join in. Alas, thus far only one pony had followed her call, a former barber surgeon named Ragstitch.
The building Calm Mind had chosen was located in the northeast of the town, next to a small holt. The House of Healing apparently once upon a time had been a convent for some kind of brotherhood who had dedicated themselves to a similar goal as Calm Mind; Firefly wondered what had happened to them…
She struck up a quick pace over the cobblestone pavement, her curiosity was already getting the better of her.
But as soon as she was able to take a closer look at the plain, grey, stone veneer of the bow-shaped building, she felt something else: A shiver went down her spine and she started to feel uneasy. She was getting an indistinct bad feeling about that building, no, actually it was more like a dark foreshadowing. Her senses told her to turn around and leave immediately, but she just shrugged it off unwillingly. She had no time for that!
Maybe she should have heeded her premonition…
Firefly entered the House of Healing’s courtyard. During spring and summer, certainly the inpatients certainly reclined on the benches overshadowed by the three oak trees or went for a walk in the near grove, but today was rather chilly and the sky seemed to cloud over as well and so they probably rather stood on their rooms. Just a single and remarkably bony creature that could only be named a goat with a lot of goodwill was sweeping together colourful leaves with a birch broom. The old billy-goat seemed to be some kind of gardener or maybe janitor here.
“Good day”, Firefly greeted the old timer. “Excuse me, could you possibly show me the way to Doctor Calm Mind?”
“Why ye buggin’ auld Rover?” he bawled her out with his brittle, nagging voice.
“I am looking for Doctor Calm Mind”, Firefly stressed, trying to keep calm. She didn’t want to waste time with old goats. Especially when they were as unfriendly as Rover.
The billy-goat sighed and put down his broom. “Gran’ so… Folly Rover!”
Rover led Firefly through the main gate and along the hallways of the hospital. The walls had been whitewashed, probably to make them less depressing. Then they had to climb up a creaking old staircase. Then a little further down the corridor and finally they stood in front of a door. The name tag expelling the room as Doctor Calm Mind’s working room was so well-nigh flashy and craving for attention, that at once the prejudice imposed on Firefly the Doctor would be utterly fond of herself.
The billy-goat carefully knocked on the door with his hoof. A few moments went past, then an energetic voice, accustomed to give orders, resounded from inside the room.
“Come in!”
Rover opened the door and quite vainly tried to straighten his back. “Excuse me, m’lady, this young mare ‘ere wants ter see yer.”
Calm Mind was a unicorn just past the peak of her life. Her features were as energetic as her voice, her coat was white and she was wearing her grizzled mane tied up in a stern bun.
“Thank you, Rover. You may go now.”
The old goat absent himself without any further word, leaving Firefly and the Doctor alone. Calm Mind took some time to organize the paperwork on her desk, then her ice-grey eyes met Firefly’s own purple ones.
“How can I help you, Miss?” Calm Mind said, though it sounded more like ‘What do you want?’
The blue pegasus saluted.
“Firefly, member of the Royal Guard”, she introduced herself. It couldn’t hurt to overegg the pudding just a little. “I’m here to offer my service, Doctor. Y’know, in this case of the missing filly.”
Calm Mind examined her carefully, like a jeweller trying to check the genuineness of a gemstone. Firefly felt really uncomfortable under the unicorn’s perusing glance, and she started to sweat.
“I understand pegasi have the sharpest eyes of all ponies. That true?”
Firefly nodded; that indeed was a common belief.
“Any further qualifications?” Doctor Mind wanted to know.
“I’ve… I’ve been trained in Canterlot, if that counts…”
“It does.”
The unicorn physician gave her and inexplicable look. She put her hooves together and said: “Alright, I am a very busy mare, besides I have a reputation to loose on my part. So let’s stop wasting time with formalities and get down to the basics.”
I’ll second that, Firefly thought but she kept silent. Calm Mind was emitting such an authority that not even Firefly had any problems to watch her mouth.
“You already know about the case?” The doctor wanted to know, but didn’t wait for an answer anyway. She fetched a sheet of paper and pushed it across the desk with her hoof; it was the missing report Firefly already had seen.
“We need to find this filly. She was inpatient in our ward for mental deficiencies, was suffering from an especially severe case of memory loss.”
Firefly had the indistinct feeling she was supposed to say something now to display her professionality. “And she just disappeared?” she thus asked a little stupidly.
For the first time Doctor Calm’s voice revealed a slight uncertainty: “Yes… Yes, disappeared. About two weeks ago. She was badly confused and had lost her memory. Sad case. Never thought she’d run away, though.”
Not one or two days, one or two weeks! That was bad news.
“We already had this sketches of her made because we wanted to find out who she was. To find her family. My employees have showed them around in town once more, of course with the necessary discretion. Doesn’t bear contemplating what it would do to our reputation if that would be announced publicly! Unfortunately wasn’t in town that day so I can’t tell you more…”
On the second thought Firefly had to amend her estimation. That wasn’t bad, that was a catastrophe! A moonstruck filly, alone, wandering about a town, even if it was as small as Hollow Shades? For two weeks?
Either she had escaped all by herself and now somepony was hiding her, or somepony had abducted her, or she was dead.
True, there was also the possibility the filly had managed to leave Hollow Shades. But with a look at the untamed wilderness surrounding the town, then… She was probably dead by now as well. Firefly was looking at the pitch black side in this case, and she didn’t really want her first case as a guard to be the one to break her already…
“We’re not hoping for a wonder”, Calm Mind continued, she was all self-possessed again. Firefly on the other hoof wasn’t good at all in overacting her feelings, of course the Doctor had noticed her shocked expression… “But we must leave nothing untried. Would be against my conscience if we wouldn’t try everything within pony power for the poor filly. ”
The physician locked Firefly’s eyes with her own look again. Then she said: “Not exactly the case to make your mark, or is it?”
Bullseye! She was unmasked. Calm Mind had seen through Firefly, and probably right from the beginning. The pegasus blushed beneath her coat. The last she wanted was to look like an overeager youngster, but the damage was already done. What had she thought anyway to just waltz into Calm Mind’s office and try to trick a genius like her?
Firefly could be mistaking, but she thought to see a smile full of grim satisfaction flashing over Calm Mind’s lips for a moment. But then, much to Firefly’s surprise, the doctor asked her, almost friendly: “Still want to offer your help?”
Was that an olive branch she was offering her? Or just another test? It didn’t matter to Firefly. Doctor Mind hadn’t sent her away and that meant not everything was lost yet. At this point, compassion for the lost filly (but sadly also her own pride) dictated her decision:
“Yes, I still offer my help”, she firmly answered. “All the more, actually.”
Doctor Calm Mind actually looked surprised. That was an answer she scarcely had expected. Then she gave her opposite an almost unnoticeable nod of approval.
“Alright. Look around! Investigate! Gather evidences! Maybe an pegasus’ eye can see what ours’ couldn’t. All convenient hints will be rewarded liberally.”
Finally, Calm Mind got up from her seat. She put out her hoof across the desk. “Deal?” she asked.
“Deal”, Firefly replied and shook her hoof on it.
Firefly never accepted a defeat. Oh yes, she would face this out to the very end, come what may!
Firefly had no clear notion what to do now. Too much time had passed since filly’s disappearance, there was no changing that. To find any hot scents was very unlikely; but if Firefly was anything, then persistent: The dare she’d shy away from had yet to be invented. And yet...
Sticking to the truth, this kind of work wasn’t really Firefly’s strength. Patience was her strong point not, and carefulness neither. There was a reason she was never assigned to kitchen duty anymore…
So Firefly wandered the hallways of the House of Healing a little aimlessly, looking for anything that appeared suspicious. She was wondering what questions she should ask herself in a situation like this. Surely, how the filly had been hosted…
So far, so good, and what else had she to think about?
Foremost apparently, that even a pegasus needed to watch where she was putting her hooves. On her way out, and as she was keeping her eyes and mind on everything else but where she was going, she at once tripped over the joist to the entrance hall and bumped into an earth pony who was just walking the other direction. It was only due to presence of mind of the light grey stallion that she didn’t fall. His put out foreleg halted her.
“Typically pegasus”, the stallion said. He sounded neither indignant nor very surprised; of course he had seen her coming. “The head always in the clouds.”
“I’m sorry”, Firefly apologized. That had really been exceptionally clumsy of her. Now she tried to search for some way to change the subject as quick as possible.
“Never mind”, the stallion said with only the hint of a sigh. He was wearing a patchy neckcloth in different grey and brown tones, beneath this scarf Firefly recognized the already known moon symbol, this time in shape of a silver pendant with metallic-black inlay, next to another pendant that seemed to be the fang of some animal of prey. The stallion’s mane was dark, he wouldn’t have stood out from the other earth ponies in town, hadn’t a white bandage covered his left eye.
“So, um, are you a patient here?” Firefly found a way to divert. She nodded towards his hoodwink. The stallion seemed a little confused by her question.
“What gives ye that idea?” he wondered, but then he realized, what Firefly was referring to: “Oh, ye mean…”
He rose his hoof to the bandage covering his eye. “That, yes. That is a rather old condition, actually. But well, I think ye could say I am a patient of Doctor Calm Mind. At least sort of.”
Firefly decided that ‘at least sort of’ would suffice. Maybe he was able to tell her more about what was going on in this sanatorium.
“So, I take from your uniform that ye are some kind of… soldier”, the stallion tried to start a converstaion.
It took Firefly a while to realize what exactly seemed odd about him. In the younger generation, during the last twenty years or so, the old fashioned forms of address ‘ye’ and ‘thou’ had eventually been ousted in favour for a generic ‘you’. Strange, the stallion didn’t seem that old, maybe in the mid of his twenties …
“Not a soldier!” she however was glad to go into the subject and at once proudly corrected him. “I’m a member of the Royal Guard.”
She actually meant no harm with that, but she had been taught that the Royal Guard was something elite, so she simply had to put that misunderstanding right.
A smile appeared on the stallion’s lips. He slightly tilted his head to hint a bow.
“Of course, my apologies, Royal Guard.”
That actually went pretty well, Firefly thought. He didn’t seem to take it the wrong way, which was perfect because maybe Firefly could try to sound him out a little, now.
“Sooo”, she drawled, trying to sound as casually as possible. "Did anything strange happen recently?”
“Anything strange?” The stallion wound up his brow. “Ye do realize that Doctor Mind treats mental diseases here as well, do ye not? I fear ye need to be a bit more precise.”
“Alright, if you absolutely want to know... I’m kind of conducting an investigation here…”
“An investigation, I see. So that is the way the wind is blowing…” The smile didn’t fade, but it suddenly seemed more cunning, vulpine even.
“Well”, he then said. “I am afraid I myself cannot help ye.” He shook his head. “Anyway, if I were determined to stick my nose in other ponies’ business, in your place I would ask myself two questions.”
“Namely?”
“First: Did Calm Mind tell you the full truth?
And second: Why is this filly so important?
Now, please excuse me, I must hurry…”
But Firefly wouldn’t let him leave just like that. He knew about the filly! Was everypony in the House of Healing in the know? Of course, she might have guessed that had been inevitable, no matter how much Calm Mind was trying to sweep it under the rug – But these hints the stallion had given her followed a completely different track than everything Firefly had figured out so far. Did he have any inside knowledge on this case?
“No, please wait!” Firefly called out and tried to stop the earth pony. “What else do you know? What are the answers to these questions?”
Already on the leave, he turned his head back towards Firefly once more. Contrary to his previous smile, his expression was absolutely stern, as he said:
“I fear I have no answers. But as for what else I know: I know Calm Mind is a mare of science through and through. And whatever ye plan to do, ye should consider that.
Now fare well, Royal Guard, good luck and the Twelve grant that ye find the filly soon!”
Once again, he tilted his head for a bow, and then he walked away, just like that, leaving behind a Firefly who was even slightly more confused than before. All these overtones and presumptions were rather repulsive to her, but they managed fired up her curiosity as well. True, she didn’t climb through at all, but she couldn’t just let it rest either…
She grimaced. What had she gotten herself into?
****
Doctor Calm Mind was having her usual afternoon cup of tea. She had already poured hot water over the leafs, the tea had brewed, and now was about to add sugar to her cup, five spoonfull, as always, when for the second time today, somepony was knocking on her door. To her annoyance, her visitor didn’t wait for her to invite him in, but instead opened the door right away. She casted a sombre glance at the newcomer.
“Ah, there you are”, she said and her expression lightened up a little. “Took you long enough, Silver Blaze!”
“Ye have sent me on quite an errant after all”, Silver Blaze stated and calmly closed the door. “That reminds me”, he stated. “I have bumped into a young pegasus on the way hither. She is asking questions, tried to sound me out about the missing filly…”
“Of course. Know that”, Calm Mind replied. “Have given her that permission personally.”
Silver Blaze wrinkled his muzzle and dared to oppose: “Ye have strived after utmost secrecy, and now ye allow this younker to nose around? Is that wise, Doctor?”
Doctor Calm Mind took a long sip of her cup, before she answered. “Your vaunted sharp-sightedness seems to have ceased lately. Thought maybe I should create an incentive for you to try harder.”
“Is it my fault ye called for my aid over a week too late?” Silver Blaze went into a fret. “The scent is long since cold! Sharp-sightedness or not, even if I were able to smell tracks like a hound, the result would scarcely be different! I am still doing my best to nevertheless help ye, but if ye prefer that fledgling’s help over mine, go on ahead, I have been in one place for too long anyway…”
“Calm down!” Doctor Mind admonished. “Glad to see though, that one can still pack you - if no longer in your honour- but at least in your ambitions.”
Silver Blaze snorted unwillingly, but he said nothing and so Calm Mind continued:
“We can’t hope to find any hot scents now, know that of course. However, I refuse to belief that anypony can vanish without a trace, somepony must have noticed something…”
“If so", Blaze harrumphed. "They are not willing to talk. Not to me at least. Ragstitch trusts me no more and the Guard’s captain was even so kind to order that none of his soldiers shall talk to me at all!”
“Troublesome indeed”, Doctor Calm Mind admitted. “But that’s a general problem with these ponies here. Considering the belief most of us share, I thought they’d support us at least a little more.” She sounded very dissatisfied. “They figure our work for witchcraft and become scared… Pshaw! If only they knew what I’m really planning…
Alack, forget it!”
She now adopted a more business-like tone: “Don’t cudgel your brain, leave the planning to me.”
“What is your plan then?”
“That young pegasus suits us just fine. She’s not one of us, no, she’s a Royal Guard and that carries weight even this far away from Canterlot. And what’s more important: She’s inexperienced and looks it, too. Ponies will underestimate her. They will talk to her more carelessly than to us. And eventually they will tip their hooves.
Oh, a light’s dawning to you, isn’t it? Experienced that yourself, didn’t you?”
“Maybe”, Blaze hesitatingly conceded. “But even if so, will she be able to make use of what she may learn?”
“That doesn’t matter. You will be. Follow her, watch her, gain her trust, do whatever is necessary to learn what she has learned! Am sure you’ll be able to uncover the truth eventually.”
That was a quite long explanation, especially for Calm Mind. Silver Blaze seemed fittingly impressed: “As cunning as always, Doctor!”
“They surely don’t call me Calm Mind for no reason, Silver.” Doctor Calm smiled a chilly, self-complacent smile and indulged another sip of tea.
“And yet…”
Doctor Calm Mind slowly put the cup back on its saucer again. On the second glance Silver Blaze didn’t seem all so convinced. She could hear it in his words that he was sceptical. And she knew the look he was giving her, it was the same critical look she used to value her opposite, the same appraising glance she had acknowledged Firefly with earlier.
“What’s wrong?” she wanted to know. Calm Mind wasn’t used to criticism, but on the other hoof, Silver Blaze surely was none of her dull nurses. She appreciated him precisely because he -unlike most other ponies- was trying to use his mind, to think logical before acting. Even if she wished he wouldn’t exercise himself in logic right now...
“If we suppose”, Silver Blaze began. “That the filly is still alive – and only heaven knows, how ye can be so sure about that! However, if ye say, she is alive, I am going to trust ye insofar.”
Calm Mind was expecting a big ‘but’ now, and she shouldn't be disappointed: “But even if so, why do we pull off all this effort in the first place?” Blaze started to pace up and down the room. “All this planning and scheming… Please, get me not wrong... That seems to me a lot like exactly the kind of obsession ye try to cure here…”
“Since when am I accountable to you?” Calm mind retorted icily. “Are you questioning my methods, Silver Blaze?”
“All I want to say”, Blaze relented calmingly. “Is that I am failing to see the bigger picture here… What is your plan?”
“I’ve told you all you needed to know”, Calm Mind staved off. But then she changed her mind and went over to Silver Blaze. She placed her hoof on his shoulder. Well-wrought surely, but also a gesture of dowright outrageous familiarity for the unicorn doctor. This probably made a bigger impression than any chosen word the doctor could say to Silver Blaze. Nevertheless, she told him urgently:
“Trust me just this one more time, my friend! This is far beyond both of us. There’s one lesson we should learn from all we’ve been through the last years: The whole future of Equestria is on the scale, Silver, and maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to get the key to this future in capable hooves where it belonged all the time. Now, don’t tell me, you of all ponies wouldn’t move sun and moon for this!”
Silver Blaze nodded with grim determination. After the fall of the Black Dragon, the Princess had promised Equestria a golden future. Silver Blaze and Calm Mind knew better. For too long, the two of them -No! They all- had wandered dark paths; sanguinity alone was never enough...
“The Princess of the Night be with us", he declared. "It shall be done as ye wish."
To crown it all, a cold drizzling rain had started in the afternoon. That of course did no good at all to Firefly’s attempts. After she had asked around some more in the House of Healing (the results hadn’t been all too helpful) Firefly had resorted in questioning ponies she would occasionally meet on the streets and at the market. Indeed, she had by now worked out a list of questions, but the few ponies that were still on the streets despite the nasty weather hadn’t been in a talkative mood at all. Brusquely, they had quickly excused themselves and hurried on…
So by the time the afternoon made way for the evening, Firefly’s was wet to the bones, tired and depressed.
Back in the guard house, Sliderule was still buried in his books. The only change in the scene was a glass lantern he had placed on his table. It was filled with buzzing insects emitting light like an oil lamp. The young paymaster didn’t look up this time either when the door was tossed open and a dripping wet Firefly entered the room, her head and wings hanging low. She scuffed over to Sliderule’s table, fetched a chair and plonked herself down on it, moaning. With a dull movement she pushed aside the lamp with her namesakes in it, then she rested her forehead on the table top with an audible ‘thunk’.
“I’m sooo done for!” she groaned.
Sliderule closed his eyes, it was clear he wouldn’t be able to just continue his reading. Not with Firefly dripping water on his papers. So he uttered a devoted sigh and shut his book.
“What’s the matter?” he asked and tried to save his book with the magic circle on the cover from the slowly spreading puddle of water on the table top.
Firefly rose her head for about an inch, barely enough to return Sliderule’s look. At the moment she showed about as much body tension as an octopus. “I’m a complete failure”, she lamented. “In the long history of failing I must be the one failing hardest!”
Sliderule had the indistinct feeling that Firefly expected him to say some encouraging words. Not that had much experience in encouraging other ponies, but he tried his best:
“Hey… They didn’t want to talk to you, did they? Um… how goes the saying? No hard feelings…”
“That’s not even it!” Firefly cried out. “The few who actually talked to me gave me nothing but riddles and vague clues and I’m too stupid to see any sense!”
Thunk, and down went her head on the table again. Sliderule irresolutely chewed away on his lip. His work for the Guard was in the first instance safe bread and butter for him, followed by the fact he could order books and writings from Canterlot’s Royal Library. He didn’t like trouble or furore, and the missing filly didn’t appear on his list at all, he had stood out of this willingly, for caution’s sake and against his own curiosity. Luckily for Firefly, before she could wallow in self-pity, he decided to help her out where her own mind failed her.
“I don’t know if it helps, but you could tell me what you’ve got”, he provided. “Maybe we can… um, make a sense together…”
“Maybe…” Firefly sighed and pulled up great effort to sit up straight. Then she tried dig up from her mind all she had learned today: “Alright, let me get the story straight… I’ve met this other doctor, this Ragstitch character, y’know? He didn’t tell me much, really, but he showed me around a little. The filly was hosted in a room on second floor, a one-bed room, small but fair enough, I guess…”
“Or so it seems”, Sliderule remarked mysteriously. “Please go on, did you find any clues in her room?”
“Oh, that’s the first mystery… The filly was a stray, she hadn’t much with her, just a raddled satchel and… strangely… a dark red cloak, just a little worn-out. Ragstitch mentioned this cloak had been especially precious to her. He said she was clinging to it! So why, I’m asking you, why in all Equestria did she leave it behind then?”
“The more important question is”, her opposite corrected. “How did she get the cloak in the first place? Dyer’s madder –that’s the plant the red colour comes from- doesn’t grow hereabouts. Red is rare and expensive! If we’re led to believe the filly is a stray, then why does she possess a cloak fitting for an officer or a noble?”
Sliderule was still talking in his careful manner, like if he had to taste every word’s flavour before spelling it, but he sounded more self-confident now. This was a conversation after his fancy. The Royal Library contained, according to rumours, every single book written in Equestria up to this day and Sliderule had already read plenty of them. Now finally his widespread (and admittedly sometimes rather esoteric) knowledge could come in hoofy.
And Sliderule was right to mention it, that important question hadn’t struck Firefly at all.
“So you want to say there’s more to her than you see on the first look?” she asked. Hadn’t this other stallion said something similar? “And second”, Firefly remembered. “What makes this filly so important?”
“Wha-what was that?” Sliderule was startled about his trails of thought being interrupted by this mysterious statement, but the undertone in Firefly’s words had drawn his attention.
“That’s what this stallion with the eyepatch said to me: Ye must ask yourself two questions!” Firefly gave a rather poor imitation of the stallion’s voice by trying to sound mystical. Sliderule’s reaction however came completely unexpected: Like at their first meeting, earlier today, he jumped up abruptly so abruptly he almost knocked over the table and definitely knocked Firefly off her chair.
“What? A stallion with an eyepatch?” Now it was Firefly’s turn to be hesitate. She didn’t really understand the fuss Sliderule was making about that stallion. “Yes, he was wearing a bandage over his left eye. What about him?”
“He’s back in town then”, Sliderule murmured, grimacing. “That’s bad, actually… The Captain ordered us not to talk to him.”
Firefly was wondering why... For her flavour the stallion could’ve spoken more straight talk, but he seemed eager to help out.
“He better should be” the paymaster shrugged off her argument with a bitterness uncommon for him. “Silver Blaze is Calm Mind’s new right-hoof stallion.”
At once, Firefly blundered out: “Wait, wait, wait, wait! Silver Blaze? Like in ‘Silver Blaze, youngest captain of the Royal Guard in the history of the Equestrian army’? This Silver Blaze?”
The unicorn shrugged his shoulders. If there was a document about a Royal Guard named Silver Blaze, he hadn’t read it yet. But Firefly knew very well:
She remembered that certain day, over ten years ago. On that day, Canterlot had hosted the biggest army review for the last five hundred years; to muster an army against an evil dragon and his forces, if Firefly was recalling right. All those armours and weapons, the young filly Firefly had never seen anything more impressive before. The moving out of the Equestrian army had been led by no less pony than Princess Celestia herself, wearing a shining, golden armour and riding her richly ornamented sun chariot. Flush with her, even ahead of the Princess’s bodyguards and the Council of Unicorns, and celebrated almost as much as the Princess, had proudly paced along an earth pony stallion. His armament had been made of stainless steel but polished until it shone like silver and he had worn a helmet with a flowing penache. This stallion’s name, Firefly had later learned, was Silver Blaze, once a pony of unknown origin, and now the Guard’s rising star.
The glory of that moment had burned itself into Firefly’s mind forever. Silver Blaze had been an inspiration for her (and for probably every other foal in Canterlot), and the same day she had decided she’d join the Royal Guard once she was old enough. One day she’d come to honour and glory and would earn her place at the side of the Princess as well, that was her declared goal!
“But Silver Blaze is a hero! How could he end up in a one-horse town like this? Oh… Uh, no offense…” Firefly quickly added once she realized she was insulting Sliderule’s hometown.
“Um, none taken.” Sliderule scratched his head. Then he said: “According to the doctor, he’s just here to aid us, but the Captain says Blaze only barged into the guard’s business until he halted it.”
With some right, Firefly thought. Hollow Shade’s guard had failed miserably in doing its job! But then she remembered that she herself hadn’t done any better until now and stifled her barbed remark…
“But he talked to me, that’s a step in the right direction, isn’t it?” she asked instead. Sliderule thought about that for a moment.
“That… Um, well… That depends on what he said to you. Do you recall anything else? You mentioned something about two questions?” he wanted to know.
Firefly nodded. “The first one was if Calm Mind had told me the truth, and the second one was what made the filly so important… Do you think he’s got a point?”
“I do... Likely. Or maybe. Anything else?”
Indeed, Silver Blaze had said something else about Doctor Calm Mind. Now what had that been again?
“Got any clue why he would want me to consider that Doctor Mind is a mare of science?”
Sliderule pondered. “Sure he used these words? Hmmm…. Interesting…” For the first time Firefly saw the unicorn smile.
“Actually, I think I do: It’s about records. Any pony who indeed wants to call himself a scientist must be able to proof his results. So he needs to keep meticulous records about his researches.”
“Meti-whatnow?” Firefly wondered. Then she realized it: “Wait, do you want to say she writes down everything? About the filly, too?”
“Most likely, yes.”
That was brilliant. Something clearly was fishy about this case, but if Sliderule was right, a single look into Calm Mind’s notes could solve this mystery. But how to get at them? Surely, the physician wouldn’t just hoof them over, would she? Well, of course there was one way. Probably not easy and definitely not legal, but a way at least…
“No, Firefly, no!” Sliderule strictly was against that plan. “With all due respect to your ambition to find the filly, but somepony’s got to draw a line. And that line… um, that is exactly here! You can’t just break into the House of Healing!”
Firefly bit on her lip. “I don’t like it either”, she sternly said. “But we can’t just ask Calm Mind to hoof us over her records, can we? And honestly, Sliderule, I’ve been transferred from Canterlot right to the middle of nowhere! Without a wonder, my career is as dead as dust; I have nothing to lose…”
“But I do!” Sliderule exclaimed. For once in a long time a pony had managed upset him. “If you want to throw everything away, fine! If you want to ruin your life, go ahead! But I won’t allow you to ruin MY life!”
All the much Firefly hated to drag somepony else in, and all the much she hated to admit it, there was no use in denying it: “Sliderule, look, I can’t do this without you. I…”
She stopped took a deep breath.
“I need you!”
That probably nopony had told Sliderule before and he seemed to be hit right between the eyes by Firefly’s words. All he managed to stutter was a single word in reply: “W-why?”
Firefly still hesitated. She hadn’t felt that awkward in a long time… But eventually she blurted out:
“I can’t read, alright?”
Whatever Sliderule had expected, it surely hadn’t been that! His facial features slipped.
“You… you can’t read?” Sliderule enquired, just to be sure. Now Firefly blushed even more.
“It’s no big deal, is it?”, she beat off. “It’s just… Just a little embarrassing, that’s all.”
Not being able to read was all but no big deal in Sliderule’s opinion. A life without reading was indescribably cruel and dull! But besides his dismay he now knew one thing for sure: There in fact was simply no way Firefly could do this without him; he practically was already breaking into the hospital…
“Oh, ponyfeathers”, he groaned.
****
The sanatorium was even more creepy during the dark hours than it was during daylight: Drab, gloomy and threatening, a place to better avoid. Not a single soul crossed the way of the two ponies that were carefully groping their way through the dark streets. At nightfall, the drizzle had ceased, yet the sky still was thickly covered with low hanging clouds. Outside the pools of light from the streetlamps it was pitch black. Doctor Calm Mind had left the sanatorium half an hour ago, so it was now or never.
“Why again did we have to wrap our hooves with cloth?” Firefly whispered into Sliderule’s ear. The cobblestones were wet and slippery, and it wasn’t easy for hooves to get a grip on them, especially when they were wrapped in two layers of cotton.
“Hooves clop”, The young paymaster hissed back. “I hope the cotton will stifle our hoof beat. If I have to break the law for you, I’m doing it properly at least. And now hush…”
“Yes, sir”, Firefly solemnly retorted. Sliderule was affronted, understandably of course. And a grumpy but focussed Sliderule surely was more suitable for their purpose than his usual, confused self, though maybe he had prepared himself a little too much: He was laden with saddlebags almost like a packhorse. Firefly however liked the old Sliderule better, hopefully the prospect of unknown knowledge would help him forget his anger on Firefly in time…
“Here, that’s the window”, Firefly said and pointed towards the shutters on the upper floor. Said window led to the room in which the filly had been hosted, a room that hence was empty for certain.
Sliderule reached into one of his bags and fetched a curved knife. “Here”, he said. This knife, he explained in a nutshell, Firefly was supposed to put between the shutters and to move it from the bottom up. This way she should be able to open the latch. Theoretically…
It was no problem for the pegasus to soar up to the window, no question. Flapping on the spot in hovering flight was actually a little catchier exercise, but how would it have looked like if Equestria’s self-appointed best flyer would have fallen down on this standard manoeuvre? No, the really tricky task was to open these damned shutters: Firefly had to take the knife between her teeth to have a fairly certain grip on it. But who has ever tried to work accurate with a tool held with the teeth will confirm how difficult that is. It took Firefly almost a minute to figure out how to even hold the knife the right way so it fit into the narrow gap between the shutters!
Damned, how I envy any mechanic right now! It always looks so easy with them…
Impatiently she picked around, with her wrapped front hooves propped up on the window sill, until she eventually heard the redeeming ‘click’. The shutters swung outward, revealing the rectangular, black hole of the window.
Firefly gulped. To think this had been actually the easy part of the plan… Sliderule couldn’t take the same way in as Firefly. Obviously. Unicorns couldn’t fly and they couldn’t climb vertical walls either, so now she needed to find a way he could also get in. A window in an empty room downstairs should do the trick, or maybe she could find a way to unlock the door, too. But making her way through the nocturnal hospital unseen and more important unheard was more than just difficult. Firefly would need to show a downright supernatural caution, and thinking back to the casern and the kitchen-disaster… Well, she somehow had the feeling wrapping her hooves in cloth wouldn’t really make things easier.
She carefully shifted from one hoof to the other. Her hoofbeat wasn’t stifled completely, but if nopony was paying too much attention she should be able to make it at least to the staircase. What a shame the corridors weren’t wide enough for her to fly.
More groping around than actually seeing something, she made her way to the door. Then she put one ear against the wood and listened. There was no sound, the few inpatients Doctor Mind was housing recently seemed to be all fast asleep.
Slowly, Firefly pushed the door handle. The door wasn’t locked, of course not. On their tour through the hospital, Doctor Ragstitch had mentioned that the doors of the patients’ rooms would never be locked, for security reasons. She pressed open the door with her shoulder and poked her head out into the hallway. The lightless room had felt uncomfortable, but the unsteady twilight in the halls emerging from the turned down oil lamps wasn’t any better.
“C’mon Firefly, you’re not a filly anymore”, she muttered to herself, trying to calm herself down. “It’s just a hospital…”
A chilly gust of wind from the open window blew through the hallway and the flickering oil lamps casted her silhouette as restless shadows on the walls by a dozen.
“Ouw, a dark and creepy hospital…” Firefly shivered as she quickly went back to the window and shut it. Maybe she really should have just asked for the doctor’s records, yes, that seemed to be a quite good plan now. At least a better plan than to break into this eerie masonry.
This eerie masonry meant to be a home for the mentally ill…
This eerie masonry meant to be a home for the mentally ill, who could lurk behind any corner waiting to brutally murder her and…
Well, that was of course overdone. Doctor Ragstitch had told her the House of Healing only had five inpatients at the moment and according to the physician none of them was treated for mental issues.
But undeniably, these walls had a bad influence on Firefly’s state of mind. Was it her tension, or maybe her guilty conscience, in any case she got worked up. An almost deadly hush, only interrupted by her toddling steps, the shadows on the wall accompanying her like a pack of unsteady ghosts, all this nagged her. This was far more exciting than she’d care for and by the time she reached the staircase, she already was quite jumpy.
“Ouch, dammit, blasted wraps!” A thud sounded on the stairs, followed by a supressed swearing.
It wouldn’t have taken much and Firefly had yelped at the unexpected sound of this voice. The scream was already half-way up her throat but she managed to supress it to a muffled whimper. She squeezed herself against the wall, but that wouldn’t be enough. The pony on the stairs would come up any minute and there simply was no way he wouldn’t notice Firefly!
She had never thought about a way out more feverishly. In the few moments the other pony needed to climb up the stairs, the young guard considered and discarded half a dozen different plans. Last stand of matters was that she’d try and dash at the pony as soon as he would come up, when suddenly a familiar redhead appeared in the archway.
“Sliderule…?”
The unicorn jerked so forcefully he had almost fallen down the stairs again.
“Are you insane?”, Sliderule hissed and pressed a hoof to his heart. “Do want me to drop dead? Heavens…”
“Sliderule, how did you get in?” Firefly wanted to know, completely ignoring his complaints.
“Um, the front door was open…”
Her jaws dropped. “But I… And you… But I…”
The front door was open! Of course, why not? But she HAD to use this stupid knife to break into a room on the upper floor and then dabble at the almost impossible task to sneak through the hospital, unseen and unheard. And the whole time, the front door had been open?!
“Oh, never mind…”, she eventually chuntered. There was no use to bicker with the pinholes her bad luck gave her. With any unnecessary moment they remained here, the danger of getting caught by a night nurse or the janitor was rising. It already was little short of a miracle everything remained so ghostly silent!
Nevertheless a little miffed, Firefly led her partner in crime to the room of Doctor Calm Mind.
“Let’s see if you’re lucky again and this door is open as well…”
“No, this one is locked”, Sliderule replied. Two or three moments went past until he realized Firefly’s words and blinked with irritation. “C-Could it be you’re cross with me? Because, if you are I'll have to remind you that I’m here just because of you! Remember?”
“Alright, alright”, admitted the blue pegasus unwillingly. “So, can you do something about this door?”
The ginger unicorn took a long look at the door and especially at the lock. An impressive construction, Firefly found, a downright monstrum made of bronze and steel, one would surely need an aptly awe-inspiring key to open it!
A glow, only barely visible began to shone from Sliderule’s horn, the visible sign of a spell being cast. The latch of his saddlebag was opened by his magic and from the unfathomable depth of his bag rose a briefcase with a about a dozen strange, hook-shaped tools of all magnitudes.
“Well… Let me see…”
With an expression of utmost concentration and making all kind of silly faces, the paymaster started to bustle about with his lockpicks. And lo and behold, after a few moments a low clicking showed that his efforts were crowned with success.
“I’ll be jiggered”, Firefly gaped. “You would make a first-class burglar, Mister Sliderule!”
The unicorn waved off: “No, no. It’s... um, it’s nothing.” It was hard to recognise because of the ill lighting, but he was blushing beneath his sand-coloured fur. “These old, blocky locks aren’t very safe altogether. This one only has one single bolt, a foal could have picked it… Anyway, the door’s open now. Um, shall we…?”
As against the rest of the sanatorium, Calm Mind’s work room was pitch-black without the natural lighting of the moon. Only poorly illuminated by the oil lamps from the hallway, the three cabinets and the dark writing desk appeared like grim observers, tall figures, watching every step, silent and threatening.
Firefly closed the door very carefully to prevent it from creaking. Into the complete darkness, Sliderule said:
“Now, let me risk some more light.”
A warm and white glow lighted up the darkness, emitted from Sliderule’s horn. The light at first grew brighter, then it suddenly started to flicker. For a moment it turned dark again, and Firefly heard a feint expletive from the stallion. Then his magic awoke again and brought back the white glow, brighter and more even this time.
“Let’s see what we got here”, he said, trying unskilfully to overact that he had run out of breath a little. He seemed to have some problems with his magic, Firefly thought. Maybe the eerie hospital affected him, too… She just hoped he wouldn’t push himself too far. The pegasus shook her head let her eyes wander over file cabinets opposite to her; magical problems or no, she guessed it was Sliderule’s show from now on. He had to be the one to read through Calm Mind’s files. Due to her own deficient ability to read, all the pegasus could do right now was watch and think. At this point it didn’t even surprise her anymore, when her eyes got caught by the silvery sparkle of an already familiar symbol hanging from the wall.
“Y’know”, she adressed Sliderule, as he read over the badges tagged onto the cabinets in the light of his own spell. “I’m wondering, what this crescent moon over there means. I’ve seen these moons all over town…”
Sliderule’s look followed Firefly’s pointing hoof. He scratched his chin.
“The Children of the Night…” he muttered, as if that would explain anything. “I wouldn’t have figured the Doctor would… Um, not that it should really surprise me, considering that there are still many of them in these parts... Ah, now this is promising…”
What are the Children of the Night, Firefly wanted to ask, but Sliderule had eventually opened one of the doors and now poked his head in. He brought to light a small pile of folders.
“These files all go under ‘rerum animae’. My guess: If we’ll be able to find anything useful, then within these seventeen envelops.”
Those folders which he spread on the writing desk were labelled with the letter A and the numbers 1 to 16, that much Firefly could read. The names of the relevant patients were put down beneath the labels in a fastidious writing.
“Swift Gale, Lt.”, Sliderule read. “Ironhide, Lt., Lady Ivory Fire… Number One till number eight, all from the high society. And…” He slid the files to and fro on the table. “Yes, that one’s the latest. A-16.”
Firefly noticed that this one was the only file with no name written on it. Sliderule opened the folder.
“But that… That’s not right…” he muttered. “These papers say ‘Patient A-13’. That’s the right envelop, but with the wrong file in it!”
A little clueless in view of this bookkeeping affront, he ruffled through the pages, and then suddenly hesitated. That name on the file's header, it looked awful familiar!
“It can’t be. Do you know whose file this is?”
Firefly knitted her brows. This didn’t go according to plan anymore, didn’t it? And as vague as their plan had been to begin with, that meant a lot. “Alright”, the pegasus sighed. “I’ll play along. Whose file is it?”
“It’s the file of White Nimbus!” exclaimed Sliderule, almost forgetting that they were on enemy territory, as if this would explain everything.
“Yeah”, Firefly nodded. “I understand nothing.”
“Alright, alright", Sliderule hissed unwillingly. "Let’s start again from scratch. The name White Nimbus has won some notoriety in our town. She was the ward of Count Rainbow, you know? Three years and… Um, minus one day, actually… Anyway… The point is, the Count’s youngest son died, under mysterious circumstances. The Rainbow-family tried to sweep everything under the carpet, of course, but rumours circulated that the Count’s ward was somehow involved in this incident. If I’m not mistaken, she died two weeks later. And now here’s this file, oh, it could give answers to so many questions! That’s just brilliant!”
He suddenly blushed.
“And I probably shouldn’t be so excited…” he apologized. “It was… An awful loss for Count Rainbow…”
The name Rainbow, however, very well was known to Firefly: The renowned aristocrat with the rare, rainbow-coloured mane and besides heir of one of the most influential pegasus families was a good example that pride would always have a fall. It was bandied that Count Double Rainbow had been exiled to somewhere near the end of the world. That he had ended up in Hollow Shades of all possible towns shouldn’t have been exactly a surprise. The ponies in charge in Canterlot seemed to delight in ditching unwelcome ponies here, as Firefly had experienced first hoof.
She gave Sliderule a lopsided sneer. Curiosity might kill the cat, but as a pegasus and a mare she simply couldn’t resist this unique occasion to look into one of the Rainbow-Family’s dark past.
“Come on, hit me!” she smiled. “What’s in this file?”
Sliderule’s eyes glanced between the papers and the door as he seemed to assess whether they could afford to stay here for some moments more or if they should take the papers, and then turn tail immediately. His curiosity won…
“Let’s see…
Patient: White Nimbus, Rainbow-Family. Date of admission: Ninth Libra, year four hundred and ninety, reign of Celestia…”
“What’s ‘Libra’, Sliderule?” Firefly interposed a question. “Never heard of a month with that name before…”
“Libra, dear Firefly”, Sliderule explained, not able to stifle a little grin. “Is a constellation of stars. Clover the Clever has created the first consistent calendar over five hundred years ago, the so called Zodiac. She divided each year into twelve months, named after the twelve constellations that are especially visible during that particular month.”
“You’ve rote learned that, didn’t you?”
“That’s basic knowledge”, Sliderule fought back, a bit unusual for him, actually.
He wasn't that strident before, the pegasus thought. Maybe I’m giving a bad example…
“I get it”, she said in a low tone, commemorating their current situation. “You’re smart and I’m dumb. But I know one thing at least: I’ve never heard about that Zodiac before, so we’re using a different calendar now, don’t we?”
“Uh-huh”, Sliderule nodded. “Only few ponies still use the Zodiac Calendar… Um, anyway… Can we get back to the crucial, please? The light spell’s quite exhausting and I’m not feeling very well wasting time here, either…”
Firefly tilted her head patronizingly, still having a feint smirk on her face. Most certainly a bad example…
Right on cue the light shining from the tip of Sliderule’s horn started to flicker again. Unwillingly the unicorn shook his head, casting prancing silhouettes of himself and Firefly on the walls. Once the light had regained its even shimmer, he sought with his hoof the spot on the paper where he had stopped to read.
“Ah… Here we go. Now, where was I?
Ninth Libra… The patient has suffered a severe shock; she is not responsive. I deem it best to transfer her to our station for the curing of mental and emotional issues. For her firming I have ordered to initially administer her three valerian pastilles each morning, noon and evening.
The next entry reads as follows:
Thirteenth Libra... The patient is silent for four days now. Have talked to her for two hours in the morning, then one each in the afternoon and the evening. No signs at all that she even notices me. Medication still with valerian pastilles.
And… And that’s it for the rest of the week. Valerian… Not very imaginative… But apparently it worked. Listen:
Seventeenth Libra... After exactly eight days the patient shows a change. She appears confused, but is responsive again. We’re achieving progress!
Addendum: The Patient suffered a turn after the light have been extinguished. She seems to have developed a well-marked pavor nocturnus. Administered black poppy to calm her down. It’ll be best to leave the lamps on in her room.”
“At the risk of appearing dumb again”, Firefly expressed her confusion. “What the blazes is a pavor-thing?”
“That means abnormal fear of the darkness, I think."
"You mean she went cuckoo? Just like that?"
"It appears so, yes... And it’s not getting any better. Just stranger - Listen:
Nineteenth Libra… The patient’s birthday. She gets more and more restless with each hour. First she asked the nurse on duty, why she was here and then, following the answer that she would be very ill, she asked if her friend Cloud could come and visit her again today. After all it would be her birthday. The poor filly seems to know nothing about the unspeakable accident at the lake’s shore anymore, in which Cloud Dash of the Rainbow family lost his life. That was over a week ago. Considered it my duty to undeceive the patient, but she didn’t seem to understand what I was saying. Still no clue what causes these episodes. Shock? A mental illness? May a conversational therapy will help.
Twentieth Libra… First meeting. The patient entrusted me she would nurture the ridiculous fear something would lie in wait for her in the nocturnal darkness. I confronted her again with Cloud Dash’s accident. She appeared consternated, but quite calm and mentioned that she must’ve been dreaming because she could swear Cloud had been standing at her sickbed, talking to her. If I’m not mistaken, her memories begin to return. A good sign, now we just have to gain control over her fear of darkness. Still medication with black poppy, but of strongly thinned concentration.
Oh Celestia, now it's really getting bad, Firefly…
Twenty-third Libra… This date has just a scribby note, much untidier than the rest of the entries: Delusions gain upper hoof. Patient’s in a state of permantent fear, doesn't seem to notice even the brightest light. Relocation to closed station. Damn it, we’ve been making so much progress! Need to get down to the root of the trouble. Will advise Herbal Green to fabricate the strongest consciousness-expanding tonic he’s able to distil…”
Sliderule’s had read out in a hushed tone from the beginning, but his voice had died off even more while he had read that entry. Now he sounded hoarse and was only barely audible, when he pronounced what the last letters on the page meant:
“Twenty-fourth Libra… File closed…”
Just two words, but like an epitaph in their finality. There was no doubt, these words sounded like a death warrant.
“Poor filly…” Firefly breathed. She felt sick. A well protected, young life, ended just like that, in tragic and insanity. Nopony deserved that fate! Hearing that, one could well start to doubt the equity of the world…
The pegasus fought against the lump in her throat and the sprawling feeling of anxiety in her chest. “Sliderule”, she uttered, trying for her voice to sound as clear and firm as possible. “I think I want to go now…”
****
From the cover of the nearby trees, a cloaked stallion watched the unsteady white light shining through the glass window of Calm Mind’s room on the first floor.
The light spell showed that the young pegasus had sought help from the guard’s unicorn paymaster.
Silver Blaze couldn’t help but smile. Luckily the holt prevented the light from being accidentally seen by somepony from town. These two of them made really horrible burglars!
But nevertheless they did just what Silver Blaze wanted them to do. They were a crucial part in his plan to uncover all the dark secrets this town was trying to hide from him. Not to forget the dark secrets of his friend Calm Mind!
To hoof over the reins so much was decidedly not his way but he was in a peculiar situation: For one thing Calm Mind had asked him to help her with this hopeless case – and had urged the fate of whole Equestria for an argument - but for the other thing she kept him on a short leash, withheld important details, and most important, she left him in the dark about her true intentions and indulged in mysterious comments instead.
Silver Blaze hated nothing more than to be taken for a fool, a fact he had already made very clear with Calm Mind, and he probably shouldn’t have warranted his help away. Nevertheless, there was a reason he couldn’t help but rack his brain about the missing filly. He would take care of this mess, alright, but he would do it his way and to his own conditions…
Up in the Doctor’s room the magical light died off. The two ponies apparently were about to end their nocturnal trip. His expression, which had temporarily darkened as he had dwelled on his own thoughts, brightened up again. The baits had been laid, and hopefully he would soon be able to pull in the line!
Now he would wait for fifteen minutes to give the two ponies time to retreat. And then, he guessed, he should lock the front door of the hospital.
We would not want another madpony to run around in town, would we?
The new day dawned a few hours too early, at least if Firefly was asked. But nopony bothered to ask Firefly; first of all, not the croaking and especially unnerving specimen of a rooster that evidently had decided to take a seat on the roof ridge and to crow his mind to heaven. Due to all her investigation work, Firefly hadn’t yet gotten round to find a real place to stay, and so she had spent the night in a small chamber above the guard house’s armoury that had a spare bed in it.
Unwillingly and cursing that miserable bird making a racket over her head, Firefly stretched her limbs. Had she already missed the reveille, how the wake-up call was dubbed in military jargon? She hoped not, because after yesterday she felt more like going back to sleep for one hour or two…
Sullenly she chewed on her tongue. The last night had left a bad aftertaste. Quite literally also, she felt like she had chewed on a piece of mouldering wood during her sleep. However, instead of providing answers, their unlawful visit in the house of healing had only posed more questions.
The mare rolled on to her back, if only for the moment, she didn’t want to think about what her future could be depending on. She stared at the ceiling, more aptly at the dim between roof beams and the lathing of a thatched roof, and thought about how strange it felt for her to actual sleep in a room alone. With five siblings, mother and father, it could get quite crowded at home and during her drill she had slept in a bunk bed in a dormitory, in one of the bottom ones even. Not to mention where she had slept on her flight to Hollow Shades, or rather hadn’t slept. Clouds might look cosy and comfortable but she had experienced how fairly cold, wet and stormy it could become up in the sky. Compared with that this decrepit bed wasn’t half bad.
Firefly closed her eyes again.
Uncomfortable, that’s right… She had to think about the missing filly again, cold, alone and afraid. And that only if she hadn’t suffered a much grimmer fate by that time!
Now that this thought had stolen in, Firefly wasn’t able to find any peace of mind anymore, and that eventually drove her out of bed. Her washing things only were composed of a jug of water and a washbowl that Sliderule had just put onto a table.
Well, a morning wash without a mirror was kind of a challenge, but she always had problems to get her mane right in the morning, and during flight it would only get messed up again anyway... She just looked a little untidier than usual today, not a problem, the main point was that her uniform was in order. That her commanding officers anything but always shared her opinion was anypony’s guess…
But being as it may, only the most peacocky of all earth ponies and unicorns need more time to get ready in the morning than the pegasi; apart from the usual grooming, their feathered wings need an accurate care, too. And because Firefly took pride in her flying skills, she was very particular about the so-called preening her feathers.
When she finally was ready to put on her blue and white surcoat- not after carefully brushing off the dust – even according to her own estimation she was far too late for the morning assembly. On the other hoof, she hadn’t yet officially reported for duty, at least not to the Captain. The only officer who had already met her was Sliderule and the pegasus had the indistinct feeling that, despite being her superior, the unicorn wouldn’t interpret the matter with the start of duty too seriously…
Just in case she entered the guardroom as unflashy and silently as possible. Needlessly, because she was given the same perspective as yesterday. No other guards were in sight, but in return Sliderule’s piles of books and paper maybe had grown overnight. As for the paymaster himself, Firefly found Sliderule exactly how she had met him for the first time: Behind his desk, his muzzle buried in a preferable weighty tome. But unlike yesterday, he apparently was asleep, resting his head on a book.
“I can imagine a better pillow”, Firefly said aloud, smirking.
The unicorn muttered something unintelligible and opened one eye ajar. Then he got aware of Firefly’s smiling face in front of his own, tore his eyes wide open and bolted up straight as a die.
“Heavens!” he exclaimed. “It’s morning all ready?”
“And a sunny one, too, Sir”, Firefly teased. “If I’m not mistaken I can be glad that I’m not the one who will get a punishment for oversleeping the morning assembly, can’t I?”
Sliderule appeared confused. “The what?” he wondered rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Morning… Oh, a roll call you mean! Yes…” He shook his head. “No, we don’t have that anymore.”
“What?” Firefly was thunderstruck. She knew the guards of Hollow Shades weren’t exactly sticklers for discipline, but a lack of an exercise as vital as the morning assembly? That practically meant anarchy to Firefly!
“You don’t want to tell me honestly that you don’t even have a roll call in this one-horse town!”
“Well”, Sliderule started to explain, once again ignoring that Firefly had insulted his hometown. “Including the Captain and me, this one-horse town has fifteen guard ponies… Um, sixteen if I count you in as well, that is… However… As we don’t have a casern, all of them live with their families in their own houses. You see, we can’t just go and blow our trumpets all over town to call in our guards every morning… The other citizens would haul us over the coals if we did that during times of peace…”
Firefly wanted to object that the Royal Guard’s signal for the morning assembly had always been a widely audible constant in her neighbourhood. Each morning without anypony seriously complaining about it!
But another question was more interesting:
“Let me get this right, then how exactly do the guards assemble each morning when there's no call?”
“As any other pony with sense of duty does: On their own. I mean, I give them new rotas every month…”
Firefly would never admit it, but if what Sliderule said was true, then she had done quite wrong about Hollow Shade’s Guard. She doubted that many soldiers in Canterlot would gather on their posts in time without being called in by a signal in the first place.
“Speaking of rotas...” Sliderule tapped on the book with his hoof. “I... um, I’ve checked some of the town’s records of the last years. You know, I thought we could maybe establish a connection with some rumours or incidents regarding the hospital…”
Firefly rolled her eyes. “I’ve feared that”, she groaned. “Let me guess: We have absolutely nothing, huh? I’m getting the feeling this blasted case is a carpet woven by one of Calm Mind’s madponies: The longer I consider it the less sense it makes!”
“A bit over-dramatic, don't you think?” Sliderule clicked his tongue. “And I wouldn’t say we’ve got nothing… Although I don’t really know what exactly we’ve got”, he admitted.
“I can only say that much: Somepony has dispersed the filly’s file. And intentionally or not, that pony has put White Nimbus’s file in the folder.”
“If there’s a connection between these two cases”, Firefly grumbled. “I can't see it…”
“Neither can I… Um, at least not at the moment…”
He closed the book in front of him vehemently so a dustcloud was stirred up in the air. After he had managed to weave it off, Sliderule continued:
“A stray filly and Count Rainbow’s foster-daughter, what do they have in common? I can’t tell, but… Maybe there is a connection, maybe there isn’t… However, this whole thing smells to high heaven!
I agree with Silver Blaze insofar that Calm Mind is trying to hide something… Totally agree with him on that point, actually… But without the files, how could I possibly figure out what?
Oh, I know, I know why I hadn’t wanted to get involved with this mess! For crying out loud this patchwork of a criminal case is probably the greatest intellectual challenge I’ll ever face in Hollow Shades and I know for sure that I won’t ever find peace again if I can’t unravel the threads, to stay with your metaphor from the art of weaving...!”
And now again he had blustered himself into such an excitement that he had run out of breath during the last sentence and unavoidably had to break his rant. Now he panted and gasped for air. The matter appeared to make him feel along very intensely. Maybe more than even Firefly herself. She actually felt a little guilty because she had pulled him out of his idyllic dream world of books.
“I know, Sliderule”, she said, but tried to adopt a tone she had often heard with her mother when she tried to soothe her youngest brother when he was throwing one of his tantrums again. And she hoped she was only half as convincing as her mother could be.
“Same goes for me,. But where I come from, we don’t just give up so easily. We stay on track, right?”
Sliderule nodded. He didn’t look to happy, but at least he had calmed down.
“It does no good. Without any clues about what might be going on in the House of Healing, we need a witness.”
Firefly returned a weak smile. “I don’t think the charming ponies in town will be keen to help us. Lest you know some magic truth spell to make them talk, that is…”
“That not exactly”, Sliderule drawled, he didn’t seem to have noticed the cynicism in Firefly’s voice. “But… But I think I know somepony who could know something… We can talk to him this afternoon. But I must warn you: This is going to be all but pleasant…”
****
On schedule with the beginning of the visiting time, Firefly and Sliderule gathered at the front entrance of the House of Healing. And, much to the annoyance of the goat-janitor Rover, the paymaster demanded to see the executive physician. In this case it meant that Rover had to accompany them to Ragstitch’s office because Calm Mind had gone out. The reason Sliderule wanted to talk to a Doctor was quite simple as he explained to Firefly: The stallion he hoped to get information from was Herbal Green, one of the inpatients…
And yet the paymaster didn’t seem very enthusiastic about his own plan and neither was Firefly, by the way.
They met Doctor Ragstitch in what he usually called his 'office'. In fact his work room consisted of a writing desk, an escritoire and a bookshelf in the back part of a room that supposedly had once been the old convent’s chapel of rest. Luckily the stone table in the middle of the room was empty and neatly cleaned, but the polished and very sharp looking, exotic tools lying on a nearby tea cart left little doubt what it now was used for. Firefly hadn’t liked the room when she had first talked to Ragstitch in here yesterday, and today she didn’t like it any better. If she wasn’t mistaken, anatomizing dead ponies still was against the law, and not thirty years ago one could have been turned to stone for this crime, but it wasn’t as much that what startled her about this room. She realized it just now.
It was the smell, that scents of embalming fluid, of sharp alcohol and curd soap. Together they formed an odd smell she couldn’t quite name properly. Maybe nopony even had invented a name for it yet! In any case it made her feel off-colour.
Moreover, and that tended to further dampen her mood, Firefly hadn’t forgotten that Ragstitch had told her just yesterday the House of Healing wasn’t treat any insane ponies at the moment. In her ungracious mood she told him outright that Sliderule and she wanted to speak to exactly to this madpony they, according to the Doctor’s own statement, weren’t treating!
“We prefer the term mentally disordered, Miss”, the white unicorn healer replied. He didn’t seem angry. Rather nervous…
“And I must beg your pardon for my little emergency lie. The matter with Herbal Green is a little… well, precarious. He was this towns healer, as Master Sliderule maybe has told you, he worked and researched together with Calm Mind, but that was before my time. Nowadays he is nothing more than mental wreck, sad but true.
My colleague and I…” He said and meant Calm Mind. “We came to an agreement to not talk about him to outsiders. To forestall possible rumours. That sounds logically, does it not?”
He smiled a little sheepishly. Sliderule and Firefly exchanged a glance. I don’t believe one word he’s saying this glance meant.
“We’re only here for his testimony”, Sliedrule corrected. “Nopony wants to spread any rumours.”
“The testimony of a madpony”, Ragstitch remarked. He took of his glasses and began to brush it frantically with a tail of his doctor’s coat. No doubt, he was nervous. But about what, Firefly wondered.
“That isn’t supposed to sound insulting, but what do you hope to accomplish by talking to him? Still, nothing will come of it!”
He behaved markedly patronizing and cold, but didn’t manage to carry it of quite as good as Doctor Calm Mind. Neither Sliderule nor Firefly would have dared to disagree with Clam Mind, but the more Ragstitch tried to prevent them from talking to Herbal Green all the more they wanted to do exactly that!
After a short time, Ragstitch relented: “Alright then”, he sighed. “Not that I hadn’t known that was bound to happen eventually... Follow me, please…”
With an expression as if he was standing in front of his own grave, he led Firefly and Sliderule through the hallways of the sanatorium. Soon they entered a part of the building the physician hadn’t shown Firefly the other day. Of course… Why would there be any need to visit an empty ward? That was at least what the Doctor had told Firefly…
That damned Ragstitch had run rings around her as if she was an absolute raw recruit!
Somewhere in the back and beyond of her consciousness a little voice of doubt reminded her that she in fact was exactly that: A raw beginner with only one year of drill and only a single training sortie, trying to play with the big colts…
“Oh, shut up”, she angrily muttered to herself.
“Excuse me?” Ragstitch huffed. He seemed a little piqued, because maybe he applied Firefly’s words on the instructions regarding the patient Herbal Green he was giving at the moment. But the pegasus certainly hadn’t meant her words for him simply because she hadn’t been paying attention his words at all.
“Chrm, chrm.” Ragstitch cleared his throat as Firefly a little awkwardly stood silent. “As I was trying to say before I was interrupted”, he said giving Firefly an oblique glare. “I need you to consider something if you want to talk to Herbal Green – which I still cannot recommend by the way… No matter what he tells you, he is a criminally insane pony. After all I know, he suffers from severe delusions, but it is among his disorder to overact his symptoms. He sometimes appears calm and helpful, but he is dangerous to the public and takes any chances to hurt other ponies! Calm Mind convicted him when he used his position as apothecary in the House of Healing to wilfully poison a patient. With a fatal outcome, sadly…
We have restrained his magic, but he still is dangerous if he can. Please always keep that in mind, will you?”
Firefly, although she had decided to never again believe even a single word the Doctor was saying, she couldn’t help but shiver. The thought of talking to a mad and dangerous poisoner didn’t seem very desirable…
Ragstitch stopped in front of a prison cell’s door. He sighed and indicated Firefly and Sliderule with a gesticulation to step closer and to look through the cross-barred viewing panel. The cell was lighted by an unnatural magic light that had to be placed somewhere beneath the ceiling, out of sight and out of reach.
In the middle of the cell stood a unicorn stallion. His haggard features really could have used a grooming, but as he heard a sound at the door he slowly turned around. Firefly flinched like hit between the eyes: All warnings to be careful had been needless. Though Herbal Green was looking tired, his eyes had a feverish glimmer. He really looked remarkably insane. All over his greyed fur red splashes were spread. Behind him two walls of the cell were also tainted over and over with red daubers and smears; on the first glance Firefly’s mind couldn’t make out anything but a horrible bloodbath!
“Our newest approach is an art therapy”, Firefly heard Ragstitch’s quiet voice from behind. “Thanks to Silver Blaze. Give him his due, he does have interesting ideas. He thought if we gave the patient paint and a brush it would be aggression relieving. Unconventional attempt, but Calm Mind thought it could be promising. Well, see the result for yourself.”
Firefly forced herself to step forward again. On a closer look she could make out different shades of red and also black colour in the stains. Of course, this wasn’t real blood. It was paint, just red and black paint. One ought to think this insight should have been relieving, but it didn’t help all too much. So Herbal Green didn’t paint in actual blood, that made the scene less macabre but no less disturbing:
All those splats and dashes, as unbelievably as it seemed, formed an overall picture. The painting on the back wall was a strange masterpiece, but none of those strange ponies would spend a fore- and a hindleg for. It was art, no question, but more like art that was bound to haunt one in bad dreams: It was a portrayal of a mountain lake with a castle on a cliff; Firefly recognized the lake and the castle north of Hollow Shades, but everything else was wrong somehow. Kept only in different shades of red and black, the water turned into blood, the battlements of the castle looked like a black claw stretched upwards and the sky seemed to burn. The trees of the woods, totally black as well, appeared like the army of doomed gathering for battle.
This alike were the kind of connotations the picture arose. Strong stuff indeed…
“ ’re you interested in art, lassie?” Firefly jerked. She had been taken in by the nightmarish painting and so she paid attention to Herbal Green only when he stepped right in front of the viewing panel. She could only see his muzzle and his blazing eyes.
“Not really”, Firefly admitted uneasily.
“You rather should be”, Herbal Green smirked. “Art often is a mirror for the truth. A murderer for example might record ‘is crimes as paintings, or as poems maybe. And I for one paint the world as I clock it, although nopony sees what I paint…”
The dreamy tone of his voice made Firefly shiver. She turned around and looked to Sliderule. He had whipped out a carbon rod and a notebook and encouragingly nodded at her. The pegasus turned back to the prisoner and thought hard about what she could reply to Mister Green’s cryptic statement, when Ragstitch stepped in.
“Spare us, Herbal”, he said with sudden determination. “These two guards are here to ask you some questions.”
“Oh, that’s right”, Firefly recalled her manners. “My name’s Firefly and that’s…”
“Oh, I already know your names”, Herbal Green interrupted her still flashing his mad grin. “What I don’t know is ‘ow somepony like meself could ‘elp you?”
Firefly wasn’t all too sure anymore whether Sliderule’s idea really was worth the effort. She was feeling uneasy more and more.
“Well, Mister Green”, she cleared her throat. “We’re looking for a missing filly. Please, think carefully: Did you notice anything strange during… let’s say, the last month?”
“Strange?” Herbal Green snapped. His fake affability had vanished completely, his voice sounded very hostile and his eyebrows formed an angry line. “It might ‘ave slipped your attention but this is a mad’ouse. Everything’s strange here.”
The next moment, however, his mood changed again. Almost every expression vanished from his face and he continued in a sober tone:
“She was not the first to be spirited away all of a sudden, y’know? There has been one like her before. Be careful, lassie, your quest might create a stir far bigger than you can imagine.”
“I fear”, Sliderule dared to object. “We need you to… um, go more into detail…”
Herbal Green’s further blaze of anger was so vigorous he threw himself against the cell’s door and shooed the other ponies a few steps back again.
“Fools, don’t you see it?” he cried out, but then he slowly slid to the floor alongside the door.
“They really don’t see it, do they?” His voice turned quiet and sympathetic, and thus was all the more creepy. “Well, well, well… What to do with the clueless…?”
He paused for about ten heartbeats and then said in an even quieter tone: “Yes, yes, I could tell them… No, of course not…” It was clear he wasn’t talking to them anymore. It was like overhearing a conversation, just that they could hear only Green’s replies.
After half a minute, his face appeared in the barred window again.
“You’re lucky”, he informed them in susurrant voice. “ 'cause, Ragstitch's right: I'm spun like a cotton reel. I have that little voice in my head that tells me bits and pieces. And now this voice wants me to ‘elp you. So I’ll tell you what I’ve also told this canaille Silver Blaze: The most important question is the one for the cradle of all evil. Find it and you’ll get all the answers you seek for: Calm Mind’s plans, the missing fillies, everything will make sense eventually.”
“Yeah, I still don’t get it”, it slipped out of Firefly's mouth which made Herbal Green’s mood tilt again.
“Dammit, lass!” he barked. “Search for the beginning, got it? When, ‘ow and where did these unfortunate events begin? Oh, and you might also ask four-eyes 'ere what 'e did in the night the filly vanished…”
Herbal Green turned away from the window and trotted away, whistling an eerie, off-key melody, seemingly having lost all interest in his visitors. Firefly was rather happy he now turned back to his so-called art. She felt like chewed and then spat out again, all the uncomfortable experiences she had already made with the House of Healing had been nothing compared with actually staring into the face of insanity in the shape of Herbal Green...
Sliderule was looking exactly as bad as she herself was feeling, but Doctor Ragstitch was actually looking even worse. Herbal Green’s last words had taken all of his self-confidence... Together with his body tension. He seemed to have awaited something like that right from the start, and now probably saw his worst fears confirmed. As much as Firefly wished herself at least a hundred miles away from all hospitals, madponies and physicians, she knew they weren’t done here yet.
“Doctor Ragstitch”, Sliderule eventually piped up, just as if speaking out Firefly’s own thoughts. “We really do need to talk.”
As always when nervous, Doctor Ragstitch started to clean his glasses again.
“Yes”, he sighed. “I thought that much. If you please would follow me back to my work room. Call me panicky but I do not want Herbal Green to hear what I have to say…”
Patient A-16, the name is blacked out. Date of admission: Twenty-sixth Alicorn, year four-hundred and ninety-three, reign of Celestia.
Twenty-sixth Alicorn. Patient has been found unconscious on the northern road coming from Cauldron Lake. She had a collision with a merchant’s cart. One day for monitoring on the open ward under suspicion of concussion.
Twenty-seventh Alicorn. We still don’t know much about her apart from her name. Until now, her relatives haven’t gotten in touch with us. Patient is a little emicated, decided to keep her in hospital a few days longer so she can cure herself completely and for once eat her fill. The stars alone know where she comes from and whether the name she told us is even her right one… Patient seems nervous and only reluctantly agreed to stay in our house a few days longer.
Addendum: Her name sounds familiar. Need to check on that…
Twenty-eighth Alicorn. First examinations uncover considerable yet untapped magical talent. Actually she would be exactly the kind of unicorn I’ve been searching for to finally perform my experiment to complete my research about the incidents from three years ago. Still no sign of any relatives. The filly probably is a stray…
Twenty-ninth Alicorn. Patient still very nervous. My suspicions have condensed, the collision with the cart must’ve done more damage than initially thought. Patient intermittently suffers feelings of faintness, cause unknown. She’s in that age were magic becomes unstable when in a state of emotional turmoil, so patient accidentally knocks over stools and dishes. After light-out patient suffered a panic attack and destroyed almost the entire interior of her room. Decided to administer her one Valerian pastille in the morning, noon and evening, to calm her down. Thought about talking to her about my experiment, then decided to postpone it until tomorrow.
Thirtieth Alicorn. Decided to not tell her. Incident from last night convinced me to perform my experiment anyway, especially since it’s bound to stabilize her erratic magical outbursts before they can reach a dangerous level. Started change of medication today. Tried out a new medizine based on Datura stramonium. In a fifteen-times-dilution of Herbal Green’s original setting the remedy only shows little to no effect. Maybe it’ll need more time for the effects to ensue. However, patient seems to get a better grip on her magic abilities now, far less magical accidents for the rest of the day.
Thirty-First Alicorn. Continuation of medication. Remedy shows effect now; expansion of consciousness is now almost fully formed. However: Still no sign she can get in touch with HER– the word’s written in capitals and underlined. Just a thought: Maybe I’ll be able to establish a connection if I remove all disturbing influences. Will try deep hypnosis tomorrow.
***
"So far for the first pages." Doctor Ragstitch put down the paper and looked at his opposites over the rim of his glasses. He had eventually decided to wipe the slate clean. And first of all that included presenting them the patient’s file he had taken away.
“Bad to hear, is it not?” he asked Firefly and Sliderule. “And I had no clue… What has come over Calm Mind to so reprehensibly contravene her oath as a healer? It’s hear in black and white. Pray, consider: Datura stramonium, that’s moonflower -mad apple- for crying out loud! She was hazarding the consequence of killing the filly during her experiment! For science's sake, we all have to turn a blind eye sometimes, but enough is enough!”
“The moral club doesn’t really suit you, Doctor”, Firefly accused the physician. “I bet you’d be willing to break the law as well if only it urges your so-called science!”
“What I find more intriguing than unfounded accuses, Firefly”, Sliderule curtly interrupted her before she could bluster herself into her righteous fury. “Is why the Doctor has kept this file rather than hooving them in to the guard. If he wanted to help the filly it would have served him far better than concealing evidence.”
That seemed to be how Sliderule was rolling, Firefly thought. He hated all fuss but excitement seemed to be the only thing that helped him get his own thoughts and words lined up properly. Maybe too properly because that hard undertone in his voice didn’t do him much credit…
“I can hear both of you very well, you know?” Ragstitch protested severely. “Is it my fault that performing an examination on a dead pony is considered something condemnable? I have never hurt a single soul, on the contrary, my rare knowledge about anatomy has save many lives until today! And of all ponies you guards have no reason to be so patronising. Maybe you should ask your Captain about all the deals he has been cutting with Calm Mind recently!”
It looked like the Doctor was about to get into a stalwart argument with Sliderule at that point and all of a sudden Firefly found herself in the totally unpredicted and inappropriate spot to be the one to remain level-headed. But she really wanted to hear his part of the story, so...
“Alright - I can’t believe that it’s me who has to spell it now – if we want to get any further we really need to pull together. Let’s calm down again, everypony! Doctor Ragstitch…” She turned to the physician. “You said something about wiping the slate clean. So please, start with telling us why you kept that file.”
For the first time, Ragstitch took of his glasses and carefully lowered them down on the table. Without the mirroring eyeglasses the watery-blue colour of his eyes was especially remarkable. He looked really tired.
“It was because of this”, he said and opened the envelop he had put the file in to reveal the second sheet of paper.
The worst scenarios Firefly had imagined since this morning seemed now all confirmed, all fear, despair and hopelessness of the world seemed to meet her from these three, bloody words!
“That…” Sliderule drawled. His voice was only barely audible. “That changes a lot... So she has been there… In Calm Mind’s bureau.”
“And she has lost quite some blood in there I can tell you…” Doctor Ragstitch said. “It took ages to clean up the mess… Not that I really had a choice…“
“To find something like this”, Firefly weakly spoke up. “It must’ve been horrible.” Still she couldn’t get the image of the bloody letters out of her mind even when she closed her eyes; however, the question still remained:
“But why did you hide it?”
Doctor Ragstitch grimaced. “Blood holds power. It can be used as paraphernalia for all kind of unpleasant magic”, was his rather cryptic answer.
“Para-fern…? Oh, come on, making up words to sound smarter doesn't count!”
“Paraphernalia, Firefly…” Sliderule weakly explained. “Are items needed to perform some sorts of magical rituals. I’ve… um, I’ve once read about a so called ‘Tracer Spell’ that needed hair or better yet blood from the sought pony. Is that what you mean?”
Ragstitch nodded. “Precisely”, he said and he might have said more, hadn’t Firefly jumped of her seat and loudly interrupted him:
“Wait, wait, wait! You’re honestly telling me there’s actually a spell for finding missing ponies? Then why don’t you just perform that spell and dips? There must be blood enough for a hundred of that spells on the sheet!”
The physician gave her the stare, once again miffed because Firefly wouldn’t let him finish talking. “Because, my impatient, feathered friend”, he said icily. “The Tracer no spellcraft known to the public. I have heard of it, but that is all. I neither know the necessary spell, nor am I able to perform it. And I guess same goes for Master Sliderule as well?”
“It's mentioned but never accurately described in any of my books... But Calm Mind has far better connections than I do, so I think it could be possible for her to get her hooves on the spell, yes…” Sliderule ruffled through his mane. “Alright, I think I get it now”, he said. “That solves the mystery how the filly could get away, doesn’t it?”
“No doubt”, Firefly confirmed. “It was the Doctor who freed her, right?”
As a gesture that this conversation had to come to a conclusion the physician put back on his glasses and rested his front hooves on the table.
“So, where does that leave us?” he asked in a business-like voice.
A pretty good question, Firefly wondered. Truly, where did that leave them? Her goal had been to make her mark in Hollow Shades, so she could eventually return to Canterlot in honour. But never had she thought that would make her end up on the wrong side of justice one day. Had she lost her grip for right and wrong recently? For Hollow Shades’s guard she had taken the task to retrieve the lost filly and it was her duty to do so, but could she really take responsibility for that, with everything that was going wrong in the sanatorium? She didn’t really know what to think anymore. Save for one thing, maybe…
“Oh Celestia, I’ll be stuck here forever”, Firefly groaned. Where the mind failed one had to listen to their gut feelings instead. And Firefly’s guts told her one thing for sure: “That will probably bury my career but there’s only one thing that matters now, and that is the filly’s safety, right?”
“It probably will bury all of our careers”, Doctor Ragstitch laughed bitterly. But he seemed satisfied with Firefly’s reply. “But you are right, of course. All the sadder that I really cannot say she’s safe.”
“But you where the one who freed her, weren’t you?”
The physician took a deep breath. “Alright, I guess it is my turn to complete the picture now. It all started with this interesting, black unicorn, that Nightshade. He identified himself as a royal sorcerer and said he had the order to inspect the House of Healing. And because Doctor Calm Mind had suddenly made off for Greensville, it was I who showed him around. At some point intrusted me that he had sensed something strange and unsettling within these halls.
He said that he was believing our runaway was, howsoever, connected to it. As he left he asked me to leave her where she was and take a look after her. But if you had heard her crying -this heart-breaking, bitter crying- you would’ve done exactly the same as I did!”
“Namely?”, Sliderule chased up.
“Namely, I waited until our janitor, Rover, and the night nurse had gone to bed, and I went to Calm Mind’s room to get the key. But then I made the first mistake:
I wanted to check the filly’s state of mind, after all she had suffered severe mental injuries. Moreover, I could not suppose she would trust me just like that. So I just opened her cell and went back to my rooms to wait. How could I possibly have predicted that she would so something so stupid once she was out? She set free the most dangerous pony that was ever held within these walls: Herbal Green. It was sheer luck I came in time to prevent him from choking the filly to death. I took him out with a magic blast. He’s tougher than any earth pony, I almost had to kill him to knock him unconscious, but I managed it. But then I made my second mistake, oh Celestia, such a blunder I have not made in twenty years! Please understand my situation, because that is all I can put up in my defence: I had to make some quick decisions. On the one hoof there was the filly and I needed to take care of her. On the other hoof there was one unconscious madpony. I could impossibly tell how long he would be out cold, and so needed to get the filly out of there as quick as possible. I decided that, if I wanted her to trust me, it was best to leave her be for the moment. When she realized I really meant no harm to her she would come back to me eventually, I thought. Well, I was wrong, obviously…”
Now would have been the moment for Firefly and Sliderule to say something as Ragstitch bit his lip and didn’t continue, but they weren’t able to reply anything. All in all, there simply was too much information to digest at the moment. After about half a minute awkward silence, the doctor finally said:
“So we are really out of options, are we not? She is still alive, something tells me that, and Calm Mind and Silver Blaze seem to be of the same opinion, but I do not know what we could do to help her. Not even where we could begin to look for her.”
“But maybe… Maybe I actually do!”
The others turned to Firefly. The disbelief on account of her muttered remark was unmistakably readable in their eyes and that was naturally getting her vexed.
“Hey”, she complained. “I may not be able to read, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid! I can still think!”
And she had thought a lot indeed: Herbal Green was mad, alright, he was hearing voices, at least according to himself, but that didn’t mean they shouldn’t attribute more meaning to his words. Sliderule had wanted to get his testimony, so why not use it? Art often is a mirror for truth, the old creep had said. And what ‘truth’ could his so called art mirror? What was the one thing he had especially wanted to impart them? Well, these questions weren’t all too difficult to answer:
“It's what he calls ‘the cradle of all evil’, of course!” Firefly boasted.
“You… Are shockingly good at this”, Sliderule said approvingly. “So, if we consider Herbal Green’s words…”
“… And that was your suggest in the first place”, the pegasus interjected.
“Um, yes… Ahem, so if we consider his words, especially the part where he told us to search for the beginning, then that would mean…”
“… That his motive didn’t come by chance!”
“If I may interrupt that epic brainstorm of yours”, Ragstitch sourly barged in. “But would you kindly acquaint me with your trains of thoughts! Do you have a plan?”
Not a plan actually, to have a plan they would have needed to understand the connections instead of just having them before their eyes. But there was one fundamental insight to gain:
Somehow Herbal Green’s twisted mind had drawn the right conclusions. Cauldron Lake, as Sliderule could confirm, had always been at the centre of all kind of rumours and sad incidents through the town’s history, an eerie attraction seemed to spring from its deep, cold waters, Cauldron Lake was where all the threads concurred. Herbal Green’s choice of motive for his nightmarish art had been well-made. There had been one like the missing filly before, he had said. Could he mean anypony else but White Nimbus whose file had been closed under no less mysterious circumstances? Somehow, the lake was connected to her ailment, as well as it was clearly connected to Cloud Dash’s death, after all he had drowned. And didn’t the filly’s file mention she had come down the northern road, from Cauldron Lake?
After a short explanation, Doctor Ragstitch was in the picture as well. The lake admittedly wasn’t an all too good lead: Maybe or maybe not the filly would come back to the lake, in any case they had no choice, maybe they were mistaken altogether. That were a few ‘maybes’ too many for the physician’s taste, but at this point they had to grasp at any straw they could get. And in the end it wasn’t up to him to follow the lead anyway. Ragstitch would stay behind and let Firefly and Sliderule do the examination of the lake, after all there still was the possibility the filly would turn to him eventually.
“Good hunt”, he bid goodbye to the two guard ponies as they took their hurried leave.
In the meantime, the sun was setting in the west. A chilly wind was blowing down from the northern mountains, across Cauldron lake, and rippled the surface of the dark, mysterious waters. It was due to Firefly’s thirst for action that the two guards on their quest for the missing filly had went to the lake that same evening. A thirst for action, by the way, that Sliderule didn’t share at all. There was so much he had wanted to prepare for this field mission but Firefly almost hadn’t allowed him time to bundle together thick cloaks for himself and the pegasus, let alone anything else he had wanted to bring along!
A little hesitatingly and feeling hopelessly underequipped, the paymaster followed Firefly out of town. By the time they had walked down the cobbled street until the shores of the lake came in sight between the scrawny firs, he had fallen a fair way behind. Firefly now left the road and stepped onto the shingle beach. The pebbles were still wet from yesterday’s rain but the evening sky was clear, except for a few clouds the north wind was driving along. The weather appeared to keep up, which was good fortune because so far away from Canterlot, weather still was uncontrolled and unpredictable, especially in autumn and winter. Firefly, however, knew nothing of this. She just was glad no more rain seemed to be scheduled for this night.
“Alright, here we are at Cauldron Lake”, Sliderule huffed. “So… um… and what now?”
Firefly had to admit that she didn’t have a clear notion what they should do now. What had she expected? That somehow everything would magically make sense once they reached the lake? No, indeed, but she had hoped their trip would’ve been a bit more… enlightening, perhaps. Yet nothing about these dark waters was enlightening at all. At most Firefly began to experience the strange attraction of the lake first-hoof:
It was always quiet at Cauldron Lake, animals, with birds leading the way, avoided the reed growing on its shores. The lake itself was frightening, with barely any shallows and infinitely deep, deeper than anypony had ever measured, and ice-cold, even during midsummer. And yet these dark waters – at evenfall and in the shades of the nearby mountains they were almost pitch-black - bore an enormous fascination to a curious mind: Who could tell what secrets were lying dormant in this lightless abyss?
“Shouldn’t we go back now? The gates will be closed in an hour or so, and Cauldron Lake at night, is that really necessary?” Sliderule knew a lot more stories about the lake than his companion and he had no intentions on finding out whether they were true or not!
Firefly saw how serious Sliderule was about going back to town but she didn’t want to give in just now. No, ‘want’ wasn’t exactly the right word, it was more like she really couldn’t give in just now, like if a feint yet determined voice in her head whispered to her it was of utmost importance that she stayed at the lake, at least until their theory the filly would come to the lake eventually would be proven completely wrong.
“I won't be cross if you want to go back”, she thus said. “ But I’d like to stay here, at least for some time longer. Just look around for a bit, y’know?”
“Yes, I know”, Sliderule sighed. “But I also know the rules, Firefly: Guard ponies must not go on patrol alone. There always have to be at least two ponies who go together. As your commanding officer I have to follow these rules.” He planted himself in front of Firefly. “And that means either both of us go back to town or none of us does!”
“None of us, then”, Firefly just replied. “No offence, but I’m not going back now.”
The paymaster grimaced. “I figured you’d say something like that”, he sombrely said. “And I haven’t even brought flint and steel, let alone a lantern… Just great!”
Firefly faced his bad mood with winning optimism: “Aw, c’mon, it’s not that bad. We have warm clothes, thanks to you, and still at least an hour of daylight. And have you forgotten? You’re a unicorn, you can cast a light spell. We don’t need a lamp at all!”
To her surprise Sliderule’s expression darkened even more. “As if I would play torch all night!” he snapped.
Firefly wasn’t able to follow up. This seemed to be about more than just that another unpleasant night was pending for Sliderule, somehow she had hit a raw nerve there, without even noticing. But that didn’t mean she would be spoken to like that! “Sheesh, sorry I said something”, she muttered sulkily.
Sliderule’s expression changed from sour to guilty at instant. The situation was visibly embarrassing for him. “I didn’t mean it like that”, he apologized hesitatingly. “It's just that… um, you know… I’m not good at practical magic.”
Doubtfully Firefly raised one eyebrow. “Not good at practical magic?”
“No… um, I mean yes. As embarrassing as it is… My magic is very weak. But a proposal for kindness: If you can get hold of some dry wood I’ll do my best to light a proper campfire, alright?”
“Yes, sir”, Firefly moaned but she was smiling. That sounded fair enough to her.
****
The fire was to become direly needful, for as the night closed in the damp air became quite cold an unpleasant. The rain-soaked ground and trees were steaming and thin wafts of mist were coming up from fields and forests as an almost full moon rose in the east. Firefly stared into the flames. It couldn’t hurt to wait, she thought. If there was anypony out there this night the fire would have surely drawn their attention, and hopefully it would be the right one’s attention. About that she wasn’t all too sure anymore, by the way. Her enthusiasm had waned together with the last light of day, and although she had wanted to send Sliderule home earlier, she now was glad that she wasn’t alone out here. However, she wouldn’t have minded if her company had said something instead of just glumly sitting there. But clearly small talk wasn’t his strong side…
“Y’know?”, Firefly spoke up once she couldn’t stand the awkward silence anymore. “I think you’ve done a good job with the fire.”
Sliderule slowly raised his head. He looked confused, as if he wasn’t sure to whom Firefly was speaking. “Um… thank you… I guess…”, he eventually replied, and then felt silent again.
Firefly had to wait for another minute or so, then Sliderule had struggled with himself enough. Slowly he continued, more like to speaking to himself: “I have memorized every spell in every book I’ve ever read, but my magic is so weak that I can’t put any of them to use. A lighting spell is almost the ultimate feeling and even that I can’t sustain for more than fifteen minutes! I’m able to work out most complex calculations in my head but I’m always so absentminded that I permanently misplace my keys! Do you know how that feels?”
“Perhaps, a little like having the wrong Cutie Mark”, Firefly answered. She had said it airily but a bitter feature darkened her expression. Her father was a carpenter in Canterlot, she explained to Sliderule, a modest stallion, but needed because as a pegasus he could easily work even at the rooftops of the highest buildings in Canterlot. And as his oldest child she had actually been supposed to follow in his hoofsteps, but timber, hammer and nails just didn’t suit her: She liked flying and speed. Her father had never been fond of his daughter’s passion, but after she had gained her Cutie Mark, he had to accept for better or worse that she would never become a carpenter; since that day Firefly had always thought to see disappointment in her father’s eyes whenever she looked at him. That was the reason she had joined the Royal Guard in the first place: The hope her father would one day be proud in her again.
“See, everypony has to carry their cross”, Firefly concluded, flashing her opposite a brave smile. “No need to be so embarrassed about it! So that’s why I can’t even read properly, because I’ve never been meant for -how do they say? - higher education.”
“But at least you weren’t named after your first toy”, Sliderule half-heartedly objected.
“Do you think ‘Firefly’ is my birth name?”, the blue pegasus gave a laugh. To talk about these matters seemed to help them both but she wanted to win that self-pity-competition. “I’ve no problem to admit it: I’ve changed my name because my birth name was terrible.”
“So, what is your birth name then?”, Sliderule broached the subject again. Firefly sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.
“Ah shucks, what does a name matter?”, she eluded. Hastily she tried to think about a different topic they could talk about. The fact she had changed her name maybe wasn’t embarrassing for her, but very well her old name itself. “That reminds me: There’s something I wanted to ask you…”
“No chance…” Sliderule interrupted her, smirking. “You’ve started it, now finish it! What’s your birth name?”
“Sky Blossom, alright”, Firefly blurted out. “My name’s Sky Blossom. Now go ahead and laugh at me!”
Sliderule blinked. “Why would I? That, um… It’s not all that bad. It’s a nice name. It sounds… um, sweet", he finished a little sheepishly.
“But that’s just it”, Firefly exclaimed. “The name’s so prissy and sweet, and I’m none of those. Never have been. The name simply doesn’t suit me, alright?”
“I won't use your real name if you don't like it, but... But I don’t think I can agree, actually”, Sliderule drawled, but he didn’t elaborate that thought any further because Firefly flashed him an angry glare. “Um… anyway…”, he said, blushing again beneath his sandy coloured fur. “You had wanted to ask me something?”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right!” Firefly exclaimed, happy about that change of topic. “I wanted to ask you about these Children of the Night. You said the crescent moon was their symbol, and I’ve seen it all over Hollow Shades. But who are they anyway?”
“The Children of the Night have their offspring over five hundred years ago”, Sliderule at once started to lecture precociously. “While most ponies are adoring Princess Celestia and the light of the sun, some others betake themselves to the moon instead; to the princess of the moon, more precisely, to Princess Celestia’s sister Luna. The Children of the Night believe she hasn’t really passed away as is hooved down in history, that she still is out there and watches over them from the moon, a bit like a mother, perhaps. That’s why they call themselves Children of the Night. Naturally, the High Council has always wanted to get rid of this worship but especially in the borderlands of Equestria, where Canterlot’s lustre doesn’t fall, they persist until today.”
“Unbelievable! Who would’ve thought a sophisticated mare like Calm Mind was part of some cult?”, Firefly wondered.
“But it makes sense”, Sliderule declared. “Not only poets, bards and all the other dreamers, but many powerful ponies - magicians, scientist, and pioneers all alike - have all been Children of the Night. They say all ideas spring from dreams, and Princess Luna used to be known as the Warden of Dreams. I think it’s only logical they behold her as their patron saint.”
Firefly had to think of the black pendant she had seen jingling at Silver Blaze’s neck and wondered whether Her Majesty Princess Celestia knew that the captain was actually a follower of her departed sister, that he was preferring the night orb over that of day. Maybe she had chosen him especially for that reason, as a memory for the sister she had lost, who knew? But what was the deal with the Children of the Night, anyway? Were they really some kind of secret society or just a bunch of odd ponies? Were they all just about superstition or did they maybe have some kind of secret agenda?
At this moment, the town bell sounded, it proclaimed the beginning of the second night watch. It was getting late, after this surprisingly pleasant talk about unpleasant topics and the chatter about the Children of the Night, Firefly hadn’t noticed how long they had been sitting at the fire-site already. She wrapped herself tighter into her coat, even if she didn't like the feeling how the loden cloth constrained her wings. Now the night was bringing itself to mind again with might. How the moon stood over the forest, large and bright, it was quite easy to understand the belief that the Princess of the Night was still alive. This wasn’t Princess Celestia’s realm anymore, it was a darker kingdom that complied with its own rules alone. The fire created an unstable circle of orange light around them and outside this circle only existed a world of black and white: White only the moon and the cold distant stars, and black evrything else.
And again Firefly had the same feeling she had felt in the nocturnal House of Healing. It sent cold shivers down her spine and made the fur in her neck stand out as some primal instinct buried deep inside any pony’s subconsciousness reacted. Firefly strained her ears and she saw Sliderule doing exactly the same.
“Did you hear that?” he asked in a whisper. Firefly silently nodded. There had been a sound, a cracking that hadn’t come from the fire, but from the nearby edge of the forest. Somepony or something had come to watch them. Sliderule was gazing intently over Firefly’s shoulder, he tried to make something out in the dark. Unfortunately, Firefly was sitting with her back turned against the forest. She couldn’t possible see anything without turning around.
There: Another cracking in the twigs, followed by the rustling of leafs. Whatever was out there, now it was moving. Still Firefly blankly stared ahead. Not being able to face the sound was driving her well-nigh crazy, but she was too scared to turn around or even to move a single inch.
“Who goes there?” Sliderule’s voice burst the silence like a whip crack. His shout came so suddenly that Firefly jolted up in shock. She was already up on her hooves when Sliderule called out again: “Don’t you w-want to come over hear a-and take a seat? It-It’s cold out here!”
It was impressive how he could call the danger just like that, even if he couldn’t ban a slight trembling of fear from his voice. There was no way Firefly could stand back now, she couldn’t show such a weakness in front of Sliderule, who she was viewing not only as a comrade (and commanding officer) but also as her friend by now. She forced herself to turn around just as the leafs started to rustle again, louder and closer this time.
She was just in time to see something come forth from the forest. But it wasn’t a monster, and not a robber band either. It also wasn’t a wild animal.
It was a unicorn filly.
****
“Go away”, the filly called to Firefly and Sliderule. “It’s not safe here!”
There was no doubt it was their missing filly. She was filthy and dishevelled, but she still looked a little like herself beneath all that dirt. The ankle of her right foreleg was bandaged and she was still wearing a gown like they were used in the House of Healing. But clearly, the linen tunic wasn’t enough for the wet and cold weather and the filly was shivering, whether with cold or with fear they couldn’t tell.
“P-please, go away!”, she stuttered, looking at them like a scared rabbit.
Now struck Firefly’s hour. Maybe her drill wouldn’t help her but she wasn’t big sister of five siblings for nothing! “Hello there”, she said in a conversational tone and rose a hoof for salutation. “I’m Firefly, and this is my friend Sliderule. Oh Celestia, look at you, you must be halfway frozen to death!”
She made a step towards the filly. The poor thing wimped out a little, but she didn’t run away.
“The offer still stands”, Firefly tempted her. “We’ve still got room at our fire for you.”
Firefly surely was trying her best to not intimidate the filly. And whether she did a good job or simply was able to catch her out, either way she managed to steer her to the fire with gentle force where she placed her on the fallen trunk she had sat on earlier and took place next to her.
“Now c’mon, you need to warm yourself first, and we’ll take it from there”, she said, took of her winter coat and draped it around the filly’s shoulders.
The filly looked up to her with large, sad eyes. “Are you going to bring me back to the hospital?”, she wanted to know with a voice so hopeless it was downright heart-breaking.
“No, no, no, of course not!” Firefly exclaimed in shock. “We’re going to find you a place where you’re save. Nopony will hurt you anymore, right, Sliderule?”
“Huh?” the paymaster mouthed absentmindedly. Then his mind followed up and he quickly added: “Oh… Oh, yes. Of course, of course, of course. Like you say Firefly…”
Not really helpful, Sliderule, Firefly tried to convene him with her look. But most likely the paymaster had already thought ahead and mulled over that problem with the save place. Where should they find such a place?
The filly looked from one to the other and then into the empty air. “I know”, she slowly said. “But I’m simply tired of running away…” She clearly wasn’t speaking to Firefly or Sliderule, but to whom else? The pegasus hoped that in the end they hadn’t knocked a screw loose in her head after all.
“Listen”, Firefly thus said to her comrade. “We need to get her indoor where it’s warm, and quick, or she will probably catch her death out here…” She then turned towards the filly: “So, what do you think, about that offer, um…?” She grimaced. “That’s no good”, she then decided. “I can’t keep calling you filly, don’t you think you need a name?”
“Guess so…” the foal admitted meekly. “But I don’t know my name?”
“Don’t you worry, we’ll take care about that later”, Firefly tried to cheer her up. “Sliderule here’s a genius. I’m sure he’ll find out your name in not time!”
Sliderule didn’t look half as confident as Firefly had spoken, but he nodded. “Until then”, he added. “Maybe we could give her an, um… working title… I mean a name we can call her by, you know?”
“Good idea!” Firefly concurred. She tapped her hoof against her chin while she thought. “I know”, she eventually exclaimed happily. “I’ve got a perfect name for you: It’s brief, easy to recall and positive and…”
“… And would please stop putting us on the racks, dear colleague”, Sliderule quite worldly interrupted her pathos. “And spell the name, already?”
“Alright”, Firefly pouted. “I suggest ‘Dawn’. I like that name. It’s sounds like hope, and I think you of all pony could use a little hope, right?”
The filly nodded. “Dawn sounds nice…” she said.
****
The filly tried the sound of the name in her head. ‘Dawn’… The mare, Firefly, was right: She really could use some hope. She was still alive, alright, but that was due to Clouds assistance for the bigger part. Even if he maybe was just her imagination, because he had always been on the ball, she had survived until now, even if only barely. Grass was neither very tasty nor very sustaining, and she hadn’t gotten sated since her escape. And not knowing whom she could trust, she even had wallowed through the rubbish like a wild animal in the end.
“Dawn sounds nice…” she said. Yes, she wanted to hope that there was silver lining on the horizon after all.
“Nice to meet you then, Dawn”, Cloud smirked. He was still at her side, of course, unnoticed by all others. “I like the name, too. It’s cute, suits you very well…”
The filly - No: Dawn - turned away to hide that Cloud’s straightforward way to talk once again embarrassed her a little. And then she saw the fog.
They all must’ve noticed it almost at the same time: It had always been there, for the whole evening, but the wafts of mist hadn’t dampened the starlit night. They hadn’t even noticed it gathering, and now it had consumed the whole world. A sudden, creeping fear came over them, it brewed up like the fog, seeped into their hearts and souls and made them nervous and anxious. Even more than before. Their fire casted restless, orange will-o’-wisps onto the white swirling around them. Up above, only one small part of the night sky still was visible, with the pale moon in its middle.
Dawn was on the verge of tears. “It’s everywhere!” she whispered. “Cloud, it’s everywhere!”
“It’s all my fault!” Cloud Dash scolded himself. “I should’ve known better than to come back to the lake! It has been my doom, and now it’ll be yours as well…”
The filly tried to reason with him but, he wasn’t reasonable anymore. And to Firefly and Sliderule it had to look really weird how she talked to the thin air…
“Cloud?” Sliderule followed up. “You mean Cloud Dash? What about him?”
He had to figure her for mad… And maybe she was, Dawn thought. Maybe she really had lost it. Maybe all this wasn’t more than just a terrible nightmare, but if so, she sure wasn’t about to wake up any time soon. And considering that she wouldn’t start to quine her best friend, imaginary or no…
“He’s here”, she thus said. “Right by my side. He talks to me.”
“Dawn, please”, Firefly snapped. “We have no time for the voices you’re hearing!”
Her fear was getting the better of her and thus making her sound vile. “Save maybe they have any sage advice what we should do now!” she added.
The filly wasn’t in any better state of mind. “I’m not hearing voices!” she objected fiercely, tears in her eyes. “Just this one voice! And Cloud IS here, I swear, even if you can’t see him. He’s a ghost or something. But if you don’t believe me, fine…!”
“Would you kindly save this argument for later?” Sliderule barged in. The fog didn’t seem to affect him as much as it did with Firefly and Dawn. Maybe his mind just worked in a different way than those of other ponies, anyway, he managed to remain at least somewhat sober. In fact, he was appearing even more sober than ever.
“If this is natural weather then it’s unlike any I’ve ever seen. If this fog’s getting any thicker, we’ll be able to cut it with a knife. We need to get back to Hollow Shades!”
“That was meant seriously!” Firefly grimaced howsoever. Now she was sounding almost panicky. “Does Cloud have any advice? Because I’d be willing to follow any if it gets us out of here!”
It’s too late…!
They all froze. There had been no call, no voice at all, and nevertheless the ponies all had heard these words, in their heads, their minds, and the words’ impact scared them stiff. Above them, the fog devoured even the last bit of open sky and trapped the ponies in an eerie white dome. None of them dared to make a single step in any direction.
“It’s too late”, Cloud picked up the ghostly words. “It’s too late, it’s too late…” He curled up on the ground to a ball and covered his face with his hooves. “He’s here! He’s come to get me…!”
As if to proof his words true, Dawn could see something shifting in the fog. It was visible like something was moving behind a white bedsheet or pressing against it from behind.
“Celestia help us”, the filly heard Sliderule mutter. “We’re trapped. Stay together, everypony, and close to the fire!”
Tighter and tighter the noose was pulled. Barely the glow of the fire was still keeping off the mist, but this shelter was constantly shrinking, inch by inch, hoof by hoof, as the ungodly fog appeared to choke light itself with its greasy wafts. There was no escape, Dawn realized. No way out, not this time, and this thought seemed as final and irrevocable as death itself.
Death, she thought. That’s it. I’m going to die here. This is the end. Slowly Dawn sat down on the wet ground, next to Cloud Dash. She tightly hugged her friend, it didn’t matter whether she was imagining him or not.
At least I’m not alone, she thought. Thank you for the name, Firefly and Sliderule. Thank you for everything. Then Dawn shut her eyes tightly and waited, waited for her death.
****
Firefly’s mind rebelled against what she saw. Not like weather at all but like something alive the fog appeared to her. Like a wide number of snakes and other winding, slimy and loathsome creatures, the malice lying within the white swirls was almost physically sensible. But how was she supposed to fight when the enemy literally wasn’t more solid than mist?
Some instructions Sliderule had given! Stay together, everypony, and close to the fire… But the treacherous safety of the flames was already melting like snow in midsummer. From everywhere this vicious, sleazy haze was comprising them and stretched out his clammy arms for them. If Firefly wanted to stay any closer to the fire she would have had to step into the embers. No further retreat was possible. At least not unless she tried to escape through the air, to fly higher than the mist could reach. The filly didn't seam very heavy, so maybe…
A quick glance above made discard that plan at once. Over her head the fog was loomed like white dripstones from a cavern ceiling. This way out wasn’t tempting either. Not at all… Sliderule was right: They were trapped here. Whatever was out there in the fog, or -more fittingly- whatever the fog was itself, it would snatch them one by one the very moment they dared to step into the white. Almost mockingly, the mist was slowly coiling in front of her eyes…
And then softly tipped her muzzle! It was an icky feeling that made Firefly shiver marrow-deep. Frantically brandishing one foreleg she dispelled the wisps of fog in front of her.
“Sliderule, we’re running out of options!” she hissed.
“I know, I know”, the paymaster replied. He had defiantly lowered his head for a counterattack with his horn but of course fog didn’t make a good target. An unsteady light flickered from the tip of his horn, he was really mobilising the last bit of his magic to keep the fog at bay. “Just… Just watch over the filly”, he gnarled. “I’ll think of… something…”
For a moment Firefly felt a deep regret because the name she had given the filly hadn’t brought her luck at all. Dawn was lying on the ground, her eyes shut tight and she looked like she was embracing somepony invisible. She wasn’t crying, and didn’t seem to notice what was going on around her anymore. But there was no peace for her: Something like ghostly arm, like a bird’s claw had already stretched out of nowhere, crawling and groping forward. Forward towards Dawn!
That was the final straw. Firefly was certainly not a coward and right now her protective instinct kicked in. She wouldn’t leave the filly to the mist! With a defiant scream she leapt forward and onto the crawling arm. The arm wasn’t any more catchable than the fog from which it had come, but Firefly nevertheless was bucking and biting around until nothing was left of that thing.
It was too late when she realised her mistake. Maybe she had saved the filly but in return she now was in deadly danger herself. She had stepped out of the circle of light and was now standing halfway in the dark. The horrified look in Sliderule’s eyes told her she was doomed, and then, before she could do anything or even say a single word, the fog welled up around her, seizing Firefly like a spider ensnaring its prey.
Up, down, left and right, everything seemed to have dissolved in the white haze. From far away Firefly thought to hear Sliderule repeatedly screaming her name, but his calls soon became silent, without Firefly being able to recognise from which direction he had called. She was alone, lost within this placeless white nothing. Within a blink she had lost all perception for what was around her. She didn’t know in which direction their fire, not where the forest or the water was. The fog had laid down on her ears, her eyes and her muzzle like wet cotton, her uniform was drenched and her fur wetly stuck to her body. She was freezing. The hollow scraping sound of her hooves on the gravel was the only sign that there was still a ground below her as she stumbled around, confused and disoriented. The effect the fog had on Firefly’s already tensed mind was devastating. It is tue to the pegasi's way of living, because they are used to the endless vastness of the sky, that they can get claustrophobic quite quickly. And Firefly hadn’t felt any more cramped in her whole life! Everything started to spin around her, an annoying, buzzing sound filled her head. Firefly tried to call out for help, but she couldn’t make a sound. She couldn’t breathe, had a feeling like the fog would lay a heavy weight on her chest and constrict her throat.
Then, as if all that hadn’t been bad enough, something touched her. Krrsh. Krrsh. It felt dry and was rustling. And with each stumbling step she took there were more and more of those things!
Krrsh. Krrsh. Krrsh. Krrsh. The feeling of oppression turned to a moment of utter horror and her mind went blank. It was the most stupid thing to do but in a kneerjerk reaction Firefly instinctively made one big jump foreward. Firefly fiercely burst through the reed, and then happened what had to happen: She slipped, sprawled lengthwise and with a mighty splash the lake’s masses of water took hold of her. The water wasn’t just cold, it was freezing and hurt like pin-pricks. But the cold at once brought Firefly back to her right senses. Reed, she thought. It had been nothing but reed that had touched her. How stupid! Her fur and feathers now of course were soaked, her wings felt heavy as lead, and anyway she was as poor in swimming as she was in reading, but somehow she managed to hold her breath and to not inhale any water. But there wasn’t much air left in her lungs anyway.
Drowing because she had been scared by reed grass, what a dumb and unnecessary death! Firefly simply refused to die in such a dumb way! She started to struggle and to beat her wings, trying anything to get her head above the water again. But the lake had to be already quite deep here for she couldn’t feel any ground below her hooves let alone she would have been able to see it. There was only blackness. She had traded the white void for a black one, even colder, even more threatening. And even more terrifying, as Firefly was about to experience…
Something came, as though it had been decoyed by Firefly’s desperate fidgetiness. She sensed it like a shift in the water, like if a big fish that was swimming by. She didn’t know whether it was that creature from the fog, but at the moment she couldn't think of anything else. In the impenetrable darkness, deep down in the lake Firefly noticed a sudden glow. She had the impossible sensation of a fire in the distance, a great fire, burning underwater! More and more the fiery glow spread, lighted up the lightless depths, until a cavern became visible, like if one was looking through a porthole. The cave was spacious and with rugged walls, unsteadily illuminated by the flames flickering up from a giant pit. A colossal shadow was outlined against the flames, a hideous creature emitting an aura of sheer horror.
Firefly felt a scream coming up in her throat and the last bit of air spluttered out of wide open mouth in a stream of bubbles as it finally burst out. As if it would only just now notice her presence, the shadow turned slowly its head around; and when his gaze fell upon her, a riptide of emotions that weren’t her own engulfed her. She felt loneliness, wrath, and all-consuming hatred!
Firefly’s lungs painfully filled with cold water and her senses faded…
And then she felt a sudden jolt, something grabbed her around her chest and pulled her away. She heard, or thought to hear a distant, inarticulate roar. The next thing she felt was an ice-cold gust in her face and then the pressure of gravel in her back as she was laid down on the pebble beach.
“Dare not dying on me, Royal Guard!” she heard a familiar voice scolding, more worried than angry. Then she felt air getting forced back into her water-filled lungs. Once, twice, three times. Her body cramped up and the whole water came out again, and by the gallon, judging by the awful pain. Firefly was coughing her heart out.
She was feeling lousy, shivering with cold, her lungs were burning and she was mortally scared. “The eyes… Where have they gone?”, she gasped. Anxiously she looked around.
“Easy now, Royal Guard! It is a horrible night to go for a swim!” The voice indeed was familiar, and now Firefly recognised him, though he was wet to the bones and with his soaked, grey fur looked like a drowned rat. The voice belonged to Silver Blaze.
It was wondrous enough anypony had come at all, but could it really be a coincidence that of all ponies he would be the one to come to her rescue? But Firefly was too distraught to wonder, her eyes still darted around, and she had only barely recovered her breath but she was already on the hop again and ready to bolt away.
“The eyes…” she repeatedly panted, her chest lifting heavily. “Those blood-red eyes… Where have the eyes gone?”
“There are no eyes”, Silver Blaze tried to calm her down. Gently yet firmly, he restrained her as she tried to rear up and held her head with his hooves. “Do not run away!” he soothingly told her. “Look at me.”
And Firefly did. The stallion was incredibly calm, although he had to be freezing as well, soaked like he was. He wasn't wearing his bandage anymore, over his shut, left eyelid ran a thin, pale scar. But his right eye glimmered green and attentively in the fiery glow, and in his look she could see nothing but calmness and serenity. He was a true bastion of calm, and though he wasn’t wearing any uniform, he for a moment was the hero again that Firefly had seen in Canterlot, all the years ago. His unshakeableness was reassuring, slowly her horror started to cease.
Firefly closed her eyes and muttered: “It was horrible! There was something down in the lake. And those eyes, oh sir, those eyes were horrible! I thought I was going to die for sure…”
“It is alright, cadet”, the stallion soothed, adopting the military form of adress. “It is over now. Open thine eyes and see where thou art!”
She did as she was told: Their small campfire wasn’t far away, although it wasn’t so small anymore. It was blazing up high, shining through the night like a beacon. Firefly saw that Silver Blaze hadn’t come alone. There was a unicorn stallion she didn’t know, a mighty appearance. His coat was dark and silky, his mane was black. With head held high he stood next to the fire, a flare was radiating from his horn and a red gemstone was shining from his necklace. Even the ominous fog seemed to have succumbed to the unicorn’s might, the night was still foggy, alright, but it had withdrawn and there was no trace of that evil will that had haunted them.
Silver Blaze beckoned Sliderule to sustain Firefly while he shook out the water from hos coat. Then he picked up a sword belt with a lean blade from the ground ans strapped himself with that belt. He then fetched a cloak from the ground and enveloped Firefly with it. It was a hooded cloak made of thick wool, heavy and warm. And it was dyed red, Firefly noticed, what a particular colour… So, was Silver Blaze hero or villain, shining star of the Royal Guard or just Calm Mind’s henchstallion? She really couldn’t figure him out…
The other stallion was meanwhile focussing his attention on Dawn who was still lying curled up on the ground. The glow from his horn and also the light from his necklace died of as he bowed down to the filly. She squirmed a little, so thank Celestia, she was still alive, but she still wasn’t responsive. “She is cold as death itself”, he said as he felt her pulse. “Silver, we need to get her away from here.”
“Agreed, Master Nightshade”, Silver Blaze concurred. He still had his scarf, but it couldn’t be much of a remedy against the cold. “That goes for us all.”
“It really is him”, Sliderule muttered at Firefly’s side. “His Cutie Mark, that’s the felonwood bloom. He really is Nightshade! But that’s impossible!”
Indeed, the mark on the stallion’s flanks showed a blossom like a five pointed star in purple and yellow. “Yes, I am Nightshade”, he said before Firefly could ask her companion why that was impossible. He must’ve heard Sliderule. “But we have no time for conversation. This trial of strength I have won, but he would not stand for this defeat just like that. I fear he will return all too soon!”
“I will carry the filly then”, Silver Blaze said. He turned towards Firefly: “What about thee? Wilt thou get by?”
Firefly nodded. “I’m not hurt. Just wet… and cold.” And frightened, she added in her mind, but she would’ve never spelled it.
“Very well”, Blaze said. He bowed down and humped the unconscious filly onto his back. “Then, let us all head back to town now. Nightshade, would ye lead the way?”
“But the town gates are closed”, Sliderule objected worriedly. “I know the watchword, but still we won’t get back in that easily, sir!”
“Easily or not, we will get back in there!” Silver Blaze growled in return. “And if I need to shout the whole town down! I want to see that pony who tries to hinder me! Come now, before we all freeze on here!”
****
Following Nightshade who was leading the way with his light spell, Firefly scurried and stumbled over hedge and ditch. The unicorn set up a brisk pace. Next to her was Silver Blaze who kept pace with them quite well, despite his burden. He had his sword clenched between his teeth and the blade shimmered coldly in the moonlight. Blaze didn’t really look like anypony would want to mess with him right now. Resolutely he forged ahead and Firefly and Sliderule, who came in last, struggled to keep up with him and Nightshade.Cutting cross country it didn’t take them long to reach the town’s gate. There Silver Blaze seemingly made move to put his plan into action and indeed shout down the whole town. Or at least the guard detail from their sentry box. Accordingly distraught, the two guards appeared at the vision panel, flushed by his hammering at the gate. They were too surprised to even make a move to deny him the entry as he ordered them ‘in the name of Canterlot’ to open the gate. Playing the authority card now had admittedly nothing to do with secrecy anymore but at least it saved them some precious time.
****
The small house Silver Blaze now led them to stood on the verge of the small grove that separated the hospital from town. A tired looking Doctor Ragstitch without his glasses appeared in the doorway. But naturally, he didn’t appear very surprised to find them on his doorstep.
“Good gracious!”, the physician exclaimed as he squinted his eyes to compensate for his short-sightedness. “You look like chewed and spit out again! What have you done?”
“Not now, Ragstitch”, Blaze growled. “This is a matter of life or death!”
He squeezed himself past the unicorn, just as good as it was possible with an unconscious foal on his back. While Firefly, Sliderule and Nightshade followed the two of them, Ragstitch helped Silver Blaze to lay Dawn down on an upholstered couch next to the masonry heater. The house the doctor was occupying surely was big for one pony to live there all alone, and the living room was furnished for more than just one pony, Firefly noticed. Maybe the unicorn had wanted to raise a family in Hollow Shades.
The three of them, Silver Blaze, Ragstitch and Nightshade, looked after Dawn’s care together. The physician repeatedly checked the poor thing's pulse, and every time he shook his head in bewilderment. The two unicorns then talked to each other in a low and tense voice while Silver Blaze was looking over their shoulders. But because none of them could ascertain that she was hurt in any way, and because her breathing was becoming more even again, they confined themselves on tucking her in properly. Her unconsciousness had seamlessly passed over to a sleep of complete exhaustion.
Firefly and Sliderule could do nothing but stand by anxiously until a few minutes later, Nightshade turned back to them.
“She is asleep now”, he told them in relief. “And, bless the stars, she is warm again. It is over for now… She indeed has more luck than judgement…”
To hear that took a heavy weight off Firefly’s mind. She had already feared that this malicious fog had rendered all the efforts of the last days void. Her subtle elation was however dampened by Silver Blaze pretty well.
“But same goes for you two”, he barged in in a low voice. He meant Firefly and Sliderule. “That was one dangerous solo action for you fledglings! You have been lucky enough to have coincidence all on your side tonight. Had I not badgered Ragstitch so much and had he not told me the full truth eventually, I would have never known where to find you. Although I do admit I was trying to keep an eye on you…”
“And had I not per chance found you nosing around in the woods, Silver Blaze, tell me: How would you have fought against this unearthly mist? You may wield the finest blade in Equestria, but even Wintermoon cannot cut through mist and illusions.”
Silver Blaze took this reprimand from Master Nightshade with an unwilling snort but didn’t reply anything. Whatever his plans had been, control of the situation wasn’t in his hooves anymore. Firefly seized the moment and asked a question that had bothered her for quite some time now:
“Master… Nightshade, right? Master Nightshade, sir, please tell me: What was this… this thing in out there? It was… It had…” She stopped. Just thinking back to those cruel, red eyes made her fur stand on end.
“No, Master, please”, Silver Blaze suddenly objected. “I am curious for answers as well, but not now!”
“I must agree with Silver for once”, Doctor Ragstitch joined in the conversation. “For my part, be my guests if you must, but I prescribe all of you a snatch of sleep. Immediately!”
He had brought a whole pile of towels for Firefly and Silver Blaze so they could dry themselves properly. Nightshade nodded, but he said nothing. Swiftly he left to open the front door and to look outside. Then he closed the door again and turned the key in the lock twice.
“Yes indeed, some things are ill to hear while the world lies in shadows. This all is far from over, but for now there is nothing left for us to do. You should all get some rest now. Tomorrow we will need our strength”, he eventually proclaimed.
“Or at least all our nerves”, Doctor Ragstitch added as he returned, this time with woolen blankets for all of them. “I fear your nocturnal actions won’t go unnoticed. Calm Mind will learn about this and she will definite be happy that we all decided to take party against her; if Silver’s really on our side and his plan isn’t actually to give us away to her in the first place, that is!”
The mentioned made move to take offense to that last statement but Nightshade again cut him short: “The confrontation is indeed inevitable but there is no such thing as ‘our side’, Doctor. You and Silver and Calm Mind, and also these two brave guard ponies have been all enmeshed in own ambitions… As well as -I admit it!- I have been enmeshed in mine. But we need to put an end to this dispute. And to achieve this will be your task for tomorrow.”
With these words Nightshade retired from the living room. Firefly was wondering if this talk was over. Because there were surely some details left to go over. What Nightshade’s plan exactly was, for example, and why he had said ‘your task’ instead of ‘our task’! And as they all were just standing there, Nightshade suddenly poked his head back into the room again.
“Go to sleep, for heaven’s sake!” he exclaimed like he couldn’t believe that they were still awake; then he shook his head and disappeared again. Yes, this talk really seemed to be over…
Maybe if she could just sit down for a moment, Firefly thought… After their involuntary adventure was finally overcome, Firefly had to realise how totally at the end of her tether she actually was. She could only barely keep herself on the legs. Ragstich’s upholstery was quite comfortable actually, also the living room wasn’t smelling like embalming fluid (which was actually a big relief knowing the physician’s preferences). To boot their host had put some more wood on the fire and so the tiled stove at least drove away the cold of the night. But as for the fear: Firefly thought she would never be able to sleep again, she felt like just closing her eyes for more than a blink would conjure that vicious being from beneath the lake; that its burning, spiteful glare would haunt her from the darkness of her own mind. She had the nonrational notion that she would stay awake forever rather than meeting this blood red eyes again.
But lying down just for one moment couldn’t hurt, just a moment to relax her tired legs... This moment however turned into a minute, then two, and then five. Firefly still didn’t feel like she was ready to get up again. Outside of the window she could hear a sound, like branches fretting in the wind, twig fingers of trees scratching walls and shutters; she wondered if the fog from the lake would also creep into town and fill the streets with its white madness. But this worries went by, warmth and a leaden tiredness allayed her. She simply was too deadbeat to worry anymore. With a sorcerer like Nightshade and an elite soldier like Silver Blaze (and it didn’t matter whose payroll he now was on, as long as he was fighting against what was out there in the fog) guarding their sleep, what was left to worry about anyway?
A soothing melody filling the air was what clinched it to her. It was Silver Blaze who was singing, a calm, melancholic song with words in a language she didn’t understand. Resting her weary head on the pillows her eyelids dropped against her will, and then sleep embraced her.
****
You all sleep well, Silver Blaze thought. Her deep and even breathing told him that at least the filly already was. In the end, she seemed to recover quite well, given the circumstances. And the two guards, Firefly and Sliderule, if he had gotten their names right, didn’t look like they’d stay awake any minute longer either. Who could possibly blame them? After all he had wormed out of Ragstitch the filly must’ve gone through a living nightmare. And he was wondering if the two guards had experienced something similar. After all, Firefly had almost drowned herself in aberration, for heaven’s sake!
He had prevented all questions about that topic so the others could stop worrying for now, but that didn't mean he wouldn't worry himself. Sliderule himself had seen nothing unnatural tonight, the attacks on Firefly, Sliderule and the filly had entirely targeted their minds. But what kind of dark power could let two mental healthy ponies (plus one possibly not so mental healthy filly) go completely mad?
His inconvenient deliberations made Silver Blaze fall into an old campfire habit. He started to hum to himself. All travellers in the wild know this uncertain feeling of anxiety when the world is dark, when the shadows draw near, and all existence seems to shrink. A soothing song can work miracles at these times. What Silver Blaze sang was the refrain of a song that his mother had once taught him, written in the old tongue of the Crystal Empire. But the Empire had fallen an eternity ago, and today there was nopony left who was still able to understand more than a few words in the crystal ponies' native language. That knowledge was lost and gone forever, like a lot of things that had yet seemed good and firm. A lot of things had changed since back then, and were still changing, even this very day if one was to believe Calm Mind.
And Silver believed Calm Mind; that was part of the problem. There was no question that she had fairly earned more than a bit of trust in advance. She had saved his life, twenty years ago. For one she had fought for his life, even after all other healers had already forsaken him. The High Council had often questioned the doctor's methods, and indeed they sometimes seemed quite radical, shocking even. But although the doctor often acted hard against her patients -and even herself- the end always justified her means: Even apparently terminal cases had recovered, and only thanks to her treatment.
But this time was different. Calm Mind’s actions, as cool and calculated -not to say cold-hearted- they ever seemed, they had always been reasonable (at least from a rational and more distant point of view). Her decisions in this case, however, were not at all reasonable, not for him and not for Doctor Ragstitch. And they both weren’t exactly unknown quantities with regards to questionable decisions…
Speaking of decisions: His own decision, the one he had to make in any case, Silver Blaze had stalled for far too long now. Somehow he had succumbed to the devious notion it would get easier to decide if he had enough time to think things through. That it would get easier if he just waited this one more day. But it didn’t get easier, not at all!
‘It is all water under the bridge’ went the proverb, but as Silver Blaze’s father had used to say, in Hollow Shades so many secrets had been dumped under the bridge that these waters could be dangerous for swimming.
Funny, Silver Blaze had evaded any thought about his parents for years. His memory of them was sad, but now it was strangely comforting. His father had been a wise pony... There probably wasn’t enough wood in whole forest around Hollow Shades to timber the closets for all the skeletons this town needed to hide!
The idea how the ponies of Hollow Shades would cut down their forest to build hundreds upon hundreds of closets and then ritually would stow a rattling carcass neatly in every single one of them, anxious that the doors still closed, was so silly that Silver Blaze had to smirk. It wouldn’t have taken much for him to laugh out loud. But even though he liked those snatches into the drawer of black humour, they weren’t really helping.
Joking apart, the townsfolk of Hollow Shades, and especially the Children of the Night had always gone their own way out here. But they had made no bones about it, to stay with the ‘bony’ metaphors, meaning to say that the Children generally meant no harm to the rest of Equestria. But of all the strange stories told about the town and this stretch of land in general, why did just this one have to be real? This was indeed a skeleton too big to fit into any closet: There was a rumour that had been told in times past, a rumour about a powerful curse, a shadow looming over Cauldron Lake. A bugaboo, as it seemed, a scary tale to make misbehaving foals see reason. ‘Be good and eat your soup, or the curse from the lake will come after you’, laughable at bottom, and yet eerily real. The utter horror in Firefly’s eyes had spoken volumes…
But all right! None of this would have mattered to Silver Blaze right now. It wouldn’t have matter to him that Calm Mind had lied to him, it wouldn’t have matter that Nightshade appeared to know far more than he was willing to let them know. It wouldn’t even have mattered that he, with all the keen wit he was boasting with, simply failed to see the bigger picture.
He could have condoned all of that, trust in Doctor Calm Mind, do his duty and leave this whole quarrel to the bigheads and magicians.
Yes, he could have, hadn’t there been this one, teensy detail:
This blasted cloak, he thought while he carefully tucked the filly in again because she had kicked away her pillow. Oh, why of all ponies does it have to be this blasted cloak?
It was winter, all colours were looking pale and bleached out, even the sun that setting in the west. Between the grey, barren pine trees the snow was covering the layer of dry needles with white heaps. And yet, she wasn’t feeling cold at all.
“Where am I?”, the filly asked out loud. She didn’t get an answer, but it took her a few moments to realize why this bothered her so much: She was alone. For the first time in two weeks she was missing Cloud Dash’s presence. No well-meant advice, no awkward comment, no silliness, he just wasn’t there. Already, she couldn’t recall an occasion where her friend hadn’t been at her side, from the moment she woke up in the morning to when she lay down to sleep at night. How could he be gone, all of a sudden? She was left alone in this strange, washed out place, wherever it was.
The filly tried to recollect what had happened to her. What was the last thing she could remember? She and Cloud had followed these two guard ponies to the shores of the lake, hadn’t they? But afterwards there was only blackness.
“I suggest ‘Dawn’. I like that name.”
Oh yes, right. She had a name again. The pegasus, Firefly, had given her a new name. Dawn.
“It’s sounds like hope, and I think you of all pony could use a little hope, right?”
Use a little hope… A little hope, yes. Just spelling her newfound name made Dawn more confident already. On the brink of her mind, she could feel that there had been something dark, scary and threatening, something a merciful faint had wiped from her memories. But in this place, she was save from it.Somehow the look over these frozen fields felt important. Familiar even. In front of her eyes a village’s road was laid, little more than a broad track of beaten and frozen mud. And over this mud, a grubby foal was dragging their hooves, struggling with a bundle of firewood.
Dawn let out a sharp yelp: “That’s me!”
Although she again received no reply, she was undoubtedly right. The filly was smaller than that startling reflection Dawn had seen in the mirror the other day, and some years younger. Nevertheless, it was her. The same colour of mane and coat, the same eyes. But that image of her over there on the trail looked even more miserable than her reflection had, it appeared to be on the brink of breakdown; the logs were too heavy for her and she was shivering with cold. It was enough to make a stone cry!
Powerless and with a feeling like she would herself pass out any minute now, the filly watched the younger Dawn struggling with the firewood for a few more steps, before she eventually tripped over a ground wave and keeled over. The logs spread over the whole street. But there was nothing the older Dawn could do for her younger self: The woods, the fields and the path, those all were but memories. A dream, an echo of something that had happened a long time ago. Nopony could change the past…
Suddenly, Dawn heard the clip-clop of hooves on the frozen ground. She turned around and faced a group of ponies at a quick trot appearing out of thin air just like that. Very much to her shock the newcomers paced right through her.
This was because it was a memory, Dawn realised. Whatever she was about to witness, it had already happened long ago, in her past so to speak. And because she hadn’t seen were those ponies had come from and back then, she now wasn’t able to see it now. But what had brought up this memory? Dawn couldn’t even recall her real name; why, why then could she remember this day? Why and how could this day and those ghost ponies be more important than her name?
The group of ponies, ten or maybe twelve in number, really looked like ghosts. Many details were blurred and faded out where oblivion had gnawed at them. Dawn’s memorial self still cowered in the middle of the road and thus stopped the ghostly shoal. The filly looked up to the strangers with large, wet eyes. “Dear sirs”, she begged in a brittle voice. “Please, could you spare a few bits for me?”
One of those stallions, however, seemed a little ill tempered. “Insolence! Do you not know who is standing before you?“ he started harshly.
With shock, the filly now broke up in tears.
“Shame on ye, baronet”, another stallion scolded. “Now look what ye have done. Ye have made the poor thing cry.” He had an outdated way to speak, and strangely his voice sounded familiar. Like she had heard that voice only recently. He shifted the other stallion aside and stepped forward.
“There is no need to cry, missy”, he continued and carefully bowed down to the filly. “Thou canst not possibly know who I am, and this noble knight appears to have forgotten. But lightning shall strike me if I ever forget who I am and what I stand for.”
After these mysterious words the stallion collected the scattered firewood and placed it to the filly’s hooves. From the point where Dawn watched the scene, the friendly stallion turned the back on her. He was a knight in armour, she noticed, and contrary to everything else in her dream his cloak didn’t look faded at all: It was bright red in the light of the setting sun. Half pudent and half curious, Dawn started to pace around her dream-self. With every heart beat the stallion’s figure became more and more distinct. Now the knight stuck his muzzle into one of his saddlebags and fetched out a small purse with his mouth. He then lifted the filly’s front hooves with his own and dropped the pouch. Coins jingled as the filly caught it.
Just a few steps more and the older Dawn would finally be able to look into his face.
“For wise use”, the stallion said, and it sounded very much like he was smiling. He undid his cloak and put it around the filly’s shivering shoulders. “And I believe thou needest this more than I do.”
As if this had been all her subconsciousness had wanted to show her, the figments of Dawn’s dream suddenly started to unravel as she was drifting away from the world of slumber into the wake world. And still she hadn’t been able to recognise who her mysterious benefactor had been!
“No, wait! Not yet!”, Dawn pleaded. She tried her best to fight against waking up, yet of course there was no way to hold grasp on a fading dream. But just like if he had heard her, the unknown stallion turned around once more just as the dream had almost completely dissolved. And then Dawn saw his face, just before everything turned completely white and she fully woke up.
-<0>-
Dawn didn’t know were she was when she opened her eyes, she had never seen this wood-panelled ceiling before. “Would bother me more”, she muttered. “If this wasn’t the first pleasant wakeup in forever.”
“We have been through a lot, that’s for sure.” Cloud Dash’s familiar face pushed itself into her point of view. He was lively as always; of course, ghosts or whatever he was didn’t need sleep or did ever get hungry. “Morning”, he greeted. “Good to see that at least one of us can sleep in peace.”
On second glance, Cloud had very well undergone some change. It was not a visible one, though, except maybe for the look in his eyes. Was it doubt, worry, or something else entirely, Dawn couldn’t tell, but she surely didn’t like this expression. It reminded her of the hospital and that Cloud, as a ghost or whatever, was almost completely powerless in the world of the living. Truely, Cloud Dash was the reason that she hadn’t curled up to die at this point, but as much as he had saved her life, Dawn had saved him in return, from fading into oblivion again, at least.
“Saved? Thou art save now, for the time being, at least, if that is what thou meanest.”
This new voice that mingled in Dawn’s thoughts sounded strangely familiar. If the voice’s owner couldn’t read her thoughts, she apparently had formed a habit of muttering to herself. Guiltily Dawn turned around.
And then unexpectedly, she encountered a remnant of the dream she had deemed the most important thing in the world only a few minutes ago; a dream that yet strangely was about to fade again from her mind already… But no doubt, there he was, still looking almost the same as back then. The stallion with the white eyepatch that had given her his money and his cloak on that cold, harsh winter evening. At most he looked a little more tired, today.
“Better close thy mouth, missy, a bug is coming.” The stallion smiled before he turned serious again. His watchful right eye rested on Dawn for a moment, concern and pity in his look.
“I… I…” she stuttered without being able to produce a meaningful sentence.
“Am I crazy or does he seem know you?”, Cloud Dash uttered, but Dawn couldn’t pay attention to him; her eyes stood glued to the stallion.
“Well, I believe I have never introduced myself properly”, the subject of her undivided attention said. “Something that seems to have become a bad habit of mine, lately.” He bowed a little. “Silver Blaze, captain of the royal guard, off duty at the moment but nevertheless at thy service.”
Now Dawn was overwhelmed even more. Her eyes turned wet. “I… I know”, she inappropriately stuttered and then quickly tried to correct herself in a politer way, only leading to her stumbling over her own words even more. “I mean, I know you… Your name… I… somepony has told it to me… At least, I think so…” At this moment, she got a little, helpful jab from Cloud Dash that at once stopped her rambling. She shot him an evil glare, gulped once, and then shyly concluded as she was rubbing her eyes dry: “You can call me ‘Dawn’, sir.”
“And blow me down and pick me up, you know that stallion as well, huh?” Cloud turned his head between Dawn and Silver Blaze. He still had that look on his face. Dawn opened her mouth to give a reply but was interrupted by another pony that entered the room.
It was that ginger unicorn guard, Sliderule, balancing a tablet with freshly baked bread and a glass of jam on his back.
“Excuse me, captain, sir”, Sliderule addressed Silver Blaze. “Master Nightshade says, if the filly is awake, he wants to discuss our next steps.” He tilted his head at the tablet on his back. “But I thought… um… maybe Dawn should have… um… breakfast first?”
Silver Blaze tried to stifle a yawn. “Ye are right: Let Dawn have her breakfast. Go and get the others, Constable, we may as well have our briefing right now, we can talk while she eats. With all his wisdom, Nightshade yet needs to learn that not everypony jumps just because he says so.”
The prospect of breakfast looked very well to Dawn, although she felt uneasy because the others were watching her. Only the physician, Ragstitch was absent, he had to attend to his duties at the House of Healing. Firefly and Sliderule, Silver Blaze and Nightshade, Dawn wondered whether they were afraid she would try to run away again. And most of all Nightshade was making her nervous. She had already noticed it before, but now there was no doubt to her. She couldn’t really explain it, but Dawn really felt like there was something about him that wasn’t fully pony. And it wasn’t helping either that he wore that necklace shaped like the head of a unicorn, only with wings, and that bore a red gemstone seeming to glow weakly with its own fire.
“Trouble’s brewing, huh?” Cloud said into Dawn’s ear. Her ear twitched but she tried to ignore him. The others were already looking at her oddly enough without her talking to somepony only she could see and hear. She tried her best to stay put and just have her breakfast until after a felt eternity Silver Blaze took the word again:
“Last night I have stifled Firefly’s question about what had happened because we all were too tired to consider such dark matters and I wanted us to get some proper sleep first. Well, I for my share am not much more rested than yesterday evening, worry and my own curiosity kept me awake half the night. But nevertheless, these things that ye, Master Nightshade, said were ill to hear while the world lied in shadows, I think we must discuss them now.”
Master Nightshade gave Dawn a mindful look with his uncanny violet eyes, which in return gave her crawlies. Then he slowly nodded.
“First, I want to ask Firefly a question, if it is alright with her.”
The young mare fidgeted uneasily as the sorcerer addressed her, but she replied: “I am fine with it, sir.”
“Very well”, Nightshade said and put his hooves together. “What did you feel?”, he asked and because Firefly just stared at him confusedly, he sighed and then explained: “At the lake, you got closer to… well, the presence than any of us. What did you feel?”
Firefly pondered thoroughly. It wasn’t easy for her to recall details from the past night, she had to admit. The fog from the lake seemed to have brewed in her head as well, in addition to the impressions she would rather not remember if she had the choice to. But at Nightshade’s urging, she tried her best to recollect everything as good as she could. Eventually, Firefly thought to remember.
“It felt… lonely”, she drawled. “It felt like being caged up in a dark place, without any hope. And there was something else… It was horrible, I felt like I’d lose my mind: The hatred, oh, it burned… I… I… I fear it will burn everything…” With every word she forced herself to utter, Firefly shivered more and more. Now her voice failed as she was threatened to be overwhelmed by the horror that boiled up with the memory.
“Enough”, Silver Blaze barged in harshly. He looked at Firefly almost as concerned as he had looked at Dawn. In a softer voice, he added: “It is alright, say nothing more, Royal Guard. Stir not up those bad dreams.” And with a look as fiery as the stone on Nightshade’s chest, he turned towards the sorcerer. “Is this really important?”
Nightshade took a deep breath but then he took Silver’s outburst very calmly. It was important, he explained because he had felt something very similar from the moment he had walked through the gates of Hollow Shades, and that somepony had experienced the same confirmed his impression. Those influences had been all but clear, nevertheless they had been strong enough to make him play out his authority card: With the royal sorcerer's badge he could unopposedly take a closer look at everything suspicious in the town. He had felt the dark presence all over town, but it had been strongest in the sanatorium. But he had also found something else within those old walls, as well. Something he hadn’t expected and also didn’t really understand, something, that was dark and yet not evil…
“You’re talking about me!“ Dawn squealed.
„No, he’s talking about US”, Cloud who was still acting as a bug in her ear corrected her. This time, Dawn couldn’t resist a ‘shush’, luckily nopony paid attention to that slip because Master Nightshade was already continuing.
“Yes, I am indeed talking about you, filly... I mean Dawn.” He searched for the right words. “I am not good at explaining things, but maybe I can put it this way: It is like a scent that does not naturally belong to you, Dawn, like with a perfume. I can feel there is something with you, something that is not you. Do you know what I am talking about?”
Dawn nodded. She turned her head to see Cloud Dash and once again became aware that all the others were watching her. The blue pegasus colt made big eyes. “Do you really think they’ll believe you?”, he said, but Dawn’s decision was already set. No more lies, she was willing to take the jump into the cold water.
“I know what you’re talking about, Master Nightshade”, she said, and then blew the whistle: “His name is Cloud, sir. Cloud Dash.”
If it was at all possible, everypony now looked even more worried. A silence arose, even more uncomfortable than before. The eternity felt even more infinite this time, and Dawn had a lot of time to worry.
“So, what you two are saying”, Silver Blaze once again broke the silence. It surely costed him all his self-control and yet he couldn’t wholly stop his voice from trembling. “Is that Dawn is, somehow, possessed by Count Rainbow’s dead son?”
“There is an evil will haunting this town”, Nightshade replied, apparently losing his patience. “And believe it or not, Dawn’s connection with -Maybe with Cloud Dash’s ghost, is it that impossible?- is something that goes not according to his plans. Why else would he want to kill Dawn? He has already tried it twice, and I will not allow him to try a third time!”
The eye-patched stallion rubbed his temples with both his front hooves. “We have something evil against us, I can believe that”, he admitted. “And whether I believe there is a dead pegasus colt haunting Dawn is not important, right now. To argue about this matter does not lead to anything.”
Silver Blaze didn’t sound like he actually believed her, though, and he was giving her this pitiful look again. The thought that he could have already written her off as a madpony gave a sting to Dawn’s heart. But it wasn’t so much because he wasn’t believing her, if she was honest. Something in her subconsciousness told her that the stallion she now knew as Silver Blaze had somehow been dear to her, but that wasn’t the reason her heart was aching. It was because Dawn was beginning to fear he could be right to disbelieve her. What if she really was just imagining things, what if she really had lost her mind, eventually, and was just imagining Cloud Dash? The loss of her memory didn’t speak in her favour either, did it? But if she really was mad then that meant in conclusion that Doctor Calm Mind, the pony she hated more than anything, had been right to lock her up. It meant that she indeed belonged in that cell… Dawn lowered her head, so the others couldn’t see the tears welling up in her eyes again.
However, the first teardrop falling on her breakfast plate perhaps didn’t slip Silver Blaze’s sharp eye. He suddenly clopped his hooves together with and audible ‘tock’, so loudly that Dawn almost jumped out of her skin. But the shock very well brought Dawn back to her full senses.
“Master Nightshade”, Silver Blaze said. “This story is still missing a conclusion, and I would want to hear it. Ye mentioned ‘him’ multiple times. Ye said ‘he’ would try to kill Dawn. Master Nightshade, what is there ye are not telling us? Do ye know what we are up against?”
For the first time, Nightshade was visibly looking uncomfortable, when he replied. He actually had had no intention to tell them, but now that it couldn’t be helped, he had to admit that Silver Blaze was right. He said that he had indeed recognised the presence he had felt, or at least had thought to realise it. As something or rather somepony that should have been dead for centuries.
“To find that he is still alive or at least his evil will is still lingering in Equestria, this was worse news to me than any of you can imagine, for it means my mistakes in the past still haunt me until today and yield depraved fruits. I wanted not to tell you because to cope with this is my task and my burden, and only mine, although I knew that it would exceed my powers, even if he does not have all his old strength.”
He paused for a moment and touched the red stone of the amulet on his chest.
“So I had to wander far and long to retrieve this”, Nightshade said. “It is dangerous to use it, but this amulet can strenghten the magic of its bearer, enough so I can equal him, and maybe are even able to overcome him, while he still is weakened. Our trial of strength last night shewed him just this, even if I my victory hung on a hair.
True, maybe you can help me to some extent, but we must act now, while he still licks his wounds. If he can regain his full strength, there is no power in Equestria today that will be able to halt him!”
“But who is he?” Silver Blaze wanted to know. “What kind of evil force is this pony ye are talking of?”
“He is no pony in the sense of the word, not anymore, at least. If I am right, and I doubt not that I am, our enemy is one of the great plagues that have stricken our lands in the past. His powers may have faded but still his mere presence means madness and ruin, as can best be observed with Herbal Green.” Nightshade looked into the round seriously.
“My friends, I fear our enemy is none other than… Discord, the Spirit of Disharmony.”
The name Discord made certainly different impressions on each of them: For Firefly it bore no meaning whatsoever, and neither did it for Dawn (and also for Cloud Dash, she said).
As far as he was concerned, this name had crossed Sliderule’s path at least once, but it had been not much more than an ominous hoofnote in one of the old hoofwritten spellbooks.
Silver Blaze on the other hoof, who once had been reasonably close with the royal court, recalled having heard or read the name on several occasions during his study and training in Canterlot. It had always given him quite the bad premonition, although he knew no details. Discord was one of those things all kept silent about, of which at best they whispered, but that was never spoken about openly. Much like the real cause of death of Princess Celestia’s younger sister, Princess Luna, Silver Blaze thought.
Nightshade was the only one who understood the full scope of his own suspicion, and he was aware of that. In fact, he was of the opinion to know Discord’s story better than anypony else, maybe except for the demon himself. However, after being surprisingly talkative this morning, the moment Discord’s name had come over his lips he was all buttoned up, kept what he knew to himself and wasn’t willing to share his knowledge anymore. He only told them this much, that Discord was supposed to be dead and cold as a rock, because he had actually been turned into one.
But obviously, as Silver Blaze pointedly mentioned, this Discord chap did not let himself be stopped by such trivialities as being dead.
It was quite clear that the swordstallion disagreed with the way Nightshade was tackling the issue. He could see at least a vague outline of the problem and was annoyed that he was still left in the dark – or perhaps was left in the dark for that very reason even, as he straight-forwardly told Nightshade. The sorcerer was wondering whether the captain-off-duty maybe distrusted him, because he was coming from Canterlot; after all, he hadn't been particularly fond of the capital lately. But even more importantly, Nightshade wondered whether Silver Blaze himself could be trusted. To Nightshade, he was a strange character he couldn’t quite range in, both older and younger than he should have been: Physically, he had barely grown older (if he had grown older at all, that was hard to tell), but he was neither the idealistic young stallion anymore, he had been when they first had met. He was more cautious in his actions, more secretive in his motives, and he was downright disillusioned with the conditions in Equestria. That was no wonder, because Nightshade had heard that Silver had met every deplorable state of affairs in Equestria that one could meet, after some resentful members of High Council had made sure he was transferred to the outskirts of Equestria.
Especially the north of the country was wide and wild, few ponies lived here on wide space. Canterlot was far away and without the trading centre of the north, the city of Stonehaven, which had been destroyed sixteen years ago, the small villages and towns were suddenly left all on their own again. Nature was still largely untamed here and therefore live became harsher and more dangerous, a problem which the High Court simply seemed unable to get under control.
Well, it probably was understandable why Silver Blaze eventually had asked for a garden leave in the end: One could well resign a little if they had to fight fires at all corners and ends and only had a single bucket of water to do so. In a manner of speaking…
However, Silver Blaze had taken commitments to several parties here, despite his leave, and it was still unclear to Nightshade what promise he would feel most bound by. For the time being, though, he expressed his will to help, even if he disagreed with the sorcerer’s secrecy. And to Nightshade, that was sufficing, at least for the moment.
“All those who serve the good of Equestria in their own way shall stand united”, Silver Blaze said. “These words are not my own, as ye may recall, Master Nightshade. It was Her Majesty who spoke so in the High Council. I have her trust (or at least I hope so), as well as ye do. So, against all common sense… I will also trust you.” He sighed. “What is the plan, Master Nightshade?”
“Your help is indeed invaluable”, the sorcerer explained. “Your knowledge about the town and its surroundings will come in quite handy. And I believe you can also help me with the biggest uncertainty in my plan: Calm Mind. I think not that she is directly under the Discord’s control, she seems not the kind to be bewitched so easily. If she decides to take action against us, if we have to waste time dealing with her, it can only help Discord. I know not if he considers Calm Mind in his plan, or if he has a plan at all for that matter, but there is a connection between her work and Discord’s sudden interest to kill Dawn. That connection is undoubtedly Cloud Dash, though I still fail to see why or how.
If there is one pony that can gain her trust, it will be you, Silver Blaze. Maybe we can avoid a confrontation with her, but she's a capable magician and I would rather find a way to get her on our side, and be it only to find out what she knows or suspects."
Again, he didn’t tell them, didn’t tell them why he wanted to know the whole picture. He didn’t say that one could never be too prepared when dealing with Discord who had a-thousand-and-one tricks up his sleeve. The reason was easy: Sometimes, ignorance could also be a blessing; Discord was powerful, even his bodyless presence was powerful, but fear had always been his most reliable ally. Fear made it so much easier to sow disharmony and hatred, and after all, that was exactly what Discord stood for…
****
As far as Nightshade's plan was concerned, he wanted to confront Discord while Celestia's star of the day kept his malicious illusions away. Although he could feel his presence or something he took for his presence all over town, it was kind of unclear and distorted. The only place where he had felt Discord clearly, was at the sanatorium, namely on the closed ward.
They went back to the House of Healing all together, even if it almost exceeded Dawn’s strength to return to that place. She asserted that she (and Cloud) wanted to see this all done just as much as everyone else, but as soon as she set her first hoof out of the house, she began to tremble all over. Firefly felt sorry for her. She wasn’t exactly alright with returning to the sanatorium either, but she didn’t dare to imagine how bad it had to be for the filly. Hadn’t she promised to keep Dawn away from that blasted madhouse? Now she felt like she was betraying her.
“Captain Blaze, sir?” she tried to address Silver Blaze in a way the others wouldn’t listen in. “Is it really necessary to drag her back to the sanatorium. Y’know, I’ve given her a promise…”
The captain gave her that smile with which he so often seemed to look at others, a smile between curiousness, amusement and slight ridicule. “Well, what did ye promise her then?”, he wanted to know.
Firefly’s self-confidence had obviously suffered as much from last night's experiences as her uniform, and just as she had left the worn and muddy garment in Doctor Ragstitch's house, her cheekiness seemed to have stayed there, too. She had to fairly pull herself together to give Silver Blaze an answer; the promise now sounded so silly, because Firefly had realised how much it exceeded her powers to keep it:
“I’ve promised nopony would hurt her anymore.”
Silver Blaze didn’t reply, and his smile stood the same although it became a little forced. His only reaction was a barely visible nod, then he left her suddenly and quickened his pace to catch up with Nightshade.
“Dawn should not need to enter the sanatorium, that is my opinion”, he said to him as naturally as if he were continuing a previous conversation.
“I see”, Nightshade said, pondering. “Indeed, it might complicate things unnecessarily if we bring her with us. After all, he has already tried to kill her.”
Silver Blaze turned back to Firefly and gave her a nod. Satisfied? he seemed to ask. However, her astonishment was overshadowed by her discomfort, because now at the latest it was quite obvious who Nightshade intended to visit in the house of healing. The prospect of meeting the insane physician Herbal Green again was something Firefly was even less alright with than returning to the hospital, even more should a powerful demonic force be responsible for his frenzy. There was no question that the filly was never to come near him again.
Actually, not even Silver Blaze seemed alright with meeting him again. Nightshade did offer to talk to Herbal Green alone, but Silver Blaze didn't wouldn’t allow it, either. Even if he wasn't comfortable, at least he wanted to go with Nightshade, let alone because it was all but sure that Green was willing to talk to him in the first place. Whether the sorcerer believed him, however, was not quite clear. Firefly for her part felt more that if he didn't have the last word on the matter, at least he didn't want to be left out.
Now, Firefly didn’t want to be left out either, the case had become personal in more than one way and at this point her defiance alone was enough to make herself hang in, and if only to regain her self-confidence. She decided to accompany Blaze and Nightshade, come what may.
Dawn on the other hoof was visibly relieved that she wasn’t forced to enter the sinister building of the sanatorium again and could stay in the tranquil garden instead. It fell to Sliderule to take care of Dawn, even though he didn't seem too enthusiastic about it.
At this point, the first bad news of today were delivered by Doctor Ragstitch, who passed them by in the garden. He was pretty worried because Calm Mind wasn’t in her rooms; in fact, nopony had seen her for the last two days. Considering the fact that the mare could plan Celestia-knows-what, Ragstitch agreed to watch of Dawn, too, although they all had mixed feelings about what unknown perils they might have to face now again. At least Dawn was content, she couldn’t remember Calm Mind and wasn’t keen on refreshing this acquaintance either.
It couldn’t be helped, anyway. Calm Mind was absent and there was no way to find out where she was and what she was doing. All the more important, Nightshade said, that they they now took their only actions as quick as possible. Without further ado, he went for the closed ward, accompanied by Silver Blaze and, now even more reluctantly, by Firefly. She had the distinct feeling her temper was once again getting her in trouble.
****
Herbal Green had stuck his front hooves through the bars of his door. They were stained red with paint. It looked like he had dipped them into a puddle of blood.
“ ‘eaven and ‘ell, what do we ‘ave ‘ere?” Herbal Green’s voice was dripping with malicious satisfaction. “The ‘eroes have returned. ‘ave ya solved the riddles yet? No, no surely not. You surely still ‘re clueless, aren’t you?”
He threw himself against the door with astonishing force, his hooves trembled as if he couldn’t wait to wrap his legs around their necks. Firefly took a hasty step backwards although they already were out of Herbal Green’s reach, but Nightshade and Silver Blaze stood seemingly unmoved.
“Painting colours?”, the dark unicorn asked conversationally, frankly ignoring Herbal Green throwing a fit. “He had no such things when I last saw him.”
Silver Blaze replied in the same manner. “Yes, that was my idea”, he said.
“I can ‘ear you, ya kna?”, Herbal Green barged in; he didn’t sound very amused.
“All could feel, and see for that matter, that he was getting more and more aggressive during the last month”, Blaze continued, still ignoring the madpony. “The nurses were getting worried he might attack them. He has proven his murderous intentions more than once. I thought maybe he should be able to reduce his aggression somehow. In a way that cannot hurt anypony. And maybe we would be able to see what is going on in his sick mind.” He shrugged his shoulders.
“You really are wasting your talent and intelligence as a soldier, Silver, but I have told you that before.”
“QUIT IGNORING ME, YOU IMBECILES, OR I WILL SNAP YOUR NECKS!” Herbal Green roared. He had eventually lost it. “AT ONCE TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME!”
Although Firefly feared a little that the madpony’s fury would be hot enough to make the iron bars melt, she realized how skilful the Nightshade had arranged that: Of all the everchanging moods of Herbal Green, he produced the least enigmatic answers when he was snapping, Firefly had experienced it herself. If Herbal Green was free, he probably would have tried to kill them all, but at least they had his full attention know.
She had barely time to finish this thought, when Nightshade sprung into full action. With a flash and loud bang, Herbal Green was thrown back from the door. The signs engrave in the cell’s ceiling prevented the inmate from performing any magic, but they didn’t protect Herbal from magic casted outside. The door lock cracked and the door sprung open, Nightshade stepped into the doorframe. Firefly tried to stop him, but Silver Blaze held her back. He said nothing but just shook head. He was looking very worried.
Indeed, it would have been no good idea to get in Nightshade’s way. With his horn burning bright like a magnesium torch he radiated an incredible power. He was frightening. Not even in possession of his full magic would Herbal Green haven been a match for him.
“Discord”, he simply said. “Where is he?” It wasn’t a question but an order to tell him immediately. Herbal Green didn’t stay unaffected. He laughed, but it sounded a bit pitiful and he retreated to the back wall of his cell before Nightshade.
“ ‘e’s everywhere”, Herbal Green spat at him, his back pressed against the wall.
“I can feel Discord’s presence on you, Herbal Green.”, Nightshade growled, not at all satisfied with the answer. “I must talk to him.”
The expression on Green’s face became somewhat chased. The sorcerer looked like a spirit of vengeance. The red gem of his necklace burned on his chest and his blinding light spell illuminated the red hell Herbal Green had turned his cell into with his paintings. The madpony grinded his teeth. He rolled his eyes so he could see the picture behind his back. It was a painting of black, serpentine body wrapped around a towerlike building with a red outline. However, the whole picture was crowned by a pair of giant evil, red eyes above the top of the tower and the head of the serpent.
“I will burn him out of you if you will not help me!”, Nightshade threatened, and it looked like he was only too willing to fulfil his threat.
Then suddenly, Herbal Green’s smile returned, more distorted than ever. His gaze was mocking and satisfied.
“Well, well, well, we finally have gotten to the point, haven’t we”, he said, but it wasn’t his voice at all, even his accent was gone. Nightshade moved not a single muscle, but even Firefly could feel how the situation shifting. The tension between the two stallions was like a vibration visible in the air, and suddenly, Herbal Green could withstand Nightshade, not by his powers maybe but surely by his will.
“Master Nightshade, you want this confrontation so badly, don’t you?”, Herbal Green or whoever was now speaking through him continued. “Then what about a little game of hide and seek? Solve this last riddle of mine and you'll find me. And as a little candy, I'll also answer all those silly questions.”
And then he started to rhyme:
In the house of light
Where now reigns the night
A damsel will wait
Discord changed her fate
And she will tell
What was hidden so well
Having spoken these words, Herbal Green’s eyes closed, and his head dropped forward, he had lost his consciousness. Nightshade’s spells died off and the glow of his horn vanished. He turned around and silently closed the cell door. The sorcerer put a hoof on the lock and placed a magic seal on it.
“That will keep him in there for now”, he said. “But they should probably put him into another cell soon. Even my spell will last not forever.”
“Would ye mind to elaborate what just happened?”, Silver Blaze interfered. “Ye are not going to keep this quiet, are ye?”
“That was Discord”, Nightshade soundlessly replied. “He spoke to me through Herbal Green.”
It didn’t look to Firefly like this was what Silver Blaze had wanted to address, and Nightshade couldn’t have missed it either.
“I assure you that there is no need to worry about me”, he said instead of an answer. “I just wanted to scare him a little bit. I can withstand the side effects of the Alicorn Amulet. I know what I am doing!”
Silver Blaze snorted and muttered something that very much sounded like “Did not look like it”. Firefly didn’t quite understand what the problem was now again, but at the moment she had no time to deal with it, either.
“Instead of questioning my capabilities, we should discuss Discord’s words, yes?”, Nightshade emphasised. “We must solve his riddle and that before the sun sets. Silver Blaze, you know these lands better than I do. Can you think of anything he could be alluding to?”
“I think the most important part is the first verse." Silver Blaze thoughtfully rocked his head back and forth. "The house of light, where now reigns the night. That is a statement of location, if ye ask me."
It was actually simple, he then explained. In olden times, when the city of Stonehaven was still ruling over the White Mountains and the northern lands till Rainbow Falls and the borders of the former Crystal Empire, there were towers built across the Mountains and all over the estate. Those elaborate beacons had connected Stonehaven’s fiefdoms with their capital and in the south with the rest of Equestria.
“But then came the Black Dragon and devastated the northern lands. Miles high the flames blazed into the sky, clouds of ashes and soot rose from the burning Stonehaven and coloured the mountaintops grey.” Silver Blaze concluded, and his voice suddenly sounded husky. “The Ashen Mountains, that is what they are called nowadays… Stonehaven is no more, and choking dust covers the once fruitful land, no life can thrive there anymore.
Discord’s words are very poetic, but the solution is quite clear: A house of light, where now reigns the night; Stonehaven’s beacons have gone out, the towers have been abandoned and the chambers from where once light has shone are now dark.”
Furthermore, Silver Blaze knew that one of Stonehaven’s beacons stood at the foot of the mountains, and in former days its fire could be seen shining over the waters of Cauldron Lake, from both Hollow Shades and the castle. Silver Blaze also recognized this tower in the painting on the back wall of the cell. The abandoned lighthouse was not far from Hollow Shades, Silver Blaze estimated that it could be reached before dusk if they hit a fast trot.
His account of the downfall of Stonehaven had, although very brief, obviously affected Silver Blaze, so that Firefly was wondering why this topic was so touching him. She opened her mouth and was just about to say something, but a sudden turmoil outside the closed ward stopped her.
Somepony rumbled in great haste and panting like a bull along the corridor. It was Sliderule and he was so completely out of his breath that he needed almost a minute until he was able to produce any understandable words again. And even then it was hard to get anything meaningful out of him, because he was far more confused than Firefly had seen him before. What he eventually produced with great effort, however, explained all too well to his excitement. It was the second of many blows that were still to be put on their cause today, and as unexpected as worrying:
“The guards… pegasi from the castle… They're here… Dawn… They've got Dawn and the doctor!”
So what Silver Blaze had feared all along had happened. He had feared that Calm Mind would do something rash and dangerous, as obsessed as she was with Dawn’s case. But that the Count's bodyguards were now on the hunt for the filly was the very epitome of rash and dangerous. The situation was complicated: Count Rainbow in fact held the jurisdiction in Hollow Shades, but had no direct command in the town. He could issue an arrest warrant, but his pegasus guardsponies were only responsible for protecting him and his abode. They were certainly not allowed to just go and arrest ponies. That was the authority and task of the town guard and even a count had to abide by it. So, either old Rainbow had bribed the guards captain to turn a blind eye, or he had immediately imposed martial law on the entire city, overruling existing Equestrian law.
Both possibilities were about equally likely, Silver Blaze thought, it all depended on how exactly Calm Mind had persuaded the Count to use, or rather to abuse his power. And there was no question for Silver Blaze that Calm Mind had something to do with this issue. He was angry that he had underestimated her, but who could have known that she would turn the disappearance of the filly into a state affair?
Silver Blaze hadn’t thought it would be easy to talk sense into Calm Mind, after all he had tried that for more or less the whole week, but against this new alliance he had an even worse position.
As expected, he was not greeted very warmly by the guards when he entered the garden together with Sliderule, who in the meantime had halfway regained his composure: As he opened the door, at once two dark looking pegasi stepped into his way: “Stop, don’t take another step!”
They wore full armour and even had blades strapped to their wings as if they were going to war. These wing blades were dangerous close combat weapons, and the way the two pegasi spread their wings to point the edges at Silver Blaze looked like they also knew how to use them. But Silver Blaze carried his own sword Wintermoon unmistakably at his side, and he was pretty sure that he was more skilled than those two. He wouldn't be intimidated.
“Fillies and gentlecolts, may I ask what this charade is all about?” he said as calm as possible, and then since they didn't make a move to let him pass, he added: "Do we have a problem?"
“His highborn, the Count, has given us strict orders..." one of the guards began, but he was immediately interrupted again by Silver Blaze, who cut him off in the friendliest of all tones.
“First of all, you two will lower your weapons before somepony gets hurt. And this somepony certainly will not be me, I can promise that.”
He was beginning to give the guards the creeps. He was not adequately intimidated, and even more, despite all his shown courtesy, his posture and body tension made clear that he was ready to attack, like a poisonous snake, completely calm and yet about to strike within the blink of an eye. For a long moment, they just stared at him and Silver Blaze stared back with his one, bright eye, a half smile on his lips that appeared somewhat dangerous and wolf-like.
He won this staring contest. Almost unconsciously they folded their wings and stepped aside.
“Well, that was downright scary”, Doctor Ragstitch said to Silver Blaze as he joined them in the circle of the other guards.
“Y-yes, sir”, Sliderule confirmed. “I thought you were going to… um… well…”
“I would have never attacked”, Silver Blaze whispered to them. “But they need not to know that, do they?” And with a smile that was real this time, he turned to Dawn. “How art thou doing?”
Dawn didn't look very good. She sniffed. “Could do better…” She casted a quick glance at one of the pegasus guards who in turn critically was eyeing Silver Blaze. “Nopony wants to tell me anything! What’s going on here?”
Silver Blaze would have liked to tell her everything was fine. She probably wouldn’t have believed him, though. She was a clever girl. He had to recall the last words Firefly had said to him before they had hastily parted ways earlier: Nothing’s gonna happen to Dawn, sir, promise me that! He had given her no reply, but now he needed to say something.
“Thou hath been very brave, Dawn. This will soon be over, but thou needst to be brave once more. I will allow nopony to hurt thee anymore, but thou must not run away anymore. Canst thou promise me that?”
He had said that loud enough for all bystanders to hear him. How he should behave towards Calm Mind, in the end, he still did not know that. The doctor had said that Silver Blaze had lost much of his honour, and she was probably right. He basically had nothing against the Princess herself, but he would have been happy if the High Council went to Tartarus! He would ‘ve done everything he could to harm their influence, even if that bordered treason. Only some things, he could not and would not allow, not because his honour commanded him, but because otherwise he could never have looked in the mirror again.
After Silver Blaze's clarification, Dawn looked at him with wide eyes. Hesitantly she nodded. Although she didn’t say anything, Silver decided to accept this as a promise and turned instead to the leader of the guards.
“Now that this has been made clear, maybe we can get to know what is wanted from us? Are we under arrest?”
The mare was a lieutenant at sky if Silver Blaze correctly remembered the rank insignia of the Pegasus Guard. She had to be about his age, but unlike Silver, she looked older, and a little haggard. At a closer look, the pegasi altogether didn’t look to well. Especially the northern pegasi who hailed from the cloud villages often didn’t adjust well to a rather confined life on the ground. However, the mare’s officer rank ensured that she could show a minimum of courtesy when she answered Silver Blaze.
“Not arrested, Sir, but we have order to take you before His Highness, Count Rainbow, immediately. This order extends also to all your companions and foremost this filly here. I regret to have to inconvenience you. Should you refuse to accompany us, however, I have permission to use force, if necessary.”
“Well, that we should avoid at all cost, should we not?” Silver Blaze replied.
The lieutenant bowed slightly. "Thank you for understanding, sir." She cleared her throat. "We’ve received word from the gatekeeper that you should also have with you a blue pegasus and a black unicorn. Their cutie marks are two blue lightning bolts and a violet blossom. They have to come with us as well. Where are they?”
"Not here, can you not see that?" growled Doctor Ragstitch. He was angry that those stuck-up guys treated him like a criminal, and he thought Silver Blaze was having this conversation a little too polite. Silver Blaze put his hoof on Ragstitch’s shoulder to calm him down, so that he wouldn't talk himself through his teeth out of wrath.
“Ye mean Firefly and Nightshade? They are gone, I fear. Nightshade went out, southwards, for Greenvale. He gave us no details, only said that he wanted to do an important research, but Cadet Firefly accompanies him, in case he needs to send us a message.”
“We haven’t received any message they’ve left town”, the lieutenant tried to object, but Silver Blaze had awaited that dissent. It wasn’t hard for him to explain this inconsistency. He looked the officer straight in the eye and smiled, as he lied without blushing: “Nightshade is a master sorcerer and Firefly is the fastest flyer in all Equestria. Use your imagination, it would be quite easy for them to leave town, secretly, without any of the guards noticing. I am afraid ye will have to do without them. Ye could certainly order a search, but that would be difficult considering the woods surrounding the town, would it not?”
The lieutenant grinded her teeth. Not thirty steps away from the house of healing was the town’s northern wall and beyond that wall almost immediately grew the first trees of Hollow Shades’s forest. For a pegasus it took only a blink to cross the wall and that surely was true for a royal sorcerer as well. It wasn’t important whether the officer believed Silver Blaze or not, by now he had stalled for enough time for the two of them to get into the woods.
Silver Blaze saw the lieutenant’s dilemma and felt unduly rejoice that they at least had somewhat outwitted the guards. Around Hollow Shades, the conifers stood so thick that even the sharp-eyed pegasi would have severe problems spotting them from above, and especially Nightshade knew how to avert being seen when he wanted to; for the last half-mile or so they had to leave the cover of the trees, but until then they were relatively safe from hostile eyes.
The lieutenant briefly conferred with her second in command. Silver Blaze couldn’t help but marvel her discipline for she managed to stay polite, when she now turned back to him.
“Well played, sir”, she said. “We have no time to search for them. My orders are to waste no time, we’ll have to go without them.” She stepped forward towards him, came very close. “But be assured that I will hold you responsible for all problems that might arise from this.”
Silver Blaze nodded and suggested to the lieutenant that she led the way. Without another word, the strange procession began to move. To see ten pegasi in full war gear accompanying an earth pony, two unicorns and a unicorn filly through town surely wasn’t an everyday sight. Silver Blaze saw multiple pairs of eyes peeping from the windows, but nopony showed themselves on the streets. Even the ponies guarding the gate looked like they really wished to be someplace else. None of the townsfolk wanted to be drawn into this mess; hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing, typical, Silver Blaze thought, but he couldn’t really blame them. He himself would have thought twice before he deliberately brought himself in a situation like that. But that was the problem, was it not? One didn’t always have a choice. You never sought trouble, rather trouble was seeking you…
****
It was a quiet march, at least of the behalf of most of them. The pegasi kept a stoic silence, as well as Silver Blaze; and Sliderule and Dawn were too intimidated to speak. Only Doctor Ragstitch mentioned repeatedly that he had never liked their destination, Lakeside Castle, which was towering above them, dark and grey against a pale autumn sky, like an old mystical creature.
Built as an irregular pentagon, with four thickset turrets on four corners and a high keep at the fifth, lakeward corner, Lakeside Castle was a massive stronghold. Made from heavy, grey stone blocks its high walls were as hard as the mountains themselves. Silver Blaze usually took pride in his folks for being gifted architects, but although the castle was a prime example for the durability of earth-pony art of construction, he had to agree with Doctor Ragstitch. The castle was impressive but looked anything but inviting. Once upon a time the townsfolk of Hollow Shades used to retreat there during wartime, but it was hardly imaginable that anypony, let alone pegasi, would want to live there.
The hoisting of rainbow flags on the turrets was as misplaced as the painting of the sun beaming through white clouds on the castle portal.
“Please, tell me you have a plan”, Doctor Ragstitch hissed to Silver Blaze, as they entered through the heavy gates.
“Alright: I have a plan”, Silver Blaze replied tonelessly. Ragstitch wasn’t convinced at all.
“You’re just saying that, aren’t you?”, he chased up.
“Yes, I am just saying that…” Silver Blaze nodded.
This futile conversation was cut short by the heavy bang of the castle gates falling shut behind them. It wouldn’t have taken the heavy portcullis looming above the other side of the entranceway to make clear that leaving the castle against the will of its master was nigh impossible for them.
The castle yard was shadowed by the wide branches of a knotty old tree, whose colourful leaves lay shattered over the cobblestones. It was a cherry tree, quite rare for this area and with its white blossoms it would have been a wonderful sight in spring. But now it rather underlined the creeping desolation of the castle.
The atmosphere was very similar in the main hall where many white cloths that had been hung. They were supposed to lighten the atmosphere but had a contrary effect. The hall bore striking resemblance to a house where the furniture was covered with sheets because all its inhabitants are gone or dead. In the middle of the hall, however, was an open fire pit, alike the old cooking place in the House of Healing. A crackling fire was burning inside and provided warmth quite passably.
It was unmistakable that the master of the castle held court here, because behind the fireplace was a pedestal with a large chair on it, and behind the chair on the wall hung another rainbow flag. In contrast to the cheerful banner stood a second chair next to the first one. This chair was the reason why the room made such a dark impression: There was no doubt about for what sad reason that chair had been covered. It must’ve belonged to the Count’s late wife…
Three more chairs had been placed around the fire, one on the one side and two on the other. Silver Blaze was allocated to one of those chairs, the other one had likewise been meant for Nightshade but due to his absence, Doctor Ragstitch now took seat at Silver’s side. Their guards retreated but didn’t leave the room. They positioned themselves besides the wooden pillars supporting the ceiling. Silver Blaze noticed that there apparently were no chairs for Sliderule and Dawn. That was a rudeness, and even more, it was a way to teach them their place. Or rather what Count Rainbow thought their place was: He thought that Dawn, Sliderule and the others had no say in that matter. If the Count had known Silver Blaze, he had also known that he couldn’t stand to be treated this patronizingly, all the more, since Silver had the strong suspicion that there was only a chair for himself because Doctor Calm Mind had insisted thereupon; he doubted that a ‘jumped-up colt’ like Silver otherwise would've even appeared in the atmosphere of a Count Double Rainbow.
But his worry was stronger than his anger, slightly but still. The filly looked now really like she was about to drop dead on the spot with fright, or at least to bolt. Ragstitch and Sliderule were really no help, the two of them looked only slightly less uncertain: The attention of the most powerful pony in these lands seemed to cause Sliderule an upset stomach and he was looking like he was about to throw up. Ragstitch also was visibly struggling to retain his composure, the glances he was incessantly shooting at Silver Blaze were quite poisonous. But Silver couldn’t really blame them, though he was the only one who didn’t turn a hair – for Dawn’s sake. Dawn had given her promise not to run away but Silver Blaze wasn’t eager on finding out whether she still felt bound to that promise. And so, he found it important that he at least remained calm. After all, he thought, acting calm come what might was one of the few leadership talents he possessed.
Well, he tried to remain calm, but he neither knew the actions Doctor Calm Mind had taken while he had to be content with just biding; nor could he comprehend for what reason she had changed her attitude towards the whole affair so fundamentally. Hadn’t she wanted to settle things as secret as possible? All he knew was, and this was his last thought before the events irrevocably took their course, that the decision he had stalled for so long now perchance would be forced upon him.
****
Dawn went to great lengths to look like she wasn't even there, but she doubted that the pegasi would overlook her just because she was ducking behind Silver Blaze’s chair. The filly turned to Cloud Dash, seeking help, but she didn’t dare to say a word, out of fear to draw any more attention. Her imaginary friend looked miserable himself and he didn’t dare to speak either, although nopony would’ve heard him. Maybe he kept silent because he didn’t want to irritate her, but he made clear and urgent gestures towards the door.
Cloud, there are soldiers all around, she thought, because she didn’t want to talk out loud lest the others thought she was crazy. I can’t run, they’ll get me before I can take two steps!
But whether Cloud Dash could read her mind or not, he couldn’t help her now. Silver Blaze’s look came to rest upon her again and for a moment she thought to see through his strong appearance. There was fear, but whether he was afraid for himself or for her, she could not tell. Now she was afraid even more. Silver Blaze took a deep breath and shook his head. He had seen her look and interpreted it just right.
He reached up to his neck and pulled out a medallion from under his scarf. It was a crescent moon, set in silver and made of a shimmering black material.
“This is my little good luck charm”, he said as he loosened the clasp of the necklace. “It was carved from a scale of the Black Dragon Alkyagon. Her majesty, Princess Celestia, has made it for me; it is supposed to protect me, but now I am giving it to thee.”
And he put the amulet around the astonished Dawn’s neck.
“And whatever may happen, I…”
He interrupted himself because, at that moment, a door was opened, and the main actors of this play entered the stage: In came a unicorn and a pegasus.
“Father!” The exclamation would’ve roused everybody in the room, had it not come from Cloud Dash. Nopony except Dawn heard him, not the unicorn mare who had to be Doctor Calm Mind, not the pegasus noble and not Silver Blaze. He was saying something to her, something she couldn’t understand because Cloud was chipping in excitedly:
“That’s my father, Dawn! That’s the Count!”
****
And indeed: The aristocratical pegasus was no other than Count Double Rainbow, third bearer of this name, and at present steward of this county, which of course Dawn didn’t know at that moment. The pegasus was an impressive appearance, tall and good looking, and with his cyan blue coat and his subtly greyed, yet still rainbow-coloured mane he seemed born to stand out, especially amongst the umbra colours of Hollow Shades.
“Venerated Silver Blaze”, Count Rainbow opened, as he took seat on his chair. His voice was strong and sonorous, and he spoke in clipped, precise tones. “First, I must apologise to you for the circumstances under which we meet. Nevertheless and a fortiori am I glad that we finally are able to get to know each other.”
That was Count Rainbow’s way of speaking. He was a good speaker, one of the old school. The two rainbows on his flanks stood for his talent to inspire, and he had been good at it to an extend that even the High Council had once feared his influence. Silver Blaze had only met before his two older sons, the twins Rainbow Road and Rainbow Bridge and the two of them possessed by far not their father’s diplomatic skill. But Silver Blaze had never been somepony who let himself be lulled by fine words alone, anyway.
“Ye speak fine, Your Highness“, he said, putting his hooves together. “But words are just words, and should not be wasted without good reason when time is running short.”
Calm Mind on the other side of the fire almost insensibly twisted her mouth. Was that a smile she was stifling? Maybe she wasn’t satisfied with the way, Count Rainbow tried to manage the matter, herself? But that was her own fault, why did she have to turn this into a state affair, anyway?
The count cleared his throat, he did not allow himself more than this little sign of irritation. Silver Blaze had heard rumors that his youngest son's death had made the Count a broken stallion, all the more so since his wife had died some years ago, but he could see no signs for this. Double Rainbow was calm and collected, and he seemed to be absolutely master of his feelings. That was admirable, despite everything, but it also told Silver Blaze that he was better off not to underestimate him. Count Rainbow himself had likewise reached the same conclusion regarding Silver Blaze:
“You are right”, he said. “My apologies. Well, if you like a more direct approach better: Shall we put the little tit for tat aside and get right to the point?”
Approving nods from all sides.
“Doctor Calm Mind, if you would? In our previous conversation you put me in the picture about things that seem incredible and about things that, admittedly, go beyond my horizon. However, I have agreed on helping you to put this argument to a good end. But first we need to make sure we all know why we are here, how this matter concerns all of us. So, Doctor, please go ahead and explain to the others what you have told me.”
While Calm Mind straightened herself out laboriously, Silver Blaze noticed that Rainbow had lately addressed all of them. Perhaps he had noticed that it had stung Silver that he so disdained his companions. He really was as good they said.
“We are”, Doctor Calm Mind eventually explained in an unusual soft tone. “In a difficult situation and that is well partly my fault, though I must emphasise that I always had only best intention. Mistakes have been made -on all sides as I want to add- resulting in dishonesty and distrust. I, for my my part, have relied on secrecy where I probably should have entrusted myself to my subordinates. That resulted in I being lied to and in myself knowingly keeping information secret from the one pony I dared ask for help. No wonder that you, Silver, decided to follow your own plans.”
Being addressed directly, Silver Blaze, who had sat on his chair silently and with no readable expression whatsoever, now rose his voice: “I have never”, he objected. “Followed my own plans, as ye say, Doctor. But truly, I tried to learn more about the lore of this situation than ye wanted to share with me, with all its toiled threads and lose ends. Once ye shewed me the filly’s”, he paused and then quickly corrected himself. “Pardon me, once ye shewed me Dawn’s belongings, I had no other choice.” His face now took a dolorous expression. “There was that worn red cloak, which resembles so much a cloak that I myself had given away two years ago.”
He remembered very well that day, although he would rather choose not to. More than one time he been asking himself if couldn’t have done more for the poor filly, if it wouldn’t have been his duty to do more for her; because sometimes, giving somepony a spark of hope wasn’t enough…
But be it as it may, now that her paths had crossed again by a strange variation of chance, and since it seemed that she now needed his help more than ever, he would not have been able to forgive himself if he had let her down again without at least reassuring himself that she was doing fine.
“I had never the intention to do her any harm, Silver.” Doctor Calm Mind asserted thereupon.
"It's a little hard for me to believe that, dear colleague," Ragstitch suddenly intervened. "You prescribe radical treatments, carry out questionable experiments without her consent and erase her name from the patient's file, so that there is no way of locating any possible relatives. But you never meant to hurt her?"
“That you of all ponies would complain about radical treatments is also questionable”, Calm Mind sourly replied, before, however, giving in: “The name she gave us was wrong anyway. Knew I had read it somewhere before, just didn't know where. A fake name, all the more a known one, would have just drawn more unwanted attention to the poor thing. But if you need to know, the name was ‘Desert Rose’.”
Doctor Ragstitch made a helpless face, the name didn't bore any meaning for him. But apparently it did for Silderule. He hesitantly spoke up: “I… um… That name… Desert Rose… I know the name from a tract on the magic of the Crystal Empire.”
"She was my mother," Silver Blaze was suddenly heard. He started laughing. "Desert Rose was my mother, and she had earned at least some fame as a historian. Her name is mentioned numerously, especially in matters regarding the Crystal Empire. I rarely talk about my past, so I guess hardly anypony in Canterlot knows that we are related.”
But it did, in any case, explain some of Dawn's past, Silver Blaze thought. After their meeting back then, she supposedly had tried to find out more about her benefactor. The ponies in Canterlot only knew that the Princess had brought him from the north, almost wounded to death. After his miraculous recovery, after he had earned his Cutie Mark, he was dubbed Silver Blaze and henceforth became known in Canterlot only by this name. But although he didn’t talk too much about his origins, in the towns and villages of the north lived some folks that still remembered that it had been the son of Desert Rose and Tinheart of Stonehaven whom the princess had rescued from the flames. If Dawn had asked her way through to him, she had probably learned about his family and origins that way. However, that had been quite a bit of snooping around, and it spoke for her alert mind, which she also showed in her present, deranged state. Pretty impressive. What exactly had happened to her was still unclear, but at least on her time in the sanatorium Doctor Calm Mind wanted to shed light now. She had obviously prepared herself for this moment and everypony now listened to her eagerly, even Dawn hung on her every word:
“Even if my methods seem radical, all that counts for me is the recovery of my patients. The case of this filly… What did you call her? Dawn? Well, the case of Dawn turned out to be far more complicated than expected. It started with a concussion but her -let’s call it disease pattern- started soon to develop certain similarities to another case I was entrusted with three years ago. This sad case, we really lack the time to explain it in detail here, concerned the Count's family, which is why I finally decided to ask His Highness for help.”
The death of Count Rainbow’s youngest son, and subsequently the death of his ward, she couldn’t possibly refer to anything else! Silver Blaze had read the file, inevitably, after somepony had put it in the envelope of Dawns' case. For the first time, the Count showed a slight uncertainty. Silver saw grief flickering on his face. “Similar in what way?” he nevertheless asked. It became quite clear that this course of their conversation had been staged in advance by him and Calm Mind. As things stood, it would be hard to get anywhere against the will of these two, Silver thought, but he kept his thoughts for himself because he was too interested in what Calm Mind still had to reveal.
“Will do my best to explain it. It begins with shock and sudden feelings of weakness, followed by more and more uncontrollable attacks of anxiety that eventually turn into full-blown delusions. Recurring motifs of these hallucinations are impenetrable darkness and the deep water, both in White Nimbus’s and our filly’s case."
But the real revelation was yet to come. Contrary to what had been later announced, White Nimbus had not died. She had been near death after Herbal Green had poisoned her with moonflower, had suffered from severe hallucinations, but she had not died; on the contrary, actually. In her madness, Calm Mind suspected, she somehow had mustered the strength to bite through her shackles and flee through a window, completely in panic, of course. Calm Mind and the count himself had been looking for her, but they had never found a clue about her whereabouts. At the Count's request, Calm Mind had destroyed all the other documents, her notes and transcripts of the conversations with her, she burnt them all in her fireplace. Only with the file she had not brought it over her heart. And she hadn’t forgotten that White Nimbus had uttered certain things that made her question whether these panic attacks and hallucinations had to be attributed to more external influences rather than to an illness of her mind.
“And then the matter with Herbal Green. Could never explain why he suddenly lost his mind. No signs, no indications, that…” She took a deep breath. The fact that her diagnostic eye had failed so badly with her long-time colleague, of all ponies, that seemed to have scratched her self-confidence. In any other case, her sudden willingness to believe in evil spirits would have sounded like a lame excuse.
Silver Blaze still was not fully convinced, but Nightshade would certainly have agreed with the doctor in this point. The sorcerer hadn’t told them much about Discord, but apparently, it was exactly his favoured approach to slowly drive ponies insane. From Nightshade’s point of view, maybe all of this was making sense. At least it would explain how a passionate healer like Herbal Green could turn into a murderous lunatic.
“It is a pity that Nightshade is not here with us”, Count Rainbow stated. “I would like to hear more about what he has to say regarding Discord.”
“So would I”, Silver Blaze agreed. He stared absentmindedly into the fire and scratched his chin. “During my time in Canterlot, I heard nigh nothing about Discord but his name. All that we learned so far comes from Master Nightshade, and that does not suffice to pass a judgment already. All I know is that Discord seems to scare Nightshade beyond belief, and I can tell you he is afraid of nopony, take that from one of his students. Also, I cannot deny that Firefly, Sliderule and Dawn were attacked last night. According to how Firefly described her experience, it sounds very similar to what ye just told us, Calm Mind. If there really is an evil ghost named Discord haunting these lands, it would also at least partly explain the rumours surrounding this town.”
That had been more thought aloud, but in fact he slowly began to believe that for himself. And the prospective that Discord -Who knew how long?- was out there on the lookout, looking for new victims he could drive into madness and to horrible deeds, that prospective was terrible.
Doctor Ragstitch, however, had apparently never heard even the name of Discord before this very conversation. Or maybe he just was still angry at Calm Mind. In any case he decided to play the part of the voice of doubt again.
“Fine, but even if we just accept the existence of this bugbear for the moment - without any evidence I might add- then there is still a very decisive question left: Why?”
That was truly a reasonable question. Why did Discord haunt Calm Mind and her patients in the first place?
Count Rainbow nodded approvingly. “Very good, Doctor Ragstitch”, he said. “We do not know this Discord’s nature, and the one pony we could ask has chosen to deny us his company. Right now, we can only make assumptions. But has not his name become a word conterminous to quarrel and disharmony and many other flaws that weaken us and make us turn against each other? How can we assume Discord’s reasons would be others than the decomposition of our homeland?”
Silver Blaze was still staring into the fire and looked even more absentminded than before. “Or straight forwardly”, he said and suddenly his eye darted up and he faced Calm Mind. “Is there any discovery ye have made that could stir such a reckless hatred?”
“Good question”, Calm Mind replied and for some reason she was now smiling. And with all that talking about insanity, her smile looked a little eerie as well. Or maybe just tired, like all of them. Well, all of them except the Count. Although Calm Mind surely had briefed him about everything in advance, for the first time he showed more than his usually polite interest. Concerning the discovery Silver had asked her about, she still did not know, so to speak. She had come to some conclusion, she told them, considering everything she had experienced during the treatment of White Nimbus and she hadn’t forgotten certain things the filly had uttered during their sessions despite there was no longer a record of them.
“She was often talking to somepony”, Calm Mind said. “Not me, but somepony else. Was hearing voices, apparently, much like Herbal Green does now, only that those voices were by far not as violent.”
“Excuse me if I play Tartarus’s advocate again, dear colleague”, Ragstitch objected. “But would that not be the most common sign of madness, hearing voices?”
“Thought so, too, at first. Caught her more than one time talking to Cloud Dash, and the colt clearly wasn’t there. Or even still alive for that matter!”
Silver Blaze felt Dawn shifting uneasily next to him. She really had more in common with that poor pegasus filly, he thought. And that they both had a dead colt as an imaginary (or maybe not so imaginary, after all?) friend, and exactly the same dead colt nonetheless, that was really too much of a coincidence. All the more since it was very unlikely that Dawn had even heard about Cloud Dash before her accident. He said nothing regarding this matter, and also signalled Dawn to keep quiet as well; he didn’t want to fire up Calm Mind’s thoughts artificially, but now he was himself fully convinced that the doctor was onto something.
“As her case grew more severe”, Calm Mind continued. “She began to refer to somepony that wasn’t Cloud Dash, but who she wouldn’t or couldn’t name. Need you to know that Herbal Green poisoned her with strong, mind-expanding drugs, with Moonflower. In the thus induced delusional state, White Nimbus was really fearing for her life, and not without good reason. Her screams were terrible!”
Calm Mind for once showed decency and shivered a little as she told this. Knowing her usually rather cold-blooded demeanour, White Nimbus’s screams must’ve been really heartbreaking to affect her that way.
“Poor thing, cried and prayed and called out a name, over and over. One would think she would have prayed to Princess Celestia to save her, but astonishingly, she instead called upon the other sister: Princess Luna.”
Count Rainbow almost fell from his chair when Doctor Calm Mind said the name. That part apparently was new for him, too, and this time he didn’t get back his composure so easily.
“That is… I mean…” he stuttered indignantly. “She was never taught that… I mean, I think she was never taught about Princess Luna!”
Calm Mind knew that, of course. She hadn’t pictured the Rainbow-family to be Children of the Night. All the more important was the fact that, while at the brink of death, White Nimbus nevertheless had started to pray to the Princess of the Night. Calm Mind had put together a theory about that, based on the belief of the Children of the Night: It was said that, despite her apparent death, Princess Luna would still watch over all ponies from the other side of the night. White Nimbus had casted a look through the veil that separated this world from the next, she had been saved from inherent death by Cloud Dash, who in return drowned in the waters of Cauldron lake. But even though Nimbus returned to life, there still had remained a connection to the spirit realm thereafter, upheld by the medicines she was put under. What first had been interpreted as progressing hallucinations had actual been the two worlds blending together, at least from the filly’s point of view. So far Calm Mind’s theory. That was indeed a frightening possibility and Calm Mind went even further and proposed that the Count’s ward hadn’t only be able to see the other side but that she had been able to interact with it. The fact that she had repeatedly talked to Cloud Dash and apparently also received answers from beyond the grave spoke in favour of this.
Of course, Calm Mind couldn't prove her theory, at least not without further experiments. So, the filly, now called Dawn, had come just in time for her because she had thus been able to recreate the initial situation: Both were young fillies, both hadn’t earned their Cutie Mark yet, and both had been brought to her in a state of shock. Dawn, admittedly, was a unicorn instead of a pegasus, but Calm Mind believed that the untapped magical potential of a young unicorn could only improve a possible result. She did not apologize for having so criminally broken her healer’s oath, and Silver Blaze suspected that Dawn would never hear an apology from her either; that was the way she was rolling... However, that the filly had eventually lost her memories so completely wasn’t her fault, the doctor asserted. After the disaster with Herbal Green, she now always ordered the ingredients for her remedies herself from the large greenhouses in Greenvale, where all effective herbs were grown. But something had gone wrong with the last shipment and the moonflower extract had suddenly shown unprecedented and devastating side effects. In the end, Calm Mind was left with a completely stupefied filly that showed about es much reaction as a trunk of wood, so her words. She had had little hope left for her experiment, when she left for Greenvale to vent her anger (the herbwives had been able to credibly assure her that they had manufactured the medicine exactly according to Calm Mind's instructions and also in the right dose, by the way). And the experiment had begun so promisingly!
Silver Blaze’s compassion with Calm Mind was a bit limited as he heard her talking so coldly. Usually he greeted a straight, honest manner, but there was being straightforward and then there was just being rude! With all due respect to her zeal the doctor should have known better than to trample on a poor filly’s feeling!
Just that it didn’t seem like Dawn’s feelings were hurt at all; she opened her mouth, but not to complain: “No, it worked!” she exclaimed exceedingly excited, forgetting all restraint. “I have seen the other side… I think! And I still can see ghosts! Well… I can see ONE ghost and he’s not scary at all!”
The looks Doctor Calm Mind and Count Double Rainbow gave her were priceless, they seemed to have forgotten about the filly’s presence altogether. But for Silver Blaze this still was no laughing matter. He doubted that it was a good idea to tell him the truth.
“Dawn…” he cautioned, but before he could say anything else, the count interrupted him.
“No, let her speak, Silver Blaze! Who is this ghost you see, my child?”
Does he suspect something?, Silver Blaze was wondering. His scar started to itch, which he always took for a bad sign. That she was directly addressed by Count Rainbow, however, had intimidated Dawn so much that she lost her speech again, right away. Searching for help, she looked at Silver. Now that his efforts to circumvent the discussion about the count's dead son had been shattered anyway, he couldn’t do anything but smile at her encouragingly. He wanted her to see that he believed her.
Dawn nodded and then cheeped shyly: “It’s Cloud, Your Highness, Cloud Dash.”
Count Rainbow looked like he was struck by lightning and Silver Blaze now expected the sky to fall on their heads, so to speak. If the count had only the slightest doubt about the credibility of Calm Mind, then…
Silver left his thought unfinished because Doctor Calm Mind gave out a sudden triumphant cry.
“Oh, I knew it! No wonder Discord wants to hinder me! Do you understand what that means? Can you comprehend the significance of this discovery? No, of course you cannot!”
Silver Blaze hadn’t seen her this excited since his own miraculous recovery all those years ago, and on the contrary, he thought to understand very well what she was getting at. But this realisation was so unbelievable that he wanted to hear it from the mouth of the doctor herself: “It means that death is no longer an insurmountable barrier for us. The gate is now open! It is a century’s opportunity and I shall be damned if I waste this chance!”
And she also had a certain pony in mind that she wanted to reawaken: Tonight she would try to bring back Princess Luna!
Firefly and Nightshade watched hidden behind the windowpanes on the upper floor as Silver Blaze was (more or less successfully) seized by armed pegasus guards in the yard. Even from this safe distance, the sight of those sharp blades at their wings frightened Firefly. How could Silver Blaze remain so calm? Did that stallion know no fear?
“Not knowing fear is usually not very wise.”, Nightshade objected mysteriously. "Fear is the greatest obstacle, but fear is also your best friend. Fear is like fire. If you learn to control it, you let it work for you. If you cannot control it, it will destroy you and everything around you. This is a mere sabre-rattling, and Silver is not going to lose.”
She took his word for it. It looked like Silver was more than a match for these guards. From their hiding place they observed the further course of the conflict. Silver Blaze had promised to keep the guards off their backs and had urged Nigthshade and Firefly to hurry, but the sorcerer held her back for quite a while until he was sure that Silver would indeed master the situation. When truly nopony came to search for them he said:
“Come on! Look lively! Enough time wasted! Silver is playing his part and now we must play ours!”
Firefly was wondering whether he was talking to her or rather to himself, because she for her part was fired up to spring into action. It didn't like having to leave Dawn and Sliderule to the count's guards, even if Silver Blaze stayed with them. She really wanted to trust him, after all he was her hero, and life saver nonetheless. But he had also been Calm Mind's confidant and apparently Nightshade's disciple, and this alone made him just as opaque as those two. She also accounted the swordstallion for a thousand times more suitable to accompany the sorcerer on this dangerous hunt for Discord than herself.
Nightshade would have been overfond to go off alone anyway, but there was a natural reason why Silver Blaze had insisted upon her accompanying him. And this was a point she could not deny: In case the unexpected happened, and, ironically, that had almost to be expected, she could carry message from Nightshade to the others. With her ability to fly, she was able to cover great distances in almost no time.
Indeed, Firefly really prided herself upon her flying skill, and with some right. To overcome the wall behind the former abbey costed her only two wing beats: With the first one she spiralled high up into the air, then, at the peak of her trajectory, she folded her wings, spun over, and darted towards the timberline like a hawk in swoop dive. Once she was beneath the trees and just before she could get caught in the undergrowth, she flared out her downfall with a second powerful beat of her wings. Almost cautiously, she alighted on the carpet of needles. Two sharp cracks and a rushing of wind, her flight hadn’t lasted longer than a few heartbeats, too short to draw attention.
Nightshade solved this task not so sportily, but in an equal impressive way. As Firefly was waiting for him under the trees and was wondering how he wanted to get over the wall, there was a sudden flash and Nightshade just appeared at her side.
“Have you never seen teleportation?” he wanted to know when he saw her shocked face.
No, Firefly had never seen a teleportation and neither had she heard from something like that. But just to disappear and reappear somewhere else, to her it seemed like cheating. Good thing Silderule hadn't seen that, he would have turned downright green with envy. But Firefly was a bit annoyed, too; she felt really useless now. Did Silver Blaze know that the unicorn was able to teleport? What was the point of taking a messenger with you when you yourself could just pop up at the destination instead?
“I cannot just ‘pop up’, as you say”, Nightshade tried to appease her. “This is complex and difficult magic. It costs strength and concentration and requires line of sight or at least knowledge of the target point. If you are careless when flying, you will fly against a tree or crash. Bad enough! But if I do not pay attention during a teleportation, I might appear right in the middle of a rock or a brick wall! That would be my death or at least cost me a limb or two. Besides, this spell costs me so much power that I cannot bridge long distances with it. Ten to fifteen yards, in the highest, but I could never teleport across the lake.”
Firefly was asking herself how many jumps of fifteen yards it would take from here to reach the beacon and how much of that ‘power’ it would cost Nightshade compared to how much a fast flight at full speed over Cauldron Lake would wear her out. She might not have been able to read, but she could count, at least the coins of her payment. For this calculation, however, she considerably lacked knowledge and understanding of the matter, and so she decided that it was better to just let it be for the moment.
The air was cold and damp beneath the trees and it was very difficult to find a walkable path. Apart from the logging trails, which they avoided as far as possible to stay out of the way of any pursuer, a carpet of dry needles covered the ground almost ankle-high, and the few leaf trees were bare and small, and they looked stunted. On occasions, Firefly and Nightshade had to climb over the mossy, rotten remains of fallen trees or walked into groups of leaning firs which had grown so close together that their slender trunks formed impassable barriers, and they had to find their way around them. Where the trees were somewhat thinned out, tough, undemanding shrubs grew, all of which seemed to have thorns, in which Firefly got caught over and over with scarf and cloak, and painfully also with the feathers of her wings. She had borrowed clothing from Doctor Ragstitch’s house but if things went on that way, she wouldn’t be able to return them in one piece.
“We have moved far from our origins”, Nightshade remarked as Firefly once again furiously tugged at her scarf with her teeth to free it from an especially tenacious bush of brambles. He wasn’t wearing any hindering clothing, and apparently for some reason. But even he was having a hard time to bore his way through the undergrowth.
“We have moved far from our origins”, he repeated a few minutes later, when they finally reached a dip where they could walk almost comfortably. “Our ancestors used to live in forests like these, and yet our instincts fail us so miserably. Look”, he said and pointed upwards to the sky. “We have strayed to the east, it appears. We should take a more north-western direction from hereon.”
“My family has never lived in a forest”, Firefly mumbled, and she doubted that any pegasus could ever take pleasure in those dank, tree-infested woods. But she wasn’t sure if this really was what he had wanted to express. The sorcerer seemed fond of speaking in riddles just as Silver Blaze. Maybe everypony connected to royalty and the High Council got a little convoluted in the head over time. The best proof was certainly the officer who had transferred Firefly here.
Speaking of convoluted in the head…
“Does Sliderule have any problem with you, um, sir?” She hadn’t forgotten Sliderule’s strange reaction towards Nightshade the night before.
When asked, the unicorn chuckled to himself quietly. “Maybe he thinks that it is not fitting for me to be still alive”, he said, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
“What?” Not very eloquent, but that was the only reaction Firefly was capable of.
Nightshade was still smiling. “The name ‘Starswirl’ probably means nothing to you, does it? Well, then how about this: What would you say if I told you I was seven hundred and fifty years old?”
She would have replied that this wasn’t even the strangest thing she had heard from him today, Firefly thought. Incredible it was, nevertheless. She knew that some unicorns had lived very long, but this long? “Seven hundred …” Firefly repeated slowly as she tried to realise the time-span.
“… And fifty, yes”, Nightshade confirmed. “Some years more, actually. But I like a round number better. The unicorns worship Starswirl almost as a saint, and so they keep forgetting that he by far has not uncovered all secrets of magic; nor has his famous pupil Clover the Clever, by the way. Immortality, for example, was not something they can pride themselves upon discovering.”
“You are immortal?” Firefly asked bluntly and completely forgot to address him respectfully. He skipped it. Nightshade was in a peculiar mood, anyway. Since he had said his goodbye to Silver Blaze, the grim determination he had shown earlier had apparently turned into a softer and more sentimental mood, at least that was the impression Firefly got, and it was getting stronger the closer they got to their destination.
“Yes, I am immortal, so to say. For five centuries Nightshade has now been secretly making his contribution to protect these lands. But it has not always been this way, there are memories in my head of a time before the Princesses ruled, before Equestria was even founded. In those days of yore, a rivalry had been between Starswirl and Nightshade that reached up to open hostility. They were like siblings and loved each other, but they also fought about what was right or wrong. Their opinions began to diverge as to how far a magician may go in his quest for knowledge and power, and eventually their ways parted. Nightshade turned to darker arts, and the brighter Starswirl's star shone, the darker were the shadows it casted upon his former friend. Friendship turned into hatred and fierce battles between light and darkness followed. When Nightshade finally understood that indeed he was in the wrong, it was too late… It was Clover the Clever who brought the news that Starswirl had gone missing. Now I can only make amends for the injustice committed by protecting Equestria in his place and aiding the Princess were I can.”
Firefly looked at him with big, round eyes. What he had so frankly told her was nothing to just shrug off. And why the hay was he starting to speak of himself in third person? She opened her mouth to reply something, but Nightshade leapfrogged her:
“You want to know why I tell you this, do you not? It is quite simple, actually: Although I would not admit it to him, Silver Blaze was not entirely wrong about me losing control earlier.”
He stopped his pace and doubtfully fiddled with the amulet resting on his chest. His upright posture slackened and his straight back curved, as if a heavy load was pressing him down. Then he shook his head and said:
“The Alicorn Amulet amplifies the magic of its bearer many times over, but it is cursed. You must know, this necklace was forged by Sombra, the tyrant of the Crystal Empire and it corrupts the heart of whoever wears it. Silver Blaze knows that, of course, after all it was his family who guarded the amulet until Stonehaven was destroyed. When still a colt, he has experienced its curse at first hoof, and it costed him his right eye and almost his life. But I thought that I, Nightshade the Dark, most powerful warlock of past and presence, would be able to use it without danger, and I shall have much need of it. Great peril lies before me. In younger days I had dealt with this without any doubt. But now I am old and tire more easily. Until now, my will prevails, but I fear that, when the Alicorn Amulet finally gains the upper hoof, it will gain over me a power still greater and deadlier…” He sighed once more, and now had visible difficulties to continue. “I can only hope that I will last… That I can keep my senses together… At least, until this is over…”
Firefly had the feeling that she was expected to say something now, but she couldn’t think of anything fitting for this situation. The immense time span that Nightshade was so casually bridging with just a few words left her speechless. He made her feel all the more terribly small and unimportant. Starswirl had a meaning to her insofar that she knew unicorns often mentioned his name, mostly in a manner of exclamations like “By Starswirl’s beard!” or “In the name of Starswirl”. She didn’t know much about unicorn history, but she could work out for herself that he was like a patron saint for the magic users. But the black unicorn at her side had been Starswirl’s counterpart, the villain of that unknown story; a villain head to head with the great hero, maybe even more than that. Reformed or not, he possessed tremendous power. And yet she was moved by a sudden compassion for the old warlock. Nightshade’s strange communicativeness was touching. It seemed like the life confession of a very old pony who knew that their end was near. Could it be that Nightshade was afraid, that he was fearing for his life? And if he was, what could cause such fear? Not his age, that was for sure, because despite his seven-hundred-something years he was looking very fit… No, what made him fear for his life had to do with this amulet that he wore around his neck. And this necklace he wore only because of Discord, whom they had taken off to fight, and about whom Nightshade did not want to tell anything, even now.
Right on cue, a sharp fall wind started to blow. It was not the moist, damp wind of autumn, no, it was dry, cold and knifing, like wind otherwise only was high up in the mountains and in deep winter. The pine trees cracked and creaked as the gust rushed over them, and at once Firefly began to shiver despite her borrowed winter clothing, although she didn’t know whether it was the sudden decline in temperature or rather the conclusion of her thoughts that was giving her the chills …
The sorcerer, however, underwent another change, or more fittingly, he went back to normal. Once the cold gust hit him, his back straightened, and his face adopted again an expression of grim determination. Buttoned up like before his confession, like nothing had happened at all, he quietly implied Firefly to follow him. Even if she could muster the courage to ask him one of the questions that plagued her, she probably wouldn't have gotten an answer anymore.
Firefly nodded, and so they continued their way, this time heading north-west, just as Nightshade had wanted. So they fought their way through the forest until finally, when Celestia was already setting the sun, they reached open ground again. Over there, not a mile in the distance, black in the shadow of the mountains, stood the old beacon tower, its light now extinct forever. Their journey was almost over.
****
It didn’t take them long to get to the light tower, even on hoof, but it was very uncomfortable for Firefly. She felt like on the plate, and almost wished herself back into the woods. The air was cold and clear, there was no trace of last night’s fog anymore, but high above the mountains, thick and greasy clouds scudded through the sky. To her left, the lake lay stretched out, an almost perfectly round, its waters troubled and steel-grey. On the distant shore, a castle towered forebodingly over the waters, sharply outlined in the winter air. Had the pegasi brought Dawn, Silver Blaze, Ragstitch and Sliderule there? Certainly, they had… Heaven only knew what was going on there, what was happening to Dawn and the others right now!
Even more unpleasant, however, seemed to be their own goal: The lighthouse was looking like a black thorn, and Firefly abruptly recalled Herbal Green’s painting. She could almost see the horrendous serpentine creature looming above the tower, like it had in the madpony’s imagination. She shivered. But this was stupid! The rest of the landscape wasn’t dark. Shadowy, yes, shadowed by the mountains, but not unnaturally dark, and the waters of the lake weren’t blood-red either!
“That is”, Nightshade said, as if he had read her mind. “That is Discord’s peculiar fondness. He was always good in warping a pony’s thoughts, in warping their senses. As powerless as he may be at the moment, his mere presence has always been enough to cause delusion, strife and chaos, and he affects you, even long after you deem yourself to be free of them. That is his very nature. Never forget that! You must keep holding onto what is good and true in the world to withstand his influence.”
His words had surely be meant to be encouraging, but this was easier said than done, Firefly thought. The afterimage of the hellish painting was strangely persistent, like a picture on a piece of translucent cloth through which she could see the actual background. And as she closed her eyes to get rid of it, she thought to see another pair of eyes, burning red with hatred, and glaring at her from the dark abyss beneath black waters…
With a jerk, Firefly opened her eyes again. No! Dawn was trusting in her, and Silver Blaze was trusting in her, and with her was the most powerful warlock of all Equestria! Ignoring her worries, Firefly kept adamantly marching on, and she would have used her wings, had she not still feared that somepony could notice her from the castle. The tower grew in size as she came closer and closer, thereby circumventing the large boulders that lay scattered across the bleak lowlands between the lake and the mountains. Its surface looked smooth and un-weathered, and the stones were placed together almost seamlessly. It was built upon a sharp-edged rock formation in which a rough staircase was carved that lead to a door at the bottom of the tower. The doorframe was black and empty, and didn’t look very inviting.
Suddenly, Firefly hesitated. For a moment, she had seen something between the rocks: A sudden flash of white, that had quickly hid again, once it had caught her eye. Firefly turned around to Nightshade. He hadn’t been able to keep up with defiant trot and had fallen back a little.
“I have seen it too.”, he said, and he used this short break to close up to her. “That was a pony, or my eyes are deceiving me.”
Nightshade’s eyes weren’t deceiving him, Firefly was sure. She had seen it only for the shortest amount of time, but she had clearly recognized a messy white mane. “You think they found us?”, Firefly whispered. Her look scurried over the boulders, but she found no traces of any other ponies. If the pegasus guards had set up a trap for them they were hiding quite well.
“Hmm”, Nightshade uttered in an equally low voice. “Somepony found us, that is for sure. Not our friends from the castle, I think. Recall that little rhyme, Discord gave us; I would say we are on the verge of solving this mystery.”
They strained their ears and listened for a sign of this other pony. At first, they could hear only the wind, but then: “There!” Nightshade pointed to a rock, maybe three yards to their right. The sound of hooves treading gravel was coming from behind it. “Onwards, onwards”, Nightshade urgently whispered. “Let our shy ghost not get way!”
Firefly gave a short nod to tell him that she had understood, then she darted forward. The fastest wings in Equestria and the magic of a powerful sorcerer, their opposite didn't stand a chance to get away. Firefly bridged the distance to the boulder within just a heartbeat, and Nightshade wasn’t any slower. He teleported right next to her just as she landed on top of the rock.
The figure that had been hiding there fell backwards in shock and Firefly at once regretted that they had burst upon that pony like a natural disaster. Her look fell on a young mare, still half a filly, actually. She was a pegasus, a two or three years younger than Firefly herself and the most neglected pony she had ever seen: Compared to her appearance, the ordeal Dawn had gone through appeared like a cakewalk. Her mane was unkempt, and standing of in all directions, and it took a lot of imagination to make out that it once could have been white. Her coat was matted, and even her feathery wings, which now were fanned out on the ground because she was lying on her back, appeared ragged and fuzzy. She looked like a bird in moult and Firefly couldn't even begin to imagine the years of misery it took to turn a majestic pegasus into such a pitiful ball of shaggy fur.
The miserable being stared at them from the ground with large eyes, or at least she looked roughly in their direction. Something was really off with her, Firefly realised, and that had nothing to do with the fact that she had apparently not taken a proper bath in eternity. It was the blank expression on her face, that simply wouldn’t fit a shock, the peculiar slow and tardy reaction with which she now tried to crawl to safety, and most of all the strangely unseeing way she looked, not at but past Firefly with her clouded eyes, as if she were seeing her surrounding, but weren’t able to perceive it consciously. Firefly shuddered.
“Who are they, I am wondering.” At first Firefly didn’t know who had spoken or rather mumbled this question but then she realised that it had been the desolate furball below her. Her voice was so thin and brittle and hopeless, like a draught of wind passing through the gaps of a run-down wooden shack. The question hadn’t been directed towards her or Nightshade anyways, more like the young mare was talking to herself.
Nevertheless, it was Nightshade who replied, stepping slowly down from the rock and making a step towards the mare on the ground. “I could ask you the same question”, he said, albeit in a very careful tone. “Who are you?”
“He wants to know who I am, does he not?" the young mare muttered, and still she did not look at them straight. "But I cannot tell him, who I am. I am nopony. I am just a ghost… And only ghosts visit me here… Only, ghosts and the cruel creatures from the black water…”
Firefly’s heart almost broke. This was a whole new kind of insanity she was now whitnessing, and perhaps the most frightening That mare had lost her mind, alright, but her kind of madness was far worse than Herbal Green’s fits of bloodlust. What were his occasional outbursts of rage against delusions that condemned one to vegetate in never-ending hopelessness?!
She gave Nightshade a look, but the unicorn just silently opened and closed his mouth, like he was struggling for the right words. He was at a loss what to, as well.
“We are no ghosts!” The words downright blurted out of Firefly. That was all she could think of to reply.
For a moment, Firefly thought Nightshade would reprove her, but to her great surprise he beamed. “Yes, yes, Firefly, of course! Good thinking. Sticking to what is good and true in the world, yes… The touch of a living pony might help her.” He waved at Firefly. “Come on, honour to whom honour is due, Firefly, go ahead and lend her a hoof, please.”
She wanted to object, that she had thought nothing like that, and she wondered, why he couldn’t do this by himself, but obediently she flew down from the rock. Hesitantly, she reached out for the pegasus on the ground, because suddenly she felt an unfathomable fear. Although she was caked with dirt, her instinctive reaction would have been to hug that poor thing, and not let go until everything was alright again. And yet she didn’t even dare to touch her. It was like with the whole light tower, Firefly had to admit to herself that she feared this pegasus, although for no logical reason. Yes, she feared her, and she was ashamed of it! That tipped the balance. For the second time in just a few minutes she chided herself a fool, and, although she didn’t know it, for the second time she willingly resisted Discord’s influence.
Nightshade probably hadn't noticed her renewed inner struggle, at least he still looked at her expectantly. And certainly, the young mare hadn't noticed anything at all, she was still blinking around with a gaze devoid of any recognition. But that Firefly now made attempts to reach out for her, that she realised. She tried to back off, but her dreamily slow reflexes couldn’t prevent Firefly from softly touching her cheek with hoof and wrist of her foreleg.
The mare’s body at once stiffened, as the foreign fur touched her and Firefly, who feared to have done something terribly wrong, didn’t dare to move a muscle. Then, almost in slow-motion, the mare’s hoof rose to Firefly’s foreleg and with gentle force she pressed it against her cheek.
“Warm”, she simply said and closed her eyes. For the first time her expression wasn’t blank anymore. It now showed a touch of relief.
“Yes, I’m warm, see”, Firefly continued her line, very fast and almost babbling. “I’m no ghost, alright? And you’re no ghost either…” She paused because she was running out of ideas. “Sir?” she now turned to Nightshade, seeking help. “Can you say something, please?”
“I can and I will”, the unicorn replied. “Because I see clear now.” He kneeled down next to the dirty pegasus mare. “You have lost yourself, have you not?”, he said and deep compassion resounded in his voice. “You have lost yourself in the dark, but I can show you the way out… Miss White Nimbus!”
Two pairs of eyes now stared at him, that of Firefly who confusedly had turned towards him, but also the other mare, who had opened her eyes again at the sound of this name.
“White Nimbus”, she said in a rough voice. Her eyes were so glued to Nightshade that there was no doubt that she was now seeing him perfectly clear. “That… That is my name, is it not? Yes, I am White Nimbus… But I… I mean, I cannot… How did I get here? And who are you two?”
She still sounded confused but showed no more sign of mental derangement. Nightshade and Firefly introduced themselves properly, whereby Firefly noticed a little embarrassedly that White Nimbus was still pressing her hoof against her cheek. But only until she realised it herself, then she at once let go of Firefly and bashfully lowered her eyes. She admitted, that her memory was blurry; she could hardly remember anything that had happened after her admission Calm Mind’s hospital. She was missing three years of her life, a quick explanation from Nightshade and Firefly confirmed that. It was understandable that she would be concerned!
“It all was like a bad dream”, White Nimbus pondered. “I recall the lake. I think… I think I was drawn under by something, and…” The painful memory flooding back into her head distorted her face when she realised the truth. “Oh, Celestia… He is dead, right? Cloud Dash is dead… I had forgotten about that...”
Firefly casted a doubtful look at Nightshade, but the sorcerer signalled her that telling her about Dawn's imaginary friend didn't seem advisable to him.
“I fear so, Miss White”, Nightshade carefully said.
“I understand”, White Nimbus replied, and Firefly had to admire how calm her voice sounded. She was such a brave pony. Firefly hadn’t known that the count’s ward was from Rainbow Falls, but it was fitting. Rainbow Falls was home to the pegasus high nobility, and as shabby as she was looking, White Nimbus posture and behaviour was polite and noble, since she was herself again.
“But what has happened to me?” White Nimbus urged. “Master Nightshade, Private Firefly, do you know anything about how I got here?”
Nightshade indeed had an explanation. From the moment White Nimbus had been rescued from the lake, he explained, she had fallen under the influence of Discord. Without going into Miss Nimbus’s question of what a “Discord” was, he continued. It was never Discord’s manner, he said, to simply kill a pony. To sow disharmony, yes; to make ponies go insane, yes; to drive them into horrible deeds, absolutely; but blunt murder was simply not extraordinary enough to bother with. Instead Discord had whispered into her ear, had twisted her mind, and had eventually taken control over her. The lines of his poem were proof enough! However, Discord’s reasons for all this, why he had kept White Nimbus alive for three years, and all the efforts he had put up, Nightshade didn’t know.
White Nimbus opened her mouth, probably to ask further questions. But suddenly, her expression went blank again and her eyes rolled back in their sockets. A violent jolt flashed through her body and when her eyes opened again, they sparkled so viciously that Firefly unconsciously took a step back.
“If you want to know the plan, why don’t you ask the planner himself?” The voice came from White Nimbus’s mouth, but it was deep and buttery and was dripping with mockery. It didn’t sound like her at all.
“Discord!”, hissed Nightshade, and lowered his horn. Firefly feared he would attack White Nimbus like he had earlier attacked Herbal Green. She overcame her shock and stepped between him and the other pegasus.
“Let go of her!” she demanded, atlhough her voice didn't sound as commanding as she would have wished. Not at all!
A broad, and completely insane smile curled White Nimbus’s lips. “No can do, snookums”, Discord purred through the mare’s mouth. “She’s such a useful little puppet, my eyes and ears out there. And my voice, occasionally. I can’t just let her go, Firefly, darling. But since I’ve gone through all this trouble to make you both come over for a little chat, why don’t you quit trying to seduce my little toy away from me and come in. We haven’t got all day, you know?”
