Under the Black Sky

Don’t keep me waiting.

Sky didn’t so much hear a voice as much as he simply understood the feeling in his head. It felt eerily familiar, like the sensation he had walking with Twilight and Spike through the Everfree Forest. The Chimera wanted him, and it wanted him now.

He stood flanked between Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, waiting patiently before the doors to the palace. Two members of the royal guard stood attentively on either side of the entryway. Fluttershy rubbed her hoof nervously along the ground, while Rainbow Dash paced back and forth anxiously.

“What’s the holdup? This is important!” she protested in an irritated tone. “What could possibly be more important than this?”

“The whole of Canterlot is under intense guard due to a specific threat within the bounds of Equestria. We must make certain that procedures are followed to ensure the safety of all citizens within the city,” the guard answered.

“This is ridiculous! We’re here because of the threat! We’ve got news about it, and we can’t see Celestia because of some stupid ‘procedure’ you have to follow?!” she practically shouted back.

“Um, Rainbow, maybe you should keep your voice down,” Fluttershy said softly. “He’s only doing his job.”

“Yeah, well, his ‘job’ is going to keep Sky here from being able to knock that Chimera into next week if he just continues to stand there!” she countered, looking as though steam would start coming out her ears at any moment.

“Easy, Rainbow,” Sky said coolly. “I’m sure the Council will see us when they can.” He was distracted by the silent guard on his left. It was the same unicorn that had been on guard that night he had gotten back from Polarmino, and the feeling that he had seen him somewhere before was stronger than ever.

“How are you not more upset about this?” she asked. “If I were you, I’d be ready to fly outta here and take that monster head-on right now!”

“That’s exactly what Rarity warned us against,” Sky replied. “We can’t be hasty about this. The Chimera definitely has a plan, so we need to have one, too.”

Just then, the immense doors opened as Princess Celestia, Princess Cadence, and Shining Armor came out. All three of them had grave looks on their faces, but Celestia and Cadence smiled at the three friends gathered together. The three young ponies bowed before the members of the Council as they approached.

“’Bout time,” Rainbow muttered.

“Hello again, my little ponies,” Celestia said. “I understand that Twilight and the others are on their way.”

“They are,” Sky said, rising back to a standing position.

“Then come inside, and we can begin our discussion immediately. This conversation is best kept indoors, where we can avoid prying ears,” she continued. With that, they turned and entered the hallway, followed closely by Sky and his entourage. As he passed through the doorway, Sky noticed that the unicorn guard kept his eye on Sky the whole time. Sky peeled his gaze away as the massive doors shut behind him.

“So, Sky, the Chimera is looking for you again?” Cadence asked from in front of him.

“It would certainly seem that way.” He felt like he was under the intense scrutiny of the Council again, trying to determine how prepared he was to deal with the Chimera so soon after his last encounter with it.

“The Chimera told you that it had been hiding with the windigoes. So why would it present itself to you so emphatically now?” Shining Armor asked.

“Maybe it’s gotten upset with constantly losing to him, and it wants to settle the score with him quickly,” Rainbow suggested with a smile.

But Sky shook his head. “No. It doesn’t operate that way. It’s patient. Very patient. It waited four months to deal with me a second time, and it told me that it wasn’t even counting on meeting me. It was hoping to simply wipe out the colony without being discovered. Something changed dramatically after our last battle. It’s got something very specific in mind. And I don’t think it revolves around me. I think it wants to use me to achieve a greater purpose.”

“And do you know what this purpose might be?” Celestia inquired.

“Not a clue. But I think we can be fairly certain that it focuses on the downfall of Equestria. Everything it’s done has been aimed at that goal.”

“Agreed,” Shining Armor said. “And I feel confident that Canterlot itself is safe from the Chimera. At least, for the moment.”

“But that is not the case for the rest of Equestria,” Cadence countered. “The citizens outside of this city have little protection from the threat of this creature. And if it is so eager for Sky to meet it again, who knows what it may do to try and hurry him up?”

The thought caused Sky to cringe. The possibility of the Chimera using innocent ponies as incentive to get him to respond to its summons had occurred to him already, but hearing it from somepony else only reinforced the reality of the situation in his mind.

The group slowly entered the great throne room, and the members of the Council took their places at the bottom of the stairs leading to the throne. Sky, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash stood before them, waiting for the discussion to continue.

But no pony said a word. Silence fell upon the group as they simply looked at each other, like it was a verbal game of chicken, where the first pony to speak would be the loser. Cadence’s observation had cast an unpleasant feeling upon each of them, and they were all still mulling it over when Sky broke the silence.

“I always thought I would be the one to defeat the Chimera. It would be the two of us, alone in a field, and we would battle until the end, when I overcame it and vanquished it from Equestria. But now, I’m simultaneously the hero and a liability. I’m supposed to walk bold-faced into the Chimera’s trap because all of Equestria is the bait. And what’s worse, is that we don’t know what the trap really is. It has all the initiative, and it’s using all of it.” He groaned and hung his head in frustration.

Shining Armor straightened up and looked at Sky. “Just because the odds are stacked against you doesn’t mean that you get to give up, Sky Streak,” he admonished. “You don’t need me to tell you that.”

“Shining Armor is right. The Chimera may think that it has the advantage, but it can’t prepare for everything,” Celestia agreed. “This may be the chance we’ve all been waiting for to finish this creature off, and we must seize that opportunity.”

“How?” Rainbow asked.

“We need to give it something it doesn’t expect,” the princess continued. “We need to take away its advantage of dictating how everything is going to happen.”

“How are we going to do that, Your Highness?” Fluttershy asked softly.

“We’ll need to wait for Twilight and the others to arrive for us to be able to come up with a solid plan. But I think that I have an idea.”

“Then they better hurry up and get here,” Sky said suddenly, wincing in pain as he raised a hoof to his temple. The pain in his head had returned, and it threatened to grow even stronger. “I don’t think the Chimera is willing to wait much longer.”

“I’m afraid it will have to wait,” Shining Armor replied, though he sounded more empathetic than he had up to this point. “The train from Ponyville won’t arrive until late tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow?!” Sky exclaimed. “I’m just supposed to spend an entire night with this…monster,” he basically growled, “worming around in my head?”

Celestia and Cadence frowned, but the captain of the guard sighed as he locked eyes with the blue pegasus. “Listen to me, Sky. I know what it’s like to have something get into your head and try to use you. I understand that feeling perhaps better than any pony in Equestria.” He narrowed his eyes as he continued. “But you can trust me when I say that everypony here has complete confidence that you can handle this. You’ve already shown a great deal of resilience and determination in dealing with the Chimera. You’re better than it is.” A smirk formed at the corner of his mouth. “Now’s your chance to prove it.”

“Besides, it’s just for one night,” Fluttershy encouraged. “We can spend the time to catch up, if you want.”

Sky’s head was a mix of emotions. Shining Armor had issued a challenge that Sky couldn’t just put aside, but his frustration at having to wait another day just to find out how to deal with this threat was maddening. He took a deep breath and released it in a slow snort. “Alright,” he managed at last. “I guess the freedom of flying has made me a bit impatient.”

“That is a forgivable offense,” Celestia said gently. “But at least now you know what to expect when we meet tomorrow.”

“I suppose I do.”

“Your rooms are being prepared as we speak,” Celestia continued, nodding to Sky’s companions. “Feel free to wander around the palace grounds for a little while. They should be ready in an hour or two. Sky Streak, yours is always ready, of course.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Sky said as he bowed, though he didn’t feel like he meant it. He rose after a moment to see the Council members exiting the main chamber behind him. “I guess that means the meeting’s over?”

“How do you like that?” Rainbow said beside him. “At the least, they should have said goodbye or something!”

“Oh, I’m sure they mean well…” Fluttershy muttered.

“Of course they do,” Sky agreed. “But they could at least demonstrate it somehow.” He sighed and let his shoulders sag as he tried to relax. “Well, let’s take a walk. I need a breath of fresh air.”

The three friends were soon sitting on the grass beside the palace gardens, watching the clouds go by. The sky was tinted to a pinkish hue by Shining Armor’s protective bubble spell surrounding the entire city. Sky rolled onto his back and let his legs fall against the ground.

“You know…the air really doesn’t seem that fresh out here,” he muttered.

“That’s just your mind saying that because it thinks you’re inside a bubble,” Rainbow observed.

“Probably. But it still doesn’t feel fresh.”

Fluttershy watched a lone butterfly flit from flower to flower. “Sky, you seem so upset. Isn’t there anything we can do to help?”

Sky rolled over again and sat up. “Yeah, I’ll admit, I’m upset,” he said. “There’s a creature out there that wants to simply destroy Equestria, and from all signs, I’m the pony that’s supposed to be able to stop it. But instead of being out there trying to find it, here I sit, waiting for a train to arrive from Ponyville so we can ‘talk’ about how we can destroy it.”

“But, I thought you wanted to have a plan…” Fluttershy replied softly.

“I do,” Sky returned, “but I didn’t think it would turn into a big sit-and-wait session. A full day? I’ve seen the Chimera destroy an entire colony in seconds. And we’re giving it at least an entire day to do whatever it wants?”

Fluttershy winced and grew silent. Sky immediately felt his frustration change from targeting the Council to himself. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy. I’m just fed up with this thing. It’s haunted Equestria for months now, and now it’s even got a way to let me know what it wants. It’s a flame burning in my head. I know when it’s thinking about me, and even though I can’t hear any voices, I know what it’s trying to tell me. And right now, it’s trying to make me feel uncomfortable anywhere I go. Unless I go after it. It’s trying to make me want to go find it. And I do…just not like this.”

Rainbow flopped onto her back as she spoke. “I don’t think anyone can blame you for being upset, Sky. I’m sure that Twilight and the others are just as worried as we are. But I think you need to look at the bright side of things. You’re starting to act like you’re just brooding all the time.”

Sky raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah. You just seem like the world is all dark and gray to you. Like you can’t see anything happy or joyful because you’re so obsessed with defeating the Chimera. And it’s good that you’re focused like that, but I think you’re in danger of becoming standoff-ish.”

“Hm.” He watched a solitary dandelion seed float in front of his face and glance off his nose. He blew it away softly and followed its trek through the air with his eyes as it sailed lazily away. “Well, I definitely am focused on the Chimera. And I don’t want that to create problems with my friends, but this is such a serious issue. I mean, the whole of Equestria could be at stake here.”

He was silent for a moment before continuing. “I just want this to be over.”

“No pony wants to go through the hard times, Sky,” Fluttershy said, walking over beside her old friend and rubbing his back with her hoof. “But I think that it’s the difficult things that shape who we are. You’re a different pony than the one that walked into Everfree Forest a few months ago.”

“No argument there,” Sky admitted.

Rainbow Dash rolled back onto her stomach. “And you’re better for that. But you didn’t change just by walking into the forest. You had to go through the darkness and face the source of your fears before you really started to change. And now, you’re up against it again. I’ve heard it said that ‘difficulties are just opportunities in disguise.’ And this is your opportunity to really become something great.”

“And just what is that?” Sky asked as he felt the corners of his mouth tug into the beginnings of a smile.

“Who knows? You’ll just have to seize the opportunity to find out!”

“Just wish that these ‘opportunities’ didn’t take so long.”

“Maybe you were right, Sky,” Fluttershy said.

“About what?” he asked.

“I think you are a little impatient.”

Sky chuckled a bit. “Well, maybe that’s what I’m supposed to learn from this encounter.”

Rainbow took to a kneeling position and turned her head to the sky. “Please, oh please, let that be true!” she said dramatically.

The trio then broke into a fit of laughter that filled the gardens. And, for a few minutes, at least, the Chimera was forgotten, and the only thoughts were the comfort and friendship between three pegasi on the lawn of Canterlot Palace.