The Lost Element

Chapters

Arrival
The First Day
Morning, the Second Day

Arrival

Two years after Princess Luna’s return to Equestria, seeing the greed and corruption that dwelled in the hearts of some ponies. Confering with her sister, she found that the guard, while good, were just unable to be in enough places or get into the right circles to root out the corruption, so she founded her own specialist stunt team, the Shadowbolts. Like their counterparts, they were primarily known as a stunt team, and as a group willing to step outside the law to do things, particularly when it meant hurting the sun princess’ team. What nopony outside a chosen few -- primarily consisting of the two stunt teams, the princesses and the elements of harmony -- knew was that most of what they thought was going on between the Wonderbolts and the Shadowbolts was a complete sham. Both teams worked closely together at times to discover illegal activities, and often covered one another by switching members.

One of the Shadowbolts, their leader, a light blue mare with a darker blue mane slunk through the tunnels of a laboratory buried under the streets of Manehatten, hunting for any signs of the drugs or weapons that were rumoured to be in this place. So far all she had seen, beyond the odd few workers on the late shift, were doors leading to nowhere. If she were honest, she would have liked to have had one of the others with her right about now, particularly Stratus for his solid presence, Charger for his glibness and snarky manner or Smoke, the quietest of the males, but the the best at infiltration.

Ducking into a room as a pair of worker ponies came past, Nightshade closed the door softly behind her and turned around, gasping at the sight of row upon row of tanks, all leading to a green swirling area. She didn’t know much about magic, but the chill in the room was palpable. Making her way along the line of tanks, she found one lowered to the point where she could look into it. Rearing up on her hind legs, she braced her fore hooves against the metal, shivering as the chill became cold, and looked inside, seeing something pony-like, yet not, the semi-transparent blue body of the ‘pony’ seemed to fade in and out as it drifted around the tank, moving neither hooves nor wings. Then it noticed her and swung around to face the area Nightshade was looking into its tank.

The creature gave her a grin, swirling around in front of her for a moment before its tank started to fill with blood. Yelping, Nightshade pushed away from the tank, beating her wings in an effort to get further away, only to end up toppling herself onto her back as she overbalanced.

Scrambling back to her hooves, she darted from the room, shuddering as she tried to understand just what she had seen in that tank with the blue pony-thing and the blood and the.... Ducking into another room, she took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. She couldn’t afford to be distracted like that, not when the Princesses needed any information she could get on what was going on here. Looking around the room, she sighed in relief, finding herself in what looked like a library or file room. At least this room would make some kind of sense.

Making her way through the room, she used a lock-pick to break into a sealed cabinet and pulled some of the files out of it, opening them on the floor. What she read was... disturbing. If the report was right, those blue things in the other room had been ghosts, and there were other things being experimented on here as well. Closing the report and picking it up with her teeth, she placed it into her saddlebag, before grabbing several more that looked important and stuffing them in with it, a mouthful, then a second before the alarms finally went off.

Whipping around, she slammed the cabinet over with a swift buck, scattering reports everywhere. The other cabinets swiftly followed and another mouthful of random reports went into her saddlebags before she bolted from the room, almost running into two of the biggest and meanest looking Earth ponies she had ever seen.

Turning in the opposite direction as they whinnied at her, she ran for the place she had managed to slip into the laboratory, not even entirely sure where she was going to run to once she reached the streets.

*****

Snorting herself awake as the train slowed down again, the blue-maned pegasus blinked, looking around the nearly empty carriage. Yawning, she shifted slightly before rolling herself out of the bed and stretching slowly. Looking out the window, she sighed, seeing that it was still dark outside. Normally she liked the dark, but after what she had seen... a sound caught her attention, making her whip around, her dark blue tail lashing her flank with the speed of her move. Blinking again, she looked at the bed next to the one she had been sleeping in, seeing a yellow head topped by a messy yellow and orange mane that could almost be mistaken for flames in the right light.

Reaching over, she poked the lump in the bed cautiously, not quite sure whether she wanted to wake the other pony up, still at least talking with her opposite number would be better than sitting in the dark and listening to the train running through the night to Luna knew where. She poked the lump again when Spitfire grumbled and rolled over, managing to catch the other mare on the flank.

“S-stop it,” Spitfire groaned, blinking her eyes sleepily to try to get them to focus, then blinking again when she saw Nightshade in the carriage lights. “Nightshade?” She asked around a yawn, rubbing her eyes with her hooves. “What in Celestia’s name are you doing here?” She asked, pushing herself up into a sitting position. “Come to that, why are you waking me up at...” She looked out at the moon. “Stupid o’clock at night?”

Nightshade sighed, moving to flop on the bed. “I woke you up because I needed to talk to somepony, and you’re the only one even on this train.” She said, moving to lay her head down, only to be stopped by Spitfire, who was giving her a worried look. “You know the Shadowbolts alpha team was in Manehatten, right?” She asked, getting a nod in response. Much like their counterparts, the Shadowbolts split their group into three elements of three ponies, which made it easier to switch things around as well. “Well, our investigation for Princess Luna found evidence pointing to a lab hidden in the sewers under the city. I went to investigate it, and barely got out in one piece. I was chased all the way to the train station, pretty much, though I think I lost them in the crowd and jumped on this train....” She twitched her tail, looking up at Spitfire. “You’re the only pony I’ve even seen on this thing, and I really need some advice... I don’t know how to proceed with what I’ve found.”

Shifting around, now fully awake, Spitfire looked over at Nightshade, thinking for a moment at just how much the other mare had grown since being placed in charge of the Shadowbolts. Spreading a wing, she wrapped it around her counterpart. “What sort of advice do you need? And do you need it as a friend or as your Captain?” She asked, reminding Nightshade that they had once been on the same team.

Sighing again, Nightshade rested her head on her forehooves. “As a friend,” She said, before looking up at Spitfire. “Spitfire, I left my group behind, I didn’t even tell them I was going into the lab because... well, Blueball Blitz and Starry Skies? They are the worst pair for doing that sort of infiltration, I should have taken Stratus, Charger or Smoke but they were all busy with an investigation of their own in Stalliongrad.” She sighed again. “Anyway, beyond what I’m going to do about them, there’s what I found in that lab... it wasn’t drugs or weapons, it was ghosts. They were doing something with ponies in cages made of some special rock and there was this green glowy thing and all these machines to find ghosts. I...” She trailed off for a moment before looking at Spitfire. “Spitfire, were you ever scared by ghost stories?” She asked meekly, her ears lying back against her head.

“Not really,” Spitfire replied, watching as Nightshade flinched. “There are some really scary ones around, sure, but... I guess for me I’ve just been more interested in how and why it can happen, or in busting them like those ponies from The Pony Ghostbusters.” She said with a shrug. “Maybe it’s just that I grew up with them around and there’s some comedy to the ghosts in that rather than scare factor. Heck I own a copy of The Spectre Master, got it with me as well.” She added with a grin.

Nightshade shivered, clamping her wings against her sides. “I... never managed to get past the intro to that, just... ghosts....” She said, shivering again. “And that’s what I found in that lab, ghosts. I grabbed what I could and got out of there, but... the Princesses need to know and I don’t know what to do.”

Spitfire snorted softly, hugging Nightshade with her wing. She had never seen the other mare like this, though she did remember Nightshade’s reaction the first time she had seen somepony hurt by her actions, and the first time that one of her team had been killed. For all the hardness of the mask, Nightshade was a gentle pony underneath. “Tell you what, we should be getting to Grey Marsh station in a few hours, after that, there’s a walk through the marsh and past the fenland reserve before we reach the town. Once we’re there and we’ve slept properly, since I, at least, always end up lagged, even if I fly out there, we’ll call the hotel your group is staying in and we’ll find a way to get whatever you found to the Princesses. After we’ve done that, we can see if we can find the supposed treasures of Grey Marsh, and see what ghost stories we turn up that sound good to you?” She asked.

“I... guess.” Nightshade replied, laying her head back down again. She wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about seeing more ghosts, but maybe with Spitfire there.... Considering how much Spitfire had helped her already, at this rate she would never be able to pay the golden mare back for her kindness.

*****

“Are you sure this is safe?” Nightshade asked, looking dubiously at the entrance to the cave they were stood in front of. “I mean you said it was safe to take that shortcut you pointed out and look how well that turned out.” She added, indicating her dripping, shivering figure with one wing.

Spitfire snorted softly. “I said it was safe for those who know how to cross it, not that it was safe for everypony, Nightshade.” She pointed out, flicking an ear in irritation. “As for the cave, the last time I was here it was the only way to get to the town, the mists around here can be even more treacherous than the fens for a pegasus.” She frowned at the cave, drawing out a number of pieces of metal she had collected on the way from her saddlebags and moving to place them on a group of pegs near the cave entrance. “We should be okay during the low tides, as long as we’re careful,” She shot a look at the wet pegasus, who grimaced in response. “Though there’s no way I can get my luggage through this cave and the trains don’t carry passengers through to the town at this time of year.

Nightshade blinked, shaking out her wings briefly. “If... if trains run to the town, why don’t they carry passengers all the way?” She asked, “Why did we have to get off in the middle of the fens?”

Shrugging her wings, Spitfire fitted the placard together, rotating the pieces until they fitted, spelling out their warning message. “The last time I asked that, they said it was something to do with the tides in the fens cutting them off, but that could just be because they don’t really want many people coming and going during tourist season.” She replied, stepping back and nodding before moving into the cave, inching her way through the narrow gap at the entranceway. “C’mon, Nightshade, once we’re through this, it’s pretty simple to get to the town and we can get some food from the pub, and find a place to stay.” She added, not taking her eyes off the area in front of her hooves as she made her way through the area.

Emerging into a cave, she stepped aside to let Nightshade in after her, hearing the other mare’s hooves clopping on the stone. Looking around, she frowned slightly, trying to remember what this cave had been like the last time she had come here. Apart from a few random newspapers -- a quick glance at them told her nothing interesting, but maybe there would be something more interesting in town -- everything seemed to be the same as usual. “The town’s out there,” She said, pointing a hoof at the opening to the cave as Nightshade emerged. “And that’s one of the areas I’ve found things before, I’m not entirely sure what happened, but there seem to be ghosts trapped behind the cage door over there.” She added, pointing out a door very similar to a prison door in the opposite corner of the cave, making Nightshade shudder.

“That can’t have been pleasant, given I spent maybe a week or two in a cage and I still have nightmares about it, and about what landed me there.” Nightshade said softly. She shook her head and snorted before bumping her shoulder against Spitfire’s. “But then I got picked as Shadowbolt leader and found out what a good friend you were... I don’t think I would’ve made it if you hadn’t been there, Spitfire.”

Spitfire nodded, nosing Nightshade. “I know, I remember that training,” She snorted softly, walking with her companion out of the cave towards the village. “I thought the training I had received was tough, and that we were letting in Rainbow Dash too early to take your position, up until we started that training routine. I think the first few weeks, we all slept where we dropped.”

Nightshade nodded, flicking blue tail out. “I know, I don’t know where Luna found that guy, but damn if he wasn’t the worst training sergeant I’ve ever seen... and he made it so bloody reasonable to do things as well.” She commented, flexing her wings as they left the cave.

“Yeah, of course it works, after all he got your ragtag band of misfits into a decent force in record time.” Spitfire grinned, glancing around to reorient herself before nodding in the direction of the village. “This way, the sooner we get to the tavern, the better I’ll like it.” She said, leading the way up the beach to where there was a set of steps up to the top of the sea wall around the village, even as they reached the top of the steps, they could see the ruins of an old fort dominating a hilltop near the village.

Following her friend through the streets, Nightshade twitched her tail. After spending nearly a full day on the train or trekking through fenland, she was starting to tire, particularly as she hadn’t had anything to eat for a day and a half. Even so, it wasn’t that late yet and the streets were almost deserted. “Spitfire, is it normally this quiet of an evening around here?” She asked, turning to look at the other mare and almost tripping over a loose cobblestone.

“Always has been,” Spitfire replied, catching Nightshade. “I always figured it was because there wasn’t much to do around here so most ponies simply turned in or spent the evening with their families.” She said with a shrug of her wings. “’Course, I’m often wandering around at night so I tend to nap during the evenings myself, makes it easier to stay up all night.” She added as they reached the tavern.

Nightshade flicked her tail as the two mares entered, glancing up at the sign above the door. ‘The Gryphon Rampant’, it was certainly an interesting name, if nothing else. Stepping inside, the first thing she noticed was how much quieter it was than the places she frequented, there was talk from various groups of ponies around the large room, but music was simply a few ponies with classical instruments on the stage near the fire. It actually gave the place a more welcoming atmosphere. “I’ll have to remember that with my own team.”

Nodding, Spitfire made her way through to the bar. “Hey, Heathwarmer, you got any rooms for two available?” She asked, flicking her tail out behind her. “Along with a couple of plates of your special and some mulled wine.” She added, reaching into her saddlebag to pull out a purse full of bits and dropping some on the counter.

The rich brown unicorn flicked his mane out of his eyes to look at Spitfire for a moment. “The food and drinks I can do no problem, Miss Spitfire, the room however... I’m afraid all I have is the cottage by the harbour, and that is only set for one.” He said sadly.

Nightshade snorted softly, looking over at Spitfire. “I don’t mind sharing with a friend, do you?” She asked.

“No,” Spitfire replied before turning to Hearthwarmer. “We’ll take it,” She said, before glancing around and spotting a table near the fire. “Can you bring our food to the table by the fire?” She asked.

“’Course I can,” Hearthwarmer replied, taking the coins and heading around the bar to pour them the wine, fetch the key to the cottage and get the cooks to start preparing their meal. Putting both wine and key on the counter, he leaned against it. “So what are you up to, Miss Spitfire, still trying to find the ghosts?” He asked.

“I will be, but not for a couple of days.” Spitfire replied, taking her drink and the key before leading Nightshade over to the table she had picked out.

*****

Flopping into a chair in the rented property, Spitfire sighed, then frowned, seeing a paper on the table as Nightshade headed off upstairs to have a look at the bedroom. Running a hoof through her mane, she sighed, picking up the paper and leafing through it. If she were honest, she couldn’t blame Nightshade for being tired, even with sleeping on the train. After a day like that, she would have been tired. Turning a page, she paused, frowning as the headline caught her attention. “Treasure hunters...?” She murmured to herself, flexing her wings as they started to ache from being held in place for so long. “What are they looking for...? Hrr...?”

Reading through the article, she frowned, then smiled slightly. This might just be the thing to get Nightshade interested in things, a good old fashioned treasure hunt, even if she didn’t intend on moving the treasure once it was found since they made more than enough money for being captains of their teams. The question was, what the treasure was. Frowning, she continued reading through the paper as Nightshade returned, wrapped in a blanket, to flop on the other chair, closer to the fire they had started when they had first arrived. “Well... on the good side, it seems there’s enough fuel for both the lamps and the fire to last us a while,” Nightshade said, leaning her head on her hooves. “On the bad side, there’s no food or water, and there is only one bed, so unless one of us tries sleeping on the floor, without anything on them, we’re stuck sharing.”

“We can probably buy something tomorrow so we’ve at least got a camp bed if we need it, along with more bedding.” Spitfire said, frowning at the paper. Crowns? There were supposed to be pony crowns around here somewhere shaped like the Elements of Harmony? That made some sense, since it was possible that if someone could wield the power of an Element of Harmony, they could possibly have more power than most around here, the fact that there were supposed to be seven though... that made no sense. Everypony knew there were only six Elements. “I think we’ve got something we can do as well, well, beyond getting some ponies to lend Starry Skies and Blueball Blitz a hoof with what they’re doing and getting whatever information you’ve got to the Princesses so they can stop whatever you saw.” She added, turning the paper around with her hooves and pushing it over to Nightshade, “Take a look at that article.”

Picking up the paper with her hooves, Nightshade frowned as she read over the article in question. “Treasure hunting, Spitfire? Aren’t we a bit old to be running after rumours of treasure like this?” She asked, brushing her blue mane out of the way.

Spitfire snorted, looking up, amber eyes meeting light yellow ones. “Do you really want to be sitting around here until the heat in Manehatten dies down?” She asked her counterpart dryly, getting a grimace from the other pegasus. “We probably won’t find anything, but we might find something and if we do, we can report that to the Princesses when we get back to somewhere more urban, maybe get some ponies here to study things, like that student of hers.”

“You mean Rainbow Dash’s girlfriend?” Nightshade asked, arching an eyebrow at Spitfire. “What’s going on with them anyway? The last I heard they were living on your air base, but something was going on with Soarin’.” She said, frowning a little.

“I think they’re going from a pair to a trio, not really my thing, but if they’re happy with the arrangements, I’m not going to argue.” Spitfire replied, “I’d rather have happy ponies that’ll work under me than ponies that are down in the dumps during a show.” She pointed out, before blinking and sitting up a little. “Oh, speaking of shows, aren’t we supposed to be having a ‘joint show’ around midsummer?” She asked.

Nightshade nodded. “Yeah, well, we’re supposed to be crashing your show in Canterlot.” She looked over at Spitfire, arching an eyebrow. “I guess we had better decide who we’re using to do what while we’re here then, so we can practice it until we can do it without actually putting the crowd at risk, even if they think they are.” She said dryly. One encounter with stunts going wrong and injuring ponies in the crowd had been enough for her, and it had wound up with her being taken down and locked up for weeks, not an experience she wanted to repeat. “Want it as even odds or do you want to have one side bound to win because of the group they’ve got?” She asked.

Spitfire frowned, rubbing her jaw with a hoof as she sat in the chair. “I was kind of thinking that we have it as a free-for-all... I mean, it’s the Summer Sun Celebration and the Wonderbolts are supposed to be performing for Princess Celestia, why wouldn’t Princess Luna have her own team there as well?” She asked rhetorically. “Everypony knows we can’t stand one another,” She gave Nightshade a wry grin at that. Considering what they were going to end up doing tonight, if anypony actually saw them now that knew they were parts of different units, it would ruin the rumours completely, and likely spawn an entire slew of new ones.

Nightshade snorted in amusement, shifting around. “Yeah but you know what Star always says.”

“People are stupid and often believe anything either because they want it to be true or fear it to be true.” Spitfire responded, “He also says that they jump to conclusions very easily, which is good for us.” She added, mimicking the stallion’s deeper voice before the pair of them burst out into giggles. “That’s kinda why I wanted the free-for-all, I mean Dash against Blitz is a great race because they both end up breaking the sound barrier, but it gets boring if that’s all the crowd sees, same with us, if we keep going after each other, they’ll get bored, spicing it up with say you against Wildfire or Starry against Dash would make things more interesting because while they know the score, it’s a show they haven’t seen before.”

Nodding slowly, Nightshade flicked an ear as something dripped further into the house or under it, she wasn’t too sure where exactly the sound came from. “True, so we get the squads back together at the Ponyville airfield, then work on things there, right?” She asked, getting a nod from Spitfire. “You know... call me slow, but wouldn’t it be an idea to actually try getting Firefly and Star’s group involved in that lab clean up once we tell them? I mean they have dealt with things like that before.” She said before being cut off by a yawn. “And damn, now I’m tired.”

Snorting in amusement, Spitfire yawned herself. “You’ve got me started on it, and I did say it was a bit of a trip.” She pointed out, getting to her hooves. “C’mon, Shade, let’s see what we can figure out for sleeping without waking up screaming to find each other there in the middle of the night.” She said wryly.

Nightshade snorted at her, getting to her hooves and following Spitfire towards the single bedroom, yawning again as she went. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

*****

She woke up feeling uncomfortable. Shifting slightly, Spitfire groaned as she found herself trapped under Nightshade’s body, if it had happened any other time, she would have been embarrassed at the position they were in, since she was belly up under Nightshade, who was lying across her, belly down. Fortunately Spitfire had found herself in this situation a few times after a particularly depressing high society gathering.

Pulling her hooves under her, she pushed Nightshade up, rolling them so the other mare ended up sliding down to lie next to her instead of across her. Managing to get herself back onto her own stomach, Spitfire spread a wing over Nightshade’s back and sighed, resting her head on her hooves. If she knew the other mare at all, then Nightshade would probably be having nightmares about what might be happening to the rest of the Shadowbolts while the pair of them were here. She flicked her tail, frowning into the night darkened room. If she remembered right, there was another place to eat on one of the main roads leading out of the village, which they would need to buy food at in the morning... unless they could get hold of some food to store and cook themselves, something that would mean figuring out just what worked in this place.

There was also a phone up there, near the castle gatehouse on the edge of the village and a post office near the harbour that had a second public phone. Either of those would be a good place to take Nightshade once they had eaten, so she could call her wingmates in Manehatten and the pair of them could arrange something to continue things without them there. The post office would probably be better because they could get copies of whatever Nightshade had brought with her to the Princesses. Hearing Nightshade take a deep breath and shift so she was leaning against her side, Spitfire rolled her eyes and nosed the other mare gently before hooking her head over Nightshade’s neck, enjoying the feel of having another pony there that wasn’t all hooves and wings for a change.

Closing her eyes again, Spitfire returned to her planning, trying to decide just where to take Nightshade in the morning. The restaurant definitely, the post office also definitely, they needed to talk to the other Shadowbolts and Wonderbolts both along with the Princesses. After that... the train station in town, they would need to gather her things, particularly since she had a number of sets of clothes that would suit them both, some light armour just in case they headed for a more dangerous area of the countryside and her ghost hunting gear, she needed that, particularly if she was going to teach Nightshade what ghost hunting was supposed to be about.

They would need to bring the trunks back to the cottage after collecting them though, and by that time it would probably be time to eat again so... from there.... Spitfire frowned as Nightshade stirred a little, mumbling something incomprehensible.

“S-Spitfire?” Nightshade mumbled, her head rising to look around.

“Easy, Nightshade,” Spitfire said, shifting her head to look her in the eye. “What woke you up?” She asked gently.

Nightshade yawned, blinking sleepily. “A dream, I guess.” She replied, twitching her tail before stretching the wing not on Spitfire’s side and pulling it back in. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

Shaking her head, Spitfire smiled slightly in the darkness. “No, I was already awake, just thinking about where we need to go once it’s day again.” She said gently, shifting a little to stretch her own wings out. “I figure we’ve got the morning gathering my stuff and talking to our squads and the Princesses, but the afternoon we can do other things with. Would you rather we tried to get some food to keep us for a while or go exploring the area?”

“Actually... I was kinda hoping we could spend a bit of time to talk about things before we did stuff, but we will need food.” Nightshade admitted, settling herself more comfortably against Spitfire. “And you’re really comfortable to lean on, you know that, right?” She asked, blushing under her fur.

Spitfire felt her face heat as blood rushed to her cheeks. “Th-thank you,” She said, shifting to accommodate Nightshade’s position before resting her head on the other pony’s shoulders. “Your shoulders make a nice pillow as well.” She admitted. So food it was, well... she knew a few places, though they would have to see what they could use to store it and cook things in before they went out. “After we get back from the station, we’ll have to see where we can put things and what we can use for eating off of and cooking with, since I haven’t been in here before and we were both pretty tired earlier.”

Nightshade nodded, shifting to rest her head on Spitfire’s knees. “I’m still tired, just woke up for a dream.” She admitted before yawning. “We should sleep.” She added, closing her eyes again, only to hear Spitfire’s breathing start to deepen into a sleep pattern. Settling herself, she soon drifted off to sleep.

The First Day

“Hello?” The voice that came over the phone line was distorted by distance, but recognisable enough for Nightshade to know which of her squad she was talking to. Unfortunately the one that had answered the phone was practically insane and could never sit still besides, at least not when they were out of a ‘situation’.

“Hi, Blueball,” Nightshade said, bracing herself for the inevitable.

“Captain! Whathappened? Whereareyou? Whydidyouleaveusbehind? Didyoufindanythingcool? Starrywasmakingpancakesthismorningandyoumissedthemwhydidyougooutlastnight?”

Nightshade and Spitfire shared a look and rolled their eyes as they heard the excitable pegasus rattling off questions and comments seemingly without even pausing to take a breath. “Blueball Blitz!” Nightshade snapped after several full minutes of none stop chatter, silencing the pegasus on the other end of the line. “Thank you, now, go get Starry Skies if she’s not already there with you, I need to talk to you both.”

There was a few minutes where the sound of hushed voices and scrabbling hooves could be heard before the phone was picked up again. “Captain, is that really you? What happened to you?” A new voice asked this one sounding a lot posher and a lot more worried than Blueball’s.

“It’s a long story, Starry,” Nightshade replied with a sigh. “The short version is I’m currently in Grey Marsh Village with Spitfire after running from that lab we heard rumours about… you two will need help clearing that place, from Star and his group along with whatever Wonderbolts are around.”

That seemed to get the other pegasus’ attention. “What’s wrong, boss?” Starry Skies asked worriedly. “It’s not like you to want to get everypony together like this.”

Nightshade swallowed thickly. “I went to that lab, the night before you woke to find me missing.” She explained, “I found that they were researching the supernatural there, earth ponies and pegasi with powers beyond the norm were the least of it. They had…” She trailed off, feeling Spitfire spread her wing across her back. “They had actually captured some ghosts. I-I saw one fill its tank with blood….” She shivered, grimacing, glad that it was Spitfire there and Blueball and Starry listening at the other end of the phone line. She could tolerate blood, if she knew it was coming, or at least likely, such as an injury from practicing or from getting into a fight, but she hated seeing it usually.

“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Starry Skies said, her voice sounding as if she were frowning at something, “Is there?” She asked, sounding a little unsure of herself.

“There is such a thing as ghosts,” Spitfire cut in, shifting slightly to nudge Nightshade with a wing. “But normally you don’t see much of them. Starry, I’ve been ghost hunting for probably ten years or so now, and I’ve got plenty of evidence of ghosts or what people associate with them, but actually capturing them? That’s something else entirely, something well beyond what I want to do.” She frowned, looking over at the scattered group of ponies setting up deliveries or picking up packages. “I’m pretty sure the original Firefly and Medley haunt the Cloudseum somewhere, maybe the Wonderbolt quarters as well since people have seen things in both places… in fact one of my better pictures was a pink shape flying about, and that was back before I joined the Wonderbolts.”

There was a pause before Starry Skies spoke up. “Pink shape that looks almost like a pegasus pony, blue streaks behind it, almost like the trails our manes and tails sometimes leave and maybe some lightning effect?”

Spitfire nodded. “I take it that you took a picture or two of our shows over the years as well, Starry.”

“I think most everypony has at some point or another, Spitfire,” Nightshade said dryly. “Though now that you mention it… I have a picture somewhere, not a pink shape, but a green one. I missed the lead’s performance one year, managed to get a picture later in of the second wing’s performance and I swear there was some green on green shape on the camera, and I know it wasn’t a double exposure or a faulty camera because I took several pictures in succession, but the shape was only on one of them….”

“That was probably Medley, still with her friend, even after all the years… you know, maybe when we get back, I’ll see if I can head over to the cloudseum some night and see if I can convince one of them to show herself.” Spitfire commented, flexing her wings slightly. “For right now though, Nightshade and I were talking a bit last night, and if these ponies have managed to capture ghosts, or even if they haven’t, they’ve still got things that probably won’t be pleasant and they’re on alert now. That’s why we both think you should get Star and the Wonderbolts’ third squad; they should be in your area right now. The more ponies you’ve got on your side, the better off you’ll be and we probably won’t want them moving in a hurry so you’d best act fairly quickly.”

“With speed, but without haste,” Starry said solemnly. “We’ll do what we can, just… be careful, okay, Boss?” She asked quietly.

Nightshade nodded. “We should be okay, Starry, just watch yourself, okay?” Getting an affirmative from her friend, she hung up the phone with a sigh. They had already sent off copies of the documents she had managed to steal, thanks to a unicorn that actually had a dragon around, so now all they needed to do was get in touch with the others, and that was mostly Spitfire’s area. All she could do right now was wait.

*****

Dropping the case near on the floor by the stairs, Spitfire groaned as she stretched out her back. She had forgotten just how heavy this thing was at times, particularly with everything in it for her ghost hunting, amongst other things. At least it was here now, and that meant she had everything that she was likely to need to show Nightshade just what ghost hunting should be like, along with a few extra bits just to be safe. “Finally…” She muttered, moving to flop onto one of the couches in the room with a sigh, only to feel something really cold in the same area. Frowning as her fur stood on end, she pulled herself out of the spot and unlocked her case, pulling out a camera.

“Spitfire?” Nightshade started, seeing Spitfire grab a camera from her however-many-gallon suitcase. “What are you doing?”

Raising the camera and pointing it at the couch she had been lying on, Spitfire took several pictures in quick succession before turning back to Nightshade. “There’s a cold spot right on the couch, I’m warm here, but it’s freezing just on there,” She explained. “So I figured take some pictures while I was there, since cold in certain areas can be an indication of ghosts, providing there are no other possibilities around.” She had been caught out once or twice before by that little ‘trick’.

Nightshade blinked, looking up at her friend. “You mean this place could be haunted?” She asked, sounding a bit unsure of herself.

Digging out a small photo printer to the camera, Spitfire frowned as she printed the pictures off and set them on the table in front of Nightshade, each one showing a vague image of a mare sprawled on the couch in various stages of discernible. “I’d say so, Nightshade.” She replied before grunting. “Huh, I never thought to check this place out before, every time I’ve been here, it’s been locked up tight. I guess that’s why.”

Picking up one of the pictures, Nightshade looked at it before frowning at the couch opposite her. It was certainly odd to think that there might be a ghost sitting less than two pony-lengths from her without doing anything more than making the air cold. “So what do we do now?”

“Well… I think a full investigation will wait a little while, but when we go to get food, we’ll have to swing by the library and see what they’ve got in terms of history for this place, and I need to check my camera, I don’t want to find that the ‘ghost’ is some sort of double exposure or something.” Spitfire replied, frowning as she looked towards the couch. “If I was doing a full investigation, I’d find out who owns the place and talk to them about permission, then ensure people knew where I was and spend at least a couple of days in the place focusing on the areas we know things have happened—.”

“I… died….”

“…Here…?” Spitfire trailed off at the sound of a voice. That was two phenomena they had encountered in this building so far, and they had been here less than a day. On a normal night, she was lucky if she got something that sounded remotely like a voice after six hours of taping from three different microphones in different areas of the room she was trying a voice session in. She flicked an ear, scowling at the other couched as Nightshade cringed. “Well, since somepony’s talkative, do you have a name?” She asked, twitching her tail, maybe they would get lucky and the name would point them in the direction of something that would reveal some of this ‘ghost’s’ story, if it was a ghost and not overactive imagination or voices off the street, which was something else she would have to check later.

Nightshade looked over at Spitfire, the pictures on the table again, this time a lot less neatly. “A-are you sure you should be talking to g-ghosts?” She asked nervously. After her last encounter with a ghost, she wasn’t particularly sure about dealing with more, even though Spitfire seemed pretty calm about the fact there was a possible ghost sitting right opposite them.

Spitfire shrugged her wings, shifting a little. “So far none of the ones I’ve tried talking to has said anything reasonable, but then they’ve not really been evident either, I’m hoping this is the real thing rather than somepony playing games or us just getting something from nearby, if it responds intelligently, then there’s the possibility that there’s an actual ghost over there and I’m not just jumping at shadows.” Considering how many ponies didn’t believe in spirits, the last thing she wanted was a bunch of sceptics jumping on her for what she was doing. Then again, she had seen a few things over the course of her career, so maybe there would be somepony that would believe things, particularly given the sonic rainboom Rainbow Dash could pull off or Twilight being able to give an Earth Pony or Unicorn the ability to walk on clouds or even wings.

“Patch…” The voice responded, softly enough that both mares had to strain to hear it. “H-lp… m-.” It continued before fading out of existence, leaving both mares blinking, the cold spot fading with the voice.

“Ooo…kay… I guess we are being haunted here, unless there someone watching something on a TV somewhere that’s leaking through.” Spitfire muttered, sighing. Now she wished she had taken the chance at recording that, maybe with that, there would be enough to pick out where the voice was coming from, and the ability to eliminate some things.

Nightshade frowned, looking over at her friend. “Why do you keep muttering about things like TVs and mucky cameras, Spitfire?” She asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Huh? Oh, right, it’s because with ghost investigations there’s so many things that can explain things that you encounter.” Spitfire replied, sitting up and waving at the photographs. “Like those, I know I took them just, but what if there was dirt on the lens, or some dust or my mane in the way? I’ve seen pictures people claimed were ghosts being proven as someone’s hoof or mane, or just plain bad camera work. Voices as well, normally you have to go through hours of tape to find a half-way decent voice clip, and usually they need a lot of clearing up. What we heard here was almost too clear… and cold spots can be caused by a number of things as well, like an open window.” She flicked her tail, taking a moment to resettle her wings. “That’s why when we go to investigate anywhere; we’re going to spend at least two days on a room, full days at that. Getting things both light and dark will help eliminate potentials, plus we need to know where things are… there’s a reason we don’t follow you when you pull off that darkness trick.”

Nodding, Nightshade lowered her head to look at the pictures again. “You can’t see me through it, and the night always scares ponies, because of what might be hiding in the dark. Princess Luna told me, despite everything she did; it was that fear that made ponies huddle close during her nights.”

Spitfire nodded, nudging Nightshade with a wing. “True, but it was the beauty of them that gave us the dreams that get us to places we go, even today.” She pointed out, nudging the other mare again. “And right now, we probably ought to see what we can do for food.”

*****

Libraries weren’t her, at least that was always the image she tried to make everypony believe, but walking down the aisles between shelves full of books, most sets reaching all the way up to the ceiling; she had to admit that there was something overwhelming about being in the presence of so much knowledge and so many tales. Granted this place was absolutely tiny compared to some libraries, such as the one in Canterlot or those in Fillydelphia or Manehatten, or even Ponyville, but it was still huge.

“So what are we looking for here?” Nightshade asked as they walked through the library, her golden eyes scanning the titles of the books nearest the two Pegasi.

Spitfire shifted her saddlebags slightly, frowning as several things bounced together. “Hopefully something that’ll tell us a bit about the harbour cottage or about ‘Patch’, if that is a ghost and that is its name; I’d like to know more about what we’re sharing the place with and what happened in her life that might have ended up with her stuck there.” She flicked her tail against Nightshade’s side as they turned into an area that seemed to be about the town’s history rather than the area’s. “One of the rules of ghost hunting, make good friends with librarians or museum curators, since they’re likely to be your first port of call if you find something interesting on a hunt, particularly as you’ll probably end up visiting them a lot to find out bits about the places you go or the ponies that lived or more appropriately died in them.”

Nightshade arched an eyebrow at her companion. “That’s an actual rule?” She asked, not entirely sure why anypony would want to research ponies that had died somewhere, it sounded more than a little gruesome to her. Of course, she still had the occasional nightmare about the accident that had ended her first performance, though fortunately the family had made a full recovery.

“Uh huh,” Spitfire nodded, looking through the books before pulling one out with a hoof and carrying it over to a table in her mouth. Setting it down, she turned to look at Nightshade again. “Well, it is if you work with me anyway.” She said, running a hoof through her mane. “There aren’t any real official rules for ghost hunting that I know of, but then it’s considered pseudo-science at best by most ponies,” It annoyed her sometimes that there wasn’t more official study into the phenomena related to ghostly encounters, but then, how would somepony really measure or test something that relied all too much on luck? “For myself, if I’m doing an investigation, I always try to have access to as much as I can get in terms of information on the place, its history, its ponies and particularly its ghosts. Witnesses to things certainly help a lot as well, since they can give you a run down on things that they’ve experienced.”

Frowning as she moved to sit next to Spitfire, Nightshade grunted. “Huh, I didn’t realise there was so much to something like this.”

Flipping the book open and scanning the pages, Spitfire nodded. “I’ve talked to some others when I was starting up my own investigations, most of them just work at night and tend to focus on the history of a place, or only use one voice recorder or camera in a room. I’ve found I get better results with looking at not just the history but also the ponies and the haunting patterns. Knowing what happens where and what sort of ponies were around when can help you narrow down likely reasons for things happening and having multiple cameras and recorders means you can sort of figure out where things came from since a lot of the time if you do get a voice, it’s not something you hear without mucking with the recording to dig it out. Not like the one we got earlier, that was one hay of a class A EVP… I’ve never had one that clear before, which, as I said earlier, bugs me because it might not be a ghost’s voice.” Granted she couldn’t say for certain that any of her however many hundred recorded voices were actually from ghosts or were something seeping into things from elsewhere, but that one at the cottage took the cake.

“What’s a ‘class A EVP’ when it’s at home?” Nightshade asked, shifting slightly. She was beginning to feel like she had been swept up in a hurricane without even a warning that one was around. Things were coming at her too fast to process and they were coming from every which way, she really wanted to get things back to normal or at least as close to normal as her life ever got, as soon as possible.

“It’s… not easy to explain things to do with ghost hunting, but the most common things that attract attention and make ponies believe a place is haunted are strange smells, strange sights, strange feelings and strange noises.” Spitfire explained, finally finding a page on the cottage the pair of them were staying at. “From what I’ve found, smells tend to be dodgy plumbing or trapped gases from somewhere… maybe even the pony’s own body.” She looked over at Nightshade. “Remember Greyfeather, the rookie that joined around the same time you did?” She asked, bringing up memories of Nightshade’s own time in the Wonderbolts.

Nightshade nodded, shifting slightly. “Yeah, he was the colt that always smelled as if he had just been burned, despite how much he washed.”

Spitfire snorted softly. “He hadn’t been burned, it was his cooking. He spent so much time around open fires that the scent of wood smoke got ingrained into his skin, but that wasn’t the thing I was talking about. A few times he would complain about smelling something spicy, even when there was nothing there, but it was always in the same place and at the same time.” She flicked her tail and grinned. “I tracked it down one day, got him to show me where he was when he caught the smell an hour before he would normally smell it, then I got some building plans and… well, it turned out to be the chefs across the street always had a spicy meal for their special on that day every week, it drifted in through some pipe work and came out where Greyfeather liked to lounge while he was studying things.”

“You’re serious?” Nightshade asked, her eyes widening slightly for a moment before she clamped her mouth shut, trying to stem the laughter that threatened. Greyfeather had always been so spooked by that strange smell, but to learn — several years after he had flown off somewhere — that it had been something as mundane as cooking had her wanting to crack up right there in the library. When Spitfire nodded, she snorted in laughter before falling over onto her back, trying to keep from laughing out loud.

Grinning, Spitfire read through the information on the cottage, frowning at the fact that somepony named Patch had apparently been the second owner. It was a link, though to what was up for debate since there was little mention of whom or what Patch had been to the community. “Well,” She said as Nightshade got herself under control, “It looks like ‘Patch’ might be somepony to investigate further given she was supposed to have been an owner of the place we’re staying.”

Rolling back to her hooves, Nightshade arched an eyebrow, “Oh?” She asked, looking over. “And what about those other things you mentioned?”

Nodding, Spitfire shifted the book around and pointed out the section to Nightshade. “Read from there, Night,” She said, smiling slightly. “And as for the rest… well, feelings would be things like I felt in the cottage, cold in only one area, or being watched, stuff like that. Those can be natural as well, just like the smells it’s no guarantee of something out of the ordinary happening. Sights… well, far too many see things at night, I prefer moving around in the day when I can see better, and it means most of my pictures are more readily identifiable as something. The last one is sounds, usually creaking floors,” She rolled her eyes and spread her wings. “You would not believe how many creaks some older buildings have, particularly those built out of wood. Plumbing is also a good source of odd noises, then there’s voices, usually below pony hearing, but sometimes they’re right there where you can hear it, like ‘Patch’s’ earlier. Usually though, you have to dig them out of background noise or really hunt for them so there’s classes depending on how easy they are to find when they’re recorded, A being the easiest to find, C being the hardest.”

Flicking her ear, Nightshade frowned at the book in front of her. It really sounded like Spitfire knew her stuff on this… just like she had known her stuff on stunt flying in a group and leading, maybe she should have listened to her earlier where that was concerned, maybe then she wouldn’t have ended up being stuck in a cage for days with a collar around her neck. She shivered absently at the memory, shifting her wings briefly as she read what little there was on Patch, a yellow Earth pony with a pink mane, a mare that had bought the cottage some twenty years ago and died there, nothing about how or why. Her scowl deepened, all too often now in what she ended up mixed up in something like that left a bad taste in her mouth because somepony was covering something up. “Well, I don’t know about the voice at the moment, Fire, but I don’t like the fact there’s virtually nothing about this mare here and it was only twenty years ago… something doesn’t feel right about it.” Nightshade said, looking up at her friend, “Somepony ought to have written something.”

“They probably have,” Spitfire agreed, flicking her tail out as she stood up and stretched her wings carefully. “But they probably haven’t put them in an area we are supposed to go. It’s something we’ll have to investigate when we get to that point.”

*****

Back in the cottage, Nightshade flapped up to a high shelf, carefully placing a sack of grain on it, hopefully well out of the reach of any rodents that might have taken up residence in the building. After the time in the library, they had found little enough about the cottage they were living in for the next few weeks, though they had managed to get enough food to last the pair of them a week, and with the documents in the Princesses’ hooves, she felt a lot better about what was likely to happen in Manehatten.

Even so, she couldn’t help wondering what was going to happen to her team, she had met Stratus first of the eight of them, after being released from prison on the Princess’ orders, then the group had been called together and both they and the Wonderbolts had been put through some serious exercises, ones even more intense than when she had originally joined the Wonderbolts. Even so, their first mission had been a near disaster… she had lost three of her ponies and the rest had been injured to one degree or another. Starry Skies had been lucky they had managed to get her and her wing to a hospital with a unicorn doctor while Shadow had lost a leg, damn good thing that had been magic’d back into place as well.

Hovering back down, Nightshade settled on the floor, folding her wings against her sides as she looked up at the shelves. Here she was in somepony else’s home, where they had lived and possibly died… it felt strange now, thinking about things, even if death was no longer a stranger to her. Of course there was still the issue about what happened after death.

Making her way back to the main room, she blinked, finding a small computer — smaller than the ones she was used to seeing at least, but then she had never been a big fan of technology before becoming a Shadowbolt — on the table along with several strange looking boxes of different types, “Spitfire?” She called, looking around for a moment before looking up to see the other Pegasus hovering near a corner, adjusting another box in it. “What are you doing now?”

“Setting up,” Spitfire replied over her shoulder before hovering down and tapping a few commands into the machine with her hooves — good thing buttons were made big in Equestria. “Basically, this is what I tend to do when I’m investigating things, I’ll take a day or two to set up cameras that can see at night and in the day where they have good views…” She trailed off, sticking her tongue out the corner of her mouth as she adjusted a few things. “Then I spend at least the same time both day and night just seeing what goes on, preferably when things are just being normal so I can get a sense of what ‘normal’ for a given location is.” She pointed out, waving a wing at Nightshade. “Since we’re living here and we might have a ghost as well, I figured set up one set of cameras and recorders here to see what happens while we’re around and while we’re out,” She grinned at Nightshade. “And I’ve got another set we can use to check out anywhere we think might be interesting.” She continued before flopping in a chair and closing the program.

Moving to take a seat next to Spitfire, Nightshade looked at the computer. “How’d you get one of those that size, Spitfire?”

“This?” Spitfire asked, nodding to the machine. “It’s actually one of maybe half a dozen prototypes, the scientists love using computers, but the ones they use are too big for too little power, so this is one of the first run of machines designed to take that load on a smaller rig… I still couldn’t carry it around with me all day though since it’s small, but it’s still pretty heavy for its size.” She flicked her tail. “On the other hand, everything is included in its frame and it’s got some of the best tech we’ve got… along with a few custom bits,” Spitfire smirked at the last. “They’re still debating what to call it, since cabinet and desktop are already taken and this thing still takes a good amount of a table.”

Nightshade frowned, shifting slightly as she looked at the machine in front of her. “I think I’ll ask Starry and Charger about getting hold of one when we get back, or Stratus since he’s still got guard contacts and they’re likely to want a test machine.” She shifted slightly. “It’d make a few things much easier and considering how much we move around it’d be better than one of those desktop machines.”

“Don’t tell me if you’re planning anything illegal, I’m supposed to be trying to capture you, remember?” Spitfire asked, nudging Nightshade with her wing. “I can’t get involved if your group do illegal things.”

Snorting, Nightshade looked over at her friend. “Like you weren’t involved in that bank job a month ago, Fire?” She asked dryly. “I seem to remember you being the one to ‘kill’ that one pony in the guard… who was it playing the guard anyway? Soarin’? Oakleaf? One of the others?”

Spitfire rolled her eyes. “You know as well as I do that it was ‘Foehn’ that killed the guard, not Spitfire.” She replied, referring to the leader of the third trio of Shadowbolts. Though it was Soarin’ that played him,” She admitted, looking over at Nightshade. ”Though… why did you rob that bank anyway? I wasn’t there for most of that case, I just happened to be around when the heist was happening.”

“Mostly because we needed to, not for money, Starry has plenty and I’ve no idea how much the guys have put away over their careers, particularly Shadow. Of course that’s without what we get paid by Luna and by our ‘employers’.” Nightshade replied, sighing. “We needed to prove we could get away with a big heist in order to get in with this crime lord in Filly, fortunately you and Soarin’ were there, though I didn’t know you two would do that.” She said, poking Spitfire. “You were always insistent on keeping your colleagues in the loop when you planned something and you didn’t inform me.”

“It was rather spur of the moment for us as well, Soarin’ was there for another reason and I didn’t know until he caught me.” Spitfire responded, “It wasn’t even supposed to be a scuffle, but one of the guards nearly caught me while we were involved in the heist itself, so Soarin’ switched places with him to avoid him doing anything stupid and we ended up in a firefight….” She shrugged her wings as Nightshade nodded. “Once we were out and safe, I went to find him and found out he was playing up his wound a lot more than it was.”

Nightshade nodded, flicking her tail. “I’m glad he was safe, I hate getting into fights like that, where everypony else starts trying to kill ponies.”

Nodding, Spitfire nosed her gently. “I know, Night, I know. C’mon, let’s take our minds off the past, I’ll show you what Spectre Master is about,” She grinned at her friend as she reached over to load the game. “Maybe you’ll enjoy things being the one to set up the scares rather than the one scared.” She added as the haunting music came on.

*****

Spitfire watched as Nightshade ran through the second level of Spectre Master on her own. The other pony still flinched every time one of the spectres activated one of their abilities to scare the ponies in the game, but she was at least watching what was happening now that she knew it wasn’t real. The yellow Pegasus frowned slightly, shifting a little on the couch. Had Nightshade always been this easy to scare? No, not that she could remember… which meant she was probably still a bit jumpy from when she had gone into that lab a couple of days ago.

Shifting in her seat, she rolled slightly to lean against Nightshade, who grunted in surprise, getting distracted for a moment and letting the spectres use their powers for a little longer than necessary to send a required character fleeing from the map. Hearing the sound of the mission failing, Spitfire chuckled and yelped as Nightshade nipped her ear. “Ow! What was that for?” She muttered, sitting up to rub her ear.

“Distracting me right when I needed to concentrate,” Nightshade replied, looking over at Spitfire. “You just cost me that mission, Spitfire.”

Spitfire snorted softly, shaking her head. “It’s a game, Nightshade, you can go back and redo things as often as you want, heck you’re supposed to go back and retry to get better scores or free spectres you didn’t manage to get before.” She pointed out, leaning back into Nightshade. “Besides, this way I can see what’s going on a bit better.” She added, flicking her tail. “I’ve played this game a lot, so I know most of the pitfalls you’re likely to encounter and this’ll let me keep an eye on the monitors a bit better.”

Nightshade shifted, trying to adjust herself to the feel of Spitfire’s weight against her side. “This is to pay me back for last night as well, isn’t it?” She asked, sighing as she restarted the mission she had just lost. She felt more than heard Spitfire’s chuckle as she listened to the briefing again. It probably wasn’t healthy, particularly given how well most of the night and day guard got along with their opposite numbers, but she couldn’t help feeling a little warmer than normal with Spitfire leaning against her as opposed to one of the mares in her own unit.

Maybe this forced vacation wouldn’t be a waste after all.

Morning, the Second Day

Youtube Video

She didn’t know where she was; only that it was a room that she didn’t recognise. Wooden boards held back earthen walls, though clods of soil managed to squeeze through in places, leaving lines of muck down the walls. Looking around, she frowned, trying to figure out where she was, but there were no windows to show her the outside.

Light seemed to come from the floor itself as she moved deeper into the room, trying to find a way out. Her hooves made no noise on the moss covered floor, only adding to the creepiness of the scene she had found herself in. “What is this place?” Nightshade asked herself, looking around once more. “Come to that, where is Spitfire?” Nothing answered her save the soft creak of shifting wood. She was alone in this place of darkness.

Swallowing hard, she continued on towards the opposite end of the room to the one she had started out in, cringing as a rusted wing blade appeared out of the darkness, looming from where it was hanging off a bar. Her ears twitched as she heard something, a soft hissing sound. Stepping forwards slowly, she finally managed to make out the back wall of the room, and a table in front of it, one covered in dark stains — were they soil, drinks or something else?

The area seemed to brighten somewhat, as a crooked horn lit with green fire. Looking down, Nightshade gasped, seeing an insect-like pony lying against the wall, the light of its horn enough to see blood running down its face from a trio of long scratches, more blood pooled around it. The light was also enough to see a picture above the poor creature, a pony skull mounted over it while a group of sinister looking ponies glared out of the picture.

“S-stop… them…” The changeling gasped as everything went dark again.

*****

Sitting up sharply, Nightshade was rewarded with the sound of something toppling over followed by a yelp from the floor of the bedroom as she panted. It didn’t register though, not properly, as her mind was still running over the dream she had woken up from. What in Equestria had that been about and why had there been a changeling of all things in her dream?

Taking several deep breaths, she let them out slowly, starting to calm down from the after effects of the dream, just in time to realise that the bed was empty apart from her. “Spitfire?” She asked, looking around and blinking at the daylight creeping in through the windows.

Spitfire groaned, rubbing her head as she righted herself and stood up. “I swear, being around you is getting hazardous to my health lately,” She mumbled, trying to figure out just why Nightshade had more-or-less tossed her out of the bed they were still sharing. Looking over at her bed mate she could almost hear the comments about that from her team mates if they ever learned about it. “What happened, Shade?” She asked, twitching her tail before spreading her wings slowly. “Why’d you throw me out of bed?”

Nightshade blushed, her ears flattening at Spitfire’s tone. “Sorry, Spitfire,” She said, “I just… I had a bad dream.”

Spitfire arched an eyebrow, “A dream?” She asked, moving to sit on the bed. “What kind of dream was bad enough to make you throw a pony out of bed?” She asked, frowning at her friend. Granted the bed wasn’t exactly the biggest thing she had ever slept on, but last night they had managed without one of them ending up on the floor, so what had happened just?

Shrugging, Nightshade sighed. “I… I don’t really know,” She admitted. “There was this room that had somepony’s wing blade in it, and an injured changeling… and a picture of a group of ponies.” She shook her head and sighed. “I really don’t know what it meant, but it was probably bad… they had a pony’s skull mounted over the picture. What kind of pony does that?”

“I don’t know either, Shade.” Spitfire replied with a sigh, wrapping a wing around Nightshade. “All I can say is that it’s probably best to try to keep on without worrying too much about the dream, if you do, you’ll probably end up not being able to think about anything else and that would be a problem.” She pointed out, reaching up to push her mane behind her ear. “Besides, we’ve got plenty we need to do before we head back, like sorting out what we’re doing for the Summer Sun Celebration, finding out more about this legendary lost element and ghost hunting.” She added with a grin, the thought of getting out and poking around old buildings looking for ghostly happenings perking up her mood.

Grinning, Spitfire nudged Nightshade with her wing before hopping off the bed and trotting to the door. “C’mon, Shade, we’ve still got a lot to do before we head home, starting with breakfast.”

*****

Chewing on cornbread toast, Spitfire scanned through the logs from the sensors she had put up the previous night, looking for anything obviously interesting before she copied everything to external storage for later. It was a habit she had developed from working on ghost hunts alone so often. Most ponies, when asked about ghosts, were either scared of them or didn’t believe in them, which meant that even with all the travelling she did, it was rather hard to meet anypony that she could work with on her second love.

Unfortunately nothing stood out to her, but then there were times when she had to go through things frame by frame and muck with the audio settings to pick up anything at all, if there was anything there to start with.

Sighing in frustration, she set everything to burn to the silvery discs and shifted the table as far out of the way as she could before going to her suitcase and pulling out a map of the surrounding area, laying it on the floor. Where to head from here… the library might have some information about the crowns in its vaults, but Spitfire had the feeling there wouldn’t be anything easily accessible, so where else could information be hidden?

“So…” Nightshade started, balancing a plate of cornbread toast on her back, “Where are we going to go today?” She asked, making it to the seating area and carefully slipping the plate down onto the table before looking over at what Spitfire was doing. “What’s that a map of?”

“The town and its surroundings,” Spitfire replied, looking up at Nightshade. “I was actually trying to figure out where it would be best to look around for any clues on what is going on in this place and any clues about those treasures.” She flicked her tail out behind her, finishing the cornbread. “Best I can figure would be either the museum,” Her hoof moved to point at a building marked on the map, “Or the castle.” She added, pointing to another building, “Though that place is in ruins so it’s hard to get to a lot of the rooms on the upper floors even with wings.”

Nightshade flicked her tail as she chewed on a cornbread. “What about talking to the station marester or Heathwarmer about tales?” She asked, flicking her ears forwards. “I mean didn’t you say that the station marester has been around these parts for a while, and I’m sure any barkeeper worth their salt — and I could go for a lick of that myself — would know at least a few tales about their area’s history.”

“Don’t you get getting yourself high on salt on me, Shade.” Spitfire said, shifting back a little as she looked over at her friend. “With just the two of us here, we need to be thinking straight when we’re looking around places, particularly places like the castle.”

“Why?” Nightshade asked, arching an eyebrow at her yellow friend.

Spitfire sighed, shifting awkwardly. “Because believe it or not, a lot of ruins around here, while great for ghost hunting, aren’t exactly maintained.” She pointed out, moving to tap the map. “The castle, and several of the caves are best explored with your head on straight and safety gear at hoof before you begin.” That was the main reason she had brought both sets of her armoured flight suits, granted one of them was a Shadowbolt suit, but at least with the light metal plates woven into it, it would provide more protection than the standard one. It was also the reason she had acquired some hard hats, with lights attached, unlike the normal ones available in Cloudsdale.

Well that made sense, particularly after what had happened to get her bucked out of the Wonderbolts and near enough forced into the newly created Shadowbolts. “Do you have the gear?” Nightshade asked, shifting slightly.

She nodded, pointing a wing at her suitcase. “One reason that’s so damned heavy is because of the equipment, the other is because of the safety gear.” Spitfire replied. “I’ve got both my Wonderbolts and Shadowbolts armoured uniforms along with a couple of hard hats… and we’re about the same size so we should be able to use either of them.”

“Then… what’s say we take the armour and hard hats, along with some portable gear and talk to the station marester and Hearthwarmer, then check out that castle, see what’s there.” Nightshade said, flicking her tail out.

Spitfire snorted in amusement. “Alright, Shade, but we’re not getting much salt, if any. I don’t want to end up forgetting how to use my wings when I need them the most, and I doubt you do either.” She commented, reaching out to pat Nightshade’s shoulder with a hoof.

*****

They were sitting in the Gryphon Rampant again, in an area behind the main barroom where people could go for a somewhat quieter evening. Fortunately there didn’t seem to be too many people around at the moment, which could only be a good thing as it would save awkward questions from everypony and their filly. Savouring a sip of her drink as the pair of them waited for Hearthwarmer to come around, Nightshade shifted, looking over at Spitfire. “So…” She started, twitching her tail out of the way, “Just how do we go about ’ghost hunting’?”

“Well, normally I tend to do what I’ve done at the cottage,” Spitfire replied, sipping her own drink. “I’ll get permission from the owners then set up cameras, voice recorders and data loggers in areas that’ll give me the best coverage. That normally takes a couple of days, then I’ll just stick around for a week or so, recording and seeing what happens, and every so often I’ll wander around and check things out, maybe start a voice session or take photos or video the area. After a day, I’ll do a quick review and burn it to disc for when I get back.”

“How well does that work?” Nightshade asked curiously.

Spitfire shrugged her wings. “Probably about as well as every other method out there,” She admitted, “Ghosts aren’t exactly the easiest thing to ‘study’ since there’s no real way to do it in a lab. A lot of the others I’ve talked to that actually do this tend to be doing things as quick in and out jobs, usually at night. That said… I’ve found I get a bit better time with a longer investigation and one that goes throughout the whole day, particularly when I can do it without changing too much in the place, actually, the less changed the better the results as I get to see what life is normally like for the place and keep an eye out for things that aren’t ordinary. There’s so many times when it’s just some random pony that gets an encounter it’s unreal, so letting things happen seems to work better than trying to make an environment sterile.”

Nightshade frowned, sipping her drink slowly as she thought about it. In all honesty, she had only really encountered ghosts maybe three times that she could recall, once being the time when they were settling into the cottage, once with that thing in the lab and the third time being the picture she had taken as a filly. “I guess so, I mean, we weren’t really doing anything in the cottage when things happened, and it seems most of us have had a picture from the cloudseum at some point or another,” She admitted, “What about the rest?”

“Well… there’s pretty much two ‘ghosts’ you’ll likely encounter, the type that’s actually intelligent and reacts to you and the type that replays certain events over and over again.” Spitfire explained, shifting up slightly. “While both can show up in a variety of ways, most often the ‘memory ghosts’ are simply something that certain events trigger and they just play out whatever they’re a memory of, like a battle or sex or something. The ‘intelligent ghosts’ are ones that actually respond to what’s happening in the world today, so they’ll respond to questions or react to things you do… that type are the ones that are more likely to be dangerous though, as they will know that things are happening and do respond, and not every ghost is good or happy with their predicament.”

“So how do they work?” Nightshade asked, getting more interested in things as Spitfire talked.

Spitfire shrugged, “I honestly don’t know, Shade,” She replied. “The memory ghosts… those from what I can tell are when a place records an event, usually something with a lot of emotion behind it into itself, and from then on, either every set passage of time or when certain things occur in the surroundings, it replays that event.” She frowned, shifting slightly as she thought. “For example… there’s rumours of a battle that took place in the desert near Las Pegasus between ponies and gryphons, one that happened during a really powerful storm. Ponies and gryphons both have been through that area since, and when storms, particularly powerful ones come up, they say the ghosts of the soldiers march and fight, paying no attention to what happens around them.”

Nightshade frowned. “So memories ghosts are just replays that you have to try to figure out how to ’play’?” She asked, getting a nod from Spitfire as she worked through things. “What about the other type? The intelligent ghosts, how do they work?” She asked, “And you mentioned there were different effects the other day, what are they?”

“Well the intelligent ones are actually, as far as anypony can tell, actually dead ponies or things escaped from Tartarus, but mostly the former. Some do know they’re dead, some don’t and they react pretty much like any other living being would, which is to say there’s no real way to tell.” Spitfire shrugged her wings. “They manifest as actual ghosts or as environmental effects… sounds, voices too low or high for ponies to hear, smells, temperature fluctuations and other things. Current theory is they draw energy from the environment to do things, much as we eat and drink to get energy to do things, but how they do is anypony’s guess. I’ve heard of a group that specialises in experiments involving charging things or bringing back high points of history to try to get reactions, but never studied their work and as I said yesterday there’s good odds that most things can be explained away by things that we can actually track back to something normal that are happening, like Greyfeather’s ghostly stench that turned out to be somepony’s cooking filtering through the pipes.”

“Speaking of cooking,” Hearthwarmer said as he trotted over to the table, a notepad held in a beige energy field that matched the one around his horn. “Are you ladies ready to order?”

Spitfire rolled her eyes at the question, “Hearthwarmer, we ate less than an hour ago.” She replied shaking her head.

Hearthwarmer arched an eyebrow at her. “So what did you come here for then, it couldn’t be my company could it?”

“Actually… it’s information,” Nightshade put in, seeing Spitfire rolling her eyes again. “Do you know any… stories about the local area? Maybe the castle or the cottage we’re staying in?” She suggested.

He frowned, taking a seat at the table himself. “Well… I don’t really know anything about the cottage; it was gifted to the owner of the Gryphon well before my time, something about it being a request of the owner of the cottage before he died. The castle though, that I can say a couple of things about,” Hearthwarmer said, shifting slightly on his cushion. “It’s supposed to go back to the Nightmare War, but it wasn’t used that much until maybe four hundred years ago… The family that lived there, I don’t know what happened, but something did.” He shrugged, shifting slightly. “Rumour is that the place is haunted by one of the Ladies of the keep, something to do with a scorned lover or something along those lines I think.”

Nightshade frowned, sharing a look with Spitfire. For a publican, Hearthwarmer was being remarkably quiet about what they needed to learn about. “What about other things around there?” She asked, stretching her wings briefly before for pulling them back in. “Any other ghosts?”

“Well… there’s supposed to be some ghost servants around and… and….”

“Hearthwarmer, why don’t you stop trying to hide things or make them up.” Spitfire cut in, watching him. When he sighed, she flicked her tail, frowning at him. “Now, what’s up there that you’re trying to hide?”

“I… uh… that is….” Hearthwarmer tried, only to trail off, finding himself unable to say any more.

Nightshade sighed, getting to her feet. “C’mon, Fire, let’s go see for ourselves, since it seems the landlord doesn’t know anythin’.” She said, gathering her things and starting out the door, Spitfire following her.

*****

The old castle at the edge of the town looked nothing like the castle she was used to seeing in Canterlot. This ramshackle old ruin looked a lot more daunting, even in bright sunlight, with broken towers above a ruined curtain wall, a few blocks of stone lying a pony’s height out of the ground. Twitching her wings against her sides, Nightshade looked up at the place they were going to check out first in their search for… well, she wasn’t sure exactly what they were looking for anymore. Even without the encounter at the cottage though, this ruin looked like it had its share of stories, and ghosts.

“So that’s the place?” Nightshade asked, looking over at where Spitfire was busy pulling on the armoured uniform she had brought with her, muttering as some of the plates inside didn’t pull into place properly.

As she walked over to the other mare to lend a hoof, Spitfire looked up and nodded. “Yeah, that’s the place,” She confirmed, “Grey Marsh Castle. I’ve been to it a couple of times, but never really examined it properly.” She explained as Nightshade helped her get the armour on. “Thanks, okay, now if you get armoured as well, I’ll go over things before we go in.”

It took them several minutes to get Nightshade into the Shadowbolts armoured uniform, plates of light metal woven into the fabric to cover the most vulnerable parts of her body. Flexing her wings and legs to make sure everything was settled into place properly, Nightshade watched as Spitfire dug out a pair of work helmets that had lights on them, much like those miners wore, along with a camera, voice recorder video camera and something with a dial and needle on it. “So what are all these?”

“This is basically my minimal field kit,” Spitfire said, twitching her tail. “Still camera, the same one as yesterday, video camera to try catching things in motion, a voice recorder to try catching some EVPs if I’ve not got a proper room covered and this last thing is an electro-magnetic field detector.” She looked over at Nightshade. “You know how unicorns can tap into the energy of things around them, right?” Getting a nod, she shifted. “Well this can measure the electro-magnetic fields of things, though it was originally developed to figure out why unicorns found spells harder or easier depending on where they were standing. The areas that had higher energy concentrations seemed to make spells easier, but someone found they were also areas that ghosts seemed to manifest in more readily. This one’s modified as well, it’s got a thermometer attachment, meaning I can check the temperature of areas as well.”

“To find cold spots like the one you ended up sitting in yesterday?” Nightshade asked, “And, what does EVP stand for?”

Spitfire shifted, putting the cameras away where she could get at them easily. “Yes, like that one and EVP are electronic voice phenomena. The long and short of it is, well, you remember I told you about sounds we can’t hear?” She asked, getting a nod from Nightshade. “Just because we can’t hear them doesn’t mean they aren’t there and some show up without anything to make the noise. Having the recorder, I can record what’s happening in an area, then use some sound editing software on the computer to check for anything that might be interesting, like when we heard ‘Patch’. Thing is, EVPs are classified by how easy they are to find, with A being the easiest, and C being the hardest, at least the ones I’ve heard, there might be more.”

Nightshade watched Spitfire for a couple of minutes as the Wonderbolt Captain packed away the rest of their gear. “So for today we’re just going to go in there and look around, see if we can spot anything, right?”

“That’s the plan,” Spitfire nodded, “If there’s anything interesting, then we can come back tomorrow with the less portable stuff and set that up where we found things.” She looked back at Nightshade. “The thing you’re going to have to remember though, Shade, is whatever we do find, even if it’s crystal clear and readily recognised, there’s going to be at least a few dozen sceptics around that will claim we made this stuff up.” She flicked her tail briefly, “That’s why I’ve never really told people about my own studies. Soarin’ knows, since he’s an old friend, Twilight knows some of it as she got some of the equipment for me and there’s you.”

That was quite an exclusive club to be a part of, as if Nightshade didn’t have enough of those by now. The mare snorted softly to herself at the implications of that as she looked at her friend. “Spitfire the amount of weird horseapples we’ve both seen since the Shadowbolts were formed, not to mention however you ended up friends with a dragon, I’m pretty sure nopony would believe things.” She snorted again, this time out loud. “In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they put our memoirs or biographies in the fantasy section.”

Spitfire snorted in amusement at that, imagining some filly or colt a hundred years in the future reading through her biography as if it were a fairy tale. Somedays it seemed like she was living it, what with getting knocked out at the Best Young Flier competition, fighting a dragon, Changelings, demons, ghosts and everything else. “That’d make an interesting sight, some filly reading them and asking about things that we did.” She said, smiling slightly before sobering. “You know, I wonder sometimes, what the future Wonderbolts will read about my time as Captain. I mean the Shadowbolts would pretty much have to read about your time, since you’re effectively the founder, but I wonder about mine.” She said, picking up the helmet and settling it on her head before starting into the castle.

Following along behind her, Nightshade twitched her wings. “They should read that you’re one of the best damn captains they had, that you cared for your people enough that you stood as a friend to someone you were forced to kick out, helping her form a team that had to play enemy to your own and that you’ve seen things that most people would curl up and cower from, facing them in spite of fear.” She said, catching up to nuzzle Spitfire. “I mean, buck, you hunt ghosts, you’ve seen demons… you’ve dealt with a dragon whose main purpose is to kill every demon he comes across and call him a mentor and a friend. Not only that, you’ve had how many medals from the Princess?”

“I know, Shade, but I do end up wondering sometimes.” Spitfire responded as the pair of them entered the castle. “Come on; let’s see what there is to see.”

*****

The upper floors of the castle had been a complete bust as far as anything interesting was concerned, no battle damaged walls, no ghosts either. Of course it was possible that the area the ghosts actually inhabited was part that had collapsed into the fen over the years. At least that was how Spitfire was feeling about things as she walked around the one seemingly intact room in the tower, looking at time damaged wall hangings and trying to figure out what the images on them had once been. She turned, hearing the hoofsteps from behind her stop, to see Nightshade frowning at something on the ground. “Something wrong, Nightshade?”

“I think… someone else may have been here before us.” Nightshade replied, looking up at Spitfire before using a hoof to point at what she had been looking at. “I’m not the best at gathering evidence and the like, but between Stratus, Charger and Smoke, I’ve learned a few things about law enforcement techniques. Somepony was walking in mud, then came up to this room, somepony that can fly.”

Moving to have a look at what Nightshade had found, Spitfire frowned at the floor. There were muddy prints in that area, but they weren’t theirs, for one thing, it looked like every few steps, whoever had been here had limped on one hindleg and for another the hoof impressions seemed to belong to someone that had done a lot of walking around in rough areas. It didn’t make any sense for there to be anyone up here, much less someone injured and the tracks were fresh.

Looking up at her partner, she shifted slightly. “Well, since ghosts aren’t solid enough to leave hoof prints, I think we’ve got a live one here somewhere.” Spitfire said, her ears flicking as she tried to remember what she had been taught on tracking others. “And if there’s someone injured here, we should probably look for them and try to help them before they run into trouble.”

Nightshade nodded, twitching her wings as she and Spitfire started following the prints towards the stairs back down to the ground. “Do we have any plans for if this pony turns out to be hostile?”

“Go with our training, try to disable them without doing too much damage.” Spitfire replied, making her way carefully down the stairs, since there wasn’t enough room for them to use their wings. “Remember we were trained by someone that is probably at least as experienced as the Princesses in combat, not to mention he’s been a soldier for over three centuries. He’s taught us practically everything we know and probably knows more than us.”

Nightshade nodded as they came out into a room the second floor down, the stairs not existing any further. What Spitfire said was true, Star had taught them most everything they knew about proper fighting and battle, but there was no way he had taught them everything he knew, most likely even Princess Luna didn’t know everything about him.

Making their way into the room, they checked the room carefully, keeping an eye out for whatever had come in here. Given the size of the room, it didn’t take long for them to clear it and approach the insect-like figure. When they got close, however, Nightshade recognised it, even as insect-like as it was and blinked. “Smoke!”

Turning towards her, Spitfire looked down and gasped, wincing at the sight of the changeling’s broken hind leg and cracked and battered carapace. “I thought he was in Manehatten with the other guys from your group.” She said, moving carefully to check what state he was in.

“So did I,” Nightshade admitted, pulling medical supplies out of her saddlebags to patch her friend up. They really needed to get him to a hospital, but there wasn’t one in the village she had seen and given what Smoke had said before, most wouldn’t want to help him.

*****

He awoke to a cold greater than any he had ever known along with a carapace that seemed to ache and burn from both the cold and the cracks in it. Groaning, he tried to shift, only to feel a hoof press against him from underneath.

“I wouldn’t try rolling around if I were you, Smoke.” He heard his boss’ voice before she shifted and hissed. “Patch would you please leave him alone. I know he’s an ugly bug to people that don’t know him but you’ll kill him with hypothermia if you don’t let up and I like Smoke alive.”

Shifting slightly, he hissed as the cold was withdrawn from his flank and opened his eyes, blinking as Nightshade’s face swam into focus. “N-N-Night-sh-sh-shade?” He whimpered as other pains made themselves known, particularly his hind leg. “Wh-where am I?”

“You’re in Greymarsh, specifically the Harbour Cottage.” Nightshade replied, leaning over to smear some healing paste over his carapace. “It’s where Spitfire usually runs off to for her holiday time, hunting ghosts and the like. You’ve already encountered the resident one, though I’ve no idea why she was touching you.” She shrugged her wings as she continued working the paste over him. “What I would like to know is what you’re doing here, the last I heard you were with Stratus and Charger in Manehatten.”

“It’s something I’d like to hear as well,” Spitfire commented as she came in, nursing a audio recorder. “Particularly since you were injured and naked,” She added, waving a hoof at his current state.

“I… don’t really know,” Smoke admitted, closing his eyes for a moment. “Stratus, Charger and I finished things early so we returned to Canterlot to debrief with the Princess or Major Stardancer but when we got there, there was some pink bubble shield around the place.” He shifted carefully, grimacing as his wounds hurt. “I had a bad feeling about what would happen to me if I went in, so I stayed outside while the others entered, staying near the guard post. After a couple of days the shield was attacked by a hive of my kind, I followed them to try to find out why when the shield came back up and blasted everyone out. I must have passed out at some point because I woke with a broken leg in a tower; I crawled down stairs only to find the stairs collapsed. I must have passed out again because that’s all I remember until I woke up being frozen by something and Nightshade asking something to leave me alone.”

Spitfire frowned, her ears flattening as she went over what Smoke had said. If there had been an attempted invasion of Canterlot, there was going to be at least one, probably two very unhappy Princesses, maybe all three of them. The fact that changelings were the aggressors didn’t bode well either and if Star was sent against them, there would be one hell of a mess. One that could lead to the first major war in decades if not centuries, “I don’t like this, Changelings were virtually unknown apart from a few and now an entire hive attacked Canterlot? How big was this hive?”

“Big… I didn’t count but rough guess five hundred to a thousand warriors, probably two to five times that many workers and at least one royal, you wouldn’t get a hive to move from the Bad Lands to Canterlot without one since it would take a lot to get that many to move from their homes.” Smoke replied, sighing as Nightshade rubbed his back, careful not to damage his wings. “There is one thing I noticed, the group were worse off than my hive, most looked like they were beginning to properly starve, I know my hive is able to feed everyone better than that even without the love to power our abilities.”

Frowning, Nightshade rubbed Smoke’s back gently, something he and others had done for her on a few occasions. “If what Smoke is saying is right, someone probably should check the Bad Lands. One hive would be bad enough for a war, but if the others are getting close to the edge…” She trailed off as Spitfire nodded. “We can’t do much from here, but we probably should call the rest and tell them what’s going on, get things moving. Maybe relocate some hives to areas that aren’t desolate but aren’t too close to anyone that might cause problems growing food.”

Smoke shifted, twitching an ear. “So… Nightshade, who or what is this Patch person?”

“She was the owner of this place,” Spitfire answered. “We don’t know what happened to her, but apparently she died here and is stuck here for one reason or another.” She shifted her wings. “It’s one more thing we are going to try to find out since we’re not getting back to Equestria proper for at least a week and a half, probably more like three and a half weeks.”

“Well pharsyn,” Nightshade muttered, getting a raised eyebrow from her friend. “If we’re stuck here that long I’m going to go into heat while we’re here and…” She grimaced, knowing that things would be uncomfortable at that point. “It’ll be bad enough with just the two of us, Fire, but add in Smoke and….”

“You’re going to be trying to get him in you, right?” Spitfire asked, sighing when Nightshade nodded. “Buck, that’s going to be annoying and this is a small cottage, not much room to evade things.”

“I could always try to find another place,” Smoke suggested, before grimacing at the looks he got for it. “On second thoughts I’ll take my chances, at least I know the people.”

Spitfire snorted softly. “There’s also the fact you’re probably stuck if I remember right. Your body is probably focusing on the injuries at the moment meaning no energy to transform into your usual form, add in that you’re unlikely to be able to feed on much out here for that area and you’re probably not going to be doing much outside for a bit.” She reminded him since they had been in situations like this before where he had been stuck in his natural form for weeks due to healing and replenishing his reserves.