Darkness Awaits

Chapter 4:

Blue Humour: Part 1

The charcoal filly's wings drooped from her sides as she battled the exhaustion threatening to consume her. Her hunger was sated by the consistent repetition of her hooffalls thwacking the cracked and beaten tarmac, slick from an earlier onslaught from the heavens. Her head throbbed, as if an unknown force was prising her brain from her skull. The pressure was unbearable.

Maybe I was allergic to something?

She strongly doubted the possibility. She had never been diagnosed with any allergic reactions of any kind - not even hayfever. Anyway, was there anything to be allergic to in Lumber Weld's home? She wouldn't be allergic to fur, so the lion was out for the count. The weapons were polished to an exquisite sheen, so wouldn't have carried any traces of exotic Zebrican plants, and anyhow, the only thing she had actually touched was the t-

Blue's pupils shrank to startled pinpricks by her revelation of sluggish thought.

"Tea."

"What was that, filly of mine?" Flash Light chimed. He seemed to be in a rather jubilant mood, the spring in his step prominent in stark contrast to Moon's lethargic stumbles.

"'Just a bit tired," she mumbled, the mild converse beginning to fracture the shell encasing her in languor. Her breath was laboured as she sighed, glancing up at her mother, striding in the lead with Quips in tow like a besotted puppy. Her exhaustion had faded to a lulling drowsiness, not quite vigorous enough to tow her into the depths of slumber, yet forceful enough for her steps to falter, and her eyelids to flutter closed for a few moments as her thoughts drifted, before she came to her senses and continued the arduous trek home.

Flash Light pressed to pace beside his daughter as she pottered along, occasionally breaking the silence with a muffled yawn.

Sweet Celestia, she must be tired!

He had never known his filly to be this weary before the 12'o clock mark.

They must have been playing some pretty intense hoofball at school Flash pondered, or maybe she was reading at night agai-

"So, Dad, how long have you known Lumber Weld?"

He glanced down at his little pegasus, noting with surprise the bleary, vacant glaze over her eyes had somewhat cleared. He blamed the fresh air. "Well... I think I've known him since college? Why do you ask?"

Blue peered at the tarmac, deep in thought. "Well, I think I recognise him... But I don't know..." She scrunched her brow as she scoured her earliest memories.

"Lumber was the one who got your mother to hospital so you could be conceived!" Flash ruffled her mane fondly, as Moon tipped her head in confusion.

"Conceived? What does that mea-"

"Born," Flash cut in, before his daughter could explore that part of the dictionary. "Anyway, it was a blue moon, and everypony was out stargazing with the Mayor in the town centre. Even Celestia was there! But Morning was already overdue and we couldn't risk it. So we stayed at home and watched the fireworks from the window. Then your mother started getting stomach pains, so I rushed outside to get the cart, but some bast- bad pony, had stolen it. At that time Lumber lived just down the road, and thank Celestia he was home with Suzie. He let us borrow his cart, and he helped me pull it to the hospital. Weld was one of the first ponies you met, save your mother, myself and the nurse. It was a hectic night - apparently there was an accident with one of the fireworks and about half the crew were strewn across the beds. We took a little while trying to decipher your name-dream, but we worked it out in the end."

He smiled warmly, nudging his daughter closer to ward off the nighttime chill, heating a rosy blush on her cheeks, barely visable through her dusky coat.

"We did consider 'Moon Beam', though I liked the sound of 'Moonshine' until Morning protested it was too similar to the drink. Anyway, without Lumber, it would have been chao-" he paused abruptly, scuffing his hooves slightly as they both descended into silence. Discord was still a sore subject for many.

Blue smiled reassuringly to herself. If her father trusted Weld, she would follow his example. She turned back to her father, an impish grin splashed across her features. "So... Are there any other stories about Weld?" It wouldn't hurt to ask.

Her father playfully nuzzled her. "Don't you go round calling him Weld - that's a well-earnt privilege! Now, I know Shining Armour had a best mare, but at Morning and I's wedding, we actually had Lumber as our 'best stallion'. You should have heard the speech..."

The filly and stallion wove their way through the cobbled streets, chatting contently in hushed voices as darkness descended upon the four ponies and they wondered deep into the cradle of the night.

Eight years back.

Morning Dew sighed softly, eyes flickering wildly beneath their creamy lids as she pawed at the duvet in her slumber. She could smell a rich assortment of flavours drifting from the forest, weaving into a subtle, woodland aroma, carried by the gusting wind to the ledge upon which she perched. It spun the whirling leaves into oblivion, their tattered, quivering flaps of membrane buffeted by the forthcoming storm. Below, seas of swaying emerald splendour grasped for her in vain, their song but a whisper as their branches grasped the fringes of sky. At the brink of the landscape rose an illustrious bravura, the mountains pale and phlegmatic and the clouds wreathed from their summits.

Morning inhaled, her flanks heaving deeply as she gazed out onto the idyllic scene. If this was to be her daughter's destiny, it sure would be halcyon.

And then the ledge began to splinter.

She gaped at the rapidly spreading fissures, scuttling along the earth like tendrils of shadow, the shock ringing in her ears drowning out the resounding crack as the earth gave away.

She flailed wildly, tail streaming like a russet ribbon as she plummeted towards the glinting canopy, now a prophet of certain death as a tide of panic surged up to meet her.

And then, she spotted a glint of black; the flurry of feathers was her only warning. She was flung into a tumult of ebony as thousands of crows erupted from the canopy, flocking around her, screeching, batting their wings and scraping her hide with their talons as they shrieked and hollered to the moon. Morning paused in her hysteria, gazing up at the softly glowing, blue-tinted orb, devoid of the Nightmare's silhouette, before her head jerked back and she shrieked in panic as a radiantly-hued fiend, blazing like the winged incarnation of the sun, dove for her eyes, it's own glinting coldly in the moonlight...

Morning awoke from her dream with a trepidatious gasp. A name dream. She was sure of it.

Her gaze rested on her husband, resting dormantly in his own wreath of covers, unawares to her panic. She slumped onto the headrest - her daughter was to be named after the moon. That was certain, but the crows? The very thought made her shudder, chills trickling down her spine. They foretold danger, by wings... By flight. If her daughter was to be born a pegasi as had her great-grandmother, she could not leave the ground. For her own good. Morning sighed and lidded her eyes, sinking deeper into her bed. A flightless pegasi - it wouldn't be too much of a problem. Her father would teach her the ways of the earth pony, and Ponyville was a haven for the strange and unruly anyways. That contended with, she dug her skull into her pillow, releasing a contented sigh. Time to get some shut-eye.

Blue groaned. Her quilt was suffocatingly sultry, and yet she did not strip away the covers. She simply lay, cocooned in her sheets, gazing at her cieling in a dreamy state, her mind drifting in no particular direction. It merely bobbed, a pristine, immaculate sphere, all of her frustration coiled inside, almost peaceful in a troubled, somnolent way.

Whenever she had time to think, the coils binding her to her mask tightened, and she was beginning to struggle to breathe through a mendacious guise of cheer. She took the plunge into all her vexes, worries, doubts, confusion, despair, and yet she felt no water. The depths of her own mind had become as familiar to her as her own hooves.

Purpose. That was what truly disquieted her. Or her severe lack of it. No matter how much philosophising, pondering or reading she did, she could not satisfy the sickening cavern in her self. She was a snake eating it's own tail - a never ending cycle of torment, drawn on by the futile hope that tomorrow would be the day that it finally could rest - only to be eclipsed by the reality that tomorrow would never see the end.

She never had time to herself, to uncoil. She was never alone. Somepony was always around the corner, anticipating the slightest slip in her sanity as she withheld all of her frustration and isolation from the world beyond the softened crevice of the world her parents allowed her to explore. And yet, she was as isolated as she'd ever be, caught between an antagonising loneliness and a desperate need for reclusion.

Her 'friends' laughed and chided at her when she fell, her classmates bore no loyalty, and her family? She paused, before shaking off the futile fantasies like splatters of rain on her hide. Her family didn't get her. They never understood.

She was suspended between the spider and the web; release her woes, and she would stand naked of the disguise she had so carefully crafted, or surrender to the clasp of her emotive prison, only to burst in time and allow the arachnid to feast on her pains exposed.

Moon clenched her eyes shut. Every morning. Every night. It was the same cycle that ground down to the same, harrowing foundation. She had no sense of self. She needed to know who she was, and yet it always seemed to elude her. She shifted her head to gaze into the mirror. Those eyes that glared back knew her better than anypony. Even herself. She clammed her eyes shut, and with them, all that troubled her. They would have to wait for tomorrow.

"Blue! Wake up!"

She groaned, plunging her head into her quilted cocoon.

"Blue, wake up!"

There was a brief, heavily muffled mumble from beneath the sheets that vaguely resembled, 'givemeaminute.'

She heard a light tip of hooves approach her bedside, as she clamped her hooves down of the rims of the duvet so it would be near impossible to prise it from her clasp.

"There's something I wanna show you!" He chimed, as Moon harrumphed within her plush igloo, driving her face into the covers in a half-hearted attempt to blotch out the frustrating, tinkling, squeaky voice now hovering unbearably close.

She shifted slightly, clamping her body weight onto the frill of duvet nearest to her brother as she felt a slight tug on the sheets. "What is it?" She droned, eyelids drooping lazily as her brother strained to dissemble her foal-proof retreat.

"I won't tell you unless you get out of bed!"

She groaned. He wouldn't, as well. Unless he became bored, which, for a colt, usually took approximately a minute.

Blue lazed dolefully in her sweltering confinement, sweat beginning to gather on her forehead as she huddled beneath her duvet. The heat was insufferable, but the squeaks and grunts of her sibling were well worth her endurance and she grinned beneath the quilt. Any moment now...

"Alright..." Quips panted, as Blue smirked, "I think... Princess Luna's in town and-"

"What!?" Blue erupted from her bed, eyes twinkling with satisfaction when she noticed her brother's umbrage as he shook his head in disdain.

"You wait until I'm bigger! You're only stronger 'cos you're bigger than me!" He pouted, earning a jesting grin from his sister.

"Don't try the baby face - we all know you love your big bestest sister," she squished his blubbery cheeks in her hooves, still recovering from a siege of baby-fat, and spoke with sarcasm, adopting her baby-voice for the occasion. Quips had his little muzzle scrunched into a indignant growl that had Blue chuckling as she shooed him down the stairs. "Go get breakfast, I'll be down in a minute."

She winced as she teased the door latch closed, the resounding click irritating her ears as she retreated back into her room, her curtains choking what little light cascaded onto the well-worn floorboards, scraped and pounded after many years of shifting furniture and pestilential, childish trouble only a foal could conjure.

Moon was painfully aware of her hooves clacking on it's surface as she turned to face the mirror. The filly who returned her gaze was silent, impassive; her glare cold and impenetrable.

"What I wouldn't give to know a little of what you do." Blue muttered, gaining a weak smile from her doppelgänger. A pitiful, knowing expression, projected by a weary, calculating stare, her pupils like new moons; devoid of light or substance.

Moon pivoted, and clipped back towards the door, before turning to once more glance at her reflection in remorse. "One day..." She slipped open the door as her face settled into an adequate smile. Few would spy the churning storm brewing within.

Moon hummed a mellow tune as she trotted down the stairs, stealing a glance into the kitchen before fluttering her wings to descend the last few. Thankfully, her parents were out and Quips was preoccupied with breakfast, so she could get away with stretching her wings now and then inside the house without parental sanction.

She trotted into the kitchen, glancing towards her brother, who was concealed by a selection of cereal cartons, flashing their vibrant dashes of colour in the subdued little household. Most portrayed Celestia, Twilight or Cadence. Blue sighed. No Luna.

One in particular pictured Celestia and Cadence munching from two bowls, both ecstatically labeled 'Foal-Bran!' Both Princesses seemed ready to implode, Cadence in particular sporting a sickeningly green tinge on her cheeks.

Blue withheld a laugh. Why sign up for such a stupid photoshoot? The Voice, as always, was prompt with an explanation.

[Bits.]

Fair enough.

She slammed a bowl down onto the desk, grabbing the milk absentmindedly whilst gazing out of the window, into their humble little garden. The bird feeder, though sparsely equipped, wavered slightly beneath the weight of it's occupant - a plump, rounded bird with a peachy red breast and a distinguishable black face.

"Erm... Blue? You're pouring the milk..."

"Of coarse I am! For Lu-" She froze as she glanced down at the milk bottle in her hoof. Although her cereal remained bone dry, her apple juice was a billowing, yellow-white mess, with the milk bottle poised at it's rim. "Yeah... I'm not thinking straight. Don't tell mum." She drained it into the sink, before pausing yet again. "Or Dad."

Quips nodded, batting his hoof over his eye in an abbreviated 'Pinkie Promise' before returning to his cereal, prodding and teasing the crumbling shapes in antipathy, his hunger sated.

She frowned, once more attempting to aim the milk where it was supposed to go. This time she succeeded, though her hooffalls were now weighted, her eyes half-lidded in deep rumination.

[That's the third time in two days.]

I really didn't need to know that.

Sensing the uneasy silence, Blue cast a frail thought, the comfort it instilled as futile as her faith.

Well... You don't see bullfinches very often.

[You're not thinking straight.]

Moon sighed, sliding her bowel from her wing onto the table and claiming a cereal carton.

I never am.

She glanced at Quips, noting with relief he was still unawares to his siblings' interior addling.

Better stop now. Don't want a place in an asylum just yet.

The joke was a fruitless endeavour onto crumbling grounds, benefitting only the souring silence smothering her thoughts. She chuckled grimly, recalling the previous night's ruminations, before The Voice cracked down on her thought path.

[Not now. Later.]

Later.

Both siblings ate in silence, the scraping of metal on china the only relief in the desolate silence. They discarded their empty bowels in the sink, and made their way to the door, the clip of their hooves coupling in an inconsistent metronome, echoing in the sparsely occupied house. A room without her fathers' gravelly voice or her mothers' flustered demeanour seemed to become a whole lot bigger in the few hours they had been away.

"Where did Mum and Dad say they'd meet us?"

Quip's tongue jammed from the corner of his mouth as his eyes narrowed in intense focus. Blue had to refrain from giggling as it wiggled slightly.

"Wait - I think Mum left a note!" He chirped, before darting back into the kitchen.

Blue spread her wings, shaking her feathers into place and rolling her eyes, yet smiling all the same. "Do I look like I'm going anywhere?"

He returned a second later, a powder blue sticky-note drooping in the crimson haze of his magic.

"Right... We're meeting them at- wait, Sugarcube Corner? But Dad's on a diet! Surely..." She shook her head in mock shame, before sparking an impish grin from beneath her mane. "Milkshakes!"

The voracious procession charged into Sugarcube Corner, the door hinges yelping indignantly as they were flung open by the tiny parade bouncing cheerily into the cafe, their eyes flickering hungrily between their mother at the counter, and the milkshakes balanced upon it. Morning Dew hurriedly levitated them to the colt and filly, both immediately jamming the straws in their mouths as Carrot Cake smiled from behind an assortment of foodstuffs and treats.

Her father was perched at a small table in the corner on a stool notably many sizes too small for his considerable bulk, hoof cradled around a large mug of coffee as they made their way towards him.

Morning drew a stool from beneath the table for herself, her movements achingly slow to the hyperactive filly as Blue demolished the remaining milkshake in a concluding slurp.

"Erm... Mum, if you don't mind, that is... We're going to miss Luna! She could be in town this very moment and we'll be here in a cafe missing out on everything!" Blue winced as she spotted Carrot Cake lending her an intolerant glare from the counter.

Morning Dew simply levitated her tea to her lips, sipping daintily whilst regarding Moon's outburst with amusement.

"We have plenty of time - the Princess is arriving at noon, why, that's in about... Twenty minutes?" She took another sip as Blue chewed her straw to plastic pulp. "Just long enough to drink my tea."

More like an hour at your pace.

Moon gave her mother a dark look, and continued solemnly grinding her straw between her molars.

"Well missy, you're going to have to start writing a birthday list soon! We were thinking you could do with-"

"A dog?!"

Her father, having been submitted to this particular plea on numerous occasions, hardly flinched as his daughter fixed onto him with huge, turquoise cockatrice eyes.

"Please?"

He shook his head, cracking a slight, stressed smile, a bead of sweat sheening his forehead as she continued to fixate him with her stare. She wasn't so much cute as intense.

Morning pierced Moon with a rivalling glare, her composure smooth as she splintered the little filly's inspirited smile.

"Maybe... another time."

"Okay," she muttered dejectedly. "What about the zoo? The aviary? The... Adoption centre?..." She cracked a winning smile; her father, however, was not convinced.

"No! Damn it, Blue! We're not getting a dog! One more time and you get no presents whatsoever." She knew they wouldn't carry it through, but dipped her head submissively anyhow, seeming to catch a sudden fascination with the honeydew tablecloth. "And that counts for flying too. If I catch a single feather into the air..."

"Yes, Dad."

This was the trouble being the only Pegasi in the family - she was quite literally grounded. Her parents were deathly convinced that she would fall from a cloud, forget to flap her wings, or something only a paranoid parent could ever dream of... Or stress over. What seemed to plague them the most was that their daughter would be out of sight, and beyond their overly-protective clutches.

It didn't help that she was probably insane. Maybe.

She sighed, grinding her hoof into her forehead.

Am I the only one here with a conscience?

[Probably.]

So I'm some kind of lunatic.

[Probably.]

Blue glared at the tablecloth in frustration, frowning as a minute tear in the seams caught her interest.

"Now don't go moody on me, otherwise their is no chance of us getting a dog." Her father growled, only serving to darken her mood.

Right. And that was supposed to cheer me up?

Morning's cup descended in a green haze of telekinesis as she glanced from the window at the gathering crowds on the streets. "Luna should be arriving in about... Fifteen minutes?"

"Can we get going?" Moon was once more peering at her parents, hooves planted on the table in enthusiasm.

"Blue..." Her brother wavered "your tail's wagging..."

"What?!" She spun round to face her tail drooping, inanimate, from the stool. "Nice one, Quips. As if my tail's gonna start randomly waving about."

He murmured something illegible as they evacuated the cafe, Carrot Cake glaring at them reproachfully and Moon glancing back at her tail with a confirming snort.

"Not. Wagging."

[It would be kinda nice if it did though...]

What?!

Moon's pupils rolled tediously - she had long since gotten used to her concience's abstract wanderings. But it worried her. It worried her far more than she was prepared to let on.

Ponies were already beginning to cluster further down the street, conversation burbling from the pooling streams of vibrant pelts and brazen cutie marks. The air was dampened by the rallying storm clouds, pivoting around the sun's rays in a knotted flurry of dusky shades. Blue but her lip.

A tempest of such vibrancy could only mean one thing - the Moon princess was near. Flash Light had pressed the pace to hastened trot, Quips settled happily atop his broad withers as the light breeze strengthened, now a noticable gust as it tore stray leaves into the air, spiralling into the broiling, though harmless, turmoil.

"Fillies and Gentlecolts, I am honoured to present... Her royal highness, Princess Luna!"

The sky cackled with lightning as an in iconic, turquoise, slitted eye gleamed in the shadow of the impending clouds, welded into the slipstream silhouette of a deeply accented chariot. At it's lead fought pair of thestral stallions, both armoured in the livery of the Night Guard, brows furrowed and fangs gritted in obstinacy as they battled the buffeting gusts.

And then... Blue caught her breath. Her eyes glowed from the sanctuary of a shaded hood, gleaming in a serene repose, soothing; yet frighteningly intense, a charged whisper of moonlight' radiating an atmosphere of subtle tranquility - and otherworldly power. Luna had arrived. Blue giggled in feverish anticipation, eyes never leaving the cloaked figure as the chariot touched ground, dipping below the bustling skyline of manes and tails, obscuring her view.

Singular whispers merged into a hearty applause, whilst Blue tottered on her back legs, catching a minute glimpse of the princess before wobbling and toppling back to all four hooves.

Flash lent down to whisper in Moon's ear. "I don't think anypony would mind if you squeeze down to the front - you won't exactly be blocking their view." He chuckled, patting the disgruntled filly on the head before allowing Quips to slide down his shoulder. "You go with her - I don't want either of you getting lost."

Blue shrivelled slightly under his glare. She had only wondered off once; sure, she was gone for two hours, but that was besides the point.

Blue glanced back to her father, before trotting a little less confidently into the rapidly condensing crowds, her younger brother in tow.

"Citizens of Ponyville!"

Blue's ears perked, her eyes sparkling as she broke into a canter.

"I approach Ye in a matter of great importance."

The crowds shifted excitedly, scores of piqued murmurs spreading like fever throughout the villagers.

It has come to my attention that Ye has been terrorised by the monsters of the Everfree for over a thousand years! And one in particular has long since proven worthy of that title. This creature is known as the Timberwolf."

The residents of Ponyville silenced, though a lone, derp-eyed pegasus mare whooped in approval.

"And it is this creature that shall be exterminated under the rule of Celestia and I!"

The bustling crowds roared their approval, hooves clattering upon the streets, their abetting cries of encouragement subsiding as Luna raised her hoof for silence.

"However." Luna's grave tone dimmed the remaining applause. It seems the spell required to proceed the extermination is held within the pages of one of the oldest tomes in Equestria, dating even before my banishment." She smiled in amusement as a theatrical gasp, hushed, but still quite audible, emanated from... Daisy and Lilly. Roseluck simply clamped her hooves over their mouths in aggravation. "The tome I require is titled: Ink Dip's Guide to Creatures of the Everfree & Equestria's woodland."