Chapters Prologue
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Part 1
A painful tearing pain behind the forehead ripped her out of the merciful gloom of unconsciousness. Slowly, painful slowly, her mind followed up.
Where am I? This question oozed through the red mist in her head. She casted up her eyes. Longer than just for a moment, her vision was blurred and unclear, like if she had forgotten how to see sharp. Forgotten… Hold it, forgotten? Was there not something she had forgotten? Something really important?
“Who am I?” the filly whispered. This new question drilled into her head like a knife and at once ousted the question of the where. She had to press both front hoofs against her temple, else she feared her head would burst.
But her skull didn’t burst, of course. And over time, the pain even ceased a little, just enough so she could turn her attention towards other matters. At first towards herself: In the dim light she could make out that she was wearing some kind of grey gown, more a wrap actually, lashed down at both sides, and beneath the wrap she could feel her ribs poking through her fur and a hollow feeling in the stomach told her she hadn’t eaten for quite a while. Even worse, a damp cold was slowly creeping through the cloth and her fur. She shivered.
Uncertainly the filly got up. Her legs were trembling, but she believed she could around the room if she was careful. It was a small cell – an adult pony could have covered it with just two or three steps. No windows, the diffuse light fell into the room from small openings near the ceiling, where a six-point star in a circle with strange symbols was engraved. There was nothing in this cell, just a hard stone bench with an uncomfortable bed and a bordered hole in the ground one didn’t even want to imagine what it was for. There was nothing in this cell, maybe except for the heavy, locked, wooded door blocking the only way out.
That was enough to drive one into despair! She neither knew where she was nor how she was supposed to get out again. In front of this door, this adamant bulwark, she sank to the floor and left her head hanging low.
There were these questions again: Where am I? What’s going on here? Who am I?
Then suddenly, she heard something. There were hoof beats outside her booth, hoof beats and voices. And if she pressed her ear at the door really tightly she could even understand what they were saying!
A stallion, a bit nervous judging by his tone, said: “Master Nightshade I cannot quite understand why you wanted to implicitly visit the closed ward.”
“Is it not obvious, Doctor Ragstitch?” Master Nightshade replied. His voice was, even muffled by the door, impressing: Deep and mysterious, with a slight, yet uncommon accent.
“Once I have seen what I am here to see, I will no longer keep you from your work.”
“Like I mentioned before, the rerum animae are not really my specialist field. Whereas my collega Calm Mind…”
Doctor Ragstitch fell silent as Nightshade didn’t react to him: “Impressive, these doors.” Somepony knocked against a cell’s door. “Nonetheless, they remind me of a gaol, far more than of a place of healing. Is this what an asylum is? A prison?”
Asylum ? the filly wondered. Rerum animae? Prison? What in tarnation are they talking about?
“This patch is for those inpatients who are a danger for themselves or others. Highest security. Five inches thick stone oak doors, with built in security locks, as far as I know, and each one is magically sealed. Absolutely spell-proof, no magic can be cast inside. Some of the cells padded so the inpatients cannot hurt themselves. Thank Celestia, most of the cells are currently empty. I hope her majesty will be content with the arrangements?”
The two stallions now stood right in front of the filly’s door.
“Number Five. Who is in there?” asked Nightshade; he still wasn’t paying the slightest attention to the Doctor’s remarks.
“Master Nightshade, are you even listening?” Ragstitch wanted know, now after all slightly angered.
“Who is in there?” the other just repeated, this time with a little vigour.
“All right, all right… Cell number five, patient A-16. Give me a moment… Strange, there are no files in this folder, I presume they’ll be on the desk in Calm Mind’s work room then.”
"Quite revealing.”
A scratching sound at the door made the filly jump back with shock. Withal, her own legs got in her way; they ravelled and the filly landed rudely on her butt. Stock-still she sat there, with her heart beating in her throat and her eyes glued to the cell’s entrance.
Suddenly, a small viewing window opened as a small panel was slid aside in the upper third of the door. Through that porthole, framed by a black mane, peeked a pair of eyes, foreign somehow and of deep violet tone. The eyes were so awe-inspiring and hypnotic at the same time, they were entrancing the filly’s glance; the fur around them was so dark it almost looked black as well. It seemed as if the look of these strange violet eyes was reaching down into the filly’s very soul and for just a moment she thought to see something else behind these eyes. Something even more alien…
Then the eyes widened with surprise. The stallion in front of the window muttered something in a foreign tongue she didn’t understand. But if she was getting the tone right, he was surprised.
He closed the slide again but though the eyes had disappeared the filly could do nothing for a while but stare at the place where they had been before. Then after half a dozen heartbeats, eventually the spell broke. The filly jumped to her feet. Then she ran up against the door, literally. She dashed against it and pounded with her front hooves against the thick wood.
“Get me out!” she cried at the two stallions on the other side of the door. “Please, get me out of here!”
As hard as she was at all capable of, she buckled the door with her hind legs, however, nothing happened. The stallions made no move whatsoever to let her out and the blasted door didn’t even have the decency to creak in its hinges…
“Please…” All strength faded from her voice and her calls for help turned into stifled sobbing. “Please… open the door… Please…”
Hot tears of despair were pouring down her cheeks and falling down to the ground, where she cuddled up like a picture of misery.
“I want out of here…” she whimpered, but with little hope left. “Please… Let me out…”
***
The sorcerer Nightshade closed his eyes and took some deep breaths, tried to shut his ears for the desperate cries of the filly in the cell. There was so much else he had to consider. With a last side glance at this particular locked door the unicorn turned away and started back.
“It sure looks like if these doors would be worth their money, does it not?” Doctor Ragstitch remarked uneasily. Meanwhile the cries of the filly had turned into muffled sobs.
Then the physician asked: “Is anything wrong with you?”
Excitedly the young physician, he was a unicorn with pale coat and watery blue eyes, brushed some colourless strands out of his face, then adjusted his eyeglasses that had almost slipped down to the peak of his muzzle again.
“I would be happy to examine you, if you are not feeling well”, the Doctor provided like casually while pacing after Nightshade, following the dark unicorn back to the more pleasant parts of the institution.
Nightshade shot a killing glance at his opposite. I bet on that, he thought. Doctor Rag Ragstitch was an ambitious pioneer on the field of physic, but Nightshade had already heard about Doctor Ragstitch’s dubious fascination for the internal structure of living beings. Scientifically this seemed to called anatomy, and Nightshade had no doubt he was starting to interest in HIS anatomy.
Nonetheless, the physician was quaint, quaint but not evil per se…
“Doctor Ragstitch, I do not require your knives, but your help.” Nightshade’s violet eyes were sparkling in the dim evening light. “There is something important I need to discuss with you…”
***
The filly was stunned, locked up in a dark room for no visible reason what so ever, with probably no prospect to see daylight again; cold, hungry and lonely. In one word she couldn’t imagine anything worse right now… In this state she could only weep freely. And after even her tears had run dry, she just lay there halfway leaned against the door, he head completely empty. She didn’t notice at all how time went by and the cell went darker and darker in the cell until it was almost pitch black.
Then impetuously she heard a metallic scratching followed by a hollow ‘thunk’. The filly raised her head. This change of circumstances, be it as tiny as it may, it at once kindled a little spark of will power. Slowly she let her eyes wander over the wood, then she searchingly pressed her shoulder against it.
The door creaked… And moved! Just one inch but clearly sensible.
Bewilderedly, the filly stared at the cell’s door. “It has inched”, she said to herself, like dreaming. “The door really has moved.”
She struggled to get up on her legs again.
I have to get out of here , she thought. Out, out, out.
With both hooves she braced against the door and pressed, inch by inch she pushed the heavy wooden door open until she eventually was squeeze herself through the gap; now suddenly she was glad she was so small and emaciated…
The hallway outside was dim and eerie, stone floor, naked, plain, stone walls and far too little oil lamps, which by far weren’t enough to light up everything. Step by step and incredibly slowly, so her hoofs made as few beats as possible, the filly snuck down the corridor.
***
“Hey, hallo! Anypony there?”
***
The voice came so unexpected the filly screamed out with shock.
“Whoa, relax! No reason to shout the whole house down!
It was a pegasus colt, maybe ten years old. His coat was light blue, but his mane was far too bleached out to divine which colour it once might have been. He was peeking through an open cell door.
“So, what’s going on here?” he then asked.
“You tell me!” the filly demanded instead of an answer.
“I wish I could. Just woke up and then I realize I’m sitting in an empty prison cell.”
She ran her hooves through her shaggy mane. “It’s almost the same for me. Tarnation, I have to get out of here, or else I’ll lose my mind!”
“Haven’t you lost it already?” the pegasus commented carelessly. But as the filly angrily flashed her eyes at him in the half-dark, he at once corrected himself. “Um, I wanted to ask, if everything’s alright with you. Just saying, you’re looking terrible!”
The filly snivelled. “Not really helping either…”
“Blasted, why can’t I ever shut it? My father always told me to watch my mouth… But you’re right. We have to get out of here! Namely, before any jailers or torturers or anything alike get here.”
The pegasus colt now stepped out in the hallway as well and tryingly flapped his wings. A white cloud was visible on his flank, the filly a little jealously noticed. She had no Cutie Mark of her own yet.
“That reminds me: What is your name, by the way?” the colt asked. Whereby he had absolutely hit a sore point.
The filly whose state wasn’t too stable in any case, squinted her eyes, raised her foreleg to her head and stumbled against the wall. Suddenly, her headache hit again, almost as fierce and unbearable than earlier. “I don’t know”, she grinded. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t…”
The blue pegasus carefully nudged her at the shoulder.
“Alright, now you’re scaring me! Is really everything right with you?” He bowed down close to her, but she at once turned her head to hide she was blushing beneath her fur.
“I’m… I’m fine”, she muttered.
“Well then, let’s start over again: My name’s Cloud. Cloud Dash”, the pegasus said and put out his hoof. “Very pleased to make thy acquaintance, maiden without name!” He made a bow in front of her.
Against her will and despite her situation, she had to smile. “Now you’re sounding like a noble of some sort.”
“Is that so?” Cloud chuckled. “Can’t imagine where that comes from. All better now?”
The filly nodded.
“Then let’s get going and finally bolt this dungeon!”
And so they explored the sombre hallway together, by the light of the oil lamps. The cells to the left and the right were all empty and black, like the gaping eye sockets of a skull or toothless jaws. Actually in this quiet part of the building, there was nothing besides the foals but darkness. Unfortunately, all foals are afraid of the dark…
The filly let her thoughts wander, just so she didn’t have to think all too much about those youwning doorways, and also to distract herself from the insidious cold. All this seemed so surreal, and made so little sense, just like a bad dream. To wake up in a dark and desolate place, knowing nothing at all… Horrible! And then how these stallions had talked to each other back then…
Then something came to her mind, something she had to tell Cloud Dash.
“You know, earlier”, she thus started in a whisper. “I overheard two stallions talking in front of my cell. One of them called this place an ‘asylum’. Sounds familiar?”
“An asylum?” Cloud cried out, before recalling that in their current situation he should’ve been quieter. “An asylum?” he repeated whispering. “Mayhaps the asylum of Hollow Shades? In the House of Healing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
“I should have known it! Calm Mind, this lousy rat!”
The two of them had meanwhile almost reached the end of the corridor. There had just to pass one more cell to get to a lattice gate. Behind that gate, the corridor was far better lit by brighter oil lamps.
“Say, what is that anyway, an asyslum?” the filly asked.
***
“An asylum is a mad’ouse, lassie!”
***
It wasn’t Cloud Dash who answered. The voice sounded like it came right from a tomb. Again the filly gave a shriek.
“Um, not that I want to complain, but”, Cloud moaned in an undertone. “If you… squeeze me any harder you would be suffocating me…”
It was true, in her shock had clung firmly around Cloud Dash’s neck. She was practically hugging him. A foreign colt. Very tight…
Jumpily, she let go Cloud again, her head crimson like a tomato with embarrassment. How awkward…
The colt however now stepped forward to rally her.
“Spit it out, who are you?” he demanded to know. At that he tried to give his voice a firm tone. Unfortunately he still sound a lot like the foal he was…
“Me?” Through the prison bars of window in the door to their right reached a pair of scraggy hooves. “Me name’s Green. Herbal Green.”
“Herbal Green”, Cloud noted, wondering. “You are the healer of Hollow Shades, aren’t you?”
“I used to be. But then that devil Calm Mind ‘as locked me up in ‘ere.”
Due to his excitement, Herbal Green suffered a coughing attack. Both foals retreated a few steps more from the cell’s door.
“Air in ‘ere is poison for me lungs” the captive healer coughed. “And I can’t even use me ‘ealin’ spells. Blasted magic seals. Anyway… Eh, say, you couldn’t ‘aply get the keys for me cell, could you?”
“And why should we?” the filly asked. She was still half-hiding behind Cloud.
“Yeah, why should you?” Herbal Green said with pretended cluelessness. “Why should you?
Cause I am familiar with the House of Healing, and you ain’t. Cause I know, where the janitor ‘ides ‘is key for the main gate? That’s why.”
That sounded evident.
“And you’ll help us, if we free you?” Cloud Dash broached the subject again.
“Naturally. One good turn deserves another. I dan know, what this madpony Calm Mind is plannin’. But when we stick together ‘er plans will go up in smoke!”
“All…Right” the pegasus colt drawled. “Then tell us where to find the cell keys…”
“First you need to get through this gate next to me cell. It’s locked with a deadbolt from the other side, but that’s no problem. You’re small, you should be able to reach through the bars and open the lock.
Then you go down the corridor and up the stairs to the second floor until you reach Calm Mind’s working room. You can’t miss it ‘cause ‘er name’s on the door. She keeps the keys in a drawer of ‘er working desk.”
And with that Herbal Green let go of the prison bars and drew back into the shadows of his cell. Cloud and the filly turned to the lattice gate. The space between the entwined bars was indeed too small for the hoof of an adult pony, but the filly had no problems to reach through. Standing upright on her hind legs she tucked her complete fore leg up to her shoulder through the gap and groped for the bar.
Klick. The door swung open with a pitiful creak.
“That was convenient”, Cloud smirked. “But now carefully: I shouldn’t wonder if they had night guards on patrol here…”
***
Prologue
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Part 2
T hey went down the hallway, always on guard. The stone floor was as protection almost as good as a nightingale floor. Even the hooves of a foal caused far more noise with every single step than was good for anypony who had to rely on secrecy. And again, the fillies had to practically crawl down the corridor, and that costed time; more than they could actually afford for even this night wouldn’t last forever.
As they eventually stood in front of the staircase, they had to realize it was a challenge of its own. It was an old, heavy oaken staircase and stairs like these creaked, that was very nearly law of nature. But they could climb up step by step, carefully treading always on the edge of the stairs, never on the middle; Cloud ahead and the filly following. That way it actually went pretty well for a while.
Until suddenly, the filly stepped on a loose plank!
The board moaned, an ugly, malicious sound, seeming to echo through the silence of the nocturnal asylum like an ill-tuned signal horn.
The filly stopped dead in her tracks, her heart beating in her throat. But no bloodthirsty night guards came bolting from any rooms and also no care workers. Everything remained silent.
Cloud Dash turned around putting one hoof to his lips and portended her to stay silent. Still nothing. The colt waited for another few moments, then he nodded and continued to climb the stairs.
“I don’t get it”, the filly allowed to give vent to her bewilderment once they had reached the upper floor. “Why does nopony come to see what that noise was?”
“Guess ponies here have gotten used to creaking stairs at night, because this house is haunted”, Cloud told her. He wasn’t looking her into the eyes though.
The mere thought of ghosts, furthermore probably the spirits of the madponies who had died a horrid death within these walls, was very well enough to spook her out.
“Haunted?” she had by a whisker screamed. Her went eyes wide with horror.
“Why, of course.” Her friend shrugged his shoulders. “All madhouses are haunted, you know?”
The filly started to shiver; she felt like she was going to faint any minute. But as Cloud Dash turned to her and saw her terrified face he couldn’t stifle a grin.
“Oh dear, I am sorry” he chuckled. “I just wanted to scare you a little. Don’t be afraid, there are no ghosts in here. But you really should’ve seen your face…”
“You’re stupid”, she answered and hit him at the shoulder with her hoof, but not too hard. Then she squeezed past him.
The new hallway looked downright cosy with wood panels on the walls and well furbished lamps in artful holders. But unfortunately…
Speaking of nightingale floors: This one was covered with stalls on which hooves clattered almost as loud as on stone and which could creak as bad as old wooden stairs.
But still, nothing happened, as the two foals carefully moved over the moaning planks. The whole house stood silent. They passed a few empty patient’s rooms and some closets and wardrobes, then they saw the door of Calm Mind’s working room. Herbal Green had proven right, the name plate spelling ‘C. Mind, MD, AD, physician in charge’ in large, golden letters stuck out a mile!
“What a bighead…” The filly muttered in disbelief. Cloud Dash however seemed to be far more interested in the closet next to the door. Actually he had already put his head in and was rummaging around inside.
“What are you doing”, the filly hissed. “We don’t have time for that, we still need to look for the keys!”
“I’m checking up if I can find anything useful, whatcha think?” Cloud rejoined as cool as you please. The filly just shook her head and turned back to the door.
Colts , she thought. Then she pushed the door handle for testing purpose.
“Locked”, she said, resigning.
“Naturally”, replied Cloud Dash. “Had to be expected.” Nothing ever seemed to be able to becloud his mood. He proudly held up a small and metallically sparkling something.
“But if the lock’s not all too safe I’ll get it open with this needle in some way or another.”
With that, Cloud took the strong and slightly bent needle between his teeth and put it into the keyhole.
“You know how to pick locks?” the other foal asked, absolutely fascinated.
“Beats me!” Cloud answered her question. “Just kind of have a hunch for that, you know?”
Right now he once again sizeably rose in her esteem. Actually she had to admit she had already grown pretty fond of her newfound fellow in suffering.
“Now here we go” Cloud smirked triumphantly. He pressed the handle again and lo and behold, he could tear the door open. “The lot a needle can be good for, innit?”
They entered the Doctor’s study room. As ostentatious as the name plate had been, as massive was the writing desk dominating the room, heavy and black in the sombre chamber. The only light was cast by the moon shining through a large glass window in the back.
Quietly the closed the door behind them.
It was a striking working room and the filly felt very uneasy just being here. Carefully she looked around. Over there on the wall hung a large mirror. Now for the first time, the filly saw herself ghostly illuminated by the moon:
She was a unicorn, off white with dust, little and lean, maybe as old as Cloud. Her mane was dishevelled and as her coat of an unfathomable colour though it once might have been blonde. Her eyes still were reddened from all the crying. Cloud was right, she really looked terribly wiped out.
With a breath of horror the filly stumbled back, scared as if the strange, shabby and wild looking pony in the mirror would leap at her any moment.
“Hey, watch out!” Cloud just tried to warn her. But the same second she already tumbled aback against the desk. An empty water glass on the surface was rocked by the impact.
Entranced by horror the foals stared at the crystal glass which was first knocked over and then tantalising slowly rolled over the edge of the tabletop. An endless moment the glass semed to float above the edge, then gravity won. The glass fell to the floor and shattered clashing on the parquet.
“Oh no” the filly whispered aghastly. “No, no, no, no, no….”
In her shock she bowed down and put out one hoof to the shards of glass. She prayed to the heavens nopony had heard the glass crashing. The creaking stair had been much louder, hadn’t it? And nopony had paid even the slightest interest to it, right? Maybe, just maybe there was the chance that…
…Outside the room, the planks started to creak.
Oh, of course, now that the foals were trapped in a room with only one exit, somepony had heard the noise. And of course, whoever it was now came to check. Like a rabbit in front of a snake the filly waited for the inevitable, her head turned and her eyes glued to the door. The steps came closer and closer and the moaning of the paquet got louder and louder. Then they stopped. Through the gab under the door the foals could see that the stranger had to stand right in front of the room. They could even hear his heavy breath!
The filly squinted her eyes.
Please don’t , the begged in her thoughts. Please don’t! Nopony’s in here, just go on! Please!
And then a wonder occurred!
“Blasted mice”, a brittle voice railed. “Alwus makin' such a note at noight so auld Rover canny sleep. Jist wait 'til the-morra, den Rover’s gonna smoke yer al' oyt!”
The steps went off again.
Until Rover was completely out hearing range, the foals remained in their rigour. Then Cloud slumped down to the ground in relief.
“Thanks Celestia, that was close”, he sighed. He raised his head and his look fell on the unicorn filly.
“You’re bleeding”, he exclaimed.
The filly stared like thunderstruck at her right front hoof. From a deep cut at the pastern welled the blood.
“Let me see!” demanded Cloud. “Sweet Celestia, You’ve surely reached right into the shards!”
Indeed the twinkling shards now were stained with droplets of dark blood. Doubtlessly the filly had accidentally stepped into the broken glass when she had closed her eyes. She bit her lip and tried to ignore the pain. Bravely she shook her head. “It’s nothing”, she said, her voice trembling.
“It’s not nothing”, Cloud firmly. “We need to bind that!”
“Later, Cloud. First we need to get the key.”
The filly limped around the writing desk, irrespective of her blood trickling down her hoof and dripping on the floor. She was a unicorn, alright, but she wasn’t sure if or how exactly she could use magic. Therefore she pulled out the drawers with her teeth. In the third one she stroke it rich: Keys, big, old copper keys with numbers on the bows. The filly fetched out the key with the number one on it. The key to Herbal Green’s cell.
Just by incident, her gaze fell upon the writing desk, or rather on the inscribed papers that lay on the surface, conveniently illuminated by a ray of moonlight.
Patient A-16 , she read, a little surprised by herself. She hadn’t know she was able to read. Then she remembered something else:
Patient A-16? That was how Ragstitch had named her towards this other pony. This was HER file. Answers finally seemed within reach!
Her hoof was trembling as she fetched the papers from the desk. What an unbounded cheek, somepony had gone over the header of the file with paint, blacking out her name and the name of her treating physician…
With a growing mixture of excitement and uneasiness, and despite Cloud scrambling, she started to probe her newfound reading ability with the first sheet:
How she had been brought to the House of Healing, because a carriage had bumped into her,
How the healers had started the treatment.
How nopony ever had come to visit her.
There it was again, the tearing pain in her head. She had to take a seat.
How the treating physician had excitedly scribbled something about an ‘experiment’.
How her condition was said to have aggravated more and more…
Her vision started to blur again, a high pitched buzzing noise filled her ears and her head felt like it was about to split again.
She didn’t want to, no she couldn’t read anymore! She couldn’t stand reading some disgusting physician describing in factual tone and neat writing how he or she had ruined a poor filly’s life.
Full of fury and despair she wiped the papers of the desk. Tears were burning in her eyes, without really thinking about it she started to paint, with her blood-stained hoof, a single sentence in red on a sheet:
WHO AM I
Her freshly renewed will to live now died out like a candle in the storm, extinguished by an abyssal dismay about such cold, calculating caprice as had happened to her. It wasn’t the rather childish fear of being hungry, cold and lonely she had felt before, no, this was the first time she experienced real and utter despair. How in Equestria was a little filly supposed to stand such a fate? Somepony had absolutely willingly destroyed her life until everything that represented her was torn apart. And that just for some ominous ‘scientific’ purpose, and she didn’t even know what that meant!
No, she did what probably anypony in her situation would have done. She couldn’t even cry anymore, she just sat down trembling like a leaf, willing to just stay here until somepony would come and bring her back to her cell, broken and defeated.
At this point indeed everything appeared lost to the filly, Cloud Dash however was not willing to give his friend up so easily. He kneeled down at her side.
“C’mon! Everything will come alright, huh? You can’t just give up no!” he tried to reason her. “We’re almost out, after all! And when we’re out, were gonna make them pay for what they did to you, right?”
But his persuation was to no avail, the filly just kept on trembling and emptily staring into the void. And so Cloud decided to adopt a rather drastic measure: He hugged her! The filly was boundlessly surprised; a little bit by the fact itself that she was able still to feel anything else besides despair. But clearly she could sense the warmth he gave her. And she could feel kind of embarrassed because he was hugging her, but she was far too confused to fight against his embrace.
And then all built up tension, all confusion and all despair dropped from her. She did the natural thing and started to cry, to weep silently until despair and pain were both gone. Then, when her tears had finally run dry, Cloud would loosen his embrace.
“There we are” Cloud smiled wryly. “Welcome back. When I was little somepony told me sometimes all you needed was a hug. Seems to be true.”
“You’re still stupid”, the filly sniveled. She hesitated for a moment. “Thank you”, she then added.
“Well. That’s what friends are for after all, isn’t it?”
He gave his friend a leg up. “Alright, now we first of all we’ll bind your hoof, then we’ll fetch the healer and get the hay out of here!”
Back in the corridor Cloud searched through the closet once more until he appeared with some muslin bandages. The filly barely wrapped the bandages around her hoof and tied them up with her teeth. It was a makeshift, but for the moment, it’d suffice. Then they made their way back to the dungeon where Herbal Green was already impatiently waiting.
***
He stretched himself and strained his back like he hadn’t just been imprisoned but also chained.
“Free eventually”, he faintly laughed and brushed his grizzled mane out of his unkempt, angular face. Jail clearly hadn’t benefitted him at all. Even his coat had lost all of its eponymous green, all his colour had faded to an empty grey. “You two ‘ave done very well!”
Then he seemed to recall something: “That is, one ‘urdle we still need to overcome. Well, a promise is a promise, let’s get the main key and quit this scene!”
His eye fell on the bandage around the filly’s hoof.
“ ’ave you ‘urt yourself? Once me magic comes back I’ll treat that, alwigh’? Come now, come now, no time to loose!”
The healer now took the lead. His magic was weakened by all the seal in his cell, but after a while he managed to conjure a lighting spell. It was a little unstable and flickered, but it allowed them to cross the asylum’s sombre hallways more swiftly. Herbal Green placed more value on speed than on secrecy, or as he had put it: Temerity wins. However he stroke a pretty fast pace for a pony with a limping hind leg.
“Sackcloth”, Cloud muttered in his friend’s ear with a side glance at Green’s patient gown. “Is this what ponies now wear? But it looks better on you than on him…”
“Shut up, Cloud.”
Suddenly the healer stopped dead in his tracks, so abruptly that the filly bumped into him.
“Shush, you two”, he hissed. “Go and ‘ide!”
The light at the tip of his horn died off and quickly threw himself into cover behind a wardrobe. Cloud and the filly followed his example and ducked behind into the shadow of a chest of drawers with a set of instruments on it.
Despite her fear the filly couldn’t help but peek over the edge of the tallcolt. A few steps ahead a door with the word anatomy written on it was opened and a white unicorn stallion in a medical gown stepped out. The lamplight was mirrored in his glasses and hid the pony’s eyes. He brushed his mane out of his face.
Suddenly the stallions ears strained and he turned his head to the very direction where the three breakaways were hiding.
“Was there something?” the stallion asked nopony in particular. The reflexion from his glasses ghosted through the hallway and over the furniture. The filly ducked in her hiding and held her breath.
“I cannot seem to get my head clear”, the physician muttered. “This does no good. I’m tired…”
And then he turned away and clip-clopping toddled down the hallway until he left through another door at the end of the corridor.
“Doctor Ragstitch”, hissed Herbal Green. He craned his neck and squinted after the other stallion. “This disturbed, bloody, rotten b…” A new coughing attack choked off his swearing. Then he concluded, a little out of breath: “I mean, ‘e belongs in a padded cell, too. But four-eyes has always been too dense to see the bigger picture. Anyway. we need to be careful if Ragstitch ‘as taken the same way out as we will.”
Green was far more tense than before, downright nervous and had to constantly muffle his coughing. And yet he doubled his haste and limped down the hallway as quickly as his stiff leg permitted.
“Alwigh’, I think ‘e’s gone”, he said after checking the door through which Ragstitch had disappeared. “You know, this once was a convent. The friars used to eat here.”
They entered a larger room with a high ceiling, indeed they still could see a brick-built fireplace in the entrance hall with iron hooks on both sides for the cauldron. Since this place had been turned to a place of healing somepony had placed benches and small trees in pots between the four mainstays.
Just as they had entered the hall, Herbal Green suffered the worst coughing bout so far. He frantically tried to stifle it, but to little avail.
Cloud grew impatient.
“So, master healer, where’s the key for the entrance door now?” he urged.
“Master Green, everything alright with you?” his friend instead wanted to know. She was worried because the cranking stallion didn’t look well at all. And so she went over to Herbal Green to see if she could do anything to help.
Oh, had any of the foals only paid closer attention! Then maybe they had noticed everything had went too smoothly until now. And maybe they would’ve grown suspicious…
And quite rightly so, because, yes, fate was already preparing for one last turn for the worse!
But as things stood, a completely unaware filly touched the healer at his shoulder. It was right at this moment, Green spun around on and noosed one foreleg around her leg like a vice. She wanted to scream but she couldn’t get enough air.
“Green, what’s that supposed to mean?” Cloud screamed instead for her.
The healer burst into a hoarse chuckle. “Did you never wonder why Calm Mind ‘ad me locked away in the first place?”
“Let her go, you nut!” the pegasus colt demanded with shrill voice.
“Else what?” the haywire Herbal Green asked with a sickening and fiendish grin on his face.
“’re you garn to stop me? ‘re you garn to shout the whole house down?” He chuckled again.
The unicorn-filly struggled in Green’s grip. “Cloud… Help”, she gasped panting for breath. Cloud acted promptly and snatched at a fire fork in the hearth.
He pulled and tugged until his head had turned from light blue to crimson red, but he just couldn’t lift the fork any single inch.
“Damn it, what’s with this blasted poker? Help us!” he yelled. “Help us! Murder!”
“Help us! Murder!” the healer parroted. “Don’t you get it? Nopony’s garn help you ‘cause nopony can ‘ear you screaming!” he hissed. “I recognized you right from the start. Cloud Dash from the ‘ouse Rainbow is dead. For two years now. You’re a ghost, no, not even that. You’re just a remembrance, a dream haunting the mind of mad ponies!” he spit against the colt.
Then he tilted his head and seemed to hearken for a moment. “Yes, naturally, yes. Kill her! Destroy the experiment! Kill her and destroy this delusion! You know, lassie, I fear ‘e wants you dead. Oh well, guess that’s it for you then…”
Cloud Dash just stood there like hit between the eyes. He was powerless, he could do nothing, he couldn’t even call for help! His desperate glance met the eyes of the filly and she saw the utter hopelessness in his eyes.
But this time it was her who wasn’t ready to give up. She had gone through hell twice this evening, and now it should end like that? She should just die, and that the worst way she could imagine?
Never, never, never!
With a final act of defiance, she forcefully cocked back her head, maybe to attack Green with her horn. That however went adrift, instead she gave the madpony a vigorous headbutt against his lower jar. Herbal Green at once let go of her.
Alas with that her resistance was already exhausted again. Her throat was burning and the lack of air made her see stars. The filly couldn’t stay on her hooves and dropped to the floor gasping for air.
The headbutt had perfectly wiped the grin off of his face, he was holding his aching chin, checking if the filly hadn’t perhaps broken his jaw. But his eyes sparkled with murderous intent all the more.
“You imbecile! Little! Brat!” he spat, a rill of blood trickling down one corner of his mouth. “I’m goin’ to enjoy this far more than I should! I’m goin’ to…”
He was interrupted by a sudden white flash lighting up the entrance hall as bright as the sun. A thunderclap rolled and Herbal Green tore open his eyes. “Ak”, he managed to bring forth.
Then he collapsed, thin curls of smoke rose from his back, at height of his shoulder blades.
“How unfortunate”, Doctor Ragstitch remarked and stepped out of the shadows. “Gladly I preside over more than just my knives”, he said with sparkling glasses. “Rather drastic but it should sideline him for an hour or two…”
The physician kneeled down next to the unconscious former healer and turned to the filly who was still avidly gasping for air.
“Did he hurt you?” he asked.
“Are you blind or something?” Cloud exclaimed. “Of course he’s hurt her!”
“You are not yet able to talk again, are you? Yes? Well, then let me see…” Ragstitch muttered. He completely ignored Cloud leading him to another outburst.
“Hey!” He tramped onto the physician and built himself up in front of him. “I’m talking to you!”
Doctor Ragstitch rose his head and for a moment he directly looked Cloud in the eyes. Then he blinked irritatedly and turned back to his patient.
“It can’t be…” Cloud whispered aghastly. “He doesn’t see me… He doesn’t hear me…”
Doctor Ragstitch got up again. “All right, my temporary diagnosis: Slight contusion on the voice box, but nothing serious. You will not carry away any lasting damages.” He took of his glasses and put them into the pockets of his gown. Then he turned to leave, still not noticing Cloud Dash…
“Oh yes, that is right…” Ragstitch turned back one more time. “Rover forgot to lock the gate. In about half an hour I will notice that on my inspection walkway and revise his mistake. Until then, my little filly, I believe you want to have made off.”
And with that, Ragstitch just left, leaving the door wide open…
Slowly the filly sat up; she still was a little out of breath and feeble.
“This… this… He wanted to… to kill me”, she stammered huskily. This was so surreal she didn’t even feel relief that it was over yet…
“I know…” Cloud replied, turning his back on her. “And this Ragstitch has saved you…”
He turned around to her fitfully and this time it was his turn to have tears in his eyes.
“I couldn’t do anything!” Clouds voice was barely understandable. “I couldn’t protect you…”
“But thanks to you…” she began.
“No”, Cloud interrupted her, shaking his head. “Ragstitch had been here all the time. He was hiding behind a pillar, just waiting for the right moment… I could do nothing, Herbal Green was right: I could do nothing because I’m dead. I’m not even really here…”
“But that’s not right! You lock-picked the door to Calm Mind’s room and you…”
But on that very moment, pictures came to her mind. She reviewed some of what had happened before; only now she realized the truth: She saw herself fishing out a needle from a drawer in that closet. Then how she had busted around with the needle in the lock of Calm Mind’s door. And finally how she had stained everything with her blood in search for bandages…
“It’s true”, Cloud sadly confirmed and took a seat next to her. “I’ve gotten some of your forgotten abilities from your, what’s it called? – Subconsciousness. I can do nothing you can’t because I’m not real…”
“So… What shall we do now?” the filly hesitantly asked. She tried to look everywhere but at the knocked out pony lying behind her.
“Way’s clear”, Cloud snuffled. “For half an hour, Stitch has said. You’re free, so go where you want, lay low and sing small!”
The filly looked at the dark rectangle of the doorframe for quite a time. Chilly night air was blowing into her face. Unsteadily she tried to get up.
“Freedom”, she eventually said. “Yes. Yes I am free now.”
And she put out her hoof for Cloud who was still sitting there like a drowned rat.
“We both are free now, Cloud.”
The pegasus colt slowly rose his head and looked at her.
“I don’t care whether you’re a ghost, or a memory, or whatever”, she firmly explained. “You’re my friend and we’ll stick together. I won’t just abandon you here!“
She took Cloud’s hoof and gave him a leg-up. Side by side they took the final step into freedom, out into the night. The unicorn filly who didn’t know who she was, and the pegasus colt who didn’t exist anymore…
Chapter 1
-
THE NEW PONY IN TOWN
The town of Hollow Shades was lit by autumn's golden morning light and ever so slightly veiled by shrouds of mist, arising from the already harvested fields and the surrounding woods, mainly consisting of a variety of conifers, but intermitted by some colourful broad-leaf trees like a patchwork rug. Hollow Shades itself was a small town, just barely big enough to be circumvent by a town wall, next to the shores of cold, clear lake, in the background the sky-high Veiled Mountains. Half-way around this lake a defiant castle rose above the waters. Truly picturesque indeed…
And the last place in Equestria where Firefly wanted to be right now! Once again and as she had done repeatedly for the last days, the young pegasus mare lamented her fate. Why, of all ponies, did those things always seem to happen just to HER?
It had been such a perfectly normal evening; and all she had wanted was to have a drink at the inn after a hard day in the casern. But then a half-drunk soldier had begun to mock her. He had made fun of her rose-coloured coat and how a mare could honestly believe to ever make the grade of a cadet’s surcoat. Firefly had replied as she replied answered to mockery and offence: She had bucked the stallion in the stomach… As hard as she could… In no time, the prettiest punch-up had been under way!
The end of the story were several broken tables, shattered bottles and glasses and a few black eyes and bruised rips, also on the part of Firefly herself and a unicorn stallion who had actually only wanted to hold her back. But due to her indescribable misfortune this stallion had to be a captain of the royal guard and thus in the proper meaning of the word… Her commanding officer…
Her instructor had been able to convince the captain to not have Firefly expelled from the guard. But she was commandeered to leave Canterlot and to continue her drill elsewhere. Namely at the back and beyond end of Equestria!
And by all means, that could be taken literally. Hollow Shades was located at the very north-eastern border of Equestria. Firefly was a pegasus and quite a good flyer, but even the fastest pegasus would need almost three days to get there. Firefly had needed five, because of a bad weather front over the Foal Mountains. The Weather Brigade was still trying hard to get the weather there under control…
In any case, this journey was not at all worth the effort, but Firefly wasn’t ready to give in; she knew that captain was counting on exactly that. He expected that she would never undertake the way to Hollow Shades and just leave the guard for good instead. Goodbye forever, problem solved. But she would rather have her wings clipped than to accept a defeat. That commanded her pride! She had no choice but to put up a brave front.
And so, after Firefly had went for another spin to get a better overview, she landed and folded her wings. Then she walked down the old trading route to the western gate of the town as it was proper manner.
The two bored earth pony guards at the gate had already noticed the pegasus who had been circling above them, but not paid further attention. But now as the pony in question was walking straight towards them, they had no choice but to pick up their halberds and do their work.
“Steady on! Who goes there and what business takes you this far out here?”
Firefly was unkindly stopped by the crossed lances of the two guards. They examined her with a saturnine expression. Firefly grimaced though she didn’t really know what was upsetting her about those guards. Maybe it was their attitude… The earth ponies were wearing scuffed and ill-fitting armor plates. They were not a patch on the royal guards in Canterlot! But after the arduous journey to Hollow Shades she was all but keen to pick a quarrel with the town guards and so she swallowed her anger and courteously hooved over her transfer papers.
“My name’s Firefly”, she added as a precaution. “Cadet of the royal guard. I am supposed to report to the guard house for duty.”
The guards took a quick glance at the seal on the papers and then stepped aside.
“No offence meant”, one of them said. “It’s our business to ask every trespasser questions. There’s queer folk about. But if you’re here to join the guard, alright! The guard house is just down here, next to the town square and the archives. You can’t miss it.”
The guard gave the papers back to Firefly and pointed down the street. She was not too sure if she still wanted to join the town’s guard. Being a guard in this town seemed neither glamourous nor adventurous, but anyway, life was never easy at the bottom. There had to come much more for Firefly to cut and run! And so she trotted down the paved lane; it was time to examine her new home.
****
It seemed to be market day in town and so there was quite some folk on the streets, earth ponies and some unicorns, most of them in sober colours and earthy tones, like brown, green and grey. Firefly stood out even twice, she wasn’t just the only pastel coloured pony in sight, but also the only pegasus. She attracted some prying glances, but nopony seemed really bothered about her.
The town itself mainly consisted of low buildings with thatched roofs. Shutters and doorframes were green, and Firefly noticed another detail that caught her curiosity: On some of the doors an uncommon symbol was carved in. It was the outline of a crescent moon. Interesting, this seemed to be some kind of crest, but Firefly couldn’t recall to have seen this kind of heraldry before.
Above the guard house’s entrance however, the well-known sun crest of the Princess was mounted to mark it as a formal building. But Firefly probably wouldn’t have missed it anyway: The house was one of only few with more than one floor. The other ones were primarly other offical buildings like the town hall and of course the belfry. The sign spelling ‘Town Ward’ itself was admittedly a bit mingy and simple, but Firefly guessed it was fitting for a small town like Hollow Shades.
She took a deep breath and entered through the heavy iron-bound door.
****
The scent of dust, old paper and lamp black greeted her as she stepped into the room. Had she maybe somehow taken the wrong door? This didn’t look like a watch room at all, the six rickety tables were overburdened with towers of books, piles of papers and scrolls. All way in the back of the room sat a unicorn, lost in an especially old and heavy tome. He was using a round, cut crystal as a magnifying glass and keenly levitated his quill, making notes. The stallion seemed about Firefly’s age and he had slender features. His coat was sand-coloured but his unkempt and most importantly salient red mane revealed that his family probably wasn't native to Hollow Shades. He hadn’t noticed Firefly’s entrance yet.
“Excuse me?” Firefly addressed the young stallion. Maybe she hadn’t spoken loud enough, in any case he didn’t show a sign of having heard her at all.
“Excuse me?” She repeated, a little louder this time.
The unicorn’s head rose, he blinked confusedly as he saw the pegasus mare standing across the room.
“Yes”, he simply said.
And then turned back to his book! Firefly gnashed her teeth. “Excuse! Me!” It wouldn’t have taken much for her to yell at him.
The stallion’s gaze met her eyes again. “Yes”, he repeated. “Yes, I excuse you.” And with that he wanted to turn back to his work once more, but Firefly made a jump forward through the whole room to keep his attention.
“Wait a moment! Y’know I was looking for the guard house, but…”
The stallion rapidly jolted up, knocking the tome off the table and the table itself almost over. Firefly could be mistaking, because he looked so startled, but it seemed like he was trying to brace.
“No, nonono! You’re right here”, he said. “This IS the guard house.”
“So, you’re a guard, too?”
The unicorn nodded. “Uh-huh. My name is Sliderule. I’m the paymaster here. Can I… Um… help you?”
Firefly was dumbfounded. This younker not only was a full-fletched guard; he was an OFFICER!
“You… You’re…” She stuttered, but then she remembered the reason why she was here in the first place: ALWAYS show your superior respect!
She saluted snappishly. “Cadet Firefly, reporting for duty, sir!”
If this was possible, Sliderule looked even more confused than before. Or awkward, maybe.
“Yes…” he drawled. “That… Um… can we, like, just drop this whole military procedure for the moment? I’m not very fond of it, you know? I’m in this position only because numbers are my special talent…” That stood out a mile, the counting frame he had for a Cutie Mark spoke volumes.
He took the transfer papers from Firefly and carefully read over them. “Let’s see… Firefly... Cutie Mark: Three lightning sparks... Oh, strange reference... It says here you would lack discipline…”
“What? That’s not true!” the pegasus mare exclaimed. Why had they written that down in the papers? A last tit-for-tat response of that captain, no doubt. What an infamy! Sliderule however didn’t pay much attention to it.
“We haven’t had a new recruit since… um, myself, I think”, he informed her, hectically scribbling calculation on his sheets of paper. “Actually, I am not even sure if we can afford a new recruit at the moment. Give me a moment, I have to quickly recalculate the allocation for the next months...”
Firefly cringed internally. If not even the guards in this village at world’s end wanted her, then she really had no place left she could turn to…
“Sliderule, please… The guard’s everything I have…”
Maybe Sliderule had caught her desperate look. He carefully laid the quill on the table and scratched his chin.
“But on the other hoof”, he said slowly. “There… There actually may be a case that could need a different point of view…” He went to another table and started to rummage through a tower of papers. If the unicorn had any system of order in his documents, then Firefly couldn’t make it out. Eventually he dug out a paper that had been buried under what looked like to be the billings of a whole decade.
“Ah, here it is, I knew it had to be in here somewhere… Take a look at this, Firefly!”
She saw the likeness of a unicorn filly drawn on the paper, a quite good portrait actually, but drawn without colour. Large eyes and a messy mane made the filly look very young, ten years at tops. The picture had the caption ‘Do you know this filly?’ and a note to report any hints for a reward to the guards or to a pony called Calm Mind.
“What’s that?” the mare wondered as he hooved her over the sheet of laid paper. “A wanted poster?”
“More like a missing pony report.” Sliderule confidentially lowered his voice: “We’ve been looking for her for one, two… What is the date today? Anyway, that doesn't matter right now, I guess... The guard hasn’t been able to retrieve the filly until now. So maybe you could go over to Doctor Calm Mind and offer your help?”
Well, what kind of pony would not offer help at once when a foal was missing? Besides, helping to find that poor little things could be exactly the chance Firefly needed: A chance to make her mark, to make herself indispensable for the Royal Guard. Maybe it would even buy her a return to Canterlot.
That certainly sounded like a plan.
****
Doctor Mind, as Sliderule had explained, was a physician and said to be an ingenious master healer. The Doctor saw heself as a herald of progress, she consistently strived to improve her knowledge, and to create new cures and treatments. And she was the first pony so far who devoted herself to the mental illnesses as well as the physical ones. Without any writings she could rely on to begin with, she had already proven that mental aberrations could not only be treated, but also cured in some cases.
But soon, Calm Mind had to realize there was a startling limited overall knowledge in Equestria about body and mind, but also about the modus operand i of magic (that was how Sliderule had called it). She had tried to expedite the progress of science with tooth and hooves, but it was far too wide a subject for one pony alone to collect all the bits and pieces and put them together. There had also been very little support on part of the Crown and so Calm Mind had spent her own fortune to build a place where she could fully dedicate herself to science. Then she had invited all kindred spirits join in. Alas, thus far only one pony had followed her call, a former barber surgeon named Ragstitch.
The building Calm Mind had chosen was located in the northeast of the town, next to a small holt. The House of Healing apparently once upon a time had been a convent for some kind of brotherhood who had dedicated themselves to a similar goal as Calm Mind; Firefly wondered what had happened to them…
She struck up a quick pace over the cobblestone pavement, her curiosity was already getting the better of her.
But as soon as she was able to take a closer look at the plain, grey, stone veneer of the bow-shaped building, she felt something else: A shiver went down her spine and she started to feel uneasy. She was getting an indistinct bad feeling about that building, no, actually it was more like a dark foreshadowing. Her senses told her to turn around and leave immediately, but she just shrugged it off unwillingly. She had no time for that!
Maybe she should have heeded her premonition…
Firefly entered the House of Healing’s courtyard. During spring and summer, certainly the inpatients certainly reclined on the benches overshadowed by the three oak trees or went for a walk in the near grove, but today was rather chilly and the sky seemed to cloud over as well and so they probably rather stood on their rooms. Just a single and remarkably bony creature that could only be named a goat with a lot of goodwill was sweeping together colourful leaves with a birch broom. The old billy-goat seemed to be some kind of gardener or maybe janitor here.
“Good day”, Firefly greeted the old timer. “Excuse me, could you possibly show me the way to Doctor Calm Mind?”
“Why ye buggin’ auld Rover?” he bawled her out with his brittle, nagging voice.
“I am looking for Doctor Calm Mind”, Firefly stressed, trying to keep calm. She didn’t want to waste time with old goats. Especially when they were as unfriendly as Rover.
The billy-goat sighed and put down his broom. “Gran’ so… Folly Rover!”
Rover led Firefly through the main gate and along the hallways of the hospital. The walls had been whitewashed, probably to make them less depressing. Then they had to climb up a creaking old staircase. Then a little further down the corridor and finally they stood in front of a door. The name tag expelling the room as Doctor Calm Mind’s working room was so well-nigh flashy and craving for attention, that at once the prejudice imposed on Firefly the Doctor would be utterly fond of herself.
The billy-goat carefully knocked on the door with his hoof. A few moments went past, then an energetic voice, accustomed to give orders, resounded from inside the room.
“Come in!”
Rover opened the door and quite vainly tried to straighten his back. “Excuse me, m’lady, this young mare ‘ere wants ter see yer.”
Calm Mind was a unicorn just past the peak of her life. Her features were as energetic as her voice, her coat was white and she was wearing her grizzled mane tied up in a stern bun.
“Thank you, Rover. You may go now.”
The old goat absent himself without any further word, leaving Firefly and the Doctor alone. Calm Mind took some time to organize the paperwork on her desk, then her ice-grey eyes met Firefly’s own purple ones.
“How can I help you, Miss?” Calm Mind said, though it sounded more like ‘What do you want?’
The blue pegasus saluted.
“Firefly, member of the Royal Guard”, she introduced herself. It couldn’t hurt to overegg the pudding just a little. “I’m here to offer my service, Doctor. Y’know, in this case of the missing filly.”
Calm Mind examined her carefully, like a jeweller trying to check the genuineness of a gemstone. Firefly felt really uncomfortable under the unicorn’s perusing glance, and she started to sweat.
“I understand pegasi have the sharpest eyes of all ponies. That true?”
Firefly nodded; that indeed was a common belief.
“Any further qualifications?” Doctor Mind wanted to know.
“I’ve… I’ve been trained in Canterlot, if that counts…”
“It does.”
The unicorn physician gave her and inexplicable look. She put her hooves together and said: “Alright, I am a very busy mare, besides I have a reputation to loose on my part. So let’s stop wasting time with formalities and get down to the basics.”
I’ll second that , Firefly thought but she kept silent. Calm Mind was emitting such an authority that not even Firefly had any problems to watch her mouth.
“You already know about the case?” The doctor wanted to know, but didn’t wait for an answer anyway. She fetched a sheet of paper and pushed it across the desk with her hoof; it was the missing report Firefly already had seen.
“We need to find this filly. She was inpatient in our ward for mental deficiencies, was suffering from an especially severe case of memory loss.”
Firefly had the indistinct feeling she was supposed to say something now to display her professionality. “And she just disappeared?” she thus asked a little stupidly.
For the first time Doctor Calm’s voice revealed a slight uncertainty: “Yes… Yes, disappeared. About two weeks ago. She was badly confused and had lost her memory. Sad case. Never thought she’d run away, though.”
Not one or two days, one or two weeks! That was bad news.
“We already had this sketches of her made because we wanted to find out who she was. To find her family. My employees have showed them around in town once more, of course with the necessary discretion. Doesn’t bear contemplating what it would do to our reputation if that would be announced publicly! Unfortunately wasn’t in town that day so I can’t tell you more…”
On the second thought Firefly had to amend her estimation. That wasn’t bad, that was a catastrophe! A moonstruck filly, alone, wandering about a town, even if it was as small as Hollow Shades? For two weeks?
Either she had escaped all by herself and now somepony was hiding her, or somepony had abducted her, or she was dead.
True, there was also the possibility the filly had managed to leave Hollow Shades. But with a look at the untamed wilderness surrounding the town, then… She was probably dead by now as well. Firefly was looking at the pitch black side in this case, and she didn’t really want her first case as a guard to be the one to break her already…
“We’re not hoping for a wonder”, Calm Mind continued, she was all self-possessed again. Firefly on the other hoof wasn’t good at all in overacting her feelings, of course the Doctor had noticed her shocked expression… “But we must leave nothing untried. Would be against my conscience if we wouldn’t try everything within pony power for the poor filly. ”
The physician locked Firefly’s eyes with her own look again. Then she said: “Not exactly the case to make your mark, or is it?”
Bullseye! She was unmasked. Calm Mind had seen through Firefly, and probably right from the beginning. The pegasus blushed beneath her coat. The last she wanted was to look like an overeager youngster, but the damage was already done. What had she thought anyway to just waltz into Calm Mind’s office and try to trick a genius like her?
Firefly could be mistaking, but she thought to see a smile full of grim satisfaction flashing over Calm Mind’s lips for a moment. But then, much to Firefly’s surprise, the doctor asked her, almost friendly: “Still want to offer your help?”
Was that an olive branch she was offering her? Or just another test? It didn’t matter to Firefly. Doctor Mind hadn’t sent her away and that meant not everything was lost yet. At this point, compassion for the lost filly (but sadly also her own pride) dictated her decision:
“Yes, I still offer my help”, she firmly answered. “All the more, actually.”
Doctor Calm Mind actually looked surprised. That was an answer she scarcely had expected. Then she gave her opposite an almost unnoticeable nod of approval.
“Alright. Look around! Investigate! Gather evidences! Maybe an pegasus’ eye can see what ours’ couldn’t. All convenient hints will be rewarded liberally.”
Finally, Calm Mind got up from her seat. She put out her hoof across the desk. “Deal?” she asked.
“Deal”, Firefly replied and shook her hoof on it.
Firefly never accepted a defeat. Oh yes, she would face this out to the very end, come what may!
****
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