The Bond

by GhostWriter

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Adventure
Length: 31192

When a young mare finds that she holds unnatural magic abilities, she learns that the world is darker than most want to admit. In an attempt to run away, she will instead embark on a journey where she will discover what truly defines good and evil.

Ever since she was a foal, sixteen year old Night Wisp felt like she was a normal pegasus, granted one without a cutie mark. Her parents never said something was wrong about her unusual ability, other than to refrain from using it outside of their home. There was nothing wrong with that, was there?
But when a freak accident occurs and her ability causes the startling death of her closest friend, her entire world is turned upside-down, and she must make a choice: run from what she doesn't understand, or seek out the truth about magic that some would rather leave hidden in the shadows. After all, some things are hidden for a reason...and strange things lay waiting in the darkness.
(This is my first fanfic, so any constructive criticism is welcome.)

Published 2012-07-23 03:04:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-11-23 06:19:15 UTC

Chapter Two - Death of a Carpenter

Chapter Two -

Death of a Carpenter

First, there is silence; then suddenly, the sound of wood ripping and shattering is heard. Now there are voices...a male and a female. What are they saying? Night tries to make out the words, but suddenly there is the sound of strong wind, loud but low. A couple of screams are heard, an explosion, then nothing. Night Wisp opens her eyes to see a figure standing over her, muttering something she doesn’t understand. She tries to speak, but cannot. Darkness begins to swirl in her eyes, and there is sharp, wrenching pain in her chest, as if something was trying to rip her soul away. She cannot scream, she cannot move, pain, pain everywhere, darkness closing around her...then suddenly, there is light.

The mare opened her eyes and sat up with a gasp, breathing heavily to satisfy her burning lungs. She looked around frantically, only to realize she was sitting on her bed, in her bedroom, safe at home. After a few minutes of slow breathing to calm herself, Night looked over at her window. It was dark out, which was a small relief. At least she hadn’t slept in again. Squinting her eyes to make out the face of the bedside clock, she read the time and sighed. It was 3:17 AM. A light, cool breeze suddenly touched Night’s face, sending wisps of her mane blowing across her forehead. She looked over to her right to find her window open, curtains lit by moonlight as they danced in the silent wind.

Mom must have opened them before going to sleep... she thought. A second breeze blew in, and something about it drew the pegasus from her bed and to the window. Her silvery irises lit up in the pale glow of the moon, creating a sight that would have mesmerized anypony who were to look at them. Her gaze slowly scanned across the cloudless sky; Luna had made the night sky particularly beautiful. Each star was like a diamond sequin among hundreds of others that created a shimmery dark dress, and the crescent moon was the centerpiece that held the black cloth together. A truly beautiful night...but even Luna’s masterpiece was not enough to distract Night Wisp from her worries.

Her thoughts continuously drifted back to the workshop, to the sight of that shadow, her shadow, writhing on Elmwoods hoof, then suddenly revealing that the wound was gone. She had healed him, but something about it felt...odd. She wanted to say it felt wrong, but there was nothing wrong with what she did. The unicorn’s injury had been quite severe, and she had made it disappear, as if it had never been there. And yet, she felt bothered every time she pictured the image. Another point was Elmwood himself. How does he feel about knowing his assistant had abilities she never told him about? she wondered nervously. He was so shaky from the shock...all I made out was him saying I could have the rest of the day off. Is he afraid of me? It isn’t like I'm different. Maybe he'll would reward me?...or fire me? And if that happened, who else will he tell? Will I be able to get another job?

These thoughts were quickly suppressed by Night, to be worked out in the morning. There was no need to plan on being fired, or feared. It’s not helpful to think of bad outcomes, she thought to herself.A small phrase from Harvest suddenly came to mind: even in the darkest moments, hope is the brightest light. The grey mare whispered it to herself as she turned from the window, returning to the warmth and coziness of her bed. Pulling the sheets up to her neck, her eyes closed, and soon she was asleep once more. She was asleep...but deep inside, something was waking up. Something that sat at the back of her mind, but had yet to be seen...

There was a large crowd gathered in front of the carpentry shop when Night arrived that next morning. She had woken up a little early to not be late, and thus had to walk since Applejack and Big Mac wouldn’t be there for another ten minutes. In all honesty, she was surprised by all the ponies who had also shown up; she had never seen so many ponies gathered on a day without any events.

Or maybe there is an event? I certainly didn’t hear about anything going on this morning... she thought. Maybe somepony in the crowd knows? She began to trot forward, but as she approached, she began to feel the same odd feeling from the day before and early that morning. She felt like something was wrong, but it was soon clear that something was wrong. Nopony seemed to be showing any form of joy or excitement, or even any casualness. The air was tense, with ponies talking in lowered voices. Upon reaching the crowd’s edge, the feeling was now stronger, like a cloud of uneasiness was being created amongst all the ponies gathered. Over the whispers and murmurs, her ears could detect a stallion’s voice, louder than the others but not quite loud.

“Everypony stand back a little...we need room to work...no ma’am, we don’t know what happened yet..” Night could feel her heartbeat quicken. The pegasus, growing worried, began to nudge her way to the center of the crowd, the feeling in her heart becoming worse. At the center, she found herself muzzle to muzzle with a white, stallion pegasus in golden armor who looked a little overtaken by the ponies nearby whom were asking questions. “Again, ma’am, I know as much as you do,” he explained to one lavender earth pony. “I’m just here to make sure the crowd doesn’t get too close. I don’t have any information.”

“What about her? She’s the assistant!” a mare’s voice called out.

All eyes quickly turned to a sea green unicorn who had stepped forward, with one hoof pointed right at Night Wisp. The eyes followed the hoof, and soon everypony was staring at Night as if expecting her to say something. The grey pegasus was frozen, unsure how she was supposed to react, having only just gotten there. Looking at the unicorn mare, Night noticed the cutie mark was a lyre. She recalled a few times when she had seen this pony in the streets, oftentimes with Ponyville’s chocolatier, Bonbon. A name suddenly popped into her mind: Lyra. The name rang in her mind, but she couldn’t place it. It was hard to think with so many ponies watching her.

Lyra...hadn’t Elmwood and I been making an order for a Lyra yesterday? she wondered. Lyra, Lyra...yes, we had been working on a table for Lyra! Elmwood had talked about her briefly, said he had had a conversation with her about the order. Maybe he mentioned me to her? It seems to be the only thing that makes sense-

“Um excuse me, miss?” a voice said, one that was very close. Night almost jumped, having been deep in her own thoughts again and forgetting she had a crowd of curious ponies staring at her. Looking up, she found the armored guard now standing in front of her. “Miss, is it correct that you’re the assistant here?” he asked calmly. Night, not sure if it was the best decision but knowing it was her only decision, slowly nodded. At her confirmation, the guard turned and whistled to another, similar-looking guard standing by the front door who was speaking with a third pony, a stallion in a trench coat, obviously not a guard. A detective, maybe; this made Night begin thinking again. Why would there be a detective? This isn’t a crime scene..is it?

The first guard trotted over to the second guard and began talking to him, motioning over towards Night. The second guard’s expression became one of interest, and he looked to her and motioned for her to come forward. She did so, though a little hesitantly. Oh Luna, what am I getting into... she murmured to herself as she trotted up the steps. The first guard turned and returned to his position holding the crowd back, and the second guard motioned Night over towards the trench coat pony.

“Detective, this young mare says she works here. I thought you might want to talk to her.” The stallion looked to the guard, then to Night Wisp.

“Is that so...well then, maybe she can give us some information,” he replied, keeping his gaze on Night for a moment before looking back at the guard. “Meanwhile, I need you to disperse this crowd around here. I don’t want to cause a commotion when we move the vic-" he paused, eyes glancing to the the grey mare, then back. "...well, him. He’s not exactly a pretty sight.”

The guard said not a word, but simply nodded before turning and trotting down the steps to relay the orders. Night watched him go, her insides feeling ready to turn inside-out. She was not one for anticipation, the good or the bad kind. She just wanted to know what happened to Elmwood. A light hoof tap on the shoulder swiftly directed Night’s attention to the stallion who was now facing her once more.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Detective Windrunner, the best detective that Canterlot can offer,” he said as he made a small bow; Canterlot ponies were always big on formality. Night quickly looked him over, subliminally taking note of how the detective looked. Cobalt blue coat, copper-brown mane brushed to one side, and lime green eyes. Detective Windrunner then straightened up and looked out from the small porch, as if surveying the buildings nearby, before continuing.

“I realize I’m a little far from my home territory, but when I heard that there was a puzzling case in Ponyville, I thought I’d take a swipe at it. And what seems to have happened here is, indeed, quite odd...” Night’s ears perked up, her mind anxious to know what it was that happened. The stallion paused, then turned back to the mare and chuckled. “Oh, where are my manners! Tell me, what would your name be, m’dear?”

“Night Wisp,” she answered quickly. “Look, Detective Windrunner, I don’t understand any of this. Why are there guards here? What’s going on? Why- mmph!” Her rain of questions was suddenly cut short by the stallion’s hoof holding her mouth shut.

“Have no fear, Miss Wisp, all will be told in good time,” he said, his tone soft so as to sound calming. “Until then, I need you to answer a few questions about mister Elmwood.” As reasonable of a request as this was, Night was becoming too frustrated to want to comply. Nopony seemed either able or willing to tell her what the hay happened, and more importantly, nopony was telling her where Elmwood was. She hadn’t seen him anywhere in the crowd, and this would be the first place to find him if something had happened at his shop. The mare glanced over to the shop’s front door, which was now vacant of a royal guard to keep anypony out.

“I will happily answer any questions you may have, Detective,” Night spoke, turning herself towards the door. “But after I find Elmwood.” With hardly a second passing from the end of her sentence, Night rushed to the door and pushed it open. She never saw Windrunner’s expression, but she heard him shout her name as she headed inside.

A quick glance around the room brought up a very clear statement: the place was a mess. The chairs, once on by the front window, were now strewn about, one of them even broken. The rack of boards that had once been up against the wall was knocked over, and one of the smallest boards had been pulled out and broken. All this, but no Elmwood. Night glanced to the workshop door, left slightly open, which had an ‘X’ of yellow tape across it.

To any, it was just a door, but something about looking at the door made the pegasus feel afraid. She felt an inner instinct telling her to stay away from it, to not go in, but something else pushed her towards it, as if it wanted her to see what lay beyond. And she wanted to see what lay beyond, but every step closer made her heartbeat quicken just a bit more, rising in pace, becoming louder. She heard the detective open the door and tell her something, but his voice was dulled, as was everything else around her. All she could hear were her hoofteps towards the workshop door and her racing heartbeats. As soon as she reached the door’s frame, she felt cold wash over her body. She felt that whatever was in there was bad, but the thing inside continue to guide her onwards, raising her hoof to pull away the tape, to slowly push the door open.

She hardly even felt herself enter the room, as if she were doing nothing but watching through somepony else’s eyes. Her eyes scanned over the workshop, which, like the first room, was an utter mess. The goggles and tools once kept piled on the tables were now scattered on the floor. Drawers were opened by what could be guessed as a result of frantic searching. Nuts, bolts, washers, and other metal pieces lay here and there. Her view moved towards the center of the room to show the cutting table for the steam saw. The saw blade still had the dark stains from the day before painted across its sharp blade, and there was a spray mark across the table where some more blood had fallen. Her gaze shifted once more, to the left side of the room, to reveal a sight that could be described as nothing less than horrific.

Blood was everywhere. Small red dots flecked the ceiling above. The walls were sprayed with red, complimented by a few sizeable splotches with small trails running down from them to the floor, to join in the large pool of dark crimson that spread across much of the ground. And there in the pool, his once decent tan coat now discolored by the blood and grime, lay Elmwood. His body was backed up into the corner, curled in a fetal position, his head adorned with bruises, blood trailing down from his face and within his mane, and his forehooves covering his eyes.

Night took all of this in, eyes wide and staring. In her mind she was wanting to turn away, run from the room, to leave the awful scene behind her and forget everything, but her hooves seemed to have a different idea. She could barely feel those few steps forward she somehow made, cool blood on her hooves as she slowly walked up the the body. She didn’t feel herself raise her hoof to Elmwood’s face and move away his own hooves. She didn’t even hear her own scream.

Elmwood’s eyes were gone, or so they appeared to be. The pair of murky green eyes that had once been filled with joy, humor, and kindness were replaced by emptiness and thick, dark blood that trailed down the stallion’s face like tears. And as if this mere fact were not bad enough, protruding from each of the eye sockets was about six or seven nails, some slightly bent to one side from being constantly hit upon when they could go in no further. Though the eyes were missing, Elmwood’s expression was one of true terror; his mouth was even still open in mid-scream, but his voice was long gone.

Whether it was the shock of what she saw or the finality of her curiosity, Night suddenly regained a feeling of control in her body strong enough to quickly back away from those eyes, to get away from the terror that she saw on the unicorn’s face. Her senses finally returned to normal, but the state they were in was ragged. Her breaths were fast and heavy, her heart felt ready to burst, tears rolled down her face, and her whole body was shaking. So many thought were flowing through Night’s mind that she could barely hear any of the thoughts at once. Nothing was making sense, but what she saw did make sense. Elmwood was dead. Her only friend lay dead, cowering in a corner with nails beaten into his skull.

“Night Wisp,” spoke a low, demanding voice from behind the pegasus. She turned around to see, with eyes blurred by tears, the two royal guards from outside of the workshop standing behind her. “Night Wisp,” one of the guards repeated. “You’re going to have to come with us.” This was the final straw for the mare. Her confusion and shock reached their peak; sounds grew muffled, her vision swirled, and she felt herself falling. What she never felt was hitting the ground.

Author's Note

Got around to editing this one, too. Hope ya'll like it!

Chapter Three - Darkness Discovered

Chapter Three -

Darkness Discovered

Thousands upon thousands of years ago, back to a time before the alicorn princesses, back before even the three pony races formed Equestria, there came tales of magic that no pony, griffon, or dragon had ever encountered before. Stories of a unicorn with strange abilities began to spread across the land; like any story, the re-telling would be changed a little, but the description was always the same. A unicorn stallion with a white coat, sometimes claimed to be wearing a cloak so black, it was like he was shrouded by sheer darkness. His shadow, if one ever looked close enough at it, was said to move on its own, like a creature's breathing. Those who were said to have touched the shadow went mad only a day or less afterwards, if they didn't kill themselves in the most appalling of ways.

There were those who sought after this unicorn, some to kill him, some to learn this strange magic he seemed to posses. Of both, few ponies were seen again, and those who were found were not the same.

The blinding glare of sunlight slowly began to come to Night’s attention, it’s warmth covering her entire face. She moved her left hoof around, trying to see where it was, then lifted it up from where it lay to cover her eyes. Meanwhile, Night’s other senses had begun to wake up as well, and she quickly processed that she was lying in bed. The pegasus wiggled herself up into a position with her back against the headboard of the bed, gave her legs and wings a good stretch, then sank back down a little to a more comfortable position while her eyes adjusted to the light. Though most of the things in the room were still blurs, Night was able to make out the bed she was in, which was significantly larger than any bed she had been in before, not to mention much more comfortable.

The bed was somewhat circular in shape, with four wooden posts that held a small cover above the bed. The bed’s covers were a lovely purple with golden trim, and a golden sun was stitched into the center. Night found herself recognizing the symbol, but since she was not yet fully awake, she couldn’t place what it was, nor did she want to bother trying. Lifting the covers away by one of its corners, the grey mare scooted over to the bed’s edge and slid off. Her vision having improved some, she now saw that not only was the bed large, but the room looked much larger than your average bedroom. The bed was placed with the headboard on the wall opposite of twin doors, just left from the center.The right side of the room appeared to be some kind of study, the entire wall being covered by shelves filled with dozens of books, along with a couple of desks placed in front of the shelves. On the left wall to Night was a pair of large windows with purple and gold-trimmed cloth curtains, and from these windows she found herself looking out over what seemed to be all of Equestria.

Stepping away from the windows, Night turned and quietly trotted toward the twin doors, careful to not alert anypony outside that she was awake. That is, if there was anypony to hear her. She still had no clue where she was, after all, but she could tell from the windows’ views that it was high up. She would have guessed Cloudsdale, but everything there was made of clouds, though it could sometimes be hard to tell. But the granite floor she stood on didn’t feel very much like a cloud, but instead hard and cold, like normal granite. Shrugging off the thought, the pegasus leaned forward and slowly pushed one of the doors open, only a crack, to see if she could learn about her location. She couldn’t see very much, however, because there was an armored, buff-looking royal guard standing just outside the door.

Night Wisp froze, hoping to Celestia that the guard didn’t notice the door’s movement, miniscule as it was, as she slowly shut the door again. She then waited a moment, listening for a low voice to call her name, or for somepony to open the door, but nothing came. Breathing a sigh of relief, Night quietly backed away from the door, then sat down in the center of the room.

Well, she thought, I guess I won’t be able to explore as long as those guards are there. I doubt they’re standing there for looks... With not much else to do, Night decided to give the study a closer look, hoping that maybe some information could be found there.

"Studies are often where ponies read and write letters," she told herself aloud, though in a low voice. "If I can find a scroll or a letter, maybe it will have a name on it that will tell me where I am." This was, of course, a sensible statement. Looking around the study area, Night noticed many things, from books of spells and Equestrian history to maps and charts of both Equestria and beyond, but nowhere did she see a single scroll or letter that might give her any information. Not ready to give up just yet, the pegasus opened her wings and gently flew upwards, scanning the rows of books for anything even looking like a scroll.

During her search, many books caught Night Wisp’s eye. There were biographies about many of history’s greatest ponies, like Starswirl the Bearded. There were a few books that discussed mythical creatures known as humans, which Night found a little odd compared to all of the other factual books that were on the shelves. Everypony knew such creatures didn’t exist, after all.

Almanacs, history records, books written in different languages, a few history books about times that nopony but the Princesses themselves could possibly remember...all of these, but not one single scroll. With a soft flutter of wings, the pegasus flew down to the floor, a little dismayed at her lack of findings. She turned, walking in the direction of the bed, ready to just lie down and give up, when she noticed something glint in the light from the windows opposite of the study.

The glint came from under the edge of one of the desks, a little speck of reflecting, golden light. Upon closer inspection, Night saw that the reflection came from a small latch, almost hidden from view. The latch was so small, though, only a unicorn’s magic could open it...that, or one of Night Wisp’s shadow arms. Though she was still afraid of her abilities, especially after the recent events, a small, wispy arm of black reached up from Night’s shadow and opened the latch. The top of the desk opened up almost immediately, startling the pegasus. The inside of the desk appeared deep, though it showed no signs of the inner size on the outside, an obvious sign of unicorn magic. And inside of the deep cavity were dozens of scrolls, stacked in an organized manner, each one tied with a red strip of ribbon.

“Jackpot!” Night whispered to herself. She reached in, picking up the top scroll by the ribbon around it using her teeth, then set it on the second desk behind her. Pulling the ribbon’s end, the scroll unfurled before her to reveal the first real piece of information she had come across since waking up.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned it's not good to jump to conclusions. You have to find out all the facts before saying somepony did something. If you don't, you could end up blaming somepony for something they never did. This could hurt their feelings. And it could make you feel really foalish. So from now on, I will make sure to always get all the facts.
Sincerely,
Pinkie Pie

Night Wisp stepped back, her mind filled with bewilderment as everything began to make sense. At one point, Applejack had explained to Night how she and the five other ponies, who made up the Elements of Harmony, were given the task to write to Princess Celestia herself each week about the virtues of friendship. And by reading this letter from Pinkie Pie, Night could tell that was what this letter was.

It was so clear now, it was a wonder how she hadn't noticed it. The mile-high window view, the large room, the fabulous bed with the design of a golden sun stitched into the purple covers, the books of history older than anypony except for the princesses. Night Wisp knew where she was, but the mere fact didn’t make sense. The room she was standing in, if she was not mistaken, was Princess Celestia’s personal bedchamber.

“Ah, I see you found my letters,” came a voice from behind, one that, despite its calming nature, made Night nearly jump out of her skin. Turning around, the young pegasus found herself standing before none other than Princess Celestia, her colorful, aura-like mane gently floating in a non-existent breeze. The alicorn looked the same as she always did, a golden necklace hanging around her neck, a shoe of gold on each hoof, her golden crown sitting on her head just in front of her horn, and her white coat seeming to give off light, just like the sun that she controlled. To sum it up, the grey mare felt quite small and embarrassed to be standing before one of Equestria’s two rulers with the said ruler’s mail lying open on a desk beside her.

“U-Um...I-I..” Night stammered, unsure what she could say to make the scene look a little less nosy. “Y-Yes, your highness, I d-did...” Celestia’s eyes glanced over to the table, where Pinkie’s letter still lay open, and, to Night Wisp’s surprise, the alicorn smiled.

“There’s no need to be nervous, young one,” she said in her soothing voice. “I certainly can understand how strange it is to wake up somewhere unknown to you, especially after what you’ve been through. But let’s not discuss that here; my royal chefs have a nice dinner being prepared, and I would love to have you join me...” The princess paused, then lowered her head down to Night’s level. “...that is, if you are feeling any better than before? If not, I can-”

“Um, actually your highness, dinner sounds really good right now..” Night interrupted, giving a semi-nervous smile as she felt her stomach groan a little. The prospect of food seemed to be in its interest, especially if it was dinner time already; she had only been at the carpentry shop that morning, making the mare wonder how long she had been out. Meanwhile, the alicorn princess smiled at Night’s response and straightened up again.

“Well then, it’s settled. I’ll answer any questions you have over dinner,” she spoke as she turned, heading towards the twin doors where the two royal guards still stood.

“Like what happened to Elmwood?” Night asked, her curiosity over the disturbing death of her friend getting the better of her. She saw Celestia pause again, then turn to the guard on her right.

“On second though...guard, could you go to the kitchens and ask the chef to bring dinner to my private lounge? I think our guest is a little...overwhelmed as it is, and the dining hall would not help her get over the feeling very well.” The guard nodded silently, then trotted off down the hall to the right. Night shuffled her wings, a small bit of worry growing in her mind; whatever the answer to her question was, she didn’t think she was going to like it.

The walking distance to Princess Celestia’s private lounge was decent compared to the known size of the castle. Although, it must be understood that, like all castles, only a small percent of it is used as a home; the rest is used either as soldiers’ living quarters or for grand parties. The castle of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna is hardly any different; the base floor consists of most of the castle’s largest rooms, such as the banquet hall used for the famous Grand Galloping Gala. From the first floor up, the rooms tend to get smaller, the highest levels usually being guest rooms, but the family that owns the castle is often placed towards the castle’s heart, for both protection and convenience.

Celestia’s lounge was not far from the center, being a personal room, whereas the dining hall would have required that Night Wisp and Celestia travel down a few flights of stairs to reach it. Such was the assumed reason that the alicorn chose her personal room instead of the dining hall, but Night sensed something else. She had sensed it from the moment Celestia had changed her mind, as if things had suddenly taken a step up from calm to serious the moment the young pegasus brought up Elmwood. As sure as this feeling felt, though, it was small, and so Night was able to ignore it during most of the dinner (which had mysteriously arrived before them) with the princess.

To further distract herself from the disturbed feelings, Night Wisp took time to observe the private lounge Celestia had brought her to. Like the bedroom, the lounge had many shades of purple and gold, amongst many other soft colors, along with a couple of windows that provided a magnificent view of Equestria, but the lounge was perhaps half the size of the room Night awoke in. It was a cozy room, like the kind of coziness one gets when they visit their grandparents’ house.

Aside from the small size, the lounge had many places for ponies to sit or lie down comfortably, for the granite floor here was covered by a nice, plush rug of purple with the golden sun, Celestia’s own cutie mark, emblazoned upon it just like the bed covers. Surrounding the rug were large, round pillows, two of which Celestia brought to the wooden table in the room’s center for she and Night to sit on as they ate dinner. The rest of the room reminded the grey pegasus of the study in Celestia’s bedchamber, for there was also a bookshelf overflowing with books on the wall opposite of the windows. Overall, it was a pleasant room; an ideal place for somepony to come when they wished to be alone and curl up with a good book.

Her observations complete, Night reached over to her drink, a crystal chalice of cranberry juice (her favorite, coincidentally), and took a drink from it. Her silver eyes glanced over to Princess Celestia, who was levitating her own chalice for a drink with her magic, her horn glowing with a golden aura. They had both been silent while eating, despite Celestia’s offer to answer questions, seeing as Night had not yet asked anything. This, however, was about to change; as soon as the pegasus set her chalice down, she heard the princess clear her throat.

“Well then,” she began. “As much as I’d like to avoid it, you asked in my bedchamber what happened to your employer, Elmwood...” The alicorn looked straight at Night Wisp, her expression quite serious. “I understand you both were close, so I will ask this, for your own sake: are you sure you want to know?” Night opened her mouth to respond with a generic ‘yes’, but stopped herself to give Celestia’s question some thought. "Why did she bring up the fact that we were close? How did she even know we were close? And what does she mean by, ‘for my own sake’?" she wondered. Feeling less certain than before but still wanting to answer, the mare quietly nodded her head in reply. Celestia remained silent at first, but with a sigh, her expression relaxed to one depicting defeat. Her horn began to glow, and a book from the shelf sitting to her left slowly slid out from one of the rows and floated over to Night.

It turned, revealing to her the book’s cover title: Black Magic: Spells of Destruction, by Starswirl the Bearded. The letters were written in silver upon the book’s black surface, with no kind of artistic designs on it. The pegasus remained quiet, feeling unsettled that the princess would show her this in response to her question, but not sure if it was the answer. She looked up at the alicorn, whom she found was watching her quietly.

“Um..your highness, I don’t understand...” The book floated away from Night and over to Celestia, who looked at it and sighed again.

“The spells that schools and universities teach all throughout Equestria are built up together so that a unicorn can use his or her magic for creating and building, for doing and helping. They are taught to use their magic for good. Starswirl called it ‘white magic’, or ‘spells of creation’. But like all things, there is always an opposite.” The princess turned from the book and looked at Night Wisp, who was still as confused as before. “Black magic is that opposite. It is a kind of magic that is prohibited to be taught in average universities, save for high-level military academies, but even then nopony is ever taught any of the spells, but instead how to defend against them. The only results that came from those using black magic was corruption, war, and death. Sadly, the last of those brings us to your friend.”

There was a brief silence as Celestia let the seriousness sink in before she finished. “Elmwood was killed by black magic. My mages told me they found a magical ‘bug’ inside of him, one that made Elmwood feel like he was living his worst nightmares. This 'bug', called a Fear Sliver, is a form of black magic that was once used for torture and interrogation, but was later banned from all Equestrian magical military training. It was, and still is, a horrible thing for anypony to live through...the trauma it causes can last a lifetime, and the penalty of using the spell is death.”

Night Wisp sat in silence, not even listening to Celestia’s attempt of reassurance. She was too busy trying to comprehend the alicorn’s suggested conclusion that Elmwood, a harmless unicorn carpenter, was murdered by somepony using a forbidden kind of magic. Murder was a thing almost unheard of in Equestria, especially in Ponyville; there were the occasional cases of a stallion or mare who went insane due to a magical accident and consequently hurt somepony, but outright murder was something else.

To be told her friend was killed by somepony made Night terribly confused, but the only thing that outweighed this confusion was her anger. Elmwood was one of the most well-liked ponies in Ponyville, and nopony from the town seemed to have any reason to kill him.

"So does this mean that some random unicorn from who knows where just showed up and killed Elmwood without even thinking about who he was?" the pegasus asked herself. The mere thought of this only made her feel more angry and confused, until soon she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Princess Celestia,” she finally said, looking across the table and right at the alicorn. The princess, who was still looking at the book levitating in front of her, glanced in the pegasi’s direction, then turned to meet the gaze with an expression of curiosity. Night almost cringed, realizing she had thrown the formalities her parents had taught her to the wind, but her anger pushed her onward. “You said Elmwood was killed by magic,” she continued, memories of a book on crime-solving coming to mind. “So you should have been able to trace the spell to the caster. I read somewhere that each unicorn and alicorn has a unique aura surrounding their magic abilities, and the book also said that the aura can be followed with a tracer spell.”

The alicorn nodded, her expression seemingly calm, but the smallest hint of concern could be seen in her violet eyes. “You are correct; a unicorn’s aura can be traced from a recent spell they have cast, and that is how most, if not all black magic practitioners have been caught in the past. And before you ask, my mages have traced the aura from the sliver to the owner.” She stopped there, as if that were enough information, but Night was too confused to simply take that as an answer.

“And?” the mare asked, leaning forward. “Who was it? Who killed Elmwood?”

There was a long silence. Princess Celestia opened her mouth once or twice like she was going to answer, but then hesitated and closed it. Her eyes glanced from the book on black magic to Night Wisp, as if trying to decide how she would answer the question. Finally, after three minutes of nothing, the alicorn sighed and closed her eyes. “You’d think that after a few thousand years, one would know how to avoid telling a secret...” she said, her voice soft, making it seem like she was speaking to herself. Then her eyes opened, and they were gazing right into Night’s own. “So tell me..how much do you know about your abilities?”

This question caught the grey pegasus completely off guard. Her anger, which once outweighed her confusion, was now crushed beneath the hundreds of questions that were running through her mind. But of all these questions, the one that stood out was, of course, the biggest, most important question: how in the wide world of Equestria did Princess Celestia know about her abilities? This was the first time she had ever met either of the alicorn princesses, and with how strict her parents were with using her shadow at home, it wouldn’t make any sense for them to tell anypony else about it. Then again, nothing was making sense to the mare at this point. In her confusion the pegasus simply remained silent, though her expression made it easy to see she was certainly surprised. Meanwhile, Celestia had stood up from her pillow and trotted past Night Wisp, taking a moment to gaze out from the windows.

“It’s called Shadowmancing,” she said, turning from the windows to give the grey pegasus a sideways glance. “It’s a branch of black magic, an ability that gives one control of darkness itself, to use it to their heart’s desire. Its maximum strength has the capability to even match Luna and I’s own magic...” She turned again with a gentle sigh, now facing the windows again. “...but unlike our magic, there are prices one must pay for gaining and performing Shadowmancing. Like any magic spell, using your shadow to do things will take energy from your mind and your body; the bigger the action is, the more your energy will be sapped. But when our energy runs down, we grow tired and can’t perform spells. With Shadowmancing, your shadows become stronger and more powerful as you use more energy. When you begin to grow tired, however, your shadows become unstable and harder to control; they will continue to take your energy until you are weak, and then they will betray you and consume your mind. It’s a fate far worse than death...you will be alive, but a hollow shell of who you were. Still, despite these risks, others-”

“What about gaining them,” Night Wisp interrupted, her tone low. “You said there was a risk in gaining them, and yet you’re skipping it.” Before even letting Celestia reply, the pegasus whirled around, wings flared, and her face bearing an expression of anger. “What is it that’s being kept hidden from me? First it was Elmwood’s death, then I wake up here, and now you’re talking about black magic and shadow-wielding, or whatever! Tell me, princess, since you seem to know more about me than I do, what else is there that somepony failed to tell me?!” Though she may not have looked it, the young pegasus was on the verge of tears. She didn’t like how the princess was bringing all of these secrets up when she asked who killed Elmwood, sensing there was a kind of unspoken implication, and she especially didn’t like who it was implying. Celestia, meanwhile, simply sat there, looking out the windows in silence, before her soft voice began to speak again.

“To gain the ability of Shadowmancing, one is required to sacrifice a living soul to a mysterious entity called only the Nightmare, the supposed creator of all things evil, but more importantly, the source of black magic. The soul can be one’s own, or they can sacrifice the soul of another. Years ago, an explosion of light was seen far down in Ponyville one night, and I received a rushed letter with hardly more than an address. Not sure what to think, I left the castle with four of my guards, traveling to the address in the letter. What we arrived to was what had once been a house, but had been destroyed by some kind of powerful blast. We found bodies...we thought nopony was alive. That is, until we heard a foal crying, along with a second, lower voice, muttering things in a language I am still unfamiliar with. Upon entering the remains, we found a unicorn wearing what was left of a black robe standing in front of a cradle, and above him was...”

She paused, as if finding the thing hard to describe. “...black. It was black and hazy, like smoke, but it didn’t move like smoke; it acted like it was alive. It floated down, sinking towards the cradle, at which we heard the cries of the foal grow louder. I had my guards cut the unicorn down, at which the blackness suddenly convulsed before rearing back from the cradle and disappeared. The foal, a pegasus, appeared to be unhurt; finding nopony else alive amongst the wreckage, I brought the foal back to the castle, just until I found it a new home in Ponyville. The explosion was later covered up, with some difficulty, and the bodies removed to lessen suspicion. The report was written up, the wreckage was cleaned, and the whole event soon faded from memory, its only remaining piece living with an earth pony couple in Ponyville.”

Another moment of silence passed, the alicorn unmoving from her position, until finally she stood and turned, her face devoid of any obvious expression. “The letter I received that night had many things written in it, most of it unreadable, except for the address and a name. That name was Night Wisp. It was a name I decided to give the foal we found in the destroyed home, the foal who had an unexplainable magical talent with shadows, the foal who has lived in Ponyville for sixteen years without anypony, not even her subordinate parents, knowing who she was. It was a plan I thought could last until you were older, able to maybe understand this a little better...but then I hear news of a pony’s death in Ponyville caused by black magic.”

There was no change in her tone throughout everything the alicorn said; in fact, her voice sounded quite calm for such matters. The princess had been alive for thousands of years, and she had learned that in a one-on-one conversation as serious as this, one of the participants had to sound calm, even if they weren’t. With a few steps forward, Celestia leaned her head down close to the grey pegasus, whose tears had begun to run down her muzzle, her jaw open in silent horror, knowing already what the princess was going to tell her but not wanting to believe it.

“Night Wisp,” Celestia whispered. “Elmwood’s death was not, by any means, your fault. If anypony’s, it is mine. It was wrong and has been wrong of me to not tell you this sooner, as I’m sure it would have made things better than they are now. But now that you’re here, it is my hope that together you and I can understand your abilities and find out why you have them.” In a brief break of her calmness, the princess leaned closer and lightly nuzzled the mare’s cheek, a simple gesture of reassurance but still a rare thing to see, much less receive. The mare, however, simply stared straight ahead, lips trembling just slightly as the river of tears continued to flow from her silvery eyes, each drop glistening like a pristine diamond before it hit the floor.

Princess Celestia stood up slowly, glancing over to the windows once again with a sigh before turning back the pegasus. “Night, I need to go lower the sun so that my sister may raise the moon,” she spoke softly. “I will leave you to yourself in here, though you may feel free to explore the castle; all I ask is that you don’t go outside for the evening. Not all of the guards are informed of you being here yet, and I don’t want you to get caught as a trespasser...” Standing up, the alicorn turned and quietly trotted towards the lounge’s door, opening it using her magic without even breaking her stride. She paused just outside, giving one final glance to the young mare who sat inside, still staring straight ahead. With a sigh, her horn glowed, and the door slowly shut with a faint *click*.

When she returned from her duties, however, Night Wisp had mysteriously vanished.

Author's Note

Did some editing similar to Chapter one; just fixing long paragraphs, plus some mistakes that I hadn't recalled being in here before. Hope it looks better!

Chapter Four - Waking to Sunrise

Chapter Three -

Waking to Sunrise

Far off elsewhere, in a location unknown to anypony not part of the Alliance of Shadows, three ponies wearing similar blackened armor walk down the base’s torch-lit tunnels. Two of them, pegasi, have similar grey coats and yellowish eyes; brothers, perhaps. The third walking in front of the two pegasi, however, is a unicorn with a pinkish coat and two green eyes, one of which is adorned by a scar. Their faces hold serious expressions, for they have been called by the leader himself for a ‘special meeting’. There are only two kinds of meetings that are called special: those the members come back from, and those from which the members are never seen again.

They reach the leader’s room, blocked by two large wooden doors with ornate carvings of vines all across the surface. The unicorn’s face remains stoic as his horn glows a dull, murky green, at which the two massive doors open outward to reveal a rather impressive room. The ponies do not focus on this, however, but instead the silver unicorn who stands at a small cherrywood desk, looking over some papers. He turns his head up to face the trio, his icy blue eyes registering their presence.

“Ah, there you are, and right on time,” he finally says, a small, sinister grin on his face. “It’s nice to have ponies who obey orders quickly...which is exactly why I have asked you three here.”

The pink unicorn, who had remained silent, now spoke. “What are your orders, sir?” he asked, his voice was devoid of all emotion, like he possessed no soul of any kind. The silver unicorn chuckles, but the sound is more menacing than happy.

“My friends,” he replies. “The time has come to reveal our intentions to the princesses. I want you three to hop on a train from Ponyville, any train at all...but it will not reach its destination. Is this understood?” After receiving a simultaneous salute from the three ponies, the leader nods, and the trio exits. He chuckles again, closing his eyes with a sigh. “And so it begins...”

Two ponies slowly trotted along the dirt road towards Ponyville, a young mare with golden mane and bright white coat, and a small colt with golden coat and shining, white mane. The two carried saddlebags, both of which were filled to their maximum capacity, which would lead many to think these two were traveling from afar. This assumption would be incorrect; in fact, the two ponies had only traveled two miles. Despite this very short distance, though, there was weariness in the eyes of the young mare. Weariness not of a physical kind, but more along the lines of emotional. Her eyes glanced to her left side where her younger brother walked behind her a little, his eyes looking up at his sister. In her mind, the mare knew he was going to ask the question. She began praying to Celestia, Luna, and whatever other gods might exist that he wouldn’t ask her it. Like always, though, her prayers fell upon deaf ears.

“Sunny, why are we leaving our house?” the colt finally asked, his voice small and soft. Sunrise Flare slowed to a stop, her eyes still directed ahead. Little did her brother know that his question made every part of his sister just break down and cry. Their ‘house’ had been a little beaten-up shack she had managed to purchase cheaply with the bits they had stolen when they ran away. Despite being only fifteen, she had worked three part-time jobs just to pay the bills for that shack. It was small, disproportioned, and overall badly made, but it had been their home. Had been, Sunrise reminded herself.

Despite all her work, they had lost their home due to the landlord increasing the payments unfairly. When she had confronted him, he threatened to tell everypony that there were living without parents. Without any desire for that to happen, Sunrise gave in, and now they were without a home. It was her fault. This mere thought was what now made her feel the urge to break down, but instead the mare stood tall, eyes locked forward. She was not going to cry in front of Dawn Chaser. She had to be strong. Turning her head to finally answer her brother, Sunrise only shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, Dawn. You’ll understand when you’re a little older.”

Dawn Chaser nodded silently, at which the mare began to walk forward again, and he began to follow. He never questioned his sister’s answers once in his entire life, and if she said he’d know when he was older, then he would just have to wait. Ever since they had run away, the ten-year-old colt had come to consider his sister the smartest pony he knew. She had been in school longer than he, after all. If they were leaving their old home, then it probably meant Sunrise had found a better home. This thought brought a small smile to Dawn’s face, and his curiosity as to why they were leaving vanished instantly, replaced by thoughts of what their new home may be like. He wondered if they might have more lights, and maybe a bigger kitchen. Their old house was pretty small, even to him, and had always been fairly dark. Dawn, being the young pony he was, did not like the dark, and consequently the dark house was sometimes a bit scary. He had his big sister, though, so things were never really that bad. As long as he had her, he would never truly be afraid.

The two continued to travel along the road in silence, the morning sun just beginning to peek out from the horizon, casting an orange-ish glow over the land. And it was in the new light that Sunrise noticed something alongside the road, something that made her both curious and cautious. She slowed again to a stop, Dawn doing the same.

“What is it, Sunny?” he asked only seconds before his eyes caught on the same thing his sister saw. It was a pony...or, it looked like one. It was very dark, maybe even sort of blackish, and appeared to be curled up in the grass alongside the road. After a minute, Sunrise turned to her brother, slipping off her saddlebags.

“Stay here, Dawn,” she whispered, turning back around to slowly make her way towards the figure. As she got closer, she began to notice more pony-like features, such as legs, hooves, a head, and a tail. But what kept her cautious was the surface of its fur; the surface seemed to be blowing around slightly, not like hair but like smoke. It was like the black was surrounding the pony, not part of it. Sunrise had never seen anything like it, and like any young, curious pony, slowly reached out a hoof to touch it.

Night Wisp was having a nightmare. In it she was standing in the carpentry shop’s workshop, the room dark. She heard the sound of the front door open, at which she went over to the workshop door to peek out at who had come in. There, slowly walking towards the counter, was Elmwood, but not the version she had wanted to see again. He walked with a slight limp, dirty sawdust falling from his coat onto the floor with every step. His front was covered with blood that trailed down from his head and eyes, the protruding nails moving as if they were now some kind of ungodly way for him to see. He began to make his way around the counter, at which the grey mare moved back from the door, quietly dashing beneath one of the nearby tables. She heard the doors open, at which she closed her eyes, hoping to Celestia he didn’t find her. She heard his hoofsteps pause, then start again. They grew closer. Closer. Closer.

Finally, they stopped, and Night peered an eye open. Right next to her were four hooves, blood, sawdust, and dirt clinging to them. She looked up slightly, at which she saw Elmwood bending down and staring at her, the nails twitching. Suddenly, he opened his mouth and screamed, his head convulsing as black arms reach out from his empty eye sockets, the sound of his undead voice worse than metal on a chalkboard. The pony, if it could even be called as such, suddenly dived forward, as if moving to attack, and a pair of fiery green eyes flashed across Night’s vision. A hoof touched her shoulder, and the mare screamed.

Sunrise tried to jump back as the strange blackness surrounding the figure shifted quickly, forming a black arm that lashed out at the surprised mare, gripping tightly to her hoof. No matter how hard she pulled, she couldn’t pull away. The figure on the ground began to make fearful groans, moving around as the black arm gripped tighter to Sunrise’s hoof. Meanwhile, Dawn stood just five hoofsteps away, watching in terror as the odd black thing grabbed at his sister. “H-Hey! Leave her alone!” he shouted as loud as he could with his tiny voice. “L-Leave my sister alone!”

“Dawn, stay there!” Sunrise shouted, her voice filled with frustration and fear. She didn’t know what was going on or what the thing on the ground was, but it obviously didn’t like her touching it. She struggled to free her hoof from the tightening grasp, or at least trying to gain some distance from the thing. She paused, took a quick breath, then gave one last, hard tug. It seemed as though the effort was futile...then suddenly, it let go.

Sunrise stumbled with a yelp of surprise, no longer having anything to hold her back, and fell back onto the dirt road. Dawn ran to his sister’s aid, though made sure to stay behind her as he helped her stand, certainly not wanting to get anywhere near the attacker. As she stood, Sunrise watched as the other figure stood as well, its pony-like body completely black with three arms reaching out from appendages that looked like wings. The figure suddenly turned, moving swiftly towards Sunrise and Dawn, arms reaching forward. The young mare turned and embraced her brother tight, hoping to hide him from what was to come, expecting to feel the creature’s wrath at any second.

To her surprise, however, nothing came. More seconds passed, and still nothing. Daring a peek, Sunrise lifted her head a little, dreading what she might see looming over them. She was further surprised to see no terrible, black demon-like creature over them now, but instead a somewhat smaller grey mare, a pegasus, with midnight blue mane. Sunrise lifted her head more, looking up wide-eyed at the pony, who appeared to be just as surprised about the situation. The grey pony stared for a few seconds, then looked down at the black arms, which had now sunk low to the ground. She then looked back at Sunrise, at which she appeared to understand everything.

Without even a twitch from the mare the arms vanished, as if they had never existed, and the grey pegasus sunk down to the ground, her silvery eyes wide. There was silence between the three on the road, the only sound being a gentle breeze that blew past. Silence...until a sob was heard. Then another. It took a second for Sunrise to realize that the mare had begun to cry, watching as tears began to drip down from her eyes and off her muzzle, creating spots on the dusty road. The scene almost made Sunrise want to cry, something deep inside feeling an extreme sense of pity for whoever this stranger was.

For a full minute, all the two younger ponies did was listen to the strange mare’s crying, unsure what to make of anything they had witnessed or were witnessing. Moving slowly so as not to startle the pegasus, Sunrise began to unwrap herself from around Dawn, who now peeked his head over his sister’s body, watching the grey pony cry. What Sunrise saw next was possibly the bravest act Dawn had ever performed; slowly trotting around his sister, the small colt went up to the stranger, watching for a second before giving the mare a hug. Sunrise started to move, ready to tell her younger brother to stay back from the mysterious pony. For all she knew, this could be a ploy to make them think they were safe. But only when the grey mare’s crying grew, her hooves embracing the small colt much like a foal does to its own mother, did Sunrise hold her tongue. This mare, whoever or whatever she was, certainly was not anything evil, or at least no longer appeared to be.

The white-coated mare stood up, hesitantly moving next to her brother. Dawn looked up silently, his expression the same one he gave his sister whenever he truly wanted something. Sunrise sighed, looking down at the pegasi, watching her body tremble with each sob. "This could still be a trap..." she thought. "But I think if she really wanted us, she would have had us by now." And so, without a word, Sunrise Flare bent down, placing a hoof around the grey mare’s back, helping her brother comfort the distraught pony as much as she could, but secretly wondering what they were getting themselves into.

“...after I escaped the castle, I flew as far as I could manage towards Ponyville...when that became too much work, I landed and ran along the roads..” Night paused, taking a few steady breaths. Sunrise sat next to the mare, listening with interest to her story, while Dawn had gone off a little ways (at his sister’s request) to play with his plush doll. It was now close to midday, and the sun was almost directly overhead. The three ponies had traveled off the road to a set of trees, where Sunrise had spent three or four hours trying to comfort Night Wisp enough into getting her to speak. At first, the pegasus wouldn’t even let Sunrise get close to her, but the earth pony’s reassuring words had been calming enough to get her right up next to the grey mare. The next hour had been spent trying to get Night to talk, which had been a little easier. The pegasus had soon begun explaining the events leading up to her being where she was when Sunrise and Dawn had found her, even going as far as telling Sunrise about what Celestia had told her regarding her abilities. Though the concept of Shadowmancing seemed very confusing to Sunrise, she had not said a word; she simply sat there, doing her best to understand as much as the pegasus told her. She found it strange that she could be so calm around a pony who had, more or less, tried to hurt her and her younger brother. Then again, she had played ‘parent’ for Dawn for at least two years, so her maturity was exceptionally high for a mare her age.

After a minute of silence, Night began to speak again, though her head was lowered slightly, as though she were still having trouble recounting the story.. “I eventually reached Ponyville, but after being told everything, I just...didn’t feel safe anymore. Elmwood was gone...I-I didn’t have anypony to go to..” Her body shuddered a little, but she kept a grip on herself, if only just long enough to finish. “Anyways...I ran out of Ponyville, just staying on the same road. I didn’t know where I was going, honestly, I just wanted to be away. After a little while, I fell asleep on the side of the road...next thing I know, I’m standing over you and your brother.”

The last part was, of course, a lie; she recalled every disturbing detail about her nightmare, and had long since connected it to her actions. But as much as she wanted to be honest with Sunrise, especially after how kind the younger mare was treating her, she didn’t want to make the two afraid to be near her more than already. It was a miracle they hadn’t run from her already, and the pegasus wanted to keep it that way. Just then, Night was aware that a hoof was wrapping around her back, and a hug from from Sunrise was soon to follow. The pegasus was still for a moment, confused by the sudden hug, but tentatively accepted it, leaning slightly against the snowy-coated mare.

“It sounds like you’ve been through alot,” Sunrise finally said, pulling away from the embrace. “I’m...I’m really sorry about your friend. He sounded like a nice pony..” Silence followed, the grey mare only nodding in response, her eyes turned down slightly. The two sat in silence for a moment, neither saying anything until Sunrise, who decided a new topic was needed, perked up slightly. “So, um, Night...you said you’re running away, right?” The pegasus looked up and silently nodded, curious as to why Sunrise was asking such a thing after being told just that.

"Okay,” the earth pony continued. “But you said you didn’t know where you’re going. So, I was thinking...maybe you’d like to travel with my brother and I?” The only response Sunrise received from Night Wisp was a blank stare, at which she began feeling a little awkward, but kept trying. “You see, Dawn and I don’t have a place to live...that is, not yet. I know we have an uncle and aunt who live down south in Fillydelphia, but to get there, we need to take a train. That’s why we’re on our way to Ponyville...you can come with us, if you want.”

The grey pegasus maintained her silence, trying to understand the logic of the earth pony. After all that had just happened, after being terrified by what she was, Sunrise was inviting her to go with them. Night opened her mouth to decline, but stopped before a sound could escape. "Sunrise is right," she thought to herself. "I don’t know where I’m going. And after leaving from the castle, Princess Celestia will have sent guards out to find me. Maybe she won’t expect me to go as far south as Fillydelphia..."

Night slowly looked up at Sunrise, waiting for just a minute more before shrugging. “Well...” she spoke softly. “I guess I could go with you...at least until we reach Fillydelphia.” This response seemed to make Sunrise content, for a smile had suddenly appeared on her face only a second before Night Wisp was hugged by the mare again. This time, though, Night felt something small warm up a little inside of herself. Soon, she realized she was smiling, too.

Although Ponyville was not a big town, Night Wisp still felt as though it was taking forever and a day to reach the train station. As much as she would have wanted to go around the town until reaching the station, the line they had to wait in was within the town, and going through Ponyville would be a lot faster than going around. Sunrise, taking notice to the pegasi’s apparent discomfort, made sure to trot close at her side so as to provide some kind of reassurance as they made their way along the streets, with her younger brother doing the same on Night’s other side. The grey mare took some comfort in this, but bowed her head a little anyways so as not to catch a lot of attention. The last thing she wanted was harassment from somepony with a wild rumor regarding her; then again, the rumors were probably very accurate to what had actually happened, which was all the more reason she didn’t want to be accused of anything.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour of walking (though it was really only ten minutes), Night found herself looking up at the train station’s clock tower. The station didn’t appear too busy at the moment, only a few ponies here and there, which was perfectly fine for the grey pegasus. The less ponies who may bother her, the better. A gentle nudge from Night’s left side brought her attention to Sunrise, who had taken off her saddlebag and laid it down on the ground next to them.

“Hay, I know you feel uncomfortable and all,” the white mare spoke softly. “But can you stay here with my things and watch dawn while I get our tickets? It shouldn’t take very long, so I don’t think anypony will have time to bother you.” Night nodded, giving Sunrise a little smile.

“It’s okay, I’ll be fine. But even so, try and hurry...” she replied, watching as the white mare trotted up the station steps. With nothing else to do, Night glanced around the station’s front again and again, double checking for anypony she recognized. After all, it never hurt to be sure.

It was hard to say whether even one minute passed by before Night heard Dawn give a yelp, along with the sound of something large hitting the ground. She turned with surprise, realizing she hadn’t been watching the colt. He had moved not too far from where she was, seeming to have been playing with his doll, but a large, cloaked figure standing by him.

“Hay, watch where you’re going!” Night exclaimed, not even thinking about the attention it brought to herself as she went over to pull Dawn Chaser away from in front of the mystery pony. The pony turned to her, the sun hitting enough of its face to reveal a stallion with a pink coat, a horn, and green eyes with a scar over the left one. He looked down at the colt, then back up at Night, giving her a menacing gaze.

“Oh, I’ll watch where I’m going,” he said, his voice calm but very cold. “Next time your brat gets in my way, I’ll make sure I step on him.” With that, he turned and trotted up the station steps, catching up to two other cloaked ponies. Night Wisp, meanwhile, was both speechless and furious.

“Just who does he think he is...” she growled to herself, though trailed it off before she said anything inappropriate in front of Dawn, who had taken refuge behind one of her legs from the unicorn.

“H-He...wasn’t very n-nice...” the colt stammered, peeking out from his hiding spot. “Thank you, Night...”

Night, however, barely heard Dawn. Her anger towards the unicorn felt as though it was beginning to spread through her body, warming every inch of her skin. Thoughts began to pop into her mind, images of what she could do to the rude pony passing before her eyes as if they were already happening, then vanishing to make room for the next image. As she felt her anger continue to burn, the images began to change, the ideas becoming more hateful and violent, her mind going places she didn’t even know existed. It was here that Night decided she should stop, seeing as she was probably acting foalish, but the images continued to flow, each one worse than before. The mare tried to block out her anger, but it pushed forward, making her hooves feel as though they were on fire, burning with the unnatural hatred that was possessing her mind.

Suddenly, the images changed again, no longer watching the unicorn scream but Elmwood instead. He sat in the corner of the workshop, body tensed and twitching, his hooves scraping across the wood as he desperately pushed himself back against the wall. His face was covered in sweat, his mouth saying things she couldn’t understand, his horn glowing as the hammer and nail lifted, lining up with his eye. The hammer slowly pulled back, as if controlled by another. Suddenly, it flew forward, the sound of metal on metal, the sound of screaming ringing all throughout the horrible dream, a nightmare that the pegasus couldn’t control.

“Night?” came a voice, almost immediately jolting the mare out of the mental entrapment. Night looked around, slightly dazed, finding herself back at the station with Sunrise standing at her side with a worried look. “Night?” she asked again, tapping the mare on the shoulder now. “Um...we may have a problem.” The grey pegasus whirled around almost immediately at the word ‘problem’, her nerves still jumpy from whatever she had been experiencing. Now was not the time for them to have any more problems. They needed to get on that train. They needed to leave. She needed to leave.

“What do you mean, problem?” Night asked, her voice toned just slightly with the growing desperation in her heart. Sunrise’s ears folded down as she rubbed one hoof on the other.

“Well...I didn’t really think about it when I invited you to come with us, but I don’t think I have enough bits for three tickets,” she replied softly, her eyes downcast so as to avoid the other mare’s gaze. “I’m really sorry, but unless you have any bits, I can’t pay for all of us.”

Night Wisp remained still for a moment before slowly sitting down, not sure how she was to take this kind of new issue. Well, this is just great. I have no home, I think I’m losing my mind, and now my only ride away from here is gone, she thought to herself. How am I supposed to get enough bits for a ticket? Rob somepony? The thought was highly sarcastic, but as it echoed within her thoughts, the idea started to sound tempting. The only issue was her conscience; she had grown up being told not to steal, after all. How else would she get a ticket, though? It wasn’t like anypony would just give her their bits. Just then, out of the corner of her eye, Night spotted the unicorn that had insulted Dawn only a moment earlier. The two ends of copper wire touched and sparked, at which the grey mare gained a slightly devilish grin.

“Sunrise,” she finally spoke, turning to the earth pony. “Go ahead and get tickets for yourself and Dawn. I’ll meet you on the train.” Without even waiting for a reply, Night turned and dashed up the steps towards the cloaked unicorn and his companions, though slowed down to let a couple of ponies get in line ahead of her. Peering around these ponies, Night caught sight of the unicorn, more importantly, his purse. Since she stood at his rear, she could just barely see the little red pouch sagging with what could be guessed was a hefty amount of bits.

"Surely there’ll be enough to buy one ticket..." Night thought, though it was more of a hope. She wasn’t going to try stealing from anypony else, since her conscience was barely allowing her to steal from this unicorn.

“Hey, you going to move up?” asked somepony from behind. Night blinked, realizing the line had moved up some. With a short apology to the other pony the pegasus took a few steps forward, trying to keep her sight locked on the small bag. The unicorn appeared to be the next one up to the ticket booth, so she had to act quickly. Keeping her eyes on her target, Night concentrated her mind on creating a single arm. Though this would normally be a simple task, Night was trying something different. The usual method simply made a physical, black arm, but that would be highly noticeable; instead, the mare focused on creating the arm as a moving shadow. After all, that’s all it really was in the first place. But, being something she hadn’t done before, the pegasus struggled for a few seconds before she opened her eyes to see the arm flat upon the ground. Not done yet, Night turned her eyes back to the unicorn’s pouch....right as he moved up to the ticket booth.

No, no, no! she heard herself shout from in her own mind, her desire to have the bag now being at the forefront of things. Her eyes remained locked on the little purse as she saw the unicorn pull his cloak back with his hoof, feeling ashamed that she wasn’t fast enough. Night felt her eyes becoming dry from keeping them open for so long, and she blinked. Upon opening them, she saw the bag was gone. With a sigh of defeat, Night began to turn to leave the line when she suddenly heard a small, metallic thump. Taking one look behind herself, the pegasus nearly fell over; there, sitting only a few hoofsteps away, was the little red bag, the golden metal of the bits within glinting in the sunlight as a black, snake-like shadow crawled back to its host. that's when the sharp pain hit her head, much like she'd just hit it on something. The mare cringed, remembering that juggling trick she'd once tried with some annoyance.

The ponies behind her had stepped on ahead when she had left the line, so Night quickly dashed over to the pouch and snatched it up with her teeth, ignoring the headache as much as possible and running down over to the next ticket booth. As luck would have it, she spotted Sunrise and Dawn stepping up to the window, and with a small flutter of her ashen wings, the mare leaped to their side, dropping the bag on the counter and nearly shouting “Three to Fillydelphia, please!”

Dawn Chaser’s little face beamed as he quickly hugged Night Wisp’s leg, obviously happy to see her again; meanwhile, Sunrise was changing between staring at the pegasus and staring at the large amount of bits she had acquired. She could barely form a question as the pony behind the glass of the booth transferred some of the bits out of the bag, then gave back the bag, now half-empty, along with three train tickets. Suddenly there was a commotion at the other booth, at which Night, Sunrise, Dawn, and everypony else in the line looked over to see three cloaked ponies arguing, one of them clearly stating the word ‘thief’ over everything else.

Sunrise turned, looking back at Night’s bag of bits as the pegasus grabbed it with her teeth along with the tickets. “Night, you wouldn’t have anything to do with that thief they were mentioning, would you?” she asked, following the mare past the booth with Dawn at her side. The scream of a train whistle interrupted before Night could answer, and the multi-colored train, dubbed “the Friendship Express”, pulled into the station with a roar of steam and pistons.

“What was that, Sunrise? I can’t hear you over the train!” the pegasus yelled back between her teeth, not turning to face the earth pony lest she give away the wide smile on her face.

Chapter Six - The Voice

Chapter Six -

The Voice

In the universe, there are forces behind every action, every reason, and every event that occurs across time and space. They are not gods; gods are depicted to have preferences, holding reasons and goals of their own. These forces do not have such things, as They would be distracted from Their purposes, from the reasons They exist.

How did these forces come to be? What created Them? We call it Fate. Fate controls all, in Its own purpose to make sure that what is supposed to occur, happens. It cannot do this on Its own, being only all-knowing; and thus, Fate created these forces, each unique, and yet each from the basic, general energies of the universe: the energy of light, and the energy of darkness. These forces create pawns of Their own across worlds, across dimensions, to help perform the tasks of the forces, who together, carry out the tasks of Fate.
There is, perhaps, one catch to this perfect system: the forces of Fate know not always what the task of Fate is, nor do They always know what the task before Them is. To mortals, and even some immortals, it would seem like freedom; but Fate controls with a silent voice, directs without being seen.
And Fate does not make mistakes.

Princess Luna soared across the dreaming plane, gazing below at the twinkling lights that filled the otherwise dark and space-like void. One might have thought that each was star, which was an easy thing to mistake them for if one had never seen the expanse of the dreaming plane before. But to Luna, who was familiar with this place, knew that each was a pony’s dream. And as the princess of the night, it was her responsibility for the well-being of Equestria’s subjects as they slept, even within their own dreams.

At that moment, she noticed something, a small change in the calm of the plane, though certainly nothing unfamiliar. Focusing her mind, the alicorn princess dropped lower, passing many dreams filled with happiness and laughter, nothing to be a disturbance. No, what she sensed was fear; somepony was having a bad dream. An unusually strong one as dreams go, seeing as she had noticed it so quickly. Looking around, Luna searched out for the source, and soon came upon it; but with it, there was something she hadn’t expected.
The dream floated there, its light tinted with black wisps of fear, and floating next to it was a black shape, almost like a pony; though, it looked more like black cloud of fog, or mist. The cloud was stretched outwards, silently tearing away little bits of black, which immediately disappeared into the darkness of its shape. It paid no attention to Luna, if it even had the sentience to do so, seeming focused on its task.

“I know not what you are, or what you are doing,” spoke the princess, partially to herself, though loud enough in case it could hear her. “But you are causing unrest in this pony’s mind, and as their princess and protector, I am afraid I cannot let you proceed. Begone!” Her horn glowed, a blast of blue magic flying at the cloud. However, a wisp of black flew from the cloud, touching to the alicorn’s horn.

“I know you’re still jealous of her.”
Luna’s eyes grew wide, her magic flickering before fading away. The voice sounded close, as if right next to her, whispering in her ear. She turned, only to see nothing but the expanse of the dreaming plane. Looking forward again, she put her focus upon the black cloud, which still remained. “I-I do not know what you are talking about!” she spoke, trying to maintain dominance despite the strange sense of fear the voice filled her with. “I am jealous of no pony!”

“Why do you lie to yourself, Luna? So naive, just as you were a thousand years ago.” The voice seemed to move around her, whispering into the other ear. “But you can’t lie to me...I know it’s still there. That little spot in the back of your mind, full of anger, resentment, sorrow--”

“SILENCE!!” the alicorn interrupted in sudden anger, the sound of her traditional Royal Canterlot Voice booming across the void. Three blasts of her magic flew from her horn, passing harmlessly through the black cloud. “YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME! I CHANGED! THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY CHANGED--”

“The Elements of Harmony suppressed you,” the voice spoke out, seeming to come from every direction, thundering over the princess like a terrible storm. “You forget the true purpose of harmony, just like your sister and every other mortal. Harmony is to have peace between darkness and light, allowing them to coexist and maintain balance. That is what the Elements do.” The thundering faded away, leaving Luna floating there in silence before hearing the voice again, once again a whisper. “As for you, little Luna, the more you try to hide from your feelings, the more you become unbalanced. Eventually, there must be some ‘compensation’...and you know what that was like, don’t you?”
The sound of menacing laughter began to ring in Luna’s ears, the cloud taking shape of a tall, black figure with piercing eyes, wearing an alicorn’s battle helmet. The princess closed her eyes, the laughter everywhere in her mind, memories of a barren wasteland and loneliness making her stomach turn. “P-Please, no..not again..” she whispered, unable to think through unbearable sound.

“That remains to be seen. But do not feel so alone; another is learning how powerful pain can make her. She’s just like you, too...so young, so very afraid. Do you think she’ll crumble like you, too~?”

And then, it all stopped. The princess looked up hesitantly, afraid that it would still be there. But all that was before her was the single dream, its light glowing peacefully as its owner slept. The cloud and that voice were gone, their only trace being the laughter that echoed in Luna’s mind.

The next morning, as Princess Celestia sat in her private lounge enjoying a breakfast of buckwheat pancakes, there came a knock at the door. Before she even had a chance to ask who it was, the door opened, with Princess Luna stepping inside. The blue alicorn looked drained, her usual flowing, starry mane having reverted to its short, light-blue physical appearance, which typically occurred when her magic was nearly spent.

“Sister, we need to speak. Now.”

“You’re absolutely sure it was the same voice as before?”

Celestia’s horn glowed, a cup of tea brought by the castle staff hovering towards the darker alicorn, whose own horn glowed as she accepted the drink. At least an hour had passed since Luna had entered, in which she explained the previous night’s strange encounter to her older sister.

“I don’t think such can be said. My memories before my...transformation, are clouded,” replied the moon princess. “But its voice is familiar, and it acted as if it knew me. And the laughter...I may not remember much from before, but I still recall that laugh.” She closed her eyes to sip her tea; when she opened them, Celestia had left the small table, now standing at her bookshelf. Her golden magic glowed around a black leather-bound book, which she gazed at for a moment before tucking it beneath her wing.

“Whether we are sure of what it is or not, it is best to assume that it is both powerful as well as dangerous,” she finally spoke, looking back at her younger sister. “This morning, an anonymous letter was received that stated a threat against Canterlot; it would not surprise me if whoever, or whatever you encountered had some connection to it. While we can take some defensive measures to protect the city, we need to know what exactly what we’re facing.”

“Sister, what of the other it mentioned?” Luna asked. “If you are right, that these are connected, maybe this other could be able to provide us with insight?”

“That is a good thought, Luna, but we don’t know who or where we could--”

Celestia was cut off by the sound of the lounge’s door opening, her Captain of the Guard hastily entering the room, stopping a few steps in as he noticed that both princesses were present.

“Your highnesses!” he exclaimed, removing his helmet and bowing before both. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but two class three reports just came in from the south. I thought to notify you immediately..”

The sun princess turned to her sister, who gave her the same look: surprise. Of five classes, a class three was serious (to put it into perspective, the situation of Discord’s escape was labeled a class two, and could have been a class one if the Elements had failed to stop him). Turning back to the Captain, Celestia raised her hoof, allowing him to rise. “No need to apologize, Shining Armor. What is the situation?”

“I’m not that sure, your highness,” the stallion replied as he stood. “One claims that the Friendship Express was hijacked last night by four unknown ponies while on its way to Fillydelphia, and that they used a hallucination spell on the passengers to disorient them. Supposedly one turned on them, using the spell to make the other three attack each other while the fourth escaped. The other report, however, said only three ponies hijacked the train. It gave no details like the first, only claiming that unknown magic was used. And, this seemed to be a mistake, but it identified a pegasus as the one that used magic. That said, I thought you should be notified.”

With this said, the room fell quiet. Uncomfortably quiet. It stayed this way for a minute, before Shining realized that Princess Celestia was staring off into space. And while the princess was known for having a calm look in every situation, the stallion couldn’t help feeling like she was concerned.

“Thank you, Captain,” she finally said, her eyes focusing on Shining. “It seems some investigation will be needed. Have four guards fly out to Fillydelphia and gather what information they can; we need to know what actually happened down there.” The stallion nodded, placing his helmet back onto his head before leaving the room.

“Celestia, what is wrong?” her sister asked once the doors were closed again, having sensed her sister’s concern.

“I’m not sure I know yet,” the white alicorn replied, using her magic to lift the book up from beneath her wing. “But I fear there may be more to this than I suspected, more than I think I even understand. And so--” The book floated over, settling next to Luna. “--I shall leave you in charge of learning what you can about this voice you met. I think you may find answers in that book, or may at least better understand the text than I. Meanwhile, I shall see to the protection of Canterlot, as well as the planning of the upcoming wedding...”

With this, Princess Celestia began to make her way for the door. Princess Luna looked down at the book’s cover, reading its silver letters: Black Magic: Spells of Destruction, by Starswirl the Bearded.

“Oh, and Luna?” Celestia spoke, pausing briefly, looking back at her sister. “A personal request...your Night Guards are excellent at tracking. Have one fly down to Ponyville and track down a dark grey pegasus...”

Six hours earlier...

Night Wisp turned, looking back towards the train as the lonely sound of its whistle echoed through the night sky, signaling all within earshot that it was going to continue on its journey. It had felt like only a few minutes, and already the train tracks looked so far away.

After Chrome had ended the confrontation between herself and Myst, things were still chaotic. For one thing, Night’s left wing was broken in about five places, according to Chrome, who simply bandaged it up. It was here that reality had become serious for the pegasus, and yet, at the same time it was all very surreal. The two pegasi who attacked her lay dead; two robust stallions with obvious strength, with their bodies practically crushed. Crushed, somehow, by her.

No passenger thanked her as they were untied, many of them not even straying within a hoof’s reach of her. She would occasionally see their eyes shortly before they would look away. And each look she saw would further divide her, between the surreal feeling that she wasn’t herself, that they were looking at something else, and the harsh reality that these ponies were all afraid of her, too scared to even meet her gaze.

There were those who did attempt to talk with her. Sunrise Flare had come up next to her at one point, asking if if she was alright. With no reply from Night, Sunrise simply nodded and moved away to help with untying passengers. Steel Strings was the next to come to her, excitedly asking her about giant black tendrils and babbling about how awesome it all looked, until receiving a knock behind the head from Forté. Again, the grey mare had only replied with silence.

Chrome even came to her, though, the older unicorn came at a time when the pegasus wished she wouldn’t be noticed. In her silent thoughts she had made a decision for herself, the fearful looks of the other passengers lurking in her mind as she’d turned and begun to wander towards the back of the train.

“Goin’ somewhere?” she’d heard him ask, his gruff voice impossible to mistake for anypony else. Night stopped where she was, but didn’t turn; after a minute of silence, the stallion gave a sigh.

“Just gonna wander off, then? Vanish under cover of night, never to be seen again? And all because a few ponies lose their spines over somethin’ they don’t understand,” he said, the tone of his voice solemn, as if remembering something else. There was then a pause, followed by another sigh, this one sounding annoyed. “Well, newsflash for you, lass: as smart as you think this is, it’s stupid. You’re not gonna go wanderin’ off alone. You can make whatever kind of excuse you like, but your little display back there isn’t going to go unnoticed. And with that broken wing, you’re at a disadvantage. So consider yourself stuck with me.”

It was strange to hear the older stallion like this, though it was hard to say whether he was doing this out of kindness, or out of pity. At the time, it hardly mattered to her. She had set her mind on leaving, and nothing would deter her; not even when Dawn Chaser noticed her and Chrome and alerted his sister.

So now, here they all were, leaving the train tracks and heading eastward. Chrome had taken the lead of the group, to no argument of anypony else (despite the fact that the stallion still wore his blindfold), with Sunrise and Dawn following close behind, and Night following them a few hoofsteps back. Nopony spoke a word; a solemn silence hung over them all, the occasional wind blowing through the grass being the only sound around them. Questions began to trickle through Night’s mind, thinking about the fear she’d seen from the passengers.

What could have made them so afraid? I mean, it was me, but...what did they see? she wondered. That unicorn, Myst...he said something about tentacles, and constricting those stallions’ bodies. Did...did that idea I had go wrong? Like with Elmwood..? The event of the carpenter and the train, together, began to form an idea in the mare’s mind, coupled with what Celestia told her about shadowmancing. This must be what Celestia meant about black magic being unstable. It does what you want, but then it gets out of control. So...I guess the only way to avoid it is to not use shadowmancing. This thought seemed logical, and gave her some resolve, or at least enough to let the matters rest. And speaking of, she was growing tired.

“Um, hey? Chrome?” Night asked. The silence broken, Chrome paused and glanced back, as did Sunrise and Dawn. The grey pegasus stiffened up, feeling oddly uncomfortable all of a sudden, but continued. “It’s, um...it’s pretty late. How much farther are we going..?”

The red unicorn looked forward, remaining quiet for a few minutes. The singular question came to mind, in each of the ponys’ heads: How can a blind stallion know where’s he’s going? Steel had said he was blind, but Chrome’s ability to function so flawlessly with his eyes covered made this statement hard to believe. Granted, the stallion never said where they were going; but the way he confidently moved forward, and how he looked out in front of them now, made him seem the very opposite of blind.

“Hrmm...we’re still a good distance from the forest,” the unicorn finally answered, turning to face the other three ponies. “I’d say maybe even a day’s journey, by a rough guess. In another mile, we can set up until tomorrow.” Without even asking for anypony’s opinion, he turned and began to move forward again, leaving the rest to follow, if only so that they wouldn’t be left behind.

Never before had one mile felt so long to Night, trudging over the gentle hills under the light of the moon, down through the small dips in between, only to go over yet another. Not that this was a difficult thing to do, but the pegasus could feel her body steadily growing heavier, her legs wearier with every step. It progressed to her head, and soon things were becoming fuzzy, her eyes desperately wanting to close, even succeeding in this for a few seconds before she was able to shake herself awake. The more she remained awake, though, the worse she began to feel. She heard Sunrise say something to her, but a sense of dizziness came over, sending her reeling. A minute later, and for the third time in the past two days, Night Wisp slipped into unconsciousness.

The dreaming plane is a constantly changing place, as it conforms to the mind of the dreamer, and the mind is always changing its thoughts. It is fairly rare, then, for the plane to take shape of a setting previously used. But for the second time in one night, Night found herself standing in the world of black and white. She turned out of memory, finding the tall pony figure standing behind her like before, still shrouded by wisps of black.

“Fascinating,” a voice whispered, as if hovering just behind the pegasus. “And really, that is a compliment; it is not often I am fascinated by a mortal. I do admire my own work, of course, but never before has such an imperfection been so interesting.”
As creepy as it was to have a weird voice floating around her head, the mare had the oddest sense that she’d been insulted. “Imperfection? Who are you to say that?!” she replied hastily.

“Ooh, touchy. I like that,” it continued. “Here I was afraid you’d be all scared and innocent, all emotionally distraught over possessing black magic and being shunned by others. A relief.” It paused, as if finished, but then picked up again. “Ah, but I distract myself. Do not get so upset, mortal. To be an imperfection, to be my imperfection, is yet another compliment. You should be honored. If you knew who I was, that is.”
“Then why not have a proper introduction? I always wanted to meet a creepy figure of my imagination...” Night responded sarcastically, looking back to try and catch a glimpse of the voice. But as quickly as she did this, it was behind her again.

“You will come to know me with time, believe me, but I am no figment of your creation. But I know who you are, Night Wisp. In the three seconds you took to say that, I took a little peek at...well, just your entire life, to the present. It’s funny, how an imperfection like you must think yourself as a perfect mistake. You possess Shadowmancing, but you lack the corruption of heart, the desire for power. In fact, I sense that you want to be rid of the gift of darkness--” Another pause, then a chuckle. “Alas, your mind is fading. Seems someone wants you to wake up. We’ll meet again, soon~..”

Sure enough, everything was fading; the same slipping feeling was all around the pegasus, and she was unable to struggle against it. With a last attempt, she threw herself at the figure, determined to see him, her, it. What she saw, briefly before it all left her, was a pair of red and green eyes, a purple haze glowing around the edges. Harsh, unforgiving eyes. A gaze that made her afraid.

“Aaaand, there she is! Told you, little guy, I know what I’m doing.”

The light of day felt overwhelming as Night opened her eyes, coughing away the scent of some powerful smelling salts. Groaning, she used a hoof to block the light above her. “Wait..above me..?” she murmured to herself. “How long have I been sleeping..?”

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s only midday,” replied a stallion’s voice, which she immediately noticed wasn’t familiar by its somewhat younger tone, in comparison to Chrome. “But you might’ve been asleep a lot longer if I hadn’t caught up when I did. Granted, you weren’t that hard to find..”

Peeking out from under her hoof, Night was met with blinding sunlight, until a small shift moved the sun behind a head. As the colors balanced out, she could see a dark blue mane with lighter streaks, brushed back over the head, and a face with a dark color of grey-purple, except for the white muzzle. Its eyes were an orange-yellow, the pupils black slits; a pair of small canine teeth poked out from its mouth, and there were soft little tufts of fur on the eartips. Despite having never met one personally before, it was clear that the pony above her was a male bat pony, maybe only a few years older than her. And, as a small observation of the pegasus, a rather handsome one.

“Odd, her face is growing red,” the stallion remarked, lifting the small vial of salts and peering at it. “I hope I didn’t use too strong of a salt, or she’ll go into a sneezi--”

And then Chrome, who had just returned to see an unknown figure standing over Night, knocked the bat pony unconscious.

Chapter Seven - Newcomer

- Chapter Seven -

Newcomer

There once existed an underground order of ponies, gryphons, and some dragons whose interests lay in making Equestria a land that belonged to its citizens, not ruled over by one princess. They had no qualms against Celestia, especially since it was she who saved them all from the wrath of Nightmare Moon, but they felt that having a chosen citizen to lead for a number of years would be a better idea. And so they peacefully petitioned, bargained, tried to seek their goal, but to no success. Members became discouraged; some grew angry, some began to lose hope. And some, whose intentions were as dark as their hearts, saw an opportunity for control.

In life, there are those who fret about the small problems and those who see the bigger picture and fret about the large-scale issues instead. Also in life are exceptions, and Dawn Chaser, Sunrise’s younger brother. is an exception to both kinds of pony presented.

The matters of being on the run or Night Wisp's strange powers had flown over the young colt's head, and small problems such as having paid for a trip they had now abandoned didn't come to his thoughts. Dawn didn't tend to think about these kinds of problems. His only worries were for that of his sister, Sunrise, when she wasn't around, or the safety of his small plushie. Granted, when Night passed out behind them, he had become quite upset, clinging to his older sister and asking repeatedly if the mare would be okay. He had taken a liking to the strange pegasus, not really associating the scary black arms with the pony itself. But his worries went up in smoke when Sunrise told him things would be okay, just as they always did. After all, his sister's word had never been wrong.

That night, it seemed almost impossible for Dawn to sleep. The accommodations weren’t the best, with him nestled against Sunrise on the grass using her wing as a blanket, but the colt wasn’t complaining. There was still a gentle breeze that rolled over the fields, being the only thing to break the night’s peaceful silence. It was really nice—far nicer than nights spent back in their old house, even—but even as he lay under the warmth of his sister’s wing, he just couldn’t fall asleep.

The colt had begun to count pegasi flying overhead, a trick his sister once taught him, when light hoofsteps from close by distracted him. Glancing over Sunrise’s body, he could see the red unicorn approach Night Wisp’s sleeping figure, which lay only a few steps away from Dawn and Sunrise. The unicorn sat down beside her, his back to Dawn, muttering to himself in one tone, then another, almost like having a conversation with himself. This continued for a few minutes before the unicorn stood, lifting a small blanket from his bag that he placed over the grey pegasus. This done, he turned and quietly walked away from the group, disappearing from view over one of the many rolling hills. Time slowly passed as Dawn sat there, waiting to see if the unicorn would return, but something about waiting made the colt’s eyelids grow heavy. It was not long before they closed, at which he laid back down and finally drifted to sleep.

The next morning was unusual for Dawn, if things could become any more unusual than sleeping out in the middle of nowhere after the events of the train. He first woke to find his sister still fast asleep, something he had never seen before since she was usually up early and getting ready for work. However, this was quickly forgotten about when the colt then noticed that there was a new pony among them. The first notable feature was the armor the pony wore, an unusual dark purple that Dawn had never seen before. The second feature was the pony’s unusual wings, dark and leathery in appearance. The pony sat in about the same place as the red unicorn had sat the night before, its back to Sunrise and Dawn, and hunched over as it seemed to search through a bag.

Suddenly, the pony stopped moving and lifted its head, showing two ears with odd tufts of fur on the tips. Before Dawn could react, the pony turned a full 180 degrees and looked right at the colt with yellow, cat-like eyes. Its coat was a dark greyish-purple except for the roundish muzzle, which faded to white, and its mane was dark blue with lighter streaks, brushed back over its head.

Time seemed to come to a standstill, and Dawn’s legs became lead. He couldn’t even nudge Sunrise to wake up. His little heart was racing now, but in a brief second of clarity he managed to open his mouth, and from the colt came the dire question running through his little head.

“A-Are you g-gonna eat me?”

There was another second of silence. The strange pony blinked, then made on odd sound from its chest. Dawn flinched, ready to duck behind his big sister, until the pony’s sound became clearer. It was laughing. Or rather, he was laughing; the voice was a stallion’s.

“Hahahaha! Eat you? Are you serious?” he said, bursting into another fit of giggles before catching his breath again. “No, I’m not gonna..hee hee..oh Luna, that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard! Can’t wait to tell the guys about that line...”

This reaction came as a surprise to Dawn, who had been so sure that he was going to be gobbled up whole. Instead, the strange pony had gone into a small laughing fit. The colt had never read about laughing monsters or ghosts, or anything scary that laughed. To him, anything scary or bad shouldn’t be capable of laughter. But still the stallion laughed, and it was this laughter that led to near chaos.

First, the laughing woke Sunrise, who first assumed it was Chrome. Upon discovering it wasn’t, she took ahold of Dawn and started yelling for Chrome, until the other stallion leapt on her and covered her mouth. Dawn reacted poorly to this, as he would anypony who might hurt his big sister, and bit the stallion’s hoof. With a yelp of surprise and pain, the stallion flared his wings, which appeared very much like a bat’s. Sunrise took this opportunity to tackle the pony to the ground, with little Dawn tackling and holding onto one of his legs.

“Argh! What in hell are you-- Hey, let go of my leg! You kids-- Ow! I’m trying to help, dammit!” With an incredible burst of strength, the stallion managed to shake both ponies off of him, retreating from the two with a very confused look. “I already said I’m not eating anypony!”

“Who are you,” Sunrise growled. “And what do you want?” She stood herself in front of her younger brother, her first priority always being Dawn’s safety. The stallion looked at her, then smiled as if amused.

“How old are you? Maybe...fifteen? Sixteen? Somewhere close to that?” he asked, then waved his hoof dismissively before the mare could respond. “Fah, rhetorical question. Point is, I don’t think that you’re in any position to ask me questions, unless you have something more intimidating than that nasty glare you’re giving me.” The stallion looked over to where Night Wisp lay on the grass, then reached into his bag and pulled out a small green vial before glancing back at Sunrise. “Look, I was sent to track down this pegasus and make sure she is safely brought back to Canterlot. The rest is classified. What’s important right now, though, is that I can help her.”

Both stood still for about a minute, Sunrise and the stallion having a kind of one-sided standoff. Finally the white pegasus gave in with a defeated nod, at which the stallion nodded his head in return and moved towards Night Wisp’s sleeping form. Keeping their distance, Sunrise and Dawn watched as the stallion carefully rolled the pegasus onto her back and tilted her head upwards.

“You w-won’t hurt her, will you?” piped Dawn, who was still trying to decide if this pony was something to be scared of or not. The stallion shook his head as response, picking up out small vial. "No worries, I know what I'm doing." He uncorked it and slowly waved the vial around Night’s nose, which scrunched up before the mare awoke with a few coughs.

Sunrise gave a sigh of relief, only to hold her breath again. She didn’t know how she hadn’t noticed, but Chrome was just a few steps to her side, slowly approaching the mysterious stallion as his horn started to glow.

For Myst, there was a very vague and faded line between a good day and a bad day. The line was so faded, the unicorn usually didn’t care enough to even stop and evaluate what kind of day it had been. Today, however, was one of those rare days where the situation was entirely opposite, where he did not even need to consider what side of the line he stood on. Today was, most certainly, a bad day.

He quietly made his way through one of the hidden entrances of the Alliance base, where only a day before he had received his orders from Frostbite. A simple public scare was all that was supposed to happen; hijack a train, kill a pony or two, then vanish. Instead, they meet a Shadowmancer who goes and botches the entire thing. At least escaping from the civilians after he woke up was a simple task. Some days just couldn’t be easy ones...and now he’d need new muscle. That was going to be a pain in the flank.

After being directed to the lower dungeon, he was met by a pair of guards, beyond whom stood Frostbite, overlooking a small ledge. A deep growl from something below echoed through the halls, but all there remained unphased. A nod from the white unicorn made the guards step aside, allowing the pink unicorn to pass between them.

“I’ve heard that the little outing I sent you on caused quite a bit of chaos,” Frostbite spoke, turning away from the ledge. “But I’ve also heard that you have returned alone. Where are Stormcloud and Maelstrom?”

“Dead,” Myst replied bluntly. “We ran into a problem.”

“Is that so?” Frostbite turned, giving Myst a cold look. “I hope your excuse is a good one, Myst, because you currently have the deaths of two of my best soldiers riding on it. Don’t think that being as high an officer as you are will save you--”

“It was a Shadowmancer.”

Silence. The cool walls echoed with it for at least a minute. It was not like him to interrupt Frostbite, but Myst knew that a this was a serious matter for the unicorn.

“Alright Myst, fate seems to be in your favor,” the white unicorn finally spoke. “Not only have you gotten off the hook, but now you’ve gained a great deal of my interest. What do you know of this Shadowmancer?”

The unicorn shrugged, which was not something he would have done with any other officer of his rank or beneath. One could say that he and Frostbite held somewhat casual terms with each other, at best. “Nothing, aside from a description. A young pegasus mare, grey coat, blue mane. Very reckless and unstable. She took both Stormcloud and Maelstrom at the same time with almost no effort, but didn’t seem either aware or in control of herself.” Myst’s horn glowed, the murky green aura of his magic lifting a broken grey feather from the small bag he had at his side. “I managed to grab this earlier this morning, after escaping. Perhaps we can trace her aura--”

“And lose more of our soldiers to a Shadowmancer?” Frostbite cut in, his tone calm despite his sarcasm. “It would be a waste of resources, Myst, a waste that I don’t want to allow. Our Alliance is small as it is. Even as we grow each day, we cannot afford to lose more soldiers. But this Shadowmancer...perhaps she is a stroke of luck. A pony who can take on two strong soldiers without even breaking a sweat; ah, now that would be an asset to have on our side! The only problem is, how to get her...”

Silence fell again, Frostbite mulling over this problem while Myst stood patiently next to him. Another growl, louder this time, reverberated off the walls. Myst began to wonder why they’d decided to keep the damn thing inside; the growling was sure to give him a headache if he stayed there any longer.

“Myst,” his leader called, pulling the pink stallion from his thoughts. “I want you to take that feather to the mages and have them extract what essence they can from it, then put that into a gem. When you are done, bring it to me.”

“As you wish, Frostbite,” Myst responds, turning away from the ledge to head back into the halls, though he paused briefly. “If I may ask...what good will an essence gem do us if we don’t want our soldiers to go looking for this Shadowmancer?”

He heard a chuckle, one with an icy tone that only a stallion like Frostbite could make. “The stone will not be given to a search party of soldiers, Myst,” said the unicorn, pausing to look down over the edge as yet another growl shook the walls. “I have a much better idea.”

“He wants to what?!”

Night stopped in her tracks and turned to face Sunrise with a look of shock. The other pony sighed and nodded.

“‘Tie him up and leave him’, those were Chrome’s exact words. I think the old coot is being way too paranoid, personally, but nothing I said changed his mind.” Sunrise stopped and sat with a huff. “Having personally met a few mules, Chrome is the first I’ve met who might be more stubborn than one.”

A couple of hours had passed since Night had come to, and Celestia’s sun had risen high above them. In the last few hours, there had been a great deal of confusion for the pegasus. First she woke to see a strange looking pony standing over her, only to then have a magical blast from Chrome knock the strange pony unconscious on top of her. This was followed by Sunrise and Chrome arguing about whether or not this action was really necessary, which apparently came to no agreement. Chrome had then dragged the unconscious pony some hundred steps off, ‘for questioning’, and Sunrise had taken the moment to bring Night up to speed on her and Dawn’s earlier encounter with the mysterious stallion.

“Well I don’t care what his reasoning is, we aren’t tying up some royal guard and leaving him in the middle of nowhere.” Night turned, looking off in the direction that Chrome had gone with the guard. “C’mon Sunrise. We’d better go make sure Chrome isn’t doing something we’ll all regret later.”

As the two headed in search of the unicorn, Night found herself thinking about the unknown stranger. While she’d only gotten a brief look at him, the stallion’s leathery wings clearly indicated that he was a batpony. They were not common to see in Ponyville except for the occasional visit from Princess Luna, though even then they were always with her. By this, and by what he had told Sunrise, it was safe to assume that this guard was one of Luna’s.

Why one of Luna’s guards, and not Celestia’s? Her mind went back to her conversation with Princess Celestia, recalling that the princess didn’t seem to know much about shadowmancing. Meanwhile, it was no secret that Princess Luna had once been under the influence of some kind of dark magic. After 1000 years as Nightmare Moon, I guess Princess Luna would have better insight...if Princess Celestia asked for her help, that would make perfect sense. Even so, this didn’t explain why either princess would send one of the few batpony guards rather than one of the many royal guards. Something seemed amiss, but she could only speculate so much.

“Over there,” Sunrise spoke, pointing ahead. Sure enough, there stood Chromatic and the tied-up guard...and Dawn, sitting behind the unicorn with his plush. This came as a surprise to both the mares, as they’d last seen him sitting at their impromptu campsite. Before any words could be said, Sunrise was already running over to her brother, catching his and Chrome’s attention.

“Dawn Chaser, what in the wide world of Equestria are you doing down here? I told you to stay at the camp!” The pegasus sat and crossed her forelegs over her chest, then turned to Chrome. “And you! I don’t see you being very helpful either! Why are you letting my little brother go running off to watch you do Luna-knows-what to this creeper?”

“Hey, I’m sitting right here y’know...” grumbled the batpony.

“Get a grip, Sunrise,” Chrome retorted as he faced her, the rag over his eyes wrinkling in what could be assumed as a glare. “I’m not his babysitter, so it’s not my job to watch over him. Besides that, I’m only talking to our ‘friend’ here. I’m not so uncivilized.” Turning away, Night heard him mutter under his breath, “At least not in front of stupid kids...”

Thankfully either Sunrise didn’t hear this comment or ignored it, as she pulled her brother off to the side where she could be heard quietly scolding him. Meanwhile Night, who had made it there mid-argument, decided to use this point of calm to insert herself into things. “So um...Chrome, who is this? I was guessing a guard?”

The unicorn just huffed and turned away, heading towards their camp. “Ask him yourself. We’ll be moving soon, so make it quick. Spent too much time here as it is.”

Night stood there for a few seconds in awkward silence, unsure why she was just blown off. The batpony on the ground chuckled, “He must be really fun at parties, that guy. Lemme guess, you have him along for his optimism? Or does he tell jokes?”

The mare sighed, just shaking her head. “If only,” she muttered, looking over at the bound pony. “Look, I’m really sorry about him. Um, sir. You are a royal guard, right?”

“Hey, none of that ‘sir’ calling, I’m not one of those pretty featherheads that struts the streets.” The batpony shifted against the rope that bound his legs and wings. “Corporal Lasirius Nightsong, member of the Night Guard and tracking expert. And you are a miss Night Wisp, a runaway, and a special one at that if the princesses had me come after you. You’re not secretly some enemy of the state, are you?”

Night opened her mouth to reply, but found herself at a loss for words. This batpony didn’t really come across to her as a trained guard, at least not what she’d come to expect of one. Definitely more talkative. After a few seconds of her silence, Lasirius sighed. “By the look on your face, I can already see the answer is a ‘no’. Fine by me; that’s one thing I don’t have to worry about, at least. Now, about me being tied up..?”

“You all about done down there, Night?” Chrome suddenly called from over the hill. “I hope you got the answers you needed from that guard, ‘cause we need to move now if we want to reach the forest!”

The pegasus looked towards the hill, back at Sunrise and Dawn, then at Lasirius. “Gimme a minute!” she called back, then lowered her voice. “Look, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Chrome is happy enough to leave you tied up here. I’m not, but...I can’t just go back to Canterlot, at least not right now. I can’t leave the others out here in the middle of nowhere. And since I can’t exactly fly at the moment,” she paused and motioned to her bandaged wing, “here’s my idea: I untie you, and you come with us. When we reach the next town, I’ll go back with you. Yes or no?”

The stallion didn’t appear to like the idea, but remained quiet as if he were thinking. He looked down at his bound legs, wriggling against the rope, but it seemed that Chrome had done a good job on tying him up.

“Minute’s up! Don’t think I can’t leave you all out here!” Chrome called again.

“I don’t want to rush you, Night, but I think he could be serious,” Sunrise commented, coming over to Night’s side while glancing up at the hill. This seemed to be a enough incentive for the batpony.

“Okay okay, fine, I’ll come with you to the next town, just get me loose already,” he grumbled. “There’s a knife in my saddlebag, left side.” Night nodded, looking at Sunrise and motioning for her to go on ahead. Flipping open the stallion’s saddlebag and removing the knife, she bent down and started cutting away at the rope. It was thankfully not thick, and thanks to a couple of lessons Elmwood had given her, the rope fell away in a few seconds. In a few seconds more, the stallion was standing in front of her, surprisingly not much taller than she was.

“Thank you for that,” he said, brushing off bits of grass from his armor before looking at the pegasus. “So miss Wisp, I hope you’ve got another idea on how to keep your friend from tying me back up?”

“I’ll talk to him, but we’d better get going before he really does leave all of us,” she replied, offering a smile before turning to head up the hill after Sunrise and Dawn. “Chrome might be crotchety, but I’m sure he’s not unreasonable.”

Chapter One - Dormant

-Chapter One-

Dormant

Night Wisp slowly trotted down the silent streets of Ponyville, Luna’s moon basking her in its pale, cool light. Many of the houses were dark and silent, their owners having gone to sleep hours ago. It was midnight, and nopony was outside except for the lone, dark grey pegasus that moved through the streets. Night glanced back behind herself, wondering if what she was doing was for the best of everypony or just plain foalish. She was told it was an accident, something she didn’t know about, but now the closest pony to her was gone. Gone because of her.

She felt another surge of anger rise in her soul, and she quickly faced forward, breaking into a full gallop. She fought back the tears in her eyes as she sped down the road, passing house after house, soon coming upon the town’s edge. She slowed and stopped, exhausted both physically and mentally, and began to silently sob. Wet droplets ran down her muzzle and onto the ground, becoming soaked up in the dirt. Why was this happening to her? How had she even gotten into doing this? She lay down, still sobbing, as memories from the last two days trickled through her mind like the tears on her face...

“Night Wisp! Wake up, young mare, or you’ll be late!”

Her eyes barely even opened before she squinted them, bright sunshine glaring down on her from the window. Once they adjusted, she discovered whose voice had called her. A mare with a light orange mane and cream coat was next to Night’s bed, grinning down at her at seeing the grey pegasus awaken. The mare was Harvest Moon, but to the pegasus, she was her mother. However, this didn’t make much difference in Night’s attitude towards waking up. With a groan, she ducked under the covers to try and hide from the blinding morning light.

“Too..early...” the mare murmured, her voice muffled as she rolled her face into her pillow.

Harvest only chuckled, grabbing the blankets with her teeth and yanking them off. “Come on, silly filly, time to get up!” The rush of cool air made Night shiver as the warmth of her blankets suddenly disappeared. She sat up, her mind beginning to process what Harvest had said...something about being late?

Night’s eyes suddenly shot open, realizing the meaning in those words. She remembered her conversation the day before with Elmwood, Ponyville’s carpenter, and how he had offered her the job to be his assistant. She quickly looked over to her bedside clock. It was 7:30 AM.; she had 30 minutes until she had to meet Elmwood outside the carpentry shop. With a sudden burst of frantic energy, the pegasus was out of bed and grabbing her saddlebag, setting it on the bed. But instead of running around the room to gather her items, she simply closed her eyes as if in concentration. On the ground, her shadow darkened as small black tendrils reached out and began to gather the things she would need. She heard her mother sigh with contentment, then light hoofsteps as she trotted out. “I left your lunch downstairs in the kitchen, dear. Good luck at your job!”

She was completely unphased by the sight of the pegasi’s strange appendages. To her mother, this was a normal thing to watch; her parents had told Night she’d been doing it ever since she was a foal. However, they had always been strict about not letting her use abilities outside of the house, though they never said why. The pegasus respected their wishes, as odd as they seemed, but this didn't stop her from secretly practicing tricks when she was alone. She would pick things up mostly, sometimes tossing objects to and fro. Once she had even managed to juggle a little, though it left her with a painful headache, at which she didn't try it again. It was like she was performing magic, like a unicorn, but she didn’t have a horn, and she had read that unicorns don't start out controlling their magic well.

These facts really didn’t make the mare any more curious, though. She had been, and still was, a fairly innocent pony; in her younger days, she would pretend she was a lost alicorn princess, and her horn had been hidden with spell to keep her identity secret. It was often just a game, but sometimes she would get a nagging feeling at the back of her mind, as if something was there that she couldn't see. She would sometimes find herself staring at her own shadow, wondering exactly how she could make what wasn't there become physical, as if it were always like that. One day she had to find out what they were for, why she had them...but for now, she had more important things on her mind. Like her job.

As the tendrils finished their work, dropping the last item into her bag, they slid back down into her shadow and disappeared. Night Wisp looked at the clock, which read 7:47. She was taking too long. The mare cursed under her breath, glad her mother was not in the room to hear her. Harvest didn’t take cursing all too well, even if it was used for a good reason. Night tossed the saddlebag onto her back and quickly left her room, turning left to fly downstairs almost quite literally. Of all the days for her to be running late, it could not be this one.

As she entered the kitchen, Night saw a pale blue, earth pony stallion with a short, white mane looking over the morning mail. The pony was Wave Crest, Night’s father. He looked up at the pegasus as she dashed in and grabbed the sack lunch Harvest had made for her, his grin an obvious sign of his amusement.

“Not staying for breakfast?” he asked with a soft chuckle. “Your mother fixed some fine omelettes this morning...” Night knew that he was teasing her for waking up too late to eat breakfast and she really wished she could have one of her mother’s omelettes. But getting her first job was her priority at that moment, and nothing was going to sway her. Giving him a playful glare, she turned, leaving the kitchen and her father, rushing to and out the front door. Turning left, the mare broke into a gallop as she headed towards the town square, narrowly dodging other ponies who were in the street with errands of their own.

As she approached an intersection, she found herself running in a crash course with a large crowd just ahead. The mare’s silver eyes flashed in the light as they darted left and right, taking in the scene before her. It appeared to be an accident where a cart had lost a wheel; some crates were knocked over in the center, rising up towards the left. Just behind those was a cloth sun cover for a small street shop, and quickly approaching from the right, behind the crowd, was a large wagon of fresh apples being pulled by Big Macintosh and Applejack. Night Wisp smiled, her route now clear in her mind. With a leap, she bounded up onto the crates, her speed hardly slowing as she reached the top and jumped from the crate to the sun cover. Being made of a particularly strong material, and likely reinforced with magic, she bounced off of the cloth as if it were a trampoline and soared through the air, landing with a *thunk!* on the Apple’s wagon. Applejack jumped and turned around, looking both surprised and a little annoyed.

“What in tarnation-” she began to say, then realized there was a familiar pony sitting atop the cart. Her annoyance turned to amusement as she let out a soft chuckle. “Well howdy there, Night! Ah shoulda known you’d be joining us at some point...this is the third time this week you’ve given me a start with one of yer fancy entrances!”

The grey mare smiled, sitting down atop the cart and shrugging. “What can I say, Applejack? You turn right at this intersection every day of apple season at the same time of morning, and I happen to be going the same way just about every other morning. It’s convenient.”

“Well, Ah guess so,” the orange mare replied, facing forward as she and Big Mac began to turn right and heading towards the town square, just as Night knew they would. Applejack and her brother continued on, but the mare soon turned her head around to face the grey pony, a confused expression on her face. “Um..Night, not that I really mind, but what gets me is that, well...you’re a pegasus. Can’t ya just fly to where ya need to go instead of hitchin’ a ride?”

Night laughed softly at the question, extending her left wing out and acknowledging the appendage.“Oh, but where's the fun in flying? It’s too fast, and not very social." While an honest answer, this was actually an excuse; having grown up as a pegasus with two earth ponies for parents, Night's flying abilities were only decent due to a less expensive home-program for learning to fly. But, that was something that would go to her grave, if she could help it.

"And besides," she continued. "I enjoy hearing your stories about you and the other Elements, as well as harvest stories. And judging by your inventory today, I guess this was another good harvest?” She motioned to the abundance of apple crates that sat in the cart, each one filled with about twenty bright red and green apples.

Applejack’s worried expression quickly changed to a proud smile at the pegasi’s compliment. “Good? This has been more than jus’ good, in my opinion. Ah’m thinkin’ this could be the best harvest Ah’ve ever bucked!” the orange mare chuckled. “These here apples are jus’ what me an’ Big Mac bucked this mornin’, but we may have to ask AppleSpice and AppleFritter to come from Appleoosa help us get the rest of the east field!”

Night opened her mouth to congratulate them when she caught sight of Elmwood’s tan coat some distance away. She made a quick decision to go ahead and meet up with him, giving her goodbyes to Applejack and Macintosh before jumping down from the cart and cantering over towards the carpenter. She noticed that he was talking to Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing up and down in front of him; it was obvious she was excited about something. Knowing the pink pony, it could be anything from a birthday of somepony’s pet to a visitor in Ponyville. Night soon made her way over to the two ponies, upon which she could hear them talking...well, Pinkie talking non-stop and Elmwood just appearing to listen. This was usually how ‘conversations’ went with the bubbly mare, but nopony ever seemed to mind, and Elmwood was nowhere near an exception.

“...and there’ll be balloons and cake and cupcakes and more cake and games and dancing and music- *GASP* I think I’ll go home and start planning it, I can’t wait!!” Pinkie jumped, somehow turned midair, then sped off down the road in the general direction of Sugarcube Corner, a mere blur of pink leaving a light plume of dust in her wake. After the dust settled, along with slight bout of coughing from both Elmwood and Night Wisp, the tan colored unicorn turns and realizes who was standing next to him.

“Why, if it isn’t Night Wisp!” the stallion exclaims in a gruff but cheery tone. “I was thinking I’d find you at the shop, but it seems you found me first!” He began to chuckle, which succeeded in bring a smile to Night’s face.

Any newcomer who gave a first glance at the carpenter would have been slightly intimidated by his size and look. But despite his elderly appearance, burly figure, thick silver-grey beard, muddy green eyes, and gravely voice, Elmwood was the only other pony besides Pinkie that could make just about anypony smile. He was known around town for his particular ability to crack the perfect joke for any occasion; his gryphon jokes were especially good, though they were often told indoors for courtesy of others. Some ponies would come to his shop just to talk with him, which was exactly how Night got to know him. She had been to Elmwood’s shop a few times when she was younger on errands with her father, but never spoke with the unicorn, often standing quietly next to Wave Crest while the two stallions chatted and did business.

One day while the pegasus, still a young foal, had ventured out to play, she came upon a group of colts and fillies showing off their cutie marks. Night Wisp was still a blank flank, and although she was probably a year older then most of them, she allowed herself to be ridiculed by the group. That is, until Elmwood stepped up. The mere sight of the unicorn scattered the group after a long moment of silence, leaving Night and Elmwood on their own. The stallion took her into his store, even taking her into the workshop and letting her help him with a few orders he had received that day, cracking jokes every now and then and giving the young pegasus small tasks which she would happily do. The evening rolled in eventually, at which Elmwood took the young filly home, letting her ride on his back the whole way. At reaching Night’s house, he set her down at the front steps, but asked her to stay a moment.

“Night Wisp, I know it’s tough not knowin’ your special talent, and I won’t always be around to scare off other ponies from makin’ fun of you,” he had told her. “But I want you to remember somethin’...just because you don’t know doesn’t mean somepony else does. Nopony can tell you who you are. That’s for you to choose.” He then smiled and gave her dark blue mane a playful nuzzle, slowly turning to head back home, but Night ran around in front of him. “Um..mister Elmwood? Can I work in your shop with you again? Maybe my talent is carpentry, just like you!” Her question must’ve been quite adorable, because the stallion looked almost downhearted as he responded. “I’m afraid not, Wispy...maybe when you’re a little older. But I’m glad you enjoyed helpin’ me today.” With a soft chuckle, he gave the filly a light noogie with his hoof. “Now, get on inside. Young fillies like yourself don’t need to be out this late, or Nightmare Moon will come out and getcha!” The pegasus had squeaked at the mention of Nightmare Moon and ran to the door, quickly waving to Elmwood before going inside.

That had all been when Night was only seven years old, and now, nine years later, she stood in front of the carpenter once again, about to get to work in his shop like before. Her flank was still bare of any mark, despite her efforts to find her special talent, but ever since Elmwood had taken her home that night, she had not cared one bit. She knew she was still unique compared to most pegasi, even if nopony else knew about about her abilities, and she took her difference to heart.

“Night Wisp?” The sound of Elmwood’s voice quickly brought the pegasus out of her thoughts, at which she blinked her eyes a few times to find Elmwood giving her a concerned look.

“Wispy, you okay?” he asked, bending his head down to look directly at her eyes. Night blinked again, then gave a warm smile.

“Oh, hehe, sorry Elmwood. I was just thinking..” she replied, continuing to smile at the stallion in front of her in hopes to relieve him of worry. Elmwood looked at her for a few more seconds, as if trying to depict whether what she said was true or not, then shrugged and sat up again.

“Well, alright. If you say you’re okay, Wispy, I believe you,” he said finally, giving his neck a good stretch before returning the smile “Come on then, time’s a-wastin’! One of the first things you’ll learn about workin’ in my shop is that you never know how many orders you’ll get, or how big each will be...the key there is to just keep on going. Lemme tell you about the time my uncle Mesquite got an order from Princess Celestia herself...”

And so he began to talk to her, telling stories and jokes as they went to his shop, which was not too far from the Ponyville Town Hall. The shop itself didn’t look like much more than an old shack, for that is what it had always been. It was a known fact the Elmwood’s shop was the oldest standing building in all of Ponyville, and had been run by his family since Ponyville was just a settlement that surrounded Apple Acres. While all of the other homes and businesses grew in size and glamour, adding colors and trendy designs, the carpentry shop had remained the same, the owners always able to fix anything that was falling apart on the small, wooden structure. Whether it was the fact that a family of carpenters had always owned the place to keep it standing or whether the frame of the structure was made of enchanted wood, nopony knew. But the ratty old shack, despite its appearance, had proved stronger and more resilient to the weather than some of the newer houses built those days. There was never a loose board, never a single piece of rotting wood, utterly no visible area of weakness visible on the building; even as Night and Elmwood stepped up onto the front porch beneath the extended roof, the only sounds made were their hooves on wood. Not a single board creaked or groaned with age and feebleness, although each one looked similarly darkened from their exposure to the elements.

However, this sight quickly changed upon stepping inside of the shop. The darkened boards became bright and fresh-looking, the floorboards of the store being glossed to preserve their appearance. The walls held no kinds of decoration to give a cozy feeling, but the room felt cozy nonetheless, despite the one wall holding a selection of example board sizes, along with a few chairs and cushions by the door for anypony who had the time to wait for their order. The room was neat, clean, and held a very comforting atmosphere that one often feels when inside a cabin. As the two moved around to the back of the counter, small traces of sawdust could be seen on the floor, and it began to become more noticeable as she and Elmwood reached the door to the workshop. The stallion suddenly paused at the door, blocking the way for the pegasus to go in but not going in himself. Night Wisp, who was eagerly awaiting to get into the workshop already, looked around Elmwood’s side and gave him a look of curiosity.

“Um...Elmwood, is something wrong?” she asked, not sure if she should be worried that he wasn’t going in and had become silent. The stallion turned his head, a single eye looking back at her as a grin crawled onto his face.

“Oh, nothin’s wrong,” he replied, a soft chuckle sounding from his throat. “I just wanted to see how agitated you’d get if I stood here.” The pegasus, though she knew the unicorn was just messing with her, gave him a pleading look.

"Elmwooood! I want to start working already!" she said, nudging at his hind leg with a forehoof. The tan pony chuckled again, giving into the pleading as he took a step to the door.

"Hehe, you're more eager than I was on my first day! Alright, Wispy, we'll get to work. But since it's your first day, I won't have you on any of the machinery. Fair enough?" Upon receiving a smile and a few nods from Night, the stallion pushed the door open with his head and stepped in, with the pegasus mare following behind. As she entered the workshop, she was immediately hit with the scent of fresh sawdust mixed with an odd smell Night couldn't identify. It was like somepony had tried to use incense to make the room smell better, but it had only blended with the first smell to make a sweet, dusty fragrance that was subtle and yet strong. Some would say it was one or the other, but to Night, it was the smell of work.

And there was, indeed, work. Although Elmwood didn’t want Night to be on the steam-powered saw or doing any similar jobs, there was plenty he had for her to do. Sweeping up the floor of the workshop was the longest lasting part of her work, but it was not really what one would consider ‘hard work’. It was perhaps more like a ‘do this until I have something else you can do’ kind of job, which the mare certainly didn’t mind doing. The floor of the workshop, upon looking down, looked easy enough to sweep, but every time she’d turn around, the area she had swept up would have traces of sawdust and small wood bits in it.

Well, it is a carpentry shop... she thought the first time she noticed the corner she had swept not a minute before had gathered a small pile of the brown flakes. At the rate the amounts appeared, Night had to wonder what the floor used to be like when Elmwood didn’t have somepony constantly sweeping as he worked. But she continued to sweep, keeping anticipation strong in her mind, wondering when she would actually get to do more things, like help the stallion on an order or even, with hope, do an order herself. She knew Elmwood was the carpenter, but ever since the last time she had been in the workshop, she had really wondered if maybe carpentry was her special talent. The smell of the sawdust, the atmosphere of the shop, the sound of wood being cut and pounded upon, all of this just seemed to be comfortable to Night.

Is this how a pony feels before getting their cutie mark? This..strange comfort that comes with sounds, sights, smells...could carpentry be my talent? She would have thought further into that idea, maybe even daydreaming herself as a carpenter had Elmwood not come up and tapped on her shoulder. Startled, the pegasus made an ‘eep!’ sound and spun around, the broom dropping from her teeth and clattering to the floor.

“Whoa there, it’s only me, Night!” the tan stallion said, an amused but forgiving expression on his face. Night paused, her own face blank for a few seconds before it blushed red with embarrassment.

“Oh, sorry Elmwood. Just a little excited...” she replied with a chuckle, hoping he hadn’t noticed her spacing out. The unicorn simply chuckled with her, then shook his head.

“Hehe, I know you’re eager about workin’, but there’s no need to make yourself nervous! I was just going to ask you to run over to Mocha Bean’s shop and grab a couple of coffees. I just got three more orders on top of the two I have to finish, and I’m going to need some extra fuel.” The mare agreed, and after receiving a small pouch of bits, trotted out of the shop, turning right and heading over to the coffee shop. To be honest, though the sweeping was an easy job, it had been getting a tad tedious for Night, so the opportunity to walk was appreciated.

When she arrived at the shop, she found a decent line just barely poking out of the door; a good ten minute wait at least. She was in no hurry, though, so she waited the ten minutes and soon had two cups of hot, fresh coffee. However, traveling back to the workshop took a little more time. The coffee was fresh, and if it was from Mocha Bean’s shop, that meant more than just ‘hot’. Nopony knew exactly how the pony made her addicting coffee, but there were few ponies who could drink a fresh cup of her café equestriano and not receive a good burn in their mouths.

Night soon reached the workshop with the drinks just in time to hear the hissing sound of the steam-powered saw being turned on. The sound grew steadily louder as she entered the workshop, the high-pitched mechanical shriek soon erupting as Elmwood placed the spinning blade down on a two-by-four he had placed on the cutting table. Not able to get any words out above the sound of the saw, he motioned to a table behind him for the mare to set down the drinks.

There was a problem, though, one that the stallion didn’t seem to realize. The table was a mess. Tools, wood chunks, and goggles covered this particular table. But, not seeing any other tables that were cleaner, Night moved some of the items back enough to set the small tray with the two coffees down, though the tray looked a bit precariously placed. She looked at it for a moment, then turned around, shaking off her worry. Elmwood may be a stallion, but he wouldn’t be one to go and easily bump into something.

This thought barely finished reading in her mind when suddenly, there was an odd series of sounds from behind her. She heard Elmwood make a mild sound of surprise, the sound of a bump, a splash, then a more surprised yelp from the stallion. She heard him get through only one curse, though, before the saw’s tone changed to a slightly lowered sound, like an object had hit it that wasn’t wood. Something warm lightly spritzed her cheek, like small droplets of water, and there was a shrieking sound. Not the blade on wood, though...this time, it was Elmwood.

The stallion was kneeled on the ground, screaming worse than a banshee as he held his right hoof. Scarlet stained the dusty fur, the silver metal blade, the cutting table, and a little bit of Night’s grey coat. The two coffee cups were one the ground, their liquids spilled and mixing with the red droplets that trickled from the wound. It was at this time the mare, now realizing what was going on, went into a panic. Elmwood was hurt. Badly.

Where is the first aid? Does he even have one? Oh Celestia, what am I supposed to do!? She quickly went to Elmwood’s aid, trying to calm him down as the steam saw wailed on, mixing with the screaming to drown out her words. Night began to think frantically to herself, help him, heal him, do something! She closed her eyes to think, trying to focus amongst the confusion so that she could help the unicorn. Suddenly, an odd sensation spread over her, a kind of cool feeling that felt full of energy, like when one steps into cold water and shivers.

She opened her eyes, only to be surprised by the sight of 3 black arms reaching from her shadow. The arms quickly wrapped around the hoof, writhing madly, convulsing like living creatures, creating a sight that looked very unsettling. Then, they stopped and became still. Slowly they slid back to her shadow, like snakes to water, as Elmwood still held his hoof, no longer screaming but still looking to be in pain. A rush of drowsiness quickly hit Night as the arms finally disappeared, making her need to sit down so as not to tip over.

She sat there, unsure of what she'd done. It was obvious she tried to heal the wound, but she hadn’t planned on doing it like that. It was like the arms had made their own decision. This, however, could be figured out later; her question right then was whether Elmwood was alright. She reached out a hoof to the unicorn, whose eyes were shut tight still. He jumped at her touch, eyes opening and staring at her blankly, as if everything that had just happened was erased from memory. The eyes looked at her, then down at the blood-stained hooves. Slowly, the top hoof moved aside to reveal...more blood-stained fur. Just blood-stained fur. The wound, a sizeable gash that might have taken weeks to fully heal on its own, had disappeared within a few seconds.

Author's Note

Did some editing on this chapter, mainly on making some of these paragraphs smaller and fixing some unimportant bits that were thrown into the original.. Hope it looks better!

Chapter Five - Slight Change in Plan

Chapter Five -

Slight Change in Plan

“A strange, green earth pony came into the inn last night...he wore a cloak with a hood, one that covered his face so well, it was like looking at a wall of black with a green muzzle poking out. He said nothing aside from asking for a room...I also noticed that his hoofsteps were quiet, since he made no sound while going up the stairs (which I know have a few creaky steps).

“But that’s not the end of it, oh no...sometime around midnight, Clover, the inn’s maid and a good friend of mine, wakes me up babbling about the new tenant and evil magic. Upon getting up, I found the tenant already downstairs, his hood still hiding his face. Poor Clover was in such a state, she wouldn’t leave my room out of fear. Well, I told him I wouldn’t have my business’s reputation tainted by any weird magic tricks, and I noticed that his shadow seemed to grow, looming up on the wall behind him. I blinked, and just like that, it was gone. The tenant quickly left after that, not saying a word. I tell you, it was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. And while I’ve dealt with plenty dangerous customers before, I pray to Celestia that he doesn’t come back.”

- journal entryl of a previous innkeeper at the Green Meadow Inn of St. Petershoof, Equestria

Night Wisp looked hopefully up and down along the passenger car, but to no avail; this one wa full, too. Sunrise and Dawn were in the first car up in the front, but with only two seats for them, Night had to find her own. Two cars back now, she still hadn’t found a seat. Giving a sigh of dismay, she made her way past the other passengers, heading towards the door to the fourth car.

Towards the middle, she noticed a rather burly grey stallion pegasus with a short green mane lounging across two seats. Figuring this was her seat, she stopped, trying to think of a way to wake him. Just at the point she stopped, the train car lurched, knocking the pegasus towards her right and onto another grey stallion, identical to the first except for a longer-cut green mane.

“Hey! Watch where yer goin’!” he growled, pushing Night off of him and nearly into the other stallion. Not having regained her balance yet, Night managed to fall into the aisle rather than on the sleeping passenger, though the passenger would have been softer than the floor. She looked up, a few angry retaliations in mind, and was close to saying them when a another voice belonging to another stallion spoke exactly what was on her mind.

“Oi, back off her! It’s not like she hurt you, and I doubt she purposely fell on you,” said the stallion’s voice. It was somewhat young, though definitely matured, with a low, gentle tone to it. Night looked up, finding the one who owned the voice to be a white pegasus with spiked black mane and a matching tail. He looked down at her and offered a hoof, which she accepted and gave a ‘thank you’ for.

“Oh really? And how can you be so sure it was purposeful?” the grey stallion asked as he stood, obviously annoyed.

“Well, with a face like that, I doubt you have any mares falling over you,” the white stallion snickered, turning and leading Night to the door. The burlier one growled, but a sharp, low voice from the pony to his side distracted him. The two voices began to argue, but with the sound of a door latch, their voices were gone.

“Hehe, you okay miss?” the white stallion asked, looking at the mare as he opened the next door, which led into the dining car. “I doubt he intended to hurt you, but to be honest, I don’t trust big stallions like him. They’re just loose cannons..”

Night Wisp chuckled, shaking her head a little. “No, no, I’m fine. I just lost my balance back there. Thanks for the help, though.” The white pegasus led her over to a table toward one of the corners and gave a wave to the dining car staff, who came over and brought menus. Night began to decline, but a low growl from her stomach reminded her she hadn’t eaten since the dinner with the princess from the previous night.

“Nah, no need to thank me. I was just showing common courtesy where that other pony wasn’t,” the stallion chuckled. “And speaking of common courtesy, I didn’t get your name!”

The grey pegasus looked up, a bit caught. A thought she hadn’t considered about running away was how to deal with her identity. There could be ponies looking for her. More likely, there would be Celestia’s royal guard looking for her, since she had left the castle quite suddenly. Well, more like escaped.. she thought to herself. But wait...if I escaped, does that make me a criminal?!

Just then, she found her company waving his hoof in front of her. “Hellooo? Equestria to mystery mare, come in,” he said, looking a bit amused. “I know we just met, but there’s no need to get all silent on me.”

Night shook her head and chuckled, a bit embarrassed. She would have to worry about a new identity later. “Sorry, lost in thought. My name’s Night Wisp...what’s yours?”

“The name’s Steel Strings, singer and lead guitarist for The Windigos,” he replied with an air of pride, sitting back in his seat wearing a smug smile. After a few seconds of silence passed with Night giving a blank stare, he sighed. “Yeah, you probably haven’t heard of us...gimme some points for being optimistic. A year of playing at small shows, and you kind of hope someone will recognize you.”

It was saddening to see the stallion’s confidence so quickly broken, but before Night could reply, the waiter approached their table. Both the stallion and mare distracted themselves with the small menus for a moment, a chocolate shake for him and a daisy sandwich for her. The waiter jotted down the orders before turning back to the kitchen, once again leaving Night and Steel to themselves.

“I’m..sorry I haven’t heard of your group,” Night said, continuing the topic. “You sound like you’ve put a lot of effort into it.”

The stallion gained a smile, and nodded. “You bet your flank I have. Er, we have,” he replied. “I’m not the only hopeful star of our merry band of misfits. In fact, I probably have less of a chance than some of them, which is why it’s nice for them to stick around with me.” He glanced at the window that he sat next to, watching the scenery pass by. That is, until he gained a big smile and faced forward with an excited expression. “Hey, you should meet them! If we ever do become famous, you can say you were the first mare to hang out with the world-famous Windigos~!”

The grey pegasus opened her mouth to respond, but was once again interrupted by the waiter. After being given their orders and the waiter having left, Night smiled a little at Steel Strings. “That’s really nice of you to offer...but I still need to find a seat. I don’t want to be sleeping on the floor overnight, y’know?”

“Oh yeah, I can understand that,” Steel agreed, taking a sip of his shake. “But unless you want to sleep on a luggage rack instead, you may have to. I came up from the back, and every seat was occupied. Are you sure you didn’t miss your seat? It’s hard to believe that they’d sell you a ticket to a full train.”

The image of the sleeping stallion sprawled greedily across two seats came to Night’s mind. That would explain the seating problem, and she was sure that taking two seats wasn’t allowed, technically. But the idea of having somepony speak to them didn’t seem like something that would end well, and so she just sighed. “Maybe there was a mistake...I’m sure I could find somewhere comfy to get some rest.”

The conversation fell silent, the mare focusing on eating her sandwich and the stallion on his shake, though she could see he was thinking. He lifted his head up once, mouth open to speak, but then he would second-guess and look down again. After the second attempt, he finally looked at the mare across from himself and gave a half-smile. “Y’know...the car at the back is a kind of VIP car we were gifted by a friend. It sits and sleeps six, but including myself, the band only occupies five...if you wanted it, the extra place can be open to you.”

Again, silence fell for a minute or two, Night paused in mid-bite of her sandwich with her eyes looking at Steel. It crossed her mind that this seemed just a little bit creepy, a stallion she had only just met offering her a place to sleep in a private car. Then again, it seemed like she didn’t have much of a choice.

“Well...” she finally said, smiling just a little. “I guess I could stay there for the night...as long as you’re okay with it.”

The stallion looked like a foal who had just found that one big, hidden present on Hearth’s Warming day. Before she even knew what was happening, Steel’s hoof was pulling Night Wisp from the table and towards the dining car’s door, nearly dragging the poor mare across the floor in his excitement.

“Guys! We have a guest!”

Night found herself pushed out to the center of the private car, where she stood awkwardly as four ponies all turned to face her. The car itself was pretty nice, making Night wonder who their friend could be. On entering it, there was a small bathroom to the left, with closets and storage spaces on the right. As for the majority of the car, the end of it rounded off instead of being flat, with a bunk bed on the left, right, and center, leaving a nice open space in the center to put the pegasus in the spotlight. She smiled and raised a hoof to wave, but suddenly Steel was next to her to once again take over.

“Lemme run you through the names real quick, so you can get yourself settled in,” he said, pointing first to an earth mare and stallion with matching green coats and brown manes on their left. “These two are Forté and Quatré, our violinist and bassist. They’re brother and sister, if you couldn’t guess by the matching colors.”

“‘Ello there, lass!” Forté responded, her voice laced with a strong Irish accent. Her brother, Quatré, chose to remain silent by merely waving, but the bright smile he gave made it clear he was probably just as friendly as his sister.

“Over here-” Steel continued, directing Night’s attention to a unicorn stallion with a bright blue coat and red mane. “-is Shockwave, our drummer.” They waited a moment for the stallion to make some kind of response, and may have waited there for Luna knows how long had Quatré not leaned over and jabbed the pony’s shoulder.

“Huh? What’d I miss?” Shockwave said, perking up and turning to face the jabber when he noticed Night and Steel. “Oh, hey there Steel! And...wait, who are you, and when did you get here?” He pointed at the grey mare with a confused expression, as if he hadn’t paid attention to reality until now.

Steel chuckled and waved a dismissive hoof. “Don’t worry, Shock, she’s with me. She’s a guest, and-”

“She’s a what?”

“...a guest, Shock. I brought her to meet everypony.”

“Why would you bring her if she’s a pest..?”

“Oh sweet Celestia...GUEST, Shockwave. She’s a GUEST!”

“Ohhhh, alright! Sorry, sorry...pleasure to meet ya!”

The white pegasus facehoofed as Night smiled at Shockwave, trying to stifle her desire to laugh at the two stallions’ antics. Shockwave smiled in return before turning back around, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

“Sorry ‘bout that, but Shockwave’s hearing isn’t all too great sometimes..” Steel said, looking slightly embarrassed. “He’s a great pony to know, believe me, but communication isn’t always easy.”

“More like never easy, if you ask me,” quipped Forté. “He may own drum sticks, but with hearing like that, you’d have thought he played the drums with ’is bloody head!”

“I heard that, Forty~” Shockwave calmly replied, not even turning around in his seat.

“Oi! It’s pronounced ‘For-TAY’, thank you very much!”

“After what happened when you drank forty cider shots, I think the other fits you-”

“If you two start arguing again, I swear on Starswirl’s grave that I’m going to gag the both of you for the rest of the trip!”

All eyes suddenly turned to the right side of the car, where a brick red unicorn with a long, unkempt black and white mane rolled over to face them, a strip of black cloth tied around his head that covered his eyes.

“You two have had twenty-six arguments so far on this trip, and most of those were between Manehatten and Ponyville!” the unicorn continued. “So I would appreciate it if you both would just get along for the rest of the journey, and save all of us another twenty-something mindless squabbles!”

Forté and Shockwave both nodded quickly, at which the unicorn then grumbled something incoherent and rolled back over. The car fell silent for a good minute after this, until finally Steel turned to Night and pulled her a little towards the other side of the car.

“That unicorn there,” he said in a low voice, glancing at the sleeping figure. “is Chromatic Reverb, though he prefers that we just call him Chrome. The stallion’s a musical genius, if any exist; there isn’t an instrument or style yet that he hasn’t been able to ace, even though he’s blind as a bat. He’s got plenty of interesting stories too...though, he’s not exactly the ‘social’ type, so don’t feel too bad if he gives you the cold shoulder.”

Night glanced back at the sleeping stallion, shuddering a little. “I think I’d prefer a cold shoulder over being yelled at..” Steel laughed a little upon hearing this, reaching a hoof up to gently ruffle the mare’s mane.

“Don’t worry, he only yells at Forté and Shock, and only when it’s appropriate. Those twenty six arguments weren’t an exaggeration.” The white pegasus looked forward at an empty bed, which he had conveniently led her to by moving away from Chrome. “Anyhow, here’s your bed. Feel free to brings your bags in, if you have any...oh, and don’t be shy to talk to the others, Chrome aside. We’re not like some of those namby-pamby groups from Canterlot, after all~”

With a light boop to her nose, Steel left Night to her bed as he sat over next to Forté, where they began to discuss this and that. Silver eyes glanced up at the bed above her out of curiosity, but as she leaned back to get a better view, she heard Steel’s voice call to her, “Oh, and you’ll be sharing the bunk with me, just so you know..”

Why am I not surprised? she thought with a chuckle, rolling her eyes.

Though it didn’t happen immediately (it came mostly out of boredom), Night Wisp decided to take up her host’s offer to socialize with the other band members. She started first with Forté, since talking with another mare might lead to a few shared interests. To her surprise, she and the green mare shared many interests, ranging from music to favorite school subjects. They even both shared a similar foalhood; this had come up when Forté asked Night about her mark.

“Oh, don’t feel so ashamed, lass,” she said cheerily. “It was quite some time ‘fore I learned my own talent, too.”

“Really?” Night asked, almost surprised at having thought she was a big exception. The earth mare nodded, sitting back in her seat, looking thoughtful.

“Aye, really. I’ll spare you the wee details and whatnot, but the family I came from was of the old highlands ponies, granted with a few generations in between. Me an’ Quatré were raised like any other foal, though with the exception that our parents were filthy rich from successful music careers. They put us into lessons, me in violin and ‘im in cello.”

“Well, it wasn’t working for us...when our parents weren’t watching us practice, we’d try to play them in other ways, just to spite our mother and father. I took up that violin and started to play fast, just for fun...then began to change what I played. Soon, I was playing fiddle, not violin. And Quatré, he was plucking at his cello like a bass. So, we hatched a plan, a grand scheme to show them what we had. At a small private show our parents set up for their friends, we were supposed to play some kind of classy music. But instead, we came out and played a good bit of folk music instead, which we had practiced secretly. And you know what? They loved it! Our parents sat there, jaws hangin’ down, as their friends got up and danced their hooves off!”

Forté laughed, sitting forward again. “Hahaha, aye, that was quite some time ago now..but it’s a worthy memory. During our scheme, Quatré an’ I got our marks, and a few years later we left to make a living on our talent-”

“Um, a question about that,” Night cut in. “I mean, about your brother. Maybe it’s just me, but...why did your parents name him that?”

The green mare looked over to her companion and smiled, glancing to her brother, who had switched seats earlier on to talk with Shockwave. “Y’know lass, that’s a funny story in itself...my brother there wasn’t given that name. Like I said, our parents were somewhat fancy, and wanted a fancy name for their wee little colt. And I tell you, they gave ‘im one...but it sounded so ridiculous, he changed it to Quatré after we two set out from home, so it sounded more like mine. Probably a good thing, too; the last thing we needed was somepony thinking that crazy colt was some kind of royalty!”

Quatré turned his head at this comment, smirking. “Says you, sis! I could act the royal part if I wanted to...I just haven’t been interested.”

“Interested my hoof!” his sister retorted, laughing. “Who’s the one who hasn’t yet declined a drinking challenge? And, I’ll add, has ended up ‘ammered beneath a table every time!”

The stallion rolled his eyes, turning back around as Foré laughed She went on to tell Night stories of these incidents with her brother, and soon, the pegasus was laughing as well right along with Forté.

After a while, she went on to talk with Shockwave, though was glad he did most of the talking. Yet again, the subject of marks came up, at which the stallion seemed almost eager to tell her his own tale. Unlike Forté’s path of discovery, though, he said he had experienced what he called an ‘enlightenment’.

He had been in Whitetail Woods, somewhere beneath Cloudsdale, when just above the trees, he saw a bright, multi-colored explosion of some kind. He had thought it was possibly the most beautiful thing ever, until only a second after when the shockwave of the explosion hit him. When he woke up, trees had been pushed over, the air was filled with dust, and a strange rainbow ring was vanishing from the sky.

“It was like something picked me,” he told Night, looking out the window. “Something up there in the sky threw down that explosion as some kind of sign, I guess.” After picking himself up, he had quickly realized that the explosion had impaired his hearing. It handicapped him in some ways, especially in school. But over time, he discovered that he had an acute sense for vibration, which he discovered he could use to his advantage in playing drums, in which he earned his mark. From there, he eventually met Steel Strings at a concert, and became their drummer.

While she listened to this story, though, Night couldn’t help but see similarities with the stallion and herself. With the incidents a day before and that morning, as well as her ‘moment’ at the train station, the pegasus had been reluctant to dwell upon what Celestia had told her. But both she and Shockwave were different, affected by something that happened when they were young that they now had to live with. And here he was, sitting in a group where he fit in.

But his showed him his talent, she thought grimly to herself, eyes glancing back to the patch of ash-grey fur where a mark might sit. While mine only makes me some kind of magical accident…
“*shzzk* Attention passengers, the dining car is giving it’s last call on serving lunch,” the speakers buzzed, catching the mare’s attention and reminding her of a daisy sandwich she never got to finish. By this point, though, she felt like she could eat an entire dragon, teeth and spikes included. Thus, Night quickly excused herself to the dining car; she didn’t even stay to repeat herself for Shockwave, leaving the stallion to wonder what had her leaving in such a hurry.

When she awoke, the room she was in was dark. Night groaned, her stomach feeling a bit upset, though oddly satisfied at the same time. Some flash memories passed through in her mind, depicting three large plates of dining car delicacies ranging from sandwiches to salads, drinks to desserts; and all of it being consumed by herself before stumbling back to the car and passing out in a delightful coma.

“Ooh..I really shouldn’t go so long without food again…” she murmured, hearing her stomach groan in agreement. Looking around the room, her eyes adjusted to the darkness enough to see the band members asleep in their bunks, undisturbed by the slow rocking movements of the train as moonlit scenery passed by outside. How long was I asleep..?

The quiet was then broken by a loud screeching of metal on metal, the entire car lurching and sending everything into a moment of chaos. Just about everypony was thrown out of bed, to which various surprised yells and curses could be heard from the Windigos. The sounds of surprised passengers in the other cars could be heard as well as the screeching continued, the train seeming to be slowing to a stop. Peeking out her own window, Night didn’t see any station lights; in fact, she didn’t see anything but rolling hills darkened by the nighttime sky.

“What in the name of all things under the sun are we stopping for?!” growled Chrome, who was already standing, looking as grouchy as ever as he headed towards the car door (a surprising feat to Night, for a unicorn that had a long cloth tied over his eyes). “There’d better be a damned good reason for stopping like this, because if somepony isn’t dead, there WILL be!”

The rest of the band, along with Night, remained in the car as they awaited either Chrome’s return or some kind of announcement from the conductor. It was hard to say how long they waited, each of them glancing out the windows, wondering aloud why they would be stopping in seemingly the middle of nowhere, especially at such a strange time. Forté repeatedly expressed her discomfort with the situation; “Somethin’ about this seems very sketchy,” she would say.

Finally, there came a knocking on the car door. Steel opened it, with the others in the car peeking around to see who it was. Surprisingly, it was neither Chrome, nor the conductor, but a pink unicorn with a scarred eye, standing about the same height as Steel.

“The conductor wants everypony off the train,” they heard him say with a sense of nervous urgency. “He believes he saw somepony jump from the train, and needs to do a headcount.”

“But where is Chrome?” asked Steel. “Did you see a red unicorn on your way here?”

The pink stallion blinked, but then quickly nodded. “Oh yeah, I saw him and said the same thing. He’s already off the train. Now come on, quickly!”

And so they followed without hesitation, all of them lining up and following the unicorn from the car; all of them except for Night Wisp. She recognized the stallion as the one who had threatened Dawn Chaser at the station, as well as whom she had stolen the pouch of bits from. She had seen his attitude then, how he had been very cold towards her and seemingly everypony else. Seeing him nervous like that made her feel that something wasn’t right. His voice was different, his attitude was entirely opposite.

Maybe Forté was right, she thought, looking back out the window. It feels like there’s something wrong about this...and I think that unicorn knows more than he’s telling.

Only a few minutes had passed before she could hear hoofsteps coming back. She got up quickly, wondering if one of them had noticed she was gone. It was probably Steel or Forté, but having already decided that something was off about the whole situation, she began looking for somewhere to hide. The only problem was that train cars, even a VIP car, were not built with a wide variety of spaces for a pony to fit into. She could hear the click of the handle; in a last-ditch effort, she opened her wings and took into the air, hovering as close to the roof as possible and hoping they wouldn’t think to look up.

The door slid open and the pegasus nearly held her breath. But to her surprise, the pony that entered was a grey stallion, the same one with the long-cut mane who Steel had pulled her away from back in the passengers cars. He stepped into the car and went by the beds, looking at each one. He stopped by one and patted it, then grumbled.

“Softs beds...they got soft beds back here, and we had to sleep in buckin’ chairs!” he griped. “For all that we’re goin’ through to jack this train, we’d better be allowed to sleep in late tomorrow morning.”

With his complaint made to himself, he turned and left, the car door shutting behind him. Night finally landed on the floor again, but the relief of not being caught wasn’t noticeable to her.
They’re hijacking the train?! she thought nervously. That explains why they wanted everypony off! And I bet that unicorn is with them on it! But what am I supposed to do now?

She sat, pondering a plan of action while looking at the door. She needed to see what was going on, but one of the stallions might catch her going through the cars. She would have to get outside, but without being seen. A scene from a spy movie came to mind, where the spy would walk along the roof of the cars.

Opening the car door slowly, she fluttered up between the cars to the roof, landing as quietly as possible. The view, however, wasn’t good; outside of the train sat every passenger, tied up into groups of about five or six each and placed together some twenty feet from the train. Going between them was the pink unicorn with a piece of paper hovering before him, held by his magic, as he appeared to be counting the passengers. The larger stallion stood nearby, along with the other one who Night had seen sleeping in her seat.

“Stormcloud!” the pink unicorn shouted suddenly, turning around. “There’s supposed to be forty passengers on this train, including us. And yet, I’m only counting thirty-nine. Can either one of you tell me the problem here?”

The two pegasi looked at each other, seeming confused. “Um...didn’t somepony fall of the train, Myst?” the short-maned one (who Night then assumed was Stormcloud) asked their accomplice, only to receive a shoulder-punch from his partner.

“You moron, that didn’t actually happen!” the other stallion growled. “We jus’ told the rest of them that to make ‘em get off the train!”

“Ohhhhh! But...then what does thirty-nine passengers mean?”

“It means...um..I dunno, maybe somepony miscounted?”

“That’d make sense. I mean, thirty-nine is a pretty big number.”

“Oh shut it, Storm, you can’t even count that high.”

“Can too, Maelstrom! One, two, three-”

“Just shut it, both of you!!” yelled Myst, a flash of magic knocking the two stallion’s heads together. “We’re missing a passenger, and all you two can do is argue about counting numbers! Let me clear this up: you’re both idiots!” With this said, he takes a breath and exhales, now glaring at the pegasi. “I want you to search that train inch by inch for that passenger. Is this clear?”

As the two were picking themselves, Night shuddered atop the train car where she lay, knowing that she was the missing passenger. Considering that she was a pegasus, she could easily fly away before she was caught, though how far she could go couldn’t be said. She cursed the Fly-At-Home program in the back of her mind, but knew there wasn’t much she could do by staying where she was. Standing up a little, she opened her wings, preparing to take off, already planning on following the tracks back.

As she stood, though, Myst just happened to glance up a little, if only enough to spy the movement of a dark figure atop the train. Night thrust her wings down, hooves leaving the metal roof, only to suddenly feel her hind legs bound together and pulled downwards. With a yelp of surprise she fell, hitting the ground hard. Looking back, she saw the pink unicorn’s green magic glowing around her legs.

“Storm! Mael! There’s one out here!” he barked, bringing both of the grey stallions out from the train. In his hurry, however, Stormcloud tripped, at which he faceplanted the ground. Maelstrom, following close behind, proceeded to trip over his brother and, in an attempt to regain his balance, run into Myst.

“Gahh! Careful, you idiots!” Myst growled, pushing the larger stallion off of himself. This was enough of a distraction for his magic to fade, releasing the mare’s legs.

“Run, Night Wisp!!” a voice called, catching her attention as she picked herself up. Out amongst the passengers, now hostages, she could see Steel tied up with the rest of the Windigos.

“Get out of here!” Steel shouted again, struggling against the ropes with the others in a team effort to get out. “Fly away and get help!!”

“Ohhhh, no yer not!” shouted Storm, who had managed to recover and get back to the task at hoof. He leaped up, flying over the smaller pegasus, blocking off her exit with his larger wingspan. “You ain’t getting away that easy!”

Her escape cut off, the mare turned to run, only to be met with the approaching Maelstrom, who had now recovered as well. Trapped on both sides.

“C’mere, lil’ pegasus...” chuckled Mael, who opened his wings out to make himself wider. “We’re not gonna hurt ya, unless you try runnin’.”

Night looked back, then forwards again. It was easy to tell she couldn’t outrun the two, or outfly. Thinking desperately, she closed her eyes; almost immediately she felt the sensation of her shadow responding to her thoughts, and beginning to take shape. In the dark, she could hear the two stallions:

“Um...Mael? Are you seein’..?”

“Yeah Storm, I’m seein’ it..”

Night opened her eyes, hopeful that a large, black tendril of some kind was there, intimidating her opponents. To her dismay, though, all that was there was a small, black wisp that didn’t even look big enough to carry a book. Meanwhile, the two stallions had actually stopped; though, they were definitely not intimidated.

“Mael’, this one’s doin’ some weird stuff...should we knock her out like that red unicorn?”

“I think you got a good idea there, Storm..”

It all happened quickly. Maelstrom turned, his back legs spinning around. Night, in fear, tried to move, only to have the stallion’s powerful kick catch her in the side. There was a sickening snapping sound, followed by an excruciating pain as her wing took most of the force. Something struck her, making her head ignite with a different kind of pain, and soon everything was black.

It felt like hours before she opened her eyes again, her vision blurry. There might have been some sounds, but everything sounded too far away to make out. She stood slowly, the pain of her broken wing now a strange numb feeling, but her head was still throbbing, burning. Looking around, everything was gone; the hijackers, the passengers, even the train and tracks. The colors were gone as well, leaving only shades of black and white in their place.

A light tingling behind her neck made the mare turn around. There, just some distance away, stood a tall pony. It was all black, or seemed to be; she still couldn’t see clearly, her head’s throbbing seeming to grow the more she looked. A kind of haziness hung around the figure, like a mist, or smoke. Night squinted her eyes, trying to see past the veil, only for the figure to falter in shape and size, the veil thickening into a wall of black. She tried to move forward, to grab at the figure-

“Take one more step and I’ll kill him!!”
Night found herself staring at the stallion called Myst, who was holding a colt in his grasp. She recognized the colt as Dawn Chaser, the colt struggling as the unicorn’s magic held a knife close to his neck.

“One more move, even an inch, and he’s dead!” Myst exclaimed again, his eyes glaring daggers at the pegasus. She shivered, feeling his gaze boring into her, but soon realized it wasn’t just his eyes she felt upon her. Glancing out past the stallion, she could see the hostages, almost every single one, staring towards her. Looking back in front of herself, she could see Dawn’s gaze, his eyes looking from her to the ground, then back up at her. In a brief second of instinct, she looked down as well...to find herself standing over Stormcloud’s still body. She stepped backwards immediately, only to run into Maelstrom’s, which lay behind her.

The mare’s apparent shock seemed to amuse Myst, a soft laugh rising from the stallion. “Stupid mare, you don’t even realize what you just did, do you?” he chuckled, beginning to grin. “I was going to commend you; the display was intense, what with the black tentacles and all. And constricting them until you heard their wings snap?” He pauses, pretending to shiver. “Oh-ho, that was beautiful. You may even have broken a few of their ribs, but they were screaming so much I couldn’t--”

A red light illuminated Myst’s head from behind, until the sound of a magical blast hitting home was heard. There was no waiting, the hit knocking Myst out cold and sending him down quickly. The knife fell safely to the ground as Dawn crawled out, scooting away from the body, only to run into a red hoof.

Chromatic Reverb looked down at the colt, his horn still glowing crimson with residual energy. This was enough to send the frightened pony scrambling to find his sister, leaving the unicorn to move towards Myst’s body. He gave him a slight kick, to no response. Finally, he turned to look at Night Wisp and the two bodies, the hostages around him, and then the train.

“And this,” he muttered aloud. “Is why I hate mondays.”