Fallout Equestria: Firebrand

Chapters

Chapter 1: Lighting the Brand
Chapter 2: Solar Flare
Chapter 3: Secrets
Chapter 4: Burning Bright
Chapter 5: Firestorm
Chapter 6: Nightmares
Chapter 7: Liberation
Chapter 8: Sour Note
Chapter 9: Diplomacy
Chapter 10: Fallout
Chapter 11: Night mare Nightmares
Chapter 12: Shadow
Chapter 14: Reunion
Chapter 15: Spiral
Chapter 16: The King of Snakes
Prologue: Alicorn Attack
Chapter 13: True Colors

Chapter 1: Lighting the Brand

"When great changes occur in history,
when great principles are involved,
as a rule the majority are wrong."
-Eugene Debs.

"And I say onto you, spread the word of your Goddess and bring all Ponies into the glory that is her service. The great darkness shall create a world free of want, free of hatred, and free of strife for we will all be one in sisterhood. This is the future Nightmare Moon promises, but it is not one that we can wait for, we must make this future for ourselves. We will spread the joy and glory of Nightmare Moon across this land, and unite this bleak and torn Equestria under our leadership."

I was sitting in the main room of the Temple along with the other mares in my wing listening to High Priestess Dark Midnight speaking. She leaned on her lectern and smiled as she looked out at the collected Alicorns, continuing to speak, her voice carrying weight with it.

"We must not let Equestria suffer," she said as her horn and eyes began to glow with energy. "Equestria is in grave danger as long as it does not welcome us. We are the future, we are what will make sure this great nation survives, and it will only do so under our leadership. So what are we going to do? Are we going to let Equestria destroy itself once more?"

"No!" The gathered ponies said in unison, I joined in, my voice becoming part of the multitude as I did.

"No we will not, we must not, we will fulfill the promise of our Goddess, and carry out her will!" Dark Midnight said as magical energy swirled around the room. Images of Alicorns in flight with the sharp image of Nightmare Moon watching over us all. "Equestria is ours for the taking, and it will begin in the South! When we are strong, the NCR, the Enclave, Applejack's Rangers, and even the relic of the old world Nomad City will fall before our might! Join me my sisters, and we will build this world as one!"

The roar of the crowd drowned out any further words from the Priestess. She smiled as she looked out at the crowd, the Priestess' sermons had always gone over well. The magic continued to swirl around above, showing Unicorns, Earth Ponies, and Pegasi running as they were pursued by Alicorns until they all were overtaken and soon grew wings and horns as they too became Alicorns.

I had been part of the Nightmare Society for as long as I could remember, I was one of the Priestess' most important followers. I was going to serve the goddess for as long as I lived, and I knew that soon enough the High Priestess would have an important job for me and my wing.

"We may be small, but our Goddess has told me that there will soon be a way to grow. Our Society needs to grow in more than just new converts, we must create the next generation for ourselves. There may yet be a way, and we will find it, soon there will be no need for stallions, as we will have only our sisters. Go, enjoy your evenings, I will call upon some of you in time for this our glorious mission."

I took a deep breath and got to my hooves as I looked at the other three Alicorns in my wing and smiled a little as we walked together towards our quarters in the temple. I chuckled a little as two of the Alicorns, Tawny and Red Rider, walked side by side, sneaking occasional nuzzles and kisses.

"Those two huh?" The fourth member of the wing, a light blue Alicorn with a long red mane and tail named Windswept asked as she chuckled a little. "You'd think they'd at least wait until they got to our quarters before they started being affectionate with one another."

"Why's that?" I asked as I looked over at Windswept. "Its not like relationships are against the rules or anything, and we'd see it just as much if it was at our quarters."

"Yeah, I know, but it doesn't exactly make me feel better about it," Windswept said with a shake of her head. "I don't know about you Firelight, but I wouldn't mind having a special somepony, you know?"

"Yeah, I kinda get what you mean," I said with a shake of my head. "But its kind of weird to be with somepony that you're working so closely with, you know? I, just wonder sometimes if maybe there really is somepony out there for me."

"Well, you never know," Windswept said with a shrug. "I think you should think about it at least. There are plenty of sisters out there who I'm sure would love to have you as a special somepony."

I smiled a little and brushed my hair back a little as I tried not to blush. I had to admit, I really was a bit jealous of Tawny and Red Rider. It wasn't that there hadn't been ponies interested in me, but I hadn't ever really felt anything for any of them unfortunately.

I sighed a little and shook my head, there wasn't a lot of point in dwelling on it right now so I opened up the door to our quarters and we headed inside. I looked out the window of the towering temple at the ruined city around it and shook my head a little.

We had a long way to go before we were truly ready to bring peace to all of Equestria, but we were well on our way already. I looked back at my wing and smiled lightly as I got on my cot and laid down, taking out a book I had found discarded one day in the Temple and opened it up to the page I had been reading the night before.

Sometimes I wondered what life might be like outside of the Temple, but the Priestess always said that it was a horrible place where ponies starved and constantly fought each other. That was why we had to bring them into the fold after all, we were going to bring peace to Equestria once and for all.

Right?

00000

The next day we were called before the Goddess in her Private Chambers. I had only been in the the elaborate office at the top of the temple a few times over the course of my life and it was actually kind of nice to be in here again, but at the same time it meant we had a mission to fulfill.

"Firelight, pay attention," Dark Midnight said and I nodded and snapped to attention as she looked us over. "You four are among the finest Alicorns the Society has ever seen. Which is why I have brought you here for a mission of great importance to our cause."

"We are at your command High Priestess," I said and gave her a nod. "Just give the word and my Wing is ready to do whatever you want."

"You are to escort my daughter Starshine into the jungle," Dark Midnight continued as she paced back and forth looking at each of us in turn. "Your mission is to bring her to the coordinates on the map that you will be provided with. This is only a recon mission for the moment, but this is the first step in preserving the Society for the future of Equestria."

"High Priestess, if I may ask, what are we looking for?" Tawny asked, the light brown Alicorn flinched a little when she drew the eye of the high Priestess but she just nodded.

"You're looking for a Stable," she said after a moment and looked between all four of us. "We managed to find information on a Stable here in South Equestria built in the jungle that may have what we're looking for."

What we were looking for meaning a means to have foals without a stallion. The High Priestess had never given up on looking for it, while there was reports of other Alicorns, non-Society ones at that, being able to use a potion to change their genders, shes seemed to have no interest in it.

I never understood why, looking back there was obviously a reason but I wasn't really sure what it was at the time. There were no stallions in the Society, as was said, we were all sisters.

"Is everything clear?" Bright Midnight asked as she looked each of us over one by one.

"Yes High Priestess," I said with a nod and the others in my Wing nodded as well. "By your command, we will make sure that we finish this duty you have given us."

"Excellent," Dark Midnight said and gave us all a smile. "Nightmare Moon is smiling down on us indeed for she has given us a great gift and skilled Alicorns willing to carry out her will. You will all have your places by her side in the afterlife for this."

We nodded and smiled as we saluted back. Dark Midnight called one of her acolytes and they came in with the teenage daughter of the High Priestess in tow. "Starshine, these are the Alicorns that will be your escort to Stable 27."

"Its an honor to serve," I said and bowed my head to the younger Alicorn as the rest of my Wing did the same.

I got a strange feeling at the back of my mind when I saw Starshine, the same feeling I got every time I saw her actually. It was, almost as if I knew her somehow, like there was a bond between us that I didn't quite understand.

But there was no time to dwell on that right now, we were soldiers in the army of the Goddess and she was the daughter of our leader. We heard and obeyed her orders as if she was the High Priestess herself.

"As long as she is with you, her word is mine," Dark Midnight said with a nod as she looked us over one by one. "To defy her is to defy me, there will be no forgiveness for she who does not obey the will of the Goddess or her Prophet on Equus."

"We hear and obey," we said in unison and Starshine smiled a little as she looked up at me, she was small for an Alicorn but she was still young, and she would grow.

"Come on then, lets get going," she said and we started out of the office and down the stairs towards the entrance to the Temple itself.

00000

As we exited the temple I looked back at the tower that stretched up to the sky above the ruins of the ancient city. We had called it home for as long as I could remember, it was one of several tall structures in the ruins, the High Priestess said that they were ruins of the old Equestria before the Zebras came and destroyed Nightmare Moon's perfect society.

Zebras, we hadn't ever really seen any Zebras in our travels around Equestria but we all knew they were still out there somewhere. If ponies had survived the war, then the Zebras must have as well, and they were likely preparing to go to war with us again and try and destroy us once and for all.

I shook my head, I didn't have time to dwell on such things. The Zebras weren't here and that was what really mattered, I didn't want to think about what might happen if they were here. They were dangerous, wicked, and not worthy of even consideration for being sisters.

It wasn't that there weren't a few reports of Zebras in the area, but the Society had hardly ever ran into them and I certainly hadn't seen any. Still, that wasn't part of our journey right now, we had to get to the Stable that the High Priestess had sent us to investigate.

"What do you think the High Priestess wants us to investigate in this Stable?" Red Rider asked as she walked up next to me. "I mean she sent a wing and her daughter, so its got to be something important."

"Yeah, I know," I said and shook my head a little. "I mean we have what she told us, but its not a lot to go on. I guess maybe there's something like a spell or potion or something that lets two mares have a foal?"

"That would actually be nice," Red Rider said as she looked back at Tawny and gave the light brown mare a smile. "Do you think the High Priestess will let us use it first?"

"Maybe..." I said as I thought about it for a moment. "I'm sure she'd be willing to lend a hoof to the couples that are already formed. At least, if that's what we're really after."

Starshine looked back at us and then ahead for a moment but she didn't say anything. She was the only one of us who actually knew what we were looking for and what was waiting for us in the Stable probably, I just hoped that she knew where we were going.

I looked out at the massive jungle ahead of us. There wasn't a lot of trails through it, honestly we didn't really know a lot about the jungle other than that it was big and had a lot of creatures in it, I sighed and looked at the rest of my wing as we fanned out, drawing the machetes that had been given to us by the armorer and started hacking our way into the jungle.

We needed to make sure that Starshine made it out of this okay, she was the first priority of our Wing, and we weren't going to let the High Priestess down.

00000

It was about two hours into our jungle trek when we ran into our first problem. It was a large jungle cat who's territory we had wandered into apparently, and it leapt out at me. I barely got a shield up in time as the massive cat growled and looked at us menacingly.

The big cat walked around our shield growling menacingly as it beared its fangs at us hungrily. I levitated my energy rifle out of its holster, preparing to fire on it as soon as we lowered the shield. a vic

"What is that thing?" Starshine asked as she shivered a little at the sight of the large cat that beared its teeth at us again.

"Sabretooth," Tawny said with a shake of her head. "They're very dangerous mutated animals that call this part of Equestria home. We walked into its territory and it's going to chase us as long as it can."

I gulped a little, that didn't sound pleasant but we had to figure something out and fast. The cat jumped at Red Rider's shield only to be pushed back after a moment.

"What's the plan?" Windswept asked as she looked between us.

"Keep backing away, if we're lucky he won't be able to stop us," I said as we backed away, maintaining our shields all the while.

I looked at the large cat for a long moment, getting a better look at him now. He was massive, bigger than any creature I had ever seen before it looked almost like it was the size of a pony. The Sabretooth from what I had heard about it was a vicious hunter that pursued its prey until one of them fell from exhaustion.

And now we were its prey, and it was too close for any of us to get a clear shot off on it. It wouldn't do much good anyway, this cat was not easy to take down and we all knew it.

Starshine started crying a little and I looked down at her and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry Starshine, we're going to get out of this," I said in a calming tone that made the younger Alicorn look up at me.

"You really think so?" She asked as she brushed the tears out of her eyes.

"I know so," I said, I just hoped that I was right. I had to think fast, the rest of the Wing was looking to me to come up with a plan and I had to come up with something fast.

Then something clicked in my brain, there was one thing I could do to get them to safety, but it was suicidal. I wasn't about to survive this, but I knew I had to do it in order to protect my wing, and the High Priestess' daughter.

"On three, drop your shields," I said.

"What?" The other Alicorns asked in unison.

"You heard me, we need to do this, its important that Starshine gets out of here, I'll get you to safety," I said as I looked back at the four of them. "You'll be okay, I promise."

"We'll come back for you, I promise," Windswept said with a soft smile.

"You'll have your place in the afterlife at Nightmare Moon's side for this Firelight," Starshine said as she gave me a reassuring smile.

"Thanks, that means a lot," I said with a nod. "One..."

My horn started to glow with a magical energy as I concentrated on the temple. Its massive tower, the strange symbol of the six pointed star that adorned its walls, I knew I would never see it again, but what mattered was that I got them out right now.

"Two..."

I closed my eyes as we prepared to drop the shield. I couldn't teleport them out and maintain the shield at the same time. Teleportation hadn't ever really been my strong suit, but I knew that I could at the very least get them out.

"THREE!"

As the shields dropped around me there was a flash of yellow light leaving just me and the Sabretooth that looked confused at me. I was exhausted from using that much magical power, but I managed to summon up enough to point my rifle at the cat and open fire just as the cat pounced on me.

And with a swipe of its massive claws I felt everything start to go dim. For a long moment I could've sworn I heard the sound of gunfire around me as I looked up, I could barely make out the figure of a purple pony looking down at me.

"What are we going to do with her?" A mare's voice asked as the figure turned its head away from me.

"She's an Alicorn, we should leave her for the monsters," a gravelly mare's voice said as I felt a strange tingling sensation, it was faint but I could feel it. "There's no point in saving one of them."

"No..." a third mare's voice said in an accent I couldn't place, but my vision faded to black before I could hear her say more.

00000

I don't know how long I was out for but when I started to regain consciousness I felt a headache that was bigger than the time that Windswept convinced me to try some of the Nightvine Wine that was brewed by the Society. I groaned as I held my head and looked up, I had no idea what the afterlife might look like, but a makeshift wooden ceiling was probably not it.

Where in Nightmare Moon's name was I? I tried to get up but only felt pain going through my legs and wings as I couldn't move. Whatever that Sabretooth had done to me it had really worked me over, and I wasn't about to get up easily.

Maybe I was back in the Temple's Clinic area, that was it, I hadn't ever really been in there but this could be it. They had come back for me and I was healing up there, the High Priestess would probably walk in any minute. I heard a door opening and heard hooves moving along the floor, that had to be her now.

"Well, look who's awake," a mare's voice said, it wasn't one I recognized, but still it sounded, familiar, but I couldn't place my hoof on it. I tried to look at her, but my vision was blurry, there was something about this mare that I didn't really recognize, it was like she radiated something from her. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got mauled by a big cat," I said hoarsely. "Where am I?"

"You're in my clinic in the town of Nightingale," the mare said, my vision was slowly returning to me so she was more pronounced as having a white or light grey coat. "You're going to be just fine my Alicorn friend, you just need to take it easy for a few days."

"Umm, okay," I said as I shook my head and tried to clear my vision better so I could see the pony. "What's Nightingale?"

"You must be from the north," the mare continued as she picked up a clipboard or something in her hoof, that was strange I thought a Doctor would be a Unicorn at least. "Nightingale is the largest settlement in this part of Equestria. I must say, I've never had to treat an Alicorn before though."

That accent again, it was like nothing I had ever heard before. There were a few accents that I had heard while going after ponies from different settlements, but I had never heard this one before.

"I can barely see anything..." I said as I blinked.

"Don't worry, it will pass in a moment," the mare said. "For now, just stay where you are. You've been out for a few days already, I'm glad to see you alive. Lemon Lime has been coming by every so often to provide radiation to heal you as needed, its not easy to find radioactive materials after the day of Sunshine and Rainbows so we've had to rely on Ghouls."

My vision finally cleared and I got a good look at the mare that had been treating me. Or more specifically her backside since she seemed to be working on something, I blushed a little when I caught myself staring at it, and then I realized what had been bothering me ever since I woke up.

She was a grey-ish white mare with grey stripes lining her body and a tail that extended from a braid-like section into a long ponytail. This wasn't a pony at all, she was a Zebra.

"What the..." I said and for a moment I thought I was still seeing things as she turned and looked at me with a smile as she adjusted her glasses. "You're a Zebra?"

"Last time I checked, or did I forget to put my stripes on this morning?" The Zebra asked with a giggle as she looked at me through her glasses. "Nice to see your vision is returning miss..."

"Firelight," I said and looked at her in confusion. "I've never really met a Zebra before I have to admit."

"Its alright, we're not very common in this part of Equestria, my family goes back quite a few generations though," the Zebra said. "Oh, my apologies, my name is Neivi, I'm the local Doctor here in Nightingale."

"A Zebra Doctor, now I've seen everything," I said with a groan as I laid my head back.

"Don't be so surprised, each Zebra tribe has their skills that we play well to, I happen to be from the Mendi Tribe so I'm a healer," Neivi said with a chuckle. "I'm the only reason you're here frankly, the others would've rather put a bullet in your head because of how much trouble you Alicorns have given us."

"What are you talking about? We only go after settlements that..." I started to say and was cut off by the Zebra once more.

"That are doing nothing to harm you? That are just minding their own business and trying to survive the daily grind of living in this Wasteland?" Neivi said as I turned my head and looked back at her. "I don't know what you've been told, but we're not the bad guys or whatever here."

"The High Priestess said that you were suffering, that there was so much hunger and pain that it was better to convert you all," I said with a groan. "That the alternative would be death."

Neivi paused a little as she looked at her hooves and then brushed her mane back a little. "I'm not going to lie and say everything is easy out here," she said finally. "But the truth is that we're not like that at all, we're recovering, we're thriving even. I know its going to take a lot of getting used to, but, I want you to see the town we've built here and maybe hear more about what's been going on around Equestria."

I paused a moment and looked in the Zebra's purple eyes. There was a sincere tone to her voice, I didn't know if she was speaking the truth or not, but it still ran counter to everything I had ever been taught. Then again, she was a Zebra and she wasn't trying to kill me or anything right now.

"Alright, I'll see your world," I said and turned my head and looked back up at the ceiling. "You're different from all the stories I've heard about Zebras you know."

"Yeah, I get that a lot from ponies that don't know anything about Zebras beyond what the history books or wartime propaganda tell them," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "But I can promise you I mean you no harm, I'm just trying to live in this Wasteland too you know."

"So how does a Zebra Doctor get made the Doctor for a town anyway?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Oh you know, save a few ponies lives, especially when one is the mayor's daughter, and they look past things like your stripes," Neivi said with a smile. "Trust me Firelight, I'm not here to cause any trouble."

Somehow, I had a hard time believing that, but then again I hadn't ever met a Zebra for real. Maybe this was a big lie but she said that her family had been around here for years, besides she was the one keeping me here so it wasn't like I had much of a choice but to give her the benefit of a doubt.

I just hoped that whatever was going on, she was going to be able to shed light on it.

00000

"I don't like that we're keeping one of them here," a stallion's voice said as I shifted a little and started to wake up a little, the sound of Neivi talking with other ponies reaching my ears. "If she's part of the Nightmare Society, then she's a threat to everypony in this town."

"You knew that when you let me become the town Doctor that I wouldn't refuse care to anypony," Neivi's voice said. "Mayor Steel, ,you have to see reason on this. We cannot turn her back just because she's an Alicorn, if we can convince her..."

"Yes, yes, if you can convince her that she's been lied to her whole life, I've heard about what those monsters do to ponies," the stallion said, he sounded angry, and I was confused as to why. "We don't know who she is or who she used to be, we have to assume that she is a threat to Nightingale."

"Mayor Steel, I already agreed to put her in a Furred Salamander field," Neivi said as my ears twitched a little, what did she mean by that? "She's an Alicorn, we don't even know what the full effects of exposing her to a magic negation field might have on an Alicorn."

A magic negation field? I did feel weaker and when I tried to use my magic to do something simple it just fizzled out. I didn't even think that was possible, there had to be something in the room that was keeping it from being used, but there wasn't a lot I could do about it.

"Fine, if it starts too deteriorate her health then you can switch to the magic negation ring, but I don't want her walking free where she could harm innocent civilians," the mayor said and his voice turned colder for a moment. "You're walking a fine line here Neivi. I already have reservations about you despite my predecessor's assurances that you're not dangerous and wanting to help an Alicorn isn't helping matters."

"I am a Mendi healer Mayor, I do not hurt others normally and I don't leave anyone to die," Neivi said with an icy coldness. "I'm also the best Doctor in Nightingale, if you'd rather trust whatever yahoo you can find with a few healing potions and whatever chems they can scrounge up with the job, be my guest."

"Alright, alright, you win," Steel said as he sounded like he was about ready to give up. "Just keep that thing away from me, got it?"

"Fine, then just don't come back in my clinic," Neivi said and the mayor just grumbled as he trotted out of the clinic and the Zebra mare walked over to my bedside and I pretended to be asleep. "So, how much of that did you hear?"

"Most of it," I said with a sigh as I looked back at Neivi, the Zebra mare adjusted her glasses for a moment and shook her head. "The mayor doesn't trust you either huh?"

"He doesn't particularly like Zebras," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "My family has no love for the old Empire though, my ancestor lived in Equestria during the war, and according to family legend, was picked for some big mission. I, don't really know anything more than that, she was survived by her daughter who had come south with some other Mendi and we've called this area home for generations."

There was a pained tone in her voice when she mentioned her ancestor. I didn't want to press more about it, but I had to wonder about that a little. I gave her a small smile and a nod.

"So where are the other Zebras?" I asked curiously.

"Some live here in NIghtingale," Neivi said as she started checking me over. "Others live in other settlements around, the second biggest settlement in this area at Canterbury is primarily made up of Zebras actually."

"So, why live here if the mayor doesn't like you?" I asked as I looked at her curiously for a moment. I hadn't ever met a Zebra before and I wanted to know more about this one. She didn't seem as bad as the stories I had heard described, so I was more curious than anything else.

"Even jerks like him need medical treatment," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "Don't worry about it, you're going to be just fine as long as I'm here."

I looked at her for a long moment before I smiled lightly. She was nice enough, but right now I just needed to get out of this settlement and tell the others that I was still alive. Maybe they'd understand, I wasn't gone for that long right?

"So Doc, when can I get out of here?" I asked as I looked at her.

"The day after tomorrow, if you're lucky at least," Neivi said as she looked over at me. "There's still the matter of mending your wings, you're very lucky to have survived the fight with the Sabretooth. Very few ponies can claim to have come face to face with one and lived."

"Well, I'm special," I said with a groan as I flexed my wings a little testingly, they didn't hurt but they felt stiff. "What's going to happen to me after I'm released? Can I go back to the Temple?"

"If you want," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "But we're still trying to figure out exactly what to do with you in the Town Council. The Mayor isn't thrilled that we have you here as you've seen and would probably rather have you killed just because you're an Alicorn."

I sighed and leaned back, there was nothing I could really do about that. If there was a chance that the Society was attacking innocent settlements then I couldn't blame them for not trusting me. Maybe, if there was something I could do to prove that I wasn't so bad they'd be willing to at least hear the society out and there would be a reasonable explanation for all of it.

Right?

"Are you having any troubles? Are you feeling weak at all?" Neivi asked as she looked over at me while taking notes on her clipboard.

"Yeah, now that you mention it I'm feeling a bit weaker than usual," I said with a groan. "I feel like I can barely lift myself up, is that normal?"

"No, most of the physical damage has been healed other than your wings," Neivi said as she chewed lightly on her pencil's eraser. "I was afraid of this, its the field that you're being surrounded with. Normally you'd at least be able to walk around, but the Mayor wants to keep you confined."

I sighed and laid back again, I was a prisoner here, no real surprise, I knew that already but I wasn't about to take it lying down. Or at least as best I could, I just wished that I could get up and see more of Nightingale.

"I'll talk to him about switching you over to a ring instead," Neivi said as she walked over to me. "I need to check your leg bones to make sure that they're fully healed, okay?"

I nodded and flinched a little as I felt the Zebra Doctor working on my bones. She pulled back after a few minutes and gave me a nod. "Alright, you're all good, as soon as we get approval to use the ring I'll let you move around some more when you're ready," she said with a smile.

"Thanks," I said as the door to the clinic suddenly opened up and I heard a pony whistling a light tune as in walked the strangest looking pony I had ever seen.

I could easily recognize her as a Pegasus, but she was a dark purple with spotches of lighter purple on her face, chest, and flank. She was dressed in light armor with a hat pushed back on her head. She tipped her hat to Neivi before giving me a look.

"Howdy Doc, Ah wanted ta swing by and see if yah could look at me fer a moment," the Pegasus said as she gave the doctor a light smile.

"What is it this time Storm Wrangler? Did you get clawed by another jungle beast or something?" Neivi asked as she rolled her eyes a little and walked over to the Pegasus who actually had a pretty nasty looking cut across her flank now that I looked at her again.

"Nope, Thunderbird this time," Storm Wrangler said with a chuckle as she removed her hat which let her purple mane fall around her, I could see it tied into a ponytail with a bow at the end. "But yah should see what happened ta tha big buzzard, Ah'm tha toughest thing in tha skies and he learned it tha hard way."

"Your recklessness is going to get you killed one of these days Storm," Neivi said with a shake of her head as she took out healing potions and started working on healing the Pegasus' wounds.

"Not as long as Ah've got tha prettiest Zebra doc in tha jungle ta patch me up," Storm Wrangler said as she winked and Neivi just rolled her eyes as she applied the potion and bandaged the Pegasus up. "Yer no fun, yah know that Doc?"

"Its not my job to be fun its my job to make sure you and the other guardsmares don't get torn to shreds by the wildlife," Neivi said as she tightened the bandages a little.

"Oww, whatever happened ta that oath yah took?" Storm Wrangler said with a snort as she looked at Nevi again.

"I had my hooves crossed," Neivi said with a roll of her eyes. "You're going to be fine, just don't get into any more aerial dogfights with large birds or you might not be so lucky next time."

The southern accented Pegasus turned her head and looked at me again with narrowed eyes. She didn't look happy to see me as she picked her hat up again and put it on. "Ah'll see yah later Neivi, Ah'll let yah know if we need yah on another mission out in tha brush."

She turned and headed out without giving me or Neivi another look. I frowned a little and looked over at the Zebra who sighed and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, not all of my colleagues share my interest in keeping anyone alive," Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. "She was part of the team that found you in the jungle, I barely kept her from putting a bullet in your head right there, so you're lucky."

"Yeah, some luck..." I said with a groan. "I'm in a town that hates me and I don't even know how far I am away from the Temple. Can this possibly get any worse?"

"You really shouldn't say that," Neivi said. "I read somewhere that Discord put a curse on that phrase so every time its said something happens that makes things worse."

"Great," I said with a groan as I rolled over onto my side. "I'm just going to take a nap, wake me up if you feel like poking and prodding me some more."

"We Doctors live for that," Neivi said with a chuckle as she went back to her seat at a desk and got to work on something.

00000

I woke up sometime that night to a slight moan, I turned to see that see a light was still on. I rolled over and saw Neivi laying in a bed not far away from me and reading a book, looking at it through her bespectacled eyes. She looked up when she realized I was watching her and blushed as she shut it and pushed it under the covers.

"Oh, you're awake Firelight," she said with a slight blush as she looked at me. "I was just... umm..."

"Do I want to know what you were reading?" I asked as I looked at the Zebra mare with a chuckle.

"Just something from before the war, nothing special," she said as she tried not to look embarrassed. "I'm just trying to, uh, get to know pre-war Equestria better is all, you know? So I read as much as I can to see what the world was like before the war."

I blinked a little, I could tell she wasn't being entirely truthful, though really there was something strangely cute about the Zebra mare being so flustered. I shook my head and gave her a smile.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me," I said with a chuckle as I leaned back again. "One of my roommates likes to sneak peaks at old Playpony magazines sometimes so its not like I haven't had to deal with it before."

Neivi just chuckled lightly as she rolled over on her side and looked at me. "Firelight, I, wanted to know more about you, you know? Your life and stuff back with the group you're with, what's it like?"

"Well, I mean there's not a lot to tell, we have our almost nightly services with the High Priestess, but other than that and carrying out our missions we've got a lot of freedom around the Temple," I said with a sigh as I looked at the ceiling. "My Wing is probably worried about me if they even think I'm alive. I teleported them away right before the Sabretooth attacked me, so..."

"So, you don't know what happened to them?" Neivi asked and I nodded softly. "I understand, I'd be worried about my family too if I was separated from them like that."

"Do you have a family?" I asked as I looked over at her.

"Yes, I'm the youngest daughter of a prominent family from Canterbury actually," Neivi said with a light chuckle. "My parents thought I was crazy to spend time here in Nightingale given some of the opinions ponies have about Zebras, but I've won them over. I, sometimes miss them though, its not easy to get here from Canterbury because of the Jungle."

"Yeah... I can imagine," I said with a sigh as I looked over at the Zebra mare. "I don't even know my family, I've always just had the Society. They're my family, they're the ones that raised me and gave me a place to live. They're my sisters, but I don't really remember where I came from, you know?"

"I see," Neivi said with a shrug. "I wish I could help you, but honestly that kind of thing isn't my area of expertise. I'm just a medical doctor, I don't really know anything about memories or whatever. Maybe if you stay here awhile longer I can see what I can do about getting one of the specialists from Canterbury to come by?"

"Maybe," I said with a shake of my head. "Honestly, I just want to get back home right now. If I don't, I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't really know where else I could go, the Temple is my home after all."

"You, could always stay here," Neivi suggested and I looked at her in surprise.

"You said that a lot of ponies here would hate me," I said. "Because of what the Society has done to the other settlements, was that a lie?"

"No, no, there is definitely a lot of animosity towards Alicorns here," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "It all started with the attack on Pearl 6 years ago, but that's not important right now. What's important is that you get better and we can get you in a position where you can make a decision for yourself. Were you ever given a choice as to whether or not you wanted to join the society?"

"Well, yeah, of course, I'm sure I was," I said though I wasn't so sure now that I said it out loud. "I had to be right? You don't just join those kind of places without being given a choice..."

Neivi sighed and shook her head for a moment before she looked back at the ceiling. "The Zebras believe that Nightmare Moon is a servant of the Stars, I honestly don't know what to believe since I know that Luna herself wasn't so bad. But, you, you worship Nightmare Moon as a Goddess right?"

"That's right," I said with a small nod.

"That's a problem, a big problem," she said with a shake of her head. "Lets ignore the fact that a lot of ponies believe its a lot of superstition, I know a Starkatteri, the stars are a real threat to Equestria. Worshiping them is dangerous on its own, and you're worshiping an actual embodiment of their power? I honestly think you're asking for trouble no matter how you look at it."

I blinked, I hadn't thought about that. But now I was starting to see what the High Priestess meant, if the Zebras believed that Nightmare Moon was dangerous and a threat to Equestria, then they would be opposed to us. I didn't know what to think about that, and maybe that was the real problem here.

I sighed and looked at Neivi for a long moment. The Zebra seemed sincere in her words, but I honestly had no idea what to think right now. Still, at least she didn't seem to want to hurt me, maybe I could get out of here with my flank intact still, I hoped so at least.

"So, what's up with Storm Wrangler, she have a thing for you or something?" I asked with a chuckle as a blush crept over the Zebra's face.

"Well, you see..." Neivi said with a shake of her head. "Me and Storm Wrangler have an, interesting relationship. She's not really my type though, too wild, you saw what she came in with earlier. We call that a good day around here when she's involved."

"I see," I said with a shake of my head.

"So what about you, do you have a special somepony back home at your Temple?" Neivi asked. "A beautiful Alicorn like you, you probably have all the stallions there fawning over you."

"We, don't have any stallions," I said with a shake of my head. "But I've had a few mares interested in me, I just haven't really been interested in any of them. I know it sounds kind of silly, I guess I just never really found the right one."

"No, that's fine," Neivi said and yawned a little as she stretched out. "I'm going to get some sleep, good night Firelight."

"Good night Neivi," I said and smiled a little as I laid back and closed my eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep.

00000

"I still don't like this," a grey Unicorn stallion with a black mane commented as Neivi slipped a ring over my horn. Mayor Steel had finally been convinced to let me at least look around Nightingale as long as I had a magic negation ring on my horn. "How do I know she won't try and escape?"

"Because she knows that tha guards will just shoot her out of tha sky," Storm Wrangler commented with a chuckle as she pushed her hat back a little. "Don't yah?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me, I'm not going to escape," I said with a shake of my head as I got to my wobbly legs as my hooves rested on the wood floor.

"She's going to need to stay another day or two to make sure that there aren't any lasting effects from the magic negation field," Neivi said as she helped steady me and she shot Mayor Steel a look. "She's not to be given any trouble, she's under my care, do you understand Mayor?"

"Yeah, yeah," Steel said as he waved his hoof and shot me another look. "You better keep your word, the last thing we need is trouble in my town."

"I will," I said as I returned the look with one of my own. "I don't want to cause any trouble, I just want to get back home."
Steel just snorted a little as he headed out of the clinic. Neivi shook her head and looked at Storm Wrangler who just adjusted her hat a little.

"Look, Ah ain't gonna cause any trouble," the Pegasus said with a shrug. "Ah'm just here ta represent tha Guard. Ah may not trust an Alicorn, but Ah ain't about ta cause trouble fer ya'll as long as yah don't cause trouble fer me or tha town."

"Good," Neivi said and looked at me. "Would you like a tour of Nightingale Firelight?"

"That would be nice," I said with a smile and a nod as we headed out of the clinic and out into the last thing I had ever expected to see in Equestria.

Nightingale wasn't just a settlement it was one that was built up in the trees itself. We were towards the top of a fairly large tree that looked out over the jungle for miles. There were other buildings with sturdy looking bridges running to them throughout the treetops and I could make out a wall a good distance away that marked the edge of the town.

"You, built this town in the trees?" I asked as I looked at Neivi surprised.

"Yeah, we sure did," Neivi said with a chuckle. "The worst of the monsters live on the ground, save for the Thunderbirds but we've got eyes in the skies for them. This whole place is a fortress in the trees, nothing to worry about."

I honestly had no idea what to make of this, I hadn't ever seen or heard of anything like this. I could see some buildings down on the ground along with planting areas and other things, but most of it was up here.

"Why build this high?" I asked as I looked at the two ponies native to this strange, seemingly impossible town.

"Well the story goes that Nightingale was founded back when the jungles were still completely overgrown," Neivi said with a shrug.

"Yeah, tha ponies here needed ta find a way ta survive, so while they fought against tha jungle below, they started buildin' up high," Storm Wrangler said. "Tha whole place was a masterful feet of engineerin' thanks in part ta tha Propoli Tribe and good old fashioned Earth Pony ingenuity. But still, it ain't perfect, sometimes tha jungle still seeps in and fights back."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked as I looked at the Pegasus confused for a moment. "How can the jungle fight back? Its just plants, right?"

"Well, that's kind of part of it, there's also the animals as well," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "But, something happened to the jungle down here on the Last Day, something nopony can really explain. Its like, it was affected by the radiation and it became alive. Well, more alive than usual I mean, plants are still alive, but they don't normally act like... sorry, I'm rambling, I'll stop."

I chuckled a little, the Zebra was getting flustered at herself and it was strangely kind of cute. I shook my head and nodded at them both. "Its okay Neivi, I was just wondering is all," I said with a shake of my head. "This is amazing, its, not like anything I expected the outside world to be like."

"Yeah, I'd say we've done pretty well for ourselves," Neivi said with a light smile. "Doesn't hurt that we haven't had a lot of trouble from groups like the Society around here."

Actually now that she mentioned it, I hadn't heard of Nightingale before here. I thought maybe it was because we were too far into the jungle's interior to be considered a target, but they had said that nearby settlements had been targetted, that was weird.

"Well, at least as far as we know," Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. "Tha truth is that there are occasionally ponies who vanish from town. Mostly tha elderly and sick ponies, and tha guard can't figure out how it's bein' done."

Neivi paused a moment and looked away from us with a sigh as she adjusted her glasses and brushed her mane back after a moment and looked back at me. "Its true, a few ponies here and there have vanished, but only ponies and never Ghouls. The Zebras and Griffons here in town are completely untouched, its the strangest thing."

That was strange, I honestly couldn't explain it either but maybe it was something worth looking into. These Ponies, sorry, Ponies and Zebra had helped me out when I was in danger, it was the least I could do before I headed back to the temple.

Besides, I was actually curious about learning more about this settlement and its allies. If I brought this back to the Temple maybe I could prove to the High Priestess that we didn't have to keep taking ponies by force like we had been doing. They didn't seem to be suffering or anything, so if I could prove to her that it wasn't necessary we could do this a lot more civily.

"So, what group did yah say yah were with?" Storm Wrangler asked as she looked up at me curiously, her black hat perched on her head as she looked at me curiously.

"The Nightmare Society," I said and she looked at me with a frown for a moment. "What?"

"Nothin', just Ah heard tell that ya'll were wiped out years ago by some pony named Bright Feather up on Mount Pleasant Island," she said with a shake of her head. "Well, that's just what Ah heard mind yah and tha tales said nothin' about ya'll bein' Alicorns."

"I see," I said and blinked a little. What was she talking about? We had always been Alicorns and we hadn't ever been on Mount Pleasant Island, so she had to be mistaken. "Well, we're still here, I don't know where you got that information but its wrong."

"Well, Ah guess that's certainly possible, but Ah just think its a a mite weird," Storm Wrangler said as she shrugged a little and we started down one of the bridges towards a larger building below us.

"I think you could use something other than my clinic food," Neivi said with a chuckle. "My cooking isn't exactly anything to write home about I know, but I've at least got the best healing potions in town."

"I thought it was fine," I said with a shrug as we headed into a large building which I was surprised to find contained a series of tables and chairs with a counter at the far end.

It was mostly empty save for the ponies behind the counter who were working on getting some food made. The only other pony was a green mare with a yellow mane, though this one wasn't a normal pony, she looked like she was rotting, but I could tell she was an Earth Pony as she looked up at us with greenish-yellow eyes.

"Hey Lemon Lime," Neivi said as she waved to the rotting pony who was eating, she grunted a little and gestured for us to take a seat. "Firelight, this is the Ghoul I mentioned that was helping provide the radiation to heal you."

"You're lucky I was willing to do that with what I've heard about your kind down here," Lemon Lime said in that same gravelly voice that I remembered from before. "But Neivi here saved my flank awhile back, it was the least I could do to help her out."

"Ah think Neivi's saved everypony's flanks at least once," Storm Wrangler said with a chuckle as Neivi got up and headed over to get some food for all of us.

"Yeah, well it still would be nice if she could help me find what I'm looking for," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head as she looked at me. "What's wrong, never seen a Ghoul before?"

"Honestly? No," I admitted with a shake of my head. "I mean I've heard of them, you're a pony changed by radiation right?"

"Yeah, changed by radiation, that's the nice way to put it," Lemon Lime said as she took a drink of water and looked back at me for a moment. "Only reason I'm here is because I'm looking for something, and I doubt you'd know where it is or be willing to help an old Ghoul out."

"I see," I said and frowned a little. The Ghoul mare seemed to be dismissive of me, but she didn't seem to outright hate me, at least not right now. "Look, if there's anything I can do to help, I know ponies who..."

"No, no, there's no point in asking, I'll find it on my own if I have to," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "Its not that I wouldn't mind a little help, but, well, its personal. I'd rather find it on my own as best I can, and its not like the scouts around here are able to point me in the right direction."

She took another drink and I looked at here for a long moment, I could tell the pain in her voice and face but there wasn't anything I could do about it right now. I nodded a little as Neivi came back with the food and set it out in front of us as she gave us a smile.

"Lemon, I know you're disappointed that we can't help more..." the Zebra said as Lemon shot her a look. "But we're still looking. There's a big jungle out there and a lot of it is still uncharted because of the, rather strange flora out there, we can barely get caravans to our settlements let alone to look for a pre-apocalyptic location."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Lemon said with a shake of her head before she looked back at me and then at Storm Wrangler. "Still, I have to wonder something about you Alicorn. Your kind doesn't usually go traipsing around in jungles like you were unless you've got a very good reason."

"I, was on a mission from my High Priestess," I said with a shake of my head. I couldn't tell them any more than that right now, it would compromise the integrity of the mission. "Me and my wing were escorting a VIP through the jungle when we got jumped by that Sabretooth. You caught the tail end of that encounter of course."

"Yeah, well I call it stupid," Lemon said with a shake of her head. "You don't go waltzing into unknown territory like that unless you've got a very good reason."

I shook my head. "My business is between me and the High Priestess, I'm not going to tell you what we were doing there," I said.

Lemon Lime just snorted as she took another drink and looked at me for a long moment. "I don't like secrets," she said with a shake of her head. "But fine, if you don't want to tell us what you were doing out there, then I don't really care."

"Lets try not to get into a fight here," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "Firelight, are you going to be okay waiting for a couple of days to make sure that everything is okay before you leave for your Temple?"

"Yeah, that should be fine," I said. "What exactly were those things that you had in your clinic?"

"Furred Salamanders, they're a species native to the deep jungles, they negate magic around them," Neivi said and shook her head a little. "I don't like using them personally, the full effects on a pony body from prolonged exposure hasn't exactly been tested and I'm not sure I want to start taking volunteers to find out."

"Yeah, Ah flew into a nest of those things once, dropped right out of tha sky," Storm Wrangler said as she took a long drink of her soda. "Ah don't like 'em personally, there's just somethin' about it that's creepy."

"Its a perfectly natural defense mechanism," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "There's predators in these jungles that use magic to track their prey. Its simply that the Salamanders happen to negate magic around them so they aren't hunted as easily by them."

"Interesting," I said and shook my head. I hadn't heard of anything like this before, it was probably something that was unique to this part of Equestria so it made sense at least. "Are they common?"

"Oh sure, you can find entire areas in the Deep Jungle that you can't even use magic in for quite a good distance," Neivi said with a nod. "Its a big concern of course, though interestingly enough it doesn't seem to have any affect on Zebra Potions."

"Curious," I said with a nod as I looked between them for a long moment. "Does everything in this jungle want to kill you in one way or another?"

"Pretty much," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "I nearly got my head taken off by a bear my first day here. This place is filled with creatures that you do not want to tangle with."

"Then why live here at all?" I asked as I looked between them. "Why not move north out of the jungles to one of the larger pre-war cities or something? It seems unnecessarily risky to keep living here."

"Because this is our home, its been our home for generations," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "We can move sure, but it would mean everything our ancestors fought for to build would have been for nothing. For that we stay here, no matter what hardships come our way, this is our home and we're not going to let it go."

I glanced at Storm Wrangler for a moment as she took a long drink. There was something odd about the Pegasus, she didn't seem to have the same conviction in her eyes as her friends but she just smiled a little as she gave a nod. Maybe she wasn't from this part of Equestria at all, I made a note to look into her more later.

"Yeah, I can understand that," I finally said as I gave Neivi a nod.

"Not ta mention there's a lot of problems up north too," Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. "There's no place in Equestria that's perfect anymore. We all need ta work together ta tame this wasteland and make it our home, that's how Ah see it at least."

"Yeah, you're right," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "I just hope that more ponies get the message."

"You mean like Mayor Steel?" I asked.

"He's only the most prominent example, but yes," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "There are settlements that will shoot you if you approach just because you're a Ghoul or a Zebra. There's a lot of distrust around this area of Equestria, even after the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows, well, not everything is sunshine and rainbows around here."

"Ain't exactly easy bein' a Pegasus either, not with tha Enclave's stigma attached ta yah," Storm Wrangler pointed out and Neivi just kind of shrugged. "Ah know what she's talkin' about though, Ah think its disgustin' personally. But at tha very least Nightingale seems willin' ta let anyone in who needs help."

"For now," Lemon Lime grunted.

"Yeah, fer now," Storm said with a shake of her head. "Ah don't like it personally, but Ah'm not exactly high up in tha guard so they ain't gonna listen ta me."

I sighed a little, I had no idea how complicated the politics of the wasteland could possibly be. There was a lot of ponies out there that were going to cause trouble for me just because I was an Alicorn, I guess I really was lucky that Nevi had been one of the ones that found me.

We still had a long way to go before I was ready to get back to the temple, so for now I just wanted to relax and hope that everything was going to be okay.

And that's when the siren started going off.

LEVEL UP!
Perk Received: Daughter of the Night.
Details: As part of the Nightmare Society, you've gained a better understanding of the night and darkness. You get an extra point in perception during nightime or while its dark.

Chapter 2: Solar Flare

"If you tremble with indignation at every injustice,
then you are a comrade of mine."
-Che Guevara.

"What's going on?" I asked as we got to our hooves. "I thought you said this place wasn't attacked."

"Not attacked by the Raiders or the Society, but there is a group that doesn't seem willing to respect that," Neivi said as we headed for the door. "We don't really know what they're called, but they've been attacking us on and off for awhile."

I blinked in surprise for a moment as we headed out of the eating area. Storm Wrangler took to the skies and headed off towards a building not far away while Lemon trotted off towards some civilians as they headed into a structure off to the side.

"So, what am I supposed to do? I can't exactly just go anywhere," I said as I looked over at Neivi. "I mean, you're supposed to be keeping an eye on me so..."

Neivi sighed a little and turned and headed back towards the clinic. "Do you have any medical training?"

"Yeah, sure we're all given basic medical training for use in the field in case one of us gets injured," I said and looked at her for a moment. "Wait, you want me to help in the clinic?"

"Most of my nurses and field medics are out in the town, I need somepony who knows at least something about medicine to help," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "I know its a big request, but I need your help Firelight. Do you think you can do it?"

"I'll, try," I said. I was a bit surprised actually, she had no reason to trust me given everything I had heard about how ponies thought about me, but Neivi was different, I could tell that much. I nodded a little and followed her back to the clinic.

"Alright, like I said most of the staff is in the field running battlefield triage, they'll treat what they can out there and send the worst of the wounded this way," Neivi said as she started taking medical supplies out of the cabinets and set them down before she looked at me. "I know the mayor's not going to like this, but I need to take this ring off you. Can I trust you not to do anything?"

I paused a moment and looked at her, she looked like she was more worried about what was going on outside than anything I would do. "Don't worry Neivi, I'm not going to abandon you," I said with a soft smile as I bowed my head a little and she used her hooves to pull the ring off.

"You're going to need a weapon, I'm a medic, I don't like fighting but if anypony gets in here..." she said and let that thought trail off for a moment before she opened a cabinet and took out a strange rifle that I hadn't ever seen before that had Zebra markings on it and several cartridges and clips. "Its got a kick to it, but its what I've got, if anypony comes in who doesn't look injured or are with the injured, don't hesitate."

I nodded as I levitated the rifle up and secured it before I looked at the medical supplies. They were different from the ones I had been trained on, but that made sense I guess, she was a Zebra and she probably had different healing techniques than I knew.

But I figured I could probably help out as best I could with what knowledge I had. I gave her a nod and a confident smile as she started laying out the supplies as the sound of gunfire could be heard in the distance.

The battle for Nightingale was on.

00000

"You're going to be okay, I promise," I said, trying to sound reassuring as I looked at the Earth Pony colt who's leg I was healing. He hadn't been part of the fighting, but he had been caught in some of the crossfire, I shook my head and sighed a little. "What's your name?"

"Kiwi," he said nervously as he looked up at me. "You're not going to take me away are you?"

"No, don't be silly," I said with a reassuring smile as I kept working on his leg. "I'm just here to try and help keep you guys alive. Where's your family? How did you get hurt?"

"They made it to one of the shelters, I was at the General Store when they attacked," Kiwi said with a shake of his head. "I nearly got killed, if it wasn't for Storm Wrangler and her Pegasi..."

I smiled a little and nodded, I was starting to understand why Storm Wrangler had her cocky attitude, maybe she really was as good as he claimed. I gave him a smile and brushed his mane back as I finished wrapping up his leg.

"Don't worry, you're going to be just fine," I said with a nod as he hobbled to his hooves and headed over towards one of the guards who escorted him out of the clinic and towards one of the shelters.

"You've got a great bedside manner," Neivi commented as she looked at me with a smile. "Are you sure you're not really a doctor or something?"

"No, I just had the most basic of training like I said," I said with a shake of my head as I went to work on the next patient, this one was a Pegasus guard who's wing had been badly mangled by a bullet. I flinched a little, that was not a wound I was sure I could treat easily with only my basic knowledge of medicine. "What happened?"

"Blasted Unicorn snuck up on me," the Pegasus said with a shake of her head as I started to work on it as best I could. "Whoever these guys are, they're good, we almost missed them before they got here."

"Well, I'm glad you caught them," I said as I cleaned the wound a little and started to take out the bandages. The Pegasus was watching me carefully as if she was afraid that I was going to do something. "Look, I know I'm not exactly the most popular pony in town right now..."

"Yah think?" the guard asked with a roll of her eyes.

"But I'm trying to help you out right now, I'm not going to hurt you or teleport you away or whatever," I said with a roll of my eyes as I kept working. "Trust me on this one, I'm just here to help heal you and your friends."

The Pegasus groaned and shrugged as she let me get back to work on her wound. I looked over at Neivi who was working hard on getting everything else worked on, it wasn't easy with just the two of us but we were managing, and my Alicorn magic was certainly helping.

When I finished the Pegasus slipped off without so much as a thank you. I sighed and took a deep breath as I looked back at Neivi and then at the door as it opened. For a moment I thought nothing was there, and then a figure rushed in and I drew the rifle and aimed it at them as best I could.

They were moving fast as if spurred on by some strange unnatural force. They smirked wickedly as they drew a knife and looked at me.

"Monster, heathen, false goddess!" The pony said with a hiss. "You will burn in Tartarus, you monster!"

I didn't like the sound of that, but I didn't hesitate either as I lifter the rifle and aimed for the figure's head and pulled the trigger. The invading pony screamed for a moment before collapsing into a heap on the ground, I lowered my rifle and released a breath I didn't realize I had been holding as I fell to my hooves.

I had shot before, I had even killed before, but I had never killed another pony before. Before now I had only needed to kill monsters, animals, things that weren't, well, like that. I had actually killed a pony, even if they were trying to hurt me and the patients, I still couldn't get over that feeling as I felt my heart beating a mile a minute.

Goddess, what had I done?

"Firelight, calm down," a soft voice said and I looked up to see the face of Neivi looking at me in the eye. She had a kindness in her eyes that relaxed me a moment, but it didn't change the fact that I had just killed somepony.

"What... why did I do that?" I finally managed to choke out after a moment.

"You did it because there was no other option," Neivi said as she hugged me gently. "You saved the ponies in here, don't focus on the life you took, focus on the lives you saved. Please, for me?"

I looked into her eyes for a long moment and then smiled and nodded a little. She was right of course, these were ponies that couldn't defend themselves and I had done what was necessary.
But it didn't help that I knew I was going to have to do it again someday. I shook my head and hugged the Zebra back, gently wrapping my wings around her for a moment before I blushed and released it.

"Sorry... I didn't mean to do that..." I said softly as I looked away from her for a moment. "I just... felt like I needed to do that, you know?"

"In Pegasi, its a sign of wanting to protect somepony you care about," Neivi said with a chuckle as she released the hug. "I'll try not to read too much into that if you don't want me to. Now come on, lets get the rest of these ponies healed, okay?"

I nodded as we started working on the other ponies that were still coming in. I sighed a moment, I knew that nothing I did would change the fact that I had taken a life, but I was going to do everything I could to make sure that I saved more lives today than I took.

I looked at Neivi who adjusted her glasses again and continued to work as she gave me a reassuring smile. That was all I needed to know to know that I had done the right thing.

00000

A few hours later the fighting had ended and I found myself once more confined with the magic negation ring on my horn as we had all gathered at the Town Hall where a meeting had been called of the town council. Neivi as the town doctor was on the council and was currently giving a report to the rest of them.

I sighed and looked over at Storm Wrangler who was waiting for her turn to give a report on the battle. The purple Pegasus was seated there with her hat lowered down over her face, she didn't seem to care about what was being talked about, I just shook my head and looked back at Neivi who had just finished reading the autopsy report.

They were going to decide what to do with me next, I just hoped that my actions during the battle had managed to sway the council's decision a little.

"So, from everything I could tell based on my autopsy of the only enemy combatant that we were able to kill, they were perfectly healthy at the time of death," Neivi said as she passed the papers around the table where the council was seated and they looked them over.

"Apart from being dead you mean," an Earth Pony mare dressed in a fancier version of Storm Wrangler's guard uniform asked as she looked up at Neivi.

"I mean they were in perfect health, and that confuses me a little," Neivi said as she leaned forward. "Ever since the bombs fell, we've been slowly soaking up radiation. Now anyone who is sane counters that with Radaway and Rad-X, but there's always a little bit of radiation damage to our bodies. Its not been until the most recent generation thanks to the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows that this has no longer been a factor."

"Right, but your report here says that the subject was at least 20 years of age," Mayor Steel said as he picked up the file and flipped through it. "Is it possible you missed something Doctor Neivi?"

"Impossible, I did a very thorough autopsy of the deceased," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "The only conclusion I can reach is that the deceased has had no contact with radiation in their entire life."

"So, what they're from a Stable?" The Guard commander asked as she looked between Neivi and the Mayor for a moment. "We know there's at least one stable out there, could they be from Stable 27?"

"Based on the files we've found on Stable 27, that is highly unlikely," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "Actually, if I had to guess this pony only recently entered Equestria from somewhere beyond the reach of the radiation. I think, and the evidence supports this, that whoever this is, is from a society of ponies that have had absolutely no contact with radioactive materials or Megaspells. If you'll look at page 6 of my report, he does have the signs of a disease that usually strikes during foalhood, which would be completely unknown in a Stable environment."

She let that thought linger for a moment as the rest of the council talked amongst themselves. I looked between them and they looked nervous about this revelation, I didn't blame them, this was something I hadn't expected to learn either.

If these ponies were untouched by radiation, it meant that they could only be from outside of Equestria. And if they were from outside of Equestria, we didn't know anything about them, or what they were doing here.

"Was there anything of note in his effects?" Mayor Steel asked at the guard commander who paused a moment. "Commander Twist, this is the first real clue we have to the identity of the attackers that dare try and assault Nightingale, we need all the information we can get on them."

"Mayor, we found some information, but we're not quite sure what to make of it," Commander Twist said as she brushed her mane back for a moment. She reached into her bags and laid out a piece of cloth, I adjusted myself so I could see above the table and see what it was, even Storm Wrangler seemed curious all of a sudden. "This was folded up in his bags, we thing its an insignia, and... well, you can see for yourself."

The cloth looked like it came from robes or armor similar to what was worn by the Nightmare Society. I narrowed my eyes at the sight of it, instead of the dark robes it was golden and white with a single image of an orange sun. The symbol of Celestia, who had locked our Goddess away over 1200 years ago.

"Is that what I think it is?" Neivi asked as she adjusted her glasses for a moment and stared at it. "I thought the rumors of a Celestia worshiping sect were unfounded."

"Apparently not," Twist said as she looked at Neivi and then at Mayor Steel. "Its not a lot to go on, they didn't have a lot on them other than this and some papers that seem to be encoded and we're looking into that now. The fact of the matter is, we have to consider the possibility that we have a new threat to the city."

"Great," Steel said as he leaned back and rubbed his temples. "Raiders, Cultists, and now these things, and at least the first two are leaving us alone for now. What's the worst case scenario here?"

"Worst case scenario, they have a large enough force to breach the wall," Twist said with a shake of her head. "That's the only reason we've held out this long, the walls of the city are strong but they're not impenetrable. My guard force can only do so much to protect the city Mayor, we have to consider other options."

"If we sent word to Canterbury, I'm sure they'd..." Neivi started to say before Steel slammed his hooves down on the table and we all jumped.

"We don't need Canterbury's help, we'll manage on our own," he said with a scowl. "Ever since that, what was it called, Viatorem showed up there they've been less than helpful in their aid."

"They've had their own problems, they don't have all the advantages we do," Neivi said with a frown. "If we were to accept their offer of a mutual defense pact then we might be able to drive off any future attackers."

"Like I said, we'll be fine," Mayor Steel said with a shake of his head. "Commander Twist, I want guard on the wall doubled and more patrols in the streets and bridges until we're sure that they aren't coming back. I don't want this city to be breached, do you understand me?"

"I, understand," Twist said but she frowned a little at that order. "I'll get right on it sir."

"The townsfolk aren't going to like that," the fourth member of the council commented, speaking up for the first time. He was an older Pegasus stallion with a dark blue coat and short white mane with a streak of blue in it "You're putting the town under martial law just in case of an attack that may never come. I agree that we need to put guards on the walls, but in the streets?"

"If it keeps the town safe, then its what needs to be done," Mayor Steel said with a scowl as he looked at the stallion. "You're not growing soft are you Rising Sun? The last thing we need is for you to go soft when we're on the verge of the biggest threat to Nightingale in years."

"Of course not," Rising Sun said with a shake of his head. "I'm just saying that we can't risk alienating the population without a reason. You should know that Mayor, the last thing we need is a riot in the city streets."

I liked Rising Sun, he seemed to know what he was talking about a lot more than Steel did. I looked over at Storm Wrangler who smiled a little as she pushed her hat up and gave me a nod.

"Alright, we'll put it to a vote, all in favor of putting guards in the streets in addition to the walls, raise your hoof," Steel said and raised his hoof, Twist did the same. "All opposed?"

Rising sun and Neivi raised their hooves and the council looked at the fifth member who had just been listening for the longest time. They weren't a pony, they were actually a Griffon who was dressed in wartime clothing and looked between the four of them for a moment.

"You asked me to sit on this council to help deal with things that arose in the matter of economics and bringing in outside help," the Griffon said with a shake of her head. "Look, I don't pretend to know everything about this town or what's going on beyond these walls in the jungle. But I do know one thing, you start turning this town into a prison and the inhabitants will riot."

She raised her claw after a moment and gave Rising Sun and Neivi a small nod and they smiled.

"The vote passes 3 to 2," Neivi said with a nod. "There will only be an increase of guards along the perimeter wall."

"Fine, lets move on to other business," Steel said as he took out his papers and looked around and then finally saw me sitting there. "Alicorn..."

"Firelight Mr. Mayor," Neivi said as she rolled her eyes a little.

"Whatever," he said with a shake of his head. "You were brought here from the jungle outside and considering you have made no effort to hide your affiliation with the Nightmare Society, we are having a hard time deciding what to do with you."

I gulped a little and looked at the council for a long moment. This was going to take a lot of explaining, I just had to hope that the help I had provided during the attack by, whoever it was that attacked us, would help convince them otherwise. I looked at Neivi who gave me a reassuring smile as she looked back at the other council members.

"Mayor, fellow councilors, the fact of the matter is that we wouldn't even have the information we do if it wasn't for Firelight," the Zebra said with a soft smile. "She also helped heal both civilians and guardsponies that were brought to the clinic and the fact that she killed the enemy agent cannot be ignored. If she poses any sort of threat to Nightingale, then she's doing a very good job of covering it up."

Mayor Steel looked at me for a long moment before looking back at Neivi. "Does the Alicorn Firelight have anything to say about this?"

"Well, uh..." I said and flinched a little, this felt like being called on by the High Priestess to speak in front of the entire congregation. "Look, you don't have any reason to trust me, I don't know what the others have done to settlements around here, but if I wanted to do anything to hurt you I'd have done it already. I just want to get back home and maybe I can convince the others to stop with these raids on settlements, I mean you no harm, I promise. I just ask for a chance to prove it."

The council looked between each other. The Griffon leaned in and whispered something to Rising Sun for a moment who gave her a nod before looking back at me.

"Alicorns have had a spotty record in Equestria," Rising Sun said with a shake of his head. "Unity, the Crimson Empire's Experiments, and now the Nightmare Society. We don't have a lot of reasons to trust what you say to be honest, and I don't know what I can say to convince you that there is a real threat from your group. You've seen Nightingale by now, have you not?"

"I have," I said with a nod.

"And does it match up with what your High Priestess claims?" He asked as he looked at me inquisitively.

"Well, no," I said with a shake of my head. "She made a lot of claims about the outside world that just don't make sense, but that's why I want to get back to the Temple, we need to know what's going on out here."

"Doctor Neivi, would you say this Alicorn is fit to leave?" Rising Sun asked as he looked over at Neivi. "And would she pose a threat to Nightingale?"

"In my professional opinion? She still needs to stay under my care for two more days," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "But other than that she's not a threat to us or the others in Nightingale, I'll personally see to it."

"And Ah'll help her with that," Storm Wrangler said as she pushed her hat up a little and looked at the council. "Tha Nightingale Guard ain't gonna just let a guest go around when she might be a danger, or in danger."

She put an extra emphasis on the last of that as she shot a look over at Mayor Steel who glowered a little. He nodded to Commander Twist who looked at Storm Wrangler. I could tell that she wasn't happy about this decision either, but I wasn't about to question it.

"Alright, if that's how you want to play it, she's free to leave the clinic as long as she has an escort," Steel said with a shake of his head. "She is however to keep her magic negation ring on at all times unless in the event of an extreme emergency, is that understood?"

"Understood," Neivi said as she shot me an apologetic look, but frankly it was better than we could have hoped for right now.

"When she is healed up, she can leave Nightingale if she wishes, as long as she agrees to not tell her fellow Alicorns about any strengths or weaknesses of our town," Steel said as he shot me a look. "We've gone this long without a full assault by the Society, the last thing we need is for the walls to fall because of a simple mistake we made."

"Understood," I said with a nod as I looked at Neivi who gave me a smile. "I won't breathe a word about them to anypony outside these walls."

"Good, good," Steel said with a nod as he looked over at Storm Wrangler. "Guardspony Storm Wrangler, I believe you have a report to give on the status of the guard after the battle with this new group as well as on the actions during the battle itself. Lets hear what you have to say."

I moved back to my seat as Storm Wrangler walked forward and started to talk to the council.

00000

The meeting went on for awhile longer and I had to sit in silence as they went over the day to day details of running a town this large. I tried not to fall asleep at least, but it was pretty boring so I'm going to leave it out of this account.

"Well, that went better than I expected," I said as I brushed my wild mane back with my hoof a little. I hadn't had my usual chance to groom myself so my mane had grown longer and more wild than it had ever been. "I thought for sure I was doomed going into that."

"Don't worry about it, yah have friends on tha council who ain't gonna let them toss yah ta tha wolves," Storm Wrangler said as we headed out of the council building together. "Look, Ah know Ah was a bit... apprehensive about havin' yah around before..."

"Don't worry, I understand," I said with a shake of my head. "I showed up out of nowhere, I'd feel the same way if one of you guys showed up in the Temple."

"Well, still Ah wanted ta say Ah'm sorry," Storm Wrangler said with a smile. "Yer alright fer an Alicorn, and Ah should've given yah more of a chance before."

"I have to admit I kind of understand where you're coming from," I said with a sigh as I looked back at her. "If it means anything, I've never attacked any settlements. I've only recently been deemed old enough to even be part of missions."

"Ah see," the Pegasus said as she brushed her mane back a little. "But Ah'm gonna tell yah this Firelight, Neivi trusts yah, probably more than anypony else in this town. She's got a good heart and a good head on her shoulders, and if yah betray her, Ah'm gonna deal with yah personally. Do Ah make mahself clear?"

The threat hung in the air a little as I looked at the Pegasus for a long moment. She was deadly serious with what she said, I don't know if it was because she had a crush on the Zebra or if it was because they were friends, but I knew there was no way I could ignore it.

"Transparently," I said as I looked at the mare for a long moment and she nodded. "What's earned such loyalty from you if I may ask?"

"Like Ah said, she's got a good heart," Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. "If Mornin' Star herself came into town she'd give the old Alicorn a bed and a hot meal. Ah can respect that, yah don't always see that sort of kindness in this town."

"Sounds to me like you more than respect her," I said with a chuckle which caused a blush to spread over the Pegasus mare's face.

"Ah ain't gonna lie, she's a beautiful mare, yah know, fer a Zebra, and Ah wouldn't mind gettin' under that tail," Storm said with a shake of her head. "But it wouldn't last, she wants somethin' more than what Ah can give her right now. She wants a pony that will be there by her side no matter what. Ah'm not that pony and Ah know it."

"So, why do you keep pursuing her?" I asked curiously, I wanted to get to know this strange Pegasus mare a little better.

"Because she's lonely, she ain't got anypony she's with or anythin', and maybe if Ah work hard enough Ah'll become tha mare she needs," Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. "Listen ta me, Ah'm openin' up ta an Alicorn Ah just met earlier today. Yer quite tha interestin' pony Firelight."

"I've got that effect on ponies," I said with a shake of my head as I looked at her. "I promise, I won't do anything to hurt Neivi, you have my word."

"Good," the Pegasus said with a smirk as she tipped her hat to me a little. "If Ah didn't know any better, Ah'd think yah had a bit of a thing fer her yerself."

"What? No, no, no..." I said and blushed heavily as I shook my head. "I'm only going to be here a few more days at most. I'm not in much of a position to pursue anything with her if I was interested."

"Yeah, we'll see Ah guess," Storm Wrangler said with a chuckle before the door to the council chambers opened again and Neivi trotted out looking a little tired. "Hey Neivi, everythin' okay?"

"Oh, you know how these council meetings are," the Zebra said with a shake of her head. "Mayor Steel is always trying to push for what he thinks is best and everyone seems to have their own agenda. We're lucky when we can actually set aside everything and agree on something. Today was at least pretty decent given that we managed to settle the issues with very little debate."

She shook her head and looked at me with a smile as she reached up and removed the ring from around my horn. She brushed my wild mane back a little and gave me a nod. "You know, that looks good on you, maybe you should keep it like that."

I blushed a little at the Zebra's touch but I brushed it off and shrugged a little. "I'll think about it, but normally we keep our manes neat."

"So, lets go meet up with Lemon Lime for dinner, I could use something to eat after that," Neivi said as we headed back out of the town hall and into Nightingale again.

I looked out over the strange town that had been built into the jungle. There were ponies working to repair the damage from the attack, but at the same time I could see ponies moving around as if the attack hadn't happened, they were just living their lives day by day.

I smiled a little when I saw three fillies playing together. A Unicorn levitated a ball up and tried to keep it away from her Pegasus friend who dove and flew after the ball along with a second one that was being bounced around by an Earth Pony filly.

They were having fun despite everything that was going on around them, everything that could potentially kill them or drag them off to slavery or whatever. They were just three little fillies enjoying themselves. I could remember...

Wait, no I couldn't. I couldn't remember playing with friends and having fun, all I could remember looking back was the Society. I couldn't remember being a small filly playing with my friends as if there was not a care in the world, and it saddened me more than anything.

What had happened to me? Why couldn't I remember my own foalhood?

00000

"So Commander Twist comes into her office and looks around and finds it completely empty," Storm Wrangler said as we ate at the same dining area we had met up for lunch. "She is of course confused and runs off ta find her secretary, but when they get back the entire office is back."

"How did you manage that?" Lemon Lime asked as she looked at the Pegasus confused for a moment.

"Ah know a Unicorn that specializes in illusion magic," Storm Wrangler said as she took a long drink of her soda. "Ya'll would be surprised at how useful it is in prankin' yer boss. We used it a few more times that week in different variations like once we put it on the ceilin', or another time we had it all look pink."

"That was you?" Neivi asked with a laugh as she looked at Storm. "I remember that week, Twist thought she was going crazy, she must've come by my clinic 20 times."

The other mares let out a chuckle that I had to admit was a bit infectious. I hadn't ever really thought about that kind of thing before, honestly I was really only half paying attention to the conversation since I was more focused on thinking about what was going on.

I glanced at Lemon Lime, the old Ghoul shot me a look for a moment before returning to her meal. I had to wonder exactly what brought her here, she acted like she was searching for something, or somepony but she was keeping it to herself. Or, at least she didn't want to tell me about it.

And then there was the question of what all was going on around here. The Council had briefly mentioned Stable 27, that just added to the questions I already had about that place. Whatever was in there had been important enough for the High Priestess to send her daughter and one of her best wings to investigate it.

So, what did the ponies of Nightingale know about Stable 27? Something about it was bugging me and I didn't like it.

"So, what do you have on your mind Firelight?" Neivi asked as she looked at me concerned for a moment. "You seem to be deep in thought about something."

"Just thinking about everything is all," I said with a shake of my head. "Something about this town, well it doesn't feel off to me but it makes me wonder..."

I trailed off for a second as the other three mares exchanged a look and then looked back at me. "What's wrong?"

"I don't remember where I came from, I don't remember my foalhood, all I remember is life in the Society," I said with a sigh and a shake of my head. "I never really realized it until now, but it feels... wrong somehow."

"You're opening your eyes to a wider world," Neivi said with a nod. "That's something that's going to get to you Firelight, I think you should really sit down and think about what you really want to do with your life. If going back to the Society is really right for you, or if maybe you should think about making a new home for yourself."

"I don't know, maybe," I said with a sigh. "I've got friends back in the Society, good ponies that are probably worried sick about me or mourning me while I'm sitting here eating whatever this stuff is."

"I think its a salad made from local plants or something," Lemon Lime said.

"You know what I mean," I said with a sigh and a shake of my head. "I don't know if my home is back in the Society or if its here or what."

"Look, Ah ain't gonna lie Ah used ta live above tha clouds," Storm Wrangler said as she adjusted her hat a little. "Back when tha Enclave was just startin' ta get out in tha Wasteland. When tha Lightbringer did her thing and Ah saw tha Wasteland below and started ta see what kind of world was down here, Ah knew Ah couldn't stay and listen ta tha lies told by tha government. A lot of us did, there's a lot of good down here, and a lot of ponies wantin' ta help protect it, and we wanted ta help them out. Ah know it ain't quite tha same thing, but Ah'm kinda in tha same boat as yah, and Ah know that we need ta do more than just use a bunch of fancy words ta help."

"Something that not everypony understands," Neivi said quietly into her mug of coffee. "But there's a lot of ponies here in Nightingale that agree with us and want to see things be done differently. If you'd like, we could introduce you to them, maybe they'll be willing to accept you more."

"Lets hope," I said with a sigh and a shake of my head. "I don't like this, it feels like the longer I'm in Nightingale the more I put you all at risk."

"We're already at risk, we got attacked earlier and that's not even going into all the disappearances there have been," Lemon Lime said with a snort. "If you ask me, having an Alicorn around isn't going to make things any more or less dangerous."

"But it might at least prove a catalyst for change," Neivi pointed out and her friends went silent for a moment. "We have to consider everything right now, and the truth is that not everything in Nightingale is as it seems. If there's a chance that somepony is getting into the city and taking ponies it means..."

She let that thought trail off for a moment. We all knew what she meant, it would likely mean that there was somepony in Nightingale itself who was helping them. I didn't like it, and neither did the others, so the question now became who was doing it?

"If there's somepony in town doin' this, we'll hunt 'em down," Storm Wrangler said with a tone of finality in her voice. "We're supposed ta be helpin' ponies, so why don't we help stop whoever's doin' this?"

"Agreed, no more missing foals," Neivi said and looked over at me and Lemon Lime. "What about you two, are you in too?"

"I'm in, but I don't know how much help I'll be," I said with a shake of my head and gave her a nod. "You helped me out when I needed it, so its the least I can do."

"Yeah, I guess I'm in too," Lemon Lime said with a shrug. "This town's been good to me and I might as well do something to pay it back. But still, we don't know who we're looking for or what they're doing so we need to be careful."

"I know," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "But I also know that Mayor Steel isn't doing anything to stop these and Commander Twist is basically in his pocket. We have to approach this with caution and hope that we can figure out who's behind this before its too late."

I nodded a little and looked between the three Wasteland ponies for a moment. I smiled, these were three beings from completely different walks of life and yet they were able to come together as friends and work towards a common cause, that's something we never really had in the Society.

Maybe, just maybe I should stay around a little longer and see what kind of place this really was. If I could bring back more than just words to the Society, I could make it a better place too.

I smiled and levitated up a bottle of soda and took a swig of it before setting it back down and looking at Neivi for a long moment and then at the others. I still had a lot to understand about the outside world, but I had a lot to think about right now, and not all of it was good.

I just hoped that I could make the right decision before it was too late.

00000

"And that was Octavia playing Luna's Determination," a stallion's voice said over the radio that Neivi had set up in the clinic. "For those just joining us, this is Vox Populi for Equestrian Freedom Radio coming at you with the late night news for you night owls out there in the Equestrian Jungle. We've gotten a report from Nightingale of another attempted attack on the city, but of course it was driven back by the brave ponies of the Nightingale Guard. Apparently one managed to breach the walls, but was stopped by a mysterious pony before he could do any more damage. Whoever you are out there, I tip my hat to you mystery pony, here's hoping we get some valuable information because of your help. Now, lets switch it over to something a bit more metal with Welcome to..."

Neivi reached over and turned off the radio as a song started to play. "He likes playing that song way too much, I think its a bit too on the nose myself," she said with a chuckle as she spun her chair around and gave me a nod as I rubbed my horn a little. "How's it going? Not having any problems from when you couldn't use your magic I hope."

"No, everything's fine," I said with a shake of my head. "So, who's this Vox Populi pony anyway?"

"He lives somewhere out west, I'm not sure exactly where," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "He pretty much provides music for the entire jungle though so he's pretty popular. I've never met him personally though."

"Huh, I see," I said, I had to admit I hadn't really heard him before but that was because the only radio that we listened to in the Society was Society music or the High Priestess' sermons. "So, you said you wanted me to meet some ponies earlier?"

"Yeah, like I said a lot of us are worried about what's going on with the ponies going missing," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "We lost another one during the attack on the town, originally we thought she was just killed in the attack but..."

"But you never found her body or anything?" I asked and she nodded. "Well, that's definitely worth looking into then. I'll meet them and if there's anything I can do to help I will, but I can't promise a whole lot. I'm not really much of a detective or anything you know."

"I know, but it wouldn't hurt to have a fresh set of eyes," Neivi said and gave me a small smile. "Firelight, I know you're still new to this kind of life, but we take this kind of thing personally. This is our town, our home, and if anypony goes missing then we want to do everything we can to get them back safe."

"I understand," I said with a nod, I just wished I knew how I could help. "How many ponies have gone missing?"

"Almost 50," Neivi said with a sigh and my eyes went wide, that many had gone missing? "Over the past 6 years, Nightingale has a pretty decent population so it shouldn't cause any issues but we're still really worried about it. Most pony families have been touched by this and we're all very worried."

"I see..." I said with a sigh as I shook my head a little. "So, the question is who's been around long enough and is friendly enough to be able to get that many ponies to follow them and be taken away."

"I don't know," Neivi admitted with a shake of her head. "I wish I knew honestly, but there's something about this that's wrong. We have to assume that whoever it is is up to no good, but we don't know where any of them went, so we don't know what their motivations are."

"Alright, when can we go meet the others?" I asked as I looked over at her.

"In an hour when the town is at its quietest," she said with a nod. "I promise Firelight, we'll do everything we can to solve this problem. But, if there is a connection to the Society..."

"Yeah, I know, if it gets out then I'll be treated like a monster," I said with a sigh. "I don't know what I'm going to do honest, I just have to hope that we'll manage to work everything out."

Neivi nodded and gave me a hug. I smiled a little and hugged her back, feeling her soft fur against me, I wished that she would never let me go. There was something about this mare's embrace that made me feel safe, like everything was going to be okay.

I just hoped that everything really was going to be okay.

00000

An hour passed and we made our way out of the clinic and down to the forest floor below. A few times it looked like there were guards coming close but we avoided them quickly, while there was not a lot of patrols in the street, there were still a lot of guards keeping an eye out for things.

Neivi trotted along the ground before stopping on one patch of dirt that didn't look any different than any other. I looked around confused, what was going on here? Why had she suddenly stopped?

I got my answer quickly as she used her hooves to pull up a trap door and gestured for me to enter. When I did I found myself in darkness only pierced by the dim light of the moon coming down from above. I started down a set of stairs just as Neivi entered and closed the trapdoor behind her.

"Can you give us some light?" She whispered to me and I nodded as my horn glowed and lit up the area around us.

We were in a tunnel structure that looked like it had been built centuries before. There was a set of tracks along the ground leading in both directions, but I could make out piles of rubble off to the left.

"What is this place?" I asked as I looked over at the Zebra.

"Its a mine shaft, from during the war," she said with a shake of her head as we started towards the right. "It was once one of the few places that coal could be mined in Equestria but when ponies started experimenting with magical energy it was closed up. These tunnels stretch for miles around the jungle, so we've taken them on as sort of a base."

"And nopony knows about these other than your little group?" I asked as I looked at her curiously.

"Oh sure there's old legends about this place, but nopony knows where the entrances are no," she said with a shake of her head. "This is our secret, our hiding place away from those that don't see the world the way we do, its our only hope at escaping sometimes."

"Escaping?" I asked as I looked at her confused for a moment. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, not all citizens can handle the pressure of this town, and we've surprisingly enough had Mayors worse than Steel," Nevi said and brushed here mane back a little. "But that's not important right now, right now we need to focus on getting you to where we need to... ah, here we are."

She knocked on an old door that had been made to look like the rock wall around it and a slit opened up and two eyes looked out at us. "What's the password?"

"The rights of the people rise on the three stars," Neivi said and the slit shut and the door slid open. On the other side was probably the largest stallion I had ever seen, he was dressed in armor and was muscular to the point that I was surprised he could walk.

"Neivi, I wasn't sure if you were going to make it," a mare's voice said from inside and I looked to see another Zebra, this one was dressed in wastelander gear as she looked at me with a strange look. "I have to say I didn't believe Storm Wrangler when she said that you were going to be bringing along an Alicorn."

"Firelight, this is Viatorem Soia, she's from the Homeland," Neivi said as the Zebra gave me a nod. "Sorry I was a little later than expected, we had to avoid guard patrols, even a councilmare isn't immune to scrutiny by the Guard."

"Of course," Soia said with a nod as the glow vanished from my horn now that I was sure it was well lit. I could see Lemon Lime and Storm Wrangler off to one side and Storm gave me a nod as I looked around.

This was a large cavern that had to have been built pretty close to Nightingale. Lining the walls were weapons and armor that I didn't recognize, there were other rooms off to the side and I could see more ponies and the occasional Zebra moving in and out of them, not paying any attention to us.

"What is this place?" I asked in slight awe as I looked back at Soia and Neivi.

"This is the Underground," Soia said with a shake of her head. "We're here to try and deal with the real threats to Nightingale, the ones that Mayor Steel and the Guard seem to be ignoring."

"I see," I said and sighed a little as I shook my head. "What are you preparing for down here, some sort of fight?"

"If it comes to that, yes," Soia said with a shake of her head. "But the biggest problem we have right now is the missing ponies. There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern to who vanishes other than that they're either young orphans or old and sick. This is a bigger problem than the Mayor wants to admit."

"One of our agents managed ta get a glimpse of who it was that took one of them away," Storm Wrangler said. "They didn't get much of a description but they were tall, and she couldn't get a good look at whoever was givin' her over ta them."

I sighed, tall usually meant Alicorns to me, I was actually pretty medium sized by Alicorn standards but I still pretty much towered over the rest of the ponies here. A few of them looked at me nervously, Soia herself didn't look like she was that happy to have me sitting in her cave.

"Firelight, you're here because Neivi and Storm Wrangler vouches for you," Soia said with a shake of her head. "I don't know if I can trust you frankly, Alicorns are not something we really have to deal with in the FRA, but I've heard enough stories since I came here to know that you are a potential risk to me and my group."

"And I'm still not convinced frankly," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "I've heard what you did in the clinic, but you could be lying to us."

"So, what do you have to say, Firelight?" Soia said as she looked at me, I could feel the Zebra's eyes on me and I shivered a little at the feeling. "We do not pass judgment without hearing what you have to say after all, we are not savages."

"She isn't on trial at all," Neivi said with a scowl. "I don't like the idea of passing judgment on a pony that hasn't done anything to threaten either us or Nightingale."

"Neivi, I trust your judgment but I want to hear what she has to say for myself," Soia said as she looked at me again for a long moment. "We're not going to kill her if that's what you're worried about, but I want to know more about her before she is allowed full access to the Underground. You know the virtues as well as anyone."

Neivi nodded a little and shook her head after a moment. "Firelight, go ahead."

I felt like I was back in the Council chamber with all the eyes staring at me, but this time it was more nerve wracking because I wasn't even sure who was on my side. I took a deep breath and began to speak, I just hoped that what I was saying would help.

"I'm not going to lie honestly, I am part of the Nightmare Society, I've been part of it for as long as I remember," I said with a shake of my head. "But that doesn't make me a monster or anything, I'm starting to realize that things are not as I've been told in Equestria. If the Society are the ones taking the ponies away, I had nothing to do with it, I was just a soldier working for the High Priestess and I never took any ponies away from any settlements. The truth of the matter is, I'm not sure I want to go back anymore... its not easy for me to admit this but with everything that's going on, I don't really know what I want to do anymore. I just want a chance to prove myself, and maybe try and figure these things out for myself. Neivi brought me here because she felt I needed to see this place, and I'm starting to see why. I'm still willing to help with the disappearances in any way I can. I promise that I won't do anything to expose your secrets here to either Mayor Steel or the Society."

"I see," Soia said as she looked at me for a long moment as she thought over what I had said and looked at me for a long moment before sighing and shaking her head. "Alright, I will have to accept that for now."

"Ah don't like this," Storm Wrangler said as she shook her head. "Firelight's not a bad pony from what Ah can tell."

"We put you through the same thing if you'll recall, Storm Wrangler," Soia said as she shot the Pegasus a look and she just shrugged a little. "And we were more sure of you than we are of her, the fact is that we're under constant threat while we're here from more enemies than we can count. And now you tell me there's some sort of new threat from a group associated with the sun?"

"That's tha workin' theory, yeah," Storm said with a shake of her head. "We're still tryin' ta figure out where they came from frankly. Ah ain't a doctor or a politician, Ah just point mah gun at tha bad ponies and fire."

"So, who would benefit from these ponies vanishing?" I asked as I looked between the strange group of ponies gathered in the underground cave.

"Nopony would," Lemon Lime said with a snort. "There's no common thread between them other than that they live in Nightingale."

"Well, unless we're missing something obvious," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "That's the thing isn't it? We don't really know what we're up against here, if they are working for the Nightmare Society for example, it could be as simple as a sort of twisted recruiting drive."

"And that's the best case scenario frankly," Soia said with a shake of her head. "At least that way they're still alive and can be rescued."

I really didn't like the way she said that. I had heard rumors about the jungle being home to raiders and cannibals, something told me that they weren't exaggerating when they said that.

"I doubt its them," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "They're clever but they're not the type to strike up deals with settlements like this in return for fresh meat."

Yeah, definitely were not exaggerations.

"So, then what do we do? Just wait until they go after one of us and hope we can escape in time?" Storm Wrangler asked and we paused for a moment as we thought about it.

"Frankly, I think its obvious," Lemon Lime said with a grunt as she looked at me. The old Ghoul had that same glower on her face that she always seemed to have, like it disgusted her to even be in the same room as me. "Firelight here is one of them, if she gets taken away she might lead..."

"That's out of the question," Neivi said as she got to her hooves and looked at Lemon Lime. "We need to let Firelight choose for herself what she's going to do. If we send her back it may be a death sentence if the High Priestess considers her a threat."

"So? Just one less Alicorn to threaten us," Lemon Lime said with a snort. "I don't trust her as far as I can throw her."

"Lemon Lime, this isn't the time," Soia said. "And I have to agree with Neivi on this one. One of our fundamental beliefs is that we should all be allowed to choose our own path, even if its not one that the majority would agree with. Change is coming to this part of Equestria, change for the better, and we're going to need Firelight to help us out if we're going to make it through this. Imagine what would happen if we could change the Society from the inside with her help. Change from the inside when possible, violence is only to be used as a last resort."

"Unlikely given that they're a cult of loonies, but I seem to be in the minority here," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "So, what do you suggest as an alternative? I don't think we can just attach a tracking device to a pony since we don't know which ones are going to be targeted."

Soia paused for a moment, she knew that Lemon Lime was right and she sighed a little and shook her head. "There's nothing we can really do at the moment," she finally said with a shrug. "We'll pursue all the avenues of investigation we have and try and identify whoever's their contact on the inside."

"I'll see what I can do as well," Neivi said as she looked at me. "Are you sure you really want to stay in here for a few more days Firelight?"

"More than ever," I said with a smile and a nod. "This town's being threatened, and I have to know what's going on. Maybe it'll be the Society, maybe it'll be something else that's a bigger threat and we can work together to stop them. I just... I just have to know in case there is any possibility that they are behind this."

More than that, I had to re-examine my own life and I didn't think I could do that back in the Temple. There was a lot of things that could keep me from doing that, and while I was out here, I needed to make sure that I could really make a choice for myself.

"Choices are powerful things," Soia said with a nod. "We are all equal in the eyes of the world, and we are all going to do w hat we can to ensure that there is a chance to build a new world. I just hope that we're going to all be standing there when the time really comes."

"So, what do I do now?" I asked as I looked between them and up at the gathered ponies and Zebras who were now staring at me in shock and awe. I wondered how many of them had seen an Alicorn before, probably not very many, but that didn't matter right now.

"Right now, return to Nightingale," Soia said with a nod as she looked back at Neivi. "We're going to have to work together on this one, and they're not going to let me into the city even if I sneak in through the tunnels. Once the time comes, you'll know what to do."

"Welcome ta tha Union, Firelight," Storm Wrangler said with a chuckle. "United we stand, or divided we fall."

"Hopefully the former," Neivi said with a nod as Lemon Lime just let out a light snort. "We're going to do everything we can to make sure that you have the choice that you weren't given before, that I promise you."

"Thank you," I said and took a deep breath as I looked between them for a long moment.
"You should get her back to the surface, the guards may check in on her," Soia said as she nodded to Neivi. "The last thing we need is to risk exposure right now."

"Agreed," Neivi said with a nod as she gave me a nod and we headed out of the chamber and down the tunnel towards the entrance together.

00000

I stared up at the ceiling for the longest moment as I sighed a little and looked over at Neivi who had her muzzle buried in another book, probably the same one from before actually but I wasn't going to press very much.

Storm Wrangler had said that Neivi was lonely, maybe she was right, I mean she didn't have anypony in here other than the occasional patient that happened to have to stay overnight like I was. The Zebra mare didn't even have a house, she spent her nights in the clinic because she felt like she had to be there at all times for her patients.

She was a good Doctor, and a great friend, but I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. I laid back and sighed a little as I stared up at the ceiling and thought about what I was going to do now.

I always had my Wing back in the Temple, but were they really friends or did we just have to work together because the High Priestess put us together? Sure Red Rider and Tawny were, well, together, but it was hard to tell how much of that was because of them working and living together or just because they needed somepony to be with.

I guess in a way, my life was just as lonely as Neivi's was, I just hadn't really realized it until now.

"Firelight?" Neivi asked as she looked over at me from where she was lying.

"Yes Neivi?"

"Just checking on you, you've been really quiet since we left the Underground," Neivi said and I turned my head and gave her a soft smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said with a nod. "I'm just thinking really, I've got a lot to think about right now, and you certainly gave me more to consider. Do, you really think that there's a chance that the Society is behind this?"

"Once you've eliminated the possible, whatever is left must be the truth," Neivi said with a shake of her head as she adjusted her glasses a little. "We've ruled out most possibilities here, and I'm honestly not sure what to make of it. I, just wish that I knew who was behind this so we could bring an end to this threat."

"You really care about the ponies here don't you?" I asked with a small smile as looked at her for a long moment.

"Of course, I'm a Doctor, its my job to care for them, and about them," Neivi said with a smile. "I care about everyone here and beyond. Its why Soia recruited me not long after arriving in the area, she's got a lot of good intentions, but she doesn't have the chance to be the public face for the Zebras like I do. We're just trying to survive out here you know, just like everypony else."

"She mentioned something called the FRA," I thought out loud for a moment. "Do you know what that is?"

"The Free Roam Alliance, they're a faction back in Zebrica," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "They sent Soia and other Zebras from the Zencori Tribe out to make contact with potential allies around the world. She's the one that the council mentioned as having made contact with Canterbury, Viatorem are sort of... well its kind of hard to explain but they're basically diplomats."

"Interesting, I can't say we've ever met any of them," I said with a shake of my head. "You're pretty much the first Zebra I've ever met."

"And you're the first Alicorn I've ever met," Neivi said with a chuckle. "We've got a lot going on in these jungles, so I'm not surprised that we haven't crossed paths before. Honestly, I just want to see peace come to Equestria finally, and maybe, just maybe what's going on here will help with that."

"Maybe," I said with a sigh as I laid back and stared up at the ceiling for a long moment. "I just want to know whether or not I'm doing the right thing."

"Firelight, you're a good pony who wants to try and figure out what's going on beyond what you knew before," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "I think you're a great pony, you just need a chance to make sure that you make the right choices. After all, our choices tend to make us in the end."

I nodded and laid back for a moment and was about to drift off to sleep when I heard the door to the clinic open. I automatically started to reach for the rifle with my telekinesis when I recognized the shape and hat belonging to Storm Wrangler.

"Hey Storm, trying to get into bed with me again?" Neivi asked with a chuckle as the Pegasus mare closed the door behind her and chuckled back.

"Nah, Ah just couldn't sleep and since Ah'm supposed ta be keepin' an eye on Firelight here anyway, Ah thought Ah'd come check on ya'll," Storm Wrangler said as she spotted the book that Neivi had haphazardly hidden under the covers. "Hey what's this?"

"That's private!" Neivi said with a blush as she tried to hide it away but Storm Wrangler managed to grab it and opened it to a random page.

"Tanith laid back as she felt the light tickle of the Unicorn's magic running along her front, she shivered a she felt the wonderful feeling of the mare's magical energy brushing against..." Storm said and laughed out loud as she shut the book and tossed it back on the bed. "Who knew the Doctor had a kinky side, Pony on Zebra fun, I didn't know you had it in you."

Neivi blushed a little and shook her head as if she was trying to shake it off and pretend it didn't exist. "Its, umm, research, on Pony-Zebra relations you know? Don't read too much into it."

Storm Wrangler just laughed as Neivi picked up the book and held it close to her chest for a moment. "Come on Doc, its nothing to be ashamed of. You'll find a cute mare of your own someday."

"Yeah, yeah," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "If you want to sleep here, the bed over there is free."

Storm just chuckled as she laid back on the bed and looked over at me for a moment as I turned my head. "Good night Storm Wrangler."

"Night Firelight," Storm said with a chuckle.

I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. I had a lot to think about, but that could wait until the next day for now, I just hoped that I could make the right choice.

LEVEL UP!
Perk Received: Union Mare.
Details: You've struck a deal with the underground of the Equestrian Jungle, you have a way to go but you're starting to learn the secrets of this strange land. You gain an extra boost to your speech and barter stats.

Chapter 3: Secrets

"The essence of being human
Is that one does not seek perfection."
-George Orwell.

"Ah don't think right now is tha best time ta tell her," Storm Wrangler said in a quiet voice as my eyes fluttered open and my ears twitched a little. "She's still gettin' settled in around here, Ah don't think she needs another curveball tossed her way right now."

"She's going to have to find out eventually," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "She's already open to the possibility of the rest of Equestria being different from what she's been told and if what you told me is true..."

"It is, everythin' is movin' into place," Storm said. "If we can put pressure on tha Mayor then we might be able ta avoid a conflict when they head this way."

"I still don't like this, and Soia is a bit uneasy about it as well," Neivi said with a sigh. "Firelight needs to know if there's even a chance that she's going to be considered a problem along with the rest of the Society."

"Look, Ah'm sure Ah can talk ta..." Storm Wrangler said and then paused a moment as her ears perked up. "Hang on a second."

She looked right at me at that moment and I tried to roll over and pretend I was asleep, only to feel the blankets pulled off me as I looked over at Storm Wrangler and Neivi.

"Didn't yer momma ever teach yah it ain't polite ta eavesdrop on other ponies' conversations?" Storm Wrangler asked as she looked at me slightly annoyed. "How much did yah hear?"

"Storm, calm down, she couldn't have heard everything," Neivi said. "Right Firelight?"

"All I heard was something about something moving into place, I didn't hear anything else," I said with a shake of my head as I looked at her. "What was that about, was it about the Union or something?"

"No, its, somethin' else," Storm Wrangler said as she brushed her long mane back a little and put her hat back on. "We've all got our secrets around here Firelight, and Ah'd prefer not ta talk ta yah about them right now."

"What she's trying to say is that there are bigger events at play here than just the Union and the Society," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "I'm sorry Firelight, but for now I have to ask that you don't breathe a word of what you heard to anypony else."

"Okay, I guess I can do that," I said and sighed a little as I shook my head and looked between my two friends. "But I don't like secrets being kept from me, especially not right now. I just want to know if there's anything I can do to help."

"Fer now, no there isn't," Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. "Its hard ta believe but there's a lot goin' on in Equestria right now. Some of it good, some of it bad, but it all comes down ta tha fact that things need ta change. Things are gettin' better sure, but its been so slow that Ah'm afraid that by tha time we're all ready fer real change tha barbarians might already be at tha gates."

"She's a bit over dramatic, but you get the idea," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "She is right though, there's a very big picture that we have to look at or the fact is that we're going to have bigger problems than just the Society. I can only hope that Storm Wrangler and her friends know that."

"I see," I said with a sigh as I brushed my mane back a little and looked between them. "Why aren't you ready to tell me yet though? What's the problem with them and the Society?"

"The Society isn't just acting in the Jungle, they've been carrying out activities all around Equestria," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "The best we can tell is that their main base of operations is in Haythens where your Temple is, but beyond that we don't know enough about them to really do anything."

"And Ah'm not even sure we have tha capability ta take them on just yet," Storm Wrangler said. "We're gonna need help, and that's gonna require more of tha settlements around here ta join up. That ain't exactly an easy thing ta do since a lot of them don't even like each other."

"United we stand, divided we fall indeed," I said with a sigh as I shook my head. "I hope you're right though, maybe if we can get enough of the leaders to listen we can do something, but how do we do that?"

"We start by figurin' out who's behind these disappearances, that'll show the threat is potentially from tha inside too," Storm Wrangler said.

"But we need more than that," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "We need outreach, we need trade and friendly relationships with the ponies of those other settlements. Canterbury is willing to open talks with Nightingale, but the Mayor isn't willing to even entertain the possibility."

I sighed a little and shook my head. I honestly didn't know what I was going to say about this, they brought up a lot of good points, who knew that politics in Equestria were so complicated? I just hoped that I was going to be able to figure something out and fast.

Something about all of this felt weird, as if there was some piece of the puzzle we were missing and it was staring us right in the face. The Society had never attacked Nightingale according to them, but they had gone after other settlements, why was Nightingale so special?

Maybe it was because of the defenses around the settlement, or maybe there was something more to it. It felt almost like if the disappearances were tied to the Society, then that probably meant that they were some sort of, appeasement to the High Priestess.

But still, there had to be something more to that, you don't just sell out your fellow ponies for no reason.

"I'm not sure what's going on with the disappearances, but I do know that we need to look for clues," I said with a sigh as I looked at Storm Wrangler. "Do you have any suggestions on what we can do about this?"

"Sure, Ah know some other guards that are just as concerned as we are," Storm Wrangler said with a nod. "Ah can talk ta them and see if they know anythin' about what's goin' on. If we can also get ta tha other members of the council, they can start puttin' more pressure on tha mayor ta make sure that these disappearances are stopped."

"That shouldn't be that hard, at least for Rising Sun he's generally willing to hear out this kind of thing," Neivi said with a nod as she looked back at me. "Twist is going to be the real problem, she's pretty much always in agreement with Mayor Steel."

"Nothin' we can't handle," Storm Wrangler said.

"What about that Griffon, uh..." I said as I tried to search for the Griffon's name in my mind.

"Oh, yah mean Gladys?" Storm Wrangler asked as she looked at me curiously for a moment. "Yeah, she's gonna be tricky, but probably easier ta convince, Ah mean she did vote against tha Mayor yesterday."

"Yeah, but she's something of an unknown quality, and I'm not sure she's entirely on our side either," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "She's got ties to some group up north I think, she was only put on the council as a tiebreaker vote."

"I see," I said with a shake of my head, this wasn't going to make things any easier but we had to figure it out somehow. "I just hope that we'll be able to figure this out. Is there anything we can do to guarantee their support?"

"Sure, we could find evidence that the mayor's behind the disappearances," Neivi said with a chuckle. "That would be enough to get him out of office, but its not really that simple."

"Alright, well, if we don't really have any other options lets see what we can do about at least getting ponies on our side," I said with a sigh. "I wish I could find out for sure what the connection is here, something about all of this just doesn't feel right to me. I don't even know what I'll do it if it really is the Society behind all of this."

"Well, if it is, we'll be behind you all the way," Neivi said with a nod as she looked over at Storm Wrangler. "And I'm sure that Lemon Lime will come around eventually. You're not a bad pony, you've just been misugided."

"Thanks, I think," I said with a sigh and a shake of my head.

00000

Storm Wrangler had gone off to talk with some of her guard friends while me and Neivi made our way through the streets of Nightingale. The wood beneath my hooves creaked a little from time to time, so I was afraid that they might break since I was larger than your normal pony, but they held strong.

"You said that this place was built to hold back the jungle right?" I asked as I looked back down at Neivi who looked up at me and nodded a little. "I still don't quite understand what you meant by that."

"Plants are living things just like ponies and Zebras," Neivi said with a nod. "They all have their spirits, and sometimes those spirits are angered. The shamans believe that something in these jungles have angered the spirits here so they strike out against any intrusion."

"I see, and we can't just, I don't know, appease or destroy these spirits?" I asked as I looked at her confused.

"Well if we tried to destroy them the Eschatik wouldn't be happy," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "We've tried everything to appease them. Even the Eschatik are working on it, but its, not normal what's going on, Its almost like there's something out there in the Jungle stirring them up."

"I see," I said and frowned a little as I looked up at the sky. It was daylight and the inhabitants of Nightingale were already up and about. Looking down I could see ponies working the fields below and on occasion some were climbing along the trees to pick fruit from them. "But, if the Jungle is dangerous then why build inside it? Why put yourselves at risk?"

"Because while they cannot always be appeased, sometimes spirits can be convinced to leave us be," Neivi said with a shake of her head as she placed a hoof on a tree nearby and gestured to me, I trotted over and saw a blooming flower on the tree and smiled a little. "The jungle has many wonders Firelight, and not everything in here wants to kill us. The problem comes when we have to leave."

"Why do you have to leave?" I asked as I looked at her curiously, this was the first I had heard of them leaving outside of going through the Underground like we had been in the day before.

"Sometimes for trade, sometimes to pick fruit and other food out there, other times to hunt," she said with a nod. "We're not far away from the Great River as we commonly call it, it snakes through this jungle all the way to the ocean and it provides a trade route as long as you stay clear of the tributaries that go into the Deep Jungle."

"You mentioned that before, is it, really that dangerous?" I asked and she sighed a little and nodded.

"Yes, it is, nothing in there lives but the plants," she said with a sigh. "One theory is that it is where a Zebra Megaspell struck, and given the radiation that moves out from it that is one theory that may actually be true. At least, we think it may be."

"What else could it be?"

"Star Spirits, a Pony experiment gone horribly wrong, ancient magic that we don't truly understand, that kind of thing," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "The fact of the matter is that we're talking about a place that nopony dares set hoof because its that dangerous."

"I see," I said and sighed a little, I had to admit it was curious but it was hard to figure out exactly what it was that piqued my curiosity. "Well, I'll try to avoid the Deep Jungle then."

"Good idea, the last thing we need is Alicorn Plant Food, it'll probably make things worse," Neivi said with a chuckle. "Besides, I wouldn't want to lose.... such a good friend."

I smiled a little at that and gave her a nod. I hadn't really thought about it that much, but Neivi was really the best friend I had ever had right now.

Maybe I should stay here, I mean my Wing was nice and all but we were all just kind of lumped together because of the High Priestess' orders... it was certainly something to think on, but I didn't want to make a choice until I was sure that I knew the truth about what was going on.

I felt something bump against my hoof and I looked down to see a ball. A small Earth Pony filly came running up and stopped in mid-step when she saw me. After a moment I recognized her as one of the fillies that I had seen yesterday. "Is this your ball?"

"Umm, yes," she said as I levitated the ball up and over to her. "Thank you Miss. Alicorn."

"You're welcome, have fun with your friends," I said with a soft smile as I watched her head back over two her two friends. I looked back at Neivi who was giving me a smile. "What?"

"I didn't ever picture you as somepony who's good with foals," Neivi said with a chuckle.
"You don't get much of a foalhood in the Society, I just, want them to have as much of one as they can," I said with a shake of my head.

"I see, kind of a shame really with those three," Neivi said with a sigh and my ears perked up curiously. "They were in the Settlement of Pearl when they were still younger than this. They were the only survivors we could find, somepony must've hidden them away before they could be killed or taken away. They're good fillies, but, they're all they have, no family to call their own you know?"

Something about that felt, weird at the back of my mind. It was as if there was something familiar about that but I couldn't place my hoof on it. I wished I could figure out what about this felt so familiar to me, it was like I was trying to remember something but something was blocking it.

"What's wrong Firelight?" Neivi asked as she looked at me concerned for a moment as I felt a tear fall down my face.

"I, don't know," I admitted as I looked at the three fillies for a long moment. "I can't explain it, there's just... something about that that I can't put my hoof on."

"Its okay Firelight," Neivi said as she gave me a light hug. "Come on, we should get going again, I still have a few things to do around town before I get back to the clinic."

"Oh, okay," I said with a nod as we walked along the bridges again. I paused a moment as I looked back at the fillies who had continued their game from the day before and smiled lightly as I saw the Pegasus filly catch the ball in mid-air and do a twirl.

I didn't know what it was about this that bothered me, but I knew that those three fillies were going to be okay as long as they had each other.

I just hoped that I'd have the same with my own friends.

00000

Apparently more things meant climbing up the trees to get leaves, moss, and sap for potions. I tried not to look down as the tree climbing gear dug into the trunk of the large tree, but Neivi didn't seem to be phased by the experience like she had done it a million times before.

"Come on Firelight, you have wings, aren't you used to heights?" Neivi asked as I pulled myself up again.

"Yeah, but my wings are usually there to keep me safe, they're still healing right now," I said with a gulp as I looked back at my wings and gripped harder as I saw how far up we were. "Why do we have to be this high?"

"Because this is where the good stuff is," Neivi said with a chuckle as she effortlessly pulled herself up onto a thick branch that was close to the top of the tree and I did the same with a nearby one, still holding on tight as I did. "Just stay calm and take it one step at a time, you can still use your magic to secure yourself you know."

"I know," I said with a nod as she took out some equipment and started to extract the sap while I looked around for the other items, gathering up what I could find and putting it in the saddle bags I had brought with me. "Maybe I should have gone with Storm Wrangler."

"Nah, the other guards would've been a little put off by an Alicorn being there, it was better for you to come with me," Neivi said as she kept working. "Firelight, you're doing fine, you're not going to fall I promise."

"I hope you're right I said as I gathered up the last of the moss. "What do you need all of this for anyway?"

"I've been experimenting with some more advanced healing potions from a book that belonged to my ancestor," Neivi said with a nod as she started up the tree again and I nervously followed after a moment. "She was a great healer and potion maker, its... just a shame that she met the end she did."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked as I looked over at Neivi.

"No, no, its fine," Neivi said with a soft smile as she shook her head a little. "She was a good Zebra, a lot of Ponies forget that there were Zebras living here in Equestria that had no love for the Empire or what it was doing. She was one of them, but there was a misunderstanding that lead to her death. Her daughter became one of the founders of Canterbury after the bombs fell, and, well, here I am."

I nodded a little and was surprised to find a wood platform on the top of the tree that we pulled ourselves up onto. It was secured and there was a rope off to one side. "What are we doing up here?"

"I, thought you should see this," Neivi said with a soft smile as she gestured out at the jungle scenery surrounding us.

I looked out and let out a gasp of awe. We were literally at the top of the jungle, we could see for miles around us and it was nothing but green with a shape of a river running through it. It was a stunning sight, and it was like nothing I had ever experienced before.

"This is... wow," I said in awe of what I was seeing around me. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"I know, I thought you might enjoy it, its not all bad in the jungle you know, its quite beautiful out there," Neivi said as she looked over at me with a soft smile. "I like coming up here, I come up whenever I get the chance."

"Its very nice," I said with a soft smile as Neivi leaned back and adjusted her glasses a little. "Thank you for sharing this with me Neivi."

"You're welcome Firelight," Neivi said and gave me a smile. "Do, you ever wonder where you come from? I mean, I don't think you were born an Alicorn were you? So, you had to come from somewhere."

"Sometimes, I feel like I've been wondering about it more and more since I got here," I said with a sigh as I laid back and stared up at the blue sky above. "I guess I never really questioned where I came from that much. The Society has been the only home I've ever known."

"Still, you have to wonder if you have a mom and dad out there somewhere," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "I've heard there are more Alicorns up north that were part of something called Unity. I wonder if maybe you were part of that or something."

"Maybe, but that doesn't explain why I don't remember anything," I said with a sigh as I shook my head and looked out at the jungle. "So, why is this up here?"

"Its usually a lookout spot for guard ponies, sometimes its just used to relax though," Neivi said with a shrug. "I'm glad I met you Firelight, you've been a great help so far."

I smiled softly as I looked at Neivi and gave her a nod. "I'm glad to help, I just wish there was something more I could do to figure out what I'm supposed to do around here."

I looked down at the town below us, we were higher up than I had realized but I felt more relaxed. Maybe it was because I had Neivi here with me, or maybe it was because I felt more secure up here. Either way, I was less worried about getting down than I had been before.

"So, uh, how are we going to get down from here anyway?" I asked as I looked over at Neivi who just chuckled lightly and nodded to the ropes off to the side.

"That's how, we'll ride them down to the base of the tree, we have to use climbing tools because its hard to get it precise enough to get what we need," she said with a nod. "Your wings should be healed soon though, I just need to mix up this potion and it should do the trick."

"Ya'll up here?" A familiar accented voice asked as Storm Wrangler flew up and landed on the platform next to us as she adjusted her hat a little.

"Yeah, we're just enjoying the view," I said with a smile as I gave the Pegasus a nod. "What's the word from the other Guards?"

"Ah've got some of them on our side, that's tha good news at least," Storm said as she brushed her mane back and sighed a little. "Tha bad news is that Commander Twist may be on ta us."

"What makes you think that?" Neivi asked.

"She came in while Ah was talkin' with another Guard and Ah'm afraid she overheard some of tha conversation," Storm said with a shake of her head. "She's not tha type ta disagree with tha Mayor so Ah'm afraid that she's gonna be a big problem fer us."

"Lets just hope it doesn't come to that," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "What do you suggest we do now?"

"Only thing we can do, sit and wait," Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. "We don't know when they're gonna strike again, but Ah've got enough friends in tha Guard ta keep an eye out fer any unusual activity."

"Good," I said with a sigh as I looked at Storm Wrangler for a moment. "Do, you think its going to be enough though? If there is any proof that there is a threat to Nightingale, then its going to be hard to get since we don't even know who's doing this."

"Then we're going to have to hope that they slip up somehow," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "We don't know who we're up against and how much authority they have in the city, so we're just going to have to play it by ear for right now."

"Lets just hope that we ain't already too late," Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. "We should get back ta town though, Ah don't think ponies are gonna take too kindly ta ya'll bein' up here this long."

"Alright," Neivi said with a sigh as she showed me how to secure myself to the rope using the climbing gear I had been given. "Hold onto it tight if you want to go fast, the looser the slower you'll go, okay?"

I nodded and watched as Neivi secured herself and slid down the rope towards the forest floor below us. I looked back at Storm Wrangler who gave me a nod and flew down, I took a deep breath and secured myself before I slid down the rope after the two of them.

00000

When we returned to the clinic we found Lemon Lime waiting there for us taking a drink of water as she looked up at us. "Sorry doctor, I needed some Dirty Water," she said in her raspy voice and Neivi gave her a nod.

"Hurt your leg again?" Neivi asked and the Ghoul nodded a little.

"Blasted bridges, I'd stay on the ground if I could, but I need to move around the town," she said with a shake of her head. "Its not easy to get used to living in the trees."

"Yeah, I don't blame you," Neivi said with a sigh as Lemon Lime looked up at me for a long moment while the Zebra Doctor went to start brewing a potion.

"I see you're still here," she said with a light snort.

"Where else would I be?" I asked and she just shrugged a little. "I'm here because I need to be healed first, and I don't really have anywhere else to go other than the Temple."

"Then why not go back there?" Lemon Lime said. "You're an Alicorn, the lot of you are a threat to Equestria as long as you're going after innocent ponies like you have been."

I opened my mouth to say something before I shut it again. She was right, while I wasn't a threat to anypony personally, as long as there was Alicorns that were threatening Equestria, she was right. I sighed a little and looked down at my hooves before shaking my head a little.

"I've been thinking a lot about that lately," I finally said with a shake of my head. "I don't want to go back, at least not yet. If there's a chance that they really are dangerous, then I want to know it before I even consider going back. I don't want to harm you or anypony right now, I'm just here to help."

"So you say," Lemon Lime said and sighed a little as she shook her head. "I don't really care either way. Right now, I've got my own reasons for staying in town, and once that's done I've got my own things to do."

"Lemon, I promise everything is going to be okay," Neivi said softly as she placed her hoof on the mare's shoulder gently.
"Its a big jungle out there, you'll find them and we're going to help you."

I blinked as I looked at Lemon confused for a moment. What was she looking for? She just looked away from Neivi for a moment with a pained look on her face as she looked over at me. "You better be right Neivi."

"I know I am," Neivi said with a soft smile as she gave her a nod. "If she was as strong as her mother, she made it to safety and they're still out there."

Lemon Lime sighed and walked towards the door. She paused a moment as she turned and looked at me for a moment before speaking. "I suggest dealing with whatever your business in Nightingale is soon Alicorn, this whole place is just an accident waiting to happen."

And with that the old Ghoul left the clinic and I just blinked and looked at Neivi confused. "What's she talking about?"

"She's worried about the way Nightingale is run," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "She thinks that its bound to collapse into chaos eventually, I think she's being paranoid but the current situation with the disappearing ponies isn't exactly helping my case."

"How often do they vanish?" I asked.

"Not very often, and its almost always at night, the one during the attack was a fluke really," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "Frankly, I think something about this is off, we need to get out there tonight and make sure that nothing else happens."

"What, yah don't think that tha pony who was grabbed was connected ta tha others or somethin'?" Storm Wrangler asked as she looked at Neivi confused.

"It doesn't fit the pattern at all, I think that may have been a coincidence," Neivi said. "What do you think Firelight?"

"Well, uh... if the disappearances are always at night then its certainly strange that somepony vanished during the day," I said and brushed my mane back a little. "So, then why did they vanish?"

"Who knows, maybe the foal ran away from home, or they just wandered into the underground," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "That one has been a bit of trouble lately. I don't like it either, but we have to consider all the possibilities right now. The only thing they have in common with the others is that they were an orphan."

"Agreed," I said with a nod and a sigh. "Night time makes sense if its the Society though, we're stronger at night so if they go after ponies then..."

"Then it'll be harder to stop them," Storm Wrangler said with a nod of understanding. "Ah don't like this, it feels like we've got an enemy breathin' down our necks and we don't even know tha first thing about them."

"We have Firelight though, and she knows everything about them," Neivi pointed out as she chewed on her pencil's eraser lightly. "Firelight, do you know anything about this?"

"Well, yeah, I mean there's been the occasional new member to the Society," I said with a shrug. "But the High Priestess doesn't tell us much about the process, just saying that they're a new convert and to make them feel welcome because they're now among their sisters."

"I see, I see," Neivi said as she took notes again.

"Mah question is how they got their hooves on IMP in tha first place," Storm Wrangler said and I blinked in confusion as I looked at her.

"IMP?" I asked.

"Impelled Metamorphosis Potion," Neivi said. "Its the stuff that makes Alicorns, very nasty stuff actually from what I've heard. There have been a few reports of it around Equestria, but the nearest one I can think of is in Ground Zero in Neigh Orleans."

"I see," I said, though I was still confused, I hadn't heard anything about IMP before. "I wish I could tell you, but I've never even seen this, IMP. The High Priestess says that it was a blessing from the Goddess."

"Of course yah haven't, it wouldn't help her case ta break tha dogma like that," Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. "Religious nuts like that are a problem, Ah've heard of this guy up north that..."

"Ahem..." Neivi said with a scowl. "We don't want to go off on another diatribe about religion now do we?"

"Oh right, sorry about that Neivi," Storm Wrangler said as she adjusted her hat a little. "Ah wasn't talkin' about Zebras and tha spirits, Ah meant, yah know, tha real wackos out there like tha Society."

"How's that hoof taste?" I asked with a chuckle as I looked between Neivi and Storm Wrangler.

"Shut up," the Pegasus said as she pulled her hat down over her eyes to try and hide her embarrassment. "But really, there ain't nothin' left of Celestia and Luna or Nightmare Moon fer that matter except what's in a computer in tha SPP Hub. Worshipin' them ain't gonna get yah anywhere."

"I think that should be up to the individual, not the whole," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "Besides, we know that Celestia exists, perhaps Luna does as well in some form. I think we should be open minded and allow those to worship as they see fit as long as it does not harm others."

"If yah say so, but Ah still find it silly," Storm Wrangler said as she shook her head a little. "Spirits are one thing, but actually worshipin' some pre-war rulers as if they were Goddesses watchin' over us? Sure they used ta control tha sun and tha moon, but that doesn't mean they're all powerful or all knowin'."

I actually laughed a little at this. These two were friends, but they were debating the merits of religion versus secularism, this was something that I had never actually experienced while living in the Society.

"What's so funny?" Neivi asked as she looked at me confused for a moment.

"Sorry, I just never really imagined friends acting like this, its always been different over in the Society," I said with a chuckle as I shook my head. "Sorry, I found it interesting is all."

"Oh, well, Ah guess its not that uncommon, at least in tha Union," Storm Wrangler said as she rubbed the back of her head a little. "We've got a lot of ponies and Zebras with different views despite havin' some common ground. It makes things interestin' at least, Ah have ta admit we have more in common than we'd really want ta admit sometimes."

"Yeah, well, she is right about one thing, religion taken too far can be bad like with the Society," Neivi said with a sigh as she shook her head a little. "I wish I could tell you that everything was going to be easy, but there's a real concern that this kind of division may make it hard for the movement to endure."

"Nah, I think you're going to do just fine," I said with a smile. "I can see that you're all working towards a common goal despite your differences. Maybe that's going to be enough, you just have to make sure that you don't lose sight of that when everything is said and done."

"Yer a smart one," Storm Wrangler said with a chuckle as she adjusted her hat a little and gave me a nod. "Hopefully we won't do that, there's a lot that still needs ta be done before everythin' is ready."

I nodded and leaned back as I looked out the clinic window and into the green jungle that surrounded it. I wondered if maybe I did have a place here, it was hard to tell since some ponies didn't entirely trust me, but I knew that I was going to do everything I could to help.

I just hoped that it was going to be enough.

00000

"You're up late," a gravelly voice said from behind me as I sat on the roof of the clinic and turned my head to see Lemon Lime standing there.

"Yeah, well, Neivi's asleep and Storm's doing her own thing," I said with a shake of my head as I looked back out at the town. "They said its okay for me to be up here as long as I don't stray too far from the clinic."

"I see," Lemon Lime said as she moved over next to me and sat down. "You're keeping yourself busy I hear."

"I'm just trying to help Nightingale as best I can," I said with a soft smile as I gave the old Ghoul a nod. "What about you? What do you do around here?"

"I do odd jobs here and there, just trying to save up enough caps right now to eventually get a ride out of here," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "You should think about doing the same, our type aren't exactly welcome in places like this."

"They haven't thrown me out yet," I said with a shake of my head.

"They will eventually once the voices of reason are off the council, and that's bound to happen someday, one downside to democracy I suppose," Lemon Lime said with a snort. "The Mayor doesn't like anything that doesn't agree with him, and I don't blame him for not trusting Alicorns."

"What about you?" I asked as I looked at her. "You haven't exactly rushed to trust me either."

"Well, you know how it is," she said with a shake of her head. "I was riding with a caravan south from Neigh Orleans that was trying to open up a trade route with the settlements down here. We got attacked by you lot and the whole group was slaughtered or dragged off. Young, old, mare, stallion, it didn't matter to them, they were just..."

"Converts?" I asked and she nodded a little.

"There were good ponies in that caravan, ponies I had gotten to know ever since leaving Manehattan a few months back," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "Now I don't even know what happened to them."

"And they didn't take you because you're a Ghoul," I said. "How'd you even survive?"

"Got hit with a stray bullet and played dead," Lemon said with a shake of her head. "Look, I've got nothing against you personally but your little cult of crazies hurt some good ponies back there. I'm not going to cause any problems for you, but I still despise what the Society did to my friends."

"I don't blame you," I said softly and the Ghoul's rotting ears perked up a little at that. "I'm starting to realize just how bad the Society really was you know? I'm sorry that they took away your friends Lemon, and if I knew how to get them back I would, but I don't even know what's wrong with my own head."

Lemon looked at me with a frown for a moment and then her face turned strangely sympathetic for a moment. "You're as much a victim in this as anypony else aren't you?"

"I don't know, I guess so," I said with a sigh. "All I remember is the Society, and I hate that, I wish I knew something more and could tell you what happened to your friends. I don't even know if there's anything left of them anymore if the Society was behind it."

I sighed and we sat in silence for a long moment as I looked back at Lemon Lime. I had heard that Ghouls could live virtually forever, I wondered how much she had seen in her lifetime, how many adventures she could have had.

Would I live just as long if not longer? There was no known lifespan for an Alicorn like me, so the Goddess only knew how long I was going to live. It was a strange feeling knowing that I might outlive my friends, I honestly hated the idea, but I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter either.

"Firelight, you're alright," Lemon Lime finally said and gave me a smile. "I'm sorry I treated you like I did, I just didn't see the whole picture. Do, you want to give being friends another shot?"

I was surprised to see her holding a hoof out and I smiled a little as I took her hoof and shook it. "Friends, I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Good," Lemon Lime said with a smile as we looked back out at the town. "So, I heard tell that you Society Alicorns can see well in the dark."

"Yeah, its something that we can all do," I said with a shrug. "I never really gave it much consideration, though it made some nights very awkward with two members of my Wing."

"I don't want to know..." Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "But, do you think you can see anything that might be suspicious out there? We're all a bit on edge and I'd just like to know, you know?"

I nodded a little and scanned the town for a long moment. There were a few ponies out and about, I could see the guards on the walls watching the jungle outside. I could see a cloaked pony leading three small ponies down a set of stairs. I could see...

Wait, what? I took another look and narrowed my eyes a little at the sight of the strange cloaked pony walking, I could just barely make out the forms of the ponies following them, they looked like they were in a trance or something, but I could recognize them as the three fillies from before.

"Wake up Neivi," I said and looked at Lemon who suddenly looked alarmed.

"What's going on?" she asked as she stood on edge.

"Just wake her up, I'm going down there," I said and got to my hooves as I jumped down from the roof of the clinic and bounded across the bridges and stairs down towards where the strange cloaked pony was with my wings outstretched and my horn glowing orange.

I don't know what was going through the pony's mind at the moment, but I tapped into the illusion magic I had been taught by the High Priestess. The pony's eyes went wide from behind the hood as a terrifying form of a flaming Alicorn slammed her forehooves into it's side, sending the strange cloaked pony sprawling.

"You just had to interfere didn't you?" The pony asked with a hiss in a male voice as he got to his hooves and levitated a knife out of his pack. "We were content to let you stay until you came to your senses, but now you have to die."

"We'll see about that," I said and crouched in a defensive position as I formed a shield bubble around the three fillies. "You're not going to take away these three fillies on my watch!"

The cloaked pony dove at me and slashed at my leg with his knife. I barely felt it as I kicked at him with my forelegs, my hoof connecting with his muzzle and drawing blood as he growled at me. He twirled his knife around and slashed at me again, I just barely avoided getting slashed at the neck as the cloaked pony didn't even flinch.

"Why do you fight back?" The cloaked stallion said. "This is for you and your Society, they need to grow and we need protection from them!"

"They're just fillies, they deserve to make a choice," I said as I looked back at them, something rose inside me as if I had done this before, I wasn't going to let the Society get their hooves on these fillies, not as long as I drew breath. "I was never given a choice, and I'm going to make sure that they are given one."

"Whatever, then you will die!" The Stallion said and ran forward at me with the knife held up as he tried to slash at me but I jumped out of the way and just as he started to turn I kicked him in the muzzle as hard as I could and sent him sprawling on his back.

"Wh-what happened?" One of the fillies asked as she rubbed her eyes, I looked over at the three of them, they were coming out of whatever trance the stallion had them in and were looking around confused. "How did we get here?"

"Its okay, you're safe now," I said with a soft smile as I stormed over to the stallion and levitated his knife out of his reach and glared at him as I let the flames flare up around me again. As he tried to crawl away I slammed my hooves down on him and glared at him intensely, my eyes glowing with fire as I did. "And just where do you think you're going?"

"Let me go, I didn't have a choice... I was told to do this..." the stallion said his bluster and confidence gone as blood dripped down his muzzle, he looked up at me terrified.

"WHO TOLD YOU?" I shouted in a tone that I didn't even realize I was capable of as the stallion let out an eep, he looked like he was about to pee himself but I didn't care at this point. He should be afraid, I wasn't about to let him go either. "TELL ME!"

"I don't know, they wore a mask and disguised their voice!" The stallion said. I pressed the blade of the knife against his neck a little and he started crying. "They were dressed in guard armor, that's all I know, I swear! Please, I have a family, don't kill me!"

I knew he couldn't be lying, there was too much fear in his face and his voice to believe otherwise. He was crying and I hesitated a moment as I looked back at the fillies.

"So did they until the monsters you're working for took them away," I said with a sneer. "What was that you were saying about the Society?"

"I don't know, I don't even remember what happened!" He said with a cry. "Please, I have black outs, I don't know why but sometimes I come out of them in different places than I remember! It started when I met those ponies, I don't know what I do!"

"Sandblaster?" Neivi said from behind me as she and Lemon Lime came up behind us. "What's going on Firelight? What happened here?"

"This pony was taking those three fillies away, and he said that he was working for the Society," I said as I pulled the knife slowly away from his throat but didn't take my eyes off of him. "I think he's been under the influence of powerful mind control magic."

"I see," Neivi said as she went to check on the three fillies. "You nearly gave me a heart attack you know that right? When Lemon Lime woke me up shouting that you had run off into the city I was afraid that..."

"That I was doing something stupid like running off?" I asked as I looked back at her and she nodded a little. "Neivi, I promised I'd stay and help. I may have a lot to figure out, but I don't go back on my word like that when I give it to a friend."

Neivi smiled softly as she finished checking the fillies over. "Alright, you three are okay but I think you should stay in the clinic tonight just to be safe," she said with a soft, reassuring smile as she looked them over. "We don't want the three of you walking off when you should be sleeping again do we?"

"No Doctor Neivi," the fillies said and yawned a little.

"Here, I'll take them," I said and gently levitated the sleepy fillies up onto my back and gave Neivi a smile. "Thanks for coming Neivi, I know I scared you with that..."

"You did the right thing Firelight," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "That's all that really counts in the end. Lemon, could you go get Storm Wrangler for me?"

"On it," Lemon Lime said as she galloped off to find the Pegasus mare.

"Come on, lets get these three fillies back to the clinic," Neivi said with a soft smile as we walked back towards the clinic with the three fillies fast asleep on my back.

00000

I watched as Neivi gently tucked the three small ponies into one of the spare beds in the clinic. Despite how late it was, I don't think either of us really felt like sleeping right now. I smiled a little at the Zebra mare who looked at me for a long moment and sighed a little.

"I don't know who would possibly try to take three fillies away like this," she said with a sigh. "The Society is our number one suspect right now honestly, and I know its hard for you to accept but the evidence is all pointing to it."

"Yeah, I see that," I said with a sigh as I looked at the three fillies for a long moment and then back at Neivi. "If I had known all of this was going on..."

"Yeah, I know, you'd have tried to stop it a long time ago, you're that kind of pony, I can tell it in your eyes," Neivi said with a soft smile as she patted my shoulder a little. "You're not at fault for what happened to those fillies Firelight, you're not like the rest of the Society. I think, if given the chance any pony with a good heart would have done the same thing you did tonight."

"I'd like to think so," I said with a sigh as I brushed my mane back a little I then looked over at the unconscious stallion, he had fainted of course. "What's going to happen to him?"

"If he's under mind control, then he'll have a lighter sentence, but its much harder to prove mind control," Neivi said with a sigh as she looked over at him. "Sandblaster isn't a bad pony, he's got a wife and three kids in one of the lower parts of the town. Its weird if you ask me, almost like they picked him at complete random instead of for a specific reason."

"Yeah, I have to agree," I said with a sigh as I looked at him. "I just hope that we'll be able to figure something out, what are we going to do with all of them?"

"We'll probably have to take them into the Underground," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "We have to hope that whoever is really behind this will be fooled into thinking they were successful, at least for a short time."

"Ah came as fast as Ah could," Storm Wrangler said as she came in. "Yah thwarted an attempt ta take away ponies?"

"Yeah, those three over there," I said and nodded to the sleeping fillies. "They were being taken away by a pony under mind control, and they were in some sort of trance."

"Is it possible that they were being controlled by the Society?" Lemon Lime asked. "You know them better than we do Firelight, do any of the Alicorns there know mind control magic?"

"Probably, but honestly I don't think it was the Society, while they were angry at me, they were quite clear that they thought it was to protect Nightingale," I said with a shake of my head. "Its as if they thought it was best for these ponies to vanish to keep it safe."

"It has always been the exploiter to wrap themselves in the cloak of patriotism to deceive and overawe the people," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "I don't like this, it feels like there's something about this that we're missing, like a puzzle that's missing a piece."

"I agree," I said with a shake of my head. "But it means we're right, the Society is definitely getting help from somewhere inside Nightingale. The question now is, who is doing it?"

None of us really had an answer to that and we let the question hang over us the rest of the night. I sighed a little and laid back on my bed as Lemon Lime and Storm Wrangler took the first watch, sleep wasn't going to come easily tonight though, my former Sisters were trying to take ponies from this town and that could only mean trouble.

I remembered what they had told me about IMP, that it was some potion that created Alicorns. Did that mean that it had been used on me? Was that why I couldn't remember anything from before I had joined the Society? I hated not having all the answers more than anything, and I knew that I wasn't going back to the Temple, not yet at least.

Talk about your puzzles missing a piece, I was missing pieces and anything that resembled a reference image.

"Firelight, are you okay?" Neivi asked as she lifted her head and looked over at me. "Can you sleep?"

"Not really..." I admitted with a sigh as I rolled over and looked at her. She had given up her bed for the fillies so she was in the one right next to me. "I don't even know what happened out there tonight, I was... something else entirely it almost felt like."

"What do you mean?" Neivi asked.

"I used illusion magic, not something I'm unfamiliar with mind you, but I used it in a way that I've never even tried before," I said with a sigh. "It was like the world around me was on fire, and I was setting it ablaze just to terrify the stallion. I hated what I did, but somehow..."

"Somehow what?" The Zebra asked me.

"Somehow it felt right, as if there was something about it that needed to be done," I said with a shake of my head. "Do you know what the High Priestess called me?"

"What's that?"

"Her Firebrand," I said with a shake of my head. "She always called me that, the earliest memory I have is of her naming me that."

"Firebrand, a pony who does things that others won't, who will do things that many consider radical and dangerous in the name of their cause," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "It sounds to me like she wanted you to become a zealot for the Society."

"Yeah, but I'm not like that at all," I said with with a shake of my head. "I'm not a bad pony, I'm not some sort of, firebrand, I just acted out against him in anger. I wanted him to suffer like the other ponies had, and I lost control of myself for a moment because of it."

"That's, not necessarily a bad thing," Neivi said with a sigh. "Firelight, you did what you did because you were disgusted by what was going to happen to those fillies. You may have acted out of anger, but you did it because some part of you was disgusted by what was going on and what they were trying to do. If you are a firebrand, its not for the Society, its for the goodness of Ponykind and the future of Equestria."

"You really think so?" I asked and looked at her surprised for a moment.

"I know so," she said with a soft smile. "I've seen you, you're not a monster, you're not a bad pony, you just got put in a difficult position with no choice in the matter. Frankly, I'd be more surprised if you weren't a little messed up because of it, but I know you're on our side."

I smiled a little, that actually made me feel better. I hoped she was right though, I didn't even know where that magic came from, it had been almost instinctive to tap into that rage and use it to terrify Sandblaster. I looked back at the fillies for a long moment, I hoped that this meant they would have a better future than I could've ever had in the Society.

And more than that, I hoped that I was going to have a good future. I had my friends, I had this town, and I knew that when it came right down to it, I would pick these ponies over the Society any day.

"Thank you Neivi," I said with a soft smile as I rolled over onto my back. "I want to help ponies as best I can, if anything that feels like my purpose. To be the firebrand doesn't mean to serve the society anymore, it means to serve ponykind. A single life is worth a million times more than anything held by the Society or other groups that would rather exploit them."

Neivi just chuckled and nodded a little. "Now you're seeing the big picture of this war," she said with a sigh. "We're not fighting for territory, we're fighting for the future. We want our foals to have a future more than anything, and that's our purpose, our reason to fight."

"You're poetic when you want to be, you know that?" I asked with a chuckle. "All you're missing is the rhymes."

"Nah, that was more my ancestor's thing," Neivi said with a chuckle as she shook her head. "I've never been very good at rhymes honestly so I never tried outside of potion brewing."

I just chuckled and laid back and closed my eyes and just enjoyed the sounds of the jungle coming in from outside.

00000

"So, you think that we're looking at some form of mind control?" Soia asked as she watched Sandblaster being taken to a holding cell just in case.

"Yeah, for the moment we need to keep him under sedation, at least that's my suggestion," Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. "Until we can uncover the nature of this mind control we have to be sure that he doesn't pose a threat to the Underground."

"I agree," Soia said as she looked over at me. "Firelight, you're the one who stopped the foalnapping, did you get any information from the subject before they were snapped out of the control?"

"Just that they were getting the fillies for the Nightmare Society and that they were doing it to protect Nightingale, or at least that's the impression I got," I said with a shake of my head. "I didn't get a lot of information honestly, I don't know what to make of it other than that they didn't seem to like that I'm in town."

"That narrows it down," Lemon Lime said with a snort.

"Lemon is right, there are a lot of ponies that don't like having an Alicorn around and this certainly isn't going to help," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "So it really doesn't narrow it down at all, I'm afraid that if we don't figure out who is behind this, we might have bigger problems on our hooves."

"Agreed," Soia said with a sigh as she looked back at the three fillies who were looking around at the strange underground system in awe. "And what are we going to do with these three? This isn't exactly a daycare, we can't just take care of them."

"But we can't send them back ta tha orphanage either," Storm Wrangler pointed out. "They're in danger as long as they're on their own, they could be targeted by tha Society again. If they're down here they can't be put at risk, they're just foals after all."

"I see," Soia said and brushed her mane back a little for a moment. "You're right of course Storm Wrangler, but we can't just keep them here without putting our operation at risk if there is any lingering mind control magic."

"Isn't there anywhere else we could take them?" I asked. "We shouldn't put them at risk as long as there's a threat to Nightingale."

"We could keep them in the clinic, its certainly big enough to house all three of them along with us," Neivi suggested and looked back at me. "Do you think you can help out with that Firelight? I know you don't really know a lot about foals."

"No, I'd be glad to try and help as best I can," I said and looked back at the fillies. "I just want to make sure that they don't get taken by the Society if that's who is really behind this. In the meantime, we need to see if we can figure out what's going on around here, and who's really behind this."

"We need ta think about who might be trusted enough ta just be allowed in so they can use Mind Control magic on a subject," Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. "That's tha problem really, yah can't just walk into buildings in town around here unless yer part of tha Guard."

"Or have a seat on the council," Neivi added.

We just let that thought hang over us for awhile. If there was somepony that was on the Council behind this, then that was going to be a big problem. I just had to hope that we'd figure out what was going on before somepony else got taken.

00000

"You mean we can really stay here?" The Unicorn filly asked as we re-entered the clinic a little while later.

"Yeah, for a little while at least while we make sure that you're not going to be hurt," Neivi said with a smile as she set up a bed for the three of them. "You're going to have to share a bed though, we've only got so much room and we have to be ready in case something happens that requires the rest of them."

"Its okay, we're kind of used to it by now," the Earth Pony filly said as she looked up at me curiously for a moment. "You saved us from being taken away right? Last night is kind of fuzzy."

"Yeah, I did," I said with a soft smile as I looked between the three of them.

"Thank you," the Earth Pony said and surprised me a little when she hugged me and the Unicorn joined in after a moment. The Pegasus filly on the other hoof hung back and looked at me afraid for a long moment.

"Is she okay?" I asked as I looked at her.

"Wind Chime is a bit, shy," the Unicorn filly said and gestured towards her friend and gave me a nod. "She doesn't really talk much, but she's nice when she is able to open up."

Now that I could get a better look at them, the Pegasus filly was a light grey color with a long red mane that covered one of her red eyes a little. The Unicorn was a light shade of yellow with a curled light blue mane. The Earth pony finally was a dark blue color with a white mane with streaks of blue running through it.

I nodded a little and gave her a reassuring smile but I wasn't going to try and push the filly into something she didn't want to do. I offered my hoof to the other fillies. "My name is Firelight, I don't think we've met yet formally."

"I'm Dawn Star," The Unicorn said with a smile as she shook my hoof.

"Blueberry Muffin," the Earth pony said as she shook my hoof too. "You're cool, when you're not being scary I mean..."

"I try," I said with a smile as I gave them a nod and looked over at Wind Chime. "Is she going to be okay?"

Neivi took me off to the side a little and sighed a bit. "Wind Chime seems to be a selective mute, she'll talk with her friends when in private but she's afraid to talk with pretty much anypony else."

I sighed a little and looked back at the grey filly who played with a strand of her mane a little and nodded in understanding. "Okay, I'll give her space."

"Good, for now, lets just get them settled in," Neivi said with a smile as Storm Wrangler and Lemon Lime came in with the stuff they had went to get from the orphanage.

I smiled and looked at the fillies, I just hoped that they were going to be okay. I knew I was going to do everything I could to make sure that they were safe.

LEVEL UP!
Perk Received: Young at Heart.
Details: You've taken it upon yourself to help and befriend children to give them a better chance at surviving the harsh world you call home. You get an extra boost in speech when interacting with children and sometimes get special dialogue options when talking with them.

Chapter 4: Burning Bright

"Happiness is when what you think,
what you say, and what you do
are in harmony."
-Mahatma Gandhi.

Later that day I looked up from the book I was reading that had been brought to me from the Nightingale Library as ponies dressed in guard uniforms lead by Commander Twist came into the clinic and held their weapons pointed right at me.

"Firelight, by authority of the Council I'm here to place you under arrest for the kidnapping of three fillies from the Nightingale Orphanage and collusion with the enemies of the Council," Commander Twist said as I sighed and set the book down for a moment and looked at her. "Will you come quietly?"

"I'm not coming with you at all," I said with a shake of my head. "Your intel is wrong, the fillies haven't left the city and are under our protection."

"I see no evidence of this, the Orphanage Matron said that they were taken away from their beds last night," Twist said with a sneer as she looked at me and nodded to her guards. "You're the most likely suspect at this point, and we're taking you into custody."

"Hold it," Neivi said as she came out of an adjoining room.

"Councilmare Neivi, you are on thin ice because of your support of this, thing," Twist said as she narrowed her eyes at the Zebra. "If you don't want to be thrown into jail with her, I would suggest not interfering."

"You're charging her for no reason," Neivi said and nodded as the three fillies came to the door and Twist frowned a little as she saw them.

"Clearly a ploy to avoid getting in trouble," she said with a snort. "You really expect me to believe that she wasn't involved in the kidnapping attempt?"

"She saved us from the foalnapper!" Blueberry protested as her two friends nodded in agreement. "We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Miss. Firelight."

"The actual foalnapper is in a secure location until we can be sure that he doesn't pose a threat to the town," Neivi said and adjusted her glasses a little. "You know what I think? I think you and the Mayor were just looking for an excuse to get Firelight locked away, and I have to wonder why."

Twist looked nervous for a moment and her guards lowered their weapons a little before looking at her. "What do we do Commander?"

"Well, unless you have actual proof that Firelight has committed a crime against the town, then you don't have a lot of options now do you?" Neivi said with a nod. "I can assure you that she is no threat to these fillies or to anypony else. I would suggest leaving my clinic before I decide to bring this to the rest of the Council."

"You win this round, but this isn't over," Twist said with a growl as she pulled away and headed out along with the rest of her guards and slammed the door behind them.

"They're getting more and more paranoid," I said with a shake of my head as I looked down at the fillies for a long moment and then back at Neivi. "I'm starting to suspect this conspiracy goes higher than we thought."

"So am I," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "Twist shouldn't have even known about this, we reported to the Matron before going into the Underground. If you ask me, I think Twist knows more than she's letting on, and I don't like it."

"Or it could be an informant," Lemon Lime pointed out as she came in with Storm Wrangler close behind. "There's been more than a few cases of ponies "informing" on their neighbors to the Guard from what I've heard."

"And why haven't we heard about this?" Storm Wrangler asked as she looked at Lemon Lime.

"Because you're a guard and the doc here is on the council, they don't trust you," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "But me? I'm just your local handymare or whatever, they say things around me that they wouldn't say around the rest of you. Trust me, the rumor mill in this town is running rampant and I've heard 'em all."

"Ah see," Storm Wrangler said, it actually made more sense than anything else right now, though that was what worried me the most. "Ah know yah ain't part of this Neivi, but if they're pushin' this enemies of tha council thing..."

"More like enemies of the state, its the Great War all over again," Lemon said with a shake of her head. "We're going to have to be careful if we don't want to wind up in a worse situation."

"So, who would benefit most from making a deal with the Society?" Neivi asked as we all looked at her and paused a moment, none of us were really sure how to answer that question.

"They said that the deal protects Nightingale right?" Lemon asked as she looked at me and I nodded. "I see, maybe that's a part of it."

"If you make a deal with the Society so they don't attack you mean," I said with a nod. "But the Society required something in return, something that Nightingale has in abundance. New ponies to be converted, so a few ponies that nopony will miss go missing and the town isn't attacked."

"Its clever, but it doesn't make it right," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "The needs of the many do not outweigh the needs of the few after all. We're dealing with a group that doesn't care about pony lives, who's to say they won't just attack the town anyway one of these days?"

We paused a moment as we realized she was right, there wasn't anything stopping the Society from just attacking other than the town's defenses. This deal benefited the Society and guaranteed that they kept Nightingale weakened and in a state of fear because of the disappearances.

Whoever was behind these disappearances was playing right into the High Priestess' hooves and they didn't even know it.
"So, what do we do now?" I asked as I looked between them. "We can't just let everything keep going like this, we need information and we need to figure out who's behind this."

"I'll keep an ear out for any information," Lemon Lime said with a nod. "One advantage to being a worker in this town, they only notice you to make you work harder or to give you a job. I'm not about to give up on this, and I know that I can get more information through them."

"Good," Neivi said with a nod. "I'll also talk with Soia, but we need to have two ponies with the fillies at all times. We're looking at a real threat to them and if they go missing..."

"Then Twist and whoever she's working with can point their hooves at me and say I did it," I said with a shake of my head.

"Yeah, this is a problem, a big problem," Neivi said with a shake of her head as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "It means we have to be a lot more careful with the fillies though."

"Yeah, I just hope that they're going to be okay," I said with a sigh as I looked back at the fillies worriedly for a long moment. "Fillies shouldn't have to live in fear of being taken away like this."

"Welcome ta life in tha Wasteland," Storm Wrangler said as she adjusted her hat a little. "Tha fact is that we've got a lot of threats out there, and frankly Ah'm afraid that there are a lot bigger problems out there than just tha Society."

"Yes, but they're the ones that are the most pressing threat right now," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "I've heard rumors of the Enclave's activities up North, and there's always the issue of Raider gangs and Slavers but they've been on the decline in most areas lately."

I shook my head a little, it was disturbing how many things ponies could do to each other in this world. I sighed and shook my head a little, sometimes with what I heard it almost felt like the High Priestess was right, but that still didn't excuse everything that she did to us.

"Are, we going to be okay?" Blueberry Muffin asked as she looked up at us, the three fillies looked scared, I didn't blame them. "They're not going to come back for us are they?"

"No, you're going to be just fine," I said with a soft smile as I ruffled the Earth Pony's mane gently and gave her a reassuring smile. "We're going to make sure nothing happens to you, I promise. After all, you've got a big strong Alicorn on your side, nothing can happen to you that way."

The fillies actually smiled at that, even Wind Chime managed to crack a smile and gave me a soft nod. I looked down at the grey and red filly and sighed a little, I hoped that I was going to be able to keep that promise, for all their sakes.

00000

"You're not going to win, you know that right?" A stallion's voice said from behind me as I was getting food at the cafeteria. I turned and frowned to see Mayor Steel standing there as he popped the cap off a bottle and took a drink.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked as I started walking away from him. "You're the one who's causing problems here, I'm just trying to get dinner for me and my friends."

"You took those fillies and you're trying to pin the blame on innocent civilians of my town," he said with a growl as I rolled my eyes a little. "You won't get away with this, we've been fighting the Society for too long to give up to you now."

"You know, the High Priestess calls you savages," I said with a shake of my head. "She says that you all need to be converted for your own good. If I was really a threat to "your town," don't you think I'd have done something other than spend time in the clinic?"

"You're just digging a deeper grave for yourself every time you do something, and its only a matter of time now," Steel said with a shake of his head. "You're going to slip up, I can see through your lies, I know you're here to take us all away."

"Right, that's why I saved three fillies from being taken away, because that totally makes sense," I said with a roll of my eyes as I started out the door only to have it slammed on me. "Are you going to stop me from leaving Mayor? I thought this was a free society, I'm not here to cause trouble any more than you are here to act like a decent politician in front of your townsponies."

He paused for a moment at that, it was true the little incident had drawn the attention of several ponies around the cafe area and they looked at the Mayor surprised. I smiled a little and shook my head at him.

"And next time you want me arrested, make sure your goon squad has the proper evidence," I said and lit my horn up and then picked him up with my telekinesis and set him off to the side. "I'm not in the mood for you right now Mayor Steel, so unless you're going to accuse me of something that can stick, I'm going back to the clinic."

The Mayor just snorted a little as I walked off, I could barely hear him muttering something like "Zebra loving Alicorn freak."
I shook my head as I headed along the bridges towards where the clinic was. Nightingale was like nothing else I had ever seen before, it was a beautiful town in the trees but that beauty covered up a secret underbelly that I was just now starting to really understand.

As I went past more ponies looked at me nervously, they probably had heard of the attempted foalnapping of the fillies by now. I had thwarted it, but something told me that bit of information hadn't gotten out, which was just like the Mayor, misinformation at its finest.

I was surprised to see Storm Wrangler standing outside the clinic when I arrived, she tipped her hat at me and gave me a small nod. "Howdy Firelight."

"Storm Wrangler, I thought you'd be back in the barracks right now," I said.

"Ah was, but Ah convinced tha Commander that Ah should be there in order ta help "protect tha town from tha Alicorn menace," she ate it right up," Storm said with a shake of her head. "Ah don't think she likes yah very much."

"Really Captain obvious, I wouldn't have guessed," I said with a shrug. "So what are you doing out here?"

"Neivi's got a guest inside, she's tha head reporter, well tha only reporter really, fer Tha Voice," Storm said with a light chuckle. "She's here ta try and get more information out of tha Doc on what's been goin' on."

"Tha... I mean The Voice?" I asked, I was still getting used to the Pegasus' strange accent and mannerisms, but I think I got the right idea.

"Local newspaper, very much about the facts and truth, which means that the Mayor doesn't really like it," Storm said with a shake of her head. "Of course it doesn't help that every so often she likes ta write articles about him. Ah think she just does it ta get under his skin honestly, but she might want ta talk ta yah."

"Alright," I said with a nod as I opened the door to the clinic and headed inside.

00000

Inside the clinic, Neivi was talking with a Unicorn mare dressed in a red coat with black fur and a shock of red mane. She was jotting down notes on a notepad and not paying attention as we came in.

"Thank you Doctor, this is a lot of good information," the reporter said with a smile as she finished the last of her notes. "I have to say I would enjoy meeting this, Firelight pony you mentioned. Is she around here anywhere?"

"Oh, yeah she's not too far," Neivi said with a chuckle before pointing behind the Unicorn who jumped and turned to see me standing there. "Hey Firelight, sorry, was just talking to Pan here about everything."

"Oh, you must be Firelight," Pan said with a smile as she offered me a hoof. "Pan Pipe's the name, I'm here for a piece on the recent attempted foalnappings."

"I had nothing to do with those..." I said as I looked at her confused for a moment and she just facehooved.

"I know you had nothing to do with them, I've got witnesses that say you saved those fillies from the foalnapper," Pan said with a roll of her eyes. "You really shouldn't jump to conclusions like that."

"Sorry, I've just had a lot of issues lately with the mayor and Commander Twist," I said with a shake of my head.

"Don't worry about it, I've had my fair share of trouble from those two," Pan said with a shake of her head. "I just wanted to ask you a few questions. I thought, maybe everyone should get to know our new resident Alicorn, get your side of the story and everything."

I blinked in surprise, I certainly hadn't expected her to say that. I looked over at Neivi who just gave me a smile and a nod, had she set this up? "Well, umm... I have to admit I wasn't expecting this."

"Its alright, we'll take it slow," she said with a nod.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? I wouldn't want to inconvenience you," Pan said as she flipped to a clean page on her notebook.

"No, go ahead," I said and finally smiled a little. There was something about this mare, an energy to her that I kind of envied, she wanted to get to the bottom of this story and I wasn't going to let her down.

"Alright, so the Doc here said you were found in the Jungle," Pan said as she looked up at me. "What were you doing out there if I may ask?"

"I was on a mission with my Wing and the High Priestess' daughter," I said as I looked her up and down for a moment. "We were sent to scout out an area for the Society when we were attacked by a Sabretooth. I got them to safety but I didn't have a chance to protect myself and was attacked before I could kill the beast."

"Interesting, interesting," Pan said as she continued to write. "So, what do you think of Nightingale so far? I imagine its not like anything you've ever been to before."

"No, its certainly not," I said with a chuckle. "I've never really been in the jungle before this, and I certainly wasn't expecting a city in the trees like this place. I like it though, its got a strange feeling to it, almost like I want to call it home because I've found friends here. Real friends that I've gotten close to and bonded with."

"So, you would say you didn't really have any friends in the Society?"

"Well, that's one way to put it, we were all just kind of there," I said with a shake of my head. "I know it sounds crazy, I had my Wing sure and they were sort of friends. But we were always just kind of put together instead of really connecting with one another. I can't really explain it, but I never really felt a connection to them like I do to my friends here."

"Interesting," Pan said and raised an eyebrow a little as she looked at me and then back at Neivi. "Do you mind if I ask you a little bit about your time in the Society? I think it would help if citizens got some sort of insight into what life in that cult... I mean group is like."

"Sure, ask away," I said and gave her a smile. "I'd be happy to answer any questions you have if you think it would help."

"Alright, so lets start with how you joined..." Pan said and started asking me more questions.

She spent awhile peppering me with questions about the Society, asking if I remembered anything about my life before, asking what things were like in the Temple. I answered all of them as best I could, but a lot of them I just didn't know the answers to so I had to say no to a lot of them, especially about my life before obviously.

That seemed to interest her, since it didn't seem like I was born into the Society that likely meant that I had come from somewhere outside of it. She tried to get more answers from me about it, but she realized quickly that I wasn't able to answer them and moved on.

"Alright, I think I've got just about everything," she said and adjusted her hat a little before she gave me a smile. "I'd like to wrap things up just with a general quote. You know, something you'd like to say to the readers in Nightingale, maybe a message of hope or a pithy quote, you know, that kind of thing."

I paused a moment and thought about it for a moment. Finally I smiled and nodded a little. "I'd just like to say that just because times seem dark right now it doesn't mean that it will stay dark. As long as I'm in this town I'm going to do everything I can to help out, I'm not the enemy here, and I'm only interested in keeping ponies safe. That's a promise to all of you."

"Well said," she said with a nod as she put her pen behind her ear and put the notebook away. "I should get back to the Voice so we can get this printed. It was nice talking with you Firelight, I'm glad I got to meet you."

She offered me a hoof and I smiled a little as I shook it this time. She seemed nice enough, I just hoped that I wasn't going to get her into trouble because of this.

"Stay safe Pan, we don't want to lose you too," Neivi said.

"Don't worry Doc, the mayor would be stupid to silence the Voice," Pan said with a chuckle. "If we go silent, then the people know that there's trouble. Free press is a cornerstone of a free society after all."

I nodded and Pan headed out after that as she shut the door.

"So, did you get the food?" Neivi asked and I just chuckled a little as I set out all the food for everypony as the fillies came in and we started eating.

"So, what did yah think of Pan?" Storm Wrangler asked as she looked over at me.

"I don't know honestly, she's got a lot of energy that's for sure," I said as I took a bite of my sandwich. "I'm not really sure what to think of her, though it seems like she really wants to get to the bottom of things at least."

"Yeah, lets just hope she doesn't get hurt in the meantime," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head.

"I wouldn't worry about her, she's good at keeping her head down when she needs to," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "The problem is she likes rattling cages a bit too much sometimes, especially the Mayor's. Her heart is in the right place, but she's not exactly helping the Union with that sometimes."

"I see," I said with a shake of my head as I looked back at the others. "So, what are we supposed to do now? We don't have a lot of options left open to us and the Mayor confronted me in the cafe."

"Wait, he actually talked to you?" Neivi asked as she looked up surprised.

"Yeah, he basically said he wants me out of town," I said as I took another bite of his sandwich. "I'm worried about what might happen if we're not careful. What if we have to leave town for some reason? What happens then?"

"We'll get the fillies into the Underground," Lemon Lime said with a shake of her head. "We need to keep an ear out for any sort of Society activity anyway."

"Right," I said with a nod. "They may have some sort of deal about Nightingale but I doubt they're going to just stay clear of this area."

"Right," Neivi said with a sigh as she brushed her mane back. "We've got a lot to consider right now, and I'll bet anything the foalnappers are going to be even more careful now. Last night was a fluke since you happened to be in the right spot, they won't make that mistake again."

I knew she was right, but I didn't have to like it.

00000

"Can you put on Vox Populi's radio Miss. Firelight?" Dawn Star asked as I tucked the three fillies in gently.

"Oh, you like listening to Vox huh?" I asked with a smile as I looked down at the fillies who all nodded. "Alright then, lets hear what he has to say tonight shall we?"

My horn glowed as I turned the radio on and the sound of music played for a moment before the stallion's voice came back over the radio.

"Hey out there, this is Vox Populi coming at you again with the news. Our top story tonight is still the recent thwarted foalnapping in Nightingale, a friend of the station reported that three fillies were nearly taken away by agents working for the Nightmare Society. They also say that the pony who rescued them was none other than an Alicorn who burned with magical flames like none they had ever seen before. I must say I wasn't expecting an Alicorn to be those foals' hero, but my hat's off to you little miss Firebrand. The last thing we need is ponies thinking they can get away with taking away our foals.

In other news, the recent elections in Canterbury have had the unprecedented result of electing the Starkatteri mare Diala to the Leadership council. The mare who ran on a platform of reform and spreading out to try and help more settlements in need beyond the already established borders was considered something of a dark horse candidate if you'll mind the pun, but she'll be taking her spot with the other Council members sometime next week. This marks the first time in Canterbury's history that a Starkatteri has sat on the leadership council.

Now, lets turn it over to some music."

I smiled a little as the music started to play again and the fillies slowly drifted off to sleep. I walked back over to where Neivi was seated and working on something while Storm Wrangler was fast asleep with her hat pulled down over her eyes and Lemon Lime was sleeping in another bed.

"Are they off to dreamland then?" Neivi asked with a chuckle as she looked up at me.

"Yeah, they're going to be fine, I hope," I said with a soft smile as I looked back at the fillies. "I don't like this, it feels like we're just standing around waiting for something to happen instead of dealing with the problem."

"I know, I don't like it either," Neivi said with a sigh as she brushed her mane back a little. "There are good ponies in this town that are willing to fight back, but they're not even aware we need to do so. If they start by just kicking out Alicorns, Ghouls, and Zebras..."

"Then how long before they start cracking down on anypony who disagrees with them?" I asked and she nodded a little. "We have to stop this before it goes too far."

"But we can't do anything without proof that the Society was involved and who is involved with them," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "Until we have that proof, all we have is hearsay and that's not going to convince anypony."

"I know," I said with a sigh as I shook my head a little. "What about Canterbury, can't they send us any help?"

"Not really, the Mayor won't let them, at least not any official help," she said with a shake of her head. "A few Zebras can come through the Underground but we don't have a lot of friends here in town. I just hope that we'll be able to stop this before we have to go too far."

"Me too," I said with a sigh and a shake of my head. "I didn't come here to fight, I just want to try and help ponies, you know? Everyone really, the fact is that we're just doing what the Society wants probably, if we're at each other's throats then we're proving them right."

"I know," Neivi said with a sigh as she looked back up at me, I chuckled a little, here glasses were a little askew on her face and I levitated them up and put them on neatly. "Thanks. I don't even know why I wear these things, I could just brew a potion that helps my vision."

"You should keep them, they make you look cute," I said with a chuckle and then blushed when I realized what I said. "I mean, ummm... in a friend way."

"Yeah, totally," Neivi said with a shake of her head. "So, umm, what do you want to do? We've still got a few hours before we have to wake those two up."

"Yeah," I said as I looked back at our sleeping friends for a moment and checked my rifle just in case. "I'm still a bit worried though, we don't know if they will try anything or even who might be behind this. We need to be careful and make sure that everything will be okay. I just, don't want anything to happen to them."

"None of us do FIrelight," Neivi said as she gave me a light hug, I smiled at her and nodded a little. "I'm glad we brought you back when we did. You've done a lot of good for Nightingale and you've helped give us hope that everything is going to be okay, I just hope that everything really will be okay..."

"It will," I said with a soft smile. "I'm just an Alicorn who happened to be at the right place at the right time, I'm really nothing special. I, don't really know why everypony makes a big deal about me."

Neivi rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she looked at me. "I don't know, maybe its because of all the ponies we know of in the Society you're the only one that seems to care about what happens to anypony outside of it."

She was probably right, at least from what I was starting to realize that more and more. There were a lot of problems that this town faced and the fact was that the disappearing ponies was a big one, and if the Society really was behind it then it was going to be trouble.

I sighed a little as Neivi went back to her book after a moment. There was a long moment of tension as we waited for anything to happen, there was something about this that just felt, off, like there was something waiting for us in the darkness that was ready to jump out at any moment.

So I nearly jumped out of my skin when there was a sudden rapping on the door. Neivi made a motion for me to stay quiet as I held the gun close as she quietly walked over to the door and pushed it open. "Can I help you?"

"I need to talk to Storm Wrangler," a mare's voice I didn't recognize said on the other side of the door. "Its important."
Storm Wrangler opened her eyes and adjusted her hat a little as she headed to the door with Lemon Lime waking up and looking at her confused. "What's goin' on? Hazel, is that yah?"

"Yeah Storm, listen I need to come in, we've got a big problem," she said and Neivi looked at Storm.

"What do you think?"

"She's one of tha guards on our side, we can trust her," Storm said with a nod as Neivi opened the door after checking to make sure there was nopony else and Hazel came in. "What's goin' on?"

"Okay, so I'm on the night shift on the..." Hazel said and stopped in mid sentence when she saw me standing there, she gulped a little and backed away. "I, didn't know she was going to be in here."

"Its okay, she ain't gonna hurt yah," Storm Wrangler said and looked at me. "Right Firelight? Smile, show yer friendly."

I smiled as best I could but I think it looked a little forced. Hazel seemed relieved for a moment as she looked at me and then back at the others.

"Okay, so I was standing watch on the wall as I normally do," Hazel said. "And while I was looking out into the jungle through my scope, I saw a group of Alicorns nearby."

Okay, that definitely caught our attention and Storm Wrangler was suddenly fully awake. She looked at her hard for a moment, suddenly Hazel looked more worried than anything else.

"Are you sure?" Neivi asked. "They don't normally just pass this close to the town."

"I'm positive, I don't know why they're here, but they're here," Hazel said with a shake of her head. "You have to believe me, I saw what I saw."

"I believe you," I said with a sigh. "This is a problem, it might mean they're getting bolder and are coming to take more ponies away."

"So, what do we do?" Neivi asked.

I looked between them for a moment and then back at Storm Wrangler. "Storm, lets go see if we can find out what's going on. You two stay with the fillies, if its safe, get them down to the Underground, okay?"

"Okay," Neivi and Lemon said with a nod.

"Come on, lets roll out," Storm said as she slid into her battle saddle she had brought with her and I secured my rifle.

We had to get out there and see what was going on, before it was too late.

00000

The jungle at night was completely different from the jungle during the day. It was more active, as if all the wildlife that called it home were more active. We could hear rustling overhead as animals made their way across it, and as I noticed seemed to be heading in the opposite direction of where we were heading.

Storm Wrangler was ahead of me, she knew where we were going better than I did really, but I could see in the dark better than the Pegasus. This whole thing made me uneasy, why would the Society be coming this close to Nightingale? They had to know that the town was on high alert so they’d be dumb to move into the city now.

Unless, there was some other reason to be out in the jungle.

“Hey Storm, what’s out this way?” I whispered to the Pegasus as we moved through the underbrush.

“Not much, jungle mostly, tha River is a few miles this way but ain’t much more,” Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. “Some say there might be a Stable a ways ta tha southeast from here, but frankly this area is pretty much devoid of anythin’ other than tha local wildlife.”

“I see,” I said and shook my head a little, I went quiet as we pushed into the jungle deeper as we headed towards where Hazel had said the Alicorns were.

As we saw nothing even with my night vision, I was starting to think that it was all a wild goose chase when suddenly we heard a mare’s scream from somewhere up ahead. We exchanged a look as I drew my rifle and nodded to Storm as we ran forward towards the source of the scream.

As we got closer the screams grew louder until finally we heard words being screamed out.

“STOP IT!”

“LET HER GO!”

Just as we were nearing a clearing however, there was a sound of breaking glass. And then the screaming picked up again, one out of pain, and one out of horror.

I don’t know why, but for a moment something clicked in my brain. I felt like I knew that scream, and for a moment I could see flashes of a world of liquid around me, a liquid that seemed unnatural as it permeated every inch of my body. My wings and legs screaming out in pain from the memory as my horn began to glow and flames danced around the edges of my vision once more.

“Sparks…” I said, I didn’t know why I said it, but the name felt familiar to me as we burst out of the jungle and into the clearing, the illusion magic flaring around me once more.

In the clearing was a group of ponies that looked at us wide eyed as they held another mare down. Laying off to the side was a Unicorn mare who was unconscious in the grass, but I didn’t care, my attention was focused solely on the ones holding the struggling mare.

“Let her go!” I said louder than I meant to, the fire dancing around me as I levitated the rifle up at the nearest pony, no Alicorn. “You’re not going to take another one.”

“It’s too late, she’s already ours,” one of them said but I raised my rifle at her and pulled the trigger and sent a bullet right into the surprised Alicorn.

What surprised me more was what happened to her when the bullet impacted. She caught fire, the bullet alone didn’t kill her but we all watched in shock as the Alicorn burned alive, I was running on pure adrenaline, I wasn’t going to stop until they surrendered or were all dead.

“LET. HER. GO.” I repeated and the Alicorns backed off, releasing her from their grip as the mare laid rigid on the ground. I could make her out now, she was a white color with a light blue mane and golden eyes that seemed to stare unblinkingly for the moment.

And she was an Alicorn, I could see the wings and Horn plainly, we had been too late. But I wasn’t going to let the Society get this one.

“Firelight…” Storm said as she looked at me worriedly for a moment.

“Go, all of you, tell the High Priestess you won’t be taking any ponies from this part of the Jungle anymore,” I said and the Alicorns quickly retreated into the darkness and I let out a breath as what I had done started to sink in.

I had killed again, and this time it wasn’t some faceless cultist, I had killed another Alicorn. I had broken one of the cardinal rules of the Society and killed a sister. The magical flames around me dissipated as I dropped the rifle onto the ground as Storm went to check on the two ponies, but I didn’t seem to notice.

What was I becoming? Was I really so willing to throw away everything I had ever known for ponies I had barely known for a few days? I had KILLED an Alicorn instead of letting her take the pony away, what would the Society think of me?

What did I think of myself? What was I going to do now?

“Who am I…” The white alicorn said, sitting herself up and looking to the approaching Pegasus. “Who are you?...” Her voice, soft, gentle almost innocent seemingly having a effect on that unicorn, making her stir and jump to her hooves. “What’s going on…”

“Moonlight!” The Unicorn said as she rushed over to her newly transformed friend and looked at her worriedly. “Goddesses, what did they do to you…”

My ears perked up a little at that as I lifted my head and looked at the sight before me. The Unicorn raised her hoof and placed it on the newborn Alicorn’s muzzle and looked her in the eyes, as if hoping to see something of the pony who she knew was in there.

“Please… talk to me,” she said softly. “I still love you no matter what those, things did to you…”

“Moon...Light?...” The white alicorn said, staring at the unicorn before she turned her attention to me. As if noticing my own state she got to her hooves and walked over. “Sister… do not be afraid.”

“Sister?” I asked softly as I looked up at the newly formed Alicorn’s golden eyes before I looked back at the burned corpse of the Alicorn. “I’m… I’m no sister to anypony anymore, I lost that privilege when I took her life.”

“You did what you felt was right, no pony could ever ask anything more of you.” She said, giving a soft smile. “I do not know who I am, or who that pony was to you, but she was a threat, and you handled her.”

“I don’t know,” I said softly as I looked at her. “I, just wanted to protect you, but I was too late.”

“Too late for what?” She said, sitting and taking a moment to look over herself. “I have been this way for as long as I can remember… given that is a very short period..”

“You, don’t remember anything before?” The Unicorn asked as she trotted up to us with Storm close behind. “You, don’t remember me?”

Turning her attention to that unicorn, shaking her head before sighing “I do not know any of you.”

“Moonlight…” She said softly as tears started to stream down her face a little. “Darn it, your name is Moonlight Lullaby! You’re a mare from Stable 27 who I’ve loved ever since we were fillies, we left the Stable together after that Stable-Tec pony showed up… I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you and… I… I…”

She just broke down crying after that as she looked down at the ground. I was starting to realize that Moonlight was right, and that as much as I hated it, I had done the right thing.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t regret it.

“Citrus?..” Moonlight said, her eyes starting to light up before she clutched at her head. “Ugh.. why does my head hurt so much… feels like I just sprouted a horn or something..”

Citrus hugged her tight as she cried more. “Oh thank the Goddesses you were still in there somewhere… I don’t know what I’d do… what, we’d do without you.”

“We?” I asked as my ears perked up a little at that comment and looked between the two mares curiously. Wait, they were from Stable 27, the same Stable that we had been sent to before, okay, now things were getting interesting.

“Look, Ah’m glad ya’ll are back together again but with those Alicorns headin’ away from us, they’re gonna start drivin’ tha wildlife back our way,” Storm Wrangler said, finally speaking up again. “We need ta get back ta Nightingale and get ya’ll checked out by tha Doc.”

Moonlight looked at Citrus and then to Storm then to me before she sighed. “I can’t go back to the stable, but Citrus needs to. I’ll come back to this… Nightingale, I feel going back to the stable would be a poor choice on my part... “
“Moonlight, I love you, I don’t want to leave you behind to go back…” Citrus said as she looked in the Alicorn’s eyes. “I’m willing to stay out here if I have to, I don’t want to lose you… not again.”

“Citrus, trust me please, you need to go back to the stable, it’s what’s best for you. When have I ever steered you wrong?” Moonlight said with a smile. “Plus, don’t want you to be out here with precious cargo after all.”

Citrus paused a moment as she placed her hoof on her stomach and looked back up at Moonlight and sighed. “Alright, but promise me you’ll come back, I want our daughter to know you.”

“By the time she is here, I have a feeling it will be safe for you to come out of the stable, and we’ll have a real home, not concrete walls and fluorescent lights.” Moonlight said with a smile before she turned to us. “We need to get her into the stable before I’ll come peacefully.”

“No problem, but last Ah heard it’s quite a ways from here,” Storm said with a tip of her hat. “Should get ya’ll there by dawn unless yah know a faster way.”

“The stable isn’t too far from here, maybe one of the other entrances, though none of us have actually seen or been in them” Moonlight said to storm, before turning to Citrus. “Lets get you home.” She said before she took the lead, giving a groan every now and then from the pain in her joints from the sudden growth spurt.

“Okay,” Citrus said with a nod as she followed close to her and me and Storm followed close behind.

“So, umm, what’s it like in Stable 27?” I asked as I looked at the two mares curiously for a moment.

“Yeah.” Moonlight said with a smile. “It’s really nice down there, if you don’t mind concrete and hoof made industrialized construction.”

“Plenty of cute mares though,” Citrus said with a giggle as she leaned up and kissed Moonlight on the cheek. “None as cute as this one though.”

I smiled a little at that, though I wondered why Moonlight was remembering things. I still couldn’t remember anything, but I pushed it aside for the moment and gave them a nod. “Well, it doesn’t sound that bad, can’t be worse than where I used to live.”

“Right, crazy cult temple can’t be fun ta live in,” Storm said with a shake of her head and I flinched a little at that.

“You don’t remember your life before?” Moonlight said, looking back to me. “I guess I’m lucky, though I have a feeling if not for Citrus, I might not remember either.”

“No, I can’t remember anything before joining, well, the Society,” I said with a shake of my head. “The first thing I can remember was coming face to face with the High Priestess and then being taken to meet the rest of the sisters. I, don’t really know how I got there or what happened to me before.”

“Wow… I’m really glad that didn’t happen to you,” Citrus said before she looked back at me. “Hey, maybe Moonlight can help you with that, she’s got some cool tricks that’s helped a lot around the Stable.”

“Oh?” I asked and even Storm looked curious.

“Oh come now Citrus, the dreamscape is not a trick.” Moonlight said with a laugh. “But yeah, I have a unique ability only known to exist for one pony before. I have the ability to walk the dreamscape, and come to ponies in their dreams.”

“Wait… the only pony that could do that was Luna,” I said and blinked in surprise. Was this why she was targeted by the Society or had it just been a coincidence.

“Yeah, Ah mean Ah’ve heard stories about a mare up in Neigh Orleans that can do somethin’ kinda similar, but its just rumors,” Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. “What was her name again… some gemstone Ah think.”

“Really? Another who can walk the dreamscape? I’ve seen one in my time - but she seems… scared of me, and keeps her distance, as though if we touched it could destroy us both.” Moonlight said, shifting her gaze forward. “We are almost to the stable, I feel this is as far as we can take you Citrus, I will watch you to make sure you get inside safely, and do take care.”

Citrus kissed Moonlight one last time and wrapped her forelegs around the taller mare a little. “I don’t want to say goodbye…”

“Do not think of it as a goodbye my love, but as a see you again.” Moonlight said with a soft smile, giving that unicorn a soft kiss to the nose. “However, I have one favor to ask of you. It would appear my barding and Pipbuck did not survive my transformation, I’d like if you could bring me another, and perhaps, a few more for our new friends.”

Citrus smiled a little and nodded as she looked between the two of us. “Sure, I can do that,” she said with a soft smile. “I think we’ve got a few extras lying around somewhere, just two more?”

“Four if possible,” Storm said. “Or any extras ya’ll can spare, we could always use tha help.”

“I’ll, see what I can do,” Citrus said with a nod.

“Could you please expedite the barding, I feel quite… exposed, without it.” Moonlight said with a soft chuckle and light blush. “Please and thank you, darling”

“Yah realize ponies don’t normally wear clothes right?” Storm Wrangler asked with a chuckle.

“Says the mare who wears a hat to bed,” I said with a laugh.

Storm Wrangler just rolled her eyes as Citrus gave Moonlight one more kiss before heading off towards the Stable. She turned around just before she vanished and flicked her tail a little in Moonlight’s direction before vanishing into the darkness.

“Yer a lucky pony Moonlight,” Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. “Yah got a good mare there, better not let her get away from yah.”

“Unfortunately with me leaving the stable, she will be expected to find a new mare, however I have a feeling if she does, she’ll always have a place for me in her heart.” Moonlight said, staring at the entrance to the stable.

“You never know… I hope you two get back together,” I said with a sigh and shook my head a little. I was still figuring a lot of things out, including if I even could fall in love right now, in a way I envied Moonlight because she didn’t have to figure this kind of thing out.

I just hoped that I was going to be able to figure things out. Maybe there was somepony out there for me still.

After a little while, Citrus returned with the barding as she gave it to Moonlight. “Sorry, I had to find some that would fit your new body. I, still don’t really like leaving you alone out here, maybe if I talk to the Overmare...”

“Well, from where I stand, I am not alone.” Moonlight said, taking the barding in her hooves and looking back to me and Storm. “They seem to know what’s going on at least to some extent - I feel going back into the Stable is just dangerous to you and everypony else. For the time being I’d like for you to wait here, I will return, that is a promise.”

“I’m holding you to that, and don’t let yourself get seduced by those wild Wasteland mares,” Citrus said with a giggle as she kissed Moonlight again. “I’ll be waiting for you to come back home, we both will.”

Moonlight smiled, and leaned in and gave Citrus a kiss and ushered her back to the entrance of the stable before turning back to us. “Let us get going, I fear these… creatures, you spoke of that could be coming this way.”

“Not a good place ta be out at night,” Storm Wrangler said with a nod. “Come on, let’s get goin’ back ta town.”

Citrus took one last look back at Moonlight before vanishing into the cave. I sighed a little, I hoped she was going to be okay as we headed back towards Nightingale.

00000

Getting back into Nightingale took some talking, but thankfully another one of Storm’s friends was at the gate and managed to get us through. Storm leaned over and whispered to me, “Tha Council ain’t gonna like this, they had a hard enough time with one Alicorn in town.”

“It’s this or put her and her home at risk,” I whispered back with a shake of my head. “We’ll think of something, I hope.”

“Or Neivi will,” Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. “Come on, lets get her back ta tha clinic so Neivi can check her over.”

I nodded as we started up the stairs that lead higher in the town towards the clinic. I looked back at Moonlight curiously for a moment as I took another step, wondering what was going through the mare’s mind right now.

“Everything okay back there Moonlight?” I asked.

“Just, thinking to myself is all. Up until just a few hours ago, all I had known was the walls of the stable, the teachings of the overmare - and now, all that seems so small, so distant” Moonlight said with a sigh. “Though, I admit, I am excited for this - A whole new adventure, a new chapter into my life.”

I smiled a little and nodded. “Yeah, I know exactly how you feel, well, welcome to Nightingale, for now we just have to get you to the clinic so the local Doc can check you over.”

“Understood.” Moonlight said with a nod “So, this pony doctor, are they any good? I mean - I would expect the stable to have much higher medical standards than what you could have up here.”

Me and Storm exchanged a look and just laughed a little at that question. “Don’t worry, she’s the best,” I said with a chuckle as we started across the bridge towards the clinic.

“I will take your word for it.” Moonlight said with a smile, taking a look out across Nightingale “It is amazing, this town you have made. It must of been a major undertaking”

“Yeah, it was, or so Ah hear,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “Ah just came down this way a few years back mahself, way Ah hear it tha town’s been here fer years. But yeah, its quite tha feat of engineerin’.”

“Very, reminds me of books from the stable detailing Zebra construction. Though there aren’t any Zebra this far in at least - from what we’ve been taught.” Moonlight said with a smile and a nod.

“Yeah, well, you see the thing about that…” I said as I opened the door to the clinic and Neivi came up to us, looking tired and a little frazzled.

“Oh thank goodness you made it back alive… wait, who’s this?” She asked as she looked at Moonlight confused and adjusted her glasses a little.

Moonlight’s eyes went wide as she saw the zebra “Oh My Gosh! A Zebra!” She went bounding over to Neivi “What are you doing out here, so far from the homelands, You must be so scared!”

“I was born in Equestria actually, in another settlement a ways out,” she said as she looked at Moonlight confused. “Let me guess, Stable Dweller who hasn’t ever seen a Zebra before outside of history books?”

Moonlight smiled brightly and nodded, turning her head to expose the ‘27’ on the neck of her blue and gold barding. “Stable 27, and we were told and taught that Zebra never leave the homelands, or that if they did they’d never venture this far into Equestria”

“A gross exaggeration, Zebras lived in Equestria during the war, we even fought in the Equestrian army,” she said and pushed her glasses up and looked at the number before her eyes went wide. “Wait, Stable 27?”

“What’s this about Stable 27?” Lemon Lime asked as she poked her head out of the adjoining room and looked at the Alicorn.

“Yeah! I was born and raised in a all mare stable, Stable 27.” Moonlight said, and giggling to herself “Myself and my Marefriend Citrus, you two remember her, have never been anywhere else.”

Lemon Lime looked at the Alicorn for a long moment as if trying to process what she just said. The old Ghoul trotted over to Moonlight and examined the jumpsuit carefully for a moment as she sat back on her haunches, closing her eyes and letting out a sigh of relief as if a great weight had been lifted off her withers.

“They did survive… thank Celestia,” she said in her raspy voice.

“Who?” Moonlight said, looking to that ghoul before her eyes went wide “I’ve seen you before! Citrus has a picture of you on her dresser!... expect, you don’t look all… rotty.”

“It's what happens when you’re a Ghoul,” she said with a shake of her head. “I was in Manehattan when the bombs fell, it didn’t kill me, instead made me like this. If you’re from Stable 27, that means it survived, and if Citrus had my picture…”

She let that thought trail off for a moment as she reached into her pocket and took out an old picture in her trembling hoof. “My daughter, she was the first Overmare of Stable 27, Citrus must be her descendant.”

“Actually, I suppose so…” Moonlight said before she sat and thought for a second “I think, if Citrus has given me everything, she has two aunts and her mother, a sister, and she’s pregnant with our foal.”

The old ghoul started to tear up and then she hugged Moonlight unexpectedly. Tears streamed down her face as she closed her eyes, relieved more than anything to have heard this. “Thank you…”

Moonlight smiled, hugging back and even curling wings around that old ghoul. “I am proud, to have such a strong pony in the family.”

I smiled softly as I moved back next to Neivi and watched the two for the longest moment. Neivi smiled and placed her hoof on my withers. “You did a lot to help her tonight even if you didn’t know it at the time.”

“I’m glad,” I said softly as I looked down at her. “How are the filles? Has there been any problems?”

“No, its been quiet here,” Neivi said and I let out a sigh of relief. “But you do know that the Mayor’s going to have a problem with another Alicorn in town right?”

“Yeah, I know,” I said with a shake of my head. “We’re going to have to deal with this one problem at a time though.”

Moonlight, having let Lemon Lime go turned to face us, looking to Neivi. “They said I should get a checkup?”

“Yes, of course,” Neivi said with a nod as she walked over to the Alicorn and started checking her over. “So, you’re not suffering any memory loss or anything?”

“I was at first, but Citrus pulled me out of it and I got everything back.” Moonlight said with a nod “Honestly, outside of some burnt fur, I don’t think I am at all injured.”

“Interesting,” Neivi said and looked at her and then at me thoughtfully. “This implies that the IMP doesn’t actually erase memories, it suppresses them, that’s actually useful information.”

“It is?” I asked.

“Yes, it means your memories are still intact, but your brain can’t access them,” Neivi said. “And fixing that is going to be much harder than it sounds. I can’t just whip up a potion to cure this kind of thing I’m afraid.”

My heart fell a little at that, I knew it had been unlikely but I was hoping that there would at least be a little bit of a chance.

“I can remember my transformation. It was very traumatic, it is possible that the only reason I was able to remember was not that the… IMP?... suppressed the memory, but that the trauma of the transformation was fought by the love and pleading of my loved one.” Moonlight said, looking at me. “It is possible it doesn’t even affect memory, and it is your mind alone keeping you from remembering to protect you from the trauma.”

“Possibly, but why make it forget everything?” Neivi asked. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to examine you more thoroughly as soon as possible. I’ve never seen a newly transformed Alicorn before, we could learn a lot about the process from you, if that’s okay.”

“Good thing I had the presence of mind to grab this before I left.” Moonlight said, holding up a bit of a broken bottle with a few drops of a strange liquid left in it. “This, this is the bottle they threw on me - That must be this… IMP, they use”

“Oh praise the spirits, yes, just give me a moment,” Neivi said as she ran over and put some stuff on to cover her hooves and grabbed a strange container and carried it over. “This is for any biohazardous materials. Just put it in here and we’re set.”

Nodding Moonlight placed the shattered glass into the container. “And I am not doing anything and have nowhere to be, so when is a good time for you doc. Though, I might want to shower first, might still have some of that gunk on me.”

“Well, uh…” Neivi said. “We, don’t really have any showers, but I can set something up really quick to get you cleaned off.”

“No… showers?...” Moonlight said, eye twitching slightly “Maybe staying out of the stable was a bad idea.”

“Don’t worry, we have it all set up,” Neivi said. “I’ll get it all set up for you.”

Turning to look at Lemon Lime, Moonlight smiled “If you hurry, these two know where the cave is, and Citrus should be bringing up a cache for us soon, you might be able to meet her face to face.”

“I’d, like that,” Lemon Lime said with a nod. “Thank you again.”

“Ah’ll stay behind with tha fillies,” Storm Wrangler said. “Ya’ll stay safe out there okay?”

“I think it's up to the doc if I’m allowed to go or not, I think Citrus would love to see me again but at the same time I’m scared she may decide to stay out of the stable if she did.” Moonlight said with a chuckle “Then again, the smaller the party to more likely you can get there and back without being seen or attacked.”

“Yeah, I’ll go with Lemon,” I said with a nod. “If you want me to tell Citrus anything for you, just let me know.”

“Let her know how valuable I am to you and others like you, the research the doc can get off me may help everypony. Who knows, maybe she can find a better use for this IMP.” Moonlight said with a smile “What’s that even stand for anyway? It’s a acronym right?”

“Impelled Metamorphosis Potion,” Storm said.

“I see, and that’s why it turned me into this?” Moonlight said, looking at herself again. “What if it got on the doc, or on Lemon lime? What would it do then?”

“The Society never takes Ghouls or Zebras, so either nothing, or something completely different, I’d rather not find out,” Neivi said with a shake of her head.

“Maybe one day, we'll find those lucky, or unlucky enough to have experienced that.” Moonlight said, smiling at all of us. “Anyway, you two go and pick up that cache, hurry hurry, Citrus works quick and if you delay she may already be inside.”

I nodded and me and Lemon headed back out of the clinic.

00000

“Why weren’t you in Stable 27?” I asked as we got closer to the Stable and I looked over at Lemon.

“I could’ve been, I worked for Stable-Tec at the time,” Lemon said with a shake of her head. “But, well, it’s complicated, me and my daughter Licorice, we had a falling out and we never really got to make-up before the bombs fell.”

“And then you wound up a Ghoul,” I said with a sigh and she nodded.

“Scootaloo, she found me up in my old office in Manehattan, she told me where she had been assigned and I came down this way,” Lemon said and sighed a little. “I’ve been chasing leads on Stable 27’s entrance ever since I got here, but nopony’s been sure where to find it.”

We stopped outside of the cave and I looked back at Lemon who had stopped just behind me. She looked at the cavern entrance for a long moment as if she was trying to decide whether or not to do this.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I looked back at her.

“I’m a big screw up, Licorice was dating this mare that I didn’t like, it’s, silly I know,” she said with a shake of her head. “I let my little filly go just because of something dumb like that. I, just wish I could’ve seen her one last time, tell her how I felt.”

“Lemon, you’ve been alive for over 200 years with these regrets, and you wouldn’t have come all the way here if you didn’t want some sort of reconciliation,” I said softly as I placed my hoof on her. “It’s not the same as seeing your daughter again I know, but… I think you should at least try and meet Citrus. She would’ve wanted that,just give it a chance okay? Her family has kept your picture, I’d say that’s a pretty good indication that you’ve been forgiven for a long time.”

Lemon Lime paused for a moment before she looked back at the cave and then back at me for a moment. She looked like she was thinking about this still, but finally she nodded as the sound of footsteps were heard echoing through the cave as a soft voice was heard singing, but it stopped when Citrus emerged from the cave and looked at us.

“Oh, Firelight right? I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” she said and gave me a soft smile. “Is, Moonlight with you?”

“No, she had to stay back in Nightingale,” I said with a shake of my head. “But, I brought somepony who wanted to meet you.”

“Hi Citrus,” Lemon Lime said as the Unicorn looked at the Earth Pony Ghoul for a moment and blinked in surprise.

“You, you look like the mare in the photo that belonged to my ancestor,” she said softly. “Well, almost like her… but, how?”

“The bombs did this to me,” Lemon said as she looked away in shame. “I don’t die, I don’t age, and I’ve been trying to find this place for a long time. I was your ancestor’s mother, I just, wanted some sort of closure. I know it’s not the same, but I’m sorry, I let my own feelings get in the way of what was really important, my own daughter’s happiness.”

Citrus looked at her for a long moment and then smiled softly. “Lemon Lime, you were forgiven a long time ago. My ancestor had a diary that was passed down from mother to daughter and she talked about you in it. She said, you were the best mother she had ever had despite your stubbornness. She had always hoped that one day there would be a knocking on the Stable door and it would be you on the other side, just so she could see you again.”

“I would’ve been here if I had known,” Lemon said with a shake of her head. “Moonlight told me about the rest of your family. I’m proud of you, of all of you, I’m happy you made it. I’d hug you, but, uh, I doubt radiation is good for the foal.”

“Yeah…” Citrus said and then opened her bags with her magic and levitated out a book that she levitated over to Lemon. “You should have this, it was her diary. When I thought we were leaving I wanted to bring it with me.”

“No, no I couldn’t, it’s your family heirloom,” Lemon said with a shake of her head.

“You’re part of our family too,” she said with a smile. “You should have it, she’d have liked that. Just, do me a favor okay?”

“Anything,” Lemon said with a nod.

“Make sure Moonlight comes back safe,” Citrus said with a sad smile. “I’m worried about her, that’s all I ask.”

“I will,” Lemon said with a nod as she put the diary away. “Take care of yourself Citrus, I, would like to see you again someday.”

Citrus nodded and turned to me as she levitated a bag to me. “This is all the PipBucks we could spare as well as some extra gear,” she said and gave me a smile.

“Moonlight wanted me to tell you that she’s going to be valuable to helping ponies like me,” I said with a soft smile. “Our Doctor is going to be using her for research into the process and might even be able to reverse some of the mental effects with her help.”

“That’s great,” Citrus said and chuckled lightly. “That’s Moonlight for you, always doing her best to help other ponies out. Tell her I love her and I’ll see her again soon.”

“Sure I…” I said and stopped when she hugged me.

“And give her that from me too,” she said with a chuckle.

“I will,” I said with a nod as I looked back at Lemon. “We should get back to Nightingale if we’re going to get any sleep tonight.”

“Yeah,” Lemon said with a small nod as she looked at Citrus and smiled a little. “Thank you Citrus, you’ve made an old Ghoul very happy.”

“Anytime,” Citrus said with a nod. “I’ll see you around.”

We nodded and waved as she headed back down into the cave. We watched her go before we turned around and headed back towards Nightingale.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Prospector.
Details: You've gained a better understanding of the pre-apocalyptic world through learning more about Stables. You get a boost to your intelligence and luck when it comes to pre-war artifacts and locations.

Author's Note

I'd like to thank TheLittlestofPips for joining the crew here and writing the character Moonlight Lullaby.

Chapter 5: Firestorm

"Men do not shape destiny.
Destiny produces the man
For the hour."
-Fidel Castro.

We made it back into the town without much problems. The guards let us through without much problem and we made our way back up to the clinic. I paused a moment and looked back at Lemon. “Go ahead inside, I just want to stay out and watch the stars for a little bit.”

“Okay,” Lemon said and pushed the door open and headed inside while I flapped my wings a little and headed up to the roof of the clinic and laid back and stared up at the moon and stars overhead.

I sighed as I looked at them, I had always taken some solace in the stars as if Nightmare Moon may be looking down on me. But now, I wasn’t so sure anymore. I had broken one of the most important rules in the Society by killing a sister, even if I was justified if there was any truth to it, she would look down on me with hatred.

What would the Society think? Would they go after Nightingale? Go after me and my friends because of what had happened? Maybe I should leave town, I was just going to endanger them, if I headed out to some unknown corner of Equestria maybe I could live the rest of my life without endangering my friends.

“Firelight? Are you up here?” I heard from behind, turning to see that white alicorn approaching me. “You’re thinking about that Alicorn, aren’t you, the one in the forest?”

“Yeah, I am,” I said softly as I shook my head and looked at her. “I already knew I didn’t want to go back to the Society, but, now that I’ve done that I’m afraid they’re going to make me a target, and hurt anypony that gets in their way. I, don’t know what to do if it endangers my friends.”

“I don’t know much about this Society stuff, but I don’t think they’re like that.” Moonlight said as she sat next to me. “Something tells me, they want to be non confrontational around this forest, like there is something here that they fear, and they don’t wish to risk it for a minimalistic reward.”

“I hope you’re right,” I said with a sigh as I looked back up at the stars. “I thought I knew how the world works you know? Everything made sense back in the Society, and then I come out here and everything changes. I wish I knew what to do.”

“I know how you feel, from a different perspective of course.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “In the stable, we’re told about the overworld, we’re told rumors and stories brought back from our scouts when they go out looking for new seeds to grow in our orchards. Out here, everything is so different.”

“I know,” I said with a sigh. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this Moonlight.”

“I didn’t get caught up in this, I volunteered.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I didn’t know they were going to take me by force, I falsified the documents in hopes of catching their attention. Ever since the visit, ponies keep disappearing from the stable, one by one, most of them are pregnant.”

“The visit?” I asked and perked my ears up a little.

“Not too long ago, a group of Alicorns claiming to represent a group called the Nightmare Society showed up at our door and offered us supplies in order to be allowed to enter.” Moonlight said. “We accepted, and let them in, one of them they kept calling her the high priestess’ daughter. Anyway, they showed very little interest in us, and they raided our medical archives, and then they suddenly left.”

I paused a moment as I looked at her and then back at the stars. “How long ago was this?”

“Just a day or two ago, they must of taken at least a dozen ponies throughout the days, but we have no idea how they’re getting in.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I hoped that if I got them to take me, that I could figure out where they were taking the ponies, or how they were getting in and out.”

I paused for a long moment as I sighed and shook my head a little. “Moonlight, I…” I said and sighed again. “I wish I knew what was going on, they never told us anything about Stable 27 or what the plan was in there.”

“Yeah, well, we see how well my hairbrained plan worked out.” Moonlight said with a soft sigh, turning her gaze up to the stars as well. “I didn’t factor in Citrus, I didn’t tell her I didn’t want her to worry. I guess it was doomed to fail from the start.”

“Maybe, but what matters is you didn’t lose who you are in the process,” I said with a soft smile as I looked back at her. “Citrus still has you and your daughter still has her... umm, what do you call having a second mother?”

“I’m Mumma, she’s Momma.” Moonlight laughed. “It’s something Citrus told me she called her mothers.”

I laughed a little at that and smiled at her. “That’s cute, I like it. You’re very lucky to have such a wonderful mare, you know that right?”

“What about you? Dating the zebra? I mean come on, that’s awesome!” Moonlight said, looking to me. “The chemistry is so obvious, if you two aren’t then you totally should be.”

I blushed deeply at that and shook my head. “No, I’m not dating anypony, or anyone, yet I’m afraid.”

“What about that Pegasus? She’s rather dashing isn’t she?” Moonlight said with a smirk, nudging my side. “If I wasn’t a spoken for mare, I might just chase her myself.”

“You’re enjoying this aren’t you? I haven’t been in town very long, and I’m honestly still kind of figuring that out,” I said and shook my head a little.

“You miss your sister, don’t you.” Moonlight said, her tone of voice becoming more soft. “She misses you too.”

“I have a lot of sisters,” I said and looked at her confused. “What do you mean?”

“Right, you don’t remember…” Moonlight said with a sigh. “More will become clear tonight, I will visit you in your dreams, if you permit.”

“Okay, I’d be fine with that,” I said with a soft smile as I looked back up into the night sky. “I like it here, it’s really nice.”

“She did too, reminded her of home.” Moonlight said with a soft smile. “Maybe that’s why you like it too, but you don’t understand why”

“Maybe,” I said with a soft smile as I looked back at her and paused a moment. “I do sometimes wish I had what you and Citrus have. I’ve never really had anypony like that, even back in the Society.”

“Really? How long have you been with them?” Moonlight said “The Society I mean.”

“As long as I remember so, about six years,” I said with a shrug.

“Six years is a long time to not remember anything about yourself.” Moonlight said with a sigh, looking back to the stars. “I don’t know how much I can help you remember, but, I can at least help you remember her.”

I smiled a little at that and nodded. “I’d, like that, if I have somepony out there, I’d like to know who she is.”

“She was with the group who raided 27’s medical archives, they slept there one night and I wandered into their dreams, most of them had nothing but darkness, I don’t think they dream at all, but one, the Priestess’ Daughter, she dreamed… of a pony that looked just like you.” Moonlight said, looking at me.

“That, could mean a lot of things, but maybe you’re right…” I said with a sigh. “It’s odd, I, don’t even really know her that well. I wish I knew more, alright, if you want to enter my dreams tonight you can.”

“Alright, however - the cache, did you get it?” Moonlight said, looking around hoping to see a box or crate. “I need my pipbuck, I can’t live without one.”

“Oh right!” I said and reached into my bags and took out the PipBucks before levitating one up and over to her. “There you go, don’t want you feeling naked except around Citrus..”

“I wouldn’t take it off even with her.” Moonlight said in delight, taking the pipbuck and clasping it around her leg, taking a few moments to adjust it. Blinking a few times and giving her head a shake before she smiled at me. “Go on, try one on.”
I took another one out and fit it over my foreleg, adjusting it a little so it wasn’t as tight. I blinked as the display started to form over my vision, showing a compass on the bottom along with an ammo count for my rifle and health bar. “Wow, that’s, trippy.”

“It’s called the Eyes Forward Sparkle, or EFS for short.” Moonlight giggled some “It’s why I can’t live without one, not being able to see every little detail makes me so uneasy.”

I looked at the PipBuck’s screen and information started to be shown on it. A readout of me appeared and then letters and numbers started to appear.

S: 8
P: 6
E: 10
C: 8
I: 6
A: 8
L: 4

“What the heck does that mean?” I asked as I looked at the strange readings.

“Oh! Those are your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stats, I actually don’t know very much about them.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “I’d have to get you to a pipbuck technician if you really wanted to know more, just know you’ve got really good ones.”

“Good to know,” I said, though I wondered if maybe this was another side effect of being an Alicorn. I yawned and stretched out a little. “I should probably get some sleep.”

Moonlight started to fiddle with her pipbuck, before she looked confused and yanked my leg to look at mine. “Oh hey, we both have the same perk!”

“We do?”

“Yeah, lookie” Moonlight said, pointing at the pipbuck. “Alicorn Might, all special stats are doubled. That’s new, must be because of what they did to me.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I said. “Look, if you need any help, I’ve got six years experience being an Alicorn, I think I can lend you a hoof if you need it.”

“Well, I admit, I don’t know how to use this.” Moonlight said, pointing at her horn. “I was a pegasus before, I can fly, I can even cloud handle, but magic? No clue.”

“I’ll teach you what I can,” I said as I got to my hooves and stretched my wings a little. “We should probably get these PipBucks to the others too.”

“Yeah.” Moonlight said as she stood. “I hope the doc has figured out how to make a shower.. I haven’t gone this long without one in… a very long time”

“Yeah, I’m sure she’ll figure something out,” I said as we started towards the stairs leading back down into the clinic proper. “Just, uh, I should warn you you might not exactly get a warm welcome around here.”

“I expected as much, considering I wouldn’t get a warm welcome in the stable despite them knowing me.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I think it’s just something you’re going to have to get used to, not a lot of ponies have reason to trust alicorns.”

“Yeah, but down there we’ve got three of the best ponies… well, two of the best ponies and the best Zebra, I’ve ever met,” I said with a soft smile. “They’re my friends, and hopefully, they can become yours too.”

“I feel the same way.” Moonlight said, breathing in deep as we reached the door. “I can only guess what they have been through”

I opened the door and smiled a little. Storm was asleep next to the bed with the three fillies while Lemon stood guard and Neivi had her nose buried in her book again. She looked up at us and smiled softly.

“Sorry its not the fanciest or most comfortable place to sleep, but its home,” Neivi said with a nod as she pointed over to a bed for Moonlight. “Just hope I don’t have to kick you all out for patients.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I rather sleep on the roof anyway.” Moonlight said with a smile “The stars are so comforting.”

“Oh, okay then,” Neivi said and blinked in surprise. “I can give you some blankets at least. I don’t want my guests to be uncomfortable.”

“Nonsense! I would hate to impose.” Moonlight said with a smile “However, we come carrying gifts of our own. Firelight, care to show our friends what we’ve brought them?”

“Of course,” I said and took out two PipBucks and gave them to Neivi and Lemon Lime followed by the bag. “And we’ve got more in here for the Underground.”

“This is great, I’ll get these to Soia as soon as I can,” Neivi said with a smile as she got up and gave me a light kiss on the cheek, I felt my face heating up a little as I blushed. “Thank you for bringing these FIrelight.”

“O-of course, but you should really thank Moonlight and Citrus,” I said a little flustered by that. “They got them for us.”

“Sorry they aren’t the newer fancier Pipbuck 3000, our stable was only given the 2000 mark IV model.” Moonlight said, motioning them to try the devices on. “They work bout the same, they just aren’t as new and flashy.”

“They’ll do,” Neivi said with a nod as she examined her’s closely. “You two should get some sleep, it’ll be dawn in a few hours and we don’t want you tired when we have to explain the situation to the inevitable Guard Inquiry.”

“Maybe that would be what’s best, but I’m too riled up to be heading to bed right now.” Moonlight said “Is there anything I can do, maybe… help set up a shower or bath or something?”

“Sure, if you know how, I won’t be much help, I’m a doctor not a plumber,” Neivi said. “But we don’t have running water, so it won’t be easy to get the water to it.”

I yawned and laid down in my bed as they talked. The evening had left me tired and I just wanted to sleep right now, they could figure out the shower thing without my help anyway. I pulled the covers over me and started to drift off to sleep.

“On second thought, a nap sounds nice…” Moonlight said, I could feel her looking at me and could hear the door close as she went back outside, presumably to the roof where she said she’d stay.

00000

As I became aware of what was happening I was in the middle of a dark shifting void. The voice sounded like it was coming from all around me.

“Who are you? What’s going on?” I demanded as I looked around in a panic.

“You know who I am, I’ve always been here, I always will be here,” the voice said with a loud laugh as the shadows began to form into a shape. “You cannot escape me, you are mine forever my little Firebrand! AND YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED!”

The shadows formed together into a towering Alicorn with sharp blue eyes and dressed in armor as she laughed loudly, her fangs showing as I recoiled a little.

Nightmare Moon herself was standing before me, and she was angry. She laughed wickedly as the shadows retreated around me and I screamed as I realized I was in Nightingale, the town was on fire as Alicorns attacked it, dragging ponies out of their homes as they did.

“This is the future… this is the future of all Equestria, it will burn and my followers shall rise like a phoenix from the ashes!” Nightmare Moon cackled as I saw one by one the ponies suffering the same fate as Moonlight, transforming into Alicorns as they fell in line with their attackers.

Blueberry Muffin, Wind Chime, Dawn Star… even Storm Wrangler. I curled up and cried as I tried not to watch it happening.

“No, no, this isn’t real, this is a dream…” I said.

“You brought this upon them child, you will die but not before they all join me!” Nightmare Moon said, the malice dripping in her voice.

“THIS IS A DREAM!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, forcing Nightmare Moon back in shock as I did. And with that, the world around me stopped as the fires receded and the Alicorns vanished with Nightingale returning to normal. “YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE!”

“WHAT?” Nightmare Moon screamed as she started to vanish with my horn glowing brightly, the flames forming around me once more, this time with more intensity than before.

“This is my home, my town, I will not let you and your monsters take that away!” I said as I stepped forward, the fires burning around the terrified Alicorn. “You will not win, not as long as the flames burn bright, I will fight you, I will fight you with every inch of my being!”

And with that, the fires consumed the Alicorn and she vanished up in smoke. And the town in my dream was back to normal, I looked up at the night sky above me and paused a moment as I saw what I swore were three stars shining brighter than all of the others.

“Is that what you are to them? A firebrand?” A soft voice spoke as the sound of the fluttering of wings filled the air before a white pegasus landed beside me, I recognized her as Moonlight. “Being a firebrand is a very important thing, you know.”

“I’m starting to realize that,” I said with a sigh as I looked back at her. “I never thought much about it, it was just a title the High Priestess gave me.”

“Do you think you know what kind of title she would of given me?” Moonlight said with a smile “I mean, they clearly had a plan for me, after their mind control spell didn’t work they kept trying to pull me away.”

“I don’t know, the High Priestess didn’t tell me anything like I said before,” I said with a shake of my head. “All I know is that there was something important to the survival of the Society in your Stable.”

“Our spell.” Moonlight said. “There are no stallions in our stable, the only way we’ve been able to reproduce and keep the population going, is through a spell we were tasked with developing.”

“That would be valuable to a group that is made up entirely of mares,” I said with a nod. “I’m guessing that’s it, unless there’s something else.”

“Well, they took our spell and all the research we had on it, and then they started taking ponies, well, we didn’t know it was them until now, and technically we still don’t, Only I and Citrus do.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I think the spell didn’t work the way they wanted it to, and they are taking those pregnant to look into them, and the doctors who perform the spell to teach them how.”

“Hmm, maybe,” I said and shook my head a little. “Something about this is still bugging me, like we’re missing a piece of the puzzle.”

“We most likely are, however. I did promise to show you something tonight, if you wish to still see it.” Moonlight said, smiling at me. “I think something similar happened for her as to what happened to me, but it was interrupted and so she only remembers a little, but remembers enough.”

I paused a moment and looked at her and then back out at the dreamscape of Nightingale. I had my past taken away from me by the Society, this was my future now. Still, I wanted to know where I came from, so I looked at her and nodded.

“Alright, I’ll see it,” I said with a soft smile.

Moonlight stood, and within moments the dream around us shifted and changed, we were in the forest, surrounded by homes and huts. I could hear laughing and playing around.

“Dreams have the same power as memories, This may not be entirely accurate however I know several details are accurate.” Moonlight said and smiled to me. Using a wing to point over to a hut. “I suggest you look in the window, and stay quiet, holding these kinds of dreams together takes a lot of energy and if you start disrupting it I might lose it.”

I nodded and trotted over to the window of the hut and looked into it to see what was going on inside. Inside there was a young Unicorn filly with a light red coat and yellow and orange mane playing with an older Unicorn.

My eyes went wide when I saw the older Unicorn, she had the same orange-gold coat and red mane, the same freckles. She, looked exactly like me, only without the wings, and happier. I didn’t say anything, but I felt tears start to flow down my face and I wasn’t sure why.

It took me a moment to realize that the younger filly looked like the High Priestess’ daughter, but, how was that possible? Why did she have a memory of me?

“This settlement, it’s called Pearl.” Moonlight said. “And those two in there, are you and your sister, Sparks is her name, I believe.”

I didn’t want to say anything, I wanted to see these two playing together for as long as I could. The name registered in my mind, Pearl, that was the same settlement the three fillies had come from, the one that had been attacked by the Society and they had been the only ones found.

We weren’t miserable, we weren’t suffering, we had a good happy life here. I clenched my teeth a little, the Society had taken this away from us.

“Firelight, Does this give you any information you should seek?” Moonlight said as she stood next to me. “Perhaps, just some information on who you used to be?”

“I, think so, at least a little bit,” I said softly as I looked back at Moonlight, I was still crying a little. “I don’t remember everything still, but, I’m starting to understand. Right before I came across you in the forest… I had a flash of memory of being submerged in liquid, and I remembered the name Sparks.”

“This can provide you one more clue to your past.” Moonlight said, gently pushing the window open just a inch. “Listen.”

“Fillies, come, it’s dinner time!” A mare’s voice I didn’t recognize was heard from elsewhere in the house.

“Coming mom!” Sparks said before turning and running off, calling back to younger me. “Come on Ember, you don’t want to make mom and dad wait!”

I blinked as I watched the two run out of the room. “Ember? Is, that my name?”

“Firelight, of the Nightmare Society.” Moonlight said with a bright smile. “You truly are, Ember, of Pearl.”

“I wish I could remember her,” I said softly as I looked down at my hooves. “Ember I mean, she seems… happy, like she’s got a good life here with her family I guess.”

“Ember or Firelight, she is one in the same.” Moonlight said, smiling warmly. “Ember may be hidden under everything the society did to you, but she leaks through - I see her in your smile, I hear her in your voice, she is still you - you just need to find her.”

“I’d like to do that,” I said and looked back at her. “I’d like to get to know… well, me better.”

“Perhaps, the first step to do that, is to visit Pearl.” Moonlight said as the dream started to dissolve. “I have enough to know where to find it, and I am sure your friends can be of great assistance. I am sure we can be allowed to leave and go visit, and perhaps find more of you there.”

“I’d like that,” I said with a smile. “Though, we’ll have to get some of the extra guests to safety first. The last thing we need is to put them in danger too.”

“Those fillies?” Moonlight said, as they sat in a void of black now. “Perhaps…”

A door appeared in front of us, opening it Moonlight walked through and turned to me. Holding out a hoof inviting me to follow.

I took her hoof in mine and followed her through it.

“This is the dreamscape.” Moonlight said as she walked, looking around all I could see was a path lined by doors the lead to nowhere. Surrounded by a bluish blackness that had what appeared to be little orbs floating around in it.

“So, this is, how many ponies’ dreams?” I asked as I looked back at her. “How far does this reach?”

“With training, I suppose it could have an infinite reach, but my ability only lets me reach as far as the outskirts of Nightingale.” Moonlight said. “Every creature’s dreams, even the rabbits and birds, are here.”

“That’s a lot of ponies,” I said as I looked around. “So, we could say, go into Neivi’s dream if we wanted?”

“I would suggest against it, Dreams should be left alone unless invited, or if the pony is having a nightmare.” Moonlight said. “So, this deity of yours, Nightmare Moon, Nightmares are horrible things, yet you want to worship somepony who has it in their name, doesn’t seem very logical, does it.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but she actually had a point there. I had never really thought about that before, that was more of a name to run away from very fast than something to worship. I hadn’t really thought about it until now.

“I, couldn’t tell you,” I admitted sheepishly as I rubbed the back of my head. “It was all I ever knew, so I didn’t really question it until I wound up in Nightingale.”

“You know they have taken ponies away against their will, you saw them forcefully trying to kidnap me.” Moonlight said as she kept walking. “You’ve seen who you used to be, your sister, you had a family, you were happy, and they took you from that and destroyed your village. They worship a nightmare figure, I think at this point it’s fairly clear that they are not who they claimed to be.”

“I’ve realized that, but sometimes it’s hard to lose those teachings,” I admitted with a shake of my head. “I don’t want to hurt these ponies, I’m not like them. But when I shot that Alicorn, I still felt… wrong.”

Moonlight looked back at me like she was about to say something, but a sound caught her attention and made her snap her attention forward and sprint off down the path stopping at a door, staring at it as though she feared to open it.

“Firelight, do you hear it?” Moonlight said, looking to me. “I’ve seen this before, in the stable… We need to wake up, Now.”

I blinked in surprise but I nodded. I closed my eyes, trying to wake up as the world around me faded.

00000

My eyes snapped open and I shot up in bed as I looked around for any sign of what Moonlight might’ve been feeling. Everypony around here seemed fine though, though Neivi was looking at me concerned.

“Somepony is in danger” Moonlight said, as she burst through the clinic door. “That dream, it isn’t normal - I’ve seen it in the stable on two occasions, Either somepony has been hit with something and is knocked out, or they’re taking somepony.”

“Everypony in here is fine,” Neivi said as she checked the others. “Which means it had to have been somewhere in town. That, doesn’t really narrow it down though.”

“Is there a common place they are taken from? Or any construction locations?” Moonlight said. “Or, I hope not, but - any pony that might be aggressive enough to assault another pony?”

“They’re takin’ ‘em from all over town really,” Storm Wrangler said as she stretched out a little. “But usually they’re from tha orphanage or some of tha older ponies’ houses. Lookin’ fer one location that might be targeted is like lookin’ fer a specific needle in a whole stack full of needles.”

“She’s a cream colored earth pony, there can’t be that many here can there be?” Moonlight said with a sigh. “Dazed dreams are very blurry, I couldn’t get any more details then that.”

“Cream colored earth pony mare, there are a few of those,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Hmm… I wonder.”

“Do you have an idea of who it might be Neivi?” I asked as I looked at her.

“Maybe, it could mean nothing, and I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this because it’s a patient,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “But if she might be in danger, I can’t stand by and let her get hurt.”

“She is, trust me she is. Ponies don’t just get randomly knocked out or put into trances.” Moonlight said, looking at Neivi. “It might be wrong for me to hope, but I hope she did nothing more then fall from one of these bridges, at least then she’s not in danger anymore, she just needs immediate help.”

“Sometimes the Mayor’s aide comes in with bruises and other injuries,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “She fits the description, but she refuses to talk about where she gets the injuries. It, may be connected, and it’s the only case I can think of that might be similar in town.”

“Where would she be right now.” Moonlight said, looking to me and then back to Neivi “The more time we sit here and talk about it, the more likely things get worse for her.”

“Either in her home or in the mayor’s office, probably the latter,” Neivi said and gave her a nod before looking at Storm and Lemon. “You two stay here, I’ll take them to the mayor’s office first, she might need medical attention.”

“I know that this may be a stretch.” Moonlight said “But we may need to consider the Mayor’s quarters as well. Many officials, mayors and overmares included, tend to have flings with their assistants.”

“Also possible,” Neivi said with a nod. “Given the late hour that might be a good idea to check, unless they were working late. We should check there first.”

“Look, Ah don’t want ta put a damper on things here, but if yah want ta save her ya’ll are gonna need ta get it right tha first time,” Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. “Ah’ll get one of tha guards outside ta send word over ta see if we can check tha other location. Its tha best Ah can do right now.”

“Lets go.” Moonlight said, moving to the door and looking back to us. “I hate this, why do ponies do these things.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted with a shake of my head. “We should get going though before it’s too late.”

We headed out as Storm talked with one of the guards, I just hoped we weren’t too late

00000

“Wait, yah want ta go ta Pearl?” Storm Wrangler asked as she blinked and looked at me confused for a moment. It was the next morning and we had just finished talking to them about it. “Yer kiddin’ right? That place has been empty since tha Nightmare Society laid waste ta it 6 years ago.”

“It’s too complex to explain it, just know, a important piece of her past and perhaps a key to her remembering is there.” Moonlight said, with a shake of her head and a sigh. “Without showing you, it’d be practically impossible to explain it in a way you would understand.”

“It’s a risky prospect,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little and looked between me and Moonlight. “The fact is that abandoned settlements like that don’t last long, the jungle tends to reclaim them rather quickly. There’s no guarantee that there is anything left there that would be recognizable.”

“Not to mention we’ve got those three back there,” Lemon said as she gestured towards the fillies who were playing in the other room. “We can’t just leave them here.”

“We can move them into the Underground,” I pointed out. “Soia and the others can keep them safe.”

“Well, yes, they could,” Neivi said with a sigh and shook her head a little. “We need to report on the change of situation to them anyway. But I still don’t like the idea of going to Pearl, what if you don’t like what you find out?”

“Knowing something is better than living in the dark.” Moonlight said. “Not to mention, I can feel the forest… I don’t know how to explain it, but I think it has respect for Pearl and what happened there.”

“Just, give me the chance to learn, I’ve already started to remember things, and I want to see if I can remember more,” I said with a sigh and a shake of my head. “You all gave me a home because you believed it was the right thing to do. I don’t remember who I was or where I came from, not completely at least, I just want to know more.”

Storm Wrangler paused a moment and adjusted her hat a little before she sighed. “Look, fer what it’s worth Ah’d like ta help yah. Ah’m supposed ta be keepin’ an eye on yah anyway, so if yah run off all willy-nilly Ah’d get in trouble. Ah’ll lend ya’ll a hoof ta get ta Pearl.”

“And I’m not about to let you get yourselves hurt again,” Neivi said with a nod. “You can count me in too.”

“You helped me find my family,” Lemon finally said after a long moment. “That’s something I can’t ever really repay you for, but I’ll at least try.”

“And you never needed to ask me for help. I’m still trying to come to terms with everything, and I think you understanding will help me understand.” Moonlight said with a smile “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

I smiled a little and looked between the four of them. They really were my friends if they were willing to do that. “Thank you, all of you. I’m glad that I’ve got all of you to help me out.”

“Well, yah don’t really know how ta get ta Pearl so yah would just wander around tha jungle anyway,” Storm Wrangler said with a soft smile. “Lets get these fillies ta safety before we do anythin’ of course.”

“Of course,” I said with a nod and looked back at Moonlight before I gave her a hug. “Thanks Moonlight, this means a lot to me.”

“Hey, I’m here to help.” Moonlight said with a smile and nod. “And really, I can’t resist a good mystery anyway.”

“You four get the fillies down into the underground,” Neivi said. “I’m going to go talk to Rising Sun and tell him what happened. If he knows, then the council will be informed and hopefully everything will be okay.”

“Alright,” I said as Storm went over to talk to the fillies to explain the situation. “We’ll meet you at the town gate when we’re both done, okay?”

“Okay,” Neivi said as she talked with one of her aides that would take care of the mayor’s injured aide while we were gone before looking back at us. “As long as the council is informed we shouldn’t have any problems with the Mayor, I hope.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said with a shake of my head as we got our bags together and I secured the rifle into its spot.

“Would it be too much to ask if I could get a gun of some sort?” Moonlight said, looking at my rifle. “I mean, I don’t expect we will need to use them… but for safety’s sake?”

“Ah’ll have ta get one from tha armoy,” Storm said with a nod. “But Ah’m sure that shouldn’t be much of a problem. Better ta have one just in case we need one.”

“Yeah,” Lemon said with a nod. “I’ll have to grab one as well.”

“Just as a reference, if you have forgotten…” Moonlight said and sighed. “I may have a horn, but I don’t know how to use it, I’ll need a saddle.”

“That’s easy enough ta handle,” Storm said with a nod. “We’ll swing by tha armory when we head into tha underground.”

“Alright, then we have a plan I guess,” I said with a nod and looked back at Moonlight. “If you want, I can teach you how to use telekinesis later so you can at least do that.”

“Well, I’m sure there is some traveling distance between here and Pearl, maybe we can use that time to practice a few tricks.” Moonlight said with a nervous smile. “So this underground, is it like, an abandoned Stable or something?”

“Old mine system actually,” Lemon said as she and Storm came over with the fillies. “But, we shouldn’t talk about that outside of the clinic. Let’s get going.”

I nodded and gave the fillies a smile. Wind Chime I think for a moment actually gave me a small smile before turning her head away from me.

“Come on, lets go,” I said as we all headed out of the clinic.

00000

The trip to the underground was mostly uneventful. We told Soia what had happened at the mayor’s residence the night before, but she seemed more worried about what he might do than anything else.

Still, she said that they’d deal with any problems that came up along with what allies they had in the guard and the town itself. They’d watch the three fillies until we got back in time for the Council’s vote on what to do with the Mayor.

Once everything was clear topside we headed back up and met up with Neivi at the gate who gave us a nod. “We have Rising Sun’s vote, and if he can convince the others we’ve got this in the bag. It shouldn’t be that hard given everything that happened.”

“That’s good,” I said and let out a sigh of relief. “So we should be all clear to head out to Pearl again?”

Neivi nodded as she looked back up at the gate. “I hope you two know what you’re doing, we don’t know what we might run into out there.”

“Well, It’s day time, and most of the forest baddies, at least, the ones we were taught about in the stable are active mostly at night.” Moonlight said, rubbing at her chin for a moment. “Then again, that was before everything was… well, messed up.”

“Tha jungle can kill yah a thousand different ways or more,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “If we’re gonna make it ta Pearl before nightfall we need ta take tha safest route, which means takin’ tha ferry across tha river.”

“I don’t know, this jungle, I think there’s more to it than meets the eye.” Moonlight said. “In the stable, our orchards were dying and we were barely able to feed ourselves, but then without changing anything, our trees strengthened over night, and these weird flowers on vines grew all across the trunks of the trees.”

“Interesting,” Neivi said and adjusted her glasses a little. “Some settlements, including Nightingale, have documented similar increases to crop yields in the past. There is something about this jungle that’s different than even the ones I’ve read about back in Zebrica. But I can’t put my hoof on it.”

“Probably somethin’ leftover from tha war,” Storm Wrangler said with a shrug. “There’s a lot of things out there like that.”

“Maybe,” I said softly as I looked up at the towering jungle trees. “The High Priestess always warned us about the Jungle, but mostly focused on the wildlife not the Jungle itself.”

“Honestly, I think there’s something out there controlling it. I’ve sensed it in the dreamscape but outside of it I’ve never been able to find more than circumstantial evidence supporting my claims.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I wonder if maybe, the jungle itself is alive.”

“Most things have a spirit, trees included, but…” Neivi said and paused a moment. “I see what you mean. When I visit Canterbury again I’ll have to consult with the shamans there, perhaps they can shed some light on this.”

“Maybe, if the jungle itself is alive, all you need to do to have it protect you, is do something for it…” Moonlight said, lost in thought for a moment. “Neivi, can you tell me if when Nightingale put down or expanded its grow beds, if the trees nearby seemed to respond to them? And if more of those flowers showed up?”

“I’d have to check the agricultural records, but it’s possible,” Neivi said and frowned a little. “What are you thinking?”
“You give to the jungle, the jungle gives to you” Moonlight said with a soft smile. “Symbiosis.”

“But didn’t you say that the earliest settlers had to basically fight off the Jungle to establish Nightingale?” I asked as I looked over at Neivi.

“Yes, they did,” Neivi said as she looked thoughtful for a moment.

“How does the body react to a foreign infection?” Moonlight said, looking between myself and Neivi. “It reacts with hostility, trying to expel the intruder, but once you showed yourselves as not harmful, it stopped trying to get rid of you.”

“So, then tha early responses were, tha jungle’s immune system or somethin’?” Storm Wrangler asked and the others nodded. “Interestein’, so tha big question now is, where is all of this bein’ controlled from? If its like a livin’ bein’, then shouldn’t it have somethin’ resemblin’ a brain?”

None of us really had an answer to that. Though there was one possibility that I had considered, I just shook my head a little. That was something to worry about for later, right now we needed to get to Pearl.

“Come on, we’re almost to the River Ferry,” Lemon said. “Lets just hope we didn’t miss the departure.”

00000

The River Ferry as it turned out was an old boat that looked like it had been patched up a lot over the years. We made it just in time to get aboard and take the ferry down the river towards where Pearl was.

Since I left the Society I’ve actually started to learn more about both myself and the outside world. It’s been certainly an interesting experience so far, with its proverbial ups and downs.

While on the ferry I apparently learned that Alicorns and boats do not mix well, so I found myself throwing up my breakfast over the side of the boat.

“Seasick huh?” A familiar voice asked as I finally managed to pull myself up and see Neivi trotting over to me.

“Yeah, I’ve never really been on a boat before,” I admitted sheepishly as I looked over at her with a weak smile. “You seem to be doing fine at least.”

“This is nothing, I spent a few months as a Doctor on an Atori vessel when I was of age because I wanted to see the Homeland,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “We crossed paths with Okambo, a whirlpool fueled by a Megaspell that travels around the oceans near the Homeland. A few waves on this river is hardly comparable to that.”

I blinked a little in surprise as I looked at my Zebra friend. She didn’t really sound like she was bragging, more like it was her small way of trying to make me feel better. “That sounds like quite the adventure.”

“Yeah, it was,” Neivi said with a sigh. “I spent a little time in Carthage and met other Mendi there. But, Equestria is my home, it’s the only home my family has known since we immigrated here long before the war started.”

“I’m glad you’re here Neivi,” I said and Neivi smiled softly as she brushed her mane out of her face a little. “You and the others have done a lot to help me, it means a lot.”

“We just saw a pony in need, I’d hope that anypony would’ve done the same in our position,” Neivi said with a soft smile. “You’re a good pony Firelight. You’re trying to help around here, and that’s really what’s important right now, I’m glad we found you.”

I was a bit surprised when I felt her forelegs gently wrap around me in a hug. I smiled softly and hugged her back as I wrapped my wings around the Zebra mare gently and closed my eyes. There was something nice about being this close to her, she was warm and actually smelled kind of nice…

I blushed and shook my head, I didn’t really want to think about that right now. We had to get to Pearl right now. Besides, she probably wouldn’t be that interested in me.

“Are you two lovebirds done yet?” Lemon’s raspy voice asked and I blushed a little as I realized the Ghoul could see us. I let go of Neivi and tried not to look the Zebra in the eye.

“We’re not, we were just…” I said with a blush and Neivi rubbed the back of her head embarrassed. “What’s up?”

“Storm Wrangler just talked to the Captain, it sounds like we’re only about 5 minutes away from the dock,” Lemon said. “He also said that there are some reports of Raiders near Pearl, so we need to be careful.”

“Good to know,” Neivi said with a nod. “Alright, let’s get ready to go then.”

“Yeah,” I said as I got my gear back together and looked back out at the river for a moment.

There was something about the river, something almost beautiful but at the same time haunting. I could see nothing but jungle, and as I thought back to what they were talking about before, I had to wonder what was waiting for us out there.

What was the rest of Equestria like for that matter? I hadn’t been farther north than the Temple, so what else could be happening there? Maybe someday I could see more of Equestria, but for now I had other things to worry about.

I just hoped that everything was going to go okay.

00000

The ferry stopped at a dock farther upriver. I stretched my wings out a little and looked up at the sky for a long moment. The jungle was going to be thicker from what I could see, I kind of wish I could fly again, it might at least take my mind off a lot of things but I didn’t know where we were going.

I looked over at Moonlight and gave the Alicorn a soft smile. “Hey, uh, are you still interested in learning how to use your magic on this trip? Not sure I’ll be the greatest teacher, but I can at least try and teach you some basic stuff.”

“Well, it’d be nice to actually be able to make a use of myself more than what I could already do” Moonlight said with a smile in return. “I know most Equestrian magic is based on will and desire, but I know there’s more to it than that.”

“Yeah, and honestly this isn’t the best place to learn most of it,” I said with a shake of my head as we started to walk down a trail. “We’ll start with something simple, pretty much all Alicorns start with telekinesis.”

My horn glowed orange as I carefully picked up a small rock off the trail and levitated it over to her. “Concentrate on the stone, start simple by just trying to make it rise and fall. Its how we all start out.”

“Isn’t that based on a old foal’s game?” Moonlight said with a soft giggle. “I remember unicorns in my class when I was younger practicing by passing a ball around like that.”
“Probably yeah, its just how I was trained and every other Alicorn was trained,” I said with a shrug as I set it on the ground near her. “I never really gave the origins of it much thought really.”

“It’s just thought, right? Focus on the rock, focus on lifting it, imagine yourself lifting it…” Moonlight said, looking at the rock. “Just carefully imagine the rock weightless in your hold…”

Without warning, her horn started to glow, sparking a few times at first before her aura surrounded the rock, levitating it a few inches from the ground before it suddenly went skyward, shooting off into the distance out of control.

“Uh, did yah just do that?” Storm asked as she looked up at the sky surprised. “Because Ah think yah need ta work a bit on yer control.”

Moonlight appeared flustered and embarrassed, looking away and puffing out her cheeks, before she finally looked to Storm with a sigh. “You try doing it when you’ve got more magic than most ponies will ever have in their lifetime.”

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll get it eventually,” Neivi said with a smile as she looked back at her. “I’ll bet Firelight wasn’t very good at it when she started either.”

“Yeah, I, kinda once accidentally destroyed a bunch of plates,” I said and rubbed the back of my head sheepishly.

“No no, I got it… I just need something heavier.” Moonlight said as she looked around for larger rocks “A small rock is too light for my level, I need something comparatively heavy.”

“Hmm, lets see,” I said as we started to look around. “I’m sure we can find something.”

“Hey, what about this?” Lemon asked as she pointed at a good sized fallen tree that had been broken in half. “You could try and lift part of that.”

“Part?” Moonlight said, tilting her head as she looked to the tree, taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and once again I could tell she was focusing, Her horn glowing and aura wrapping around the entirety of the fallen tree, at first only levitating it a few inches from the ground before suddenly, much like the rock, she accidentally flung both halves of the fallen tree skyward.

“Okay… that wasn’t a good idea,” Lemon said as she looked up and then back at Moonlight. “Lets, not have you try and lift any of us yet, please.”

“Definitely not,” Neivi said.

“Okay, this is a start, you have power but you need to work on your control,” I said and looked at her and then at the others for a moment. “Try to regulate the amount of magical power you exert on the item.”

My horn glowed again and I levitated another stone up effortlessly, moving it around slowly. “See, all you have to do is focus on keeping it under control in your mind. Control your power, don’t let it control you.”

Moonlight took a deep breath and nodded “I’ll try…” watching as she focused herself and her horn started to glow, another pebble from the path levitating into the air, much like her previous attempts only staying a few inches from the ground, lifting it farther and starting to move it around till suddenly her magic, instead of launching the stone, fizzled out and the stone fell to the ground.

“You have got to be kidding me…” Moonlight mumbled.

“Well, at least yah didn’t send it flyin’ up into tha stratosphere,” Storm Wrangler said as she looked at the stone.

“Don’t worry about it, nopony is perfect,” I said with a soft smile as I placed a hoof on Moonlight’s shoulder. “If I had a… what do they use as money out here?”

“Caps,” Neivi said.

“Cap for… wait, caps? You mean like, bottle caps or something?” I asked as I looked at the Zebra surprised. “You’re kidding right?”

“No, she isn’t.” Moonlight chimed in. once again levitating another rock and dropping it once more. “Even in the stable, when we accepted a few traders in we learned about bottle caps and their monetary value, something to do with being able to seal bottles of purified water, right?”

Neivi shrugged a little. “Yeah, it’s mostly unnecessary in that regard these days since Gardens of Equestria went off, but it’s pretty much used as money universally in Equestria. And well, between Sparkle-Cola, Sunrise Sarsaparilla, Opal, and your companies up north, it’s a pretty abundant source of money in the Wasteland.”

“Also, because most of the tools used to create said bottle caps were destroyed or lost, they are a finite resource. Giving them value.” Moonlight added. “It’s silly, and kind of outdated and pointless now, but even living in the stable we understood the value of something we deemed garbage before hoof.”

“Huh, the Society always had their own currency and I never met with any of the traders sympathetic to the cause,” I said with a shrug. “That was always left to the Priestesses whenever they would come by.”

“Yeah, different groups have different things fer currency sometimes,” Storm said with a shrug. “Ah heard about a group up in Horseton, well before they lost tha war a few years back, who printed their own coins. There are probably others out there too.”

“Yeah, Heck we still used the bit down in the stable, but we-” Moonlight said before she cut herself off. “Gosh Darn it son of a…” She said, rubbing at the spot between her eyes with a sigh, apparently having pegged herself in the forehead with a stone.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I think so?..” Moonlight said, as she kept rubbing her forehead. “I dunno, maybe the doc should take a look at it…” She said, before she stopped and looked ahead of us in awe, having us shift our attention forward I could see we were here, at the ruins of Pearl.

The settlement was surprisingly intact, though it was partially overgrown by the jungle encroaching on it a little. Still, I could recognize some of it from the dream I had of my foalhood memories.

I stopped in mid-step as I looked around, I could feel a tear falling down my face a little. I didn’t know this place, not really, but there was something about standing here, especially after that dream, that hit me hard.

This was my home, there was no question about it in my mind. Even if I didn’t remember it, the very thought was making me cry.

“There is something here… something important.” Moonlight said before she took a deep breath, steadying herself she started to concentrate, at first we couldn’t tell what she was doing, till her horn started to glow as her aura found its target, a pile of burnt wood and tile near what would of been city center starting to shift and lift, till a bright bronze bell pulled from the mud and rubble, as it free’d itself from its prison it’d toll, that haunting ring echoing across the land.

“What tha heck is that thing?” Storm Wrangler said as she covered her ears a little.

“I, don’t know…” Neivi said as she looked at it confused for a moment and then back at me. “Do you know what it is?”

I tried to remember and shook my head. “Sorry, I’ve got nothing.”

“Yeah, well unless we want to attract every Raider nearby over here we better stop,” Lemon said with a shake of her head. “What’s up with that thing anyway?”

“Excuse me, but it’s called a town bell, every old equestrian settlement had one.” Moonlight said with a huff. “What, do you not understand the importance of the bell? It’s the voice of the town, dedication of the bell is a very important ceremony.”

“Well, yeah, I got that,” Lemon said with a shake of her head. “It just seemed weird that you sensed something and dug it out.”

“This place, it knows much suffering, even before the society came. It leaves… lasting scars on the environment.” Moonlight said. “I sense them, subconsciously, and I felt this one was important.”

“Yeah, but uh, shouldn’t you set it down before you fling it off again?” Neivi asked.

“It’s fi- actually, you’re right… don’t want a flying bell to crush somepony…” Moonlight said with a sigh, putting the bell down and silencing its haunting resonance.

I looked at the bell for a long moment and then back out at the town. What did she mean by it knowing much suffering? Was there something about this town that I couldn’t remember? I filed it away for something else to figure out later.

“So, uh, what are we gonna do with this thing?” Storm asked as she looked at the bell.

“Part of me says leave it here, it's where it belongs, but another part tells me it deserves to be remembered and placed in view, rather then quietly rotting in ruins.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “Perhaps we should bring it back to Nightingale, have it dedicated to them and put up in a new tower.”

“Maybe,” I said with a soft nod. “Let’s look around some more first and then make a decision. I, want to see more of this place.”

“Take your time, I suggest you look for your home... “ Moonlight said, a look of concern coming across her face. “This, may be a lot for one pony to take in.”

I nodded and started looking around the town. I was trying to get memories of what had happened here from my mind, but it was like they were still locked away. I sighed a little and brushed my mane back, had we come all the way here for nothing?

I sighed as we headed through the town, I was about to say we should head back when I saw a building. It was falling apart in some places and I could see plants growing out of it, but it was familiar somehow.

Somehow I knew that this building was my home. But I paused outside of it, I couldn’t bring myself to enter the building somehow, as if going inside would make everything feel so real.

What was I supposed to do?

“Firelight, are you okay?” Neivi asked as she trotted over to me and looked at the old house for a moment. “Oh… this is your old home isn’t it?”

“Yeah…” I said as I stared at the building. “I don’t know what to do right now, I feel like I should go inside, but at the same time…”

“You’re not sure you want to?” Neivi asked and I nodded a little. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to Firelight. We came here because you thought it would help you figure out who you are, if you’re not sure you want to know yet then we can head back to Nightingale.”

I paused a moment as I looked at her and then back at the house. I honestly had no idea what to do, we had come all this way for me, was I really ready to go back without at least trying to learn something?

“Will you go inside with me Neivi?” I asked as I looked over at the Zebra mare.

“Of course Firelight,” Neivi said with a soft smile. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

I nodded and took a deep breath as I opened the door and we headed inside.

The house was dusty and mostly empty. It was kind of eerie actually, it was just so quiet that I half expected something to jump out at us. But nothing happened, it was just an empty house with a few pieces of furniture here and there.

“Are you remembering anything?” Neivi asked as she looked at me.

“No, nothing’s jumping out,” I said with a shake of my head. “Maybe this was all a waste of time, I don’t see anything that might remind me of anything.”

I sighed a little, this was looking more and more like it was a big waste of time. We checked the rooms, and I was about to just leave when I saw something resting on the floor covered by dirt.

I levitated it up to me and brushed the dirt off. It was an old piece of jewelry, a broach of some sort that looked faded but may have once had a shine to it. I looked at it for a long moment as if waiting for something to come to me.

“What is it?” Neivi asked.

“I think this was my mother’s,” I finally said as something clicked in my mind. “It was an old family heirloom, she must’ve left it behind during the attack. That’s, really all I can remember though, it’s like everything from here is gone…”

“Its okay Firelight,” Neivi said as she placed her hoof on my shoulder. “Come on, let’s go back to the others.”

I nodded and put the broach onto my old robes and headed back out of the house to where the others were looking through the town. “Any luck?”

“Nah, this place is pretty much picked clean Ah’m afraid,” Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. “Ah’d guess either tha Society or Raiders.”

“Did you find anything?” Lemon asked.

“I found an old family heirloom, but that’s about it,” I said with a shake of my head as I looked down at the broach. “There’s not a lot left like you said. Thanks anyway, all of you, this means a lot to me.”

“No problem, Ah’d want yah ta do tha same fer me,” Storm Wrangler said as she adjusted her hat a little. “We should probably get goin’ if we want ta catch tha ferry across tha river again.”

“Yeah,” I said and looked back at the town for a moment. “We should get going.”

We nodded and headed back out of town. I stole a glance back towards the abandoned settlement for a moment and sighed, that hadn’t been as informative as I had hoped.

I knew my past was out there somewhere, I just had to find it.

00000

“So I’m at the Fillydelphia Stable-Tec HQ for a meeting and I get there early right?” Lemon Lime said retelling one of her stories from before the bombs fell. “And Vice President Scootaloo is in there already kissing Ms. Belle. Needless to say when they realized I was there it was a very, very awkward moment.”

“Ah’ll bet,” Storm said and blinked a little. “Wait, Scootaloo was datin’ Rarity’s sister?”

“Apparently,” Lemon said with a shrug.

“I uh, no offense and not to be rude. But… who are these ponies?” Moonlight said, looking at Lemon. “I get you’re pre-war, but names really aren’t enough to really know who you’re talking about.”

“They’re tha ponies that made tha Stables,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “And Scootaloo is, well that’s another story entirely but she’s a bit infamous in Pegasus history.”

“Sorry about that,” Lemon said with a shake of her head.

“Ah, they’re stable-tec ponies then.” Moonlight said with a soft nod. “Still doesn’t really ring a bell for me, anyway, wonder if that’s why they made Stable 27, dedicated to mare on mare reproduction.”

“It’s certainly possible, or they were experimenting with means of repopulation, a sort of worst case scenario if there was no stallions left,” Neivi suggested. “But it’s not like we can just ask them what their intentions were.”

Lemon paused a moment and shifted uncomfortably. She looked like she wanted to say something but just then we reached the gates to Nightingale which were shut of course. We waited a moment as the guards were clearly visible above the gate.

“Aren’t they going to let us in?” I whispered to Neivi.

“They should’ve already opened up,” Neivi whispered back before calling up. “What’s going on here?”

“By order of Mayor Steel, you’re all not allowed entry into Nightingale under any circumstances,” one of the guards called down to us. “He has enacted emergency protocol 17-B and any enemies of the town are to be kept out, and shot if they attempt to break in.”

“Emergency Protocol 17-B?” I asked as I looked at Neivi.

“It gives emergency powers to the Mayor if the town is under threat from an enemy within or without,” Neivi said through gritted teeth. “Irrumator, he’s declared martial law, and we can’t get into the town.”

Great, just, great things had gone from bad to worse.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Shadow of the Past.
Details: You've gained a better knowledge of your own past as well as the world around you. You get an extra five points in stealth.

Chapter 6: Nightmares

"While there is a lower class, I am in it.
While there is a criminal element, I am of it.
And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
-Eugene Debs.

“Keep yer eyes on yer EFS, we don’t want anypony sneakin’ up on us,” Storm said as we made our way through the jungle once more away from Nightingale.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I ducked under a branch that nearly hit me in the face. “We can’t exactly get back to Soia and the others from out here.”

“That’s not a problem,” Neivi said and paused a moment as she checked her EFS and looked around before speaking quieter. “With how the underground is spread out we have multiple entrances, the one in Nightingale is just the one that is the most direct, and least dangerous one around.”

I really, really did not like the way she worded that.

“The bad news is that the nearest entrance is close to a Thunderbird nest,” Lemon said with a snort and a shake of her head. “And they’re incredibly territorial especially this time of year, if we get found out by them, well it’s not going to go well.”
“A Thunder-what?” Moonlight said, her fear obvious in her voice. “That doesn’t sound like a good thing…”

“Giant bird, looks somethin’ like an old world Eagle or some other large bird of prey, only much bigger and much nastier,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “We call ‘em Thunderbirds because their calls are as loud as thunder, and even more terrifyin’.”

“Basically, they’re the top of the food chain around here,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “Not the kind of thing you want on your bad side.”

“But, it’s just a bird, right? I mean, Sure… a bird of prey, it probably thinks ponies look pretty tasty… but, old world ponies took care of creatures like bears and such and had no problems.” Moonlight said, fear turning to curiosity. “Maybe it just needs a tender loving touch?”

“Sure, if we had Fluttershy with us maybe,” Lemon said with a snort. “But last I heard she lives up in Ponyville.”

“Trust me, Ah’ve tangled with Thunderbirds before,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “They’re fierce, nasty, and can outmatch a Pegasus in tha air. And we’re talkin’ about gettin’ close to their nest when its hatchin’ season, they’re gonna be defensive and present a major threat ta us if we’re not careful.”

“I see… perhaps if we offer them some food or something? Something that they like more than ponies?” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I don’t feel like being bird food, if you don’t mind”

“That’s doable, but we don’t exactly have any of that with us,” Neivi said and adjusted her glasses a little. “Our best bet would probably be a Radstag, there are a few herds in the jungle and they’re usually the prey for Thunderbirds.”

“Radstag? What’s that?” Moonlight said, looking at Neivi. “Some sort of… mutated deer or something?”

“Pretty much yeah, they’re the Deer version of Ghouls,” Lemon said with a shake of her head. “There’s some decent ones out there, I’ve heard of some out east near Terra Nova, but most of them you’ll encounter are completely mindless and run on instinct alone like Feral Ghouls.”

“Unless you’ve got several Stealthbucks or Zebra Invisibility Cloak, that might be our only option,” Neivi said with a shake of her head.

“Stealth...bucks?...” Moonlight said, rubbing at her head. “You guys are gunna bring me up to speed eventually, right?”

“Don’t look at me, I’m as lost as you are,” I said with a shrug. “So, what’s the plan then?”

“Okay then, we just need to either get some meat or…” Neivi said and then looked at me curiously for a moment. “Hmm, I wonder…”

“Don’t look at me, I don’t know any invisibility magic,” I said.

“No, but you do know some illusion magic don’t you?” She asked and I nodded a little.

“What are you thinking?” Lemon asked.

“If you can distract the Thunderbird long enough with an illusion spell of say, another Thunderbird encroaching on its territory…” Neivi said.

“That would keep its attention away so we can make it into the Underground,” I finished and Neivi nodded. “That could work, but I don’t know how long I can maintain the illusion or if it’ll hold up.”

“It’s just an illusion, if it tries to attack it wouldn’t it find out right quick that it wasn’t really there?” Moonlight questioned. “I mean, if it knows ponies can use that kind of magic, and it was tricked using it, it might only make it angrier towards us, or may make it attack Nightingale or another settlement.”

“Good point,” I said and sighed a little. “Guess we’re back to distracting it with food then.”

“Well, it is a bird of prey, would it stalk and such a prey item?” Moonlight said, clearly thinking out loud. “Maybe if we could make it think something that it’d like to eat more than anything was around, it might leave us alone and get so distracted hunting that when the illusion is gone it’ll just think it got away rather then it being tricked…”

“Now that I could definitely do,” I said with a nod. “I just need to know what to create and what it looks like.”

“No problem,” Storm said with a nod. “I can provide that easily.”

I nodded and we stopped in a clearing to plan just how we were going to do this. To make it work, I was going to have to be the last one in the hole, and if I messed up, the whole thing was going to fall apart.

But hey, no pressure right?

00000

I gulped when we reached the clearing in question and I could see the bird. It was perched on a tree above the clearing along with a nest, and it was MASSIVE. Storm Wrangler hadn’t been exaggerating when she described it, it looked like a huge eagle like I had seen in books from before the bombs fell.

I looked back at Neivi who gave me a nod. We had already agreed to the plan so there wasn’t much point in talking, mostly because doing so may attract the bird’s attention, so I gulped and after I was certain that it wouldn’t see me, my horn started to glow orange as I formed our distraction.

The mutated deer was as accurate to life as I could make it given that I’ve never actually seen one. I looked at Storm and Neivi who gave me a nod of approval, and I started to move it forward into the clearing.

The Thunderbird’s head shot up and it let out a thundering screech, they hadn’t been kidding about how loud that was and I nearly lost my concentration. Thankfully it just made the illusion freeze for a moment before I made it dart off into the jungle, holding my concentration as best I could.

And then the massive bird spread its wings and I saw the Thunderbird in all its glory. Its wings were massive, like nothing I had ever seen before and as it took off after the illusion of the Radstag I had created.

We quickly headed for the barely visible hole in the ground that would take us into the Underground. With my concentration on the illusion, I had to make sure that I followed the others in front of me so I didn’t miss it.

And that’s when it all fell apart.

Just as we reached about the halfway point I felt something hitting me from behind, which broke my concentration as the Radstag faded away. I looked up just as the Thunderbird let out an ear splitting screech and realized that Moonlight had tripped and hit me.

“Darn it Moonlight!” I said as we scrambled to get to the hole just as the massive bird was turning around and flying right back at us.

“I’m Sorry!” Moonlight cried out, as she scrambled to her hooves and tried to help me stand. “I just.. That was so good! I’ve never seen something so lifelike!”

“Yeah, it was very impressive, but we’re about ta die if we don’t hurry!” Storm said as she fired at the Thunderbird and I got to my hooves with Moonlight’s help. “Get yer flanks in that hole both of yah!”

Neivi and Lemon had already made it to the destination and jumped through it. I nodded to Moonlight and we ran for the hole. I levitated my rifle out of its holster and fired at the Thunderbird as I did.

The bird flew down right at Storm who just barely got out of the way of the bird’s talons. She cursed loudly as we reached the hole. “Moonlight, get in there, we’ll be right behind you,” I said to the other Alicorn.

Moonlight was frozen with fear as she looked up at the massive bird that was now circling and preparing to attack her. I was about to say something when a bright blue glow surrounded Moonlight and it flared upwards hitting the Thunderbird and sending it crashing to the ground unconscious.

“What the heck was that?” I commented out loud as I looked at Moonlight.

“I… I don’t know?” Moonlight said, looking at the bird and then back to me. “I just… got so scared, I don’t know what happened!”

“Come on, let’s get down there before that thing wakes up,” I said and gave her a nod. “Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.”

The group disappearing into the tunnel, Moonlight keeping her eyes on the now out cold Thunderbird until she was fully into the safety of the underground. She still seemed panicked and scared, maybe more about herself then the threat of the bird at this point.

“The longer I stay like this, the more I think this was a terrible idea” Moonlight said to herself, shaking her head. “What is happening to me..”

“You’re…” I started to say and then realized I didn’t know either. The only frame of reference I had was the strange flame illusion I kept conjuring up whenever I was angry. “Moonlight, I wish I could tell you, I don’t know myself. But I do know that it doesn’t change who you are as a pony, just work on controlling it and you’ll be okay. I’ll help as best I can.”

“I know you will… I trust you, but I don’t really know if all this is going to end up working out in the end.” Moonlight said, looking to me with tears in her eyes. “I gave up my life in the stable, I got… transformed into this, and now I’m having power surges that can make massive predatory birds collapse on the ground unconscious… what if that was you, or Neivi, or anypony else, what could it do to you guys.”

We all paused for a moment as we weren’t really sure what to say. She was right of course, she could hurt any one of us, but then again so could I. I was as powerful if not more than Moonlight, and if something went wrong I could hurt ponies too.

“Moonlight,” Storm finally said as Neivi and Lemon arrived and Neivi started checking us over. “We’re all dangerous in our own way, and Ah trust yah with mah life. Ah believe that yah wouldn’t do anythin’ ta purposely hurt any of us, and that’s good enough fer me.”

“Really?” Moonlight said, showing a slight smile. “You all barely know me, and you’d trust me that much? That… really means alot.”

“We all agree,” Neivi said as she finished checking me over. “Just be more careful in the future okay?”

“Yeah.. I’ll definitely try atleast” Moonlight said with a sigh, before smiling at me. “I suppose I could of bumped into worse things.” Her tone playful and giving me a wink.

I blushed deeply at that and shook my head, the last thing I needed was more conflicting feelings right now. “So how far is it to the base?”

“Not far,” Neivi said as she finished checking us over.

“Think you were thorough enough on me Neivi?” Storm said with a flirty wink which just made the Zebra roll her eyes as we started down the tunnel.

“I don’t know, I think she missed a few spots on Firelight.” Moonlight said, smirking at both me and Neivi.

Me and Neivi both blushed heavily. “Umm… err…” I said with a shake of my head. “She’s, uh…”

“I checked her over very thoroughly I assure you,” Neivi said though she was trying to hide her own embarrassment as she adjusted her glasses a little. “You’re all fine, which is fortunate for an encounter with a Thunderbird.”

“I hope the Thunderbird is fine, sure it wanted to attack us, and probably eat us, but I didn’t want to hurt it.” Moonlight said, looking back up the way we had came.

“Ah’m sure its fine, its a tough bird,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “Its hatchin’ season so its just protectin’ its young, would be better not ta kill it.”

We walked on for awhile down the tunnel. None of it really looked familiar, but then again we were underground and the only frame of reference I had was the tunnels under Nightingale, so I really wasn’t the expert on this kind of thing.

I was getting tired, when I checked my PipBuck it was getting late but we had to get to our destination soon.

“So, do you think the Mayor is sleeping yet?” Moonlight said as she trotted up next to me. “I think I have a plan that we can use to freak him out some or maybe make some of his own turn against him.”

“I’m listening,” I said as I looked over at the other Alicorn curiously.

“Dreams are powerful tools, and I could really easily tie our three dreams together, mine yours and his, and if he’s scared of the Society, you can use your affiliation to make him do something really stupid.” Moonlight said with a smile. “And with the two of us, it might really be convincing, especially hijacking his dream like that.”

“That might work,” I said thoughtfully. “But we should get back to the base first before we do anything like that since we’d have to be asleep.”

“Not necessarily, I’ve been thinking about what I did earlier with the Thunderbird… It was sleep magic.” Moonlight said “Similar to my ability to influence and walk the dreamscape.”
“Hmm, interesting,” Neivi said. “Do you think it might work? We shouldn’t really risk something right now, we do need to get back to Soia and the others.”

“If Moonlight thinks she can do it, we should at least try,” I said and looked back at her. “What do you think, should we try it now or wait?”

“I think I can, but maybe it’d be better to wait till we know we’re under Nightingale, I’ve never had that great of a range and doing it when it’s too far might tip our hand before we’re ready.” Moonlight said with a deep breath. “How far?”

“Not far, we just have to reach a fork in the tunnel not far from here and go a little ways and we’ll get there,” Neivi said. “These tunnels were built to mine wherever they could find coal, so it’s a bit indirect route-wise.”

“I hope we get there soon, my hooves are killing me.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I am really going to need a show…. Oh, right, you don’t have those up here…”

“We have a small waterfall that some use to bathe in in the caves, would that help?” Neivi asked with a chuckle.

“Is the water clean?” Moonlight said, “If it’s not, I think I’d rather stay as I am… No need to irradiate myself unnecessarily.”

“Actually, radiation is good for IMP Alicorns, but yes it’s clean,” Neivi said.

“Wait, what?” Moonlight said, quirking a brow and looking at me. “Is she pulling my leg, like she just wants to see what happens when one of us starts to glow or is this all for real?”

“Actually she’s not kidding, the Society often uses irradiated materials to help injured Alicorns heal faster,” I said.

“Yeah, the Doc had me come in and expose Firelight to radiation while she was healing up from a Sabretooth attack,” Lemon added.

“So… like, Radiation Vampires?” Moonlight said before she turned to Lemon with a grin. “I vant to suck your raaaads.”

I just laughed at that as we came to the fork in the tunnel and turned to the right. I still was wondering about what had happened with the Thunderbird, Moonlight was as surprised as we were so it wasn’t something she could normally do.

Was this tied to the fact that she was an Alicorn now? But that wasn’t an ability any of the other Alicorns in the Society had shown. So, what was going on here? Was there something more that we didn’t know?

I sighed and shook my head, I just wished there was something I could do or say right now that would make things make sense.

“Woah… I’m starting to feel woozy.. How about you guys?” Moonlight said, getting a little tipsy on her hooves. “What did they mine from these tunnels anyway?”

“Coal, at least before other energy sources were developed,” Neivi said as she looked at Moonlight worried for a moment. “Are you okay?”

“How close is this to the Stable?” Moonlight said, trying to get herself under control. “There were parts of the stable I couldn’t go into because of something just like this”

“Part of it is that way, I think,” Lemon said as she pointed through a wall. “The underground isn’t connected to the Stable, but we’re not that far away from it.”

“I wonder…” Moonlight said, looking around and finding a rock on the ground, levitating it in her magic her aura itself was being pulled from her horn and the rock and towards the wall. “That’s… wierd”

“Interesting,” Neivi said and looked at me. “Are you having any similar problems?”

I tried using my magic, but it didn’t seem to do anything unusual. I shrugged a little and looked at Moonlight. “We should probably get going.”

Moonlight nodded and started to lead the way, walking ahead of us despite not knowing where they were going. Clearly just wanting to put some distance between them and that spot, she kept the rock with her, levitating it along and soon her magic would stop being pulled and she got much more steady.

“We should figure out what is there and why it wants to pull me in like that” Moonlight said, a slight quiver in her voice apparently quite shaken from the experience. “It did it before I was an Alicorn, I’m sure of it, I want to know why it wants me.”

Neivi paused a moment as she looked towards where Lemon had pointed and then shook her head. The Zebra doctor suddenly looked very uneasy, as if something was worrying her “No, we need to get to the base, we can investigate it later.”

Moonlight nodded slightly and we started down the tunnel again. After walking for awhile we reached the base, though still, I had to wonder what was happening back there.

00000

While Neivi and Lemon went to talk with Soia and report in and find out what was going on, Storm said she’d show us to the bathing pool. It was a nice cave off to the side of the cave with a pool of water along with a small waterfall that poured out into it and a stream leading away from it.

I blushed a little when I realized Storm was taking off her armor, I hadn’t actually seen her outside of her armor that much. She had a cutie mark of a grey cloud with raindrops falling from it.

“Come on, tha water is fine,” Stormy said with a smile as she waved at me. “Not used ta bein’ naked around other ponies or somethin’?”

“Not, really…” I said with a shake of my head. “Except around my wing really, I, guess I’m just not used to it yet.”

“Group showers in the Stable was kind of something we did as a bonding thing.” Moonlight said, taking off her stable suit, unbuckling and removing her pipbuck and blinking a few times to adjust before she’d go over and join Storm, looking at me. “We’re all mares here, it’s not like it’s something we’ve never seen.”

I shrugged and removed my armored robes before setting them off to the side and heading into the water. I was a little surprised that it felt warm as I slid into the water, it wasn’t too bad actually.

“This isn’t so bad,” I finally said with a shrug as I relaxed a little in the water.

“Yeah, Ah sometimes like ta come down here when Ah get tha chance and just relax, though that’s not that often,” Storm said with a chuckle as she splashed me a little. “Ah don’t think Ah’ve seen yah out of yer robes either Firelight. A shame, Ah thought yah had a cute flank under there.”

I blushed and sunk deeper into the pool, trying not to think about that for a moment as I shook my head. “Real funny, I thought you had your eye on a certain Zebra.”

“Maybe, but Ah can enjoy tha view anyway,” Storm said with a laugh as she splashed me again playfully.

“Pft, Come on what are you two, a bunch of lil fillies?” Moonlight said, chuckling before she flung water at the both of us with her wing. “I could say the same to you Storm, I could tell you had a cute flank under all that armor, shame you always have to wear it.”

Now it was Storm’s turn to blush as I laughed loudly as the Pegasus guard splashed Moonlight back. “Ah’m a guard, Ah need ta be prepared in case tha town gets attacked yah know.”

“No guard I know wears their armor all the time though, I don’t think I’ve even see you take it off to sleep,” Moonlight said with a smirk. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen either of you undress for anything, till now”

“I know it’s silly,” I said with a shake of my head. “I guess I’m not used to being around ponies outside of the Society yet. I don’t know if that really makes sense, but I was a lot more, comfortable around my Wing with this kind of thing.”

“Also yah only met us yesterday,” Storm pointed out. “And Ah slept in tha clinic last night which we were worried about bein’ targeted by tha Mayor and his goons so Ah wanted ta be ready.”

“True true, but even when there was a cave in while I was in the Stable, the rescue workers when they took their naps didn’t sleep in their rescue gear.” Moonlight said, sitting in the water and rubbing at her chin. “Guess ponies up here are loads different then down there, wonder why, can’t just be societal differences can it?”

Storm just shrugged a little. “This is a dangerous world, we need ta be ready fer anythin’,” she said and shook her head a little. “Ah never really thought about it before really, maybe Ah just got used ta it or somethin’.”

Moonlight thought for a moment or two more before she shrugged, outstretching a wing and started to gently adjust and move her feathers, getting them properly arranged. “So, what do you do up here for fun? Surely there has to be some sort of games or something you can do. Down in the stable we have terminals we can play on for recreation and entertainment.”

“Well, we do actually have a few terminals around,” Storm said with a shrug. “Though Ah don’t think we have much in tha way of games ta play on ‘em. There’s other stuff yah can do though, we have a library of what books we can find, and a few games yah can play around town. Or, at least yah could if, yah know…”

“Right, we still need to see if I can do that.” Moonlight said, folding her wing back to her side. “Well, I guess once we’ve cleaned and relaxed we can try. Kind of, the calm before the storm, right?”

“Yeah,” I said and laid back in the water a little when I noticed Storm was staring at my flanks again. “Still checking me out huh?”

“Nah, Ah was more wonderin’ about yer cutie mark,” Storm said.

“Oh, yeah,” I said as I looked at the twin marks on my flanks of a star that was surrounded by flames. “I don’t really remember how I got it, like a lot of other things really. I know its weird, I guess I never really thought that much about it. Star cutie marks aren’t that uncommon in the Society.”

“Huh, come to think of it, those Alicorns in the jungle when you came and got me, they didn’t have cutie marks from what I remember” Moonlight said, looking back to her own twin crescent moon cutie mark. “I don’t know who or what I’d be without mine.”

“Yeah, though I wish I knew what mine meant,” I said and shook my head a little. I leaned back and closed my eyes, I just wanted to enjoy the moment before we had to worry about something else.

“Hey, did you start the party without me?” A familiar voice said and there was the sound of another pony entering the pool, or Zebra as the case was.

I chuckled lightly when I opened my eyes to see Neivi joining us, and blushed a moment when I realized my eyes fell on her flanks when I opened them up and just shook my head and looked away.

“Thought you’d never join doc” Moonlight said with a smile. “We were just talking about cutie marks, You zebra, you don’t get them do you?”

“Oh sure, but we call them Glyphmarks, they look a bit different than pony cutie marks,” Neivi said as she nodded to a strange grey symbol on her flank.

Darn it Neivi, did you have to keep drawing attention to it?

“Do you have to earn yours, or are you born with it?” Moonlight said, curiously leaning in to get a better look at that glyph. “I got mine singing a lullaby to the foals in the nursery. Still don’t quite understand why.”

“Well, we typically earn them yes, but usually Glyphmarks are connected to whatever Tribe we are part of,” Neivi said with a shrug. “Since I’m Mendi, marks for medicine and potion brewing is pretty common.”

“Is that what yours is?” Moonlight said with a smile, before suddenly turning her attention to storm. “And don’t think we forgot bout you, I wanna hear your story too!”

“Mine means healer specifically, yes,” Neivi said with a nod.

“Oh mine?” Storm asked as she shrugged a little. “Its silly really, yah don’t want ta hear mah cutie mark story.”

“Oh come on, we’ve heard everypony else’s, well except for Lemon, where is she anyway?” I asked as I looked at Neivi.

“Oh, she didn’t want to irradiate the pool so she just went to bed,” Neivi said. “But yeah, come on and tell us Storm. It can’t be that silly.”

“Well, okay, yah ever heard of tha Everfree Forest? Well, tha weather there is a bit, unpredictable and hard ta control,” Storm said as she brushed her mane back a little. “Back when Ah was a filly, some of us liked ta dare each other ta try and tame tha weather there. When it was mah turn, well, it didn’t quite go accordin’ ta plan and Ah wound up bein’ nearly thrown into tha forest. Ah kept tryin’ though, never succeeded but wound up with a cutie mark about tamin’ wild weather anyway, not sure how that works.”

Moonlight giggled some and moved round, slipping behind Storm and spreading those wings “Such a big tough pegasi!” She teased “Betcha torched a few feathers trying, didn’t cha.”

“Yeah, a few,” Storm said as a blush creeped over her face as she felt the Alicorn’s touch. “Like Ah said, its kinda silly. Nopony can tame tha weather over tha Everfree Forest, its been that way even before tha bombs fell.”

“When I was in the stable, and younger, I was told of a group of ponies who tried their hardest to keep wild weather in line, never got told how successful they were, but it was always a nice story to hear.” Moonlight said, releasing those wings and giving Storm a hug. “You’re crazy, but that’s awesome.”

I chuckled and looked at Neivi. “So, uh, what’s the word from Soia, what happened up top?”

“Right after we left and before the rest of the council could even discuss what was going on, Mayor Steel called a town meeting,” Neivi said and brushed her mane back a little with a sigh. “He basically said that the presence of Alicorns in the town was a prelude to an invasion and that we had left to get the rest of the Society or something. Then he invoked 17-B and had anypony he suspected of being a traitor confined. A few made it into the underground, but its not looking good.”

I sighed a little and leaned back as I looked up at the ceiling. “So, what are we supposed to do?”

“I, don’t know,” Neivi admitted with a shake of her head as she sat down next to me. “We’ve got some help coming from Canterbury but Nightingale’s the best protected town in this part of Equestria. It’s not going to be easy, we’re at the moment stuck waiting while we come up with a plan.”

“I see…” I said and sighed a little. “That’s just great.”

“Soia has approved the plan of going into the dreamscape though,” Neivi added. “But she wants me to go with you if possible.”

“You’d have to ask Moonlight, she knows this stuff better than I do,” I said and nodded to the other Alicorn.

“It’s complicated, I’ve only tethered dreams of two, maybe three together at once, I suppose I can do four, but it might seem off if you’re there.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “Then again, it is a dream, you can be anything you want to be, you could even appear as Nightmare Moon herself if you wanted to.”

“Or yah could dream up a mare or two ta…” Storm started to say before she was splashed hard by Neivi. “Hey, what was that fer? Ah didn’t even get ta finish!”

“You didn’t have to!” Neivi said, her face red with embarrassment. “But anyway, yes, its okay if you can’t do it, Soia just wanted me to go just in case.”

“It’s a dream, the worse that could possibly happen is some sort of shadow creature that feeds on guilt and anguish that inhabits the dream realm to find a way into our dreams in an attempt to escape into the real world.” Moonlight said with a chuckle, moving over to the falls themselves and letting the water cascade through her mane and down her back. “Plus, I’ll be there, the dream will be entirely in my control, nothing bad can ever happen.”

“Alright, well, once we’re done here lets do that then,” Neivi said as she yawned a little and looked over at me with a smile.

“Just stay out of Neivi’s dreams,” Storm said with a chuckle. “Given what she reads, Ah’ll bet they’d be fun ta visit.”

I smirked a little and used my telekinesis to hold some water and lifted it above the Pegasus’ head and dumped it on her.

“Hey, what was that fer?” Storm demanded, now even more soaked as me and Neivi just laughed.

Moonlight slipped over beside Storm and smirked. “Wanna show them that Pegasi wings are more than just show?”

“Oh, most definitely,” Storm said with an evil smirk.

Moonlight quite happily taking the lead, with a smirk a mile wide and a laugh befitting of Nightmare Moon, she’d swing her wings through the water, sending a large wave at me and Neivi.

We just laughed and retaliated as best we could. It was nice, to just play with my friends right now, it was something like I felt had always been missing from my life.

I wished it would never end.

00000

“So, how does this work?” Neivi asked as we were getting our beds ready in the temporary quarters we had set up for us.

“Well, like most magic it’s based on desire and want.” Moonlight said, taking a deep breath. “I’ve never reached out this far before, I don’t know if I can reach the mayor but I’ll try. All I have to do is Will our dreams to be combined, and it should put us all into a conscious role within the dream.”

“Good to know,” Neivi said as she took a deep breath and shook her head a little. “Sorry, I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be just fine,” I said and gave her a reassuring smile as I placed my hoof on hers gently. “I trust Moonlight, she knows what she’s doing.”

“Okay, good,” Neivi said with a soft smile as she gave us a nod.

“It’s alright, being apprehensive to this is normal, it’s me - My abilities, and I am still apprehensive how well I can hold this together.” Moonlight said, with a soft smile to us. “Keep in mind, it is a dream, you can do anything you want in it, just - don’t do anything absurd or disruptive, or I’ll fail to hold it together.”

“Got it,” I said and Neivi nodded. “We’ll keep everything as grounded in reality as you can in a dream.”

“So no summonin’ a harem of mares ta wait on yah Neivi,” Storm said with a chuckle. “Unless it’s me of course.”

“Aw, but what If i wanted to dream that up, Hmm?” Moonlight said with a smirk.

“Stop reading my books! I mean, let’s, just get this done,” Neivi said as she blushed deeply and shook her head. “You’re enjoying this way too much aren’t you Storm?”

“Yep,” The Pegasus said with a chuckle as she sat back and adjusted her hat a little. “Ah gotta have mah fun where Ah can.”

“Life’s too short to take seriously, gotta have what fun you can when you can.” Moonlight said, as she climbed up into a bed. “Take it a day at a time, and make the most of a bad situation”

“Moonlight, Ah think we’re gonna be good friends,” Storm said with a chuckle as she tilted her hat a little. “Well, ya’ll stay safe, Ah’ll see yah in tha mornin’, try not ta stumble into anythin’ too kinky.”

“You know what the say bout birds of a feather.” Moonlight said, smiling at Storm before she turned to us. “You two ready?”

“Yeah, we’re ready,” I said and Neivi nodded as we laid back on the beds.

“Alright, you two just need to lay down and try and sleep normally, You’ll know when I’ve taken control.” Moonlight said with a nervous smile. “I’m good at fabricating settings, so if you experience a sudden shift like that, it’s probably just me.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, soon after I was fast asleep.

00000

When my world came into focus I found myself sitting in a bedroom, it took me a moment to remember that it was the same one I had seen in the memory I had shared with Moonlight before, though this time it was empty other than me.

I sighed a little as I looked around, there were a few things here and there, I think I even saw an old poster or something but it was still blurry. Like even if my memories were coming back, I still couldn’t remember all the details of where I lived.

I wonder if this was what my sister was going through, how much did she remember? Why did she remember things when I couldn’t? I sighed and shook my head a little as I looked at myself in the mirror.

The same face, the same body, only younger and without wings. I could remember it belonging to me, but not ever being here, and that saddened me still.

I just wished there was some way to get it all back.

The world warped around me, turning to a field of flowers at first, before an ivory platform surrounded by similarly designed pillars formed under me, First Moonlight would appear before Neivi would appear beside her.

“Alright, This is usually my go-to place, peaceful, quiet, really restful, but I think it might not be suiting for what we need to do.” Moonlight said, looking to me. “Do you remember anything about the society, perhaps something more based on their beliefs or designs?”

“We usually carry out any operations at night,” I said with a nod. “The moon is obviously important as well, so maybe something to do with that… one of us could actually appear as Nightmare Moon or the High Priestess, that might help.”

“Okay, well, I don’t know what the High priestess looks or sounds like so I can’t accurately represent her” Moonlight said, giving her chin a rub. “I could pick at the memories you have of the society, and create a new area based on it, I think.”

“That would work,” I said with a nod. “Alright do it then.”

Moonlight would nod, and a few moments later the world around us would twist and change once more. This time ending with a familiar six pointed star being the centerpiece, the brickwork, the decor, it was based on the temple.

“What is this place? It’s the most prominent memory I could find.” Moonlight said looking around. “It doesn’t have a name, just, temple?”

“It’s what we call it yes, the Temple,” I said with a nod. “Or the Temple of Nightmare Moon.”

“Huh, looks like an old Ministry of Arcane Science Hub to me,” Neivi said as she looked around curiously. “The one up in Haythens I’m guessing.”

“Seems odd to call it a Temple to somepony, when that” Moonlight pointed at the six pointed star. “Is definitely not a moon shape, If anything it reminds me of Twilight, She was one of the ponies that helped make the spell for Stable 27, we’re taught all about her. ”

“I, wish I could tell you, its always kind of been there,” I said with a shake of my head.

“Well Twilight Sparkle was the head of the Ministry of Arcane Science,” Neivi said as she walked around examining it. “Yeah, I’ve heard of buildings like this and reports of a building like this in Haythens. I’d say this is definitely a M.A.S. Hub.”

“Don’t look at me, all I was ever told was that it was a repurposed pre-war building,” I said with a shrug.

“Huh, anyway, time’s a wastin’.” Moonlight said, looking around before clusters of candles started to appear and light around the room, the sky outside turning black with a full moon in clear view. “Alright, Furniture, what kind of stuff would you expect in a conference room in the Society?”

“Hmm, lets see,” I said as I looked around and then gestured around the room. “This is the gathering hall specifically, so there should be rows of wooden benches around here. Then up there on the stage there is a black throne carved out of rock. It’s supposed to be for Nightmare Moon, though the High Priestess uses it.”

“Sounds like your High Priestess thinks herself as important or on the same level as your goddess.” Moonlight said, looking around and giving a sigh. “So much black, god how do you guys not stay depressed all the time.”

“Hey, its a cult that worships Nightmare Moon, what do you expect, sunshine and rainbows?” Neivi asked and then flinched a little. “Sorry Firelight.”

“Its okay, we deserved that,” I said with a shake of my head. “And yeah, the High Priestess is a bit full of herself looking back. I don’t really have an explanation other than that.”

“Still wonder what they wanted from me.” Moonlight said, looking around as the benches and throne appeared. “What they would have me doing right now if you didn’t stop them from taking me.”

“We shouldn’t dwell on that kind of thing Moonlight,” Neivi said as she gave her a reassuring smile. “The important thing is that you’re here with us.”

“Maybe so, but my powers have only grown since they changed me, and with my control over the dream world like this. It makes me wonder just what they would have me do.” Moonlight said with a sigh, walking over to the throne and taking seat in it. “The only other pony in recorded history with this power, was Princess Luna, and well, she is what they worship, in a way. Were they going to try and turn me into Nightmare Moon?”

“Maybe… I wish I could tell you,” I said with a sigh and a shake of my head. “I was just a soldier, they didn’t really tell me these things. We just went where they sent us.”

“Maybe.” Moonlight said, shaking her head before she stood and walked back over to us. “Well, I think we’re ready, except for Neivi - If she’s seen like that, it’ll destroy the entire illusion we’re trying to create.”

“Right,” I said as I looked at Neivi. “What should we do with her?”

Neivi looked thoughtful for a moment. “Sorry, I’m messing this up aren’t I? I don’t know what I can do to help.”

“Well, it’s a dream - you can be or do anything you want to be or do.” Moonlight said, thinking for a moment. “Well, you could always just, change yourself to appear like a nondescript alicorn.”

“Wait, I have an idea,” I said. “I’ve never seen it myself, but there’s a rumor that sometimes Zebras meet with the High Priestess. I’ve heard they have kind of, circular looking stripes around their faces, or at least that’s the rumor. It might be nothing.”

“You mean like this?” Neivi asked as she closed her eyes and her stripes changed so they looked more circular. She frowned a little and narrowed her eyes as she formed a cloak over her body and pulled the hood up.. “They’re Starkatteri Zebras, Star Worshippers, I didn’t know they were in league with the Society.”

“I feel like it's unlikely they are truly in league with them, I think it's more a shaky alliance.” Moonlight said, looking around the room again. “Kind of a, you scratch my back and I scratch yours… Oh, sorry Firelight, I didn’t mean to kind of… invade some of your memories, but I do know several speeches your Priestess gave, she didn’t seem very fond of them.”

“Well, it looks like we’re ready to go,” I said and gave her a nod. “Don’t worry, it’s fine, lets just get this done.”

“Something feels like its missing, like something I’d expect in this setting isn’t here, we have the benches, the throne, candles… the time of night is right, the moon is full… what in the world am I missing here.” Moonlight said, starting to pace.

“Hmm… worshipers maybe?” I asked as I looked around trying to figure out what was missing.

“I think given what we’re trying to do, worshipers may be a bit over the top... was there banners or posters or anything like that? These walls seem really bare to me” Moonlight said, looking around.

“Oh, duh,” I said and facehooved as I quickly described the banners that were usually around.

Moonlight nodding and within moments the banners appearing before she smiled back to me. “Alright, I think we’re ready, everypony take your places. I’ll try and pull the mayor in.”

I nodded and took my place as Neivi did the same. I took a deep breath, something about this felt, weird, like there was something we were missing. Not about the dream, but as if something was nagging at the back of my mind about all of this.

I looked over at Neivi who gave me a nod before putting on a more menacing Zebra look. I just hoped we were doing the right thing.

A few moments passed before the mayor would appear in the middle of that six pointed star in the center of the room. Moonlight turning to face him, doing her best to put on a face of anger and disgust.

“Welcome to my domain, Mayor Steele” Moonlight said, before turning to look to me. “I do believe you are familiar with the both of us.”

“You have angered us and the High Priestess for your actions against the both of us,” I said with my best evil sneer. “We needed help and a place to stay and you cast us aside, and now you and your town will pay for your impudence!”

“Indeed it shall, this transgression against the Society will not go unpunished.” Moonlight said as she walked over to the Mayor. “What say you in your defense.”

“W-what? I’m sorry Priestesses, please don’t hurt me, I didn’t know!” The Mayor said as he knelt before us, tears starting to pour down his face.

“It will require more than this poor attempt at an apology to quell our rage.” Moonlight said, glaring down at him. “Such a pathetic worm, you should know your place and stick to it.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve done everything I’ve been told by the High Priestess,” the Mayor said and with that my blood ran cold. “I give her ponies for the Society and she leaves us alone! That was the deal damn it!”

“We tire of the poor offerings you have given us. The sick, the old, the unwanted.” Moonlight said with a growl to her voice. “Worthless, we require a pony of strength, one with perhaps strong combat knowledge. This, Commander Twist I’ve heard of, she seems to meet what we require.”

“What? But she’s been loyal to us the whole time, she was promised protection!” Steel protested.

“You think we care? You’re nothing to us!” I said, though I hated saying it. “You will give her to us, or you will be the next pony we take, how would you like that?”

The Mayor flinched at that as he looked down at hooves, he was trembling with fear. I hated having to do this, I was acting the part of the monster, even if it was to somepony who was in league with the Society apparently.

I just had to hope that he was more interested in his own self preservation than anything else.

“It, shall be done Priestesses,” he said, the fear evident in his voice.

“Very good.” Moonlight said, leaning down and lifting his head with her hoof. “End this lock down, and gather your guard. We shall address them personally, any semblance of resistance, and a never ending night will descend on this settlement.”

“Yes, of course, I await your arrival tomorrow,” he said still trembling a little.

“We’ll be there,” I said as I scowled at him. “And you had better keep your end of the bargain, or you know what will happen.”

“I will!” He said.

The world around us started to fade to black, till just the four of us stood there. Moonlight turning around and walking away, disappearing into the shadows that consumed the world. “May your night be pleasant, Mayor.” her voice said from the shadows, before the world itself collapsed and shocked us all awake.

00000

I found myself staring up at the rocky ceiling of the quarters that had been made for us. I just stared up at it in silence for a moment, I just stared up at the ceiling.

“You alright, Firelight?” Moonlight said, walking to the side of my bed. “Something seems to be eating at you, would you like to speak about it?”

“I, don’t know, I knew there was something off about the mayor but…” I said as I looked over at them. Neivi was rubbing her head a little and she looked as confused as I felt. “But being in league with the Society?”

“I agree, Though I can sort of understand his predicament. However he seemed more focused on himself then the safety of Nightingale.” Moonlight said, giving a sigh. “Seems that ponies in this day and age have lost morality and gained selfishness.”

“I never liked him, but I thought he was just a jerk, or a bigot at worst,” Neivi said with a groan as she rubbed her head. “We need to go talk to Soia, she needs to know what’s going on. This is bigger than we ever imagined.”

“No need to be brash, there may be more of an explanation then we know.” Moonlight said. “Even if not, it is handled, the Mayor will give up Commander Twist and she’ll most likely turn against him once she knows the safety she was promised was nothing more than a ruse, and his entire operation will collapse. You have already won, it is just time for the clean up.”

“We have bigger problems to worry about,” Neivi said as Lemon and Storm woke up and looked confused. “Yes, he’ll be ousted, and any ponies working with him will turn on him. But, the thing is that if the Society finds out…”

“Nightingale will have a big target on it,” I finished.

“It’s their modus operandi, how they’ve been handling it thus far and it’s unlikely they are to change, its more likely they will try and find another pony they can twist and turn and have be their puppet. I suggest whomever is elected as the new mayor be one that can be trusted, elsewise the Society may sway them to continue the same operation.” Moonlight said and rubbed at her head. “I don’t think I can keep doing things like last night, so let’s hope that it never becomes a common practice.”

“We’ll try not to make it common,” I said with a groan and shook my head a little. “So, then we need to get this information to Soia so we can run damage control here. And, then go out into the town and finish things up.”

“Yeah…” Neivi said with a sigh and shook her head a little. “I need to get up there to the clinic, right now our priority is getting the town back under control. Something tells me that it's not going to be as easy as it seems.”

“Well, we do have two alicorns at our discretion, I remember from the stable being told how the Princesses would magically augment their voices to be heard and obeyed.” Moonlight said, taking a seat and yawning. “Perhaps if we could do the same, we could bring the entirety of Nightingale under control in just a single moment.”

“We can also get help from Canterbury at least,” Neivi added with a nod. “I just hope that you’re right and they won’t attack us outright.”

“Yer kiddin’ right? Yah found out that tha mayor is a traitor or somethin’?” Storm asked as she finally figured out what was going on. “Ah never liked that snake.”

“Well, it’s either he’s a traitor, or he agreed to give the Society ponies to stop them from taking everypony.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I personally can’t tell if he’s doing what he has to in order to protect everypony, or if he’s only interested in protecting himself.”

“If you ask me, its probably the latter,” Neivi said. “He may have hesitated at first, but he sold out Twist after we threatened him.”

“While I am not trying to defend him, I saw it too.” Moonlight said. “He cannot be sure if he did let himself be taken to protect her, if the pony that comes into office next would agree to the same deal he did. It’s still not such a clear cut case, and all down to his end game how he handles this.”

“Agreed,” I finally said and looked at the others. “I just hope we’re doing the right thing here, I don’t want to put the town in danger.”

“Yeah…” Neivi said with a shake of her head.

“Ah’ll see if Ah can get mah friends in tha guard ta help,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “As back up if ya’ll can’t get yer voice thingy workin’.”

“I honestly believe that the society doesn’t wish to attack Nightingale, just from what I’ve seen it is a hardened target, it must not be worth the risk if they have already decided to do this under the table stuff.” Moonlight said, with a soft sigh. “It’s unlikely they are going to give up however, and as I suggested, it’s more likely they will just try and get somepony on the inside to agree to help smuggle out more victims, but this should at least make them less bold.”

“Yeah,” Neivi said with a sigh. “We should go talk to Soia now so we can get ready for what’s going to happen next.”

“You go ahead, there’s some ponies I want to check on,” I said with a nod as I got to my hooves and took a deep breath. “I really hope everything is going to be okay… I feel kind of responsible for all this since it started when I came to town.”

“Believe me, this stuff was bound to boil over eventually,” Lemon said with a snort. “The problems with the mayor were bound to come to a head, you just sped up the process.”

“I’m sure what happened with me didn’t help much.” Moonlight added. “It seems just having Alicorns like us around in general causes an uneasy feeling for a lot of ponies, with what the Society has been doing, I can’t really blame them.”

“Me neither,” I said with a sigh. “And I really hope I don’t have to do something like last night very often… I don’t like acting like I’m evil.”

“Eh, I can do it if need be.” Moonlight said with a shrug. “It’s part of the job when you’re the councilor for an entire stable. Tough love.”

“Yeah, but pretending to be like that? I guess I’m just not used to the idea,” I said with a shake of my head. “Anyway, let’s get going.”

They nodded and we split up. Neivi and Lemon headed to talk to Soia again while I headed off with Storm to check on the fillies.

I just hoped they were going to be okay.

00000

“Miss. Firelight!” Blueberry Muffin and Dawn Star said as we came into the room where the three of them were while Wind Chime looked up shyly.

“What happened last night?” Dawn Star asked. “You said you’d be back, but Miss. Soia said that something happened in town.”

“It’s, complicated,” I said as I looked at Storm Wrangler. I wasn’t sure how much we really should tell them. “I went back to Pearl.”

“You went to Pearl? Why?” Blueberry Muffin asked and even Wind Chime perked her ears up curiously.

“Well, uh, it’s complicated,” I said and looked at Storm. “Do you want to cover this one Storm?”

“Firelight, yer tha one who’s gotta tell them one way or another,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “Auntie Storm ain’t gonna get involved in this.”

“Yeah, I… wait, auntie Storm?” I asked and she just chuckled a little. “I swear that mare drives me crazy.”

“Ms. Storm? She’s kinda cool,” Dawn Star said. “But you didn’t answer Blue’s question, why did you go back to Pearl?”

“I, wanted to see if it would jog any of my memories,” I said with a sigh as I brushed my mane back a little. “I found out recently, thanks to the help of that other Alicorn who was with us Moonlight, that, well, I’m from Pearl. The Society took me away, and, well, we hoped that we’d remember something.”

“Oh,” Dawn Star said and blinked a little. “Really, you’re from Pearl too?”

“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “It surprised me too since I didn’t really maintain any of my memories. I don’t know what happened to my family other than my sister who’s back with the Society and…”

I was cut off when I felt the three fillies hugging me. I looked down at them and smiled softly as I gently wrapped my wings around them protectively.

“You’re like us then,” a soft voice said and I realized that Wind Chime had spoken and I nodded a little.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” I said sadly.

We held that hug for the longest time and I just smiled softly as I looked back at Storm who gave me a nod. We had come a long way and lost a lot, but we had each other.

And that’s what really mattered.

“Hey Firelight,” Neivi said as she walked in and gave us a smile. “I’m glad to see everything’s okay here.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said with a soft smile as I looked down at the fillies. “What’s the word from Soia?”

“Canterbury is sending us back-up if we need it,” Neivi said with a sigh and a shake of her head. “I’m still worried though, this plan could go wrong if it’s not done perfectly.”

“I know, but it’s also our best chance to end this without a fight,” I said with a shake of my head.

“Alright, well, we need to go wake up Moonlight,” Neivi said. “Soia wants to talk to you both before we go topside.”

I nodded and looked down at the three fillies one last time and smiled softly. I knew that we had to do this, but I didn’t want to leave, not yet at least.

“Okay, let’s get going,” I finally said after a moment and knelt down to the three. “Don’t worry you three, we’ll be back soon, I promise.”

I hoped I wasn’t lying.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Fallen Caesar Style.
Details: You've learned some extra tricks in Zebra hoof to hoof combat. You get an extra 5 points in melee.

Chapter 7: Liberation

“The protection the government owes you
And fails to provide,
You are morally bound to
Provide for yourselves.”
-Eugene Debs

“Hey out there in the wild jungles of Equestria, this is Vox Populi coming at you with the latest news from around Equestria. Reports are coming in from the Crystal Wasteland of Changeling infiltrators being fought off by a local group allied with one of the cities up there. I wish the best of luck to everypony up there still fighting the good fight.

In local news however, the town of Nightingale is still being held down tight by the Mayor. There have been reports coming in of some minor resistance efforts, but nothing major. If anypony out in Nightingale is listening to this, don’t give up hope. It’s always the darkest before the dawn, and I promise all of you, that dawn will come.

Now here’s a wartime classic from Sky Bolt, Everybody knows.”

A haunting tune started to play over the radio as we neared the main gathering area in the underground. A stallion’s voice started singing after a moment in a calm, somber voice.

“Everybody knows that a war is coming.

Everybody knows it deep in their hearts.

Everybody knows that the talks are over,

Everybody knows this is just the start.

Everybody knows it’s all over this,

Some gems and some coal traded by the rich.

That’s how it goes,

Everybody knows.”

The gathering area was the central part of the cavern that we had first arrived in when we first came to the underground. A lot of ponies and Zebras were gathered there, some of them I recognized from up top, others I had seen around the underground.

Soia was standing in the center of the group on an elevated platform. The Zebra diplomat was looking uneasy, but she looked like she was getting ready to speak. She sighed a little as she looked out and spotted the five of us and gave me a nod before she started to speak.

“I know we’ve all had a hard time over the past day,” Soia said with a sigh as she looked out at the gathered group. “Nightingale is in bad shape because of the Mayor, good ponies are being put at risk because of his actions. We may have to finally step in and help mediate the situation if the Mayor is removed from his position. This means our group will no longer be hidden away, but we all knew that the secrecy wasn’t going to last forever...”

“I don’t mean to interrupt Miss Soia, but Me and Firelight here have a ‘appointment’ we have to make. I believe it was briefed in at least my report.” Moonlight said with an awkward smile. “Don’t want to give the Mayor time to think about it or change his mind, now do we?”

“No, no we do not,” Soia said with a sigh. “Your plan was, unconventional but it does seem to have produced results. Doctor Neivi confirmed the success of your plan, though I admit that I’m still not sure what to believe,”

Soia got down and walked over at us. The Zebra looked between me and Moonlight and then over at Neivi who nodded a little.

“If this doesn’t go according to plan though, we will have to be ready,” she said with a sigh and a shake of her head. “The Roamani have a saying, no plan survives first contact with the enemy.”

“Don’t remind me, I can feel the dreamscape isn’t pleased with me using it like that.” Moonlight said with a shiver and a shake of her head. “Powerful magic seems to have a mind of its own, I’m only lucky it didn’t intervene.”

“Soia, we’ll be okay,” I said with a nod as I looked back at Neivi for a moment. “The Mayor believes us at least, and we can use that to our advantage. I would prefer to do this without any violence.”

“So would I Firelight, but we both know it’s not always that easy,” Soia said with a shake of her head. “We’ve got help coming in from Canterbury but they won’t be here for a few hours. If this goes south, I need my forces in place to make sure that we can minimize civilian casualties.”

“Understood,” I said with a sigh and a shake of my head. “We’ll do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t go badly.”

“Good,” Soia said and nodded back to Neivi. “Let’s try not to make a habit of this unless it’s necessary, I don’t like poking around in ponies’ dreams. There’s something incredibly unsettling about it.”

“Alright, we’ll leave as soon as we can,” I said and looked back at Moonlight. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“I am as prepared as I ever will be.” Moonlight said with a deep breath and a sigh. “Let’s get this over with, He should be putty in our hooves after the scare we gave him.”

“Of course, Neivi, lets get going,” I said and the Zebra doctor nodded as we headed back out of the cavern and into the tunnel that would take us back to Nightingale.

It was time to finish this once and for all.

00000

As we made our way out of the tunnel and into Nightingale proper, the town was completely quiet. There were a few ponies here and there but they didn’t notice us, they look more confused or worried than anything else, given everything that had happened over the past day I didn’t really blame them.

I sighed as we started up the stairs towards the town hall. That was where Mayor Steel would be waiting, I hated having to deal with this stallion, especially after what he had done to his aide but this was the safest way to do things without putting the town at risk.

That didn’t mean I had to like it.

“Alright, I’m going to the clinic to do damage control and see who needs helping,” Neivi said as she started towards another set of stairs. “Stay safe you two, I don’t want anything to happen to… to you both, yeah.”

“We’ll see you soon Neivi,” I said with a smile as the Zebra nodded and started up the stairs. I blushed a little when I caught myself staring at the Zebra’s flank for a moment and shook my head, I didn’t need to think about that right now. “So, uh, shall we?”

“Sure, lets.” Moonlight said with a chuckle, “Ever get the feeling she doesn’t like me? I mean, sure, I’m kind of, I don’t know, unique, but I can’t help but notice that I seem to make zebra uneasy just being around them.”

I paused for a long moment as I tried to figure out how to answer that question. Both Neivi and Soia did seem a lot more uneasy around Moonlight than they were around me, I wasn’t sure why, at least not right away and then something occurred to me.

“The only thing I can think of is that they you remind them of Nightmare Moon,” I said with a sigh. “There’s a lot in the texts about Zebras well, not trusting Nightmare Moon or any of her followers. I think the fact that you share the same ability as Luna makes them uneasy, especially when mixed with being an Alicorn.”

“Eh, maybe” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I mean, there was a whole week long event when I was born, the whole stable celebrated the birth of ‘a daughter of the moon’ or something like that.”

“Interesting, I wonder what that means,” I said with a shake of my head. “I mean, it could have something to do with Luna or even Nightmare Moon, if you were born into the Society that would be my guess. But I honestly don’t know a lot about your home Stable and its customs and everything, so, it could mean anything.”

“It’s because they said I visited them in their sleep before I was born, I showed my dreamscape powers and they identified that as a trait of the late princess luna, so I guess they said because I mirrored that trait I must be a branch of her power, a daughter of the moon.” Moonlight said and chuckled some. “It’s why they named me Moonlight, because Luna was just too obvious and could lead to confusion.”

“Right, which won’t make things confusing between our two names at all,” I said with a chuckle and shook my head a little. “But really it’s a nice name.”

My ear twitched for a moment as I thought I heard a rustling somewhere above. I looked up into the trees above as if expecting to see something up there. For a moment I could’ve sworn I saw a dark shape but it vanished before I could make it out.

“What the…” I said and blinked a little.

“What the hay.” Moonlight said, looking up in the trees. “What in Celestia’s mane was that.”

“I have no idea…” I said and shook my head. “We should get going though, we’ll worry about that later. It looked too small to be an Alicorn.”

“Alright, so, should we keep up the ruse that we did in the dream or should we be more… ourselves.” Moonlight asked, looking at me as we neared the door.

“Let’s keep the ruse a little longer,” I said with a shake of my head. “At least until the time is right, if he thinks we’re from the Society still we’ll have the advantage and he won’t suspect anything.”

“True, though when no alicorns show up to claim his chief of guard, that could really end up as the cat out of the bag situation.” Moonlight said, looking at that door more intently. “He and all his guard, including her, should be collected behind that door, all waiting for us.”

“Right, all we need to do is hope they buy it,” I said with a nod. “Are you ready for this?”

“There is one of two outcomes behind that door, either he took the cowards way out and lied to them and made them believe some twisted truth to justify what has happened, or he has told them the truth and instead of his head of guard, we will find him bound and gagged, waiting for his judgement at our hooves.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I suppose, I am as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Right, let’s go then, we’ll figure out what to do when we’re in here,” I said and walked forward and pushed the door open.

00000

“Don’t worry, everything is going to be okay, things in Nightingale will soon return to normal,” Mayor Steel said as he spoke to the guards as we opened the door and entered the room. “I assure you all that once everything is finished here we will not have to worry about further incidents in the town.”

“Well, he’s not tied up, that’s not a good sign,” I whispered to Moonlight, the Mayor hadn’t looked up to notice us yet. “I guess he decided to save his own flank again.”

“Excuse us Mayor Steel.” Moonlight said, assuming that now familiar assertive tone. “But, it sounds as though you did not tell your guard the truth, is that safe to assume or am I missing something.”

“Well, uh…” Mayor Steel said and the guards, and in particular Commander Twist looked at him suspiciously. “You see, I was, waiting for… you, yes, I felt it would be better if you two were here, so that things would go more smoothly.”

“Well, we’re here now,” I said and narrowed my eyes at him a little. “Why don’t you tell them the truth now hmm? Or are you too chicken, we can always tell them ourselves you know.”

“Oh yes, do tell them about their glorious future, and how they are all to one by one become new sentinels and guards for the one true goddess of equestria, and live out the remainder of their days serving under the banner of the society, all to protect your flank. This settlement is hardly even worth it, There is next to no value in the ponies living here.” Moonlight said, looking to me with a smirk. “Honestly, our investment may be spent better elsewhere, and we can just go back to taking things by force.”

“What are they talking about? What did you do?” Twist said as she narrowed her eyes at Steel.

“I didn’t have a choice, they were threatening the town if I didn’t agree to turn you over!” Steel said in a panicked voice. “They didn’t give me a choice, you have you under…”

He was cut off by a hoof slamming into his muzzle from Twist. “You son of a bitch, you sold me out. You promised me we wouldn’t be touched by the Society in exchange for letting them take away some ponies and…”

And then she realized she had just said that in front of a room filled with guards, and they were all not happy to hear this. One guard levitated up a rifle and pointed it at the two of them. “You’re both under arrest for conspiracy and treason.”

“Well, that worked better than I expected…” I said with a shake of my head as I looked over at Moonlight and then at the guards who had now turned their attention to us. “Uh, any ideas for what to do now Moonlight?”

“The Truth of course.” Moonlight said, before she stepped infront of me. “Now, I know based on our act you have reason to be angry at us or believe us to be the enemy, I assure you that is not the case. We uncovered the Mayor’s plot and decided to use our unique abilities to bring his treason to light and to let all the good ponies of Nightingale know just who was their leader.”

“And how do we know this isn’t a lie too?” The guard that had spoken before said as he finished locking up the Mayor and Guard Commander. “You two showed up in town out of nowhere, exposed these two as traitors, and now you’re expecting us to just believe your word?”

“What position could we aim to gain from exposing them? We saved your sorry flanks from being forcefully turned into an Alicorn, having your mind erased, and forced to serve under some false god based on old world mentality. If this is the thanks we get for saving this settlement from being whisked away in the darkness, then Screw you guys too and when the Society does come and attack, I know I’m not going to help you guys fend them off.” Moonlight said with a scoff. “The nerve of some ponies, I guess what they say is true - The road to tartarus is paved with good intentions.”

The guards exchanged a look and pointed at us. “Don’t go anywhere, we will discuss this,” the one said and they started to talk amongst themselves.

“I think we were a little too convincing,” I said with a groan as I facehooved a little. “Where’s Neivi when you need her to back us up?”

“Maybe her ‘my bae needs me’ senses are tingling and she’ll come bursting through the door any second.” Moonlight said with a teasing grin.

“First off, what the heck is a bae? Secondly, we’re just friends if that means what I think it means,” I said with a shake of my head. “I mean what are the odds of her coming bursting through that door to our…”

And with that the door burst open and Neivi came in with Storm Wrangler and Lemon Lime close behind.

“Unless that’s exactly what she does…” I said and blinked in surprise. “What are you three doing here?”

“I thought you could use a hoof,” Neivi said with a shrug. “I finished up checking on things and got them topside.”

“Told you, ‘My Bae needs me’ senses.” Moonlight says in a very matter of factly tone.

“Yer a very strange Alicorn yah know that right?” Storm Wrangler asked with a chuckle as she shook her head a little. “So what’s goin’ on here?”

“Short version, the plan worked and exposed Steel and Twist as traitors,” I said and rubbed the back of my head a little. “The problem is that they don’t know what to do with us since all we have is our word that it was only a deception. Well, unless the former Mayor talks, but I don’t think he will.”

“Oh great,” Neivi said with a shake of her head as she walked forward and let out a loud whistle that caught their attention. “Look, I can explain this, you all know me and trust me right? The council has suspected the Mayor for awhile now along with some, associates of ours. When these two came to town, we believed that we had an opportunity to get to the bottom of these disappearances so we asked for their assistance in uncovering the truth. They are friends of Nightingale, and mean us no harm, that I can assure you all.”

“And to be honest, I don’t even know much of anything bout the society outside that they tried to abduct me, dumped a vial of gunk on me turning me into this, and without Firelight’s intervention, who knows what the Society was going to do with me.” Moonlight said with a soft sigh. “I’m just a stable dweller, this world, everything about it, is all new to me, I just, played along and did what I thought was right, hoping to help some ponies along the way.”

“I won’t lie, I was part of the Society, but I’ve turned my back on them,” I said with a shake of my head. “Spending time in this town, meeting Neivi and the others and actually knowing what it’s like out here has opened my eyes. I want to help this town, and anypony else who’s put in danger because of the Society, I promise you that.”

“Alright, we’re convinced,” the head guard said after a moment and sighed a little. “I’m sorry we didn’t trust you before but you understand what the situation looks like.”

“I do,” I said with a sigh and looked back at my friends. “But I also know that I’ve got some good friends here who trust me. That’s really all I need to know.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to feel the same from you and the others.” Moonlight said with a relaxed smile, her eyes drifting towards Storm Wrangler. “Maybe some more then others..”

Storm Wrangler blushed a little and pulled her hat down over her face. “Well, we’re here fer yah whenever yah need it,” she said with a smile. “So, what do we do now?”

“The only thing we can do,” I said and looked back at the guards and at Mayor Steel. “We’ll have to deal with these two traitors.”

“And figure out who’s going to replace them,” Neivi said with a nod. “Welcome to the fun world of politics in the real world.”

“Can I make a motion to waive one of the ‘traitors’?” Moonlight said, lifting her hoof. “I feel like Twist just got caught up in a bad situation and isn’t really happy or fond of what all has happened. I think if given a moment to speak her piece, she will show that she’s not a terrible pony, just a pony trying to make the best of a bad situation.”

“Yes, I was just trying to protect the town from the Society!” Twist said quickly. “As Guard Commander I was able to better protect the town. I never liked the Mayor, I was trying to keep him from going too far, I swear!”

“You backstabbing son of a…” Steel said and was quickly shut up by a butt of a rifle to the face.

“I’ve been dying to do that for awhile,” the guard from before said. “Fine, if she’s genuine she will not be charged, but I think this calls for a demotion at least.”

I sighed a little, it felt like things were finally calming down around here. I just hoped it was going to last.

00000

“Wait, this place is ours?” I asked as I blinked a little and looked around at the small two bedroom house that Neivi and Storm Wrangler had lead us to. A couple of days had passed since the Mayor had been arrested and things were starting to settle down.

Soia and her movement had left the underground to provide what help they could to Nightingale. They were currently in the middle of talking with the rest of the council about exactly what that was going to mean for the future of the settlement.

“Yeah, we can’t really have you two bunking in the clinic anymore and this place has been vacant for awhile,” Neivi said as she turned and looked at me and Moonlight with a soft smile. “You two don’t mind sharing do you?”

“It’ll be fine, bigger than my room in the stable.” Moonlight said, looking around. “Though if I hear noises from Firelight’s room, I might insist some sound dampening.”

“Really, from my room?” I asked and looked at Moonlight with a smirk. “I’m more worried about sounds coming from your room, I’ve seen the way you look at a certain pony.”

“Oh funny girl are you.” Moonlight said with a smirk. “I’ve seen the books Neivi reads, I don’t need to hear things to know what you two get up to.”

“WE’RE NOT A COUPLE!” Me and Neivi shouted at the same time, which just made Storm Wrangler laugh as she came in from the other room.

“Just keep tellin’ yerselves that,” Storm said with a laugh. “This place is pretty much ready ta move into. With everythin’ calmin’ down, Ah’d say that ya’ll shouldn’t get much trouble. Hopefully we can move tha fillies out of tha underground soon.”

“Wait, why are they still down there? Couldn’t they go back to the orphanage?” I asked and Neivi and Storm exchanged a look.

“We’ve kept it under wraps for the most part, but there are some concerns that somepony at the orphanage was working with the Mayor,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “It’s just a precaution of course, once the investigation is over we’ll move them topside permanently again.”

I let out a sigh of relief, though I was still a little worried. After everything that was going on, I didn’t want those three fillies to go through anything else.

“Could move them in here, I’m pretty good with foals.” Moonlight suggested. “And, I think they really have a shining for Firelight, so they don’t need to go back to the orphanage anyway.”

“Well, its up to you Firelight,” Neivi said as she looked at me. “They do like you, especially after they found out you’re from Pearl. You’ve already shown you’re good with them and it would be better than them going back to the orphanage.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” I said with a soft smile as I looked around after a second. “Uh, but where would they sleep? We only have a couple of bedrooms and the living room.”

“They can take my room, I’ll stay on the couch… when we get one. Eh, I’m used to sleeping on the floor anyway.” Moonlight said and smiled at me. “I don’t really need a room anyway.”

“Alright, Ah’ll tell Soia then,” Storm Wrangler said as she started to head out of the house before turning her head and giving her hat a tip. “Ya’ll have a good day, Ah hope yah like yer new home.”

“Thanks,” I said with a nod as Storm headed out.

“So, Moonlight,” Neivi said and looked at the younger Alicorn. “What’s with you and Storm? I mean, you have a mare back in Stable 27, don’t you want to go back to her?”

“Well, life in the stable is different then up here, down there - well, monogamy isn’t the norm, you have to think about the other ponies in the stable and that the stable needs to keep its population strong and diverse.” Moonlight said, sitting and rubbing at the back of her head. “I mean, Citrus already had two other suitors down there, I was just her first pick, she’s probably already moved on with one of them, so I don’t feel guilty about thinking about moving on too.”

“Oh…” Neivi said and shrugged a little. “That’s a bit odd, but I guess we have to expect things are going to be different in Stables.”

“Well, at least you’re not mad she’s stealing her away from you,” I said and Neivi’s eyes went wide and I just chuckled.

“Look, yes I’m into ponies instead of Zebras,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “And I’ll admit Storm is, cute in that wild way. But it’ll never work between us and we both know it, we’ve known each other since we were fillies. Storm’s a good pony, but, I don’t know if she’s the kind of pony for me…”

“Is your kind of pony tall, with wings and a horn, and maybe their name starts with an F?” Moonlight said with a smirk “I’ll outright say it, outside of her presence of course… but, yeah, I am interested in Storm, if I can be that honest you two can be that honest with yourselves and each other too, right?”

Me and Neivi looked at each other and I felt my face turning red. I honestly had no idea what to say, I was still trying to figure out if I really did feel that way about the Zebra, and Neivi wasn’t exactly jumping to answer either.

Maybe I did feel like that about her though, she was nice, cute, smart, pretty much anything anypony would want in a mare. I shook my head, I wasn’t sure what to say honestly, I sighed and was about to say something when there was a loud bell ringing coming from outside and Neivi’s ears perked up.

“That’s the alarm bell,” she said and quickly pushed past Moonlight and out the door.

“Uh, maybe we should follow her,” I said and started for the door too.

00000

As we headed out the first thing that jumped to mind was that it was the Nightmare Society coming to attack us after what had happened with the Mayor. Strangely though as we left the house, there was no sound of gunfire or anything I would’ve expected from a battle.

And that’s when we saw what the source of the alarm was, there was a large, thing hovering above the trees. It was sleek and metallic with clouds coming out of the sides as it maintained its position above the town.

“What in the name of the Goddess is that?” I said as I looked over at Neivi.

“It’s a Raptor class cloudship, from the Enclave Remnant,” Neivi called back as she waved to the pony ringing the bell who finally stopped. “I should’ve known they’d show up here.”

“You don’t sound too pleased with them being here, they don’t seem to be shooting anypony or blowing things up - so I guess there’s bad blood regarding them?” Moonlight said, staring at that cloudship.

“You could say that,” Neivi said as she shook her head a little. “They’ve been here once or twice in the past ten years. They’re usually civil, but, well it tends to vary depending on who they send, and usually they try to get us to join up with them. Still, it beats what they did before the current administration.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard some stories,” I said with a frown as I watched as Pegasi dressed in black insect-like armor started to leave the Raptor along with several large crates. “The Society views them as, and this is the High Priestess’ words mind you, godless monsters.”

“Come on, I need to be there to greet whoever’s in charge,” Neivi said as she started up the stairs towards the town hall as we followed close behind.

“With the Mayor incarcerated, who’s going to represent the town? I mean… There isn’t a new elected official yet.” Moonlight whispered to me.

“I don’t know,” I whispered back. “I think the council, or what’s left of it really, is doing their best to make up for it until one is elected.”

“Well, why don’t one of us stand up, I mean, I think of all the ponies in the town right now we both are the most qualified ponies here.” Moonlight whispered. “And it might be a morale booster to have an Alicorn in power.”

“That’s a bad idea, ponies are only just now getting used to us being around,” I said with a shake of my head. “We’re not in much of a position to do anything, at least right now, ponies might be afraid that it’s a sign of the Society trying to take over.”

“Maybe you’re right, I have a feeling whoever is up in there is going to want to talk to us though.” Moonlight said, giving a soft sigh. “I hope they’re friendly, or this might go south quick, I don’t think Nightingale is in a position to defend if they decide they want to take over.”

“Yeah…” I said and shook my head a little as we reached the top of the stairs to the town hall where several Pegasi were unloading supplies from the boxes. “Neivi, what should we do?”

“Pray,” Neivi said with a sigh as she approached an officer who was directing the rest of the Pegasi to work. “I’m councilmare Neivi from the Nightingale leadership council. Are you in charge here?”

“For the moment, yes, I’ve got orders from the top to get this stuff unloaded,” the officer said as he turned to look at Neivi and frowned a little.

“We didn’t ask for Enclave help,” Neivi said as she narrowed her eyes a little at the officer. “Do you mind telling me why you’re here?”

“Call it a gesture of good faith, between like minded groups,” a smooth accented mare’s voice said. I turned to see a Pegasus mare stepping into view, she had a light blue coat with a darker blue-green mane and tail and was dressed in a suit and tie with a snowflake cutie mark. She was escorted by several ponies dressed in the same armor. “It’s good to see you again Neivi.”

“President Winter Breeze,” Neivi said as she looked a bit surprised. “I didn’t expect to see you come here personally. Why are you even here?”

“As I said, a gesture of good faith,” Winter said as she looked up at me and Moonlight curiously for a moment. “You know very well that I have ponies everywhere, Doctor. After what happened to Mayor Steel, I felt it was time to offer Enclave aid once more.”

“So, you have spies everywhere? What about down in my stable?” Moonlight said with a laugh. “Or do you not really have spies literally everywhere.”

“You’re a very strange Alicorn, you know that right?” Winter asked as she looked at Moonlight strangely for a moment. “But I’m not going to reveal state secrets. We’re simply here to provide aid to Nightingale.”

Neivi frowned a little and I was a bit confused to be honest. Winter didn’t seem that bad, certainly not like anything I had expected from an Enclave leader, why was I getting weird vibes from Neivi?

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have a shower up on your fancy little sky yacht there, would you?” Moonlight said, staring at winter. “I desperately need to clean up”

Winter blinked at Moonlight before she finally chuckled a little bit. “You really are new to the Wasteland aren’t you? Trust me, you’ll get used to the lack of showers, everypony does eventually.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “All your fancy technology, and not even you have showers? Must stable dwellers do everything!”

“Oh, I didn’t say we didn’t have showers,” Winter said with a shake of her head. “But it wouldn’t be a good idea right now. Ponies in this town are a resourceful lot though, I’m sure you’ll figure out what to do.”

“Our answer hasn’t changed,” Neivi said as she finally spoke up again.

“Pride gets you nowhere, Neivi.” Moonlight said. “Think about it, if you agree to accept their aid, their troops can bolster the town guard and protect Nightingale from assaults, a longer standing presence can improve relations and allow for larger improvements to be made. Really there is no reason to say no - they clearly have the best in mind for Nightingale.”

“Doctor Neivi, if you and the Council agrees to this there is a lot of good that can come out of it,” Winter added. “We have provided Nightingale with aid before, but we can provide more medicine and medical training plus food as needed for the town if you join us. We can also provide military training and soldiers to help defend against the Society and any other groups that might be interested in attacking the town, and we both know that you’re going to need that help.”

Neivi paused a moment, I could tell that she was considering it. She had a pained look in her face as if she wasn’t sure what to do even if it was the right call on some level. I gently placed my hoof on her shoulder and gave her a smile.

“And that’s just the start,” Winter continued. “We could provide power, plumbing, running water, we can turn Nightingale from a small town in the trees into a proper town.”

“So, you mean, basic hygiene, like… you know, showers and baths and stuff?” Moonlight said, ears perking and a sparkle in her eye. Turning to Neivi and grabbing her shoulders, giving her a shake “The showers Neivi! Think about the showers!”

“I think you’re a little obsessed with showers,” I said and chuckled a little at the other Alicorn’s behavior as I looked at Neivi for a moment. “Well Neivi, what do you say? I think it sounds like a pretty good deal.”

“I will take it to the Council, but I have a condition,” Neivi said as she slipped from Moonlight’s grip and looked at Winter. “The council is to remain in power as well as members being elected from the citizens of the town. It’s how we’ve always done things, and we don’t want to trade one tyrant for another.”

“If you agree to allow an extra seat on the council for one of my representatives, I accept your terms,” Winter said with a nod. “Nightingale is the jewel of this jungle my old friend, I would rather not see it tarnished. I’m sure the council will agree to these terms.”

She offered Neivi a hoof which the Zebra Doctor shook after a moment. “Of course, I’ll let you know what we decide.”

“Just send word to me aboard the Paxis,” Winter said as she and her guards flew off and back towards the Raptor above.

“Spirits, what are we getting ourselves into,” Neivi said as she watched the Enclave leader and her escort leaving.

“Relax, This is a good thing for Nightingale, I can feel it. Now come on, smile and relax, or I’ll have to crack a few bad jokes again.” Moonlight said, laying a hoof on Neivi’s back. “It’ll all turn out alright in the end, I don’t know why you have this distrust, but sometimes, it’s better to just bury the hatchet, rather than trying to bury it in their backs.”

“What exactly is the problem with making a deal with Winter anyway?” I asked as I looked at Neivi confused. “She seems to want to help.”

“Yeah, she wants to help, but there’s no guarantee that everypony under her leadership will,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “She’s also more, militant than other groups that share similar ideals including us. I don’t know, just, something about the way she does things makes me uneasy.”

“Afraid of the firm hoof?” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Couldn’t of guessed based on some of your reading material. Oh, and by the way, you might want to hide your stash a little better.”

“I’m not…” Neivi said and blushed deeply and shook her head. “I have to go convene with the council if we’re going to make a decision here. I’ll see you two later.”

“Okay,” I said and waved as Neivi headed off before I looked back at Moonlight. “You do know that not everywhere in Equestria is going to have a shower right?”

“Well, not until I get there anyway.” Moonlight said with a coy grin. “Life in a stable have you doing loads of things that may not be a part of your ‘special talent’, I’m certified pipbuck repair pony and general maintenance pony, I can repair and even build things like showers and pumps with nothing but scrap parts. Gotta do your part in the stable, y’know.”

I chuckled a little and nodded. “Lets go find your marefriend and Lemon,” I said and started down another set of stairs towards the ground where Storm had gone off to.

“Not my marefriend… yet.” Moonlight said with a smirk, following along behind me.

“Hey, if you can tease me and Neivi, we get to tease you too,” I said with a laugh.

00000

“Oh hey, we were about ta head topside ta meet up with ya’ll,” Storm said as we headed into the underground where the Pegasus mare was with the three fillies. “Ah just got done tellin’ them tha good news.”

“Are we really living with you two?” Dawn Star asked as she looked up at us with wide eyes. “Storm Wrangler wasn’t kidding right?”

“Of course not, why would she make a joke like that?” I asked with a chuckle as I looked over at Storm who shrugged a little. “Unless you’d rather go back to the orphanage…”

“No, no, that’s fine!” Blueberry said and Wind Chime shook her head a little. “We, don’t really want to go back, at least not right now.”

“Do you, really want us to live with you?” Dawn Star asked.

“Of course,” I said with a smile as I looked down at the fillies. “You three are great, I admit I’m not really used to taking care of foals so I can’t promise I’ll be the best at it, but I want to try at least.”

I looked over at Wind Chime who was looking up at Moonlight curiously and smiled a little. The filly was still not talking to anypony other than her friends and me, but she seemed curious about the younger Alicorn.

“Oh, hello.” Moonlight said, smiling down to Wind Chime, sitting and offering a hoof. “I don’t know if you know who I am, but my name is Moonlight.” She said softly, smiling at that small filly.

Wind Chime recoiled a little and shook her head as she backed up closer to Dawn Star.

“Sorry Miss. Moonlight,” Dawn Star said. “This is Wind Chime, she’s not really opened up to most ponies since what happened to Pearl…”

“I understand, I wasn’t there but I have seen it through… other eyes.” Moonlight said, sadness welling up in her eyes. “You three are amazingly strong, no pony will ever know just what it feels like to be you.”

Dawn Star smiled softly as she hugged her two friends tightly. I smiled a little and gave Moonlight a nod as I looked at the three fillies for a moment. I was only starting to remember what had happened that day, but even then I couldn’t even begin to imagine what they had been through, what they were still going through.

Moonlight was right, they were amazingly strong ponies for their age.

“Thank you,” Blueberry said as she looked at Moonlight with a smile. “Its not easy, we’ve always only had each other, well until Firelight came along.”

“Firelight is a very strong pony too, she’s had to go through some of the most traumatic and painful things.” Moonlight said, looking at me with a smile, before she turned back to the fillies. “You four, you’re in this together and as long as you have eachother, all of you, I know things are going to turn out alright in the end.”

The three fillies looked up at me for a moment and them smiled as the hugged me. I knelt down and hugged them back, gently wrapping my wings around them protectively as I did, I knew that these three were all that was left of my old town, and I wasn’t about to let anything happen to them.

“Thank you,” Dawn Star said softly.

“For what?”

“For being here,” she said and released the hug after a moment. “So, uh what are we going to do now?”

“Well, you three should get your stuff together and we’ll take you up to your new home,” I said with a nod. “Things are getting weird though, the Enclave decided to show up and…”

“Wait, what?” Storm Wrangler asked with her eyes wide. “Did yah say tha Enclave came ta town again?”

“Yeah, what’s got you so surprised, A place like this with the tight knit community, it’s the talk of the town everywhere. You’d have to be underground to miss it.” Moonlight said with a snicker.

“Very funny,” Storm said with a roll of her eyes. “Look, Ah just didn’t expect them ta show up right now is all. Ah shouldn’t be surprised Ah guess, Ah’ve heard they’re startin’ ta make contact with non-aligned settlements around Equestria.”

“Winter Breeze sounded like she had heard about the change of… what?” I said as I looked over at Storm who had a weird look on her face.

“Nothin’, don’t worry about it,” Storm said and waved it off dismissively. “Alright, let’s just get back topside, Ah’m sure Neivi and tha others will take care of it.”

“Well, in that case, come on,” I said and gestured for us to head out of the caverns to head back topside.

00000

“This feels weird,” Storm Wrangler said as we went past a few Enclave soldiers. Most of them ignored us, but I saw a few of them looking at my Pegasus friend with a frown for a moment. “Ah feel like Ah’ve got somethin’ stuck in mah teeth or somethin’.”

“Why are they staring at you?” I asked as I looked over at Storm Wrangler. “I mean, you’re a Pegasus, they’re Pegasi, what’s the problem?”

“Its because Ah left tha Enclave,” Storm said and brushed her mane back a little. “Ah mean, a lot of ponies did but they don’t exactly like it. They see us as Dashites, traitors, tha only reason Ah’m not gettin’ any trouble fer it is because tha President is here."

“Why does that change anything?” I asked.

“Look, yah didn’t hear this from me, but Ah’ve heard Winter Breeze is tryin’ ta reintigrate Dashites into Enclave society,” Storm said quietly. “There’s a mare up in Hoofington Ah met once or twice that went Dashite and has been seen workin’ fer her here and there.”

“I see,” I said as we started up the stairs that lead towards the house.

“What’s the Enclave?” Dawn Star asked as we passed a dark grey Pegasus mare with a purple mane who gave us a strange look. “Are they another settlement?”

“Not quite, more like a government that’s got a lot of pull above tha clouds,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “Or at least it did, its been tryin’ ta get back on its hooves ever since tha Day of Sunshine and Rainbows ta mixed results. It’s, kind of a long story ta be honest, Ah’ll tell ya’ll later.”

“Geez, how many groups are there out there in Equestria?” Blueberry asked and I just chuckled a little at that.

“That’s a complicated question kiddo,” Storm said with a chuckle as she ruffled the filly’s mane a little. “There are quite a few, the Enclave, the NCR, Applejack’s Rangers, Nomad City… Ah’ve lost track honestly.”

I sighed a little and looked back up towards the Paxis. The Raptor was hovering above the town of Nightingale. I had to wonder if the council was actually going to decide to agree to Winter’s offer, it sounded good and she didn’t ask for much in return.

So what was the problem Neivi had with her? Something about all of this felt weird, I just wished I could figure it out. While sure I had heard horror stories about the Enclave, they had come to provide assistance to Nightingale.

So, what was the council going to decide?

“Excuse me,” a mare’s voice said from behind us and we turned to see a dark grey Pegasus mare with a dark purple mane dressed in Enclave armor looking at us.

“Dusk, it’s been awhile,” Storm Wrangler said as she frowned a little at the other Pegasus mare. She didn’t look happy to see Dusk, I made a note to ask her more about that later.

“Storm Wrangler,” Dusk mentioned with a nod before she turned her attention back to me and Moonlight. “President Winter Breeze would like to speak to the two of you, I’m to escort you to the Paxis.”

“She wants to speak with us?” I asked and blinked a little. “Why?”

“Uh oh.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Should we start running now?”

“Sure, but we’ll then shoot you and drag you to the ship anyway,” Dusk said in a tone that suggested she wasn’t kidding. “I would recommend coming now, she’s not a pony you should keep waiting.”

“I think we should come with her,” I said and looked back at Storm Wrangler. “Can you get the fillies to the house?”

“No problem,” Storm said though she wasn’t taking her eyes off Dusk. “Come on, lets go.”

She left with the three fillies before I turned my attention back to Dusk. “Alright, we’ll come peacefully, right Moonlight?”

“I was only joking, Geez.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “As far as I know, we haven’t done anything wrong, so what point is there to running.

Dusk just rolled her eyes and we headed towards the platform where the Enclave transport was waiting.

00000

“Firelight and Moonlight as requested Madam President,” Dusk said as we were lead into the President’s office on the Paxis.

“Thank you Dusk,” Winter said as she looked up from her paperwork. “I’m sure the two of you are wondering why I asked to speak to you.”

“It crossed my mind,” I said.

“Oh, and here I thought you wanted to see us for our stunningly good looks.” Moonight said with a chuckle. “Whats up prez.”

Winter blinked a little as she looked at Moonlight before she continued. “The Enclave has been aware of the existence of the Nightmare Society since one of our soldiers was extracted from Mount Pleasant Island 30 years ago after encountering them. However, it seems that we are not completely up to date as we’ve already learned. Since you two would be the most familiar with the Society I was hoping you could fill in the gaps.”

“Well, I know pretty much what is common knowledge, they break into your homes, treat you nicely and trick you into trusting them, then start abducting ponies in silence.” Moonlight said with a shrug. “Least, that’s what they did down in my stable.”

“Interesting, we had intel that they were targeting Stables looking for something,” Winter said as she looked at me. “And you?”

“I lived in the Society for six years, I can’t tell you everything though,” I said with a shake of my head. “We… they’ve been based out of Haythens in the temple for as long as I can remember.”

“What about numbers, defenses, that kind of thing,” Winter asked.

“It’s a good sized group, but only part of it is military,” I said with a shake of my head. “As for defenses, I honestly don’t know everything about it. The High Priestess and the other Priestesses used their magic to repel any attackers, usually Raiders or the occasional wild animal from the jungle. Well, except the time this crazy dragon attacked.”

“A dragon, how did they handle that?” Winter asked as she looked at me curiously. “That’s not something your average IMP Alicorn can repel, even a small group of them.”

“When the dragon attacked the High Priestess used some sort of spell,” I said with a shake of my head. “She drew on the magical energy of all the Alicorns in the Society and attacked it personally. It, didn’t exactly go well for the Dragon. Well, that was how we stopped one of them at least.”

“What is there a dragon magnet under the Temple or something?” Winter asked.

“Well, no but a younger dragon showed up once, she was kind of golden colored, looked kind of weird, not sure if she was a full blooded dragon now that I think about it…” I said and shook my head. “She was after something in the Temple, but I don’t really know what.”

“It’s not a temple, It’s a M.A.S. hub, it has an archive in the basement full of every experiment that they ever did.” A voice said from behind. “And while I’ll take the golden scales comment as a compliment, you ever comment about not being full blooded dragon, I’ll show you how full blooded I am.”

“She’s behind me isn’t she?” I asked and Winter nodded as I turned back to see the same dragon from before. “Well, uh, hi, this is awkward…”

“I have a name you know.” She said, walking over to Winter’s desk and throwing a stack of folders down. “It isn’t my fault you guys set up in a treasure trove of pre war information and technology and then refused to let anyone else play with your ball.”

“Thank you, Midas,” Winter said as she gathered up the folders. “And don’t take it personally, she’s new to the Wasteland.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, Midas,” I said as I gave the dragon a look, she really did have some weird more pony-like features but I wasn’t going to say that out loud. “You have, very nice scales, whatever color they are.”

“Most would say amber” Midas said, turning her attention back to Winter. “Alright, gave you all the intel you wanted, time to hold up your end of the bargain there snowflake.”

Winter frowned a little and shook her head at the name before she reached into her desk and took out a bag before tossing it to her. “You realize you’re talking to the President of the Enclave right?”

“Sorry sorry, President Snowflake.” Midas said with a smirk, snatching the bag out of the air. “Better?”

“Yes, much,” Winter said with a roll of her eyes. “Thank you for your help then Goldenrod. If you ever have any more intel you know how to contact us.”

“Oh ho, touche there” Midas said with a smirk. “See you later then snowball.”

“Of course Gild,” Winter said and waved her off a little before she turned her attention back to us. “Sorry, I didn’t expect her to walk in right after you said that. She’s one of the best intelligence gatherers in Equestria.”

“I prefer information broker.” Midas said as she waved and walked out the door, Moonlight hardly able to contain her laughter at this point.

“You meet the weirdest beings in this line of work,” Winter said before she gave us a nod. “Thank you both for your time, the Nightmare Society is one of the biggest threats to Equestria right now and the Enclave takes it very seriously. It’s why we came to Nightingale to begin with.”

“I’m glad to help however I can, but I only know so much about its inner workings,” I said with a shake of my head. “Are you going to be able to help protect the town and other settlements?”

Winter paused a moment and sighed as she looked out a window for a moment before looking back at us. “We’ll help as best we can, as long as the Council agrees to our terms we can provide Nightingale and any other settlements that join aid and military defense. However, we’re not as strong as we once were and our military can’t be spread too thin, especially given we have other things to deal with. I can promise that we’ll help as best we can against the Society, but we’ll have to approach this carefully if they are that powerful.”

“To be fair, that is the defense of their citadel, from what I’ve heard they aren’t nearly that strong when they attack places.” Moonlight said, looking from me to winter. “It seems like, a majority of them stay with the temple, and only the highest ranking and trusted members are allowed out.”

“That is pretty accurate,” I said with a nod.

“And, exactly how did you know that?” Winter asked as she looked at Moonlight. “I was under the impression you hadn’t been to the Temple, or Hub as it seems to be.”

“Well, she’s kind of been in my head a few times,” I said.

“In, your head?” Winter asked. “What does she mean by that?”

“I kind of, can walk the dreamscape.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “Kind of like Princess Luna, with a much more limited range”

“Curious, you’re the second pony I’ve heard of with some variation of that,” Winter said and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “If we remain here overnight I would ask that you stay out of my dreams. State secrets and all that, I’m sure you understand.”

“I think you’re mostly out of range, Like I said… limited range.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “I learned the hard way to stay out of Neivi’s dreams, and Firelight’s too unless invited.”

“Of course, I’m just making sure,” Winter said with a nod. “Do, I want to know what happened with the Councilmare’s dreams?”

“I could get you a few books, I know where she keeps them.” Moonlight said with a smirk. “Though I don’t know where Firelight gets her inspiration for some of the things she has going on up there.”

“Anyway,” I said as I quickly tried to change the subject. “Is there anything else you want to ask us or are we free to go?”

“Of course, if anything else comes to mind feel free to talk to Dusk or any of the others and they’ll tell me,” Winter said with a nod. “Thank you for your help.”

“I can say this much, because it’s recent history for me.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “When they take ponies, they dose them with a potion that makes them change into Alicorns, it takes away their memory.”

“They also have illusion magic and limited mind control,” I added with a sigh. “I don’t know who can do that specifically, but it is something to keep in mind.”

“We’ll keep it in mind, thank you,” Winter said with a nod. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”

“The food up here sucks.” Moonlight said with a chuckle.

Winter actually laughed a little at that. “Tell me something I don’t know, trust me it could be worse. Try living in a refugee camp sometime.”

“You mean it gets worse then mutated fruits and vegetables, irradiated water, and friendly woodland critters?” Moonlight said with a chuckle.

“Try living on military rations, trust me you’ll be begging for all of those things,” Winter said with a shake of her head. “Anyway, I need to go over the information Midas brought, so unless there’s anything else.”

“No, I think we’re fine, I’m glad to have helped,” I said and gave Moonlight a nod. “Lets go, you can hang out with the President later.”

“Dusk, escort them out, make sure they get back home,” Winter said and Dusk nodded as she escorted us back out of the ship.

00000

“Well, ya’ll are still alive, that’s a good sign,” Storm said as we came into the small house where she and Lemon were waiting with the fillies.

“Are you sure? Darn, I thought I died and went to Elysium, I swear I’m seeing angels.” Moonlight said, smiling at Storm

Storm blushed a little and returned the smile. “Yer quite tha flatterer,” she said with a chuckle before she shook her head. “So, what did she want with ya’ll anyway? Yah don’t exactly get called ta talk ta tha leader of a major faction every day.”

“She wanted to get any information we had on the Society,” I said with a shrug. “We told her what we knew, but the Priestesses kept a lot from me so I could only tell her so much.”

“It makes sense, Ah’ve heard Winter’s got ponies everywhere, except in tha Society,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “A crazy cult that wipes yer memories would be hard ta infiltrate Ah suppose.”

The door opened and Neivi came in and plopped down on the couch. She looked tired, she probably had just finished meeting with the council.

“Hey Neivi,” I said with a smile. “Is everything okay?”

“The downside to politics, even with three ponies it’s hard to reach a decision sometimes,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “We’re going to announce it soon, but we decided to take Winter’s offer. As long as she keeps her end of the bargain of course.”

“Of course,” I said with a nod. “I’m still kind of trying to figure out what the problem is with her, she seems nice.”

“There are a lot of stories around Equestria about what the Enclave has done, even after Winter took over,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “And Soia told me about them in Zebrica under a General named Stardust. They’re in league with the Starkatteri. So, its not easy to trust them at face value.”

“I see,” I said with a frown. “Did we make the right choice then?”

“Honestly? We made the only choice we could,” Neivi said. “We need help if we’re going to survive right now and as difficult as the choice was, it was the right one.”

“Hey, from everything I seen from Winter, she’s a good pony with a good head on her shoulders.” Moonlight said with a nod. “She means us well and honestly, being that I never knew the boogeyman that you talk about, I guess it gives me more of a unbiased opinion.”

“Yes, thank you Moonlight,” Neivi said with a sigh but she smiled a little. “That actually does make me feel a little better.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll face everything that comes together,” I said with a smile. “There’s nothing Equestria can throw at us that we can’t handle together.”

“Ah hope yer right,” Storm Wrangler said with a shake of her head. “Ah don’t like this ta be honest, but if yah think its tha right call Ah’m behind ya’ll all tha way.”

“Good, I get the feeling we’re going to need it,” Neivi said.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Black Sun.

Details: You’re starting to tap more into the strange abilities that you are only now beginning to understand. You gain an extra boost to your damage while combined with magic based attacks and access to special conversation options when using Illusion magic.

Chapter 8: Sour Note

“A nation’s culture resides in
The Heart and soul of its people.”
-Mahatma Gandhi.

After everything that had happened, it seemed like life was truly coming back to Nightingale with the arrival of the Enclave. Sure more than a few ponies were a bit uneasy around the black armor clad Pegasi still, but they hadn’t caused any problems around the town, so far at least.

Somehow, it felt like Nightingale was returning to how it had been before everything had happened. Me and Moonlight still got a few looks as we headed up to the town hall for the announcement, but most just ignored us.

“Never thought Ah’d see tha day,” Storm commented with a shake of her head as we went past some Enclave soldiers talking with a shop owner. “This whole thing feels, weird ta me still, but it ain’t mah choice.”

“How do you think the rest of the town will react?” I asked as I looked between my friends for a moment. “I mean, if any of the stories I’ve heard about the Enclave are true, then I’m sure there would be some that don’t agree with the council’s decision.”

“True or not, it’s something you can’t let flavor and taint everything.” Moonlight said with a shake of her head. “Frankly, I don’t see any reason to be afraid of them or dislike them, like I said, nothing they did in their past affected me, and they aren’t hurting me now, so why should I worry about a future with them? Isn’t that the same for most of you here?”

“Yeah, the Enclave barely had any presence here during Operation Cauterize and all previous interactions were fairly positive,” Neivi said with a sigh. “So, in truth there isn’t much risk of that. That doesn’t make it easier to accept sometimes, but it’s what is best for the town right now.”

“What if I blamed you for all the things the Zebra did?” Moonlight said, Looking to Neivi. “My being in that stable, is a direct consequence to your people’s actions, What if I let that flavor every interaction I have with you, how would that make you feel?”

Neivi paused a moment, the Zebra looked like she was thinking that over before she sighed and nodded. “You’re right of course, I’ve had that happen to me more than once. I’ll be more open minded about it for now, thank you.”

“If I really wanted to be cruel, I could point out and draw connections to things like, how me and Firelight ended up like this and how that can be drawn back to the Zebra during the war.” Moonlight said with a shrug and a chuckle. “But, stories are stories for a reason, to not be forgotten so they are never repeated, but not to create fear and anguish.”

“Alright, you’ve convinced me,” Neivi said. “I’ll give the Enclave the benefit of a doubt. Thank you Moonlight, you’ve given me a lot to think about right now.”

We reached the top of the stairs where the town hall was. Winter was standing there along with the rest of the council and a few guards. Winter noticed us and gave us a nod as more ponies and Zebras arrived.

“Well, wish me luck, I need to be up there,” Neivi said as she trotted up to the area next to the rest of the council. She gave Winter a small smile and the light blue Pegasus nodded and gave a small smile back.

“Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “It’s easy to forget and get caught up in things.”

“She’ll be fine,” I said with a chuckle as I watched the Zebra and smiled softly. “She’s a good mare. She can get through this for the good of the town, I know it.”

“Now if she can just get up tha courage ta tell yah how she feels,” Storm Wrangler said with a chuckle and I just shook my head and ignored her comment.

“Come on, they’re about to start,” Lemon Lime said in her gruff voice. “You can tease Firelight about her love life later.”

Moonlight smiled and nudged Storm. “But teasing about love lifes is our favorite past time, isn’t it.”

“Oh yes definitely,” Storm said with a grin. “It’s tha most fun Ah’ve had in years. But, yah know there’s an easy way ta stop us right?”

“Right, because then you’ll bug us about other things,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Darn it, she’s onto us,” Storm said with a chuckle.

“Oh no, whatever shall we do!” Moonlight said “Guess we’ll have to figure out something else to heckle them over.”

I was about to say something else when Neivi stepped up to the podium and began to speak. “I know the last few days haven’t been easy for any of us. The Mayor did a lot of things that we’re going to have to try and rebuild from. We’re going to have to make some hard choices, but they are choices we’ve had to make.”

She pauses a little and looks out at us before locking eyes with me as I gave her a slight nod.

“But as friends told me recently, we have to look past the stories and what happened in the past,” she continued as she looked back at Winter. “We are in need of help and our friends at the Enclave and President Winter Breeze have offered their aid. This isn’t an easy decision to make, and I will understand if not all of you agree to the Council’s decision. After deliberation and a vote, we’ve decided to accept her offer of joining the Enclave.”

A murmur went up from the crowd of gathered ponies. There was a projection spell that was sending it out around town so anypony (or Zebra) that wasn’t there was able to hear it. I was a little worried for a moment, but things settled down after a moment.

“We believe that this is the right choice to make for the good of the town,” Neivi said and looked back at the rest of the council who nodded. “The council will remain the authority in Nightingale as long as you will have us. There will be very little changes from how things are currently run, but we will have more supplies and support from the Enclave. These are tough times and we need all the allies we can get. Now, President Breeze would like to say a few words.”

Winter nodded as Neivi moved back to her spot and took the podium. The neatly dressed Pegasus looked out at the gathered citizens before she began to speak. The Enclave President spoke in a calm, kind and almost motherly voice.

“I know this isn’t going to be easy for some of you,” Winter said. “There are many ponies out there that are faced with this same decision. We’re not monsters, we’re not the boogeymare, we’re here to help out as best we can in order to make Equestria a better place. For over 200 years we’ve done nothing but survive, the time has come to truly rebuild. The Lightbringer and ponies like her have shown us that, and it’s not enough to just build here and there. We are going to rebuild Equestria, together, with your help, and with ours. This world will thrive again, but we have to do it together, and stand united. Thank you, and I promise that I will do everything I can to make sure that you’re all well taken care of. This is your home, and we’re not going to take that away from you.”

She smiled a little before she returned to her spot. There was a moment of silence before there was a cheer and applause from the gathered crowd.

I looked over at Neivi and smiled as I gave her a nod. I got the feeling that everything was going to be okay.

As the crowd dispersed and Winter returned to the Paxis with her guards, Neivi walked back towards us and let out a sigh of relief. “I’ve never really been one for speaking, but that was nerve wracking.”

“You did fine,” I said with a smile as I noticed Storm and Moonlight talking off to the side. “I’m just glad that it went so well.”

“Yeah, me too,” Neivi said with a soft smile as she looked away from me for a moment. “Still, I’m kind of worried about what might happen next. This isn’t going to go unnoticed, and not everyone is going to be as understanding about it.”

I frowned a little, she was right of course. I had heard more than a few horror stories about the Enclave in the Society. While some of them were probably just lies, it was kind of hard to differentiate between the lies and the truth.

But then again, I had heard many stories about Zebras before I met Neivi. Maybe some interaction with the Enclave would do some good for Equestria, I just hoped that I was right.

“Neivi, you made the right decision, I know it,” I finally said as I gave the Zebra mare a smile. “You’re one of the smartest ponies… sorry, beings that I’ve ever met. You gave me a chance that most wouldn’t, I think it’s time we give the Enclave that same chance.”

“Agreed,” Neivi said with a sigh. “Firelight, I’m honestly a little bit afraid. When I was elected I promised to do everything I could to protect this town. I’m… afraid that I can’t do that anymore, that I’ve been compromised.”

“Neivi, you’re the kindest mare I’ve ever known,” I said as I placed a hoof on her shoulder gently. “You’ve done more for me and I’m sure for this town than anyone else, I’m glad I met you. I don’t know what I would be right now if I didn’t.”

Neivi paused a moment and smiled a little as she hugged me tight. I smiled a little and hugged her back as I gently wrapped my wings around the Zebra mare gently. She felt warm against my chest as she nuzzled me lightly.

“Firelight, I…” Neivi started to say and paused a moment as she looked up at me.

“What is it Neivi?” I asked with a slight tilt of my head.

“With everything that’s going on, I feel like I should say something…” she said softly as she looked down at her hooves. “Ever since you woke up and we started to talk and I got to know you, I’ve, started to have feelings for you. I, don’t even know if you’d feel the same way about me, but, I wanted to tell you.”

I blinked, I couldn’t believe she had actually said that. I just stared at her in the eyes for a moment as I tried to figure out what to say. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I panicked, I let her go and my horn glowed orange as I teleported away.

00000

When the flash from the teleportation spell faded away I realized I was standing above the trees. I was on the same platform that me and Neivi had climbed up to the other day. I sighed and sat down to look over the town.

Neivi had feelings for me, I had never had a mare admit that about me, not a mare I cared about like that. What was I supposed to do? I had never actually felt like that about another pony, or Zebra I guess.

Goddess, what had I done? I had panicked and teleported away instead of trying to talk to her. What had I done? She was probably freaking out and crying over what had happened, I felt horrible, but what was I supposed to tell her?

“Firelight, what are you going to do with yourself…” I said softly as I looked down into the town. “Maybe I should just leave town, I just screwed up with one of the best friends I’ve ever had…”

“Or you could go back and apologize and admit your feelings.” Moonlight said as she landed in the platform next to me. “Neivi is a very understanding mare, she’ll understand that you panicked and over reacted.”

I sighed a little as I looked over at her. “But what am I supposed to actually do or say? She, I mean… she and I, we… I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!”

“I guess the Society never really prepared you for the eventuality of a partner, did it?” Moonlight said with a sigh. “Well, could always handle it like we did down in the stable, just do what comes natural, go with the flow, if you two are meant to be, it’ll just click and things will work without any effort.”

“I don’t even know if I can do that,” I said with a sigh. “I don’t even know how I feel about Neivi. I’m still trying to figure everything out about myself, and if I even would have feelings for her. What if I screw up somehow? What if I don’t feel that way?”

“I had the same questions when I got my first partner.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “It, sounds odd but it’s just, the way of life down there, anyway... “ She paused, taking a deep breath. “My mom told me, that love is kind and forgiving, so even if you mess up or don’t feel the same way, I think everything will work out in the end, right?”

“Maybe,” I said with a sigh. “But at the same time I don’t want to hurt Neivi, again. I know nothing about love beyond seeing what a couple of Alicorns in my Wing had, and, well I don’t even completely understand that. What should I do?”

“Well, how does Neivi make you feel?” Moonlight said with a smile. “Love is a pretty distinctive feeling, should be pretty easy to tell if you feel the same.”

“Well, she’s smart, kind, beautiful… I’ve only known her a few days but I’d trust her with my life,” I said with a sigh. “When I’m around her, I’m happy, moreso than with my other friends. I, guess sometimes I do feel an attraction to her, but, I thought it was more about all the confusing thoughts I’ve had since waking up.”

“Tell me.” Moonlight said, outstretching a wing to me. “Do you feel… complete, when you’re with her? At peace, like no matter what the world throws at you, you can take it and keep going?”

I thought about that for a long moment as I went over the feelings I had while I was around Neivi. It wasn’t easy to put it into words I had to admit, but I could feel that same thing she was saying.

“Yes,” I finally said. “That’s exactly how I feel, and when I’m not with her I feel, empty somehow.”

“Like you can’t live without her, like you feel so, deathly alone and you miss her when she is away?” Moonlight said, her smile growing a bit more.

“Yes, that’s exactly how I…” I said and facehooved. “I’ve got it bad don’t I? I’m in love with Neivi. What am I supposed to do, how do I tell her?”

“Follow your heart, something else that my mom told me, my other mom this time.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Love is wise.”

“Your mom sounds like a smart pony,” I said with a sigh. “Do you think Neivi will even hear me out? I mean, she poured her heart to me and I ran away… that would hurt any pony, or Zebra.”

“Well, I think she is a very understanding pony, or rather, Zebra - that, and I think that Storm is probably doing a good job at helping her understand that this is something new to you and that it came out of the blue and startled you.” Moonlight said with a chuckle and a shake of her head. “Either way, running away ain’t gunna fix anything.”

“You’re right, I’ll go talk to her,” I said as I got to my hooves and looked down towards the clinic. “Wish me luck.”

“Don’t need you wish you luck, I rather wish you confidence and security.” Moonlight said with a smile. “You’re already pretty lucky, though the lack of the other two tends to be your downfall.”

“Thanks,” I said as I looked at my wings for a moment before I shook my head and went over to the line that would take me down to the ground. My wings were almost healed, but I didn’t want to put it at faith that I’d be able to fly there. “And no spying on us, got it? This is a private moment.”

“I would never” Moonlight said with a smirk. “What kind of mare do you think I am?”

“You better not have your hooves crossed,” I said and narrowed my eyes a little as I secured the line.

“Oh come on, what do you think we are, school ponies?” Moonlight said, giving me a slight nudge.

“You teased me about having feelings for her, that proves you’re capable of that kind of thing,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “I’ll see you later Moonlight.”

I squeezed the attachment and slid down the rope away from Moonlight and the platform. I just hoped that she was right and this was going to work out.

Or I really would have to leave town.

00000

I paused outside of the clinic as I prepared to knock on the door. I was still a bit nervous about this, especially now that I was about to come face-to-face with Neivi and try and tell her how I felt.

I sighed, there wasn’t any point in putting it off so I raised my hoof to knock on the door when it flew open revealing Storm Wrangler standing on the other side. She did not look happy to see me.

“Yah hear ta rub tha salt in her wound some more?” She asked in an annoyed tone of voice. “Yah nearly broke her heart back there Firelight, yah better be here ta make it right.”

“I am,” I said with a sigh as I looked at the purple pegasus. “I’m sorry really, I had a lot to think about but Moonlight helped me sort things out. I want to have a chance to make it right, if Neivi will talk to me.”

Storm paused a moment and sighed. “Ah’ll talk ta her, but if she ain’t ready yet yah should give her time, okay?”

“Okay,” I said and Storm closed the door as she headed back inside, leaving me standing there as I waited for her to come back.

While I waited I tried to think of what I was going to tell her. Moonlight was right, Neivi was an understanding mare and would probably at least want to talk to me. I stood back and waited, a million thoughts going through my brain as I did.

I was going to have to apologize to Neivi first, I couldn’t imagine what had been going through her mind after I teleported away. I sighed and shook my head, this was not going to be easy but I knew what I had to do.

Finally the door opened and Storm and Lemon were standing there. Lemon eyed me and frowned a little. “Are you sure you’re ready to talk to her?” She asked in her raspy voice.

“Very sure,” I said with confidence that I didn’t entirely feel. “I want to set things right.”

“Alright, you can come in,” Lemon said as they moved out of the way and gestured for me to enter the clinic. “But if you hurt her again, well, I don’t want to think about it.”

“I won’t, I hope,” I said, the second part was softer.

I walked inside the clinic as I adjusted my wings a little. Neivi was seated at her desk as she was reading a book, she looked like she had been crying but had calmed down.

“Neivi?” I asked softly as the Zebra mare looked up, her glasses were slightly askew but she adjusted them so they were on her muzzle.

“Oh hey Firelight,” she said with a weak smile. “Look, I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t think about how you might react.”

“Neivi, its okay, I’m the one who should be apologizing,” I said with a sigh as I took a seat on the bed close to her. “I ran off instead of facing my feelings and trying to sort through everything. I panicked because I wasn’t sure how I felt about you, or of love in general, I’m still new to all of this you know.”

“Yeah, I figured as much,” Neivi said with a sigh. “I should have thought of that at the time, but I didn’t. If, you don’t feel the same way about me then I understand and I’ll drop the subject.”

“That’s not true,” I said softly and she looked up at me surprised. “I, wasn’t really sure how I felt about you but I talked with Moonlight before I came here. She helped me sort out my feelings, and probably stopped me from making the biggest mistake of my life.”

“So, what did you figure out?” Neivi asked as she moved in closer.

“That I love you Neivi,” I said as I gently placed my hoof on the Zebra’s cheek and gave her a smile. “I love you and I want you to know that. I made a mistake by running away from you, but I’m going to do everything I can too make up for that.”

“You, really mean that?” Neivi asked with a smile. “You love me?”

“With all my heart,” I said softly as I pulled her in close. “I just wish that I had figured it out earlier.”

“Well, better late than never,” Neivi said with a chuckle and then leaned up and kissed me on the lips.

I smiled a little and kissed her back. It was my first real kiss, it felt wonderful as we shared our first kiss. I gently wrapped my wings around her as we fell back onto the bed together as the kiss was deepened, becoming more passionate.

I never felt happier than I did in that moment.

Neivi blushed a little as she broke the kiss and chuckled a little. “Well, we’re going to have to break the news to our friends so they can’t tease us anymore.”

“Or, we could leave it ambiguous to mess with them a bit longer,” I said with a chuckle as I nuzzled her gently. “Might be fun.”

“Hmm, good point,” Neivi said with a laugh as she snuggled with me. “I just want to stay here with you for a little while though. Let them stew over it before we tell them.”

“Yeah,” I said with a soft smile as I pulled the Zebra mare in closer. “Sounds perfect to me. Does, this mean you’re my… what do you call it when your special somepony is a Zebra?”

Neivi just chuckled and nuzzled me gently. “Just marefriend is fine, its less complicated that way.”

I nodded a little and we just laid together on the bed. I kept my wings and legs wrapped around the beautiful Zebra mare as we shared this moment together. I didn’t care about anything other than making her happy, and I was glad that we had done this finally.

Now it was just a matter of telling our friends.

Our moment was however interrupted by the sound of a loud sneeze. I facehooved as I looked up to see a familiar hat being pulled down as I facehooved a little.

“I told Moonlight not to spy on us,” I said with a groan.

“And you believed that she wouldn’t?” Neivi asked with a laugh. “Trust me, I know her type, she’s probably right outside.”

“Come on, let’s go talk to them,” I said as Neivi got off me and we headed to the door where I heard Storm and Lemon talking.

“Ah don’t think they heard me, they ain’t out here yet,” she said quietly.

“Storm, I think they heard you in Canterbury,” Lemon Lime whispered back with a groan. “If they didn’t hear it I’d be shocked.”

“Yeah, we heard it,” I said as we pushed the door open, which made the eavesdroppers jump. “You know it’s rude to eavesdrop on ponies, especially ones that are your friends and could be doing other things.”

“We weren’t eavesdroppin’, we were, uh…” Storm said. “Just checkin’ on tha sidin’ here, Ah was thinkin’ that it kinda needs some repairs or somethin’.”

“Riiight,” I said as I noticed Moonlight nearby. “And what were you doing, you said you wouldn’t spy on us.”

“Are you inspecting the railings or something maybe?” Neivi asked with a chuckle.

“I wasn’t spying on you like I promised, I am as good as my word.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “I was watching them spy though, big difference between doing it and watching it be done.”

“Yeah, we’re not buying that,” I said with a shake of my head. “You’re trying to get info on us either way, shame on you.”

“Buy it or not, I know I’m good on my word.” Moonlight said, shrugging “So say your harsh words, but I know at the end of the day my conscience is clean.”

“You know we would’ve just told you, eventually,” Neivi said with a roll of her eyes as she leaned up and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“Oh come on, Moonlight ain’t like that,” Storm said. “If she gave her word that she won’t spy on ya’ll, Ah know she wouldn’t do that.”

“To be honest, I would of rather been out getting something to eat like a certain somepony promised me, but she decided that eavesdropping on her friends was more important then keeping a lunch date.” Moonlight said, smirking at Storm.

Storm blushed a little. “Well… see, Ah was gonna… but Ah wanted ta… yah know… make sure Firelight didn’t run off again…”

“Or burst into a fit of jealous rage, either or.” Moonlight said, giggling to herself. “But if you don’t believe me, I’m sure you can ask any of the ponies that passed through here, they can tell you I’m not lying.”

I just laughed as Storm pulled her hat down to try and cover up her blush. That’s when I felt a tail brushing against my flank lightly and chuckled a little when I turned to see Neivi who gave me a wink.

“You know, lunch actually does sound kind of good,” the Zebra said with a chuckle. “What do you say Firelight, care to escort a lady to share a meal?”

“I would be delighted,” I said with a smile as I nuzzled her gently. “Besides, it gives these three time to think about what to tease us about next.”

“I would ask when we could expect kids, but Firelight already beat me to the punch on that.” Moonlight said with a giggle.

“We’re not even… never mind, lets just go,” Neivi said with a shake of her head as we headed off together.

00000

“You seem happier than normal today Ms. Firelight,” Dawn Star commented as I tucked the fillies into bed that night. Blueberry and Wind Chime were already fast asleep, but the young Unicorn was trying hard to stay awake.

“Well, me and Neivi, well, we…” I said as I tried to put it into words.

“Oh, you’re dating now, is that it?” Dawn Star asked with a chuckle. “About time, I was just talking with Wind Chime earlier about how you two seemed interested in each other.”

“Did everypony notice it?” I asked with a groan. “I thought it wasn’t nearly that noticable.”

“No, I think there’s a guard on the night shift that missed it,” Dawn said with a chuckle as she yawned a little. “But I owe Blueberry 5 caps now, thank you very much.”

“What, you bet on whether or not we’d get together?” I asked.

“No, we bet on when you’d get together, I thought you’d wait at least another week or two,” Dawn said and yawned again as she laid back. “Do I have to go to sleep now?”

“Yes Dawn, you do,” I said with a chuckle. “I’ll see you tomorrow bright and early, you still have to go to school you know.”

“Darn it,” Dawn said as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

I smiled a little and headed to the door to the bedroom and left as I gently shut it, looking back at the three fillies for a moment I smiled a little.

“Good night,” I said quietly as I shut the door and turned around to head to my own room as the sound of music was heard.

“Now we'll make it out

We'll stick together and get through this storm somehow

It's too late to back down and run

Hope is gone, but harmony's strong

We've had the power in us all along

To embrace the heroes that we've become.”

I was a bit surprised to see that Moonlight was wide awake despite the late hour. She was getting things ready around the house for the night while she hummed a tune to herself. I was tired but I was a bit curious.

“Getting ready for the night huh?”

“Yep, somepony’s gotta do it.” Moonlight said with a smile. “Lining the walkways with Lavender, humming lullabies and just, ushering in the night.”

“What’s that song you’re humming?” I asked curiously.

“I, Honestly don’t know.” Moonlight said, looking to me. “I wasn’t aware I was humming a song just now.”

“It sounded like a song to me, but I dunno,” I said as I tried to think about it. “It, almost sounded familiar actually.”

“Huh, well - I do have a lot of work to do, don’t let me keep you up.” Moonlight said with a smile before she went about her work, it wasn’t long till she started humming that familiar tune, every now and then she’d speak a word or two, but she still seemed entirely unaware that she had started to hum and sing.

The tune still bugged me a little, but I just shrugged it off as I headed to my bedroom. I heard her sing a full line.

“Come little children, I’ll take thee away into a land of enchantment

Come little children, the time come to play, here in my garden of shadows.”

I paused a moment, I knew that, it was from one of the hymns of the Nightmare Society, a song called Children of the Night. But why was Moonlight humming and singing it?

I sighed and shook my head, I wasn’t sure if I should tell her, it might just wind up worrying her more than anything else. I slid out of my black armored robes and collapsed onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling for a long moment.

I was happy, happier than I had ever been in my life. I had good friends, an amazing marefriend, and a place to live in Nightingale. We had saved the town from a threat, but it felt like our work was far from done.

I didn’t want to think about that right now, right now I just wanted to relax and get a good night’s sleep. I levitated the blankets over me and closed my eyes as I drifted off to sleep.

00000

I found myself in a pitch black room, I looked around panicked as if expecting something to jump out at me. Even with my enhanced night vision I couldn’t make anything out in the darkness that surrounded me.

“Firelight…” A familiar sounding mare’s voice echoed through the room.

“Who’s there?” I asked as I looked around, my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest as I tried to find the source of the voice. “You don’t scare me… show yourself!”

“Oh, really? I don’t scare you?” The voice said as I tried not to shiver as every word seemed to send shivers down my spine. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt something brush against me. “You hide it well.”

“What do you want?” I demanded fearfully. “What do you want with me?”

“You have something I want,” the voice said again from beside me, I turned to try and see it but it wasn’t there. Then I heard the voice whispering in my ear. “I want it, and you will give it back to me.”

“Moonlight, where are you? Help me!” I cried out, trying to gather magic in my horn but it just fizzled out.

“You have no power here, Firebrand,” the voice said, I was trying to process what I was hearing before I realized who it was, it was the High Priestess. “You took something from us that we need, and I will not let you keep it. Just like you took things from them.”

“You pretend to be one of us, but I see the truth,” a familiar raspy voice said as Lemon seemed to appear out of nowhere. “I thought you would be better, but I’ve seen your true colors. You brought chaos to our town, you put foals in danger, you took away our chance at peace.”

“What? No, that’s not…” I started to say as Lemon vanished into the shadows around me. “Lemon, listen to me… I didn’t…”

“Didn’t what?” A familiar accented voice said as I turned to see Storm standing there. “Didn’t mean ta bring that, thing into tha town? Ah trusted yah, we all trusted yah and one of yah was bad enough. Now yah expect us ta all play nice while a shadow walks amongst us? Ah don’t think so, Ah’d rather trust tha Enclave, at least Ah know what ta expect from them.”

“Storm, wait!” I said and lunged at her but she vanished into the shadows before my hooves could make contact with her. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Hello Firelight,” a soft purr said from behind me and I flinched as I turned to see Neivi standing there as she sauntered up to me, running her hoof along my chest a little. “Such a shame isn’t it, only a few hours together, but I’ve already found love with another.”

“Wait, what?” I said as the Zebra circled around me for a moment.

“Yes, there’s another I’m afraid, but…” she said as she got up close to me and whispered in my ear. “If she was to say, vanish… then she wouldn’t be in the way of our love now would she? All you have to do is…”

“Okay, hold it right there,” I said, finally snapping out of my confusion. “I don’t know who you really are, but Neivi would NEVER act like that. She’s the nicest mare in town, she puts others ahead of herself and she loves me with all her heart. She would never cast me aside and tell me that I can have her back if I get rid of another pony. WHO ARE YOU?”

The figure that looked like Neivi frowned as she vanished into the shadow like all the others.

“You think you’re so clever don’t you?” The voice continued as the shadows gathered together and the towering figure of the High Priestess appeared before me. “For a murderer, you killed one of the Priestesses, a mare I have known for years and was loyal to the society. She was a good pony, a principled pony, and you cut her down. You know the punishment for murder, do you not Firebrand?”

“Death,” I said through gritted teeth as Alicorns dressed in the garb of the High Priestess’ high guards appeared before me and aimed their rifles at me.

“But, we are not without mercy,” the High Priestess said as she paced behind the firing squad as they aimed their rifles at me. “If you repent, and come back into the fold along with Moonlight, we will show compassion. You know what you have to do my child, come back and together we will bring peace and order to Equestria. If not, you will be shot where you stand.”

I paused a moment, to do that would be betraying my friends and everything I had worked towards. Most of all, it would be betraying Neivi, I couldn’t betray her, not now, not ever.

“Thank you, but I would rather die on my hooves than live on my knees,” I said and closed my eyes and waited for the feeling of the bullets piercing me.

But that feeling never came, instead the whole world around me seemed to go silent. When I opened my eyes again, I was surprised to find myself lying in a field looking up at the night sky.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I looked around confused. “What happened?”

“I rescued you from the nightmare,” a soft mare’s voice said from behind me. “You have nothing to fear anymore.”

“Who…” I said and turned around to see who had spoken to me. Standing before me was a tall Alicorn, she was dark blue with a long flowing blue and purple mane and tail that had lights in it that sparkled like stars. She had black on her neck and flank that had a crescent moon on it. “You’re, Princess Luna?”

“Indeed, I still have some pieces of myself wandering this Dreamscape,” Luna said as she gave me a soft smile. “When I sensed your plight, I knew that I had to act.”

I bowed my head slightly, I had no idea what to do now, but I smiled a little. “Thank you Princess, it means a lot that you would help me.”

“Of course, you are very welcome,” Luna said with a smile before her face turned sad. “Firelight, I am truly sorry that this has happened to you and the others. There were whispers of these Nightmare worshippers during the war, but we did not take them seriously. If we had then there is a chance this may not have happened. And since I was once Nightmare Moon…”

“Princess Luna, I don’t blame you,” I said as my head snapped up to look at the Alicorn in front of me. “I don’t think you would condone what the Nightmare Society is doing to ponies, even if you were still Nightmare Moon. You have nothing to apologize for. The only pony who is to blame is the High Priestess.”

Luna paused a moment as if thinking over what I just said before she smiled a little. “Perhaps you are right, but you have nothing left to worry about tonight. The force that invaded your dreams has been weakened and will not bother you again for now. I only ask that you be careful out there.”

“Be careful?” I asked and looked at her curiously.

“The Nightmare Society will never stop unless they are defeated,” Luna said as she shook her head with a sigh. “You and your friends have a lot of trials ahead of you, but I am sure you can overcome them together. You are lucky to have such good friends.”

“Thank you, I… I know,” I said with a soft smile. “I’m just glad I found them.”

“Of course, I will see you again,” Luna said as she bowed her head slightly and vanished, and after a moment the world around me turned white.

00000

I groaned as I rolled over in bed and looked at the light coming in through the window. I checked the time on my PipBuck, it was only 0830. I rubbed my head a little, last night had been a headache both figuratively and literally.

I got dressed and trudged out of the room, I made a mental note to talk to Moonlight about what had happened last night. She might have some idea what happened with Luna and…

When I entered the living room I realized something was wrong right away. While it had some things around there was something missing, Moonlight. I went to check on the fillies but they were already awake and getting ready to go.

“Hey, did any of you see Moonlight this morning?” I asked.

“Huh? Oh, no,” Blueberry said as she looked at her friends. “Did any of you see her?”

“No, can’t say that I did,” Dawn said and Wind Chime just shook her head. “Why do you ask?”

“She doesn’t seem to be here is all, I’m sure she’s okay,” I said with a sigh and gave them a nod before there was a knock at the door. “Thanks anyway.”

I headed to the front door and opened it to find Neivi standing there with a worried look on her face. “Hey Firelight, is everything okay here?”

“Uh, yeah, everything is fine,” I said and looked confused for a moment. “What’s wrong? Did something happen last night?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Neivi said with a sigh as she adjusted her glasses a little. “A guard came by the Clinic last night, with an unconscious Moonlight. As best we can tell sometime last night she left the house and passed out on the walkway near here.”

“What happened? Does she know anything? Is she awake?” I asked rapidly, I was more worried for Moonlight than anything else right now.

“Physically she’s fine,” Neivi said reassuringly. “The best we can tell is that she blacked out after you went to bed. Was she acting weird last night?”

“Well, no, she was pretty much acting normally,” I said as I thought back to last night. “Except she was humming and sang a bit of one of the Society’s Hymns, Children of the Night. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but that’s the only thing I can think of that would be considered weird.”

“Children of the Night, I see,” Neivi said with a pause as if she was thinking about something. “Okay, we need to get to the clinic, Storm will come by and get the fillies to the schoolhouse. If you can think of anything else that might help, now’s the time to tell me.”

I nodded as we headed out of the house together. I kept thinking about the nightmare I had last night, Moonlight had intervened before when I was having a nightmare, but something about this felt, off.

I had a bad feeling about all of this. It felt like the threat to Nightingale wasn’t quite over yet. If somepony had managed to infiltrate my dreams, that might mean any number of things. I just hoped that we were going to be able to figure this out.

“There is one thing,” I said softly as we walked towards the clinic, and I began telling Neivi about what I had experienced last night.

00000

I just finished telling her what happened as we entered the clinic. Neivi looked worried as she opened the door and we walked in together.

“You’re absolutely certain?” She asked as she shut the door behind her and I nodded. “That does sound like it could be dream manipulation like Moonlight has shown. But, I thought Moonlight was the only one in town that could do that.”

“As far as I know she is,” I said with a sigh as I paused a moment. “It’s like we’re missing a piece of the puzzle, did we miss anything?”

“Well let’s see,” Neivi said as she thought about it for a moment. “We found out somepony was using mind control to get ponies out of the town. We exposed the Mayor and his co-conspirators as being connected to the Society and ousted him. But, what could we have missed…”

I thought about it for a long moment and then a chill ran up my spine as it clicked. The nightmare, Moonlight blacking out and finding herself outside, the one thing we hadn’t accounted for.

“Did we ever find out who was behind the mind control?” I asked as we looked at each other as that thought sank in.

“Filius canis,” Neivi said in a tone that heavily implied that she was cursing. “No, we didn’t, we were focused on the Mayor.”

“Come on, let’s go talk to Moonlight,” I said as we headed over to Moonlight’s bed. “Hey Moonlight, how are you feeling?”

“I feel like somepony tried to close my head in the stable door..” Moonlight said, rubbing at her head.

“I’ll brew a potion to help with that,” Neivi said with a sigh. “But we’re working on a theory, do you remember making contact with anypony strange yesterday or recently?”

“No, not that I can think of…” Moonlight said, giving a groan. “It hurts to think right now… the last thing I can remember is I was placing lavender around the house and walkways to help ponies sleep, and then nothing…”

“I see,” I said with a sigh as I brushed my mane back a little. “We think you may have fallen under the control of the same pony that took victims out of the town before. We were hoping that you might have some clue as to their identity.”

Neivi got up and went over to start working on a remedy for the headache while I sat down next to Moonlight’s bed.

“You said I was singing a song, did that have something to do with it?” Moonlight said, looking at me. “Maybe that’s how they reach out to you and get you...”

“Children of the Night,” I said softly as I remembered the song. “Supposedly it was a song the Goddess sung as she gathered the titular Children. Its, something of an old legend in Equestria and the Society has done what they can to search for them, if there are any left at this point. But, that makes a lot of sense to me, its the only thing we can think of at least.”

“The mind is vulnerable to songs, it’s something we learned down in the stable a long time ago.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “There was a song the overmare thought would cause everypony to be calm so she used the stables speakers to play it, but it just, riled everyone up, and fights were prominent all over the stable.”

“I see,” I said and sighed a little. “Yes, that does seem consistent with the way music was used in the Society. During services the hymns seemed to have an almost, hypnotic quality, and it was easy to get swept up in it and sing along even if you didn’t want to. Music is a powerful thing, and there can be magic in those notes.”

“Imagine the kinds of messages that could be encoded into the notes and melodies, snuck into your mind while it believes it’s just listening to a beautiful tune, and embedded, waiting to wake up.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “This is… all very disturbing.”

“I agree,” Neivi said with a shake of her head as she continued to work. “I’ve heard my fair share of stories about the power of music in Equestria going back to before the war. Ponies spontaneously breaking into song despite not knowing the tune, or any music that should be present for that matter. Its weird if you ask me.”

“So, then we’re dealing with somepony who can manipulate using music,” I said and sighed a little. “This is not good, that’s much harder to avoid than somepony who uses magic.”

“For all we know, they have used music to implant instructions in your mind long ago, and it’s just… waiting for a trigger, just the right cadence or melody.” Moonlight said, “The only time I remember being in contact with the Society, was when they were trying to take me.”

“Which means, anypony in town could be a sleeper agent,” Neivi said as we all let that sink in. “Not even foals would be safe from this style of attack. This is a bigger problem than we thought.”

“So, then what are we going to do about it?” I asked. “Make everypony tone deaf?”

“Radios need to be controlled or outlawed.” Moonlight said, getting to her hooves. “If it takes music to trigger, then music needs to be policed.”

“The only radio and music everypony listens to is…” Neivi said as her eyes went wide for a moment. “Vox Populi’s show out of Canterbury, you’re not suggesting…”

“They have mind control, this Vox Populi could be used as a puppet to trigger sleeper agents, and be none the wiser” Moonlight said with a groan. “That, or the Society listens too and picks songs that they play as triggers, but that lets go of control because who knows when that song may be played next.”

“So, what are we going to do?” I asked as I looked between the two of them and Neivi sighed a little.

“I’m supposed to go to Canterbury to improve relations with the settlement,” the Zebra said. “If we all go, then we can meet with Vox and see if there’s anything we can do about this. It’s a long shot, but right now it may be our only option.”

“May want to tell the Enclave first, it may look suspicious otherwise.” Moonlight said with a sigh and looked to me. “Did anything happen after I blacked out? I’m terrified that I may of hurt somepony.”

I paused a moment and sighed. “I had a nightmare last night, if you were under mind control it’s possible that they were using your dreamwalking to affect it.”

“But other than that, I don’t believe you hurt anypony,” Neivi said reassuringly.

“May want to ask around, ask if anypony else had nightmares… I was out for a while” Moonlight said, looking between myself and the Zebra. “To give one pony a nightmare, takes only a couple of minutes, I was out for hours.”

“I’ll ask around,” Neivi said as she dipped something into the potion she was brewing and trotted over to Firelight and gave it to her. “Here, this should help with your headache.”

“I think I’ll be fine.” Moonlight said, pushing it away. “I don’t like taking things that I don’t need, it hurts, doesn’t mean I can’t.”

“Alright, well let me know if you change your mind,” Neivi said as she put it away. “I’ll inform Soia of the situation as well. And we’ll have to figure out what to do with the fillies while we’re gone, the jungle is no place for them.”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh as I shook my head a little. “We’ll have to find somepony we can trust and isn’t likely to have been affected by the music already.”

“Who’s to say they aren’t affected themselves? They’ve been placed under Mind control before, and have been exposed to the society several times, they could be sleeper agents too.” Moonlight said, taking a deep breath. “They aren’t scared of taking children, who’s to say they aren’t scared of using them to take or manipulate others?”

“She’s right,” Neivi said with a sigh. “But we don’t have a lot of options, unless you’re suggesting we take three fillies through the harshest jungle in Equestria. Teleportation isn’t an option because Firelight’s never even been there.”

“We, could fly there,” I suggested. “I mean, there’s a flying ship above us that probably has smaller craft, we could ask the Enclave.”

“They did promise aid,” Moonlight said with a nod.

“They did, this is going to take some getting used to,” Neivi said with a sigh. “Alright, I’ll talk with the President about getting us access to a Vertibuck when I explain the situation with the Society. Hopefully this will do the trick.”

“Yeah, hopefully,” I said with a sigh. “So, what are we supposed to actually do with this information? This is a threat to everypony here, we can’t just tell them to turn off their radios without giving an explanation. But at the same time, if they find out that any of them could be a sleeper agent…”

“Then it’ll make the situation worse,” Neivi finished. “Families will turn on each other, friends and neighbors will start pointing hooves at each other for the smallest things.”

“Indeed,” I said with a sigh. “So, what are we going to do?”

“Jam the radio?” Moonlight suggested. “The Enclave probably have a radio jammer on that ship, jam the frequency of the radio station, no pony needs to know it’s on purpose, they’ll just think the transmitter is out.”

“Something else to talk to her about I see,” Neivi said and nodded a little. “Alright, at least we have something of a plan. Hopefully the Society won’t get suspicious, we’ll manage somehow, I hope.”

“Alright,” I said with a nod. “Is there anything else?”

“What is the Society likely to do if they do get suspicious that their method of control and activating their agents has been compromised?” Moonlight asked. “I mean, they can’t attack Nightingale, it’s too hard a target, they can’t use sleeper agents, and infiltration takes time, this would only be for a few days”

“They’d…” I said and paused a moment. “They’d probably up the attacks on other settlements to get more recruits. Or they’ll be patient and attempt infiltration or even set up an alternative source of mind control.”

“All of which will buy us time,” Neivi added. “There are a lot of settlements around here that don’t have all the protection Nightingale does, but if we can help them out, we might be able to form a unified force against the Society’s incursions.”

“So, the plan is to, go to the other settlements and hope they listen to us?” I asked and looked at her for a moment. “You want to send, two Alicorns, one of which is dressed in Nightmare Society robes, to other settlements in hopes of convincing them to join a, what, coalition?”

“Well, when you put it that way…” Neivi said. “Maybe it’s time we get you a new wardrobe.”

“I probably have a spare stable suit around here.” Moonlight said with a shrug. “It might fit, we’re not too different in size.”

“That works,” I said with a sigh. “Alright, well we better get started if we’re going to get everything done before we leave for Canterbury.”

“Right,” Neivi said. “Are you going to be okay Moonlight? Any more problems?”

“My head still hurts, but I’m fine.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “I’ve had worse run ins, usually involving some sort of drink or narcotic”

“Alright then, I’ll go get a ride up to the Paxis,” Neivi said as she gave me a kiss on the lips. “I’ll see you soon Firelight.”

I smiled a little and nuzzled her gently. I smiled a little and watched her go, she smiled a little as she wiggled her flanks at me lightly before she headed out the front door to the clinic.

“Come on, we should go get the Stable suit and talk to the fillies,” I said as I got to my hooves.

“Right, come to think of it have we checked for another drop from Citrus?” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “She’s probably brought up multiple things for us”

“Good idea, let’s check on that,” I said with a nod. “Sounds like we won’t be in this area for awhile anyway so it would be a good idea.”

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea for the both of us to go, especially with my compromised state.” Moonlight said. “Perhaps I should stay here, I could look after the fillies and make sure everything stays the way you left it.”

“I don’t know,” I said with a shake of my head. “Remember, everypony here could potentially be compromised including the fillies. If you come with us then we can keep a closer eye on you at least. Besides, the one that compromised you is likely here in Nightingale, it’s more dangerous for you to be left here than it is for you to come with us.”

“But what if something happens while we’re away, no pony will be here to mediate.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I think if we all left like this, it’d make Nightingale vulnerable to attack in similar ways to how I was.”

“What about the Enclave? They can keep the peace and deal with any problems that arise,” I pointed out and then shook my head. “Moonlight, it’s going to be okay, we’re all in this together and we’ll make sure that you are kept safe from the Society. I promise.”

“How can you be so sure.” Moonlight said as she turned away. “I thought I was safe and look what happened, They attacked me, got into my head and made me do things to you and who knows how many others. What if next time they do something worse, what if next time they make me actually hurt someone.”

“Then we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” I said and shook my head. “You have more of a risk of doing that if you stay here than if you go with us. Please Moonlight, come with us, it's a better option than you staying here and putting yourself at greater risk.”

“And what if I am right, and going to this Vox Populi is just going to make things worse, for all we know they are an Alicorn and working with the Society” Moonlight said, giving a sigh and a shake of her head. “Going to the source is all this feels like to me.”

“We have to take that risk,” I said with a shake of my head. “Yes, you have reason to be scared, things out there aren’t going to be easy. But we’re all taking a chance here, heck look at me, I spent six years in the Society, I’m afraid they did the same thing to me and could trigger it at any time. But I’m not letting that fear get in the way of what needs to be done. This is our best chance to stop the Society from doing this to anypony else, and if you’re a risk, we all are. Come on Moonlight, we need to do this, I promise you everything will be okay.”

“I’m starting to think, more and more, that this was a bad choice…” Moonlight said with a sigh. “If I never convinced them to take me, made myself a good target, I’d still be down in that stable safe and sound and none the wiser.”

“You don’t know that,” I pointed out. “The Society wants you for some reason, even if you hadn’t convinced them you may have been targeted eventually. And if you were targeted, you and I both know that they probably would’ve put Citrus and your unborn foal at risk. Yes, it was a hard choice but being out here at the very least kept them safe from the Society. You can’t let fear rule your life Moonlight.”

“How do you think I know what I do about you and your sister” Moonlight said, turning back to face me and glaring at me. “I visited her in her dream, I let her know about my dream walking ability, I knew the stories of how it was something Luna did, and that Luna is your goddess, and that if I could get them to look at me like they thought I was Luna or something, they’d take me.”

“Hey, Ah got tha…” Storm said as she opened the door and walked in and noticed what was going on. “What’s goin’ on here?”

“Nothing..” Moonlight said, turning to face Storm.

“It don’t look like nothin’ ta me,” Storm said as she looked between us. “Yah mind tellin’ me what’s got ya’ll so worked up?”

“We need to go to Canterbury, but Moonlight thinks that if she goes she’ll be a danger,” I said as I shot Moonlight a look. “I think that’s ridiculous given the, current situation and that it would be better if she came with us. But she won’t listen to reason.”

“I just, want to go home” Moonlight said, looking back at me then back to Storm. “Back to the stable, back to where things were safe and I didn’t need to worry about mind control or being attacked.”

“Moonlight, yah know that if yah go back now yer gonna put everypony in there at risk right?” Storm pointed out. “Look, Ah get where yer comin’ from, but as long as yer a target fer tha Society nowhere is gonna be safe, especially not tha Stable. Tha best thing yah can do fer them is stay out here and help take down tha Society.”

“Storm’s right,” I said. “You can’t turn back time and change what happened right now. What you can do is make sure that nopony else suffers the same fate, and the best way to do that is to go with us to Canterbury.”

“Besides, if yah were still in tha Stable, yah wouldn’t…” Storm said and blushed a little as she let that trail off.

“I wouldn’t of met you.” Moonlight said with a smile. “But what if they have some other programming in me, and that it’d make me hurt you if it got set off?”

“Okay, start from tha beginnin’, what’s this about programmin’?” Storm asked as we explained what we had figured out. “Okay, Ah see what yah mean, but if yer right about all of this, then doesn’t that same risk apply ta all of us? We ain’t gonna just hide away and never talk ta anypony again.”

“Difference here is, you’re talking in maybes and uncertainty.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “We know I am affected, we know that I’ve already been used once, you and the others, its a maybe, could be, possibly, for me, it is a reality.”

“Oh fer tha love of…” Storm said as she faehooved. “Moonlight, if yah come with us then yah will have less of a chance of somethin’ happenin’. And even if it does, we’ll be there ta help yah, Ah’ll be there ta help yah. Yah know Ah won’t let anythin’ happen ta yah, and Ah ain’t leavin’ yer side until Ah’m sure that there won’t be somethin’ threatenin’ yah.”

Moonlight stared at Storm, a look of shock and confusion for a few moments before her features softened and she smiled at that pegasus. “Thank you.” Moonlight whispered as she reached out and pulled storm into a hug.

Storm smiled as she hugged her back. “Moonlight, Ah care about yah… a lot…”

“I know.” Moonlight said softly and smiled up at her. “You’re everything I ever wanted, bundled into just one package.”

“Oh will you two just kiss already?” I said with a chuckle.

“Who’s ta say we haven’t?” Storm said with a chuckle. “Or, other things we could do together.”

“Okay, I’m going to go talk to the fillies before I get that image in my brain,” I said as I headed for the door. “Just don’t make too much of a mess here, I don’t think Neivi would like it very much.”

“Oh come on, it’s not like we’re all over each other… all the time.” Moonlight said and waved a hoof at me with a grin.

“Yep, just gonna go before I get that image in my head,” I said and quickly darted out the door before they could say anything else.

“Hey Firelight,” Neivi said as she came up to me. “Well I just finished talking with the President. She agreed to loan us a Vertibuck and is jamming any radio signals going into the town.”

“Okay good,” I said and let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll go to the schoolhouse to talk to the teacher and the fillies.”

“I’ll join you, just let me get some stuff from the clinic,” Neivi said as she started to walk towards the clinic door.

“Uh Neivi, you might not want to do that, we can get them later…” I said as I started to walk after her.

“Nonsense, there’s nothing in there that can be that bad,” Neivi said as she turned around and gave me a kiss on the lips. “Don’t worry, I’ll just be a minute.”

“But you really should…” I started to say but she just opened the door and went inside. “I tried to warn her.”

“BY THE SPIRITS! COULDN’T YOU HAVE AT LEAST USED ONE OF THE COTS?” Neivi shouted from inside.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Heart and Soul.

Details: You’ve gained a better reputation among the local ponies, but your enemies may have a harder time accepting this. Your status in the town of Nightingale has gone up, and ponies will begin to trust you more, for good and for bad.

Chapter 9: Diplomacy

“Many will call me an adventurer -
And that I am of a different sort:
One of those people who risks his skin
To prove his platitudes.”
-Che Guevara.

“Have you ever been on one of these things?” I asked as I looked over at Neivi and the others.

“Once,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “I didn’t really like it, mostly because Storm here was the one flying it.”

“Hey, mah flyin’ wasn’t that bad,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “Yah take a mare out fer one joyride in a Vertibuck and she never lets yah forget it.”

“Don’t worry Firelight,” Lemon said with a chuckle as Storm and Neivi brought the fillies over. “I’m sure whoever is flying this thing will be more, professional than Storm is.”

“Hey!” Storm said in protest as we headed towards the Vertibuck that was going to take us to Canterbury. “What are you worried about anyway Firelight? You have wings, you must fly all the time.”

“Well yeah, but under my own power, I don’t know, I just…” I said and shook my head. “I’m just…”

“Are you afraid of flying?” Neivi asked.

“Maybe…” I said with a shrug. “I don’t know, I don’t really, understand that kind of machine, maybe…”

Before I could finish that sentence the pilot of the Vertibuck climbed out and I stopped in mid-stride. She was smaller than I expected (okay everypony looked small to me, I’m an Alicorn, it happens), practically a foal as she waved us over.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me…” I said and turned back around. “That’s it, I’m walking…”

“Oh come on, she’s just a bit on tha short side,” Storm said as she pulled me back. “Sorry, she’s just a bit nervous about flyin’.”

“Oh it’s no big deal.” The short filly said with a smile. “She couldn’t be in better hooves, I mean, There’s gotta be a reason the president likes to tow me around with her everywhere.”

I calmed down a little after that. “Sorry, I’ve just never been in one of those before is all, at least not for very long.”

“Oh it’s not so bad.” The filly said, holding her hoof out to me. “The name’s Butterscotch, though everypony calls me Peanut.”

“Firelight,” I said with a soft smile as I shook her hoof. “Aren’t you a little young to be flying Vertibucks for the President of the Enclave?”

“Maybe, but there’s a war looming and wars past ain’t been too kind, Enclave isn’t exactly picky about who they draft.” Peanut said with a shrug. “Just doing what I can to help.”

“Can we fly too?” Dawn Star asked.

“No, definitely not,” I said with a chuckle and shook my head a little. “Well, uh, thank you and President Breeze for being willing to give us a ride to Canterbury. I know Nightingale has only been in the Enclave for a short time.”

“Just keep Storm away from the controls,” Neivi said with a chuckle. “So, are we ready to go?”

“Last I heard they don’t have any ackack over there, so I’d be fine taking you over there.” Peanut said with a chuckle. “The Enclave ain’t too liked in these parts, best to only visit those without guns.”

“They’re also expecting us,” Neivi pointed out. “We sent the Council a message that we’ll be arriving on Vertibuck so you don’t have anything to worry about. This is a formal diplomatic meeting after all.”

“Lets just hope it doesn’t devolve into aggressive negotiations,” Storm said with a shake of her head.

“Aggressive negotiations?” I asked.

“Negotiations with a gun,” Storm said with a chuckle. “But we’re on good terms with Canterbury, Ah’m sure everythin’ will be okay.”

“Well, if you all would like to climb aboard, we can get going.” Peanut said. “No offense to you, Ms. Neivi, but I don’t trust Zebra, going into a big diplomatic discussion with them just seems like a trap waiting to happen.”

“I’m from Canterbury, we’ve had good relations with our Pony neighbors for decades, you don’t have anything to worry about,” Neivi said with a shake of her head as she gave Peanut a look. “Things have changed you know.”

“Never said I wouldn’t have a drink with em, or play a hand of card with them or what have you.” Peanut said with a shake of her head. “Just, when it comes to things like diplomacy or even fightin’ alongside each other, I’d do a lot of things before I let a Zebra be my wingman.”

Neivi looked like she was about to say something when I put my wing around her. “Come on Neivi, we should get aboard anyway,” I said and gave Peanut a look.”Before any of us say something we’ll regret.”

We all climbed aboard the Vertibuck and I took a deep breath. I was still a little nervous but I felt Neivi’s hoof on mine as she gave me a reassuring smile.

“It’ll be okay,” she said and rest her head gently on my shoulder as the Vertibuck started to take off. “When we get there I’ll have to show you around Canterbury, maybe introduce you to my family.”

I gulped involuntarily at that. I hadn’t even thought of that, what would her family even think of me? I was a pony, an Alicorn for that matter and I was in a relationship with their daughter… somehow talking to them scared me more than dealing with that giant bird.

“Wouldn’t you rather me fight a Thunderbird with no weapons?” I asked with a gulp which just made her laugh.

“Oh come on, meeting the folks ain’t so bad.” Peanut said with a chuckle. “It’s like getting a tooth pulled, with no anesthetic.”

“Well yeah, but I’m a pony, and she’s a…” I said with a blush. “I just…”

“Yeah, because it’s a total secret that I’m attracted to ponies,” Neivi said with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t worry about that Firelight. You’re the mare for me and if they don’t understand that, well, I love you enough to not care what they think.”

And with that she leaned up and kissed me gently on the lips. I smiled a little and kissed her back.

“So, what’s with tall, white, and silent over there.” Peanut said, looking into a mirror that I can only assume looked back into the cabin. “She hasn’t said much, starting to wonder if she’s even alive.”

“Moonlight, are yah okay?” Storm asked as she nuzzled the other Alicorn lightly to get her attention.

Moonlight shook her head and smiled a little as she looked to storm “Yeah, I’m fine. Just, lost in thought is all.”

“What are yah thinkin’ about?” Storm asked as she put her wing gently around Moonlight. “Yah know yah can talk ta us about anythin’.”

“Just, about what happened the night before.” Moonlight said and smiled down at Storm. “I’ve never been used like that, it is, very disturbing still.”

“Moonlight, its okay,” Storm said with a smile. “Yah had no control over it and we know how ta keep it from happenin’ again. Ah promise that Ah won’t ever let tha Society or anypony use yah like that ever again.”

“We all will,” I said and Neivi and Lemon nodded. “We’re your friends Moonlight, and I’m pretty sure that means we’ve got each other’s backs.”

“I’ve seen this before.” Peanut said with a chuckle and shake of her head. “Lemme guess, before you were like that, you were a pegasus like me and Storm.”

“Yeah, what of it.” Moonlight said, perking up and looking to our pilot.

“Because, Pegasi are a unique bunch, they require confidence to keep standing tall, and I think whatever happened, you lost yours.” Peanut said, giving a sigh and looking back to the controls. “It’s a sad sight, a pegasi with no confidence.”

“So, how do we boost your confidence back up?” I asked.

“You don’t.” Peanut said with a chuckle, “There is only a couple things that can get a pegasi’s confidence back, and it’s usually confronting the thing that took it away.”

“So, the Society,” Storm said. “Fun, well they need to be stopped anyway.”

“We’ll get your confidence back, I promise,” I said with a smile as I gave Moonlight a nod.

“What if I don’t want it back.” Moonlight said, shaking her head and giving a sigh. “All it’s ever done is hurt me and those I care for, why would I want it back.”

“That there is just crazy talk. A pegasi without confidence is like, a unicorn without a horn or a earth pony with no hooves.” Peanut said. “A pegasi is more then just wings and flight, its their confidence, their warrior nature.”

“Yeah,” Storm said with a smile as she nuzzled Moonlight again. “You just wouldn’t be the same without it, no Pegasi would.”

“What if it just gets us into trouble again, what if I do something stupid because I think I can, and it just backfires on us all?” Moonlight said with a shake of her head. “No, My confidence is better off lost, let’s just focus on the here and now and just move on.”

“Miss. Moonlight,” Blueberry Muffin said, speaking up a little. “Everypony makes mistakes. You can’t just hide yourself away because you’re afraid that you’ll do something stupid.”

“Ah’ll still love yah either way,” Storm said with a smile. “That ain’t gonna change, Ah promise yah that.”

“That, really means a lot.” Moonlight said with a smile. “And for what it’s worth, I feel the same way ‘bout you.”

“Oh boy, you two keep it to yourselves alright?” Peanut said “Not enough space back there to get this bird a rockin’”

“At least you didn’t walk in on them doing it…” Neivi said with a shake of her head.

“I tried to warn you,” I said with a chuckle as I nuzzled her gently. “You really should’ve listened to me.”

“I know, I know…” Neivi said and groaned a little at the memory. “I’m trying to block that from my mind.”

“Ah’m sure Firelight will do somethin’ ta replace that image this evenin’,” Storm said with a chuckle as she gave me a wink. “Ain’t that right Firelight?”

“Umm… err…” I said as I blushed heavily.

“Firelight and I agreed we’re not ready for that yet,” Neivi said, her white fur was as red as mine probably was. “I mean this is her first real relationship and… yeah, we’re not going to do that yet.”

“Right,” I said with a smile.

“Might be young, but even I know that can change on the hourly.” Peanut said with a sigh. “Well, it ain’t gunna be much longer before we get to Canterbury, might wanna make sure you guys got your gear”

I nodded as we checked our gear. Everything seemed to be there so far, I just hoped that our trip to Canterbury was going to go well. I sighed and pulled Neivi in close with my wing and closed my eyes a little.

Right now I just wanted to relax and let the flight end.

00000

When I got my first look at Canterbury for a moment I thought we had actually just stayed in Nightingale. The settlement had a similar layout of being built in the trees with walkways that ran through it. Though interestingly the buildings seemed less makeshift here.

“Well, one of the council should be here to greet us, where are…” Neivi started to say when we heard the sound of arguing coming up the walkway towards the landing platform.

“This is entirely unacceptable! The delegates will be here in just a matter of days and none of our requests have been met!” A cloaked pony said.

“And I told you, you’re not in Carthage,” a Zebra mare said, it took me a moment to recognize her circular stripes as belonging to a Starkatteri tribe member like Neivi had been disguised as. “Canterbury is on the fringes of what would be considered FRA territory, it’s not as easy to get all of the items you requested as it would be back in the Homeland.”

“Do you not comprehend the importance of ensuring the delegates are taken care of?” A cloaked mare said, chasing after the Zebra. “The delegates aren’t like me and the others, they are used to getting their way and if they don’t get it there’ll be hell to pay on all sides, this I can assure you.”

“And I understand that, but I told you our supply ship from the homeland is running late this month,” the Starkatteri mare said with a sigh. “Most of what was requested is still on the ship, I can’t control when the supplies arrive.”

“Uh, is there a problem?” Neivi asked as she walked towards the arguing pair.

“Please tell me you’re a crew from the supply ship here to tell me exactly why I am going to have to tell a group of very important delegates exactly why they are not going to be given everything they asked for.” The cloaked pony said as she looked towards Neivi, then her gaze drifted to me and Moonlight. “Oh, just wonderful, a couple of Alicorns. What more could go wrong with this forsaken mission.”

“Councilmare Neivi, I apologize for the, less than stellar reception for you and your delegation,” the Starkatteri mare said with a sigh. “I’m Councilmare Diala, my associate here is here representing a group from back in the Homelands. We’ve had some, complications related to their requests however.”

“I see,” Neivi said and looked back at the cloaked mare. “Firelight and Moonlight are part of my delegation and I trust them both with my life. They’re-”

“Yes yes, Trustworthy and such.” The cloaked pony said, her hood being surrounded by a light green colored aura and was pulled back, revealing a rather large, luxurious mane like that of a lion, piercing violet eyes, and most interestingly, a curved horn. “Lunari do not simply trust every creature they come across, it took many years before they would even openly converse with the, which tribe was that again… You, Diala, you’re one of them, your tribe, which is it?”

Nevi’s eyes went wide at the reveal as Diala looked at the Lunari mare for a moment before speaking. “Starkatteri.”

“Wait, what?” Neivi asked. “You’re… you’re a Lunari? But… how… why… what?”

“Okay, I’m confused, what’s a Lunari?” I asked and looked at Storm and the others who just shrugged.

“We are, well…” the mare said. “A very, isolated group.”

“I’ve only heard rumors about you, I didn’t think you ever left the homelands,” Neivi said and blinked a little. “I thought you were a legend or something, I honestly wasn’t expecting this at all.”

“You, you’re the councilmare from Nightingale aren’t you.” She said, smiling a little. “Good news for you, and a heads up I suppose. After the… delegates, are done here they want to end off their tour with one of the finest settlements the FRA has to offer, and so, they choose their final destination to be that of your settlement.”

“Great,” Neivi said with a groan. “We’ve got enough problems to deal with right now and you want to add babysitting to the list.”

“Ah’m sorry, its been, a hard few days in Nightingale,” Storm said with a shake of her head.

“I have heard.” She said. “By the way, Stella Septentrionalis, but you can just call me Stella.”

“Well you already know three of our names,” Neivi said and gave us a nod and pointed at each of us in turn. “Storm Wrangler, Lemon Lime, and the fillies are Dawn Star, Blueberry Muffin, and Wind Chime.”

“Nice to meet you,” Dawn said as she looked at Stella curiously. “Why’s your horn like that?”

“Some questions little one, are best left unanswered.” Stella said with a chuckle. “Don’t want to give you nightmares.”

“They live in a very thick forested area so they use it to cut through the vines and things,” Neivi said.

“Wait, but we do too and I don’t have a curved horn,” Dawn said as she tilted her head cutely and rubbed her horn a little.

“Well, uh…” Neivi said. “It’s, something that happened over thousands of years, we’ve only lived in this area for a couple hundred years so, we don’t have that yet. It’s why we use knives.”

“That, or the fact you can’t really get away if your horn gets stuck in vines or a branch or something.” Stella said with a chuckle. “Anyway, Diala, You and I really need to handle this supply issue, unless you’d like to see what happens when a couple of spoiled royals don’t get everything they want.”

“The supply ship was attacked by Estori pirates according to the last report,” Diala said with a sigh. “They’re on their way, but that’s delayed them. They should be here by the time the delegates arrive.”

“Let’s hope so, for both of our sakes.” Stella said, giving a shake of her head. “Punishment for this kind of failure, is usually quite... Severe”

“We spend years fighting the Legion and we yet we still have to put up with this,” Diala muttered to herself though I barely heard it. “Alright, I’ll let you know when the supply ship arrives. Unfortunately that’s all I can do at the moment, but your delegates will have their, requests, you have my word.”

“I hope so, especially the medicine they requested. The last settlement they visited they seem to have walked away with some sort of illness.” Stella said with a sigh. “I have told them, so many times, that wandering a place they have never been would not be good for them, but did they listen, Nooooo, they decided that they just had to see everything the FRA has to offer.”

Neivi frowned a little at that bit of news. “Well, if we’re still in town when they arrive I can take a look at them.”

“I appreciate the notion, but therein lies another problem with these royals.” Stella said with a sigh. “They refuse to go home until their tour is complete, and they refuse to see any doctor that is not of Lunari descent, even if it kills them.”

“That’s a problem,” Neivi said. “I’m not exactly of Lunari descent if its not obvious, and if its life threatening, unless they stop acting like this…”

“This is the problem with most Lunari, ever since the scrolls were found it has only served to reinforce this elitism and, to be honest, pompous behavour.” Stella said with a groan. “I’m not even considered a Lunari because I wasn’t born in our Settlement, It’s why I am reduced to nothing more than a errand girl.”

“The FRA is doing what they can, but between the Legion, the Enclave, and internal issues, well…” Diala said with a shake of her head. “There’s only so much they can do. It’s not an ideal situation.”

“The FRA has done nothing more than aggravate the situation, or need I remind you who found the scrolls to begin with.” Stella said, sighing. “I could rant on this all day, however I feel I am already cutting into valuable time, so I will be on my way, You and I Diala, we’re going to have to finish this conversation later, perhaps, over dinner.”

Diala blushed a little at the suggestion but smiled. “I’m sure I can work that into my schedule. It shouldn’t be too hard if the rest of the council doesn’t try to make me look for rainbow colored magical swords or something.”

“I uh, you know what, me and Storm are just going to go, and uh… get something to eat, or something.” Moonlight said, nervously as she watched Stella walk away. “Right Storm?”

“Yeah, sounds good ta me,” Storm said with a smile. “Come on, Ah know a place from last time Ah was here. Follow me.”

“See you two later, stay out of trouble,” I said with a chuckle as I waved them off. “And make sure she’s back by 2200 hours Storm.”

“Yer no fun!” Storm said with a laugh as they walked off together.

“I’ll show the fillies around town so you two don’t have to worry about them,” Lemon Lime said as she lead them away and we turned back to look at Diala.

“Well, and then there were three,” the Starkatteri mare said with a chuckle. “Come on, Neivi how about we give her a little tour of the town on our way to town hall.”

Neivi chuckled and nodded a little as we started down the stairs and into Canterbury proper.

00000

Canterbury was amazing, in some ways it reminded me of Nightingale but in other ways it was its own town. I smiled a little as Neivi and Diala showed me around, we even went past Neivi’s childhood home but she said that she’d save that for later.

Finally we reached the town hall and entered Diala’s office. It looked like it was still being decorated but it had the typical furnishings plus a few personal items here and there.

“I know it’s not much, but I only recently got the job,” Diala said as she took a seat behind her desk and gestured for us to sit down. “I heard about what happened in Nightingale with the Mayor. It shook a lot of us up what happened with him, how are things going since then?”

“About as well as can be expected given the situation,” Neivi said with a sigh. “Which is why we’re here, well part of the reason. The Mayor didn’t exactly do much to help relations with Canterbury and the other settlements around the Jungle so we want to fix that.”

“Yeah, I figured as much,” Diala said. “But it’s not going to be as simple as that. Canterbury is willing to work with Nightingale with trade and mutual defense of course, but the other settlements won’t be as easy to convince.”

I sighed a little and shook my head at that. Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy, and I doubt having ponies like me and Moonlight around didn’t help matters either. So, how were we supposed to convince them?

“So, what do we do?” I asked finally.

Diala paused a moment as she thought about how to answer that. “I’m a Starkatteri, I understand what it means to be an outcast and hated by everyone around you,” she said as she brushed her mane back a little. “Nightingale has lost a lot of the goodwill it once had because of the former mayor’s paranoia. Canterbury can help with that, but at the same time you’re going to have to reach out and help rebuild that goodwill.”

“So, go to settlements that will need help?” I asked and Diala nodded a little.

“I can get the council to agree to an alliance,” Diala said. “But it’s going to be up to you to convince others. And, well, as much as I hate to say it sending Alicorns is just going to remind them of the Society.”

“I trust Firelight with my life,” Neivi said as she gently placed her hoof on mine. “Is there anything around that?”

“Sure, if she and Moonlight can prove themselves trustworthy, but that’s not going to be easy,” Diala said with a sigh.

“I don’t mean anyone any harm, I hate the Society as much as anypony else,” I said with a sigh. “I’ve seen the truth, and Moonlight, she was never even in the Society. We’ve just as much been hurt by them as anypony, or Zebra, in the Jungle. I know you see us and you see the enemy, but we just want to help.”

“Well, you could try talking to Vox, he could… Diala started to say which made us flinch a little. “What?”

“There’s, another reason we’re here,” Neivi said with a sigh as she explained the situation with the music and radio broadcasts. “And that’s pretty much it, we need to talk to Vox and stop these transmissions.”

“That’s, certainly troubling, are you sure that’s the case?” Diala asked.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense I’m afraid,” Neivi said and I nodded a little. “I know it’s hard to believe but it’s the only thing that fits what we know. We just need to talk with Vox and hope that he’s just a victim in this and not complicit.”

“Vox Populi has been the voice of the Jungle since he was old enough to do the job,” Diala said with a sigh. “We can’t let this get out. If they find out that the Society has hijacked the voice of the people…”

“Then it’ll be a blow to their morale,” I finished and Diala nodded in agreement. “Which is no doubt their plan.”

“It can’t be all the music, that’s the good news,” Neivi said. “If we can figure out which music he broadcasts is triggering the effects then we can stop them from happening. It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s our only option right now.”

“Alright, well I’m sure Vox will be more than happy to hear you out,” Diala said with a nod. “Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and it was good seeing you again Neivi.”

“You too Diala,” Neivi said with a smile as the Starkatteri Councilmare came around the desk and gave Neivi a hug. “Look at you, you always talked about making a difference and here you are now.”

“Well, its not been easy but we’re on the right track,” Diala said with a smile. “Canterbury is my home, just because I’m a Starkatteri doesn’t mean that isn’t true. You taught me that a long time ago, now I’m just doing my best to show that its true.”

“Yeah, and I couldn’t be happier,” Neivi said as she released the hug. “Well, I should probably take Firelight to figure out where we’ll be staying. It was good talking to you again.”

“You too Neivi,” Diala said and we walked out together.

“So, you two are old friends huh?” I asked as I looked at Neivi with a chuckle.

“Yep, knew her ever since I was a filly,” Neivi said. “She was an orphan whose mother died trying to get her to Canterbury, we never found out why. But she’s always been there to watch my back.”

“I don’t have to be jealous do I?” I asked.

“Of course not, she’s cute but, well she’s not really my type,” Neivi said and leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. “I love you Firelight, you’re the only mare for me.”

“I love you too Neivi,” I said and we shared a long kiss together before we continued to walk out.

00000

“Do we really have to do this now?” I asked, it was that evening and we had already gotten settled in but Neivi had wanted to take me to her home. “I mean, we’ve only been together for a few days…”

“Firelight, you and I both know that our lives are so crazy that we don’t know if we’ll get a chance to do this again anytime soon,” Neivi said with a smile as she stopped and looked back at me. “I want my parents to get to know you, you’re the mare I love and that’s what’s important to me right now.”

I paused a moment and sighed. I honestly wasn’t really sure what to think about that. I cared about Neivi, she was the mare I loved more than anything else. So, why was I so afraid of what would happen if I met her parents?

Well, I mean there was the obvious, I was an Alicorn that had been part of the Nightmare Society. I represented everything that was evil to the ponies and Zebras around this part of Equestria.

To them, I might be a monster. I just hoped that we’d be able to make them understand that I wasn’t like that.

“I know that,” I said with a sigh. “I just, I don’t know what they’ll think of me. I mean, I’m a Pony, you’re a Zebra, and I’m an Alicorn at that so…”

Neivi laughed a little at that. “I don’t think you’ve noticed but I’m not very good at hiding my attraction to ponies,” she pointed out. “They’ve known ever since I was young and they won’t care that you’re a pony, most tribes are open minded about that including the Mendi.”

“And what about the, you know, Alicorn thing?”

“That, may take some getting used to,” Neivi admitted. “I’ll go in first and tell them you’re a friend of mine from Nightingale. I mean that’s kind of true, so we can ease them into the whole Alicorn thing. Well, unless you can hide your wings with illusion magic.”

“Well, yeah, but I’m taller than normal ponies and I still look like an Alicorn,” I pointed out and sighed a little. “I mean, I can hide all of that sure, and we can just say I’m taller than usual. But I don’t want to start my relationship with your parents by lying to them.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Neivi said with a sigh. “Alright Firelight, I’ll talk to them and hopefully it’ll be okay.”

“Yeah, hopefully,” I said as we finally reached the house. I leaned down and kissed Neivi gently on the lips. We held that kiss for as long as we could as I gently ran my hoof through her mane, I didn’t want to ever let go of this mare but I knew I had to. “Alright, I’ll be right outside.”

Neivi smiled and nodded a little as she headed into the house, leaving me standing alone outside.

I sighed a little and leaned on the railing as I looked out at Canterbury. Neivi’s house was carved out of a tree that was at the center of town and looking out I could see most of the town from here.

It was amazing, I hadn’t ever seen this many Zebras in one place. There were a few ponies here and there, but from what I could see there were a lot more Zebras. They hadn’t been kidding when they talked about this town, was kind of the reverse of Nightingale really.

I wondered what it would’ve been like if I had grown up here instead of in the Society. Would I have been friends with Neivi still? Would things have still happened like they did between us?

I didn’t want to dwell on that, I was just glad that I was here now. Hopefully, things would be looking up from now on.

“Alright Firelight, they’re ready for you,” Neivi said as she opened the door and gave me a smile.

“What did you tell them about me?” I asked.

“That you’re the most wonderful and amazing pony I’ve ever known,” Neivi said and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “They’re excited to meet you, I’m sure you can convince them that you’re not evil.”

“I hope so,” I said with a sigh. “I love you Neivi, and I want your parents to like me.”

“Don’t worry about it, come on in,” Neivi said as she lead me into the house. It was a pretty small house that had stairs leading up to the next level. A Zebra Mare and stallion were seated in chairs in what had to make up the family room.

“You must be…” the mare said and stopped in mid sentence when she got a good look at me. “You’re, an Alicorn?”

“This was a bad idea…” I muttered to Neivi.

“Mom, Dad, this is Firelight,” Neivi said as she gave them a smile. “Look, I know she’s an Alicorn but hear us out first.”

“Take a seat,” the Zebra stallion said as he gestured towards the couch in the room and we took a seat. “Now, if you have an explanation, now would be the time to give it.”

I sighed, there was hardly any point in lying as we told the two older Zebras everything that had happened. They listened carefully as we told them about how Neivi and the others had found me in the jungle and what had happened in Nightingale.

As we finished they looked concerned. I tried not to look nervous as her Dad sized me up, how was I supposed to explain this to them? I had no idea if they’d believe me that I really wasn’t evil.

“That’s, quite the story,” her mom said as she looked at me and then at Neivi. “Are you two, involved?”

“Yes,” Neivi said with a sigh as she placed her hoof on mine. “Firelight makes me happier than any being ever has. I would trust her with my life.”

“And what about you Firelight?” Her dad asked. “Do you really love my daughter?”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “Neivi saved my life back in the jungle, there’s no ignoring that. And as I got to know her for the amazing mare she really is, I started to fall in love with her. She’s smart, funny, and the kindest mare I’ve ever met, I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for her. She makes my life complete, and I would never do anything to hurt her.”

Her dad sighed a little as I wrapped my wing gently around my marefriend. “Alright, if Neivi trusts you I trust you too. But, if you ever hurt her or break her heart, I will chase you to the ends of Equestria, understood?”

“Understood,” I said with a gulp.

“Well now that that’s over with, we really should introduce ourselves,” her mom said with a chuckle. “I’m Hania, and this is my husband Vant. Welcome to our home, and don’t worry about Vant, his bark is worse than his bite.”

“You always have to ruin my persona don’t you?” Vant asked with a frown.

“It’s not my fault you scared off Corin’s last marefriend he brought home,” Hania said with a roll of her eyes.

“Corin?” I whispered to Neivi.

“My older brother, he works as a traveling Doctor in Equestria proper,” Neivi whispered back. “He left not long after that.”

I just chuckled a little as I laid back on the couch and pulled Neivi in close as she smiled a little. Vant glanced at me and I could’ve sworn I saw the ghost of a smile form on his face as Neivi snuggled up to me.

We talked for awhile, they mostly seemed to want to get to know me as they asked me about myself. I answered as best I could but given that I hardly knew anything about my life before the Society most of my answers were related to that.

I could tell that made them a little uncomfortable. They were still having a hard time seeing me as more than just another Alicorn. I tried to put on a friendly face as I did, but there was only so much I could do.

“Well, I should get dinner ready,” Hania said as she got up and looked at Neivi. “Would you like to lend me a hoof?”

“Sure,” Neivi said as she got up and went with her mother up the stairs.

“Look, I really do love your daughter,” I said with a sigh as I was left alone with Vant. “I know it’s hard to accept that I’m an Alicorn and everything.”

“Neivi always wanted to do her own thing,” Vant said with a shake of his head. “She went to Nightingale because she wanted to strike it out on her own. And I’m proud of her for that, what is most important to me is her happiness. You seem to make her happy, so for now that’s good enough for me.”

“Like I said, I would never do anything to hurt her,” I said with a sigh. “I just want a chance to prove myself.”

“Alright, I won’t judge you further, but just treat her right okay?” Vant asked and I nodded a little. “Alright, well come on dinner shouldn’t take too much longer.”

I nodded and we started up the stairs together. That hadn’t been as bad as I had feared, but I just hoped that I wasn’t going to mess this up somehow.

00000

As me and Neivi entered the radio station in Canterbury the next morning, Vox was just finishing up his news segment. The sound that followed was an ominous sounding organ tune that sent a shiver up and down my spine.

“Kagenotsuki no Kassei-ka,” a stallion with a familiar voice said as he stepped out of the broadcast booth. He was a red unicorn with a narrow yellow and red mane and short tail. “It’s a Neighponese piece from long ago.”

“I see,” I said as I looked at Neivi who just shrugged a little. “Diala said you would be expecting us.”

“Oh, yes of course, I’m Vox Populi, but you probably already knew that,” Vox said with a chuckle as he offered me a hoof. “And I know who you are of course.”

“You do?” I asked and blinked a little.

“Orange Alicorn with a fiery red mane and yellow eyes,” Vox said with a chuckle. “You’re hard not to recognize, I heard about what happened in Nightingale. Terrible business really, but I’m glad you worked it out.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said with a weak smile, at least he wasn’t causing a problem.

“Can I get you two anything? I’ve got some Opal soda or Sparkle-Cola if you’d prefer,” Vox said as he walked over to an old fridge. “Never liked the taste of it personally, but I keep it on hoof if anypony ever wants any.”

“No, we’re fine,” Neivi said. “Look, Vox, there’s something important we need to talk to you about.”

“Of course, anything for two of the heroes of Nightingale,” Vox said as he levitated out a purple colored drink and popped the cap and took a swig. “So, what can I do for you two?”

“We need to talk to you about some of the music…” I started to say when there was suddenly the sound of gunfire from outside followed by a loud scream. “What was that?”

“Come on, let’s check it out,” Neivi said, we were both now on edge, was Canterbury being attacked?

We rushed out of the building to find Storm standing with her rifles aimed at… something I didn’t expect to see. They were shaped like a pony, but they looked too, mechanical, with a silver metal coat and solid green eyes. It was some sort of machine, and its guns were retreating back into its body.

“What…” I started to say when I saw that Moonlight was laying on the platform bleeding out of several bullet holes, she was breathing but only barely. “Neivi!”

“On it,” Neivi said as she ran over to Moonlight’s prone form and started to work on her while I moved in front of them. My horn glowed and an orange shield formed around us.

“You have a lot to answer for robot,” I said with a glare at the, thing that had attacked one of my friends. “Who are you? Why did you attack her?”

“I am Luna Umbra, the will of the Empire,” the robot said in a mechanical sounding voice that sounded almost feminine. “Nightmare Moon is a blight on this world, and I only did my duty.”

“She’s not Nightmare Moon!” I shouted at the robot. “You attacked the wrong pony, she’s just an Alicorn!”

“Negative, scanners show that the target was Nightmare Moon,” Luna Umbra said as it looked me over. “Target neutralized, mission complete.”

“Why you…” I started to say as I pushed after her only to be interrupted by Neivi’s voice.

“Firelight, we have bigger things to worry about right now!” She shouted at me. “We need to get Moonlight to the clinic. We can worry about that, thing later.”

“Right, what can I do?” I asked as I headed back to them.

“I’ve managed to slow the bleeding but its not going to do us much good right now, I need access to a clinic,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “Can you get her to the clinic? I’ll show you the way.”

I nodded and gently levitated Moonlight up onto my back. We started to walk towards where the clinic was while I kept a close eye on Moonlight to make sure she was still alive.

Goddess, what had happened? Why had that thing thought she was Nightmare Moon and why did it attack her?

00000

“Alright Storm, tell us what happened from the top,” I said as we sat in the clinic while Neivi and the local doctor was working on Moonlight. “How did this happen?”

“I don’t know!” Storm said, she was crying as she looked at us. “We were just walking around town when that, thing came up to us!”

“Did she act weird?” I asked as I looked at her for a moment. “Did she act at all like she was going to attack?”

“No, she seemed, polite actually, fer a robot at least,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “Ah’ve never seen a robot like that honestly, it was, weird. Then suddenly her eyes started glowin’ this really creepy shade of green. She called Moonlight Nightmare Moon and then just, attacked her before we could do anythin’! Yah know what happened after that.”

I sighed a little, that wasn’t a lot of information on what the robot, this Luna Umbra’s motive was. We sat in silence as we waited for some sort of answer before Storm finally spoke up again.

“Ah think that was supposed ta kill Princess Luna,” she finally said with a sigh. “Ah can’t prove it, but Ah’d put good caps on it. Though, Ah don’t know why she thought that Moonlight was her.”

“Maybe it’s related to why she can dreamwalk,” I said with a sigh. “Luna is the only other pony we know of who can do that. I honestly don’t know what to think about all of this, but she’s in good hooves at least.”

“Yeah, if anybein’ can heal her, it’s Neivi,” Storm said with a sigh. “Still, Ah’m scared of losin’ her. We haven’t been together that long, but Ah love her yah know? Ah can’t stand tha thought of losin’ her…”

“Yeah, I know how you feel,” I said with a sigh as I placed my hoof gently on Storm’s wither. “Moonlight is a strong pony, she’ll pull through and she’s got some good doctors working on her. I promise Storm, she’s going to be just fine.”

“Ah hope yer right,” Storm said as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “This ain’t right, she never did nothin’ to hurt anypony. She ain’t Nightmare Moon, Ah hate ta think of what might happen if…”

“We’ll figure out what happened, but first we need to make sure she’s okay,” I said reassuringly. “I promise, we’ll stop this Luna Umbra before she tries this again.”

We sat there in silence for awhile as we waited for some sort of news from Neivi or the other Doctor. It was strangely quiet in the clinic as we waited for something to happen. I tried not to cry too, I had to stay strong for Storm.

Finally Neivi came out of the operation room and gestured for me to come over to her. I looked at Storm and got to my hooves and walked over to her.

“What’s going on?” I asked quietly.

“Moonlight’s in bad shape, the bullets are one thing but…” Neivi said and paused for a moment. “She’s been poisoned too, we’ve tried the usual radiation treatments for Alicorns and Ghouls with no luck. We don’t have the antidote and we don’t have time to find one, she’s going to die if she doesn’t have one soon.”

“Do you have any ideas?” I whispered back and Neivi paused a moment as if she was thinking about it.

“There is, unfortunately only one option,” the Zebra mare said as she looked down at her hooves for a moment. “You told me that the Society has a lot of medicine and healers right?”

“Yeah, but that’s…” I said and my eyes went wide. “You want me to teleport her to the Temple in Haythens?”

“Do we have a choice? Its that or she dies,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “She’s already transformed and if we can get into the Temple we should be able to save her. I don’t like it either, but we don’t have any other choice. We can always save her somehow, can you do it?”

“She still has her memories, that can’t wipe them anymore, I think, that should let her be able to escape on her own,” I said with a sigh and gave her a nod. “What about Storm though? She’s not going to like this.”

“I’ll talk to her, you just go in there and do it,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “I don’t like having to do this without talking to Storm first but if we do she might die.”

I sighed a little and nodded. “Alright, I’ll do it,” I said with regret in my voice, I hated myself for what I’d have to do. “You talk to Storm.”

Neivi nodded and walked over to where Storm was sitting. I slipped into the operating room where Moonlight was lying on an operating table. I paused a moment and looked at her, she looked so weak and helpless.

Thinking quickly I took out a pad of paper and a pen and wrote on it. I wrote a quick explanation of what happened and put it under her foreleg, then I wrote again, this note was more private, I wrote our names down and added, just in case the worst happen, “remember your friends.”

I tucked it away where it would be harder to find and backed off a little. I hated to have to do this, but I didn’t have a choice.

“I’m sorry Moonlight,” I said softly and my horn glowed as my magic enveloped her.

With a burst of light she was gone, and I broke down crying.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Concentrated Fire.

Details: You’ve gained a better knowledge of SATS and how to improve your accuracy with your weapons. Each subsequent attack using SATS gains an extra %5 accuracy after the first one hits.

Chapter 10: Fallout

“You must not lose faith in humanity.
Humanity is an ocean;
If a few drops in the ocean are dirty,
The ocean does not become dirty.”
-Mahatma Gandhi.

“Firelight, what tha Hell did yah do?” The familiar sound of Storm’s accented voice asked as I snapped out of it. “Where is Moonlight.”

“Storm, you need to hear us out before…” Neivi said as the Pegasus shot her a look before she stormed up to me, fire in her eyes.

“WHERE IS MOONLIGHT FIRELIGHT?” She screamed at me. “Ah’m not gonna take any of your bullcrap, tell me what yah did with mah marefriend!”

“She was dying, I didn’t have a choice,” I said softly as tears started to stream down my face even more now. “The only way to save her was to…”

I let that trail off for a moment, I didn’t want to make Storm mad at me. She was going to be furious when we told her what I had done, and I didn’t blame her. If someone had sent Neivi away I would be furious too, and I had no idea what I should tell her.

“Was ta do what?” Storm asked, her eyes narrowing. “Where did yah send her?”

“We had to send her to the Society,” Neivi said with a sigh as she bowed her head a little. “We didn’t have time to find the antidote and they were the best way to save her life.”

“YA’LL DID WHAT?” Storm demanded as she looked at me, the fire in her eyes were getting stronger. “They’ve been wantin’ her fer fates know what reason and yah just gave her ta them?”

“It was that or let her die,” I said.

“Did yah ever think that what they might be plannin’ would be worse than death ta Moonlight?” Storm pointed out though she seemed resigned to the fact that we didn’t have a choice. “Do yah think yah can get her back?”

“My teleportation doesn’t work like that, I have to know exactly where the other pony is before I can teleport that, and usually that requires line of sight,” I said and Storm looked like she was about to say something before I interrupted. “And yes I could just teleport to where I sent her, but if I did that I would probably be caught too.”

“Ah understand,” Storm said with a sigh. “But Ah don’t like it, it ain’t right what happened ta her and Ah think we need a plan ta rescue her.”

“We’re not going to leave her like this,” Neivi said as she placed her hoof gently on Storm’s shoulder. “Storm, I promise, she’s going to be fine and we’ll get her out of there somehow. Or she might get out on her own, she’s strong and she still has her memories unlike other ponies in the society. If there’s anypony who can get out of there, it’s her, but I agree we need to come up with a plan to save her.”

“I really am sorry Storm,” I said and gave the purple pegasus a light hug, I was surprised to feel tears falling onto my shoulder as I pulled her in closer. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Ah don’t know,” Storm admitted with a shake of her head. “Ah was lucky ta find her yah know? Ah love her more than anythin’ and she’s been wonderful, neither of us really had much in tha way of relationships before. Now, she’s gone and Ah don’t know if Ah’ll ever see her again.”

“You will see her again,” I said definitely. “I will make sure of it, we all will. I promise that we will do everything in our power to make sure that she makes it out of the Temple okay, right Neivi.”

“Right,” Neivi said with a smile as she joined the hug. “Come on, let’s go find Lemon and the fillies and maybe we can figure something out if we put our heads together. But we are definitely going to figure this out.”

Storm smiled and nodded a little as she hugged us both and gave me a nod. “Alright, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said as we released the hug and we headed out of the clinic together.

00000

“Where’s Ms. Moonlight?” Blueberry asked as I headed into the house that we were all sharing while we were in Canterbury. The three fillies were looking up at me while Neivi and Storm were talking to Lemon.

“She…” I said as I looked between the three fillies who just looked at me confused. “It’s… complicated. She might not be around for awhile, but she’ll be back, we’re going to make sure of it.”

“Umm, okay?” Dawn asked as she looked at me confused. “Why do I get the feeling that there’s something you aren’t telling us.”

I flinched a little at that, how was I supposed to explain what had happened to them? They had lost their families to the Society, how would they take finding out that we had to send Moonlight to them?

I sighed a little and wrapped my wings gently around the fillies which surprised them a little but they hugged me back. I looked down at each of them in turn, this wasn’t going to be easy, but for now I didn’t want to scare them.

“We’re going to do everything we can to make sure she’s safe,” I finally said as I ruffled their manes a little. “How about we go get some lunch? My treat, it’ll be nice.”

“Okay,” Dawn said as she looked at me concerned for a moment as we headed into the kitchen and they took a seat at the table. “What are we going to eat?”

I went through the cabinets. This house had been set aside for visiting dignitaries from other settlements so it was fully furnished and stocked with food and drink. I took out a few vegetables and started putting them together while I pulled out some purified water and other things.

I made a lunch for them as I looked back over at the three fillies and smiled a little. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about because they were whispering, but I could see that even Wind Chime was talking. She had gotten used to having me around and after finding out I was from Pearl too she was more comfortable with me there.

I just kept making the food as I turned my attention away from the fillies for a moment to get some more things out. I hummed a light tune to myself, one that I didn’t really know or remember, but just something that came to my mind as I worked.

“Umm, what song is that?” A soft voice asked and I looked up to see Wind Chime looking at me.

“I, honestly don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “It’s just something that came to me I guess, I don’t even remember where I heard it.”

Wind Chime paused a moment and looked down at her hooves as if she was embarrassed that she spoke up. I sighed a little and trotted over to her.

“What’s wrong Wind?” I asked.

“It, umm… I remember it, my mom, she sang it for me every night before I went to bed,” she said as she played with her mane a little. “She said it was special to her because it reminded her that we’d always be together. I…”

She started to cry as she remembered what had happened to Pearl. I gently picked her up with my magic and levitated her close to my chest as I hugged her and wrapped my wings around the crying filly.

“She, saw them being turned into Alicorns,” Dawn said sadly. “They tried to resist and had IMP used on them right there during the attack. My mom got her to safety with the two of us before she went back to try and fight them off.”

Wind Chime nodded sadly as I kept her close to me. I couldn’t remember the words, but I hummed the tune all the same as I held the terrified filly close to me. She finally seemed to calm down as I did this, I smiled as I held her for a little while longer.

“It’s going to be okay Wind Chime,” I said softly. “I’m going to be here to protect you, I promise.”

“Thank you,” Wind Chime said softly as she buried her muzzle into my chest. I smiled a little and held her close as she did.

Out of all of us, she had been through the worst. I was going to make sure that she was really going to be okay.

“You’re welcome,” I said as I stroked her mane gently. “Hey, do you want to help me make lunch?”

“Sure,” she said with a gentle smile as we headed back over to the kitchen area to work on lunch together.

I smiled a little as I watched Wind Chime working to cut up some of the vegetables as carefully as she could. The small Pegasus looked up at me with a soft smile as we worked together on the meal.

“Owww,” Wind Chime said and I looked down to see she had cut herself a little bit with the knife she had been using to cut.

“Here, let’s see if I can help with that,” I said and looked around the kitchen for a moment. I found an old first aid kit that was yellow with three pink butterflies painted on it, I opened it up and found some bandages and potions as well as some antiseptic. “Okay, this might sting a little.”

Thankfully she hadn’t cut too deep and I bandaged her hoof up with relative ease. I smiled as I secured it and gave her a quick hug.

“There you go, all better,” I said and gave her a nod as Neivi, Storm, and Lemon came into the kitchen. “Hey you three, Wind Chime was just helping me with lunch.”

“What’s cooking?” Neivi asked as she walked into the kitchen area while Storm and Lemon took a seat at the table.

“Nothing special, just some veggies and whatever else we can find around the place,” I said with a smile as we finished cutting up the vegetables and got them ready. “Other than a little incident with the knife we’re fine.”

“Are yah helpin’ Firelight out then kiddo?” Storm asked with a smile that hid her sadness, Wind Chime gave her a small nod and smiled a little. “Well that’s good.”

“Better be careful Neivi or you might wind up with a kid before the two of you even get married,” Lemon said with a chuckle.

I blinked a little at that as I looked down at Wind Chime who smiled back up at me. I hadn't ever really thought about that very much. Sure we were taking care of the fillies, but was that going to be temporary or would we maybe make it permanent?

I really had no idea what to think about that. I had no real experience raising foals, the fillies in the Nightmare Society were looked after by the caretakers unless they were assigned to a specific mare or mares similar to the High Priestess and Starshine.

Could I actually take care of a filly? Especially one that was suffering from trauma like Wind Chime was? I, honestly had no idea, it was not something I was sure I would ever be ready for.

“I don’t really know about that,” Neivi said with a nervous chuckle as she helped us get the food ready. “We’ve barely even been together for three days, I think it might be a little early to even think about foals.”

“Yeah,” I said with a shake of my head and added with a chuckle. “If we ever do though, I hope they’re as nice as Wind Chime, and as good in the kitchen.”

Wind Chime giggled a little as we finished making the food and set them out on plates and carried them over to the table. I set them out for everypony as I took a seat between Wind Chime and Neivi.

I looked between all the ponies that we had gathered together for a long moment. These were my friends, but in a way I guess they were also my family. I was lucky to have them, luckier than I had ever thought I would be, so what still bothered me?

Maybe it was because no matter what we did here, we would still have a member of that family missing. Moonlight was gone because I had to send her away. I hated myself for that, even if I knew it was necessary I was going to have to live with that mistake.

Neivi looked over at me and gave me a reassuring smile as she placed her hoof on mine. I smiled back and gave her a nod. We were going to get Moonlight back one way or another, I was sure of it.

After all, we were always going to be stronger together. I was just glad that I had a family to rely on, and soon we’d be able to be a complete family once more.

00000

After lunch I headed back out into Canterbury on my own. Neivi had to go to the town security office to talk to them about what had happened while Storm and Lemon watched the fillies, I had a lot on my mind right now and I just wanted to figure out what to do next.

So, here I was alone in a town filled with Zebras and the occasional pony. I kind of towered over the rest of the crowd so it was hard to even try not to blend in, which just made me more self conscious about the whole thing.

I looked down at the Stable barding I was wearing and sighed a little. It had been a gift from Moonlight so my robes wouldn’t make me more visible. Not that it did much good, sometimes I wondered if maybe I really should just use illusion magic to hide myself away from prying eyes.

“You’re one of those Alicorns from this morning aren’t you?” A stallion’s voice said from behind me and I paused a moment. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.”

I turned to see a Unicorn stallion standing there. He looked to be somewhere in his 40s or 50s and was dressed in the typical ratty clothing of a Wastelander. He had a brown coat and a grey mane, I noticed that his cutie mark was of a mask with a gear on it.

“Yeah, I’m one of them,” I said with a sigh as I looked him over for a moment. “You were there when, the other one was attacked?”

“It was my daughter who attacked her,” the stallion said, regret was clear in his voice but even so anger started to well up inside me, and I could see the flames starting to appear in my vision.

I shook my head and tried to dismiss the anger, but it wasn’t easy. If he had created the robot that attacked Moonlight, he bore some of the blame for what had happened. He backed off as I realized that the same illusionary flames were forming around me.

“Look, I don’t mean you or your friend any harm, it was an accident!” He said, he was even more scared than before but he seemed genuine. “Please, I wouldn’t want to hurt you or your friend I just… it's a long story.”

I realized that there was a sadness in his eyes that looked familiar, felt familiar to me, I had seen it in the fillies. I had even seen it in my own reflection. Something about this was hard for him to talk about.

Then something clicked in my mind about what he said and I looked at him confused for a moment.

“She’s a robot, what do you mean she’s your daughter?” I asked. “Did you build her or something?”

“It’s, a long story,” he said sadly as he looked down at his hooves and then back up at me. “I have every reason to want to hate the Nightmare Society, but I wouldn’t kill you. You and your friend, you don’t seem like the others, like the ones who took her away from me.”

I looked around for a moment before I spotted a place to sit in front of what looked like some sort of restaurant or a cafeteria like back in Nightingale. I nodded to it and gave him a sympathetic smile.

“Let’s sit down and talk about this,” I said as we headed over to the table and sat down in the chairs. I was keeping my anger under control, I didn’t want to risk setting off and attacking the stallion. “What’s your name?”

“Masquerade,” he said as he took a seat and I sat down across from him. “I know you don’t have any reason to believe me, but I really did not mean for your friend to get hurt. What happened to her?”

“She’s…” I said as the thought of what had happened pained me for a moment and I looked away from him. “She’s fine, I hope.”

“Me too,” Masquerade said with a sad smile. “I made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I wanted to make sure that I made this right. I don’t want to have that mare’s blood on my hooves, not right now.”

“You said you wanted to explain what happened,” I said as I looked at him. “That robot, it called itself Luna Umbra. Is there any connection to the Princess?”

“Moon Shadow, or Shadow Moon, it’s Zebra,” Masquerade said with a sigh. “I should have known when I found her that she was trouble, but I wanted her back so badly that I didn’t care.”

“Okay, why don’t you start from the beginning?” I asked with a soft smile, I was trying to make him feel better but I don’t think it was doing much good. “Look, I’m not mad anymore, I just want to hear your side of the story about what happened, okay?”

“I don’t know if it’ll make sense but I’ve never really been one for settlement life,” Masquerade said with a sigh. “When I was a younger stallion I did a lot to chart out the jungle, I even helped found new settlements here and there. But I never really settled down anywhere, until I met her.”

“Her?” I asked as I looked at him curiously.

“Her name was Night Sky, she was one of those, what do you call them… Dashites, a Pegasus who left the Enclave,” he said with a grin. “She was the prettiest mare I had ever laid eyes on, apparently she had left a nearby Enclave city, this was back in the days before that particular city started being more open with the Wasteland you see.”

“Yeah, I remember hearing about that,” I said. “My marefriend and one of my other friends I guess knew each other from those interactions or something.”

“Yeah, it’s not that unusual these days, but back then it was unheard of,” Masquerade said. “But anyway, for the first time in my life I actually felt an urge to settle down and spend the rest of my life with this beautiful and smart Pegasus mare. We were working together on founding a new settlement somewhere along the river and, well I asked her if she wanted to live there with me.”

“And what did she say?” I asked with a chuckle.

“She said no, but she then asked me to come with her,” Masquerade said with a laugh as he remembered that. “I was smitten with her but turned out she had the same feelings, but we both had work to do out in the Jungle so we traveled together and eventually we got married, settled down in this farm once our job felt like it was done.”

“It sounds wonderful,” I said.

“Yeah, well the good times weren’t going to last,” Masquerade said as his face fell a little. “When she got pregnant it just got worse. She was just, not in the best shape for some reason, I don’t think she wanted to talk about it. But, the Mendi said that there was a chance that she wouldn’t survive childbirth.”

My face fell a little at that bit of information, this was not going to have a happy ending no matter how much I wanted it to. Welcome to the Wasteland Firelight, not everything gets the fairy tale ending that you always read about.

“She lived long enough to hold our daughter in her hooves,” Masquerade said sadly as he looked at me with tears in his eyes. “She named her Sunlight, because she told me that as long as she was in my life she would be a light when I needed it.”

“I wish I had known her, she sounds like a strong mare,” I said sadly. “I just wish that I could be as strong sometimes. I made a mistake today, and that may cost a good friend of mine a lot more than just her life, I don’t know if I can ever forgive myself for that.”

“She was, and something tells me that you’re a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for,” Masquerade said as he gently placed his hoof on my shoulder. “Look, I don’t pretend to know a lot about what’s going on here in town or anywhere else in the jungle. But I do know one thing, you’ve got a good soul, and are strong enough to take on anything that gets in your way.”

“What, you’ve heard about me somehow?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Well, there’s only so many Alicorns hanging around that aren’t working for the Society,” he said with a chuckle. “That and I’ve always been good at reading ponies. If I was a younger stallion I’d take those skills up to New Pegasus, but that’s for another time.”

“So, what happened with Sunlight?” I asked sadly. “I mean, you wouldn’t have a robot for a daughter if, you know…”

“She grew up strong, doing everything she could to help around the farm, especially when my health started to deteriorate,” Masquerade continued. “She was my everything, she was what kept me going every day no matter what the world threw at me. I, just wish that I had told her that more often before…”

He was quiet for a moment and I paused. There was something about this story that was starting to add up. He said before that he had every reason to hate the Society, which probably only meant one thing.

“The Society got to her didn’t they?” I asked softly and he nodded sadly.

“She was out on a scouting mission looking for any predators and checking our traps,” Masquerade said sadly. “I heard her screams and ran as fast as I could into the jungle to try and find her, but when I got there she was gone. A few weeks later I was out checking the traps when I stumbled across a, what do you call them… you know, a group of Alicorns.”

“Wing of Alicorns?” I asked and he nodded a little.

“Yeah, a Wing, four Alicorns,” Masquerade said sadly as he started to cry even harder at the memory of what had happened. “One of them, dressed like the others and carrying a weapon… she looked so much like Sunlight. There was no doubt in my mind that it was her, I had lost my daughter to those, things!”

He started to get angry now, his hoof slamming down on the table as I backed off a little. He was furious and I didn’t blame him one bit, I’d probably have felt the same way if it was my daughter that was taken.

“But she didn’t remember you?” I asked sadly and he nodded.

“I tried to call out to her and she looked at me right in the face and laughed,” he said as he kept crying. “My own daughter didn’t even recognize me anymore, that was, 5 years ago now and I haven’t seen her since then…”

I saw the pain in his eyes, he didn't want to talk about this. I couldn’t imagine what it had to be like pouring his heart out to a pony who looked like the same Alicorns that had taken his daughter away. I was honestly amazed he didn’t hate me for that, but he was definitely not happy about it.

There was still something about this that was left unanswered. I hated to have to keep pressing him for information but I wanted to know where that machine had come from that had nearly killed Moonlight.

“And, Luna Umbra?” I asked sadly. “How did you get her?”

“By total accident actually,” Masquerade said. “I was clearing out some jungle on the coast… okay I was drunk and wanted to be as far away from that farm and my memories of my daughter as I could.”

I frowned a little at that, but I didn’t blame him for that. Though I made a mental note to try and stay far away from alcohol.

“It didn’t help did it?” I asked.

“No, alcohol doesn’t wash away the memories, it just hides them for a little bit if you’re lucky,” he said with a sigh. “I stumbled across this old facility, I think it was a Zebra facility based on the use of what I later learned was Zebra glyphs. I found this old robot lying in a heap in the base and I couldn’t just leave her there.”

“So, you made her into your daughter,” I said.

“Yeah, I found this top notch robotics expert who works for Applejack’s Rangers, I think her name was Positronic Brain, odd pony really,” Masquerade said with a sigh. “She helped me get the robot up and running and reprogrammed to… well be Sunlight. She even had disguise functions so she could look like her.”

“And, you didn’t know anything about the robot?” I asked.

“No, a Zebra I knew translated the notes, it’s called Luna Umbra, a robot built for one purpose,” he said. “To kill princess Luna, apparently it was some wartime project they had tried to make but it never was complete for some reason.”

“And, something in Moonlight triggered that old programming,” I said in realization and he nodded a little.

“I didn’t know that would happen, we were in town getting supplies and I didn’t even know you were here,” Masquerade said. “She attacked because of programming we couldn’t override. She nearly killed your friend and I’m sorry, I wish I could go back and change what happened.”

That answered a lot of questions actually. But something still bugged me, why had she attacked Moonlight? Moonlight only had one thing in common with Luna right? And for that matter why hadn’t she attacked me? That meant she wasn’t just indiscriminately attacking Alicorns.

She had attacked Moonlight for a very specific reason, and deep down I was afraid that it had something to do with why the Society wanted her, and more than anything else that terrified me.

It meant that I had given them exactly what they had wanted. I had already been afraid of that possibility, but this just confirmed it.

“Goddess, what have I done…” I said quietly as all of that sunk in.

“Is everything okay?” Masquerade asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” I admitted as I bowed my head a little. “I made a big mistake, and I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to fix it.”

“Is it fixable?” Masquerade asked.

“Maybe, but it’s not going to be easy,” I said with a sigh.

“Did it involve one of your friends?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s worth what you’re going to have to do to make up for it,” Masquerade said with a soft smile. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years, it’s that friends are worth fighting for. Especially the really good ones, so do what you think is necessary and fix your mistake.”

“I just hope I can,” I said with a sigh. “And that she’s not going to hate me for what happened.”

We sat in silence for a little while as I thought it over. I had no idea what I was going to do now, I didn’t even have a plan for how to get Moonlight out of there if that was what we had to do. There were just too many variables that had to be considered.

I just hoped that I was going to be able to figure out how, and that it wasn’t already too late to save her.

“What’s going to happen to Luna Umbra, or, Sunlight I guess now?” I asked as I looked at Masquerade worriedly for a moment.

“She’s with the guards right now, but…” Masquerade said and sighed. “She’s not exactly functioning right now. She shut off not long after she shot your friend, and well I don’t know if she’ll even wake up or if she’ll be a risk again if she does.”

“I understand, but, maybe there’s enough of your programming left in her that if she can be reactivated that will take priority or something,” I said with a sigh, I wasn’t a robotics expert so I just hoped that made sense.

“Yeah, maybe,” Masquerade said. “I really am sorry about your friend, I hope that she’s going to be okay.”

“Me too,” I said with a sigh as I looked away from him for a long moment. “Me too.”

00000

“I know you’re lying about what happened to Moonlight,” a voice said from next to me and I looked up from the book I was reading to see Dawn standing there.

“What makes you say that?” I asked as I looked at the Unicorn filly confused for a moment. “Why would I lie to you about that?”

“I don’t know, but I’ve figured out how to tell when adults are lying to me,” Dawn said with a shake of her head. “What happened to her? I heard a rumor that somepony may have attacked her.”

I sighed a little and brushed my mane back. How was I supposed to explain this to her without scaring her? With everything that had happened, with the Society trying to grab her and her friends, how could I possibly explain this without terrifying her?

“Yeah, unfortunately she got attacked, but she survived,” I said. “She’s going to be okay, right now she’s just somewhere where she’s getting medical help. She’s going to be okay, I promise.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie, but it hid enough of the truth to not worry her. I was scared that I might terrify her. Dawn just looked up at me sadly for a moment as I ruffled her mane a little.

Dawn paused a moment and looked up at me with a shake of her head. “Can, you do something for me?” She finally asked changing the subject.

“What’s that?” I asked with a soft smile.

“I’ve, never really been very good with my magic,” she admitted as she looked up at her horn. “I mean I know a few things, but I honestly would like somepony to help me learn more about magic. If, you don’t mind, could you be my magic teacher?”

I blinked in surprise at that, I hadn’t expected her to ask me that. I wasn’t much of a teacher, heck I hadn’t even really gotten the chance to try. I wasn’t really sure what I should tell her, but she looked up at me with this cute pleading face that made it hard for me to resist.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to try and teach her how to use her magic. She was young and I could tell that she had a lot of potential with her magic, so maybe I should at least try and teach her how to use her magic to the best of my ability.

“Well, I can’t promise I’ll be the best teacher,” I said with a soft smile as I pulled her in for a hug. “But I’m going to do the best I can to help you learn your magic.”

“Really? You’ll do that?” Dawn asked as her ears perked up.

“I might have to go to the library to get some books on magic,” I said with a chuckle as I levitated her up onto my back. “I’ve never really been a teacher before though. Like I said, I can’t promise that I’ll be able to be the best teacher.”

“Yeah, I know, but…” Dawn said and paused a moment. “You’ve done a lot for me and my friends. More than anypony ever has really, they’ve always kind of seen us as just there at best. We have no family and nopony wanted to adopt us. Until you and the others came along, we only had each other, and, well I wanted to thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said with a soft smile as I hugged her a little. “I don’t know why nopony wanted to adopt you, you’re three of the nicest ponies I’ve ever met.”

“Well, I don’t know either, but maybe because we wanted to stick together,” Dawn said with a shrug. “Adoption is rare in Nightingale, usually its ponies that come through on caravans or whatever so if we were adopted we’d likely never see each other again. And, well, I can’t abandon Wind Chime and Blueberry, she’s just too good a friend.”

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean,” I said as I thought about my own friends. “You’re lucky you know? You’ve got two really good friends, me I wasn’t so lucky at your age. At least, not that I remember, I didn’t really have much in the way of friends or even family until I came to Nightingale.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Dawn said and paused a moment. “Then why did you send Moonlight to the Society?”

“Wait… what? How did you know about that?” I asked, my eyes wide and my voice trembling a little bit.

“I heard Neivi and Storm talking about it,” Dawn said with a sigh and shook her head a little. “I had hoped you would be honest about it when I asked you. I, really don’t like being lied to Firelight.”

I sighed a little and looked down at her as I tried to think about what to say. Lying probably wouldn’t do me any good at this point, she already knew the truth.

“You’re right, I’m sorry I should’ve been more honest,” I said with a sigh as I looked away for a moment. “I’ve been lied to, deceived, and used by ponies that I thought I could trust, I should’ve been more considerate about how you’d feel about it.”

“Why’d you do it though?” Dawn asked. “I mean, the Society are the bad guys, they tried to kidnap me and my friends and who knows how many other ponies. You, just sent her into the lion’s den.”

“I know!” I said as I tried not to break down crying. “At the time it felt like the best option. She’s already an Alicorn, they can’t take away her memories or anything anymore, if she can get out of there or we can get her out of there, she’ll be fine.”

“Do you really believe that?”

I paused a moment, I didn’t know how to answer that question and it scared me a little. I had to be honest though.

“Honestly?I don’t quite know yet,” I said. “But I do know that we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that she is saved. I don’t know how yet, but I promise you that I will save Moonlight from the Society one way or another.”

“Okay, I believe you,” Dawn said and gave me a nod. “I’m sorry, after everything that’s happened I don’t like being lied to.”

“Heh, maybe you should join the guard when you’re older,” I suggested and she shrugged a little. “Come on, you still want to learn how to use your magic right? Let’s go see if we can find any spellbooks or something in the town library.”

“Okay,” Dawn said as we headed down the stairs together.

I gave Dawn a small smile as we walked together. I didn’t actually think that I’d have to be honest to her about what had happened with Moonlight. I still felt a lot of guilt about what had happened, but I knew that if I wanted to keep my word to Dawn I’d have to make sure that she made it out of Haythens safely.

I was going to make sure that Dawn and her friends were safe from the Society too. We had brought them here to do that and so far that had worked out. I just hoped that everything really was going to work out.

But for now, I just had to try and not be a terrible teacher to this little Unicorn.

00000

“So, Dawn actually asked you to teach her magic?” Neivi asked as the two of us headed for the radio station again that evening.

“Yeah, she’s actually improving a lot,” I said with a soft smile. “She had some difficulty with telekinesis when we started but she’s gotten a good grasp of it. She’s now working on illumination and some other tricks.”

“Well that’s good,” Neivi said with a nod. “And how are you doing as a teacher? You’re not too nervous are you?”

“A little honestly,” I said as we started up a stairway that would bring us closer to the radio station. I was a little surprised to see the sight of several lights in the darkness not too far away from us. “I’ve never tried to teach anypony before. I just hope that I’m going to be able to teach her well.”

“I know you will,” Neivi said as she leaned up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “You’re a strong mare and I have nothing but faith in your ability to teach her.”

“Thanks,” I said with a soft smile. “But, she knew about what happened to Moonlight, she overheard you and Storm talking about it earlier. I, honestly don’t know what to do about that, should we tell the other two about what happened?”

“Only if they ask, and assuming that Dawn doesn’t tell them about it,” Neivi said with a sigh as she gave me a nod. “You know how they are, they probably tell each other everything. I wonder how she figured out we weren’t telling the truth.”

“She’s more observant than I thought,” I said with a chuckle. “Smart kid, she figured out how to tell when adults are lying. Maybe we should get her a job with the Town Guard when we go back to Nightingale.”

“Not funny Firelight, we don’t want to put her in that kind of position,” Neivi said with a roll of her eyes. “Come on, let’s get this talk with Vox over with and hope we don’t get interrupted again.”

“What did the Guard say about the robot that attacked Moonlight?” I asked, my tone turning somber again for a moment.

“They’re not sure what to do with it honestly,” Neivi said with a sigh. “They don’t even know how to turn it back on to interrogate. It’s like nothing any of them has ever seen before.”

“I talked to the pony that brought her here,” I said with a shake of my head. “He said it was built by the Zebras during the war to kill Princess Luna.”

Neivi’s eyes went wide at that as she looked at me surprised for a moment. “I thought that name sounded familiar. My ancestor mentioned some rumors about a project like that in one of her journals from when she was getting ready to infiltrate the Zebras before… well that’s not important.”

“What happened to her?” I asked softly.

“She was killed, by somepony close to a pony she trusted,” Neivi said with a sigh. “Back then there was a lot of paranoia about Zebras, and to help her cover she was getting close to one of the Ministry Mares before she was discovered.”

“Oh, wow…” I said.

“That was over 200 years ago,” Neivi said with a soft smile. “I guess I’m just lucky that I don’t have to face that sort of fear, at least not as much these days. There are still some ponies who don’t trust me just because I have stripes but usually when somepony needs a doctor even they’ll point them in my direction because I’m the best in town.”

I smiled a little and nuzzled her gently as we reached the part of town where the radio station was. There were beings coming in and out, many of which were carrying candles. Vox was standing off to the side as we approached.

“Hey Vox,” I said softly as the red and yellow Unicorn stallion looked over at us and gave us a smile.

“Hey, if it isn’t Firelight and Neivi,” he said with a nod.

“What’s going on here?” I asked curiously as I looked at the gathered crowd and then back at Vox.

“It’s for your friend, an old tradition called a candlelight vigil,” he said with a sad nod of his head. “I’m sorry our meeting was cut short by that. But everyone feels terrible about what happened to Moonlight and they’re here to pay their respects and hope that she somehow pulls through.”

“Thank you, I’m sure she’d appreciate that,” I said with a sigh and then looked back at Neivi. “Should we come back later? I’m sure if right now’s not the best time…”

“No, no, just come inside with me and we can talk in private if it’s that important,” Vox said as he gestured towards the radio station.

“Are you sure?” I asked as I looked around. “I don’t want to interrupt what’s going on here.”

“Of course, anything for you,” he said as we headed inside together and he lead us into an office off to the side of the building.

I looked around surprised for a moment. There were pictures here and there of ponies and Zebras and other species that looked like they were taken from all around the Jungle and beyond. Vox took a seat behind a desk and gestured towards a couple of chairs as we took our seats.

“Can I get you two anything? I’m sure it’s been a long day for you both,” he said.

“No, we’re good,” I said as I leaned forward a little. I saw a picture of Vox with a Zebra mare with slightly swirled stripes, they looked happy together. “Is that of you and your wife?”

“Alvia, she and I have been together for three years now,” Vox said with a chuckle. “Not an easy task to woo a Carnllia when you’re a pony but she came around. So, I’m sure you’re not here to talk to me about my marriage, what can I do for you two?”

“It’s, complicated,” I said as I looked at Neivi. “I think it would be better for Neivi to explain it.”

“Vox, I know this might be hard to understand, but we need to talk about some of the music you play,” Neivi said with a soft sigh. “Have you ever gotten any strange music albums from anypony?”

“Yeah, sure usually what is found lying around, like any DJ really,” Vox said with a shrug as he looked at us. “Nothing really unusual to be honest. I get music all the time, some I keep, some are too badly preserved to actually be of any of use.”

“Anything that might have been recorded relatively recently?” I asked.

“Well, there’s not a lot of recording spaces that are left standing outside of Tenpony Tower and a few other areas,” Vox said. “Heck one of my predecessors had to build this place from the ground up with what materials they could find. But, now that you mention it, there was this odd set of records that came on a caravan a few months ago.”

I exchanged a look with Neivi, it looked like we had found our smoking gun. That still worried me though, something about this felt weird.

“What made them so odd?” I asked.

Vox paused a moment as he looked between us and sighed. “Look like I said I get weird stuff all the time. The music here though it was, different somehow. When I played it, something came over me, it moved me, you know?”

“Yeah, I think I know what you mean…” I said with a sigh as I looked at Neivi, how were we going to explain this to him? “Who gave you those albums?”

“Some Earth Pony, said they found them somewhere up north,” Vox said with a shrug as he looked between the two of us confused. “What’s going on here? Why are you asking me about my music?”

“Vox, we have reason to believe that you’ve been given music that’s being used by the Nightmare Society to control ponies,” I said and Vox’s eyes went wide.

“What… but… how? How could they do that? Most of my music is too old to have…” Vox said and then narrowed his eyes a little. “You’re talking about the music that pony gave me aren’t you?”

“Yeah, probably,” I said with a shake of my head. “It could’ve been any of the music really, but that seems to fit how Society music works the best. Moonlight, before we came to Canterbury, was listening to your radio show. She has the ability to enter dreams and was able to manipulate my dreams to attack me.”

We sat in silence for a long moment as Vox sat there in silence and tried to process what we were telling him. He looked like he was about to say something when the speakers in the station began playing a song.

“Now the hour has come at last

The soft and fading light

Has crossed the west horizon

And has bidden us goodnight

And what a lovely night it is

To walk a moonlit field

To see the softer shades

That are by starlight now revealed.”

“I didn’t play that,” Vox said quietly as we looked at him. “I’ve got the songs for tonight all queued up, they’re all old world music. That’s one of the songs that was given to me by that Earth Pony I mentioned.”

“Come on,” Neivi said as we headed out of the office and towards the broadcast center for the station.

Vox ran into it and started to flip switches to try and get the song changed but it just kept playing over the radio speakers. He let out a shout of frustration as he finally tried shutting it off and even though the lights on the console shut off, we could still hear the sound of music playing.

“And all will know the wonder

Of my dark and jeweled sky

When all the world is wrapped

In an eternal lullaby

So say goodnight to this,

The final setting of the sun,

Tomorrow dawns in darkness;

The nighttime has begun!”

And as the last of the music faded away finally it went silent.

“I’m sorry, I had no idea…” Vox said softly as he looked up from the console.

“What are you going to do now?” Neivi asked as she looked at him worriedly.

“Get rid of those records for one thing,” Vox said with a sigh. “This station has stood for decades as a symbol of freedom in the jungle. I can’t allow the voice of the people to be hijacked like this again.”

“Vox populi vox deam,” Neivi said with a shake of her head and he looked at her confused. “I don’t know, it just feels like what they were trying to do here. Don’t worry Vox, you’re going to be just fine, we’ll figure this out.”

“I hope so…” Vox said with a sigh. “I just, need some time to think about this you know? Hopefully next time we meet it’ll be under happier circumstances.”

“I’m glad I got to meet you though Vox,” I said with a soft smile as I offered him a hoof. “You’re still doing a lot of good for Equestria, don’t let this incident get you down.”

“Yeah, you’re right, thanks, but I still need to think about it,” Vox said as he shook my hoof and gave me a nod as we headed back outside.

00000

“Firelight, can you tell me a story?” Blueberry asked from her spot in the bed.

I looked over at her from the book I was reading, her friends had already fallen asleep and she looked like she was tired but was having a hard time getting to sleep.

“Is everything okay Blueberry?” I asked with a soft smile as I looked over at her.

“Just can’t sleep,” she said with a shake of her head as she rubbed her eyes a little. “I guess I’m just worried you know? With everything that’s going on, I’m afraid that something might happen to me…”

“Alright, I’ll tell you a story,” I said as I closed the book I had been reading and levitated it into my bag before I turned back to look at the Earth Pony filly. “Hmm, what kind of story should I tell you?”

“Hmm, how about something about a filly like me?” She said and gave me a soft smile.

I thought about it for a moment when I remembered there was a story that I had been told by a friend from the Society a few weeks before I left. She wasn’t like the others, she often traveled around Equestria to get items and information for the High Priestess. I nodded a little and smiled as I started telling the story.

“This is a story about a filly around your age that lives all the way up in the Crystal Wasteland,” I said and Blueberry’s eyes went wide at that. “Yeah, I know that’s really far away from here. It’s a land of ice and snow, and for some time had been plagued by Changelings who had been infiltrating the largest settlement there called Crystal City. This is where a young Pegasus filly lived.”

“What was she like?” Blueberry asked curiously. “Was she like Wind Chime or…”

“A little bit yeah, like you she lost her parents at a young age,” I said with a sad smile. “One day though, she met three ponies from another world. These ponies helped her come out of her shell, helped her come out of her shell. And together they fought against the Changeling invaders and their ruler Queen Chrysalis.”

“Wait, you said she was close to my age,” Blueberry said. “Isn’t she a bit too young for that kind of thing?”

“Well, yeah, but she believed that it was what needed to be done,” I said and rubbed the back of my head a little. “She and her new friends worked together to fight them. Now see my friend heard all of this from secondary sources, at least until she saw it with her own eyes. It was at a battle towards the end of the conflict during the final push towards the hive. She saw this filly help hold off an entire horde of Changelings with just her friends.”

“What happened to her?” Blueberry asked curiously, but she was starting to fall asleep.

“Well, I don’t know my friend left the Crystal Wasteland not long after,” I said with a soft smile as I levitated the covers over her gently. “But if she was as brave as you and your friends, she’s probably still out there somewhere doing what she can to help ponies.”

“Do, you think I’ll ever be like that?” Blueberry asked, a look of worry was on her face. “I, sometimes wish I could do more to help Nightingale and my friends…”

“Just keep being yourself,” I said with a soft smile. “You don’t have to fight off an army of Changelings or anything to help. Be there for your friends when they need you and help wherever you can, that’s all you need to do.”

“Okay,” Blueberry said with a yawn. “Good night Firelight.”

I smiled a little and nuzzled the filly as she gently drifted off to sleep. I stayed by their bedside for a few more minutes to make sure they didn’t wake up again, but they all seemed content. I smiled a little and walked back out, making sure to close the door quietly.

“How are they?” Lemon asked as I sat down at the kitchen table next to Neivi.

“They’re okay, they finally got to sleep,” I said as Neivi gently rest her head on my shoulder. “I’m still a bit worried about them you know? Especially with everything that’s going on with the Society.”

“They’re certainly livin’ up ta their name,” Storm said as she took a long drink from a bottle as I popped the cap off a bottle of Sparkle-Cola Harmony and took a drink. “This whole situation is one big nightmare.”

“I just hope that it’s not going to get to them,” Neivi said and I nodded in agreement. “I don’t want anything to happen to those fillies.”

“Well, ya’ll could formally adopt them,” Storm suggested just as I took a drink which made me cough and nearly spit it back out. “What?”

“I, don’t really think…” I said nervously.

“Yeah, we’re not really ready for that…” Neivi said with a blush.

“Yeah, not yet…” I finished.

“Look, you want my input, nopony is actually ready to raise a foal,” Lemon said as she took a drink. “I was terrified when I found out I was pregnant with Licorice and that was back before the cold war had even started. But, we’ve seen how Firelight is with them and I think you two would do fine.”

“Maybe, I don’t know,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll think about it, right now I just want to keep them safe and happy.”

“Do, you think we’d be good parents?” Neivi asked as she looked up at me for a moment.

“Maybe,” I said with a sigh and nuzzled her gently. “But I can’t think of anyone I’d rather try and raise fillies with than you. I love you Neivi.”

“I love you too Firelight,” Neivi said as she snuggled up against me. I smiled and gently wrapped my wing around her.

I thought back to what had happened in the radio station for a moment. Something about all of this worried me, what were we going to do? How did they even keep playing the music like that?

I didn’t like it, it felt like an omen for something worse to come. But for now, I just wanted to enjoy the rest of the evening with my friends.

I gently stroked Neivi’s mane and closed my eyes as I felt the warmth of the Zebra mare pressed against me. The sound of her heartbeat was strong, and I knew that there was no one else I wanted to spend my life with.

Now, we just had to get our friend back, one way or another.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Light Step.

Details: You’ve learned how to move through the jungle quietly and without disturbing the forest. You can move quietly without disturbing the forest or setting off some traps.

Chapter 11: Night mare Nightmares

“Monsters are real,
And ghosts are real too.
They live inside us,
And sometimes, they win.”
-Stephen King.

I yawned a little as I woke up the next morning and blinked a little. Something felt off about the room as I looked around. I didn’t have a lot of personal effects, but it looked to me like things were out of place. Heck the furniture didn’t look like they did yesterday, but maybe I just didn’t get a good look at it.

“Mmm, morning Firelight,” Neivi said with a yawn from next to me as she sat up and gently wrapped her forelegs around me and planted soft kisses along the back of my neck. “How’d you sleep last night?”

“Good, I guess,” I said as I turned back to look at Neivi who seemed happy as she closed her eyes. “How about you?”

“Mmm, very good,” Neivi said as she moved around and leaned in and gave me a kiss on the lips and started to run her hooves along my sides before they came to a rest on my flanks that she gave a light squeeze. “How about, we have a good morning too, if you know what I mean.”

I shivered a little as I felt her hooves squeeze my flanks lightly. The feeling of the Zebra mare’s hooves running along my body felt wonderful as she started to plant soft kisses down my neck, electricity ran up and down my spine as her hooves moved to my chest and started…

I blinked a little as something occurred to me as I looked down at Neivi. “Neivi, wait…”

“What?” Neivi asked as she looked up at me confused. “Don’t you want to do this?”

“Well, uh…” I said as my face started to turn red from embarrassment. “I’m sorry Neivi, but we talked about this before remember? I’m not ready for this yet.”

“Oh, right,” Neivi said and I blinked a little, that was a weird thing to say. She leaned up and gave me a soft kiss on my lips. “I’m sorry Firelight, I don’t know what came over me. I just wanted you so badly.”

“Its alright,” I said as I nuzzled her gently. “I promise, when I’m ready I’ll let you know, I love you so much Neivi.”

“I love you too,” Neivi said as she reached over and picked up her glasses as she put them on and adjusted them a little.

I smiled a little as I headed over to the dresser where I kept what few clothes I had. I looked back towards Neivi and flicked my tail a little before I opened the dressed and found my old Society robes.

“That’s weird,” I said as I levitated them out and looked around for the Stable jumpsuit. “I left this back in Nightingale, what’s it doing here?”

“What do you mean back in Nightingale?” Neivi asked as she slid on her coat and looked back at me. “We haven’t left Nightingale, you must have had one heck of a dream.”

“Yeah, one heck of a dream…” I said and shook my head as I slid on the armored robes, adjusting the wing slots a little to make sure they fit me. “Sorry, it’s probably nothing.”

“Come on, let’s meet the others for breakfast,” Neivi said as we headed out of the bedroom. I blinked a little, if we were back in Nightingale this should look familiar right? Something about this still felt wrong, the walls they weren’t the same even, they were more purple or lavender. “I don’t remember the walls being painted like this.”

“Really? They’ve always been like that,” Neivi said with a shrug. “I always thought it was tacky personally but it’s what its always been like.”

“Weird,” I said as I nearly tripped and steadied myself on the wall and backed off suddenly. There was a large slash on the wall as if something with four claws had cut along it, that definitely hadn’t been there. “What the… where did that come from?”

“Where did what come from?” Neivi asked as she turned around and looked at me confused.

“That claw mark on the…” I said as I turned and looked back at the wall where the strange claw mark had been only to find it was gone. “I swear it was right here.”

“Firelight, are you okay?” Neivi asked as she reached up and felt my forehead a little. “There hasn’t ever been any claw marks on that wall, heck there hasn’t been anything that’s big enough to do that that came this far.”

I looked back at the wall for a long moment, I was still confused. Was I going insane or had I just imagined they were there? I shook my head and looked back at Neivi with a soft smile on my face and gave her a nod.

“I’m sorry, I guess I was just imagining things,” I said with a shrug as we headed down the hall and into the dining room. “Where’s Dawn and her friends?”

“Oh Storm swung by earlier and picked them up for school,” Neivi said as she let out a small chuckle. “I think she’s still pining after me though. She’s cute but you’re the only mare for me.”

“Wait, what about Moonlight?” I asked and Neivi looked at me confused.

“Who’s Moonlight?”

“You know, our other friend who’s an Alicorn, a little shorter than me, can move through dreams,” I said as I looked at her confused. “She’s dating Storm Wrangler, you walked in on them in the middle of doing it on the clinic floor.”

“No, I think I’d remember that, you’re the only Alicorn who lives in Nightingale,” Neivi said as she leaned up and gave me a kiss. “Come on, we don’t want to keep our friends waiting do we?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I said with a shrug as I looked a bit confused and looked back at her with a soft smile. “Yeah, lets go.”

We headed out of the house together and off towards the cafeteria area.

00000

“Hey you two lovebirds,” Lemon said as we took a seat across from her and Storm as I picked at my food a little.

“Storm, Lemon,” Neivi said with a smile as she took a bite of her eggs. “How’s it going?”

“Oh, yah know, tha usual,” Storm said as she took a drink and looked over at me and gave me a wink. “How about yah Firelight? Did ya’ll have a good time last night?”

“What? Oh, uh…” I said and blushed a little as I shook my head. “We didn’t do anything like that. I just did some reading mostly, not really anything else to say.”

“Riiight,” Storm said with a chuckle as she took a bite of her breakfast.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head as I took a drink of water. Something about all of this was still weird, but what if it was true? What if I had just been dreaming everything that had happened so far and I was just living a normal life here in Nightingale with my friends?

Then why did my mind dream up Moonlight and everything that had happened in Canterbury? No, something about all of this was still bugging me, and I couldn’t put my hoof on exactly why.

“I’m just going to…” I started to say as I finished eating and picked up my plate and nearly dropped it when I saw the table under it. Carved into the table was two words “BAD WOLF” which hadn’t been there before. “What the… where did that come from?”

“Uh Firelight, are you okay?” Neivi asked. “It looks like something’s spooked you.”

“I’m guessing you can’t see anything there either,” I said as I looked up at her and then pointed down at the table. “There are two words there, bad wolf, what does that even mean?”

“Firelight, you’re scaring me,” Neivi said and I looked down at the table to see that the words had vanished just like the claw marks on the wall. “Come on, just calm down and talk to me.”

“Yeah, what’s goin’ on here?” Storm asked.

“I, honestly don’t know,” I said and rubbed my eyes a little as I tried to figure out exactly what might have happened. “I thought I saw something there, and the claw marks before. And why doesnt’ Neivi remember Moonlight?”

“Who’s Moonlight?” Lemon asked as Storm looked just as confused. “Firelight, I think you just need to calm down. You’ve been under a lot of stress ever since you arrived in Nightingale and everything.”

“I, just need to go clear my head,” I said as I got to my hooves and gave Neivi a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you all later.”

I headed out of the eating area and back out into Nightingale. I had no idea what was going on, but I needed to get somewhere to clear my head.

00000

I pulled myself up onto the platform that overlooked Nightingale and sighed a little as I laid back on the wooden floor and sighed. What was happening to me? Why did I keep seeing things that weren’t there?

Was I going insane or was something else going on here? I didn’t particularly want to think about either option. Maybe it was really all in my head like some, residual leftover from whatever was going on?

Was everything that had happened really a dream? Some sort of, second life that I had lived out in my dreams and this was actually reality? Everything seemed, fine, but something about all of this still bugged me.

So, what was I going to do now? If this was my real life, what was I going to do with it? Should I still hang onto the guilt of what I did to Moonlight if it never really happened? Was anything I remembered even real?

“I thought I’d find you up here,” a familiar voice said and I looked over to see Neivi climbing up the tree and pulling herself up onto the platform.

“I want to be alone right now,” I said with a sigh as I closed my eyes and leaned back.

“I know, but I still wanted to check on you,” Neivi said as I heard her sitting down next to me. “Firelight, we’re all worried about you. You’re seeing things that aren’t there and then you just, ran off without an explanation.”

“They were there,” I finally said as my eyes snapped open. “I don’t know why I’m the only one who can see them, but they were there. What’s next, am I going to start seeing holes that vanish too?”

“Firelight, I think this might be an after-effect of your time away from the Society,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “We don’t know everything that they put you through there, and you may not even be completely aware of all of it. It’s possible that you’re suffering something similar to withdraw.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said with a sigh. “But I’m not sure of anything anymore. The only thing I’m even sure of anymore is how I feel about you, but everything else here, it just feels wrong somehow.”

“I remember I once had a patient who got into an accident and was hurt but not too badly,” Neivi said. “When he woke up he was confused because he swore that in the time he was out ten years had passed and he had a wife and two foals with her. Is it possible that you imagined everything that happened?”

I paused a moment and thought about that before something occurred to me. There was something that had been nagging at the back of my mind this whole time and I had just now realized what it was.

“Neivi, how long have we been together?” I asked.

“What kind of question is that?” Neivi asked confused.

“Just answer me,” I said as I looked at her. “When did we first get together?”

“We, got together the day after you arrived in Nightingale,” Neivi said. “You swept me off my hooves and…”

“No I didn’t!” I said interrupting her. “Neivi, the day after I arrived I was still lying in the clinic recovering. In fact it wasn’t until after we dealt with the Mayor and the Enclave arrived that we even got together, which was all in my dream.”

“What are you saying?” Neivi asked confused.

I stood up and looked down at the wood of the platform. Scratched into it in big letters in front of me was the words “IT’S ME!”

A siren seemed to sound around me as the sky turned dark. I looked up to see that the moon was covering the sun above me as the whole world around me seemed to take on an, otherworldly glow.

“What the…” I said and turned to see that Neivi was gone. “Neivi? Anyone? What’s going on?”

I looked down at the town as I heard screams and realized that Nightingale was on fire. There were ponies in danger down there, and I needed to save them. I spread my wings and flew down into the town itself before landing near the clinic.

When I got there, something felt wrong. I could still hear the screams and see the flames, but they seemed, off somehow like everything else here. Then I realized that there was nopony around me, it was like the screams were coming from everywhere but nowhere at the same time.

“What’s going on here? Where is everypony?” I asked as I looked around confused.

“Firelight, Firelight, come down here and give a fight” a haunting voice said, followed by a giggle.

“Where are you? Who are you?” I demanded as I looked around again. “This isn’t funny!”

“Oh? It isn’t funny to you? What about to your friends? Or are they really your friends? Or just pawns to your game.” That voice replied.

“I don’t know what you mean, they’re my friends, they’re all my friends!” I said. “I’m not playing any game here…”

“Is that so?” The voice replied. “Was I your friend? Why would you lie to a friend? Why would you keep them from the family that loves them, from their true calling in the world?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked as I tried to find the source of that voice. “I never lied to any of them. I’ve never lied to any of my friends, I’ve been nothing but open with them!”

“You lied to me” the voice said, mirrors erupting from the ground around me, circling me in them, in my reflection I could see myself, and a figure standing behind me, hidden in shadows. “You told me that they were evil, that they would only want to use me, that I was nothing more than a tool to them.”

“Moonlight…” I said as tears started to well up in my eyes when I realized who it was that was here. “I spent six years in the Society! They were going to use me and they wanted your dream walking abilities. You know that I’m right, you’ve seen the outside world, does it look like a world that needs to be converted to you?”

“I didn’t understand before, and I believed your lies.” Moonlight said. “I had listened to you, followed your hoof steps, and where did it get me, dying, filled with toxins and lead. And when I needed my friends most, where did they send me? Not to be healed and saved from death’s cold doorstep, but to those they wished to watch me as I took my final breath, those who would suffer the most from my passing.”

“What?” I asked. “We sent you because we didn’t have the means to heal you in Canterbury. You were going to die if we didn’t get a cure for you and we felt that was the best option. You still had your memories, you could’ve broken free and made it back to us, that’s what we wanted!”

“You didn’t count on them saving me, why else would you have sent me.” Moonlight said, stepping forward and letting me see her in the reflections, I could still see the wounds where she had been shot. “You sent me to them, not as a friend, but as a parting gift. You tried to take the world away from me, a world rightfully gifted to me by the goddess herself, just like you tried to take my true family from me, the only ponies that understand, or care.”

“What about Storm?” I said as I saw the familiar flames starting to creep up in my vision. “She cares about you, she loves you! She was furious for what we did to you, but we told her that we’d save you, that you’d make it out of there somehow. You’re not like them Moonlight, you’re not their pawn. You’re a kind, loving, and friendly pony who would never let the Society lie to her like this!”

“The only pony here that is a liar, is you, Firebrand.” Her voice turning colder, darker, more sinister. “I wished only to remind you, your dreams are my realm, and your world my pawn. Gaze upon greatness, for before you stands your goddess.”

She started to laugh, her laugh twisting more and more the longer it went. I watched as her coat changed from white to black, mane starting to billow and shimmer like the night sky itself. When she finally stopped laughing, standing before me in that reflection was no longer my friend, but the Nightmare she became.

“No… Moonlight, snap out of it, you’re not her… you’re not Nightmare Moon,” I said as tears streamed down my face. “You’re Moonlight, you’re my friend, you’re all our friend. We’re not your enemy!”

“No, You are not.” Moonlight said, glaring at me. “You tried to take what was rightfully mine from me, you lied to me and twisted my reality so I would follow your hoof steps and become something I am not. The High priestess opened my eyes to your lies, and let me know of the love, the adoration my family has for me, the only true heir to the throne, the only one rightful to bear the burden the Goddess left behind. You will watch as your world comes down around you, and you will know the fury of those why betray her might.”

“This isn’t over, I’ll stop you! I’ll stop all of you!” I shouted. “Moonlight, I’m going to save you from the Society one way or another! This isn’t who you are, and I’m going to make you remember that!”

“Silence, Whelp!” Moonlight shouted, the mirrors around me dropping revealing Nightingale around me ablaze, bodies lying everywhere. “Bow before your goddess and know your place, or fall silent with all the non believers.”

“NO!” I said in a loud voice that boomed across the burning town, I could feel the flames around me, licking at the edges of my vision as the flames of the burning town around me started to grow stronger, but they didn’t even bother me as I screamed in a voice that was not my own. “I WILL NEVER BOW BEFORE YOU AGAIN, YOU WILL BURN, YOUR TEMPLE WILL BURN, THE ENTIRE SOCIETY WILL BURN BEFORE MY POWER!”

I let out a laugh, but I wasn’t controlling my actions as I stepped forward, smiling wickedly at the figure of Nightmare Moon.

“You do not know true fear, not until you face my flames,” I continued. “I am the Firebrand, the burning light that will bring you and your followers to their knees!”

“You have no power here.” Moonlight said, and with a wave of her hoof my flames disappeared. “Only the power I wish to grant.”

Dropping her wings I could see behind her, the bodies of my friends laying broken and bleeding on the ground.

“They will die first, as punishment for your impudence, I do hope you can see the error of your ways, the break of day will not bring the light you wish.” She said with a smirk. “The night will last eternal, Firebrand, rejoice in my mercy as I offer you one last chance, stand beside me, or die with them.”

“Never…” I said through gritted teeth, my voice finally my own again. “I will never join you again.”

“So be it.” Moonlight said, glaring down at me. “I hope you enjoyed your dream, Firebrand. It will be the last you will have.”

With that, the world around me faded away and I found myself waking up in the middle of Canterbury, my friends standing around looking just as dazed and perplexed as me.

“What in Tartarus just happened?” Lemon asked as she looked at me confused.

“Did ya’ll just have dreams about Moonlight turnin’ into Nightmare Moon?” Storm asked and we all nodded. “That ain’t right…”

“Tell me about it,” Neivi said with a sigh as she looked back at me. “What are we going to do now?”

“I, honestly have no idea,” I admitted as I looked down at my hooves.

What had I done? This was all my fault and I knew it, now it was just a matter of figuring out what to do about it.

00000

We sat around the table in silence for awhile as we thought about what had happened last night. We had compared notes, it seemed our dreams hadn’t been that different (other than me temporarily losing control of my own body but I wasn’t worried about that right now). So, what were we going to do now?

“She talked about her family,” Neivi said finally as she looked at Storm for a moment. “She sounded like she has had issues with family before, did you know anything about that?”

“No, she didn’t exactly talk much about her family or life back in Stable 27,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “Ah’m sorry…”

I was about to speak, when there was a gentle tapping at the door, gently opening it and pushing her head through I could see a pale colored earth mare, looking at the group of us before her eyes settled on me. Softly she spoke. “Firebrand, we have to talk.”

I blinked a moment as I looked at her. “Wait… you’re that Changeling, the one from the Society aren’t you? She’s the only one outside the Society or my friends that know that stupid title. What are you doing here?”

“I’m sure you already know.” She said softly, nodding a little. “There is much to talk about, come with me please.”

“If you want to talk to me about anything, you can say it in front of my friends,” I said, not getting up.

“This is of utmost importance Firebrand, please, If I speak it infront of outsiders you know what the high priestess will do to me when I return.” She said. “You know me, the stories I told you, how I watched you in the nursery as you grew up, You have no reason to be so distrustful of me.”

“You sound pretty scared to me,” Lemon said as she looked at the disguised Changeling with a frown. “Look, we’re all Firelight’s friends, if she wants to talk to you in private okay, but she trusts us and we won’t betray that trust.”

“There are but a few things that changelings fear, and the High Priestess knows them all.” She said softly. “She does not take lightly on those with… how you say, Loose lips.”

“Alright, I’ll hear you out,” I said with a sigh as I looked at my friends and leaned in and gave Neivi a soft kiss before whispering an I love you. “I don’t want anything to happen to you anymore than my friends. Let’s go talk in private.”

“We must talk about the one that is with the moon.” She said, smiling to me a little. “She has, created quite the stir in the society. There are already talks of schisms forming between the ranks, those who follow her, or those who follow the priestess.”

I nodded as we headed into another room. My horn glowed a little as did the walls and door. “There, we should be able to talk in private now.”

“Her use of power last night, was not… permitted.” She quickly said. “The priestesses tried to stop her, however they all woke up the next day injured, even the high priestess herself couldn’t remove the artifact.”

“What artifact are you talking about?” I asked with a tilt of my head, I couldn’t think of any artifacts that could do something like that. “I mean, Moonlight can already dreamwalk but its always been a limited range, and we’re too far away.”

“Remember the breastplate adorned upon the bust in the main hall?” She asked.

“Yeah, I was always told it belonged to…” I said and my eyes went wide when I remembered that. “Nightmare Moon herself.”

“That much is a lie.” She said, with a sigh. “However it was crafted with a material descended from the moon itself, and embedded within a gift of the goddess, an amulet of untold power.”

“Wait, when we were in the tunnels Moonlight briefly reacted to something nearby,” I said as I thought back to that moment. “That’s bad, are you saying that is what caused her to become, well, that?”

“Indeed it is Firebrand.” She said with a sad nod. “She is your friend, and her fire still burns brightly within, it is just masked with hatred and lies, I was there when she appeared and heard what the Society told her, they have turned her against you but I believe there is enough of her within that she can still be brought back.”

“So, you want me to go back to the Temple and convince her?” I asked. “How do I know they won’t grab me and shoot me?”

“She does not heed the teachings of the priestess, you do not need to go to her, she will come to you, you just need to call her to the place she calls home.” She said. “She is bound by her own moral code, she will stick with her family, all you need to do is show her, that her family is not there, but here.”

“Okay, how to do that…” I said with a shake of my head. “I tried to appeal to that last night but it didn’t do any good. Storm didn’t do much better and they’re in a relationship together.”

“You confronted her, you did not attempt to appeal to her.” She said. “She told us of your arrogance in the great hall. Do not lift your arms and attempt to force her to stop, that will only make her stronger, you need to get to her through kindness, I can feel that in her, much like I felt something similar in you.”

“Kindness…” I said with a sigh. “That’s easier said than done, but how to do that…”

“Do you remember the tales, of how Nightmare Moon was destroyed?” She said. Sitting down and holding her hoof out to me. “Perhaps, it is by that brilliant light described, that you can cast away the darkness and reclaim the soul within?”

I gently took her hoof and sighed a little. “The Elements of Harmony, but we don’t have them. How are we supposed to do that? Use what virtues or elements we resonate with us and hope it gets to her?”

“I see before me, all the harmony.” She said with a chuckle. “You do not need the elements, nor anything to stand in for them, because what they are, is in your heart. Firebrand, you need to just, trust in yourself, and in your friends, and let their lights combine.”

I paused a moment and then smiled. “We’ll try, thank you so much, I just hope it’s going to work. Still, it, kinda feels like we’re missing something.”

“She talked of a mare, one from a concrete tomb.” She said with a nod. “She ranted about how much she loved this mare, this one mare over all, and how she would never be allowed to hold her again, how she would never see the smile on their foal’s face as she grew up, perhaps that is a place to start.”

“Citrus!” I said as I jumped up. “Her friend and mate from Stable 27! She was pregnant with Moonlight’s foal but they had to part ways when Moonlight was turned into an Alicorn! She fits what you described to a T.”

“Your path may sound clear, but there is more to it then you know Firebrand.” She said with a smile. “I know only what I have overheard, however it sounds like this, stable, is a place to start.”

“We’ll definitely start there,” I said with a nod and a soft smile. “And, it’s Firelight, I don’t use that title here. Honestly I never liked it very much.”

“Why use Firelight? That is not your name as much as Firebrand is not.” She said with a smile. “I still remember the first night I spent with you, Ember.”

I sighed a little and looked down at my hooves. “I don’t even remember Ember very much. I guess I just go by Firelight because it’s the only name I remember.”

“You remembered Ember well the first night, You were different than the others.” She said with a soft smile. “You remembered more of who you were then any others, it was through all the training you were given and all the lessons they had you learn that fully hid away that scared little filly. Maybe you don’t remember her, because you wish to protect her, and fear if you remember her she’ll be hurt once more.”

“I…” I said and sighed a little. “You’re probably right, but its been so long I don’t even know how to anymore.”

“Her light will shine through in due time.” the changeling said “Your friend, she who is one with the moon, she will need that light more than ever when you get her back.”

“Thank you…” I said and paused a moment. “You know, you’d think all these years I’d ask you for your name.”

“I do not have one.” She said softly. “I am just, The Changeling, No pony decided I needed more.”

“Well, I think you do,” I said with a soft smile. “Would you like a name?”

“I, never considered myself worthy of a title. The Society only keeps me around because I can go places Alicorns cannot.” She said, smiling a little back. “All they offer, is a roof of my head and unrestricted access to food… but, they never really considered how I felt, or what I thought.”

I thought about it for a moment and sighed. “Well, what about out in the world? Do you go by a name when you’re meeting with ponies or do you have any you like? I’m not saying you have to take a name, but, well, you’ve always done so much for me…”

“As one with many faces, I do not think a singular title is fitting.” She said with a shake of her head. “I usually go by what I am called, nothing more, then again I rarely make contact with the outside world anymore… the high priestess accused me of being treasonous and spreading lies with my stories and forbid me from doing more than the mission I was given… Which is why I am here, she sent me to you, to ask you for help.”

“I’ll help with Moonlight,” I said with a nod. “But not for the High Priestess, I’m doing this because she’s my friend. Spin that for her however you like. And, think about the name thing, you don’t have to tell the Society or even me, just pick a name and make it your own if you want.”

“Moonlight is, destructive to everything the High Priestess worked for.” She said with a sigh. “She believed if the Goddess appeared, it would bring validity to her statements and strengthen the cause, but all it has done is cause questions and fighting, questions of who to follow have arisen, who is the truth and who is lies, The society is coming apart at the seams all because of one free radical in the system.”

“And since I’m already a renegade to the Society, if I save her it’ll discredit her message, right?” I asked.

“Correct… and, as was said, the artifact, as long as she has it she is unstoppable, even to the strongest elites of the Society, any attempt to stand in her way has already been met with violence, and there is fear that if not stopped soon, deaths may occur. Even with her mind full of lies, she still trusts you, she is just, in pain, and unsure of where she stands in life, she needs that light you’ve always given.”

“Like I said, I’ll save her because she’s my friend not for the High Priestess, even if it means doing what the High Priestess wants, this one time,” I said with a sigh as I bowed my head a little. “If I don’t do this, then she’s going to destroy Nightingale and other settlements and kill who knows how many ponies in the process.”

“Believe me in this child.” The changeling said, before pulling me into a hug and softly running a hoof through my mane. “Her bark is much worse than her bite, she only wishes to scare you and have you fall in line because she doesn’t want to hurt you.”

“So what do you suggest? Should I let her stay as Nightmare Moon?” I asked. “That’s not a great option either.”

“It is not that I suggest you should leave her as she is, but I wanted you to know she is like a cornered animal, she is scared and lashing out, hoping to frighten you and make you stand in line.” She said softly. “I wished for you to know that, so when she and you do meet again, you know to treat her as such - you do not reach for a frightened animal, you convince it that it’s safe and to come to you.”

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind and we’ll come up with a plan,” I said with a nod. “Thank you again.”

“Your welcome.” She said softly. “It was nice seeing you again.”

I hugged her tight. “It was good seeing you again too, I’d like to see you again someday.”

“Hopefully one day you will.” She said with a smile and nod. “You should return to your friends, I am sure they are worried.”

“Yeah, I’m going to have to tell them everything you know,” I said with a sigh. “If we’re going to do anything they’ll need to be told everything.”

“Remind them, Moonlight is not gone, she is only hidden behind a cloak of magic and shadow.” Smiling warmly and getting to her hooves, giving me one more hug before she’d disappear in a flash.

“I just hope that we can do this,” I said with a sigh as I removed the soundproofing spell and headed back to the kitchen.

“Who was that?” Storm asked as I came back. “What did she want?”

“She’s, it’s kind of a long story,” I said with a sigh as I brushed my mane back a little. “She was in charge of taking care of the young Alicorns when they joined the Society including me. I, don’t really know what you’d call her, protector, caretaker…”

“Nanny?” Lemon suggested.

“Yeah, I guess that works,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve got a lot to tell you, and we’re going to have to come up with a plan on exactly how to execute it. And we’re going to need help from Citrus.”

They listened as I told them everything the Changeling had told me. It was admittedly a long shot and I could see it on their faces that they weren’t sure if we were going to be able to do this, but it was at least a start.

“Do, you really think this’ll work?” Lemon finally asked. “I was around when the original Element Bearers were still alive. I know how this kind of plan usually goes, but it doesn’t always go that way in the Wasteland.”

“Then we hope that it will,” I said. “This is our best chance at getting Moonlight back and we can use it to strike a blow against the Society. They’re already being weakened because of the schism that’s formed in the Society, and if we can somehow get her to trust us and keep rallying the troops on her side, we’ll have an advantage in this fight. Moonlight is not gone, we just have to get through to her.”

“Alright, so how are we going to do that?” Storm asked and we all paused a moment.

“Like I said, we need to talk to Citrus,” I said as I looked at all of them. “Which means we need to get back to Nightingale.”

“So, then what do we do with the fillies?” Neivi pointed out.

“If the Paxis is still there or we have some friends in town they can watch them, or if one of us stays behind,” I said with a sigh.

“I’ll stay,” Lemon said. “I don’t want to put anypony in the Stable at risk because of my radiation.”

“Alright,” I said. “We’ll get Citrus and hope that she can help us come up with a plan. Right now it’s our best option, probably our only option. So let’s do this.”

The others nodded and Neivi spoke up. “I need time to talk with Diala to tell her we have to leave. We should be able to go soon though.”

We nodded and went to get our stuff together. It was time to get back home to Nightingale, and then Stable 27.

00000

I stood in front of the cave that would lead down into Stable 27 and sighed a little. We had dropped the fillies and Lemon off in town and here we were, standing outside the entrance to the one place that we hoped would help.

“So, how do we get in?” I asked as I looked at my friends. “I mean, I doubt they just left the front door open.”

“Well, Stable 27 has had contact with the outside world right?” Neivi asked and I nodded a little. “Well, maybe we should try, you know, knocking.”

“Wouldn’t hurt,” Storm said with a shrug. “If Ah was in charge Ah’d put at least some guards by tha front door. Ah’ll bet there’s an intercom or somethin’ we can use.”

I nodded as we headed into the cave. The large gear shaped Stable door was in the cave wall with the number 27 slightly faded on it. There was a terminal off to the side with a few buttons and speakers.

“It’s your plan Firelight, you talk to them,” Neivi said and gave me a nod.

“Okay,” I said and took a deep breath as I pressed the button marked intercom. “Uh, hello this is Firelight and company. We’re here to talk to Citrus.”

“How do we know you’re really her?” The mare’s voice said on the other end. “We’ve been told about you but not much else. Can you prove who you are? What do you know about Citrus?”

“Security ponies, very paranoid,” Storm said and I couldn’t help but chuckle at that a little bit.

“It’s about Moonlight,” I said. “She’s in danger and we’re going to need Citrus’ help if we’re going to save her. Please, just let us in so we can talk to her and hopefully work this all out.”

“Alright, she’s currently in the clinic but we’ll talk to her and see if she wants to see you,” the security mare’s voice said on the other end.

“Why’s she in the clinic?” Neivi asked and there was a brief pause. “I’m a Doctor, if there’s anything wrong…”

“She went into labor earlier than expected, she’s fine and her daughter is going to be fine,” the security mare said with a sigh. “Anyway, if there’s nothing else I’ll go talk to her now.”

“No, go ahead,” I said as the intercom shut off.

A few minutes later there was a scraping sound of metal against metal as the Stable 27 door started to open. It finally opened fully and an Earth Pony mare dressed in Stable 27 Security barding with black fur and a white mane.

“Nopony mentioned you were an Alicorn,” the security mare said as she looked up at me confused for a moment.

“Long story, don’t worry I can be trusted,” I said with a nod and gave her a soft smile. “Just give me a chance to talk to Citrus and it’ll be okay.”

“Alright, well she trusts you enough to let you in, so come with me,” the security mare said and lead us into the Stable.

00000

It’s kind of funny, in all my time in the Jungle I had had never really thought about this, but I hadn’t ever really been anywhere like the Society in one regard. Nightingale, Canterbury, even the boat on the river all had a mix of mares and stallions, it had taken some getting used to but I barely even noticed anymore.

So as we walked through Stable 27 which was entirely made up of mares I had a hard time acclimating again. I don’t know, maybe it was because of what I had gotten used to in my time in the jungle but at the same time it was, kind of nice.

We went past a few mares and fillies who looked at me and Neivi curiously. They probably weren’t used to seeing Zebras and Alicorns. I gave some of them a smile as we made our way towards the clinic.

“An entire Stable filled with mares, sounds like yer dream come true Neivi,” Storm said with a chuckle as Neivi rolled her eyes a little. “Don’t say yah wouldn’t mind a harem or somethin’.”

“I only need Firelight,” Neivi said with a shake of her head as she nuzzled me gently. “I can live without a harem.”

“Too bad, I wouldn’t mind,” I said jokingly as we reached the clinic. The security mare gave me a nod. “Thank you, uh…”

“Charcoal, I know it’s not an original name,” Charcoal said with a chuckle as she gestured towards the clinic door. “I hope she’ll be able to help you with whatever you need her for.”

“Me too,” I said as we headed into the clinic.

Citrus was laying on a medical bed while a filly was in a nearby chamber. She looked tired but she smiled a little as she looked up to see us.

“Hey, its been awhile,” she said with a soft smile. “How’s Moonlight doing? Charcoal said it was about her.”

“It’s, complicated,” I said with a soft sigh. “She was shot and nearly killed by a robot programmed to kill Princess Luna and thought she was her for some reason. Unfortunately, to cure her of the poison that was in the bullets we had to send her to the Society.”

“You what?” Citrus said as she snapped up and looked at me in shock. “Why would you do something like that?”

“It seemed like the only option at the time,” Neivi said with a sigh as she adjusted her glasses a little. “We were in a difficult position to say the least. We had hoped that because she retained her memories after the IMP process she would be able to break free.”

“Obviously, that didn’t work,” Storm said with a roll of her eyes.

“And now she’s been exposed to some dangerous artifacts that have turned her into Nightmare Moon,” I finished as Citrus frowned a little. “She’s in trouble Citrus, and we need to get through to her so we can help her.”

“Okay, but why me?” Citrus asked. “We basically resigned ourselves to not being able to see each other again after what happened. And it sounds to me like she’s found somepony else in the outside world.”

“Look, Ah’m sorry if Ah stole yer mate from yah,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “Moonlight, she’s somethin’ special ta me though. Ah’ve never really had anypony like her before and… well, Ah guess Ah can understand what yah must see in her.”

“She also talked a lot about family,” I said as I looked at her. “She feels betrayed by us and like the Society is her one true family. According to my old caretaker from the Society, she talked about how she’d never get to see you or her daughter. Does, any of this mean anything?”

Citrus paused a moment before she looked over at the sleeping filly. She looked like she was deep in thought before she finally sighed and looked at me. “Which daughter?”

“Wait, there’s more than one?” I asked.

“Moonlight isn’t the first mare to exhibit some of Luna’s abilities in Stable 27, but she has probably the strongest connection to them,” Citrus said with a sigh as she looked at me. “She had these abilities while she was young, even while she was still in the womb. The Overmare believed that this-”

“That will be enough out of you, you need to rest.” A nearby doctor said looking to me and my friends. “If you wish to know more, you may come with me and I will explain in detail, however I must insist that my patient be allowed to rest.”

“Alright,” I said with a sigh as I gave Citrus a soft smile. “You have a beautiful daughter, I hope she’ll be okay.”

“Thanks, and me too,” Citrus said as she laid back on the bed.

I turned back to the doctor. “Alright, lead the way.”

Following the doctor out the room, as soon as the door was closed she turned to face us. “You three have a lot of nerve, do you even begin to understand how stressful and traumatic premature labor is?”

“I’m a doctor, I’m very much aware of this,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. “But we are in the middle of a crisis and Citrus may be the best chance we have at resolving it. Given the time constraint and the fact that we were unaware she had given birth until we had gotten here we didn’t have a lot of options.”

The Doctor took a deep breath and sighed. “Right, ‘doctor’...” She said, shaking her head. “Anyway, what is it you are after, Moonlight has been a very sore subject around here ever since she left.”

We gave the Doctor a quick rundown of what had happened and what we knew. As we talked though, something started to nag at the back of my mind. Citrus had said that Moonlight had other foals in the Stable, she had only ever really talked about Citrus before.

“Look, Ah know this is all hard ta take in,” Storm said. “But based on what Firelight told us our best chance is Citrus or, some other pony in this Stable that she was with. We need anythin’ yah can tell us.”

“Let’s start with family.” The doctor said, “By the way, My name is Orange Blossom, you can call me blossom or orange, but please not both. But family for Moonlight, has always been a very complex and, regulated thing.”

“Exactly how many foals as she…” Neivi said and paused a moment as she tried to figure out the right word. “Conceived in this Stable?”

“Counting the one Citrus just had?” Blossom said, stopping to think for a moment. “Half a dozen, maybe one or two more. It’s hard to remember, it’s been quite a while since the last one. Don’t get me wrong, Moonlight is a wonderful mare, but sometimes I think her taste in others is… flawed, at best.”

“Flawed taste? She ain’t got no flawed taste!” Storm snapped at the Doctor. “Ah should know, she and Ah have been involved fer awhile up top!”

“Storm, calm down…” Neivi said.

“Calm down? Mah marefriend has been turned into tha avatar of one of tha most evil ponies of all time and Ah’m bein’ insulted by some Stable Doctor who don’t know what she’s talkin’ about!” Storm snapped at her and glared at Blossom.

“Perhaps you misunderstood me.” Blossom said with a deep breath. “Moonlight has always been rebellious, she refused to adhere to some of the basic rules down here in the stable. For one, she has been special since before birth, and that sculpted her education and should of influenced her choice in mate, however she seems to have rejected everything and kept trying to… settle down, with other mares. She is the latest in a very important side project we have been working on and she was trying to throw it all away, and when she didn’t get what she wanted she ran away like a spoiled filly.”

“Ah’ve gotten less bullcrap from actual bulls,” Storm said as she narrowed her eyes at Orange Blossom. “Moonlight is one of tha nicest mares Ah’ve ever known. If anythin’ yah say is true Ah’m sure she has very good reasons. Yah can’t try and regulate a pony’s life like that, they need freedom and tha ability ta make decisions fer themselves.”

“Would you shut your mouth and let me speak.” Blossom snapped back at Storm. “Your daughter did not just give premature birth to the foal of a mare who abandoned everything that has been worked for over generations.”

“Wait, you’re telling me you have a what, selective breeding program with ponies that have abilities like Moonlight?” Neivi asked. “Exactly what purpose does that serve?”

“We have seen the surface, we opened our doors shortly after the bombs fell and we saw what the world had become, we knew that no pony, no princess survived that.” Blossom said with a sigh. “When the first ponies down here started to show signs that they had powers like Princess Luna, the overmare was quick to try and see if we could combine those abilities and figure out how to make them stronger, to see if one day we could bring Luna back by just calling enough of her magic to us.”

“That’s insane, even if there was a chance that it would work you can’t bring her fully back unless you had part of her consciousness or something,” I said.

“It may of been insane, but it was working.” Blossom said, looking to me. “Every generation was stronger than the last, there were a few offshoots here and there but they got rolled into the program and soon we were getting reliably powerful offspring. Moonlight was the first to exhibit dreamwalking, a major step forward, and she did it with ease as though it was second nature to her, There was rumors of a piece of Luna in the dreamscape that has been trapped there, and with Moonlight able to go there, we could get that piece back.”

“Fates, if tha Society got wind of…” Storm started to say and then paused as she looked at me and Neivi and then back at Blossom. “Yah don’t think that they somehow got wind of this experiment do yah?”

“The Alicorns? No, they had no way of knowing unless somepony broke silence and told them, or if Moonlight was stupid enough to actually reveal her power to them.” Blossom said. “Back on the topic however, Moonlight kept trying to settle down, but the overmare and her administration kept getting in the way, once Moonlight and her mate decided to have a foal, they ensured that Moonlight would be the father, loose terming there, and would separate them after conception.”

“But when we, yah know… she never wanted ta be in charge!” Storm said.

“Well, that’s nice to know she moved on so quickly.” Blossom said with a huff. “Either way, the traits are only passed down from father to foal, if they mother a foal the traits get lost. She had to be what we required her to be in order for the project to not be entirely lost.”

“Wait,” Neivi said as she looked confused. “You said she fathered six foals right? What’s the problem, if its passed down from Moonlight to her foals, shouldn’t the ones you have already be exhibiting those abilities?”

“That’s the problem, she has fathered six foals, and none of them have showed any signs of even a fragment of the power the first generation had.” Blossom said with a sigh. “There are talks, that the power must be used up, and the project was doomed from the beginning, no more can be born with fragments of her power if there is none of her power left in the aether.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses and shook her head a little. “If there’s not any more ponies being born with these abilities, what’s the harm in letting Moonlight live a normal life? The more foals she conceives in this Stable the more you’ll risk having an inbreeding problem with the next generation. It was a valiant experiment, but in my medical opinion continuing to attempt it will cause nothing but trouble for Stable 27.”

Blossom paused and looked at us for a moment before she sighed and motioned to follow her over to a nearby panel on the wall. Pushing against it lightly with her hoof opened up a passage. Following her for a moment we came to a large central round shaped room. She pointed to the diagram on the floor.

“Stable 27 does not have an inbreeding problem, and while structured breeding is a project we handled here, we have a large source of genetic material that allows us to keep genetics diverse by switching foals from side to side.” Blossom said, pointing to one side of a trefoil design on the floor. “This is the Stable 27 you were just in, affectionately called Stable 27b. We are now in Stable 27c, up there is A and over there is D. Three sides to the same stable, all with their own independent projects.”

“I see,” Neivi said with a slight frown. “This explains a lot, but how do you explain foals appearing out of nowhere? I’m guessing based on the way the entrance was hidden this isn’t common knowledge.”

“All three sides of the stable have had contact with the surface for quite some time now, when we need to switch foals around we claim that orphans are being brought in, and unfortunately, the part I hate most, we tell the parents that their foals have passed so they move on and forget about them.” Blossom said, her ears folding flat. “I am from Stable 27d, it’s a control stable, where most of the switching in and out comes from because there is no control of who ponies can and cannot be with. Stable 27b and 27a are both controlled breeding, one is with equal parts stallion and mare, the other entirely mare.”

“Yeah, we kinda noticed tha second one,” Storm said with a snort.

“Well, that’s certainly one way to avoid the inbreeding issue of Stables,” Neivi commented. “But I still believe what is best for Moonlight is to be allowed to stay in relationships with whoever she wants.”

“You said Citrus was your daughter right?” I asked. “Citrus clearly has feelings for Moonlight, would you do that to your own daughter? Or let your granddaughter not be able to know one or even both of her parents? I was put through a similar situation thanks to the Society, and I don’t like it.”

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Blossom said with a sigh. “As much as it would pain me, yes, I would do that to Citrus, and her newborn foal. Because Equestria needs a leader to pull it out of these dark times, and if we give up on the program then all will be lost for good.”

“And what if there’s no way to continue the program?” I pointed out. “What if Moonlight is the last pony who will ever get that power? I don’t know a lot about the process, but you’d think at least one of the six fillies would’ve shown signs.”

Blossom sighed and looked back to me. “Cryogenics. We were working on bringing a stasis pod out of storage and we were going to put Moonlight in it before she left. All we needed to do was wait till enough from the previous generations had died that there was power in the aether to be grasped at, and then try again.”

“Ah ain’t gonna let yah do that ta Moonlight!” Storm snapped at Blossom. “She deserves better than that, she deserves ta have a happy life and not be used as some, breedin’ mare!”

“That’s the problem with wastelanders like you, you are too selfish to see past the nose on your face. To realize when something is for the greater good.” Blossom said with a groan. “Do you think I want to have my daughter deal with a broken heart? Or see another foal grow up with only one parent? But it isn’t what I want anymore, what I want is irrelevant to what is best for the stable, and the stable is trying to do what is best for Equestria. And like it or not, Equestria needs its princesses back, we have been unable to call on any of Celestia, but our success on calling on Luna has only made us even more sure.”

My anger was starting to rise, they were legitimizing using Moonlight, one of the nicest ponies I had ever met as breeding stock for their experiments. Neivi and the others stepped back suddenly as the familiar warm sensation came over me, the flames licking at the edge of my vision.

“You will not use Moonlight like that ever again!” I said with malice in my voice as I set my eyes on Blossom. “She is our friend, and its bad enough that the Society wants to use her, but this is her home! This is where she comes from, where she has her family and friends, and you want to use her to further some experiment that may not even work? I will not let you lay a hoof on her or make her do something she doesn’t want to do, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?”

“You good? Done getting it out of your system? Blossom said, unfazed. “You can cease your illusionary display, I am not some foal that is easily frightened by loud noises and bright lights.”

I blinked as the illusion flames started to dissipate from around me.

“Let me make myself clear, Alicorn.” Blossom said, glaring at me. “Have you ever had to whisk a foal away in the middle of the night because some higher power demanded you to? Have you ever had to talk to the grieving parents in one breath and help them feel better about the foal you know is alive but you’re being forced to tell them is dead, and then in the next breath be talking to their foal telling them about their so called parents, how they were junkie raiders or caravan merchants that simply forgot them? No? I didn’t think so. You can bring your nightmare magic in front of me, but it doesn’t bother me, because every breath I breathe is a Nightmare. Every day I live is a Nightmare, you want to harm me, I welcome it, take me out of my misery.”

“I… I’m sorry…” I said softly as I looked down at my hooves. “Sometimes when I’m angry it feels like something takes me over.”

“Look, Moonlight is our friend, we’re trying to help her, it’s why we came here,” Neivi said with a sigh. “If there’s anything we can do to help Stable 27 in exchange for her freedom, we’ll do it.”

“She’s already free, she left, remember? She’s gone, and she isn’t coming back.” Blossom said with a sigh. “She took our only hope with her, she took the only light in the dark, All the nightmares we had to endure to get where we are, all taken away in a moment…” Pausing for a moment before she’d gasp and her eyes would go wide. “We must get back, immediately.”

“What?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

Blossom had already taken off running with us in tow, shouting back “Moonlight has never missed the birth of her foals, and if she is as you claim, then her appearing here could have grave consequences.”

We exchanged a long look as we ran back into Stable 27b together. We hadn’t considered that possibility, I just hoped that we weren’t already too late.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Dream Warrior.

Details: You’ve crossed paths with the dark ruler of the dream realm, and have come out alive, for good or for ill. You gain a boost to perception while you’re in the dreamscape and can recognize dreams easier.

Author's Note

The characters of Orange Blossom and of course Moonlight and Nightmare Moon were written by TheLittlestofPips who is always amazing.

Chapter 12: Shadow

“Those who dream by day
Are cognizant of many things
Which escape those who
Only dream by night.”
-Edgar Allan Poe.

We pushed the panel that lead back into Stable 27b open and entered the metal hallway. Blossom secured it again as we started down the hall towards the clinic again. My ears perked up a little when I suddenly heard the sound of crying echoing through the halls, a loud wailing crying that seemed to resonate in my very soul.

“Is that…” Neivi started to say.

“Probably,” I said with a sigh as we picked up the pace towards the clinic. “Come on, we need to get there, NOW!”

We ran down the hallway past the door leading to the atrium as we headed towards the clinic. I had never run this fast in my life, both Moonlight and the life of a foal were at stake here and I wasn’t about to let anything happen to that filly.

“How did she even get in here?” Neivi asked. “Moonlight’s still a magic novice isn’t she? Outside of dream walking she shouldn’t be able to do much.”

“Yeah, unless she was able ta learn them quickly thanks ta whatever they did ta her,” Storm pointed out. “She could’ve easily just teleported here like yah can Firelight.”

“Yeah…” I said with a shake of my head as we went past another door to the Atrium. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.”

As we kept walking that feeling just kept getting stronger. I checked my PipBuck for a moment, something about this was wrong, it said that we had only been walking for a short time but it felt like we had been walking even longer.

“Does, something about this feel off to anyone else?” I asked as I looked at my friends and Blossom. “I swear, we should have reached the clinic by now…”

“It’s called adrenaline.” Blossom said between breaths. “You’re fine, just stop thinking so much into it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said as we passed yet another atrium door, something about that kept bugging me, how many atrium doors did this Stable have on the way to the clinic?

“Come on, where is it…” Storm muttered as she looked around for any sign of the clinic before noticing a sign that pointed towards it. “That way!”

We turned down the hallway the sign was pointing. I swear all these hallways looked the same to me no matter which way we turned. The sound of hooves against metal filled my ears as we looked around for the clinic.

Something still felt incredibly wrong to me. “Blossom, are you sure there’s not something wrong?”

“Firelight, Ah think she knows this Stable better than we do,” Storm pointed out.

“Yeah I know its just…” I said before we rounded another corner and came face to face with, another Atrium door. “Okay, now I know something is wrong.”

“How are we going around in circles?” Neivi asked.

“It is possible… that I am not thinking straight.” Blossom said, stumbling backwards. “Panic makes your mind do funny things…” She said, shaking her head before she’d sigh. “I have lived in this Stable all my life, I should know where we are and where we need to go… but, the more I look around the more I feel like, this isn’t the place I remember it being.”

“Okay, let’s stop running and gather our thoughts here,” Neivi said. “We’re literally not getting anywhere with this. What does the PipBuck map or the EFS say?”

“Screw that.” Blossom said before she simply closed her eyes and stood up tall, taking deep breaths as though she was concentrating before she’d turn to face a nearby hallway. “There,” she quickly said before she took off towards it and quickly disappearing from our sight.

“Lets go,” I said and Neivi just shrugged as we ran off after Blossom.

Blossom was already more than halfway down that hallway, running towards what looked to be a dead end, I was about to call out to her to get her to stop before I saw her horn glow and a burst of magic shoot out in front of her, blasting a hole in the wall.

“Hold on baby! Mama’s coming!” Blossom called out as she jumped through the hole she had made. “And Sorry Overmare, but some things are more important.”

We jumped through the hole after her. The broken metal scraped against my wings and back a little as I pulled through, cursing my larger build compared to the others.

“How far ta tha clinic?” Storm called up to Blossom.

“If I keep blasting through walls, not too much farther.” She called back, turning an upcoming corner and disappearing from view once more.

“Let’s hope she’s right…” I said as we turned the corner after her.

When Blossom was back in sight, we saw her sitting down in the middle of the hallway staring at a overhead sign, she seemed to be slightly sobbing.

“Blossom, what’s wrong?” I asked as we approached the sobbing mare.

“Don’t you see the sign?..” She said, pointing up at it. “Can’t you read it?”

I looked up at the sign and blinked. There was nothing there, it didn’t say anything and it was just blank.

“Uh,” Storm said as she adjusted her hat a little. “Call me crazy but Ah don’t see anythin’. What exactly does it say?”

Blossom went to speak but was having issues with her words, closing her eyes and shaking her head before she got back up to her hooves and took off down the hallway. “I refuse to believe it.”

“Blossom wait!” I said as I ran down the hall after her. “What did you see? What don’t you want to believe?”

“Just a little farther, one more wall oughta do it.” Blossom said, horn starting to glow brighter than before. “Right, through this wall… should be my office.”

“Okay,” I said, I was still a little worried as my friends caught up to us. “Go ahead then, let’s save them.”

“Look, things aren’t right, I know they aren’t right, I can feel it and before we get in there, I have to say I have no clue what is going to be waiting for us. If the foal is crying and Citrus hasn’t responded, the worst may have happened.” Blossom said, looking at me with a deep breath. “So, things might go from wrong, to downright chaotic. Just, stay out of the way if that happens.”

“Got it,” I said as my friends nodded in agreement. “We’ll do everything we can to help if you need it.”

She turned to face the wall, horn glowing brighter and brighter till a familiar burst of magic shot forth and blew yet another hole in yet another wall. She didn’t wait for the smoke to clear before she hopped through, we could hear her on the other side of the settling dust yelling at somepony to step back and get away from the foal, while the steady single tone filled the air.

“Twinkle twinkle little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.”

A shiver ran up and down my spine at that. There was something eerie about the way she sang the song. It unsettled me as she spoke each line with a coolness in her voice that was not at all like Moonlight.

We had to get in there.

00000

We pushed our way into the room and saw that Blossom was standing before the towering form of Nightmare Moon as she held the small form of the filly close. Strangely, the filly wasn’t crying despite the fact that we had heard the cries the whole time.

Singing softly the foal, Nightmare Moon smiled at us, her horn glowed as she used her magic to stroke the filly gently in a twisted version of a motherly way.

“When the blazing sun is gone,

When the nothing shines upon,

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle Twinkle all the night.”

As she continued to sing, her lips curling to a devious smirk. I saw that Citrus was still in the bed but she was frozen and looking over at where Blossom had been, she looked like she was in the same state.

“Moonlight, I’m begging you, stop this,” I said.

“This isn’t who you are,” Neivi added. “Blossom told us what they did here, it wasn’t right. You’re better than this, we’re your friends.”

“Then the traveler in the dark,

Thanks you for your little spark,

He could not see which way to go

If you did not twinkle so.”

She’d turn, putting the foal back in the crib and giving a soft chuckle to herself. “Neivi, Firelight, Storm, you don’t understand, I can fix things, I can make ponies listen, I have the authority.”

“Moonlight, just because you have the power to do something doesn’t mean you should do it,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. “Somepony once said that with great power comes great responsibility. If you force Ponies to listen then you’ll be no better than the Society or other groups.”

“You’re wrong!” Moonlight said loudly which made us flinch a little. “I’m nothing like the Society. Just imagine what we can do with all of this power, the Society could be defeated in days or even hours. And there are still other threats to Equestria out there, ponies in the Enclave who want to return to the old ways. Raider bands and Slavers are still out there, remnants of groups like the Crimson Empire and Red Eye’s followers. Equestria needs powerful leadership if we want to survive.”

“Okay, that’s not good,” I said. “Moonlight, listen to me, I’m sorry I sent you to the Society…”

“Sorry? What’s there to be sorry about?” Moonlight asked as her lips turned into a chilling smile. “I should be thanking you for what you did. Think about everything we can do with this power, all the ponies we can save, all we have to do is not be afraid to tap into the power the Society so graciously gave me. And, I can do so much more with it than just that.”

She moved over to Storm and gave her a soft smile as she levitated the Pegasus’ hat off her head. “My dear Storm Wrangler, what do you think? I’ve seen your thoughts, your dreams, I know what lurks in the recesses of that beautiful mind of yours. You know this is true, you know it better than anyone here.”

“Ah…” Storm said as she looked into Moonlight’s eyes for a long moment. “Yer right, Ah do understand, but Ah don’t want ta see that happen ta yah.”

“Oh, and what makes me different?” Moonlight asked.

“Yah just are,” Storm said as she looked at Moonlight with tears in her eyes. “Ah don’t want ta see yah blacken yer soul ta help ponies. We can help them, we can even use that power if we have ta, but Ah don’t think it should be used like this.”

“I had hoped you’d at least hear me out,” Moonlight said with a slight pout as she turned her attention to me. “But my power can do oh so much more than just fight evil. I can give you your deepest, most personal desires.”

Her horn glowed and a blue light enveloped me. I felt strange as it faded, almost as if I was shorter, less powerful, I could no longer feel my wings. That’s when I saw my reflection in a mirror, staring back at me was not a pony I recognized, but instead the face of a stranger.

She had the same orange fur and yellow eyes with a long red mane sure. But she was just a Unicorn mare, I felt so, small especially as I looked up at Moonlight who towered over me. I was no longer an Alicorn, I was just a small Unicorn pony.

“Huh, I thought you’d be taller for some reason, no matter,” Moonlight said as she moved behind me and adjusted my head so I was staring at my reflection again. “Look at her, this is who you are deep down, the pony who’s life the Society stole. Ember is still in there Firelight, she’s trapped away, buried beneath Firelight, but she can be let free. I have the power to free her, to make you who you were really meant to be.”

I just stared in the mirror at myself, the small scared Unicorn mare stared back at me. She looked like she was shaking with fear, terrified in the presence of this Alicorn. Was that me? Was that who I still was deep down?

The Changeling had told me that she was still in there, that I had become Firelight to protect her. Was this what she meant? Was there some piece of her left in me that wanted to be let free?

“And Neivi, my dear Neivi,” Moonlight continued which brought me out of my thoughts as I looked back at Moonlight who was circling around Neivi now. “The mare who has no place in either Zebra or Pony society, a pony who wears a Zebra skin.”

“What are you talking about?” Neivi asked, though she looked like she was shaking a little.

“We both know the real reason you like ponies more than your own species,” Moonlight said as she leaned in closer. “I can give you what you want, your family hasn’t even called Zebrica home since long before the first shots of the Great War were fired. Deep down you wish you were a pony even if you don’t want to admit it.”

“No, that’s not true,” Neivi said. “I’ve never wanted to be a pony, it doesn’t matter what I am, just who I am.”

“Really, is that why you and your family hide your lineage?” Moonlight asked. “A traitor in the eyes of her adopted nation, and if the truth came out of what she was going to do, the old Empire would’ve considered her one too. You’re afraid of what they would think of you aren’t you?”

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Neivi said, though her voice was faltering, she clearly knew exactly what Moonlight meant. “My ancestor was killed on a mission for Equestria.”

“Yes, by an Equestrian Steel Ranger,” Moonlight said as her horn started to glow and the magical energy enveloped Neivi. “You take pride in your ancestor in private, but deep down you’re afraid that if the truth came out you would be hated. Look at yourself, and see the face of the one you fear.”

When the light faded standing where Neivi was before was a Zebra mare that I didn’t recognize. She had grey fur and a mane fashioned in a mohawk with darker stripes. Instead of the glasses and coat Neivi wore she had golden jewelry adorning her body.

“Zecora, the Equestrian double agent that was being sent to infiltrate the Empire…” Neivi said softly before she looked at me and then at Moonlight. “What was this supposed to prove? Zecora, she loved Equestria, that’s something that was passed down through her family.”

“Exactly,” Moonlight said. “But did you ever really fit into Equestria? Oh sure you have Canterbury, but what about Nightingale or any of the other settlements out there? You tried to live among your own species but you couldn’t find a place there either. You know it, deep down you aren’t a Zebra, you’re a pony. I can give you that, I can make your dream a reality.”

Her horn glowed again and Neivi’s body changed again. This time standing there was an Earth pony mare with the familiar glasses and coat of Neivi, but she had white fur and a white mane, she looked so, blank.

“What did you do to me?” Neivi asked and covered her mouth when she realized she didn’t recognize her own voice as it had lost her accent.

“You’re a blank slate, a canvass,” Moonlight said. “I can make you into any kind of pony you want. Any color you want, all you have to do is ask.”

“But… I…” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses again as she stared at the unfamiliar body of an Earth Pony mare. Suddenly she got a look in her eye as if she realized something. “Can I talk about this with our friends first?”

“Of course,” Moonlight said as she walked back towards the incubator that held the filly. “Take all the time you need.”

“We won’t be long,” Neivi said as she gestured to me and Storm as we moved in close. She spoke quietly to us, barely above a whisper. “This isn’t real, I think she drew us into the dreamscape.”

“Okay, Ah admittedly don’t know much about how that works, but aren’t we supposed ta be, yah know, asleep fer that?” Storm pointed out.

“Yeah, unless she can make ponies fall asleep or something,” I said with a shrug.

“Princess Luna had that ability,” Neivi said. “We’re probably lying in the hallway right now. This whole thing has been a trap.”

“Well that or we’re just prats,” I said with a shake of my head. “Alright, so what are we supposed to do about this? I’m guessing it won’t be as simple as just pinching each other to wake us up.”

“No, we need ta make Moonlight lose her hold on tha dreamscape,” Storm said as she looked between us. “How exactly should we do that?”

“She said before that she has to concentrate hard to hold dreams together,” I said. “She’s holding together at least 5, maybe six… do babies dream?”

“This isn’t the time for philosophical or neurological debates, that’s like me asking if you dream of magic sheep,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “But I see what you mean, we’re going to have to overload her.”

“So, do either of yah have any ideas?” Storm asked as she looked between the two of us for a moment.

“I think I do,” I said with a sigh as I turned to look back at Moonlight. “But something tells me I’m not going to like it.”

“Do what you have to,” Neivi said. “This is our best chance right now.”

“Alright, let’s try this,” I said as I turned to look at Moonlight. “Moonlight… I…” I said, but I trailed off, somehow everything about this felt wrong.

“Is that fear I hear in your voice Firelight?” Moonlight asked as she trotted up closer to me. “Tell me Firelight, are you afraid of me?”

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t,” I said softly as I tried to avert my gaze away from her for a moment. “You’re powerful and you look like Nightmare Moon, I’ve been afraid that she’d strike me down ever since I left the Society.”

“Really Firelight? Is it you that is afraid, or is it her?” Moonlight asked with a smile.

“Her?” I asked confused.

“You and I, we’re not that different from one another,” Moonlight said as she moved me around so I could see my reflection again. But this time standing in the mirror was a tall Alicorn with white fur and a long sparkling rainbow mane. “I have a piece of Luna in me, just like you have a piece of Celestia.”

“What? That’s not possible…” I said as I looked at the mirror.

“Oh it isn’t?” Moonlight asked. “Fragments of Luna’s power survived and were scattered, why couldn’t the same have happened to Celestia? You know it deep down, you’ve known it for a while, perhaps you need a reminder.”

Her horn glowed brightly as the flames filled my vision once more, but this time I could see myself clearly. Standing in place of Princess Celestia was a terrifying figure of an Alicorn that seemed to be on fire, her eyes were slits and her teeth sharpened into fangs.

“The High Priestess saw this, saw your potential,” Moonlight said. “Just like she saw mine, and so she gave you the name Firebrand. But this power, it goes by another one, a name that would be taken if Celestia ever fell as her sister did. Do you know that name?”

“I…” I said as a name came to my mind, I didn’t recognize it but it somehow felt like it fit this form. “Daybreaker.”

“Indeed,” Moonlight said. “She is part of you, just like Ember is part of you. When you get angry you tap into that power and let her out for a short time.”

It was now or never, if I wanted to get her to weaken enough to release us I had to do this now. “You said Ember is still in me.”

“Yep, buried somewhere in your subconscious, hidden away to keep her safe I believe,” Moonlight said. “Why do you ask?”

“Can you draw her out?” I asked and Moonlight blinked in surprise. “She’s part of me, she’s a part of me that is so far buried that I don’t even remember being her, if you can draw her out that may help me more than anything else.”

“Well, of course I can,” Moonlight said. “I am that powerful of course. This will just take some doing, she is buried very deep in your subconscious. I can’t promise that it’ll be pleasant.”

“I can take it,” I said and gave her a nod as Moonlight’s horn started to glow again and I closed my eyes.

Images started to dance across my vision, memories of a life that seemed, familiar but at the same time alien to me. I saw a mare and a stallion, my, parents maybe? I was running to them, I felt them pull me in close as I reached them, laughing and smiling as they did.

“Ember, you’re going to be a big sister,” the mare’s voice rang in my ears.

More visions of my life passed in front of me. My friends, family, we were all living in Pearl together, a happy life. The visions continued before settling on a vision of me seated next to an older mare who looked down at me with a soft smile. Finally I got up and walked into the other room as I heard the faint sound of somepony calling me. My mother was there and holding a bundle in her forelegs as she gestured for me to look at the small filly.

“Hey Ember, meet your new little sister,” she said with a smile as I looked into the filly’s face.

“What’s her name?” I asked as I looked up at my mother.

“Sparkler.”

“Hey Sparkler… mind if I call you Sparks?” I asked as I smiled down at the small form of my baby sister.

The visions continued, each one was of a happy moment with my family and especially with Sparks. I felt tears starting to run down my face as these memories flooded my mind, each one was harder to watch than the last because I knew that these days were gone.

Then came the vision of the attack, of running away from Pearl with Sparks close behind. Each step was filled with feelings of fear and desperation as we tried to get away from our home as it burned, away from our parents who we’d likely never see again. And finally being captured and taken to the Temple.

And the last sight of Sparks, now an Alicorn as Ember started to close herself off from the rest of the world. And Firelight would soon be born.

“I… I couldn’t save her…” I said, but I wasn’t the one speaking, it was Ember, she had come fully to the surface. Moonlight looked exhausted, but we were still in the dreamscape.

“Ember, is that you?” Neivi asked as she and Storm approached me.

“Who are you? What’s going on? Where am I?” Ember asked using my voice. “This isn’t my home… where’s my sister? How did I get here?”

“Ember, calm down, yer among friends,” Storm said as she adjusted her hat a little. “Yer in Stable 27, we ain’t gonna hurt yah.”

“Then what’s she doing here?” Ember asked as she pointed at Moonlight. My breathing was speeding up, my heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest. “She’s… she’s one of them right? One of those false goddesses that attacked Pearl?”

“False Goddesses?” Moonlight asked indignantly. “I assure you that my power…”

“Moonlight, this isn’t the time,” Neivi said as she held a hoof up before she gently hugged me/Ember. “She’s scared, just let her calm down a moment.”

I felt my breathing start to slow down again as well as my heart. Ember seemed to relax in the gentle embrace of the Zebra mare, I doubted she was aware of how close we were but she seemed to understand the sentiment.

“I’m sorry Ember,” Moonlight said as her horn glowed again. “But I promise, you are in good hooves, and your sister will be safe.”

“What are you…” Ember said before she started to fade away again and I blinked, regaining control of my… or her body.

“Firelight, I’m afraid that the genie is out of the bottle,” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I drew her to the surface, and there is a chance she will come back. Are you okay with that?”

“Yes, I’m fine with that,” I said with a soft sigh. “Thank you Moonlight, that, helped me a lot.”

“Of course, what are…” Moonlight said as a sound of footsteps was heard. “What was that?”

Before any of us could answer a figure appeared from the shadows. It looked vaguely like a pony, only taller and made out of, something. It was spectral in form and seemed like it was made of the night sky itself.

"What are you!" Moonlight demanded

"I was once a thing of shadows, and nightmares, a denizen of the dreamscape, created for a single simple purpose, to give one pony the same nightmare every night,” the strange pony said in an unfamiliar masculine voice. “But I grew too strong and tried to escape the dreamscape. She brought in six little ponies to combat me, she forgave herself and she felt she had no need for me anymore, however I had grown too far and she felt guilty over just, making me cease to exist, so she gave me a new purpose, a sentinel of the night, protector of dreams, I felt her power and I came to see if she needed my assistance, but you are not her."

“You dare challenge me? I carry the power of Luna and Nightmare Moon herself within me!” Moonlight said as she stood upright, her magic flowing around her. “You have no power in my world!”

“Your world? You are nothing but a PRETENDER!” The Towering pony said as magical energy seemed to flow from its body. It stomped its hoof and the form of Nightmare Moon seemed to melt off of Moonlight, leaving just Moonlight there who took a terrified step back as she looked up at him.

“Who are you?” She asked.

“I am the Guardian of the Dream World, placed here by the real Princess Luna as I said,” he said, his eyes glowing brightly as the world around us began to warp and re-shape itself. “I am Tantabus, the dreamworld itself, and protector of the night. You will leave my realm pretender.”

“No, I won’t give up control!” Moonlight shouted back as the world started to revert to what she had been holding together. “You… won’t… beat…”

But she never finished that sentence as she collapsed. The world around us started to fade and for a moment I swear I saw the Tantabus smile as he gave me a small nod.

And then we found ourselves lying on the cold metal floor of Stable 27. I groaned as we got up and rubbed my head a little.

“Anypony else got a headache as big as a Thunderhead?” Storm asked.

“I’m guessing that’s big, so yes,” Blossom said as we heard crying coming from inside the clinic. “Come on, we need to see what’s going on.”

“Right,” I said as we got up and headed into the clinic.

00000

We headed into the clinic after a few minutes on edge as if we were expecting something to happen at any moment. It didn’t look much different from before, only this time Moonlight was laying on the floor next to where the filly was, completely passed out.

“Alright, Ah admit Ah wasn’t expectin’ that,” Storm said as Neivi went to check on the two of them.

“Is she going to be okay?” I asked as I looked over Neivi’s shoulder as she finished checking on the filly and then went to Moonlight.

“I believe so, she seems to just be unconscious,” Neivi said as she checked Moonlight’s pulse. “We don’t know the upper limit of her abilities when she’s in that form, she must’ve lost her hold on the dream world after finding out the truth.”

“She did say it’s tied to our emotions,” I said with a sigh.

“Here, help me get her onto a bed,” Neivi said and I nodded as I levitated the unconscious form of Moonlight up onto a medical bed. “Do you think we got through to her?”

“I hope so,” I said with a sigh as I looked at her. “Was she right, about the whole pony in a Zebra body thing?”

“Sort of, she’s not the first one to call me that,” Neivi said as she secured Moonlight and sighed a little. “Not everyone in either community is completely accepting of Zebras and Ponies being together. And given that like my ancestor Zecora, I’ve always been more comfortable around ponies than my own species…”

“I’m sorry,” I said with a sigh.

“It’s alright, there’s really nothing we can do about it,” Neivi said as she stepped back from the bed and we moved over to where the filly was.

She was tiny, I didn’t know a lot about foals but I hadn’t expected her to be so small. She was being held in a chamber and I sighed a little. She had stopped crying and was now laying there, I wondered what she thought about all of this. She was a small Unicorn filly with yellow fur and a white mane.

“What in Celestia’s name were you ponies thinking?” A voice said as I looked over to see Citrus sitting up in her bed rubbing her head. “All you did was agitate her and make the situation worse!”

“Citrus, calm down,” I said with a sigh as I trotted over to where the Unicorn was laying. “She had drawn us into the dream realm, it was the only option we had if we wanted to get out of there.”

“I know, I was there,” Citrus said as she glared at me. “I saw and heard everything that happened in that dream. But Moonlight silenced me, I couldn’t speak or interact with you. I don’t blame her for being mad at you right now.”

“We did it because we didn’t have a choice,” I said with a tone of finality in my voice. “It pained me to do it, believe me, I didn’t want to have to send her to the Society either but at the time it felt like the only option.”

“It was the only option,” Neivi added. “Any other option would’ve likely resulted in her death.”

Citrus sighed a little and closed her eyes. “It’s just… I was afraid of losing her enough when she left the Stable,” she said as tears ran down her face. “She was my best friend, the one pony in the world I’d have gladly spent the rest of my life with. If she had asked me I’d have braved the wasteland with her.”

“Ah know how yah feel,” Storm said sadly as she shook her head a little. “She’s a special pony.”

“Yeah…” Citrus said as she opened her eyes and looked at Storm. “Do you really love her?”

“More than anythin’,” Storm said with a sad smile.

“If she goes back out there after this, I want you to promise me something,” Citrus said.

“Anythin’.”

“Take care of her for me,” Citrus said as tears ran down her muzzle. “The Overmare made me move on, but I still care about her. If I can’t be with her, then I want her to be with somepony who can make her happy. Promise me that you’ll do that.”

“Ah promise,” Storm said. “And Ah’m sure we can work somethin’ out ta have her come by more.”

“Yeah, but the only pony here who can probably convince them to agree to anything is Firelight over there,” Citrus said as she pointed at me. “Well, if what Moonlight said in that crazy dream was true about her having a piece of Celestia.”

I placed my hoof on my chest for a moment. Did I really have a piece of Celestia inside me? If so, Blossom had mentioned looking for it, could I really offer that up to her in exchange for that?

I just hoped that it wouldn’t come to that, but I walked over to Blossom and took a deep breath. “Blossom, can I talk to you about Moonlight?”

“What is there to talk about.” Blossom said with a sigh. “I don’t know how she did it but somehow she knocked all of us out and had us unconscious in some sort of lucid group dream, and I find that all increasingly unsettling so unless this is important please, just… do something with yourself.”

“Blossom, you heard what she said in there, that wasn’t the influence of the armor,” I said with a sigh. “I think it would help her if she was allowed to come back once this is all worked out from time to time. You can’t ethically keep her separated from her foals, and we might start this all over again if we keep on this path.”

“No, you do not get it, because of her exposure outside the stable, because of everything that has happened, she isn’t permitted to live here anymore, the overmare would never allow it, as much as I would want her to stay it’s not my choice” Blossom said, sighing and shaking her head.

“Is there any way we can change her mind?” I asked softly as I looked down at my hooves, there was only one thing I could offer and I didn’t want to.

“You and her, the both of you, you emit a type of radiation that is dangerous.” Blossom said as she held a medical device next to my head, I could hear it softly clicking. “We know very little about it but we did notice ponies getting sick because of the Society’s visits.”

“That’s a very good reason,” I said with a groan. “That has to be a side effect of the IMP or something. There’s nothing we can do then is there?”

“As I was saying, she can visit, she can hang around and spend time with ponies, but its going to be limited, and she will have to leave and stay away long enough for anypony exposed to get better.” Blossom said with a sigh. “As much as it pains me, the only option for her is, she can’t ever return home.”

I looked back at where Moonlight was sleeping and sighed a little. “Being able to visit may be enough, I hope,” I said and shook my head a little. “Let’s hope it’s enough.”

“Enough for what?” Blossom said, looking at me curiously. “What is it that you are planning.”

“For her, part of what broke her was having to be separated from Citrus and her foals,” I said with a sigh. “I’m hoping, that if she can come visit from time to time, it’ll help her.”

“I see…” Blossom said, sitting down and sighing softly. “That, may be more complicated then, see… of the foals she’s had, we only know where four of them are, the mothers of two fled the Stable, or were taken by the Society.”

“Does that happen often?” I asked.

“Not before the society, when they showed up and said they needed our research, it’s what the stable was designed for, so we opened the door and offered them what we had. But soon then after entire filing cabinets went missing, I’m the last of my staff still even in the stable, and multiple pregnant mares, including two that were pregnant by Moonlight, went missing, we thought it was the open door policy that the overmare asked for, but maybe it was the society all along taking them.” Blossom said with a sigh. “I don’t know, I felt like letting them in was a grave mistake, and now who knows what they have that we haven’t discovered yet.”

“I’ll help figure out what happened to them,” I said and gave her a nod. “Nopony deserves to be used by the Society like that. I wouldn’t entirely rule out the possibility that they ran, but if I find out anything I’ll let you know.”

“I hope so.” Blossom said. “Those two mares, are very important to us, one was just days away from delivery, the other maybe a month and a half. Don’t ask, wasn’t my idea but the overmare has her way of trying to force things in here, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

“That’s not going to be easy to tell Moonlight,” I said with a sigh.

“She already knew.” Blossom said softly. “Some thought that was why she ran off, that she went looking for them.”

“Like I said, we’ll try to find them, for Moonlight if for nothing else,” I said and looked at Blossom for a long moment. “I’m not really a Doctor or whatever, but do you think it might help at least? I’m worried about her…”

“It might help, it might not, I’m a medical doctor, not a doctor of the mind or the heart, I can’t tell you.” Blossom said and smiled a bit at me. “But I can tell that Moonlight’s judgement isn’t as flawed as some claimed, She’s picked some very good friends to keep around. You keep her safe, alright?”

“I will,” I said with a smile. “I promise, we’ll all keep her safe.”

“Though, I have to wonder, how is she not losing her mind without showers, it’s her coping method. When she gets stressed she wants to shower.” Blossom said with a chuckle. “She isn’t very good with her words sometimes, so you have to read her body.”

“That, explains so much,” I said with a chuckle as I remembered all the times she asked about a shower. “But she’s managed somehow, I’m sure Storm’s helped with that a bit.”

“I’m sure.” Blossom said with a sigh. “I know I probably don’t seem like much of the trustworthy or, motherly type, but I helped raised her, she and Citrus were always inseparable, through everything they stayed together, it was only after the last relationship was broken up did she really start chasing after Citrus, Maybe that friendship finally turned into something more, or maybe it was just the hole in her heart she wanted to fill, I honestly can’t tell anymore.”

“Maybe a little bit of both,” I said. “Is their daughter going to be okay?”

“I can’t help but feel guilty over that.” Blossom said as she looked over to the foal. “The two were never meant to be together, all the genetic tests said that it would never work out, but… I changed them for them to be able to be together, I hope their daughter is fine, but the hardship she’s going to have to face, is my fault.”

“You were trying to do something nice for them,” I said with a sigh. “Maybe Neivi can help out or knows someone who can, ponies in the wasteland have survived for over 200 years without structured breeding.”

“It’s the innate failure of stables.” Blossom said with a sigh. “With such a limited amount of space, and limited amount of ponies coming in and going out, its almost impossible to maintain diversity. We fought that by assigning ponies number groups, Citrus, like me, is in group 2, generally it is acceptable for a number up and a number down to be the natural limit, but Moonlight is in group 8, she and Citrus would never of been together, if I didn’t change it.”

“Have you thought about changing how you do things? Maybe, bringing in ponies from outside the Stable? Or leaving the Stable entirely maybe?” I suggested.

“Overmare would never permit it.” Blossom said, shaking her head. “The uncontrolled stable is practically empty from ponies being cycled in and out of it so much, and the two controlled sides are running on borrowed time, the overmare recently put out an enforced polygamy order to the stables, No pony is allowed to have just a single partner anymore.”

I paused a moment and sighed. “What if I offered something in return for the Overmare agreeing to allow more ponies in for genetic diversity?”

“What could you possibly give.” Blossom said, looking at me

“You said you had never been able to find a pony with access to Celestia’s powers,” I said and closed my eyes. “If the Overmare will agree, I’ll take part in the program to benefit Stable 27.”

Blossom looked at me like I was crazy for a moment, before she sighed and shook her head. “One illusion does not mean you have access to Celestia’s power, it just means you were very well trained as an Alicorn and given access to some of the most superior illusionary spells available.”

“Except I don’t do it on purpose,” I said. “When I get angry, something's triggered that creates the illusion around me. Moonlight, in the dreamscape, she said it was because I have a fragment of Celestia inside me, that it draws on something called Daybreaker. I, don’t know what to believe, and I don’t like the idea very much, but I want to help this Stable.”

Blossom stared at me for a moment more. Getting to her hooves and motioning for me to follow. “If what you say is true, then your power should react a lot like Moonlight’s did. So, if you’ll humor me, come this way.”

“Alright,” I said with a nod as I looked at Neivi and Storm. “I should probably talk to Neivi about this… I’m not having second thoughts, but, she’s my marefriend and, well… yeah.”

“It is just a spell, you don’t have to do anything other then stand still.” Blossom said. “It’s not like you’re sleeping with them.”

“Good point,” I said and let out a sigh of relief. “I don’t know, still feels like I should tell her.”

“Tell me what?” Neivi asked as she trotted over to us.

“Uh…” I said.

“A contribution of her magical and genetic material to provide us a means to bring up ponies with Celestia’s power in order to convince the overmare to open up the stable and let more ponies in to help with our slipping genetic diversity problem.” Blossom said in a deadpan matter of fact tone. “It’s really just a spell, no big deal.”

Neivi looked between me and her and shrugged. “Okay,” she said.

“Really?” I asked and blinked a little. “You don’t mind that I’d be fathering children here?”

“It’s not like you’d be cheating on me,” Neivi said with a roll of her eyes. “Firelight, you’re doing this for the right reasons. This Stable needs help, and if you feel that’s the best way to help it then I’m all for it.”

She smiled a little and leaned up and gave me a kiss before whispering. “Besides, this way you’ll know the spell for when we’re ready to have foals of our own.”

I blushed and Neivi just laughed at that. “Thank you for telling me,” she added and gave Blossom a nod.

“Alright, then let’s see if it’s true,” I said and finally shook my head clear as the blush left my cheeks. “How exactly do we do that?”

“We have access to a… material, I suppose you could say. Moonlight shows very strong attraction to it, and others who have shown Luna’s power always react when they touch it, shouldn’t be too different if you touch it. It just acts as a magical focus.” Blossom said with a chuckle. “Most the time, it’ll just make your eyes glow if you touch it and have the power of the princesses.”

“Alright,” I said with a nod and paused a moment. “When we were in some caves Moonlight reacted to something nearby. That might be the same material now that I think about it. So, lead the way.”

“It is a fairly rare material as far as we know, a few weapons were made with it at their core, It’s a very strong energy storage and focus.” Blossom said, leading me out of the room and down the hallway. “It is possible that she may of been close enough to it that she reacted to it like she did when we first tested her to be sure.”

I followed her, something about this worried me a bit but I just hoped that it was going to work. “Does it ever have any side effects?”

“Not really, not as far as we know, no one’s ever complained.” Blossom said with a shrug. “I mean, it’s possible, we’ve never tested an alicorn before.”

“Alright, well there’s a first time for everything I guess,” I said with a nod. “I really hope this helps the Stable, do you think it’ll be enough to convince the Overmare?”

“Want my honest opinion?” Blossom said looking at me. “Most likely not, but she is pretty desperate for something to give the stable dwellers hope, so she may be more understanding than usual.”

“She can’t exactly make me do it if she doesn’t agree,” I said with a shake of my head. “All we can do is try for now. If nothing else, I’d like to know for sure.”

“Well, it’s just down this hallway.” Blossom said with a sigh, stopping outside a door and looking to me before she motioned for me to enter. “There is, very powerful magic at play here Firelight, and I hope you understand once you do this, there is no going back from what you might learn.”

I looked at her and nodded. “I understand, I will take that risk if it means I find out the truth, and possibly help this Stable,” I said and walked into the room. “What do I do?”

She stood in the doorway and smiled a little at me. “You just, touch it.”

“Alright,” I said as I turned back around. Before me was a chunk of rock, it was like nothing I had ever seen before. I reached out carefully and touched it as a shock ran through my body.

The flames re-appeared in my vision but this time with an intensity like I had never seen before. The fires burned brighter as magical energy seemed to envelop my body. I got a brief vision of Celestia as the fire and glow began to envelop my vision.

I finally removed my hoof from the stone and stepped back from it, staring at the chunk of rock for the longest moment in shock.

“Okay… that was unexpected…” I said. “What does that mean?”

“What did you feel? Or see?” Blossom said, walking over to me.

“Celestia, and… when I touched it it felt like power was surging through my body, like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” I said as I looked down at my hooves. “What is that stuff?”

“It’s a stone we found when we were expanding the stable, we weren’t sure of it, but for ponies like me and Citrus, it does nothing when we touch it, but when those with Luna’s power touch it they say they get visions of either Luna herself or the moon, and their power rapidly swelling.” Blossom said with a soft smile. “It sounds like I was right when I felt it would do the same for anyone with Celestia’s power, perhaps with time it can even test for the other two princesses as well.”

“Yeah, maybe…” I said, I was still reeling from what happened to me. “So, what do we do now? Talk to the Overmare?”

“She is likely busy and will not be taking visitors until tomorrow, however, if you stick around I think we can arrange an early meeting.” Blossom said with a nod. “Are you sure about this? I mean, you do have a marefriend, and you seemed to be very much against what happened to Moonlight and it’s likely that it will happen again if we have any degree of success.”

“I don’t like what you did to Moonlight,” I said with a sigh. “But at the same time, I know that the Stable needs help, and it’s the only way I can think of to get the Overmare to agree to allow more ponies in. Moonlight was right about one thing, sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the greater good. And maybe, there are ways to make the program better.”

“Well, you may want to go talk with your friends, see what they would like to do and how they feel about that.” Blossom said, looking at me and giving her head a shake. “I mean, as much as I’d love to actually have success in that program and produce a pony that is able to take the place of the princess, but I was thinking, that maybe you were right, and it was pointless from the start.”

“But, if we don’t do something the Stable’s problems are just going to get worse,” I said with a sigh. “Do we have any other options?”

“Look, I told you it’s just a spell, you don’t need to do anything other then allow the spell to be used on you” Blossom said with a sigh. “We can not tell the Overmare and you do this anyway, you’ll help the stable and we never have to reveal what you are.”

“That, could work,” I said. “And if we can get other, volunteers for lack of a better word that just come in and out… could that work without her becoming suspicious?”

“Ponies asking nothing in return and just offering something the stable needs, I doubt she’d ask many questions especially if we did it under the radar.” Blossom said. “I’m willing to bend the rules, and change things for the better - I know we’re doomed if we don’t do something about this, and… the overmare isn’t going to live forever, and when she passes a new overmare will be picked… all we have to do, is wait for that and then maybe we’d have better chances.”

“Alright, then at the very least I can see if anypony outside will help even if I don’t wind up doing it myself,” I said with a small nod. “That’s the least I can do to help. Neivi is smart, she probably realizes that’s the best option so I don’t think she’d say no.”

Blossom seemed lost in thought for a moment, staring down at her hooves before she looked back to me with a chuckle. “I mean, every law is meant to be broken once, and rules are meant to be twisted and bent, right?”

“Believe me, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t do that a little with the Society’s rules,” I said with a chuckle. “Given the alternative, this is the right thing to do.”

“The overmare is the problem right? She’s forced us to do so much, hurt so many ponies, maybe…” Blossom said, before she shook her head. “No, that’s wrong, even in this circumstance.”

“If you’re suggesting what I think you are, I’d think about it very carefully before I went that far,” I said with a sigh. “If it gets worse maybe, but for now I think what we’ve discussed is the best course of actions. We don’t know what would happen if she was to die now.”

“Am I really that transparent?” Blossom said nervously. “I mean, I am the sole remaining doctor on her prefered side of the stable… It wouldn’t be hard to switch her meds, or say she has something she doesn’t.”

“I’m not going to tell you what to do, but think it through first,” I said with a sigh. “It’s not easy killing somepony you know or have worked with. I learned that the hard way, just, don’t do anything until you’re sure it’s the best course of action.”

“If you call her passing orders down through terminals, only showing her face when she needs a checkup or doctor's appointment knowing, or working with her, then sure I’ve known and worked with her.” Blossom said, turning round and starting to walk back to the clinic. “She’s gone mad, I swear she has.”

I sighed and followed her. If she wanted to do this there wasn’t much I could do to convince her otherwise. I just hoped that she’d make the right decision no matter what that is.

00000

“So, what happened?” Neivi asked as we headed into the clinic together.

“Well, it looks like she was right, I probably do have a fragment of Celestia inside me,” I said with a sigh. “I don’t even know what to think about that, and I’ve got a lot more to think about right now.”

Neivi trotted up next to me and nuzzled me gently. I smiled a little and nuzzled her back, I paused a moment and sighed.

“Neivi, would you prefer it if I was just a normal Unicorn?” I asked and she looked surprised at the question. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked…”

“Firelight, I fell in love with you because of who you are, not because you’re an Alicorn,” Neivi said with a soft smile. “As long as you never change that, then I will always love you no matter what.”

“I love you too,” I said softly as I gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.

“Stop Touching that!” I heard Moonlight yell, turning to see Storm trying to pull the armor from her chest.

“Yah don’t have ta wear this getup all tha time yah know,” Storm said with a roll of her eyes, but sighed as she let go. “Ah’m just worried about yah.”

“Oh look who’s awake,” I said with a chuckle.

“You only wanted to take it for yourself,” Moonlight huffed. “You want to steal my power and use it against me, but its mine, you can’t have it.”

“Ah don’t want ta take it fer mahself!” Storm said. “Why in tha name of tha fates would Ah want ta do somethin’ like that?”

“Because you know what I can do, you know that if you took it for yourself you could do them too.” Moonlight said, jumping to her hooves. “But you can’t have it, nobody can have it, it’s mine and mine alone.”

“Storm, Firelight, Citrus, can I talk to you?” Neivi asked as she looked at me and then at Storm who let out a sigh as we headed over to Citrus’ bed. “As much as I don’t like the idea, we may have to consider the fact that she’s going to need to keep that breastplate on.”

“Wait, why?” Storm asked as she looked at the Zebra Doctor confused. “Yah saw what that thing was doin’ ta her and yah think that its a good idea ta let her keep it?”

“I have to agree with Storm on this one,” I said with a sigh. “That thing is making her dangerous and if she keeps this up who knows what kind of effects it might have on her. Wouldn’t it be better to try and get her to remove it?”

“Normally yes, but…” Neivi said and took a deep breath. “Moonlight just went through a traumatic experience, she nearly died for spirit’s sake. And we sent her into the hooves of ponies that we told her she couldn’t trust, she’s not in a good place mentally right now.”

“That’s crazy,” Citrus said.

“So, what, we let her keep the breastplate and go on her merry way?” Storm asked. “Ah ain’t gonna let her run off with that thing still on her.”

“No, no, we need to remind her that she’s safe here, that we’re her friends,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “You know how Wind Chime doesn’t talk except with those who she feels safe around?”

“Yeah, she’s been slowly coming out of her shell,” I said with a nod.

“She’s a selective mute, it’s a coping mechanism for her, like a security blanket or something,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “That breastplate, unless I’ve missed my guess entirely, is the same thing for Moonlight. That breastplate is how she’s coping with the trauma of what happened to her and if we try to take it away it’ll just make matters worse.”

“So, what do we do?” Citrus asked.

“We let her keep it, for now,” Neivi said. “But we have to make sure that she stays with us. Our best chance to get her out of that thing is to make sure she feels safe around us. She needs to remember that we’re her friends and we don’t mean her any harm.”

“You have a funny way of showing that,” Citrus said as she shot me a look. “If it wasn’t for you she wouldn’t be in this position to begin with.”

“Technically the Zebras and Masquerade share some of the blame there, but I see your point,” I said with a sigh. “But yes, I screwed up. I sent her to the Society when we had the option of the Enclave.”

“The Enclave wasn’t a guaranteed thing,” Neivi pointed out. “They’re spread out across Equestria and there was no guarantee that they could’ve even helped her in time or had the right medicine to heal her with them. I don’t like it either, but it was the best option at the time, we just didn’t plan it through all the way.”

“Alright, we’ll do that then,” I said with a sigh as we turned back to look at Moonlight who had been watching us. “Moonlight, don’t worry, we’re not about to try and take your breastplate, I promise.”

“How can I believe you?” Moonlight snapped. “You lied to me, you were just stalling for time in the dreamscape so that… thing would come and stop me!”

“Okay… of all the things she’d think that’s not what I expected,” I muttered as I looked at Neivi.

“Moonlight, we had no idea that was going to happen,” Neivi said with a sigh. “You have to understand, how would we have even known he was there? We weren’t even aware that we were in a dream until we talked to you.”

“I…” Moonlight said as she seemed to calm down a little. “How do I know you won’t try to take away my breastplate?”

“Because we’re your friends Moonlight,” I said as Storm moved up closer to her. “We care about you and what happens to you. We wouldn’t do anything to hurt you or force you to do something that you wouldn’t want to do.”

Moonlight looked between us and then at Storm as the Pegasus mare placed her hoof on her’s. “Yer safe here Moonlight, we’d never do anythin’ ta hurt yah,” she said softly. “And Ah love yah, more than anythin’. Ah just want yah ta be safe here with us.”

Moonlight looked up at her and then at us before she finally relaxed. She looked at me and shook her head a little before she laid back down on the hospital bed. I smiled softly as I looked over at Citrus who gave me a nod.

“Thank you,” she said softly as she gave me a smile.

“For what?” I asked.

“For not giving up on her,” Citrus answered.

I just smiled and wrapped my wing gently around Neivi. We still had a lot to talk about and figure out, but right now it felt like everything was starting to return to normal.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Stable Friend.

Details: You’ve gained a better reputation with the inhabitants of a local Stable and have a better understanding of their innerworkings. You get a boost to speech and barter checks when talking with Stable Dwellers and special conversation options.

Chapter 14: Reunion

“All truths are easy to understand
Once they are discovered;
The point is to discover them.”
-Galileo.

The Society had found us, there was no other explanation. But how had they found us here at all? Was there a pony somewhere in the Stable that had ratted us out or did something else happen? No wonder everypony was on edge right now, so how were we supposed to deal with this?

“Why are they here?” Storm Wrangler muttered it was the same question we were all thinking but had no idea how to answer.

“I don’t know,” I admitted as I took a deep breath and looked over at Charcoal. “Have they made any demands yet?”

“Not yet, but they just arrived,” Charcoal said with a shake of her head. “We shut the door as soon as we realized what was going on. Right now we’re waiting to see what kind of move they make.”

“So, they might not be here because of us,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. “But I don’t believe that this is just a coincidence. They’re after something in this Stable, and I don’t like this at all.”

“So, what tha heck do we do?” Storm asked as we all exchanged a look. “Ah mean, we don’t know what’s goin’ on out there. Somethin’ about all of this feels weird ta me.”

“Agreed,” I said with a sigh as I brushed my mane back a little. “Is there any way we can get in contact with them? An intercom system or something maybe?”

“Yeah, that we do have, but do you really think that’s a good idea?” Charcoal asked as she shook her head a little. “It feels like a trap, we can’t just invite them in you know. But at the same time, that door is built to survive a Megaspell blast, so it’s not like they can just walk in, right?”

“No, well unless they’ve already been here and can just teleport in here,” I said, a chill ran up my spine and I’m sure everypony else’s too at that realization. There wasn’t much stopping the Alicorns from just entering the Stable and just taking whatever they wanted. “So, what are they waiting for?”

“I don’t know,” Charcoal said with a shake of her head. “What should we expect if they decide to attack?”

I thought back to what Charcoal had said and what was going on around here. Why hadn’t they attacked the Stable, and why did they even know they were out there? Something about all of this felt wrong like the Society was acting differently than everything I had ever been taught about their tactics.

In fact, it was more like they were… wait, was that possible? That would explain some of their strange behavior when it came to this situation, there was only one way to find out though.

“What were they dressed like?” I asked as I looked at Charcoal.

“Excuse me?” Charcoal asked as she blinked in confusion.

“Were they dressed in black armored robes or something different?” I asked as my friends looked at me confused.

“What in tha nine circles of Tartarus does it matter what they’re dressed like?” Storm Wrangler asked as she tilted her head a little.

“No, they were different,” Charcoal said, she looked as confused as the others. “They were dressed in more ornate robes. They had symbols crossing them that I didn’t recognize as well as a pin that was shaped like a crescent moon. They didn’t look anything like that.”

“That’s not combat armor,” I said as I groaned a little. “They’re ceremonial outfits for major events carried out by the High Priestess. The problem is that it raises a lot of questions, they wouldn’t be in that unless…”

I let that trail off for a moment and looked over at Moonlight as my eyes went wide with realization. Goddess, they were here because of her, I had no idea how they knew she was here, probably a spy or something in the Stable, or the effects of those dreams, or something, but Moonlight had to be the reason.

“Moonlight, they’re here because of you aren’t they?” I asked.

“I was uncertain if my message had gotten through…” Moonlight said, looking to her hooves for a moment. “Please, open the door - if they are here for me, I must go out there and surrender to them, but they may be the guard that listened to me before I came here, then they’re friends.”

“Ah ain’t gonna let yah go out there alone,” Storm said indignantly for a moment. “If we’re openin’ that door then maybe we should try talkin’ ta them first and then if they’re really friendly we can let yah come out.”

“If they aren’t the ones that listened, then you going out there will be one of two things, neither of which is acceptable. I must go out there, alone.” Moonlight said with a sigh, looking to me. “You understand, right?”

“If they’re not the ones that listened, anypony who goes out will be killed or worse,” I said softly. “If you don’t go out there then it would be a death sentence.”

“Ah ain’t gonna…” Storm started to say when Neivi put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Storm, calm down, you know that this is our only option,” the Zebra doctor said softly. “Just trust Moonlight, she can take care of herself if nothing else.”

“I’ll go with her,” I finally said with a sigh. “The rest of you need to stay behind and hold the line in case they turn aggressive. We’ll be okay, just be careful, okay?”

“Ah don’t like it, but fine,” Storm said with a shake of her head.

“No, you need to stay here Firelight.” Moonlight said, sighing once more. “You do not understand if they are not the ones I hope them to be - you are even more likely to be killed them they are. After your interference in Nightingale, the High Priestess wants your head.”

I paused a moment at that and sighed a little. “I don’t like sending you out there alone,” I said softly as I placed my hoof on Moonlight’s shoulder. “You’re our friend Moonlight, and I don’t want you to risk your life out there alone.”

“They wouldn’t risk harming me - not as long as I have this.” Moonlight said, motioning to the breastplate she still wore. “Not to mention the high priestess herself couldn’t budge me with this - they stand no chance if they try and fight.”

Storm moved in close and leaned up as she gave Moonlight a soft kiss on the lips. “Alright Moonlight, Ah trust yah… just be careful fer me okay? Ah don’t want ta lose yah again.”

“Don’t worry Storm, they can’t make me go anywhere I don’t want to go.” Moonlight said with a soft smile, giving Storm a hug. “Stay here, here Firelight’s shield can protect you, worst-case scenario, you see me kick a lot of flank.”

“Alright,” Storm said and smiled softly. “Ah love yah Moonlight.”

“Love you too, Storm.” Moonlight said, giving that pegasus a soft kiss to the forehead before she faced the door. “Alright, I’m ready.”

“I’ll put the shield up the moment you’re out the door,” I said as Charcoal headed over to the door controls and I moved to the door. “Let’s do this.”

Charcoal nodded a little as she activated the door controls. The sound of metal on metal pierced our ears as the large gear shaped door opened up. Beyond I could see the gathered Alicorns, they were just like Charcoal had said. They weren’t dressed for battle, the question now became whether or not they were here to hurt Moonlight.

“Be careful,” I said to Moonlight and gave her a nod as I got ready to put the shield up around the hole where the door was.

Giving a nod to me before she turned and passed through the shield and walked out to the guards, a few moments before I could see her speaking to them, at first it appeared to be an argument. I looked back at my friends who were just as nervous as I was, what was going to happen? If this went badly, were they going to attack and take away everypony in the Stable for conversion?

No, if it came to that I swore to myself that I would do everything I could to stop them and save the ponies of Stable 27. There was a long moment of tension as we waited for some sort of answer from Moonlight, the conversation continued for a minute before something finally happened.

They laughed, I blinked in surprise, they actually laughed loudly enough that we could hear it from the Stable. Moonlight raised her wing and waved us over with it and I blinked a little in surprise.

“I think that means they’re friendly,” I said as I blinked in confusion. “What do you think we should do?”

“Let’s go, but stay on guard,” Neivi said and Storm nodded in agreement. I nodded and removed the shield as we cautiously walked out and towards where Moonlight was talking with the other Alicorns.

“Uh, hello?” I asked as I tried not to look nervous, these were Alicorns that could potentially turn on me at any moment.

“Firelight, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting to see the Firebrand here,” one of the Alicorns that I remembered as being part of another Wing said as she looked me over. “You’ve changed a lot since you left the Temple.”

“Yeah… I’ve been through a lot,” I said softly as I brushed my mane back a little. “You’re all really here because of the message she sent then?”

“The problem with me, is I am like a free radical in a finely tuned machine, being that every Alicorn under the High Priestess’ command has been literally and figuratively brainwashed.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “The fact that I remember life outside the Society, made it really easy to throw a lot of wrenches in the woodwork in a very short period of time.”

“She opened a lot of eyes to the truth,” the Alicorn said with a nod. “When we heard her call, our leader got as many of us out of the Temple and Haythens as would go before the High Priestess realized what was going on.”

“Your leader?” I asked and blinked a little in confusion. “What’s she talking about Moonlight?”

“Many of them still look to me like the goddess, and while they understand I’m not, they still look to me for guidance.” Moonlight said with a nervous chuckle. “It’s kind of like, being a mother to a whole hell of a lot of ponies who are opening their eyes for the first time.”

“You caused a lot of changes in the Society,” a familiar mare’s voice said as the group of Alicorns separated as another one approached. My eyes went wide in surprise when I recognized her as Starshine, the daughter of… no, I corrected myself, this wasn’t Starshine, this was Sparks, my sister, I had to remember that. “You don’t have to be so humble about it, we’re all here because of you Moonlight.”

“Sparks?” I asked softly as the Alicorn turned to look at me. Neither of us spoke for the longest moment, I don’t think either of us really knew what to say as I felt tears starting to well up in my eyes. “I… I can’t do this…”

I turned and ran off back towards the Stable. I wasn’t ready for this kind of thing, no matter how much I wanted to see her again. I couldn’t bring myself to talk to her again as I headed back into the Stable.

What was I supposed to do now?

00000

I keep running through the Stable until I found myself in the atrium. I finally came to a stop, breathing heavily as I leaned against the metal wall of the Atrium, so many questions were running through my mind right now, but none of them had a good answer.

What was I supposed to do? I didn’t even know for sure if she remembered who I was, did Moonlight maybe do the same thing she had done for me? What if she hadn’t? What if I was the only one left who actually remembered what had happened to us?

What if she did remember now and she wouldn’t forgive me for failing to save her all those years ago. I wasn’t even sure if I could forgive myself.

“Firelight, are you okay?” Neivi asked from behind me and I turned to see my marefriend looking at me worriedly. “You scared them back there, why did you run off?”

“It’s… complicated,” I said as I bowed my head a little. “I didn’t think I’d actually see her again so soon after everything that’s happened. I’m still not even used to having these memories, Ember feels like she’s part of me but at the same time, she feels like a completely different pony.”

“Firelight, I know you’re scared about facing this,” Neivi said with a gentle smile as she placed her hoof on my cheek. “I don’t blame you to be honest if I was in the same situation I would be as scared as you are. But you don’t have to go it alone, we’re all here for you, I promise you that.”

“Thank you,” I said softly as I gave the beautiful Zebra mare a smile and rubbed my cheek against her hoof and smiled gently. “Still, it’s not exactly something that I’m not sure I’m really ready for. I don’t even know if she remembers me right now…”

“Firelight, she remembers you,” Neivi said with a sigh. “Its where Moonlight learned about you, remember? I didn’t stay long to hear a lot, but she seemed worried about you after you ran off.”

In my panic, it had slipped my mind that Moonlight had told me that, or maybe I had just figured it was a subconscious thing. Somehow that only did a little to actually allay my fears, she remembered me and I remembered her, so what was I supposed to do now?

“I don’t know what to do,” I finally said with a sigh as I closed my eyes. “I still don’t feel like the pony that she used to know as her sister even if she does remember both of us. I’m scared Neivi, I’m scared that she’s going to hate me because I failed, that she’s going to hate me because I’m not Ember.”

“I think given her situation, she will understand,” Neivi said as she shook her head a little bit. “But I have to disagree with you about one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You’ve always unknowingly carried a part of Ember with you, that’s what I think,” Neivi said with a soft smile. “You’re kind, protective, and you would do everything you can to help those you care about. I think more of Ember got into Firelight than anything else, and I doubt your sister would hate you.”

“So, what do you think I should do?” I asked.

“Firelight, if you don’t think you’re ready to talk to her, then you don’t have to,” Neivi said. “If you ask me though, you’ve got nothing to worry about. There’s only one thing you really need to know, she’s family, and she feels like she needs to help you.”

“I guess you’re right,” I said and sighed softly. “It doesn’t make this any easier, you know? Talking to her would be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Harder than talking to me?” Neivi said with a slight smirk. “Though I seem to recall you running away from that too.”

“That… yeah, I’m not very good at talking to ponies am I?” I said with a sigh as I looked away. “I really am sorry about that Neivi, I guess it’s because of my upbringing in the Society. They trained me to fight, not really to do much else most of the time.”

“Firelight, just because you were raised by the Society doesn’t make you any better or worse than anypony else,” Neivi said with a gentle smile. “What makes you a good pony is that you want to help others and do the right thing. Unfortunately, you do also have a problem with your feelings as a result, but you make the right choice, eventually.”

“Aren’t you a little biased about what the right choice was when it came to you?” I asked with a slight smirk.

“Maaaybe,” Neivi said with a laugh. “But I’m still not wrong, and your friends are here with you to help you. Especially me.”

“Thanks, Neivi,” I said as I nuzzled her and wrapped my wings gently around her. “I’m so lucky to have you.”

We held that hug for the longest moment as I held her close to my chest. The warmth of her striped body pressed against mine was one that I never grew tired of. Maybe it was because I had never felt that kind of warmth before, at least that I could remember, or because of how much I loved her.

And I never wanted to let her go, she really was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment, soon enough I would have to get back to the others, but for now, I just wanted to enjoy the moment.

00000

“Are you sure you’re ready for this, Firelight?” Neivi asked as we stood in front of the door that would take us to the Stable entrance and to my sister. “I mean, I’m sure she’d understand if you wanted to wait a bit longer.”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” I admitted with a soft sigh. “But I do know that I can’t avoid this forever. I’m going to have to face her eventually, just promise me that you’ll be by my side okay?”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” Neivi said with a smile as she nuzzled me gently. “I don’t think anypony would blame you for being scared though. Storm and Moonlight are waiting for you out there.”

I nodded a little and we pushed the door open as we walked into the entrance area for the Stable where Storm and Moonlight were waiting. The Pegasus looked up at us worriedly for a moment. “Are yah gonna be okay, Firelight?”

“Honestly? I dunno,” I admitted with a shake of my head. “Is, she okay? I didn’t scare her or worry her or anything did I?”

“Well, Ah ain’t gonna lie, she was a bit confused,” Storm said as she adjusted her hat a little bit. “Yah ran off unexpectedly and Ah think she was excited ta finally see yah again. What are yah gonna do now?”

“I guess I’m going to try and talk to her again,” I said with a sigh before I looked at Moonlight. “Is there anything else I should know about her?”

“You know about as much as I do, she’s very secretive, even in the dreamscape.” Moonlight said with a shake of her head. “But she knows who you are, and I think she’s already come to terms with everything. I mean, you woke her like you woke me.”

“I woke her?” I asked as I blinked a little in confusion. “I think I’d remember doing that…”

“You would if you remembered before you had your… bath.” Moonlight said, frowning a bit. “She was fresh from hers, and you started to plead to her, this I do know, and you broke through and made her remember.”

I blinked a little in surprise at that. I had actually woken her up? What did this mean? Could I do that to any Alicorn or just ones that were recently converted? I filed those questions away for later, there was something else that I had to wonder about.

“Why didn’t she tell me before?” I asked with a sigh. “Why did she spend the last 6 years lying to me?”

“It’s commonplace for a young pony to associate things. She remembered the pain she went through, and the pain that you trying to interact with her gave the both of you - she associated those together, and decided silence was better, to save the both of you any more harm.” Moonlight said, shaking her head. “She was afraid that if she tried to talk to you, let you know who she was, that the High Priestess would hurt both of you again, as a punishment.”

“That… makes sense,” I said with a sigh as I looked down at my hooves. “I can’t imagine what she’s been going through this whole time.”

“There is a more pressing matter though.” Moonlight said, Looking past me to Neivi. “We know that the transformation causes memory loss through trauma, and can be reversed shortly afterward. But talking to her, getting her to share these things - it may make you remember, not even the society knows how this whole memory recovery thing works”

“And if I do get my memory back… not all of it might be happy,” I said softly. “I may not even be the same pony I was before. Would I still see you as my friends? Would I still love Neivi?”

“And that is the concern that the Society was exposing in their research after me.” Moonlight said, putting a hoof to my chest. “There is no promise that if you do remember, that you’ll also remember these past 6 years of your life, or if you do, how much of it will remain as it was.”

“What do we do if she forgets the last 6 years?” Neivi asked with a frown. “She’s our friend, and while I do want her memory back… I honestly don’t know what to think.”

“Keep in mind, there is no promise, either way, she could remember everything crystal clear, or she may never get her memory back. That’s the thing, no pony other than myself and your sister have had this happen, and neither of us was available for in-depth study” Moonlight said, shaking her head once more. “All I can suggest is ask your sister to not speak of the past, not until we know more.”

“Will she do that?” I asked as I looked between them. “And how exactly would we study it? We can’t just turn somepony into an Alicorn against their will and try to get through to them.”

“Maybe against their will… but what if we had a volunteer?” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I don’t like it, but it’d help us understand, not to mention we have many Alicorns here, some from this very stable, and we can try and get their memories to come back to see what happens.”

“We’d have to find one that was transformed recently to increase our odds,” Neivi said as she sighed a little and adjusted her glasses. “Not to mention finding volunteers is possible if we had to do that. IMP can heal a lot of ailments, but there are a lot of ethical problems with it, especially if it doesn’t work.”

“We know we can recover memories, and that it can heal the elderly and the dying, so what’s so unethical about it?” Moonlight said with a frown. “We’d be offering those on death’s doorstep a new lease on life and many many years to live it, We’d be doing them a favor.”

“Can we actually guarantee that their memories will be recovered though?” I asked. “I mean, I did it twice, but with you Moonlight it was also with Citrus there. I, honestly don’t know if I’m comfortable with this if we’re not even 100% sure it’ll work.”

“True, but if you never try how will we ever know, do you really never want to remember ever again?” Moonlight said, cocking her head to the side. “Do you really want to stay as you are, with all you ever know is the Society?”

“Well, no,” I said with a shake of my head. “I would like to know more about the pony I used to be. Still, I’m a bit worried about the risks.”

“Well, you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.” Moonlight said, smiling a little. “To get your memory back we need to test and study, for Neivi to find a cure she needs to examine recently transformed ponies - Sure, we may not be able to recover everypony’s memories, but I think if they volunteered for it, they knew the risks and they accepted the things that they’d help us gain are far more beneficial than a few memories.”

“She is right, I’ve been working on a cure when I can but there’s only so much I can do,” Neivi said with a sigh. “And if they’re not exposed to the Society even if their memories aren’t restored they can re-learn who they are from those close to them. The process doesn’t make them into Society ponies, the Society just takes advantage of the memory wipe process to convince ponies to join.”

“Right,” I said with a sigh. “Alright, if you can find volunteers and expose them to everything that could give them a chance of recovering the memories, we can do that.”

“Now, my question to you - is when are you going to stop stalling?” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Or are we going to stand here all day arguing the ethics of something rather than you go out there and talk to her.”

“You were the one who… never mind,” I said with a sigh as I looked back out at the hole that leads out of the Stable. “I don’t know if I can do this…”

“You’ll be fine Firelight, I’ll be right by your side,” Neivi said as she patted me on the back and smiled a little. “Come on, you’re going to do just fine.”

“I hope so,” I said as we walked through the Stable door together. I took a deep breath, I wasn’t sure what to expect honestly. Sparks was standing there talking with some of the other Alicorns when she looked back towards me and gave me a smile.

“Hey, Ember… or would you prefer Firelight?” Sparks asked with a gentle smile as she walked back over to us.

“Firelight is fine,” I said as I tried not to make eye contact with my sister. “I’m sorry Sparks, I feel like this is all my fault. Maybe if I had done something to save you we wouldn’t be in this situation, I barely even remember what happened back then, but I feel like I should have done more.”

“You did enough,” Sparks said as she placed her hoof gently on my shoulder. “You saved me, nothing changes that. You’re my sister and I just want a chance to save you, okay?”

“Not yet,” I said as I looked away from her and she blinked in confusion. “It’s not that I don’t want to know more about who I am, but I’m afraid that if Ember comes fully back, I’ll lose everything from the last six years.”

I looked back at my friends, and especially Neivi. She gave me a nod as she smiled a little at me.

“Yeah, a lot of bad happened, but recently so much good has come out of it,” I said as I looked back at Sparks for a moment. “I broke free of the Society on my own. I have friends, friends that don’t care about my past. And Neivi, she loves me unconditionally, she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I don’t want to lose that.”

“I understand,” Sparks said as she hugged me gently. “I’d never ask you to give that up, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be with you, even if it's not the sister I remember. I just wanted to have you back.”

I smiled a little as I weakly hugged her. This wasn’t so bad, maybe I really didn’t have anything to worry about. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment, with everything that was going on it was nice to actually know that I had a family out there. It took me a moment before I realized there was something else that I needed to know, but I didn't know if I should ask her just yet.

What happened to my parents?

“So, what are you going to do now?” I asked as I backed off just a little bit. “There’s quite a lot of you here.”

“Many of them want to go back home to Nightingale or one of the other settlements around here, some are from here in Stable 27 too,” Sparks said with a sigh. “The rest of us don’t have anything left to go to. Our settlements were completely cleared out by the Society or they moved on or were killed off by some other threat, so honestly… we don’t know what to do.”

I flinched a little at that. I hadn’t considered that possibility. The Society had ruined so many lives, I had no idea what to do honestly, I couldn’t leave them alone in the jungle, but what other options were there?

“We’ll figure something out,” I said with a soft smile. “I wish there was something else I could do though.”

“Didn’t Nightingale take multiple refugees from the raided or destroyed settlements?” Moonlight said, poking at my side. “I’d say they are refugees too.”

“It's true, Nightingale has enough space for them,” Neivi said as she walked up to us with Storm Wrangler. “It might get a little tight in some places depending on how many need a place to live, but we can manage.”

“Mah only concern is that ya’ll might make ponies a bit nervous,” Storm said as she adjusted her hat a little. “Even Firelight and Moonlight aren’t completely trusted in Nightingale after everythin’ that has happened. It’ll take a lot of convincin’ if we want ta make it work.”

“Except Storm - you’re failing to consider one thing, many of the Alicorns here were from Nightingale, to begin with - going home, seeing family and friends who recognize them may help get their memory back as well as ease everyone’s fears.” Moonlight said, smiling a bit more. “I mean, neither I nor Firelight was from Nightingale, so their apprehension about us is expected and normal.”

“Yah have a point there,” Storm said with a shrug. “We can talk ta them about it before everythin’ goes down. Alright, Ah’ll make sure that everythin’ is takin’ care of.”

“We would appreciate that,” Sparks said with a soft smile. “Thank you for being willing to help us out. I know that all of this is unexpected.”

“You’re family,” I said with a soft smile. “I may not remember you well, but I know that much. I just hope that we really can do everything we can to help.”

“Well, if all else fails I’m sure we can talk Soia and the others into letting them into the underground,” Neivi said thoughtfully. “It won’t be nearly as comfortable, but it would be somewhere to go at least.”

“I’ve had to live with that monster for the last six years, after that anything would be paradise,” Sparks said with a shake of her head. “Whatever is needed, we will be happy to do what we can to prove we can be trusted.”

“Any who are not comfortable living among the ponies of Nightingale can obviously set off and create their own homes of course. I happen to know of a plot of land that was home to a once great village, with a newly recovered town bell.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Just, don’t be quick to tear down burnt buildings, there might be important things there.”

“I will tell them the news,” Sparks said with a smile. “Thank you, this is the best news we’ve heard in a long time. Moonlight, you may not be a Goddess, but you have saved a lot of lives here. Thank you, from all of us.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Moonlight said, smiling to Sparks. “We don’t know how the High Priestess will respond when she realizes that not only I - but a large legion of her soldiers have defected, she may cut her losses and leave us alone, or try her hardest to get us back.”

“Knowing her, I’m afraid that the latter is more likely,” Sparks said with a frown. “And things are going to get worse. To fight back, she’s going to have to go on a “recruitment drive” to recoup the losses before she can do anything.”

“Which means every settlement in the jungle and beyond is suddenly in more danger,” I said as my eyes went wide.

“Yes and no, but don’t be rash.” Moonlight said, sighing. “See, the settlements around here are unlikely to be targeted, simply because they are on alert, and with the weakened forces she has, she’s more likely to suffer losses. Not to mention the rise of a group that calls themselves the Guardians - I only heard a rumor, but apparently, they are massively powerful unicorns that can challenge an entire platoon of Alicorns.”

“So, what do you think she’s going to do now?” I asked as I looked between them. “Send out missionaries into the wasteland as they supposedly did on occasion to Lost Cove back in the day?”

“That sounds likely to me, especially with even the slightest idea of the ‘goddess’ having returned lending a lot of credence to her claims,” Moonlight said with a sigh. “But, at least I am out of her control.”

“So, what do we do now?” I asked as I looked between all of them for a moment. “We can’t stay here forever and Lemon Lime and the fillies are probably wondering when we’ll be back to Nightingale.”

“Moonlight, that’s up to you,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. “Citrus and your daughter are here. Would you like to spend more time here with them or for another reason?”

“I think it would be best if I left.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “As much as it pains me, I know that me being here makes the stable very on edge, not to mention the whole, constant emission of low-level radiation.”

“Alright,” I said. “Moonlight, I think you should at least say your good-byes. Whenever we’re all ready we’ll head back to Nightingale, any objections?”

Neivi and Storm shook their heads as Sparks went back to talk to the other Alicorns and explain the plan to them. I just hoped that this really was going to work out for them.

“Thank you,” I said as I turned to Moonlight. “All of this is because of you, thank you for helping my sister and the others make it out of a bad situation.”

“I only did what I felt was right.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “Though my eagerness to do what’s right put a lot of ponies in danger, and as much as I can feel good for the few I saved, I have to question how many I’ve damned.”

“We’ll figure something out,” I said with a sigh. “It’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to stop the Society one way or another. And we’re going to need help for that, get the word out more. I’m sure if we talked to Vox he’d be willing to help with that, but we’re going to need something more…”

I paused a moment and looked thoughtful for a moment. I thought back to the past six years, a name came to my mind. Well, two names actually, but one of them had vanished from the airwaves right before the other one came back.

“What’s on your mind, Firelight?” Neivi asked.

“Do we know of any caravans or whatever that head north?” I asked and Neivi blinked a little in confusion.

“Uh, sure, there’s a few that have managed to avoid the Society and head to Neigh Orleans,” she said with a confused tilt of her head. “What are you thinking?”

“We need somepony who can start spreading the word of how dangerous the Society is on a broad scale,” I said and closed my eyes. “Is it possible we could get word to DJ Pon3?”

“I think I get what you’re onto there.” Moonlight said, tapping her chin. “Spread the word of the dangers of the Society, make it harder to recruit naive ponies, maybe even recruit some eager soldiers willing to put their lives on the line to shut down the threat”

“Even if DJ Pon3 won’t be able to get the word out as immediately as we’d need, Caravans can still spread the word,” Neivi said. “Many of these caravans have been trading with settlements for years, they’re trusted and their information will spread out. I think, either way, this might work.”

“Let’s just hope its enough,” Storm said with a sigh as she shook her head a little as she nuzzled Moonlight gently. “Are yah gonna be okay Moonlight? Ah know this can’t be easy on yah either.”

“I’ll be fine, in time.” Moonlight said, looking down at that armored plate she still wore. “I think we should go and find those Guardians next, they might have some information that can be useful against the Society.”

“I agree,” Neivi said. “We’ll head back to Nightingale and get the Alicorns worked out there and everything, and then that’ll be our next destination. Sounds like we have a plan for what to do.”

“Yeah,” I said as I draped my wing gently over Neivi and smiled.

It was time to go back to Nightingale finally.

00000

Me, Neivi, and Storm made our way back through the jungle towards Nightingale. Moonlight had decided to stay behind at Stable 27 with the Alicorns to help collect her thoughts and she’d meet up with us back at Nightingale before we left to meet these, Guardians.

“Do either of you know what these Guardians are?” I asked as we headed down the rough trail that would take us to the settlement.

“Not really anything other than what Moonlight said,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “They’re apparently from a settlement a ways away and the most we’ve heard are third hoof accounts.”

“If we’re gonna get any sort of help in dealin’ with tha Society, it would definitely be a good place ta start,” Storm said. “At least assumin’ that tha rumors are more than a lot of hooey. Still, we can’t fight tha Society alone, and tha Enclave ain’t gonna get involved unless tha Society gives them a reason ta get involved.”

“But they’ve gone after Nightingale in the past,” I pointed out. “And it’s now allied with the Enclave, isn’t that a reason to get involved?”

“Key part of that is in tha past, tha Enclave can’t do anythin’ that might spread their forces too thin,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “As long as tha Society doesn’t do anythin’ that can be seen as an act of war against tha Enclave, they’re gonna stay out of it.”

“But can’t they just…” I started to say but Neivi interrupted me this time.

“If they just attacked the Society it risks them escaping and claiming an unprovoked attack, the President is smarter than that,” she said with a shake of her head as we approached the walls of Nightingale. We were let through the gate without much trouble, it was good to be back here, it felt like I was back home.

Home, I never thought about just how much this settlement had come to feel like home since I had first arrived here.

“Alright, I’m going to talk to the rest of the Council about the Alicorn situation. You two go check on Lemon and the fillies, I’ll meet up with you later, okay?” Neivi asked as she started up a set of stairs towards the council building.

“Okay,” I said with a slight smile as I went and gave her a quick kiss. “I love you Neivi, good luck up there.”

“Thanks,” Neivi said as she headed back up the stairs. I turned around, though my eye lingered on her retreating flanks for a moment before I turned back to Storm who chuckled a little as I blushed deeply and tried to pretend like I hadn’t been staring.

“Yah know since ya’ll are a couple now yah don’t have ta be embarrassed about starin’ at yer marefriend’s flanks,” Storm said with a chuckle as she started up another set of stairs towards me and Moonlight’s house.

“Sorry, its a force of habit,” I said as I rubbed the back of my head a little as we walked. “If I’m being honest, I’m sometimes afraid I’ll mess up with her.”

“Yah won’t,” Storm said with a smile. “Neivi loves yah, and she’s tha kind of Zebra who would love yah no matter what. Things might not always be easy, and Ah can’t promise that there won’t be bumps in tha road, but what matters is that yah make up. There ain’t no such thing as a perfect relationship, just try not ta lose what yah have.”

“Uh, thanks, I think,” I said as I tried to piece together what the accented Pegasus had said. “Do you think the fillies have been okay with us gone?”

“Ah’m sure they’re fine,” Storm said as we approached the small house. “Ah’m sure that Lemon took good care of ‘em. Come on, Ah think yer gettin’ worried about nothin’.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right,” I said as I pushed the door open and smiled at the sound of little hooves running over to us as Dawn Star and Blueberry hugged me tightly. “Hey you two, sorry we were gone so long.”

“Is everything okay? Did you save Moonlight?” Dawn Star asked as Lemon Lime and Windchime came in from one of the adjoining rooms. “Tell us everything!”

I laughed a little as I ruffled the filly’s mane gently. After everything that happened, it was really good to see them again as I hugged them gently and gestured for Windchime to come and join us.

“Don’t worry, Moonlight is fine, she stayed back in Stable 27 for a little longer and will be back as soon as possible,” I said with a nod. “Did anything happen while we were gone?”

“Not really, Nightingale has been pretty quiet,” Lemon Lime said as she and Windchime walked over to us. “A few caravans came through and that’s about it. There haven’t been any more disappearances since the Enclave moved in, so that is something at least.

I breathed a small sigh of relief at that. The Society really would be stupid to get on the Enclave’s bad side at this point and for now, that meant that Nightingale was protected from them as long as it was under Enclave protection.

It meant that these three fillies were protected from them. I smiled a little and nuzzled them each in turn.

“Well, I’m glad everything is okay,” I said and sighed a little. “Storm, can you keep an eye on them? I want to talk to Lemon about something.”

“Yeah, come on, let Auntie Storm entertain ya’ll while yer momma Firelight talks with Lemon,” Storm said as she and the fillies started out of the room.

“I’m not their…” I started to say before Storm shot me a look and shook her head a little which silenced me as they headed into the next room.

“They really are starting to see you and Neivi as parents, kind of,” Lemon said as she shook her head a little. “I know that’s not something you feel like you’re ready for Firelight, but you’ll have to face it eventually.”

“I know,” I said as I brushed my mane back a little. “I don’t know if I can though, I’ve still got a lot that I’m trying to process, even more now that I’m back really. I’m not sure I’m ready for that kind of responsibility and I don’t know how I can tell them that.”

“Firelight, just promise me that you’ll think about it,” Lemon said with a shake of her head. “They need some sort of stability in their lives. I know you two aren’t often in town, but I also know that there’s a lot you could do to help them. Its something to consider at least, now what did you want to talk to me about?”

I took a deep breath and explained to her everything that had happened in Stable 27. I saw her eyes go wide as she heard about it, it couldn’t be easy for her to process, not that I blamed her for that. It was hard to believe that all of that had happened and I had lived through it.

When I finally finished the old earth pony Ghoul frowned a little and sighed. “That’s a lot to take in, you know?” She asked and I nodded a little. “That explains why Moonlight and Neivi aren’t here at least, this is going to be a hard sell to anypony.”

“I know,” I sighed. “But there aren’t a lot of other options. These ponies are just trying to escape the Society and Moonlight trusts them, so I’m pretty sure they can be trusted. At least I’m sure that my sister can be.”

“Hopefully you’re right,” Lemon said with a shake of her head. “It sounds like Moonlight left more of an impression on them than we thought. Its still going to be a hard sell though, even if they’re refugees there are a lot of ponies who won’t immediately trust them.”

“A lot of them are from Nightingale originally,” I said with a sigh. “We think that it might be possible to reverse the memory wipe process, but at the very least they can start to reclaim their old lives that the Society took away from them. I just wish that I could do the same.”

“Firelight, what happened to you was wrong, but you’re trying to do do what you can to stop it from happening to anypony else,” Lemon said with a smile. “And from the sounds of things your sister is still herself. You’ve still got something you can get back, and plus you have a family here. You’re lucky really, my family died years ago and I can’t even risk going into Stable 27 to see Citrus or anypony else because of, well this.”

“Yeah, but we’re still with you,” I said as I placed my hoof on her shoulder. “We’re your friends, and while I know that’s not the same as having your daughter back, we’re going to be here for you whenever you need it. We’re your family just as much as you are mine.”

“Thanks, Firelight,” Lemon said with a nod. “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

“I think I have an idea,” I said with a chuckle as the door to the house opened and Neivi walked inside. “Any luck convincing the rest of the council to allow the Alicorns into Nightingale?”

“It took some convincing but they’re willing to give it a chance,” Neivi said with a sigh as she moved over next to me. “Though if this backfires, they’re going to have all our heads, you know that right?”

“I know,” I said with a sigh as I wrapped my wing gently around the Zebra next to me. “We’re going to manage somehow though. This is our best chance to help these ponies and give them a second chance at life. I just hope that it works.”

“Me too,” Neivi said as she rested up against me and closed her eyes a little. “Are you feeling okay Firelight? I know finding your sister again was a shock, are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“Honestly? I don’t know,” I admitted as I shook my head a little bit. “But I know that this is the best place for them right now. Nightingale has become my home, and I’d like to see it become the same for these Alicorns.”

“I’m sure it will,” Neivi said as she leaned up and kissed me gently on the cheek. “They’re going to be okay, we just need time to make sure everypony knows the situation.”

I nodded a little as Lemon smiled and headed back into the adjoining room as we stayed like that for the longest moment. We were going to have to face this future together, all of us, normal pony, Zebra, or Alicorn.

I just hoped that we could.

00000

A few hours later as it started to get dark the Alicorns that had not stayed behind at Stable 27 or went to one of the other settlements had arrived. It felt like all of Nightingale had come to see the Alicorns arrive, some of them seemed nervous, others seemed curious. There was a buzz of conversation in the settlement as they waited for something to happen.

The gates finally opened as Moonlight and Sparks came in with the gates closing a second later. I smiled a little as we approached them and gave them a nod.

“How’d it go?” I asked.

“Well, some of the settlements weren’t easy to convince, but we got it worked out,” Sparks said with a nod. “What about Nightingale?”

“We’re willing to give it a chance at least,” Neivi said with a sigh. “I can’t promise it will be easy though. Still, you have the Council’s support and assurances that any trouble started by non-Alicorns will be taken seriously.”

“That’s good,” Sparks said with a nod as she looked around. “This is impressive, I had heard stories about settlements built out of the trees like this but I’ve never actually seen it for myself. It’s like something out of an old fantasy book.”

“I think we can thank the Zebra for that.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Though sometimes I think they read the same storybooks and modeled these off it.”

Neivi just laughed a little at that as she looked back at the town itself. “I always thought it was just the best way to keep protected from the wildlife on the ground, but you might be right.”

“So, what are we going to do now?” Sparks asked, her tone turning serious.

“We’ve got buildings set aside for you and the other Alicorns, like I said it might be a bit of a tight fit in places but we should have enough room for all of you,” Neivi said with a nod. “Those with families still in town will have the option to move to family housing once they start to be re-integrated into their families better. It’s the best we can do right now.”

“Understood,” Sparks said with a sad nod. “We’re just glad we have some place to stay, it’s better than being on the run from the Society at all times.”

“Are yah okay, Moonlight?” Storm asked as she trotted over to her marefriend. “Did ev’rythin’ go okay after we left?”

“I just asked for as much information on these ‘Guardians’ that the society had, not a lot - some are thinking it’s just a ruse to give ponies hope.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “Either way, we need to find them, even if they are just a ruse we have no know who we can count on and who we can’t”

“Now that you’re here we can check in to see if any of the traders in town have heard anything from caravans or something,” Neivi added and I nodded a little. “Really, even if it just turns out to be a rumor we might have the right idea here. The problem with fighting the Society is that settlements have almost always done it alone, we’re going to need friends if we’re going to do this.”

“Ah agree,” Storm said with a nod. “We can’t just rely on tha Enclave, they’ve got their own problems ta deal with. What we need is ta get tha settlements ta work more closely together, get an alliance of sorts goin’. Tha question is, how are we gonna convince ‘em ta do that?”

“We’ll figure it out,” I said and gave them a nod. “But for now, I think there’s a more pressing matter we need to deal with. Shall we welcome the new citizens of Nightingale to their new home?”

“Yeah,” Sparks said and looked at me sadly for a moment before turning to Neivi. “We’re ready whenever you are unless Moonlight has something to add.”

“No no, you go ahead - I still have a lot to think about, and things to consider.” Moonlight said with a slight smile. “You guys go on, I’ll be here if you need me.”

I nodded as Neivi waved to the ponies manning the gates as they opened back up to reveal the Alicorns outside. They were a much smaller group than before, though it was still a large amount of Alicorns. I wondered if we really would be able to help all of them as Sparks walked forward and took a deep breath.

“We all made a choice to leave the Temple because we believed in what Moonlight had told us,” she said as she addressed them. It was impressive really, she was young but she commanded their attention. “We left the only lives we knew because you decided that it wasn’t right. We’ve been given a chance to live among those that our former masters have wronged, and while this isn’t going to be easy for them or for us, we have to do everything we can to prove that we aren’t the monsters they think we are. I ask nothing more of you than I do of myself because this is our new home, one given to us out of kindness and generosity. We do not want to do anything to take advantage or ruin that kindness.”

She turned to me and smiled a little as I nodded. The Alicorns nodded in agreement and with Sparks at the lead they started into the city. They looked like they were just as much in awe of it as me and Sparks did, I wondered if any of them had actually gotten a chance to see the city like this.

The ponies of Nightingale stared at the newly arrived Alicorns and a silence fell over the area as both groups stared at each other. For a moment I was half afraid that this was all going to turn out to be a cruel trick, that either the Alicorns were going to attack or the ponies were going to attack them.

But neither of that happened, instead, out of the corner of my eye I saw a stirring in the crowd of ponies as a small Unicorn colt came into view. He looked at one of the Alicorns nervously for a moment before tears welled up in his eyes and he ran forward and hugged the Alicorn tightly.

“Mommy, you’re back!” He said as he buried his muzzle in her chest, I could still hear him crying. She looked confused as she stared down at the small pony hugging her. “I never thought I’d see you again…”

I was about to say something when it happened. The Alicorn wrapped her foreleg around him gently as she started to cry too. There was a flash of recognition in her eyes as she hugged the colt with her forelegs and held him close, stroking his mane gently as she did.

I didn’t know if it was a sign of her remembering something or if it was just some remnant of her old self shining through but this Alicorn seemed to recognize her son. I smiled a little at that and looked at Neivi.

“What do you think Neivi?”

“I think, we have a long way to go, but its a step in the right direction,” Neivi said as she nuzzled me gently and we watched the two stay there for the longest moment.

Such a simple thing, but it gave so much hope for the future.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: The Negotiator.
Details: You've gained a better understanding of Wasteland politics and how to help settlements and ponies work together. You get an extra boost to speech when talking with members of friendly settlements or factions.

Chapter 15: Spiral

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything,

But it is wrong.

No matter how fast light travels,

It finds the darkness has already gotten there,

And is waiting for it.”

-Terry Pratchett.

“Firelight? Are you okay?” Neivi asked which broke me out of my thoughts. We were on a walkway that overlooked Nightingale below. I could see most of the city that had become my home from here and I found myself deep in thought about it

“Yeah, I’m just thinking is all,” I said as I looked over at the Zebra mare and gave her a soft smile.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Everything that’s been going on around here lately, how I got here, that kind of thing,” I said as I looked down again. There were now more Alicorns in Nightingale than I had ever imagined there would be. “What would have happened if my wing didn’t get picked for the mission to Stable 27? With everything that’s happened, I don’t even know if I want to think of what might’ve happened.”

“In my experience, you don’t want to dwell on what ifs,” Neivi replied. “You found yourselves here and changed things. There are ponies who are here today because of your choices, and if it wasn’t for you the Society would be even stronger.”

She leaned against me and nuzzled me gently. I smiled a little as I draped my wing over the Zebra gently and we sat there together. I Smiled softly as I felt Neivi’s tail brush against mine,

Even with my occasional doubts, I knew that there was something about this that was too perfect not to give up. Neivi and the others were my friends… no, my family. They were the closest thing I had to a family for as long as I could remember.

And I was going to fight to make sure that I didn’t lose them.

“There ya’ll are,” Storm asked as she walked up the stairs with Moonlight and Lemon Lime. “Darn, Ah owe Moonlight five caps since ya’ll ain’t makin’ out.”

“Still taking bets on our relationship I see,” Neivi said with a roll of her eyes.

“Hey, we need something to entertain us,” Lemon Lime said with a raspy laugh. “This whole city’s gotten very quiet and serious since the Alicorns showed up so we need to have some fun.”

“Well I’m glad you’re entertained,” I said grumbled as I rolled my eyes a little. “Maybe we should start taking bets on Storm and Moonlight. What do you think, Neivi?”

“Oh definitely,” Neivi grinned as she nuzzled me gently. “What should we bet on first?”

“Don’t take bets on those who can see your dreams.” Moonlight said with a smirk. “It’s a rigged bet from the start.”

“Aww, you’re no fun,” I laughed before turning serious after a moment. “How are the Alicorns doing?”

“Well, Ah ain’t gonna lie and say it’s been easy,” Storm said as she adjusted her hat a little. “They’re startin’ ta get settled in at least. We’ve started settin’ ‘em up around town, and nopony’s caused any problems… so far.”

“Probably too scared to,” Lemon snorted. “Even if many of them used to live here, there’s still a fear of having this Alicorns around. It’s not going to be easy to get everypony used to it. If your experiments to recover their memories work that might help at least.”

“The only problem I have seen is that I have had to tell several of our new arrivals to not put up certain banners that could cause unrest, It’s difficult to convince them to keep their, for lack of a better word, religion, to themselves.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I wish they could accept that they’ve been lied to, and not that there is still something to worship.”

“Some old habits die hard,” Neivi said as she sighed a little and looked over at me. “We’ll have to figure out how to work that out. Moonlight, can you talk to Sparks and the others about this? At the very least we need to keep them from being public about it, at least until things settle in a bit more.”

“They have already arranged to have an area of the forest cleared where they can do their midnight vigils, they have the right to practice, just… not to freak everypony out. At least in my opinion.” Moonlight said with a shake of her head and sigh. “There are talks of a chapel of sorts being constructed, I don’t know how the public will feel if that happens.”

“It won’t be easy,” Neivi sighed as she adjusted her glasses a little. “But if they don’t cause problems in Nightingale things might eventually get better. Trust is something that has to be earned in places like that, and I’m not going to lie, these Alicorns are in for an uphill battle.”

“Well, unless yah can convince them ta worship Luna or somethin’,” Storm said with a shrug as I looked at her curiously. “What? Ah mean Ah know they ain’t tha same thing, but it might be a way ta transition them slowly.”

“You would be surprised at how alike the two are.” Moonlight said, turning her gaze to Storm. “Take it from somepony, who has talked to them both.” She said, starting to laugh a little.

“Princess Worship isn’t exactly something new in the Wasteland,” Neivi said thoughtfully for a moment. “It’s probably a longshot though. They’ve been convinced that Nightmare Moon is a powerful Goddess. Even if they are similar, it couldn’t be easy or fast to convince them to change.”

“I’ve heard from that very short time in the Society I spent, that there is actually a rival faction gaining traction, one who worships the sun goddess.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “I think what matters most to those ponies, is that they have something bigger than themselves to believe in, something that feeds them strength and hope for that better tomorrow.”

“Yeah, we think they attacked the town not long before we found you,” I said as I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “What we need is something that can rally them together away from the Society’s Dogma.”

“I mean, the most common method of shifting belief is a child of the one they believe to be their god or goddess, but none of my children have ever shown any signs of being anything like me.” Moonlight said, looking to me. “Unless there is something you know that I don’t, I don’t think that’s going to work.”

“Then we’re going to have to think of something else,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “Unless you want to start knocking up mares and hope for the best.”

“I think Storm might have a few things to say about that.” Moonlight said with a nervous chuckle. “I mean, I guess Citrus’ foal could show signs when she gets older, but the others… wait, two others were unborn. Maybe…”

“Only if Ah’m first,” Storm said with a chuckle as she nuzzled Moonlight. “Yah ain’t knockin’ up any more mares until after Ah get a chance.”

“Not for a while.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Not until I get to be the mother like I’ve always wanted. Though, I can’t help but think that I saw a mare in the society that looked like one of those from the stable I was forced to be with… Maybe the other alicorns know something.”

“Unfortunately, if one of them were taken the odds are good that they were transformed,” I said softly for a moment as I looked down at my hooves.

“The effects of IMP on an unborn foal haven’t exactly been tested for obvious reasons,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. “But given the trauma of the transformation, if one of them was still pregnant while being transformed…”

“I don’t want to think about that.” Moonlight said, frowning. “I know they had doctors from the stable untransformed, one of them is the one that bandaged me up, and I don’t think they’d risk a foal - they’re dark, not monsters.”

“True,” I said with a slight nod. “Still, we don’t know where she is or what’s happened to her. It’s entirely possible that she was converted after birth for example. Sorry for being so down about it, just there’s a lot of unknowns right now.”

“Ah think they’re still out there somewhere,” Storm said as she comforted Moonlight a little. “We’ll talk ta tha other Alicorns and see if they know anythin’. We’ll figure this out, Ah promise.”

“There are some still inside the Society that sympathizes with me, maybe we can figure out a way to contact them, they would definitely know.” Moonlight said, looking from Storm to me. “Do you remember your old Wing? Did they have any sort of special way they would talk to each other privately?”

“Tawny and Red Rider,” I replied after a moment as I thought back. “Whenever they wanted to sneak away to make out or… other things I guess, without prying eyes, they’d leave each other messages. They’d hide them in an old mailbox outside of the perimeter. All four of us knew about it really, it was sort of our little secret in case we needed to share messages.”

“How often is the mailbox checked for messages?” Moonlight asked, “When I was in there, they were really curious about you and how you’ve been doing out here, I told them pretty much everything, they almost left right then and there to come find you, but I convinced them to stay, that I needed somepony inside in case things happened.”

“Usually once a day during our usual patrol period around the perimeter,” I said as I thought back for a moment. “Which is between 1630 and 1715.”

“So, we can leave messages and notes in that mailbox and get messages inside to those who are loyal to me.” Moonlight said, slowly nodding “How easy is it to get to that Mailbox, and what are the likelihoods of us getting caught?”

“The mailbox is off the usual patrol route around the perimeter of the main compound that surrounds the temple,” I replied. “So getting to it is easy enough. The hard part is going to be to avoid the patrols but given they’re always on a specific pattern and timescale that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Could you teleport a message into it?” Moonlight said, rubbing her chin. “Honestly I don’t know how teleportation magic works but don’t you just have to be able to picture it in your mind or something?”

“Well, yeah, but from this far away it’s not an exact science,” I said with a shake of my head. “Last two times I teleported anything there I sent them to a designated teleportation area that was set up and is always kept clear.”

“So, we’re gonna have ta go ta Haythens then?” Storm asked, suddenly very worried about the idea.

“I can go alone if I use my illusion magic I can at least disguise myself if there’s any risk,” I suggested. “I don’t want to put any of you in danger, and I can always try to teleport it from here.”

“Or…” Moonlight said, tapping a hoof. “If we can get in contact with that changeling, she could do this easily right?”

“Oh, duh!” I said as I facehooved a little. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Yes, that could definitely work, but how do you plan to get in touch with her?”

“She has been keeping an eye on you, High Priestess wanted to make sure that you weren’t destroying too much of her plans, she’s nearby - we just have to get her to reveal herself.” Moonlight said, starting to look around. “Anything that looks out of place?”

“Well, let’s see…” Neivi said as we all looked around for anything that seemed off about the area.

“There,” Storm said as she pointed over at a bench that was seated against the wall. “That bench shouldn’t be there, there’s one just down the path.”

“Are you sure? It might be a little awkward to go and talk to a bench.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Not to mention with all the stress and whatnot - someone might think you had a mental breakdown or something.”

“Or they’ll just think it’s a normal Tuesday for Storm,” Neivi said with a laugh.

“Real funny,” Storm said with a roll of her eyes. “Well unless yah want ta go around shoutin’ fer a Changeling then that’s what Ah’ve got right now.”

“I mean, it’s worth checking,” Lemon said with a shrug. “Unless any of you have any other ideas.”

“How do you even check to see if a bench is a Changeling?” I asked.

“Well, I’d say you should be the only one to approach - obviously if she feels like she’s caught out she isn’t going to be willing to even reveal herself.” Moonlight pointed out. “And, I’d suggest just trying to talk to her.”

“Alright, well no time like the present I guess,” I said as I headed over to the bench cautiously and looked around for a moment. I felt kind of silly doing this. “Hello? Is anyone here?”

I swear if this turned out to be a prank by my friends we were going to have words.

There was a bit of a shimmer, before a flash and standing where the bench once stood, the familiar form of the changeling caretaker.

“This… is most unorthodox, what is it child?” She said, looking at me confused,

“We’re trying to figure out how to get a message to my old Wing, and, well we can’t safely get that close to the Temple…” I said with a shake of my head. “I was wondering if maybe you could help us out.”

“What kind of message is it that you wish to send?” She said, sitting and looking past me to my friends. “Why would they wish to say anything to those on the other side?”

“It’s a long story,” I said as I levitated out a piece of paper and an old pen that I used to write the message on the paper and levitated it over to the Changeling. “We’re hoping they can help us with something. There’s an old mailbox that’s still intact just outside of the perimeter near what’s left of a faded yellow two-story house. Can you put it in there for me?”

“You are aware that I cannot simply come and go as I see fit anymore, right? I am only here because the high priestess wants the artifact back.” She said with a sigh. “But only she can remove it - and any attempt to take it away has proved less than fruitful.”

“I should’ve known this was a long shot,” I said with a sigh. “Guess I’ll just have to figure something else out.”

“Did I say I could not do it? I said it would be difficult - I am expected to report back to the high priestess herself once a day, every evening before the main vigil of the night.” She said with a sigh. “The time frame is tight, but I do believe I can manage to drop off a message if you need me to.”

“It would mean a lot to us,” I said and looked back at Moonlight for a moment. “With everything that’s happened, you know? Just be careful, I don’t want anything to happen to you on my account.”

She was looking past me, looking at my friends. “You wish to find her mate, don’t you.” She said, with a sigh and a shake of her head. “The Priestess is very… displeased with this situation, and with the looming birth of another like her - she is afraid all she has worked for will come down.”

“Gee… I can’t imagine why she would…” I started to snark before it suddenly sunk in exactly what she just said. “Wait, what do you mean by another like her?”

“There are members of the society who are sensitive to certain powers, many of them were sicked by being near Moonlight, I believe her name is, this one who is expecting, they get just as ill being around her.” She said with a sigh. “The Priestess has separated them, put your wing in charge of watching her - with most grave orders if things should go wrong.”

“Goddess… that’s not good…” I said as I looked back at Moonlight. “Then it’s more important than ever that you get the message to them. Please? I know this is putting you at risk given the High Priestess but…”

“No need to worry, your message is safe with me.” She said, smiling a little. “Though, I think your wing expects something, as this house - the one you wish to have me put the note in, is where they took the mare.” She said, eyes shifting back to me. “Perhaps they expect a rescue attempt.”

“Or maybe a quick getaway…” I muttered to myself before I nodded a little.

“Perhaps it would be wise in either case, for you to tell Ne… Neivi? Yes… the zebra there, to have a bed and maternity kit ready. Either way, this goes, you will likely be handling a newborn child.” She said with a sigh. “I am due for my check in anyway, I shall deliver your message - anything else you would like to add before I may depart?”

“No, but I wanted to say thank you, from all of us,” I said with a soft smile. “Stay safe, okay? I expect to be looking over my shoulder and wondering if you’re following me again.”

“I most likely will, unless the High Priestess decides that you aren’t worth her time.” She said with a chuckle. “She wants her firebrand back, but she may decide you are just too much trouble.”

“Well, she’s not getting me back either way,” I said with a slight smirk. “But it is nice to know that you’re nearby in a weird way.”

“I will always be near, figuratively and literally.” She said with a smile. “My teachings will stay with you, and I will be sure to check this house more, if you wish to leave messages for me, clearly when I am not the one delivering the message, of course.”

I smiled and hugged the Changeling for a long moment before backing off and giving her a nod. “I’ll see you around then, and I may just do that.”

“I look forward to it.” She said, smiling a little before with a flash she had disguised herself once more, this time as a young mare, and trotted her way off.

I smiled a little as I headed back to my friends as I let out a small sigh of relief. That had at least gone as well as we could’ve expected. “Well, she says she’ll take the message to them, but Neivi you should be ready with a bed and a maternity kit.”

“Because of course I need to be,” Neivi said with a light chuckle. “You know before I met you the most I had to worry about day by day was scrapes, bruises, and the occasional broken bones.”

“Well sorry for making your life interesting,” I said with a chuckle as I leaned down and gave the Zebra mare a light kiss. “Though, uh, Moonlight I have some good news and some bad news.”

“Good news and bad news?” Moonlight said, cocking her head to the side. “And what would it be?”

“Well, the good news is that apparently you were right and the filly has inherited some of the same power as you,” I said as I brushed my mane back. “The bad news is that the High Priestess is aware and is not happy about it. Though some more good news, she’s being guarded by my old Wing.”

“I see, how do they know she has my power if she has not been born yet?” Moonlight said, frowning a little. “As far as we have been told, the only way to see if this power exists is to expose it to a particular bit of metal.”

“Apparently, while you were with the Society it made some members ill,” I answered. “Apparently the mother of the foal is having the same effect, which is why she was separated from the rest other than the Wing assigned to her.”

“I made others ill? How?” Moonlight said, seemingly more alarmed. “I was not aware I had that effect on ponies…”

“It seems that they were particularly susceptible to your power because you have more than they had ever encountered before,” I replied. “I know it’s not much of an answer, but it’s at least a possibility.”

“... and you are telling me, an Unborn foal is exuding the same amount of power I exude, despite the fact I am as I am, correct?” Moonlight said, looking to me, then to Neivi. “How is that even possible, they can’t dose an unborn foal with the potion, can they?”

“Well, uh… I mean, I… I honestly don’t know,” Neivi admitted. “I don’t think it can be done without exposing the mother as well. But then again the Goddess didn’t exactly leave notes lying around detailing everything she did with IMP.”

“I see… is it possible that this unborn foal is… for lack of a better term, like myself and Firelight naturally?” Moonlight asked, seemingly even more concerned. “That explains why the High Priestess would be so threatened by her.”

“Well, I mean, it’s possible, the only recorded example of that was Flurry Heart,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses again. “And I honestly have no idea how that happened. It could be a side effect of the Luna power or an anomaly or… anything really. The only other record of a non-IMP Alicorn is from the war reports that came out of Neigh Orleans and Horseton, and she was definitely not natural born.”

“They said each generation was more powerful than the last, if she is as powerful as I am as an Alicorn, she is most definitely more powerful then I was as a Pegasi…” Moonlight said, shaking her head with a sigh. “Maybe she’s just a Unicorn, more attuned to the magic she carries or something, her mother’s a Unicorn, it’s a possibility…”

“Either way, I need to be ready,” Neivi said and looked thoughtful for a moment. “The only thing is that it would probably help to have her medical records. This might call for another trip to Stable 27.”

“That makes me uneasy - if they know of another like me, they are going to want to bring her to the stable.” Moonlight said with a frown. “I don’t want another pony to suffer as I have.”

“I know,” I said as I placed my hoof on Moonlight’s withers. “And we’re going to do everything we can to keep that from happening again. But Neivi might have a point, she doesn’t have all the medical records of everypony from your home Stable on hoof and if it might help...”

“Really, I can manage if I have to,” Neivi said.

“I permit you to contact the stable, but do not be clear for the reason why.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “For the sake of her health, and the health of the foal - I am willing to take this chance.”

Storm hugged Moonlight tight. “It’ll be okay, Ah’ll make sure that nothin’ happens, Ah promise.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do everything I can to make sure they don’t find out,” Neivi said with a nod. “I mean there’s a lot of equipment in there that would sure be handy… but we’ve been birthing foals out here without them for decades. I think we’ll manage.”

“Yes you have been birthing foals out here for decades, but how many of them have the power of a grand equestrian princess?” Moonlight said, starting to frown more. “I doubt Citrus’ mother would be willing to deliver these papers to somepony, she will likely want to be hooves on.”

“Thanks for not putting more pressure on me, it really helps,” Neivi replied sarcastically before grumbling. “I am a trained Mendi Healer, it is well within my abilities to birth a foal, powers or not.”

“Neivi, Moonlight, it’s going to be okay,” I said with a sigh. “We’ll figure this out somehow, and we won’t let them take the foal back to the Stable.”

“Yah have mah word as part of tha Town’s Security force, Ah’ll make sure of it,” Storm said reassuringly.

Moonlight took a deep breath and sighed “Right, right… I’m sure it’ll be fine.” She said, before turning to me. “I’ll hold you responsible if anything happens however - this is big, like really big.”

“Ah’ll protect her like she’s mah own daughter,” Storm said reassuringly.

“We’ll all help,” I added and Neivi and Lemon nodded in agreement.

“If we don’t get her back, the Society will have a tool of our destruction, if the stable gets her, she’ll be used like I was, so while I’d love to say no pressure, I think the stakes have never been this high.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “I think I need some time to myself, perhaps you should check in with the Alicorns, see how they are handling things.”

“And I need to get everything ready at the clinic,” Neivi added and gave me a kiss. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Okay,” I said as me, Storm, and Lemon walked off together.

00000

“Are yah okay, Firelight?” Storm asked me as I looked back at her. We had been walking through one of the mid levels of the tree city. “Yer quieter than usual. Do yah want ta talk about it?”

“Honestly? I’m just thinking about everything,” I said with a sigh as we walked past Sparks who was talking with a pony outside of Nightingale’s School. I flinched a little and loured my head a little as we kept walking past.

“Do you ever think you’ll be ready to talk to her?” Lemon asked as the old Ghoul looked at me worriedly for a moment. “I mean, really talk to her. She’s your sister and all.”

“Honestly, I have no idea,” I said as I lowered my head a little. “I’m scared more than anything. I want to talk to her, to try and get something of a normal life back. But at the same time, I feel like I’m going to screw it up.”

“I know what you mean,” Lemon said with a sigh. “I can’t tell you how many times I went over what I would say to Licorice if I had ever found her over the years. I guess that’s why I eventually wound up back in Manehattan. The thing is though, you never know when it might be too late. So if you want an old Mare’s advice, don’t put it off for too long.”

“I won’t,” I said with a sigh as I looked back at Sparks. She looked up from the pony she was talking to and gave me a soft smile. “Though it’s not going to be easy. How do you even reconnect with a sister you don’t remember? And I’m scared of what might happen if I remember everything…”

“Let’s think about somethin’ else,” Storm said quickly.

“Alright, so when are you and Moonlight going to tie the knot?” I asked with a teasing grin which sent a blush over the purple mare’s face.

“Ah meant somethin’ other than teasin’ me about mah love life,” Storm said with a groan.

“You’re just mad she beat you to it,” Lemon said with a chuckle. “But yeah, what are we going to do now?”

“Well, we do need to talk to the other Alicorns and see how things are going here,” I said with a nod. “Though, it’s kind of weird. I mean, after all the time I’ve spent with non-Alicorns, other than Moonlight at least. I’m not actually sure what I’m supposed to do or say.”

“It’ll be okay,” Storm said reassuringly. “Just take it easy and try ta talk ta them. It can’t be that bad, right?”

“Yeah, maybe,” I said with a shake of my head and smiled a little when I saw the fillies playing that same game with the ball they had been playing when I had first seen them. I waved to them and they looked up and waved back before going back to their game.

I was about to go back to talking to my friends when I was surprised to see a young Alicorn filly that looked like she was about the same age as them. She had black fur with a short purple mane. The Alicorn was watching the three fillies with a curious look on her face.

After a moment I recognized the Alicorn Filly, her name was Night Wish. I Had seen her a few times around the Temple. She had only joined the Society a few months before I left. She had been one of several fillies to join in that period.

I was scared to think about what might’ve resulted in her and the others getting there. Though, it was kind of nice to know that at least she made it out. I sighed a little and looked back at my friends just as Dawn Star and her friends were approaching Night Wish.

I hoped that would work out. I smiled a little as we started walking again together, maybe if they could get along there was some hope to this after all.

00000

“Why do yah call it a Wing?” Storm asked as we walked into the main building that had been set aside for the Alicorns.

“Hmm?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Well, Wings were a term generally used in relation ta tha Unity Alicorns or tha Pegasi,” Storm said with a shrug. “Ya’ll ain’t Unity Alicorns, did yah just borrow it from them or somethin’?”

“You know, I never really thought about that…” I said for a moment. “As far as I know it’s always been what we call the military units in the Society.”

“Well, I hope yer right in them bein’ able ta help,” Storm said with a sigh. “Moonlight ain’t in a good place right now. If this doesn’t work out, she ain’t gonna be happy, and if she ain’t happy Ah ain’t happy.”

“Noted,” I said with a gulp at the implied threat from the Pegasus mare. “I trust them, and Moonlight said they’re on our side… I think it’s worth the risk.”

“Yer givin’ me a whole lot of what ifs and could bes when you know this might not work,” Storm said angrily. “You’re putting Moonlight and this whole town at risk here on a hunch. If ANYTHING happens to her, I’m going to make sure you pay for it.”

“I promise, I’ll make sure everything is okay,” I said with a gulp as the usually laid back Pegasus mare stared me down. “I trust my old Wing and Moonlight said they’re on our side, remember? I promise I won’t let anything happen to Moonlight. I wouldn’t do anything to put her in danger if I didn’t think it was the only option.”

“Alright, I trust yah,” Storm said as she started to calm down a little. “Yah understand though, Ah don’t want anythin’ ta happen ta Moonlight. Yah would do tha same if it was Neivi that was in danger.”

“Yeah, I would,” I said as I closed my eyes for a moment. “I would do everything I can to keep her safe. But I’d also trust my friends to be able to help me and be by my side. And we’re going to be there for you and Moonlight, I promise.”

“Alright, so, Ah guess we should go talk ta tha Alicorns,” Storm said with a nod as we started walking together. “Sorry if Ah got angry at yah back there.”

“It’s okay, I understand where you’re coming from,” I said with a soft smile. “Everything is going to be okay.”

“Ah hope so,” Storm said and Lemon nodded in agreement. “Come on, we came here ta check in on tha Alicorns. We really shouldn’t be standin’ around talkin’ right now. Let’s get goin’, okay?”

“Okay,” I said with a nod as we walked around. I was a bit surprised at how big the building was, but it was still mostly empty.

We saw a few Alicorns here and there that looked like they were talking, they looked more nervous or scared than anything else. Usually, they went quiet when we went past though. I looked back at Storm and Lemon who just shrugged a little.

“Hey, well if it isn’t the Firebrand,” a voice finally said with a chuckle as I turned to see an Alicorn standing there who was even taller than me. She had light green fur with a dark green mane with streaks of grey in it. “I have to say I wasn’t expecting to ever see you again, let alone in a place like this.”

“Friend of yours, Firelight?” Lemon asked as she and Storm eyed the tall Alicorn for a moment.

“Geez, and Ah thought Firelight was tall…” Storm muttered which just made me chuckle a little bit.

“Mistle was the one that trained me when I was inducted into the Soldier Caste of the Society,” I replied before turning back to the larger green Alicorn. “I didn’t actually expect to see you here. You were part of the Society for as long as anypony could remember.”

“The High Priestess found me years ago when the Society was just starting to use IMP,” Mistle said with a sad smile.”I was not in a good place back then. I was still recovering from the Death of the Goddess and the collapse of Unity. I believed that the Society was the best chance to rebuild what I had lost.”

“Wait, yer not an Alicorn created by tha Society?” Storm asked. “Ah had no idea they were recruitin’ former Unity Alicorns.”

“There are only a few of us,” Mistle said with a slight shake of her head. “The High Priestess wanted to seek out former members of the Unity to help the Society. She had wanted a purple Alicorn for the Soldier Caste, but given that I had the most experience of any of the Alicorns she could recruit she put me in charge of molding it.”

“Well, that answers that question,” Storm whispered to me. “But Ah don’t understand one thing. Don’t Green Alicorns tend ta travel in pairs? Yer, well, alone.”

Mistle lowered her head sadly for a moment and shook her head. “My partner died, a long time ago I’m afraid. She had injured her wing so were lagging behind the others during the evacuation of Maripony. I didn’t want to leave her behind, one of the first real thoughts I had that was my own. But she, she told me to fly as fast as I could and, I left her behind. There was just so much chaos in the Unity, everything was falling apart and I couldn’t get anypony to save her. Ever since then, I’ve felt like I’m only half the pony I used to be. Sometimes it felt like the Society made me whole again. Especially with ponies like you and others. You became my new family, my new Unity.”

“So, why leave the Society?” Lemon asked.

“I was already thinking about it when Firelight left to be honest,” Mistle admitted as she gave me a soft smile. “Personally I couldn’t give a flying feather about the High Priestess’ dogma. When I learned you went rogue, Firelight, it started to make me think. Then Moonlight showed up. I guess I started to realize that the Society wasn’t the Unity I had hoped for. And here I am.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here,” I said with a soft smile as I hugged the taller Alicorn. She blinked a little in surprise before she hugged me back. “I’m glad so many Alicorns have left the Society. I wish that I had realized this was wrong a long time ago.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Mistle said with a shake of her head. “It’ll be okay, Firelight. You’ve got some good friends out here. I’m just glad that you were able to break free. You’re braver than I ever was.”

“Thanks,” I said softly. “So, what’s going to happen now? How are we going to get everypony settled in?”

“Sparks is working on getting the younger Alicorns enrolled in the local school,” Mistle said with a nod. “She thinks that if we try to show we can live normally it’ll help everypony accept us better. It’s a long shot really, but she thinks it’ll help.”

“Well, it’s worth a try,” Storm said as she shrugged a little. She then added jokingly, “Besides, they’ll be goin’ ta school with Firelight’s daughters.”

“Your daughters?” Mistle asked as she looked at me weirdly.

“She’s joking, I’ve been helping take care of three orphaned fillies that are from the same settlement I was from,” I said quickly. “I admit we’ve gotten very close but… I don’t know really.”

We talked for a while. It was nice to be reunited with Mistle and any of the other ponies that I had known. I was happy that they were here, it really gave me a lot of hope for the future of the Society Alicorns.

00000

“Well, Mistle was interestin’,” Storm said as we headed towards the clinic. “How do yah think Moonlight is doin’?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted as we approached the clinic. “Word should have gotten to my old Wing by now. I just hope that they made it here without any problems.”

“Yeah, me too,” Storm said as she looked down at her hooves for a moment. “Ah’m scared ta be honest. Ah’ve never exactly been tha most responsible of ponies, as Neivi would tell yah. Ah know a lot about what happened down there from Moonlight, and that neither of them had any choice in tha matter. Ah’m not even sure what ta do ta be honest. Ah feel like Ah’m gonna need ta help with tha filly, but Ah don’t know if Ah can.”

“Storm, you’re going to be okay,” I said softly as I placed my hoof gently on her withers and gave her a gentle smile. “If it comes to that, you’re going to be just fine. And we’re going to be there with you if it comes to that too.”

“Thanks,” Storm said gently and hugged me tightly for a moment. “Come on, let’s go check on them.”

I nodded as I opened the door to the clinic and the three of us walked in together. “Neivi? Moonlight? We’re back.”

“No! Spit that out this instant!” I heard Moonlight yell from around the corner. “Neivi! Our little guest here thought it’d be a great idea to chew on… a bottle of something”

“Oh you have got to be kidding me,” I heard Neivi say in an exasperated voice as we heard hooves against the wooden floor of the clinic. “Oh thank the Spirits, it’s nothing toxic. Come on, let it go…”

“Sounds like they have their hooves full,” I said.

“Should we come back later?” Storm asked before adding jokingly. “Or do yah want some practice for when ya’ll start havin’ little Alicorn Zony babies?”

“Very funny,” I groaned as we headed around the corner to see what was going on. “Neivi? Moonlight? Do you two need help?”

“I swear upon the stars if this monstrosity doesn’t calm down, we’re going to all have a serious problem.” Moonlight said with a groan. “It is impossible to believe this thing is related to me.”

“What happened?” I asked as I looked around for any sign of what was going on. “I’m guessing this means they got here with the mare.”

“The mare is out cold in the back. This creature she spawned hasn’t calmed down once since they got here.” Moonlight said, looking to me with a huff. “I am not sure this thing is mine, it is nothing like any of its siblings.”

“Well, unless you have another explanation for how she got those, I honestly doubt she’s anypony else’s,” Neivi said with a huff. “Storm, Firelight, can either of you help get her down?”

“Get her down from where?” I asked as I looked towards where the two of them had been looking.

“My… daughter, as reluctantly as I am to say that, has decided that after chewing on several things in the clinic, that she would climb up into the crawl space… remind me, to never have another child again.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “We’ve tried everything we can think to get her down, she refuses to budge.”

“Yeah, there’s no way I can fit up there,” I said as I looked up towards the crawlspace for a moment. “You two are getting your flanks kicked by a foal?”

“Darn it Firelight, I’m a Doctor, not a babysitter,” Neivi said with a groan as she adjusted her glasses. “This wasn’t exactly a normal birth you know. I swear the Spirits are punishing me for something.”

“Alright, well this ain’t tha time ta argue about that,” Storm said as she looked up at the crawlspace for a moment. “It might be a tight squeeze, but Ah think Ah can get in there if Ah remove mah armor.”

She started to remove her armor as she looked back up at the crawlspace for a moment before setting it on the floor and flapping her wings a little. She headed up to the crawlspace and vanished into it after a moment.

“Why do you even have a crawlspace?” I asked as I glanced at Neivi.

“We live in a jungle,” Neivi pointed out. “Some airspace between the roof and ceiling is good in case of leaks or cold nights.”

“Fair enough,” I said with a shrug as we waited for some word to come from Storm as she made her way through the crawlspace. “She’s going to be okay up there right? It’s not going to collapse is it?”

“Pegasi are smaller and lighter than other races to help them fly,” Neivi said with a nod as she shot a glance at Moonlight. “She should be fine up there unless you two have been up to something that you really shouldn’t be doing right now.”

“WHAT IN TARNATION?” Storm shouted out from the Crawlspace.

“What do you see?” I called up to the Pegasus mare.

“Well, uh, Ah’m pretty sure this one is yours Moonlight,” Storm called down as there was the sound of her making her way through the crawlspace. “Unless there’s somepony else in yer home Stable who has tha same colorin’ and Luna’s powers.”

“Uh… be careful, she bites.” Moonlight said, sheepishly.

“Ah’ve tussled with some of tha nastiest things tha… OWW!” Storm cried out. “Oh no, yah ain’t gettin’ away from me. Ah’m gettin’ yah outta here and that’s final!”

She finally pushed her way out of the crawlspace carrying a foal. She had the same colors as Moonlight only they were reversed. But of course, most noticeably she had the familiar wings and horns of an Alicorn as she struggled to get out of the purple pegasus’ grip again.

“Ah swear, if all Alicorn foals are this much trouble, Ah might agree ta that not have any more kids thing,” Storm said as she floated down, keeping hold of the filly. “What do yah want me ta do with her?”

“I think I have a bag somewhere around here and the river isn’t too far…” Moonlight said with a nervous chuckle.

“Not funny,” Neivi said as she gently took the foal away from Storm. “Plus bringing her here was your idea, remember?”

“We’re not throwing her in the river,” I said with a sigh as the filly squirmed in Neivi’s hooves. “Now seriously, what are we going to do with her? The obvious problem we have is that we’re not going to be able to spend all our time in Nightingale. There are things that need to be investigated and we’re supposed to be making contact with the other settlements.”

“There’s also the matter of her mother.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “See, she wasn’t born here - your wing brought them separately because apparently, Mistral had a few problems during labor.”

“Given what their solution was, we’re probably lucky they both made it at all,” Neivi said with a sigh. “I knew I should’ve gone to meet up with them.”

“Uh, exactly what happened?” I asked as I looked between them. Storm and Lemon looked just as confused and concerned as I felt.

“Apparently, giving birth to an Alicorn foal is a lot more stressful on the body of a normal pony. Mistral sustained some very life-threatening injuries, your wing…” Moonlight said, walking over to the door that leads to the back. “They had to give her that potion just so she’d survive the trip here.”

“They, exposed her to IMP?” I asked and blinked in surprise.

“Given the alternative was death, it likely seemed like the best option at the time,” Neivi said with a sigh. “There’s still no promise that she’s going to survive, they may have only bought her some time.”

“And what if it does work and she lives?” I asked. “What are we going to do with her? Do we try to restore her memories or what?”

“According to your wing.” Moonlight said with a sigh “She said, before they dosed her that she didn’t want to remember her life before, she wanted a clean slate with her and her daughter.”

I paused a little at that. If that was what she wanted then we shouldn’t press her to try to remember. But at the same time, would that make us any better than the Society? And what would we do if she wanted to remember?

I had no idea honestly.

“Alright, if that’s what she wants then I guess we should respect it,” I said with a sigh. “Any way we can improve her chances of healing?”

“Sure, we could expose her to radiation from Lemon,” Neivi said. “It was the same treatment we used for you in addition to normal methods.”

“I’m just one big radiation generator for healing Alicorns to you aren’t I?” Lemon said with a snort.

“We’ll pay you,” Neivi offered.

“Radiation generator Lemon Lime reporting for duty.”

“Keeping in mind, she may not even survive this - she’s been through a really big thing with this birth, and that little monst- I mean, foal… is definitely a hoof-full.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “As much as I want her to survive, we should prepare for the worse - as we’re handling things that not even doctors before the war knew how to handle.”

“And they had much better equipment than I do,” Neivi said with a sigh. “We’re going to have to improvise really. That’s why I need Lemon’s help here, and I’m working on some potions. There is one other thing I can do, but I’m not particularly fond of it. However, given the state of the patient it may help.”

“If it would help, then why don’t we do it?” I asked.

“Because the Doctor in question is a Carnillia,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little bit.

“Okay, I’m confused, what does that have to do with anything?” I asked.

“Tha Carnillia is another one of tha Zebra Tribes,” Storm said with a frown. “They consider life sacred and are against tha idea of any relationships that won’t produce viable children.”

“Great,” I said with a groan. “But a mare’s life is in the balance here. Are you sure that they can help with this?”

“Pretty sure, Carnillia Doctors and Scientists have medicine even the Mendi don’t have,” Neivi said with a nod.

“Alright, where can I find this Doctor?”

“He lives in Canterbury,” Neivi said with a sigh as she took out a piece of paper and quickly wrote the details. “Just, be careful, okay? He’s a good Doctor, but he won’t be easy to deal with if he finds out about… you know…”

“Right,” I said and took a deep breath as I picked up the paper. “Unless anypony has any other ideas. I’m going alone to Canterbury to talk to this Doctor.”

“Well, the good news is you’ve been there before, so you can teleport there, right?” Moonlight said, looking to me. “She may have been a forced relationship on me, but I still care, y’know?”

“Yeah, I mean I’ll need to teleport somewhere I know is clear, but yeah I can do that,” I said and gave Moonlight a nod. “We’re going to do everything we can to save her. I promise you that, Moonlight.”

“We’ll do what we can here,” Neivi said with a nod. “Be safe, okay?”

I nodded a little and concentrated on an area near Canterbury that I knew was going to be clear. My horn glowed orange as I vanished in a flash of light. The last thing I saw was Neivi giving me a nod before I was whisked away by the magic.

00000

It didn’t take long to reach Canterbury and find the clinic that belonged to the Carnillia Doctor. I got a few looks while I made my way through the tree city. Some of them waved to me, remembering me from before. I would’ve liked to go back and talk to Vox and see how things were going there, but I had a mission.

I opened the door to the clinic and looked around inside. It didn’t look that different from Neivi’s back in Nightingale.

“Hello?” I called out as I looked around for the Doctor.

“Oh, hello, can I help you with something?” A stallion’s voice asked. I turned around to see a Zebra stallion standing there dressed in a white coat. He had a grey coat and a short mane, his stripes were curled and he eyed me strangely for a moment. “I don’t get a lot of Alicorns in here, but you look healthy enough.”

“I’m not here for me,” I said as I walked over to the stallion. “We have a pony who recently gave birth back in Nightingale. However, there have been complications and we’re afraid that she might not survive. I was told that you might be able to help.”

“Told by Neivi I’m sure,” the Zebra Stallion said with a snort. For a moment I was afraid that he was going to refuse outright but he spoke again. “What can you tell me about the patient?”

“She was exposed to IMP in an effort to save her life after childbirth,” I replied and he eyed me curiously. “There were complications during labor. The foal was, a, uh…”

“What?” The Doctor asked. “If I’m going to help then I will need all the information you can give me.”

“The foal was born an Alicorn,” I said after a brief pause. “It’s what caused the complications.”

“Curious. Either the Nightmare Society or some similar group is experimenting with ways to expose an unborn foal to IMP or there’s something more you’re not telling me,” the stallion said as he narrowed his eyes at me. “I am familiar with Doctor Neivi’s more eccentric sexuality.”

I got the impression that the stallion didn’t just think of it as eccentric. But he was the best chance we had at saving Mistral. I didn’t like having to ask for his help, but right now I didn’t have much of a choice.

“That being said, a life is a life,” he said with a nod. “I wouldn’t be much of a Doctor if I refused to treat a patient. However I’m going to need to know everything you can tell me about the mother and pregnancy that you can tell me. Any information could be important to healing the patient.”

I nodded and told him everything I knew about Mistral and her pregnancy. It was admittedly not as much as Moonlight or somepony from Stable 27 may have been able to tell her, but it was enough.

What worried me however was that after I had mentioned the fact that it was the result of a spell that allowed two mares to conceive a foal the stallion frowned. He remained quiet until I was done, but he had a frown on his face and didn’t look happy.

“I’m not helping you,” he finally said simply.

“What? You said you'd’ help, you said that a life is a life,” I said. Anger was starting to rise in my voice, and fire was starting to appear at the edge of my vision. “Why refuse now?”

“This isn’t life, this is a mockery of life!” The stallion snapped. “I have a lot of respect for Neivi despite her choices in partners. However, this is disgusting, magic allowing life to be created so, callously? It’s a mockery!”

“Life is life no matter how it’s created!” I said as I narrowed my eyes at the stallion, the flames were starting to flicker harder. “The ponies of Stable 27 are just like you and me. They’re not any less than you or me just because they were conceived through magic with two mares as parents. You disgust me, I’m going to make sure everyone knows about this.”

“And what are you going to do to make that happen?” The Doctor asked with a snort. “You’re just an Alicorn, and no one is going to trust your word.”

“Yeah, but they’ll trust Vox Populi,” I said with a smirk and the stallion’s eyes went wide at that. “Yeah, I know him, and something tells me he wouldn’t be happy with this either. But of course, that’s up to you, oh well.”

I started for the door before he called out after me. “Wait, wait, maybe we can work something out.”

I knew he’d come around if I applied just the right pressure. I hated having to do this, but a Zebra like this… well, I didn’t feel too bad about it.

“Memphis, can you come in here please?” The Doctor called into another room.

“Memphis?” I asked curiously.

“My apprentice, I’m afraid that I just remembered that I have a patient that I need to take care of,” the Doctor said with a shake of his head. “So I will be sending her back to Nightingale with you. That is all I can spare at the moment.”

“I see,” I said. I didn’t believe the stallion for one minute of course, but we were going to need help. I made it a point to file this away for later. “Alright, well I’ll take what I can get I guess.”

“You called, Doctor Mernius?” A mare asked as she walked in. She was younger than the Doctor but had the same curled stripes. Her mane was tied back into a ponytail as she looked at me curiously for a moment.

“Yes, this Alicorn here needs help with a mare that is having complications from a pregnancy,” Doctor Menius said as he went back to his desk. “You have enough training to deal with this yourself.”

“Doctor, wouldn’t it be better if you want yourself?” Memphis asked with a slight frown. “I mean you have way more experience than I do.”

“No, I believe you’re going to be fine,” Mernius said as he shot her a look. “Frankly I’m not even sure there’s anything left to teach you. So get going.”

Me and Memphis exchanged a look as we walked out together. Memphis had a slight frown on her face as the door shut behind us. I looked down at the Carnillia mare who shook her head a little.

“Is he always like that?”

“Sometimes,” she said as she shook her head a little. “I came here a while back in hopes of finding someone willing to teach me more. I honestly didn’t think he’d be so…”

“Opinionated?” I asked and she nodded a little. “Are all Carnillia like that?”

“Most of them that I’ve met, I don’t think he believed I was completely in line with the beliefs of the Carnillia really,” Memphis said as she closed her eyes a little. “Which I guess I’m not. But that’s not important right now. What can you tell me about it? Anything might be important.”

I quickly outlined everything I knew. I just had to hope that she was going to be willing to help, unlike the other Doctor. She listened carefully to what I was saying, and while her face changed she looked more worried than angry, I figured that had to be a good sign.

“Alright, I can’t promise I’ll be able to help, but I’ll do what I can,” Memphis said with a slight nod. I let out a sigh of relief at that. “Though I can see why Doctor Mernius would object to this. Unfortunately, change doesn’t come easy in the Carnillia. Still, if there really is a spell that can do that, it may help change their minds.”

“I hope so, and thank you for offering to help,” I said with a smile as I gave her a slight nod. “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Memphis said as she took a deep breath.

I nodded and my horn started glowing orange again. In a flash of light, we were gone and off to Nightingale once more.

00000

“He sent his apprentice?” Neivi asked as she narrowed her eyes a little bit. “Of all the low down rotten…”

“Neivi, calm down, this isn’t what we need right now,” I said gently as I placed my hoof on my marefriend’s withers. “The patient needs you at your very best, and being angry over that stallion isn’t going to help matters.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Neivi said as she looked over at Memphis. “Do you think she’s going to be able to help? I mean if she’s just an Apprentice, she might not be experienced enough to do this.”

“Unless you know any other Carnillia Doctors that I could get to quickly, she’s our only option,” I said with a sigh. “I know it’s not who you asked for, but he was…”

“Yeah, trust me I know, that’s why I didn’t want to ask for his help to begin with,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “The Carnillia youth in the Homeland are slowly coming around thanks to the FRA. Here out on the frontier though, it’s much harder.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“We have to do this now and I can’t think of any other Carnillia Doctors that you can get to quickly,” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “Thank you for trying at least. We just have to hope that this is going to be enough.”

She headed over to Memphis and the two talked for a few minutes before they went back into the operating room. I trotted over to where Moonlight was sitting with Storm who had her wing around the Alicorn comfortingly.

“Hey, how’s she doing?” I asked as Moonlight looked up at me.

“Still out like a light I’m afraid, Don’t think we’ll be getting much from her anyway, given the whole memory not being there thing.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “We managed to get the foal down for some rest, though do be quiet, I would hate to see what she is capable of when she’s cranky.”

“Ah feel like Ah need ta apologize ta mah parents since Ah’m sure Ah was a hooffull when Ah was a foal,” Storm said with an exhausted chuckle.

“Well, hopefully everything will be okay,” I said with a soft sigh as I sat down. “How about you two? Are you doing okay?”

“Ah’ve been better,” Storm said with a shake of her head. “Foals are exhaustin’.”

“Especially alicorn foals that can do things like fly and what not just hours after birth, I’ve read the stories on a prewar foal like her, how she was able to destroy one of the most powerful artifacts with nothing more than the power of a cry.” Moonlight said with a sigh, slumping down a little. “Come to think of it, what happened to Flurry? I don’t recall seeing anything about her rising to power or anything suggesting she died…”

“Ah heard rumors she showed up durin’ King Sombra’s return ta tha Crystal Empire a few years back,” Storm said thoughtfully for a moment. “Yeah, Ah remember hearin’ somethin’ about that once. Ah think she’s still around somewhere up North, but Ah don’t know fer sure.”

“Perhaps we should see if there is a way to get in contact with her if she really is alive and up there still - she might have some insight in how to handle a born alicorn like this.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “The story also told of a powerful sorcerer who helped surpress her magic early on so she wouldn’t reduce her home to rubble, perhaps if we can figure out what he did…”

“Well don’t look at me, I’ve never been that far North,” I said with a shake of my head. “And we don’t exactly have an easy way of getting there. It’s not like there’s some train that goes this far south or something.”

“I guess it may be something to try for at least, else we might have a problem with a alicorn growing up.” Moonlight said with a deep breath and a sigh. “As much as I hate it, we might have to give her to the stable - atleast there she could be handled by skilled ponies.”

“Or at least drive them crazy as revenge fer what they did ta yah,” Storm added jokingly. “But yeah, unfortunately that might be tha only option we have until we figure somethin’ out.”

“What about the other Alicorns?” I suggested. “I mean, she’s not an IMP Alicorn, but they would have the closest frame of reference to it here. Mistle or, well, Sparks may be able to help.”

“It’s a good option, it really is, but are we really equipped to deal with a foal like this?” Moonlight said with another sigh, “If she was a normal foal, this wouldn’t be any big deal, I’ve dealt with them and know what to do, but an Alicorn? How do you even begin - especially one with so much power…”

“I don’t think anypony around here really has much of a frame of reference for that kind of thing except maybe the former Society Alicorns,” I said with a sigh. “There’s just not a lot of options at our disposal right now. And ultimately we’re going to have to make a choice. We can’t just stay here with her either or take her with us. We don’t really have a lot of options right now, do we?”

“Does Nightingale really have any options for nurseries or anything of the like?” Moonlight said, looking towards the door to the back, “Depending on is Mistral survives or not, we should be prepared to hand the foal over to them, it feels like the best thing for her future, to me anyway.”

“We have tha Orphanage, who’s head is under suspicion of conspiracy with tha Mayor…” Storm said thoughtfully for a moment. “There are ponies who take care of foals while their parents are doin’ their work around tha city. Tha real problem is that they don’t exactly know how ta take care of Alicorn foals.”

“Yeah, fosters…” Moonlight said, trailing off in thought for a moment. “And obviously no zebras.”

“Excuse me?” I said as I eyed her after she had said that. “Why would that be obvious?”

“Their spiritual beliefs, their methodology, the fact they simply aren't ponies.” Moonlight said before she looked to me with a little surprise. “Do you really feel like a creature from an entirely different cultural background can raise a child from your own cultural background without any conflicts of interest?”

“You do remember that I’m dating a Zebra, right?” I asked as I narrowed my eyes at the other Alicorn. “And that I wouldn’t mind starting a family with her sometime in the future.”

“There is a big difference between a Mixed culture family and a single culture family. This foal, this alicorn - was born to a pony, by a pony, and should be raised as a pony.” Moonlight said, in a matter of fact tone. “Any other way would simply be wrong and wouldn’t let her grow to be the best she could be.”

I was seething and was about to say something when Storm spoke up. “Firelight, calm down, Moonlight is from a Stable remember? Her beliefs ain’t exactly of this time. Moonlight-”

“I feel the same about interspecies relationships between the pony species. Two pegasi, of which I remind you I used to be one, cannot raise a unicorn foal to be the best unicorn he or she could possibly be. There is a whole lot of things to consider when raising a foal to be the best they can be.”

“Excuse me? Just because ponies are different species doesn’t mean they can’t raise a foal to be the best they can be,” I said. “You can’t honestly believe that…”

“Firelight, calm down,” Storm said as she placed her hoof on my muzzle to quiet me before looking at Moonlight. “Moonlight, Ah don’t know how they did things in Stable 27 but that just ain’t how most ponies do things out here. Heck over tha past 210 years new cultures and civilizations have risen and fallen that would have their own values and beliefs. Tha world ain’t nearly as simple as yah seem ta think it is. Ponies, or Zebras, can be raised ta be tha best they can be regardless of parentage or who raises them. What do yah suggest, that if two ponies who ain’t Pegasi have a Pegasus foal or whatever they should just give them up? Ah’ve met ponies who were raised by other species or even were born into completely different Tribes than they were raised in. And Ah… well, Ah think there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that kind of thing.”

“In the stable, I was raised by the best Pegasus the stable had to offer, I was fed the things that I needed exactly to make sure I grew to be the best pegasus I could be, I was taught the things I’d need to be able to do everything expected of a pegasi with perfection, even my personal time was directed to make sure that I would only keep bettering myself.” Moonlight said with a huff. “I turned out fine - with more flying skills than the best enclave agent, and more knowledge about what it means to be a pegasus then any single one of those pegasi supremacists can begin to know. All because I was raised by pegasi, to do pegasi things, and be the best gosh darn pegasus I could be, is that so wrong that I expect the same for MY offspring?”

Now Storm looked like she was the one who needed to calm down. If she was me she probably would be engulfed in flames by now as she glared at Moonlight. “So yer sayin’ that no Pegasus raised by non-Pegasi could possibly be anythin’ good?”

“They could be something good, but they aren’t going to be the best.” Moonlight said with a huff. “They could never measure up to the great pegasi legends like Flash Magnus or Rainbow Dash.”

“Guess that means Ah ain’t ever gonna be tha best ta yah,” Storm snorted as she got to her hooves and started for the door. “Because Ah was adopted and raised by a Unicorn couple when Ah was a filly.”

“So, you think you’re hot stuff then huh? The next Rainbow Dash? Hmm? Or maybe you aspire to do something like resurrect the Wonderbolts and try and be the next Spitfire too?” Moonlight said, starting to chuckle. “You’re a great flier and a good pegasus, but you’re not the best.”

“Ah need some air,” Storm said softly, though from my angle I could see tears in her eyes as she pushed the door open and stormed out of the clinic.

“Moonlight…” I said, finally finding my voice again. “What in the Goddess’ name was that about?”

“I don’t like being lied to.” Moonlight said with a frown. “She is Enclave, or was, remember? Pegasi Supremacists, do you think they are really going to let a pegasi not raised in their cloud cities or by other pegasus in their ranks?”

“I don’t know, why would they come and offer food, water, and medical supplies to a settlement like Nightingale?” I pointed out. “You’ve seen this town’s population, Pegasi are a minority.”

“And you’ve seen their reactions when the Enclave first appeared.” Moonlight snapped back, “At first I did not understand their apprehension, or why they showed so much fear - but now I do, I have been told a lot, I have heard a lot, and I have seen a lot regarding what this Enclave is and what it does, and now not only do I understand their apprehension and fear regarding them, I share it.”

“I will admit I do not entirely trust the Enclave either, I’ve probably heard every story you have and then some,” I said with a sigh. “But I don’t know. Something about Storm’s reaction feels weird. Is it possible that we’re not getting the whole picture?”

“It’s possible,” Moonlight said, shaking her head and giving a sigh. “Her reaction was extreme and unexpected, and… I am not entirely honestly sure if she is truly upset, or if this is an attempt at manipulation. She used to be Enclave, and they were well known for their manipulation tactics.”

“Moonlight, you know Storm better than I do,” I said as I looked at her. “Heck, you’ve seen parts of her that I can’t even imagine. Do you really think she’s manipulating you?”

“Can you really say she isn’t?” Moonlight said back, “Not too long ago, right now I would be lounging in my pajamas watching the nightly stable cartoons eating ice cream and enjoying myself, in this little time I have almost died, been permanently transformed, and so many things have happened that I can’t even wrap my head around it all - what the heck am I supposed to consider is real or not? How do I know this isn’t all a dream and I’m in a coma in the stable right now or something.”

“I don’t, but I’m pretty sure that everything is real,” I said with a sigh. “Because if nothing is real then everything we’ve done is pointless. I don’t know what the truth is behind Storm, but I do know something. She loves you, I can tell that much. Whether or not she’s lying or omitting parts of her past… she’s our friend.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “This whole situation has me wound tighter than a spring, and you two… what you two did was not exactly helpful...”

“And I’m sorry,” I said as I looked down at my hooves. “And I’m sure if Storm was here she’d say the same. But you’re not the only one wound up. It took every ounce of self-control I had to not punch that Doctor back in Canterbury in the face after what he said, and what I’m sure he was thinking. This whole situation has us all wound up, and I’m sure Storm’s feeling it too… probably even more than me or Lemon.”

“Maybe so, but what does taking it out on one another achieve,” Moonlight said, rubbing at her head a little. “How can we help anypony, if we can’t even help ourselves.”

“I don’t know, but I know one thing,” I said. “And that’s that families don’t always get along. They fight, they yell at each other, they get on each other’s nerves, and sometimes they make mistakes. I don’t remember having a family, but I do know that one thing. You, Storm, Lemon, Neivi, and those three fillies… you’re my family. And I’m going to do everything I can to help you and keep us together. I know it’s silly, and I feel terrible for how I acted earlier, and I’m sorry.”

“Is it a commonplace thing, for ponies in the wasteland to think they’re better than you, or that their opinions are the only ones that matter? If so, Maybe I really should just go back to the stable.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “If I can’t speak my mind, and what I believe to be true, then why say anything?”

“Ponies are bound to argue, especially when it comes to foals if they have had different upbringings… or at least I assume that’s the case,” I said with a sigh. “Maybe I should try to get my memories back. Sometimes I don’t even know if my feelings are my own or if they’re Ember’s seeping through.”

“Sounds complicated.” Moonlight said, smiling a little. “At least I know I’m not the only one having a bad time.”

“Like I said you probably know more about Storm than I do,” I said with a sigh. “But I do know one thing. Earlier today when we were out we talked a lot. She was scared that she’d be asked to help with the foal and mess it up somehow. Then she practically bit my head off because she felt I was putting you and the foal in danger with everything that’s going on and I don’t know what could happen. Storm isn’t a bad pony, Moonlight. She makes mistakes sure, but we all make mistakes. She cares about what happens to you and that little Alicorn. If that’s an act, then she should get… some sort of acting award, they used to have those right?”

“If they did, they never interested me.” Moonlight said, shaking her head with a sigh. “There are things I know, things I’m not allowed to talk about, things that would change the way you view and think about a lot of ponies - and it bothers me that I can’t say anything. Sometimes being in the dreamscape comes with its downsides.”

“Moonlight…” A voice said and we looked up to see Storm holding her had in her hooves as she tried not to make eye contact with us. We had been so distracted we hadn’t even noticed her coming in. “Ah… Ah just wanted ta say Ah’m sorry. Ah was bein’ a terrible marefriend and friend in general. Ah just… what yah said hit kinda close ta home and Ah lost it. Yah came from a different world than me, and Ah should’ve tried ta understand that better.”

Moonlight simply moved over to Storm and took her in an embrace, I could see her whispering something into Storm’s ear before she pulled back and smiled before turning back to me. “Neivi should be out soon, maybe we should just… let this go, for now, okay?”

“Okay,” I said with a soft smile as Storm put her hat back on. “I can certainly get behind letting it go. Come on, let’s just try to relax and wait for word from Neivi, okay?”

We sat and talked for a while. I guess after everything that happened we needed a chance to just sit and chat about anything. With everything that had been going on, I guess it was nice to get a chance like this. Though I still felt worried about everything that was going on, and the argument was still lingering in my mind.

Why had I reacted like that? They had said that Ember would be brought closer to my conscious mind, I felt like she was bleeding into it more. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to think of that. I knew that it was a possibility and I wanted to remember more of who I was, but on my own terms.

My thoughts were interrupted by the door opening and Neivi coming out looking exhausted. She grabbed a glass of water and drank it down before she turned back to the three of us, straightening out her glasses.

“Well, it was a bit touch and go for a bit there, but she’s been stabilized,” she said with a slight not. “I’m going to keep her under sedation a little longer and have Lemon continue the radiation treatments to heal any remaining damage, but she should pull through.”

“Oh thank the Goddess,” I said as I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked over at Storm and Moonlight and gave them a soft smile.

It felt like at least something was going right.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Split Feelings.

Details: Because of the feelings of your past self starting to come to the surface, you’re having a hard time processing your emotions any more. You either gain or lose 10 points in speech depending on your interactions with others during this period.

Chapter 16: The King of Snakes

“The ultimate choice for a man,

Inasmuch he is given to transcend himself,

Is to create or destroy,

To love or to hate.”

-Erich Fromm.

“Well, I have to admit that the surgery was probably one of the most difficult surgeries I’ve had to do,” Neivi explained as she took a seat. “She was suffering a lot of internal bleeding and other complications from the birthing process. The fact that it was followed by turning her into an IMP Alicorn didn’t help matters either. You don’t want to know what kind of things that stuff does to your body during the initial transformation process. While it likely was what saved her life, I don’t think I’d recommend it for a means to save a patient’s life in the future unless you can get them to a Doctor quickly. From here on she’s going to be confined to her bed for a few more days at least, Lemon will be providing a radiation treatment as we did with you Firelight. The more immediate concern is her mental health and memories due to the process. Given her wish is to not have her memory restored, we don’t actually know if she’ll be able to bond with the filly.”

“Take it from somepony who’s had kids before, there’s a connection that transcends memory. She likely knows the foal is hers and still has her motherly instincts, she just doesn’t remember nearly dying.” Moonlight said with a tap to her chin.

“I agree, but I felt it was best to prepare you for the possibility,” Neivi pointed out as she cleaned her glasses before returning them to her muzzle. “But yes it is more than likely that she will still bond with the filly. I hope she does honestly.”

“Is there anything we can do?” I asked.

“At the moment? Not much, unless praying counts,” Neivi sighed. “She should be okay, but I’m still not allowing her to leave for a few days. Ideally, I would keep her longer, but we have business elsewhere and I’m not sure I can leave her with my staff. Its why the radiation treatment schedule will be a bit faster.”

“I’m sure if need be, we can find alternative sources of radiation.” Moonlight said with a shrug. “Frankly, I’m confident she’ll be fine and that there is no reason for us to need to stay here for days while she recovers. She was always a stubborn headstrong mare, good luck keeping her in that bed when she wakes up.”

“Well, I can always bring back the Furry Lizards if I need to,” Neivi said with a light chuckle. “But we’ll see how things go.”

“So, what do we do till Mistral is good?” Moonlight said, looking from Neivi to me. “I mean, I suppose you’re not going to be willing to go anywhere without Neivi.”

“Well as long as she is given the proper treatments and continues to take radiation, I’d say a few days to a week,” Neivi answered. “You Alicorns are a strong bunch. However, her body needs time to both heal and get used to its new form. I also would recommend she holds off on using any particularly strong magic for the time being. The process typically results in a surge of magical ability that she is not used to having and could result in a lot of destruction or worse.”

“And if we’re going back out there, we really need Neivi’s medical expertise,” I pointed out.

“Fun,” Moonlight said with a sigh. “At least she doesn’t have her memory, means she’s less likely to be like she was in the stable. I’m sure you understand, having… I guess you could call an Ex around.”

“Well, at least yah still got me,” Storm said as she nuzzled Moonlight gently before adding jokingly. “Just don’t spend too much time with her, Ah might get jealous.”

“Not going to be a problem,” Moonlight said with a slight grimace. “Nothing like being told ‘meet your new marefriend, oh and she idolizes you’ to get the sparks flying, right?”

“Honestly, given her condition, I recommend doing as little as possible to remind her of her old life,” Neivi said. “So, it may be a good idea for you to not interact with her at all, for the time being, Moonlight. Should only take a couple of days, maybe less.”

“As I said before, not going to be a problem,” Moonlight said with another shrug. “I might think the stable did a lot of things right, but I think they did a lot wrong too, like forcing ponies to be together against their wills, or, at least one of their wills in this case.”

“But yah got somepony who loves yah a lot now,” Storm said as she rested her head on Moonlight’s shoulder and put her wing around her. “Moonlight, what they did ta ya’ll was wrong, but look at it this way. It was eventually what led yah ta come out here and meet us. At least somethin’ good came out of it.”

“I suppose, let’s just say that some memories about that stable are best left forgotten.” Moonlight said, looking back to me. “So, if you don’t mind, I’ll likely be keeping my distance from Mistral and the… child, until Mistral is back up and able to handle things on her own.”

“I don’t blame you,” I replied with a nod. “I think if I was in your position I would probably do the same.”

“Who knows, maybe one day soon, you will be.” Moonlight said with a chuckle before she stood and started for the door, motioning to Storm wanting her to follow.

Storm got up and followed after her. I blinked a little, what exactly did she mean by that? I didn’t have much time to think about that though as Neivi leaned on me and closed her eyes.

“Do you think she’s going to be okay?” I asked softly as the two headed out together.

“I don’t know,” Neivi admitted. “She’s not in a good place right now given everything that’s going on. But at the same time, Moonlight is a strong mare. I think she’ll be okay, especially with Storm there to help her.”

“With all of us there to help her,” I sighed. “Let’s just hope that it’s going to be enough.”

00000

I stretched my wings out a little as I headed into a small cafe on the outskirts of Nightingale. It was a bit out of the way compared to where we usually went to eat, but I had been curious about exploring more of the town and found it.

I got a few looks as I went inside, nothing I wasn’t used to at this point really, and looked around the dining area. It was a few hours after we had finished in the clinic and Neivi had suggested I get some fresh air.

“Hey Firelight, Ah didn’t think we’d see yah here,” Storm said from behind me and I turned to see her and Moonlight walking in.

“Oh hey, yeah, was just looking around and got hungry,” I said with a shrug. “How are you two doing?”

“Been better, to say the least.” Moonlight said with a shrug. “Wondering if I’m being fair, or if I’m justified in being so cold towards her.”

“Given everything she’s going through, Neivi believes its the best option, and I trust her judgment,” I said with a nod. “So, yeah I think you’re justified. At least for right now, maybe you should try and talk to her down the line though.”

“I mean, I don’t like her, I never liked her, I did what I was told and it nearly killed her.” Moonlight said with a sigh. “And now instead of showing sympathy for the fact she nearly died, all I can think about is what happened in the Stable, how I was forced to be with her, to do these things.”

I sighed a little. “Really, it's up to you. I think you should try and talk to talk to her when you’re both ready.”

“And if yah want ta, Ah’ll be with yah tha whole time,” Storm offered.

“It’s not really the talking to her that I am worried about, it’s everything else.” Moonlight said with another sigh. “There are some things, I wish I never had to come face to face with, even if I tried to figure out where the Society was taking them, I only wanted to bring them home, nothing else.”

“And what do you want to do now?” I asked.

“I want to get something to eat, and just, take some time to myself so that I can stop… not being me” Moonlight said with a groan, looking around at the tables. “Any particular spot you’re fond of?”

“Ah like this table over here,” Storm said as she leads her over to a table off to the side. “If that’s okay with yah.”

“No that looks fine, Firelight?” Moonlight said, looking to me for a moment.

“Me? I don’t want to impose on you two if you’d rather spend some time together,” I said quickly.

“Firelight, don’t be silly, it’s not like it was a date or anything.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “If you were imposing we wouldn’t be inviting you.”

“Okay, if you don’t mind,” I said as I headed over to the table with them. “This place is kinda nice. Not sure why you didn’t tell me about it before.”

“Oh, we wanted ta keep it to ourselves so none of our friends would spy on us while we’re datin’,” Storm answered jokingly. “But now yah ruined it so we’ll need ta find somethin’ new.”

“Very funny,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Nah, that’s why we go out of town when we do go on dates,” Moonlight said with a smirk, giving Storm a nudge. “Anyway, no need to be shy, I promise we aren’t going to bite.”

“Sorry, I just didn’t want to impose,” I said as I took a seat and smiled a little. “This place is nice.”

Moonlight levitated a menu over to me, “So Storm, hear anything new? I always love when you share the things you’ve heard from the rumor mill.” she said, looking to Storm.

“A few things,” Storm said as she looked over the menu for a moment. “Ah heard a bit about those stronger ponies. Apparently, they crossed paths with those Sun Worshippers we encountered a while back or somethin’. And then there’s some stuff about tha Basilisk too, though that comes from a guy who Ah’m fairly certain was high off his flank so who knows.”

“The Basilisk again? That’s what, the third time this week?” Moonlight said, tapping her chin. “Maybe worth investigating?”

“Ah dunno, was tha third time today we had ta tell him no such thing exists and he needs ta lay off tha chems,” Storm chuckled.

“What’s a Basilisk?” I asked.

“What, yah never heard of tha king of snakes?” Storm retorted.

“It’s like, a really big snake, like… the side of a small building, and doesn’t it have an ability like a cockatrice?” Moonlight said, looking to Storm. “I mean, not to mention Cockatrice are real, so maybe Basilisks are real too, part of why I wanna check it out.”

“Ah dunno, Ah’ve been around this area of tha Jungle and haven’t seen any evidence of a giant snake makin’ its way around tha jungle,” Storm said with a shrug. “He’s probably just crazy. But if yah want ta follow up on it and waste yer time, it ain’t like we’ve got anywhere ta go.”

“Well, maybe it went through areas that it wouldn’t disturb the forest, a large predator like that wouldn’t want everyone to know it’s here.” Moonlight said, looking to me. “What do you say? Wanna go snake hunting?”

“Yeah, why not, I’ll just need to figure out what to do with the fillies,” I said and thought for a moment. “I’ll talk to Neivi or Sparks. One of them should be willing to watch them.”

“Great parentin’ already, Firelight,” Storm said with a chuckle. “Tryin’ ta pawn off yer foals on some poor pony while yah run off ta chase imaginary giant snakes.”

“Oh they grow up so fast don’t they!’ Moonlight said with a chuckle, giving Storm a nudge.

“Yep,” Storm laughed.

“Definitely talking to Neivi,” I commented with a shake of my head. “The last thing I need is for Sparks or Mistle to tease me about this too. You two are bad enough.”

“Oh we tease you because you’re our friend Firelight,” Moonlight said with a chuckle, leaning back against her seat. “Or because you leave the door wide open way too often, I haven’t decided which yet.”

“Might be both,” Storm said with a grin.

“Look, I like the fillies, but…” I said as I quickly looked back at the menu. “I really don’t think I’m mother material. I’m barely even an adult and I’ve got so much going on in my head right now that I don’t think I’d do a good job with them.”

“They’re not dead yet, and you haven’t done some grievous bodily harm to them, I think you’re doing fine,” Moonlight said with a shrug. “All be told, you’re doing a better job then some of the mothers down in the stable that I’ve seen.”

“Thanks, I think,” I said as I brushed my mane back a little. “Still, it doesn’t even feel like I’m old enough to take care of them.”

“You’re not, but that’s beside the point.” Moonlight said with a shrug. “They’re school aged, you’re what? Barely old enough to be out of school? Really, they’re old enough to be your little sisters, but motherhood doesn’t see age, my mom still babied me when I was having children of my own.”

“And we’ve seen tha way yah interact with them,” Storm added with a soft smile. “Firelight, Ah think yer sellin’ yourself short. They’re already seein’ yah as a mother figure, and Ah think on some subconscious level yah see them as somethin’ similar ta daughters. Right Moonlight?”

“I wouldn’t say that they see her as a mother, but as maybe a trusted guardian, but I could be wrong.” Moonlight said, shrugging and looking down at the menu on the table. “So uh, are we going to eat something, or just evaluate Firelight’s denial that she’s a mom now?”

“About time,” a voice said as we looked over to see a Unicorn mare standing there.

“Uh, how long have you been standing there?” I asked.

“Long enough to realize you have some weird family issues,” the mare said. “So, what can I get you all? We got some more Opal and Pon from trades with the Enclave. Anything catch your eye?”

“Let’s see,” Storm said as she looked at the menu. “Ah’ll take tha Radstag Steak with assorted vegetables and a Sparkle-Cola Harmony. And Moonlight here will take tha Fried Mushrooms and… what would yah like ta drink?”

“I think I’ll have the same,” Moonlight said with a nod and a smile. “Firelight?”

“Uh, let’s see,” I said as I looked it over again. “I guess I’ll take the Fireleaf Soup with a Pon.”

“Alright, thank you, I’ll have it out soon,” the waitress said as she finished writing it down and trotted off.

“Interesting menu they have here,” I said as I looked back at my friends.

“Well, they kinda have ta rewrite it every day dependin’ on what they can get,” Storm chuckled. “Depends on how tha huntin’ is and what’s in season, yah know?”

“Hopefully with the gardens the Enclave is helping set up, we can get a bit more solid a menu. One thing I miss about the stable, never know if I can have something I adore again” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “I still can’t believe ponies up here will eat meat, say that in the stable and they’ll all lose their lunches.”

“Two hundred years of cloud cover will do that ta yah,” Storm sighed. “Really, Ah don’t mind it that much. Ah got used ta it pretty quickly and it ain’t like our systems can’t process it, ponies just used ta not eat meat as much.”

“Don’t look at me, we ate vegetables in the Society,” I shrugged.

“I think there was something about being an enlightened species that made us not willing to kill and consume potentially other sentient creatures.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “And Storm, need I remind you what happened when I tried meat?”

“Good point,” Storm said. “Which is why Ah made sure not ta order meat fer yah.”

“So, back to our latest rumors, this Basilisk thing, you’ve told me about it before, said that ponies have seen a large shadow in the forest, and anypony that goes to investigate doesn’t come back, are you sure this Basilisk isn’t really real?” Moonlight said, looking to Storm. “I mean, I’m sure we can get away if it is real, but it’s like, there’s evidence that suggests its real more than just a chemed up pony’s rambles.”

“Maybe, but this ain’t exactly a safe part of Equestria,” Storm pointed out. “There could be any number of factors ta explain why they vanished. Ah’ll admit it does lead some credence ta tha possibility though.”

“Look, let’s just all go out tonight and find out,” I said. “Though let’s try not to disappear too, okay?”

Moonlight takes a moment to point to the chestplate “I still have this, I think even if it is real, It stands no chance in getting us. I mean, it can’t be more powerful then a bunch of alicorns, right?”

“Yeah, you’ve got a point there,” I replied. “Alright, well that means I’m going to talk to Neivi because I think I’ve had all the teasing about being a mom I can handle.”

I swear I heard Storm whispering to Moonlight about talking to Neivi after that and shot them both a look. “Don’t you dare.”

“Us? Never!” Moonlight said, trying her best to look innocent. “It was Neivi’s idea anyway.”

“Darn it Moonlight, yah weren’t supposed ta tell her that,” Storm said as she facehooved a little.

“Wait, it was? Why?” I asked confused.

“Well, uh… yah wanna take this one, Moonlight?” Storm asked as she looked at her marefriend.

“Neivi likes the foals, and has been honestly thinking about talking to you about adopting them.” Moonlight said with a nervous chuckle. “We, uh… weren’t supposed to tell you that, but I guess the cat is out of the bag, if she asks how you found out, it wasn’t us.”

“I mean… I really like them too, and I love her and…” I said nervously before resting my head on the table. “I’m going to have to think about this. I’m scared honestly. I don’t know anything about raising foals. What if I screw up?”

“I think everyone has that feeling when they realize they’re parents or going to be very soon,” Moonlight said with a shrug. “Trust me on that one, every foal I sired in that darn stable, I had the same feeling over, even though they always got whisked away and I never actually had to do any parenting.”

“Fates know that Ah felt tha same way recently,” Storm added.

“Well, I’ll think about it,” I answered, not moving my head from the table for the moment. “I just hope that I’ll have an answer before Neivi talks to me about it. I don’t know how I’m going to do this.”

“Ah think you’ll do fine,” Storm said with a soft smile as I felt her hoof on my head. “Firelight, Ah ain’t exactly a psychologist or a Heartmender or whatever, but Ah think yah have some subconscious reason behind all this. Yah care about them, right?”

“Right.”

“And yah want what’s best fer them and yah trust Neivi’s judgment, right?”

“Right.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “Something inside me just feels like it's holding me back. Like I’m afraid that I’ll fail them more than anything else… fail them like… like…”

I trailed that thought off for a moment as I felt a tear fall down my muzzle onto the table.

‘I’m going to assume this has something to do with what happened in your old town with your family? Big sister complex, gotta protect the family, especially little siblings, fails and scars them for life.” Moonlight said, placing her hoof on my withers. “Ever think that you didn’t fail her? You saved her, you gave her the most precious gift, her memories, and gave her the strength to be there and help, and when the opportunity came to be a leader she took those who would follow and lead them from their nightmares.”

I sniffed a little at that as I slowly picked my head back up and pushed my mane back out of my eyes. “Yeah… I guess you’re right.”

“And look at it this way,” Storm added. “Yer not gonna be doin’ it alone. We’re all gonna be here with yah, what’s tha old sayin’, it takes a village ta raise a foal? And they’ve got a strong Alicorn as their momma and their auntie Moonlight. Ah think yer gonna do just fine.”

“Not to mention I have some parenting experience from volunteering in the daycare in the stable, though that’s mostly making sure they don’t kill themselves, and changing dirty diapers, but at least I can do that, right?” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “More experience making, less experience raising, why does that make me feel… awkward?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Storm said and leaned in and whispered something in Moonlight’s ear.

“You two aren’t planning on having any foals of your own anytime soon, are you?” I asked with a chuckle.

“That’s for us to know and you to find out” Moonlight said with a smirk. “And even if we were, I don’t know how to do the spell and yeah, it’d be awkward to visit the stable to ask one of them to do it.”

“Hey, look on tha bright side,” Storm added. “Yah don’t have ta worry about goin’ through pregnancy, foalbirth, or changin’ diapers since they’re all pretty grown. Though yah do have ta worry about colts comin’ around in a few years. And not ta mention their teenage years.”

“Are you trying to convince me not to do this now?” I asked with a chuckle.

“I would ask you if you remembered how you were when you were their age, but uh… I feel that might be insensitive of me.” Moonlight said with a chuckle.

“What would they even think about this?” I asked after a moment. “I mean, this changes their lives as much as it changes mine. I don’t even know how I’d feel if I was in their position. I mean, they lost their parents and everything and… I don’t know, it almost feels like we’d just be a substitute for that.”

“Speakin’ as a pony who wasn’t raised by mah biological parents, Ah’ll admit that can’t be easy at times,” Storm said. “But at tha same time family is important. Yah already have a bond with those three fillies and yah said yourself that yah consider them family, remember? Ah think that ya’ll will be just fine. Blood ain’t tha only thing that makes yah family yah know, and Ah think if yah gave it a chance, they’d welcome it.”

“Likewise” Moonlight said with a nod. “I hope we have enough caps to make up for all the time we’ve taken from this waitress, by the way.”

“Oh you’re fine, it’s a slow day anyway,” the waitress said as she levitated our meals in front of us. “Besides, it beats listening to the cook complain about his son’s love life for the hundredth time. Enjoy your meal.”

Moonlight looked at her fried mushrooms and chuckled. “Funny, these look better than the ones in the stable.”

“Yeah, tha cook here is really good,” Storm said as she cut a piece of her steak and took a bite while I started on my soup. “Ah thought yah might like it.”

“So, plans for the night, Firelight pawns her kids off on somepony, and we go looking into what this supposed snake thing is? I mean, if it really is a Basilisk that’s really dangerous to have so close nearby, so it’s a good idea to figure that out yeah?” Moonlight said, munching on a mushroom while looking to both me and Storm

“I’ll talk to Neivi about watching them probably,” I said as I nodded a little. “But yeah, that sounds like a plan. Plus if it tries to eat us I can just teleport us back anyway. I’d rather not be eaten.”

“Yeah, unless its by…” Storm started to say.

“I don’t know what you’re going to say, but something tells me I’m not going to like it so I’m cutting you off right there,” I said as I shot her a look.

“Hah, Storm, you naughty minded mare.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Alright, well let's focus on eating yeah?”

We nodded a little as we went back to eating. I smiled a little as I looked across the table at my friends. Maybe they were right and I really had nothing to worry about. Something told me that Neivi might be wanting to talk to me about this sooner rather than later.

I smiled a little and went back to my soup.

00000

“Hey Neivi,” I said as I opened the door to the clinic. Storm and Moonlight had gone to get our equipment together in order to get ready to go.

“Hey Firelight,” Neivi said as I leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. “How’s the patient doing?”

“Much better,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. “The radiation treatment is doing the trick. If we keep this up she should wake up tomorrow, I hope. So, is there anything else going on?”

“Uh, can we leave Dawn Star and her friends here tonight?” I asked and Neivi looked a bit confused.

“Are you going somewhere?” She asked as she looked at me from behind her glasses incredulously. “You’re not going to run off on some crazy adventure without me, are you?”

“Kinda,” I said as I rubbed the back of my head a little. “Have you heard any rumors about the Basilisk?”

“Ah yes, we call it Rex Serpentium,” Neivi said. “Yes, I’ve treated White Herb a few times from his little chem addiction. Not even sure where he gets the stuff honestly, it's not something you can just buy from your average chem dealer.”

“What is it exactly?” I asked confused.

“It doesn’t really have a name, at least not yet,” Neivi answered. “It’s made from a fungus that grows in some parts of the Jungle and spirits know what else. It messes with your head, creates hallucinations. Supposedly it gives you some sort of insight into the world around you, but I’ve never exactly been willing to try it.”

“So, you don’t believe what he said about the Basilisk either?” I asked curiously.

“Oh no, there’s definitely something out there,” Neivi answered. “Whether it’s a giant snake or something else entirely I don’t know. But there is definitely something out there. So, why do you ask?”

“Storm and Moonlight want to investigate it,” I sighed and Neivi blinked a little. “So we wanted to know if you can take care of the fillies tonight while we’re off hopefully not vanishing like other ponies that went after this thing.”

Neivi paused a moment as she looked at me and sighed a little. “Okay, I’ll take care of them, but I want you to promise you’ll be careful. Like I said, we don’t really know what this thing is but I don’t want to lose you.”

She leaned up and kissed me gently on the lips. I smiled a little and kissed her back as I ran my hoof along her mane for a moment.

“I’ll be careful, as soon as something bad happens I’ll teleport us all back,” I said gently as I stroked her mane. “I wouldn’t leave you like that.”

“Good,” Neivi said as she checked the time for a moment. “Well, I’ve still got a little while before I need to go check on her. And given that the Basilisk or whatever you want to call it is only seen at night I think we have a little bit of time.”

“Yeah,” I said as I looked at her for a moment. After everything we had talked about in the cafe, I had half expected her to have asked me right away. Was it possible she wasn’t sure if she was ready yet either? “Thank you for agreeing to take care of the fillies tonight really. I can’t imagine what I’d have gotten from Sparks or Mistle if I asked them.

“Oh yes, I’m sure I can imagine what they’d say,” Neivi said with a chuckle. “But Firelight, you shouldn’t let their teasing get to you. You know they’re just doing it because they care about you, right?”

“Yeah, I know, they just have a funny way of showing it sometimes,” I sighed. “But they’re also the best friends I’ve ever had. I guess I’m lucky to have them even if they drive me crazy sometimes.”

“Yeah, definitely sounds like Storm,” Neivi said as she placed her head on my shoulder and sighed happily. “She’s something special that’s for sure.”

“I’m not going to have to be jealous of her am I?” I asked with a light chuckle as I wrapped my wings around the smaller Zebra Doctor.

“No, but I might invite them for a foursome,” Neivi giggled and then stopped when she saw the look on my face. “Calm down Firelight, I wouldn’t really ask that of you. I just want you and only when you’re ready.”

“Okay, just cut back on the jokes,” I said with a shake of my head as I chuckled a little. “Though really I have no idea if or when I’ll be ready.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll wait,” Neivi said as she leaned against me and wrapped her forelegs around me gently. I smiled a little as I held her close and kissed her on the lips. We held the kiss for a long moment before we heard the sound of a door opening.

“Hey Neivi? Can you give me some…” Storm started to say as we turned our heads to look at her as she blinked a little. “Uh, Ah can leave ya’ll alone if Ah’m interruptin’ somethin’.”

“No, no, you’re not interrupting anything,” Neivi said quickly as we released each other from the embrace. “What can I help you with?”

“We’ve got a guy in detox down at tha Guard HQ that’s sufferin’ from a nasty Mint-al Addiction and asked fer help,” Storm said. “Tha Commander asked me ta come and get some Mint-als from yer medical stash ta help wean them off it.”

“Oh, yes of course,” Neivi said as she looked surprised for a moment. She headed over to a safe that was against the wall and opened it up and took out a small box before taking it back to Storm. “If you have any left over, please bring them back okay?”

“Okay,” Storm said as she headed back out of the clinic.

“That was weird, does that happen often?” I asked as I looked back at Neivi.

“Sometimes, it’s not really the first time they’ve had to do this,” Neivi said with a shrug as she trotted back over to me. “Don’t worry about it, I trust her.”

“Okay,” I said as she took my hoof and lead me towards one of the beds. “What are you doing?”

“Well, we still have some time, I just wanted to relax and spend some time with my marefriend,” Neivi said as we laid down on the bed together. I smiled softly as I snuggled with her and wrapped my wings around her gently.

“I love you, Neivi,” I said softly as the Zebra mare closed her eyes and snuggled against me.

“I love you too, Firelight,” Neivi said as we just enjoyed the moment for as long as it would last.

00000

“You three be good for Neivi, okay?” I said as I hugged the fillies. “Don’t get into any trouble, got it?”

“Aww, you’re no fun,” Dawn Star said with a pout. “Getting into trouble is fun though!”

“You’ll live,” I said with a chuckle as I ruffled the Unicorn filly’s mane. “It’s late anyway, you need to get to bed soon. I told Neivi to read you a bedtime story tonight. I’ll see you all tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” Blueberry said as she and Dawn headed into the clinic.

I looked down at Wind Chime who looked up at me for a moment before hugging me tightly. I blinked a little and smiled softly as I hugged her back.

“Stay safe…” she said softly as I stroked her mane gently.

“I will,” I nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I promise.”

The small Pegasus nodded before she headed into the clinic after her friends. I smiled a little and headed over to Storm and Moonlight who had been watching.

“I know what you two are going to say, just get it over with,” I said as I levitated my saddle bags onto my back.

“You act like it’s a bad thing,” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pony that seemed ashamed at the idea of being a parent.”

“I’m not against the idea, I’m just not sure I’m ready for it,” I said as I secured my Zebra rifle. “I have been thinking about it though. And I wouldn’t mind it really, I just have to, you know, make sure I’m ready. Make sure we’re ready really, since Neivi still has to talk to me about it.”

“Well, We could have this talk again, but I don’t wanna miss our supposed snake king thing.” Moonlight said with a shrug. “Got everything we’ll be needing?”

“Yeah, Neivi gave us some healing potions to take with us just in case,” I said as I checked the gear. “Extra bullets, provisions in case something happens… did you get everything you were supposed to?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to? I’d die if I forgot literally anything.” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “Not like we’ll need much more then me if things go south, I’m pretty much the toughest thing in this forest.”

“Yes, she remembered ta pack her ego too,” Storm chuckled. “Ah told her ta leave it at home this time, but yah know how she is.”

“Irresistibly sexy beyond all belief? Yes, I know, It’s true” Moonlight said with a smirk, giving a little wiggle at Storm.

“Let’s just go find this giant snake before you two start making out,” I said as I started down the stairs.

“Yah know giant snake could also be used ta…” Storm started to say.

“I’m cutting you off right there, besides we’re all mares who are dating other mares, don’t make this weird,” I said as they followed me down the stairs.

“Definitely the no fun mom.” Moonlight said to Storm, giving her a nudge.

“Ah know right?” Storm laughed.

“Hey, I’m plenty fun!” I protested.

“Yeah yeah, keep telling yourself that if it makes you think it’s true.” Moonlight said, giggling to herself a little.

“In that case, maybe I should just go back and snuggle with Neivi instead of going off on this crazy adventure with you,” I suggested. “I mean, crazy adventures are definitely things no fun moms would not approve of.”

“But you can’t do that,” Moonlight said, looking at me with a chuckle again. “If you did that then who would document our horrible demises.”

“Yes, but if I’m a no fun mom then I certainly can’t approve of this now can I?” I said with a smirk. “But since you two are grown mares… physically at least, I can’t stop you from going. So what’s it going to be?”

“Now that ain’t fair,” Storm huffed. “No fair in turnin’ it back on us.”

“That’s a real no fun mom thing to do,” Moonlight said with a pout, “Turning our harmless teasing back on us like that, like, no bueno.”

“Well, then if I’m a no fun mom I’m off to snuggle with a cute Zebra, have fun potentially dying,” I said as I started to turn around and walked towards them.

“Woah, hold up right there,” Moonlight said, pout turning to a frown. “You seriously aren’t going to ditch us like that, I mean seriously, that’s… just wow.”

“There’s an easy way to get me to come with you,” I said with a grin. “Just admit I’m not the no fun mom.”

“That ain’t fair,” Storm protested.

“Neither is teasing me about anything you can come up with,” I pointed out with a roll of my eyes.

“Thin skinned Soldier, huh, who would have thought.” Moonlight said with a shrug. “Guess I can say I’ve seen it all now.”

“Okay, okay I’ve had my fun,” I said as I turned back around. “But seriously, I just want what’s best for those three. And, well, I’m still not comfortable with talking about sex yet, okay? Can we just move on? We’ve got a giant snake to find.”

We headed down the stairs and towards the gate to the town together.

00000

“So, other then giant snakes and evil birds, what else lives in this forest anyway?” Moonlight said as we made our way down the path towards where the sightings had been.

“A lot of things, some benign, some not so much,” Storm said before lowering her voice. “Yah didn’t hear this from me, and if yah say this ta Neivi she’ll freak out, but there’s a rumor goin’ around about a Voicestealer livin’ somewhere in tha Jungle. Ah’d rather not think about that personally, Ah’ve heard tha stories about those things.”

“Voicestealer? Lemme guess, it steals voices?” Moonlight said with a chuckle. “I’ve never heard of something so crazy.”

“Look, Ah’ve been in this Jungle fer longer than either of yah,” Storm said as she eyed the two of us. The Pegasus actually looked like she was being serious in the dim light. “Tha Zebras have been tellin’ stories of these things fer generations, goin’ back ta tha early days of their civilization. Ah’m not sayin’ Ah completely believe it, but it scares them ta talk about it. And in mah experience, stories gotta come from somewhere.”

“I feel like it's more a society trick then a creature that steals voices, making you hallucinate so they can snatch you up without you screaming.” Moonlight said with a shrug. “Anyway, we’re near where the sightings have happened - we should stick together, and look for any examples or evidence for what this thing is or isn’t”

“So, uh, how about a large clearing of trees?” I asked as I looked up ahead. “Would that count as examples or evidence?”

“Definitely sounds like a place to start.” Moonlight said, turning around and heading towards the clearing. “So far, nothing to suggest a large snake, no scales or anything.”

“Yeah, that’s weird,” I said as I examined the ground for a moment. “I feel like we’re missing something.”

Moonlight kept heading for the clearing while I and Storm kept looking around for anything else, a few moments later from the clearing I can hear Moonlight calling, turning I can see her standing in the middle of the clearing waving a hoof for us to come over excitedly.

“Guys, Look at this.” Moonlight said, pointing at two parallel lines of steel running through the clearing, the tops had been polished and are shining in the dim light, while the rest are very heavily rusted. “I think I know what these are, but they shouldn’t be shiny like that on the top”

“Not in this place,” Storm said as she examined them carefully. “That’s weird. Why are there shiny train tracks here.”

“Well, they get shiny when a train runs on them, but I guess the belly scales of a basilisk could do it too.” Moonlight said, looking around for a moment. “And look, there’s banks to either side, these used to be buried under ground clutter, somepony dug them up.”

“That is definitely weird,” I said as I looked down the tracks for a moment. “Where do you think they go?”

“Population centers, industrial sectors, anything important enough to need mass transit.” Moonlight said, looking at the rails for a moment more before a distant sound echoed through the forest, it sounded like a scream, or maybe a wail.

“What in the name of the Goddess...” I said as me and Storm took a step back.

“What is that thing? Did they let somethin’ out of Tartarus?” Storm asked.

“If I am right, that’s impossible, but…” Moonlight said, staring in the direction the sound came from.We both looked and we could see a light starting to light up the trees down the track, another wail and a few figures started to come out of the forest carrying crates and bags. “No way! It really is!”

“What is it?” I asked, I gripped my rifle with my telekinesis on instinct more than anything else.

“It’s a train Firelight, an actual train!” Moonlight said, getting increasingly excited the closer the light came. “We were told that Equestria didn’t have any more of them, that when the coal ran out a lot of them were scrapped and that trains were never used in Equestria again.”

“Actually New Appleloosa and tha NCR have been usin’ them fer years,” Storm said, but she was as in awe of it as the rest of us. “So, what are we supposed ta do?”

“Just, wait I guess.” Moonlight said with a shrug, her eyes never leaving that growing source of light, as it neared the light was switched off, and instead of whistles and wails the sounds of steady chuffing was heard the closer it drew, and before long it’s shadowy figure could be seen cresting a ridge and stopping long enough for those figures to board before it started to creep forward towards us.

The engine stopped maybe a hundred feet from us, and three figures jumped off, two were very bulky and were carrying what looked to be rifles of sorts, the third cloaked entirely.

“You. Pony. Come with us. We’ll save you from those monsters.” The cloaked figure said, pointing at Storm.

“Uh, what monsters?” Storm asked as she looked around. “All Ah see are mah friends here.”

“Nonsense, those creatures are nopony’s friend,” The cloak figure said, stepping closer to us. “They likely have you under their mind control pony, please, trust me when I say you’ll be safe with us”

“But Ah ain’t under mind control, why would they even…” Storm said as she narrowed her eyes a little at the cloaked figure. “Mind tellin’ me why yer wearin’ a Zebra cloak?”

“The society has very powerful mind control, and are the only known Alicorns of this area, and what is it to you if I wear this cloak or not?” The cloaked figure said, before she turned to one of the other figures and whispered something, a couple moments later the entire train lit up with lights along its full length, revealing the two heavily armored and armed ponies that she was standing with. “Now I suggest you stop playing games and come with me before it is too late to save you.”

“I think she thinks we’re the society trying to take Storm,” Moonlight whispered to the both of us.

“Yah think?” Storm retorted.

“So how do we prove that we’re not?” I asked. “I mean I doubt they’ll listen to us just saying we’re not with the Society.”

“Maybe yah should start by loosenin’ yer grip on that rifle of yours,” Storm suggested. “Yah ain’t exactly lookin’ good like that.”

“Sorry, sorry,” I said as I released the telekinetic grip on the Zebra Rifle at my side before calling up to them. “Listen, we’re not with the Society. We’re from the settlement of Nightingale, Storm is our friend. We’ve been fighting the Society.”

“As I would expect any member of the Society caught with their pants down to say.” The cloaked figure said as she stepped forward once more, this time her attention snapped to my rifle. “That rifle, let me see it.”

“Okay,” I said as I checked to make sure the safety was on and removed the magazine all in view of the strange mare before levitating it over to her.

“Zebra craftsmanship, where did you get this rifle Alicorn.” She said, her attention snapping back to me, before she reached for a magazine from one of the armored ponies and put it in the rifle. “It may be just a crude knock off, one way to tell.”

“It was given to me by a Zebra Doctor from the Mendi Tribe so I could protect myself,” I said simply. “If you need proof, then use it. We’ve got nothing to hide.”

“I intended to.” The cloaked figure said, turning to the rail and firing the rifle at it long enough to see the spark and fire effect. “Hm. Genuine. Interesting. Why would a Alicorn want anything to do with a Zebra, you can’t change us from what I’ve heard.”

“She… wait, are you a Zebra too?” I asked as I looked at her surprised.

“As if my cloak didn’t give it away.” She said, dropping the hood and removing the veil she had been wearing. “There isn’t any Zebra in this area from the reports I’ve been given, so either you’re not from around here, or you’re lying.”

“Yah might want ta correct yer reports then,” Storm huffed. “There’s been Zebras livin’ in tha Jungle since before tha bombs fell. There’s a town mostly filled with them a ways away, but we’ve got a few livin’ in Nightingale includin’ tha town Doc. Firelight here should know, right Firelight? Or did her stripes rub off?”

“Nope, Neivi’s definitely a Zebra,” I said with a chuckle.

“I am disturbed by the idea that you think now is an appropriate time to joke.” The Zebra said, staring at the three of us. “Show me. I must see this village myself.” She turned to the two escorting her, she seemed to be giving them orders, and a few moments later the trains lights turned off and it started to continue down the line. “My escorts will be staying with me, I will need to be returned to this location two days from now, or my disappearance will be considered an act of war.”

I gulped a little at that before I nodded. “I can teleport us to Nightingale, that would be the fastest and safest way there,” I offered. “Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, but you have my gun and like you said, if I did work for the Society we can’t turn you. I’ve got no reason to betray you at this point, and the jungle is a dangerous place.”

“We’ll walk.” She said, eyeing me from a frown. “Lead the way, Alicorn.”

“Was worth a try,” I said with a sigh as we started back towards Nightingale.

“The name’s Aria, by the way.” She said as we walked. “I figured you would like to be able to introduce me, and yourselves a little more properly.”

“Like Storm said my name is Firelight,” I said as I gave Aria a slight nod.

“Storm Wrangler,” Storm said with a wave.

“Moonlight.” Moonlight said with a nervous chuckle.

“So, Moonlight and Firelight huh, that’s totally not going to get confusing.” Aria said with a chuckle.

“I know right? I said we should change her name but nooooo,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “But it shouldn’t take long to get to Nightingale. Assuming we don’t run into any problems at least.”

“Hey, I was born Moonlight, you were born Ember, You should change your name.” Moonlight said with a chuckle.

Aria however did not seem to find this funny. “You want me to believe you’re not with the society, when you still use the name they gave you then?”

“Okay, I admit that sounds bad,” I said. “But I still use it because it’s the only name I remember having. I don’t know how much you know about it, but it erased my memories from before being changed. It’s not as easy as just going by my old name if I have a hard time recognizing it as my own.”

“It’s complicated,” Storm added. “Neivi said it’s some sort of split personality thing. She ain’t Ember, but she kinda is Ember and after that Ah kinda lost track of tha conversation and it all went fuzzy.”

“I have heard of that, but if that one knows your name, then why do you not?” Aria added, giving an annoyed huff. “This is all very suspicious, you know that right?”

“It’s because…” I started to say before realizing there was no way to say this without either making her more suspicious or sounding crazy. “Moonlight, do you want to take this one?”

“Do you remember prewar stories? About how one of the Princesses could walk in the dream realm and do things like fight nightmares and stuff?” Moonlight said with a nervous chuckle. “Well, I have a part of her power, and I uh… I can do that.”

“Interesting. Not unbelievable, but I must say I feel like that is very unlikely.” Aria said with a chuckle.

“Well it’s true,” Storm said. “But Ah guess it’s kinda hard ta prove right now since yah ain’t asleep. But trust me, tha things this mare can do, she’s amazin’.”

Storm nuzzled Moonlight a little at that and I smiled a little at that. They really did make a cute couple.

“Where I am from, you have to expect the unexpected.” Aria said with a bit of a sigh. “Well, until the Enclave finally got what they wanted and chased us out.”

“Uh-oh,” I muttered as I glanced back at my friends for a moment. Even when we got past the Society thing, the presence of the Enclave was going to be very hard to explain. “That sounds terrible, I’m sorry about what happened.”

“Yeah, unfortunately the shipyards in Whinnyapolis were just too good a target for the Enclave to pass up.” Aria said with a sigh. “I can only hope that more than those who got on the train got out.”

“Ah’ve heard that some ponies got out either on hoof or aboard Nomad City,” Storm offered. “At least that’s tha rumor from tha caravans that go this far south.”

“For what it’s worth, I really am sorry,” I said softly. “My memory is fuzzy but I do know one thing. I lost my family and settlement to the Society. I’m helping take care of three fillies that survived it too. I wouldn’t wish that kind of thing on anypony, or any being sorry.”

“For what it is worth, the Enclave really didn’t chase us out, just say that we can’t live in the skyport anymore, and well, that’s a lot of ponies not allowed to live in their homes anymore.” Aria said with a sigh. “At least the storms stopped.”

Storm walked in silence for a long moment as if she was processing what was going on. I gave her a slight nod and looked back at Aria. “So, where’d the train come from anyway? Was it pre-war or something?”

“Whinnyapolis was home to a Ministry complex, they were attempting to adapt megaspell technology into a means to produce steam to power their trains. That particular train is one of a kind, the only prototype they made before the project was either abandoned or the war ended, no clue which.” Aria said with a sigh. “The Nocturne is a beautiful piece of machinery but there are so many that want to get a hold of it and use it for their own purposes. We’ve had to run from the NCR, the Enclave, the Society, pretty much every major faction wants to take it from us.”

“So, why come down here?” Storm asked. “Ah mean, yer puttin’ yourselves at risk because of tha Society bein’ around here. Sounds ta me like yah could do a lot of good with tha Nocturne elsewhere.”

“Unfortunately, we have not mastered the art of growing plants on a moving locomotive.” Aria said, shaking her head and giving a sigh. “We need food, we can get most of it from peaceful caravans willing to trade passage for a few goods, but when we can’t get everything we need we need to stop and scavenge, it’s why we headed this way to begin with, followed the tracks and found this Jungle, there is a lot of edible plants here and the teams never needed to venture far from the rails to find it, but then the society found us and took interest in the train, they tried to seize it, told us if we all got off it and let them take it we’d all live.”

“I’m sorry,” I said as I lowered my head a little. “I wasn’t part of any team that did that, but I’m sorry. The Society has hurt so many and it took me so long to realize they were like that. I just wish I could’ve done something to stop them.”

“Well, the team that was on the train found out the hard way not to mess with Zebra weapons.” Aria said with a chuckle. “They might be big and tough and powerful, but being set on fire doesn’t seem to be their forte.”

I flinched a little at that as I remembered the Alicorn I had set on fire… how long ago had that been? It felt like a lifetime ago. I felt a hoof on my shoulder and smiled when I saw Storm standing there and she returned the smile.

“It’s okay Firelight, it ain’t yer fault,” Storm said quietly to me. “Yah can’t be blamed fer what others in tha Society did. It was out of yer control. And as fer what happened before, Ah know that ain’t easy on yah, but sometimes yah gotta do what yah gotta do ta help ponies. Ah know Moonlight would’ve rather yah do that.”

“Thanks Storm,” I replied.

“I’m surprised we’ve lasted this long.” Aria said, followed by a sigh. “With factions breathing down our necks, and a limited amount of rail we can travel on, it’s only a matter of time before they figure out ripping up chunks of rail and putting out derailers will stop us and they get what they want.”

I thought about that for a long moment. An idea flashed in my mind, but right now they didn’t know if they could trust me, let alone the others. I filed it away in my mind for later, maybe it would be something worth exploring.

“Hey, looks like we’re almost there,” I said as we walked down the path as it opened up, signifying we were close to Nightingale. “Come on, it’s just up here.”

We headed out of the path and to the closed gates of Nightingale and the tree city beyond.

00000

“I’m going to go in and get her,” I said as we made our way up the stairs towards the clinic. “The fillies I mentioned are probably asleep by now and I’d rather you not accidentally wake them up.”

“Fine.” Aria said, having looked around at the structures. “Most of these are Zebra in design, your credibility is already looking up.”

“This town was built based on Zebra architecture from similar settlements,” Storm pointed out. “It’s been here since long before tha Society showed up in tha Jungle.”

“I can tell.” Aria said with a chuckle. “Despite never being to the Zebra lands, I’ve seen plenty of their stuff growing up. I had a rather... unique upbringing.”

“I see, I’ll have to ask about that sometime,” I said as we stopped in front of the clinic. I gave them a nod as I quietly opened the door.

“Hey, you’re back,” Neivi said as she looked up to see me walking in. “Is everything okay? What happened?”

“Turns out the Basilisk is a dark train from Whinnyapolis,” I said quietly as I looked towards the sleeping fillies. “Short version, they don’t really trust me and Moonlight because they’ve crossed paths with the Society before. We brought a Zebra back from the train in hopes that you can convince her that we’re not working for the Society.”

“Okay, do you just attract weirdness or something?” Neivi asked as she blinked a little in surprise.

“Apparently,” I chuckled. “But yeah, that’s what’s going on. How’s everything going on here?”

“Well the fillies went to bed after a little bit of an argument,” Neivi said. “And everything seems to be going okay with the patient at least. So, let’s go talk to this Zebra.”

I nodded as Neivi slipped on her lab coat again and adjusted her glasses. Her mane was a little more wild than in its normal ponytail. She gave me a nod as we headed outside again where the others were waiting.

“Look, I know you’ve had problems with the Society in the past, but I would trust Firelight and Moonlight with my life,” Neivi said. “They’re not with the Society.”

“No offense, but trusting somepony with your life is not really a proof of trustworthiness, especially considering the fact that they undoubtedly know some form of mind control even if they are no longer with the Society.” Aria said with a scowl. “I had already put a fair bit of trust with them when I choose to disembark my train to come and see this settlement, without my guidance that train is most definitely at increased risk of attack, but I had a feeling that if anything they said was true, I needed to see it.”

“So, what would convince you?” I asked as I stood next to Neivi.

“You haven’t lied yet, unless this is all some elaborate ruse, which I highly doubt.” Aria said before she turned to Neivi. “If you really are Zebra, you will know what I am about to say.”

“Roama gloria et ad imperium illius,” Neivi said simply.

Aria simply smiled and nodded her head. “Okay, you’re definitely real.” She said, before she handed my rifle over to Neivi. “I believe this belongs to you, by the way, Aria Rich.”

“Thank you, but this is my marefriend’s now,” Neivi said as she bowed her head slightly. “Doctor Neivi of the Mendi. Welcome to Nightingale, Aria.”

“Well, that explains a few things.” Aria said, finally unclasping the buckle that held her cloak on. “I hate that thing, weighs so much but they always say that I need to wear it when confronting unknowns. I’d much rather wear my suit.”

Neivi gave the rifle to me and I secured it in my holster again. After a moment something occurred to me. “Wait, you said your name was Aria Rich? That doesn’t sound like a Zebra name to me.”

“It’s not.” Aria said looking to me. “I am the last in the Rich family line, and I’ve rebelled against what my ancient ancestors had prescribed for me because unlike them, I am not a zebra sympathizer, and I am not going to be a pawn in their game.”

“Wait… the Rich family was sympathizers?” Neivi asked as she blinked a little. “I did not know that.”

“So, hiring an exclusively Zebra staff, pushing their second no-name of a daughter to marry a Zebra if she wanted to inherit the family business didn’t ring any alarm bells that they were trying to give the Zebra a foothold in Equestria, hell I found out later on they were responsible for a majority of smuggling the zebra were doing.” Aria said with a chuckle. “They alone are responsible for some of the balefire bombs detonated in Equestria.”

“No, I guess I didn’t know that…” Neivi said with a shake of her head. “Not a lot of the records of Zebra activities during the war survived this far south. I know about the Rich family from my ancestor’s journals, but that’s about it.”

“Though that does explain a lot now that Ah think about it,” Storm commented. “Tha Rich family was pretty much cut out of a lot of history books despite their visible contributions ta tha war effort. Always sounded like some weird conspiracy theory ta me.”

“After the bombs fell, what remained of the Equestrian government found out about their efforts to empower the Zebra, Filthy and Spoiled both took their own lives rather than facing the music, their daughter locked away in a self-funded vault, where I was born.” Aria said with a groan. “They taught me everything, literally everything, to be the next great CEO of their business, and they wanted me to still do everything I could to empower Zebra, I told them to shove off and got out of their bunker to make a name for myself rather then follow in their corrupt hoofprints.”

“I see,” Neivi said as she played with her mane for a moment. “I’m sorry, I don’t agree with a lot that happened during the war. Not a lot of us here or in the Zebra Lands do, well except the Legion but that’s another story entirely. My ancestor certainly didn’t, not that it did her any good.”

“Zecora huh? The Rich’s were following her.” Aria said with a chuckle. “Named her enemy number one, hired assassins to try and kill her when they found that she was against the Zebra.”

“Yeah, well, Applejack’s boyfriend beat them to it,” Neivi grumbled.

“Yeah, despite their power and influence, they only got ahold of that information shortly before she died, and yeah, they tried to claim that they made him do it, gave him false intel, but that didn’t stick.” Aria said with a shrug. “Sorry bout that, but y’know, war is crazy.”

“Well, no point in visiting the sins of the father upon the child,” Neivi said. “And yeah, war is crazy. Sometimes I look around and wonder what the world would be like if the war ended peacefully.”

“A lot less burned.” Aria said with a chuckle. “You probably haven’t seen nearly as much as I have, and trust you me, it gets worse then your little corner of hell.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen a few things,” Neivi said as she looked up at the sky. “I need to get inside to check on a patient and it’s getting late. But I would like to talk to you more tomorrow if possible. Just need to figure out where you’ll be staying tonight.”

“I’d like that” Aria said, before she looked between myself and Moonlight. “And, I might not trust you, but it seems some of that distrust was misplaced, and I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” I said as I gave her a nod. “I understand really, if I was in your position I may have thought the same thing. But, I’m lucky, I’ve got some good friends and a beautiful mare by my side. I’m not asking you to completely trust me yet, but just think on it a bit.”

I wrapped my wing around Neivi gently and nuzzled the Zebra Doctor a little before yawning.

“If you want a place to stay tonight, you can stay in me and Moonlight’s house,” I offered. “I think I’d rather spend the night with Neivi anyway.”

“I get the feeling that not a lot of sleep is about to happen.” Aria said with a smirk.

“Oh come on, you just met me, don’t you start teasing me too,” I said with a groan.

“Try not being overt about your intentions.” Aria said, chuckling before turning to Moonlight “Lead the way I suppose.”

I smiled a little as I headed back into the clinic with Neivi and walked over to one of the beds while Neivi went to wake up Lemon and go into the other room. I smiled a little as I saw the fillies fast asleep in a nearby bed. I gently went over to them and straightened their covers a little before giving them each a kiss on the head.

“Good night little ones,” I said softly before returning to my bed and waiting for Neivi to join me.

Maybe they were right and I really could be a mom to those three. I smiled a little as I thought about it, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

After a little while Neivi returned to the room and yawned a little as she laid down next to me. I gently pulled her in close as I wrapped my wings around the Zebra mare. Tomorrow we’d have things to worry about, but for tonight I just wanted to enjoy the moment.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: The Future’s a Railroad.

Details: You’ve crossed paths with the mysterious Basilisk and uncovered the truth that it is a train that carries hope with it. You get a special speech option when speaking to certain ponies and a +10 to repair.

Prologue: Alicorn Attack

War, War never changes...

As the cold war with the Zebras began, it was over something as simple as coal, a natural resource that Equestria lacked but Zebrica had in abundance. But as things progressed, and the war began to heat up, the war became over the Zebra belief that Nightmare Moon was in charge of Equestria now. A war over resources transformed into a war for religious reasons, and it only got worse from there.

We all know how this ended for both sides, as fire rained down from the sky and the land itself was burned. But, this wasn't the end of the war for Equestria. Ponies and others found whole new reasons to kill each other in the Wasteland, and a new war began, the war for survival.

Even after the day of Sunshine and Rainbows, wars began to pop up. The Great Schism between Steel Rangers and Applejack's Rangers was one of ideology, split between the ideals of the old guard and the outcasts. The NCR-Imperial War was over resources, territory, and ultimately ideology.The Enclave invasions and the war for New Pegasus were also tied into these things, ideology and resources are some of the biggest driving forces of war in the Wasteland.

Ultimately, no matter who is fighting a war, it always comes down to its most basic reasons for fighting. That is something that will never change, no matter how much some think it does.

And there is still one story left to tell, one of a war for religion, and ideology. The future of Equestria may yet lay in the hooves of one mare, and she will serve as a firebrand set alight against the forces of darkness and twisted light. The future she builds may yet shape all of Equestria.

But will that fire continue to burn or will it be quenched in the greater flames of war?

Because while war may never change, it will change those who fight in it.

00000

Burning, everything was burning.

The settlement of Pearl was a small settlement on the far edge of Equestria just short of the wild jungles that made up the southernmost part of the country. The inhabitants had fought off many threats like Raiders and the monstrous creatures that called the Wasteland and the Equestrian Jungle home.

But today, that had all changed, as the settlement came under attack by an enemy that they hadn't ever expected to meet. A group of Alicorns dressed in armored robes had attacked the settlement, and the ponies were either trying to fight back or escape, and it wasn't going well.

"Ember, get your sister to safety," a Unicorn mare said as she placed her hoof on a young filly's shoulder. The filly was shivering and holding her sister close to her with her magic.

"But what about you momma?" Ember said as she looked up at her mom with her big yellow eyes. "You're going to be okay, right?"

"I'll be fine, you need to get to safety," her mom said with a soft smile as she hugged her daughters tight. "It'll be okay, I'll find you, I promise."

Ember nodded a little as she looked back at her younger sister who was trembling in fear even worse than she was. "Come on Sparks," she said as her mom levitated a pistol over to her and the two young Unicorns ran off with Ember holding the pistol tightly in her magical aura.

They ran past their home which was set ablaze already. Ember looked back at it for a moment and tried not to cry, her whole life had been in that small hut. Her memories of her father, the good times with her little sister and mom, everything was going to be gone.

But right now she only had one job, and she was going to make sure she did it well. She just had to get her sister to the safety of the back gate and hopefully that would be enough to get out of Pearl and out into the Jungle, it couldn't be any worse in there than it was in the settlement.

"Ember..." Spark said as she tugged at her big sister's tail a little. "Is mommy going to be okay?"

Ember looked back at her sister and paused a moment as she tried to figure out exactly what to tell her. "She's... going to be okay Sparks," she said with a smile as she levitated the filly up onto her back. "Hang on tight, think of it like a pony back ride, you're going to be just fine..."

Spark nodded and held onto her older sister's neck as tight as she could as they ran towards the gate that would bring them close to the jungle. Ember hated lying to her sister, she honestly had no idea what was going to happen or even if their mom was going to be okay, but she knew deep down that she was going to do everything she could to survive and make it to where they were going to meet up.

Just as they made it to the gate and pushed it open a loud scream came from back in the burning village. Ember cringed, she had heard that scream before, it belonged to her mother, but she couldn't stop there, she had to get out of the settlement so she got the lock open and pushed the gate open so they could get through.

"What if the Alicorns are here too?" Spark whispered into her sister's ear. "They could be anywhere..."

"Its okay Sparks," Ember said in a soft reassuring tone. "They'd have to fight their way through the monsters of the jungle to get to it and even Alicorns aren't that good."

"Yeah, but..." Spark said as she let that trail off for a moment. "What about us? We can't fight either."

Ember didn't want to admit it but she was right, this was a big risk they were taking and they didn't have the best chance of surviving in the jungle either. But she knew that it was the best way to go, they just had to get to the hunting blind up in a clearing near where...

As they pushed out into the clearing Ember stopped in mid-step as she heard guns cocking around her and her eyes went wide. They were completely surrounded by Alicorns that were dressed in the same strange robes that they had seen in the settlement and they had their weapons aimed right at Ember.

"So, you thought you could escape from us," a mare's voice said as one Alicorn stepped forward. She was dressed different from the others, her robes were ornate and she towered over the others with dark blue fur and a long flowing mane that was the color of the night with sparkles that to Ember looked like stars in it.

She had a sinister smile as she looked down at the two sisters who tried not to cry as the terrifying Alicorn stared them down. Ember raised her pistol and fired a shot right at the tall Alicorn but the bullet hit a shield and fell to the ground harmlessly.

"High Priestess, what are we going to do with them?" One of the other Alicorns asked as she looked at the high Priestess who seemed more amused by the attempted resistance than anything else.

"Take them to the temple with the others we've captured," the High Priestess said with a wicked smirk. "They're going to make fine new additions to our group. Especially the little one, I sense much potential in her..."

"No!" Ember shouted as she felt Spark being taken off her back, she tried to fire at the Alicorns again but they just laughed as their shields blocked her bullets. "You can't take my little sister!"

"Why child, we're taking both of you," the High Priestess said as she looked at Spark and examined the trembling filly curiously for a moment. "She will make a fine new Alicorn, lets see if you will do the same."

Ember cried as she felt something covering her eyes, and then a spell hit her and the whole world went dark around her.

00000

When Ember's eyes opened again she found herself in a large room with several massive vats of some liquid she didn't recognize. She struggled against her bindings as she saw the same Alicorn from before, the High Priestess she had been called.

"Well, our little firebrand is finally awake," the High Priestess said with a smirk. "You put up a valiant struggle, just like the rest of your settlement, but I'm afraid it was for nothing."

"Why did you attack us? We never did anything to you!" Ember said as she tried to struggle against her bindings more. "We never even knew you existed..."

The High Priestess laughed as she placed her hoof under the teenage filly's chin and looked at her in the eye. Firebrand shivered as she saw the mare's cold blue eyes piercing into her as if she was able to see into her very soul. Her laugh was haunting, and it terrified Ember to no end.

"You don't get it do you?" The High Priestess said, she hadn't lost that wicked smile of her's yet as she continued to stare her down. "Its not personal, we're not here to raid or enslave you, we're here to liberate you. To bring you into the glory that is the Society."

"But we don't want to be in your Society, we just wanted to live our lives," Ember said as tears started to stream down her face. "What did you do with my sister you monster? Where is she? Where's Spark?"

"You won't like what you learn, but you won't remember it either," the High Priestess said as she turned her head and raised her voice. "Daughter, come here."

"Daughter?" Ember asked confused as the door to the chamber opened up and a filly walked in and Ember's heart fell.

The filly had the same red coat and orange and yellow mane as her little sister, for all intents and purposes she was her little sister. But now she had a pair of wings and looked at Ember as if she didn't even recognize her.

"Yes mother?" Spark asked as she looked up at the High Priestess who gave Ember a smile.

"Tell me Starshine, do you recognize this pony?" The High Priestess asked as she nodded to Ember as Spark looked at her curiously for a moment.

"Sparks, its me Ember, I'm your sister!" Ember said as she just cried harder as the small Alicorn just looked at her confused for a moment. "Please, you have to remember me..."

"We're all sisters but you Unicorn," Spark said as she nodded up at her "mother". "Mother, is she going to become a sister?"

"Indeed, I have a special purpose for her, just like I do for you my daughter," the High Priestess said as she ruffled the filly's mane gently. "

"Of course she will Starshine," the High Priestess said as her horn glowed bright blue and enveloped Ember. "Your suffering is at its end now child, and soon you will be part of the glory that is the Society. You will feel pain, but it will be brief as you are reborn."

Ember squirmed and felt the bonds loosen but she couldn't move as she was held by the telekinetic grip of the powerful Alicorn. She took one last look at the creature that had replaced her sister and closed her eyes, if something horrible was about to happen to her she wanted her last sight to be of her sister, even if she didn't remember her.

She felt the strange unnatural liquid surround her entering every part of her body it could. She tried to keep her mouth closed but her lungs screamed for oxygen and she opened it only to feel the horrible liquid entering her. Her body felt as if it was on fire as the potion worked its way through her system. She screamed as wings burst from her back painfully and her leg muscles felt like they were growing stronger.

"Spark..." She managed to gurgle out as it reached her brain and her thoughts and memories were no more.

The High Priestess smiled as she levitated the newly formed Alicorn out of the IMP. She grinned, showing her sharpened teeth as she saw the orange-gold teenaged Alicorn with a red mane as the potion dripped off her body, leaving her dazed and confused as her eyes snapped open.

"Who, who am I?" The newborn Alicorn asked. "Who are you?"

"I am Dark Midnight, High Priestess of our Goddess Nightmare Moon, and leader of the Nightmare Society," Dark Midnight said with a smile, this one was almost maternal looking as she set the Alicorn down and let her get to her hooves. "And you my child, are among your sisters now. You will be my firebrand, standing at the front of my army as we prepare to bring all of Equestria into the fold."

"Yes, my Priestess," she said and bowed her head gently.

"Welcome to the family, Firelight," Dark Midnight said as she smiled wickedly.

Chapter 13: True Colors

"Men are not prisoners of fate,

but only prisoners of their own minds."

-Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“Do you think Moonlight’s going to be okay?” I asked as I gently stroked Neivi’s mane that night. Given Moonlight’s condition and on request from Citrus, Blossom had convinced the Overmare to let us stay for a little while longer so it was that evening and we were resting in some spare quarters together. “I mean, with everything that’s going on I can’t help but be worried about her.”

“Physically she’s fine, though I’m worried about what kind of effects the long-term use of that breastplate,” Neivi said as she snuggled up against me. “It seems to have similar properties to the same metal that Blossom exposed you too, if not made of the same material. I’m afraid that it might be too much for her to take.”

“Then why let her keep it on?” I asked.

“Because she needs to take it off herself,” Neivi said with a sigh. “If we scare her off she’s more likely to get herself hurt or worse. If we convince her she’s safe and that she doesn’t need it, then she’ll be okay.”

“I just hope you’re right,” I said as I nuzzled her gently. “I’m worried about her you know? And about this Stable, Blossom says that I should talk to you about, what we talked about before.”

“You mean you conceiving foals here?” Neivi asked and I nodded a little. “I understand why you’re worried, I probably would be too if I was in the same situation. The fact of the matter is that even with their method of switching ponies from the parts of the Stable, this was never going to work forever.”

“Yeah, she told me as much,” I said with a sigh. “They need an influx of new genetic material. I’m afraid that she’s going to do something reckless like killing the Overmare because she’s not listening to reason.”

“Do you think she’d actually go that far?” Neivi asked.

“Honestly? Yes,” I said with a sigh. “I get it, honestly I might even do the same if I was in her position. There’s something weird about what she said about the Overmare which makes me a little uneasy. I just hope that whatever Blossom does, it really will be what is right for the Stable.”

“Yeah, me too,” Neivi said. “If you really think this is the best way to help Stable 27, then I’m with you all the way. I said I was okay with it before and that hasn’t changed, you’ve got a good heart Firelight and that’s what matters to me.”

“Yeah…” I said and smiled a little as I rest my hoof on her back. “So, what are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know honestly,” Neivi admitted. “I think our first priority tomorrow needs to be gathering information. If the Society has come here as often as Blossom said we need to see if maybe we can learn something.”

“Right,” I said and flinched a little. “They’re not exactly going to like me though, I’m an Alicorn like the ones that took them away, to begin with. And I doubt I can just use an illusion to hide the fact without explaining where I came from.”

“Yeah, that is definitely a problem,” Neivi said as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully for a moment. “And I doubt they’ll just trust the word of a Zebra so I honestly don’t know how we’ll manage that.”

“Here’s hoping we figure something out,” I said as I gently wrapped my wings around Neivi. I smiled a little and stroked the Zebra mare’s long mane. “Though, I’m not entirely sure what that might be…”

“We’ll figure something out,” Neivi said as she leaned up and kissed me gently on the lips. “I love you Firelight, and I’d do anything for you. I promise we’ll figure something out tomorrow.”

“I love you too,” I said and nuzzled her gently.

I closed my eyes and wrapped my wings gently around the Zebra. She snuggled up against me and sighed a little. It felt like sleep wasn’t going to come easily for either of us, even if we were tired.

I sighed a little and stroked her mane gently. After everything that had happened, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to sleep. Even with Moonlight safe with us again, there was still a nagging feeling at the back of my mind, like sleeping wasn’t going to be safe.

I sighed a little and stroked her mane gently and gave her a soft smile that I didn’t really feel. “You should get some sleep Neivi.”

“Are you sure?” Neivi asked. “I mean, with everything that happened, do we really want to sleep right now?”

“I’ll be right here the whole time,” I said as I nuzzled her gently. “And Moonlight is in a better mental state now. Plus she’s not with the Society anymore, they can’t force her to terrify us in our dreams again.”

“You’re probably right,” Neivi said as she sighed a little. “Good night Firelight.”

“Good night Neivi,” I said and smiled a little as the Zebra mare closed her eyes gently and drifted off to sleep.

I sighed a little and laid back in the bed. I don’t think I was going to get to sleep anytime soon. My mind kept wandering to what happened with Moonlight, I wasn’t sure if it really was safe to sleep despite what I had said to Neivi.

I sighed a little and looked around for anything that would take my mind off of Moonlight for now. The room was pretty sparse other than the furniture and our bags, there wasn’t much around to distract me.

I spotted a book poking out of Neivi’s bags. Maybe that would help a little, I levitated it out of her bag and blushed a little when I flipped it open and blushed when I realized that it was the same book she had been reading before. For a moment I considered putting it away, but then again maybe this would help me understand her desires better.

I opened it to the first page and started reading the book.

“A shiver ran along Violet’s body as she felt the gentle sensation of the Zebra mare’s lips moving along her flanks. She had never imagined getting this close to another mare, let alone a Zebra but Riean had stirred something in her that she had never felt before. She pushed her tail to the side as Riean started to move towards her tail…”

I blushed heavily as I kept reading and finally just shut the book and tossed it against the wall. “What the hay… why would anypony… what?” I asked as I felt my face become warmer and warmer as I thought about it.

Strangely though, the more I thought about it the more images of me and Neivi in the same positions together. I slapped myself as I tried not to think about that, I swear my mind was working against me right now.

I sighed and laid back as I closed my eyes. I just wanted to fall asleep. I drifted off to sleep a few moments later as I held Neivi gently in my wings.

00000

I blinked a little when my eyes opened again and I realized that I was back in the same construct of the Temple’s main gathering room that we had used on the Mayor. That was weird, why was I here?

“Okay, what in tha name of tha fates is this place?” A familiar accented voice said as I turned to see a confused looking Storm standing behind me with Neivi. “It looks like a Ministry of Arcane Science Hub got a makeover by Nightmare Moon.”

“Well, that’s because this is a representation of the Temple in Haythens,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. “We made this with Moonlight to trick Mayor Steel. I didn’t think we’d ever be in here again.”

“Yeah… it’s weird,” I said as I looked around, a shiver ran down my spine, this place felt so much like the Temple. Then something occurred to me. “Wait, are you two really here or am I dreaming?”

“No, Ah was dreamin’ before this,” Storm said. “And then Ah just kinda showed up here, Ah don’t know how that happened.”

“Same here,” Neivi said as she looked around. “Do you think Moonlight drew us into a dreamscape again?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” I said as I looked around. “But, why would she do that? And where is she now?"

“Maybe she didn’t mean to,” Neivi suggested. “I don’t know, something about all of this is weird. We need to find her and see if we can get some answers on exactly what’s going on.”

I nodded as we started to look around for any sign of where Moonlight might be. I frowned a little, I just hoped that everything was going to be okay with her wherever she was.

A song began to sound from around us as if an invisible choir of ponies was singing it. A shiver ran up and down my spine, that was a song I recognized from the Society, it made me uneasy and looking at my friends I could tell that they felt the same.

“Moonlight, are yah in here?” Storm called out.

Over the song, I could hear the sound of crying, following it I could see chairs had been stacked in the corner, the closer I got the louder the crying was, I could see a figure every now and then hiding under the chairs, all I could see of it was white, but the closer I got the more uneasy it got until eventually the chairs fell, and revealed a small white pegasus filly.

“It’s alright,” I said, reaching a hoof out to that filly. She just squealed and tried to hide behind the chairs all the more, eventually turning enough for me to see her face, something seemed familiar about her but I couldn’t put my hoof on it. The light blue mane, her white coat, she looked almost like… “Moonlight?”

“G-Go Away!” She squealed and hid her face behind her wings.

“Moonlight, it’s okay, we don’t mean you any harm,” Neivi said in a calm and soothing voice. “We’re your friends.”

“I don’t have any friends!” She yelled back as she kept trying to scoot away more. “She’s one of them, they only want to hurt me!”

I flinched a little, she was scared of me. I didn’t blame her, she was a terrified little filly and I was a representation of everything that they had done to her. Everything they had tried to make her do.

“This isn’t our nightmare,” I said softly as I closed my eyes. “It’s her’s.”

“Then why are we here?” Storm asked.

“I, have no idea,” I admitted. “But we have to do what we can to help her, I think that’s why we’re here. She must’ve brought us here unconsciously.”

Before I could say more, I could hear the sounds of wings beating above, looking up I saw the more familiar Alicorn figure descending, a second version of Moonlight, acting as though oblivious to us being here.

“Be not afraid child, you are safe, we wish no harm upon you.” The Alicorn said.

“G-Go away! You’ll just bring her here!” The filly cried out and dived behind the nearest object she could hide behind.

“Bring who here, it is just us, just you and I.”

“Do you mean Nightmare Moon? Or the High Priestess?” Neivi asked as she shot me a look that suggested I needed to be careful.

“Don’t say that!” The filly said, diving out from behind her cover and darting over to Neivi, standing on her hind legs and staring Neivi in the face. “S-She knows when you call her name, she’ll come if you say it!”

“Child, I was already here.” A more insidious voice said, followed by a familiar, chilling cackle. “I never left.”

“Leave her alone!” I said as I stepped in front of the young Moonlight. “You aren’t going to lay a single hoof on Moonlight!”

Descending from above, from a mural of the full moon on the roof, Nightmare Moon came into view, landing before me before simply walking through me as though I wasn’t there. “You are mine child, you were born to be mine. It is why I gifted you my powers, it is why you exist.”

“No! You’re lying!” The filly yelled before she’d scramble over to Storm, pulling a wing down and hiding behind it. “I’m my own pony! I’m not meant to be here, or be you!”

“Filly, listen to me, you are seeing things, there is no pony here but us, you are safe.” The Alicorn Moonlight said, reaching out for the filly.

“Moonlight, don’t listen ta Nightmare Moon!” Storm called out. “Yer right, she ain’t who yah are. Yer a strong pony, yer stronger than she could ever be, show her that!”

“Leave me alone!” That little filly cried out, as she did the world around us seemed to start to melt and fall away, until we were standing in the blackness of nothing. When I looked to my friends, they seemed to be so far away, I could see them talking but I couldn’t hear a thing they said.

“Am I her?” The Alicorn said as she approached me.

“Or am I her?” Nightmare Moon said as she approached me.

“Or am I?” The filly said, staring up at me.

I blinked a little, I hadn’t expected to be asked that question or be put in this situation. Which one of them was really her? I looked between the three of them for a long moment as I tried to think of the answer.

No, she couldn’t be Nightmare Moon. She was never Nightmare Moon, she had shown us that when she tried to give us our deepest desires. She wasn’t a monster, she was our friend even if she had been pushed too far by the Society.

So that just left two options. I had no idea what to answer, who could be the real Moonlight? The Alicorn was kind and confident but… wait, Moonlight was still recovering from what had happened. She was in a bad mental state, and there was only one of the three that represented that.

“You, you’re her,” I said as I pointed at the filly.

“But it was I that protected her.” Nightmare Moon said, using her magic to force me to face her. “I stood guard over her as she lay there injured and dying, I gave her the strength to recover.”

“I am what she was destined to be.” The Alicorn Moonlight said, spinning me around to face her now. “She was always gifted and powerful, she never knew the magic she had or her destiny. The Princesses are gone, no pony has watched over the dreams of others in generations. Nightmares run rampant, and it is her that is destined to be the lonely night vigil, to protect those from themselves.”

“You may have protected her, but you also used her,” I said as I glared at Nightmare Moon. “You and the Society used her to attack her friends and tried to turn her against us. She is not you, she will never be you no matter how much you want it, and she will always be stronger than you are.”

I turned to look at the Alicorn Moonlight and sighed a little. “You’re not wrong, this world has lead to an abundance of nightmares. But I don’t think it is her destiny, I don’t even believe in destiny, your life is your choices and what you make of it. She wants to help ponies and has the ability to do it, that is her choice, not her destiny. And she will never have to stand alone as long as she has me and the others by her side.”

The two stared at me for a moment, before they looked to each other, the two speaking as one, voices unifying as they turned back to me. “Why must she be one, why can’t she be all three. Do you believe that the real Nightmare Moon would like what the Society worships? A bastardized icon of a time long past? And, if she chose not to use her gift to save those from their nightmares, then they run rampant once more and the world never heals because of the scars those nightmares leave behind.”

“For over 200 years Equestria has survived without the need of somepony to watch over nightmares,” I said. “And it’s done more than survive, I’ve learned a lot since coming here about ponies and other beings who want to help Equestria. Yes, this world is broken, there is death and destruction, but there is also hope. There will always be ponies willing to fight that good fight and protect and nurture that hope so that it may grow. If she chooses to not do it, then something tells me that Equestria will be just fine.”

The two stared at me for a moment more, before Nightmare Moon spoke alone. “You are a hypocrite.”

“What do you see when you look in a mirror.” The Alicorn said, glaring at me. “You are three in one, just like she is.”

Before I could speak, two mirrors appeared in the place of Nightmare Moon and the Alicorn Moonlight, in the reflections I saw both the now familiar figure of Daybreaker and the young Unicorn I used to be.

“You say she cannot be three, but you yourself are.” The two spoke together, coming around the mirrors.

“You are her when you are kind and compassionate, her love of life and happiness shows in those moments.” The Alicorn Moonlight said, motioning to the reflection of the unicorn.

“You are her when your anger and rage boil over, her strength and power shine brightest when you lose control.” Nightmare Moon said, motioning to the reflection of Daybreaker.

“Together, you are as you said, apart you are weak and vulnerable.” The two said together. “Unity is not one triumphing over the others, but the three coming together as one.”

I froze for a moment, they were right, I had made a terrible mistake. I lowered my head a little and sighed. “You’re right, she is all three of you,” I said and closed my eyes. “Just like I am. She’s afraid of you, isn’t she? Both of you, she’s afraid of what you’ll make her into so she feels a need to protect herself from you, to hide away.”

The filly walked up between the two and stared up at me for a moment, silently. Before she smiled a bit. “Life is full of ups and downs, I’ve known my share from life in the stable. Before I was pulled out of my home, before I was turned into her” She said, motioning up at the Alicorn Moonlight. “I thought my life would never amount to anything, my abilities, my gifts would be pointless. She showed me that there was a whole new world out there, a whole new scary world filled with things that just want you dead”

“And when one of those things came to get me, and I was attacked in cold blood for being no more than in the wrong place at the wrong time, and left dying. I felt the weight of my mistake.” The Alicorn said, Looking at Nightmare Moon for a moment. “I was dying, I felt my life slipping through my hooves and my powers fading. That’s when she showed up, she embraced me, she told me that everything was going to be alright that I just had to trust her and she’d never let me go.”

“And now she relies on me.” Nightmare Moon said softly. “She feels only I can be the means to keep her safe, to let her help ponies like she wants to. But in that moment, as she lay bleeding and dying, she realized if she can’t save herself, how is she ever going to save anypony else.”

“Fear is a powerful emotion, it can make you do things you never thought you could do.” The Filly said with a sigh. “I just, want this nightmare to end, for somepony to come and save me this time, and let me go home... “

I thought about it for a moment and held a hoof out to her. “Moonlight, I can’t promise that you’ll ever be allowed to stay in Stable 27. But I will say this, you will always have a home with me and your other friends,” I said with a soft smile and looked at the other two. “All three of you will.”

“Thank you.” the three said together before they turned to each other. “But as much as we wish for the nightmare to end, there is much to come, battles still left to fight, and until morning has come, the nightmare must continue.” The three turned back to me, all of them smiling similarly to each other. “There is still that good fight to fight, as you said, and maybe destiny isn’t real, but the burden of choice and responsibility still rests firmly on our shoulders.”

“That it does, but you’ll always have us there to help you,” I said and closed my eyes for a moment and new mirrors appeared with images of Neivi, Storm, and Lemon. “Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned out here, it’s that friendship is truly magic. And we are all in this together, fighting the nightmares both within and without.”

“There is one thing, I’d like to say.” Nightmare Moon said with a chuckle, as the world around us swirled and changed again, this time we stood on top of the roof of the clinic under the night sky, just like the first night Moonlight was with us. “Nightmares are horrible things, yet you want to worship somepony who has it in their name, Nightmare Moon, me.”

She looked to me with a quirked brow and coy smirk, chuckling to herself a little. “Did you think that is the Nightmare in my name? Nightmares as in fear, darkness, despair? Did it never occur to you, that my title Nightmare Moon, is not that of nightmares, but that I am a night mare?”

I looked at her stunned for a moment and then chuckled. “You know, I honestly never thought about it that way. That, is a really cheesy pun you know that right?”

“You try never getting your due and everypony loving your counterpart more than you.” Nightmare Moon said with a sigh. “I really am no different than Luna, I never wanted to hurt anypony, I just wanted them to see how much hard work I put into the night, I wanted them to recognize and respect me like they did for my sister. It got lost on them… pretty quick.”

“And then a few hundred years later a cult of crazies decides to worship you as a Goddess because they hope that you’ll grant them power,” I said with a sigh. “Yeah, give it a thousand years of history and a lot of misinterpretation comes around. I’m sorry for what the Society has done to pervert your ideals. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to stop them, we all will.”

“I know you will.” Nightmare Moon said with a smile before she faded to a more gentle and softer looking side. “I am only a part of her, because she asked me to stay when we meant in the dreamscape a long while ago, she knew what asking me to stay would cause, and I stayed because I knew it was important, responsibility goes hoof in hoof with what some call destiny, it may all be a load of crap, but responsibility overwrites choice in most things.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to figure that out,” I said and looked at her and then at the other two. “Are you three going to be okay? Is Moonlight going to be okay?”

“There has been some… very bad damage, It will take time to repair, but I think in time she will be alright.” Luna said, softly smiling at me. “You know, back when she first turned into that Alicorn version of herself, do you remember her calling you sister?”

“Yes, I’ve been wondering about that,” I said. “After last night I assumed it was because I had a piece of Celestia in me.”

“Yes, it is. In that moment Moonlight was lost in herself and the only thing that felt familiar was you.” Luna said with a smile. “Her fragment of my power reacted to you, you rushed to her aid and protected her, and it woke up that fragment - in a way, it wasn’t her talking, it was me, but not to you, but to your fragment of my sister’s power.”

“That, explains a lot,” I said. “I promise I’ll always protect her as best I can. Just like I would any of my other friends.”

“I never doubted you,” Luna said softly. “And even if you didn’t want to protect her, I think that fragment of my sister’s power wouldn’t give you a choice, the two are intertwined and the moment Moonlight’s woke up, yours woke up in you.”

“Wait, but the fire illusion thing… that happened before I met Moonlight when the Society tried to steal Dawn and her friends,” I said. “I thought that was tied into the Celestia fragment.”

“It is, but only partially,” Luna said with a soft sigh. “Magic is complicated, and sometimes situations can make something stir, but not wake. A surge in power, and being close to something that cries out to you, can bring out things that you never knew you had in you, it’s something that even Princesses failed to fully understand.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” I said and then looked at her for a long moment. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Luna said, smiling at me. “You’re a good pony, Celestia would be proud to know that a pony of your stature is the one that got her power. By the way, I think she’d like to meet you, one day, she’s still alive… sort of.”

“Wait… what?” I asked.

“Well. not physically.” Luna said with a nervous chuckle. “She uh… thought it’d be a great idea to, make herself immortal and lock herself in a computer.”

“I see,” I said. “Yeah, I’m gonna have to meet her at some point aren’t I? Preferably when I don’t have to worry about a million other things.”

“A time, soon enough, will come where you will be allowed to visit where she entombed herself,” Luna said with a smile. “Just stay strong, don’t get swayed by pretty words, and I think you’ll be fine.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said and gave her a nod. “You’ve given me a lot to think about, all of you have. And I will make sure that Moonlight is kept safe, and the Society goes down, you have my word.”

“I look forward to it,” Luna said softly before she’d wave at me and the world around me started to warp and shift again, putting me back with my friends, and now just a singular moonlight, standing, looking very confused.

“What in tha sam hill just happened?” Storm asked. “Yah just kinda zoned out fer a bit and then tha three of them vanished and now there’s just one. What tha heck is goin’ on here?”

“That… is a very good question… I was having a nightmare, and.. I just kept wanting somepony to come and help, and then you guys showed up but… everything got all hazy afterward” Moonlight said with a groan and rubbing at her head.

“It’s complicated but the important thing is you’re going to be okay,” I said as I gave Moonlight a hug and nodded to my friends who joined in. “We’re all here for you.”

“Yeah,” Storm said as she nuzzled Moonlight. “Ah promise we won’t let anythin’ like that happen ta yah again.”

“I… is this a dream? Am I dreaming right now? Are you even real?” Moonlight said, looking even more confused.

“To answer your questions in order, yes this is a dream and yes we’re real,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. “The way I see it when you were terrified and called out for someone to help you, you brought the three of us into your dreamscape.”

“It’s a long story, but you’re okay now,” I said. “Or, at least you’re on the road to being okay.”

“We’re definitely real,” Storm said as she kissed Moonlight gently on the cheek. “Ah love yah Moonlight, and we just want ta help yah.”

“Help me with what?” Moonlight said, looking to storm, then back to me. “What the hay is going on here…”

“Like I said it’s a long story,” I said with a sigh as I explained it the best I could to her.

“I… I see, I think… so are we still dreaming? Because I don’t remember calling you guys here, or anything that you said…” Moonlight said with a groan. “Why do I feel like I’ve had a sack of bricks the size of the moon dropped on me..”

“I’m, positive we’re still dreaming, unless we got teleported to the Temple,” I pointed out. “Like Neivi said you likely subconsciously drew us into the dreamscape when you were having the nightmare.”

“I’ve never done that before…” Moonlight said, sitting down and looking at her hooves. “I don’t understand how this is possible, it’s always been a conscious choice for me to pull ponies from their dreams, I’ve never done something without knowing”

“I don’t know how it works,” Neivi admitted. “But right now it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Right I’ll uh… just… send you back to your dreams then.” Moonlight said, before one by one each of us disappeared, presumably back to our own dreams, the world around me starting to shift and swirl and change before I found myself back in bed with Neivi.

[Scene Redacted]

[The following scene has been removed due to hot Alicorn on Zebra dream stuff, and we aren’t going to show our readers that because we’re evil.]

-Moonlight

00000

I rolled over the next morning and groaned a little as I rubbed my head. That had been, an interesting dream the night before. Either Moonlight was messing with my dreams or I had let that book get into my head.

I made a mental note to never touch that book again just in case. I shook my head a little as I looked over at Neivi who was still fast asleep. I smiled a little and gently draped my wing over her as I nuzzled her a little.

“I don’t know where I’d be without you Neivi,” I said softly as I snuggled up against her. I smiled a little as I enjoyed the feeling of warmth as I held the Zebra mare close to me and nuzzled the back of her neck a little. “I love you so much…”

“You’d probably be lost, wandering around the jungle,” Neivi said with a soft chuckle as she snuggled against me. “If you want to say sweet things to me it’s better to do it while I’m awake you know.”

“Sorry, I was just enjoying the moment,” I said as I nuzzled her a little. “I’m so happy I found you really. You and the others, you’re the reason I’m who I am instead of some pawn of the High Priestess.”

“I’m glad we found you too,” Neivi said as she snuggled up against me and then turned her head to look back at me. “I just have one question for you Firelight.”

“Uh, what’s that?” I asked though I had a pretty good idea of what it might be.

“Why is my book lying on the floor?”

“Well, see, uh…” I said as a blush came to my face. “I must’ve been, sleep levitating things, yes that’s it. I do that sometimes, yeah, that’s it…. You’re not buying this are you?”

“Nope, not at all,” Neivi said as she rolled her eyes a little. “Firelight, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’re still getting used to things like sexuality so it’s only natural to be curious, it’s why I agreed to wait. I want our first time, your first time, to be something special.”

“Thanks,” I said as I leaned over and kissed her gently. “I love you Neivi.”

“I love you too,” Neivi said as there was a sound at the door. “Uh, were you expecting anyone?”

“Maybe it’s Storm?” I suggested hopefully, I didn’t want to think about the alternatives right now. I went to the door and opened it to find two security ponies standing outside. “Can I help you?”

“The Overmare wants to speak to you,” one of the security ponies said as she looked at me with a frown. “You’re to come with me.”

“Alright, just let me get Neivi,” I said and was about to turn when she raised her hoof.

“The Overmare just wants to see you,” the security mare said as she shot Neivi a look as she came into view. “The Zebra will stay behind. Overmare’s orders.”

“Neivi is…” I started to say when Neivi placed a hoof on my shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Neivi said. “I’ll go check on Moonlight and ask around the Stable about the disappearances. You go talk to the Overmare, I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” I said and nuzzled her a little. “I’ll see you later.”

I headed back out with the security ponies. I didn’t know why at the time, but I had a bad feeling about what was going on. Something about the Overmare made me incredibly uneasy after what Blossom had said.

00000

The guard ponies lead me through Stable 27. I sighed a little as I looked around at the mares who gave me a few looks. A very small number were curious, but most were either worried or angry, but they didn’t try anything.

The guards remained quiet as we headed to the Overmare’s office. Something about all of this was still weird to me, why would the Overmare even want to see me? I didn’t like this sudden turn of events and I had to do everything I could to keep this situation from going bad.

I just hoped that I could.

We finally reached the door marked Overmare’s office and one of the guards knocked on the door. After a moment it opened up and I was ushered inside where two more guards were waiting with a Unicorn mare with a yellow coat and blue mane was seated behind a desk.

“And you must be Firelight,” the Overmare said as she looked up at me with a smile. “I’m sorry I couldn’t greet you properly after you arrived but I’ve been busy and you have your own things to deal with I’m sure.”

“Yeah, but that seems to be taken care of at least,” I said as I brushed my mane back a little. “Once Moonlight is back on her hooves and is ready to go we’ll head out.”

“Really?” The Overmare said as she looked at me curiously. “Because a little birdy told me that you have some sort of plan to help the Stable. You wouldn’t be lying to me or doing something under my nose now would you?”

I blinked a little when she said that, how did she know about that? The only other pony in the room had been Blossom and there was no way she’d tell the Overmare about the plan. How did she know about it?

“You have monitoring equipment in that room don’t you?” I asked and the Overmare’s mouth turned up into a small smirk.

“You’re a smart one aren’t you,” she said. “But Stable 27 is under my care, sometimes that requires me to know things that others might rather keep secret. But humor me, you think this offer will help the Stable right? Perhaps we can work something out.”

This wasn’t how I wanted to do it, but maybe if I could convince her that our plan could work. If not, well maybe I was starting to see that Blossom had a point. At this point though we had nothing to lose and could potentially save the Stable.

“Well, see the thing is as we see it that Stable 27 has a problem,” I said with a sigh. “Even with moving ponies from parts of the Stable to the other parts you’re still bound to have a lack of genetic diversity. You’re going to need more ponies, I’m not necessarily saying that you need to have them stay in the Stable, but if you let volunteers come in and conceive foals that would at least delay the problem.”

“I see,” the Overmare said as she looked at me for a long moment. “That is quite an interesting prospect, and exactly what are you offering us in return though? You’re asking for quite a lot given the risks that the ponies of the Stable could be exposed to.”

“But you know the alternative,” I pointed out. “And I’m offering you something that nopony in this Stable has ever had. I know all about what you did with Moonlight and Luna’s powers and that it’s fading if not entirely gone. If you agree to this, then I’m willing to help the program out by conceiving foals to pass on Celestia’s power. This is the best chance you have and it’ll help the Stable, I know you want what’s best for the Stable.”

“Yes, that I do,” the Overmare said as she looked me over for a moment. “It’s quite the tempting offer I’ll admit. You talked this over with that Zebra marefriend of yours I assume, it’s not something very many would agree to.”

“Neivi knows the importance of this,” I said with a sigh. “I admit I’m not entirely comfortable with making this deal either. But I do know that this Stable needs help, and if that’s the sacrifice I have to make in order to help save it I’m willing to do it. I love Neivi more than anything. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t do something to help.”

“I see, well how fortunate of us for getting such a kind and generous mare,” the Overmare said in a tone that I had a hard time placing the meaning of. “I must say I’m impressed that Moonlight was able to find a mare like you on the outside. That world does not breed your type easily especially not Alicorns.”

“I’ve met some good ponies that helped me, well and a Zebra,” I said with a chuckle as I rubbed the back of my head a little. “They’ve helped me figure out who I really am and what my place could be in this world. I want to help who I can, and this Stable needs help.”

“Leave us,” the Overmare said as she looked up at her guards who looked confused for a moment.

“Ma’am?” One of them asked.

“You heard me, leave us,” the Overmare said as the security ponies looked at her worriedly for a moment. “Are you questioning your Overmare?”

“No ma’am,” the guard said. “We’re just not sure if we can leave you here with this… Alicorn. Not after everything that they’ve done to us.”

“Moonlight trusts her, I’m sure she won’t be a problem,” the Overmare said as she looked over at me and gave me a smile that made me strangely uneasy. “You wouldn’t try anything, would you Firelight?”

“No, of course not,” I said as I gave her a smile. “Like I said, I’m only here to help the Stable out.”

“There you have it,” the Overmare said as she levitated up a bottle of pills and popped a couple into her mouth. “I’ll be just fine, Firelight is a friend of the Stable she won’t do anything that would hurt it or me.”

“Yes, Overmare,” the guard who spoke said as she leads the other three out of the office, leaving the two of us alone.

“You’re putting a lot of trust in me,” I said as I looked at her confused for a moment. “I wasn’t expecting you to do that.”

“Yes, well I felt like we needed to continue this conversation in private,” the Overmare said. Her smile started to fade as she looked at me with a completely serious look before popping two more pills and starting to talk again. “You have more power than anypony in this Stable except for Moonlight, I’m sure you’re aware of what’s been happening with the project.”

“Yes, the power doesn’t seem to be transferring to Moonlight’s offspring, Blossom told me,” I said. “It’s part of the reason I wanted to make this proposal to begin with. If I can help with that, you can get more genetic diversity in this Stable.”

“As I said, it’s a very tempting offer,” the Overmare said, I noticed that her hoof was shaking a little. She was trying not to show it but there was something wrong with her. “I know that it would do a lot of good for Stable 27.”

“All you have to do is agree to open it up, we can get mares in here that are willing to help and they don’t have to stay,” I said with a smile. “This Stable needs help and we can both see that. Think about how much good this’ll do, everypony in the Stable will be happy. You could even possibly do away with some of the more…”

“You know, as tempting as that offer is, I’m afraid I will have to decline,” the Overmare said as she popped some more pills into her mouth. “There’s just too many risks to the Stable. We don’t know anything about the ponies you’d be bringing in, it’s too risky and likely will end in disaster.”

“You’re already heading to disaster!” I said as I narrowed my eyes at her. “This Stable cannot survive as it stands. If you don’t act, then there will consequences for this Stable in the long run. You need to take this offer, it’s what is best for the Stable and we both know it. And if you really want Celestia’s power, you know that I’m the only one you can get it from.”

“Oh, yes that I am very much aware of,” the Overmare said as her mouth turned into a wicked grin. “Tell me Firelight, have you ever heard of stealth magic?”

“That’s, magic that can be used without showing outward signs?” I asked as I looked confused. “Yeah, I’ve heard of it, usually it’s done with hoof movements or subtle wording.”

“I’ve been using it on you this whole time,” the Overmare said with a smirk as she popped another pill. “You’ve got so much magical potential, it’s such a shame you’re an Alicorn so we can’t use you more. Oh well, your genetic material will have to do, I’ve already taken the liberty of using your material to conceive foals with the four guard ponies that just left. I assure you, they will be well taken care of.”

“What are you… you took things from me so you could conceive foals?” I said as I stood up. I wished that I hadn’t had to relinquish my rifle, but I was more than capable of defending myself right now. “Why would you do that? I was going willingly, all you had to do was…”

“All I had to do was relinquish some of the power I hold in this Stable,” the Overmare said with a sneer. “This is my Stable, it is my decision what happens to the ponies here because I alone know what’s best for them. But don’t worry, your daughters will serve this Stable well, yes indeed. We will reach our goal and reclaim the Wasteland.”

“Are you insane? If you don’t start taking in ponies…” I said as a fire started to appear around me again.

“Uh-uh, your little illusion doesn’t scare me,” the Overmare said. “And if you try anything, I will have my guards kill your friends and Citrus.”

“You’re insane, you’d really do that?” I said as the flames vanished from my vision. “You would kill ponies just because I refused to go along with your mad plan?”

“I told you, I have all the power in this Stable!” The Overmare said as she popped another pill, the trembling in her hoof was becoming more pronounced. “You have no say in here Firelight, I can do whatever I wish. You will leave my Stable with your friends, well, almost all of your friends.”

“Almost all?”

“That Pegasus, Storm Wrangler right? She is still going to be of use to us,” the Overmare said with a cough. “We ran a test on her DNA she comes from good stock, minimal radiation exposure at that. She’ll make a fine addition to our program down here, and it’ll help us increase diversity.”

“You want to use my friend as, breeding stock?” I said as I narrowed my eyes at the Overmare. “You’re a monster, you know that right? She’s a good pony and doesn’t deserve to be used like that!”

“You think I care?” The Overmare snapped back as she popped another pill. “Do you think that actually matters in this world? Ponies need to serve their roles if you weren’t an Alicorn and you didn’t have that filthy Zebra I would force you all to stay. She will probably be let out eventually, in a few years once she’s bred with enough mares.”

“That’s still horrible!” I shouted at her, I was about to jump across the desk when I remembered what the Overmare said. She probably had some sort of signal that would trigger it, and I couldn’t put my friends at risk. “Why are you doing this?”

“The same reason why we do anything, survival,” the Overmare said. “As long as we have enough ponies and can use your power, then we are the future of Equestria. We’ve already proven that our method is viable, all we have to do is be ready. We will bring Order back to Equestria, the time will come, I promise you that. This is what is best for the Stable, and for Equestria and we’ve proven it as Stable-Tec wanted.”

I stood there and stared at her in astonishment. She was insane, but she believed that she was doing the right thing. How twisted was that? She was willing to ruin lives and take ponies away from their friends for what she believed was the right reasons.

Everything I had seen told me that what she was doing was wrong. She was hurting ponies just because of her own reasons. I couldn’t let her get away with this, especially not to one of my friends.

“I’m going to stop you somehow…” I said as I looked at her with a hard glare. “You’re not going to use my friend like that.”

“You don’t have any say in the matter, and we can keep you from getting to her,” the Overmare said with a smirk. “But maybe if you help us with more of Celestia’s…”

She suddenly stopped as if something was caught in her throat. She placed her hoof on her throat as if she was having a hard time breathing. She could barely get any words out as she tried to gasp out “Help… me…” as her mouth began to foam.

I stood there in stunned silence for a moment. I wasn’t a doctor, I could get a Doctor in here quickly, I was about to run to the door to call for help when I stopped myself. Why should I do that? She was a monster, she had been controlling the lives of these ponies without caring about the consequences. She had violated me when I had come as a friend. And now she was trying to steal one of my friends away to use for breeding.

I hated to say it, but I was starting to think that Blossom was right. She needed to die, she was insane and I had no idea what else she was capable of. She was going to hurt the ponies in this Stable and not care about what could happen. All she had to do was agree to the terms. I simply backed off and let it happen.

But something still nagged at my mind as she struggled to breathe, was I really fit to pass judgment on this mare? She was insane sure, but at the same time, if I did this would I be no better than the High Priestess?

Doing this would make me no better than either of them. No, I had to do what I could, I had to save her even if it was against my judgment. She was still a pony and I was not some all-powerful Goddess that could pass judgment on her actions.

I pushed open the door to the Overmare’s office and called down the hallway. “Somepony get a Doctor, the Overmare is in trouble!”

A minute later Neivi rushed in and examined the Overmare. She had a concerned look on her face as she tried to do everything she could and I stood back.

“What happened to her?” Neivi asked as she kept working. “This is a pharmacological reaction of some sort. Did she take anything while you were talking to her?”

“Just some pills she kept in that bottle,” I said as I pointed at a bottle on the desk where she had been getting them from. “That’s all I know.”

“These are antipsychotics,” Neivi said as she examined the bottle and looked back at me before getting back to work on the Overmare. “What happened?”

“She wanted to talk to me about the proposal, then she said she had taken my genetic material without asking,” I said. “And, she was going to force Storm to stay here for breeding.”

“WHAT?” Neivi said as she glared at the Overmare who was barely holding on. She lowered her hooves and shook her head. “There’s nothing I can do, this isn’t an overdose, the symptoms are all wrong.”

“You mean, she’s not going to make it?” I asked and Neivi shook her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t say something sooner…”

And with that, the Overmare let out one final labored breath and went still. Neivi checked her pulse and shook her head as she looked up at the clock.

“It’s not your fault Firelight, you did everything you could,” she said with a sigh. “I need to inform Blossom and the head of Stable Security. Hopefully, we can figure out exactly what happened here.”

I sighed and looked at the now lifeless body of the Overmare. I hadn’t done anything to her, what was going on? Why had she died?

Did somepony out there know the answers to these questions? I honestly wasn’t sure, and I didn’t like the possibility that somepony really had killed her.

00000

“Yah have gotta be kiddin’ me, tha Overmare wanted ta take me away ta use me fer breedin’?” Storm asked later as we were in the Stable Clinic with Moonlight and Citrus. Neivi was helping perform an autopsy on the Overmare “That’s insane.”

“Unfortunately it sounds like something my aunt would do,” Citrus said with a sigh as she looked at me. “I heard what happened, is it true that she’s dead?”

“Yeah, she’s… wait she was your aunt?” I asked and blinked in surprise.

“Yeah, White Lotus, she’s my mother’s sister,” Citrus said with a shrug. “Or, she was I mean. She and mom never really seen eye to eye. I didn’t think somepony would actually try to kill her though.”

“If what yah say is true, sounds like they deserve a freakin’ medal fer killin’ that bitch,” Storm said with a shake of her head.

“I know you’re upset and I don’t completely disagree with you,” Citrus said with a shake of her head. “But we’ve already been targeted by the Nightmare Society. They may try to take advantage of the situation.”

“She probably already knows, she’s got eyes and ears everywhere,” Moonlight said with a shake of her head. “I don’t like this, it feels like we’re going to be targeted at any time. And there’s not much we can really do about protecting the Stable from Alicorns right now.”

“I know…” I said softly as the door opened and Neivi came back in with a frown on her face. “Well, what happened? Do we know?”

“Well, this is all just preliminary based on the symptoms and state of the body,” Neivi said as she adjusted her glasses a little. “Based on the status of the lungs and given all the information, I believe that her medicine was replaced with the poison from a local plant. There’s, only so much I can do until the final tests come back.”

“So, she was most definitely poisoned then?” Citrus asked and Neivi nodded. “That’s troubling.”

“Yes, my question is who would’ve had access to her pills,” Neivi said with a small shake of her head. “Because of the Overmare’s paranoia, the only ones that would’ve had access are the Stable’s medical personnel.”

“Well at least that narrows it down a little,” I said. “Unless she’s been meeting with the medical personnel from all three parts of the Stable.”

We let that hang over the room for a few minutes. None of us wanted to think about it, and really we had to figure out if even we should find who it was. What would we even do with them? Would we punish them? Praise them?

There wasn’t a simple answer to that. They had taken a life regardless of whether or not that life had done terrible things. I honestly had no idea what to decide, and I could tell by the looks on my friends’ faces that they didn’t either.

“What are we gonna ta do about this?” Storm finally asked the question that we were all thinking. “Somethin’ tells me tha suspect list is pretty big when we consider motive, Ah don’t like havin’ ta do this.”

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Neivi admitted. “We’re going to have to…”

Before she could finish that sentence an alarm went off as red lights started to flash around us. I looked at the others and narrowed my eyes a little, that was too convenient to be a coincidence.

“Come on, let’s go to the Stable Door,” I said as Moonlight started to get up, I held my hoof up to stop the younger Alicorn. “Moonlight, you should stay here, you’re still…”

“No, I’m coming with you,” Moonlight said as she got to her hooves. “If this is the Society coming to attack us then maybe I can convince some of them to help us. I’m not going to sit back while they put Stable 27 in danger.”

“Alright,” I said in resignation as she got up and we headed towards the Stable door together. Once there, several guard ponies including Charcoal was waiting at the still closed gear shaped door as if ready for a fight.

“What’s out there?” I asked as I looked over at Charcoal who paused a moment. “Look, we want to help. You’re probably going to need all the help you can get depending on what’s out there.”

“Alicorns, Alicorns carrying Nightmare Society colors,” Charcoal finally said with a sigh. Even though I had a feeling that’s what it was, a chill ran down my spine when she actually said it.

LEVEL UP!

Perk Received: Country Roads Bring me Home.

Details: You’ve helped your friend reconnect with their home after a painful absence. Your companions get an extra boost to damage and resistance while fighting along side you.