Come Dawn or Darkness

"What do you mean you don't know what happened after that?! You can't just start a story like that, get to the juiciest of the juicy parts, and then end with 'And I don't know what happened after that!'"

"Im sorry, but that was all I got to hear..."

"Pinkie, get down off the table..."

"But! But! But what happened next?!"

"We'll just have ta wait 'til Rarity an' Twilight get back. Ah'm sure one uh them can fill us in on the rest. Til then just drink yer cider and thank Celestia that you weren't out in those woods with us..."

"Rarity and Twilight AND Torrent, you mean."

"Uhh... yeah... Listen, sugarcube; Ah'm not gonna pretend ta understand everything that happened tonight, but something tells me Torrent isn't exactly someone we're gonna wanna hold our breath waiting for."

"Applejack's right... I mean, I think what I told Princess Celestia and the others got him off the hook for murdering me or whatever it was they though he did, but they were still yelling at him and asking him question long after I started nodding off. I mean, one minute he's shouting for them to bring him Luna and then I closed my eyes for all of a minute, maybe, and suddenly I woke up here..."

"Well shoot, sugar, I can fill in that blank for ya. One of the royal guards dropped ya off here a few hours ago. Said Twilight sent him here with ya after ya fell asleep on her back. He didn' go inta a whole lot uh detail, but by the sound of things you kinda passed out and tumbled off uh her during a particularly important part of the questioning... Anyway, we just figured we'd let ya sleep it all off fer a while..."

"So what about that neat armor your wearing? What's it feel like? Is it heavy? I bet its super heavy, isn't it? It almost makes you look like a knight, ya know. Ooooo! Did it come with a sword and a shield? Then you would totally look all knightish!"

"Huh? Oh right, this... I'll be honest, I completely forgot I was still wearing it. I only threw it back on so that the guards wouldn't try to take it away from me or anything back there. Oh and, no, its not heavy at all. Its a little weird really, its essentially just an extra layer of scales when its on me; I don't even notice it. And no, unfortunately, there was no sword or shield... Maybe if I'd had a little more time I could have made one, but really these claw things work just as well... Feel a little more natural too, really."

Pinkie Pie finally climbed down off the table as Applejack set down another tray of refreshments. Cider and apple-fritters, fresh from the oven; leftover stock from the previous night's festivities. Hard ta believe that it was just a few hours ago that we were all eaten this stuff an' celebratin' like it were nothing... Well, it was fun while it lasted...

"Its just not fair... You and Rainbow Dash got swords. Twilight and Fluttershy got jewelry that make them go all crazy-powerful. Spike got his snazzy new armor. Even Rarity got that spooky eyeball thing that Spike was just telling us about, and she doesn't even like him! Torrent called me his 'best friend' and yet whose the only one he didn't give a glowing, possessed, talking present to? Me!"

"Easy girl, don't go wishing fer things yer gonna regret. Those 'presents' are bad news; trust me... Dang things didn' do us a lick uh good out there when push came ta shove..."

"Speak for yourself, this armor is amazing! I wouldn't give it up for anything in the entire wor-... Uhhh... I mean.... I'm sure he has something special for you, Pinkie. Think about it: we only got our gifts because we all just happened to run into him today. Your the only one he didn't get to spend any time with one-on-one so he never had a chance to give it to you... probably..."

The sky was beginning to brighten outside the window as the sun began its arduous ascent. No wind was blowing, no clouds covered the sky. The calm autumn morning seemed to be going out of its way to appear nondescript. Just another day, like any other. No... Not just like any other. This is different. This is Nightmare Night.

The horror of the previous night would be quickly forgotten as that most frightful of holidays rolled in. All around the town one last, mighty effort would be getting underway to prepare Ponyville for the coming festivities. Lights, games, treats, all would be in ample supply, though there would undoubtedly be those too cautious to enjoy them after what they had witnessed the night before.

Try as they might, Celestia's guards had failed to completely lock down the situation before word of the attack reached the ears of Ponyville's busybodies. Even now rumors were almost certainly being spread about monsters lurking in the woods, hungry for the pony flesh and not afraid to take it. The turn out this night would likely be a good deal small than it had been during the nights leading up to it. Probably for the best; the town was never meant ta host so many anyway.

Spike and Pinkie continued to discuss their new "best friend," much to Applejack's displeasure. The monster had invaded their lives, endangered their town, and was even now probably getting away with it through guile and envenomed words. No matter how she looked at it, there was something blatantly evil about the sorcerer; something that simply could not be trusted. It was not until the voice that had been present in her sword appeared that she realized her mind was no longer a safe place for such thoughts, however. You need worry about such things, Applejack. There is no evil in him that is a threat to you or your friends, I can assure you.

"You!"

"Me?"

"Huh? Wh- Oh, no, not you Pinkie Pie. Sorry, Ah... uhh... Ah guess Ah didn't realize Ah said that out loud."

"Oh, no worries! That happens to me all the time!" She went back to her discussion of presents with Spike.

You! What are you doin' in mah head? Ah ain't even near that sword uh yer's!

Well, my apologies if I am intruding, but the two of us share a bond now. Your mind is as open to me as mine is to you.

A sudden flash of images blinded Applejack to the world around her, memories from a hundred different lifetimes flooded her mind until it felt ready to burst.

Gah! Keep yer memories outta mah head!

Again, I'm sorry. But you need to be more open to such things if I'm to be able to assist you in combat. Otherwise I'll be nothing more than a clumsy chunk of steel between your teeth.

His voice was calm, cool, but too calculating for her liking. 'Course he wants me ta trust Torrent, he sounds just like him.

I heard that... But no, you're right. I suppose I cannot expect you to truly trust me if you cannot trust him. You see, Torrent was my student for a brief time, before my world fell to the darkness. When our order found him, he was a broken thing, his mind empty of all but insanity and rage after his time in the Abyss. He was devoid of any emotion, feelings, or personality of any kind; an empty vessel waiting to be filled. His mannerism and personality, he took from me, picking them up as we trained.

That's nice and all, but nothin' you say is gonna make me trust either of you more.

Of course not... So lets focus on that shall we? Why do you distrust him.... us, so much? What have we done to you and your's to earn such misgivings?

What have you done? Look around! Rainbow Dash nearly died last night! And another pony DID!

Because we were caught off guard, all of us. Torrent tried to make right of it by hunting down the killer and your friend got sloppy, while accompanying him. He saved her. And as for this other pony... Did it even have a name?

Fury filled her to the core. "You heartless little monster, a'course she had a name!"

And what was it again?

"It... It!..." Her mind raced, but for the life of her she could not come up with a single memory of the mare who had been so brutally slain the night before. Was... Was she even from Ponyville? Ah don't know if Ah ever seen her before that in mah life...

Yet her death has brought this great mistrust upon you. All because no one had the foresight to go out and safeguard a single individual whom none of you even knew existed beforehand.

There's more than just that!

There always is... Tell me Applejack, and tell me truthfully. When was it that you began to suspect Torrent of being your enemy? Was it before you first saw him or after? Because if it was mere xenophobia that has driven you to fear him, then perhaps the two of you had best talk things over yourselves. I think you'll find you have a lot in common...

And just what is that supposed ta mean?

When you hear my voice, what do you picture? Do you see a man like Torrent? Or perhaps a pony like your own kind? Or maybe I am just some disembodied voice? A shapeless shadow floating through the air? There's no need to answer that, I can already see it in here. The truth is, when I still had a body, it was not unlike that little friend of your's at the table there, the dragon. Albeit, I had no scales, no skin, no covering of any kind really. My muscles and bones were on the outside, giving me what I can only imagine was a simply terrifying appearance to the eyes of one not used to such things...

As such, after rescuing him from the jaws of a far more terrible creature, Torrent recoiled away when I removed my helmet to show him my face. He stabbed out with his own weapon, a flimsy little staff that never would have held back a true enemy, trying to force me away. It took months before I could get him to trust me enough to even look at when speaking. He went so far as to try and kill me once, claiming me to be an unholy monster of the shadows... And now here you are, doing the same to him, though you at least have to good sense to know when you're outmatched. He had to learn that lesson the hard way.

Applejack hesitated, not certain she should believe any of what the voice was saying. ...Why are y'all telling me this? There's something else to this, isn't there? You don't care if I trust him or not; you want me to trust you... But why?

A sigh filled her mind as more images from some far off world flooded in. As I said, there is no evil that you need to beware of in my student... In fact its quite the opposite. Its the good in him that I fear is about to put you and your friends in mortal danger; very, very soon. I need you to be the one to stop that from coming to pass. Take me back to my vessel and I can explain everything... I fear I'm losing my focus the longer I'm within your mind like this.

"Uh, sorry y'all, Ah gotta go check on somethin' out back. Shouldn't take too long. Come get me if Dash wakes up." She walked out of the house and over to the barn. Shutting the large wooden door behind h, she made her way to one of the smaller piles of hay stacked in the corner. As she drew near she felt a great weight lift from her mind. The hay began to glow a ghostly blue as her sword tumbled out from within it. "There... Now talk. What sorta danger are me and my friends in and how the hay do ya expect me ta stop it?"

First fill me in on something. Just what do you know about my student?

"Ah know that he's the reason Twi's been actin' so strange lately..."

What I mean is, what do you actually know about who and what he is? Tell me everything you can think of.

She thought on that for a moment. Over the past week the subject had hung heavily o n her mind, but she had tried not to avoid actually thinking about it before now, too disturbed by the conclusions she might come to.

"Alright, well... he's some kinda wizard or sorcerer or somethin'. Ah've seen him cast spells, change his shape, and create things outta thin air. Ah think he's some sorta knight, from what he said and how Princess Celestia and Princess Luna addressed him. Oh, I forgot you weren't there yet, but they called him 'Sir Torrent' when they talked the other night. Twilight met him in that darkness beyond her mirror, I don't pretend to know much of anything part though, I only heard it secondhand from Twilight afterwards and she even said it was burry in here mind."

Anything else?

"Well... we saw him tear open a hole to another dimension when he pulled you and the other... 'gifts' out for us. And Ah know he's said he's been ta hundreds of other worlds besides ours. He's told us stories about ones he remembers, but Dash could tell ya more about those than Ah can. She couldn't get enough of his stories..." The thought of Rainbow Dash filled her with a sudden rage as she remembered dragging the poor broken pegasus all the way back to town the night before. "Alright that's enough! What does it matter what Ah know about him, just tell me what he's plannin' and how Ah can stop him!"

...Fine. I suppose you understand the important bits, though your missing some major points in there. He was my student for a good ten years before I was finally able to call him my brother. There were ten of us, including Torrent, who set out to defend our order's world the day that it fell to darkness. On that day, the entire world broke through the cracks in reality, cracks not unlike the one your friend Twilight has been tampering with, and crashed headlong into the Abyss. We entered the darkness that day in the hopes of rescuing as many innocent lives as we could... Instead, we all ended up losing our own.

Torrent was the only one of our little company to survive, kept alive by some dark spirit that had made itself at home within him, resorting to any treacherous tactic to ensure that its vessel survived. I don't know where it came from or how long he had carried it with him, but its instincts was strong enough to save him from half a hundred different dangers that would have claimed his life that day.

...If I'm to be perfectly honest about it, there is really very little about Torrent that makes him special. He is not particularly talented with magic nor combat. Were it to for the unholy endurance that his extended time in the Void had left him with, I seriously doubt he would have made it as one of our Order. Its the hundreds of others souls who exist within him that give him his strength, each acting as private repository of knowledge and power for him to tap into. And they only exist in him because the good in him prevents him from allowing true death to come to those around him. He will do anything to protect those he cares about... No matter how horrible the price for himself or the world around him.

"...Ah don't understand. What's this gotta do with us?"

...He... He made a promise to us, the nine members of the company who perished in the fall of our world, when he bound us to the armaments he has given you all as gifts. If he ever found a way, he intended to bring us back into the existence; give us our bodies back which were lost to the Void that day. I fear he has found a way, but in his blind desire to save us, he has not considered all of the possible outcomes of his actions.

"Give y'all yer bodies back? Like, making you new ones then... out of..."

Bones and skin and blood. Corporeal flesh, the same as yours... He has found something in that twice-damned tome that your friend used to open the portal to begin with. Something which promised that it could restore flesh to those who had lost theirs. All it requires is for their soul to be in extended contact with a willing living being... I'm afraid that he intends to use you and your friends to bring us back to life.

He should know better than to trust such a spell, but I fear his senses have been dulled to the meaning behind what the spell promises. If he goes through with it, it is likely that your own bodies will be forfeited in the process. I can not believe that he would risk such a thing, he would not knowingly put any of you in harms way like that... But his ignorance will likely kill you nonetheless, regardless of his actual intentions.

You cannot allow that to come to pass.

Scimitar, longsword, manacle, necklace, eye, claw, claw, helmet. That accounted for eight souls. But Pinkie Pie had yet to receive her gift. "How long before he tries ta bring y'all back ta life?"

I would think he'd be eager to be done with it, so likely as soon as the final soul is distributed. Orance, the youngest of our group, will be the last one. I do not know what item he was bound to, but you seem confident that this Pinkie Pie will be the one to receive his spirit. I trust your judgement on that, and I can't deny that they certainly seem to share some similarities, personality-wise if nothing else... Yes, I think that as soon as she receives Orance's vessel, Torrent will attempt to rebuild our bodies.

"So... So why don't we just confront him about it? If he's as dedicated to y'all as you say he is he'll have to listen to ya!"

I'm afraid my voice is silent to him now, only you can hear me...

"...How do Ah know you ain't just making all this up? That seems pretty convenient that you couldn't just tell him not to use this spell o' his. That you need me to go and sound all crazy trying to stop him because some voice only Ah can hear told me so!"

...Very well. Then just forget we had this little talk. I'll be certain to leave you your privacy from now on. Just remember, you had the chance to stop all of this... Oh, and your little friend is awake, the pegasus. She's been standing behind you in the doorway for the last five minutes or so.

The voice fell silent as Applejack turned to find Rainbow Dash staring at her from the barn door. "Dash! Ah didn't, Ah mean... Your awake! How do ya feel, girl?"

"Uhhh... Well, a little confused considering I just woke up in your house and then found you down here having a heated argument with a piece of metal."

"Oh, you uh... you heard that, huh? Well it uh, it wasn't what it looked like... I'm not crazy..." A growing sense of doubt was spreading through her as she said the words.

"Yeeeah... About that... You said there was some kind of voice only you could hear. That sounds kinda crazy to me." She stepped into the barn, her wings had been bandaged up along with both of her hind legs and a large portion of her sides. "The only reason I even bother bringing it up is because I think I might be going a little crazy too... My sword's been talking to me for the last hour."

"And it told you Torrent's going to try to use us ta bring back all his old companions, right?"

"Huh? No! No, it told me I'd been unconscious for like, six hours! What happened?! The last thing I remember was Princess Luna telling me not to fly over the forest. The next thing I knew, I was covered in bandages and wrapped laying in your bed with that sword hovering next to me telling me I was lucky to be alive!"

And so the task of storytelling passed to Applejack as she recounted the events of the last few hours to her battered friend. They left the barn, Applejack carrying her sword in a sheath she had attached to an old saddle. It was not until they reentered the kitchen that she noticed they had another visitor waiting for them.

"Twilight? What's going on? Where's Rarity? Or the Princess? Or-"

"The library, all of them. And we need to get over there as soon as possible too. Something's happened to the mirror and Princess Celestia wants us all present when they try to fix it. Us, and the Elements..."

"...Well alright then... But there's a few things we gotta talk about on the way..."