Ahead, Celestia watched Eustace fall into step beside Twilight. She'd since gotten over her encounter, if only mostly. Now she only looked perturbed, a minor improvement but an improvement nonetheless.

Eustace began to speak to her and Celestia, content to listen, hung back. She'd tried to talk to Twilight earlier, but perhaps she'd tried a bit too early.

"You're not used to that, are you?" he asked after a few moments, still looking forwards.

"No, not really," she said, lowering her head slightly, "but it's not the first time, either."

He nodded in acknowledgement before continuing. "Where're you from, anyways? Part of one of those tribes from up north?"

Despite her mood Twilight perked her ears at that, and so did Celestia. The implications of his statement were clear: this was the past.

"I guess you could say so," Twilight replied after thinking for a second. "It's not like a normal tribe though. How are the tribes?" she said, the not-so-subtle subject change making Celestia cringe inwardly.

"Guess I'm going to have to teach her like I did Astral."

If he thought it strange, though, he didn't indicate it. "The tribes? As far as I know they're fine. Yharnam isn't exactly known for its... hospitality, as you witnessed. We don't get much news from outside because of it. I'm guessing your little corner of the world doesn't hear much from them either?"

"No, not recently anyways," Twilight shook her head, and despite being behind her, Celestia could tell she was trying to decide what to ask next. "Besides, what was with those ponies back there? I've met unfriendly ponies before, but these ponies were..." she finally said, shuddering at the memory.

Eustace didn't reply immediately, not like how he'd behaved before. Instead, he looked like he was debating something. He stopped walking, his face passive. "Remember what I told you about beasts?"

Twilight looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "You've said a lot about beasts, Eustace."

He cracked a thin smile for a moment, before he let his face relax again. "Got me there. What I said about their sense of smell. Remember?"

Twilight nodded. "You said their sense of smell was 'peculiar'. What has that got to do with anything?"

Celestia was in a similar position. Why he'd brought up beasts when she'd asked about ponies was beyond her.

Eustace looked between the two of them. "Did you see her eyes? The one who threatened us?"

Both Celestia and Twilight shook their heads. "No, she had a bandage covering her eyes," Celestia said.

"Is that so? And how, do you suppose, she knew exactly where we were then?"

"Because she," Twilight's eyes widened and she nearly took a step back from Eustace, "had a peculiar sense of smell."

Celestia's eyes didn't widen, but her mouth did pull into a thin frown. "You knew?"

Eustace nodded solemnly. "They don't make see-through bandages, but normally they're not so aggressive before the sun goes down. I didn't think they'd try to start something."

"So you mean–" Twilight said before she cut herself off, taking a moment to calm down. "So you mean, that pony was a beast?" She said, before another possibility occurred to both her and Celestia.

"Beasts are ponies?" They said in unison, horror, disbelief and disgust apparent in them in every manner.

Eustace sighed. "Were," he emphasized heavily, "they're not ponies anymore. In all honesty, we should have put them down, saved somepony else the trouble of dealing with them," he said while turning to lead once more, leaving Celestia and Twilight to follow in silence.

-#-#-#-

Since their encounter in the plaza, the streets had widened considerably. On either side the buildings didn't rise nearly as high, though the streets still remained in poor maintenance. Greenery was interspersed in the construction more liberally, signifying a dispersal of Yharnam's urban sprawl.

Twilight and Celestia had both remained silent since they'd learned of the nature of the beasts, with only Eustace's occasional updates on their progress through the city to fill the air. Neither of them had been eager to process, let alone rationalize the situation, but as time wore on the situation had become quite clear to Celestia.

They were all in a dog-eat-dog sort of situation.

Celestia wasn't new to killing, wars and time had taught her far more than she'd ever wanted to know, but Twilight hadn't grown up in a world dead-set on setting itself aflame. She hadn't been taught anything of the matter, not even what the Guard or military garrisons were taught. For all intents and purposes, she'd been thrown straight from the freezer into the fire.

She didn't like it. When she'd first heard beasts described, she'd immediately thought of ravening, mindless creatures. Ugly and vicious things, an easy enemy to justify killing. Now, they'd been given a face far too close to home, and she wasn't sure if Twilight was up to the task because of it.

In fact, she didn't know if she herself was, entirely. She didn't truly know for certain that what she'd seen was a beast and not just some madpony. "Damnit, Celestia," she chastised herself, "you've gone over that point thrice now. Talk to Twilight, you need to know how she's doing."

Now beside her, Twilight was, unsurprisingly, looking like she was going to be sick. "Twilight," Celestia began, "are you all right?"

"I... I'll be fine," she said quietly, head drooped. "It's just– they were ponies, right? With friends and family, brothers and sisters? I... I don't think I can do it." Twilight stopped walking as she stopped walking, looking at both Eustace and Celestia with an almost desperate look. "There's got to be a way to help them! There's just got to be!"

Celestia swore internally, wrapping a wing around Twilight and pulling her close. "I really should have convinced Astral to leave her behind..."

Eustace cleared his throat, getting both of their attention. "Trust me, when it happens, you'll find it much easier than you'd think," He said sympathetically, turning back to lead. "We all do," he added quietly, before taking a left down another street.

Twilight breathed in deeply, and though she still looked sick, Celestia could see some manner of acceptance in Twilight, however tainted with apprehension, fear and grief it may have been. She smiled at Celestia briefly, before moving out from under her wing to follow Eustace once more.

Everyone let the conversation die out after that. Twilight's words had made Celestia feel horrible for dragging her into this mess. Ultimately, silence had become preferable at this point in time and for some after that.

-#-#-#-

Down another street and around another corner, so it had been for the past twenty minutes as Eustace led the three of them further and further from Yharnam's core. Over time the apartment blocks and spires of the city had been replaced with family homes and small businesses, small parks and streets littered not with coffins or other macabre debris, but with the abandoned belongings of fleeing families and individuals.

The wall had been visible ever since they'd come out on to the latest street, hiding behind the houses that backed up to it. They had the wall, now all they needed was a hole through it.

After walking the street for seemingly ages, Eustace stopped in front of an alley between two houses before turning down it. They both sped up to catch up to him, finding, to their surprise, a literal hole in the wall. The gate sealing the opening had been forcibly removed at some point, and all that remained was a few jagged metal bars in the ceiling which Celestia was very careful to avoid.

As they stepped through, they were met with an open field bordered by a high cliff some three-hundred-odd meters away from the wall. The field stretched in either direction endlessly, with only a few trees to break up the monotony of the grass swaying in the cool, late evening breeze.

"Here we are ladies, Yharnam's city limit. Let's get to wherever it is you need to get to," Eustace said before looking at them expectantly.

Twilight and Celestia shared a look. "We need to be led to a way out Yharnam, so we can get as far away from Yharnam as fast as possible."

At Celestia's words Eustace's face morphed with suspicion, his posture tensing. "You're not planning on running, are you?"

"No, this is part of our experiment," Celestia said, holding up a hoof placatingly. "We'll see this through, we wouldn't abandon you."

Eustace gave them both a piercing look, before relaxing. "Good. Sorry, it's just..." he said, turning to look over the field instead. "Most ponies think of abandoning your comrades on a night of the hunt as an utmost treachery, myself included. I'm glad to hear neither of you are like that."

He turned fully away from them both and took off at a canter into the barrel-high grass of the field, using the few trees that dotted it's expanse as navigational landmarks. As Celestia and Twilight followed, they slowly made their way towards the cliff face while Eustace routinely checked the wall for any activity.

"So, Eustace," Twilight spoke up, sounding much better than last time she spoke, "how old are you, exactly?"

"37, give or take a few years," he said, choosing one of his wall scans to answer her. "I stopped keeping track a while back."

"Oh man," Twilight giggled, "Pinkie'd have a field day with that. She's a friend from back home, really likes parties," she added at Eustace's querying look.

Next time Celestia spoke up. "Have you always been a hunter?"

"No, not always. I used to be a carpenter. Turns out being good with a saw translates well," he replied, though not very enthusiastically.

As they moved through the field, the cliff ahead continued to grow in their vision until it came to dominate entirely in it's direction. It's walls were high, though one could see more grass on the ridge up above.

As Eustace met the cliff edge, he kept an eye on it, keeping watch for any sign of an opening. As soon as he saw it, Celestia did too; a tall but thin cut in the cliff face fell into a cleft that, from their position outside, went deep into the cliff's stone.

"Alright, this is it. Ladies first," Eustace said as he tilted his head towards the opening, grinning wryly at them both.

Celestia rolled her eyes at him, but took point and lit her horn against the black that permeated the cleft. She was met with masonry, much of it heavily worn and cracked, lining the floor and walls, while rusted and unlit braziers sat cold and empty. Stone and wooden beam alike had, presumably, been installed to prevent collapses, but all that was left of the ones Celestia could see was piles of rubble that somewhat obscured the view forward.

"Shouldn't take us more than fifteen minutes to get through, seeing it's a nearly straight line through the Plateau," Eustace said as he took the rear behind Celestia and Twilight.

Celestia began to move further into the cleft, which rapidly proved to be more akin to a ravine, while carefully watching her step on the damaged masonry. While she could heal a twist or a sprain with ease she would rather not have to deal with the pain, however short lived it may be. She spent the next few minutes in silence, slowly getting used to the pattern of damage seen in the floor enough to not have to watch her hooves as closely.

"Hold on," she heard Eustace call from the back, "Didn't we pass this not just a few minutes ago?" he said, pointing a hoof at a particular pile of debris as they passed it.

Celestia stopped and looked at the pile. It didn't look familiar, but she hadn't really been paying attention anyways. "I don't know. How long until we get to the other side?"

"Up ahead there's a bend that leads into a tunnel that exits into the Rough, shouldn't be any further than another five minutes, I think," he replied uncertainly.

Celestia simply nodded and continued forward, suddenly much more eager to get out of the ravine.

"Hold on, this isn't right," Eustace called up a few moments later. "We should have hit the bend by now. Celestia, can you get above the Plateau and see where the bend is?"

Once again she nodded, and without another word detached the Kirkhammer and took wing. Within a few seconds she was in the air above the Plateau, looking down at the ravine's outline. She could see it twist up ahead, then disappear suddenly, presumably into the tunnel Eustace mentioned.

"I see it, just a few more minutes ahead," she called down as she descended, retaking her position at the head of their column and leading them forward. They spent the next few minutes in silence, waiting for the bend to manifest.

It did not.

"Alright, now I'm getting freaked out," Eustace said, "we definitely should have reached that bend by now." He stopped, raising a hoof to scratch at his chin. "Celestia, make it as quick as you can, but get to the other side of the Plateau and call to us from the tunnel entrance. The acoustics shouldcarry your voice to us."

"Alright," she said, and again took to the air. This time, she dipped just to the side when she reached the top of the ravine and out of sight of the bottom. Settling into a satisfactory position for the wind conditions, she began to beat her wings and propel herself forward.

As Celestia flew, the most peculiar thing happened. Even though she could feel the wind, the momentum, even see the Plateau's surface moving from her flight, the outline of the ravine didn't move at all, not even an inch. After a moment Celestia closed her eyes and shook her head, then began to descend once again.

"And so the experiment is concluded," she thought gravely, "with immensely dissatisfactory results."

"You're back," Eustace said as he spotted Celestia descending, "why?"

"Something stopped me," she said as she alighted on the ground. "I could feel the wind, the momentum, even see the Plateau moving, but the outline of the ravine just… stayed the same."

As Eustace listened, his expression only became more and more worried. "'Something' stopped you? I don't like the sound of that, at all," he said, shaking his head, clearly very eager to put distance between himself and whatever that something was. "Let's get out of here."

"Wait, aren't you at all curious about this?" asked Twilight as he turned away.

"Not at all," he said as he started back as fast as the ravine would allow. "'Something' can take itself and jump off the Great Bridge."

"Not. At. All." Eustace said quietly a few short minutes later as they emerged from the ravine, far quicker than they should have. Once again he took off at a canter into the field, watching the wall as he did before.

~~~~~

Far behind the buildings and the wall, the last rays of the day's sunlight glinted off the pinnacles of the Upper Cathedral Ward, and the Celestial Dial of the Astral Clocktower, unseen to Eustace, Twilight or Celestia, shifted one place counter-clockwise.

Author's Note

Detail: Wings are delicate apparatus, so how exactly does Twilight and Celestia carry their weapons? Well, Twilight doesn't have any special set-up seeing as how the handle of both the cane and the rifle would be located just above the wing joint considering rigging and sheathe. Thus, they are stored beneath the wing where the wing can sit fairly comfortably. Celestia is harder, considering the bulk of the Kirkhammer. Let's get into that with a new paragraph.

Simply put, the Kirkhammer sits in place of a saddle, but further down on the back. The sheathe is much the same as Twilight's cane, and the rigging goes around the body like a bandolier.

~~~

So, for those of you who don't read blogs the reason this is late is because Google "gone, reduced to atoms" my doc. Ouch. I've spent the last few days reconstructing it from memory. If there's anything that feels off here, that's why.

In other news, I am currently betaing other stories for other authors. Coupled with the fact that I'm having trouble writing the next chapter (decisions, all over the shop) and you might have to wait the full one month period for a chapter that isn't rewritten from memory. However, writing for post-next chapter sections is going swimmingly, which is funny considering its the significantly weirder part of Bloodborne.

As usual, please PM me with any improvements you note. Don't be afraid to comment or leave thoughts either, I enjoy reading them.

Edit: changed how the Kirkhammer is handled.