Shattered Souls

Chapter 35

Everyone had probably suffered from some kind of awkward situation involving travel. Bumping into an old bully on a morning flight and pretending you don’t hate each other as you ‘catch up’. Getting into a fight with your family or significant other and having to spend the rest of the wagon trip in uncomfortable silence. Lightning’s current predicament was closer to the later in her eyes but probably closer to the former in Rainbow’s eyes.

Rarity, Coco, Rainbow, and Lightning were all on a train bound for Canterlot. The Unicorn and the Earth Pony were chatting away merrily as if there wasn’t a worry in the world. Rainbow kept alternating between pretending to ignore the world, trying to nap, and shooting dirty looks in Lightning’s direction.

At least Lightning had gotten Fluttershy to tell her why Rainbow regarded her with such hostility. Honestly, if what the soft spoken mare had said was true, Lightning wanted to give her utterly undisciplined counterpart a piece of her own mind. What kind of moron just sends what sounded like an EF 2 tornado flying off in whatever direction they feel like? Now the only problem for Lightning was figuring out how to prove to Rainbow that she wasn’t the same as this dimension’s version of her. Preferably a method that didn’t involve the weeks or months it might take to track her counterpart down and verbally rip strips off of the idiot’s hide.

Lightning briefly wished again that Duskfall had accompanied them, but last Lightning had known the Alicorn was still sleeping. Lightning knew how light a sleeper Duskfall could be even when utterly exhausted and had no desire to rouse her. Still, it would have been nice to have an intermediary between herself and Rainbow. Especially given Rarity seemed to have decided her role started and ended with forcing the two Pegasai into the same space until they worked out their differences.

For two people who tended towards vocal expression, that may have very well worked. Unfortunately, Rainbow was sullen and Lightning wasn’t inclined to poke the bear. So they both kept their mouths shut for the whole train ride. If this threw a damper on Rarity’s schemes, the Unicorn didn’t show it.

Once they arrived in Canterlot, it wasn’t long before the group made it to Rarity’s new boutique.

“Thank you all every so much for agreeing to help,” Rarity said with practiced false sincerity as she fluttered her eyes. Neither Lightning nor Rainbow wasted the energy to point out Rarity had all but shanghaied them both.

“So, what are we supposed to do? I don’t know anything about fashion, you know that, and I doubt Lightning here knows much more than I do,” Rainbow pointed out.

“You wouldn’t expect a trio of poor, delicate fashionistas to do any heavy lifting, now would you?” Rarity asked, already walking towards the door.

“Trio? There’s only you and Coco,” Rainbow pointed out, but Rarity opened the door to reveal the third pony.

“Rarity, I’m here!” A Unicorn mare with orange and yellow in her mane and a powder blue coat, announced. She was also wearing some sort of dress, but as Rainbow had said, fashion was not Lightning’s area of expertise. If they weren’t dress blues, Lightning didn’t know the first thing about dressing up.

“Sassy Saddles! You’re just in time, Darling!” Rarity exclaimed, “Say hello to the manager of my Canterlot Boutique!”

“Burst my buttons, you must be Rainbow Dash! It’s such an honor to work with two of the Elements of Harmony!” Sassy exclaimed, a huge smile on her face.

“When I saw Sassy’s resume, I simply had to hire her! She’s worked at all the finest boutiques in Canterlot!” Rarity sounded very proud of herself for snatching up such talent, but something about the way that was said pricked Lightning’s ears. Sassy didn’t look any older than she did, yet according to Rarity, the powder blue Unicorn had held multiple jobs. That could mean either one of two things. Either Sassy was just that good and could bounce from job to job without worry because her talents were in such high demand or Sassy had been fired over and over.

Well, Lightning supposed there was a non-zero chance Sassy was some kind of industrial spy. As ludicrous as that may sound, well, she was from an alternate dimension and consort (?) to one of the three Alicorn Princesses of this Equestria. Hanging around Duskfall made Insanity the order of the day every day. So Lightning resolved to keep an eye on Sassy whenever possible.

Sassy then went on to explain how she planned to help Canterlot Carousel. Firstly was making sure the boutique itself was up to snuff visually, something that had thankfully been done prior to their arrival. Stage two had been getting an ear to the ground and finding out what was popular at the moment. According to Sassy, it was the Princesses, inspired by ‘Twilight’ going dark and mysterious with her new name.

“Every poll Sassy took, Duskfall was the most popular princess!” Rarity added.

“I’m sure she’d be thrilled to hear that,” Rainbow and Lightning snarked at the same time. The Pegasai glanced at each other briefly before looking away again. Rarity sighed a bit before moving towards a dais in the room.

“I know, I know, but the public wants what it wants,” Rarity said apologetically, “To that end, I have developed sister fashion lines, one representing Duskfall and the other Twilight.”

The curtains pulled back, revealing a pair of dresses. Lightning couldn’t opine on the ‘fashion’ part, but she was very familiar with a particular version of Twilight. The color schemes were what really sold it in Lightning’s mind. One was primarily a lighter mulberry, a few shades brighter than Duskfall and Twilight’s coat. The rest of the dress followed this theme, graduating into a light cornflower blue, a light turquoise that was similar to Lightning’s coat, and finally coming together in Twilight’s starburst as a sort of crest on the chest.

For the sister dress, it too started out in mulberry territory, but instead darker than Twilight and Duskfall’s coat. From there it headed into a dark phthalo blue, veered into a dark blood red, and was tied together by Duskfall’s Cutie Mark on the chest.

“Gotta hand it too ya, Rares, I may not know about all that fancy frou-frou stuff, but I think you hit the nail on the head,” Rainbow complimented.

“Thank you, Darling, but I can’t take all the credit. I was at my wit’s end trying to figure these dresses out when Coco suggested I use their Cutie Marks on the chest,” Rarity gazed on the Earth Pony warmly, who blushed and looked away.

“I’m sure you would’ve figured it out eventually,” She kicked at the floor bashfully, but a smile on her face betrayed how happy she was.

“Polls also suggested that Ponies are more likely to buy a dress if someone famous is wearing it,” Sassy remarked and the three fashionista looked at Rainbow.

“I’m not wriggling out of this, am I?” Rainbow asked, already muttering curses under her breath that only Lightning picked up.

“I’m afraid not, Rainbow. Think of it for penance for the time you got canned cheese all over my latest design,” Rarity said as her hopeful smile turned predatory and Rainbow deflated. She knew karmic punishment when she saw it.

“Well then, I do believe it’s finally time to open the doors to the public! Oh my stars, I can’t believe it’s finally happening!” Rarity squealed as she went to open the door and announce the grand opening. However, before Rarity could get a word out, Sassy shouted out to the crowd that Canterlot Carousel was open for business. Rarity was less than pleased by this turn of events.

“What was that?!” Rainbow spluttered in outrage, “She totally stole your thunder!”

“It’s…fine,” Rarity said, even if her face screamed it was anything but fine.

“Rarity, are you ready to reveal your collection?” Sassy asked eagerly. Lightning felt Rainbow tense up beside her, but the prismatic Pegasus must have decided that if Rarity wouldn’t say anything, she would hold her tongue for the moment. So Rainbow was herded off by Coco to put on the Duskfall dress.

Rarity returned to the dais, clearly a bit nervous. Whether that was from the crowd, a fear of Sassy upstaging her again, or both, Lightning wasn’t sure. She wouldn’t be surprised in any event. Thankfully, Sassy stayed out of the way this time and allowed Rarity to pull back the curtain on her whole lineup of dresses. The Duskfall and Twilight ones, Lightning had already seen, but there was also one inspired by Luna, one for Celestia, and one for the city itself.

Then Sassy got overeager again and took the mannequins in her magic and started floating them about the boutique. It was a nice effect, but because Rarity hadn’t been expecting it, the surprise threw her off her game when a stallion who was smiling with a few too many teeth who Rarity recognized as Fashion Plate of Cosmare magazine. Lightning vaguely recalled such a magazine her mother used to read before the Nightmare had cracked down on gossip rags.

That was when Lightning overheard something quite interesting. Apparently the Cosmare stallion was only here because Sassy had informed them about a hot new boutique opening. That was odd on a number of levels. Not only did it imply Sassy’s word in the fashion industry was good as gold, but it also sounded like the paparazzi didn’t consider a national heroine opening a boutique noteworthy enough on its own. It was possible he was just saying it like that to gaslight Rarity, but Lightning didn’t think so. She filed it away under things to ask Duskfall later.

In any event, as Rarity’s impromptu interview went on, Lightning got a clearer and clearer picture of at least part of the reason Sassy bounced from job to job. Now the question became: what was Lightning going to do about it? Old Lightning would have tormented and tortured a new recruit acting the way Sassy did until they either dropped out or got their shit together. Clearly that wasn’t an option. So Lightning kept her thoughts to herself as she watched Rarity recover and get into the flow of Sassy’s display.

That flow came to a screeching halt when Sassy decided to deviate from the script she had just finished writing. Rarity was about to reveal the Twilight Dress which would then lead up into the Duskfall Dress worn by Rainbow. Yet Sassy claimed the Twilight Dress was ‘too complicated’ and skipped right over it, stealing the spotlight and directing the attention towards Rainbow in the Duskfall Dress.

Poor Rarity looked torn. On the one hand, she was glad that the public seemed to really like the Duskfall Dress. On the other, it wasn’t hard to see that the Twilight Dress was also near and dear to Rarity’s heart and she wanted it to have a chance to shine beside its sister. Even Lightning could draw comparisons to Celestia and Luna’s fight and what was happening now. One sister being thrust into the spotlight and the other forced to languish in the shadows. Sure, these were dresses while Celestia and Luna were people, but the meaning they held to Rarity was real enough.

“Everyone, follow me and you can place your orders for the Duskfall Dress!” Sassy called out. The dress was a smash hit. Everyone said so. Yet Rarity looked almost defeated. Her shoulders were slumped, her ears drooped, and she could barely make eye contact with the Cosmare stallion. There was no ‘almost’ in how exhausted Rarity looked when Sassy presented over 100 orders for the same dress to Rarity.

“A hundred orders?! For the same dress?! AT THE SAME TIME?!” Rarity exclaimed, her face a mask of panic.

“According to my pattern, the next piece is the success of the signature dress! So, I don’t see a problem,” Sassy remarked. Rarity was deeply displeased, glaring at Sassy with a noticeable eye twitch.

“Sassy, I would have appreciated it if I had handled the reveals of my collection,” Rarity ground out, doing her utmost to keep a polite tone yet anyone with ears should have been able to hear her patience was near breaking point.

“But Rarity, the two dresses were so similar, they would have simply hurt each other in the long run,” Sassy waved it off. That was most certainly the wrong thing to say. Rarity opened her mouth as if to yell at Sassy, but snapped her jaw shut and stormed off at the last second.

Lightning couldn’t blame Sassy for such a remark. At the end of the day, as far as the public were aware outside of Ponyville, Duskfall and Twilight were one and the same. To the average person, paying tribute to both sides of “Twilight” in a single lineup of dresses, while interesting, might not have been the most rewarding visually. To those who knew the truth, that knew Twilight was dead and Duskfall was her own person, it was so much more than just a color scheme. It was a small mark of who Twilight had been and who Duskfall had become. It was a tribute to a fallen friend and a mark of acceptance of the one who had been forced to take her place.

It was amazing what five months hanging around someone like Duskfall could do for your introspection skills.

Two days later and Lightning knew she had to step in. Rarity and Coco were both working themselves ragged. Rarity looked dead on her hooves and while Coco seemed to have the endurance of a champion, there were little things in her posture and movement that a career soldier and warrior could pick up on that betrayed Coco was more tired than she let on. Somehow, between the two of them, they had completed 68 dresses in those two days.

Yet it wasn’t enough. Sassy had all but locked Rarity and Coco in the back room to sew the Duskfall Dresses while Sassy deliberately went out of her way to encourage more orders of that dress while discouraging orders of any other dress. Lightning would never claim to have been close to the Rarity of her home dimension, but even she knew that creating the same thing over and over was anathema to Rarity. This Rarity seemed to be no different in this regard.

“Miss Saddles, I’d like a word, if you please,” Lightning requested.

“But I’m with a customer,” Sassy protested, gesturing to the pony in question as if Lightning were blind.

“I’m aware. I want to talk to you now. Either finish with the customer or ask them to wait,” Lightning ordered.

“Can’t it wait?” Sassy begged.

“Now,” Lightning repeated, taking an aggressive stance to show she meant business.

“I’m, uh, I was just getting ready to leave!” The other pony said nervously before bolting out the door.

“Well what was so important that you had to scare off a customer?!” Sassy demanded, trying to match Lightning’s antagonistic posture. Lightning wouldn’t have been intimidated by a civilian even before meeting Duskfall.

“Tell me, Sassy, do you want to keep this job or are you aiming to lose it just like you’ve lost every other job you’ve held in the fashion industry?” Lightning asked, completely ignoring Sassy’s hostile tone.

“What on Equuis are you talking about?!” Sassy shouted, stamping a hoof, “I’m making this boutique a success! Why would I be fired?”

“The exact same reason you’ve always been fired. You forget who the boss is. You think you’re showing initiative. Well, allow me to enlighten you. What you’re doing isn’t showing initiative, it’s being insubordinate. You take something that’s supposed to be special, unique, and you try and turn it into a bit-a-dozen, flash in the pan fad. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you simultaneously choke the creative life out of the artists who originally made the dress you’re so insistent on turning into a mass produced brand!” Lightning exclaimed with her wings flared. As much as people like to joke about tins soldiers, you don’t get to be above the rank and file without knowing and appreciating everyone’s uniqueness. Lightning was the Captain of the Shadowbolts. She and the Nightmare picked every candidate individually. They only took the best of the best and that naturally meant they were all unique ponies. Yet one thing unified them all: a drive to succeed. Lightning couldn’t stand by and watch as Sassy choked Rarity’s drive out of her.

“What are you talking about?! I’m helping this boutique succeed! Soon the Duskfall Dress will be a household name and we’ll have enough bits to buy a factory of workers to sew Duskfall Dresses day in and day out! The doors to Sassy’s boutique will never close!” Sassy yelled. After an outburst like that, there was really only one thing to do. Lightning slapped Sassy across the face.

“Whose name is on the sign? Whose name is on the deed to this building?” Lightning growled, her teeth bared and her ears splayed back.

“Rarity’s?” Sassy asked dumbly, holding a hoof to the cheek Lightning had slapped.

“Then where the fuck did you get the idea this was your boutique? You haven’t sewn a single stitch nor put forward an original design. At best you’re a PR mare with delusions of grandeur,” Lightning sneered at the Unicorn.

“But- but- but I’ve put so much work into this boutique!” Sassy protested.

“Even if you had done half the work you seem to believe you did, that still wouldn’t entitle you to claiming any amount of ownership!” Lightning barked getting in Sassy’s face, “You are an employee. You are paid to do the job asked of you. If you go above and beyond the call of duty, you may receive a raise or be promoted. It is not so different from being a soldier. You perform your duties and if you do well or if you prove yourself in some way, you move up in the ranks. But do you know what happens if a mere private tries to take command of a battalion without being ordered to do so and there are no extremely extenuating circumstances, they are charged with insubordination at the very least! If you were one of my soldiers and you tried to pull with me what you’ve been pulling with Rarity you would have been drummed out of the force with a dishonorable discharge inside a week!”

“Insubordination? But I’ve done nothing but help!” Sassy continued her denial. Lightning had had just about enough of this mare, but in the interest of trying to be a better person, Lightning decided to try one last avenue of attack. Lightning physically dragged Sassy to the door to the back room and cracked the door open to allow them to peek inside.

“Take a good long look at Rarity and Coco. Tell me, Ms. Saddles, does either of them look like they’ve been ‘helped’?” Lightning asked. Anyone with eyes could see the pair was miserable. Rarity had abandoned all pretenses at posture, hunched over her sewing machine and looking more like an old crone than a mare in the prime of her life. An impression only enforced by her frayed mane and bags under her eyes.

If Rarity was bad, Coco was awful. She was jittering and shaking, murmuring under her breath, and her pupils were dilated. It was almost like she was on the verge, if not already having, a nervous breakdown.

“No…oh my stars…did I do that to them..?” Sassy was aghast and rightfully so in Lightning’s opinion.

“Do you see anyone else demanding they, between the two of them, sew over a hundred dresses each? The exact same dress, over and over, I might add. Yes, Sassy Saddles, their current state is your doing,” Lightning’s voice was kept carefully neutral as she gazed at the Unicorn. Lightning was only mildly surprised when Sassy pushed the door fully opened and entered the back room.

“I’m sorry,” Sassy sounded genuinely contrite, “I…I’m not sure how or when it happened. I was just so obsessed with success…I’ve done a terrible thing…”

“Sassy, you’re not making sense,” Rarity said, confusion clear on her visage.

“Then allow me to translate,” Lightning suggested, “Sassy has seen the negative effects her demands have had upon you and is apologizing for her cruelty and insubordination.”

Sassy flinched at the word ‘cruelty’, but made no attempts to deny it. She just mutely nodded in agreement with Lightning’s assessment of her misdeeds. Rarity and Coco glanced at each other in silent conversation.

“Ms. Saddles, my first inclination is to forgive you and let bygones be bygones,” Coco began, “But that wouldn’t be fair to either of us. Before I started working for and with Rarity, I worked for a mare named Suri Polomare.” The name held no meaning to Lightning, but a flash of anger in Rarity’s eyes and a look of shock on Sassy’s face made it clear to Lightning this Suri mare was not some nobody.

“You were the one..?” Sassy said hesitantly, unsure how to continue her sentence without being rude.

“The one who was abused and taken advantage of for a little over five years, yes that was me. I won’t lie. Being forced to put together so many dresses in such a short period of time in an assembly line style brought back some memories I had hoped were buried forever. If I had never been saved from Suri, I would have probably put this whole incident from my mind and tried to never think about it again. But part of my healing is recognizing I do have worth and that when I have been wronged it is OK if I get upset and want justice,” Coco said, her eyes closed as if gathering her thoughts.

“…I understand. I’ll leave quietly,” Sassy said sadly, her eyes cast downward and preparing to slink from the room like a dog that had just been scolded.

“Leave? Where do you think you’re going?” Rarity asked and Sassy froze in her tracks, “We fully expect you to pay back your debt to us by continuing to work here at Canterlot Carousel, only from now on you will be held to my standards instead of you holding us to yours. Am I understood?”

“I…I…yes…yes! Crystal clear! Oh, my bursting buttons, you won’t regret this, I promise!” Sassy exclaimed before taking Rarity’s hoof in hers and shaking it wildly, “Oh, thank you!”

A day later and Rarity, Coco, Lightning, and Rainbow were on the train back to Ponyville. Coco and Rarity were both asleep. As much as Rainbow and Lightning had been able to help with getting the store reorganized, Coco and Rarity had been the ones to handle the bulk of the work involved with getting Sassy up to speed on how to properly run Canterlot Carousel. Lightning was just looking forward to being by her Lady’s side once more.

“Hey, Lightning?” Suddenly Rainbow spoke up. Lightning turned her head towards Rainbow to show she was listening, “I, uh, overheard that little talk you had with Sassy. The Lightning of this dimension wouldn’t have done something like that or said those words. I…well, I’m sorry for giving you the cold shoulder.”

“No hard feelings, Rainbow. I heard what happened from Fluttershy. I’m not exactly thrilled with my counterpart’s actions either and I’m not even really friends with any of you,” Lightning remarked, turning back to look out the window, believing the conversation over.

“We are now,” Rainbow said, snapping Lightning’s attention back to her.

“How do you mean?” Lightning asked.

“Friends, you and me, if you want,” Rainbow offered, holding out a hoof. Lightning regarded the gesture of friendship for a moment, emotions warring inside her, primarily shock. Finally, she accepted the hoof and gave it a hearty shake.

“I would like that,” Lightning replied, a wan smile on her face.

“And not just because it’s what Duskfall would want,” Rainbow teased, a grin blossoming from her.

“If lies make you happy,” Lightning snarked and the two Pegasai spent the rest of the train ride getting to know each other better.

“Oh, Duskfall, you’re awake!” Cadence noted with mild surprise as she entered the kitchen. The purple Alicorn still looked weary, despite having slept for almost 3 days straight.

“My body woke me before I could die of starvation, otherwise I’d probably still be sleeping,” Duskfall admitted around a wide yawn. Duskfall began scavenging in her kitchen for food, “It’s just as well I met you, Cadence. I’ve got a question I’ve been meaning to ask.”

“What’s that, Duskfall?” Cadence inquired, her ears perked in curiosity.

“How old are you, really?” Duskfall inquired. Whatever question Cadence had been expecting it hadn’t been that. Cadence hesitated a moment too long for any sort of lie to be believable and they both knew it.

“What brought this on?” Cadence wondered idly as she walked up to the counter and sat down.

“While I was out and about on my travels, I came across multiple mentions of you dating back to the original fall of the Crystal Empire. It also occurred to me that your Cutie Mark contains the Crystal Heart. We both know that while the exact lore and reasoning behind the iconography of a Cutie Mark may not always be clear to the owner of the Cutie Mark, the Pony will always recognize what is contained in that image. If I didn’t know what a Penrose Triangle was, no such thing would have appeared on my Cutie Mark and some other, similar thing would have taken its place,” Duskfall replied while digging out the components for a sandwich.

“I was born, oh, 15 years or so before Sombra took over the Crystal Empire about 1,000 years ago. I actually grew up in one of the Empire’s satellite villages. I was a Pegasus raised in an almost entirely Earth Pony community. This and that happened, there was an evil enchantress who was jealous of our happiness, she tried to destroy it using an artifact that caused strife, and when I overcame the power of that artifact I had become an Alicorn and gotten my Cutie Mark,” Cadence revealed as Duskfall sat down next to her to begin construction of her sandwich.

“So why pretend to be a teenager and go through high school again?” Duskfall wondered. There was no judgment or anger in her voice, just simple curiosity.

“Put simply, I didn’t want to grow up. After the Empire went missing thanks to Sombra, Celestia and Luna took me in and I ended up wandering Equestria. I’d pose as a regular teenager of one of the 3 tribes for 5 years or so, leave to ‘seek my fortune’, and do it all over again somewhere else. As much as I’d like to, I really can’t give you a better answer. Maybe I was afraid of responsibility, maybe I had itchy hooves, maybe I was in love with being eternally youthful, or maybe it was none of those. Obviously the next question would be: what got me to settle down? At first it was Celestia. She knew the time of Luna’s return, as well as a bunch of other ticking 1,000 year clocks and so asked I stick around Canterlot as my true self just if the worst happened. Get the public used to me if it turned out Luna was beyond saving,” Cadence sighed at the memories of those long talks with her adoptive aunt.

“And then you met Twilight and Shining,” Duskfall noted as she swallowed some of her sandwich.

“And then I met Twilight and Shining,” Cadence agreed, “I had seen romantic love before, of course, helped it grow where it could and pruned it where it couldn’t. Yet the only type of love I had experienced myself was familial and friendship. That wasn’t really what I was an Alicorn of. When I met Shining in all his awkward, dorky, cuteness, my heart skipped a beat. This was the sort of Love that I represented. It was the fiery, passionate love of romance that lights the way in darkest night and keeps you warm in the winter of your life. I finally had a real reason to stay in one place. Someone to be my anchor that I didn’t even realize I needed until he appeared. A few days later, I met quite the special little filly named Twilight Sparkle and that was that. Even if I wanted to leave, to continue my nomadic ways, it would have simply been impossible. I knew that even spending a few days apart from Shining and Twilight, pretending things could have continued the way they had been, would have been torture. The rest, as they say, is history.”

Duskfall was silent as she finished her sandwich, contemplating what she had learned.

“I’m glad you came into her life,” Duskfall finally said, “And she was glad you came into Shining’s life. Tom didn’t know you as long, of course, but he thought you were a decent sort too. Have you told Shining any of this?”

“Of course, relationships are built on trust. I told him the truth before we agreed to go steady,” Cadence replied, a small smile appearing as she remembered Shining’s reaction to her admitting to being over 1,000 years old.

“That’s good…that’s good…” Duskfall yawned again, her eyelids already flagging as she struggled not to fall asleep in the kitchen, “I’m going back to bed, thanks for taking a weight off my mind.”

“Rarity and the others will be back soon. Don’t you want to stay up to greet them?” Cadence asked, despite already knowing the answer.

“I would if I could, but I’m…I’m…*yawn*…barely staying awake as is. I’d hate to fall asleep and topple onto the tracks,” Duskfall said sleepily.

“Are you sure you’re alright? You’ve been sleeping for 3 days and are going right back to sleep,” Cadence said worriedly.

“My trip left me very stressed and I drained myself dry twice in quick succession. I’ll be fine, I just need to sleep a little more and my Healing Darkness will be back to self sustaining levels. After that I should be able to resume normal hours of operation, even if I’ll still probably be lethargic for another week or so,” Duskfall hated how close she was cutting it with the Winter Solstice, but she needed this time to recuperate.

“If you’re certain, then sweet dreams, Duskfall,” Cadence bid. Duskfall gave her a tired smile and a weak wave of her wing before returning to her bedroom and falling back into a dead sleep.

Author's Note

This is your reminder that I know jack all about fashion.

So...this chapter is technically on time as I'm uploading it around 9:30pm a week after I uploaded the last chapter. However, it both should be this way and shouldn't be. Allow me to explain.

For some reason, I was in this kind of bizarre in-between state, straddling the line between sleep and wakefulness that had the pros of neither and the cons of both. I was this way for almost 4 days. One moment it was October 22nd and the next thing I know it's October 26th. Thankfully I had the chapter almost finished on the 21st, but I'm still not sure how I lost a full 4 days.

I WAS ABDUCTED BY ALIENS