Dead Week

The alarm clock rang, waking Totality from a dead sleep. She quickly silenced the device with her magic. Then she shifted to slide out of bed, but a green foreleg wrapped around her barrel from behind, trapping her in the sheets.

“No,” grumbled Gamma sleepily.

“You have to go to class too,” she murmured, rolling over to face him.

“You’re such a good student," he muttered. "You’d go to class if the classroom was on fire.”

She laughed weakly “No, I wouldn’t. I’d just petition that we have class somewhere else until the flames were out.”

Totality desperately wished to stay in this moment where everything felt warm and safe and to pretend that nothing outside of the room mattered.

She brushed Gamma’s mane out of his eyes with her hoof and examined both of his blue eyes separately.

“What?” he asked, staring back at her.

“Nothing… I don’t think I’ve seen both of your eyes at the same time. I just wanted to make sure that you had two eyes and not one that was going back and forth between sockets or something.”

He laughed genuinely as she let go of his mane. It felt nice to hear him laugh again, a brief relapse into what she thought ‘normal’ was.

“You know what this means?” she asked.

“We’re out of the research partner zone?”

She rolled her eyes. I will never live that down, she thought. “No. Our first date is arguably sneaking into the catacombs and raising my dead ex with some dead rats.”

He paused with his lips mashed together in concerted thought. “We should probably come up with an alternate first date, y’know… for the non Red Umbra fans.”

“Yeah,” she agreed.

The two grudgingly staggered out of bed to begin their morning routines before class. Totality took her glasses and teleported down to the dorm lobby and then to her own room where Blue Moon was beginning to stir, thankfully alone and in her own bed.

“Oh, ho,” smirked Blue from the top bunk. “And where exactly were you all last night?”

Totality scoffed. “Hey, I don’t ask you questions when you mysteriously disappear.”

“It was Gamma Burst, right? Every time I see you recently, you’re with him.”

“His roommate's gone today,” replied Totality evasively, hoping that this wasn't about to turn into an interrogation for details.

Blue scratched her chin thoughtfully. “Oh, well that is convenient, isn’t it?”

Totality went to her anatomy class and had a difficult time putting the weight of the world out of her mind. When she left the building to go to her next class, Gamma was sitting right there on the edge of a planter, fidgeting.

“Hey, what are you doing over here?” asked Totality worriedly.

“I just came from my cultural equipology class, and guess who didn’t show up? Moondancer. All the students were there, so clearly class wasn’t officially canceled. I waited there for half an hour. She just never came… like she vanished or something,” he finished with a low growl.

Totality flashed back to the glasses they had found discarded in the catacombs. “Okay, this does look bad,” she admitted.

“I’m telling you, I can’t just not report this anymore. I don’t know how bad this is but I don’t think the cost is going to be worth saving me.”

Totality’s heart sank. It was impossible to gloss over the direness of the situation any longer. “Don't say it like that,” she quivered. “I know… It’s your book. It’s your decision, but if you really feel like you have to do this, tell me before you do it. I want to come with you.”

Gamma shook his head. “You can still have a future, Totality. There’s no reason for you to have to get tangled up in this with me.”

“Tell me anyway,” she insisted. “Remember, I said whatever happens, we need to stick together. Even if I don’t go with you, I’ll be waiting there for you to come back.”

Gamma stood up and wrapped his forelegs around her. She closed her eyes and did the same to him.

“Go to your classes,” he breathed. “It’s still important. Let’s talk about this at dinner, the usual outside spot, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“I… I have a lot of thinking to do.”

It was even more difficult to focus in her classes now with Gamma’s all but impending collision with the authorities and school administration, but she at least showed up. Things couldn’t just end now. They were a once in a lifetime find, and she feared this would tear them apart forever

At dinner, Totality waited near the line at the cafeteria for Gamma, but he was late. She debated whether or not to just get in line alone and get him food, but she didn’t. Gradually the line melted away and the tables emptied out. He still wasn’t there. Something was wrong.

She hurried to his room and knocked just in case his roommate was back. After a few moments with no answer, she aparated into the room. There was nopony inside, but she immediately noticed a chair tipped back and leaning against the wall. The books that she remembered being stacked on the edge of his desk had been knocked to the floor.

“Shit,” she breathed, looking around the rest of the room. It looked like there was a struggle. It looked as though he’d been abducted… like Moondancer probably was. Why them, specifically? It felt strangely targeted.

Totality began panting as panic rose within her. Where was Gamma and what was happening to him? She had to tell somepony about this. It was red alert.

“Son of a bitch!” She stamped her hoof on the floor. “I should be able to figure this out! I know there’s enough here to work with!”

What’s the connection between the missing ponies? Moondancer is a high profile mark, a terrible mark. When she disappears, a lot of ponies notice. It’s stupid. Why take her as a sacrifice?

She thought about both of the scenes and the evidence left behind as she paced back and forth. Her glasses ended up in the catacombs… Was she down there, looking around when she was taken? Maybe she’s not a sacrifice; maybe she’s a witness. But Gamma’s not… except they have his book and they know it’s his… and they have to know that Comet was raised, which obviously would require a necromancer to do. Gamma is the most obvious pony to suspect because he had the grimoire. They’ve had to have known he was a liability to their plans since the Comet incident, but why did they wait until now to handle him? Well… I have been around him a lot, so that makes it more difficult. Why does that sound so familiar?

Her eyes widened. “That was exactly what Blue Moon noticed.” We had that exact conversation this morning. I told her he was alone and then… he disappeared.

Totality aparated in a chain of bursts until she was in her own vacant dorm room. She lit the sconce with a flick of her horn to illuminate the darkened space. Then she quickly scanned the books on Blue’s desk. Her heart stopped as her eyes landed on a spine which read ‘Runic Arcana: A Primer’ and below that, a white library cataloging label. Right in plain sight.

Breathlessly, Totality floated the book from the lineup and opened the cover to reveal the built in checkout slip. The most recent signature was Mossy Boulders from two weeks ago. There was no mention whatsoever of Blue Moon.

She stood frozen in disbelief. My own roommate, she thought. She fits the description that the librarian gave… but she’s not in either of those classes with Gamma. She had no opportunity or motive to steal from Gamma.

Totality shook her head as she began to look around, repeating the same steps she’d gone through when searching Hazy’s room for the grimoire. She checked under both mattresses and every drawer in Blue’s desk. Then she popped out the bottom drawers and there it was, laying on the floor in the hollow of the desk: a leather bound grimoire inscribed with burnt runic symbols.

Totality floated the book from its hiding place, slack jawed. But Blue couldn’t have stolen it from Gamma, she thought. How did she get… Hazy! She’s in Gamma’s class and is friends with Blue. Hazy stole it and Blue got it from her. It changed hooves. That’s why we were never able to connect the two ends of the story. And Hazy’s been missing too! I just never put it together because I hate her and don’t care! I knew it was fucking Hazy!

Just then there came a zap and the room flashed with a burst of blue energy as Blue Moon teleported into the room without warning. Totality looked up with a start, locking eyes with the surprised Blue.

Glass shattered at Totality’s hooves as Blue quickly flung a flask down from her saddlebag. Green gas swirled around her as she began to choke. Totality struggled to cast the spell but successfully teleported outside to the cobblestone breezeway where she collapsed in a coughing fit. Her vision began to blur as she looked around for help but saw none. Suddenly she blinked back into the dorm room and the suffocating gas cloud. Blue pinned her there with her magic. She stood back at a safe distance and watched emotionlessly as Totality coughed and heaved till she finally succumbed to the toxin.