A Moonlit Storm

Chapters

Storm Warning
Gathering Clouds
Thunder Rolls
Lightning Strikes
Downpour
Sun Shines Through

Storm Warning

"See here, Flurry? This is your honourary great aunt, Kisu!"

The glow of Night Light's magic faded from the page of the photo album, and his hoof pressed into the space right below the image of the striped mare. She was draped in a gold-coloured dress, with matching shoes and necklace, in the middle of a ballroom full of ponies and other creatures. Like many guests at the Grand Galloping Gala, she had the look about her of someone fighting an internal battle against openly showing her boredom and steadily losing the fight. A nearby donkey, while out of focus of the camera's lens, seemed to have already thrown in the towel, on the verge of falling asleep on their hooves.

Night Light watched on in pride as the alicorn filly resting at his side peered at the page with wide eyes, babbling to herself, and he brightly continued, "Now, Auntie Kisu here is a zebra. Can you say 'zebra,' sweetie?"

Flurry Heart looked at him, then back at the page, and she stabbed a hoof at the photo right next to his with a triumphant, "Weeba!"

"Very good!" He pulled his hoof back and ruffled Flurry's mane with it, as his magic gripped the corner of the next page. "And here--"

Another hoof came down, this one a more vibrant pink than Flurry's, belonging to the adult alicorn perched on the other side of him. The couch was thankfully plenty big enough to share with Cadence, as she wasn't much larger than the average unicorn. She kept the album pinned as she peered at the photo. "How did you meet Kisu?" she asked, her gaze roaming the zebra mare's features. "Twilight's never told me much, just that she inspired her to read about other species and far-off lands."

As Cadence studied the page, he studied her. She'd left her regalia in a pile by the door, as when she came home to visit her in-laws, she liked to shed the royal persona and just be herself. However, it seemed that you could take a crown off a princess but you couldn't make them stop thinking like one, and he could see the gears turning in the same way that the elder alicorns did when they saw a mystery that needed pondering. It was a look he was starting to see more and more on his daughter's face as well, and it left him all the more proud of her and optimistic for her future.

Night Light, for his part, laughed off the inquiry, waving slightly in the air with his hoof. "Oh there's no real story there. I just spent some time in Farasi before I met Velvet, and the two of us got to be the best of friends." With a small tug of the page, he managed to get her to retract her hoof, and he turned his attention back to his grandfoal as new photographs took up her vision. "Look, Flurry, this is me at my first ever bingo tournament. Can you say 'bingo?'"

"Bimgo!"

Night Light could feel Cadence staring at him with narrowed, suspicious eyes, as he grinned proudly at Flurry Heart, but he had been perfecting his "oblivious father'" act for years and it didn't take much adjustment to turn it into "oblivious grandfather and father-in-law." She would get no answers from him, or any open hint that there were answers to find. After all, he'd told the truth. He had spent time in Farasi, and Kisu was one of his best friends.

And one thing Night Light was good at was keeping friends' secrets.

"I appreciate you heeding my call on such short notice, Lord Night Light."

He stood at the foot of the towering, sun-decorated throne for far from the first time, and as he always had, he bent his front legs and lowered his head in a bow until the tip of his horn was almost scraping the marble. "Of course, Your Highness. I could do no less." He watched out of the corner of his eye as Princess Celestia gestured with her wings, and the guards reluctantly obeyed, filing out of the room to allow for privacy. Only then did he rise, adding with a chuckle, "I cited a family emergency, so my 'aunt' Sunny Daze will need to develop some trouble with her hip for several months."

He watched the smallest smirk come to the princess's face. "I'll make sure that when next your colleagues see 'her,' there's an appropriate level of limp." The expression was short-lived, and her chest expanded with a deep breath that came out in long, low sigh. "Now, as for why I brought you here... there is some worrying news from our agents in Zebrat, and it concerns unicorn magic."

He tilted his head slightly in thought. "Something's happened that needs to be neutralized?" he guessed. He'd been called numerous times to deal with cases of unicorn magic gone awry, but as far as he knew, Farasi was home to zebras, donkeys, abada, and kelpies in abundance, but very few ponies, of any sort. Worrying, indeed.

Princess Celestia shook her head, slowly. "This isn't something that can be permanently stopped, though I'll be sure to teach you additional spells to place it into dormancy for transport." And before he could inquire further, something about the room changed, as if all the shadows, especially those cast onto Celestia's pristine white coat, had grown much deeper. "Tell me, Lord Light, how familiar are you with the work of Sacanas?"

The most honest answer to that would be far too much for his liking, and the reasoning for that were the words he uttered in response. "I'm aware that she was both lauded as the Starswirl of her time and a raging unicorn supremacist." The last three words felt like acid on his tongue, and he fought the urge to scrape it against his teeth. He'd read the books that were required to in order to work with any form of research that Sacanas had so much as tapped the tip of her horn against, and so many of it had been exactly why those schools of magic were restricted in the first place.

Princess Celestia sighed again, and Night Light saw regret in her eyes as she seemed to be looking in his direction, but not so much at him. "Then you have the gist." Her expression settled into something more neutral, as did her voice. "If our intel is correct, one of her many 'masterpieces' has resurfaced. Apparently it had been in the private collection of a kelpie duke who had no idea what he was holding. A duke who has recently passed on with no heir, with most of his collection going up for auction. There is evidence that the Thunderstrikes are looking to purchase."

He didn't need to be asked what he knew of that name, as it had come up more than once. The Storm Kingdom was not an ally of Equestria, but it was also not its enemy. The nation founded by satyrs and hedgebeasts kept to itself, much like the northern yaks, and cared about Equestria as only as far as trading for a few foods they couldn't easily grow themselves in their tumultuous weather. The Thunderstrikes, however, were warmongers, and as the kingdom was an elective monarchy, they would back whatever noble house they felt would put forth an appropriate candidate for the next king or queen, gathering every edge they possibly could for their much-desired conquest in the mean time.

Unicorns were not the most powerful of magic users. There was an argument to be made for some of the most versatile--at least, there was when taking the group as a whole, while individuals were often quite literal one trick ponies--but not the most powerful. It didn't stop them from pulling off some truly creative atrocities when they applied themselves, and rising beyond a certain clearance meant being aware of all of the terrible possibilities, in order to be able to have a chance of heading off the next one.

Those terrible possibilities had had the Thunderstrikes hunting for unicorn artefacts more than once, but to pursue a Sacanas...

Night Light couldn't help but voice what he was thinking, "Would one of her works even function for them?"

Princess Celestia's neutral countenance was broken by a wince. "Some of them are surprisingly... accessible," spoke the voice of experience. "And even if that turns out to not be the case, the Storm Kingdom does have pony citizens, and the Thunderstrikes are happy to recruit them to the cause."

Night Light felt his ears flatten at that, but he kept his voice level. "So it's go in, purchase the artefact, secure it, and bring it home?" He had so rarely been involved in retrieval, but he'd done so enough to understand the process.

"Yes, but I'm under no illusions that the Thunderstrikes will let a Sacanas artefact slip from their grasp so easily." Princess Celestia looked toward a set of tapestries, and nodded toward the shadows they cast. "So I'm assigning you a partner."

The shadows moved, and the zebra they formed into was mid-step as she walked toward the throne, approaching at an angle that gave him a good look at her mark. Zebra marks were less colourful than ponies', looking much like they'd been drawn in warped stripes, and hers had twisted into a single straight, diagonal line and a curved line beneath it in parallel. A stylized knife. The zebra looked to him, then to the princess, and gave no more than a slight incline of her head for a bow. "It'll be a honour to slap another power source out of their hands, Your Highness."

Princess Celestia smiled slightly. "This is Kisu. She's an Equestrian citizen, but she lived in Farasi for most of her youth. She'll provide your cover, a guide, and extra firepower, should you need it."

"My cover?" he asked.

It wasn't the princess who answered, but Kisu herself, a slight smile coming to her own muzzle as well. "Congratulations, Mr. Light. You're engaged." A single, low chuckle, and she added, "Most ponies in Farasi are those who've married locals. Students and businesscreatures who travel overseas managing to snag a lovesick pony before heading home will still stand out, but nothing that would register as suspicious."

"I see." He turned his attention back to the throne, nodding his approval. "Clever."

"I do have my moments, Lord Light," Celestia noted, with a sound that was almost a giggle.

"Of course, Your Highness, hundreds of years of them." With a chuckle of his own, he then tossed the mirth aside. "Now, tell me more about this artefact..."

He had been on a rare few retrievals before, but this was clearly no ordinary retrieval. It was time to get to business, and he watched shadows of regret fall over Princess Celestia's face as she told him the heartwrenching tale of what she had once heard one of the most brilliantly terrifying unicorns in history call the Alicorn Amulet.

Gathering Clouds

He'd guessed that the princess and Sacanas had known each other personally, but he hadn't known the half of it, having sat and listened to the whole tale of a close friendship shattered. He was certain that if it hadn't been Celestia, who'd learned to control her emotions for longer than any other pony had been alive, she would have openly wept in the throne room as she told him what he was certain wasn't everything, but enough. The unicorn had existed over five hundred years ago, and yet she'd told the story as if it'd just happened yesterday. Maybe alicorns processed time differently, or it had simply left that deep a mark.

Regardless, he would lock the words away, and keep the secret to his grave, as any loyal Crown agent did. What had mostly surprised him was that she would bare her soul in such a way with Kisu standing there. It implied a level of trust that he wasn't expecting her to have for the shadow-walking mare. Kisu had even had the boldness to approach the throne and reach out a hoof to comfort, something he would have never thought to do. When Princess Celestia was on her throne, there was an unspoken barrier, a threshold that none would dare cross.

Kisu had acted as if the barrier hadn't existed. Maybe for her, it didn't. Maybe to a non-pony, the crown, horn, and wings didn't mean the same things and an alicorn was like any other mare. It piqued his sense of intrigue, and that's why he'd approached her on the deck of the ship.

It was a small ship, meant not to draw attention to itself, the two of them the only passengers and a cargo hold full of Equestrian-made goods to sell at port. They were to be a couple who had convinced the donkey captain to bring them along on his trade route, and who had reluctantly agreed for the bits and because they were just so endearingly in love. It was a part that he still wasn't sure how he was going to play, since his experience with romance could be charitably described as limited, much like his experience with artefact retrieval.

Still, even if their cover hadn't required for them to act like they knew each other well, he still would have walked up to her as she stood staring out at the horizon. "Sooooo..." He saw the word set one of her ears flicking toward him, and continued. "How does a zebra from Farasi end up working as a Crown agent?"

Kisu snorted slightly, then turned to look at him. "I got the job just like anyone else. I showed competency and loyalty to the princess's interests and ideals." She briefly glanced above her, at the blue sky and the sun peering out through minimal clouds. "Which isn't hard when those interests and ideals include 'make allies and minimize prejudice' and 'keep would-be conquerors from trying to usurp or kill the pony who controls the sun and moon.'"

Night Light blinked at the bluntness of the last few words. "Fair enough," he managed, suddenly feeling as if his hooves weren't quite solidly on the deck. "Most... don't like to think too hard about that. The sun and the moon."

"I'm not most." Kisu was looking directly at him now, making the kind of eye contact that reminded him more of a predator animal than anything equine, something that may suddenly decide to go for his throat. Her eyes were an incredibly sharp, golden amber, and left a feeling of needles racing up and down his spine. She was studying him, but not the way the princess did. She looked at ponies as if trying to read every tiny bit of their facial expression and body language, while Kisu was looking at him as if she were mentally peeling back his skin to observe the flesh beneath. "Our world hangs by a single thread, and that thread is named Princess Celestia. And many days I can't stop thinking about it."

Night found himself glancing sideways at her mark as an excuse to break eye contact; plan B for a conversation topic had been to ask how she got it, an automatic common ground between ponies and zebras, but he was starting to think that he may not want to know why the mare carried the image of a knife. When he lifted his gaze again, Kisu looked a bit less intense, and he managed to take in a breath and weakly offer, "Unicorns raised the sun and moon before. I'm sure we'd figure something out."

Of course, Night Light wasn't so sure it was that simple. Records from the Pre-Unification Era pointed to how devastating the process could be for unicorns who went through it, while Princess Celestia treated it as a casual effort. Sometimes it seemed like the unicorn method was a... stopgap, a bandaid that had been in place before she could be born to take up the mantle herself. It raised a lot of questions, ones that being able to sleep at night involved deliberately not asking.

Kisu shrugged. "Maybe." She returned to her previous position, staring out into the distance rather than at him. "But I don't think I'd gamble lives on it." The sun was still high in the sky and wouldn't be brought under the horizon again for many hours, and yet Kisu still watched as if waiting for something. "If she steps down and hoofs over the reins to somepony who's prepared to do the job, fine. If she someday goes mad with power and needs to be removed or the casualties will be even worse, so be it. But I don't want to see what happens if she dies suddenly for nothing but someone's twisted ego." She sighed, resting her chin and suddenly looking much more tired as she added, "Can you blame me?"

There was only one answer to that. "No. No, I really can't."

Kisu, however, had more to say. "If I ever thought that the princess was pursuing something that wouldn't be good for Farasi, I'd walk away and never look back. But she's yet to disappoint me in her pursuit to keep everyone safe." She lifted her head again, and gave a weak breath of a laugh. "Well, enough about me and my daily existential crises. Why'd you take the job?"

That topic made Night Light feel a bit steadier on his hooves, and he closed some of the remaining distance, taking a similar place at the edge of the ship and staring out at the water. "It's something of a family tradition," he explained. "My great-great-great-grandmother was granted her title for exemplary service to the Crown, and ever since then we've done our best to live up to her."

He felt a pang of regret, thinking about it, that he hadn't visited her stained glass window before leaving the castle. He could still remember his grandmother bringing him to it when he was a young foal, and telling him the story of Dawnlight. He recalled looking at the purple and orange unicorn, flaming sword grasped in her magic and indistinct, shadowy creatures advancing on her as Princess Celestia lay on the ground behind her, wounded. She had been a simple lamp-maker, and yet she had stepped forward in a single moment when all looked bleak and taken up a weapon against evil. Since then, she had been Lady Dawnlight, and all after her carried her legacy.

He would have to go and see the window after the mission instead, and tell her how it went, though thinking on the mission ahead had him admitting, "Mind you, I usually do more work in a lab doing analysis and less work in the field. Sometimes neutralization, rarely retrieval, and never outside of Equestria's borders."

Kisu gave a short snort of a laugh. "Well, there's a first time for everything, Night-Night."

Night Light blinked. Did she just--? He stared at her, and the amused smirk on her muzzle, as he repeated, "Night-Night?"

"We'll be pretending to be engaged," she responded, never once losing the smirk. "You'll need some form of sickeningly inane pet name to sell the part."

Night Light took in this information, turned it around in his head, and the brilliant mind that had worked out innovative variations of several spells in the past gave him a wonderful, terrible idea, which his mouth promptly seized and raced off headlong into verbalizing. "Does that mean I get to call you Kissy?"

Kisu looked like she'd taken a dare to eat an entire lemon, peel and all. "...On second thought, we'll just stick with things like 'honey' and 'dear' if we need them." She pushed away from the edge of the boat, shaking her head from side to side as if trying to dislodge the very sound of his suggestion from her ears. "Anyway, you'd best look alive, Mr. Light. The kelpies keep the worst things from getting too close to the shore, but it'll be a while until we're under their protection." There was a sharpness back in her eyes as she looked at him, but it was less studying and more as if she were trying to brand her next words onto him. "And if you hear singing from nowhere, go below deck and shove something in your ears. Immediately."

Night found himself blinking again. "Do what if I hear what?"

"Sirens, Mr. Light. I'm not immune, but my training lets me resist the effects for longer. Long enough to hit them in three vital places, four if I spot them fast enough."

"Why would you need to..."

"Aquatic species bleed out more slowly. It pays to be thorough." It was the voice of grim experience, and left Night wondering about her original journey from Farasi to Equestria. "Usually if you hit the lead singer, the rest of the herd will swim for home and hide."

"Usually?"

"Sapients are never 100% predictable." Grim experience suddenly had an equally grim, and almost sad, smile. "Ironclad strategies only work in chess, Mr. Light, where the enemy knight can't suddenly charge across the board and stab the king in the eye because the other knight the queen took off the board was his brother."

Any steadiness Night Light had gained was gone now, and wherever his sense of footing had gone, his lunch was threatening to go with it. He wasn't naive. He knew that the Crown kept trained killers, because sometimes such things were necessary. Lady Dawnlight herself had hardly asked her enemies politely to leave Equestria alone and go back to the shadowy place from whence they came. She'd cut them down with steel and flame, and that was the legacy he carried. He simply had a very vivid imagination, and it had conjured a checker-patterned battlefield and a brutal act of regicide without his consent that he was now struggling to force out of his mind's eye.

"You... ah..." he struggled, before landing on, "You play chess?"

"Sometimes." Sad seemed to be winning out over grim now, or maybe that was just sympathy in her eyes for how ill he likely looked. "Do you want to play? I'm sure I can scrounge up a board."

"I... thought you said I should look alive."

"If you can't play a friendly game of chess and listen for sirens at the same time, I don't know what to tell you." There was a lightness in her voice, and she nudged him with her shoulder as she walked past, black and white striped fur briefly meshing with his dark blue. "Now come on. I know the captain, and that surly old donkey always has one of his old sets hiding somewhere. He might even be convinced to give you some tips."

Their journey had been mercifully free of pirates or sirens, and Night Light found himself in much better spirits upon reaching port. Winning five consecutive chess matches and seeing the priceless look on Kisu's face by the third would put a spring in anypony's step, really. He'd practically pranced his way off the boat as Kisu followed and the captain rolled his eyes, but it didn't take long before he was thrown off again.

The port town was so full of colour, so full of movement, full of so many sights, sounds, and smells that Night Light couldn't keep track of it all. Creatures were flowing on and off ships, exchanging cargo, and many travelers and locals were setting up right then and there to hawk their wares to others passing through the city. Food vendors fought for attention, trying to catch the eyes of the sailors, passengers, and dock workers who would no doubt be famished. Performers squabbled over the best places to sing, play instruments, dance, and put on other entertainment for those who passed near.

The sheer volume of creatures didn't stun him, as he'd grown up in Cantlerlot. The variety did. Zebras, donkeys, abada, and kelpies were in abundance, but there was so, so much more. A minotaur and diamond dog were arguing about something near a fruit stand, their voices reaching a volume that he could almost hear the individual words before a gargoyle marched out of a nearby building and shouted them both down. A hippo and a giraffe with matching outfits were making their way through the crowd, a crowd that was eager to part for a pair of that combined height and girth. Swirling colours on shadow that he spotted out of the corner of his eye turned out to be a swarm of six breezies, sticking close to a griffon who looked to be a mixture of leopard and osprey and who was wearing dark, guard-like armour.

There was clear amusement in Kisu's voice as she stepped up beside him. "Welcome to Casabronco, Mr. Light. One of the largest ports in the entire Menagerie."

He believed it. The Menagerie was a union of several nations, including Equestria, and he could see representatives from every one of them and more. Bits were flying between creatures, along with several non-Menagerie currencies being hastily exchanged for the golden coins. He took in a deep breath, and he swore he could smell hayburgers on the air, along with the aroma of roasted peppers.

Any thought of pursuing the scent was cut short by the timely arrival of their contact. He knew they were his contact, because the description had included the words "blindingly yellow" and that was the only way he could describe the hue of the shape suddenly coming at him and his companion at high speed with a cry of "Kisu!"

"Oof!" Kisu rocked back on her hooves as long legs hooked themselves over her withers, and she gave a good-natured laugh at the abada clinging to her. "Nice to see you too, Savannah."

That confirmed it. This was Savannah Sun, one of his contacts. It was Night's first time seeing an abada, and now that he had an up-close look, the comparison to unicorns he'd always heard to describe them visually seemed to be a bit of a stretch. The outline looked more like a deer or gazelle than a pony, sharp and angular in features and a horse-like height kept primarily in a set of stilt-like legs. The equine mane and the fact that one of the two horns happened to be in the middle of the forehead, while the other rested on the snout, were really the only two parallels he could see if one didn't count the mark.

"I haven't seen you in years, love!" came an androgynous voice with a surprisingly familiar accent from the clinging abada. The two eventually parted, and it gave Night Light a better look at the shining, infectious grin that matched the chipper tone. "Thought you were still studying in Equestria getting that big fancy culinary degree!"

Kisu chuckled, and Night suddenly had one of her front legs draping over his withers, pulling him against her. "I'm taking a little trip back for something important," she replied. "Namely--" He found his head turned toward hers with her other front hoof as she leaned against him for balance, and he managed to improvise what he hoped was a lovesick enough looking smile to return her own. "--Getting married on my home soil." Kisu then looked back at Savannah, leg still draped over him. "Savannah, this is Night Light, my fiancé. Dear, this is Savannah Sun. They're an old foalhood friend."

"Charmed." He nodded and raised a front leg to offer a hoof bump, which Savannah enthusiastically returned. "That's quite the accent. Have you spent time in Trottingham?"

"Ahhh, you can still hear it?" Their long, tufted tail arced over their back to rub at the back of their neck with enviable dexterity. "I studied history in Trottingham, and I guess it's still tangled up in my speech." They hummed, making a show of studying him with wide, sky blue eyes. "But you... Canterlot, am I right?"

"Indeed you are," he said with a nod. Then, with a grin of his own, added, "Any friend of Kissy is a friend of mine." Kisu immediately withdrew her leg from him as he said that, and his grin grew all the wider as Savannah let out a bout of snickers.

"You let him call you Kissy?" Snickers turned to guffaws, and he wasn't sure if they'd fall to the ground sooner from their own mirth, or, from how Kisu was looking between him and them, from a well-placed shove. "You really must love him. Last time I remember someone calling you that, they ended up getting up close and personal with your shish kebab skewers."

Kisu let out a deep sigh of a long-suffering mare. "Yes, yes, I was a hot-tempered filly. We know this. Can you please not scare him off before I put a ring on his horn?"

Night's grinning intensified. "Bold of you to think I don't find that attractive."

That was when Savannah did fall over laughing, ignoring the look on Kisu's face that said she was considering knocking him over to join them. "Oh, he's a keeper." They eventually recovered, pulling themself out of the dirt and giving a swift shake to return their coat to its pristine hazmat suit hue. "Are you two headed for Zebrat? If so, I've got to take you to Impisi's. She opened a restaurant finally and you two need to try her food."

Kisu snorted. "You just want to watch me argue with her over seasonings like the old days."

"Guilty!" was the chirp of a response. "So are you gonna come?"

"Of course. What do you take me for?"

"Wouldn't miss a chance to meet more of Kissy's old friends."

Savanah beamed, and Night Light considered the accompanying glare from Kisu more than worth it. "Oh, then you're in for a treat."

Savannah Sun had proven equally as chipper and chatty over the hours-long stroll to Zebrat, and while Kisu had warned him several times about creatures that lurked in the wild places of Farasi, not a single one had shown fang nor claw. His best guess was that they were warned away by Savannah, since he knew that colours that bright were often associated with the message "don't eat, magical and/or poisonous" in nature. It was well documented that creatures that survived best during wild excursions were either the ones whose tones could blend in with natural camouflage, or who broadcasted their danger so openly that the larger predators decided it simply wasn't worth it.

They also might have steered clear out of fear that Savannah would talk their ears off. Night quite enjoyed their company, offering acknowledging sounds, agreements, and questions to fuel the engine driving their mouth. Even on the road, the group were keeping up cover, talking about mundane things rather than the mission to come, and while Kisu would talk at times herself, she was too busy trying to keep watch over the surroundings to offer much. Only when the capital city of Zebrat was visible in the distance did she calm, as they were within the patrol routes of the local guards now and much less likely to find trouble.

Zebrat reminded him a lot of Canterlot, if it were on flat ground instead of built into a mountain. Tall buildings, winding streets, colourful ornamentation, and many, many creatures packed into the walkways. The main difference was less flying traffic--a hippogriff, weighed down with a courier's bag, soaring over him on the way out of the city was the only notable flier he spotted--as the majority of the population was groundbound. It made for a lot of stairs and ramps on the taller buildings, as everything needed to be accessible by hoof or wheel alone. And there were many wheels, locals pulling carts and carriages through the streets as Savannah led their way through the city.

Their destination was an out-of-the-way building with a large sign that had a fresh coat of paint; he couldn't read the Farasian words on it, but the image was of a bright red steak and a vibrant green celery stick, indicating its nature as a restaurant for omnivorous cuisine. It was as Savannah led the way in that he felt a tell-tale tingle that made the fur along his spine want to stand up, and a silent pressure on his horn that reminded him of the stern eyes of a schoolteacher.

"Hey, Impisi! Come look what the kelpies dragged in!" Savannah called as the three of them stepped into the establishment, and if they noticed the presence, they were either accustomed to it or very good at hiding how much it affected them.

Night Light had no way to directly sense this kind of magic. It was the sort that earth ponies would be more likely to detect and understand, borne of a resonance with the earth and backed by strength of body and will. He wouldn't be able to tell anyone where the wards were drawn, what exact sort they were, whether they were fully charged or what they would do if activated. No, as a unicorn, he could only sense the presence, the constant warning hanging over him of "don't even think about it," with "it" being any kind of spell that would hold malicious intent. This building was guarded and as they stepped in to scents of wood and earth and pleasant smokiness wafting from the kitchen, he met the guardian.

Savannah had been his first abada, and now this was his first crocotta. The hulking biped towered over all of them, her features best described as that of a minotaur who'd had all of the cattle-like traits swapped with that of a hyena, one whose spotted fur was tinted slightly redder than the animal itself tended to be. She'd been chatting with a zonkey, who looked to be wait staff, and then she saw the trio and her muzzle split with a fanged grin as she let out a booming laugh.

"There you are, Kisu!" Impisi bellowed as she crossed the distance with the sound of claws on wood. "It's about time you darkened my door again. Did you finally get sick of Equestrians and their hayburgers and come back for some real food?"

Kisu put on a sly smirk, speaking with an over-exaggerated conversational tone. "Oh, I would love some real food." She waved around one of her hooves at the surrounding area. "Now if you could just direct me to where I can find some, since I know it won't be in your kitchen." Both laughed, and she added, "Still trying to sell herbivores vegetables soaked in meat juices?"

"Trying and succeeding," the crocotta replied as she held her arms out wide to gesture at her establishment. "Still trying to feed ponies meals spicy enough for dragons?"

"Trying--" Night suddenly found himself yanked against Kisu's side again, and he wondered if he'd be used to her casual displays of surprising strength by the time the mission ended. "And succeeding. Impisi, this is my fiancé, Night Light. Honey, this blowhard is Impisi."

"Pleased to meet you." He offered his hoof again, reflexively, and almost pulled it back when he realized what he was doing. Impisi surprised him, however, by kneeling down and curling her clawed fingers so that she could tap the hoof with her knuckles.

"Likewise," Impisi replied, then chuckled deeply as she turned her attention back to Kisu. "So you finally snagged one. Guess you found a stallion who couldn't run fast enough, huh?"

Before Kisu could retort, Night Light found his mouth leaping ahead of her. "It is harder to run when you're full of grilled vegetables."

More of Impisi's boisterous laughter erupted, nearly drowning out Savannah's accompanying snickering. "Oh I like this one." She straightened up out of her kneel and brushed herself off. "Let me make you a deal, lovebirds. Help me unpack my latest delivery of ingredients and dinner's on the house."

Noting the bored-looking zonkey within earshot as she cleaned tables, along with a small family of zebras taking up residence in the corner, and recognizing the opportunity for privacy when he heard it, Night Light nodded. "I'd be happy to help."

"Hey, I'll get in on that too if there's free food in it!" Savannah chimed as they pronked in place a couple of times.

Kisu clucked her tongue slightly. "Well, I suppose I can be talked into taste-testing your cooking if you're going to give it away..."

They all filed toward to the stockroom, and Night Light noted the pressure on his horn growing stronger as they did. It was once they were inside that he could see the wards, some carved into the walls with precision that spoke to knife-work instead of claws, and others drawn in bright red, his nose telling him that the colour was some manner of berry juice. It was one of those drawn ones that Impisi placed a hand over, and it glowed briefly before all sounds from outside vanished.

The anti-eavesdropping spell in place, all four creatures relaxed with sighs, and Impisi eyed Night Light with more scrutiny. "So you're the Equestrian they sent to retrieve the Sacanas, huh? I was expecting somepony a bit..." She held one of her hands at a little higher than Savannah's height. "Taller."

Night chuckled at that. He supposed from her point of view, he was small. Even Kisu, as a zebra, was slightly taller than him. "Magical ability and physical size aren't always related in ponies. Especially not in unicorns. Trust me, I have the exact talents necessary to make the artefact safe for transport."

"And I'm here to make sure he survives long enough to do it," Kisu added as she made her way over to a bag of rice to lay down and rest on.

Impisi, for her part, sat on top of a crate that had its contents listed in several languages, Night able to pick out the Equestrian word for oranges. "Now that I believe." She nodded toward Savannah, who seemed to be trying to build a nest out of several bags of potatoes. "Savvy spotted the Thunderstrikes getting off a ship in a group of a couple dozen, and they're staying at an inn nearby. They've got the businessowners here flapping their gums, because they're making real nuisances of themselves."

Savannah snorted a bit as they laid down, the sight of which had Night searching for a good resting place too, and he ended up resting inside an open, empty crate laying on its side--the label said peppers and the exact type was unfamiliar to him--as they spoke. "They were right boorish at port too. It tracks with what we know about the organization. They don't exactly have respect for anywhere that's not their own homeland, and it seems like they can't even fake it long."

Kisu glanced from one to the other. "You said they arrived as a couple dozen. What kind of creatures are we dealing with here?"

Impisi held up one of her hands, and Night Light watched as she counted off on her fingers. "Some satyrs, lot of hedgebeasts, few abyssinians, and our wildcard: a kirin named Crimson Flame."

"Horseapples."

All three turned to look at him as he hissed the word, and Kisu raised a brow. "Something wrong, Mr. Light?"

Night sighed. "Kirin aren't ponies, but their magic is close to a unicorn's. Think of us as tapping the same source, a bit like the abada." He nodded toward Savannah for emphasis. "If the artefact is able to be used by non-unicorns, I'd bet my horn they're banking on Flame as being able to wield it."

Impisi made a sound of agreement. "I'll bet you're right. She's the bodyguard of the head honcho of this little travelling pain in the neck, a guy named Needles. She's apparently already set fire to a few things in their room, and the big guy's throwing bits at the owner to keep from being thrown out for it." She then gave one of her big, toothy grins. "Which doesn't keep the chattery jack from complaining to anyone who'll listen about it." The grin faded as she crossed her arms. "If it gets to fisti--hooficuffs, I don't doubt she's the one you'll be throwing down with."

"Ideally, it won't come to that," Night offered.

"Ideally," Kisu echoed flatly, then, as she adjusted her position to get more comfortable, continued, "Now, about this auction..."

Impisi nodded. "I've got the time, location, and some nice outfits for you. It's clothing-only--"

"Fancy fancy," Savanah commented as they nudged away a stray potato that had gotten loose from the bag.

"--And I've got everything warded here. You get it, get back here, throw the spells you need to on it, and then get back to Equestria like you've got a grootslang on your tails. Easy peasy lemon squeezey."

As Kisu asked about more details, Night Light ran the spells that Celestia had demonstrated for him over in his mind. Analyze, render it dormant, and smother its signature to get past detection. The kind of things that were usually utilized by smugglers and thieves who needed the contraband to still work on the other side. The princess had said it was necessary, that she would have him fully neutralize it if that were possible, but it still left him with a cold feeling in the frogs of his hooves. He wondered if he'd have a better time with the metaphorical grootslang.

Deep breath. No more dwelling on doubts. He was a descendant of Dawnlight, and hoof-picked for this mission. He trusted his princess that he was the stallion for the job. And he had an auction to attend.

Thunder Rolls

The auction house was massive, and for something as momentous as a noble's collection being on the block, it was packed. Impisi had been right about the dress code, with no creature there daring to be caught in bare fur, or even merely with an accessory. Full clothing, with shoes, was a must. His dark suit fit him comfortably, and Kisu was wearing a glimmering golden gown, making them easily look the part of a wealthy interspecies couple who'd been drawn in by the promise of rarities.

The outfits helped them blend in, but also had the advantage of covering their marks. While he wasn't sure how much the Thunderstrikes knew about mark icons, and whether that would be enough to recognize that sun, moon, and star symbols were often associated with magical talent, it was better safe than sorry to keep his two crescents under wraps, and Kisu's knife was also best kept beneath cloth. No one seemed to be giving them even a passing glance, and from his seat he could spot a few other ponies, all with non-pony companions; one couple, an earth pony and a donkey, even had their foal with them, the young mule squirming in the tiny, yearling-sized suit they'd been forced to wear.

The auctioneer caught his attention, and it took a moment for the species name to click. He was a behemoth, albeit one not yet nearly large enough to match what the name implied. The elephant-like bipeds were a lot like dragons, in lifespan and in growth rate; the foals were not much larger than pony ones, the adolescents and young adults a bit taller than most adult ponies, and over centuries could become the sort of creatures that casually pushed mountains out of their way. This one was clearly young--he and Savannah likely would have easily stood eye to eye--but he was dressed to the nines just like the guests, and didn't seem at all nervous in the face of the crowd. A kelpie was sitting nearby, likely a relative of the duke, who was overseeing the sale.

It was sitting here that Night Light found himself starting to understand why Princess Celestia would trust Farasians so much as to bring them into her network. Kisu had said it herself on the ship, the values she promoted weren't hard to agree with. Farasi had been a nation founded on a continent rich with sapient species, and many of them had integrated flawlessly. Equestria, meanwhile, was almost entirely ponies, and sometimes integrating just the different varieties of pony seemed as if it were an ongoing job. She likely looked to Farasi not just as an ally, but a place to emulate.

As Night Light sat there, looking out at the diverse crowd, he made a promise to himself. He promised that even when he retired from his work for the Crown, he would do his part to nuture the harmony he'd seen here back home. Every life he touched would be encouraged to embrace the different with open forelegs, to learn about other species and other lands. He was just one pony, but Lady Dawnlight had been a lesson in what just one pony, with the drive to do what was right, could accomplish.

"Look alive, Mr. Light," came Kisu's voice, snapping him out of his musings. "There's our beast."

He followed her gaze, and once he did, it wasn't hard to pick Needles out. His sprawling mane of white, fur-like quills that surrounded his head and ran down his back were nothing that could be properly contained in clothing, a problem that many hedgebeasts had. "Trimming" the quills was possible, but time-consuming, and in their colder-climate home was counter-productive to keeping warm. He had clearly compromised between this clash of dress code and biology by wearing the front of a suit, which Night assumed was held to his body with a series of fastenings at the shoulders and waist.

He both admired and pitied the efforts of the cuff links to hold sleeves closed over such tree-trunk-like arms. Not only were those arms crossed in front of Needles's chest, but his tail was lashing behind him, which naturally had those around him shuffling away to avoid sudden tearing of their own outfits, and his short muzzle was wearing a permanent, cold sneer.

Crimson Flame was right next to him, and also easy to pick out. Kirin were a rare sight, as the species' original home was highly insular, to the point where he'd heard some individuals once claim that they were a myth. She suited her name perfectly, blood red mane paired with burnt orange coat and scales of a deep maroon, and her dress and shoes were the deep black of tar. Her expression was no friendlier than Needles's, eyes narrowed as she glared at everything around her, twitching with the energy of an equine looking for something to kick.

"And our mare," he replied, noting that neither had seemed to notice any scrutiny. "I have the fireproofing spells active."

"Good." Kisu shifted in her seat, but so close to her it was clear that she was tense, and no true comfort would be found. "Hopefully no one else in the crowd has their sights set on our prize."

Night breathed a laugh. "If they do, it'll be too rich for their blood very soon." He'd been granted permission to bid whatever was necessary to secure the amulet, with the Crown covering it all, and he doubted anyone else here, including the Thunderstrikes, could claim such a generous benefactor.

It wasn't the first item to be brought out, however, and Night lit his horn for a few different things, made a few bids, tried to seem like somepony interested in art and in jewelry. One of the paintings, he even won the bidding on, and he was sure that the palace would find some place to put it. Or perhaps they would auction it themselves, as the princess was wont to do for charities. Needles, he noticed, was doing no such thing, not even pretending he was here for anything but his chosen prize, simply continuing to lash his tail impatiently as artwork, after vase, after furniture item, after clothing item came and went.

Then he saw it. Exactly how Princess Celestia had described. The horned head, the outspread wings, and the massive gemstone. He had no doubt that most who saw it would call it tacky, and he wasn't sure what the duke had seen in it, besides maybe recognizing the sheer age of it and assuming that must make it an antique of value. Night didn't know jewelry, but he assumed under most circumstances, it wouldn't go for much more than what the gem itself was worth.

The behemoth auctioneer cleared his throat, the voice amplification spell ensuring all would hear him as he started, "And now we have an unusual piece, a brooch of Equestrian make, depicting an alicorn. Can I have--"

"Fifty thousand bits." Needles's voice was like a thundering cloud, one massive hand raised high in the air, and other attendees looked at him before starting to murmur amongst themselves.

"I have..." The auctioneer seemed to stumble over his words. "I have fifty... fifty thousand. Can I have sixty? Sixty thousand for this lovely piece of jewelry."

Kisu tensed next to Night, and he trusted her to watch out for him as he lit his horn to signal his own bid. "Sixty thousand." Eyes were on him now, two fierce glares, and he gave them a sidelong glance, but otherwise tried to act as if they weren't there.

"I have sixty thousand, can I hear--"

"One hundred thousand bits!" Needles barked, and the murmuring around them intensified.

There would be no pretending that the amulet was of low value, not with his frantic jumping of the gun and throwing around such high numbers. Night supposed he would need to drop pretenses too. "One hundred and fifty thousand bits."

"Two hundred thousand!"

The auctioneer was no longer necessary, as the back and forth went on. Night would barely have a chance to speak his number before Needles spoke up, and while the battle saw a few others tentatively adding in their own bids, Needles would steamroll them too, scaring them off quickly. Not that they needed anyone else to bid them up when Needles was so keen to send the price all the way to Cloudsdale, and Night became aware of the stares that would go from beast to stallion and back again as if watching a game of table tennis.

All the while, Crimson Flame had started to stalk toward them, and he could see colours in her fur and scales shifting, her mane growing more flame-like and her eyes taking on a glow. Even with the fireproofing spell, he could feel himself sweating from the heat she gave off, and Kisu soon took her own threatening step forward, her golden eyes aglow and shadows growing deep around her hooves.

The crowd hadn't panicked yet, but the conversations around them were turning alarmed, and he doubted a behemoth so young would have enough strength to separate them if it turned into an all-out brawl and the accompanying stampede.

"One million bits!" Needles's voice was beginning to sound less like distinct words and more like full growls.

"Two million."

"Five million!"

"Ten."

Night could see the massive chest heaving, the quills that had been groomed to look like fur bristling, fists clenched so hard they were trembling, and heard the pling sounds of cuff links flying off to parts unknown. The sneer was now a snarl, teeth bared; hedgebeasts got the majority of their protein from insect sources, and didn't have the jaws for larger prey, but Night found himself wondering if Needles was going to lunge anyway and see if pure rage made up the difference in bite force needed to tear a pony's throat out.

"That's ten million bits going once..."

"What kind of money," Needles ground through clenched teeth, "Do you have to be throwing it around on a trinket, stallion?"

Night finally turned his head, looking past the two mares to meet fierce eyes. "Enough," was his calm reply, as he quietly readied a shield spell in his mind in case he did need to repel a sudden strike. "Why does a trinket of unicorn make interest you so much, my good beast?"

"Ten million going twice..."

"Twenty million!" Needles bellowed.

Crimson Flame hissed from where she stood inches from Kisu's muzzle. "Why are we bothering, boss? Let's just torch them and--"

"One hundred million bits."

The sound from Needles was something between a roar and a screech, and sent several attendees leaping over one another to get away from him. Night Light could spot various creatures in outfits labelled "SECURITY" making their way over, and so he waited, his horn still glowing from the bid as the shield spell hovered in the space between charge and cast.

When the sound faded, Needles, too, looked and saw what was coming, and he took a deep breath before sitting back down. Then he looked to his companion, and rumbled, "Return to your seat, Ms. Flame."

"But boss--"

Over her protests, and with his sneer back in place, he cut in with a cold, "They aren't worth your fire."

Slowly, Crimson shifted back to normal, and she spat out a glowing ember before smothering it with a stomp of her hoof. Steam rose from her pelt as she made her way back to her seat, and continued to do so as she sat down, condensation forming on Needles's quills as the pair fumed. Security slowed their approach, but didn't retreat, and Night let the glow of his horn fade. Kisu was the last to back down, and he felt her lean against him slightly as she settled at his side.

"One hundred million going once..."

"You know that they're going to jump us the moment they have the opportunity, right?" Kisu murmured, the tension in her muscles obvious even through both of their outfits.

"I'll use a few illusions to shake them on the way to Impisi's," he replied. "We might want to see if we can rent a sky-cart for the trip back instead of going by hoof."

"That won't be cheap," Kisu cautioned as she feigned an affectionate nuzzle. "Not like Equestria. Lack of fliers means high demand and high prices."

"One hundred million going twice..."

"I'm sure the palace will consider the purchase necessary," he assured, "Along with dinner so that we aren't flying hungry."

"That was almost smooth, Mr. Light." Kisu chuckled. "I'm flattered, but you're not really my type."

He chuckled right along with her. "You aren't mine either. But I wanted to see what all the fuss was about when it comes to vegetables cooked with meat, and there's worse times to try new food than dining with a new friend."

"Sold! To the dapper unicorn and his zebra ladyfriend."

For all else present, the auction continued on, and the strange bidding war would be nothing but a footnote in their evening. For Night Light, while he indeed looked forward to a hot meal before needing to flee, he had that cold feeling in his frogs again, and knew he likely wouldn't have the chance. He had no true gift of prophecy, though--he'd met seers, and trying to speak to them was to end up reaching for something to soothe the resulting headache--and so he tried, at least on the surface, to appear relaxed, even throw a bid or two on some more items to keep up appearances.

He would get his chance to analyze the artefact soon enough, as much as part of him didn't want to look.

Kisu was laughing. Not a snort, not a chuckle, but full-bodied laughter, and Night Light grinned at his accomplishment as they made their way down Zebrat's streets, the amulet heavy in one of the saddlebags on his back. He'd been firing off misdirection spells the entire walk home, strategically obscuring the both of them from sight while sending imaginary figures off in different directions, and as they drew close to Impisi's restaurant, he'd found the confidence to start livening up the home stretch of their walk with stories.

"I haven't even gotten to the best part," he insisted as her laughter continued unabated. "Now, you must understand--you must understand that this mare was ancient. My Professor of Linguistics looked like the kind of mare who could talk about the good old days and mean Old Unicornia. But in unicorns, the last thing to go is magic. An elderly unicorn might not be able to walk or see anymore and will still be able to cast as well as they could in their prime. So she looked at everything that'd gone awry and I knew--I knew from the look in her eyes that she'd analyzed every little hex involved and then, once she knew what was what, she could take control of it herself, and she sent it right back at--"

They turned the corner. And stopped.

The door to the restaurant was off its hinges, one of said hinges laying on the ground surrounded by splinters. The windows were broken, the smoky scent that he'd associated with spices now thicker and smelling burnt. The sign was on the ground, looking like it'd been trampled and deliberately slashed. Night broke into a run on instinct, but Kisu was still ahead of him, the frantic hooves punctuated with her shout of, "Impisi!"

They had to slow down again when they entered, picking their way through the broken glass. Tables were turned over, tablecloths looked burnt, and Impisi was holding the leg of what had once been a chair, hovering it menacingly over the head of a hedgebeast who was tied up in that looked like the remnants of a potato bag.

"'Bout time you two got back," Impisi rumbled as the two approached, "You take a romantic detour or something?"

"What happened?" Kisu's voice was high and frantic. "Where's Savannah?"

"They got grabbed," Impisi said with a grunt, "But I returned the favour." She waved the chair leg menacingly at the hedgebeast one more time, before tossing it aside. "I'll leave him in your tender care while I clean up."

Night watched her pick up a broom, and noticed the faint limp she walked with, as well as the tremble in her hands as she started to sweep. He then looked at the tied-up lackey, who appeared dazed. He wasn't big, not like Needles--he would have only come to Night's shoulder while standing--and wasn't groomed like him either, the quills naturally flowing upward from tail to head rather than tamed to point downward. Kisu was also studying him, but in the way he remembered from the boat, like she was trying to skin him with her mind.

"Come on," Night said, giving her a nudge with his shoulder. "Let's take him to the back." And then he'd make sure the poor lout survived the resulting interrogation.

Lightning Strikes

The short hedgebeast was within Night Light's weight limit for telekinesis, and so he was the one who hauled him into the back. Even passing into the stockroom, the pressure on Night's horn was minimal, and that worried him. He had no doubt that the wards had saved Impisi from being taken alongside Savannah, may have even saved her life, but they'd been worn down by the efforts, and he didn't know enough about crocotta magic to know how vulnerable that left her, and for how long. He couldn't dwell on it, however, not with his current cargo, and he set the imprisoned lackey down on the orange crate before busying himself with using his magic to sweep up the spilled grains from a torn-open bag of rice.

There had been no verbal planning, and yet they both seemed to know how they were going to handle it. A classic game of bad princess, good princess--or bad princess, good prince, as the case may be--with no mystery as to who would take which role. Kisu had already raided the kitchen for cutlery, while Night was trying to ensure the other party in this unwanted conversation was as comfortable as could be without going so far as to untie him.

Night gave a deep sigh, shaking his head. "Quite the mess this has turned into, hasn't it?" he commented to no one in particular, before focusing in on the captive hedgebeast, who was looking a bit more alert. "Now, I'm a reasonable sort of stallion. I know you'd like to get on a boat back to the Storm Kingdom as fast as possible. So, if you'd just tell us where to get our friend back, we can put this--"

"Hah!" the beast croaked from his place on the crate. "Go back without the amulet? You're kidding. If Needles doesn't have my hide, the Thunderhead will."

So, Needles himself wasn't the current head of the Thunderstrikes, just the leader of this group within it. Interesting. Night turned that over in his mind while Kisu took the floor, one of her front legs hooking itself just right around a carving knife to brandish it threateningly. "We'll have your hide if you don't talk, you little rat. I think you'd look nice up on my wall."

Night's magic gently took knife and leg alike and nudged them away. "Now, now, there's no need for that." He tried to give his most disarming smile. "If you don't want to go back to the Kingdom, I'm sure we can come to an arrangement for safe passage to Equestria instead, some protection--"

"Pastel pink pony land?" That got all the more croaking laughter, at least until he winced, though what of the extensive injuries it'd aggravated, Night couldn't tell. "Ow... I think I'd rather take my chances with the Thunderhead than live in the land of perpetual tea parties."

"Well, unluckily for you, you're taking your chances with me instead." Kisu reared up, and with a feat of speed and dexterity Night knew must have involved magic, the carving knife went zipping past the side of the hedgebeast's head. It planted itself in the far wall with a solid thunk, and several severed quills littered the crate. "And your luck is rapidly running out." She slammed both front hooves on the crate, leaning in until her snout was inches from his. "Where. Did. They. Take. Savannah?"

The beast was leaning as far back as he could in his current position, eyes wide. "T-tell-tell you what? If... if the pretty one comes back here, I'll tell you everything you need to know."

Kisu blinked. "...Pretty one?" More blinks. "Wait, you mean Impisi?" Several more blinks. "She broke a chair over your head!"

That was the moment when Night realized that the dazed look he'd seen before likely had not come from a concussion, as it was now back on the tied-up lackey's face. "She did!" The small beast sighed dreamily. "It gave me such a close look at her muscles..."

Kisu looked back at Night, completely baffled. He could only shrug helplessly in return. This wasn't a standard outcome of bad princess, good princess. Kisu finally snorted and pushed herself off the crate. "We'll be right back. But one wrong move and you'll be the mincemeat in her next pie. Got it?"

"Got it! Not moving an inch! Not an inch!"

Kisu turned swiftly and headed out of the room. Night moved to follow her, needing to trot to keep up. "You really frightened him, cutting his quills like that."

"It's a classic intimidation tactic," she responded almost conversationally, "Slice off something that won't hurt, but that they consider part of themselves. Make them feel their mortality without spilling any blood. Hair and feathers usually work well enough, but things like quills are all the better, since they're something designed for self-defense."

"You've done this a lot, I take it?"

"Do you really want the answer to that, Mr. Light?"

He didn't have a chance to decide if he did or didn't, because they'd found Impisi, who was in the process of righting tables and checking them for damage. She looked up when she heard their hoof steps, and Night noted that she was shaking a bit more than she had been, even if it never quite reached her voice. "You get what you need?"

He and Kisu exchanged another look, and couldn't help chuckling at the absurdity of it all as he said, "No, it seems he'll only speak to you."

"It seems you have an admirer, Impisi," Kisu added in admirable deadpan.

It was her turn to blink furiously, then grin and let out a booming laugh. "Well, can't fault a guy for good taste. Here." She shoved her broom at Kisu, who made an awkward fumble with forelegs and teeth to catch it. "I'll lay on some of my trademark charms."

Night watched her head to the back room, then looked back at the table she'd been stabilizing. He went to work himself, righting and sweeping up what he could with his magic as Kisu got on her hind legs to do what she could with a broom. She was definitely less coordinated when handling anything but a knife, but she still did an admirable job using an item that'd been made with hands in mind and lacked the usual grooves for angling forelegs properly. It look several minutes for Impisi to emerge again, and despite the situation, her grin was still firmly in place.

"Have you got it?" Kisu asked, the broom clattering to the floor as she practically galloped the body lengths necessary to reach her.

Impisi puffed out her chest with pride. "Everything. Find me a map and I'll show you."

One of the least-damaged tables had been drafted for the three to gather around, and a map of Zebrat and the surrounding area had a circle drawn in one corner, as well as several winding lines. A cave and several tunnels, apparently not far from the city, and partly running under it. Impisi had said that they used to be the lair of a grootslang--the more that Night Light heard of such creatures, the more they seemed to be something similar to a dragon, only slightly less powerful and significantly more cantankerous--but while there remained the occasional group of adolescents who would dare each other to go in for a few minutes, they'd otherwise been abandoned for years.

Until recently, apparently.

"It sounds like a 'couple dozen' was lowballing things," Kisu said as she sat with her front hooves on the table, using her vantage point to stare down at the map as if that might intimidate it into giving up extra information.

"Yeah, no kidding." Impisi gave a sharp shake of her head. "If he was telling the truth, the Thunderstrikes have locals who helped clean the tunnels out for them. A lot of them." One hand was digging claws into the wood as she spoke, and Night noticed that the pattern was similar to what she had carved into the storage room walls. "I don't like it. Main entrance may be away from the city, but it's still practically under the Crown Princes' snouts."

"Unless one or more of the royal family are in on it." Kisu's eyes never strayed from the map, but she seemed to know the looks she was getting anyway. "Yes, I know, Kisu is being dark again. You can hardly blame me."

"I really can't," Night admitted with a sigh, before lighting his horn so that he could illuminate one of the squiggly lines. "You said that our smitten beast was certain that they'd be keeping Savannah in this side-tunnel. So that's where we need to be."

"Where I need to be," Kisu corrected as she hopped down from the table. "I'm the one trained for this, and you need to get that amulet neutralized and on a boat to Equestria." Her jewelry and shoes were tossed aside quickly, with her dress on its way to joining the pile. "And take Impisi with you."

"Hey, wait a--"

Kisu whipped around, and the force of her eye contact silenced the hulking crocotta's protests. "They knew to come here. That means that someone knows you work for Equestria. Your information network has a leak, and your restaurant--" She gave a toss of her head, indicating the wreckage around them all. "--Isn't safe anymore." She turned back toward the doorway and what was left of the door. "How quickly can you set up your wards again?"

"Just a couple of minutes, but--"

"Good. Get the amulet safe to travel, and get out of Farasi."

Out the door, into the shadows, and Kisu was gone, leaving Night Light and Impisi around the table and amulet heavy in Night's saddlebags. He supposed he truly had no choice but to get to work.

Downpour

Kisu would tell few about her time in the grootslang tunnels. Those connected to the mission would know, as in the future, she would try to teach Night Light similar tricks with shadow, and the princess would have to be briefed as well. Otherwise, a future Kisu would leave it an unspoken tale, something she even thought about rarely.

Because in the grootslang tunnels, Kisu was afraid. Afraid for Savannah and for Impisi, who she blamed herself for getting involved with Equestrian espionage in the first place. Afraid for Night, the pony who had been dragged into field work and now would have to flee with the artefact. It was not a good mindset to be working shadow magic, and she would need that magic to get through unseen.

There was a fine line between shadow magic and true dark magic, and walking that line involved keeping one's emotions in check. There were things in the dark that fed on fear, things not quite of this plane, things other for whom dreams, fantasies and figments were more real, tangible and comprehensible than the creatures whose minds conjured them. In her pursuit of questions of why the world worked as it did, why a single living thread held the movements of the heavens in place, she had come across stories of parasites, things in the immaterial that ached to touch the physical realm and would hollow out a host and fill in the gaps with themselves to do so. Desires and fears were their beacons and their sustenance, and while only dark magic broke open the barrier and invited them to feed, shadow magic still brushed against the barrier, weakening it enough that a heart with too much turmoil may find itself feasted upon.

Kisu truly was attending culinary school in Equestria, but that had come after the education in magic, and the night when Princess Celestia had responded to an alarm that someone had broken into the restricted section of the Canterlot Archives and found a zebra, who was barely a mare, trembling and crying. It had taken weeks for the nightmares to stop, and months before Kisu had found the will to bend shadow again.

She would tell Night Light all of this someday, but in this instant she was alone with her thoughts and memories, her layers upon layers of fear, and she was doing all she could to calm, to focus, and to get where she was needed. Her variety of shadow cloaking was best done while standing still or moving slowly, and while it muffled the sounds of her breathing and hooves as well as concealing her from sight, it didn't silence her completely. She'd been keeping herself perfectly still, and her breathing slow, when she'd been waiting to make her entrance in the throne room, and now she needed to make her way through the unfamiliar tunnels as swiftly as possible.

She was also concealing more than just her body. With a moment's concentration, four blades slipped out of their hiding place outside and hovered around her head. It was another trick that played dangerously with the barrier between physical and immaterial, and most objects would have been destroyed in the process, but there were perks to working for the Crown, as they could afford equipment made of orichalcum. She was no unicorn, and controlling objects with her mind was not second nature, but knives were her talent, and so they danced around her as she stalked the tunnels, always stopping and cloaking herself the moment a guard drew near.

She occasionally felt the press of a security spell, so much sloppier than the wards that Impisi could create, and a flick of the knives would slice the intangible, unweaving the magic and letting her pass freely. She considered putting them to use in slicing a few throats, but hiding bodies on the way in would only complicate matters. It would be on the way out that there may not be any other choice.

The tunnels were massive, and it left her wondering about the size of the original inhabitant. Everything had happened long after she'd journeyed to Equestria, and so she only had Impisi's tales of the grootslang. It must have been one of the largest possible specimens, or perhaps the current squatters had been expanding the tunnel network. The walls she pressed herself against were were smooth to the touch, which told her very little, as that could be the natural effect of scales on stone over years, or the deliberate work of those who planned to make themselves at home.

Kisu dearly hoped for the former, honestly. If they were getting that cozy, it made the theory that one or more of the princes condoned it that more plausible, and she didn't need that extra fear throwing itself onto the pile.

Breathe. Steady her heart. One hoof in front of the other.

She could pick out each sort of guard by footstep. The heavy paws of the hedgebeasts, the bipedal hooves of the satyrs, and the much lighter steps of the abyssinians. She would fight all the more to silence herself when the last of those walked by, as abyssinian magic was based on grace, precision, and awareness, and she couldn't risk giving them a single reason to open their senses to try to pierce her cloak. There was already the risk that one of them might be keeping their senses open permanently while on patrol, as draining and overwhelming as that could be.

So many ways that this could go wrong.

Breathe. Focus. She controlled the shadows, they didn't control her. She would reach Savannah, and get them out of here.

There were torches on the walls, and whenever Kisu passed near them, their light would dim slightly, and the shadows would grow deeper. She felt like each moment she needed to pause beneath them was shaving years off of her lifespan, but each and every time, she held steady. She'd been doing this long enough that anything less would be an insult to the training that the princess had funded. Celestia had seen potential that night in the archives, and Kisu had been repaying the debt ever since.

She finally found the side-tunnel that she was looking for, and she fought to keep herself from breaking into a gallop. More careful slicing of defensive spells earned her entry, and as she made her way deeper in, she started to hear the rattle of chains. Low and behold, she found the curled up form of a familiar sunny yellow, with much paler-looking metal attaching to limbs and neck.

Kisu took a breath, and let the shadows recede. "Come on, Sav," she said in just barely above a whisper. "It's time to go."

Earns twitched, and then Savannah slowly uncurled, blinking in the darkness until they seemed to finally see her. "Oh thank Celestia..." they murmured, and then tried to rise, only to jerk to a stop partway up as chains went taught. "I didn't give up a word of anything, but I don't think they were trying hard about it. They mostly just left me here in these." A hoof briefly lifted, went down. "I think it's electrum. Enchanted. Otherwise I'd've already got it off."

One of Kisu's knives swung out, slicing one chain after another as it swirled through the air, the metal falling away as if it were paper cut away by scissors. "And now it's not." She pressed her body against Savannah's, trying to offer what stability she could to the taller creature. "Now come on, let's get out of--"

"Well, well, well... Looks like taking the occasional 'random' stroll past this tunnel was a good idea after all..."

The way was blocked, and Kisu recognized both voice and glow before she'd even turned her head. Crimson Flame was standing directly in her path, several satyrs behind her wearing simian grins and holding makeshift clubs. Kisu hardened her features. "I suppose I should give you a chance to stand down and let us pass."

Laughter broke out, Crimson's the loudest of them all. "Oh you are a riot..." She gestured with a foreleg, the goons behind her all taking a step back. "You boys keep back. Needles can shove his 'not worth it' in his pie hole--" Her colours distorted, her mane lighting with flame, transforming much faster than she had in the auction house. "--Because this little case of colic is mine!"

The amulet floated above the table, steadily rotating in the air as Night Light's magic probed its secrets. The analysis spells revealed enchantment after enchantment, interlocking together like gears in a clockwork device, so many moving parts that it was difficult to understand the shape of the whole. He kept scanning it, each pass of the spell revealing more, and he found himself slowly beginning to understand. As he'd expected from Princess Celestia's descriptions, amplification was part of what it did, but it was nothing like classic amplifier spells, and there was so much more going on that was harder to identify.

So engrossed he became, he initially didn't notice the glow surrounding the amulet change from his own gold to a bloody red. He realized what was happening just in time to duck under the blast fired off from the jewel, but the smell of singed hair told him that he'd only barely reacted in time. "Celestia!"

"Hey!" Impisi stormed over and smacked the amulet with her hand, a symbol briefly flashing into sight on her palm. The red glow vanished instantly and the artefact fell to the table with a clatter. She then crossed her arms, growled at the amulet as if warning it from acting again, and looked to Night. "Be careful with that thing. I told you, the wards aren't fully charged. They'll dampen it, but they're not as powerful."

Night Light took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." He took hold of the amulet again, this time making sure to keep an eye on the colour. "It's clearly been protected against tampering. Unsurprising, since I'm sure Sacanas wanted it to stay in her own hooves."

Impisi eyed it warily, and didn't move from his side, also standing vigil against any sudden moves. "That mare was a real piece of work, huh?"

"She founded a movement that rejected alicorns as abominations that went against the natural order," Night replied in deadpan as he sent a fresh scanning spell washing over the amulet. "And accused Princess Celestia of being some kind of parasite in a pony's skin. You tell me."

It was a Tartarus of a way to handle a rejected marriage proposal. The sheer arrogance and entitlement of it boggled the mind, deciding both that she had a chance to rule beside the centuries-old monarch and that, when that dream was dashed, she could usurp her instead. Yet that indescribably selfish mind had produced innovation after innovation, and her works were still out there, sitting innocently in places like the duke's collection until they suddenly saw the light of day again.

Impisi let out a snort and shook her head. "Yeah, I can see why the Thunderstrikes would be fans of her work."

"Other than the fact that she saw all non-unicorns as the future servants of their rightful superiors, of course."

"Eh, years after someo--somepony's death you can ignore all those little inconvenient details." She shrugged her shoulders. "Though I'd've loved to see how she'd do trying to invade Farasi looking for servants. If the kelpies didn't drown her, get enough of my people on the shore and she'd slam into a wall of anti-magic so hard her grandparents'd go null." The chuckle at the mental image was short-lived, and Impisi squinted at the amulet as it spun. "What's it even do?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." He cast another spell, starting to feel a press not from Impisi's wards, but from his own fatigue and hunger. He considered asking if she would be willing to make something just to ensure that he didn't pass out on his hooves, but he could feel himself closing in on the answer he sought. There was one moving part that felt like a core one, and its purpose kept slipping from him, like a word on the tip of the tongue. "There's hundreds of interworked spells, and..." Somewhere in his mind, the candle lit, and his eyes widened as he dropped the amulet and leaped a body length backward all at once. "Sun and moon..."

Impisi already had her hands up, palms glowing. "What? What is it?"

Night took in a shaky breath. "She very much didn't want this in anypony else's hooves." He took a few steps forward again, and his horn lit with a different spell. "I think I know what I'm working with now, and the princess was right that nothing will permanently deactivate it. Sacanas gave it a life and will of its own."

It was Impisi's turn to hop backward, as if she expected the amulet to suddenly leap up and try to bite her face. "So we're casually hanging around an age-old and still-active violation of international magical law?" When Night nodded, she threw her arms up in the air. "This is fine! Great! Fantastic, even! Exactly how I wanted to spend my day!"

"Sacanas is a lot of the reason that those laws exist." The spells to place the amulet into dormancy flowed from his horn, now that he knew which layer of its enchantments to target. They were less of an off-switch and instead something much more like a sedative spell that would be applied to a living creature, and now he knew why. "There are Equestrian scholars still figuring out how she did certain things... so that nopony else can do it again."

"And sun-flanks trusted my wards to contain this thing. Tartarus' chains, I don't know if I'm proud of that or want to call her nuts." She gave a swift shake of her head, watched the amulet float down and settle on the table for the final time, and then spotted Night's expression. "I know that look. I'm really good at reading equine facial expressions. You're thinking about doing something stupid and reckless."

The corner of his mouth quirked. "Seen that one a lot, have you?"

"I'm cubhood friends with Kisu," she said as though it was answer enough, and he resolved to get a few stories from that time when this was over. "So I take it we're not booking it back to Casabronco?"

Night finally tore his eyes away from the amulet, and he tilted his head back until he could meet her eyes. "Answer me honestly, Impisi. Can she handle that many goons?"

Her hesitance was answer enough for him, but her words confirmed it. "She could turn any average goon into shredded lunchmeat. The kirin, between her and Savannah, I'm not worried about. But the kirin and a whole cave system full of goons?" Long fangs bit nervously at her lower lip. "I'm worried." Then, a beat later, she added, "You're going after her."

"I haven't known her long, but..." He gave the amulet one last once-over, to make sure his spells had taken. "She's a friend. A new one, but a friend. It feels wrong to walk away now, and my part of securing the artefact is done, anyway." He peered at it more, this time not taking in its magical qualities, but its appearance. "Do you have anything silver laying around that you won't miss?"

Impisi blinked in surprise at the change in topic, but only for a moment. "Would sterling work? I've got a few pieces."

"It should. The copper in the alloy rarely interferes." He grasped the amulet, tucking it away in his saddlebag again, a new set of spells coming together in his mind. "Bring it here, and some rope. Hurry."

She listened, but even as she hurried toward the kitchen, she shot over her shoulder, "All you herbivores are crazy, you know that?"

"And proudly so."

He just hoped it was the variety of crazy that was crazy enough to work.

Sun Shines Through

The way out was blocked, Savannah was unsteady on their hooves, and Kisu was trying to hit someone on fire. All in all, not her ideal combat situation.

It wasn't that she didn't know how to kill a kirin. She could probably rattle off several, but all of them involved preparation and the element of surprise, most included some crocotta wards in place, and at least one involved a kelpie on standby. The fact was that heat could do strange things to magic. The higher the temperature, the more likely that cast spells would warp as they drew close to the source, to say nothing of the way enchantments would decay when items they were cast on degraded from heat, or outright burned. Night Light's fireproofing spell was still active, but that only protected her flesh, and remained running due to tapping into her own personal mana. Her knives, while resilient, still found her grip on them wavering as the cave grew hotter and the air itself worked against the telekinesis.

"I knew one of you would come to get your little friend..." Crimson hissed as she lunged hooves-first at Kisu, hooves shod with an unidentified metal that somehow hadn't melted while wreathed in fire. "But I was hoping for your stallion." Kisu rolled out of the way, watching the sparks soar from the Crimson's red-hot shoes skidding over stone and leaving glowing trails. "It's been a long time since I took some burning hooves to a unicorn."

Three of the four knives shot toward the back of Crimson's neck. "Ironic, given that you were racing to get your hooves on a unicorn artefact."

Two overshot, and the third grazed Crimson's shoulder as she whipped around. The gash glowed orange briefly before fading, and Kisu cursed under her breath; a creature of fire could self-cauterize, and there'd be no defeat by blood loss. She had to strike fatally. Crimson advanced as if she'd barely felt the blow, and even with the spell's protection, Kisu felt sweat beading in her coat.

"The enchantress is dead and buried." The burning kirin--no, nirik; she remembered that part of her studies now--spat the word as if it were a curse. "And what's left goes to who's strong enough to use it." She swung around, hind hooves flying, and Kisu had to duck out of the way of the fiery bludgeons. "Is that why you're bedding down with a unicorn, stripes?" Front hooves followed hind, Crimson spinning in a way that briefly blurred her distorted features. "Want to get some kids with horns on their heads so they use real magic?"

Kisu's knives took off from the cave floor and streaked toward Crimson's barrel, seeking to lodge between ribs, but she jumped as they headed for her, leaving more grazing slashes along her underbelly that glowed with flame. Kisu cloaked herself in shadow as Crimson came down where she once was, briefly yanking herself through the immaterial in a crude imitation of a teleport, and she smirked to herself at the look of confusion, one that allowed Savannah to suddenly leap forward with a grin.

"You really talk too much, love," was all they said, before the entire tunnel lit up yellow.

Kisu thanked her shadow cloak for allowing her to not go blind at Savannah's sunlight spell, and the moment the shine started to fade, she charged at the satyrs guarding the doorway, slamming one into the wall, and then took off down the tunnel. She stashed her knives again, then looked back to make sure that Savannah was following her.

"Oh now I'm peeved," Crimson's voice echoed down the tunnel. "I'm done playing with them! Turn them both into paste. We'll hunt down the unicorn instead."

"Keep running, Sav," Kisu ordered, as her knives returned to the physical and three abyssinians who'd tried to block their path were ducking and leaping to avoid being cut. "Just keep running!"

A large specimen of hedgebeast tried to stand in their path next, and Kisu could see Savannah charging another burst of light. She prepared to cloak herself again, only for the hulking goon to suddenly cry out and topple forward, out cold. Kisu skidded to a stop, Savannah right behind her, as a familiar dark form climbed up on the unconscious--not dead, definitely not, as the massive chest was still rising and falling--beast's back, wearing a triumphant grin.

Night Light. Wearing the amulet.

"Looks like you've started the party without me," he said, and Kisu found herself taking a step back. His voice was much deeper now, and his eyes were glowing a fierce red.

"Oh what luck..." Crimson's voice was close, and Kisu could feel the heat at her back. "Seems we won't have to hunt you down. The unicorn and the artefact, all together as a nice present. All that's left is your pet crocotta, really, and we'll have the whole set."

"Oh? It's this you want?" Night nudged the amulet around his neck with a hoof, and Kisu distantly wondered where he'd found that chain to attach it to. "Then let's see if you have the power to take it."

He leaped forward, but the shield spell was ahead of him. The satyrs, still no doubt half-blinded, were batted aside, clubs and all, by a wall of pure telekinesis. As they scrambled to their feet and for their weapons, he laughed, and suddenly they were all screaming as they scrambled away from what were now hissing cobras. Crimson charged for him, but her flaming hooves met sudden cold as he coated the cave floor in ice, ice that rapidly melted and sent her slipping, sliding, and sending up clouds of hot steam.

Night Light sprang up, his horn nearly scraping the ceiling, and Kisu watched him hang in the air--he would explain to her later how difficult self-levitation could be, but even not knowing then what a feat it was, she was as impressed as she was horrified--and with a great burst of blue light, wings emerged from his back, his voice growing all the deeper. "The power of Sacanas is beyond anything you could hope to harness. Bow down now, and I'll be merciful."

Kisu watched goons throwing themselves into bows, and Kisu was broken from her stun as Savannah slammed their shoulder into her, urging her to move. She started to, but she'd barely gotten a few body lengths before the roar of the fireball behind her, and the thump of Night Light hitting the floor.

By the time she'd turned around, he was picking himself up shakily, wings gone. The glow to his eyes had also vanished, and he no longer had the amulet weighing down on his neck. She didn't need to look far to see where it'd went, as Crimson leaned down to seize the edge of the chain in her teeth.

Kisu and Night met eyes, and she heard herself hissing, "What did you just--"

"Trust me, both of you, run!"

"Finally!" Crimson Flame's voice was booming, and while all around were still bowing, the three Equestrian agents took off as if they were being chased by the incarnation of Tartarus itself. "No more listening to Needles, or the Thunderhead, or anyone! I'm the big mare in charge now! Bow to your new Storm Queen!"

The tunnels were a blur. Other lackeys were knocked aside, or too busy racing past them toward Crimson's mad laughter to either notice or care that their hostage was escaping. Kisu thought she spotted Needles, still in his suit, as they swung the last corner, but she didn't stop to check. She was in pure flight mode, no longer trying to calm her racing heart, legs focused solely on propelling her ever-forward.

The way out was navigated on instinct, no conscious thought of retracing her path, and it was a miracle they found their way out at all instead of running themselves in circles until they dropped. When she took her first gulp of fresh air under the cool night sky, her legs nearly gave out from under her, but she forced herself to keep going, and push the other two along, until the wilds were left behind and they were shaking with spent adrenaline in the shadows of Zebrat's outskirts.

Savannah's breathing was heavy as they were the first to drop to the ground. "Let's not do that again, yeah?" They rolled over onto their back, staring up at Kisu and Night Light. "So... a decoy?" they ventured, and at his nod, asked, "How'd you set it up?"

Night Light lowered himself down with slightly more grace, but only slightly. "Basic visual and tactile illusions on a silver conduit." He then chuckled, his horn lighting as, for just a moment, the wings were back. "Along with some other illusions to sell the part." The light winked out, and he rested his chin in the dirt. "Plus a short-term amplification spell so that whoever stole it would think it was working. A spell that should be wearing off right... about... now."

Despite herself, Kisu let out a breath of a laugh, her legs wobbling even as she refused to let them give out entirely. "Clever."

"I do have my moments." The grin was brief, as if he didn't even have the energy to work those muscles anymore. "Impisi will be on the ship when we get there, courtesy of the Crown's coffers. She'll be working some extra wards to make sure the amulet stays asleep on the journey." His breathing was starting to steady, but he still barely moved his head to look at them as he asked, "Are you two alright?"

"A little bruised," Savannah admitted with a wince. "But they mostly just left me to be bait. They figured you two were the ones with the real information on the artefact."

Kisu snorted. "And she has all the grace of a bear. I might not have been able to make her bleed, but she couldn't kick the broad side of a barn." She moved over to his side with shaking hoofsteps, and finally let herself sink to the ground next to him. "And thank you, for the fireproofing. The potion to do the same isn't easy to make, and I was always better with shadows than brewing."

He barely moved, except to shift a bit to lean against her. "Anytime."

"Careful, I might just hold you to that, Mr. Light."

"I'm looking forward to it, Ms. Kisu." That was when he mustered the strength to lift his head and look directly at her. "But please. My friends call me Night."

It would take Kisu a long time to admit to him that hearing that almost made her cry. In the moment, she simply pretended that the quaver in her softened voice wasn't there. "...Thank you, Night. Sincerely. For coming for us. I should have given you a chance to help in the first place instead of trying to boss you out to the docks."

Night lowered his head again, and gave a small shrug. "Don't worry. It's water under the bridge, Kissy."

Kisu's groan of suffering was nearly drowned out by Savannah's wheezing laughter. And eventually, three friends got up off of the ground to make the trek to join the fourth.

"And this is my tenth ever bingo tournament," Night Light announced proudly, tapping the picture of himself sitting at the table with an excited grin. Three tables over were a pair of other unicorn mares, one ancient-looking with a look of fierce competitiveness and one much younger who looked like she was going to die of boredom. "It's where I met your grandma, when she was there with her grandma."

"Gamma?" Flurry Heart asked, peering at the photo with new interest.

"Yup, that's your grandma as a young mare." He chuckled softly. "She was so pretty that I could barely keep an eye on my bingo card. I kept missing calls."

"Pwetty!"

He ruffled Flurry's mane, and with a brief glow, the next set of pictures revealed themselves. A warmth had settled in his heart remembering the day he'd met the mare he would marry, but this set of memories had a different sort of warmth to them that had him beaming.

In the middle of a Trottingham street, on a cold fall evening, was a restaurant with a steak and celery stalk on the sign. A unicorn, a zebra, an abada, and a crocotta stood in front of the doors, posing for the photo, wearing some the widest, proudest smiles any of them ever would. Alongside the photo was a clipped newspaper article, the headline reading "Trottingham's First Omnivorous Restaurant Opens To Eager Appetites" in bold print.

Night Light could feel Cadence's curious gaze again, and he simply smiled. "And this is me with more of my friends from Farasi. After they'd followed me to Equestria." He ran his hoof along the page, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles. "I'll have to take you sometime, to meet the rest of your honourary family."

And much like how life had gone on after that mission, and they'd all moved forward together, Night Light smiled, and turned the page.