- Dark Meetings
The stars shone wearily down through a small wooden window into third floor hallway that smelled faintly of moldy cheese and bourbon, weaved it’s way around particles of dust, past two lonesome figures and finally came to rest upon a door number. The number was a Six but it hung upside-down nervously, pretending to be a nine and hoping nobody would notice.
Innocuous as the door was, it couldn’t help but creak and rattle when a firm if somewhat chubby hand knocked briskly on it.
Being a door it couldn’t contemplate anything, let alone the strange goings on behind it’s sturdy frame, and thankfully neither could any of the other guests at Indianna university living in the dormitories. At Four in the morning only a handful of people making quiet noises in quiet rooms were still actually awake so it was not surprising that the only person to hear the following conversation was a Janitor.
“Shit, are they here already, get this crap cleared away.”
The two gentlemen, who shall be called gentlemen inspite of looking like a mechanic and a hobo, looked at each other before looking back at the door.
“Larry, let us in!” The shabbily dressed male demanded, in a voice that suggested not being let in was perfectly acceptable. His hand slipped out of it’s pocket as though it had never been there and lightly rapped upon the door just as it opened. But only a crack.
The weedy looking eyes looking out through the gap indicated their owner may have been on crack. At the very least they suggested too many nights up at a computer drinking highly caffeinated beverages and they blinked rapidly as they scanned over the guests in the hallway.
Hesitantly, he asked a question;
“Are you delivering Chimmy Cherry or Cherry Chunga?” He asked cautiously. The larger of the two men simply glared at the weedy looking man before putting his boot firmly against the door and pushing. The door being an obliging door did as the boot told it.
“So, Isaac!” he looked across to the second man in the room, “Do we have all the merchandise ready?” He said, indicating the collection of mint condition plastic and nylon objects still in their mint condition nylon and plastic packaging. Stomping over to the computer he bumped the mouse and observed “Canterlot Defence” in pause mode on the screen, but said nothing about it.
“And how’s the server going for the fighting network!”
The weedy looking guy took off his small glasses, polished them against a small stained shirt and forcefully put them back on. Having done this he very politely pointed out “The server is going fine Dylan! Thank you for asking. You didn’t need to barge into my dorm like that! Just cause you helped move everything in!”
“And have a key!” the man in the corner of the room grinned.
“And have a key!” Dylan responded quite happily.
Dylan looked around the room quietly and with a grin on his face. The four men gathered here were champions, heros in their own right! Part of a society that was both secret and ancient, or at least a few years old and had millions of followers. Better than some religious cult they scoured internet pages, downloading images and songs, playing games and ferreting around for precious plastic collectibles.
It was a powerful movement, based on a basic feeling, a fellowship! Men, women, children gathered together to give praise spread the word of the magic of friendship and of the cartoon that had inspired them.
“Dudes, what we are going to do will be totally awesome, probably!” The fourth man claimed stepping forwards. “But if we’re going to be ready in time for Sunrise then we need to start now! If we want Her to come that is!”
All four men looked at each other with grins. Larry, Dylan, Isaac and Karlos had all met online in the forum Equestria Daily and had been surprised to learn they lived in the same city! Online they were known as LillyTamer, IronRod, DaringDolittle and WindSitter. Enthralled by the ponies of Friendship is Magic they had overcome their base differences and started sharing stories, fanart and working together on starting a game.
Only after they had met in real life had the four learned that LillyTamer was not only a guy (a bit of a shock) but an amature magician with a limited edition First Copy, First release of Dungeons and Dragons. The one that actually had magic spells in it. Or so he claimed.
At first nothing had happened, at first. It had been a joke mostly, and while they hung out occasionally none of the four had actually considered that it was possible to do anything resembling magic. But even if it wasn’t possible, wouldn’t it be a lark!
Friendship, they said, was magic. So like a seance could give people the fun of talking to a supposedly dead person here they gathered.
“On the stroke of sunrise -” Lillytamer talked, reading the information from his old book while the others prepared flowers, fruit and positioned the merchandise, - “If we want to talk to ‘Her’ or summer ‘Her’ here then that will be the best time!”
“I still say we need SIX!” Isaac complained, as he snacked on a snickers. “There are six main ponies, six elements of harmony, and episodes run in batches of six on the DVD’s!”
“That’s a lot of sixes!” Larry stated, rubbing his glasses. “But there is only four of us! We can’t do anything about that!”
Larry made a small pout on his face and quietly mumbled something about ‘not seaming right.”
Not that anybody listened.
The only person who remained quiet during the preparation was Karlos. Scruffy, and quiet some would actually call the accountant Emo if they were to see him in his ‘casual’ clothing. Karlos watched the other men quietly until the time of the ceremony, saying nothing unless absolutely necessary and simply observed the setting with dark half-lidded eyes.
Eventually, when all was in readiness, they sat, in a perfect circle.
Larry, also known as Lillytamer sat first, keeping his sacred book in his lap. The pages were ragged and a little torn, and in places the spell he was using, intended for casting a spell called ‘Unicorns Rage’, had been modified in places to include new words sketchily translated in latin and then from Latin into hebrew.
“Can we all be seated!” he stated, looking at each of the figures. All four were now robed in imitations of mantle of Starswirl the bearded. With an assortment of real and fake magical charms, some genuine horse hair, a realistic carved wood figurine of their intended target and a modified Ouija board. Looking at the assembled gathering, Isaac whistled only to be chided by Larry. Dylan stifled a laugh and for a moment all was silent.
Nodding to Larry, Karlos tapped the button on the Ipod and started the MY Little Pony OST playing, so that select instrumentals from the series, along with a handful of songs from Forest Rain, Eurobeat Brony and PinkiePie Swear mixed in.
“Semper ardens sol, adornantem mundus ex veneficus.” Larry began nervously, struggling with the dead language.
“te dicimus vocare te, oh alatum, corniger bestia,” Continued Karlos in a bored voice,
“repleti, magicam et preditos intelegence, hunc vincula amicitiai scientia quaerimus.”
Dylan had no problem with the words, despite being a mechanic he was also a Trekie and therefore had some experience with unlikely languages. Being Jewish likely made things easier too, although he claimed not to be involved in his traditional culture.
“ut luceant in locum tuum ad tempus.” Finished Isaac. Everyone took a breath, then one by one each put a puny digit on the glass in the middle of the Ouija Board.
Hesitating, Dylan picked up the next sentence saying “Ut fortitudo vestra noster factus est fortitúdinem,” with Larry finishing off.
“Ita ut omnes qui vinci in et potestates quibus possideo.”
At this point Karlos gently pushed the glass with his finger, and quietly chuckled inside his head where only he could hear it. Even if anyone guess, this was mostly just for fun.
“Princess Celestia!” Larry called out, Can you hear us!”
As the first rays of sunrise shon into the grubby room through a grubby window pane the game began for real.
Outside, down the paths, outside the campus grounds, around the corner and about 120 miles away a man was taking out the garbage. He ran a fish and chip shop and, like always, this meant an early start. Walking around the alley in his underwear and a shirt, knowing that nobody would see him and the refrigerated van wouldn’t be there for a couple of hours he was surprised to hear the sound of two female voices.
“Dear Twilight.” A voice stated, as though reading or perhaps, quoting. “Thank you for the apple tarts that you and your friends made, Luna and I are enjoying them immensely. Mine as breakfast, her’s as desert!”
“They’re Delicious!” a second voice put in, through what sounded like a mouth full of pie.
Joseph looked around scratching his head, somehow those voices sounded familiar. Had he heard them somewhere before.
“I am also very pleased to hear Applejack’s message and the value she learned in listening to her grandmother. She seems like a fine mare.” The regal voice stated. Joseph lifted the lid on the rubbish bin and checked inside just to be certain.
“I will have to meet this Granny Smith next time I am in Ponyville. Hope this finds you well. Celestia!”
Joseph put the lid down, the speeches seeming to have been completed and turned to go back inside. This was when an even stranger sound hit his ears. Like a popping followed by a god awful roar that split the air like a knife!
“Sister!!! What is that!” a voice screamed at him.
“It appears to be some kind of corrid.....” The richer voice got cut off by what felt like a block of static. Then all the man could hear was screaming.
When his head and eyes cleared, the alley was no longer empty. Trash cans, scattered around and dented in places pointed to a place where there now stood a rather majestic looking horse.
Joseph lifted a lid before his brain caught up with the scene in front of him. Hesitantly he looked at the horned and winged mare and asked.
“But how can you be here?”
Celestia looked around, as though for a moment confused. Then her eyes settled on the sun of the human world, for the last time that she would remember.
Power flared, the iris’ of her eyes contracted and the whites turned red.
Working together to perform their wonderful magical arts, the four men played as though children ¼ of their ages around the Ouija board and effectively took turns making up questions that the supposedly present Celestia could answer. Some were clean, some perverted! Although the glass did decide to fly off the table when Karlos called her Molestia as a joke! Whether by some unspoken agreement or some matter of fate the men took turns controlling the glass and, since Larry started running a web feed moments after sunrise they also took some request questions. Three hours later with real world lives to attend the men split up.
Each of them tried to look inconspicuous as they left Larry’s flat, hoping that nobody would make assumptions about three men having visited the 19 year old student in the middle of the night and made their ways to their separate jobs.
Life happened. It was boring.
Halfway to work, with no intention of going home, Karlos stopped at a gas station and bought a bagel, before using the toilets there to change out of the dark scruffy clothes and put on a rather boring white business shirt. Taking a comb he wet his hair and raked the device through it, monitoring the effect this had on his hair and humming to himself as loud fire-engine sounds ran in and out making their way through the city, playing a strange stacutto to his off-tune humming.
Daryl, a mechanic at a local car-yard simply donned his company jacket and listened to the radio while Skrillex played at a blaring pace from his Ipod. The same one that had played the music during their summoning earlier that morning. Waiting at the lights for the fire engine to pass him, he guided his small skunk bucket that he’d been testing through a MacDonald’s and bought himself an extra large espresso.
Larry went to class, having not slept at all the previous night and chose to spend the class at the rear of the group checking his eyelids for holes; and Isaac went home, climbed into his computer chair, clicked on his multi-chapter fan-fiction he’d been writing and tried to decide if the little saence had given him any new material.
The fire that Krystal and her partner were rushing to had not been the first that night, but the early morning ring had been an unwelcomed hinderance. Making apologies to her partner the Red headed woman had donned her red and yellow jacket and made a hasty run to her motorcycle to reach the station just as the truck was going out.
Now, looking at the building that highlighted the sky she frowned. Jo’s Chips had not been an old building, quite the opposite! Brand new with rendered brick and sprinklers (sp?) fitted every precaution had been taken apparently to stop the highly flammable oils, grease and potatoes becoming a fire hazard. Which made this fire all the more confusing.
The rush to the site in the truck had been way too late to save the shop itself, the fire seeming to have burst through the building like a wave upon a beach taking everything in it’s path. Rather than save it Krystal and the boys had focused simply on keeping the fire from spreading as the glow light up the early morning sky with foreboding.
Now, stepping over soggy crinkled ground she looked at the mish mash of wood, splinters, glass and ashes and wondered how and where it had started. The entire left side of the building was missing, likely destroyed first with nothing but twisted iron and melted bricks to indicate the passage of the flames. Picking her way carefully she looked out into the alley, littered with debris, and saw a flash of white amongst the black. Hesitantly she crossed herself.
“CLIFF!” She picked her way back over the debri. “GET THE THE CORONER..” she hesitated, “AND PATH! WE GOT A BODY!”
To be continued.
The Moon Princess Appears
- The Moon Princess Appears
Josh Winkly stood beside his favorite hamburger stand and munched happily on a burger. This was a rare treat in his busy life and not something to be rushed through, so he took small bites of his ham, chicken, beetroot and celery in a sesame bun and tried not to think about the activity going on around him. The day was hot, and hot days brought the crazy out in people! Already the mercury had climbed to an insane 140 and for mid Autumn this was making it officially fire season. Already by 2pm there had been three building fires in his area but a tree in the park had caught!
Josh was the only person not on edge, and from his perspective this was already a bad sign. Usually he was the one on edge! Carefully - he fingered a Cools from his pocket, went to light it, looked across at the smoke in the air from the morning fires and put it away. Finishing his burger and trashing the wrapper Josh walked over into the remains of the worst of the fires. A woman, tall, dark, handsome and wearing a striking firefighters outfit that made her look frumpy and silly picked her way across the ashes of the building and waved to him.
Trying to act business-like he greeted her with a simple wave and responded with “Where’s the body?”
“Over here!” The woman indicated.
Reaching into his pocket, his fingers went to pull out that damn cigarette again, but he callously forced them to grab the little plastic bag holding the simple sterilized metal rod he typically used for moving things during a crime scene investigation.
Carefully moving back a piece of charred cloth, flesh or goodness knows what he looked at the shape underneath.
“Body was burned clean through!” he said. “Coroner told you anything yet?”
The fire woman nodded. “Apparently male, mid 40’s, they will have somebody here later to pick it up and find out more!” she indicated the mess that the fire crew was picking through then, after gulping and trying not to look at the prone figure she began to unravel the thoughts in her head.
“The fire seemed to be started here in the alley. Some form of incendiary, probably, although we haven’t found any chemical trace! Whatever it was it burned hot and fast - we think this entire alley was overwhelmed in a couple of minutes and the rest was just collateral!”
Josh Nodded, “What’s that!” he said absent mindedly, pointing at a section of un-singed wall behind them. Everyone looked at it nervously.
Outlined on the wall was a section of un-burned bricks and in it a rather vicious outline like that of a rearing horse.
Krystal shook her head, not wanting to think about it.
“Think it’s the killer?” Josh put in, earning a derisive laugh from the woman.
“Yeah right. A horse that burns with the power of the sun? Unlikely - the only horse I heard of capable of that is in a cartoon!”
Taking a breath Krystal tracked her way away from the Pathologist and the unfortunate dead.
Josh didn’t look up as he commented, staring at the bleached white bone amongst the rubble.
“When I figure out what caused this I’ll let you know! Although it will likely be a police matter by then!”
Marshalling his crew quickly Josh had them scour through the ashes, gathering samples and cleaning the soot from the bones. When the coroner arrived he picked up the bone fragments and bagged them to take them back to his office. Josh took little interest in it. Using samples of ash and debri he performed basic tests and was confounded on each one. All the standard propellants and accelerants were turning up blank and even taking the samples back to his laboratory for more advanced testing was turning up blank.
Combining a sample of burnt something with another testing agent he looked first for the indicated colour change, then just to be certain checked it under an electron microscope to make sure that there weren’t minute traces.
Taking out his cigarette he put it in his mouth and let it hang there unlit.
“I’ll be buggered!” he frowns and pats his pockets before sitting down. Looking up he sees the admonishing look from one of the ladies assisting him and puts the cigarette away again.
In his late twenties, Josh had been a pathology specialist for six years. Not long for this industry but long enough for him to pick up some oddities. Every time he attended a fire like this part of him seemed to resist smoking, but the stress of attending crime scenes, testing for bloodworks, accelerants or other chemicals at the scene of crime he simply could not find the time.
“If it wasn’t some propellant or incendiary device then maybe it was a mix effect?” His assistant suggested, looking over the tests. They had gone through almost everything they could think of looking for something that would burn hot and quick without exploding. Nothing in the results passed to them from Krystal had suggested an explosion of any kind but this rather limited their list of possible substances.
“There were rubbish bins, old oil and fat in the dumpsters, but nothing that could burn that hot. That I’ve seen!” He replied. The array of samples they had taken included samples of burnt flesh, rubbish, half melted bricks, bone chips provided by the coroner and bones of a different kind that came from fish remains distributed around the scene of the crime.
Pulling a file from the counter he fiddled with the hem of his blue shirt, pulling it out and untucking it from his long pants.
“The part that makes no sense is the scorch marts and the melted brick!” he replied,
“It does imply something really hot. Like Kampfer or something!” his assistant replied.
“It would have to be a major amount - and why in an alley and burning up a simple shop assistant?”
Josh shook his head. “Lilly my dear, I don’t give a damn! Motives are the issue of the police but unless we can come up with a how it’s going to be pretty hard to determine a why!”
Spreading the photos of the scene out over the counter he stared at them with a fist against the side of his head.
“Perhaps you need to find that Krystal woman and talk to her again?” Lilly advised.
“Perhaps.” Idly, as though no conscious thought was involved his hand reached for a phone and picked it up.
Two hours and six phone calls later, Josh swept out of the lab. It was getting late, the sun was already high in the sky and lunch time had come and gone. He fumed with aggravation and confusion.
“What do you mean there have been six other fires!” he had demanded, talking to the chief of Fire and Rescue on the phone.
“Exactly what I said! Krystal and her crew have been busy all day! We’ve been having fires all the way from Upper Canal to Frank Young Park. All with a similar MO too!”
The scowl on Josh’s face was six inches wide, “That’s across three districts!”
“And they’ve all been out in the open! Alleys, streets, parks! Some with only a few people some with lots! So far there haven’t been any more deaths.”
“Where is the pattern!” he continued to scowl as he drove, making his way to each scene and following the path of destruction. From the first fire near 10th street there had been a spat of fires heading east! Trees on fire, buildings melted and the grass at the sports oval scorched.
Between his lab at the UI Health building and the first fire there was almost a direct line of small fires, arcing up and around to the next big fire at near the freeway. He looked over the giant gutted stadium and frowned. It had been lucky that this fire occurred in the early morning, when nobody was around. Twisted metal and concrete buckled in all directions as though melted by an extreme heat.
“The same MO.” he frowned.
“How on earth was this done!”
Darryl stared at the metal in front of him while metal played in the background behind him. Metal hummed in his hand and supported his back to keep him off the hard concrete! Tapping the underside of the crank shaft he kicked the underside of the cabin and pushed himself out from under the trashed Ford. The entire drive shaft had been knocked sideways by about seven inches and as a result the engine block was pressing against the side of the chasse.
“Talk about shit work!” he said, looking at the owners attempt to keep the timing belt rubbing against anything. “Must have hit that curb at 60!”
He whistled, “I’m surprised that’s the only damage they did!”
Hearing his cell ringing, Darryl dashed to grab it, wiping his hands to decrease the amount of grease from joining with the oil already smeared on the cell.
“Frankly Auto, Darryl Speaking!” He responded automatically. It sounded like a bird on the other end of the line, saying something about needing a tow.
“Yeah, I get it! Okay, where are you?” Heading into the office past a black and white picture of Jessica Bunny he sat at a desk and grabbed hold of his jot book.
“Left side of the 115, just after Luther King Turnoff...” he repeated slowly as he wrote. “Understood, yes yes, fast I get it!”
The man rolled his eyes and looked at the book full of shorthand listed jobs and directions.
Looking back through the window dividing the garage from the office he mused about the car he’d been working on and went through his thoughts before rifling around for the woman’s number.
“It’ll have to go on a jig if she want’s it fixed! No other way.”
Lost in his thoughts of motor mechanics Darryl only vaguely heard the bell that indicated somebody walking through the door to the back room where he worked.
Instead of coming out straight away he made his phone call loudly, so that whoever it was would know he was pre-occupied.
He didn’t hear or notice the light clipping and clopping sounds out on the cement floor of the shed, or hear the pings as metal from the damage car slowly heated and began buckling. He did notice the temperature getting warmer but working in a metal shed in the mid autumn he ignored the change in temperature.
The first thing that Darryl saw to indicate something was wrong was the purple light. Looking through the window into the main work area he something in the back of his mind itched.
“Like magic!” he mumbled, then shook his head before ending the conversation with the Ford’s owner.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting!” He called out, again jotting down in his notebook.
“I’m going to be heading out soon for a tow job. Is what you need quick?”
Darryl looked around and saw the car, the nice green-grey paint on the Ford was suddenly brown and flaking. Darryl’s eyes widened at this and he looked around. The damage was new.
“Excuse me?”
Feeling heat on his back he turned, then his mouth dropped wide open.
“I, but, how... It!” Without thinking the Mechanic’s knees buckled underneath him dropping the man into a kneeling position.
“Your highness!” He looked up into a white equestrian face, large white wings spread out behind her magnificently.
“Your highness? The summon worked?”
Suddenly aware of his greasy overalls and the unkempt appearance of his shed, Darryl wiped his hands and corrected his speech. “My dear lady, I’m sorry for my appearance. I had not expected such a glorious visit so soon. Thank you for gracing me with your presence!”
Kneeling before the Queen of Equestria, goddess of the Sun, Celestia, Darryl lowered his head. She shone, physically shone with her rainbow mane and pearly white skin so gorgeous to behold.
Celestia stared at the mechanic and self professed Bronie and seemed to think. When she spoke somehow her voice echoed around the building even though she didn’t yell.
“Burn with me.” she whispered.
The flare of light lit up the sky from across town. Only a handful of people noticed it because of the broad daylight. There was a glare, a flash of light a bright as the sun. And then a split second later it was gone.
The first thing anybody knew about it was a phone call. Krystal groaned.
“Oh please god, just let me go home!” she begged of nobody in particular.
Standing at the scene of the burnt out stadium she popped her cell out, flipped it open and snapped out a sharp “What is it and where!”
Approximately the same time as this she noticed a sound. It was a small sound, hidden behind the popping and pinging of burning embers and hot metal but she heard it all the same.
“Did you see anything over there -” the voice of the fire chief was going on through the phone, “The new report is pretty close to you!”
Absent minded, Krystal closed the phone without even responding and starting picking her way away from the building.
Behind where the building was, underneath and around the raised freeway there was patches of nature strip and gardens. Much of it had been left undamaged and, picking her way around the south side of the building the fire woman could tell the nature of the sound now.
Someone was crying. A small week voice, gently crying as though not wanting to be heard. The long drawn out crying, that indicated the owner had been doing so for some time.
Picking her way around a tree, Krystal hesitated in surprise. Huddled against it was what appeared to be a small horse, a filly perhaps with a blue coat. It huddled there making sounds very much like crying and, something clicking in her brain that didn’t make any sense, the fire woman reached out a hand gently and called out to her.
“Hey there, are you okay? I’m here to help!”
Luna, raised her head.
Luna’s eyes were bloodshot, and her face a mess from tears and mucus. Her thin coat, normally luxurious tufted up at all angles and was mussed with dirt and soot from the nearby fire and large bruises sported across her ankles, and calves on one side - as though she had been bodily thrown against something.
Her eyes went wide at the strange two-legged creature in front of her, but she didn’t panic, instead attempting to concentrate on the strange sounds it was making. They felt like speech in her head, but not as she recognized it. Struggling to get to her hoofs she stumbled then backed away as the creature approached her before chiding herself.
“I am a princess.” she chided. “A princess of Equestria. I shall Not back down from this weird place and all these weird creatures!”
Luna tried again. Using her wing to balance herself as she stood she raised her horn. The creature had to be intelligent. It wore clothes, all be it made of strange material, it had tools and devices strapped to it! Probably some worker class, like a worker bee.
“Don’t try to stand!” The creature seemed genuinely concerned by Luna’s state. She could tell that much, even if the words were lost on her.
Reaching for the now faint glimmer of her magic, Luna attempted to cast. The power faded quicker than it had come, flaring only slightly before it ran out. With the spells passing her strength also failed and Luna began to collapse on the ground.
Krystal moved quickly, rushing in on instinct and grabbed the small foal before she hit the ground. Her mind raced, there was no way. This made no sense! A fan of the My Little Pony series herself she had seen this same filly and this same face a few times during the show and knew full well who she faced.
Carefully, and trying to be respectful - the firewoman picked Luna up in her arms and began to carry her away.
Luna stirred once, and the woman looked down.
“Don’t try to move. You’ve been been badly hurt! I’ll look after you!”
Luna’s mind clouded.
“Thankyou.” she replied. Then slept.
