Chapters Lost Souls
I wonder if she’ll bring gifts from Canterlot?
Lyra Heartstrings played around with the thought of delicious chocolate as she trotted down the dark main street of Ponyville, happily chewing a sunflower seed sandwich she held with her magic. A sudden gust of cool wind made her shiver for a second, interrupting her train of thought. She really shouldn’t have stayed that long at Pokey’s, now the only light was that which emanated from the windows lining the street. Why was it so cold now, anyway? It was May, for Celestia’s sake! Must be the anticipated May storm brewing in the east. Maybe she should have a talk with Rainbow Dash the next time sh-
What was that?
She could have sworn… Ah, probably just the wind wailing in between the Everfree trees. She was just about to bite into the sandwich again when she once more heard the sound. This time it was no doubt it was made by a living creature.
A cry? A scream?
She looked around and tried to determine which building it was coming from. Her eyes fell on a familiar one. She slowly approached the building. She tried the door. Locked.
She made her way around to the back. Suddenly she became aware of some light coming out through a small cellar window close to the ground. The cries, for now she was certain that was what she was hearing, appeared to be stronger here near the window. She kneeled down to take a peek inside. A small black curtain obscured most of the view of the cellar, but if she tilted her head and craned her neck perhaps she could… She caught a glimpse of the scene on the other side.
DEAR SWEET CELESTIA!
She withdrew from the window, losing her sandwich in her panic, not sure whether to faint or roll into a ball, sobbing. She decided to scream.
“Eugh! *Cough* Heeel- *spatter*”
Chapter 1: Calm
Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz gasped and panted heavily while attempting to orientate himself. Upon spotting the sweaty covers piled around his lower body, he realized he was in his sunrise-lighted bedroom, sitting upright in his bed.
He dragged himself out of bed and went over to the bath. Splashing some water in his face felt good. He looked in the mirror above the sink, noting that his dark brown mane was now almost one and a half hoofwidths long, judging by the forelock dangling down next to his horn.
I really need to get it cut before it exceeds regulation…
As soon as he had freshened up he went over to his kitchen corner. He couldn’t help but feel thankful for the regulation that stipulated that commissioned officers had the right to rent their own apartments. It might be a tiny little ground-floor one-roomer, but it sure as hay beat the barracks.
Oh, shoot. Looks like somepony has to skip breakfast today…
Minutes later he was fully uniformed, looking over the details of his armor in a large mirror he had hanging close by his door for exactly this reason. The shining gold finish of the armor of the Equestrian Royal Guard seemed to blend with, rather than contrast, his almond-brown coat. Making sure his entire mane was covered by his helmet, he took one step back to take a look at himself. The brown unicorn stallion looked several hoofwidths taller as he stood tall, chest puffed out. From the light blue eyes to the gold-colored shoes, he couldn’t help but think that he looked more like some poster colt than his usual self. If only his parents could… No, no time for that. He picked up the ceremonial spear he had parked next to his front door the evening before and went out onto the bustling Canterlot street.
As he crossed the main entrance hall of Canterlot Castle he spotted a wiry beige pegasus with a black mane hurrying towards him across the hall.
While they walked across one the many open balcony/walkway combinations near the top of the wall of the main building, Storm suddenly exclaimed “’ey, watch out, Dusk!”Whoa! Thanks, Storm. They really should fix that before somepony falls to his death here…”
He sent an irked look in the direction of the large crack he had nearly gotten his hoof caught in. “And look at that! A large piece of the balustrade has fallen out, too! I tell you, Storm, if that isn’t fixed by Wednesday I swear to Celestia I’ll feed the pony responsible for masonry maintenance to the first manticore I can find.”
The two guards stopped outside an unremarkable door, its purpose only revealed by a small bronze plaque encased in the white marble wall, reading “Briefing room 12: Royal Guard 1st Comp. (Day) ”
Quartz sighed. “Seriously, sergeant Wool, is that really necessary? We pass through here every Saturday and have done that for three years now…”
Quartz and Storm left their spears in a rack and turned to the crowd in the room. It appeared all 170 members of the First Company (Day) had turned up and were now chatting quietly in the large briefing room.RF , okay, Storm?” Quartz said in a low voice as they split up to find their respective places in the audience.
Mere minutes after Quartz found his position with the two other second lieutenants on the front row the buzz of voices fell silent as the ponies in audience directed their attention towards the yellow earth pony checking in with sergeant Wool at the door.
Lieutenant Grove walked over to the rostrum, twitched his greying mustache a little and spoke up.
Fifteen minutes of monologue only occasionally interrupted by questions and suggestions later the meeting was drawing to a close. Quartz tightened his jaw muscle while slightly opening his mouth, a nearly invisible yawning technique new recruits quickly learned in order to be conditioned for maintaining the same facial expression in the four hours between guard changes. Even now as a commissioned officer Quartz winced at the thought of his old drill sergeant. He stood in line when somepony barking his own name caught his attention. It was Grove.
As the last dark brown Pegasus closed the door behind him, the only ponies left in the room were Quartz, with his helmet placed on a small table by the door, and a fully armored first lieutenant Grove restlessly pacing in front of him. The plume on the top made him seem far taller and more imposing than what his relatively compact stature would usually pose.
Grove stood in front of Quartz and looked him in the eye in a way that seemed almost irate.sir !”
Grove looked at the map, or rather through it, judging by the absent-minded look on his face.
“and, let’s cut to the chase, you are the most likely candidate for the newly opened rank of first lieutenant.”
“Indeed it is, second lieutenant, indeed it is. Met the missus that way, y’know.”, yes sir! ”
Quartz went over to the table and put on his helmet and grabbed his now-lonely spear from the rack. As he opened the door he suddenly remembered he had forgotten to ask something.
Chapter 2: Light Air
“Lieutenant Dawn. Does that sound familiar to you?”
Quartz watched the earth pony walk away towards the exit. As he sighed and turned towards the filling train he suddenly heard some words that made him twist his ear in the direction they had come from.
The mare looked up from a book she had opened.
“Err… I couldn’t help but overhear that you mentioned Ponyville to that stallion back there. Is that were you are going?”
Quartz thought about this for a few seconds. “Hmm… Well, I’m sure she’ll turn out alright. Probably just got a bad case of the flu. It’s been a lot of that aro-“ TOC !
Sweetie Drops nodded and gave her attention to the book again. As Quartz went out into the corridor he couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the thought of the cover. Stereotypical mare-targeting romance novel, he guessed, judging by the marriage ceremony at the cover and the ornately fonted title spelling out Second Chance . He shrugged and went into the compartment he had seen the other guard enter earlier.
“So, finally finished flirting?”Excuse me, sir , but I was not flirting with that mare. I was asking her questions. ”pardon me for trying to do something useful with my time instead of sitting on my rump and looking out the window!”
The other stallion finally raised his voice. “You ? YOU aren’t here to do anything. You are just some pipsqueak turd they dug up to babysit me!”I didn’t ask to be babysat by some grumpy old fart, neither!”
The journey continued in silence for a few hours as the train did a complicated pattern down the mountainside and past all the outlying towns in Canterlot Municipality. Finally Quartz spoke again, trying to avoid looking at the stumps where the pegasus’ wings had been.
Winter Dawn sighed. “A few days ago some local filly managed to get lost on the way home from buying flour. The mayor telegraphed to Canterlot and asked for a couple guards to help coordinate the search. The town is within the precinct that Guard polices, so she got her request granted. The search was concluded without result yesterday. However, somepony in that town must have bigwig friends, because instead of sending back the privates from our company that they had “borrowed”, they actually got them to send two more. And here we are. We are going to take a look around and see if anypony has any clue of her whereabouts. If we suspect something criminal is involved, we are to call for the Manehattan PD to send some ponies up.”
The sunlight beamed off the golden finish of their armor as they stepped out onto the small station platform. Quartz couldn’t help but notice that their arrival raised a few eyebrows.
“Yes?” Dawn asked in a cautious tone.Riff! Take ‘eir saddlebags, eh ?”
Private Raff mumbled something and signaled to Quartz that he’d take his bags. Quartz shook his head lightly, and was delighted to see that Dawn had the decency to do the same.
Private Sailing didn’t seem to notice, and instead started trotting towards the end of the platform. “Follow me, sirs! I’ll give you a sitrep as we go along!”
The main street of Ponyville managed to give both a sleepy and bustling impression simultaneously. Quartz elegantly sidestepped an orange pegasus filly who appeared to have thrown herself off a roof in an effort to fly. He stopped and gave the filly a puzzled look. “Er… Atta girl?”
The filly burst into a grin and ran around the house, presumably to try again. As Quartz turned his attention back to the situation report of private Sailing he couldn’t help but wonder if he had just caused a sprained ankle in the future.
Quartz and Dawn exchanged a worried glance.
The mere mention of breakfast time made Quartz’ stomach murmur a protest towards the non-existent amount of food it had received today. He decided to drop a hint. “And what are the plans for this evening, private?”
A few hours later Quartz’ stomach had received a healthy omelet was a lot happier. As the sun set over the hills to the west the four guards discussed the final details of how they’d split the bill. Quartz was trying to catch the eye of young mare selling oranges, more to see if he could rather than planning any romantic advances, when he suddenly realized another pony was staring right at them.
“Can we help you, miss?” he called out to the young white mare.haute couture ! I simply cannot wait to get back to my boutique to put it to paper and cloth!”
Her next two minutes of descriptions of whatever fashion accessory she was planning left the four stallions with little other than blank looks. Suddenly Dawn interrupted her in the middle of the description of a vivant hat ribbon. “Excuse me, miss, but are you a local?”
“Thank you very much, Ms. Rarity. We are here to aid the two blockheads over there in their search for the missing filly… Applebloom, was it?”any of you gentlecolts would be my pleasure . Farewell!”
As she trotted merrily down the street away from them, Dawn kneed a slack-jawed private Sailing in the ribs with his front leg. “What are you doing, private?”TOC !
As the two trotted along alone, Quartz was deep in thoughts about apple fritters when an exclamation from Dawn got his attention. He stopped and noticed Dawn had done the same. “You say something, Dawn?”
“Celestia! Those are pegasi ?! There are so many …”
The way Dawn’s tone changed from amused to melancholy made Quartz painfully aware of the two stumps where the pegasus’ wings had been. He decided now might be as good a time as any to ask about it.Quartz ?”Quartz . You know that? Having a miner in the family?”
Quartz was taken aback at this sudden change of tone. “Uh, probably far back somewhere…”
Quartz’ eyes widened. “H-how… I mean, what are you talking about?”
Quartz tried to come up with an effective reply, but decided to resign. “*Sigh* Okay, you win, Dawn. How did you know?”jackpot ! You yelled at me with a clear accent that does not resemble anything I’ve heard in Equestria.”
Quartz blushed, half out of anger, half out of shame. Luckily Dawn spared him a response. “Listen, Quartz, I won’t ask too many questions. I can see you are no traitor. Just tell me one thing. Does anypony else know about this?”
Dawn nodded sternly. They continued in silence until they reached the tree that housed the Ponyville library.
Quartz knocked. A few seconds later the two stallions could hear ruffling and shuffling from the inside, before a purple mare opened the door.
“Sparkle?” he said dumbfounded. “What are you doing out here in the boondocks?”
Dawn looked at them. “You two know each other?”Dispositio, logos, faciéndam, memoria, actio and repetitio .” Twilight said as she finally let him go. Quartz noticed she had stopped crying, although her eyes were still red.
“Yeah. That. She was really surprised that the guard at the door knew the answer to the questions she asked herself, but then again I did go to the same school, after all. We had several interesting conversations the two months I was posted there. Then she went away somewhere. I thought it was Manehattan or Los Pegasus, but I suppose it was here, then…”
“Uh, we… were sorta looking for a place to sleep for the night, and a mare called… Rarity, was it, Dawn? Well, she told us you had some extra mattresses, so we kinda… uhm…”
Quartz nodded and stepped inside, but Dawn grimaced and massaged his left wing stump with a hoof. “Could you two excuse me for a while? I need some painkillers.”
A few seconds later Twilight was lighting the fire in the fireplace with a whiff of magic while at the same time moving various kitchen objects around to make hot chocolate, still with magic. The two ponies themselves were sitting next to fireplace and watching the glow spread. Quartz was impressed. “Wow, Sparkle, you have really improved! I have barely learned any new spells the last couple years, but you must have practiced to be doing that without even looking!”Twilight . I must say, you see to have become quite sociable compared to how you used to be, all locked up in the Ivory Tower when you weren’t at school.”
As the story ended, Quartz was intrigued. “This amulet you speak of… do you have it? Can I see it?”
“Fascinating,” he exclaimed as he flipped and turned the amulet slowly in the soft glow of the fireplace, “it does not resemble any design I’m familiar with, and you know I always was interested in magical objects. The lines are too straight for it to be Equestrian, but the metal is of too high quality to be Zebrican or Griffonian… Prance, maybe? Or somewhere outside our knowledge altogether?”
The academic tone caused Twilight to merrily join in in the observation of the amulet. “Hmm… I had a look at it earlier. Appears to be a rather simple, reusable design, though, Dusk. This is no magical battery. I think… I think it draws excess magical energy into the metal from the skin of the wearer, and then the energy is channeled into the focusing crystal there in the middle. It then sends the energy in pulses through the nervous system into the brain and horn, judging by the way Trixie reacted. That might also explain why she became more aggressive, the increased neural activity would trigger growth of the amount of neural connections in the areas of the brain where the energy travelled through, most likely the areas controlling aggression and dominant behavior…”
They went on discussing the properties of the amulet for a minute or so longer until something suddenly struck Quartz. “Wait, Twilight? If the amulet is a simple amplifier, why is it humming as if it contained a magical charge?”
He turned it and looked at it from behind. “No, that sits in the chain. It looks more like it comes from… the eye…”aegisaegisaegisAegisAEGISgottofindsomwheretohideafraidnomustgivemessage SIGMA EPSILON BETA EPSILON RHO THETA EPSILON CHI OMIKRON RHO DELTA KAPPA IOTA LAMDA LAMDA THETA EPSILON BETA EPSILON SIGMA SIGMA EPSILON LAMDA does this work now testing. Testing. Ah, there we go. Loyal member of the Herd; If you give this amulet to Lord Skuggfaxi, he will see to it that you are rewarded thousandfold. Please refrain from receiving the rest of the message; it is not meant for your mind, and the Lord will decide whether or when you will hear it legally. Thank you for your cooperation.
Lord Skuggfaxi; This is Scorpio. Our operation to capture Councillor Ty has backfired horribly. Aquarius and Libra are both dead, and so is the Councillor. The old stallion did reveal details about the Prophecy before his passing, though. I am afraid I must be the harbinger of news most dreadful. Not only were our fears indeed founded, but the truth far exceeds our worst expectations. They will indeed allow Its return, dooming our race, but this apocalyptic scenario will also destroy the way of life for the puny sub-equines who live in blissful ignorance of our existence. You must move to stop it by dealing with the Vessel in the manner I told you in the beginning of this message before it is too late. You might wish to try to enlist the help of Skinfaxi, or Celestia as the sub-equines call her. She knows the land and has not been in contact with the poisonous influence of the Council since the Day the Sky Burned. I am afraid I’ll have to cut this thought recording short. The Emperor’s stallions are on my back. I have arranged for this amulet to be brought to the land of Equestria by a merchant I have instructed to never sell it to anypony who does not bear a similar token. Shortly I will leave it with him, so I can turn and face my enemies. I know my sacrifice will not be in vain, even though my powers will be weaker without the amulet. These fools will learn what it means to take on a pure-bred alicorn! I will now give you the identity of the Vessel, as described by the Councillor. Just in case, it will be in code: 6-9-11-90-100-9-57-38-9-37 Key: When I felt compelled to seek to consider the short spark of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, -memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis - , the little space I fill on this day, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of space of which I am ignorant, living in the night, and which knows me not, I were frightened, and were astonished at being here rather than there, why now rather than then? Who placed me here? By the order and leadership of who was this place and this time granted me? What unites me with other creatures? Now I know the answer, and it sickens me. Servant of the Herd in life and death; Scorpio Vivat Armento Whoa! What was that? Never mind, with this amulet, I, Trixie, will reclaim my title as great and powerfu-
“Dusk? Are you alright? You have been staring into space for about two minutes now!” The violent shaking of Twilight Sparkle rattled Quartz out of his trance.SPIKE! Get down here and take a letter for me, would you?! ”
Quartz smiled as the baby dragon showed up and gave him a surprised, almost scared look. He decided to say something to the air to calm him down while he wrote the message that Twilight just had given him. “Spike’s doing fine, I see?”friend her mood seemed to drop again.
“Listen, Dusk, I am sorry about the whole crying thing back at the porch. I have just felt so lonely with all these disappearances that any familiar face is like a rock…s ?”
Author's Note
Author’s note:
Lost Souls - Part II
Chapter 3: Light Breeze
RE: POSSIBLE DISAPPEARANCES
“Bad news, sir?” The telegraph office clerk looked worried at the frowning Royal Guard in front of his desk.
Outside the bright May sun spread its radiant shine across the hills surrounding Ponyville. Dawn’s gaze fell on the two ponies chatting by a picket fence across the road. He went over to them.
“Oh, hey Dawn, Twilight here was just telling me ‘bout-“Quartz was distracted once more, this time by a few strands of his grey-white plume falling down in front of his eyes. Dawn went for the opening.
The two stallions started trotting in the direction of the central plaza of the little town.
“What’d the telegram say?” The question was innocent enough, but Quartz’ inquiring tone had a ring of curiosity to it that contrasted it greatly from the slightly disinterested professional tone they had kept so far. Dawn looked at his partner for a second. His blue eyes had given an impression of naiveté when they first met on the train, but now he could see that they had a… twinkle, of sorts. These weren’t the eyes of an up-and coming more-brawns-than-brains hooflicker, but focused eyes that seemed to hint at a cold and calculating intelligence working behind them. Dawn blinked a couple of times and remembered what he was doing.
“That we were to continue our search. Captain Armor answered personally, it seems. He suggested that we go see the mayor to ask her about these disappearances. The town must keep some tabs on what ponies suddenly do not turn up to work or at home one day and remain as such for weeks.”
A few minutes later they arrived at the town hall, a somewhat imposing building compared to the low houses around, despite the dolled-up design.
Dawn approached the female secretary sitting behind a small desk outside an important-looking office door on the second floor. “Excuse me, but is this the office of the Ponyville mayor? I would like to have a quick chat with her about some reported disappearances, if it is not too much hassle.”
She opened the door next to her just enough to poke her head through. “Excuse me, ma’am, but there’s a gentlecolt from the Royal Guard who wishes to speak with you about some disappearances here. Do you- Yes, I see, naturally, Mrs. Mayor, of course.”
Quartz noticed the frown on his companion’s face as soon as it came into view. “No luck, Dawn?”
Quartz told him. He braced for the inevitable TOC! of having a hoof hitting him over the helmet, but strangely enough it never happened. He opened his eyes. Dawn looked pleased.
Luckily the orange filly appeared to not have broken any bones from her roof-jumping the day before. Quartz found her dragging a mattress in place under the edge of the same roof, indicating that she might have been planning to do the same thing again.
Golden Harvest placed the final documents in the folder. She sighed. Ponyville should really have hired someone to do this. Having to place her own land tax receipt in the archive… it would have been laughably easy to simply… She banished the thought from her mind. She was not that kind of pony.
For Celestia’s sake, Golden, pull together!
She thought she heard a swish behind her, but a hoof on her shoulder kept her from turning around to look.
She opened her mouth to say something in response, but was interrupted right after presenting herself by a middle-aged… pegasus? He appeared to have had his wings cut clean off near the root. He wore a similar uniform to Dusk, only with a blue plume and tail coloring instead of Dusk’s grey-white.
Quartz left a confused- and hurt-looking Golden Harvest to close the door to the archive. He met up with Dawn and an eager Scootaloo in the opposite corner of the room. Dawn beamed towards him and handed him his helmet.
Dawn gave Scootaloo a small bag of coins. “There you go. Don’t spend it all at once, or your parents will tell something is amiss!”
The door to the mayor’s office flew open with a bang as it hit the wall. The secretary slipped herself into the doorway in front of the two brutish guards. “Sirs, please, you cannot enter without an appointment!”
The mayor winced behind her desk. She felt like sinking into her chair.
“Help us? HELP us? Well, as a start you can tell us what THE HAY IS GOING ON HERE?!”
“Thirty-six. Thirty-eight if you count Applebloom Apple and Lyra Heartstrings.”freaking eight disappearances over the last three years, from a town of only a thousand or so ponies? And at no time during this process did you or anypony in town management figure it might be wise to report this upwards? So, I ask you again: What. The. Hay . Is. Going. ON?” He punctuated each word by slamming his right front hoof onto her desk.
“S-sorry, b-but as ma-mayor I am not at liberty to discuss town issues with-without an of-official-URK!”immediately give us unrestricted access to all available information, I’ll personally see to it that you are removed from office on a misconduct charge, and that you never, ever , have any shot at rising to a public office above that of mayor of some unremarkable backwater town that nobody gives a flying feather about! Have I made myself clear?”everything ”.
“Turns out they hired a private detective after the fourth disappearance, a Twist something. The detective found nothing, I’m afraid, so the town council decided to simply hush it down and pretend it didn’t happen in order to not frighten the populace.”
“Do you- do you think something criminal is going on, Dusk?”
Hors d’Oeuvre twitched his hooves nervously. The stone-faced armored stallion came back with another one in an almost similar suit and with a similar facial expression. He had seen armored stallions like them before at events involving the princesses. Had he offended somepony important? Were they going to deport him back to Prance? The first of the stallions looked at him.messieurs , I… err… she… zees mare…”Nous pouvons prendre cela en français, si vous préférez, monsieur …»Vous n'allez pas me déporter ?]”Non, bien sûr que non. Dites-moi ce que vous avez vu. ”
“I had no idea you spoke French, sir?” Sailing raised an eyebrow as the exited the café.Wonderbolts ? ‘Pretentious-bolts’, more like. Self-righteous bastards all of ‘em…”
Dawn didn’t seem to pay heed to the two of them. He rather looked immersed in what Twilight was talking to the pegasus about.
Chapter 4: Breeze
“A quarter past ten, I am sure.”
Quartz held up a hoof to stop Smooth Sailing’s angry reply. “Focus, everypony. Listen, quick recap of what we have learned so far today: there is a large number of missing ponies, but at the present, the only cases fresh enough to be viable to pursue are those of Lyra Heartstrings, the missing filly Applebloom, and possibly a weather control pony by the name of Rainbow Dash. Guests at Poky Pierce’s party, as well as an eyewitness, Hors d’Oeuvre, confirm that Heartstrings most likely disappeared within the town center somewhere between 22.15 and 22.30. Sailing, I want that info to appear in the Ponyville Express tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will lure out more eyewitnesses. Don’t mention more than you must on the total number of appearances. Say we are looking into a ‘couple’ of related cases. Raff, did you say that Rarity pony knew nothing of the Heartstrings case?”
Private Raff nodded with a stern look on his face.sir !” , while Dawn nodded.
Sailing slowly raised a hoof.comfortable if you have angered them first, as my eye evidences…”
“What did you say the pony we’re seeing was called again?” Dawn asked Quartz as they trotted.It’s not a jar, it’s a tub!”
He looked up. A head had appeared over the top of the… tub.
The stallion sat up on his hindquarters and looked towards the smashed tub. “You… you monsters! My tub! How could you do such a-“You are under arrest ! Where is the kid?! WHERE ARE THE BODIES?!”
“Err… I mean… Nothing to see here, everypony, please go back inside !”
Dawn shooed him on, and turned his head towards the grey stallion as he followed.
Fluttershy’s “house”, a cottage apparently built into a small mound, lay on the edge of a forest Twilight Sparkle had called “Everfree”. As the two stallions approached, they could hear a soft tune being sung from somewhere ahead.
Quartz thought it was coming from the garden next to the tree. He looked around the corner, and was treated to the sight of the most incredible mare he had ever seen.
Quartz hesitated, but the TOC ! of a hoof hitting him over the helmet helped him resist the urge to pull the pegasus out
The door of the shed creaked open. Quartz tried to adjust his eyesight to the low-light conditions by rubbing them with his hoof.Ouch !” He had cut himself on something sharp.
He lit a small light on the tip of his horn and moved it towards the soft spot. His eyes shot open. “Would you look at that…”
Quartz scratched the cat behind its ear.
In the doorway there was a pile of scrolls that hadn’t been there before. The pile appeared to hover a few hoofwidths above the ground. It took a few seconds before Quartz’ brain made the logical connections.
Quartz stepped back out in the daylight. A somewhat tired-looking Twilight met him.Fluttershy is a suspected foalnapper?” Twilight laughed out loud. “Now that was something I’d never expected to hear…”is a lethal destruction machine in spe , after all…”
“Oooh… Haha… No, seriously, Dusk, I need your help.”
Twilight sniffled and met his gaze. “What happened to them?”
“So, what are you doing here, Twilight?”
Both of them turned startled towards the approaching Winter Dawn, who had spoken. He patted Quartz on the back signaling him to walk with him.
“Y’all want me to what ?”Intrusive ?! Ah’ll show ya how intrusive mah hoof feels when it is nudged up in yer-“
Well, I guess that makes me an authority figure, at least. Am I really scarier than old No-Wings over there?
Raff started speaking, looking at the air about a hoofwidth over Quartz’ eyes.
She looked him in straight in the eye, apparently furious. Quartz did not look away, neither, opting instead to wear the standard stone-faced expression of the Guard.mah little sister that’s missin’, and from what Ah’ve been hearing, one of mah friends might be missin‘ as well. And Ah have had it up to here with yer guards sitting around on their rumps collecting their pay from our tax money while not doing a darn thing to help find mah little sis’!”
She looked like she would keep her tirade going, but a red stallion had jumped the fence around the apple tree orchard down the road, catching her attention. Quartz guessed he was related to her.
“So you have not seen neither Lyra Heartstrings nor Rainbow Dash for several weeks?
The older guard gave them a sheepish look. “I… uh… turns out I knew her aunt and uncle from my time in Manehattan. She’s apparently spent some time there too…”
“Thank you very much, mister. One last question, if I may; have you ever considered joining the Guard? A stallion of your build would have a breeze passing selection…”
Dawn used his right front hoof to fend off the irate mare.
Quartz whinnied exasperatedly and turned towards Raff, who had been staying in the background for the last minutes.
Dawn turned impressed to Quartz. The younger second lieutenant had acted with all the bearing of an officer, decisive, swift and formal. The contrast to the impulsive arrest attempt earlier the same day was clear. Dawn wondered if it was the tense situation that had prompted the behavior change.
The young colt couldn’t sleep. His head was filled with memories… bad memories. If he closed his eyes the screams and the pain would come back. He just had to stay awake and then mommy and daddy would come tomorrow and all would be- A creaking sound drew his attention, shortly followed by the light from the hallway bathing his room in a yellow color. He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, only leaving small strip between his eyelids, so that he could the blurry outlines of the ponies in the door. There was three of them, and spoke in a strange foreign language. “And here we have one of the survivors. Poor foal can’t sleep, so we gave him his own room. Looks like it worked.” The female voice came from the outline on the left. The one in the middle, the tallest of the three, and with some kind of brush on his head, answered. “You sure do a great job taking care of these ponies, doctor.” The left outline laughed shortly and without joy. “None of them would have survived if it wasn’t for you and your platoon, second lieutenant.” “Just doing my job, doctor.” The middle outline disappeared. The right outline finally spoke. “What is his name?” The left outline lowered its head as if looking at something. The young colt became aware of some low wheezing coming from another side of the room, but ignored it. “According to the label we found inside his sweater, Dusk. Dusk Kva- err…Kv-… I’m not even gonna try and pronounce that.” “Does he have any family?” “Doesn’t look that way. From what we hear tell from the other survivors, his father died out there, and the one we think was his mother died from her injuries a few hours ago. We are trying to find any family members, but we can’t even find out which country he is from…” There was a brief respite. Then the outline on the right spoke again. “If you can’t find any, do you think we would be able to adopt him?” “Pardon?” “You heard what I said. You know Heather and I can’t have children of our own, Dr. Spring.” “Well, I’ll see what I can do, Mr. Quartz.” The door closed. The young colt wondered why he had been able to understand what the outlines had been saying. He did not speak the language, but still he knew the words… As if… As if he had learned the language, and this was only a memory. Or a dream. Yes, of course this was a dream. He remembered now. He was Dusk Quartz, and not a young colt at all, but a fully-grown stallion who- Again with that wheezing! What was it?
Dusk Quartz opened his eyes. He was staring up at the roof of Twilight’s library, or at least the darkness where he assumed the roof would be. There was no moonlight shining in through any of the windows, leaving the room in almost total darkness. He closed his eyes again.
The sound is not a dream! That was not Dawn! Meaning… there is somepony else here. Twilight? No… why would she make that sound?
Quartz made his decision and rolled sideways off the mattress he had been sleeping at, landing as silently as possible on his hooves. He sent a silent thanks to Celestia he had been sleeping without his heavy and noisy armor.
Almost now, almost, almoooo-
His rump hit something of a familiar shape. Quartz couldn’t help but smile a little at the plan forming in his head.
Outside the library, a pony smiled to herself at the sound. She checked a mental checkbox in her mind, and trotted along into the night while whistling a gleeful tune.
Author's Note
Author’s note: Clever readers, if you figure out the plot, please contain your disappointment after completing this part. I promise you; things are not what they seem. The rest of you… wait until next time.
PS: French correction appreciated if you spot anything.
EDIT: Oopsie, a little overlap with the first chapter, I see. Added a "still" to fix it.
Lost Souls - Part III
Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz felt like he was moving through jelly. His own reactions felt woefully slow, his yells silent. And all the while that infernal screaming! WHY WOULDN’T HE STOP?!
It stopped. Spike, the baby dragon, gave him a quizzical look before slumping to the floor unconscious. It took a few seconds before Quartz realized that he himself had hit the dragon with a knock-out-spell. It was just that horrible screaming of his! The dragon had been screaming for several minutes, ever since he saw what was lying on the floor by the front door. Quartz regretted ever turning on the lights, he might not have woken up the dragon if not for that.
“QUARTZ! What the HAY are you waiting around for?! Get me those bandages NOW !”
Where is Twilight, anyway? She said she’d be back well before midnight …
Underneath the sink he found a small metal box with a red cross. He popped the top off the medical box and dug through its contents with magic from his horn until he found a roll of bandages.
He scurried downstairs, past the mattresses the two royal guards had been sleeping on only a few minutes earlier, and over to his colleague.
Quartz quickly lifted the body ever so slightly from the floor with magic, and started wrapping bandages around it, covering up the gruesome wounds that shamed a flank that once had held a cutie mark.
With his tongue between his teeth Quartz finally secured the bandages with a large fabric clip from the roll. The two stallions sighed in unison and collapsed towards the bookcases on both sides of the door. The light brown unicorn and beige-grey pegasus looked at each other for a few moments where the only sound was the rasping breath and gurgling of the unfortunate pony, the sound that had made Quartz turn on the lights in the first place.
Dawn nodded and disappeared out the door. Quartz sat in silence for a couple seconds before turning the injured mare around. There was a mangled stump on her forehead which probably had been the root of a horn once. Otherwise the mare was fairly indistinguishable. She was covered in blood from the open wounds where her cutie marks had been; making her coat mostly red with only a few visible splotches of white, clean fur. The mane appeared to have been partially torn, which together with blood clots made it hard to determine the original color of. Quart’z guess was purple or dark bl-
He tried speaking to her. “Can you… can you hear me? R… Rarity, is that your name?”
“Hey! Hey, don’t you fall asleep on me! You’ve got to do something for me now, Rarity. You have to stay awake. Can you do that? Focus on my face, come on, open your eyes and look at me!”
“Good girl. Okay, Rarity, can you tell me who or what did this to you?”HARK ! KRF! … Appwebwoo… CHORK! … Pinkie…”
She shot back up into sitting position so fast she nearly headbutted him, eyes wild like a feral animal. She put a hoof around his neck and pulled him closer.Twiwight !”
So that’s why the dragon was screaming… He recognized her immediately… Maybe I shouldn’t have knocked him out? Oh well, done is done. Did Rarity say “Twilight”? But isn’t she…
He froze in his train of thought. Twilight was supposed to be home hours ago.
Oh no, don’t say that he has… Oh Celestia, not Twilight! Oh nonononononononono … “…NononononoNONONO! YOU MONSTER!”
Don’t worry, she might be alright. She’s just late, that’s all. Ah, who am I kidding? That mare is always dead on time. Huh, “dead”. Has he killed her? Or worse, kept her alive to do whatever he did to Rarity to her?
He felt nauseated, so he stormed outside. Deep breaths of cold night air calmed him. He looked around. The dark windows of the nearby houses seemed to mock him with their emptiness. Strangely enough his mind felt clear as ice, despite his body being red hot with rage. He needed to vent that range, his brain concluded. He gasped for air and yelled as loudly as he could.Are you out there?! I… will... FIND YOU! Do you hear me?! I… will… FIND YOU , and if you have as much as touched a hair on her head, I MIGHT just get a little less observant of the rules of prisoner treatment , CAPISCHE?!”
Chapter 5 - Light Gale
“You want me to get a cab, sir?”HEY, FLAKE !”YOU’VE KEPT ME HERE ALL NIGHT, YOU SON OF A MULE !”Ouch !”
The mare looked more irate than apologetic.Oh hi, Commissioner! I am so sorry… Have you seen captain Flake? I just got a telegram from Ponyville, and it is really urgent and…”
The doctor shook his head. “Too early to say anything definite on her chances, I’m afraid, but her condition is overall stable.”
“Oh, I don’t know… Looked like she had been struck repeatedly with something blunt… Those cuts where her cutie marks should be… I thought they looked… too clean, so to speak. Like if they had been made with a surgical scalpel or something… Finally, that horn breakage of hers? Not a breakage. I’ve never seen anything like it here before, but my cousin works in woodworking, and it looked like one of the saws she uses. Some sort of hacksaw, like a larger version of those we keep here for cutting bones.”
Outside the hospital private Raff was waiting for him. The two of them starting walking into the night.
“Yes sir. But, sir… er…” Raff hesitated. Something about the way the second lieutenant spoke told him everything was not okay.
Both of them grew silent for a few seconds, before Raff spoke.
Two knocks on the door made Commissioner Booth and Captain Flake of the Manehattan Police District look up from the old papers they were reading.
“Cap, you better have a damn good reason for waking me at five in the mornin’ and- Oh, hello, Commissioner .”
Booth and Flake looked at each other, before Booth turned to Hopper.
“Fourteen years ago…”
“You smoke?”
Finally Dawn broke the silence.
“What happened?”
“Then some, some beast attacked us. The airship went down. I couldn’t find my father, but my mother… my mother told me to hide underneath some pieces of furniture from the ship… Then- nothing, save screams and crying. I hid under that rubble for hours. Felt like an eternity. Then, somepony lifted it away. It was a pegasus from the Royal Guard Corps. More of his friends were landing as we looked at each other. He looked so… looked so heroic in that armor, even if his eyes were pained. Later on this memory caused me to- Hey, are you even listening?”
Dawn looked absent-minded and almost… pale, as far as Quartz could tell in the darkness.Dorothea ?”
The cold air made the armor of the three Royal Guards zing with an icy bite. The three pegasi were flying at a relatively low altitude, but the wind and exposure still took its toll. The second lieutenant fastened his scarf over his muzzle, looking backwards to see if his two wingponies had done the same. They had, but the staff sergeant on his left wing was to his irritation using the radios they had been given to tell the corporal on his right wing a no doubt hilarious anecdote revolving around the making of rainbows. “Hey, you two! Cut the chatter! These radios are expensive, and only to be used in case of emergency, have I made myself clear?” The two pegasi answered in unison. “Yes sir!” “Good. General frequency is 4. If you set your transmitters to that, the other patrols will hear your messages. Use that to call for medevac for any survivors of the crash. Eyewitness reports said it should have gone down somewhere in these mountains.” They looked out over the vast arctic expanse of the Crystal Range, which shielded Equestria from cold polar winds from the Great Frozen North. The second lieutenant noted the flying conditions with the trained eye of a graduate from the Cloudsdale Flying Academy. “Wind is seven knots, south-southwesternly. Temperature steady below freezing, low risk of down-drafts. We should bank towards- Wait… Eyes on missing airship, map sector B12.” The two wingponies followed his eyes. The crashed vessel lay in a wide, snow-covered valley below. The corporal, a young green mare, chuckled. “In less than half an hour…. Those locals are lucky the Princess was in Vanhoover, they’d spend days locating this on their own!” “Attention both of you!” The wingponies looked towards the second lieutenant again. “Corporal Luck, call it in. Our callsign is ‘Blue Bird’. Sergeant, come with me. We’ll head down there and look for-” He was interrupted by a shadow passing over them. The three of them looked befuddled at each other for a few moments before the staff sergeant cried out loud. “ DRAGON!” All three of them dove simultaneously, but corporal Luck was still grabbed by the claws of the dragon. She managed a short scream before a razor-sharp claw impaled her lungs, but her limp body was then thrown away like a discarded can of soda. The other two nearly slammed into the ground near the wreckage. The second lieutenant made a quick decision. “Quick, hide behind that pile of debris over there! I will try something…” The staff sergeant did not hesitate to follow the order.
The dragon landed with a THUMP! that shook the ground. He looked surprised at the one pony standing in front of him. The second lieutenant pulled his scarf down. “Excuse me, Mr. Dragon, but my name is second lieutenant Dawn of the 2nd Equestrian Royal Guard Company, and I wondered why you are attacking us?” The dragon seemed confused at this. It was probably a long while since somepony had spoken directly to it. Finally it mustered its vocabulary. “You trespass on my territory. I’ll kill you dumplings just like I did with the flying boat, to send a message to other dumplings.” The second lieutenant did not appear fazed this prospect. “But if you kill everypony, who can deliver a message?” The dragon hesitated for a moment. “I never thought of that. What do you propose, dumpling?” “Let us and any potential survivors from this crash go. We promise to never return and to warn everypony to not trespass on your territory again, okay?” The dragon considered the offer for a few seconds. “Huh… well, sounds reasonable enough. What if I refuse?” “Then the Royal Guard will hunt you down and the most powerful unicorns in Equestria will destroy you.” Once more the dragon took a break to think. “Okay, then, I’ll call on your offer.” “Thank you. You will not regret this.” The second lieutenant turned to leave, but the dragon hawked as it took off. The officer turned. “Yes?” “How many dumplings does it take to deliver a warning?” Second lieutenant Dawn looked puzzled for a second before realizing the ramifications of this. Moments later he was incinerated by the stream of fire from the dragon’s mouth. “NOOOO!” The staff sergeant galloped towards the charred body as the dragon flew away. He stood and stared at the stallion he knew so well for a few minutes, before his training kicked in, spurring him to pull out his radio and flip the switch on the transmitter to ‘4’. “All units, this is… this is Blue Bird. We… have found the vessel. Several dead, but some movement. We have been attacked, but the danger has passed. The corporal and… the second lieutenant are both KIA. Need immediate support in map sector B12, over.” The words passed from his mouth, mechanical and distant. A few seconds went by with nothing else than static, before a reply came. “Copy. This is Yellow Snow, we are right over the hill. Be there in a sec. And, sergeant, sorry about your brother.” Staff sergeant Winter Dawn moaned an unintelligible answer to the sky before a low whimper caught his attention. He cautiously approached some pile of furniture from the airship. He flipped a table over, and was met with the large blue eyes of a small brown unicorn colt.
“… I was promoted to second lieutenant shortly thereafter, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of helplessness. I asked for transfer to an advisory role in the Manehattan police. I kept my rank in the guard, but I spent my time teaching young officers in the MPD instead. And it worked. I was happy. I met a mare and married. Then I lost my wings and the world fell apart for me.”
Quartz waited for a continuation of the story, but it didn’t come. He decided to say something himself instead.
The two stallions stood in silence for several minutes, looking at the very first rays of the rising sun spilling over the distant mountains in east.
The question came unexpected for Quartz. He hesitated for a moment, not sure what the appropriate answer was.
Dawn’s ears drooped down, as if the memories caused him great emotional turmoil.Dorothea and the death of my older brother, I transferred to the MPD, as I told you. Although the mainstay of my advisory role was as a ‘melee combat and restraining instructor’ as they called it, I also occasionally helped with cases where we needed a bit of diplomacy, for example in domestic disturbances… It was during one of those instances, fourteen years ago, it happened.”
“There had been a problem over several years with abandoned wagons found near one of the main roads into Manehattan. Nopony could explain it, so police officers were sent out to question the locals. One of them was going to a particularly… ‘challenging’ household, so I tagged along. I was recently married and finally satisfied with my lot in life, so I didn’t think twice about such a routine assignment. Then…”
“When we arrived at the farm, we were greeted by a smiling mare. She said her husband was out in the field, but invited us to cakes and coffee while we waited. We accepted the offer, but… The coffee was drugged with something. Before we could say ‘kerfuffle’ we were on the horizontal. When we awoke, she… We were strapped by our hooves to tables she had leant towards the walls in her silo, facing each other. In the room there were… effects from other ponies, no doubt the owners of the abandoned vehicles. The straw on the floor was colored red, and by this point we were pretty much certain it was not tomato juice.right in front of me . He screamed and screamed, forever, it seemed. But then he stopped. And she turned her head and looked at me with a gaze that put me in no doubt I was next…”
Quartz felt a weak nausea, but kept listening.
The silence was total between the two stallions for a couple of seconds. Dawn swallowed audibly and finished his story.
When I awoke in the hospital, they told me the farmer, the crazy mare’s husband, had found me and his daughter outside the burning old barn. Amazingly it turned out he had no idea what his wife was doing while he was tending to his field. He was cleared of any involvement and got to stay on the farm with his kids. The Manehattan Police Department decided it was no use to ‘rip open old wounds’ as they called it, which is another way of saying she had been a relative of somepony important. In the publicly available case documents it was treated as a tragic fire accident, not a murder case. Finally, in case I decided to be… talkative, they had me transferred back to Canterlot. I had serious mental issues for a time and barely avoided a Section 8 discharge. That basically froze my career in its tracks, and I still have nightmares, a decade and a half later…”
The story ended. Quartz looked at Dawn. In the now stronger light conditions he could see that the older stallion wasn’t looking at him, but staring into space. Both of them stood there with their own thoughts for several minutes.
A mile away somepony knocked on Fluttershy’s door. When no answer came, the banging became more intense. This time the pony on the doorstep could hear a faint, sleepy answer from the window above the door:
Chapter 6 - Gale
Monday May 16th was a bright and happy day in Ponyville. However, Raff had his doubts it would last. The red sunrise he had seen the same morning had heralded the approaching rainstorm, and on the top of that this missing-filly case of Smooth Sailing and his had turned into something else, something… dark and elusive.
Raff did not like this. He was a simple stallion, who enjoyed things in an orderly condition so that he could easily understand them. These webs of deception and lies was something for politicians and their ilk. He wondered whether his lack of curiosity and interest in complicated affairs was part of the reason he was often set to guard rooms where bigwig meetings were taking place. He had even accompanied the Princess on occasions.
Speaking of which, why doesn’t anypony in this place recognize me?
Here he was, walking in broad daylight along the street in the very town where he had guarded the Princess’ tea party! And nopony seemed to remember him! He had talked to dozens of these ponies while looking for Celestia’s flaming bird! That purple unicorn, the Captain’s sister, had even been the one who had the phoenix in the first place, but not a glimpse of recognition… He had hoped somepony would approach him about this, so that he could suddenly remember in front of Smooth and the second lieutenants that he had several times been assigned to the Princess’ personal protection detail…
I guess that is to be expected when half the company are white stallions with blue manes… I wonder if it is an intentional act on the recruiters’ part to pick volunteers whose mane ‘match’ the color of Second Company’s blue plume?
As he walked down the bustling street, unsure of where the bakery the Princess had visited was, he suddenly recognized a grey mare from his last visit. He felt a weak hope being rekindled within him. He approached her.
The grey mare came out from the bakery, munching cheerily at a muffin, just as he arrived. She had been surprisingly fast. Raff took a second to catch his breath before he opened the door and stepped into the bakery. A shrill and saccharine voice greeted him.
“Hi! The Sugarcube Corner special of the day is cu- hahhhhh!”
“Er… Hi? I’d li-“HIII !” The mare leaped over the counter and started hopping in a circle around a very confused guard.
The mare bounced up to him and placed her face uncomfortably close to his own, grinning.
“Oh, now I remember you. Hey, did you say your name was ‘Pinkie’? I am looking for you.”
“Many. But most important are Lyra Heartstrings, Applebloom, Rainbow Dash and possibly Twilight Sparkle.”
Ten minutes later the list was coming to a close.
Raff massaged his forehead. His head hurt after listening to this mare for ten minutes.
The shrill ring of the school bell caused a stampede of recess-ready fillies and colts out of the Ponyville Elementary School. Sweetie Belle didn’t notice the separation of the stream before she crashed head first into something large and hard. She noticed it was a leg, but the apology stopped in her throat as she followed the leg upwards with her eyes. The two stone-faced royal guards somehow caused her to feel a deep angst. They had the same expressions as the dozens others she had seen with the Princess and in Canterlot, but there was something in their eyes, a pain…
“Oh! Hi misters Guards sirs! Need some more papers?”
They sat down, and the guard, a brown unicorn, sat down and placed his front hooves together in front of his mouth, frowning. They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity until Sweetie Belle broke it.
“Howdy ho , Riff Raff!”
“This? Just a hat I picked up in Appleloosa. Gotta get in th’ mood, you know?”
Cheerilee gnashed her teeth as she was correcting tests during the recess. The school grade average had dropped almost a full level recently, and she suspected she knew the reason. Here she had been moved to this “special attention” class, reducing her output to the ordinary students.
If only these weeds knew how they ruined my perfect garden of students… They should be uprooted and-
Wait… are those…
Scootaloo had come over to Sweetie Belle’s side. Although she was not crying, she looked like she had been shocked by something. What Cheerilee had noticed was who Scootaloo was talking to. The backs of two tall stallions were just within her field of vision, and they appeared to have unusual manes, standing right up… Unless they weren’t manes, but plumes, such as the ones on the helmets of…
Guards!
She used her right lower hoof to slam one of her desk drawers shut, in order to hide her little bottle of after-work “elixir”.
Okay, calm down. They probably just want to ask the pupils about Applebl-
Scootaloo pointed towards the school building, and the two guards turned and seemed to look her right into the eye. She felt as if frozen to her chair. One of the guards, an earth pony or pegasus, said something to his companion, a darker unicorn. The unicorn went up to the front door and knocked. It took a few seconds for her to formulate a coherent answer.
As the guard entered, she repeated to herself that this was most likely just about Applebloom. She felt a little more relieved when she noticed that the guard was not as burly as your average Royal Guard, but somewhat scrawnier, and he appeared to be five-six years younger than her. He was quite handsome, actually.
Don’t worry. You’ll deal with this one nicely.
“Hello, my name is Cheerilee! I assume you are here about Applebloom, Mr…?”
“My colleague; second lieutenant Winter Dawn, and I were sent here to provide additional aid in the search for your missing student, Applebloom. I ju-“
She leaned up close to him, making her voice more sensual.attractive stallion as you yourself can possibly…”
She virtually threw herself back into her chair due to the surprise. Once she regained her composure she dared a quick look at Quartz and realized her spell had been broken. The guard instead looked relieved at the stallion who had spoken. She cursed silently and turned smiling towards the guard in the doorway.
“No, not at all. I was just telling this gentlecolt here how grateful I am for the aid you give us in finding my poor little student…”
Celestia! They know-they know-THEY KNOW! Horsefeathers! Could that young one have played me for fools all along?
The elder stallion spoke.
The old stallion continued.
Under their persistent grins she gave up.something .
“Information, Velvet, information. You already know about Applebloom, but there have been more disappearances. Including Twist; one of your former students, the elder sister of Sweetie Belle; one of your current students, and finally the mother of another of your students; Diamond Tiara.”
Dawn raised an eyebrow.will be forced to go public about your background as part of the investigation.”
“There is… one thing about Applebloom. But I cannot tell you, or might drag me to court to testify, and then my real identity may…”
As the collective cheer rose, Dawn leant towards Cheerilee.guard ?”
Dawn smiled and stood up.
“What the hay was that all about, Winter?”
Quartz made a mental note to himself that he should try to find out about this mare whenever he got the chance.
“Private Sailing?” Quartz asked, “What’s the deal with hat?”
Raff licked his lips.
Sailing fished out a notebook from a hidden pocket in his armor between his wing and neck.
Winter Dawn stared into space, visibly pale. When he answered, it was almost a whisper.
Dawn nodded at Quartz’ question.
Author’s note: Yes, it is a Cupcakes sequel. Or is it?
Chapter 7 - Strong Gale
“Dusk, I need the current time and the ETA of those reinforcements.”
Sailing let out a sigh of relief as the two others came over to him.
Quartz went down to his knee and put his eye to the place where the paint had peeled off.
Dawn was heaving for breath.
The three stallions galloped around to the front of Sugarcube Corner and hugged the walls on each side of the door, Quartz and Sailing on the right and Dawn on the left.
He looked embarrassed.You were Special Forces?”
Dawn slid sideways, eyes peeled to the left side of the room.
Sailing entered the kitchen, trying his best not to make the floor creak as he checked in cupboards and under counters for any clues of the whereabouts of a way downstairs.
Sailing was just wondering whether it was some sort of jam when he noticed a small spot of the same material on the floor. Whoever had brought this here had spille-Lieutenants ! I think I found a hatch of some kind!”
“Should we go right here?”
“Okay, Winter.”hole on their right, heading straight ahead instead. After a few paces it felt like the space around them widened, and the sharp smell of rotting meat, formaldehyde and a public restroom tickled unpleasantly in their nostrils.
Sailing put words to what they all felt.
Ignoring this for the moment, Quartz gently pricked the mare on her shoulder.WHOA !”
“She’s… a… she’s… stuffed ?”
A pale Sailing walked blindly backwards, mouth opening and closing without a sound coming out, until he stepped in a bucket. He lifted his hoof, covered in some sort of red paste, to his eyes and screamed loudly, before storming back out the doorway.
Wait… those look awfully detailed. Almost as if they aren’t plastic, but r-
He was interrupted when he noticed that the streamers weren’t streamers at all, but some sort of red tubes. Why wou-
“H-hello? Are anypony there?”Are you eating ?!”
Alongside one of the walls was a sort of tilted metal slab with what must have been a pony attached to it with chains.
He stepped up to the mare.
“Twilight? Listen, focus on me!”
“It will be okay, do you hear me? We are here! You are safe now!”
“I’m so sorry, Twilight…”
“I’m sorry…”
Smooth Sailing felt like he would never stop vomiting.Celestia! I ate… I ate.. pony!
I’ll just stay here in the corridor, and… what was that?
A creak made him spin around; only to promptly slip in his own vomit and fall in the doorway they had passed a few minutes earlier.
Sailing froze. Only his own, heavy breath was audible. No, not only his breath. There was another breath in the room, not following his pattern.
“Who turned off the lights? Sailing? I can’t see a thing… Dusk, use your horn!”Sailing, are you there ?” Quartz whispered intently.Sail - WHOA!”
Dawn and Quartz look at each other, Quart’s horn barely showing their horrified faces. The Dawn’s expression turned into one of grim determination.Dusk, extinguish your light .”Why ?”We’re too visible ,” Dawn whispered back, “now, I need you take this mare …”and make for the exit as quickly as possible. I’ll stay here and try to stop her .”What?! No, I’m not leaving you here alone in the dark, Winter !”Second lieutenant Dusk Quartz, as the more senior officer of the two equally graded of us, I order you to do as I say !”
“Sir, sergeant Fern and troop reporting, sir !”
“Is he in here?”
“Hello,” the mare that had just entered replied “I am detective Grass Hopper from the MPD, and-“
Doesn’t look half bad, neither.
He shook this out of his mind.
“Seriously though,” Hopper said, “I’ll have to ask you some questions, mister.”
Private Raff was deeply worried for his friend Sailing. None of the six guards who had entered Sugarcube Corner had wanted to tell him anything except that they had not found the culprit nor second lieutenant Dawn.
If only they’d let me see lieutenant Quartz…
He shook his head and looked around the hospital room. The unicorn was still out dark, but the pegasus, Fluttershy, if Raff remembered correctly, was awake. However, she was just staring into space and holding her blanket, not saying a thing.
“Miss Fluttershy, there’s a guest for you. Do you feel strong enough to see her?”
It took a few seconds before his brain made the logical connections. Within milliseconds his wings had taken him across the room and into a dive-tackle of the mare that had just entered.
Detective hopper wrote down Quartz’ final statements in a notebook.
“First and foremost; can I take Twilight Sparkle’s baby dragon and owl back to Canterlot with me? I know her brother, and somepony need to take care of them.”Ristorante Pizza è Magia on the corner of 53rd and Van der Clop Avenue?”
Hopper turned back to Quartz.
Chapter 8 - Storm
Quartz moaned and massaged his temples. There was a low murmur of voices from the six other guards returning home on the Canterlot Midnight Express. He placed his helmet next to the sleeping baby dragon and caged owl in the seat next to him.dress made out of the coats of other ponies! A dress ! Who wears something so macabre? Hmm? Oh, Lt. Quartz, sir. What is it, sir?”
The cold night air cooled Quartz as it blew over the end wagon of the train. He took a deep breath of it when he was hit on his muzzle by a drop. He looked up.
A torrential rainfall washed over Canterlot as Quartz opened the door to his home and placed the owl and baby dragon inside. He whinnied irate when he realized he had to go to the palace for debriefing.
“… and then the mare said: ‘No thanks. Cider for me. Aquavit makes my hind quarters so sore!’”off about her face, but Clearing couldn’t place a hoof on it.
“I have a fun surprise for the Princess!”
They had just started walking back to the guard room when somepony banged the gate once more.
…She had been skinned… …“a dress made out of the coats of other ponies”… “I’ll probably head up to Canterlot the day after tomorrow to look at with her”…
“Celestia…” he mumbled to himself.have to, Wooden! You did not let in Twilight Sparkle, but somepony far more…”
The wineglasses rattled pleasantly as they hit each other in a toast. Laughter filled the small dining room in the West Wing of Canterlot Castle. Lieutenant Grove gave a broad smile and shook his head to the middle-aged earth-pony mare he was standing next to.
Grove kept smiling and looked into the fizzling golden liquid in his glass.
Grove smiled ever wider now that he realized he had been correct in guessing the intentions of the aging editor of the Canterlot Times .
“All inquiries for official comments on internal matters should be directed to the relevant Ministry, or alternatively the Court Press Liaisons Officer. If you have any questions regarding the Guard’s role in these matters, please direct your inquiry to captain Armor on the second floor of the East Wing.”
Outside the door, Dusk Quartz had met an obstacle in the form of Sgt. Wool.
“Spitfire! Spitfire, you have to help me get inside that room!”
Quartz leaned over to the mare and whispered something in her ear that Wool couldn’t make out, but whatever it was he could see Spitfire’s pupils widening in shock.
“Mr. Pants, as I’ve told you for three years now, I will not accept bribes to promote your nephew!”
Grove sighed.
Corporal Ruby Star looked doubtful at the mare in front of her. She had been awakened from her pleasant doze thinking about a certain handsome stallion when this character had shook her violently. Now the mare was asking to be let into Princess Celestia’s private apartments, the door of which Ruby was guarding. She sighed.
The mare opened her mouth as if to say something, but was interrupted by a loud scraping sound from inside Ruby’s armor. Ruby pulled out a small radio receiver from the left side of her armor and listened to the message.
A sudden jab of pain in the neck made Ruby drop the receiver. She looked at the mare with a frightened and surprised expression, then down to the neat little knife being pulled out of her throat, and back to the mare again.
“I didn’t even know we had radios.”
Cloud turned to Quartz and smiled weakly.
The old, bearded cyan unicorn stallion fidgeted nervously between the two Royal Guards. Regina Celestia looked interested at him as captain Vellus, who stood to the right of her desk, finished his statement in a low voice. She stood up from her stool and walked around the desk to look the elderly stallion in the eye. “Senatorem Aquarius, centurio Vellus mihi dicit ut vos aperuit portas civitatis quia barbari. Quare? Cur remque dignitati tuae, honor et vitam pro aurum?” The senator returned her judging stare defiantly. “Ego non fecit id pro aurum, Regina…” he spat out. Celestia frowned. “Ergo cur?” Senator Aquarius grinned coldly. “Quia…” Suddenly he grabbed the gladius from the belt of one of the guards with his magic and cut the neck of its owner before planting it firmly in the chest of the other guard. Captain Vellus drew his own gladius with his teeth, but a bolt of magic hurled him screaming over the balcony to Celestia’s right. However, the senator never got the chance to lunge at Celestia herself, as she slammed him into the marble wall of her office with the weight of her body. Her magic further restrained him, as well as forced the blade of the gladius to his throat. Celestia leaned over him so closely that her eyes were less than a hoofwidth from his own, red ones. “Qui estis? Qui operaris est?”she demanded. He didn’t answer, just peered down his neck. She followed his gaze, and saw an Ancient Alicorn Amulet that had been revealed between the folds of the toga the old stallion was wearing. She shivered all over. The old stallion smiled. “Quod sic. Eram quod es, eres quod sum.” Suddenly his body started to change and grow, until Celestia saw his true form. “Non…” she whispered under her breath. “Ita.” Aquarius said, “Volunt vo mortuis. Vos erant utilis, ‘Regina’, velut quoddam instrumentum ut aufero vermem Discord, sed nunc civitate vestra ardet…” “Non…” Celestia tried to shut out the screams and the crackle of fire from outside, sounds that had inched closer over the last quarter of an hour as her soldiers fought desperately to defend the city. “Sed, ut defecit…” Aquarius finished, “Dulce et decorum est pro armento mori. Vivat Armento!” With that he used his magic to wring the gladius out of Celestia’s hold and slit his own throat with it. He gargled and spurted warm blood in Celestia’s face. “Merda!” Celestia exclaimed, completely forgetting her royal bearing. She felt Aquarius grow limp. “Non!” She called out, shaking the body violently, “Non!” “He is dead, sister…” “Excire ex hic, Luna!” Celestia barked, before realizing Luna had spoken another language. Suddenly memories flooded her mind, and she realized that… “Luna, what have I told you about snooping in other ponies dreams, especially mine? Back when we were enemies I had to train my entire court in resisting your mind invasions to keep a dagger out of my back!” Luna came up to her sister, but looked more fascinated by the marble-walled office and balcony than apologetic. “I am sorry, sister, but I thought it was my duty as the Princess of The Night to intervene in nightmares to help ponies sleep… But, this is not an ordinary nightmare. We are in your office in Equa. This is not a usual dream, but a memory…” Celestia looked away. “Yes. We are in the old Equestrian capital of Equa. I am surprised you remember my office; it is almost fifteen centuries since this… incident happened. Remember that amulet Twilight Sparkle sent me a few days ago?” Luna nodded. Celestia smiled, but the smile did not reach her sad eyes. “I destroyed it. This here is the last time I saw an amulet like that. It was the same night the barbarians burned Equa. Hopefully this was just an old artifact imprinted with a practical joke from a former owner, but the message it contained seemed…” She trailed off and went to the balcony. Luna remained still. “You know, Luna, it might be good that you came here. You might as well know this now rather than later. You are all grown. Our brother, our sisters and even I lied to you, Luna.” Celestia turned and looked Luna in the eyes. “At dawn I’ll tell you how our parents really died. Not from illness, as we told you. And bring the Minister of Defense and the head of the armed forces. Just in case this amulet was not a joke, I would like to review some mobilization timetables and civilian evacuation plans.” Luna frowned. “What is so important that you would lie to me, your own sister?” Celestia sighed. “Look at the body, Luna.” Luna did so, and gasped. “No, it is not possible! How can this be, Celestia?” “He was using a shape shifting spell to pose as Senator Aquarius. If I remember correctly, you used a similar spell during your journey to Saddle Arabia a thousand years ago.” “No, I meant… how can he be…” Luna was interrupted when she suddenly became glass-eyed and literally translucent. She turned to Princess Celestia. “It appears somepony is trying to wake me, sister. I will see you at sunrise.” “I will.” Celestia promised.
Princess Celestia yawned and sat up in her bed. She looked at the clock. Still several hours to sunrise.
The glow of the two cigarettes looked like a pair of glowing eyes in the copse a few hundred paces from Sugarcube Corner. Detective Bean and one of the Crime Scene Investigators stood and observed the trees from outside a shed they had just exited. On the other side of the room filled with the bones of unfortunate victims the investigators had found a passage leading to this shed, no doubt the escape route of the murderer.
The CSI nodded silently as Bean continued.
The CSI ruffled through a saddlebag and gave Bean a flashlight.
Quartz knocked on Shining Armor’s door, trying to ignore the constant descriptions of Pinkie Pie that were rolling out of the radio as guard after guard reported for duty and asked for instructions.
He spoke quickly.
Quartz nodded once.
“We have a Code 47, Shining. You need to go to the West Wing security central ASAP!”
Princess Celestia felt dizzy. She had tried to go to her private bathroom to wash her face, but warm feeling was spreading in her torso.
Celestia now realized the soothing voice had never come from Iris. She sighed.
“Too bad, what will happen to you next…”
“Calling all guards. I repeat: Calling all guards. Halt search. False alarm.”
However, as soon as Cloud let go of his transmitter, the airwaves were once more filled with the chatter of the other guards. The difference was that this time it sounded panicked.
So this is how it all comes together…
He swore long and hard in his own language, while sending a silent thanks to colorful vocabulary of his father, before galloping off in the direction of the Royal Apartments.
Author's Note
Author’s note: This part, especially chapter 7, might be seen as somewhat gory (although I’ll tone it down to not trigger some 18+ rating). My apologies. If you are a Scootaloo, feel free to skip that chapter. You are not a Scotaloo, are you? Baap, baap!
Also, in case I forget to credit her otherwise, thanks to Icewhip for editing, moral support and in general being an awesome pegasister! There will be a… surprise for you in the last part...
PS: Latin correction GREATLY appreciated if you can help.
Lost Souls chapter 9 (final)
Lost Souls - Part IV
Chapter 9 - Hurricane
She looked at Princess Celestia’s lifeless body, shining milky white in the beam of moonlight that entered the Royal Bedchamber through a window. She relished the sight. In a moment the storm clouds that now covered almost all of the sky would obscure this last vestige of moonlight.
She looks so peaceful…
She stood up straight again and sighed. In the end she could not muster the courage administer Celestia a lethal dose of the poison. It seemed too wrong of her to stab the Princess in the back like that. However, Celestia would remain in deep semi-coma for hours yet, more than long enough to complete the plan. If she couldn’t kill the Princess, the laws of physics were always willing to give a helping hoof. She thanked herself for having the foresight to plan a fake demise for the Princess that could double as a real one if her own courage faltered.
She gently lifted Princess Celestia with her unicorn magic and walked out into the hallway. She had hoped she would not have to kill the guard before she was done inside, but the mare had realized what was happening when the radio message came. She wondered a second about this. The radios did not figure in her plan, despite all the scouting and observing she had done. They must have been purchased recently.
A thought struck her. She could easily eliminate this disadvantage. She placed the Princess on the marble floor of the corridor, next to the body of her handmaid Iris, and turned to the corpse of the guard lying in a crumpled heap by the door. Although panic struck her for a minute when she noticed the “transmit” button had been stuck in the “on” position when it was pressed against the floor, she calmed down when she realized that the only sound loud enough to be caught by the radio out here was the Princess’ yell for guards.
In any case, that meant help was on the way here. She quickly used a spell she had gotten a lot of practice with in the basement of Sugarcube Corner over the last couple of years. Soon the cleaning spell had removed all visible blood from the area. Contented with her handiwork she brought the guard’s body over to Celestia.
She was just going to remove the Princess’ necklace- or was “collar” a more fitting word given its’ size?, well aware of its emergency function, when suddenly she realized that she could hit two timberwolves with one rock. She smiled to herself malevolently when she heard the clop of hooves against marble approach. She picked up the little radio set she had picked off the guard and opened the transmitter part. She moved a few wires around and threw it away, satisfied with her sabotage. She assumed it would take about thirty seconds before it kicked in.
Dusk Quartz galloped through various corridors towards the Royal Apartments in the Outlook Tower. He was closer to the Ivory Tower, home of the Royal Library and Observatory, meaning he would have to either go down three floors to reach the throne room level and then run up even more floors up the tower, or brave the rainstorm outside and run across one of the many slippery-when-wet walkways in Canterlot.
As he ran, he tried to get through to the lieutenants in the West Wing security central, but the channel seemed occupied by some young private talking about empty apartments without trace of neither Princess nor maid nor gua-
“You two!” he barked at them, “What are you lazy sons of mules standing around here for? Haven’t you heard we have a crisis on our hooves?”! Follow me !”Yes sir !”
“So, the crystal in the Princess’ necklace is… some sort of beacon?” Twilight Sparkle looked confused at him from the reading table of the Royal Library. Private first class Dusk Quartz gave her a smile. He leaned towards a bookshelf by the door. “Yes. Magical. The unicorns of the Guard are trained to detect and locate it. Magical detection and location are usually things for high-level unicorns, but it can be so crucial for the Guard that we do it anyway. The beacon activates if the Princess’ magical aura shuts d-“ “Can you teach me?” The young mare’s eyes were shining with excitement and curiosity. Quartz raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?” Twilight nodded eagerly. “Yes! Yes please, if you have time, I mean.” He shrugged and returned to all four. “I’m here for three hours more, anyway. I’m just surprised you want to know about it, Sparkle, that’s all.” Quartz came over to her. “Okay, close your eyes, Sparkle.” Twilight closed her eyes. “As you know, contrary to popular belief by non-unicorns, magic does not come from our horns. Rather it is a latent physical energy…” “… that can be manipulated via the nervous system by the brain through our horns, to refract light to create illusions, affect the density of air to levitate objects, and even change the properties of matter by way of molecular separation.” Twilight interrupted him, annoyed, “I did pass Magic 101, you know…” Quartz frowned at her. “You didn’t let me finish, Sparkle. It is a latent physical energy that surrounds us, and therefore we can detect disturbances in the field if we empty our mind and simply feel the stream.” She snorted. “You sound like one of my teachers.” He rolled his eyes. “Just keep your eyes shut and pay attention to what I am telling you, okay?”
Quartz felt pained at the memory. He had trouble believing that Twilight was… was…
He froze and turned slowly. The pulsating signal was coming from only about fifteen paces away, behind a door almost right behind him.
The door was a standard Canterlot outer gate, only smaller. It felt oddly familiar, a feeling that was explained when he inched it open and saw the same catwalk that he had taken with Storm only four days earlier. It felt an eternity away.
A magically propelled knife shot out of the rain and passed so close to Quartz’ temple that he felt the whizz. He turned when he heard a metallic *clang*. The knife had bounced of the neck protection of the tall guard who had followed behind Quartz, and fell harmlessly over the balustrade and down into the darkness. This catwalk was not above the Royal Gardens, but the steep lightly wooded hillside that Canterlot was built on, meaning it was a long fall.
The guard grinned stupidly, but it faded when he noticed the cut on the right side of his neck. A red stain coloring his coat was streaming out of the severed artery. He stared blankly at Quartz, his facial expression one of light surprise, before he stumbled to ground. He whimpered and tried to cover the wound with his hoof, but Quartz knew it as too late for him. With such a cut he had about ten seconds before he lost consciousness and three minutes before he died of blood loss. Too short to do anything without even a bandage.
The other guard had frozen, horrified, on the other side of the half-opened door when he saw what happened to his friend. He looked frightened at Quartz, who mouthed “get help” as visibly as he could. Seconds later the door slammed shut, apparently sealed with magic, judging by the glow. Quartz forced his gaze away from the dying stallion, and turned to look at the murderer, a flame of rage building inside of him because of all the troubles he had been through because of this one pony.
“TWILIGHT! WHAT THE HAY ARE YOU DOING?!”
Lieutenant Grove massaged his forehead with a hoof. “And the Princesses?”Nightingale! NIGHTINGALE !”
Twilight whistled a happy tune as she dumped Iris’ body over the edge of the catwalk through the crack in the balustrade.
Dusk moaned again and swayed dangerously, his eyes trying to focus on her. He was winced and clutched his side at what must have been a sudden jab of pain. Twilight guessed he had broken a few ribs. She looked more closely at him. She hardly recognized the tall stallion she had been so impressed by several years earlier. He was unshaved, pale, his mane was a wet and fat mess, and his eyes seemed to almost have sunk deeper into his skull in the last few days. For a brief moment she reflected on what had been and if maybe they, if things had been different, could have… No. She shook the thought out of her head, but Dusk had noticed the weakness in her eyes.
He extended a hoof towards her, as if trying to touch her. “Twilight…”Everypony ! She did it,” she extended a trembling hoof towards the Princess, “and nopony helped me!”
Suddenly Quartz’ expression changed to a grin. However, her next sentence made his face fall into pained folds again.different ! That’s why I cried when you came! I even almost told you at Fluttershy’s, but you brushed me off before I finished the sentence…” a few tears rolled down her cheek, to her chagrin “It turns out you are no different than the others. Nopony listens! Ever!”
Suddenly she felt a calming theoretical buzz from her brain. She spoke again, this time in the emotionless and cold tone of a lecture.her ,” she spat in the direction of Celestia, “and an extreme fear of failure… Etcetera, etcetera. You could have found all of this out if you just asked somepony about me, but nooo, you just care about your assignment , ‘second lieutenant’…”
Quartz bit his lip. “I’m so sorry, Twilight, I really am. But… why didn’t you ask for help if you could see all of this?”
Quartz shook his head, apparently in disbelief.
Twilight’s horn lit up for a second before she was engulfed by a flash of white light. When Quartz regained his eyesight a few seconds later a pink earth pony with a poofy mane stood in front of him.bestest friend in the whole wide world gutted her alive. ‘I want to go home, Pinkie’ she said. Pathetic.” The sneer didn’t fit the saccharine voice with which she was speaking.
Twilight sighed. “Yes. All my life I have been bound to her tried to please her. For what? Her approval? What is that worth? A future job as a court magician? I don’t know why anymore. I needed to take my future back. Permanently. She can’t die on her own for millennia yet, so I had to… help her.
She morphed back and gave Quartz a content smile.
Twilight swallowed and turned to the windows on the wall on one side of the catwalk. Behind the stained glass windows depicting some historical scenes she could she shadows moving and muffled voices arguing. They had the plumes of Royal Guards. She winced when she started to hear banging at the magically sealed doors on both ends of the catwalk.
“Twilight…”
“Twilight, let me help you. You take the back hooves.” Twilight looked frightened at the young green foal sitting in the rowboat with her, but nodded. She couldn’t stand the mocking voices and hateful faces of the other foals at shore anymore. She just had to do this, and she would be cool. Then everypony would be her friend.
She grabbed the kid by the hind legs as good as she could. She just had to chuck it in the lake for a second, it would walk along the bottom to the shore, and eveypony at the magic kindergarten would be friends with her. Everyone knows that goats walk the bottom. Right?
She closed her eyes, and at the count of three from the other pony, the young unicorn foal threw the kid as far as she could. She followed it with her eyes until it splashed in the water. A few bubbles broke the surface, and everypony waited in silence. Seconds passed, minutes.
“I see something!” the green foal exclaimed. He grabbed a long pole with a hook in the end that lay in the boat, and started fishing around in the water. After a little while, he pulled the kid aboard. Twilight looked horrified at the cold glare into space and the open mouth, and knew that nothing would ever be the same again. She was a killer. A murderer. Twilight whispered the words a second before the green foal said them out loud. “It is dead.”
“It is dead!” Twilight yelled, “IT IS DEAD! THEY ARE ALL DEAD! I will kill you all! I will be free !”Fluttershy, no!” was all he managed to call out before the yellow pegasus hit the purple unicorn at full speed and caused a giant bolt of white magic to go shooting uncontrollably into the sky.
High Winds flapped her wings to get some altitude as the height of the cloud banks increased. Contrary to popular belief, clouds could have complicated “valleys” and “hills” even when they looked like flat blankets from the ground. She sighed.
I am a Wonderbolt! I should be directing pegasi at the sides of the bank, or at the very least be getting a good night’s sleep… But noooo, patrol duty. Thanks a million, Spitfire, I hope you enjoy the party…
As she gained altitude, she could see across the vast expanse of the rain storm cloud. It seemingly stretched from horizon to horizon. Here and there the moonlight revealed two-pegasi patrols such as her own. Speaking of which…
She was probably referring to High’s curly mane, which was large enough to cover most of her body from behind and the same time was the color of the night sky. She pretended not to understand.
Rainstorm nodded weakly.
She was distracted by a growing light in the clouds just in front of and beneath them. Rainstorm was happily chatting away, but High’s distraction training from the Wonderbolt Academy kicked in, causing her to call out a warning.Cover your ey -“
The huge bolt of magic tore through the clouds just a few wingspans in front of them. It singed High’s mane and left glowing dots on her retina for several seconds after she opened her eyes, but she had covered them with a hoof in time. Rainstorm had not been as quick.
“Ahh! I can’t see !” She yelled as she spiraled helplessly downwards into the clouds.
A wiry beige pegasus descended next to her and took over the weight of Rainstorm. He was wearing the gold-clored armor of the Royal Guard, and High figured he was one of the guards who had been brought in from Canterlot to help keep order in the gigantic storm-moving project.
Together the three of them ascended back up above the clouds, Rainstorm’s own wings carrying more and more of her own weight as she regained her sight and sense of direction. Another guard, in silver-colored armor, was waiting up there, and gave High a quick salute.
“Hello, ma’am! We were patrolling nearby when that little fireworks display back there alerted to us to the fact that you might need a tad of assistance.”
“That… thing energized the clouds!” Lightning exclaimed, “Sweet Celestia, if those bolts reach the cloud barracks by the front edge… The sleeping cloud herders will be toast!”
Storm still hesitated.
The idiot platoon leader Quartz of his ducked to avoid a stray bolt of magic from Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn was have a furious fight with teeth and hoof with Fluttershy, who was as enraged as a wounded harpy. He wasn’t sure how she had come to Canterlot or where she had been, but she had been circling above them for about five minutes, only keeping her distance because Quartz shook his head. Now he wasn’t sure how to separate the two, as his magic was not strong enough to lift two heavy and struggling objects like these. He could try brute force, but then one of them might fa-
His train of thoughts stopped in its tracks as he saw the two roll over the edge of the crack in the balustrade and fall over. It felt like moving through syrup has he lunged forward and grabbed Fluttershy with his left front hoof. Lacking digits of any sort, the hold slipped quickly, but allowed Fluttershy to clamber around his waist, dragging Quartz with her.
He just managed to grab onto one of the poles of the balustrade with both his front legs, carrying the weight of both him and Fluttershy. To his terror he discovered his trembling legs were not strong enough to pull both of them up.
Quartz looked down at the horrified pegasus clutching his abdomen.can’t ?”sc -“
“Well, you certainly took your time, Winter…”
A few seconds later Quartz felt a strong leg under each foreleg of his, lifting him up. A few seconds later a burden was relieved as another guard took Fluttershy in the same fashion.
Within moments he was standing on the catwalk, trying to hide the slight tremble in his forelegs. A large group of guards, including several lieutenants, had stepped out onto the catwalk. Most of the officers seemed to be arguing, and lieutenant Cloud attempted to explain into a radio transmitter why they weren’t at the guard central. Quartz guessed captain Armor was on the other end, judging from Cloud’s servile and apologetic tone.
Dawn came up to his side. “Sorry for the late entrance here, but the lieutenants didn’t take kindly to the idea of breaking a ten thousand bit stained glass window to get out here. After that little fireworks show back there I made the decision for… Uh-oh, trouble’s brewing…”
Quartz followed his gaze and noticed a very irate lieutenant Grove shoving his way through the other guards towards them.explicitly told you not to touch that window! Now look at this mess!”
He stopped as the lieutenant did not pay attention to him. In fact, everypony on the catwalk was looking slackjawed at a point over his head. In their eyes and in the raindrops still falling in front of him he could see a violet shine.
Quartz turned and saw in a flash of lightning from the distance that Twilight Sparkle was lifting herself with her magic to hover just over the edge of the catwalk. She looked absolutely furious, but whatever she yelled to them was impossible to make out over the rolling crashes of thunder and howling wind.
Quartz wasn’t really sure what to do. He was hurting all over and doubted he’d be able to cast any protective spell at all, and there were only three other unicorns on the catwalk, all of them standing like paralyzed.
Suddenly he felt a hoof on his shoulder. It was Dawn.I’m getting too old for this business ,” he yelled, to be heard over the intensifying sounds of the storm, “but I have to finish all of this !”What do you mean ?” Quartz yelled back, but Dawn had turned from him and said something to lieutenant Grove, who looked doubtful, but nodded.
“Oh no-ho-ho, don’t you even think about it, Winter !”Tell Aury I’m sorry, Dusk !”Who ?” Quartz asked, but Dawn had already run forward and leaped at Twilight Sparkle, dragging them both down into the darkness.
The wind and rain whipped Winter Dawn over the face as the two ponies fell together, the mare struggling as he hugged her tightly with his greater weight and strength, but he didn’t care. For the first time in far too long he was in the air! Weightless! He smiled and closed his eyes…
…he opened his eyes as he tore through the cloud and entered the bright daylight of the ever-blue skies, as happy as a pegasus could be. He barrel rolled and zoomed in between the outer buildings of Cloudsdale. As he gradually slowed down he started recognizing faces in the crowd. Friends, neighbors, the old stallion who owned the bakery at the corner… He waved and smiled, eliciting similar responses. Finally he approached a familiar abode in a quiet corner of the bustling cloud city. He heard the excited calls of his daughter as she clumsily but eagerly flapped towards him. The filly had learned to fly not long ago, and was eager to show off her newfound ability to her daddy. He laughed heartily and gave her a hug, then swung the young’un onto his shoulders. A vivacious laugh answered his from inside the house. She met him on the doorstep. He looked her in the eye and stroke her over her soft mane with his hoof, sayi-
Quartz tried to block out the soft thud. He turned in disbelief and shock towards Grove.
Her soft sobs were the drop that filled his glass over the brim. He could not hold his emotions in check any longer, and for the first time in a decade and a half Dusk Quartz cried.
Author's Note
There. The end.
Also, this is the first chapter with standardized style. Now to fix the others.
PS: The first to guess the kid drowning reference wins Twilight's Badge of Obscure Cultural References.
