> Where Only Silver Shines
>  by Etyco Filly
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue — Sunset
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



	Prologue — Sunset



The world was entirely too bright today. My head hurt like Hades, and my mouth was drier than it had any right to be, especially after the amount of water I’d already drunk. Worst part? I was still drunk. From the moment I’d woken up, the world had been spinning.

Standing in rank with me were the other guards in training of House Hockney. Most of them were around a decade younger than me, so even among the older ones, I was the only one of drinking age. So, even though yesterday had been one of the biggest occasions for festivities all year round—the conclusion of the trials of Soulfire—I was the only hungover pony in the room. Even though we were standing in rank, our supervisor was absent. The calm chatter of the fillies and colts was enough to drive nails into my skull.

We weren’t supposed to chat while waiting in rank, dammit. Usually I’d be the last to care about such a stupid and arbitrary rule, but for once I just craved peace and quiet.

The silence that suddenly filled the room was utterly orgasmic in comparison. I lifted my right wing in salute, and the rest of the room followed suit. 

“Alright, fillies and colts, today we’ll be going back to our normal schedule,” said Knight Pearflower, our main supervisor. Her eyes stopped a few rows behind me, and she said, “Has anypony seen Recruit Sapphire Edge?” There were exactly thirty—well, twenty-nine without little Edgelet—of us in the room, and she could just tell at a glance who was missing. She was amazing like that, and even my headache couldn’t stop me from appreciating it. “Tulip, Tunic, you both share a room with her.”

“Well… uh…” replied a blue filly in front of me. “She got a 2.4 at the trial and decided she didn’t need to get up at dawn anymore…”

‘2.4’ referred to her level of authority. A higher level meant that a pony had more control over the mechanisms in the capitol palace. I didn’t know the details, but it was said a pony with all five levels could disable the shield around the royal castle and become king or queen in all but title. We hadn’t had one of those since ancient times. Of course, not a single pony managed to get such a high result on the trial.

Pearflower groaned and muttered, “I’m too hungover to deal with this.” At least I wasn’t alone in my suffering. She let out a short sigh, pressed her eyes shut, and rubbed her temple. In a calm but dangerous tone, she said, “Well, that is up to me to decide. Until she’s granted a special position, I’m still in charge here.” She was usually very collected and understanding—perfect for dealing with younger ponies. However, if somepony did manage to piss her off, things would end badly for them; usually in the form of chore duty for a few weeks or months. I had a feeling our little Edgelet was about to regret her decision.

“Tulip,” commanded Pearflower, “go fetch Recruit Sapphire Edge. Recruits Daring Riposte, Daisy Hockney, and Silverstring, come see me one after another. Everypony else, dismissed and see you at the range.” At the mention of my name, my ears perked up. I was in trouble, wasn’t I? There were many details I didn’t remember about last night. I did remember talking to her at some point, but our conversation was a blur. What if I’d hit on her while drunk? She was a very attractive mare, and only six or seven years older than me. Sweet Moon above, that had to be it. She was going to kill me.

As everypony else was heading for the door, I approached her. Daisy was already talking to Pearflower, with Riposte right behind her. On the one hoof, this gave me time to come up with ways to save my hide. On the other, I doubted there was a way to get me out of this grave I’d dug myself. More time would just give me longer to panic.

On the bright side, Pear didn’t seem too pissed off yet, while she talked about the consequences of Daisy’s Trial of Soulfire result. Just like Edgelet, Daisy scored high, so there was a good chance she would end up leaving our regiment to become the family’s heir.

With a 3.3, she’d gone from not even being a candidate to being the first in line. It was the highest score in the capital in nearly a decade. And yet, Daisy didn’t even bother bragging about it. I’d bragged about my score, and it wasn’t anywhere near as high, damn it! Show some self-love, filly!

But then, a pony’s Soulfire level was in some way related to their bloodline, as nobles tended to score higher. Edgelet, for instance, was from a relatively influential family, who’d recently fallen on tough times. It was why she’d been accepted as a guard, despite being so scrawny. I was on the smaller side as well, but I more than made up for it in muscle and agility.

 However, it was not uncommon for a regular pony to score high enough to be adopted into lower nobility. It also wasn’t uncommon for some Houses to kick out their children if they scored too low, unfortunately.

In fact, the former was why I was even here. My family was poor as dirt, so when I scored a 1.4, I immediately had doors open all over the place. It wasn’t a high level by noble standards, no not at all. In fact, it was well below average. Not that I knew what the average is.

But it was high enough to be compared to nobles, not commoners. That single moment had turned my life around. Sure, I was one of only six colts in my regiment. Sure, I’d started my training the latest and was thus the oldest. Sure, I was the only pegasus. I had trouble fitting in. But I was here.

And so, that was the reason for my hangover. I was finally old enough to properly celebrate that one life-changing event.

“Recruit Silverstring, I’m talking to you,” said Pear in a low, threatening tone.

“If this is about something I said last night, I’m very super sorry, Captain Ma’am,” I blurted out before I could get a hold on myself. “If I made any inappropriate comments, I’ll make sure to learn from it and accept any punishment you see fit.” Frankly, I wasn’t sorry, I just really didn’t want to get in trouble. Why would I be sorry for something I didn’t even remember?

She squinted and furrowed her brow. “What exactly are you sorry for, recruit?”

“I, uh, vaguely recall some things I said to you yesterday. Maybe I’m misremembering.” Oh, thank the Stars, things weren’t nearly as bad as I thought.

“Oh, you mean your shoddy attempts at courting me? You were out of uniform, so I let them slide.” Oh, nevermind, things were exactly as bad as I thought. She gave a dry chuckle. “Maybe in a few years if your flirting skills get any better, and if you’re no longer my subordinate.” Nevermind again, things were even worse than I thought. By the Sun, if anypony found out about this, I’d be doomed.

Pearflower seemed to take an awful lot of pleasure from my trouble. Before her grin could turn sadistic, she shook her head and said, “Anyway, I have a job for you.”

Oh? Was I finally to prove my worth? I had been in training for just a little over a year, but my skills with bows were far beyond any of my colleagues—it was my cutie mark, after all. I’d always known my life as a hunter with Mom was bound to shorten my training, and if I was right…

“I need you to deliver a letter.” My hopes were shattered by her even tone.

I was tempted to shout, “Oh come on!” In fact, the temptation was such that I didn’t manage to hold it back.

“Is there a problem, recruit?” Her tone carried a subtle threat that nearly froze my blood.

I thought about it for a moment, then replied, “When can I do something more special? Some of the other recruits get to help out guards and knights on duty. And all I ever do is deliver letters.”

Her eyes softened a little. “Recruit Silverstring, as skilled as you are with the bow, your ability with the sword is lacking.” Bullshit, I could hold my own. “The reason you are assigned delivery jobs is simply because you’re the only recruit under House Hockney capable of flight.”

“Captain Ma’am, with all due respect, I grew up hunting in the Forest of Braymor; I helped kill monsters before I was even potty trained.” Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but she got the jist of it. “And I’m already an adult. My mom had me when she was my age, and here I’m stuck pulling message duty. I can handle some more responsibility.”

Pear sighed, and I couldn’t tell if it was the type of sigh that meant I was about to be in trouble, or the type that meant she was about to admit her mistake. “Fine,” she said. It was the latter! “We’ll look into ways you can help around the city when you get back. However, delivering urgent letters will also become one of your more regular duties as a guard of House Hockney. With you around, we won’t have to rely as much on griffin mercenaries.”

“Thank you, Captain Ma’am!” My excited shout brought down an axe through my skull, making me wince and press my eyes shut.

Apparently, I winced hard enough for Knight Pearflower to notice. “Recruit, are you okay?”

I shifted my weight to one side, using my left hoof to rub the back of my head, sheepish grin on my face. “Do you have any tips to quickly get rid of a hangover?”





I landed in front of the gates. Flying over the wall would get me vaporised by the city’s ancient magical defences. As I approached the guards, one of them lifted an eyebrow and asked, “You’re not looking to go outside the city walls, are you?”

“I am. I have a letter for Lord Hammer Halterdawn, and I understand he is currently residing outside the wall.”

The guard didn’t seem convinced. “Why are the Hockneys sendin’ young foals to deliver shit outside the walls, all alone?”

“I’ll have you know I’m old enough to be hungover; I’m just short. I’m also in a bad enough mood that I’d be willing to get my superior here just for her to yell at you.” I shot her my smuggest smirk and waited a few seconds. “So, are you going to stop wasting my time, yes or no?” Truth be told, I didn’t feel the hangover anymore since Pearflower had found me some medication. Now, all I had to do was drink enough water—which I was doing.

Despite having been shorter than average for my whole life, it never bothered me much. One of my moms—the one that actually gave birth to me—was average height. The other pony I considered my parent was my aunt, who was a really tall unicorn. Well, obviously they weren’t lovers, it just so happened that both had raised me. Because of that, I knew that my height was due to my father’s genes. Pegasi in general had a tendency to be more… aerodynamically sized. I’d never met him, but according to mom, he’d been about as tall as me.

Unlike me, he hadn’t lived past his fiftieth birthday. He’d basically still been a colt when he died, but such was the fate of pegasi who lived on this island. In fact, it was almost a miracle I was still in good health.

“Alright then, go right ahead,” said the guard, an arrogant smile on his muzzle. He was hoping to get an opportunity to say, “I told you so,” later on. I wouldn’t give him one.

“Thank you,” I replied with the most shit-eating grin I could muster.





I arrived in the nearby town of Coltchester, utterly exhausted. Usually, they had me deliver letters within Trottingham itself, so I was at least excited to be able to fly a bit further.

Only downside was that I’d completely and utterly underestimated the flight. Long distance flying was apparently not one of my strong suits. In my defence, I’d never gotten much practice. Us guards hardly needed to be able to march long distances; that was more along the likes of what the military did. In general, my endurance was poor.

I’d been flying for half a day, and I was more than glad to finally get here. Really, I should have realised how long this trip would be when I was given two bits for food, shelter, and drink before I made my way back.

Still, why send out a guard on such a long trip when couriers existed? The answer was fairly obvious. This letter was quite urgent. Maybe not urgent as it likely wasn’t all that important, but definitely time-sensitive.

Half an hour after arriving in town, I arrived at the manor of House Halterdawn. The estate, I found, was much smaller than I’d expected. The hedges were messy and half-dead, and the building seemed like it had seen better days.

In fact, there was nopony at the gate. I made my way to the front door and undid the crossbow attached to my left foreleg. After stashing the weapon away in my saddlebag, I gave the door a series of firm knocks. The pony who opened the door was an old maid. By how empty the manor was, I guessed she was the only maid.

When I informed her I had an urgent letter, she looked at the symbol and disappeared into the building. She called the master of the house, then left to make tea.

Hammer Halterdawn came down the central stairs. He was in his thirties, with a red coat and brown mane. Wasting no time, he took the letter from me. As he read it, his face grew more and more pale.

Eventually, he asked, mortified, “H-how long did it take you to deliver this letter?”

I scratched my chin. “From the moment I got it? Maybe six… seven hours, top?”

His face lit up in relief. “Oh, glorious pegasus colt, you’ve just saved me. You’ve come all this way from Trottingham in less than a day, you must be exhausted.”

“Very much so.” I gave a single, vigorous nod. “I was considering asking if I could stay the night, since I’m not sure if I have the energy to look for an inn.” I was strongly exaggerating, but he seemed grateful and might repay me. Then I could keep the bits for myself.

“Well, I have a better idea, comrade. I shall be on my way to the capital soon, would you care to join me in my carriage?”

I would get enough rest, and I would get home much quicker than originally expected since I wouldn’t waste any time in Coltchester. I’d need to find an excuse to hold on to the bits, but I doubted that would be too difficult.





The autumn night was pitch black. We’d been travelling for more than three hours already, and I was finally getting drowsy. Being able to rest my wings was one thing, but if my mind refused to shut down, I wouldn’t be able to sleep.

Even though roads like this one were kept safe by the military, my thoughts still buzzed with ideas of fighting off bandits and proving myself. I’d even reattached my crossbow and earned a questioning look from Halterdawn. With that, I could defend against a bandit attack, unlikely as it was. After all, the symbol on my flanks was a drawn bow. Not only was it my namesake, but the talent I had for longbows translated very well into skill with a crossbow.

Yes, an arrow from such a tiny crossbow wouldn’t pierce full plate armour, and aiming for the gaps in it wouldn’t be as easy as up close. Still, as a flyer, it would be silly not to consider ranged weaponry. My mind continued to torture me like this for another hour or two. I was itching for a proper fight.

The wagon came to a stop. “Lord Halterdawn, come out,” shouted a voice from outside the carriage. “You’re surrounded and we are armed.” I had to stop myself from squealing in excitement.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you,” I whispered to Hammer. He lifted an eyebrow, but didn’t protest any more than that. “Tell them you’re coming out,” I added while loading my crossbow.

Hammer did as requested. “Alright, I’m coming out.”

“On three, you open the door and drop down,” I told him. “One.” I spread my wings as wide as I could in the confined space. “Two.” I focused on my wings. “Three!” With a flick of my feathers and a bit of pegasus magic, I readied a sharp gust, which I released in a single flap as he threw open the door to the carriage. I was pushed outside, propelled by the wind, and immediately aimed for a nearby earth pony.

My bolt hit true and sank into his chest, albeit disappointingly deep. Would that even— Don’t think. I started reloading my crossbow. Before I realised what was happening, a large mass crashed into me and slammed me into the ground.

My heart was pounding in my chest. For the first time since I’d left home, I felt it again. That awful excitement when a pony knows he’s in mortal danger, and his entire body understands it. Unfortunately, this rush of adrenaline didn’t help, because I still lacked the strength to get out from underneath the large griffin pinning me down.

“Halterdawn! We got your little guard, no more tricks!” shouted one of the mares in a northern accent.

“Hey, boss… the turkey killed Carrot,” said another.

This caused her to look over in my direction. Despite the dim light, I could still tell her expression. It turned from annoyance to confusion. “Wait, why the fuck did they send one of their own to protect the pony they wanted us to capture? Well, that’s on them; he’s going with him now, and they said no witnesses whatsoever. Can’t kill him though, in case they want him back. Damn shame.”

When I heard that, my efforts to escape redoubled. The griffin, however, was having none of it, as she lifted my head and slammed it into the cobblestone road. The last thing I remembered before falling unconscious was the warm feeling of blood running down my forehead.





I woke up in a mouldy dungeon cell alongside Lord Halterdawn. My head was pounding even worse than yesterday, while he quietly sobbed. I turned onto my back, only to be met with a black chasm that seemingly stretched on forever above me.

“What the fuck? Where in the Sun’s name am I?”
> A1 — Waning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



A1 — Waning



Doctor Vitro took a step back. “So far so good,” she said, more to herself than me. “Pulse is faster and a lot stronger than last time. Almost normal for a filly her age.” After a content nod, she recorded it on the parchment and slate floating in her telekinesis.

She pointed towards one of the only parts of the white marble wall free of furniture. “Please stand over there, I wanna see if you’ve grown.” Vitro pulled a pencil out from her saddlebags. Once I was in place, she marked my height with her pencil. A few moments later, she measured it and scribbled the result. Again, she nodded. “Grown about two centimetres,” she mumbled, more to herself than me.

Leaving me no time to ponder, she gestured to the sofa. “Lie down, please. On your back.”

The first time I’d seen her, she had complained that my family did not have a proper physician’s room in our residence, and that she had to use a mundane guest room for when she treated me. Since then, Papa had provided her with additional equipment, stored in the various cabinets and drawers. Though likely far from good enough, it did halt her complaints.

I did as told, and mentally braced myself for the invasion of privacy that was about to befall unto me. She was a doctor, and was thus expected to perform examinations such as this one. Nothing in her demeanour indicated any indecent intent.

Still, I held no fondness for the procedure, especially considering her vexatious habit of mumbling her findings to herself, no matter how curt or unpleasant they might be. To my colossal relief, she merely glanced over my more private areas, commented about everything being in order, then moved on to my barrel.

“Incisions have scarred up nicely.” She wrote on the parchment. “Much faster than expected, actually, given the patient’s previous condition.”

Though four months had passed already since my last checkup, I understood her surprise. In my previous state, wounds like these would have needed years to merely close, yet alone fully heal.

Content, Vitro moved up my body again, checking my chest’s fur for irregularities. Finally, she turned her attention to my head. Levitating out a glowing crystal from her pouch, she inspected each of my ears, then my eyes. 

“Well then, Lady Fell. It seems the procedure has not only been a success, but the recovery equally so.” Her gleeful tone came more from the positive results of her experiment, and less from my recovery. This mare hardly ever cared about anything other than her personal research.

“So…” My voice was weak, full of hesitation. I had already known I was doing better. I could feel it throughout my body. Movement was easier, fatigue only came towards the end of a day, and my appetite had reached new heights. Yet, I was so deathly afraid of her answer to my next question. “Does that mean I will one day be well enough to travel?”

Vitro grimaced and shook her head, then furrowed her brow as she looked at the ceiling. She let her gaze wander for a moment before letting out a “huh” as she stared past me. She bit her lip, then made a popping sound with her mouth.

Finally, after drawing out her reflection for much longer than necessary, she shrugged. “I doubt it, but I could be wrong. As far as I know, there’s a fifty-fifty chance of you dying in the first month. But after that? Who knows how well your body would adapt. The treatment for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva already weakened you quite a tad, and I have no idea how you’d react to the outside’s… what’s the word—” she gestured at the air in the room, “—thing. You know what I mean. Anyway, your body doesn’t know how to deal with it, so it’s all unknown.”

Even after it was cured, this disease still held a grip of iron on my life. I was no longer turning to bone, but I still would never be able to leave the family estate. What good was there in that?

Oh, I had stopped listening to Vitro. I forced my attention back towards chaotic speech. “...But maybe you’ll only need a few days to adapt.” She narrowed her eyes and hesitated for a moment before adding, “Of course, should you insist on trying anyway, and should your family allow it, I will be there all the way with you.”

Taking notes, no doubt.

I did not vocalise that comment. “I see,” I replied as evenly as I could. Again, the answer did not really surprise me, and it ought not to. I would have been a foal to believe my life held any chance at freedom. Any chance of getting out of this miserable residence and seeing even a fraction of the world. Of living even half the life of a normal pony. Of finding love, of sleeping under the stars.

Really, there was no reason for me to be on the edge of tears. The life I had read about in so many books would remain outside my grasp, forever inaccessible.

But I knew that already; I had no reason to feel upset. I thanked the doctor for her work and left the guest room. It took everything I had not to tear up on the way to my room, even though nopony would have seen me.
> S1 — Darkest Depths
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



	S1 — Darkest Depths



My head was pounding. At least today, it wasn’t a hangover but some brute splitting my skull on the road between Coltchester and Trottingham. Just like yesterday, though, my mouth was all too dry.

“I fucking hate griffins,” I said while Halterdawn stared at the ceiling—no, not ceiling… sky?—ignoring my ramblings. “They’re all so big, all they have is their size and muscles. Pegasi have to learn intricate ways of manipulating air currents and those stupid birds can just… flap their wings harder. Even bats have more magic in their flight, and they’re already way below pegasi.” I groaned. “Seriously, how unfair is that? And they get to live longer, to boot!”

Halterdawn groaned. He’d been trying to ignore me, but his patience had limits. “Are you done?” he asked. In a little bit over half an hour, I’d lost any respect I might have had for him.

“No the fuck I ain’t! They can’t just lock me up and expect me to sit quietly!” I took off mid-sentence to cross my forelegs. After less than a metre of upward flight, a ceiling materialised out of thin air. I started hammering against it with all four of my hooves.

With my skill, I had no issue flying upside down. Good luck trying that, griffin muscleheads! No amount of physical strength could change the way your wings pushed air. But magic could. Suck on that, you beaked cunts! Too bad that this idiot Halterdawn couldn’t appreciate how awesome I was.

Still, expert flyer or no, the first time I’d flown up, I’d slammed face first into the ceiling. I was no doctor, but I was decently certain that hadn’t helped with my headache.

I kept up my futile attempts to break out for another minute or two, until my head started spinning from the physical and magical exertion. I hadn’t eaten a proper meal in… I didn’t even know how long! I landed on the ground, too dizzy to bother standing. “Fuck this place, dude.”

At this point, I was bitching and moaning for the sake of bitching and moaning. It wouldn’t get me out of here, but being overly dramatic would at the very least make me feel better. All while venting my frustrations. A win-win, really.

Except for his Lordship, of course. He was very much having the opposite of fun. He should join me. Weren’t nobles normally amazing at complaining?

I lay on the ground for a few minutes, catching my breath all while contemplating going to sleep here and now. At least it would pass the time, right? Stars above, I was so bored. But the hard, cold, stone floor was quickly becoming uncomfortable. I sat up on my rump and took a third proper look around the cell.

It wouldn’t bring anything, but I might as well. To my surprise, though, I proved myself wrong. Underneath the wooden plank I’d woken up on sat a chest. Curious, I pulled it out and opened it.

Inside, I found my guard tunic, crossbow, and bolts, as well as the rest of my belongings. I furrowed my brow. “Why in Tartarus would they lock us up with our weapons…?” Glad to finally have something to drink, I took a sip from my cantine.

This made absolutely no sense. None at all! Unless… we weren’t meant to be locked up? I stood up, head spinning briefly, and walked towards the door. I tried the handle, and got it open.

I turned to Lord Halterdawn with what I could only hope was an expression of utter disappointment. “Seriously‽ You didn’t even try to open the door of the cell you’re locked up in?” I had an excuse, I’d assumed he had tried it already.

“Why would I? Do you really not get where we are?” Hey, why was he saying that like I was the idiot here?

I couldn’t let him have the last word. “Yeah, no shit, I don’t, what gave you the idea? Maybe the fact that I word-for-word asked where we were when I woke up?”

“Ugh… I can’t stand idiots. We’re in The Tower, dipshit.” His tone and choice of vocabulary were decidedly un-noble.

The Tower? That Tower? The one that stood in the sea, by the western coast? That was the only thing that came to mind when he said this. Why would we be in there? “Isn’t that just an old mare’s tale to scare fillies into behaving?”

Halterdawn scoffed. “Of course your generation would believe that. House Fell has been out of the game for the past forty-seven years. Even the Viscount has been mostly forgotten about.”

“House Fell… Viscount… you mean Viscount Gaunt, the 4.0?” Go me, receiving a better education in the span of five years than the rest of my life combined!

Halterdawn sighed. “Yes, precisely that one.” Then, he grumbled to himself, “I should have expected this. Shouldn’t have trusted those rich fucks.”

“Wait, why am I here? What did I do?” The answer was probably something along the lines of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the details escaped me.

Halterdawn rolled his eyes. “Can’t you think a little for yourself? It’s obvious you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Okay, screw this dude. I got that he was cranky because he was thrown in here, but he didn’t have to take it out on me. “Alright then, I’m off to find a way out.” As I slipped into my garb and put on my saddlebags, the ground and walls shook like crazy. So much, in fact, that I might have been knocked off my hooves if it hadn’t been for my wings. Halterdawn, however, was surprised only at first, but then went back to his resigned expression.

My jaw dropped, and I furrowed my brow, shaking my head. “Seriously? You’re not even phased by that?”

He was exactly as annoyed as before. “I was, the first three times it occurred. It just happens, deal with it.”

“Okay, how long was I out? How long have we been here?”

“I lost track of time. That’s how long.” After rolling his eyes, he added, “Maybe half a day?”

I had somewhere to be! I couldn’t risk having Pearflower believe I'd forgotten about my duties! Or worse, that I was skipping them on purpose! “Well, I gotta go for real now, was good talking to you.” If he wanted to stay here, that would be his choice.





This place was laid out like a maze. A quarter hour later, I was already lost. The good thing was that I wasn’t going in circles. At least it felt like that, but I couldn’t tell for sure. The brick walls lit by torchlight all looked the same. On top of that, every corridor and every room had this weird ceiling that stretched out infinitely far when viewed from the floor, but turned out to be plain brick when I flew towards it.

Out in the hallways, the illusory ceiling was slightly taller. It wasn’t much; just enough that I’d gotten my hopes up, only to be disappointed when it turned out to be solid. In a way, I was glad this was all just an illusion, because the idea of such a vast stretch of endless void above me hurt my sanity.

Really, the only thing nice about the current situation was how light my body felt, even with the hunger and concussion. At least when I was airborne. Hades, in my current state, flying was easier than walking.

The entire building shook again, knocking me out of my loop of thoughts. I let myself fall a metre to see if anything was happening to the walls inside the illusory ceiling. Not that anything could happen, given that they weren’t real. They couldn’t be.

However, by the time I was far enough away, everything had gone back to normal. Then again, the smart conclusion was that nothing had changed at all. The lack of insight was disappointing, but—

Was that a flyer? Was somepony inside the ceiling?

“Okay, weird.” It was almost enough to make me reconsider my complete and utter certainty about the illusion, but I am clever, I wouldn’t fall for tricks like that.

However, what changed my mind was when the silhouette let out a piercing screech and dove towards me. I quickly pulled back my crossbow’s string and loaded a bolt. There was still a chance this pony was friendly, but I didn’t want to take my chances.

She soon landed in front of me, seemingly unbothered by the artificial ceiling. So the ceiling definitely wasn’t an illusion. One-way force-field, then? Were those even a thing? But then, the endless dark would—No time to think about that, Silver!

Her—his?—face obscured by the dark, she took a step towards me. Her black wings weren’t feathered, instead reflecting light much like polished leather would. 

“Hi?” My voice was hesitant, but hopefully that would help me come across as non-combative. I was in no shape to fight.

I’d talked to a few saro… saroj… I’d spoken with a few batponies before. I knew what they looked like and that they weren’t all too different from us pegasi. They lived longer in general, but still got outlived by earth ponies, let alone unicorns. Still, they were usually more than happy to chat with a fellow flyer. This filly? Not so much, judging by the caution she put into every step forward.

As it stepped towards me and into the light, its features became clear. It didn’t take a genius to realise that this thing was far from friendly as it hissed at me.

Its fur and eyes were entirely black, and its fanged mouth hung open. It hissed again, lunging and spreading its wings. I flapped mine, launching myself backwards before raising my crossbow. The bolt skewered its right eye and the monster collapsed, spewing glowing green from its wound.

In a swift, practised movement, I flipped around to avoid losing my balance from the bolt’s recoil—even though it wasn’t strictly needed for such a small crossbow.

With my shoe’s hook, I drew my crossbow’s string back and flew upside down towards the ground—a trick that filled me with pride even during such a tense moment. Not only was it hard to pull off in normal times, but being able to do it under pressure? Took months of daily practice, even for a natural like myself.

This really wasn’t the moment to be lost in thought. When I dropped down, there were two more black shapes moving around up there, both coming my way. I lamented not being able to shoot through the ceiling, but didn’t let it slow me.

Actually… I didn’t know that. Maybe it only blocked ponies from passing. I took aim at the leftmost bat-creature-thing and shot… only for my bolt to get stuck in the ceiling. Not surprising, but still disappointing.

Either due to bad timing, or because they’d heard me, both creatures started diving towards me. Frantically reloading, I managed to dodge the first bat as it landed, only for its buddy to cut off the path ahead of me. Seriously, how unfair was this? I wasted no time complaining and shot the one in front as it lunged. I dodged its dead body with ease.

The piercing screech of another thing reached my ears, but I couldn’t afford to look now, not when I was already surrounded. Worse yet, I was starting to run out of bolts. I had, what, three left? What if it was less? Should I recount to make sure?

No time for that. I turned around at the last moment as the bat lunged. Pushing myself away with everything I had, I barely managed to avoid its fangs, only one of them scraping the base of my neck. The gash was far more bark than bite, burning horribly, but not actually dangerous.

Again, I poured every last ounce of strength and magic into my wings in an attempt to stop myself from crashing into the wall. My efforts failed me, and the shock knocked the wind out of my lungs.

Two seconds weren’t enough to catch my breath, but they were all I could afford right now. I was lucky I hadn’t slammed my head against the brick wall.

Before the bat could reach me, I took off and flew as fast as possible, leaving it in the dust. A mindless beast had no chance of keeping up with me.

Reaching a turn, I slowed down to take it without pushing my limits. I immediately regretted that decision when I found myself a mere few metres away from a kneeling monster. Damn it, if I’d been faster, I could have dashed past! Now I wouldn’t get there in time.

A third took a rough landing far behind it, one of its bones snapping noisily under the impact. I took a millisecond to thank my luck that those things weren’t good flyers.

That short instant almost proved fatal, as the bat in front of me lunged. Instincts took over. I spread my wings, lowered my head, and spun my whole body backward. I clenched my teeth. The stress nearly ripped every tendon in my wings, but the manoeuvre allowed me to duck underneath the jaws snapping shut where my head had been a millisecond prior.

The next moment, I was perfectly aligned to dump the excess momentum with a four-hooved buck right into its torso. It crashed into the ceiling, skull cracking loudly enough to echo. Meanwhile, I found myself tossed to the ground with enough force to stun me for Stars knew how long. A moment later, the beast fell next to me with a thump.

It wasn’t as rough as my previous encounter with the wall, but I knew I was in trouble. I had to get up, but I just didn’t have the time! Wherever I moved, I wouldn’t have enough momentum to dodge those other two!

Screaming swears inside my head, as I desperately scrambled to get up. When I heard them pounce in near unison, I knew it was too late to get out of the way. A flash of genius crossed my mind at the last moment.

I turned onto my back and gave a strong flap of my wings, sending a gust of wind upwards. It wasn’t quite as strong as I had hoped, since the floor blocked my range of movement, but it was enough to veer both of the monsters off course.

This bought me some time, but not enough to flee, especially as the abomination that I’d sent into the ceiling was already coming back to its senses, somehow still alive. By the time I was back on my hooves, a dagger landed by them with a clink. What? No time to think.

With practised ease, I slotted it into my front right horseshoe, right as the bat in front of me leapt again. A single flap of my wings later, I dodged backwards. Its jaw slammed shut right before my neck, its foul breath hot on my fur. That left it wide open. In a swift motion, I slit its throat, glowing green blood gushing out onto my coat. Don’t think.

I pulled it back over me, its remaining momentum helping me pivot mid-air. I kicked the corpse backwards at the bat ready to lunge, using it as a springboard to fly away in the opposite direction.

That left me to deal with the bat on the other side. Were there more? I was starting to lose track of them. Don’t think. It threw itself at me.

Adrenaline and a good weapon on my side, I had nothing to fear. Now that I was used to the height of the corridor, I comfortably dodged up. Pushing myself off the ceiling, I plunged the dagger through the back of its skull before it could even react. Would that be enough to kill it? Don’t think.

Air currents alerted my feathers to another monster diving for me. The creature slammed into me, pinning me to the ground, my blade still stuck in the skull. Before I could break out, the bat brought down its fangs on the base of my neck, barely above my right shoulder. My skin opposed them for a horrifying fraction of a second before ripping under the stress.

When it scraped my collarbone, I screamed in pain and threw my head back. The angle was awkward, the shock hurt me more than my opponent, but it gave me a brief opening. On their way out, the fangs tore my flesh some more.

That window was all I needed to turn onto my back, kick it off me, and pull out my blade. In the same motion, I swung the dagger at its face, splattering the nearby wall with my own blood. The blow was a lot weaker and slower than expected, allowing the bat to dodge backwards.

Flapping my wings, I fell back and reloaded my crossbow. The bat didn’t immediately lunge, staring at me instead. Was it wary? Were those things smarter than I thought? I had no idea if it would take the opening the moment I shot, but I didn’t want to take any risks. Somehow, neither did it, as it watched me leave.

Now that I had a few seconds to breathe, questions assaulted my mind. What in Tartarus were those things? Who gave me that knife? Where the Hades was I? Would I survive this wound? That was a lot of blood pouring down my back. I clutched my neck with my good leg, wincing at the deep hole and strip of flesh.

As I arrived at a corner, my second question was answered. Halterdawn cowered behind it, occasionally taking a peek at me. “Thanks for the dagger,” I told him.

“You’re probably more effective with it than me. You better protect me with it.” He scoffed. The nerve on that pony.

However, my annoyance was cut short. Another bat turned the corner ahead of us. I’d gone past a few rooms with actual ceilings when flying around aimlessly earlier. At least I was pretty sure I had. If we could find one of them, it would be a defensible position. Hopefully it would give me enough time to stop the bleeding.

But I had to take a gambit first.

“Follow me.” I flew back where I’d come from. A bat was trotting towards us, intent but under no pressure. Was it still the same one? It didn’t have any blood on its muzzle.

I tried to keep my neck steady as I approached it, but the up and down motion of flight seemed to put more and more stress on the wound. I bit my lip and ignored the pain as I pushed on.

Finally close enough, I took aim and pulled the trigger. The bat didn’t dodge, and my bolt pierced into its skull. A shiver ran down my spine.

Then came a thud from behind me. I spun around, ready to impale the bat on my dagger. However, the only creature behind me was Halterdawn, sprawled out on the ground.

“Get up!” I no longer had the time or motivation to hide my annoyance. He huffed, but did as told while I loaded another bolt. One left.

“I slipped on your fucking blood!” He pointed at my chest in emphasis.

“Gee, sorry about that. Lemme just bleed less, why don’t I?” Did I even have a reason to not leave him to die right now? What the Hades was his problem?

Two more abominations dropped at the end of the corridor, and I heard the flap of wings of the one above us. It dove at Halterdawn, but I intercepted it mid-flight and slit its throat. As little effort as it was, I still found myself panting, my vision blurring.

I bolted into the nearby room and closed the door right behind Halterdawn. Its ceiling was open, but this had to do for now. “Hide under the bed,” I ordered while looking for anything to slow the bleeding. I quickly settled on some dirty rags haphazardly draped over a suspended plank.

As the bats banged on the door—there were now at least four on the other side, judging by the frequency—I tied the cloth around my torso as tightly as I could. I doubted it would be good enough to stop the bleeding, but it was better than nothing, right? As grim as this situation looked, at least there weren’t any shadows above us anymore.

Hah. I just had to think that. I just fucking had to.

More silhouettes than I could count with my blurry vision appeared above us, rapidly circling down. Was this my end? It couldn’t be. I was way too good a fighter to die in such stupid circumstances. But then, what else could I do? Pray for a miracle? I needed reinforcements, not a Sun-damned miracle.

A bat landed in front of me. I sluggishly raised my dagger against it, only for it to sidestep my blow and knock my leg aside. I took another swing at the silhouette, but it caught my hoof.

With more mental energy than I could spare, I focused the world into sharpness. This was no mindless zombie, but an actual batpony. She was wearing midnight blue half plate armour, dark grey fur showing through the few gaps in it. Her eyes were assessing me in a mixture of concern and fear, but she wasn’t hostile. This realisation was all that my body needed to give out, and my legs buckled out underneath me.

The room was spinning still, and my ears were ringing louder and louder. The edges of my vision were, too, growing ever darker, but I was still able to see another bat land in front of me. He was gigantic. “Where is that noble?” he said.

The mare undid a bottle from her belt, taking a step towards me. When he saw this, the stallion pointed to me and said, “And who’s this?” 

Since all my willpower was going into just staying awake, I didn’t have the strength to reply as the mare poured the tincture over my wounds.

“Not sure. He did a good job protecting Lord Halterdawn, though.” She paused for a moment to inspect my wound and make sure the bleeding had properly stopped. “According to Gate, the Lord was brought here along with somepony. I think it’s safe to assume he’s a retainer.”

I checked the cot next to me, where Halterdawn was crawling out of his hiding spot, much slower than he needed to.

With how calm their discussion was, I found it harder and harder to keep my eyes open. The batpony stallion grumbled, “So he shall have to come along with the noble. How irritating.”

“You should see the upside, Captain Sir, Aurora will be more than happy to have somepony like him. After all—”

That was the point where I finally passed out.
> A2 — Dreams
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



	A2 — Dreams



I lay on my bed, levitating a book in front of me. I had been reading for the past hour, but my mind wandered. Though my eyes followed the words, I hardly paid attention to their meaning.

The previous chapter had left off on a high note, but the narration had since returned to the slow pace permeating the story. Albeit far from dull, it no longer held my attention, for my mind veered deep into the realm of fantasy.

The reason for my daydream was none other than the book itself. A beautiful romance was burgeoning between the Captain of the Guard and her servant, and the previous chapter had nudged their relationship further towards its realisation.

My thoughts roaming free, I wondered about my own life. Who would I be, had I not been born into this dreadful house? A noble family’s loyal guard? Maybe a sell-sword, accepting any work so long as the pay was right, only to be convinced to live a normal life, after meeting the perfect stallion.

Or a pirate, sailing the world and discovering the ancient, lost continent. Perhaps the word explorer would be more apt, in such a case. Archeology, too, was a purpose to which I might have dedicated my soul.

Though, my de facto skill set would have made me into a formidable author. Perchance I could have written as I adventured? However, my talent for magic undeniable, I could also envision life as a powerful sorceress, one who shaped the world to gain ponies’ respect and trust.

Reality was as harsh as it was inevitable. I was little more than a sickly noble of a fallen family, my dreams mere delusions, my only sane aspiration to assume my role as their leader. It would be my duty to restore House Fell; hardly an exciting or alluring concept, albeit better than rotting away without purpose.

Lack of passion notwithstanding, this goal was well without my grasp. Papa wouldn’t allow it, insisting I remain sheltered for as long as he could enforce it.

Oh what I’d give to live in a different time. Serving the mythical princesses of the lost continent… I wouldn’t need any sort of adventures, content with even mundane jobs in such a bright and colourful world. Oh, the wonders of being able to read on a hill during a bright and sunny afternoon. What I’d give to see the sun, if only once.

Even that hope was far beyond me; achieving it would be naught but fantasy.

Surely, a mere departure from my routine of reading, sleeping, and studying would be enough to fulfil me. Anything to make my life more exciting, to make it less a burden, would make me happy. Anything at all to give me a reason to push on.

I let out a long, drawn out sigh. Was there a point to lamenting how pathetic my life was? Hardly; nothing within my ability could resolve that problem. Or maybe… maybe there was some spell that could mend me. There had to be a way to be rid of this mortal shell and live my life as I pleased, with no regard for health or bodily limits.

I shook my head. No, those weren’t good thoughts. Immortality, as attractive as it may be, is a curse, for it leads only to fates far worse than death. Magic of this kind only brings ruin in its wake.

Though perhaps it was worth it. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I was not living, only surviving; even undeath would be better than no life at all.

Was my life truly hopeless enough to warrant such permanent measures?

No… No, it wasn’t. I was young, charming, and attractive, and a noble at that. In fiction that would make me the protagonist, or at the very least an important character.

I could not let myself wallow in pity like this. The Tower itself was gargantuan and ripe with mystery. For though I believed it mundane, it was anything but. I merely had to step out into the unknown, into the dark. Not even the longest of books could possibly detail all the secrets that it held. It was a dangerous place, full of adventure.

Maybe I could rescue a handsome servant from a horrible fate, and have a secret relationship with him. Oh, the mere thought sent my heart aflutter.

Oh, I would fill the void in my heart, one way or another.
> S2 — Candle Light
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



	S2 — Candle Light



My bed was unusually comfortable. It made me wonder why my shoulder ached, despite this wonderful, wonderful mattress. The last time I’d slept on a bed this soft was when I’d managed to get my hooves on a clean cloud. Too bad it eventually got dirty and started making me sick whenever I napped on it.

Wait! Did I fall asleep on a cloud? My eyes shot open. Even in the near complete darkness, my bed looked like regular textile. Okay, good. I closed my eyes again as I breathed a sigh of relief.

According to Mum, it was a miracle I’d even survived that. She’d been inconsolable when she learned that I’d been sleeping on a cloud. And… well, I couldn’t blame her. She thought I might die, and I certainly felt like it. I shifted on my side.

Mare, I must have really slept wrong on my shoulder, because this hurt like Hades. I rolled on my back to try and massage it, only to find it covered with a bandage.

Oh, right. I was injured in the fight with that bat creature. I groaned, as I shifted to inspect the bandage, finding it to be dry and snug. Definitely better than the makeshift one I had before.

Oh right. I’d gotten injured in that place. Thank the Stars that whole thing was over. And here Halterdawn had been all panicky because he thought he was stuck there. What an idiot. Well, I guess it was possible for him to still be in that dreadful place. I was probably in a guest room at the Hockney manor, and I couldn’t care less about what happened to that weirdo.

Oh well, that was all behind me. I had no idea what the future had in store for me, but I knew the present had a very comfortable mattress. I adjusted my position on the bed, careful not to strain my injured shoulder. Then, I drifted back off to sleep.

Or so I hoped. My bladder had other plans. It wasn’t urgent, but I definitely wouldn’t be able to relax like this. I rolled out of bed, but when my hooves touched the ground, I winced and decided I would be flying instead of walking. That stupid bat had really messed up the muscles at the base of my neck, hadn’t it? Well, I’d rather fly everywhere than walk with a limp. But first, I needed to find my uniform.

The room was barely lit by a nearly burnt-out candle standing on a table in the corner opposite of me. Looking around, I quickly spotted my uniform, neatly folded on top of a chest near my bed. Well, that was perhaps an overstatement. As damaged and bloodied the cloth was, “neat” was not a good way to describe it.

I put it on in a swift, practised move, only to realise that it would reflect poorly on House Hockney to wear this. I’d never get anywhere if the officers thought I couldn’t even be trusted with proper wardrobe choices. I’d need to request a new one, which hopefully wouldn’t make me seem incompetent. I did lose it in a fierce battle, didn’t I? If anything, they should shave a few years off my training for my heroics. Maybe even promote me immediately.

Walking around naked in such a high profile place would be rude, too, if only slightly. I could always check out the closet; maybe they had some kind of suitable replacement? 

After a few minutes of haphazard rummaging, I concluded that nope. Everything here was way too fancy. There were suits like those guards and we trainees wore on formal occasions, but there were also dresses with different levels of frills. There were some slightly more casual sets, but even they were too fancy to wear for daily life.

Not to mention, most of the clothes in here were too large for me. Oh, the joys of being an average-sized pegasus. Although… that one suit looked really nice and would probably look great on me. Would they notice if this went missing after I left? All to avoid reflecting poorly on the House, of course.

I ignored the temptation and closed the closet. All of these clothes were way too formal for a trip to the toilet, anyway. I turned to leave the room, but spotted something on the table that I hadn’t noticed before. It was a small basket with a piece of parchment lying in front of it. Inside the basket were half a dozen buns. I picked one up as I unfolded the note.

Oh sweet Sun, it was cursive. Printed letters had given me a lot of trouble at first, but I’d eventually overcome them. I couldn’t say the same about hoofwriting, especially messy hoofwriting. I vaguely remembered the shape of letters and could recognise a good half of them, but the other half escaped me entirely. Whatever, it could wait until I was bored enough. Then, I might be able to throw myself at it until I somehow deciphered it.

The bun was surprisingly soft and still warm. Definitely better than the stuff Mom used to make, but it had a weird, slightly bitter aftertaste. I took another bite as I left the room and stepped into a white corridor. It was lit by small chandeliers hanging from the ceiling at regular intervals. To my left and right, it stretched on for the longest distance I’d ever seen inside a building. This wasn’t just a manor, it was a damn castle! On a whim, I turned left.

I finished my food as I flew down the corridor, hoping to bump into somepony to ask about a restroom. My odds of finding one on my own were pretty slim, given how samey everything looked. On either side of me, the same door seemed to repeat forever. They weren’t actually the same, since the text engraved on the plate above each seemed different. Not that I could be bothered to stop and read every one of them. The only other things breaking up the monotony of these seemingly endless marble walls were bells mounted at pony height, between every other door.

Thankfully, as long as I headed in only one direction, I couldn’t really get lost, no matter how far I went. My eyebrows furrowed almost on their own… How would I recognise my room? Whatever, that was a problem for Future Silver.

Finally, I reached a fork in the hallway and looked both ways. Neither direction had any obvious clues, so I turned around. I refused to get lost like that. Not even I was that stupid. This place was starting to feel like a maze, and I didn’t want to take that risk.

Besides, I hadn’t really thought about the fact that maybe there was a pot in my room. After nearly two years as a guard trainee, I couldn’t blame myself for losing old habits. Of course I’d assume this place was fancy enough to have running water.

Huh, on the topic of running water, I noticed that I was clean. I very much appreciated that whoever had taken care of my wound had also had the decency to bathe me. Even my mane was properly fluffy and light, a feeling I was not used to in the slightest. I had to admit, this was amongst my favourite feelings overall, only beaten by the truly amazing things. Like sleeping on a nice, soft cloud.

It didn’t take long for me to realise that I was completely and utterly lost. I soon found myself staring at the bells in pure curiosity. Of course I knew their purpose; nobles and their guests would ring them to call a servant, maid or otherwise.

While I had been given a guest room instead of a lousy bed in the barracks, I still didn’t really see myself as anything more than a rookie guard. Those bells weren’t for somepony like me. I continued onward, unable to get the tempting idea out of my mind.

Ringing one of them would fix my problems, wouldn’t it? Plus, there was no way the servants wouldn’t understand. I’d never been here before, and I hadn’t been given a tour or anything. Fine. I approached one of the bells, grabbed the line with both my hooves, and rang.

I watched the rooms in front of me, wondering if anypony would come running out of the rooms. Given how empty this wing of the castle was, I doubted it. Then again, maybe it was just because of the time. How late was it, anyway?

When I turned towards the other side, I came face to face with a pony wearing a white ceramic mask. Of course, I let out a not-at-all cowardly yelp of surprise and recoiled out of instinct. The rash movement made my injury hurt like Hades, reminding me of its existence.

“Ya rang?” he droned in a monotone, low voice while I massaged my shoulder. Now that I was a decent bit further away, I got a good look at him. He was a stallion of average height and build, wearing a black dress suit. Other than the mask, he was nothing out of the ordinary. Just a butler going about his job.

I let out an embarrassed chuckle and rubbed the back of my head with my good hoof. “I was looking for the restroom and kind of got lost.”

“Follow me.” Without missing a beat, he trotted past me.

I did as told, and after the few seconds it took me to catch up to him, I asked, “And, if it’s not too much of a pain, would you mind leading me back to my room? I don’t really know where it is.”

He nodded. At least I was pretty sure he did, but it could have been his gait.





I was back in my room, and I was bored. I’d deciphered enough of the note to understand that, apparently, those buns contained some kind of healing magic. Also, the pony who’d written the note, Aurora, wanted to meet me when I was well enough to move. Well, he or she should come and find me, then, because moving really wasn’t all that difficult. Painful, yes, if I wasn’t careful with how I moved my neck. Difficult, no.

I found myself staring at the bell sitting on my table. In the dark, I’d completely missed it, but now that Haste—the butler—had lit the main lights after I asked him to, it was more than obvious.

Perhaps ‘lit’ wasn’t the best word. The crystal held against the wall wasn’t exactly burning. Was that magic? Had to be, but Moon did I know little about magic. A pegasus didn’t have to understand that stuff, he only needed to use it. 

I stared at the light for a few more minutes, wondering how I could even put it out. Damn it, I should have paid more attention!

Unfortunately, not even that could keep boredom at bay for long, and I soon found myself wanting to get out of my room and explore the rest of the mansion. Of course, it wouldn’t be proper for a guest to walk around their host’s home without at least some kind of fancier-than-normal clothing.

There was some pride in my decision to get dressed up, but it was mostly for the sake of House Hockney, of course.

I spent maybe half an hour looking through the closet. With the light on, there were so many more options; so many suits I’d previously overlooked.

Eventually, I settled on the suit I’d spotted earlier. Putting it on wasn’t exactly pleasant, considering the wound and all that, but I managed. To my delight, it even had wing cutouts.

And so, I finally left my room again. After finishing all the buns, that is. For their healing magic, of course. It wasn’t like they were the best thing I’d eaten in months; no, not at all.

Stepping out, I took a moment to read the engraved sign by my room. I was surprised to find that it held my own name. Not only did they know who I was, but to think they would go out of their way like this? Now that was hospitality. I made sure to take a look at the other signs around, but nothing caught my eye, so I set out for real.

I headed left again, curious where either of those two hallways would lead. Surprisingly, I arrived at the fork much quicker than last time; had to be my mind playing tricks on me. What was that big word that one of the officers liked to use? Skih-something. Had to be that.

I turned right, and started my way down a corridor. Unlike the residential part, this one had barren walls. Maybe ten metres away, there was a nook in the wall. Once I got close, I realised that it was a large recessed door. Beside it, a sign read “Ballroom”, though given how much dust was on the handle, it hadn’t been used in years.

I shrugged and continued on. After another five minutes of walking past similar—though cleaner—doors, I spotted a particularly large and fancy one. I took a look at the text engraved on the wall next to it. “Library”, it read.

That was enough to truly spark interest in me. I’d never been to a library before. Without putting any more thought into it, I pushed the heavy wooden door open and found myself in a gigantic room. The far wall on the other side was covered in dozens of rows of books, while the centre was occupied by bookshelves easily six or seven times as tall as me. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought this room was designed with flyers in mind. Lamps glowed all around, illuminating the entire room in a dim, cold and ethereal light.

Too bored for my own damn good, I pulled the door shut and flew between the bookshelves and towards the centre of the library. The main alley was wide enough to comfortably accommodate twice my wingspan, though the passages between bookshelves would force me to fly sideways.

Everywhere around me, books kept catching my attention: a particularly fancy golden trim, a title not even close to readable, a volume so thick it could probably kill somepony just by falling.

Before the urge to touch everything could overwhelm me, I reminded myself to be a good guest. I might get in trouble if I took out a book and didn’t know where to return it.

Instead, I turned my attention towards the very centre of the library. Amidst the forest of giant bookshelves, there was a clearing with comparatively tiny tables, most as clean as they were empty.

All of them save for one: a single open book lay on top, with a few closed ones neatly piled up next to it. Looming over them stood a tall, unlit lamp.

I looked towards the open book and hesitated. Well, I had the time, and I could certainly use the practice, couldn’t I? As long as I left everything like I’d found it, nopony would mind, right?

After I sat down on one of the chairs surrounding the table, I picked up the open book, stared at the page number until it was burnt into my memory. It would be rude to mess up the page number, after all. I flipped it back to the first page.

As much as I wanted to get better at reading, my daily routine didn’t allow me to spend all that much time on it. Once a week, I even got to join a class of fillies and colts in their lessons. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to save up enough of my allowance to buy myself a book yet, but one day I would.

I turned my attention back to the book in front of me, and it took a while for my eyes to get used to the dark. I only had a vague idea how to light the lamp, and I didn’t want to risk breaking it.

Letters came together to form words, words came together to form sentences. Sentence by sentence, I slowly made my way down the page. The author was speaking directly to the audience and was using a lot of fancy words that I’d never heard or seen before. Or maybe I’d heard them but didn’t recognise them. He was saying how much this work meant to him now that he was in his later years, and I found myself wondering if perhaps the stallion was already dead.

The sound of a door creaking open snapped me out of my train of thought. Thankfully, I managed to keep myself from jumping out of my chair. Still, I suddenly realised just how out of place I was. What had I been thinking? I was in so much trouble, wasn’t I?

Much too soon for my liking, a tiny and cute pink mare walked around the corner, staring at one of the bookshelves. Her long black mane was tied into a neat little bun, and she was wearing a thick, grey sweater that hung loosely off her form. Thin, round glasses sat on her muzzle.

With another step, she continued towards me, but it took her a few moments to spot me in the relative dark. She froze as her eyes met mine. “W-what are you doing here?” she stammered.

Something about her seemed off, but I hardly had the time to think about it. I answered her worried look with a sheepish smile. “I am, uh, reading? Am I not allowed to be here?” Play it cool, Silver, play it cool. Thankfully, the stress kicked me into proper speech. I’d have to thank my officers for that.

That seemed to only make her even more nervous. “I… uh… I don’t know. N-normally we d-don’t let guests into the p-private l-library.” She broke eye contact as she took a single step forward. Why was she more anxious than me?

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I will leave at once.” Sweet Sun, I was screwed. Absolutely, completely, and utterly doomed. “I just thought it would be alright since the door wasn’t locked. N-not that that is an excuse for my mistake.”

“I… it’s… uh… I think it’s f-fine if you stay here? At least when I’m also around. T-that way you won’t stumble upon any cursed books o-or anything else you shouldn’t read.” I had to admit, her shyness was pretty adorable.

Wait a second, what? “C-cursed books?” My eyes went wide. “Please tell me this isn’t one of them…” I muttered, pointing at the book in front of me, trying to keep my eyes off it just in case.

Worry spread on her face, and she cantered over to the table. It only took her one glance to calm down and sigh in relief. “All these books are normal. I don’t think anypony would leave anything cursed open, yet alone read it.”

I let out a breath I’d been holding and relaxed. She sat down, but once again refused to meet my gaze, back to being as nervous as before. She reached for a book atop the pile and opened it at the marker’s page, hunched over it.

This close, I could make out more details about her appearance. Her mane was unkempt and slightly greasy, the fur on her right cheek just as messy, possibly even stained with drool. Normally I wouldn’t pay attention to such small details, but I wasn’t used to somepony looking less tidy than me, unless they were a peasant as well. Even the ways we dressed were on two completely different levels.

Despite all that, she radiated an air of sophistication quite unlike anything I’d witnessed. Even in her current state, there was something about her I couldn’t quite put into words. Or maybe that was just because she was so pretty, her face so delicate?

Before she could catch me staring, I asked, “I take it, you're the librarian?”

She briefly looked up from her book and let out a quiet “Hmm?” before blinking and adding, “Oh, uh, yes, I am.”

I gave her a small smile, “What’s your name? I’m Silverstring, by the way.” Even if she was too shy to talk, I would be rude if I didn’t at least try to strike up a conversation.

“I’m…” Her voice trailed off as she mumbled something too quiet for me to understand.

My smile only grew at that as I asked, “Come again? I didn’t catch that.”

She took a deep breath, steeling. “My name is Book K-Keeper.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Keeper.”

She nodded and mumbled something that vaguely sounded like a “likewise”.

After a short moment of silence, she turned back to her book. She frowned, then touched the base of the lamp. After a few seconds, the crystal inside started emitting light. It was really that simple, huh. I stared at it in awe for a few seconds, but then focused on my own book.

It took a lot of focus not to steal glimpses at Keeper. I had to admit, I was really curious about her. The desire to chat her up and figure out what kind of pony she was burned bright and was hard to resist. The only thing keeping me from making a complete fool of myself was the fact that she wasn’t talkative at all. If I were to push it, I might come across as annoying, or worse, rude.

Paying me no mind, she stood up her book, practically hiding behind it. Finally free of distractions, I managed to get back into the proper mindset for reading, though my thoughts did occasionally wander. Eventually, I grew more and more tired. I didn’t even know what time it was, but I knew I wanted to find my bed and practise playing dead for a few hours.

Still, I kept reading until a yawn made my eyes tear up. I cleared my throat and asked, “Hey, can I check this out?”

“Uh-huh,” was all she answered from behind her book.

I hesitated for a moment then added, “Do… Do you need me to write down my name somewhere?”

“No, just bring it back when you’re done,” she replied with a wave of her hoof, and I left her to it.

The way back to my room was surprisingly quick, given that I had no idea where I was heading and still managed to luck my way into finding the right door.

It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep once my head hit the ever-so soft pillow.
> A3 — New
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



	A3 — New



I was trotting down a dim passage. My steps echoed far into the distance. My fur stood on end. A shiver ran down my spine. I was safe. I gulped. I was close to the sarosian housing area. There were guards nearby. These tunnels were secure. A bang reverberated throughout the cave. Yelping, I spun around to face… nothing at all.

Somepony had dropped something, far away. Nothing to be worried about. Everything was fine. I was merely restless. I chuckled, but it came out forced and nervous.

I needed a distraction. Badly. However, much to my dismay, the only objects of interest nearby were the lights embedded into the arching brick wall. They were simple kyanite crystals resonating at sub-critical frequencies. Though far too dim for inhabited areas, they could last many decades, making them ideal for the many tunnels in the tower.

And… and… it was really dark. I gulped. That... that would merely facilitate hiding. Yes. If something came up, I could always hide in one of the shadows. Yes. I would be safe. Perfectly safe. Why was my breathing so damn loud?

Come on, come on, find something else to think about. A spell, a novel, anything! I had to stay calm. Clop. Calm. Clop. Calm. Clop. I took a deep, shaky breath. Stay calm. Calm, calm, calm, calm. Calm. Distraction. Needed a distraction.

Why was I this jumpy? There was nothing to be worried about. I would never achieve my goals if this kept up. I was a mage of tremendous potential. Were I to encounter any hostile creature, it should be scared of me, not the other way around. That was the only logical conclusion. Besides, these corridors were safe. I was safe.

The distant chatter of ponies reached my ears. Though they were still out of sight, it would only be a minute before we crossed paths. With practised ease, I pulled the surrounding shadows over my form. A deep breath taken, I carried onward.

On the next step, my fears resurfaced. What if they noticed me? What if they caught me? I was invisible to the naked eye, but the spell didn’t fully conceal my presence. My steps were muffled but not silenced. My odour was masked but not removed.

A few more steps, and the group appeared from behind the bend. My gait slowed, nigh instinctively. I watched as the four sarosians trotted onward, their conversation merry and their tone light. Two had purple manes of similar shades as well as grey coats nearly identical. Another was a much lighter shade of grey, golden eyes set on her friends as she brushed aside a bang of carmine. The last trailed behind, her mane and coat various hues of blue. I stared in awe at the group. The last time I had seen such a large and colourful group was during my fifth birthday, and these memories were blurry and distant.

I turned my attention back to the present. These ponies cared so very little for The Tower’s dangers. They merely trotted along in content ignorance. None of them showed any sign of noticing me as they walked past.

As the distance between us grew, I breathed a sigh of relief and began walking. Finding myself relaxed, I speculated as to why. Certainly it was easier to believe these tunnels were safe after such a display, was it not?

I let go of the shadows, allowing the spell to dissipate. Though I had no issues maintaining it, the inability to see where I stepped disconcerted me greatly. With my worries quenched and heart calmed down, time flowed freely, and I soon trotted past a tight corridor branching off, opting to ignore it. Not only would the claustrophobic space rekindle my fear, but the tunnel was darker than even this one. Likewise, the risk of getting lost did not outweigh any potential reward this path promised. While I could retrace my steps with a spell, it was best to leave this sort of exploration for another time, as my plan only included a single layer of contingency.

Getting lost would be impossible, for I was following the main artery between the serf layer and the sarosian housing.

Shouts echoed out from the side hallway, tearing my mind away from its reverie. Thank fortune I had the clarity of mind to not set out on that path. I briefly froze up before once again disappearing into thin air. Just in time, as the voices drew closer. “Left! Go left! We’re much closer to the serf layer at this point!”

A moment later, a group of knights burst into the corridor, flying towards me. Two mostly intact sarosians each carried on their backs a pony trailing blood. The remaining two, though injured and hardly able to stay airborne, led the way and were the first to pass me.

As the rest of them rushed past, the extent of their wounds became apparent. Blood poured from deep gashes at an alarming rate, while barely attached chunks of skin and fur flapped in the wind. My gaze caught on the hindleg of one of the two. Not only was it bent at an unnatural angle, but the way it dangled twisted my stomach. With every flap of her wings, it swung in a different direction, threatening to come off.

I stood there for an eternal second, unable to tear my eyes from it. Only when the second half of the group came near did my gaze land somewhere else. Somewhere worse. One of the knights being carried clutched something pinkish grey and glossy against her side.

When the smell caught up to me, I realised what it was. Only the paralysing horror kept me from screaming and vomiting. Perhaps I did scream, only to be muffled by my spell.

The dull thud of a pony crashing echoed reverberated weakly through the tunnel. It was so far away.

One of the mares right next to me snapped, “Leave her. If you try to save her, you’ll both die.” She too was far away.

“But…” Everything was so far away.

“At best you’ll lose consciousness trying to carry her. At worst, that thing got past Carmine and will be here any second. So go, and that’s an order!”

I blinked.

They carried on.

Who were these ponies?

Why were they here?

Where was “here”?

How had they gotten injured?

The world fell into place, shattering my peace. Without a second thought, I broke into a canter, uncaring for the noise it made. Though my lungs soon began to burn, the knights still outpaced me. Within a few instants, seconds, or minutes, I lost sight of them.

I was alone. My heart thumped, threatening to give out, as I reached another split in the tunnels. Panting, vision blurring, I slowed down and took a few precious seconds to think.

To my left, the staircase to the serf area, the knights’ trails of blood leading down. To my right, a smaller tunnel, even dimmer than the one they had come from.

The beast was bound to follow their trail, was it not? Would I be able to run down these stairs without hurting myself? Was it even still pursuing its prey? Any sounds it might have made were eclipsed by my heart’s thunder.

I gulped and stared at the right tunnel. It was the safe option, but it was so horrifying.

I took a step forward. I needed to be quiet again so that it wouldn’t follow me. Step. Slowly. Step. No, not slowly. I had to keep a normal pace. Step. I had to stay calm. Step. There was no reason to be nervous. Step. The monster still had a considerable distance to cross. Step. I didn’t even hear it. It had to be far away.

Step. If it still wasn’t here, it wasn’t even pursuing them. I was safe. Step. Yes, I was safe. At least twenty seconds had passed already. No, definitely more. It had to be more. Yet the tunnel wasn’t changing. Barely lit up by the gems. Dark.

It had been so easy before, why could I not relax? Step. I needed to stop thinking. Step. Or think about something else. Step. Every time my hoof came down, my heart pounded faster. Could I survive this? Step. Even if the monster never caught up to me, my heart was too weak to survive such stress. Step. The sound of a pebble rolling far, far behind me echoed softly through the tunnel. Step. It was just a pebble, and not the first I had heard. Everything was fine. Step. Everything was fine. Step.

An ear-shattering screech echoed throughout the tunnels. I had not recovered yet, but I broke into a gallop. The clang of my hooves on stone thundered, but I didn’t care. The sound was overshadowed by the pounding of my heart. The fire in my lungs burned away any thoughts other than to flee.

A dozen stairs, leading up. My legs betrayed me, unable to keep up. I tripped. The hard edge of a stair dug into the underside of my jaw. My throat slammed shut as I tried to gasp, tried to scream. Tears filled my eyes as the pain spread throughout my entire skull, eclipsing even the fiery agony in my lungs. I couldn’t keep running like this.

No, this was nothing! My surgeries hurt more than this, and for longer! For months! I had to keep running. I had to. I picked myself off the stairs, wiped my tears off and broke into a canter. I would get further if I paced myself.

The pain held my panic at bay for a while, but soon my vision was swimming, my ears ringing. My heart would give out at any moment now. Running was as likely to get me killed as—

A large pebble dug into my frog as I brought down my entire body weight on it. My throat croaked as I gasped, then yelped. My lungs on fire, my hoof searing in pain, I collapsed, tears running down my cheeks as the last thread of concentration snapped, and my spell dropped.

Tears of pain mixed with tears of disappointment, blended with those of fear. I was going to die. The monster would catch up any moment now and it would rip me to shreds. I lay there, my quiet sobs echoing throughout the tunnel. Me, an adventurer? A jest lacking any comedy. Tiny noises were enough to drive me to panic. I was no dashing noble rescuing bachelors in a bind. I was a damsel who had never before left the confines of her cushy home. A weakling, a coward.

Mother only knew how long I lay there, wallowing in self-pity. Dying here was possibly the best outcome for my life. No more deluded dreams, no more delirious reveries. Just like the old gods, I would be killed by a monster unnamed.

Except I was still alive. Was my mind truly so feeble that such a trivial pain had me crave death? No, I would not allow it. I could not let it come to pass. I breathed a deep sigh and let my eyes flutter open.

Sniffling, I wiped away my tears. Though it was still dark, the tunnel had grown much clearer. Neither end was visible, but the quiet rush of distant water meant the exit was close.

I should run, I’ll die otherwise!

No. Were the monster still after me, it would have caught up already. I sat up and massaged my sore hind hoof. I winced from the pain, but breathed a sigh of relief as I failed to find any open wounds. Groaning, I heaved myself into a sitting pose.

My neck, however, had not fared so well. Sticky blood seeped into my fur as I touched my foreleg to my jaw. The wound burnt, though would soon scab. The crust and bruise would be difficult to hide, however, and I had no way to disinfect the cut right now. By the time I got back to the estate, it would already be too late.

Sighing and groaning, I pushed myself onto my legs, shaky as they were, and started towards the sound of water. A few steps later, I once more donned my cloak of shadows. Despite the strange tranquillity washing over me, I opted for safety.

Before the minute turned, my mind wandered to introspection again. I was no dashing noblemare, and would woo nopony with my bravery. Were I to try, it would naught but be a front. Yet my plight was my own to overcome, and overcome it I would. It was long past time I seize my destiny and assume my role. My role as the hero and protagonist of a story my own. Though I was little more than a skittish filly, this would only serve to make my journey’s reward all the sweeter.

And I would have a neat scar to mark the beginning of said journey.

In the distance, the wall grew brighter with every step I took. I would become a knight, no matter Papa’s protests.

My mind abuzz, I reached the turn far faster than expected. Excited, I rushed forward, ignoring my tired legs’ complaints. A gentle breeze blew through my sweat-drenched coat, coaxing a shudder from me. I ignored it as well. The air was far too light for me to stop here.

As I stepped into the open, the sound of water boomed, but my grin froze a second later. Endless black stretched out in front of me, only broken by occasional stalactites lit by the town’s lights far below. Tiny ponies milled about small buildings, their features indistinct from such a distance. The void beyond the edge so close grew infinitely more terrifying as my mind finally fathomed the fall.

Through willpower far beyond possible, I managed to tear my eyes away from the horrible cliff. The stalactites had a blue tint to them, their sharp tips glistening in the cold light. They only grew wider and wider as they reached further up, never stopping, blending into the infinite black above.

I screamed, overtaken by vertigo as I fell onto my rump. After an eternal instant, I was torn out of shock by the echo of my voice.





I trotted out onto the main artery of the servants’ quarters, making a deliberate effort not to look up. Near the main road, some buildings stood two or even three storeys tall, blocking out most of the… sky? Perhaps the most fitting word to describe an endless black above.

This early in the morning, most serfs were preparing for their shifts, while some were already running errands. On the one hoof, there were more ponies to notice me. On the other, I wouldn’t stand out as much. I checked over myself one more time to make sure I fit in, comparing my accoutrement to theirs and looking for other ponies covering their heads with cloth. Fortunately, nothing had changed since my previous assessment, and my simplistic garb hardly attracted attention.

My worries were highly unfounded. Even if somepony were to find me out of place, they would not know who I am. With the many slight magical alterations made to my appearance, nopony short of Papa or Aurora would recognise me. Even my scab was hidden by an illusion.

The complaint of someone trying to squeeze past me snapped me out of my thoughts, and I followed the stream of ponies heading into the market.

I looked around for interesting stalls or shops, but there were far too many for any one of them to stand out. Everything caught my attention, and picking a starting point proved difficult.

I trotted past the alley where all the weapon handlers had their stalls. Despite myself, I took a few steps back and glanced between the buildings. It would hardly hurt to look, would it? They had so many items of interest, and I had not seen half of them yesterday! There was even a dagger, beautiful as it was sharp, that would help me feel brave. Without a shadow of a doubt, it would allow me to drive back my fear when venturing out to the prison layer.

I gritted my teeth and turned away. I had nothing to pay with. No, perhaps that was not the entire truth. While I did not carry any tokens, I had lost no blood in recent times. I genuinely needed that dagger, and its price of nineteen tokens was far from unreasonable. Losing almost two litres of blood would weaken me, though not beyond repair. Such a dagger, however, would solve all my issues. I pivoted once again, almost crashing into a stallion.

I shone him a timid, apologetic smile, and he grumbled something under his breath before walking past me.

Was this really such a good idea? Such severe blood loss hardly was without risk. I started trotting back down the main road. I could always acquire tokens from somewhere else and save up. My family owned The Tower, so certainly it would be easy to find a way to line my own pockets. If I failed to find any valuables lying around, I could always skip a dozen meals here and there, and eventually I would have my dagger.

Besides, there were too many guards there, watching in case a serf tried to seize a weapon. All that was needed was one stroke of bad luck, and I might end up detained for one reason or another. Then, Aurora would find out and everything would be ruined. It would only be a matter of time before—

I needed to think about something else.

What else could I look at? Clothing, tools, food, some stands even sold books! What a wonderful place, filled with so many wonders. Instead of wasting any more time, I turned to the nearest stand. It sold clothes.

Soon, I lost track of time, and after close to an hour of staring at wares in the market, I was now standing just outside the town’s lower exit, in desperate need for a break from the crowd.

A stallion trotted past me, heading for the gate to the prison layer. His face betrayed his concern at the idea of heading down there. His features remained delicate, despite the emotion painted over them. Was this my chance?

“Hey, you,” I called out to him. This would be my first opportunity to test my peasant lingo. How exciting!

He turned his head, his ornate tin collar pressing uncomfortably into his neck. “Me?”

I nodded. “Are you heading down?”

“Yes…” His eyes scanned me for a moment. “Do you… need anything?”

“I’m, uh, headed down as well, and I wanted to ask if you wanted to go with me.” I rubbed the back of my head and let out a nervous chuckle. “I’ve only recently started working here, you see.” I had more experience navigating these tunnels now. I was not scared anymore, and the desire to show that off would surely make me braver still.

“The Reindusk Prison. I have a message to deliver.” One of the richer families, as expected given the intricate design on the collar. “I’m pretty new too.”

“Oh, that’s near where I’m headed as well.” Mentally, I pleaded for him to not ask what exactly I needed to do. That part of my cover story was… patchy, to put it in polite terms. I took a few steps towards him, and he waited for me to catch up.

"So, uh, what family do you work for?" he asked as we trotted.

"Farrier." One of the smaller houses who nevertheless employed many ponies and owned as many serfs. A good bet to blend in. "Name’s Avens, by the way." The rest of my backstory claimed that I was the bastard, hybrid child of one of the lower ranked bats in the family, and that only recently turned old enough to work. My supposed status as a hybrid was intended as a way to explain my non-batlike appearance.

In theory, I could have gotten away without any sarosian ties, but without a connection to the bat families ruling The Tower, the odds of getting into trouble rose dramatically. For instance, somepony might wonder why I wore no serf collar. With a clear link to an influential family, nopony would question why I was free, at least not immediately.

Or perhaps, I was being overly cautious. After all, there were some non-sarosian employees, and even though they were rarer and—

"I’m Andesite, good to meetcha. What kind of name’s Avens, though?"

"It’s a flower name."





I sat on the ground. The cold, hard ground. As long as I focused on the discomfort, my thoughts would remain where I wanted them, away from—

The ground was cold and hard. Maybe a little damp, too? It was difficult to tell. Perhaps the cold was getting to me. Would I get sick from this? My rump was awfully chilled. How long had I been sitting here, watching the gate to the estate? Thirty minutes?

I habitually pulled out my watch, only for my gaze to pass right through the invisible device.

I groaned, the sound muffled by the spell. How much longer? I had made sure to be back before Aurora left the estate, but I had severely underestimated how long she would stay inside. Did she usually stay that long? Then again, part of the issue came from me coming back early due to—

I tapped my hoof on the cold, hard rock beneath me. I wanted to take a bath, not wait around. There had to be a better way in and out of the estate. Having to stand by until somepony opened the gate was utterly infuriating and such a gargantuan waste of my time. Perhaps there was a gap somewhere I could use?

Minutes ticked by as my thoughts idled, wandering through forests of speculation and ideas. I found myself growing less and less patient for Aurora to finish her dinner. I craved being back inside and getting to explore my options, and I needed to rest up so that I could try again tomorrow. I did not want to wait. Today had been a huge failure, but I would not let that stop me. I would make sure to learn from my mistakes and grab onto my courage with all four legs. Never again would I let a simple dog reduce me to a screeching, babbling mess hiding behind the colt I was trying to protect.

I gritted my teeth as I remembered the scene. I could never see him again, not after the embarrassment I had been through. I had been acting so tough, and I even made up a story about fighting off a monster twice my height.

I buried my head in my hooves, as if it could help me escape the shame. Maybe… maybe I needed to go back to the drawing board. I could not take another failure like that. I needed to learn more magic, read more horror, and more romance. I had barely even known what to say to him past the basic introductions, and here I thought I was an expert on these things!

I wanted to scream. So what if the posted guards heard me? I needed to get this out of my system…

In agonising boredom, I waited for another twenty or thirty minutes. Every passing moment, the temptation to fess up grew. Papa would hear about it, and would treat me like a foal, but this boredom was poisoning my mind.

Just as I was telling myself to be patient for the forty-third time, the lock clicked, and the heavy door started moving. Before it could fully open, I was in front, ready to slip past Aurora.

But when she did step through, I was shocked to see another pony.

Papa’s guest, the awfully rude pegasus, trotted alongside Aurora. An unfamiliar coat of arms was crudely emblazoned on his garb. What in Tartarus was he doing here?

Well, whatever he wanted down there was no skin off my back.
> S3 — Twilight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



	S3 — Twilight



I followed the butler as he escorted me to the dining hall. I was less than thrilled at the idea of a dinner with nobles, but I’d used up all my excuses during the last couple of days.

Even the trip over to the dining hall stressed me out. I tried to make small talk with Haste, but even when I found a good question to ask, the answer was always much too short and to the point to spark a conversation. My ear flicked. We’d only walked for a few minutes, but the short journey was dragging on.

I turned my attention to the hallway in a last-ditch effort to distract myself from my imminent doom. Everything was the same as always. Indistinct door, followed by a stretch of marble wall, followed by yet another indistinct door. I held in a scream of despair. Each step took me closer to my downfall. Each step took me closer to polite company that would judge me, and find me lacking in every possible way.

The day had started off so well, too! I couldn’t remember much of my dream, but I’d woken up with a grin on my face. It had involved a nice mare, but my knowledge ended there.

She’d been polite company, too, hadn’t she? If only I could remember more of that dream. Maybe then I would stop stressing out so damned much! These nobles would tear me to shreds, and I couldn’t fight back, not like I could when facing those weird bat monsters!

Stop thinking! I stared at an engraved plate as I trotted past it. Arch… was all I managed to make out before I walked out of range. I barely managed to hold in a groan as I continued behind Haste. My tail flicked. I struggled to catch even one proper breath. Maybe I could convince him that I was still too weak to leave my room? Would he buy it? He wouldn’t buy it. Why would he buy it?

We passed a side corridor to the right. A lot shorter than the usual hallway, actually. At the end of it stood a door held shut by chains converging in the middle, where a large lock held everything in place.

A moment later, it was out of sight, but it had burnt itself into my mind. I’d have to come back and take a look. It would be rude to try and open it, but I couldn’t contain my curiosity. The thoughts somehow kept me occupied until we finally reached the dining hall, barely a minute later.

Oh sweet Sun, we were here. I hadn’t prepared anything. I didn’t know how to act! What could I say? I needed more time!

Haste pushed the heavy door open. I gulped. Around the table sat four ponies. I recognised Halterdawn, and the bastard damn near scoffed when he saw me. I stared at the large, grey batpony stallion at the end of the table for a good few seconds, before realising I’d met him. He’d saved me back in The Tower. His glare made me take a step backwards, nearly tripping on my own hooves.

I broke eye contact, looking at the remaining two ponies. One of them, a brown stallion, couldn’t be more than a decade older than me. He hadn’t even noticed me, too absorbed in holding the enthusiastic side of a conversation with Halterdawn.

The last one was a dark purple batpony mare. Her pink mane held several streaks of grey, despite her relatively young face. Maybe in her mid hundreds? Hundred and fifty?

She held a glass of wine in the… hook? of her wing as she turned to me. “If it ain’t the colt who attempted to slice open one of my knights! Sit down, laddie, come on!” Okay, maybe I had no reason to stress out about this, given a noble here had drunk enough to imitate a cheap Northern accent. The grey one still creeped me out, though.

How should I even respond to this? Play it safe? “Oh, uh, sorry. I couldn’t really see all that well, and I—”

She shushed me with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. “She’s fine. Your swing wasn’t really hard to dodge. Besides, you should apologise to her, not me.” She waved me over. “Now, come.”

I walked to the table, glad she’d broken the ice for me. What were these batponies doing at the Hockneys’ manor? Unless… unless I was still in The Tower.

I nearly tripped over my own hooves.

The mare raised an eyebrow. “You okay there, laddie?” No time to think; had to appear sophisticated. I nodded.

I sat down next to her, awfully aware of the judgmental looks everypony else was giving me. Well, everypony except the brown stallion, who hadn’t stopped talking Halterdawn’s ears off.

So much for not needing to be nervous.

The mare didn’t wait for me to come up with something to say. “My name’s Aurora, by the way. I’m the Captain of the Fell Knights.” Just like that, her fake accent was forgotten. She then pointed to the large batpony stallion, who was now staring daggers at the both of us. “This here is my uncle—well, technically we’re cousins of some kind, but I never bothered to learn that stuff—Viscount Gaunt Fell. I believe you’re familiar with the other two, so let’s skip introductions.” I didn’t bother to correct her.

I cleared my throat as I looked at Aurora, then at the viscount, and gathered my courage. “My name is Silverstring. It is an honour to meet you.” Hopefully my manners were adequate enough.

The viscount grunted a response, but stopped glowering at me. Aurora swiftly filled the silence. “I’m told you’re quite a flyer and a good fighter to boot, Silver.” I raised an eyebrow. “I’ll get right to the point. I could really use the help of somepony like you right now. After you’ve recovered, that is.”

I blinked. “Me? But I work for house Hockney, and they’ll be expecting me to return soon. As soon as I feel better, really.”

“Trust me, they’ll understand,” she said with a gentle smile.

“Still… I’d rather get back. Nothing against you, I just… I wanna  make a good impression; that’s why I work so hard. In fact, I’d prefer it if you just told me how to leave this place, and I’ll be out of your mane before dawn.” Wasn’t a very elegant speech, but in my humble opinion, it respectfully—or was it ‘respectively’?—got the point across.

Apparently, I didn’t show enough respect, because the Viscount glared at me again. “You don’t leave.” And there was that.

Hopefully he was just exaggerating to be dramatic, but that line of questioning would have to wait. Maybe Aurora would know a way out if I asked her in private. It wouldn’t hurt to get on her good side, first, then.

After an awkward and long silence, I turned to Aurora and said, “Well, tell me more. What would I need to do? Does it have to do with those monsters I fought?”

She shrugged. “Yes and no. Dealing with the forsaken is my job, but you’d be making it easier by assisting in other ways and with my other duties.” Was she even still drunk? She slightly slurred her words, and her cheeks held a tint of pink, but she made too much sense.

“Just so you know, I’m not really that good of a fighter.” I offered her an apologetic grin, but she just raised an eyebrow. “I mean, I’m fast and strong, but I don’t know how well I’d do in an actual fight. I’m just a hunter.” Best set her expectations low, false modesty be damned.

But then, those griffins really did put me in my place. Even the slow, mindless bat beasts had gotten the better of me. Was—

“Oh don’t you worry, I’m not asking you to fight, I could just really use another pony who can help me out without me needing to hold their hoof.” Her tired smile showed how much she needed the help. She lowered her tone, “If or when you do get out, I’ll make sure to put in a good word with your supervisor at House Hockney.”

Still too loud: the viscount let out an annoyed sigh, but in the end turned his attention away from us.

I met Aurora’s gaze and took a deep breath. “Alright, I’ll help you out, but…” How could I say this in a polite way? “But I won’t do anything that House Hockney would not approve of, if that’s alright with you?” My tail flicked.

She relaxed, then nodded.

After a moment of silence, I remembered a question that had been trotting around my head for far too long. “By the way, what were those monsters I killed? You called them forsaken?”

“There isn’t much I can tell you. They used to be ponies, but they’ve found a fate worse than death, and they are confined to the bottom of The Tower, beyond a seal. Usually, live ponies aren’t supposed to be down there.” My brow furrowed more with every word she spoke.

“So why was I there?”

“By complete accident,” replied the viscount in a low, dangerous tone. “Something went wrong when you descended into The Tower. You ended up at the bottom. It is as simple as that.”

After hesitating for a moment, I said, “Well, that does raise a question…” The viscount glared at me, but I swallowed my fear. “Why am I here in the first place?”

“We were paid to take you in.”

I pointed at my chest, and mouthed, “Me?”

“No, him.” He pointed towards Halterdawn, who grimaced at the sudden attention. “Given that you are his retainer, it is our obligation to treat you as we treat him.”

That set off all manner of alarm bells, but I could think about it later. “I see, thank you.” I hardly understood any of this, but my courage had reached its limits.

So, I remained silent for the rest of the dinner, relieved the attention had moved away from me.

My line of thought was interrupted by Haste and two other servants as they brought in food. Mushrooms in some form or another made up most of the meal, but there was also a small bowl of carrots, and one of rice.

I nearly drew their judgement again when I served myself twice as much as Aurora. Luckily, no one actually noticed. Still, why did she eat so little? Damned nobles!





“And then, the captain ma’am went to find me a tunic, and I took a few minutes to transplant the Hockney coat of arms onto it. I still need to fix up the patchwork, though.”

Selena, the blue unicorn sitting across me, took a sip from her tea. “Did you get to see the lower levels?”

I nodded. “The door to get out of the estate was really thick. For some reason, there was a weird air current right as we walked through it, but nopony else seemed to feel it.” With a couple of careful flaps, I moved my cloud over to the table and lifted my own cup. I blew on my tea before taking a tiny, careful sip. “She showed me where my weapons are, then gave me a quick tour of the servant layer. Said she would have shown me more, but had to go back to work. I was given permission to look around a bit, though, so that’s nice.”

“And did you?” She smiled at me. She may have been a noble, but Selena was really easy to talk to. Her soothing, kind nature completely disarmed any fear of judgement.

“Mhm. Mostly around the market and things like that, because she gave me a few coins to spend on arming myself. Since, you know, I lost my shortsword.” I took another sip of my tea, expecting her to say something in reply. When she didn’t, I continued, “I guess I also took a quick look around the nearby mushroom farms, but that’s about it.”

Her smile as graceful as ever, she set down her cup on the table. “Did anything strike you as odd? I apologise if the question is too direct, but I like to make sure ponies acclimate well to The Tower.”

“Uh, not that I know of. Was I supposed to?” I nibbled at the inside of my mouth, trying to think of something.

“No,” she said casually. “I was merely curious.” Her smile faltered very briefly. Or had I imagined that?

When she magically lifted her cup, a short silence stretched over the clearing. Was something supposed to be odd? In a way, everything about this place stood out, but nothing especially so.

Sure, it had buildings like I’d never seen before. Sure, Aurora was a smidge eccentric. Sure, they used a different currency than the rest of Trotland. Sure, they grew other crops. Overall, too much weird stuff made it hard to pick one out in particular. At least I could buy the same weapons as outside, and for the same unaffordable prices—from my own savings, at least.

Wait a second… “Actually… It’s a bit of a dumb thing to pick up on, but out of all the ways to make money, selling my blood is by far the weirdest. I didn’t think that much about it when Aurora told me that, but why would they need blood?”

I scratched the underside of my muzzle as I thought. The only explanation was… “It’s really stupid, but do you think they might need the blood to, I don't know, inject into the veins of somepony who lost a lot of it?”

Selena chuckled. “I don’t see why not. It would make sense, too, given how often the knights have to fight.”

Despite my best efforts to appear calm, collected, and mature, I found myself grinning like a foal. “Of course it does! Oh, thank you so much for making me think about it!”

My joy was cut short by disappointment. In my time here, I’d missed so many days of school. I shook my head, prompting a confused look from Selena. I had access to a library and a lot of free time. Even without a teacher, I had to make the most of it. “I’m just thinking I should spend more time in the library.”

Selena’s smile grew smug. “Oh? Still trying to get the librarian’s attention?” she teased.

I broke eye contact and mumbled, “It’s not that. I just need to learn more.”

She chuckled. “It is nothing to be ashamed of, Silver. She is a pretty, young mare around your age; it is only natural.”

I rubbed the back of my neck with a sheepish smile on my face. “I know, I know, it’s just a bit silly for somepony like me to have a crush on an earth pony working a cushy earth pony job.”

Selena said something in reply, but my thoughts were elsewhere. The ponies working the fields…

“They were earth ponies!” I exclaimed, before realising how rude my interruption was.

Yet, Selena didn’t mind, only raising a curious eyebrow.

Cheeks flushing with embarrassment, I explained, “I remembered something else that was super weird. The ponies working the fields, they were earth ponies.”

“Oh? How is that odd?” She had the same expression as before. She knew the answer, but wanted me to look for it myself.

“Well, earth ponies don’t usually work jobs like that, they usually work in offices and stuff like that.” Her expression told me to keep digging. “But then, I never really thought about why that is.”

I furrowed my brow, but before I could lose myself in thought, Selena said, “Why don’t you ask your librarian friend about it?”

I shook my head. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I said she’s not interested in me. If anything, that’s an understatement. I’ve tried chatting her up multiple times, and I always get short answers. It’s kinda obvious she doesn’t wanna talk to me.”

“What have you tried talking about?”

“Oh, just small things,” I said with a casual wave of my hoof. “Like where she’s from, the kind of food she likes. I’m really starting to run out of conversation starters.”

Selena gave me a knowing, gentle smile. The kind that truly made her wisdom show; the same as my mom often wore when she tried to teach me something. “Perhaps she simply has no interest in small talk? What if you asked her something more meaningful? She strikes me as an intellectual; perhaps she would enjoy sharing her knowledge?”

I blinked. “You think that would work? She didn’t seem very enthusiastic about answering my other questions about The Tower, like where exactly I was, or how long it would be before I could leave. And…” A few pieces of the puzzle connected, and my string of thought was snapped, replaced by one huge realisation. “Wait a second… Why didn’t you tell me where I was last time we talked?”

How many more things had I missed like this?

Her expression turned serious for a moment, and she let out a small sigh. “I am sorry. I meant no harm, I merely thought it would be better for you to figure it out by yourself. In general, wouldn’t you agree that learning things on your own is a better way to acquire knowledge?”

My face scrunched up, and I had to concede her point. “I suppose.”

Soon enough, her smile returned. “I am happy to hear.” She took a sip of her tea. “By the way, how is your neck? Are you feeling any better? If you do not mind the change of subject.”

I shrugged. “Yeah. I dunno how. Somehow, I’m pretty much back to one hundred percent. I’ve always been quick to get back on my hooves, but this… this is weird. I mean, I’m not gonna complain that my wound no longer hurts. Or my head.” Another oddity that I’d completely overlooked.

She furrowed her brow. “Curious. The wound was indeed rather severe.”

“Mhm.” I didn’t have anything else to say, but my thoughts were racing. I took a deep breath and forced myself to relax. I’d give myself a headache at this rate.

We sat in silence for a while, enjoying the tea. Tea usually wasn’t my thing—I mostly lacked the patience to wait for it to cool down—but this cup already had the perfect temperature. Warm enough to force me to take my time, but not so hot as to scald me from a single sip.

I looked around for a moment. The conversation had been so captivating that I hadn’t bothered to check out my surroundings. We were in a clearing, inside a dense forest like the one I’d grown up in. If I paid attention, I could hear monsters and animals, far in the distance.

Selena interrupted my thoughts. “You seem awfully calm, considering our surroundings, Silver.”

I shrugged. “I dunno, the really dangerous stuff doesn’t show itself in daylight, and for some reason this clearing just feels safe, you know? I can’t quite place it, but I’m sure Aunt Ferris could tell you exactly why this clearing is nothing to be worried about, but I just have my instinct.”

Selena nodded. “I see. I shall take your word, Silverstring.”

Now it was my turn to furrow my brow. “Wait, so easily? Aren’t you scared?”

“When you get to my age, you learn to trust ponies’ instincts. They’re right more often than not.”

“Your age? You don’t look so old, Your Highness.”

“Looks can be deceiving, young one.” She gave me another smile that showed her inner wisdom. Another smile like Mom always wore. A smile that meant I would understand when I was older. No, not quite. This one was a lot more distant. A lot more sad.

She lifted her cup, once again using her telekinesis, and that new sensation washed over me again. Something was off. Something was odd. Weird.

But what? I stared at her floating cup for a dozen seconds before it finally struck me. “You’re using telekinesis, Your Highness! I’m sorry for distracting you and getting you to—” The world shook.

“Silverstring, calm down. I will be fine. There is no need to concern yourself.” She kept her tone gentle, but authoritative, and I found myself obeying even without a second thought.

I didn’t understand why she stayed so calm despite it, but the world shook again, and I forgot what I was confused about.

Everything shook yet again, and I realised that it was just somepony knocking at my door, “Whadayawant?” I slurred, stifling a yawn.





Today was going to be a good day. Partly because I was finally going to start doing things other than read and rest, also because of how damn well I’d slept.

I was trotting down the hallway in the batpony housing area, near the passage to the lower levels, headed for Aurora’s office, she would be stuck doing paperwork and planning out her knights’ missions. She still wouldn’t tell me what exactly those missions were, but she probably had a good reason for it, so I couldn’t hold it against her.

To my surprise, nopony guarded her office. Then again, given her lack of staff, it made sense she wouldn’t care to protect somepony who knew how to fight back. Besides, anypony coming up here to attack her would likely meet a guard along the way, and that would have to be good enough.

I knocked on her door and was immediately invited in. Once inside, she finished writing a sentence, then looked up at me, faint surprise painted on her face. Then, she gave a smile that grew into a grin. A stark contrast with the dark rings under her eyes. “Oh, Silver, I’m very glad to see you today. I thought I’d need to wait a bit longer.” She shook her head. “Anyway. There’s been a terrible amount of pockets opening, and I could use your help.”

Somehow, I ended up smiling. For once, I was needed. I’d be useful to somepony. “Pockets?”

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t know. Sorry. They’re like…” She waved her hoof in a circle. “Passages that are usually closed, but occasionally open.” I raised an eyebrow, and she chuckled. “It’s difficult to explain, but they usually contain valuable resources. Ores, gems. Unfortunately, they tend to be… inhabited. Sometimes by things groups of mundane guards wouldn’t be able to deal with.”

“Oh, and you want me to help?” I jumped into the air and boxed some shadows. “Count me in, I always love to see action!” And it was the fastest way to prove my worth.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Let me finish, please.” I smiled sheepishly as I landed, then rubbed the back of my neck with my ears flattened against my head. “That’s why we send in scout teams first, to ascer—”

My ears perked up, and I gasped. “Oh, I can—”

Aurora’s mirth vanished, and she cut me off with a glare. She cleared her throat, and just as quickly as it had left, her smile came back. “To ascertain the danger. It’s a careful balancing act, since we’re so short on personnel.” She frowned. “Last week, I misjudged a pocket and got two mares killed and three more injured.” She tried to keep her tone level, but guilt and sadness still bled through.

She sighed, and this time her expression stayed serious. “Now, the vast majority of pockets can be dealt with by a single pair of knights.” I kept quiet, despite my excitement. “Unfortunately, there’s a lot of overhead in communication. I won’t go into the details, but it’s pretty hard to keep those smaller squads busy at all times, so they end up wasting a lot of time waiting on orders.” She pointed to me. “That’s where you come in. I need you to act as a runner between squads. If a scout team finds a dangerous pocket, deliver their report to me.”

My entire body deflated. It was still important work, and it would still get me noticed, but I knew I could do more. Why did nopony see how much I was capable of? “Alright. Anything more?” Please say yes, please say yes.

Her mood was gradually picking up, and she chuckled. “Well, maybe not for today, since finding your way around The Tower will mean you won’t have much time, but after that… There’s a pile of equipment that needs maintaining, swords that need sharpening, et cetera.”

I tried my best to not voice my disappointment, but the Captain saw through it, and her smile turned sheepish. “On second thought, you’re definitely capable enough to help with public order missions.” I tilted my head and cocked my ear, and she continued, “Usually, a family and their guards are responsible for their prisons and their vassals. Sometimes, things get out of control, and they need us knights to step up and protect their own.”

At that, my face lit up, and I saluted with a wing. “What orders should I deliver?”

She held up a hoof, shuffled around some papers from the chaotic piles in front of her, and took out a half dozen scrolls. Then, she leaned to the side of her desk and pulled out a few notes. “Could you deliver these”—she pointed to the scrolls—“to the ponies at the locations detailed in those?” she gestured to the notes.

I nodded as I pulled the stack of papers. Judging by her sigh of relief, I was about to make her day a whole lot easier, even if my task was a little bit too mundane for my liking.

She continued, “They’re not anywhere too hard to reach, but I figured a detailed description of the way wouldn’t hurt, given how new you are to The Tower. In the evening I might have you deliver some of my personal mail, but that can wait.”

I would have groaned if not the horrifying sight in front of me. It took one look at her chicken scratch to almost make me go back on my word. Deciphering those notes would hurt my very soul, and would probably be harder than actually getting there.

I was about to leave when I decided to ask her a question, “What’s on these notes I’m supposed to deliver?” If she was making me read her terrible mouthwriting, she at least owed me that answer. I could always read them myself, but that was supposedly bad manners.

“Just their standing orders, which pockets they should check out, and so on. Oh, and one of them has some information about you. Good thing I wrote it in advance.”

When I reached for the scrolls, she stopped me with a wing. “Hold on, I almost forgot,” she said with a sheepish smile. “Before you go… If you’re going to be wandering on your own throughout The Tower, you’ll need to put this on.” She pulled open a drawer and took out a simple silver collar. As she pushed it towards me, the Fell coat of arms engraved on its side came into view. She cut me off before I could voice my confusion. “It shows that you work for me. You should keep it on whenever you’re in public, for the guards might give you trouble otherwise. It’s platinum, and has my house’s coat of arms on it.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Anything more?” This was getting annoying, if only slightly.

“I suppose I should warn you about the sarosian residents of The Tower. You should always treat them with utmost respect. Even if you work directly underneath me, they rarely take kindly to an outsider acting like they’re on equal hoofing.”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem. I’m used to being very low in social hierarchies.”

She let out a hearty laugh which quickly petered out and turned into a pained smile.