//------------------------------//
// Chapter Thirteen: The Moon Will Rise 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Tales of Transylvania 
// by MeetSouder 
//------------------------------//


Chapter Thirteen: The Moon Will Rise



Midnight Wind



***


	My eyes fluttered open and I winced from the bright daylight streaming in from a nearby window. My eyesight really was the worst of both worlds; I didn’t have the vertical pupils of a thestral to ward off bright light but I had all the sensitivity to make it hurt. So pain was the flavor of my morning.

Speaking of vertical pupils, I started when I noticed a small pair of purple thestral eyes peeking over the foot of my bed. They quickly widened and the blue-maned head ducked out of view in a tumble of hooves and wings.

“Mum-m-m! He’s alive!” the shrill tone of a filly cried as she ran downstairs.

It looked like I was in Dr. Bone’s hospital in Renaissance, so that was probably good news. The hospital had seen better days since the last time I was here. Some of the windows behind my bed were shattered and covered with makeshift sheet metal and wood, allowing a chilly draft inside between the patchwork. Bullet holes lined the walls and floors and there was even some staining near the stairs that looked suspiciously like blood. I couldn’t remember how or why I was here, but I knew that this was the result from the Daylight’s attack on this thestral settlement.

All that swam through my head were the multiple centuries of memories Orpheus subjected me to that left my thoughts foggy, like I was struggling to shake off the feeling of being in somepony else’s body. Parts of me still believed I was the thestral prince of twilight himself.

I tried to sit up but every muscle in my body burned from the sudden movement, like I was breaking a fever. My heartbeat quickened when I recognized this kind of pain. It was so familiar but I couldn’t remember why.

A series of hoofclops slowly climbed the stairs, followed by the scrambling of a little pony who was blurting with too much energy for this time of day.

“I’m-not-joking!” she enunciated with the sound of small wings flapping at every word, “he’s really awake this time!”

“Midnight? Are you sure?” Penumbra’s familiar Equestrian accented voice tickled my ears.

I slowly turned my head, watching as two mares and a filly made their way to me.

Penumbra was in her lab coat and looked about as disheveled as anypony could tolerate. Her mane was a bird’s nest, pinned up with a pen and her raised glasses. A line of damp fur ran from her mouth down her cheek where she must have been drooling. Maybe she fell asleep at her desk.

Off her left was a mare I didn’t recognize. She was a burnt-orange unicorn with a black mane and purple eyes. She wore a faded pink nightgown that she clung across her body with magic. Her eyes were dreary, like she was suddenly woken up.

Hiding behind her rear legs was a thestral filly, she hadn’t earned her cutiemark yet and couldn’t have been a day over eight years old. She too had a dark orange coat but she had a familiar shade of blue for a mane pinned up in a ponytail. Interestingly, her eyes were also purple, despite being ‘bat pony’ eyes. The unicorn she clung by was probably her mother.

“Holy thunder, he is awake!” Penumbra shouted the moment she saw me, quickly cantering to my bedside. I was pretty sure she just used an old pegasus saying.

A cup of water magically floated from a table nearby in pale orange telekinesis. I weakly reached with my forehooves and grabbed it. “Th-thanks, who are you?” I asked before taking a sip. Compared to the last unicorn I met, this magical floating water didn’t taste nearly as bad.

“Amber Night,” the unicorn sat before me, reigning her filly before her, “and this is Aurora Australis.” She had an Equestrian accent I wasn’t too familiar with. Prance maybe? Like from the movies.

“I told you he was awake!” The filly flapped her wings and crossed the height of my bed. She saw that I was watching her and she quickly darted back behind her mother.

Australis was definitely half thestral, like myself. She had a more colorful coat and mane than most others but she still had bat wings and tiny fangs poking out from under her lips. I didn’t know enough about pony genetics to guess what parts of her were unicorn, but she stood out about as much as myself.

These two must have been Aurora Borealis’s family. He mentioned them earlier. I bet he was glad they made it out oka-

I flinched as Penumbra wasted no time shining a flashlight in my eyes, poking and prodding my head and body, and shoving a potentially unneeded health potion down my throat.

I sputtered and tried to swat the dark green nurse away, “gah, stop it!”

“Unless you want to turn into a pile of goo,” Penumbra uncorked another potion with a wing claw, “keep drinking.”

“Wha-” I choked as she popped the bottle in my mouth and tilted my head back.

“We exposed you to more Impelled Metamorphosis Potion,” Amber explained, hovering a tray of three more health potions from a metal cabinet that was ridden with bullet holes. “We’re repeating what we know works, and that was your red-maned friend giving you five potions.”

“Wait, you exposed me to what?” I tried to fend off Penumbra, but she pinned my head back with a wing and popped another potion in my mouth.

“Do they taste good?” Australis peeked over the side of the bed.

“No!” I shouted before magic clasped my jaw and poured another one down the hatch.

I suffered my medicinal waterboarding at the hooves of these cruel mares for a moment more before they were satisfied I wouldn’t turn into Mr. Bubblegum 2.0. I coughed hoarsely and winced as my body protested in every way. I felt exhausted, despite having just woken up.

“Good grief,” I shook my head and reached for the water to wash down the awful sour taste. “What was that about meta-morphin’-whatcha-say?”

“Impelled Metamorphasis Potion,” Penumbra explained while packing up the empty bottles, “I.M.P, or taint as it’s more commonly called.”

I stared at her for a moment then quickly kicked off the bed sheets and looked down at myself. I looked fine enough, I had all of my important parts and the mess of feathers under my back told me that my pegasus wing was still a pegasus wing.

“Okay, but why?”

Amber floated a clipboard from the table beside me, flipping a few pages and turning it to face me, “we have a theory about you. The fact you’re not just alive, but up and talking to us confirms it.”

I squinted as I looked at the page. It was a cartoon drawing of a blue pegasus with ‘X’s’ over his eyes, followed by a syringe injecting a very carefully crafted rainbow into his neck. The pegasus then stood up and flew away with a bunch of dotted lines shooting out from his flanks.

“Uh…” I stared at it.

Amber tilted her head and flipped the board around. She rolled her eyes and used her magic to flip a few more pages, “Australis, please don’t doodle all over mummy’s work.”

“They’re not doodles!” Australis groaned, “I’m working too! I wanted to see if he’s still a bird or if he’s all bat now.”

Amber found the page she intended to show me and levitated the board back over. I took it in my hooves and tried to interpret the science mumbo-jumbo. The gist of it was that my body reacted to I.M.P in a positive way, acting more like a healing potion instead of sudden death, like it normally should have. As long as I had enough healing magic flowing through my veins, the metamorphosis potion didn’t cause any damage; hence the need for a liter of health potions.

It looked like the nurse and the scientist had been busy testing my blood and trying to determine what caused my coma. They discovered that I had surges of magic running through my body while I was unconscious, almost like I was held in a stasis; it was all tied to I.M.P. They eventually decided to inject a small amount of I.M.P they had in their lab into my blood, hoping to heal my head trauma. Given that I couldn’t remember buck all, I’m sure my head must have been pretty traumatized. Regardless, the trick seemed to work because I was awake now. 

My eyes paused on the last few words of the document. “‘Mutagenic evidence found in DNA?’” I read aloud.

Amber gave Penumbra a knowing look and gently stepped forward, “Midnight, do you remember what your life was like in Stable 17?”

I furrowed my brow, “of course, it sucked. Everypony hated me for my feathers there like they do out here.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Midnight, but was there anything else?” Penumbra clarified, “like, did anypony ever do something to you? Medically.”

I scratched my head as I tried to remember, “well, before the plague-”

“Plague?” both mares interjected simultaneously.

“What’s a plague?” Australis quietly asked from below us.

I looked down at the little filly, “It’s a kind of sickness.” I gave the mares a shrug, “We had a plague that wiped out nearly half of the population when I was a colt.”

Amber took the clipboard out of my hooves with her magic and began taking notes with a pen floated from Penumbra’s mane, “tell me everything,” she ushered.

“Um…” I trailed, “well before it all began, I remember Dr. Red, our resident doctor, would always have me in for my daily ‘medicine.’” I tilted my head, “that stuff always burned, now that I think about it, kinda like how taint does.”

“Micro-dosages,” Amber mumbled to herself as she wrote, “and the plague?”

“Oh,” I continued, “well, it sorta happened after our agriculture ponies were trying a new fertilizer. Dr. Red said that bacteria must have gotten to the food and made us all sick. It was awful, ponies dropped dead within weeks.”

“Mass testing,” Penumbra nodded to Amber who agreed and wrote more notes. The dark green mare looked at me, “and what about Scarlet Rose?”

“Scarlet… Rose?” That name woke a part of my brain that was still foggy. I quickly shot up, “Scarlet! Where is she? Is she okay? The fighting-”

Penumbra put a wing on my shoulder, “she’s okay. Did you ever hear about any of Dr. Red’s testing on Scarlet?”

I felt my chest tighten with worry for my red-maned companion. I completely forgot about her. How could I forget about her?

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully, “she was always isolated from the rest of us. Her mother died in the plague and her sister, Night Shade, took over the Stable. Shade was the reason we were kicked out.”

“Right,” Amber nodded and stuck the floating pen back into Penumbra’s mane, who jolted in surprise. “You should get some rest today. We can talk more tonight.”

I nodded and settled back into my bed. I wanted to get up and find Scarlet but the aches that spread across my muscles told me otherwise. “Good goddess,” I moaned, looking at myself, “I’m glad I’m in one piece after everything that happened last night.”

Penumbra and Amber shared another look.

“Uh oh,” Australis squeaked, “he doesn’t know.”

“What?” I asked.

“Midnight,” Amber said gently, “it’s been a week.”

“A week?!”


***


I finally settled into bed after the unicorn and thestral mares calmed me down. They explained everything that happened since the explosion: the Daylight’s defeat, Scarlet and Ballpoint rescuing me, the rebuilding efforts and the death of a beloved father; Aurora Borealis.

My heart went out to Amber and Australis for pushing through all of this, even going so far as helping me. Amber made it clear that Borealis wouldn’t want me to feel guilty for his sacrifice, he was just that kind of stallion. But I still felt responsible for the death of their family member. If I wasn’t so brazen maybe I could have prevented it all.

My actions had further consequences too. They reminded me that the Night Watch were wary of me. Though confronting Starline was necessary, they weren’t impressed with my decision to kill her, even though the crazy mare tried to kill us all. The only thing that kept them from outright arresting me was my condition and the pleas from both Scarlet and Ballpoint who defended me the entire time.

Apparently my magical coma put my body in a complete state of stasis. I had no symptoms of muscle fatigue, malnourishment, hell I didn’t even use the little-colt’s room. A part of me wondered if it was Orpheus’s doing. At this rate, that was the most likely answer.

Penumbra told me how Scarlet stuck by my side like wonderglue; spending every day with me and even talking to me while I was in my magical coma. Just last night, she took off toward Rafael with some of the guards to look for help, promising she’d be back by tonight. But with the new looming threat of the Daylight, I was skeptical about how easy of a trip it was going to be.

For the time being I opted to sleep until nightfall, hoping she’d return by the time I woke up.


***


I woke to the comforting darkness of nighttime and the bustling of Penumbra going throughout the hospital. I checked my PipBuck, it was early in the night. The smiling cartoon stallion on the tiny green screen seemed happy enough, so I guessed my vitals were okay. I sat up and watched the sage thestral mare, rubbing my eyes and stretching stiff muscles. My right wing was a complete mess of misplaced feathers.

Penumbra was almost frantic, cantering up and down the stairs as she consolidated supplies and loaded crates with everything she had. She was talking to herself, mumbling about ‘not wanting to deal with pegasi’ and something about her father. She caught me staring from the bed while I preened my feathered wing and she paused.

“Midnight,” she cleared her throat and pushed her glasses, “you’re up. That’s good.”

“Am I a burden?” I asked softly, carefully stepping off the bed and testing my weight on sore legs.

“What? No, of course not,” Penumbra set down a stack of papers with her wing and grabbed a duffle bag in her mouth, slowly approaching me.

“Well you said-”

“No, not about you,” Penumbra kicked the bag toward me and sat before me.

She wasn’t wearing her lab coat anymore. Instead she had her own set of black saddle-bags over her flanks, covering her cutie marks, and she wore a cropped leather bomber jacket. Faded colorful patches adorned the brown garment, all resembling thunder bolts and clouds with various organizational names on them. Holstered to her leg was a pistol I didn’t recognize, the barrel pulsated with a magic-tech green glow.

Penumbra looked well rested for once. When she wasn’t disheveled and stressed to tartarus and back, she was actually quite a pretty mare. Her two-toned periwinkle mane was held up in a bun with some strands floating down her face. She was obviously a few years older than me, but only just. The wrinkles I saw earlier were undoubtedly because of how overworked Dr. Bone and the attack had her.

“This is for you,” she gestured toward the bag then sat next to me. “You’re doing it wrong, here, like this.”

I jolted when she took my pegasus wing in her hooves and combed the primary feathers, beginning to set the jumbled mess straight. I felt the tips of my ears warm at her unexpected touch but fought the instinct to pull the wing back. I never had anypony show me how to take care of feathers, but whatever she was doing was working way better than what I normally did.

“Thanks,” my voice cracked. I knew like everypony else that this was an intimate gesture, but she was a nurse. She’s probably seen everything about me at this point. I busied myself with inspecting the bag.

Inside was my old equipment plus some extra barding and a heavy cloth bag that rattled with a metallic crunch. I took the bag and dumped it out, widening my eyes at the small fortune. There were easily multiple hundreds of sparkle-cola caps.

“Ballpoint dropped it off a few days ago,” Penumbra spoke ambiently, using her hooves and a wing claw to set my stubborn feathers in line, “payment for completing the warehouse job and some Raider scrap Scarlet sold.”

I slowly grouped the caps together and set aside a large sum into the cloth bag, dumping the remainder in the duffle. I pushed it toward Penumbra.

“For the hospital,” I said awkwardly, avoiding eye contact as she busied herself with my sensitive wing.

The nurse paused her preening for a moment to look at the bag, then at me, “you don’t owe me anything. Dr. Bone’s dead and I can’t run this place on my own. I’m closing for now. Captain Angel Wing’s gonna take over medical while I’m gone.”

“Well then, take it for putting up with my unconscious body for a week,” I insisted, “please.”

Penumbra fanned out my now perfectly-aligned feathers, satisfied, and nodded. “That’s generous of you, most ponies out here would gobble up the cash and high-tail it the first chance they got.”

“Well I’m not like most ponies,” I shrugged. 

Penumbra stood and looked me over, pressing her glasses with a hoof and a small smile, “you certainly are not.”

I looked at her work. It was impressive, every feather would catch the wind at a better angle than before. I may even have a better shot at flying on my own now. 

“Where’d you learn how to do this?” I asked, flapping the wing and smiling at the amount of thrust it made.

“A past life,” she replied simply and tucked the money into her own bags.

I waited for her to say more, but it was clear that that was all she had to say. I gestured toward her saddle bags, “What’s got you all dressed up?”

Penumbra sighed heavily and gave me a wry smile, “I have bad news for you, Blue.”

I tilted my head while I busied myself with donning my gear. Ballpoint was nice enough to provide some leather shoulder barding and even a chest rig with some kind of hard armor in it. I slung my rifle over my back and placed my trusty Tidus 11 in a proper leg holster for once. Between the army fatigues and the armor, I felt like I finally had some decent protection.

“Scarlet didn’t make it.”

I shot a look at Penumbra, “What!?”

“No, sorry! That came out wrong,” she slapped her head with a bat wing, “I mean, they all didn’t make it. Wait, that sounds worse-”

I felt myself begin to hyperventilate while Penumbra flapped over to me and placed her hooves on my shoulders.

“They’re probably alive, calm down and take a breath, Midnight, it’s gonna be okay,” she cooed. “Orion said Rafael Air Base hasn’t reported them arriving yet. It’s a short flight there so everypony’s a little worried about their whereabouts.”

I shook her off, “I need to go find her, what if she’s hurt?!”

I pulled up my PipBuck and frantically scrolled through the map function, panning the cursor in every direction but the blasted thing only showed me locations I’ve already been to. I bit at my stupidity. We should have set up trackers or something. I knew this goddess forsaken wasteland was dangerous.

“I’m gonna bring you there,” Penumbra gently lowered my foreleg with a hoof. “But don’t worry. Ballpoint and Silver Dusk are with her. Between those two, nothing in the wasteland stands a chance. They probably just got held up on something along the way.”

I looked up at her golden eyes. She was worried too, but she meant what she said. I relaxed a little at her gentle touch and words.

“Ball and Silver are the only ponies I know out here,” she continued, “I don’t have a family, my home was destroyed, and hell,” she kicked a rear leg, eliciting a metallic crunch from her bags, “you just gave me the only caps I have. I’ve got nothing left for me here so I may as well help where I can.”

“But the hospital…” I looked around at the packed crates.

The hospital was in ruin. The ancient building had taken a beating during the fighting, leaving nothing but dusty cots and bullet-ridden equipment behind. If anypony was going to be treated here, it’d only be after some serious renovation.

“I’ve been to Rafel before,” Penumbra insisted, “we’ll go together and find your marefriend. Then we’ll all come back and figure out this I.M.P nonsense with Amber.”

“She’s not my mare-”

Penumbra smirked knowingly, “Oh, she’s not? That’s a shame.”

Whatever she meant by that flew over my head. I just sighed and nodded, “Okay, yeah, I could use the help. I appreciate it, Penumbra.”

“Call me Penny,” she smiled reassuringly and made her way to the stairs. “We’ve got something going on in town square. I think you’ll want to see it before we leave.”

We cantered out of the hospital and into the frozen night. I breathed in the gusty autumn air, taking in the scents of pine and wood smoke. The sky was overcast with clouds and lit by Luna’s hidden moon that bathed the world in pale light.

The town was alive with activity. Thestral ponies flew around as they put the final touches on their repairs. Somepony even managed to get the Hearth’s Warming lights working again. I missed so much since the battle, it felt surreal to see the world days later.

Penumbra spread her wings and took off toward town square, pausing halfway to the rooftops and giving me an expectant look.

I nervously extended my wings, looking between the uneven pair. The nurse’s work had my right pegasus wing in flawless condition, but it was the bat wing off my left that had me worried. The memory of flying above an ocean on thestral wings shot through my mind. I knew what that was supposed to feel like. I could do it again.

I steeled my gaze and flapped both my wings, letting my body guide me and trying not to overthink it. Before I knew it, I was airborne and climbing steadily, picking up speed with a growing grin splayed across my face. Something clicked in my head. I could do this.

“Midnight, town square’s that way,” Penumbra pointed behind me as I shot past her.

I ignored her while I laughed in mirth and pumped my wings, gaining altitude well above the glowing city below.

Luna above, I’ve missed this!

I didn’t think about what I needed to do. I just let my wings fly independently. Like the alicorn wings of my memory, I didn’t need to force it. It just worked. Whatever dreams I had left a lasting impression on me that carried into the real world.

I closed my eyes and inverted my wingtips, spiraling upwards, feeling myself slow as I climbed higher and higher. My feathers silently cut the air off my right with only the faintest of rustling from the skin of my bat wing off my left.

I felt my weight disappear at the top of my climb. I opened my eyes, spreading my wings to full span and caught myself just as I was about to fall. I rode a gentle air current and lazily flapped as I looked out around me. The cold air rushed over my membraned wing, my neat feathers sliced the air – it felt extraordinary.

I was probably a few hundred hooves in the air and I could see the expanse of pine trees all around, extending to the very edges of the mountain range that protected Transylvania. Where the mountains opened to the west, I could barely see the hazy concrete monoliths of Vanhoover. Even with my thestral blood, it was hard to focus on such a distance. The distant city seemed like a world away.

Ahead of me sat my Stable, my former home, carved into one of the mountains. It was so inconspicuous yet it housed hundreds of ponies for generations. All trapped within the concrete walls and under the hoof of a terrible tyrant. If only they knew what the world was like out here.

I glanced down and banked my body to circle back around. Penny was only a fraction of her size. She was hovering above the street, watching me.

A thought came to mind and I smiled. Sure I could fly, but could I really fly? I was going to push this new wing to its limit. I was half pegasus afterall.

Showtime.

I reached back and made sure my saddle bags and rifle were properly secure. This new barding was made for flying ponies, everything had a buckle to strap stuff down.

Feeling certain that none of my items would clonk some poor buck in the head below, I flared my wings and did a mid-air backflip, folding them in slightly at the bottom of the loop. I began to dive toward the ground at a blistering pace.

I’ve never done this on my own before, not without that weird magic at least. But everything felt natural. My wings moved on their own as I willed myself to do what I imagined was possible. Penny quickly grew bigger and bigger as I dove at a breakneck speed. I could feel my bat wing begin to lock up from the wind compressing on its leading edge, but my feathered wing was far from its limit. I’d push it as far as I could.

Just as I saw Penny widen her eyes in realization, I flared out my right wing and spiraled in a rapid corkscrew around her, slowing down enough to shoot out my left wing and overcome the compression. My feathered wingtip gently brushed her mane as I barreled around her, causing her to yelp in surprise.

I quickly leveled off below her and rocketed down the street just a few hooves off the ground, hearing the whoosh of wind pouring off my straining bat wing. I suddenly extended to full span and hurled upwards, kicking a cloud of dust off the road.

How was that? I coyly smirked and looked back at Penny.

Her expression of awe was now mixed with shock and excitement. I felt my chest swell with pride. Yeah, I’m a show-pony, kill me.

I rolled inverted and dove back down to her, this time with more control. I flared and flapped powerfully into a hover next to her. My bat wing was sore, but it kept up with my bird-like shenanigans. With more practice, maybe I could push it even harder.

“Luna be my witness,” Penny shook her head, “I’ve never seen a bat pony do that before.”

“I’m not like most ponies,” I smiled knowingly.

“You definitely are not,” Penny’s blushed expression hinted at how impressed she actually was. She fixed the loose hairs of her mane that I brushed during my stunt then gestured down the road, “As much as I appreciated the air show, Blue, we need to head to the square. No more lollygagging.”

I lazily flapped beside her, “Fine, fine, playtime’s over. Let's get this over with.”

Though I trusted that Scarlet was probably safe, the sooner we left to find her, the better.

We glided toward town square while Penny began to describe the events that happened around town as we flew past. Tonight was a special night apparently. It was going to be the commemoration of the attack and a show of solidarity that our ponies would not be snuffed out by the Daylight.

A part of me wondered just what that would entail. A show of peace? Or a call to war?


***


“Today, my fellow soldiers, citizens, and family; we remember the fallen and vow never to forget the evil that ravaged our peaceful corner of Equestria,” a well-worn buck spoke to the small crowd of ponies in the shattered town square. His long white mane and tail contrasted his charcoal coat, covered by an aged looking military uniform. 

I was perched on a rooftop next to Penny overlooking the scene. Thirty or so ponies I had seen around town stood in rank and file facing the middle aged buck. They were all in matching uniforms, sporting crescent moon insignia on their shoulders. It wasn’t the uniform of the Night Watch, but something entirely different. Between the clothes and spiffy military caps, these ponies must have served generations from some pre-war battalion.

The townsfolk of Renaissance were perched among the rooftops and balconies that surrounded the square. I spotted Amber Night and her filly standing by the small group of Night Watch guards off to the side. She was dressed in black and surrounded by other mourning families. She clutched a triangular folded navy-blue flag to her chest in her magic, a symbol held by all of the wives and husbands of the guards who perished.

According to Penny, the speaker was Colonel Sterling Skies, the commander of Renaissance’s local militia. Historically, the six independent settlements across Transylvania agreed to unite under one flag, the Order of the Rising Moon, if things ever got dire. It was a reservist militia that consisted of more than just town guards, but a whole swath of ponies who swore to protect Transylvania if the need ever arose. From simple farmers, to merchants, and mechanics; If there was a call to arms, they would lay down their tools and pick up their guns to defend the region. For almost two hundred years, the Order was never activated. Until tonight.
 
Next to Colonel Sterling stood a hoof-full of the local Night Watch guard commanders, all sporting the new uniforms as well. Whatever politics involved made it clear that the local guards would be adopted into the rising army. The Night Watch now had a higher purpose than just manning the gates of Renaissance.

We were late to the ceremony, thanks to my little airshow, and decided the roof was better than simply dropping in the middle of the crowd. Besides, with what everyone seemed to think of me, especially after the whole Starline fiasco, it was probably for the best that I didn't show my face around town yet.

"... be remembered for his valiant efforts to defend Renaissance. In honor of his last moments, sacrificing his life for others, Aurora Borealis is hereby awarded the Lunar Cross as a testament to his valor,” the Colonel continued.

There was a pregnant pause as one of the guards stepped forward with a black box under her wing. She approached Amber Night and presented it to the unicorn. The guard opened the box and inside I could barely make out a black cross with a silver crescent moon accent perched atop a small cushion.

“That’s one of the highest awards in Equestria, or was at least,” Penny nudged me with a whisper, “it was given by Princess Luna herself during the war.”

“I’m surprised they had one laying around,” I raised a brow.

Penny shrugged, “bat ponies were the usual recipients. With how many of us died under Celestia’s rule early on, we probably had hundreds passed down among families.”

Below, the high ranking mare stiffened to attention, followed by the crisp sound of every guard and soldier mirroring her actions. She raised her right wing and gave a sharp salute to Amber and the line of ponies who were next of kin to the fallen.

“Pree-zent... wings!” A gruff stallion’s command somewhere up front echoed into the night.

The entire group quickly followed by snapping a salute in return.

I couldn’t help but start to tear up at this point. I didn’t have time to process what happened to Borealis until now. The first pony Scar and I met, who selflessly helped us at every turn, was dead. I barely knew him and he was willing to sacrifice his life for me. What did I ever do to deserve that level of dedication?

I shook my head and looked away in shame. He didn’t have to die because of my stupidity, I should have been more patient, or more tactful, or something.

“H- Hey, Midnight, don’t beat yourself up,” Penny gently placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Nopony blames you.”

“That doesn't change… Look, nevermind,” I sighed.

With a nod, Penny let go of my shoulder and sat back a little. I returned my gaze to the ceremony. Colonel Sterling was making his closing remarks.

“This is not the end,” he spoke clearly over the silence that swept the frozen night, “but the beginning of thestral-kind’s finest hour. Evil has reared its ugly head once again in Equestria and seeks to eradicate what it deems ‘unholy.’ We do not seek hostilities with our earth pony, unicorn, or pegasi brethren… but we are unafraid in the shadow they cast upon us if they so wish for us to bear arms.”

I watched him keenly. Everypony did. This was something far bigger than I ever anticipated out here in the wasteland.

“The battles we may soon face transcend recent history,” he continued, looking each and every soldier before him in the eyes, “it is an ancient battle wrought from the hatred of a dead empire. From a time well before balefire and megaspells. Before bullets, bombs, wars with zebras or griffons. But from a time where our race was tested under the hoof of the tyrannical mare of the sun.”

My fur stood on end in familiarity of his words.

“We do not know what motivates the Daylight’s forces today. Why they target our ponies, why they swept across our land and burned our settlements. But we know where they are headed; west. Toward the ruined city of Vanhoover. Toward the Arcane Constellation Continuum which governs our heavenly skies.” Colonel Sterling stomped a hoof, “We will not stand idly by and allow them to terrorize us in their self-proclaimed crusade of ‘light.’ We will fight back and put an end to this millennia-long battle. The sun will set and the moon shall take its place once and for all.”

I gave Penny a nervous look, “What's the Arcane Constellation Continuum?”

She shook her head, “I have no idea.”

The thestral ponies of Renaissance stomped their hooves in approval, hooting and cheering from the streets and rooftops. I looked around and saw the faces of ponies who suffered generations of mistreatment and hurt. This was an old wound. It was something thestrals have been dealing with well before events that ruined Equestria during the war with the Zebras. They wanted revenge. 

“They seem to know,” I mumbled uncomfortably.

Penny drew her lips, “I'm, um, not really from around here… Like you, Blue.”

The memories that Orpheus gave me made sense now. Our homeland, Umbris, was taken by force long ago. Our land was renamed, our population dispersed, our people forced to fight in a war we didn't start. We only briefly had a moment of hope when Luna returned from her banishment, but that quickly ended when she disappeared with the loss of all civilization.

This was a holy struggle between the sun and the moon that spanned millennia. The balance of the cosmos was forever tipping back and forth between the two sides, threatening to overtake the other.

A war was coming to Transylvania, hoping to end this battle for good. But if there was anything that I learned thus far: it was that war never changes.


XXX