Shadow of a Nightmare (Part 2: The Mage)

Accepting the aid of Crystal meant that the journey home took a tediously long time. Midnight didn't have any objections to voice, simply being content to be back in the cool and dry caverns again. It was inevitable that the elder bat pony would run into several other members of his kind, all of whom not wasting a second to offer assistance once they notice the nasty scar on their general's hoof. Midnight turned down each one, insisting that they focus on their existing duties, gesturing to Moonlight to emphasise that he was already getting plenty of help.
Stubborn as always, the crystal pony thought to herself, rolling her eyes at her friend's dismissal of his affliction. True, it was not a life-threatening wound, but some extra guides could help get him some medical attention quicker. As the pair hobbled on, Midnight directing his companion down each splitting tunnel, a skill that Crystal had long since wondered how long it took to master. For now, just getting back to the barracks was enough, as it could take years to recognise every single route.
After what felt like over an hour of traversing through the pitch black labyrinth, the only visual references to their location coming from the crystal pony's innate shine, the pair finally reached the living quarters of the Lunar Royal Guard. An authoritative command to halt rang through the tunnel even before the speakers came into visual range, though a returning call from Midnight made it clear there would be no ensuing argument.
Crystal's light soon revealed the figures to be four guards; Bat ponies clad in purple plate armour and chain mail, with decorative spike protruding upwards down the length of the spine. The defending quartet kept their weapons unsheathed, likely suspicious as to why Midnight was walking instead of flying. Though their queries were never vocalised, the sight of their elder being carried by a crystal pony making it evident that all was not well. Quickly folding back the sharp claws that switched out from their boots, the guards bowed their heads and tapped the heavy iron gate with their hind hooves, signalling those behind it to open up. Midnight returned a bow of respect. He would have to compliment the gate defenders once he was better, as their quick reactions even during the changing of shifts was an admirable quality.
The roost for the bat ponies was anything but glamorous. Their kind was populated by no more than thirty individuals in total, the underground hollow which was their home being barely large enough to give each pony adequate room to sleep. Each of the four key rooms within the barracks was lit by little more than select number of dim candles; enough for every pony to see where they were going, but limiting for those without vision suited to low light environments to make out any small details.
The appearance of another pony who was not directly part of Princess Luna's regiment was a rare occurrence down here, so the dazzling radiance that emanated from Crystal Moonlight did not go unnoticed for long. Gliding down from one of the higher makeshift beds, a younger looking bat pony—feminine in appearance but known to use gender neutral pronouns, half dressed in the same violet armour as those guarding the gate—dropped in front of Midnight, their mouth agape at the nasty cuts in the elder's leg.
“Do you have something important to say, Echo Dancer, or are you just going to stand there and gawk?” Midnight grumbled, wincing as he pulled his arm off the crystal pony in an effort to try and support himself on all four hooves.
“Darn right I have something important to say!” Echo responded, their face taut with worry. “What in Luna's name happened to you?”
“It is none of your concern-” The elder stallion tried to argue, but with most of his strength all but faded—even to the point where he could barely hold himself up—there was no chance in hiding that he had been through quite a rough ordeal. Truth be told, he was lucky that Crystal had found him when she did; not that he was going to admit that out loud anytime soon. His body may have suffered a hefty blow, but his pride most certainly had not.
“We need to see Mystic Mind right away,” the glimmering mare exclaimed, rushing to the side of her injured companion, ignoring his insistence to try and move under his own strength. “Midnight needs immediate medical attention, as well as tell him about what's going on up at the surface.”
“I was thinking just the same thing,” Echo nodded in agreement. “Quickly, follow me. Mystic is still in the planning room, so you caught him at just the right time, considering how long Midnight has been away for.”
Neither pony gave a word more in response, instead following the younger pony down the short, narrow passage in silence until they reached the planning room. Echo gave a couple of heavy knocks on the wooden door, before the sound of rushing hooves from the other side came to greet them. If Crystal Moonlight was the polar opposite of the bat ponies in terms of physical appearance, then Mystic Mind was even more different than anyone else within the hollow. Standing slightly taller than Crystal, the emerald green unicorn looked upon the three ponies through his wide, round glasses, lowing the hood of his loose green robes to reveal a short and messy mane that was a reddish brown in colour.
“Crystal Moonlight! It's so good to see you again!” Mystic exclaimed, his horn lighting up with a magical glow to match his bright and cheerful demeanour, oblivious to the serious expressions on the faces of all three of his visitors. “I see the mission went well. How well did the amulet work? I toiled long and hard to make sure it would work with crystal pony magic, which as you can imagine is not an easy task. Echo can attest to how many prototypes I had to go through to get it right. So what can I do... for...” The green unicorn's words trailed off, finally noticing Midnight's wound. “By Starswirl's beard! Midnight, what in Equestria happened to you?”
The elder bat pony huffed, refusing to say a word, requiring Crystal to speak on his behalf. Rubbing her hoof just below her neck, an ivory amulet with a striking red ruby in the centre appeared, bursting into life with an brilliant beam of magic to project the bear trap onto the floor until it had fully manifested as a solid object.
“This is what happened to Midnight,” Crystal said in a solemn voice, pointing to the now broken contraption at the green pony's feet. “I found this thing clamped firmly around his hind ankle, just as he was being surrounded by a pack of timber wolves.”
“Yikes, quite the unlucky series of events you got involved in there, Midnight,” Mystic tentatively knelt forward to inspect the object, levitating it up to eye height through his magic. “Good thing you got to him when you did. Any longer out there, and he could have ended up with a nasty infection at the least. And that's if the timber wolves didn't get to him first. Such nasty creatures that they are. Can't stand 'em! I don't understand why they figured Midnight would make a filling meal, though. I can't imagine bat ponies taste very good, not that I would know...”
“Mystic!” Echo snapped, growing frustrated with the unicorn's excessive rambling. “Forget about the cursed timber wolves! We need to give Midnight some first aid, now.”
Mystic's face turned beet red with embarrassment. His piqued attention to detail was useful when it came to his day job as a magic scholar, but for regular conversations in most other situations, it did tend to become a liability. Clearing his throat and dusting the white trim on his sleeves, he gestured for the three ponies to follow him inside. “Yes, of course. Right this way.”
Crystal tapped the younger bat pony on the shoulder just as the unicorn turned his back. “A little bit harsh, don't you think?” she whispered.
“Perhaps,” the grey and purple pony replied. “But you have to admit, this isn't exactly an appropriate time for Mystic to be rambling so much.” The crystal pony shrugged as she followed the others in.
The green unicorn promptly threw the trap onto the table in front of him, levitating a book down from one of the shelves that covered the circumference of the room. “Crystal, there should be some enchanted bandages in the closet just behind the bookcase next to you,” Mystic said, gesturing vaguely over to the other side of the room, his head buried inside the pages of his favoured tome. “They will make sure there is no lingering magical infections.”
Flicking through the pages, he mumbled for a few moments as he searched for an appropriate spell to use on an object suspected of corruption. “Aha!” Mystic exclaimed, before speaking aloud the words of the spell in question, summoning a bright magical aura from his horn to envelop the dangerous metallic object.
“Echo, I could use a hand here!” the master magi called to the bat pony for assistance, who was at present trying to remember the correct book that would swing the library furniture open. Why the wizard needed to keep the first aid materials behind such a needlessly complicated contraption, the bat pony had given up trying to figure out. They simply got a different and more nonsensical answer each time, to the point where they wondered if the unicorn was simply playing mind games with them.
Thankfully this time, choosing a random book gave the assistant the correct key to open the closet. Now that this was taken care of, Echo knew what needed to be done. They had spend more time around Mystic than any other of their kind, quickly picking up on most of his behavioural nuances while he was surrounded by his wizardly research. The bat pony had a simple task to attend to in this case, one that was a routine given the subject that they and their kind all had to deal with. One quick inhalation sparked a red glow within Echo's eyes, invoking a form of magic which was, by their own admission, not entirely dissimilar to the entities that the bat ponies had dedicated their lives to fighting against.
Mouth wide open and fangs baring, Echo released from the pit of their chest a high-pitched screech, only just on the edge of audibility to most ponies, directed at the trap that had put their elder into this state. The results from the spell completion happened so fast, Moonlight almost missed it between blinks. But the result removed any doubt that something dramatic had happened.
Neither Midnight nor his crystal pony counterpart had noticed until now, but the metal used to forge this trap had been twinged with a darker shade of grey than the normally polished work of any Ponyville blacksmith. On top of that, the whole thing had practically fallen apart after the spell had been cast, something that a trap of enough quality to prevent a bat pony from breaking out should not do with vibrations as weak as this.
“Aha! Just as I suspected!” Mystic exclaimed, his horn still glowing with delight, so much so that he nearly threw his book over Echo's head by accident, his assistant dropping to the floor by instinct in order to avoid getting smacked in the face by more than a couple hundred pages worth of magical knowledge. “Whomever this pony that planted this trap was, they were not simple poachers. Crystal, while your shine spell enhanced from my amulet did indeed disrupt it enough to be released, it did not completely de-spell the enchantment. Even with my spell, it will take some time to be completely purified. I suspect the culprit was either under the control of the nightmare forces upon laying the trap, or it had something to do with this individual blacksmith.”
“That is a nice theory and all, but erm, Mystic...” Crystal said while deliberately clearing her throat, “Trade secrets, remember?”
It was only then did Mystic realise he was starting to run his mouth off again. “Oh, sorry,” he replied with an embarrassed grin and an awkward chuckle. “Anyway, my point is that the creatures of darkness are starting to look further afield to spread their influence. We either have to start finding a source soon, or risk putting Ponyville on high alert for any suspicious activity.”
“Well that second option is absolutely out of the question,” Midnight interjected, “We cannot risk starting a moral panic, or even worse, a witch hunt.”
“Hey, I resent that!” Mystic snapped. “I've known plenty of witches at Celestia's magic school! Why would they be blamed for all this?!”
The elder bat pony groaned, planting his hoof into his face. Echo stepped forward in an attempt to clarify. “What Midnight means is that we can't have Ponyville citizens going around randomly accusing whoever they think may be possessed, or worse, lose their trust in Princess Luna. You remember how everypony reacted when Zekora first arrived in town, right? Well, imagine that, combined with how Luna was treated during the first Nightmare Night after her return, only with ponies taking it far more seriously.”
Mystic rubbed his chin, the glowing of his horn shining no less brightly as the gears in his mind spun. “I see your point. Though I think I may be able to find somepony who can help with this matter.”
Trotting over to a mirror on the far side of the room, a single spoken word caused the glass of the reflective wall furniture to ripple and waver in reaction to the green unicorn's magic, the reversed image of everyone in front of it fading away into a swirling mix of coloured flashes. A few moments later, these same basic elements of vision began to settle into something more recognisable. Gradually shimmering into view, the image of a pale, peach-coloured pony in a blue fedora and matching overcoat became visible. He would have been a fairly average earth pony, were it not for the fact he wore some kind of flesh-coloured mask that obscured most of his facial features.
Mystic couldn't help but cringe at the rather grotesque sight of a pony lacking any visible eyes, nose or mouth, though he did attempt to at least keep his discomfort discrete. Though he was never a wizard known for his diplomacy skills, he at least tried to keep some basic standard of politeness, even if his mind bounced back and forth between disgust and bewilderment of how the earth pony managed to gain such an appearance.
“Ah, Mystic Mind. Good to see you again,” the faceless pony said in a straightforward, almost monotone voice. It was impossible to tell if he was unaware of the emerald mage's discomfort, or if he was just ignoring it. “How can I help you today?”
“Oh, erm, hi...Query Quiver,” Mystic said, trying to keep his forced smile as natural looking as possible. “Have you seen Lady Oranges around today, per chance?”
“She is currently napping right now. Perhaps I can lend a hoof in whatever is on your mind today? Have you finally found that missing link between Princess Celestia's sleeping patterns and the odd lack of Zapp Apples this season? Applejack has been surprisingly quiet on the increasing trade business of her favourite magical fruit between Ponyville and Los Pegasus.”
“Oh no, that is quite alright,” Mystic cut off the faceless pony before he could go on another of his conspiratorial rants. And people say I ramble on about tangents too much, the emerald magi thought to himself. “I have to discuss something quite important with Ms. Oranges today, which I think she will want to know about as soon as possible. Could you please call her over?”
“Please, do remember that we are partners for a reason,” Query said, the subtle difference in his vocal tone implying that he would have been frowning if his eyebrows were at all visible. “I didn't get my cutie mark in problem-solving for nothing, after all. I was the one to uncover the secret formula being added to cider to make the Flim Flam brothers' knock off products more desirable, after all.”
How many times has Query changed the explanation behind his cutie mark now? Mystic pondered to himself. The image on the blank faced stallion's flank was that of a feather in the shape of a question mark, although compared to Mystic's own mark of a three hooked green circle, it wasn't really that much more vague. “Please, Query. I know you want to help, but I need to speak to Oranges right away. This is of urgent importance!”
“Fine!” The earth pony sighed, turning away from the mirror in a huff. “Hey, Oranges! Time to wake up now, Mystic needs you're attention right now!”
After a few seconds of thumping and mumbling in the background, an orange mare with long, brown hair stumbled into view, pulling on a sky blue jacket and big, round glasses. “Oh, hello Mystic. What's the problem that requires a call at this time of night?”
“Hey, Oranges!” Mystic replied in a voice that was considerably more clear and comfortable than before. “Please allow me to introduce you to Midnight Glider, Echo Dancer, and Crystal Moonlight. They've been involved in quite a dramatic situation tonight that I need to tell you about. We need to get a translation for the ponyville public that I think you are best suited to handle.”
“Ugh, slow down a minute, Mystic,” the orange earth pony yawned, brushing away her messy morning hair from the side of her face. “First of all, it's fine to introduce me as Written Word to the Lunar Guard. Oranges is just a pen name that I use for my day job. Secondly, what exactly is so urgent about this problem that a public relations discussion can't wait until daylight?”
“Oh my, I'm so sorry, Written!” Mystic said, looking somewhat embarrassed. “I guess I just lost track of time from spending so long underground. My own sleeping patterns are all over the place, as you know.”
“Don't worry about it,” Mystic's friend smiled, making sure that she avoided sounding grouchy. “I've gotten up at worse hours before. Now, what exactly is the issue you need help with?”
Echo backed away and hid behind her more magically inclined partner as the orange mare looked over towards them, crouching down in the hopes that she hadn't been spotted upon her introduction.
“Come on now, Echo, don't be shy. Written is super good at keeping secrets, so no pony besides her is going to know about you or anypony else down here,” Mystic tried to keep his tone of voice as soft and re-assuring as his gentle expression, but the mare of the night simply blushed and covered their eyes with their hooves. “Well, no pony besides that faceless guy, not that anyone would believe him anyway..”
“I heard that!” a yell came from behind Mystic's friend as she made an audible throat clearing to bring Mystic's attention back towards her.
“Oh, sorry about that. Echo is quite shy around new ponies, you see,” Mystic said, turning back towards the mirror.  “Secret defence organisation and all that, I'm sure you can understand.”
“I figured,” Written replied, trying not to sound too frustrated at the bashful pony derailing her friend's train of thought yet again. “Now, as you were saying about the urgent problem...?”
“This!” Crystal burst into the conversation impatiently, throwing the busted bear trap towards the mirror, to which Mystic only just caught it before it smashed into the enchanted glass.
Now it was the earth pony's turn to duck away from sight out of reflex, peering up a few seconds later to see what had just happened.
“Hey, be careful!” Mystic snapped back, “You could have earned seven years bad luck there, Ms. Moonlight!”
“Sweet Celestia!” Written exclaimed, “Don't tell me you found that in the Everfree forest!”
“I didn't, but Midnight did. And he did not so much find it as step into it on accident.”
The elder bat pony grumbled under his breath, more than a little unhappy with the way Mystic had phrased his actions as if he was some careless colt, though Midnight did not say a word in retort. With everything that happened today, getting into more diverging arguments was the last thing he wanted.
“You know, it was only a few days ago when I last visited the Ponyville blacksmith,” The orange mare continued, “I must admit, his eyes did look quite vacant, as if his thoughts were straying elsewhere. He didn't look like he had gotten much sleep either.”
“Perhaps that is the evidence we are looking for as to how this trap made its way to us,” Mystic replied, rubbing his chin with his hoof once again as he pondered on the information presented to him. “I think the most we can do for now is try to keep the public off our tails. That should at least make it easier for myself and the Lunar Guard to prevent any more traps being set for the bat ponies to stumble into.”
Mystic took a deep sigh, the previous enthusiasm he had from his discovery now fading into worry.  Written couldn't help but notice the drop in her friend's expression, as well as the fading of magic from his horn. “Is something on your mind, Mystic?” she asked, trying not to look too worried. “You're normally allot more ecstatic about uncovering clues to help Princess Luna's warriors than this.”
“It's difficult to say what's bothering me, exactly,” the green unicorn replied in a sombre tone. “I guess this is just another meander on the way to finally beating the nightmare forces. I haven't been around nearly as long as some of these ponies have, so I'm starting to wonder if I'm leading them on more of a wild goose chases than actually helping! If these tricksters are already starting to come close to taking out individual bat ponies, who's to say that I'm not being lead into a trap as well?”
“Do not forget the history of these shadow masters, Mystic,” Midnight spoke up, pacing forward towards the mirror while still trying to keep the weight off his bad leg. “They tricked Princess Luna into becoming overwhelmed with jealousy, rage, and especially fear of her remaining relevance in comparison to her sister. That is how the nightmare forces get you; exploit your deepest insecurities until they overwhelm you.”
“Couldn't have put it better myself!” Echo added, jumping up in support of their unicorn friend, before realising that the orange pony was still watching from behind the mirror. Blushing bashfully, the bat pony lowered their head once more and softened their voice. “I mean, I'm happy with everything you've done for us. You helped me avoid becoming just another slave to my own fears. Surely that counts for something?”
“Well it seems your contributions to the Lunar Guard are highly valued to say the least,” Written chuckled. “I think I have a good headline that will at least buy you some time. Say Query, how does 'Local blacksmith hypnotised by notorious everfree poaching gang' sound to you for a headline?”
“Magnificent!” the faceless stallion exclaimed, racing to get the parchments and quills. “I know a few loose threads from recent police investigations that can fit together nicely. Illegal transportation of iron to and from ponyville, history of kidnapping ponies, gem extortion and slave labour. Those Diamond Dogs are soon going to find themselves in quite a heap of trouble!”
“Perfect! The Foal Free Press is going to have a field day when they get a hold of this story,” the earth pony rubbed her hooves together with anticipation. “Thanks for the inspiration, Mystic. I've been meaning to find a good story to grab the attention of the Ponyville populace. This is going to be the hottest story of the year, I can just feel it!”
“I'm glad I could help,” Mystic said, a warm smile growing across his face. “Thank you all so much for your support. In the meantime, I'm going to see if I can work on a locator spell that will lead us to the individual who planted that cursed trap to begin with. The blacksmith is an earth pony, so he's out of the question for any potential subjects. Written, I'm going to need you and Query to make sure he doesn't get anyone else snooping up on his trail. Think you can manage that?”
“Absolutely!” the quiver-marked journalist saluted to the mage. “Oh, and one more thing Mystic?”
“Huh?”
“Try not to turn anypony into newts this time around, will you?”
“Oh, right! I'll make a note of that, thanks,” Mystic blushed, remembering the last time he and Written had worked on a case together.
“No problem. I'd better get to work. Lady of Oranges, signing out!”
Echo breathed a sigh of relief once the image in the mirror finally faded away. Though upon looking up, Mystic was already fiddling around trying to levitate a few books down while searching for the correct spell. Even if they were not ready to face ponies from the outside world, Echo figured that they could at least help their excitable magic teacher sort through his extensive library.