Bereft of Light

[Nightbow]

[47th of Summer, cont. from An Audience with the Queen. Morning. Open!]

Whisper Wind awoke, sore and stiff from her night spent on the pavement in front of a jewellery store. When the unicorn had made it to the safety of the street lights she had eventually collapsed here, for the only district that seemed to still be awake in the dead of night where the ill-lit streets in the south-eastern part of town, and she wouldn't go there.

It had not been a cakewalk. The monsters did attack Whisp as she cantered through the forest, way too afraid to stop and take a closer look at them. Not that she had needed too; the timberwolves ... (wolves made out of ... timber?) ... had raced her almost all the way to the city, not swaying from her side how ever fiercely she pounded at the pendant. She had felt it resonate and pulsate against her chest, but towards the wolves it seemed ineffective.
After a while Whisp realized that the monsters did sense the shockwaves, and used them to track her. She then deactivated the pendant and winked between the trees, and there was no trace left for them to follow.

She stirred in confusion, sitting up on her rump. Memories from the night came flashing back to her, and Whisper Wind broke out in cry.
Kailani was surely dead.

[Kiernan]

Kai rubbed his face with his hoof. The sun was rising and the clouds were being towed away. It was a beautiful morning, it was just a bit cold. Overall, it was a good morning to be out of the house. Especially so if you had a nice, thick cloak wrapped around your neck, flowing all the way down your body, trimmed just short enough to not drag the ground.

He was here because he needed a few supplies. Since the items he was looking for were legal, it was more likely they would be in the Argen district, rather than the Farin district. He needed some scrap bronze, some leather, a thin chain, and a locking pin, preferably steel.

His first stop, a small jewelry shoppe, where he had purchased the necklace he gave to Fluttershy on her birthday, the one year that they were together for it. When he had faded from her memory, he had instead made it a gift from somepony who had needed her skills in helping an injured animal. In doing so, he had allowed her to keep it: the only remaining memory of their time together, kept a secret.

Upon arrival, he saw another pony, a young looking unicorn, sobbing on the sidewalk. At the risk of seeming as if he was a predator, trying to comfort a pony of the opposite gender less than half his age, he knelt down beside her, bringing his head to her eye level.

"Are you alright, miss?" he asked, concern finding it's way into his voice. "Is there something the matter?"

[Nightbow]

Somepony was out early this morning - Whisper could hear the footfalls not far away, approaching. But she didn't care anymore. What had been essential a few hours ago - finding somepony, anypony -suddenly didn't matter.
It took forever for the stranger to come by, and the young unicorn didn't think a citizen of such a big city would bother to even look her way, and thus she was rather surprised to find him standing in front of her.

"Are you alright, miss? Is there something the matter?"

He was rather strange looking; light blue in coat colour and intense steel eyes, but most peculiar of all, mechanical wings adorning his withers. [Forgive me, I can't remember whether he was wearing them both or just one.] Then Whispering Wind remembered she was trapped in the future and her stomach made an uncomfortable flip.

She was shaking uncontrollably with every sob, trying to think practically, trying to push ... the fate of Kail aside. Where would she even start? Who would believe her if she told where she had come from? "Queen Eclipse tried to kill us. And ... and she might have succeeded, too ..."

[Becka]

The grand opening of Peridot Jewelry had been overshadowed [haha] by the eclipse and all the trouble it had caused. Hy's parents had called and demanded she return to Canterlot due to the danger in Whinnyopolis, but Hy refused. She wouldn't be run out of another town just because of a little solar occurrence.

It did make her wonder if the evil was following her specifically though. Why else would Discord show up in Ponyville at the opening of her first store, and then this strange eclipse and the monsters it brought show up in Whinnyopolis when she moved there? What was so special about Hy? It must be a coincidence.

This morning Hyacinth was up early, hoping to make up for the poor opening. She cleaned the front counter, made sure all of the displays were neat, and noticed two ponies waiting outside her front door already. She hurried to the door, flipped the sign to OPEN, and unlocked it to let them in. But when she opened the door, the young filly in front of it was crying.

"Oh, oh my." She looked at the stallion with wide eyes. "Is everything ok here?"

[Kiernan]

[Kai is wearing neither of his wings right now. One was destroyed, the other left behind because of its weight. But neither of the metal chunks jutting out of his back should be visible under the cloak. Especially the broken one, since it's only a few short metal bars. I guess Whisp could have seen the couplers moving under the cloak, and thought they were wings, due to their placement and pattern of movement...]

"Queen Eclipse tried to kill us. And ... and she might have succeeded, too ..."

This struck Kai as odd for a few reasons. First, he had no idea who this Queen Eclipse was, or if she even existed outside of this pony's mind. It could be nothing, and it could be something important. Second, why was this pony saying 'us, when she was clearly the only pony here right now, other than himself? was there somepony else nearby that he hadn't seen? But third, and the most emotionally disturbing, this young mare seemed to think herself dead. He decided, that since he couldn't find anything out until she calmed down, he would start by easing her mind by answering the first concern.

"I assured you that you have not been killed, milady. That would mean that I was also dead, or very much insane, and I assure you that I am alive and well, and I hope that you may be, as well."

As he said this, the new owner came through the front door, and staring mostly at him, asked, "Is everything okay here?" Only then did Kai start to think that he might be unwell mentally, and that he was hallucinating a pony that knew what was going on to feed his desire for information. Just to make sure, he whispered "Incubus" under his breath a few times, and when the shade didn't show himself, Kai knew he wasn't dreaming by mistake... He decided to wait and see just how crazy the owner thought he was before saying anything else, in order to keep himself from making a scene.

[Nightbow]

[Nevermind, I just mentioned the wings since Whisp doesn't really know what kind of future she is trapped in - everypony could have artificial wings for all she knows. Let's just pretend that she was simply struck with the sickening realization that she does not belong in the same era as Kai. ]

She rubbed her eyes, feeling blue. The young unicorn felt soaked as if she had fallen into a lake, looking back up at the stallion with her forehead in a deep frown. "No ... that's not what I meant ..." she sniffed, perplexed. Suddenly Whispering Wind hiccuped with fear. What if the unknown unicorn was loyal to Eclipse and deliberately avoided the topic, not having acknowledged the mention of the Queen?

A second blueish pony, this one female, exited the store that she sat in front. Whisp straightened up a little, for even in her devastated state she didn't want to rudely lean on somepony's window.
She studied the stallion for a brief moment, not positive that everything was right, not quite feeling safe.

It was with caution she repeated herself, aware that these ponies could all very well be Queen Eclipse's loyal subjects. "Queen Eclipse killed my f ... friend." Her voice broke off. Whisper swallowed.

[Becka]

The stallion didn't reply, but he didn't need to, for the filly on the ground spoke around her tears instead.

"Killed?" Hy danced from one hoof to the next, memories of Discord's rule in Ponyville dancing through her head. At least he hadn't killed any ponies. "Oh my. Are you ok? Did..." She paused for a moment and cocked her head to the side. "Who's Queen Eclipse?"

She glanced at the stallion again, but brought her lavender gaze back to the young unicorn. "Would you like to come in? I can get you a glass of water." Perhaps once the filly calmed down she would be able to tell them more.

[Kiernan]

So it was a friend that had been killed by this "Queen Eclipse." Already, Kai didn't much like the sound of her. Granted, he had killed before, though it was without intent, but there had to be a reason for it. The only way to find that reason would be to investigate the events leading up to it, if he could. This young mare's mood seemed a bit unstable right now, and it would be best to calm her before asking que--

"Who's Queen Eclipse?"

Kai looked to the new owner of the store, as if to say, 'I was just going to ask the same thing.' He nodded in agreement at the suggestion to have her come inside, extending his hoof in an offer to help her stand, and a handkerchief [Hoofkerchief?] to wipe her face. A clean one, of course. "Yes, let's get you inside and warmed up. Wouldn't want you to catch a cold in this chilly air..."

[Nightbow]

Whisp's confusion turned her to involuntarily scowl. They ... they didn't know who Eclipse was? Her heart jumped a little. These ponies where in life-threatening danger and they didn't suspect a thing?

"Would you like to come in? I can get you a glass of water."

"Uh-huh," huffed Whisp, thankfully hooking her own hoof around the stallion's extended one. Fumbling a little to gain a good footing she gritted her teeth as a pounding headache came over her. She let her head hang for a second, breathing - she could have sworn that it was made out of lead. She accepted the cloth with a heartfelt "thanks" and allowed herself to be led inside.
Despite the chaos that had engulfed her, Whisper Wind very well couldn't let the darkness of the world consume her now. She had to get to safety.

[Kiernan]

As soon as they were all inside, Kai found a place for the disheveled mare to sit, a barstool for customers to use when discussing specifics with the jeweler. Since there were no customers as of yet, he decided that it would probably be okay for her to use.

He found a second barstool, and brought it over to sit next to her. In a voice that was stern, yet understanding, he spoke. "I know that this may be emotionally trying, and you may not want to talk about his right now, but I would like to help you. To do that, I need to know what happened. Please tell me."

So much for shopping...

[Becka]

Once the two ponies were inside, Hy flipped the sign on the door back to CLOSED and locked the door. She didn't need a customer stumbling in to a story about a queen killing somepony.

She filled a glass of water from the kitchen above the shop, and was just bringing it down when she heard the stallion ask what had happened. Hy wasn't sure she wanted to hear the story, especially with the hurt so fresh in the unicorn's voice.

"Here, have a drink first. Everything is going to be fine."

[Nightbow]

Being on the shorter side the stool was tall enough for Whisp to dangle her hindlegs from. She decided for her comfort to tuck them in underneath her rump.
Help. How could they help? Kail was gone. And with Eclipse hungry for power the Queen's shadow would soon be cast over them all. They would know all too well about the darkness.

Whisper accepted the glass. The first gulp of water was very small and hardly went down, but after that the unicorn drank the rest of it with ease.
She put the glass safely on the seat between her hooves. "Thank you."

Whisp wondered where to begin. They did need to know what had happened.
"O-okay," she breathed, looking from the store owner to the cloaked male. "My name is Whispering Wind. I came here with my friend." That wasn't right. Technically, she had come from the nursery in Ponyville and Kailani had come from a journey to sea. And they had arrived together in a forest. None of this made sense even to her.
Thinking about Kail hurt badly, but Whisp blinked hard, focusing - she owed it Kail and to these townsponies to tell the story.

Whisper fixed her eyes upon Kai's. They were pleading, but highly serious. "Look, I know I'm going to sound insane," she turned to look at Hy with the same desperate gaze, "but please hear me out. I ... came through a dark aura in the forest. From the Ponyville of your past."

[Kiernan]

Kai closed his eyes. She was right, her story would seem insane to anypony else, he imagined.Just suddenly appearing out of nowhere? From Ponyville? As far as he knew, there was no nursery in Ponyville, but mayhap there had been. After all, the library had been a prison at one point, so it was possible for other buildings to have been used for different purposes. But still, coming from the past? That was hard to believe.

The part he did believe, though, was the dark aura in the forest. He had felt something, yesterday, a strong sadness he had never before felt. At the time, he chalked it up to his lost love, but never had it been quite as bad as it was yesterday. The more he considered it a possibility, the more it made sense. And if this dark aura had the ability to take ponies out of their correct time period, and spit them out in another time, her story made sense.

"I believe you so far," he said, opening his eyes. "But I'd like to hear more, if you don't mind." The more information he had going into the investigation, the easier it would be.

[Becka]

The glass of water seemed to help calm the unicorn for a moment, and she began her tale. She had no sooner began, than a desperate look overcame her and she turned to both of them, speaking of insanity. Hy smiled gently to encourage her to continue, but when the young unicorn did continue she did sound insane. Hy’s smile faltered.

“The past?” She blurted out before she could stop herself. How could this pony possibly have come from the past? It made no sense.

Then again, if she was coming from Ponyville, perhaps it was Discord’s doing. Nothing had made sense while he was in control. Perhaps he’d brought this young unicorn from the past and was turned into stone before he could send her back.

As the stallion spoke Hy nodded. “I would like to hear more too. If you don’t mind.”

[Nightbow]

Whisper had to hold her breath with an almost pleasant chock. They ... they believed her? No way. She wouldn't believe that even this far into the future, time travel was of common occurrence.
The unicorn was a smart kid. She concluded the two ponies must be lying to her, just to encourage her to continue. To see just how demented she was. But it didn't matter; she had their attention, and could she convince them not to drop her off at a hospital she was in luck.

"Yes ... um ..." She made the decision to break her oath. "I come from Xanadia originally." She watched their reactions with hope of recognition, but she feared there would be none. Could her home land truly have thrived for a millennia, still hidden in the world? Or did it rest on the pages of some dusty, forgotten tome?

"But I reside in Ponyville, after I visited the Butterfly Islands." She tried to mention as many locations as she could relate to. Surely at least one of them must ring a bell with these ponies?