Inside 60

[Rebonack]

[Apartment Complex]

"I... uh... that's probably my fault," Air Brush admits sheepishly. "I told some ponies I knew you after that big light show you put on. And I guess they told everypony else..."

Air Brush had admitted that she knew the thestral who blew up the forge wight and gave out her pony name. And you know what they say, rumors and gossip are the only things that travel faster than light.

"Well, you can help me pick out what stuff I want to grab first, then?" Air Brush suggests. "I want to save some of Florence's art. It would be a shame if it just got thrown away after we leave. I mean... she's still me. Or I'm still her. Or whatever." She trots up the stairs toward the second floor and passes a small heap of fine ash on the way up.

The remains of one of the wights who was destroyed saving Shadow. Or... at least saving Shadow temporarily. Air Brush pauses for a moment to sniff at the remains. "Poor guy..." she mumbles sadly before continuing.

It's a weird mindset, really. The concept that undead are all fellow friends just waiting and yearning to be freed. To find one destroyed before they got that chance? It's a shame is what it is. It's heartbreaking.

The second floor turns out to be just as busy as the first. Chances are a goodly majority of the lower floors will be bustling with the activity of nightmære shadelings.

[Midnight Park]

The qilin hears Ashna coming, though she doesn't turn right away. One can tell since one of the qilin's ears swivels toward the approaching bouncy, cheerful person. Though when Ashna speaks, the qilin begins to reply, only for her words to be muffled on account of a mouthful of rake-handle.

She sets her tool down and offers a friendly smile with a mouth full of teeth that do not belong on an herbivore. As she turns the mark on her hips is clearly seen, a tombstone with a musical note on it.

"Thank you," she replies, her tone melodic and yet somber sounding. That mischievous glint in her eye suggests the somber air to her voice does not extend to a mournful personality. "I'm really fond of it. I've been making them all over the park, carting in sand from the Gloom since it's such a pretty white color."

She nods at a nearby two-wheeled cart filled up with more of the stuff.

"This is Midnight Park, part of the demesne of my Mistress, the nightmære Sunder. My name's Requiem and I'm a qilin. Or a crystal pony, if you prefer. Or more generally, I'm a shadeling, one of the Mistress' little ponies." Honestly, she isn't that little. She's edging in on just over five feet tall. At the mention of the tree she smiles and admires it, rubbing the smooth, black bark with one of her hooves. "I know! Aren't they wonderful?"

[Deathkeeper]

Apartment Complex

Morgan thinks sadly back to the wight she killed herself. It was completely justified, but she still feels bad.
"It's okay, Air. It's not bad, just weird for me. And really, there's probably not much to stop us from keeping our room keys for a few days, and coming back later with a few friends and getting more of our stuff back." she says. Her TV, lousy as it was, came with the room, so she couldn't take that. Well, she shouldn't, rather.

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Park]

"Nightmare?"
Ashna's seen a nightshade before, and it was terrible. Hopefully it's just one of those punny names ponies love so much.
And the one someone is wanting dead. And owning this place, which should clearly be let alone.

"It is a very pretty white. Although the color palette here is looking a little limited."

[Rebonack]

[Apartment Complex]

"I half way wonder if this place will get condemned now that the city government is actually paying attention to it," Air Brush mutters around the key in her mouth as she sticks it into her lock before turning it with a hoof. After doing so she just stares at her single giant toe blankly for a few moments before she busts up laughing. Her giggle fit continues as she noses her door open and trots inside to begin collecting her things. "Hehe... sorry. The absurdity of all this just hit me. Not only am I a talking pony, I'm a talking pony with magical magnet hooves."

As a visual aid she touches her hoof to the frame of one of her paintings and picks the whole thing up, the piece of art hanging off her hoof mysteriously. She shakes her hoof around a bit, then tilts her limb so the painting is hanging upside down off her hoof like a bat on the ceiling.

"Weird, right?" Air laughs. "At least you have three hooves on your feet. They're like... finger toe... things. It makes sense that you can grip stuff."

So.

What's the lesson of today?

Hooves are magic.

[Midnight Park]

Requiem nods. "Mhmm. You know, a type of nightshade? Just not the undead kind. None of us are undead, but we aren't really living, either. It's a lot better than being a vampire spawn, though," she says brightly. "I had gotten lost out in the Gloom and my old master probably forgot I existed. My Mistress found me and sired me as one of her little ponies." A wide, joyful smile spreads across her face. "I'm so happy for it. You know, vampires imprison their host soul and steal its memories? I'm not like that anymore! I'm free!"

She sits down on her haunches and picks up the rake in her front hooves so she can work and talk at the same time. "Though the undead spirit didn't just vanish. I think I sort of... absorbed it? It's hard to explain. But it's way better than being a prisoner in my own body."

The mare seems positively exuberant about having the chance to talk about her 'redeeming'. And just as happy to talk about her gardens. "I know... black white and grey only go so far. But there are some really pretty wildflowers that grow in the Gloom if you know where to look for them, mostly in bioluminescent blues and greens! The next time I'm sent on patrol into the Gloom I'm going to keep an eye out for some."

[Deathkeeper]

Apartment Complex

Morgan stares at the end of her forelegs, wiggling the toes.

"Yeah, but I'm also a bat or something. I think we're both equally ridiculous." she says with a giggle.

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Park]

"Could help it out. Maybe a few muted warmer colors, if you can get them. On shrubs?"

Ashna stops smiling. That sounds bad. Actual nightshades. And someone else who used to be a vampire?
"Sired you as a little pony? What do you mean? Tell me about that."
That's a demand, not a question.

[Rebonack]

[Apartment Complex]

"You're a bat-horse, I'm a bird-horse," Air laughs, puffing up her collection of breast feathers. "We all look pretty silly. Equestrians do in general, if you ask me. But all the ones I met have seemed like nice enough people."

It doesn't take long for Air Brush to collect all the supplies and paintings she wanted to keep along with a few small personal items. All her life, condensed down into a pair of saddlebags.

It's almost...

Humbling.

She gives a little snort, trying her best to sniff back the tears. "You know how they say, 'we brought nothing into this life and we can't take anything out'? Heh... I guess that isn't true for us, is it?" She chokes a bit, her effort to fight off the tears failing. "Just... I need a sec, then I'll be ready to help you get your stuff..."

Seems the weight of everything is finally coming down on her.

[Midnight Park]

"Maybe... I've seen some flowers that are a dark red color before... but they're pretty rare," Requiem hums. Red, orange, and purple bioluminescent things are rarer than the green and blue ones. But that just means they would be more fun to find! At the question regarding her genesis, the qilin replies with no small degree of cheer, "Oh! Well, I guess it isn't too different from when I became a vampire spawn? Except instead of draining my blood, my Mistress drained away my awareness. Then when I woke up, I was one of her little ponies instead," she recounts. "I've done it to some wights that attacked a village a few days ago. It's kind of... eerr... gross. After I drained them they turned to this black mist that I breathed in. Then I puked up gallons and gallons of liquid shadow that formed into the new shadeling."

She sticks her tongue out. "It's about as unpleasant as it sounds, but you feel like you're just glowing afterwards."

A beat. "Oh, and the Mistress doesn't allow us to make spawn from the living. That's the most important rule. We only feed on the undead."

Rake rake rake...

[Recaiden]

[Midnight]

Ashna attempts to take hold of the rake's handle with her free hand.
And then incinerate it.
"You did what to these men? That was before this rule of yours?"

[Deathkeeper]

Apartment Complex

Morgan doesn't know what to say. She leans over and wraps a fuzzy wing around Air Brush.
"Take as much time as you need."

[Rebonack]

[Midnight Park]

Requiem gives a cry of alarm when her rake is incinerated!

The qilin stumbles away from Ashna, her hooves ruining the pleasant waves of sand in her sand harden as she trods through it. "Men? I... what? I've never fed on anyone alive before, I promise!" she replies, sounding fearful. "I've eaten shadows before. And wights. You know, those mummified looking things that drink the life of the living?"

It sounds like Ashna is running on a different definition of wight.

Could Requiem fight?

Probably.

But one of the rules is that they're to avoid confrontation with the living if at all possible.

[Apartment Complex]

Hugs and deep breaths do it.

Air Brush rubs her eyes dry with a wing and sniffs again. "Okay, I'm good. Let's go do your room next."

She trots out of her apartment, takes one last look behind her, and then walks away from her old life for good.

[Deathkeeper]

Apartment Complex

Morgan smiles. Florence always was a cryer.
When they get to the fifth floor, Morgan manages to get her door unlocked without too much trouble. Her room is a bit messy, but she doesn't seem to have any trouble finding what little she needs, although she needs very little, it seems.
Eventually she goes into her bedroom, but takes an oddly long time in it. Air Brush, if she investigates, will find her friend with her hat sitting on her bed, staring at herself in the mirror, wiggling her giant ears and inspecting other aspects of herself she couldn't really notice without the mirror's help.

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Park]

"If you've fed on the dead, that's just the same. And made them into more of you?"
Ashna races after the qilin, further ruining the sand garden, especially as small patches are fused into bone-glass. Hmm. Her flames don't usually burn anywhere near that hot.

She hefts the warhammer in both hands, swinging wildly at the shade-pony.
"Huh? That makes you no different from them! And I respected your gardening! YOU MONSTER!"

[Darkcomet]

[Sky Barge]

I have no idea if I have anything to do here.

[Rebonack]

[Midnight Park]

"They were mindless monsters!" Requiem objects as she continues to back-peddle. "We free them! We give them a chance to li-" Whatever she was going to say next is silenced when she gets smashed across the face with a hammer, giving a rather equine cry of pain. Half her head actually liquifies into fluid gloom when she gets smacked, her head snapping to one side and deforming as she stumbles in a desperate attempt to stay on her hooves. Just as quickly her face reforms again, though now her lip is split and one of her eyes is swollen and bleeding. But that's better than having her skull turned into chunky salsa.

Requiem quickly turns and bolts, bounding around gnarled roots and leaping over fallen logs. She's headed for the edge of the designated pathway where the light no longer protects the living from the darkness. If the unliving qilin makes it beyond that point it'll be drastically more difficult to catch her since Ashna will have to contend with feral undead as well.

Even keeping up with the sure-footed qilin may prove to be difficult. Creatures of her sort aren't exactly known for being slow after all.

[Apartment Complex]

There's nothing wrong with being able to cry!

It's one of the things that distinguishes the unliving from the undead.

They can still feel.

For a time Air Brush will just wait, though eventually she starts getting worried when Gilded Shadow doesn't show up. She noses the door open with a call of, "Shadow? Are you..." She trails off when she sees her reflection. It actually takes moving her head around and flapping her wings a few times to realize that yes, that is in fact her looking back in the mirror. Her image of herself was still Florence, for better or for worse. Seeing a shadeling pegasus staring back at her in the mirror is just... jarring.

"That's me... isn't it?" Air Brush mutters as she trots closer. "Our eyes look weird..."

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Park]

Another swing of the hammer should certainly miss the stumbling, fleeing pony. Then she's pursuing Requiem, though already it is apparent that the quadruped is faster.
Ashna channels a blast of fire towards Requim just as she starts to run, hoping that will slow her down, at least. Regardless, she charges after the pony, having no fear of the dark spaces off the pathways.

The flames around her feet roar happily. This is just like old times. Living, dead, unliving: they all burn the same. Except the awful fireproof ones, but it has yet to find a shadow-monster that's also very fire-resistant.

[Deathkeeper]

Apartment Complex

Morgan turns to Air, and then turns back. "Yeah, they do. We really are the kind of folks kids would squeal to be able to pet for a while, aren't we?" she says with a laugh before running a hoof over the top of her head, as if her ears were just unruly tufts of hair she could smooth out.
"They're so big, Air. My ears, that is. They...don't look goofy, do they?" she asks self-consciously.

[Shadowcaller]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara skids to a stop when she hears the gunfire and swears, gets low, and edges much more slowly towards the door and peers out into the lobby.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Down the corridor she can see a huge hulking creature wander out of one of the rooms, it could easily have been a patient or one of the personnel if not for the huge club it was carrying in it's hand. The next moment another smaller creature exits as well, dragging a chain after it.
The two haven't noticed her yet but they're bound too soon.

[Rebonack]

[Apartment Complex]

"We look a little spooky, though," Airs points out. Cute and spooky at the same time. That's a fun combination, right? And Air's is very right. There's a predatory look to them. They don't look quite as soft and friendly as the pastel horses wandering around Carousel Court. And that predatory look is even more pronounced in the nightmære spawn than it is in the shadelings.

When Shadow asks about her ears Air can't help but laugh. "Of course not! They look adorable with those little tufts of fluff at the top. They're like... what's that cat with the fuzz at the top of their ears called? Like one of those."

The thestral's ears are easily twice the size of Air Brush's own. And Air Brush's ears aren't exactly small by any means.

[Midnight Park]

The flames lick over Requiem from behind, lightning the hair of her tail on fire and scalding her badly. As with the hammer stroke, her body partly liquifies to absorb some of the damage, but it doesn't stop it by any mean. It's pretty obvious by now that she's gotten into a fight.

"Help!" she calls out as she stumbles past the line of lanterns into the darkness of the woods, zagging around massive trees to try to put obstacles between herself and the insane person trying to kill her. "Help me!"

Then?

She does something really weird.

She begins singing.

It's a slow, mournful sounding song. Almost like a funeral dirge. Her singing voice is nothing short of beautiful, tinged with pain though it is. Nothing seems to happen as a result of it, though.

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Park]

Ashna keeps chasing, although she's falling behind, unable to leap so nimbly around trees and over rocks.
Quiet.
The flames flicker and shift color, becoming black ashen shapes that radiate heat but no light of any sort, probably breaking some physical laws.
And then she creeps, as quietly as she can, after the monster.

Singing. Requim is singing a requim, is she? Calling for help? Doing some magic? Could be anything. At least the sound isn't hard to follow.

[Deathkeeper]

Apartment Complex

To be fair, the bat-based fluff might make Morgan seem almost as soft as the normal ones.
"I really don't think I ever considered that one day I'd be compared to a housecat in terms of cuteness." she sighs.
"Well, I think that's everything. Most of what money I had was in the bank, and I didn't really have much of value besides my tools. I'll tell the owners to give my clothes to a local charity. Here, let's raid what food I had lying about and pass it around. I bet lots of folks could use something real to eat right now."
Morgan didn't have much real food in her fridge, since she would eat real food, but she does have a few microwavable things, plus snacks and nonperishables in the pantry.

[Rebonack]

[Apartment Complex]

"That's a pretty good idea. I... umm... didn't really have any food in my apartment," Air Brush admits. "Starving artist and all."

Pretty literally.

She wasn't above taking charity, though. There are plenty of people around the Nexus who give out food to the impoverished.

So... That should be it, right? All that remains now is to wait for everypony else to finish gathering their things and then take part in the big migration to Midnight Park! Well, won't that be exciting? Once our heroes get back outside they'll find the throngs of shadelings chatting with each other, sharing food, relating stories, and even singing songs. A couple more adventurous little ponies are trying to sample the sickly looking plants that grow in the slums, though they quickly report that the wilted, tainted grass tastes awful.

[Midnight Park]

Requiem will soon finish her song and continue to run in relative silence, eventually slipping inside a massive fallen log to hide. There in the darkness the spirits enticed by her song whisper to her, and she whispers back. Told of her plight, the departed dead decide to do something about it.

Out here beyond the edge of the lantern light it is, quite literally, pitch black. Finding anything in the gloom will probably prove difficult. Especially now that the whispers of 'so hungry...' are starting to get more prevalent.

Shadows, all but invisible in the darkness, have been rounded up by the spirits and herded toward Ashna. They think she looks like a tasty snack.

A good dozen or so hungry, incorporeal undead descend upon Ashna from all sides. They reach out from the earth, from the trees, from the empty air. Without light to hold them at bay they're swarming the only source of warmth and life they can find. Their touch steals away the strength and vitality of any living thing. And should any poor tormented mortal be drained to naught, they too will fade away into another hungry patch of undead darkness.

This right here?

This is why paying attention to warning signs is so important.

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Park]

Whispers. Hungry shadows. Memories of many a night hiding from them inside a log. Not actually happy ones.

"Stand aside."
Ashna takes one hand off her hammer and puts it on the pendant she wears, a religious symbol in the shape of a stylized feather.
"Would you harm your own protector?"
A paralyzing wave of negative energy pulses out from it and her as Ashna speaks the rebuke. A mere shadow of a being should find it difficult to approach, must less view her as food. She goes a bit further. Another wave of energy, more refined, encouraging respect and obedience.
"Follow me, and I will tear down those lanterns for you."

[Rebonack]

[Midnight Park]

Well, now there's something of a road block.

The spirits of the dead are saying one thing and the scary gal with the hammer is saying another. As a result of the conflicting orders, the shadows all just sit there doing not much of anything. The attempt at diplomacy really doesn't do much good. The shadows really aren't too much brighter than animals and all bu the simplest concepts are lost on them.

Like Requiem said, they're nearly mindless.

They understand hunger, and that's about it.

And the shadelings that have been preying on them don't have anything they can eat.

The hammer gal, however, does. But she's also scary. So the shadows continue to do nothing.

Requiem, meanwhile, continues to hide in her log. She's probably hoping that Ashna will be eaten and/or go away.

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Park]

One attempt to find her, before something more dangerous shows up.

Ashna asks the flame if there are any sources of body heat near enough to detect, and heads towards one if there is. Of course, it's more than likely that the shadelings are as cold as the grave.

In which case she'll pick her way through the shadows for a few minutes, investigating each shape large enough to conceal a qilin.
And if no pony be found, give up for the time being and head back the way they came. The flames remember the path, at least.

[Rebonack]

[Midnight Park]

Being unliving isn't just advantages over being undead. The unliving still must eat. They must sleep. They have to breath. All those various living things, though they can go without much longer than the living can. This also means, unfortunately for Requiem, that she has body heat.

Everything save for the lanterns and the little ponies of Sunder is as cold as the grave here in Midnight Park.

Her body heat will stand out like a beacon.

The qilin is, by now, creeping out of her log and whispering to the spirits again, asking them what's going on. When she learns that she has an evil cleric chasing her around and promising to destroy the lanterns that protect the living visitors of the park she's filled with equal parts indignation and fear. That monster has come into their sanctuary and is threatening to define it. The shady qilin grits her teeth, tail flicking in agitation, but she isn't sure if she can actually fight the person safely. She isn't sure if she's strong enough.

With a gulp she peaks out from around a massive tree to see if she can't spot the evil cleric.

Thankfully darkness doesn't bother her vision in the least.

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Park]

Sometimes you have to fight unsafely, to protect something.

Oh no.

The evil cleric is looking right at her, as though she can see the pony through the dark. She's coming this way, leaving a trail of black flames, warhammer held at the ready. Ashna brightens, spotting the pony, and charges, orange and red and yellow appearing again in her flames now that the need for stealth has passed.

[Rebonack]

[Midnight Park]

Oh no.

Requiem doesn't run this time. Instead, she sets her hooves, focuses her aura, and cuts loose with a blast of wuji. The twilight energy goes streaking away from her and toward Ashna like a piece of the dawn sky given physical form. Should the attack strike true it will disrupt Ashna's living flesh, causing cell death without any apparent trauma. The shock to a living creature's system by the smite can leave them dazed and temporarily unable to straight or act coherently.

Whether or not the attack strikes true, Requiem gives an animalistic snarl before charging the warrior herself, turning at the last moment to lashing out with her tail and smash Ashna in the knee.

While not obvious at first glance, the furry end of a qilin's dragon-like tail is covered in iron-hard crystal scales with hair growing in between. Getting clobbered by the thogomizer of the rather massive creature is not a pleasant experience.

To make matters worse?

Being touched by the aggressive shadeling will drain away the victim's awareness, threatening to lull them toward unconsciousness.

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Park]

The wuji blast strikes Ashna, causing her to stumble and then halt. The order of the charge has been well-reversed. But the warrior recovers before the qilin has quite arrived.
Flames pour out towards the charging monster, significantly more intense than the single blast that singed her hair earlier. The flamethrower-like blast continues even a bit after the tail smashes into her Ashna and sends her reeling.

[Rebonack]

[Midnight Park]

The enraged qilin emerges from the flames, much of her fur singed off, her flesh pockmarked with burns, and her crystal scales glowing with incandescent heat. Suffice to say getting nailed with her tail hurts a lot. Upon impact, a wisp of white mist is drawn from Ashna and pulled into Requiem, healing a few of her burns. She follows up the tail-whip with a shoulder-check, aiming to knock Ashna flat on her back.

Should that attack strike true and send the warrior sprawling, Requiem will rear up on her hind hooves and try to bring the full brunt of her five hundred pounds of weight crashing down on Ashna's chest.

Suffice to say getting stomped on would be bad.

Don't get stomped on by a qilin if you feel like surviving.

Just...

No.

Don't do it.

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Garden]

Would be pretty lethal, true.
Ashna is sent sprawling, but keeps some awareness of what's going on, flips and rolls to the side to to avoid being stomped on.

This close, the flames reach out towards Requiem of their own accord, sending waves of heat and flashes of light the whole while.

The evil cleric, for her part, is attempting to scramble back to her feet and away from the qilin's tail.