Galvin Starlight

"Stop?" Pisces, asked turning his head to the side, "Why? Are we playing freeze tag? Did I get tagged? Dang it! Somepony unfreeze me!" "No," the shadow said despairingly. "Pisces, you need to stop this!" the shadow gestured to...well...all of Pisces. "You're not helping yourself by doing any of this, Pisces. You're going to have to wake up at some point." "So this all just a dream," Pisces pondered. The pink stallion closed his eyes and scrunched his face in hard concentration. "No, you can't make anything explode by concentrating on it, Pisces." "Be quiet," the stallion said not bothering to open his eyes, "this is my dream and I can if I think I can." The shadow gave a final sigh. "You can't keep this up forever, Pisces. You need to get in the boat." "What is that supposed to mean?" Pisces asked opening his eyes. The stallion was only met with the sight of a decrepit bookshelf, the shadow nowhere to be seen.

Please Pisces," the shadow said, ​"don't draw so much attention to yourself. You should be concerned that you're more than likely hallucinating right now." "Wait a minute," Pisces said raising an eyebrow, "How do you know my name?" ​Pisces glared at the shadow, giving his best interrogation face, which was equivalent to that of a kitten. "Who are you? What makes you think I'm hallucinating? WHAT DID I HAVE FOR BREAKFAST THIS MORNING?!" "Please, there's no reason to shout," the voice said calmly. "To answer your question, I don't know who I am or how I know your name. I think you're hallucinating because you're talking to a shadow that can't possibly exist given the currently level of light in this room. Finally, you didn't have breakfast this morning; you woke up and stared into a mirror for half an hour before heading to school." "Well, that doesn't make any sense at all!" Pisces shouted. "How could not know what you are? Isn't this the part of the story where I gain guidance from a strange and mystical force? You can't give me guidance if you don't know what you are." "Pisces, please keep your voice down," the voice pleaded. "Don't you remember this town was taken over by some dark presence? You need to be quiet. As for the advice, I am here to tell you something." "Oh!" Pisces interjected as he began to bounce up and town, "Is it the location of a lost artifact? No, it's..... that I'm the chosen one foretold by ancient prophecy, or is it-" "You need to stop."

Pisces sat in the library rocking his head back and forth. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. The stallion thought as his head moved side to side. To say that Pisces was bored was a complete understatement He was practically made of wood at this point. Sitting in front of a window making sure nothing could get in like it was job. So bored. "Ughhhhh," the stallion groaned as his head pressed itself to the floor on frustration. "Why can't anything interesting happen?" 'Are you sure that's what you want?' "Yes," Pisces answered as his head shot upwards, "it is. Also, who said that?" Pisces looked around. Midnight had flown upstairs, which had prevented anypony from following him. The new pony was in the other room reading that book Pisces had found earlier. She was wasting her time. The characters weren't really believable and even less memorable, and the execution of the buildup to the climax was executed horribly. They didn't even kiss at the end. Sagittarius was the only pony Pisces could see currently so it certainly wasn't him. 'Something interesting,' the voice continued, 'could be something bad or dangerous.' That voice sounded very familiar to Pisces. It sounded very handsome as well. Probably intelligent, wise, a true scholar in fact. It also sounded very close. Pisces turned to his left. Draped across the bookshelf was a shadow. A pony-shaped shadow. A Pisces-shaped shadow. Pisces found this very interesting as there was no light source anywhere close enough or powerful enough to project such a shadow. "Hello," Pisces said, cocking his head to one side in confusion. 'You should really think about things before you say them. The same goes for your actions. You need to be careful,' the shadow said in Pisces' voice. "Interesting thing, HO!" Pisces shouted in glee.

"I was expecting some ominous level or button or something, I could mess with," Pisces said as he approached the dust covered tome. "I suppose you'll have to do," he said with a sigh. Pisces lifted the book in his mouth and brought it back into the main room. The stallion coughed at the heavy granules of soot and ash as he placed the book down. "All" cough "right. Let's see what we got here." Pisces opened up the book to a random page and began to read. The writing was crisp and clear, with incredible penponyship. Whoever had written in the book certainly held Another one came in today asking about the same thing. Some weird pony figure stands in the edge of your vision, and oh so conveniently leaves before you can look at him. I don't understand why these ponies keep coming to my library when they should be going to a hospital! I mean honestly, what do they expect to find? Some ancient tome made of dragon skin that'll reveal some dark arts nonsense that'll tell them how to fix all their problems? All those stories a complete nonsense! There's a reason we call it the fantasy section! "Well that's what I was hoping to find," Pisces said turning to another page, this one the style seemed to have devolved as if whoever was writing had decided that care wasn't exactly important any more. Went to the doctor today. Couldn't help me. Told me to sleep. Sleep. Lie down. Close my eyes. I can't. I think if I stop it'll find me, whatever it is. I closed the library today. I need to search. There has to be something. Something. Something to tell me what's happening. Some medical case that shows similar symptoms. Can't be a coincidence. Too many. I have to find something. Something. Something to fix this. "Blah blah blah, fixing things." Pisces turned to another page toward the end of the book. "I'm just gonna see what happens in the end. The page was covered in scratches and marks that only resembled what normal ponies called the alphabet. In some of the corners small salt stains could be seen along with some other substance. Across the page was a single phrase had been scrawled out like a mantra to some unknown god or presence. it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me it will find me. Pisces tossed the book over his shoulder. "Bored again," he cried out.

"How could it not be here? How. Could it not. BE HERE?!" Pisces shouted as he tore the last book from the shelf. "There is supposed to be a hidden entrance to a secret room that's opened by moving a certain book off the shelf. This. Is. Text. Book. Stuff." Pisces said stomping a hoof at every syllable. "Textbook stuff." The earth pony made his way over to a fresh shelf. "It's simple," he said. "You pick a book," as Pisces spoke he placed his hoof on a random book,"pull it off the shelf," Pisces pulled his hoof back removing the book from the rack of tomes, "and BAM, a secret room opens up," Pisces extended a hoof at the new entrance that appeared, the bookshelf seeming to have recede into the wall revealing a small hiding place, "just like that! Text book stuff! This is the absolute worst libr-" Pisces stared into the now not so hidden room he had 'uncovered'. "Pisces you are a genius," The stallion said aloud. Yes you are. Pisces looked into the small space that had been revealed. It resembled a panic room with just enough space for a single pony to fit inside of comfortably. The entirety of the room was barren. Four dust covered wooden walls, a ceiling with a small hook that Pisces guessed was used for hanging a lantern, and in one of the darkened corners, a small, dirt covered book lay in the dust.

Ah, there they were. The voices in Pisces head had finally shown themselves. He knew it was only a matter of time before he snapped and started hearing things. Next he would begin seeing things. Unless he already was. Who was to say anything was real? Perhaps everything here was simply an illusion. Maybe he was still at home dreaming. Or perhaps even, everything that the earth pony stallion perceived as reality was a complex abstract creation of his psyche, only as real so long as he perceived that way. Maybe his sole mind was the reason that everything had come into being, and upon his death everything else would sink back away into nothingness, forever lost to the dark abyss of the void. Well might as well have some fun with it. "Oh that depends on your classifications of daemons," Pisces said aloud as he continued to rip books from the shelves. "First off, we'll need to know just what culture you're from, as the definition and even the spelling of daemons can change based on where you are from. Now, I don't personally believe that I'm a daemon but who can say? For all I know, I could be the dark messiah the lost, blind prophets have awaited for all these thousands of years, whose single purpose is to bring the downfall of all civilization!" Pisces stopped for a moment and placed a hoof on his chin. "Of course that would make an incredibly awkward dinner conversation for anypony. Oh and can you imagine how my parents would react?!" Pisces said with a laugh. "Hi mom, hi dad, just came over to visit to let you know you brought the spawn that's destined to bring about the end of all life into this world. K bye, see you next Hearth's Warming Eve!" Pisces chuckled to himself. "Good times, good times."

Pisces followed Arianna and Midnight inside the library. The library was filled with books, books, more books, oh look dust, and more books. Of course Pisces hadn't really expected anything more, than books and anything less than dust, but still, it would have been nice to have some sort of clue. Like a riddle, Pisces loved riddles, they were so complex and.... riddle-like! The only problem was that once you solved a riddle you couldn't enjoy it anymore. Oh well, most puzzles were like that but not many mentioned the witty word play that riddles featured. Then there were optical illusions. Now those you could stare at fo- Oh look, Midnight had found a secret trapdoor leading down into the basement of the library. That were certainly making great time, not a single book opened and they had already found a secret room. Unless that isn't the 'real' secret room in the library, Pisces thought. "Of course!" Pisces shouted. The pink stallion immediately began to tear volume after preciously fragile volume off the shelves as fast as he could.

Well, any hopes of getting alive out of this were quickly falling apart. Apparently, instead of working together and trying to work out their differences it seemed that two of them had decided to get into an argument about who was more 'special'. Pisces watched as the two of them began to walk in their separate directions. Of course, if Pisces was forced to chose between following one of the two stallions, Pisces didn't even need to think about who his choice would be: Sagittarius. Thus far, the silent pony had been the only one to show in any form that he had some grasp of the situation and that he was approaching it calmly. A single slap in the face, which a had calmed Pisces' earlier freak, out had established that rather firmly. Along with that, Pisces was far more keen in searching the library. If there was any source of knowledge, it would more than likely be at the library. Lost tomes, ancient books, forgotten knowledge, all where they kept the books. Finally, Pisces was also none to keen about following a pony who had just openly admitted to murdering three royal guards! With these thoughts in mind, Pisces began to make his way, cutlass in teeth, with the group headed for the library.

Pisces looked over at Midnight. "I'm not sure that's a good idea Midnight," Pisces said looking concerned. "I mean if we go by the whole 'strength in numbers' things and split up evenly than we only have a fifty percent chance of not dying and we only have half as much chance as surviving." Pisces began to gesture with his hooves as he spoke. "And, if we go with that math than we're at only 25 percent chance of getting through this, and that's only if we split up evenly and since there are an odd number of us here than one group would have even lesser chance of staying alive." That was how math worked right? Pisces was pretty sure that his math was accurate, as he had a pretty good streak in his math courses. In fact his math teacher one year had like him so much she asked him to stay another year. Either way, splitting up was probably pretty abysmal in terms of being helpful to anypony involved. .

I can swing my sword sword. Sword, my pirate sword sword. Pisces sang in his head in an attempt to keep himself from thinking. Oh look, ponies were making plans. Pisces liked plans. Especially when he wasn't thinking of them. Plans meant somepony had thought something out and knew what to do. Even if that plan stilled probably concluded with the deaths of everyone involved, it was still better than not having a plan and just sitting here thinking about dying. Thinking was the enemy as Pisces was beginning to discover. "Wll wm dmt ha-" Pisces spat the cutlass out of his mouth. "Well we don't really have anything else to go on," Pisces observed. He stared at the sword on the ground in front of him. "And I really need some better way to carry this thing around." Pisces picked up his cutlass again and walked over to join the "let's go to the library" group. "Who votes for books?!" Pisces called out, raising a hoof to the sky.

Did that pony just slap him? That pony just slapped? Why did that pony jus- Oh look Pisces wasn't panicking anymore. By the time Pisces had shaken himself out of his shock, Sagittarius had already walked away, not allowing Pisces to give any form of rebuttal. Pisces considered Libra's argument for a moment, but quickly realized that finding the river meant going out into the wasteland where they would more than likely die. After a bit more thinking, which derailed into something about using paper maché to fuel a sky ship somewhere, Pisces decided that it would probably be best to stick with the group and just try not to think to hard. He picked up the cutlass and began to walk after the group headed into town without a word. A pirate's life for me.

Okay. So everypony was okay with the fact they had been dumped in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere's population being some flesh eating shadow thing or whatever, and they had been given weapons. Actual, literal weapons! And everypony was just picking them up like nothing was wrong! Well alright then. If Pisces was going to panic, then he was going to panic while going along with the group. The pink earth pony picked up a single cutlass in his mouth. Pisces of course had absolutely no training with any weaponry of any kind, aside from the history of those weapons. The cutlass, if Pisces remembered correctly, was most famous for being the chosen weapon of pirates. Pisces liked pirates, so if he was going to die, which he probably would in the next thirty minutes, he might has well have some fun and be a pirate. "Sho we cn eder" Pisces spat the cutlass out of his mouth. "So we can either head out into unknown plains and die a horribly slow deaths of stavation when our rations run out, or we can head into town and probably be killed by some shadowy monsters. Which to do? Does anyone have a coin we could flip? Or maybe enie menie miney moe if you prefer rhymes." Pisces was obviously having a complete nervous breakdown. "If you ask me it doesn't really matter. I'm fine with any decision the group makes. In fact I'm just peachy!"

"Okay, okay, okay. Let's me clarify a few things just to be sure I understand everything," Pisces said. "We are currently in Delvia, the 'city to first be shadowed.'" Pisces took a deep breath. "Two, Delvia is in the darkened lands of what used to be Equestria. Three, Delvia, being the first city to be shadowed, would be the capital of the darkened lands south of the Everfree i terms of evil badness and all things that go bump in the night." Pisces was beginning to hyperventilate. "Four, Delvia has some legend about a shadowy thing that consumes all living things within the city. Five." Pisces was visibly shaking. "We are living things! And finally! Number six. Our. School. Sent us HERE!!!" Pisces screamed. "Am I understanding this all correctly?! Because I could sure use somepony telling me that I forgot something right now!"

"Delvia?" Pisces asked turning back toward Libra. "Oh, hey Tlalli, Pisces said, "glad to see somepony else is up." He turned back toward Libra again. "So...Delvia? Geography class is my nap-time so would somepony please tell me where are exactly?" At least they had the name of a location, hopefully that was enough to let them know where exactly they were, or at least what they were supposed to be doing out here in the first place.

"Yeah, no kidding," Pisces said, his voice high and quiet. Okay, so, list of things that were going on right now. Pisces and ten other ponies had been gassed into unconsciousness, by their own school no less, dropped off in a unknown location, meaning that it had to be some distance away from Canterlot, and now they were completely alone in the ruins of some village with nowhere to go. And some ponies complained about the educational system of Equestria. Pisces took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down. 'All right, we need to keep calm, get our bearings, and find out what we need to do. This is no time for panicking.' 'What are you talking about?! This is the absolutely perfect time for panicking!!! When else is there a better time to panic than now?!' 'WELL PANICKING ISN'T GOING TO SOLVE ANYTHING?' Pisces screamed in his head. 'Oh, we're worried about solving things now are we?' Pisces retorted to...himself. 'YES!! We can't start panicking now!' 'Well it sure sounds like we're panicking!' Faced with the fact that his mind had tricked itself into doing exactly what it didn't want to do, Pisces closed his eyes and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down. "Okay," he said as he looked back at Libra, "I think the first thing we should do is try to find out where we are." Pisces turned and began to scour the horizon. "Can you see any signs of Canterlot from here?" he asked Libra.

Pisces yawned calmly as he stretched his legs. Sleep was good he decided, and anypony who disagreed deserved to be knocked unconscious. For the sole purpose of experiencing sleep that is, not for expressing violence or anything horrible like that. Pisces spied Libra sitting a ways away as he rose from the ground. “Hey Libra, whaaaaaa…” Pisces had finally decided to actually look around and, well, Pisces reaction could be summed up in one word. “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." To say that Pisces was a bit confused would an understatement. The pink earth pony looked around and noticed the bodies of the others from the bus, all sleeping on the ground. Maybe sleep wasn't as awesome as Pisces previously thought. Pisces turned back to Libra, the only who seems to be awake at the moment. "Where are we?”

What was going on? What was wrong with everypony? Was that gas? Why did it suddenly smell minty? Pisces hated minty! Why would anypo- and sleepy. No. No sleep now. Pisces couldn't sleep now! He would miss all the bouncing of the bus' back seat! It wasn't fair! It isn't fair! It- Pisces then presumed to pass out all over Midnight, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he began to snore obnoxiously.

Pisces raced to the back of the bus a grabbed a seat next to Midnight, making sure he could sit as close as possible to one of the back wheels. This way, Pisces could attain maximum bus bounceification when they went over a pot hole or any bumps in the room. Bouncefication? Was that a word? It should be a word Pisces decided, and any who disagreed simply had not been exposed the joys of bouncing in the back of a bus. It had been rumored, that there was one pony who managed to time a jump just right, so that he hit the roof of the bus and was forced to wear a neck cast for three whole months. Pisces could only hope to aspire to such lofty heights one day.

Of course that doesn't explain everything. In the event of such a phenomenon they were going to need a massive amount of glue. Not to mention what would happen to the unicycles! The conditions of the lightning rods would be to poor for them to be essential anymore which meant they were going to have to rely on the can opener to separate the oranges from the charcoal so that in the event of a flux the "pencils," for lack of a proper term, would remain within the plains of entropy, allowing the barons to harness enough energy to create a nexus gateway capable of transporting enough mass so that the Droviskir 's Arch-tower would be filled with enough matter to expand the conduit of reality which would then trigger- Oh look things were happening! Pisces really needed to stop doing that thinking thing. It never really ended well. “So when exactly are we leaving, and where are we going?" Pisces decided, after thinking it over, (which is itself an oxymoron) that maybe this trip wouldn't be so bad. The call of adventure was beckoning. Perhaps they would be whisked away on a grand adventure, fought with danger, peril, treasure, and all that cool stuff you find in adventures. Pisces was also expecting to find some skulls in this adventure. No adventure was complete without skulls! Either way Pisces was going to stay positive about this.

Pisces was bored, and being bored was not good for Pisces, because when Pisces was bored, Pisces did something that was not good for any pony especially Pisces. Pisces thought. What in the name of Sleipnir's legs is going on? What are we doing out here? Why are we waiting in the hall while those two are in there? Well it was awfully crowded in there. Still, why would the principal tell us we're going on a field trip and then just send us outside and tell those two? You don't know is they're going on the field trip. They could be in there for totally different reasons. That's true, and on that note, what's the deal with this field trip? Where are we going? Why are we going? What's Midnight deal with wanting to bring weapons? What's the principal's deal with letting him?! Is there a reason all of us are going? Didn't Tlalli and Libra say something about cutie marks? What about our cutie marks? Speaking of Libra I never got to find out about her wings. Eh, it probably doesn't matter. It’ll involve a horrible tragedy where her family was killed in a fire and she lost her wings or something like that. Can only pegasi get metal wings? I want metal wings. That would be like the coolest thing ever! You can fly….and hold snacks! What’s taking so long? Where are those others two? Who were those other two? I asked if anypony knew who the blue one was. Did nopony hear my question? Are they ignoring me? Did they not notice him? What was his cutie mark? I don’t really remember. Wait a minute. Maybe he doesn't have a cutie mark, and not having a cutie mark is his cutie mark because nopony knows him and his special talent is not being noticed and that’s why nopony answered my question!!! IT ALL. MAKES. SEN- Oh there they are. Pisces watched as the two ponies trotted out of the Principal’s office. Pisces looked and spotted a blue arrow thingy on the nameless stallion’s flank. Well there goes that theory. Unless…. The arrow symbolizes that attention is drawn away from him OF COURSE!!!! Pisces thoughts continued to spin around the inside of his head, being the complete bane of all productivity, everywhere.

Pisces watched the blue stallion walk into the principal's office. This pony looked somewhat familiar, but Pisces couldn't really tell where he had seen him from before. Oh well, if he was important, Pisces would probably have remembered him. "Who do you guys think that is?" Pisces asks, turning to the group.

Pisces was already not liking this idea. The principal had paused when he said "field trip" which meant that the normal pony would not use the words field trip, to describe this so called "trip". Which meant that the principal was hiding something, which in turn meant that they would get to figure out something horrible when they went. Cutie marks? Pisces glanced around the room at the flanks of the other ponies. Hmmmm, sure enough each pony in the room seemed to have something relating to a certain zodiac sign. Well that was certainly interesting. Of course Pisces knew there was no point in asking the principal. These quest giving types didn't give out all the information as soon as you met them, you had to go out and discover things on your own. Pisces knew he would need to keep any form of questions as equally mysterious as the answers that would be given. Perhaps he could even play the answer a question with another question game. He always liked that one. Even if he was terrible at it.

Oh what was this? Pisces did not want to go to the principal's office. Going to the principal's office meant that he was probably going to get in trouble, which was just never good. As he entered the principal's office he noted that there was several other ponies already inside. Enough ponies to make it really crowded inside one pony's office. This already sucked.

"Psychology, history, math is my last one for today," Pisces answered. What was Midnight training for? A solider. Did they teach those kinds of classes here? Oh well, it didn't really matter to Pisces since he wasn't taking any of those classes. "Why," the pink earth pony asked. "Pisces by the way," he said turning to face the red unicorn.

"It's probably just bits of your coat sticking out and obstructing your vision," Pisces stated. Pisces hoped to the ancient goddesses that he was right, even though he knew that was complete laugh of an excuse. Libra looked severely worried. She couldn't possibly be talking about The Presence could she? That stuff was made up. Either a conjuration to keep people out of the slums or scare foals into behaving right? Still if she was even slightly right, then Midnight was.... Well, then Pisces probably wouldn't be getting to know Midnight very well.