No. No. No no no no NO!

I ran towards the sound of the scream - back inside the house. Risk and False followed me. The door was left wide open, so we didn’t need to stop and open it. Inside, we saw that all the windows were smashed and plenty of furniture was knocked over.

“Nimble?!” I yelled, looking around. He wasn’t in the main room, so I ran upstairs. “Nimble! Where are you?!”

I practically tore the entire house apart. If it didn’t already look like the Wonderbolts had just performed a private show in each room, it sure did when I was done.

It didn’t help, though.

Nimble was gone.

Seven pages.

Seven pages had been put into the saddlebags, which False was now carrying around. The last one was now somewhere in the city, and this entity was going to start hunting us down next.

What did I do? Nothing. I just sat on the steps to the house, staring down at my hooves.

I had no idea what False and Risk were doing. I just knew that they weren’t nearby. There were several guards running all around, either looking for the final page or checking on strange noises. Whatever this entity was, it didn’t seem to be coming for us just yet. It was either toying with us by trying to make us paranoid, or it had one particular target it was going for first.

I heard somepony walk up to me. I didn’t look up. “...you are Miss Asylum, correct?”

I nodded. “What do you want?” I remained staring at the ground.

“...I thought so...a friend of yours wanted me to bring something to you.”

“Who was it? Risk? False?”

“No. Your Windigo friend.”

My blood ran cold. I lifted my head and saw who I was talking to. He was a unicorn stallion, outfitted in the typical guard armor; however, it was what he had attached to his armor that made my heart skip a beat.

Two metal sai.

He levitated the weapons off of his armor and down to me. “He said he wanted you to have these, and that he was ‘undoing his steps’. I’m not entirely sure what he meant by that...”

I took the sai from him carefully and stared at them. They were, without a doubt, Arrell’s. “...where is he now?”

The guard shook his head. “I don’t know where he went. I haven’t seen him in several hours.”

“...hours?” I stared at him, wide-eyed. “You saw him…spoke with him...sometime in the past day?”

He nodded slowly. “It was around the edge of the city. He flew away as soon as he was done talking to me and ordered me not to follow.”

“...you saw him...you talked to him...” Even if the news wasn’t entirely what I was hoping for, my entire body relaxed. “...he’s alive. He’s safe. He’s fine.”

Once more, the guard nodded. “Physically, he was perfectly healthy when I spoke with him. He appeared stressed and paranoid, however.”

I stood up, leaving the sai on the ground for now, and gave the stallion a quick hug. “Th-thank you...”

He seemed surprised by the embrace, but didn’t try to push me off. I detached quickly nonetheless, and he looked at me. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

I shook my head. “You’ve helped more than you know...thank you.”

So that was one friend I knew was fine...but there was still-

“ASYLUM WHERE ARE THE SADDLEBAGS!”

I jumped and turned towards the sound of the voice, seeing a moderately familiar gray blur. “N-Nimble…? Um...F-False has them...”

“WHERE IS SHE!”

“I don’t...” I began, only for the guard to cut me off.

“She’s off in that direction with a few other guards, searching for the last page.” He gestured off in a direction, remaining surprisingly calm about this entire situation.

“THANK YOU HAVE A NICE DAY!” With that, Nimble was gone, now dashing off in the direction he had been pointed in.

All around us, the air suddenly got colder, and I could swear the already dark night sky got darker. I felt like I was being watched, and there was the sound of breaking glass. Then, just as suddenly as the feeling came, it went away, and everything was back to normal.

I blinked as I let this all process in my brain. ...Nimble...is outrunning...that thing?

Once I snapped out of it, I quickly grabbed the sai and turned to the guard. “Thank you, once again. For everything.”

With that, I ran off after the colt.

I arrived at the scene just in time to watch everything unfold at once.

As soon as Nimble saw False, he practically pounced her to get at the saddlebags. Actually, scratch that; he did pounce her. And given that she was in the middle of a dark alley when there was a murderous entity on the loose, I think her reaction was justified.

Said reaction being jumping about thirty feet in the air, screaming in a pitch that deafened dogs for miles, and wetting herself. All at the same time.

Nimble didn’t seem to notice or care about any of that. He was too busy shoving the eighth page into the saddlebags.

As soon as the paper was contained within the cloth, everything seemed to stop. All feelings of paranoia and being watched were washed away, and when I looked around, I didn’t see anything suspicious or scary. There was no sound of breaking glass, no cold chill, nothing. All was well.

All, that is, aside from False lying in the fetal position on the ground and whimpering into her hooves. Nimble wasn’t doing much better; as soon as he had gotten rid of the paper, he jumped against a wall and lay down, shivering.

I sighed; partially in relief, and partially in exasperation. As if on cue, Risk walked over, joined by the rest of the guards who were with him.

“...did we get the last page?” he asked. He looked over at the two ponies who were lying on the ground. “...and what happened to them?”

I sighed again. “Let’s just say that the Royal Guard and the stealthy ninja aren’t so fearless after all.” I motioned to them. “Think you can take them home and get them cleaned up?”

He nodded and walked over, beginning the process of trying to get them onto their hooves. Meanwhile, I had something to think about.

“He said he wanted you to have these, and that he was ‘undoing his steps’. I’m not entirely sure what he meant by that...”

Undoing his steps.

I had no idea what that meant either. But I was going to find out.

As Risk carried a shivering Nimble on his back, I joined him in supporting a shaky but recovering False on the walk back to our temporary home. She seemed mortified; whether it was from being scared so easily or the accident that happened because of being scared, I wasn’t sure.

But even if I didn’t know that, I did know something else:

Finally, I had a clue. And I would follow it to the ends of Equis if that’s where it led me.

Author's Notes:

This is the last chapter to go up before this story goes on hold for the month of September. I may add a bonus chapter or two, but only if I get an idea.