Amber Waves couldn’t sleep.

She was a chronic on-again off-again insomniac, and tonight, unfortunately, was an “on” night, which was why she was currently meandering through empty streets past midnight. At least it wasn’t too bad. Her sleeplessness rarely lasted more than two nights in a row. She’d probably get to sleep tomorrow.

…So was it actually insomnia, or something else, if anything? Amber’d never gone to a doctor to get it diagnosed or whatever, as it wasn’t that bad, so she might just be a bit paranoid. It was sporadic; insomnia was generally more constant, right? But she’d had it since she was pretty much a filly. Every month or so, she’d have a night where she just couldn’t get to sleep, even if she was really tired. Amber only really noticed once she’d grown up, so she’d never talked to her parents about it, but she probably wouldn’t’ve talked about it if she had noticed it. It could just be coincidence, but now that she thought about it, it could be symptomatic (was that the word?) of something else. Something in the brain, maybe. Like, something was affecting the areas that let her sleep, and it stayed in there a while, and kept growing, and byCelestiaamIahypochondriac?

Well, hypochondria was pretty much the one thing hypochondriacs didn’t worry about, so probably not. Amber chuckled. That was certainly a roundabout way to reach that conclusion.

With nothing better to do, the Crystal Pony was wandering around Ponyville. Moon- and starlight glinted off her yellowy-bronzy coat. Amber didn’t know why, but it seemed like her coat looked a bit different in this light compared to sunlight. Crystals were like that, though, so she didn’t think too much about it. Her mane and tail were small but bushy, threaded in thick stripes with dark red and, well, amber. (Amber sometimes wondered what would’ve happened if her parents had named her Dark Red Waves.) Perched atop her mane was, as always, her railroad cap. Engineers hadn’t traditionally worn that cap in… probably over a century, but she’d always liked the style. Enough so that when her cutie mark revealed itself as a locomotive, Amber was happy that she’d have even more of a justification to wear it.

This being past the middle of the night, the streets of Ponyville were completely deserted, barring herself, obviously. It might’ve seemed creepy to other ponies, but, having done this sort of thing a bunch of times in the past, Amber was used to it, and actually liked it a bit. It had the feeling of being completely alone while still sort of close to others. The wind that blew through the town was that not-exactly-cold-but-very-biting chill of mid-autumn. The decorations for this year’s Nightmare Night were already up, even though that wasn’t until tomorrow night; getting ahead on things, Amber supposed. She had never been around for the celebration previously, but, given Ponyville’s size, it didn’t surprise her that it seemed to be one of those towns where holidays were an “everybody come to one big party” deal.

Amber liked Ponyville. Not too large, not too small, friendly. She’d stayed here a few times, both in her job and on a vacation or two, and even knew some of the locals. Good town. All she had to do was stay out of the Everfree Forest.

Which, she suddenly realized, her ramblings had just brought her to. She glanced down at the road for a moment, her orange eyes taking in what details they could in the half-light. If the Ponyvillians were so afraid of the place, why was there a road right to it? “Hey,” Amber muttered to herself, “I’ve got an idea. Let’s take the one place in Equestria where things operate differently and we’re incredibly scared of, and build a road right into the heart of it.” She looked back up. “You guys sure aren’t that smart, are you?”

A twig snapped in the dark.

Amber squeaked, turned on a dime, and kicked up a small cloud of dust as she bolted away as fast as her hooves could take her. I just had to open my big mouth. She chanced a glance over her shoulder. Whatever was there, it wasn’t following her.

Amber slowed from a gallop down to a slow walk, taking in deep breaths. Too much excitement. I need to take it a bit more easy. And stay away from that dang place.

As she made her way toward the town hall, Amber glanced up. At that very moment, a shooting star raced across the sky, raising her spirits a bit. Was there going to be a meteor shower tonight? She wasn’t one to keep track of astronomy. But the stars were pretty.

…You know, somehow, I never did any stargazing…

Oh, why not? It wasn’t like anything else was going on. Amber climbed the few steps to the town hall’s veranda and lay down on the floor. If the hall wasn’t locked, she’d’ve headed up to the balcony, but the view down here was fine.

After a few minutes of looking, Amber decided that the stars weren’t pretty. They were beautiful. It might’ve just been the clear night, but there was just something… aetherial about them that Amber hadn’t noticed before. Small dots, mere specks of light floating in a nigh-endless sea of dark, shining brightly in spite of all that surrounded them, all across the dome of the sky. Even though the view didn’t change, it felt like she could look all night and still pick find new details: a cluster here, a reddish one over there (How did I miss all their colors before?), an especially twinkling one here… She didn’t see any more shooting stars, but that didn’t matter much to her; the stars themselves, along with the moon, were enough.

Amber’s attention was periodically drawn to the moon for a few seconds at a time. It was different than the stars in the way it felt, and not just because it was a lot bigger and brighter. It… Amber couldn’t say how, but it definitely felt a bit different. She could see a few patterns on the moon, left from she didn’t know what. She kind of wished the Mare in the Moon was still there for her to see, just to get a feel for it.

It must’ve been strange for ponies all those decades ago, she thought, having the moon appear a certain way for as long as they could remember, and then suddenly change overnight. I wonder how many ponies that threw off.

…Although, why would Nightmare Moon’s presence there change the appearance so m-

Something moved in the corner of her eye, derailing her train of thought. Amber rolled over and pushed herself to her hooves, squinting into the gloom. After spending several hours in the night, her eyes were well-adjusted to the dark, and she could pick out a few ponies, although she wasn’t sure of the exact number. Two at least, probably three or four. They looked like they were heading to the outskirts of town, possibly toward the Rainbow Friendship Royal Library.

Amber was torn. Anypony who skulked around in groups like that after dark was probably up to no good. (I’m alone, so I don’t count.) If she started snooping, that no good might happen to her, and that would be no good. Besides, she just wasn’t the type to start spying on possible criminals in the middle of the night. She’d just run away from the sound of a snapping twig, for Celestia’s sake! You really shouldn’t be snooping, Amber.

But on the other hoof, there was a difference between then and now. The twig was in the Everfree, where she didn’t know what the hay the thing snapping it could be. Here, it was just ponies. Eeeeeeevil ponies, maybe, but ponies nonetheless. The possibility of being torn limb from limb was significantly smaller. Plus, there was something kind of invigorating about possibly sneaking about, not getting noticed by them. Not quite an adrenaline rush, but a similar sort of high. But it’s so much fun, Amber!

After a second’s debate, Amber began creeping toward the ponies. They didn’t seem particularly observant, letting her get fairly close before ducking behind a bush. They probably weren’t expecting anypony to be up this time of night, and, well, if not for a certain not-quite-insomniac, they’d be right. They were moving with a purpose, not particularly quickly, but at a good trot, and definitely toward the library. Amber followed as best she could, trying to break the sightlines between herself and them as much as possible. She didn’t want to get caught if one of them happened to look over their shoulder.

There were three of them, with a unicorn mare leading the group. A pegasus mare and an Earth pony stallion followed close behind. They were very focused, barely deviating from their course at all or even looking around. Their manes and tails were awfully short; whether because they were trimmed or because it was natural, Amber couldn’t tell, although she suspected the former. Their designs were far too similar for it to be natural, to the point that she wouldn’t be able to tell them apart if not for the unique bits of their respective pony races. It seemed cultish, how so exact each one was to the other. She couldn’t tell their colors; it was too dark for that.

As they began heading for the outskirts of town, Amber dimly reflected that she really didn’t know whether or not they were “bad guys”. Being out here at this time was suspicious, sure, but what did she know? She didn’t live in Ponyville; they might be residents here that she didn’t recognize. Night watchponies or janitors or something. Or just plain hikers or something, just passing through; the library was on a semimajor road out of town. You could look like you were heading there when you were actually heading towards Canterbury on the other side of the country.

But Amber’s interested had been piqued, and there was no stopping her now. No matter how much she rationalized why they could be out here and she shouldn’t be following them, some stupid part of her mind pushed that thought away and yelled at her to keep going. There was just… something about them. Something that felt just a bit scheming.

And then they were in front of the library, coming thiiiis close to confirming her suspicions. If they pulled out a key from somewhere, she’d be wrong. (Probably. A copy was always a possibility.) But otherwise…

Not one to give up, Amber took cover in a bush, shielding herself with leaves as much as possible. Years of book-reading and movie-watching (mainly the latter) had told her that ponies who broke into places in the middle of the night generally looked around a bit to see if the coast was clear, just in case. Two of them might even serve as guards.

The unicorn glanced around briefly, placed her horn against the door, and after a few moments, it opened, validating all of Amber’s misgivings. They were breaking in.

The unicorn took one last look around and headed in. Evidently, they were following some sort of plan; the Earth pony and pegasus assumed guarding positions outside the door without any words being exchanged. Whatever the unicorn was doing in there, it’d probably take a while. Amber wanted to get up to the windows to see what was going on, but she couldn’t without risking being seen by the other ponies. She’d have to content herself with sitting in this bush until they left.

So, what were they up to? They might just be breaking into a library, but then they were probably breaking into the Rainbow Friendship Royal Library. Formerly a palace during Princess Twilight’s… (“reign” felt too strong. Presidence?) presidence there, it had been converted to a library as one of her last wishes about a decade ago. And in a way, “library” was a bit of a misnomer, since sometimes it resembled a museum a bit more, showcasing this or that interesting bit of Equestrian history. Only a few months ago, it had undergone some renovation, adding another wing, both to enlarge its Rare Books collection and to add a bit more space for the temporary displays or something. So they were probably after something from the “museum” bit. Not that books were completely out of the question, but it just seemed more likely that there was some relic or something that these guys were interested in. Unfortunately, Amber didn’t know what was in at the moment.

There was a brief flash of light from inside the library, coupled with a dull thud. The ground shook a little, dislodging a few leaves from a nearby tree, but nothing major. Still, something like that kind of was major, in and of itself. What could cause that?

The windows Amber could see suddenly turned black, darker than they had been before. Soon after, the unicorn reemerged from inside the library, followed by a billowing cloud of thick black smoke. It clung to the ground unnaturally, almost like a liquid, and expanded rapidly, quickly obscuring everything nearby from Amber’s sight. Some of it even reached Amber’s bush. She reflexively shut her eyes and rubbed them, trying to get some of the soot out.

When she opened her eyes again, Amber didn’t see the group; they had moved on under cover of the smoke. Worried that she had lost them, Amber hurriedly glanced around and spotted them heading back towards Ponyville. After waiting a few moments to let them put some distance between her, Amber followed the four of them into town, wh-

She followed the four of them into…

She followed the four of them?

Amber blinked, squinted. Yes, there were now four ponies instead of just three. The new one was leading them -- she could tell it was the new one because of mane and tail differences -- and was a unicorn, although she couldn’t tell whether they were a mare or a stallion. Probably a mare; the mane seemed a bit too flowy and wavy for a stallion. Still, she couldn’t be certain, so she let that matter slide for now. His/her horn seemed awfully pointy, but in the dark, it was hard to tell. (S)he had a set of saddlebags, loaded with something, well-secured.

Where’d they come from? I can’t remember seeing them come out of the library. Did they meet up with the others somewhere and I just missed them? But then why’d they not just come the first time? Was it something they did in the library? Or w- Amber pushed that thought to the back of her mind. She’d get back to it when she had more information.

So. Amber followed the four of them into town. They behaved pretty much the same with the new one as they had before. If anything, the original three now seemed to be following the new unicorn. Again, no words exchanged, so picking up Unicorn 2 wasn’t a surprise. But still… why why why? And what had they done to the library?

Amber quickly recognized the path they were taking, having walked it numerous times before: they were headed towards the train station. Their escape route, then. There weren’t any scheduled trains for Ponyville tonight; they were probably thinking they’d steal one. Well, maybe she could alert the police or somepony in the time it took for them to start it up. Trains weren’t exactly as simple as “push the button and go”.

Unfortunately, that plan was dashed as they rounded the corner for the last leg to the station. Amber felt it more than heard it; a small rumbling in the earth, at first nearly impossible to notice unless you were used to it, and steadily growing bigger. She glanced down the tracks. A small train was gliding down the tracks towards the station, with only a few boxcars. Based on the livery, the locomotive was from the Manehattan-Baltimare line for some strange reason. Its headlamp was on, and although going slow, it didn’t seem to be actually stopping.

It didn’t. The train passed through the station just as the ponies reached it. They galloped alongside the train a short ways, matching speed, and leapt into the last boxcar; its door was open. As soon as the train left the platform, it began speeding back up.

Amber skidded to a halt on the platform, just a bit too late to do anything except watch the train leave. Who are these people? I can see them breaking into the library for… something… but to perfectly time their escape like this? These guys are professionals. I’m lucky they didn’t see me.

At that moment the first unicorn stuck her head back out of the boxcar. She glanced in the direction they were going, then back towards the station. Then she visibly stiffened, her head still pointed in Amber’s direction. Amber held her breath; it was still dark. She could be missed. Don’t see me don’t see me do-

A ball of light shot from the unicorn’s horn, impacting right next to Amber. She yelped, shuffling back from it, before realizing with a jolt that she was practically illuminated with a spotlight from the unicorn’s magic. The unicorn could see every inch of her, plain as day.

Amber was so shocked she forgot to run, instead freezing on the spot and staring after the train. Another ball of light was perched on the horn of the unicorn, her features visible to Amber. Her eyes were a deep, deep purple, almost black; a stark contrast against her bleached-yellow coat and white-gray mane. Her mane was just as short as it had appeared earlier and definitely cut that way. She narrowed her eyes, smirked, and drew a hoof across her neck before pulling back into the boxcar and closing the door behind her.

There was no way the second light was an accident. The unicorn had wanted Amber to see the threat.

The ball of light winked out, leaving Amber standing on the platform in the dark, her knees knocking together. She was still trying to process everything she had seen and going into shock; as the color drained out of her coat, she began hyperventilating and all she could think was, I’m dead. I just wanted to go for a walk at night and now a criminal’s seen me and I’m dead.

I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead.

After a few minutes, Amber began trying to slow her breathing; anything to get away from the fact that she was dead. Her mind began racing a mile a minute. Okay. Gotta think. What to do. Heading home tomorrow because of job. Maybe give witness report before heading back to Crystal Empire.

She forced her legs to start moving, heading back to the hotel she was staying at. She couldn’t stay here. Or maybe just head home and not implicate myself any more. Maybe. Take some days off at home. Week. Maybe more. Just to calm down. Calm down calm down calm down. Find me there? Maybe. She knows I’m Crystal Pony. But Empire big place. Take a while. Skip town? Maybe. Start packing, just in case. Can’t let them get me.

Amber pushed open the door to her room, jumped into bed, and pulled the covers over her head. She’d never get to sleep now, even if she wasn’t an insomniac. But it made her feel an iota safer. Her thoughts began to slow down a little. Will I need to draw up a will? Celestia, I hope not. But… She took a deep breath. Maybe I’m overreacting. I-I mean, maybe this wasn’t as major as I thought. It could be, right? There are plenty of important and not-so-important things in there. Maybe I won’t need to be a witness.

The next morning the Elements of Harmony were announced stolen.