This would do. It was far enough off the beaten path that no one would come looking while she worked on her theory. They would pay for what they had done to her. She had circled the small town for the fourth time. There was only one bat pony that lived in the town and as far as Gloomy Dusk could tell the night guard hadn’t seen her yet. Even with their enhanced night vision it wasn’t like it was easy to see a dark pony far up in the clouded sky.

The town would be perfect. It wasn’t like Gloomy Dusk liked to be alone and some company might remind her not to forget the ponies she would be hurting if her planed worked. Still she had no other choice. The college had shunned her ideas and she needed to prove them. Not just for herself but for her father who had died trying to do what she was about to. Summons were not to be trifled with and she would have to make some precautions against this going awry.

Turning away from the town she flew towards the mountains. Surely there would be a cave nearby that would do for the moment until she could build a more secure lab. It wouldn’t do to have others wandering into her work. Especially if one of them was a summoner that wasn’t a reject from the College. It was a good thing that the materials for the ritual to summon Unknown were easy enough to procure here. Diamond dust and the ashe of a saproling as pure as possible. She had plenty of practice in purifying the ash and from what she understood this area had an abundance of diamonds which would be all she needed. She spotted what looked like a cave near the base of the mountain but decided it would be better to move further into the range of mountains. Make sure it was highly unlikely any of the town folk would stumble onto her endeavor. Still it was dark and it made looking for a cave difficult. Finding a cliff that jumped up thirty feet into the air Gloomy Dusk decided that if she couldn’t find a cave then a artificial one would have to do. She had been planing to summon a Doryuzu to hunt for diamonds and this would just be a bit of an early use of her two available reagents she had carried with her.

Landing on a sizable ledge a small distance from the top of the cliff she got to work. It was rather annoying to carve the circle into stone like this and the area wasn’t really flat enough for it. She would have to use one of her far more temporary circles to summon her minion. Pulling out a folded piece of paper that had a arcane circle drawn on it she laid it out as flat as she could. Hovering above the circle she started her incantation and placed the reagents where they needed to be. The reagents were consumed by the summoning but soon enough a mole like creature that walked on its hind legs and had large steel like claws that would let it dig through the very rock itself. The creature was under Gloomy’s control and she set it to digging the entrance of a cave. It wouldn’t need to be too deep. Just deep enough to be free from the elements and little else. Everything else could be added latter. The Doryuzu seemed to enjoy its work and quickly made its way through many meters of the rock. Enough that Gloomy found it safe enough to send it to do far more subtle work. After all she needed a smooth surface to engrave the circle that would keep her second Doryuzu on this realm.

Grunting and getting to work the Doryuzu did its best to scrape clean a single section of the newly made caverns floor flat. It was slow going and Gloomy Dusk could tell easily enough that the summon did not in fact like this kind of work. Still it had to be done. Her acid that she kept in a special ceramic jar in her pack would be potent enough to etch the circle. Or at least she hoped. If not she would be required to use charcoal the most basic and most dangerous of all the materials she could use to draw a circle. Thankfully the Doryuzu had gotten its work done well enough that by the time the first rays of morning sun peaked over the horizon Gloomy Dusk felt it was good enough to banish the creature. This would have to work for now. It took but a few moments to banish the creature. Thankfully nothing had happened to her paper circle and it could be reused later if needed. Never underestimate the need for an easy convenient distraction. Carefully packing the paper back into its scroll case Gloomy Dusk took to the sky. After all it would be best to introduce herself at the town during the day light even if it made her eyes sting. Still things had to go well at this village. She had run out of fund in her last attempt to find some place far from the watchful eye of both the Royal guard and the College. Sure nopony had connected the dots to her but that didn’t mean that abandoning all her work in the distant mountains around Dodge Junction hadn’t cost her. Time was something she had in abundance but the reagents were too expensive for her to be wasting. So with a weary heart and a addled brain, Gloomy Dusk headed to the small village of Bellinghoof.

Thankfully a the cloud coverage hadn’t fully dissipated letting Gloomy have some semblance of protection from the sun. Hopefully there would be an empty room she could sleep in for the day, one without a pesky window. She had gone further than she had thought durring her exploration and it took a good hour to fly back to the town. Once she was near enough that she could see the town in the distance she ducked lower to the ground flying just above the tree line on the forest that laid to the north of the small village or town. It was so hard to tell the difference between the two any more. Gloomy Dusk wanted to give as little hint as possible to the location of her cave and that meant coming from a direction that one might have flown in from the train. It took her an extra fifteen minutes to get the proper location and then get into the town. The sun had reached far into the sky by that point and Gloomy could barely keep her self from wanting to nod off. It wouldn’t do to crash from exhaustion and destroy all of her supplies. So she landed a bit of a distance from the town and walked the rest of the way. Sure it delayed her rest but it was the safest route to keep her materials intact.

“Howdy there,” said a pale pink pegasus. She had nearly as pale blue mane and a tornado or twister as a cutie mark. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around. What brings you to our little corner of Equestria?”

“Looking for a new start,” said Gloomy Dusk. It would be easier to keep her story straight if she lied as little as possible and it was true that she was starting over, again. “Names Gloomy Dusk. Could you tell me if there is a place I can get some lodging at least till I figure out something more permanent.”

“Fancy that,” said the pink pegasus. “I’m Gale Force, though everypony just calls me Gale. There is a fine Inn in the middle of town. You can’t miss it. I’m sure that Dirty will get you all sorted out. We don’t often get much ponies looking to live out here but don’t worry we can fix you up a place soon enough. But I got to get to work. Those clouds aren’t going to rain on their own after all.”

“Oh of course not,” said Gloomy Dusk. “Thank you and have a good day. I need to get some shut eye myself.”

Gale nodded and took off into the air speeding away towards the couds that danced around the town. Gloomy headed further into the town hoping that she wouldn’t run into too many more friendly faces, if just so she could get to sleep sooner. Didn’t they know bat ponies were nocturnal.

“Hey you are just like Moonlight,” said a small filly. She had pink fur and a red mane. She must have been fairly young as she didn’t have a cutie mark yet. “Are you a friend of hers?”

“I doubt it,” said Gloomy Dusk. “Though I’m sure I will be soon enough. Sorry if I am not the most pleasant. It was a long night for me and I should have been asleep hours ago.”

“Oh yeah,” said the filly. “I’m Fond Treasures. You want to head to Dirty’s Watering Hole. It is our inn and school house and town meeting hall and a whole lot of other thins.”

“Let me guess you are headed there as well,” said Gloomy almost groaning.

“Of course,” said Fond. “Gotta get to school after all. I was just checking in on Alice. She is my pet. Gentle is taking care of her for me though for a bit. She has had a hard few days.”

“That sucks,” said Gloomy Dusk. “Do you need anything or just want the company?”

“Well you haven’t told me your name yet,” said Fond.

“Sorry,” said Gloomy Dusk. “I’m Gloomy Dusk. As I said pretty tired right now. Not trying to be rude or anthing just you know.”

“Oh of course,” said Fond. “Gilded gets that way when she is up all night working on a project of hers. Sure she doesn’t do that very often but I bet you don’t make a habit of being up for so long either. Have you had breakfast yet? Or is it dinner for you if you eat in the morning?”

“Uh doesn’t really mater, does it?”

“I guess not but it seems like a confusing thing to explain. Dirty probably has something you can eat when we get there. It is this big building but the entrance is on the other side. Don’t worry none about Glitter though. She may speak a bit funny sometimes but she is so nice.”

“Ah okay.”

Thankfully the two of them entered the building and the filly ran off leaving Gloomy to nurse the headache that was starting to grow on her. A nearly white pegasus with pastel rainbow of hair sat with a unicorn with mint green fur and alternating white and blonde mane. The unicorn was vissibly pregnant and the two of them seemed to be talking. Hopefully that meant that Gloomy wouldn’t get sucked into their conversation and she could pay for a room and head up there. A small white Rokon sat on the bench next to the pegasus and was staring at Gloomy as she walked in.

The Rokon made a noise that sounded unlike any Rokon Gloomy Dusk had ever heard and the two mares turned to see her. Gloomy sighed and waved at the two of them.

“O-oh, hi,” said the pegaus with a strong stutter.. “I I am Glitter Cu-cutie. This is Gol-Golden. How can we help you?”

“I need a room for a bit,” said Gloomy Dusk. “I am moving here and was hoping I could get some rest before I have to deal with all the little details. Kinda nocturnal.”

“Oh oh, Dirty will help you with that,” said Glitter. “Mary, can you run and get him?”

The Rokon nodded and jumped off the bench and headed towards the far side of the open room. It was much larger than seemed nesicary for a town of this large but maybe they really did like the space. It wasn’t like it was at a premium here in the middle of nowhere. The two mares turned back to their conversation, letting Gloomy Dusk tune them out. It wasn’t the best habit that she had but it certainly was one she tended to lean on when she was this tired.

“Good morning,” said deep voice next to her. The stallion had dark brown fur and blonde mane. A wine glass and grapes was his cutie mark and he had a goofy smile on his face. “New to town, huh? Well, I won’t keep you away from bed for long. You plan on moving here?”

“Yes,” said Gloomy Dusk. “I’ll need lodging until I can get more permanent housing figured out.”

“Of course,” said the stallion. He must have been the namesake of the inn. “Well right this way. Gilded has a policy that new folks to town get to stay free, out of her pocket mind you, so we can hook you up with a room right away. I assume you want one without a window.”

“If possible.”

The two of them made their way up a set of stairs and down a hall, away from an open door where Gloomy Dusk could hear the sounds of foals. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too noisy. It was the last thing she needed today. Thankfully the room the Dirty showed her too was nearly as far from the school room as possible and the noise was almost nonexistent with the door closed. Thanking the stallion, Gloomy Dusk fell onto the bed and was asleep before he had even gotten two meters from the door.

Author's Notes:

First chapter that is from a different perspective. Welcome to a mysterious pony with mysterious plans and things. Less ominously I hope you find this change in perspective interesting. There won't be too many chapters from her perspective and others might join the ranks of it. Either way I hope you enjoy.