Back in the room
It was back in his simple assigned room when Danny put more thought into pegasi fighting techniques and realized how they dedicated too much dependence on eyesight. The training dome was brightly lit and there was hardly even a shadow askance or out of place. As good as they were when they had the full benefit of seeing everything that was around them, he knew that would change once the sun set and left them all blind. He took a minute to think about the problem, mostly because he hadn't researched airplane tactics from both world wars for several years. Okay, he had to take a minute to think about it now that it became obvious how teaching them to adapt was definitely his problem. He wouldn't come out and say they were a burden, but they definitely had limited use if they could only be combat effective half of the day.
With such a disadvantage, how could they expect to repel all those nasty nocturnal critters making the whole region into a nightmare? Obviously this society hadn't progressed to the level where they had radar sets, and he doubted they'd trust him enough to allow him to go back to his dimension to get some. Okay, then. His only option was to figure out how to take the light with him, to turn night into day at least passably. How did they do that before he was born? Searchlights. Except, they didn't have any power sources that he was aware of. Danny continued to ponder the question until someone arrived at his humble surroundings with a knock that was so light as to be imperceptible.
The fuzzy reddish stallion bowed into the doorway without a sound and left an offered plate of fruits on a nearby table before leaving him alone again. At once, he fell on the produce as a welcome distraction from his frustrations. As he finished off grapes, berries, plums, and apples in a frenzy of hunger from an appetite that was only catching up to his new metabolism, he noticed the intricate metalwork motifs on the shiny copper platter. It was nearly a mirror sheen aside from the fruit juices and water condensed on the bottom, allowing him to admire Night's pretty face and knowledgeable eyes in the reflection. Once he'd finished and moved over to his bed for a nap, he noticed that the plate was glaring into his eyes with the light of a sputtering torch shoved into its prebuilt alcove.
Almost all at once he realized in a moment of inspiration that he had his searchlights, or at least had some idea for how to make them. During the turn of the century before radio had been invented or even properly implemented throughout the armed services, the military used mirrors and morse code to send messages to isolated far off units. If one mirror could send out a signal powerful enough to be seen for miles, then dozens if not hundreds of larger ones could be used to redirect a bonfire's light into the valley below and illuminate the myriad of monsters that lurked down there. Now would be a good time for a nap, to reserve his strength, because tonight would be the time to demonstrate his finders to the elders for their approval. They would of course be the ones to provide the resources and labor needed, after all.
It wasn't hard to sleep with a full belly, his thoughts unprovoked by a dreamless sleep as time itself seemed suspended. When he awoke, it took a moment for his confused mind to recollect the details of the previous hours and remember where he was. A cold wind howled through a crack in his window, carrying the foreign sent of some kind of robust mountain flowers in some little garden or park. Just outside his door was the familiar presence of the male guard/server immediately paying attention to Danny soon as he opened the door. Frankly, he didn't know if he was a prisoner or being protected. Perhaps a little of both, but that was irrelevant to the situation when he was already hostage to Night's consciousness threatening to take over his body at any second.
Despite the guard's confusion, Danny grabbed the empty copper tray and greeted the much taller pegasi while holding it. "Summon the council. I have a revelation." From that point, everything from his perspective seemed to happen too fast as he was hastily escorted into a drab stone amphitheater chamber all by himself and surrounded by dozens of long gray granite benches circling three upraised podiums. He found himself seemingly alone for the next hour as the pegasi in charge were roused unceremoniously from their beds and entered with shoddily wrinkled bright yellow ceremonial robes and cowls of some sort. It seemed almost comical to see them so untidy, but perhaps any real preparation would've meant that he would've had to wait a much longer time for their arrival.
Two of the faces beneath those cloaks he recognized immediately even if he couldn't see more than fuzzy noses sticking out. One was Jarvi and the other was this tribe's Dreamspeaker/midwife that he'd met a few days ago. The third one was a stranger with a smoke grey muzzle that not even Night's old memories could decipher, this pegasi standing off a little to the side as if meaning to observe the meeting while not interfering with what went on. In fact, the way he faded into the background made him seem almost invisible, and even Night's spirit was giving alarms in his head to be wary of this latest stranger even if she didn't recognize him or his purpose. In this structured society, no pegasi went without an occupation after passing through foalhood, and if you couldn't figure out what some herdmate's job was, you should be suspicious and wary. Danny knew from his instincts that it would be wise to watch his words around such a fellow.
Written by FluffyPony on 03 October 2017
