Azure's POV

It did not take long to clear most of the houses, no one was there, only rotten food and a turned over chair or two. I grasped the low gutters of one of the houses and pulled myself up to the roof, my stomach felt hot and tense.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Swift Wind asked from bellow as I climbed higher onto the rounded roof.

"They've been gone a week Swifty, not a decade." I answered.

I reached the highest point of the roof and scanned the surrounding area. There was no sign of any kind of life, the stables and pastures were empty too. I frowned and slid back down the roof where Bow was waiting to help me down.

"Pastures and stables are empty; it isn't just the people who have gone missing." I informed them.

Glimmer's skin rippled with goosebumps and Adora looked around.  "Nothing else?"

I shook my head.  "Negative, we are the only people here." The thought made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

"Let's keep looking around, maybe we'll find something that will hint to why they left." Bow suggested as the search resumed.  I stepped as quietly as possible, feeling the tension in the air made me jumpy, tense and slightly annoyed at everything that made any kind of sound.

"Hey guys!" I spun at the sound of Bow's voice, gripping my axe tightly.  Adora yelped and grabbed onto Glimmer. They righted themselves.

"Sorry." Adora apologized, letting go of Glimmer before turning to Bow.  "What did you say?"

Bow pointed across the square at a large stone spire that jutted out of the ground.  "Does that look familiar to you?" Bow asked and Adora squinted.

"I'm not sure. Maybe-"

Adora cut off deep in thought as something made a very loud sound. I whirled around swinging my axe in the direction of the sound. My eyes found the source of the sound and immediately relaxed.

"It's just a window shutter." I breathed.

"Uh, Glimmer?" Adora asked as Glimmer reappeared. She looked up at Adora and rubbed her neck.

"I'm so sorry, no idea why I did that." Glimmer admitted, flushing red.

"This place is weird." Adora said looking around.  "Like the lair of the Undead princess, where she lures soldiers to their doom." I folded my arms, my axe used as support.

"Here we go." I mumbled.

"Undead Princess? The Horde really had a theme, huh?" Bow observed.

"Oh, you're right. I can't believe I'm just realizing this now." Adora said beginning to understand that those ghost stories were not real.

"Weird or not, we have a mission. Something happened here that forced these people to flee their home. We have to get to the bottom of this." Glimmer reminded us and walked down the road, beginning to examine the rest of the town.

I was looking at the ground of the exit roads, examining the prints in the dirt. The tracks were jumbled, overlapped with horse tracks, wagon wheel marks and countless footprints. All the tracks were faint and shallow now but judging by how deep the tracks had been to have been preserved for a week they must have been running.  I traced a boot print trying to picture what would have made a grown man run in terror. Yes, these tracks belonged to a grown man, it was relatively easy to tell.

"It's totally abandoned." I could hear Glimmer say from the houses behind me.

I stood, about to make my way over when a shrill ringing split though the air, and as if it were a parasite, it planted itself in my ears. I clamped my hands over my ears, screwing my eyes tight as the sound quickly diminished.

"Did you guys hear that?" Adora asked as I made my way quickly over to the group.

"Yes. Finally. I told you, It's a weird sound." Swift shuddered, his mane flopping from side to side.

"It's like... Someone is singing." Adora said, chills running up her spine.

"It can't be someone singing, there is no one else here." I spoke up, still tentatively toughing my ears where a bruise was already beginning to form.

"Azure, you're sure?" Bow asked.

"Of course." I was slightly offended by his lack of confidence in me.

"I don't hear anything." Glimmer said hastily.  "It's probably just the wind." Glimmer added nervously.

My ears pricked up at the sound of the sound again. I was prepared to throw my hands over my ears but instead I froze. The sound was not high pitched and screeching anymore, it was more like whispers, dozens of overlapped whispers.

"Okay, I'm hearing something too." Bow flinched.

I drew my axe, shifting my grip to where I was comfortable. Adora thrust her arm out past my face, pointing into the woods. My eyes caught sight of a faint light passing behind a tree before disappearing.

"There!" Adora shouted. "Someone is there." Her arm shook as she drew her sword, and shouted that phrase that made her all big, and tall again.

In that moment of confusion, I shifted.  The familiar burn coursed through me, pulling, and stretching my bones and muscle until I was done. My eyes snapped open and I leap forward with Adora, hurdling the small stone fence that surrounded the town.  I could hear Glimmer and Bow running after us. Adora slashed and swiped her sword in every direction, nicking tree trunks and scoring the ground, whispers taunting us in every direction.

There was a grunt and I turned to see Bow on his stomach, most likely having tripped one a root. Adora, being one of the two of us that had hands helped Bow up.

"The light came from around here." Adora said. We got back to back, scouting in every direction. I planted my paws, lips curled back in a snarl, claws flexing under me. Every breath I drew came out in fog, and the trees seamed to reach for us.

"There! Its over-" Bow shouted.

I whirled in his direction just as a figure appeared at the end of his fingertip. My eyes widened in terror and everyone screamed. Adora swung out with her sword, slashing the air as the figure disappeared.

"Where did it go? Did I get it!?" Adora howled nervously.

Glimmer held my axe up.  "No!" She squealed.

A beam of light rose from the ground and a figure stalked towards us. "Run!" Glimmer howled.  I kept at the back of the group as we bolted.  My muscles tense with fear as I kept distance between us and the figures. Glimmer skidded to a halt with a yelp.

"Run the other way!" Glimmer wheeled backwards.  I saw the light figures in every direction; we were surrounded. Glimmer ducked into the underbrush.

"She-Ra, do something!" Glimmer pleaded.

"Like what? Flail at them again?" Adora asked rhetorically.  "I can handle the Horde, I can't handle this, this is like-" Adora blabbered until Glimmer cut in.

"Stop telling Ghost Stories! I've been terrified since we got here." Glimmer snapped.  "Catra was right, I'm terrible at this!" Glimmer groaned, defeated.

"I can't replace Entrapta, I can't even make my Tracker Pad work." Bow admitted.

"And I'm still hearing stuff coming from the big, stone pointy thing." Swift Wind added with a nervous twitch.

"From the pointy- hold on." Bow breathed, looking up, inspiration sparking behind his eyes.  He stood up and walked out of the bushes, straight towards a figure of light.

"What are you doing?! Bow!" Glimmer shrieked, lunging forward, grabbing Bow around the waist before teleporting straight back towards us.  Adora ran forward, kicking high off the ground with a shout. She brought her sword straight through the light figure, and her sword struck the ground with a sound that rivaled thunder.  The ground split in patterns of silvery light.

"Of course, this place, it's a first one's ruin." Bow aid in awe, pointing at the light figures.  "These aren't ghosts, they're holograms." Bow observed giddily.

"I'm sure holograms can't walk around on their own." Adora said skeptically, still clutching her sword. I angled my body to face the hologram, while I shielded Glimmer and Bow with my side.

"Look at them, really look at them." Bow said enthusiastically.

"No thanks, I'm good." Glimmer whimpered into his side, gripping Bow tightly.

"They're running in some kind of loop."  I locked my gaze on one of the holograms which appeared to be waving. It was not doing much else, just waving.

"It's- It's like a recording." Adora observed in awe.

Bow moved past me, letting go of Glimmer. I tensed as he stood next to the waving hologram. Glimmer came up beside me, holding onto me with one hand.

"Awe she's waving." Glimmer smiled a little even beginning to wave back.  "Actually, you know what, its sill creepy." Glimmer admitted.

"I think I know where they're coming from, come on." Bow said giddily, waving us over.  Adora and Swift Wind followed quickly while I pulled Glimmer on, as she was still in shock.  We found ourselves at the stone spire; Bow pulled up roots from off the base of the spire while I sniffed around the area. Still secure.

"This is it; the noise is coming from here." Swifty said, watching as Bow yanked a particularly large root from the ground.

"It looks like Light Hope's beacon." Adora said, recognizing the structure.

"It's an antenna. I'm guessing this outpost is built on some kind of First Ones Communications hub." Bow stated.

"When the Black Garnet disrupted the planet, it must've caused the hub to power up; It's trying to send old stored messages." Bow theorized before turning to Adora.  "With you translating, we should be able to turn it off."  Instead of really acknowledging the plan, Adora looked at a pair of holograms dancing and playing.

"So, these are the First Ones?" Adora asked skeptically as Glimmer placed a large stretch of root on my back.

"Yeah, why?" Bow asked.

"It is just that I've been thinking of them as these Big, epic figures; but they're regular people, sending messages to their loved ones. Messages that were never received because of what Mara did to the planet." Adora said guiltily.  Swift nuzzled Adora's chin and I watched sadly as she walked up to the tower, placing her hand on the side. The veins in the rock pulsed in the rock once more before going dark.

"Be at rest now..." Adora whispered reverently.  Bow took out his Tracker Pad which had started working again.

"The farmers must have fled from the ghosts when this thing turned itself on. We should get them a message that it's safe to return." Glimmer smiled proudly at him.

"Way to go. The rebellion is going to do just fine with you, Master Maker Bow." Glimmer praised him.  I tilted my head back in a slow howling bark of sorts.

"Thanks guys. Now that the antenna is powered down, everything should be back to normal." Just as the word was spoken, the tablet fuzzed and flickered.  I could see the light reflect on their faces. I leaned over Adora, staring at the strange scramble of patterns.

"It's that message again." Bow said and narrowed his eyes.  "It looks like First one's writing." Bow added upon closer inspection.

"But we powered down the antenna." Swift wind Pointed out.

"If this is First Ones writing I can't read it; it's way too degraded." Adora said, examining the tablet before moving off.

"You said it yourself, Bow, your pad must be broken." Glimmer said, gesturing to the pad.

Bow looked from me to the tablet. "Yeah, that must be it..."