Chapter Thirty Seven: Between A Cage And A Hard Place
~BlackRoseRaven
Cadence sighed tiredly from inside the rusted birdcage, looking moodily out through the narrow bars. She silently grasped into them, squeezing them, feeling them give slightly under her grip, but she knew by now if she tried to tear her way through, she'd only end up getting herself hurt. These creatures were punks, but they sure as hell weren't taking any chances with them, either.
She grimaced a bit as she moved to the other side of the hay-lined cage, hearing it creak listlessly as it swung a little above the gaping chasm that surrounded the little island where the punks had their 'home.' Among the scattered debris and 'fixings,' as they called their assortment of furniture and garbage, there were three large cages: these rusting hulks contained Moonflower, Aster, and La Croix between them, all of whom were laying in varying states of exhaustion and consciousness.
She didn't know where her father was, or where Freya was: she didn't think they'd been put somewhere else because the creatures that had captured them were very smart, but rather because they were beasts that operated on whim and fancy, doing whatever they pleased, whenever they pleased.
Cadence mumbled disconsolately under her breath, then she sighed and dropped back on her rump, scowling a little as the birdcage swayed creakily from side to side. Atavus was out there somewhere too: not that she expected him to be any help, considering how easily the two morons had dragged him into playing along with their twisted games.
The ivory mare swore under her breath as she looked grouchily back and forth. The Swan wanted to try cutting its way out of the cage again, for the thousandth time, but every single time, that had just ended up in Cadence being electrocuted into unconsciousness and then back where she had started. She knew they were being watched: she wasn't sure by what, or where precisely it was, but she did know that it was keeping a close eye on them for its masters.
So instead of trying to make another daring escape, the mare simply sat back against the cage wall, sighing tiredly again as she looked moodily up towards the ceiling of the birdcage. It creaked and groaned as it swayed silently back and forth, and Cadence wondered silently how much longer the cage would last before it finally snapped and sent her tumbling down into the abyss...
What a way that would be to die. But that would be fitting in a sense, too, considering how humiliating this entire experience had been. They had let down their guard for five minutes, and everything had ended up going completely to hell.
Morons. That was what these two not-Draconequus were: complete idiots, with barely two brain cells to scrape together between them. But the destruction entities had also had a crucial advantage over all of them: they emitted anti-magic in fluctuating bursts that somehow let them suppress the ponies' magic while letting them abusively use their own powers.
And, of course, Atavus had betrayed them. Well, okay, maybe 'betrayed' was a harsh word: he hadn't really done much of anything for either side. But once Moron One and Moron Two had welcomed him back with open arms, he had very quickly become their whimpering thrall.
Okay, that was uncharitable too. But she wasn't in a very charitable mood, after six days of hanging in a goddamn cage, being given almost nothing to eat and constantly laughed at and taunted by these two idiots she was sure she could easily beat the crap out of in a straight fight, except for the fact they emanated so much goddamn antimagic. If only she could get to her father, since they had developed countermeasures for this exact situation...
But no. Even if these morons weren't much smarter than your average plant – and that was, in fact, being charitable – they also weren't entirely stupid. They had known not to put them all in one cage, and they had also left some kind of fiend guarding them. Well, actually, that might be giving them too much credit: the destruction entities seemed to attract like-minded sprites and monsters to them like fleas.
A few of them were currently rutting through the junk piled up on the island of stone: imps, she thought, who were about as interested in them as she was in them. But there was also some kind of electrical elemental acting like a guard dog, zapping them whenever they tried to escape from these cages... and even La Croix couldn't seem to avoid it homing in on him and electrocuting him into unconsciousness even when he was in spirit form.
She absently tested the bars of the birdcage again as she glowered moodily around. If only she could figure out where the hell it was, then she might stand some kind of chance of fighting it off. The destruction entities had taken their things – and to Cadence's disgust, some of her things had then been taken by scavengers, and it frustrated her immensely to think that she wasn't going to be able to get any of those back – but they hadn't really secured them at all. Both Moonflower and Aster could use whatever magic they pleased...
Not that it mattered much. The moment the destruction entities entered the cave, the whole place filled up with their antimagic aura. She had no idea where Freya was, or her father: they had to be imprisoned nearby, but she couldn't exactly play hide and seek while the elemental was hovering around out there, waiting to zap her into oblivion the moment she broke her cage open.
Cadence grumbled moodily to herself, and then she shook her head slowly before she sighed a little. She studied the island of junk moodily for a few moments, then leaned forward and shouted: “Moonflower!”
Moonflower and Aster both jumped, making their cages rattle, as La Croix only grumpily rolled over and covered his head. Not that Cadence could blame him: he seemed to be almost flickering in and out reality with how weak the Loa had gotten, as if his physical body was trying to revert to its spirit form, but didn't have the strength to. She studied him silently for a few moments, then she turned her eyes back to Moonflower as he groggily walked to the edge of the cage, asking tiredly: “What is it? Did you come up with a way to get out of here?”
Cadence shifted a little, wishing she could say yes: she knew that sooner or later, the destruction entities were going to get bored of them and kill them. And worse, she had the feeling they weren't just so exhausted because of the lack of rest and sustenance, but that maybe they weren't just emitting antimagic, they were eating up their spiritual energy...
“Cadence?”
“Sorry.” Cadence shook her head quickly, making herself snap back to reality. She couldn't start losing her focus now. “I... can you sense the destruction entities?”
“Yes, they're on their way back now.” Moonflower muttered, reaching up and tapping his horn moodily: his magic powers made him especially sensitive to the presence of the creatures, letting him sense them even when Cadence couldn't. “I still can't believe this is how we're going to die.”
“We're not going to die.” Cadence said firmly, and then she shook her head before saying quietly: “Shell yourself. Hopefully they'll just stop off quickly here. They seem... excited about something.”
Moonflower nodded after a moment, and then he glanced up at the ceiling: Aster's cage was stacked on top of his, so he couldn't see her, but he could sense her clearly, the stallion asking gently: “Are you alright?”
Aster nodded a few times, then smiled faintly and shook herself when she remembered Moonflower couldn't see her, the mare rubbing uneasily at the veins of crimson pulsing through her body as she murmured: “Oui, just... haven't slept. The nightmares...”
“Are they getting worse?” Moonflower asked, not hiding his concern: there wasn't really any need for any of them to try and play any roles any longer at this point, after all.
Aster seemed to appreciate it, the mare laughing a little before she murmured: “I think I'm okay. I just...” She shifted a bit, then closed her eyes, rubbing slowly at the veins pulsing through her face as she whispered: “It itches.”
Cadence grimaced a bit, silently studying Aster from her cage: the mare really didn't look very well. She was pale, sickly, and those veins bothered her: if she had some kind of infection passed on from Salazar, then she needed to be treated as soon as possible. Which meant they needed to get back to Decretum as soon as possible...
Which was going to be a pain in the ass, without a portal flare, on top of everything else. So the first thing they had to do was escape from here, which meant...
Cadence winced as she felt the distinct sizzle of antimagic, a moment before the cackling of the destruction entities filled her ears as they bounced their way into the cavern. One of them leapt out into thin air, and Cadence sorely wished he'd fall, but of course, both of those morons could defy gravity however they pleased, which was probably part of the reason they were still alive.
She scowled moodily, watching as the chortling idiots bounced across the chasm to the island and dropped themselves with matching thumps on their rumps, sending junk, debris, and imps scattering as the mismatched twins grinned at each other brightly. “What should we burn down next?”
“Burning is so bland and boring!” huffed the other creature, shoving one of his webbed claws into the other's face. He was an ugly, serpentine thing with no legs, but a tail he slithered on and often coiled beneath him to bounce around on like a spring. He was blue, and slimy, and had large, bull-like horns that crackled constantly with electricity.
“What? You're boring!” shouted the other one angrily, flailing at the serpent with his nubby little fingers. He was leonine in appearance, with a shaggy crimson mane that stood out brightly against his grayish skin. He had thick cuffs of fur around his wrists and ankles, but nowhere else, and his features were distinctly babyish, with his big amber eyes, rounded fangs, and oversized ears.
His long tail snapped back and forth as he whined loudly in his throat, finally covering his face to hide from the serpent's slapping at him. “Okay, okay, fine! I guess we burned everything already, so let's... I don't know... set things on fire?”
“That's still burning things!” complained the serpent, smacking the lion again, and Cadence rolled her eyes before she moodily looked over the two: she hated how they were complete opposites, and yet there were plenty of distinct similarities between them. They acted the same, they made the same gestures, and took the same pleasure in causing pain and destruction...
“Well, I can't be around water, you know. I hate water!” whined the lion, but the serpent only glared at him until he huffed and covered his head, mumbling: “Oh, fine. We'll drown a few things... right guy? Guy? Guy, where are you?”
Both the destruction entities looked around before they both leapt up to their feet – or tail, in the case of the serpent – and then they both shouted furiously, in voices that shook the cavern and made the air crackle with painful energy: “Guy!”
Atavus yelped as he sparked into being, falling heavily on his ass and staring up at the two destruction entities with fear in his eyes as they towered over him, both snarling in fury, their eyes glaring down at him for a few moments before they both suddenly clapped their hands together and beamed happily down at the draconic creature.
“There you are!” said the serpent brightly, smiling warmly down at the draconic beast.
“Good, just the guy we were looking for, guy!” added the lion happily, clapping his hands together before he asked with a smile: “So what do you think, burning or drowning?”
“We already agreed on no burning! And who says it has to be drowning? There's plenty of fun things you can do with water, like smashing and crashing and bashing and breaking...”
The serpent giggled as the lion looked thoughtful, rubbing a hand through his mane before he asked seriously: “But is it art?”
The serpent responded to this by neatly doing a backflip, landing on his coiled tail with his arms out to either side, and the leonine destruction entity politely clapped his hands before both of the creatures glared furiously at Atavus. The draconic creature winced at this, then wildly clapped his own hands, nodding violently, and this seemed to appease the two after a few moments.
“Well, little guys, we have to get going gone!” trilled the lion, and the serpent nodded in agreement before both destruction entities bounced towards the cave exit, as the feline called back happily: “Just sit tight for a little while! The Prime, the Prime, the Prime is coming, you know, and we've reserved us all front row seats for when he brings the Void flooding in!”
“It's going to be won-der-ful!” cried the serpent exuberantly, and both creatures laughed loudly as they bounced their way back out of the cave, gone as suddenly and senselessly as they had appeared.
Cadence looked up sharply as she realized that Atavus was still sitting dumbly on his rump beside Moonflower, and she leaned hurriedly forward, hissing: “Get us out of here, or I'm going to beat the crap out of you along with them!”
Atavus squeaked loudly at this, wincing away from Cadence before he shook his head hurriedly. “I... I can't, they... they'll kill me if they think I'm helping you! Look, I know they might seem funny but they're not, they're really dangerous, and-”
“Yeah, yeah, I seen 'em before. N'est pas souris.” La Croix mumbled, nodding as he picked himself slowly up from the floor of his cage, and then he sighed as he batted away a rubber chicken before asking tiredly: “Where be Papa Sérénité et Madame Freya?”
Atavus hesitated for a moment, and then he looked back and forth quickly before pointing quickly down with both hands, whispering: “You guys are at the top, and they're way down there at the bottom, but-”
“Guy, get the hell over here!” roared twin voices, and Atavus squeaked as he jumped about ten feet into the air before vanishing from sight in a puff of green lightning. Cadence scowled at this: some use that was, after all, since she couldn't break out of this cage and get to the bottom of the abyss without that electrical elemental homing in on her...
Cadence frowned suddenly, looking up at the top of her cage as Moonflower sighed and La Croix slumped to the ground, the Loa blinking weakly before he looked up with a faint smile when the one-winged unicorn hesitantly asked: “Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Don't you worry your pretty little head, Moony. I gots no plans to die before you do.” La Croix replied in a murmur, shaking his head briefly before he sighed a little, uncomfortably rolling himself onto his stomach with a wheeze, before he frowned at Cadence, who was visibly concentrating her magic. “Cygne?”
“Can you guys hold out for a little while without me? I'm going to go find the others.” Cadence said, looking over at her teammates. La Croix and Moonflower traded looks, and Moonflower winced before he opened his mouth, but he was cut off as La Croix gave a rusty chuckle and a wry grin.
“I guess none of us ain't really in much of a position to stop you, either. Yeah, don't worry. I won't let Moony do nothin' stupid. Just... hurry back.” The Loa shook himself once, then grimaced a bit as he settled slowly to the ground, wheezing a little before he mumbled: “Don't think I'm gonna last too much longer at this rate.”
“Hang in there.” Cadence gave the Loa a small smile, and then, before she could think twice or reflect on how stupid this plan of hers was, she snapped her horn upward and fired a laser of white energy through the roof of the birdcage, knocking the top loose and tearing the cage free from the chain that had been tethering it above the abyss.
The cage simply fell into the darkness, Cadence grimacing as she leapt forwards to forcefully roll the cage onto its side as it fell before she snapped her horn forwards, firing a missile of magic down through the darkness of the trench she was falling into. It lit up the path ahead before smashing into the floor below, and Cadence's eyes widened as she realized it wasn't solid rock waiting for her before she gritted her teeth and leapt suddenly upwards as her body glowed white.
She smashed her way out of the cage before looking up as she heard the shrieking of the lightning elemental coming towards her, but she was far enough away that she was able to flap her wings hard, diving straight down after the cage as it smashed itself to pieces in the water below. She crashed through the surface of the rippling blackness after it, her horn glowing brightly to light up the world around her as she descended into the dark depths of the lake.
Cadence didn't know where she was going, or even entirely what she was doing, but she felt like she was being pulled deeper into the trench of water by some unknown instinct as she kept the area around her lit up as brightly as she could with her magic to hopefully keep anything that lurked in this blackness at a distance. But then her eyes locked on a faint hint of golden light at what seemed like the very bottom of the lake, flashing to her, calling her on...
Cadence gritted her teeth as she swam harder, putting all her strength and energy into cutting through the water as rapidly as she could. Her lungs were already starting to ache, and she knew that descending into the unknown had been a stupid idea – hell, continuing to swim towards some unknown beacon was probably an even worse one – and yet she still felt compelled to go forward, even with the pain through her body and the growing need for air, air that was so high above, air that could never be found-
Cadence suddenly tore through the surface, and her eyes bulged in shock as she found herself treading water. She mouthed wordlessly as she looked around the dimly lit cave, which every instinct told her should be upside down, yet to her, seemed rightside up, and-
“Took you long enough.” complained a voice, and Cadence looked dumbly towards the island in the center of the moat: the waters lapped its rocky shores, which were covered in garbage and had several rusting, barnacle-covered cages over it, surrounded by misty wraiths. And inside two of the cages in the center of the island were Freya and her father.
Cadence sighed in relief, beginning to head towards shore before Freya warned as her voice turned sharp and serious: “Stay back! The wraiths will notice you if you touch the shore, Danzsöngr, and they will not fall to your magic.”
Cadence nodded, stopping in the water and looking uncertainly at the two, and Freya smiled slightly after a moment before she said softly: “Well, you don't have to look so frightened now, Swan. You're safe out there.”
“How am I supposed to free you two, though?” Cadence asked, before she bit he lip as she looked back and forth, feeling a stinging in her eyes before she grimaced a bit as she realized there were more haunting things than just wraiths here: she could see ghostly husks, as well as strange, evil-looking things with enormous black wings and large, ugly talons sticking out of fat bodies hidden by cloaks, their heads nothing but shapeless hoods filled with darkness... “Grimm...”
“Grimm?” Freya frowned at this, but then she shook her head quickly as Sombra looked up uneasily. “No, that does not matter right now. What you need to do is fetch La Croix. The Loa should be able to deal with these blighted things.”
“There's some kind of extremely fast moving electrical elemental up there, though. I never see it until too late...” Cadence grimaced a bit, adding in a mutter: “And all kinds of other nasty things, too... those freaks are attracting all sorts of monsters. But they're almost never here, at least-”
“That's not good, Danzsöngr. That means they're on the hunt for something.” Freya replied moodily, and Cadence shifted awkwardly before the Valkyrie sighed and shook her head. “And I expect you to be able to think better on your feet than that. Or are you really telling me that all this way, and you're going to let some wispy elemental be the end of you?”
Cadence scowled a little more at this, and then she looked up attentively as Sombra picked himself up and walked towards the edge of the cage, saying quietly: “The antimagic here is very strong, mi amore, but I should still be able to give you a bit of protection.”
“Don't strain yourself though, Daddy. I'll make do, either way.” Cadence said quickly, but Sombra only smiled at her kindly, and the mare nodded hesitantly as she mumbled: “Well... maybe it'll help, anyway.”
Freya watched curiously as Sombra reached the edge of the cage, then lowered his horn, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. His purifier wheezed quietly, and Cadence grimaced uneasily at this sound: she knew that meant soon it was either going to start giving out, or...
But Sombra didn't shake, didn't flinch, even as dark magic twisted around his horn before arcing through the air, several of the wraiths reaching uselessly up after this with weak moans before the dark fire twisted gently around Cadence's horn. The mare grimaced a bit, but forced herself not to flinch or resist as the black magic formed into solid, dark and impenetrable crystal around her spire, coating it completely and nullifying her magic.
But even if she could no longer concentrate her magic, she also couldn't feel the antimagic in the air. Her head suddenly felt clear and calm, the mare breathing slowly in and out before she smiled a little over at her father, nodding to him and murmuring: “Thanks, Daddy.”
Sombra only smiled at her as he sat back, and Freya snorted in amusement before she remarked: “That looks just like a condom for your horn. Sly, though: the vibrations and energy can no longer reach the source of your magic that way, is that it?”
Cadence decided to just nod and ignore the rest of what Freya had said, answering: “That's right. Antimagic is still unpleasant like this, but it should let me withstand direct contact with it now. I just have to make sure I don't try and focus my own magic at all, because I'll quickly burn through the crystalline sheath.”
“Aye, horses have always been quick to erupt from their sheaths with a mare's touch.” Freya quipped, and Cadence moodily looked at the Valkyrie for a few moments before Freya suddenly leaned forwards and said in a more serious voice: “Get the others quickly. These destruction entities are impure, but all the same, they are not foes you want to tangle with alone, Danzsöngr. Especially right now.”
“Alright.” Cadence agreed, although she silently wondered what it was that Freya planned to do against the strange twins: they had been taken down with humiliating ease by the antimagic they were emitting, after all. And even if Sombra coated all their horns with crystal, they would still have to contend with creatures that seemed to control and personify the destructive natures of water and fire without any form of magic of their own...
Cadence grimaced as she dove into the water, shaking her head as she hurriedly swam through the depths. With no light to guide her, the darkness soon overwhelmed her, leaving her hoping blindly that she was swimming towards the surface, and not back down towards the 'bottom' of the pool, or worse yet, towards a rocky wall, which she would likely scrabble uselessly along until she drowned...
The ivory mare didn't want to think about that, shivering a little and forcing herself to focus on what was straight down or straight up or at least, going straight as quickly as she could. She grimaced as she thought she felt something nudge past her in the water, but she didn't slow, refused to be diverted from her course as she just kept pushing herself forward, forward, forward-
Cadence splashed out of the water with a gasp, flapping her wings wildly and flailing her limbs at the air as her soaked body refused to lift into the air for a moment before she gritted her teeth, her body thrumming with power as she focused her magic not into her horn, but through her body.
Steam rose up from her form as her wings glowed brilliant white, the mare flying sharply up into the air and rising quickly up along the wall of the pillar supporting the island. She could no longer feel the antimagic residue in the air, which helped keep her senses sharp, and her magic-infused wings carried her quickly and fearlessly upwards before her eyes locked on a faint distortion in the air.
The shape flashed towards her, and the mare bared her teeth before she began to concentrate, then immediately winced as she realized she was about to burn through the crystalline sheath over her horn.
She quickly diverted the magic into her wings, which flashed white before the mare flinched backwards and furled them around herself when the shape lunged at her, sparking violently as tendrils of lightning shot out of it. These only bounced harmlessly off the mare's magic-infused wings, however, and Cadence gritted her teeth before she suddenly flipped herself before she spread her wings wide and flapped them hard, launching herself suddenly upwards and slicing one glowing wing through the lightning elemental.
The lightning elemental sparked before it all-but-exploded, making Cadence rock violently in midair as she swore under her breath, pain ripping through her body as she flapped her wings wildly to stay airborne. But as she managed to regain her balance, she shot a look downward before grimacing. Of course it couldn't be that easy.
Glowing motes were dancing and sizzling throughout the air, slowly beginning to pull themselves back together into one cohesive shape. Cadence barely spared it a look, however, as she shot up towards the top of the pillar: she had never seen an elemental like that before, but she also didn't have the time or patience to try and kill it.
She carried herself quickly up to the stone island, landing on it with a grimace and ignoring the imps that flinched away from her in shock. She instead hurried towards the cages as the scavengers wildly grabbed armloads of debris before bolting away to hop off the pillar, as Moonflower looked up in dumb surprise and La Croix gave a weak grin. “Y'made it, Cygne.”
“Yeah. I need your help now, La Croix, and-” Cadence didn't have time to finish before she heard a screeching, the mare wincing and spinning around as the lightning elemental crackled up over the edge of the island. She had wounded it, at least: it was moving much slower than before, and its 'body' of electricity seemed to fizzle, visibly unstable.
The mare gritted her teeth, and then Moonflower wheezed as he leaned forwards and bumped his face into the edge of the cage, blurting: “I know what that is! That's a splick!”
“A... what?” Cadence asked stupidly, and then she swore when the elemental lunged at her, dodging quickly to the side. It sparked violently against Moonflower's cage as it almost bounced off it, knocking the one-winged unicorn over as Cadence rolled to a ready position, then swore and brought up her wings when it attempted to electrify her, shielding herself behind the magically-charged appendages.
“It's... uh... Aster, do the opposite of what I'm doing!” Moonflower blurted, and Aster blearily picked herself up on top of the cage before she grimaced a bit as Moonflower called up his magic, creating a powerful electrical current around his horn.
As Cadence dodged back and forth around the lightning elemental, which was darting quickly but clumsily after her as it sent blasts of electricity in every direction, Aster understood through her confusion and faint fever what it was Moonflower wanted to do when she saw the way that the lightning bounced over one of Cadence's magic-charged wings, and finally put that together with the electrical current Moonflower was generating beneath her.
She stumbled up to her hooves, wheezing hard in and out before she gritted her teeth as she rose her horn high, her magic steadily gathering around her spire in a powerful electrical charge. She concentrated on it, made it different from Moonflower's, and after a moment, she heard the stallion beneath her shout encouragingly: “Now, let's show them what the two most talented unicorns in all of Midgard's worlds are capable of doing, when they-”
“Just do it!” Cadence shouted in a strangled voice as she dodged away from the electrical elemental again, as it charged boldly after her, the mare's wings completely numb and her whole body twitching from all the electricity that had already been pumped through her.
Moonflower winced, then snapped his horn forward, a tether of lightning shocking into the elemental... and to Cadence's surprise, the electrical elemental screamed at the leash of lightning wrapping around it instead of trying to absorb it, the entity jerking back and forth before Aster's own blast of lightning hammered into the elemental.
It squealed, shivering violently before Moonflower and Aster both pulled hard in opposite directions, and Cadence gaped in shock as the electrical elemental was torn into two halves, which both fell to the ground... before her eyes bulged in further horror as she realized that either side of the elemental had transformed into a pair of pixie-looking things, the mare mouthing wordlessly as these hideous little humanoids writhed on the leashes around them, before Moonflower howled: “Squish it!”
Cadence leapt forwards and stomped mercilessly down on one of the pixies, leaving nothing but a blue splatter behind as the leash of energy burst out of existence. She began to turn towards the other pixie, but it was already shivering and slowly curling up on itself as its body rotted away.
“Lightning faeries...” Aster blinked in surprise as her own leash of electricity vanished, the mare leaning forwards with fascination. “I've never seen them like that, before, though...”
“That's precisely why we couldn't see them! We were searching for elementals, not splicks!” Moonflower explained brightly, and Cadence blinked slowly before she looked blankly at the cage, as Moonflower continued in a perfectly-reasonable voice: “Splicks are what we used to call mated pairs of lightning faeries. They're much more dangerous, you see, since they act like one entity and that lets them drain life out of their victims that much faster. They were quite common where I grew up, though. Much easier to recognize when they're 'wounded,' so to speak, because of the way they move and-”
“Great history lesson, Moony. Cygne, can you get us out of here?” La Croix asked tiredly, and Cadence nodded quickly as she approached the cage. She began to raise her horn, then scowled a bit: stupid crystal, right. “Hey, maybe there's a key for the door, or-”
Cadence simply slammed a hoof into the rusted latticework, punching a large hole in the metal of the cage, and La Croix and Moonflower both stared as she yanked down most of one wall, before the Loa shook himself quickly and grinned wryly as he stood shakily up. “Well, that works too.”
La Croix ambled out of the cage, and Cadence turned her eyes towards Moonflower, who winced a bit before his horn glowed and he neatly began to cut a hole in his own cell, saying awkwardly: “Don't you worry, I can get out myself.”
Cadence nodded, before she looked up at Aster's cage. She frowned a little after a moment, then leapt up onto the roof of La Croix's cage so she could look into the mare's...
Aster was leaning against the wall of her prison, breathing quietly in and out, her eyes fluttering faintly. Cadence frowned worriedly as she began to open her mouth, but Aster shook her head quickly and blushed a little as she rose her head, whispering: “I'm... I'm sorry, pardonnez-moi, I am okay. I'm just a little bit... shaken up, I guess.”
“It's not just the antimagic residue, is it?” Cadence asked quietly, and Aster blushed a bit as she lowered her head, looking silently at the ground. “Listen, Aster. We're going to get you to safety, alright? We just need to get out of here.”
Aster nodded a few times, and then she took a breath as she straightened and said finally: “I can cut my way out. I am fine.”
Cadence smiled back, replying quietly: “Alright. We're going to get through this.”
Aster nodded again, and then she took a breath before starting to concentrate her magic. Cadence watched her for a moment, then offered another smile before she turned and hopped down from the top of the cage, landing beside Moonflower.
The two looked at each other for a moment, before the one-winged unicorn sighed a little and rubbed a hoof over his bare chest, smiling briefly as he said quietly: “It's really too bad. I quite liked that little necklace.”
“Yeah, don't you worry 'bout that, Moony.” La Croix grumbled, and Moonflower turned before his eyes widened in surprise as La Croix thrust the little gemstone necklace towards him, saying wryly: “Damn imps stole 'bout everything of value, but they left this behind. Guess even they knew it was crap.”
“No, it's like that gypsy said! This stone will save our lives one day, just you wait and see!” Moonflower snatched the necklace away, quickly putting it on before he smiled a bit and added in a quieter voice: “Thank you, La Croix.”
La Croix only shrugged with a bit of a smile, and there was silence for a moment before all three ponies looked up as there was a loud clanking, before a large portion of Aster's cage fell loose. The mare herself leapt down after a moment, shakily catching herself before she smiled awkwardly around at them, asking: “Where do we go from here?”
“Down.” Cadence smiled a bit, glancing over at Moonflower. “You might want to do a slow fall, though. And if you've still got enough energy, protect your heads with that stupid bubble spell. We've got a bit of a swim to get to Freya and my father.”
The others nodded, even as Moonflower scowled a little before he complained, as he grumpily played with the large, clunky stone of his necklace: “Can't I just stay up here and keep an eye on things? Maybe there's still some usable objects among all this clutter...”
“You free to look, Moony, but all our stuff be gone. Those imps had a whole week to dig through our stuff and run off with it.” La Croix replied, gesturing around at the debris, and Cadence grimaced as she looked back and forth: she could see a few straps, a few pieces of broken armor, some torn and tattered cloth objects; it looked like La Croix was right. There wasn't anything serviceable left. “Besides, don't think any of us want to be caught alone: those two be connards, but they be dangerous connards.”
Moonflower grimaced at this, then he nodded quickly before he looked over at Aster, asking in a quieter voice: “Are you alright to travel?”
Aster smiled briefly, nodding back to him, and Cadence hesitated only a moment before she quickly cleared her throat and said quietly: “Alright, guys, we need to get moving. Come on, no time to waste.”
The others nodded, following Cadence to the edge of the platform before La Croix grimaced and leaned nervously forward, muttering: “You know, that don't look so safe to me...”
“What does safety have to do with it?” Cadence smiled wryly, looking up as Moonflower created bubbles around his head and Aster's. “And since when have we done anything 'safely,' anyway?”
“Yeah, good point.” La Croix sighed after a moment, then said wryly: “Well, laissez les bon temps rouler, oui?”
Cadence smiled in amusement, and then she jumped forwards and dove off the island, La Croix following her off a moment later. Aster and Moonflower both traded identical winces, then they both took deep breaths before leaping off, falling rump-first with their hooves automatically covering their muzzles as they dropped towards the water far below.
Cadence made herself sharply loop before she hit the water, to slow her momentum enough she wouldn't become a pancake on impact, while La Croix simply became ethereal and probably cannonballed all the way to the very bottom of the lake with his momentum, and, before Cadence could plunge into the lake, there was a tremendous splash as Moonflower hit the water butt-first.
The burst of water he knocked up was enough to knock Cadence off course, the mare almost ramming into Aster as the other winged unicorn squawked and stopped in a hover above the water, staring into the depths stupidly. Cadence managed to halt herself and hover, staring as well... before a spluttering Moonflower surfaced, coughing and hacking, his bubble gone from around his head as he blinked his sopping mane out of his eyes before wheezing: “I'm okay!”
With that, he flicked his horn to create a new bubble around his head before diving into the depths, and Cadence slowly dragged a front hoof down her own face before she said moodily: “I guess Moonflower has that going for him. An unbreakable ass to go along with his unbreakable head.”
She sighed, then smiled awkwardly over at Aster before shrugging lamely and diving into the water, the glow finally vanishing from her wings as she pushed herself quickly down into the depths, following the distinct light that Moonflower's horn was emitting and helped along by the aura of Aster's horn when the winged unicorn dropped into the lake after her, following in the wake of the ivory mare.
They swam quickly through the dark waters, and when Cadence emerged with a gasp, she was surprised to see that La Croix was already on the shore, and he had marshaled the wraiths into neat lines on either side of the island. Moonflower was hesitantly pulling himself out, and Freya glanced up with a wry smile as Cadence and Aster climbed out of the waves, the Valkyrie finally picking herself up from the bottom of the cage as she said wryly: “Took you long enough, Swan.”
Cadence only gave Freya a dry look as La Croix flapped his forelegs at the two lines of wraiths, shouting: “Now, git, git, all y'all! And you remember, you best come runnin' when I make my call!”
The phantasms hissed, but then scattered like pigeons when La Croix ran at one of the lines of ghosts, the spirits hurriedly shooting away into the air and vanishing from sight. Cadence looked uneasily after the spirits, but Freya only shook her head before she walked forward and easily kicked down the door of her cage. “Not to worry. It's all part of the plan, which La Croix has been smart enough to figure out at least a bit of, it seems. I have to say, I'm rather impressed, Loa.”
La Croix only shrugged a bit, saying wryly: “Moment I saw 'em, I knew you'd want to use 'em. But I ain't gonna be capable of doin' much else right now, I'm afraid, Madame Freya. I feel like the cocodril's eaten me and spat me back out.”
“Don't worry, your job is done. Cadence and I will be dealing with the rest.” Freya replied with a brief shake of her head, before she simply flicked her horn, and Cadence's eyes widened in shock as all four of the mare's swords sparked into being in bursts of golden flame, the Swan mouthing wordlessly.
Freya only grinned: they had taken everything else from her, eyepatch included, and her braids were messy and her body was visibly bruised here and there, but she was certainly now the best equipped of them by far, as her swords floated easily to ready positions around her strong frame. “Now, it's true that we can't simply resist antimagic, but there are a few ways to diminish its effect. You, handsome, learn quickly, and you, Aster, seem talented with water magic. What I want you both to do is to insulate your horns with water. It's a permeable enough substance that your magic can still be focused through it, but it will also resist the vibrations that your precious horns are so sensitive to.”
Cadence tilted her head curiously as Sombra used his control over corruption to melt away the lock keeping his own cage shut, even as he remarked: “I have never heard of that, Signora Freya. Are you sure that-”
“Yes, yes. You don't have to doubt every last thing I say, you know.” Freya said crossly, glaring at Sombra, but he only smiled back, unfettered even by the gaze of both her crystal and gemstone eye. “We cannot rely on our foes being predictable, so instead we have to try and craft advantages for ourselves. We must use both our own skills and our environment to force our foes into the weaker position.”
“I don't know how much of an advantage we can get, though.” Cadence said uncertainly, shaking her head as she said: “If we can ambush them, I think that I can take at least one of them down pretty quickly, but the antimagic-”
“The antimagic isn't something we'll have to worry about for long, because it most likely isn't something they intend to generate. I think it's a side effect of their chaotic natures, which will not remain dominant for long once we engage them.” Freya said, and Cadence wasn't sure if she was supposed to understand what Freya was getting at, or if she was just saying vague things to try and make everyone else feel stupid so that she didn't have to explain her plan. “We should move quickly. We don't want to fight them here, or get caught on the move.”
Cadence nodded after a moment, grimacing over her shoulder towards the water before she paused to turn her attention towards her father, asking quietly: “Are you alright?”
“We're all alright. Let's move.” Freya interrupted, before Sombra could say anything. Cadence shot her a horrible look, but the Valkyrie only smiled and shrugged, replying evenly: “I thought I was fairly clear that we have to be fast here, Danzsöngr. You can go back to wasting your time later.”
Cadence grumbled under her breath, and then she sighed and nodded moodily before muttering: “Fine. Let's get this over with quickly.”
Her father gave her a reassuring look, and Cadence lowered her head grouchily even as she turned away, taking a slow breath and concentrating on the fact that they were going to finally deal with the destruction entities, one way or another. And then they could finally get the hell out of here and go back to Decretum.
Moonflower was oddly quiet, and Cadence was too swept up in her own grumpiness to notice until they reemerged on the other side of the lake. As she concentrated magic through her wings again to steam away the water and take quick flight, she realized that while Freya was already flying past, her father was treading water beside Moonflower and Aster.
Cadence frowned as she lowered herself nervously, before she grimaced a bit as she realized that Moonflower was half-supporting Aster, who looked ill, in a word. She began to open her mouth, but Aster shook her head and blushed as she pushed Moonflower away, mumbling: “I'm okay now, I just... I was having trouble getting through the water.”
“Alright.” Cadence said uneasily, frowning as she looked over Aster: the red veins were standing out more prominently, pulsing visibly through her hide, and she couldn't help but notice that while Aster had gathered water around her horn like Freya had asked her to, it was glowing eerily. “Aster, when you concentrate your magic, do you feel... sicker?”
“I'm fine.” Aster said after a moment, and then she shook herself briefly before she clumsily started to flap her wings, dragging her wet body up out of the water and into the air. Cadence watched her as she flew upwards, and then she glanced down at Moonflower questioningly.
Sombra was looking curiously at the stallion as well, and Moonflower shifted back and forth before he finally sighed and mumbled: “Let's just... keep moving. She's difficult, though. Always putting on a strong face, never wanting help with anything.”
“Yeah. She reminds me of someone.” Cadence smiled a little down at Moonflower, shaking her head briefly before she sighed a little and asked: “Are you going to be okay getting up top?”
“I... yes. I'm fine.” Moonflower said grumpily, even as he looked self-consciously at his one remaining wing before he shook his head quickly, his horn and hooves lighting up with energy as he mumbled: “Reduced to using parlor tricks...”
Moonflower kicked his legs out, beginning to... well, paddle, was the most appropriate word for it. His legs flailed wildly, the stallion gradually paddling his way into the air as his hooves thrummed with the magic needed to keep him aloft, and Cadence traded a look with her father before the ivory mare sighed and turned her eyes upward, flapping her wings firmly to fly quickly up towards the top of the island high above.
She landed beside Freya and Aster, and a moment later, La Croix appeared beside her; a little less than ten seconds after that, the earth rippled and allowed her father to pull himself up out of the uneven stone like he was passing through liquid. But it was almost a full minute before Moonflower came huffing over the edge of the island, paddling wildly through the air before he finally dropped with a thump and wheeze to the ground, blinking dumbly as he landed in a sprawl.
“Took you long enough.” Freya grumbled, and then the Valkyrie shook her head quickly, returning to... well, Cadence wasn't sure what she was doing, as she dug quickly through the assortment of junk. She wouldn't tell them what she was looking for, though, or what she was doing, but Cadence had the weirdest feeling that Freya didn't know what she was doing, either. Sometimes, the Valkyrie seemed to just do things for the sake of doing things.
Moonflower mumbled incoherently under his breath, and Aster nervously approached him before she asked hesitantly: “Do you want me to protect your horn?”
Moonflower looked up at the mare with something like horror for a moment, before he blinked stupidly a few times as his eyes flicked to the water that was swirling around her own spire, and his face cleared with an expression of both relief and faint embarrassment, as he said hurriedly: “No, no, I... no, I'm completely fine, I'm... I'm far too strong to be affected by their silly antimagic, after all.”
“Oh, yes, it wasn't like you were the first man to drop face-first to the ground and curl up crying the moment they emerged from the portal or anything.” Freya remarked, and Moonflower went beet-red even as he sat quickly up and glared at the Valkyrie, then hurriedly shrank his head between his shoulders and found somewhere else to look when she grinned over her shoulder at him wryly. “Such a strong, proud warrior you are.”
“Leave him alone. Besides, Moonflower's a stallion, not a man.” Cadence grumbled: even if she knew that was a moot point, it was never one she could resist correcting. Which she thought Freya knew, from the lopsided grin the Valkyrie gave her before turning her attention back to her digging around through things.
Cadence glowered at Freya's back, and then she shook her head before turning around so she could survey her team, which now included Aster, she supposed, since the mare was looking at her as readily as the others.
“Freya was right when she said that we need to take every advantage we can get. Moonflower, either find a way to shield your horn, or let Aster do it for you.” Cadence ordered, and Moonflower lowered his head and gave a meek nod. “Good. Daddy...”
Sombra smiled, lowering his head forward slightly, and Cadence smiled back: he had already shielded his horn with crystal. Which just left... “La Croix?”
La Croix only shrugged awkwardly, the Loa rubbing at the back of his head before he muttered: “I might just have to sit this one out, Cygne. Pardonnez-moi, but... unlike the rest of you, all o' me be vulnerable to that nasty mojo they be workin'.”
“Yes, well, that's perfectly fine. It's not like we've ever really needed your help anyway, you just make sure you stay out of the way.” Moonflower said loudly, and La Croix gave the one-winged unicorn a dry look before Moonflower smiled a little more and said quietly: “The last thing we need are more pointless injuries.”
La Croix smiled back after a moment, and then Freya said mildly over her shoulder: “Aye, the Loa should stay back, but he still has a part to play. And we won't have to resist them for very long, like I said. I'm sure of it.”
Cadence felt that whatever Freya was 'sure of' was probably another wild guess or assumption, but she wasn't about to question the Valkyrie, either. For one thing, Freya was usually right, and for another, Freya loved to argue.
The Valkyrie seemed to sense Cadence's moodiness as she winked at her: a particularly-eerie expression with only one working eye, as that glowing crystal in the other socket glared into her. “Now, don't you worry. Either way, we'll deal with these two as quickly as can be. We need to get Atavus back on our side, after all... and if that means we have to do a bit of killing, well, so be it.”
Cadence grimaced as Freya turned back around, feeling the Swan shifting almost uncertainly inside of her as she wondered uneasily how Freya could be so casual about the thought of destroying destruction, and how she could be so happy to kill.