//------------------------------// // Awakening // Story: The Brass Conspiracy // by MadHighlander //------------------------------// Equulaneum Present Day – 6 Months Later With a loud click, the light from the limiter ring faded as the device snapped open and fell to the ground. Twilight’s spell blasted out from her horn, passing through the space where Cogspin had been standing seemingly a moment before. The magical blast ricocheted off the stone wall – tearing splinters of stone from it and throwing them around the room – and collided with the jackal case, shattering it and throwing the jackal statuette into the alcove behind the case. Twilight looked around wildly for the mechanical stallion who had just been standing right in front of her. He wasn’t in front of her anymore; only the shattered, empty case that had once held the Crown. To her right was a nondescript glass case with a plaque reading ‘NOTHING / Do not comprehend.’ To her left was Poison Point. Behind her- Twilight did a double take. “Poison!” She cast an immobilizing spell, freezing Poison’s hooves in place. “How did you get here? Where’s Cogspin?” “Whoa! Easy there. I’m on your side. Except for real this time.” “You’ll forgive me if I don’t take that at face value. Answer the questions.” “Right. Um, I just walked in here. I have my own clearance now. As for your other question, there is a newspaper in my saddlebag. It’ll tell you anything you need to know.” For the first time, Twilight noticed a pair of saddlebags slung over Poison’s back. The right pouch, sure enough, held a slightly yellowing newspaper. Twilight picked it up with magic and looked at the front page. The front page headline, emblazoned in bold capital letters across the top of the image, read ‘Celestial diarchy falls after only four years: King Cogspin the Greater installed as High King of Equestria’ The image below depicted all eight former Guildmasters standing on the balcony from which Celestia had often made royal addresses. Cogspin, in the front, had left his cloak behind – sure enough, Twilight looked up and saw it right where he had dropped it – and wore the Platinum Crown instead. Behind him, the other seven Guildmasters, plus Poison, were themselves bedecked in varying degrees of finery. Twilight realized with a sudden feeling of disgust that they must have raided the Royal Treasury. Shimmerthread had adopted a flowing silk robe, with patterns stitched in gold thread. Stone Cutter was covered in golden amulets and bracelets, while Macaroon had opted instead for a massive silver circlet atop her head – superficially similar to a Zebrican leg band – that pushed up her puffy mass of hair and made her head look like nothing more than an odd-colored broccoli flower. The Flim Flam Brothers had exchanged their trademark boaters for a pair of very familiar gold and silver tiaras, while Iron Shod initially appeared to have abstained. A closer look revealed that he had exchanged his brass eyepatch for a small gold plate embossed with a stylised eye with a lapis lazuli iris. Grain Chaff simply wore a silver pendant, while Poison Point wore a pair of gold earrings. Looking up from the picture, Twilight noticed that the Poison Point watching her expectantly by the shattered case no longer wore the earrings. “That paper is six months old as of last Thursday.” “That’s impossible. Cogspin was just down here a moment ago.” “From your perspective, that’s true. Cogspin trapped you in a temporal lock when you tried to attack him. You spent all of a fraction of a second in there, but the rest of us spent six months out there.” She gestured down the hall towards the door. “A lot of things have happened. That article hints that Celestia voluntarily abdicated, but while that’s technically true, she immediately regretted it when she realized that Cogspin had deceived her. She tried to take it back, but Cogspin drove her out of Canterlot, and then renamed the place Equulaneum.” “How could he be more powerful than Celestia?” “Beats me. He wouldn’t even tell us that.” Twilight squinted suspiciously. “And you’re pretty chummy with him, then, are you?” “Once upon a time. He’s been drifting further away from us, and the world in general, lately. Getting increasingly paranoid, dangerous even. Tartarus, he even had the other Guildmasters and I sign contracts binding us to him, using the same magic he used to bind Celestia to her own word. Mine wasn’t binding – I used regular ink, not Changeling blood. Just a precaution, but a fortunate one at that.” Twilight had started pacing, but stopped. “Where would you even get Changeling blood?” Poison shrugged. “Beats me. Stone always got a hold of it. He never said where, and I didn’t ask.” Twilight narrowed her eyes. "There are a lot of things you don't know, aren't there?" Poison gave her an odd look. "I didn't expect it would matter." Twilight sighed. "I suppose it doesn't, yet. So why are you here?” she said sarcastically. “Do you want me to, I don’t know, hoof over the Element of Magic to Cogspin or something?” A look of horror crossed Poison’s face. “No! That’s the worst thing you could do. Celestia and Luna made off with the Elements when they fled the city, anyway. Cogspin’s been searching for them, but with no luck.” “So you want me to lead you to the princesses, then?” Poison scoffed. “I doubt even you could do that. Cogspin has been scouring Equestria for all of the past six months. He ordered her and the Element Bearers banned from the country on the very first day, but he refuses to believe they actually left. As far as I can tell, they did, and they took that dragon of yours with them, though I haven't got any proof other than the fact that he hasn't found even a hint of them yet.” "Wait, they brought Spike? Why? Did Cogspin include him in the banishment?" "No, he didn't. If I had to guess, I'd say they took Spike because he insisted on going with them, but again I haven't got any proof." “If you don't want me to lead you to the Princesses, then why are you here?” “I need a reason for the Princesses to trust me when I do find them. I need Celestia’s help to take down Cogspin.” That got Twilight’s attention. “Why would you want to take down Cogspin?” “Well, remember I said he’s been getting paranoid lately? Dangerous? For most of it, I was willing to look the other way – his curfews, random searches, imprisoning anyone who spoke out against him – and to be honest I regret a lot of that now, but it’s too late to worry about the past. Point being, he crossed the line a week ago. He abducted innocent civilians, put them in the dungeons. He plans to threaten their lives if Celestia or anypony else comes back to unseat him, nevermind the fact that he’s contractually immune to bodily harm of any sort. I thought there was no line, but it seems there is actually something I just can’t stand for.” “These civilians, who are they? Why did he choose them in particular?” “I’d rather not talk about it for the time being. First, we have to get you out of Equulaneum. I’ve got a bunch of old hidey-holes in Baltimare, we can go there while we look for your friends.” “And I should trust you why?” Poison nodded to the limiter on the ground. “I removed that and freed you from the time lock. Technically I didn’t save your life – you could theoretically outlast the entire universe in that thing – but I think what I did do at least merits a little faith.” “Fair enough.” The glow at the tip of Twilight’s horn dimmed, and Poison shuffled her hooves. “Thanks. My hooves were really starting to get numb.” She picked up Cogspin’s cloak. “Here. You should put that on.” “What? Why?” “You’re a wanted mare, Twilight. Cogspin put a price on the heads of all the Element bearers. As his paranoia increases, so does the price. I think it’s well into the seven figures by now.” “And you were planning on telling me this when?” “Just now. Take the cloak.” Poison shook the cloak. Twilight took it and put it on, making sure it covered her face. “One last thing. Can you cast an invisibility spell, and if so, for how long?” asked Poison. “Thirty seconds. Around fifteen when I’m under stress, or as much as a minute when I’m near the Element of Magic. Why?” “One of the few things Cogspin hasn’t dispensed with is the guards outside the Archives. They’re going to be suspicious if I leave with a pony who didn’t come in with me.” “Do they still use the illusion scanner? Because that would cut through even the best invisibility spell like butter.” Poison frowned. “Damn. Okay, didn’t think of that. Granted, they won’t be using it on you, but the aura might be enough to shorten the spell’s lifetime.” “It most certainly will. I got a good look at it on my way in. Model 75 Moonlight Unit. If that’s even in the room, I don’t think I’ll be able to cast the spell in the first place. I certainly won’t be able to keep it active once the doors open.” “That is a problem. Just give me a moment.” Poison started to pace, but then grabbed a scroll and a stick of charcoal from her saddlebag. She started sketching on the scroll, then rubbing out what she had sketched. All the while, she muttered to herself, sometimes audibly, sometimes not. “Sillu? No, the meaning isn’t quite… …perhaps Suqammumu. No, no, the auditory association is too definite…” “Poison, what are you doing?” Poison raised a hoof and shushed her. “I told you, just give me a moment. I’ll have this figured out in no time. For the moment, though, I need to concentrate.” She rubbed out what she had drawn and started again. “I’ve been going about it all wrong. I’ve been trying to make an invisibility spell, but no, we already have one. We need a spell that hides another spell. La Nabalkutu, perhaps. No, that might stop the spell from being removed entirely.” Her face brightened suddenly. “I’ve got it! La Halqu! That should do the trick!” She sketched furiously, ending up with what looked like a random scattering of slashes. “What’s that?” asked Twilight, who had never seen an entirely new spell created before. The only time she had heard of it happening was when Rarity had accidentally invented her gem-finding spell, and she was pretty sure Rarity hadn’t shouted gibberish and attacked a piece of paper. “This is a rune ward.” Poison Point held up the paper. “My special talent is writing-based magic. There’s the blood-oath included in that, of course, but rune magic is also a particular skill of mine.” “Really?” asked Twilight, interested in spite of herself. “I’ve never seen a rune spell before.” “That’s because it’s a rare talent. This one here that I just created is ‘La Halqu,’ which is an Urbuck phrase that loosely translates to ‘not lose’. Atrocious grammar, but Urbuck is notoriously hard to work with.” “Then why use it?” “Can’t do it any other way. Rune magic needs to be written in Urbuck script, or else it doesn’t work.” As she spoke, Poison was copying the glyph she had created onto a smaller piece of paper, perhaps an inch square. When she had finished, she held up the tiny square of paper. “This might sting a bit.” She then applied the paper to the side of Twilight’s face, at which point Twilight felt a sudden blazing sensation as if the page was a piece of hot iron. “OW! What was that for?” “I needed to apply the rune. Don’t worry, it’ll disappear in a few hours. But, if all goes as planned, that’ll prevent the illusion device from lifting your invisibility spell.” Poison turned back to the paper she had been sketching on and threw the slightly smoking slip on top of it. With her charcoal, she sketched out a smaller, different symbol in the corner of the larger paper (identifying it as ‘Shurpu’) and slapped the symbol, at which point the page burst into flames and disintegrated into a fine black powder. “Anything else? Stupid question. Let’s get out of here.” Equulaneum Sculpture Garden A cacophony of metallic crashes announced King Cogspin’s presence in the Gardens, raising flocks of birds from the trees and sending hundreds of rodents scurrying towards their burrows. A number of ruts dug deeply into the soil – and even concrete walkways – spoke of many afternoons wasted on this same task: attempts to destroy Discord’s granite form. A humming sound filled the air as Cogspin used magic to lift up the statue and rest it across a marble effigy of a trio of Solar Guards. This was followed by another crash as he brought his forehoof down on it with all his considerable strength. There was no result, so he tried again, and a third time. On the fourth try, two of the three guard statues shattered into stone shards, while the third toppled off its plinth. Leaving Discord resting against that plinth, Cogspin took up the third guard statue and brought it down over the chaos spirit’s head. A second try separated the equine statue’s head from its shoulders, and Cogspin cast the body away, instead loosing a magical blast at Discord. The only result was that the tall statue was blasted back several meters, tearing up the dirt in which it was partially embedded and throwing the guard statues’ plinth against the castle walls. He had refused to believe it when the guards he had assigned to the task months previously had returned after a week and told him that the statue was indestructible. The first thing he had done was gone out to the gardens and attempted to destroy it himself. He had failed miserably, and so had continued his attempts for several hours every afternoon. Fairly early on, he had succeeded in breaking the statue free of its plinth, but he rapidly discovered that that was a small victory compared with the task of actually destroying the thing itself. “King Cogspin, sir.” The voice came from the door leading back into the castle. Looking up, Cogspin saw that Shimmerthread had entered the garden while he had been otherwise occupied. “What is it, Shimmerthread?” “Matters requiring your attention.” She held up a clipboard in her lime-green colored magic aura. “Where’s Poison Point?” “She said she was going to Baltimare to get some more of that foul concoction you insist on drinking. She left about three or four hours ago.” She flipped a lock of her mane behind her left ear. “Which leaves me doing the paperwork. Remind me again why this is my job? I mean, couldn’t Stone or Grain handle this?” “Grain is in Ponyville, and Stone went out with a group of guards to check for active Celestia supporters. What news, then?” Shimmerthread sighed, and flipped open the clipboard. “Those Appleloosans are back again, complaining about Grain. Some stallion by the name of Braeburn showed up today wanting you to put him on a tighter leash.” “I told them last time, Grain is my minister of agriculture and he will be allowed to do what he sees fit. Tell Braeburn my position remains unchanged.” “They may riot if Grain continues to pass those tariffs of his. They’re not exactly helpful to apple farmers.” Cogspin waved a hoof. “Then let them riot. But tell them that if they do, I’m coming out there personally to put a stop to it.” “Good.” Shimmerthread flipped a page on the clipboard. “Princess Cadenza of the Crystal Empire province has been asking for independence. She basically quoted back what Celestia told you half a year ago.” “Have we searched the Empire for the Element bearers yet?” “Several times.” “Get Stone to do it again. And tell Cadenza that she can have her independence when she provides us with an adequate substitute for the Imperial crystal that we would lose access to. Be sure to mention the fact that the Empire shares a border with both Gryphon and Drakkad, and that if she were not affiliated with Equestria then it would no longer fall to us to protect those borders.” A quill rasped across the page, then flipped over a new one. “That Blueblood fellow is back again.” “What did he want?” Shimmerthread shrugged. “Nothing, he was just sucking up. I think he’s afraid of you. Oh, and Fancy Pants positively accosted me. He’s with those ponies who refuse to believe Celestia abdicated, thinks you’re covering up a coup.” “Like that Pegasus, what was her name?” “Spitfire. An apt title, if you ask me. Apparently they’ve gathered up a group, calling themselves the Celestian League. They figure that if they band together they can cause you no end of trouble, and as much as it seems unlikely, they’re probably right, at least on the political side of things.” Shimmerthread picked a sheet of paper out of the clipboard and levitated it over to Cogspin. “This is a petition that they all signed. They want you to either release evidence to back up your claims, or announce what ‘really happened’.” Shimmerthread finished her sentence with a pair of air quotes. Cogspin looked over the petition. “That’s a lot of names. Orange Julius, Blinky Pie, Twill, Box Car, Chiaroscuro… the list goes on. Do we know who’s actually in charge of this group?” “They claim nopony is in charge per se, but a group that size couldn’t exist without some kind of command structure. Flim and Flam have been looking into it, but nothing yet.” “I want Mac to help them. She has a knack for finding things. Tell the Celestian League Poison will release the evidence they’re looking for when she gets back. That should stall them long enough that we can… arrange for the group to fall apart. Anything else?” Shimmerthread flipped another page in the clipboard. “Oh, you’ll find this interesting. Dean Arpeggio came back with the results of that thaumatic analysis of Discord you requested.” “Really? What did he find?” Shimmerthread took out a folded page, setting the clipboard aside. The page had a musical note on the reverse side, which she ignored as she unfolded it. The page’s full length actually trailed on the ground at her hooves. “I can’t make heads or tails of most of this, but thankfully he’s taken the liberty of summarizing it up front. He found, essentially, nothing. That is to say, there are no protective spells around the statue whatsoever.” “Then why can’t we destroy it?” asked Cogspin, a hint of anger creeping into his voice. “Hang on, I haven’t finished yet. It says here that he hasn’t been turned to stone, that’s just what physically appears to have happened. What’s actually occurred is that he has been thaumatically locked. That means that he is stuck in the exact state he was in when the Elements bombarded him – he can’t be altered in any way, by any means, without first releasing him.” “So Celestia did make it indestructible.” “Apparently. If we want to destroy him, we’re going to have to let him out.”