//------------------------------//
// III 
// Story: The Platinum Deception 
// by NeverEatTheLemonsAlone 
//------------------------------//

By the time Clover was done, she was deeply slurring her words, only half-conscious. Star Swirl was the most powerful mage in history; he had enough experience to tell when a unicorn was approaching magical overload, and the mare in front of him was just seconds away. The instant she finished, he grabbed her by the scruff of the neck with his nigh-unbreakable telekinetic grip, carrying her with him as he walked through the door. She made no protests. She didn’t really even know what was going on at that point. Everything had become a blur of white stone and red carpeting, a smudged mess of impressionistic colour.

The farther away Star Swirl carried her, though, the more cognizant she became. Finally, when they were well away from the castle and nearing the city gates, she could speak fluently enough to be understandable, though it was mostly nonsense.

As he reached the edge of the city proper, he sighed. It was no use. He simply couldn’t get far away enough from the nexus of raw magical force that the Founders’ Chamber had become. He chewed his lip nervously. What he was planning could work, taking Clover far away in a blink. It could also overload her arcane system with so much power that her heart would give out and she would die.

Still, he thought, if she stays here, she could die anyway. If I can do this, then she has a better chance, at least. His mind made up, he reached for his magic, pooling it around his horn. The white aura grew nearly brighter than the sun as he strained against his own leylines, folding them around the unicorn in his telekinetic grip instead of letting them flow through her. Sweat beaded on his brow as his teeth gritted together, funneling all of his power into a long-range teleportation spell. With a tremendous flash, they disappeared, blinking into existence in a far northern town called Snowstable, inhabited almost exclusively by pegasi.

When he recovered from the powerful backlash of the spell, he looked to the right and let out a huge sigh of relief. Clover was still alive, hanging in his telekinetic grip, and as a plus, was awake. She looked more lucid than Star Swirl had seen her in months. He gently lowered her to the ground, smiling as her hooves landed firmly. Groaning, she rubbed a hoof to her temple. “Ughhh…what happened? Where are we? By the Gods, my head feels like Smart Cookie’s been bucking at it.”

“Shh. Try not to talk too much, Clover. You just barely survived what’s likely the worst case of thaumic overload I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been teaching for a very long time.”

Clover shot him a grateful glance. She didn’t really remember anything except for vague images after finishing her story, but those images clued her in well enough on what the old mage had done. Still, she couldn’t listen to him this time. “Sorry, Star Swirl, but I have to ignore your advice for the first time. Thaumic overload can take months to recover fully from on a small scale, and from what you’re saying this was anything but. We need to find Platinum. Whatever’s taken her, it’s far stronger than the Windigoes, stronger than anything I’ve ever seen. If it can afford to expend that much energy for a teleportation spell, it’s the greatest threat we’ve ever faced, and we all need to be here to fight it.”

Star Swirl responded, frowning. “If you pressed hard enough, the Chancellor would come to your aid. What of Hurricane and Pansy, though? They’ve been out of my magical reach since they left Equestria, and I doubt they’re any closer now.

Clover’s only response was a shake of the head. 

“You’re going to do this even if I tell you not to, aren’t you, Clover?”

This time, her response was a nod. Star Swirl sighed tiredly. “Fine then. I think I have enough strength in me for another one of those teleports. As long as you stay away from the castle, you should be fine.” As his eyes slipped shut and he began siphoning his power into his horn once again, he was interrupted.

“Hey, Star Swirl. You…might want to see this.

Sighing, he opened his eyes. “What is it?”

Clover was pointing, wide eyed, to a small poster that hung rather unnoticed in a side street. On it was a detailed portrait of Clover, right down to the four-leaf-clover cutie mark, surmounted by the text Wanted for assassination of Once-Princess Platinum.Dread welled up in the stallion and he swallowed, his throat suddenly bone-dry. “Clover? Did anybody see what happened in the room except for you?”

The mare turned to him, shaking her head. “No, I don’t think so…” She hissed in a breath as she understood what he meant.

“Congratulations, Clover. You’ve been accused of amicicide, and you have nopony to vouch for you.”