“MURDERING CHANGELING!” The second cry shook the room again as Twilight lowered her head pointed her charged horn straight at the prostrated Mir. “I’ll rip that disguise off you!” A beam of magic fired forth, bathing Mir in reddish-purple light.
Warning! D-Cellophane disruption. Unable to maintain form. The hell? Mir thrashed her limbs as she tried to break free of whatever horror had been unleashed on her. Rational thought was becoming increasingly difficult as panic spread through her. What’s going on… oh no. “S… stop! You’re… killing… me…”
She couldn’t move. Every ounce of energy she had was needed to hold her body together. And she was losing ground.
“Mir!” Croix tried to move forward, but the guardsponies in front of him flared their wings and held their ground. If he wanted to get into a three-versus-one shoving match, he’d get it. Rainbow moved next to them to make it four-versus-one. The orange pony stood to the side, glancing between Twilight and him.
Mir hadn’t felt fear like this in a long time. Not since she’d escaped her tormentors so long ago. Total helplessness, no way out, no nothing. She couldn’t call on her song magic in this state, and her pony magic seemed similarly locked out. “Are you… really trying to kill me?”
“Hmph.” Twilight was sweating under the strain of the spell. There was clearly a lot of shapeshifting magic to get rid of, but she’d get it eventually. “Nice try changeling, but you can’t get away from me now.”
It’s funny. I always figured if I did get killed, it’d be for something I’d actually done. “I… still… don’t… know… what… that… is.”
Croix looked to the orange pony. Their boss seemed pretty unreasonable, but she didn’t seem to like what was going on. “Are you really going to let her execute my wife like that?”
“Ah…” Applejack gulped. “Ah don’t think it’ll actually hurt her. She used it ta fix some bad shape-changin earlier.”
“It’s not that simple.” Croix raised his voice in hopes that Twilight would hear as well. “She’s a Beta Reyvateil, she’s held together with shape-changing magic. Without it, she turns into a puddle and dies.” Twilight’s ear flicked towards them, indicating she’d heard, but she didn’t react otherwise.
“That’s... “ Applejack looked between Croix and the spectacle at the other end of the room. “Twi? That make any sense to you?”
Critical Warning! Unable to maintain form. Bits of Mir’s body began to melt at the extremities. The tip of her horn melted and ran down her face, and the tip of her tail was staining the cushions. With her head pointed down to aim the horn straight at Mir, Twilight couldn’t see it.
“Hold it! Don’t give this monster’s words a second thought.” Rainbow swooped between Croix and Applejack. “You saw what happened to Pinkie, they did this. Somehow.”
“I didn’t detect a spell, but you may well be right. Maybe it’s like the Stare?” Twilight’s concentration was almost totally consumed by the spell, but she could still chat.
“He’s probably a Changeling too. Or worse, he’s a pony who works for Changelings for money or something. Like Professor McHay in Daring Do and the...”
“The hell are you talking about?” Croix was boiling over. Mir hadn’t said anything for a while, she was probably near the brink.
“I’m saying we need to smack you unconscious so you can’t try whatever undetectable horseapples you did to Pinkie.”
“I have no idea what the hell you think I did or she did, but that’s no reason to execute her over.”
“What, you’re afraid of what we’ll do once we see her true, changeling form?”
Croix couldn’t even see the orange pony behind the flapping, in-your-face blue Pegasus. The wall of guards blocked his view of Mir, and the nods of their heads indicated they were buying what the hectoring pony was selling. The Princess was still pumping more energy into Mir. It was now or never.
He couldn’t just fight all four or five of them bare-handed. Or hooved. While he had the lance with him, he couldn’t simply grab it and go as a pony. He had to strap it on, and he’d be vulnerable while he did so. He had no hope of beating four (or five) opponents unarmed. And the only other weapon he had was… that grenade.
The Ar Toluneco bomb they’d made together was definitely powerful enough to clear the entire room of enemies, no question. Mir said she’d survived a similar bomb, so if she wasn’t dead yet it wouldn’t kill her. Still, could he survive it? He hadn’t used one of those since he last fought Raki, and this was a far more enclosed area. Still, the thought of having Mir die in front of him due to inaction was intolerable. He’d do it.
“On your heads be it.” Croix feinted a charge forward. The guards and Rainbow Dash braced in position to receive it, but instead Croix leaped backwards, while simultaneously digging into his saddlebag with his mouth. The many ridges on the edge of the bomb immediately identified it, and he worked the arming device with his lips and tongue in the pony manner as he began to swing it with his neck and head. “Grenade out!”
The ponies hearing this had no word in their language for “grenade”(1) and instead heard Croix’s shout in Metafalssean. The thrown object wasn’t radiating any magic and wasn’t going to hit the Princess, so they didn’t react to it.
Two guards began to circle Croix as one of them charged. Croix brought an armored wing edge forward for a slam directly into the charging guard’s nose. As the stunned guard tottered, Croix dove under him and covered his head with the guard’s body in an attempt to save himself from the impending catastrophe.
The Ar Toluneco bomb descended more or less linearly from early research into making copies of the Orgel of Origins that powered the First Tower. Many attempts were made at making smaller, more portable power sources, but all of them ran into crucial limitations. The original Orgel of Origins was simply exactly the right size for symphonic power resonation. Any larger or smaller and it would introduce flaws in the process.
Although a considerable amount of power could be built up inside the songstone, once the instability started it would accumulate until the stone suddenly failed. Then all the symphonic power would instantaneously become dynamic d-waves. Or in layman’s terms, regular heat energy.
The sudden appearance of a massive amount of heat energy had a predictable effect. All the matter of the bomb was immediately turned into plasma, and normally the air around it would be heated as well, forming a shock wave.
Except.
Except this was Twilight Sparkle’s library, and a powerful anti-fire enchantments activated with immense speed.
Twilight had originally placed the enchantments to protect books from any potential “oopses” on Spike’s part. They detected a source of heat that would be dangerous to books, and dumped cold magic into it.
In other words, negative energy.
The shock wave wobbled and slowed as energy drained out of it. Energy began to be replaced by steam as a tiny, normally-undetectable flaws in the enchantments meant that instead of pure cold magic, some ice magic was included as well. This ice rapidly vaporized into steam.
The end result was a loud “BANG!” that knocked over ponies and blew out the windows of the library, and a wall of steam in the center of the room. The library’s dehumidifier enchantment, recognizing the steam as a danger to the books, kept the wall of steam confined.
“Rrrgh.” Restoring form. Mir stood shakily as her extremities began to resolidify. Her position in the pile of cushions had protected her somewhat from the blast, but the psycho Princess standing over her had been carried into the wall.
The billowing cloud of steam in the center of the room radiated a substantial amount of heat. Although a Beta Reyvateil was more durable than a human, she wasn’t sure if running through it to Croix would be a good idea just yet. Also, that would leave the Princess of Vengeance over there alone to prepare for round two.
The pony in question had begun to move again, peeling herself off the wall and turning to face Mir. “Changeling! You’re going down.”
Mir resisted rolling her eyes. This pony was really capable of hurting her, despite how foolish she seemed. Princess Luna would probably be disappointed if I slew this idiot. It’s impossible for me to have killed Sunset Shimmer Togasaki. Maybe we can negotiate somehow?
She looked at the cloud of steam separating her from Croix and the Princess from her allies. “I’ll admit that was a good try, but I’ll let you and your friends live if you quit now. Nobody has to get hurt.”
Twilight begun to charge up her horn. “Tell that to Sunset.” A bolt shot past Mir, who had rolled out of the way at the last second.
“I don’t care what that defective flower thinks, I didn’t kill her.”
“Lying!” A bolt fired, grazing against Mir’s cheek. “Monstrous!” Another bolt, which Mir narrowly ducked under. “Changeling!” This came not as a bolt, but as a beam. Its aim was dead center.
Croix honestly wasn’t expecting it to go so well for him. His ears had acclimated to bangs and blasts after so long working alongside (and being healed up by) Reyvateils, so he recovered before anyone else on his side of the room. When Mir started talking, he felt relief wash over him.
The stallion on top of him was still breathing but wasn’t moving. Croix flung him off and took a look around. In the center of the room a large, opaque cloud roiled. That Pegasus that had it in for him, Rainbow Dash, was trying to get through it. Mir’s on the other side of that! As Rainbow approached the barrier, she flinched suddenly and drew back. It must be too hot to pass through.
As he moved forward to ambush Rainbow, one of the Royal Guards nearby began to regain his feet. Croix lept into the air and executed a double flying kick to the head, knocking him out. Unfortunately, it caught the attention of Rainbow.
“You! You won’t hurt my friends ever again.” The two Pegasi began to hover in place, sizing the other up. Croix could hear the sounds of battle from the other side of the steam curtain, but he couldn’t help Mir now. The twitching of Rainbow’s ears (and a slight lean to her head towards the sounds) indicated that she had a similar desire to aid her friend. Croix’s peripheral vision told him that nobody else in the room was currently mobile. “Let’s do this, McHay.”
That was the only warning he got. Suddenly his vision was full of rainbow, and the armor on his left wing vibrated from a hit that threatened to knock him down.
He managed to arrest his fall by rolling onto his back just as Rainbow came around for another pass. His armored legs were longer than her unarmored ones, and he landed one hit on her chin and one to the Solar Plexus before being knocked to the ground on his back.
Mir couldn’t dodge, but she could counter. The beam from her horn slammed into the one from Twilight’s at a perfect angle. It just couldn’t push it back.
The meniscus of energy between the beams moved closer and closer to Mir. Damn power curve. C’mon. A few inches from her horn, the beam interface came to a halt as Mir began to draw more and more power from the Ar Tonelico. Good old logistic takeoff curve. Then the draw entered the really steeply sloped region of the curve and Mir’s beam was suddenly winning.
Twilight flexed her wings involuntarily as she began to teleport out of the way. She’s going up. Get a phase switchover ready.
The Princess vanished as Mir’s beam slammed into the wall where she’d been, bowing out the wall of the tree and letting light in through myriad cracks. Above Mir, a flash of light denoted Twilight’s reentry.
Got you. As Twilight’s horn powered down from the teleport and began to power up for another shot, Mir’s beam abruptly switched, instantaneously going from firing forward to firing straight up with no warning. Twilight screamed as her half-finished attack was aborted by the pain of the impact. Energy surged over her, carrying her upwards. Along with the roof.
Croix and Rainbow had both flipped up off the ground to standing positions, glaring angrily at one another.
Then the roof exploded. Red magic cracked against it for a moment, and a pony’s scream could be heard over the cracking as the upper story of the library tree, and all its branches, were crumpled and flung aside.
The steam, finding its prison open on the top, began to spread up and out, but wasn’t dissipating as fast as either Pegasus expected. Its super-heated nature was made more apparent as fire began to catch at the edge of the hole in the roof.
“Twilight!” Rainbow recognized that scream, and turned to try to check her friend’s condition. After she realized she couldn’t make out her friend, she realized she’d turned her back on her foe and whipped around.
Croix was still standing there. “Waiting for something, McHay?”
He took a deep breath. “I don’t actually want to fight you. I have no idea what’s going on, but I just want to get my wife out of here.”
“Your wife? Listen pal, that’s a Changeling, maybe a Changeling Queen. It’s nobody’s friend, it’s nobody’s lover, it’s nobody’s wife. If you really are a pony, you gotta fight it.”
“Mir isn’t a… whatever that is. She’s a Reyvateil. I’m not really sure what’s going on, but it’s not worth all this.”
“You tried to blow us up, and then your wife destroyed the library! Forget it, you’re going down.”
Rainbow was fast alright, but Croix had seen her move now. His vision filled with rainbow colored contrail again, but this time his wing had flexed to place the heavily armored leading edge directly in the path of Rainbow’s chin.
The hit to the chin stunned her, but momentum pulled her forward and tilted her neck into the armored wing.
As her neck caught, the momentum of her torso and legs flipped her over.
She’d clotheslined herself.
With an effort, Croix forced his aching wing down, slamming her into floor.
He repositioned with his feet, turning to meet any threat, but the mare was out cold.
Now I can see about attending to Mir… That was when the lasso wrapped around his right foreleg.
Flash sentry turned back to look at the Tree of Harmony. Ever since Twilight had dealt with the Plundervine, Celestia had ordered the grotto guarded by her Royal Guardsponies. While other Pegasi covered the approaches and Unicorns hid in wait, he himself paced up and down in front of the Tree itself.
It didn’t really make sense to him. Who would want to hurt the Tree of Harmony? The idea that someone could wish harm on it felt… wrong to him. He couldn’t picture anyone, even Queen Chrysalis, harming the Tree. It just wouldn’t come together in his mind.
At least he was close to Ponyville. Once he had some time, he’d go see if he could find some time with Princess Twilight. She’d given him the oddest looks, and he wanted to see if that was really the affection he thought it might be.
Mmm, Princess Twilight. I can’t wai–what’s that?
He could hear footsteps outside. For some reason, they sounded… crunchy. He pressed his hoof against the symbol on his armor that would sound a level 1 alert. In theory, the nearby Unicorn guardsmen would teleport in to reinforce him. Nothing happened.
OK that’s weird. Maybe they’re playing a prank on me.
Then the source of the footsteps came into view. It looked like nothing more than jagged shards of crystal, hovering to form the outline of a pony. On its “back” was an immense, billowing cape. As it approached Flash could do little more than stare at it. He’d never seen anything like it. He’d never heard of anything like it.
“Ah, hello.” The voice immediately snapped him out of it. He’d heard that, back when he’d been with Shining Armor as one of the guards for Princess Cadance when they first went to the Crystal Empire. Sombra’s voice.
“Sombra! How the Tartarus are you still alive?” It was suddenly apparent to Flash how much bigger the apparition was than him.
“Well, to be honest, that little smack I got with the Crystal Heart? I needed that. I’d been a little… sleepy. In and out, so to speak. I took a nap 5 years before that and I hadn’t quite woken up when the Crystal Empire showed up again. I may have miscalculated its time of return slightly. It’s quite difficult to get less than a .1% error on this sort of thing.”
“You’re… under arrest!” Flash wasn’t really sure what to do here. While he had no doubt that Sombra wouldn’t try to destroy the Tree of Harmony, this was all going wrong. Sweat began to collect on his fur as the apparition began to walk forwards.
“Oh, really? Is that any way… to… treat… your… King?” Flash’s hoof shot for the rune that would trigger a level 3 alert, informing the Princesses. It didn’t quite make it, held in place by a green, purple, and black aura. “No… you will bow before your King now.”
“Hold it right there! You know, death is nature’s way of saying you’re not wanted.” Discord was suddenly beside him, wearing some sort of police uniform and twirling a baton. “And you’re not wanted anywhere, Sombra.” Discord’s glare was far more intense than the mostly jovial Lord of Chaos normally projected. Even Sombra was forced to pause for a moment. But only a moment.
“Ah, Will of the Planet Discord. I was wondering when you’d show up. As the only Will with a physical vessel to go around ruining my plans, you were one of the first obstacles I prepared myself to face.”
“How do you even know what those are?” Discord’s intensity had vanished, replaced by confusion. This isn’t going along with the script.
“What do you think I was doing five years ago? I’ve been learning, preparing. The Crystal Empire was personal, but this is business. This is it. The last step. Now, I’ve found your weakness. The perfect hook to snare you with. You’ve compromised yourself.”
“Discord!”
No…
Discord turned to the source of the sound. He could tell, even without looking, what he would see. What he absolutely did not want to see. But he had to look.
Fluttershy stood there, black energy roiling off her. She was significantly taller than he remembered, and wore dark purple armor festooned with red fangs and trimmed with white fur. Her eyes were like terrible beacons into a Nightmare, roiling green and purple.
Her eyes…
Her stare…
Her Stare…
He couldn’t look away. He knew he had to, but he couldn’t muster the will to do it. It was getting harder and harder to remember why he needed to.
“It seems Discord will not be saving you after all.” Sombra marched forward, filling Flash’s vision. His aura lifted a purple orb from beneath his cloak, then pressed it against the paralyzed Pegasus.
The orb popped like a soap bubble, transforming into mist that rapidly enveloped the pony. Sombra began to march by as the sphere of darkness lifted the hapless pony into the air, crackling with energy. He would acknowledge the King’s rule soon.
This whole world will acknowledge my rule. Sombra pressed a “hoof” of jagged crystal shards against the Tree. Lines of purple, black, and green began to radiate from the point of contact.
Behind him, a taller, darker, and darker-armored Flash Sentry alighted on the ground.
My slaves this time are far better than they were in the past. They are more loyal, and they possess the power of an Alicorn. The Alicorn Amulet was a crude prototype for these transformations. I should thank Luna for these once I am done. I’ll make a stained glass window with the look on her face to commemorate it.
Flash Sentry here will help finalize the distraction. Twilight Sparkle… trusts him. Trust, friendship, love. All weaknesses. All things I can exploit.
Twilight hurt too much to be nauseous. Ponyville was spinning beneath her as she rode the wave of energy into the air. Her Earth Pony and Alicorn magic had kept her alive despite the tremendous energy she’d absorbed, but her fur was on fire at the edge of her sides.
She teleported a few feet to the left and conjured moisture to extinguish her burning fur. An experimental flap indicated her wings still worked, and she begun to stabilize her spin.
That was a surprise. It shouldn’t be possible for a unicorn to do that. You’d have to either turn your head to move the aim point, slew the beam with your magic, or start a new spell. Beam steering like that can’t be done with such speed.
Maybe it’s a thing only Changelings can do? I never saw one in Canterlot do it, but maybe only Queens can. Is that why Celestia never tried to teleport around Chrysalis’s attacks?
In any case, there’s one weakness it has. The attack still comes straight out of the horn, so if I put her body between me and her, she still has to move to fire.
Twilight fired off a small scanning spell. OK, she hasn’t moved much. She’s turned around to look at the steam. Twilight focused and took a deep breath. I can do this. I only get one shot, so I have to make it count. Orient… teleport.
She vanished, appearing behind Mir. As the Reyvateil-pony turned to face her foe, Twilight charged and fired a spell. Mir braced herself for the impact, but it wasn’t an attempt to blast her. The glow suffused her form in a fraction of a second. Mir shrank and folded in on herself, transformed into an orange.
“Come on.” Croix tottered on three legs as he turned to face his next threat. The orange Earth Pony seemed to be the only conscious foe on this side of the slowly-dissipating wall of steam.
Unfortunately he couldn’t fly after dislocating his wing clotheslining Rainbow, and the lasso could be used to force him to engage at close range. The orange pony adjusted the lasso in her mouth to allow herself to talk without releasing it.
“Hold it right there, varmit. We’re gonna hang onto ya while we sort all this mess out. Stick around and step away from Rainbow there.”
“Sort all this mess out, you say? Is that before or after you execute my wife?”
“We ain’t executing nopony!” Applejack had an eyebrow raised in confusion.
“No ‘pony’ you say?” Croix’s mirthless expression intensified as his eyes narrowed. “Well your boss was doing a good job of making it look like she was trying to kill my wife. She certainly had me fooled.”
“We’re not executing anybody. Honest. And even if we were, does that justify you trying to blow us all to bits?”
“Yes it does. And even if I believe you, I don’t for a minute trust your boss.”
“Twi may be…” Croix could sense a little hesitation. The rope slackened slightly, but didn’t let go enough for him to make a move yet. “... ah little antsy, but she’s a fine pony.”
“Who just tried to execute my wife.”
“Tha changeling revealer spell’s harmless.” Applejack tapped one of her forehooves to her chest. Still not enough, she’s getting most of her stability from the back legs. “I had it cast on myself, and Ah’m fine.”
“Maybe to ponies, but as I tried to get through to you, my wife is a Beta Reyvateil. It was going to disintegrate her.”
“Ah don’t deny that this whole thing is a heap of a mess, but we can sort this out. When Spike gets back, we’ll send a letter to Princess Celestia and she’ll sort it all out.”
Croix narrowed his eyes.“That this Princess’s boss?”
“Well, Celestia wouldn’t claim that, but yes. Twi would defer to her on almost anything.”
Croix looked at the rope. “I’ll pass. I’ve fought in more than my share of revolutions against corrupt governments, I don’t really want to place myself in the hands of an authority figure I know nothing about.”
Applejack blinked. “Hands?”
Croix stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “Hooves. Mouth. Whatever. The point is that me and my wife are both leaving under our own power.”
Applejack looked up, at the lack of roof. “Ah think it’s too late for that to be an option.”
“I suppose so.” While Applejack had looked away from him, Croix had taken a step forward as quietly as he could, making the rope go slack.
“What tha–” Applejack looked down to see him closer to her, and Croix lept forward. The farmer tried to backpedal, but Croix landed on all fours in front of her. She dropped the lasso.
“Ha! Got you.” Twilight advanced on the orange that had formerly been her adversary. While a Changeling could theoretically break out of the transformation by shapeshifting, they had no source of magic power as an orange.
Maintain form. Mir, however, had her connection to Ar Tonelico, and, just as important, a D-Cellophane constantly stabilizing her form.
As Twilight levitated the orange over to herself, the orange suddenly erupted back into being Mir. She maintained the orange’s velocity vector towards Twilight, and spread her forelegs forward for a tackle. “Rrraargh!”
Mir smacked into Twilight, punching her in the chin with her right hoof while hooking her left foreleg around the back of Twilight’s neck. She then headbutted the Alicorn, slamming her forehead and the base of her horn against Twilight’s jaw.
Twilight wasn’t stunned by either hit to the jaw, and her horn lit up with a teleportation spell. A piece of broken wood, covered in a red aura, smacked against her horn, disabusing that notion. Twilight smacked Mir’s horn with her forehoof, but rather than winking out, the red aura surrounding it and the wood merely faded and flickered.(2) Tha...that can’t happen! What is this thing?
Mir attempted to kick Twilight in the gut with her back legs, but instead collided with Twilight’s attempt to do the same thing to her. They continued to flail at each other as the force of their scuffle flung them onto a table, with Mir on top. The wood chunk gripped in Mir’s aura kept smacking Twilight in the horn.
Close combat with Applejack hadn’t really worked as well as Croix had wanted. Although it prevented her from using the lasso to control his movement, it lead to one inescapable problem: Applejack was stronger than he was. As his opponent pivoted for another buck with her hind legs, Croix adjusted his legs to take the impact of both her hooves.
Croix slid backwards with the force of the kick, paint flecks flying from the armor at the impact zone. Applejack hadn’t yet landed a hit on his unarmored head, but if she did it was all over.
He kicked out with a foreleg, trying to nail his opponent in her side as she turned to face him, but she rotated under the blow and it merely scraped along her side. The motion brought them side to side, and Applejack wrapped a foreleg around him.
Croix rolled over, throwing Applejack into a bookshelf. He’d reopened the range somewhat, and that could give him time to think. Without armor, one good blow could drop his opponent, but he’d need to find a way to land one without taking a punishing blow in return.
Her most dangerous form of attack requires her to turn her back to me. That’s the weakness. I’d have to close the range, though. He pawed the ground and snorted at his opponent, then rushed forward. Applejack dashed forward as well, then executed a leaping kick towards Croix’s path.
He barely managed to dodge the kick, rolling to his right and then stepping back and to the left to place himself in front of her again. I need her to spin all the way around. Wait for the perfect moment.
Applejack began to whirl for another buck, Croix leaped back and grabbed his lance with his mouth. He had no time to attach it properly, but plenty of time to toss it. The heavy metal weapon landed on Applejack’s back while she had her hind hooves in the air, causing her to topple to the ground.
Before she could get back up, Croix landed a flying kick to the back of her head.
In the center of the room, the steam finished dissipating.
Twilight kicked Mir in the stomach with her hindhooves, shoving the Reyvateil away. Unfortunately for her, Mir’s grip on the back of her neck held and she was pulled along with Mir off the table, crashing to the floor next to it.
The wooden chunk smacked Twilight in the horn again. She rolled away from Mir, finally releasing herself from the hold on her neck, and ending up behind her. Twilight tried to stand up.
Mir got to her feet first. As Twilight was still getting off the ground, Mir bucked her in the nose, flipping her onto her back and finally staggering her briefly.
“Briefly” was all Mir needed. She turned, jumped up, and slammed both forehooves into the side of the Princess’s head, driving it through the wooden floor. She backed off slightly, preparing a counterattack, but the Princess wasn’t moving.
She’s out cold. Still breathing though. A blood-red wedge of force flickered into existence next to Mir. Goddesses I’m sick of dealing with her. She’s powerful and completely nuts. Maybe I should finish her off. The wedge of force moved its pointiest end towards Twilight’s neck.
Mir closed her eyes. She couldn’t hear anyone else fighting, so she had a moment to think of what to do. I’ve always been fond of permanent solutions, but I’m not even sure what problem I’m solving here. Obviously I’d prevent Twilight from coming after me, but the book I read said Luna is a friend of hers. I can’t antagonize Luna needlessly, we seem to be getting along pretty well.
Also, it’d probably make Sweetie Belle upset if I slew one of her sister’s friends. Her horn winked out, banishing her magical wedge. Mir took a deep breath and opened her eyes. “You get to live. Don’t make me regret it.”
“Good. I’m proud of you.” Mir startled, but the sound of Croix’s voice was music to her ears.
“Croix! Glad to see you’re OK.”
“Glad to see you haven’t killed anybody.” Croix was wearing his most sarcastic grin.
“Ugh. I’m better than that now.” Mir couldn’t help but smile. Winning a battle with the help of your lover, was there anything better?
But then the glow faded. She’d still gotten in a fight with a Princess and her Royal Guards. A look up confirmed that the top floor of the library was entirely gone. That had to have attracted some attention. And she still had no idea what the hell was going on.
“We should leave. Quickly.” Mir sang a quick healing song, stabilizing the condition of the defeated ponies in the area. A second pulse of the song sent Croix’s wing back into alignment with an audible “Pop” and also restored the dents in his armor that Applejack had made.
Croix grabbed the saddlebags Mir had dropped during her altercation, and tossed them to her. Mir caught the bags with her magic, and swiftly strapped them back down.
He strapped the lance to his foreleg and took to the air. He had to presume that the town was now hostile, and that they could be attacked by any number of guardsponies.
Mir trotted up to him, and he extended a leg around her middle, then shot through the open top of the library.
From above, he could seen ponies surrounding the library from a safe distance, almost entirely on the ground. None of the Pegasi in the air were wearing armor, so he didn’t think they were guards.
He took off for the nearest patch of treeline.
Thirty minutes of flying later, he set Mir down at the edge of a clearing in the woods. The clearing was tiny, having little more than rocks and a pond a few pony-lengths across in it. Tracks in the mud at the edge of the pond indicated animals had been drinking from it, but none were here now.
Mir had been quiet the entire flight, which worried Croix. “Are you alright, dear?”
“No. It doesn’t make any sense what they said. The flower reacted as if I’d lied when I made a perfectly true statement. I’m honestly confused by the whole thing.” Maybe Twilight was making an elaborate coup against Luna, and this was some kind of excuse? No, that doesn’t seem right. Twilight may be violent and impulsive, but if she wanted more governmental power she wouldn’t live in a library. Well, have lived now. We did a number on that place.
She levitated the encyclopedia up and began to read through the entries she hadn’t gotten to yet. Huh, so that’s a changeling. I wish I hadn’t decided to read the dumb thing back to front, I might have known a little better. She flipped the page, coming face to face with “Portrait of Princess Celestia as a Young Alicorn” at the back of the entry on Celestia. And… Oh.
Celestia. Twilight. Sunset Shimmer. It’s all so clear now. Why couldn’t I have remembered this stuff earlier?
“Croix!” Mir turned, then threw the encyclopedia to the grass at her feet. “Look at this.”
“It’s… another princess. Pink, white, and gold.”
“And it’s proof that we’re in a Binary Field program.” Mir’s voice quavered. All that time with Sweetie Belle. All a lie.
“Huh?” Croix looked up to his wife. “What do you mean?”
“Rrr.” Mir glared at him, intensity set to minimum. “You remember when I told you about the history of Sol Ciel, right? And the Tower of Ar Tonelico’s construction?”
“Yeah. There was Sunset Shimmer, the Mother of Sound Science, Twilight Sparkle, her Assistant-in-Chief, and…” he paused for a moment. “...President Celestia Togasaki, Sunset’s patron, mentor, and sponsor.”
“Or in this case, Princess Celestia.” Mir stomped on the picture. “Remember that Binary Field program we invaded a year ago? The one with the vampires?”
“Yeah. It was some thing where high school girls who are secretly vampires compete to date a girl. Shurelia was playing it, and you loaded a bunch of subprograms from the Vampire Hunter Bloodsplosion game and we made her break down from panic.”
A predatory smile briefly surfaced on Mir’s face, before being pushed under again by her disappointment. “Yeah. Remember the names of those girls.”
“Oh, shoot. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity Belle, and Fluttershy.”
“And who have we met recently?”
“Dang. So there’s a Binary Field program where all Sunset Shimmer’s high school friends are vampires, and another one where they’re magical ponies?”(3)
“Yes.” Mir’s head drooped all the way down, glaring at the picture. “I didn’t make the connection until I saw Celestia. Ancient history like that isn’t exactly foremost in my mind. I suppose I should have made the connection when Twilight Sparkle started going on about Sunset Shimmer, but I was too flustered to do so.”
Mir reached out with her awareness to try to influence the Binary Field. She still couldn’t even perceive it around her, however. There was no question of this being real anymore in her mind, so that just meant Shurelia had done something to hide it from her. Shurelia…
“Also, I’m convinced that Shurelia is in here with us, laughing it up.”
“Well, she did say she’d get you back for the Vampire Hunter thing.”
“Yeah, and I’m pretty sure I know where she is. She’s always got to be the authority figure, the most important. Next, what colors is she?”
“Uh, white hair and suit, gold metal bits, pink skin?”
“Now, look at Princess Celestia.”
“White fur, gold metal bits, pink hair.”
“We’re going to go beat the tar out of her for putting us through this. Hmm, says she rules from ‘Canterlot Castle’ which is...” She looked up at a mountain to the northwest, and could see the golden tops of several towering spires. Mir grinned. “...there. Now, hang on tight. I want to try something. I’ll take advantage of the magical pony program all I can, it’s kind of fun.”
“Huh?” Croix knew better than to disobey a safety instruction from his wife. She was going to do something crazy.
“Self-teleportation!” Mir’s horn began to glow red. The glow expanded into a brilliant corona that spread over them. And they vanished.