Discovering the Past

by Astral Star and Company

Chapter 19: Escalation

The few skirmishes between the guards, Honour Bound and Verity had escalated into a full blown siege. Astral Star’s magical fortifications required a period of recovery between absorbing punishment. The guards have worked out that focusing their attacks at one point will weaken the shield, until a small area gave in. They then hurried inside in small groups before the barrier regenerated. Honour Bound was doing a swell job of incapacitating many of the raiding parties, but even he couldn’t reach more than one at a time. For that reason, Verity had stationed a squad of Weeping Angels to key locations around the Estate. Entrances and exits around the building, as well as several more Angels roaming the ground randomly.

The landscape was strewn with unconscious guards, and abandoned armour and weaponry. Honour Bound stood above his next meal, a young earth pony mare who had blindsided him in his most recent skirmish. The changeling overwhelmed the guards in speed and strength. Moving with a velocity that defied his size, he quickly dealt with the mare’s comrades. The plucky little guard managed to cut a slash into his hide while his back was turned. The cut was shallow, but irritating as pain raced through it. In rage, he swept the mare away with a beat of his wings. Unlike the other guards he had fed on, this one did not reek of fear, but guilt and shame.

Using a bit of changeling magic Honour looked through her mind, ascertaining the source of this emotion. He found his answer in a familiar, yellow Pegasus with a gold circlet. He recognised her instantly, she was his very best friend after all. Wasting no time, he consumed her emotions, drawing it from her like air in a vacuum. Unlike the others though, he did not completely drain her, and left merely sleeping, rather than extremely exhausted. Savouring the taste of her emotions, he felt the wound on his back close over and heal, not even leaving a scar.

Satisfied, he marched off to the next group of guards, who had unwisely, not chosen to avoid him.

Verity was having a hard time with these guards. Not only was she not as magically versed as her brothers, but she was also very rusty when it came to combat. Several close calls were made as the guards forgot their orders to capture, and swung wildly in an effort to hit her. Each swing was dodged nimbly by the yellow Pegasus, darting left and right, just out of range then charging back in with an attack of her own.

Not wanting to kill the guards, she had long since traded her customary lance for a sword and flail, not the average mare’s weapons of choice. Wielding both weapons in her magical grip, thanks to her circlet, she wielded them with unmatched ease and flexibility. Both weapons were wreathed in electricity instead of steel blades, causing the slightest contact to shock her opponents into submission. Due to its lightning form, her flail mace had no limit in range, allowing her to deal with guards from a distance. One unicorn approached her, taking the initiative and casting a barrier to protect himself. Smart.

The guard struck first, hefting his massive halberd into a downward cleave. The attack was dodged easily, as Verity replied with a sharp stab with her sword. The electricity rippled and dissipated across the shield, dealing no damage to the guard, but causing his focus to waver. Verity repeated the pattern, dodge stab, dodge stab, wearing out the unicorn’s magical endurance rapidly. Soon the barrier failed altogether as a horizontal slash made its mark across his armour. The unlucky guard convulsed as electricity raced through his body, then collapsed to the ground. Seeing that he was still conscious, Verity spun her mace twice, then smacked it right into his exposed belly, sending him hurtling away. Now surely he was down now.

Verity stopped to sit down and catch her breath. She wished she had some kind of regenerative power, not quite like Honour Bound’s, but anything else would do. She stood up wearily, and made her way to the next group of invaders.

Astral spent the whole chaotic afternoon in the laboratory, creating a huge amount of modifications to the Mansion’s Magical Harmonizer. The Harmonizer was the Mansions power source, the huge column of light flowing from the bottom of the earth, and into the Mansion’s receiver. What he didn’t tell the Doctor, was that the Astral Archive and the Harmonizer were connected. The magical battery served as a conduit from which the Archive could use to access the mind and body of everything within reach. Astral loathed the idea of using these creations as weaponry, but he could not find any other way to repel them without harmful force. He had ordered Verity and Honour to incapacitate, not kill after all.

The Harmonizer and Archive worked in tandem. At the bottom of the pit from which the light column originates, is a huge, flawless crystal spire. It was an ancient artefact from far before Amaryllis’ time. It held almost all knowledge from the past, present and to some degree, the future. The Archive worked as a focal point from which the magical ley lines could be drawn from. The spire is like a well reaching a water table, basically. The Archive also interacts with any intelligent being within range, allowing them access to its information, should certain parameters be fulfilled. What Astral was doing, was manipulating the function of this magical telepathy to not only observe, but to directly implant information. He was going to broadcast his own nightmare spell into every pony on his Estate, who thought of themselves a Royal Guard.

The spell was engineered to torment the victim, until they fell asleep. Sleep induced this way can only be nulled by the counter spell, which any competent medical pony since the Crystal Empire should know. This way, he deterred all the guards, whilst doing minimal harm to them. Before he could finish and activate his modifications, the figure of a splendid golden alicorn shimmered into existence behind him.

“Are you sure you want to undertake this action, Astral Star?” Amaryllis asked

Astral turned to face her with a serious expression

“Do it,” he said

Amaryllis faded away to a haze of smoke, travelling into the column of light. Upon contact, the column shifted in colour from clean blue, to an ominous purple. Lightning travelled up its length, running through the ground above. On the surface, the guards began to scream.

Captain Shining Armour of the Equestrian Royal guard, was having a particularly rough day. Not only was this his first siege operation, and the first one in over a hundred year, but it was going disastrously. He had organised every guard available to contribute to the siege, as per the Princesses’ orders. What was not taken into account was the magical barrier that closed off the Estate entirely. It took a group of 12-15 guards to wear a small hole down enough to pass through, and even then, the breach only existed for a short period of time. Each breach made could only allow a group of 6-10 through, a little more if they had a running start, or were pegasi.

Shining Armour was a large, well-built unicorn stallion. He had a powder white coat, and a two toned blue and light blue mane and tail. He wore the customary Captain’s armour, an purple and gold alternative to the traditional golden colour.

Any guard that made it through only wound up somewhere outside the Estate’s perimeter in a catatonic state. The medical officers identified it as a fear spell, similar in nature to King Sombra’s, but restrained to the point that it only acted while they were conscious. As an instinct action to protect itself, the pony mind withdrew into a coma until the spell could be lifted, lest it be exposed to more psychological harm. Shining found it puzzling how beings so obviously powerful did not use any kind of lethal force. He was deployed to capture murderers after all, not invade some pony’s land. It wasn’t even a proper castle!

His makeshift camp was steadily growing in size as more guards arrived from Canterlot, and even more who required medical attention. It was positioned on the side of the Mansion farthest from Ponyville, as to not attract attention. It was a haphazard mess of white tents, surrounding a larger purple one, with guards walking about like ants in a colony. Morale was low, since no guard has ever made it even close to the actual building, without being put down.

“Captain Shining Armour!” said a voice behind him

He turned to see a Pegasus mare donned in the traditional Royal Guard armour. She was well built, but slender as well. Her coat oddly was not affected by the enchantment in the armour, so it was its original creamy yellow. Her gold mane and tail were a little long, but raggedly cut, like she styled it with her own sword. Against regulation, she had her heavy long sword strapped across her left side, under her wing, and a gold circlet with a sky blue gem inset into it, peeking from underneath her helmet. Considering the situation, Shining decided he could let uniform slide for now.

The mare trotted up to him and greeted him formally.

“Sergeant Venia Honora, reporting for duty sir,” she said, saluting her higher ranking officer

“At ease, Sergeant,” Shining stated calmly, returning the salute “I want you to help with the Northern Offensive, there is a huge changeling blocking off our invasion parties. We need all the help we can get to immobilise him,”

“Understood sir,”

“Good,”

“Just one question,”

Shining raised an eyebrow “Yes?”

“Has Princess Celestia ever told you what exactly we are dealing with?” she asked sceptically

The Captain mulled it over a bit

“No,” he admitted “She hasn’t, but we got our orders, we need to apprehend these ponies. Understood?”

“Understood,” she confirmed with a nod, but doubt was still present

And with that, she took off, heading towards the Northern front. Something seemed odd about this mission. It hadn’t even been two weeks since she was stationed at the Crystal Empire, when she was pulled back to Canterlot on urgent circumstances. There was apparently a trio of murderers near Ponyville, and if they were who she thought they were…

Shaking the thought out of her head, she instead focused on the task at hand.

Upon arrival, Venia found that there was no pony there. Until she looked to the shield, and saw forty-something Royal guards writhing on the ground. The breach in the barrier they made was still opening, meaning that it happened recently. Thinking quickly, Venia hopped right through, as the breach closed over with hiss and a slash of sparks. Venia was just about to land, but resorted to hovering instead. All of the guards who have taken the northern offensive lay motionless on the grass beneath her, purple lightning danced across their bodies. Curious, Venia tapped the ground gently, with a bit of her hoof. She immediately regretted it.

Electricity raced up the contact and dispersed across her body, threatening her current safety. Venia gasped in shock and withdrew her hoof, struggling to keep her wings balanced in an effort to stay off the ground. Her actions did not go unnoticed however, as a bolt of green magic sailed right past her cheek. It was so close to making its mark, that it singed her helmet to the point of it shrivelling. A giant of a changeling strode purposely towards her, casually tossing away his latest meal, a cruel smile on his fanged face.

“I would run if I were you,” he hissed mockingly “But I would still shoot you down within inches of where you are now,”

Venia immediately went for her sword, but before she could even reach it, a stream of green light lacerated the strap. The sword clattered noisily on the grass below, immediately becoming engulfed in familiar purple energy. Honour Bound stared at her casually, his horn smoking slightly from his latest spell.

“Now, would you do me a favour and turn around?” he asked of her innocently “She needs so much practice,”

She whipped round, only to be tackled straight to the ground by a blur of gold feathers and armour. The figure pinning her could’ve been her own reflection, had she taken a bit more care of herself. The only difference was their mane style, and that this mare’s eyes were sunrise yellow, while her own were a light pink. The newcomer had Venia’s neck trapped in the arch of her halberd. She was suspended millimetres from the ground by an aura of purple magic, originating from her foe’s circlet. Purple lightning swarmed below her, just itching to reach her. Now that she thought about it, her opponent looked a lot like herself.

Wait a minute.

Venia now really had a look at the figure above her, while the figure did the same.

“Venia?” the figure asked tentatively

“Veritas?” Venia astonishingly replied

What happened after was a girly squeal from each of them, and a warm hug that lasted five minutes, giggling all the way through.

“I missed you so much!” Verity exclaimed, pulling her twin away to get a better look

“Me too!” Venia cried “It’s been just too long hasn’t it?”

Verity released her hold on Venia, letting her drop to the ground. The electricity dispersed around her, no longer seeing a threat. Not wishing to get in the way of a happy reunion, but wanting to get a move on, Honour Bound stopped their conversation by politely clearing his throat.

“Excuse me, ladies,” he said “I would hate to interrupt your chat, but we have a lot to do,”

“Honour Bound!” Venia squealed, wrapping the changeling in a tight hug “My, you’ve grown! I didn't even recognise you!”

“Not really,” he blushed “This was how I always looked like. You’ve only seen a disguise so far,”

He disentangled himself from Venia’s embrace and began trotting back to the Mansion.

“Come along now!” he called back “Astral would like to see both of you,”

Venia and Verity happily trotted behind him, exchanging questions and answers excitedly as they went.

“Venia!” Astral cried, wrapping his hooves around the gold Pegasus “How I’ve missed you! It’s been…”

“Two months,” Venia smiled

“Only two months?” Astral remarked “I must be getting old. Anyway…”

He turned and rummaged around in the drawer behind him. He eventually withdrew an ornate circlet, identical to the one Verity wore, but there was a space where a gem should be. He offered it to Venia, bowing on his right hoof, levitating the circlet before him.

“Welcome back.” He smiled, looking up at a confused Venia

Honour Bound took Venia’s plain-looking circlet right off her head, and pulled the gem from its place. He then took the other circlet from Astral, and transferred the sky blue gem. Finished, he reverently set it upon Venia’s head. Realising the meaning of this impromptu ceremony, Venia began to get a little teary. Astral could swear that she was crying by this point. Venia was always a very emotional mare, more so than all but few of her sisters.

“Matriarch of the Motherland,” Honour finished, then added “Or at least a part of her,”

He earned a room of giggles and a friendly punch in the shoulder for his crack at humour. Recovering from his fit of laughter, Astral motioned for them all to join him. They gathered around a large table in the Mansion’s library. On it, were various old pieces of parchment, each detailing some form of diagram. Astral brought forth a larger piece, a full map of the whole Estate.

“Okay,” Astral started “We have guards penetrating the barrier here, here and here,”

He gestured to several points around the perimeter, each one glowed a soft red at the touch of his hoof.

“We don’t have many assets,” he continued “Honour Bound and Verity can only hold them off for so long. Eventually, they’re going to find a weak point in the deterrent field I’ve set up, and are going to resume the attack,”

“Well its one heck of a deterrent field,” Venia commented “You have guards dropping like flies out there,”

“Well, I do my best,”

He paused, tapping a hoof to his chin in thought.

“Why the princesses would resort to arresting us on the suspicion that we’ve killed two of their officers is beyond me. After all, they’ve been sent on an espionage mission to my Mansion. I’d like to see that hold up in court. One question though, what are you doing here anyway?”

“Captain Shining Armour had received orders to use any available guards to apprehend you guys,” Venia shrugged “Myself included. The princesses seem to have over-estimated your abilities,”

“Well, with the show we’re putting on, they think they didn’t. In fact, the Princesses themselves might just waltz in here to take us themselves,” Honour noted

“That’ll be the day,” Astral chuckled “When Celestia and Luna fly all the way here just to see us in chains,”

“Well, looks like we don’t have to wait long,” Verity whispered sombrely, cradling a small golden tiara in her hooves “They’re on their way,”