The Redemption of Jericho Swain

by Ghosted Note

Chapter 4: Celestial Interlude

The Redemption of Jericho Swain
Chapter 4: Celestial Interlude

“There are two notable ways to go about shutting the flow of someone’s magic,” Kassadin said as he paced in front of the campfire. “The first, and easiest, is surging your own power within the target to create a sort of short-circuiting effect within the target.”

Twilight nodded, absentmindedly noting Ezreal and Fluttershy wandering about the campsite, the former pointing out various flora and fauna. “Okay...what’s a circuit? Do you mean an overload of magic or something? I know that when I try to channel too much magic for me to handle, sometimes my spells fizzle out.”

Fluttershy smiled as she held up what she perceived to be an adorable frog-like creature for Ezreal to see. “Oh, uh, like that time you almost leveled your room at the palace when-”

“Well sometimes more than a fizzle. But the point stands, right?” Twilight chuckled awkwardly.

Kassadin nodded. “Yes, though you’d be better asking Ezreal, at a later point in time, about what circuits are. Anyway, the second method is to actively block the release of magic from a being in the process of casting a spell. This method is more difficult, but generally has the effect of causing a minor feedback loop which can discharge violently onto the target’s body. There are other, more circumstantial methods, such as disrupting concentration, but those aren’t truly stopping the usage of magic, merely disrupting it.”

Twilight nodded eagerly, not noticing Ezreal desperately waving his hand around, trying to dislodge the not-so-innocent frog that had decided to reveal its teeth. Kassadin’s lecture had been going on for half an hour, not long after the four had made camp for the night, and Twilight Sparkle’s attention had not wavered once, though it hadn’t taken long for Fluttershy and Ezreal to become distracted with the now-hostile nature. Ever-enchanted by all things alive, Fluttershy hadn’t been inclined to take much heed of Ezreal’s distress every time that tiny creature or this plant turned out to be fanged, or venomous.

They had trekked for a few hours after leaving Piltover, watching as the lush forests that surrounded the city-state had slowly turned into plains. Their next destination was Zaun, and the plumes of smoke that floated up in huge, multi-colored puffs were already visible in the distance, setting a border of sickly purples and dull reds against the blazing orange sunset. Every few seconds, a bright flash of magical lightning arced from one skyscraper to another as factories discharged arcane pollution into the afternoon sky. Fluttershy couldn’t help but shudder as Ezreal had described the broken and desecrated landscape that was the result of Zaun’s unrestrained industry. She hoped Applejack was okay.

- - - -

Pinkie Pie couldn’t help but giggle with glee. She loved these new hands of hers, and the yordles were nothing if not receptive to the unstoppable energy that was Pinkie. The close-knit community hadn’t taken long to pick up the presence of a stranger as noticeable and interesting as Pinkie, and after hearing her story, she’d had several volunteer to help her out until her friends arrive. The League Embassy had already prepared a room for her, but the hospitality of the yordles wouldn’t allow those stuffy Summoners to ruin Pinkie’s first visit to Bandle City, and so Pinkie had happily bounced from home to home of various residents of the city, taking in the amazing, and often wonderfully eccentric creations of the tiny creatures. The mountains that surrounded the hill country that the city was built upon had protected the yordles as they had built up a peaceful and happy civilization, which was centered around a monolithic, and notably pointed structure the yordles simply referred to as the Mothership, a somewhat broken down and unexplainable relic that the once nomadic yordle race had settled around after wandering Valoran.

The most identifiable aspect of the yordle race was the sense of community. Every yordle depended upon interaction with their fellows to remain whole and balanced. Pinkie had even heard tales of yordles who had lived in other city-states and gone insane from lack of interaction with their kin. As a whole, they were a light-hearted and somewhat pranksterish populace, eager to meet new friends to learn and laugh with. Pinkie had been awarded a few of the gold pieces that served as currency in Valoran for a few of the recipes that her employers, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, had taught her when she had been hired at Ponyville’s bakery. Pinkie knew that the responsible thing to do would be to save the money for an emergency, or for helping out once Twilight finally arrived.

Naturally, it was time to throw a party.

- - - -

Applejack was also in a good mood. When she was a filly, she’d taken some time to participate in some self-defense courses. Not that crime was a significant problem in Equestria, but living next to the Everfree Forest was a reason all by itself. Staying at the Embassy in Zaun had given her more spare time than she could possibly want, though, and it had been less than an hour after arriving that she’d gotten bored, and sought out a way to keep herself busy in a constructive way.

She’d found the answer to her problem in the League’s sparring and workout rooms. It had only been a couple of days since she’d arrived, but she was already very familiar with both. Workouts were simple enough, with a little bit of help from a lean, over-enthusiastic trainer who oversaw the usage of the equipment, which was open to both League employees and any staying at the Embassy. Applejack had already worked up a pleasant burn in her new muscles when the other room caught her attention. Curiosity overwhelmed her. Fighting wasn’t a very refined art in Equestria, so the concept of beings working together to improve their skills in such a manner, without ill intent toward one another, seemed interesting.

As expected, sparring was a more difficult thing than simply pushing and pulling at weights, and though Applejack’s new body was just as strong as her old one, and she had more or less adjusted to movement with it, she lacked grace and knew nothing about combat with her new form except how to swing her fists in the general direction of an opponent. She was more than willing to learn the hard way though, and even though her posterior was beginning to hurt from being knocked to it so many times since she’d arrived in the late morning, she felt like she might honestly be making some progress. “Ah never thought Ah’d get whupped so bad in all my life, much less by someone who’s blind. No offense intended.”

Her sparring partner, a well-muscled man who had shown up a few minutes ago with a band of cloth over his eyes, laughed softly. “None taken. For one who has little experience in combat, you possess admirable strength. I believe you when you say that you are not of this world. Still, I warn you that though it may seem innocent enough in this room, knowledge of self-defense is a very important skill to possess in this land.” The man offered Applejack a hand to help her up. “I’m afraid I must be going now. I have business in this poor, despoiled city.”

“Y’all take care now, ya hear?” Applejack wiped her face with the towel she had placed next to the sparring mat. “Ah think it’s about time Ah took a break myself.”

After the man had exited the room, Applejack was surprised to be receiving praise. “Good job! I don’t think I’ve seen someone do so well against him, though, that’s not surprising, seeing as none of us are really fighters.” One of the Embassy employees patted her on the back. “Of course, secretaries aren’t known for being good at fighting.”

Applejack stared at him flatly. “What are you talking about? Ah just got my behind kicked from here to Equestria and back.”

“Well, yeah. That’s to be expected. That was Lee Sin, one of the champions from the League of Legends. He’s supposed to whip everyone he fights. It’s his job. You lasted a whole hour without complaining or collapsing or anything. Of course, he normally goes pretty easy on anyone he fights when he stops by here, but still, the point stands.”

Applejack blushed. “Aww, shucks. Ah guess that workin’ with my body all my life has made me tough enough to withstand getting tossed around.” With a groan, she gathered herself and headed back toward her suite. All in all, it was like a miniature vacation, and though she’d never admit it to Rarity, for fear of eternally recurring spa outings, a little bit of R&R was nice on occasion, especially after history-shaping battles. Of course, she’d not hesitate a second when Twilight arrived in two more days. She had work to do back on the farm, after all.

- - - -

Jericho Swain was getting frustrated. He was a patient man, always willing to wait as long as needed for a plan to come to fruition, but this armor, this so-called ‘Nightmare’s Regalia’, seemed to be toying with him. He knew there was power left in the armor, even after Discord had used it to free himself. Every time he came close to isolating and identifying whatever was the source of this power, though, something would go wrong. Misapplied magic would spark and consume his notes, or the armor would suddenly stop reacting to stimuli at all. It was enough to make even Swain lose his composure, pacing around his expensively decorated study with a scowl on his face.

Maybe it was time to take a break. Perhaps it would be best to take a step backward, clear his thoughts, and put some thought into something else, and come back later with a fresh perspective. Riven’s ideas did hold some merits, and he had meant it when he said he’d consider them. It was, now that Swain thought about it, a disgusting waste of resources to have every citizen of Noxus at least somewhat specialized in combat now that war was so highly regulated. Sure, it was a good way to instill a sense of nationalism in the citizenry, an essential quality for an unquestioning, obedient populace, but the time wasted on drills and swordplay could easily mean the loss of unthinkably large amounts of progress in other necessary fields. Noxus had always had a problem in that often disrespected minds of any industry that wasn’t related to war in some way tended to migrate away from Noxus. The only reason Zaun was as close an ally to Noxus as they were was because they provided all of the resources that Noxus had crippled itself too much to produce.

Noxus’ main export had always been war materials and mercenaries, but the presence of the League of Legends had devalued both of those significantly, and not even Swain was ambitious enough to challenge the powerful spellcasters who ran the Institute of War. No amount of power or political influence was worth engaging in direct combat with magicians who could probably sink the continent if they tried hard enough. This meant that Swain now had Noxus’ economy to deal with. The lack of demand for war would probably cause an economic depression that he and his contemporaries would be blamed for and then he’d probably have to order an invasion of-

‘For a moment I thought humans were going to be more interesting than ponies.’

-and after he took the Shadow Isles he’d... Swain was up in an instant, his speed defying his crippled leg. In seconds, he’d cast every simple warding spell he knew on the armor that was now sitting on a dais in the corner of the room, gleaming oh-so-innocently, and maybe a tad bit mockingly on top of it. Swain approached the armor slowly.

‘Seriously, you’re as bad as Luna was with bureaucracy. Do you think of nothing else?’ Swain couldn’t sense any more magic than usual coming from the armor, which he found rather disconcerting, as possessions almost always had some sort of magical resonance when the spirit was interacting with the world. ‘That’s because I’m not a spirit, O Master Tactician.’

“Cut to the point. I’ve no patience for circuitous conversation right now.” Swain pulled up a chair, allowing his raven, who had been watching the entire exchange silently, to take its place on his lap.

‘And here I thought that you always had time for schemes and machinations. I had gotten the impression you enjoyed acting like a B-grade villain in a child’s tale.’ The armor, or whatever was residing within, seemed to sigh. ‘Very well, if you’re that insistent on straightforwardness, I suppose I will have to deliver. My name is not very easily pronounced by your kind, so you can follow the lead of the ponies who I was first sent to assist, and call me Nightmare.’

“What is it you want, and how can you see into my mind?” Swain most definitely did not want any entity being able to comb his thoughts.

Nightmare laughed. ‘Don’t you worry a pretty blue hair on your head. I can only read surface thoughts and emotions. It is a nice color, by the way. Very uncommon on humans. Anyway, back to the point. As evidenced by your feathered companion, you are aware that not all Void entities serve the same overarching purpose, that is, the proliferation and subsequent consumption of worlds with magic. I am the agent of a more conservative faction, so to speak. We do not advocate the destruction of worlds, instead finding it more practical to consume magic in smaller doses, allowing it to replenish. A lot less messy for all involved, if you ask me.’

Swain’s earlier outburst had subsided, and he now wore his standard mask of placid indifference. “All reported Void inhabitants have physical substance. How did you become bound to this armor?”

‘Well, that’s an interesting story. I originally was sent to Equestria to work with the local demigods, who called themselves Celestia and Luna, in creating an experimental battery. This battery would be able to absorb the spare magic that all magical entities exude, and allow it to be transported to the Void, where it could be consumed without harming any living being.’ Nightmare paused for a moment, as if considering its unspoken words carefully. ‘We decided that since, at the time, the two demigods were so well traveled, we could imbue the appropriate enchantments into some of the personal items that the two wore, to help speed up the process. Every so often, they’d send us some form of communication, and we’d pick up the armor.

‘Unfortunately, something went wrong with the casting, and I ended up bound to a gem in Luna’s armor, along with the battery spell. Luna believed that with enough energy, we could channel the armor’s power to help free me. Unfortunately, Void magic can affect other lifeforms in unpredictable ways, and Luna wasn’t quite able to handle the amount of power she was dealing with. I’m sure you heard of the Nightmare Moon event while in Equestria. Unfortunately, she must have forgotten about me while spending a millenium as a raving lunatic, pun entirely intended. Lucky for me, you decided to bring the armor with you, and now I have a proposal.’ Another pause. ‘The Void is going to make its move on this world soon, and it’s going to use its agent, Malzahar, to facilitate the opening of a portal to the Void here in Valoran. This will destroy everything you’ve worked for, and just plain everything for that matter. Help me stop this from happening, and I will bestow upon you all of the magical power that I have stored.’

It certainly was a tempting offer, but it was too good to be true. He’d have to do some more research first. Perhaps it was time to turn a few spies onto Malzahar and his ilk. “I’m am afraid I will have to refuse your offer for the moment. Forgive me for not instantly trusting an enchanted set of armor last associated with an insane demigod.”

‘Oh, that’s okay. Just remember, the longer you wait, the stronger the Void gets...’

- - - -
- - - -

Celestia stood speechlessly where Twilight and her friends had been mere seconds ago. She could hear Luna and the Royal Guards asking if she was okay, and searching for any sign of the missing Elements of Harmony, as if there were a faint buzzing in her ear.

Twilight Sparkle. Celestia had seen talent in the mare, and then taken her as a personal student when she was but a filly. She had all but raised Twilight as her own child. In many ways, she had been more of a mother to the filly than her own mother had, teaching her magic, history, mathematics, and nurturing a love of learning that bordered on and often exceeded obsessive. It had been on Celestia’s orders that Twilight had moved to Ponyville and met the other Elements of Harmony. She had grown from an awkward, antisocial bookworm into a powerful sorceress who, more importantly, was happy and healthy. Celestia had been so proud of Twilight’s transformation. Her confidence in Twilight’s abilities had been so high, she’d sent her off to fight Discord...and she’d succeeded...twice! Twilight Sparkle had undone so many of Celestia’s mistakes in such a short time, saving the entirety of Equestria three times thus far.

And now, she was gone. The mare who had saved Celestia’s sister and defeated Discord was gone, and it was Celestia’s fault. Celestia, who had been using Twilight to do her dirty work this entire time, was now responsible for Twilight being dragged to a world full of violence and despair after winning another one of Celestia’s battles for her. At best, Twilight would return scarred and traumatized from her time among the violent, depraved humans. At worst... Well, the curse of immortality was being surrounded by death constantly. What was one more to the endless list of ponies that Celestia had seen come and go during her long, long life. What did it matter, in the long run, if Twilight Sparkle died...helpless and alone...in a world she couldn’t possibly understand or be prepared for... In the long run, it meant nothing. It meant absolutely nothing that the magic of the Elements might have one day transformed her into a friend that could last through the eternity Celestia was cursed to endure. It meant even less that the years that she had been raising Twilight had been her happiest in centuries. It was just one more pony to add to the list...

“We have to save them.” Celestia’s voice was calm, resolute, and regal, as always. “I want all of our researchers working to replicate that portal. All of them. I will personally scour my own personal library for any information that may help. We will not let Twi-national heroes be forgotten and abandoned in an unfamiliar world.” A chorus of assents let Celestia know that as always, her word was heard and heeded. As mental images of Twilight lying broken, battered, confused, and alone in a world of warring humans beset Celestia’s mind, her determination to save her daught-her pupil only hardened. She could recall in stark detail Nasus’ descriptions of what the humans were capable of when called to war, and she didn’t trust some enigmatic fight club to keep Twilight Sparkle safe from a violent and unstable race. If anything, being in the hooves of the League would only make it easier for Twilight to see things her young mind wasn’t ready to handle.

That couldn’t happen. Celestia would recreate the portal to Valoran, personally find and secure Twilight, and her friends of course, and from then on, Celestia would make sure that Twilight Sparkle would never have to endanger herself for any of Celestia’s causes again. Her resolution hardened, and her path decided, the Princess of the Sun set to work.

- - - -

Celestia was panicking. It wasn’t a site that was often seen by anypony, and all of those who interacted with her on a daily basis were set on edge by the distress of their normally unshakable ruler. It had already been days, and they’d made absolutely no progress. It was beginning to look like Twilight and her friends were doomed. Celestia had been working obsessively, often forsaking luxuries like food or sleep to research, while Luna had taken over most of her sister’s governmental responsibilities.

It seemed impossible without the power of the Elements that she had so often used as a crutch to solve the few problems that could worry an immortal being of her power. Even worse is that sometimes, Celestia had perceived somepony talking in the distance, but upon investigation, found nothing. She was beginning to wonder if the stress was getting to her. It would be unbearably ironic, if her worry for her student was the chain that kept her from helping Twilight. As painful as it was, it might be necessary for her to take a break and unwind, if she were to make any progress at all.

‘You won’t reach her in time.’

Celestia whipped around from the stack of books in front of her, frowning when she didn’t see anypony. That settled it, it was time to take a break. As Celestia stood though, she instantly stumbled back to the floor as her mind was overwhelmed with visions of her precious student. Twilight Sparkle was lying on her side, blood pouring from some unseen wound as she began to fade, mouthing Celestia’s name as she passed...

The visions were gone as suddenly as they had arrived, and Celestia found herself lying sideways on the floor of her personal library. There was no way she could stop now. Twilight needed her. She would reach her in time. There was no way she would fail her student again.

‘You won’t reach her in time. She will be broken and dead before you’ve even scratched the surface of the knowledge you need.’

Celestia didn’t bother pulling herself from the floor this time, opting instead to close her eyes and hope nopony else could hear her stifled sobs.

Comments

[Hiccup251]

Celestia isn't allowed to break down except in grimdark discord stories

Fantastic writing as always, though.

[Pleaseworkforonce]

im not to sure you should call this chapter that but you could get rid of the first half ermm move it for it to be able to have it only have the celestia part

[CommanderX5]

Nice to see that Celestia finally show some resolve in DOING SOMETHING.

Good to read that Celestia is felling guilty for using her student to do dirty work and want to help for once, I just hope that she will get her chance.

[Warrior Kitten]

That's actually a good point, what happened to the Elements?

Is the void leaking into Equestria, specifically Celestia?