The Journeymare Project: Turbo Pegasus

by MadHighlander

6: Aetherwort

Rainbow descended from the time spell into the last new environment in the midst of a row of towering shelves covered in dust. Before she could do anything, a third construct rounded the corner and came face to face with her.

This construct was the most divergent of them all. Unlike the equine shape of the construct from the Town or the draconic form of the one from the ancient forest, the castle construct had heavy-looking legs made from stone that fit much more loosely than the outer shells of either of the others – allowing them to move more like tentacles than actual legs. Extremely broad where they joined the diamond-shaped body, the legs tapered to a blunted point near the ground. The construct stepped around in an almost crab-like manner, its hunched-over head curling up to meet Rainbow’s eyes with its own dome-like, glowing, red ones.

It was also much larger than either of the others, standing almost twice as tall as Rainbow. She backed slightly further into the aisle, confident that the massive construct couldn’t fit between the shelves.

“You are too late,” sounded its deep grinding voice, identical in that respect at least to the other two. “My victory is already secured.” Without another word, it backed away from the shelves and moved off into the castle’s hallways.

Crap, what did it mean? Is the time co-ordinate wrong for this one? She shook her head. Can’t worry about that now. Calling up the scanner spellstone, she lifted off into the air. Gotta find the Aetherwort and get out.

Almost as soon as she activated the spellstone, the simulated voice sounded in her head with a warning. Oh, for Celestia’s sake, what now?

“Extreme danger! Detecting a slowed-action area-of-effect sleeping spell in this area. Unconsciousness in sixty seconds.”

Rainbow stood still for a moment. “AAAAAARRRGGH!” She flew near the ceiling and shouted.

Nopony investigated. I suppose something that big would need more than sneaking around or shapeshifting to keep from being seen. Right, so I have a time crunch. That’s new. Ish. She consulted the scanner’s mapping data. I hope the apothecary isn’t too far.

“You are in: Apothecary storage.”

Oh.

Well that’s convenient.

Rainbow looked to the shelves around her. Sure enough, they were covered with rows upon rows of jars the side of her head, filled with fluids, powders and dried herbs of all descriptions. I could spend the rest of my life in here and not finish searching this room, much less sixty seconds. I can come back as many times as I want, but that won’t help when I’m dead of old age! She paused for a moment. Do I even age right now? I mean, I don’t even know what sort of weird effects this time spell might be having. I could be aging at double speed for all I know.

Rainbow shook her head. Sixty seconds.

“Fifty seconds,” amended the scanner voice.

Rainbow gritted her teeth, but rather than shouting aloud, she turned to the nearest jar and began reading the labels in order.

Cinnabar, no. Cinnamon, no. Cinnavis, no. Wait… She facehoofed. Alphabetical order. Of course they’re in alphabetical order. Why do I keep panicking over this crap, I miss the most obvious…

Rainbow flitted out of that aisle and moved past several shelves, ignoring the scanner warning her that she had forty, then thirty, seconds of consciousness left. Here we go, Acerbic Breath through Antimony. She flew down the row of shelves, counting the alphabetised jars as she passed them. Aconite, Adratus’ Root, Aerolith…

“Twenty seconds of consciousness remaining.” Underscoring that notification, Rainbow could feel her eyelids starting to droop. As a result, she almost missed her quarry.

Aetherwort! There! She grasped the heavy jar of off-yellow liquid and lifted the lid. Her nostrils were greeted by the same putrid stench as the vial from Starlight’s lab. The glass jar was almost as large as her head, and – drowsy as she was – started dragging her down towards the ground when she pulled it off the shelf.

“Ten seconds. Evacuate immediately.”

“’M goin’,” rainbow mumbled aloud, fumbling groggily with the spellstone brace. She called up the map control and activated the recall.

---

Clarity returned almost the very moment Rainbow struck the map table, and she reached out with both arms, catching the falling Aetherwort jar moments before it struck the table.

“You got some? Great!” said Shining. “That should be everything you need, right?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yep. If this works, I’ll have stopped that fire from ever happening.”

“I probably won’t remember any of this, after you’re done,” added Shining, somewhat sadly. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against it in any way. If saving Twily involved stabbing me in the gut, right here and now, I’d go along with it happily. But it’s a shame I won’t remember what you did.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s better than the alternative.”

Shining nodded silently, and Rainbow set the map to carry her back to the Town, one last time.

“Rainbow?” said Shining as the time spell ticked to life.

“Yeah, Shining?”

“Good luck.” As she disappeared, Shining threw her a salute.

---

For all her preparations, Rainbow almost forgot about the construct’s punch. She managed to roll with it just in time, cradling the jar of Aetherwort to prevent it from shattering on the hard wooden floor. After checking to see that it was intact, she looked up to notice that the construct had left.

Damn it. Having failed to get the construct at the first opportunity, she continued with the old routine. Beaker out the window, wingblade to the trapdoor, heave the jar of aetherwort into the overhead room and carry it carefully out the hallway window, bypass the crowd and follow the construct onto the main road.

Once again, the construct was already approaching the locked shack with its ‘borrowed’ oil lamp. She wasn’t going to rush in carelessly this time, though.

“Hey!” she shouted at it. It turned to intercept her, empty forehoof raised. But, having anticipated this, her body wasn’t what the hoof struck this time.

Instead, it shattered the jar of aetherwort, which Rainbow had just hurled at it with all her strength.

The foul-smelling fluid splashed across the construct’s forehoof, face, and sides. It started to say something, but was cut off by its body rippling and crackling, its pony disguise randomly shifting into stone and back again. It twisted wildly and then settled into a slightly disturbing medium between the two.

And then it started to advance on her, lantern held high.

Oh crap. This is bad, she thought.

At least until it stumbled on its own misshapen hoof, crumbling into a pile of stony chunks on striking the ground. The lantern shattered at its feet, oil burning safely away from the wooden shack.

I did it. Rainbow grinned broadly. We’re safe! Past me is not dead! She sighed. One down, two to go, I guess. What’s that? A section of the top of the construct’s cranium had fallen cleanly away, exposing an interface similar to her own spellstone brace.

Moving in closer, she prodded at the exposed section with her hoof, clearing away more of the crumbling stone and revealing an eight-slot spellstone interface similar to her own. Unlike hers, though, these eight spellstones were clustered around a tiny recording crystal, small enough to fit into a groove on one of the spellstones. One of the intact spellstones, that is; most of them were damaged or destroyed.

Well, it doesn’t need them anymore, thought Rainbow. She grabbed the three intact spellstones (and the crystal) and inserted them in her spellstone brace. As she did so, a time spell activated and seemingly hoovered up the shattered remains of the construct, followed by a second time spell bringing her back to the new, slightly repaired present day.

---

She descended to the map table, noting absently that the room was no longer filled to the brim with storage crates, dust, and cobwebs, and the root decoration was back in its rightful place hanging from the ceiling. She smiled, feeling the satisfaction of a job done awesomely. But the job’s not quite done yet. Let’s take a look at these… She dropped her gaze toward her selection of newly acquired spellstones.

Instead, she froze on coming face to face with a rainbow-maned bright blue Pegasus mare sitting in one of the thrones ringing the map.

“Altered timeline presence detected. Activating shield countermeasures.”

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

How dark will this story be?

[MadHighlander]

7126565
'Dark' can be subjective sometimes, but it shouldn't be overly so. Early-to-mid Chapter 5 is probably as far as it'll go in terms of darkness.