Chapter 43
“… This is Big Mac we’re talking about,” Cliff said, sitting at his desk. “The poster colt for traditional family values.”
“Yeah,” Spirit said, leaning against the wall to Cliff’s left, “and he’s also spending the night with Luna at least twice a week. You’ve seen how he looks when he comes back in the morning, fresh out of Luna’s private shower, totally exhausted, with that goofy little smile on his face. She’s even taking him with her to the changeling ball tonight.”
Cliff rolled his eyes. He had to hope that Celestia knew what she was doing with this ball, because it was obvious that the changelings couldn’t be trusted. The fact that they were betraying the Alliance was proof of that.
“They do seem rather close,” Autumn said. She leaned back in her chair to Cliff’s right and stared at the ceiling. “However, Cliff has a point. Big Mac would certainly be radiating more guilt if he were acting against his own morals.”
“Exactly. I would have sensed guilt when I’m linked with him during practice.” Cliff carefully adjusted the rune matrix in front of him. “Besides, weren’t you the one who heard Luna saying that she just wanted to go dream walking with him?”
Spirit hesitated, probably because he realized that the evidence was stacked against him, but Cliff’s little brother was nothing if not stubborn. “Fine then,” there was the sound of metal scraping against itself as Spirit crossed his arms, “would you care to explain what kind of dreams would leave Mac looking so worn out, and so … satisfied?”
Autumn blushed. “None that are appropriate for polite company.”
“Well, there’s no one polite here,” Spirit said with a chuckle, “but I say it still counts, even if they are just doing it in the dreamscape.”
“I’d say it counts too, but so would Big Mac, so we’re back to that lack of guilt.” Cliff pulled over his notebook and wrote, ‘Crystallization, test fifty.’
This particular rune matrix had been built into a spare sheet of metal, mostly because the surface of his desk was already covered in other runes. Cliff picked up one of the test rocks he kept around and placed it in the middle of the sheet. He sent a pulse of magic into the complicated rune and watched it morph into a large ruby.
Successfully transmuting the rock was nothing new, he’d been able to do that for weeks, but Cliff still felt a wave of satisfaction as he watched the change take place.
“Maybe Luna convinced him that he doesn’t have to be guilty over a dream,” Spirit said.
Autumn hummed doubtfully. “Or maybe she is using the dreamscape for some sort of combat training. It would explain the exhaustion if the dream affected their bodies somehow.”
Cliff ignored them for a moment to focus on his work. This was the most efficient rune matrix he had managed to come up with, but unless the gems provided more energy than it took to create them, he would have to scrap it and try again.
He put the newly created ruby in another rune circle, tapping his claws against the desk as he waited for it to finish analyzing the calorie and nutrition content.
A number of smaller runes around the central one began to light up, showing the presence and concentration of various things that a dragon would need to be healthy. The results were encouraging.
Cliff jotted everything down in his notebook then started adding each of the columns up. According to the sensors, he had used five point three willpower to create the ruby, and from what he was seeing, a dragon would get back enough to generate … Six point two.
Finally!
He reached into a drawer on his desk and pulled out a stack of metal sheets. First, he had to record everything.
“… I think we lost him,” Spirit said. A gauntlet-covered hand came into view, waving up and down. “Cliff? You in there?”
Cliff pushed his brother’s hand out of the way. “I just had a breakthrough.”
“Oh, well that’s good news.”
The older dragon ignored him and kept working.
“Why don’t you hook those things up to an astral charger?” Spirit asked. “That way it powers itself.”
“Not efficient enough,” Cliff replied. “It takes about eight hours to build a matrix this complicated, and even my best charger setup would only let it produce a gemstone or two per day. The Alliance would starve to death long before they built enough of them to be a viable food source.”
Silence fell on the room once more until Autumn finally said, “It’s nearly dinnertime. Do you want to come with us to the kitchens?”
Cliff shook his head. “No thanks. I need to get this done.”
“If you insist.” Autumn put her hoof on his shoulder as she made her way to the door. “I’ll bring you something later.”
“Thanks, Autumn,” Cliff said. “And thanks for stopping by, you two.”
As the two of them left, Spirit muttered, “I swear, he’s getting worse than Twilight.”
Cliff chose to ignore that.
Once everything important had been written down, he put a copy of his notes on top of the rune matrix and packed it all into one of the dimensional pockets in his suit. It was time to fulfill a promise he’d made to Heart Echo.
Cliff paused at the door and glanced at the cloak Discord had given him a while ago. He didn’t have much use for it, and so the cloak had wound up hanging on his wall. Still, it might be helpful if he wanted to sneak into the Shattered Mountain Canyon. An illusion spell could turn its black and gold colors into shades of white, and the cloak itself would break up his outline enough that it would be hard to spot him from a distance.
With that decided, Cliff pulled the cloak down and clasped it around his neck.
“Why hello there, Cliff.” Discord’s voice echoed in his mind. “Long time no prank.”
“Discord?” Cliff looked around. “Where are you?”
“Everfree Village, of course.”
“Really? I didn’t think you were recovered enough to make a link from that far away.”
“Yes, nasty stuff all that death energy.” There was the impression of Discord sticking out his tongue in a mock gagging motion. “Luckily that cloak you’re wearing is woven from pure chaos. It boosts our connection enough that we can talk. Oh, and Fluttershy says that,” more gagging, “she loves you and can’t wait for you to come home next week.”
Cliff froze. “You can talk to her?” He shook his head. “Never mind, obviously you can. Tell her that I love her too.” He opened the door and started on his way up to the surface.
“Where are you going?” Discord asked.
“How do you even know that I’m going anywhere?” Cliff shook his head. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to the Shattered Mountain Canyon.” He reached the stairway and started up. “What are you and Fluttershy up to?”
“Cliff, acting irrationally is my job. Why on earth are you going to the Alliance’s new base?”
“I finished the prototype for something that can solve the Alliance’s food supply problem. Once they get this, they can declare peace and we can put all this stupidity behind us.”
“Overly optimistic, aren’t we?” Discord sent.
“I just trust Heart,” Cliff replied. “She can be very persuasive when she wants something.”
“At least you’re wearing the cloak,” Discord sent. “It would’ve been more fun if you figured it out by yourself, but the chaos energy in it can respond to simple commands. Order it to keep dragons from paying attention to you.”
Cliff paused at the landing between flights of stairs. “Wait, you gave me a chaos-powered cloak and you never thought to mention that it could be useful?” He grabbed onto the corner of it and held it up to the light. It was a nice black cloak with gold highlights near the edges, and the whole thing was made out of some material that he’d never bothered to identify, but there didn’t seem to be anything magical about it.
“A chaos spirit gave you a cloak while you were traveling through the gaps between time, and you never considered that it might be more than a normal cloak?” Discord shot back. “Honestly, Cliff, sometimes I worry about you.”
Cliff sighed. “Good point. How do I order the cloak to do things?”
“Just think what you want it to do, but you’ll have to figure out its limits yourself,” Discord sent in a voice that could best be described as pouty. “I only told you that much because Fluttershy would be heartbroken if something happened to you.”
“Thanks, Discord. Now let’s get back to what you and Fluttershy are doing.”
“Maternity yoga.” There was a sensation like groaning. “The things I do for my friends …”
Once outside, Cliff took off running at just below the speed of sound. Windows and sonic booms didn’t mix well. A flying leap took him over the Empire’s outer wall and into the plains beyond. Off to the north, he could still see the unnaturally flat chunk of ground where Yol Toor’s lava lake had solidified.
Cliff cursed himself yet again for not being able to get Rainbow out of there before the shield came up. Steel Claw was dead because of that failure.
Returning his attention to the present, Cliff activated several different spells to help him run on snow and ice more easily. Then, just to see what would happen, he ordered the cloak to help him power his spells.
The result was less than impressive. Cliff felt his spells get a little stronger and easier to maintain, but it wasn’t the colossal boost that he’d been hoping for.
When he reached the first mountain, Cliff switched to jumping enchantments and ordered the cloak to morph into a hang glider. Fluttershy had given him one for Hearth’s Warming during the first year of their marriage, and they sometimes used it to go flying together. A year or so without practice wouldn’t be a problem, right?
“Let me guess,” Discord sent between chuckles, “that mountain came out of nowhere?”
“Ha ha,” Cliff sent back, picking himself out of the snowdrift where he had crashed. “Could this cloak just transform into a pair of wings?”
“It could,” Discord sent, “but would you even know how to use them?”
“I’ll, uh, try the hang glider again.” It took a few attempts, but Cliff was able to establish a controlled glide and steer himself in the right direction.
A short time later, Cliff was poking his head over the edge of a steep canyon. Massive craters dotted the walls and floor beneath him, even collapsing large areas of the canyon. Celestia and Luna had been attacking this place for nearly two months, though. It could have been a lot worse.
Dragons still flew in and out of the numerous caves on both sides of the canyon, and there were even some diamond dogs mingling with dragons on the canyon floor. All of them looked a lot more cheerful than Cliff would have expected, given their situation. They didn’t even seem to mind the light snowfall that was just starting up.
“You’re sure this cloak will keep them from paying attention to me?” Cliff asked.
“It will make you seem so boring that you aren’t worth their attention,” Discord replied. “That’s not far from the truth lately, based on your letters. How many hours per day are you spending in that cramped little lab?”
“I needed to finish the gem converter,” Cliff sent. “Now that it’s done, I can finally relax.” He ordered the cloak to keep him from being noticed and then shifted it to white before starting a careful descent to the canyon floor. “At least, I can relax as soon as I deliver this to Rune, Genesis, and Clodhopper.”
He was nearly at the bottom when Discord suddenly sent, “Wait, don’t move!”
Cliff froze about a hundred feet from the canyon floor.
“Cliff,” Discord sent, “I need you to listen very carefully. I’m sensing something nearby that I haven’t felt in nearly a thousand years. Look around and tell me if you see anything that looks like a minotaur wearing battle armor.”
He looked around. “No, it’s just dragons and diamond dogs. Where are you sensing them?”
“Down and to your left,” Discord replied. “Move carefully. If it’s what I think it is, the cloak won’t fool them, and I can’t teleport you out of there without nearly killing myself in the process.”
Cliff dropped to the ground and found a cave entrance that went in the right direction. “Right, we’ll call that Plan B.” He stepped into the sharply ascending tunnel.
Soon Cliff heard a voice that sent a shiver down his spine, “Daaanna mussst be …”
It sounded like the gasps of a mortally wounded soldier, heavily slurred and heard through a metal pipe.
“Peeace, Flint Hoof,” another voice said. This one was significantly more clear, but still held the unearthly qualities of the first. “We will haave our reveenge soon.”
“Yessss, sir,” the first voice said.
Cliff leaned around a bend in the tunnel and saw the tunnel extend for another dozen or so feet before it expanded into a small cavern. Even in the dimness, he could make out several minotaurs in armor standing together there. Each of them held a weapon of some kind, usually a spear or an axe, and almost all of them held a massive shield that looked like it could double for a full-length mirror. One of the minotaurs, one of the two without a shield, turned to look at Cliff with eyes that glowed light blue. Runes of the same color coated its chest, arms and legs.
“Yyou can come oout, dragonling,” the minotaur said.
“Cliff,” Discord’s voice was unusually hard, “turn around and leave. Now. If they come after you, run. Twilight is spending the night in Canterlot because of Chrysalis’s ball, so you need to warn Celestia and Luna yourself that the Alliance has freed the Requiem Guard, and will be attacking with them tomorrow morning.”
Maybe it was the unsettling voices of the minotaurs, or the way their eyes glowed, but Cliff was more than happy to follow Discord’s advice and back away. At least the creatures didn’t chase after him.
Back on the canyon floor, Cliff took a moment to calm down. The snowfall was getting heavier now, making everything look a bit hazy. “How do you know that they’re going to attack?”
“My hearing is better than yours, Cliff. More than a hundred dragons in this canyon are talking about their battle plan for tomorrow.”
Cliff ran to the first wyrm that he saw. “Excuse me, do you know where the rune masters are staying?”
The wyrm, a lime-green female with white head spikes, barely glanced at him before continuing on her way.
Right, Cliff realized, the cloak. He mentally commanded it to make him at least a little noticeable then repeated his question.
This time, the dragoness paused and nodded. “They’re in that cave over there.” She pointed at a distant tunnel entrance.
Cliff retrieved his notes and the crystallization rune and pressed them into her hands. “Sorry, but I need you to deliver these to them. It’s urgent.” He barely waited for her to agree before he reactivated the cloak’s power and then ran back up the canyon walls.
“Of course this would happen when everyone’s off at a party,” Cliff sent as he climbed. “Did Chrysalis at least uphold her part of the deal that got her pardoned?”
“Yes, she rounded up all the Alliance spies, which is so dreadfully boring.” Discord huffed. “Ponyville was a lot more chaotic when everypony was acting paranoid.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive,” Cliff sent back. “What can you tell me about those minotaurs? You called them the Requiem Guard.” He reached the top of the canyon and jumped into the sky. On command, the cloak transformed back into a hang glider.
Now all he had to worry about was navigating back to the Empire, through unfamiliar territory, at night, in the middle of a snow storm. Just his luck.
“Your sympathy is overwhelming,” Discord grumbled, “but fine, I’ll answer your question. How much do you know about the Great Minotaur War?”
“… Uh,” Cliff adjusted his flight a little to avoid a mountain, “I’m going to assume that it was a war that involved minotaurs.”
There was the unmistakable sound of a paw connecting with a forehead. “And this is the father of my best friend’s child. Yes, Cliff, it was a war that involved minotaurs. More specifically, it was the first war that the newly united empire of Equestria ever got caught up in, and the longest lasting one in its history to boot, thanks mostly to those suits of armor you just saw.
“You can read the details in a history book,” Discord continued, “but the important part is that, after the Nightmare Moon incident, Celestia really started cracking down on the country of Minos. She more than doubled the size of Equestria’s army and even started leading attacks herself. The minotaurs got desperate and decided to do something unthinkable. They took their ten most capable champions and sealed their consciousnesses into the most powerful suits of armor they could build.”
Discord was getting more and more serious, which honestly frightened Cliff. He put on another burst of speed.
“These suits are magic leeches. Firing spells at them is like throwing hayburgers at Twilight, and if you do ever hurt one, it will just heal in a few seconds. Those things spent more than a decade in near constant battle with Equestria, and only two were ever destroyed. The rest got a nice visit to Tartarus, but now it looks like the Alliance went and released them.”
Cliff took a deep breath. “Alright, so nearly indestructible suits of living armor that can drain your magic if you get too close. That’s not exactly good news, but now that the Alliance’s food problem has been sorted out, maybe they won’t use the Requiem Guard to attack.”
“And maybe they will,” Discord sent back. “Either way, Celestia needs to know that the Requiem Guard is free.”
“I’ll tell her.” Cliff produced a small sheet of metal and a stylus from one of his suit’s dimensional pockets. He scrawled a quick message to explain the situation then sent it away in a puff of green fire. With that done, Cliff focused on getting back to the Empire as quickly as possible. “Discord, if the Requiem Guard does attack, how bad will it be?”
“Let me put it this way,” Discord sent, “if you want Miracle to grow up knowing her father, stay as far away from them as you can.”
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This coming battle will be slaughter and hopefully the dragons will see that demons have no allies.
I see one of three things happening:
A. The Dragon Cliff passed his notes to does not deliver them
-OR-
B. The Hurricanes demand to continue the war anyway.
-OR-
C. The Drakes call off the war (the Hurricanes might continue the war just because they lost themselves to it), but the Requiem Guard demand their tribute as per the contract (since there was no peaceful resolution given to them)
at least discord is honest.
One side works to keep the other from starving.
The other unleashes a group of unholy abominations that could lead to a biblical loss of life.
Hmm, one seems to be a little less, shall we say... morally misguided?
Now the Alliance has the means to create gems for themselves though it's come too little too late. All that's left is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
*still in dragon form*
Me: so we have the world ending armor just because the hurricans hate loosing.
Robot: if they are magic leeches then why not use the staffs to drain them.
M.wolfdragon: now if only there was a pair of beings that are not magical and can make fire that can turn them into puddles.
F.wolfdragon: wait for the next chapter before you try it
7729801
"Unholy" is a rather prejudicial term. All we know about these guys is that they really don't like ponies, apparently with good reason. Equestria's chickens may simply be coming home to roost.
7730490
Yeah, no. First off, nothing so far suggests Equestria engages in the same kind of atrocities as its enemies, be they minotaurs or dragons. Secondly, the minotaurs went ahead and created their own version of a graveknight. The Requiem Guard are creatures that should be dead but are kept in undeath via magic. 'Unholy' is exactly the right way to describe them.
Very good chapter 43 can't wait for the next chapter
7730511
For all their hoof-wringing, the Equestrians seem perfectly willing to fight dirty when it suits them. And the term "unholy" is derived from empty superstitious dogma, and holds no actual meaning or value. The Requiem Guard are merely magical constructs, albeit sentient and particularly effective ones. Really, one has to question the ethics of just locking them up and throwing away the key for so long, given that they seem to essentially be political prisoners, betrayed to a relentless enemy by the country they sacrificed their own flesh and blood for.