Cold Fire Shining A Buried Light
“A lost city… right under Moscolt! Well, under the lake. There's only one entity that could pull this off: Discord. Celestia did say that this used to be a trade city in the ocean. But the timeline doesn't quite work…”
Her mental committees started yelling hypotheses at her, and her frontal cortex had to tell them all to shut their collective axons.
“There will be time for that later,” Twilight mused aloud. “The more important thing is finding out what the Majestics are doing here.”
“I bet the spotlight shining on the roof of this place is a good place to start,” said Aurora. “Nice, convenient beacon.”
“Sounds like a plan to me. Let's go.” Twilight broke into a gallop and fired up her teleportation again, catapulting herself down the streets towards the light.
The buildings came in all shapes and sizes, some close together, others with wide gaps enough to be small parks. Most were generally intact, save for windows. Some had signs that were still legible, save for the fact that she didn't know the language. Every so often she'd find sparks showering out of some wire that was sticking out.
Amazing. Electric power is still functioning after thousands of years. The streets became somewhat disjointed, making her zig-zag around. The buildings here were larger and more universally rectangular. The one that dominated, though, was the height of a skyscraper with the width and depth of a warehouse. The top was darkened with soot, and pieces of it looked like they were blasted out with artillery shells. Yet it stood like it was built to be a bunker.
Its size messed with her perception of how far away it was. The underground cavern was even greater than she first thought. When she did arrive, though, the source of the light was easy to find, and it proved to be of a much more recent vintage. A typical searchlight was being used, a kind one could find in any city in Equestria. Another generator of the kind she found at the underwater entrance was hooked up to it, and a series of utility lights led inside the massive structure.
She entered the building through an opening, which looked like it was recently blasted open with TNT, or perhaps painstakingly carved in (given the tools lying around) and then blasted open. The wall she walked through was easily five times as thick as the other walls. The hall she entered was generally untouched, and the same building substance as everywhere else was all she could see for a while. It wasn't too long before she found another hole, and given that the lights went in that direction, she followed.
The walls were now pulsing with the same veins of magic as outside, but this time they were more like arteries, and she could feel the cold, fresh magic of a mana krene going through them. Unlike the other veins, these seemed to have much more of a pattern to them. Or at the very least, they were orderly.
The next turn threw whatever sense of order she had out the window, as she found a body. It was a stock stallion, not older than thirty, and a blade had been run through his chest, judging by the gaping hole in it. She retracted Aurora and touched him with her fetlock, feeling perhaps the last of his body's warmth before it faded. He hasn't been dead long. A few hours, tops, and likely not even that. Much less if the ice mana in the veins is leaking anywhere. Agent F must be here. Are we too late?
She hushed her movements to a careful, deliberate pace to silence her hoofbeats. At the next corner, she poked her head around the corner to check for hostiles, only continuing after a few seconds of silence. The doorways down the next hall were all open, their doors being smashed in despite being made of the same material as the walls. Inside were desks, or what looked like them. The style was distinctly different from any she had seen before, and on top of that, there were strange devices in each room. They did not move, but they clearly took electrical power, as a few were still sparking. How this place hadn’t burned down yet was a real mystery.
As she moved, a strange, pulsing hum began to fill the air. It was as if some enormous drummer was pounding the floor far away at a stupendously quick pace, only to slow down before repeating.
She had passed a few signs on the walls, but the language was completely different from any she had seen before. There were arrows, but without knowing what they were pointing at, she could find herself wandering into a bathroom, a closet, or for all she knew, a biohazard storage facility containing a super intelligent gelatinous cube left very hungry after 4000 years. So she followed the hum.
After a few turns, she had the general layout of the floor figured out. The intruders had broken several walls, likely confused about how to get to where they were going. The structure had been organized to have the halls not only snake back-and-forth, but maximize the number of walls on the outside perimeter. When she had that in her mind, finding the center was easy. The hard part was picking her jaw up off the floor.
Beyond the massive glass double doors was a chamber at least a dozen stories tall and the area of a double-height hoofball field. Pathways lined the perimeter for every story, and each pathway, guarded by a glass railing, was filled with machinery and unknown mechanical objects. In the middle of all this was an exposed piece of the ice krene. A crystal structure at least half the height of the chamber and probably two-thirds as wide was growing out of the floor like an enormous Hearth’s Warming tree. The entire thing had a glass shield around it in the shape of a circular pyramid. At least, she thought it looked like glass, but regular silicate panes would have been shattered by the ice mana by now.
At the top of the pyramid was some kind of house-sized metal device capping it off. Blue and white circles shimmered in the center of the device, and enormous, transparent tubes easily large enough for an alicorn to walk through sprouted from the left, right, and rear of the device. One more tube, larger than the others, was going up from the core and into the ceiling.
“Are they… did they harvest magic from the krene? How? And more importantly, how’d they keep it from becoming unbalanced? From, just, flooding everything with ice mana?”
If Aurora had a stomach, it would be queasy in sympathy with Twilight’s. “Also, I think it’s still active! It’s still drawing an enormous amount of power and pushing it through the city. I can feel it!”
Ka-chunk! Pssssssst. A door on the third level and off to Twilight’s left opened up, and a pony stepped through. She was a unicorn mare, medium height, with a green coat and vibrant orange mane and tail. She had basic saddlebags, and out of one of them was the handle for what was most likely a short sword. Her face was a little chubby, but not by much. It was just enough to make her look rather young, and helping that along were a smattering of orange freckles on her face. But her demeanor was angry, even contemptuous. A killing stare descended from her down to Twilight, but only for a moment; it was quickly replaced by a look of surprise and warmth.
“Oh, hey there!” The mare smiled and started down the stairs. “I honestly didn’t expect you to find your way down here. Congrats. Seriously.”
Twilight forced her ears to stay in place as her heart started racing. Well, she’s confident. I’m guessing this is Agent F? Best not to let her know that I know. “I take it you’re with this crew? Or are you here to kill them like the pony I saw coming in?”
“A little bit of both, actually!” She said it as a pleasantry, like a casual conversation. “Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t fun. But you can’t just betray us like they did and not expect retribution. Not when they endangered everything we’ve worked for. I’ve already got them all, and whoever hired them is going to be hearing from me once I figure it out, I promise you that.”
“Everything you’ve worked for? Like what? Overthrowing Celestia?”
The mare paused on the second floor and winked, then made a “hush” motion with a hoof to her mouth. “Can’t tell you. But, hey, since you’re here, I’ll make you a deal.”
Twilight watched her as she moved down the steps, stopped, and paused to look at something on the wall. “I’m not sure how interested I am in making a deal with the Majestics,” Twilight said.
“Eh, not them per se. Just me, and just a little thing,” the other mare replied. “You see the center of that chamber way up there? Where the pipes converge? That’s the core of the reactor. These morons put the Element of Honesty in there.”
Twilight boggled. Not just her mind, but her whole body somehow managed to “boggle.” How is a question best left to historians. “Why would they do that?”
“And that's where the deal comes in. See, to get it out, we have to shut this thing down. Oh, it's not operating like it used to. It's already in a minimum-power state, but that's still an enormous amount of magic being concentrated in one point. If we cracked that open now?”
Twilight swallowed. “We die, and the ruins get destroyed with us.”
“Ding ding ding! We have a winner! I'm pretty sure I can get this thing shut down with what I already know, but it would be faster if I had competent help.” She pulled a panel off the wall and tossed it aside, then poked her head in the resulting hole. “So, that's the deal. You help me shut down the core, and I'll answer a few of your questions. Afterwards, we can go ahead and fight it out for the Element one on one. Or we could fight now and risk cracking open the reactor, which would destroy us both—and even if that doesn't happen, you still don't know how to turn this thing off.”
Twilight chewed on her hoof. “I hate to admit it, but that does sound reasonable. Okay, but no tricks.”
“Hey, I promise to fulfill my end of the bargain. I really don't have a reason not to. After all, I'm pretty confident I can take you. But I don't have any confidence that our fight wouldn't damage this thing, and I doubt even I could survive a core breach. Hell, I kind of doubt Moscolt would survive the breach. I'm not entirely sure where this place is sitting under, after all.”
Twilight pulled in a breath. “Okay then, deal. Question one, what should I call you?”
The mare grumbled and pulled her head out of the hole. “Dang, wrong panel. Oh, you can call me Flicker. One and her posse might like their code names, but I have no doubt you'd eventually figure out who I am if you survive this. If.”
“That's an awful lot of confidence,” Twilight admitted.
“Extrapolation based on past trends. I don't lose.” She pointed a hoof across the room. “Can you get to the third floor over there? Look for a square outline in the wall.”
Twilight glanced over quickly, then back to Flicker. “Yeah, sure.” With every step she took, she glanced back at the very corners of her eyes, ready for the backstab.
It never came. She was up the stairs and at the third floor without so much as a hint of hostility.
After she carried on down the catwalk, she saw a blank area along the wall, with a square outline maybe a meter on each side near the floor. “I think I found it.”
“Good! Grab onto it with your magic, and pull off the panel.”
Twilight did so, and found a little tunnel. She’d have to either crawl or lie on her side to get in, but it was very much a tunnel. “OK, what now?”
“Take a look inside. Do you see a bunch of machines, or do you see a tunnel with a big stream of blue light on one side?”
Twilight poked her head in, and laid on her side. Surprisingly, she didn't hit the metal grating that was the tunnel’s “floor.” Rather, she floated a few millimeters over it. Most of the ceiling and the walls were made of the same grating, but on the left side was a hole be big enough to fit a watermelon inside. It was, indeed, filled with ice mana. “The latter!”
“Good! That's what we're looking for! Head down there, and look for something that might be a valve or a switch. We need to shut off the flow.”
Ooookay. Twilight scooted herself down the tunnel. No big deal, just messing with technology a thousand years more advanced than anything I could conceive of. Perfectly normal. Eventually, she came to a section of tubing with a red sign over it. The words might as well have told her to go do something lewd with her mother, because there was no way she could hope to translate them. However, the pictographic representation of the tube being turned and the mana flow stopping was clear enough.
“So, want to go play Stalliongrad Roulette after this?” Aurora shivered.
That or buy a lottery ticket. Twilight grabbed hold of the tube and turned it, and the magic inside dimmed. At least, one side of it did. The mana was flowing from her left to right, and the left side was now brighter. As she turned, the imbalance grew, and a click signified a total flow stoppage. All of the tube before the strange valve was now glowing a brilliant ice blue, enough for Twilight to have to shield her eyes. After the valve, it was clear. More importantly, it was also not exploding.
I… think we did it. Twilight thought. Aloud, she mused, “You know, there’s been a curious lack of explosions so far this mission.”
“Don’t you dare jinx this.”
“Okay, okay, just saying.”
Twilight pushed against the floor, zipping out of the tunnel like she was on wheels. Due to this, of course, she landed on her butt when she exited. However, since no one saw her, it didn't count. “Hey, Flicker! I think I got it!”
“Great!” Flicker had been looking around the floor, and finally found something to pull up on. When she opened the trap door, a glass spiral staircase appeared underneath. “I think I found what I needed, too.”
“What, exactly, were you looking for, and how do you know about it?”
“I can't answer the latter, but I can tell you this. Supposedly, when you shut off some of the flow, another pipe should open, letting the excess magic drain away. It's a safety system. I need to make sure it's working, or we go kaboom.”
“Right. Not going kaboom. Good thing. So, next question. Why are the Majestics doing what they're doing?”
Flicker scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Come on, Sparkle. You know I can't answer that. Think of something else, and go find the next pipe.”
“All right…” Twilight went to find some stairs up to the next floor. “So what were these guys doing here? And why did they put the Element inside the core?
“Now that's more like it! One moment.” Flicker disappeared down the staircase, returning after a minute or so. “It looks like the sink pipe for that one is working. We can shut off the next one now.”
“And my question?”
“Turn off the next pipe, and I'll answer the next question.”
Twilight grumbled, but complied. The next pipe was exactly where she expected, exactly one story above the last one, down one of those strange tunnels. “Got it! Your turn.”
Flicker blew some hair out of her face. “Okay, good deal. These idiots were trying to use the concentrated magic in the core and the properties of the Element to open a gateway into the Ginnungagap.”
“Gesundheit.” Twilight said, one eyebrow raised.
Flicker grew a toothy grin. “I kind of figured you guys didn't know about that yet. Weird, considering how much the Princesses know and don't tell us.”
“I have found that to be a recurring theme, but I've also seen firsthoof why they don’t pull back the curtain on everything.” Twilight leaned on the railing, one foreleg crossed over the other. “So, what is the Ginnungagap?”
Flicker looked off and to the right. “Hmmm. How do I explain this simply… OK, so, imagine a vase filled with marbles. Now, I know you know about other dimensions, because you sent that dragon to one. Those marbles are like the other dimensions, or perhaps ‘planes’ is a better term? Either way, those are the other places. Now, fill the vase with water. The Ginnungagap is that water. The space between everything.”
Twilight’s mind raced, trying to square what she'd been told with the magic she'd already known. The formulas did the thaumic equivalent of dividing by zero and she could feel her eyes being sucked deep into her sockets as her brain threatened to implode. “That's impossible. I have studied some of the works from the old masters who knew, and they never mentioned anything like that. In fact, the rules of reality should forbid that.”
“And yet, it's real. And I know for a fact that you've been there. Recently, as in earlier in the day. How you got there I'm not certain, though.” Her squinted eyes joined a Cheshire smile. “Care to enlighten me?”
“Sorry, can't answer that one.” Twilight shot the same smile back. “Next pipe?”
“Next pipe.”
After she closed the next pipe, a strange buzz filled the air for a moment. It was followed by something mumbling and distorted. It was like a strange language being spoken while a pony grabbed the speaker’s cheeks and jiggled them. “OK, what the heck was that?”
“Sorry! Sorry about that!” Flicker called out as Twilight crawled out of the tunnel. “One of the vent pipes wouldn't open. I managed to force it. I suppose I should be impressed. I mean, so much of this stuff still works after so long. Having something go wrong should be par for the course.”
Twilight gave a begrudging nod. “It's a testament to the design and craftsmanship.”
“Or just the technology level. I can’t help but wonder what this place looked like in its prime.”
“Based on the notes I found, I'm guessing you have a few top-notch researchers. Shifting Current, perhaps?”
Flicker shrugged. “Maybe we're just really smart?”
“Oh, please.” Twilight hopped off the catwalk and landed with a clang. “Even if you understood the basic principles of what this thing is doing, it would still take years and millions of bits to put it to practical use, much less all the other machines here that aren’t even working. Which means: you have a source.”
Flicker scowled. “You have one too–the Princesses. The difference is, they keep everything a secret. We take that knowledge and use it to benefit our side. Once we win, it'll benefit everypony.”
Twilight thought back to the crater in the desert, filled with thaumic contamination. “You're playing with matches. You could burn us all to ash.”
“Possible. And what about the misery in the meantime? What we are doing could end everything as we know it, but even then, we’d be able to replace it with a paradise.”
Twilight set on the cold floor, holding her head as high as she could. She was still somewhat shorter than the other mare, but body language was the unwritten words in a sentence. This wasn't a discussion she wanted to have on an even level socially. This was one between an alicorn and her subject, rebellious though that subject was. “That is not something you want to risk. You're playing with power far beyond what you understand.”
“What, like you? Please.” Flicker thrust a hoof in her direction. “You've literally slept in the Princess’ bed. I know you’re powerful, but you don't amount to an ant compared to them. All that knowledge, all that power, all for one purpose: maintaining their control over us.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes, and sighed. “I guess I overestimated you. Your inexplicable knowledge only goes so far. You don't know anything about the real motives of the alicorns.”
“Yeah, well, don’t ever underestimate me. It’ll be your last mistake.”
“Same to you.” Twilight turned to go to the next pipe, but kept an eye on her opponent. “It’s a shame. You seem nice. I thought—”
“That what? We could be friends?” Flicker spat on the ground. “Don't misunderstand me. I respect your intelligence, and your accomplishments. But I do not like you. I hate you. I hate you more than anypony on this planet.”
A sharp jab poked into Twilight’s heart, as if the tip of a knife just kissed a ventricle. “I wasn't going to say ‘friends,’” she insisted. “I was going to say I thought I could talk you down, get you to surrender. You killed some ponies here—and mercilessly, I might add. So 'friends' isn't something I can go for.”
“They deserved it.” Flicker pulled out a telekinetic blade and swung it around. “And more. And my respect for you only goes so far. After we shut down the core and secure the Element, I am going to kill you.”
“We’ll see about that. After all, quite a few have tried so far.”
Flicker turned to march back down her stairs. “Yeah. But none of them were me.”
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Oh, Flicker made a slip up. She gave away One's gender. Of course, she doesn't expect Twilight to live though their battle, so she likely thinks it won't matter.
Well, we know where Honesty is. Now it becomes a battle of who gets it. Twilight will obviously survive, but how will the battle turn out? On pins and needles.
Heh, least the Majestics there don't seem entirely aware of the whole ascension thing
Now why is that I wonder?
And none of those you've killed were Twilight
hmmmm you know i really what Aurora to integrate a set of those pegasi cored cannon saddles except it sits in a a slightly raised position and is turreted to aim where twilight looks
Wow! 666k Words!!!
I'm still a bit miffed that everyone seems to be more powerful, experienced and skilled than Twilight... Or at least, think and insist that they are.
That pirate before, Rarity just recently and now this Flicker mare. I suppose none of them (except perhaps Rarity?) knew that Twilight is actually a future alicorn, but still.
Now the question is: will Twilight manage to reclaim Honesty? Or will Flicker bolt with it if things start to go against her.
Well, another pony who envies Twilight for having everything served in a silver plate? We should make it a drinking game at this point.
How inconvenient her armor was made useless for defence.
10158825
To be fair Rarity was literally acting and she is in a secret mission from the crown.
Plot twist : Twilight actually dies. I know it won't happen but it would totally blow everybodys Mind!
I'm totally expecting you to pull a Yoko Taro and go : oh yeah you thought you're fighting for the right side Twilight, nope , you are all doomed!!
Figures Twilight would run into Flicker so soon after her name being mentioned. Ah, ascension you do make things interesting, hehehe.
10158685
Why is a very important question in cases like this.
is this an actualy chapter that was posted on april fools day by coincidence, or is this a joke chapter.
Something ancient and possibly evil is feeding information to the templar so they work in its favor. I wonder how they plan to protect themselves from the inevitable betrayal.
10158825
If they didn't think they were more powerful and more skilled than Twilight, they wouldn't exactly be willing to confront her.
Wow they are arrogant. They know the princesses hide things but never bothered to think why.
I feel like this girl is just a puppet for something larger. No way she knows that little and is anyone more then a grunt working for a higher up.
10158825
And it'll be that much more satisfying when Twilight beats em within an inch of their life.
10159553
Lots of fic writers like the trope of the bad guys thinking Twilight is a spoiled pampered little puppet. I understand why seeing their confidence and ego shatter when she shows she is leagues beyond them it delicious. It's only better when Twilight is convinced she's much weaker then she is adorably confused when she curb stomps them. In this story it's fun when a enemy uses tactics that should wreck a unicorn only to realize too late Twi is an Alicorn so she has earth Pony and Pegasus tricks to call on. Noting quite as funny as a over confident villian losing it when their opponent doesn't have the weaknesses or limits to exploit that made them so confident they would win.
I hope Twiley, Celly and Lulu come back here when this mission is over. This underground city sounds awesome. I'd love to hear more about it in its prime, as told to Twilight while the Sisters reminisce. Another great chapter Cv!
10158825
I gotta admit, I'm kinda in the same boat here. I mean with all the shinanegens Twilight's gotten up to, none of her enemies have even CONSIDERED that maybe tangling with the Grand Mage is a bad idea.
Ah well.
Flicker is interesting.
She has a lot of boasting going on, and thinks she's the best of the best. And yet, she doesn't just tell Twilight everything. If she really believed she could beat Twilight like she'd beat everyone else, then why wouldn't she just tell Twilight everything? I think it's a testament to her respect for Twilight that she keeps things secret, because she also acknowledges that it's only an *If* whether Twilight lives or dies.
Good luck, and stay safe yourself.
10160760
Well, she does say she's "pretty confident" she'd beat her, as opposed to fully confident. Even if she judges there to be, say, a 5% chance of Twilight winning (or even not her winning, but rather just managing to escape alive), it's prudent to account for that low chance.
I wonder if there's any chance for Flicker to also be an alicorn ascendant. It'd explain why she's so confident, especially if she doesn't know that Twilight is one.
Why do I get the feeling that flicker is the preredemption starlight/tempest of this story and if twilight turned her magic sight on flicker it would be reveled that flicker is another ascended pony hence her lethality and confidents that she can take anyone
10160789
).
It's possible. It would be one way of explaing why she has a 100% success track-record, without resorting to her possessing some sort of unknown super-powerful magic (and I like to think CV is good enough to not resort to a cheap explanation like that
But I still somehow doubt that it's that either. My guess would be that she's just a very powerful (albeit ordinary) Unicorn, who's a specialist in teleportation. The latter because I recall someone mention that even Armor's shields wouldn't do them any good.
10160819
I was thinking that in addition to explaining her confidence amd ability, it would further solidify her as a foil to Twilight. They're both their respective sides' highly competent premier field agents, and both are highly magical unicorns (or at least, seem to be).
I've been expecting an antagonistic alicorn ascendant to be introduced at some point since the beginning of the story, and of the candidates that have seemed plausible she seems the most likely at this point in the story.
Phantasm: Was revealed to be a winged unicorn, so no longer possible.
Charlemane: Twilight has looked at him with her magic sight and didn't see anything unusual, so while still possible, it's unlikely.
Flicker: Seems plausible and would explain a lot, but definitely could just be a normal unicorn.
10160893
Alicorn Ascendents are supposed to be incredibly rare, so having two at the same time doesn't seem right.
But her "just" being an extremely skilled and powerful Unicorn would fit better, I think.
10160913
They are, but alicorn ascendants are themselves supposed to attract other huge events, and unlikely doesn't mean impossible, especially in a piece of fiction where unlikely events can be purposefully invoked to further the setting or plot, such as this very chapter when Twilight just happened to show up when Flicker was there, instead of slightly earlier or later and missing her (not ragging on Cv, since nearly every writer does it and it's completely legitimate when used reasonably).
I would not be surprised in the least if you're correct, but neither would I be surprised if the opposite ended up being true.
10160841
Fair, but knowing that little means she’s still just a puppet. Being misled like that is a great way to have someone pull your strings.
Incredibly youthful appearance, vast amounts of knowledge she shouldn't have, abilities that should be impossible, Mare? I'll eat my shoes if Flicker isn't an Ascendant.
10160789
I didnt think about that but another alicorn ascendant actually would be really cool !!
probably not whats going on here but still a cool idea!
Ok I thought a little about it and actually her being an ascendant would make a lot of sense AND would be very good for the story! So yeah
10159060 I feel like the why is pretty simple: Flicker detests the Alicorns and the way they shield knowledge in an effort to protect ponies from themselves. Twilight is extremely close to both princesses. I'd wager that Flicker feels like Twilight is a betrayal of everything Flicker believes in and stands against.
10170159
If I had to guess, I'd say that her organization found her at a low, convinced her that correlation was causation. That could explain her reasoning.
10171983 Because of the law, of course. Interrogation like what you're talking about is illegal. It wouldn't do for word of the interrogation by the government to get around and cause both the Princesses and the Council to lose ground. Its much easier and safer to just let the tribalists continue to break the law and dig themselves deeper holes. It's just like Gen said: RGIS kept those triablist hotspots extremely contained, placed in a direction RGIS wanted them to be, and continued to leech information from said tribalists while keeping the public pony mostly in the dark.
We're gonna get an epic showdown. I'm gonna need popcorn for the tussle in the tundra!
I'll be frank, Flicker's motives feel artificial, not in a "badly written, forced motivation" kind of way, but in a "Someone I trust (but definitely lied to her) told me that this is how things are and I refuse to believe anything else" kind of way.
So yeah my theory on Flicker is that Majestic One encountered her when she was young and saw a talented pony that could be manipulated into being a useful tool