Night's End
“So...” Thistleroot trailed off.
Scootaloo sighed. “Yeah?”
He grinned. “You haven’t even heard what I was going to say.”
The two of them were walking through the camp, making their way once again to Starswirl’s tent. They’d spent some time finding a place to eat first. There were some places operating along the lines of soup kitchens for ponies in need, and others that were trying to reopen their business as quickly as possible.
Scootaloo had bought them a half dozen donuts from Pony Joe out of a fairly well kept tent. The bits she’d taken from her home in Ponyville weren’t doing her any good yet, and it made for a nice treat after the long trek back to Canterlot. It was nice, sharing their favorite donuts again. After that she’d found a spot under a tree to get some sleep, knowing the chances of doing so after the sun went down would be slim.
“You started the conversation with ‘so’ and then trailed off awkwardly. Those talks never go well.”
Thistleroot chuckled and stuck his tongue out at her. “Actually, I was going to say that I was impressed.”
“Impressed?” Scootaloo side-eyed him, lips pursed as though trying to decipher a punch line.
“I’m serious. You’ve been taking everything that’s happened in stride. I pretty much shut down when I saw what happened to Canterlot. If Mimic hadn’t been there to snap me out of it, well, it wouldn’t have been pretty. But you’re like, ‘we have a plan’ and ‘let’s go’.”
“You’re giving me way too much credit,” Scootaloo said.
Thistleroot shrugged. “Did you notice nopony went ahead with the plan to get back into the SEA facility until you’d agreed?”
“So?”
“And you’re the one that wanted us to go try Libiris again, while the rest of us just wanted to get out as fast as possible.”
“So?” Scootaloo asked again, this time with a little more heat. She did not like where this conversation was going.
Thistleroot seemed to pick up on her tone. “Just something I noticed, but I guess we’re all going to be listening to what ‘Swirl says from now on.”
Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah. He knows what to do better than any of us, right?”
“Yeah, for sure. By the way, I told you so.”
Scootaloo sighed again. “Told me what?”
“That everypony would forget the whole terrorist thing once the next ancient evil came up to conquer Equestria.”
“Really, Thistleroot?” Scootaloo shook her head as he chuckled again. “I mean, you’re not wrong, but this isn't the time for jokes. This is serious.”
"That's what makes it the perfect time for jokes." She just gave him a flat stare. “Sorry,” he said, looking anything but.
They reached the tent. Spike, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom were already inside, in the middle of a conversation. Mimic was there too, sitting alone near the wall of the tent.
“Right,” Starswirl said when they entered, “that makes everypony. No time like the present, I suppose you've all got what you need?" Everypony nodded. "Let's go, then.” He made his way across the tent and outside. Scootaloo traded a confused look with Thistleroot and followed him. He was heading down the road in the direction they had come from.
“Aren’t we going to teleport?” Scootaloo asked.
“Yeah, but we need some room to work.”
Starswirl led them to the nearest edge of the gathered tents. Scootaloo could see some more permanent structures already taking shape, some built from wood and others from recycled stone of the ruined city.
“Alright, Scootaloo,” Starswirl said. “We need clouds.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re teleporting blind and I want to take some cover with us. I’m going to draw a ten foot circle on the ground. I need you to build a dome of clouds just inside it, thick enough to obscure us.”
“Alright, no problem,” Scootaloo said before taking to the air. Gathering the clouds was child’s play, literally. Rainbow Dash had taught her to do it as one of her first flying exercises when she was just a filly.
In almost no time she had enough clouds to build Starswirl’s dome. The unicorn, for his part, had drawn the promised circle in the dirt and filled it with various other lines that meant nothing to her. She put the dome up as per his instructions and then came to land beside Thistleroot.
Everypony in the circle stood still, careful not to ruin Starswirl’s runes. After another minute he finished his circle and turned to them. “Alright, I guess I should explain before we go, so none of you lose your heads.”
“But think of the drama,” Thistleroot whispered under his breath, just loud enough for Scootaloo to hear him.
“I don’t have any teleportation sigils close enough to Yakyakistan or the surrounding mountains to matter, so I’ve got no way of pinpointing this spell. To err on the side of caution, I’m teleporting us three thousand feet above the expected elevation of our point of arrival. That way we won’t end up inside a tree or mountain or whatever.”
That made sense, Scootaloo thought. Mimic nodded in understanding, but the rest of her friends looked uneasy. Oh, right. That news was probably a little worrying for ponies without wings.
“You won’t have to worry about falling,” Starswirl said. “Just don’t panic and start screaming. We don’t want to give ourselves away immediately. Once we’re there we’ll worry about finding this castle.”
Everypony in the circle nodded. Starswirl grew quiet, and his horn began to glow. The last time Starswirl had teleported them it had only taken him a minute to gather the power needed, but this time he stood for more than five minutes, mouthing soundless words, his eyes closed in concentration, as the light from his horn grew brighter.
Scootaloo didn’t dare distract him, and everypony seemed to be in agreement. She knew he was one of the greatest spellcasters in all of Equestria, maybe even more powerful than Twilight, but still, she couldn’t help but wonder. How painful would it be to teleport into a mountain? Would they know it had happened, or would it be over too fast?
She forced the question from her mind as Starswirl’s horn flashed brighter than before. The air around them popped with electricity and the ground beneath them vanished, leaving nothing but a dark void.
Even able to fly, Scootaloo’s heart skipped a beat at the sudden change. Her wings came up, but she realized she didn’t need them. Though the ground had vanished, her hooves were still on something solid.
Thistleroot let out a strained gasp beside her, dancing from hoof to hoof as though he’d fall if he stayed in one place. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Spike reacted similarly.
It was then that Scootaloo realized how cold it was. The clouds around them weren’t compressed enough to build any kind of real shelter, and so did nothing to block out the biting chill of the air around them.
She grit her teeth, biting back any complaint. Starswirl, horn still glowing faintly, said, “We’re here. I’m taking us down now.”
Scootaloo felt the movement, though there were no visible signs that they were descending. It reminded her of an elevator. A freezing elevator with a glass bottom over an endless void.
Not endless, as it turned out. After only a minute or two she could make out details of the ground below. It was faintly lit by the light of the moon reflecting off a thick blanket of snow.
Starswirl set them down, the invisible floor they’d been standing on pressing the snow flat so that when it vanished their hooves only sank an inch or so.
It wasn’t as cold near the ground as it had been three thousand feet up, but Scootaloo was starting to shiver when she felt something warm drape across the back of her neck. She felt it with a hoof and found one of Sweetie Belle’s scarves. She nodded once to the unicorn in thanks and then wrapped the scarf more tightly around her neck.
“Alright, well done on the no screaming part,” Starswirl said. “Now the hard part. The map you brought narrowed it down to a few square miles, and Spike helped me narrow it down even more from there. You all saw an image of this castle in Libiris. Thanks to that, we know it’s on the South side of a mountain, within a certain distance of the peak.”
“So I guess we just need Scootaloo and Mimic to fly to those places and check them out,” Thistleroot said.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Or, we could let Starswirl, the guy with all the magic, finish his explanation?”
*****
Scootaloo pushed higher into the air. Flakes of snow fell past as she circled around the next peak. Great, if it started snowing this would be even harder. Worse, even with Starswirl’s spell the cold was beginning to get to her. How long could she last up here before the magic gave out and she froze to death?
And how was this the best plan the great Starswirl could come up with?
She was so distracted by her various grievances that she almost missed the pinpricks of light in the distance. When they did catch her attention, she paused, and then flew closer. Points of light? No, they were rectangles, but curved on top. Windows!
As she flew closer she could begin to make out other shapes. Shapes too even to be the peak of the mountain. Towers, maybe?
The castle was huge. Bigger than it had seemed in the image in Libiris. It was at least six floors, not counting the three towers along the edge, and Scootaloo couldn’t tell how deep into the mountain it might go.
She could see dark points of movement buzzing around the tower windows, never staying outside for long. Changelings, probably.
“I’m coming, Dash,” Scootaloo promised before turning to return to Starswirl and her friends.
*****
It was warmer in the igloo Starswirl had created while she was gone. They even had a fire going.
“Surprise is our best weapon,” Starswirl said. “The longer we can keep our presence a secret, the better chance we have of making it out alive. Of course, that also means the sooner they raise an alarm, the more likely we all end up dead.”
“Do ya have a plan?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Several,” Starswirl said. “But none of them are perfect. I think they boil down to two different strategies. We can all go in a single group. Sneak past any changelings we find, look for the Element Bearers, and bug out if we come across Nocturne. That’s the safer plan, but I don’t much like its chances of success.”
Scootaloo shook her head. “We don’t know if they’ve kept my sister and her friends unharmed, but if we reveal that we know where they are, Rose is the kind of villain who would destroy them just so there’s no chance for us to win. We have to get this right on our first try.”
Starswirl nodded. “I agree, but my other idea isn’t as safe, so if anypony wants out, I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand. Mostly because you won’t have me close by to teleport us if things get out of hoof.”
Nopony said anything, but the tension in the room ratcheted up a few notches.
“Plan two is to go in two groups. The six of you enter through the bottom unseen while I go straight for Nocturne.”
“Do we have any plans that might work?” Thistleroot asked.
Starswirl harrumphed. “Like I said, none of them are perfect. Pretty sure I can make a decent bit of noise though. I’ll pull most of the attention to myself, giving you a bit of room to breathe.”
“You mean you’ll be a distraction,” Mimic said. “For the few seconds before your death.”
Starswirl laughed. “Maybe, but I’ve got a few tricks of my own. I wouldn’t dream of trying to take her down, but I’m pretty sure I can keep myself alive. Meanwhile you’ll have to deal with whatever changelings don’t come up to help their queen. You find the Element Bearers and you get out.”
Scootaloo nodded. “If it works we could even have Twilight teleport us out. I’m in.”
“If you’re goin’, so are we,” Apple Bloom said. Sweetie Belle nodded beside her.
“Yeah, me too,” Spike said.
Thistleroot grinned, caught Scootaloo’s eye, and nodded his head toward her other friends. She gave him a glare that clearly said, “Don’t start that again.”
“This is stupid,” Mimic said.
“Yup,” Thistleroot said. “You in?”
She sighed. “I guess I’ve come this far. Might as well.”
“Well, alright then. Let’s go,” Starswirl said.
*****
“Ponies have been beginning to rebuild. Others have moved on to nearby cities. Those cities have been building up their defenses,” Rosalia reported.
“Changelings have made their way across most of Equestria. Between the plentiful food in these lands and the sheer amount of love ponies feel for each other as a survival instinct, the need to protect their families, we’ve never been better fed. Windigos haven’t had as much luck, and the few groups I’ve sent out to contact the remaining specter bloods have had less. Those that came back alive, at any rate. We have the two that joined our cause before your release, along with five windigo squalls and a little under three fourths of the changeling hordes under our command.”
“And the remaining fourth?” Nocturne asked. She sat upon a stone throne in the ancient castle of Night’s End. The castle had fallen to disrepair in her absence, but the work on getting it up to Rosalia’s standards progressed each day. The throne room had of course been Rosalia’s first priority.
“Still resisting your rule.”
“E's kmyt,” Nocturne said.
“With all due respect, my lady, it’s nothing to be happy about. If your own creations don’t see you as a queen, why should anyone else? And speaking of being a queen...”
“Be at peace, Rosalia. That is simply how they are. As for our language, the royal we is a pony concept. We see no need to apply it to our native language.” Nocturne shook her head.
Rosalia considered the argument, but found no decent points against it. If anything, she might have to advise her lady to drop the royal we altogether. It had fallen out of favor with the ponies in the centuries since Rosalia had first urged Nocturne to begin using it.
“Rosalia, we have been meaning to ask you of something. Your sister’s death.”
Rosalia stiffened. “Yes, my lady?”
“It was by your own hoof that she was undone, yes? We have not received the full story yet. We have had so much to discuss.”
“Yes.”
“You’d turned her into stone, along with the rest of your enemies? All in a single strike. A well laid trap. Your cunning pleases us,” Nocturne said.
Rosalia allowed herself a moment to savor the praise before answering. “Thank you. It took time to set up, but you did teach me patience.”
Nocturne nodded. “You still have the other enemies that you turned to stone that day, do you not?” Rosalia nodded. “Why?”
“Because there may still be a use for them. One has a brother that is married to the last remaining pony princess. When we turn our eyes upon them, we can use her to force them out from behind their walls.”
“You do not fear the repercussions of keeping your enemies alive? You suggested that we kill the other two pony princesses, rather than imprison them.”
Rosalia frowned, unsure of where her queen was going with this conversation. “It was a matter of relative risks. I wasn’t aware that the prison built to hold you would work on them, and letting them go free would have meant releasing the two greatest threats to you. The ponies, on the other hoof, are incapable of doing anything. They aren’t a threat.”
“Then why did you kill your sister?” Nocturne asked. Her facial expressions hadn’t changed, but Rosalia felt a cold weight settle in her stomach. She had no answer. “We have heard the events of that day. You did well. Everything went as you had planned it. Why did you feel Lirian’s death was necessary.”
“She betrayed you,” Rosalia said.
“She did. And we very much would have liked to discuss that with her at length,” Nocturne said, and the displeasure in her voice was heavy enough to make Rosalia feel short of breath. She broke her gaze away from Nocturne’s own and looked at the bottom of the throne instead.
She heard Nocturne sigh. “We had hoped we were wrong, but no. You acted out of anger. You let your emotions drive you. You killed Lirian because you hated her, even after all these years.”
Rosalia couldn’t bring herself to deny it. She knew it was true, and she knew why Nocturne was disappointed in her. Hunters didn’t act out of fear or anger, nor did queens. Prey did.
Nocturne might have continued, had a scream of changeling cries and a sudden intangible pressure not announced the arrival of a powerful creature just down the hall.
Nocturne and Rosalia looked up at the doors of the throne room. Whatever had just appeared within their home was drawing closer, and making no attempt to hide itself.
“An attack from the Crystal Empire?” Rosalia asked, coming to her hooves. “Or else the ponies have requested assistance from another land.”
“A bold entrance,” Nocturne said without excitement. “Foolish. Or else... one does not live long enough to gain this kind of strength by acting reckless. A trap, or maybe...” She closed her eyes and her horn glowed with a faint aura of power. “A distraction. Five intruders. No, six, that changeling is travelling with them. They’ve just entered the lowest level of Night’s End.”
The calls of challenge and screams of fear of the changelings drew nearer. Whatever powerful creature had chosen to make a distraction of itself was right outside the doors. Rosalia had no doubt that her lady could prevail against it. “Shall I go take care of the other intruders?”
“Yes.” Nocturne considered for just a moment and added, “but you are not to kill them. Nor are you to cause them any lasting harm.”
Rosalia’s horn had already flared with the light of a teleportation spell, but it flickered out. “My lady?”
Nocturne rose from her throne and stepped out to the middle of the room. “Bravery is not something we have seen from these ponies yet. Bring them before us uninjured, and we will determine if they might be of use in teaching their kind how to survive. Consider it a lesson for yourself as well. Control your emotions and do as we command.”
The cries of the changelings fell silent. The protective spells laid over the throne room doors lit up in jagged green runes. A silver light began running over the runes, burning them away.
“Controlling my emotions is one thing, but what kind of hunter fights with the intention of letting her prey live?” Rosalia asked.
Nocturne smiled. “Yes, in that you are right. You are not a mere hunter, however. Not a simple changeling. We made you to be so much more.” She dropped the normal echo of power from her voice. “You are my daughter, and for that reason I expect much from you. Go. Do as I bid. Show me that you are still worthy of my trust.”
Rosalia nodded, and her horn once again flared with light.
*****
Rosalia disappeared in a flash of pink light. A moment later the last of the protective spells laid over the door burned away. Nocturne was ready for an explosive force to tear its way into the room, but instead the doors simply clicked and swung open.
The creature that entered the room was a pony. She hadn’t yet decided if she expected that or something more. There was no doubting that the immense magic she’d been feeling was coming from its small body.
He walked in. Sauntered might be a better word for it, given how relaxed he seemed. Equestrian was still a new language to her. She’d have to ask Rosalia.
As he passed the threshold, a wave of energy washed out from him, across the floor and up the wall behind him. There wasn’t so much as a spark from his horn as the doors closed and locked behind him and the energy he released coated the walls and ceiling, finally meeting on the far side of the room.
The spell clicked into place and took form. A dimensional lock. The pony was trying to keep her from teleporting away? If she hadn’t known he was acting as a distraction, the challenge to her power in her own lair would have been too much for her to ignore. As it was she only just managed to keep her more violent instincts in check. This one was smart. She had to be sure not to fall into any traps.
She forced herself to take the time to examine him as he came to a stop about twenty feet away from her. He was old. His coat was a dull grey and she could see the well worn lines in his face. It was more than that though, she could feel it. He carried his years like a weight. He wasn’t as old as she, but it was closer than she had thought possible for a pony.
“Evenin’,” he said.
She didn’t voice an answer. Instead, the shadows near her gathered into four pools and from those pools monsters were born.
She didn’t take the time to give them seperate forms. The four dark figures were identical, four legged predators, similar to wolves but larger. It wasn’t the shadow manipulation of the specters, these constructs were something more. There was a low level of awareness in their eyes. They weren’t particularly powerful, but they would be enough to test the pony.
Pleased with her work after so long without practice, Nocturne turned the creatures against him. It had taken her less than a second to create them, and he hadn’t so much as moved yet.
The wolves closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. The pony barely had enough time to utter a single word.
Oddly enough, the word he chose to utter was, “Nah.” Even more oddly, the constructed wolves simply dissolved into shadow as they reached him, the magic keeping them together unravelling.
Nocturne blinked.
“I’m a mite insulted,” the pony said. “We both know that wasn’t anything like your best shot.”
“You have no idea what you are dealing with, pony,” she said as she gathered power about herself. Her interest was piqued, to say the least.
“I know what I’m dealing with a lot better ‘an you think I do,” the pony said. He sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”
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Starswirled the Badassed 🤘
8882225
true. Although if it was a gentleman doing it, I'd bet they'd wrap themselves in a bow, so that the bears could experience the joys of a good gift wrapped meal.
Cap
_________
This is getting good! I really do need to re-read Harmonics and the start of this. If I remember clearly her ST was betrayal right? I don't think we've seen that this fic. Or it being brought up, although I will say that Scoot's old friends staying her friends with a ST like that is mighty awesome of her. I wonder if Mimic, and Thistle Root know of that yet?
That and I need to see what the Terrorist thing was refering too. Forget when that popped up.
He wings came up, but she realized she
1. Her.
8882401
The terrorist thing was leaked information that ended up in a newspaper with her face during the investigation following Star Shine's arrest. It prompted Celestia to invite her to the Grand Galloping Gala as a show of support. And Thistleroot doesn't know the specifics, but he does know the gist of what happened in Discordant.
Thanks for the many comments. It doesn't matter how many times I reread, errors always seem to slip through.
8882702
I know the feeling, I can sometimes read a fic six or even eight times. Before I stumble upon a error.
And thanks for the info ^_^. I look forward to getting back to that part of this story (right now on All Your Fault, in Discordant). Seriously a great series so far, and I'm glad that you got back to this fic. The Discord here is amazing, and the character interactions are splendid. Both with the antagonist and protagonists.
8882741
8882851
Agreed, Murphy's Law is a bitch, but I love it most of the time
8884178
Yep. Although the funny thing about Murphy's Law is that people actually mean Finagle's Law (Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.). While Murphy's Law states that if something can be done a right way and a wrong way, and the wrong way will lead to catastrophe. It will be done / used the wrong way.
And the Finagle's Law mutation, is a funny mutation of the advice (paraphrased) that makes the law violate itself. Since it's used the wrong way XD. Also giving it a nice twist of irony (an engineering law, used as advice to idiot proof design to save lives. Is used wrong, due to several mutations of the advice to a pessimistic maxim.)
Now to wait for the next chapter.
This ought to be interesting. I wonder how Rosalia will react to seeing Scootaloo again?