The Trials of Shmarity: an Ogres and Oubliettes Story

by TheMessenger

33. The Lost Apprentice

33. The Lost Apprentice

As she sat down in the offered plush chair, Rarity took the opportunity to look around the office that she had been taken to, and it was as if she had been brought to a smaller, more personalized library. Carved into the walls were shelves loaded with numerous books and scrolls along with a collection of odd trinkets including various colored beads, an ornate dagger, a twisted and blackened branch, and several diamonds and gems, all of which were safely behind a protective sheet of glass. Additional tomes as well as a couple of quills, some inkwells, and a tall stack of papers held down by a decorative ivory pony statuette sat upon the desk in front of her, and behind the desk and its accompanying throne there was a large window that provided a grand view of the town below. A wooden perch was in the corner of the room, right where the windowsill ended, and upon it roosted a snowy white owl that seemed to follow Rarity’s every movement. There were a few other pieces of furniture here, a couple of coffee tables, a dresser and a wardrobe, some chairs from the same set as the one Rarity was currently settled in, almost all of which had been shoved against the walls to make space for the massive soot ring that was on the very center of the room’s carpeted floor.

“Sorry about the mess,” Dean Elkraps said. The unicorn smiled bashfully as she lowered her head and pointed her glowing horn at black circle. She muttered something under her breath, and gradually, the ash began to vanished, disappearing section by section until the carpet was back in a completely pristine condition. As Elkraps walked over to her seat and straightened the entire contents of her desk with but a nod, Rarity couldn’t help but feel an envious pang.

“I wasn’t expecting to meet foreign royalty on my first day as a dean. Especially not from anywhere as far as Spiketopia. I think the last time we had dignitaries of your standing from the northern lands was nearly a century and a half ago. She started to take a seat. “Oh! Uh, would you like some tea or anything? I’m pretty sure I’ve got a kettle around here somewhere.” Elkraps’s horn lit up again, and suddenly the room’s airspace was filled with floating random objects. “Any preferences? Black? Green? Milk or sugar?”

Rarity ducked down as a tin box and a tea set soared over her head. “Anything is fine, thank you.”

“Oh. Good, good.” Elkraps tittered nervously as she shook the empty box. “Because I’m out of leaves, so plain hot water it is. Ooh boy.” Letting out a stressed breath, the unicorn filled a small pot with water from a blue decanter and set the pot on the desk where it burst into flames. “Normally one of our diviner would have pick this sort of thing up, and we’d have had plenty of time to prepare, but it seems like they’ve missed you.” She poured the steaming water into two china teacups and placed one right in front of Rarity.

“Thank you.”

“Of course,” Elkraps said as she gently blew down on her own cup. “So, what brings the princess of Spiketopia to the schools of magic unannounced? I don’t usually pay much attention to outsider ongoings, I probably wouldn’t even have recognized your name in the first place if I hadn’t heard it so many times already, but my apprentice is currently wasting his talents adventuring up in the north, and he’s told me many stories about his time in your country.” She tried to take a sip and winced as the still scalding beverage brushed against her lips. “Ahem, er, something about a magic squid taking over the land and him having to join forces with a former blackguard and a captain of some unspecified organization to rescue the, hm, princess.”

Elkraps’s eyes lingered on Rarity with a pensive look in them as she hesitated, but the unease Rarity thought she saw on her host’s face quickly disappeared when the unicorn shrugged and returned to her drink. “Maybe you’ve heard of him. The way Garbunkle talks about his time in Spiketopia makes it sound like he’s some sort of huge hero up there, but he’s always been pretty full of hot air. Most dragons are, in my experience, but him being so young doesn’t exactly help with that.”

“Garbunkle.” The moment the name left Rarity’s tongue, her mind was flooded with images of Spike in those wizard robes and hat with a crooked staff held in his claw and a beard covering his adorably chubby cheeks. The last image that flashed by was of him being dropped onto the hard stone castle floor, his body unresponsive to her cries as the crackles of the tentacled villain rang out.

“I see.”

The quiet statement that was followed by a sharp intake of air returned Rarity to the present. Her discomfort must have shown as Elkraps, with a grim expression creeping over her features, set down her teacup and tapped her hooves together. “I wasn’t sure what to think when he didn’t respond to my sendings. I just figured, maybe, the spell just didn’t go through, that there was just some arcane interference in the way.” She started to slump back in her seat, but seeing Rarity before her, the unicorn forced herself to sit back up. “Do you, could you, could you tell me what happened? Please?”

Rarity bit her lip. “I’m afraid I don’t quite know how it exactly happened. I was, a captive of the Squid Wizard, and one day, I was brought out of the tower...” She continued on to describe how she was taken into the castle keep, how the Squid Wizard made his boasts and dropped the bodies of Spike and Discord before her from a light in the ceiling. She tried to keep her voice steady, tried to keep it from shaking, but the pain that Elkraps couldn’t completely keep from showing on her face made the memory so much more difficult to relive. It wasn’t Twilight Sparkle in the seat right across from her, but seeing a face so similar to hers, bearded or not, twisting with the distress that came with losing a loved one hurt Rarity all the same.

When Rarity finishes her retelling up until her sudden inexplicable escape, her sole audience member was visibly drained. She downed the contents of her teacup in a single swig and let the cup fall with a loud clatter against its saucer. “Well then,” she began slowly, “I suppose, at least he, succeeded in saving you, in the end. Excuse me for a moment.”

Elkraps turned her chair around, and by the reflection in the window, Rarity could see the unicorn covering her face with her hooves. A heavy sigh filled the room and lingered in the air for several long seconds before Elkraps went quiet. She eventually turned back around to face Rarity with her lips curved into a forced little smile. It was a look Rarity recognized, the same kind of artificial smile she and all professionals knew to put on when dealing with that one particularly difficult customer, a mask of politeness to hide the all those true negative feelings.

“Sorry about that.” Elkraps cleared her throat before continuing. “Ahem. Well, thank you for letting me know of Garbunkle’s fate, but I doubt you would come all this way yourself justo be the bearer of bad news. I mean, being the princess and all, you must be very busy right now getting Spiketopia back up and running now that this Squid Wizard’s been taken care of.”

“Ah. Yes, well, we’re not quite in that sort of position at the moment,” Rarity awkwardly explained. “The Squid Wizard hasn’t exactly been taken care of yet, as you so put it.”

“Oh.” The fake smile faded into a grimace. “I see. I just thought, I mean, you’re here and, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed.”

“No no, that’s quite alright, and, ah, it‘s actually the reason why I am here.”

“Oh?” Elkraps mouth opened slightly for a short moment before her lips pressed together into a deep frown. “I see. Well, if this is about using the schools to take back your country, I’m sorry to say that there isn’t a whole lot I can do to help you. The schools have a pretty strict policy against meddling with the affairs of outsiders. The schools as an entity, I mean,” she clarified. “We can’t help you in any official capacity, but you’re welcome to try recruiting individuals to your cause as long as we don’t get any complaints about it. Every creature here is free to do as they wish, and heaven knows we’ve got plenty of youngsters that’d love to give the adventuring life a try, especially from my school. I guess there’s not really a whole lot of practical uses for throwing out fireballs and bolts of lightning beside the, well, most obvious.”

Elkraps smiled. It was a subdued little smile, but at least the bit of embarrassment behind it was genuine. “Um, anyways, as I was saying, if you want to form an army of mages to help you reclaim Spiketopia, you can go right ahead. Just know that as a dean, I‘m not allowed to help you with that.”

Rarity entertained the idea of leading a charging mob of robed and bearded creatures as bright beams of colorful light were being shot over the horizon for a couple of seconds before shaking the fantasy out of her head. “That’s an, interesting plan, but it’s not why I’m here. I actually came here to learn about necromancy.”

“Oh?” Elkraps blinked in surprise. “Huh. I didn’t think that term was all that well known outside of the schools and a number of select cults, but it would explain why you had Master Ordan’s personal recordings of his own first accomplishments. It’s a pretty dry read, not exactly the most entertaining autobiography out there, but it’s an interesting perspective. Of course, that still leaves me with one huge question.” The unicorn leaned forward, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Why would a princess whose far and distant land is currently in dispute be looking into the art of necromancy of all things?”

The sudden display of suspicion by Elkraps was a small shock to Rarity, and she remembered what she had read about necromancy being the sort of subject that most seemed to avoided. She took some time to consider how she would go about satisfying Elkraps’s inquiry before deciding that it would probably be best to stick to the truth.

“I was told that if I want to save Spi—, er, Garbunkle, along with the rest of my friends, I needed to come, well, not to the schools of magic exactly, but to the south, and that I would need to find information on necromancy, thought at the time I had no idea what that was, and to be completely honest I’m not sure if I really understand it now.”

Elkraps stared at her for a moment longer before she placed her hooves onto the desk and pushed herself back into her chair. “Hm, interesting,” she said with a curious frown on her face. “Well, whoever told you that must have a twisted sense of salvation, because I really wouldn’t call turning Garbunkle into a soulless rotting husk driven by hunger and hated toward the living ‘saving.’”

Just hearing the suggestion made Rarity queasy, and she had to cough to hide her gag. “I assure you ma’am, that was never my intention. I didn’t mean, I thought, I had no idea.”

“Oh no, I believe you,” Elkraps said, nodding as she frowned and stroked a hoof through her beard. “You don’t seem like that kind of pony, but can you tell more about the one who put this insane idea in your head in the first place?”

Again, Rarity hesitated. The involvement of her mysterious benefactor had been a secret solely between her and the powerful being since the very beginning. Every one of her recaps of the events that started this whole messy adventure had omitted her oneiric encounter with the Queen of Fey. She had kept it from Elder Woods and Huntress, from the leadership of Horshire, from Sir Gustford, from every other creature largely out of the uneasy uncertainty over how they would react if they were to learn that her entire plan was based upon something that came to her in a dream.

The uncertainty was still there, but it didn’t seem like she could get any further by staying quiet. Rarity took a deep breath and a chance and started to tell Elkraps about the Queen of Fey and her message. The few requests Rarity received for more descriptions on certain details as she tried to recall that distant vision were encouraging, it meant that the unicorn was listening and hadn’t just completely disregarded Rarity and her experience as crazy nonsense, but Elkraps’s face was locked in a contemplative sternness that made it impossible to determine how or what she was feeling.

The several seconds after Rarity had finished speaking were quiet as Elkraps continued to appear to be deeply lost in thought, her gaze focused on something beyond the mare sitting right across her. The silent seconds added up to a minute and would haves continued to stretch on had Rarity not cleared her throat and gotten the unicorn’s attention.

“Sorry about that,” Elkraps said as she shook herself and straighten her posture. “I was, it’s a lot to take in, and I’m just trying to make sense of it all.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt, but, ah, did that make any sense to you or have you heard or read anything about this Queen of Fey?” Rarity asked. “During my journey, I’ve only managed to find fairytales whenever I tried looking into it.

“That’s not too surprising. The fair folk are a very secretive sort, they make the schools of magic seem like an open public forum by comparison.” Elkraps frowned. “We do deal with Fey at the schools, summoning otherworldly creatures to act as familiars is actually one of the earlier lessons in magic that we teach here.” At this, she looked to the owl in the corner. “But it’s very rare even for the headmasters to be contacted by a member of a Fey court, and even then I think the highest rank we’ve ever received was a lesser prince.” She paused to let out a small, tuneless hum before getting up and walking over to the shelves of books. “This queen of yours,” she said as she slid away the glass and started to search along the book spines, “did they say which court they were from or what their full title was? I think I have notes on famous archfeys here somewhere. Ugh, why didn’t I have unseen servant prepared today?”

“They didn’t. The queen, I mean,” Rarity explained. “They just called themselves the Queen of Fey with no mention of any court or anything else.”

“Hm. The Queen of Fey. The Queen of Fey. No, I’m pretty I’d have remembered a title that brazened if I had ever seen it before.” Elkraps returned to her seat. “I don’t think it would’ve been a lesser Fey creature playing a trick on you, impersonating royalty would be an easy way to draw an actual king or queen’s displeasure. An illusion spell maybe, I recall there being one that lets you manipulate dreams, though why would someone, wait.” Her eyes widened. “Wait, you said, you said that they left their symbol with you, right? As in something physical that you could actually touch?”

Rarity nodded.

“And you have it on you right now?”

She nodded again.

“May I?”

Rarity reached into her cloak and pulled out the silver snowflake the Queen of Fey had given her. She removed its chain from her neck and, after a brief hesitation, carefully placed the pendant in Elkraps’s hoof. The unicorn brought it toward her for a closer look when suddenly her owl started to screech and hiss.

“Archimedes? What in the world are you—“

The bird continued to scream, its curved beak open and wings fully extended as Elkraps tried to approach. The owl launched itself past Elkrap’s shoulder and into the window. The glass shook as the owl flew into it with a wince-inducing thud that sent out a cloud of feathers into the air.

“Well that was, um, odd.” Elkraps walked over to the window, and after inspecting it, she wiped away the smudge that had been left on the glass. “Sorry you had to see that.”

“Oh my goodness!” Rarity exclaimed. She looked along the floor, but the bird’s body could not be found. “Is your owl going to be alright?”

“Hm? Oh yes, don’t worry about Archimedes. He just needs some time to calm down from, whatever that was.” Elkraps picked up one of the fallen feathers and put it on her desk. She then walked back over to the shelves in the walls and returned with a sizable pink pearl that fit comfortable in the base of her hoof. As she arranged the pearl and the feather in front of Rarity’s silver pendant, one of the books on the desk hopped over to her and flipped open. Elkraps looked down at the book, and when she had finished muttering a few indecipherable sounds, the pearl started to glow.

“This could take a while,” she said with a quick glance at Rarity.

“Should I come back later then?”

“Huh? Oh, no. You’re not going to have time to go anywhere or really do anything. I just wanted to let you know that this ritual will take a bit of time. Just give me a few minutes, and we can get back to business.”

And so Rarity sat and waited for what felt far longer than just a few minutes. Not wanting to distracting the mage or interrupt her ongoing ritual, Rarity tried to keep still and quiet. Her eyes wandering through the room again in an attempt to stave off boredom, and she saw that the owl had returned to its perch, its steely gaze fixed on the Queen of Fey’s symbol. The pearl eventually stopped glowing, and Elkraps took the feather off the pendant and exhaled deeply.

“Wow, that’s a, wow.” She slowly picked the symbol up by its chain and gave it back to Rarity. “There’s some powerful magic in there, stuff I’ve only read about,” she said. “It definitely feels Fey in nature, and the magic it would have required to make this would have had to come from an extremely powerful archfey.”

Rarity put the pendant back around her neck. “So then, um, I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I understand how knowing this helps me at all.”

“Right, right. I should explain,” said the unicorn as she stood up and started to pace, reminding Rarity further of Twilight. “So as knowledgeable as we from the schools might appear be, our understanding of magic pales to what some of the otherworldly creatures know. I mean, there are Celestials and Fiends and, yes, Fey out there that have been around since the dawn of magic itself, and Fey have a particularly strong connection to the Weave from which most usable magic is drawn from. If the being that told you that necromancy would help you save Garbunkle was powerful enough to just give you that,” she said, gesturing to the silver symbol that was dangling over Rarity’s front, “well, I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew more about necromancy magic than I would if I were to suddenly switch schools and spend the rest of my life studying the subject. Those scrolls of Valmeyjar that were mentioned, for instance. That’s a name I’ve never heard of.”

“Then, do you think the Queen of Fey was telling the truth?” Rarity asked.

Elkraps snorted. “The Fey have a funny relationship with the truth. They can say one thing while mean something different entirely without considering it lying. A lot of them are tricksters, and I can’t say for certain that this isn’t just some twisted, elaborate fairy prank. On the other hoof, giving you such a powerful item seems over the top for a practical joke even by Fey standards. There aren’t any curses attached to it, and I see there’s only one charge left, so you’ve must have already used it a couple of times without experiencing any major ramifications.”

“Well, the first time I used it landed me in a puddle of mud, so I wouldn’t say there weren’t any negative consequences,” Rarity said with a slight grumble. “So then, where does knowing all this leave us?”

Elkraps stopped her pacing. She tapped her chin in a thoughtful manner for a few moments before answering. “It means that the advice this so called Queen of Fey gave you is at least worth looking into. I’ll talk to someone from the school of necromancy and see if I can get you to meet with a specialist. In my new position, it shouldn’t be too difficult to do, but it will still take some time to get everything arranged. How long are you planning on staying at the schools?”

“As long as I need to, though I only have enough funds for maybe a couple of weeks of lodging.”

“It won’t take that long, you’ll be fine. And, uh, oh!” Elkraps went to the shelves, and from them she removed a small wooden box which she brought back to her desk and to Rarity. The lid of the box was lifted away to reveal a pair of matching red stones with faces painted on them. “Here,” Elkraps said, putting one of the stones into Rarity’s hoof. “I’ll be able to contact you through this. Please, please don’t lose it,” she pleaded. “This is my last set of sending stones since Garbunkle broke the one I gave him, and I haven’t had the chance to get replacements. Oh, and it is two way, but I’d appreciate it if you refrained from contacting me if it’s not an emergency since it only works once a day. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated regularly.”

Rarity carefully put the stone into her saddlebags. “Thank you, Dean Thigliwt, for everything.”

“The pleasure was mine, Princess Shmarity.” Elkraps extended a hoof, and Rarity shook it. “I really do hope this works out. Garbunkle was a good apprentice and a wonderful friend. When he told me that he wanted to take a break from his studies to be an adventurer, I thought, I thought I was prepared for the worst. I know how dangerous the life of an adventurer can be, but actually hearing it was, difficult.” She sighed, and with a gesture to the door, she led the way back to the front entrance of the main campus building. “Until we meet again, which hopefully will be sooner rather than later.”

And after they had shared one final wave, the two mares went their separate ways, with Elkraps Thigliwt heading deeper into the building and possibly back to her office while Rarity, having no further business here, walked past the ringed help desk at the front and left by the same pair of doors she had entered through.

Stepping outside, Rarity found the city in a far busier state than it had been earlier this morning. The crowd outside had grown as had the traffic moving in and out of the domed building. Many of the nearby stores had their doors propped open with welcome signs and displays of what was for sale. The gonging of multiple clocktowers scatter all about town suddenly rang out and drew Rarity’s attention to the closest one to her. Ten o’clock read the hands of the giant timepiece, just two hours before noon.

Rarity found herself a bench and sat down. The moment she started to relax, she released a sigh that was an equal mix of relief and exhaustion. Rarity hadn’t been sure how long her search would take her, but she definitely did not think it was going to be wrapped up before lunchtime. Granted, she didn’t exactly have all her answers through her fortuitous meeting with Elkraps, but more had probably been accomplished in those few short hours than Rarity could have gotten done alone in an entire day. And then there was the emotional roller coaster she had just gotten off of. Rarity wasn’t sure how to feel right now, debilitating sorrow over the untimely and unimaginable demise of her friends, desperate hope and relief for the possibility that Spike and Discord could still somehow be save, or utter amazement that said possibility, if Rarity was correctly interpreting the implications, involved the mad task of bringing the dead back to life?

A major headache was starting to form. Rarity loudly sighed again, letting out some of the stress that was bubbling up inside her as her mind struggled and failed to make sense of it all. Oh how she wished she had her friends with her. She wasn’t sure if any of them would have understood this any better than she had, but at least the confusion would have been shared amongst good company.

With one last sigh, Rarity left the bench and started making her way back to the Hag’s Haven. She would have to figure out what to do for the rest of the day and beyond now that Elkraps was taking care of matters, but that would have to wait. Right now all Rarity felt capable of doing was returning to her room and finishing her breakdown in private.