Ursae Majoris: Eternal Knight

by Draconaes

Chapter 19

Chapter 19
******

Kuthrine watched Tyr and Trixie converse quietly by the fire. The rest of them sat near Tiamat, enjoying some of the food that Trixie had brought. They could hunt easily enough, especially with two dras, but it had been so long since Kuthrine had last had a legitimate cupcake. She felt a little bad about the theft, but she had learned long ago that the universe was an unfair, uncaring place, and was at least glad to be on the better side of injustice for once.

Kuthrine hadn't taken Tyr to be capable of consoling others, but he was managing to calm the unicorn down one way or another. "Do you think one of these unicorns can actually pull off a spell like that?"

Kelly looked up from his pie. "Like what?"

"A locator spell to find these books."

Kelly shrugged. "How should I know? We don't know what they are capable of. I mean, it could be some mythical ability attributed to their god-leaders, but we don't know how powerful they actually are. She said that she's a talented mage. She might actually be qualified to know whether or not such a spell is actually possible, so maybe we should trust her. But, still, I have no idea how such a spell would be created."

Kelly wiped his hands on his pants and started counting something on his fingers. "You'd have to mark or somehow identify the object to be located, and that alone sounds complicated to me. Might be doable though. Maybe there's a way to do it without modifying the item beforehand. You'd have to retrieve that information somehow. Classically to do that in any system you have to bounce something off it and catch it on the rebound, and extrapolate from that. Maybe there's some weird quantum thing you could exploit, but I would think you would have to know where to aim in the first place."

"So blind... with your distorting... focusing... lenses. Human brains apparently work... just like your eyes. How did you even stumble into magic?"

Kuthrine laughed. "The way we do most things: accidentally and with way more casualties than necessary. What, I suppose the Dras are so perfect? Last I checked, your government sounded pretty dystopian. What was it like being a slave?"

Tiamat smiled and dipped her head. Kuthrine had learned that this was more of an actual smile, and not an aggressive response. "I assume you mean to The Escape. I think you already know what it is like under The Empire."

"Touche."

"Oh boy. It's "let's badmouth the people protecting us" time again. I swear, you mages complain about everything."

"Shut up Anderson. This discussion is for second-class citizens only."

"Bah. What about you Kelly? You buy into the whole "The Empire is evil and enslaving us mages!" bullshit?"

Kelly rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, well, slavery isn't really an accurate term for the situation... oh!" Kelly pointed toward the campfire. "Looks like Tyr is done with the unicorn!"

Tyr walked up to the group and face Tiamat. "Epona, load the books into the cart and find the name you dropped. It should be in the camp."

"It is obvious enough. Humor is the only explanation you require. I couldn't accomplish it alone, as you know."

"I'm glad you realize this."

Tiamat struggled to her feet and started gathering the loose books. Kelly glanced at the others. "Well that was cryptic..." Tyr turned his attention on him.

"From your reports, you've all learned enough of Equestria for our purposes, taking into account our possession of Trixie. You have all served your purpose well."

They all looked at each other, worried. Kuthrine decided to speak first. "So, I imagine that we will be disposed of now that we are nothing but a drain on resources?"

"Don't give 'em ideas!"

"No. You are a resource yourselves, and keeping you alive isn't a difficult task. It wouldn't be prudent to remove you when you may yet serve some purpose."

"Like what? Bait?"

Tiamat stopped working to lean against the cart. "You could distract Nyx when the Myopic arrives!"

Tyr looked at her, incredulous. "What?!"

Tiamat just shrugged. "She might find out."

Kelly interrupted before they could start fighting. As interesting as actually seeing one of their conflicts might be, he had more pressing questions. "We don't even know what you're planning to do yet."

Tyr looked over at Trixie, who was busy straightening out her outfit. Tyr lowered his voice. "What do you know about eternals?"

******

"So, after chasing it off, I harnessed myself to the cart and brought it back here." Trixie placed the last book on the shelf.

"So it's still alive?" Twilight looked anxious.

"Maybe. I didn't leave it in very good condition, and the Everfree Forest is a dangerous place. Why?"

"Well, while Luna was here, she said that she sensed several strange creatures. She assumed the one you fought earlier was one of the them. And now you found a second one, which is still alive. There could be more of these things! Princess Luna seemed pretty worried about them!"

Trixie thought quickly. 'Alright, so Luna wanted to know more about these things. I guess I made the right call earlier. She knows there's more Star Dragons. Or aliens, or whatever. I already have the books I need hidden nearby, so I can leave immediately. I just need some story to tell Twilight...'

Trixie's eyes lit up. "Oh, Princess Luna is trouble by these creatures? As a loyal servant of the night, I, Neophyte Trixie, shall dispatch these foes!"

"Okay, first, if you actually take this night clan stuff so seriously, why are you still a neophyte at your age?"

"Shut up!"

"I guess that translates as "I just wanted to be more dramatic!". And secondly, are you crazy?! This is a dangerous situation! You can't just run off and-"

"Trixie easily dispatched one before, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember the serious head injury that still hasn't healed. Are you sure you didn't suffer any brain damage?"

"Shut up! Stop doubting my abilities! I am The Great and Powerful Trixie! It's me!" Tears were welling up in her eyes. "I can be a hero! I don't always have to be a fraud! And this isn't Trixie being an idiot and taking on something greater than she can handle! I can do this, and not you, or any other snobby unicorn, or the Princesses, or even Discord himself will keep me from proving myself!"

She stomped her front hooves and filled the library with smoke. After quickly exiting the library, she ran down a nearby alley, where she had hidden some books that she figured she might need. One was The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. The rest were a various spellbooks and Twilight's accompanying notes. She didn't know if she could pull off half of them, but she could try, and they could prove useful.

She didn't think Twilight could use a spell to track these, since that spell was in one of these books. Still, just to be safe, she searched for any magical "tags" on the books, and was pleased to see that there weren't any. Twilight must have assumed she wouldn't lose these. After securing them in a pair of saddlebags that she had also stolen from Twilight, she made her way back to Tyr's camp.

A couple hours and one dawn later, she found the camp empty, save for Epon- no, Tiamat and the human called Kelly, talking to each other. She remembered Tyr mentioning that Kelly wanted to talk to her, and headed over.

"-kinda like vampires then? Alien, parasitic, vampire lizard-bats?"

"I don't imagine that that's a very flattering comparison, Kelly."

"Yeah, okay, but I don't know how else to shorten "beings that retrieve magical energy and genetic information in the form of parasitic eggs via biting in order to reproduce." What's with the parasite thing anyway?"

"Thanatos is our expert on biology. He could explain it better. But it is a defense mechanism. If a starborn was at risk of being eaten, they could trigger the release of... Kahssk, is the closest phonetically that humans are capable of... they would then grow to eggs inside the creature that ate the starborn. It doesn't take a lot to disrupt vital life processes. This was also a risk for female starborn that are collecting eggs. There can be complications for the same reason, if they are not fully prepared. Modern-"

Trixie had no idea what they were talking about. They still hadn't noticed her approach, so she cleared her throat. Kelly jumped, while Tiamat turned calmly to face her. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we are no longer in danger of being discovered, thanks to me! Tyr said something about you wanting to talk to me... Kelly, yes?"

Kelly looked down and rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, alright. I've got some advice for you." He looked over at Tiamat. "Do you mind if I speak to her alone?"

Tiamat grinned. "Yes, I do. I will remain to offer insight into whatever biases you might display. Talk freely, though. I will refrain from informing Tyr of anything you say, and I won't attempt to silence you myself."

"How reassuring."

"You are the one that called me "friend". The word has more meaning to you than me. Should you not be reassured?"

"Ugh..." Kelly buried his face in his hands. He could tell this conversation was going to give him a headache.