The Inventor and the Red Lady

by MadNimrod

Chapter 10: Reasons

Hello! Sorry it took so long! Welcome back to the Inventor fic! Last we saw our heroes, they were one their way back to the Shetlands, Celestia was back with Malice and Discord was, as Mooneyboys put it, going through a base Splinter Cell style. In this chapter, all three come back together and reveal what they know. Sorry if it's a bit jumpy. I hope you like it!

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He eyed the latest Abomination gleefully. Rather than be a mere mutation, this one had formed with a clear purpose. With its' scythes and focused gaze, this one was intelligent. At least, more intelligent than the others. The pale yellow Earth Pony placed a small boar into the same cage as the abomination, and cackled with glee as the boar was torn apart.

"How is your latest pet?" The True King asked as he entered the lab. He was a pony of great size, almost as tall as the Red Lady he claimed to serve. He always wore a billowing cloak, so nopony had ever seen what he truly looked like beyond his mouth, but everypony who served the future King of the Shetlands knew he was a unicorn. After all, he demonstrated his magic skill that first day, by turning some nameless farmer into a monster before the very eyes of his servants.

"Your Highness!" the scientist exclaimed, surprised by his sovereign's sudden arrival. "Well, as you can see, this one's no mere amalgamation of growths. Those two scythed limbs are straight and can be independently controlled. I feel we finally have our shock trooper."

"How long until we have a feasible army?" The tall unicorn asked.

"I don't know what you'd call an army," the greasy-maned scientist confessed, "but, with any luck, you could have more than a hundred like this by the end of the week."

"Impressive," the king smiled. "You have more than proved your usefulness, Chromos."

Chromos the Earth Pony bowed. "Thank you, my Lord. 'Tis a pity Malice did not support this sort of work. But, then again, if she did, you would not need to depose her."

"I thought I told you never to speak her name around me," the cloaked unicorn growled.

"My apologies, Milord. I will be more careful in the future." Accepting the apology, the True King left the room.

Neither pony noticed the large, green insect that watched the whole exchange from a ventilation shaft.

---

A week later…

---

The train pulled into Vermillion Station, and the Paladins were the first to get off. Redstamp and Ditzy stretched their wings as they touched the ground. Thom was back to his chipper self, complete with his recently-repaired helmet, and Watson had a pensive look on his face.

'I'm attracted to Malice,' Watson thought for the seventieth time that day. 'No, I'm in love with Malice. Of all the mares in the world, why did I fall for her? Sure, she's beautiful beyond compare, and her smile fills me with…' The small unicorn shook his head. 'Stop thinking that way, Watson. She's the Princess of War, and I'm a vertically-challenged unicorn with a glitchy horn. Not gonna happen. Think of somepony else.'

But he couldn't. Ever since he realized his attraction to the scarlet alicorn, Watson couldn't think of any other mare in the same way. He had trouble thinking about other mares period. Every time he tried, Malice's face would just appear.

"Hey," Thom asked Watson. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah," Watson replied, "I'm fine. Let's get back to the Palace." It was obvious that Thom didn't believe Watson, but was willing to let it go. The rest of the trip to the palace was uneventful, but once the Paladin's arrived…

"Whoa," Ditzy announced as she saw the multitude of Equestrian guards around the Palace. "What happened?" As if to answer her question, a couple of guards, one Equestrian, came trotting up and greeted them.

"The Princesses," the Equestrian knight addressed the Paladins, "have been awaiting your return."

"Princesses?" Redstamp asked. "Celestia's here? Who's running-"

"Princess Luna is running Equestria at the moment," the knight interrupted. "Celestia decided the matter at hand would need all the help we can give. Now please come." The Paladins followed the knight (who was large enough to carry the tome) to the library. As the small group trotted to the library, they turned a corner and nearly plowed into the large General Racer.

"You?" The General asked incredulously. "I thought you were…" His eyes fell on the large tome the Equestrian Knight carried on his back. "What is that?"

"An Evisican tome," the Shetland knight accompanying the Paladins spoke up. "The Paladins have just returned with it and are bringing it to the Princesses in the library."

"I will bring it to her," Racer commanded. "The Paladins are not required. Give the book to me."

"Sir," the Shetland knight responded, "the Red Lady told us to bring it to her directly." The giant Earth Pony glared at his subordinate.

"Are you disobeying a direct order?" Racer scolded.

"No, they were obeying a direct order from me."

Everypony (including Racer) jumped at the sound of Malice's voice. The scarlet alicorn was behind Racer, who quickly turned and bowed with the rest of them. The Red Lady gave a slight glare to Racer before levitating the tome from the Equestrian knight. She took the tome (which was almost normal-sized compared to her), flipped through a few pages, and gave an approving smile.

"Good job," she congratulated. "I'll get my scholars working on this right away. Please come with me. I'm sure you have quite the report to give." The Paladins and knights stepped past Racer to follow the Princess. Racer himself was about to follow before Malice turned and said, "Racer, I need you to debrief the scouts when they return." The General stopped and seemed to give a quick, indignant glare at the Paladins (or maybe Malice) before nodding his head and leaving.

"He seems peeved," Watson observed.

"Please forgive his manners," Malice apologized. "I think he is like this because he is angry that this tome escaped the Shetlands under his time as a General. Come," she smiled at the group, "let us meet with your Princess. I'm sure she will be pleased with your return." As the small herd trotted to the library, Watson couldn't help but look at Malice. She seemed to be prettier than the last time he saw her. He shook that thought away. Had to focu-

"Hey, guys!" Discord materialized out of nowhere. The whole group, excluding Malice, gave a jump and shout of surprise as the Draconequus fell from the ceiling with a bag slung over his shoulder. The scarlet alicorn put her hoof to her face and sighed with annoyance.

"Would you…"She saw the bag Discord had. "What is that?"

A sack," Discord answered innocently.

"I can see that. What's in it?"

"A surprise." The sack gave a moan and Discord elbowed it. "Ignore that. Where's Celestia?"

"The library, where we're going."

"Oh, that makes things easier." The Lord of Chaos pulled a milkshake out of thin air and started drinking the glass from around it as he followed the group to the library. Sitting at one of the reading tables (which was sagging from the weight of all the books and scrolls on it) was a tired looking Celestia. Her eyes had bags under them, and her normally flowing mane hung limp and dull. As she saw the Paladins enter, her eyes lit up.

"You're back," she greeted. "I trust you were successful?" In reply, Malice set the Evisican tome on the table, which finally broke from all the weight. "Oh my."

"I'll get somepony to repair it later," Malice stated. "Find anything since I left, Celestia?"

"Only a bit," the weary Princess replied. "What about you, Discord?"

"Oh," Discord said as he pulled the sack of his shoulder, "nothing too big." He set the sack down and pulled it down, revealing a scared, paralyzed unicorn. When he saw the shock on everypony's faces, Discord sniggered. "You guys can go first."

"Watson?" Celestia asked. "Could you report on your end?" He told the Princesses almost everything that happened. Thom gave a sigh of relief when Watson left omitted Thom's heritage and powers.

"…and that brings us up to date," Watson finished his report. After Watson finished, Malice nodded her approval.

"Good work." Malice gestured to Celestia as she said, "On our end, we have little concerning the Evisican spell in the books here. It is safe to assume that, since you were attacked, that the tome you carry is the one we need."

"I am still worried, though," Watson announced. "Since BronkenKeys was attacked, that could only mean-"

"That somepony who's high up in the Palace," Discord finished from his position on a chair made of frosted gingerbread, "perhaps many someponies, have a hoof in this." He got up and paced around his chair, carrying his unicorn prisoner by the head. He gestured to Watson with the unicorn (who was paralyzed in the pose of a cat statue found in Neighpon shrines) as he continued, "You were attacked by monsters when your very departure was kept secret from most of the Palace court. You," gesturing to Malice, "have recently had no less than four knights arrested for attempting to further this problem." Malice gasped in surprise at his revealing this, but Discord ignored her as he gestured to himself, "I, meanwhile, have been going around old forts, abandoned towns, the sorts of places the culprits would hide and, whaddya know, most of them were occupied."

"Occupied?" the scarlet Princess asked.

"Where do you think I got this guy?" the Draconequus asked while holding up his prisoner. "I went through four such places before finding this guy, though. The prior three just had more of those monsters. I'm guessing they keep moving so we don't figure out who they are. But this guy will tell us everything we need to know, won't you?" As Discord finished his last word, the paralysis over the unicorn lifted, and the prisoner looked at everypony before his eyes settled on Malice, and his expression turned to abject terror. "Time to talk, pony."

The unicorn, however, remained silent. It appeared that his fear of everything that had happened, and of what might happen, had overridden his speech abilities. The grey unicorn just stared at them all. Two Princesses, a Draconequus and four ponies he didn't recognize stood in grim silence for a few moments before Thom stepped forward.

"I'll handle this," the armorclad Earth pony said as he dragged the unicorn to separate room. The other made to follow, but Thom turned to them and said, "I got this. You guys can wait here."

"You are certain?" Malice asked. "I'm sure we can-"

"I think he's got this," Celestia defended her Paladin. "Thom is…skilled in getting information out of ponies without even touching them." This caught Watson by surprise. He knew Thom was a Psychic, but he could read minds, too? The small tan unicorn paled a bit.

'Does Thom know about…what's been on my mind lately?' Watson thought to himself. That would be embarrassing, no, catastrophic. He had to keep his feelings about Malice secret.

"Paladin," Malice asked, "are you well?" It took a moment for Watson to realize that Malice was talking to him. The Princess of War was looking down at the small unicorn with a plain expression. She was clearly trying to make conversation, nothing more.

"I am fine, Princess," Watson replied. "Just a bit tired from everything that happened. The monsters, staying on a train for several days…" he chuckled. "I'm fine."

"That is good," the scarlet Princess affirmed. Minutes passed in an awkward silence as they all waited for Thom to finish whatever he was doing. The two knights from earlier returned to their posts, Discord was hovering by the ceiling, using cotton candy clouds in a weird game of Cat's Cradle and Redstamp was with Ditzy, sitting in a corner whispering to each other. Celestia was still at the table. She made it like she was reading, but she would occasionally glance at Watson and Malice. She was clearly expecting them to do something.

"Umm…"Watson started, "M-may I ask a question, Malice?"

"Go right ahead," Malice eagerly replied. She didn't like the awkward silence either.

"Umm…" Watson started, "w-why did you spare me? Back on the Ridge all those years ago?" Malice looked at Watson with a bemused expression.

"You have already asked that, little Paladin," she replied. "I told you I would tell you when all this was over." Watson stopped, thought about it and sighed. He was about to say something else before Malice raised her hoof. "However, I did not expect this whole thing to be so big, so I will answer you."

The room went silent right there and then. No library or crypt was as quiet as this library was now. Celestia had stopped pretending to read her book, Redstamp and Ditzy had stopped whispering to each other, even Discord stopped blowing bubbles made of confused-looking sheep. All eyes and ears were on Malice and Watson. Malice either didn't notice or didn't care.

"The reason I spared your life…" Malice explained, "…the reason I let you live…is because you fought back." Everypony was caught by surprise.

"Pardon?" Watson asked. "You let me live…because I fought back? Surely, others you fought-"

"Not like you," Malice interjected. "Yes, others have fought me over my lifetime. Many others. However, none fought like you. I have fought dragons, Minotaur, and more ponies than most can count. You, Watson, were unique among them. For, as many ponies as I have fought, many more surrendered upon seeing me. They just gave up right there. You, Watson, you are small, and you were in no condition to fight anything on that ridge, and yet you did."

"I tried to retreat," Watson clarified. "I tried running away that whole fight."

"And yet," the blue-eyed Alicorn pointed out, "you still wounded me. A graze on my face, a slight bruise on my cheek and a destroyed pinion." She emphasized this last one by opening her wing, revealing the gap in her feathers. Apparently, Discord did not see this before, as plummeted to the ground out of surprise. Malice ignored the prone Draconequus and continued, "Yes, you tried running away, but you continued to try. Anypony else would have just given up after I pulled you back the way I did when you jumped off the Ridge, but you kept going." She lowered her head to be even with Watson's and continued, "I admired you for that. Even now, you have my respect for that day, Watson MacMaren."

Watson was stunned. She respected him. She admired him, because he kept fighting? He gave a slight nod, signaling to her that he understood, even though he truly didn't. Surely, there had to be more to it than that. Maybe she figured his magic could be useful later? Maybe she had a random spurt of mercy? Maybe she liked-

The tan unicorn shook his head at this. There was no way she felt like that. No way in The Chasm. He just had to push that out of his mind, and-

The door to the adjacent room burst open and Thom staggered out. The other unicorn was lying on the ground, twitching in an unconscious heap. From the way he moved, it was clear the "interrogation" took its toll on the Earth Pony Psychic. He staggered to the nearest chair and collapsed on it. Celestia moved closer to the Paladin with a concerned look.

"Thom?" she asked. "What did you learn?" The Paladin shook his head, breathing heavily. In one motion, he reached up and tore off his helmet, letting everyone see his markings had turned red. Malice gasped at the markings and Discord raised an eyebrow at them. With his markings glowing brighter than ever, he turned to Celestia with a look of unfettered fear.

"Forgive my language, Princess," Thom-with-an-H gasped, "but we are in some serious shit." Then he passed out.

---

Chromos muttered as he stomped on another cockroach. As nice as it was to be able to hide his experimentation here, the scientist was disgusted by the amount of insects that had sprung up lately. Just yesterday he saw a large green scarab scuttling around, but it got away. He would have to address some of the others about this. Fortunately, the annoyance of these pests did little to dampen his glee at the latest batch of Abominations.

Ever since the True king's last visit, Chromos had successfully created a few more strains of Abominations. As the new subjects "evolved," they sprouted functional wings, or horns capable of using rudimentary magic. The yellow Earth Pony laughed as the latest to "evolve" sprouted long bat wings and flapped them. These wings would function just fine. If only they could make Abominations like an alicorn. That would be - another insect crawled up the wall. This one was green with blue stripes. Chromos gave a groan of disgust as he squished it against the wall. He seriously needed to get these things cleared out. Where were they coming from?

As Chromos cleaned his hoof, he didn't notice a small red scorpion crawl through a crack in the wall and oh-so-slightly sting the newest Abomination.

---

Two days passed. Two days spent trying to translate the Evisican tome (which Malice agreed to return to BrokenKeys once the job was done), two days trying to get any information out of the unicorn prisoner (whom neither Malice nor Celestia recognized as one of her subjects) and failing, two days of the Princesses keeping Discord from gluing various furniture to the ceiling. When asked if he interrogated the prisoner before bringing him to the Palace, Discord only replied, "Didn't get much. Trust me, I am certain that your Psychic gleamed loads more than he told me."

Thom woke up on that second day. When he did, his markings were still glowing red, and he was in complete terror of what he had learned. It was another day before he calmed down enough to reveal what he learned. Malice brought everypony and Discord to her study, where she knew nopony else could hear them. The Earth Pony just sat in a chair in complete silence for a few minutes.

"It's an army," he finally said. "These things, these monsters…they're being created to act as an army.

"There's some unicorn, a big unicorn, known only as the True King by the dissidents, who taught the others about the Evisican magic. He's been 'converting' ponies from here, Equestria, and elsewhere for his cause. He's having these monsters made so he can take over the world."

"Thom," Watson interrupted, "Paladins deal with this sort of thing every month or so. I understand that the circles and monsters are freaky enough, but-"

"I can see where you're going," Thom interrupted back, "but this is different. This 'True King' is a beast by anypony's standards. He is completely ruthless, and very powerful. The unicorn I scanned helped make some monsters and it took him and four others to make one. The True King made three by himself the first time he brought his 'loyal subjects' together. I saw it."

"What does this 'True King' look like?" Malice asked.

"Never saw him completely," Thom said. "He's always wearing a big cloak so nopony can recognize him. But he is one of the biggest unicorns I have ever seen. He's almost as big as you, Celestia. And…I don't know how…but…he saw me."

"Impossible," Celestia denied. "You were just reading memories. There is no way this True King could see you through this unicorn's memories."

"He saw me," Thom re-stated. "At the end of my reading, it was a meeting between this unicorn, some allies, and the True King. It was going along fine, but the vision suddenly froze in place. Nopony moved…except for the True King. He turned to me, walked toward me and said, 'Hello, Thom. Like what you see?' I tried to break away, but he held me. He continued, saying 'Night will fall over Vermillion, and not even the Princess of War can stop me.' At that point, he showed me other images, images of his monsters attacking."

"Attacking?" Malice asked. "Attacking Vermillion?" Thom was silent a bit longer before he replied.

"Attacking everywhere. Vermillion, Canterlot…everywhere…these monsters are his army, along with anypony who joins him. This is how the world will end…in his conquest of the world…"

---

Things just kept getting worse. All of Chromos' Abominations were dying from unknown causes, the True King had lost faith in him, and the keep was overrun with insects. No, not just insects now. There were spiders, snakes, and even some crustaceans. Crustaceans! The ocean was more than a hundred leagues away! What were they doing here?

As the Yellow Earth Pony stomped on another bug that scuttled into his lab, one of his assistants ran in screaming, "The keep's on fire! We gotta get out of here!"

"What!?" Chromos roared. "What happened? Where are the guards?"

"We don't know how the fire started," the assistant replied, "and the guards are all dead! They all seemed to…" The assistant fell over with a large scorpion on his neck. The scorpion scuttled off his neck as a swarm of creatures came into the lab. Insects, arachnids, snakes, all sorts of pests entered the lab, making a beeline for the professor. Rather than try to fight the hundreds of creatures, Chromos turned to break out the window, but stopped when he saw two green scarabs floating in front of the window a few inches apart. As he saw these, a couple large snakes sped forward and wrapped themselves around the professor's legs, holding him on the spot. The rest of the swarm stopped a few feet away from Chromos.

The two scarabs flew around the professor's head before moving over the swarm. As they floated in place, the swarm slowly built itself up towards the scarabs. After a few moments, Chromos realized the swarm was taking shape…becoming….

"No…" Chromos gasped as a new creature stood before him. "No…what are you?"

"The First Prince," the creature answered. He spoke only these three words. They were the first words Chromos heard this creature speak.

They were also the last words he would ever hear.

---

E-GAD! What a twist, huh? With Discord being a good guy here, and neither Sombra nor Chrysalis appearing, who expected this fic to have a World-Conquest-Villain? Come on, be honest. Now, I can't say when the next chapter will be out, but I'll try to get it out before April. Hope you liked this chapter!

Comments

[kyubbiman]

Still reading and still loving it. I knew it though the minute Chromos mentioned bugs and two strange scarbs I knew that it was Pestilence but I have to admit the whole Prince thing threw me for a loop. I had expected them to be all princesses. Anyway I can't stop reading.