Celestia chipped a small piece of rock gingerly from the wall of the dungeon.
Instead of using magic, she lies on the icy, damp floor, slowly chiselling with her horn. Maybe it would be less painful if she dug with her hooves, but her horn was more sensitive to physical sensation, and she needed to sense the textures of the wall. Soon her fragile horn was rubbed raw and stained with blood.
But it doesn't matter how much it hurts, she thought to herself. She could feel the tactility of the wall very clearly now, in all of its dank glory. It was damp and musty, much like the ground, but also crude and rough like gravel.
‘It is limestone.’ She thought to herself, ‘At least, this part of the wall is made of limestone.’
The dungeon was a huge cavity excavated underground, built exclusively for the holding of unicorns, especially capital felony committed unicorns. Over the past several hours, Celestia has identified each of the component materials of her cell, all of which were sturdy rocks. Except for this one limestone wall. Limestone is a kind of breakable stone, which is easy to dig into with a tunnelling spell.
But the next minute she has realised the intention of this arrangement. These soft limestones are gains medium of the buried lazurite inside. She sighed wearily, the voice sounds heavy and gruff in the gloomy cell.
Lazurite.
Any unicorn that dared to go through the wall with a tunnelling spell would hit that ore causing a magical reaction that could shatter its horn entirely. The blue stone could even break their neck, though that was unlikely.
Nevertheless, the walls are just one small part of the obstacles in her escape plan. For magic defence, there was not only lazurite in this cell but also a terrifyingly unknown number of magic traps. For instance, it had taken her hours to find the concealed ward by the cell door. Even with her skill, she had barely noticed the soft, disturbing glow near the entrance to her cell, and the exact position still eluded her.
She rubbed her hoof against the iron door, leaving a smudge on the surface as a temporary mark. She had systematically every trap, ward, and stone she could find. The wall was hollow, leaving certain sections blank when she was afraid she missed one. Even if she could successfully evade the lazurite buried in the wall, which was highly unlikely, was it a flame ward or a sickness Ward hidden on the other side? Or could it be both? Moreover, the door itself was made from cast iron. Iron conducted magical energy, so any spell cast on the door would be redirected into the lazurite and likely result in her untimely demise. As her escape was motivated largely by her desire to not die, this obviously caused some problems.
Dear Lord God, what a tremendous mess I have got into. She thought.
There was about one day left until the public execution.
For a moment, Celestia considered giving up. After a sleepless night, and all the effort she put into examining this cell, she is on the verge of collapse. She felt herself sway, as she contemplated her own drowsiness.
I could just close my eyes for a second, she thought to herself, just a little bit of rest…
She ripped out a chunk of hair from her tail. Her eyes watered at the sudden stinging pain, but the weight briefly lifted from her eyelids and allowed her to function again. Celestia had gotten into an overwhelming amount of trouble for Luna. The unicorn needed a rare potion ingredient: a Uranolith Teardrop. Potions made from this ingredient would cure furuncle pestilence, a disease that could spread like wild-fire. The smallest drop of such a potion would save her sister's life. But to produce an Uranolith Teardrop, one needs extremely rare astrological conditions. A star had to fall across the night sky at an exact time and an exact angle, both of which could be implemented by star spells.
There were a number of problems standing in her way. For starters, making any alterations to the sky was extremely forbidden for civilians, with extreme penalties. Such examples included: modifying the horoscope, embellishing the starry sky, and the raising the sun and lowering the moon. Moreover, star spells were extremely difficult to cast, with the exception of merely the Seventeen Blazing Suns, none were powerful enough to accomplish such feat. There were a few others not a part of their group with the skill needed, but she had no way of contacting them, and no reason to expect help if she could. She should not have been caught. She had spent months planning for this day, but the day was not hers. An astrology duty official had found her far quicker than she had expected. She should have plenty of time to escape, but when the royal guards surrounded her, there was only a tiny gap remaining between her and the Uranolith Teardrop she longed for. Celestia had tried to force a path through the guards, but it seemed that her gift was confined to star magic rather than fighting.
Just then, the door slammed open.
Celestia quickly stood, trying to obscure most of the marks she made in the cell with her emaciated body. Two guards, conveying a unicorn in a scarlet robe, came in.
Is it time for the execution? Celestia was struck for a moment. She frowned. No, he's dressed far too noble to be escorting me to my death. In the political system of the unicorn tribe, violet represents the royalty, Orange stands for a royal archmage and so on and so forth. There were carrying shades within each rank to indicate position, but one had to have the practice to tell them apart. And the unicorn in scarlet could be nothing less than a Blazing Sun in the Star Council or a royal grand scholar.
“His excellency, the Prophet will question you, prisoner.” One of the guards said.
The young mare kept silent, kneeling as low as she could. She thought about standing up, but the stinging in her forehooves persuaded her to keep kneeling.
The unicorn who was called ‘the Prophet’ silently jerked his head towards the door, indicating that the guards would wait outside. The guards hesitated for a moment, but a glare sent them scurrying towards the cell door. Now Celestia was left alone with the mysterious prophet.
“Using star magic without permission is a capital felony, little filly. Let alone changing the horoscope with it.” The dark grey unicorn was actually pretty young, it's just the bushy silver whiskers clustering on his cheek always make other pony misjudging his age. His scarlet robes were decorated with patterns comprising the sun, the moon and stars, further proving his status as a Blazing Sun. Celestia's breath caught. He must be Starswirl the Bearded himself. What's he doing here? She wondered. Convicts on death row don't get their fair trials. Few even get trials at all. Normally, convicts would only be held here for a couple days and publically hanged directly on gallows outside the south gate of the city.
“Why? Why in the Equestria would you do that?” The Prophet mused aloud. Celestia wasn't sure if he was addressing her directly, so she stayed silent.
“You're not doing this for fun, are you? After all, that was quite the risk.” Star Swirl says, pacing in closer and pointing at the unicorn kneeling on the ground. “You've moved the Ursa Minor for six mil, which is remarkable because it's one of the toughest constellations to move. You modified both the Hexagram and the Ursa Minor in... how long did it take?” Star Swirl wore a subtle expression, staring at the mare with a look that was both commended and disgusted. Celestia swallowed nervously.
“Eighteen minutes, sir.”
“Eighteen minutes. Yes, I see.” The mage in scarlet nodded dryly, “You're wasting your gift.”
“I don't have much of a gift to waste.” Celestia replied, still bowing. Her voice is hoarse and feeble.
“Don't act all modest, it doesn't suit you. You are extraordinary. Deal with it.” He glanced around the cell. Celestia couldn't tell if he noticed her marks on the cell walls. If he did, he gave no sign. “You are a very talented unicorn. The astrology duty official told me that you could have escaped promptly before they had an opportunity to catch you. Instead, you continued casting on the Ursa Minor. Were you doing that for this?” Star Swirl lights his horn up while saying, pulling out a roll of papyrus with a picture of constellations. “This horoscope has only appeared seven times in history. At this moment, if there's a shooting star streaking across…” Star Swirl paused deliberately.
“It's the Uranolith Teardrop, your excellency.” Celestia said, more than a little fearfully.
“Which is even odder. You almost did it. The horoscope was perfect enough, while you're still contending with the Ursa Minor. There's no need to move the Ursa Minor if you're after a Uranolith Teardrop. Tell me, which star did you choose to drop?”
Celestia shifted uncomfortably. Starswirl was speaking to her as if they were equals, chatting over tea and scones.
“The Scarlet Bird Star.” She named one reluctantly and optionally. It had been one of the stars she was familiar with.
“God of Light!” Star Swirl is shocked at first, then gets a bit angry. “That's…the emblem of flame and power, whose name of the Scarlet Bird was nominated by the Four Ancient Oracles themselves! How dare you drop that star?! It's… It's really a mercy that you're just being hanged, you deserve to be dismembered of your flesh, bit by bit!”
Celestia flinched slightly. What's made him so mad? She hadn't actually managed to drop anything, and anyway she was going to be dead soon. What is going on? Why is he even here, unless-
...He's fishing for something.
Starswirl and the court needed her for something. Starswirl was angry because whatever it was that he needed was important enough that she wouldn't be dying anytime soon. At least, she wouldn't if she played her cards right. She needs the Uranolith Teardrop. She had to save Luna. There was no alternative. And the game is on. Celestia put on her most charming smile. “Why would you come alone, your excellency?”
“Why, that's a ridiculous question.” The Blazing Sun turned away impatiently. “I'm just feeling sorry for you, little filly.”
“Wouldn't it be easier if conveying your ‘compassion’ in an interrogation chamber, or just at the execution? Or perhaps you could just send a petty official to pass on your words,” Celestia curled her lips, “You're avoiding the pegasus and earth pony guards. And you're coming alone, which means you have something important to tell me. What in the Equestria could be so significant, that one of the Blazing Suns from the Royal Council comes conveying it himself and concealing everything from alien ponies?”
Alien ponies. After ponies from the three tribes defeated windigos and founded a united empire named Equestria, the harmony didn't last long. Hatred, racism and prejudice dominated the land of Equestria once again. It's just the fear of windigos turned the fragmentation of the empire into cold wars between tribes, every tribe is striving for more power in the empire for themselves.
Starswirl snorted. “Tell me, where does somepony like you learn such overconfidence? The way I see understand the matter, you are a prisoner and I am one of the most powerful citizens alive. Do you truly mean to bait me?” Celestia could tell the disdainful look on his bearded face without seeing it.
“If you get something to tell me,” she said carefully, “tell me now. It would be too late when I've escaped.”
“Escape?” The bearded mage drew out the word, “To cope with unicorns' magic, the walls were set with a massive amount of lazurite and surrounded by three layers of wards.”
Here we go. “There's actually only one.” She ventured.
Star Swirl raised his eyebrows a bit sceptically. Celestia frowned. What could I have missed? She mentally flipped through her memories about rock, She thought as hard as she could, well aware if she made one mistake it would mean the death of her sister Ground Ground! It's the ground!
“No, there's two,” The mare said as smoothly as she cold. She couldn't just state components of her cell; she needed Starswirl to believe, with everything he had, that her escape was an inevitability. “There's one inside the wall, just under that bulk of limestone. The veins of limestone stretch out all over the wall, with cast iron embedded in it like wires. If anypony casts a digging spell to any point of the walls, the spell will be conducted into lazurite. The retroaction would be weakened, but it's still more than enough to snap a unicorn's horn. You don't want to break a prisoner's neck before its execution, after all. The public would miss the show.”
Star Swirl keeps his silence, but Celestia wouldn't have stopped anyway.
“But that's not the case with the ground. Paving the floor with such a soft material would be suspicious, and it will soon get worn out. That would expose the cast iron beneath, so it would need another set of lazurite. But you would never embed lazurite in every side of the wall, that's far too extravagant,”
The white unicorn pauses for a second, giving him an opportunity to speak. He raised the obvious point, as she had hoped he would. “Do you truly expect me to believe you deduced all of this yourself? Somepony who is capable of star magic like what you used last night would find it well within their power to cast a diffraction spell.”
Celestia rolled her eyes. She did it with an exaggerated motion, making sure he saw it and privately hoping that he wouldn't have her executed for insolence. “Oh, why didn't the prison architects think of that. Oh wait, they did, because it's obvious.” Please don't kill me, please don't kill me. There's a ward overlying the door designed to jam the spell. However, nothing can alter the tactility and texture of the walls and floor. I can feel them with my horn, leading me to the right conclusion.”
Celestia notices his slightly opened mouth. I've got him listening now. Anyone who knew Celestia could have said that the mare could make anything sound like a good idea if she was only given enough time to talk. A feeling of triumph rushed through her mind.
“The lazurite and the limestone are nothing but distractions. A motivated individual could dig them out with their hooves, and that's the one thing you could safely say everypony who's stayed here has had.The true danger is the trap behind this magic retroaction network…… a flame ward, correct?”
It was a guess, but a likely one. It couldn't be a miasma ward, for the launching of a miasma ward depends on some something known as zymotic poisons. Those poisons had a half-life of no more than a dozen years, meaning that the prison staff would have to break the walls apart to replace of the poisons. A flame ward under the other hoof, only requires some non-flammable fire conductors, and limestone is one of them. “Have you ever heard of asbestos? I could turn some of the limestones into asbestos or something else fire-resistant with my magic, temporarily of course. Then if I trigger the ward, the lazurite in the walls will melt like tin. Then, all I have to do is use the tunnelling spell and I'm out of the cell.”
Celestia smiled, carefully hiding her terror behind a serene, enigmatic mask. This was all, of course, completely impossible. Firstly, the star magic and fighting had exhausted her magic supply, and it would be hours before she could cast anything properly again. Secondly, she had been a slave at a rock farm for a long time, and she knew that tunnelling through rocks like that with any kind of precision was far harder than it sounded. Third, she would only be able to hold the transformation spell for a few moments, and it would take several minutes to properly melt the lazurite down. Finally, after she had escaped from her cell, she would need to evade the guards, escape from the other security measures hidden within the prison, and then spend the rest of her life on the lam, which would impede her efforts to get the Uranolith Teardrop. None of this would matter if Luna died.
It was a bluff, but it was a good bluff. Starswirl was a young stallion, and already a very valued member of the Blazing Suns. Logically, to become so prestigious in such a short time, he would have needed to focus on mastering astronomy and other related magics exclusively. He might have heard such trivia in passing, but it was unlikely. Celestia was only familiar with it because of the time she'd spent slaving away on a rock farm.
Star Swirl glared at Celestia, not used to talking to somepony smarter than him. Celestia stared right back, showing no emotions. Her face shown with exactly one thing: determination.
Star Swirl took a deep breath, as if he was making a firm decision: “Yes, we do need, a little help from you.”
Oh thank God, I can't believe he bought that.
“You will get a large amount of gold in return.” He added.
Celestia moved forwards, standing eye to eye with the stallion. “Good. However much gold you were going promise me, I want twice as much, as well as the Uranolith Teardrop and safe passage out of this country.
“Deal.”
Celestia winked cheerfully. “Excellent. When do we start?”. He didn't even try to haggle.Forget the Uranolith Teardrop, they won't even pay me a single coin. No matter what they want her help with, once it's done, they'd break her neck and leave her corpse rotting in the street.
But that's the problem for the future Celestia.