//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Tales of a Wizard: Flesh Masks // by Applechip //------------------------------// “We need to warn someone. The royal guard maybe? No, higher up than that. Celestia and Luna? Yes, yes that’d work. If we can get them on board then maybe we can break through whatever magic is blanketing Equestria from the other side of the veil. Then maybe we can go home,” I ranted while I paced around the inside of Twilight’s library. “No Harry, the Red Court is here because of us. These people, uh... ponies, have no knowledge on how to defend themselves from those monsters. The Red Court has only just gotten here, so they probably aren’t set up and entrenched in this land like they are in our world. If we simply leave, then we’re taking away the only precious knowledge these ponies might have to use against the vampires.” Michael stomped a hoof into the floor. “I will not simply abandon them, not when I can still help clean up this mess,” Michael said with a hardened look on his face. The reasons I like Michael have nothing to do with swords and smiting. At the end of the day, he’s good people. I mentally berated myself for overlooking that fact. “You’re right, sorry Michael. But we still need to contact the princesses either way.” “What are you two talking about? What is the Red Court? What vampires? What was that weird blackness? What’s going on?” Twilight asked beginning to panic. “Twilight, please calm down. We’re in no immediate danger. I doubt they know our exact location,” Michael said in a fatherly tone that did wonders in calming down the spooked mare. “Now, is there some way we can contact Celestia and Luna?” I decided that it’d be in bad taste to point out that if they knew where we were, we’d most likely be dead right now. With our throats slit open like… I shook my head to try and dispel that mental image. No, don’t think about that right now. You won’t be helping anyone. “Well of course I can contact Celestia. I am her protégé after all. I can send her a letter right away,” Twilight said, her voice returning to its usual tone. So we fall into a strange new world and just happen to land next to the protégé if its leader? I’m not usually this lucky. “On one condition,” Twilight added after a second of consideration. And there it is. “For all I know you two could just be some crazy ponies, but some of what you said makes some sense. So, I’ll only send a letter to Celestia if you try to soulgaze me.” “No way!” Michael and I said at the exact same time and in the exact same tone of voice. Twilight waved a hoof in the air to quiet us. “Just hear me out. If it works then most if not all of what you said is true, and I’ll wholeheartedly back your story with the princesses. If it doesn’t work then you’re either crazy, or we’re too different for it to work. Either way I’ll still send that letter and maybe they can make sense of what you’re saying.” It’s sort of hard to argue with that logic, especially when she’s holding the only known means of contact to the princesses. Oh, the benefits of holding all the cards. Michael looked over at me, “I don’t like this Harry.” “Neither do I, but she’s not giving us much choice.” I directed my attention from Michael to Twilight, “I highly recommend that you don’t do this, Twilight. I don’t know what you’ll see in there, but it won’t be pretty, if it even works at all.” “I understand, but that’s my price,” she said with a cold finality in her voice. “No, you don’t understand." I recognized the concrete stubbornness behind her eyes, and let out a short sigh. "But nothing I say will make any difference. Fine, but I did warn you. Just look into my eyes.” Twilight and I locked eyes, and for several seconds just stood there. Nothing was happening. “I’m sorry Twilight, I guess it didn’t work.” I turned to see if I could find any parchment for the letter, and then had to pause to gape at the room front of me. Twilight’s library had grown to immense proportions. Shelves of books ten feet tall sprung from the ground and stretched back as far as the eye could see. The books themselves were meticulously ordered by subject and then alphabetized. Spaced between the shelves were what looked like mini-lounges, small groups of chairs and tables clearly meant to be used for a relaxing reading. In stark contrast to the ordered shelves these areas were littered with mismatched books that grew in terms of damage the further they got from the chairs. The books nearest the chairs were more or less stacked nicely while those further away were left neglected, upturned, and strewn haphazardly on the floor. Some of the books were even torn slightly in her haste to find some answer. It was clear that this mare loved to learn, teach, and in general further the pursuit of knowledge. I doubt she’d ever be satisfied with whatever trove of knowledge she’d collect. She preferred to lead an organized life and would always be good at organizing whatever chaos was around her. But to contrast that, it’s apparent that she tends to get bogged down when presented with a problem she can’t figure out. She’d begin neglect whatever she values as she focuses more and more intently on the problem, until either an answer is found, or she’s forced away from the search. I turned back towards Twilight, and found the true centerpiece of her soul. Twilight was still standing where she was when the soulgaze had begun, but looked slightly different. Her legs were set further apart and she was crouched low. Her narrowed eyes were searching the surrounding library for threats, ready to defend the altar of busts that had appeared behind her. The altar that had materialized was comprised of six pristine marble busts of other ponies. Five were other mares around Twilight's age in a straight line, while the sixth was standing behind and slightly above them. The larger bust, Celestia I presumed, stood tall with a fine layer of dust and a few small cracks. Around the base of Celestia’s bust was a pile of notes, homework, essays, and general research. They were arranged in such a way that they could only an offering to the figure. The other five seemed to be even more valued than that of her teacher. Each and everyone was polished to a mirror shine and given their own unique tributes. The different busts were given apples, cupcakes, rolls of cloth, one was given a soft pillow in the shape of a heart, and the last was given what looked like a set of goggles and a dark blue uniform. Twilight cared deeply for her five dearest friends, and would do almost anything to protect them or make them happy. The only thing that could compare to her desire to make her friends happy and safe was her desire to impress her teacher. Judging by the weathered stone of Celestia’s bust, Twilight had been working to impress Celestia most of her life. Twilight would hear and obey Celestia’s given word as though it were a fundamental law of nature. And just like that, the soulgaze ended. I was standing back in Twilight’s normal sized library, slightly phased by the sudden end of the soulgaze. Predictably, Twilight was now shaking all over and had nearly collapsed on the floor. She was staring at me with an odd expression on her face. Her ears were flat against her head and she was breathing at a panicked speed, but her eyes said something different. They were wide with wonder like a kid at a circus, and saddened somehow. The corners of her eyes pinched slightly and something in them sparkled like she was about to tear up. “Are you ok?” I asked, feeling terrible for putting her through whatever it was she saw. “I-I believe you. I believe everything you said,” she stammered trying to regain some control over her limbs. I moved over to help steady her, and to my surprise she didn’t flinch away. Now that was definitely an oddity. Every vanilla mortal that’d seen my soul had been terrified into near hysterics, but here was Twilight seemingly able to pull herself together after only a few moments. So either the quality of my soul had improved lately, which I highly doubt, or this mare was made of tougher stuff than most vanilla mortals. “I got it, I can stand on my own thanks,” she said as she got back to her hooves. I backed away to my original position. “Now Twilight, I don’t want to add to the stress you’re currently under, but we really need to contact the princesses. The monsters we were chasing are most likely still in Equestria and we need to let Celestia and Luna know as soon as possible,” I pleaded. “Yes, yes of course.” Twilight nodded her head, only slightly paying attention to me. “I’ll be right back I need to go grab Spike so we can send that letter. I left him at my friend Rarity’s while you two were here.” “What, why?” I asked. “Well with you in my bed, Michael in the guest bed, and me on the couch, it was getting a little crowded.” “He means why do you need this Spike, for a letter?” Michael interjected. “Oh, right. Spike is my assistant. He’s the one that actually sends the letters. Now I’ll just be gone for a bit, you two just stay here while I go get him.” She turned and walked towards the exit. A sudden brainwave hit me. “Twilight, wait! When you found us did we have anything on or around us?” I had completely forgotten about our personal items after having woken up here. I’d been forcibly turned into a unicorn, give me a break. Michael face-hoofed behind me, evidently he’d forgotten as well. “Yes, did you see a sword anywhere near us?” he asked, a slight panicked edge to his voice. “I don’t know about a sword, but there was some kind of bladed staff next to you. I put all of your things in that chest over there." She pointed at a chest against the far wall. "I'll be back soon." She turned and left us in her library, her nice flammable library. Just no more fire spells and you should be fine, I told myself as Michael and I walked over to the chest she pointed out. As we inspected the chest’s contents we indeed saw all of our belongings. At the top of the pile lay the various wizarding tools and trinkets I’d accumulated over the years, my staff, blasting rod, force rings, shield bracelet, tracking crystal with a bit of dried blood on it, and my mother’s silver pentacle amulet. I managed to get the amulet around my neck by the simple expedient of working my horn under the chain, but everything else was designed to be used with human hands and as such would be useless to me. So we simply dumped them on the floor. Under my equipment and wrapped up in our old clothes, was what Michael was looking for. We got it out of the chest, set it on the table in the library, and proceeded to carefully remove the clothing wrapped around it. When we’d accomplished that we both stared at what was once Amoracchius. What was before us now could best be described as a battle staff. The hilt was in the middle of the weapon, slightly flattened and just long enough to accommodate for Michael’s new muzzle and teeth. Long double sided blades came out of either side of the hilt. Each blade was almost three feet in length and was emblazoned at the center with the same cross that was on Michael’s flank. Why exactly Amoracchius had changed to better suit Michael when none of my things had changed for me, I only had suspicions. Could it be that Michael’s ‘boss’ decided to take a more direct role in the current events and give him a helping hand? I didn’t like the sound of that, because how screwed up do things have to be in order to get His direct attention. It’s more likely that Amoracchius is bound to Michael in some fundamental way. It’d certainly go a long way to explaining how Michael wielded such a powerful magical artifact with relative ease, and then when Michael changed so did it. “I imagine that’s going to take some getting used to,” I directed at Michael, who had already taken up the weapon to see how it would feel. After a few practice swings he set it back down. “Yes, this’ll take a bit of retraining. I’m going to go out back and practice a few basic stances and moves.” “I’ll come with, maybe I can figure out that levitation thing Twilight did.” I grabbed my staff in my teeth and dragged it on the ground as we made our way towards the same spot outside where I’d tried to open a Way. Michael set up in the middle of the field and began running through his self-taught sword styles and moves, making alterations as necessary to accommodate for his new body and weapon. I sat next to the library and concentrated on my staff. Twilight didn’t have to say anything, so maybe if I just concentrate... I focused all of my attention on my staff, picturing it in my head until the mental image was nearly as real to me as the thing itself. I then willed a trickle of magic into the image. To my surprise the staff became surrounded by a dark red nimbus of energy, a glance upward showed a similar energy around my horn. Excited at my progress, I imagined the mental image rising off the ground and watched as its physical counterpart matched it exactly. “Hah! Hey Michael check this out!” Michael thrust his weapon into the ground as a convenient holding spot. “Very nice Harry, but couldn’t you do that before?” I shook my head. “Nah, before I would just call up gusts of wind or force to make things shoot where I wanted them. I’ve never had this much direct control over something, must be an inherent unicorn thing.” I sent the staff into doing some spinning acrobatics. “That’s nice Harry, but would you be careful please.” “Oh please, I know what I’m doing. I have complete contro-“ SMACK! I stared up at the clear blue sky as stars danced around my head. The only thought going through my head was, Man this grass is cozy. Michael’s face appeared over me with that ‘I told you so’ look he had mastered since meeting me. “Oh, shut up,” I grumbled. He just grinned and helped me back onto all four hooves. I turned and headed for the library entrance, “I’m going back inside to wait for Twilight. Maybe she has an ice pack or something.” Michael chuckled under his breath before going to grab Amoracchius. “I suppose I’ll come in too. Someone has to make sure you don’t accidentally kill yourself.” With a scowl on my face we turned back and went into the library. Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find an ice pack. So the angry lump on the back of my head was just going to have to deal with it. Twilight came back within a couple minutes or so of us reentering the library. Michael was crouched in a chair reading up on Equestrian culture, while I was sprawled on the couch lazily floating several books above my head looking at each in turn to see if anything caught my interest. I turned to look at the door when she entered, being careful to set the books back down on the table. “Hey guys we’re back,” Twilight said as she and a small purple and green lizard came inside. “Guys this is Spike.” She motioned towards the creature. “Spike, this is Harry Dresden and Michael Carpenter.” She motioned back at us. Spike, a dragon I guessed by his shape, was standing slightly behind Twilight and poking his head around her side to get a look at us. “He looks a little young to be an assistant,” my mouth said without permission. “Hey, I keep this place running like clockwork thank you very much!” Spike retorted while he puffed out his chest. “He is a baby dragon yes, but he is more than capable of helping me in my studies. He’s been my number one assistant ever since the day he hatched,” Twilight said looking affectionately at the little dragon, who swelled with pride at the complement. Well that explained a few things. This dragon probably saw Twilight as a kind of surrogate mother. The way he was still standing slightly behind her and drank in her complements were testaments to that. If anything proved to be a serious threat to Twilight, I doubted that Spike would stand idly by. Now that it was clear that we weren’t trying to threaten anyone, Spike came out from behind Twilight and began a closer inspection of us. His suspicious eyes looked us over, trying to gauge our intentions. “So, Twilight said that you two were something called, humans right? It’s just that you look a lot like ponies.” “Yeah, it’s a long story. Look can we get to the letter please?” I directed back at Twilight. “Of course. Spike, take a note please,” she told her helper, who immediately picked up a piece of parchment and quill. Twilight narrated a long letter for Spike to copy down for Celestia. She explained who Michael and I were, how we got here, and of the danger we believed to be in her land. After she was finished Spike opened a nearby window, took a deep breath, and with a burst of green flame sent the letter off to Celestia. “It shouldn’t take long for her to respond, she usually writes back fairly quickly whenever something is wrong,” Twilight directed at us. “Is that how all mail works here?” asked Michael who till now, had been engrossed in his book. “Not all mail no. We have our own mail system and a specific mailmare here in Ponyville. Although how she manages hold onto her job, I’ll never know. Spike can send letters directly to Celestia because of an enchantment Celestia placed on him when I got him. She can also send letters right back through him as well.” Immediately after she said that, Spike let out an almighty belch with another burst of emerald flames, and a scrolled up letter materialized in the air. Twilight seized it with her magic, opened it, and began to read it aloud. My most faithful student Twilight Sparkle and Mr. Harry Dresden I was afraid something like this had happened. A few days ago I thought I felt the veil around Equestria tear but chose to dismiss it. I imagine that’s when Mr. Dresden came to our world. Since then I’ve received reports of disappearances around some of the larger nearby settlements. I am currently investigating one such incident in Manehattan. I will be another day here at least. When I get back to Canterlot I will send a chariot to pick up Mr. Dresden, you, and any of the other Bearers of the Elements that wish to come. I will answer all of your questions then. In the meantime, Twilight would you get Mr. Dresden acquainted with the other Bearers and give him a basic knowledge of our world. I feel we may need his help before this is over. Princess Celestia “She knew! She knew about the Nevernever but never told me about it!” Twilight exclaimed, eyes widening with shock. No doubt wondering how the teacher she idolized so much could keep such a massive secret from her. “She probably didn’t want you, or any pony for that matter, to go meddling around in there. The Nevernever is an extremely dangerous place Ms. Sparkle,” Michael offered, trying to minimize the damage this realization would inflict. “Yeah, I suppose,” she answered back. She still looked severely crestfallen with her ears drooped and her eyes downcast. “What are these Bearers of the Elements mentioned in the letter?” I asked. That seemed to perk her up a bit. “Oh, that’s me and my friends. We… Well it’ll be better to explain it as a group.” She moved to exit the library and motioned with a hoof for us to follow her. “I’ll go and round up my friends and we’ll make with the introductions. I’ll bring them all to Sugarcube Corner.” She pointed in the general direction of the town. “It’s the bakery that looks like a giant cupcake you can’t miss it. Give me about an hour to round up my friends and explain some of what’s going on. Until then, why don’t you wander around town a bit, you know familiarize yourself.” “Sounds like a plan,” I responded. Twilight smiled at us, “Alright, I’ll see you two in an hour.” She turned and galloped away in the direction she had been pointing. “I think I’ll take in the sights of the town. Maybe they have a blacksmith I can barter with. Would you like to come along?” Michael offered. “Nah, I think I’ll just wander around here for a bit. See you later.” “Alright goodbye then, and do try to stay out of trouble,” he said as he turned and walked calmly towards the town. "Why does everyone just assume that I'm going to get into some kind of trouble?" I grumbled to myself. A small voice from right behind me spoke up, “You could always learn the area around Ponyville while your friend pokes around in the actual town.” I turned around to find Spike standing there, still looking at me with suspicious eyes but was comfortable enough to at least approach me. “Yea, I think I might do that. Never hurts to know the lay of the land, thanks.” I flashed the tiny dragon a quick smile before I trotted off to look over the surrounding fields. Spike kept a wary eye on Dresden as he left for the surrounding fields. "I think I'll need to keep an eye on that one," Spike mumbled to himself. I spent the next thirty minutes or so learning the ins and outs around Ponyville. I paid special attention to the positions of several valuable dips, pitfalls, and the roads in and out of town. It was on one of these roads that I came across an odd site. A minotaur, or so I believe they are called, was walking down the road towards Ponyville. None of the other ponies seemed to be running from him or anything so he probably wasn’t an immediate threat, but almost everypony was giving him a wide birth, not wanting to come within a few feet of him. When he was almost in the town proper he came across a mint-green unicorn mare with what looked like a harp or a lyre for a cutie mark. The unicorn had fallen in the middle of the street and the groceries she was carrying were everywhere. She was busily trying to round them up when the minotaur walked up to her. They said a few words to each other that I was too far away to hear, but then the minotaur roared something about “block” and “rock”, and shoved the unicorn from his path. The mare was shoved hard enough that she rolled several feet from the path and landed face first into a mud puddle, crushing several of her groceries in the process. My chivalric or depending on your viewpoint, misogynistic nature instantly flared up and demanded his immediate punishment. No one hurts a lady in front of me and gets away with it. “Alright tough guy, let’s see what you’ve got,” I whispered to myself as I made my way over to the minotaur.