Contest of Champions

by thatguyvex

Chapter 11: Battle of the Ballads

“Alright, so when do we find out how we did?” asked an eager Lyra as the girls took a much needed break after the first segment of the Contest of Art. They had a little over three hours before the afternoon segment was scheduled to start, and while they’d all had a decent breakfast, spending a few hours essentially running a restaurant was surprisingly draining work and so each was partaking of some of the few remaining leftovers from their own efforts along with drinks courtesy of the monks providing refreshments to the champions. They hadn’t left their stage, though Trixie had dropped the illusions making it look like a cozy country eatery, and all sat along the edge of the stone side by side.

“I think the monks only tally the votes when all three segments are done,” said Cheerilee, popping a bit of carrot cake into her mouth and chewing with relish, “Mmph, though if I was going to guess based on what I saw we did pretty good for ourselves this round. You did some fine cooking this morning, Carrot Top.”

The mare in question coughed politely, her face blooming with a tinge of rose, “It was nothing.”

Cheerilee’s eyes gained a mischievous gleam as she smiled cattily and elbowed her friend, “Oh, nothing huh? And the fact that a certain elk prince stopped by to eat had nothing to do with how hard you worked to make the food so fantastic?”

“Come on Cheerilee, I would’ve cooked the same whether Frederick showed up or not,” Carrot Top asserted, stretching her limbs and looking thoughtful, “He did seem to like it, though, didn’t he? I wonder if cervid cuisine is all that different than ours? Hmm, I should ask him just what they eat up north.”

“Potatoes, mostly,” said Trixie, reclining back so far she was practically laying down, a tad sweaty around the brow. She’d used quite a bit of energy in keeping up the illusions for the restaurant, but assured her friends she’d be more than recovered enough for the next performance by the time it came around. That said, Trixie did feel a bit more drained than she’d expected, even for holding such high quality illusions for so long. Putting the thought aside she went on to say, “There’s a lot of heavy roots they put in their dishes, which mostly involve stews in one form or another. Not a lot of dairy up there, but they’re also big on breads. Kind of bland for my palette, but lots of carbs to burn in that cold climate.”

“You’ve been up there before?” asked Carrot Top, to which Trixie raised her head a bit, blinking.

“Haven’t I mentioned that? Could’ve sworn I had at one point or another. Well, yes, I’ve been to the cervid lands. Not for long, and it was in my early apprenticeship to Princess Luna. Just long enough to learn I wasn’t fond of the food and that even when covered in snow, trees are rather combustible.”

Raindrops leaned forward, one elbow on her knees as she raised an intrigued eyebrow, “Sounds like there’s a story behind that.”

Trixie’s smile was a dry one, “It’s a secret.”

“Fair enough,” replied Raindrops.

Trixie reached out with her magic and picked up a cup of some fruity drink mix she wasn’t certain of the contents of, but suited her love of mixed flavors, and took a long sip while considering their next move. She’d already gone over the afternoon performance with the girls and while they could spend some time rehearsing, she trusted that wouldn’t take more than an hour. Mostly because, having lived in Ponyville for over a year now, she’d actually done plenty of practice with each of her friends for various magician tricks, so bringing all five of them into a full show shouldn’t be too hard. There’d been some brief debate whether Lyra’s musical performance would be during the afternoon or evening segment, but Trixie convinced Lyra doing it once the sun was down would be more ideal, given it’d add a more impressive backdrop for some good lighting effects.

Which meant that for at least two hours their time was free, and there was an investigation to conduct.

“Right,” she said, sitting up, drink still floating next to her as she sipped it absently. She frowned slightly as the cup faltered a bit in her magic grip, but she steadied it quickly. Strange, was she more tired than she thought? She might need to catch a nap before the next performance, then. No need to repeat her sleep deprivation antics from Oaton. “We know there’s a group on this island that’s up to no good. I’m not inclined to sit around and let them do as they please, and with them snatching Zecora into thin air it's clear they’re too dangerous to take lightly. So it's time to put our detective hats on, girls, and start looking for clues.”

“I’m all for that,” said Lyra, “But do we have any leads? Kind of hard to investigate if we don’t have a clue on where to start.”

“I did hear from Kenkuro that apparently one of our nobles saw Zecora last night,” said Trixie, her brow creasing in a thoughtful frown, "Didn't say who, though, so not sure that's much of a lead. If word is getting out that Zecora is missing then this noble might've gone to Princess Luna about having seen her, but we won't know for sure until we ask.”

"Why would word of her being missing be spreading though?" asked Cheerilee, "Seems like the kind of thing Corona would keep under wraps, so I doubt she's the source of any gossip."

Trixie's frown only deepened, "I didn't think to ask Kenkuro where he heard the rumors, but he must have heard them from somewhere... or someone."

“Can we trust what Kenkuro says?” asked Raindrops. "What if he's involved in the disappearance? He could be trying to throw us off."

“I think we can trust him.” said Ditzy, “He did save us at the Grand Melee.”

“He could have done that to get us to trust him specifically so he could mislead us,” pointed out Raindrops.

“Then why warn us about the threat to the Contest at all? No, I think the tengu is on the level, at least that’s what my gut tells me,” said Trixie, frowning. She still wasn’t sure what it was about the odd raven-like being that made her feel a instinctive trust towards him. He just had this strange, grandfatherly aura mixed with a hint of mischief that she liked. Raindrops looked at Trixie for a moment, then conceded with a nod.

“Okay fine, so we go ask the Princess if this noble has come forward yet, and if not, ask around and see if we can find them.”

That plan of action set, the girls quickly finished their snacks and drinks and started heading off. They got nearly to the exit to the Contest stage before they were intercepted by a giant roadblock of chiseled muscle and testosterone shaped vaguely like a minotaur. Steel Cage looked as impressive as ever, like carved marble breathed to life. He flexed his mountainous muscles before Trixie and her friends, the two slightly smaller minotaur champions posing behind him like oiled, chiseled backup dancers, and Steel Cage looked down upon the ponies with a flash of smugness.

“Well little ponies, I hope you’ve already resigned yourselves to being at the bottom of the charts, ‘cause this,” double thumbs toward himself for emphasis, “Alpha of Alphas has rocked this opening event! Nobody, and I mean nobody who walked this stage could keep their eyes from feasting upon the banquet that was my form on display!”

The mares all tossed bemused looks at one another, Cheerilee clearing her throat and stepping forward, giving Trixie a slight wink as if to say ‘I’ll handle this’ before turning to Steel Cage, “That’s nice. But the Contest of Art isn’t done yet. Out of curiosity what was your plan for the next segment?”

Steel Cage’s eyes squinted down at her, not so much looming over Cheerilee as acting like a mobile eclipse of the sun, casting a long shadow. “Modern Art,” he rumbled in a voice that somehow managed to make that term sound ominous. However at that moment Trixie tilted her head, one eyebrow twitching up in curiosity. It was pretty clear Steel Cage was trying to intimidate them. From her limited contact with his ludicrously massive ego, he tended to carry an aura about him that bludgeoned most folk over the head without him even trying. It was that theoretical minotaur magic, she suspected, that made Steel Cage’s presence feel like an active weight that followed him around, either crushing down on others and making them feel small, or acting like a form of pure mental magnetism that made it hard to not look at him and hang on his words.

She’d felt it a bit before, but oddly now the effect seemed... not absent, per se, but reduced. And it was clear he was trying to impress them, but somehow she just couldn’t feel it.

As Trixie mused over this, Cheerilee responded to Steel Cage’s pronouncement with a flick of her tail and cheeky smile, “Modern Art, huh? Iron Will showed me some, once. You going freehand on it?”

Irritation swam over Steel Cage’s features at the mention of Iron Will, like a red, angry fog, and by the way he closed his massive hands into fists with the audible cracking of knuckles it was clear Cheerilee was stoking the minotaur's rage. Trixie questioned whether that was wise or not, but then again, he’d started this by posturing at them, so she wasn’t above nettling him back. As long as he didn’t decide to try bending Cheerilee into a pony-pretzel right then and there.

“You think you’re cute, don’t you?” he said, all but blowing steam out of nostrils at the mares before him. Cheerilee just continued to smile.

“You want cute, go hit up a petting zoo. What I am is irresistible. But you know I think we can save the lesson on that for the Contest of Strength, can’t we? For now my friends and I have important things to do, so if you’ll excuse us.”

Chin raised, chest out, Cheerilee moved with challenging purpose, brushing aside Steel Cage as he glared at her with iron daggers in his gaze. But he didn’t stop her, and Trixie looked at the other mares, giving them an encouraging nod before following Cheerilee. One by one they trotted by the minotaurs. One of the other champions, a bronze coated fellow, looked to Steel Cage and opened his mouth to speak, but Steel Cage silenced him with a glance and a single arm flex that had the other champion backing down.

A minute later Trixie and the girls were clear of any minotaurs and Cheerilee let out a breath, her bravado cracking a bit under a relieved grin, “I should probably stop poking the hornet’s nest, shouldn't I?”

“He looked really, really mad, Cheerilee,” said Ditzy, frowning in worry and glancing over her shoulder as if expecting to see the minotaur charging after them at any second, “Are you actually going to fight him in the next event?”

“If we both make it to the same match, yes,” said Cheerilee licking her lips, eyes narrowing in determination, “I mean, sure he outweighs me by a factor of five to one, has superior reach, is probably three times as strong, could literally fold me in half and use me as a back scratcher... but I’m confident of my chances.”

“Me too,” said Raindrops, and at the other mare’s looks she shrugged, “What? I am. I’ve been sparring with Cheerilee for awhile now. She fight’s dirty.”

When Cheerilee gave her a sidelong look Raindrops returned it with a flat stare of her own, “Well, you do.”

“Okay, true enough,” said Cheerilee, “But I don’t think my usual bag of tricks will work on Steel Cage. First of all, totally different anatomy from a pony, so the usual soft spots I’d go for are all out of place. Second of all, this is a contest, not a street fight. I can’t go for the low blows. I’m rather certain the monks will have rules against that kind of thing. No, I’m going to have to take Steel Cage on fairly if not squarely.”

Raindrops’ brows crinkled, “What does that mean?”

Cheerilee merely winked, “Don’t fret over it. You just let me worry about Steel Cage. You’ve got your own secret admirer to deal with for the Contest of Strength, don’t you?”

“Nothing secret about it,” muttered Raindrops, “Tendaji is... complicated. Luckily I think the solution is for us to punch each other until he’s satisfied I’ve helped him fulfill his weird zebra Path. Assuming I can figure out how to hit him.”

“I know it's a ways off yet, but besides Cheerilee and Raindrops were any of the rest of us going to be crazy enough to participate in the Contest of Strength?” asked Carrot Top, “Because honestly I was thinking of sitting it out. Sticky bombs and stink grenades don’t really strike me as suitable for an affair that mostly involves blunt force trauma.”

Trixie grimaced, “I wasn’t intending to compete there, galling as that fact is. I’ll leave the warrioring to the martially inclined types. I prefer my battles swiftly won and without me getting too sweaty.”

“Ah, but where’s the entertainment value in that?” said a nearby voice, causing all six mares to turn as Grimwald waved at them, having been leaning against one of the stages along the edge of the contest area. He certainly hadn’t been there a second ago, Trixie was sure of it. She was more and more certain that this griffin wasn’t simply skilled in stealth. You don’t so easily trick a trickster, and she felt confident in the belief that Grimwald’s disturbing tendency to creep up out of nowhere wasn’t just the result of natural skill. He had to have some kind of magic up his sleeve.

Fortunately she had a way to check for that sort of thing, so while she put on an affected smile and nodded to him, she let her horn, presently concealed by her magician's hat, light up to weave her magic sight spell while she said, “What do you mean by that?”

Grimwald smiled in a way that uncomfortably reminded Trixie of the way she’d once seen a griffin gut a fish for an evening meal during one diplomatic visit or another. She was looking him over with her magic sight, confident he couldn’t tell what she was doing, looking for any unusual auras of magic on him. As she suspected she spotted something, though not quite what she expected. She imagined she’d find some trace of illusion magic, perhaps some trinket that employed basic invisibility, not unlike the necklace she’d enchanted during the Oaton affair. Instead what she found was a magic aura that looked similar and yet somehow quite alien from any magic she’d encountered before. It was concentrated at a spot within his silk green waistcoat, probably woven into some item he had concealed there. The aura was like looking at a fractured piece of ice from the surface of a frozen lake, dripping with a strange hue of color that could have been called purple but was just a few shades off enough to feel like it was a color that shouldn’t exist. It actually made Trixie noxious to look at it, and she actually missed what Grimwald said in reply to her question and had to have Raindrops elbow her to get her to snap back to reality.

“Trixie, hey, you in there?” Raindrops asked, and Trixie blinked, shaking her head for a second. She had to intentionally look away from the aura of whatever Grimwald was carrying on him and focus elsewhere for a moment before turning off her magic sight.

“Yes, I was just, um, remembering something. My apologies, Mister Grimwald.”

He had an irritatingly knowing look in his eyes as he held up a talon in a dismissing gesture, “No need. I’m sure something must have caught your attention. I was merely saying that I figured you, of all those present, would appreciate the notion of putting on a good show.”

“Only when I can set the stage to my liking,” said Trixie in swift reply, “I also perform to my strengths. I’ll leave the one on one battling to those that are suited to it.”

“Ah, but is that in the spirit of the Contest?” asked Grimwald, “After all, art is hardly my forte, but here I am, showing off my deliciously deplorable taste in sculpture. I don’t suppose you mares caught my little display?”

“I’m afraid I didn’t, and I don’t think any of us did.” Trixie said, glancing sidelong at her friends. Most of them shook their heads, indicating that they hadn’t seen any of Grimwald’s sculpture display, but Ditzy actually gave a slightly nervous nod.

“I, uh, took a look over at your display when I had a free second.” Ditzy said, “The sculptures were... very, um, interesting?”

Grimwald laughed in a cutting manner, “It's perfectly okay to call them unrecognizable lumps of clay, Ditzy Doo. I’m a hobbyist by the most generous of descriptions, but I do so love clay. Just the feel of my talons tearing into a nice formless mass and ripping away whatever chunks I don’t like. It has a nice cathartic feeling to it.”

“Don’t make much of your chances of winning this part of the Contest then, huh?” asked Lyra casually.

“Not unless I’ve seriously misjudged the mood of the crowd.” Grimwald said, then winked, “But I’m not here to win. I’m here to entertain myself, and in that regard, I’m coming out ahead of the pack. Which is why I’m sorely disappointed to hear you won’t be competing in the Contest of Strength, Dame Trixie. I rather thought watching that would have been most amusing, especially if you managed to get some one on one time with the Imperial Heiress.”

“You’ll just have to live with the disappointment, then.” said Trixie in a clipped tone, wanting the conversation to be done with so she could put some distance between herself and this bothersome fellow. He was already at the very top of her list of suspects for being involved in the conspiracy against the Contest, and if he wasn’t involved she’d cook up her hat with garlic sauce and eat it with a side of oregano.

Grimwald seemed to take her statement with casual grace, instead dipping his head to her in an almost mocking bow before turning ot Ditzy, “And what about you? Going to put that training session with Gwen to good use?”

“I was thinking I would try.” said Ditzy, “I mean, even if I don’t get far, it might be a learning experience. You’ll be there too, Grimwald?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for all the gold in King Guto’s fabled tomb.” said Grimwald, tipping an invisible cap at the mares, turning to leave, but he paused before taking more than two strides. “Oh, word is seeping out about the unfortunate vanishing of Corona’s favorite striped servant. Many of the nobles are buzzing about it already, the insufferable gossips that they are.”

“Is that so?” Trixie said cautiously, “What of it?”

“Only that if any prospective inquisitives were inclined to seek the misplaced zebra, there’s an observation I made this morning when I first heard of the gossip involving her disappearance. You see, I noticed that the one noble among my fellow griffins who didn’t seem surprised by the news was King Gruber of Grandis.”

He shrugged, and resumed walking way, “Make of that what you will.”

Once he was gone Trixie heard Cheerilee snort, “Oh please, like we’d fall for something that transparent.”

“Huh?” asked Carrot Top, “I don’t get it.”

“Grimwald is about the most suspicious person on the island right now,” said Cheerilee, confirming that she had been thinking along the same lines Trixie had, which Trixie greatly appreciated. Always good to know that your friends can be as paranoid as you are, sometimes, “So you don’t find it equally suspicious he just happens to drop a clue pointed towards some griffin bigwig?”

“You think it’s a red herring,” stated Lyra, “That he’s trying to throw us off the trial by sending us to buck the wrong tree.”

“B-but what if it isn’t?” asked Ditzy. “I know you guys don’t trust him, and I don’t know if I do either, but can we afford to ignore any clue we’re given?”

“By doing what, Ditzy?” asked Cheerilee, “You want to break into a griffin king’s room and search it for evidence? Granted, we could probably pull it off without getting caught, but if we were, can you say ’international incident’?”

“I’d personally use the term ‘diplomatic disaster’.” said Trixie, but suddenly rubbed her chin in thought. “Although I do imagine I could pull it off easily enough, with the right timing.”

“Trixie, you know he’s playing us.” said Cheerilee.

“Yes, but for whose side is he playing?” asked Trixie, “I’m not saying I trust him. Far from it. What I am saying is that we don’t really know what his game is yet and whatever his reason for pointing us towards this King Gruber, it might still benefit us to have a look.”

“You might want to run this by the Princess, before we commit to doing any acts of questionable legality,” said Lyra, “I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m not hyped to cap off my time here with a jail sentence.”

“That’s assuming we actually do anything illegal,” said Trixie, “Which we won’t. The monastery is a huge place. Easy to get lost in. Can’t blame a mare for wandering into the wrong room while lost, right? Assuming anyone notices, which they won’t, because why would they when they’re all going to be here watching your performance, Lyra?”

The unicorn blinked her gold eyes in incomprehension for a second, then said, “Wait, you’re going to do this during the last part of the Contest or Art? But we’re going to need you here for all the big zap, bang, boom stuff that you do!”

“Yes, yes, I know, I’m indispensable for the grande finale, but worry not,” said Trixie, adopting a confident and dramatic pose, “The ballad starts off slow, and I can leave a few smoke bombs to get you started on that part. I can sneak in, take a look around the king’s room, and be back here before you’ve even reached the halfway point. If it turns out to be a red herring, no harm done.”

“Oh no, if you’re doing this, you’re not doing it alone,” said Cheerilee, “I don’t have much of a part to play for the last performance anyway, and I’ll shave my mane before I let you wander off to do some snooping around by yourself when it’s already been established we’ve got spooky cloak people running around ponynapping folk. We let you go it alone, we’ll be down a Trixie before the night is over.”

“Point taken,” Trixie said, “Being ponynapped isn’t my style anyway and two sets of eyes will get the search done that much faster. Now, all we need is Princess Luna’s approval.”

----------

“I completely disapprove of this,” Princess Luna said in a tone flat as a dinner plate.

Trixie pranced anxiously in place, “I know it isn’t ideal, but we really are lacking in the clue department, and while the source of this information is about as reliable as a cardboard teakettle, we can’t just ignore the possibility we might learn something.”

“Trixie,” Luna said, sitting down calmly in her room’s largest and fluffiest looking chair, “You’re talking about invading the privacy of one of the griffin monarchs. Are you truly so certain that you might learn anything that is worth the risk such an action entails?”

Trixie paused, then met Luna’s gaze as evenly as she could, which wasn’t a particularly easy thing to do given Luna had this tendency to make her gaze have the overall depth and intensity of the entire night sky; fathomless and eternal... not to mention with that annoying hint of maternal displeasure that brought out the nervous foal in just about anypony.

“Princess, we know all too little about what we’re dealing with in terms of the threat to this Contest. If me and Cheerilee are caught snooping around King Gruber’s quarters it’ll cause a stink, yes, but one that can be dealt with much like with Shouma’s Empress when Dao Ming lost control in the Grand Melee. The alternative is to ignore a possible lead to resolve a situation that, if left unresolved, could have worse consequences than a bit of political embarrassment.”

She tilted her chin up slightly, “Besides, we won’t get caught.”

“I still do not approve,” Luna said simply, but before Trixie could say anything in protest the Princess continued with a sly wink, "Yet since when has that prevented you mares from doing as you thought best? Anything that can lead us to discovering the true nature of the threat should not be ignored, the sooner the better. I cannot grant you permission to do this, but neither will I tell you not to do what you feel may help your investigation. Just... don’t get caught, please? I’ve already had to deal with more politics in a few days here than I usually have to deal with in a month back home, and I can feel the headaches coming. Not to mention my sister’s presence makes everything so much more strenuous.”

Trixie nodded, realizing just how tired Luna appeared. Alicorns of course had stamina well and above that of normal ponyfolk, but enough stress, enough pressure, could get to anypony. Luna had the welfare of every single living creature on the island to worry about, alongside the fact that there were enough high profile diplomatic figures here that if anything did happen to any of them the consequences of such a thing could negatively impact international politics for decades to come. Not to mention having Corona so close as a constant reminder of the single largest threat facing Equestria, and not being able to do anything about it. Luna had every reason to look a bit ruffled in the feathers.

“Right, so that covers tonight’s espionage antics,” said Cheerilee, “But we’ve got that other lead too. The noble that saw Zecora. Who is it? They’ve come forward, haven’t they?”

Luna nodded briefly, “They have. Practically the moment he heard of Zecora’s disappearance Baron Mounty Max came forward to tell of his encounter with her that evening."

"But how did he hear about her going missing?" asked Cheerilee, leaning forward curiously, "We heard about it from the Shouma champion, Kenkuro, but where did the Baron hear about it?"

Princess Luna nodded in understanding, "I too was curious about that point. When asked, the Baron said he heard about Zecora's disappearance during this morning's breakfast in the monastery's main hall. He can't recall exactly who told him, only that the rumor was floating around during that meal. I have one of my Shadowbolts investigating where the rumor originated from, but as it stands its spread too far to stifle. Regardless, it seems the Baron had been returning from an attempt to scale the monastery’s cliff face when he met Zecora on the trail leading to the top of the cliff.”

“Wait, he was scaling the cliff? In a storm?” asked Raindrops.

There was something of a knowing smile on Luna’s face, “The Baron of Nulpar makes of hobby of climbing, but no, he’d begun his ascent before the storm hit, and abandoned the task when the weather turned.”

“So did he notice anything unusual about Zecora when he ran into her?” Trixie pressed, already wondering what the zebra might have been doing on that side of the island. As far as she knew there wasn’t much back there except for a very slim line of beach between the cliff and the ocean.

“According to him Zecora looked as if she was in a hurry to go somewhere, almost as if she was running, but she’d assured the Baron that nothing was amiss, and he didn’t pursue the matter after she was gone. He didn’t see her again, nor did he notice anything else that night. As far as we know he was the last one to see her before she vanished.”

“It's not a long distance between the top of the cliff and where Corona had parked her ark,” said Cheerilee, looking thoughtful, “If Zecora was in a rush to get anywhere, it would’ve been there. So if she got nabbed, there’s only so much ground where it could’ve happened. Maybe we should give that area a gander?”

“I’ve already set my Shadowbolts upon that task,” Luna said, “If they find anything I shall let you know.”

“What, we can’t gumshoe anything ourselves?” asked Cheerilee.

“I don’t doubt your perceptive prowess in the least, but do you not have the next event of the Contest of Art to prepare for?” said Luna with the guiding tone of one trying to keep others on task. “Besides you already have your own lead to follow with King Gruber’s quarters. Don’t steal all of the fun from the Shadowbolts. I do pay them for this kind of work and I’d hate for them to think they can afford to be lazy with you around.”

“Good point, Princess,” said Lyra, stretching, “Let the spook squad do some of the legwork. In the meantime we got minds to blow at the Contest.”

Luna’s smile turned warm, “Indeed. I’ve been impressed with the performances thus far. An interesting opening, with the restaurant. My compliments to whoever among you did the cooking.”

Carrot Top gulped, shifting uncomfortably as she said, “T-that was me, and thank you, Princess.”

“Ah, I should have realized that fine food was your work. You’ve improved since the previous competition you performed in.”

“I gave it my best. Kind of glad that parts over with,” said Carrot Top, “Not much else for me to do except back up everypony else now. The rest of this Art stuff is going to be on Lyra and Trixie.”

“Ahem,” said Cheerilee, crossing her forelegs, “There’s also going to be me busting out the dance moves. I’ll need the help of some backup dancers, so don’t think you can relax Carrot Top.”

“Can’t I just opt out?”

“Hey, if I have to do backup dancing, you have to do backup dancing,” said Raindrops firmly.

“C’mon Carrot Top, it’ll be fun!” said Ditzy.

“I guess it can’t turn out any worse than the average party back in Ponyville, though I’m usually competing with Pokey at that point for whose got more left legs,” said Carrot Top with a helpless laugh and shrug.

Trixie gave her friend an encouraging elbow, waggling her eyebrows, “Not everyday one gets the chance to strut one's stuff on an international level. You’ve wowed royalty with your cooking already. I doubt you could do much worse with a little dancing while Lyra wows them with her music. Or letting me saw you in half for the wonderment of our culturally diverse audience.”

Carrot Top’s laugh transmuted into a deep sigh, “Such is the burden of being a champion.”

----------

“Well, that was a miserable experience I don’t want to repeat,” grumbled Gwendolyn to herself after seeking the nearest available source of alcohol, which turned out to be one of the many drinking tents in the cervid portion of the festival grounds. She had briefly considered going to the griffin section, where she’d be more familiar with the drinks, but right now she wasn’t in the mood to be around her fellow griffins. Immediately after the first event of the Contest of Art had concluded the competing griffin teams had all but broken down into arguments and near fists fights over who’d performed the best. Gwendolyn held no delusion as to her own performance, given she’d felt like a completely befuddled lark trying to sing battle hymns in front of crowds of strangers. Put a sword in her talon and set her against a band of a dozen bloodthirsty bandits and she was golden, but trying to belt out a tune in front of a bunch of complete strangers and it was all she could do not to flee the stage. Seeing her countrygriffins tearing into each other like over proud chicks on their first hunt only made her mood more foul.

The matter had not been helped by some of the remarks she’d heard slung her way from griffins that needed their attitudes, and their beaks, readjusted.

”Did you hear that screeching? I guess that’s what passes for song in the Border Kingdoms.”

“You can’t blame her for thinking that’s what a proper battle hymn sounds like, she’s been slumming it with the border trash for so long, and those hicks would take any warbling as high art.”

“I heard the only reason she’s even her is because King Gruber wants to put the Border Kingdom’s in their place by showing their heroine’s real loyalty is still to Grandis. She’s not expected to actually win anything, just put on a show.”

“Hah, stands to reason the only griffin of any worth from the borders still comes from an Inner Kingdom.”

Gwendolyn’s talon clutched hard on the wooden mug of mead in her grip, and her attention was so focused on her mental rumination that she hardly noticed her mother taking a seat across from her at the heavy oak table until Beatrice actually spoke.

“Are you actually that bothered by mere words?”

Gwendolyn shook herself, blinking in mute surprise at seeing her mother seated, staring at her. She knew Beatrice was part of King Gruber’s escort on the island, but they’d shared only a few passing words since the start of the Contest and she’d nearly forgotten about her mother’s presence. Letting Beatrice’s words sink in for a second, Gwendolyn took a slow but deep drink of mead, then said, “You’ve been paying attention to what’s been said, haven’t you? Its getting worse, this damn tension between the Kingdoms. What the feathering frig were the Inner Kingdoms rulers thinking cutting the Border Kingdoms out of the Contest!? Why does it seem like they’re trying to increase the tension at every turn!?”

Her mother’s eyes turned strange to Gwendolyn’s view, a look she’d never really seen on Beatrice before, somehow guarded, wounded, and concerned all at once. She was used to nothing but confidence and stoic strength from her mother. This look seemed uncertain.

“You shouldn’t let it get to you so much, daughter. This is always how it’s been.”

Gwendolyn shook her head fiercely, voice just an octave below a frustrated grow, “No, not like this. It’s like the disdain for the Border Kingdoms is being cultivated. Listening to those proud peacocks you’d think they’d been told their droppings were somehow superior to those on the borders! The arrogance was never this bad even a few years ago.”

A small amount of her mother’s sharpness, the familiar whipcord look, returned to Beatrice's eyes and tone, “It’d be better if you just focused upon the Contest. I imagine this Art portion is just getting to you, making your feathers bristle more than usual.”

Gwendolyn took another pull on the mead and then slammed the mug down, hard, on the table. “I don’t give two pieces of busted eggshell over the damn Contest! Aside from reminding me of why I don’t sing unless I’ve had about six or seven more of these,” she raised the mug again briefly, “I’m having a good time of it. I’m getting to cross swords with some of the world’s finest warriors. Couldn’t be happier about that, win or lose. What pisses me off is watching my people, my fellow countrygriffins, acting like a bunch of rotten bastards to each other and feeling like there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it!”

For a second her mother looked truly miserable, before she hid it behind an iron mask, “What will be, will be, Gwendolyn. You are my daughter, but even you can only do so much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gwendolyn asked incredulously, but her mother simply shook her head and stood back up.

“I wish I had more time to spend with you, but the King only allowed me a moment to check upon you. I know you will do what you feel is right, no matter the advice or others, but please listen to me this one time; stop overthinking things. Just focus on the Contest.”

“Wait, wha-” Gwendolyn started to say, but Beatrice swiftly departed the drinking tent, not even looking back at her daughter. Gwendolyn stared after her for a time, staring at the tent exit as if willing her mother to come back and start explaining things, but eventually just sighed and turned back to her mug...

Only to find Grimwald now sitting at the table across from her.

“For sky’s sake! Grim!” she said, nearly spilling her mead, “Don’t do that! How did you even...” she looked around, seeing that there was only one way in or out of the tent, and she certainly hadn’t seen him come in. Grimwald merely flashed her a thin smile and raised his own mug of mead, procured from where Gwendolyn could only guess.

“Lovely to hear your melodious voice raised in song, Gwen. Our fellow patriots just don’t appreciate the way you can belt out a tune when high on stage fright adrenaline.”

“Stuff it, Grim. What do you want?”

He put a talon to his breast, as if wounded, “Only to look after the interests of one of the few birds in this chaotic sky of life that I’d consider a friend. I heard your brief conversation with your ever so open and forthright mother. I imagine it’s left you more despondent than before?”

Gwendolyn sucked in a sharp breath through her nostrils and let it out in a slow hiss through her beak, “If you’ve got a point to get to, get there quick. My mood would be improved a lot by an act of random violence right about now.”

“You see, that’s what I love about you, direct and bloodthirsty. You should’ve gotten into my line of work.”At Gwendolyn’s low growl he coughed politely, “Yes, to the point then. I know certain things that may be of use to you, but unfortunately I can’t tell you.”

“Then why are you opening your beak at me?”

“Well, I have certain confidences I must keep,” Grimwald said with a helpless shrug, “We all have our codes, and mine requires not directly betraying my contracts. However there’s always a loophole, and I’ve made some arrangements.”

He stood and passed by her, leaning down to whisper into her ear, “Trust the ponies.”

And with that he swept out of the tent even faster than her mother had, leaving behind a baffled Gwendolyn to wonder just what trust the ponies was supposed to mean?

----------

The second segment of the Contest of Art started out smoothly enough by Trixie’s estimation. When it came to performances of stage magic she was as practiced at it as some of Equestria’s best professional magicians, having not let her skills in that arena slip even with the growing pile of other responsibilities in her life, both as Night Court Representative and knight. Her friends had invariably, one by one, all been part to her practice and performances in Ponyville at one time or another. They knew most of Trixie’s routines, if not by heart then well enough to be more than able assistants. This was the first time she’d actually had all five of her friends play roles in a single performance together, however, and she made sure they each got to play to their strengths.

Raindrops, as the muscle mare, got to do all the heavy lifting. More than a few stage props were large, from the boxes Trixie used for disappearances and the titillating yet classic saw trick, to the cannon she intended to use for the finale involving the fire pit. She’d wanted to try an actual manticore, but there weren’t any at hoof, so she’d arranged for a fire pit instead. She was pretty sure she had the skill needed to pull off the short range teleport to make that particular trick work.

Ditzy and Carrot Top got to be the victims...er... lovely and helpful assistants upon whom the majority of Trixie’s more viscerally visual illusions would be performed on. They both had their own innocent, doe eyed appeal that really worked for that kind of thing. Really stirred up the crowd when it looked like a nice pony was the one about to be sawed in half. Trixie was especially pleased when Frederick had popped up in the crowd for Carrot Top’s big scene and actually gasped louder than most when Trixie not only seemingly sawed Carrot Top in half, but let the mare’s two “halves” be separated by a good five pace distance and then appear to be put back together backwards. Not the easiest illusion to keep looking realistic, with Carrot Top’s top half switched backwards with her bottom half, but Carrot Top certainly pulled off the right amount of balance and disoriented chagrin to make it look good.

Frederick’s off color remark afterward about being impressed by Carrot Top’s flexibility had left Trixie’s face redder that Carrot Top’s for the rest of the performance.

Cheerilee had her own rather unique part of the performance to play, as suggested by her, and Trixie was more than happy to switch roles and play more of the assistant spot when Cheerilee’s turn had come. Out of the many skills involved in classic magician acts, the work of an escape artist was one element that Trixie still had lots of room to improve, even she was mare enough to admit that (if only to herself and certainly not out loud to anypony else). Cheerilee on the other hoof had practice in that skill that, according to her, was the result of practical use rather than for entertainment purposes, but it wasn’t hard to adapt one to do the other. So Cheerilee got to demonstrate just how quickly she could escape a locked, glass box while also wrapped up in a straight jacket and hung upside down while the aforementioned glass box gradually filled with sand. The sand wasn’t real, but rather an illusion created by Trixie, but to anypony watching it certainly had looked real enough, especially as Cheerilee demonstrated remarkable finesse with a hairpin and just how far she could bend her joints.

Finally, Lyra was performing the expected musical accompaniment, from tense building notes leading up to a trick’s culmination, to the easing chords of relief after the tension broke. Not to mention in between the set ups for each trick Lyra provided a stirring and enticing set of strings to help draw the crowds in, filling the air with attention grabbing music to let all wandering the Contest know that something of note was happening on the Equestrian stage.

Lyra had fallen into her musical groove, the warm buzz state akin to the feeling of having knocked back a few ciders, where she didn’t even have to think about the play of her hooves over the strings. Music just flowed out as it needed to, and Lyra could feel utterly and completely relaxed while coaxing the notes to grace the air. It meant her attention could afford to wander somewhat, watching the passing crowds or taking note of the other champions, what few she could see from her position.

Dao Ming was still set up on the stage across from them, and the kirin had set up a vast white canvas held up between two stone pillars, where she was engaged in what Lyra would normally have termed ‘dance writing’ if she wasn’t already aware the proper term was caligraphy. Dao Ming was using a giant brush nearly as tall as she was, dipping the stained bristles in a large well of ink before she was levitate the brush towards the canvas, where she’d move her body in sharp, dance-like motions along with the brush to create intricate strokes of black lettering, some of which were so complex that Lyra wasn’t even sure how Dao Ming could make them without lifting her brush from the canvas. The Empress and her entourage did pass by in the crowd, but unlike last time the leader of Shouma hardly stopped long enough to glance at them. Lyra noticed she only looked slightly longer at Dao Ming’s stage, just barely long enough to maybe nod in what might have been approval before moving on.

Lyra also took note that while the Empress had her usual retinue of followers and guards, only one of her other children was with her, Xhua. Lo Shang and Tomoko were oddly absent from the procession. Lyra normally wouldn’t have taken notice or thought much of it if she had, but with Trixie getting everypony into full detective-mode Lyra couldn’t help but wonder where two of the Empress’ family had gone off to?

Her wondering didn’t last too long, however, as she got back into following the groove of her music and looking at the competition. Grimwald was just barely visible out of the corner of her eye, his stage now covered in... what in the name of Luna’s moonshine were those things? More interpretive sculptures? Wait, no, clearly they were devices of some sort, but what could those clamps be for? Then he proceeded to demonstrate on a stuffed dummy he brought up on stage, and suddenly Lyra was perfectly happy to not look that way again. Ever. Apparently griffins had some creative devices for the purposes of... interrogation. Lyra would have been bothered more if she wasn’t fairly certain Grimwald was trying to be disturbing.

In better view was the cervid stage, and Lyra had nearly lost the rhythm of her music when she’d seen the flight of wyverns approach the Contest grounds, leathery wings beating the air in great strokes that stirred the air like a swift wind. They carried one of the cervid’s vast longships, one that was more colorful than any of the one’s Lyra recalled seeing landed on the beaches outside Hero’s Rest. Intricate carvings resembling great serpents of the sea covered the flanks of the longship, alongside near life-like depictions of cervid warriors clad in horned helms riding wyverns. The head of the ship was carved in the shape of a dragon so realistic in its detail that it took Lyra a second to realize it too was carved from wood rather than an actual mounted dragon head. Lyra at first thought the ship itself was meant to be the cervid’s piece of art for this segment, but in short order Sigurd, Wodan, and Andrea demonstrated that the ship wasn’t the art, the ship was the stage.

Wodan led off, his voice blasting out like the crash of thunder between mountains. He was soon joined by Sigurd’s more subdued but somehow much heavier and graver voice, both him and Wodan standing at the head of the longship, their hooves beating a steady rhythm upon the hard wood that echoed loudly. Finally their voices were joined by Andrea, a higher note that somehow wove between the two masculine voices a wave crashing between two stones. Andrea complemented the singing with her instrument, the fiddle eliciting long, slow harmonies that seemed to speak of arduous, bone cutting sorrow.

An Elkheim funeral dirge. This is my first time hearing one.

She knew that the dirges were rarely used for individual deaths, but rather were sung for the closing of seasons or to represent the fall of many warriors, such as what might be sung when honoring the fallen of a particular battle. There was something appropriate in that, given that the Contest of Champions itself was partially to honor those who’d died defeating the Warlord and Rengoku. However, while Lyra was only just now hearing such a dirge performed for the first time, she was fairly familiar with the nature of the theory behind the lyrics. They were all sung in the cervids’ native Elkheim tongue, which Lyra was at best passable at, but when it came to songs she remembered more details than she might for common speech.

As a result she thought it a tad odd that Andrea would choose some lyrics that didn’t fit the normal dirge style for honoring the dead, but rather a much older form of dirge that was more about acknowledging the death of an historical age, marking the change to a new era.

----------

Trixie and Cheerilee made their way casually back towards the monastery, not moving at any hurried pace despite knowing they were on a time limit to do their search. Timing would be critical here, and Trixie had ensured that she and Cheerilee had waited until the crowds had started filing back towards the Contest grounds for the final portion of the Contest of Art before she and Cheerilee got started. Trixie estimated they had around twenty minutes before they’d need to get back to the stage, with maybe five minutes of wiggle room. Lyra could get things rolling on her own. Trixie had shown the mare a few simple illusion spell tricks to get the ball rolling and Trixie was confident she could pick things up from there once they got back... despite how oddly drained she felt today.

“You feeling alright there Trixie?” asked Cheerilee, “You’re looking paler than usual.”

“I’m quite fine,” Trixie said, then reflecting for a moment added, “Albeit I feel like my magic has been... hmm, how to put this? It's like when I first exercised with Raindrops and my muscles weren’t up to snuff for handling the strain. Each workout left me gasping.”

“Oh really?” Cheerilee asked with a quirked eyebrow, “Gasping you say? With Raindrops?”

Trixie put on a sharp frown and flicked her tail at Cheerilee's face, “Stop that. Serious talk time. What I mean is that my magic feels like my muscles did back then. Strained. I’m not sure why.”

Cheerilee slowed slightly in her steps, suddenly looking thoughtful. “Now that you say that, I remember Lyra saying something similar after the show, just after missing a few chords during the big finale.”

“You’re right,” Trixie said, recalling how Lyra’s music had faltered. Trixie had just chalked it up to a little bit of fatigue, or just bad luck, but now her mind churned over other things she’d noticed today. Like how the minotaurs had, when confronting them that morning, had seemed somehow less forceful. She knew the theory of minotaur magic revolving around the projection of their egos had never been proven, but there’d been a clear difference between how my presence Steel Cage usually projected versus what she’d felt earlier today.

“What are you thinking? Some kind of magical draining?” asked Cheerilee.

“If that’s happening then whatever is causing it must be exceedingly subtle, because both Princess Luna and Princess Cadenza, not to mention Corona herself have all been present on the Contest grounds and none of them seemed to notice anything.”

“They’re alicorns Trixie. They might have so much magic inside them that having a small bit of it drained probably wouldn't even register to them.” pointed out Cheerilee.

“This is assume magical draining is what’s actually happening and we're not just trying to add layers to the conspiracy we face because we’re tired and frustrated.” said Trixie, holding up a hoof to forestall Cheerilee’s response, “I’m not saying it isn’t possible, just that we shouldn’t let our imaginations run away with us. When we do tonight's final performance I’ll have my magic sight on the entire time. If anything is draining magic from the area, I’ll spot it.”

“Works for me.” said Cheerilee just as they reached the monastery, heading up the vast stone stairs, passing by the tall entrance columns, and entering the cavernous main chamber beyond. “So, how we playing this?”

Trixie glanced around, just to make sure nopony was nearby. The chamber wasn’t entirely empty, as many of the huge banquet tables remained and were being cleaned by some monks so the tables could be set up later for the large dinner that’d come after the Contest of Art ended. However none of the monks were close, and Trixie didn’t see any other Contest goers around, neither champions nor any of the national delegates. As was to be expected most were already at the Contest grounds, so it seemed like her and Cheerilee’s timing was near perfect. Regardless, Trixie kept her voice down.

“The plan is simple; I make us invisible, you crack any locks between us and getting into Gruber’s chambers, and we take ten minutes going over it with as fine a comb as we can manage to see what we can find. No more than ten minutes, then we’re gone, leaving everything as we found it. Easy. Can’t go wro-”

“For the sake of both of us don’t finish that sentence Trixie.” warned Cheerilee, ears twitching, “Would have figured you’d have learned to not tempt fate by now.”

“I live to tempt fate,” replied Trixie curtly, but not without a small, wry smile at her friend. “But I’ll refrain from sticking my tongue out at it tonight if I can.”

“Thank you. I’ve got enough gray hairs already.”

“Gray hairs? I can’t see any.” Trixie said truthfully, thinking Cheerilee had to be exaggerating.

“Oh, they’re there. A little dye goes a long way.” Cheerilee sighed, “It’s not like there’s that many. Just hitting that age where they start to pop up, like little unwanted weeds. Guess the high stress adventuring life doesn’t exactly help matters.”

“And breaking and entering into a high profile foreign dignitaries’ quarters will probably add a few more. Such is the sacrifices we make for Princess and country.” said Trixie, leading the way towards the wide, carved stone stairway leading towards the guest wing.

Finding King Gruber’s specific chambers wasn’t hard. Princess Luna had already provided the general direction they needed to go, and the griffins, loving their heraldry, had turned their portion of the guest wing into a kaleidoscope of colors as every single room had banners hanging from them displaying their allegiance to any given Griffin Kingdom, while also adding personal knight or noble house heraldry in a dizzying pattern of different icons and color patterns. And as one might expect the heraldry for the visiting kings and queens were the most ostentatious of all.

Grandis’ black, gold, and white colors covered the huge pair of banners that flanked the door to the king’s quarters, patterned in an even split between black and gold, with white borders. The country’s crest was, in a split from normal tradition, below that of the king’s crest. Trixie wasn’t an expert on such matters, so maybe there was a reason for the change in the heraldry. Not that it mattered for the purpose of why she and Cheerilee were there.

Now as she’d expected, while King Gruber and his queen were at the Contest, it wasn’t as if they’d left their chambers unguarded. Granted it was just one guard, and he looked exceedingly bored as he leaned against his halberd, but he could still complicate matters. Trixie was prepared, however, and had already woven a tight illusion of invisibility around herself and Cheerilee, who had to keep a hoof on Trixie’s withers while she maintained the spell.

Cheerilee knew to stay quiet as Trixie worked her magic, having already pre-discussed their plan for handling any guards they ran into.

Trixie felt the strain on her horn, even as she worked such simple illusions. While she had told Cheerilee not to jump to conclusions, she thought that magical drain certainly did explain how tired she felt as she maintained the invisibility and then worked a second illusion. It was a tad harder than some illusions because she layered a scent into it that would draw the guard’s attention to the faint coils of black smoke she created wafting down a bend in the hallway.

In a minute the guard’s beak nostrils flared as he sniffed the illusionary scent of smoke, and he turned his head to stare one huge eagle eye at the visual illusion of faint smoke down the hall. Not prone to panic the guard didn’t start screaming about a fire or anything, but instead did what any curious and safety conscious guard would do; investigate.

The guard plodded down the hall past the two invisible ponies pressed up against the wall and walked around the bend in the hall. Trixie figured he’d spent at least a minute or two looking to see if there was an actual fire anywhere, and when he didn’t find one Trixie imagined he’d chalk it up to either his bored mind getting away with him or somepony in a different room just getting overzealous with their chamber’s fireplace.

The moment the guard was out of sight Trixie led Cheerilee to the door. She then put her hoof on Cheerilee’s withers, so the two kept physical contact, which made maintaining the invisibility over both of them easier. She heard Cheerilee rustle around a bit, then heard the faint click of something metal jiggling into the lock on the door’s handle.

Trixie cast a worried glance down the hall, but didn’t see or hear any sign of the guard returning yet. After a few more seconds of jiggling followed by one or two muttered words that probably weren’t proper for or a schoolteacher to say, the door clicked open with barely more than a brush of noise. The two mares quickly went inside, closing the door behind them. Trixie relocked the door, then dropped the invisibility. A second later she cast another spell, wreathing this side of the door in a shield of silence that’d muffle her and Cheerilee’s voices to anyone on the other side. Fortunately it was a one way shield, so they’d be able to still hear anyone approaching the door or talking outside it.

“Alright, let’s do this fast.” Trixie said, casting her gaze across the room.

The chambers were large, which was to be expected, with a long set of windows flanking a doorway to an actual stone balcony directly opposite the entry. To Trixie’s right she saw an open door leading to what looked like the bedchambers. To her left the room went on for a good thirty paces, consisting of a well furnished living area with dark wood chairs around a circular eating table, several thickly padded couches in front of a tall stone hearth, and a wide number of shelves and cabinets stocked with books and drinks respectively.

“I don’t see much in here.” said Cheerilee, nodding towards the door to the right, “Bedroom, maybe?”

“Go ahead, I’ll join you in a second.” Trixie said, habitually whispering despite the sound shield over the door. By now the guard may have returned to his post, but as far as he’d know nothing had changed and he’d have no reason to try the door. Even if he did, he’d need to unlock it first, the sound of which would buy Trixie time to get another invisibility up.

As Cheerilee trotted into the bed chambers Trixi did a slow circuit around the living room, her eyes gliding over the area with a critical, narrow gaze. She was as much wary of a trap as she was for any potential evidence of King Gruber being connected to anything suspicious. She was all too aware this could be part of a plot by Grimwald to frame her and her friends, and had her horn hot and ready to go invisible the moment she thought something was wrong. She also was willing to try a very risky short range teleport, if needed. She was terrible at the spell and the power required even for short range wasn’t easy on her, but she’d rather get her and Cheerilee clear fast than risk being caught.

At first nothing seemed all that out of the ordinary, but Trixie’s eye was then drawn to a set of papers lain out on the living room main table, held down at the corners by half drunk glasses of wine. Taking a closer look, she noticed they were maps, specifically maps of the Griffion Kingdoms. Trixie frowned at the markings. Something seemed off. She wasn’t exactly an expert, but she knew enough to realize that the borders between the Griffin Kingdoms didn’t look right.

There were too few of them.

“Is this an old map from the Griffin Empire?” Trixie wondered aloud, but no, the names for the various city-eyries of the griffins were of the modern cities, not the ones from back in the Griffin Empire days. The implications of this map gave Trixie an unsettled feeling in her gut. Of course it didn’t actually prove anything. It wasn’t a crime to own a map with... imaginative borders. But it suggested King Gruber, and perhaps other royals among the griffins, were of a mind for forming a new Empire. Or at least a set of Griffin Kingdoms with fewer Kingdoms. Notably the absence of the original Border Kingdoms.

“Trixie,” Cheerilee called from the bedroom, “Come look at this.”

“I don’t suppose they’re carefully written and signed documents concerning King Gruber’s megalomaniacal plan to become the next Emperor of the Griffins?” Trixie asked, moving at a quick canter to join Cheerilee inside the bedchambers.

The bedchamber were more bed than chamber, with a huge bed with four dark posts, with curtains decked in the Kingdom of Grandis’ heraldry, filling up more than half the space. The sheets were heavily rumpled, suggesting heavy activity that Trixie didn’t allow her mind to conjure any images of, but the room did have a heavy scent of musky sweat to it and candle wax. It was hot in the room too, stemming from the coals burning from two braziers in the room’s corner. Cheerilee was standing next to the large wooden desk across from the room’s equally sizable armoire. The desk was strewn with papers and a big ink pot, dots of black ink staining many of the pages.

“Not exactly an evil mastermind’s plans done up in detail,” said Cheerilee, pointing to the topmost papers, “But there’s a lot of orders here being issued to military units, it sounds like. Or rather, letters of confirmation of other Kingdoms moving military force around.”

Trixie began to scan the papers, and realized after just a minute that most of these were letters addressed to other griffin royals already attending the Contest. If the letters held any truth, the King of Grandis was organizing a massive set of military maneuvers with other Inner Kingdom royals... but for what purpose? The movements themselves didn’t seem overtly purposeful. Again her knowledge of griffin geography was limited, working against her, but she couldn’t tell exactly what the aim of moving one or two legions to different fortresses.

But then one order caught her eye. It wasn’t just a movement order, but something else entirely. Scanning it, Trixie’s eyebrows shot up, and she began to read aloud.

“... the fifth, seventh, and twelfth legions are authorized to utilize all force necessary to detain the vigilante group of rogues known as the Band of the Red Shield. Full authority is granted to cross the border into the Border Kingdom of Farhills to locate and apprehend all members of the Band. If interference from Farhills military forces is encountered, authorization is granted...”

Trixie swallowed nervously, then continued, “Granted to engage with lethal force. Cheerilee, color me crazy, but this rather looks like an invasion, doesn’t it?”

“Of griffins invading other griffins, which still counts, but I don’t know what that means we should do,” Cheerilee said with a deep frown, “It looks like this is all about taking down some vigilante group. But then why have all those other forces move around?”

“The Band of the Red Shield... hmm... wait, if I’m not mistaken, which I’m laying odds I’m not, that’s the name of the group led by that griffiness that was with Dao Ming during the Grand Melee. Gwen... something.”

“Gwendolyn. Kind of seen as a folk hero for leading her military unit to fight bandits and monsters in the Border Kingdoms.” Cheerilee said, then met Trixie’s questioning look. “What? I paid attention during the meet and greets at dinner.”

Trixie nodded, conceding the point, and rubbed her forehead in thought, “So why bring her here as a champion if they’re actually planning to arrest her whole legion as vigilantes?”

“At a guess, to get her out of the way. Without their leader it's probably assumed this Band will be less of a threat.”

That made sense, but why focus on this one band of vigilantes? If they were so important, and if King Gruber wanted them arrested so badly, he still could have done this much sooner and likely gotten Gwendolyn out of the way with any number of simpler pretexts than bringing her to the Contest of Champions. No, Trixie knew they were missing something here. There was more to this puzzle than the pieces they were seeing here, but she didn’t doubt that this was what Grimwald wanted them to find. And by her estimate she and Cheerilee had been here too long already.

“We need to go. Princess Luna needs to know about this. And... so does this Gwendolyn griffin.”

Right upon the heel of her words she heard the door to the living room click and start to swing open. Trixie and Cheerilee exchanged briefly panicked looks before Cheerilee put a hoof on Trixie’s withers and Trixie dropped a layer of invisibility upon them. They quickly slipped up against the wall and Trixie chanced a glance into the living room.

She didn’t immediately recognize the griffin who’d entered the room, but she had a vaguely familiar look about her. With rusty red tipped white feathers and a powerful, keen bearing, she looked very much like an older, more weathered Gwendolyn. She wore the burnished steel breastplate and greaves of a soldier, and by the crests on the shoulders Trixie was guessing some kind of royal guard. The deadly looking rapier the grifiness carried caught Trixie’s eye.

“Are you sure you saw no one enter?” the female griffin asked sharply, addressing the guard that Trixie and Cheerilee had bypassed earlier as he stood at rigid and nervous attention at the door.

“I... yes, ma’am. I was only away from the door for a matter of seconds, investigating what I thought might have been a fire. When I returned the door was still locked.”

“And could have been entered and re-locked from the inside, fool!” the griffiness snapped, eyes flashing dangerously, and causing the guard to gulp, eyes wide. “You’re on double shifts as of now, and half rations. Guarding the privy. That’s apparently all you’re good for guarding.”

“Y-yes Captain Beatrice.” the guard said, hiding his clear sulleness under an ironclad mask of discipline, not daring to so much as bat an eye at his superior. Meanwhile the female, Beatrice, began to stalk around the room, very much reminding Trixie of the griffin’s predatory nature as she began to sniff the air, her lion-like tail flicking about in sharp gestures.

Trixie wasn’t sure just how sharp a griffin’s sense of smell was, but she wasn’t about to take the chance of being caught by just staying put. With a small hoof bump to Cheerilee to signal she was about to move, Trixie and Cheerilee both began to silently pad across the room, sticking to the wall and edging towards the corner near the door. Meanwhile Beatrice continued to circle the room, until she reached the door to the bedchamber just a few paces behind Trixie and Cheerilee leaving it. Beatrice’s head came up quickly and her nostrils flared, causing Trixie to freeze in place.

“Ma’am?” the guard asked, walking into the room and clearing the door. Trixie, heart pounding in her chest like a terrified rabbit fleeing a timberwolf, headed for the door, mentally sending a silent prayer to Luna or any other higher powers willing to toss some divine intervention her way.

Beatrice’s eyes narrowed as she sniffed a few more times, and gave the bedchamber a sour look, “The King and Queen have been enjoying themselves a bit too much. Can’t smell a damn thing besides their musk in there. If someone was in here they haven’t left any scent I can pick up. Nothing looks disturbed. Still, going to put guards both inside and outside from now on. As for you, stay here until I send your relief, then get your worthless flank to the privies.”

“Yes ma’am!”

By the time the guard was done shouting his affirmation and returned to the door, Trixie and Cheerilee were long gone.

----------

Evening had arrived with a fresh and warm ocean breeze from the south and the sun coloring the sky with intense washes of red and purple as it made its slow and leisurely path to the horizon. Corona’s golden ark had moved to start slowly circling the island, and while Lyra wondered what the reason for that might be, she trusted what Princess Luna said when she claimed that for the moment Corona wasn’t plotting anything unpleasant. Indeed Corona had come through the Contest grounds with both Terrorwing and Kindle in tow, though Smoke was oddly missing from the group. Nervous as her presence made the ponies in the crowd, Corona had gotten more curious looks than uneasy ones from many of the non-ponies in the crowd.

Lyra had even seen Wodan, during the break time in between performance segments, approach Corona openly and boisterously inquire if the alicorn could hold her liquor better than her younger sister and suggest a drinking contest to find out. Corona... declined the offer, after briefly becoming engulfed in flames hot enough that Lyra had felt them from a distance. Wodan had just taken the response in cheerful stride, bowing and giving a rumbling chuckle that the offer would remain open.

Lyra was fairly certain the moose didn’t have a sense of self preservation.

She’d been worried that Trixie and Cheerilee wouldn’t get back from their little excursion in espionage in time, but just as the crowds were gathering once more and the third and final segment of the Contest of Art kicked off Lyra saw the two mares cantering towards the Equestrian champion’s stage. Both looked a tad frazzled, and Lyra wasn’t the only one to notice.

“What happened?” Raindrops asked with a low, serious tone as Trixie and Cheerilee hopped up onto the stage. The stage itself had been modified to have a tall circular main platform, with one half of the circle having a large bowl-shaped wall that would act to channel and carry the sound of Lyra’s music for the audience directly in front of the stage. It also had a slightly depressed portion in back where Trixie could stand comfortably and work her illusions without being obvious. Normally she might use invisibility to achieve that effect, but having mentioned her magic feeling a bit strained that day, Ditzy had come up with the idea to create a hiding spot on stage for Trixie to use so she could save her magical stamina.

As Trixie made her way towards that hiding spot, she shared a glance with Cheerilee, then looked back towards the rest of her friends, speaking in a quiet, cautious voice. “We escaped without being seen, but what we found was troubling. Not certain how it's connected to the threat looming over the Contest, but the griffins might be gearing up for a civil war.”

“What!?” Ditzy blurted, eyes turning into wide, golden saucers. “W-why!?”

“Shhh!” Trixie put a hoof to her mouth, “Not so loud, Ditzy. Look, I don’t know why. Griffin politics aren’t my forte. All I know is that Cheerilee and I found papers hinting towards the Inner Kingdoms preparing for major military action against their Border Kingdom neighbors. As soon as we’re done with this part of the Contest we’ll take this to Luna and see what she wants to do about it, if anything.”

“If anything? Trixie, isn’t this a big deal?” asked Carrot Top, blinking in confusion, “I mean, it’d be bad to just let a war happen if we could stop it.”

“Assuming we could stop it,” Cheerilee said, frowning, “I don’t like it any more than the rest of you, but if the griffins are determined to have it out with each other there might not be much we can do to stop them.”

Then she looked thoughtful and eyed Trixie, “Although if we informed that Gwendolyn griffin about what King Gruber is planning, and had, say, Princess Luna teleport Gwendolyn back to where her troops are camped, she might be able to get them to safety before the Inner Kingdom legions find them. That’d at least stop the first spark I bet Gruber is planning to use an an excuse for the rest of the war.”

Trixie eyed Cheerilee, then said in a musing voice, “That’s true. Furthermore, we could probably stand to be short one dancer for this part of the performance, if say, a particularly stealthy and intelligent member of our group decided she wanted to go talk to Princess Luna and set things up so Gwendolyn could be informed the second this part of the Contest was over.”

“Why I do believe you’re right on that. I suppose I just feel a bit too under the weather at the moment to do any dancing,” said Cheerilee, coughing, “Yep, must be a cold from the storm. Better go get some rest. After talking to the Princess.”

“You guys do realize we’re the only ones who can hear this conversation, right?” asked Raindrops flatly.

“Hey, somepony might be listening in, you never know.” said Trixie defensively.

“If they were they’d also know what we know.” stated Raindrops, but she shrugged, “But yeah, somepony better go talk to the Princess, and Cheerilee’s the best choice.”

“A real shame, as I had some real nice moves to strut on stage.” said Cheerilee wistfully, “It’s been years since this tush got to shake what it's mamma gave it.”

“Please, don't’ ever say anything about your shaking tush again. Not until I have at least several ciders in me,” said Raindrops.

“Are you old enough to drink cider?” asked Cheerilee with a grin.

Raindrops just rolled her eyes and waved a hoof, “Go on, get. We’ll just have to shake even more rear without you to make up the difference.”

“Oh I don’t know,” said Trixie, “I think I can whip up a decent illusionary facsimile. I’ve seen you practicing, Cheerilee, I can probably duplicate it.”

“Hmm, if you do, could you put me in a sexy little skirt and socks number? Something in black?” asked Cheerilee, to which Trixie just shuddered.

“Ugh, sorry, but I wouldn’t even know what a get-up like that looked like, especially not on one of my friends. Nopony else is dressing up anyways.”

“Actually...” Ditzy said, face burning red as she gestured with a hoof towards the back of the stage where there was a small wooden chest, “We sort of grabbed some outfits the monks were nice enough to help us pick out.”

Trixie blanched, “Oh, well... that’s... great. Hmph, as long as I don’t have to wear one I can survive.”

Raindrops coughed, looking away, “Y-yeah, good thing you don’t have to. Wear anything. Like socks. Because that’d look weird on you.”

Trixie quirked on eyebrow at Raindrops but said nothing, instead giving Cheerilee a final nod. In short order Cheerilee had vanished into the crowd, and would no doubt make swift progress to finding the Princess and getting the information found in King Gruber’s quarters to an authority that could make an informed decisions on just what to do about it. For now the rest of the mares from Ponyville put those graver matters out of mind and focused on the excitement of the final portion of the Contest of Art.

Lyra, taking deep breaths, cleared her head and took the center forward position on the stage, while behind her Carrot Top, Raindrops, and Ditzy Doo arranged themselves in a loose semi-circle. They were indeed now clad in tasteful if somewhat risque get-ups consisting of some very slimming skirt-dresses and silk socks. The colors ranged quite a bit, with a deep navy blue for Raindrops, a bright and colorful green for Ditzy, and Carrot Top’s being predominantly red. Trixie remained out of view in her comfortable floor niche, and in moments had an illusionary copy of Cheerilee present to complete the semi-circle. Lyra had to admit it was an impressive illusion, as realistic as she’d come to expect from the master illusionist. There were times Lyra wondered if Trixie actually realized how frightening it could be to see how real her illusions could be.

And while Lyra imagined it was making Trixie’s blush to no end, she did put the illusion of Cheerilee into a similar skirt and socks number, black with scarlet trim. For a mare who claimed to have no interest in sex, Lyra had to admit Trixie could imagine one sexy set of clothes to dress her friend in.

Lyra’s attention was drawn to the crowds that were already gathering for the start of the numerous champions’ performances. It made her heart glow to see that a lot of ponies and other creatures from around the world were fixing their attention on the Equestrian stage, while at the same time it gave her a small shiver of fear. She’d performed for large crowds before, larger than this one even, but somehow the weight of this performance felt heavier. This was the world watching, in its way, and this was Lyra’s chance more than any other to make a difference for her and her friends’ chances to win this Contest.

The pressure was on, and for a second it felt overwhelming, like having the ocean hanging above her head.

Then she caught sight of a bouncy blue and pink striped mane of gentle curls among the crowd, then a cream white face attached to a pair of the world’s most lovely baby blue eyes. Bon Bon smiled at Lyra from amidst the crowd, blowing a kiss and mouthing the three words that could always life Lyra’s spirits and made her feel ready to tackle the world. Lyra grinned ear to ear and smooched an air-kiss back at her mare, and took a step towards the front of the stage, addressing the crowd.

“Evening folks! Hope you’re all in a swell mood, because I’m certainly stoked! For our final performance of the evening my friends and I got something special in store. We’ll be playing my first ever original composition; the Ballad of the Harmonic Knights. Enjoy!”

There was no more need to wait, as already other champions had begun their own performances on their own stages. The sound dampening spells kept her from hearing anything too loud, but she could still hear the potent thrum of Andrea’s fiddle, and Lyra chanced a glance the cervid’s way. The stage for the cervids had taken on the appearance of a long stone table surrounded by plain lengths of benches. Lyra recognized the set up as being identical to anything you might find inside the large drinking halls of Elkhiem. Andrea stood upon the table, wearing the same simple green dress that Lyra had first seen her in back in Ponyville. The jaunty red deer was playing a tune on her fiddle that Lyra recognized as the beginnings of ballad of her own, although much of the music from Elkheim was very much like a ballad in nature. What caught Lyra’s attention before she started her own playing was that Sigurd and Wodan were sitting at opposite ends of the table, holding large mugs of mead between their hooves, banging them on the table in a steady rhythm.

The sight sparked a hint of memory in Lyra’s mental library of random lore she’d built up over the years. She couldn’t quite recall what it was, however, even when Andrea noticed Lyra’s scrutiny and gave the mare a knowing smile and wink.

Across the way Dao Ming had also taken to her stage, providing quite the sight in a regal black and gold trimmed kimono that reminded Lyra of the style the Empress herself wore. Even the headdress she wore, consisting of a sunburst pattern of glittering gold and hanging strings of pearls was reminiscent of the Empress’ style. As to what Dao Ming was doing, she was levitating a set of scrolls around her and appeared to be orating poetry from them. In fact Lyra was fairly sure the style of poetry was one unique to Shouma, consisting of few lines per poem, but meant to convey heavy imagery and concepts. While making out the specific words was hard, Lyra could tell the crowds watching Dao Ming seemed fairly captivated.

Time for me to doing some captivating too. Lyra thought with a eager smile, and with a deep breath, took her lyre up and started to play.

Her notes began with a soft, quiet strum, harkening a slow build to something larger. Just as they had practiced her friends began a slow and steady rhythm to their dancing, a swaying punctuated by firm hoof beats that fit the pace of Lyra’s strumming. Behind the scenes Trixie went to work, the backdrop behind Lyra and the others darkening until it turned into the deep violet dark's of a night sky punctuated by a blanket of gleaming starlight, streaked with the flashing cuts of shooting stars.

Feeling her heart quiet with the flow of the music, Lyra’s horn started to glow with gentle yellow light, her magic weaving into the notes even as she used her hooves to work the strings. Then she began to sing, her voice reaching a higher resonate pitch than was her norm, striking an almost ghostly quality with its echoing tone.

"There came a night when the sun did rise
and there was, there was, no harmony
When the land did hold its breath in fear
for there was, there was, no harmony."

As she sang the other mares picked up the tempo of their dancing, matching an increased pace to Lyra’s playing. Raindrops was a bit stiff, but beside her Ditzy Doo smiled brightly and gave Raindrops encouraging nods, and soon Raindrops loosened up a bit. On Lyra’s other side Cheerilee and Carrot Top were both grinning, almost seeming to compete with who could put more of a flourishing spin into their movements. Even so, they kept the right pace, their hoofstomps starting to intermix with Lyra’s playing just as she hoped it would.

On the backdrop behind her the night sky that Trixie’s illusion had created now grew bright with the harsh rising of the sun, chasing away the calm and pleasant night with a burning glow. This also revealed the sleepy town of Ponyville beneath the sun, recreated with colors both bright and dark, sharp contrasts that ran together like an oil painting.

"Here comes the mare whose wits were sharp
and she sought, she sought, our harmony
We went with her, we five brave souls
and we sought, we sought, our harmony

A mare strong and fair, true as rain
and she fought, she fought, for harmony
The teacher of foals, kept our hearts light
and she laughed, she laughed, for harmony."

The ballad became more complex as Lyra’s magic surged and she used not only her lyre, but created several magical constructs that floated beside her like a phantom band. This was one of the most difficult aspects of the performance, as she’d rarely ever tried to weave multiple instruments into her music before. Strangely, as she played, both now with a guitar and harp backing her up, she also heard the playing of a fiddle. She didn’t break stride in her playing, but Lyra realized that Andrea had added her fiddle to the instruments. At a quick glance she could see Andrea looking straight back at her, dancing up a storm on her stage while her fiddle seemed to cut right through the barriers of sound dampening between stages and could be heard full force. Her playing didn’t clash with Lyra’s, rather it seemed to slip right in naturally. Yet there was a playful note of challenge to the fiddle’s presence, and Andrea herself gave Lyra an equally cheeky wink.

Once more Lyra’s memory was tickled. She’d read something about this. She knew she had. Andrea was doing something specific to Elkhiem culture, but Lyra couldn’t fish the details out of her brainpan, especially with all her focus needed for her song.

While she played through an instrumental bridge to the next part of the ballad, Trixie’s illusions painted a picture of the story. This was the ballad of Trixie’s coming to Ponyville, the meeting with her friends, and the coming of the Tyrant Sun, followed by her defeat by the Elements. Thus far the illusions played back like a moving picture book, showing a small and stylized Trixie arriving in town for the Longest Night celebration, encountering each of the mares who would in time become bound together as friends that night. Lyra smiled as the memories washed over her, and a fair bit of mirth at some of the aggravating things Trixie did at the start. Trixie rather glossed over that part in the flow of events in her illusion, not that Lyra really faulted her for that as she continued to sing.

"With a smile bright from a kindly soul
And she held close, held close, her harmony
And when one had to give more than most
This mare came forth, came forth, for harmony

One last soul stepped forward, unflinchingly
And she kept faith, kept faith, in harmony
Six winds as one, not knights but simply mares
Drawn together, together, standing for harmony."

Lyra was in complete, simple bliss, largely forgetting where she was as she just let her mind and soul get lost in the music and the memories. Trixie worked her illusions like a maestro, expanding the backdrop into an encircling mist, its picturebook images popping out as if alive and bringing the journey of the six mares into the depths of the Everfree Forest to a haunting level of life for the awe struck onlookers. The other mares had slowed the tempo of their dancing, dipping their heads in a reverent manner as images of their specific Elements settled over them, and their outfits changed through Trixie’s expertly woven illusions to now resemble their suits of armor.

Meanwhile the flow of the illusionary pictures depicted the dangers they had faced within the Everfree Forest, searching for the Elements.

"The sirens’ poisoned chords made a deathly call
Yet the strength of Loyalty would not, would not fall
And to restore her friend the generous soul,
They braved the touch, the touch of poisoned joke

Through ancient castle’s threshold arrived
One forced from sight, another to great height
Whilst a guide of rhyming mein did run
To consort a scheme with the sun."

One after another the ghostly images painted by Trixie’s smooth and expertly crafted illusions showed the flow of events through the Everfree Forest to their arrival at the old Castle of the Sisters. Lyra almost chuckled as she played. Her ballad and Trixie’s illusions weren’t exaggerations per se, but actually having been there and lived through it Lyra recalled the journey had as many instances of her and her friends stumbling about as much as being heroic. Trixie, Carrot Top, and Raindrops getting infected with Poison Joke had largely been because they’d needed to get an ether flower to help Lyra recover from overchanneling when she’d faced the sirens, but everypony had sort of forgotten how easily Raindrops could have flown over the Poison Joke to get it. Life was filled with moments like that, but they didn’t necessarily make for good epic ballads. Maybe if ballads should have blooper verses at the end of them?

The song continued, coming to the end showing the final confrontation with Corona, after the alicorn had returned from assaulting Canterlot to try and stop Lyra and her friends from obtaining the Elements. They’d found them, but Trixie had still been invisible, and nopony had had any clue what the Sixth Element was. The awesome clash between giant Raindrops and a magically aged up baby dragon aside those final moments had been less about battle and more about facing down an insane alicorn with only the virtues and bonds the mares had forged in such a short span of time.

"Laughing in peril’s face, and Honestly embraced
Loyalty proven by deed, by deed in life risked
Generosity through sacrifice, Kindness through mercy
Thus sparked did Magic emerge as friendship’s bonds

It is this the sun could not withstand
For no force bears the strength, the strength, of harmony
So ends this tale, yet another springs from its roots
For these mares, these mares, became knights for harmony

And they’ll always stand, together, for harmony."

When her song finished Lyra found herself taking several moments to just let herself breath and let her senses collection themselves. She was breathing hard and sweat dripped from her chin. Even if the song hadn’t been long, as ballads go, maintaining the multiple instruments had been rough on her magic. Strangely she thought she knew what Trixie meant, however, about feeling drained. She’d practiced this ballad a few times, and had never felt quite this tired afterward. Even so, she also felt exhilarated, a feeling only magnified when the audience that had been watching in rapt silence now burst into a storm of cheers, from stomping hooves to whistling calls, and hearty bellows.

Lyra, face breaking into a beaming grin, gestured for her friends to come forward, and they all took a bow together. Trixie had her hat off, and Lyra noticed she wasn’t channeling any more magic, despite the Cheerilee illusion being right there bowing with them... or so Lyra thought until the “illusion” gave Lyra an elbow.

“Nice job, o’ mighty bard,” said the real Cheerilee, “I knew you were good, but I saw folk getting drawn to this stage from all over the Contest grounds on my way back.”

Lyra smiled, then whispered to Cheerilee, glad the cheering crowds probably masked any chance others would hear, “I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, but dang if I’m not glad I gave it a shot. How’d things go with the Princess?”

“Weirdly,” Cheerilee whispered back, “I think she’s planning something, but didn’t tell me what. She just sent me back here to you guys with a message for us to meet her tomorrow morning.”

Lyra shrugged at that, trusting the Princess to know what she was doing. As long as Luna had a plan, things would work out. After the crowd’s cheering and applause died down, Lyra addressed the gathered folk while wiping sweat from her face.

“Thank you all, thank you. If you enjoyed that, we’ll be doing an encore soon, after we get a chance to catch our breaths.”

“Actually lass, I got a right shiny proposal for you if you feel you’ve got the chops for it,” called a familiar feminine tenor as Andrea just glided over the crowd with an impressive bounding step and landed on the stage beside Lyra and her stunned friends. She was still playing her fiddle in a playfully jaunty manner, and eyed Lyra up and down with gleaming eyes. Back on the cervid stage Sigurd and Wodan remained seated, but their eyes were glued to Lyra and Andrea, and they banged their mugs on their stone table with a rhythmic, ritualistic beat.

“Been raring to have a musical go at you from day one, Lyra Heartstrings, and since you didn’t quite notice me challenging you during your playing, I’ll say it plainer,” Andrea stepped closer to Lyra, all but invading the mare’s personal space, showing pearly white teeth as she grinned, “Let’s have ourselves a duel.”

There were nervous looks and gasps from the crowd, and among Lyra’s friends a few stared in stunned silence, while Raindrops looked ready to deck the deer. Trixie, looking flabbergasted, stepped forward.

“Now look here, where do you get off calling for such a thing here!? This is ridiculous!”

“Wait,” Lyra said, holding up hoof to forestall Trixie, “I don’t think she’s talking about a physical duel, Trixie.”

The word ‘duel’ had finally taken the spark of memory that’d tried to ignite in her mind during the ballad and lit it up fully. She eyed Andrea up and down, then matched the red deer’s grin with one of her own. “You’re talking about a Skald’s Duel. That’s what you were doing during my song, breaking into it with your own music as a form of challenge.”

Andrea strummed a sharp tune on her fiddle, “Figured you’d know, just needed a bit o’ kick to get you to remember. It's a tradition as old as we skalds ourselves, back home. It’s something I want to show all the fine folk here at the Contest, but got no fellow skald to challenge. But you, Lyra Heartstrings, got the spirit of a skald in you, so what do you say...”

She hopped off the stage, seeming to create a natural break in the crowd as they gave her room as the red deer danced along with the tunes of her fiddle into the center area between the cervid stage and the Equestrian stage.

“Want to give these folk a real show, lass?”

“You don’t have to do this Lyra,” said Trixie, watching Andrea with a suspicious frown, “She only stands to gain from making a big spectacle out of this anyway, just after we nailed our own performance.”

“This is a matter of Dame Heartstring’s honor, Dame Lulamoon,” said Dao Ming, who Lyra saw hop off her own stage with the smoothness of a heron taking wing, not even ruffling her midnight black kimono as she strode towards them, and seemed to draw along her own crowd with her. Lyra noticed the kirin still carried her poetry scrolls, along with a brush and box-shaped ink well. Dao Ming nodded to Andrea, then looked to the Equestrian stage.

“If I am not mistaken, Lady Andrea has placed her own honor, and the veracity of her performance, on challenging Dame Heartstrings to this duel of musical might. To refuse would be a blow against both of them, would it not?”

Trixie grumbled something under her breath, which Lyra thought involved the words ‘meddling’ and ‘kirin’ along with a few other expletives. Strangely the grumbling wasn’t entirely rancorous, but held a note of respect. Lyra just laughed and patted Trixie’s shoulder.

“It's fine Trixie, I’m actually glad Andrea challenged me. I want to do this!” She turned to Andrea, hopping down from her own stage, lyre held aloft in her magic. “I accept, Andrea! Let’s do this!”

“Kick her flank, hun!” shouted Bon Bon from the crowd, and there were a number of eager voices calling out for their favored to win.

Dao Ming nodded and bowed to both Andrea and Lyra, “And if none of you object, I wish to use your duel as inspiration for my final haiku of the evening. To read poems I’ve prepared already is well enough, but I feel the need to do this last one from something worthy of my inspiration.”

Andrea laughed, “Knock yourself out, lass. Me and Heartstrings here will be shining bright enough for your soul to bust out a thousand poems!”

“So we doing this on your stage or ours?” asked Lyra, and Andrea just twirled her fiddle in her grasp and pointed the stick towards the floor.

“Right there, right now. You know the rules?”

“Only that there aren’t many,” said Lyra, shaking her legs out to get some of the tiredness out and cracking her neck. “Challenger usually starts first, either starting up a well known song or improvising one on the fly. Notes or lyrics, it's all up to the skalds, but it's a back and forth of verse versus verse, each building up on the other. We keep going until the crowds roaring one or the other’s name the loudest, banging mugs so hard on the table it sometimes breaks.”

“We got you covered there, little lass with the summer sweet voice!” called Wodan, his mug making a hearty bang on the table, “Even this table of stone will crack once mighty Wodan’s heart sings alongside the best skald between you.”

“Assuming he doesn’t pass out from drink first,” said Sigurd, taking a long, draining drink from his own mug, which Lyra realized now where both etched with runes and were magically refilling for both the moose and water deer. Wodan bellowed a laugh.

“Ha, more likely you shall drop from drink first, Sigurd of the thin belly! Nay, it is I who shall outdrink you this fine night, whichever of these lovely lasses sing the truest!”

“A challenge I accept, Wodan of the long wind!” Sigurd shouted back, and both took to their drinks, already beginning their own duel before Lyra and Andrea started their own.

“Well, we’d best get to it before one of those fellas passes out, eh?” said Lyra, readying her lyre and facing Andrea. The crowd, which had near doubled in size by now as many were drawn to the unusual turn of events, now formed a circle around the pony and her deer opponent. Lyra’s friends still watched on from the Equestrian stage, joined now by Dao Ming, who had a blank scroll out and her brush dipped in ink, hovering in her gold magical aura and ready to write.

“I believe as challenger, the first verse is yours.” Lyra said, nodding her head to Andrea. The red deer in turn nodded in respect, and smiled.

“Right you are.” Her bow touched the strings of her fiddle, and Andrea’s eyes lit up like fairy lights, almost as if with their own inner fire. “Show me what you’ve got, bard of Equestria.”

Lyra had expected a traditional, slow build up to Andrea’s playing. Instead Andrea’s hoof began to move at a hypnotically fast pace as she unleashed a powerfully quick set of notes that took Lyra by surprise. There had to be rune magic involved somehow, for Lyra couldn’t see how Andrea was getting so many notes in so quickly, with extra layers making it seem as if there were three or four fiddles playing at once instead of just one. There was still a sense of build up towards something larger, but these initial notes hit with such frantic energy that they got Lyra’s heart racing, and she could see the audience was equally drawn in by it. Lyra almost forgot herself, but with a deep and determined breath she lit up her horn and put her hooves to her lyre. She’d be expected to match Andrea note for note, and she wasn’t going to disappoint.

When she felt a natural point in the build up she added her lyre to Andrea’s fiddle, weaving into the other musician's notes with delicate ease, like a fencer making that first probing strike. Lyra felt proud of herself that she managed to get her lyre playing so fast as to blend into Andrea’s quick starting pace... then she saw the way Andrea smirked, and then the red deer demonstrated just what fast meant.

In the span of a breath Andrea’s build up notes exploded into a full stanza, twice as fast as before, with notes strung so close together it was like a raging river of sound, yet it maintained a potent and evocative melody that didn’t get drowned out by its own speed. Lyra couldn't keep up for a moment, taken utterly aback by the sheer speed and power of Andrea’s play, but she recovered swiftly upon seeing Bon Bon and her friends watching from the crowds.

She’d be damned if she’d get outpaced before they even got the first verse of singing! Brows furrowed in concentration, Lyra brought her magic into play, using her aura as a second set of hooves to double her own swift and sweet notes, quickly catching up with Andrea’s pace. Lyra spotted a genuine smile of approval bloom on Andrea’s face as she gave Lyra a wink and then brought her clear, chiming voice into play.

”At the dawn of a new age, the land sits in quiet grace
Unknowing hearts, in peaceful grasp of fate’s cruel embrace
They sleep now, but soon they’ll wake to a new world evermore
The chance for glory shines eternal across a bloody shore!”

It would be Lyra’s turn next, and she had seconds before the natural flow of the music would require the next verse. No time to think, just to let the words flow naturally in tune with the music. The imagery of Andrea’s own verse had evoked a strange feeling of rebellion, like raising one’s hoof against fate. Yet there was a note of violence to it, a hint of the price of bringing a new age about. As if doing so would break the peace of the previous age.

Lyra responded to that with the words pouring out of her in time with her hooves flowing over her lyre.

”Glory fades, and has a high price to pay
What you protect lasts through the age
With the book of history to say
Our lives are all their own page"

Andrea’s smile turned sharp, and she didn’t miss a single beat as her and Lyra’s playing intertwined towards a growing tension that started to make the air feel heavy.

”In the biggest tales of champions travails
There’s ever blood and strife
It's not through peace the greatest heroes rise!"

Their playing reached a higher crescendo and Lyra’s hooves worked as a blur, her magic seeming to pulse and sing along with her voice. She could feel Andrea’s music like a tide that surged against her own, yet despite that the two melodies clashing seemed to forge a larger harmony, as wild, fierce, and beautiful as a natural hurricane.

”Then let our souls leap higher and soar
To seek peace amid our age’s storms
Long as the winds rage, we fight back even more
Even with no sundown, or even with no moonlight
Each of us can champion Harmony!”

Each verse built upon the other, Andrea and Lyra’s voices like twin stormfronts that upon meeting swirled into a larger typhoon. Lyra’s brow was now dripping sweat in small rivers, and she couldn’t even really feel her hooves as they buffeted across her lyre like the wind itself. Andrea was no different, droplets of sparkling sweat flying from the red deer as she flung herself into her playing, the bow of her fiddle a dark flicker across her instrument's strings.

”So in this age we stand on the edge
Where a stray breeze leads to peace or war
It's in our hearts to choose which which way the wind shall turn
So take your stand even as the world burns!"

What followed next could only be described as a direct assault of unmitigated musical power as Andrea’s playing transformed into something nearly physical in the air as she launched into a powerful instrumental solo that slammed into Lyra’s body, mind, and soul like a tidal wave. Lyra nearly lost her footing, and felt her head go dizzy and her vision darken as she almost passed out. It wasn’t just the volume of Andrea’s playing, or its speed, or its insanely striking chords. It was more than that, something Lyra couldn’t explain with logic. It was as if Andrea’s music was alive and surrounding her, seeking to crush her down...

And all Lyra wanted to do was fight back against that tide with her own music, and even though she could barely stand, and could feel her heart hammering in her rib cage, she redoubled her own playing and poured all of the magic she could into leaping into her own counter-solo. She pushed herself and her lyre further and faster than she ever imagined she could, and she felt her own music rise as if it too were a living thing born from her magic, her soul, and her own need to face Andrea as an equal.

Everything dropped away, and Lyra couldn’t see the crowd around her anymore, nor the Contest stage. All that existed was herself, her lyre, Andrea, and the music that surged between them like a tornado of intermixing musical clashes. If one transmuted both mare and deer into warriors wielding blades locked in a duel of masters one could not have found a faster or fiercer tempo of battle.

Time utterly ceased to mean anything. All Lyra could sense was the ebb and flow of her music transmuted beyond the mere notes to become something else, something primal, as she and Andrea’s music surged back and forth. And yet amid it all Lyra sensed an end coming, whether her own or Andrea’s she couldn’t be sure until the final surge of music flowed out of her, overwhelming the notes from Andrea until it was Lyra’s harmony that took control and forced an ending to the confrontation. However, it wasn’t enough just to overwhelm Andrea. This was a song, and Lyra was going to finish as such, so as she took the lead, exhausted beyond belief but feeling more alive than she had in recent memory, she sang the final verses without planning, but simply letting the pour out of her heart with every last golden strum on her lyre.

”Now here we are at the crossroads of lands
So that our hearts might come to understand
That our purpose in life is not mere strife
But to make tomorrow better than today!

So in this age we stand on the edge
Where a stray breeze leads to peace or war
It's in our hearts to choose which way the wind shall turn
I choose to not just let the world burn!”

She finished with one last set of closing notes that rose to a final crescendo then crashed down to a smashing finish.

The silence immediately afterward was numbing, leaving Lyra’s ears ringing. She looked around her, blinking in surprise at what she saw. The crowd around her and Andrea had gotten larger at some point, not merely consisting of Contest goers, but now having many of the champions from across the stage standing in awe of the two musicians. It was as if the entire Contest of Art had halted to hold its breath and come watch the battle between her and Andrea. Lyra saw Luna standing beside Corona and Princess Cadenza, all three alicorns seeming to have forgotten each other to watch the spectacle that had just taken place. Lyra could see pride shining as bright as a full moon in Luna’s eyes, while Princess Cadenza held a look of beaming approval, which meant a lot coming from a Princess ruling a country renowned for its appreciation of the musical arts.

Even the Tyrant Sun herself held a look of grudging respect.

Then an exhausted, but happy chuckle rung through the air, and Lyra turned to see Andrea smiling as she slowly approached, setting her fiddle aside. With a deep dip of her head, Andrea bowed to Lyra, voice breathless.

“Now that is exactly what I’d hoped for, lass. You got me beat, fair and square.” Andrea laughed again as she stretched her neck left and right, with an audible popping, “Ack, proof enough I haven’t had a real worthwhile challenge in forever!”

Wodan and Sigurd both slammed their mugs to the stone table they sat at then raised them high.

“Drinks and cheer in honor of the victor! Lyra Heartstrings!”

As both of them drank, rounds of applause and cheers rose from among the crowd, soon becoming deafening as they shook the entire stone Contest stage. Up on the Equestrian stage Lyra could see her friends jumping and cheering as well, and Dao Ming inclining in her head in respectful acknowledgment as she examined the scroll she’d been writing her haiku on.

Lyra grinned, and would have been more than happy to join in the festivities. She saw Bon Bon jumping out from the crowd and rushing towards her, and Lyra would’ve happily bounced over to meet her marefriend and give her one giant hug and smooch for the occasion, only she couldn’t quite seem to get the world to stop tilting for some reason...

Lyra passed out like a candle guttering out after reaching the very last of its wax.