//------------------------------// // Chapter Fifteen // Story: Codex Ponera - Cliffside Eyrie // by Pepperbrony //------------------------------// Rainbow let out a low whistle. “So this is how the dukes sleep. Fancy.” Duchess Coloratura’s bedchamber was as large as it was luxurious. The focus of the room was the four-poster bed, large enough for a dozen ponies to sleep comfortably. The pillows looked softer than anything Rainbow had ever touched, let alone used, and the sheets were of finely woven silk. The fire furies in each of the three hearths had reduced themselves down to embers, illuminating the room with a soft orange light. The thick curtains over the windows looked like they could block furycannon fire, let alone simple light, ensuring both a dark room to sleep in and a safe place from attack. The duchess herself was visible only as a mass of dark indigo mane, the rest of her wrapped up in her sheets and sleeping soundly. Rainbow regretted the need, but moved to the bed to wake her anyway. “Hey, duchess. Wake up, your grace!” Groaning, Coloratura rolled over… and began to snore. Rainbow rolled her eyes and called to the duchess again. When Coloratura continued to not awake, Rainbow willed Tank to blow a stiff breeze directly into her aquamarine face. “Wakey wakey, duchess. We have important stuff to talk about!” called Rainbow. Finally roused from her slumber, Coloratura jerked upright. “Wh… what? Is it morning already?” she asked, making her way to the edge of the huge bed. “First Class, must I get up so early? I feel like I only just went to sleep.” “Sorry, your grace,” said Rainbow. “I’m not First Class, my name is Rainbow Dash, and I have to warn you- YAH!” Rainbow cut off when Coloratura suddenly flung a hoof at her and crafted a strong wind to blow Rainbow away from the bed and into the stone wall. “Ow.” “Stay back, assassin!” shrieked Coloratura, before drawing in a deep breath. She continued breathing in for longer than Rainbow thought possible, until Rainbow realised what the duchess intended. Rainbow twitched her wings and pushed Tank as hard as she could into another sound barrier, just in time to surround Coloratura before she called for her guards with a fury-assisted yell. Rainbow, outside the sound barrier, heard nothing. Coloratura looked smug for a moment, before recognising the wind crafting around her. She narrowed her eyes at Rainbow, while focusing her own crafting efforts to break the barrier. Rainbow doubled down on Tank’s barrier, holding it together. While the dukes and duchesses were all stronger crafters than the average pony, Rainbow had the advantage of being able to focus all her furycraft training on only one fury discipline. Besides, Rainbow Dash was not the average windcrafter. The barrier held. When Coloratura realised her windcraft was outclassed, she changed tactics. She raised a hoof only to stomp it onto the floor. Suddenly, the embers smoldering in the three hearths sprang back into full flames, which then flung themselves at Rainbow. With a yelp, Rainbow dodged them and threw herself in the only safe direction available - directly at Coloratura herself. Rainbow felt her ears pop as she passed through the sound barrier around the duchess, then found herself slammed, back first, onto the floor by Coloratura’s earthcraft-enhanced strength. Coloratura planted a hoof on Rainbow’s chest. Coloratura crafted the flames back to the fireplaces, before focusing on Rainbow. “You will not kill me in my sleep, assassin!” She pushed her hoof down, making Rainbow wince. “I’m not an assassin!” Rainbow managed to gasp out. “Please, just listen to me!” “Of course you’d say that, now that I’ve caught you,” sneered Coloratura. “No, really,” said Rainbow. “I’m here to warn you. The griffons are going to attack the city tomorrow evening!” Coloratura burst out laughing. “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! The griffons haven’t sent so much as a tourist to Ponera for centuries! Do you really expect me to believe a story like that?” “Well, yes,” replied Rainbow. “Please, just hear me out.” “And why should I do that?” asked Coloratura. “An Auditor from Equinopolis arrived today, warning me about an assassin named Rainbow Dash, matching your description, working with a local family, planning on killing me. So why should I believe you?” “Uhh…” Rainbow thought for a moment. “I don’t suppose the names Big Macintosh, Applejack, and Scootaloo mean anything to you?” Coloratura blinked. She looked down at Rainbow for a moment, before looking away. After a moment, she lifted her hoof from Rainbow’s chest. “The ponies the Auditor described could be those three,” she said. “Okay, now we’re getting somewhere,” muttered Rainbow. Climbing to her hooves, Rainbow spoke to Coloratura. “They came with me to warn you about the griffon attack. Scootaloo overheard the griffons talking to a traitorous Auditor, Octavia Melody. They were planning to work with a mercenary airship to attack Cliffside Eyrie, under Duke Svengallop’s orders.” Coloratura turned back to Rainbow. “Applejack and I have been friends for years. I know the Apple family quite well,” she said. She narrowed her eyes. “So explain to me why you haven’t mentioned the fourth member of the family.” Rainbow hung her head and lowered her ears. “Apple Bloom was with Scootaloo when she overheard Octavia speaking with the griffons, but then they got separated. Applejack went looking for her, but… she tracked her to some forest filled with monsters. Applejack said that the monsters killed Apple Bloom.” Coloratura gasped in shock, holding a forehoof over her mouth. “Oh no, Apple Bloom,” she whispered. “The others got arrested trying to enter the inner city,” said Rainbow. “If you talk to them, you can get their stories, see how they compare with mine. But please, duchess, we have to act fast, and get the city ready to defend itself.” Coloratura stared at Rainbow for a moment, before sighing. She stepped closer to the pegasus and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Are you lying to me?” Rainbow realised what Coloratura was doing - the duchess was using her watercrafter’s affinity for emotions to detect deception. With direct physical contact, Coloratura would be able to tell if Rainbow tried to deceive her. Rainbow looked Coloratura in the eye. “I am not lying to you. Octavia is working for Duke Svengallop to get the griffons to attack Cliffside Eyrie,” she said. “And do you mean to kill me?” asked Coloratura, not removing her hoof. “No,” replied Rainbow. “I don’t want to kill anypony.” Coloratura nodded in acceptance, before raising an eyebrow at Rainbow. Rainbow continued to meet Coloratura’s eyes, and Coloratura finally lowered her hoof and stepped back. “Alright. I believe that you believe what you say,” said the duchess. “Mostly.” She forestalled Rainbow’s objection with a raised hoof and turned to the doors. She flung her raised hoof at the doors, and Rainbow felt through Tank the windcraft Coloratura directed at them, throwing them wide open. “Somepony, come here please,” she cried. They waited a few minutes. Nopony arrived. “I hope you didn’t kill my staff getting in here,” said Coloratura. “Hey!” protested Rainbow. “I got all the way in here without so much as touching anypony!” “So why hasn’t anypony come?” “They’re your staff. It’s not my fault if they aren’t listening-” Rainbow interrupted herself with a facehoof. “Oops. My bad. Tank, that’s enough,” she said, willing Tank to drop the sound barrier that prevented anypony more than a few steps away from hearing anything. “Okay, try again, your grace.” Coloratura grimaced. “I can’t believe I missed that,” she muttered before calling out at full volume. “Guard, maid, somepony, to me please!” Within moments, they heard the sound of hoofsteps trotting along the hall before a pair of guards reached the door. Seeing an intruder in the duchess’s bedchamber, the unicorn raised his spear, while the earth pony drew on his fury, causing a slight tremor in the stone floor around him. Coloratura waved them off. “There are three ponies being held at the gates to the inner city. Have them brought to the manor. They are not to be mistreated.” “Very well, your grace,” replied the earth pony guard. “And your… guest?” “I think I can take her if I have to,” Coloratura deadpanned, causing Rainbow to smirk. “But if it would make you feel better, one of you can stay to help keep her in line.” “Very well, your grace,” replied the unicorn, before ordering his companion to set off for the inner city gates. Applejack tried to use her time in incarceration to catch up on sleep. After a morning of apple harvesting, a midday of filly-tracking and monster dodging, an afternoon of pony-versus-airship fighting, and an evening of walking cross-country, she was thoroughly exhausted. But sleep would not come. The image of a yellow-coated filly wearing an enormous fuchsia bow in her red mane kept Applejack awake. That, and the knowledge that Apple Bloom would never come home. Applejack couldn’t help but silently sob to herself. After almost two hours, a number of guards in the livery of Coloratura’s personal guard arrived at the guardhouse and ordered the gate guards to turn over the prisoners for transport to the manor. Applejack quickly wiped her eyes before standing up. She roused Big Mac and Scootaloo. “I think Rainbow’s made it to the duchess.” “Ha. I knew she could do it,” Scootaloo replied. The guards unlocked the door and called their prisoners out. The Apple family soon found themselves on their way to the ducal manor of Cliffside Eyrie. Applejack noted that these soldiers were being far more careful with their charges than their fellows had been when taking them prisoner. They were led into the manor house, to a room that Applejack recognised as Duchess Coloratura’s office, and told to sit and wait. The three sat and waited while one of the guards left. A few minutes later he returned with the duchess herself. “Rara, finally,” said Applejack, getting up from her chair. The guards stirred, but before they could do anything else Coloratura trotted straight up to Applejack and the pair embraced. “Applejack, I heard what happened to Apple Bloom,” whispered Coloratura. “I’m so sorry.” “Thanks, Rara,” whispered back Applejack. “But we’ve got bigger fields to plough.” “So I’ve heard,” replied Coloratura, before stepping back and turning to her guards. “I’ll need you to wait outside for now, gentlecolts.” Once the guards had stepped out of the office, she waved a forehoof in a circle. Applejack felt a slight pressure in her ears as Coloratura set up a sound barrier. Then, Coloratura turned to speak to Scootaloo. “Scootaloo. Please tell me what you witnessed this morning.” Scootaloo glanced at Applejack and Big Mac, who nodded encouragement, before she spoke. “Well, it started this morning, when Ap-… when we saw an airship fly over the northern orchard, headed east over the canal…” Scootaloo told Coloratura everything she could remember about the deal she saw being finalised between ponies and griffons in the clearing. Coloratura then asked her to describe the ponies making the deal. “The pony in charge was a gray earth pony mare with a black mane,” replied Scootaloo. “She had some kind of purple symbol for a cutie mark, but we were too far away to see it properly.” Coloratura went to a cabinet and extracted a jug of water and three bowls. She poured some water into each of the bowls, and watercrafted each into a miniature full-colour image of a pony. Each pony loosely met the description given by Scootaloo. Applejack let out a low whistle. “Now that there’s a fancy bit o’ watercraftin’, Rara,” she said. “Thanks, AJ,” Coloratura replied. “Was it one of these three?” she asked Scootaloo. Scootaloo looked closely at the three watercraftings, before shaking her head. “None of those, sorry.” Coloratura waved her hoof over the three bowls, causing the images to drop back into the water before three more gray miniatures took their place. Before Coloratura could ask, Scootaloo instantly pointed at the image over the third bowl. “That one. That’s her,” she declared. Big Mac looked closely at the image, before nodding in agreement. “Eeyup.” Coloratura looked to him. “You’ve seen her too?” Big Mac nodded. “The airship caught up to us on the way to the city. She fought me, with a pair of unicorn twins.” Coloratura looked back and forth between Big Mac and Scootaloo, then turned to glare at the image of the mare over the third bowl. Snorting out a breath, she dropped all three watercraftings as well as the sound barrier windcrafting around the office. “Guards!” she cried. The guards waiting outside came in at her call. “Yes, your grace?” asked their leader. “Arrest Auditor Octavia Melody immediately,” Coloratura ordered. “I will deal with her later. And somepony have Rainbow Dash brought here immediately, along with Captain Flash Sentry.” Coloratura left the guards to hurry about their tasks, instead moving to hug Scootaloo. “I’m sorry about Apple Bloom, Scootaloo. It was thanks to her that I even met Applejack - she brought Apple Bloom to Cliffside to try to find out where she came from, and came into the city on my first day as duchess. AJ was the first petitioner in my very first court. When I saw how much AJ cared for that gorgeous little filly, I knew I had a good pony in front of me. We’ve been friends ever since.” “Eeyup,” agreed Applejack. “I kinda hope we never find out where she came from now. By now, her parents must think the worst, and that it happened years ago. It’d be hard to hear she grew up happy for thirteen years, before…” “You loved her like your own, AJ,” said Coloratura. “You all did. And she loved you all back. We’ll all miss her, but like you said before, bigger fields.” At this point Rainbow Dash was brought to the office, prompting a quick reunion hug between her and Scootaloo. Scootaloo quickly filled Rainbow in on the situation, both of them taking great pleasure in the impending arrest of Octavia. After a few more minutes, an orange pegasus arrived. He wore the armour of a guard captain, bearing the crest of Cliffside Eyrie on his chest. The tree-on-blue-diagonal-stripe insignia shone brightly as though recently polished. “Captain Flash Sentry, reporting as ordered, your grace.” “Excellent,” said Coloratura. “Captain, the Auditor who arrived today is actually a traitor. I have ordered her arrest, but for now we have a larger problem. It seems-” The sound of a loud blast and collapsing masonry interrupted the conversation. Rainbow moved to the window to try and see what had happened. “I guess Octavia didn’t want to be arrested,” she said. “It looks like she earthcrafted her way through the wall, and think I just saw her go underground.” Coloratura facehoofed. “Argh. We don’t have time for this.” She turned to a map of the city hanging on the wall. “Captain, call the guards off her; we can’t spare them. Tomorrow evening, the griffons are going to attack the city, and they’ll have furycrafting support in the form of a mercenary airship. We have until then to put together a defence.” Flash Sentry’s eyes widened and his ears drooped, before he saluted and barked some orders out the door. Then, he joined Coloratura at the city map. “What are the capabilities of this mercenary ship?” he asked. “That’s where we come in, sugarcube,” said Applejack, while Big Mac and Scootaloo nodded in agreement. The Apple family joined Coloratura and Flash Sentry at the map and started filling the captain in on what his soldiers would be dealing with.