//------------------------------// // Chapter 45: Where We Stand // Story: The Phoenix King // by Turtlehaus //------------------------------// Duke Wellington, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity strolled across the moor just on the outskirts of Trottingham. Their destination was the woods that had once hid the newly exposed Obelisks. A small battalion of soldier ponies were on guard, keeping nosey ponies, paparazzi, and potential changelings from entering the area. The three were stopped near the entrance of the forest, being asked a series of questions that had rather odd responses for answers. Primarily it was Pinkie Pie’s idea to have the guards ask rather horrible jokes to which the recipient would respond with an equally bad punch line. More often than not these jokes were puns, but it worked rather efficiently. “Has your research team uncovered anything new since Queen Chrysalis’s attempt to open the Void?” Rarity had asked. “Sir Lancaster has been temporarily been given a leave of absence due to his rather traumatic event, but the others have been compiling some interesting data since.” The Duke replied. “We should have our first findings later tonight if Mr. Montague continues to work at the pace he has been.” The walk through the woods was rather soothing to Pinkie Pie and Rarity, seeing as their lives were no longer in danger and had the time to enjoy the calmness that it held. The clearing had been cleared of most debris to allow a rather minor campsite to be established to allow research teams to take periodic shifts and work at the sight of the Obelisks. Presently there was only Mr. Bartlesby and Misses Minerva diligently taking notes of some of their recent findings while Mr. Montague was back at the museum tackling the bulk of it. “What’s the word, James?” The Duke stepped up to his makeshift desk. “We’ve been able to account for several different theories previously hypothesized by Princess Sapphire and their Court Wizard. Namely the use of Black Magic, a specific power source, and visitors from the other side.” Mr. Bartlesby reported. “We’ve also found some rather interesting relics that had been buried beneath the ground that the Queen had unearthed. It is basic stone pottery but some of the paintings depict rather tall and hooded creatures.” Mrs. Minerva added. The Duke continued listening to their report while Pinkie Pie and Rarity wandered over to the edge of the crater where the Obelisks sat ominously. Their towering black spires seemed so out of place in such a luscious green forest. “Do you think we’ll be able to help Smolder now that we’ve uncovered these, Pinkie?” Rarity asked looking her way. “I think we have a better chance than we did a few days ago and that might make all the difference.” Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Daring Do, and Chieftain Talon gathered around the thriving Arcana known as Tier. To them it had seemed like Tier had been attacked by an unseen assailant, but the truth was far worse than they knew. Talon had been attempting to help her, offering to share whatever pain she was suffering from, but Tier’s pain appeared to be physical rather than emotional. All any pony could do was make Tier as comfortable as possible, bringing her back to the village in hopes that this pain would eventually pass. The very next day Tier was still recovering from her ordeal, although she was coherent enough to be able to explain what had happened. “What in the hay happened to you?” Rainbow Dash asked standing at her bedside. “Are you feeling any better?” Applejack questioned removing her hat. Tier looked visibly exhausted, her eyes opening and closing as if she was drifting in and out of consciousness. Talon stood beside the other side of her bed, looking rather anxious at his inability to help her. “Someone tried to force… a portal open.” Tier managed to mutter. “A portal?” Daring Do questioned taking notes in her journal. “Are you somehow connected with it?” Applejack asked astutely. Tier nodded her head, finding it the easiest way to respond. “One of the others must have found their Obelisks as well.” Rainbow Dash stated looking towards Applejack. “But why are they trying to force it open?” Applejack questioned. “Perhaps some other pony is trying to force it open?” Daring Do offered. “Listen…” Tier whispered weakly raising her hand at them. Applejack and Rainbow Dash leaned in a bit closer to hear her better. “The Obelisks were meant… to weaken the Storm… they must be activated together.” Tier whispered to them. “The ones here will open when… powered by the sun.” Tier turned her head towards Talon who listened very carefully to her. “Please, you must drain the lake… help them Talon… before it’s too late.” Tier succumbed to her exhaustion, eye closing, her breathing slow, but restful. Talon nodded his head to her in his understanding, walking around the side of the bed looking rather determined to carry out her request. “This is the first time the Heart of the Jungle has ever been harmed or so frightened.” Talon stated to them. “If it be her will that we assist you ponies in your quest to save this King of Fire, than you have my support and the support of every jungle pony.” “Alright!” Rainbow Dash cheered in victory. “We really appreciate this, Talon, and every flame pony in the Ashen Fields are going to be more than grateful for your help.” Applejack thanked him. Daring Do gathered up her journal before following Rainbow Dash and Applejack as they followed Talon out of the hut. Chieftain Talon was greeted by a large group of jungle ponies holding dozens of flowers, looking very worried over the condition of Tier. A jungle pony soldier approached Talon, passing him his staff as he took it firmly in his hoof. “The Heart of the Jungle has been with us through many generations of jungle ponies. For many years the Heart of the Jungle has taught us how to be more understanding, to love one another, and to be kind. Throughout that course we have disassociated ourselves with the outside world and have hidden from the troubles facing Equestria.” Talon announced to his jungle ponies. “The Heart is now threatened by forces beyond our borders, perhaps beyond our comprehension, and has pleaded with us to help these ponies in their quest to save the lost King of Fire. The Heart appeared to our ancestors as a stranger, saving us from ourselves, it is time that we pay this forward and save a stranger from the horrors it faces.” The jungle ponies smiled at the idea, stirred by their Chieftains words. “What say you my jungle ponies?” Talon declared striking his staff upon the ground. Cheers of support erupted from the jungle ponies, tossing flowers high overhead and dancing about. Rainbow Dash cheered along with them, feeling pumped herself as Daring Do was quickly penning away the speech Talon had just given. Talon waved over two jungle pony soldiers who quickly approached him. “We have to drain the lake. Gather what you need and have it done as soon as possible.” The jungle solider ponies nodded their heads to him before rushing off to complete this task. Talon turned to Applejack. “I must speak to with my wise ponies on what needs to have happen. We will send word to your Princess Celestia and inform her of what has transpired here and let her know you are in our care.” “Thanks, partner.” Applejack replied. “Chieftain Talon? Would it be alright if we check out the Obelisks in the water? Just to get a head start on some research?” Daring Do asked watching him begin to walk away. “I know not what power these Obelisks hold, but the Heart trusts you ponies. I advise you to use caution as to not accidently harm the Heart further.” Talon replied. “You got it.” Rainbow Dash threw him a salute. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Daring Do headed towards the lake while Talon headed further into the village. Dozens of jungle soldier ponies were heading towards the waterfall up stream of the lake to most likely dam off the river to begin the draining. While no pony really fancied a swim, Daring Do was alright playing catch up with a lot that had be said and what had already transpired. Applejack and Rainbow Dash sat at the edge of the water watching Daring Do hover over the middle of the lake taking notes. “Do you think the others are alright?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Yeah,” Applejack said with a smile. “Don’t ask me how I know, but I just do.” Lord Tundra soared through the skies of the Frozen North, having just concluded his business in Yakyakistan, looking visibly tired and drained from the proceedings. The only smile he could muster was the thought of having his Sapphire home to where he could dote on her without remorse. With the kingdom coming into view, Lord Tundra noticed the skies being rather clearer than usual, but it bothered him none for the sun was always a welcome guest since it appeared so rarely. Landing at the doors of Castle Fjord, Lord Tundra used his magic to have them slide open with Chancellor Stone waiting patiently for him on the other side. “Welcome home, my Lord.” Chancellor Stone greeted him. “Glad to be home, Chancellor.” Lord Tundra strolled in. “How are things?” “Lady Frost has been diligent in keeping the Kingdom up and running in your absence. I dare say she might even be ahead of schedule.” “That’s Martha for you. I don’t know why she keeps me around.” “I believe her reason is the joy she takes in watching your ice sculptures melt, my Lord.” Lord Tundra faked a laugh, eyeing Chancellor Stone who did his best to keep a straight face, but the corners of his lips showed signs of a smile. Together they walked to the third floor of Castle Fjord, it was a massive section that had giant pillars with no walls holding up a large dome made of amethyst. There were many ice bridges that led to all of the Noble Cliffside, at the far end were two large thrones made of marble, each decorated to depict their current rulers and a smaller throne for which Sapphire would sit on occasion.  The entire third floor was essentially a throne room, the openness that the third floor had was to ensure that their rule was not hidden, but to be seen by all within the Kingdom. It proved a great idea in concept when it involved ice ponies, but it was much too cold for any pony else and most visiting royalty would be addressed in the rooms on the second floor. Lady Frost wrapping up on a deliberation on introducing low income housing units in the Noble Cliffside to allow families of sponsored squires to be closer to their loved ones with a couple of Noble Ponies and Commoner Ponies. With the promise of further entertaining the idea with potential sponsors, the meeting had come to a close and Lady Frost noticed her grinning soulmate approaching her. “Back so soon? I was beginning to think you liked playing ‘Stomp the Snow’ with the Yaks.” Lady Frost jested. “I’ve missed you too, Martha.” Lady Frost glided down from her throne to meet him, embracing him tightly before sharing a rather long kiss with him that seemed to rejuvenate Lord Tundra. The two clung to one another other for a time, having rarely had any time for themselves these last few weeks. Lord Tundra finally pulled away from her, quickly glancing around the third floor, before resting his gaze upon Lady Frost again. “Where is Sapphire?” “Yeah,” Lady Frost smiled nervously. “Our little Snowflake asked me for a favor and-well- you know how hard it is to say no to our little girl.” “She didn’t ask about sculpting our faces into the cliff side, did she? I wanted to be the one to bring that up.” “You wanted to what?” “I want to carve our faces onto the cliff face to immortalize us forever. It would be the single most challenging thing I have ever sculpted.” “That is the dumbest thing I think you’ve ever said to me.” “Yeah, well, what did Sapphire want?” “Well… she wanted to permission to go somewhere with Floe and her friends.” “Is it the new Iceberg Lounge that opened up on the Noble Cliffside? I heard it gets pretty wild there.” “No… not quite, it is a little more remote than that.” “Where then?” Several ponies down in the Artic Bluff were going about their daily lives when the word ‘what’ was shouted so loudly that it brought the whole kingdom to a stop and shook snow from the very top of Mount Everhoof. With the White Walk no longer being the hostile, unnavigable tundra of white nothingness, it was a rather pleasant place to be. Twilight, Fluttershy, Spike, and Princess Sapphire were presently occupied with cataloging the marking the Obelisk held.  Spike was tackling the bottom portions of the Obelisks, making good use of his height, while Fluttershy and Princess Sapphire floated around near the tops of the pillars to sketch its markings, and Twilight had everything in between. “These markings are different from the ones in the Ashen Fields.” Twilight pointed out after a while of sketching. “It is possible that the markings coincide with something from the Void, possibly a maker’s mark, or even a simple way of distinguishing them apart.” Princess Sapphire commented. “I like drawing.” Spike spoke up. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Princess Sapphire looked over at Spike who held up his drawing for all to see. It had most of the markings from the bottom of the Obelisk but it included a crudely drawn picture of Spike punching an Orc in the face. “You’re very talented, Spike.” Fluttershy praised him softly. “Thanks! I wanted to give it a personal touch.” Princess Sapphire rolled her eyes with a smile. “As long as your sketching of the Obelisks are precise, I don’t mind what you include.” Floe, Warrick, and Summer were busying themselves with setting up the camp a couple yards out to provide them enough to space to work. Warrick and Summer had melted a sizeable area of the ice to allow the set up camp, namely the tents Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike would be needing to endure the subzero temperatures come night fall. “You’ve got to feed it through the holes or it’s not going to work!” Floe snapped at Summer. “You’re lucky I’m even helping you set up this stupid thing!” Summer retorted. The two struggled to magically build the tent, even with the instructions in step by step format to follow, and there was great difficulty in the communication between the two. Fortunately for Warrick, he had no magical horn and was unable to lend a hoof and enjoyed the struggle Floe and Summer were creating for themselves. Twilight took a step back to view the Obelisks a bit better, the similarities to the ones she had seen in the Ashen Fields were striking, but the markings were what set it apart. Her mind wandered to what the purpose of the Obelisks were in the first place, wondering it was simply a means of visiting between their two worlds, or perhaps a much deeper purpose. “Is everything alright, Twilight?” Fluttershy questioned her. “I was just thinking about how much we still don’t know about these Obelisks and what the world that lies beyond it.” Fluttershy drifted down to her. “Isn’t that why we’re here? To find out more so we can help Smolder?” “Indeed it is.” Princess Sapphire agreed before landing beside them. “Let us compare out sketches before taking a survey of the surrounding area.” Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike nodded their heads in agreement, heading over to the campsite to find Floe and Summer arguing beside a unfinished tent. Princess Sapphire turned back towards the Obelisks, gazing at them for a moment, knowing how close she was and yet so far from her goal. “We’re coming, Smolder.” None would suspect that just beyond the portals, the other side of the Obelisks, the Last of the Arcana was about to face off against the Dark King Null and its oncoming storm. Moonlight bathed Canterlot in a tinted blue, the stars overhead softly gleaming in the night sky. Princess Celestia toiled away the hour’s magically penning royal summons to every Lord and Lady from all across Equestria. The time was drawing near in which a choice had to be made on whether to open the portals to the Void or not. A decision that would require all in attendance as the repercussions would be potentially be world ending. Tomorrow would be the day in which Twilight and her friends would be sending in their reports on anything and everything they had discovered about the Void. Princess Celestia knew that time was against them and that prolonging this decision would only harm Smolder’s chances of surviving. If Twilight and her friends failed to gather enough information about the Void to sway the summit into taking this chance, it would mean that Smolder would have no help coming his way. If the summit did choose to deny the opening of the portals, a second convening of the summit in several weeks’ time would allow them to present a stronger case, but it would most likely be too late to save Smolder. Princess Celestia rose from her bed, magically lifting the stacks of summons piled around her and had them disappearing in a flash of light. The meeting would take place in three days’ time, and with the summons on their way, Princess Celestia knew she would have to be very convincing to garner the support she needed to open the portals, but it would need to come with a very strong promise of keeping Equestria safe from the Storm. Princess Celestia retired to her desk to begin penning out the speech she would give to every pony at the summit. With her quill magically hovering over a blank sheet of parchment, Princess Celestia pondered on what would be a strong opening statement. Several minutes had passed and the parchment had remained blank. The quill magically began to shake from Princess Celestia’s frustration, unable to write a single word down and flung the quill back into its well before pouting. “I’m asking too much of every pony.” She mumbled to herself. This was personal. At least that how she viewed and surely every pony else would too. Smolder choose to enter the Void, no pony forced him, and even with the slightest possibility of the Storm entering Equestria no pony would dare take that risk. Opening the portals to attempt to save Smolder would be a selfish thing of her to do, of any pony, and yet here she was trying to find a reason every pony could get behind to do just that. Princess Celestia rubbed her face with her hooves. “What am I going to do?” Getting to her hooves, Princess Celestia began to pace about her room trying to find a substantial reason to open the portals and potentially save Smolder while destroying the Storm.  A breeze caused the drapes from Princess Celestia’s balcony to flutter, a set of hooves clopped down upon the marble flooring, causing her to turn towards the noise. The drapes offered a small glimpse of a silhouette against the moonlight. Princess Celestia stepped towards the balcony, having recognized the pony that had come to pay her a visit so late at night. “Chrysalis?” “Don’t open the portals.” Princess Celestia gave pause to this. There was a sense of worry in her voice that Princess Celestia found more surprising than her appearance on her balcony. “What do you know of it?” Princess Celestia questioned her. “I’ve seen it.” Chrysalis’s voice drifted from the other side of the drapes. “The Storm that resides within that realm.” “How have you-“ “I tried to open it, to take the power of the Storm for my own, but it isn’t power. It’s alive and it’s starving.” Princess Celestia was taken aback. Her words were close to becoming fearful, but it stayed within a tone of concern she had for what she was planning to do. Princess Celestia was suddenly becoming worried for Twilight and her friends having been told that Queen Chrysalis had attempted to open one of the portals. “If you have hurt any pony in your attempt to foolishly seize this –“ “Makes all the threats you want, Celestia, but do not threaten this world by opening those portals. I have seen the darkness that lies beyond it, and even I do not wish it upon this land.” Muffled voices of the Night’s Watch drew their attention, a sudden hiss came from Queen Chrysalis, having transformed into a royal guard to avoid detection. Princess Celestia stepped towards the balcony to speak further with her, but Queen Chrysalis was already turning to leave. “Let the flame pony go, Celestia, for all our sakes.” Chrysalis’s voice deep and raspy like an older colt. With her magic Princess Celestia threw open her drapes, witnessing a soldier colt fly off into the night sky. Stepping out onto the balcony, Princess Celestia stared into the night sky, feeling that this visit wasn’t meant to confuse her, but to warn her of what she was planning on doing. There was a small twinge in her heart, the thought had crossed her mind that this was the moment she’d have to say goodbye to Smolder, make the hard choice that Lord Smoke had done and shut out the Void from the rest of Equestria. “You know I can’t imagine how little sleep you used to get when you had to raise both the sun and the moon.” Discord’s voice drifted in from beyond the balcony. Princess Celestia stepped forward, peering over the ledge to see Discord nearly a hundred feet tall, leaning against the side of her tower with his arms folded. Many of the Night’s Watch down below on the ramparts were eyeing him rather suspiciously, but they knew that there wasn’t much they could do about it seeing as it was Discord. “How long have you been there, Discord?” “Long enough to know you’re about to make a rather difficult decision concerning a mutual friend of ours.” Princess Celestia sighed. “I haven’t made up my mind yet.” Discord slithered up the side of the tower, snaking his way around the arch of the balcony and pouring out like water upon the floor beside her before remerging at his usual size. “I think you already have and you just can’t bring yourself to say it.” “I know what I need to do, and what I have to do, but I just don’t know if I should.” “It’s only one flame pony, Celestia, granted it is a flame pony we know and just happens to be a newly crowned King, but is it really worth risking everything just for him?” Princess Celestia lowered her head slightly. Had she allowed this idea of saving Smolder come too far? Were they grasping at straws that weren’t there and inviting danger messing with things they knew so little about? Would she have to step in, put her hoof down, and tell every pony that Smolder was a lost cause? “You know I remember the days when all this used to be a sea of cotton candy, you and Princess Luna trying so desperately to stop all of my wonderful chaotic beauty from taking over Equestria.” Discord mentioned. “How crazy it must have seemed to every pony that I could be reformed, that I would use my powers for good, and not turn Equestria into a chaotic nightmare, but you insisted that it could be done.” Princess Celestia glanced over at Discord who was simply stroking his goatee, a noticeable smirk upon his face. “And it did.” Discord said as he noticeably crossed his fingers. “All because of a little friendship and some magic.” It was hard to hide her smile. Discord had made her face the harsh truth, but also offered her the belief that the impossible could still happen. All it required was the magic of friendship. “We’re going to save Smolder, Discord.” “Of course we are. You made up your mind a while ago just as I had said you did.” Discord and Princess Celestia stood at the balcony watching the stars twinkle in the night sky, the Night’s Watch pegasi flying in from their patrols, and soft silence of the world sleeping. “Thank you, Discord.” “Can I turn just one tree into cotton candy?” “No.”