//------------------------------//
// A Lord of Distant Skies 
// Story: Tales of Eden 
// by BlackRoseRaven 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Three: A Lord of Distant Skies
~BlackRoseRaven

Twilight Sparkle had an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach. Maybe she'd just eaten something that had disagreed with her, or maybe the rumbling train had stirred up her guts, but she knew it was something more than that as she and Spike approached the Castle's front gates.
She felt like something was terribly, awfully wrong; like something evil was coming, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. It was similar to the feeling she'd gotten when she'd sensed King Sombra approaching in the snowy cold outside of the Crystal Empire, and yet so much... worse, somehow.
She shook her head, then frowned uneasily as she paused in her approach to the castle as her eyes roved to a unicorn stallion who was walking past. He felt her gaze and looked back at her, and for a moment, time seemed to stop as they studied each other, the crowd of unaware ponies going about their business to and from the castle parting around them like they were beasts about to quarrel.
He was imposing and tall, his large frame hidden beneath a heavy cape that fell across the right side of his body, hiding it completely from view. His left eye was covered by an eyepatch with a symbol on it that Twilight didn't recognize, the same symbol on the stone clasp that held his cape around his neck.
He had sallow, grizzled features: a face that had seen a thousand campaigns. Was it the face of a worn and tired king, or a callous tyrant? She couldn't tell, but he scared her. There was nothing overly exotic about him: his white mane was short and rough, matching his coarse beard. His coat was a bruised blue, or at least what she could see of it. She couldn't see his cutie mark, thanks to his cape, and for some reason that further unsettled her.
He had a ring around his horn, with another symbol on it, one that made her blood feel like ice when she looked at it. But what could that stylized rune mean? And why did it upset her so much?
He looked at her, with an unreadable, dark eye: his lips curled slightly, and then he turned his eye ahead and strode on his way, and Twilight stared after him, watching him go, her mouth dry, a tremble running through her body.
“What's wrong?” Spike asked worriedly, tugging at her shoulder gently as he followed her gaze uneasily, but of course the stallion had already vanished into the crowd of ponies. “Did that guy try and do something to you?”
“No, no... just... he gave me an awful feeling.” Twilight murmured, biting her lip before she shook her head and took a breath, steadying herself as she said: “Let's just go inside and find Princess Celestia for now.”
“Okay.” Spike agreed, but he couldn't help look apprehensively over his shoulder in the direction the stallion had vanished, chewing on his lip before he shook his head and turned his eyes ahead, only half-aware he was almost clinging to Twilight as they headed towards the gates of the Castle.
They were immediately greeted by a guard who approached with a smile, the stallion saluting them before he said cheerfully: “Nice to see you made it, Twilight! Princess Celestia is already waiting for you in the throne room. Now, I know you don't need an escort, but...”
“Sure, Flash.” She smiled at the orange pegasus, happy for the company. Thanks to her brother's position in the Royal Guard, she was quite familiar with most of the soldiers stationed around the castle: some of them had been like family to her when she'd been growing up.
So she only hesitated a moment before she asked in a low voice, as they walked through the halls side-by-side: “Hey, so I saw a really strange unicorn on the way in... eyepatch, big cape, really scary.”
“Oh.” Flash's brow furrowed, and he said seriously: “You know I'm not supposed to talk about visiting diplomats.”
Twilight had to wait approximately two seconds before Flash leaned in conspiratorially, gossiping in a low, serious, extremely-excited voice: “But that guy is apparently from a distant country. He showed up one day and demanded an audience with the princess. And he's not the kind of guy you say no to, see. Princess Celestia has been meeting with him every day since, no one really knows about what, although odds are right now they're negotiating something to do with the power failures, from what some of the guys outside the throne room have overheard.”
“Power failures?” Twilight asked with a frown.
Flash nodded quickly, filling in: “Yeah, we've been having a lot of brownouts lately. As a matter of fact, a lot of larger cities have been having trouble with their power grid. Has something to do with the generators not being able to draw in enough mana anymore to supply the demand or something.”
Twilight frowned thoughtfully at this, as Flash went on: “But yeah. It can't all be coincidence that this guy shows up, and Princess Celestia announces the New Power Initiative. Lord Black's got to have something to do with it all.”
“New Power Initiative? Lord Black?” Twilight could barely keep up with Flash's rambling, but her sharp mind was putting all the pieces into place, picking out the important bits as he nodded violently and answered:
“Oh, right, guess you wouldn't have heard about it yet in Ponyville! We're going to start building new generators, super powerful ones that will generate enough mana that they can power the whole country! And Lord Black is that unicorn's name. Fitting name for a bad guy, huh?”
“You think he's a bad guy?” Twilight asked, frowning a little. Not that it certainly didn't fit the feeling she had...
Flash stopped for a moment in the hall, bit his lip as he looked at her, and then he answered quietly: “I think no matter what he is, he's not here to help, you know? Either he's here to profit or he's here to try and take that technology away. And I guess it makes me worried that Princess Celestia hasn't just sent him away.”
Twilight nodded slowly at this, and they were quiet for a moment before Flash suddenly smiled and asked: “So, well, how have you been?”
“Oh, uh, good. Busy with lots of things and all, but I always have my friends to help me through.” Twilight replied, half-evasive: not really on purpose, but more because her mind was still on what Flash had gossiped about to her.
He nodded awkwardly, and they walked along for a bit before Spike asked pointedly: “And what about you, Flash? How have you been doing?”
“Oh, uh, hey! Yes.” Flash cleared his throat before he answered: “Yeah, I'm doing good. In line for a promotion! Which is great. I might make a career out of this yet.”
Twilight nodded a little, coming out of her thoughts a bit as she asked: “Is that what you want to do with your life still? I thought before you were thinking of changing careers.”
“I dunno.” Flash shrugged with a chuckle. “That was during a pretty rough time, too, you know? I feel like I've grown into things a little more. Or maybe it's because, you know, I'm not a new young recruit anymore. Need to give the new blood someone to look up to and all.”
Twilight smiled a little at this, and Flash hesitated before he admitted: “Still, I'd like to have... some other skills, I suppose. Try something else out in life. It's not that I don't love the guard, I just got this yearning, I guess, for more.”
“I'm glad you do. I understand that completely. And you shouldn't feel like you have to do the same thing forever. As a matter of fact, I'm sure you won't be.” Twilight replied, and Flash gave her a wide smile at this.
They walked in quiet for a little while, neither able to think of anything to say until they reached the double doors leading into Celestia's audience chamber, and there Flash cleared his throat before he lamely gestured at the door, saying: “Well uh... guess we're here. Hey, Spike, you want to come with me, check out the new comics at the shop?”
Spike almost agreed, but then he felt Twilight nudge him, and he smiled despite himself before he answered: “Sorry, Flash. Maybe we can do that some other time. I'm going to join Twilight in talking to Princess Celestia.”
“Big boy, huh?” Flash looked a little envious, even as he smiled and shook his head. “But hey, guess I'm glad Twilight's got you looking out for her. Well, uh... good luck you two. Tell me all about what happens.”
“Thanks, Flash.” Twilight said honestly, turning away with a smile to head through the doors. Spike paused for a moment to wink and poke his own nose pointedly, and Flash huffed silently and flailed wildly at him before he turned it into a cheesy, awkward wave when Twilight glanced over her shoulder curiously.
But then Spike ran up to her side and drew her attention as they entered the throne room, saying in a more serious voice: “You think this is all connected?”
She knew what Spike was actually asking. And she took a breath before she nodded once and murmured: “I think I'm going to bring it up with Celestia, yeah. He bothered me. A lot.”
Spike nodded: he trusted Twilight's judgment. But there was no more time for talk or reassurances as they both stopped at the steps leading up to Celestia's dais, upon which the Princess of the Sun rested in her cushioned throne.
She stood and smiled, and Spike and Twilight both bowed. Princess Celestia gave a soft laugh at this, gesturing at them to rise as she said gently: “There's no need for such formality. Twilight Sparkle, I hope I didn't cause you any alarm summoning you on such short notice.”
Twilight shook her head, answering warmly: “No, Princess Celestia. I'm only sorry I couldn't come here sooner. I'm afraid I had some things to take care of in Ponyville-”
“And I'm happy that you did.” Celestia answered, and Twilight blushed at this as Spike gave a little smile, before they both looked up as the beautiful white alicorn came striding down the steps towards them, her ethereal mane flowing backwards as if pulled by an intangible wind. Her kind eyes surveyed them, but Twilight felt a strange nip of apprehension in her gut at the sadness she thought she saw in them. “I have a very big favor to ask, Twilight, and you might not have time for much else for a little while. Perhaps weeks. Perhaps longer.”
“Does this have to do with Lord Black?” Twilight asked anxiously: almost blurted out, really.
Princess Celestia frowned a little, and then she sighed after a moment before she turned away, looking up at the gorgeous, stained glass window above her throne for a few moments, studying the intricacies of it before she asked quietly: “What do you know about him?”
“Not much.” Twilight admitted. “I just heard that he showed up one day. He demanded an audience and you've been... negotiating with him?”
The monarch turned to her with a faint smile, muttering: “Something like that.” She shook her head, then cleared her throat and straightened a little, explaining: “Lord Black wants something that came into Equestria's possession many years ago now. He has even threatened to take it by force.”
“What?” Twilight blurted out, alarmed. “But that would mean... would he really risk a war? And why haven't you-”
“In time, Twilight.” Princess Celestia soothed, before she continued: “Lord Black has very powerful weapons at his disposal, but I think he's bluffing about his readiness to use force. He wants to continue negotiations for now. And that's where you come in, Twilight.”
Twilight frowned worriedly, biting her lip, but Celestia smiled at her and said: “I need you to put one of your greatest talents to use for me. I need you to research this power source I've uncovered. If we can discover how to harness it properly, then we can use it not only to give our nation an unlimited supply of energy, but protect ourselves against Lord Black's weapons and armies.”
“Really?” Twilight asked uneasily: she didn't sound convinced, and to be honest, Spike was having trouble understanding how they were just going to make Lord Black go away, no matter how powerful this 'power source' was.
“Yes.” Celestia answered: even in the face of their obvious doubt, she was confident. So confident that it made Spike and Twilight trade looks, almost in confusion.
But the Princess of the Sun only smiled before she said gently: “We can talk about this more in private, but I want to reassure you that I do have a plan, and we have been developing this technology for a long time. I don't need you to worry about that. What I need is for you to tap into this resource: I can't do the research myself and deal with Lord Black and the rest of Equestria's problems all at once. But you have both enough power, and my trust, Twilight Sparkle: I know you can find a way to communicate with the stone.”
“The stone? It's a stone? Like a magic gem?” Twilight asked, and then she blushed when Celestia gently patted her on the head.
“We're keeping it safe for now in one of the vaults in the magic studies wing. We have a lab set up there, with everything you'll need. I'll have one of my guard escort you down after we finish our talk.” Celestia promised, before her horn glowed with beautiful golden light, floating a small pack towards Twilight.
This opened in front of her, several scroll tubes and journals rising free as Celestia continued: “These are all our findings so far on this project. Anything else you need, all you have to do is ask, Twilight Sparkle. I've given you full clearance for anything and everything you could possibly need.”
Twilight blushed, straightening a bit and nodding as she looked up with a mix of excitement and anxiety at Celestia, saying: “I'll do my best!”
“And that's all I can ask, but I know it will be more than enough.” Celestia replied, before she went on: “It is very important that we keep all of this between ourselves, Twilight. Lord Black may have spies in our midst. He already knows too much about what we've been doing.”
“Like the New Power Initiative?” ventured Twilight, and Celestia nodded as she studied Twilight for a few moments.
“Do you know anything about that, Twilight?” Celestia asked, and Twilight felt the mare's eyes searching her, making her shift uncomfortably.
“Just that you announced it to Canterlot... only what I've heard here.” Twilight admitted after a moment, and Celestia smiled briefly.
“Still. You're very well-informed.” she remarked, and the smaller mare felt oddly like that wasn't entirely a compliment. “I don't want you to get too distracted, Twilight, and I hope you understand that because of the sensitivity of these matters, and what we're dealing with, it's better that you don't know some things for now. When all of this is over, I would be happy to tell you everything... but for now, it's important that we all work in secret.”
“Wait, does that mean I shouldn't talk about anything with anyone?” Twilight worried. “Aren't there other ponies on the project with me?”
“No, Twilight. This is your project now. If you need help, I will have to vet each and every single pony you want to include, and that includes your friends.” Celestia answered with a shake of her head. “We have to be very careful. The last thing we want to do is force Lord Black into a situation where he feels he will have to use force to get what he wants. I don't want to put the lives of any ponies in danger.”
Twilight understood that, blushing a bit and nodding, and Celestia smiled as she said gently: “Diplomacy is very difficult. It is not, as some ponies seem to think, all about fire and brimstone. Faced with someone like Lord Black – a very serious, and very ruthless pony – it's better to stall as long as possible and move for peace, rather than risk open war. Yes, Equestria would doubtlessly win against his company of mercenaries. But at what cost, Twilight? How many ponies will be hurt, or even killed? We do not use force until all other solutions are exhausted. And with your help, and just a bit more time, I believe we can find a peaceful solution.”
“Okay. Yes, I understand, Princess Celestia. I'll do everything I can to help!” Twilight said firmly.
Princess Celestia smiled, then frowned a little as Spike hesitantly held up a claw before he asked: “Does this mean we'll have guards assigned to us? And why hasn't Lord Black just tried to take it by force yet?”
“Because Lord Black knows he will lose, and he's already forced several concessions.” Celestia said, before she straightened a little, wings flexing at her sides, head high as she added in a firmer voice: “And whatever he thinks of us, he respects my power. I don't like to flaunt my strength, Spike, but I am an alicorn capable of moving the sun.”
Spike smiled lamely as Twilight bowed her head respectfully, and Princess Celestia settled before she said gently: “And yes. Flash Sentry and Ritz Blitz will be assigned to protect you. You'll be staying in the Magic Academy wing at all times:  a secure room in the professor's dormitory has been assigned to you, Twilight.”
“The professor's dorm?” Twilight gasped, going starry-eyed for a moment, and Spike couldn't help but smile: even in the most serious situation... “That... that's such an honor! Do you really think I deserve that, though? I mean, I don't want to inconvenience anyone-”
“It's where I need you to be, Twilight, and you'll be doing very important work for me.” Celestia answered with a smile and a touch of briskness, probably sensing that Twilight would ramble her gratitude forever if she wasn't interrupted. “When do you think you'll be able to start?”
Twilight looked flustered for a moment, fidgeting awkwardly, but Spike answered for her: “As soon as you need us to.”
“Good.” Celestia said approvingly, before she smiled over at Twilight, continuing: “It was a good idea to include Spike in this. His dragon artes will be very useful in testing the integrity of the power source and whether or not you've been able to successfully draw power from it.”
“Oh, that was Spike's idea.” Twilight said quickly, but Celestia only smiled again, her eyes shifting to Spike with that look of 'of course it was' that he was so used to by now. Even if it did sting a bit, coming from Princess Celestia.
“Well, in any event, you need to head to the Magic Academy now. Tonight, Twilight Sparkle, I would like a word with you alone, in my chambers.” Princess Celestia said, and Twilight smiled and nodded, even if she felt a little uneasy at that wording.
“Yes, Princess Celestia. Of course.” she said, before she hesitated as Princess Celestia turned away, then asked anxiously: “But wait, how long can you hold off Lord Black?”
“For as long as you need, Twilight Sparkle. And oh, regarding him...” Princess Celestia stopped and frowned, looking back over her shoulder at the mare as she quailed automatically under that unusual hardness. “For your own safety, stay away from him. He is very dangerous, and he will stop at nothing to obtain the power source.”
The alicorn softened after a moment, and finished in a more maternal voice: “I couldn't stand it if anything happened to you, Twilight. Not after all we've been through together.”
Twilight gave a small smile, and then Princess Celestia strode up to her throne, seating herself again as she sighed and said: “Go, and good luck, Twilight Sparkle. But I know that you can find the solution to this problem.”
Twilight bowed and nodded. She said something in agreement, some garbled mix of affirmation and obedience, and then turned to hurry away. But Spike lingered for a moment, looking up uneasily at Princess Celestia before he cleared his throat and bowed quickly when her eyes shifted to him.
He hurried out after Twilight, but didn't dare voice his thoughts even as he caught up with her, a crawl running down his spine as he wondered what it was that Celestia seemed to be hiding, and what had drawn Lord Black here in the first place.





Celestia hadn't been kidding about the security or the secrecy: Flash Sentry and a larger unicorn stallion, Ritz Blitz, met them at the Magic Academy doors and accompanied them first to their room – not just in the professor's dorm, Spike noted, but a heavily, impeccably secured room without any windows or outside doors – and then to the vault they had set up deeper inside the Magic Academy wing of the castle, where the power source was kept under lock and key and constant watch.
Flash and Ritz weren't allowed to talk about the project, and they had to have some serious punishment hanging over their head, Twilight thought, because even the gossipy pegasus wasn't willing to so much as risk a peek into the secure vault, or whisper with Twilight about her new position. Ritz was stoic, but Twilight remembered him always being that way: he was a career soldier, an old friend of her brother's, if she pegged him right.
Two ponies she was familiar and comfortable with. Why didn't that reassure her, though?
The Vault wasn't just protected by a standard two-way armored door, it had a heavy, magically-insulated curtain to prevent so much as a glimpse of the room beyond, or a single sound or magic particle escaping in that short time the door was open. Twilight and Spike were the only ones allowed to go inside: once they were inside, the door was sealed behind them, and if they wanted to leave, they had to knock and wait for the soldiers to open it for them.
It was unnerving, to say the least.
But Twilight was fascinated from the moment she stepped into the room, and found the power source waiting for them, resting on a cushion on a metal table. It was much larger than she had thought it would be: it had to weigh at least a hundred pounds, and was a solid piece of some kind of unknown crystal, pulsing from within with its own magic energy. It looked almost like it had been cut somehow, or was meant to fit inside something: one side was rounded and smooth, but these gentle ends both turned sharply into straight lines that met at a ninety degree, pointed corner.
It was full of mana, that much was certain: enough mana to power all of Equestria for a century or more, Twilight thought with awe as she hovered over the glowing stone. And yet it was perfectly contained inside itself: somehow it was regulating itself, almost as if the stone was keeping all that massive power in check.
Once she was able to pull herself away, she started by pulling out the research that had already been done, reading through it quickly: from what she gleaned, all conventional methods of drawing energy from the stone had failed. So that meant they would have to try some more unusual methods... but first Twilight thought it was important to understand why the magic energy wasn't just dispersing, and how it was regulating itself.
She guessed it had to do with the material: while Celestia's research team had done a lot of work taking readings and trying out different methods of extracting energy, they hadn't done more than taken a few samples of the stone itself. The material was some kind of mineral compound, by no means natural: it was dense, extremely solid, and the few sample pieces that had already been removed and set aside on one of the worktables for her – as if Celestia had known she'd want to start with this – still maintained their own energy. Incredible amounts of energy, Twilight noted, as she floated one of the tiny cut-away pieces in front of her clinical eyes.
She had Spike help her take readings and do a thorough examination of the material: density, hardness, the geometry of the material and what happened when it was impacted by both kinetic and magical force. Twilight immediately noticed that all magic was either ignored or repelled, even by this tiny piece of material.
Once she put it under a microscope, she was able to observe all kinds of crystalline structures: they were very complex, and seemed to form channels that the magic energy flowed naturally through, reflecting and refracting into itself. She thought that had something to do with the longevity of this power source, and how it was able to hold a charge even when cut or broken. If they could replicate that, even with gemstones...
Well, their gemstone batteries weren't nearly as durable as this, of course. But she thought it could still vastly improve the quality and life of gemstone batteries, which only lasted a few years at the very best.
Still, as fascinating as it was, it didn't bring her any closer to figuring out how to draw the energy out of the material. But it also made her question uneasily what precisely this was: what had it originally been built for? There was still some kind of powerful residual magic around it, like maybe it was still doing whatever it had originally been designed to do...
But Princess Celestia wouldn't try and tamper with living magic, would she? And she definitely wouldn't have her student handle the risk of working with an unknown power source that was still possibly active and broadcasting an unknown signal...
Twilight was pulled out of her thoughts by Spike suddenly, abruptly saying: “Do you think it's like a focus stone?”
“Sorry?” Twilight asked blankly.
Spike gave an awkward smile, and then he walked over to the large crystal, putting his hands against one of the smooth sides as he explained: “For artes. I guess you might not be as familiar with them because they don't really work for your unicorn magic. But for artes like mine, see, sometimes when you need an extra boost of power, you hold a focus stone. I guess ponies don't use them much in general because of hooves and all, but all you have to do is sort of push your energy into the focus stone, make sort of a hook with it, and then you pull back what you-”
Spike flinched as energy raced along his arms before there was a tremendous bang as a shockwave erupted through the air, knocking both him and Twilight sprawling and making the tables and equipment around the edge of the room rattle and shake. They were both left, stunned, for a moment, before Spike held up a claw and wheezed: “Okay. I screwed that up.”
“What did you do?” blurted Twilight as she leapt to her hooves, before she blinked and leapt over to Spike, repeating in a less-shocked, more-excited voice: “What did you do?”
Spike blinked, and then he winced when Twilight hauled him up to a sitting position, grabbing him with a bright smile as she exclaimed: “You did it! You extracted energy from the stone! Spike, you figured out the answer!”
The little dragon gave a lame smile, before he gave an awkward laugh, shrugging a bit and rubbing slowly at his head before he said finally: “I told you. It's like a focus stone. But uh... it's a lot, lot more powerful than I thought.”
“So Princess Celestia wasn't exaggerating.” Twilight mused as she looked back at the power source, but then she shook her head and smiled at Spike, saying quickly: “We have to go tell Princess Celestia about this. Wait, no, first, can you show me what you did? If we can control the extraction this way, then I can take measurements, too, and figure out what's safe and what's not...”
Spike laughed awkwardly, shaking his tingling claws out before he nodded a little. But as he began to approach the stone, he felt Twilight catch him again, and ask in a quieter, almost embarrassed voice: “Are you okay?”
Spike hesitated, and then he gave a brief nod and a little smile, answering: “Yeah. I'm sorry about that. I hope it didn't startle you too much, I didn't expect such a surge.”
He bit his lip, then looked back at the core, hesitating for a moment before he turned back towards Twilight and said: “I have a bad feeling about this, Twilight. About all of this. Something just doesn't seem right.”
“Spike...” Twilight softened, then she gently stroked along his face, reassuring: “I know what you mean. I... I'm worried too. But I know Princess Celestia wouldn't put us in danger or do something like this unless she absolutely had to. And it sounds like if we can harness this, we can keep Equestria safe and powered for... who knows how long? But... you know I'm going to talk to her tonight. I'll bring up everything, I'll get answers, Spike.”
Spike hesitated, but he looked up at her with his trusting eyes, and Twilight smiled, reassuring him with her gaze, her maternal comforts, her honest soul.
So he turned back towards the power source, and Twilight's face fell, and she hugged herself as he put his little claws back against the core, leaving the unicorn to hope silently that she wasn't wrong about everything she had just told her companion, who deserved better than to be a pawn in a world ruled by ponies.