“Carillon,” said Dulcimer, “please move three paces to the left.”
Carillon did as she was told. As soon as she did, the space in front of Dulcimer distorted. With a scream and a small detonation, Rainbow Dash emerged from apparently nowhere, already accelerated to the point where she was leaving a rainbow contrail as she lunged toward Dulcimer.
Dulcimer twisted, dodging. As he did he raised his hoof to strike Rainbow Dash in the gut. Rainbow Dash rolled and avoided it, instead landing on the rocky ground and nearly bumping into one of the massive chains.
As she did, though, she gasped and fell to one knee. Her breathing was rapid and shallow; as she looked down, she now saw that the moonstone in the dial on her chest had been almost completely corroded. The dial was failing- -and if it failed, so did she.
“Rainbow Dash?!” cried Daring Do. “Where did you come from?!”
“Don’t worry, Daring Do, I’ve got this!”
“No! Wait! He has White, you can’t- -”
Rainbow Dash was not listening. Trying her best to recover, she rushed forward. Carillon stepped in her path and charged a spell. A bubble appeared around Rainbow Dash, identical to the one that was still holding Flock. Rainbow Dash impacted the side, but her dial reacted almost instantly. It turned and shifted, causing an internal shield that shattered the bubble with enough force to knock Carillon back a step.
“NO!” she cried.
“Not to worry,” said Dulcimer. “I’ll take care of this.”
His horn glowed, and his body seemed to stretch. Suddenly, two more of him appeared at his sides. The copies turned toward Rainbow Dash and lunged. One of them ignited a spell, and Rainbow Dash dodged, taking to the air. The other then proceeded to fire a beam of energy upward at her. It snaked outward, trailing behind her, but Rainbow Dash circled the room at incredible speed, summoning a vortex around them. It began to grow, and Daring Do recognized it as an artificial cyclone. Rainbow Dash was summoning a tornado.
“She’s going to spout the coolant!” cried Caballeron, covering his head as if that would do any good against plumes of boiling gallium.
` “She will not touch my coolant,” said Solum Finis, standing and spreading his wings.
Daring Do had assumed that as a creature made entirely of metal, Solum Finis’s wings were meant to be decorative. There was no way something so heavy could fly. She was proven wrong- -very wrong.
He disappeared in a flash of silver. A thin streak ran through the air as he moved faster than could be perceived by pony eyes. In an instant, he had plucked Rainbow Dash from the air. She stared at him, awestruck, and then began to struggle against his enormous hoof.
“Let go!” she cried. “You’re not supposed to be in this fight! GAH!” She bit down on his leg. She did not seem to either realize or care that she was biting metal.
Solum Finis landed where he was standing. Daring Do approached quickly.
“Rainbow Dash! Stop! Stop right now!”
“Don’t worry, Daring Do, I’ll save you- -”
“DASH!”
Rainbow Dash looked down, suddenly shocked into silence. She saw Daring Do’s face and how it was lined with worry, and how she was breathing hard from fear.
“Dash, please. Look.”
Daring Do pointed to where White had been. She had been lowered significantly, to the point where she was as close to the liquid metal as she could be without being singed. Her legs were pulled up close to her against the heat, but it was clear that she was sweating and panting from the warmth.
“What?” said Rainbow Dash, her eyes widening. “White, how the heck did you get down there?!”
“Because I’m holding her there,” said Dulcimer. “Originally it was meant to be leverage for Daring Do. But I suppose you have a relationship with her too, don’t you?”
“You gave your word!” cried Daring Do.
“And I will keep it. Once the Hand of Doom is in my possession, your half of the bargain will be completed. But not until then.
“Rainbow, please,” whispered Daring Do.
“I know, I know,” said Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes. “It’s one of THOSE traps. I get it. Big guy, you can put me down now. I’m not going to try anything funny.”
“Do you promise not to damage my Necroforge?”
“Pinky promise.”
“I don’t know what that means. But I’ll set you down anyway. It sounded sincere.”
He lowered her. Rainbow Dash sighed as the pair of Dulcimer projections brought a cage toward her, the one that until then had served as auxiliary containment around Flock.
“This was meant to hold your wizard,” said one of the copies.
“But it will hold you just as well.”
Rainbow Dash groaned but did as they asked. She stepped inside and allowed them to lock it. The copies then rolled her to the front.
“There,” said Dulcimer as he raised White away from the heat. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash.”
“I should have just challenged you to a duel.”
“Not with a weakened dial. I would have refused on the ground of you being unfit for combat.”
The pair of Dulcimers approached the original and the three of them merged into a single being again. “But I suppose you at least get to see the process now. Perhaps you will find it interesting.”
“I doubt it.”
“Don’t be so quick to judge.”
Dulcimer walked forward and put a hoof on Carillon’s shoulder. “I’ll take the changeling. It’s time to begin. I’m counting on you.”
“I will not fail, Grandmaster.”
Carillon approached the statue that held the Hand of Doom, but stopped at a distance of about five meters. She closed her helmet, causing it to assume a conformation different than the one she had used previously. Then she lit her horn.
A spell began to form around her. Part of it was like armor, but it extended farther forward, forming something like a machine. The machine shifted and grew as new components were added to it, all of translucent amber energy.
With great care and greater concentration, Carillon lowered the terminal end of the machine over the Hand. Four long, thin claws extended from the magical machinery, their tips igniting with violet energy surrounded by rings of white runes. Of all the ponies preset, only Dulcimer and Rainbow Dash had seen spells of this caliber before. The ones Rainbow Dash had seen had invariably been cast by one Starlight Glimmer.
The prongs closed around the hand. The machine seemed to shake, and a dull and somber moan came from it. The whole of the room became silent, but nothing broke. The spell held.
Then Carillon began to pull. The effort required was immense, but the Hand started to come free, and it immediately became apparent that the Hand went deeper than it appeared. Daring Do was perversely reminded of a tooth: a large part of it was visible, but much more of it was imbedded below the surface: long, thin cables, and a network of narrow channels that ran into the stone of the statue.
Likewise, it was not a glove. As it separated from the statue, all that was left behind was a stump. The roots clung to that stump tenaciously, but Carillon compensated. Part of her machine moved forward and began to systematically sever the fine connections.
Then, all in an instant, it broke free. Carillon quickly stepped back, her machine stepping with her, now holding the Hand suspended in the air and surrounded with three layers of magical bubbles.
The silence of the room became almost palpable, and Daring Do became aware of machines in the distance suddenly growing silent. The whole of the facility seemed to shut down at once. The only light came from the portable halide lamps that the Questlords had brought, and the only sound was the sound of their breathing and the weak ticking in Rainbow Dash’s chest.
Then the reaction started. Not in the Hand, which was relatively inert, but in the statue it was taken from. The stony appearance began to change as the ancient spell was rendered moot. As the surface became smoother, the statue suddenly lurched forward, putting out its one front hoof to steady itself. Then the last of the suspension spell faded, leaving a living, breathing pony behind.
She was almost the same color as the stone she had been. Gray. A gray body with a gray mane, and even gray eyes. The tiny mare looked around, confused and terrified, until her wild eyes suddenly stopped on Dulcimer.
She took a step forward, only to realize that she could not move. The cables sewn to her back and the chains tied to her collar were stopping her. She looked back at the chains angrily, and then pulled, and although it should have been impossible, the links in the chain moved, dragged by her force. Each link must have weighed at least two tons, and yet, somehow, she was moving them.
The mare took another step forward, and then another. Each one toward Dulcimer. The chains strained and went taught, and with a horrible scream she pulled one last time. Her horn ignited with pure white light. The links of the chain might once have been able to bind her two and a half million years before, but they had grown weak with time. They snapped easily, and their remnants rose into the air, disintegrating into golden as from the force of the white magic that surrounded them.
The small pony nearly fell forward. She looked behind her, just as confused as the rest of the ponies. She raised one scarred hoof and touched her neck. The collar was still attached. Whatever metal it was made of was still too hard for her to break. Then she looked down at the stump where one of her legs had once been.
She spoke. Her voice was tiny and shaky, like that of a being not meant to talk. None present understood her language.
“Rwyllf…ab…ab d’dnimn?”
She gave them one last look, and then cried out in a mixture of immeasurable pain and relief. Her horn ignited with white light, and she was surrounded by the glow. In a flash, she was gone. She had teleported herself elsewhere.
They all stared at the spot for a moment where she had been, at where the molten remnants of the chains were still smoldering. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak.
“What was that?”
“Nothing of consequence,” said Dulcimer.
“Perhaps in the past,” said Solum Finis. “But a grave miscalculation on your part.”
“Then it is one that we will deal with later. Right now we must attend to the Hand. Is she prepared?”
“And how,” said Solum Finis, looking behind him. He lifted his wing and allowed two ponies to pass.
One of them was a stallion, the one with one eye slightly different from the other. He wore his armor, although not with his helmet. The other was his sister, the pony known as Absence. She was nude, save for ribbons of cloth inscribed with spells that had been placed over various parts of her body. She had been washed clean, and her mane had been tied back in a long braid.
She walked by them with her head held high, maintaining her pride even as she approached her doom.
“Absence?” said Rainbow Dash.
Absence turned. Her expression faltered. “Rainbow Dash. I had wished you would not have to see this.”
“See what? Absence, what’s going on?
“Rainbow Dash. I’m sorry. I really wanted to be your friend. I wish I could.”
“Absence,” said Dulcimer, stepping forward. “Are you having second thoughts?”
“No, Grandmaster,” said Absence, her voice filled with conviction. Still facing Rainbow Dash, she continued. “This is the purpose I was born for. To serve the Questlords in this solemn task.”
“For the good of Equestria,” added Daring do.
Dulcimer glared at Daring Do, but motioned for Absence to move forward. Absence did, as though this had been rehearsed. She took her place next to Carillon and turned to face outward from the circle, toward Dulcimer. Her brother approached her and produced a large syringe. Absence tilted her head to the side and allowed him to inject into her neck.
She winced.
“Sister?” he said, removing the needle.
“I’m alright. Everything is fine.” She shuddered as the drugs began to work.
“So I assume you are ready, then?” asked the Grandmaster.
“Yes. My mother’s work will finally come to fruition.”
“Excellent.”
Dulcimer’s horn ignited, and a ball of fierily magic appeared in front of him. He shaped it, causing it to compress and lengthen until it had taken the form of a long, elegant sword. Manipulating the sword with his magic, he approached Absence.
Absence looked him in the eye, and braced herself.
Dulcimer did not hesitate. He swung the sword with a single, rapid slice. Rainbow Dash cried out, and Daring Do had to look away. Even looking away, she still heard it. The sound of Absence inhaling quickly, and then the sickening sound of something organic falling against the stone floor.
Absence gritted her teeth, trying to suppress the scream. She took a step forward, but nearly faltered. She had of course practiced, but nothing had fully prepared her for walking on three legs. The pain where her front right leg had been was immense, but she dealt with it. It was what she had been made for.
“She didn’t even cry out,” mused Dulcimer. “You do good work, Carillon.”
“Of course,” said the unicorn mare. She turned her attention toward Absence- -and began to move the Hand of Doom toward its new home.
“NO!” cried Rainbow Dash. “Absence, don’t! Don’t let them!”
It was too late. As soon as the Hand was brought in proximity to the place where Absence’s leg had once been, it reacted. The thin, seemingly inert cables at its base suddenly twitched and lurched forward. This time Absence did screamed. She screamed loud and long as they burrowed into her, linking to her- -and as she came to feel something else linking to her, connecting to her on a deeper level.
The Hand pulled itself toward her, and Carillon released it. For a moment the Hand hung loosely, twitching and writhing like some ghastly parody of an animal. Like a perverse parasite.
Then it climbed. The tendrils pulled it upward, and it formed the joints it needed to. When it was done, it tugged itself closely to Absence’s body. And it fused there.
Absence’s eyes widened, and the scream suddenly left her- -but her mouth was still open in horror. It had gone beyond pain. Metal moved through her body, binding to that which was already there, fusing its mutated flesh to her own, and she realized in that instant what it was.
She looked up, behind Dulcimer. The other ponies looked at her, confused, but she did not understand why they could not see it. Looming over them, a black shape, one of incomparable importance, inscribed with things that must never be read- -but that Absence felt like she could almost translate.
It was a horrible thing. An inconceivable thing, this looming black object. One that not meant to be witnessed or understood. A gurgling scream rose in Absence’s through as silver fluid dripped from her eyes and ears. She raised her left hoof to her left ear- -and the Hand of Doom to her right. To try to block out the sound that could never be heard.
The Hand ignited with magic, and the spell burst outward, surrounding the Questlords. It was a spell that no pony had ever conceived of, nor that they could conceive of- -although its function was already known. It was meant to induce teleportation.
In an instant, the spell activated; with a small explosion, the Questlords vanished. Dulcimer, Carillon, and all of the armored, cloned Pegasi. Nothing was left but smoke and the scent of perverted, empty magic.
Daring Do shot through the air in an instant. Dulcimer had been true to his word. Before he had departed, he had moved White over the catwalk, and she fell to it with a thud. The changeling Argiopé, however, remained over the metal. She fell with a cry, and Daring Do snatched her out of the air, nearly falling into the gallium herself. The changeling was heavier than expected and struggling wildly; one of her hooves hit Daring Do’s wing, causing it to fail. She dropped- -directly onto a plume of perfect silver feathers.
Solum Finis lifted them to safety. He looked down at them gravely.
“The Hand of Doom has been removed. This Necroforge will never again be lit. There is no longer a reason for me to be here. I will depart now.”
With that, he spread his wings and pulled himself into the air. He hovered for a moment, his vast wingstrokes sending the coolant below into ripples that were already beginning to solidify. Then he flew like the wind, exiting over the heads of the remaining ponies in Caballeron’s entourage: Rogue, Withers, the Pegasus with metal eyes, and the zebra Zel. In an instant he was gone.
The catwalk shook slightly. Daring Do looked up to see a pair of reflective yellow eyes staring at her from over the stairs.
“Flock.”
“Do you have any idea what you have just done?”
Daring Do looked at the place that had once housed the Hand of Doom. “Yeah. We just lost.”