//------------------------------// // 14: Cloud of doubt // Story: Imbalanced: Legacy of Light // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// Whatever anypony might say, the Crystal Empire and Queen Spring’s territory were beautiful. Unlike other Corrupted territories which were mostly black, the dark green mossy look of the plains and forests surrounding the protective bubble conjured by the Crystal Heart warmed even the real hearts of visitors. Thankfully for Bladedancer and Starry Night, the silence and peace of this area wasn’t just an illusion, and the two safely travelled through the final stretch of their journey undisturbed. They knew they were being watched, but their invisible stalkers weren’t enemies, merely Queen Spring’s patrols taking care of the safety of caravans, groups, and even individuals. At this point, the duo were used to the hidden company, and chatted with each other without reservations. “I don’t mean to question my orders,” said Bladedancer, ”but I don’t see a reason why the two of us should be involved in this mission. Eyes and changelings should be way more than enough,” by eyes Bladedancer meant the EIS - Equestrian Intelligence Service, the pony equivalent of griffon Black Ops. “I can see why they would want you,” Starry shrugged, “The report mentioned a research into some powerful necromantic weapon, and who else to send in but a paladin. Something along the lines of ‘In case of undead, send a holy warrior’. I am the useless one here, as technically a diplomatic envoy.” Bladedancer raised an eyebrow. “Diplomatic envoy? What diplomacy is there to have? We’ll join the changelings, explore the reported site, and seize the weapon as well as all unusual equipment. You’re a soldier just like me.” “I wish,” Starry sighed, “That’s the official story. I’m here mostly just in case this is somehow princess Cadance’s plot to, I don’t know, build a secret device which might be used against Equestria under some circumstance. Of course, no one will admit it if that’s the case, and that’s why there’s only the two of us here instead of a complete retinue. Thank stars for that, actually,” he shuddered at the idea of some servants jumping around him during the trip. “I doubt that’s the case. The Crystal Empire has been a close ally of Equestria for centuries. Although I do agree that the amount of money supposedly flowing into the necromancy project isn’t something even a noble or a group of them can afford. The biggest deal is the know-how, though, and the intelligence briefing agrees with me,” Bladedancer allowed herself a smug smile. “I would have suspected the istrium flow myself. Minotaurs charge crazy amount for the raw crystals. If the report was correct, then whoever was buying it avoided Crystal Empire authorities, meaning they had a direct business link with the clans in Rift.” Bladedancer shook her head, looking across the plain at the shimmering magical bubble covering the Crystal Empire not too far away. “The suspicious thing is that no one needs that much istrium. It’s not exactly a useful material for mass production of anything… as far as we think.” “Blade, Nightguard briefing is a lot different than Paladin briefing. How about you ignore the ‘security risks’ and tell me the good stuff? It’ll be much better if we both know exactly what’s going on.” “Alright, alright, just because it’s you, but don’t tell anypony else or it's my ass on the line. Istrium can supposedly be forged into extremely light, durable, and enchantable metal. However, no one knows how. No one but the Order of the Silver Sun, which is the confidential part.” “But… that’s good, isn’t it?” Starry tilted his head, “Better them than some crazies.” “The last weapons they made from it were supposed to be able to kill divine beings.” “What? Like my mother?” “The princesses do come to mind as possible targets, yes. After all, you wouldn’t need something this specific to kill anyone else.” “Okay, now I get the conspiracy idea. However, is there actually a proof they’re not using the istrium to forge new equipment for their recruits? I hate to play Tirek’s advocate, but those guys meet a lot of really bad stuff on daily basis.” “If that was the case, they wouldn’t need to hide the facility we’re about to visit. Honestly, I’m not the one making decisions here, and I don’t know what clues our intelligence put together to come to this conclusion. The orders are to investigate, and we’re here to assist. I’m personally more worried by the necromantic part than the istrium part, but in the end it doesn’t matter. The EIS thinks it’s crucial to the security of Equestria that we see the research or the weapon itself.” Starry chuckled to himself, looking at the bubble getting closer with every passing minute. “I really wish this was all Cadance’s plot.” “What? Really?” Bladedancer had to blink several times to come to terms with what Starry had just said. “Yeah, that entire bubble. How much better it would look if instead it was her pink, round, soft butt. Or better yet, two bubbles,” he turned his head to greet the bulging eyes of Bladedancer, “What? We’re not gonna come up with something groundbreaking on the way, so I decided to think of something nice instead. Heheh, Cadance’s plot.” Bladedancer rolled her eyes. “Nobility, upbringing… you’re still a stallion.” Starry laughed at her frustrated groan. His joy was short-lived, though, as he suddenly clutched his chest armor. “Damn it!” “Still hurts?” asked Bladedancer, on reflex touching her plate mail under which her own scars from past fights against Flow reminded her that she wasn’t alright by far as well. “You tell me,” frowned the batpony. “Well, that should teach you to rush head-first into danger.” “Says the mare who fought Flow twice.” “True, but I’m not-” Starry couldn’t suppress his snappy response, especially when he knew from his vision how much emphasis Bladedancer put on him being Luna’s colt. If there was something that pissed him off about his friend, it was this. “A noble? Luna’s son? Important?!” his raised voice made Bladedancer look away, “We’ve served together for a long time, Blade, and I wish you finally understood how bullshit what you just failed to say is.” “Well,” Bladedancer started quietly, “It’s not. I can understand you don’t want to be treated in a special way, but I don’t want to even start comparing how much and who would be sad if you died instead of me. Come on, Starry. You know you’re more important than I am, stop insulting my intelligence. Princess Luna would go ballistic.” “She wouldn’t treat my death like that of any other soldier!” he puffed his cheeks, then he slowly breathed out as Bladedancer glared at him, “At least she shouldn’t...” “Come on, Starry. She’s as much a mother as she is a ruler.” “Well, how would you feel if your mom called you her little pumpkin in your thirties without any chance of it changing, because she’s immortal and ancient compared to anything you’ll ever be.” “Heh, pumpkin,” Bladedancer chuckled to herself, ignoring Starry’s furious stare, “Fine, I admit that no stallion above thirty should be called my little pumpkin without serious repercussions or a therapist.” That seemed to calm Starry down, and he asked: “What would you say if your father called you her little, I dunno, daffodil tomorrow and every day afterwards?” “Stop haunting me, dad, maybe? Something along those lines.” Starry immediately bit his lip. “I’m sorry. You’ve never talked about your family.” Bladedancer shrugged. “There wasn’t anything to say, really. My mother succumbed to corruption when I was a filly. She just got up and left the enclave. I never saw her again. My father died few years ago during the liberation of Ponyville enclave when Queen Nightshade took over. The sill old coot was too old to fight, but we needed everypony.” “I’ll shut up now,” mumbled Starry, “Sorry for bringing up bad memories.” “Don’t worry about that, pumpkin.” *** Bladedancer’s horn flashed, momentarily lighting the early evening by reflecting off of the crystal houses and the street itself. “Four entities surrounding us,” hissed Bladedancer to Starry’s ear. The batpony turned his head from side to side in response, seeing nothing. “Glad you’ve finally arrived.” said a new male voice. The air in four spots shifted, revealing changelings surrounding the duo. It was a grey one behind Starry and Bladedancer who spoke, “I’m Smoke, commander of Queen Chrysalis’ forces here in the Crystal Empire. Our target is fifteen minutes away on hoof.” Undisturbed, Bladedancer simply nodded. “Both of us can fly if it helps. Anything we need to know?” Smoke took to the sky, immediately followed by Starry and the changelings. Bladedancer focused for a moment, then with a flash of magic she simply trotted upwards through the air faster than her pace should allow. “Useful magic,” commented Smoke before his tone changed into a matter-of-fact one, “There are eleven ponies involved in the operation on the suspects’ side - four unicorn scientists, two guards, one manager, two blacksmiths, and two helpers. The scientists sleep and work in a small complex underground while the rest come and go depending on what’s needed. We’ve managed to catch and interrogate everyone from the upstairs department, and no one knows anything about the research itself. Even the smiths just work from the blueprints. The weapon itself is a sword, which we’ve discovered three days ago, made from some rare material called istrium.” “So they do know how to forge it?” asked Bladedancer. “Considering the weapon is supposed to be finished now, I suppose so,” Smoke nodded, “The blacksmiths’ work itself isn’t the important part, from what little we know. They just made the ‘form’ while the scientists are adding some enchantments no one knows about.” “A heavily, possibly permanently, enchanted istrium sword. That’s...” Bladedancer paused, “actually far less sinister than I thought. Any signs of some serious magic, Smoke?” “As far as we know, no. No scannable traces or signatures. What’s on your mind, paladin?” he added when Bladedancer frowned. “This feels like a trap. There is no reason why this operation should require so much money and secrecy unless someone found a way to bind some abnormally destructive or powerful enchantment to an istrium weapon which, considering the crafting process is supposed to be finished, would definitely leave a magical mark. Granted, istrium forging methods shouldn’t be known to anyone but Bucket. On the other hoof, I might be thinking about it the wrong way,” Bladedancer casually walked through the air at the same speed as the rapidly flying changelings and one batpony, “Someone else might have simply discovered a basic way to work with the material and is refining it. The information about necromancy could be wrong.” “E-hm,” Smoke cleared his throat, “we provided accurate information. If the targets themselves don’t know what’s going on, there’s a limit on what we can do.” “I didn’t mean it as an insult,” Bladedancer apologized, “What I’m saying is that there might be more than meets the eye. We should be supremely careful, even if we don’t see a direct threat.” “We’ll take that into consideration,” the changeling nodded, leading the group into descent towards what had to be the warehouse in question. When they landed, three more changelings appeared out of thin air. Without an exchange of words with them, Smoke turned his head to Bladedancer, “No movement. Everyone is inside. Let’s go!” The operation was surprisingly uneventful. Smoke’s changelings already invisible inside opened the warehouse gate, and the surprised ponies immediately dropped whatever they were doing when faced with the small crowd of changelings appearing from nowhere. Less than a minute later, Smoke, Bladedancer, and Starry entered an office on the upper warehouse floor. The unicorn manager sitting behind the desk twitched when the door opened, prompting Smoke’s pounce forward, and Bladedancer’s immediate protective bubble spell appearing around her and Starry. “What was the silent alarm for?” Smoke’s forehoof shapeshifted into a set of talons as the changeling standing on the desk grabbed the unicorn by his neck and threw him towards the other two. “I don’t know what-” Smoke jumped next to him and bit his neck. “Whoah, calm down!” Starry looked taken aback by the changeling’s apparent zero tolerance for nonsense. Smoke’s eyes flashed, then he released the unicorn who stayed on the floor, covering his face. “I am perfectly calm,” said Smoke, “but time is of the essence. The unicorn indeed triggered a silent alarm as I suspected. He himself doesn’t know what it does, though,” without waiting, he left the office, speaking to empty air, “I know where the entrance to the underground is, and my changelings will seize all the documents here for analysis. This is the part where I might need you two. Come on.” Three changelings immediately entered the office, one sitting down by the unicorn, and two headed to the filing cabinets in the back. Shrugging, Starry poked Bladedancer glaring at the methodically moving changelings: “Let’s go. I’ve met with Chrysalis and some of her high ranks. The unicorn will be alright, but we need to stop whatever that alarm was supposed to make happen.” That woke the paladin up, and she followed Starry down onto the main open floor where Smoke’s changelings were already standing next to one of many metal containers, this one with its front side lying on the floor. It was empty aside from a small raised square of floor which upon examination revealed no way to open it aside from a numeric pad on the inner side of the container. Smoke punched in some combination, seemingly the right one, because the metal trap door opened without a hitch, revealing a short staircase. Starry realized that while to him and Blade the operation was nearly silent, the changelings had to be communicating via their mind links, because a pair immediately arrive inside the container and rushed down the stairs leading underground. “Any dark magic, Blade?” asked Starry. The paladin mare shrugged, walking down in front of Smoke and the batpony. “Yes, but nothing relevant. I’ve seen necromancers who raised their first undead on accident leave more of a trace. Either someone is exceedingly good at hiding magic, or nothing serious was going on down here. As suspicious as I am, I’m leaning towards the latter.” The cellar area proved to be small, cross-shaped set of halls, with a room at the end of each one. A group of changelings entering after Starry went to the left while our duo followed Smoke to the right. A third group of five rushed straight forward. The right room was completely empty aside from a groove in the floor and two metal nubs on its ends. “Any ideas what this is?” asked Starry, leaning down to the groove, and his sensitive ears twitched, “It’s buzzing.” Smoke tapped his hoof against the floor, and smiled. “It’s hollow, so that has to be a device of sorts. I’m sure there are power cables leading to it underneath. Well heard, definitely.” “A portal?” Bladedancer tilted her head, “That would be my first guess. I can feel magic in this room. Possibly an electric stabilization field and static components under the floor requiring a magical trigger to open it.” Smoke blinked. “Can you do such a thing?” “Definitely not without studying it. Asking would be way safer.” “Good,” Smoke nodded, “My operatives have located all remaining ponies. The left room from the entrance is a sleeping and rest area while the central one is the workshop. You’ll want to see that one. I think we’ve found what we’re here for.” Starry and Blade followed Smoke out of the teleporter room and into the supposed workshop. “You know, having the ability to not only share speech but vision like the changelings do would be so useful sometimes,” muttered Starry. “It definitely helps during operations requiring synchronized movement,” agreed Smoke, entering the workshop, “I suppose this is the weapon.” Neither Bladedancer nor Starry Night could identify most of the devices lining the workshop walls. Some looked like technomagical forges, some were microscopes and some were simply screens with 3D blueprints of the silvery white sword hovering in the air perpendicular to a metal table screwed firmly to the floor. “Blade?” asked Starry, pointing at the floating weapon, “Analysis, if you please.” “My changelings are already… questioning the scientists and one smith,” said Smoke, “I should have the results for you in few minutes. For now, I know the name of the weapon, and you’re not going to like it.” “I didn’t know you changelings had such dramatic disposition,” muttered Bladedancer, walking around the central table with her horn glowing, “Out with it.” “It’s called the Soulstealer.” Chill ran down Starry’s spine. With a quizzical expression, he followed the rays of light from Bladedancer’s horn cast on the horrifically named weapon. Minutes dragged on without anyone saying anything, until Starry just had to add: “Blade, be careful.” The unicorn shook her head. “There’s nothing to be careful of, Starry.” “What do you mean?” asked Smoke, walking over, “Did they somehow fool my infiltrators?” Bladedancer chose her next words wisely, because this made no sense. “It is an istrium weapon. I’m pretty sure it could cut through my armor along with the enchantments if wielded correctly. Not because it’s destructive or anything, but because of the sheer quality of the material. Some dark magic is bound to it, definitely, but it’s nothing anypony would have to be concerned about,” she levitated the sword without fear, and gave it a practice swing. It was somewhere between a short and a longsword in length, and about twice as wide, more like a long cleaver “We should take it to Canterlot, definitely, but this weapon does nothing on its own aside from being of unique quality. My best guess it that it’s supposed to supplement someone’s already existing ability to do… something.” “Steal souls?” Starry gave it a shot, “Since we’re talking about dark magic - necromancy, to be exact. Maybe the magic activates on a cut- ow!” he backed off when Blade’s swing scratched his cheek. “Nope, pumpkin. I would know if that was the case. This thing is innately as harmless as any normal sword.” “Then it simply means we need to figure out who this ‘Soulstealer’ is for,” Smoke turned stopped examining the scientific equipment all around, “It will take few days to go through the cash flow records, but the direct contact with minotaurs and the amount of money limit the amount of organizations with this kind of influence. Anyway, we’re almost done with the basic scan of the ponies’ minds. Unfortunately, they have no idea. None of them knows the entire forging process either. It seems as if someone provided them with the blueprints as well as the already set up equipment, and they were only using it based on some guidelines. The good news is that said someone should be coming for the finished product very soon-” On cue, something small landed on the floor near Starry, followed by a loud ‘poof!’ and billowing, sticky, black smoke immediately blinding everyone. Bladedancer only smirked when her immediately activated tracing spell showed a silhouette entering through the door, darting past Smoke and Starry, and rushing quietly towards her. Her head covered in a see-through bubble of clean air, Blade pretended to cough, and when the enemy came into range, she punched upwards. The intruder was quick, reacting to the attack the instant Bladedancer moved. On top of that, when she swung with the Soulstealer, she felt something push into the gap between the plates of her armor, and- “AAAAAAARRGH!” -screamed as lightning shot through her. One more confusing than dangerous punch later, the figure grabbed the falling sword, and turned away to flee. Bladedancer’s horn flared bright, and with a boom the choking cloud dissipated into black liquid now covering the floor. Still coming to grip with her body not listening to her properly after being tasered, Bladedancer was at least able to see the enemy somewhat clearly. It was a fit mare wearing a shiny, black bodysuit clinging tightly to her from the neck down. Her head was covered by a mask of the same color with a thicker bit around the muzzle which had to be a filter allowing her to breathe in the smoke. The only uncovered things were her sandy blond mane and tail, black wings, and the talons on her forelegs. From the shape of the mask, Bladedancer assumed the thief was a hippogriff, the pony-headed variant. The mare rushed out of the room. “She just ran outside!” yelled Bladedancer, forcing her body to listen to her while weaving a pain-numbing spell. Starry recovered first, immediately following the fleeing mare who threw two small spheres further into the hallway towards more approaching changelings who backed off, expecting another explosion. What happened was that a shimmering wall coming from the spheres blocked the changelings’ advance, leaving the mare free to rush into the teleporter room. ”This is some crazy technology! I doubt even griffon Black Ops have something like this.” When Starry got in, he saw a dark purple oval hanging in the air, two knocked out changelings, and nothing else. Taking a deep breath, he knew this was his one chance to follow. On the other hoof, what if the portal sent him flying towards a pit of spikes of some crushing mechanism. What if-? Bladedancer barrelled past him, unbothered, and disappeared through the magical gateway. “Gee, leader of the paladins, ladies and gentlecolts. And I’m the one protected by a stasis spell,” he grit his teeth, and jumped through. The falling feeling of teleportation didn’t stop when Starry was able to see more black smoke around him. He wasn’t choking this time. In fact, the air was cold, fresh, as if just before a rain. It hit him immediately. He was inside a storm cloud. Unfortunately, the actual lightning hit him even immediately-er. Bladedancer smelled ozone, which was all she needed to trigger her protection magic instantly. However, Starry’s scream cutting through the air along with the lightning strike didn’t allow her to look for the thief. Instead, she blinked behind the dropping batpony, and grabbed him with her forelegs just as the second lightning bolt struck her. Thankfully, solitary natural storm clouds weren’t too destructive, so Starry was more shocked than hurt, and her magic was enough to block further damage. With the groaning batpony held tight against her, she spun around, only to see the black figure flying downwards into the sea of lit buildings. “Manehattan?!” Bladedancer couldn’t help speaking aloud. It was supposed to be impossible to teleport more than a short way over corrupted landscape, and even if that wasn’t the corruption effect complete blocker for the situation, just the distance from the Crystal Empire to the coast would have required absolutely obscene levels of energy. On the other hoof, if someone had the money to buy crates full of istrium crystals, technology unknown anywhere else, and advanced knowledge lost ages ago… who could say what was possible anymore? She slapped Starry, who shook his head and blinked. “Flap those wings, pumpkin. If she lands, we’ll never find her in the crowds.” “MANEHATTAN?!” Starry looked down, “Ow!” he shot Blade smacking him in the head a dirty glance. “The hippogriff!” “Oh, right!” Starry blinked out of sync one final time, and the two together followed the silhouette quickly gaining on them.