Chapter 11: Dark Clouds in Summervale
~Wax Wick~
It started as any normal day. I walked to the shop, fumbled with my keys, found the right one, opened the lock as I always do.
I walked in, setting a new supply of wax on the counter to be taken into the back for today’s set of candles as I always do.
I lit an aromatic candle – lavender today – and took a deep breath of the refreshing fragrance as I always do.
Then the candles came to life – which they never do.
Some hopped around, retaining the form of an ordinary candle. Some others transformed into animals, or creatures. Bird-like candles flapped around, divebombing me waxen-beak-first as I cover my eyes and face with my hooves.
Rat-like candles bite at my hooves and flank as I cower in the corner. Bat-like candles swoop at my neck as I swat them away, leaving the bird-like candles to aim for my eyes again.
Then I catch a glimpse of many candles forming a much larger creature. A waxen wolf, snarling mutely as it forms from a pool of wax melting around it.
My guard drops in awe of the spectacle before me. A bird-like candle takes my left eye as I scream in pain and panic. The waxen wolf lunges, taking my throat. Blood mixes with the smell of lavender.
~Gourmet Gorge~
A mountain of a meal lies before me. A wonderful arrangement, with every eating utensil imaginable and napkins folded to look like swans. Each placement at the table features a bowl of warm water to rinse your hooves before the meal, or between especially messy courses. A goblet of fine wine adjacent a salad bowl next to the primary platter.
Leaves of every plant under the sun, an assortment of every sauce that could ever grace such a fine meal, from the garish and rarely seen barbeque sauce to extra-virgin olive oil imported from the olive farms in Oldancia far to the south of Equestria.
The main course? A fried wolf, in the center of the long banquet table; large as an Alicorn with steam rising off of its freshly cooked hide.
And then it spat out the apple in its mouth and growled.
It races down the table toward me, knocking aside candelabras and bowls of vegetables in its pursuit. I turn from the table to run, but my hooves tangle in my chair. I fall onto my back in time to see it leap the last few yards towards me, and its jaws snap around my neck.
~Star Weaver~
Watching the stars through my telescope is normally relaxing. Checking each of the constellations normally fills my heart with warmth and joy. Naming each of the stars and seeing every constellation in the tapestry of the nighttime sky normally fills me with such wonder.
Not tonight.
Tonight, the constellations are alive and they are angry. As I watch them in my telescope, they spring to life. The bears Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. The great archer Sagittarius. Cancer the crab and so many, many more. All of them spring to life and charge earthward.
Straight towards me.
I turn to run, but already I am surrounded. To my left and right are the Gemini twins. Behind me the archer Sagittarius has already nocked an arrow, mounted on Ursa Major. Ahead of me… a wolf clad in stars. A constellation I’ve never seen before. It lunges for me, maw agape, and all I see is blackness.
Twilight was going through Ace’s library, for perhaps the hundredth time.
Or rather, one of Ace’s libraries. She knew there were numerous others, but she had no idea where they were, how to get to them, or if Ace even wanted her to go through those books. He could have stored the books separately for any number of reasons.
After discovering that tome on blood magic in this library, she didn’t like the idea of what could be hidden away as forbidden knowledge.
Still, with the Filter Resource spell Ace taught her, it was easy to find the things she was looking for.
“Filter word: Location spell,” she spoke aloud as her horn lit up with the magic.
‘227 matching results. Query?’ What wasn’t easy was the way the spell mimicked Ace’s voice in her head when she used it. It seemed delightful at the time, so she never bothered to ask how to change it… Now it reminded her more and more of his extended absence with every use.
“Query: Global range.”
‘No results found. Query?’ Well, it was worth a try. Or rather, a third try.
“Rescind previous query. New query: Extended range.”
’15 matching results. Query?’
Right, the same 15 books she had already read lit up in the glow of her magic, ready to be plucked from the shelves. One of them had even boasted a massive range: 20,000-meter radius; but either it was a boast, or she was casting the spell completely wrong as it only covered 200 meters.
Twilight let the magic fade from her horn, ending the spell as she collapsed onto the sitting pillow that lied in front of her.
Then there was a flash the color of midnight around her, and Princess Luna appeared before her. She didn’t look happy.
“Twilight, I’ve come bearing news of Ace’s location.” Still not happy. Why wasn’t she happy? “He stayed the night somewhere in the densely populated city of Summervale.”
Oh, that was why. “Were the nightmares… bad?” Twilight ventured hesitantly.
“Terrible. I believe many ponies will have a hard time working tomorrow, both because of the lack of sleep, as well as the content of the dreams traumatizing them. And they are only going to get worse as his condition worsens with time.”
“Do you think he’s realized he’s causing nightmares for everypony around him when he sleeps?” Twilight very likely knew the answer, but didn’t know what else to say. She was overjoyed to have a solid lead on where Ace was, but all those innocent ponies suffering because of him… Ace could never find joy in that, and neither could she.
“I daresay he has not. Still, this provides us a lead where before we had none. Summervale lies far to the north of Ponyville and Canterlot, and I have not the means to travel there whilst also caring for mine sister.
“I know that Ace has likely shared his secret for teleporting vast distances with you… My sister and I are not so fortunate. It falls to you to check on Ace, dearest Twilight. But know… that whatever you should find, it’s still our beloved Ace. Go with all speed, Twilight. Before the trail runs cold.”
What did she mean by “whatever I should find”?
Princess Luna teleported herself away, giving Twilight the privacy to do what she needed to do to find Ace. He had shown her once how his network of teleportation beacons let him bounce his spell from one place to another, covering far greater distances than any unicorn had ever imagined possible with a single spell.
Still, Twilight had no idea how to find a beacon she hadn’t been to herself before. Well, she was in a library. “Filter: Beacon,” she said, her horn glowing once more.
’28 matching results. Query?’
“Filter: Teleportation.”
‘0 matching results. Query?’ Of course, he hadn’t written down his secret here. Either Princess Luna or Princess Celestia could have searched here, same as she had. She let the spell fade away once more.
Well, Princess Luna said that Summervale was far north of Ponyville and Canterlot, so if I just use my magical senses to spread myself from one beacon to the next, heading North, it should be near the end of the line… right?
She made her way to the foyer of Ace’s massive home, where the nearest beacon was located. Using her magical senses to find the otherwise invisible beacon, she admired the simple-once-you-see-it-done magical marvel.
Unicorn magic is unique to every unicorn. Each unicorn’s magic has a sort of pull towards that unicorn, which lets you follow somepony by the trail of magic they leave when they cast a spell. This ‘residual magic’ is like a magic hoofprint in moist mud.
Ace took this simple affinity and amplified it, altered it to have no directional pull of its own, then preserved it with a perfectly cast preservation spell – leaving behind no further residue to alter it further.
What he created was a beacon of unaligned residual magic that he could always sense no matter where he was by extending his magical senses in its general direction, which then let him lock onto it as a target for a spell.
One teleportation or translocation spell later, and he would be anywhere in the world he needed to be – provided he had been there before to set up said beacon.
Twilight wondered just how many beacons there were, once. She had let her senses spread out from one in every direction she could manage… and there were hundreds of them. She did the same thing with another beacon, attaching her magical senses to it then searching again. Still yet, there were hundreds more.
And Ace had memorized all of their locations, where and how to find them, when it would be safe to teleport to which ones, as well as being able to teleport to them without first checking to make sure he wouldn’t appear in a wall or floor. It was astounding.
Taking a deep breath, Twilight calmed herself and let the beacon feel her magic. She focused her magical senses north, and found numerous beacons along her path. Just by measuring the distance of the beacons Ace had used with her when their magic was joined together, she knew they were roughly 500-800 meters apart on average.
Twilight figured that Ace wouldn’t have beacons just in Equestria. She knew from her books that Summervale was well within Equestrian borders, so she pulled her senses back a bit, losing maybe 10 or 12 beacons. She bound her senses to the northern-most beacon, feeling around with her senses to find a safe place to teleport.
Twilight prepared her teleportation spell… and fell through several feet of snow on her arrival.
Wishing she had worn warmer clothes… or any at all, she cast a spell to warm and dry her body, while flash teleporting on top of the snow, along with a Snowtread spell. Now able to walk on top of the snow, and dried off and warm, she looked around for any landmarks.
Just to the north, she saw a gated town with tall walls of timber. With a Farsight spell, she discerned a sign in front of the gate. It read: Yakyakistan, best home of all Yaks.
Yakyakistan? But that’s not in Equestria, it’s north of- Twilight’s thoughts were scattered as she heard a loud roar to her right. A terrible creature far taller than a pony raised its claws menacingly at her, loosing another territorial roar.
Without thinking, she immediately teleported to the nearest beacon to the south, careful to place her teleportation higher than the beacon for fear of integrating with a wall.
When she appeared, she used her magical senses to find where the ground was, then flashed herself to it before she lost much height.
Crises averted, she sighed a deep breath and shook her head to clear it, then found it was hard to breathe. Twilight looked around, and realized she was on the peak of a snowy mountain.
Suddenly afraid of heights, she laid on her stomach on top of the snow – still under the effects of her Snowtread spell – and looked around as far as she could see.
She was on top of one of the snowy mountains that served as Equestria’s border. Looking to the North, all she could see was snow between her and the horizon. Looking south, she saw snow still, bordering the verdant lands that made up the rest of Equestria.
Once again using a Farsight spell, she saw a snowy town to the East, and some ways past that a glowing green crystal in the center of another town, completely devoid of any snow.
Guessing this was Summervale, Twilight did the mental arithmetic to find a beacon that would lead to the town itself. As far as the town was, she teleported herself to the 4th beacon away from her, this time with the luxury of using her senses to teleport onto the ground firmly.
There was another wall of tall timber between her and the town proper, and she could easily teleport herself inside, but she decided to follow protocol. Which was probably for the best, since there was a small line of ponies and some vendor ponies queued to get through the gate… and her sudden appearance had drawn their attention.
Smiling guiltily, she made her way to the back of the line, and thankfully nopony made a big deal out of it.
A short time later, Twilight made it to the gate and a guard pulled her aside for the inspection. “No belongings, ma’am?” Clearly, he thought it was unorthodox for a pony to arrive without at least some comforts for the road.
“Just uh, thought I’d pop in. See what’s going on in town.” Twilight smiled sheepishly, wishing she had spent more time thinking of a cover story.
The guard had bags under his eyes that denoted he hadn’t slept well last night. They were further accentuated by the scowl he showed her. “What is the nature of your visit today?”
“Actually, I’ve been told everypony had nightmares here last night. I’m here to investigate.” I really hope this doesn’t get Ace into trouble… “Did you see anypony come here recently, perhaps with a unique sword bearing the marks of the Princesses? Dark coat, two-toned red mane, Unicorn?”
The guard’s companion stepped forward. “Yes ma’am. He came into town yesterday. Carried that sword, a pair of saddlebags and a young filly. Seemed a right friendly sort. Said he was to stay at the Cozy Hearth just off 3rd street.” The guard looked nervous for a moment, then added, “Is he a threat? Should we detain him if we see him?”
“No, he’s uh, my colleague. He’s investigating the phenomenon as well. Said it happened in the town just west of here before, and he thought it’d come here next… I didn’t believe his theories, and he came here without me… guess he was right.” Twilight tried her best to give a nonchalant smile, but felt that she was failing.
The guards shared a look, shrugged. “Go on in. The sooner you can get the nightmares to stop, the sooner everypony will be happy.”
“Believe me, if we have it our way the nightmares will stop before everypony goes to sleep tonight,” Twilight said as she made her way through the gates.
Following the guard’s directions, she found 3rd street and took the path off of it, then another off path before she saw the sign over the inn. Without delay, she made her way inside.
As soon as she opened the door, a group of foals ran past her, some carrying buckets, some carrying bags. Watching them pass, she nearly walked right into a stallion holding a shopping list. “Pardon me, ma’am,” he said politely as he made to chase after the foals.
“Welcome to the Cozy Hearth! How may I help you today?” the pony tending the bar called. She looked like she was used to sleepless nights, but had bags under her eyes all the same.
“I’m looking for a unicorn stallion carrying a sword. Dark coat, two-toned red mane, possibly accompanied by a filly? I’m told he stayed here last night.”
“That stallion with the broken horn? He and that filly left early this morning. Didn’t say where they went.”
Broken horn? That didn’t sound good. Twilight knew Ace could use magic with nearly any part of his body, but a broken horn?... things didn’t sound like they went well.
“Do you have any clue as to where I could find him? Or where he went yesterday? It’s important that I find them!”
“Well you say that it’s important, and I don’t have any notes to give ya. Might be I know where he went, but why should I tell you? For all I know, you’re out to hurt him or his filly, and they seemed like right fine folks.”
Twilight was running out of ideas, looking around the inn for a clue or a hint or an idea or something when she saw the picture. Ace and another stallion, building the inn right here, before all the other buildings were built around it.
She took the picture off the wall and held it up, pointing at Ace. “His family helped build this place, didn’t he? I don’t have any way to prove that I’m friends with this stallion, and I don’t know a thing about your family or this inn, but I know that if you owe Ace anything, then please tell me where he went. I need to know.”
The hostess looked over the picture, then looked over Twilight for a long moment. Then finally, “He and that filly went to see the Matron. Center of town, right under the Crystal – can’t miss it. Mind you, this was yesterday, and I don’t think anypony goes to see the Matron twice in one week, but that’s all I got for ya. I hope it helps.”
“That’s exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you, thank you so much!” Twilight left the picture on the bar and made her way back to 3rd street, then sprinted down it all the way to the crystal.
She asked the guards at the top of the steps leading to the Temple down below, and they confirmed that Ace and that filly had been here just yesterday. She thanked them and immediately made her way past them.
Making her way down the steps to the temple, Twilight’s heart was racing; from the excitement of getting some real answers, the exertion from running down stairs, and for the love blossoming in her heart for Ace.
The Temple grew in front of her as it came closer. Compared to the structure and the floating crystal, it looked so much smaller than it truly was. The glowing crystal fragments looked incredibly regal floating in their sconces, but Twilight barely noted them as she ran up the stairs to the top of the temple.
Twilight vaguely registered how all this running around would have left her exhausted and breathless before she met Ace who taught her that training her physical muscles were as important as her mental and magical ones.
Oh, please let him be okay…
As she reached the top of the temple, her breath came short and ragged, but she pressed on. So close to her goal, how could she not?
The first thing she saw was the servants standing near the ledges. Following their collective gazes, she saw… a young filly. Was the Matron away on other business? Surely-
“W-welcome to the T-Temple of the C-Crystal,” the young filly said in a quivering voice that suggested she was still learning her lines. A young servant’s daughter, perhaps? “How can the Matron- “
The young filly’s eyes and voice changed almost instantly. Her stance shifted from tense and nervous to calm and relaxed; the sort of calm that comes from millennia of easy life, and the promise of millennia more.
“Ah, if it isn’t the spirit of Little Raven. Come, come. I know what you seek, and you’re too late. He’s already left.” The Matron’s eyes and voice were calming, soothing. She spoke with a power the young filly lacked, almost seductive.
“Where did Ace go? I need to find him before- “
“You’ll not find him. He shall find you. He does not wish to be found.” The Matron sauntered over to a pile of pillows, and sat at an easy lounge, her back against the pillows and her back hooves crossed. If she were in the body of anything but a filly, it would be almost erotic.
Twilight had heard of Seers and Prophets being cryptic; leading travelers astray with vague descriptions of where to go, or sending warriors to their deaths as they proclaimed great and powerful feats they would perform.
She had also heard of charlatans who did more or less the same thing.
“If Ace doesn’t want to be found, why has he been leaving all these clues of where to find him? Everypony who has seen him has been able to lead me to the next, except for you who dares say he doesn’t want to see me!”
“Calm yourself and be at ease, Little Raven. I never said Ace doesn’t want to see you. I said he doesn’t want to be found. Even now, he is on a journey that will lead him to Ponyville with the express intent of seeing you.”
“But you said- and my name is Twilight Sparkle, not- “
“To one who can See the very soul of a pony, you will always be Little Raven. She is who I met first, and such is the way it is. You are Little Raven. A bit more proficient in magic and with a tighter circle of friends, and perhaps you met Ace at a much younger age, but Little Raven you shall remain.
“Now as for Ace, to explain why you mustn’t find him before he finds you, the powers that be have forbidden it.”
“The ‘powers that be?’ The only powers in Equestria that could forbid such a thing are the Princesses and the laws of Physics, which I assure you- “
“Spare me such tripe.” The Matron rolled her eyes, somehow managing to do even that suggestively as her whole body rolled with the motion. “The powers in this world are Order – your ‘physics’ and the like – and Chaos. Anypony who believes themselves to be a great power need only step back and view the larger picture to see they are small and insignificant. Nopony has any more value than anypony else in the grand scheme of the universe. Surely Ace has taught you this much?”
He had, of course, but Twilight was starting to think she and the Matron could never get along as friends. Something about her just grated against her nerves. “Discord? Ace has already slain the Draconequus. Chaos no longer has any power in Equestria!”
“You fool girl, if there were only Order in the world, it would collapse. Did you know that Cutie Marks are Chaos magic?” She rolled over slowly, waving her blank flank lewdly in the air, her tail swishing behind her. “If Cutie Marks were Order magic, they would appear at a set time, like a pony’s 5th birthday or when they first started doing what their talent was.” The Matron rolled onto her side, one hind-hoof arched and a forehoof propping up her head.
“Ace was foolish to slay Discord,” the Matron continued. “It was a gigantic risk, but it payed out handsomely. As has always been the way with Ace, fortune has favored him greatly. There’s a new Draconequus in Equestria. Did you know that Draconequus are only a lesser form of Chaos? Pure Chaos, perhaps, but there are far greater terrors in their realm. They survive by being sly and cunning, but they have many predators in their world.”
“Wait, so you’re telling me that a new Discord has come, and that’s a good thing, because if it wasn’t Discord then it would be something more powerful?”
“Not another Discord, merely a Draconequus. But yes, exactly that. There are demons that would sooner devour Equestria than govern it. If one of them had become the new embodiment of Chaos in Equestria, we would have been summarily fucked.”
Hearing a swear word from the mouth of a filly was disconcerting. Hearing it in the same breath as something that entirely shattered your understanding of a fundamental part of your beliefs was mind-breaking. “So, when Ace slew Discord…”
“… He risked Equestria for a petty vengeance. He risked everything because he thought Discord was getting too comfortable in his role, because he thought Discord was going to become something far worse. I don’t know, maybe he was right. Ace knows far more than anypony – myself included – about the Draconequus and their realm of Chaos. He took personal tutorship under Cassie ages ago… and now, she is the reigning lord of Chaos.”
It was almost too much to process at once. Ace never acted recklessly… so he must have known something about how the next lord of Chaos would be chosen. The idea of Ace being tutored by a Draconequus sat ill in her gut, but she could fathom him doing it. Ace would do anything to further the sciences of magic… but what did this Cassie get in exchange? For that matter… “Who’s Cassie? Is she dangerous like Discord was?”
“Cassie is the nickname Ace gave the Draconequus Causality during his tutelage in Chaos magic. To my understanding, it was a long tutelage by standard; time flows differently in the realms of Chaos. As Draconequus go, I’m told she’s reasonable to a fault, but never approaches a problem directly. Currently, she’s helping avert some disaster I cannot fathom by preventing you from meeting Ace immediately.”
“Aren’t you a Seer? Whatever disaster Causality is talking about might have already been averted, or never existed at all. She could be trying to get Ace killed! How can we trust her?” Twilight was barely learning to trust Discord when he turned against them. Now she was expected to believe a different Draconequus had only good intentions?
“Ace trusts Cassie. That’s good enough for me.” The Matron adjusted herself on her pillows, laying on her stomach, her head propped on her hooves. “Something is wrong with Ace. The pre-magic is integrating with his body. It’s destroying him, but it’s also keeping him alive. The ritual failed, Little Raven. Ace is dying; slowly. Painfully. His magic is trying to devour his body. The pre-magic is trying to devour the magic. The pre-magic has worked its way into the veins of his magic. Now it’s feeding… and growing.
“Imagine you had a family of ticks in your blood veins. They suck up the blood, grow fat and push on your veins from the inside, stretching them, bursting them, clogging them and draining them. Every beat of your heart causes the blood to flow, the ticks to swell and your veins to expand. That is what Ace is suffering with every breath. He locks the pain away, continuing to make his way to you in Ponyville.
“Ace desperately wishes to see you, he desperately wishes for the pain to end. But he trusts Cassie. He knows that if Cassie wants him to avoid seeing you immediately, then it is to avoid some catastrophic event. Ace is willing to trust her that much, then I’m not going to betray his trust by disbelieving.”
Twilight could only sit and stare at the Matron. She imagined the pain. She imagined the grief. She imagined the trust that Ace had for an old tutor. Twilight’s body shook from imagining the mental stress of all Ace must be going through. Without his magic; no, against his magic. She was in awe. She couldn’t find a way to speak. Her vision swam as her cheeks became wet.
“You ask me why I cannot see his future, Little Raven? It is because I love him, and we are blind to the ones we love.” There were tears in the young filly’s eyes.