The last of the massive black griffons dropped on the tainted grass, his head and neck cleanly split into two. A moment later, his body liquified, and the ever-hungry ground swallowed it.
Cromach stumbled, having difficult time standing on all fours. With a snap of his talons, the axe disappeared, and as silence spread through the corrupted forest, he let out a deep breath.
“Still got it,” he wheezed, “I should do this more often. Definitely clears the head.”
As he blinked, his eyes out of sync due to sheer exhaustion, his griffon body wobbled, and in a flash of light returned to a draconequus shape. Cromach gave himself now coiling mid-air a disapproving stare.
“The chaos powers are making this a bit annoying. Having to fight Corrupted for a while with an electrified wheelbarrow wasn’t the easiest thing. Good practice, though,” he stretched, gradually regaining his breath, “Alright, time to get back. I doubt I’ve got the week to take a train from around here.”
He focused on Manehattan, snapped his talons…
“Aaah?!”
...and materialized again in the middle of a snow drift, immediately blinded by raging blizzard.
“A-a-a-a-alr-right-t-t. Ta-ak-k-ke t-t-two,” he forced through his chattering teeth.
One snap later, he was lying on a deck chair under burning sun, black sunglasses on his face, and a coconut filled with-
“Mmmm!” he took a sip.
-cold beer topped with slowly melting snowflakes. The new beach was beautiful, and Cromach took only ten minutes or so to recover and return to his griffon form. Keeping himself looking the way he was born was a little taxing, his chaotic divinity rebelling against the static shape, but the calm seaside allowed for concentration a raging snowstorm or a threat of more incoming Corrupted hadn’t.
When he finished his drink, he snapped his talons again.
Unnatural chill running down his spine announced that this time he indeed hit the right place. Patches of black fire were still burning all over the old Silver Sun headquarters as Cromach stood on his hind legs and crossed his forelegs. Now that he had time to examine things, not having to fight Flow and protect the new Blazing at the same time, he noticed narrow black lines hovering in the air.
Having no measuring equipment, he resorted to his usual method of analysis - the poke. His talon passed through the line as if it wasn’t there. Squinting, he looked around and noticed more and more those 'things'. Waving his foreleg through them did nothing, although his talons did feel a little colder even in this chilly place.
“Wait...” an old memory surfaced, as they tend to.
Rushing over to the crater where Nightmare had blasted Flow with her power before, he could swear there was an invisible blurry film looking as if forming a bubble.
“This has to be a mark of Flow’s power. The scars could be… the slashes?” he grinned, “Ah hah! Here’s where he cut through my axe,” once again, his poking the black thin line did absolutely nothing, but as he left his talon 'inside' it, he could swear he felt an almost imperceptible draft, “I remember where I’ve seen this before!” he punched the air victoriously, “These are holes to the void, and this new body must be able to see them. It’s like when Blaze and I destroyed Harmony,” he shuddered, “Ewww… tentacles and eyeballs everywhere. So, Flow can tear reality in the same way as Blaze using all three Blades of Balance could, but with only his mind. How can I deal with something we used to kill two gods?” rubbing his chin, his hind legs lost footing and were dragging him upwards like party balloons, “Damn it, you stop concentrating for ONE SECOND!” Cromach crossed his forelegs on his chest defiantly, now hovering even in his griffon body.
“Alright,” levitating in a sitting lotus position one focused moment later, he made his way to the crater once more, “from what little I know, void is the empty space between realities, and if I recall correctly, even the gods belong to our reality slash dimension. So, when Nightmare attacked him, he had to… rip the reality in such a way that the projected divine assault hit an open rift instead of him,” his involuntary hovering stopped, “Then why was he hurt afterwards?” he waved his talons through the ‘wobbly bubble’ around the crater, “This looks as if he’d opened a rift all around himself. which means Nightmare can’t have touched him. His robe got disintegrated completely, and the istrium mask cracked.”
After a moment of absolute silence, evil grin grew on Cromach’s beak.
“Opening the rifts exhausts him, or whatever he’s using to survive contact with the void. After all, if void devours and disperses even the amount of divine power a god can possess, then he must be using something special, something the gods, well - god doesn’t know about… or can’t use. Aaaah, I wish I knew Blaze’s research a bit deeper,” he flapped his wings, landing on the ground, “Anyway, combat method one discovered - exhaust him. Find the extent of his power, and avoid his void attacks until he can’t use those anymore.”
In his head, he replayed the battle, trying to recall any helpful details.
“Nightmare knows what happened, she has to. She looked super disgruntled with how her main attack went. Now, why didn’t Flow simply hide away in the void and then come back? Why summon something resembling a protective bubble here? Hmm, maybe he isn’t some creature FROM the void, maybe he just uses this style of combat because there’s no defense against it. There literally can’t be - he rips reality apart. No material can survive his attacks, and no magic.”
Cromach froze.
“But… does it mean that even Nightmare can’t do anything? Does he know a way to resist a being that is for all intents and purposes all powerful? I mean, she can take away my divinity with a single thought. She can make me not exist in an instant. BUT she is bound to this reality. If there’s someone using a ‘place’ where there is no reality… does she have power over him?” he nodded, still thinking about the battle, “Well, not from what I saw.”
He sighed, letting his control go, and his body turned back into the draconequus.
“Great, the creature who can possibly destroy the god who killed my Blaze is trying to do something related to the end of the world, if the rumors are true. The worst part is… that he probably can do it. Hmm… can we make them fight each other and kill the weakened winner afterwards? Or can we find a way to fight either of them in time? GAAAH!” he punched the air, “I need smart ponies for this, not a remarkably hot griffon with temporary chaos problems who is mainly focused on hacking bad guys into pieces. I guess it’s time to go home.”
He snapped his talons. Nothing happened.
“To float home then...” he hissed.
***
Starry Night was sitting in his Canterlot castle office, leaning back in his chair with his hind legs on the table, listening to the crazy radio host of Good Fight. At this point, it was more a way to relax, to let his mind drift away, because clearly the voice screaming the ‘news’ into the microphone wasn’t using his brain either.
However, there was still the mystery of him knowing about things quite often before anypony else including Bladedancer, and if you knew something secret before the head of the paladins gets briefed, you were a suspicious character.
The currently yelled news was about, as usual, the seemingly unstoppable army now marching north through Zebrica, taking out city after city. According to the reports, the most recent strategy of leaving the cities in the army’s path, and relocating the citizens into settlements further east or west was working to a degree, and for quite some time the army had been marching through empty land, barely able to gather enough resources to sustain its march.
The citizens really should have spent more time destroying the fuel reserves and all food they couldn’t carry. Two or three properly cleaned out cities later, there would be no army to go on, unless its members learned to chew concrete.
Unfortunately, the well-being of the soldiers wasn’t on the mind of whoever was in charge of the devastating force. Sighing, Starry kept listening:
“-like the ancient defenders did! Burn the cities, salt the earth, escape, and laugh while the invading army starves to death. But what if that simply didn’t work? What if nowhere was safe? Tonight, we on the Good Fight bring you news that will chill you down to the marrow of your bones. The royal don’t want panic. They hide in their bunkers or atop their high ivory towers while using you as as bait, to measure how much they can get away with. You see… the army travels straight north, but there has been no contact with cities beyond where the army is, even those it has never visited. We know why. Our trusted sources returned to us with horrifying reports of a magical plague spreading from a single carrier and devouring everything and everypony. Sixteen major cities have been hit until now, and countless minor settlements have gone dark. All we know is that the army has recently received significant reinforcements from both south and east, cities which were supposed to be safe. This is necromancy of the highest level, and it means we MUST close down our southern port. We can’t let zebras into Equestria anymore, or we’ll start losing more than just our mares-”
“He just HAD to plug that stupid idea,” Stary was happy he could complain about something harmless for a second, because the new disease was something he hadn’t heard about yet. At this point he was certain it’ll be in the morning briefing in a day or two.
“-Unfortunately, we don’t have any information about the progress of the plague, all we know is that a single carrier managed to control an entire city, and force its population to march days through the desert along with supplies to the main army. Stay vigilant, listeners, and we’ll try to keep you informed about the horrors you have to prepare for. Speaking of which, our one-year supply of dried food is currently on sale for fifty percent off! On top of that, our vitamin supplements might not help you fight off a magical plague, but will definitely work against any normal one in the apocalyptic hellscape that will follow if we drop our guard. Stay strong, stay loyal, and most of all - stay safe!”
“Greeeat, a mind-controlling plague is just what we needed. So there isn’t a safe place out of the way of the army. Makes me wonder, though, why wasn’t this used in any battle yet? It would sort out the usual massacre a lot more peacefully while growing the enemy force a lot faster. A tactical mistake, or a new method of subjugation?” Starry couldn’t help feeling disheartened. No peace talks, no effective resistance, nothing was working. At this pace, in just over a month, the zebrican army would be knocking on Equestria’s door despite the sea separating the continents.
The door to his office opened without knocking, and Bladedancer let herself in. She raised her eyebrow when she heard the advertisement block of the Good Fight. After last time, though, she wasn’t as certain as before that the 'news' were just the ravings of some lunatic.
“Anything interesting?” she asked, putting a stack of papers on Starry’s desk before sitting down on the guest chair. Starry immediately put his legs down and assumed something remotely resembling official sitting position. It didn’t last long.
“Some spreading disease which enslaves whole cities and makes them join the army,” he shrugged in a joking attempt to lighten the mood, “You’d make me a happy little bat if you said it was complete nonsense, but judging from the way you're grinding your teeth right now you’ve been told something during the top tier briefing.”
Bladedancer stomped her hoof on the desk, then cleared her throat to calm down while she reorganized the papers she’d brought.
“Yeah, it’s that bad,” she admitted, “If there is ANY good news about it, it seems that the citizens are being enslaved only until they join the main group. The disease bears signs of corruption, but it’s only temporary. No one knows any technical details, so don’t bother asking how anything works.”
“But… corruption… any territories… anything?” Starry stuttered, “Like with the griffons during the Redtalon uprising?”
“Nope, nothing like that. Our best guess is that something corruption-related takes control of zebras, brings them to the army, and then leaves them wondering what happened. Queen Nightshade is on the case, but there’s some big problem brewing in her territory which might grow enough to slow down or stop traffic between Canterlot and Ponyville.”
“A problem NIGHTSHADE can’t handle? Stars in my mother’s mane, isn’t she like… the physical manifestation of the whole corrupted continent at this point?”
“Top secret, Starry.”
“We friends, compadres, muchachos, nakama, comrades?”
“I only speak common, and not this time. Top. Secret,” Bladedancer remained resolute. She smacked Starry’s head with the binder she’d brought instead, “Here’s something to keep you busy while the war council does its job. Changeling deep mind probe reports and analyzed ledgers from the Crystal Empire workshop. Soulstealer is connected to the Order of the Silver Sun, the lings proved that beyond doubt. We’re thinking about how to approach the situation, because it’s pretty clear to me that the hippogriff who stole the sword and escaped is tied to them.”
“HOW did she escape anyway? If she stopped time, I would have gotten a vision for sure.”
Bladedancer tapped the binder again.
“Not if the effect originated from an item. Analysis of the devices she used both in the north and here showed, as expected, tech we can’t replicate, but the remnants of destroyed magic crystals from the devices hinted at a shield spell on the workshop ones, and a large-scale stasis on the Manehattan one. Technology might not be the forte of Canterlot unicorns, but they know magic better than anypony.”
“And your… personal opinion of the hippogriff?”
“Can’t say until we go see a movie together, really,” Bladedancer shrugged, giving pouting Starry a smirk, “Well, she’s a better swordspony than I am, that’s for sure.”
“WHAT?!” the batpony’s eyes bulged.
“If I discount my special talent and magic, that is. If we went one sword against one rapier, she’d whoop my ass faster than I could say ‘More, daddy!’.”
“Descriptive. Didn’t know you had that side.”
“What, perversion?”
“No, sense of humor,” he immediately dodged his own pen flying in to smack his nose despite reading the contents of Blade’s binder.
“I’m a complex and independent mare, Starry,” they both laughed when Bladedancer crossed her forelegs on her chest, “Jokes aside, I know when I’m faced with more experience, and she had that in droves. Even if I had three swords at my disposal, she’d go even with her one which makes me wonder who trained her. My combat style is completely unique, and she was at least partly ready. However, I know she isn’t used to all five, which will allow me to wreck her if we get into a fight again. Heck, if I didn’t have to use my magic to protect the onlookers we’d have caught her there and then.”
“You know,” Starry said hesitantly, “I think she knew. Just a hunch. I thought about the shotgun and how it hit only you despite the spread. The way it easily shattered your magical barrier but barely scratched your armor while having relatively low kick, I think she was using quicksilver buckshot.”
“More Silver Sun equipment. Great!”
Bladedancer had come to the same conclusion earlier, but it was good to hear the more analytical part of their duo reaffirm her idea. Projectiles partially made from quicksilver were greatly effective against magical protections, creatures, and even other projectiles, but had short range due to quick disintegration in the air, and were more painful than dangerous even to normal flesh. The most common users of such ammunition indeed were the Silver Sun members, although definitely not exclusively so.
“Likely. I think she knew we wouldn’t think of it immediately, and that we’d spend time looking for collateral damage. That could mean she didn’t actually want to hurt anypony. Technomagical devices aside, what about her istrium armor?”
“Armor itself isn’t that big a deal, although I haven’t seen purified istrium platemail either. Fine chainmail like she was wearing all over is the crazy thing. Someone had the technology to make something as delicate as a flexible, tight bodysuit from the damn material. Slabs of metal are always easier to craft than masterwork like that.”
Starry quickly skimmed through yet another page from the binder, and finally got to the most unknown part - just as they had been about to catch the hippogriff again, three ponies and a griffon had come from alleys and launched a barrage of stunning and trapping magic. When the magic dissipated, they were all gone.
“Any clues on who the other four who stopped us from chasing were?”
“No, I was too busy trying to dispel everything in time, but they were more than ready for us. I didn’t even see them, and my ears kept ringing for hours afterwards.”
Frowning at their failure, Starry decided to summarize things:
“So, unknown technomagic devices, istrium body armor, excellent swordspony, knows hoof to hoof combat well enough to move on her hind legs easily, and uses quicksilver bullets. On top of that, clues point to her belonging to an organization that fights dark magic and divinity who have better contacts than we do, AND she’s not on our side.”
“Couldn’t have said it better,” Blade winked at him, “I’m gonna need to call in few favors for this.”
Starry shook his head.
“No, let me. I’ve got a lot of ‘pumpkin’ years to cash in.”
***
A grand procession of over twenty ponies approaching the Silver Sun mansion gate almost made the duo of guarding recruits lose their lunch. White and gold Royal Guards, grey and amethyst Hex Guards, dark blue Nightguards, and even undisguised changeling specialists wearing armors in the shade of dark green were led by a dark blue alicorn making the group even more impressive than the mix of armored ponies already had.
“We demand an audience with Bucket,” said princess Luna firmly, her stare drilling into the shrunk pupils of the horrified recruits.
“Y-Y-Yes, your Majesty,” the recruit in short, white robe who wasn’t completely paralyzed leaned down to a speaker at the gate, pushed a button, and said, “Visitors for sir Bucket. Royal visitors… with guards. A lot of them.” he sighed when his brain realized what came out of his mouth.
Nevertheless, the speaker answered:
“Let them inside.”
The recruits opened the gate, unsure if the expression ‘let’ was really on the table here, as their chances of stopping princess Luna and her heavily armed entourage were those of a hayburger surviving for long near princess Twilight, if the rumors were to be believed.
Without a word, the visitors proceeded along the white gravel path to the mansion, stopping only when faced with Bucket who in his main body was tall enough to look princess Luna from eye to eye.
Bladedancer, looking the robot up and down while walking next to Luna and Starry, whispered:
“I haven’t seen this much metallic istrium in one place ever.”
“Where have you seen any amount of metallic istrium before?” Starry raised an eyebrow.
“The thief carrying the Soulstealer, remember?”
Starry facehoofed. It can’t be fair to win a quick clash of words by referencing something that happened only few days ago.
“I wonder what brings you here,” the robot tilted his head, “As far as I know, nothing that specifically I could help with happened recently.”
“We want to speak with you in private,” said Luna firmly.
“No guards then,” answered Bucket, still not sounding disturbed in any way other than his natural, slightly distorted tone.
“We refuse,” Luna narrowed her eyes.
Now, the princess was about ninety-eight percent sure that there was nothing Bucket could do to them in case their questions cornered him, but the same thing wasn’t completely true for Heavy Hoof and Horatio Cross not even trying to stop their trainees from staring.
“Your companions won’t fit into my office,” Bucket chuckled, “I do believe there’s enough space for your son and miss head paladin over there, though.”
Inside Bucket’s top floor office, they relaxed as the robot offered them a chair each, and sat down to his own behind the central desk, and asked:
“Alright, what is this about?”
Starry and Bladedancer had briefed the princess about what had happened in the Crystal Empire to the most boring details. Luna’s story, however, was a little different, leaving out tiny details which might show that Bucket knew more than he let on. Unfortunately for the easy solution, the robot’s poker face was impenetrable, and after the story and follow-up questions it did indeed seem like he had no idea about anything even remotely related to the Soulstealer. Unfortunately, the lack of any reasonable information on the hippogriff didn’t help whatsoever.
“That’s an interesting series of events, but how do those relate to me or the Silver Sun?” Bucket shrugged.
“This is how,” Luna levitated the same electronic device Irving had used for train trip planning. This time, however, the screen showed mostly numbers, “Payments, accounts, names, credit cards. EIS agents identified the originating accounts as Silver Sun ones, and your ponies who worked as connections between Soulstealer project and Crystal Empire banks.”
Bucket’s blue eyes went black for several seconds as the robot put his chin on a pyramid of his forelegs. The others knew better than to disturb the thinking robot.
“These are indeed Silver Sun accounts, some which are supposed to be secret. No reason to hide it now. However, I don’t know anything about these payments.”
“I’m having serious trouble believing you, Bucket. Come on, this looks pretty bad for you and your organization,” Luna leaned over the desk, “We’ve been through a lot together, although sometimes not exactly on the same side. What’s really going on?”
“Your Highness, the listed transactions, at least the first ones from the chain of money transfers, were made via Silver Sun unlimited golden cards, which we don’t track. The further transactions were split in a masterful way, and after my quick check with our network, I can safely say that your list of transactions is far from complete. Someone used to paying and receiving payments in such way is behind this. The amount of money spent would appear on top of our lists otherwise, specifically the istrium purchases. There’s something wrong about those as well, though. The amount of istrium from the changeling reports doesn’t coincide with the price. I honestly wish I could have bought istrium this cheap when I was building this body, but there’s nothing of this price this on the market.”
“Untraceable expenses? That sounds extremely unsafe,” commented Bladedancer.
“Unsafe, but necessary. Throughout my existence we’ve been at odds even with the rulers of Equestria multiple times. Had we failed, either due to them seeing us as an enemy, or simply due to the time spent by having to persuade them we’re the good guys no matter the looks, there might not be any Equestria today anymore. Also, as you proved, not untraceable. The original payments aren’t written down anywhere, but I put the corresponding amounts together from the information you brought, and our network records.”
“And who does have these golden cards?” asked Starry, “And while I do understand that this is classified information, you have to understand how this affects us.”
“There are- were four golden cards. Mine, Heavy Hoof has sir Cromach’s old card. He didn’t take it with himself when he left the order. Joy’s and Blazing Light’s weren’t found after Nightmare attacked our old headquarters, and were presumed destroyed. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to find which of the cards were used and where. However, even if the cards were stolen, you said the Soulstealer project was based around istrium forging as well as having accurate equipment for it bought with our money. That knowledge should only be in my head these days.”
“So somepony has nearly unlimited funds from your organization, knowledge only you should have, ability to build a horrifying project right under our noses, is using contacts your order built, and you’re not allowed to find out who? Oh come on!” Starry threw his forelegs in the air.
“I will have to investigate events more closely, but what I can see even right now is that the first sets of visible payments were authorized through our drone network from Pine Hills to the First Imperial Bank in Griffonstone from where the physical money got shipped through Equestria to the Crystal Empire. If you want to find out what’s going on, I suggest you start there.”
“You have a DRONE network over Equestria? How? Anything flying gets eaten by flytraps,” Bladedancer’s eyes went wide, “Do you know how useful that would be to the general public?”
“Now that is a secret I will fight for, miss Bladedancer,” said Bucket with absolute calm, much to the paladin’s frown.
To everyone’s surprise, Luna let out a heavy sigh.
“I just hope Guiding Light isn’t still angry with us.”
“She wants to be left alone, mostly. Dreamlings have been through more than possibly even you can imagine. However, I doubt she’ll ignore the fact that someone might be using her father’s contacts for something as evil sounding as ‘The Soulstealer’. Both she and lord Crimson Heart, the Mayor of Pine Hills and a Silver Sun member, should help you if you mention Blazing.”
“Thank you, Bucket,” Luna nodded, “Any questions?”
As much as the new information gnawed at their minds, both Bladedancer and Starry shook their heads. They needed to think things through, and then maybe they would come up with something.
“Then we’re leaving,” the princess turned around, “Thank you for your assistance, Bucket.”
“Thank you for the information.” answered the robot, “and good luck in Pine Hills.”
Luna smirked. Of course he would immediately assume she would send someone there. She wouldn’t be surprised if a group of Silver Sun specialists departed immediately after she left.
Bucket sat quietly in his office until he received the word about Luna’s group leaving the premises, then he pushed the speaker button on his desk, said-
“Send Heavy Hoof here.”
-and proceeded to open his large office window.
About a minute later, a shape as large as the robot’s main body quietly vaulted through it into the third floor office.
“What’s up, Bucket?” asked Heavy.
“Something very strange. Take a seat, this’ll take a while.”
Bucket relayed Luna’s story about the northern events to Heavy Hoof. However, in the end he added some details which he left out while talking to Luna, Starry, and Bladedancer.
“The specifics and schematics of the Soulstealer including the carvings on the blade holding the enchantment tell me that the spell can’t be big. The sword can’t be something that raises dead into an army or focuses the mostly unknown power of souls into some powerful effect. To me it looks as if this weapon is supposed to augment some soul-related ability rather than grant it,” as Bucket kept speaking, a tentacle grew from Heavy’s chest and rubbed his chin, “On top of that, the hippogriff they described was undoubtedly Desert Shade. If they gave us more details about the ponies and griffon who ambushed Starry Night and Bladedancer while chasing Des, we would be completely certain.”
Heavy chuckled.
“Des is involved, minotaurs are involved, our top level clearance is being used, a soul-related istrium artifact is being used, and more names appeared recently on the wall of the old HQ. If I didn’t know better, I would think Blaze was still alive, but Cromach’s and Joy’s witness was crushing. I understand why Nightmare let Cromach and Joy go, but Blaze was too dangerous to her to keep around.”
“Maybe the ‘let’ part didn’t come in play. The young dragonpony Harriet reported that Nightmare summoned a new Blazing Light from elsewhere, as she was certain she destroyed our one.”
”Huuuh… can I suppose that my investigation might involve a certain… imposter?” Heavy raised an eyebrow.
Bucket smiled.
“What direction you take is up to you. Keep me and only me informed about everything. I am certain there’s only one last piece of the puzzle I don’t know yet before I can make a clear judgement. Without it this situation is still confusing, and I don’t like when I don’t know what to prepare for. Oh, and one final thing,” Bucket stood up, walked over to a locked wooden cabinet in the corner, and put his hoof against a panel on it upon which it opened. In the next moment, a long, thick, istrium combat staff flew out and to Heavy. His back tentacles grabbed it, holding it steady for Heavy to scrutinize the faint engraved pattern all over it, “I derived the carvings from those on the Blades of Balance. Of course, it’s nowhere as effective as all three Blades, but it should be enough to inconvenience anything magical or divine up to an alicorn trying to impede your mission,” Bucket grinned, “You know, just in case certain someponies find themselves on the wrong side of history again.”
“I’ll tell Tio that I might be running around for a while, and then I’ll be off.”
“Good luck, Heavy.”
“Thanks, Bucket.”