//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15. Lab Rat Days, Part 6 
// Story: Meta Gamer in Equestria: The Blight of Bane. 
// by reflective vagrant 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy's wings were pinned to her sides with a rope at the top of the tallest balcony of the ballroom.  My face started to sweat and it felt like my already fast heart beat doubled as I saw her tip over the edge.
The moment I saw her fall, I gripped the feather in my hand and called out "Defluere!" in an attempt to slow her decent, only to have her crash.
I ran from Starlight's and Tempest's sides to Fluttershy, finding her setting herself upright from the mats she had landed on, unharmed.
She let go of the rope she had held on to with her mouth and called out to me, "I'm alright, Moss.  We'll just try again."
I knelt at the foot of the mattresses and let out a sigh.  "Why won't this spell work?  I got the sleep spell to work on the second try.  So why are we on number eight here?"
Fluttershy shook her head.  "I said it's alright.  Spells aren't easy to master, and you're actually making amazing progress with Archimedes's help.  Twilight says it takes several times longer for a beginner to learn something of this level."
"You're too tense."  I heard Archimedes call to me in my head.  "You're thinking about it too much and you're tensing up.  And for the record, the sleep spell did work the first time.  It just didn't impact the dog hard enough to put him to sleep."
"I am not any more tense than I was with the other spell!"  I turned to look at the owl above me, perching on the far edge of the balcony.  "And he's called Scraps, not 'the dog.'"
The owl turned his head towards me from facing the other direction as owls do.  "Speaking of... Scraps," he called in an informative tone.
Scraps jumped from the balcony and yelled "Dog-pile!" with a crazed look on his face.  He then went into a cannon ball position, set to land on the still occupied mattresses below.
Without thinking, I threw up the feather and screamed in a sheer panic, "Defluere!"
Scraps descended down to the mattresses and gently touched down right next to Fluttershy, then promptly flopped over onto the mattresses away from her.
"It worked!"  Fluttershy cheered as she hugged me around my neck in celebration.
"Are you crazy!?"  Starlight and I screamed at Scraps in unison.
"Idea was from Fluttershy!"  He called out, pointing to her while backing up to the other side of the mattresses.
I pulled back from the hug as Fluttershy did the same.  With a face of guilt, she answered meekly,  "Well... To surprise you was my idea.  Yesterday, Scraps got hold of your spell book out of boredom, thinking it was a puzzle book.  He didn't realize what he was looking at was a spell but he recognized that the text was implying that it had to be done on reflex.  When he told me about it today, we agreed to do this after you were having trouble."
I looked at Scraps, who upon realizing he wasn't in trouble, was putting his back toes towards his face in a silly fashion and found himself rolling off the mattress with a playful thud.
"Scraps was able to decipher the stuff in the spellbook, thinking it was just a puzzle?  That dog is full of surprises."
"Like I said, you were over thinking it." Archimedes messaged me with a flat tone.
Fluttershy looked up and behind me for a moment then turned back to me.  "Do you want to do it a few more times?  Make sure you have it down packed?"
I shook my head.  "My nerves are racked.  Maybe we can come back to the spell some other time, but only if we leave the surprises out of it.  OK?"
I heard a disgruntled voice from behind. "Good.  Then we can get started setting up already?"
A group of castle staff were behind me with several large bits of equipment in tow.
"We have a party to set up for the soldiers tonight before they leave for their rotation to the front tomorrow and another to set up for the princess and her friends right after they leave.  Personally, I'd rather not get the troops angry."
Starlight gave the stallion an understanding nod then came up next to me. "That's enough for today."  She looked at the party supplies that the castle staff were bringing in, then to a bored Sharp Sentry.  "In fact, we've been studying non-stop for over a week now.  I think you need a break.  Why don't you take the rest of today off to detox and then join us for the princess's get together for some fun tomorrow?"
Fluttershy got off the mattresses as Tempest and Scraps got to work cleaning them up.  Tempest smiled at Scraps as they did so.
Fluttershy spoke up as Archimedes landed on her back.  "It's been so long since we've been able to just be around each other, Moss.  I was hoping to catch up."
I saw Archimedes nestling himself up into the back of Fluttershy's mane as she leaned her head back to nuzzle the tops of their heads together.  When she looked back at me with a pleading face, I could tell that she intended to have him come along.
"Get on my nerves and I will send you to your pocket dimension until the next lesson," I firmly informed him.
As I turned my attention back to Fluttershy, I didn't bother hiding my frustration in the unspoken conversation with him.  I gave her a pained, but genuine smile and pressed my amulet to make sure it hadn't shut off.  "Sure.  Just let me get Starlight to top me off."







Fluttershy and I had been wandering around the halls with Sharp Sentry in tow, who was happy to at least be moving again.  He was my most frequent guard, probably because he had more clearance about the stuff pertaining to me than those few that rotated shifts with him.  Regardless, guarding a prisoner that was almost a guest so frequently was definitely starting to become boring for him.


Regardless, Fluttershy and I were finally able to ask about the wound as we chatted, leading to surprise.
"So the doctors were impressed?"
Fluttershy nodded.  "They said  that even my larynx had been cut from the measurements they took and had we used one of Zecora's potions, the wound would have still closed, but the scar tissue left over from the potion would have messed with my voice.  Whatever it was that you did, it was certainly potent."
In her happy mood, she stopped and stroked Archimedes's head again before continuing.
"My voice seems to be no worse for wear because of how well it healed, though.  The skin on my neck seemed to be the only thing with any permanent scarring and my fir covers that up fine."
We turned a corner to walk down a hall with some paintings decorating it.
"So, this castle seems fairly new, yet ponies are coming and going as if the princess doesn't live here.  What's up with that?"
Fluttershy turned her head down and grimaced.  "Twilight wasn't always a princess and she still isn't really used to having a castle.  It's just to big for her to be comfortable in.   With the war going on, she's made a point to utilize what she can of it for the war effort instead of just letting it go to waste."
Finished with her explanation, Fluttershy turned to me to ask a question of her own. "By the way, did you ever figure out what the presence you felt was when you healed me?"
I shook my head and was about to answer when Archimedes few off of Fluttershy's back.  He moved towards a painting he saw and started hovering in mid air in front of it.
Fluttershy had to put a hoof to my arm to remind me to be patient with him when I gave him a glare.
I took a breath and then called out to him out loud so that Fluttershy could hear, "What are you looking at?"
"It is a portrait of the pony that forced her way into our dreams to determine if we could be trusted, master.  But something is off."
As we came to the portrait, we saw two alicorns, one of a white coat and one of a darker coat, fighting.   The white one was pushing the darker coated one to what looked to be the moon.
Fluttershy turned to the painting alongside me and explained what she could.
"This is from a little over a thousand years ago, Moss.  Even back then, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used to rule side by side.  But when Princess Luna became jealous of her older sister's one sided adoration of the ponies she became Nightmare Moon and Princess Celestia had to banish her.  She's only recently come back and been cured of her affliction."
My mind was hearing her words, but my heart was beating harder and harder as exactly who I was looking at sank in.  I knew she hadn't done it out of malice, but Princess Luna had basically forced open my mind and shuffled through it to determine if I was with the army invading them after I was first captured.  As much a I tried to have a level head while looking at the paining, she still had a serious psychological scar on me and it was festering.   I think the only reason why I wasn't in a full on panic was because it was only a picture.
"She had a sister?"  I asked, trying to keep some semblance of a normal conversation as I did my best to calm myself.
Fluttershy's ears dropped when she saw my nerves and she started to walk back the other way. "We can go."
I lightly tugged on her tail as she walked past me to get her to stop.  "Hey, you said-"  I gulped.  "-she had a sister?"
I think she saw the brave face I was putting on when she turned back around, because she nodded and did her best to answer my question.  "Yes.  Princess Celestia is the elder of the two royal sisters and still reigns from Canterlot to this day.  When Princess Luna came back from her banishment and was cured, it was Celestia that welcomed her back with open wings.  Everypony else was unsure of what to do with her."
"We all have at least one regret somewhere in our past.  This must be hers."  Archimedes called to me with a feeling of sadness, laced with a hint of disdain.
I had an eerie shiver of deja vu and finally turned to leave, losing my nerve.


* * *


I was sitting down on the ground back in my safe spot, that was to say my cell, with Fluttershy.  It took a few minutes more after arriving, but I finally started to get my nerves under control again with her supportive smile.
"I normally can be pretty good at staying level headed."  I looked at Archimedes sitting next to Sharp Sentry on the bench outside the open cell door.  "Well, staying level headed save for a few grudges I still have to sort through."
Fluttershy's smile gained a hint of glee as she turned her head towards where I was looking, then turned back to me.
"But I turn panicked and weak when I feel her presence, even if its just a picture."
I put my face to my knees.  "It's embarrassing."
Fluttershy put her hoof to my shoulder as I just sat there.  I looked back at Archimedes and asked him the first thing I had ever asked him without any sense of grievance for my kidnapping,  "How did you manage to not be traumatized when she did it to you?"
Archimedes flew off the bench and came to the floor at the edge of the doorway.  With an order I had given him back when of never entering my cell unless someone's life was on the line, he was still compelled to stay out.
"Physically, I was.  My current form barely survived the ordeal in the material plane and only was able to be nursed back to health shortly before I returned to you from Canterlot.  Its constitution is much weaker than most humanoid or poninoid life.  My mind, however, is that of a grand celestial and we have far more mental fortitude than found in most mortal minds.  Combine that with the fact that I willingly let her into my mind, surrendering control to her instead of dealing with the forced entry you suffered through, any shocks I had were minor enough for me to fully recover from long before my physical body healed."
I processed what he said for a few moments before I stumbled on something and had to back track.
"Wait, you're not mortal?  How could you be sent here?  I thought the contest between your master and the other god had the stipulation that the armies sent to this world had to consist of mortals."
He nodded from the doorway.  "The armies must, yes.  However, the selected champion of each god is not bound by the same rules as the armies.   I'm here as an extension of your will, and only physically taking on the form of a mortal owl.  I am considered a piece of your power, as I am fully bound to you, and thus my presence here does not break any rules set in the challenge between the gods.  Even if I wasn't bound to you, a champion in these contests do not have to be mortal, just able to be slain by mortal means."
His tone shifted to a heavy sense of disdain, so thick I could practically cut it with a knife.
"In other words, I was going to be the champion sent here by Oghma to defend this world before we were forced to pick you instead."


I chewed on several items from Archimedes after Fluttershy left and my cell door was closed and locked for the night.  But one grave thought kept coming back up again and again between the other thoughts for the rest of the night.   If the champions didn't have to be mortal like the armies, what kind of champion did the invading god, Bane, send to aid in the conquering of this world?