CHAPTER TWENTY SIX:
THE MACHINE
STARLIGHT GLIMMER
Just like Twilight's, It was exactly how I'd left it.
Of course, there wasn't really a reason anypony would have disturbed my room. I'd neatly made the bed and put everything in its proper place, expecting to be back within a few weeks at the most. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as I thought of the events that transpired after, and I thought back to the eager mare that took the train to Canterlot months ago ready to embark on another fun adventure.
We'd only just arrived from Canterlot, and the ponies that lived here in the castle -- Twilight, Spike, Trixie, and I -- were getting settled back into our rooms. There were three new additions, though, as Violet, Cobalt, and Silver Jubilee had already picked their respective rooms (Violet and Cobalt had opted to share one). It was nice to finally get back to the castle in the town I'd come to love, but now that we were back in Ponyville, the world had begun to turn again.
Applejack was back at the farm. Rainbow had rejoined the weather team. Rarity was hard at work at the boutique. Fluttershy returned to her beloved animals. Pinkie Pie sat eagerly behind the counter of Sugarcube Corner.
The School of Friendship had been closed for some time now (the Crusaders had offered to hold tutoring sessions while classes were canceled), but the time for that was over, too: Twilight and I were to return to the school tomorrow, and we had let everypony know that classes were going to be back in session for the next week or so. Hearth's Warming Eve was drawing near, and so the students would get another break almost comically soon, but it was good to at least get back into the swing of things.
The world had resumed, and our case with the apprentices was still wide open.
Zephyr was still out there, somewhere. Melody Waltz had run off to who-knows-where, and there was a good chance she'd checked on my cabin to see that I was missing. Ponyville was a danger zone, and I felt so much better now that I was actually here to prevent anything that could happen in the town I loved so much.
That being said, I needed to be able to prevent those things from happening. And right now, I was rusty.
I'd already filled a water bottle and a snack that I'd placed in small satchel at my side, and once I was satisfied that I didn't need anything else, I walked out of my room and began the long waltz to the door.
It was so nice to see the Castle of Friendship again. I loved Canterlot, to be sure, but I'd grown homesick just from being there for a few weeks, and after the whole debacle in the Everfree, it was a wonderful feeling to be among the crystalline hallways for what I desperately hoped was the foreseeable future.
I didn't assume I was going to meet anypony on the way out, but to my surprise, I turned a corner to see a trio of Twilight, Violet and Silver walking towards me. They seemed equally pleasantly surprised, and the first thing Twilight noticed was the satchel slung across my shoulder.
"Going shopping?" she asked me, stopping to talk. I chuckled a bit and shook my head.
"No, I'm going to Sweet Apple Acres for a workout and some training. What are you three up to?" Twilight gestured with her head over to Silver.
"Silver wanted to know where the library was, so I was going to show her. We ran into Violet along the way and she wanted to come with us." Violet was sporting the adorable grin that seemed permanently attached to her face, and she gave me a friendly wave at the mention of her name.
"I enjoy the camaraderie!" she said enthusiastically. I chuckled again -- it seemed like every consecutive thing Violet did made her more and more precious -- and continued on my way with a wave back toward them.
"Let me know if you find a page-turner!" I called out.
It was another day in Ponyville when I stepped outside. Ponies were bustling on their morning commutes to work, and quite a few of them were headed towards the marketplace. I probably would have joined them if I kept going towards the center of town, but instead, I veered off once I was about to hit the main square. Sweet Apple Acres was a bit out of the way, but I could have certainly used the walk.
Zephyr was out here, somewhere. Perhaps one of the biggest threats Equestria has faced in years was looming around the town, and it had no idea. The birds still chirped, the stores were still open, and the weather ponies still moved their clouds while blissfully unaware that a far bigger one loomed ahead.
Those ponies didn't know.
But unfortunately for Zephyr, I knew far too well.
The air was clearer in Sweet Apple Acres.
I was never entirely sure what it was, but it was something. It seemed like the weather was always perfect among the wide, sprawling fields, and it was a place that never lost its charm. Its rolling hills and vast, sprawling green always gave me this sense of freedom that I could run for miles and miles, and with the sun hanging high in the air, it seemed like all of nature's colors were burning brighter around me than they ever had before. The sun could be brutal in the summer, but during the cold winter as it was now, I was getting all of the scenery and none of the heat.
It really was the pride of Ponyville, and I made sure to remember how fond of it I was as I was doing the last of my pull-ups on one of the field's many branches.
Eight... nine...
With an audible effort, I rose over the branch for the tenth time, and I dropped down to the ground in a feeble attempt to catch my breath. I wasn't at all out of shape, since the cocoon had put my body in stasis, but it still felt good to get exercise after feeling so claustrophobic for what felt like a lifetime stuck inside that cocoon.
I had completed the workout portion of my little personal training session, and I had taken a step to set up some makeshift targets to fire on when I heard a familiar voice speak up from behind me.
"You're never going to climb the tree like that, mate."
I could feel a grin touch my ears as I turned to see Cobalt and (to nopony's surprise) Violet come up over the hill. It was nice to have them join me, but the first thing I noticed was over Cobalt's eyes: he was wearing some sort of strange eyeshield that connected to his horn. It looked like something out of a science fiction novel, and I made sure to tease him about it when the two got closer.
"You know, if you ask Applejack for an apple, you don't have to climb the trees," I joked. "What brings you here, space invader?" Violet narrowed her eyes a bit, and she looked to the sky as if trying to find the reference or cultural context she was missing. Cobalt didn't let her linger at it for too long, though.
"Vy told me you were coming here to train, and as it turns out, a friend of mine was hoping to get their fighting up to standard. Care for a sparring partner?" It was my turn to narrow my eyes in confusion, looking behind the pair to see if they'd brought anypony with them.
"What? Who is your friend?"
Suddenly, I heard a faint humming from behind the hill they'd entered from. It sounded like it could have been a number of things, but I have never seen anything like what rose into view and slowly took its place at Cobalt's side.
It was some sort of floating machine, about the size of Cobalt himself and a stark gray color all across it, but that was the most of it I could identify. It seemed to have numerous places with things jolting out of it, but there was a particularly big one in the middle of the object that seemed to be a center for something. It was being propelled through the air through what appeared to be magical energy emanating from a quartet of boosters at the bottom of it. Even more interesting, though, was Cobalt's eyeshield: It was now glowing blue, and his horn was alight with a steady stream of magical energy.
"Cobalt," I said softly, marveling at the... thing. "What is that?"
"This is what Sunset calls a drone, and it's your brand new sparring partner if you'll have it," he explained. "This is my second attempt, since Zephyr blew my first one to pieces. Blighter." Violet shot him a look for what I assumed was some sort of profanity (I hadn't met a lot of ponies from Cobalt's region of Canterlot), but I didn't notice any subtle repercussions: I was focused on the drone.
"So you want me to fight this thing?" I asked him, examining the way it hung in the air. Cobalt shook his head, however, before tapping a hoof to his skull he spoke.
"Well, you're fighting me," he replied. "Essentially, this serves as a highly mobile conduit of combat magic. It allows me to cast certain combat spells at virtually no tax, and I can also shoot from my horn as well. Everypony seems to speak so highly of your combative prowess, so I would love to see how this one fares."
I stared at it for a while longer, listening carefully to the hum as its faceless frame stared back. After a few seconds, I turned to Cobalt, and I could feel the raise in my eyebrows as I spoke to him with a devilish inflection.
"Yeah, I'm game. Let's see what the new age has to offer."
Pain. The new age offered pain.
It was everywhere. Twilight had taught me how to teleport some time ago -- a skill I'd heavily redesigned my entire fighting style around -- but, as it turned out, Cobalt's drone could track me. It could fire magical bolts at lightning speeds, too, and Cobalt was a good enough tactician to punish me aptly for underestimating its movement.
Cobalt felt no shame in firing at me as well, and I quickly ducked under one of his bolts before whipping upwards. To my horror, I realized that I'd lost track of the machine: It had been right in front of me, but it had disappeared entirely. I immediately looked left, but I'd guessed wrong, and I felt a surge of magic collide with my right side as I spun around wildly and fell to the grass for the millionth time in our sparring session.
I heard the drone power down in the distance, and I let out an involuntary groan as I rolled over on my side. I still wasn't fulled healed from my previous cuts and bruises yet, and I mentally chastised myself for my overconfidence as I felt the pain from the injuries Cobalt's drone had added on. I stared at the sky in a daze for a few seconds before a pair of heads entered my sight at the corners of my vision.
"Well?" Cobalt asked, unable to hide an evil smirk across his face. Violet looked genuinely concerned for me, at least, and I couldn't help but let out a chuckle before answering him.
"I think it works," I told him, slowly getting up and dusting myself off. "How many times have I hit it so far?"
Cobalt looked over it, twisting it around through what I assumed to be some sort of telepathic connection like the one he had over his artificial leg.
"Uh, four," he replied. "Oh, wait, I think that one is just dirt. Three. You hit it three times."
With a grit in my teeth, I punched the dirt as hard as I could. It was an extremely poor performance, that was to be sure, and although I heavily admired Cobalt's drone, I had a feeling that Melody Waltz and Zephyr -- the latter of which eviscerated the first one -- would likely be a bigger challenge. To my surprise, though, I felt a hoof on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Violet staring at me with that tenderhearted beam that seemed to be permanently plastered to her face.
"Thou are quite impressive in battle, Starlight," she told me. "But there is a spell I would like to teach thee, if thou would allow me to be thy preceptor." I was never averse to learning something new, but I couldn't see Violet as having the slightest inclination to battle anypony, so I found myself cocking my head to the side as I answered.
"Uh... yeah, of course. Show me whatcha got." Violet turned to Cobalt and pointed at the drone steadily humming in the air.
"Cobalt, please shoot me," she instructed.
I reeled back, and of course, I expected Cobalt to immediately discourage the notion. He could have told the pony he had just entered a relationship with that he would never do such a thing, especially with how unprepared she was at the moment, and that his weapon was certainly not a tool for fun and games and that it was dangerous if used recklessly.
He could have done any of those things, but instead, he immediately turned to her, fired up his drone, and shot her.
I winced, but I had no need to, because the bolt didn't connect. With an absolute stone resolve, Violet merely let her horn ignite in perfect time, and the projectile Cobalt had fired at her glanced harmlessly off of her with a cackle. It shot directly into the air where I knew it would eventually fizzle out and die, but I was astonished that Violet had been able to do something like that without so much as moving a muscle.
There were a million questions I wanted to ask her -- I had never seen the spell before in my life -- but I settled for the one question I had for Cobalt as I pointed towards him and raised an eyebrow.
"Did... did you know she was going to do that?" I asked him. Cobalt shrugged and looked over to Violet, who had the slyest glance I'd ever seen from her plastered all across her face.
"Not in the slightest," he replied with a Cheshire grin. "Sure glad she did, though. Don't tell her, but I actually kind of fancy her." That elicited an eye roll from the both of us, but Violet quickly turned back to me to discuss the task at hand.
"Celestia taught me this counterspell one day in Canterlot," she explained. "I must admit at first that I found her behavior quite contumelious in our instruction, but that is a tale for morrows away. I hath used this spell even upon my awakening when the guards attempted to restrain me, and I believe thou would use it well in thy battles."
Twilight hadn't bothered to teach me any combat magic she knew -- she claimed there was nothing she could teach me after the beating I'd given her -- but I hadn't exactly asked Celestia for anything she'd had in her arsenal. I'd never seen a pony use a counterspell like that, though, and if I couldn't learn it from Celestia, I had no problem learning it from the very first pony to ever truly catch her eye.
"Show it to me," I told her, feeling my back straighten up with conviction. "And maybe that machine can get a taste of its own medicine."
With those words, Cobalt adjusted his eyeshield, and the machine rattled and hummed as it came to life once more. He began to pace back away from me, setting up what almost looked to be some sort of duel you would see in a western movie. I began to do the same, and as we took our places across from each other on the field, Cobalt couldn't help but call out to me as he trotted merrily to take his position.
"Since you can't seem to hit the thing with your own magic, please try to hit it with mine."
The bolt came fast, but I knew I was faster. The moment my eyes could detect its release from the drone's barrel, I fired up my horn and braced for the impact. It came, but with an audible grunt, I managed to deflect it away from me at a diagonal angle, and I couldn't help but take a step back from the force. I looked to Violet standing at the side of us, and she merely nodded before gesturing with her head back to the drone.
"Again," she said sternly. "Let the magic be a sweven in thy mind."
"A what now?" I asked her, leaning forward in bewilderment. Before she could explain, however, my ear picked up the charge of the drone again, and I whipped my head around immediately just in time to see the bolt it had fired. It was much faster than I had anticipated, obviously, but I was able to just barely deflect the bolt with a wild bounce as I stopped to catch my breath. I both admired and hated Cobalt for using the opportunity to increase my speed with the spell, and Violet seemed impressed by my quick thinking.
"Thou art learning this at a far greater speed than I," Violet told me. "But thou can improve still. Attempt to counter the spell, and redirect the bolt to Cobalt's machine. Envision its reflection in thy mind." I knew what "envision" meant, at least, and with a nod, I dug my hoof into the dirt and grit my teeth as I silently motioned for Cobalt to fire again.
He returned it, and when his eyeshield lit up and I saw that brief flash of light, I felt the world slow down as it approached me. I could almost see the direct path the bolt of magic was taking, and I felt my own horn ignite in response. I saw it in my head bounce right off me and careen into the drone, a movie played a thousand times over like a broken reel. When I felt the contact, I closed my eyes and willed that vision to reality.
Perhaps my will was a little too strong.
It did exactly as I had commanded it. The bolt seamlessly ricocheted off of me and flew back to the drone at a blinding speed, far faster than it had arrived. Once it made contact, a thunderous roar shook across the orchard as the machine was sent flying towards a hill in the distance in a brilliant explosion. The biggest piece of it landed atop the hill, and the tiny remnants that were left gently rained down around us as if winter had come just a bit early.
The three of us stood in silence, and I felt a pit in my stomach as I saw what I had done. I realized that I'd held a hoof to my mouth in shock, and a glance to Violet and Cobalt showed that their jaws had dropped to the ground as they gazed at the destruction. I could have lived a thousand lifetimes in the silence, and it was Cobalt who broke it first.
"...I'm thinking I should recalibrate that shielding spell," he said. I opened my mouth to apologize profusely, but he quickly waved me off with his hoof as he started to walk forward.
"Starlight, this is why I came here," he told me as I fell into pace with him. "The more somepony destroys my design, the stronger it gets, though I don't think anything could have withstood that excellent counterspell. What say thee, Vy?" Cobalt made sure to exaggerate his accent on that last sentence, and I couldn't help but chuckle at the teasing between the new couple.
"It was truly magnificent!" she told me, catching up to the two of us. "Thou will achieve mastery in a fortnight with thine efforts." I couldn't help but blush slightly at the compliment, but I managed to recover as we trudged on toward the reckage I'd created.
It didn't take us long to get to where the bulk of the machine was. We had to make sure not to step on any of the little pieces along the way, and despite what Cobalt said, I still felt a pang of guilt with every piece of rubble we had passed. Cobalt had been muttering to himself under his breath, seemingly making mental notes to himself on what he should improve for next time. Violet stayed silent, merely gazing at the scenery around her as we walked.
It was a bit of a tough walk up the hill, but once we finally made it, Cobalt and I rushed towards where the largest chunk of the drone had landed. It was a little less than half of it remaining, with wires and various contraptions I didn't recognize jutting out of it from the inside, and it was still sparking here and there when we leaned down to take a closer look at it.
"Eh, not horrible," Cobalt mused. "I believe I can still use this in the rebuild. You left me more of it than Zephyr did." I nodded thoughtfully, and I had only just leaned down even further to closely examine the wires when Violet spoke up from behind us.
"Cobalt, Starlight," she said, an uneasy hint to her voice. "Ye may wish to view what I hath discovered." We both looked to each other in confusion before standing up completely and trotting over to where Violet was, crouching over something obscured.
"Whatcha got, Violet? Another piece of the -- "
On the ground below her was a rune, perfectly dug into the ground and about the size of a pony lying prone. It was a pattern of circles intricately woven into each other, but there were three large ones that made up the bulk of them, and I struggled to think of a tool that could carve something into the earth so precisely. It appeared as if there were supposed to be objects placed inside of them, but they were devoid of anything but grass at the moment. I was no expert on magic runes, but with everything that had been going on over the past few months, I didn't have to be.
I backed away from it in trepidation, and I looked behind me to see the main barn of Sweet Apple Acres glinting in the sunlight a distance away from where we were.
"I'm going to have Applejack send a letter to Twilight. Do not move an inch." I began a quick backpedal, and their eyes were wild and worried as they nodded curtly.
I didn't look at them too long, though, and after I had fully turned myself around, I found myself in a sprint as the farmhouse grew closer and closer.