//------------------------------// // 19 - Differing Agendas // Story: The GATE // by scifipony //------------------------------// A special express train from Canterlot could have made it down the mountain if the princess had summoned them before she flew to Ponyville. Pegasus-pulled carriages might have been faster. I heard the sound of a platoon before I could see them, and so, too, it seemed, could the bipeds who were pointing with their outstretched claws. My heart raced as my first thought was that my shield spell was too puny. Second: Hadn't I ordered everypony to stay away? As the first royal guard, all unicorns, marched into view, I first saw the sparkle and shimmer of fifty highly-tuned shield spells. The troops had formed a shield-wall and dome of overlapping auras in red, blue, yellow, and green—and one purple. All but about five looked like thick, semi-translucent, small-arc anti-hoof-cannon shields; the rest were more typical unicorn shields against spears and force spells. Needing less magic, they added a second ethereal layer of intersecting spheres. The view reminded me of visualizations I'd seen of electron shells around a simple molecule. In the center of the defensive group trotted a large white alicorn, wings flared, with her regalia and crown gleaming in the moonlight, head and withers above all the other ponies. Beside her, a head taller, walked the brown-haired biped mare pushing the biped stallion in an improvised giant wheelchair formed from a big-wheeled black and red-lacquered pony cart, probably a Meadowbrook. His chest was wound with white bandages and he wore a neck brace. I was not happy, and craning my neck behind me then quickly looking forward was beginning to give me whiplash—besides, it distracted me. "Starlight. Tell me if any creature moves." I turned to face the rapidly approaching alicorn. "Well, that's something," Starlight said. I now craned my neck back toward the farm to see that many of the bipeds had lowered their weapons, mostly so they were dangling. While magical auras and moonlight did provide some illumination, I was willing to accede that the bipeds had at least some night vision. "Princess Celestia," I said. "I asked you to stay away." "And you did, for my safety. But Captain Shining Armor did train my royal guard in his special talent, Twilight, and you are not the only pony who can calculate shield equations from observed empirical data." "Still." I scuffed a hoof in the dirt. As the royal guard gathered around my vanguard, their shields slid aside and brought us within the defensive perimeter. I sighed, letting my shield dispel. Continuously casting it had begun to become exhausting. I couldn't fathom how Shiny had done it for days at a time, even while asleep. I'd probably have had nightmares worrying I'd fail... "Besides," the princess said, using her magic to lift my chin. "You said that you thought shows of force would impress the bipeds. I think this should do nicely." I grumbled, barely audibly, "And let them know what we can do, too!" Feathers chucked under my chin lifted my eyes to her purple ones. She smiled and tapped her ear with the other wing before folding them both. "Teacher ears, Twilight. And you are right. But we've listened to what you said and to what you meant, too. These misguided bipeds aren't going anywhere. As we speak, Luna is constructing a—for lack of a better word—mausoleum to entomb the portal. Composed of ton granite blocks from the deposits you thrust to the surface fighting Tirek. And she knows well how to cast Shield. She invented her own version her first day as an alicorn." I took a deep breath. Beware of what you wish for. It might have been might greatest desire to have Princess Celestia's confidence in my actions. Now, it threatened to make me insane. "Okay," I said, glancing above at the slowly circulating clouds above the farm. I calculated that Luna had probably commandeered half the pegasus guard. I trusted that she had. To protect her flank as she raised up stone from the ground or conjured it. I had dropped the top of a hill on Lord Tirek. Considering how he had completed Cozy Glow's corruption, I so wished that had finished him, though that I had wanted to, and would have had to deal with the psychological consequences had I succeeded, troubled me. Nevertheless, turning to look at the bipeds, I thought about conjuring and dropping stone blocks, something only an alicorn could do quantitatively. Unicorn magic might be, as some scholars quipped, composed of giggles and rainbows and unable to directly do harm, but you could heat and project a cylinder of air with Force and throw rocks into the sky with Levitate. The magic didn't understand intent beyond the extent of the magical apparition. I really hated that I'd become good at fighting, and thinking of fighting. Princess Celestia said, "But you're also the Princess of Friendship." It took all my control not to startle or tense up. Sunset Shimmer had written from the other side of the mirror. Harmony magic there had provided her an elemental jewel that allowed her to see images from another pony's mind. While it felt like Celestia had done that, this wasn't that. That was Celestia stating the obvious, to remind me to focus. I narrowed my eyes. The bipeds stubbornly kept hold of their weapons. Behind me stood the unicorn power necessary to rip them from their grasp, but better that they surrender willingly. Oh Neigh's behavior, and Celestia's acceptance of her beside her, convinced me that the bipeds had the capacity for friendship. I had holstered the hoof-cannon, knife, and barking arrow unconsciously. I sighed after I repeated the pantomime. After a minute, I thought of demonstrations of power. "Princess Celestia?" "Yes, Twilight." "Could you please raise the sun?" After about three seconds, the princess began to laugh. She sounded a bit like Nightmare Moon.