//------------------------------// // 25 Attercop // Story: Trials of A Princess // by Rose Quill //------------------------------// “Ley lines are a powerful flow of mana.” Archmage Twilight said, horn glowing softly as she traced out a circle in the dirt of the cave floor. As she started to mark out the symbols of the classical elements, she frowned. “I have my doubts about using them for dimensional transport, despite both your stories and my examination of Sombra’s mirror. They are part of the world, not separate.” “That may be true,” Twilight said. “But they may simply be just a way of powering a spell beyond normal means. Like supercharging a teleport spell to extend the distance you can go.” “It’s dangerous as all hell,” I muttered. “It’s probably why the only known existence of it to us are the mirrors. I don’t trust that a naturally occurring rift will lead us home. I certainly don’t trust the Umbrum farther than I can buck it.” We all looked at the shard of glass that served as a cage for the Umbrum spy that had slipped into Luna’s forces. “Nor I,” the Archmage said. “Despite that, I sensed no overt falsehood from it, though if it relayed a falsehood told to it, it would bypass the spell since it is believed to be truth.” “Nothing for it,” I said. I glanced back at the tunnel that stretched out into the darkness, where we had been told the elements had been spirited away to.  “More Important things to do here now anyway.” “Finally!” Bernie exclaimed. “You all took your fair time talking about things that only you lot would understand.” The two Twilight’s frowned. “It’s just basic mantic theory,” the Archmage said. “Which is one of the driest subjects in most curricula, honestly,” I said, standing and stretching. “What have you found?” Bernie gestured and we went over to stand by her as she started pointing at various hoofprints in the soil. “That mind whammy they put on the soldiers managed to make a mess of the trail as they floundered around, but going far enough ahead let me find some prints before the dusty floor gave way to pure stone, but I didn’t see any side passages along the length I went. I doubt we could catch them now though, path hit a chasm and I spotted at least ten different openings.” I grit my teeth. From the information we had gotten from independent observation and questioning the Umbrum, we had determined that the only way to find the correct confluence of ley lines to get us home was to use the Elements of Harmony to guide us. The alternative was to try to find the exact spot over the ocean we had dropped in and try to return through that. I wasn’t eager to try. “Show us anyway,” Twilight said. “We might be able to pick up a mantic trace that you can’t. If nothing else, we can see where the path ends and decide from there.” We followed the goat through the tunnel, the sound of our hooves on stone echoing ominously in the dim light of our horns. It wasn’t long before we stood before a gap in the cave floor that reached out past the walls of the large cavern that the split created. The ceiling was beyond the light that the three of us unicorns cast and there was a light breeze that cleared some of the stuffy air of the cave out. “How did they get over?” I asked, eyeing the gap. It looked longer than most ponies could vault. “Are we dealing with Pegasi or Thestrals?” “I would rule out any type of ground based folk that we’re used to,” Bernie said, pointing at a print in some rock dust. The print had a hard point with what looked like two narrow toes or claws. “I’ve tracked everything from Timberwolves to Centaurs and I’ve never seen a track like this before.” “I have,” the Archmage said quietly, turning her eyes to the roof of the cavern, forcing more light from her horn. I followed her gaze upwards and felt my mouth go dry. The roof of the cave held thick, swaying lines of spider silk as well as a few bundles along their lengths. I saw the heavily holed leg of an unredeemed Changeling sticking out from one. In the center of the conflux of webbing sat a massive spider, it’s bulbous abdomen pointing down towards us, it’s long hooked legs stretched out to various strands of it’s funnel-shaped nest, motionless. I saw what looked like an eye on the middle of its abdomen, but I couldn’t tell if it was an actual eye or some sort of decoration. I saw light glint off one of its actual eyes, and swallowed. “Sweet Mother,” Bernie breathed. “That is one big bug.” “It’s an arachnid, actually,” Twilight said automatically, backing away slowly. “And as long as we don’t disturb its web, it shouldn’t come after us.” “Can’t it see or hear us?” the petrified goat asked. “We may have caught this one dormant,” I said. “Otherwise the second we lit it up it would have moved. And it doesn’t hear, per se. It senses vibrations, so as long as we’re quiet, we should be fine.” “At least we know where the elements are now,” the Archmage said, pointing. Along one strand were several stone shapes, each the size and general dimensions of the elements I had seen when they were in the tree. “I don’t like the idea of trying to pull them free with a spider the size of a house sitting on the web,” I said as casually as I could. “We could cut that section free,” Twilight suggested. “Detangle them later?” “We’d have to be really quick and accurate,” I said. “And that’s a tiny target for a horn blast.” “Quiet!” Bernie hissed suddenly. I was about to ask what was happening when the sound of skittering reached my ears just before a set of segmented legs reached up over the lip of the chasm and another large spider hauled its bulk into view, three of its eyes coming to rest on us. “Oh, fuck me,” Bernie swore, a small crossbow appearing from out of nowhere. The mouthparts of the spider clicked together twice before it began swarming towards us. “Scatter!” Twilight cried, horn blazing with raspberry light as she blasted the ground between us and the spider. It barrelled through the dust kicked up without a pause. I halted a few paces up the tunnel and fired back at the aggressor, but it just skipped off it’s carapace and brought it’s attention to me. It began to swarm towards me, circling around until it was crawling across the ceiling. I began to backpedal, planning to teleport until I spied the line of silk it had been trailing. If I wasn’t careful, I’d land right in it’s trap. There was a snap of a taut line and a tiny hiss came before a short metal shaft exploded from one of its eyes. The spider gave off a strange scream - something between a hissing exhale and a growl - before turning around again, searching for the source of it’s pain. “How’d ya like that, ya great overgrown tick?” Bernie shouted, racking the string on her small weapon back again, dancing to the side and over one of the trailed strands of silk. She was a little more nimble than I had figured she would be, easily clearing the silk and a segmented leg that tried to slam down onto her. “Stand clear!”  I hopped back in time to see the Archmage lower her head, wreaths of lightning shrouding her whole body and spirling up her horn. A moment later, a loud peal of thunder beat at my ears as the line of electricity leapt from her to the spider, causing it to fall flat onto the floor, twitching and releasing another of the screams. An eye near the impact site exploded from the voltage and it twitched, one leg tangling in it’s own thread. “Keep it up,” she called, gasping. Small currents of energy were flowing up the Archmage’s legs. “We can’t let it get it’s bearings.” A raspberry bolt lanced out, hitting the bolt that Bernie had fired earlier, the magic from Twilight’s attack deflecting downwards into the carapace. The princess landed on the back of the spider’s thorax, legs spread wide as she balanced, lancing another shot straight down. “Are you crazy?” Bernie yelled as she took aim. I was already racing forward as I grasped her plan. “A spider can’t reach it’s back,” Twilight said, wings flapping to help steady her as the spider began to rise again. “It’s the safest point to be.” I hopped up next to her as the massive arachnid regained its footing, though a few tremors caused a leg to spasm. I locked eyes with Twilight and we both lit our horns and sliced downward, a leg on each side being cut free. Now, losing a leg doesn’t do much to a spider. It’s got six more and the way their legs work means they won’t bleed out. However, it does serve to slow the thing down and give it a jolt of pain, making it lash out wildly. I saw the blue light begin to crackle around Archmage Twilight, another lightning blast forming. I stomped down hard, cracking it’s carapace slightly just behind the narrow waist that connected the thorax to the abdomen. “Aim here!” I shouted before Twilight shattered a third leg. I leapt off, wings flaring to slow my fall as I twisted and fired back, shearing off the bottom segment of another leg. Another bolt flew out and lodged in the crack I had made, the metal shaft breaking through and a small spurt of green ichor flew out as it did. A moment later, another clap of thunder and rush of ozone filled the tunnel as a second lightning bolt flew forward and used the bolt as a conduit. Smoke began to rise from the various wounds, the metal bolt melting from the heat of the lightning. I began to pull power to my horn again when I saw the spider take a shuddering step, but relaxed as it collapsed, legs pulling up tight to its body. “That was fun,” I breathed as Bernie prodded the body to make sure it was done. “Just grab those gems and let’s beat hooves outta here!” Bernie said. Twilight hurried to the opening and her horn lit as I joined her. She surrounded the Elements with her telekinetic grip as I got ready to cut the section free. As the strand parted, the entire web shook. I looked up and saw the legs of the second spider start reaching out to turn it’s bulk around. “Run,” I said, following my own advice. The four of us took off back the way we had came before I spun and fired bolts into the cavern ceiling, collapsing sections of it to block the tunnel behind us. A few moments later, we came back to the vanguard of the force as the sound of falling stone echoed up behind us. “Never a dull moment with you two,” Bernie said. “Ghosts, giant bugs, mad Changelings…” “You’re taking this rather well,” Twilight remarked as she caught her breath. “I’ve decided to charge you by the hour for my services.” “You get us home and you can send Celestia the bill.” I said. “Sunset.” Twilight admonished. “You know she’d be more than willing to cover our rescue, Twi.” I said. “True,” she agreed. “But how about we find the way home before we figure out payment plans.” Luna walked up, her battle-worn armor glinting slightly in the torches and werelight of Unicorn horns. “You returned rather quickly,” she commented, looking at the cloud of dust still settling in the corridor beyond. “I hope it was a successful trip.” Twilight lifted the Elements still confined in a sticky mass of spider web. “You could say that,” she said sheepishly. I was about to follow up when suddenly my peytral began to shake and my Element blazed to life. As it’s light reached the other Elements, the webbing melted as the stones began to shine, forming into shapes. A feathered hat. A magic wand. A potted flower. A trio of berries. A star wreathed in lightning. And a round sphere. I blinked as the gems took on simple stylized versions of the shapes. “Was that… Trixie’s cutie mark?” I asked. “And I think I saw Coco’s too.” Twilight shook her head. “I didn’t recognize any of the others beside the Archmage’s.” “Me either,” I said. “Though that one looked like juniper berries.” “I guess that means the Elements are named.” The Archmage stepped forward and the stylized star flew towards her and fastened around her neck, a gold peytral manifesting.  Twilight nodded. “And they may be close, since they transformed like this. It didn’t happen in our world until my friends and I were together.” “Well, I look forward to seeing who our other bearers are.” Luna turned and motioned a Thestral over. “Candlelight Sonata reporting,” the batpony said. “Send word to gather supplies in preparation to return to the castle. We have our objective and will return to a more defensible location.” “Ma’am!” the Thestral snapped a salute and bustled away to carry out her orders. “I’m sure this will be a bit of a surprise,” I whispered to Twilight as we headed out of the cave. “ I mean, if this world deemed Trixie to be worthy of being a bearer, I’ve got to see what she’s like.” On the train to Ponyville, a blue pony sneezed.