The Steadfast Sky : Chapter 39
The Grey Potter
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/11495/The-Steadfast-Sky
http://cosmicponyfiction.tumblr.com/
~Discord~
Has everyone gone freaking bonkers?!
When Luna decided to side with Celestia on that wet, muddy morning, it was like a punch to the gut! I felt honest to goodness betrayed, wondered why in the world Luna would do that. To me. She didn’t mean it as a jab against me, I’m sure but…
It frustrated the hell out of me!
“Luna,” I said, approaching her. I was sinking up to my ankles in mud and ‘splorch’ing as I walked. Yet, I couldn’t help but stare at her slowly swaying flank… I admit, I don’t know a ton of ponies personally. But I think I’ve seen plenty of cutie marks by now. And hers was different. A big splotchy blob that almost ran down her leg, up to her tail… Then she turned sideways, smiling back at me. I stopped staring.
“Uh-huh?” she said. And she almost seemed to carry herself differently. And not different in the forced way, like Celestia. Luna looked more relaxed, more at ease… more mature. Was that an effect of the cutie mark? Or… for life’s sake, I’ve got to stop staring at her flank. I’m getting cutie mark envy on top of all other stupid things…
“Luna,” I stared her right in the eyes, coming up on her left side. “I just got my life back again. I’m very, very happy to not be dead. If we go fight the Shadow Stallion, I’m telling you, we’re going to die.”
I guess I half expected her to laugh me off. I mean, she sided with Celestia this morning, and was very, very proud of her choice. Of course she was going to laugh this off, laugh me off. But she didn’t. She looked straight ahead, and actually seemed to be thinking about it! Maybe there’s a way to convince her after all!
“Hey Discord,” she asked casually, “What do you know about the Shadow Stallion?”
“I told you already. He’s a top dog to rule top dogs. He’s stronger than any Draconequus!”
“Like… how strong? How does he keep the Draconequus in line? You said he doesn’t use magic…”
“He just… beats them up? Rips them to shreds.”
“With alicorn magic?”
“Jeez, I don’t know!” I cried, “I don’t watch you know!”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t either…” Luna fell quiet, head tilted up at the clouds. “I’m just kind’ve thinking! Depending on what the Shadow Stallion can and can’t do…”
“He can do a ton. He’s an alicorn.”
“Celestia doesn’t seem to think so,” Luna piped up, “She thinks his magic isn’t all that.”
“Does… does she have a reason to think that?” The idea made my head want to spin. The Stallion, Father, he was all-powerful. There was a question about that?
“He hasn’t found three dumb kids, for one.”
I blink. “I guess there’s that.”
“And he can’t keep his head stallions, or the guys who worships him in line.”
“Yeah but,” I objected, “That’s just because his attention’s divided. Remember? We guessed that ages ago. He’s powerful, yeah, but he’s just one alicorn!”
“But how hard can a couple scrying spells be? Look where we are, shout at the griffins to get us…”
My mind was reeling, “I don’t know. Maybe… maybe it’s outside the realm of his cutie mark?”
Luna grinned. “Sonic magic’s outside the realm of my cutie mark.”
“So… you can still cast that?”
Luna giggled. She threw back her head, and with a flash of her horn, she squeaked at the sky. I jumped as the blast of sound rocketed past me, shaking the wet remnants of snow from every branch around us.
“Luna!” Celestia cried. “Shouting?!”
“Sorry!” Luna giggled. She plucked her feet out of the mud, and kept walking, smiling at me. “We’re already special enough to get this extra magic stuff, so the Stallion should be too…”
“And that makes him crazy powerful—“
“… But he’s not, somehow. He doesn’t have access to every spell or nothing. There might be lots he doesn’t know. I mean… what spells did you see him cast, in the castle?”
“Um… I don’t know.” I wracked my brains for the scant few times I had seen Father… “He can levitate huge things. Stop a Draconequus with a glance. He might be able to teleport… He um… twice a year…” I laughed nervously, “Twice a year, well, he regulates Draconequus breeding. So twice a year he makes it so the females can, um, conceive again.” Oh, that is a bizarre look, Luna! I hastily continue. “He also has this shadowy aura that he totes around him, but I don’t think he does that on purpose! His horn doesn’t glow when he does that! Anyway, I hadn’t seen him do anything really, really crazy or powerful. But!” I hastily add, “That could mean that he keeps most of his powers a secret! I mean, this cloud cover comes from him! He can probably do a lot we don’t know about…”
“Maybe. Probably. But… there aren’t any stories about how awesome he is either!”
I chuckled nervously, “We’re discouraged from talking about Father lightly.”
“Oh.” And Luna’s head was back up in the clouds. What in the world was she trying to see up there? “You know!” She exclaimed, “The Elements chose us. They probably want to, and will protect us.”
“What? These rocks…?” I stare down at the little gem bouncing off my neck. It’s just an inanimate thing, just another part of me… But no, it wasn’t always like that, was it? “Maybe. Maybe you’re right.” I returned to staring at my friend. “You remember when I first brought back that butterfly rock, right?”
She grinned and nodded furiously, urging me on.
“We wear these Elements so easily, they almost feel part of us, comfortable around our neck. But that comfort has led us to forget just how alive these things are. They might even be aware.” A flood of ideas hit me, things I had maybe thought about once or twice, but never dwelled on. They poured out of my mouth, somehow, just sounding right. “I don’t think Loyalty judged Celestia just on that outburst, nor you on your story. They watched us for all those weeks, through…” I flicked my Element, making it glitter. “Maybe they even led us where we needed to go. We haven’t run across a single Element that we couldn’t pick up, even though it was a fifty-fifty shot whether it belonged to us or that other group. And… well.” Another thought popped to mind, one long, long since forgotten. “When I was fleeing from those guards, all the way back in Canterbury. On the last day we were there…”
Luna looked ecstatic, continuing to nod through my speech. “Did something magical happen?” she asked.
“Not really, really magical. But when I ran into that first guard… I thought I was dead for sure! There were so many pegasi and griffins I had passed on the way up… Yet, I kept getting lucky. I kept ducking into empty rooms, finding passageways… I kind’ve thought I just knew the pattern of the castle well, even in the parts I had never been in before. But maybe…”
“So you see? We got a leg up on the Stallion! The Elements are here to protect us!”
I smiled. “You thought of this, what, last night? Why didn’t you bring it up sooner?”
“Nah, I Just remembered it now while we were talking!”
“Wow, really?”
“Yep!”
“So you were completely self-assured, just on the idea that the Stallion was weaker than he seemed…?!”
“Well, that, and because it’s the right thing, our duty to—“
“Oh no, no, no. Not this again!” I moaned. “Don’t tell me your cutie mark is the same as Celestia’s… All of that Duty and responsibility crap!”
“Nope!” Luna squeaked, her voice dreamy. “I just realized that I like being a mediator. That making clear and direct decisions is my special talent! Kind’ve like the moon!”
“I um…” I stared at her, confused. Definitely confused. “I never thought of the moon as a great decision maker…”
She blinked, tilted her head and thought quietly. “It’s kind’ve silly when you say it like that!” She happily declared, “But it all made sense at the time. My cutie mark isn’t like… literal, or anything. Represents something more.”
“Anyway, self-assurance—”
“Yep. Got that too.”
“Why?”
“You mean besides the Stallion being weak and the Elements protecting us?” She stuck out her tounge, mocking my question. “I just do! It’s the right thing to do, so we gotta go do it. Dunno if we’ll succeed or fail, but,” she giggled, “I’ve got faith in us! We kind’ve hit some rough patches with the fights yesterday… but… Celestia will protect me. I’ll protect Celestia. I’ll protect you too, and you’ll protect me, right Discord?”
“Of course I will!” I frowned, “Would never think otherwise…” I stare at Celestia, still trotting ahead of us in a tight posture. “And I’d never dream of letting Celestia go, even if she is a pain sometimes.”
“You’re a pain to her, you know!”
I laughed through my teeth. “Oh yeah, I know. Now, if I had to choose one of you…” I grinned at Luna, just trying… I don’t know what I’m even saying…
She nodded. “Pick me so I can teleport us all away! Very clever, Discord!”
… And yet, somehow, it feels like she missed the point.
~æ~
We spent our week or so testing out the boundaries of our magic, working with the elements, working alone, working things out with each other… We never could get Celestia to calm completely down, but she wasn’t doing anything crazy anymore. So that’s good, I guess? Good to have a level head when you’re trotting right into a death trap. Together, we found a way to turn some leaves to stone, which Celestia packed away, checking constantly for cracks. We got comfortable with using our Elements, with this idea of duty…
Though I think I was the only one having any trouble with that. I’m following the suicidal plan, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.
But I think, as the days went on, Celestia and Luna were less and less gung-ho about this plan as well. Our conversations got shorter, further apart. Slowly, we found ourselves with very little to talk about. All of the spells we could think of were tried. We had discussed endlessly about what the Stallion could and could not do… Nothing else really seemed as important as the upcoming confrontation. And so… we just, slowly stopped talking. Luna brought up a topic or two, here and there. Trying to cheer us up, eyes and Element glittering. But even knew there was little a couple jokes could do.
“Well…” I said, breaking an hour-long silence as we followed a familiar road to a familiar place. “Rearing Town, you guys.”
Celestia nodded numbly. “Looks like it’s doing better.”
It was, actually. Even in the short amount of time we were gone, the fields looked reseeded, and little green sprouts were popping up all over the previously dead and dry areas. Ponies wandered up and down the banks of the properly-flowing river, grabbing buckets full of water and carefully sprinkling the crops.
I don’t know how, but we all mentally agreed to just skirt the town… There were a few muttered words here and there about Basil, wondering what he was doing, if he really managed to get along with both towns. But bigger things were on our minds than catching up with our first adventure… More than the Stallion, in my case. My store of fish was quickly wearing thin, and the riverbanks would be our only stopping point before rushing off to Canterbury…
I think, at one point, I had decided if I was to ever go fishing for myself, I would have tried to deliberately gross the girls out. Make fun of this annoying, nasty little need. Ease the tension a little. But any jokes now just seemed… out of place. Inappropriate. The enormous tower of Canterbury was already invading the horizon, like the fat black shaft of a spear stabbing Equestrian soil. It was impossible to ignore or avoid now.
So we just quietly settled down at the river banks. I slipped into the rushing little current, very glad that it was no longer snowing and chilly. Very glad to see how clear the water was. It showed me that there’s weren’t currently any fish anywhere around me. I let the current wash over my legs, glaring at the rocks, really hoping for a sunfish or a salmon or something to catch. I paced in the river, finding a little magic in my fingertips. If I spotted one… maybe I could use a wall to trap it?
“Gosh,” Luna suddenly spoke up, chuckling nervously, “I wonder if our house is still there!”
For the longest time, neither me nor Celestia replied. I don’t know about Celestia, but I winced a little at the question, kept looking for some stupid sunfish in some still pools.“Do you think some other pony family is living in it?” Luna quietly asked.
“Probably our no good uncle started renting it out…” Celestia mumbled, eyebrows creasing.
“Yeah… Oh!” Luna squeaked, “I left all my toys in that house!” Celestia snorted up a laugh, and I felt the same way. What a silly little thought! Yet, another part of me panged. I didn’t want to embarrass Luna either… “I hope,” Luna muttered, “Whichever unicorn baroness got them is treating them nice...”
I waited for Celestia to offer an “I’m sure they are,” but none came. I took up the responsibility, distracted with a little spell… Water spilled around my simple wall, gushing around my trap. The fish darted away from… No! I snapped my head under the current, trying to catch a freaking sunfish! I felt its tail slip out from between my teeth, but charged after the stupid little thing.
“Hey Discord!”
“Pppftlth… Yeah?!”
“What about your house?” Luna called, a good distance away. “You think some…other Draconequus might be living in it?”
I splashed back upstream, staring at the river. “Never had a house,” I explained. “Just had a stupid bunk with three other idiots. Nothing to miss in that hole…” Quietly, I stared at another fish as it tried to squat in another still pool. Maybe a different tact. Using magic to block off the pool, a wall parallel to the current… My jaws snapped around the squirmy little thing… got one! I um… I ran and dropped it on the opposite shore, trying to hide it behind my old little bundle. Unsuccessfully.
“What about old friends?” Luna softly called.
I cringed, pinning the flopping fish to the ground, and really, really not wanting to talk about this. “Did you guys have old friends?” I called back.
Luna slowly shook her head. “Not really… The fillies at school talked about dumb stuff...”
“It was either work, or socializing.” Celestia stated, staring at the water. “And I needed that work… I, I barely even remember my old acquaintances.” She looked up, silent while I reentered the water. “Might be nice to see the bakery again…” she mumbled.
“You really didn’t have a single friend before us, Discord?” Luna asked. “Nobody liked you at all?”
I snorted. “Heck no, I was a little troublemaker…” I scanned the river, trying to spot something. Anything. Even a crawdad would be welcome. “I think the only guy who put up with me was my brother, Ruin. But even then…”
“You have a brother?” That perked Luna right up, her eyes wide and body straight, leaning towards me. “Like a big brother? Like Celestia?”
“Yeah, a Celestia that’s ten times as demanding, if you can believe it. He’s just the guy who raised me...” I dunk my head under, snapping at another elusive fish, failing again… “Ffpth … We’re just encouraged to think of all the Draconequus as brothers. Generations don’t really matter much.”
“Even… even the girls are brothers?” Luna giggled, a strangely uplifting sound. An actual laugh… I smiled.
“Very funny,” I replied, “Anyway, the guy’s still a jerk. Just slightly less of a jerk than most of the Draconequus. Friggin glad to leave all of them behind.” I stared at the water, not even looking for fish. Just… staring. Finding my own words strange and hollow. “And I’m sure!” I barked, “That he was ecstatic the day I left! Didn’t have to deal with the idiot who can’t keep his stupid nose clean…”
I was silent, and so was Luna. With nothing else to talk about, I wandered up and down the shores, actually catching another couple fish. But a thought came to me, as I returned to my bundle with my fourth catch.
“Y’know,” I called, “When we defeat the stallion, the griffins will probably bail. Not being paid, they’ll probably settle down here, like in Stringhalt. Or they’ll just leave the country for a new mark.” I frowned. “But the Draconequus…” I looked back at my friends, wondering if they saw where I was going. Neither of them looked happy. “We’re going to have to find a way to deal with them. They’re not going to be bound to Canterbury anymore… Not bound by the Stallion. They might go crazy and—” I stopped, jaws stiff, “Attack Equestria.”
I think both of them knew exactly what I meant. Luna closed her eyes. Celestia stared dead at me, boring holes into my skull.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Celestia remarked, voice a forced casual.
And that was that. I had caught my fish, so cleaned them up and coated them in salt, hoping that was enough to keep them. Now there was nothing stopping us from approaching that dark city coated in shadows.
We walked in silence, watching the pillar get bigger, bigger, bigger. Looming higher, wider than any of us ever remembered it being. In the distance, you could see the edges… Yet as we walked, it seemed to lose those edges, invading the entire horizon. And for over half the day, block out what little light the sun gave, leaving us in a massive second shadow. At one point Celestia waved us off the road, and we numbly followed her. We followed what little paths we could find between the trees, trying to look away, but never able to deny that the sky had turned from gray to black. Slowly, bit by bit, after a full and silent day and fitful night of travel, we somehow reached those impossible walls. I think with how far we had fallen the first time… we never actually had gotten up close to the base…
Now, we walked right up to the structure, and touched them. Touched that cold black stone… The pillar almost seemed flat, stretching far and away into the forests, cutting lines through subtle hills. We stared upward as it pierced the clouds, almost seeming to curve outward, preparing to collapse on our heads… Just looking up was dizzying, I actually heard a small squeak as Luna tumbled backward, unable to crane her neck high enough.
I, for some reason, put my ear to the wall, just wondering if I could hear the streets, or hear Draconequus fighting. But there was nothing. Nothing but a long-forgotten cold that drains the life, the light from your eyes.
“So…” I mumbled, almost afraid to be heard. “How are we going to get in?”
Celestia sniffed. “Hm…”
I guess there were a lot of things we failed to talk about…