Sunrise
Chapter XVI - Followthrough
“That’s the move you want to make?” asked Commander Hurricane, staring incredulously at the two sisters standing before her desk. “Not sure whether to be impressed or just scared for you, but either way, you’ve got guts, I’ll give you that.”
“Presuming we succeed, things will need to happen quickly,” Celestia said. “How long will it take you to begin deploying forces?”
“A matter of hours,” Hurricane replied. “Less than a day, for certain. There’s a contingency plan in place for establishing a rapid occupation of the earth pony hinterlands around Quartz City. That’s been our primary drilling plan in the event of a full-scale conflict.”
Luna nodded. “A siege, in other words. What about invading the city itself?”
“We haven’t planned for that because it’s impossible,” Hurricane said. “The walls are too hard to penetrate from the ground, and the weather control system blocks pegasus flight. Our forces have no rapid way in.”
“They will soon,” Celestia said. “If we open your way, is that an avenue worth pursuing?”
“Possibly, in time.” Hurricane nodded, narrowing her eyes in thought. “But I wouldn’t want to try to rush in immediately. We would need some time to develop an operation plan to keep it orderly and not get mired down in urban combat against unicorn resistance, which is almost the worst kind of fighting imaginable.”
“Not a priority, then.”
“It seems likely to be unnecessary, anyway.” Hurricane nodded. “Again, as you said, presuming your success.”
“And if we don’t succeed, none of this will matter,” Luna pointed out.
Hurricane frowned. “I can’t say that’s too comforting. It’s usually extraordinarily poor military thinking for your whole strategy to depend on any one key pony. Or even two. Nopony should be irreplaceable.”
“It’s unfortunate, but the misfortune of it starts long before now,” Celestia said. “If we were replaceable and there were others like us, the whole situation might not be as it is in the first place.”
“True enough,” Hurricane agreed. “Well, you have to play the hoof fortune or misfortune deals you, I guess. Is this finally what’s in the cards? It’s war, then?”
“I truly hope not,” Celestia said darkly, “but if it is, it’ll be a short one.”
Luna nodded, looking grim. “Very short.”
☙ ☀ ❧
Celestia and Luna flew side by side in silence for most of their long flight. Quartz City lay to the northeast, and the tension twisted inside of Celestia’s belly as the air around them grew chilled. The morning seemed like it should be getting warmer with the rising of the sun into the sky—the sun Celestia set in motion herself—but a cold front had moved down from the north and brought a blanket of frigid winter air. The mingling of arctic freeze and… well, Celestia didn’t think she’d call the air to the south warm, just less cold… but in any case, the collision of air masses created winds and cloud, swirling in minor cyclones and buffeting them as they flew, but also providing some measure of cover for the approach.
Not that the Unicorn Kingdom would ever see this coming anyway, Celestia mused. That was really the key here; surprise had worked before, and it stood to reason that it was their best chance of making things work again.
And this? This would surprise everypony.
The land below gradually became familiar. It was the earth pony town Winter Wheat lived near. The sight of it sent new waves of tension through Celestia; it meant they were in the home stretch.
She banked to turn toward the north, with Luna moving in close synchronization. It wasn’t perfect, but still not bad, Celestia thought, considering the amount of time they’d had to hone their aerial skills.
Far in the distance, the landmark she was searching for came into view: the great northeastern aqueduct, the one she was so familiar with. The distant sight, visible from a couple kilometers away on Winter Wheat’s farm, was well-worn into her mind.
She flapped harder, picking up the pace as she dropped altitude down to just a few meters, practically skimming the ground. Fortunately, their line of approach was mostly over wilderness, and combined with the fallow state of the crop fields in winter, they avoided giving any earth pony farmers a surprise airshow.
The huge arches of the duct came into clearer view as they drew close, the individual square-cut blocks soon becoming visible in her now-sharpened eyes. They grew in her field of vision as the sisters flapped for them with all the speed they could muster. Then, they were there, just meters away. Celestia suddenly flared her wings and airbraked, and with a last couple of flaps pulled up slightly to pop over the upper edge and then dropped down to come to a landing on the outer canal wall.
Luna landed beside her and folded her wings, the air suddenly dead silent except for the water. They stared at it, clear, clean, and cold, babbling and tinkling softly as it flowed. It brought to mind a fresh, pure mountain stream, which made sense to Celestia, since it was a fresh mountain stream, just rerouted from the mountain and captured in a masterfully built trough of granite. Thirsty from their flight, she lowered her head and drank deep from the water, feeling the icy cold liquid flow down her throat and chill her stomach, bracing and recharging.
She only afforded herself only a few seconds’ rest, and then it was time to move. They waded on and followed the flow of water southwest on hoof.
☙ ☀ ❧
The walk down the aqueduct was slower than it would have been by air, but the closer they came to the city, the more they didn’t dare risk flying and being spotted prematurely. It was lucky that the duct was raised high enough and had tall enough canal walls that nopony on the ground outside the city was likely to spot them, and that it intersected and entered the city wall at a low enough point that nopony inside would, either.
When the long walk brought them to the end of the duct, they arrived at the reason for choosing this route: the aqueduct’s water flowed in through a low opening in the city wall, blocked by a grid of heavy steel bars, set close enough together to prevent a pony from passing through. It was further screened with finer steel mesh overlaid on that to catch any small debris that washed in.
Faced at last with this sight, Celestia and Luna looked at each other. They nodded in unison and went to work.
Celestia closed her eyes to protect them as her horn started glowing. Drawing power from the sun, she focused its energy as a point of intense heat on one of the steel bars, rapidly slicing through the metal in a fine line as it burned away. A shower of white-hot sparks hissed softly as they fell into the cold water. She cut through one bar, then moved on to the next, and the next, while Luna did the same on her side of the grating.
In moments, they had systematically sliced their way through. Luna telekinetically grabbed the grating and pulled it aside, leaving it leaning against the canal wall. “After you, sister.” She motioned with a hoof.
“Why, thank you, my dear.” Celestia mock-bowed and then crouched down low to half-crawl in through the opening. Luna followed after her.
The passage was dark and smelled faintly like algae. Water flowed off the end of the aqueduct’s canal and cascaded down into a large retaining tank, making a continual roar of white noise. Celestia and Luna had to pick their steps carefully to avoid falling over the edge with the water. They squeezed in next to each other as they inched forward as far as they could.
“What now?” Luna asked, raising her voice to be heard over the water.
“I suppose we teleport,” Celestia replied. “It’s that or rip the tank open to get out.”
“Teleport it is, then.” Luna nodded.
“I’ll handle it.” Celestia used a scrying spell to search beyond the tank and the surrounding water processing center. Immediately outside was a large plaza, centered with ornamental fountains that made a celebratory extravagance of a small fraction of the water pouring into Quartz City, while the rest ran off into underground utility pipes providing the drinking and industrial water that kept the city alive.
Celestia considered the next move. No, not into the plaza, that was no good… it was nice and open, which would make it easy to teleport into, but that was the problem; too big a place, too likely to be seen popping in. It was cold outside and there weren’t that many ponies out and about, but still, to get lazy and take an unneeded risk now, when they were so close… no.
She searched further. To the north, the plaza ended where a main street cut through the city. Not much good there either, too many store-fronts, too many windows… but alleyways branched off between some of the buildings, little-used and unwatched. She explored those, and finally found one where somepony had put up a fence blocking the view from the street. In the secluded area behind it, the walls on either side were solid stone, and not a soul around.
Yes, there. Perfect.
“I’ve found someplace,” Celestia announced.
Luna nodded. Celestia closed her eyes, waited for a silent three-count, and pushed with a teleport spell.
After a quick flash and a soft pop, she opened her eyes and found herself in the alley that she’d seen. Luna was next to her. They opened their saddlebags and took out the cloaks they’d brought with them, hiding their wings as they settled them around their backs and pulled the hoods up to at least partly obscure their faces from casual attention. With their minimal but temporarily adequate disguises in place, Celestia wasted no time in using her telekinetic strength to peel away the latch to the fence’s gate. It quietly swung open.
She poked her head around the gate and looked around cautiously, finding the alley still empty. She nodded to Luna, and Luna nodded back.
They exited to the street and began trotting, side by side, at a quick, nerve-charged pace.
“I didn’t think we’d see it again.” Luna’s voice was soft from under the hood of her cloak as she looked around at the stonework façades of the city.
“Neither did I,” Celestia replied.
Luna looked deep in momentary thought, turning her head to study the buildings. “I hate it,” she finally said, decisively, with a resolute nod.
“Hate?” Celestia asked. She pondered on this. “Save that feeling. We might…” Her eyes narrowed as she scowled. “We will need it.”
☙ ☀ ❧
The royal palace was just as Celestia remembered it. Set back in its expansive grass-covered grounds to create an imperious distance between it and the rest of the city’s pedestrian elements, the building offered exactly the same unfriendly front now as it had the first time they’d approached. If anything, it was worse now under the grey winter sky. Celestia remembered the intimidation, feeling an inch tall under the gaze of the guards, being made to feel unworthy, like she was nothing. As it welled up inside, she transmuted it to a low seethe of anger.
A moment after it swept over her, she was struck with a sudden clarity in her thoughts about how the way she’d felt that first time around at the palace was more than just one place. This palace was just the concentrated reflection; it was her whole life in microcosm, here in the Unicorn Kingdom – the feeling of insignificance, of being nothing, of constant intimidation, of utter hollowness.
Silent tears formed in her eyes. She blinked them away.
No more.
No more!
It was all she could do to keep herself from screaming those words aloud as she reached out with her telekinesis and opened the gate.
Time to look the monster in the eyes and stare it down.
She waited for Luna and they walked together down the path through the grassy palace lawn toward the long flight of stone steps leading to the massive bronze doors. The eyes of the royal guards were on them the whole way, as before, silently trying to drill into them and through them, even as the guards remained motionless. Celestia’s anger thickened her skin this time, callusing her against the effect.
Step by step, she hardened her will and grew more impervious, holding her head higher and prouder, horn pointing ever more upright to the cold grey sky. The unmoving guards seemed less and less real the more their statue-like visages did nothing to stop her approach.
As she reached the first step and began ascending, there was finally a stirring. The four guards around the door arranged themselves into a line, their armor softly clanking and their formidable spears held upright as they moved to cordon off the way.
Paying them no heed, Celestia and Luna continued climbing. They reached the top step and stood on the landing before the door.
They stared at the guards, who stared unflinchingly back. A tense few seconds rolled by.
“State your business,” one guard finally said. It was a mare, with a voice perhaps not as gruff as Celestia had been expecting: business-like, but not condescending or cruel.
Braced as she was for the worst, Celestia found herself caught slightly off-guard. For a moment, she couldn’t help but find it somewhat disarming; it wasn’t the voice of a monster, but one that belonged to a real pony, one like herself.
The dissipation of the anger she wanted to feel but didn’t gave her pause, forcing her to feel, against colder pragmatic logic, that maybe they should try talking first. She was sure reason wouldn’t prevail, but respect for the real pony she suddenly saw under the armor demanded that she at least try anyway, for whatever good it would do. “We need an audience with the court of Princess Platinum,” Celestia said. “Urgently.”
“Are you expected, ma’am?”
“No, I very much doubt that.” Celestia shook her head.
“You need an appointment to get an audience,” the guard stated. “That can be arranged by filing a request with one of the administrative offices in the city. If your request is granted, they’ll let you know the date and time of your audience by mail. Usually takes a few weeks to hear back. Wouldn’t hold my breath, though, not with the way things are right now.”
“I understand there’s a process, but we need to be heard immediately. Please. It’s extremely important.”
“If you don’t have an appointment letter, or some other authorization for entry, I can’t let you in,” the guard said, a little more sternly.
“Let me make it clear that we are not asking,” Celestia began. “I am telling you: we are entering. Prior scheduling is not a relevant concern to us; we will have an audience now. Open the door and move aside, all of you, or we will move you and we will open the door ourselves. You won’t like how we do it, but we will do what we must.”
All the guards lowered their spears, pointing them at the sisters.
“I’m warning you!” the guard raised her voice sharply. “Leave the palace grounds, now!”
“Our way, then,” Celestia said calmly.
“Are you listening?” the guard asked, exasperated. “Look, lady, I’m trying to give you an out here, but procedure is only so flexible and you’re on the wrong side of it! I don’t think you realize how much trou—”
She was cut off with a surprised gasp as Celestia’s horn lit up in a fraction of a second with a white-gold light too intense to look at directly. The magical defense crystals set in the front chestplates of the guards’ armor lit up in response. Celestia could feel their effect on her magic, the way they scattered and dampened it, trying to deflect and prevent it from reaching its targets. They would have succeeded and blocked her completely, too, if she was merely the unicorn she was before. Drawing from the vast power of the sun, now she simply brute forced beyond their capacity to absorb, and all four of the guards were swept aside like dry leaves in a gale wind by a wall of powerful telekinesis.
As Celestia pushed the guards aside, she focused down specifically on those crystals, having an awful time at first with their thaumo-scattering effects. Trying to get a magical grip on them felt like trying to grasp a greased eel. After some fumbling around she finally managed to get them pinned down, and surged a pulse of magic through her horn, applying a hard torquing force. The crystals shattered with high-pitched ting sounds and fell out of their settings, raining down in small, jagged, glittering pieces.
With their defenses gone, Luna joined in, horn lighting up in silvery blue. She worked something more subtle over the guards pinned against the palace wall. Their struggles slowed. In seconds, their eyes drooped shut and closed. Soft, rhythmic breathing replaced their cacophony of angry words as they fell asleep.
Once they were pacified, Celestia loosened her grip and gently set them down.
“Well done,” she said.
“I’m glad it worked,” Luna replied. “I didn’t want to have to hurt them.”
“Nor did I.” Celestia turned her eyes to the massive bronze doors and frowned. She remembered these doors well. They were impressive, decorated in fine detailed relief with life-like figures—proud kings, queens, princes and princesses, unicorn knights in heavy armor, griffons, warrior pegasi, eagles, dragons, all kinds of fearsome creatures. Glittering gems set in the eyes of those creatures served as anchors for powerful protective spells intense enough for Celestia to sense in her horn without even trying, like the heat radiating off of burning coals. “I’m worried this door might not be so easy to compromise with.”
“The door, however, I am willing to hurt,” Luna declared. She reached out with magic and probed at it. When she did, Celestia could feel the enchantments in the door flare up, blocking her.
“Be careful,” Celestia warned her sister. “These defenses are powerful.”
“We will have to be more powerful, then,” Luna said. “No time for puzzles. More guards are already on the way.”
“They might have blackseals on them,” Celestia pointed out.
“Magical lethal countermeasure locks?” Luna scowled. “That’s extremely illegal.”
“Who’s going to write the Princess a hazardous enchantment infraction citation?” Celestia scoffed.
“…Okay, good point,” Luna conceded.
“You’re right, though, we don’t have time,” Celestia said.
“What, then?” Luna asked.
“We will need to rely on each other,” Celestia said. “I think I can open the doors if you can protect me from them.”
“Do you think I can?” Luna fretted.
“I’m sure of it.” Celestia nuzzled Luna’s cheek. “You never let me down.”
Luna nodded and nuzzled her sister in return. “I’ll do my best,” she promised.
“I know you will.” Celestia nodded.
They faced the doors and their horns began to glow, white-gold and silver-blue. Celestia reached out and began probing at the massive bronze slabs, while Luna projected an aura that surrounded them in a protective shell.
The door enchantments were much more powerful than the anti-magical defensive crystals in the guard’s armor. Where those had been evasive and slippery, these were like barbed wire and broken glass, snagging and slicing at her magic with wicked ferocity. They felt like it in her mind, too, giving her uncomfortable prickling sensations – not physically, but something below her conscious thoughts, something indefinable, subtle but rankling, close enough on the verge of pain to make her feel an urgent unease and a need to withdraw and disengage her magic from the doors.
After a few seconds it was quickly growing unbearable, but then Luna changed something about her shielding spell, blocking some part of the response being directed back toward Celestia, and she felt the psychic counterattack subside. The discomfort faded away, leaving her mind settled and ready to focus once more. She kept her attention on the doors, pushing at them with greater and greater force of magic, powering through the snagging barriers bit by bit.
Seconds rolled by as she continued to rend her way in, keenly aware of the time this was taking.
She shook it off. Distraction wouldn’t help. Redoubling her concentration, she let the rest of the world fade away. She was only barely conscious of feeling Luna’s magic sweeping out behind them with a blast of telekinetic force, knocking a second wave of guards rushing toward them from across the palace lawns off their hooves and sending them tumbling away like flotsam in a tsunami, and Luna’s distant voice urgently warning her that they were running out of time.
“I know!” Celestia gasped out. “Almost there!”
She squeezed her eyes shut and intensified her magic as she tore in. Finally, to her relief, she suddenly reached the cold, inert feeling of bare metal, touching the actual bronze of the doors.
At last! Maintaining her concentration, she felt around until she found the latches holding the doors shut, then pulsed even more magic in, focusing it to a fine point and manifesting it as heat. The bronze softened and turned viscous, feeling like clay, and then like thick syrup, and she deformed it and pushed it aside.
The magical clawing and resistance from some of the gems set in the doors suddenly disappeared, their enchantments blinking out of her magical sight as the crystals heated up and cracked under thermal stress. With this lessened interference, she was able to pump a massive surge of magic through straight into the doors. They yielded unexpectedly under the force, flying open at incredible speed and slamming into the backstops in the interior so hard that they bounced off and nearly swung all the way shut again.
“We’re in.” Celestia’s horn stopped glowing.
She calmly walked to one of the doors and pushed it open, then stood at the door and motioned with a hoof. “After you, sister.”
“Thank you.” Luna obligingly entered the palace first, followed by Celestia, who closed the doors behind them and used a beam of magic to quickly weld them shut again, sealing out the exterior guards.
The sisters took a moment to stop and look around warily, taking in the palace’s grand vestibule. The opulence it was steeped in felt like a pure manifestation of the imperious arrogance that Celestia had come to hate so deeply.
Save that feeling. We will need it.
Now was the time. Celestia cast away all restraint and let it fill her to the brim. She walked side by side with Luna toward the large hardwood doors directly ahead, the last barrier between them and Platinum’s court.