~ April 19th, 1020 ME ~
‘Pre-Dawn‘
* Spikes POV *
Tonight was sure to be full of surprises. It was so early! Yet that was irrelevant because adrenaline was keeping us alert. It was weird to think that we had overcome the illusion by seeing the reality through the façade, but there was no doubt about it as we continued deeper into the castle led by Wiz' glowing horn. We had left the laboratory behind moments ago, finding nothing of use in the space designed for containing spells, magical equipment and flasks. It did have quite a bit of materials in storage, but nothing that could serve as a tool to protect Ponyville. Wiz' magic and spear alone wouldn't be enough to fight our way out of the castle either. On top of that I was grasping at straws knowing that this would probably be another dead end, but at least I can prove it exists. Twilight didn't keep many secrets, but I couldn't help but feel guilty for encroaching upon this one, especially considering that she is a very intentional mare.
The stairs went on to eternity, but eventually the crystal castle allowed us to reach another door. After a quick scan Wiz determined that no traps or spells were present on the entrance so we cautiously proceeded into the dimly lit space. Besides Wiz' horn the only light came from a few shelfs on the wall full of various substances. I've sat through too many Twilight lecture because I immediately recognized this glowing effect as similar to bioluminescence, and I'd never even seen the stuff! Most of the room remained in darkness which I quickly solved by lighting a set of torches by the entrance. This had some unforeseen consequences...
The room was well lit now; very well lit, but that wasn't because of the torches. The fire I breathed reacted strangely when it came in contact with the torch. Instead of setting just the torch ablaze it puffed with a mini explosive behavior and the fire started reacting... It was practically dancing. It traced itself along a channel filled with a strange powder, lighting every corner of the chamber. One wall held various metals in odd shapes and sheets, while another held many canisters including the ones I first noticed upon entering. The far wall had a workbench with jewelry sitting on top, as well as gems; mainly diamonds and rubies. I recognized these as being the best at storing magic, but why Twilight had some of the other items was a mystery. The metals didn't look right. The jewelry was poorly shaped. Some of the jars looked empty while others were filled with the powder I couldn't place the smell of.
"What is all this? Twilight doesn't normally research blacksmithing or metallurgy does she? I mean the other room had machines to measure thaums, and this room is full of scraps."
"Um, I think it's safe to say we don't know what anything does in here. I mean whatever is keeping this fire burning is clearly not something mass produced because it's not oil based. Twilight’s very thorough with details, labels, and instructions so I think we should look for descriptions before we touch anything. " We spent minutes flipping through books on the tables, but they didn't help much. One was detailing material science and the resistance of certain substances to heat and impact. Another book was completely different discussing the process of enchanting spells or magical properties onto objects, this proved to be intriguing but did little to tell us if any of the various items would be useful.
My patience was wearing thin so I began to fiddle with some of the jewelry. This was when we had our first breakthrough and gave ourselves a sliver of hope to help Ponyville.
One of the bands on the table was about the thickness of my arm. It appeared to be made of gold and iron, and had a connection fused together with an Emerald. I sort of wanted to take a bite out of it, but instead I opted for sliding it on my arm. It only took a few seconds to process that this had the effect of making my limb fully disappear. I let out a light gasp but Wiz Frame was so engrossed that he didn't even notice. I wandered over behind him while he continued to have all his focus on trying to scan through the various containers on the wall. I then tapped him on the shoulder.
"What is it,Spike? Spike? Where'd you go? This is not funny!"
"I'm right here, relax."
"WHAT THE?!" I took off the band and Wiz jumped suddenly. I have to admit the look of shock on his face was priceless, but enjoying that frozen image could come later.
"I think all of these are magical artifacts or at least partially built ones."
"How? Spells shouldn't be able to be stored and reactivated the same way mana can be. These gems are probably mana batteries, but that doesn't explain how Princess Twilight imbued instructions into the material for it to use the mana autonomously."
"Less questions. We can worry about that later. Let's test the rest of these projects and see what else can be of use."
"Sorry it's just... my interest in magic study was probably one of the only reasons I made it into the guard."
I handed Wiz the invisibility trinket, and we went through a few more items on the workbench. The sole necklace just sparked and fizzled erratically (good thing I put that on). Another bracelet formed a perfect shield around the wearer. A horn ring made my scales temporarily change to a blue color (safe to say some of these were failed projects), and a gem shaped like an elongated cylinder fired horn blast equivalents. Sorry Twi we may have blasted one of your tables to shreds when we were examining that one.
Before we left the room there was one more thing I felt could be useful given our limited knowledge. The powder was somehow still burning which didn't make sense at all, but based on how warm the room was getting, I was beginning to think this would prove to be advantageous against Timberwolves. As you can imagine they don't like fire. These are the times I love being a dragon. We extinguished the flames and began formulating a plan. Wiz would have the invisibility, and the powder. I would wield the blaster, the shield spell, and my fire. It was decided that Wiz would sprinkle some of the burning compound onto any wolves we passed that couldn't see him, and I would light them up while protected by my full body shield.
Let me just say while I have technically saved the world before, this will be my first official fight. My sister sure wouldn't be happy about the mess, but I'm sure she will be a little more reasonable if we make it out of this in one piece. I shuddered as we reached the top of the stairs and approached the concrete door of the main lab.
"Well it's time. Are you ready for the plan Spike?"
"No."
"Good. Nopony is ever ready for battle because it's not in our nature, but we will prevail! For Equestria!"
"Wait, isn't this supposed to be a surprise attack? Now the wolves on the other side have heard us."
"I'm invisible, remember?"
"Oh that's reassuring."
"Oh shut up I was just trying to make things more dramatic! You know, build a scene, intimidate the enemy, that sort of thing."
"Actually in that case I'll get into character myself. I've been practicing with my Ogres and Oubliettes group. Here's how it really should be done. TODAY WE FIGHT, AND IF WE DIE WE DIE WITH HONOR. FOR EQUESTRIA! RAWWW" I think I surprised myself more than Wiz when I let out a dragon roar, but we only hesitated for a second. On that note while I stood back, Wiz swung the door open. The battle was on!
* Downtown *
ssssssp...
-puuu
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.
.
CRASH!
The entirety of every being in the area looked towards the sound of the fallen cockatrice. The first phase went off even better than expected because of the sound from the creatures’ collapse. The slight pause in the warfare was followed by the squadron of night guards beginning their charge, led by Nightshade and four spiky shafts. As the enemy began switching their focus back to the ponies, some of them spotted the movement of the approaching band and broke off from the main group to start a charge of their own. The Ponyville citizens were reinvigorated with the will to press the advantage and the petrified ponies had been released from stone once the cockatrice was no more. The cockatrice curse doesn't persist through the death of the cockatrice, but if the stone prison is broken the pony inside will pass on.
It was a huge praise that the bow hit its mark, but the enemy didn't stay surprised for long. The second stages of the plan were already going south. With half the army of wolves barreling down on the five of them, continuing the charge seemed futile.
"Take to the sky! Press your aerial advantage against the Timberwolves. Just try and keep distance between yourself and any manticores. Don't engage the Basilisk alone either!"
There was one problem in Nightshade's plan. She was a unicorn. Her combat would be grounded, so she planned on retreating to a position near the injured thestral pony in her squad. "Sorry Captain but we aren't going anywhere! We will fight by your side until the end."
"That was an order!" Keeping up her shield, Nightshade began firing mana blasts at anything and everything headed her direction. They all ended up holding their ground as the first of the wolves were on them. Wood was splintering upon impact from the magic blasts but the charge was not halted and even the work of the three thestrals was only temporarily crushing the wolves that were just as quickly reforming. Claws, and timberwolve maws were slamming the edge of the shield causing it to waiver. Nightshade held strong as she fought to maintain focus of the multiple spells she was working with. "This isn't working! We need to get over to Sugarcube Corner before I lose this shield."
"Basilisk incoming, 2 o'clock!" Nightshade had just long enough to look over to where her team indicated before its tail came down out of the corner of her eye making contact with her shield and shattering it upon impact. Unicorns can be stunned for several minutes and be left with a nasty headache after having a shield broken like that, but Nightshade was trying hard to regain focus. Everything felt slow motion and fuzzy. even her purple hoof in front of her was unclear. She felt herself get lifted off the ground and by the sound of things Full House (the largest of the thestrals) was attempting to get her to a safer spot.
She couldn't really hear the battle sounds, but while her awareness wasn't fully back yet she heard a voice; a menacingly dark and merciless voice. "You ponies are proving to be even more pathetic than I expected. Where's those rainbow powers when you need them hmm? You and your sad party are nothing against the things I can do. If you remember this talk, pass on a message to your Princesses for me: Your strength has been tested and I am disappointed with how poorly you've done against a portion of our own. MUHAHAHHAA! Ah but you can forget the laugh. Do be careful though. I wouldn’t want you to die tonight."
* Canterlot Castle *
Twilight hadn’t been able to sleep after the Princesses left for Ponyville, and she had no doubt the rest of her friends and family were probably in a similar boat. She stayed on the balcony of the chariot dock for a long time after the Sisters flew away. She simply stared at the horizon in the direction of Ponyville waiting for some indication things would be ok. The longer she waited the more uncertain she became that things would be.
She hadn’t received a letter from Spike, hadn’t been notified of any updates by the remaining guard, and was a nervous wreck. In the past when there was a problem she had her friends and they would face the challenge together. Now they were all on standby and were asked to stay behind. I feel hopeless to do anything! Celestia could have trusted us with this but she and her sister went in our place; to our home that we have come to protect with our lives and friendship. As Twilight Sparkle stewed over her thoughts she didn’t hear the sound of somepony approaching from behind her.
“Couldn’t sleep either huh.”
“Ah you scared me Blazing!”
“Yeah I guess we’re all a little on edge tonight…
Look I’m sorry to interrupt you but I saw you all alone and felt called to talk to you; to tell you that things will end up ok. God can make all things no matter how bad work together for his good in the end… even when we don’t see it… We just have to trust that there will be a resolution to all this… that we get to see it real soon.
Ah you know what? I sound like I’m trying to convince myself I guess, I’m sorry.”
Twilight had kept quiet during all of this pondering his words, but she didn’t feel discouraged by the doubt that showed in his voice. “Do you really believe that this God exists?”
“I do, he even made these beautiful stars that Luna has learned to show off. Heh I still feel weird talking and rationalizing how much you guys can do with magic though. It will never seem natural but magic is kind of like faith actually. I don’t understand it, but I have to believe that it does what it’s designed to do and will always function even when we can’t see it.”
“Thanks Blazing the way you think… I mean I feel a bit better. I guess I just feel guilty that I'm not doing anything to help.”
“Well worrying certainly won’t help them either. I think we’re in good hands considering the sisters literally move the planets. Here, maybe this will help.”
Blazing leaned in and hugged Twilight, who now had a large blush that Blazing couldn’t see. While they were still hugging Blazing kept talking to hopefully (in his mind) keep things more natural.
“Somebody once told me that this is one of the best ways to comfort someone who’s worri-.”
“Wait, hold on!” Twilight pulled away from the hug abruptly.
“So-rry if I made you uncomfortable you can forget this happened if-“
“No no no not that. You didn’t make me that uncomfortable. It was a really nice gesture actually, but somepony just entered my lab! They tripped my hidden security spell. No one ever enters my lab but me! What if it was Spike?”
“Twilight?”
“What if they’re in real trouble! I have to help! What if-“
“Twilight! If you're going to go then I am too. Then you can say it was my idea if the Princesses get mad at you for leaving here. First we need to be rational. Ask yourself why somebody or somepony I mean would go into your lab, and then ask what is the best thing we can do about it. Also don’t leave your other friends in the dark about this right? They would want to know.”
“You're right! I was about ready to teleport straight there but we better collect a few things first. Come on!”