“I still don’t like this…” Twilight grumbled irritably as she stalked after Y’shtola. The two were in the middle of Camp Bronze Lake, marching by the Aetheryte. It had been a few days since Twilight regained consciousness, and the time had come at last for the fight to be taken to Titan. Down a flight of stairs from the plaza, a collection of dressed and armed Maelstrom soldiers stood waiting to accompany the Scion.
Y’shtola paused and turned to face Twilight. “I know you don’t. Were you in better condition, I would not hesitate to bring you. But your wound yet lingers, and your spellcraft will want for power given the strain it would place on your body.”
Twilight snorted, swiping her tail from side to side to convey her frustration. “I just… I hate letting you go into danger like this. I promised to help the Scions when we met. It just feels wrong to sit here and soak up the hot spring while you and him run off to fight a mountain god.”
Y’shtola offered Twilight a tender smile, then knelt down to be at the alicorn’s eye level. “I am aware. But you cannot satisfy that oath if you throw your life away. Besides, you need not prove anything to me. You proved your compassion when you helped save those sailors and the sahagin child, and you proved your mettle in battle with both Ifrit and the Empire. Some time spent healing will not make us think less of you. Or me, if that is your concern.”
Twilight pouted at her. She had really been trying to forget that Y’shtola had been so sceptical of her for so long. She let off a tired sigh and turned away. “I know, I know… it’s not about proving something. It’s about being there for my friends,” she said. Her mind briefly wandered back to her friends in Equestria, and again she wondered how they were handling her disappearance.
Y’shtola reached out to ruffle Twilight’s mane, drawing an indignant grunt out of her. “We cannot be everywhere at once, princess,” she said in a soft tone.
The two were quiet for a few seconds, and Twilight managed to give Y’shtola a small smile. “Alright… you just make sure you come back, alive and not tempered. Otherwise, I will ground you.”
Y’shtola’s smile turned into a cocky smirk. “Oh? Brave words from a little pony.”
“I think you’ll find I’m average height,” Twilight shot back without missing a beat. “And someday I’m going to be taller than you, just you wait!”
“Ha.”
Before the two could banter any further, the sound of armoured footsteps drew their attention. Twilight looked past Y’shtola to see a slender miqo’te woman dressed in Maelstrom red approaching. Her garb and hat marked her as an officer. She threw a quick salute. “Scion, we’re ready to move out. Are you prepared?”
Y’shtola nodded. “Aye. I’ll be only a moment.”
The officer gave a sharp nod before turning to return to the assembled troops. Y’shtola turned back to Twilight, her expression hardening. “Duty calls. I shall return ere long, of that you have my word.”
Twilight took a deep breath. She still didn’t like it, but there was nothing else for it. A hoof wandered up to her bandaged chest, and she forced herself to believe that Y’shtola and their friend would be fine. That Titan would fall like Ifrit before him. She pushed her hoof away, letting the breath out, and gave Y’shtola a confident smile. “Alright. Good luck.”
“And you as well. Follow the chirurgeon's instructions. I’ll know if you do not.”
Twilight opened her mouth to make some joking counter, but Y’shtola had already turned and begun walking for the assembled soldiers at a brisk pace. Several were mounted on their chocobos, and before long, Y’shtola joined them on one such bird. A single shout from the commander of the unit was all that was required before the whole troop set off, spurring their mounts to full sprints that took them out of Bronze Lake in a flurry of feathers and kwehs.
Twilight watched her go. The silence that fell in the wake of their absence was heavy and profound, settling on her shoulders like a heavy blanket made of rocks. Her ears drooped. “Be safe…”
And then she was alone once more. Her only company now was the denizens of the camp, more than a few of which were giving her sidelong glances in what they probably assumed was subtlety. A stranger in a strange land, with her few friends in this world off fighting a hulking brute with a penchant for landslides.
‘They will be fine… They will be fine…’
Twilight let out a breath, letting the general ambience of her environment wash over her.
She had to admit, she’d never really taken a moment to appreciate the landscape of La Noscea. Wherever she went, there seemed to be a constant salty smell in the air, the kind you would get during a pleasant beachside visit. Not that many people were paddling into the sea and making sand castles, beyond those frequenting the camp’s myriad spas anyway.
But still, without the pressing business of ascians, imperials or beast tribes, there was a serene beauty about this place. She could see why the Lominsans fought so hard for it, why they chose this place to be their home.
If only they could learn to share a little more, that beauty would be far less fleeting…
The alicorn sighed again, her horn lighting up as her book of spells loyally flew to her side. She flipped it open, examining the tome’s contents halfheartedly. She then gave a glance back at the cabin she’d been holed up in since the incident that had left her bandaged up like an ancient mummy from Somnabula, momentarily considering just trotting back to bed and waiting for news.
But the heavens themselves, perhaps even the Twelve if they truly existed, all knew that she’d just go a ‘little’ crazy confined like that for another minute. No, better she use this time productively!
She was Twilight Sparkle, for Celestia’s sake! If there was one thing she was good at, it was productivity! And books! Fortunately, she happened to have both…
“Okay, if this is how we’re going to play it, let’s get some practice in…” she spoke aloud, turning back to the first spell the book contained, magical light springing forth from the book with far more ease than the first time she had attempted this spell.
As she turned the pages away and let the magic take root, the familiar shape of a cyan carbuncle sprang from the aetheric embers and landed on the cobble with an adorable squeak. Its beady eyes stared up at her expectantly.
“Well, I guess it’s just the two of us for now. Sorry I haven’t summoned you in a while, been busy pretending to be you,” Twilight said to the faux canine. “So, what do you say, want to go practice?”
Carbuncle gave a little hop in place, the happy bounce being a clear enough indicator of agreement. Now they just needed a place to do this with minimal distraction…
Her focus returned to the all-too-many eavesdroppers around camp, being unable to suppress a small groan as she did so. As nice as it was to walk around with her own fur on display, it certainly had its drawbacks—not exactly unexpected drawbacks, but still, hardly the environment for an in-depth study on the theories and practicalities of two worlds’ magics and their joint applications.
She had a thesis to mentally write and she needed her space!
“I’m sure Y’shtola won’t mind me wandering off a little bit, right?” she asked her carbuncle.
The familiar frowned, giving a low whine that gave her all the answer she needed.
“Oh, come on! It won’t be that far! Just down to the beach over there, still perfectly within sight of the camp if anything were to happen! I’m not a foal!”
The next whimper seemed almost doubtful.
“You listen to her way too much,” the pony huffed. “Come on, you’ll see!”
She began to trot away without giving her creation another moment to protest, the carbuncle nervously watching her go before rolling its eyes and waddling off after its master.
The Wanderer’s Palace was a fascinating structure for Twilight to behold as she practised her spells. The water of the beach rose up to her fetlocks, the stones of various ancient roadways poking up from the salty surface at semi-regular intervals. The alicorn and her familiar had managed to find a particularly wide tree on the beach, its leaves having long since fallen away and its trunk waterlogged. All the same, it made for an excellent training dummy.
Twilight furrowed her brow with concentration as she unleashed another cast of Ruin. The spherical ball of energy smashed into the bark of the tree, blasting a hole in the trunk and sending shards of wood and soggy sawdust scattering into the shallow water. Twilight let off a breath she had been holding in, then winced at a small sting in her breast from the exertion of the cast.
“Alright… I think I have that spell about as good as I can get it,” she mumbled, flipping through her book to search for something she had less practice with. There were several spells she could cast through her carbuncle that would change its aspect from one element to another, but she wasn’t sure she could pull those off just yet. There was a version of Ruin called ’outburst’ that affected a wider area but was weaker pound-for-pound.
She still wasn’t keen on causing harm, though. Ideally, she would be keeping her friends and allies safe from harm on the battlefield. So maybe… Her eyes scanned the next page until she caught sight of an illustration of a humanoid form surrounded by a series of glowing hexagons. The label marked the spell as ‘Radiant Aegis.’
That sounded promising. Reading over the description, Twilight smiled. The spell would be channelled through her carbuncle, but the end result would be a powerful barrier that could absorb incoming attacks.
“Alright! A barrier spell!” she cheered, her wings giving a quick flap. Excited, she quickly read over the geometric patterns and the incantation required to invoke the spell. It only took her mind a moment to get it down, and so all that was left was to attempt to cast it.
Closing her eyes, she focused. She could feel the tether between her and her carbuncle thrumming with energy, and her muscles tensed in response to the flow of aether. The patterns formed in her mind, triangles and polyhedrons and blocks and other patterns for which no proper name existed. They interlocked in her mind like a jigsaw puzzle, and after only a handful of seconds, formed a perfect image.
The tether flared, and Twilight heard the swirl of magic from her carbuncle before she saw it. She opened her eyes just in time to see it leap into the air, flipping in place, before the red patch on its forehead burst with brilliant light. In the same instant, a series of hexagons made of pure light rose in a perfect sphere around Twilight, the air filled with a sound like shattering glass played in reverse. The sphere solidified, pulsed, and then faded into invisibility. The only sign that it was there to Twilight’s eyes was a faint distortion in the air around her, following the contours of the various hexagons.
She could, however, certainly feel it. It was flimsy, and she doubted it could do much more than deflect a single bullet, but given her experience so far the act of blocking one bullet might be all she would need.
She held her breath for a moment, concentrating on holding the spell in place, then let it out and released the barrier. It crumbled around her with a faint shimmer. The moment it was gone, a sudden rush of tiredness came over her, and Twilight fell to her haunches with a grunt. The pain in her chest flared, and she winced involuntarily.
Her Carbuncle was quick to bound up to her, rubbing against her side with a concerned squeaking noise. Twilight smiled at it and gave it a pet. “Heh. I’m alright. I just need to practice that spell a little more, that’s all. Not used to it yet.”
The Carbuncle purred softly and shoved its nose into her hoof, demanding pets. Twilight rolled her eyes and obliged, scratching her creation behind the ears while she caught her breath.
She sat there in silence for a moment before looking off at the Wanderer’s Palace again. She had yet to really get a proper education on the people of Nym. Y’shtola had only mentioned that they had existed in the previous Astral Era before being eradicated in the same floods that marked the Sixth Umbral Calamity.
She would have to do some more research into them. Maybe there was a local expert on the subject back in camp? She could look around after she was done practising.
Her eyes wandered, taking in the distant shore. Soon enough, her eyes fell on a cliff that overlooked the water of the lake not far from where she was. It was marked with trees, but what caught her attention was…
Twilight sprang to her hooves as a rush of adrenaline flooded her veins. A humanoid figure stood on that cliff-side, clad in the familiar dark robes of the Ascians. He was staring down at her from behind a familiar black mask, arms crossed.
Twilight took a step back, her heart pounding in her chest. It was him. It had to be. The Ascian that had stolen her Element!
In a flash, she lifted her book and re-cast the Aegis, forming the patterns in a fraction of a second. The barrier formed around her as she braced for the dark-robed man to approach. But nothing of the sort happened. He simply stared down at her. Studying her.
Twilight felt torn. This was the man responsible for everything bad that had happened to her since she had arrived in Eorzea. If he was here, then this was her best chance of getting her Element back. But at the same time…
The sting in her chest flared up from the exertion of her spell, reminding her that she was not fit to fight. She took a hesitant step back, never taking her eyes off him. His gaze then shifted past her to the towering peak of O’ghomoro. She followed his gaze, and her heart dropped. That was where Y’shtola was heading.
She turned back to the Ascian just in time to see the shadows gathering to whisk him away.
“Wait! Come back!” Twilight shouted, turning her tome forward and loosing a Ruin spell toward him. Unfortunately, he was faster and vanished into the aether long before the spell could reach him. Twilight’s Aegis shattered from the exertion, and she staggered back, gasping for breath with a hoof flying up to her chest.
Intellectually, she knew she needed to return to camp and see the chirurgeons. She was getting dangerously close to re-opening her old wound. But emotionally, she was in a panic. The Ascian must have been going after Y’shtola, who would have no idea.
“I have to warn her,” Twilight growled, putting her book away and breaking into a mad gallop down the path she knew the chocobos had taken. She might not have had the long legs the horse-birds did, but she could make up for it by having more legs.
So she ran. And she ran. And she ran some more. In the end, it was instinct that drove her more than anything, and even as her wound burned and bled once more she didn’t stop for anything. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Thirty. Almost an hour to where she believed the troops had been heading.
And somehow, in the mix of it all, her Carbuncle loyally kept pace. Maybe it didn’t even get tired at all, but that observation barely made it to the surface even as it yipped in constant alarm at its master’s mad rush away from the safety of the camp.
No small part of her knew this was a stupid move. She should’ve taken the time to get backup, to tell someone. But in the moment she had acted, and now she could do little more than keep going. If she could just reach Y’shtola then all would be fine… It would. Together they would make it. But if that monster got her all alone…
What was he planning? Why was he here now? So many questions and still infuriatingly few answers. But he was here, just a little further and-
“ACK!”
She stopped in her tracks as something made a jump at her. Thanks to her speed, though, she lost balance as she skidded to a halt and tumbled into the dirt. Whatever made a go at her sailed clear overhead with a frustrated growl.
Twilight groaned in a daze, vaguely hearing her carbuncle yelping in surprise as it rushed to her side. She stirred, her wound absolutely searing with pain as she forced herself to rise once more. She cast her eyes about, studying her surroundings and looking for her assailant.
She was so close to where the Y’shtola and the others were supposed to be going. An aetheryte employed by the Kobolds to move swiftly to and from the surface. Up ahead along the dirt road was a series of rocky trenches she’d heard mentioned by both Y’shtola and myriad soldiers and adventurers going along with this endeavour. Her friend was in there… But what had…?
She turned her attention from her up-and-coming destination to see what had attempted to snap her head off. Her blood went cold at what she saw.
It was the blood-coloured carbuncle, the same one that had attacked her and Y’shtola alongside the imperials back in Thanalan. It circled Twilight and her own familiar with a ravenous, hungry fury, and Twilight became vividly aware of its razor-sharp fangs. And its eyes… there was no pity to be found there, no compassion or mercy. It took but a glance to know that this creature was little more than a rabid beast, and she was its prey…
Twilight’s own carbuncle growled back, but she couldn’t hope but notice and even feel the twinge of fear that shivered down its form.
And with the memory of their last encounter still as fresh as the physical wound she bore, she immediately started searching for the creator of this abomination.
She found her.
Or, rather, she found Twilight.
From behind a cluster of nearby rocks stepped a miqo’te, one with red braided hair and hateful blue eyes that glared at Twilight just as hungrily as the crimson carbuncle. Her armour was imperial, there was no doubt, with a resemblance to that commander she had… dealt with previously, but stripped down, lighter. A tome not unlike Twilight’s own was strapped to her side. The woman stopped a short distance behind her familiar and struck a casual pose as she regarded the alicorn.
“Well, it’s about bleeding time,” the imperial scoffed. “And really bleeding at that. Didn’t the harpy tell you to take care of yourself? I suppose that ascian was too much bait for a rabid bitch such as you to resist, huh? Well, you have been giving my masters a bit of trouble, so I think it’s time you were brought to heel.”
Twilight winced at her choice of words.
“And… who are you exactly?” the alicorn asked the miqo’te. “You know the ascian?”
“Mostly by reputation. They have a whole archive in Sharlayan dedicated to telling everyone how little we know about them. But they’ve proven useful to the service of Garlemald. Lahabrea, and Scarmiglione—their names, if you didn’t already know.”
“...I’ll take the information.” Lahabrea… The Overlord who tangled with their warrior friend in Gridania. Still, wouldn’t hurt to get a little more information while her lips were loose. “Which is which?”
She cackled at that. “And you call yourself an arcanist? You flail so cluelessly… Scarmiglione would be the one who wants your pretty head, though he doesn’t seem to care if it’s still attached. So, if you want to repay my kindhearted gift of information, you’d come along quietly. I think Lord Nero would be quite thrilled to study you face-to-face.”
“I think I’m good…” Twilight answered, her horn lighting up as she slowly slipped her tome from its bindings. Her eyes darted around, the miqo’te was right in her path and she was in no position to put up a heavy fight… “My name is Twilight Sparkle, by the way. Might I have yours?”
“Hmph. Y’sanna rem Extorris, Primus pilus of the XIVth Imperial Legion under Legatus Gaius van Baelsar. Former scholar of Sharlayan, a graduate of the Studium, and really quite clever overall. I would rethink your refusal. I won’t ask again.”
“Sharlayan? Like Y’shtola?”
Twilight knew that was a mistake the moment she saw Y’sanna’s eye twitch, her tome flying into her waiting grasp faster than she could track as a powerful gust of pure magical energies pushed Twilight and her carbuncle back several feet.
“I am NOTHING like her!” she bellowed, already preparing her next spell. “And unlike her, I have a future. And that future is the Empire.”
“But… why!? Why would you help the Empire? You don’t need to do this, I’m no danger to you. We don’t need to fight, I’m sure we could-”
“No, we can’t,” Y’sanna cut her off immediately. “Eorzea is a doomed realm, as are all others that oppose the Empire. Garlemald is an inevitability, and only by siding with them can we hope to see lasting peace. So I am this land’s hope, not you, not the harpy, and certainly not that adventurer you’ve got at your beck and call.”
The magic from her tome intensified, the crimson carbuncle tensing to the moment of action alongside Twilight’s eyes. The alicorn’s mind began to race, glancing over her recently learned list of spells for the perfect one…
“I will enjoy every morsel of knowledge we shall pry from your mind. I will become what no Archon could ever even dream, and then this land will beg me to save it. So thank you, Twilight Sparkle… for giving me all I desire!”
She released the spell she was holding, the rabid carbuncle thrashing forward with its fangs gnashing and biting toward the alicorn, and at that moment all became crimson.