//------------------------------// // 25 - The Mares, the Pedestal, and the Astrolabe // Story: Evergreen Falls // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Junebug - 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH Divine Forgeheart - Limited Perfection June felt in her heart that the elevator was about to reach the bottom of the shaft. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew. She braced herself for the inevitable horrors lurking within the depths of the nightmarish palace, squared up her hooves, made sure her axe was ready, and stared straight ahead. What if there’s poison gas? Or mummy rot? Or a big pile of moldy sludge that’s a breeding ground for Manetezuma’s Revenge? June thought out of the blue, then quickly fetched the gas mask she’d packed into her saddle bag and began to slip it on. “Oh buck,” Sam said as she noticed June donning her mask and began to put on her own. “I forgot we brought those. Shoulda wore them in the sluice canal.” Trixie looked over her shoulder at the two mares buckling on their last-gen air hoses and oxygen canister masks and flinched. “Oh, yeah…” She muttered, putting her own on hastily. The elevator jolted slightly as the front wall of the shaft opened up just as the three finished tightening their masks’ straps. The elevator began to slow, then popped free of its shaft. The three mares yelped, opening their wings as they instinctively went to fly to avoid falling, only to swifty realize the elevator’s mechanical clicks and hums were illusions. It wasn’t actually mechanical. The car descended slowly and smoothly through thin air without a detectable hint of magic. As if physics itself had been politely asked to handle the elevator, and had agreed just because it was glad somebody had asked for once. The shock faded quickly as the three were immediately blinded by bright rays of light. It took them several seconds of blinking for their eyes to adjust from the dim palace lit by the light of their headlamps and lanterns, to what looked and felt like a bright sunny day on the surface. June craned her neck, searching for the source of the sun-like light. Her eyes widened as she saw the cavern ceiling. “L—Look!” June stammered, pointing up. The others turned to look, shocked to see the cavern’s roof had been painted sky blue, but more interested in a series of artificial clouds as well as a huge disk of bronze that hung suspended in the air, shining like the sun on one side, and painted like the moon on the other side. Tiny crystals floated near the ceiling as well, painted blue on one side, and left shiny and reflective on the other so they could flip around to imitate stars. “I want one…” Trixie murmured, her quiet statement almost lost to her gas mask. Sam’s ears twitched. “I hear a waterfall,” she commented, bending her neck to look over the car’s side and down into an atrium. The cavern had been squared off, with the lower third flattened and polished into four walls. They were covered in plaster and stucco to make a nice, pleasant, white wall, capped with orange clay tiles to form a false roof that met the domed section of the cavern ‘skybox’ to give the illusion of a large Romane villa. The walls were decorated with frescos, and studded with large bay windows where one would expect them to be. Trellises of ivy ran up the walls in a decorative manner, and every window had a thriving flower box. There was even dark wooden trim where one would expect trim. The overall impression the facade gave was that somepony had taken extreme care to build a warm, inviting, albeit large, home. A mansion in size, but not decor or expense. Only it wasn’t a building. It was all carefully carved, painted, and finished stone. The atrium itself took the form of a large garden. With two small artificial rivers flowing through it to create quadrants with a large round river-rock cobbled plaza in the atrium’s center. The rivers were fed by aqueducts set into the third story walls on two of the manor’s sides to create artificial waterfalls. The water features were backed with quartz to make them sparkle and shine, but the river beds themselves were quarried stone. Just like any middle class family’s backyard fancy pool would be, only bigger. The four quadrants of the garden were mirrors of one another, each home to many large trees of several species, lined with flower banks, hedges, and open grassy lawns furnished with finely crafted cedar lawn furniture arranged around a common feature. One quadrant had a barbeque pit, another a small stage just big enough for a half dozen people to put on a small play or make a speech, another a small area for some sort of sport, and the last had a blanket set out as if somepony had planned a picnic but never gotten around to it. “How the heck are the plants not overgr—” June began stopping as she spotted a small number of small flying brass and crystal constructs floating around the plants. They were pruning, weeding, trimming, mowing, and planting. Simply tending to the garden as it needed when it needed. “Did we teleport to a Canterlot suburb?” Sam asked just before the car came to a stop on a simple red granite dais at the center of the atrium. “Sure feels like it,” June agreed. Trixie took a glow stick and threw it at the plaza to check for traps. The three waited for a moment to see if the entire place would dissolve as an illusion and unleash terrors unknown to ponykind upon them. One of the construct’s floated over to the glowstick, picked it up, then returned it to Trixie and said something in a mechanical voice. “Uh,” Trixie said, her eyes flicking to June nervously. June stared at the construct for a full second before translating. “It said: Please dispose of all trash in designated receptacles.” Trixie took the glow stick back and looked around the plaza, noticing that somepony had installed tasteful wrought iron wicker trash cans roughly every thirty steps in any given direction. “Okay… Um, looks like our wizard friend was very anal retentive about garbage.” “This is a themepark arrangement,” June noted. “Cans everywhere. Tended gardens. Elaborate entrance. Fake buildings and sky… Are… Are we in the right place?” Sam shrugged her wings. “Good question. Trixie, you have the map and notes, right?” “Yeah,” Trixie said, starting to dig into her bag. “Let me just…” The other mares waited, refusing to step off the elevator platform until they had answers. Trixie found the papers she was looking for and levitated them out infront of her in a cork board arrangement to take a quick look for anything helpful. Her eyes scanned the many pages while her brow furrowed. “Uh, girls?” Trixie said, slowly shaking her head. “It’s… It’s just like this. The map shows it. The fragments of the exposition log Safety Lock collected say Grape’s team passed through a ‘park area’ on the way… This is just how it always is.” “Huh,” Sam said, frowning slightly. “Any sign of danger?” June bit her lip gently. I suppose… I mean a wizard did live here. There’s the old saying you don’t trap your home while you’re there. But magic lets you set triggers that don’t bother you. Trixie shook her head again. “No. Just says the entrance to the workshop is on the west side of the park.” Sam shrugged her wings to check the compass on her bag. “Then… Let’s head that way. Carefully. I’ll take the rear, Trixie, you’re on point.” The three arranged themselves and trotted across the plaza, over a simple rustic cedar bridge to cross the river, then down a lovely path made from slate paving stones and lined with carefully arranged flower beds full of lavender, green carnations, and yellow pansies, complete with the occasional rustic iron and timber park bench. June’s eyes darted around the atrium with each step, searching the shadows for any sign of a monster, trap, or monster-releasing trap. Where the buck is the problem? She demanded as she found nothing but yet more of the kind of yard every dad in the neighborhood was jealous of. “I like this,” Sam commented, her wings twitching. “Which I don’t like…” “Right?” June agreed. “Think the paths transmute into lava if we step on the wrong rock?” “Maybe it’s just a nice yard?” Trixie proposed. “Don’t the legends say Medeis, like, lived down here?” “Yes,” June agreed. “But this is a house accessed through a hidden elevator beneath the blood tyrant throne of a monster infested alicorn factory!” Sam nodded in agreement. “Exactly! There’s every implication that Medeis is the Crimson King that letter was talking about.” June stopped walking for a moment, frowning as she did her best to puzzle that idea out. What can I remember about the First Kingdom? Not much. And some of it is wrong. They certainly didn’t mostly use harmony magic. I do remember plenty of documents saying their king would meet with the Archmage… No name given for the Archmage, but it’s always been believed to have been Medeis… Sam sighed and shrugged. “Well, there’s no proof either way. But it does seem like a Batmane setup, doesn't it? I mean, nopony ever saw the two together.” “No fire pole,” Trixie said dismissively. “That hasn’t been a thing for like, thirty years,” June nerd-griped. “Focus,” Sam ordered. “We’re almost at the wall.” June turned her attention to the wall, or rather door. The pathway ended at a smooth granite porch leading up to a large pair of walnut double doors with polished bronze hardware. The doors were elaborately embellished with an arched top, eight panels featuring bronze-leafed frescoes depicting, as near as June could tell, some of what would likely be Medeis’ great accomplishments of magery. In the first fresco, amid a cosmic display of energy and light, Medeis soared gracefully, his wings wide, a magnificent figure poised in front of a burst of light brimming with newborn stars. The second fresco depicted as Medeis whimsically extending a hoof, offering a steaming cup of liquid squeezed from roasted beans to a mesmerized crowd. Stretching across the third fresco, Medeis stood majestically beside a towering tree, its roots delving deep into the earth, while its branches reached toward the heavens. In the fourth fresco, countless scrolls and sparkling spells wove together, forming a tapestry of enchantments as Medeis wove them together from nothingness. The fifth showed Medeis in a moment of mystical transcendence, his horn aglow with ancient magic while standing over what June could only think of as a great machine. The sixth was literally just a parade, and really didn’t seem to fit in with any sort of grand accomplishments, though June suspected it was a march of solidarity, given all of its members were posed in exactly the same powerful but non-millistaristic march. Medeis stood at the center of the seventh fresco, illuminating the path to civilization's rebirth in a ruined world. Then, in the final fresco, Medeis spread his wings across a vast expanse filled with circles, each named with a rune. His wings touched each circle, transcending their boundaries. That’s depicting creating a spell… That’s planting a huge tree… That’s… Stopping an explosion? That one is… Some kind of parade? No idea what the others are meant to be… Unless, wait… Is that one depicting the invention of coffee? We have no idea who invented coffee. Medeis could totally be the dude who invented the brown potion of wake. Maybe he’s an alright guy and this is just a weirdly located house. “Are those carvings important in any way?” Sam asked. “Culturally, absolutely. As warnings? No. But I think that one is claiming that Medeis invented coffee.” Trixie hissed irritably. “Gross…” How can anyone older than 13 hate coffee? June frowned for a moment then facehooved. “Right. Caffeine is an insecticide.” “Yep,” Trixie grunted, lighting her horn to check the door for magic. “If this is the coffee stallion, well, then he gets all of my respect. Assuming his house isn’t trapped to tartarus and back,” Sam said, wincing as she put a little too much weight on her crystal leg. “It’s locked,” Trixie commented, nodding to the door. “Also, there’s hidden runes on the door trim. Should I reveal them?” “Yes,” Sam ordered. Trixie focused her magic, guiding energy into the invisible runes. As her magic washed over them they shimmered into existence as bright blue glowing lines. Sam and Trixie gestured to June in unison, unnecessarily prompting her to get to work reading them. June hummed, puzzling over them for a moment. “Of course it’s a riddle… Let me write it down.” “Of course it’s a riddle. The bastard encodes safety warning labels as sonnets using ciphertext,” Sam grumbled to herself as June retrieved a notebook and pen and jotted down the runes to translate them. June spent a few minutes translating then another two puzzling over the riddle as a whole. In a realm where secrets coil and wind, A portal's puzzle, a riddle to mind. With symbols cryptic, and a twist unseen, Unlock the path to the wizard's serene. Seek not keys or codes in vain, No arcane spells to break this chain. Yet wisdom's key lies not afar, To enter the haven, know who you are. Once your mind's journey has begun, Move forward, seeker, with the rising sun. June cleared her throat to focus. “Okay… Um… I think I can solve this, you girls want to help though?” Sam sighed and shook her head. “I’m crap at riddles.” “I’m not,” Trixie said as she moved to stand alongside June so she could read. June focused on the first stanza. That’s clearly just a “yo, to get through this” statement… So the second one, clear statement about there not being a key or spell… Implication that you need inner peace to open it. Third stanza… Paths. The garden walkways. Were there stars at the corners? I don’t think so. What else could be called a— June’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Wait. Mind’s journey. It’s not talking about a physical path at all.” Trixe nodded, frowning slightly. “Yeah… I think we need to be feeling some particular emotion to open the door, maybe?” Sam trotted over and took a peek at the poem, flinching at how complicated it appeared to be to a pony with no real taste for riddles. June’s brow furrowed in thought. If it’s not a physical path… with the rising sun, that’s east. Why include a physical direction? If it’s all mental… Wait. Wait it’s not! There’s only one physical instruction. Clear instruction to move forward with the rising sun… The sun rises to the east. So to go with it would be ‘go west’. This door is to the west. I swear to Cadence, if the answer is what I think it is... June trotted up to the door and pushed on the handles. It swung inwards opening with a soft creak and rasp of oiled bronze. “Oh. My. Celestia…” June groaned, facehoofing. “What did you do?” Sam asked, looking at the open door in awe. Trixie’s ears flicked back. “For buck’s sake! The door’s enchanted to look locked but its open.” “Yeeeeeep…” June grumbled. “So… So the riddle is just to keep eggheads out?” Sam asked, smirking and holding in a genuine laugh. “The answer was ‘think dumber’? He made coffee and then did this. I wish he wasn’t dead. I think I’d like to get a beer with him.” June shook her head slowly and glanced into the now open door. There was no hallway, instead the doors opened up into a large open space similar in design to an airship hangar. The roof stretched up far beyond what the atrium’s facade suggested, providing space for towering arcane machines to rest amongst the great iron trusses and hoists lining the roof. Large crystal lamps shone down from the ceiling, providing a nice, warm, pleasant and even light. Lines of different colored paint on the smooth polished granite floor led into the workshop, each labeled with things like, Enchanting, Woodworking, Stone Carving, Metalworking, Spellcrafting, Temporal Mechanics, Carpentry, Jewelry, Candlemaking, Armorsmithy, Weaponysmithy, Wizard Nonsense, Pan Dimensional Artifacts, Muffin Button, and other similar tradecrafts. From the doorway, June could see the workshop was grouped into zones by tools, like somepony had taken a bunch of small workshops and put them all under one roof. “The buck?” Trixie said, taking a step back from the entrance. “What?” Sam and June asked as one, nervously glancing around them. “It’s… It’s just a modern workshop. Like… You know how you can find short videos on the internet of people doing cool things? This is what rich ponies who make things do! Just, get a big box building, fill it with work stations…” Trixie took a deep breath and shook her head. “June, this is like finding a working arcade machine in a buried village deep in the Everfree.” June rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, it’s not like nopony at all prior to 987 could have thought to put all of their tools and workbenches in one—” June’s mind shifted without a clutch as she spotted part of the Woodworking section. “Never the buck mind! He’s got a tablesaw.” “What?” Sam asked, stepping forward to take a look for herself. “That is a table saw… And a drill press. Bandsaw…” June’s eyes ran over the workspace, taking note of the tools Sam mentioned, as well as a somewhat familiar shade of blue power tools laying neatly atop a workbench. “Okay, so Medeis worked out time travel before Starswirl,” June noted to herself, outloud, trying to process everything. “And instead of world domination, used it to shop at Highs Hardware and pick up a set of motherbucking Marewaukee power tools!” A stallion’s voice called from some distant place in the shop, just barely reaching the three at the door. “Rye O’bii green would have clashed with my benchtop tools, and that's just unacceptable.” The three froze in terror, not daring to move so much as a muscle or make even a peep. They glanced sideways at one another through their masks' goggles, searching for any hint of what to do. Sam will just have us run, right? We’re not going to risk fighting an immortal wizard, right? Is that even what this is? June pleaded with herself until a terrifying memory of one particular history 604 lecture bubbled up from the depths of her brain. Oh no! Nonononono, please don’t be one of those living spellbooks! “If you said anything witty, I’m way in the back. You’ll have to speak up,” the voice called again. “O— Oh. Um, okay!” Sam called out. “Are you the Archmage Medeis? We’re just trying to return your astrolabe. Please don’t kill us!” June squeaked. “Oh. He’s speaking Equish… How—” “That’s me,” Medeis called from the distant depths of his workshop. “You’re not in any danger. It’s okay. Are you with that one stallion who dropped by a while ago?” “No!” June shouted instantly. “We’re not with Grape Vine! We’re here to unbuck what he did. Where do we put the astrolabe? Actually, can you just come take it please? Also, how the heck did this get stolen if you’re alive?!” Sam blinked, a look crossed her face. “Hey, good question, that.” “Alive isn’t the same as able bodied and capable of moving,” Medeis called back. “I’m near the pedestal. Just follow the sound of my voice.” June flinched at his answer. Oh… I hope he’s not been paralyzed this whole time… I know some wizards can sustain themselves on magic, and he’d be an alicorn, right? So he’d be immortal… That would suck so bad! June looked to Sam and Trixie, nervously lashing her tail. “Do… Do we just, go for it?” Sam took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. We’ve gone this far. Lost a lot. We need to seal that thing away. Three lives for one town is a bargain, and Evergreen Falls is more than a town.” “Yeah, it’s home,” June agreed, taking her own deep breath since they seemed to help Sam gather courage. “I meant it’s an invaluable research community worth billions, but yes. Also that,” Trixie agreed then started to walk into the workshop. “Okay! We’re coming in.” June followed along behind Trixie, with Sam nervously taking up the rear. “Great!” The archmage called happily. “Let's trade questions, shall we? Can any of you push buttons?” “Um, yes? Why?” Sam shouted nervously. “I built a machine filled with a zinc-heavy fluid, so magic doesn't get in or out. It was a stupid oversight and I would very much like it if somepony would please turn it on so I can stop being stuck in here,” Medeis answered. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my workshop, but only when I can use— Hold up. I can hear one of you limping. Please tell me the Crimson’s King’s guard dogs didn’t survive the millenia and bit one of you. Their bite is chock full of a whole charcuterie board of necrotizing bacteria.” Sam flinched. “Oh… Um, was anypony bit?” “My armor stopped it,” June said slowly then put a hoof up to call out to the distant wizard. “I cut one open and got uh, covered… Should I do anything?” “Take a bath,” came the reply. “How do you know Equish?” Sam demanded. “This is creeping me the buck out! I can accept an ancient wizard being alive, especially if they can time travel, but—” “First of all,” Medeis interrupted. “Time travel could explain everything about this situation entirely. But second: I didn’t mean the group of possessed hooligans who broke in and stole something I’d have lent them if they’d asked. I meant the stallion who was down here after them. He came in, found the teleport grid, decided Control Center was a something worth—” The three mares stopped dead. “W— What teleport network?” June said, a deep sense of dread, confusion, and anger building up within her heart. “You know… The Metropolitan Teleportation Array. For public transit. Don’t you have those?” “Safety Lock was a unicorn… He just sensed that spell…,” Sam said slowly then turned to glare at Trixie. “How the buck, did you miss, a Luna damned teleport spell, that’s city wide!?” Trixie shank back. “I— I don’t know how to teleport! And there are thousands of overlapping workings up there! I had no idea we could just teleport right to where we wanted to go!” “Girls!” June snapped. “We’ve been down here for maybe an hour. I’m the expert on these kind of things, and I didn’t even think for an instant that anything like that would exist! Just be happy we can teleport out of this hellhole!” “By the gods! You walked down here? I hope most of their experiments died. Those toxic bugs were the worst,” Medeis commented. “They did not!” June yelled across the workshop, some of her anger at missing magical public transit spilling out. “We had to fight through them! My sister fell off the bridge into the abyss! Buck… Vi… I hope you’re okay…” It’s not our fault we missed the teleport. We couldn’t have known. Safety just got lucky… Or knew how to teleport and sensed the grid… Probably that one. Still, buck me, all of this could have been avoided! “I see… Assuming erosion, there’s a chance she fell down into a set of even older ruins. Regardless, I’ll happily help you find her if you get me out of here. I’ll even happily disintegrate the murder flies. Seriously, please. I just need somepony to push a button and that guy ran off to ‘get help’ for me, entirely ignoring everything I had to say… Which was worse than the thieves ignoring me entirely, if I’m being honest.” June nodded slightly, her ears having pinpointed where the voice was coming from now. “He’s over there,” she said, pointing towards a corner of the workshop hidden by a series of large cabinets. June traced her eyes along the floor labels. He’s in the Wizard Nonsense section… I don’t like what that implies. The others nodded and began to quick-trot towards the not-that-distant voice. Rounding the bank of cabinets they could see into the Wizard Nonsense workshop. It looked for all the world like somepony had gone to a thousand thrift shops, taken only the strangest item from each one, then repeated this process until they had made a full inventory of Equestria’s entire second hoof store supply of bizarre oddities, then dumped them haphazardly on a series of benches, in crates, on shelves, in cabinets, and even small piles on the floor of some random handymare’s garage. The only exceptions to the island of pure DIY chaos within the neat and orderly workshop were a fairly ornate pedestal which had part of its bronze casing removed to reveal a mysteriously complicated apparatus within which ticked and whirred while shimmering with concerning colors of arcane light, and a large tube-tank like the ones in the factory above, but hooked up to a tall server-rack-like apparatus with a single button on it. The pedestal was topped with a single standard AA size mana gem, clearly placed there some time after the glass case atop the pedestal had been smashed. Nopony cared about the pedestal for the moment. Floating within the tank’s bubbling green fluid was a single brain, still attached to a long slender alicorn’s horn via a bundle of nerves. “Ah! There you are. Slightly out of frame… I don’t know what possessed me to put a go-pro on this instead of a proper scrying talisman,” Medeis said, his voice emanating from the machine attached to the tank. “Would you mind pressing the button on the centermost console within the rack? The big silver one marked with the rune of empowerment?” “Uhhhhhh,” Sam said slowly, backing up slightly. “Y— You’ve spoken to me before! This is a trap, somehow!” “What?” June asked as it hit her. This is exactly what she saw in her dream after touching the astrolabe! “I honestly have never seen you before in my life,” Medeis said, sounding genuinely confused. “And don’t you think if I could set a trap from here I’d have found a way to push the button over the course of twelve thousand six hundred and seventy three years?” Sam started to take a step back. “This could all be an illusion—”  “To what end?!” Medeis sputtered. “If I wanted you dead, you would be. I buried this entire city in half a mile of lava. With your Harmonic implant, I couldn’t hurt you, even if I wanted to…” The wizard trailed off, sighed then asked. “You, trans flag mare. Could you please jump up and bat my tank so somepony can facehoof for me?” “Uh.” June said unintelligently. Sam’s spike of terror began to fade slightly. “Look, I’ve seen you before. I touched your astrolabe, saw you as you are now, brain in a jar and all, and was told by… Okay well the voice was different, but—” “Oh! That little shit,” Medeis half laughed half growled. “Ma’am. The Astrolabe is a construct. It needed to be in order to function as I wished it too. I instructed it to use my appearance when talking to people, and it would seem it knew I’ve been reduced to this and like the little gremlin it is, edited its appearance parameters. Regardless of its shenanigans, why aren’t you using your gem’s truth zone, if you doubt me?” Sam blinked. “It can do that?” Trixie frowned. “I mean, it did make your whole leg grow back.” The mission came back to June’s mind. “Hey hold on, we’re wasting time.” June said as she dug the astrolabe out of her bag. “We can decide to help him after we put this back and stop that thing from breaking out.” Sam looked over, nodded then turned back to the brain in a jar. “You’ve got that. I think I deserve to know what this thing is and what it does!” June found the astrolabe and took it from her bag. Sensing its proximity to its pedestal, the device created a blue arrow on its face and pointed to the pedestal. Okay June, just put it on top, then we can deal with this madness. The open panel on the pedestal caught June’s eye. “Wait, um, why is that open? Is it broken? Did somepony break it?” “No. It’s fine. I opened it to charge some tools. I use the sealed creature as a battery.” Sam sputtered. “You… You’re keeping a reality warping shadow in a box, as a battery?!” “That’s incredibly irresponsible!” June agreed, glaring at the tank. June took a step away from the glass chamber, then reached out with her wing tip and dusted away the broken glass and rolled the mana gem from the top of the pedestal, then set the astrolabe atop its resting place. The arrow vanished, replaced by a simple blue rune sequence reading [Charging…] “Well, this particular one just refuses to die no matter what you do to it. Can’t banish it out of the universe either. Been here since I first stabilized the place… Its existence is fact now,” Medeis commented idly. “Besides, it’s just the last fragment of a loser doomed to be defeated over and over. Happens to have a lot of power despite that. So why not use it as a battery? It’s not like I don’t share. I set the astrolabe up to use natural portals between universes to siphon off some of its power every so often and use it to do one random act of kindness for someone somewhere. It’s great! Pisses the loser off in a way I’m sure whoever first defeated it would be pleased with.” Sam blinked several times. “Doomed to be defeated?” “Yes. Something way more powerful than me cursed it. It can’t be destroyed, it can’t be banished. It just… flails. Like the shattered remnants of a mind that it is. Trying to become powerful and feared again. It could. For a time. But it would lose. Besides, with that gizmo on its pedestal, its powers are consistently drained and then used. It’s got less magic than a newborn foal… When everything’s working.” June sighed in relief. “Okay… Then with the astrolabe back on there, its power is being given to ponies at random and it can stop escaping?” “Depends on a number of factors. What’s it showing?” Medeis asked, then cleared his non-existent throat. “Orange pony, do you mean to tell me that you got a full Harmony implant, central gem and all supporting stones, without knowing what they do or how to use them?” “Aliens did it when I was a foal,” Sam said, giving Trixie the side eye. “And nopony believes it was aliens… Not even my marefriend. Or June. Who’se bucking an alien!” June cleared her throat. “It says ‘Charging…’. Is that normal?” “Yes, let me know when it says ‘Containment reestablished’.” The archmage asked, resuming his plea for help from “With that out of the way… What do you mean someone put one of those gems in a foal?! Gods, damn it! That kind of petty, pointless evil is why I put an end to whatever you’re calling the kingdom above us…” “First Kingdom,” June commented idly, keeping an eye on the astrolabe’s display. “That’s dumb, it’s nowhere close to when Egypt was a thing,” Medeis grumbled. “Look, orange mare who hasn’t even introduced herself yet—” Sam blushed slightly and cleared her throat. “Sorry. We’ve had a day. I’m Sam, she's Trixie, and that’s June. I’d say nice to meet you, but, well not sure that’s the case. Yet.” June turned to Sam and raised an eyebrow. “Sam, we've been standing here for a few minutes. I think if he could hurt us, he would have by now.” Sam raised her crystal hoof to object, then lowered it. “That’s… A good point.” “Hold on, that’s the crystal’s healing spell running,” Medeis objected as he saw the crystal limb. “How can you… Please explain yourself.” June looked over her shoulder for a moment. “She didn’t do that. I have an axe that Princess Cadence gave me, it told me to touch it to her crystal after she lost her leg to a booby trap and it made her grow that.” “Oh,” Medeis said, sounding oddly remorseful. “That… Was probably one I put in for a certain paranoid loon. Sorry.” Sam took a deep breath. “You’re really not going to kill us?” “No.” “Or do anything else a stallion trapped in a cave for twelve thousand years might do to a mare?” Sam asked with a worried whinny. Medeis sputtered. “What! No!? I’m not— I don’t even like mares!” Everypony looked at his tank with surprise. “Oh… Well, alright then,” Sam said, blushing lightly. “Good thing we’re not stallions. I guess.” “Oh, my, gods,” Medeis moaned. “I’m not a rapist either. This kind of pointless squabbling accusatory— Agh! This is why I just wanted to hide away in my workshop and make some nice furniture for a few decades! Please, Sam, think about a time you were lied to, focus on how much it hurt you, build up some determination to never be lied to again, then push that emotion at the psychic resonator in your chest, and please let me tell you I mean no harm to anyone!” Sam cleared her throat and shyly kicked the floor with one hoof. “Sorry… I’ve had a few bad experiences with that when I set a few people free back in the day.” “Fair enough,” Medeis grumbled. “I promise you’re safe.” June slowly shook her head. This is not how I’d imagine meeting an ancient wizard as a brain in a jar would go… I guess truth is stranger than fiction. Sam frowned, focusing inwards for a moment. The gem in her chest began to glow, the light spilling out from behind her armor at first then shining through it until most of the workspace was shrouded in a pale yellow light. “Huh, okay. I guess it can make a zone of truth,” Sam mused thoughtfully. The light flickered. “Keep focused on that feeling or it will stop working,” Medeis warned. “Now, since you’re definitely not in a generous mood, would somepony try and say my tank is green?” “But, it is green?” June pointed out. “What? It’s… It’s not purple?” Medeis asked, sounding genuinely upset. “No. Green,” Trixie confirmed. “Is that bad?” “It’s fine… I wanted purple,” Medeis grumbled. “The dye I used must have reacted with the— Forget it. Not important. All you need to know is I never got to test this regeneration tank. There wasn’t an opportunity.” Sam’s eyes sparkled. “He’s telling the truth!” “Oh good!” Medeis said, sighing in relief. “Well then, before you lose focus… I don’t intend to hurt anypony. I have no plans for world domination. All I want to do is finish working on that canoe you probably saw coming in, then go fishing in a lake that… probably no longer exists. Okay, so… I might remake a lake if nopony’s living there. If you push that button, which I cannot because this fluid is full of zinc ions and is blocking my magic, it will regenerate my body, and that’s it.” June’s ears perked. “Wait, you mentioned covering the city in lava. That explains the basalt… Did you fall into the lava? Is that how you wound up like this?” Medeis coughed awkwardly. “Uh, no… Before I did that, after discovering the Crimson Dipshit’s goal was to create a pack of Ascended Alicorn mind slaves, each bonded to fundamental aspects of nature who would eternally serve him as gods through which he could rule unopposed forever… Later than everypony else, unfortunately. You’d think I’d be the first to know since he built his city on top of my house, but that was to show dominance to the public, not a friendship or romance thing.” June nodded intently listening to the wizard’s explanation. That’s the old legend, but flipped on its head. And corrected for Celestia and Luna having been built rather than born and trained to be what they are now. Also explains the throne entrance nicely. Medeis continued uninterrupted as the three mares simply wanted the gist of his story as quickly as possible. “The other nations and lesser lords finding out about his plan is what started the war, in case you didn’t know… Long story made short: I tricked the king into ritualy casting a spell which separated all alicorns into one pony for each of their three harmonic magics. Why? It would make using any of their technology and infrastructure impossible. No alicorn magic, see? Instant total collapse of civilization. The hard part was making the King think everypony on his side would be spared.” “W— Wait!” June gasped, unable to prevent herself from interrupting. “The creation of modern ponies wasn’t a natural event? You did it?” “You’re welcome,” the archmage answered with all the reverence and respect of a friend who had just finished some trivial favor. “The trick was simple. The target selectivity he could see in the spell matrix was actually designed to protect myself and a few trusted friends. It worked perfectly! But, I forgot to account for the guard dogs when making sure the King had died… And those bites kill very painfully and quickly. My tank created this shielded brain for me, transferred my soul and consciousness into it, then promptly shut off because the lava I’d conjured via Petra tripped the breakers…” Sam flinched slightly at the mention of tripping breakers. Work related trauma. “They self-reset correctly, but I forgot to include power-loss resume circuits on this tank, so I’ve been stuck here. Ironically, for far longer than if I’d died without it. I’d have regenerated in a few decades on my own. I wanted something to come back within the hour, and it cost me twelve thousand years… Ironic, isn’t it? Also, I’m completely sane. I’m old enough that twelve thousand years is comparatively not that long, but still a very shitty amount of time to be trapped.” June and Trixie turned to Sam. “Well?” June asked. “He’s not lying,” Sam said slowly. “But—” “Hold up,” Trixie said, face contorting with a variety of emotions. “Did you just admit to genocide?” “No. I admitted to destroying a culture of blood tyrants. By disarming the blood mages, and repopulating an endangered species via speciation. Which would probably get me a new fresco, if ponies still did that,” Medeis corrected. Trixie nodded slowly. “Yeah… Fair. Objection retracted. Sam, you can stop now.” Sam closed her eyes for a moment and let the feeling slip away, The truth field she’d created faded along with her focus. “So… Uh, well we saved the town. We’re off the clock, I say we help him, and in return, he teleports us out of here so we don’t have to walk by the pony-part-sludge canal again.” Medeis gagged along with everypony else. “Note to self; Unclog that drain,” Medeis muttered to himself. June, glad the debate was finally over, reached out and pressed the power button on the machine with her wing tip. “Thank y—” Medeis began, his voice cutting off as the machine switched from passive life support to reconstruction mode. The device hummed loudly. The fluid within the tank slowly began to glow. The bubbles intensified. The glow brightened to a painfully white flame-like luminance which for a brief moment, outshone the sun. The light persisted for several seconds, then faded away, leaving behind a whole pony within the tank. The fluid drained away into a hidden reservoir, leaving the ancient wizard laying in a heap on the tank’s floor as a hole opened up like somepony reshaping clay for him to leave. Medeis was roughly Cadence’s height, about one and a half times larger than a normal pony. His fur was one of those off-white colors no paint company can agree on a name for, which went nicely with his simple black mane and tail. Overall, aside from being an alicorn, he looked exactly like the tall athletic guy who probably played on his college buckball team who always had breakfast at the coffee shop. Wow… He’s dangerously normal looking. June thought, unable to not picture the wizard just, mowing a lawn in the suburbs and talking with other dads over the fence. You almost don’t notice he’s an alicorn at all. No, that’s not it. He just… Belongs here. It’s fine. This has to be a spell! Holy crap, I hope it's unique. “... Anypony else swear he’d have the Celestia and Luna style big glowy mane?” Trixie asked her friends quietly. “I mean… Cadence and Twilight don’t. Are we sure that’s not just a them thing?” Sam asked back. June couldn’t help but notice his cutiemark was a cluster of simplified arcane auras which resembled the shape of cosmic background radiation. Oh! I wonder if that’s a specific magic thing, or if he’s into astronomy? Since he likes machines, maybe he’d like to see the Observatory. He’s been trapped since, well, forever from the pony point of view. I’ll bet he could use some friends, and he seems nice, and I could really use some normal not-adventure things to do for approximately the rest of my life! Medeis opened his lavender eyes, looked down at his body, and cried for a moment. The girls let him have his moment of elation, after which he stood up and stepped out of the tank. “Well… I wanted to be middle aged, but a young adult will do,” Medeis said with a genuinely cheerful smile. “Thank you so, so much! Now, before I let you out of here, why don’t we make sure this jail door is working properly?” Sam flinched, starting to reach for her shotgun, but stopped when she saw Medeis turn to the pedestal and start to inspect the astrolabe. June trotted over to watch the master at work, still quite curious about how the device worked. “Ooookay…” Medeis said, starting to frown. “It’s not accepting a charge. Why?” The three mares squeaked with terror. “What-do-you-mean-its-not-working!?” They asked together. Medeis winced, his ears folding flat. “Ow… Not used to loud noises. Stupid biology. I’ll magically make you better in a moment. Calm down, girls. Probably just some idiot poked something they should—” Medeis drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly, then looked to the heavens asked. “Who jammed about a dozen cookies into my astrolabe, and why?!” “Uuuhhhhh…” Sam said, backing up to hide behind Trixie. June facehooved. “Sam… You literally doomed us all.” “It was Fluttershy’s idea!” Sam retorted. “Besides, that thing’s creepy vision granting magic mind said she made the best snickerdoodles. How is that not a request for some?” “I’m going to die because of Snickerdoodles.” Trixie said, looking distant and withdrawn. “Just like the old gypsy woman said…” Medeis’ horn lit up with lavender light, and he fished out a wad of gear-chewed cookie crumbs. “It’s cool, I got them.” The three mares let out a collective sigh of relief. “It’s still super broken though, somebody very obviously took some pliers to the wiffle rod,” Medeis added, picking up the astrolabe. “Fortunately, we’re not twenty steps from the workbench I built it on, and while I’m pretty much out of mana thanks to that stupid idea of mine, I have you three to help me help you save the world. Come on. We’ve got a lot of hard work to do.” June frowned, remembering something he’d said mere minutes ago. “Wait, didn’t you say this thing is doomed to fail? Why do we need to do anything to stop it?” Medeis sighed, twitched his wings irritably, then began to walk away. “I’m trying to remain cheerful, for the sake of not causing any kind of undue panic. Suffice to say that ‘Doomed to Fail’ does not have a time limit. He could fail today, this minute, or in a thousand years. His goal is to become a god again. There can be quite a bit of destruction and devastation along that path. So, if you don’t mind, let’s see if we can fix this without needing to choose one of several rather costly contingency plans, alright? I do mean we. I’ll need your help.” “Oh, alright,” June said, ears and tail drooping as terror flooded her— NO! June snapped to herself. We have an archmage, the archmage! We’re in his workshop, he has some ideas, and he said we can help. That means I’m not powerless. He said he needs our help. Needs! “What can I do to help?” June asked, running up to match Medeis’ long stride. “A few things. Depends on how exactly they broke this, and if they knew what they were doing.” Trixie’s face scrunched back into a terrified self-reflecting grimace. “Yep. Just like she said…”  ⁜ ⁜ ⁜ 19th of Harvestide (Nightmare Night), 4 EoH Blackstone Quarry - Hackamore Valley A wing swept shards and stone from atop the seal. The stone fell to the stone floor, sparks of absorbed magic flying out from it with each bounce. The entity felt the metaphorical rope holding its prison door shut grow slack, then fall from the doors. The accursed astrolabe was gone. The bandage placed by the foolish pony was no more. It shouldered the door open, unrestrained at last.