//------------------------------// // Trolling // Story: My Little Teelo: Winter's Silence // by Ardwolf //------------------------------// In which Pinkie Pie’s faith is rewarded and the Snøskred’s patience is tried. “Your Highness, this is most unwise.” Subtle Dancer said fretfully. “The trolls have returned and no doubt Tišina lies in wait for exactly this kind of opportunity. If she attacks the Sun Shield won’t be able to stop her. And while Pinkamena’s unorthodox weapon proved effective in our last encounter there’s no telling what magical defenses that monster may possess now that she knows of the threat.” “She was badly hurt.” Princess Celestia replied as they stepped out into the bright morning sunshine. “The Lieutenant’s incredibly noisy weapon blinded one eye and she lost part of her tail when the portal collapsed. Not to mention she only has one wing now. I doubt she’ll be up to a mid-air battle, Subtle Dancer.” “She is Discord’s sister, Your Highness. No doubt she has the same level of regeneration he does. Do not underestimate her.” “No chance of that. She nearly killed me.” The alicorn reminded her companion. “I’m not going to hold back if she does attack. I don’t dare. Too much is at stake.” The unicorn bowed his head as the dread of what his sovereign had just said blew through his soul like wind off a glacier. “As for the trolls, don’t worry. I’ll be back before the court can be assembled. If the Snøskred obliterates protocol in his impatience then Luna can deal with him. Lady Teelo will be here with Crush. No troll will dare anything against the wielder of the King’s Wrath.” “Bevis Mot Lyn is no ordinary troll, Your Highness. I trust him less than the young Troll King—whom I trust not at all.” “My sister and I both share your opinion of the Snøskred, Subtle Dancer.” Celestia replied with a chuckle as she stepped into her personal chariot. “Luna will not allow him to cause mischief. But even if my sister and Lady Teelo together prove unable to contain him then Crush certainly will.” “Assuming we can trust Crush—who does not like ponies, Your Highness.” The unicorn reminded her. “Magical weapons of such power are unreliable. Crush was created by trolls to serve their king. And though she bested Discord, Lady Teagan is no troll—for all she resembles them more than she does us.” “True.” Princess Celestia nodded. “But Lady Teelo has proven her heart lies with us. She said Crush won’t desert her. Have a little faith, Subtle Dancer. Besides, there’s always Sun Hammer.” Her smile was dazzling. The unicorn couldn’t help a snort of laughter. He watched the four pegasi wheel the large chariot around and start their takeoff run. The rising chariot was joined by a dozen others and the entire flight turned southwest toward the stricken settlement. Pinkie was in the chariot flying to the Princess’s immediate left. She was hanging off the side of the chariot, mane streaming in the wind of their passage, whooping in delight. “A little faith?” He muttered as the only real defense the princess possessed started singing about pizza pie in the sky. With diamonds. “Celestia preserve us.” He shuddered. ooOoo “I grow annoyed, Dalen.” The troll ambassador growled to the short slender troll. “Patience, Snøskred. No doubt it was your brashness that earned us this very pleasant prison in the first place.” The other troll replied mildly, idly popping a grape in his mouth. “The food isn’t bad, though. You should try it.” Bevis snorted. “Bah. These ponies are hopeless! We must honor you properly, Snøskred Mot Lyn.” He mimicked that insufferable pony with the golden pocket watch on his flank. “We would never dream of insulting such a highly ranked and honored guest. Imagine, having you meet with the Princess without the full court present! That would be unforgivable! Stupid ponies.” “Well, you are the direct representative of the King, Snøskred. And Pinstripe Tock did say the court was being recalled as rapidly as they could manage.” Dalen pointed out, eyeing the fruit basket to see if it contained any more oranges. He had discovered he was terribly fond of the strange round fruit. “The Princess knows trolls don’t hold with such fripperies.” The ambassador sighed. “No, you’re right. I was rash. Celestia is punishing us for my indiscretion. I suppose we should be grateful the horse is only making us wait one day.” “You could speak with Princess Luna.” The small troll pointed out mildly. “To what end? Everyone knows she’s co-ruler in name only. Celestia is the real power on the throne. Without her approval we have no hope of getting Mountain Heart back. Are you’re sure you sensed it, Alene Dalen?” “I have said this thing, Snøskred.” The small troll turned steady eyes on the larger one. “Turgåere på den skjulte banen ikke si ting de er usikre på.” His tone held warning. “Your pardon, Dalen.” The large troll waved his clawed hand distractedly. “I hardly know what to think. On the left, Princess Celestia clearly does raise the sun and her sister the moon. But on the right she assured us Mountain Heart was no longer in the world. Yet not two days later you suddenly sensed it near Canterlot. Celestia is many things and not above lying, but I am not a new born babe unable to tell truth from fiction. Besides, what motive could she have to deceive us in such a manner?” “It is not certain she did, Snøskred.” The slender troll picked up another grape, the tips of his claws delicately piercing the fruit. “Tell me the way of it then.” Bevis lowered himself on a couch made especially for him—or so that stiff necked Pinstripe Tock had asserted. “It is possible to lie by telling the literal truth, my friend.” Dalen said, considering the grape. “The princess is not stupid. She has ruled her land for a thousand years. She knows lying to us about Mountain Heart would lead to war if we discovered it. Therefore rest assured what she told us is the literal truth.” “She said Mountain Heart was not in the world.” Bevis said. “So what? Assuming she was telling the truth then where is the lie?” “She said it was not in the world.” Dalen agreed. “More specifically, she said she did not have it to give to you. For courtesy, let us assume this is true. The question then becomes, if she doesn’t have it, who does?” “This so-called Lady Teagan, the one who fought Discord.” Bevis said. “I find such a thing hard to credit. Especially given the wild stories I’ve heard about that fight.” “Precisely, old friend. Do you know where Lady Teagan is now?” Dalen closed his fingers, catching the four slivers of grape as they fell with a quick flip of his wrist. He popped them into his mouth, enjoying the tartness. “Back in the world she came from? Where are you going with this?” Bevis watched the other troll closely. “She is not. In point of fact the reason we are in the Gealaí Suite and not the Ghrian Suite is because Lady Teagan and the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony occupy the latter.” “How—interesting.” Bevis said, eyes narrowing. “Such convenient timing, is it not?” “Bevis, Bevis, Bevis.” Dalen shook his head sadly. “You are such a splendid physical specimen of our race. But I truly thought you were clever as well. Did your mother not escape that last cave-in before giving birth to you?” If any other troll had said that to him there would have been violence. But the two of them had known each other too long. Bevis simply rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, we both know which of us is the more clever, Alene. So enlighten this thick-headed simpleton. What are you talking about?” “I, as you know, am not the imposing physical paragon that you are.” Dalen said, examining his claw tips. He delicately licked a spot of grape juice from one. “I do not growl and I do not stamp my feet. I am also unfailingly polite. As such, the pony servants are not afraid to talk to me. I expended a great deal of time and effort to insure that this was so. Unlike your constant displays of growling and stamping about.” “Stamping trolls are stupid trolls.” Bevis chuckled. “Every pony knows that, Alene. Especially Duke Shimmerling.” “Hmm. Yes, well I think you would do it even without that excuse, old friend. However, to answer your question. There is an earth pony named Buttercup. She’s the one who serves us our meals. Quite friendly, and very helpful. Just brimming with the milk of pony kindness. And she does so love to gossip.” “Why should I care which stallion keeps which mares, Dalen? I assure you my interest in such matters is reserved for my own species.” Bevis said drily. “And I had such hopes for you.” Dalen said, shaking his head sadly. “Ponies are very open about that sort of thing, Bevis. No, the gossip that I refer to is far more interesting. Specifically, do you know where Princess Celestia is at the moment?” “In her chambers or dealing with matters of state, no doubt.” Bevis said slowly. “Or so I would assume. Where else would a monarch be?” “According to Buttercup the Princess is in fact flying to the aid of a small settlement far to the south. Apparently the entire population was turned to stone.” “An entire settlement?” Bevis asked, startled. “I hadn’t realized Equestria had such a plague of cockatrices. Nasty beasts.” His face showed disgust. “You know very little about cockatrices I take it?” Dalen asked, raising an eyebrow. “They turn you to stone with a stare or a touch.” Bevis said, shrugging. “What else do you need to know? Other than where they are so you can be elsewhere.” He almost shuddered. “Did I forget to mention the culprit ripped open the roofs of their houses? Good, solid, wooden roofs. Quite sturdy.” “I don’t believe you did.” Bevis said with a glare. “My apologies, Snøskred. Great gaping holes, large enough to be made by a dragon. But cockatrices are quite small, you know.” Dalen said conversationally. “Not quite the length of your arm. And while they wield fearsomely potent magic their physical strength is quite minimal. Then there’s the fact the victims are green rather than gray, and smooth, not rough. Like ice, Buttercup said.” “That’s not funny, Dalen.” Bevis said, suddenly turning deadly serious. “No, it isn’t.” Dalen agreed, his good humor vanishing. “Imagine my chagrin hearing those words from a pony who had no idea what they meant. It lacks dignity, somehow.” He sighed. “Whether Mountain Heart is held by the trolls, or the ponies, or Lady Teagan, is no longer important, old friend. This was such a lovely world, too. I quite enjoyed it. Pity it’s going to be gone soon.” He stared sadly at the lack of oranges in the fruit basket. ooOoo The chariot flight landed on the outskirts of Rockton. An old mare limped out to meet them. She was conspicuously alone. “Greetings, Your Highness.” Tourmaline tried to bow but couldn’t quite complete the gesture, her legs too stiff from age and over exertion. Tourmaline rose from the half-completed bow with a wince, her face settling into a dignified expression. “You are Tourmaline, my little pony?” Celestia asked gently, ignoring both the failed attempt to bow and the wince that followed it. “Yes, Your Highness. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you’re here. I pray you can help us, and punish whoever did this to my friends.” “Take me to them.” Celestia said. Nodding the other pony turned and limped away. The princess said nothing as she slowly followed the near-lame pony into the settlement. Twilight Sparkle paced beside her mentor and said quietly. “Shouldn’t we help her? And where are the ponies from Hayfield? Shouldn’t they be here?” “She probably commanded them to stay away, lest the same fate befall them.” Celestia answered in a voice Twilight could barely hear. “As for helping her, she would not thank us for noticing her distress, my faithful student. Rock farmers are proud ponies and do not accept help easily. The fact she went for help at all is telling.” The pony led them to a green statue standing in a field. Twilight swallowed when she saw the statue’s expression. “This is Feldspar Walker, Your Highness.” The aged pony said. “Husband to Topaz Walker and father of little Gypsum. He was the first one I found. Topaz and Gypsum are in the house.” “All of you please stand back.” The princess instructed the group. “Twilight, stay with me to observe the spell. Spring Water, we may need your skills once the spell is undone. Be ready.” “Yes, Your Highness.” The healer said, shrugging off her saddlebags and opening them. Her two assistants did likewise. Tourmaline and the Sun Shield backed away, leaving plenty of space around the Princess and Twilight as they stood next to the statue. Spring Water and the other healers were closer but still not within ten feet of the pair and the statue. “This magic is almost certainly beyond you.” The princess cautioned her student. “It requires almost no power but involves levels of control you haven’t achieved yet. Don’t try to help, just watch what I do.” “Yes, Princess.” Twilight said, her eyes gleaming with interest, even as she felt her stomach churn whenever she caught sight of the statue’s expression. She tried not to think about Tišina. “First, you need to cast Morning Glory’s Magnificent Magnification.” Celestia said as her horn didn’t so much glow as briefly glitter. The princess’s purple eyes changed into clouds of glittering and swirling rainbow light. Twilight let her teacher’s mind slip into her own, so that she was seeing from Celestia’s eyes as she so often did when the princess taught her magic. It was a level of trust rarely extended between teacher and student and Twilight was acutely aware of the honor the princess did her. “Now we go deeper, my student.” Twilight watched as Celestia’s field of view zoomed in further and further. She had used this spell before to study the tiny world found in a drop of water so she was not disturbed as their shared view turned green. She waited as the zoom in continued, and continued, and continued. “Why isn’t the view clearing, Princess?” She asked quietly. “What’s the highest magnification you’ve ever used?” The princess asked in reply. “Once I took it to a hundred times before I lost control.” Twilight answered. “And as you did that things blurred until you stopped, correct?” “Yes. How deep are we?” “Eight hundred times. We’re headed all the way down to 1,500.” “I thought the theoretical maximum was a thousand, Princess?” Twilight asked as the image continued to be a green blur. “There’s a trick, of course.” Celestia said with a chuckle. “We’re at a thousand, now watch.” Suddenly the image cleared, showing a field of green crystal rings, each ring linked to four other rings in a dense three dimensional mesh. “It’s so beautiful.” Twilight said. “How can something so beautiful be so evil?” “Evil is not what something is, my faithful student.” Celestia murmured. “Evil is what something is used for. Did you see the focusing trick? A simple bead of magic to bend the light. Unfortunately it’s very tricky to place and you can’t change the depth of magnification. It’s 1,500 and nothing else. But that trick saved my life.” “So what do we do now?” Twilight asked. “Each of these rings is a single spell, my student.” Celestia said. “Self contained and perfectly balanced. Individually the rings hold negligible amounts of magic, but the magic is traveling in an uninterrupted circle. Frozen, if you like. Left undisturbed the magic would stay frozen in the ring. Worse, any magic that chances into the maze would curve around itself and become another ring, making the mass of rings grow.” “This is what Tišina did to you, isn’t it?” Twilight asked, feeling sick. “This is what she attempted to do.” Celestia corrected her gently. “But I am linked to the Sun itself, my faithful Twilight. That magic is so great it destroyed most of Tišina’s venom before the matrix could form. Unfortunately her venom was powerful enough to isolate me from the Sun, and my magic reservoir was severely depleted. Only the tiniest scraps of magic were left.” “Then how did you break free?” Twilight asked, confused. “Without magic how could you overcome it?” “I didn’t say I was completely without magic, only that the vast majority was locked away by the venom. I had about half as much magic as a newborn earth pony. Fortunately, I’ve been a mage for a thousand years. That gave me enough control to cast Morning Glory’s spell and free myself with the technique I’m about to show you. “But before I do that you have to disengage. Once I free Feldspar there’s going to be a massive magical surge as each of those rings releases its magic all at once. I need you to help me soak up the power. Otherwise—well you remember your entrance exam to the Academy?” “Vividly.” Twilight said as she gently disengaged her mind from her teacher and started seeing the world through her own eyes. She only kept enough contact to watch what the Princess was about to do. “We don’t want anypony turned into a potted cactus today, my faithful student.” The Princess said with laughter in her voice. “After Feldspar there are almost forty more unfortunate ponies to free. That’s a pretty good sized garden.” “I’ll be ready.” Twilight promised, blushing. “Now how is it done?” “Like this.” Celestia said. She let Twilight feel the delicate magical probe extend toward a ring Twilight could feel but no longer see. “If you cut the ring at precisely the right angle the magic is freed and blasts through another couple of rings, and then they blast and you have four rings cut, and those four cut eight…and so forth. The entire mesh will unravel in less than a second. Thus the surge.” “Wow. That’s so elegant. But you’re right. I could never control magic that precisely. You’re amazing, Princess.” “Just lots of practice, my student. Ready? It’s a really big surge. Don’t try to absorb more than you can safely hold. Channel the rest straight up so the flux doesn’t strike anypony.” “Yes, Princess.” Twilight said, bracing herself. She felt the Princess delicately cut the ring. And then all hell broke loose. The next thing Twilight knew she was in the middle of the massive storm, her magical senses blinded as the raging gale tried to throw her off her feet. Absorbing it was simply impossible. She concentrated on trying to force the mystical wind upward, but it was like trying to stop a tidal wave—the best she could do was anchor herself and try not to be blown away. Next to her the Princess soaked up the storm, leaving a calm center to the chaos. Her horn glowed blindingly bright as a pillar of light exploded from the tip and into the sky. Then it was over. “Horse apples!” Twilight swore, staggering. “Watch your language, young filly!” A male voice snapped at her. Blinking she found herself looking at a middle-aged stallion who was glowering at her in disapproval. Then his expression changed to confusion as he looked around. He nearly fainted when he found Celestia staring at him from mere inches away. “Your Highness?” He gaped, falling into a bow, heedless of the blood seeping from a pair of wounds on his chest. “Rise, Feldspar Walker.” She said gently. “You’ve had a very bad time, but it’s over now. Everything’s going to be all right.” She raised her voice. “Spring Water, this pony is hurt. Please tend to his wounds.” “Yes, Your Highness.” The earth pony grabbed her bag in her teeth and trotted forward. Feldspar Walker was in a daze. He stared wide eyed as the two deep wounds on his chest were expertly tended by the earth pony. Tourmaline trotted forward, tears in her eyes to greet the stallion. “Now we just have to do that again—thirty-eight more times.” Celestia said with a sardonic smile. Twilight shuddered. “How?” She asked plaintively. “It almost blew me away!” “You might try Blue Rose’s Thaumaturgic Shade.” The princess suggested. “I admit I wasn’t expecting the surge to be that large. The shade spell should help you direct the force without being exposed to it.” “What about you?” Twilight asked worriedly. “That spell makes it impossible to handle delicate magic, and you took the brunt of the blast. Forty of those could hurt even you.” “I’ll be fine, my faithful student.” Celestia assured her. “I am one of the most powerful mages in the world you know.” “I know, but that was nasty.” Twilight shuddered. “Shall we restore this poor pony’s wife and child, Twilight?” Celestia asked. “Won’t it destroy their house if we do? Shouldn’t we carry them outside first?” “No, that won’t be necessary. Tišina made a large hole in the roof of their house. We’ll let the magic escape through that.” “If you say so.” Twilight said doubtfully, but willing to trust her teacher. “Spring Water, we’re going to restore Topaz and Gypsum now.” The princess said to the healer. “Your Highness, there may be a problem.” Spring Water said unhappily. “What is it?” Celestia asked, suddenly alert. “It’s the stab wounds, Your Highness. A healthy adult pony can take that kind of damage and still heal. A young foal could die if they were stabbed in the wrong place.” “If you inspected the statue before we restored the pony could you tell if there’s any danger?” Celestia asked. Spring Water hesitated by reflex, as unwilling to make promises as any other healer. “I might be able to tell.” Spring Water finally. “Then come along you two. I need your help to save Rockton.” Celestia commanded. Dutifully the two of them followed Princess Celestia into the house.