//------------------------------// // Chapter Seven // Story: My Little Skaven // by Autocharth //------------------------------// “Well....that was certainly the most....’interesting’ thing I’ve seen upon entering your premises.” Rarity told Aloe and Lotus. The spa ponies nodded, looking slightly embarrassed. Standing off to the side Thanquol entirely ignored the equines. He sniffed, posturing to his reflection and flashing a fanged smile. The black robe was clearly of fine make, reminding the magerat of a particular article had he divested from a human sorcerer with connections in the human city of Nuln. The idiot had been stupid enough to try out-ratting the skaven, but for all his lacklustre warpstone experiments the fool had good taste. That robe had been white, but it had taken little effort for him to make it grey. A more fitting colour for a Grey Seer although he noted the stupid unicorn had failed to pick up on that. He sniffed again, this time caught between disapproval and approval. It also lacked proper ornamentation of a priest of his great standing and unutterable wisdom but he could fix that later. Maybe a few beatings later if she proved unable to acquire a robe of proper colour, although in deference to her quick acquisition of this one he would have her only lashed on one side. “How are you finding the robe darling?” Rarity trotted over, looking him up and down. “I had little to work on, so I thought minimalism was the way to go for now. A fine black, contrasting nicely with your coat.” “Yes-yes, many thanks to you craftspony.” He flapped a paw at her, his gaze intent on his reflection. Approaching the pair, Fluttershy tried to fight down the blush that felt permanently stained into her cheeks. “Um, T-Thanquol? You, um, you wanted to go see Twilight. Remember, the ‘mage-pony’?” She quoted nervously. He stamped his staff authoritatively. Or what he thought was authoritatively anyway. “Indeed! Take-guide me to this mage-pony. My intellect requires the stimulus of magic.” He declared, twitching slightly. Speaking of stimulus.... He reached for where his belt and its pouches were. Ripping free one of the pouches he licked his dust coated fingers eagerly. Behind him Rarity recoiled, her expression one of disgust at the way he was coating his hand in drool. Running his thin tongue over his hand one more time, Thanquol turned to look blearily at Fluttershy. He wiped his hand on his robe without noticing the gasp from Rarity. The thump of a fainting mare went unnoticed as he focused on the meek pegasus trying to look past him. Fluttershy took a step around Thanquol her eyes alight with worry for her friend. The impudence of this beast, an animal who was but a meagre, lesser creature unworthy of his presence daring to ignore him filled Thanquol with endless warpstone fuelled fury. His claws bit into the varnished haft of his staff and his teeth gnashed. Rage burned through his veins and instinctively he began to channel that into his staff. Turning the head of the Staff of the Horned Rat to point at Fluttershy’s head he reached into the ether, grasping at the dark power of the Realm of Chaos- A shriek pierced the ears of the ponies present, conveniently rousing Rarity back to the land of the waking. “Oh no!” Fluttershy was on Thanquol in moments, trying to find out what was going on. The skaven let out a high pitched whine as he flailed, hands gripping his horns as though he was trying to pull them from his skull. “What’s wrong?” He wasn’t able to voice his thoughts right now except in screeched skaven curses. He writhed and wriggled for nearly two minutes before calming down. “A-are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, helping him up. She was so worried about Thanquol, he seemed just so prone to accidents! She could remember when she was just a little filly and such a klutz she got a mean nickname about it. The poor thing really needed looking after, she decided. Thin and weak, tripping all the time and the way his fur was falling out in places just made him easily pitiable. “Fine-good, pony-thing.” Thanquol shook off her hoof. The Staff’s butt wedged against the ground and he leaned on it for support. “Merely a skullache.” “Um....do you mean ‘headache’?” She volunteered. Fluttershy ducked her head when he made a dismissive wave of his staff that nearly brained her. His snout scrunched up at her. “Yes-yes, skullache. Never mind now, Flutter-pony. Take-lead me to magepony!” “But- Rarity- Wait-” Fluttershy tried to look over to Rarity to make sure she was fine but found weathered paws pushing her towards the exit. She might have been able to push him back and check but the rat was too insistent and she bowed to the pressure of his urgency. The door banged shut as Rarity wobbled into a standing position on all fours, terribly confused. * Twilight’s day had started less than perfectly. For one thing it had started the day before last at about two in the morning and had continued until this afternoon. Technically it was a different day but she hadn’t gone to bed in all that time and she didn’t count falling asleep mid-research. In the end, she explained to Spike as he cowered in a corner, that no she had not been up for nearly two days it had just been one day. One long, gruelling day. Spike was merely happy to escape the two hour long rant without Twilight deciding a Want-It-Need-It spell would help her resolve the issue. “This doesn’t make any sense!” The unicorn clutched at her head, staring at the read-out from her machine. “I’ve recalibrated the Machine every way I can think of!” Looking up at the menacing creation wrought of black iron, engraved with arcane runes and speckled with strange protrusions of silver glass filled with bubbling liquids she grudgingly admitted she could understand why Spike had dubbed it ‘the (significant pause) Machine!’. When they were doing inventory he even wrote it that way, bracketed significant pause included. Her hooves clopping on the hard flooring of her underground lair- her lab Twilight paced around the (significant pause) Machine with a slightly deranged frown. “I’ve changed the cognitive fluids, oiled the gears, restocked the gerbil feed, found gerbils, designed a new intake-outtake valve that doesn’t leak and nearly gutted myself trying to fit the new receptive spires onto it!” Twilight nearly screamed as her mane began to spring up. “So WHY WON’T YOU WORK?!” Spike stood off to the side, nervously twiddling his thumbs. Twiddling his thumbs always made him feel special since he was the only one he knew who had thumbs. It was like showing off but he didn’t get told to stop being a show-off since nopony noticed. Now the dragon whelp was doing it worriedly. “Uh, Twilight, maybe you should-” He began. She fixed him with a Look. “Do not. Tell me. To. Relax.” Twilight ground out through clenched teeth. “I was just gonna say, maybe you’d see things a bit more clearly if you had a nap.” Spike went on quickly. “I’ll wake you up whenever you want I’m just getting a bit worried about you. C’mon Twilight, please.” In the face of Spike’s wide, wet eyes and scaly expression of pleading Twilight’s resistance began to crumble at last. “But- but I need to analyse the disturbance and the (significant pause) Machine isn’t working!” She whined in a very good imitation of a foal being told she wasn’t getting any dessert, albeit unintentionally. Spike approached her cautiously, sensing Twilight was starting to give in. Normally she didn’t actually say ‘significant pause’. “Which you can do when you wake up. I promise it’ll only be for ten minutes. Nothing is going to happen in ten minutes.” Of course he was actually going to leave her until she had slept for at least eight hours but Spike figured it would be a bad idea to say that. Reluctantly Twilight let Spike led her upstairs. He had to keep coaxing her up but soon they were in the library’s main room only a few steps from the stairs leading to Twilight’s bed. That, somewhat predictably in narrative terms, was when Fluttershy and Thanquol arrived. The throbbing headache from his attempt to reach into the Immaterium had started to fade making room in his skull for blinding rage and eventually curiousity. Despite his best efforts Thanquol couldn’t remember what it had been he had touched. It had burned him intensely, like acid had been poured into his brain and wiped out the actual memory of what it was. His mind was simply unable to grasp the nature or energies of whatever plane the magic of this world stemmed from. That didn’t happen. Thanquol had travelled further than even most Grey Seers and seen more magic in many different forms. None were like what he had found in the place of the Warp. Tapping the Staff’s haft he pondered this mystery as the Fluttershy led him to the magepony. Was it possible, he wondered, that there was a power stronger than Chaos energy here? The very idea seemed impossible but the mental action of reaching across the planar barrier into the parallel realm of Chaos had instead tried to access somewhere else. An alternative energy plane, one with a different nature that he was unfamiliar with. It was a ludicrous idea and Thanquol was tempted to merely banish the idea. But perhaps, he thought as he showed his fangs to a grey pony runt and sent it scurrying away, only the genius of Thanquol could dare to contemplate such a theory. After all it was understandable that no one before had managed such a feat until Thanquol. Obviously only a mage of his calibre could perform the action. Yes, he decided, it must be that. He was completely wrong in just about every way but there was no reason for the universe to burden him with that knowledge. Fluttershy quietly knocked on the door. Thanquol’s ears twitched as he failed to hear the knock from less than a foot away. She did it again. At last it grew too much for the ratpriest and before she could try knocking a third time she found herself pushed out of the way and paws twisting the knob. “Mighty-great Thanquol grows impatient!” He growled, forgetting his own decision to try sucking up to the kindly pony. “Let the magepony come forth!” He forced the door open and came face to face with Twilight Sparkle. Well, not quite face to face but in that general area. She stared at the walking rat man in a finely made black robe with a staff practically glaring at her as Fluttershy stood behind it nervously. Twilight looked at Spike and said, somewhat apologetically, “Spike, you’re right. I really do need to sleep. I’m seeing a giant bipedal rat! With Fluttershy of all ponies! Ha!” “Uh, Twi’.....” Spike stared at the giant rat. “I’m seeing that as a well.” A few twangs were heard as more of Twilight’s mane began to spring up. “Oh.” She said with deceptive calm. The snap! was almost audible. “Ha. Haha. Ahahahahahaha.” Fluttershy crept in around Thanquol who was banging his staff on the ground as Twilight rolled around laughing hysterically. “Oh my.” She said, looking at the much stressed Spike. “Are you okay?” It might seem strange for her to be asking that as the closest thing to family he had rolled around laughing like an asylum escapee but not asking the actual asylum escapee. Fluttershy was fairly certain right now Twilight had to get...whatever it was out of her system. Spike on the other hoof looked like he needed somepony to lean on. The dragonling sighed, rubbing his forehead. The giant rat was now demanding Twilight cease mocking him, banging his staff on the floor and waving it in the air every few seconds. “No. I’m really not.” He said morosely. Down stairs the (significant pause) Machine sat, its glass protrusions bubbling and light reflecting off its surface almost sinisterly.