She had been rocked to her core...
Everything Princess Celestia told her yesterday: the truth about the Elements of Harmony, the secret of the royal family, and worse of all, this new knowledge that the princess told her was called the Tempest... simply put, it all worried Twilight greatly. To hear such things actually remaining unheard by anypony else outside the royal family seemed almost impossible, but here the proof was... ponies living their lives normally like nothing is wrong.
To make matters worse, she discovered, Vicar and these new creatures were apparently the center of it all.
For the rest of yesterday and most of today, Twilight avoided Vicar Saint in fear of what she might accidentally blurt out under his hawkish observational prowess. But unfortunately for her now, this was no longer an option. Now, she and Prince Vulcan were to go and retrieve Vicar and bring him to the dungeon to help look over Princess Celestia finally interrogate the cleric deacon. Apparently, the princess wanted his sharp eyes to back her up: the same sharp eyes that Twilight had spent an entire day avoiding...
“What is your problem?”
Twilight shook her head, clearing her thoughts. “Huh?”
Vulcan stopped and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight, you look very distraught... is everything alright?”
Twilight reeled her head back, as if to imply she was offended, speaking through a forced smile with a sarcastic tone. “Distraught? No, I’m fine... I’m perfectly and utterly fine!”
The prince frowned and looked at the unicorn sternly; causing Twilight to cast her eyes down and lose her fake smile. “Is it that obvious?”
“When you freak out, your magically aura frizzes your mane at the ends... yeah, it is that obvious...”
“I’m sorry...” she raised a hoof and brushed it through her mane, static popping off as she straightened it back to its normal and straight nature. “It’s just... I’m all worried about Vicar and what the princess told me...”
“Twilight, I know, I was there. I watched your reaction the entire time. I also remember what Tia told you: she said maybe, by a long shot at best. This was the whole reason why I was against you finding out in the first place: you freaking out more and more the more and more you thought about it. In the wrong hooves, it could drive a pony into evil or insanity...”
Twilight looked up and smiled slightly, reassured at Vulcan’s cynical disappointment towards his older sister. “To believe,” she said, “that all those crazy pursuits Crescent Star wanted... he actually was onto something the whole time...”
“Yeah...” Vulcan nodded, “to finally realize that your boyfriend isn’t just a crazy stallion after all...”
“He’s not my coltfriend!”
Vulcan huffed and rolled his eyes, “Geez, calm down... I was only kidding.” He paused and stared directly ahead. Walking towards them with an apple in hand and chewing with polite silence was Vicar. Vulcan nodded towards him with an impressed look. Much to the description given by his sister, the stranger was certainly a tall and foreboding being. A dark mane and peachy flesh, bare with little no fur or scales, covered with tailored clothes that covered the length of his legs with black and the length of his torso in white and grey: a perfect fit for his shape and size. He walked like a soldier: direct, attentive, eyes forward in confidence. Vulcan could see why Celestia had an interest to his being here... he had never seen anything of his likeness since he could remember.
“So,” the young prince grinned, “You must be the Vicar Saint everypony seems to be talking about...”
Vicar returned a smile and bowed with his hands clasped together in respect. “Am I right to assume that you, red alicorn, are Prince Vulcan?”
“Excellent guess.” The alicorn lowered his head slightly to return Vicar’s gesture, who took another bite of the apple almost directly afterwards. “I’ve heard that you have a memory problem, Mr. Saint... any luck in fixing that?”
“Not really,” he muffled, “no...”
“Well then... would you kindly follow us to the dungeon then?”
Vicar swallowed and glanced over at Twilight, who was trying her best to linger behind Vulcan as nonchalantly she could. Under his gaze, she fought against every instinct in her to shrivel up or run. With a slight smirk, Vicar turned back to the prince. “Should I try and get as much of a head start away from you as possible, your highness?”
Vulcan busted out laughing as the stranger’s well placed joke, prompting Twilight to lighten up a little and step forward a bit. “Oh, no no no no. My sister just wants us to bring you there to help her in interrogating the cleric from the night before last. We’ve been thinking it might help you remember something... or not... either way, she thought it best you be there.”
Vicar tilted his head. “Well, why not. I have nothing better to do so I might as well make myself useful.” He took the last bite of his apple and spied at a trash can near the end of the hall. After a couple seconds of examining it, he tossed the apple core around in his hand a bit, before hurling it across the hallway and directly into the can with a satisfying *Clink*. The prince nodded at his throw and gestured for him to follow. He noticed how easy it was for Vicar to match their strides, his greater height and bipedal stance having no problem in overtaking the two quadrupeds in speed. Twilight’s head barely went up to his shoulder and she had to canter briskly to keep up with his pace. He himself only went up to Vicar’s eyes and while it was much easier for him to keep pace, Vulcan found himself struggling a bit at certain points. He imagined that Celestia would be taller than him, but as he pictured it more and more, he began to realize that even then it wasn’t by much, Vicar’s head most likely leveling out at her muzzle...
...foreboding indeed...
Twilight, on the other hand, was noting how little Vicar and Vulcan seemed to talk to each other in comparison to what she heard about between him and Celestia. When he met the princess, he did seem to take more of a liking to her, trusting and confident in his interpretation of her. With the prince, however, that trust, while still present, was more of something between two soldiers, instead a stallion to a mare: a firm brick wall distancing any friendly contact between them. Every so often, either would speak up about a topic and banter would develop between them that would carry on through a hallway or two, but afterwards it would quickly die off and leave an awkward silence among the three of them.
“So, how have you been?”
Twilight blinked and turned to Vicar, who had apparently maneuvered himself around Vulcan to be walking next to the violet mare instead. “I’ve been good... very busy...”
“I could tell. I haven’t seen you since yesterday morning. Has Her Serene Highness been busy too?”
“Princess Celestia was with me basically the entire day. You would have seen her again too... if you were at the infirmary when I went back.”
“Oh, about yesterday; I’m sorry I didn’t stay with Crescent Star like I said I would, but before I went to the infirmary to see you that morning, Princess Celestia offered lunch so we could continue our talk some more. After a couple hours of realizing you wouldn’t come back with breakfast, I went out into the garden and did so... minus her company, unfortunately.”
“A garden lunch with Princess Celestia?” Twilight grinned devilishly as she looked up at Vicar. She remembered a time when she once thought it to be impossible for a pony like the princess to fall in love or to actually go on dates... just more things that come with the ignorance of foals. “Has the princess finally discovered her special... someone?”
“If you try anything stupid...”
Twilight rolled her eyes and returned her focus to the task on hand. Realizing the conversation has ended; Vicar edged his way back to the other side of Prince Vulcan. With nothing else to talk about, the group simply continued on in silence.
Eventually, the three of them reached the stairway that Vulcan said was the one to the cell holding the cleric. With a confident step forward, the prince lit his horn up with an earthy-green glow, followed by Twilight’s magenta, leading the way down into an apparently pitch-black hallway. The darkness of this place seemed almost organic, engulfing the party with seemingly strong tendrils of black, consuming them with a relentless fervor, like a hungry wolf at its meal. Even the light emanating from the young alicorn and the even younger unicorn seemed to struggle to maintain ground against its apparently stronger enemy within the shadows.
In the darkness, Vicar glanced down at the prince’s back and found, under his violet cloak, was a sword-like object wrapped in a protective sheath. To him, it looked surprisingly like the two that the other clerics ran off with... “Hey, Vulcan, what’s on your back?”
Vulcan stopped and looked back at the stranger. “It’s my key... like the two stolen from Luna and Celestia... except this one is mine.”
Vicar was able to piece together some bits of information together with what Vulcan said and with some asking, the alicorn let him take it out of the sheath and examine it. It looked almost exactly like the previous two: tempered metal hilted with an ornate design. The difference in this one was the earthy greens and browns: colors prevailing over the golds and reds of what he figured was Celestia’s and the blacks and blues that would have then been Luna’s. At the hilt, instead of a sun or moon, was a firm mountain, which the base of created the grip-guard and that peaked out over the metal. Inscribed on one side was the phrase: “Petra Terre”, while on the other side was: “Prince Vulcan Ignis Galaxia, Count of Fillydelphia”.
“Do you think it would be a good idea to have this while we go and see the cleric who tried to take the last two?”
Vulcan grinned with pure confidence. “He won’t have a chance to get this one. My sister and I have made quite the number of precautions to keep him from being able to do anything...”
“And if those precautions fail?”
The prince looked back at the stranger. “Then he’ll have to go through me.”
Vicar remained unsure, but dropped the subject and returned the key to its sheath under Vulcan’s cloak. He placed his hand on the wall right beside him, running his fingers across the stone as he walked. The further in they went, the darker it got and the more he leaned closer to the wall, as if it was his last protection from the darkness surrounding him. He grew paler and his eyes dilated ferociously, jitters and anxiety building.
For the first time since meeting him, Twilight found herself watching Vicar legitimately become unsettled. If she knew better, it almost looked like he was scared...
“Vicar, are you alright?”
“No,” he said plainly, if a little rushed than normal, “I am deeply disturbed with all this darkness around us... its way too unnatural.”
“You would be correct,” Vulcan stated, “It’s from a spell that my father created many centuries ago. The magic of the user absorbs all light within the desired sphere of influence; creating an area of pitch-black darkness that nopony would be able to find their way through. Only those, like myself and now Twilight, who know the counter spell can actually navigate, but even then, the spell’s energy must be strong enough to counter the force of the previous caster... and generally only for a fleeting few feet of light.”
Vicar looked at Prince Vulcan more closely and noticed the sweat beading on his brow and running down his face, shining on his fur in green light. He reached out to Twilight, gripping her mane before quickly reeling back and wiping his hand on his clothes. If the prince was only just breaking a sweat, then Twilight was completely drenched. Her magic at the time being was obviously weaker than an alicorn’s, but she still kept her light at the same brightness as the prince’s without any break or flicker. She was completely determined on not stopping, and by the looks of it, was making herself capable of doing so.
Touched by her perseverance, Vicar reached out and set his hand on her back for a little support, as well as to help show her that she could do it. He smiled and stared straight ahead, keeping with her pace. “Hang in there Twi’, just a little while longer.”
She kept herself tunnel vision forward, keeping her focus solely on the spell and on walking without crashing or injury. “Just a little while longer...” she would hear over and over again, but she would pay no attention. She didn’t care how long it would take; she would still do it anyways. Twilight resolved herself to not extinguish her magic, as well as let Vicar lean on her a little. With a determined heart, she even began to drown out Vulcan’s soft green in her eyes.
The prince didn’t seem to mind Twilight’s enthusiastic participation. Even if he did think it stupid and reckless for doing so, he smiled in delight to see that it was her being the reckless and stupid one. He only looked back every-so-often to check on her well being, which seemed to be fit and good every time he did so, and to see if Vicar was still with them, both physically and mentally, receiving only the look of a determined soldier with his eyes fixed on a far off, nonexistent light.
Vulcan stopped walking and raised his head to a stone wall in front of him, both Vicar and Twilight standing next to him with mild confusion. He lifted his head and illuminated the edges of the stone, revealing it to be a door designed simply to look like a part of the wall. “Vicar Saint, Twilight Sparkle... May I present to you the most secure dungeon in Arcem Solis.”
His horn’s aura shifted from green to a sea-blue as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. With a stern face, he opened his eyes again and tapped his horn against the stone. “Puerto... abres.”
The stone came to life as Vulcan’s magic swarmed through the creases like flowing water. Magically infused and glowing with the symbols of an old, forgotten importance, the frame began to crack and the door itself began to open to a lit room with painfully bright lights.
“Why all this security?” Twilight asked, her vision quickly returning.
“It was Tia’s idea mainly. Apparently, this one has been most... troublesome... for the past couple hours...” As Vulcan finished, the door opened up enough for the group to see inside at the blank stone room. In the center, the cleric sat cross legged with his armed folded in his lap, chains slumping over his legs, leading off to the wall where they kept him from too much movement. The princess herself was seated near him, just out of reach.
“I see you were able to make your way through my Prism Spell without any lasting problems...” Celestia spoke plainly, without taking her eyes off of the cleric in front of her, refusing to check if she was even talking to the right ponies.
“We did suffice, big sis.”
Twilight’s eyes rose with mild surprise. “That out there was only a Prism Spell?”
“A more powerful variation,” Celestia stated, finally willing to remove her gaze and focus on her student, “but yes: it was a Prism Spell. I believe my little brother might have mentioned to you how our father could feed magic into it to maintain its power, but, my Faithful Student, he isn’t the only one. I’m very proud that you were able to keep control over your counter spell... that was my magic out there...”
Twilight wasn’t expecting to hear that from her. “Princess?”
She was going to ask more, but Vulcan interrupted her, returning the focus to the task on hand. “Has our guest said anything yet?”
“No.” Her eyes returned to the creature in the center of the room. “He hasn’t said or done anything since I put him in here. He just remains in a sort of meditation: head pointed to the ground and legs crossed...”
As she spoke, the cleric willingly confirmed that what she was saying was the truth, refusing to move even the slightest. He simply closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“See?” the princess frowned through her words before gazing up at the open door. “Ah, Vicar... I’m glad you were able to join us.”
The cleric’s eyes opened calmly at the delightful surprise of a visitor. He allowed himself a grin, out of sight of his so-called interrogators, of course. Vicar stepped through and began to slowly pace around, looking at the creature sitting humbly. “I suppose I am too... so this is what a cleric really looks like up close... I must say, I’m kind of disappointed...”
The cleric was pure black-ish flesh with bone structures and plates that covered what appeared to be sensitive areas, similar to a suit of armor. Its hands were similar to Vicar’s, but instead ended in sharp claws. It looked almost reptilian in nature, but it held characteristics that seemed to also be a mixture of many other forms of animals, as if its animal was itself... for lack of better terminology.
“So... it is true...” The sudden voice from the creature brought the attention of everypony else in the room. It sounded cold and without kindness, reminding Vicar of how Kaius sounded in the dining room before he killed him. But Kaius was logical and decisive at best, the coldness in his voice hidden by a screen of rationality and common civility. None of those were present in this one, or at least not as dominant, instead being covered in another, outer layer of heartlessness and an unsympathetic nature.
The cleric lifted his head and looked directly at Vicar with cold, dead eyes, a look full of disappointment and masked by a deep, inner vengeance. “...you really did lose your memory. It’s a pity... you can’t even remember who I am.”
“And who are you?” Princess Celestia asked coolly.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” The princess glared at him, matching his twisted satire with cold eyes. She cleared her throat. “You’re a deacon, aren’t you? That is what has been labeled by your peers at least, am I correct?”
The cleric stared at her uninterestingly before nodding his head with a smirk. “We can both say that in agreement. Yes, I am a deacon: a deacon of Unitology and the Holy Markers.”
“Would you care to elaborate on that?”
The deacon tilted his head slightly. “It is the faith... the true faith... the faith of those who want true salvation in the name of the most holy Markers. Why do you even think I’m here?”
“I’ll ask the questions thank you...” Celestia still kept her tone civil and gentle with her normal kindness, yet it was evidently edged with cold steel and a firm grip. While she knew her mentor well, Twilight didn’t remotely have the idea that the princess was this temperate: remaining in control of herself and of the scene with the spikes of a vicious being poking at her nerves. “...but since you already asked, I’ll humor you this one time: why are you here?”
The deacon leaned forward as his voice became more sinister and as dry as sand. “To grind you into dust; everything you are... your precious faith and science... they are nothing more than fictions created in your minds. You don’t deserve to live... and it is the will of the gods before us to exterminate your disgusting infestation before it spreads to the stars...”
“That’s mighty presumptuous of you, deacon,” Celestia raised her head higher, “and what is it that you possess that can warrant such an arrogance that you say is right and just?”
“The Marker!” the deacon hissed, “You know nothing of its real power, and you will never come close to match it: the Marker masters all, the Marker defeats all, the Marker changes all...” Through his rant, the deacon became jittery and began to frantically scratch at the ground with amazing fervor. His eyes glowed with a paler orange, piercing the dark shadows that always seems to cast over them.
Twilight stepped forward and stood next to her mentor, disturbed by this creature’s audacity in its current situation. “By what right does this ‘Marker’ possess to dictate genocide against our entire race?”
The deacon stopped and stared directly into her eyes. His firm stare made her want to vomit: looking into his eyes felt to her like looking into the eyes of a predator, a creature whose sole purpose in life is to cause destruction and devastation in its midst and wake. The feeling was worse than the disappointment and fear she felt when Discord bested her and her friends... worse than when Nightmare Moon wreaked havoc in her return after a thousand years. No it was far worse, and Twilight willingly stepped into the arena to combat this creature.
“I wasn’t talking about you!” The deacon glared at the unicorn harshly. “I was talking about him: the Reclaimer!”
Twilight and Celestia turned their heads to Vicar who stared directly at the deacon with the same firm and cold glare. “His race has something that those in the past didn’t: something that makes them stronger than what those before could ever dream! They are thinkers, creators and inventors: beings that can shape a world with their hands and minds. Their insolent infestation seek to try and pollute the Spiral with their names and achievements... You would dare compare your species to them? HA! In their shadow, you swines are nothing more than the cockroaches they crush under their feet!”
“And what would that make you, creature?!” Vicar spoke back with an equal ferocity and audacity to the cleric, “If what you say is true, then that should make you nothing more than the dust they eat!”
The deacon stood up with breathtaking legerity, pulling his chains taunt before Twilight could flinch away at its rage towards Vicar. Vicar himself, however, stood firm against the opponent, calmly walking over to where he stood directly in front of its gnashing teeth and rage. “HA, HA! Look at you, creature! You are nothing more than a tamed dog: all bark and no bite!”
The deacon lashed his head forward before being shoved back violently towards the far wall by a golden aura. His frenzy died down almost instantaneously, leaving Vicar to stand victoriously with his allies over him... but as the adrenaline died down, the feeling of pain began to run through his cheek and he ran his hand up against it. Bringing it back so he could see, a black splotch of liquid pooled and started to absorb in his skin. It smelled terribly, the harsh scent filling his nose and causing his eyes to sting.
As if he heard the punch line to a funny joke, the deacon slowly began to build in chuckling laughter, causing the group to return their attention to the subdued creature. “So blind... so blind all of you... That was what you would call, a distraction!”
It was then that Vulcan jumped forward in shock and disbelief, staring into the dark hallway fearfully. “My KEY!”
Both Celestia and Vicar looked back with mild confusion but Vulcan, however, would have none of it. He lifted his cape and magically searched for his birthright: his pride and honor. The deacon only laughed at what he made out to be his pawns. “It’s humiliating to fail at what you boast, isn’t it young prince... don’t fret much though, you won’t live long enough to truly feel its lessons.”
That was it: the last straw, the last single twine of temperance that Celestia had. With a kindled rage, her horn glowed with a blood red mixed with a shadowy black, releasing a beam of energy at the deacon. Instantaneously, the cleric was blasted with the feeling of a million needles piercing into every pore, every blood vessel ever single nerve in his body, screaming only one feeling all at once: pain. This was the side that Celestia never wanted to show, especially to her dear student, Twilight Sparkle, who now had to watch her mentor torture another being with little thought. This was Celestia’s real side, the side of emotion and passion that burns within her soul, the side that gives her the drive necessary to do anything it takes. It is a passion that rests ablaze with the love and hatred of a thousand years, burning as hot and as bright as the sun which she can control.
Through all of it, the screams and pleading of the deacon could be heard, as clear and crisp as the winter breeze. With all the pain inflicting on him, he seemed to still refuse to disrepute the faith that gave him the bold arrogance that has him so confident in the destruction of Vicar and in ponykind. With a solid voice he shouted out firmly, “I believe in the Marker: in the gods of the heavens above, who created all things living and nonliving...”
Twilight and Vulcan stared at each other, watching with painful expressions as Celestia mercilessly inflicted terrible agony on the deacon. Between every burst of energy and every sense of anguish and woe, he would continue his proclamation with as determined of a voice as the time before.
“I believe in the Prophecies: *aaugh* the nobles and teachings of Kur, the great and mighty...”
...a scream of pain...
“...who witnessed... all things glorious in its name.”
...another scream...
“A life above all mortals... the light... *aaauggh* above all lights... the true gods before all else...”
...another...
The torture seemed to go on forever, Princess Celestia refusing to extinguish her magical hold on the deacon. Thru shut eyes, her student let tears pour over her cheeks as she covered her ears to try and cut out the noise. Both Vulcan and Vicar worked hard to keep solid faces, staring down at the cleric’s wriggling form with a little emotion as they could: the deacon only continuing his chant of faith through clenched claws and gritted teeth.
It soon became too much even for Vicar, who covered his face with his palm, choosing to bear the stench of his blood in order to conceal his now trembling lip and reddening eyes. Even then, it became too great, Vicar physically trying to prevent his emotions with no avail.
“...Stop...” he barely whispered, minuscule compared to the sizzling of magic and the shouts of the deacon. He took a deeper breath and stepped forward to Celestia, physically shoving her to the side and breaking her concentration. “For the love of God, STOP!!”
She was quick to regain her senses, the blinding rage dying down after Vicar’s irrational response to her irrational behavior. The princess let the deacon fall back on the floor and stared directly at Vicar, the look in her sorrowful eyes muttering a silent and visual “thank you,” before her ears twitched with the sound of a low cackle.
“You know nothing of power...” the deacon muttered, “and you are supposed to be the royalty of this world.”
Even with all his boasting, the deacon however remained on the floor, clawing at the stone instinctively with phantom pains. His claws tapped the stone every slash through, creating an echoing rhythm of: Tap-Tap, Tap-Tap, Tap-Tap... going on through the room.
Celestia felt devastated... to somehow lose a third key, right from under their noses, and to perform such an act of fury... there was nothing she really could do for now...
...not until she fit all the puzzle pieces together at least.
“Vicar... Twilight...” She refused to even look up and face them. “I want you two to go back to the castle and rest for the remainder of the night...”
Twilight stepped forward carefully; wary of the mare she called her mentor. “Princess...”
“I said go!” Her horn ignited and both Vicar and Twilight disappeared from the room before they could see the sun princess shed her first tear.