//------------------------------// // Chapter Five: The Oracle // Story: Darklight // by snoninja7 //------------------------------// It was now day four since her awakening, and there was a knock at the door. Twilight sat resting near the fireplace and watched as Darklight moved soundlessly through the anteroom towards the main entrance. After exchanging a few words of greeting in an unfamiliar language, he reappeared leading a mare and two stallions through the anteroom and towards the workshop. The newly arrived ponies wore long white hooded cloaks that covered their bodies and faces, and Twilight thought with some uneasiness back to the stories she heard about the ghost ponies. Only their pegasus wings and tightly packed saddlebags were readily visible, but as they passed by the entrance she did catch glimpses of brightly colored clothing and the polished metal holsters of daggers strapped to their chests. Twilight was also using her mage sight as they passed, and grew more nervous when she realized how opaque their cloaks were to magic—there could have been dozens of them watching her when she arrived and she wouldn’t have seen them. Though this was the first time she had ever seen them, it wasn't a surprise visit. Barbaroi ponies regularly came to Darklight's cave to trade and Twilight knew days in advance that they were coming. Still, she prefered to keep to the background, hoping that they would ignore her presence. Eavesdropping from the bedroom to the lively and sometimes heated negotiations going on in the workshop, which seemed to mostly involve the mare, she could only marvel at the unpronounceable vowels and consonants of the Barbaroi tongue. Darklight sounded perfectly fluent himself, or at least to Twilight's untrained ear. The conversation gradually became more subdued, and Twilight knew instinctively that the mare was asking about Darklight's progress with fighting the Golem. His tone became more apologetic when he replied. After a few moments of silence, a few more words were exchanged before the clopping of hooves signaled their departure. Twilight moved quietly back to her resting place next to the fireplace to conceal her snooping. Darklight again passed by first followed by the mare, who stopped abruptly and stood motionless by the bedroom entrance, her face still obscured by the hooded cloak. Before Twilight new what was happening, a dagger flew past her face and struck the cobblestone fireplace. She looked in shock at the razor-sharp blade that gleamed in the firelight, which had been thrown with such force that it had lodged itself in the mortar. Then she looked back to see a pair of ice-blue eyes peering into the depths of Twilight's soul. The mare calmly stepped forward, and Twilight found herself more terrified than when she first saw Darklight. She was one of the most beautiful ponies Twilight had ever seen, bearing a striking resemblance to Fluttershy, except that the coloration was different, more pale, like she had been sculpted from a block of ice. Her eyes held no anger or strong emotion, only intelligent and thoughtful curiosity, and they never strayed from Twilight's face. With a quick, fluid movement, the mare dislodged the dagger from the fireplace and resheathed it in her holster. Then she turned away, said something to a visibly concerned Darklight, and left the room. Twilight noticed the two stallions were looking on with somewhat bored interest with the same ice-blue eyes as the mare, before following her out the front entrance. When Twilight was again alone with Darklight, and had regained her courage, she was livid. "She tried to kill me, Darklight!" "The Barbaroi don't 'almost' kill anyone." was his regretful response, "They’re testing you, or you’re dead." "Oh, well forgive me for being culturally insensitive. I'm used to the kind of tests that end with 'put your quills down' and where I'm still alive to go home afterwards. Are you judged by the volume of blood loss or the dimensions of the wound? Do I get bonus points if I throw something back!?" Darklight was a little put off by Twilight's sarcasm, but he decided to be diplomatic. "I know Raven's Wind can be a little... intimidating at first, but she is actually one of the most kind-hearted ponies I have ever met." "Well you obviously don't know very many ponies! I know plenty of kind-hearted ponies back in P... my home town, and none of them would even think of throwing a knife me!" "I think she was only... " "And another thing!! Where were you during this little altercation?! I would think that a good doctor would try a little harder to protect their patients from danger! But you just stood there! What were you even thinking!? Are you that much of a coward that you couldn't have at least tried to help me?!" Darklight was deeply hurt by this. "I.. I'm sorry, I just... " Twilight angrily turned away and refused to speak to him. He wanted to give her a more complete picture of the kind of mare Raven's Wind really was. Raven's Wind was the mayor or "chief judge" of the Village of the Moon, and that her husband, Eagle's Talon, was the mayor of the Village of the Sun. It was customary for the Barbaroi to name their foals after attributes of deities and heroes to connect their children to their shared heritage and culture. The wind was thought to convey divine knowledge, and ravens were supposed to be connected to their goddess of wisdom. He wanted to tell Twilight that this strange mare with the scary eyes had, despite being badly injured during the golem attack, acted along with Eagle's Talon as Darklight's advocate during his trial, and over the years she had consistently proven herself to be a trustworthy mentor and friend to him. Raven's Wind was also well respected and loved, but also universally feared, although not for the reason that Twilight would have thought. Unfortunately, Twilight was in no mood to listen, and Darklight suffered her silent treatment for the rest of the night. He had plenty of time to puzzle over the last words that Raven's Wind spoke that day. “... when your second guest arrives... “, he thought. I wonder who that could be. * * * * Twilight quickly realized that she had gone too far with her words the day before, but her own pride and stubbornness kept her from doing anything about it until the following morning. It was obvious that Darklight placed a great deal of trust in Raven's Wind, and she guessed (correctly) that she had probably thrown enough knives at Darklight's own head to make him used to it. Twilight wasn't ready to give Raven’s Wind the same level of trust, but she would at least try to understand Darklight’s feelings. She climbed the long stone staircase through the tunnel that lead to the observation point. Darklight went here every morning at dawn to practice his magic and observe the movements of the Golem. This was her first visit, and she stooped low when she reached the top so that she could get a look at what was going on without being seen. The tunnel lead to a small plateau on the side of the mountain that gave a sweeping view of the valley below. It would have been a spectacular sight, if there was anything of value to see. The ruined forest looked even more sickly in the daylight. The dull white and grey color of the golem, which was meandering in a roughly southern direction about two miles away to the northwest, was largely the same color as the forest. Dead tree trunks dotted its body like coarse hairs. The red glow of its eyes was more subdued in the daylight, but the overall effect was no less intimidating. Still, neither of them were concerned. If the Golem did know where the cave was, it never showed any inclination to attack it. Random walks between periods of regeneration was not unusual. Vertical stacks of hoof-sized rocks were placed at seemingly random positions throughout the plateau, with Darklight standing in the middle. After a short pause to focus his concentration, he made a slashing motion with his horn to cast a swiping block spell, and quickly fired a horn blast that knocked the top rock off one of the piles, leaving the remaining rocks in place. Then he immediately whirled around, cast another swiping block spell, and knocked the top rock of another stack with horn blast. This he repeated over and over again. A couple times, he knocked the top two rocks off by mistake, or the pile would crumble, and he would give an annoyed "doh!" that made Twilight giggle. There were a lot of stacks, and he didn't make a mistake very often. He kept going until all of the rocks were shot away, then he turned and fired a long, continuous blast of fire from his horn at a large rock. Then a ring of flame formed around his body and several rounds of fireballs shot towards the same rock. After he stopped casting spells, and she knew he would see her, Twilight confidently walked onto the plateau to where she could show off her own skills. She levitated one of the toppled rocks into the air and fired a series of horn blasts that ricocheted off the rock and kept it in the air for a full minute. She stopped the rock's final fall with another levitation spell, and, with smile and a wink, gently placed it back on the ground. Darklight stomped an applause "Nicely done, but I already knew you were a talented magic user. I hope you didn't think you had to prove anything to me." "It's just a little game I like to play. I like to keep my skills sharp as well. It's been my lifelong dream to be a top mage-scholar in the land where I come from. Do you have the same dream." He was becoming uncomfortable again. "No, I don't think I will get the chance to... I don't really have a lot of dreams." "Well you must have some long term goals. Why else would you be up here practicing like this?" "I'm... not allowed to talk about that." There was a long silence as Twilight tried to think of something else to talk about to lighten the mood. Then she remembered something else that she noticed "That's a nice telescope!" she said as she trotted over to the brass refractor mounted near the edge of the plateau. "Did you make it yourself." He brightened up at this inquiry, "Yes, I made this a couple of years ago when I was still living with my Father. It was the only thing that I was permitted to bring when I came here. It had an equatorial mount, but it was too bulky to carry with me so I made an alt-azimuth mount for it here so I can use it for tracking the Golem." Twilight studied the scope with a practiced eye for quality, and found that it more than met her approval. "80mm objective lens, looks like an f7.5." She especially liked the clever rotary eyepiece mechanism that allowed the user to select different magnifications. "Is it okay if I take a look?" She set it to its lowest setting and focused on the Golem. Then something caught her eye when she moved the scope. A tiny speck was moving through the air. At higher magnification she could see that it was a grey Pegasus pony. At still higher magnification... "DERPY?!! How the hay did she get out here?! Why doesn't she see the Golem; what is she looking at?!" Darklight looked through the telescope, "The Golem will be tracking her at that distance, we need to get down there now. Hop on my back, I will fly you to the valley floor." * * * * Derpy Hooves was focusing all of her attention on the two objects she was holding in her hooves. One was a large green crystal that glowed more brightly when it was pointed in a certain direction. The other was a small metallic box with an array of colored buttons that at the moment did little more than give off buzzing sounds. She wore her mail delivery uniform and an unusually large and well laden saddlebag. The long flight left no visible sign of fatigue, as her only thought was reaching her destination. She heard the earthquakes, but she chose to ignore them. Don't be a featherhead, Derpy, she told herself. An earthquake can't hurt you in the air. Everyone will just laugh at you if you come all this way just to mess up at the end. You're almost there, just keep... Just then, the Golem opened fire. Derpy swerved erratically out of the way of the energy beam and searched for its source, finding, to her surprise, that the Golem's right arm was already bearing down at her. She flew clear of the arm, but the rushing air currents knocked her into a tailspin that made her lose both the crystal and the metallic box. Another beam swept past her as she dove for the ground to retrieve the objects. One hard landing later, she stumbled towards the items, grabbing them and stuffing them in her saddlebag before the enormous feet could step on them. She began to run away, but her path was blocked by a sweep from the beam. Already in a panic, she couldn't find a path to get away. Several horn blasts and fireballs hit the golem's face and body. In the distance, she could see a purple pony riding a flying shadow. The pony leaped off the shadow while it was still flying and ran straight at Derpy, firing a barrage of horn blasts at the monster. Twilight?! she thought as she ran towards the pony, How the hay did she get out here?! Twilight fired several more shots at the golem, then stopped as Darklight swooped in close to the monster's face and attacked with horn blasts and fireballs. She made a quick stop and reversed direction, just as Derpy caught up with her, and the two of them galloped back to the cave with Twilight in the lead. Darklight continued to fly close to the golem's head, distracting the golem so that Twilight and Derpy could get away. It was all part of a routine developed over the previous two years: alternate fireballs and hornblasts to a rapid and consistent rate of fire that obscured it's vision, allow the monster to see him at just the right times to keep it moving towards him in the directions he wanted it to go, time his dives and barrel roles for when the beam cannon fires. Darklight was very good at this routine, but he still felt like a complete failure. As long as it remained operational, it posed a very real threat to the Village of the Moon and the rest of the Barbaroi civilization, and Darklight was no closer now to defeating it then he had been two years ago. All he could do was retreat, which was what he did just then. When the two mares were safely away, he concentrated all his firepower at its eyes just as he flew over it's head, then dove behind it and kept low to the ground as he took the long route home.