Act Two Chapter Five - About Time
“Hey!” Tourmaline’s voice echoed through the crystalline cave. “You can’t just keep me down here!”
She looked around, taking stock of her surroundings. The tribal ponies trapped her in a pit within the geode like cave system. They left her with nothing besides a wooden bucket of water and a pile of straw in the corner. She hadn’t decided if the straw was meant to be her food or her bed, and wasn’t sure what bothered her more. Either one could mean that she was intended to be here awhile.
She tried to climb up the wall, grasping at outcroppings in the crystal, but succeeded only in bruising her rump when she lost her purchase on the slick surface and fell back to the ground with a thud. The guards at the cave entrance must have heard her, one of them peered over the edge to ensure she was still trapped before returning to his friends shaking his head.
Tourmaline crawled to hooves and shook the dust from her coat. She felt frustration rise within her only to be swept away as she realized she had missed her dinner date with High Horse. She felt her chest tighten as she thought of the poor stallion frantically searching for her.
She wondered how long she had been gone. One day? Two? It was hard to tell. The herbs the natives rubbed into that bag were powerful. Less than a week, she decided.
Her leg cramped as she made another attempt to climb the wall. Fortunately, she was only a few feet off the the ground this time when she fell back onto the dusty ground. She climbed to her hooves again and felt her bruised hind leg start to knot up. She flopped down on the straw pile and tried to massage the knotted muscle while she thought of a way out of her situation.
Clearly these ponies didn’t intend her any immediate harm and the pit she found herself in didn’t seem like it had been used to hold prisoners before. She considered, either they didn’t know what to make of her or didn’t usually take prisoners alive. She shuddered at the thought. They certainly seemed primitive, but hardly savage. Kidnapping notwithstanding. Whatever their intentions, Tourmaline decided she had to get out of the cave and back home.
Hoping her captors wouldn’t notice the light, she set her horn aglow and examined the stone of her prison. From what she could tell, the cave was mostly composed of crystalline quartz and rocky quartzite. A few intrusions had worked their way into the stone, mosty citrine and amethyst. Nothing too unusual if not for the sheer size of the crystal. Tourmaline remembered her lessons and shuddered, imagining the size of the star that must have been pulled from the heavens to create this place.
A twinkle caught her eye as a gem reflected the light of her horn. Tourmaline pulled the stone from its matrix and looked it over. Topaz, she determined. Mineralogy was hardly her speciality but she could hardly call herself a sculptor without at least some basic knowledge of gems and if what she remembered was correct, topaz is about twice as hard as quartz.
Tourmaline bit her lip in concentration as she tapped her makeshift chisel against the quartz walls. Before long she dug a hoof hold in the stone. She listened for the guard but heard nothing. They probably thought she was just kicking the walls or pacing in frustration. Placing a hoof in the hole she had dug,Tourmaline lifted herself and began work on the next hoof hold.
Sometime later, Tourmaline threw her hooves over the upper lip of the pit and pulled herself up. Panting from the physical effort, she rolled onto her back, and found herself staring up into the faces of a trio of angry earth pony natives. A few seconds later she was picking bits of straw out of her mane as she lay on the straw pile where they had dropped her.
Tourmaline began to despair. She wasn’t ready to give up yet but it seemed she wasn’t getting out of here until they were ready to let her out, not unless she wanted fight. She put her chin on her hooves and began to cry quietly.
She woke to a familiar stirring. Even from so far away, Tourmaline could feel the choir begin their spell. Although she was too far to help them in their spell, Tourmaline lit her horn and joined the song. She felt as her magic reached out beyond the cave and extended along the lines her her attunement to touch the silver moon beyond the horizon. Even though she could do little on her own to help raise her, Tourmaline sensed the moon acknowledge her and and return her song.
As the moon reached her peak in the sky, Tourmaline felt a note of confusion in the choir’s magical singing. Somepony, familiar, was ringing an inquisitive harmony, probing her own song before retracting in surprise.
Tourmaline’s heart jumped with hope, somepony back in the choir recognised her magic! They’d know she was okay! Tourmaline was beside herself with happiness, at least High Horse would know that she was well enough to cast the moon raising spell.
From above, an accented voiced yelled, “Hey you! Stop what you’re doing, you hear me?!”
Tourmaline laughed, “Or what? Now my friends know I’m alright. Soon they’ll know where I am and they’ll come for me!”
She kept up her spell and the native guard growled. He nodded to somepony behind him and a second guard leaned over the edge. He held a small bundle in his hoof, wrapped in brown cloth of some kind. Just as Tourmaline felt that far off unicorn’s magic reach her and touch her own, the earth pony threw the bundle at her hooves. It burst with a great puff of dust that clung to Tourmaline’s nose and made her head spin.
As Tourmaline slunk to the ground she smiled. “My friends are coming,” she said as she slid into sleep.
She woke on the bed of straw. Her head, though it hurt less than the first time she encountered the native’s sleep herbs, throbbed nonetheless. When her head cleared enough that she could open her eyes without feeling ill, Tourmaline found a small pile of apples sitting just beyond her reach.
Tourmaline’s mouth watered, she hadn’t eaten since the morning she set out to place her gift baskets for the natives, an idea that she found somewhat less inspired now. After failing to reach the apples with her hooves, and being far too ill to actually get up and go get them, Tourmaline tried her magic. To her surprise, the apples obediently levitated off the ground and, one by one, into her mouth. It wasn’t until after she was done eating that it occurred to her that the apples might have been drugged or enchanted or even poisoned. Fortunately her her they seemed nothing of the sort.
As she was wiping the apple juice from her chin a low voice startled her from behind. “I’m glad to see you’re awake,” it said. “The healers were beginning to wonder if perhaps unicorns were more sensitive to our herbs than earth ponies.”
Tourmaline spun around to face the speaker, almost losing her apples in the process, and found the stallion with the booming voice seated on a wooden stool in the shadow of the far corner of the pit, considering her.
“At least you’re not yelling at me...” she grumbles.
“I was not yelling at you,” he said, seemingly annoyed, “I was merely speaking in the Canterlot Voice.”
“The what now?” Tourmaline asked.
The stallion ignored her question.“You will explain what it is you were doing before my guards were forced to put you to sleep,” he said, his voice taking on the timber, though not volume, it had when they first met.
“It’s called magic,” Tourmaline snipped.
“I know what magic is, young unicorn,” he answered, “We may not have horns but the Canterlot Tribe’s reach is long, and our memory deep. You will tell me what spell you were casting.”
Tourmaline sighed, “I’m a member of the Lunar Choir. I was helping to raise the moon. It’s my duty.”
“You are lying,” he accused. “The sun and moon were set on their courses thousands of years ago by the ancients. You will have to try harder to decieve me.”
“Not even the alicorns were perfect. After they were gone, we unicorns carried on for them, maintaining the spell that keeps the sun and moon on course. It’s our duty to maintain harmony in the heavens.”
“Unicorns? Maintain harmony? Unicorns are the reason for disharmony in the world. You’re kind started the First Conflict. Why should I believe you over the stories passed down from mother and father to son and daughter?”
“What about the eclipse?” Tourmaline asked him as she rolled back over to race him. “Our spell failed and we dropped the sun and moon. It was only through a miracle that they were restored to their places.”
“That day was a terrible omen...” he was visibly disturbed. He stood and stepped out of the corner. HIs grey coat and yellow mane seemed to soak up the light as he stepped toward her. “It may be that you and yours were in fact the cause of that. Whether is was for good or ill, I cannot say. But,” he said approaching her, “it is odd that such a thing should happen only a season before strangers should settle in my lands without my consent. Why did you come?”
Tired of being spoken down to, Tourmaline rose, shakily, to her hooves. “Because, we forgot what happens when you let disharmony take root,” she answered honestly. The stallion waited for her to continue.
Tourmaline took a deep breath and explained, “We were driven out by the windigos. Back in our homeland ponies lived in three separate clans, each carrying on the task of our ancestors. The earth ponies maintained the land, the pegasi maintained the weather, and we maintained the motion of the sun and moon.”
The stallion grunted, “So the old tales repeat themselves. You deceived them.”
“We did not!” Tourmaline insisted. “We do maintain the sun and moons path, we still do. Do you know what would happen if we didn’t? The sun and moon’s path would grow erratic. One week the day would be up for three days time and the next for only a few hours, or it might not raise at all.”
“You cannot convince me, unicorn,” he said shaking his head, “We are not as foolish as the earth ponies you know.”
“Then what about the eclipse?” Tourmaline asked, growing angry, “Every so often, the sun and moon drift into alignment with a few certain stars. When they do we bring them together in the sky and renew the enchantment that keeps them on course.”
“The eclipse,” he answered, “Is a sign that disharmony is taking hold and a warning that Discord will soon return.”
Tourmaline shook her head, “Fine, don’t believe me. It doesn’t matter anyway. What matters is that for WHATEVER reason. The three clans began to distrust each other.”
“No wonder,” he interjected.
Tourmaline ignored him, “As disharmony and distrust grew we attracted the attention of evil winter spirits called windigos. The less we trusted each other the more powerful they grew and the colder it got. Before we realized what was happening our land was frozen and we had to leave.”
“How do I know these creatures didn’t follow you here?”
“They did,” she answered, much to his concern, “but they were banished. Before we came, the leaders of the three clans each set out on their own to find a new home for their clan. They ended up trapped in a cave as it froze closed. Just as they were about to be locked in ice they surrendered their mistrust and in their last moments, true friendship blossomed between them.”
“An earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn became friends?” he asked dubiously.
“They did, and it sparked something wonderful.” Tourmaline smiled, “From that friendship something formed in the air above them, a glowing flame that thawed them, melted the ice, and banished the windigo.”
“Why should I believe you?” he asked.
“You don’t have to, maybe you could come and see for yourself,” Tourmaline offered, “That’s the whole reason I was trying to get your attention, it was an invitation. We want nothing but to live in peace and wanted to make sure that we weren’t trespassing. Imagine my surprise to find myself foalnapped by a bunch of savages! ”
“SAVAGES?!” He bellowed, “HOW DARE YOU SAY...” he took a deep breath and calmed himself, “How dare you call us savage after you, whose kind brought ruin to the world once before, move into our lands uninvited. We did not ‘foalnap’ you. We were accepting your invitation. We just felt it best you now know of our location.”
“You mean that lone mountain to the north of the settlement?” she asked.
“HOW DID YOU...”
“It’s pretty obvious,” she explained. “My ears kept popping the whole way up,” she said, rubbing her ears. “And could you please stop yelling at me.
“I was not yelling. As I said, I was speaking in the Canterlot Voice.”
“And what is the difference?”
“The Canterlot Voice,” he began, taking on a haughty tone, “is the secret technique passed down from chiefton to chiefton for a thousand years. It is a sign to all tribes that we are the true heirs of the ancients lest one tribe seek rulership for themselves and bring rise to Discord again.”
“Why do you say ‘discord’ like that?”
“‘Discord’,” he began, “is the sower of disharmony and the master of chaos. He sleeps for generations until roused by strife. When that happens, he rises and wreaks terrible havoc and suffering on the ponies of this land before he is satiated, grows tired, and returns to his slumber.”
“What is he, some kind of monster?” Tourmaline asked. “I’m something of a student of history and I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
“Who can say? He has not appeared for several generations,” he shrugged. “Strange that you have not heard of him. Perhaps your lands did not need a Discord. You seem to have brought the curse of disharmony on yourselves. You must understand that we cannot allow you to do it here.”
Tourmaline considered, “Your right. We didn’t need any help, but we’ve learned from our mistake. We gave up the old clan divisions and live together now. We’re still learning how to get along but you don’t have to worry about us bringing disharmony to your lands.”
“Again,” he added.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to accept my invitation?” Tourmaline snipped.
He frowned and stood. A wave of his hood signaled the ponies above to toss down a rope ladder.
“Wait!” Tourmaline pleaded, “What’s going to happen to me?”
After a moment of silence he answered, “You will be returned to your people.We will give you a chance to prove that you can live in harmony. If not, you will be made to leave. I will not risk the waking of Discord during my rule.”
“Thank you so much. We will not disappoint you. I promise that we...”
He cut her off, “I do this not for your sakes but for our own. I will not be the one to seed disharmony between ponies, that is why you are given this one, and only one, chance. Consider yourselves lucky, the other tribes might not have been so understanding.”
“I understand... thank you.”
“Do not mistake me, unicorn, I remember the tales of my fathers well. The very stars remember the crimes your ancestors committed against them.” Tourmaline cringed as she realized what he was talking about. “I hold no faith that your people will be worthy of staying.
“That being said... we’ve seen how you’ve struggled and I cannot turn away somepony in need, I will not have my descendants think me cold. Though I have no reason to think i am wrong about you I sincerely hope that I am.”
He wrapped a leg around a rung on the ladder and held out a hoof to Tourmaline. Gingerly, Tourmaline accepted it and the guard ponies pulled them both up out of the pit. She followed him outside and blinked in the moonlight.
“These are for you,” the stallion spoke, gesturing to a line of carts piled high with food and packages. “Take them in the spirit of harmony.”
“I don’t know what to say...”
“Try ‘thank you’”
Tourmaline smiled, “Thank you.. um.. Actually I don’t know your name.”
“You never asked. My name is Chiefton Storm Song, and yours?”
“Tourmaline,” she answered as she approached the carts. “How did you grow so much food? We haven’t seen any farms.”
Storm Song smiled proudly, “You were not meant to. We have learned to hide our farms and camouflage our homes, as well as slow the growth of our numbers to conceal ourselves, lest the fell one finds as a tempting subject for abuse when next he rises. I will be sending a few ponies back with you to teach your people how to farm and live in this land.”
Tourmaline thanks him again and is helped onto a cart for the trip. The Chiefton offers her his blessing before her journey home.
“LET ALL PRESENT KNOW THAT THIS MARE, KNOWN AS TOURMALINE, A REPRESENTATIVE OF HER KIN, LEAVES US NOW IN FRIENDSHIP TO RETURN TO HER HOME. MAY THIS MEETING BE THE FOUNDATION OF HARMONY AND TRUST BETWEEN OUR TWO TRIBES AND LET NO FORCE OR POWER, SAVE THE RETURN OF DISHARMONY HIMSELF, SPLIT US APART.”
Tourmaline bowed in thanks and waved to the Canterlot ponies. From behind, somepony placed a blindfold over her eyes.
“Honestly?” she asked.
“It’s only the first day of trust,” the blindfolding pony explained. “You know where our village is. Perhaps, in time, we allow you to know the path to it.”
“GO NOW TOURMALINE,” Storm Song continued, “AND CARRY OUR MESSAGE TO YOUR KIN AND FORGET NOT OUR PROMISES, AND OUR CAUTIONS.”
As the Chieftain finished a few ponies cheered quietly. Tourmaline guessed they weren’t sure of the wisdom of Storm’s decision. Suddenly the cheering stopped and ponies began to cry out in fear. Tourmaline pulled off her blindfold and followed the gaze of the frightened ponies.
High above and just to the south something moved against the clouds. It shone bright white as it moved toward them.
“Chieftain Storm Song, what is that?” Tourmaline asked.
“I do not know...” he admitted, “But it’s timing could not be more suspect.”
Before Tourmaline could ponder his meaning the object flashed bright and disappeared, only to reappear over head. The light streaked downward and slammed into the ground between Tourmaline’s cart at the tribal ponies. A force field sprang up between them.
“Tourmaline! Are you alright?” called a familiar mare’s voice as she leapt forward from the magically golden glowing carriage. “Did these ponies hurt you?”
“Huh? Clover?!” Tourmaline said in surprise. “How did you find me?”
“It matters not my love! I am here to save you!” High Horse cried as he sprang forward, wearing bejeweled silver armor and brandishing a spear in his magic.
“High Horse?! You’re here!”
“Of course, my dear. How could I not come?” he said the now decidedly less friendly tribal ponies began to encircle them.
“TOURMALINE!” Storm Song bellowed in the Canterlot Voice as several ponies closed in, holding spears of their own “YOU KNOW THESE INTRUDERS?”
“Yes, please, these are my friends!”
For a moment he said nothing. “THEN I AM BOUND BY OATH TO HONOR THEM AS FRIENDS MYSELF.” His ponies lowered their weapons.
“Tourmaline, what is this?” Clover asked, confused.
“It’s okay. We’ve reached an agreement,” she explained. “We’re allies now.”
“But, Morning Dew saw you get foalnapped!” exclaimed High Horse.
“They just didn’t know what to make of us. They were just being careful. I swear they never hurt me.”
Overcome, High Horse dropped his spear and helmet and ran straight for Tourmaline. He leapt straight over his own carriage and landed in hers, throwing his forelegs around her..
“We’ve been searching for you for days without rest before Clover sensed your magic! I... thought I might never see you again.”
Tourmaline wrapped her hooves around the haggard stallion, returning the hug. She ran a hoof across his tangled mane.
“My knight,” she called him with a smile. “I’m so sorry. You must have thought something terrible happened to me.”
“These few days have been torture,” he admitted, his eyes welling up beneath his unkempt mane, “not knowing if you were alright. I... I never want to feel that way again.
“I can’t imagine imagine life without you anymore, Tourmaline. I hope I never have to know what that kind of life would be like.” He took a deep breath and seemed to steel himself, “I was going say this at dinner the night you disappeared... I can’t bear to wait any longer ”
He took her hoof in his own and before Clover, Storm Song, and all the onlooking tribal ponies knelt down on a hind knee.
“Miss Tourmaline, I have something I’d very much like to ask you...”
From in the carriage, Tourmaline heard Celestia’s and Luna’s voice in unison, “D'awwwww.”