Chapter 5. A mad pony faces a friend.
The snow laid thick on every spot imaginable. Every branch, roof, wagon or fence had a hoof-tall pile of it.
The roads were kept shovelled by both hired ponies and volunteers, because even if the snow was not so deep for most adults, it certainly was for the fillies on their way to school.
The hours were mostly dark these days, but the snow made it a lot easier to see as it reflected what little light buildings or lamps emitted, and the young ones rejoiced! Snow was wonderful to play in! Even if you could not yet make good snowballs out of the tiny crystals, it was fun to just roll around in the chilly fluff or spaz out in it.
There was another group of ponies who also appreciated the cleaned and shovelled roads, the elders.
While they were tall enough to walk the snow, their age cost them a lot of strength. And one particular elder of this town was indeed walking the prematurely dark afternoon towards the school building.
The old pony had been there more times then he could remember, and this time he had brought his large book!
The same one he always wrote in, and was to read the next chapter to an expecting and hungry audience.
When he arrived the fillies where still out playing in the snow, and who could blame them?
But upon seeing the old storyteller, they swarmed him for a few moments before hastily making their way inside, where their teacher had prepared hot cocoa for them all to regain some heat. She and the old pony exchanged smiles and a few phrases, before the fillies began to push and pull the old one towards the classroom.
"Now then... Do you remember where our story left us?" The old pony said as he made himself comfortable behind the counter in the large room, sipping his refreshing hot drink. An all-over-pink pony waved a hoof with eagerness.
"Oh! Oh! I know! Alonso and Crisp had gotten thanked and medallio-... medalled by the princess for saving her!"
The old one chuckled with a nod. "Indeed. So shall we begin a new story?" He needed not ask again, for the classroom became a blur of mixed colours in a wave of nodding, and with a smirk he began.
Crisp Scope, the blue-maned and night-sky-coloured astronomer, was relaxing in his favourite chair in his observatory.
The building had been constructed on the order of Celestia herself, and was everything he had dreamt of and more!
A giant telescope, a smaller library of both his own books and from the academy, scrolls upon scrolls with charts of the stars that he had mapped out over the years... and best of all, a hideously green chair that he loved for the comfort!
His parents had never been so proud of him, his mother bailing her eyes out during the ceremony and his father's chest could not have pouted out more of pride. They had forced him to stay in their home in Canterlot to make up for the past years of which they had not seen him much. At least for a few days, then he went home to pack.
The construction of the observatory had not taken long. When the princess herself orders for something to be build, you bet your bits on that it will be quickly! The best unicorns in construction and the strongest eartherns pulled and placed everything, and I do mean everything, into place in just two month's time!
Crisp had his own house on the first floor of the tower-like building, the second was the study with his books, maps, scrolls and whatnot, and the third was the observatory itself. A dome-shaped room with a roof that did not only hold the giant scope attached, but could also spin around with the press of a pedal! Crisp could not escape glee'ing every time.
It had been a year since the construction was finished, and Crisp felt as if he had lived his whole life here by now.
A year and two months since the incident that triggered the event that lead to his new home, and he could not help but think of what happened to Alonso after that. The giant "norse-horse" had just vanished.
Crisp had several times tried to mail the pony, having hired the best mail carriers and given them an accurate description of the giant and his full name, but he never got a response. So instead, he just kept doing his work as best as possible, knowing he had the princess's personal appreciation to meet and please!
His family visited him from time to time, something he had learned to appreciate once more, now that he was not just the nerd and bookworm of the family, but a rewarded and titled scholar! And while we could focus on any day of the time mentioned that has passed, we are going to focus on the day when things once again became more interesting...
Crisp awoke with a gasp. He knew that faint sound that echoed through his home! That was the sound of the telescope-roof turning! Someone was tinkering with his beloved machine! He grabbed the bat he always kept above his bed, a lesson learned from the night of the demony-summon, and charged up the stairs!
It was dark, but his eyes was used too it after all the years of gazing into the black space! He saw somepony sitting in his green chair, operating the whole thing, and he charged with his bat held above his head with his magic!
Smack! The sound of the hard impact rang and echoed through the dome with enhanced ambiance!
The pony in the chair tilted to the side, and turned to Crisp, who had tripped over something on the floor and fallen face-first into the floor, causing the sound. He accidentally dropped the bat on impact with his own floor, and it rolled over it. The pony in the chair walked over to the astronomer, who was starting to recover.
"Never the nimble one, ey?" A booming voice said with a hint of friendly sarcasm, and the dizzy stargazer felt himself being lift up from the floor. He noticed the height of which he was elevated, and knew this height and voice belonged to only one pony. He sighed, his face hurting.
"Why would you break into my home after have been gone like a ghost for over a year?" He grunted and turned to his friend. His friend was not his friend. Crisp's eyes grew wide and his blood began to rush. It was not Alonso.
It was the cultist father of his giant comrade, the same one who tried to overthrow Celestia! "Cliff?!"
"Indeed... Now, why do you not have a -seat-." Said the elder giant, and tossed Crisp like a ragdoll into his own green chair, where he landed surprisingly uncomfortably. "Look into your device, young one. And tell me what you see. And if you oppose me, I will snap your neck." Cliff said with a calm, superior and self-sure voice.
Crisp himself was scared near senseless. He had nearly forgotten that the guards and scouts never DID find the cult-leader, and never in his wildest fantasies would he expect the father of Alonso to turn up HERE! Out of fear for his life, as he knew what the elder one was capable of, he did as he was told.
"... I... I see the Lauren Constellations, what about them?" He said nervously as it took him a few seconds to recognise the stars without charts or maps, just memory. He looked to where Cliff had stood a second ago, and realized he was gone! His voice however, spoke, now from the other side of the room. How had he gotten there soundlessly so fast?
"Indeed. Now tell me, do you know what is so special about said constellations? Of course you do not. Those stars can only be seen from Equestria. Named after the very mother of Celestia and Luna, who's fate and whereabouts are a mystery to this day. A spell was cast upon those stars to only be visible from her daughters lands..."
Crisp blanked, he was indeed not aware of this, and was starting to get worried. The cultist leader had over a year ago summoned demony's with the help of stars, but when a year had passed and the 'demony dance' stars had glowed red like before, but neither Alonso or anything else supernatural had appeared.
"Now you see, I noticed that the sky here looked different during my last... shall we call it a visit?" He chuckled.
"And I did some digging around. Tell me, do you know WHY unicorns are mostly born in Equestria? Why not other countries have the same connection to magic?" He turned to Crisp with a nasty smirk, who shook his head.
"It is not only the blood of the princesses that courses through you all, it is because of the blessing of Lauren.
As you very well know, stars effect magic. That is your job to study after all... But did you know that they effect how many even can be born with magical abilities? Equestria is placed so that it is always in the centre of the most powerful stars and constellations, all of them always shining their energies here... So tell me, why hide one of them?"
Crisp did not like where this was going. He had never heard of that a constellation could be hidden, even though he knew that different stars were only visible from some parts of the world, and that different countries had completely different stars in the sky! "I... I do not know..."
"Good." Cliff said, and walked over to a pile of star charts. "My visit here had several reasons. To take a closer look at my suspicion, to obtain a few accurate charts of them, thank you for that by the way." He bowed as he stuffed a few freshly made maps and charts into his saddlebag. "And to make sure of your ignorance."
The elder pony began to walk closer to the Crisp again, with a demonic smirk on his face. "You see, if the most educated and dedicated star-studier in Equestria does NOT know the secret of the Lauren Constellation, then I doubt many others does, and that many others would be able to detect me in time, this time..."
There was something strange about Cliff. Something was new about him. The elder pony seemed more energized then the last time, he moved silently for his massive body, and his eyes felt... familiar... It was then that Crisp saw it.
When the elder stepped into the stream of moonlight that entered through the roof, he saw what he could not before.
On the forehead of the elder pony was a horn. Not a physical one, it looked as if it was made entirely out of magic. Like the bodies of the demonys! And not only that, but it looked as if it had a magical shape of a crystal shard, and through the swirling energies it was made of, he could see that it was a hole straight into Cliff's head.
As if a crystal had penetrated his head and turned partly invisible! Cliff chuckled as he noticed the fright in Crisp's eyes.
"Do you like it? I must say that it took me a while to learn how to control or even live with it... suddenly becoming an unicorn when not designed for it from birth is... bothersome. But it matters not to you. Dead ponies does not speak."
Crisp felt his body locked. Something was restraining him with magic, and he could see the 'horn' on Cliff's head glowing as it channelled arcane energies... he had really been turned into an unicorn! But that is impossible!
He felt himself starting to cry, he did not want to die at the hooves of this... this monster of a pony!
"No!! Somepony help! Please! Anypony!!! Alonso!!" He began to scream in terror as he felt the magic cramp around his entire body, threatening to crush him! The air was filled with the sadistic laughter of Cliff as he enjoyed the pathetic begging and whimpering of his victim, a perverted pleasure of his.
"ALONS-Y!!" The laughter was drowned in the battle-shout! As the dome-shaped roof cracked and opened a hole, from which a second giant pony fell through! He landed with a heavy crunch, as small bits of rock and hardened clay from the roof was crushed beneath his massive hooves! "Let'im go!" The booming voice commanded!
Crisp could barely react, as something shot out from Alonso the second he shouted, and struck the elder pony on the side of the head, causing him to roar in pain as whatever it was sparked of electricity! The hold Cliff had on Crisp dropped, and the astronomer quickly crawled out of his chair and stumbled over to Alonso.
"Why must you always get in the way?!" The elder one roared at his son, and his horn glowed brightly with energies as he built up a spell! But Alonso would not move, he stood still and glared at his father, allowing Crisp to hide behind him.
There was a crack in the air as the older of the two giants fired his spell, a large beam of violent arcane energies!
Alonso did not move, but Crisp screamed as he witnessed the destructive force move against them!
But nothing happened. The pony in the trench coat remained still, and the beam simply disappeared upon reaching a few inches from his fur... As if it got sucked into him, as if he drained it, absorbed it!
Once it was fully gone, only Alonso and Crisp remained in the room. Torn maps and bits of rubble all over the floor with small fragments of paper and dust swirling in the air. The blast of the arcane beam had caused a lot of destruction to whatever fragile paper or maps there was in the room.
"... Y'alright Crisp?" Alonso said after a few long, silent seconds. And a soft whimper indicated that his friend indeed was. "Sorry I'm late, mate. Th' bastard tied me up good." He said with a soft voice and his always-relaxed smile.
Crisp got to his hooves and looked around at his observatory.
It had a hole in the delicate roof, the paperwork he kept here was destroyed, and the beam that Cliff had fired had burned half of his favourite chair straight off in the force.
"... I am really going to miss that chair... " He said with a sigh, before motioning for Alonso to follow him down the kitchen to make some tea for the both... There was ALOT of explaining to do...
The old pony smirked and looked out at the class of fillies, who all was looking at him with expecting eyes, and they all moaned as he closed the book, signalizing it was the end of the chapter. There was plenty of questions to be answered, and several parents had already arrived to pick their young ones up, but allowed them to stay and ask.
Of course, the old writer answered very little as always, keeping not only the mystery of the story going, but planting seeds of fantasy in the children's minds. Letting them come up with their own theories, about how the norse-horse became a unicorn, what the Lauren constellation had to do with anything, how Alonso knew where Cliff was, how and why he had been tied up, and more.
Enjoying a second cup of cocoa with the lovely teacher of the class, the both watched the fillies walk home with their parents, chatting eagerly with them and asking questions about the stars, expecting their parents to be able to point out the glowing dots from the story. The two chuckled, and returned to the conversation that had been interrupted earlier.