Arc Two: Chapter Two
They were just as dark he remembered them. The tunnels, that was. Starswirl illuminated the silent halls with his horn. Sections were still caved in, but if he remembered correctly, in the few moments before he had been converted to this white robed order, that his destination would still remain intact…. for the most part.
He removed debris before him and pushed through what felt like an entire ton of stone, he came across the place he had wanted to see. Unfortunately, what he had saw, was in fact, something he had not wanted to see.
There laid the Beacon’s hammer, sitting alone in the tunnel, when it shouldn’t have. The gnome they had killed was nowhere to be seen. This meant one of two things: that the creature survived his mortal blow, or that something else had gotten to him.
Either one was likely bad news for the sorcerer, but he hoped that the former was the more likely possibility. The small thing stank of death the entire time it was going up and down these tunnels, it likely was used to such damage, something a mortal could not withstand.
Polaris’ rotting corpse wasn’t to be seen either, and that’s what had really concerned him. If both the creature of death and Polaris were gone, then it was almost certain that they were taken from this place… together.
Starswirl stepped toward the Beacon’s hammer, and retrieved it with his magic, sighing and feeling anxious. The white robes would need to know of this, and perhaps he could return this minotaur-made weapon to its rightful owner.
It was better than standing there in the tunnels and panicking at least.
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“Explain to me why you’re doing this again?” The addled shopkeeper asked as the mint unicorn dug through his backroom storage.
She sighed, not bothering to look up as her head was buried in a large box. “So I can get out of this crazy town,” how that was a good explanation when sifting through another person’s belongings was beyond anyone.
Titus watched from behind the counter with a mix of amusement and boredom. When you had the authority to go through everything by the white robed ponies to go through anything in the search for a starstone, apparently everyone in town actually went through with it, even if you looked about as unqualified as possible, hence why Titus was the one standing by idly as Lyra dug through complete stranger’s belongings.
“How long is this going to be? I haven’t even opened shop yet,” the shop owner asked the human.
“Lyra,” Titus called out to the pony that was practically inside one of the larger boxes now. She really wanted this over and done with so they could get out of Ponyville. She was tenacious and onset when she needed to be. “How much longer until you’re done over there?”
“Like… maybe a few more boxes…” she popped out of box, packing beans flowing right out onto the floor. The owner nearly began to growl.
This had gone on all morning, go from house to shop, going down to people’s cellars and tearing through their stuff simply because they were apparently allowed to and that he was the “Beacon.”
The displeased owner sighed. “What are you two even looking for anyways?”
“A stone,” Lyra called back before Titus could answer the question.
“You’re looking for a rock?” He seemed confused and in disbelief. “What would you need with a rock?”
“It’s not just a rock,” Lyra explained fully from the oceans of packing beans before the human could input anything. “It’s a starstone, very magical, has runes on it and junk,” she dove back in, out of sight.
“A runed rock?” The shopkeep took a second as he mulled over his mind. “Wasn’t that… wasn’t that white unicorn flaunting around a new necklace with something on that.. what was her name…”
“Rarity?” Lyra’s head popped out once more, a stray packing piece stuck in her mane. “She has the runestone?”
“Now don’t quote me on that,” he put a hoof up defensively. “I don’t know anything for sure regarding that. I was just thinking aloud.”
A figure suddenly pushed by Titus to the counter, who nearly jumped from the sudden intrusion. “You say that a white unicorn is in possession of the starstone?” It was a white robed pony, its features completely hidden beneath the hood.
The shopkeep glared at the newcomer. “N-no! I said not to quote me on that! It was just something that came to mind from the other day!”
Another white robed walked in, its figure the same as the previous. Titus couldn’t believe what was happening, and the shopkeeper seemed even more shocked and disturbed. “Somepony spoke of the stone?”
“What are you doing in my shop?! Didn’t you read the sign? I only “think” that was it anyways! Please leave!”
Before anyone realized it, an entire contingent of the mysteriously shrouded ponies were standing inside the establishment, all asking of the whereabouts of the stone to the flustered owner. He was having a mental breakdown, putting his head in between his hooves.
“Maybe you should stop your questioning for a moment,” Titus interjected as the white robed verbal onslaught continued.
One of them turned to the weary human. “Perhaps you are right, Beacon. This civilian is likely traumatized from the sudden intrusion… we apologize.”
The shopkeeper looked about on the verge of yelling out in sudden exasperation, but he managed to stifle himself in order to respond fairly calmly. “I-I’ll live…”
“Why don’t you just tell these ponies where the boutique is so they can search over there?” Titus suggested, hoping if this pony did, all the robes would leave and let this shopkeep keep his sanity.
“It’s down the street, due west… I think.. I think I’m just gonna lock the doors after you all leave and lay down for a long time…”
The robed ponies began to all file out, their sheer speed in forming up in huge groups was astonishing and somewhat disturbing. Before the last one was out, it spoke back to the human and the now emerging Lyra from the backroom.
“Would you care to join us in our search of this “boutique?” That is if the owner here can be taken for his word.”
“I told you I couldn’t guarantee anything I said!” The traumatized shopkeep yelled back at the exiting pony.
Titus shooed him off. “We’ll follow in a few, just, don’t give the owner there as much of a hard time as you did to this one.”
“No promises,” and with that, they were left to themselves again.
Lyra rejoined Titus and they stood there for a long moment before they were unpolitely told to get out, which they did. They now stood upon the late morning streets, and the human could see the silhouettes of the robed ponies making their way down to their next victim.
“Do we really have to go follow them?” The unicorn asked her human as she knocked out a packing bean from her mane.
“I suppose,” Titus didn’t really want to, that was for sure, but he did promise Starswirl he would see this through. For some reason, he wasn’t sure if the ancient sorcerer really trusted the others in his order.
They began to slowly follow the figures in the distance at a slow pace. During this time Titus recalled the night before and how he and Lyra had simply held each other until the sun came up, and then she was all business and he was dragged around for the umpteenth time. It was a happy life he had here, he just needed to snuff out all these rough edges that consisted of the constant call to arms he received.
There it was, the Carousel Boutique. A place of what the pony who ran the establishment called “fashion.” Titus imagined he would have found this shop in some city like Silvermoon back home, not that he had ever stepped foot in the once great high elven city deep within the lands of Quel’thalas. If he had, he might as well had been a corpse in the ground.
It appeared that the robes had already entered the place, as shouting could be heard through the front doors that were wide open. It was time for the circus all over again…
Inside the place was already a mess, but unlike the last owner, Rarity was snapping back and magically pushing robed ponies out from behind her small counter constantly. “Whatever it is you all want, this is certainly not the way to obtain it!”
They were like a swarm of locust, some slipped into the back where the magic happened and Rarity made her dresses, while others hurried upstairs to the living quarters. The elegant white unicorn with a twirled purple mane, likely done from many sessions with the curler was already beginning to demand they leave her place of work immediately.
Titus and Lyra rushed up to the counter, and once Rarity caught sight of them, a flicker of hope twanged across her azure eyes. “Oh I’m so glad to see you two,” she breathed out, the sheer intensity of the situation beginning to frizzle up her mane from the looks of it. It was likely she would reach another level of anger once she noticed. “Would you please remove these… vermin from my boutique?” She flapped her extended eyelashes several times in the hopes of persuasion.
The human remained unphased, but that didn’t keep Lyra from giving Rarity an unkind look. Still it was about time things were made for her to understand instead of her home and shop being ransacked. “They’re looking for a certain stone.”
“A stone? What would they want with a stone?”
“It’s not just a stone-it’s a-” Lyra spoke out but was quickly muffled by Titus’ hand clasping over her muzzle.
“It has runes on it. Do you have anything like that?” He spoke with a sense of urgency, and just as he planned, the fashionable unicorn seemed to respond to his tone of voice, taking the hint.
“Oh… uhh… why yes I was out excavating gems not long ago when I came across….” She dove under her counter and reemerged with a small chest, likely full of all sorts of fanciful trinkets and such.
It was just them now as the other white robes were far in the back. Rarity opened the box and yanked out a simple silver necklace with a small stone on the end. She levitated it over to Titus how examined the thing in his hand. He rolled the stone about in his fingers. This was likely it… but… it seemed dormant.
“You haven’t been feeling weird wearing the necklace or anything right?” He questioned the onlooking unicorn.
She shook her head, further puzzled. “Not at all,” her eyes darted around, obviously nervous. “I haven’t done anything wrong, have I?”
“No,” he answered plainly. “But I think it would be best if this necklace wasn’t with you anymore.”
She nodded, relief washing over her. Titus turned away and walked over to the back room, where he called for the robes that sifted through the many display racks and armoires that made up Rarity’s work area.
They filed up before him, all rowed about in front of him neatly. They awaited to see what Titus had to show them.
He raised the necklace and they all began to whisper, one eventually speaking up. “Is that the stone hanging upon the necklace, Beacon?” He nodded and they all whispered even more fiercely. The same one spoke up. “We will need to take that back to our base of operations.”
Whatever, that meant that their job was done and they could get out of here. They did what Starswirl had wanted and he and Lyra could begin packing. The amount of things she actually owned that weren’t in plain sight of her home was almost daunting to him and he really wanted to start on all of it as soon as possible. He still needed a way to carry them all… he was only just one human.
He tossed them the necklace and they began to swarm over it, one eventually emerging with it, though he looked quite shaken. By the Light, they looked like a bunch of carrion birds fighting over the carcass of a boar. He frowned, the thought invading his mind not a pleasant one.
Lyra had climbed up onto his back once they had swarmed, possibly the act of all of them fighting over the stone unnerving her just a bit. Titus turned away and began walking, their job done here.
Rarity watched the two go and looked back at the robed ponies that looked over the stone. “You’ve gotten what you wanted, now may you please leave in a polite and courteous way?” She pointed to the exit that Titus was leaving through right now.
They didn’t respond, but must have heard her, for they began to file out neat and organized, just like before. It looked like it was all over, and the human and pony on his back began discussing possible destinations as to where they could go, that was until a familiar stallion stepped in front of them just a few steps away from the boutique.
Lyra nearly yelled in anger at the sight of Starswirl, but Titus felt a pressure being pushed into his chest and he saw that the hammer he had left in the tunnels was now right before him, being pressed into him.
He grabbed the long handle and the pressure stopped. He nearly let it drop to the floor after Starswirl had released it. He must have been really getting out of shape now…
“We did what you wanted,” he responded to the sorcerer who looked a bit more concerned than he should have regarding the nature of the situation.
Starswirl shook his head. “Things just got more complic-hey wait!”
They pushed by the sorcerer, unwilling to hear him anymore. The old stallion couldn’t believe what he was seeing! “Beacon! What are you doing?!”
Titus didn’t turn to look back at him. “I’m going back to our home which it won’t be much longer. I’ve done what you asked of me.”
Starswirl didn’t move instead watching them as he walked on down the street. Titus thought they were in the clear when the old coot magically teleported in front of them. “Beacon, how can you act like this? Do you not care about the denizens of Equestria any longer?”
He didn’t want to be questioned about something like that, but Titus knew the answer, it was always the same for him. “Of course I care about everyone, but I just…” He held the hammer’s head up to his eyes, sad eyes scanning the craftsmanship of the minotaur weapon. “I promised Lyra I wouldn’t put her through any of this again.”
At the mention of her name she nuzzled him close, causing him to fidget and grow anxious. He would learn to handle that better. Still, he had made his point here.
Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Growing selfish are we?”
Titus didn’t respond for a moment, instead choosing to keep his eyes trained on the area ahead. Maybe he was, and that wasn’t what should have been happening, but after three separate life threatening adventures, each consisting of near death experiences, perhaps this was only natural. Still, he wasn’t sure how so many others were able to do it, always picking themselves back up and hopping back into the fight. It was a mental strain beyond anything else.
“Don’t I have the right to be after I’ve done so much?” He grumbled, debating on whether or not he should begin to make his journey back home again.
“Of course you do, Beacon,” the sorcerer explained. “But sometimes duty comes before such things. We all have our roles to play in this world, destinies carved out from the constant shifting fabric of time.”
Duty, it was nothing more than a word. He had been fulfilling his “duties” since his days at the abbey, performing his divinations and training constantly, remembering all his prayers, all his hymns, so that he could perform those duties admirably, and so he had, even after his time on Azeroth was finished.
These white robes seemed to be more than capable of defending themselves, even if they acted rather peculiarly. He wondered why they’d even need some out of shape paladin such as himself. They likely didn’t, they weren’t the ones that came to him, asking for help, it was Starswirl himself…
“What can I do that the white robes cannot?”
“Be trustworthy,” Starswirl answered quickly, looking around, making sure none of them were in earshot. “Perhaps it would be best if you did return home, with me in your stead.”
Titus reluctantly agreed, and they began to head down the street to his soon-not-to-be home.
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Lyra felt like she was fighting on the ropes here. Did he really just agree that they would all return to their home and discuss more stupid saving the world things? She almost wanted to breakdown and cry and plead and beg for them to just turn and begin to walk out of Ponyville now, but then she would just be embarrassing herself and Titus.
“What are you doing?” She hissed into his ear. This wasn’t suppose to happen!
“Relax,” he whispered back to her. “I’m just going to hear him out, and then we can start getting ready to leave.”
That sounded innocent enough, but the minty unicorn didn’t feel it sat right in her mind. What if Starswirl said something, and he got all “dutiful” again? What could she do at the moment though, but hold onto her human and keep hoping this wouldn’t come to be.
They entered the small home not long after and Lyra was practically hyperventilating. She hopped off of Titus and simply became an onlooker to what she personally considered was possible the most important thing that was happening all day, starstones be damned!
“The corpse of the small creature from your world…” Starswirl began right off the bat. “Is nowhere to be found in the tunnels. Polaris’ body is also missing.”
Titus raised an eyebrow, but for the most part didn’t react as bad as Lyra had expected. She had visibly cringed at the mention of anything regarding their time down there.
Starswirl continued. “I suspect that the black robes must have taken them both in attempt to study what the starstones do to ponies and others. Or… they could be trying to do something much worse.”
“Like what?” Her human asked the ancient stallion.
“Using the two for their own cause,” Starswirl looked around nervously, not liking the prospect of such a possibility.
“They can restore life?” The house seemed to grow more tense after Titus asked that, but Lyra was anxious for a completely different reason than any sort of evil, though she didn’t like either things either, but she still would rather be Titus in a dying world than without him in a perfect one… not that it would be perfect if it was that.
“I restored yours, didn’t I?” Uh oh, was he starting to get to him?
Titus kept quiet after that. He stepped this way and that as he began to furrow his brow in a thoughtful look. “What do you expect to do with this knowledge if not tell your superiors?”
“Perhaps we could track down where the black robes are stationed and infiltrate-”
Titus stopped him with a raised hand. “You won’t tell others of your order, but you’ll go lead a suicide mission into a place full of unicorns that are the counterparts to the people you’ll serve?”
“Precisely,” Starswirl said, unbothered by the accusing question.
“Why are you even with them?”
Now that question looked like it bothered him. “I’d rather not speak of that, Beacon…”
Titus remained unamused. He walked over to the wall and placed his hammer beside it. Lyra watched him return back to the sorcerer with wide eyes as he spoke again. “Why don’t you tell them first, and see what they say? Until then, I don’t think we have anything left to talk about.”
By Celestia, he really just said that, didn’t he?
Starswirl was completely stunned. “But the creature from your world-”
“We fought, and he assisted me in slaying your traitorous friend. That is all he has ever done for me, he is no ally of mine any longer.”
“I…” Starswirl seemed disappointed, regretful even. “Very well, Beacon. I’ll… tell the white robes of this then,” he turned to leave, shuffling slowly out of their home. “I hope we meet again.”
“As do I,” Titus responded. “Under better circumstances that aren’t weighed down with constant request.”
Lyra trotted up to her human and brushed up against his side affectionately. He didn’t respond for a long moment and she looked up to see his eyes were jaded. Why was that though?
“Titus?”
“Hmm?” He shook his head, the eyes gone now. He looked down to her with a smile. “Are you okay?”
She returned his smile. “Yeah,” but there was still the question. “Are you though?”
Titus gave a half laugh. “I think so, though I didn’t feel right sending him off like that.”
“You aren’t used to doing that,” Lyra pointed out, still looking up at him.
He nodded, and those jaded eyes returned. Was he… unhappy with what he had done? No that couldn’t be. He wouldn’t have done all that if it would upset him, yet he looked conflicted.
He stepped by her. “We better start getting ready to get out of here,” he told her, heading over to where his hammer laid upon the wall now. He paused for a moment to study it thoughtfully before he went over to her bed and lowered himself to the floor, reaching under the mattress where she liked to stash all her possessions.
Lyra watched him for a long time as he pulled out a rubber ball and paddle and all sorts of other little oddities she had managed to acquire over the years. She wouldn’t be able to keep much of it, but at least she could pick out her favorites from whatever he came up with under there.
She still worried about those jaded eyes though.
She could only imagine what was going on within his head at the moment.